Kennedy and the moon landing
On July 16, I heard a local radio talk show host expressing a desperate need in our country for real, effective leadership. As an example of what a real national leader is, he pointed to John F. Kennedy. JFK’s efforts, he said, provided the major impetus for achieving a successful manned flight to the lunar surface in 1969. That claim is historically wobbly.
Yes, Kennedy offered his famous moon challenge in the early days of his presidency. Yes, he even went to Congress in May, 1961, asking for funds to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. But scarcely two years later, Sept. 18 1963, he was on the phone with chief NASA administrator, James Webb, expressing doubts about the proposed manned lunar project. It was getting pretty expensive, he thought. Did they have to make it a manned mission? Couldn’t they just do it with “instruments” without human involvement? Obviously, Kennedy’s enthusiasm had waned.
Two days later at the United Nations, Kennedy tried to interest the Soviets in a joint mission to the moon. Krushchev said no thanks. He had his own space program woes to manage. The president realized, then, that the U.S. must go it alone. But two months thereafter, in November, Kennedy was dead. Though NASA chief Webb stayed on in the face of growing, seemingly insurmountable problems, he himself retired in 1968, a year before, allegedly, Apollo 11 even got off the ground.
I think Kennedy is the best president this nation has had in my lifetime, but not for his leadership role in promoting the Apollo space program. In that regard, he failed woefully, as did NASA.
NASA officials tacitly admit 200 billion taxpayer dollars later, that we never went to the moon. They’ve first got to get through a dangerous, earth-enveloping region of high radiation called the Van Allen belts; and they haven’t been able to achieve that yet. That doesn’t look good, does it?
Timothy Moore
Potlatch
The risk of voter fraud
The “2000 Mules” documentary portrayed solid research about the 2020 election. And the findings of fraud were only studied in parts of the swing states!
It is hard to believe that this could be done in the U.S., but the evidence needs to be investigated. Many who don’t care about fair elections are refusing to investigate. Soon Truethevote will make all the data they have open to the public, so anyone who wants to can check it. This also will include documents of how some people have worked overtime to obstruct the truth from getting out.
Inflated voter registration rolls are a huge risk for ballot fraud. Many states purposely don’t keep the rolls up to date. Apparently, they prefer to have fraud going on. Judicial Watch sued New York City for illegally refusing to clean invalid names off its voter roles after it had cleared only 22 names in six years. This city has more than 5.5 million voters. Los Angeles was successfully sued a while back for a very similar situation. Leftists are doing all they can to increase mail-in voting and ballot drop boxes. Biden’s administration recently sued a state that was making a law to allow checking whether someone was an illegal alien.
Leftist run the “National Vote at Home Institute.”
Lois Johnston
Moscow
Democracy under threat
Democracy is almost dead. Proof? Republicans’ embarrassing belief that democracy means arming teenagers and other crazed maniacs with AR-15s. More proof? Conservative, spiteful cowards said, “f-you” to veterans who contracted cancer from breathing toxic fumes. Though still crazy, Republican senators found a tiny shard of decency and passed the veterans measure Tuesday.
The Electoral College has been killing democracy for years. Republicans’ only path to victory is keeping this antiquated system in place.
Texas voter district maps show the reality of killing democracy through gerrymandering. To win, conservatives need only stand silently.
The U. S. Supreme Court has three new members who ruled constitutional precedents are for honest judges, though “Justice” Ginny Thomas helped kill precedent. Fortunately, sane conservative women joined democrats in Kansas yesterday, showing justices how to protect it.
Our “democratic” health care system forces people into bankruptcy. Minimum wage workers aside, people earning $30/hour or more struggle making medical payments.
Trump sees the presidency as a prosecutorial shield for his crimes. He continues whining about 2020 and has no motivation or plan to help Americans or offer any societal improvements.
Axios reports Trump does have one plan. Called schedule F. It says, if reelected, he would fire thousands of government employees and install his “people.”
In the upcoming election, Democrats are alone in support of democracy. Republicans reject it.
Even though this opinion is critical of Republicans, Democrats, historically, are nearly as irresponsible as conservatives.
Jim Roach
Moscow
