80th Anniversary of the Social Security Act

SoSecToday is the 80th anniversary of President  Frankin Delano Roosevelt signing the Social Security Act into law. A message from the SSA Commissioner: Social Security 80 Years | Celebrating the Past and Building the Future:

I am thrilled to join our employees and stakeholders in celebrating Social Security’s 80th anniversary. Eighty years ago, on August 14, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt marked the signing of the Social Security Act into law with profound and relevant words:

Today, a hope of many years standing is in large part fulfilled…We have tried to frame a law which will give some measure of protection to the average citizen and to his family against the loss of a job and against poverty-ridden old age.

We continue to embody President Roosevelt’s vision of hope and protection for the most vulnerable members of the public. In field offices across the country, our frontline employees provide world-class service to millions each day. We provide secure online services for our customers who prefer to do business online—including the my Social Security suite of services, the Retirement Estimator, and the online retirement application.

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50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act – still necessary today

Since our sad small town newspaper the Arizona Daily Star did nothing to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, here is the editorial from the New York Times and an op-ed by Ari Berman of The Nation.

The Times editorializes, The Voting Rights Act at 50:

voting-rights-act-signed-16x91For the first 48 years of its existence, the Voting Rights Act — signed by President Lyndon Johnson 50 years ago this week — was one of the most popular and effective civil rights laws in American history. Centuries of slavery, segregation and officially sanctioned discrimination had kept African-Americans from having any real voice in the nation’s politics. Under the aggressive new law, black voter registration and turnout soared, as did the number of black elected officials.

Recognizing its success, Congress repeatedly reaffirmed the act and expanded its protections. The last time, in 2006, overwhelming majorities in both houses extended the law for another 25 years. But only seven years later, in 2013, five Supreme Court justices elbowed in and concluded, on scant evidence, that there was no longer a need for the law’s most powerful tool; the Voting Rights Act, they claimed, had done its job.

In truth, the battle for voting rights has had to be unrelenting, and the act itself has been under constant assault from the start. As Ari Berman writes in his new history of the law, “Give Us the Ballot,” the act’s revolutionary success “spawned an equally committed group of counterrevolutionaries” who have aimed to dismantle the central achievements of the civil rights movement.

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70th Anniversary of atomic bombing of Hiroshima

AtomicBombDomeAn American B-29 superfortress named the Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb named “Little Boy” at 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945 on Hiroshima, Japan. (Image: Atomic Bomb Dome, Hiroshima, Japan).

Three days later on August 9, 1945, the primary target was the city of Kokura, Japan but due to cloud cover, the second atomic bomb named “Fat Man” was dropped on the secondary target of Nagasaki, Japan.

On August 15, 1945, news of the surrender of Japan was announced to the world.

The BBC reports, Hiroshima marks 70 years since atomic bomb:

A ceremony, attended by PM Shinzo Abe, was held at Hiroshima’s memorial park before thousands of lanterns are released on the city’s Motoyasu river.

The bombing – and a second one on Nagasaki three days later – is credited with bringing to an end World War Two.

But it claimed the lives of at least 140,000 people in the city.

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50th Anniversary of Medicare/Medicaid, Republicans are still trying to kill it

There is something surreal about Biggs, et al v. Brewer, et al. (CV2013-011699 Maricopa County Superior Court), the Medicaid (AHCCCS) expansion case brought by almost every Tea-Publican legislator in the Arizona legislature, being heard today in court on the 50th Anniversary of the The Social Security Amendments of 1965 creating the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Medicaid (AHCCCS) expansion case set for hearing on July 30, 2015.

These Tea-Publican legislators are seeking to take away Medicaid (AHCCCS) health insurance coverage for an estimated 300,000 recipients (est. 463,000 Arizonans are eligible). Arizona Medicaid: eligibility, enrollment and benefits. I hope that one of the attorneys will point out the significance of today’s date to the Court.

On July 30, 1965, President Johnson signed the Social Security Amendments which established Medicare and Medicaid, promising that they would “improve a wide range of health and medical services for Americans of all ages.”

Former President Harry S. Truman was at his side in Independence, Missouri. Johnson credited Truman with “planting the seeds of compassion and duty which have today flowered into care for the sick and serenity for the fearful.”

LBJ_Medicare_Bill_Signing34896web
Medicare bill signing,Date: 7/30/65, Harry S. Truman Library, Independence, Missouri.

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South Carolina to take down Confederate flag; U.S. House to review Confederate symbols in Capitol

Earlier this week, the South Carolina Senate voted overwhelmingly to remove the Confederate battle flag from the state capitol grounds. There was some concern that the House chamber might pose a more difficult challenge.

But an impassioned plea (YouTube) from  Summerville Rep. Jenny Horne, a descendant of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, moved her colleagues to vote for removal of the flag. Lawmaker: Rep. Jenny Horne’s Confederate flag speech ‘key’ to getting it down:

Screenshot from 2015-07-09 13:03:35Horne said anything less than removing the flag is an insult to the family of slain Lowcountry lawmaker Sen. Clementa Pinckney. Pinckney, the pastor of Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, and eight of his parishioners were shot to death on June 17 during a bible study at the church. Accused killer Dylann Roof, 21, posed waving the Confederate flag in photos posted on a website where a racist manifesto gave a rationale for the attack.

“The people of Charleston deserve immediate and swift removal of that flag from this grounds,” Horne said. “I cannot believe that we do not have the heart in this body to do something meaningful such as take a symbol of hate off these grounds on Friday.”

Horne, who was first elected to House District 94 in 2008, went on to say that she is a descendant of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

“But that does not matter,” she said. “It’s not about Jenny Horne. It’s about the people of South Carolina who have demanded that this symbol of hate come off the Statehouse grounds.”

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