Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Trump's disgraceful Presidency

Trump just said that there are fine people on both sides. He is totally lost and he's totally wrong. Trump has given aid to fascists. There is no 2 sides in this story. There is racism including other injustices and we must defeat these evils. Trump recently said overtly racist words. My response to Trump's lies today are:
1. There is no moral equivalency between liberal counterprotesters and far right white supremacists. The alt right used weapons to attack progressive people. They also surrounded a church where progressive people were organizing. The white nationalists spewed racist, anti-Semitic, and misogynist language in Charlottesville. The act of murder by a murderer with a car was an act of domestic terrorism. Neo-Nazis and other white nationalists (who carried torches and expressed Nazi slogans. Some of them have shown Nazi salutes) assaulted people with tear gas, bats, bottles, and other objects. One woman was murdered by a white supremacists and white supremacists jumped a young black person with objects.
2. The Confederacy wanted to maintain the treason against Americans. Confederate documents overtly wanted slavery and racism. Also, Confederate statues on public lands deserve to be taken down. The alt right marching together in support of the Confederate statues is heinous. I'm consistent, because I have no respect for Confederates and Jefferson (including Washington).
3. There are not any 2 sides of the story. There is only white supremacists who desire xenophobia, hate, and other evils in America. The blame for the violence is only on the white supremacists. Trump actually called people among both sides fine people. The white nationalists are not fine people. They are extreme racists. Trump sympathizes with overt white supremacists. Trump supports Bannon.
4. BLM is not a terrorist group. BLM is a movement against police brutality and inequalities in the judicial system.
5. Trump has shown his overt racism (now and during times past) and many white supremacists like David Duke support him. Trump has shown what he stand for. He stands for far right extremism and deception. Anyone who supports Trump now should be ashamed of themselves. One famous saying is when a person tells what he thinks, you have to believe him. Trump has expressed what he feels in his heart. Trump has defended Confederate monuments and slandered counterprotesters who disagreed with bigotry. He also lied by saying that people who were in the alt right were quiet. They were not. This racism and anti-Semitism is not new, but hate crimes have increased since 2016. The neo-Nazis are disgraceful. Trump embraces the white supremacist ideology. The problems that we have in America are not solved by hatred. It can be solved by progressive policies to help those of diverse backgrounds. Trump's agenda must be opposed and defeated.

Also, it is important to study economic history since World War II. World War II caused America to be the largest economic power in the world. America back then heavily used Keynesian economics to rebuild Germany and Japan. Later, investments like the GI bill, Social Security, etc. grew the middle class, but poor Americans still suffered. By the 1960's, the economy continued to grow and something happened. There was the Great Society. The Great Society cut the poverty rate in half from 1960 to 1970. Also, the economies of Japan and West Germany massively grown. Then, you have the Vietnam War coming on. The Vietnam War caused an increase of inflation along with stagnant economic growth which caused stagflation especially by the 1970's. When Nixon was in Office, he brought America off the Bretton Woods system in 1971. Also, he had to deal with inflation issues. During the 1970's, inflation grew and there was rising oil prices because of the Middle Eastern oil boycott. Higher inflation caused more good and services to be more expensive. Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter struggled to get inflation under control. Carter's economic issues (many of which he had no control over) contributed to Reagan to be President in 1980 (along with Reagan using overtly racial code words). Reagan's first term saw recession, high poverty, and tons of cutbacks to social programs. By his 2nd term, he compromised a little with a Democratic Congress to cause some GDP growth. The catch was that Reagan saw increases in the trade deficit and growth in economic inequality and Reaganomics doesn't work (since the super wealthy receiving tax cuts alone can never increase job growth automatically).

George H. W. Bush came in and had 90 percent approval rating after the Persian Gulf war. He promoted German reunification. He was more moderate than Reagan, but the recession of 1991 practically ended his re-election chances. Bill Clinton was a very astute politician. He was a centrist naturally, so he used a combination of tax cuts for the middle class and tax increases for the super wealthy. This policy along with the dot com boom and other factors grew the economy. Millions of jobs were created and the budget deficit transformed into a budget surplus. Bush Jr. came along in 2001 and promoted large tax cuts for the rich which stagnated the economy. Also, the Iraq War increased a financial burden on many Americans. The housing bubble and the subsequent recession in part caused Barack Obama to be President. Because of GOP Congress, Barack Obama tried to use investments and he caused much job growth to escape the Great Recession. Likewise, economic inequality has grown. Barack Obama has passed much financial regulations in trying to prevent another banking meltdown with Dodd Frank. The unemployment rate under Obama declined from 2009 to 2017. Under Trump, the economic growth has continued which started under Obama, but economic inequality has not radically declined. Poverty exists in many urban and rural communities today as job loss is a serious problem to this very day. Trump is also a disgrace for his words and actions.


By the 21st century, Black Excellence continued. By the year 2000, there were 34,658,190 African Americans. In the year of 2000, Rev. Vashti M. McKenzie was the first African American woman bishop of the African Methodist Zion Church. Lilian Elaine Fishbourne was the first black woman Admiral of the U.S. Navy in the year 2000 too. By February 15, 2000, a unanimous vote caused Harvard to create its full doctoral program in African American studies. Temple University had such a program too. This is important since African American history is part of overall human culture. On April 26, 2001, Thelma Golden curated the Freestyle art exhibition. The art exhibition opened at the Studio Museum in Harlem, NYC. It showed the work of many black men and black women who showed post-black art or diverse forms of art shown by black people. Dr. Ruth Simmons was the first African American President of any Ivy League school of Brown University. She was a 56 years old expert in Romance languages plus literature. She was President of Smith College previously too. She is a great educator and research Brown University’s roots to slavery financially. In November of 2001, Shirley Clarke Franklin was the first African American woman to head the government of a major Southern city when she was elected mayor of Atlanta. She helped to make Atlanta greener. She helped to rebuild an Atlanta sewer system in the city. She also helped to further modernize the city of Atlanta. The Tavis Smiley Show premiered on National Public Radio on January 7, 2002. Suzan-Lori Parks was the first African American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (for her play Topdog/Underdog. It had actors Jeffrey Wright and Mos Def playing rival brothers in a card game in their apartment). One human being is an important part of history. She is Vonetta Flowers. At the 2002 Winter Olympics, she, along with driver Jill Bakken, won the gold medal in the two-woman event, becoming the first black person to win a gold medal in the Winter Olympics. She has twins and is living a Blessed Life. By November 8, 2002, Laila Ali (daughter of Muhammad Ali) defeated Valerie Mahfood in a boxing match. Laila Ali unified the three women’s super-middleweight boxing championship. Laila Ali is a boxing legend and a human being who is a role model for so many human beings. On 2002, Halle Berry and Denzel Washington win Oscars. Also, in the same year, Dennis Archer became the first African American to be elected President of the American Bar Association. Dennis Archer was the former mayor of Detroit. October 18, 2004 was when a new Frederick P. Rose Hall center would open to celebrate Jazz. Wynton Marsalis opens this new center. By January of 2005, Condoleezza Rice became the Secretary of State. She was the second African American human being and the first African American woman to hold that position. On February 18, 2006, speed skater Shani Davis became the first black athlete to win an individual gold medal in a Winter Olympics sport when he clinched the men’s 1,000 meter event at the games in Turin, Italy. 4 years later, he was the first man to win back to back gold medals in the event at the Vancouver games. Corey Booker was the Mayor of Newark in 2006. On May 19, 2006, Sophia Dannenberg was the first African American and the first black woman to reach the top of Mount Everest. By 2004, reverse of the Great Migration happens when more black Americans are living in the South from Atlanta to Houston.  On November 7, 2006, Deval Patrick was elected Governor of Massachusetts. He became the second African American in the nation after Reconstruction (after Douglas L. Wilder from Virginia in 1989) to be popularly elected to his position. On early 2007, Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy was the first African American coach to guide his team to win a Super Bowl ring. Forest Whitaker win and Best actor Oscar for his role of The Last King of Scotland (about Idi Amin). Jennifer Hudson wins one for Best Supporting Actress for Effie White on Dreamgirls (a movie from the Broadway play). Authors like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (who is a black woman from Nigeria) and Edwidge Dticat (who is Haitian) write literature about black life in diverse ways. On March 17, 2007, David A. Paterson was sworn in as Governor of New York after the resignation of Elliot Spitzer. He was the first legally blind American Governor. Also, he is the first African American Governor of New York State and he was the fourth black governor of any state.  In September 17, 2008, author and legal scholar Annette Gordon-Reed released her groundbreaking study called, “The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family.” It discussed about the generations of Sally Hemings and her family. The book won the Pulitzer Prize for History for her work. Her book won the National Book Award. From 2000-2008, black accomplishments continued to grow in the new digital age.



By Timothy



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