Theodore Roosevelt Center: "Before Stonewall: Ariston Bath Raid (1903)'

Source:Theodore Roosevelt Center- Theodore Roosevelt's connection with the Ariston Bath Raid.

"While the #Stonewall riots are often seen as the impetus to the gay rights movement, the fight for equality and acceptance began far earlier. In today's blog post, Karen digs into the Ariston Bath Raid of 1903, and Theodore Roosevelt's connection." 

From Theodore Roosevelt Center 

"Unlike other cultural groups, the LGBT community has a less visible history, resulting in the assumption that their oppression and fight for equal civil rights has not been long fought. If students learn anything about gay history, they learn about the Stonewall Riots, a demonstration by members of the queer community in response to a violent raid against patrons of the Stonewall Inn 52 years ago on this day. The event is often seen as the impetus for the larger LGBT rights and gay pride movement in the United States, which is why Pride Month is celebrated annually in June. Most Americans’ awareness of gay history beyond Stonewall is minimal though, despite the fact that evidence of gay culture has been recorded since America was a British colony. For this week’s short blog post to close out Pride Month, I wanted to explore a lesser-known moment in the gay rights movement from Theodore Roosevelt’s first term as president — the Ariston Baths Raid of 1903. 

Hundreds of sex-segregated bath houses operated in NYC at the turn of the century, spurred by the poor sanitary conditions and limited in-apartment toilets and baths in an increasingly populated city. Turkish baths’ popularity quickly spread from poor immigrants to local ethnic, fraternal and religious organizations, and later hotels and spas, that added steam rooms and massages." 

Source:Theodore Roosevelt Center- New York City in 1969.

From Theodore Roosevelt Center 

I think a big problem with American politics in how people operate in it and try to understand it, has to do with political stereotypes. A lot of political junkies like to stereotype racial and ethnic groups as being part of this party or that ideological faction. African-Americans and Jews tend to get stereotyped as leftists because they tend to vote Democrat. And the same thing with Irish-Americans, especially Irish-Catholics. Anglo-Saxons (especially Southern Anglo-Saxons) tend to get stereotyped as Republicans and right-wing, because they tend to be Protestant. When the fact is none of these voting blocks are monolithic when it comes to their political persuasions.

Cities, especially big cities, and even big Northeastern cities like New York City is the same way. New York gets stereotyped as left-wing, because you have Greenwich Village there and you have a lot of left-wing professors, hipsters, writers, and cultural leftist leaders, etc. But people tend to forget the Manhattan is the capital of Corporate America. NYC is also the home of Wall Street, it’s one of the wealthiest cities (not just big cities) in America, at least when it comes to per-capita income. It also has a lot of blue-collar communities, Italians, Irish, Latino, and other ethnic groups there that tend to vote Republican, because they like Republican economic and even cultural policies.

So when NYPD cracked down on gay bars in 1903 and later in 1968, simply because the people there are gay, you shouldn’t be surprised by that. New York has never been a utopia for gays in America or any other minority group. And neither has San Francisco (speaking of big cities) because even though SF is perhaps the most left-wing of any big city in America, gays have been harassed there as well simply because they are gay. 

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Mr. Manifesto: Teddy Roosevelt- 'Saved The U.S. From a Communist Revolution'

Source:Mr. Manifesto- Theodore Roosevelt, vs. the Socialists 

"Why wasn't there a Communist Revolution in America?
I explain my theory on how Theodore Roosevelt prevented a Communist Revolution in The United States of America."

Source:Square Deal- Theodore Roosevelt: the father of the Progressive Era?

Here more at Mr. Manifesto 

The guy in this video, ( I wouldn't bet a penny that his given name is Mr. Manifesto: I mean what father in the world, would be willing to call their own son Mr? LOL ) is essentially arguing that there are two factors that prevented America from becoming a communist state through a communist revolution or any other means.

One, Theodore Roosevelt became President because he was President William McKinley's Vice President and President McKinley was assassinated in 1901.

Two, that Teddy Roosevelt wasn't a Communist or Socialist himself and that he didn't want communism or socialism governing America.

The guy is right that pre-TR, America was govern by corporate-friendly ( if not corporatist ) President's, as well as Congress's. America, was basically an Ayn Rand wet dream or book ( except this story wasn't fictional ) where government especially at the Federal level had almost no role in the economy.

You had business executives and owners that were very wealthy and most of the country was working very hard for very little and struggling just to pay their bills. And TR wanted to change that first with his Square Deal ( which created the regulatory state in America ) as President and when he wanted to become President again in 1912, he ran on what his cousin Franklin as President would put in place in America in the 1930s what became the New Deal, which created the public safety net in America.

Even when Teddy Roosevelt ran again for President in 1912, the Communist Revolution in Russia was still about 5 years away. Teddy, wasn't a Socialist or Communist and didn't want America to become a socialist state of any kind and did believe in liberal democracy and individual freedom, but was against what's called income inequality, where you have very few people at the top doing very well, while the rest of the country struggles just to survive.

TR, believed that government could come in and help close that income gap and allow for more Americans to succeed economically in America and that government could help people do that, while retaining the great American progressive values that he believed in as a Progressive: like work, production, economic freedom, and individualism.

So based on that had President Teddy Roosevelt not had gotten his Square Deal through Congress and then later the New Deal in the 1930s, maybe America thanks to the income inequality back then and then later the Great Depression, becomes a socialist state.  

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Biographics: Simon Whistler- 'Theodore Roosevelt: The Old Lion'

Source:Biographics- TR: The Old Progressive Lion

"Few believed that the frail, asthmatic little boy who loved to collect insects would amount to anything special, much less the youngest and most robust president in US history."

Source:Biographics

During the 2020 presidential primaries in the Democratic Party especially with the rise of socialism ( or democratic socialism ) in the Democratic Party, we're going to hear labels like Progressive, Socialist, and Democratic Socialist thrown out a lot. Especially thrown around like they're all the same things, or thrown around the difference between a Socialist and a Progressive is the difference between powerful and strong, or tiny and miniature, shrimp and dwarf, etc: when the fact is Progressive, is not just different from Socialist ( democratic or communist ) but clearly different. Which is what I'm going to layout with this piece.

When people think of Progressives, they tend to think of Teddy Roosevelt and his square deal which gave America its regulatory state. Or they think of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, which gave America its public safety net. Harry Truman and his Fair Deal, which would've been an expansion of the New Deal. Lyndon Johnson and his Great Society and the expansion of the New Deal. And today's so-called Progressives ( Democratic Socialists, actually ) say what they want to do with their welfare state agenda is simply just expand it and give Americans more welfare state benefits.

There a lot of problems with comparing today's so-called Progressives, with the Progressives of before who truly are the Progressives: Progressives like the men that I've already mentioned and we're just talking about government economic policy so far, but Progressives are not anti-capitalist, not anti-individual, not even anti-individual freedom: if anything Progressives believe more in individual freedom than even Conservatives and even Libertarians, because Progressives believe that individual freedom should be for everyone and not just to people that are born to wealth.

And where Progressives really separate from Conservatives and Libertarians, as well as Socialists, is that they believe government should be used so that everyone can achieve individual freedom. Instead of Socialists, who view individual freedom as selfish and you need a big national government to take care of everyone else instead. And Conservatives and Libertarians, who believe that government has no role in expanding freedom, that freedom can be achieved by everyone on their own.

If you look at what Progressives have truly accomplished and what they believe in, instead of looking at what Socialists have accomplished ( democratic or communist ) and what they believe in and have accomplished, you know that Progressives are actually very different from Socialists: the Square Deal, which gave us our regulatory state. The New Deal, which was a public safety net for people who truly fall on hard times and in real need of financial assistance. And the Great Society, which was an expansion of the public safety net ( not welfare state ) where every senior American is guaranteed health insurance and more financial assistance for low-income Americans.

The other thing about Progressives and progressivism and why at least I believe it has real national appeal in America, is because it's bipartisan and very practical: people who are supposed to be Centrists in America, are actually very Progressive. Like Republican Senator Susan Collins, or Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown, former Vice President and current Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden and I could go on. America has moved so far to the Right and Left now that Progressives look like the New-Centrists, with progressivism perhaps becoming the most mainstream political philosophy in America. Progressives, are Progressives, not Socialists and the there's a big difference. 

Theodore Roosevelt: Make The Best of Things and Life

Source: The Quotes-

“Top 21 Theodore Roosevelt Quotes (Author of The Rough Riders)” 

From Daily Quotes 

I’m not a big fan at least of the Tremors genre, series of Tremors movies from the 1990s with people like Kevin Bacon, Michael Gross, Fred Ward, and others. But the Tremors Aftershocks movie from 1996 is a very funny movie. Mostly because of Mike Gross, Fred Ward, Chris Gartlin who plays Fred Ward’s partner.

And Mike Gross has this line in the movie where he’s just nailed a bunch of these creatures that were trying to catch these people in the capital of nowhere in Mexico, with one of his big weapons and he destroys several of them with his big rocket launcher or whatever it was.

And his partners come up and congratulate him on that and are very excited. With the Gross character simply just saying: “Doing what I can, with what I got.” Now, I don’t know if this guy is a big fan of Teddy Roosevelt or not, but that is what TR is saying with this quote.

I believe there are three kinds of people in life and these three character types have other aspects about them as well, but we all fit into one of these three categories.

The doer, the bum, and the bitch. And I don’t mean bitch in the sense of female dog, but someone who is always complaining and seems to be happier when they have something to complain about instead of something positive that is positive about them.

The doer is Teddy Roosevelt: “This is the situation, this is what can be done about it and this is what needs to be done about it.” And then makes the best with it with what they have to work with.

The bum, is always stuck in neutral, perhaps too afraid to take any risks and as a result doesn’t move forward or backwards, because they never take any risks and make any investments with their time, energy, and other resources that they may have. The bum is sort of the opposite of a Progressive like TR, or a Regressive. The bum doesn’t progress or even conserves, they just stay where they are.

At least Conservatives like Barry Goldwater and Robert Taft, conserve and protect what they cherish and value. The bum doesn’t even do that, because they believe if they try to protect and conserve what they have, that will require effort and risk and might lose everything as a result.

The bitch is always in a bad mood. On a July Fourth parade, they’ll spot the only cloud in the sky on a hot 90-95 degree day and that cloud will turn into a hurricane of rain. Their team wins the Super Bowl and they’ll complain about the six penalties and two turnovers that their team committed and just focus on that. And actually get no satisfaction from actually winning the Super Bowl.

Imagine having a bitch as a Boston Red Sox fan in 2004 when they Red Sox won their first World Series since 1918. Instead of focusing on the fact that the Red Sox just won their first World Series since 1918, when Teddy Roosevelt still had some political power, the bitch wonders why the Red Sox were down 3-0 to the New York Yankees in the ALCS and just focuses on that instead. How would you like to have a bitch as your campaign manager on Election Night and you’r supposed to be ahead by 10 points in the polls.

Life is exactly that and when you over promise or think things are better than they are, you only set yourself up for big disappointments. Because you stop doing your homework and the work that you did that got you to the point where you are. And on the other side if you always believe things are worst than they are, they always will be at least to you.

And you won’t do the work and put in the effort to make things as good as possible for yourself and the people you care about, because you’ll believe what’s the point. Life sucks in your ant size mind. And the person stuck in neural will only go as far in life as car stuck in neutral or that is out of gas. Because they won’t make any real investments and take risks. That old saying you only get out of life what you put into it.

But the doer is a realist and always has the best available information around them and knows what to do with it which is why they’re successful. The doer knows how much money they have and exactly what they can get out of that money, because they know what they need and who much everything costs and spends their money based on those factors.

But the doer also knows how to advance their wealth both financially and personally, because again they always have the best available information and made themselves into the best person that they can be. They’re doers, they’re Progressives, they progress and move forward in life.

Life is not fair or unfair, generally and even if people have screwed you, you always have the opportunity and ability to recover from that and even move forward. But only if you progress and make the best out of your situation in life and the best out of yourself.

Instead of waiting for positive things to happen to you, or not having the balls frankly to take any risks in life. Life is about risk versus reward and calculating those things together to see where you can go. Not sitting around and waiting for things to happen. Or living in a cloud because you think life is too tough. 

You can also see this post at The Daily View, on WordPress.

Theodore Roosevelt: 'Absolute Equality, Absolute Justice, In Matters of Taxation'

Source: The New Democrat- Progressive Republican Theodore Roosevelt. And no, that's not an Oxymoron. Only morons who don't understand progressivism and republicanism believe that.

"Speech by Teddy Roosevelt "Social and Industrial Justice", 1912"

Source: New Progressive Voice- Progressive Republican Theodore Roosevelt, on taxation.

From New Progressive Voice

When I think of Progressives and I mean true Progressives and not just people who use the label to self-identify with because they believe its politically or culturally popular and don't use it in pop culture terms, but in political terms, I think of people who believe in progress. Yes, that government can help create progress through government action and even programs, but only use government to create progress and not make things worst.

And certainly not create new programs for ideological purposes and be able to say we created this program or that program, but if you're creating a new program or spending new revenue on it, you're doing that because you know progress will be made. That there is a real need and use for that program, or regulation. That government programs are judged by whether they're working or not. Not by how much money is being spent on them.

Are Welfare programs to use as an example, are they helping people to get out of poverty and become independent and empowering people to achieve freedom on their own. Or are they leaving them in poverty with a little more money than they use to have. That being a Progressive is about making things better and that you should also be fiscally responsible. Are government programs working or not. Are they outdated and need to be reformed, or are they now so successful that you no longer need then and can now scrap them and use those resources to fill another need.

A lot of times politicians especially populists on the Left tell their constituents that they delivered this program or that and spent this amount of money on this program or that one. What they tend to to fail to tell their constituents are the costs of those programs because in many cases they advertise those programs as being free. Like free college, free health care, to use as examples. They also tend not to tell voters the results of the programs that they support and how effective they are. But instead just tell voters how much money that they were able to spend on them.

Progressives are actually not like that and instead will say this is why this program was created to do this. And this is how much it costs you (meaning the taxpayers) and this is what we get for this investment. This is why we have this program and why we're spending this money on it. Progressives are true American Patriots because of course they love America, but they really do love it and understand that no even great society is ever perfect and will ever be perfect.

That one major difference between a Progressive and Conservative, is that Conservatives believe in conserving. Keeping the status-quo as is. Progressives are about progress and making things better and moving forward. That as great as America is it can always be better and knowing that America will never be prefect, that you always strive for perfection, you always strive for perfect to make America as great as it can be.

To talk about this Teddy Roosevelt quote for a while which also happens to be the title of this piece and probably why I should talk about him and his quote. TR was right that absolute equality and absolute justice, won't be obtain through taxation. We'll never have a society where everything is equal and probably should never have this society. We'll always have a society where some people are more productive than others and as a result will always do better than others. Not because of their race, ethnicity, or gender, but because they were better than their competition. They got a better education, understood their business better and as a result made better decisions and investments and advanced further than even some people he also had a good education and were able to get good jobs.

Teddy Roosevelt was a true Progressive because he believed in progress and using government to make things better for people. He was not Socialist Eugene Debbs (who was from the same era) politically who believed you needed a huge welfare state and even even government involvement in industry to take care of people for them.

What Teddy believed was in a regulatory state not to run business's and private employers, but to protect innocent consumers and employees from predators. That their needed to be certain rules in the economy so you wouldn't have monopolies but so consumers could purchase safe products and workers could work in safe working conditions.

Teddy also believed in a safety net for people who fall through the cracks of the American capitalist private enterprise system and need temporary financial relief when they're unemployed or are working, but don't make enough money to pay their bills. Not a welfare state to manage people's lives for them because he saw people as essentially stupid who aren't capable of making good decisions in society on their own.

So when Teddy Roosevelt says that absolute justice and absolute equality, can't be obtain through taxation, I take that to mean that you can only tax the wealthy so much to take care of everyone else. That America is not Sweden and you can't have the central government collecting all the revenue in the country and then deciding for everyone else what the people need to live well and then giving that money back equally.

What you need to do is create a society and economy where everyone has the opportunity and ability to succeed in life and be as productive as they possibly can, But then with a progressive tax system pay to the government  based on what they earned. But not to the point that it discourages them from making a lot of money in the future. As well as a regulatory state to play referee and not the head coach of private organizations and a safety net to help people get back up when they fall down.

You can also see this post on WordPress.

You can also see this post at The Daily View, on Blogger. 

You can also see this post at The Daily View, on WordPress.