Voting Rights

Martin Luther King Jr Anniversary Of Assassination, And Race Relations In America

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It has been 56 years since the assassination of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr in Memphis, Tennessee.

The nation has observed his January birthday as a national holiday since 1986, but sadly, racism, and white supremacy have not declined.

In fact, due to Donald Trump and his MAGA Republican followers, the Republican Party exudes racism, as well as nativism, misgoyny, and many strains of antisemitism.

The struggle of Republicans against DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) has harmed the nation, and the Supreme Court backtracking since 2013 on voting rights protection, presents a major challenge for the short and long term future of the struggle against the advancements of the civil rights movement in the 1960s and beyond.

The Democratic Party, as imperfect as it is, is still the best hope for the future in that regard.

Right Wing Supreme Court A Threat To All Federal Regulations, Attempt To Repeal All Reforms Since Theodore Roosevelt Onward!

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The Right Wing Supreme Court can be seen as a threat to all federal regulations, as the Federalist Society and other right wing extremist groups are clearly attempting to wipe out all federal regulations that have occurred in the past century since the Progressive Era, through the New Deal and Great Society, and expanded further by Barack Obama and Joe Biden’s time in the Presidency.

If left to their whims and desires, the Supreme Court would wipe out the regulatory roles of many federal agencies that have evolved from Theodore Roosevelt onward.

These include;

The Food and Drug Administration

The Environmental Protection Agency

The Consumer Product Safety Commission

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration

Department of Health and Human Services

Department Of Labor

Department of Education

and many federal laws promoting regulations of banks and corporations in the public interest, voting rights, working against discrimination towards women and various racial and ethnic minorities, and so much more!

Ten Months Before Election Day, Joe Biden Makes Case For Democracy, And Repudiation Of Donald Trump!

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In his opening salvo of the Presidential Election campaign of 2024, President Joe Biden yesterday, precisely ten months before Election Day, delivered a stirring speech on the campaign to protect American democracy, which includes a massive defeat of Donald Trump, who is promoting the destruction of the Constitution and rule of law!

In his 30 minute speech at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, Biden spoke with real passion and commitment, and reminded us how George Washington turned down the possibility of becoming a monarch after the American Revolution, and accepted the idea of serving as President, and then leaving office.

Biden and his supporters must make the case every day until Election Day, and besides discussing the threat to democracy, he and they must also talk about abortion, the economy, immigration reform, environmental advancements, voting rights, civil rights, and support of Ukraine in its war with Russia, and promoting a changed policy regarding Israel and Gaza to limit the loss of life!

The Republican Party And Race, Repudiation Of Founding Of The Party 170 Years Ago!

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With the new year 2024 coming tomorrow, it will mark 170 years since the Founding of the Republican Party in 1854, dedicated to opposition to the expansion of slavery, and including abolitionists in its midst, who committed themselves to the total end of slavery.

For many decades after the end of slavery, Southern Democrats promoted discrimination against African Americans, including lynchings, Jim Crow segregation, and denial of voting rights, and also a nativist attitude toward Catholic and Jewish immigration.

Sixty years ago, the Democratic Party under Lyndon B. Johnson finally liberated the party from this racism and nativism, only to have these Southern Democrats rush en masse to the Republican Party.

There was still a great deal of resistance by many Republicans, until the rise of Donald Trump, but now, the Republican Party has become an openly racist and nativist party without shame, and has also worked against women’s rights and voting rights.

The Republicans of the founding era would be shocked at how the Republican Party has repudiated its basic principles.

The Presidential and Congressional Elections of 2024 give decent Americans the opportunity to repudiate the disgraceful Republican Party, which puts Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and decent Congressional Republicans who contributed to American history on a totally different level than the modern disaster the party has become!

Difficult, Challenging Year Ahead In 2024!

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America is facing the likelihood that 2024 will be the most tumultuous year imaginable, as the nation faces the following:

A Presidential Election in November where the likelihood is that we will have the first time since 1888 (Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison), that a former President (Donald Trump) is challenging the sitting President (Joe Biden).

A Supreme Court that seems hellbent on moving further to the Far Right on many constitutional matters, despite its tremendously low public opinion rating, making it the most right wing in a century.

A likelihood of new climate crises continuing, and unlikely that much will be done to deal with it, as many people around the nation and the world become victims.

A growing crisis on issues that divide the nation, including voting rights, abortion rights, gay and transgender rights, gun control, antisemitism, civil rights and ethnic and racial minorities, immigration reform, political chaos in Congress, and growing religious extremism, among others.

A world crisis of war in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, with the potential for greater US involvement, and the constantly growing threat of China, North Korea, Iran, and other autocracies, along with the Russian threat to the stability of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, with the continuing war in Ukraine.

Kamala Harris At 59, And Her Future Role In American Government!

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Vice President Kamala Harris celebrated her 59th birthday yesterday, and she is seen as a strong partner of President Joe Biden.

Constantly under attack by conservatives and Republicans, she has played the proper role of remaining in the background, not trying to take attention away from the President, which is the proper role for a Vice President.

But she has become more visible on the issues of abortion rights, civil rights, voting rights, gun safety reform, and the promotion of truth in education, including denouncing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis promoting a distorted view of African American history and slavery, and also, his attack on the field of psychology and the teaching of gender and sexuality.

Harris speaks for those who are being attacked and abused, as the Supreme Court moves the nation backward on issues that were thought to be settled decades ago, but clearly are not resolved.

Harris is a very intelligent woman, with a career of being a prosecutor in San Francisco; Attorney General of California; and four years as a United States Senator!

She is superbly qualified to be President, if tragically, in the next five years, she was called upon to take the Presidential oath.

Hopefully, President Biden will win reelection and served capably, as he has so far, but the nation can be comfortable with the possibility of a succession, knowing this is a woman of compassion, decency, empathy, and sincerity.

Republican Presidential contender Nikki Haley has disgraced herself since she had courage as South Carolina Governor in 2015 to take down the Confederate flag after nine black churchgoers were slaughtered. She has lost all credibility, when she suggests that Joe Biden will die and Kamala Harris will be President in the next term, as if that would be the most horrendous thing possible, and it disqualifies Haley’s own Presidential ambitions.

One woman of Asian Indian ancestry feels a need to attack a woman of similar Asian Indian and Jamaican ancestry as unqualified, when clearly, Harris has far better credentials than Nikki Haley has ever demonstrated, particularly Haley’s bending to Donald Trump, and agreeing that if he is the nominee of the Republican Party in 2024, that she would support him!

Supreme Court Reputation At All Time Low!

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The Supreme Court of the United States once was the most highly honored government institution, with a reputation of having the highest ethics, and beyond politics!

However, the Roberts Court, in place now for 18 years since 2005, has lost all credibility, as it has struck out against basic constitutional rights relating to women, race, and sexuality, and has promoted a gun culture; advocated religion (Christianity) over civil rights; and worked to limit voting rights.

The two Bush appointees—Clarence Thomas (George H. W. Bush), and Samuel Alito (George W. Bush) have become the most horrendous, narrow minded Supreme Court Justices of the past century, more so than Antonin Scalia and William Rehnquist, in their negative influence on constitutional law.

Roberts himself, who is so concerned about the negative image of the Court, has been unwilling to promote the concept of ethics reform, despite the clearcut scandals of both Thomas and Alito, but also including himself and even some by other Court members.

So Roberts, the 17th Chief Justice in American history, will not have a great historical reputation in the future, and the Court’s misbehavior will lead to a move to change the future of the Court, including, possibly, future expansion of the Court; or term limits for future Justices; and mandated ethics reforms when and if the Democrats can have solid control of the legislative agenda in some future Congress, hopefully sooner rather than later!

Roberts, himself, has already served as Chief Justice longer than most of that select group of 17, and it would be a good situation if he, with 18 years; Alito with 17 years; and Thomas with 32 years (12th longest of all Supreme Court Justices) were to retire soon, but that is very unlikely to occur anytime soon!

247th Anniversary Of American Independence, And Nation’s Democracy Is Endangered!

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Today is the 247th Anniversary of American Independence, and with only three years until the Semiquincentennial of our nation’s history, American democracy is in great danger!

The threat that Donald Trump might return to the White House and promote revenge and fascist demagoguery is horrifying, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis also presents a “clear and present danger” to our nation, with his attacks on the rights of women, racial minorities, gays and transgender people, and his promotion of an extremist Christianity and authoritarianism that represents great harm!

The Supreme Court is the most extreme in a century, taking away basic human rights that were extended by earlier Supreme Courts, but now effectively robbing Americans of rights they have worked so hard to attain!

Many state legislatures are undermining the right to vote, and interfering with education, health care, and at the same time expanding gun rights leading to mass murders with no regulations of who can have what firearms in their possession!

Just as Abraham Lincoln was in the right place at the right time in the 1860s; and Franklin D. Roosevelt in the right place at the right time in the 1930s and early 1940s; so is Joe Biden today’s equivalent of what is needed to preserve democracy!

The efforts must be made to assure that Biden can continue his good deeds after two and a half years in office, and overcome the many crises the nation faces, the most dangerous since the 1960s, and in many ways on the level of the 1860s and 1930s-1940s!

Gerrrymandered State Legislatures–Tennessee, North Carolina, Florida, Texas And Other Republican States!

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Gerrymandering of many state legislatures, particularly in “Red” states, has led to the movement to take away democracy.

This is particularly noted in Tennessee, North Carolina, Florida, and Texas, as those state legislatures take unprecedented action to strip voting rights, abortion rights, gay rights, and to reject any regulation of guns, despite consistent, every day, occurrences of gun massacres!

The “red” states are the centers of greater carnage than in “blue” states, which are totally the opposite of the “red” states on the major issues of civil rights.

Many state legislatures have become the center of autocratic leadership, such as Ron DeSantis in Florida and Greg Abbott in Texas, but also including many other states!

Celebration Of Journalism At White House Correspondents’ Dinner!

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Last night, for the first time since 2016, the profession of journalism was celebrated at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington DC.

The years in between had included Donald Trump boycotting the event, and then the COVID 19 Pandemic made such events not possible for a few years.

President Joe Biden saluted the importance of the profession of journalism, which has been under vicious attacks by the extremist right wing Republican party elements, led by Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, and a multitude of other authoritarian leaders, with only a small percentage resisting such condemnation of the truth of events.

Journalism is what keeps a nation free and informed, and it is the job of journalism to expose facts, truth, reality, no matter what or who it exposes to the light of day!

Journalism and journalists are under constant attack, and in many nations, including the Russian Federation, Iran, mainland China, North Korea, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and a multitude of other nations that attack democracy, journalists are arrested, tortured, and murdered.

These journalists are true heroes, and America must not allow the forces of evil in this nation to destroy the First Amendment, and suppress the reality of the attack on women’s rights, civil rights, gay and lesbian rights, gun regulations, voting rights, education, environmental advancement, and so much more!