John F. Kennedy

Supreme Court Justice Quality Way Down From Decades In The Past!

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Republican Party Presidents since 1953 have selected the vast majority of Supreme Court Justices!

Dwight D. Eisenhower 5
Richard Nixon 4
Gerald Ford 1
Ronald Reagan 4
George H. W. Bush 2
George W. Bush 2
Donald Trump 3
Total 21 with William Rehnquist listed twice under Nixon and Reagan

in 40 years of Republican Presidents

Democratic Party Presidents have had far fewer appointments!

John F. Kennedy 2
Lyndon B. Johnson 2
Jimmy Carter 0
Bill Clinton 2
Barack Obama 2
Joe Biden 1
Total 9

in 32 years of Democratic Presidents

So twice as many Repubican appointments as Democrats!

Eisenhower had Chief Justice Earl Warren, Associate Justice Potter Stewart, and Associate Justice William Brennan stand out!

Nixon had Chief Justice Warren Burger and Associate Justice Harry Blackmun stand out!

Ford had Associate Justice John Paul Stevens stand out!

Reagan had Associate Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy stand out!

H W Bush had Associate Justice David Souter stand out!

On the Democratic side:

Kennedy had Associate Justice Byron White stand out!

Johnson had Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall stand out!

Clinton had Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Associate Justice Stephen Breyer stand out!

Obama had Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Associate Justice Elena Kagan stand out!

Biden had Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson stand out!

So 9 Republican appointments and 7 Democratic appointments have stood out!

Now, sadly, we have a group of appointments by Republican Presidents (the two Bushes and Donald Trump) that have been extremist and involved in conflicts of interest, and are not interested in being in the moderate center of constitutional law!

These include Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, and sadly, Chief Justice John Roberts!

Ohio Train Derailment And Nebraska Child Labor Scandal Signs Of Corporate Abuse!

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Sadly, in 2023, we have examples of corporate abuse as seen with the recent East Palestine, Ohio derailment of dangerous chemicals, on a train two miles long, with only two workers operating the train.

Also, in Nebraska, we have early teens doing dirty and dangerous work as cleaning workers in a slaughter house, breaking the child labor laws, and exploiting immigrant children.

How this is possible is due to continued big business and conservative and Republican attempts to weaken federal regulation, as occurred under Donald Trump and earlier Republican Presidents, despite the work of Barack Obama to strengthen such regulation.

The issues of government regulation of business and labor rights were dealt with in the Progressive Era of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson; again in the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt; and again in the 1960s under John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. It emerged again in the Obama Presidency, but then was backtracked on under Donald Trump, as with earlier Republican Presidents, particularly Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.

It is essential to have actions to prevent the kinds of tragedies that have occurred recently. The answer is not to attack Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and President Biden. And the Republican attack on the Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and other federal regulatory agencies must stop!

Biden In Ukraine And Poland Being Compared To Kennedy And Reagan In Berlin!

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Joe Biden spoke in Poland yesterday, after having spoken in Ukraine the day before, and he showed why so many sane individuals love his Presidency!

He spoke up for freedom and democracy against Russian tyranny, and it brought to mind the brilliant speeches of John F. Kennedy in 1963 and Ronald Reagan in 1987 at the Berlin Wall.

Also, his speech in Ukraine reminded us of Abraham Lincoln speaking at Gettysburg in November 1863, while the Civil War was still raging, taking the gamble to speak in an area similar to Kiev, Ukraine, under war footing and without adequate military forces available to protect the President.

If this does not convince people that Joe Biden is a transformational President, then nothing will!

And the Republican party opposition is split by the Russia-Ukraine War, and with Donald Trump and now, Ron DeSantis, against support of Ukraine, if either is the nominee, they are on the road to a smashing defeat in the Presidential Election of 2024!

Two Years Of Kamala Harris As Vice President: Very Underrated!

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Kamala Harris has been Vice President for two years, but unfortunately, she has been very underrated by many observers.

Most people fail to understand that Vice Presidents have no power or influence, other than what the President gives them.

Joe Biden has been kind and engaged in making sure his Vice President has important duties and responsibilities, but the criticism of Harris fails to take into account how most Vice Presidents have had very little influence.

The only modern Vice Presidents who have stood out in a positive manner are Walter Mondale under Jimmy Carter; Al Gore under Bill Clinton; and Joe Biden under Barack Obama.

Even such outstanding individuals as Lyndon B. Johnson under John F. Kennedy; Hubert Humphrey under Lyndon B. Johnson; Nelson Rockefeller under Gerald Ford; George H. W. Bush under Ronald Reagan; and Dick Cheney under George W. Bush had far less impact than one would have expected.

It seems clear, sad to state, that much of the criticism of Kamala Harris is due to her being a woman, and of mixed race ancestry!

One would think such bigotry would be gone, and much of it promoted by extremist religious factions, both Christian and Jewish! But sadly, it is still a reality!

White House Chief Of Staff Ron Klain A True Star!

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The position of White House Chief of Staff, the person closest to the President on a daily basis, has existed since the Truman Presidency after World War II.

Some have lasted very short times in that position; some have proved to be disasters; and a small number have turned out to be exceptional in their dedication to progress under their Presidents.

The true disasters include:

Sherman Adams under Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1958)
H. R. Haldeman under Richard Nixon (1969-1973)
Donald Rumsfeld under Gerald Ford (1974-1975)
Dick Cheney under Gerald Ford (1975-1977)
Hamilton Jordan under Jimmy Carter (1979-1980)
Donald Regan under Ronald Reagan (1985-1987)
Reince Priebus under Donald Trump (six months in 2017)
Mark Meadows under Donald Trump (2020-2021)

The success stories include:

Kenneth O’Donnell under John F. Kennedy (1961-1963)
James Baker under Ronald Reagan (1981-1985)
Howard Baker under Ronald Reagan (1987-1988)
John Sununu under George H. W. Bush (1989-1991)
Leon Panetta under Bill Clinton (1994-1997)
Erskine Bowles under Bill Clinton (1997-1998)
John Podesta under Bill Clinton (1998-2001)
Andrew Card under George W. Bush (2001-2005)
Denis McDonough under Barack Obama (2013-2017)
John F. Kelly under Donald Trump ((2017-2019)
Ron Klain under Joe Biden (2021- )

When one looks at these lists, it is clear that Ron Klain stands out as one of the top few White House Chiefs of Staff of all time, with Kenneth O’Donnell, James Baker, Leon Panetta, Andrew Card, and Denis McDonough also on the list of the best!

59th Anniversary Of The JFK Assassination And Shock Still Reverberates!

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Today marks the 59th anniversary of the assassination of the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, in Dallas, Texas.

Anyone who lived through that horrible tragedy will never forget the thoughts and emotions at the time.

The JFK Assasination changed the course of American history, in many respects for the worst.

Right wing hate in Dallas, and anti Catholic sentiments, helped to set up the tragedy.

The debate over the details of the Kennedy Assassination remains, but the author had a chapter in his 2015 book, available in paperback since 2017—ASSASSINATIONS, THREATS, AND THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY: FROM ANDREW JACKSON TO BARACK OBAMA (Rowman Littlefield Publishers)—which covered all of the conspiracy theories, but coming to the conclusion, that the Warren Commission was correct in its assessment that Lee Harvey Oswald did it as a “lone wolf”!

As the years pass, the emotions engendered at the time remain, and this author is concerned that with the growth of domestic terrorism, the threat to President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and other top government leaders of both parties is constantly growing!

Most Dangerous Times Since Cuban Missile Crisis 60 Years Ago This Week!

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Sixty years ago this week, America and the world faced the potential of nuclear war, during the Cuban Missile Crisis in the time of the Presidency of John F. Kennedy and Soviet Union Premier Nikita Khrushchev.

It was a very terrifying time, which this author and blogger, a college freshman at the time, remembers very well, but thankfully, the issue of possible nuclear confrontation was resolved peacefully.

Now, however, the threat of the Russian Federation under Vladimir Putin, in its eight month war against Ukraine, using nuclear weapons, presents a challenge as great as sixty years ago.

Now we have President Joe Biden leading the challenge to Russia, with the support of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), but the Republican opposition, led by potential House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, is indicating that it will not insure continued military and financial support to Ukraine.

This is exactly the wrong message to give to Putin, and encourages him to continue his aggression, which presents a real threat to all NATO nations!

So we could be facing World War III, a horrifying concept, and Joe Biden will have to fight in the way that Franklin D. Roosevelt fought eighty years ago in World War II, to refuse to reward aggression, which will only make the world more dangerous!

Ron DeSantis Does Cruel,Despicable Political Stunt, Shipping Venezuelan Migrants To Massachusetts!

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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has done a despicable political stunt, victimizing Venezuelan migrant men, women, and children, by shipping them without notice or support to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts!

These are victims of an autocratic leftist government in their homeland, fleeing for their lives, and being victimized as refugees by a cruel, uncaring governor of the third largest state in population, and reminds us of similar treatment of Jews wishing to escape Nazi Germany in the late 1930s!

Similar stunts have been done by Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, sending migrants to Washington DC, New York City, and Chicago. This is all part of the right wing campaign against immigration reform, at a time when we have a major crisis of migrants at the US-Mexico border!

These three Republican Governors, with DeSantis and Abbott planning Republican Presidential campaigns in 2024, are competing for attention against so called “Sanctuary Cities”, part of their attack on immigration, spewing hatred and racism!

This is similar to Southern Democrats shipping African Americans to the North sixty years ago in opposition to civil rights actions by President John F. Kennedy!

DeSantis is getting most of the attention, and is reveling in his demagoguery, arrogance, and bullyish nature, and seeing adoring men and women smiling around him is enough to make one want to vomit, at the level of hatred, nativism, and racism being displayed without shame!

Ron DeSantis is reminding us of Alabama Governor George Wallace, who was a threat in the 1960s and early 1970s, but with DeSantis a much more clear and present danger, as he is riding a wave of authoritarianism that could make him a danger as a serious candidate for the Presidency!

This was something never really possible in regards to Wallace, although he did win five states, 46 electoral votes, and 13.5 percent of the popular vote in the Presidential Election of 1968!

White House Chief Of Staff Ron Klain Summarizes Joe Biden’s Record In Office After 19 Months!

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White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain has summarized Joe Biden’s record in office after 19 months.

After a period of struggle and disappointment, now Joe Biden’s record is quite amazing for a President in office just a bit more than a year and a half, a truly transformational President!

As Klain describes it in an interview with POLITICO, Joe Biden “has delivered the largest economic recovery plan since Roosevelt.”(Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal)

Biden has brought into law “the largest infrastructure plan since Eisenhower.” (Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Interstate Highway System)

Biden has accomplished “the most judges confirmed since Kennedy.” (John F. Kennedy)

Biden has accomplished “the second largest health care bill since Johnson.” (Lyndon B. Johnson and Medicare) and (after Barack Obama and the Affordable Care Act)

Biden has “the largest climate change bill in history.” (since Jimmy Carter promoted need for change)

Also, we have seen the first gun control bill since Bill Clinton’s time. (Brady Bill legislation)

And Biden has placed the first African American woman on the Supreme Court (Ketanji Brown Jackson) (After Lyndon B. Johnson placed the first African American man on the Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall)

Additionally, as many observers have noted, we have seen 9.5 million jobs created; accomplished the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years; forced the rich and corporations to pay their fair share of taxes; lowered drug prices and general health care costs, including insulin costs for Medicare recipients; lowered the national debt; confirmed the most diverse set of judges to the federal bench; accomplished the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the American Rescue Plan to combat the COVID 19 Pandemic; canceled some student loan debt; and passed the CHIPS and Science Act, and the PACT Act to help sick veterans from our wars.

In foreign policy, Biden ended America’s longest war (Afghanistan), which Donald Trump had arranged to end actually three months earlier than Biden; strengthened NATO by adding Finland and Sweden; took out Al Qaeda’s top leader; and come to the defense of Ukraine against the Russian invasion.

Interesting Survey Of People Honored By US Monuments, From The Washington Post

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The Washington Post has published an interesting survey of people honored by US Monuments, and there are many surprises in the survey.

Eleven Presidents are in the top 50 figures represented in memorials, with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln being the top two of the fifty listed.

Also listed at number 9 is John F. Kennedy; number 10 is Thomas Jefferson; and number 11 is Ulysses S. Grant.

Andrew Jackson is number 15, a three way tie with Theodore Roosevelt and William McKinley.

Dwight D. Eisenhower and Franklin D. Roosevelt tie at 32nd.

Finally, James A. Garfield is in a four way tie at number 47 with three non Presidents.

Interestingly, NOT on the list are such Presidents as Woodrow Wilson, Harry Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson, or Ronald Reagan.

Some religious figures, native Americans, and African Americans (Martin Luther King (4th), Harriet Tubman (24th), Frederick Douglass (29th)) are also represented, as are a number of individuals who are not at all related to American history, including Christopher Columbus, most notably in third place with 149!

Confederate leaders are also represented, including Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and Stonewall Jackson.

Other well known Americans include the following: Benjamin Franklin at number 8; Alexander Hamilton tied with two others at number 26; and Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall in a six way tie at number 41.