PUBLIC SAFETY

Hi Humans,
So what's really at stake in the US elections? What are the most important issues? Certainly the economy, addressing a huge imbalance in income between rich and poor, a woman's right to choose whether or not to have an abortion in her own body versus the rights of an unborn fetus in her body, equal access to voting for all voters, the selection of a Supreme Court justice, and many other issues are all important. But looking at things from the point of view of a little dog living among you humans and subject to your actions both good and bad, I would say that safety interests me the most, and probably should be the most crucial for you humans as well. So what does safety mean? I think you can divide safety into global safety and local safety.
So let's talk about global safety first. Some years ago the problem was between the major nuclear powers, the Soviet Union and its communist allies on their side and the USA and its capitalist allies on our side. Well that Cold War ended, the communist countries have joined in the capitalist game, and so capitalism versus communism is no longer the issue. The problem is now the threat from different groups. North Korea which is still a rogue state with a crazy demagogue leader has developed nuclear weapons with which it threatens its neighbors. Iran which is ruled by a fundamentalist theocracy came close to developing a nuclear bomb in order to gain power and promote its political religion. Worst of all is ISIS which has created a uniquely vicious fundamentalist political theocracy in a large portion of what used to be Syria and Iraq and sends out terrorists to perform terrorist murder in other parts of the world. There is the worry that nuclear weapons could fall into their hands. That would be catastrophic. Nuclear weapons were created more than 60 years ago, the genie is out of the bottle, and can not be shoved back in. The danger is and will continue to be there. President Obama has taken the lead in the recent international conference on  that very subject. Meanwhile Donnie Trump, the Republican front runner, has been rattling the nuclear sword for political ends. The US and the sane world (including us dogs) need a US leader with an intelligent cool head and a clear plan like President Obama and hopefully Hillary Clinton. Our time and the future time of our descendants depend on it.
The local safety issue involves the many killings that have occurred in the USA. The Radical Right has emphasized the radical Islamic terrorist murders that have occurred here and overseas. The biggest mass terrorist murder was 9/11. Probably the second biggest terrorist mass murder was the Oklahoma City bombing of a Federal building by Radical Right Wing White xenophobic gun advocate terrorists who were not Moslems and were raised as Christians. Most of the local killings have been carried out by gun carriers against relatives or other people they know, or occasionally for some cause like attacking Planned Parenthood clinics, or by criminals against each other. Unlike Europe, the USA is existentially a nation of immigrants which has been particularly successful in integrating various ethnicities. That is why Islamic terrorism has not taken root here as it has in Europe. The best way to stop or at least limit the killings here is to make better gun control to keep the guns away from the killers, domestic, crazy, terrorist, or other.
That's what I think. But what do I know? I'm just a little dog.
Chloe