Day: April 17, 2011

Census Makes Future Clear: America Is Becoming Much More Hispanic And Latino. So Get Used To It!

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The latest Census Bureau statistics add extra evidence to the reality that America is becoming much more Hispanic and Latino, so the rest of America, particularly the Anglo white majority, down to 64 percent, had better get used to it!

One out of six Americans are now Hispanic or Latino, more than 50 million!

Hispanics and Latinos are having children at a much faster rate than any other group in America, and many young Hispanic and Latino students will be eligible to vote over the next decade!

The issue of discrimination against Spanish speaking citizens is coming to a head, and the reality is that IF the Republican Party continues to sow the seeds of hatred and prejudice, which they have been doing in many parts of the nation and in Congress, with the most obvious example being Arizona, they will soon discover that they are going to lose the future of American politics!

Republicans are fighting a rear guard action, which will boomerang against them in Arizona, Texas, Colorado, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, and other states that are seeing a massive increase in Hispanic and Latino population!

The Democrats have an excellent chance to control the future of American politics by continuing their open mindedness and reach out to not only Hispanics and Latinos, but continued understanding of the African American community, and appeal to Asian American groups.

White supremacy is rapidly on the decline, as by the mid century, the majority of Americans will be minorities, although the Anglo whites will be the largest minority in an all minority country!

Tax Day Is Here, And The Wealthy And Corporations Are Evading Taxes With Pride!

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As Tax Day arrives, the average middle class person is paying his or her taxes, and yet has no certainty that the social safety net is going to survive, thanks to the Republican Party and its intention to continue to cut taxes on the wealthy and corporations, as they have been advocating since Ronald Reagan’s time!

The tax system maximum under FDR was about 73 percent; under Eisenhower 91 percent; under Richard Nixon still about 50 percent; and under Bill Clinton close to 40 percent. But under George W. Bush, it has gone down to 35 percent, and Congressman Paul Ryan wants it to be 25 percent!

The result has been to produce the greatest stratification of wealth, greatest maldistribution of wealth, greatest inequities between the rich, the middle class and the poor in American history, in the midst of three foreign wars, and an aging population and massive social needs!

Meanwhile, the top corporations pay extremely low or no taxes at all, including General Electric and the major oil companies and banks, and many have overseas subsidiaries and operations. In so doing, they evade taxes, hire fewer American workers, charge higher prices to consumers, and give lower dividends and earnings on their investments to retirees. This country is run by the corporations, and the opposition party has no problem with that, since they gain large campaign contributions from these companies, as in the midterm Congressional elections of 2010, spurred on by the Citizens United case of the Supreme Court!

If the wealthy and the corporations do not learn that such inequities in society can lead to discontent and uprisings, then some day they may face the kind of violent change we are seeing elsewhere in the world. Exploitation can only go so far and then, regrettably, lead to dangerous scenarios that no one should wish for!

Three Internal Struggles Within The Republican Presidential Race: Business Experience, Mormonism, And Being From Minnesota!

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The upcoming Republican Presidential race has three potential major conflicts.

The first is between former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and real estate mogul Donald Trump, over the issue of business experience, both having it, but Trump declaring that his business background is far superior to that of Romney. Additionally, Trump is bragging about his greater financial assets, as compared to Romney, but no one should feel sorry for the size of Romney’s fortune!

Secondly, Romney and former Utah Governor and Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman both are Mormons, which could make an interesting race on that issue, but could actually hurt both of them with evangelical Christians, who see Mormons as part of a cult, and not Christian!

Thirdly, former Governor Tim Pawlenty and Congresswoman Michele Bachmann both come from Minnesota, and that could create a major complication for Pawlenty, as more excitement centers around Bachmann as a rabble rouser in the party establishment and among Tea Party Movement people!

In the long run, the more serious candidates are probably Romney and Pawlenty, so the problems of Trump, Huntsman, and Bachmann make their quest for the GOP nomination all that much more difficult!

America’s Mistreatment Of Veterans Continues, While Military Industrial Complex Prospers!

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It is well known that we live in the midst of a Military Industrial Complex that has seen swelling budgets in the past decade, supposedly due to the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

However, even Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has admitted that there is waste in defense, and that any further introduction of ground troops in other nations would be crazy in the future, both strategically and budget wise!

But while there is always a major push for MORE defense spending while cutting education and health care and other human needs, we fail to see equivalent concern for America’s veterans who have fought courageously in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The reality is that large percentages of veterans of those two wars have suffered PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and that suicides have occurred on military bases and in private life in alarming rates, plus murders of wives and children by veterans.

This is in addition to the horrific physical injuries visited upon our courageous troops by improvised explosive devices, and yet little attention is paid to this in the news media. Since Americans are not paying taxes for the wars, most are unaffected, since there is no draft, so it is easy for the average American to wave the flag, claim they are patriotic, and yet go about their business undisturbed!

We do not see a ground swell of support for INCREASED funding for veterans programs, and many Republicans, who love to claim they are patriots, have never served in the military, and have no interest in dealing with the reality of the lives of veterans after they return from war!

Better treatment of veterans, and efforts to cut the murder and suicide rate, MUST become a priority of our government, at the same time that major cuts in defense projects that enrich corporations must be implemented!

50th Anniversary Of Bay Of Pigs Fiasco: Cuba Remains Under Castro Brothers!

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Fifty years ago today, President John F. Kennedy’s attempt to overthrow President Fidel Castro’s Communist government in Cuba failed miserably, and it is hard to believe that Castro and his brother Raul still rule that island nation after a half century!

Kennedy’s inept and unfortunate attempt at a covert overthrow of Castro through an invasion of Cuban exiles has led to a political effect on America that still exists: the fact that Cuban Americans, as a voting bloc, have voted consistently Republican, and are vehemently conservative in their views on all major issues domestically, due to their anger over Kennedy’s failure. Cuban Americans are the only Hispanic group to vote Republican, and particularly in Florida, it has had a dramatic effect on state politics!

The embargo against diplomatic relations, trade, and general contact has continued for 50 years, but has had no effect on what goes on in that island nation. President Obama has authorized new rules promoting academic and “People to People” educational and cultural travel to Cuba as a first step toward establishment of what is seen as likely diplomatic recognition in a second Obama term, if that occurs.

Since the embargo and diplomatic isolationism has not worked, with the rest of Latin America and Canada dealing normally with Cuba, it is time for action on this matter, maybe with the President courageously dealing with it before the 2012 Presidential election, although it would add an extra burden to Obama’s battle for re-election, so maybe it will have to wait till 2013.

But certainly, if we can deal with other dictatorships that we find to be anathema, we can deal with Castro and not see it as a victory for him and his brother, but rather facing reality and trying to influence what happens on the island, and taking away the image of Uncle Sam as a nation that is out to destroy the lives of average Cubans!