Colorado's wildfires , preventing, and fighting them, got whacked by Trump's budget chainsaws

 I have seen comments to postings about the wildfires in Colorado that the fault is poor forest management. FYI65% forests in Colorado are federally owned or controlled and the Trump administration took a chainsaw to agencies and their ability to fight wildfires this spring and last year.

https://csfs.colostate.edu/forests-trees/colorado-land-ownership/

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/u-s-forest-service-cuts-raise-concerns-on-protecting-public-lands-and-fighting-wildfires

Sometimes, well-meaning tenderfeet from the East Coast or Midwest like to give us in Colorado advice about how to deal with wildfires. Trump's vacuuming underbrush is typical. One I got the. other day wondered why homeowners just don't have wells and hose down their property. My response to that was the most kind I could muster:

"I don't know where you live, but it does not sound like Colorado...You need to spend some time and get more knowledgeable about the kinds and power of wildfires in the Colorado Rocky Mountains.. If you have ever been near one, you will realize that a handheld hose from a well water is no match for a wind-driven inferno, and if you stand there sprinkling your abode instead of evacuating, you will be toast. Some areas do not have "homes" in certain designated national forests; just establishing a perimeter in rocky and mountainous terrain in a challenge. Our wildfires are better known as crown fires and embers jumping onto closely standing, highly flammable pine forests. They leap and spread from treetop to treetop. I have been near one that went 10 miles in one day, and another 23 miles in 3 days. Others border "urban" areas or cabin subdivisions. And like our area, our Fraser Winter Park area governments with urban interface federal grants and state resources over the past several years have just cut down every pine tree for firebreaks for at least one mile downwind from a national forest and prevailing winds..Wind-borne embers can jump miles ahead and start new ones. Homeowners themselves remove vegetation near buildings. Even then, we are always in jeopardy: Mother Nature can be frighteningly awesome, and it is then that you realize how puny and helpless man is. "

Aside from often unreachable terrain, due to global warming, over the past decade, beetles that feasted on lodgepole pines survived winters when they once were killled by well below zero temperatures. The result is the death of much of our ladgepole pine forests, and the affected trees eventually fell to the ground. We are talking many, many square miles in mostly very rugged areas., already inaccessible. Those have lain there for the past few years, making it difficult to traverse the forests and providing fuel for raging fires, like the one burning in Routt Cunty near Steamboat Springs.

In response to memes that gin up fear of communism

 On one of my Facebook pages, I have seen many a meme attempting to paint Democrats (and even some Republicans) as communists.  Should I bother to reply or even care about such memes?  Given that I still believe there are thinking, curious people who may be tuning in, I replied with the following in the hope that simply shouting memes does little to change opinions, and perhaps some can still be introspective and can question slogans.   My response:

One thing we agree on is that communism is bad, but what is your definition of it? If anything to the left of you is communist, then I think there is a lack of education about political theories. In practice, though, what we remember about soviet communism is the use of theory to justify an absolute dictatorship. Planned and federal control of all elements of the economy failed for sure, and there were no civil or individual rights or fair and free elections. That and fascism share that control over thought and expression, and repress opponents by fear and force. Instead of Marxist ideology, the rationale for fascist repression is loyalty to their great leader with the support of the ultra-rich and powerful. Modern democratic societies are a balance and a blend of both capitalist and government provision, with control by democratic means,..including fair and free elections, whose representatives create the laws that rule. It is not ruled by some all-powerful person who demands obedience to his executive orders. I reject both communism and fascism.

Clarity of thought and mssaging: an example of how Democrats can break through

  Here is an example of being clear on issues that was devised by my local Democratic Party...in Grand County, Colorado.  It may not have a one-word umbrella, but it is at least a step in the right direction and a political plank that local candidates can run on. https://grandcountydems.org/?utm_source=Grand%20Dems%20email%20list&utm_campaign=a20073d1d2-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2026_04_30_06_49_COPY_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-0560435747-522472729    )

Go home, JD Vance. By my definitiion you are not a real American

 In 2025, JD Vance attempted to make the case that the real Americans were those born before the Civil War, in the most absurd claim that real Americans, as he defined them, were descendants of such settlers. It was one of the most racist and white nationalist concepts one could imagine, but it also was evidence to me that MAGA's core contained many like him. The nation was founded on an idea that people could govern themselves and that "all men were created equal" with the inalienable right to pursue life, liberty, and happiness.  It was not founded solely by white immigrants from England, and even my ancestral immigrants from Yorkshire settling in the colonies had already married a few Germans before the American Revolution, as recent DNA and past research into ancestors by family members and my own at the Library of Congress indicated.  So let us define who is a real American, Vance, and with my own (absurd ) definition, I proclaim I am a real American, and you are not. In fact, Vance, go home.

My (Absurd) Definition of who is a real American: If you cannot trace your ancestry to before 1776, you are not a real American. Only real Americans are those who are members of the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) , who take pride in the fact that they were already in the colonies before 1776.  There was a time in my eastern Oklahoma childhood in the Jim Crow 1950's when such ancestry counted in defining social status, and, yes, I even had a small scholarship from the local DAR chapter for college tuition. So take that, Vance. By my definition, just finding your roots in Civil War Appalachia does not count. Go home, Vance. You are not a real American as I (arbitrarily) define it.

https://thereconstructionera.com/j-d-vance-on-the-civil-war-and-citizenship/