Would The World Be A Better Place If Kennedy Have Lived To Serve A Second Term?

 

Brent Cooper

Trial and appellate counsel for Cooper & Scully (1993–present)July 9

Would the world be a better place if JFK had lived to serve another term as president?

There are some assumptions in your question. That if he lived he would be re-elected. JFK was in Dallas because he desperately needed Texas to be re-elected. His approval rating had fallen steadily, though still above 50%.

What do we know would have happened in a second term? Kennedy had told advisors privately he wanted out of Vietnam. Could he have done it. The president of South Vietnam was assassinated a couple of weeks before JFK. Would Kennedy have had to have been able to withdraw from Vietnam without appearing soft on Communism? If he was in his second and last term he may not care. That is the reason he took no action in his first term. So there was a good probably would get out of Vietnam. So when LBJ took over he faced the same issue JFK faced. He was a first term president looking to be re-elected and was hamstrung on the Vietnam war as Kennedy was. What was really needed was s second term President who did not care about being re-elected.

Who would be his VP? There is discussion among the conspiracy group that he was going to drop LBf in 1964. They argue that was a motive for LBJ’s alleged involvement in the assassination. But go back to the first paragraph. If Kennedy desperately needed Texas, dropping LBJ would doom his chances of re-election. LBJ still had lot of clout, particularly in Texas. He was vindictive enough to scuttle Kennedy’s chances of re-election. Kennedy knew this. LBJ would be the VP.

What about Civil Rights? Most historians believe Kennedy could not have gotten the Civil Rights bills through Congress. Read the fourth volume of Caro’s biography of LBJ. LBJ was able to do it because of two reason. JFK’s death. And superior legislative skills. If LBJ had been VP and not President, I am not sure he gets it done. So passage of the Civil Rights Bills are delayed.

The Space Race would continue. The country was behind it. But Kennedy’s death gave added emphasis to it. Would Kennedy have been able to get the funding needed to land on the moon by the end of the decade? Probably not. We would still have the Space race but would not land a man on the moon and bring him back by 1969.

But would the world be a better place if Kennedy were re-elected? I think so. I think the dynamics brought by LBJ contributed to the problem. LBJ did not have the relationship with the press JFK did. The Vietnam War would have ended. The draft would have ended. I do think the Civil Rights bills would have been delayed. But, the country and the world would have been a better place under Kennedy than LBJ.

Bhutan Has A 90% Vaccination Rate

 

BHUTAN

The Stars Aligned

The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan has vaccinated 90 percent of its eligible population within a week in what has been considered one of the world’s fastest and most effective vaccination campaigns against the coronavirus pandemic, the Washington Post reported.

The country’s foreign ministry said it managed to fully inoculate its eligible population with a second dose from July 20 to July 26 with the help of more than 4,800 health workers.

The successful campaign is a remarkable feat for the mountainous country wedged between India and China. Before the pandemic, the country only had 37 doctors and many rural areas were nearly inaccessible.

Bhutan’s efforts included the use of a wide network of health workers and more than 2,000 volunteers known as “desuung,” or the Guardians of the Peace, who operate under the authority of King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck. Authorities, including the king himself, also took a proactive stance to fight vaccine hesitancy and misinformation. Some healthcare workers trekked hours in the Himalayas to reach nomadic herders.

The country first received its large shipment of coronavirus vaccines in January. The start date of the campaign was selected through astrological consultations with Buddhist monks.

When the campaign began on March 26, more than 93 percent of eligible adults received the first dose in less than two weeks.

With a population of nearly 800,000, Bhutan has reported 2,501 confirmed cases and two deaths.

The success story contrasts with Bhutan’s neighbors India and Bangladesh, which are currently struggling with surges of the Delta variant and low vaccination rates.

What Do You Give To The Man Who Has Everything?

 

     People in the space business are familiar with a 65-year-old man named Andrew L. Chaikan. He graduated from the Ivy League Brown University with a BS in Geology. He got lucky and picked up a NASA internship. He was assigned to work on the Viking 1 and Viking 2 landers that went to Mars. He fell in love with space! His logical progression would have been a Ph.D. in Geology. He would have become a planetary scientist.

   Andrew decided on a different course in life. He decided to become a space historian. He picked up some powerful allies and supporters along the way including the actor Tom Hanks. The 13-part miniseries From The Earth To The Moon was his creation. He has written numerous books on space. One incredible book was brought to my attention thanks to The Planetary Society.

         NASA and the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum have hundreds of thousands of photos taken during the time of the Apollo missions. Many photos were deteriorating and in a rough state. Andrew got approval to take all these photos and carefully process them using LightRoom and PhotoShop. His goal was to create a historical record that would remain long after we are gone. Elena works for hours each day on her photos of the last 20 years. I understand what Andrew went through. It truly was "a labor of love."

    The result of all this hard work and devotion is a two-volume book set titled: A Man on the Moon.

 

https://www.foliosociety.com/usa/a-man-on-the-moon.html?gclid=CjwKCAjwo4mIBhBsEiwAKgzXOM0NizCXfw9A2-Wm5_G7feSSNLWuddkXETLqo5-ZftadV6IpzEXPgRoCb4EQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

      You cannot find this on Amazon. One specialist publisher of high-end books sells it-The Folio Society.

    I chose this as my birthday gift from all of you! ("What do you give to the man who has everything?)

 

"The Cheaper The Wedding...The Longer The Marriage

 

     Let's have some fun with numbers today. Every four years the World Cup is played. Every four years the Financial Times of London assembles a team of brilliant statisticians and mathematicians. They rent time on the best supercomputer available. The goal is to predict the winner of the World Cup. They come close but never get it right.

        The distinguished media and financial services company Bloomberg has waded into the numbers game. They have analyzed a large amount of data on marriages, divorces, and the cost of the wedding. They came up with an astounding conclusion as follows:

 

"The cheaper the wedding, the longer the marriage."

       

      The total cost of my wedding to Elena in February of 2001 was as follows:

Contribution to Cross Roads Bible Church: $200.00

Webvan for wedding treats:                          $ 50.00

     Pastor Samuel Nandakumar presided at the wedding. Two of our readers were there-Joao and Djenane Santos. My platonic roommate Jacqui Kwon was there. (She has since returned to South Korea.) I got the feeling that no one there thought that the union would last that long.

     Sadly, I have been to the weddings of several dear friends. They were elaborate and expensive events. Those unions did not last. There may be something to what Bloomberg said.

 

If Nixon Had Won In 1960 And Kennedy In 1968?

 

Brent Cooper

Trial and appellate counsel for Cooper & Scully (1993–present)July 8

How would history have changed if Nixon had been elected in 1960, and JFK was elected in 1968?

This is a great “what if” question! What a difference it would have made for both if the order of their election had been reversed. Nixon was superb at foreign affairs. He would have ended our involvement in Vietnam. He would have entertained resuming relations with China. He would have used China as a check on the Soviet Union.’

If Nixon were elected on 1960 there would have been no Watergate, resignation and ignominy that followed. Nixon’s legacy would have been bright and he would have been considered one of the better Presidents of the 20th Century.

With no Vietnam, no Chicago riots. But by 1968 the Republicans would have been in the White House for 16 years and the public would have been ready for a change. Kennedy would have been older and wiser. The one question is would he still be married. If divorced his chances of being elected would be diminished.

If JFK lost in 1960, he would not have been assassinated. Bobby would not have been assassinated. Bobby would still be available to run the campaign and prepare himself to run after JFK stepped down.

JFK would have faced the issues presented by OPEC and oil shortages. JFK was very pragmatic and would have explored other sources of oil and expanded domestic drilling, opened more federal land to drilling and provided more incentives for drilling. There would have been no Vietnam war to end as Nixon did.

It should be noted that JFK and Nixon were good friends and would have no doubt supported and give advice to each other.

In many ways both Nixon and JFK would have been better off if Nixon had won in 1960 and JFK had won in 1968.

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Anti Vaccination Protests In France

 

FRANCE

The Haves and Have-nots

France’s upper house of parliament partially approved a bill that would require mandatory coronavirus vaccinations for certain professions and access to cultural and leisure venues in spite of ongoing mass protests against the proposed restrictions, Politico reported Sunday.

Lawmakers approved the draft law but introduced changes that would exempt minors and exclude restaurants and café terraces from requiring the new “passe sanitaire.” They also want the rules postponed by a month to September.

The legislation now needs final approval from the lower house of parliament.

The vote came as more than 160,000 people protested across France against the proposed rules, calling them a “sanitary dictatorship” and saying they violate individual liberty.

The country has been gripped by demonstrations over pandemic restrictions, which have attracted large crowds despite the summer vacation. In response, officials have offered some concessions including lowering fines for noncompliance and changing rules for shopping malls in a bid to curb the unrest.

Debates and protests over vaccine passes have also become prevalent across other European countries as they fight against rising infections.

In Germany, the topic has remained particularly divisive: Chancellor Angela Merkel is proposing rules that would limit the movement of unvaccinated people, for example barring them from restaurants, movie theaters and other venues.

Opposition politicians have criticized the proposals.

Last week, Italy introduced a “green pass” proof-of-vaccination system to grant access to certain leisure activities and restaurant dining.

DI

Last Week Of July: What To Expect From SPCE Stock [Virgin Galactic Stock...

An Excellent Essay On Democracy

 

A Question of Timing

by Jeff Thomas

France, 1788.    Russia, 1916.    Germany, 1937.

These dates have something in common. In France in 1788, political conditions had been getting questionable, but there was no apparent need to panic. That came the following year, with the sudden outbreak of the French Revolution. From that point on, it was dangerous even to go out in the streets of Paris. So many people had become enraged, that even if you were not a member of the aristocracy, you could easily become collateral damage.

And so, it would have been wise if, in 1788, you had decided to pack your bags and remove yourself from the epicentre of what was developing.

Similarly, in 1916, Russia was at war with the Germans, and the populace was becoming increasingly vocal about the state of the economy. Yet, even the czar believed that the people simply had to accept the situation and muddle through.

A year later, soldiers were deserting, a host of political wannabes were vying for power and anyone who simply wanted to be left alone to run his own life was now afraid to go out on the streets.

And of course, in Germany, prior to Kristallnacht in November of 1938, all the warnings were there that the country was beginning to unravel, but virtually everyone assumed that, somehow, things would be all right.

A year later, Germany was at war with five nations and had invaded three others. People were being rounded up, imprisoned and/or shot. Those who sought to get out of Germany found that they were no longer allowed to do so.

And history is full of similar cases. In hindsight, the warning signs have always been there: an increasingly autocratic government, increasingly volatile and irrational political struggles, mounting debt, increased taxation, a declining economy and the removal of basic freedoms "for the greater good."

In 1929, if you lived in the US, you might have just paid $2,735 for a new Packard Custom 8 Roadster – a means of showing off your recent gains in the stock market. A year later, you might well have offered it for sale for only $100, as, for all your previous price offers, there were no takers. And you, like they, had been wiped out in the crash, and $100 meant the difference between eating and not eating.

In 1958, you might have been enjoying a daiquiri at El Floridita in Havana and joking to friends about ‘las barbudas’ – the tiny rebel force hiding in the Sierra Madre. A year later, the joking had ended and private businesses like El Floridita had been nationalized by the new government.

For millennia, the playbook has been the same. Countries that had been wonderful to live in, began to deteriorate from within, and the great majority of residents had failed to read the tea leaves – the warning signs that, in the future, conditions were not going to get better; they were going to get worse.

But why should this be so?

Well, in 1787, in the midst of the Scottish Enlightenment that gave rise to Adam Smith, economist and historian Alexander Tytler is credited as having said:

A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.

He further noted that the latter stages of any such decline are marked, first, by complacency, then by apathy. The final stage is invariably one of bondage.

In some cases of collapse, the country is taken over by an outside force, but invariably, as stated above, the rot always starts from within. It’s simply human nature for the majority of any population, when passing through challenging times, to fall prey to promises that, somehow, a change in the form of government can and will result in the elimination of problematic conditions.

But how do those who make such claims sell their ideas? Do they suggest that everyone should work harder and practice a greater level of abnegation?

Well, no. Although such people may exist and may even become outspoken, they are, historically, never the individuals whom the majority of the population follow. Invariably, the majority (having become complacent and pathetic), choose those who promise to take from one group and share the spoils amongst those who are less productive.

A Weather Station For The House

 

     Those of you who know me well know that I was born on an island. At a very young age, I developed a profound love for the sea. When it came time for military service, I joined the US Navy while still in high school. I had a varied US Navy career including service on the destroyer USS Haynesworth (DD-700), a brief stint on the aircraft carrier USS Lexington (ATV-17), shore duty in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and another brief stint on motor patrol boat PCF-38.

    When you are on the ocean, weather literally becomes a matter of life and death. You are always observing temperature, rainfall, humidity and all the good things you get on the weather report on the evening news. On the ocean a cautious person should always be watching barometric pressure. If it drops dramatically, you are about to get hit with a storm or even a tsunami.

        As we were modernizing the deck above the house, I encountered a fascinating piece of equipment. It is the AcuRite 5-in-1 Professional Weather Station. Here are the details:

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CBFNG3P/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

       I loved the idea of having our own little weather station for the house. It was physically easy to set up. Getting all the software to work and the station to connect to the internet was a challenge. Yesterday afternoon I got it to work. Now I have a monitor right by my desk giving me real time weather data. I always keep my eye on barometric  pressure readings.

Solar Power In Australia

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_Australia

My Wild Ride To Solar Power

 

A huge infrastructure bill is getting ready to pass the US Senate and House of Representatives. A lot of money will be invested in our 50-60 year old obsolete power grid. Republicans and more centrist Democrats want this money invested through big power companies that produce and distribute the electricity. I see merit to this.

    Environmentalists and my progressive friends want a system whereby solar panels and wind turbines are put on individual homes, apartment buildings, office buildings, etc. This is a noble goal. It also has a lot of merit. Sadly, I suspect that it is based on the naive idea that all you have to do is slap some solar panels on the roof and start generating electricity.

     I am going to give you my personal experience with this whole endeavor. As they say in English, "you are in for the ride of your life!"

     Before I go any further, I want to heap praise on Peterson Light and Power, Occidental Power, and Dan Underhill Plumbing. These companies consistently performed beyond expectations!!!!!

    My dear readers, here are the costs of going solar as follows:

1) 150-amp power box: This is a custom job with a price tag of $10,000 US+. Literally the whole inside of your house has to be rewired.

2) Solar Panels: A highly-efficient and state of the art system will cost you $27,000 US. (Earlier bids had been in the $40,000 US range.)

3) We had the option of a SunRun battery to store power (roughly $20,000 US) or a Gnerac high-end generator powered by natural gas. The final costs of this system were $23,000 US.

4) Pacific Gas and Electric had to install a new heavy- duty transformer to support the power box and the solar power system. Fortunately, I did not have to pay for this expense. I can say that one Friday three giant trucks and six highly-skilled workers showed up at my house. The crew and trucks worked for a full day. My educated guess is an additional cost of $20,000 US.

        Now let us talk about the bureaucratic hurdles that had to be overcome. The generator, solar power system, and  PG and E work had to receive permits from the Pacifica Planning Commission. This was months of work and costs. Additional months of work were added by the Pacific Gas and Electric Company bureaucracy. We still may have another month of wait before PG and E turns on the system to its full production capacity.

      Finally, my life at home was not pleasant during this ordeal. My wife declined to invest any of her money in the project. She got frustrated with the bureaucracy and the endless delays. She felt that the money could be better invested by putting it in our non-profit foundation and giving grants to worthy people and organizations.

     Anyone contemplating solar had better be prepared for a rough ride. I am sure this applies in many different US states and foreign countries.

Why This One TWILIGHT ZONE EPISODE Was BANNED For 52 YEARS!

In Praise Of The Simple Things In Life

 

     Sometimes the simple things in life mean so much. Before the pandemic, I bought a beef roast. It sat in the freezer for over two years. As we worked long hours and had no time to cook, it was overlooked. Elena discovered it. She had to go to Google to find the best way to cook it. She wondered if it had been frozen too long. Would it be edible once cooked?

    What followed was a defrost and 12 hours in a slow cooker. Elena added seasonings and followed other instructions in the recipe. Last night, I was surprised with the result. I had a beautiful gourmet meal. It was tender roast beef with vegetables and mashed potatoes. Elena has meat left over to make a great roast beef sandwich.

319. Steph Cha

A Conversation with Author Michael Connelly

Michael Connelly and Titus Williver on "The Crossing" at the 2016 L.A. T...

Iceland's Succesful Experiment With A Shorter Work Week

 

ICELAND

No Harm, No Foul

Two trials of a four-day workweek in Iceland were hailed as a success, with researchers describing the study as a “blueprint” for future trials in other countries, according to CBS News.

The Association for Sustainable Democracy (Alda) in Iceland and the UK-based think tank, Autonomy, published a report of two large-scale trials that took place from 2015 to 2019.

The trials included 2,500 workers – roughly one percent of Iceland’s working-age population – and were run by the government and one of the country’s major trade union confederations, Euronews reported.

Workers that participated worked 35 to 36 hours per week and were paid the same in spite of working fewer hours, the study noted.

Researchers explained that that the trials were “an overwhelming success,” noting that a four-day workweek reduced the levels of stress and burnout among workers. They added that “productivity and service provision remained the same or improved across the majority of trial workplaces.”

The authors suggested that the Iceland trials prove that it is possible to work less in modern times.

“Our roadmap to a shorter working week in the public sector should be of interest to anyone who wishes to see working hours reduced,” said Gudmundur D. Haraldsson, a researcher at Alda.

The four-day working week has become a salient topic for many nations in recent years, particularly following the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

Currently, Spain is planning on conducting its own three-year trial later this year. The project will use €50 million from the EU’s coronavirus recovery fund to compensate 200 mid-size companies taking part.

NI

Dogs And Cats Suffered During The Covid-19 Pandemic

 

WORLD

Cats and Dogs

The experiences of our cats and dogs are windows into how humans suffered and endured during the coronavirus pandemic.

Cats had taken over an island near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, after their owners abandoned them due to coronavirus-related deaths or impoverishment, the Washington Post reported. Local officials are trying to figure out what to do with all the felines, who exist meagerly without a reliable freshwater source, yet have produced generations of feral offspring.

In India, shelters have reported a massive number of calls from people looking to find new homes for animals whose owners have died or are recovering and can’t care for their furry friends, wrote the Hindustan Times. The process of finding them new homes is traumatic for the owners and the animals, who must adapt to shelters and new owners as they’re processing their separation from their old homes.

For street animals, the situation is even more complicated. In a city like Istanbul, Turkey, whereas many as an estimated 600,000 stray cats and dogs live, the disappearance of tourists has been a disaster, explained National Geographic. Without garbage, handouts and other opportunities to scavenge, they go hungry.

As some people were throwing their animals away and some animals were eagerly awaiting the return of people, others were clamoring for so-called “pandemic pets” to help them weather hour after hour of tedious lockdowns in their homes. A Canadian writer living in Britain discovered that while she couldn’t fly home, she could import a corgi that a package handler could bring to her, for instance.

“Yes, it was possible to send a puppy across international borders, in the cargo hold of one of a now sparse number of transatlantic flights during a global pandemic that had restricted human movement,” she wrote in Fortune.

As the New York Times added, a cynically expected surge in animals being returned to shelters as the pandemic waned has so far not occurred, suggesting people would keep their new four-legged family members in times both good and bad. Veterinarians who spoke to the Philadelphia Inquirer said they were exhausted because, to them, it felt like the pet population has doubled in the US.

Unfortunately, if the coronavirus resurges around the world, these new owners and their pets might need to self-isolate from each other. As the Guardian noted, experts are suggesting that owners avoid their pets if they are infected with the coronavirus if they want to avoid spreading it to their animals.

The cats on the island might be the lucky ones.

WA

Canada's Sad History With Indigenous People

 

CANADA

‘Just Little Savages’

Canadian First Nation leaders found the remains of more than 200 former students – all Indigenous – at a school in British Columbia. A month later, they found another 200. And then there were those 750 unmarked graves near Marieval Indian Residential School discovered in the southeastern corner of Saskatchewan.

Canadians are reeling from the discovery of these graves dating from the mid-18th century to the mid-19th century – especially the Indigenous community.

“All we ask of all of you listening is that you stand by us as we heal and get stronger,” Cowessess First Nation Chief Cadmus Delorme said during a virtual press conference covered by the Washington Post. “We all must put down our ignorance and accidental racism of not addressing the truth that this country has with Indigenous people. We are not asking for pity but we are asking for understanding.”

As Al Jazeera explained, officials forced indigenous children to attend boarding schools to “assimilate” them into Canadian society. The Catholic Church operated these institutions from 1890 to 1970. The last school closed in 1996.

In an editorial that described the schools as “cultural genocide,” the Guardian asked if anyone could fathom the horror of the schools where school administrators appeared to dump the corpses of their charges without identifying them. More than 150,000 students were taken from their families and forced to endure forced separation and much, much worse.

“I was so scared all the time. I remember thinking, ‘don’t be noticed,’ because I saw what they did to the kids that were noticed,” a former student at Marieval told National Geographic, relating how she experienced physical, verbal and emotional abuse. “Whoever was killing them thought they were nothing … just little savages.”

Estimates put the number of deaths related to the schools at 15,000.

The impact of the discoveries has been far-reaching. Meanwhile, many Canadians questioned whether they should celebrate Canada Day on July 1 to mark the anniversary of the 1867 establishment of the Dominion of Canada, the New York Times reported. Many say the celebrations don’t feel right this year, given all the terrible news about the schools.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called on the church to address its role in the schools and apologize, ABC News wrote. Locals on First Nation lands have been torching Catholic churches in protest, too, as CNN reported. Pope Francis has agreed to come to Canada in December to address the issue.

The past can’t be ignored. Acknowledging it can create the space to learn, and heal.

W

Who Will Pay 136 Families FOr The Loss Of Their Condos In Sunrise, Florida?

       Elena is famous for asking brilliant questions about things no one else considered. Yesterday she focused on the collapse of the apartment building in Sunrise, Florida. She didn't discuss the loss of life. What she was curious about was who was going to pay the 136 families for the loss of their apartments.

     I could not come up with an immediate answer. I asked my excellent State Farm Agent Joline Banks.

 She said that the homeowner's association had to pay them for the loss of their units.

    I have had two awful experiences with homeowner's associations from 2001-2004 and from 2010-2017. There is one interesting feature that they offer. A property owner does not have to buy homeowner's insurance. The HOA provides this. I am going to assume that the Champlain Towers South Condo Association provided such homeowner's insurance. Those who survived the collapse of the tower and the heirs of those who did not survive should be able to get a payment (eventually) from the homeowner's insurance policy.

     The problem area is how the families of those killed will get compensation for the loss of their loved ones. The HOA has a $5 million liability policy. That will be exhausted quickly. Some of the apartments in that building were worth over $1 million US. Those who died were often affluent professionals. Payments for their loss could be quite high. Many families will come up short of what their court judgments are.

In Praise Of Herman Miller Desk Chairs

Those of us who spend much time at a desk find a desk chair a very important part of life. One of our readers, Dr. Pedro Peres, introduced me to a chair brand that I was unfamiliar with-Herman Miller, Inc of Zeeland, Michigan. He praised the quality. He warned me that they could be pricey. I did my own research and confirmed his initial observation. I opted for one of the less expensive models. (The top of the line was over $5,000 US) I waited with great expectations for over 2 weeks for its delivery. It arrived yesterday afternoon. The FedEx delivery man was able to carry it into the house by himself. When Elena and I took the chair outside the box, we made the following pleasant discoveries:

1) The chair is very light weight.

2) It comes assembled and ready to go to work.

3) It is comfortable beyond belief.

4)It has really rugged engineering and craftsmanship.

Donald Rumsfeld Owned A Slavery Torture House

 

Love him or hate him, Donald Rumsfeld has an incredible career that most of us could only dream of having as follows:

-US Navy fighter pilot

-Millionaire businessman who pioneered things as diverse as non-sugar sweeteners and flat-screen televisions.

-Confidant to four US presidents (Nixon, Ford, Bush 1 and Bush 2) He served as Chief of Staff in Gerald Ford's White House. He was a close friend of former Vice President Cheney.

-4 terms as a US congressman.

-2 terms under different presidents as Secretary of Defense.

      Mr. Rumsfeld passed away yesterday at age 88. One obscure aspect of his life caught my attention. Let us begin this story by going back to the days of slavery in the US. Frederick Douglas was an extraordinary man who went from slave to famous author. When he was a young slave, he was rebellious and defiant of his white masters. He was sent to a house on the Eastern Shore of Maryland for "reeducation." This house was known as "Mount Misery." While at "Mount Misery," Frederick Douglas was beaten and brutalized.

   When Donald Rumsfeld worked in Washington, DC, he looked for a weekend retreat. He had the money to buy literally anything that he wanted. He bought an estate on the Eastern Shore of Maryland near Chesapeake Bay. It was the notorious "Mount Misery."

       Rumsfeld knew the exact history of the house. When he moved in, he made no changes to it. Here is a fascinating article as follows:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/mount-misery-frederick-douglass-confronts-donald-rumsfeld

      If I had bought the estate, I would have built a new residence to live in. I would have left the old house standing and converted it into a museum about the brutality of slavery.