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The Republican Party Of The Early 1990s And Now: David Duke, Bob Packwood, And Roy Moore

Ronald 16 Comments

How far the Republican Party has come in the past generation, from a party that had some principle and dignity to a party that is afraid to stand up against hypocrisy and evil.

In 1991, David Duke, the former Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, was the Republican nominee for Governor of Louisiana, but many Republicans repudiated him, and President George H. W. Bush condemned him in a public statement, and refused to endorse and support him.

In 1995, Oregon Senator Bob Packwood, a mainstay of the chamber, who had been in the Senate for nearly 27 years, and actually had a decent record as a progressive oriented Republican, was shown to have engaged in sexual harassment for the previous two decades, and the Senate censured him, and he resigned from office in disgrace.

Now, in 2017, a despicable human being named Roy Moore, who has hatred and prejudice as part of his mantra, and is seen as a pariah by many Republican Senators, is accused of sexual harassment and more against teenage girls decades ago, and he refuses to leave the Senate race in Alabama, and while many Republicans have called for him to exit the race, only Senator John McCain has been forceful on the issue, and the only conservative intellectual who has clearly condemned him is Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol, who worked for Vice President Dan Quayle, but has been a Trump critic from Day One when Trump announced for President nearly two and a half years ago.

One would hope that many of the Senators who said Moore should withdraw show the courage of John McCain and Bill Kristol, and refuse to support, endorse, or finance his race for the Senate on December 12 in Alabama.

Alabama deserves a decent, hard working, principled US Senator, and forgetting party lines, they can get that in Doug Jones, who prosecuted two Ku Klux Klansmen in the infamous Birmingham Church bombing in 1963, which killed for young African American girls, a case pursued nearly forty years after the horrible events.

This is the kind of Senator all members of that body should welcome into their club.

If Alabama, a state with already corrupt leadership that puts the state in the top ten worst governed states, and with a horrible reputation of being ignorant, prejudiced, and backward, not all that different than in the era of civil rights and George Wallace in the 1960s, goes ahead and elects Roy Moore to the Senate, the Republicans should join with the Democrats, and refuse to seat him, which is within their rights as a legislative body. They forced Bob Packwood out on sexual misconduct in 1995, and further back Democratic Senator Thomas Dodd of Connecticut in 1982, and more recently Republican Senator John Ensign of Nevada in 2011, both on financial improprieties, so they can do the same to the infamous, despicable Roy Moore.

Since there was horror when Moore won the nomination to replace Attorney General Jeff Sessions over Senator Luther Strange, the Sessions replacement, on the part of Republicans in the Senate, it should not be hard to refuse to seat him, and to hell with Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and their ilk demonstrating no morality, no ethics, and supporting a so called “good Christian”, who is anything but that in his views on women, gays and lesbians, Muslims, and on separation of church and state, which he does not believe in.

Right now, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas is the most disliked member of the Senate by his own colleagues, but Roy Moore, if he wins and is seated, will far surpass Cruz, and will become an albatross around the neck of the GOP.

How far the Republican Party has fallen since the early to mid 1990s!

The Nightmare Year Of Donald Trump, But Suburbia, Women, Minorities, White Collar Educated, Those Under 45, And Independents Are Organizing To End The Trump Presidency

Ronald 4 Comments

A year ago on this date, Donald Trump “won” the Presidency, with 26 percent of all eligible voters backing him, 46 percent of actual voters, and losing the popular vote by nearly 3 million to Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, and having 8 million others voting for third party candidates, therefore having 11 million more people voting against him than for him.

No President who has won the Electoral College but lost the popular vote has done so poorly, as compared to John Quincy Adams losing to Andrew Jackson by 38,000 votes in 1824; as Rutherford B. Hayes losing to Samuel Tilden by 252,000 votes in 1876; as Benjamin Harrison losing to Grover Cleveland by 110,000 votes in 1888; or George W. Bush losing to Al Gore by 544,000 votes in 2000.

Also, Trump’s Electoral College victory with 304 electoral votes is only 46th of 58 national elections.

The past year, since his victory, has been a horror in so many ways, as Donald Trump has accomplished nothing in legislation, but has undermined a century of progress under Republican and Democratic Presidents from Theodore Roosevelt to Barack Obama in domestic and foreign policy.

He has abused his executive authority to declare war on the environment, promoted discrimination against immigrants and Muslims, advocated the end of government regulation of business, undermining on civil liberties and civil rights, disarray in our foreign relations with our allies and our enemies in the world, destroyed the concept of civility and common decency, and damaged the image of the Presidency itself.

But he has also demonstrated a level of scandal and corruption far greater than the corruption which took place under Ulysses S. Grant, Warren G. Harding, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan.

His appointees, with a few exceptions, have been a total disgrace, making them the worst cabinet in performance and ethics we have ever seen.

Assuredly, Donald Trump will be the second President, after Richard Nixon, to be forced out office in the next year by the Mueller investigation of Russian collusion, obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and violation of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution.

The reaction against him among intelligent voters is already evident from Tuesday’s off year elections, as suburbia, women, minorities, white collar educated, those under 45, and independents are organizing to end the Trump Presidency and punish the Republican Party that nominated him, have collaborated with him, and are conspiring to enrich the wealthy yet once again, as they did under Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. In so doing, the Republican Party has declared war on the middle class, and shown no compassion for the poor, the sick, the disabled, and senior citizens.

A major wave election in 2018 is in the offing, as the goal is to destroy the cancer of the Trump Presidency, although some of the damage he and his party have done will take decades to eliminate totally from the nation’s domestic and foreign policy.

This is a major national tragedy, a setback that the nation will pay for long term.

Doug Jones Vs. Roy Moore: A Chance For Democrats To Gain An Alabama Senate Seat In December

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The special election to fill Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s Alabama Senate seat is set for December 12.

It could be a Christmas and New Year’s gift for the Democrats, if Doug Jones can win that seat from right wing extremist Roy Moore, former Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, who will cause nightmares, if elected, for the Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and would be more outrageous and irritating than Texas Senator Ted Cruz.

Moore is supported by the Alt Right and Breitbart News, headed by Stephen Bannon, and he has extremist views about women including anti abortion advocacy, anti gay rights for gays and lesbians including marriage, anti Muslims, pro firearms including wielding his gun at a campaign rally, nonbeliever in global warming and evolution, promoter of the Barack Obama Birther Conspiracy beliefs, advocate of nativist and racist beliefs, and calls America a “Christian nation” governed by God, not by the Constitution, and insisted on a Ten Commandments Monument at the Alabama Judicial Building while he served as Chief Justice, before his removal.

Doug Jones is a former US Attorney, who pursued and prosecuted two Ku Klux Klansmen involved in the infamous Birmingham, Alabama Black Church Bombing in 1963, which killed four young African American girls, including friends of Condoleezza Rice, who lived in Birmingham and was around the age of these young girls when they were killed. Jones was able to gain convictions and imprisonment for these two individuals in 2001 and 2002, nearly four decades after the murders, a major accomplishment.

Jones has gained awards for his civil rights and environmental commitment, and would add to the possibility of a Democratic party takeover of the US Senate in the midterm 2018 elections, as ordinarily, it would seem highly unlikely that the Democrats could gain this particular Senate seat, and will have a very difficult time to gain three seats, since there are so few Republicans seeking reelection in 2018.

But, hard to believe, as outrageous as Jeff Sessions was in this Senate seat, Roy Moore would be far worse and more despicable than Sessions, so Democrats need to do everything possible to promote Doug Jones to the US Senate over the next two months.

The Issue Of Punishing Neo Nazis, Ku Klux Klan, White Supremacists, Alt Right By Firing Them From Their Jobs: Why It Is Proper To Do It!

Ronald 1 Comment

The issue has arisen about, in the aftermath of the Charlottesville, Virginia White Supremacy tragedy, whether it is proper for employers to punish Neo Nazis, Ku Klux Klan members, White Supremacists, and the Alt Right, by firing those who work for them. A number of participants have already been fired by their employers for participation in the despicable rally.

The argument is that they do not reflect the value systems of the companies they work for, and that their prejudiced views are worthy of dismissal.

Many of the young men at the Charlottesville rally were “outed” by social media, and became “victims” of the outrage of millions of Americans.

Certainly, anyone has a right to his or her own political, social, and economic views, but it is well known that employers have complete authority to hire and fire, and often do it on grounds that are unjust, including against women, gays and lesbians, Latinos, Muslims, African Americans and Asian Americans.

But these cases just listed are based on discrimination grounds, and should and are often fought in the courts under the civil rights laws.

So if one’s extremist views are the issue, it is not the same as one’s gender, sexual orientation, race or ethnicity.

Promoting hate, violence, and bloodshed is a very different issue, and IS justifiable grounds for dismissal from work.

Maybe these young men can reform themselves, when they see the visceral reaction of decent people, and the hope is that they will reform, and change, and repudiate their biased views, and then forgiveness can be considered.

Otherwise, they are on the road of criminality and federal and state prison, and a disgrace to their families, so this situation can be a learning experience.

The Coming Foreign Trip Disaster Of Donald Trump

Ronald 13 Comments

Donald Trump is about to engage in a nine day foreign trip, which is bound to be a total disaster.

He will visit Saudi Arabia, the home of the Muslim holy sites of Mecca and Medina, and it will be delicate to do so, after his anti Muslim rhetoric and his attempted Muslim bans.

He will visit Israel, after having revealed Israeli intelligence information to the Russian Foreign Minister and Russian Ambassador to the United States in the Oval Office, and backing away from the idea of recognizing Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, and hinting that Israel must agree to concessions to the Palestinians, as he pursues “the art of the deal”. Also, he has refused to visit Masada, since he cannot have his helicopter go to the top of Masada, and is unwilling to take a cable car to the Mount. He also plans only 15 minutes at the Holocaust Memorial, Yad Vashem, which will alienate many Israelis and American Jews.

He will visit Vatican City and Pope Francis, and has been highly critical of the Pope, who has been dismissive of Trump’s rhetoric and his planned Mexico Wall.

He will be at the NATO summit in Belgium, having alarmed members at his on and off attitudes towards the significance of the alliance, and his pro Russian tendencies that are now being investigated, and could lead to his Presidency in flames.

He will also be be at the G-7 summit with our major economic partners–Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan, to be held in Sicily, Italy.

There will be plenty of opportunity for flubs, blunders, embarrassments, and Trump is not good at sitting through long sessions, gets bored easily, and is not willing to do the preparation, and reading, required to be knowledgeable and competent at international meetings with experienced and competent diplomats and foreign leaders.

Despite what Trump claims, he is NOT a good student, and clearly has a variation of Attention Deficit Disorder, along with Narcissistic Personality Disorder, and a likely possibility of Dementia or Alzheimers.

Trump is not up to this trip, which is too long and detailed, and cannot sleep in his own bed, and he is very intense about actually being seriously tested and challenged, as his Presidency deteriorates around him.

Barack Obama made his first foreign trip to Canada, and George W. Bush to Mexico, and after what is likely to be a disastrous trip, who knows if Trump will not just hole himself up in the White House, and scream and yell at his family and his aides, as he faces the end of his Presidency, as a total disgrace to the institution of the Presidency!

From 9-11 To 11-9: One American Tragedy To Another!

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The 21st century began with the horrific attack on September 11, 2001 on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, killing nearly 3.000 civilians of many nations.

It ushered in a 15 year period of turmoil, division, and tremendous spending to fight terrorism and wage two unwinnable wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It has led to persecution of Muslims in America, and promotion of nativism, racism, and antisemitism.

It has caused the two major political parties to fight each other in a way that prevents any cooperation on just about anything.

And then, in the midst of all this chaos and anxiety, along came a charlatan, a rookie in politics, a crooked businessman, a narcissist to the extreme, who was able to convince working class white males that he was their “Superman”, and would end terrorism, crime, and fight Wall Street, all fabrications.

So from the 9-11 tragedy, we went to 11-9, November 9, 2016, the declared victory of Donald Trump, who has caused more division and hatred than anyone in the past 15 years.

And he won due to the quirks of the Electoral College, having only one serious opponent who won electoral votes, but only winning 46 percent of all votes cast.

And November 9 is also the day in 1938 when we had Kristallnacht, the “Night of the Broken Glass”, when thousands of Jews became victims of a pogrom, as businesses and synagogues went up in flames and ushered in the beginning of the Holocaust in Nazi Germany, which killed six million Jews by 1945.

With the rise of white supremacy, and characters such as Richard Spencer and David Duke backing Donald Trump’s attacks on Mexicans. Muslims, and all immigration under attack, one can sense that we might be moving toward Fascism, with only the scandals around Donald Trump giving us the hope that his agenda may be stalled and prevented permanently.

Republican Philosophy: Every Fetus Must Be Born, But No Right To Care For Preexisting Conditions, And No Basic Right To Health Care Itself!

Ronald 16 Comments

The Republican Party is a total disgrace in 2017.

It has allowed itself to become the party of death, not the party of life.

While adopting the extreme right wing position of being totally anti abortion, and subjecting women to the whims of religious extremists, that every fetus must be born, now the GOP has fully adopted the concept that once a fetus is born, that there is no right to care for preexisting conditions, which nearly half of Americans have in their lifetime, and no basic right to health care itself.

The party that freed the slaves, promoted racial equality, and advocated protection of the environment, now has become the party of Christian extremists and hard line Southern Confederate views, repudiating the principles of Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt and many decent, principled office holders who were proud of the Republican traditions of the past 150 plus years.

Now, if you are not wealthy, to hell with your health, and if you die, such is life, and it most showed up when former one term Congressman Joe Walsh of Illinois, said he was not interested in having to pay more taxes to support the health care of an infant who had a need for heart surgery to survive.

What has happened to the concept of human decency, compassion, empathy, and concern for others?

What has happened to the idea that we all pay in through our taxes for the betterment of society, and if we do not end up getting back as much as we pay in, it means we have been fortunate enough not to need help from the government on the same scale as others?

What happened to the concept of religious values, whether Christian or Jewish or Muslim or Hindu or whatever, that we are our brother’s keeper?

The Republican Party will be condemned in history for the passage in the House of Representatives yesterday of this reprehensible “tax care for the wealthy” bill, and it will NOT make it through the US Senate.

It was disgusting to see the House Republicans, led by despicable Speaker Paul Ryan, rushing to the Trump White House to celebrate the loss of health care for 24 million Americans, which, were it to become law, would insure tens of thousands of Americans, at the least, will die because they are not wealthy!

The wealthy have more than enough advantages, and do NOT need another tax cut, as it was those under Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush which have obliterated much of the middle class, and accelerated the fall of millions into poverty since 1981.

The odds are heavy now that the Democrats will win at least the minimum number of seats, 24, to regain the House of Representatives majority, and even if the US Senate is not regained, it will change the playing field in 2019-2020, including the likelihood of the impeachment of demagogue Donald Trump!

For any decent human being to be a Republican in 2017, shame on you, and one can believe in karma, that you will be repaid appropriately in the next stage of your existence after your death on earth!

Donald Trump Dangerous To The Mental And Physical Health Of Tens Of Millions Of Americans

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It is now clear, 85 days into his Presidency, that Donald Trump is dangerous to the mental and physical health of tens of millions of Americans.

Trump’s erratic, immature, reckless, and constantly changing behavior is a danger to America and the world community, as he is totally unpredictable, and he clearly has no principles or beliefs other than his own glorification and self aggrandizement.

We have had strong egotists before in the Presidency, including Andrew Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard Nixon, but nothing on the scale of Donald Trump.

Trump has caused serious mental depression and heart problems in tens of millions of Americans, who wake up daily worrying how their lives will be affected, and the fear of more foreign wars caused by his Twitter feed and loose mouth, by a President who has the sick need to express every waking thought so that we all know it and pay attention to him.

Imagine what it is like to be a senior citizen, a disabled person, a person of color or of Muslim faith, an immigrant, a woman, a gay or lesbian or transgender person, with all of these groups being targeted to be harmed by radical changes in government policies and programs, administered by the most mean spirited, narrow minded, intolerant, uncaring cabinet officers in all of American history!

Imagine how hate groups and leaders, such as David Duke and Richard Spencer, are being emboldened by the race baiting, nativist, antisemitic rhetoric emerging from the Trump Administration.

Donald Trump is a true nightmare, who is not only working to deny 24 million Americans from having health care altogether, but also undermining the health of at least as many Americans who will see their lives shortened, by the high level of stress, and the resultant danger of overdosing with medication, and causing planned or unplanned suicide of people in danger, but knowing their government does not give a damn about them, only wealthy people of white Christian heritage.

Donald Trump’s Slights Toward The Jewish Community Another Reason Why He Should Be Removed From Office

Ronald 3 Comments

Donald Trump may have Jewish relatives, including son in law Jared Kushner and his converted daughter Ivanka, but there is simply too much evidence of his latent antisemitism.

Failure to acknowledge the mass murder of Jews in the Holocaust on Holocaust Remembrance Day is unacceptable.

Associating with, and refusing to repudiate the antisemitism of David Duke, Richard Spencer, and other white supremacists, is unforgivable.

Deciding not to attend a Passover Seder in the White House, while he is upstairs, is totally uncalled for, particularly after Barack Obama participated in Passover Seders all eight years he was in the White House, a tradition begun by George W. Bush.

Having his Press Secretary Sean Spicer claim that Adolf Hitler did not use chemical weapons in World War II, and that six million Jews were sent to “Holocaust Centers”, rather than concentration camps, where they were systematically executed, is a sin which only a summary firing by Donald Trump, and Trump’s own public apology, added to that of Sean Spicer already, can possibly rectify.

But seriously, this is simply another reason why Donald Trump should be removed from office, as his administration has already victimized immigrants, Muslims, African Americans, Latinos, gay and lesbian and transgender people, and women, simply by establishment of bigoted, racist, and misogynistic policies in 80 days in the White House!

Donald Trump’s Deleterious Effect On Americans’ Physical Health, Mental State, And Sense Of Security

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Donald Trump has been President for eight weeks, and it has been more than four months since he was elected the 45th President.

In those 56 days since he was inaugurated, Trump has created more tumult and disarray than any President in American history.

In so doing, he has had a deleterious effect on the physical health, mental state, and sense of security of tens of millions of Americans.

Cardiologists have reported that more of their patients have come in with heart palpitations and worse.

High blood pressure has become more common, and mental depression has worsened dramatically.

And the sense of security has deteriorated for African Americans, Latinos, Muslims, Jews, liberals, and the news media, as white supremacy, racism, antisemitism, and nativism have been encouraged by Donald Trump, Stephen Bannon, Stephen Miller, and others on the Trump staff.

Foreign nations have become unnerved about Trump’s weird and unstable behavior, and therefore, nations which are our closest allies–Great Britain, Germany, Australia, Canada, Japan–and other nations as well, have become concerned about the future foreign relations with Trump, as he is a revolutionary ready to destroy the international system.

War seems more likely, particularly with North Korea and Iran, as if we need another war to enrich corporations and the defense industry, and we see Trump promoting attacks on the environment, the safety net, and even the organization of the federal executive branch.