Month: March 2016

The Cory Lewandowski Incident Tells Us Legions About Donald Trump, And Why He Is So Dangerous!

Ronald 12 Comments

Cory Lewandowski is the campaign manager for Donald Trump, and he has great problems in controlling his hands and his emotions.

He, clearly, grabbed journalist Michelle Fields and bruised her arm at the end of a Trump press conference, but refuses to admit it, and apologize, so a case of battery has been brought by the Jupiter, Florida police department, which has video evidence of what happened.

So a court case has begun, and Trump fully backs his abusive aide, who has shown temper in the past, and tells his aide to fight it all the way in court.

This is a sign of just how dangerous Donald Trump is.

He argues he does not want to ruin the life of his campaign manager, but he could tell him, just admit the transgression, apologize, and move on, as that is all Michelle Fields would ask.

But no, Trump is incapable of admitting any faults or errors, and also wants to sue, and hints at a counter suit against Michelle Fields!

This proves how crazy Trump, an entitled inheritor of wealth is, and he needs his comeuppance, and this, hopefully, along with his crazy statements about foreign policy, and his statement that women who have abortions should go to prison, will help seal his fate!

It is disturbing how no possibility of apology or admission of error ever comes from his mouth!  What will happen, god forbid, if he is President, and a blunder occurs, which he will be unwilling to confess to, and people will die, as a result?

It is also disturbing how he continues to promote disrespect of women, as he is a misogynist, and believes use of force in interpersonal relations, as well as foreign relations, is perfectly normal and acceptable!

Trump is out of control, and is the most dangerous Presidential candidate in all of American history!

I am publishing an article on History News Network to this effect on April 11, and it will be put on the blog under “Articles” shortly after for my readers who do not wish to access the History News Network website (hnn.us).

35 Years Since Last Direct Assassination Attempt–When Will Next Occur?

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35 years ago, President Ronald Reagan was shot and seriously wounded by John Hinckley.

There have been assassination threats against every President since then, but none eyeball to eyeball.

One has to wonder in the midst of the political maelstrom that we are in during this election year of 2016, when the next such direct threat will occur.

Already, there have been reported threats against Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.

With the reckless rhetoric of Donald Trump in particular, but also other Presidential candidates, the danger of a serious assassination attempt or success has grown dramatically.

One has to hope and pray that nothing will happen, but this blogger has written on thehill.com and on History News Network (hnn.us) of his fear of a tragic event occurring.  Just by the fact that we have had no direct threat in 35 years, after so many between 1963 and 1981, makes one wonder about the odds catching up toward doom!

 

 

Major Historic Splits In Democratic Party

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The Democratic Party has existed for 188 years, since the election Of Andrew Jackson in 1828.

In that nearly two centuries, there have been major splits and divisions:

In 1860, the party split, and the Northern Democrats. the official party, nominated Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas for President, while Vice President John C. Breckinridge was the nominee of Southern Democrats.

In 1896,  the “Gold Democrats” refused to back the party nominee, the  “silver tongued orator”, thirty six year old William Jennings Bryan, who promoted “free silver”, and drew support from the rural states in the Midwest and Great Plains and Mountain West, and kept the South loyal to the party.

In 1948, Southern Democrats broke from the convention that nominated Harry Truman for a full term, and ran South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond as the States Rights (Dixiecrats) candidate.

In 1968, Alabama Governor George C. Wallace formed the American Independent Party, and ran against Democratic nominee Hubert Humphrey.

Notice that it was the South that caused three of the four splits, with the result being Douglas and Humphrey losing because of the split, while Truman won despite Thurmond’s opposition.

The other time, it was the rural West that revolved against the “Eastern Establishment”, represented by Wall Street, but Bryan, nominated three times for President, was unable to win the Presidency, although he helped to shape the Progressive Era with some of his reform ideas.

 

Donald Trump And Foreign Policy Knowledge: An “Empty Suit”!

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Donald Trump has now demonstrated that he is totally lacking in foreign policy knowledge and expertise, and still has no announced foreign policy advisers of repute!  This comes out of his interviews with the New York Times and Washington Post Editorial Boards!

His suggestion that NATO is out of date is preposterous, and his willingness to create unnecessary tensions with China, Japan, Mexico, and the Islamic world is terrifying.

His willingness to use torture and waterboarding, and to consider nuclear attack against ISIL (ISIS), is reprehensible.

The fact that Great Britain had a discussion about banning Trump, and that he is causing embarrassment with our European allies by his isolationist rhetoric, is shocking.

This man has no clue on foreign policy, and is truly an “empty suit”!

We cannot afford to make this narcissist Commander in Chief, and even those involved in our national security have stated that he would be dangerous, and might have to be disobeyed if he gave orders that made no sense!

So said Michael Hayden, former head of the CIA and NSA, and such a warning should sober all of us as to the craziness of electing Donald Trump President of the United States!

Front Runners In Delegates At National Conventions Who Failed To Become The Nominee Of Their Party: William Henry Seward, Champ Clark, And Martin Van Buren!

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Senator William Henry Seward of New York was the front runner in delegates at the Republican National Convention in 1860, but Abraham Lincoln won the nomination on the 3rd ballot, and went on to become the greatest President in American history!

Speaker of the House Champ Clark of Missouri was the front runner in delegates at the Democratic National Convention in 1912, but Woodrow Wilson won the nomination on the 46th ballot, and went on to become one of the most significant President in American history, and took us through World War I.

Former President Martin Van Buren of New York was the front runner in delegates at the Democratic National Convention in 1844, but James K. Polk won the nomination on the 9th ballot, and went on to gain more territory, by peace treaty with Great Britain and war with Mexico, than any President except Thomas Jefferson!

Seward went on to become Lincoln’s and Andrew Johnson’s Secretary of State, and helped to prevent Great Britain or France from recognizing the Confederate States of America during the Civil War, and was able to arrange the purchase of Alaska from Czarist Russia in 1867.

Champ Clark remained Speaker of the House, and served eight years, from 1911-1919, one of the longer lasting Speakers in American history, with only five Speakers serving longer than him.

Martin Van Buren could have been the first Grover Cleveland, to have served two non-consecutive terms in the White House, but instead ran for President once again in 1848 as the candidate of the Free Soil Party, and in so doing, undermined the Democratic Party nominee, and helped indirectly to elect Whig nominee Zachary Taylor.  Van Buren became the first former President to run on a third party line, and the Free Soil Party was the first significant third party, winning 10 percent of the national popular vote, and being a forerunner of the modern Republican Party, which formed six years later, in 1854.

A total of  nine times in American history, we have seen the front runner in delegates fail to win the party’s nomination–three times for the Democrats, five times for the Republicans, and once for the Whigs, so if Donald Trump were to be denied the Republican nomination  in 2016, it would be far from unique or unusual!

Republican Scenario: A President Who Alienates His Own Party, If Trump Or Cruz Were To Occupy The White House!

Ronald 8 Comments

It seems clear that the Republican Party is in the throes of dying as a major political party, as so many Republicans, both office holders and ordinary voters, cannot imagine either Donald Trump or Texas Senator Ted Cruz as their party’s nominee.

Only Ohio Governor John Kasich is left from the mainstream element of the party, but he cannot win the nomination on the first ballot, and has to hope for a contested convention, which does seem more likely as time passes.

Kasich has the best chance, in public opinion polls, to defeat either Hillary Clinton or Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, while both Trump and Cruz lose in competition against both Democrats.

And there is the issue how Republicans would work with either Trump or Cruz as President, as most Congressional Republicans are turned off by both of them.

We could, in theory, have a Republican Party, or a shell of a party, in warfare against their own President, an event which would be unique in American history!

The Republican Presidential Race Gets Nastier, Degrading The Whole Process!

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One would think that the Republican Party, already in crisis, could not stoop lower, but they now have, with the insults flying back and forth between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz over their wives!

There is no excuse for any candidate to attack anyone else’s wife or children, or for that matter, a woman candidate’s husband, and it should be totally avoided at all costs.

But Trump is clearly a misogynist, who judges women solely by their looks, and Cruz denies women the basic freedom to control their own bodies!

The effect of this dispute is that any self respecting woman, even one who is “religious”, should tell her husband, boyfriend, brother, father or whoever, if necessary to keep peace, that they will “obey” them and vote Republican, but should go ahead and use the brain God gave her, and reject the party and its candidates!

It is clear the vast majority of women, particularly the millennials and all those under 45, will be decisive in electing Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders to the White House!

No intelligent, educated woman will ever again allow Republicans or “religious” people to dictate their futures in any form, and will exercise their right to vote in a way that will transform history, and appropriate with the centennial anniversary of the 19th Amendment (woman suffrage) arriving in 2020!

Imagine a President Hillary Clinton commemorating the 100th anniversary of women’s voting rights from the Oval Office!

Sixth Anniversary Of ObamaCare, The Third Great Social And Economic Reform, Alongside Social Security And Medicare!

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It was six years ago on March 23, 2010, that the Affordable Care Act, better known as ObamaCare, was signed into law by President Obama, after a year long fight, with only three Republican Senators early on giving any support, and no House members.

The fact that ObamaCare was just like the Heritage Foundation–Newt Gingrich–Bob Dole program of 1993, designed as an alternative to HillaryCare, was ignored.

Also, the fact that Mitt Romney accomplished much the same thing in Massachusetts as RomneyCare was denied, even by Romney himself when he ran for President in 2012!

The hypocrisy and pure obstructionism of Republicans and conservatives was so obvious, and is obvious, to anyone who looks at the subject dispassionately!

Today, six years later, ObamaCare, while having its definite quirks and shortcomings, is a success, in the sense that it covers 20 million people who did not have health care before; has lowered the uninsured from 14 percent to 9 percent of the population; and has saved hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of lives of people who, without coverage, would have died in the past six years!

This is the ultimate Pro Life movement, the acceptance of the idea that ALL Americans should be entitled to health care as a basic human right, especially considering that every other modern industrial nation in Europe, along with Canada, Australia and New Zealand have it, and all of them way ahead of us!

So this is a time to salute Barack Obama and the Democratic Party, for having accomplished one of the three greatest economic and social reforms of the past century, alongside Franklin D. Roosevelt and Social Security (now 81 years old), and Lyndon B. Johnson and Medicare (now 51 years old)!

Try to imagine America in 2016 without Social Security and Medicare, and yet, if left up to the right wing Republican Party, they would not only repeal ObamaCare without any replacement for the 20 million Americans who have gained health care coverage, but also would repeal both Social Security and Medicare, “privatizing” both of them, and giving useless “vouchers” to millions of elderly, poor, and disabled people!

This is why the Republican Party, as it now is constituted, is doomed to be in the dustbin of history!

Are We A Police State? Ted Cruz Suggests Monitoring “Muslim” Neighborhoods! Next, Why Not Monitor Other Minority Groups, Heh, Ted?

Ronald 12 Comments

Texas Senator Ted Cruz, the only Republican challenger to Donald Trump who could possibly pass Trump in delegates, is trying to outTrump Trump!

His suggestion, after the Belgium terrorist attack yesterday, is that police in America start to monitor and patrol  “Muslim” neighborhoods!

First of all, how does one define a “Muslim” neighborhood?  By name, by appearance, by requiring people to reveal their religious beliefs?

Are we to start allowing police to monitor an Hispanic or Latino neighborhood?  Oh wait, that already happens illegally in Maricopa County, Arizona, where anyone can be checked on their immigration status by the police under Sheriff Joe Arpaio, although it is illegal, and causes stress among Spanish speaking people.

Are we to start allowing police to monitor African American neighborhoods?  Oh wait, that already happens , and is the major cause of so many police shootings and killings.

This insistence on a “police state” mentality can do tremendous harm, in that it can convince ethnic, racial, and religious groups to be disillusioned, and feel a need and desire to strike out against an American society that treats white Christian Anglo Americans as a privileged class, that is treated better than everyone else!

Oh wait, that is already the case in this nation, white privilege, and hasn’t it cost enough trouble already without making it worse, as Senator Ted Cruz, crazily, is promoting?

Trump Effect: Likelihood Of Major Democratic Wave In 2016!

Ronald 13 Comments

The effect of Donald Trump’s Presidential candidacy is the likelihood of a major Democratic wave in the upcoming Presidential and Congressional Elections of 2016.

Polls indicate that the Electoral College could be a landslide for the Democrats, with the chance to gain such states as North Carolina, Georgia and Arizona, major areas of Hispanic and Latino growth, and indications of many registering to vote because of Trump’s anti Hispanic and anti Latino rhetoric, including against the nation of Mexico, which shares a 2,000 mile boundary with the United States.

The Senate has 34 seats facing election, with 24 of those seats being Republican, and at least ten seats of Republicans in danger of being lost, which would create a large margin of Democrats in the upper chamber.

The House of Representatives is a tough nut to crack, due to gerrymandering and the largest Republican majority in the lower chamber since 1928.  At the least, the large GOP majority will dwindle, with an outside chance of a slim Democratic majority, which probably would be lost in the midterm elections of 2018.

But even a two year “window” would allow a Democratic President with both houses of Congress in his favor to accomplish major changes!

And, of course, the transformation of the Supreme Court would occur, which would have a long range effect.

This is what Donald Trump has done to the moribund Republican Party, and it looks more likely by the day!