HARRY AND BESS
BUZZ NOTE: This was an email sent to me by my brother, which he had received from someone else, so no author can be identified, nor URL determined.
Harry & Bess
Harry Truman was a different kind of President He probably made as many, or more important decisions regarding our nation's history as any of the other 42 Presidents preceding him. However, a measure of his greatness may rest on what he did after he left the White House.
The only asset he had when he died was the house he lived in, which was in Independence Missouri. His wife had inherited the house from her mother and father and other than their years in the White House, they lived their entire lives there.
When he retired from office in 1952 his income was a U.S. Army pension reported to have been $13,507.72 a year. Congress, noting that he was paying for his stamps and personally licking them, granted him an 'allowance' and, later, a retroactive pension of $25,000 per year.
After President Eisenhower was inaugurated, Harry and Bess drove home to Missouri by themselves. There was no Secret Service following them.
When offered corporate positions at large salaries, he declined, stating, "You don't want me. You want the office of the President, and that doesn't belong to me. It belongs to the American people and it's not for sale."
Even later, on May 6, 1971, when Congress was preparing to award him the Medal of Honor on his 87th birthday, he refused to accept it, writing, "I don't consider that I have done anything which should be the reason for any award, Congressional or otherwise."
As president he paid for all of his own travel expenses and food.
Modern politicians have found a new level of success in cashing in on the Presidency, resulting in untold wealth. Today, many in Congress also have found a way to become quite wealthy while enjoying the fruits of their offices. Political offices are now for sale.
Good old Harry Truman was correct when he observed, "My choices in life were either to be a piano player in a whore house or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference!
I say dig him up and clone him!
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Those were the days. I want to be back to those days.
The Bucks Stops Here. Harry Truman.
That sure is different from "Blame anyone but me, especially blame China". That xenophobic hate-mongering P.O.S. Trump used the words "China plague" on the first debate. I sure feel sorry for the Asian-Americans.
There is a vast difference between the CCP and innocent Asians, Buzz, and millions of people know this.
No one, not even Trump, has ever blamed innocent Asians for the CCP's deliberate Covid-19 global pandemic.
United States
Anti-Asian incidents have continued in the US since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, with numerous media reports in February and March about attacks and discrimination linked to Covid-19. By late April, a coalition of Asian-American groups that had created a reporting center called STOP AAPI HATE said it had received almost 1,500 reports of incidents of racism , hate speech, discrimination, and physical attacks against Asians and Asian-Americans.
In one typical incident, a Chinese-American reported “I was on the phone with my mom speaking in Mandarin when a woman walked by and yelled ‘get this corona virus chink away from me,’ directed at me.”
At least 125 of the incidents reported were physical attacks. Among the reported incidents: “A truck drove by and threw a [fast food franchise] drink on my back and yelled ‘Hey chink, you’re fucking nasty.’” In another, an Asian-American waiting for a bus said a man:
The group also reported hundreds of cases in which Asian-Americans were harassed in public or barred from businesses or transportation, yelled at in supermarkets, accused of “bringing coronavirus” to the US, or refused transport in car services like Uber or Lyft.
On May 4, the Anti-Defamation League released a list of near-daily incidents of racist attacks and cases of harassment from January through early May. For instance, on May 3, a stranger shouted at an Asian man on the New York subway “You’re infected China boy, you need to get off the train” and then attempted to pull the man out of his seat.
From March through early May, there were numerous public reports of violent physical attacks on Asian Americans including in California , Minnesota , New York , and Texas . NextShark, a website focused on Asian-American news, only received a few messages per day before the pandemic about cases involving anti-Asian bias; now it receives dozens.
Senior members of several Asian-American and other nongovernmental organizations have told Human Rights Watch that many members of the Asian-American community they work with have experienced abuse or harassment, or know someone who has.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other federal agencies have not taken any specific actions to address the rise in racist attacks and discrimination, although several state and local governments have set up hotlines and directed authorities to investigate cases of attacks or discrimination.
Who said he blamed them? What he did with his xenophobic racist comments (after the whole world had been warned that use of geographic names to describe such viruses would cause innocent people harm) was CAUSE the harrassment and attacks on ANYONE who looked Chinese. "China virus", "Wuhan virus", Kung flu", Chinese plague", "China plague" - he has said them all. I cannot believe you are defending him when he and his administration, like Pompeo, are so CLEARLY hate-mongering - right up to and including in the debate itself.
In comment 2.1.1 , I didn't defend Trump; I merely stated that there's a difference between the CCP and innocent Chinese people.
Sure, he didn't blame the Chinese people, but whoever said that is DEFENDING him. His exonophic hatemongering language cast the APPEARANCE of blame causing the harrassment and attacks on Asian-Americans.
I read that he was a financial failure prior to winning the presidency. Once he won he doubled the the salary of the office.
“Harry S. Truman worked a number of odd jobs in his early life. Truman, who did not attend college, started out working on his family farm before going out to work at a railroad construction company and then a bank. He did not find his passion for politics until he returned from service in the National Guard during World War I. Truman's failed attempt at running a hat shop left him deeply in debt. He later used the contacts he made in the military to launch his career in politics, but his finances were in such poor shape, the presidential salary was doubled while he was in office.”
So what's your point? Oh, of course, he was a DEMOCRAT!!!
I hadn't though about that but you make a good point the guy couldn't even run a hat shop.
He didn't, like our current president, declare BK four times and was never sued nor did he have to pay millions to satisfy his con job business (Trump University)
Oh, and unlike the current bone spur president, he was a soldier and fought in WWI.
Gee, a president that didn't screw people, actually served defending our country and, gasp, integrated the military, and made some of the most difficult decision any president has ever had to make.
Trump would call him a loser and sucker, mainly because Trump has never accomplished anything remotely close to what Truman did.
Yes - a number of businesses failed in the 1921 recession. But unlike Trump, he did not stiff those to whom he owed money. It took him more that 15 years but he bit by bit paid back his creditors.
So I guess Trump has one thing in common with Truman.
At least Truman well earned what he made in office and took responsibility as a President should instead of passing the buck off to anything or anyone convenient enough to throw under the bus.
I read a book a long time ago by a Chief Protocol Officer or something about his days in the White House. It was called "Upstairs at the White House"
Anyway the book followed this man's years at the WH from the end of the Hoover Presidency to the Nixon years before Watergate. He talked fondly of all the Presidents except for Hoover. I think he was especially fond of Bess Truman because she refused to sleep anywhere else but with her husband.
I came away from that book with a new look on the Truman years and Truman became one of my heroes
Has a Mark Twain ring to it.
Just a question of curiosity. How could there have been 42 presidents preceding Truman when he was the 33rd POTUS?
It was probably a typo - on the original email I got, which I simply copied and pasted and did not check for errors.
I see. Thanks!