Chet -- You make a good point about Trump making promises, and as you recall in 2016 he used the words "beautiful" and "tremendous" to describe his fictitious non-existent health care plan that would insure everyone at a cheaper cost. Yet he didn't deliver on his big lie, and Democrats will use that to their advantage in 2020 showing clips of his promises not delivered. Trump and Republicans do not have a health care plan that they can reveal to the public and for good reason. There is no such plan. Yet, I'm sure he will blame Democrats for blocking approval of his non-existent plan. The possibility that Obamacare will be ruled unconstitutional by the Trump cronies on the Supreme Court is real, and Democrats will use that to their advantage in 2020.

Timothy Egan in an NYT opinion article, "After Trump, Republicans are now Trump's Fixers", writes: "It’s been clear, ever since the last of the never-Trumpers were rooted out of the party, that the G.O.P. would be an extension of the grime and grift of Trump’s personal brand. But now the enablers are willing to do what Cohen said he once did for Trump — take a bullet for him."

A copy of Tweet from Bill Kristol on the Republican Party

Bill Kristol @BillKristol

Conservatives have spent over half a century disproving the claim that we are the stupid party. Now, under Trump, conservatism is embracing, indeed reveling in...stupidity. #CPAC2019

Thanks for writing this Arizona. A few years ago we were educated by Veronica (aka Eternal Flame) on the history of the JBS and how it had morphed into the Tea Party. Hated to see her leave the forum. As these various JBS names wear out, it is now the Freedom Caucus. I went to the JBS website and looked at their stand on a litany of issues and about 95 percent of them seem to be a part of the Trump agenda. One of the exceptions is free trade. The JBS does not believe in tariffs of any kind. Of course they are also anti-regulations.

There certainly are many man made factors affecting our planet from chlorofluorocarbons affecting the ozone layer to plastics in the ocean to phosphates in fertilizers polluting our waters to the depletion and contamination of our fresh water aquifers. Scientists have a responsibility to call attention to these potential catastrophic events, and I would rather they overshoot than underestimate. However, many of these have been years in the making and politicians have been reluctant to take action unless they can see visible progress in their tenure in office.

Religion is also the power that some people use to exert control over other people's lives. Taken on a national scale (e.g. Saudi Arabia) it leads to repression and subjugation, the antithesis of what their religion ostensibly subscribes to as their primary ordained mission.

As one who has discussed religion with many people worldwide, for the most part I have been amazed at the 100 percent certitude in their convictions. Indoctrination of religious beliefs begins from the day you are born, and the differences in various denominations of Christianity, Islam and others stem from the inconsistencies in the respective scriptures written by different people over hundreds of years. I try not mock or deride another person's beliefs but rather try understand and find common ground.

However, as certain religious folks try to impose their brand of religion on others through governmental policies, then we must push back using many of their tactics. If, for example, they say God created humans in his own image, then are not the LGBTQ community God's creations also? Or did their God deliberately create some humans with the intent that they would be discriminated against? If so, what kind of God is that?

We do not know the facts yet so much of this is speculation Yes, there are reports that his locator beacon was transmitting meaning he might still have been alive and maybe not if the insurgents took his body a mile away and dumped it. There are other worst case scenarios considering the closed casket. I suspect that considering how long its been since the attack happened, much of the truth is being suppressed. We can expect it will take a long time before the public gets any more knowledge directly from the Pentagon. It's also not fertile grounds for journalists to be wandering around.

Dutch -- I am not suggesting in anyway that racism is an inherited trait. But as humans have evolved from our hunter gatherer days, certain traits became more dominant in some individuals through natural selection. The emotion of fear, for example, is much stronger in some individuals than others. Is it fear of the after life that makes so many individuals succumb to religious doctrine?

For mankind's survival certain physical and biological traits including intelligence evolved. The fact that we had "hate" long before biblical times and that genocide is nothing new in today's worldly conflicts, suggest to me that some people are more susceptible to "fear of the other" than others. In modern civilized cultures we have learned to be tolerant of each other and have passed laws to protect people's rights.

When we were born, we did not hate and we were not racists. Those traits were indeed learned, but some people learned more easily than others.

I should have added the bible references: kingjamesbibleonline.org/Bible-Verses-A.../

And the Neanderthal reference, Why am I a Neanderthal? . genographic.nationalgeographic.com/nean.../