People Of Color

The War On Knowledge Is Horrifying And Extremely Dangerous!

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The war on knowledge is in full swing in much of America, particularly “Red” America, including the megastates of Texas and Florida, but also many other states.

War has been declared on teachers and what they teach in their classrooms!

War has been declared on librarians and book shelves in public and school libraries!

There is a constant barrage of attacks on so called “woke” ideas, which means to have compassion, empathy, and concern about those less privileged in a society where wealthy white people prevail in control, and want to limit diversity, inclusion, and equity, for poor people, immigrants, women, people of color, and gays, lesbians, and transexuals!

The hate being promoted by Ron DeSantis in Florida is escalating elsewhere, and threatening the very existence of marginal groups, and encouraging breakdown of mental health, victimizing young people in particular, but really promoting, ultimately, a return to white supremacy and advocating Christian dominance in a society that is supposed to be one of separation of church and state!

If DeSantis, Donald Trump, or their ilk win back control of both houses of Congress and the White House in 2024, then the fear that many Americans had during the early days of World War II, that we would have American Fascism taking over, maybe in the name of aviator Charles Lindbergh back then, could very well come to pass!

American freedom and democracy could end, and who could say that there would not be those politicians who would not come up with a variation of the “Final Solution” of Adolf Hitler?

This is not light banter, but rather makes clear the very serious and growing threat to basic civil liberties, including freedom of speech, press, religion, and assembly!

We could see another “Holocaust” as people of color experienced in America with widespread discrimination and brutality visited against native Americans, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, and non Christians in varying degrees, history that people like DeSantis do not want to be taught!

It is time for patriotic Americans to make clear that we are not going to allow those promoting hate and division to triumph in the future, so the upcoming elections in 2024 and beyond are not a time to sit on the sidelines and just hope for a miracle!

Actions are necessary to insure the future of American democracy and freedom, and the empathy, sincerity, decency, and compassion that Joe Biden and others like him promote, MUST triumph for survival of the nation we love!

Ron DeSantis Is A Right Wing Threat, Undermining Basic Human Rights, Education, Health Care, And Harming Public Safety!

Ronald 4 Comments

Florida, the state I have lived in for 34 years, since 1989, has become a right wing threat under Governor Ron DeSantis.

DeSantis has banned an elective African American Studies Advanced Placement Course in Florida High Schools, claiming it has no educational value.

DeSantis has fired an elected Prosecutor, Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren, for publicly disagreeing with the governor’s stand on abortion rights and transgender health care.

DeSantis has cracked down on the Disney Company and its control of its properties in Central Florida, because they disagree with his policies and actions.

DeSantis is planning to promote a policy of guns “open carry”, without any permit or training or licensing, in all public places, which will insure mass murder incidents occurring ever more as happened at the Parkland Florida School Massacre in 2018 and the Orlando Florida “Pulse” Massacre in 2015.

DeSantis is banning books in public schools and libraries, and threatening prosecution for teachers or librarians who defy him. This is censorship, totally against American democratic values, but it will not stop students from inquiry about all kinds of issues, but has the effect of intimidation.

DeSantis has as Florida State Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo who is undermining protection for seniors or children or anyone else with the COVID 19 Pandemic, as he works with DeSantis on banning of masks and vaccinations as Florida policy.

DeSantis has fired school board members in several counties, and appointed Republican replacements that are dictating policies and curriculums in local schools.

DeSantis has set out to destroy the New College of Florida, in Sarasota, a liberal university which has received great honors and reputation. He has put a right wing extremist onto its board, and the President of the university has been fired, and the plan is to fire faculty members who do not fit the version of DeSantis regarding what is proper education.

DeSantis has interfered with college professors at Florida state universities, dictating what can be expressed in classes and put into class syllabi, and working to end tenure rights.

DeSantis has banned any protection or safety for gay and transgender children, which will promote suicides, as his puritan view of sexuality permeates the state of Florida.

DeSantis has declared war on empathy, decency, compassion, and is more concerned about so called “guilt” that white students might feel, totally preposterous, and at the same time, having no concern about the effect on students of color.

DeSantis’s war on abortion rights is also taking away a woman’s control over her body, putting Florida into the crosshairs of right wing control by an authoritarian minded man who wants to be President of the United States.

DeSantis also formed a political stunt about immigration, shipping Venezuelan migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, promoting his nativism agenda.

DeSantis has declared war on people of color; science and medicine; education and libraries; gays, lesbians and transgender individuals; women’s rights over their own bodies; elected officials who defy him; corporations who disagree with his views; immigrants; and he has shown no concern about public safety from unstable individuals who will have license to kill innocent citizens with firearms.

DeSantis is promoting intolerance, hatred, division, and destroying the reputation of Florida, at a time when the cost of living is high and housing prices are out of sight; the state is trying to recover from Hurricane Ian; and the public health threat from COVID 19 is still killing Floridians every day.

And since he did not react to recent examples of antisemitism displayed by White Supremacists and Neo Nazis, that is another great concern.

But his lust for power is unchecked, and he must be challenged and stopped, before he becomes an ever greater threat to the nation and the world beyond just the state of Florida.

All decent, humane people must rise up and resist, even as DeSantis had a law passed barring demonstrations that might block traffic, so one can expect the possibility of the use of police forces to crack down on the freedom of assembly.

This is not a time to sit on the sidelines, as what is happening in Florida could become the future of the entire nation, if Ron DeSantis was to go on and to win the Presidential Election of 2024!

International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2023, And Dangerous Nick Fuentes!

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Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, marking 78 years since on this day in 1945, the Soviet Union’s troops opened up and took control of the Nazi Concentration Camp at Auschwitz, Poland.

This was the horrendous beginning of the exposure that Nazi Germany had arranged for the death of 6 million Jews, and 7 million others, including gypsies, homosexuals, Catholics, and people of every occupied nation in Europe, in a multitude of concentration camps!

The shock of this mass loss of life by plan and evil deed has a significance that one can never be allowed to forget, as in our times, there is an increasing amount of Antisemism all over the world, and including the United States, which has seen tremendous escalation of hate!

And we have young antisemites, Nazi Germany supporters, racists, white supremacists, and Holocaust Deniers, who use the internet and social media to incite hate and violence!

One such person is 24 year old Nick Fuentes, who, ironically has a Mexican American father, but sows hate, and was invited to dinner by Donald Trump at Mar A Lago with Kanye West! This young hoodlum is inciting young men who are Incels, who hate women but are not gay or bisexual, supposedly, and are clearly mentally ill, to threaten women, Jews, and people of color!

Nick Fuentes is a “clear and present danger”, using the internet in a manner to provoke violence, and it is hoped that the FBI is monitoring him, as this is a potential Adolf Hitler in our midst, who cannot be allowed to provoke violence, and avoid accountability!

Ron DeSantis’s War Against Truth, Facts, And Vulnerable Victims!

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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, judged by many as a so called “Frontrunner” for the Presidency in 2024, is seen by decent people as a real threat to basic truth and facts, and as a person who promotes right wing groups and ideology to undermine the freedoms and rights of endangered Americans!

When one looks back to past demagogues, DeSantis comes closest to the late Alabama Governor George Wallace, who gained the backing of one seventh of the American people in his third party Presidential campaign of 1968, railing against African Americans and basic civil rights. But the danger is that DeSantis actually could end up the nominee of the Republican Party in 2024!

DeSantis has shown his demagogic tendencies by promoting censorship of educational curriculums in public schools, as well as at Florida public universities and colleges. DeSantis wants to prevent the teaching of the truth and facts about white supremacy, the reality of slavery and Jim Crow segregation, because of his assertion that it might upset some young white children!

He also wants to suppress the reality of sexuality, including the facts and truth about students, who are gay, lesbian, or transgender, endangering their emotional stability, as he demands teachers and counselors refuse to consult regarding the turmoil many young people are going through daily!

DeSantis has also made undocumented immigrants another target, sending some from Texas borders to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts without notice, a clear political stunt that promotes fear and hatred of those escaping persecution and crime in the nations of Central America!

Ironically, today is the 100th anniversary of the Rosewood Massacre in Northern Florida, where a massacre of horrendous proportions occurred, destroying an African American town, and little was done to compensate victims, and a decision to cover up the reality of what had happened, until 1993.

Thirty years ago, Democratic Governor Lawton Chiles arranged for some reparations for the few surviving elderly people who were still alive 70 years later, and for descendants of those who were victims, to be given financial support for a college education.

But will Ron DeSantis acknowledge it in 2023, when he seems so concerned that young white children might feel guilt, a totally preposterous assertion? It is the reason for his desire to suppress the history of racial discrimination, not only in Florida, but elsewhere, as part of his push to ignore the crimes against Native Americans and other people of color as well!

DeSantis is also emboldening ignorant and biased parents, to suppress through control of school boards and library boards, the enlightenment of children to confront the issues of racial discrimination and sexuality, and tolerance of immigration.

For public libraries to censor any literature or other material focusing on these matters is reprehensible, and does not allow for a true understanding of reality. Instead, DeSantis’s goal and that of the Right Wing Extremists that he supports, is to promote narrow minded bigotry and ignorance in a nation that needs to confront reality, not be taught propaganda that covers up truth and facts!

Affirmative Action On The Block Before The Supreme Court

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Affirmative Action has been a social policy for the past half century, and has allowed many people of color and women, who had been denied equality throughout American history, to have the opportunity to advance educationally, and enter many fields of work where they had been denied entrance.

Unfortunately, others, who were Caucasian, or male, or even Asian American ethnicity, lost opportunities that might have been theirs if there was no affirmative action programs.

So this issue is very complicated, but in the long run of history, it could be argued that affirmative action has been a positive concept, as unfortunately, there will always be those who are on the short end of any social change.

But, it is hard to believe that those who have been denied have not managed to succeed, just in a different manner and circumstance, as life is a challenge, and one cannot always gain everything one wants.

So, overall, it would be helpful if some form of affirmative action survived in the Supreme Court, as it now considers this issue, although it seems unlikely that it will survive this right wing Court in the present circumstances!

Six Months To Midterm Elections: Time To Emphasize The Danger Of Republican Extremists!

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In six months, the Midterm Congressional and Gubernatorial Elections of 2022 will occur.

Polls indicate disillusionment with Joe Biden and the Democratic Party, due to inflation and its effects, and the fact that there is stalemate with the evenly divided Senate and the small Democratic edge in the House of Representatives.

There is concern felt about the danger of Republican extremism in the states and on the Congressional level.

The party has allowed itself to promote policies that victimize women, people of color, immigrants, gays and transgender individuals.

They are promoting censorship and declaring war on public education and libraries in the name of advocacy of Christian values in a nation based on separation of church and state.

There is a strong strain of pro Russian, pro Vladimir Putin, support and a growing isolationist spirit, which endangers the alliances of the United States in international relations, most notably the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

The cancer of Donald Trump still infuses the party rhetoric and obsequious support of a man who still contends that the election was stolen, and attempts are being pursued to insure limitations on voting and on control of election machinery for the upcoming Presidential Election of 2024.

American democracy and basic common decency, humanity, empathy and compassion are under attack, and the Democrats must pursue an aggressive counter reaction to the evils represented by an opposition party which is authoritarian oriented, and Fascist in nature!

The whole future of the American nation is at stake, if the Republican Party, as now constituted, wins control of state and national governments, as likely it will be a point of no return!

So Joe Biden and all Democrats must go on the offensive and make clear the dangers of Republican extremism!

As Trump Asks For Help From Putin To Slander Biden, Republicans Remain Silent!

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The Republican Party has become a true party of treason and sedition, and not only because of their lack of concern about the January 6 Insurrection.

Donald Trump has appealed to Vladimir Putin to help him slander Joe Biden through unwarranted attacks on Hunter Biden, and Republicans enmasse, with a very few exceptions, remain silent.

And there are Republicans who support Putin, rather than Ukraine, and this includes Fox News Channel and other right wing channels, a true example of treason and sedition.

The Republican Party, the party of anti Soviet views throughout the years of the Cold War, has become complicit in support of the Russian Federation and its autocratic leader.

The Republican Party is backing autocracy against democracy, and denying basic human rights to people of color; women: gays, lesbians and transgenders; labor; immigrants; and the poor.

They have become a party of obscene, hateful, despicable behavior with no shame!

Texas And Florida Governors Are Promoting Mass Death By Reckless Policy On Vaccine Mandates!

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The second and third largest states in population, with about 50 million people, are Texas and Florida.

Their Republican governors, Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis, have demonstrated they are totally reckless in their attack on vaccine mandates, including dictating not only to school boards, but also all private businesses.

Both governors are promoting mass death, with 68,000 deaths and counting in Texas, and 56,000 deaths and counting in Florida.

So about one out of every six deaths is in those two states alone, as the COVID 19 Pandemic has killed about 700,000 Americans and counting.

And people of color are even more often the victims, and both governors have no concern, as they both work to be potential Republican Presidential candidates in 2024.

Both Abbott and DeSantis will go down in history as two of the absolutely worse governors in American history, and not just on vaccine mandates, but on so many other issues, including racism, women’s rights including abortion, and refusal to have serious attempts to promote gun regulations.

Additionally, both states are trying to deny people of color, poor people, young people, and the elderly the right to vote!

The Supreme Court Is Undermining American Democracy And Basic Human Rights!

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America is in a tragic situation, of a nation clearly more progressive than the Supreme Court, which has now been stacked with 6 solid conservatives out to take away voting rights, abortion rights, and protect corporations at the expense of workers.

At times, some of the 6 Republican appointees surprise, but clearly, the rights of people of color, women, labor, environmental causes, and basic civil liberties are under constant threat.

And the thought that five of the 6 Republican appointments to the Supreme Court were made by Presidents (George W. Bush, Donald Trump) who did NOT win the popular vote, but rather in contested elections, were awarded the Electoral College majority in 2000 and 2016!

We are in a crisis situation, where the Court is undermining American democracy and basic human rights!

Celebrating The Real Meaning Of July 4–Promotion Of Freedom, Equality, And Democracy!

Ronald 2 Comments

Independence Day–July 4–is a holiday to celebrate the promotion of Freedom, Equality, and Democracy!

The 245th Independence Day is a sobering day, as the Republican Party is trying mightily to cover up the Fascist authoritarian attempt of Donald Trump and his treasonous and seditionist supporters to destroy the Constitution and rule of law, as they did on January 6, 2021, with the US Capitol Insurrection.

The Republican Party is also trying to destroy the ability of people of color to vote, something enshrined in the Constitution by the 15th Amendment in 1870, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The right wing Supreme Court, with five of the six conservatives appointed by Presidents who lost the popular vote, and the sixth one (Clarence Thomas) accused of sexual abuse, along with Brett Kavanaugh, has also worked to destroy the Voting Rights Act.

And the danger exists that if one Democratic Senator is unable to vote on any legislative action or were to pass away, the possibility of the Democrats losing control of the Senate to Mitch McConnell is a horrifying reality.

And were Stephen Breyer to continue to ignore the need for his retirement from the Supreme Court, to insure that Joe Biden can select his replacement before the midterm elections, the threat exists that the Republicans then, if not sooner, would gain control of the Senate, and we could face a 7-2 Court, instead of a 6-3 Court!

On this 158th Anniversary of the third and last day of that turning point of the Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg, the tremendous sacrifices of the three day battle which insured the eventual victory of freedom over slavery, let us NOT forget that the battle to preserve freedom, equality and democracy goes on!