It's tough to know where to start, but I gotta start somewhere.
If you are lucky enough to have a Cold War shelter in your backyard, it might be time to think about reactivating it. Given all that's going on, in my opinion, it wouldn't be a bad idea.
On the political side, there's been a lot of movement. I say 'movement' because it doesn't seem to be progress.
If you're female, minority, L***Q, or liberal, there's nothing to celebrate in that 'movement'. Consider the following:
Federal court appointments are going heavily to white males that are anti-L***Q and anti-minority. And if the hearings two days ago are any indication, the candidates for those positions are uniquely unqualified to even be considered. At least four were even rated as 'unqualified' by the American Bar Association, and two got a unanimous rating at the bottom.
There were over a hundred judgeships in the federal system when the president began his term, and there have been hearings on forty. The huge backlog was part of the total stall on new judges by Senator McConnell so that if a Republican was elected, they could pack the courts with young, ultra-conservative judges with lifetime appointments. This skews the entire judiciary to a conservative bent, which ultimately affects the aforementioned female, minority, L***Q and liberal causes in a major way. The appointment of Gorsuch to the Supreme Court was only the tip of the iceberg.
Congress is doing its part by passing a massive tax giveaway to the top 1% while gutting the Obamacare Individual Mandate, and closing deductions for most middle-income taxpayers. Since 'Repeal and Replace' didn't pass, they'll get at Obamacare a different way, denying ten-million-plus people any hope of health insurace at any kind of reasonable rate, and pushing up premiums by multiples of ten percent for those remaining.
Since we're piling on the debt, look for a major hue and cry next spring about "Oh Gawd, we can't have this massive deficit … we have to cut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and welfare block grants." I'd put money on that one.
We have the EPA rolling back regulations at a trementous clip, with no regard to the science, g****l w*****g or climate chante. These changes will affect air and water quality for the next generation or more. Look for more coal slurry pond failures, and more poisoning of water sources. Oh, and Oklahoma, look for more earthquakes caused by 'fracking'.
Energy will go for more mountaintop removal coal mines, thus destroying valley and 'holler' environments that have been home to both Appalachian dwellers and wildlife, while discouraging wind and solar development.
The State Department is being hollowed out with almost half of the senior diplomatic corps with all the expertise on things international having left government service already, and the other half being sidelined when policy is being formulated.
All the intelligence agencies have been dissed and ignored, especially when it comes to Russia. This leaves us deaf and blind in the international community, and prone to both error in our foreign policy and exploitation in our positions.
The Justice Department is backing off of any civil rights investigations and reversing its position on existing civil rights cases. Where it is increasing its vigilance is in going after medical marijuana in states that haven't yet allowed recreational use. Look for that vigilance to expand to legalized localities.
Justice is also reinstituting 'asset forfeiture revenue sharing' where local law enforcement can sieze assets without charge or conviction, give it to the feds in localities where that is illegal, and the feds kick back most of the value to local law enforcement.
Defense is rearming local law enforcement with all kinds of military equipment like MRAP's (Mine Resistant Armored Personnel carriers) and lots of stuff which the locals have no real use for, but it makes their SWAT teams look really fearsome. SWAT is also being used for lots more mundane things like serving warrants for non-violent charges.
This morning, the Center for Disease Control has been told not to use seven words in their scientific reporting … “fetus,” “t*********r,” “diversity”, “science-based”,“vulnerable,” “entitlement” and “evidence-based”. These words will not appear in any scientific reports issued by the CDC. I suspect that policy will be repeated throughout many government agencies.
The FCC has rolled back 'net neutrality', which allows your Internet Service Provider to slow down or deny access to its customers to certain sites which may be hosted on a competitior. This can also eventually lead to the total censorship of sites that are critical of government policy by pressure on the ISP's.
Interior and Agriculture are rolling back regulations on public lands, and shrinking the size of national monuments to allow for oil and gas exploration, more grazing and logging, and for uranium mining next to the Grand Canyon. Food inspection criteria is becoming lax, and the number of inspectors is at an alltime low.
FEMA has totally dropped the ball in Puerto Rico, where it is almost invisible and the island is still with major parts powerless. This is leading to a massive migration of Puerto Ricans to Florida and other states, which are trying to cope with the influx. They're probably not going back, and now they can v**e for president.
The President, himself, has been tossing out Executive Orders as if they were confetti, most of which were concerned with reversing what the previous administration had done. His cabinet, (almost solidly white, male, old, and rich) docily goes along with almost everything, and performs the 'bobblehead dance' on the video for the media.
While all this is happening, Russia is solidifying its position in Africa, the Middle-east, and Asia, and China is doing the same in the absence of American influence. North Korea is still rattling its nuclear saber, and Iran is making noises about re-upping its nuclear program along with its ICBM capabilities. In both cases, it's a tit-for-tat on Twitter with the leaders which only aggravates and escalates the problems. The Vice-President is banned from the Palestinian occupied territories because of the designation of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital (again via Twitter).
And the Mueller investigation into the p**********l campaign/e******n and the role of Russia of influencing it moves on, with lots of turmoil on the congressional side, and lots of money being made by private Washington lawyers hired by nervous White House staff. Maybe pardons for all concerned, maybe not. Maybe a Constitutional crisis, maybe not.

Is it time to reactivate that backyard shelter? With all this going on, it sure seems that giving in to our survivalist tendencies might be a good bet.

It's tough to know where to start, but I gotta start somewhere.
If you are lucky enough to have a Cold War shelter in your backyard, it might be time to think about reactivating it. Given all that's going on, in my opinion, it wouldn't be a bad idea.
On the political side, there's been a lot of movement. I say 'movement' because it doesn't seem to be progress.
If you're female, minority, L***Q, or liberal, there's nothing to celebrate in that 'movement'. Consider the following:
Federal court appointments are going heavily to white males that are anti-L***Q and anti-minority. And if the hearings two days ago are any indication, the candidates for those positions are uniquely unqualified to even be considered. At least four were even rated as 'unqualified' by the American Bar Association, and two got a unanimous rating at the bottom.
There were over a hundred judgeships in the federal system when the president began his term, and there have been hearings on forty. The huge backlog was part of the total stall on new judges by Senator McConnell so that if a Republican was elected, they could pack the courts with young, ultra-conservative judges with lifetime appointments. This skews the entire judiciary to a conservative bent, which ultimately affects the aforementioned female, minority, L***Q and liberal causes in a major way. The appointment of Gorsuch to the Supreme Court was only the tip of the iceberg.
Congress is doing its part by passing a massive tax giveaway to the top 1% while gutting the Obamacare Individual Mandate, and closing deductions for most middle-income taxpayers. Since 'Repeal and Replace' didn't pass, they'll get at Obamacare a different way, denying ten-million-plus people any hope of health insurace at any kind of reasonable rate, and pushing up premiums by multiples of ten percent for those remaining.
Since we're piling on the debt, look for a major hue and cry next spring about "Oh Gawd, we can't have this massive deficit … we have to cut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and welfare block grants." I'd put money on that one.
We have the EPA rolling back regulations at a trementous clip, with no regard to the science, g****l w*****g or climate chante. These changes will affect air and water quality for the next generation or more. Look for more coal slurry pond failures, and more poisoning of water sources. Oh, and Oklahoma, look for more earthquakes caused by 'fracking'.
Energy will go for more mountaintop removal coal mines, thus destroying valley and 'holler' environments that have been home to both Appalachian dwellers and wildlife, while discouraging wind and solar development.
The State Department is being hollowed out with almost half of the senior diplomatic corps with all the expertise on things international having left government service already, and the other half being sidelined when policy is being formulated.
All the intelligence agencies have been dissed and ignored, especially when it comes to Russia. This leaves us deaf and blind in the international community, and prone to both error in our foreign policy and exploitation in our positions.
The Justice Department is backing off of any civil rights investigations and reversing its position on existing civil rights cases. Where it is increasing its vigilance is in going after medical marijuana in states that haven't yet allowed recreational use. Look for that vigilance to expand to legalized localities.
Justice is also reinstituting 'asset forfeiture revenue sharing' where local law enforcement can sieze assets without charge or conviction, give it to the feds in localities where that is illegal, and the feds kick back most of the value to local law enforcement.
Defense is rearming local law enforcement with all kinds of military equipment like MRAP's (Mine Resistant Armored Personnel carriers) and lots of stuff which the locals have no real use for, but it makes their SWAT teams look really fearsome. SWAT is also being used for lots more mundane things like serving warrants for non-violent charges.
This morning, the Center for Disease Control has been told not to use seven words in their scientific reporting … “fetus,” “t*********r,” “diversity”, “science-based”,“vulnerable,” “entitlement” and “evidence-based”. These words will not appear in any scientific reports issued by the CDC. I suspect that policy will be repeated throughout many government agencies.
The FCC has rolled back 'net neutrality', which allows your Internet Service Provider to slow down or deny access to its customers to certain sites which may be hosted on a competitior. This can also eventually lead to the total censorship of sites that are critical of government policy by pressure on the ISP's.
Interior and Agriculture are rolling back regulations on public lands, and shrinking the size of national monuments to allow for oil and gas exploration, more grazing and logging, and for uranium mining next to the Grand Canyon. Food inspection criteria is becoming lax, and the number of inspectors is at an alltime low.
FEMA has totally dropped the ball in Puerto Rico, where it is almost invisible and the island is still with major parts powerless. This is leading to a massive migration of Puerto Ricans to Florida and other states, which are trying to cope with the influx. They're probably not going back, and now they can v**e for president.
The President, himself, has been tossing out Executive Orders as if they were confetti, most of which were concerned with reversing what the previous administration had done. His cabinet, (almost solidly white, male, old, and rich) docily goes along with almost everything, and performs the 'bobblehead dance' on the video for the media.
While all this is happening, Russia is solidifying its position in Africa, the Middle-east, and Asia, and China is doing the same in the absence of American influence. North Korea is still rattling its nuclear saber, and Iran is making noises about re-upping its nuclear program along with its ICBM capabilities. In both cases, it's a tit-for-tat on Twitter with the leaders which only aggravates and escalates the problems. The Vice-President is banned from the Palestinian occupied territories because of the designation of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital (again via Twitter).
And the Mueller investigation into the p**********l campaign/e******n and the role of Russia of influencing it moves on, with lots of turmoil on the congressional side, and lots of money being made by private Washington lawyers hired by nervous White House staff. Maybe pardons for all concerned, maybe not. Maybe a Constitutional crisis, maybe not.

Is it time to reactivate that backyard shelter? With all this going on, it sure seems that giving in to our survivalist tendencies might be a good bet.

It's tough to know where to start, but I gotta start somewhere.
If you are lucky enough to have a Cold War shelter in your backyard, it might be time to think about reactivating it. Given all that's going on, in my opinion, it wouldn't be a bad idea.
On the political side, there's been a lot of movement. I say 'movement' because it doesn't seem to be progress.
If you're female, minority, L***Q, or liberal, there's nothing to celebrate in that 'movement'. Consider the following:
Federal court appointments are going heavily to white males that are anti-L***Q and anti-minority. And if the hearings two days ago are any indication, the candidates for those positions are uniquely unqualified to even be considered. At least four were even rated as 'unqualified' by the American Bar Association, and two got a unanimous rating at the bottom.
There were over a hundred judgeships in the federal system when the president began his term, and there have been hearings on forty. The huge backlog was part of the total stall on new judges by Senator McConnell so that if a Republican was elected, they could pack the courts with young, ultra-conservative judges with lifetime appointments. This skews the entire judiciary to a conservative bent, which ultimately affects the aforementioned female, minority, L***Q and liberal causes in a major way. The appointment of Gorsuch to the Supreme Court was only the tip of the iceberg.
Congress is doing its part by passing a massive tax giveaway to the top 1% while gutting the Obamacare Individual Mandate, and closing deductions for most middle-income taxpayers. Since 'Repeal and Replace' didn't pass, they'll get at Obamacare a different way, denying ten-million-plus people any hope of health insurace at any kind of reasonable rate, and pushing up premiums by multiples of ten percent for those remaining.
Since we're piling on the debt, look for a major hue and cry next spring about "Oh Gawd, we can't have this massive deficit … we have to cut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and welfare block grants." I'd put money on that one.
We have the EPA rolling back regulations at a trementous clip, with no regard to the science, g****l w*****g or climate chante. These changes will affect air and water quality for the next generation or more. Look for more coal slurry pond failures, and more poisoning of water sources. Oh, and Oklahoma, look for more earthquakes caused by 'fracking'.
Energy will go for more mountaintop removal coal mines, thus destroying valley and 'holler' environments that have been home to both Appalachian dwellers and wildlife, while discouraging wind and solar development.
The State Department is being hollowed out with almost half of the senior diplomatic corps with all the expertise on things international having left government service already, and the other half being sidelined when policy is being formulated.
All the intelligence agencies have been dissed and ignored, especially when it comes to Russia. This leaves us deaf and blind in the international community, and prone to both error in our foreign policy and exploitation in our positions.
The Justice Department is backing off of any civil rights investigations and reversing its position on existing civil rights cases. Where it is increasing its vigilance is in going after medical marijuana in states that haven't yet allowed recreational use. Look for that vigilance to expand to legalized localities.
Justice is also reinstituting 'asset forfeiture revenue sharing' where local law enforcement can sieze assets without charge or conviction, give it to the feds in localities where that is illegal, and the feds kick back most of the value to local law enforcement.
Defense is rearming local law enforcement with all kinds of military equipment like MRAP's (Mine Resistant Armored Personnel carriers) and lots of stuff which the locals have no real use for, but it makes their SWAT teams look really fearsome. SWAT is also being used for lots more mundane things like serving warrants for non-violent charges.
This morning, the Center for Disease Control has been told not to use seven words in their scientific reporting … “fetus,” “t*********r,” “diversity”, “science-based”,“vulnerable,” “entitlement” and “evidence-based”. These words will not appear in any scientific reports issued by the CDC. I suspect that policy will be repeated throughout many government agencies.
The FCC has rolled back 'net neutrality', which allows your Internet Service Provider to slow down or deny access to its customers to certain sites which may be hosted on a competitior. This can also eventually lead to the total censorship of sites that are critical of government policy by pressure on the ISP's.
Interior and Agriculture are rolling back regulations on public lands, and shrinking the size of national monuments to allow for oil and gas exploration, more grazing and logging, and for uranium mining next to the Grand Canyon. Food inspection criteria is becoming lax, and the number of inspectors is at an alltime low.
FEMA has totally dropped the ball in Puerto Rico, where it is almost invisible and the island is still with major parts powerless. This is leading to a massive migration of Puerto Ricans to Florida and other states, which are trying to cope with the influx. They're probably not going back, and now they can v**e for president.
The President, himself, has been tossing out Executive Orders as if they were confetti, most of which were concerned with reversing what the previous administration had done. His cabinet, (almost solidly white, male, old, and rich) docily goes along with almost everything, and performs the 'bobblehead dance' on the video for the media.
While all this is happening, Russia is solidifying its position in Africa, the Middle-east, and Asia, and China is doing the same in the absence of American influence. North Korea is still rattling its nuclear saber, and Iran is making noises about re-upping its nuclear program along with its ICBM capabilities. In both cases, it's a tit-for-tat on Twitter with the leaders which only aggravates and escalates the problems. The Vice-President is banned from the Palestinian occupied territories because of the designation of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital (again via Twitter).
And the Mueller investigation into the p**********l campaign/e******n and the role of Russia of influencing it moves on, with lots of turmoil on the congressional side, and lots of money being made by private Washington lawyers hired by nervous White House staff. Maybe pardons for all concerned, maybe not. Maybe a Constitutional crisis, maybe not.

Is it time to reactivate that backyard shelter? With all this going on, it sure seems that giving in to our survivalist tendencies might be a good bet.

It's tough to know where to start, but I gotta start somewhere.
If you are lucky enough to have a Cold War shelter in your backyard, it might be time to think about reactivating it. Given all that's going on, in my opinion, it wouldn't be a bad idea.
On the political side, there's been a lot of movement. I say 'movement' because it doesn't seem to be progress.
If you're female, minority, L***Q, or liberal, there's nothing to celebrate in that 'movement'. Consider the following:
Federal court appointments are going heavily to white males that are anti-L***Q and anti-minority. And if the hearings two days ago are any indication, the candidates for those positions are uniquely unqualified to even be considered. At least four were even rated as 'unqualified' by the American Bar Association, and two got a unanimous rating at the bottom.
There were over a hundred judgeships in the federal system when the president began his term, and there have been hearings on forty. The huge backlog was part of the total stall on new judges by Senator McConnell so that if a Republican was elected, they could pack the courts with young, ultra-conservative judges with lifetime appointments. This skews the entire judiciary to a conservative bent, which ultimately affects the aforementioned female, minority, L***Q and liberal causes in a major way. The appointment of Gorsuch to the Supreme Court was only the tip of the iceberg.
Congress is doing its part by passing a massive tax giveaway to the top 1% while gutting the Obamacare Individual Mandate, and closing deductions for most middle-income taxpayers. Since 'Repeal and Replace' didn't pass, they'll get at Obamacare a different way, denying ten-million-plus people any hope of health insurace at any kind of reasonable rate, and pushing up premiums by multiples of ten percent for those remaining.
Since we're piling on the debt, look for a major hue and cry next spring about "Oh Gawd, we can't have this massive deficit … we have to cut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and welfare block grants." I'd put money on that one.
We have the EPA rolling back regulations at a trementous clip, with no regard to the science, g****l w*****g or climate chante. These changes will affect air and water quality for the next generation or more. Look for more coal slurry pond failures, and more poisoning of water sources. Oh, and Oklahoma, look for more earthquakes caused by 'fracking'.
Energy will go for more mountaintop removal coal mines, thus destroying valley and 'holler' environments that have been home to both Appalachian dwellers and wildlife, while discouraging wind and solar development.
The State Department is being hollowed out with almost half of the senior diplomatic corps with all the expertise on things international having left government service already, and the other half being sidelined when policy is being formulated.
All the intelligence agencies have been dissed and ignored, especially when it comes to Russia. This leaves us deaf and blind in the international community, and prone to both error in our foreign policy and exploitation in our positions.
The Justice Department is backing off of any civil rights investigations and reversing its position on existing civil rights cases. Where it is increasing its vigilance is in going after medical marijuana in states that haven't yet allowed recreational use. Look for that vigilance to expand to legalized localities.
Justice is also reinstituting 'asset forfeiture revenue sharing' where local law enforcement can sieze assets without charge or conviction, give it to the feds in localities where that is illegal, and the feds kick back most of the value to local law enforcement.
Defense is rearming local law enforcement with all kinds of military equipment like MRAP's (Mine Resistant Armored Personnel carriers) and lots of stuff which the locals have no real use for, but it makes their SWAT teams look really fearsome. SWAT is also being used for lots more mundane things like serving warrants for non-violent charges.
This morning, the Center for Disease Control has been told not to use seven words in their scientific reporting … “fetus,” “t*********r,” “diversity”, “science-based”,“vulnerable,” “entitlement” and “evidence-based”. These words will not appear in any scientific reports issued by the CDC. I suspect that policy will be repeated throughout many government agencies.
The FCC has rolled back 'net neutrality', which allows your Internet Service Provider to slow down or deny access to its customers to certain sites which may be hosted on a competitior. This can also eventually lead to the total censorship of sites that are critical of government policy by pressure on the ISP's.
Interior and Agriculture are rolling back regulations on public lands, and shrinking the size of national monuments to allow for oil and gas exploration, more grazing and logging, and for uranium mining next to the Grand Canyon. Food inspection criteria is becoming lax, and the number of inspectors is at an alltime low.
FEMA has totally dropped the ball in Puerto Rico, where it is almost invisible and the island is still with major parts powerless. This is leading to a massive migration of Puerto Ricans to Florida and other states, which are trying to cope with the influx. They're probably not going back, and now they can v**e for president.
The President, himself, has been tossing out Executive Orders as if they were confetti, most of which were concerned with reversing what the previous administration had done. His cabinet, (almost solidly white, male, old, and rich) docily goes along with almost everything, and performs the 'bobblehead dance' on the video for the media.
While all this is happening, Russia is solidifying its position in Africa, the Middle-east, and Asia, and China is doing the same in the absence of American influence. North Korea is still rattling its nuclear saber, and Iran is making noises about re-upping its nuclear program along with its ICBM capabilities. In both cases, it's a tit-for-tat on Twitter with the leaders which only aggravates and escalates the problems. The Vice-President is banned from the Palestinian occupied territories because of the designation of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital (again via Twitter).
And the Mueller investigation into the p**********l campaign/e******n and the role of Russia of influencing it moves on, with lots of turmoil on the congressional side, and lots of money being made by private Washington lawyers hired by nervous White House staff. Maybe pardons for all concerned, maybe not. Maybe a Constitutional crisis, maybe not.

Is it time to reactivate that backyard shelter? With all this going on, it sure seems that giving in to our survivalist tendencies might be a good bet.