Immigrants

The Distortion Of Jesus Christ By Right Wing Republicans And Their Allies

Ronald 17 Comments

Jesus Christ, who was Jewish and never a Christian, preached love, tolerance, understanding, open mindedness, and other good thoughts, and offered himself as a way to unify mankind in the Middle East.

If he were here in the world today, and in America, he would be shocked at what many Republicans, conservatives, and right wing religious leaders have done to distort his loving message of unity.

We could call what has happened as making Jesus a Republican with all of the views that party now has in 2013!

These include the following, in the view of Right Wing Republicans and their allies, but NOT, of course, the truth, but rather propaganda!

Jesus is white and is certainly not color blind.

Jesus is a big supporter of the Confederacy, and can justify the past existence of slavery and racial segregation as factors which had a purpose to “organize” society.

Jesus loves guns, and they are to be owned to protect against evil forces out to undermine the faith.

Jesus loves the rich, the wealthy, and the top two percent, who are “achievers”.

Jesus hates poor people, who deserve what they get, the denial of food stamps, a safety net, and Medicaid.

Jesus hates gay people, and therefore created AIDS and STDs to punish those sinners.

Jesus believes that women are to be controlled by men, and denied control over their own destiny, and treated as subservient to the demands of men.

Jesus hates Muslims, who are all “evil”, and deserve to be killed in mass numbers as “nonbelievers”.

Jesus hates liberals and progressives, who are connected to the devil, and there is to be no compromise with them, and that also includes conservatives who say they are “moderates’.

Jesus hates science, because it challenges the beliefs of religion.

This is the mindset of right wing Republicans, and a danger to the future of America if it ever gained control of all branches of government. NONE of the above is the truth about Jesus!

As it is, the control of the House of Representatives, and many state governments and Governors, has led to the greatest division since the Civil War!

There is a need for devout Christians who understand the loving message of their savior to reclaim him from the hate mongers!

The author wishes to thank the website ADDICTINGINFO.ORG and Sherri Yarbrough for the ideas that led to this blog entry!

Sad Independence Day: Reality Of Assault On Rights Of Women, Gays, Immigrants, African Americans, And Those Less Fortunate

Ronald 5 Comments

As we celebrate the 237th Independence Day, and appreciate what ir represents, there is an unprecedented attack going on in many states and among Republican members of Congress to take away the hard earned rights of various groups of vulnerable Americans, and to deny the freedom and liberty that the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights represents!

Women’s right to their reproductive lives and their fundamental health are being assaulted by Republican state legislatures and Governors in a rapid, non transparent way, and shutting off opposition in states including Texas, Ohio, North Carolina at present, and in other states in the recent past, including Virginia, North Dakota, Arkansas and Kansas!

The attempt to deny equality of rights and privileges to gay Americans is in full swing in many of the “Red” or Republican states, and the level of hate against these groups by political and religious spokesmen is unprecedented!

The fight against dealing with the presence of immigrants who would have to meet strict standards to move toward citizenship, and with increased border security and building of a wall between Mexico and the United States, is in full swing, including assault on the courageous Republicans trying to resolve this issue in a fair and just manner, including Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who has been subjected to extremist Tea Party types who have declared war on him.

The move of many Southern states toward creating new barriers for people to vote, with the aim to cut the vote of minorities, the elderly, the disabled and college students, is in full swing forward since the Supreme Court ruled that there was no more racism or discrimination in voting in those states, when it is clear what the motivation of those states really is! The states of Virginia, South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas and Texas are already, rapidly, working toward new restrictions, free to do so, in their minds, because of what the Republican Supreme Court majority did last week!

And, of course, 23 states, at least, are refusing to expand Medicaid for those less fortunate, who have no health care coverage as things stand, except in emergency situations in emergency rooms, at a much more costly fee, and not necessarily available to all!

So the battle for freedom, human and civil rights, justice, and equality continues, even as we can celebrate the great experiment of the United States, seen as a paragon around the world, but still needing a lot of work to bring about the “more perfect Union”!

Proud Day Of Civil Rights 49 Years Ago, And Now Backtracking On Lyndon B. Johnson!

Ronald 4 Comments

49 years ago today, President Lyndon B. Johnson had his proudest moment in office, signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and then following up with the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Finally, the tragedy of the years after 1877, the end of Reconstruction, was being rectified, 88 and 89 years after African Americans in the South were abandoned by the Republican Party in preference to an alliance with big business and industry committed to economic aggrandizement, and political insensitivity to not only African Americans, immigrants, women, children and even native born men that made up the industrial labor force, exploited until the Progressive Era started to rectify the worst evils of industrial capitalism!

And now, a half century later after Lyndon B. Johnson, it is the Republicans on the Supreme Court who are allowing unbridled capitalism to be seen as “people”, and in the process corrupting the system again, including victimizing all of the groups above, and negating the protection of minorities, the poor, elderly and college students in the states that had a long history of discrimination in voting rights, and now will have open access to do it once again, as if the civil rights era never occurred!

The Supreme Court majority is attempting to negate the Warren and Burger Courts in the great progress they made toward social justice and legal equality for oppressed groups, and this is a tragedy that will continue to emerge until and when Democratic Presidents can select more members of the Court to replace aging Justices, including Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy.

But sadly, the impact of Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, the legacy of the two Bush Presidencies, is likely to continue for the long haul, and set back the nation on so many issues over the years to come!

The Voting Rights Act Repeal A Massive Step Backward, And Based On Trust Not Earned!

Ronald 30 Comments

The conservative Supreme Court majority has decided to overrule the Congress, which in 2006, agreed to renew the Voting Rights Act, and in so doing, has left it to trust that Southern states, which historically have worked to limit the right to vote, can now be trusted.

This is a massive blow to the civil rights movement, and to believe that things have changed from the time of a Democratic Dixiecrat South to a Republican South today is to be living in a illusion, that one can trust Republican legislatures that are presently working against women’s rights and victimizing immigrants, that somehow, without oversight, the present increased African American involvement in voting will not be reversed rapidly!

A split Congress will be unable to do anything about enforcing voting rights fairly, anymore than protecting the rights of women and immigrants affected by discriminatory state laws.

This is the ultimate outcome of the disputed Presidential Election Of 2000, and shows once again, that elections have consequences. So the Republican majority Supreme Court has insured that its agenda will be the future, as much as it was in interfering in the 2000 election, putting a loser of the popular vote by a bigger margin than the three previous cases, into the White House!

Republicans Are Declaring War On Students: Doubling Of Student Loan Interest A Month Away!

Ronald 14 Comments

The Republican House of Representatives has voted to allow a doubling of student loan rates on July 1, and unless they change their tune, that is what will happen, as action needs to be taken to prevent an automatic increase!

This is a new declaration of war, adding to that on women, immigrants, racial minorities, labor, senior citizens, the poor, the middle class, and the environment!

Bob Dole and other sane Republicans of the past generation KNOW that the GOP is on a maniacal path, which leads to long term doom for the party of Lincoln, TR, Ike, and Reagan! The GOP is committing suicide, but meanwhile, is making victims of vast numbers of the American people!

More Years Of Education, And Yet High Levels Of Ignorance In America Persist!

Ronald 9 Comments

More Americans have graduated high school and attended and graduated two and four year programs at colleges and universities, and yet high levels of ignorance persist in the most advanced nation in the world, or are we?

Examples abound:

40 percent of Americans are not even aware of the signature achievement of the Obama Presidency, what the critics have labeled “ObamaCare”! And some think the Congress repealed it, and others think the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional!

21 percent believe a UFO landed in Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947, and the government has covered it up!

14 percent believe in a monster called Big Foot, that it really exists!

65 percent cannot name even one Supreme Court Justice, not even the Chief Justice, when there are constant references to the “Roberts Court” in the news media!

30 percent cannot name who the Vice President of the United States is, and this has been shown on David Letterman many times!

35 percent do not know which century the American Revolution occurred in, and many cannot name who we fought in the Revolution!

6 percent do not know when Independence Day is, cannot find it on the calendar.

Many Americans cannot find any state of the Union on a geography map, or name the continents!

Many do not know who American fought in World War II, or point out where Korea, Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan are on the map, despite the fact that many Americans died in these wars.

Many Americans would be unable to pass the basic citizenship test all immigrants must pass, even though we are all insistent that they must know information many of our citizens born here do NOT know!

And many Americans persist in believing that Barack Obama is a Muslim, and think that Medicare is not a government program, when they say they do not want the government engaged in health care!

Many Americans do not know who their own Congressman or Senators are, and have no clue or understanding of the Constitution or Bill of Rights!

This is all very sad and disturbing, and makes one wonder about the “will of the people”, and their ability to make judgments about what American domestic or foreign policy should be!

The Right Wing Attack On Everything Imaginable!

Ronald 20 Comments

The Right Wing media propaganda machine has become “expert” at attacking everything imaginable that they consider to be “liberal”, “progressive”, “socialist”, “communist”, or any other left wing ideology they can dream up, and managing to put all of these widely differing philosophies together as stereotypes.

So in no special order, the following have come under attack in a vicious manner over time:

Welfare recipients
Food Stamp recipients
Uninsured people
The Homeless
The Poor
The Unemployed
Foreclosed Homeowners
The Working Poor
The Working Class
The Middle Class
Social Security
Medicare
Medicaid
Teachers
College Professors
Liberal Intellectuals
Liberal News Media
Hollywood
Firefighters
Police Officers
Public Service Workers
Labor Unions
Voting Rights
Women’s Rights
Undocumented Immigrants
Gays and Lesbians
Muslims
Environmentalists
Civil Rights Groups
Civil Liberties Groups
Planned Parenthood
Federal Government Agencies
National Public Radio
Public Broadcasting System
ObamaCare
Science
Hillary Clinton
Michelle Obama
Joe Biden
Barack Obama

Probably some have been left out, but this is a list which demonstrates the total negativity of the right wing, and why America is rejecting them in their voting behavior!

Guns, Gays, Immigrants, Women: The Demise Of The Republican Party

Ronald 4 Comments

The Republican Party is allowing itself to fall into a “coma” from which it will not recover if there is not fast action to reverse their course.

It is rapidly becoming the “stupid” party, the irrelevant party, the party of the 19th century, the party that makes the organization that gave us Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower look glorious and forward looking, while putting those who admire that original party now feel a need to engage in deep mourning for what has been lost!

A party that worships guns, as if we are on the frontier fighting native Americans, and are living in the era of the American Revolution and the Civil War, is a party in deep denial. To see the right of people to own multiple weapons and large magazines, and have no concern about the death of children and adults in all public places imaginable, is to see a party of delusion.

A party that led on the issue of the end of slavery and passed the first civil rights laws, now leads the crusade to promote hate and discrimination against people based on sexual orientation, and to allow right wing Christian wing nuts to preach a Christianity which denies equality and justice and tolerance to such human beings makes it a party which has forgotten about the Founding Fathers’ beliefs in separation of church and state.

A party which legitimizes nativism, hatred of immigrants, as one of its major ideals, is a party that refuses to face the future, one in which immigrants will be the dominant factor in our politics and society, and forgets its own fundamental roots among immigrant groups in the 19th century who believed in the reform principles that founded the party.

And a party which fails to respect women’s rights and dignity, and treats them as second class citizens due to the influence of right wing Christian extremists, is a party on the road to extinction.

The Republican Party has been given plenty of warnings about its impending demise. The question now is whether it will revive itself from its coma and come into the 21st century, and promote rationality, tolerance, and open mindedness, or become a party which is an historical oddity, which went from a positive image, to one of an extremist group out of touch with the American people and their needs for the future!

Retreat Of Right Wing Tea Party Types: A Good Month For Progressives And Democrats!

Ronald Leave a comment

One month since the Presidential Election of 2012, and we see the following:

Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina, leader of the Tea Party Caucus in the Senate, resigns and goes to the right wing think tank, the Heritage Foundation.

Grover Norquist, head of the Americans For Tax Reform, witnesses Republican members of Congress repudiating their tax pledge to him, and say they are willing to support tax increases.

Dick Armey, former House Majority Whip, leaves Tea Party backed organization Freedom Works over disagreements on policy and strategy.

Karl Rove, the “brains” of the George W. Bush election victories, flops badly with his superPAC, Crossroads GPS, and loses all credibility with his behavior on Fox News Channel.

Mitt Romney repudiates all involvement in the Republican and American future, preferring to stay in isolation and make yet more money.

Republican officeholders fall over each other trying to stand out as standing for different values than the losing Romney campaign promoted, on women, immigrants, gays and lesbians, and young people, the groups that will determine the political future of America.

YES, this has been a good month for progressives, liberals, Democrats, and forward looking people, as the Republican Party and conservative movement “purges” itself!

Lowest Birth Rate Ever Recorded Since Statistics Were Kept: What It Means For America

Ronald Leave a comment

In 2010, we saw the lowest reported birth rate in America in its history, since statistics were kept, going back to 1920.

This includes all ethnic and racial groups, and even immigrants, notorious for having large families, are having smaller families.

This is due to many factors, including birth control methods, greater education of women, need of wives and husbands to work to survive and prosper, and recognition that quality of life is enhanced by having fewer children.

This means over time that the population of the United States will continue to age, and that creates a problem of how to take care of older people as there are fewer young people who work and pay taxes, so Social Security, Medicare, and other programs will be affected long term.

This puts America into the category of European countries which are over time on a trend to lose population as they age, and the reality that the mass of younger population will continue to grow in the “third world” nations, particularly in Asia, which already has 60 percent of the world’s population as it is right now.

So western civilization, as we define it, may be in a long range decline as the fulcrum of world affairs, being replaced by China, India, Pakistan, Indonesia and other rising Asian powers that are constantly rising in population.