GULLIBLE'S TRAVAILS

Lemuel Gullible, votes Republican because they are fiscally responsible and will reduce the deficit.  When asked about the fact that in the past 35 years, all Republican Administrations have increased the deficit whereas all Democratic Administrations have reduced the deficit, Lemuel says, nevermind, he likes the way Republicans talk about reducing the deficit.

Lemuel, who once worked for the Government and had good pay and benefits, votes Republican because they will reduce the size of Government.  Reducing the size of Government means privatizing services which the public wants and needs.  This doesn't mean the public pays any less but does allow for increased income for investors who, after all, are the job creators.  Lemuel, who is now on the Government dole because he no longer makes a liveable wage,  says that, nevertheless, he likes Republican bumper stickers better than the Democratic ones.

Another thing Lemuel likes about the Republicans is that every 4 years, they come out strongly for immigration reform.  He doesn't mind, at all, the fact that then, Republicans proceed to do nothing because the issue is needed for the next Presidential campaign.

"A LITLE LEARNING IS A DANGEROUS THING"

In 1947, one of the largest industrial disasters, ever, occurred in Texas City, Texas, killing over 500 people and destroying over a 1000 homes, and came about, in great part, through the ignorance of U.S. Coast Guard personnel, on the scene.  The Coast Guard ordered the closing of the hatches of a vessel whose cargo of ammonium nitrate was on fire  The Coast Guard official thought that by closing the hatches, the fire could be smothered, ignorant of the fact that ammonium nitrate is an oxidizing agent.  In effect, the vessel became a giant bomb when the gases being produced, in the fire, became confined.

For many years, as a Maritime Consultant, the transport of explosives, by sea, was an area in which I specialized.  Shipping was done in small vessels, usually under 1000 tons in deadweight capacity, whose holds could be flooded, by sea water, in the event of fire.  They operated between small ports where populations were less dense, but where officials could rigorously observe procedures. There was, to my knowledge, no serious accident involving commercial explosives, shipping in conventional vessels.  Coast Guard officials, however, became more convinced that it was safer to ship explosives in containers than to follow the disciplines in shipping by sea, in conventional vessels.  I, on the other hand, considered that each container would be a potential 20 ton bomb.

In the recent disaster, in Tianjin, China, a port through which China exports a large quantity of commercial explosives, the tragedy started in a container yard, where containers were awaiting shipment.  All that was needed was for a single container to explode, to set off a catastrophe.  To accurately gauge the potential damage, consider that the largest single bombs, containing non-nuclear explosives, were, so-called, 15 ton "Daisy Cutters" which devastated large areas when dropped by U.S. Forces in Viet Nam.





   

BLESSINGS IN DISGUISE

Marco Rubio says that God has blessed the Republican Party with many good candidates and the Democrats have none.  "Not so fast", say the Democrats, "God has given us at least one and his name is Donald Trump".

WHO SAYS IGNORANCE IS NO EXCUSE?

After almost 7 months in office, during the George W. Bush Addministration, the greatest single act of terrorism on American soil occurred.  The then Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice, asked "Who could have imagined that highjacked aircraft could be used as flying bombs", thus absolving her boss from blame.  Mr. Bush then invaded Iraq, ignoring voluminous documents in the State Department warning of sectarian violence that could be unleashed, destabilizing that country as well as the whole Middle East.  When criticised for not taking into account the Sunni/Shia problem, Bush again pled ignorance because he didn't do nuance.  Mr. Bush was rewarded, with a second term in office, by the American people.

A few feet from Chris Christi's desk in the Governor's office, sat an aide who sent an order to a Christi appointee, at the Port Authority, to cause traffic problems in Ft. Lee, N.J.  Since, Mr. Christi proclaimed his innocence because he was ignorant of something occuring a few feet from his desk, he is able to run for the Republican Presidential nomination.

Another such Presidential candidate, Scott Walker, sitting inches from an employee, who was illegally soliciting funds for Mr. Walker's campaign and is serving a prison sentence on her felony conviction, also claimed ignorance of  what was going on and is one of the front runners for the nomination.

To be fair, the Republicans do not automatically accept ignorance as a defense.  When the Internal Revenue Service, a quasi independent branch of the Government that was then being run by a Bush appointee, delayed issuing some tax exemptions, to the Tea Party,  Republicans insisted that Barack Obama was guilty of malfeasance in office, regardless of whether he even knew about it at the time, because, after all, it happened on his watch.

POETIC INJUSTICE

There seems to be something comforting, in the fact that a major opponent of political correctness should disinvite Donald Trump, a major proponent of political incorrectness, from attending a meeting of  like minded followers, on the very grounds that Donald's comments were not politically acceptable.   

ATTILA DIDN'T DO NUANCE EITHER

The extreme animosity, that a segment of our population feels toward Barack Obama, may stem less from racial  stereotyping, than from a distrust that they have, of any solution that does not come from the barrel of a gun.  They cannot understand why we cannot just carpet bomb the entire Middle East, excluding Israel, and resolve the problem just as we didn't do in Viet Nam.

SOLUTION IN SEARCH OF A PROBLEM

At a time when most of the illegal immigration comes from migrants overstaying their visas, and contraband is coming from the sea, Messrs Trump and Kasich are talking about building a wall on the Mexican border.  Even if it will not solve any of our existing problems, think of the jobs that it will help provide our present day illegal immigranrts, most of whom work in the construction trades.