JFK vs Trump

[Jerry Organ]

JFK, like us all was skin, blood and bones. A human being. Flawed. Yet, he believed in public service. Once his brother Joe died in WW2 it was up to JFK to assume the family mantle. As a young boy, my parents felt it time that I learned how America works and I joined “Young Democrats for Kennedy”. My father was a somewhat influential Democrat in N.Y. at the time although I didn’t know what that meant. He, my mother and my sister and I attended a campaign dinner on Long Island during a 1960 campaign event. Our family was photographed with JFK. That black and white photo sat on my parents fireplace throughout the years until their passing. My sister now possesses that photo which not coincidentally now sits on her fireplace mantle. I’ve walked amongst giants in America. Those who truly cared about our country and made a difference. Public service. Military. Men and women who on July 4, 2020 get a shout out: thank you...thank you. God bless you and America.

What's this fixation your ridiculous country has for the military, flag-waving and self-aggrandizement?

[Tom Scully]

What's this fixation your ridiculous country has for the military, flag-waving and self-aggrandizement?

Without the pre-Trump variety of "military, flag-waving...." life in U.S. cities, especially Bill of Rights protected speech, assembly, journalism, and due process of the courts, would be much more similar to life in Moscow, Shanghai, or Hong Kong.

IOW, where do you suppose the U.S., its four other "Five Eyes" allies, Taiwan, and more generally, routine passage of ships in the world's oceans be, if not for the presence and operations of the U.S. Navy or the presence in Europe and abilities of U.S. ground forces? "Showing the flag" is a deterrent to, for example, Putin increasing Russia's "land grab" of a portion of Ukraine the size of the state of Texas.

Would Germany be an independent, reunited, economic power house? What level of independence would be experienced today in Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, and other former captive countries of the former Soviet Bloc?

The U.S. is unique and is burdened by the national debt rung up partially from the cost of offsetting the declining commitment of the UK's Commonwealth and Japan and Germany to commit the funding required to adequately defend themselves.

https://twitter.com/philewing/status/1011779124292214785
Failure to Provide U.K. Royal Navy Escorts for New Carriers is ‘Potentially Dangerous,’ Warn Lawmakers
By: Jon Rosamond
June 25, 2018 6:27 PM
......

Less than 40 years ago, PM Thatcher was able to order a sizable force to cross the Atlantic to retake the Falkland Islands from Argentina.
Would you really prefer to state, in the same week China's Xi broke the 1997 Hong Kong treaty with the UK and Putin set himself up as president of Russia until 2036, for the U.S. to reduce its militarism more to a level of your liking? Turn your criticism to aggressor countries with territorial grabbing ambitions, such as Israel.

The U.S. electorate certainly must be manipulated to continue to weigh down its grandchildren with heavy debt burden. I don't recall Obama hyper-militarizing domestic holidays or response to protestors in the manner recently perfected by Benedict Bonespurs.

[Jerry Organ]

Without the pre-Trump variety of "military, flag-waving...." life in U.S. cities, especially Bill of Rights protected speech, assembly, journalism, and due process of the courts, would be much more similar to life in Moscow, Shanghai, or Hong Kong.

IOW, where do you suppose the U.S., its four other "Five Eyes" allies, Taiwan, and more generally, routine passage of ships in the world's oceans be, if not for the presence and operations of the U.S. Navy or the presence in Europe and abilities of U.S. ground forces? "Showing the flag" is a deterrent to, for example, Putin increasing Russia's "land grab" of a portion of Ukraine the size of the state of Texas.

Would Germany be an independent, reunited, economic power house? What level of independence would be experienced today in Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, and other former captive countries of the former Soviet Bloc?

The U.S. is unique and is burdened by the national debt rung up partially from the cost of offsetting the declining commitment of the UK's Commonwealth and Japan and Germany to commit the funding required to adequately defend themselves.

Less than 40 years ago, PM Thatcher was able to order a sizable force to cross the Atlantic to retake the Falkland Islands from Argentina.
Would you really prefer to state, in the same week China's Xi broke the 1997 Hong Kong treaty with the UK and Putin set himself up as president of Russia until 2036, for the U.S. to reduce its militarism more to a level of your liking? Turn your criticism to aggressor countries with territorial grabbing ambitions, such as Israel.

The U.S. electorate certainly must be manipulated to continue to weigh down its grandchildren with heavy debt burden. I don't recall Obama hyper-militarizing domestic holidays or response to protestors in the manner recently perfected by Benedict Bonespurs.

You would get more use out of NATO and other alliances if you would consent to allow their commanders to occasionally order US troops. Instead you want the US to always be in charge of those alliances, and thus you defiantly go your own way on many things. Your choice; not something other countries are forcing you to do.

[Gerry Down]

I don't recall Obama hyper-militarizing domestic holidays or response to protestors in the manner recently perfected by Benedict Bonespurs.

I dont recall Obama ending racism either. Probably why Obama was so quiet during the George Floyd situation - he has no solutions to offer.

[Jerry Organ]

"American heroes defeated the Nazis ... dethroned the Fascists ... toppled the Communists."
        -- Donald Trump, at the White House today.

Nobody else had anything to do with it. 

[Gerry Down]

"American heroes defeated the Nazis ... dethroned the Fascists ... toppled the Communists."
        -- Donald Trump, at the White House today.

Nobody else had anything to do with it. 

Europe was losing the war before America got involved.

[Paul May]

What's this fixation your ridiculous country has for the military, flag-waving and self-aggrandizement?

Ridiculous country? My guess is at some point in history our military likely saved your ass. What third world country do you inhabit?

[Colin Crow]

JFK was largely a do nothing president.  His primary attribute in history was that he took a good picture. He felt inconvenienced by the civil rights movement.  In terms of his character, he was a serial adulterer including using his position to take advantage of young girls, he lied about his numerous medical conditions during the 1960 campaign including having his doctor file false reports, he took a laundry list of drugs including an anti-psychotic mediation that would have disqualified him from the presidency. Jackie was so concerned about their impact on him that she inquired about it.  Imagine if Trump were on such medications during a nuclear crisis like JFK faced in Cuba? He knowingly lied about a "missile gap" with Russia during the campaign.  A claim he knew Nixon could not rebut because the information was classified.  He used his father's influence to avoid a court martial for failing to maintain a proper watch in a combat zone which resulted in a large Japanese destroyer being able to ram and sink his small, mobile PT boat resulting in deaths among his crew.  A legacy of corruption and mostly do nothing results.  LBJ accomplished more in his first hundred days as president than JFK did in his entire lifetime.

And yet no praise for Oswald either?