September 11

What America Needs Today: Another Mr. Rogers To Promote Love, Compassion, Empathy, And Tolerance

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Last night, this blogger and author had the privilege to attend the documentary–“Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”–about the life and career of Fred Rogers, known as Mr. Rogers on PBS for over thirty years, on his show “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood”.

Fred Rogers was a beautiful human being, who promoted good self image among children, emphasizing how each of us is unique and special.

He promoted love, compassion, empathy, and tolerance on issues of race, religion, sexuality, gender, and disabilities.

He made the lives of innumerable children, now adults, far better than they might have been without his show on PBS.

He helped children through the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in 1968; the Challenger Astronaut Disaster of 1986; and the evil of September 11.

He promoted people accepting each other as they are, and looking for the good in people.

His show, through puppets and supporting cast, made children and their parents happier and more secure than they would have been otherwise.

In a time as now, in 2018, we so desperately need a Mr. Rogers to overcome the horrible sins of hatred, greed, selfishness, racism, nativism, misogyny, Islamophobia, antisemitism, prejudice against the disabled, and the poor of all backgrounds, represented by the total evil of Donald Trump and his supporting cast and base.

We need a political leader who will come to the forefront and overcome the cancer and absolute evil of Donald Trump, and take us in a different direction.

It was hard to watch this documentary and not have tears and despair, but there are other Fred Rogers out there, maybe not yet showing up in government, but playing their smaller roles as teachers, nurses, doctors, social workers, and others dedicated to making life better for all of us, not just the elite wealthy who could not give a damn about anyone but themselves!

Tom Hanks will portray Fred Rogers in a film to come out in 2019, entitled “You Are My Friend”.

The Disaster Of Puerto Rico, 4,645 Dead, More Than September 11: A Violation Of Human Rights Perpetrated By The Trump Administration

Ronald 3 Comments

The tragic disaster of Puerto Rico, whose population are US Citizens, is a massive violation of human rights perpetrated by the Trump Administration.

The total of 4.645 dead, not the 64 first stated, is an unbelievable loss of life, nearly two and a half times the loss of life in Hurricane Katrina (1833), and one and a half times the losses of September 11 (2996).

And yet, nothing is said or no apologies offered, or mistakes acknowledged, by Donald Trump or any of his underlings in the cabinet, and also in the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which has the primary responsibility in natural disasters.

There is no conscience, no sorrow, no regrets, as Trump and his advisers are openly racist against Puerto Ricans.

If this loss of life had occurred in Texas or Florida, we would have heard mass denunciation of the lack of response, but the Republican Party in Congress has nothing to say about this great tragedy.

And with the hurricane season upon us, and reconstruction of facilities not accomplished in Puerto Rico, there is great fear of the final decimation of the island, which deserves equal treatment and consideration as much as any state and any other group of people.

If the government cannot guarantee the safety and security of its own population, then the government has failed the ultimate test—protection of national security of all of its citizens.

On this ground alone, Donald Trump and his ilk should be forced out of office, and indicted, convicted, and imprisoned for basic violation of human rights!

Proof Of How Far To The Right The Republican Party Has Gone: Rudy Giuliani And Mike Huckabee In 2008 And 2018

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When one looks back at the 2008 Presidential campaign, when Senator John McCain of Arizona was the Republican Presidential nominee against Democratic nominee Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, one realizes just how far Right the Republican Party has become in just a decade.

At that time, this observer recalled thinking that former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee were quite moderate as compared to most of the candidates competing with both of them for the Republican Presidential nomination.

Giuliani was ahead in polls for the nomination in 2007, and came across as quite liberal in many ways, and his Mayoralty record made him look impressive, particularly after September 11, occurring near the end of his last term.

Huckabee won the Iowa caucuses in 2008 and was third in total delegates behind McCain and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, and came across as quite rational and not as an extremist.

Today, ten years later, both of these men have seen their reputations end up in tatters, as they both are among the most despicable supporters of Donald Trump. Giuliani has clearly engaged in helping Trump in his corruption, and is an embarrassment to his own reputation.

Huckabee has become a right wing extremist evangelical pastor, and his daughter, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, has done a horrific performance as the White House Press Secretary, actually worse than Sean Spicer, the previous Press Secretary in the first six months of the Trump Presidency.

Law Professors, Lawyers, And Donald Trump: A Time For Patriotism Over Sycophancy

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In the midst of the national and international crisis of Donald Trump’s “love affair” with Vladimir Putin, we are seeing law professors and lawyers who are acting like sycophants, and in the process harming their reputations, at a time when patriotism should win out over sycophancy.

Law Professors, including Alan Dershowitz and Jonathan Turley are finding ways to justify Trump’s illegal, immoral, and unconstitutional behavior, while Laurence Tribe is adding to his reputation as a respectable and legitimate scholar.

Meanwhile, well known attorney Joseph diGenova is promoting conspiracy theories about the “Deep State” and is undermining the FBI and the intelligence agencies, while Theodore Olson is showing how dignified, decent and credible he has always been.

And these are just the best known law professors and attorneys, splitting and dividing, as we learn who the legitimate law professors and lawyers really are, in this greatest of all constitutional crises.

Dershowitz, a former professor at Harvard Law School, and a renowned attorney in the O J Simpson case and many others, has said that Special Counsel Robert Mueller should never have been appointed, and that a “witch hunt” is being conducted against Donald Trump, using the exact language of the President. Dershowitz sees no evidence of any crimes by Trump, but also does not see it as likely that Trump would fire Mueller, although last June, Trump came close to firing Mueller, a month into the investigation. This is crazy legal judgment, and makes one wonder what Dershowitz’s whole purpose is.

Turley is a professor of law at George Washington University, claims there is no evidence of collusion by Trump with Russia, and he agreees with the idea of a second Special Counsel to investigate the FBI, a mind boggling example of sycophancy by Turley, undermining the ability to investigate the illegal actions by Trump. Turley has become a favorite to be on Fox News Channel, and it undermines his whole career as a law professor.

Tribe, a renowned professor at Harvard Law School, has been a strong critic of Donald Trump, and has advocated his impeachment, and is publishing a new book on that topic, out in May, but already number one on the Amazon list of best selling books. Tribe has been a credit to his profession and to the law school community for decades, and is not selling his soul to the Right Wing which has no problem with the disgraceful Presidency of Donald Trump.

diGenova has long been seen as an attorney who relies on conspiracy theories and undermining of respect for the law, so it is not surprising that he has now joined the Trump legal team, out to destroy the FBI and the intelligence community, and overlook the facts on the case against Trump.

And Olson is a well respected attorney, who defended George W. Bush in the 2000 Presidential election controversy; then lost his wife Barbara in the plane that crashed into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001; followed by joining fellow attorney David Boies, his rival in the 2000 election controversy in fighting the case for gay marriage in court, leading to the Supreme Court decisoin in 2015. Olson has rejected the idea of joining the Trump defense team, and adds to his stature by doing so.

This is a time for patriotism and justice over sycophancy and demagoguery, so Tribe and Olson are to be commended, while Dershowitz, Turley, and diGenova are to be condemned!

American History Since The Civil War: President’s Party Loses 32 House Seats And 2 Senate Seats In First Midterm Election

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American history tells us that the party of the President regularly loses seats in the first, and all but once in the second (when it occurs) Presidential term of office.

The one major exception was 1934, when in the midst of the Great Depression, and FDR’s New Deal programs, the Democratic party gained 9 seats in the Senate and 9 seats in the House of Representatives.

Also, in 2002, after September 11, George W. Bush and the Republican Party gained 2 seats in the Senate and 8 in the House of Representatives.

And Bill Clinton and the Democratic Party, in the second term midterm election in 1998, gained 5 House seats, with no change in the US Senate.

That is the total historical record since the Civil War, more than 150 years, so it is clear that the Democrats will gain seats in the midterm elections of 2018.

The average since the Civil War is 32 House seats and 2 Senate seats, and if that happens precisely, the Democrats will have gained the House, needing only 24 seats, and the average historically being 23 seats, when one includes both first and second term midterm elections of a President.

But also, if the Senate were to see just the 2 seat gain as the average, then the Democrats would have the majority with 51 seats, which can be brought about by gaining the contested seats of Arizona, where Jeff Flake is retiring, and Nevada, where Dean Heller is seen as the most endangered Republican in 2018.

But to accomplish that, the Democrats must produce, miraculously. the retention of Senate seats in 10 Trump states in 2016–Missouri, North Dakota, Indiana, Montana, West Virginia, Florida, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ohio, and also retain the Minnesota seat recently vacated by Al Franken, and the New Jersey Senate seat of Bob Menendez, who faces another criminal trial after a hung jury. That will be a tall order for sure!

2017 Horrible Year Of Reversal, In Many Ways The Most Tragic Year For America Since 1968!

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In the past half century, since the tumultuous year of 1968, acknowledged by many scholars and experts as the most significant single year in American history since 1945 (the end of World War II), America has gone through much turmoil and tragedy. This includes Richard Nixon and Watergate; the end of the Vietnam War; the rise of terrorism in the 1990s, leading up to September 11, 2001; two other unwinnable wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; and the Great Recession of 2007-2009, which finally has led to full employment and an economic revival after nearly ten years, but with many Americans left behind.

It has also been a fifty year period of much progess toward civil and human rights amid massive social change , with the Barack Obama years being seen as a positive time in so many ways.

But now, 2017 has revealed that we are in a dramatic retreat from much of the reform and change that has gone on since 1968, and the nation and the world are in total chaos and anarchy, due to the rise of a truly Fascist wannabe, Donald Trump, who has clearly stolen the Presidential election of 2016 and is in process of destroying all of the positive changes of the past 50 years.

Domestic and foreign policy, and constitutional law is in revolution, and 2018 will likely be a continuation of the nightmare of 2017, but with the hope that at least Donald Trump will be forced out of office in some manner, not yet clear.

But the likelihood that Vice President Mike Pence will become the 46th President sometime in 2018, bodes ill for the future, with his extreme right wing evangelical conservative beliefs, which would make him more conservative and extremist than even the most conservative Presidents of the past century, Calvin Coolidge and Ronald Reagan.

So we who are progressives have a lot of work to do next year to attempt to bring America back from the brink of destruction perpetrated by a man who is the most evil President in American history; and a party which has tarnished the reputation historically of Abraham, Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and so many others who proudly carried the Republican mantle in the past 150 years until now.

It is time for progressives to fight with all their energy and strength to return this nation to the great advancements promoted by a century of Presidents and Congresses from the time of Theodore Roosevelt to Barack Obama.

Donald Trump’s Authoritarian Bent Grows

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Donald Trump’s authoritarian bent is growing daily.

He intervenes to say what should happen to Bowe Bergdahl in the criminal justice system, and it backfires on him.

He intervenes to say that the terrorist who killed eight people and wounded twelve in lower Manhattan should get the death penalty, after first suggesting that he be sent to Guantanamo Naval Base, where terrorists from September 11 remain housed, and that insures complexities in the upcoming trail of this perpetrator.

He intervenes to say that the Justice Department and the FBI should follow his desires, and go after Hillary Clinton and the Democrats, with his constant chant of “Lock Her Up” still being mouthed by his crazy supporters in the general population.

He intervenes to attack the news media for reporting FACTS, and the judiciary for going against him on his travel bans, when it is their job to report, and to follow the Constitution, not the President’s orders.

Donald Trump is emerging more and more as a Fascist, who needs to stopped in his quest for absolute power before it is too late, and the Republican Party in Congress will be condemned in history if they do not step in and stop him pronto.

We are not a dictatorship, and Donald Trump is not an Emperor or King, and he must be put in his place.

Thankfully, the Mueller investigation is moving forward toward ultimate accountability and justice, which should consider not just removal from the Oval Office for Donald Trump, but prison time for him and his son in law and son as well.

Most Significant Years Since 1945: 1968, 1989, 2001 And Now 2017

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When historians look back at the year 2017, they will agree that this year of Donald Trump, and the tumult and disarray it has engendered, will make 2017 a path breaking year in American history.

Every year is significant in some way or other, but 2017 will join four other years since the end of World War II as a turning point year, with the inauguration of Donald Trump, and the tumultuous events leading to the possible removal of Trump sometime in 2018 or beyond, due to the criminal activities of the President and many of his cabinet officers.

1945, the end of World War II, the atomic bombing of Japan, the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the evolution of the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union, will always stand as an especially pivotal year.

1968, the year of assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy, of the Tet Offensive in the Vietnam War which caused the withdrawal of Lyndon B. Johnson from the Presidential race, the disarray and tumult in America over civil rights and Vietnam, the election of Richard Nixon, has long been considered an historic year.

1989, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of the Soviet empire in Eastern Europe, the Tienanmen Square Massacre in China, and the inauguration of George H. W. Bush make that year historic.

2001, the year of the September 11 attacks which made us aware that we were no longer safe from worldwide terrorism, and the inauguration and crisis leadership short term of George W. Bush after a highly contested 2000 Presidential election, also always seen as a turning point year.

The Urgency Of Gun Control Legislation To Stop “War Zone” Syndrome, And Save Multitude Of Lives, While Preserving Reasonable Gun Rights

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The shock of the Las Vegas Massacre, following the Orlando Pulse Massacre, the Sandy Hook Elementary School Massacre, and so many others, demands the attention of Congress, as the urgency of gun control legislation presents itself.

We must stop the “War Zone” Syndrome that has led to more deaths by domestic terrorists than on September 11, if one counts all the death since 2001.

No one is saying that the Second Amendment should be destroyed, although it is clear that the Founding Fathers did not intend for all citizens to have firearms, as the amendment discusses a “well regulated militia”, and not the concept of everyone carrying firearms, even those who are mentally ill or have had criminal convictions.

But to demand a return of the Brady Bill, named after Ronald Reagan’s Press Secretary, James Brady, permanently disabled by the Assassination attempt against Reagan in 1981, but not renewed under George W. Bush in 2004, is not to ask too much.

To demand that background checks be done on gun purchasers; that loopholes that allow people to buy weapons online and at Walmarts and at gun shows without any search about their backgrounds be ended; that mentally disturbed people not be allowed to purchase weapons; and that the concept of allowing the expansion of gun silencers legislation, allowing gun owners to be able to fire at will without any sound being made for the potential victims to be aware of the sounds so they could duck or evade; or other reasonable measures, should be seen as sensible.

We have the highest gun violence rate of any Western civilized nation, comparing to Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and we must work to lower the death rate from suicide as well as violence against innocent civilians.

This should not be a partisan issue, as the Republicans, as well as the Democrats, need to see the issue of public safety as their major responsibility, and the National Rifle Association and its despicable leadership including Wayne La Pierre, who only are concerned with profits, must be defeated in their effect on our government policies.

All kinds of activities are licensed in our society, and guns need to be regulated in a responsible manner.

The 166th Anniversary Of The “National Newspaper” With More Pulitzer Prizes Than Any Other: The New York Times

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Today is the 166th Anniversary of a treasured newspaper, seen as the “National Newspaper” of America, the New York Times.

Founded on September 18, 1851, the New York Times has recorded America’s history and that of the world through the Civil War, the Gilded Age, the Progressive Era, The Great Depression and the New Deal, the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, The Vietnam War, The Watergate Scandal, The Reagan and Clinton Era, September 11, the Obama Era, and now the Trump Presidency and the challenges it presents to a free press.

Through it all, it has been the leader in news reporting and scoops often unique from others, and has been under attack by those who are angry that it exposes evil and wrong doing so often.

The New York Times has made its mistakes and had some stories later demonstrated to be untrue or manufactured, and is certainly far from perfect, but what source is perfect?

But it has admitted its shortcomings when they have become evident.

It is the newspaper of record, with the best index for researchers, writers, and historians. It has won 122 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other newspaper, and has the highest paper circulation of any metropolitan daily newspaper in America.

It is the only paper to have such an index going back to its founding in 1851. Any one doing newspaper research would need to search the archives of the NY Times as a beginning point for other research.

It has a slogan: “All The News That’s Fit To Print”, very appropriate for a great newspaper that has changed knowledge by its efforts in all fields of learning and public interest.