Month: November 2013

Time For Boycott Of Walmart By All Decent Consumers!

Ronald 10 Comments

Walmart is the largest corporation in the world, and the most arrogant of all corporations, as it mistreats its workers in the most horrible manner possible.

It pays its unfortunate workers a wage inadequate for anyone to survive on, and allows taxpayers to subsidize health insurance and food stamps for its workers, because it is too cheap to have concern about the welfare of its own staff.

Why should taxpayers have to take care of $9,000 costs for each worker, when Walmart makes billions of dollars annually in profit, and its four heirs have the assets in total of the bottom 60 percent of the entire American population?

And Walmart has the gall and nerve to have its own workers arrested around the nation, due to their protests about their mistreatment, and the requirement that they work on Thanksgiving or lose their jobs.

Walmart needs to be held to account, as no corporation should be permitted to act in a fascist manner against its own employees, reminiscent of the auto industry in the 1930s before unionization took hold, and changed the lives of workers by the growing power of labor unions, which despite their faults and shortcomings, made for the growth of the middle class.

Now labor unions are in disarray, since the administration of Ronald Reagan, and too many Americans are only obsessed with purchase of “bargains”, so much so that they ignore the plight of Walmart and other workers, and are even willing to assault and kill each other over material goods that are mostly not necessary, but only desired.

The American culture is in deep trouble when materialism is in charge, and workers are being abused in the holy name of capitalism at all costs.

So all decent Americans who are left in this nation need to boycott Walmart until they change their policies toward their workers, and stop making these workers depend on taxpayers for basic benefits, rather then the company which employs them,.

And that includes not only Walmart, but also Target, and McDonalds, and the multitude of other corporations that are smaller versions of the monopolistic Walmart! Pay a living wage and benefits or suffer the consequences of a national boycott by all decent consumers who are left in America!

CNN Poll: Christie Ahead Of Paul Ryan For GOP; Clinton And Biden For Democrats

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A CNN poll indicates that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is seven points ahead of Congressman Paul Ryan, the Republican Vice Presidential nominee in 2012, for the Presidential race in 2016; and with Hillary Clinton far ahead of Joe Biden, but Biden far ahead of anyone else in the Democratic field for 2016.

But one must be aware that this far out, to assume that Christie and Clinton will be the nominees, or that Ryan and Biden will be the backup nominees, is not a good bet at all.

Face the facts: Christie’s name has been in the news because of his landslide victory in New Jersey in an off year election, where his story was the major one to report. Ryan, having been the VP nominee, is well known. Hillary Clinton has been seen as a public figure constantly, most recently as Secretary of State, and Joe Biden has been a very active Vice President.

There is a very good chance that someone else will be the nominee in the GOP, while less likely for the Democrats, where Hillary and Joe seem to have a lead that is unlikely to be surpassed, particularly for Hillary over Joe.

But one only has to look at the surprises of history, including Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama, to know that anything is possible in a Presidential race this far out from the actual election year.

Virginia Turning Blue: Great Sign For Democratic Party Future!

Ronald 7 Comments

Virginia, the home of more Presidents than any other state, has been seen as a bellwether state, as it holds its state elections in the year after the Presidential election.

For the first time since 1969, Virginia now has a Democratic Governor, Terry McAuliffe, along with a Democratic Lieutenant Governor, a Democratic Attorney General (although a recount is going on as the victory was razor thin), and two Democratic Senators (Mark Warner and Tim Kaine).

Assuming the recount for Attorney General keeps the Democrat as the winner, it is a sign that the right wing Republican Party in Virginia has lost its bearings, and that the state of Virginia, while still officially seen as purple, is really becoming a Democratic state, largely due to the growing influence of federal government workers, a large portion of the population in the Northern Virginia counties.

It is also seen as a great moment for Hillary Clinton, who is closely associated with new Governor Terry McAuliffe, a prodigious fund raiser for her husband, Bill Clinton, when he was in office.

With Virginia in the Democratic camp, the future of the party is in good shape for Presidential races (with Barack Obama winning the state twice), and Virginia’s trend may soon be seen in Georgia and Texas.

Pope Francis An Inspiration, But Like Barack Obama, He Will Have Major Critics Who Fear Change And Reform

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Pope Francis is a true inspiration to anyone who believes in the true teachings of Jesus Christ, concern for the poor, compassion for the sick, condemnation of materialism, and the understanding that all people, of whatever race, religion, nationality, gender, and sexual orientation, deserve equality and justice!

In so many ways, Pope Francis can be compared to Barack Obama, and just like Obama, he will engender hate and condemnation because he fights against prejudice and the evils of wealth, and the selfishness and greed which has arisen yet once again, on the basis of laissez faire capitalism and Social Darwinism, prevalent in the Gilded Age (late 19th century), the age of Imperialism, and resisted by the forces of change and reform in many nations in the 20th century.

But now, those evil forces have reared their ugly head again, and so the battle for progressivism is engaged in a great fight to combat those forces, within the Catholic Church, within organized religion in general, within the capitalistic economy which, in America, has no apparent problem , with the mounting acquisition of wealth by the top one percent, as poverty and the collapse of the middle class continually occur, with no conscience or concern by those who have the stack decked in their favor.

So the right wing forces, that include those who wish death on Barack Obama, will now focus also on the Pope, just as has always happened for those who promote reform and change, including in America, Presidents Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy, and also Senator Robert Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

We should give thanks for the courage and compassion of our President, and even if we are not Catholic, the Pope, and pray for both men, that they will not fall before any attempted assassination threats of which Obama faces dozens every day!

We live in an age of great hate, and so much of it coming from so called “religious” people, who have no clue as to the true teachings of their faith, and are only out to enrich themselves!

The Triumph Of Science Over Ignorance In Texas

Ronald 1 Comment

Great news that the Texas State Board of Education has voted to approve science textbooks based on established science for the next decade, a massive victory over the forces of ignorance which attempted to promote religion in place of science in the curriculum, and wanted to deny the facts of evolution and global warming and climate change.

Since Texas has such a large student population, the decisions of the state board have a great effect not only on the Lone Star State, but also on the textbook materials used across the nation, as publishers shape their editorial plans on what Texas does.

But now the influence of the religious Right is still threatened over the teaching of Social Studies, including the study of American history and world history.

David Barton and his right wing forces, which claim to be historians when they are not any such thing, wish to cut down attention paid to ethnic minorities, women, labor, and the study of great reforms and reformers throughout history, and to promote the concept that religion was advocated as part of government by the Founding Fathers, when that is a total myth!

And also, they wish to promote the idea that we are a greater nation than any in the world, taking away attention from world civilizations, as if we magically became the nation we are, despite the fact that we have been influenced by cultures and influences from around the world.

So the battle for knowledge over ignorance and prejudice has won in the battle for science, but now must continue the good fight for the the legitimacy of history in the curriculum and the textbooks!

Statesmanship Requires Gambles To Avoid War: Obama In Company With Six Presidents!

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Barack Obama is not the first President to gamble to avoid the danger of war.

He is being criticized for the six month agreement with Iran, a nation which has been hostile to the United States for 34 years.

But Harry Truman worked to overcome hate and hostility from nations we fought in World War II–Germany and Japan.

Dwight D. Eisenhower promoted a “thaw” in the Cold War by inviting Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev to the United States in 1959.

John F. Kennedy promoted an alternative to war in the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, and signed the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty with the Soviet Union in 1963,

Richard Nixon went to China to overcome a generation of mistrust and lack of communication in 1972.

Jimmy Carter arranged for Egypt and Israel to negotiate diplomatic recognition to overcome decades of mistrust and war in 1979.

Ronald Reagan negotiated missile agreements with Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev in the late 1980s, helping to end the Cold War.

Statesmanship requires gambles to avoid war and overcome mistrust.

Barack Obama is on the same road as were Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, Carter and Reagan.

This is good company to be in!

Barack Obama Ratings Falling Fast: Can He Revive His Popularity?

Ronald 17 Comments

A new CNN poll demonstrates that President Barack Obama’s popularity ratings are falling fast, and the question is whether he can revive his popularity, or will be seen as a failed President in the three remaining years of his Presidency.

53 percent now see him as not honest and trustworthy; only 40 percent consider him capable of operating the government effectively.

But 60 percent still believe he has a vision for the country’s future; and 70 percent still see him as likable, but even those numbers are lower.

Obama still, however, is seen in a positive way personally overall, but his ability to get things done has suffered dramatically in 2013, and particularly over the massive failure of the launch of ObamaCare.

And now, there is new conflict over the deal with Iran, with many seeing it as a disaster in the making, almost like a Munich 1938 agreement, which led to World War II. The word being bandied about is “appeasement”.

The immigration bill is stalled in Congress, and the likelihood of any kind of cooperation with the Republicans in Congress seem highly doubtful.

So the question is what will happen in the next three years, and it is anyone’s guess as to how Obama will fare, and look in the eyes of history.

A Very Dangerous Time: The Iran Nuclear Deal

Ronald 11 Comments

One cannot easily decide if the announcement of the Iran nuclear deal last night is a moment to celebrate or to condemn. The US, Great Britain, France, Russia, China, and Germany came to an agreement which is being much questioned by many diplomatic observers.

The history of Iran’s dealings with the West makes one pause and wonder how anyone can trust the fundamentalist Islamic regime,

This is not an issue of the Iranian people, but rather the Iranian government.

With Israel and the Arab nations (including Saudi Arabia) for once in agreement, all of them alarmed at the growing influence of Iran in Syria, and their engagement with terrorist networks, the tendency would be to see any agreement with the Islamic regime as a ploy, and that we will soon face the reality that Iran is a nuclear power.

But if diplomacy does not work, then the likelihood of warfare in the Middle East beckons, and most Americans do not want our nation involved in another war.

The threat to the survival of Israel is a very worrisome aspect of all this, but it is more than that.

It is also an issue that Iran presents a threat to world peace unmatched since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 51 years ago.

The question is whether Barack Obama, John Kerry, Chuck Hagel, Joe Biden et al know what they are doing, and whether in the future, we will look back on this as another “Munich”, when Great Britain and France made an ill fated deal with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy over the future of Czechoslovakia in the fall of 1938, which did not bring peace, but instead, within a short time, the outbreak of World War II.

So the author has a very mixed feeling, and a sense of foreboding, that the future is likely to be very gloomy, and lead to a dangerous, widespread war.

Narcissistic American Presidents

Ronald 3 Comments

The Pew Research Center has conducted a unique study of American Presidents, and the results are fascinating.

Presidents have been analyzed in a multitude of ways, but now there is a new one—how narcissistic they are, how much they love themselves and want attention drawn to them by the American people.

At the top of the list are Lyndon B. Johnson, followed by Theodore Roosevelt, Andrew Jackson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton as the top seven.

All seven are regarded as among the best Presidents we have had, and all are highly controversial because of their assertive manner of governing.

But also, a high level of personal insecurity is evident in all seven, including health issues and personal experiences that made them have the personalities they exhibited in the Presidency.

Only a total of 15 Presidents are seen as having more narcissism than the average person has, including modern Presidents such as Woodrow Wilson, George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, as numbers 10, 11 and 15.

Presidents such as Harry Truman, George Washington, Jimmy Carter, Dwight D. Eisenhower, George H. W. Bush, Thomas Jefferson, Gerald Ford, and Abraham Lincoln all rate below average on narcissism from numbers varying from 18 to 32 on the list.

The question is how valuable is such a list, but at least it is food for thought!

Right Wing Obscenity: Trying To Claim John F. Kennedy As One Of Their Own On 50th Anniversary Of His Assassination!

Ronald 1 Comment

The right wing has no shame, as it is now claiming, on the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, that he would be one of their own, and as stated by lunatic Glenn Beck, that JFK would be a Tea Party Movement radical! The nerve of Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and other right wing promoters of lies and deceit, to sully the good name of our 35th President!

John F. Kennedy stated publicly that he was proud to be a liberal.

John F. Kennedy moved toward the idea of ending the Cold War in his last year in office, through promotion of diplomacy and ending the arms race.

John F. Kennedy spoke up for civil rights, planned a war on poverty, advocated the creation of Medicare, and the promotion of federal aid to education.

John F. Kennedy wanted to create a department of urban affairs to deal with the growing problems of the cities, while trying to promote racial equality and justice.

John F. Kennedy promoted the space program and the advancement of science.

John F. Kennedy advocated helping the third world nations through the establishment of the Peace Corps.

John F. Kennedy was out to promote the expansion of the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Fair Deal of Harry Truman.

John F. Kennedy had brothers who promoted liberalism in his memory–Robert Kennedy and Ted Kennedy–and they knew, better than anyone, what he was all about.

In this, and a multitude of other ways, John F. Kennedy was a proud Democrat and liberal, and would have repudiated everything the Republican Party of 2013 represents, and would have condemned the right wing, which hated his guts in his lifetime, and he would have fought against the backwardness, the racism, and the promotion of hate and division that the Tea Party Movement represents!