ONE OF THE SADDEST DAYS IN AMERICAN HISTORY

It was Camelot! America had a young President and wife. Two very young children. The whole world was excited!

The man, John Kennedy.

Unfortunately on this day in 1963, John Kennedy was assassinated. Shot while in Dallas.

There is a saying to the effect that people remember where they were on a day when something of importance occurred.

I recall where I was the day Kennedy died.

I was a young lawyer. Twenty eight. The building where my office was located had a small cafeteria on the second floor. I stopped in for a cup of coffee.

Bill Goldbas came in at the same time. An elderly respected attorney. Somewhere in his 80’s. We sat together.

All of a sudden the radio announced Kennedy had been shot and was dead. Tears came to my eyes. Bill bawled like a baby.

As I recall the occasion even now, the tears return.

The U.S. lost a lot that day. Many wonder what the future of our country would have been had he lived.

Camelot died that day also. Kennedy was special.

The northeast enjoyed a special event last night. The Northern Lights. Something like 100 meteors flashing through the sky at roughly the same time.

Their path was to take them over Massachusetts. Sue lives on Cape Cod. She was able to watch. From 11 to 11:50.

Sue described the celestial show as “amazing!”

She e-mailed, “I saw 6 meteors in the sky.  At first glows they looked like the line that an airplane would make in the sky. Then they became brighter lines. A few of them seemed to sparkle. One meteor looked like it glowed red light. It was so calm and cold outside it was an amazing sight. I was watching something I had never seen before. I really enjoyed it. It wasn’t anything I could photograph it was too far away but clear at the same time.”

The House Intelligence Committee public hearings re Impeachment have concluded.

I was very impressed by most of the witnesses. The two that stood out without question were women. Don’t know if gender had anything to do with it. It was probably that they were honest, humble, knowledgeable, and did not take any abuse.

The ladies Fiona Hill and Marie Yavanovitch.

I repeat what I wrote yesterday. These 2 ladies as well as most of the other witnesses were civil servants or support staff to persons high in office.

Their honesty alone was compelling. so different from other witness that we have observed for years who generally were top level government officials. They came across as bullshitters. You had the feeling they could not be trusted.

The ladies were to the contrary. People such as they should sit in the highest levels of government rather than the hacks politically appointed.

Netanyahu faces indictment. Good!

He led Israel for 10 years. At the beginning, he was a shining light. A leader to be trusted, to be followed.

The longer he held office however, the more tyrannical he became. A bully, a know it all, pushed everyone around including leaders of other countries, a warmonger. Today, he and Trump are birds of a feather.

I don’t care how much Trump and the bankers tell us the economy is good because the stock market is high. They are not to be believed.

Many continue to suffer economically.

A most recent example is an article concerning “personal loans.”

More people are borrowing on a personal basis than ever before. Especially in the past year. Personal loans are up 10 percent.

Personal loans are in effect “quick cash.” Records indicate people are borrowing for a vacation or to pay off credit card debt.

Economists claim such borrowing is potentially a red flag for the economy.

The average personal debt is $16,259. Comparable to credit card debt. The figure up 10 percent from last year.

There is an old adage in banking…..If it’s growing like a weed, it probably is a weed.

The message to the effect that things may not be as good economically as they appear.

I continue to believe a recession is in the making. There is too much instability in the world. Much initiated/caused by Trump.

Measles were a calamity last year in the U.S. A major calamity this year in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Five thousand have died in a recent outbreak. The World Health Organization says the Congo measles problem is the “world’s largest and fastest growing epidemic.”

The Congo has already vaccinated 4 million on an emergency basis. Less than one half the population. One problem is not enough vaccine is available.

When a basketball game results in a very low score, it generally means the game was a defensive one. Especially in pro and college ball.

On this day in 1956, 2 professional teams played. The Fort Wayne Pistons and Minnesota Lakers. Fort Wayne won 19-18. A very low scoring game even for 1956.

The score I believe is the lowest NBA score ever.

The world never changes. A happening/a problem one day can still exist or return many years later.

An example involves the “Jewish State in Palestine.” In 1818, Russia’s Tsar Alexander I petitioned for a Jewish state in Palestine.

In 1906, China prohibited “opium treaties.”

Wars are costly. The U.S. has been in a “Forever War” since 9/11. The U.S. has constantly been involved militarily in several places at one time.

The cost to the U.S. for its forever war involvement has been $6.4 trillion.

A tidy sum.

Money spent on wars is money not spent on other national needs.

Two years ago, China’s President Xi said the U.S. was behind in 2 matters because of its indiscriminate involvement in wars.

One, is in improving its military. True. Trump has been trying to do so. He has accomplished some. However, he doesn’t always leave the money in the military budget. He “borrows” military dollars to pay for his wall.

The other is infrastructure. Even China is aware that our roads, transportation, schools, etc., are in desperate need of updating. Infrastructure has been forgotten in order to finance other items.

What did U.S. dollars “buy” in the Forever War? Eight hundred one thousand killed. Included in that number 335,000 civilians.

Enjoy your day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10 comments on “ONE OF THE SADDEST DAYS IN AMERICAN HISTORY

  1. The economy can appear OK, if you ignore debt, or looking at it another way, if the economy is supported with debt, personal debt as in loans, or government debt as in subsidies like this government is doing as never before (vastly underwriting agriculture, subsidising oil, funding infrastructure, funding war production, etc.). There are all kinds of red flags indicating this is exactly what’s going on. It’s a con, by a very clever man in the oval office that we will all be paying for, for many years to come.

    • That was Joe the father (sins of the father?) and it was Prohibition crime. If you want to talk real crime, let’s talk about what Trump himself, separate from HIS father’s crimes, has done and is doing. One only needs to examine the Trump helicopter manifests between NYC and his gambling casinos in Atlantic City to put him way ahead of the Kennedys. Thanks for bringing this up for discussion.

  2. On Nov 22, 1963 I was in the 4th period marching band. marching down the street of a nearby neighborhood… practicing for a parade. We were marching along playing some kind of music when a woman came running out of her house. We kept marching and playing while the woman spoke to the Drum Major.

    The Drum Major stopped us right in the middle of the music. I’ll never forget his words. He told us, “Turn around and walk slowly back to school… President Kennedy has been killed.

    For me, that was “the day the music died.”

    Kokomo Man

    • Your comprehension on this subject, like so many others, is very poor. White house sexcapades, are neither, impeachable nor legal crimes. Using campaign funds to cover them up, is however both impeachable and legally a crime. Kennedy however, did not do that.

  3. To further his election chances, Trump is chipping away at the tools that the Fed needs to control any possible inflation, that is the interest rate. He wants to give the citizens a financial “sugar high” by giving them free money.

    • Trump wants to mitigate the cost of his adjustable rate debt, nothing more. Being an opportunist and a criminal type often go together and for one purpose only.

  4. When I got home from my new and first real job my Boston born, granddaughter Irish immigrants wanted to buy a TV to watch the news as there would be no work for the next few days. We walked one block to a small TV and Radio store-there no big box stores at that time. The owner of the store offered us “time payments” we paid cash. The next day we went back to the store, got our cash back and joined the “time payment” club. Oswald or the Mob got us hooked
    on credit. And the street in front of the apt. still gets flooded on full moons as it did then.

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