Native Americans

Chris Hayes’ ALL IN Discussion Of Worst President Ever: Interesting And Food For Thought!

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Chris Hayes on his ALL IN show on MSNBC last night had a fascinating, nearly 20 minute discussion, with three experts on who was the worst President in American history. Certainly, this was very appropriate for Presidents Day!

This author has written about this before, but the four choices discussed were:

Andrew Jackson
Andrew Johnson
Herbert Hoover
George W. Bush

Seeing Andrew Jackson on the list (actually the choice of Chris Hayes) startled me, as he tends to be listed at about Number 12 or 13 on most surveys, and used to be in the top ten near the bottom. But Hayes made a good case based on the Trail of Tears massacre of native Americans, along with forced removal to Oklahoma, and the destruction of the National Bank as good reasons for putting Jackson near the bottom.

This does not mean that this author agrees he is the worst President, but the arguments were food for thought, but consider that Jackson is on the $20 bill, so it is certainly a bit awkward to label him, possibly, the worst President.

The case for Andrew Johnson is much stronger, and he is usually put in the bottom few, which is where this author would put him, but I tend to see James Buchanan as the worst President.

Herbert Hoover is certainly a failure, the President of the Great Depression, but some sympathy for him in his plight does exist, including by this author.

Now George W. Bush labeled the worst, which is becoming a popular thought, seems somehow a bit unfair, but certainly he would rank in the bottom ten without any doubt.

And of course, besides Buchanan, who I have mentioned is generally seen as the worst President, let us not forget other competitors—Franklin Pierce, Warren G. Harding, Ulysses S. Grant, and to some, although not to this author, Richard Nixon!

Message To Homophobes, Racists, Sexists, Nativists: This Is NOT The 1950s, It Is The 21st Century, So Get Used To It!

Ronald 54 Comments

We have come a long way as a society since the 1950s, the height of the Baby Boom generation!

But we see that it is many Baby Boomers, mostly white and supposedly ‘Devout” Christians, who are unable to accept that society has changed, and that it is time for them to adapt!

Yes, gay and lesbian Americans have gained their rights, including marriage, in many states, and by federal law announced by Attorney General Eric Holder over the weekend. And yes, now we have an openly gay football prospect, Michael Sam, and we have people in all walks of life in the public sphere coming out as gay. The answer is “so what?” It is no longer acceptable to be advocating homophobia in the name of God, as it has always been in the past, but conveniently forgotten, on the issue of racism and sexism and nativism, which the history of religion in America has been trying to push under the rug, so that we are not aware of the long discrimination against other groups, and including anti Semitism as well, along with the advocacy of slaughtering native Americans!

It is time for professional football to make it clear to its employees that it will no longer tolerate an atmosphere of homophobia in its locker rooms, and if so, then such players, no matter how prominent or outstanding they are on the football field, shall be kicked off the team, and no other team should employ such a bigot!

And the same goes for other organized sports, including baseball, hockey, and basketball! Behave and be tolerant, or else you are not welcome to play professional sports!

It is time to make it clear that homophobia, racism, sexism, and nativism will no longer be tolerated in American society, and that religious bigots, when revealed, shall be fought tooth and nail until it is eliminated!

This is not the 1950s, but instead it is the 21st century, so get used to it!

Is America So Uncaring About Children Elsewhere, Or Is It The Same As Attitude Toward Children In America?

Ronald 9 Comments

The future of any nation and of the world is in our children, whether they are Americans, British, Japanese, Nigerian, Brazilian, Syrian or whatever nation.

And yet, for many politicians, and for many Americans, the future of children is insignificant, unless it is THEIR children!

So we see many Republicans and conservatives, and even so called “religious” people in America, who have no problem with cutting health care coverage, food stamps, housing assistance and other “welfare” benefits for children who are members of poor families, whether white, African American, Hispanic-Latino Americans, Asian Americans, or Native Americans. But of course, all children must be born, but then it is not the job of government, according to these groups, to insure a decent childhood for those poor children!

And for many, whether libertarians like Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, or Democrats such as Congressman Alan Grayson of Orlando, Florida, and many others in between, the fact that the majority of the victims of the chemical warfare attack last month, and of the two and a half year history of the Syrian Civil War, are children, does not phase them one iota!

Also, half of the people in refugee camps in nations surrounding Syria are eleven years old and younger, and that means that a vast majority of the entire refugee population are children under the age of 18. But this does not affect the conscience of Paul, Grayson, or others, because they are not Americans, so who cares about their fate?

This is, indeed, a sad state of affairs, when the future of the world, children, are looked at, whether American or foreign, as dispensable human lives!

In fact, it is totally DESPICABLE and REPREHENSIBLE!,

It is also immoral, unethical and reflects poorly on those who do not give a damn about the most vulnerable among us, children!

The Republican And Conservative Attack On Single Mothers, Particularly Minority Mothers: Failure To See Their Sacrifices And Heroism!

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America is living through a very sad time, when we see Republicans and conservatives, including those on talk radio and Fox News Channel, constantly on the attack against single mothers, and particularly minority mothers, failing to see their sacrifices and heroism!

Comfortable middle class and upper class whites who have a stable family structure and adequate financial resources have no clue as to the life of those single mothers, whether white, African American, Hispanic and Latino, Asian American, or Native American.

Instead of realizing that it is men who helped to contribute to this problem of single motherhood, but that it is these single women who have devoted their lives to bringing up their children under dire circumstances, and that they should not be condemned, and denied basic government assistance to make the lives of their children better, we have the spectacle of ridicule, lack of respect, and lack of understanding just how complex and difficult being a single mother really is!

They need to be given the credit and dignity that any mother is given, who happens to be more fortunate in financial and personal life matters, as being poor is far more a challenge than the issue of how much materialism and greed can be promoted in those families which have no struggle on a daily basis!

Single mothers should not be subjected to racism or misogyny, and we have a lot of work to do in this nation to overcome the hate and the prejudice unfortunately visited by right wing forces which have no interest in improving the lives of women and children!

Conservatives Call Barack Obama First Racist President: Look In The Mirror And At History, Right Wingers!

Ronald 88 Comments

What a preposterous statement by many people in the Right Wing of the Republican Party and the conservative movement, to call Barack Obama our first “racist” President, because of his detailed, courageous, principled statement about race yesterday before White House reporters!

What Obama said about young black men growing up in America is absolutely true, and despicable, and Obama made it clear that he had, personally, experienced the same racism, and all that talk show hosts can do is throw the appellation “racist” at the President, rather than admit the history of the country, and the reality of the profiling of blacks in 2013, along with Hispanics and Latinos as well!

And the Right Wing chooses to ignore history, probably affected by fake historian David Barton, who promotes a sanitized view of American history, and has had a dramatic effect on textbook companies, pressuring them to write myths, rather than facts, about American history!

The facts are as follows:

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James K. Polk, and Zachary Taylor all owned and exploited slaves, and some of them had children with their slaves, what could be called rape situations!

Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren forcibly removed Native Americans, the infamous “Trail of Tears”, while in office; and William Henry Harrison, Andrew Jackson, and Zachary Taylor all gained their original fame by killing Native Americans, and bragging about it!

Andrew Johnson was probably the most outspoken racist President, and made it clear in working against the Freedmen’s Bureau continuation after the Civil War!

Ulysses S. Grant warred against Native Americans during his Presidency in a massive campaign to take away their lands!

Republican Presidents after Grant ignored violations of civil rights by Southerners, beginning with the fixed election of Rutherford B. Hayes on a promise to end military occupation of the South and let Democrats take care of their own states, and promoting racial segregation, Jim Crow laws!

Woodrow Wilson demonstrated strong racist tendencies and views during his administration, catering to the Southern Democratic heritage of his boyhood!

Many Presidents in their writings displayed racist thoughts, and some did so in speech at times, including Harry Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan (who talked about welfare queens).

Only since Truman has it been fashionable to be FOR civil rights, but even then, Nixon and Ronald Reagan worked against civil rights any opportunity they were given!

So we have at least 18 Presidents who were racists, or displayed racist tendencies, toward African Americans and Native Americans in different forms!

So the concept that Barack Obama is a racist for speaking up on injustices toward people of his heritage is outrageous, ridiculous, and preposterous to the extreme!

Do you hear that?—Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Ann Coulter and the rest of their ilk?

Republicans And Food Stamps: “Red” States Are The Major Beneficiaries, And Their Supporters Seem Unaware What Republicans Are Doing To Them!

Ronald 12 Comments

The Republicans have declared war on “Food Stamps”, and have called Barack Obama the “Food Stamp” President!

While promoting all kinds of support for the corporate world, Republicans are out to promote massive cuts to people who are expected to feed themselves in a way no civilized person in America would want to be faced with! To hell with a balanced diet and nutrition, and therefore the promotion of bad health habits, which lead to medical problems, for which many will not have health coverage if one leaves it up to the Republicans and conservatives!

So people should starve, because they are “bad” people for being poor, and their children should do without adequate nutrition, which is impossible on the present Food Stamp benefit, before any further cuts!

But this is all veiled by the belief of conservatives that MOST of the recipients of food stamps are African American, Hispanic and Native American, and are located in “Blue” Democratic states in the major urban areas of the nation.

The facts are otherwise, as the vast majority of people on Food Stamps are white, are single females and their minor children, and live in Republican “Red” states in the South, Great Plains and Rocky Mountain areas of the nation!

So it is the “Red” states that are the real “welfare” states on Food Stamps and other benefits for the poor, and it is in these states that ignorant, uneducated, and clueless people vote Republican, without awareness of what the GOP is trying to do—make the lives of poor women and children, as well as elderly and disabled, heavily white populations ever more difficult!

This is all mind boggling, and one wonders when these poor whites will get the message as to what the party they vote for is doing to them and their children’s future!

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

Ronald 4 Comments

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!

Republican House Opposition To Violence Against Women Act Extension Absolutely Outrageous!

Ronald 23 Comments

The Republicans in the House of Representatives are again on the warpath against women, holding up passage of the extension of the Violence Against Women Act.

And why are they doing so?

Because they do not wish to extend protection for women subject to domestic violence to the following circumstances:

Native American women on the reservations.

Same sex marriages or relationships of lesbians.

Undocumented immigrant women.

So because of their lack of concern for native Americans, gays, and undocumented immigrants, they have no regard for the safety or protection of women, if they fit into these groups! Who cares about the basic right of safety and security for these groups, which are despised?

So face the facts, that the Republican Party has learned nothing from the election, and are still promoting racism, anti gay viewpoints, and nativism.

How far the GOP has fallen from its days of speaking for freedom, liberty, tolerance, and progress, as represented by Lincoln, TR, and Ike!

Guns, Gays, Immigrants, Women: The Demise Of The Republican Party

Ronald 4 Comments

The Republican Party is allowing itself to fall into a “coma” from which it will not recover if there is not fast action to reverse their course.

It is rapidly becoming the “stupid” party, the irrelevant party, the party of the 19th century, the party that makes the organization that gave us Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower look glorious and forward looking, while putting those who admire that original party now feel a need to engage in deep mourning for what has been lost!

A party that worships guns, as if we are on the frontier fighting native Americans, and are living in the era of the American Revolution and the Civil War, is a party in deep denial. To see the right of people to own multiple weapons and large magazines, and have no concern about the death of children and adults in all public places imaginable, is to see a party of delusion.

A party that led on the issue of the end of slavery and passed the first civil rights laws, now leads the crusade to promote hate and discrimination against people based on sexual orientation, and to allow right wing Christian wing nuts to preach a Christianity which denies equality and justice and tolerance to such human beings makes it a party which has forgotten about the Founding Fathers’ beliefs in separation of church and state.

A party which legitimizes nativism, hatred of immigrants, as one of its major ideals, is a party that refuses to face the future, one in which immigrants will be the dominant factor in our politics and society, and forgets its own fundamental roots among immigrant groups in the 19th century who believed in the reform principles that founded the party.

And a party which fails to respect women’s rights and dignity, and treats them as second class citizens due to the influence of right wing Christian extremists, is a party on the road to extinction.

The Republican Party has been given plenty of warnings about its impending demise. The question now is whether it will revive itself from its coma and come into the 21st century, and promote rationality, tolerance, and open mindedness, or become a party which is an historical oddity, which went from a positive image, to one of an extremist group out of touch with the American people and their needs for the future!

Census Projections In 2063: Four Of Every Seven Americans Will Be “Minorities”

Ronald 2 Comments

America is rapidly changing, and when one looks ahead fifty years, the Census Bureau projections are as follows:

43 percent Caucasian–three out of every seven Americans

31 percent Hispanic-Latino–one out of every three Americans

15 percent African American–one out of six Americans

11 percent Asian American or Native American–one of out every nine Americans

So four of every seven Americans will be nonwhite, and the party which recognizes this is the party of success long term.

And right now, that is clearly the Democratic Party, NOT the Republican Party!