Italian Americans

Executive Order 9066 On Japanese American Internment 75 Years Old, As Trump Starts Massive Deportation Of Undocumented Immigrants, Mexico Wall, And Muslim Ban

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It has been 75 years. since February 19, 1942, that President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which authorized the arrest and detention of about 120,000 Japanese Americans in internment camps, for no reason other than their race, 74 days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. 11,000 German Americans, including some German Jews, and 3,000 Italian Americans were also interned.

Japanese ethnicity citizens and aliens were put into camps in seven states, losing their businesses and homes and many of their possessions, and living in communal housing in remote locations, and when a few tried to escape, they were shot dead by tower guards.

Some were killed by civilians in the two and a half months before the internment.

The young men in the group volunteered for World War II service in Europe, in the 442nd Infantry Regiment,and won more medals, honors, and awards than any other military units in World War II, while their families lived behind barbed wire.

Finally released in December 1944, and nearly three years interned, they were not given any help to readjust their lives.

Only in 1988, after 44 years, did the US Government and President Ronald Reagan apologize for the internment, and each survivor, about 50,000 out of the 120,000, were given $20,000 compensation with no tax withheld.

Now we are seeing similar treatment against people of Muslim heritage, by the executive order utilized by Trump, but temporarily under hold due to federal circuit courts intervening to stop the ban, but with a new executive order on the way victimizing Muslims, as if they are all terrorists, when none of the nations involved have sent over terrorists, and we have had lots of domestic terrorists who are white Anglos perpetrating violence.

And massive deportation of undocumented immigrants, whose only crime is entering the nation illegally, but with very small numbers of criminals, is now growing, with the possible use of the National Guard and new immigration border staff, as Sanctuary Cities refuse to cooperate.

Many of these immigrants are utilized by the farm industry, hotels, gardeners and restaurants, and other service workers, who, if they are deported, will create a shortage of labor and cause massive increase in prices.

And of course, the proposed Mexico Wall will cost tens of billions of dollars, and will not be able totally to prevent migration and even crime, and funds for it will come from increased taxes, and cutting off federal programs that should not be ended.

Trump is involved, basically, in a reign of terror, which will look horrible in the future, when we look back at the deterioration of the unity of the United States, and the end of the land of the free and of opportunity.

Mario Cuomo, Progressive Warrior In Tradition Of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Hubert H. Humphrey, And Fiorello LaGuardia!

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Mario Cuomo’s death on New Year’s Day took some attention away, momentarily, from the greatness of this man, a progressive warrior in the tradition of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Hubert H. Humphrey, in a later generation, and with an ethnic tinge as with Fiorello LaGuardia!

Cuomo, an Italian American, was the first prominent white ethnic politician since LaGuardia to promote the liberal-progressive cause, and to be considered a serious Presidential candidate, other than John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert F. Kennedy, both Irish Catholic ethnics.

Cuomo spoke up for change and reform, at the height of the ascendancy of Ronald Reagan, who worked to undermine the New Deal of FDR and the Great Society of Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1980s.

Cuomo worked to ban assault weapons and promote gun control; worked for legal abortion rights to be upheld; promoted the first mandatory seat belt law in cars nationally; vetoed the death penalty; and reformed the state courts to promote diversity. He served longer in office than any New York Governor, except Nelson Rockefeller.

Cuomo stood up for the middle class, working people, women, and minorities, a battle which continues decades later, but was the focus of Cuomo, who would have made a great Supreme Court Justice or President. He was, himself, from a struggling immigrant family, and understood the plight of those of similar background.

It seems clear that had Cuomo sought the Presidency in 1992, we would not have had Bill Clinton as President, and there would be no Hillary Clinton being considered today for the Presidency.

One Of The Last True Liberals, Mario Cuomo, Passes From The Scene On New Year’s Day!

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Former three term New York Governor Mario Cuomo, one of the last true liberals in American politics, passed from the scene yesterday, New Year’s Day, just as his son, Andrew Cuomo, was inaugurated for his own second term as Governor of New York.

Mario Cuomo was a dynamic, charismatic, inspiring political figure, who flirted with the idea of running for President in 1988 and 1992, but ended up not running. He also was the front runner for a Supreme Court nomination by President Bill Clinton in 1993, but turned it down, in favor of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and ran, instead, for a fourth term as Governor, but losing to George Pataki in 1994.

Cuomo was, without any question, the second greatest Italian American political figure in American history, only surpassed by New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia (1934-1945), and he will be much missed, as he was a rarity in politics–a truly decent, principled politician who cared about the poor and the oppressed of all races, both in New York and nationwide!

FDR’s Worst Domestic Mistake: 72nd Anniversary Of Japanese American Internment Order

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Franklin D. Roosevelt is rated in most polls of scholars as our second greatest President, right behind Abraham Lincoln, or if placed third, behind George Washington as well.

FDR did so much good for us in the years of the Great Depression, with his wide variety of New Deal programs, and he also took us through the travails of World War II.

But he made a horrible mistake, when he issued Executive Order 9066 on this day in 1942, 72 years ago, allowing the building of prison camps, specifically for Japanese Americans, but also for some German Americans and Italian Americans, on the basis that they might be a “Fifth Column” working for the nation of their family’s origin.

About 110,000 mostly Japanese Americans were locked up in internment camps, and if they tried to escape, were shot and killed by guards. They were kept there until the middle of 1945, for no crime other than their ethnicity.

Many of the young Japanese American men went off to fight in Europe in World War II, and won more medals, honors, and awards for their bravery in battle, than any other unit of the war effort.

It took until 1988 for President Ronald Reagan to sign legislation granting compensation to the approximate 50,000 such victims still alive.

On the 31st anniversary of Executive Order 9066, President Gerald Ford signed legislation in 1976, declaring that executive order null and void for the future, with the memory of the miscarriage of justice that had been visited on Japanese Americans.

Never again should any such executive order be issued against any ethnic, racial, or religious group, but one can be sure that there are many right wingers who would love to do the same to our Muslim population, or our Latino population.

This mistake by FDR, giving in to hysteria, was upheld shamelessly by the Supreme Court in Korematsu V. US in December 1944, a low moment for the Court, but not the only one it has done in its long history!

Civil liberties of people should never be breached in the name of hysteria and panic!

The Heritage Foundation, Jason Richwine, And Racist Report On Hispanics And Latinos!

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Jason Richwine wrote a doctoral dissertation at Harvard University, accepted despite its racist, bigoted assertions about Hispanics and Latinos, and somehow, received a Ph. D. from the number one university in the nation!

Harvard should be ashamed of itself, for granting the doctorate for such a piece of garbage, and the professors on that committee have lost all credibility, no matter what else they are known for and have published, and this coming from an individual, myself, who had to please a distinguished committee of three professors, before gaining the honored degree 38 years ago, and then, publishing a revised edition with Johns Hopkins University Press six years later!

The Heritage Foundation is a despicable right wing organization, and just looking at who its leader is, former Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina, already is telling, as he is one of the absolute worst Senators in the history of that legislative body, and is the heir, in many ways, to John C. Calhoun and Strom Thurmond!

So now it is Hispanics and Latinos who are “inferior” and have “low IQs”, instead of past groups said to be so, including Native Americans, African Americans, Irish Americans, Italian Americans, Polish Americans, Jewish Americans, Japanese Americans, Chinese Americans and every other group one can imagine!

The fact that it is poverty and deprivation and discrimination, that make it difficult to succeed in the short run are now being used to make broad judgments on an ethnic group, ironically the fastest growing group in American society!

Jason Richwine is a disgrace, and should have his doctoral degree revoked, and it is good to see that he resigned from the Heritage Foundation, but he will probably go to some other right wing organization, or end up on talk radio, and be defended by the likes of Michelle Malkin, a Japanese American, who became originally noticed for her defense of the internment of Japanese Americans in World War II!

The right wing knows no limits, and no insult is enough, beginning with our first African American President, and fighting against the tide of the American future, by attacking Hispanics and Latinos, who are smart enough to realize that the conservative movement and the Republican “Neanderthals” have no concern about their status and future!

So let the right wing continue to advocate its poison, and the response of Hispanics and Latinos will be overwhelmingly what it was in 2012, 70 percent and more for the Democrats and the progressive future, which wishes to advance the “American Dream”, rather than deny it to new generations by racist hatred!

Associate Justice Antonin Scalia Compares Gay Marriage To Murder! Totally Reprehensible!

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Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia has never hidden his ideological agenda on the Court, any more than Associate Justice Clarence Thomas.

Both men, the most ideologically right wing of the past century, are clear in their prejudices and biases, and desire to bring America back to the 18th century, the time of the Founding Fathers, and the much promoted concept of both Justices known as “originalism”

The fact that the Founding Fathers included slave owners, treated women as second class citizens, and did not trust the masses of citizens so as to give them the vote for President or the US Senate, and limited the right to vote for white males to those who owned property in that time period, does not have any effect on either Scalia or Thomas.

If it was up to them, nothing would have changed, despite the fact that Italian Americans, such as Scalia, and African Americans, such as Thomas, were not considered human beings by most of the WASPS who dominated American government, and mistreated both ethnic groups well into the 20th century! The fact that Scalia is the first ever Italian American Justice, and that Thomas is the second ever African American Justice, seems not to have made them pause and realize the nature of progress and change!

So we know the narrow mindedness of both men, but to have Justice Scalia, who claims to be a great intellectual, and loves himself publicly, to compare gay marriage and gay rights to the horrors of murder, makes one think he is losing it completely, and needs to announce his retirement from the Court this coming June, after being in the hateful minority with Thomas on discrimination against a group, gay Americans, which has suffered more hate and prejudice than any other group in the history of the world, simply because of their sexuality, when that is none of anyone’s business!

If it is alright to have interracial marriage, or marriage between Catholics and Protestants, or Christians and Jews, all groups which have had to fight for their rights to marry, then it is alright to have two men or two women who love each other and wish to commit their lives to each other, to marry and have the benefits and security of marriage, and no prejudice, bias or hate should be allowed to get in the way of their commitment!

Scalia looked like a fool when answering the question of gay Princeton University freshman Duncan Hosie, who demonstrated great courage and dignity in his approach to Scalia, in front of a large audience.

No one is claiming that any person is free of prejudice and personal opinions, but it is totally inappropriate for a member of the Supreme Court to be so openly hostile and antagonistic as Scalia is on gay rights and gay marriage, and his behavior gives license to religious freaks and other hate mongers to continue to encourage actions and violence against gay Americans, and their and his behavior is therefore, morally reprehensible!

The Ghost Of Richard Nixon Returns To Haunt Us! Ethnic Slurs On Newly Released Watergate Tapes! :(

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Sixteen years after the death of President Richard Nixon, and 36 years after he resigned the Presidency in disgrace, the evil side of the 37th President again arises to haunt us.

With the transcription and release of more of the Watergate tapes that has continued as a project of the National Archives for many years now, the voice and thoughts of Richard Nixon and those around him keep on coming back to remind us of the tragedy of this man.

A really brilliant person, Nixon had his demons, which includes insecurity, paranoia tendencies, and the belief that his critics were enemies that had to be investigated and destroyed. But he also had disgraceful attitudes toward different ethnic groups in America, and it shows in great detail on the latest revelations of the White House tapes.

His rants against Jews, African Americans, Italian Americans and Irish Americans are despicable, and contribute to a lowering of his historical image, even with the effort of many scholars to try to show the major contributions he made to foreign and domestic policy.

It is clear that Richard Nixon in many ways had an admirable record as President, but his use of foul language, his ethnic hatreds, his mental instability that led to his authorization of illegal and unethical acts in office, and the fact that his top staff people knew that they could engage in reprehensible behavior and that Nixon would approve of such actions, continues to weigh down on the 37th President, and prevent a full rehabilitation of his character and record.

This is a sad set of circumstances, and in a way, Nixon continues to haunt us and mystify us at the same time! 🙁