Tag: Ronald Reagan

Most Dangerous Group in Human History

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OPINION:

The Most Dangerous Group in Human History

OPINION:

The Most Dangerous Group in Human History

By Karen Tate

Not Since Eisenhower Has There Been an Ethical Republican President

I’ve often written in my published books and essays that knowledge is power.  Of course, I didn’t know that growing up in the South where our public school books barely scratched the surface on the evils of the Civil War, patriarchy, sexism, racism, or social justice.  Neither were we encouraged to be good citizens with a firm handle on civics and how the government worked.  Men and religious institutions were in charge and vital subjects like sex, power, religion and money were not talked about.  Taking a back seat and having babies was a woman’s role in life.  I had to move to California to begin to get an education and discover how stunted so many of our educations actually are depending on where we grow up and what our socio-economic  background might be.  Then I had to care enough to educate myself and leave my racist culture behind and become a feminist, or I think the more accurate word today is a womanist.

I’m reminded of all that in these last few years as I rub shoulders with those who would rather not know anything, critically think or choose instead to be apolitical and take a back seat and let someone else do their thinking for them.  I have to remember we don’t know what we don’t know.  Had I not left the South I doubt I’d ever have discovered the eminent scholar Noam Chomsky nor would I have taken the rare opportunity to interview him on my podcast.  I wouldn’t have known he considered the Republican Party the most dangerous organization in human history and though he was primarily talking about climate change at the time, he also said, “Has there ever been an organization in human history that is dedicated, with such commitment, to the destruction of organized human life on Earth?” And he had not yet experienced Donald Trump’s presidency, nor was Project 2025 fully fleshed out as we understand it today.

I believe Prof. Chomsky assessed the GOP as he does for more than their position on climate change by reminding readers we have not had a lawful and ethical Republican president since Dwight D. Eisenhower.  Knowledge is power and it’s important to be armed with truthful information.  How many of us don’t know or were never taught the following facts about past Republican presidents and their administrations?   As my historical account below will attest, Republican Presidents have been guilty of war crimes, election interference, committing treason, sometimes  by conspiring with foreign governments, and much more, to acquire or hold power  for decades since Eisenhower.  Yes, there have been Republican traitors in the White House before Donald Trump even if you didn’t learn about it in school, discover it buried in the news or followed the headlines.

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President Jimmy Carter Remembered

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President Jimmy Carter in Remembrance

President Jimmy Carter Goes Home

Editor:  Jimmy Carter’s state funeral is over and he has gone home.  Rest in Peace, Jimmy. 

 

By Cate Rees-Hessel with Wes Hessel

 

Man of the People

I have many sweet and wonderful memories of President James Earl Carter, Jr., a man of God and true humanitarian, dedicated to social justice, human rights, and the betterment of regular everyday Americans, no matter their color. He embodied integrity. Jimmy made it one of his missions while in office to promote fair elections globally, and to eradicate serious diseases worldwide. His Presidency, despite economic challenges, and long lines at the gas pump, was full of historically important achievements, such as the establishment of a brand new Bureau of Labor and Democracy at the State Department, as well as creating the Cabinet-level Departments of Education and Energy. President Carter architected peace between Israel and Egypt with the Camp David Accords; additionally he made our country’s National Park System a strong priority.

Up Close…

I had the pleasure of being in Mr. Carter’s company twice. I recall as a teenager standing in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on a cold day during the tail end of his re-election campaign, waiting for his motorcade to arrive outside of Gimbel’s department store, my hair in curls, dressed in a blue plaid coat and tan *pleather gloves. The crowd was large and enthusiastic,  but I managed to get up front.

…And Personal

The strong media presence and sea of people made it difficult to see President Carter. Realizing this, Jimmy jumped up to stand on the back seat of his convertible vehicle – he had a bit of pancake makeup on for the cameras, but that million dollar smile was completely genuine. I was thrilled, he stood right in front of me in the car and I gave him one of my big beauty pageant smiles in return. He noticed me and bent down to shake my hand – just as his fingers nearly touched mine, a Secret Service agent got between us, then the motorcade sped away. I was so very impressed that he cared enough to take a young girl’s hand in a large crowd. He had no idea I was even old enough to vote but he saw me smile and reached his hand out.

My Vote

I did vote for him, the very first person I ever voted for; in my very first election. Sadly, he was not re-elected. I am embarrassed to admit it, but I was a registered Republican at the time. But, I knew that the President of the United States, the most powerful man in the world, cared enough about people to try to shake the hand of a teenager in the huge crowd. That act of kindness, truly touching, not political, was just nice.

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“ROGER STONE DID NOTHING WRONG”

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“ROGER STONE DID NOTHING WRONG”

By Ross Turner

Roger Stone Did Nothing Wrong

January 25th, 2019.  Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  Pre-dawn.  Heavily armed men file out of a caravan of black SUVs.  Swarming the Mediterranean-style home, a bearded man pounds on the door: “FBI.  Open the door.”  Within moments, a grey-haired, shoeless figure emerges.  He appears briefly confused, but, given the circumstances, unfazed.  He puts his hands in the air as he turns around, submitting to his arrest with perfunctory calm.  Twenty minutes later, being led back into his home by federal agents, security footage captures the text of the suspect’s t-shirt, one that perfectly encapsulates the man in question.  It reads: “Roger Stone Did Nothing Wrong.”

What’s In A Shirt?

We may never know whether Stone put on that shirt deliberately for the occasion, but anybody familiar with him knows he probably would have.  It’s very existence speaks volumes of his sordid career, a winking reference to his infamous reputation.  It is, let’s say, not the fashion statement typical of an innocent man.  Robert Mueller, Special Counsel to the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, would tend to agree.  Stone has been indicted on seven criminal charges, including one count of obstruction of an official proceeding, one count of witness tampering, and five counts of false statements.  Stone himself is probably disappointed to be arraigned on such lame charges, given how many juicier bits of wrongdoing there are to choose from.

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RESPONSE to “IN MY OPINION: Clean and Sober”

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RESPONSE: to “Clean and Sober”

By David Shadrick

Introduction

Hello, my name is Reverend David Shadrick but I’d appreciate it if you would just call me Dave. I run a small non-profit called Street Level Resources. I would like to respond to Jennifer’s Troy’s two recent articles; “Homeless Helping Homeless” and her follow-up article, “Clean and Sober.”

For Education

Education is my goal, not conflict. Most people understand that a large part of the homeless population are mentally ill, or are alcoholics or drug addicts, or all three. The reality of homelessness is that 85% of the chronically homeless are mentally ill.  “Chronically homeless” is a category that describes people who are homeless in excess of one year.

Who Are We Talking About?

I’m not sure how the homeless participants for the Kenton Women’s Village were selected.  Did the project contain only handpicked people who complied with certain prerequisites?  Were they required to be clean and sober? Were they on prescribed anti-psychotic medications? The reason I ask is because Jennifer’s results are very good when the demographic for the homeless is applied. One to two participants out of such a group of 14 is good.

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Fossil Fuel Cronies Relentless War On The Environment

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Fossil Fuel Cronies Relentless War On The Environment

D. S. Mitchell

I belong to the Sierra Club. The Sierra Club is a grassroots environmental organization founded in 1892 in San Francisco, California by Scottish-American preservationist John Muir.  Mr. Muir became the organization’s first president.  Today, I am one of 2.4 million members.  The Sierra Club motto is: “Explore, enjoy and protect our planet.”

That motto is quickly morphing into, “Protect our planet from Trump.” In a recent mailing the club sent out a dire warning of the intent and activities of the Trump Administration, Ryan Zinke and Scott Pruitt as they effect the environment. This will be a rather lengthy undertaking but I believe the information is important and should be shared. I, like many others, are deeply concerned.

It seems that the daily barrage of Washington scandal and outrage are on steroids since Trump’s inauguration.  One bullshit scandal, after bullshit scandal oozes out of the Trump White House. It seems that every hour we have our heads snapped back by a fresh Tweet from The Donald; or some new Russian revelation.

This information overload is distracting the public from all the damage being done behind the scenes by people like Zinke and Pruitt. Guys who lobbied or sued the very agencies that they now head.  They are now perfectly positioned to dismantle those agencies from within. An unimaginable opportunity for the extraction industries. Dis-mantling and neutering all government agencies is a priority of the Trump & Co. agenda. They call it “dis-mantling the administrative state.”

Make no mistake about it, the Trump Administration is working every minute of every day, to turn our water, air, and public lands over to their supporters in gas, oil, coal and other extraction industries. They have made no secret of their intent, but damn it is hard to watch every action taken in some obscure office, especially with all the noise out front from the president. In fact, that could be the intention. Get us all watching the three-ring circus in Congress and the White House while their gang of thieves rob the nation of its wilderness heritage.

“The Trump Anti-Environment Action Plan:

  1. Abandon the Paris Climate Accord: In June Trump announced he was no longer bound by the Climate Agreement.  Sierra Club believes in the importance of the intent of the Paris Agreement and has vowed to aggressively work to make sure that Trump’s hand-picked fossil fuel, anti-environment henchmen will not be able to unravel the advances of the last 50 plus years.
  2. Emasculate Fuel Economy Standards: The Obama Administration raised the fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks or CAFE for short (Corporate Average Fuel Economy). These regulations are in the crosshairs, as I type.
  3. Kill The Environmental Protection Agency: The most hated government agency by far is the EPA.  Pro-industry, anti-environment extremists are on a mission to destroy the agency.  With a “compliant climate denier” as President Trump targeting the EPA, many of us doubt that the intent of the agency will survive.  The EPA will be starved by a “compliant” congress and it will slowly starve it of funding, leaving it “a hollow shell staffed by those who will pervert its mission.” The EPA is being decimated, one regulation at a time and there seems to be no one to stop it.
  4. Fill The Supreme Court With Anti-Environmentalists: Blame Mich McConnell for this one. McConnell’s actions are directly responsible for the first step in the plan to fill the Court. When Anthonin Scalia died suddenly, McConnell majority leader in the Senate denied President Obama the opportunity to fill that spot. Old Mitch and the boys will be celebrating that victory for probably 40 years. President Trump was able to confirm a “pro-industry, climate antagonist eager to overturn environmentally friendly cases and rule on the side of the fossil fuel and extraction industries.”
  5. Bring Back That Dirty Of Dirtiest Industries, King Coal: Trump told enthusiastic crowds during the rigged 2016 election that he could bring back the near dead coal industry.  He alone could do CPR and bring back that nearly dead monster back to life. Sadly, he may be able to reshape market forces that have caused coal to become a more expensive alternative to cleaner energy sources by ending the moratorium on new coal leases on public land. In essence a huge giveaway to this dirty industry.  Trump began to immediately  gut regulations that force coal companies to be responsible for the pollution they create.  He did this sleight of hand when he repealed the Stream Protection Bill as one of his first acts as president.
  6. Open Federal Lands To Fossil Fuel Exploration: The recently retired Representative Jason Chaffetz (R. UT) introduced H.R. 621 authorizing “the Secretary of the Interior to sell certain federal lands in 10 Western states, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming. After it became public that Chaffetz was planning to transfer 3.3 million acres of public land to private interests, the public pressure forced him to withdraw the bill. But, there are many more men like Chaffetz paid by lobbyist to do the work of their donors, not the work of the public, and I am sure another Senator or Representative will re-package the legislation and re-introduce this government giveaway to fossil fuel their cronies.
  7. Dismantle The Clean Power Plan: The Republican end goal is to re-define greenhouse gases as not “dangerous to human health” putting them beyond the reach of the EPA’s jurisdiction, or deny EPA funding to the Act, dismantling the Clean Power Plan and its goal to curtail  carbon dioxide emissions from electricity plants. Such actions are “likely to accelerate climate disruption precipitously.”
  8. Stop The Growth Of A Green Economy: Trump campaigned on a promise to “zero out federal research and development” for green energy. The reason for this is that fossil fuel companies like the behemoth, Exxon Mobil have few means to monetize wind and solar energy. I and many others are hoping that private industry has seen that “a green economy is the best bet for the future–both for consumers who will benefit from lower energy prices, and for an economy that offers good paying jobs here in the United States.
  9. Fill Environmental Agencies With Anti-Environmentalists: As noted in my introduction, the new hiring model for federal agencies which are designed to protect the environment are being subverted by anti-environmentalist being appointed to positions within the agencies. The notorious anti-EPA critic, Scott Pruitt being appointed to head the EPA has spelled disaster for the department. The Republican Senate literally raced to beat the release of thousands of emails detailing his “cozy relationship with energy companies”.  Evidence shows that when Pruitt was Oklahoma Attorney General, had energy company staffers and lobbyists ghost write his correspondence to federal officials.

Trump Wants To Steal NW Energy Resources: As a resident of the Northwest United States I know that the Columbia River is our regions greatest natural resource and the river’s dams and their electrical power are its most valuable man-made resources. The Bonneville Power Administration is the authority that sets the operation of the dams and transmits the electricity. The BPA generates 4 Billion dollars in revenue annually through the sales of the system’s electricity. In 1980’s Reagan proposed selling the entire BPA system, which raised a hue and cry. Trump and his allies are a little smarter, they are proposing “to sell off the ‘transmission’ of power from the dams.  Such a proposal would dramatically affect how the river is managed. “BPA’s management of the dams recognizes that there is an inherent trade-off for how much water is saved for fish, how cold and how deep that water is.  Few people realize that the BPA runs the largest fish conservation program in the world.  In other words, when you sell the transmission side of the dams, more than power is at stake.” This is at its core, “an attempt to steal an asset whose value Northwest ratepayers have paid for, at market rates.” (Information on the BPA item was provided by office of Senator Ron Wyden (D. OR) and The Daily Astorian newspaper 8-11-2017).

Calamity Politics is a progressive political blog that attempts to write and publish opinions and comments based on real news and how those events will affect our lives.

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