Native Americans

The Republican-Right Wing Attempt To Distort Historical Truth And Facts

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For anyone who teaches American history in the public schools and in colleges and universities, the warning is out, that Republican and Right Wing propagandists are working to prevent the teaching of historical truth and facts.

In Texas, and developing in other Republican controlled states, teachers are being informed that they may NOT teach the reality of American history, which has been covered up for too long, but in recent years, has been dredged out of secrecy or lack of research.

One can love America, and yet admit that there has been a lack of historical reality of the mistreatment of native Americans, African Americans, Latino Americans, Asian Americans, immigrants, Jews, and women as part of the discussion of our past.

Students need to learn and know the entire truth, in order for the nation to move ahead and overcome the racism, nativism, misogyny, antisemitism that were and are, sadly, part of the history of America.

How can we overcome the widespread prejudices, biases, and narrow mindedness still present in America, if we continue to promote a distorted view of reality?

The historical profession needs to engage in lobbying and other activities to insure that we do not have propaganda and lies being perpetuated in the future, as ignorance and naivete about our past can only undermine progress and change in the future!

Joe Biden Becomes Third President (After Ulysses S. Grant And Lyndon B. Johnson) To Emphasize Racial Equity In First Months Of His Presidency

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President Joe Biden has made racial equity a landmark moment of his Presidency from the beginning, and already is perceived as being the third President to make civil rights a major goal immediately upon taking the oath.

The first President to do this was Ulysses S. Grant in 1869, promoting the concept of the 15th Amendment, granting the right to vote to African American men, and being added to the Constitution in 1870.

Also, Grant promoted better treatment of Native Americans in his Inaugural week, and is seen as the most tolerant and open minded on that issue of any President in the post Civil War years.

The second President to make civil rights a key issue immediately was Lyndon B. Johnson upon becoming President after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in November 1963. Johnson made the push for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which had been floundering in Congress after it was introduced by Kennedy in the summer of 1963. And Johnson went on to promote also the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as the 15th Amendment had been denied for many decades in the Southern states, as Jim Crow segregation reigned.

And now, Joe Biden is pushing and promoting action, as a result of the well known discrimination in criminal justice; and in dealing with the endemic poverty in minority communities; the lack of adequate health care including in the COVID 19 Pandemic; problems of education and work opportunities and housing that persist; the need to clean the environment where often there is massive pollution in areas ignored before now; and also the difficulties faced by women, transgender citizens, the gay community, and the disabled. The purpose is to get rid of systemic discrimination against all the above groups.

One can hope that major progress on these areas of policy can be accomplished!

The Joe Biden “Cabinet” Is Well Balanced, Diverse, And Talented!

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Joe Biden promised diversity in his “cabinet”, both the official Cabinet members, but also others, and he has shown he means business!

At this point, still incomplete, Biden has appointed a group of talented people that includes:

45 percent whites
27.5 percent black
12.5 percent Asian
10 percent Latino
5 percent Native American
50 percent men
50 percent women
5 percent gay

Only three House of Representatives members are in this group, and no US Senators as of yet, and only one rival of Joe Biden during the Presidential campaign, former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

Hopefully, the positions left open at this point, including Attorney General, Secretary of Commerce, Secretary of Labor, and Secretary of Education will be filled soon, with lots of speculation about who might be under consideration!

Joe Biden Is A Role Model For Young People, While Donald Trump Is NOT A Role Model For Anyone!

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The greatest tragedy long term of the horrible person we have in the White House now is that he is NOT a role model for anyone!

Getting away from his policies for a minute, Donald Trump is a person who clearly is a massive liar, more than 20,000 times in office in three and a half years, by count of the Washington Post.

Trump is also a racist big time, since the 1970s with housing in Queens County, New York, and labeling the “Central Park Five” guilty before trial, and unwilling to concede after DNA investigation years later that the five young men who went to prison were innocent, even after they left prison. He continues to promote that all black men are hoodlums and dangerous to white suburbia.

Trump also labels all Latinos in a negative manner since he began his campaign against Mexicans and Mexican Americans, and has separated innocent children and babies at the border through the abusive ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and CBP (Customs and Border Patrol) agencies. He has also talked about “S hole nations” in Africa, and attacked Asian Americans, and the land rights of native Americans. Only a racist would not see this to be so, that Trump is a racist and a nativist, in a manner and intensity of no other American President!

Trump is also a misogynist, who has had a love life of cheating and abuse of women much greater than any other American President, including those we know had scandalous love lives. He is the only President to have had three wives and two divorces, and even cheated on his third wife right after his son was born, by affairs with two porn stars. So his morality is zilch!

So Donald Trump is a disgrace, and no role model for children, as he encourages young boys and men to be abusive and reckless with young girls and women. This is a matter that affects the psyches of young girls and women, that they are supposed to be, according to the Trump viewpoint, taken advantage of and abused by boys and men!

This is a tremendous tragedy for the nation, to have such a man in the White House!

We have the alternative of Joe Biden, who has led a life of responsibility, morality, ethics, decency, compassion, and empathy, and as a great parent and husband. While no person is perfect in every action and utterance, Joe Biden is indeed a great role model for young men and women, and will grace the office of the Presidency in a way in which we can again believe the Presidency is a role model for the nation!

Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch A Surprise On The Supreme Court

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With the third term of Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court now complete, one must say that Gorsuch is quite a surprise in his decisions on the Court, startling many conservatives, and pleasing progressives.

It is clear that Gorsuch is, and will continue to be, unpredictable on the Court, and already, he joins Chief Justice John Roberts in siding with liberals on some cases before the Court.

He has already made observers compare him to former Justice Byron White, and even by some to former Justice David Souter.

This means that the idea that are five rigid conservatives on the Court now looks more like four liberals, three conservatives, and some of the time two “swing” Justices, mostly conservative but totally unpredictable, and therefore, not reliable all of the time for the conservative camp.

It was wonderful to see Gorsuch side with native Americans in declaring that eastern Oklahoma is native American territory, although it is not clear what that means in reality to Oklahoma’s future.

His backing of gays and lesbians having employment rights guaranteed under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, joined by Chief Justice Roberts, may be one of the most important cases in many years.

The at times unpredictability of both Gorsuch and Roberts makes following the Supreme Court much more fascinating, for sure!

Open White Supremacy And Racism In The American Presidency

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The reality of the history of the American Presidency is that white supremacy and racism is rampant.

Nine of the first twelve Presidents owned slaves, and many of them mistreated them, including cruelty and separation of families by slave sales.

Also, many Presidents clearly saw native Americans as subhuman, and had no concern about the loss of life and the stealing of native American lands.

Additionally, many Presidents saw people of Asian or Latino heritage as being inferior, and treated them in openly racist ways.

The story of American history is of widespread massacres of people of color, no matter what their ancestry, and not just in the South, but nationwide.

Most American Presidents ignored what was going on, but some were more vocal and outspoken in their white supremacy and racism, enunciating their hateful, prejudiced views.

The vocal group, willing to make it part of their Presidencies include Andrew Jackson, regarding native Americans and African Americans; Andrew Johnson, toward African Americans during Reconstruction; Woodrow Wilson, who made clear his disregard for civil rights for African Americans, and open disdain for people of Asian ancestry, as well as the nations they originated from (China and Japan); and now Donald Trump, who has used the racist and white supremacist language to appeal to his base in a gross manner.

Since Trump has the advantage of modern media reporting and social media, particularly Twitter, which the others did not have, his white supremacy and racist rants are much more dangerous than those of Jackson, Johnson, and Wilson.

Trump Now Losing Portions Of His Base, And Not Appealing To Groups He Lost In 2016: A Losing Strategy!

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Donald Trump is on the way to an historic repudiation, possibly one of the worst for any President running for reelection.

He did not have the majority or even plurality vote for him in 2016, and now he is losing portions of his base, including senior citizens, evangelical Christians, and non college educated white men and women.

Just losing a small amount of these groups is enough to doom him, as he has made clear that he is not trying to add to his base, and never has done so in the past three and a half years.

With African Americans, Latino Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, Jews, Social Justice Catholics, mainline Protestants, college educated white men and women, suburbanites, conservative intellectuals, and moderate Republicans all strongly against everything Donald Trump has wrought, his prospects are going down the drain.

He will not be able to stop mail voting, but Republican state officials will continue to try to prevent the right to vote, and it is also clear that foreign influences will interfere, and are ready to foist this criminal President on the nation together.

So the urgency of Americans to vote, even if not thrilled by Joe Biden, as this is not a question of ideals, but rather of survival of our Constitution and American democracy!

Donald Trump Says America Is Full, No Room For Immigrants: A Denial Of The American Dream And Tradition

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Donald Trump says that America is full, has no room for immigrants.

This is a denial of the American dream and American tradition.

America is, and always has been, a land of immigrants from Alexander Hamilton and many others in the late 18th century onward.

America has not been just a place for migration by well to do and successful people, but also for poor, deprived, and personally threatened by their religion, their culture, their nationality, and other personal characteristics, who came here and succeeded and contributed to the American future.

America is the last and best hope for people oppressed and denied their basic human rights and the possibility of advancement and success where they migrated from.

The Statue of Liberty is the symbol of what America is all about, and if not for the open hand, many people living in America today would not be here, since we are all immigrants or descendants of immigrants, except for native Americans who go back many millenniums and had their basic human rights denied to them by people from other continents and nationalities who came here.

Donald Trump would not be here if his grandfather had not migrated from Germany, and we NEED immigrants to enrich and contribute to the American future, and this includes mothers and children escaping from poverty, violence, and oppression, as our ancestors were when they came here.

So the answer to Donald Trump is to reject his racism, nativism, xenophobia, and white supremacist beliefs by removing him and his ilk from office, either by Congressional action or by the vote of the masses of Americans who repudiate his hatred and evil nature in the Presidential Election of 2020 19 months from now, and then prosecute him for his crimes against humanity.

The Urgent Democratic Platform For 2020: 30 Goals For The Next Decade

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What MUST be part of the Democratic Party platform in 2020, no matter who is the Democratic Presidential nominee?

In no special order, it MUST include:

Medicare for all Americans of all ages
$15 minimum wage by 2022 everywhere in America and Paid Family Leave
Free public university and college tuition for the first two years or 60 credits of higher education
Wiping out of college debt which prevents many young people from marrying, having children, buying a home, having a future
Repeal of Citizens United, which has allowed corporations to be called people, and destroy political campaigns with large donations, and instead promote public financing of campaigns
Responsible Gun Control legislation
Protection of Women’s Rights, including abortion rights
Enforcement of gay and lesbian and transgender rights
A responsible immigration reform program, reversing the damage done by Donald Trump, Jeff Sessions, John Kelly, Kirstjen Nielsen, Stephen Miller and Thomas Homan
Revival of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties that have been curbed by Donald Trump
Protection of the Social Safety Net of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid
Labor Rights promoted, including prevention of “right to work” laws
Environmental regulations revived and strengthened
Consumer Rights revived and strengthened
Investment in infrastructure across America
Condemnation of violations of human rights in other nations, including Russia, China, Turkey, Egypt, the Philippines and elsewhere
Revival of NATO alliance and other alliances that have been weakened in the Trump Presidency
The end of protectionist tariffs, which undermine the American economy
Strengthening of relations with Cuba, and attempts to overcome strains and tensions with Iran, and revive the Iran Nuclear Deal
Promoting total separation of church and state, with religion not being promoted by government
Reenactment of responsible corporation and Wall Street reforms
Protection of Native American lands and properties
Criminal Justice Reforms for those not involved in violent Crimes
National restoration of Voting Rights to former convicts who have paid their debt to society
Decriminalizing Drug Use and Sales, so as to overcome the Opioid Crisis, and allow Medicinal Marijuana without penalty
Promoting funding for the Arts and Culture across America
Dealing with poverty and homelessness in America
Hurricane Relief for Puerto Rico and move toward statehood as the 51st state
Tax Reform to require a fair and equitable tax system for all, not just the wealthy
Reviving respect for Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press

Would all of these 30 “planks” be successfully accomplished in the term of the next Democratic President from 2021-2025? Most certainly, highly unlikely, but these must be the goals of the next Democratic administration, as we attempt to recover from the disaster and tragedy of the Donald Trump nightmare!

A Year Of Donald Trump: A Horror And A Nightmare!

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I published on Sunday a summary article on the first year of Donald Trump at History News Network–historynewsnetwork.org. I have published regularly on Donald Trump on History News Network, and some of those articles have been picked up also by Time Magazine and Newsweek Magazine, and all of those articles are on the right side of my blog.

A day before the anniversary of the inauguration, I will summarize here the points that I made in that article:

Donald Trump has been a nightmare, and his unpredictability, and the refusal of the Republican Party to come to grips with it, has created a constitutional crisis greater than the Watergate Scandal under Richard Nixon 45 years ago.

Donald Trump has demonstrated clear authoritarian leanings that endanger all Americans and their basic freedoms and national security.

Donald Trump has undermined the judicial branch of government. with his attacks on an independent judiciary, and his appointments of unqualified people to lifetime positions on the federal district courts and federal circuit courts.

Donald Trump has assaulted the Bill of Rights, and is a threat to the civil rights and civil liberties of African Americans, Latino Americans, Native Americans, women, gay and transgender Americans, and members of the news media who dare to investigate and question his white supremacist, nativist, racist, and misogynistic utterances and policies.

He has connected himself to dictators and authoritarians in nations like Russia, China, Turkey, Egypt, and the Philippines, and in the tradition of such past regimes as Nazi Germany , Fascist Italy, and the Soviet Union.

Donald Trump has pursued policies that threaten and undermine the domestic reforms of Presidents from both political parties from the time of Theodore Roosevelt onward, endangering the Social Safety Network of Social Security. Medicare, and Medicaid, and government regulation of industry and big business, and oversight of key problems involving the environment, consumer safety, labor protections, health care, and science and education.

Donald Trump has given us the most corrupt and incompetent cabinet and advisers , making the shortcomings of Ulysses S. Grant, Warren G. Harding, and Richard Nixon pale in comparison. There is no sense of ethics, commitment, scruples, or compassion on the part of Trump and his team, but only with the advancement of the top one percent, over the needs of millions of ordinary people.

Trump’s family has become in one year more controversial, and lacking in ethics and morals, than any Presidential family in history, with the aim seeming to be a family dynasty with no limit on their lust for money and power.

Donald Trump has undermined foreign policy and international relations, alienating our allies, and consorting with dictators all over the world. He has declared war on the diplomatic community, the national security apparatus, and the intelligence agencies that are out to protect American national security. He has been reckless in his dealings with North Korea, Iran, Pakistan, Cuba, Venezuela, Mexico, and with the Middle East cauldron. He has alienated our allies, including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, Japan, and South Korea with his weird, unpredictable behavior.

Donald Trump’s narcissism, ignorance of history and science, obnoxious behavior and incessant lying make him a terrible model for the future generation of Americans, who used to be able to look up the President of the United States as someone they could respect.

These reasons are justification for action to remove Donald Trump from the Presidency, whether by impeachment, use of the 25th Amendment, or forced resignation after indictments of family members and top advisers by Robert Mueller’s investigation.