John F. Kennedy

Robert Gates’ Criticism Of Joe Biden On Distrusting Military Is A Plus!

Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates has made news with his memoir, in which he makes some strong criticism of President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

And yet, he is positive overall on Obama, and thinks both Biden and Clinton would probably make good Presidents.

Most interesting is his criticism of Biden, that he has been critical of military leadership, and that he has, according to Gates, never been right in the past 40 years on any national security matter. And yet he would make a good President, so figure that!

To say that Biden has been wrong for the past 40 years makes us think that, supposedly, every President since Nixon has been right on national security and defense matters. And to say that Biden has NEVER been right is totally preposterous! And what is the record on Presidents since JFK?

Was Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, and particularly Bush II, REALLY right all of the time? Give me a break!

When one thinks back, the military leadership misled John F. Kennedy on the Bay of Pigs.

The military leadership misled Lyndon B. Johnson on Vietnam.

The military leadership was wrong on Vietnam under Nixon, as well.

In the brief tenure of Gerald Ford, thank goodness no major flub by the military leadership.

The military leadership misled Jimmy Carter on the Iranian hostage military rescue attempt.

The military leadership misled Ronald Reagan on dealing with “freedom fighters” in Afghanistan, and in dealing with Iraq’s leader Saddam Hussein.

The military leadership misled George H. W. Bush on Somalian intervention.

The military leadership misled Bill Clinton on dealing with Al Qaeda.

The military leadership misled George W. Bush on Afghanistan and Iraq.

So if Barack Obama was skeptical and IS skeptical about the military leadership in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, that was good!

And if Joe Biden had, and has, a healthy dose of skepticism about the military leadership, that is VERY GOOD!

And that means Joe Biden would be an excellent successor to Barack Obama, because he questions, has doubts, does not worship the military leadership!

That is the kind of President we have now, and need, in the future!

Thank goodness for who we have in our top two positions in our national government, men with a dose of skepticism, with the reminder that we have a civilian government, not one run by the military, and that is what has kept us free, and will continue to do so!

Religion And The Presidency

The right wing in America tries to tell us we are a Christian nation, rather than a nation of a majority of the Christian faith.

The fact that the Constitution does not have a religious test, that we have separation of church and state, is ignored, as the right wing promotes its propaganda.

So they tell us the Founding Fathers were “good Christians”, when in fact, in many ways, they were not!

And they fail to accept that many of our Presidents have doubted organized religion entirely, or have been Deist, Unitarian or Quaker , which are seen as a few steps away from atheism by many experts.

For the record:

The following Presidents had NO specific religious affiliation:

Thomas Jefferson
Franklin Pierce
Abraham Lincoln
Andrew Johnson
Ulysses S. Grant
Rutherford B. Hayes
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Barack Obama

Deist Beliefs

George Washington
Thomas Jefferson
James Madison
James Monroe
John Tyler

Unitarianism

John Adams
John Quincy Adams
Millard Fillmore
William Howard Taft

Quaker

Herbert Hoover
Richard Nixon

That makes 18 Presidents who do not fit the mold of a typical religious person.

At the same time, some Presidents have been very devout, including:

James A. Garfield
Benjamin Harrison
William McKinley
Woodrow Wilson
Jimmy Carter

The other half of our Presidents were irregular church goers, and in many cases, they were not very committed to their faiths, but would identify with a faith that was considered Christian, with John F. Kennedy the only Catholic President..

The largest number of Presidents (12) were Episcopalians; 8 were Presbyterians; 4 Methodists; 4 Baptists; 3 Disciples of Christ; 2 Congregationalists; and 2 Dutch Reformed Church.

Threats Of Violence Against Barack Obama Grows: A New, Expanded Mental Illness Very Worrisome!

Here we are ending the fifth year of the Barack Obama Presidency, and the hatred and racism and threats of assassination have not abated one iota!

Instead, it has become a new, expanded mental illness, very worrisome, all over the internet, on Facebook and Twitter, and even on cable news networks, led by Fox News Channel!

It includes so called “religious” leaders, college professors, law enforcement officials, legislators in state governments, military personnel, students, people of different racial backgrounds, and goes as far as calling for a national holiday for lynching President Obama!

This is extremely alarming, as the media reports of threats have multiplied, but it is clear that this is just the “tip of the iceberg”, and that there are a multitude of more threats than we are learning about.

The Secret Service, considered undermanned by many observers, is dealing with an estimated 30 threats per day, over 10,000 threats a year, and probably we are low balling those numbers, so they have to deal with threats 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in all forms of ways, many of them not serious, but none able to be overlooked, as a mistake could be fatal.

The President must go about his daily business of getting around, both in the country and on overseas visits, but one has to be concerned about his safety, as one can be sure, that if something tragic was to occur, there would be celebration not seen widely when John F. Kennedy was assassinated, although there were some stories of applause in classrooms in Dallas after JFK was shot, a totally deplorable situation.

It is the responsibility of our media not to give undue attention to the perpetrators of this hate, so the decision of Lou Dobbs, who once was sane but has gone bonkers in recent years, to allow Professor Michael Scheuer of Georgetown University, to spew his hate and condemnation, and endorsement of assassination of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, on the Dobbs show, should lead to a boycott of Dobbs and all other right wing talk show hosts, who will stop at nothing in their exploitation of hate and racism, and advocacy of violence against our Commander in Chief!

Freedom of speech stops when it advocates violence, and Scheuer needs to be held accountable by Georgetown University, and advertisers need to stop support of Dobbs, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Michael Savage, Mark Levin, et al as an indication that such poison should not be supported on radio and television, as it is a disease that can promote tragedy and disaster!

The Barack Obama–Raul Castro Handshake: Much Ado Over Nothing!

While at the Nelson Mandela commemoration in South Africa, Barack Obama had an opportunity to meet dozens of world leaders, some of them from democracies, and some from dictatorships.

Unfortunately, dictatorships are much more common historically and in contemporary times, than are democracies.

Richard Nixon went to China and met Mao Tse Tung.

Dwight D. Eisenhower met Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev at Camp David, and John F. Kennedy met Khrushchev in Vienna.

Ronald Reagan met Afghan freedom fighters, who later became involved in promoting terrorism, including September 11.

John McCain met Moammar Gaddafi of Libya, and shook his hand.

Donald Rumsfeld met Saddam Hussein of Iraq as a emissary from Ronald Reagan.

Also, many Presidents have bowed to royal leaders, including George W. Bush with the King of Saudi Arabia, and many Presidents with the Emperor of Japan and the Queen of England.

Never was such a big deal made of these handshakes or discussions, and even summits, until suddenly, Barack Obama became President!

When he met Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, it was the worst crime of the century to the right wing whackos!

Now, Obama shook the hand of Raul Castro, who has made it clear that he is leaving power in 2018, when he will be 87, and his brother Fidel Castro, will be 92, if either is still alive.

There will be a successor government in Cuba within a few years, and there is always the chance that Cuba could undergo change and reform, and in fact, already has developed capitalism and private property, as China, for instance, has done.

Has our government, under Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, refused to deal with “evil” governments? NO in the modern era, and we are talking with Iran and North Korea at times, so why not Cuba?

After 55 years, has the embargo on Cuba changed anything in that island nation? NO, as it unites the government with its population, who are the true victims of the American blockade!

Do we blockade trade and contact with other nations of much greater importance? The answer is NO, but apparently, we must cater to three million Cuban Americans, and their leadership in the Republican Party, when it benefits no one, and is a failed policy!

It is time for rapprochement with Cuba, so that we can have an effect on its future. This is the time to start such development of relations, and forget the lobbying of right wing groups and Marco Rubio, who have no interest in planning for the future without a Castro in power!

Pope Francis An Inspiration, But Like Barack Obama, He Will Have Major Critics Who Fear Change And Reform

Pope Francis is a true inspiration to anyone who believes in the true teachings of Jesus Christ, concern for the poor, compassion for the sick, condemnation of materialism, and the understanding that all people, of whatever race, religion, nationality, gender, and sexual orientation, deserve equality and justice!

In so many ways, Pope Francis can be compared to Barack Obama, and just like Obama, he will engender hate and condemnation because he fights against prejudice and the evils of wealth, and the selfishness and greed which has arisen yet once again, on the basis of laissez faire capitalism and Social Darwinism, prevalent in the Gilded Age (late 19th century), the age of Imperialism, and resisted by the forces of change and reform in many nations in the 20th century.

But now, those evil forces have reared their ugly head again, and so the battle for progressivism is engaged in a great fight to combat those forces, within the Catholic Church, within organized religion in general, within the capitalistic economy which, in America, has no apparent problem , with the mounting acquisition of wealth by the top one percent, as poverty and the collapse of the middle class continually occur, with no conscience or concern by those who have the stack decked in their favor.

So the right wing forces, that include those who wish death on Barack Obama, will now focus also on the Pope, just as has always happened for those who promote reform and change, including in America, Presidents Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy, and also Senator Robert Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

We should give thanks for the courage and compassion of our President, and even if we are not Catholic, the Pope, and pray for both men, that they will not fall before any attempted assassination threats of which Obama faces dozens every day!

We live in an age of great hate, and so much of it coming from so called “religious” people, who have no clue as to the true teachings of their faith, and are only out to enrich themselves!

Statesmanship Requires Gambles To Avoid War: Obama In Company With Six Presidents!

Barack Obama is not the first President to gamble to avoid the danger of war.

He is being criticized for the six month agreement with Iran, a nation which has been hostile to the United States for 34 years.

But Harry Truman worked to overcome hate and hostility from nations we fought in World War II–Germany and Japan.

Dwight D. Eisenhower promoted a “thaw” in the Cold War by inviting Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev to the United States in 1959.

John F. Kennedy promoted an alternative to war in the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, and signed the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty with the Soviet Union in 1963,

Richard Nixon went to China to overcome a generation of mistrust and lack of communication in 1972.

Jimmy Carter arranged for Egypt and Israel to negotiate diplomatic recognition to overcome decades of mistrust and war in 1979.

Ronald Reagan negotiated missile agreements with Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev in the late 1980s, helping to end the Cold War.

Statesmanship requires gambles to avoid war and overcome mistrust.

Barack Obama is on the same road as were Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, Carter and Reagan.

This is good company to be in!

Narcissistic American Presidents

The Pew Research Center has conducted a unique study of American Presidents, and the results are fascinating.

Presidents have been analyzed in a multitude of ways, but now there is a new one—how narcissistic they are, how much they love themselves and want attention drawn to them by the American people.

At the top of the list are Lyndon B. Johnson, followed by Theodore Roosevelt, Andrew Jackson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton as the top seven.

All seven are regarded as among the best Presidents we have had, and all are highly controversial because of their assertive manner of governing.

But also, a high level of personal insecurity is evident in all seven, including health issues and personal experiences that made them have the personalities they exhibited in the Presidency.

Only a total of 15 Presidents are seen as having more narcissism than the average person has, including modern Presidents such as Woodrow Wilson, George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, as numbers 10, 11 and 15.

Presidents such as Harry Truman, George Washington, Jimmy Carter, Dwight D. Eisenhower, George H. W. Bush, Thomas Jefferson, Gerald Ford, and Abraham Lincoln all rate below average on narcissism from numbers varying from 18 to 32 on the list.

The question is how valuable is such a list, but at least it is food for thought!

Right Wing Obscenity: Trying To Claim John F. Kennedy As One Of Their Own On 50th Anniversary Of His Assassination!

The right wing has no shame, as it is now claiming, on the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, that he would be one of their own, and as stated by lunatic Glenn Beck, that JFK would be a Tea Party Movement radical! The nerve of Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and other right wing promoters of lies and deceit, to sully the good name of our 35th President!

John F. Kennedy stated publicly that he was proud to be a liberal.

John F. Kennedy moved toward the idea of ending the Cold War in his last year in office, through promotion of diplomacy and ending the arms race.

John F. Kennedy spoke up for civil rights, planned a war on poverty, advocated the creation of Medicare, and the promotion of federal aid to education.

John F. Kennedy wanted to create a department of urban affairs to deal with the growing problems of the cities, while trying to promote racial equality and justice.

John F. Kennedy promoted the space program and the advancement of science.

John F. Kennedy advocated helping the third world nations through the establishment of the Peace Corps.

John F. Kennedy was out to promote the expansion of the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Fair Deal of Harry Truman.

John F. Kennedy had brothers who promoted liberalism in his memory–Robert Kennedy and Ted Kennedy–and they knew, better than anyone, what he was all about.

In this, and a multitude of other ways, John F. Kennedy was a proud Democrat and liberal, and would have repudiated everything the Republican Party of 2013 represents, and would have condemned the right wing, which hated his guts in his lifetime, and he would have fought against the backwardness, the racism, and the promotion of hate and division that the Tea Party Movement represents!

Hatred Of JFK Much More In Reality Than Recalled Today

As we come up to the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, it is easy to imagine that JFK was popular, and that the country was united around him.

In reality, there was a lot of hate of our 35th President.

Southern segregationists were furious with him for having taken a strong civil rights stand.

Kennedy was still being attacked for his Catholic faith by many evangelical Christians, who even today do not show any respect for the Pope and the Vatican.

Corporations were furious with JFK for having taken a strong stand against the steel industry price increases in 1962, and the oil industry in Texas was particularly condemnatory of him.

Organized crime was angry with the pursuit of the Mafia by Attorney General Robert Kennedy.

Cuban exiles were angry with JFK over the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion, and unhappy with the survival of Fidel Castro after the resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

There was discontent within the FBI and CIA, as to the handling of issues by the Kennedy White House, which was challenging the military-industrial complex that President Eisenhower talked about in his Farewell Address, after JFK had allowed himself to be influenced early on by these agencies and their agendas.

This is not to say that JFK was killed due to these opposition forces and hatred, but the point is that the nation was not one of unity around Kennedy, and he faced a daunting task to be reelected.

America was not a nation that was united anymore then, than it is now. We remember JFK fondly more for his tragic death than his ability to unite the American people and various interest groups.

Disllusionment With Washington Opens Up Possibility Of State Governors Again Having Advantage For Presidential Race!

Much of the time in American history, there has been disillusionment with the Washington DC establishment, and a desire to have an “outsider” being our President.

Only three Presidents of the past century were elected directly from the Senate—Warren G. Harding, John F. Kennedy, and Barack Obama—while a total of six Governors or former Governors were elected to the Presidency—Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush. Additionally, former Governors who were Vice President first, and succeeded during the term—Theodore Roosevelt and Calvin Coolidge–were also elected to a full term.

So the present anger at Washington and everything it represents opens up new opportunities for sitting or former Governors in both parties, such as follows:

Democrats—Andrew Cuomo of New York, Martin O’Malley of Maryland, Deval Patrick of Massachusetts

Republicans-Chris Christie of New Jersey, Jeb Bush of Florida, Jon Huntsman of Utah, Scott Walker of Wisconsin, John Kasich of Ohio, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Rick Perry of Texas, Susana Martinez of New Mexico

Having said this, one still has to wonder if the Democratic Governors can overcome Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden or Mark Warner or Elizabeth Warren or Amy Klobuchar or Cory Booker.

And one has to wonder if the Republican Governors can overcome Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio, Rick Santorum and others.