Gerald Ford

JD Vance Joins Controversial List Of Republican Vice Presidential Candidates!

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The Republican Party is infamous for selecting controversial Vice Presidential candidates, and some of them end up elected and become true disasters.

This history goes back to Richard Nixon being selected by Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952, as Nixon was a promoter of the “Red Scare” even before the nation heard of Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy. While Nixon ended up having some positive aspects to his later Presidency, he was involved in the Watergate Scandal, leading to his resignation in 1974, but thank goodness with Gerald Ford as his successor.

Richard Nixon selected Spiro Agnew as his Vice President in 1968, and Agnew became extremely controversial in that office over nearly five years, coming to be known as “Nixon’s Nixon”, until he was forced out in 1973 for corruption charges, resigning and saving the nation from his potential Presidency.

George H. W. Bush selected Dan Quayle as his Vice President in 1988, and the nation had to pray for Bush’s good health, as Quayle came across as not very bright, amid concern that despite his ignorance and stupidity, that he might become President.

John McCain selected Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential nominee in 2008, but the nation was saved from this ignorant, not very bright, and divisive woman being a heartbeat away when Barack Obama won the Presidency over McCain.

And now, we have JD Vance in 2024, who is a “chameleon”, who has changed his views on Donald Trump, and now can be seen as a threat, based on his lies and deception, if Trump becomes President, and cannot finish his term. Vance’s right wing leanings connect him to the evils of the John Birch Society.

Vance is a backer of Project 2025, and wrote the preface for this 922 page document, and must be seen as “a clear and present danger” to American democracy and the rule of law!

JD Vance: Another Horrendous Republican Vice Presidential Nominee!

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The Republican Party, historically, has often selected horrendous Vice Presidential nominees, and unfortunately, some of them end up as Vice President, making one concerned even more than normally, about the health and safety of the Republican President.

JD Vance of Ohio adds to a list of such nominees, including:

William E. Miller, running mate of Barry Goldwater in 1964
Spiro Agnew, running mate of Richard Nixon in 1968 and 1972
Dan Quayle, running mate of George H. W. Bush in 1988 and 1992
Sarah Palin, running mate of John McCain in 2008

Also, others, such as Jack Kemp, running mate of Bob Dole in 1996; Dick Cheney, running mate of George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004; Paul Ryan, running mate of Mitt Romney in 2012; and Mike Pence, running mate of Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020, while all “qualified” and experienced, had many negative aspects to their candidacies.

The only exceptions one could claim were fully qualified and acceptable were Nelson Rockefeller as Vice President to Gerald Ford, and George H. W. Bush as Vice President to Ronald Reagan, and also Bob Dole as running mate of Gerald Ford in 1976.

And now we have JD Vance, who has only served 18 months as a Senator from Ohio, and who has completely changed his views on Donald Trump from what they were in 2016. And Vance comes across as a MAGA extremist who is unwilling to support Ukraine in its war with Russia; wants no exceptions for rape or incest with a total ban on abortion; and is clearly perceived as a “mini Trump”, who could carry on the Trump views in the future Republican Party.

And realize Vance called Trump a potential Adolf Hitler eight years ago, and now embraces him! If that is not a danger sign to voters, then such voters have no principles or conscience!

Project 2025: War On Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, FDA, Affordable Care Act

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This author and blogger will delineate over the next days and weeks just how destructive the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 would be if enacted, with Donald Trump fully aware of the details, despite his false claim that he has no knowledge of the ideas organized by his own supporters and allies.

Regarding basic social programs that have long existed, and are basic to the lives of tens of millions of Americans, Project 2025 promotes the following:

Privatization of Social Security
Raising the Retirement Age for Social Security
Cut Social Security benefits
Cut Medicare benefits
Repeal the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare)
Raise Prescription Drug Prices
Dismantle the Food and Drug Administration
Threaten Medicaid Coverage for hundreds of thousands of Americans
Privatize veterans’ healthcare
Reduce funding for public health programs

This is a declaration of war on Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Era; Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal; Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society; the reforms promoted by Barack Obama and Joe Biden; and on the Democratic Party promoted reforms that became law under Republican Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and George H. W. Bush (all having to deal with Democratic controlled Congresses).

The Massive Dangers Of Project 2025 And The Heritage Foundation

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Project 2025, promoted by the Heritage Foundation, is a warning sign to America and the world!

It is an attack on everything decent that has occurred in the 20th and 21st century to expand democracy and freedom in America and the world at large!

If left to their evil intentions, the Heritage Foundation and its Project 2025 would repeal the reforms of the Progressive Era, the New Deal, the Great Society, the Obama-Biden reforms, and the massive efforts of Democrats to promote and pass significant reforms under Republican Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and George H. W. Bush.

The reason for some significant reforms under Republican Presidents was due to Democratic control of Congress, a situation that was not the case under Republicans Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump.

Over the next days and weeks, this author and blogger will make clear the massive threats and dangers presented by extremist right wing forces, which if enacted, would bring America back to the late 19th Century Gilded Age era!

Mitt Romney Totally Wrong On Idea Of Trump Pardon!

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Retiring Republican Senator Mitt Romney is totally wrong on his idea that President Joe Biden should have pardoned Donald Trump at the time of the four indictments against the former President.

Romney has opposed Trump, refusing to vote for or support him, and he was one of the Republican Senators voting to convict Trump twice on impeachment charges in 2019 and again after the January 6, 2021 US Capitol Insurrection.

But now, he says that Biden should have taken action to pardon Trump, comparing it to Gerald Ford doing so with Richard Nixon in 1974.

This is preposterous and ridiculous, and to compare Trump to Nixon is a distortion of history.

Yes, Nixon was corrupt and engaged in criminal action, but NOT on the level of Donald Trump!

There are many who still feel Nixon should have been prosecuted, and that his pardon helped to cause the defeat of Ford in the Presidential Election of 1976.

But the rule of law, despite what Ford did a half century ago, requires that any public official be held accountable.

Most notably, this is a man who committed the incitement of the Insurrection at the US Capitol, which led to deaths and injuries; and took government documents illegally to his private residence; and also interfered in state government and state electors regarding the vote count in the Presidential Election of 2020.

The Presidency needs to be reigned in so that the image of an Imperial Presidency, where the Chief Executive is not subject to the laws everyone else is, is put to rest for eternity.

The Presidency is NOT a dictatorship, but an office responsible to the American people!

235 Years Since The Inauguration Of George Washington!

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On this day in 1789, George Washington was inaugurated, 57 days late, as the first President of the United States, in the downtown Wall Street area of New York City.

Washington was the right person to start the Presidency of a new Republic, and he knew that it was essential that he give up power, in order to insure the survival and stability of the nation in the long term future.

We cannot thank Washington enough, or all of the later Presidents who knew when to leave!

And we can also be thankful that even in hotly contested elections in the future, Presidents who lost reelection—John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Martin Van Buren, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, William Howard Taft, Herbert Hoover, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and George H. W. Bush–followed the tradition Washington had set by leaving office.

Also, we have to be thankful that in close elections, such candidates as Samuel Tilden in 1876, Al Gore in 2000, and Hillary Clinton in 2016 were gracious in defeat, and that Vice Presidents who lost the succession to their President—Richard Nixon in 1960, Hubert Humphrey in 1968—also were gracious in defeat, as was Gore in 2000.

Sadly, the crisis today is due to the reality that Donald Trump would not accept defeat graciously, and provoked a violent mob on January 6, 2021, for which he must be held accountable!

The Negativism About Kamala Harris As Potential President Is Unwarranted!

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The propaganda being spewed against Vice President Kamala Harris as a potential successor to Joe Biden at some point in the next five years is totally unwarranted.

Vice Presidents, historically, have been panned as not acceptable alternatives, but that is simply political propaganda by the other side of the political spectrum.

John Tyler was the first Vice President to suffer from ridicule and criticism, when William Henry Harrison died after one month in office in 1841, and he was called “His Accidency” by critics who refused to accept that his succession to the Presidency was legitimate.

There was great trepidation when Harry Truman succeeded to the Presidency after the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945, but Truman, despite bitter attacks, is now regarded as one of the top six Presidents.

No one wanted to imagine Lyndon B. Johnson as President in 1960, but he succeeded John F. Kennedy in 1963, and ended up being the best domestic President since FDR.

Gerald Ford is seen as having saved the nation by his leadership after the Watergate Scandal led to the resignation of Richard Nixon in 1974.

Kamala Harris has excellent credentials in her career of being San Francisco District Attorney from 2004-2011; California Attorney General from 2011-2017; US Senator from 2017-2021; and now Vice President for the past three plus years.

She has been a strong support for President Joe Biden, and is clearly more competent and experienced than many earlier Vice Presidents have been, including Spiro Agnew, Dan Quayle, and Mike Pence were.

Most of the opposition is sexist and racist against Harris, and it is disgusting that the right wing issues vicious attacks against her with no factual basis or justification.

If the need arose for Kamala Harris to become President, the nation would be in good hands, and would be well served!

The American Economy Is Booming, And Americans Need To Realize That!

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The American economy continues to boom, and yet, so many Americans seem to be unaware of that reality.

Job Growth is high, unemployment is at a 50 year low, inflation is down dramatically, and every indication is that this boom will continue.

So Joe Biden and the Democrats must work on sharing that message of reality with American voters and not allow the lies of Donald Trump and the Republicans to go unanswered.

A reminder, that the American economy has always been much better under Democrats than Republicans, with all economic downturns since 1953 except one (Jimmy Carter 1980) being under Republicans from Eisenhower through Nixon, through Ford and Reagan and the Bushes, and Donald Trump!

Henry Kissinger, Most Controversial Diplomat Since World War II, Is Dead At 100!

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Henry Kissinger, the most controversial diplomat since World War II, is dead at age 100!

The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating the end of the Vietnam War, he is seen by many as having been an international outlaw and criminal for his involvement in spreading the Vietnam War into Cambodia; his support and promotion of a right wing government in Chile, destroying that democracy for a generation; and his lack of concern about human rights and loss of freedom in so many places around the world besides Chile, including Argentina.

As National Security Adviser and then Secretary of State to President Richard Nixon, and later to President Gerald Ford, he engaged in many unethical, if not illegal, actions.

A believer in Realpolitik in international relations, he was seen as lacking ethics and morality to the extreme, and was noted for his egotism and lack of concern about his reputation.

He is noted for helping to open up relations with the People’s Republic of China, and his dealings with the Soviet Union, and the Middle East cauldron. He also is criticized for backing Pakistan in the Bangladesh-India War for Independence of what had been East Pakistan, undermining relations with the largest populated nation, India, beyond China, and also encouraging the corrupt Shah of Iran during the energy crisis!

Seen as a brilliant and yet to many an evil man, he clashed with many other diplomatic and political figures, and stood out as diametrically opposite to many, including President Jimmy Carter, who survived him and one hopes will reach age 100 in ten months!

The Longevity Of Presidents Analyzed

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There is a lot of debate and discussion about Joe Biden’s age.

One needs to examine the history of Presidents and longevity.

In the 20th and 21st centuries, the time of modern America, 40 percent of Presidents (8) have had a short life span, as witness:

Theodore Roosevelt 60
William Howard Taft 72
Woodrow Wilson 67
Warren G. Harding 57
Calvin Coolidge 60
Franklin D. Roosevelt 63
John F. Kennedy 46
Lyndon B. Johnson 64

Other Presidents, 60 percent, (12), have had very long life spans, including

Herbert Hoover 90
Harry Truman 88
Dwight D. Eisenhower 78
Richard Nixon 81
Gerald Ford 93
Jimmy Carter 99 on the coming October 1
Ronald Reagan 93
George H W Bush 94
Bill Clinton 77 and counting
George W. Bush 77 and counting
Donald Trump 77 and counting
Joe Biden 81 on the coming November 20

Then, in a classification by himself, is Barack Obama (62), and seemingly in great health and physical shape!

My conclusion: Presidents and people in general are living longer and healthier, and one cannot deduce from the problems of Senator Diane Feinstein and Senator Mitch McConnell that President Joe Biden will be unable to finish his time in office.

But if, sadly, that becomes an issue, there is absolutly nothing wrong, and a lot very positive, about the ability of Vice President Kamala Harris to take over the Presidency.

When one considers Vice Presidents who succeeded their Presidents during a term, three of them—-Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Lyndon B. Johnson excelled—-while the other six who succeeded were far from outstanding.

But we managed to survive all of the time, and Kamala Harris is 59 years old, the general age of most Presidents upon taking office, and perfectly capable of being Chief Executive if an emergency arises!