Month: June 2015

The Growing Threat Of Right Wing Domestic Terrorism To President Obama And Presidential Candidates

Ronald 7 Comments

The horrifying Charleston, South Carolina Massacre reminds us of the growing tide of racism and hatred that has emerged in the six and a half years of Barack Obama’s Presidency.

Barack Obama has faced more death threats than any President since Abraham Lincoln, and the mounting threats have taxed the Secret Service, which is responsible for his safety, that of his family members, and protection of the White House and its grounds from “Fence Jumpers”, who have become more bold in recent years, including Omar Gonzalez, who scaled the fence last September and entered the White House and almost made it to the stairs for the private quarters of the President and his family.

But it is also the hate groups which have multiplied in recent years, and have an effect on unstable, mentally ill people, mostly young men, many of them rightfully called domestic terrorists. The threat of foreign religious and political extremism also hangs heavy over the responsibility of the Secret Service to protect the President, the Vice President, other top government officials in the line of succession, and Presidential candidates.

There is a growing sense of foreboding and fear that the President, who has 19 more months from today until he leaves office, is in great danger, with any slip up by the Secret Service one too many.

Right wing domestic terrorism against Americans who are subjected to hate because of their race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation or identity, or political persuasion is a danger not only to regular citizens, but also to Presidential candidates in the political season we are now entering.

Hillary Clinton, already protected as the wife of a former President, is under Secret Service protection, and Bernie Sanders, being a Socialist, also faces dangers not faced by right wing candidates on the Republican side, although Jeb Bush, brother and son of former Presidents, is also a target.

And Donald Trump, with his provocative mouth attacking Obama, Clinton, Bush and others, is a perfect foil for right wing lunatics to plan to attempt assassination plots against our President and others seeking the Presidency.

The reality of death threats against President Obama is covered in Chapter 16 of my forthcoming book, entitled; “Assassinations, Threats, and the American Presidency: From Andrew Jackson to Barack Obama,” available August 15 from Rowman Littlefield Publishers, and can be purchased at a 30 percent discount using the code available on this blog. It is well worth a read!

The Confederate Flag MUST Come Down In South Carolina And Anywhere It Is Displayed On Public Property!

Ronald 59 Comments

The Confederate flag on South Carolina Capitol grounds in Columbia MUST come down and NOW! The Charleston Massacre at the African American Church is the last straw!

It is NOT a sign of the losses of white Southerners in the Civil War, 150 years ago, sorry!

It is a sign of racism and hatred, and NO public place anywhere in America should be allowed to display it!

Look at the Supreme Court stating in a decision the other day that Texas can ban use of the Confederate flag as a symbol on automobile license plates.

That should become the standard everywhere in America.

Of course, if a private person wishes to display the Confederate flag on his car or his private property, nothing can be done about it, but on public land and locations, it MUST be banned!

Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina claims it is part of “tradition”! Well, sorry, Lindsey Graham, NO MORE!

The Civil War is over, so get over it!

The Confederate flag will still be in museums, but it should not be permitted anywhere else in public places, clear and simple!

No symbol of hate and prejudice and racism should be legally allowed in public places in America, as this is NOT freedom of speech!

The Clown Bus Group Of Republican Presidential Contenders: Part II: Those Without Government Experience

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A few days ago, we discussed five Republican Governors or former Governors, who are contending for the Republican Presidential nomination, and why they are horrible choices for the Presidency, and would demean the office.

Today, we will examine three Republican Presidential contenders, who have never held elected office or been a cabinet member or in the military:

Dr. Benjamin Carson, a pediatric neurosurgeon and African American, who has come across as totally loony in his statements and views, including saying ObamaCare is slavery, that Obama is like Adolf Hitler, and that Creationism is a scientific theory and Climate Change is not occurring. This is just the tip of the iceberg, and Carson is proving how ridiculous his candidacy is, and how he is simply running to gain attention for his tremendous ego, as he has zero chance of being the nominee of his party.

Former Chief Executive Officer of Hewlett Packard Carly Fiorina, the only Republican woman running for President, thinks she is more qualified than Hillary Clinton, but she was fired from HP, and lost a race for the Senate seat of Barbara Boxer in California in 2010 by a massive landslide. She is basing her campaign on attacking Hillary, but has no credentials to make her qualified for President, and has a reputation of being a nasty, privileged lady in her dealings with others. Her chances of being the GOP nominee are zero!

The inimitable egotist and braggart of all time, Donald Trump, is a disaster waiting to happen, having had four bankruptcies, three wives, and promoted controversial views on “Birtherism” of Barack Obama, and is a nativist, racist, misogynist, and homophobe. He is pure poison for the GOP, and has no chance of being the nominee, but wants attention all of the time.

Only two non government figures have ever run for President–Wendell Willkie, Republican nominee in 1940 against Franklin D. Roosevelt. Despite losing, he had more brains and talents than all three of these characters discussed above combined. Also, Ross Perot, ran as an Independent in 1992 and 1996, and helped elect Bill Clinton. He managed to win 19 percent of the popular vote, second best ever for a third party candidate, in 1992, and 8 percent in 1996.

Forget about any of these three being the GOP nominee, as it is NOT going to happen, and they just simply add to the Clown Bus of Republican Presidential contenders!

Donald Trump Anti-Mexican Rant Guarantees Large Hispanic Vote For Democrats, Insuring Presidential Victory in 2016!

Ronald 11 Comments

Newly minted Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump has destroyed any chance of a growing percentage of Mexican Americans and other Hispanic Americans voting Republican in 2016.

The issue of Hispanic immigration, whether legal or undocumented, is an issue that will NOT go away!

There may be eleven million undocumented immigrants in America, and in ideal terms, that should not be.

But there is no way that these eleven million immigrants, or any great percentage of them, are going to be deported, and it would be extreme injustice in many cases to do such a thing!

Many from Mexico and from elsewhere in Latin America, and also from Asia, came because of political and social turmoil; economic hard times; and desire to better one’s lives!

This is nothing new, as ALL immigrant groups throughout American history have come for the same reasons.

Yes, a small percentage of immigrants are criminal, and they need to be dealt with and be deported if undocumented.

But the vast number of immigrants, likely 98-99 percent just want a opportunity for a better life.

So Donald Trump, stating that people from Mexico are mostly drug dealers, rapists, and other kinds of criminals, is simply guaranteeing that no respectable Mexican American who is a citizen, or any other Hispanic American or Latino of any Latin nationality who is a citizen, will vote Republican. And more young Hispanics and Latinos will register in droves to fight against a party that promotes nativism and hate!

The Republican Party already has had a problem with nativism, but Donald Trump has made it worse!

And realize that Mexican Americans alone are the second largest ethnic group in America, with nearly 35 million people and 11 percent of the population, and with over 50 million total population from Latin America combined, with Mexican Americans being 64 percent of the total. German Americans are the largest, over 50 million.

And having Jeb Bush’s wife as Mexican American; or Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio being Cuban American (about 3.5 percent of all Hispanics), will not make up for what Trump has done!

The Republican Party is done, as far as the Hispanic-Latinos vote is concerned, and with that, the 2016 election! The Democrats are assured of winning the Presidency!

And as far as relations with our neighbor to the South, Mexico, and to claim a wall will be built and Mexico will pay for it, is Trump ready to start a war with our neighbor and act in an imperialistic manner? Does he think Mexico would just lie down and drop dead? The man is a maniac, a dangerous man, who could cause massive boundary issues, way beyond any we have have had with Mexico!

Donald Trump Presidential Candidacy Likely To Destroy Republican Party In 2016!

Ronald 1 Comment

Business mogul Donald Trump announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for President today, a move which makes the Republican Party more of a joke and comedy bus than ever before!

What are Donald Trump’s qualifications to be President? NONE!

Donald Trump has had three marriages; multiple times has gone bankrupt; continues to be a “Birther”, believing Barack Obama was born in Kenya; has made irrational, extremist statements for years, making one wonder about his mental health; uses rhetoric that if utilized in foreign affairs, could provoke war; loves to insult his opponents in totally undiplomatic ways; and has demonstrated he is a racist, nativist, misogynist, and homophobe.

Is that enough? Trump knows absolutely nothing about international affairs, and just loves to shoot off his mouth, and make a fool of himself! He is a walking “time bomb”, ready to lose his temper without much provocation. He is an egotistical maniac, who most wants attention despite being a billionaire, and having wonderful children and, so far, three beautiful women as wives!

Trump loves to brag, which shows how much he has an inferiority complex, but he would be a danger if he were, somehow, to be nominated and elected. He invokes God, as if the deity looks down on him. The major job of all good people in this nation is to stop this maniac from destroying our nation, thinking he can “buy” the Presidency with wealth ill gained, and with the advantage of being born to wealth!

Trump must file within 15 days a form with the Federal Election Commission that he is running, and many would not be surprised if he actually does not do that. And even if he does, he could just destroy the upcoming debates of the Republican Party with his name recognition, and desire to assassinate the character of all of his Republican opponents. He is a literal nightmare to the GOP, and his candidacy only helps insure that the Democrats will win the White House in 2016!

Trump could prevent better known Republican officeholders from being part of the first debate in Iowa, due to Fox News Channel restrictions on only having ten candidates in that debate in August, likely leaving out better qualified or experienced candidates than Trump.

Trump has the ability to bring about the total destruction of the Republican Party as we know it, and that, actually, would be a good thing, with the right wing extremism so prevalent now in that party!

Jeb Bush Ends Longest Pre-Campaign In American History, Announces Presidential Candidacy For 2016

Ronald 10 Comments

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush finally ended the longest pre-campaign for President in American history, announcing his candidacy today at Miami Dade College, the largest community college in the nation, and the largest Hispanic student population of any college in America.

Having indicated his intended plans unofficially in December, starting the 2016 campaign, Jeb Bush decided to hold off for the overlong period of six months, so he could raise tons of money, without any campaign spending limits.

Bush made it clear that he was out to gain the Hispanic vote by pushing for immigration reform, something not popular in the Republican Party, and the fact that he speaks fluent Spanish and that his wife is a Mexican American born in Mexico, gives Bush an opportunity to push for a higher percentage of that vote.

The question arises though whether Jeb Bush can overcome the stain of his brother George W. Bush’s reputation, although the popularity of his dad, George W. Bush, is at an all time high, since he left the Presidency 22 years ago, and just as the elder Bush has turned 91 and his mother has turned 90.

Bush has many faults, but he is a serious, mainstream conservative, not a loony like many of the others in the race, so the odds of his winning the nomination at this point seem greater than 50-50.

The next nine months will show what the truth of the Bush name is in American politics in 2016!

The Clown Bus Group Of Republican Presidential Contenders: An Embarrassment To The Republican Party’s History: Part I

Ronald 3 Comments

With Hillary Clinton having begun her active campaign for the Presidency yesterday, it is time to begin a serious examination of the “Clown Bus” group of Republican Presidential contenders, all of which believe they are qualified to be her opponent in the Presidential Election of 2016. The vast majority are totally pitiful!

We have Chris Christie who faces possible indictment at some point on the “Bridgegate Scandal” about the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee, New Jersey; who has a very low public opinion rating in his state; who has totally messed up the finances of New Jersey; who has a belligerent, bullyish personality; and who would be a health crisis in the making, with his extreme weight matching that of President William Howard Taft, but Christie not having the intelligence and accomplishments of the 27th President.

We have Rick Perry, who is actually under indictment for corruption in Texas, making him the first indicted candidate for President in American history; who was a total disaster in his 2012 Presidential run, not being able to remember which agencies of the federal government he wished to eliminate; who has new glasses in the past year, which make him look intellectual, but still do not make him intellectual in reality; who promoted the idea of Texas secession from the Union a few years ago; and who has prevented more poor people from having health care under Medicaid than any other Republican governor.

We have George Pataki, who is more moderate in his record as New York Governor than any of his opponents, but despite September 11, is hardly remembered, while NYC Mayor Rudy Guiliani is still someone noticed and remembered. Pataki, whose most notable accomplishment was to defeat Mario Cuomo’s fourth term bid for Governor in 1994, has absolutely no chance to be the nominee, and one wonders why he did not try for the Presidency closer to his leaving the Governorship in 2006, such as in 2008 or 2012, rather than waiting till now.

We have Bobby Jindal, who has been a total disaster for Louisiana government; has tied himself to right wing evangelical Christianity in an extreme way; has destroyed the public school system in his state; has an extremely low public opinion rating in his state; and has made many reckless statements that one wonders about his sanity at times, including promoting the study of creationism in science classes. He also comes across as extremely mean spirited and intolerant!

We have Mike Huckabee, who won the Iowa Caucuses in 2008 and seemed moderate at the time, but since then, went to Fox News Channel as a talk show host, and it seemed to infect his brain. Huckabee has become a right wing whacko, evoking extremist Christianity; making ridiculous and divisive statements about women, gay rights and marriage; and embracing defense of reality show crazies, along with asserting he would not enforce Supreme Court decisions that he does not agree with, a shocking sense of lawlessness by anyone who would wish to be President!

The author will comment on other contenders in a Part II and Part III over the short haul, and then make clear which candidates have real legitimacy!

Hillary Clinton Comes Out Fighting, Evoking Franklin D. Roosevelt On Roosevelt Island

Ronald 57 Comments

Hillary Clinton began her Presidential campaign officially on April 12, the day that Franklin D. Roosevelt died in 1945.

She began her aggressive, active campaign today, June 13, on Roosevelt Island in New York, evoking the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and came out fighting to make America a better place than it has been under Republican leadership in Congress, and the disastrous Republican field of Presidential candidates.

Just as Hillary inspired people when she spoke in Texas recently about enforcing the right to vote, which has been worked against in Republican controlled state governments, when Hillary gets out on the stump, she gives people new hope that she can be an outstanding Presidential candidate; defeat whichever GOP candidate survives the upcoming campaign; and emerge triumphant and successful as the 45th President!

Hillary has faults and shortcomings, as she herself admits; and she said she knew she would make mistakes as any candidate, any human being would, but that she would always be fighting for the middle class, and for those left behind, meaning the poor and disadvantaged, as well.

That is the message we want to hear from Hillary Clinton, and while Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley and Lincoln Chafee offer more “liberal” alternatives to Hillary in the Democratic Presidential race, and are all decent and inspirational in nature, the odds are still that Hillary will win and carry the mantle of the Democratic Party into November 2016.

And ultimately, the issue is not whether Hillary is “liberal enough”, but the future of the federal courts, and particularly, the Supreme Court, as that will be the most lasting impact of the next President of the United States.

We cannot allow a reactionary, right wing Republican gain control of the future of the Supreme Court, as that would condemn much of what Democratic Presidents have achieved in the past century since FDR!

George H. W. Bush On His 91st Birthday!

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George H. W. Bush, the 41st President, celebrates today his 91st birthday.

Often ignored since he left office, other than his two sons’ electoral victories as Governors of Texas and Florida; George W. Bush’s Presidency; and Jeb Bush’s nascent campaign for President, to be announced on June 15; the elder Bush looks so much better than his two sons at this point of history.

Bush followed Ronald Reagan and preceded Bill Clinton, two men of great oratorical ability and charismatic presence. Both of them are rated higher in Presidential polls of experts and scholars.

However, a new public opinion poll, rating popularity of former living Presidents, places the elder Bush and Bill Clinton in a statistical tie at 64 percent popularity, an amazing fact when one considers that the elder Bush lost reelection to Bill Clinton in 1992, with the second worst defeat of a sitting President for reelection in American history, only surpassing William Howard Taft in the 1912 election.

But as a former President ages, popularity rising is not unusual, and particularly after a President dies, as with Harry Truman.

More books are being published on George H. W. Bush in the last couple of years, and the volume of publication will continue to grow, as history looks kinder on the elder Bush.

We have had more than 22 years pass since his Presidency, and the elder Bush is remembered for:

Winning the Persian Gulf War against Saddam Hussein, and leading the United Nations coalition brilliantly.

Promoting the reunification of Germany, despite many people’s fears that Germany would become a threat to European stability.

Bringing about a dignified end to the Cold War in 1991, by dealing with the falling Mikhail Gorbachev, and his successor Boris Yeltsin in a way that promoted calm in the world.

Advocating a civil rights law for the disabled and handicapped, the Americans With Disabilities Act.

Demonstrating courage in promoting a tax increase after pledging not to raise taxes, as the national and international situation in 1990 required such action.

If Pat Buchanan had not opposed the elder Bush in the Republican primaries in 1992; and if Ross Perot had not run so strongly as an Independent candidate in the Presidential Election of 1992, winning 19 percent of the vote, the elder Bush would have won a second term, and we would not have had Bill or Hillary Clinton as important figures in American history and politics.

So at least, on his 91st Birthday, the elder Bush can feel happy that he has survived long enough to see his popularity soar to 64 percent; to see one son serve as President for eight years, and another son about to try to set a record of three members of the same family serve in the White House.

Imagine if Jeb Bush, somehow, were to become President in 2017. and the elder Bush were to survive another nineteen plus months, and former First Lady Barbara Bush, who just became 90 on June 8, were also to survive!

They would witness two sons becoming President of the United States, surpassing John Adams, who only saw one son, John Quincy Adams, make it to the White House.

Even if one does not like or admire the Bush Family, that would be some magnificent achievement, which would have to be celebrated!

President William Howard Taft’s Massive Impact On Supreme Court History!

Ronald 8 Comments

President William Howard Taft, our 27th President, never gets a fair shake in history, due to the misfortune of being in office between two charismatic Presidents,Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, and facing both in the Presidential Election of 1912, and ending up third, the only time a major party Presidential candidate ended up other than first or second in an election.

Taft may have had the worst re-election defeat in American history, winning only two states and 8 electoral votes in 1912, but despite that, Taft goes down in history as, in many ways, the most influential President on the matter of the Supreme Court, other than Franklin D. Roosevelt.

How is that, one might ask?

Well, Taft set a record of making the most appointments in one term ever in American history, as SIX vacancies opened up on the Court, including Chief Justice Edward Douglass White and Associate Justice Charles Evans Hughes having the most impact. Also, strong conservative Willis Van Devanter served 26 years on the Court, working against FDR’s New Deal in the 1930s.

Only George Washington and Franklin D. Roosevelt surpassed him in appointments, and Andrew Jackson matched him.

Since Taft served as Chief Justice by appointment of President Warren G. Harding after 1921 until 1930, he both picked his predecessor, and was followed as Chief Justice by Hughes, who was appointed by President Herbert Hoover as his replacement, with Hughes having resigned from the Court to run against Woodrow Wilson in 1916.

Additionally, Taft was the Chief Justice who did the lobbying that led to plans for a separate Supreme Court Building, although he died in 1930, never seeing the Court building completed and opened in 1935.

So William Howard Taft had a vast impact on the history of the Supreme Court!