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The Los Angeles Times And Climate Change Deniers: Kudos To That Newspaper!

Ronald 4 Comments

The Los Angeles Times has decided to go on the offensive in a way that is very admirable!

It has decided it will NOT allow climate change deniers to use its website to continue to promote something that is well understood by scientists, and intelligent people in general, to be totally false, and destructive of dealing with the future of our planet.

Instead of stating that all viewpoints are equal, facts are being used, and ridiculous opinions will not see the light of day in that newspaper.

It is time for mainstream media to stop allowing extremist propaganda on science to be treated as a respectable viewpoint, and for religion to be restricted to the faiths involved, not to totally outrageous and false ideas as being fact, when they are not.

And the same applies to those who deny evolution. Let right wing media distort reality, but respectable media should NOT give any support to such viewpoints that have no basis for being considered valid.

We are in a struggle in which mainstream media has allowed the right wing to take over and poison not only science, but also history, economics, and innumerable other areas of human knowledge with their extremist propaganda. This must stop, and no attention paid to protests, as the answer is go to to other media, which have no respectability in the sensible, intelligent community, if they wish to learn falsehoods and lies!

So it is time for the New York Times, Washington Post, other prestigious newspapers, CNN, and the major television networks (ABC, NBC, CBS), and other respectable media to join together and preserve truth over lies and falsehoods!

And threats to boycott these media and threaten them economically should be defied by them as the only way to keep their legitimacy as a news source. This is a battle for the minds and hearts of future generations, and concessions to the right wing cannot be made in this eternal struggle for the truth!

The Coming Right Wing Takeover Of Most News Media: A Threat To America’s Future!

Ronald 6 Comments

The right wing LOVES to claim that the news media are overly liberal, when that is a massive falsehood, and has been so for many years.

YES, the New York Times and Washington Post, and CBS, NBC, ABC and MSNBC are liberal, and there are others.

But talk radio has been dominated by the right wing for twenty years; Fox News Channel, owned by Rupert Murdoch and operated by Roger Ailes, has been spewing right wing propaganda for 17 years; the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post are also owned by Murdoch, and now the greatest threat to the promotion of truth over propaganda is emerging with the report that David and Charles Koch, the infamous Koch Brothers, who tried to fix the Presidential Election of 2012 with their engagement in spending hundreds of millions of their assets on Congressional races and the Presidency, allowable under the disgraceful Citizens United case of the Supreme Court, are now attempting to buy the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, and the South Florida Sun Sentinel, along with other smaller papers owned by the bankrupt Tribune Corporation!

This will mean that the Koch Brothers will be able to extend their evil influence, already affecting our political and legal system,. our educational system, and having worked against health care and labor as part of their goal to control the American future in a deleterious way!

Of course, our system allows anyone to use their wealth to purchase and use their influence in any way they wish, but it is a sad day for American journalism, nevertheless!

Rush Limbaugh: Attempting To Bully Moderators Of The Presidential And Vice Presidential Debates!

Ronald 7 Comments

Liar and bully Rush Limbaugh has declared rhetorical war on the moderators of the three Presidential debates and one Vice Presidential debate scheduled for the month of October.

Limbaugh is accusing all four moderators of being extreme left wing Democrats, and while saying that about all four–including Jim Lehrer of PBS, Candy Crowley of CNN, Bob Schieffer of CBS, and Martha Radditz of ABC–he adds the insult of calling Candy Crowley “Mama”, and Bob Schieffer “Dinosaur”!

Limbaugh is trying to use psychological warfare on the four moderators, trying to intimidate them, but they are all professionals with good reputations, and will not be bullied by a person who has as much a weight problem as Candy Crowley, but does not have the decency to avoid using names, and showing respect toward a woman moderator!

The best part of these upcoming debates is the fact that two women and two men will be moderators, rather than four men!

We should never again deny women equal opportunity to moderate Presidential or Vice Presidential debates, and we should continue to let Rush Limbaugh blow “hot air”, and ignore him as a person not worthy of our time or respect!

The Republican Party Establishment In Panic: Jeb Bush, George Will, Haley Barbour

Ronald 1 Comment

The Republican Party Establishment is fully aware that the party is doomed if it follows the crazy path being tread by Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, and Ron Paul.

These candidates are absolutely a calamity big time.

Mitt Romney spends time talking about the height of the trees in Michigan; the fact that his wife has two Cadillacs; the concept that he likes firing people; jokes about being “unemployed”; suggests a tax plan that would be worse than that under George W. Bush in cutting taxes on the wealthy; and continues to say that the auto industry bailout was a bad idea even though it saved between one and two million jobs.

Rick Santorum talks about Satan taking over America; attacks public education and higher education as promoting secular humanism; advocates the end of contraception availability to women; condemns homosexuality in the most extreme language; advocates religion in government; and calls for war on Iran immediately.

Newt Gingrich says that Barack Obama is dangerous to American security; calls for immediate action on Day One to wipe out everything Barack Obama has promoted; calls for a moon colony despite no funds available for it anytime soon; brags about his own brilliance and intellect and knowledge; has no shame about his moral lapses; and enjoys stirring a “hornet’s nest” and being a “flame thrower”.

Ron Paul calls for the elimination of the Federal Reserve; the immediate withdrawal of our troops from all nations overseas; the ending of five federal government agencies; is for massive immediate cuts in the federal budget;
believes in no regulation of corporations; and is a total advocate of libertarianism.

All four are a true disaster, and we have heard the lament from Establishment figures.

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush deplores the promotion of fear and emotion; while George Will, of ABC’s THIS WEEK and also a Washington Post columnist, states that none of the candidates have made a good case for the nomination; and former Mississippi Governor and Republican National Chairman Haley Barbour also is critical of the performance of the candidates for the Republican nomination.

Whether anything can be done to avoid electoral disaster is very hard to predict at this point, but a sense of foreboding is clearly evident in Republican circles!

Two New Hampshire Republican Debates In 13 Hours!

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With the Iowa Caucuses results starting to sink in, and with the New Hampshire Primary now about two and a half days away, the six remaining GOP candidates for President square off tonight at 9 pm EST, televised on ABC, and at 9 AM EST tomorrow morning on NBC and MSNBC as part of MEET THE PRESS.

To have two debates over a period of 13 hours is in itself amazing, and a real test of ability to hold one’s composure, answer in an appropriate way without obvious mistakes, and make an impression on New Hampshire and national voters.

Mitt Romney is heavily favored, but needs to keep his wide lead over the field, or else it will be considered a defeat by many media sources. He also needs to keep his calm demeanor, and not overreact temperamentally to any attacks by his opponents, of which there are likely to be many, particularly by Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, his closest challengers in the long run.

Newt Gingrich needs to demonstrate that he can be strong, assertive, but not obnoxious or condescending against his opponents, never easy for him, and to stop being a “cry baby” about strong attacks by his opponents, since he was the master of such tactics in his years in the House of Representatives.

Rick Santorum needs to show that he is concerned about other issues than social conservatism, and that he has the ability to draw independent support, which seems unlikely.

Ron Paul is Ron Paul, and is not going to worry about any impressions he makes, as he goes by a different drummer, as the saying goes.

Rick Perry needs to prove he has any legitimacy left, and not stumble as he has so often done in earlier debates, and convince people that he is the better choice for social conservatives, than Gingrich or Santorum, not a likely scenario.

Finally, Jon Huntsman needs to win New Hampshire, or end up a competitive second, as he has built his campaign so much on New Hampshire, ignoring Iowa altogether. If he wins or end up a close second, he can move on to Florida and other states. Otherwise, he is done for 2012!

So that is the summary of what must be accomplished or perceived about each of the six finalists for the nomination, and there will be lots of analysis after the joint debates, with the primary just two days away by their end!

Newt Gingrich: Lover Of Chaos, Tumult, Turmoil, Divisiveness. And Rhetorical Bomb Thrower!

Ronald 1 Comment

The ABC debate in Iowa on Saturday night demonstrated clearly that Newt Gingrich has not changed, and has no desire to change!

He is reveling in being a “bad boy’, and it seems as if the Republican base is eager for such a candidate.

Gingrich revels in promoting chaos, tumult, turmoil, and divisiveness, and is a constant rhetorical bomb thrower!

Mitt Romney is a “nice guy” and even says that Barack Obama, while judged a failure by Romney, is also a “nice guy”, and that he will not attack the personality or character of the President, just his policies. Romney also says that attacking in a vicious way is no way to win the election, and that it will not succeed.

Romney is more than ever becoming the Nelson Rockefeller of this election against a combination of Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon and Joseph McCarthy in Newt Gingrich!

But even Barry Goldwater and Richard Nixon were never as outrageous in their rhetoric as Gingrich is, so Gingrich is more like Joseph McCarthy, who had no limits to his willingness to DESTROY the opposition! Like McCarthy, he has no scruples at all in his lust for power!

So Newt Gingrich is displaying himself as a real danger to the American nation, and can be seen as more dangerous than any previous candidate for President, as he would destroy any sense of civility in his search for power!

And more than ever, the thought of a President Gingrich is terrifying, and guaranteed to lead to corruption and scandals and a country in much greater trouble in all respects than it is now, or has ever been, at least since the Great Depression and the Civil War!

Gingrich must be stopped at all costs for the survival of America as a country of freedom and justice, and to avoid warfare all over the globe!

The Amazing Recovery Of Gabrielle Giffords

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Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, shot in the head in an assassination attempt in Tucson on January 8, has made a miraculous recovery in the ten months since that tragedy.

Having to relearn language and how to walk, and so many other things that we all take for granted, Giffords has become one of the small ten percent of people shot in the brain to recover and function.

Giffords has gone through intense therapy, and with the support of her husband, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, and her mother, and the blessings and good will of millions of people in Arizona and elsewhere, she is now on the road to an inspirational recovery.

A special on ABC’s 20-20 with Diane Sawyer traced her steps toward recovery, and brought tears to the author’s eyes, in thankfulness and, at the same time, wonderment, at how Giffords has survived.

Giffords will have to decide by May whether she chooses to run for another term as a Congresswoman, and the nation will be praying for greater recovery efforts that will convince her to continue her stellar public career!

George Will’s Criticism Of The Republican Party: Too Southernized!

Ronald 1 Comment

George Will, the respectable conservative voice on ABC’s This Week with Christiane Amanpour, was sharply critical of the Republican Party this past weekend, in a way the author can totally agree with.

He pointed out that the Republican Party, the party that the South hated for a century because of the Civil War, has become overwhelmingly Southern in the past five election cycles.

Imagine this: 79 percent of the electoral votes the GOP has gained from 1992 to 2008 were in the South! Between that and the Northwest (Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah) , the Republican Party has managed to make itself a sectional party, which Will is concerned dooms it in the 2012 Presidential Election!

Will pointed out that Ohio has been the crux of whether the GOP wins or loses, and probably will be the same in 2012.

The author wishes to remind the reader that EVERY Republican Presidential winner since the inception of the party in the 1850s has won Ohio, so when Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton and Barack Obama won that state in 1976, 1992, and 2008, it guaranteed a Democratic victory.

This statement of Will should be recalled when one feels gloomy about the electoral prospects of Barack Obama, and remember that the Democrats are strong in the Northeast, the upper Midwest, and the Pacific Coast, and it is still their election to lose in 2012!