National Parks

New Assertiveness By Barack Obama A Great Development!

Ronald 14 Comments

President Barack Obama is not allowing obstructionist Republicans and conservatives to stop him in his determination to use his Presidential authority to bring about necessary change and social justice.

So Obama is declaring new national parks to add to the legacy of our environment, and prevent exploitation by private industry that would lead to mining and other destructive activities that undermine nature, just as Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton did when they were in the White House.

Obama is also moving to force many corporations, which have been skirting the rules on pay, to make them fork up overtime pay to workers who deserve it, but have been denied it by manipulative companies wishing to cheat them of their deserved compensation.

Obama has also taken action to promote a better future for young people, including working to convince them that they need to sign up for ObamaCare, as they are not immune from injury and illness, although young people tend to think they are indestructible, and do not understand that one illness or accident could put them into a total negative credit situation long term.

And Obama is trying to provide hope and opportunity for a particularly endangered species, young black males, who have had a far greater likelihood of a life cut short by violence, a life more likely to lead to prison and drug addiction, but lives that can be turned around by appropriate intervention by those who value every person as one who should be given equal chance for success and happiness.

This is the kind of President we need, one who cares about us, not about powerful, wealthy interests, who are never satisfied, no matter how much wealth and power they already have! This is a country and government of, by and for the people, not just the elite, powerful, and wealthy!

ObamaCare Vs Government Shutdown

Ronald 24 Comments

ObamaCare on its first day has shown the following results:

10 million people visited exchange websites.
4.7 million visited the government website for ObamaCare
7.5 million visits to New York’s exchange website
16,000 hits per second in California to the exchange website.
Almost 2,200 accounts created in Nevada and 1,200 in Kentucky.

It is clear that millions of Americans are excited about gaining health care, a basic human right, long overdue!

But meanwhile, the Tea Party Republicans have held America hostage, and Speaker of the House John Boehner has allowed that to happen, ignoring his constitutional duties as second in line to the Presidency under the Presidential Succession Act of 1947!

And as a result:

Visitors to national parks and the Smithsonian museums were turned away, although veterans of World War II knocked down barriers and occupied the World War II Memorial in Washington, DC.

The National Institutes of Health has suspended testing for children who have cancer.

The Food and Drug Administration has suspended examination of overseas produce and seafood coming into the country, creating a possibility of food borne diseases which could kill many Americans.

800,000 government employees are not being paid, and may not get back pay.

Washington DC government is crippled, without approval of a budget.

These are just examples of the disaster being created!

The only good thing coming out of this is to make Americans aware of the fact that our federal government DOES make a difference in people’s lives, and we take government and its employees and agencies for granted.

Hopefully, average Americans will start to appreciate and understand the importance of government in our lives, and stop believing the anarchists who make up the Tea Party Movement.

And hopefully, Speaker Boehner will finally show “cajones” and repudiate these right wing extremists and agree to end the crisis that the Republican Party has created out of spite!

Great Republican Presidents And Infrastructure Investment In The Future

Ronald 6 Comments

As we come up on Presidents Day Weekend and Week, it is a good time to reflect on the record of the most outstanding Republican Presidents, and how they made great investments in infrastructure, in many ways their greatest contribution.

Abraham Lincoln made the building of the transcontinental railroad a high priority, although the Civil War slowed up the completion of the project, the finishing of the Union Pacific Railroad, to the year 1869, four years after his death. He saw the transcontinental railroad as a promoter of economic growth, and to make America truly a nation unified by a massive transportation system.

Dwight D. Eisenhower saw the importance of the development of the Interstate Highway System, and committed to it in the 1950s, as a way to promote economic growth and national security, and the continuous expansion of that system is a testimony to his commitment to this greatest of all public works projects.

Theodore Roosevelt saw the preservation of the environment through the building of a great national park system as good for the unity and growth of the nation, and he presided over the quadrupling of the our parks and other nature sites as the long range commitment to our future, as a nation which cared about its natural resources and respected the significance of nature.

Each of these three greatest Republican Presidents, about 40-50 years apart in their Presidencies, made a contribution to the future of our nation which cannot be measured by normal parameters. No wonder they are ranked as among the top ten Presidents in polls of intelligent observers of the office of the American Presidency!

Earth Day, The Environment, And Republicans From TR And Nixon To James Inhofe And Mitt Romney!

Ronald Leave a comment

The Republican Party under Theodore Roosevelt a century ago promoted conservation and growth of national parks.

The Republican Party under Richard Nixon promoted the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, and expanded on the air and water pollution legislation of Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson.

The Republican Party under Ronald Reagan, despite his wish to destroy the Environmental Protection Agency, and having a terrible record on the environment, possibly the worst of modern times, actually came to realize the dangers of global warming, which became part of the national security agenda in 1985 and after.

The Republican Party under George H. W. Bush, and then Democrat Bill Clinton, continued to deal with the issue of global warming.

It seems clear that once Al Gore, an environmental champion before, during, and after serving as Vice President under Bill Clinton, lost the Presidential Election of 2000 in the Supreme Court, it became the clarion call of those who would deny global warming and climate change, to push against any such crusade, and to condemn environmentalists on principle, much of it based on fake science promoted by right wing Evangelical Christians, with their leading champion being Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, but certainly joined by others in the Republican Party in both houses of Congress.

So we have even Mitt Romney now straddling the fence, refusing to take a strong stand on the environment, global warming, and climate change, and about to give a commencement speech next month at the late Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University in Virginia, where denial of environmental crisis, and even of evolution, runs rampant.

Look how far the GOP has fallen from the time of TR and Nixon to the present–a true national tragedy playing itself out, and certain to have a negative impact on the future of this country and the planet!

How America Is “Socialist”, And We Would Not Want It Any Other Way!

Ronald 4 Comments

Many Americans are under the false assumption that “Socialism'” is a bad thing, and that it is the same thing as the former Soviet Union, or Castro’s Cuba, or Communist China, or Communist North Korea.

This is pure ignorance, and instead, one should look to the many democracies in Europe, who have “socialist” aspects of their political and economic systems.

But even beyond that, think about what it would be like if we did not have “socialism” in our political and economic system.

How would we like to do without the following:

1, Social Security
2. Medicare and Medicaid
3. The Post Office
4. Public Schools and Colleges and Universities
5. Libraries
6. Water Treatment Systems
7. Recreational Centers, including Gyms, Parks, Beaches
8. National Parks
9. Public Transit Systems, Trains, Subways, Buses
10.Police, Firefighters, Sanitation Services, Public Hospitals
11.Military Services and Protection
12.Labor Protections
13.Food and Drug Regulations
14.Environmental Protections
15.Financial Institutions Regulations
16.Transportation Safety Regulations
17.Housing Regulations
18.Energy Regulations
19.Military Veterans Protections
20.Homeland Security Protections

If one believes that all of the above should be privatized, as some conservatives and Republicans advocate, then we have a basic misunderstanding of what the best government is: a mixed socialist and capitalistic system in the public interest, instead of a business atmosphere which puts profits and business techniques above human beings and their welfare! Quality and cost efficiency require a combination of capitalism with socialism!

The Republican Assault On The Environment!

Ronald Leave a comment

The Republican Party has a heritage of Presidents who promoted the environment, but now it is being totally abandoned by the GOP House of Representatives and the Republican Presidential candidates, in their mad dash to support the oil and coal industries and others which pollute the environment and undermine Americans’ health and well being!

Theodore Roosevelt, while President from 1901-1909, became the supreme conservationist and environmentalist, promoting a quadrupling of national parks, calling conservation conferences at the White House, and working to cut industrial damage to the environment. The historian Douglas Brinkley has written a massive work hailing the environmental commitment of this second greatest Republican President, only ranking behind Abraham Lincoln in historical reputation!

Sixty years after Theodore Roosevelt left office, President Richard Nixon (1969-1974) became a major advocate of the environment, through the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970, and his appointment of former Alaska Governor Walter Hickel as his Secretary of the Interior.

Twenty years after Nixon entered office, President George H. W. Bush (1989-1993) was able to get through the Clean Air Act of 1990, recognizing the great problem that had been created by industry and needing more federal intervention.

And now twenty years after Bush I became President, the party they led is backing away from any concern with the environment. It is not just Rick Perry or Michele Bachmann, but even Mitt Romney, who had earlier backed environmental protection as Governor of Massachusetts, has given up his principles in the pursuit to win the GOP Presidential nomination and appeal to Tea Party looniness! Legislation has been proposed to allow uranium mining in the Grand Canyon, a most reckless action, which thankfully can be prevented by the Democratic controlled Senate and a Democratic President using his veto.

This is a tragedy of massive proportions, and TR and Nixon must be turning over in their graves, and Bush I certainly must be very disturbed privately at the abandonment of the most important heritage America can offer to the future–clean air, clean water, clean soil!