Month: May 2014

The Twelve Most Right Wing Extremist States In 2014

Ronald 3 Comments

It is scary to observe just how far Right Wing Extremist some of the 50 states have gone. Following is a list of the twelve most right wing extremist states in 2014. There is no special order of these states.

Texas
North Carolina
South Carolina
Tennessee
Alabama
Mississippi
Louisiana
Kansas
Oklahoma
Idaho
Utah
Wyoming

All of these states are governed by right wing Republican, Tea Party supported Governors and legislatures.

Seven of them are Southern States of the Old Confederacy.

Nine of them, including Kansas and Oklahoma, had legal segregation until outlawed by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Idaho, Utah and Wyoming are heavily influenced by the right wing extremism of the Mormon Church.

Only Texas and North Carolina are heavily populated states, and the only ones that are becoming more significant, due to the reality that both are bound to be “Blue” in the coming years.

Other than Texas, North Carolina, and to some extent, South Carolina, the other nine states are having no major impact on the future evolution of the nation!

The education level in all twelve states is among the lowest in the nation, and poverty is high, and not just among African Americans and Hispanics-Latinos, but also among poor whites.

These states, if they continue their right wing tilt, are doomed to remain the “backwaters” of America long term!

Texas Republicans Go Far Right Tea Party Extreme! But Wendy Davis And Castro Brothers Make For Democratic Future!

Ronald 4 Comments

Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick are the most right wing candidates in the country in many respects, as the GOP nominees for Governor and Lieutenant Governor of the Lone Star State, Texas! They make outgoing Governor Rick Perry and Senator John Cornyn look moderate, which they, most certainly, are NOT! Abbott and Patrick are more in the tradition of Senator Ted Cruz, and with many loony Tea Party type Congressmen in Texas, it bodes ill for the future of Latinos, African Americans, women, labor, and environmentalists in the state of Texas!

Denial of health care to millions, and promotion of creationism and denial of global warming, and shaping their own distorted view of American history is also part of the cancer of the right wing tilt going on in Texas in the Republican Party!

But the Democrats are not giving up on the possibility of their Gubernatorial nominee, Wendy Davis, being triumphant this fall, and already, there is discussion of Congressman Joaquin Castro of San Antonio, challenging Senator Ted Cruz for his Senate seat in 2018.

At the same time, a campaign for his identical twin brother, outgoing San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, newly selected to be Housing and Urban Development Secretary for President Obama, to be a possible Vice Presidential running mate in the 2016 Presidential election is being seriously discussed.

It could be that the Castro twins could be the redemption of a state rapidly moving toward a likely “Blue” or Democratic status by 2020, with the chance it could happen with a possible Wendy Davis victory in 2014, followed by Julian Castro being on the team of any Democratic Presidential nominee, not just Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden, in 2016!

“Tight” Vs. “Loose” States: Strongly Enforced Social Rules Vs. Greater Tolerance

Ronald 2 Comments

Two Psychology professors at the University of Maryland have studied the issue of strongly enforced social rules in many states, as against greater, more open minded tolerance in other states.

It is indeed true that America is a complex nation in which social attitudes and influences differ dramatically.

Among the issues utilized are corporal punishment in schools; executions in the state prisons; attitude toward alcohol accessibility; and the legality of same sex marriage and unions.

Predictably, the Southern states are the “tightest”; the Midwest is in the middle; and the Northeast and Pacific Coast are the “loosest” in social mores.

It shows up in political terms, as for instance, Barack Obama was able to win only 40.3 percent of the vote in the “tightest” states, and yet won 58.8 percent of the vote in the “loosest’ states!

The Importance Of Higher Education Over A Lifetime Worth The Investment!

Ronald 2 Comments

Propaganda has been going around, promoted by conservatives and Republicans, that higher education is not worth the investment, that many students end up with a debt that will take many years to pay off, so that, instead, it is better to avoid college education. Their goal, ultimately, is to promote ignorance and apathy among the masses, so as to advance their agenda of impoverishing the middle class and the poor!

Yes, college debt is a major problem, and the interest rates charged are ridiculous, and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts wants to promote legislation to lower rates, stating that an investment in the long term future should not become victim of greedy lenders!

While it is true that many college and university graduates cannot find work in their chosen field, and that it has become particularly difficult for recent college students to find appropriate work, one must think in the long run, not the short run, and the evidence is clear that a college education, over a lifetime, pays dividends in higher pay, a better lifestyle, and a much more enlightened citizenry!

College graduates on the average make at least double the income of non college graduates, and over a lifetime, about a half million dollars is lost if a person has not attended and graduated a four year degree.

Also, the level of satisfaction at work, and the knowledge base of a college graduate, is far greater than a non college graduate. A four year college degree is still the best ticket to the middle class for anyone who is struggling to make ends meet!

The Endless Payments For Wars Since The Civil War To The Present, And The Long Term Future!

Ronald 7 Comments

It is so easy for leaders of governments to send their military forces into war, not fully realizing that the long range economic effect goes on way beyond their lifetime and for the next century and more!

Here we are, 149 years after the end of the Civil War, and we are paying a small pension to the daughter of a Civil War veteran who married a young woman in his old age, and the daughter from that marriage is now 84 years old!

While the last World War I veteran died in 2011, there are still 4,038 widows, sons and daughters who get a veterans’ pension or other payments from that war service.

Not many are aware that spouses, parents, and children of deceased veterans from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Kuwait, Iraq, and Afghanistan received $6.7 billion in 2013, based on financial need, any disabilities, and whether the veteran’s death wsas tied to military service.

And this does not include the costs of the war itself, or the care of the veterans. The final bill for Iraq and Afghanistan is estimated to be $4 trillion to $6 trillion dollars over the next century!

This is a commitment that must be met, but it is something which should sober leaders, and clearly has affected Barack Obama, who is doing his best to avoid future conflict, a mark of a true statesman! For that effort alone, he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize he won prematurely in 2009!

Two Significant Series Debuting On History Channel And CNN This Week

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Two significant documentary series are debuting this week on History Channel and on CNN.

Tonight, Tuesday, and Wednesday, the History Channel has a three part, six hour series on World War I and its effect on the coming of World War II, through a study of major world leaders, including Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Charles De Gaulle, Douglas MacArthur, and George Patton.

On Thursday at 9 PM for an hour for ten weeks, CNN will have a ten hour series on the 1960s, and the effect it had on America with actor-director Tom Hanks involved in the project.

For anyone interested in politics and its effect on history, make it your business to watch and record these two series!

Time Of Remembrance: 150 Years Of Arlington National Cemetery And 70th Anniversary Of D Day

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We are today commemorating two solemn anniversaries: 150 years of Arlington National Cemetery, and 70 years on June 6 of the D Day Invasion at Normandy during World War II! Memorial Day is the proper day to mark these two anniversaries!

Arlington National Cemetery began as a place to honor Civil War veterans, and now honors veterans of all of America’s wars, those killed in battle and those who simply served.

The number of World War II veterans is declining rapidly, with the youngest participants now age 88 and over, with “The Greatest Generation” still honored for their sacrifices every year.

The crisis over the Department of Veterans Affairs is a sad event, since we face a mountain of commitment to all of our veterans over the next century, who have done their part to protect us, and no matter what the cost, our commitment MUST be met, when we send troops to war!

It should sober us to be more careful about military commitments overseas, and only engaged in wars that we have no choice but to participate in, for national security, but NOT for corporate greed or the promotion of oil interests!

And this is also a sobering time, as we soon will reach the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War I in Europe this summer! The effects of that war, on the world and on America, still reverberate!

The Disgraceful Dr. Benjamin Carson: Right Wing Extremist Exploiting For His Own Ambitions!

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Dr. Benjamin Carson was a renowned neurosurgeon who did miracle work on children, and he should be acknowledged and praised for his medical career.

But now that he has retired, he has emerged as a man who has delusions that he can be the Republican Presidential nominee, despite never having been in public office, and he has joined other African American Republicans, including former Florida Congressman Allen West and 2012 Presidential contender Herman Cain, in turning their backs on the African American community, and advocating extremist right wing views!

Carson first became noticed when he condemned the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) at the National Prayer Breakfast in 2013, with Obama present to hear his denunciation.

Carson has made outrageous statements, and has employed divisive and incendiary rhetoric, and now works as a commentator on Fox News Channel, and writes a column for the conservative Washington Times.

Carson has said ObamaCare is equivalent of slavery; says “socialized medicine” is adopting Soviet leader Nikolai Lenin’s strategy to control the people; has compared same sex marriage to pedophilia; has said white liberals are the most racist group in America; has praised Russian leader Vladamir Putin for his tough stand on homosexuality; and has attacked the Darwinian theory of evolution and climate change.

A man with such views should not be taken seriously by anyone, but with the fluid situation in the Republican Party, who knows if Carson could emerge as a serious contender?

But there is no possibility of Carson ever being President, even if somehow he emerged as the Republican Presidential nominee, so do not put betting money on such an unlikely scenario!

The Republican Party 2014–Anti Immigrant, Anti Women, Anti Gay, Anti Labor, Anti Science

Ronald 2 Comments

The Republican Party of 2014 has put itself into a box it cannot get out of, and it is doomed to lose the nation short term and long term, as a result!

Yes, the Republicans can win gerrymandered Congressional districts in the “hinterland” of the nation, but they cannot win the African American vote, the Hispanic-Latino vote, the women’s vote, the gay and lesbian vote, the labor vote, or the science and environmental vote!

Without those, they cannot EVER become a serious threat to the Democrats for the White House or the US Senate long term, even if somehow they are able to gain six Senate seats and the majority in the Midterm Elections of 2014!

In 2016, with two thirds of the Senate seats being Republican seats, and with Tea Party activists leaving behind a record of total rejection of government, and total lack of concern for their fellow citizens, the Senate will have a major Democratic majority, and the House has a good chance of being take back by the Democrats!

And with the states of Texas, Georgia, and North Carolina turning “Purple” toward “Blue”, with growing numbers of Hispanics and Latinos, and also the growing Asian vote there and elsewhere; and with Florida and Virginia also more “Blue” than ever in Presidential races, the Republican Party will be “toast” as a serious political opposition!

There would have to be a major realignment of the GOP for this pessimistic assessment of its future to change, but the spokesmen for the party, and the candidates jockeying for position for 2016, shows otherwise.

The Republican Party is deaf, dumb, and blind at their own self destruction, and their reward will be total repudiation by all but the ignorant and biased of the “hinterland”, who want an America which is no longer there, the America of the 1950s, when we favored the traditional immigrant groups from Northern and Western Europe; when women “knew their place” as housewives and mothers, and not workers and educated; when those who were gay or lesbian “stayed in the closet”: when the labor movement offered tons of blue collar jobs that no longer exist, due to the greed and selfishness of American corporations looking for “cheap” labor overseas; and when we abused the environment, and yet woke up to the importance of science after the Soviet orbiting of the first space satellite, Sputnik I!

Those days are gone forever, but the GOP is like an ostrich with its “head in the sand”, denying reality, and for that, they are, and will be, punished and repudiated!

War On The Liberal Arts In Florida, Texas, North Carolina: The Promotion Of Dumbness!

Ronald 1 Comment

The right wing Republican Governors of Florida, Texas, and North Carolina have declared war on public funding of the liberal arts at the state university level in their states!

Considering that poverty is very high in these states, and educational attainment is lower than in the Northeast, Midwest, and Western states, it is clear that the Republican Party in these Southern states wants to keep people dumb, and prevent the promotion of skills that are essential for a good productive life–like reading, writing, analyzing, and simply THINKING!

A person who gains a college education with little or no exposure to the liberal arts is a person denied basic knowledge and appreciation of the great contributions of mankind over the millenniums!

To say that no one needs to major in anthropology, or literature, or history, or classics, etc is to declare war on intellectual pursuits, and it is clear that we have many people coming out of college ready for the technical and business worlds who have no basic communicative skills, but are simply robots who cannot read, write, analyze or think clearly!

And to say that different fields of knowledge are unworthy is to declare war on the whole point of education, to make people better human beings, not just train them for a field of work that might, very likely, disappear over the course of a work life!

To gain intellectual skills is to gain vision, gain a sense of humanity and compassion, and to have a quality life, not one only judged and based on materialism and greed!

These governors—Rick Scott, Rick Perry (and his likely successor, Greg Abbott), and Pat McCrory–prefer stupidity and ignorance, as that makes it easier for them to pursue their right wing goals to undermine the future of their states, among the lowest in achievement, and bound to get worse with this kind of damaging attack on the liberal arts! They are only out to promote the top one to two percent, and want a work force that is unable to compete in a way to advance and, actually, challenge the establishment elite!

Those who do not know the past are doomed to repeat it! We still need anthropologists, historians, poets, playwrights, artists, musicians, and others in the liberal arts, as part of a humane society, and no student should be denied the opportunity to major in any of these or other liberal arts fields, and they are often better educated than those who come out of colleges with no exposure to the liberal arts!

There is a need for a strong reaction to this detrimental attack on basic human knowledge by the scholarly community!