John F. Kennedy Donated His Entire Presidential Salary to Charity

When JFK took office in 1961, he was the richest individual to hold the role. Kennedy was born into a wealthy family, and while he accepted the president’s annual $100,000 salary, he opted to donate those funds to charity rather than pocketing any for himself. Kennedy’s decision was reminiscent of a predecessor from several decades prior; Herbert Hoover was independently wealthy too, and decided to donate his presidential salary as well. After taking office on January 20, 1961, JFK’s prorated salary of $94,583.32 for the remaining year was dispersed among several charitable causes. Throughout Kennedy’s entire political career — a period that included six years as a congressman, eight years in the Senate, and an abbreviated term as president — he donatednearly $500,000 of his various government salaries to charity. Some of the charities he contributed to include the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America, the United Negro College Fund, and the Cuban Families Committee.

Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

The conventions are over and the candidates are named. The next event is supposed to be a debate of the Presidential candidates. Will it happen? It is looking more and more like it will not. Trump does not want the debate to take place on ABC because he cannot pick the moderators and he might have to tell the truth.
Should Harris change venues for him? Definitely not. He either shows up or he doesn’t but either way have it on ABC.She is so much more capable than he is. This is a time when there is no compromise .
Trump is getting support from Generation Z males as they look at him as a masculine example. This view has to be taken through the bottom of a beer mug so that the distortions are covering the true image. Maybe they want to be the next Ebstien or some such nonsense. The fact that he has the equipment of a male does not make him a man, especially a man to be looked up to.
Yes, social views of what men and women are today are very different from the days of John Wayne and everyone had a cigarette hanging from their lips. The tactic to success in the gender contest is to discover the weakness or lack of ability and then overcome it. For instance, most young women do not seem to know how to cook, and can’t even boil water without sourcing it. So learn to cook. Being a chef is not a talent for all but it is a very demanding and gender neutral career. Everyone likes to eat, so impress by feeding them.
Some of the other reasons that looking in the T direction for masculine inspiration is foolish is the fact that he always appears to be the victim of something. He needs lots of things but adoration has to be at the top of the list and you have to be very easily impressed to admire someone with 34 felony convictions and all the other legal baggage he has.
It has taken many years to get to where we are as a society. The goal for us all to thrive and succeed is to encourage and develop each individual’s potential. With dreams and ideas like going to Mars and beyond we cannot allow gender to identify or limit where answers to a sea of questions comes from. Intelligence is not an exclusive commodity given to only one sex or the other. Our history tried to force that view on society and it did not work.
Just how effective was the idea that women were all stupid and inept and yet the nation followed the dictates of a Queen? Many species have the oldest female as the leader. All of the writings of old put women in a subservient role and the male dominating it all. It would seem they took their example from the lion. All the males lay around and wait for the female to make a kill so they can eat. The male function was to look impressive and breed and not much else, sound familiar.
History shows the French Court has been made up of men dressed up like a peacock and doing little else beside showing off and breeding. No wonder they all lost their heads. Point being we need to celebrate and encourage all to be their best and to always be respectful of each other. As for how they act behind their bedroom doors is all up to them and whatever they agree on.
To advance we must evolve, that can cause problems. These changes are a continual thing within a vibrant society and rather than be intimidated or dominated by them, we must embrace the changes and move forward.

Dwain Northey (Gen X)

Now that the Democratic National Convention is over and Kamala Harris is officially our Nominee let’s talk about the Elephant in the room, (pun 100% intended).

The Convention this week was jubilant and joyful a stark contrast to the RNC and their tales of doom if they don’t retake the mantel, and honestly that is what Trumpublicans are most upset about, the shear amount of joy and determined optimism that was on display in Chicago this past week.

Fox (Faux) News talking heads are up in arms that Kamala during her acceptance of the Democratic Nomination was bracketed by the American Flag. They honestly believe that they alone are the only party to have ownership over our nations flag… they have some completely coopeted the symbol that many Democrats are unwilling to fly the flag. I served in the U.S. Army in the 1980’s and I for one am happy that we are taking back the symbol of our nation, let me be as honest as I can, I don’t believe that the flag belongs to either party, but I am tired of having my patriotism questioned because I don’t vote Republican.

Trump and his ilk are furious that the DNC has assumed the mantel of Family, Faith, and the Flag because they have beat the American public into believing that they represent these values. Donald never believed in anything other than himself, Family, 3x divorced, Faith, could not quote one passage of the book he held upside down in Lafayette Square, Flag, he likes to hump it put his face and name over it… never sacrificed or served to protect it.  

Our system was set up as a two-party system, but to be honest that isn’t what we have right now, the rot of Trumpism needs to be exorcised so a reasonable Republican party can contribute to the political discussion. Look at any elected government in the world, what we believe or what we are told is conservative is so far from reality it is unrecognizable. Religious zealots don’t represent Conservatives, refusing to take care of their people don’t represent Conservatives, putting 100% of your faith in one person does not represent Conservatives. The Party of Lincoln has been dead for a long time, the Party of Reagan (as broken as it was) is far left of this GOP, the Party of Trump needs to be ushered into the woodshed like Ol’ Yeller and put down.

Parts from the original Wright Flyer have been to space.

SCIENCE & INDUSTRY

On December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, aviators Orville and Wilbur Wright achieved the world’s first motor-powered airplane flight. On that historic flight, the Wright brothers’ aircraft, the Wright Flyer, reached an altitude of just 8 feet and traveled a distance of 120 feet. Little did anyone know that just 66 years later, parts of that very same plane would travel much higher and much farther — all the way to the moon.

When astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon on July 20, 1969, he brought with him two fragments from the original Wright Flyer: a 1.25-square-inch piece of muslin fabric cut from the aircraft’s left wing, and a piece of spruce wood taken from the left propeller. Armstrong carried the pieces inside his “personal preference kit,” a small bag of personal items that each of the Apollo 11 astronauts was allowed to bring with them into the lunar module for their journey. But Armstrong wasn’t content to simply treat the Wright Flyer artifacts as carry-on luggage — he placed the fabric and wood inside a pocket of his space suit and walked with them on the lunar surface. In this way, Armstrong was able to pay tribute to the Wright brothers, whose pioneering work ushered in the age of aviation that made the Apollo 11 mission possible.

Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

There is a rhyme that goes “We are what we eat, said a wise old man”. That is true and so unfortunately is the fact that we become what we are eaten by. The things I refer to are greed and envy. All the negative things that have for the last several years been spewing from the mouth of the former President.
His attitude is one of self superiority without room for anyone to share his ethereal plain. His hope to become a dictator or czar, or sultan, no doubt with a harem, is what keeps him trying to retake the Presidency. His mouth seems only capable of telling lies and his brain only productive in making up conspiracy theories or tales of how he has been mistreated.
All that has ever been served at his table has been greed and self pity. This does not make for a true or honorable person. Self service is not the attribute needed to be in any position that requires thinking of someone else.
At the present time we have assembled a goodly number of such individuals from across the nation and unfortunately they have been placed in every major component of our government. Representatives that never do anything except see what kind of bs they can try and pin on their fellow representatives that do not agree with them. Senators that do nothing and justices that ignore the law of the land, the Constitution, and use their religion as the basis for granting or taking away rights. Then some want to add the icing on the cake and put in an immoral aged felon that has no respect for anyone.
All of that is a formula for major failure of our great nation and it should not be tolerated. Put people in office that accept that they are there to serve not be served. Purge the courts and put rules in place that gives us, we the people, the right to either put the spurs to the food draggers or the pull the reins on the zealots.
It is well known that a committee seldom all agrees or a jury let alone the number of us in this nation. We need not all agree on everything but just because it may not be right for you does not mean that it is not right for someone else. As you would wish for others to allow you to make your decisions allows others to do the same.

Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

What a joke, Mitch warning about the democrats if they win all three. Well he has no room to talk as he has been doing all of this crap and then some. His party has stacked the Supreme Court, and he warns it is not Constitutional. Is worried that DC and PR will become states and that would mean more left wing democrats to get their way. The other concern is the elimination of the filibuster which has been a republican fall back forever.
All of these things may come to pass and then Congress can go back to doing the business of the nation, not just the rich and corrupt that has supported the republican party and Mitch for so long. The pot could not call the kettle anything but brother for all the years this rather belligerent individual has been sitting in the seat of power. Time to throw him back into the swamp along with a very large number of other never do nothings that have populated the House and Senate for years.
We do not need to go backwards to progress and all that think otherwise are living in a very fragile house. No doubt that we will hear the same crap from Trump especially if he loses again. It is not possible that people don’t love him or that his line of nonsense has grown old and tired like he has. He has set a record and it will be hard to beat that of the worst President ever elected.
So move forward and let us do things to improve our situation. One is to address the issue of global warming, and if that means reducing fossil fuel usage then that needs to happen. It turns a lot of things upside down but that industry once only made oil for lamps and gave gasoline away as there was no need. Move on to other sources of power.
Another fix that is needed is to purge the Supreme Court. Their leadership and focus is not on honoring the Constitution but to destroy it in favor of religious doctrine. The trouble with that doctrine is that it is based on the writings of a group of men with agendas that wished to give power to themselves and put others under them. Remember that a fairy tale begins with “Once Upon a Time” a war story with “You Aren’t Going to Believe This S— but it is True” and a myth begins with “In The Beginning”.
Radical ideas and ideals from either side of the pendulum swing are not where we need to be and they are dangerous to all of us. As much as some disagree, the middle of the road gives the most to the most and puts us on the right road forward.

Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

We are at a confused and dangerous time in our nation. We have a centralized government, Congress and the President and associated departments. Then we have 50 or 51 states and DC as well as the administrations running our protectorate areas, Puerto Rico, Guam etc.
Each seems to feel that they have the authority to write laws to suit the local ideas or wishes. This causes so very divergent situations in the law as practiced state to state as well as creating Havoc at the central government level.
Gun control has been addressed in a number of ways. One view is that weapons that are designed for war should not be in the hands of John Q Public. Others have the view that if you could afford it you could own a tank.
The attitudes are just as varied on abortion. One view is that it is a matter of women’s health and that she should have the last word in it. Others believe it is murder and that the person or persons involved should face the death penalty. This would extend to the taxi driver that took the woman to the airport, as well as the pilot that flew her out of state. To believe that level of effort should be taken to protect something that does not even have a heart beat is pretty extreme, not to mention stupid.
At the moment we are headed to an election that hopefully put this nation back on track to use logic and reason to solve problems. There is hope and good in the world. We just need to vote and make sure that the worst President we have ever had does not make it back into the White House.
We have put up with 9 long years of listening to the whining and bitching of a man that has never done anything in his life that could truly be called noble or worthwhile. He has been protected all of his life by money he did not earn and the foolish hope of many people that he will take and interest in them and help them out. He won’t, that is not in his nature nor in his plan. Everything is supposed to be about him and there is no place for others.

Dinosaurs were alive longer than they’ve been extinct.

SCIENCE & INDUSTRY

Dinosaurs have been extinct for 65 million years. That’s a long time, but not nearly as long as they were alive for: 165 million years. Their reign as the planet’s dominant species absolutely dwarfs our own, which began a few hundred thousand years ago, and accounts for just 0.007% of the Earth’s history — a blink of the cosmic eye. If you compressed the planet’s history into one calendar year, dinosaurs would have appeared on January 1 before going extinct in the third week of September; humans, meanwhile, wouldn’t have shown up until December 31.

Dinosaurs lived in the Mesozoic Era, which began 252 million years ago and was divided into three periods: Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous. Many of the most well-known species had already gone extinct by the time others appeared; for instance, more time separated Stegosaurus and Tyrannosaurus (80 million years) than separated the T. rex and humans. It wasn’t until 1677 that the first fossil was discovered, not that the man who came upon it had any way of knowing what it was — he thought the bone in question belonged to a giant.