Great Plains

The “Never Ever” States On Gay Marriage Unless Supreme Court Mandates Acceptance Nationally

Ronald 1 Comment

It is clear that unless, at some future time, the Supreme Court mandates acceptance of gay marriage nationally, as they did for interracial marriage in Loving V. Virginia in 1967, that states primarily Southern, Great Plains, and Mountain West will continue to resist it with a “never ever” attitude!

What is also in common, however, is that these are the states which promoted slavery, advocated racial segregation, and have led the fight to deny women equality, including the right to their own bodies and reproductive rights, all the while advocating how “religious” they are while promoting violation of human rights!

The states, based on public opinion, MOST stubborn on acceptance of gay marriage, are in order as follows:

Mississippi
Arkansas
South Carolina
West Virginia
Kentucky
Georgia
Utah
Louisiana
Nebraska
Alabama
Kansas
Oklahoma
Missouri
Wyoming
Idaho
Alaska

These states register between 13 and 40 percent support for gay marriage, a total of 16 of 23 states with negative view on gay marriage in public opinion polls.

Seven others are negative but above 40 percent and have potential for change, including in order from highest to lowest:

North Carolina
Montana
Florida
Wisconsin
South Dakota
North Dakota
New Mexico

It will be an interesting battle that will go on in all of these states, but IF the Supreme Court goes a step further in the near future, it will be a moot issue!

Republicans And Food Stamps: “Red” States Are The Major Beneficiaries, And Their Supporters Seem Unaware What Republicans Are Doing To Them!

Ronald 12 Comments

The Republicans have declared war on “Food Stamps”, and have called Barack Obama the “Food Stamp” President!

While promoting all kinds of support for the corporate world, Republicans are out to promote massive cuts to people who are expected to feed themselves in a way no civilized person in America would want to be faced with! To hell with a balanced diet and nutrition, and therefore the promotion of bad health habits, which lead to medical problems, for which many will not have health coverage if one leaves it up to the Republicans and conservatives!

So people should starve, because they are “bad” people for being poor, and their children should do without adequate nutrition, which is impossible on the present Food Stamp benefit, before any further cuts!

But this is all veiled by the belief of conservatives that MOST of the recipients of food stamps are African American, Hispanic and Native American, and are located in “Blue” Democratic states in the major urban areas of the nation.

The facts are otherwise, as the vast majority of people on Food Stamps are white, are single females and their minor children, and live in Republican “Red” states in the South, Great Plains and Rocky Mountain areas of the nation!

So it is the “Red” states that are the real “welfare” states on Food Stamps and other benefits for the poor, and it is in these states that ignorant, uneducated, and clueless people vote Republican, without awareness of what the GOP is trying to do—make the lives of poor women and children, as well as elderly and disabled, heavily white populations ever more difficult!

This is all mind boggling, and one wonders when these poor whites will get the message as to what the party they vote for is doing to them and their children’s future!

The Historic Dust Storm Of 1934, And The Heat Trapping Gas Milestone Just Reached: An Environmental Crisis Has Begun!

Ronald 2 Comments

79 years ago, the historic dust storm that swept across the Great Plains all the way east, marking the Dust Bowl beginnings that plagued the middle of the nation during the 1930s, occurred, and it is ironic that on this horrible anniversary, it has now been revealed that the heat trapping gas level that last existed three million years ago, has reoccurred!

We are now in the midst of a massive environmental crisis worldwide, and yet, our government has to fight the science and environmental deniers, including moronic Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, who would rather threaten impeachment of President Obama than deal with the reality of the need to do something about the damage being done by our industries and mankind in general, to the future of human existence!

The carbon dioxide level is 41 percent higher since the Industrial Revolution. an alarming development. Of course, the US cannot solve the issue alone, and needs the backing of other nations, including China, but IF we are unwilling to do anything as the number one power in the world, then the future is gloomy indeed for the long range!

Same Sex Marriage Advanced In Year Since Joe Biden Made It A Front Page Issue

Ronald 10 Comments

It has been a year since Vice President Joe Biden publicly endorsed same sex marriage, followed three days later by a similar endorsement by President Barack Obama.

We are on the cusp of Minnesota becoming the 12th state to allow same sex marriage, with the states adopting it, including::

Massachusetts
Connecticut
Vermont
Maine
New Hampshire
Rhode Island
New York
Maryland
Delaware
Iowa
Washington

Following Minnesota, the following nine states are likely to adopt same sex marriage between now and the end of 2014:

Illinois
New Jersey
Hawaii
Michigan
Oregon
Colorado
New Mexico
Nevada
California

That will mean that 21 states with 45 percent of the nation’s population will have adopted same sex marriage as part of their law.

The only groups that oppose same sex marriage by a majority are:

Less educated Whites
Over 65 years of age
Republicans
Evangelical Protestants
Tea Party Movement

The South and the Great Plains, heavily Republican, are united against same sex marriage, while the New England and Mid Atlantic states, some of the Midwest, and the Pacific Coast, predominantly Democratic, are for it!

The “Right To Work” States: Mostly Republican And Very Backward And Abusive Toward Workers!

Ronald Leave a comment

When one investigates which states are “right to work” states,. which means anti-union and low paying states, one discovers that almost all of them are Republican states, and extremely backward and abusive toward their own population!

There are now 24 states, nearly half the nation, that have taken steps to move back to the 19th Century, even though we are now in the 21st Century!

It includes the following states by geographic section:

South—Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia.

Midwest and Great Plains—-Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota,

Mountain West—-Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming

Notice that the only states that voted for Barack Obama and the Democrats were
Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, and Virginia!

It is amazing how people who live in these 24 states do not rise up in outrage as they are being victimized by Republican governments in those states, and realize that even the five states which voted for Barack Obama all have Republican Governors and legislatures!

And the “right to work” laws promote economic progress? ABSOLUTELY NOT! Instead, it victimizes those stupid enough to vote the anti labor party, the Republicans, who have ALWAYS been anti labor, over and over again into state power!

“47 Percenter” Mitt Romney Gains “47 Percent” Of Final Presidential Vote, From The True “Moochers”: The Ultimate Irony!

Ronald Leave a comment

Mitt Romney lost the Presidency for many reasons too numerous to list here, but ultimately, his “47 percent” comment, denigrating nearly half of the nation as “moochers”, did him in.

So now, the ultimate irony: Mitt Romney ended up winning 47.49 percent of the total national vote for President! So the “47 percent” candidate won “47 percent”–so appropriate!

And get this, he won the “Moocher Vote”, defined differently than he portrayed it!

After all, he won a majority of the wealthy, who “mooch” off all of us through corporate “welfare” and Bush tax cuts!

And he won a majority of the senior citizens, many of whom are better off than everyone else through America, but of course became so because of Democratic programs and laws, not Republican laws, which have never benefited the older part of our society. It is Social Security and Medicare, Democratic designed programs, which have made senior citizens as prosperous as many of them are!

And Romney won the “red” states of the South and Great Plains and Mountain West, which are, in most cases, the poorest states, who continue to get “handouts” in the form of shifting of tax benefits from the more prosperous, “blue”, Democratic states in the Northeast and New England, the upper Midwest, and the Pacific Coast states.

So, the TRUE “moochers”, the “47 percent”, voted for the “47 percenter”, Mitt Romney!

The Christian Right Loses Its Power And Influence In 2012 Elections

Ronald Leave a comment

The Christian Right, known in the past as the Moral Majority and the Christian Coalition, was a very powerful force from the late 1970s until 2012, having an impact on the election of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, and effectively hijacking the Republican Party, effectively promoting their biased agenda.

But now they have suffered a major defeat in 2012, and the influence over the party is waning. The Republican Party is well aware that if they allow the Christian Right to continue to wage war against women, immigrants, and gays, then they will disappear as an effective political opposition to the Democratic Party.

The majority of American women do NOT want anyone controlling their reproductive lives, and telling them that rape is not a reason for abortion.

The majority of immigrants, whether legal or undocumented, do not want minority groups to be profiled, have to fear the police, be told to leave the country with their children who are born in America, and have religious leaders display hate and prejudice toward them.

The vast majority of gays and lesbians, and their straight allies, want discrimination based on sexual orientation to be ended, and to have the same legal rights to basic civil rights, including the right to marry.

So those Christian pastors who preach hate, including those who rail against Barack Obama and wish him harm, are only undermining the legitimacy of their being ministers of Jesus Christ, who would, most certainly, be advocating the totally opposite view of all of these groups, and promoting love and tolerance, rather than hate!

It is a good thing that the Christian Right is declining in its influence, as the South and Great Plains decline in significance in population terms, and as older white males in particular, who refuse to understand the need for change and moving forward, grow older, and will soon pass on, as a bad memory of the ugliness of extremist religious values!

Separation of church and state needs to be reaffirmed! Theocracy is against what the Founding Fathers advocated!

The Right Wing Talk Show Hosts On Radio And Cable Are Destroying The Republican Party And Dividing The Nation For Their Own Wealth!

Ronald 2 Comments

Right Wing Talk Radio and Fox News Channel are the biggest scam existing in America, making suckers out of their listening and watching public, and destroying the Republican Party for the future!

While they make millions upon millions of dollars to talk propaganda, hate and division, they are destroying the Republican Party brand by their prejudiced branding of women, Hispanics and Latinos, African Americans, Gays and Lesbians, Muslims, the labor movement, environmentalists, the mainstream media, colleges and universities, Hollywood, and those who are anti war.

The Republican Party is losing the future, by failing to realize that the population is changing rapidly toward a browner and more tolerant society in so many ways, and just appealing to older, white males who live in the Great Plains and the South and the Mountain West where population is much smaller, and who profess to be “religious” while promoting discrimination and prejudice in the name of Jesus, and are gun advocates who want to prevent the future that is coming, which is destructive. This is a suicidal tendency, that will, if it continues, guarantee that the Republican Party will constantly lose elections to the Democratic Party, and become a fossil, as the Whig Party became in the 1850s in America.

So the following wealthy talk show hosts are enriching themselves against the American future, and privately, are laughing at the “Suckers” who follow them as if they are Gods, and who these hosts could not give a damn about, as all they are, really, are used car salesmen!

Here is the infamous list, who need to be smacked down, by loss of audiences, and loss of book sales, and brought down to earth that we are tired of their demagoguery!

Rush Limbaugh
Michael Savage
Sean Hannity
Bill O’Reilly
Michael Reagan
Ann Coulter
Michelle Malkin
Glenn Beck
Laura Ingraham
G Gordon Liddy
Mark Levin

There are also other lesser known talk show hosts who would not understand a serious idea, or ever know a real fact, who are poisoning people, who do not realize it!

The Drought, The Farm Belt, And The Republican Party

Ronald 2 Comments

Just as has happened often in the past, farmers and ranchers in the South, The Midwest, and the Great Plains are experiencing hard times, with the present drought causing a crisis of massive proportions on a level not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

But has the Congress, with the Republican Party in control of the House of Representatives, shown willingness to deal with that crisis?

The answer is NO, because of the battle over the food stamp program, which Congressman Paul Ryan, now the Republican Vice Presidential nominee, wishes to cut over the next ten years, sparking a battle with Democrats in the Senate, as well as the House. Remember that Ryan is the head of the House Budget Committee, and has developed the Ryan budget, which passed the House with all but ten GOP votes, but not one Democratic vote, and was rejected by the Senate, controlled by Democrats.

Many farmers and ranchers are becoming totally disgusted with the deadlock and stalemate in Washington, DC, and that means potential trouble for some Republican office holders in the House, and could lead to some Democratic gains, as the only alternative for disgruntled people in the farm economy, totally exasperated at the lack of action!

Major Landmark In Education: Over 30% Of Americans Over 25 Have Bachelor’s Degree

Ronald Leave a comment

For the first time in American history, over 30% of Americans over the age of 25 have a four year bachelor’s degree from a college or university.

As of last March, 30.4% of Americans have a bachelor’s degree, and 10.9% have a graduate degree.

Women are nearly equal in attainment of bachelor’s and graduate degrees for the first time, and will soon surpass men in attainment of college degrees.

Asian Americans remain the most educated in our society, with 50.3% having bachelor’s degrees, and 19.5% having graduate degrees.

Whites have 34% with undergraduate degrees; African Americans 19.9%; and Hispanics 14.1%.

Somewhat surprisingly, science and engineering degrees are the largest fields with college degrees on the bachelor’s level, reaching 34.9% of the total of all degrees. The percentage of women in these fields is up to 45.9% among the age group 25-39. And more such majors are found on the east coast in the District of Columbia and Maryland, and on the west coast in California and Washington. The lowest percentage in this field are found in Southern and Great Plains states.

It is better for the long range future of America that more of the population is attending and graduating with a college degree. And it is not only for economic reasons, but also, a better educated citizenry is good for improving one’s life and the understanding of the world we live in!