Human Rights

Hallelujah! Jimmy Carter Reaches His 95th Birthday, A True Gentleman And Statesman!

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Hooray! Hallelujah! Former President Jimmy Carter has reached the age of 95 today, and this is a moment of great celebration!

The longest lived President, now almost 39 years out of office, and his wife and Carter about to set a record of longevity of their marriage on October 17, as longer than George H. W. and Barbara Bush, and with former Vice President Walter Mondale nearing 92 in January—these events are worthy of national celebration!

Carter had a rough time in office from 1977-1981, but much of it was not his fault, but circumstance, and his longevity has added to his stature, and his historical stock is rising, although certainly not top third of Presidents by any measurement. But as a human being, almost no President surpasses Jimmy Carter!

But Jimmy Carter, whether one agrees with him on policy or utterances in his long lifetime, is such a contrast to the present incumbent of the White House.

Carter is compassionate; has empathy; truly cares about people; and has done so much good in his life. His post Presidency is a time of great achievement in promoting human rights, encouraging democracy, fighting diseases, building housing personally even at his advanced age with Habitat For Humanity, and demonstrating what true religiosity is all about.

Anyone who could be overly critical of Carter because of some failed policies is a person who would not be worth one’s time, as most likely, he or she would be a supporter of Donald Trump, a complete and total opposite.

The fact that Carter is diametrically different from Trump will be explored by this author and blogger in an History News Network article scheduled to be published around October 20, to celebrate the two achievements of the Carters in this month of October. This article will coincide with the 1,000th day of the Trump Presidency, as he moves ever more so toward danger for the nation with his insane utterances and mental instability.

It cannot be soon enough for Donald Trump to be removed from the Presidency in order to save the nation and democracy!

The Abuses Of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) And Border Patrol Agents Is Outrageous!

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It is now clear that there are a multitude of agents who work for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and for the Border Patrol, who are abusing migrant women and children in Texas and Florida and elsewhere, including verbal, emotional, and physical abuse, including the deaths of at least six children.

There is racism, misogyny, and sexual abuse going on, and these agents do not speak foreign languages, and ignore the sufferings of children who will be scarred for life by their horrible experiences.

Most of these people have tried to escape from bloodshed, persecution, violence, and abuse in their Central Americans nations, and yet are being denied the right to apply for asylum, and are now living through a literal nightmare often worse than what they escaped.

This is an outrage, against the Bill of Rights and condemns Donald Trump as the worst abuser of civil rights and liberties of any President of the United States.

The racism, nativism, misogyny, white supremacy, and purely disgusting human behavior being seen and reported is a scar on the American nation, and there is a dire need for a quick firing of at least a large portion of ICE and the Border Patrol, and a rapid reorganization of those agencies, which are presently perceived as Nazi and Fascist in their image and actions.

On July 4, Independence Day, this horrific situation is a stain on the American celebration of its 243rd birthday!

Ronald Reagan, in his last speech as President a day before he retired from the Presidency in 1989, glowed about the virtues of immigration, which he said had made us a greater and stronger nation, and he spoke of the glory of the Statue of Liberty, representing open arms for the refugees from all nations, escaping bloodshed, persecution, and oppression, and starting a new life in the haven on earth known as America!

It is a certainty that Ronald Reagan, the paragon of conservatism, would be appalled at what Donald Trump has done on immigration, and the fact that the Republican Party officeholders have nothing to say, condemns all of them to the garbage heap of history, as having stood by and ignored the massive violation of human rights, and actual war crimes being committed by ICE and the Border Patrol, by criminal elements that have bragged about and ridiculed the sufferings of innocent men, women and children on Facebook.

One can be sure that Karma will visit these evil forces, and eventually, many will be held accountable as among the worst elements ever to exist in American government in modern times!

Donald Trump And Disposal Of Human Rights, The Goal Of Jimmy Carter Four Decades Ago

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In the late 1970s, President Jimmy Carter enunciated his belief in human rights, and pursued a policy of denunciation of those nations which denied human rights to their citizens.

Now, four decades later, President Donald Trump has totally reversed such a policy, and has embraced leaders of nations which massively violate human rights.

So we see Trump embracing Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation ; Kim Jong Un of North Korea; Xi Jinping of China; Mohammed Bin Salman of Saudi Arabia; Abdel Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt; Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey; Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines; Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil; Jaroslaw Kaczynski of Poland; Viktor Orban of Hungary; and other authoritarians who deny basic civil rights and civil liberties to their citizens, and persecute minorities and immigrants in their midst, and threaten journalists, extremely alarming and disturbing.

At the same time, Trump attacks and is critical of the leaders of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, South Korea, Japan, Canada and the other nations in NATO, and it is clear that he is enamored with dictators over democratic leaders.

In so doing, Trump is undermining the concept of liberal democracy, and destroying American constitutional principles, damaging the image of America, and destabilizing international affairs.

The Federal Court System Is Going Back To 19th Century Mentality With Mediocre Trump Appointees Unwilling To Accept “Stare Decisis” On Major Issues Supposedly Settled, And Undermining American Democracy

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America is in danger of seeing the federal court system being hijacked by President Donald Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and the Republican Party, and putting us back in the late 19th century “Gilded Age”, where unregulated capitalism prevailed; segregation reigned; labor was victimized; the environment was being destroyed by industrial waste; and women had no basic legal rights.

Many Trump appointees to the lower federal courts are totally incompetent, and only placed in their lifetime positions to undermine all of the progress brought about under many different Presidents and Congresses in the past century to advance human rights.

Trump appointees seem ready to defy “stare decisis”, the concept of past precedent having a major impact on many areas of the law, when cases comes to the Supreme Court and other federal courts.

So we may be seeing the end of abortion rights for women; denial of equality of racial and religious minorities; refusal to promote a more fair justice system; treating gays, lesbians and transgender in a discriminatory manner; and the reassertion of unregulated corporate power.

Donald Trump Defends And Believes Murderous Authoritarians Mohammed Bin Salman, Kim Jong Un, And Vladimir Putin: The Degrading Of The Moral Authority Of The Presidency

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Donald Trump is the most despicable President in American history, not because he negotiates with authoritarian dictators in the hope of avoiding conflict, but because he, publicly and privately, will take their word, and believe what they say, when they deny murderous activities against Americans and against journalists.

So we have Mohammed bin Salman who was well aware and responsible for the horrific murder of American journalist and Saudi Arabian national Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018.

So we have Kim Jong Un who was well aware and responsible for the mistreatment, torture and death of American student Otto Warmbier in 2017.

So we have Vladimir Putin who has arranged the death of journalists and other critics who have been murdered outside the Kremlin and in foreign nations by chemical agents, and also denies involvement in the 2016 Presidential election in the United States in favor of Trump over Hillary Clinton.

By publicly accepting these three liars and their denials, Trump adds to his reputation as a massive liar, who has no concern for human rights and common decency.

In so doing, Donald Trump degrades the moral authority of the American Presidency, and besmirches the office.

For that, he will be condemned in history, and it will cement his last place status among Presidents, below James Buchanan and Andrew Johnson.

Is George H. W. Bush The “Best” One Term President In American History, Surpassing James K. Polk, And What About Jimmy Carter?

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Now that George H. W. Bush is part of American history, the question arises whether he should be judged the “best” one term President in American history.

We have had the following 12 one term elected Presidents who finished their term, but were not given a second term:

John Adams
John Quincy Adams
Martin Van Buren
James K. Polk
Franklin Pierce
James Buchanan
Rutherford B. Hayes
Benjamin Harrison
William Howard Taft
Herbert Hoover
Jimmy Carter
George H. W. Bush

Eight of them, all but Polk, Pierce, Buchanan, and Hayes were defeated for reelection, with those four choosing not to run, and all of these four, except Polk, very unpopular and aware that they were not wanted to be nominated for another term.

The usual viewpoint has been that James K. Polk, with the acquisition of the American Southwest by war with Mexico, and acquisition of the Pacific Northwest by the Oregon treaty with Great Britain, was the most successful one term President. Labeled an expansionist and an imperialist by many, the fact that he presided over the greatest expansion of US territory since Thomas Jefferson, has helped him to be regarded by scholars as a “successful” President, rated 12 to 14 in scholarly polls.

Now, some are saying that George H. W. Bush may be greater than Polk, due to his foreign policy accomplishments in particular, including the end of the Cold War, the unification of Germany, and the Persian Gulf War, along with his domestic policies of “A Thousand Points Of Light”, and the Americans With Disabilities Act.

Some on this list, including Van Buren, Pierce, Buchanan, Hayes, Benjamin Harrison, Taft, and Hoover are seen in a poor light, while J. Q. Adams is seen as not having succeeded in his one term, although a great man, and his father, John Adams, criticized for the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798, curbing civil liberties during his term.

The only other one term President who could be seen as competing would be Jimmy Carter, with his Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel, the Panama Canal Treaty, his Human Rights advocacy, his creation of new cabinet agencies (Departments of Education, Health And Human Services, Energy), and his exceptional record on the environment, but his negatives, including high inflation, the Iranian hostage crisis, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the Cuban Mariel Boat Lift all help to undermine his case.

So, one could argue that Polk and Bush may be competitive as the “best” one term elected President, without a clear cut answer to the question of who was the better President.

It might be best to say that Polk was the best 19th century one term elected President, while Bush was the best 20th century one term elected President, with Jimmy Carter as the runner up in that regard.

Donald Trump Rejects Human Rights As A Principle Of American Foreign Policy, Even Theoretically, After Saudi Torture And Murder Of Jamal Khashoggi

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President Donald Trump has just destroyed all sense of morality, ethics, and principle, by rejecting human rights as a principle of American foreign policy, even theoretically.

Certainly, other Presidents have often ignored human rights as a principle, including Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan above all, but none as openly as Donald Trump, who has just decided to ignore intelligence information that concludes that Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, ordered the assassination and torture of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi national living in the United States and working as a journalist for the Washington Post.

Instead, Trump is giving bin Salman a pass, refusing the concept of some kind of punishment to be meted out on Saudi Arabia for this horrendous murder and dismemberment.

No one is saying that the US should break off relations with the Saudi government, but a nation can use other strategies and tactics to indicate outrage at such a violation of human rights.

But instead, Trump, along with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and National Security Adviser John Bolton, are choosing to show a lack of concern or principle about the basic decency of promoting basic human rights.

It is just another sign that Trump is cozying up to authoritarian dictators, all for his own economic betterment. It has led to bitter denunciation by many public figures in government, including many Republicans, as well as Democrats.

This author believes that the United States will one day realize the danger of what has been done, that Mohammed bin Salman will turn out as King of Saudi Arabia in the future, as the most dangerous foreign leader long term, probably more than Kim Jong of North Korea, who like bin Salman, is in his early 30s, and both will be a nightmare long term in the world, way beyond the leaders of Russia and China, who are twice their age.

The Jamal Khashoggi Torture And Murder The Greatest Foreign Policy Crisis For Donald Trump, Undermining Human Rights For Personal Financial Gain, An Impeachable Act!

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Donald Trump has just confronted the greatest foreign policy crisis of his Presidency, and it seems that he will work to undermine human rights for personal financial gain.

Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, and the heir to become King when his elderly father passes away, is clearly involved in ordering the horrific torture and murder of Saudi national but American resident Jamal Khashoggi, who was a journalist for the Washington Post.

The thought that Trump, and his Tea Party Kansas Congressman Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and his National Security Adviser John Bolton, would work to defend Saudi Arabia after this horrific assassination, and be more concerned about defense profits and financial gains, over the life of a human being so brutally murdered, is enough to make one vomit!

Trump is now reaching a new level of obscenity in defending torture and murder, and that makes him complicit with Mohammed bin Salman as a war criminal, and both of them should be immediately removed from power, and sent to the Hague to be tried for war crimes against humanity, and in the case of Trump, that would include his harsh treatment of immigrants and their children at the US-Mexico border!

How Vice President Mike Pence, who professes to be a “good Christian” can sit back and accept what is going on, and NOT condemn Trump and break with him morally and ethically, makes it clear that Mike Pence should immediately resign from the Vice Presidency as a moral degenerate, a crook who should be prosecuted for complicity in the same human rights violations of his boss.

This government, elected by Russian collusion, corrupt to the core, destructive of common decency, and promoting Fascism and undermining of the rule of law and the Constitution, needs to be repudiated in November, and action taken as soon as possible to remove this cancer from the body politic of America. That means movement toward impeachment, and pressure on the Republican Party to realize it is time for them to abandon their dictatorial leader, and vote to remove him in a Senate trial.

We have lived through 21 months of nightmares, and have reached a point of no return, and any decent American will see the need to remove Donald Trump and Mike Pence from power as soon as possible, and in the interim, break off diplomatic relations and economic relations with Saudi Arabia until reform comes to that nation, including the removal of Mohammed bin Salman from power and his prosecution and conviction for torture and murder of Jamal Khashoggi!

Respect And Applause On Jimmy Carter’s 94th Birthday: A Treasure For The Nation

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Former President Jimmy Carter has reached his 94th birthday today, and that is an event which should engender respect and applause, that we have been graced with his long life, only matched by former President George H. W. Bush on June 12 of this year.

Jimmy Carter has been out of office nearly 38 years, an all time record, and his Vice President, Walter Mondale, is still doing well as he nears 91 in early January.

Carter’s Presidency was controversial, due to the Iran Hostage Crisis; high inflation after the second Arab oil embargo of 1978-1979; and the Cuban Mariel Boatlift to Miami, Florida.

But Carter will always be remembered for the 40 year success of the Camp David Accords, the agreement of Israel and Egypt, to establish diplomatic relations, the first such agreement between any Arab nation and the Jewish state.

Carter is also remembered for the Panama Canal Treaty; the establishment of diplomatic relations with China; his promotion of Human Rights; his establishment of three new cabinet agencies (Education, Health and Human Services, Energy); and his great promotion of environmental protection, making him the third most accomplished in that field, after Theodore Roosevelt and Richard Nixon, and more recently challenged by Barack Obama.

He and his wife, Rosalyn, are on the road to being the longest Presidential marriage about a year from now, when they would surpass the length of marriage of George H. W. and his wife Barbara Bush. By that time a year from now, the Carters would be 95 and 91 years of age.

Let us hope that the Carters and Walter Mondale continue to live on, and grace us by their presence.

The Muslim Ban Decision Of The Supreme Court (Trump V Hawaii) Will Go Down As One Of Worst Decisions In 229 Years Of Our National History!

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The Supreme Court has just made one of the worst decisions in its 229 year history, and has besmirched its own reputation in the process.

It will match such decisions as the Dred Scott Case of 1857; Plessy V Ferguson 1896; and Korematsu V US 1944—all racist decisions justifying slavery, racial segregation, and the internment of Japanese Americans in internment camps during World War II.

All have been roundly condemned, as violations of basic human rights and civil liberties, and now, once again, the Supreme Court has proved how it has allowed itself to promote discrimination and racial prejudice, all in the name of “national security”.

Instead of labeling African Americans or Japanese Americans, now the whole Islamic religion has been judged as a threat to national security, based on the hysteria and racism of Donald Trump.

We have, therefore, allowed an authoritarian who threatens our whole system of government to win a case based purely on bias and religious hatred.

This is a slippery slope that can lead to victimization in the future of people from other nations and other religions.

Jews who were refused entrance in the late 1930s, and now people from Central America who want to escape similar violence and bloodshed and are being held in detention away from their children, are just further examples of how religious prejudice and racism are winning out.

The John Roberts Court has undermined its own reputation in the process, and will be condemned in history.

And the fact that Merrick Garland, appointed by President Obama, was denied a hearing for the Supreme Court vacancy in 2016, led to Neil Gorsuch, who predictably now and in the future will advocate an extreme right wing agenda, harming our constitutional liberties for the next thirty years.

The fact that three members of the Court would not be there if the popular vote had won out in 2000 and 2016 just adds to the tragedy, as George W. Bush would not have been able to appoint John Roberts and Samuel Alito, and Donald Trump would not have been able to appoint Neil Gorsuch.

Sonia Sotomayor registered her vehement dissent, along with Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and the opposition of Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan. But it was all for naught!

America’s reputation has been permanently damaged, and we are no safer against those Muslims who are extremists, who are now emboldened to do harm more than ever, and at the same time, those Muslims in America who have served in our armed forces honorably, and those who have done good work in other fields, have been slapped in the face.

Our most ugly side as a nation has been displayed for all to see, and anyone who believes in justice and fair play is weeping today, and will for the long term of our history as a nation, as tolerance and open mindedness have been denied!