Month: September 2013

Ted Cruz Shows His True Colors: Ambition, Greed, And Maniacal Egotism!

Ronald 7 Comments

Texas Senator Ted Cruz is extremely ambitious, very greedy, and has a maniacal egotism, as he seeks to become the GOP Presidential nominee in 2016.

He will stop at nothing, dividing his own party, and promoting recklessness, to the extreme, that he now advocates the closing down of the military, along with putting millions upon millions of Americans in danger of economic calamity, by stopping Social Security and Medicare benefits, Veterans benefits, and closing down government agencies, paralyzing the every day activities of government, and stopping pay checks to federal employees and soldiers fighting overseas.

The fact that ObamaCare was passed into law by a majority of both houses of Congress; upheld by the Supreme Court; and reaffirmed by the second term victory of President Obama, seems not to be enough to Cruz, who does not care about the effects on our economy and national security due to his lunatic behavior.

But now, even the House GOP Tea Party Caucus is starting to turn on him, and Senator John McCain has not minced words, in calling Cruz a “whacko bird!”, which he most certainly is.

Cruz’s behavior is now likely to undermine his campaign for President, and it is certain that if, somehow, he makes it through GOP primaries and caucuses in 2016, and is the Republican Presidential nominee, he will be handed a walloping defeat, which will cleanse the GOP of its right wing extremist elements! Either that, or the party will be relegated to the dustbins of history!

Should Barack Obama Agree To UN Meeting With Iranian President Hassan Rouhani? YES!

Ronald 1 Comment

Iran’s new President, Hassan Rouhani, will be attending the fall session of the United Nations, along with other world leaders, a tradition at the end of each September.

Iran has been on a course to develop nuclear weapons, by every measure we have been able to gather through intelligence information.

But sanctions by the international community have had an effect on Iran’s economy, and the decision of the population to vote in a President who is looking for reconciliation with the West, makes one hopeful that Iran could reject nuclear weapons development, and just wish to develop nuclear power for peaceful uses.

Both the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the new President Rouhani have, in recent days, stated that they will never develop nuclear weapons, and want to end the state of tension between Iran and the US and other western nations.

The fact that they have said this does not mean we should, automatically, drop our guard on their possible threat to Israel, other Middle Eastern nations, and the entire world.

But with the new, conciliatory language, it seems worthwhile for President Obama, who will be attending the UN session later this week, to agree to meet with Rouhani, and start exploration of the possibility of negotiations and diplomacy, rather than continue a possible buildup toward military engagement.

Israel’s leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, warns against trusting Rouhani and the Iranian government, and certainly, Obama and other Western leaders need to pursue engagement with Iran in a cautious manner.

But it is worth a try to see if Rouhani and Khamenei mean to have a serious discussion, as after all, the US always held summit meetings with Soviet leaders, so what is the danger in discussion, while keeping the possibility of the use of force in the background, if it is shown that Iran’s government is lying and is untrustworthy?

Any possibility of avoiding military force and war is worth a try, so hopefully, Obama will meet with Rouhani and explore the idea, without any pledge to drop possible military action in the future, if that, regretfully, becomes necessary!

Denial Of Health Care And Food Stamps Promotes Desperation, Depression, And Ultimate Violence!

Ronald 4 Comments

It is amazing how Republicans, Conservatives, and many so called “religious” people fail to understand what they are doing by working to destroy ObamaCare, and to make massive cuts in the Food Stamp program.

Lack of food promotes bad health, and lack of health care promotes wide spread illnesses and early death.

It also promotes a sense of desperation and depression, and the development of mental illness, as fear of not having enough food to eat creates insecurity in children, as well as adults, and the ultimate reality is that when people are denied basic needs out of a desire to punish those who are poor, down and out, degraded, it leads to widespread violence, which affects all of the rest of society.

How nasty, how mean spirited, how uncaring, can people be, so as not to care about people starving, losing all dignity and hope?

Ultimately, the rest of society suffers, and it makes America a place that we cannot be proud of, as a result!

NO ONE should be told to go hungry in a nation that sees itself as a model for other nations!

Time For Change: Pope Francis View Needs To Be Accepted By Republican Party, Conservatives, And Evangelical Christians!

Ronald 1 Comment

Pope Francis has moved the Catholic Church a tremendous distance by his revolutionary statements, declaring it is time to stop obsessing on contraception, abortion, and gay rights!

Instead of promoting hate, division, prejudice, and discrimination, he says it is time to learn to understand and accept different viewpoints, and to avoid condemnation, which makes the lives of millions of people more stressful and torturous.

This is a welcome change, which is certain to cause problems for Pope Francis within the conservative, hard line structure of the Vatican, and the Pope needs to be applauded for promoting an open minded, tolerant attitude that he knows will be vigorously opposed by right wing elements within the Church.

But his bold move opens up another avenue. This is the time for the Republican Party, the conservative movement, and for the evangelical Christians who promote hate, to stop doing that, and to accept that the world is changing, and that accepting contraception, abortion, and homosexuality is not going to destroy the world!

Rather, it is the narrow minded, hateful and intolerant attitudes of these groups which is causing violence, bloodshed, discrimination, and intolerance, against the message of Jesus Christ, and undermining the stated belief of the right wing for less government intervention, which should, therefore, stop interference and the promotion of making life more difficult for gays, women, and privacy rights of the American people!

Will the Catholic Church hierarchy, the Republican Party, conservatives, and evangelical Christians listen to what Pope Francis has uttered?

Sadly, probably not, and the battle for human rights and equality will rage on, ironically against the narrow mindedness of those who claim to believe in freedom and love!

John Boehner Has Failed As Speaker Of The House, And Needs To Resign!

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Speaker of the House John Boehner has given in to the Tea Party lunatics in his Republican caucus, rather than showing courage and leadership, and needs to resign as a failure, and the worst Speaker of the House in modern history! To think also that Boehner is two heartbeats away from the Presidency under the Presidential Succession Law of 1947 is terrifying!

Boehner will be forced out anyway, because he has shown he is a gutless wonder, who said he would not take the country to the brink of bankruptcy and a massive fiscal crisis, and then gives in to the Tea Party crowd, including anarchists such as Senators Ted Cruz and Rand Paul and Mike Lee, who know what they are doing will destroy the Republican Party future, but have grandiose ambitions, in the case of Cruz and Paul, to be President!

God forbid that either Cruz or Paul ever gets near the Oval Office, as that will be the downfall of American civilization! These men are no better than anarchists, really more dangerous to our nation, than any foreign terrorist groups could ever be, as their desire to destroy Barack Obama and ObamaCare is a sickness and a disease that gives not a damn about the effect on millions of Americans!

The only good thing coming out of this mess is the fact that the House Tea Party Caucus is starting to criticize Ted Cruz, really the Robespierre of the Tea Party Revolution, whose greed and ambition and self centered nature reminds one of the man who he so closely resembles—the witch hunting Wisconsin Senator, Joseph McCarthy, the perpetrator of the Red Scare in the early 1950s!

So the GOP may be imploding, destroying itself, which would be a blessing, as what is needed is a moderate, mainstream conservative party with a sense of responsibility to the nation’s economic and social future!

Unbelievable! 8,250 Americans Killed Since Sandy Hook Massacre, More Than Iraq And Afghanistan Wars Combined!

Ronald 7 Comments

It has been nine months since the Sandy Hook Elementary School Massacre, and 8,250 Americans have been killed by gun violence!

This is more than the 4,000 dead in the Iraq War and the 2,000 killed in the Afghanistan War combined over the past decade!

And what just happened in the DC Navy Yard on Monday is just another example of the tragedy, that nothing is being done to react to this massive loss of life!

What does this say about our society?

It says we are a very sick society, and have an unwillingness to do anything about the loss of human life on such a scale, about 900 a month on the average!

How can anyone be otherwise than ashamed and troubled, about this carnage?

162 Years Of The NY TIMES: How Could We Do Without It?

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On this day in 1851, The NY TIMES was founded, and through thick and thin, it has been the best friend of educated people, including scholars of all kinds and, particularly, of historians!

This author could NOT have published his book on the New Deal 32 years ago without the resources of the NY TIMES, the newspaper of record!

So on this 162nd Anniversary, let all of us salute the NY TIMES, for publishing “All The News That’s Fit To Print”!

The Republicans, Scrooge, And Food Stamp Cuts

Ronald 7 Comments

The Republican Party, particularly in the House of Representatives, has declared war on the Food Stamp program, pushing for a vote to cut about $40 billion from the program, in a vote due later this week.

This cut would come over ten years, and would deny basic food sustenance to poor people, with 76 percent of the beneficiaries being children, senior citizens, the disabled, and war veterans.

As Michele Bachmann said, if one does not work, one does not eat! Isn’t that the “Christian” thing to do? Of course, Jesus Christ would approve, or would he? Anyone sane and moral and ethical knows the answer!

And particularly, when Bachmann and her husband gain federal support for their program to help gays become straight, one of the biggest examples of corruption imaginable!

Meanwhile, corporations get supported by government, and the elite wealthy continue to become wealthier, at the expense of everyone else!

How could anyone with a heart, a sense of decency, vote for these Scrooge (Charles Dickens novel) like characters who do not give a damn about those less fortunate, whether for food stamps or health care or anything that makes lives easier for those who have miserable lives through no fault of their own?

Withdrawal Of Larry Summers For Federal Reserve Leadership A Victory For America!

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Larry Summers, the former Harvard President, Treasury Secretary for awhile under Bill Clinton, and economic adviser to Barack Obama, has withdrawn his candidacy for Federal Reserve Board Chairman to replace Ben Bernanke.

This is a major victory for America, and for fiscal sanity, and it now seems that Janey Yellen, Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve, will become the most powerful woman in American history, as Barack Obama moves away from what would have been a disastrous choice of Summers.

Summers is very bright and intelligent, no doubt about that, and one can be sure that he tells people of those traits on a regular basis!

Summers is a pompous windbag, who was arrogant as Harvard President, including saying women did not have the right stuff to be in the field of science; showed arrogance in his dealings with students and faculty; and as Treasury Secretary, and later, gave bad advice that helped to cause the Great Recession of 2008 to the present.

What drove Barack Obama to want him is beyond understanding, but thankfully, four members of the Senate Banking Committee, all Democrats, made clear of their dissatisfaction with Summers.

These four courageous Senators are Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and Jon Tester of Montana, and we all owe a debt of gratitude to them for helping to prevent the nomination of Summers.

The nation will be well served by Janet Yellen as Federal Reserve Board Chairman!

September 17: A Day To Honor And A Day To Mourn!

Ronald 10 Comments

As we wake up on September 17, we mourn the deaths of 12 people in the US Navy Yards in Washington, DC, by a crazed gunman, who loved violent video games and had access to guns despite two incidents in his past, that should have made him ineligible for buying or possessing firearms, another example of the violence and insanity that permeates American society, and endangers all of us, including our President, who has had more death threats and plots against him than any occupant of the Oval Office!

And we awaken to the anniversary of three historic events that stand out, two that we can be proud of, and one which we continue to mourn!

On this day, in 1787, 226 years ago, the Founding Father generation, the true statesmen of our history, signed the Constitution, and we were on our way to the creation of the greatest government ever to walk the face of the earth, with the understanding that compromise had been necessary to achieve progress, something we have lost sight of in these difficult times we are living through.

On this day, in 1978, 35 years ago, President Jimmy Carter finished the accomplishment of bringing together the leaders of Israel and Egypt in the Camp David Accords. These were two nations that had gone to war against each other multiple times, who now engaged in a peace treaty that still endures in these unstable times in the Middle East.

Sadly, this is also the 151st Anniversary of the bloodiest battle in American history, the Battle of Antietam in Maryland in 1862 during the Civil War, which led to the death of almost 4,000 soldiers, and a total of 23,000 casualties in total.

So there is a lot to reflect upon and think about on this historic day, September 17, as we mourn the death of more gun violence victims!