All the news that is news

The big national news of the day, many days, is the crisis of limited supplies of baby formula. Empty store shelves. Mama’s looking all over to find supplies for their infants. Large stockpiles of the formula are stockpiled at our southern border to give to mothers of infants illegally immigrating into our country. 78,000 pounds of the stuff imported from Germany and flown in on an Air Force C-17. Oh, it is a major problem. And yes Grannie Annie and my three kids were all raised on infant formula though then is was never a problem finding the preferred formula.

The supply problem is touted endlessly on the major networks but never is the reason for the shortage fully explained. “Oh it is a supply chain issue or the major plant supplying the needed formula was shut down last year” are the most common excuses. Never a mention of why the plant was shut down but hints of the great effort to get the plant reopened and supplies replenished.

Having worked in the past as the Safety Officer in a local fertilizer manufacturing plant your old columnist has a strong suspicion why the infant formula manufacture was shut down. It is your government at work. At our plant and literally all manufacturing plants in this country OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Agency), a collection of government bureaucrats comes in and investigates to ensure that all the employees are protected in a myriad of their nitpicking regulations and requirements. Those requirements are endless and non-compliance nets the owner a large fine or shutdown. Yes, one can appeal their dictates but OSHA retains a swarm of government-paid lawyers so the appeal can get very expensive for the company owner.

President Trump and his administration worked hard at shutting down such useless bureaucratic folly but the current administration is all for increasing their power no matter the eventual cost to the consumer. Therefore I suspect that the large infant formula producer was shut down by OSHA or the FDA or some other governmental agency that is now avoiding being named. Your government at work. Think hard the next time you vote to be sure to elect representatives in favor of a smaller government rather than ever-increasing the power of our state and federal government.

I see that President Biden stated, during his visit to Taiwan, that if the Communist Chinese invaded that island nation the U.S. Military would come to their defense. For once I agree with our President however there are rumblings from his White House trying to retract his bold statement. Taiwan has an interesting history and having spent some time there I see it as a westernized democratic government well worth protecting.

During WWII there was a civil war brewing between Mao Zedong communistic movement and the Nationalists of Chiang Kai-shek. Our government sided with the Nationalists and that is where the AVG (American Volunteer Group) better known as the Flying Tigers went to fight against the Japanese. We also had bases in China “over the Hump’ where we initially launched B-29 sorties against mainland Japan.

Following the war, America was embroiled in operations worldwide trying to establish peace and China was largely ignored. During that time the Chinese Communists drove our friend Chiang Kai-Shek out of China proper and he retreated his forces and government to the island of Formosa. Along the way, Formosa was renamed Taiwan and the U.S. has always had a presence on that piece of turf. I flew from there many times supporting our B-52s flying from Guam to bomb in Vietnam. It was always interesting to see their anti-aircraft guns along the runways we were using. It was a free and friendly country and interesting to roam the countryside in my off times. Our son Don later lived there for a couple of years as he learned to speak Mandarin and become fluent in the language. It was there also that he became engrossed in the computer industry which became his life’s work.

The westernized government allowed their industries to thrive and Taiwan became the largest manufacturer of semiconductors, in the world, items that are so essential to our own automobile manufacturing industry. A parallel to their thriving economy is nearby non-communist South Korea.

Over the years communist China has always contended that Taiwan was a providence (state) of their country as it was before the Chinese Nationalists fled to that Island. The United States has never recognized Taiwan as an independent nation although we showered them with military aid. Now evidently the

Xi Jinping regime in China has decided that it is time to take back what they have always considered a rouge providence.

To this old warrior, it is essential that our military be primed and ready to prevent an invasion of Taiwan by the Communist Chinese Military. Unfortunately, I think that we are way too distracted with the Russian mess in Ukraine and our senior military leadership is a bit lacking along with the current administration. Time will tell.

That is the way I saw it.

Dick Trail