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November 22–52 Years And Still In Recovery From JFK Assassination

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For anyone who was at least eight years old in 1963, they will never forget the shock of the John F. Kennedy Assassination on this day 52 years ago!

We will never forget where we were when the shocking news was revealed, and we are still reverberating from the effects of that tragic event.

We have had no Presidential death in office since, and the odds are catching up, with a world burdened by “lone wolves” domestically, and international terrorism!

The death threats against President Barack Obama have been, as I reveal in my recent book, the greatest in number of any President since Abraham Lincoln.

Just this past week, it was revealed that a person was arrested who had made dangerous threats against President Obama on Facebook, including wanting to feed Obama to a wood chipper!

What kind of crazy mind would think up something like this, and also, thankfully, write about it, so that he could be apprehended?

Mental illness, along with religious fanaticism, are the main causes of the threats faced today by our President, but one can wonder, as many has, how Obama has survived nearly seven years without being directly harmed.

Not only Obama, but all Presidential candidates and the next President and Vice President, whoever they are,  have been and will be under constant threat in a overly dangerous world!

It makes one wonder why any sane person would want to seek the Presidency or serve in that office!

Threats Of Violence Against Barack Obama Grows: A New, Expanded Mental Illness Very Worrisome!

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Here we are ending the fifth year of the Barack Obama Presidency, and the hatred and racism and threats of assassination have not abated one iota!

Instead, it has become a new, expanded mental illness, very worrisome, all over the internet, on Facebook and Twitter, and even on cable news networks, led by Fox News Channel!

It includes so called “religious” leaders, college professors, law enforcement officials, legislators in state governments, military personnel, students, people of different racial backgrounds, and goes as far as calling for a national holiday for lynching President Obama!

This is extremely alarming, as the media reports of threats have multiplied, but it is clear that this is just the “tip of the iceberg”, and that there are a multitude of more threats than we are learning about.

The Secret Service, considered undermanned by many observers, is dealing with an estimated 30 threats per day, over 10,000 threats a year, and probably we are low balling those numbers, so they have to deal with threats 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in all forms of ways, many of them not serious, but none able to be overlooked, as a mistake could be fatal.

The President must go about his daily business of getting around, both in the country and on overseas visits, but one has to be concerned about his safety, as one can be sure, that if something tragic was to occur, there would be celebration not seen widely when John F. Kennedy was assassinated, although there were some stories of applause in classrooms in Dallas after JFK was shot, a totally deplorable situation.

It is the responsibility of our media not to give undue attention to the perpetrators of this hate, so the decision of Lou Dobbs, who once was sane but has gone bonkers in recent years, to allow Professor Michael Scheuer of Georgetown University, to spew his hate and condemnation, and endorsement of assassination of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, on the Dobbs show, should lead to a boycott of Dobbs and all other right wing talk show hosts, who will stop at nothing in their exploitation of hate and racism, and advocacy of violence against our Commander in Chief!

Freedom of speech stops when it advocates violence, and Scheuer needs to be held accountable by Georgetown University, and advertisers need to stop support of Dobbs, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Michael Savage, Mark Levin, et al as an indication that such poison should not be supported on radio and television, as it is a disease that can promote tragedy and disaster!

National Rifle Association And Its Republican Supporters Silent In Midst Of Tragedy Caused By Guns

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The National Rifle Association and its 31 Republican supporters in the US Senate, and gun advocates generally, have become strangely silent in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy, which led to the death of 20 six and seven year olds, and six teachers and administrators in Connecticut.

Their Twitter page and Facebook page have been very quiet, and the Senators who support no limitations on gun rights refused to appear on Meet The Press, showing what cowards they really are, unwilling to support sensible regulations on guns, such as a background check, a ban on assault weapons which existed for ten years, and a limit on how much ammunition may be purchased, as one does not need vast magazines to get involved in deer hunting. And all gun owners and buyers should be registered in a national data base as well. If we can regulate other aspects of human existence, then we should be able to do the same with guns!

This is the time to demand action on these ideas, and to drum the NRA supporters out of Congress and the state legislatures, and make it clear that we will not allow our nation to be held hostage by Wayne LaPierre and other NRA leaders, who have enriched themselves at the expense of human lives!

It is time to take our country back from this unlimited violence, between 11,000 and 12,000 deaths a year by guns, overwhelmingly the most violent nation on earth, that has come about because of the recklessness of the NRA and the gun extremists!

And the answer is not to allow guns in schools, except with a uniformed police officer in every school. And the answer is not to allow anyone to carry guns openly in public places, either! This is insanity beyond belief!

Eleven Years Since September 11: What It Has Done To America

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Eleven years ago, on a bright, sunny New York morning, just as today it is in New York, and on the same day of the week, Tuesday, America was struck by Al Qaeda and forces backed by Osama Bin Laden, causing the deaths of about 3,000 people at the World Trade Center, along with those slaughtered at the Pentagon in suburban Virginia, and those on the plane bound for the US Capitol or the White House, and forced into a crash by its courageous passengers in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

This is a day of commemoration and mourning for the loss of life, plus the deaths of over 6,000 Americans in unsuccessful wars in Afghanistan and Iraq since then, and the nearly 50,000 young men and women wounded, many of them severely, as a result of those wars.

We also mourn the loss of innocence that we had, that somehow, as the super power of the world, we were immune from such a shocking attack, and the sense of insecurity that it brought upon all of us.

Our lives have been transformed in so many ways that we can never reverse, and we can say that we have become ever more divided in the years since, politically, economically, and socially, and that we have a divided America more so now than ever since the Civil War and Reconstruction period in the middle to late 19th century.

We are a more stratified society economically, and we have become, more than ever, a nation of the coastlines versus the massive interior, a nation of blue versus red in political terms, and our country is rapidly changing in a way that worries us about the future, as to whether there is the potential for internal violence in the future, that might make the terrorism of September 11 seem like something minor, as compared to what could happen between the sections of the nation, the religious groups, the racial groups, the age groups, the gender groups, and the cultural groups that make America a complex nation in the 21st century.

Imagine going back to the year 2000, before the divisive Presidential Election of 2000, at a time when most Americans had never heard of Osama Bin Laden; when the World Trade Center dominated the Manhattan skyline; when there was no Facebook, Twitter, or Steve Jobs technology; when unemployment was only 3.9 percent; when the national debt was only $5.7 trillion; when gasoline was only $1.79 a gallon; and when the previous year, the biggest controversy was Bill Clinton’s sex life and his impeachment trial.

As America was entering the new century, we were extremely naive, worrying more about the effects of “Y2K” on computers, than the reality of what we were going to face in the first decade of the 21st century, which has worsened the outlook for America’s future in a dramatic way.

Oh, for the “good old days!”

Jeremy Lin And Racial Stereotyping: The Ugly Tone Of Racism Against Asian Americans Renewed!

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New York Knicks basketball player Jeremy Lin has become an overnight sensation, in just the past ten days, coming out of obscurity to lead the Knicks to seven straight victories. He is the sensation of the National Basketball Association!

Instead of rejoicing over the first basketball player of Asian heritage, specifically Chinese from the island of Taiwan, to become a big success story, instead of just “Lin Mania” occurring, we are also seeing the ugly tone of racial stereotyping rearing its head, including some African Americans ridiculing or rejecting his success. Hate mail and Facebook and Twitter expression of racism is showing how far we have to go, even in 2012, to overcome the ignorance and jealousy of many.

Asian Americans in the past have been victims of discrimination, racism, and stereotyping, with the infamous anti Chinese riots of the 1870s and 1880s and the internment of Japanese Americans in World War II just the best known examples, along with the banning of Chinese immigration from 1882-1943 and of Japanese immigration from 1924 to 1965.

It seems the more we see great accomplishments by an ethnic or racial group in this great country, there always has to be a backlash by people who themselves are often the victims of racism previously.

When will we finally accept people for their accomplishments and celebrate their ethnicity without jealousy or resentment by others of other racial and nationality groups? Obviously, it is a long time in the future, despite the education and progress that has been made from the great depths of darkness of the past!

Meanwhile, congratulations to Jeremy Lin, and all of us should be very proud of his accomplishments!

The Loss Of The Anthony Weiner Congressional Seat In New York: Its Meaning

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The 9th Congressional District in Queens and Brooklyn, New York, was represented in the past decade by an aggressive, outspoken Democrat named Anthony Weiner, who was noticeable for his fighting spirit against conservatives, the Tea Party Movement, and the Republican Party. He made a lot of news with his confrontations on the floor of the House of Representatives in the past few years.

But Anthony Weiner also had a fatal flaw, not unique to him among politicians, and that was his private sexual drives, which led to him putting text and pictures of his naked body on Facebook and Twitter, erupting in a scandal which forced him to resign in June of this year.

Now, as a result of his antics and stupidity, a district which was Democratic controlled since 1923, has gone to the Republican nominee, and it is being interpreted in different ways.

Let the author point out that this district was the one in which he resided for 15 years before his move to Florida in 1989, and he lived specifically in the community known as Fresh Meadows in the Flushing area of Queens County.

The thought that MY district is now represented by a Republican is hard enough to take, but the issue is its meaning!

Some would say it is an aberration, and a reaction against Anthony Weiner himself, as a similar situation with an upstate New York district, traditionally Republican for a very long time, went to the Democrat a few months ago after a similar sex scandal.

It should also be pointed out that this district will disappear due to the mandated change in district lines for all members of the House of Representatives after reapportionment of seats with census results now in, and therefore, the whole district will be divided among others, with New York losing two seats in the House of Representatives. So the new Republican, as much as if the Democratic candidate had won, is unlikely to be able to stay in Congress more than one year. In fact, since Weiner was personally not well liked in the New York delegation, he probably would have been thrown into a primary against a fellow Democrat in a newly established district, with a good chance of being defeated, without the scandal which unseated him!

Having said all that, some see the defeat as a repudiation of Barack Obama on the economy.

Others see it as a repudiation of the stand on Israel and the Palestinians that Obama and his administration have promoted, seen at least by Orthodox and Hasidic Jews, a large portion of the Jewish population of that district, as anti Israel.

Still others see it as a repudiation of the Democratic nominee, who while Jewish, supported gay marriage in the state legislature, something that Orhodox and Hasidic Jews loathe with passion!

Does this mean that the general Jewish population is ready to abandon Barack Obama and the Democrats nationally?

The answer is who knows, but while it seems highly doubtful that large numbers of Jews will vote Republican, it is certainly a warning to Obama and the Democrats to work hard to convince Jews that Obama is NOT working against Israel’s interests, that they will fight for more jobs, and at the same time, NOT back off on gay marriage and gay rights!

Orthodox and Hasidic Jews have the right to be against gay marriage, as much as many Catholics and evangelical Christians, but that does not mean that their personal prejudices should deny equality in all ways to gay and lesbian Americans! This needs to be seen as a civil rights issue!

Since the percentage of Jews who are Orthodox or Hasidic is small, and since most Jews believe in the New Deal and Great Society programs that continue to be defended by Barack Obama and his party, this election, most likely, is simply an aberration!

The Growing Danger Of Social Media, Social Networking: Growing Discontent Among Young People Who Are Unemployed Leads To Potential Violence And Revolution!

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Social Media such as Facebook and Twitter have brought people together in all kinds of great causes and crusades, including the “Arab Spring” in many Middle East nations that are autocracies.

At the same time, social networking has also been leading to the ability of crime gangs to promote chaos and anarchy, as has been occurring recently in Philadelphia; to demonstrations interfering with freedom of movement in the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) system in San Francisco; and to authorities attempting to shut down social media and cell phones to prevent such confrontations and violence, but in the process interfering with civil liberties, and the ability to communicate for law abiding citizens.

When one realizes that a lot of what has happened in the “Arab Spring” is not just based on politics, but also on the inability of many young people in the Middle East to find work or make an adequate living even with those who have educational attainment, one must also realize that millions of young Americans, who would never be ordinarily considering being lawless, MIGHT with growing unemployment and frustration help to cause some firebrands to incite people to rise up in violence and bloodshed in opposition to the lack of federal and state governments doing what they can to promote job creation. Whether with business assistance or through public works projects, as during the Great Depression, when millions of people contributed to the growth of infrastructure through the Works Projects Administration and other agencies, giving them faith in the future and a steady paycheck, it is ESSENTIAL that actions be taken immediately to prevent such an occurrence!

The fact that the US government under Republican House leadership has done NOTHING to promote job growth, and that state governments are cutting employment at the same time, means that unemployment is likely to grow, apparently part of the plan of the GOP to make Barack Obama look bad. But in the process, it is likely to provoke eventual violence and bloodshed, which can be fueled on the internet through Facebook and Twitter and other social media!

The potential for trouble is alarming, and the events in the Middle East, Philadelphia and San Francisco should ring alarm bells in our government at all levels, that we CANNOT allow widespread unemployment to grow and claim there is nothing that government can do, as they indeed did a GREAT DEAL during the New Deal years of Franklin D. Roosevelt and saved the country from revolution!

It is time for Congress and the states to stop the politics, and start promoting job opportunity, whether privately inspired or publicly created, and not later, but NOW!

Three Years Of “The Progressive Professor” Today!

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Three years ago today, “The Progressive Professor” began commenting on public affairs, politics and history!

At this point, there have been 2, 207 posts, and 1,012 comments, including some responses by the author to questions or comments of those who have contributed to this blog directly, with others having responded on Facebook.

Readership is growing, and it is hoped that more who read this blog will decide not just to read it, but to write directly on the blog, with their thoughts and perspectives, in order to enrich the material that this blog offers.

So happy 3rd Anniversary, and many more years in the future, as this nation deals with the challenges that will affect the future of all of us!

The author promises always to be honest and blunt in his assessment of events and personalities, as understanding the effects of what goes on in public affairs is crucial to the knowledge and understanding of our democracy which faces tremendous challenges every day!

Sarah Palin: Anarchist, Radical, Extremist, Economic Terrorist Encouraging Tea Party Recalcitrance!

Ronald 1 Comment

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin today demonstrated just how dangerous she really is, as she sent a message through her Facebook page warning the Tea Party radicals, who are refusing to make any deal with their own leader, Speaker of the House John Boehner, that if they made ANY compromise in the Debt Ceiling Crisis, they would face primaries when they ran for reelection next year!

By fighting against the establishment of her own party, she is proving herself much more than just the usual ignorant, stupid, uninformed person that she has proved to be over and over again in the past three years!

It is much worse than that! It is that she is promoting the economic collapse of our nation, the downgrading of our credit rating, which would lead to skyrocketing interest rates on home mortgages, automobile loans, credit cards, and student loans, plus more unemployment, bankruptcies, and broadly, more anarchy and chaos!

This makes Sarah Palin a danger to the American nation, and a person who would literally be a menace to our country if she were to ever gain power!

We cannot afford such a KNOW NOTHING anarchist, radical, extremist, economic terrorist who has no concern for the future of the average American!

This woman needs to be repudiated by all decent Republicans, as well as Democrats and Independents, for her destructive, reprehensible, and reckless behavior, and be told clearly to stay up in Alaska and leave this nation alone!

The Harassment And Bullying Of Anthony Weiner By New York Media: Disgraceful!

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The New York media has always been more difficult and aggressive than most other media, but what they have just done to former Congressman Anthony Weiner is totally disgraceful!

The New York Daily News and the New York Post, both well known for being “rags” rather than reputable journalism, destroyed Anthony Weiner, harrassed, hounded, and bullied him to the extreme, sensationalized his faults and misdeeds to such an extent that it was literally impossible for him to survive in office!

Did Anthony Weiner conduct himself in a proper fashion on the internet, on Twitter and Facebook? Obviously, NO, but did his sins deserve the kind of mistreatment that he suffered?

The author thinks other politicians have conducted themselves in far worse fashion and have not been assaulted in such a vicious way!

And the fact that his party, the Democratic Party, also brought such great pressure on him is very different than what the Republican Party does with its transgressors! And in so doing, we have lost a major progressive voice for the middle and lower classes!

No one is saying to give Anthony Weiner a free ride, and overlook his faults, but if his district wanted him to stay, that should have been the ultimate decision maker!

So, as suggested yesterday by the author, Anthony Weiner, IF he is willing to do it, should announce for the special election, and leave it to the people to decide in his district, as to whether they want him back or not. Democracy should rule, not the reckless and insulting behavior of the New York media, best defined as TRASH!