1950s Red Scare

Lyndon B. Johnson And Medicare: 58th Anniversary!

It has been 58 years since President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Medicare Act, a pathbreaking turning point in health care, after much resistance for a half century.

Theodore Roosevelt in 1912, as the Progressive (Bull Moose) Party Presidential nominee, was the first President to suggest health care should be a national commitment.

His distant cousin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, considered the issue, but had enough of a battle over Social Security being legislated into law in 1935, as part of his “New Deal”.

Harry Truman promoted, as part of his “Fair Deal”, the consideration of some sort of national health care, but it went awry in the divisive politics of the “Red Scare” and the Cold War.

John F. Kennedy also pushed the issue, but did not have the clout to get it past House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Wilbur Mills of Arkansas.

Lyndon B. Johnson pushed the issue of national health care as part of his “Great Society”, and got it done, and it has been a godsend to millions of elderly people and disabled people, and added to the following year by the adoption of Medicaid.

Most Republicans opposed it then and since, and continue to call it “Socialism”, and ten states, including Texas and Florida, refuse to expand Medicaid, denying the poor the care they need, and this by a party that claims to be “Pro Life”! 🙁

And Barack Obama, in promoting the Affordable Care Act or “ObamaCare”, expanded health care, and it continues to survive despire blistering Republican and conservative attacks!

So this is a time to salute LBJ, as the savior of the promotion of national health care!

Stephen Miller Needs To Be Kicked Out Of Trump Administration And Face Investigation, As He Is Most Dangerous Person Around Trump!

Who would think a 32 year old bully, racist, white supremacist, and nativist, with the credentials of having been on the staff of former Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, and former Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, would end up becoming in many ways the most dangerous person around Donald Trump?

This blogger and author is referring to Stephen Miller, a disgrace to the Jewish people and religion, who has somehow become the center of the debate over immigration, and is helping to push the President toward extremism on many issues, including immigration and civil rights.

Miller was brought up in a liberal leaning Jewish family in Santa Monica, California, with his mother’s family having escaped from Belarus in the early 20th century, coming to America as non English speaking immigrants who achieved the “American Dream”, that now Miller wishes to deny immigrants from Latin America and from the Middle Eastern nations, including Muslims, and Africa.

In high school, Miller showed intolerance, as he promoted right wing conservatism, including the extremism of National Rifle Association spokesman Wayne La Pierre, and spoke on right wing talk radio as young as 16 years of age. He stirred controversy as he promoted white supremacist views in high school and at Duke University. He had a constant confrontational attitude, and befriended white supremacist Richard Spencer and right wing propagandist David Horowitz, another Jewish public figure who had once been on the left, and then became connected to the Far Right, and has promoted attacks on academic freedom of left leaning college professors.

Miller helped future Virginia Congressman David Brat defeat House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in 2014, and went to work for the Trump campaign early in 2016, and became the warmup speaker for many Trump campaign rallies, and helped to write Trump’s speech accepting the Republican National Convention nomination for President. He became a senior adviser to the White House, connecting himself closely to Stephen Bannon, but has lately separated himself from Bannon, since Bannon left the White House staff and was shown to have given ammunition against Trump in the recently published Michael Wolff blockbuster book, FIRE AND FURY, which has become a best seller. Miller remains closely allied with Trump son in law Jared Kushner, who also looks more outrageous and objectionable on a daily basis, and may be involved in Trump Administration corruption.

Miller helped to write the controversial Inauguration speech of Donald Trump, and has made controversial and confrontational statements on various Sunday news shows, including that the President had absolute authority and “will not be questioned”. He confronted Jim Acosta of CNN about immigration, at a White House appearance in which Miller defended travel bans against Muslims and the promotion of limiting immigration from various parts of the world, against many nations. Most recently, he became combative against Jake Tapper of CNN, and was cut off by the host, and then refused to leave, and was escorted out by security guards.

Stephen Miller is a racist, nativist, white supremacist, all despite the fact of his Jewish heritage, and he is a disgrace, and needs to be kicked out of the Trump Administration and face investigation in the Trump scandals, as Robert Mueller is in the process of doing.

He is clearly the most dangerous person around Trump now, influencing Trump to the point of the present government shutdown, preventing any protection of “Dreamers”, the immigrant children who were protected under the DACA program, but now face deportation to nations they know nothing about, but where they were born before being brought to America as children.

Miller is a peddler of hate, who needs his comeuppance, and should never again be allowed to be interviewed on any news program, unless and until he apologizes for his misbehavior, which most assuredly will never happen.

The thought that comes to mind is that Stephen Miller is the equivalent of Roy Cohn to Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, infamous for the Red Scare of the 1950s, or Rasputin, the adviser to Czar Nicholas II of Russia, before the Russian Revolution of 1917. In other words, Miller is an evil and dangerous force, who needs to have his rapid gaining of power taken away from him now!

Donald Trump And Ted Cruz: The Evil Combination And Double Threat To American Values And Decency!

Donald Trump continues to dominate public opinion polls, and behind him and rising is Texas Senator Ted Cruz.

Cruz is unique in the fact that he will NOT criticize anything Trump says about anything, and this is clearly a campaign ploy, as Cruz believes that Trump will not be the party’s nominee, and that he will be able to inherit his supporters.

It seems clear that Trump supporters, when asked, will only consider Cruz as an alternative, and Cruz is suddenly working, also, on improving his image with reporters and fellow politicians, as he has a horrible image as a nasty, egotistical, brusque individual!

One can be assured it is all a “charm offensive” by Cruz, but anyone who has followed his Senate career KNOWS that Cruz is the most dangerous, most extreme, most hateful potential GOP nominee, bar none, even more than Trump on some issues like gay rights and climate change.  Cruz’s extreme right wing Christianity, fueled by his right wing pastor dad’s hateful rants on all kinds of issues, is a warning sign of the danger he represents, were he to become the GOP Presidential nominee.

Cruz has an uncanny similarity to the infamous “witch hunter” of the 1950s Red Scare, Senator Joseph McCarthy, and his lack of ethics and decency is a shared trait.

Cruz would take us back, if given power, and a Republican Congress, to the Gilded Age, as he opposes just about everything that progressives have accomplished since the time of Republican Theodore Roosevelt.

Every indication is, however, that Cruz as the nominee of his party, would cause a massive landslide defeat, a la Barry Goldwater a half century ago in 1964!

But no sane individual would want to test a chance of the possibility of a President Trump OR a President Cruz!

 

Crazy, Out Of Control Donald Trump Or Right Wing Extremist Ted Cruz: Is This What The Republican Party Will Offer In 2016?

Billionaire Donald Trump has his biggest lead in polls yet with the latest poll showing him with 36 percent, a 20 point lead over Texas Senator Ted Cruz, with both of them being very scary and terrifying, at the thought of either being the Republican Presidential nominee!

Cruz is rapidly rising, despite his extremist right wing views, and the fact that almost no Republican Senator likes or respects him, making it clear that he would have very little support from his own colleagues, were he to be elected President.  He consorts with hate mongers and right wing extremists of all kinds, and makes no apologies for it.  He is a loose cannon, and again, reminds us so much of his look alike, Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy, of the infamous Red Scare of the 195os!

And then there is Donald Trump, who is crazy, out of control, and has attacked, insulted, and vilified just about everyone, and yet keeps public support in the polls!

What is the list of who Donald Trump has attacked, insulted, and vilified?  It includes the following:

Mexicans and Hispanics

African Americans

Muslims

Refugees

Immigrants

Women

Jews

The Disabled

Journalism in general

New York Times

Washington Post

Fellow Republican candidates for the Presidency—Lindsey Graham, Rick Perry, Scott Walker,George Pataki, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Carly Fiorina, Jeb Bush, John Kasich

Senator John McCain and former Governor Mitt Romney, past Presidential candidates

Former President George W. Bush

Bernie Sanders

Hillary Clinton

And the list goes on and on and on, and yet Trump has large audiences hanging on every word and insult, as if the nation has gone totally insane, at least based on his audiences and poll ratings!

Is America about to nominate a “Reality Star” of tremendous egotism and arrogance and narcissism, or a Senator who is disliked by everyone and is much further to the extreme Right than any candidate in the race?  And could either Trump or Cruz actually defeat Hillary Clinton eleven months from now?

If so, America is doomed for the long term future in domestic and foreign policy!

Adolf Hitler’s Big Lie Technique Being Utilized By Donald Trump, Dr. Benjamin Carson, Carly Fiorina, Ted Cruz In Republican Presidential Race Of 2016!

There is reluctance on the part of this blogger to bring up Adolf Hitler when discussing American politics, but now it is clear it must be done!

Hitler employed the “Big Lie” technique, to make up conspiracy theories and to make massive lies, and it was effective in bringing him public support and eventual power in Germany!

Now, sadly, a variation of the “Big Lie” is being utilized in the Republican Presidential race of 2016 for the White House.

No one, at the least this blogger, is trying to say any Republican Presidential candidate is the equivalent of Adolf Hitler, but the level of massive lies becoming regarded as NOT lies, but truth, has been used by at least four Republican contenders—Donald Trump, Carly Fiorina, Dr. Benjamin Carson, and Senator Ted Cruz!

Trump is the master of lies, and he is inciting hate and division on a massive scale, and yet about 30 percent in every Republican poll continue to support him.  His supporters claim to be disillusioned with traditional politicians who always seem to lie, according to them.  One could say that all PEOPLE tend to lie at times, including politicians, but the total alienation of many Americans from all politicians, and willingness to back a billionaire who has always been a massive liar on everything he has uttered, before he ran for President and while contending for President, is extremely alarming!

But Carly Fiorina has been spreading pure lies about Planned Parenthood, and even after the recent Colorado Springs incident of a madman who was incited by her lies, she will not back down on her manipulation of the truth!

Dr. Benjamin Carson has also lied and deceived on a regular basis, and comes across as unbalanced mentally in many ways.

And Senator Ted Cruz of Texas is a true demagogue, very much like Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin of the 1950s Red Scare, who he also resembles in appearance.  He has totally alienated all of his Senate colleagues except a couple of Tea Party supporters, and has stooped to lies and deceit on a regular basis!

The idea that so many Americans, so distrustful of government, are ready to support any of these four candidates who are massive liars and totally deceptive, is a worrisome issue for American democracy, as the “Big Lie” technique is in full swing!