Author: Ronald

Corporations And The Republican Party: Double Standard On Freedom Of Speech

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and the Republican Party in Congress and the states loves getting financial support from corporations, and loves that the Supreme Court in 2013 said corporations are people in Shelby County V Holder, which did great harm to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

But now, when corporations, including Major League Baseball and Delta Airlines and Coca Cola take a stand against Georgia putting barriers in the way of the right to vote, because the Republicans lost Georgia in the Presidential Election of 2020 and both Georgia Senate Seats, Republicans no longer believe in freedom of speech for corporations, and want to punish corporations that support voting rights.

So the Republican Party has a double standard on freedom of speech, and exude hypocrisy, so what else is new in Republican Party politics?

Social Justice 53 Years After Martin Luther King Jr’s Assassination

On this 53rd anniversary of the Martin Luther King Jr. Assassination in Memphis, Tennessee, it is sad that we see systemic racism still alive and popular among too many Americans.

The George Floyd murder trial; the Georgia legislation that puts voting rights under attack; the anti Asian attacks that have become so prevalent in the past year; the increased threat of domestic terrorism; and the continued attack on immigrants of all backgrounds are signs of the failure of social justice to make progress after King gave up his life in the quest for equity and fairness in society.

The Presidency of Donald Trump allowed people who promote racism, nativism, white supremacy, misogyny, antisemitism, Islamophobia to flourish, as Trump was George Wallace on steroids.

When Wallace ran for President in 1968 and won five states, 46 electoral votes, and 13 percent of the popular vote, it was shocking, but at least there was no way that Wallace could win the Presidency.

But a half century later, Donald Trump was able to gather the forces of hatred and win the Presidency, despite losing the popular vote by 2.85 million votes, and would go on to marshal his forces to promote undermining of American democracy, and continues to do so by promoting the lie that he won the Presidential Election of 2020, and inciting the US Capitol Insurrection of January 6, 2021!

So the commitment of Martin Luther King Jr. to human rights and social justice must continue with a new generation of committed leaders!

America Became Part Of The World This Week In 1917!

America became part of the world this week in 1917, when President Woodrow Wilson went to Congress on April 2, 1917, and asked for a Congressional Declaration of War against Imperial Germany, the Austro Hungarian Empire, and the Turkish Empire, putting us into “the Great War”, later called the World War, and after entrance into World War II, termed World War I.

Although America went back into isolationism in the 1920s and 1930s, the nation learned that it was a false decision, and since World War II, we have recognized that we are part of the world, and cannot ignore what is going on outside America, as it can and has threatened American national security.

President Joe Biden faces many foreign policy challenges, most significantly with China, Russia, North Korea and Iran, but with many other authoritarian nations that also undermine America’s basic values.

While Biden wishes to deal with the many domestic challenges, he will not be able to ignore the many problems other nations pose for the United States!

Republicans In Congress Defying Their Own Voters In Refusal To Work With President Joe Biden!

The Republicans in Congress are committing political suicide by refusing en masse to support President Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill, as well as the earlier COVID 19 legislation, and apparently, every other initiative, just as they did with Barack Obama during his Presidency.

The difference is that polls show a vast majority of Americans, including many Republican voters, actually like what Joe Biden is doing, and that they understand the need for bipartisanship in a time of the worst health crisis in a century, and the worst economic crisis in 90 years.

The rate of vaccinations is being accomplished much faster than Joe Biden had projected, nearing 200 million shots, twice what he forecast for the first 100 days of his Presidency.

And the economy is reviving, with nearly one million new jobs in March.

All this and more insures Joe Biden and the Democrats will have public backing for gun regulations, rise in the minimum wage, and so much more, and the Republicans will be left in the dust of history, due to their intransigence!

Joe Biden’s Infrastructure Proposal In Line With Eisenhower, Lincoln, Kennedy, And Lyndon Johnson!

President Joe Biden is making clear in his $2 trillion infrastructure legislation proposal that it is long past the time when the nation needs a repairing and expansion of our roads, bridges, railways, airports, ports, and waterways, including the promotion of electric vehicles, and insuring infrastructure resiliency to withstand climate related disasters. There is also a need for modernizing public transit, and to double federal funding.

Biden also wants to expand high speed broadband; upgrade and build public schools and community colleges; as well as water infrastructure projects, public housing projects, VA Hospitals and Clinics; retrofit more than two million homes and commercial properties; improve the Electric Grid; expand high speed Broadband; provide caregivers for the elderly and disabled; promote clean energy and technology to deal with the climate crisis; and promote workforce protection.

This proposal is forward looking, and would match the significance of the Interstate Highway system promoted by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1950s, and the significance of the Transcontinental Railroad system promoted by President Abraham Lincoln in the 1860s, as well as the promotion of the Space Programs under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960s!

Presidential Nomination Contest Should Have Representative States In Each Section In First Month Of Primaries

It seems likely that the whole process of nomination of Presidential candidates based on primaries will undergo dramatic change in 2024 and after.

It is time to stop Iowa and New Hampshire from having the first contests, as neither state is at all representative of the nation, as both are primarily white, rural, and small in population.

Diversity is needed, and the larger states in population should have a greater impact than smaller states in timing of primaries.

And caucuses, now in very few states, need to be abandoned completely.

Regional primaries makes the most sense, with the five major regions rotating in order of timing, but other states in each region given the opportunity to join the representative states if they choose, or else have their later primaries after the first five weeks of the primary season.

So we would have the Atlantic Coast be represented by Pennsylvania; the South represented by Florida; the Midwest represented by Wisconsin; the Mountain and Plains area represented by Colorado; and the Pacific Coast represented by Washington State in the first five weeks, with other states in each region able to add on if they wish, or else come after the first five weeks of primaries, starting in Mid March of the Presidential election year.

Florida Has Three Potential Competitors For The Republican Presidential Nomination In 2024!

The “Sunshine” state, Florida, the third largest state in population, has become a notoriously corrupt and incompetent state under Republican leadership when it comes to dealing with the issues that face 22.2 million people, 19 percent of whom are senior citizens.

The Governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, has handled the COVID 19 Pandemic in a terrible fashion, and follows Donald Trump as if he is his son, and some polls show him as the front runner for the Republican Presidential nomination in 2024, if Donald Trump does not run. The thought of DeSantis running for President is a literal nightmare, and it is hoped that either Congressman and former Florida Governor Charlie Crist or State Agricultural Commissioner Nikki Fried could give him a good run for Governor in 2022, and knock him out of office, and end his dreams of the Presidency!

Meanwhile, Florida’s two US Senators—former Governor Rick Scott, and Marco Rubio—both have their eye on the White House as well as DeSantis, so we could see all three state wide Floridians competing against each other for President in 2024!

Trying to assess which of these three contenders is the least horrible is tough, but probably Rubio is the least damaging, as he has not been Governor of the state, as DeSantis and Scott has been, and both have been horrendous in that office!

Time For Washington DC To Become 51st State!

It is long overdue for Washington, DC to become the 51st state, as was attempted by amendment from 1978 to 1985, but falling short by only having 16 states, 22 short of the number needed for ratification.

Now it can be done by vote of Congress, as has happened for every other state, and the only reason it did not occur in the 1978-1985 period was pure racism, because a majority of the federal district are African American citizens, which is a disgraceful excuse, and time to overcome!

If Washington, DC were to become the 51st state, it would likely have two Democratic Senators and one Democratic Congressman, which is why the Republican Party, which was founded on opposition to slavery, but has now become a racist, white supremacist party, opposes it, but also did decades ago for the same reason!

The District of Columbia would be 49th in population; First by Gross Domestic Product per Capita; First by Median Household Income; 34th by Total Domestic Product, and the first new state since Alaska and Hawaii were added to the Union as the 49th and 50th states in January and August 1959.

Both Alaska and Hawaii had much of their population being “minorities”, and it is time to overcome racial issues, and accept that residents in Washington, DC deserve statehood.

The residents are first in educational attainment with nearly 60 percent having a bachelor’s degree; and 34 percent having an advanced degree.

It has the greatest population density, nine times more than New Jersey, which is second, and 11,000 times more dense than Alaska, which has a density of one person per square mile!

And 46 percent of DC residents are white, and more whites have moved into DC in recent decades. And finally, DC residents pay more taxes than 19 states, so they deserve representation!

Biden First Press Conference A Complete Contrast To Donald Trump Attacks And Rants!

President Joe Biden held his first formal Press Conference on Thursday, and it was a home run.

The President showed knowledge, expertise, empathy, confidence, and respect for the news media, totally opposite of Donald Trump who held no press conferences most of the time, and when he did, he showed his authoritarian, Fascist leanings by dividing the nation and attacking the news media as the enemy.

Biden had an air of optimism about the future, and his public opinion ratings are in the low 60s to high 50s, a range of support NEVER reached by Donald Trump!

Biden is ambitious, and hoping to accomplish change on the level of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society, and this will require a modification of the present Senate rules, that allow a filibuster without any speaking commitment by those who wish to wage one.

There is a need for direct action on the Southern Border migration, climate change, infrastructure, gun regulation, minimum wage, and voting rights, and Biden is moving toward bold action on these issues, at a time when we have a nearly equally divided House of Representatives, and an evenly divided US Senate, and the future of this nation is at stake.

But the first Biden Press Conference demonstrated that Joe Biden is up to the task, that he has mental agility as compared to the irrational lunacy much of the time during the Trump Presidency!

Donald Trump (Alternative Reality) Defends Rioters in January 6 Capitol Insurrection As No Threat, And “Hugging And Kissing”!

Donald Trump, the former “Insurrectionist in Chief” and would be “Dictator in Chief” is trying to change history, when he said this week that the rioters in the January 6 Capitol Insurrection, which caused the death of Brian Sicknick, two other Capitol officers committing suicide, and more than one hundred injuries to other Capitol Officers, was a “zero threat”, and that his supporters were “hugging and kissing”!

The desecration at the US Capitol is also overlooked by a man who clearly is the most dangerous person to American democracy, and now faces legal actions on many fronts. Trump also had nothing to say about the threat to former Vice President Mike Pence, who the rioters were chanting that he should be hanged, and a noose was present outside the US Capitol!

Trump is poisoning the Republican Party, and his loyal followers still represent a threat in the coming years, and one can sadly expect other violence and destruction being perpetrated by his Fascist supporters, who are white supremacists, racists, nativists, antisemites, and a threat to civil order as domestic terrorists!

Donald Trump needs to be held accountable in a court of law for his massive crimes against women; his promotion of violence and bloodshed among his crazy followers; and his economic crimes!