Native Americans

Conservatives, Republicans, And Basic Knowledge: Science, Mathematics, History, Economics, Spelling And Grammar, World Diplomacy

Ronald 1 Comment

Many Republicans and conservatives, whether in Congress, the news media, think tanks, or just ordinary citizens, have a real and fundamental problem with basic knowledge. It makes one wonder where they were when they were young, and supposedly being educated, and the indications that they have learned nothing new as adults.

Consider the field of Science, with many of the Republicans and conservatives believing in creationism, the BIble theory of creation, that claims the earth is maybe 10,000 years old at the most, and that dinosaurs walked with man, with a Creationist Museum open to the public in Kentucky, near the border with Cincinnati, Ohio. There is complete denial of Charles Darwin, to the point of total craziness.

Also, there is the failure of these people to accept that there is global warming and climate change, despite so much evidence that there is a problem, and refusal to plan for the future on the basis that we are facing a long range threat, with Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma being the political leader of the “deniers”.

But also, many Republicans and conservatives seem to have their own version of the process of pregnancy and what is a rape, as for instance, defeated Senate nominees Todd Akin and Richard Mouroick.

But let’s move on from Science to Mathematics, and we are talking here about basic math, arithmetic, not geometry, trigonometry, or calculus. Many members of the GOP, including Paul Ryan, claim a magical system of numbers to come up with their budget plans, but as Joe Biden said to Paul Ryan in the Vice Presidential debate, it does not add up!

Then we move on to history, and the image that America is the greatest nation in history, and has never made a mistake, never needs to apologize, has no faults or shortcomings that anyone needs to learn about. And our exceptionalism is enough to wave in the faces of all nations around the world. Why should we teach or learn about slavery, mass murder of native Americans, discrimination against Jews and Catholics and other immigrants, the exploitation of labor by corporations, the destruction of our environment, the corruption of many politicians over our history, the war crimes committed by our troops in many wars, and so on? NO, that is unpatriotic, and instead we must sanitize all historical learning!

And the field of economics is another area of believing that the best system is NO regulation, and the promotion of Adam Smith’s Laissez Faire economics, expressed in the Wealth Of Nations, and if there is poverty or other human suffering, that is the way it was intended by God, so the promotion of Social Darwinism, the one time Darwin is utilized by these KNOW NOTHINGS!

Spelling and grammar do not matter, as many Tea Party radicals who hold rallies show their total ignorance of all subject matter, and cannot express themselves appropriately, and in a respectable manner! They march with signs that are misspelled, as with the Secession signs now being brandished by many of these characters, who are upset with the Obama victory last week!

World Diplomacy, the whole idea of trying to relate to other countries in a respectful manner, is also insignificant to many, who believe the answer is to BOMB everyone you do not agree with, throw our weight around, and not give a damn about how the world perceives us!

This ignorance and stupidity is totally unacceptable, and the Republican Party and the conservative movement needs to purge itself, or go into the dustbin of history!

The Multiple Meanings Of 2012 Election

Ronald 5 Comments

2012 will go down in history as the year of tremendous movement forward in so many ways.

It is a year that sees tolerance, open mindedness, fairness and equality moving forward.

It is a year that sees a greater accomplishment than 2008–the reelection of an African American President, a reaffirmation of what was done in 2008, and in many ways greater than the initial election, because it gets rid of all doubts that, somehow, 2008 was a fluke, a mistake, that would be rectified.

It is the year that women came to realize true liberation from men bossing them, controlling them, dictating to them, regarding their own bodies, and their own opportunities for fair pay and equal educational opportunity. And so many more women will now be serving in our government, and holding male politicians accountable.

It is a year when Hispanics, Latinos, and Muslims, and really all racial and ethnic minorities, realize their electoral power, and are able, finally, to fight back against racism, discrimination, prejudice, and bias, and take their place in the community of Americans who will have influence and significance, rather than just white Anglos, who slaughtered native Americans, took over North America, and thought they would control America, dominate America, shape America in their image for eternity, which is, happily, no longer the future of this great nation, which benefits from diversity and from equal opportunity for all based on merit, not skin color or nationality or religion or gender!

It is a year when the power of organized religious groups to control and dictate their agenda on America has been soundly defeated, and the danger of theocracy has abated, as a result.

It is a year when American can celebrate, as we are now moving forward toward better times, and with the old power structures that impede us, including corporations, knowing they will face appropriate regulation, and that the wealthy will be required to pay their fair share to this nation, which has given them such great opportunities, and assisted them in their acquisition of wealth!

It is also a time when the hope is that overseas interventions will no longer be the norm, except when a true threat to our national security, and in so changing our view of the world, we are allowing many young men and women to have a normal life after serving in the military, and cutting the waste and corruption of the war industries that cause so much of our national debt.

So for these and other reasons, America has a lot to celebrate!

Scott Brown Vs. Elizabeth Warren: The Key Senate Race Above All Others!

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Massachusetts Republican Senator Scott Brown is engaged in the most combative Senate race of all against Harvard Law Professor Elizabeth Warren for the Senate seat held for nearly 47 years by Ted Kennedy.

Brown won a surprising victory in the special election in 2010 to succeed Kennedy for the rest of his term, and is the only Republican to represent the state of Massachusetts, which has an all Democratic House delegation, a Democratic Governor, and a dominant Democratic majority in the state legislature.

Brown has had a difficult course to follow, and has tried to come across as moderate, like Maine Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, but he has voted over 90 percent of the time with his party, and has refused to back President Obama on almost anything he asked for, including jobs legislation, and is now acting very aggressively against his opponent, who worked with Obama, and helped to start the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, although GOP Senate opposition prevented her from running this new agency, so she decided to run for the Senate. Brown has come across as in bed with Wall Street, gaining a lot of financial support from top banking and corporate interests.

Elizabeth Warren is an inspiring candidate, who clearly is for the middle class and the poor, and comes across as a hero of progressives, who supports the DREAM Act, which Brown is against, and is clearly a strong Obama supporter who would fight for progressive causes in the manner that Ted Kennedy did for so long!

Their second debate last night in Massachusetts demonstrated that Brown is ready to use rhetoric in a way that is divisive, including his derision of Warren as being a professor who may control her students but not him; saying she is not native American because of her appearance despite her assertions that she is; allowing his staff to make fun of native Americans publicly; and making clear that he considers her a left wing extremist not in the mainstream, as he claims he is. When he said that Antonin Scalia was his favorite Supreme Court Justice, then swung to Anthony Kennedy, John Roberts, and finally Sonia Sotomayor, the audience seemed to turn against him.

The debate brought up the issue that if Brown is reelected, he could decide a Republican majority in the Senate, and would have a dramatic effect on Supreme Court appointments of the next President, and would certainly NOT, based on his record and his rhetoric, be following in the tradition of Ted Kennedy!

This race is crucial to the future of the Obama Presidency in so many ways, and with Obama certain to win the state of Massachusetts, the hope is that he will have adequate coat tails to carry Warren into the Senate as his champion, and have Warren join Bernie Sanders and others in promoting the progressive agenda over the next four years!

Firsts In Presidential Election Contests: Path Breaking Moments!

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Now that Mitt Romney has become the official GOP Presidential candidate, another barrier has been broken in Presidential contests.

As the first Mormon Presidential candidate, Romney has accomplished what one could call a “civil rights moment”.

We have had to wait a long time for new attitudes to develop, but we have so far accomplished the following:

1928–first Catholic nominee for President, Al Smith.
1928–first Quaker President elected, Herbert Hoover
1928–first Native American Vice President elected, Charles Curtis
1960–first Catholic President elected, John F. Kennedy
1968–first Catholic Vice Presidential candidate, Edmund Muskie
1984–first woman Vice Presidential candidate, Geraldine Ferraro
2000–first Jewish Vice Presidential candidate, Joe Lieberman
2008–first African American President elected, Barack Obama
2008–first Catholic Vice President elected, Joe Biden

And notice that with the exceptions of Hoover, Curtis and Romney, all of the “firsts” were by the Democratic Party, NOT the Republican Party!

Republicans Claim To Be Pro Women’s Rights: Really?

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The Republican Party leadership in Congress loves to claim that the Democrats are wrong in calling them anti women, and campaigning against women.

But the facts belie Republican claims as shown as follows:

Both in Washington DC and in the states, Republican leadership is attacking women’s rights, women’s health, and women’s safety.

The House of Representatives passed a bill weakening the Violence Against Women Act two weeks ago.

Virginia passed legislation requiring women undergoing an abortion to undergo medically unnecessary and physically invasive sonograms.

Senate Republicans are blocking a measure to deal with wage discrimination against women.

On abortion, seven states have made it more difficult to get an abortion, by making the deadline for getting one much earlier, before knowledge of fetal abnormalities or health risks are available, Criminal penalties are also set up to intimidate doctors from performing abortions, making it more difficult to stay in business, and endangering the lives of women who often cannot gain an abortion even at the risk of their own lives.

Planned Parenthood has been systematically attacked, with funds cut for basic health care services for the poor, on the argument that the main activity of the group is abortion, when it is only about 3 percent of the funding of the organization, and is not its primary role in promoting women’s health.

The 1963 Equal Pay Act under President Kennedy is being fought bitterly, with the attempt to update the law to help women gain equality in pay for equal work being opposed by Republicans, and states such as Wisconsin are going backward on women’s rights to equal pay.

Domestic violence legislation is being fought by Republicans, who do not wish to include lesbians, native American women, and undocumented immigrant women who are in danger, and can no longer report abuse to law enforcement authorities, to go after the abusers.

How can anyone say that the GOP is NOT declaring “war” on women? One is judged by one’s actions, not words!

31 GOP Senators Vote Against Reauthorization Of Violence Against Women Act: Absolutely Amazing!

Ronald 4 Comments

The US Senate yesterday voted overwhelmingly for reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, originally passed in 1994, during the Bill Clinton Presidency.

The vote was 68-31, with the opposition all being Republicans!

Those who voted against the legislation included such disgraces as:

Lindsey Graham of South Carolina
Jim DeMint of South Carolina
Tom Coburn of Oklahoma
Charles Grassley of Iowa
John Cornyn of Texas
Roy Blunt of Missouri
Orrin Hatch of Utah
James Inhofe of Oklahoma
Ron Johnson of Wisconsin
Jon Kyl of Arizona
Mike Lee of Utah
Richard Lugar of Indiana
Rand Paul of Kentucky
Mitch McConnell of Kentucky
Marco Rubio of Florida
Jeff Sessions Of Alabama
Richard Shelby of Alabama
John Thune of South Dakota
Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania

These and the others not mentioned are either right wing ideologues, Southerners (heavily), or gutless wonders who refuse to show courage (Hatch and Lugar)!

Those Republicans who voted for the legislation include all five women Senators: Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Susan Collins of Maine, Olympia Snowe of Maine, and Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, plus the following and a few others:

Scott Brown of Massachusetts
Lamar Alexander of Tennessee
Bob Corker of Tennessee
Daniel Coats of Indiana
Dean Heller of Nevada
John McCain of Arizona
David Vitter of Louisiana
Rob Portman of Ohio

Some of these voted YES because of upcoming election races, and others because they have a sense of decency on the issue of violence against women.

The opposition rose to the fact that the law would be extended to cover illegal immigrants who are victims of violence and domestic abuse, as well as LGBT victims, and those on Indian reservations who are non Indian being forced to be judged by tribal justice on the reservations.

The Republican majority in the House of Representatives will strip the bill of the new changes, and it will be a massive battle to get the legislation renewed without these modifications.

Its effect, whatever ultimately happens, will make the GOP reassert itself as engaged in a war on women!

Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day: A Reminder Of The Threat Which Remains

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Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, marking the commemoration of the six million Jews killed by the Nazis in World War II, is a somber day annually.

President Barack Obama marked the occasion this morning by calling for greater efforts against Holocaust denial and anti Semitism, and vigilance against current and future atrocities.

There was also commemoration at the Pentagon and at the US Capitol, and the President will visit the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC on Monday with Holocaust survivors.

It is not just Iran that is seen as a threat against the Jewish people. Worldwide, and in the United States, there are groups that celebrate Adolf Hitler’s birthday, which ironically is today, There are also right wing militia groups which promote hate and prejudice against Jews, as well as other minorities, including African Americans, Hispanics and Latinos, Asian Americans, and Native Americans.

Particularly in Florida, the location of the third largest group of Jews and Holocaust survivors after New York and California, Anti Semitism is a major problem that is of concern every day.

But the commemoration reminds us of what happened 70 years ago, and it must not be allowed to be forgotten when the last Holocaust survivors pass away in the next ten to twenty years!

Rick Santorum, Religion And The French Revolution: Reckless Fanaticism!

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Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum is acting irresponsibly when he compares Barack Obama and his stand on contraception and other women’s services being provided by religiously based hospitals and universities to their workers, many of whom are not of that religious group, as an attack on religion.

Claiming that Obama is warring on religion, which is totally preposterous, instead what Rick Santorum offers is promotion of theocracy, by his failure to accept what another fellow Catholic, President John F. Kennedy, advocated–separation of church and state.

When Santorum is calling what Obama is doing the first stage toward the French Revolution, emphasizing the secularism and attack on organized Christianity (Catholicism) in that famous decade of the 1790s, he is being reckless and also inaccurate historically about one of the key events of modern times, an event which moved Europe toward the goals of freedom and the basic rights of man.

Anyone who wishes to be honest about history knows that NO Christian group, whether Catholic, Lutheran, Episcopalian, Methodist, Baptist, or others came about with any less violence and persecution against non believers, than the terrible bloodshed of the French Revolution. The level of violence of the French Revolution was horrific, but no less in the entire history of Christianity. And no one can say that any traditional Christian group has ever promoted democracy and the rights of man, when instead they have promoted obedience and lack of tolerance toward non believers throughout their history. Instead, all of the groups have endorsed, at one point or another, racism, anti semitism, denial of women’s rights, and the endorsement of slaughtering native Americans to conquer the North American continent, as well as South America.

This does not mean that there have not been outspoken religious people who have fought to bring open mindedness and tolerance to their faith, but they have fought this fight with great stress, and much discrimination visited upon them, and often been expelled for their challenges to the religious establishment.

We do not want a religious fanatic in the White House; instead we want a person who, like John F. Kennedy, did not promote his faith, and believed in total religious tolerance. Rick Santorum is such a fanatic, and is dangerous in that he would promote government endorsement of religion, which is NOT its role in our history, and not promoted by the Founding Fathers.

Despite vicious attacks by critics, many of whom claim to be “good Christians”, Barack Obama and his vision of Social Justice is the only kind of Christianity, or really any religious group, that makes any sense for a society in which there is too much worship of the almighty dollar, and not enough for human beings of all backgrounds who are being left in the dust as the nation moves inexorably toward a stratified society that bodes ill for the future stability of America!

64th Anniversary Of Jackie Robinson Breaking Major League Baseball Color Barrier: The Battle For Civil Rights For All Americans Goes On!

Ronald 1 Comment

Today, in the year 1947, Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball with the Brooklyn Dodgers, and started all major league sports toward full integration!

Sixty four years later, the battle for civil rights goes on! There is still discrimination, much of it hidden, against African Americans.

But also, we have widespread discrimination against Hispanics and Latinos, as well as against Muslims, and gay Americans! And there are still remnants of prejudice against Jews and Catholics as well!

Native Americans, Asian Americans and women also still face prejudice and denial of equal opportunity!

So as we celebrate Jackie Robinson on this anniversary, which revolutionized major league baseball, remember that the battle for civil rights endures in a nation where too many people still have no problem with racial, ethnic, gender, religious or sexual orientation discrimination!

John Stossel, Fox News Channel, And Native Americans!

Ronald 3 Comments

John Stossel, who used to be on ABC News, and now works for the Fox Business Channel and Fox News Channel, has come to the conclusion that native Americans are a fortunate group, and has received more aid from the federal government than any other ethnic group!

What an amazing statement for Stossel to make, although he is noted for making whacky statements before now, which have no basis in fact!

How exactly have native Americans “benefited” from federal aid, when their land, their culture, their tribal government, were taken away from them, and citizenship only came in 1924, and only after Franklin D. Roosevelt became President were they allowed in 1934 to reclaim their tribal governments and culture, after 47 years of being “Americanized”?

Native Americans were killed in large numbers, and they lost their dignity and humanity to the US Military and to settlers, who thought the only good Indian was a dead Indian!

Native Americans remain the poorest ethnic group in the United States bar none, and their country was taken away from them without apologies, and with plenty of treaty breaking by the US government on a regular basis over the years!

So John Stossel shows no understanding of the disaster visited upon native Americans, and as usual, comes across as totally stupid and insensitive! But then again, he now works for Fox News Channel and Fox Business Channel, not ABC, where it is clear many of his colleagues had to be rolling their eyes and shaking their heads on a regular basis, by his total inability to see how off base he was!