THE A-BOMBINGS OF HIROSHIMA, NAGASAKI: A STAIN ON THE NATIONAL CONSCIENCE
BY DAN VALENTI
PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY
(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION AUG. 9-11, 2019) — THE PLANET deliberately introduced the previous column (“Shoot Everybody”) with a reference to the “unnecessary” bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We did so to counter the prevailing view that contemporary circumstance justified Truman’s decision to drop the bomb. We also did it to invite comment, and those residing in the hornet’s nest were quick to respond to the kick.
The usual argument is that dropping “Little Boy” and “Fat Man” ended the war, preventing the loss of “one million American lives” and countless Japanese had the U.S. military invaded. A dispassioned historical analysis, however, strongly suggests the opposite, no matter how dearly one clings to the spun fantasy that America, freedom’s bastion, had to instantly vaporize half a million innocent civilians in a sneak attack (countless millions were to eventually die of radiation poisoning).
By July 1945, the United States and the Allies were three months from Germany’s surrender and were able to throw everything they had on the small Pacific island power, which they did from uncontested fire bombings and a siege that suffocated the island’s supply side. The then-secret military assessments of both the United States and Nippon concluded that Japan would be forced to surrender within months. Japan had enemies on all sides, no allies, few resources, and no country that could intervene on its behalf in surrender talks.
Japan had approached the Soviets, but Russia refused, instead declaring war on Tokyo. That month, a Japanese delegation met directly with U.S. officials from the Office of Strategic Services in Switzerland to pursue an exit strategy. The indirect result was the Potsdam Conference on July 26, 1945, where the United States (Truman), Great Britain (Churchill), and China (Chaing) demanded Japan’s unconditional surrender.
In an exhaustive study leading up to Potsdam, the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey concluded that without atomic weapons or even additional “conventional” firebombing, Japan would have to surrender by Nov. 1, 1945. Military advisers said the surrender would occur as the country imploded under the weight of war and would happen without the need of a U.S. invasion. The war planners, of course, plotted casualty expectations in the event of an invasion, concluding that American casualties would not be the “millions” myth that the decades popularized into accepted wisdom but in the “thousands.”
How could Japan fight back? It had no Navy, hardly any air force, a defeated army, a demoralized civilian population, an emperor urging the military to end the war, no manufacturing, and no way to receive raw materials because of a blockade. Most of the military save the hardliners wanted terms for surrender. Backers of the needless A-bombings then throw out their last gasp, claiming that in the Japanese culture, surrender wasn’t an option. Neither the facts nor history support that claim. Japan did surrender to McArthur on the USS Missouri.
Finally, not long before Truman’s fateful decision, Undersecretary of the Navy Ralph Bard wrote to Secretary of War Henry Stimson that “the great humanitarian nation” such as America should seek peace before using the bombs in “sneak attack.” The green, untested Truman had all this information and ignored it, the same as he refused scientists’ begging him not to use the bomb. Ironically, he caved to the militarists, something Japan, having come to its senses, would no longer do
In the end, the bombing spurred the arms race, the Cold War, and endless war continuing to this day. Nine countries now have nuclear capability. What other countries might have possession of nukes or the knowledge and resources to build them no one knows. This as technology make nukes smaller and less detectable.
Truman, the product of corrupt K.C., Missouri machine politics, blew it. To this day, America remains the only nation to launch a nuclear war. The national conscience can never be clean.
Have a great weekend, everybody.
——————————————————————————————————————–
“Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you” — Satchel Paige.
“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”
LOVE TO ALL.
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Truman a-bombed Japan in 1945 to show the Russians, specifically Stalin, our military power because Stalin did not take Truman seriously. It was more about Truman versus Stalin than it was about a quicker end to the U.S.’s war against Japan. Also, I believe we wanted to get even with Japan for Pearl Harbor. Also, I believe we were racist against the Japanese people back then.
I concur with Dan Valenti. I wish Truman did not a-bomb Japan.
That being said, I like it when Dan Valenti writes about Pittsfield politics. The preliminary election will take place next month. I want to read where all of the local candidates stand on the issues facing Pittsfield.
– Jonathan Melle
Mr. Melle, You’re out in left field believing we nuked Japan to show Russia who’s boss. As for local politics, no body is actually running a race, just a few folks got their name on ballot.
Your honey Landslide Linda will be coasting to re-election at this rate – it’s her to lose, and you won’t even have to donate any of my money to her campaign – because she has no real opposition.
This is a non-election since it’s friends of Mazzeo vs. friends of Tyer who will determine the result. Who has more friends? We all know there is no real difference between the candidates. They know it too. Both are tax happy Progressives. Both cater to the schools.
PAT Et. AL.
I can’t tell you the number of people who have contacted THE PLANET asking us (wanting us, some expecting us) to kick-start this campaign season. My reply is that it isn’t up to me to do that. I agree it has been an unusually quiet “campaign” thus far. I don’t know why candidates, especially lesser-known or underdog candidates, aren’t making noise. We’ve discussed this before. If you don’t spend the time or the necessary money, you’re just doing it to get a name on the ballot and once in a while in the media. This said, THE PLANET will I expect be covering the campaign — just how and what I don’t know. I’ve never seen it this quiet, less than a month from the prelims. Part of my says, ‘Why bother.’ The other part says, if not here, then where — because the other media aren’t doing the “beat coverage” that elections deserve. It’s a systemic breakdown all ’round: Candidates sending the message that they don’t care to an apathetic electorate that has given up and a local media that’s nothing more than P.R. puff’nstuff.
Let’s hope that Planet Valenti will moderate a mayoral debate or two.
It will be the only — repeat, the only — way for any debate to become meaningful. Dan Valenti views candidates appearances as job interviews, and he’s the guy hiring (on behalf of Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski, government’s true owners). He grills them and doesn’t pander, and forces them to squeeze out their views or lack of them. Not sure, though, that Dan Valenti will be interested. Word has it he’s enjoying an extended vacation between work in Boston and LA.
Dan
Feel what we are witnessing is political theater, fiction played out to appease the peasants.
Who will continue to be fleeced, in the name of public service.
Problem is with so many dependent on entitlements, the actors are buying votes.
Had hopes of mazzeo upsetting the trend,
Pretty unlikely now unless she will be performing a Harrington like late sucker punch, which is very hard to defend.
She may be just a token another candidate like Judith knight in da primary debacle.
As for Nagasaki and Hiroshima
It most likely saved Japanese lives also , fanatics and elitist only except defeat when its Staring them in the face.
And like 2016 presidential election sometimes they still don’t learn.
Just a simple farmers viewpoint.
Sometimes, often actually, the simple wisdom from the farm is the best, TB.
I don’t think I could take one of those BCC baloney debates without a lobotomy.
I remember at least one person had to get pretty drunk (allegedly) to make it through a BCC debate before.
Skakes that was fake news from the Berkshire Eagle.
Jonathan tune into “It’s Pittsfield Tonight” on Facebook for your Pittsfield Politics fix.
Why would anyone elect Mazzeo when she’s been on council approving the nonsense that got Pittsfield to where it is at for like 10+ years?
She hasn’t been mayor and Tyer has. Tyer has failed to accomplish anything in four years. It’s time to change the head coach. If Mazzeo can’t get anywhere there will be another election.
Dan,
Truman was a great president who nuked Japan to end the war they started, so I wouldn’t say he launched a nuclear war. If your dad was a pow in Japan and we invaded the mainland, your dad would have been be-headed or worse. I would recommend the books Flyboys, Unbroken, and some reading on the Battan death march. The japenese were inhuman and even if we only saved one American life, it was worth it.
Truman was a KKK member.
J99
Thanks for the feedback. Truman was an accidental president, clearly not up to the task. Leaving aside the A bombs, he mishandled the post-WWII years. Stalin ate his lunch. With a stronger president, the Cold War could have been avoided, the U.S. would have reverted to a peacetime economy, we wouldn’t have had the build-up of the military-industrial complex, Korea and Vietnam wouldn’t have been chopped in two, and Germany would have emerged whole and not divided.
He did mess up the cold war period and he was a member of the KKK.
Sometimes the best leaders are “accidental”, and Truman was the greatest president since Lincoln, and grew into the job quite nicely. I”ll perhaps post my reasoning some day.
Our dumbass King Trump is always threatening to blow people off the map.The fool does not get it.
Your cornbread ain’t quite done in the middle.
Whatever dumbass King Trump says is good with his team.
It taste better that way.
How can you still be here, Mr. M. You spelled your name backward?!
Because he ain’t Brainac.
It doesn’t work for spelling only for speaking.
Bill thought Monica could blow guys off the map.
The immediate problem facing the allies was that the Japanese would fight to the death before surrendering and that suicide pilots and submarines would cause huge casualties. Maybe as much as a million.
A new weapon that had just finished testing was now available. So they used it and the war ended.
It is pure luck that the war in Europe ended before the weapon was ready. Berlin would have been incinerated.
SW
Well, that’s the myth. The facts of history show otherwise, as my column points out. The biggest and most mythic part of the myth is to assign the death-before-surrender to the entire nation. Actually, it was only a handful of people who had this mentality. Most were just like us. They were sick of war, realized they were defeated, but wanted to surrender and get on with the rest of their lives. What is it about Americans that they can’t see the Japanese people this way?As for Berlin, if already had been incinerated. The U.S. had fire-bombing down to a science. It rendered cities and innocent civilians unto dust almost as good as nukes.
Maybe most wanted to surrender but there wasn’t an election for that
The Japanese murdered twelve million Chinese in WWII.
Japanese soldiers used to have contests beheading Chinese civilians with samurai swords.
Dan,
If my father and uncle were still alive – as army veterans they would have some choice words for your column today. After the Japs attacked Pearl Harbor, and after the a- bombs were dropped in Japan – my relatives were praising President Truman for his boldness in helping to end the conflict. Their war stories haunt me to this day. War is ugly business. Hindsight is useless.
After 9-11, nationalism rose dramatically and the country rallied together, calling for a response to the attacks – not unlike the response to the Pearl Harbor attack.
I support a strong military and increased funding for defense.
Peace through strength.
MR F
Thanks for the comments. Yes, there were many, most, like your dad and uncle.
War is evil. There is no right or wrong.
I support right-sizing our military and using the cost savings on humanitarian efforts to improve the life quality and prosperity at home and throughout the world. Convert the evil military-industrial complex to a humanitarian-industrial complex.
If you think the military is too large then you know nothing about the history of the past 30 years. Since the end of the Cold War troop strength, ships, planes etc have steadily shrunk (except for a brief period after 9/11). You can look it up.
I maintain that with technology and science our military is more lethal than ever before regardless of physical size. You can look that up.
I’m with SHAKES on this one. War is evil, irrational, and completely unnecessary. It’s also, apparently at this stage in human (d)evolution, inevitable. The defense budget has risen to ghastly proportions for no good national-security reason. I would support a downsize, investing in people AND the military technology (right-sized) to provide for a lethal national DEFENSE. DEFENSE is not the same thing as foreign adventurism, which unfortunately is and had been the basis for too much U.S. foreign policy since 1945.
Only unnecessary when both sides feel that way.
You can’t sit in a chair (or at a computer) decades in the future and armchair history. Different values, morals, opinions, societies, attitudes. History is a lesson. Learn from it, and mankind moves forward. Fail to learn, and we repeat our past mistakes.
The U.S. attempts to sanitize war today. Only combatants are supposed to die. No or few civilians. That’s wrong. Civilians need to die the way they did during WWII in Europe and in Japan. In massive numbers. Why?
Ultimately, it’s civilians that control the direction of their society and their governments. By sanitizing war, minimizing civilian casualties while limiting casualties to the military, war essentially becomes something we can live with. War is no longer abhorrent. It is no longer something to be feared. Without these two, it is no longer something to be avoided.
I will not armchair the decisions made to drop A-bombs on Japanese cities. They did however prove my point above. Fear of these devices ended the war with Japan. Pretty much immediately. So, who today is to say it was wrong?
FYI, I am more than a history buff. I hold a degree in history. BTW, the above also applies to why we’re suck jackasses to each other today. Social media allows us to be safe, to hide, to attack someone using a keyboard. Step up to the real person you’re attacking and get punched in the mouth or nose, lose a few teeth, bleed a lot. You’ll be amazed at how fast you shut your yap, learn respect, and avoid foolish confrontations.
A-bomb or F-bomb. Both are to be avoided.
Civilians suffer in the countries where a war is fought.
I would submit that civilians, family members in the U.S. have suffered immensely as their loved ones were killed or maimed in war. A soldiers PTSD can tear a family’s apart. Children grow up without fathers. The utter heartbreak of parents who have lost a son or daughter, often in a needless U.S. conflict.
Just because a countries infrastructure has not been bombed into oblivion does not mean it has escaped suffering.
TRUTH
Well, war IS something we HAVE lived with, continuously, since the end of WWII. The entire U.S. economy post-WWII was built on the necessity of continuous war. The Cold War and now the bogus “War on Terrorism” have neatly served the purpose. As for the need of civilians dying, to apply that logic, we should pray for war on the U.S. mainland, so we can experience what the people in Iraq and Afghanistan are presently under going. How spurious that logic is can be seen in the reality that no amount of civilian deaths have made war “something to be avoided,” You comments on social media are accurate.
“no Navy, hardly any air force” sank the Underhill on July 24, sank the Callaghan on July 29, sank the Indianapolis on July 30 (879 sailors dead), and sank the Bullhead on August 6 (all crew lost). This was a real war and America was taking real losses, and since the whole population was mobilized the guys on the ships where not much different than civilian causalities
Japan was one of the nations that started WWII. It’s too bad that the Japanese civilians had to suffer, but for the greater good it had to be.
Tyer v Mazzeo? Think Frick and Frack. Go back to two year terms.
Schools getting 5 million new dollars.I wonder how we will spend it.We will have to move fast as we need to ignore that Teachers in the Pittsfield Massachusetts schools are being verbally abused and Union President Sheran is quiet about the abuse.Ex Mayor Tyer does not know her employees are being violated.I want a teacher to take legal action against this Mayor
I love the smell of naplam in the morning
In 1985 during the 40 anniversary of the atomic bombing of Japan I was in the People’s Republic of China. The US press had some of the Planet’s skepticism about both bombs. The Chinese press did not. They replayed stories of the rape of Nanking and the slaughter of Chinese people by the Japanese almost everywhere. The attitude of the Chinese were “why didn’t we drop more bombs?”. Truman’s decision was clearly influenced by the battle of Okinawa that resulted in the one of the largest loss of US life of any battle during WWII because of Japanese fanaticism. The battle was one of the bloodiest in the Pacific, with approximately 160,000 casualties on both sides: at least 75,000 Allied and 84,166–117,000 Japanese (over 14,000 US soldiers died) . 149,425 Okinawans were killed, committed suicide or went missing nearly half the estimated pre-war 300,000 local population. This is what we avoided with the atomic bombs. I have a strong interest in this because my Dad was in the invasion force scheduled to invade Japan in 1946. The Japanese were arming everyone who could breathe to fight to the death. Thanks to Truman, Dad lived a long life in Pittsfield.
Amen.
Well put sir. My dad too was in the Pacific and thank God Harry dropped the bombs or we wouldn’t likely be here today. And let us not forget the Japanese had plenty of time to surrender and refused and even after the first bomb they did not.
Starting roughly with the battle of Peleliu, the Japanese had the strategy of killing as many Americans as they could no matter what the cost. On Iwo Jima the cost was more US marine casualties than Japanese soldiers. Their willingness to sacrifice themselves to kill or injury US troops is amply documented but is no better illustrated than the Kamikaze attacks which peaked during the battle of Okinawa. Almost 2,000 Kamikaze attacks sunk 37 ships and damaged 386. The Japanese military strategy was a simple war of attrition. Make the US casualties so high that the American public would give up. This is the strategy that the atomic bombs effectively countered.
In the real world, nuclear weapons scare the shit out of me.
But, I do enjoy watching Arnold Schwarzenegger play a cyborg in The Terminator movies. It is only because it is all fictional science-fiction make believe fun.
U.S. Prez Harry Truman was between a rock and a hard place when he ordered the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. He was damned when he did it, and he would have been damned if he did not do it.
I still believe Truman was outmatched by Stalin post-World War 2. To be clear, Truman was unable to effectively negotiate with Stalin. If FDR lived and was healthy, I believe he would have been able to negotiate with Stalin post-World War 2.
Now, we have Trump being played by Putin. Good grief!
– Jonathan Melle
The preliminary elections for Pittsfield politics offers a choice between business as usual or a change of leadership who will do things differently. However, I don’t know if the sad outcomes of high taxes with a shrinking tax base will ever change.
As much as I support her, the lovely Linda Tyer is a continuation of Jimmy Ruberto’s 8 years of failed policies. However, if I lived in Pittsfield, I would still vote for Mayor Linda Tyer in 2019. I support her because she is smart, she gets it, and she stands for everything I believe in when it comes to politics and government. I am impressed by her willingness to serve everyone, including the poor neighborhoods that circle North Street.
Sadly, Melissa Mazzeo is part of the “Bianchi bust”. And, Dan Bianchi did not change the way Pittsfield politics operates. If Melissa Mazzeo does bring in real change, it would help address the many difficult issues “distressed” Pittsfield continues to face. Like the lovely Linda Tyer did, she would inherit a mess. And, it is difficult to clean-up a corrupted municipal system ran for generations by the “Good Old Boys”.
In closing, I don’t have any faith in Pittsfield politics changing for the better from 2020 – 2024. I have heard it all before, including the many years I lived in and near Pittsfield.
– Jonathan Melle
TSC, when you post please keep the words of Joe Biden in mind when he said ” we will always value truth over facts.”
Even though that statement makes no sense TSC can work with it.
” I am impressed by her willingness to serve everyone, including the poor neighborhoods that circle North Street.” If after four years there isn’t any improvement you really need to wake up.
Read my entire post, please.
“I don’t know if the sad outcomes of high taxes with a shrinking tax base will ever change.”
“I don’t have any faith in Pittsfield politics changing for the better from 2020 – 2024.”
Not exactly glowing reviews of the lovely Linda Tyer’s administration!
I read your entire statement. Please, please, please stop your nonsense.
Protect yourself from the deranged nutjobs….
https://thefederalist.com/2019/08/08/dont-need-red-flag-laws-need-good-americans-get-guns/
The 4 year terms intent was to let the Mayor cut budgets of schools without retaliation at the voting booth as time would be an equalizer of the political pressure to remove the Mayor…….It Mayor Tyers intent to give schools what they want.
We have 500,000 square feet of High Schools to serve 1500 students. Why?
Is the nine months pregnant school budget a disguised special interest piñata?
JA
Short answer: Yes. Pinata is a great analogy, with JIV the lead blind man.
“. . . had to instantly vaporize half a million innocent civilians in a sneak attack (countless millions were to eventually die of radiation poisoning).”
Proof of these numbers? Possible that more were killed in Dresden from Allied bombing than either Hiroshima (80,000) or Nagasaki (40,000)–or maybe both. Dresden (est. between 35K and 135K). Also Hamburg (40,000).
“Countless millions” is even vaguer than those supposedly set to die if the war continued.
“. . . Japan would have to surrender by Nov. 1, 1945.”
Yup, and the war in Europe was supposed to be over by Christmas 1944. And by all rational analysis Germany would have surrendered in 1942.
And what is this “sneak attack” stuff? As if somehow perpetrated by Simon Bar Sinister or something. It is called war.
So I guess D-Day was a “sneak attack.”
Question is, why didn’t Japan surrender immediately after the first A-bomb?
As others have mentioned, if those tiny islands out there cost so many US lives, what would the whole home island of Japan cost?
I agree, Edward. Well said.
Epstein Dead by suicide..
Please excuse Epstein from court.
Signed Epstein’s mother.
Epstein gone. Dead men tell no tales.
True. Was it suicide or a hit by politically connected people who would be hurt if his story came out?
Pretty sure Trump could tell you how he really died.
The Clintons are the obvious suspects as many around them have met similar fates.
How is it that a guy on 24/7 suicide watch & wearing paper clothes – turn up dead??
#clintonbodycount
I think the Donald could make anything happen. Remember his best friend is a KGB agent. Enough said
Many close to the Clintons have met similar fates.
Trump or Clinton, I’m sure he’d have given up either pedophile.
Trump and he had much in common
Lefty rhetoric about not dropping a-bomb preventing Veit-nam not gunna cut it. Too many father’s and uncle’s lives saved to make that choice a bad one. Break forth the wall and all becomes clear.
Well, as we pointed out, it’s much easier to believe this myth that to admit to the facts. And it’s not “lefty” rhetoric or “righty” for that matter, although your comment betrays the classic coloring of almost any discussion of politics, including history. You force everything into a “left” or “right” dichotomy, but the analyses have no such divisions. There’s no proof that any lives were saved. The only thing we know is that too many lives were needlessly lost with Truman’s decision. BTW, I respect Truman’s motives. It appears he genuinely believed what he had been told by the warmongers in the War Department. Ironically, the War Department itself was against dropping The Bombs. The horror for both Japan and the U.S. at that point in the end game is that the militarists in both governments won out.
We think CT has it nailed.
Local accident caused by people taking pot (stoned). Young girl in critical condition.
https://www.berkshireeagle.com/stories/eag-l-khali_web,581787
No one cares. Pat. They didn’t vote for the common good or someone else’s teenager’s brain. Either they voted to make a profit or they voted for their right for another way to get messed up and make their lives go away. In any case, local profits are about to go up in smoke as the Dakota becomes part of a national chain that even sells take out food laced with pot. They call it “Dosing while dining.” They’re opening stores from Arizona to Mass. and every state in between that allows it.Google Mint Dispensary.They’re serving 2,700 people on a Friday.
So disgusting. I wrote a post about Dakota going to pot before, but it hasn’t showed up yet. This country is intentionally being messed up in my opinion. Weaken the general population with pot and other drugs and they are easily manipulated.
I also agree that for many people pot is just another way to get messed up and injure or kill others if they get behind the wheel.
This issue is becoming much worse than guns. Just this summer far more than 30 people have been killed or disabled by pot related auto deaths.
A drop in the bucket compared to alcohol related crashes.
Not as the amounts of recreational pot increase in the country. Just like we have bars on every corner of the city, we will have the same with pot shops and pot will cause deaths and disabilities across the country just like alcohol.
Why do pot people always make the alcohol argument? Imagine if you were a mother against drunk drivers working all these years to educate people about alcohol and cars, only to have another substance legalized that can lead to a driver killing your kid? Not to mention, drunk and stoned people are even more of a danger. In the general population, pot is not an alcohol alternative. It’s an addition. The whole attitude of “it doesn’t effect me” makes me ill.
When people decide to take their irresponsibility into the public place, it affects everyone. People can’t handle freedom. This has always made the case, and still does, for dictatorship, authoritarianism, totalitarianism, and other such attempts at “uptopia.” But finding a benevolent supreme ruler. Ask Diogenes. It’s harder than finding an honest man.
Since the eagle prefers only to rah rah the pot industry maybe you, Dan, could look into this company that bought the Dakota? What does their license say? Can they serve pot laced food? How long does pot pizza take to take effect? Is there going to be takeout to bring home to the kiddies? Did they take over the liquor license?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_war_crimes
Not only hasn’t there been any improvement since Tyer became mayor, the poor neighborhoods have increased. Check out the number of boarded up houses and run down properties.
Driving down First st yesterday. Trash all along the roadway. Is there ANY problem this mayor CAN solve? I wonder what a consultant would say to do about trash along the streets of Pittsfield. Could we please get a list of options on how to deal with it? It is just so confusing, what to do, what to do.
Shots fired again on Tyler st tonight……enough is enough! Time for a change! Good people are afraid!!!
Good thing we have very strict gun laws in Massachusetts.
Tyer had 4 years to do what she wanted.Goodbye Tyer. If Mazzeo does not cut consolidate the High Schools we will continue to burn millions.How can any politician in Pittsfield be serious and not talk about 1 high school.Everyone is consolidating.We are the most obvious to get it done
Trump and Epstien ….New York and Florida….great buddies.
Keep trying School Committee. You know as well as we do who were the regular passengers on the Lolita Express….mostly Dems. How long will you avoid the truth? Stop acting like the far left media and accusing only people who you do not like politically while avoiding any mention of those who you favor politically.
I figured out who TSC is. Gotta me Joe Biden. It’s just not possible for two people to be that obtuse. Just not possible.
If that is true then Pat must be Sean Hannity. She echoes his show almost word for word.
Trump had a bigger plane
Remember TSC, truth over facts just like your uncle Joe says.
I thought I was in the twilight zone,turning onto first to avoid North the traffic line went all the way down to the common p, sat there for five more notes and decided to re-rout, must’ve Been some kind of function down there.
The former Dakota Restaurant may soon become a pot retail shop. Is everyone excited…NOT. Retail is practically non-existent in this area, restaurants and other businesses are being replaced by pot shops. Can we all see in which direction this area is headed? Our streets will be one deadly accident after another. A Lee girl is currently fighting for her life after stoned driver hits her on the side of the road. Alcohol was bad enough now we have added pot to the list of substances that impair safe driving ability. This will end up killing and disabling far more Americans than guns.
There have always been stoned drivers, Pat.
I agree Ted, but making pot socially acceptable means it will be in every household and just like kids raided their parents liquor stash, these underage kids will be doing the same thing with pot. Both booze and pot are NOT GOOD for kids. Not good for the so-called adults either.
Ted,you should seriously consider a brain scan. There are more pot shops in the Berkshires than anywhere in Mass. and we have 1% of the population. They did not legalize in NY. Therefore they and more are here, buying and driving.
Pat you must know that Alcohol is the worst drug in America. Alcohol is the violent drug we all grew up with.Remember how many women were beat up by booze.
Booze = Bad. Pot = Bad. Both are DEADLY on the highway. Stop fooling yourself that pot is like candy.
Planet? How do these insult comments advance discussion. Kind of phony isn’t it?
Thank you for your input Judy Henchler
This issue is becoming much worse than guns. Just this summer alone far more than 30 people have been killed or disabled by pot related auto accidents just in the northeast.
It’s not a politically hot issue so the rising death toll is ignored. Also so many liberals hooked on pot that they stay quiet about it.
Trump is hooked on sex and hes just fooling himself.
Daily Gun Violence Impacting People of All Ages in the U.S.
Every day, 310 people are shot in the United States. Among those:
100 people are shot and killed
210 survive gun injuries
95 are injured in an attack
61 die from suicide
10 survive a suicide attempt
1 is killed unintentionally
90 are shot unintentionally
1 is killed by legal intervention
4 are shot by legal intervention
1 died but the intent was unknown
12 are shot but the intent was unknown
And 30 people die PER DAY in drunk driving related vehicle crashes.
I think there is a better moral crusade out there, by these numbers.
Sorry, but pot isn’t off the hook. Will the number of pot related highway deaths be covered up because pot is now hip and cool?
Pat, It’s obvious who the paranoid pot heads who post here are. Don’t you think?
Of course you understand pot has been riding in the back seat for generations and it was never covered up.Imagine how many arrest there would have been if it was illegal to drink
Please post source
brady.org
NHTSA, don’t remember the website,
and if you want some great charts and maps about drugged driving, check this site out:
https://www.drugtreatment.com/expose/roadway-fatalities-drug-alcohol/
or were you asking Pat to show some sort of facts for her absurd hysterics? Nobody says pot isn’t dangerous, but it isn’t as bad as the deaths we could prevent right now. by addressing gun accidents and drunk drivers.
Thanks Shakes.
A recent Johns Hopkins study claims more than 250,000 people in the U.S. die every year from medical errors. Other reports claim the numbers to be as high as 440,000.
Medical errors are the third-leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer.
Advocates are fighting back, pushing for greater legislation for patient safety.
Also each year knives and other edged weapons are used to kill 1600
Blunt objects 600
Hands, fists, feet. 700
Wow, if cancer or heart disease don’t kill you your doctor might.
Sad to say most gun related murders are committed by by young black men and the victims are also young black men. These murders occur in cities that have been under the control of democrats.
Both Marijuana and Alcohol are Predatory industries and gateway drugs.
The un-Holy Trinity of Sinful behaviors:
* Prostitution and/or sexual promiscuity
* Alcohol, Marijuana, and/or other drug use
* Gambling, and/or “beg, borrow, and/or steal” desperate people
What happens in Vegas doesn’t always stay there! In other words, there are negative societal costs and impacts on people who engage in Sinful behaviors.
It used to amaze me how politicians use the “un-Holy Trinity” of Sinful behaviors to prey on the poor, uneducated, youth, and the like, to line their own coffers with inequitable money. Then, I learned about “Perverse Incentives”, which means unethical power-brokers inequitably make money off of the socioeconomically disadvantaged people in society by causing deleterious socioeconomic outcomes.
For example:
The state Lottery and now casinos are nothing more than regressive taxation (or a tax on the poor). It is Robin Hood in reverse! Money goes from the have-nots to the haves. It is all nothing more than a financial method to lessen the taxation burden on the rich taxpayers who donate to politicians.
– Jonathan Melle
The lottery is a tax on stupidity. Congratulations to States that have a stupidity tax.
https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2018/05/31/drugged-driving-deaths-spike-with-spread-of-legal-marijuana-opioid-abuse
People asked for statistics on pot related accidents. Here are some.
The article makes valid points, but intentionally presents data in a misleading way. What we know from the article is that 5300 fatal crashes that year tested positive for at least one drug and may or may not uncle alcohol intoxication.
There are just unknown unknowns.