Franklin D. Roosevelt

For 15 Years, No Republican Plan For Health Insurance, And Still None!

Ronald 3 Comments

With five weeks to go until 2026 arrives, the Republican Party, once again, has no plan or ideas about health insurance for millions of Americans, who have relied on the Affordable Care Act (Obama Care) since its passage in 2010, to provide health care coverage.

The truth is that Republicans have been, as a party, vehemently opposed to Obama Care, to a great extent, because it is the accomplishment of former President Barack Obama, so the reality is that Racism is a major factor in their rejection.

For 15 years, Republicans have shown a lack of concern about this premier issue, and if it was not for Chief Justice John Roberts in 2013, and Arizona Senator John McCain in 2017, the Affordable Care Act would have been obliterated years ago.

This is nothing new for the Republican Party, which has been opposed to Medicare and Medicaid, enacted into law under President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965 and 1966 respectively.

It is also the reality that the Republican Party has been opposed to Social Security since it became law under President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935.

Had the Democratic Party not controlled the House of Representatives for 58 of 62 years from 1932-1994, and controlled the US Senate for 52 of 62 years from 1932-1994, America would not have had these premier examples of social justice.

The fact that Congress has been so evenly divided since 1994 has complicated the ability of the federal government to deal with health care and so much else in a statesmanlike manner, and endangers the lives and health of millions of Americans, moving forward!

Steve Bannon Says Trump Can Have Third Term, Totally Unconstitutional!

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In the midst of all the chaos and lunacy going on, including the destruction of the East Wing of the White House without any consulation or outside approval, now criminal adviser Steve Bannon suggests that Donald Trump can have a third term in the Presidency!

This is NOT possible under the 22nd Amendment, added to the Constitution in 1951, after Republicans promoted it as a reaction to the reality that Franklin D. Roosevelt had been elected four times to the Presidency.

There is no legal way for Trump to be in office beyond January 20, 2029, and to suggest otherwise, is terrifying and horrifying, as it implies a suspension of the Constitution!

Trump, also, is already showing signs of dementia, and is regularly temperamental and irrational, and would be between ages 82 and 86 in another term.

The only leaders who have ever served at such an advanced age as a leader of a major nation has been monarchs, which Trump considers himself to be in his mind.

But there is NO legal or constitutional way for what Steve Bannon suggests to occur!

In The Midst Of Massive Injustice, A Moment To Salute Jimmy Carter, On What Would Have Been His 101st Birthday!

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In the midst of massive injustice, and living through the worst Presidency in American history, far worse than the first term of Donald Trump, we should all pause and reflect on something that can make us smile!

Today, October 1, would have been the 101st Birthday of President Jimmy Carter, who passed away at the age of 100 on December 29, 2024, almost three months past his birthday, and the longest lived President in American history.

Jimmy Carter is diametrically opposite of Donald Trump, as Carter can be regarded as likely the most decent, humane, truly religious, sincere, compassionate, empathetic, intelligent person ever to occupy the White House, bar none!

Carter may not have accomplished the greatness of Presidents such as Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt, and his time in office was tough, but he gave his “All”, as the hardest working President of modern times!

Carter will be remembered for the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel, the most important development in modern Middle East history.

He will be remembered for his great environmental advocacy (the greatest of any one term President), and for the justice of arranging for the Panama Canal, forced on Panama by Theodore Roosevelt, to be returned to their sovereignty under international law.

He also established the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA); recognized Mainland China; and presided over the creation of the Department of Energy, the Department of Education, and the Department of Health and Human Services, among other accomplishments.

Carter also promoted human rights as a foreign policy goal, and created the Carter Center, post Presidency, to deal with tropical diseases and promote free and fair elections, and won the Nobel Peace Prize a generation after his Presidency, along with building housing for the poor with his own hands for Habitat For Humanity.

And he also gave America the man regarded by many experts as the best, most effective, most engaged Vice President in American history, Walter Mondale. Additionally, he struck up a close friendship with his one time rival, Gerald Ford, the closest Presidential relationship of two rivals for the Presidency since John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

Carter’s reputation will continue to rise, and the contrast with Donald Trump is stark and shocking.

God bless the soul of the 39th President, Jimmy Carter!

Preposterous Idea: Nobel Peace Prize For Trump, Or Addition To Mount Rushmore!

Ronald 51 Comments

Donald Trump, and those who support him without any qualms, are promoting preposterous ideas, that indicate total delusion.

The idea of a Nobel Peace Prize for Trump is hilarious, as he has no credentials to win such an award, and it seems clear that the Nobel Committee will not consider giving an authoritarian who is Fascist and mentally deranged, such an award.

The fact that Trump is also a convicted felon, and was impeached twice, and has had multiple bankruptcies, and have lied so often that he has no idea of truth, only adds to the craziness of the concept of a Nobel Peace Prize.

Also, the idea of Trump being added to Mount Rushmore National Monument in South Dakota, is immediately a joke.

Of course, then South Dakota Governor, and current Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, was the loon who came up with that idea, which led to her gaining a position in the Trump Administration as close to the worst single appointment of a long list of many. Noem is a danger in her position, and an embarrassment to the idea of women in government!

For one thing, no one can be added to that monument, without creating damage to the tenuous condition of that site.

But also, if there were to be the equivalent of a second Mount Rushmore being created somewhere else on American soil, Trump would not be on the list to be considered.

Instead, the likelihood would be a combination of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman or Lyndon B. Johnson, Ronald Reagan, and Barack Obama!

Reagan would be the Republican to add, not Trump!

This is silly season, overall, with the craziness of the Nobel Peace Prize and Mount Rushmore being bandied about as proper awards for Trump, and it will never happen!

Past Presidential Disputes Never Anything Like Trump With His Predecessors!

Ronald 5 Comments

Donald Trump’s incessant attacks on many of his predecessors in the White House is unparalleled in American history!

Trump has attacked over the years not only Barack Obama, but also Joe Biden, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, and both Presidents Bush in vehement and outrageous ways.

In the past, there were cases of “bad blood” between Presidents, but nothing on the scale of what Trump has done.

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson had strong criticism of each other, as well as Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams, and neither Adams attended the inauguration of his successor. But later, Adams and Jefferson revived their former friendship, with extensive letter correspondence over the last 14 years of their lives.

John Tyler, Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan were unhappy with Abraham Lincoln’s policies during the Civil War.

Andrew Johnson had issues with his successor, Ulysses S. Grant, and refused to attend Grant’s inauguration.

Theodore Roosevelt fought bitterly against his own annointed successor, William Howard Taft, and challenged him in 1912, and both TR and Wilson were at odds very often with Woodrow Wilson.

Herbert Hoover was very bitter in his loss to Franklin D. Rooosevelt, and during the terms that FDR was in office, probably more vehement than any other situation other than Trump, and FDR never invited Hoover to visit the White House.

Harry Truman was critical of Dwight D. Eisenhower to some extent, and he and Richard Nixon were dire enemies, until Nixon brought the Truman piano in the White House to the Truman Library in 1969.

Jimmy Carter tended to be critical of other Presidents, but in the case of Gerald Ford, they became the best of friends after both had left office. Carter remained a strong critic, but in a dignified manner, of George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump.

Despite past rivalries, both Bush Presidents and Bill Clinton became good friends in later years, and the same for Barack Obama and the two Bushes.

It is extremely inappropriate for the members of the “Presidents Club” to be lambasting others in that group, and it was refreshing that Carter and Ford became friends, and that the Bushes and Clinton were cooperative, as well as Obama with the Bushes.

But then, Donald Trump has destroyed the idea of camaraderie among the small, select group who have the opportunity to be President of the United States.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas Soon To Be Second Longest Serving Court Justice In American History!

Ronald 6 Comments

Clarence Thomas, the presently longest serving Supreme Court Justice, celebrated his 77th birthday, yesterday, June 23.

Thomas, a highly controversial and divisive Associate Justice, has been on the Court since 1991, after being nominated by President George H. W. Bush to replace Justice Thurgood Marshall.

His nomination was memorable for the challenge by his former aide, Anita Hill, that he had sexually harassed her, and it has been argued that his whole career since has been a rebuke of what he called “liberalism”, which he saw as the “enemy”, wanting to take him down and deny him the Court membership.

He has been accused of improper corruption, including taking major gifts from supporters, such as Harlan Crow, to promote right wing causes, and he has been defiant of any criticism, and is seen as the most right wing member of the Court in the past century by many.

But he ignores criticism and is defiant, and he presently is the 10th longest serving member of the Court’s history at almost 34 years.

But within the next year, he will go from 10th longest serving to second longest serving, only behind Justice William O. Douglas, the famous and controversial liberal justice appointed by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939 and serving for 36 and a half years until his retirement in 1975.

There are a generation and more of Clarence Thomas law clerks, many of whom have been appointed to the federal courts, over this third of a century he has been influential on the Court.

The odds are that he will stay to break the record of Douglas, and become the longest serving Justice in history, which would be accomplished in June 2028.

Thomas’s historical impact will be the center of constant research and analysis long into the future, and he will continue in life and after eventual death, as possibly the most complex personality and influence on legal history, for good and for bad in modern times, depending on one’s perceptions.

The 2028 Democratic Presidential Race Has Begun!

Ronald 3 Comments

Here we are just 114 days since the second Trump Presidency began, a constant barrage of actions and abuses of power, far surpassing Franklin D. Roosevelt in actions, and Richard Nixon in abuses of power.

But also, already, there are clear cut signs of Democratic Presidential activity for the 2028 Presidential election beginning.

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg had a massive crowd in Iowa last night, amid hints of his planning to run, although he made clear that it was too early for such action to begin now.

Illinois Governor JD Pritzker has thrown down the gauntlet to Donald Trump and the Republicans, with aggressive rhetoric and calls for mass resistance.

Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy has been actively speaking out on the abuses of Trump, and going into Republican congressional districts with Florida Congressman Maxwell Frost to bring pressure on Republicans who could make the difference in the pasaage or failure of Donald Trump’s plans for a “beautiful” budget bill.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear has emphasized how he has been able to accomplish goals as a Democratic Governor in a Republican controlled state legislature.

Hints are starting to be dropped that New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is flirting with the possibility of running for President.

Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego is giving combative retorts to Republicans who are undermining the rights of Latinos, and observers see him potentially running for President.

New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, after his amazing 25 hour personal filibuster against the Trump Administration, is perceived as likely to announce a run for the Presidency.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, the Democratic Vice Presidential nominee in 2024, is also making speeches as he travels around Midwest states and Republican Congressional districts.

Kamala Harris, the Democratic Presdidential candidate in 2024, is weighing whether to run for the California Governorship, which she would have the edge for, or instead, to try another run for the Oval Office.

This is just a list of the most obvious cases of “hints” of plans to run, but there are many other potential candidacies, including, in no special order:

California Governor Gavin Newsom
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro
Maryland Governor Wes Moore
Colorado Governor Jared Polis
North Carolina Governor Josh Stein
Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar
Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock
California Congressman Ro Khanna
Former Chicago Mayor and Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel
Former Rhode Island Governor and Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo
Sports Media Personality Stephen A. Smith
Corporate Leader Mark Cuban

This potential list of 22 contenders may have others join it, once the Midterm Elections for Congress and the Governorships are resolved!

Imagining if Lyndon B. Johnson Were To Meet Donald Trump!

Ronald 20 Comments

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) was the second greatest domestic policy President after Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945).

Both Democratic Presidents gave America its greatest social welfare and social safety network with Medicare and Medicaid under LBJ, and Social Security under FDR.

But LBJ went much further with great accomplishments in other areas of reform, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, greatly expanded the National Defense Education Act, fighting poverty in both rural and urban America, environmental and consumer reforms, promotion of NPR and PBS, immigration reform, and other reforms, more than anyone since FDR and after LBJ to the present!

So, if LBJ were alive today, and saw what Donald Trump has done in his first Presidency, and his unmatched level of cruelty in his much more oppressive, repressive second term in just less than four months, he would have open confrontations with Trump, and would use the most vile, salty language imaginable!

And with his domineering personality traits, LBJ would put Trump in his place and tame him, without an ounce of being “gentlemanly” in any sense!

The 80th Anniversary Of End Of World War II In Europe, And The Inspiration Presented By Pope Leo XIV To The Challenge Of Trump, Vance, And Authoritarian Fascism!

Ronald 6 Comments

Today marks the 80th Anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe, although the war against Japan lasted until the surrender ceremony on September 2, 1945.

The war against Fascism caused more death and destruction than any war in human history, and yet, today, in 2025, we face new threats from a domestic Fascism that allies itself with authoritarian dictators around the world.

And it is not just Donald Trump who is a threat, but his whole administration from JD Vance downward through the Cabinet and other advisers, all of whom are dedicated to the destruction of the Constitution, as we approach the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, based on rebellion against a King!

Harry Truman was the right person to be President 80 years ago, but the thought of JD Vance as a “backup” to Donald Trump, as Truman was to Franklin D. Roosevelt, is enough to undermine one’s mental and physical state.

Even in his so called conversion to Catholicism, Vance has demonstrated that he is a phony Catholic, and the new Pope Leo XIV, formerly Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost of Chicago, has already, three months ago, called out Vance on his despicable view of Christianity!

Pope Leo XIV will, clearly, be a challenge to the Fascism of Trump and Vance, and an inspiration to those who despair over what is happening to the American Republic!

250th Anniversary Of American Revolution, And America Faces Existential Crisis Worse Than Civil War, Great Depression, And World War II! :(

Ronald 30 Comments

Tomorrow, April 19, 1775, saw the first shots of the American Revolution!

This is the beginning of celebrations, which in less than 15 months, will be the celebration of the Declaration of Independence.

There is much to celebrate about the accomplishment of independence and the establishment of a democracy with a Constitution and Bill of Rights that made American a beacon for the world of what is possible when good intentions prevail!

But sadly, America faces an existential crisis, the greatest since the Civil War, the Great Depression, and World War II!

However, as tragic as those events were, America was fortunate to have two great Presidents, Abraham Lincoln and Frenklin D. Roosevelt, to follow the masterful statesmanship of George Washington to resolve these major moments of challenge to the rule of law.

But now, we have an existential crisis with the return to the Presidency of the most dangerous, unethical, and corrupt Chief Executive the nation has ever faced, and presenting massive challenge to the economic stability, the civil liberties, and the international role of America, which is being upended daily by Donald Trump, and his minions, his sycophants, who have no concern other than their own aggrandizement!

As a scholar and professor, who has just retired from the classroom, but will continue to give lectures to senior citizens and other adults, and also continue to express his views on this blog, the present and future are extremely alarming.

There is a sense of foreboding as to whether the American Republic and democracy will survive the onslaught against the basic principles enunciated 250 years ago, and reasserted 85-90 years later in the Civil War Era, and then again 70-80 years later in the Great Depression and World War II Era!

All good, decent people must be willing to speak out and challenge any attempt to stifle freedom and advocate support of totalitarian ideologies, as the present Administration is in the process of working to accomplish!