07-27-2017, 05:25 PM
I'm surprised that nobody discussed this here. I did in another forum:
President Trump spoke at a Boy Scout jamboree and brought up:
* His election win
* "Fake news"
* Yachts
* Cocktail Parties
* President Obama
To Boy Scouts
Not to mention he had them boo both Clinton and Obama.
But the Boy Scouts have traditionally been non-partisan. Most Boy Scouts are not going to participate in the next Presidential election because they are under 14. In accordance with long-standing policies of Scouting, Boy Scouts and Scouting activities are not to be used for partisan politics... Boy Scouts may participate in partisan politics, but they are not allowed to identify themselves in any way with the Boy Scouts of America.
John F. Kennedy, the closest analogue as an electoral winner, worked to bring Republicans to his side on issues instead of transforming them into pariahs. To get his pet agenda, including Civil Rights, he would need the support of Republicans. Kennedy started working on that. He did not put fault on Eisenhower (who was very dissimilar) as a 'failure'. He did not vilify Nixon.
But to paraphrase the late Lloyd Bentsen, Donald Trump is "no Jack Kennedy".
"Fake news"? It's up to the youth of America to develop the rational thought necessary for discerning objective reality from propaganda. People need to determine what to trust and what not to trust. That will require paying attention to civics... and taking demanding courses in high school. Of course that will help make today's youth anything but the 'low-information voters' that Donald Trump said that he appreciated.
"Yachts"? Material display and indulgence do not make a nation great. Those are drains on the capital for potential investment; besides, a craving for these indicates a soulless person. We need to make America good for people who will never set foot on a yacht. If you want to know what made America great -- it was the sort of person who threw himself onto a live grenade to save his buddies -- who may have lived to become such 'scum' as a preacher in the ghetto, the founder of a small business, a successful farmer who took over from his father, a high-school math teacher, a state trooper, a real-estate broker who made a subdivision possible, a banker who connected people with their dreams... and the usual mass of construction and assembly-line workers.
That is one of the most common descriptions of people who got Medals of Honor for "service beyond the call of duty" in World War II -- shielding their buddies lives from an exploding grenade at the cost of their lives. Many of those heroes who died so that their buddies would live were Boy Scouts in the 1930s. To be sure, I can't imagine FDR having told Boy Scouts to be bloodthirsty militarists intent on martyrdom... he did not need to.
I am sure that yachts are fun. But I prefer people who do not need them. If you ever saw The Wolf of Wall Street (which I saw onlya few noghts ago on cable TV)... I am glad that for all the hardships that I have known, the least of them was that I have never experienced whores, cocaine, quaaludes, or stripper parties.
Cocktail parties? Cocktail parties? Boy Scouts are typically much underage for participating in cocktail parties.
President Obama? Like him or not, he had his virtues.
But let's see how Donald Trump fits the Scout Law in the United States, one still in existence for 106 years:
A Scout is ....(pregnant pause).... trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.
How well that describes Donald Trump is for people other than me to contemplate.
President Trump spoke at a Boy Scout jamboree and brought up:
* His election win
* "Fake news"
* Yachts
* Cocktail Parties
* President Obama
To Boy Scouts
Not to mention he had them boo both Clinton and Obama.
But the Boy Scouts have traditionally been non-partisan. Most Boy Scouts are not going to participate in the next Presidential election because they are under 14. In accordance with long-standing policies of Scouting, Boy Scouts and Scouting activities are not to be used for partisan politics... Boy Scouts may participate in partisan politics, but they are not allowed to identify themselves in any way with the Boy Scouts of America.
John F. Kennedy, the closest analogue as an electoral winner, worked to bring Republicans to his side on issues instead of transforming them into pariahs. To get his pet agenda, including Civil Rights, he would need the support of Republicans. Kennedy started working on that. He did not put fault on Eisenhower (who was very dissimilar) as a 'failure'. He did not vilify Nixon.
But to paraphrase the late Lloyd Bentsen, Donald Trump is "no Jack Kennedy".
"Fake news"? It's up to the youth of America to develop the rational thought necessary for discerning objective reality from propaganda. People need to determine what to trust and what not to trust. That will require paying attention to civics... and taking demanding courses in high school. Of course that will help make today's youth anything but the 'low-information voters' that Donald Trump said that he appreciated.
"Yachts"? Material display and indulgence do not make a nation great. Those are drains on the capital for potential investment; besides, a craving for these indicates a soulless person. We need to make America good for people who will never set foot on a yacht. If you want to know what made America great -- it was the sort of person who threw himself onto a live grenade to save his buddies -- who may have lived to become such 'scum' as a preacher in the ghetto, the founder of a small business, a successful farmer who took over from his father, a high-school math teacher, a state trooper, a real-estate broker who made a subdivision possible, a banker who connected people with their dreams... and the usual mass of construction and assembly-line workers.
That is one of the most common descriptions of people who got Medals of Honor for "service beyond the call of duty" in World War II -- shielding their buddies lives from an exploding grenade at the cost of their lives. Many of those heroes who died so that their buddies would live were Boy Scouts in the 1930s. To be sure, I can't imagine FDR having told Boy Scouts to be bloodthirsty militarists intent on martyrdom... he did not need to.
I am sure that yachts are fun. But I prefer people who do not need them. If you ever saw The Wolf of Wall Street (which I saw onlya few noghts ago on cable TV)... I am glad that for all the hardships that I have known, the least of them was that I have never experienced whores, cocaine, quaaludes, or stripper parties.
Cocktail parties? Cocktail parties? Boy Scouts are typically much underage for participating in cocktail parties.
President Obama? Like him or not, he had his virtues.
But let's see how Donald Trump fits the Scout Law in the United States, one still in existence for 106 years:
A Scout is ....(pregnant pause).... trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.
How well that describes Donald Trump is for people other than me to contemplate.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.