Author: Peter

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Wake Up America! Trump is Working Towards Nulifying the Next Election!!!


My title sounds a bit bizzare but is it? We are supposed to be a country that has three equal parts of government, the President, the Congress, and the Judiciary. But what we have witnessed has been Trump combining the three into one, him. It seems that if something seems legally suspicious on Trump’s part he merely defers to the SJC and they have consitently given him the rubber stamp he desires.

Let’s back up to Trump on day 1. He gives the hundreds of men and women who purportated an insurrection against our government a pardon!!

He has openly stated the DEI must be done away with and that he is limiting the number of people who can come from other countries to study at our universities. This defies all logic. Diversity is all about having a “diverse” work or study place. Republicans do not like that but the reasoning is beyond belief. Equity, this is about giving any person an equal chance at whatever they are doing regardless of their color, religion, or ethnic background. That was the Civil Rights act of 1965!! But in Tumpland, that cannot be tolerated. And then there is inclusion. We are told we must be all inclusive in anything we doing which means giving everyone an equal chance. I think these ideals scared Trump since his MAGA followers are largely non-college grads who watch only Fox news. But they forgot what happen to Fox news when it was shown that Fox was deliberately airing items that it new were not true!

In case you were not watching, Trump is systematically, along with his Allies, ruining the lives of people with regard to their health care. First he took aim at Planned Parenthood because they perform abortions. The truth is, 90% of all women who go to Planned Parenthood are not their for an abortion but for information. Planned Parenthood does not push women into having an abortion, just the opposite actually. Why is it the Trump and his MAGA minions not see this? Because it is a truth he simply cannot deal with. Now he has taken aim at Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act. Democrats have maintained that millions upon millions of Americans, Republicans included, rely upon this act for insuranced they can afford. Part of the bill to reopen our government maintains the ACA and that does not sit well with Trump and his billionaire buddies who will get a tax reduction from monies now go to the ACA!!

Tump has the Speak of the House, Mike Johnson, toeing the line of not engaging in discussions with Democrats over getting this bill passed. Chuck Shumer, who Trump dearly hates, has requested that two Democrat, two Republicans and Trump sit down and hammer out a solution. Trump refuses. Why? Because he knows he will not get his way and it is his way or the highway.

Trump has muted the Judiciary, blunted the Congress from doing its business, and brung a high degree of power to the Excutive Branch. There is a parallel here. This is exactly what Hitler did. He consolidated power to become all powerful and one of Hitler’s first moves was to eliminate elections. Then he went after undesireables, a.k.a. Democrats in the U.S. Trump is only withholding Congressionally approved funds from highly visible universites in blue states. He has sent out the Texas National Guard to Chicago to quell all the violence there, when in face violent crimes have dropped 40% in the last 10 years, and, this also is probably an illegal act under Chapter 32 of the U.S. Code, the National Guard of a state may only be used in its own state. He also took U.S. Marines to Los Angeles which is absolutely against the law according to the law found in Chapter 10 of the U.S. code which says that active duty soldiers may not be used against American citizens. He has done it and not a single Republican has called foul. Well, I, an unaffiliated voter, am calling foul!!!

Republicans are supposed to be all about small government and pushing as much power down to the states as possible. Is Trump doing this? No!

Wake up America!! Your country is being stolen from you piece by piece by a despot!!

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It is Time We Saved Ukraine From Putin


We have a war that actually started in 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea and declared that is was their territory anyway. The war that started then continues today. Russian is now bombing civilian areas indiscretely. At some point the United States must say, enough is enough.

What we must do is go to Ukraine’s assistance by using specialized troops on the ground. Not a single troop needs to be infantry, rather they should be artillery and air defense artillery along we a wing of U.S. Air Force fighters.

Early in this conflict, Putin sabre rattled that he would use battlefield nukes and maybe more. He has a problem there and it is call MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction). That means we have just as much as he does, and this is not including the European countries. And if a single nuke gets used on the battlefield, it will be like 1943 where the U.S. was still building up its strength while winning battles everywhere.

To put a period on this type of action, we would have to declare India, Brasil, China, North Korea, and Russia as enemy combatants. Once we have unilaterally gone into battle, it would not take much for the rest of the NATO countries to join in, and for Russia, that is very bad. At that point Russia would have nothing to gain and everything to lose and just by the troop movements, there might be an immediate end of hostilities. NATO must stand strong and demand that Russia pull all its troops at least 200km from any non-Russian border. Not a single bullet shot by any NATO country but by putting up is enough to get Russian to shup up.

With the exception of Belarus, Russia has no friendly countries in the rest of Europe. When nearly the entirety of Europe lines up against you in a show of strength, you do nothing but admit defeat as the victor’s demands.

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AMTRAK EXPANSION NOW!!


I was pretty discouraged about writing after my last post that admonished people against voting for Trump and yet they did and now where are we?

I saw an article that attempted to say AMTRAK is reasonably similar to the European rail system. I can only wonder what that guy was smoking. First of all, all major routes are electrified, something AMTRAK needs to expand. Secondly, all large cities are connect by many trains each day. Only the Northeast Corridor, Chicago to St. Louis, and the L.A. to San Diego route can claim that. There may be one or two I missed but I hope I made my point. For example, if you want to go to Chicago from New York there are two trains but they take different routes. The old “Water Level” route of the New York Central Railroad was the prime route to Chicago with many trains each day. Today there is but one train connecting New York to Cleveland, Toledo, and Chicago. This route is begging to be a high speed rail corridor for people going from New York to Buffalo or Cleveland. There are probably more the 25 million people along this route who, if there was decent frequency, would use it over the hassle at the airport. Think of someone wanting to go from Rochester NY to Cleveland. There is only one train and it leaves Rochester at 11:29PM and arrives in Cleveland at 3:53AM. They couldn’t do better than that? This train only works well for people in New York who are going all the way to Chicago. Coach is only $47 and private rooms are $265 one way and $467 the other. AMTRAK needs to go to a single price policy rather than using airline schemes of fares.

The U.S. Department of Transportation, Surface Rail had designated a number of corridors across the U.S. Several regional corridors do not even have rails meaning they are considered one thing while being another. Priorities are at odds with the states, especially more conservative states like New Hamshire.

Then there are the missing lines that cannot be made sense of. For example, there is a bus but not train from Detroit to Toledo. Trains are much more efficient and passengers will take a train before a bus. There once was a route that went from Cleveland to St. Louis connecting many intermediate sized cities. There is no such train today. Then there is the St. Louis to Los Angeles train that only runs 3 days a week. I have never heard why this is that way. And the big hole in the system is the Chicago to Miami route. AMTRAK actually had such a route at one time but it got eliminated because of Congressional foolishness.

There used to be an AMTRAK train that went from L.A. to Salt Lake City which included a stop in Las Vegas. Airlines love the LA to Las Vegas route, a real money maker but no trains. If you look at an AMTRAK map you will see blue lines that indicate AMTRAK’s Thru-Way Buses. Most of those routes are former train routes! If the U.S. truly wants to make AMTRAK at the level of European trains, it has a lot of catching up to do.

Electrification of routes in the East and on the West Coast are a must. Energy efficient and cost effective routes. Right now the only expansion of AMTRAK is happening in Maine where the progressive state is looking at its future and is actively upgrading existing track to accommodate passenger rail. This route sees 5 trains a day and is quite profitable for AMTRAK. It would seem to me that a state like Wyoming which currently has no AMTRAK trains, although they once did, would do well to promote rail travel through their state to Salt Lake City.

One last thought. Before all the rail mergers started in the 1960s, there used to be seasonal trains to ski resorts. Anyone who has been to one of these knows how horrible both driving and parking is. The old railroads used to run what they called “Ski Trains.” Such trains were very popular.

AMTRAK needs to go back to before it existed, the 1950s, and see what routes were serviced by rail and the frequency of the trains and make plans use those routes as a baseline.

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PLEASE DO NOT VOTE FOR TRUMP!!!


It has been a while since I have written here but this is to inform you that I believe Trump to be a real and present danger to this country. You must listen to what he says and believe it. You must also read about what he has said and believe it. Your life depends upon this.

If Trump is elected he will take an isolationist position for America. His “buy American” will backfire quickly. Trump plans on putting 100% tariffs on many incoming good that we use everyday and is not in competition with the U.S. For example, have you ever wondered where all your fruits and vegetables come during the winter months, October to May? We import from South America and in large part from Chile. You cell phones are all made in Korea or China. The price for them will be doubled. There are many other examples when you think about it.

This is my plea for peace. Trump has promised he will take us out of NATO. He is then going to call Putin, who he is in league with, that he can have Ukraine because we will not longer support them. That will signal to Putin that the use of battlefield nuclear weapons is all right. (from “War” by Bob Woodward) Once Russia takes control of Ukraine his next move will be to take over Moldova, a NATO country. That will spur an all out war because the NATO motto is “what you do to one of us, you do to all of us.” Now we are in a world war, again. Is Putin crazy enough to use ICBMs in such a war? No one knows but why take the chance. He is just crazy enough to do it in my opinion.

Finally, Trump has said Hitler did some good things!! He likes both Putin and Hungary’s Victor Orban who is like a dictator in Hungary. He visit Kim in North Korea and for what reason? Know that there is now an agreement between North Korea and Russia. China is lying low while all this is going on but if a large conflict were to break out can we be certain that China will maintain its neutrality? I would not rely upon that.

Those of you who are Voting for Harris, thank you, but please talk to your neighbors and extended family members that a vote for Trump is a vote to end Democracy as we have know it. Trump has already said so.

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The Government Working Against Employees


This is my true personal story which is over 30 years old now but it still needs to be told because it is my belief that such things are still happening today.

I entered the government in the form of the U.S. Army in 1968. I was required to have a moderate security clearance for where I worked, fixed station communications. All that means is that we stayed in one place as opposite to those in communications who were assigned to ground troops that moved around. I remember getting a phone call from my mother asking me why the F.B.I. had come around to ask her questions about me and I told her to not worry, that this was standard practice for getting a security clearance at any level.

That proved true for my first two assignments, Korean and Italy. But my next assignment was at Fort Ritchie Maryland, which, at the time, was the support base for “the mountain,” an extremely secure facility that was literally bored into a mountain to serve as an Alternate National Security Center. It took months to get a security clearance there because of the requirement to have the highest of clearances along with compartmental clearance, things like NATO, CENTO, and other organization of which I actually had not knowlege nor did I need such knowledge. But one place we worked directly for was the White House. And indirectly for Camp David which was not many miles away. Because of the seriousness of these clearances, a person was interview by a security specialist who went through every line of the security clearance application. The application itself is a standard for seen all over the government. But before we signed such a document, the security officer made sure that the application was as close to correct as humanly possible. I got the clearances. Enough said about that.

Years later I was a part of the U.S. Department of Transportation and had been approved for the grade of a GS-13, a fairly high grade which under the GS schedule, then and now, was only two below the maxium rating prior to becoming a part of the Senior Executive Service, a beast unto itself.

At some point in 1991 I was given a form for a security clearance to fill out. I did my best to fill it out but I knowingly sent it forward incomplete, knowing that I would be called in by the security officer for a review of the application. This was not only standard to all departments of the U.S. Governement, but was written into the Rules & Regulations of the U.S. Department of Transportation, Volpe Center, Cambridge Massachusetts. Months passed and I forgot about it until I got an interoffice mail with one page of the security for in there asking me to sign it. I did so, foolishly, having forgotten that it was incomplete. Now, that it came from the HR at Volpe, that was their second mistake. By that same Volpe Manual, it was not just the Security Officer who was supposed to review the application with me but also the Director of Human Resources. Neither of those things happened.

Months passed and one day a man, an “industrial investigator,” not a federal employee but a contractor of some sort comes to review the application with me. Upon looking at it, I immediately recognized that it was incomplete and told him as much. I said that I would work with him to complete it. In addition to that this man asked me a lot of strange questions, things that no logical person would believe to have anything to do with national security. To be clear, and to this day, I am right up there with everyone who is dedicated to our national security. It is extremely important.

The next thing I know, I got a letter denying me a clearance which was nothing more, actually, than a background check, something every school teaching in the U.S. must have. I was quickly deflated and confused. I actually became paniced quite quickly as this was an offense to my sense of pride in my country.

The next thing I know, my boss had launched an effort to have me reduced in grade from a GS-13 to a GS-11. This was actually against government regulation as by regulation you cannot be reduced to a point where your pay is lowered. Next there was an investigation conducted by none other than the person who had started this process. An obvious conflict of interest but quite possibly a standard of operation at the Volpe Center, I do not know this as a fact.

I was a member of the Government Employees Union and reached out to them for help. The local representative was dying from cancer and continuously forgot about me. I do not bear any ill-will towards this man considering his condition but rather to the local chapter. I made an appointment with the local chapter to speak with one of their lawyers. Well, I was assigned a newly minted lawyer. It turned out that I knew more about the applicable Federal Laws under CFR 12, if memory serves correctly, than he did but it is he who I was stuck with. I called him several times each week asking him where he stood. I did not see any progress but was still stuck.

Next was the “trial” itself. This was nothing more than an arbitration meeting with the entire U.S. Government in the form of the Office of Personnel Management against me, just me. It was done via phone. I was informed that I was being given limited protection of my rights. I had never heard of such a thing, save my being in the Army where they were understood according to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which I had made myself very familiar. At one point during this hearing I tried to admit the Volpe book on its Rules and Regulations at the time of this “trial.” I was denied being told that it was not allowed but to which they had no response.

Let back up just a tiny bit, in this room where the conference call was made were two lawyers for Volpe, my lawyer and myself. During the entire proceeding I had tried to make contact with the eys of one lawyer in particular because I had gone to her to ask her what was happening and that I thought it was unjust. Without using words, I could easily see she agreed with me. But during this arbitration, she refused to make eye contact even though I tried many times.

Well, as you can probably guess, the government prevailed in spite of its lack of evidence that anything malicious on my part ever happened and that I had always fully cooperated with governement officials and their contractor. I was demoted to a GS-11 and within a few days I had a total mental breakdown which required two weeks of inpatient care. Before the years was out there were two more relapses each requiring two weeks of care.

It was obvious to anyone who cared to look at what had happened, the government wanted me to quit but I refused to do so. The next thing I knew I was thrown under two incompetent bosses. Fortunately, I had a good friend who worked on U.S. Air Force projects who did his best to keep me separated from these people. The second boss, to her credit, did get me back to a GS-12 rating but that is as high as I ever got even though I richly deserved a promotion back to GS-13. But that is another story for another time.

Sadly this is but one case of how our Federal Government can break its own rules, break the spirit of a person, and keep on moving forward in denial that it has acted improperly.

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Why Do Evangelical Christians Want Trump?


To those on the left, this would seem to be an anthema to the core beliefs on any Evangelical. But the answer to this seemingly atithetical question is not the easy. Let’s consider that you have grown up in Central Southern Ohio where rural farmlands abound as do Roman Catholic and Evangelical Churches. These people will tell you that their parents voted Republican, their grandparents voted Republican and everyone in the family has always voted Republican and it would go against their history to vote any other way. If, as in some states, their is a drawbar in the voting booths that allows a person to vote straight Republican or straight Democrat, they will always pull the straight Republican lever. And this is why it is difficult for those on the left to understand why people with staunch Christian values, or for that matter, Hasidic Jewish values, to vote for Trump.

Now you might ask, but what about all the outright lies Trump tells? As stated in the paragraph above, these people eat, sleep, and dream Republican. They also read and watch conservative radio and television. That simply means they are going to take all their news from Fox News, the 700 Club, and any other entity that serves the most basic beliefs politically. The will believe, for example, that the 2020 election was stolen not only because Fox News is still allowing people to say this on their platform, but because the U.S. Representative is also saying it. And so now things have been raised to a National level.

Let’s take one entire state that is almost entirely ruled by not just one party, but by one religion, Utah. You may have heard that just recently Senator Mitt Romney declaring he will not run for re-election this fall. Why is that significant. Senator Mitt Romney is a Mormon who lives in Utah. But at one time he was the governor of a decidedly blue state, Massachusetts. And he was a two term governor there as well. How did he do that and keep his faith? Quite simply, he used a very diplomatic route of being a middle of the road Republican. In truth, he was probably further to the right than he governed, but he did what was right for the people of his state and succeed. Now years later, he is in the state where his religion was formally founded, Utah. But he brought with him certain values he learned in the state of Massachusetts. That did not make him liberal in the least, but it an area that boasts the likes of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Brandeis University, and a host of other liberal bastions of thinking, he was forced into a position of having to listen to the liberal point of view and he learned how to succeed in”enemy” territory, as it is thoght of today. But Senator Romney, to his credit, and in my belief, saw a Republican Party that was abandoning its long held view in favor of a wannabe dictator. It is unlikely that people of the Mormon Religion will ever vote for a Democrat but for them and for Evangelicals and other, a non-vote for president, in this election, is like a vote for Biden. We will never know but I would guess that in November’s election, Romney will chose to not vote for either candidate, this saying that Trump survives the criminal court system.

To be sure, Romeny is far from the only Republican who will not vote for Trump; Mike Pence said as much on today’s (Sunday, March 17, 2024) CBS Face the Nation. And I doubt, given her part on the January 6 Committee, that Liz Cheney will vote for him either but again, she will not vote for President Biden either. Now, Liz Cheney is an excellent example for other very conservative Republicans because she is one herself. Liz Cheney’s religious beliefs are unknown although she was brought up in a Untied Methodist household.

Democrats can make inroads on the Evangelicals if President Biden will go into say rural Kentucky, Elizabethtown, near Fort Knox, would be a good place, tell the Evangelical Republicans there that he is a go to church on Sunday Catholic. That will put into the minds of these people he need only beg them to do “fact checking” on Donald Trump to get to the truth and remind them of the New Testament Scripture that says, “I am the truth and the salvation . . . ” to possibly move them away from Trump. And in finishing, he would say to them that he is not asking them to vote Democrat but to consider what the actual truth of Donald Trump is.

One of the tools at Biden’s command is to get Republicans not to vote Republican but just to not vote for either candidate this go around.

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President Biden, PLEASE Step Aside


I voted for Pres. Biden in the 20202 elections, although in the primaries he was not my choice. We needed relief from the Trump disasters and he delivered us from that.

Pres. Biden continually points to his infrastructure bill when asked what he has done for the American people. For the America voter that gone and forgotten for the most part. Most people look at a President and ask, “what have you done for me lately?” And it is here that Pres. Biden fails.

Since he got his infrastructure bill passed he has been in a reactive mode. Most recently he sided with Isreal in the war that they are waging. He should have gotten a clue very early on when Israel opted to use missles to attack Hammas when it was even then well-known that Hammas was hiden underground in bunkers impervious to what was happening above. Pres. Biden’s move was to send out Sec. of Defense to Israel to implore them to use a ground war rather than the air war. But he did not and now we have close to 30,000 Palestians dead as a result of Israel’s actions.

Pres. Biden has been slow over the years since Russia attacked Ukraine to provide them with more than adequet support but he did not. At the first instance, when an air war was felt in Ukraine, his move was to bring Ukrainian Pilots to America to train them on the F-16 even before the Congress approved giving F-16s to Ukraine. They still do not have them. They are running out of ammunition, and knowing they have the upper hand, house Republicans are stalling his late actions at getting additional funding.

Biden does not resonate with the young people of the United States who voted for him in 2020. This means he cannot count on their support this time. They might just put a simple X in the empty box below the candidates. What he needs to do is to ask Rep. Hakeem Jeffries to take the lead in this election cycle and support him as our next President.

Our generation, baby boomers, are done. We are getting too old for public office. We need to allow the generations that followed us to take the reins of power. It is their world from here on out and not ours! If you do not want former Pres. Trump to win, then do what is best for the country and turn over the reins!

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Give a Stranger $100 in the Spirit of Christmas


I have always believed in the spirit of Christmas from the time I came to understand it until today. For most of us, we will spend the day with family, opening presents and having a feast. But this is not true for all Americans and I am here to emplore all of you who read this to give $100 to a person in need.

But how will I do this, you ask. Actually, it is very simple, particularly in small town America, but city people can easily do it too. First, you must go to a grocery store that serves the poorer people of the community. Find one or two things that you need and put them in a basket. Then you must go around and wish everyone you come across and very merry Christmas. But you must add one more sentence. ”And I hope you have a very festive day.” Just by the expression on the person’s face, you should know if that is what is truly in store for them. Another way to do it is to hang around the cash registers with your basket and two items and watch as people check out. At some point you will see someone who will ask the clerk to restock an item. At that point you need only step in and offer to pay for their groceries and also give them the $100. And when they ask you name, do not reveal it. Simply tell them that you are a friend. Then either buy the two things your have or leave.

I seen during the year where a person has asked the clerk to restock something and have simply stepped and given them the money they actually need.

Once you have done this, you will have visited upon them “the miracle of Christmas.” Plus, you will have a really good feeling inside you.

You may not find such a person on your first foray, but do not stop trying. Unfortunately, there are far to many, particularly the elderly, who are in desperate need of any help they can get. Be that helping hand!

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Keeping Donald Trump Out of Office!


It is not too early for the Republicans to start making moves to insure that Trump is never in office again. It is unlikely that any rivals will overtake him but his ability to win the election can be negated by someone like Chris Christie splitting the ticket from running as either an Independent or party name of his choosing.

Trump said very vocally and without equivocation that he wants to be a dictator for a day. And he goes on to say what he would do in that one day. To anyone foolish enough to believe he would want such power for one day is unfamiliar with the history of dictators. They always come in as reformists but none has ever made any reform which was good for their country. And none has ever been dictator for just one day. 

Donald Trump is a clear and present danger to our Democracy and it is time for his followers to realize who he really is. For reasons that deny reality, they have chosen to look the other way when it comes to the federal criminal crimes he is faced with. We actually had this situation once before in our country in the form of Warren G. Harding, a Republican. Harding was facing federal racketeering charges when his death pre-empted any such procedings and was replaced by very honest Calvin Coolidge. Consider that Harding died in 1923, just 100 years ago. And here we are again.

Even though I voted for Joe Biden in 2020, I do not consider him a strong enough candidate to insure a Democrat victory over Trump. Biden is not listening to people of his party. They overwhelmingly do not want him to run in 2024. A better choice? Right now I would say that person is Gov. Gavin Newsom of California. Newsom is 25 years younger than Biden and would be much more amenable to the young people of today. Those young people are not likely to vote for Biden, Trump either, but just skip that part of the ballot! Biden does not seem to recognize his liabilities and thinks that simply stating he is fully up to the job is just not enough nor is he believed by the general electorate. And I am one of those. It is believed that Newsom is preparing for a 2028 bid for President but why not have him now? The DNC, which holds so many purse strings, can easily tell Pres. Biden that they will not support his candadicy and that should put an end to Biden.

Furthermore, working against Biden is his perception. He has not explained the workings of our economy to show that the President, regardless of who it is, has only limited power to affect our economy. Life is full of things that are beyond the control of people and the national economy is one of them. People do not realize that it is the decisions made in the board rooms of America that have the most to do with inflation or the pricing of products. About the only place where government makes a difference in America is with corn farmers and milk farmers who are each subsidized by the government, although the disposition of those products should be of concern.

There has never been in the history of our county a time quite like this one. Republicans tie Biden to every problem at our borders even though they know full well that the Biden administration has already beefed up border security and has not implemented any new policies that were not existant during the Trump administration. Biden, although, as failed to counter this perception with appropriate comments. He has very seldom used the “bully pulpit” to forward his policies and these are just some of his failures that could lead to his loss to Donald Trump next November. Do we really want that? Decisions, hard ones, must be made now.

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It Is Time to End the Ukraine War!


Twenty months ago, Ukraine was invaded by a power purportedly much stronger than it. But as time has gone by, Ukrainians have risen to the cause and for the most part, held the Russians at bay.

Right now, the United States is the big dog on the block where the free world is concerned. But the United States seems to have abdicated its responsibilities when Ukraine is concerned going back to 2014. At the time of the Obama Administration, the Russian invasion of Crimea was a clear and present danger to the free people of Ukraine and, even more, to the rest of the world. Obama chose to do nothing.

During the Trump Administration, President Trump cozied up to Pres. Putin of Russia and put Ukraine in harm’s way by his ridiculous accusations towards that country. He said nothing when he knew the Russian propaganda machine was spouting its lies of Ukraine being run by neo-Nazis. Of course, with a Jewish president of the country, it was obvious to any thinking person that such was not the case.

And now we have to overly cautious Pres. Biden doing well with sending aid to Ukraine but failing by not having taken NATO to task and said that a large-scale land war was needed to resolve the conflict in a quick manner.

If the United States is to be the guardian of the free world, then it must act accordingly. And right now, there is not peace for the free world country of Ukraine. The problem of sending effective weapons systems to Ukraine was that Ukraine relied largely on Soviet built systems, rifles, aircraft, etc. The U.S. sent system to Ukraine and then had to see that Ukrainian soldiers were trained on these systems. That takes month in almost every case. And now it wants to send F-16 aircraft there, but it will take a full year to train pilots and their support crews. That is a year Ukraine does not have, even if it will be very effective in its future.

Ukraine has proven Russia to be little more than a paper tiger which unfortunately has a large cache of nuclear weapons. Sabre rattle as much as Putin enjoys, he knows full well that he is still in a position of Mutually Assured Self Destruction (MADD) with the United States. And even if he gave the order for his generals to unleash some of his battlefield nukes, it is unlikely the order would be followed as all military people are extremely aware of the consequences of such actions.

Right now, the United States has an entire division, the 101st Airborne, headquartered in Romania. Why? This was simply a defensive action against the possible expansion of Putin’s war. But it is the first time since the end of WW2 that the United States has had an entire division stationed anywhere in Europe. This means our government is extremely aware of the threat that Russia maintains.

As someone who served many years in the U.S. Army, I can tell you war is never as good as peace. But there is a war, and it has implications which extend far beyond Ukraine. There is Belarus which is entirely aligned with Russia, and which has allowed the Russian military to use its territory for its war against Ukraine.

It is time for the U.S. to announce to NATO and the world that it will now actively support Ukraine with its great air power. It will also send its fleet into the Black Sea as Russia has blockaded commerce, which is also a threat to the world, especially Africa. This type of military action does not invite battlefield nukes, but it will show Russia, China and North Korea, that we as a country grow weary of the evil they try to spread.

Russia does not have a large navy and can ill afford to lose any of its ships of war. And in an air war, the United States is clearly superior, and any large air conflict could very significantly reduce Russia’s ability to wage war in that manner.

Lest anyone doubt it, our military already has solid plans for just that sort of conflict, but it can do nothing without the President’s stamp of approval. We cannot go back and be like we were in 1940, isolationist. That is how we are acting right now because the President knows the American people do not have the stomach for another ground war. But an air and sea war are a different animal and a way for the United States to expel all Russian forces from all of Ukraine to include Crimea and the black sea.

That done, Ukraine’s entrance into NATO would be very easy.

And so, when it comes to world peace, who is the enemy of peace? To quote a very old comic, “we have met the enemy, and it is us.”