American Civil War

J D Vance Controversial VP Nominee, Promoting Anti Haitian Immigrant Conspiracy Theory!

Republican Vice Presidential nominee J D Vance is already perceived as the least regarded and most controversial nominee for Vice President since Sarah Palin, and with a lower rating than both Palin and former Vice President Dan Quayle in public perception.

Donald Trump could have selected a less controversial nominee to be a heartbeat away from the Oval Office, but he chose Vance, who is perpetuating a conspiracy theory about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, that they are eating residents’ pet cats and dogs, a preposterous charge!

Vance, already suspicious due to his chameleon nature, having switched totally in his views of Donald Trump from years ago, also has stated that “Civil War” is still going on in America, and that he sides with the South and the “Confederacy” against “the woke North”.

Vance’s open racism and nativism, and his promotion of division and confrontation is alarming, and his demagoguery will make the upcoming CBS Vice Presidential debate on October 1 a moment of great public attention, when Democratic VP nominee Tim Walz confronts the controversial and divisive Vance!

The South “The Abortion Desert”, Denial Of Basic Human Rights Of Women!

Just as the American South was the slavery promoters who provoked the Civil War in the 19th century, so now the American South is the “Abortion Desert”, taking away the basic human rights of women, as before with African Americans.

With Florida yesterday putting into effect a strict abortion ban, a woman who lives in the “Sunshine State” must travel to New Mexico, Kansas, Illinois, or Virginia as the closest locations to obtain an abortion, even if in medical distress that could end her life. This affects, in theory, about 4 million women of child bearing age in Florida.

A total of 17 states now completely ban abortion, including the entire South, except Virginia, and with some restrictions in North Carolina.

This is a “new slavery”, putting women “in their place”, under the control of religious extremists and misogynists! Vice President Kamala Harris went to Florida yesterday to denounce the new restrictions on women’s rights to control their own bodies.

The issue of abortion will be on the ballot in many states, including Florida, in the November elections, and it is urgent that this be perceived as THE ISSUE extremely important in the upcoming Presidential and Congressional Elections of 2024.

It Looks Like Donald Trump Will Remain On The Ballot: Time For A Vigorous, No Holds Barred Campaign!

After witnessing the oral arguments before the Supreme Court yesterday in the Trump V Anderson Colorado Ballot controversy, it looks like Donald Trump will remain on the ballot for the Presidential Election of 2024 in all of the 50 states.

It was quite surprising even seeing the liberal Democratic appointments on the Supreme Court, and particularly Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, seemingly skeptical on the matter, although Sonia Sotomayor seemed likely to be in dissent.

It was also quite amazing that Clarence Thomas did not recuse himself on the matter, considering that his wife Ginni Thomas was supportive of the US Capitol Insurrection, but then it is well recognized that Thomas has no ethics, morals, or scruples.

Any time that the Supreme Court is involved in oral argument can lead to speculation on the result, so there could be a surprise decision, but it is clear one should not bet on it.

So it is now time for a vigorous, no holds barred campaign for the next nine months, as American democracy and the rule of law is on trial, in what can be considered the most dangerous times since the Civil War 160 years ago!

Florida Government Declares War On Liberal Arts Curriculum At State Universities!

Censorship and right wing orthodoxy is the new war on knowledge now being waged by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the Florida State Board of Education, in its blatant attack on the educational curriculum at state colleges and universities.

Sociology has been banned as part of the “core” curriculum, as earlier, Advanced Placement African American history has been rejected as “woke” ideology.

This political attack on liberal arts education is alarming, and it is spreading to other states, who have declared war on “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion”.

The replacement for the Sociology survey course is “US History to 1877”, which it is claimed will cover the realities of early American history, but one has to wonder will the “Trail of Tears” action against native American tribes, and the ugly reality of slavery really be covered in the curriculum?

Ron DeSantis, when teaching high school two decades ago, argued with students against slavery being the major cause of the American Civil War; and Nikki Haley, when asked about that conflict failed to mention that slavery was the primary cause of the Civil War, and has said that America is not a racist nation.

So it is clear that mind control and propaganda are winning out over reality and truth in college curriculums in the public colleges and universities in the state of Florida!

The “Lost Cause” After Civil War Again Rears Its Ugly Head In 2024!

Hard to believe, but the American Civil War (1861-1865) continues to divide America more than a century and a half after its impact on America!

Nikki Haley has trouble realizing that slavery was the major cause of the Civil War.

Ron DeSantis, when a high school teacher two decades ago, told his students that slavery was NOT the major cause of the Civil War.

Donald Trump tells us that Abraham Lincoln should have negotiated with slave owners, as it might have prevented the Civil War, and that Lincoln would not be remembered if it was not for the bloodshed of that war.

The “Lost Cause”, that of “states rights”, was used in the South to propagandize for generations the fact that the South had lost the war, and only was finally overcome in most circles since the 1960s, but now the new MAGA Republican propaganda is reviving the old myth, which justified Jim Crow segregration, lynching, and denial of basic civil rights to African Americans for a century after the Civil War.

Leave it to those who attack DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion), and the nation will be going backwards in understanding of our history, and promoting racial reconciliation, so the battle against the “Lost Cause” must be waged!

Three Years Since The January 6 Insurrection, And Most Republicans Remain Collaborators

As the third anniversary of the January 6 Insurrection comes upon us, we have the growth of ever more collaboration by Republicans in defending and supporting Donald Trump, even among those who condemned his promotion of bloodshed and violence on that day, including against Vice President Mike Pence.

While there are Republicans and conservatives who continue to condemn the former President and are committed to his demise as a political force, most of the party officeholders remain unwilling to demonstrate guts, courage, and principle.

It is more important for these officeholders to keep their job in Congress than it is to promote the survival of democracy.

So effectively, most Republicans are no better than the Confederates who were banned from holding public office by the 14th Amendment Section 3 in 1868 after the Civil War.

Then, the Republican Party was the party of the Union, committed to basic principles of having promoted the end of slavery and promoting racial equality.

The whole point of forming the Republican Party, coming to power, and upholding the end of slavery and the promotion of survival of the Constitution, has now been destroyed by the modern Republican Party, which has lost all sense of ethics, morals, and principles!

2024 Presidential Election Crucial As Were 1864 And 1964 Elections, And They Were Election Landslides!

One could argue that every Presidential Election is significant in some shape or form, but certain elections stand out as turning points in the promotion of American democracy.

Such are the Presidential Elections of 1864 and 1964, and now moving forward, 2024!

In all three, the sustaining of American democracy was crucial, and in the first two cases, the results, after much concern, were massive landslides, hopefully setting the scene for 2024!

In 1864, Republican Abraham Lincoln was running for reelection in the midst of the American Civil War, with his opponent being General George McClellan, who was resentful of his firing for poor performance from Union Army leadership, and represented to many the Confederate hope of pulling out victory late in the Civil War.

Lincoln was so concerned that victory was unattainable, that he decided to replace Vice President Hannibal Hamlin with a Southern Loyalist Democrat Andrew Johnson, and the Republicans invited War Democrats into the party by changing their name to the National Union Party.

The end result was a landslide with Lincoln winning all but three states, winning 55 percent of the vote, and an Electoral College majority of 212-21!

A century later, President Lyndon B. Johnson, having succeeded to the Presidency after the assassination of John F. Kennedy less than a year earlier, faced the most right wing Republican contender for the Presidency in modern times, Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, who advocated ending the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt, including Social Security, and also opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Johnson went on to a landslide victory, winning 61.1 percent of the popular vote, the all time high, and 44 of 50 states and 486-52 in the Electoral College, but with five Southern states going to Goldwater, the beginning of the political realignment that has made the South solidly Republican ever since, with only a few exceptions when Democrats nominated Southerners for the Presidency, including Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.

Johnson went on to promote the Great Society, a massive increase in government programs, way beyond the New Deal of FDR.

Now in 2024, with the Republican Party being the most extreme right wing since Goldwater, and arguably more so, Joe Biden faces a challenge not only on a personal level, but also on overcoming the menace of Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans, who have repudiated the original basis of the Republican Party’s founding, opposing slavery and its expansion, and instead promoting racism and nativism 170 years after the origins of the party in Michigan and Wisconsin in 1854!

Nikki Haley Self Destructs On The Issue Of Slavery And The Civil War!

Republican Presidential candidate Nikki Haley has just destroyed her candidacy by refusing to state that slavery was the major cause of the American Civil War!

Asked at a New Hampshire campaign event, Haley seemed uncomfortable with the question, and avoided mentioning slavery, an outrageous blunder on her part.

Instead of showing leadership, Haley acted just like Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump, as they attack the issue of race as a major factor, instead promoting white supremacy, and demonstrate their ignorance of not only the Civil War, but American history in general.

This situation reminds us of the reality that the party of Abraham Lincoln, the party formed to fight against expansion of slavery, and having many abolitionists within its midst, in the 1850s through the 1870s, has now totally repudiated the basic principles of the founding of the Republican Party!

Any “edge” Haley might have been gaining is now lost, as she has demonstrated lack of commitment to the truth, and cowardice on a grand scale!

Donald Trump Projection Continues To Escalate Out Of Control!

Donald Trump is, more than ever, escalating the use of “projection” in his rants on Truth Social and in his public oratory, exuding hate and division.

Anyone who is sane can see that Trump is acting in an insane manner, accusing Joe Biden and the prosecutors and judges in the upcoming trials of the worst possible crimes and abuses he asserts they have engaged in, when he is actually just transferring his own crimes and abuses onto them.

The thought that a man so mentally unbalanced would even be considered to have the power of the Presidency, including nuclear weapons, under his control is terrifying.

The idea that the Republican Party would allow themselves to become captive to this man who wants retribution for his crimes and abuses of power during his Presidency, and has made it perfectly clear that he wants to be a dictator on Day One, makes one shudder.

No matter what the shortcomings of President Joe Biden, he has done a lot of good, and is a stable man of empathy, compassion, and decency!

If the nation goes ahead and somehow gives the mentally unstable Donald Trump absolute power, the nation’s heritage will lie in tatters, with a greater crisis than any since the Civil War, and arguably even worse than that cataclysmic event!

Top Five Political Heroes Of The Year 2023

In a year with so many politically difficult moments, certain situations stand out as bright moments.

Liz Cheney, the former Republican Congresswoman from Wyoming, stayed strong and continued to fight against the cancer represented by Donald Trump, holding to the traditions and beliefs of a Republican Party that once believed in principle, but no longer exists, ready to sell its soul to a charlatan who is destroying its history and traditions.

Adam Kinzinger, the former Republican Congressman from Illinois, has also, like Cheney, been a Profile in Courage, who has refused to bend to the intolerance and authoritarian nature of a party which has left him, and Cheney, rather than the other way around.

Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York has proved to be an exceptional potential Speaker of the House in 2025, as he has kept the Democratic minority united and strong against the degradation of the small majority Republicans in the House of Representatives. His leadership contrasts with the disgraceful, extremist oriented leadership of Kevin McCarthy, but even more so, Mike Johnson, a true religious extremist and moral hypocrite, who is sadly only two heartbeats away from the Presidency in his role as Speaker of the House.

President Joe Biden has shown great principle, courage, and decisiveness in a multitude of domestic and foreign crises, too often underrated and unappreciated for his strong stand for basic principles, including promotion of democracy, common decency, empathy, compassion, and the rule of law. He is presiding over the greatest crisis to our Constitution since the Civil War, but something that will only be fully understood in the future.

And finally, above all else, the survival of American Democracy itself, with the support of Democrats, courageous Republicans, the courts, the responsible news media, and decent citizens who value our heritage of nearly 250 years of constitutional government, is the ultimate “HERO” in this nation!

Resistance to authoritarian Fascism in all its forms is a constant, long term battle, and the final defeat, conviction, and imprisonment of the evil Donald Trump is the battle ahead, and with the understanding, that MAGA Trumpism will continue to be a threat, that all decent people will need to continue to resist beyond the time of Donald Trump!