Reasons to Vote Blue This Fall?

Reasons to vote blue, Democrat, for Joe Biden this November.  As though it's not already obvious enough.

Vote Blue.

Blue Wave.

50 Years Ago Today

50 years ago today, June 5, 1968, Robert Francis Kennedy, RFK, Bobby Kennedy was shot and ultimately, killed, in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California, after addressing a campaign rally after his win there, that day, in the California primary.

Herewith, a few of his quotes, a few of his most memorable quotes. Back from a time when those with more tried to help those with less.

Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total; of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.

There are people in every time and every land who want to stop history in its tracks. They fear the future, mistrust the present, and invoke the security of a comfortable past which, in fact, never existed.

Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.

Some men see things as they are, and ask "Why?". I dream of things that never were, and ask "Why not?".

I miss having more intelligent, altruistic, well-educated, well-spoken, thoughtful, introspective people in and leading our government, don't you? I miss having more people who realize that helping the middle- and lower- and working-classes strengthens not just them but the wealthy, as well. It strengthens the entire nation.

Frankly, I miss the entire concept of "noblesse oblige."

Speaking Truth To Power

From the US House of Representatives, Rep. Ruben Gallego on the person that is Donald J. Trump, who he is, what he stands for, what he's said and what he supports.



Let's not forget all that he is and more than that, let's not forget who we are and who and what we have always said what we are about and/or to what we aspire--the "better angels of our nature", I would hope and always thought.

Then there's this from Jon Stewart.



Finally, there's this, from some time ago and David Letterman.



Let's be and stay better than Donald Trump.

On the Death of the Republican Party (Guest Post)

From Professor/economist/commentator/writer Robert Reich and his Facebook page today:

I’m writing to you today to announce the death of the Republican Party. It is no longer a living, vital, animate organization. It has been replaced by warring tribes of rightwing zealots – evangelicals opposed to abortion, gay marriage, and science; libertarians opposed to any government constraint on private behavior; market fundamentalists convinced the “free market” can do no wrong; corporate and Wall Street titans seeking bailouts, corporate welfare, tax cuts, and deregulation; right-wing billionaires wanting more of the nation’s wealth than they own already; and white working-class Trumpoids who love Donald and hate Muslims, blacks, and Mexicans.

Each tribe has its own organization, its own sources of campaign funding, its own ideology, and its own candidates. What’s left is a lifeless shell called the Republican Party, but the Grand Old Party inside the shell is no more.

I, for one, regrets its passing. Our nation needs political parties to connect up different groups of Americans and to sift through prospective candidates. Without a Republican Party, there’s nothing standing between us and a bunch of liars, bigots, egomaniacs, and creeps who decide on their own to seek the Republican nomination president.

___________________________________

What I resent most about the groups Professor Reich mentions above are the "...right-wing billionaires wanting more of the nation’s wealth than they own already..."    

They're the worst.  As I've written before, on people like the Koch brothers:  born millionaires, now billionaires.      And they want more.

What concerns me most, as we see the Republican Party self-destruct before our very eyes, is the political and power vacuum it will surely create.

We wouldn't want what comes after to be worse than the mess the Republican Party is and has been since around the end of our Civil War.

Quote of the day--for a Sunday

 

Oops.

 

 

 

Martin Luther King Day, VI

Martin Luther King Day, V

Martin Luther King Day, IV

Martin Luther King Day, III

Martin Luther King Day, II

Martin Luther King Day, I

Quote of the day

"I don't want to see religious bigotry in any form. It would disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentalists and the political right. The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it." -- Rev. Billy Graham, Parade magazine, 1981

What they said wasn't "the 'n' word"

As the now-old saying goes, let's not put lipstick on this pig.

I keep seeing references to the incident in Washington, DC this past Saturday wherein some "Tea-bagger" Republican protester shouted an epithet at Represenetative John Lewis and it's irritating me.

I keep seeing it referred to as this ignorant person yelling "the 'n' word."

And I want to say stop.

Let's stop calling it that.

Let's stop making this nice. Or pretty. Or politically-correct.

Because it absolutely isn't any of those things.

Whoever that person was called Representative John Lewis--longtime civil rights activist and now legislator--a nigger.

The word isn't nice.

This is racism of its near-worst form.

The only thing worse, after this, is physical violence, let's be clear on this.

That word--nigger--is the worst thing a white person can call an African-American yet that's what this person did.

And then someone spat on our own Kansas City, Missouri Representative Emanuel Cleaver.

And then someone else, shortly thereafter, across Washington, called Representative Barney Frank a "homo."

Racism, homophobia and bigotry, all.

And stupid. And irresponsible. And hate-filled.

And it all has no place in any discussion or debate about health care.

And it has no place in America.

And it needs to stop.

And it needs to stop now.

If we call it something less than what it is, we're giving it a pass and that's not acceptable.