Month: July 2023

August: The Month Of Doom For Donald Trump!

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August is the month when Donald Trump will be twice more indicted for crimes as President, just as we reach the 49th anniversary of the resignation of Richard Nixon as President, due to the Watergate Scandal, on August 9, 1974!

Already facing five trials on both civil and criminal matters, Trump will be faced with the strong likelihood of inability to be found innocent on the most important criminal matters, and with any state trial, as in the Georgia 2020 Election Results Investigation, not able to be pardoned from punishment by any President, including himself.

Trump may yet, at some point, come to the conclusion that it might be wise to make a deal with prosecutors, pleading guilty and avoiding prison time, with the stipulation that he would give up running for President, now and in the future.

That would be a blessing to the Republican Party, which is in a disastrous situation that is leading to future total disintegration of the party reputation and history, when it is time to move on to a return to a traditional “conservative” party of opposition to the Democratic Party.

Lyndon B. Johnson And Medicare: 58th Anniversary!

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It has been 58 years since President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Medicare Act, a pathbreaking turning point in health care, after much resistance for a half century.

Theodore Roosevelt in 1912, as the Progressive (Bull Moose) Party Presidential nominee, was the first President to suggest health care should be a national commitment.

His distant cousin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, considered the issue, but had enough of a battle over Social Security being legislated into law in 1935, as part of his “New Deal”.

Harry Truman promoted, as part of his “Fair Deal”, the consideration of some sort of national health care, but it went awry in the divisive politics of the “Red Scare” and the Cold War.

John F. Kennedy also pushed the issue, but did not have the clout to get it past House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Wilbur Mills of Arkansas.

Lyndon B. Johnson pushed the issue of national health care as part of his “Great Society”, and got it done, and it has been a godsend to millions of elderly people and disabled people, and added to the following year by the adoption of Medicaid.

Most Republicans opposed it then and since, and continue to call it “Socialism”, and ten states, including Texas and Florida, refuse to expand Medicaid, denying the poor the care they need, and this by a party that claims to be “Pro Life”! 🙁

And Barack Obama, in promoting the Affordable Care Act or “ObamaCare”, expanded health care, and it continues to survive despire blistering Republican and conservative attacks!

So this is a time to salute LBJ, as the savior of the promotion of national health care!

The War In Ukraine Becomes More Painful And Real With Attack On Odesa!

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The Russian war on Ukraine has been going on for more than 17 months now, and that nation, the homeland of many Americans through their descendants, is suffering mightily!

This author and blogger always thought he was a descendant of Russian immigrants, not realizing that actually they were Ukranian immigrants fleeing a country that had been occupied and dominated by the Russian Czars.

Odesa, the Black Sea port, through which most grain is exported around the world, and home in the past of hundreds of thousands of Jewish families, has sustained horrendous attacks that have destroyed UNESCO World Heritage sites.

It is the ancestral home city of my ancestors, and at one point, I thought of traveling to Odesa with my older son to trace our roots, but of course, that is no longer conceivable!

Odesa has been compared to New York City in its Jewish population totals in its past before World War II, and it has warm weather similar to Miami, Florida in the summer months, making it a tourist mecca in the past.

The news of the tragedy of Odesa, along with the continuing attack and forced migration of millions of Ukranians to other nations in Eastern Europe, is heartbreaking in a very personal manner!

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the courageous Ukranian President, who has been compared to Winston Churchill and Great Britain in World War II, has proved to be a world statesman, and appreciates what the United States and the NATO alliance is providing to his nation to resist the Russian aggression.

The Biden Administration and principled Republicans in both houses of Congress have backed sustained aid to Ukraine, seeing it as a test to stop Russian aggression against its former neighbors which used to be part of the forced Soviet Union from 1945-1989.

But at the same time, Donald Trump and his minions have no concern about Ukraine’s fate, and wouuld have no issue over Russia seizing that nation, a shocking situation of support of Vladimir Putin and his murderous regime.

The future of Ukraine is a warning sign of Putin’s intentions to retake military control of former forced allies, including Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland and other nations in eastern Europe.

The fear is that World War III is in the offing, but this author and blogger is strong in his conviction that the Western world cannot abandon Ukraine, so even more aid and support is needed!

Centennial Of Warren G. Harding’s Death, And Accession Of Calvin Coolidge Coming Up On August 2-3!

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The centennial of the death of President Warren G. Harding is arriving on Wednesday, August 2, with Harding passing away of natural causes in San Francisco, shocking the nation, as Harding was on the way to finishing a Western tour, which had included visiting the territory of Alaska.

The swearing in of President Calvin Coolidge took place in the early morning hours on August 3, with Coolidge being sworn in at his father’s homestead in Vermont, where Coolidge was visiting, and with his father, a local justice of the peace, swearing in his son, before he returned to Washington DC, and was again sworn in later in the day.

This was the sixth time a President had died in office, and was the second time that the Vice President who succeeded to the Presidency went on to win a full term of office in 1924, following Theodore Roosevelt, who succeeded the assasinated William McKinley in 1901, and went on to win a full term in 1904.

Harding is regarded by scholars as a failed President, with massive scandals occurring, similar to those of a half century earlier under President Ulysses S. Grant in the 1870s. While he had some successes, he is ranked in the bottom five of all Presidents, in the same category as Andrew Johnson, James Buchanan, Donald Trump, and Franklin Pierce.

Calvin Coolidge is perceived as higher in ranking, generally at the top of the bottom third of Presidents, but shortly after he left office, the Great Depression occurred, and his administration is perceived as having had major negative impact on the economy which led to the Crash on Wall Street seven months after his retirement.

Certainly, the Presidency is seen as having declined in the 1920s, after the Progressive Era of Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson, and seeing rising fortunes after Herbert Hoover, with the coming to the Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1932 Presidential election.

Majority Of Republican Loyalists Are A Cult, Out Of Touch With Reality!

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It is now clear that the majority of Republican Party loyalists are a cult, out of touch with reality!

They are willing, even at this point, to continue to support Donald Trump, despite two impeachments, two indictments, and more indictments and law suits to come!

They are willing to abandon traditional conservatism, and instead promote authoritarian Fascism.

Those among them who profess to be “religious” are willing to back a man who is totally against everything Jesus Christ preached!

They are willing to continue to back a person who promoted a violent Insurrection on the US Capitol!

They are willing to back a person who embraces Communist and Fascist Governments, and particularly Vladimir Putin and Russia, which used to be regarded as the “enemy” by Republicans of past times!

They are willing to undermine our national security, our intelligence agencies, and our law enforcement agencies which are designed to keep America safe!

They have no reverence for democracy or the rule of law, and have abandoned what the party was originally founded for, to oppose expansion of slavery and slavery itself, and promote human rights for all who lived in America!

Earlier generations with principled leaders, including Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush have now been pushed aside, for a corrupt, immoral man, who has no ethics or scruples!

75th Anniversary Of Truman’s Executive Orders 9980 And 9981, Desegregating The Federal Work Force And The US Military!

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One of the most courageous and principled actions of any President occurred 75 years ago today, when President Harry Truman issued Executive Orders 9980 and 9981, ordering desegregation of all US government employment and the US Military Forces.

Harry Truman came from a Confederate heritage background, and had a record of using nasty terms about African Americans in his earlier years, but as President, he took the courageous action to move forward on the important issue of human rights.

It alienated many Southerners, and the Dixiecrats (States Rights) Party challenged Truman in the Presidential Election Of 1948, with South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond as their Presidential candidate, winning four states and 39 electoral votes.

This was the second best third party total up to that point in American history, behind Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive (Bull Moose) party of 1912, which won six states and 88 electoral votes.

Later, George Wallace won five states and 46 electoral votes as the American Independent party nominee in 1968.

Truman’s decision to take action promoted the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement, aided within six years by the Warren Court decision in Brown V Board of Education (1954), and then by courageous actions by Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson over the next 15 years!

Impeachment Power Being Abused, When It Should Be Rarely Utilized!

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The reckless move toward impeachment of President Joe Biden, and or Attorney General Merrick Garland or Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas by the small margin Republican majority in the House of Representatives, is an issue that brings to attention that the impeachment power has been horribly abused, when it should be rarely utilized!

To impeach a cabinet officer is extremely rare, and basically is a no brainer, as it would not lead to conviction in the US Senate.

To impeach a President was always rare, with the only exceptions being Andrew Johnson and later Richard Nixon, although Nixon resigned the Presidency before the whole House of Representatives could vote to impeach him on the charges brought by the majority of the House Judiciary Committee.

The Bill Clinton impeachment was purely political, while the two impeachment cases against Donald Trump were totally justifiable, and the proposal to “expunge” the impeachments is preposterous, and will not take away the stain and the history of the reality of Trump’s abuses in office!

Attempts to impeach the following Presidents went nowhere:

John Tyler
James Buchanan
Ulysses S. Grant
Grover Cleveland
Herbert Hoover
Harry Truman
Lyndon B. Johnson
Ronald Reagan
George H W Bush
George W. Bush
Barack Obama

Unless a case is clear, as with Nixon and Trump, there is NO justification for abusing the impeachment power!

Kamala Harris Starting To Demonstrate Her Strengths As Vice President, And Potential Future President!

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Kamala Harris has been Vice President for two and a half years now, and she has had a poor public image, being often portrayed as weak and ineffective, in public opinion polls.

A lot of this is pure right wing propaganda, with heavy elements of misogyny and racism.

If one examines earlier Vice Presidents of the Republican variety, one realizes how horrendous they were:

Mike Pence, unwilling even now to stand up to Donald Trump for his transgressions, including the threat to the lives of Pence and his family on January 6, 2021.

Dick Cheney, technically qualified, but a miserable wretch of a human being.

Dan Quayle, a total disaster and embarrassment as Vice President.

Spiro Agnew, a crooked felon, forced out of office.

And then the Republican Vice Presidential nominees who, thankfully, never were in that role:

Sarah Palin 2008

Paul Ryan 2012

Jack Kemp 1996

William E Miller 1964

And then, the potential Vice Presidential list for Donald Trump, if he became the Presidential nominee again, a total nightmare of lunacy and insanity!

Meanwhile, Democratic Vice Presidents and nominees were superior by far:

Hubert Humphrey 1964
Edmund Muskie 1968
Sargent Shriver 1972
Walter Mondale 1976, 1980
Lloyd Bentsen 1988
Al Gore 1992, 1996
Joe Lieberman 2000
Joe Biden 2008, 2012
Tim Kaine 2016

The only terrible choices were Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 and John Edwards in 2004.

Harris has had an impressive career in California Government, and has been, by necessity, the most active Vice President, due to the narrow division of the Senate, necessitating that she break more tie votes in the Senate than any Vice President, surpassing John C. Calhoun under President Andrew Jackson from 1829-1832, recently!

Harris is now becoming significant, as she makes the issues of women’s rights and civil rights the center of attention, including attacking the end of abortion rights, and the promotion of outrageous interference with the teaching of American history and slavery, as advocated by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and spreading nationwide in Republican states!

This is raising her profile, as she would certainly be the frontrunner to be President after Joe Biden, either when he leaves office, or if he was unable to finish his time in office!

The Field Of American History Under Vast Attack By Politicians With Evil Motives!

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This author and blogger has been a scholar of American history for the past half century, since 1972.

My life has been one of research, writing, publishing, giving interviews, and teaching college and university students the facts, the reality, the truth of American history, in all of its glory but also of its travails and shortcomings.

As any scholar in any field, the essential point is to expand the truth, the knowledge, and the reality of the American past, with no allowance for censorship or interference with what books are promoted in the quest for the truth of the American past.

Sadly, American history was badly distorted until the 1960s, with the “Lost Cause” of the Confederate South being permitted to dominate curriculums at all levels of American education, from elementary level through middle school, high school, and even at universities.

The distortion of the truth about the American past was a crime, finally overcome, and transforming the understanding of America’s past for the generations since the rise of the civil rights movement.

The liberation of knowledge meant not only the reality of the African American past, but also that of Hispanic-Latino history, women’s history, labor history, environmental history, and the role of gender and sexuality, have all become part of the total story of America.

The goal has been to liberate America from a white Christian domination of knowledge, which even left people of other religious faiths, as ignored, until recent decades.

We as a society cannot permit the myths of the past to become predominant again, and to disease the minds of the young, so as to promote prejudice, discrimination, and narrowmindedness!

That would be the prescription for the return of the criminal lies and deceit that affected understanding of American History from the era of the Civil War in the 1860s through the next century!

We are faced with the evil motives of politicians in the Republican Party to revive the past mythology!

I, for one, will NOT allow myself to promote and promulgate anything other than the truth, the facts, the reality of the American past, as I move forward into the future, still dedicated to inspiring students about the total, valid story of the American past!

No Labels Movement Demonstrating There Are No Republicans Worth Trusting To Recognize Danger Of Donald Trump In 2024!

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The “No Labels” Movement is demonstrating that there are NO Republicans worth trusting to recognize the danger of Donald Trump in 2024!

Most of those who are publicly backing “No Labels’ are Republicans, who had been perceived as being mainstream and reasonable, but no longer have that image with recent revelations.

How could Jon Huntsman, Jr, former Utah Governor and Ambassador to China and Russia, be willing to attack Joe Biden, when Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis are such threats to civil order in the future?

How could Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, who this author and blogger had always respected as “decent” and “balanced”, now assert that if the choice is between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, she is for West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, who has done more to undermine his party and Joe Biden than anyone imaginable other than Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema?

And former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan is another Republican who one now feels disillusionment toward, since he so admires former President Ronald Reagan, not seeing the major shortcomings of the 40th President, and not willing to support Joe Biden over Trump or DeSantis.

And New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu seems to be another possible supporter of “No Labels”, but who also does not understand that a third party contender could only help Trump, not Biden, in November 2024!

Party Loyalty over principles and the nation’s welfare is an indication of how dangerous the present situation is, and makes one also furious at former Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman, who has lost all sense of reality in his opposition to Joe Biden!

To think that the former Vice Presidential running mate for Al Gore in the Presidential Election of 2000 would abandon Biden in a difficult time like now, is mind boggling!

The threat of “No Labels” is real, and concerning, for the future of the nation!