Month: October 2014

The Future Of The Republican Party: Rob Portman Vs. Mike Huckabee As A Symbol!

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With Gay Marriage rapidly expanding, by refusal of the Supreme Court to stop it in eleven states, raising the total of states to 30 and counting, the Republican Party now faces its future!

With a majority of states and population now supporting or accepting gay marriage, and with a majority of people under 50, and even a majority of Catholics and even evangelical Christians in support, how long will the Republican Party hold out and be on the wrong side of history?

Do they wish to be recorded and remembered in the long run for their refusal to accept that marriage is NOT something to be voted on, to have a popular vote (which would not be lost in any case) on a basic human right, both in race in Loving V. Virginia and on sexual orientation now? Do they wish to be seen for what they are now, biased, prejudiced, hateful, narrow minded, and allowing religious beliefs of some people to dictate the lives of everyone else, when we have separation of church and state?

Conservatives were wrong on civil rights for African Americans, wrong on interracial marriage, wrong on women’s rights, wrong on immigration then and now, and wrong on gay rights and marriage, and for the Republicans to continue to follow their hateful, narrow minded views, will guarantee the demise of the party of Lincoln, TR, and Ike!

The Republican Party has a choice! It is time for MORE Republican Senators, Congressmen, and Governors and other office holders to come out in support of gay marriage NOW! So far, only four sitting US Senators and a few members of the House of Representatives have had the courage to speak up. The Senators are Liza Murkowski of Alaska, Mark Kirk of Illinois, Susan Collins of Maine, and Rob Portman of Ohio.

The GOP will have a massive problem being elected to the House and Senate majorities in 2016, as it is, and the suddenly emerging “dark horse” status of Rob Portman, the only one of the above four Senators, who MIGHT consider running for President, and have a shot at being the nominee, present the Republican Party with a choice!

Either demand that any GOP nominee accept the inevitable, OR nominate Senator Portman as the most legitimate candidate for 2016, bypassing all the other extremist, lunatic, whacky candidates in the field, picking a moderate mainstream conservative as the future of the party!

Republicans, reject Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Rick Santorum, Rick Perry, Bobby Jindal, Chris Christie, Jeb Bush, Mike Huckabee, and anyone else who refuses to accept gay marriage, and ONLY support a person such as Rob Portman, who has accepted it, and is from a key swing state, Ohio, which every winning President has won except in 1960 in modern times!

It is true that Portman supported gay rights and gay marriage due to his son coming out as gay, but he could have done what many so called “religious” people do, and repudiated his son, a most despicable act for any so called “religious” person to do, a mockery of the idea of religiosity!

If the GOP decides to follow the route of the above candidates who have made it clear that they will not accept gay marriage, the ideal candidate for them would be former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, a once seriously mainstream conservative candidate for President in 2008, who has gone off the deep end, become a lunatic, a bigoted man with crazy views, since he joined Fox News Channel, and now mirrors the lunatic right wing talk show hosts on radio, as well as Fox News Channel!

Huckabee has made clear that he will NOT accept what is happening on gay marriage, and if the GOP continues to give in to Supreme Court actions or lack of action on gay marriage, that he will leave the Republican Party!

The best thing the GOP could do is repudiate Huckabee, who has already destroyed his name in history, and have him leave the Republican Party, and let the swinging door hit him in his rear end, or in fact, kick him out the door, declaring to him and others like him, “good riddance!”

The best thing the GOP could do is nominate Rob Portman, or others who finally accept gay rights and gay marriage, and look to a future of NOT accepting prejudice, bias, and the power of the Religious Right, which should be escorted to the door, and told to go to Hell, where they belong!

A great ticket right now would be Portman of Ohio for President and Susan Collins of Maine for Vice President, and that would also overcome the misogyny of the Republican Party!

Imagine The Possibility: FOUR Independents In US Senate In 2015-2016, All Allied With The Democratic Party Caucus!

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An amazing development is now seen as possible, if not likely, at this point, 26 days before the Midterm Elections of 2014!

We already have two Independent Senators, both of whom ally with the Democratic Party caucus: Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and Angus King of Maine.

A third one seems likely now, with Independent Greg Orman seen as likely to defeat long serving Kansas Republican Senator Pat Roberts, which would mark the first non Republican Senator elected in that state since 1932. It is believed that Orman would then ally with the Democrats.

That is itself is a surprise, but with no Democrat in the race, Orman is seen as ten points ahead of Roberts.

Suddenly, a fourth Independent Senator seems possible, in another state considered Republican territory, South Dakota, another Great Plains state!

There we have a three way race, of former Republican Governor Mike Rounds; Democrat Rick Weiland; and former Republican Senator Larry Pressler, who served 18 years in the Senate from 1979-1997, after two terms in the House of Representatives from 1975-1979, and who also was, briefly, a GOP Presidential candidate in 1980.

Right now, the race is very close, with Rounds in a slight lead, but Pressler not much behind, and Weiland a few points behind Pressler in public opinion polls.

In a three way race, anything is possible, and it seems possible and plausible that Pressler could come back, 18 years after leaving the Senate, to his old seat, an amazing development.

Pressler, while a Republican in his past, endorsed and campaigned for Barack Obama in both 2008 and 2012, so were he to win the Senate seat, it is seen as likely that he would caucus with the Democrats, and has criticized his party as one that has moved away from his beliefs toward the extreme Right!

So imagine a scenario where four Independents would all ally with the Democrats and insure their continued hold on the US Senate, something never having happened in the history of that legislative body!

The Democrats’ Secret Weapon: Young And Single Women, And Excellent Women Candidates!

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The Democratic Party has a secret weapon: Young and Single Women, and Excellent Senate candidates and Gubernatorial candidates!

Polls show that young and single women in many states are clearly angered by Republicans working to take away their rights, and will come out in large numbers to back Democrats in the midterm elections.

The margin of support for Democrats in many state polls is as high as thirty percent in some, and polls clearly indicate widespread support among young and single women in such states as North Carolina, Georgia, Iowa, Colorado, and Kentucky, among others!

Why not? Republicans want to take away the right of abortion; the right to use contraceptives; the right of a woman to equal pay; the right of women to have more unemployment compensation; the right of women to have an increase in the minimum wage; the right of women to know that politicians do not blame them for campus rapes and military rapes; the right of women to have more available and quality child care; the right of women to expect decent health care from government, or their corporations, such as Walmart; the right of women not be insulted about their weight and figure; and the right of women to reject women Republican candidates who do not care about anyone but their own futures, and sell out to male chauvinists in the Republican Party.

So therefore, Michele Nunn of Georgia; Allison Lundergan Grimes of Kentucky; Mary Landrieu of Louisiana; Kay Hagan of North Carolina; Shanna Bellows of Maine; Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire; and Natalie Tennant of West Virginia (all Senators or running for the Senate); and Wendy Davis of Texas and Mary Burke of Wisconsin (running for Governor) stand out, as does Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire; and many are likely to win their races, and make 2014, the Year of the Democratic Woman, a lot due to young and single women voting in droves!

Meanwhile, Republican women running are sounding like they are from outer space, including Senate candidates Joni Ernst of Iowa; Terri Lynn Land of Michigan; Monica Wehby of Oregon; and Shelly Moore Capito of West Virginia; and women Governors Mary Fallin of Oklahoma; Susana Martinez of New Mexico; and Nikki Haley of South Carolina.

Hysteria Over Ebola And ISIL (ISIS), But No Concern In The Right Wing About Gun Violence!

Ronald 16 Comments

The right wing extremists in this nation have gone totally hysterical over the threat of the Ebola disease, and the menace of ISIL (ISIS), and have politicized both issues, making it out as if Barack Obama is responsible for both issues.

This is promoting panic among many people, who tend to believe everything that Fox News Channel and the right wing radio talk show hosts assert, as if Obama is a danger to the country!

Meanwhile, nearly two years after the Sandy Hook Massacre in Connecticut, which killed six adult educators and 20 children six and seven years old, nothing has been done to prevent future gun violence, against children, women, minorities, and even white men, as there is no willingness in Congress to challenge the extremism of the National Rifle Association, which has terrified anyone in the Republican Party or conservative movement from taking any action on background checks; registration; prevention of convicts, mentally ill people, and drug addicts from being able to gain firearms; and even to regulate gun sales on the internet.

We see, instead, the insanity of many states allowing brandishing of firearms in supermarkets, department stores, and other public places, with impunity. We have seen so many “accidents” that have killed children, and so many massacres of large numbers of people, becoming mundane, and hardly gaining as much attention as earlier tragedies before Sandy Hook.

The country, seemingly, has accepted that it is normal to have at least 900-1,000 death by firearms every month, a much greater loss than we suffered in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Why is there not an outcry to make clear that firearm violence is a much greater threat to our safety, security and health, than the threat of Ebola and of ISIL (ISIS)?

Supreme Court Expands Gay Marriage Rights To Five States, And Probably Six More, By Decision Not To Challenge Circuit Court Decisions!

Ronald 1 Comment

The nation is moving much closer to the eventual reality of gay marriage being accepted by the Supreme Court, probably in 2016.

It is clear there are NOT five votes to stop it from happening, as Anthony Kennedy very clearly has joined the four “liberal” Justices on that issue, based on his vote in Lawrence V. Texas in 2003.

Therefore, the conservatives on the Court have decided to, at the least, delay a final decision by allowing what has been approved by different circuit courts to stand as legal.

So now, Oklahoma, Virginia, Wisconsin, Utah, and Indiana must allow gay marriage as a result, raising the number of states to 24, but with six more states likely to added in days, including Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, making a total of 30 states and 60 percent of the nation!

Additionally, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals could rule similarly very soon, adding Alaska, Arizona, Montana, Nevada, and Idaho, making it 35 states.

The Religious Right will continue to promote hate and division, but they and right wing conservatives and Republicans will be repudiated for their stand, and in the long run, suffer dramatic decline in support, as they richly deserve to have happen to them, as they have shown the hypocrisy and falsehood of their religious and political philosophies!

George W. Bush Promotes Brother Jeb For President!

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We have had two Bush Presidencies, but now George W. Bush is promoting his younger brother, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, to run for President in 2016!

Jeb Bush would be seen as part of the Establishment Republicans, not a popular group in the extreme right wing Tea Party Movement that has hijacked the traditions of the Republican Party historically.

Jeb is not nativist like many Republicans on immigration; after all, his own wife is Mexican-American!

Jeb has never gone as far to the right as many Republicans do today, and that makes him suspect among them.

And of course, there is exhaustion over the concept of a third Bush Presidency, after twelve years of Bushes in the past 26 years, with only Bill Clinton between them, and if Jeb became President, with only Barack Obama between the two sons of George H. W. Bush.

Jeb would be a mainstream, rational choice for President, but that is not the bent of the GOP of 2014.

And Jeb has NOT been running for public office since his second gubernatorial run in 2002, and will have been out of office for ten years, by the Presidential Election of 2016. And no one ever elected President has been out of public office as long as Jeb will have been, other than those who were generals, or businessman Wendell Willkie in 1940, with the one other exception being Abraham Lincoln, who had been out of public office for 12 years when elected to the Presidency in 2016!

Jeb would bring intelligence, knowledge, and competence to the White House, much more than his brother George W. had in 2000.

But he also represents the past, and is very likely to cater to the right wing, and most certainly, would NOT be a progressive oriented President, anymore than his brother or dad.

The odds of Jeb deciding to run should be seen as 40 percent, and the chances of being the nominee is more like 30 percent, and the odds of being elected would be no more than 45 percent.

The best guess is that Jeb will decide, ultimately, NOT to run, as his own wife seems reluctant, and that is an important factor in any candidate’s decision to run.

Imagine though a scenario of Jeb Bush vs. Hillary Clinton. Would that encourage voters to stay home or to come out in droves to vote? More likely, the latter!

The Contradictory Public Opinion Polls On Midterm Elections Of 2014

Ronald 7 Comments

With 30 days to go to the Midterm Elections of 2014, the public opinion polls are again proving how unreliable they really are!

The Republicans are claiming, and many polls are indicating, that the party of obstruction and negativism; the party that wishes to privatize Social Security and Medicare; the party that denies Medicaid coverage to millions in many states; the party that has no alternative to ObamaCare; the party which has demonstrated racism, misogyny, nativism, and lack of concern for the middle class; the party which is promoting religion in government which the Founding Fathers opposed; the party which refuses to cooperate even on the ISIL (ISIS) crisis by coming back to Washington to debate and vote on what should be done; the party which has lied consistently and assumes that the American people are dupes who will accept any propaganda they spew forth; somehow is going to win control of the US Senate, and retain most Governorships, despite their pitiful record of being captive to the Tea Party Movement!

On the other hand, the Democrats, who should be proud of what has been accomplished by the Obama Administration, and the kinds of principles they espouse, is running scared, even though many polls indicate that the Senate will stay Democratic, and that most incumbents will win their reelection campaigns, and that the Democrats will take away the Tea Party Governorships of many Republicans.

While no one can say for sure, 30 days out, that the Democrats will perform well, it is hard to believe that the middle class of America, the women, the minority groups, labor, environmentalists, and other progressive groups will not realize the importance of voting, in order to guarantee the long range success of the Obama Presidency, which has now presided over 55 straight months of job growth, a record in modern times, and this pointed out by the conservative journal, FORBES Magazine!

The Growing Militarization And Right Wing Nature Of The Nation’s Law Enforcement Network A Danger To Democracy In America!

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There is growing evidence of the militarization and right wing nature of the nation’s law enforcement network, a true danger to democracy!

We see more police officers breaking the law in the handling of suspects and the general public, including easy willingness to shoot and kill, rather than less aggressive tactics, particularly with African American and Latino young men.

We see law enforcement being uncovered as secret members of the Ku Klux Klan and other domestic terrorist and right wing militia groups, and preaching racism and hatred in many forms.

We see hints, strong hints, that members of the Secret Service are, in some cases, unfit for duty, as they harbor deep resentment against our first African American President, Barack Obama, and his family, and being less than zealous in their handling of his security, in a way not seen to such an extent for earlier Presidents.

The feeling is growing, that the American public can no longer feel relaxed with their local police, as there are many signs of aggressiveness, abusive language, and the wielding of power by law enforcement who have too much military style hardware and weapons, as in Ferguson, Missouri, way more than is needed in almost all situations.

The concept that the law enforcement authorities are out to protect us has become one of rather of some of them lacking proper training in sociology and psychology, and getting a power and ego trip by their ability to threaten us or mistreat us with impunity.

This is a feeling that some would say reminds historians of the concept of storm troopers and secret police in Fascist, Nazi, and Communist dictatorships, far from the concept of equal justice and fairness that is the benchmark of the American legal and judicial system over the history of our nation, and a warning sign for the future, to be alert and aware of possible abuses!

Germany Provides Free University And College Tuition To All! A Great Model For Americans, Saddled By Education Debt That Undermines Their Futures!

Ronald Leave a comment

The Federal Republic of Germany has set a wonderful model that should be adopted in the United States!

All students who attend colleges and universities in Germany gain free tuition for their education, which makes a lot of sense, as taxpayers supporting students benefits the entire nation, as well the particular students and their families!

No one loses from tax support of education, as it makes those involved more intelligent, more learned, more able to think clearly and make good judgments!

It also prevents students from being saddled with debt in the thousands or even hundreds of thousands, which undermines their futures, by making it impossible for them to get out from under debt, and delays or prevents them from going into fields of work, and also makes it harder for students to marry, have children, buy a home, and the myriad of other activities that makes family life and the economic advancement of the nation to occur!

This author was fortunate enough to have attended college at Queens College of the City University of New York when college tuition was free, and it made it possible for him to be able to afford to attend graduate school and pursue a Ph. D. in history.

Such free tuition no longer exists in the City University of New York system, or the University of California system (which ended when Ronald Reagan became Governor in 1967), and the myriad of other state universities around the country, and this reality undermines the future of students today, and the nation long run!

If we can spend hundreds of billions of dollars on defense and so many other things, we need to support education, tax supported, on a much larger scale!

Gerald Ford Presidency And Reputation Saved By Losing Election In 1976 To Jimmy Carter!

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Just as we are commemorating the 90th birthday of former President Jimmy Carter, we have news from the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and the National Archives, that Ford’s Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was plotting to have the US mount a full scale invasion of Fidel Castro’s Cuba, due to that nation’s military intervention in Angola, which infuriated Kissinger.

Appparently, the plan was to wait for the Presidential Election Of 1976 to be resolved, with the belief that Ford would defeat the former Georgia Governor, but that did not happen!

Carter’s victory led to a decision not to intervene in Cuba, and Henry Kissinger was retired as Secretary of State when Gerald Ford left the Presidency on January 20, 1977.

This was a lucky development for Ford, who apparently was preparing to support Kissinger’s invasion idea.

While some would have applauded the overthrow of Fidel Castro, the idea that this nation, unprovoked directly by Cuba, would have used military action, show recklessness, as there was no certainty how the Soviet Union of Leonid Brezhnev would have reacted, is startling. The Soviet Union in 1976 was a lot stronger militarily than it was in 1962!

We could have had another Cuban Missile Crisis, which brought us closer to World War III, again in 1976 or 1977!

Ford’s judgment was wrong on this, and the fact that Jimmy Carter, has saved Gerald Ford’s historical reputation by his defeat of Ford, is an amazing story!

Gerald Ford’s reputation in his brief Presidency has risen lately, but the revelation of this plot against Cuba, unprovoked, MIGHT bring down his reputation long term, which is regrettable.

But, literally, Jimmy Carter saved Gerald Ford from a massive mistake, by defeating him!