Lyndon B. Johnson And The Great Society

Trump Cancellation Of Federal Funding Of National History Day Contest A Step Too Far! :(

Ronald 11 Comments

Donald Trump cannot go low enough, as now National History Day, a contest that involves hundreds of thousands of students in a competition for the best history project, conducted annually in June, is no longer being financially supported by the federal government

This is part of the gutting of the long operating National Endowment for the Humanities and National Endowment For The Arts, first initiated 60 years ago as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society!

It is clear that nothing is too low for the Trump Administration in the mad dash to cut spending through Elon Musk and the Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and allow massive tax cuts fot the wealthy to go through to law!

The 119th Congress, with a slim Republican majority, is on the road to destruction of much of federal government programs, without any regard for the damage that is being wrought!

The Right Wing Attack On NPR And PBS Since 1980

Ronald 8 Comments

National Public Radio (NPR), and Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), created as part of Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society in 1967, nearly six decades ago, has been under constant attack by right wing forces ever since its beginning.

Ths was particularly true under the Presidency of Ronald Reagan, but also a controversy under George W. Bush and Donald Trump.

And again, the funding for the Coporation for Public Broadcasting is being targeted for being cut from the US Budget.

The idea that these radio and television channels have promoted education, and equity, diversity, and inclusion, and openmindedness over the decades, irritates conservatives, who think it should not be funded by taxpayers.

But the actual funding is miniscule, only 3 percent for NPR and only 16 percent for PBS.

Right wing Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene was holding hearings today in the House of Representatives, advocating the total end of public support.

Most of the funding for both NPR and PBS come from ordinary, motivated Americans, including this author and scholar, but to make an issue of public funding, which is quite low, is a total disgrace.

Hopefully, public funding will continue to survive in the end result!

Anti DEI Gone Mad: Removal Of All References To Race And Gender On Government Websites

Ronald 3 Comments

The vicious attack on DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) by Donald Trump’s administration has gone totally bonkers, with removal of all references to race, gender, nationality, only allowing information that promotes white straight male dominance.

So the Navajo Code Talkers of World War II and the Tuskegee Airmen are removed from the Defense Department website.

There has been wiping out of Jackie Robinson and other African American contributions and accomplishments on various websites.

The Enola Gay Aircraft (Hiroshima Atomic Bombing in World War II) was removed from the website because it has the word “gay”!

Demeaning of women’s role in government agencies and organizations is full steam ahead.

There is total repudiation of gay or transgender personnel in the military and elsewhere.

Donald Trump is accomplishing the total wipeout of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and since, and also the federal government’s major role in promoting equality and fairness.

This beginning with the Progressive Era of Theodore Roosevelt, the New Deal and Fair Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman, the New Frontier of John F. Kennedy and the Great Society of Lyndon B. Johnson, and the advancements under Presidents from Richard Nixon through Joe Biden!

Trump’s War On Federal Government: Young Civil Servants, Higher Education, Veterans, And More! :(

Ronald 30 Comments

Donald Trump’s war on the federal government is an attack on the future and on so many other areas of life.

It is a war on young people who have and wish to enter public service, with many thousands of probationary workers now unemployed, due to major cutbacks in many federal agencies.

It is a war on higher education, cutting funding for training and educating an intelligent work force in the sciences, the humanities, and all other areas of public knowledge.

It is a war on our patriotic veterans, who are losing many government jobs, and a cutting of programs to help veterans who risked their lives, and now are being denied adequate consideration of their health and welfare needs.

It is a war on protection of our national security, with mass purges of dedicated intelligence, foreign policy, and defense personnel who have dedicated their lives and careers to protecting the homeland from foreign threats of authoritarian government, including Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran.

It is a war on health care, science, and medicine, and endangers all Americans when it comes to threats from many diseases worldwide, that now will not be dealt with in an efficient matter, and will cost a multitude of lives.

It is a war on the environment, conservation, and the realities of climate change, guaranteeing worldwide disasters that will threaten human existence in the future.

It is a war on our long held alliances with democracies in Europe and in Asia, and antagonizing, unnecessarily, our neighbors, Canada and Mexico, and inciting anti Americanism in Latin America. It is causing our closest allies in NATO and in Asia to reconsider sharing intelligence information.

It is a war on public virtue, with a certainty that we will witness the greatest level of corruption and concentration of wealth in the hands of a few evil individuals, ever seen in American history, far surpassing the earlier corruption that took place under Presidents Ulysses S. Grant, Warren G. Harding, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and even the first term of Donald Trump.

The Trump Presidency is setting America back to an earlier time before all of the great reforms that took place from the Progressive Era of Theodore Roosvelt and Woodrow Wilson; the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt; the Fair Deal of Harry Truman; the New Frontier of John F. Kennedy; the Great Society of Lyndon B. Johnson; the movements forward under Republicans Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard Nixon; the accomplishments under Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton; and the advancements under Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.

Major Disaster In the Making, If Medicaid And Food Stamps Are Gutted By Congressional Republicans!

Ronald 34 Comments

President Lyndon B. Johnson, as part of the Great Society reforms of the mid 1960s, accomplished the passage of Medicaid and Food Stamps, two programs to help sustain the poor, seniors, the disabled, children, and pregnant women of all backgrounds.

A myth that is popular out there in the right wing fantasy world is that only minorities–African Americans and Latinos–benefit from these programs, and nothing could be further from the truth!

But even if that was so, should not America assist those of racial minorities who have not been given a “fair shake” in society?

But the reality is that the majority of those who benefit from Medicaid and Food Stamps are white Americans, many of them rural Americans, not just urban minorities, as the myth would have it.

A total of 72 million Americans depend on Medicaid, and 42 million on Food Stamps.

Should not the nation help poor and deprived people to be able to afford nutritional food, and should not the nation insure that health care is available, to prolong lives of those less fortunate and prosperous?

Should not those who call themselves “good Christians” support such programs, rather than give massive tax cuts to the super rich who do not need it, and already pay far too little to support the nation?

And these super rich Americans will not be harmed by paying more taxes, as their interest on their massive wealth makes up for whatever taxes they might pay!

So why cannot Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and the multitude of others who have become super wealthy, be patriotic enough to contribute to the advancement of American society, and care about the poor, the disabled, the elderly, and other groups that struggle for survival every day?

Donald Trump and the Republican Party are heartless and selfish, and have no concern for the damage that is occurring, and this is insufferable and unacceptable!

Republicans’ War On Social Security (90 Years); On Medicare (60 Years); Affordable Care Act (15 Years)!

Ronald 1 Comment

The Republican Party from the 1930s until now, the 2020s, has opposed and attempted to destroy the major successes of the Social Safety Net.

Social Security was adopted in 1935 under Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt, as part of the New Deal reform programs, which transformed the nation.

Medicare was adopted in 1965 under Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson, followed my Medicaid in 1966, as part of the Great Society reform programs.

The Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) was adopted under Democratic President Barack Obama in 2010, as part of his attempt to promote medical care availability for millions of people that had no medical coverage.

So for 90 years; 60 years; and 15 years, with some individual exceptions, the Republican Party’s aim has been, and remains under Donald Trump and Elon Musk today, that the Social Safety Net, that has worked so well, and is so humane, should be scuttled, with the aim being to enrich wealthy people through massive tax cuts.

The Republican Party is shameless, and reprehensible, as they have always been, but the battle by the Democratic Party and all decent people, must be to continue to fight to defend programs that in many European nations, are much better than ours!

Project 2025: War On Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, FDA, Affordable Care Act

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This author and blogger will delineate over the next days and weeks just how destructive the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 would be if enacted, with Donald Trump fully aware of the details, despite his false claim that he has no knowledge of the ideas organized by his own supporters and allies.

Regarding basic social programs that have long existed, and are basic to the lives of tens of millions of Americans, Project 2025 promotes the following:

Privatization of Social Security
Raising the Retirement Age for Social Security
Cut Social Security benefits
Cut Medicare benefits
Repeal the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare)
Raise Prescription Drug Prices
Dismantle the Food and Drug Administration
Threaten Medicaid Coverage for hundreds of thousands of Americans
Privatize veterans’ healthcare
Reduce funding for public health programs

This is a declaration of war on Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Era; Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal; Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society; the reforms promoted by Barack Obama and Joe Biden; and on the Democratic Party promoted reforms that became law under Republican Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and George H. W. Bush (all having to deal with Democratic controlled Congresses).

Ultimate Issue Of 2024: 21st Century And Preservation Of 20th Century Advancements, Or Return To 19th Century?

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With all of the complex and often confusing issues that have an effect on American politics in the upcoming Presidential and Congressional Elections of 2024, one reality stands out!

Are we to embrace the 21st century and preserve the 20th century advancements of the early 20th century Progressive Era, the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Earl Warren Supreme Court decisions, and the Great Society of Lyndon B. Johnson?

Or are we to return to the 19th century post Civil War Gilded Age concept of limited national government, Jim Crow segregation of African Americans, lack of basic human rights for women, and states rights limiting basic freedoms and rights of all but the most powerful corporations and wealthy upper class of Americans?

Two Crucial Democratic Issues That Can Be Used Against Donald Trump And Republicans—Abortion And Safety Net!

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With the Presidential Election 2024 campaign now in full swing, Democrats and Joe Biden and Kamala Harris need to put great emphasis on many issues, but two stick out in particular.

The right of women to control their own bodies and reproductive lives has been prevented by Donald Trump and his right wing appointments to the Supreme Court. But that battle already has seen several states reject abortion limitations:

Vermont
Ohio
Kentucky
Michigan
Kansas
Montana
California

And this abortion rights struggle is a massive commitment that must be fought in state after state!

Also, the issue of protection of the social safety net,specifically Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, has been a constant battle for decades, as Republicans have continued to attempt to cut funding and take away these wonderful programs started by Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal in the 1930s, and Lyndon B. Johnson and the Great Society in the 1960s!

Supreme Court Could Be Repealing The 20th Century In Challenge To 1984 Chevron Case Decision

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Conservative right wing groups are now attempting to repeal the 20th century concept of federal government regulation of the environment, financial markets, public health, and the workplace, in a challenge to the Chevron USA vs National Resources Defense Council case of 1984, decided by a unanimmous 6 member court of Republicans and conservatives.

The decision was written by Associate Justice John Paul Stevens, and agreed with by Chief Justice Warren Burger, and Associate Justices William Brennan, Lewis Powell, Harry Blackmun, and Byron White. All but White were appointed by Republican Presidents. And three Justices did not participate, Sandra Day O’Connor, William Rehnquist, and Thurgood Marshall, with only Marshall appointed by a Democratic President.

So the Court of 1984 had SEVEN Republican appointments, but reasonable Justices, as compared to the present Supreme Court of six Republican appointments.

So the case now being considered is an attempt to wipe out the federal regulatory state–in effect wiping out the Progressive Era of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson; the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt and followup by Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy; the Great Society of Lyndon B. Johnson, and followup by Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton; and the commitment to further reforms by Barack Obama and Joe Biden! Notice that Richard Nixon is included with this list of Democratic Presidents who promoted federal regulation and reforms, the one Republican, who despite his shortcomings, actually added to federal regulation!

We are at a turning point, where our federal government could be weakened and go back as far as the Gilded Age of the late 19th century by an extremist Supreme Court. This is a constitutional crisis of massive proportions, and puts American democracy at risk!