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Being Black, Latino, Muslim, Jewish, Gay, Or Female In Trump America

Ronald 3 Comments

Since the election, there has been many reports of attacks and hate inspired reactions against African Americans, Latinos, Muslims, Jews, Gays and Lesbians, and women, all in the name of representing Donald Trump’s America.

All of these groups of Americans are now living in a state of fear, a situation which is tragic and should not exist.

White Supremacists and Misogynists are encouraged by the appointment of Stephen Bannon as a key adviser to President Elect Trump, despite his past statements and actions, and his connection to the extreme Right wing Breitbart Network, and the Alt Right, which promotes antisemism, white supremacy, racism. nativism, Islamophobia, homophobia, and conspiracy theories.

Imagine the harassment and bullying going on in schools and colleges.

Imagine the danger of people of these groups being approached on public streets in an intimidating way.

Imagine the sense of insecurity for Latinos, particularly those who are undocumented, that they could be arrested and deported without any recourse, disrupting lives of people who just want to have a chance to improve their lives.

Donald Trump has made one statement on the reaction against these groups going on in America, a statement on Sixty Minutes on CBS, but it is not enough to make such a statement, and then pick a hateful extremist such as Bannon, and to be considering other hate mongers and nasty, mean spirited people, who are bullies much like Trump.

The Desperate Need For Infrastructure Spending: The Collapse Of America’s Public Works

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SIXTY MINUTES on CBS last night drew attention to the desperate need for infrastructure spending, as we are on the brink of the collapse of America’s public works, most of it done in the 1930s to 1960s, but horribly ignored for the past 20 years in particular.

Bridges, tunnels, highways, seaports, airports are in such disrepair that we cannot compete economically with much of the Western world.

We seem unable to realize that not only are lives at danger, but the whole economic system is at risk if a major highway or bridge collapses, making it impossible for millions of people to reach work by automobile, and to have the ability to do the normal every day activities that fuel our economic growth.

We committed to public works projects in the time of the New Deal and Franklin D. Roosevelt; to interstate highway development under Dwight D. Eisenhower; and to all kinds of other projects during the booming economy of the 1960s under John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.

But in the past 20 years, mostly under GOP Congressional control, we have lost the vision and the recognition of the dire need for investment, and for commitment to rebuilt our infrastructure.

This is ironic, since the two single greatest public works projects in American history were the Transcontinental Railroad under Republican Abraham Lincoln; and the interstate highway system’s inception under Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower.

But then, the Republican Party of the last two decades, and even more right now, is a skeleton of its old self, and the nation is the ultimate loser!

Stephen Colbert Great Addition To Late Night Television!

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Comedy Channel’s Stephen Colbert has been chosen to replace David Letterman, when he leaves CBS sometime in 2015.

This is a great selection to replace Letterman, as Colbert is a comedic genius, although he will drop his persona as a conservative Republican, when he takes over the late night show from Letterman.

Predictably, the right wing conservatives and Republicans are condemning the selection of Colbert, as Rush Limbaugh stated that the nation beyond the coastlines, what Limbaugh calls the “heartland”, is being ignored, and that CBS has declared war on this vast part of the nation, and that Colbert is overly “partisan.”

This is such a laughable idea, as what exactly is Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, Mark Levin, and all of the rest of the large crowd of right wing talk show hosts on radio and television (Fox News Channel), except totally “partisan”, and also, mostly laughable in their hypocrisy?

Kudos to CBS for defying the right wing, and giving us one of the two most entertaining and creative comedians in cable, with the other being Jon Stewart!

Both know how to “sock it to them” to the right wing, which already has far too much control over media as it is!

Fox News Channel: A Political Machine That Employs Journalists!

Ronald 6 Comments

Fox News Channel and its chief executive, Roger Ailes, are a political machine for the conservative movement and the Republican Party which employs journalists who give up their principles for a big financial reward. It also employs former politicians who are in the make, to earn as much money as they can, and to hell with convictions or beliefs they had once held!

Ailes began his career in advocacy journalism under Richard Nixon, helped promote Ronald Reagan, and learned the power of advocacy journalism to promote one’s ideological agenda. And journalists and politicians have seen the money involved!

So we have such examples as:

Bill Hemmer, John Roberts, Ed Henry, Greta Van Susteren, Howard Kurtz–all formerly at CNN

Juan Williams, formerly of NPR

Former Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana; former Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich

And this is just the “tip of the iceberg”, as many former journalists for NBC, ABC, and CBS have also moved to Fox, and tried to make its distorted view of the news and of the world become standard and believed!

A new book by Gabriel Sherman is making the case that Roger Ailes is the most important journalistic giant of the past half century, a figure on the scale of William Randolph Hearst.

So Fox News Channel is a massive challenge to its cable competitors, CNN and MSNBC, and already attracts more viewers than both of them combined.

So an important thing to remember is that when one is out to promote the truth about America and the world, being ignorant or unaware of Roger Ailes and Fox News Channel’s impact is to the detriment of their rivals!

The Los Angeles Times And Climate Change Deniers: Kudos To That Newspaper!

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The Los Angeles Times has decided to go on the offensive in a way that is very admirable!

It has decided it will NOT allow climate change deniers to use its website to continue to promote something that is well understood by scientists, and intelligent people in general, to be totally false, and destructive of dealing with the future of our planet.

Instead of stating that all viewpoints are equal, facts are being used, and ridiculous opinions will not see the light of day in that newspaper.

It is time for mainstream media to stop allowing extremist propaganda on science to be treated as a respectable viewpoint, and for religion to be restricted to the faiths involved, not to totally outrageous and false ideas as being fact, when they are not.

And the same applies to those who deny evolution. Let right wing media distort reality, but respectable media should NOT give any support to such viewpoints that have no basis for being considered valid.

We are in a struggle in which mainstream media has allowed the right wing to take over and poison not only science, but also history, economics, and innumerable other areas of human knowledge with their extremist propaganda. This must stop, and no attention paid to protests, as the answer is go to to other media, which have no respectability in the sensible, intelligent community, if they wish to learn falsehoods and lies!

So it is time for the New York Times, Washington Post, other prestigious newspapers, CNN, and the major television networks (ABC, NBC, CBS), and other respectable media to join together and preserve truth over lies and falsehoods!

And threats to boycott these media and threaten them economically should be defied by them as the only way to keep their legitimacy as a news source. This is a battle for the minds and hearts of future generations, and concessions to the right wing cannot be made in this eternal struggle for the truth!

The Coming Right Wing Takeover Of Most News Media: A Threat To America’s Future!

Ronald 6 Comments

The right wing LOVES to claim that the news media are overly liberal, when that is a massive falsehood, and has been so for many years.

YES, the New York Times and Washington Post, and CBS, NBC, ABC and MSNBC are liberal, and there are others.

But talk radio has been dominated by the right wing for twenty years; Fox News Channel, owned by Rupert Murdoch and operated by Roger Ailes, has been spewing right wing propaganda for 17 years; the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post are also owned by Murdoch, and now the greatest threat to the promotion of truth over propaganda is emerging with the report that David and Charles Koch, the infamous Koch Brothers, who tried to fix the Presidential Election of 2012 with their engagement in spending hundreds of millions of their assets on Congressional races and the Presidency, allowable under the disgraceful Citizens United case of the Supreme Court, are now attempting to buy the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, and the South Florida Sun Sentinel, along with other smaller papers owned by the bankrupt Tribune Corporation!

This will mean that the Koch Brothers will be able to extend their evil influence, already affecting our political and legal system,. our educational system, and having worked against health care and labor as part of their goal to control the American future in a deleterious way!

Of course, our system allows anyone to use their wealth to purchase and use their influence in any way they wish, but it is a sad day for American journalism, nevertheless!

Greatest Line Of Debate–Romney Policies Representing The Past On Foreign, Social And Economic Policies!

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Barack Obama scored a home run in tonight’s debate when he said that the Romney policy ideas represented :

The Foreign Policy of the 1980s

The Social Policies of the 1950s

The Economic Policies of the 1920s

The author had a hearty laugh hearing this, as that is exactly his sentiments, and to hear our President enunciate what I have thought and said was absolutely the high moment of this debate, which already, in a CBS poll of undecided voters, showed 53 percent saying Obama won, to 23 percent for Romney, and 24 percent undecided.

Imagine–a THIRTY point victory! WOW!

Bob Schieffer Of CBS: An Excellent Choice For Presidential Debate Moderator

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Tonight’s last Presidential Debate moderator will be Bob Schieffer of CBS, and there could not be a better choice.

Schieffer is a veteran of five decades of journalism, and hosts Face The Nation on Sunday mornings.

He has always been seen as even handed and tough in questioning, and one should feel confident that he will suffer no fools in tonight’s debate, being equally tough on both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.

This will be a memorable event, and hopefully, the television audience will be larger than for past debates, as this is the last opportunity to see the two Presidential candidates together on the same stage.

Rush Limbaugh: Attempting To Bully Moderators Of The Presidential And Vice Presidential Debates!

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Liar and bully Rush Limbaugh has declared rhetorical war on the moderators of the three Presidential debates and one Vice Presidential debate scheduled for the month of October.

Limbaugh is accusing all four moderators of being extreme left wing Democrats, and while saying that about all four–including Jim Lehrer of PBS, Candy Crowley of CNN, Bob Schieffer of CBS, and Martha Radditz of ABC–he adds the insult of calling Candy Crowley “Mama”, and Bob Schieffer “Dinosaur”!

Limbaugh is trying to use psychological warfare on the four moderators, trying to intimidate them, but they are all professionals with good reputations, and will not be bullied by a person who has as much a weight problem as Candy Crowley, but does not have the decency to avoid using names, and showing respect toward a woman moderator!

The best part of these upcoming debates is the fact that two women and two men will be moderators, rather than four men!

We should never again deny women equal opportunity to moderate Presidential or Vice Presidential debates, and we should continue to let Rush Limbaugh blow “hot air”, and ignore him as a person not worthy of our time or respect!

Barack Obama Scores A Coup On Illegal Immigration, Leaves Mitt Romney Befuddled!

Ronald 3 Comments

President Barack Obama has really scored a coup with his announcement of giving young undocumented youths a reprieve, allowing them the ability to plan their futures in America for at least two years, while hopefully there will be resolution of the issue of illegal immigration in Congress by 2014.

Obama took the country by surprise, and has totally befuddled Mitt Romney and the Republican Party.

A Bloomberg poll shows 64 percent of those polled support what Obama is doing, and 65 percent of Independents!

And conservatives Bill O’Reilly, George Will, and Bill Kristol came out in support as well, imagine that!

Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said he would leave it to Romney, as the titular leader of the party until November, to take a firm stand on what his view on the issue is, but here it is four days and Romney has been floundering on the issue, being his usual vague self, as he was with Bob Schieffer on Face The Nation on CBS on Sunday!

What Obama has done is the right thing to do, and strengthens him with the Hispanic and Latino vote in many states, making his chances of re-election much more likely!

It is still a reality, that the Republican Party will never win national power long term if they refuse to accept Hispanics and Latinos as a major player in future American poltiics!