History Repeats Itself

 As a student of history, I have often wondered what would happen if an Adolph Hitler-type personality arose again on the world stage. Would the American public insist on waiting, as it foolishly did in the run-up to World War II, for an attack to occur on American soil? Would we join the Neville Chamberlain appeaseniks and accept a dictator's lie that he will steal no more territory? 

Is there is our political mass a leader who can say, as Roosevelt did, America will be the arsenal of Democracy? Are there leaders in Congress who can look past the last election, the next election, and make the hard decisions to do the right thing for the world?

I afforded myself the great pleasure of listening to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the 6th President of Ukraine (at 44!) present to Congress one of the most incredible speeches I have heard in recent years. In his historic address, the President of Ukraine spelled out in very clear terms to anyone who wanted to listen, his appreciation for the financial and military aid the United States of America has provided to his country, and the need of more financial, military, medical and logistic aid to his war-ravaged country.  

It is a need we should not, and can not, deny. The world has, in the person of Russian President Putin, one who wants to be a combination of Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin. Mr. Putin illegally annexed Crimea in 2014 and the world did little of anything to punish him. In February of 2022, he began a military assault on the whole of Ukraine. But you know that story, I'm not going to go into it now. Historically, this looks a lot like Hitler's actions in the early phases of WWII. 

This time, let America stand for freedom, let us stand for democracy, let us stand against criminal international aggression. Don't wait for a large-scale (world) war to break out. 

It's December 23rd, and Congress has passed a spending bill that includes $45 Billion in aid to Ukraine and our NATO allies, money well spent, in my opinion. Utah Senator Mitt Romney supported the bill, Utah Senator Mike Lee opposed the bill. President Biden has stated he will sign the bill when it is on his desk. 

Sadly, however, there are those in both houses of Congress who say we have spent enough on Ukraine, and they are promising in the next year to "provide oversight" for all the money sent to Ukraine. In plain Olde English, they want to stop any more aid going to the war in Ukraine.  I am not sure what they expect to happen, should they succeed. Do they expect Ukraine to give up democracy and become a Russian puppet state, as so many did between the end of WWII and the fall of the Soviet Union? Is is in their minds that Russia will stop the war and the slaughter of civilians if we stop providing aid to Ukraine? What country, if not the United States, is anywhere close to a position to provide aid in the depth required to Ukraine? Do they really think Putin will stop at Ukraine? 

To those isolationists in Congress, including Mike Lee, I say: Put your sons and daughters, your grandchildren, in uniform and send them to Ukraine. Let them die for your foolishness.  

For the rest of Congress, including Mitt Romney, I thank you for supporting Ukraine and the war against criminal international aggression.

Thank you for reading my thoughts on this matter. I invite your comments, just click on the pencil in the white box below. 

R. M. "Bob" Hartman   

The Dialogue, Part 3

 I live in a reality based world.

In this reality, September 2, 1945 marked the official end of WWII, Harry Truman was President. Neil Armstrong walked onto the moon on July 21, 1969 when Richard Nixon was President.

Mabel McFiggin of Rochester New York received the first food stamps in 1939, which she redeemed at Joseph Mutolo's grocery store; Franklin Roosevelt was the President.

The Holocaust happened, as did Little Boy and Fat Man, all three in WWII. The United States Presidents were Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, respectively.

What do all of these statements have in common? They are FACTS. One of Webster's definitions of fact is: the quality of being actual. That's right, they all happened, regardless of the naysayers of any or all of the above. It doesn't matter who said it, or why it happened, or even if it should have happened, the fact is, all of the above happened. All the denial in the world cannot change reality.

Which brings us to the present day. More people were present at Barack Obama's inauguration than at Donald Trump's. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in 2016, and Donald Trump won the Electoral College vote, which made him President. Donald Trump lost both the popular and Electoral College votes in 2020, which made Joe Biden President. Despite the counterclaims, lawsuits and recounts, the results still stand. There have been less the 50 proven cases of voter fraud relative to the 2020 election, and they are split about evenly.

I weigh more now than I did when I was 20. My car consumes gasoline; my truck loves diesel, and you cannot cross-fuel them.

Currently, it's raining right at my house, the leaves are green and the grass is growing.

All are FACTS: the quality of being actual.

It's reality.

Thank you for reading; as always, your thoughts, comments, and opinions are welcome. Please click on the pencil below and let me know what you think!

R.M. "Bob" Hartman

Mass Hysteria, Fueled By Mass Ignorance

Really, people? Hoarding toilet paper? I was at my local Sam’s club this morning, there was a waiting line to get in-limiting the number of people in the store. Ok, that I can understand-distance is a way to contain the spread of viruses. Toilet paper in 36 roll packages was limited to 2 per person.  I saw families lined up, mom, dad, 5 kids; each person had a basket to put their 2 packages of toilet paper in. How much toilet paper do they normally buy in a shopping trip?

No diapers or feminine protection products available. No baby 

formula, no milk. No coffee, no bottled water; plenty of soda pop and snack crackers.

Where I work, a store that sells sporting goods, hardware, clothes, 

toys-we are out of 55-gallon water barrels, toilet paper-including RV toilet paper, any type of face mask, Kleenex, gas cans, any form of sanitizing cleaner, even bleach.

It’s a virus that affects the respiratory system, not your intestinal 

tract. It’s an air-borne virus, not a water-spread virus. It can’t live in our treated tap water.

It does spread though social contact, I understand that. I applaud 

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for cancelling the General Conference and suspending all local worship services for the time being. They probably did the best thing possible to avert the spread of the virus!

Our State government has closed all K-12 schools for two weeks, 

again a very positive move in my opinion. Classes have been moved to on-line wherever possible. There will be sack breakfasts and lunches available for children who need them. Again, a good response.  

Gun and ammunition sales at our store are up, way up over a year 

ago. Some types of ammunition are out of stock. I spoke to one of my regular customers, he told me he was stocking up on ammo because of the riots. I changed the subject.  

Hysteria runs rampant in our population. In many ways, it is 

probably worse than the virus.

Why? One can only surmise. Our government has been kind of 

slow on the response; in my opinion, they should have let the CDC handle the information, get the facts out rather than the speculation. 

At this time, during this crisis, we need a leader who will calm the 

people, who will work to make sure the proper tests and treatments are available to all who need them. We need a leader that will help people understand what they need to do, and what they don’t need to do. We need a leader who will unite us and bring Americas great resources to bear on the problem at hand. We need a leader that doesn’t cut funding to the CDC and other health organizations, a leader who supports community hospitals, doctors and nurses. We need a President of the People, for the People, and by the People.

We need a Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt, Kennedy. Our reality 

TV star is not getting the job done.

Thanks for reading. Of course, these are only my opinions. I’d like

to hear yours, agree or disagree with me.

R.M. “Bob” Hartman

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