JFK White House Tapes: Kennedy was concerned for young voters and pegged the 1-percent.

[Octafish]

JFK library releases last of his secret tapes

EXCERPT...

The latest batch of recordings captured meetings from the last three months of Kennedy's administration. In a conversation with political advisers about young voters, Kennedy asks, "What is it we have to sell them?"

"We hope we have to sell them prosperity, but for the average guy the prosperity is nil," he says. "He's not unprosperous, but he's not very prosperous. … And the people who really are well off hate our guts."

Kennedy talks about a disconnect between the political machine and voters.

"We've got so mechanical an operation here in Washington that it doesn't have much identity where these people are concerned," he says.

CONTINUED...

[virgogal]

1. He WAS the 1%.

[girl gone mad]

2. His parents instilled in their children duty to country..

and respect for their fellow man. As flawed as they were, the elected Kennedy sons never completely lost touch with the average working person.

Compare them to today's 1%ers who are too often raised to respect money and put greed above all else.

[sabrina 1]

4. But not part of that 1% who did not want to share with the 99%

I doubt that very small % that fights anything that will eg, give the working class a livable wage, or that hates any Government program that saves lives, such as SS and Medicare or Medicaid, had any love for Kennedy.

There are many wealthy people who realize that creating a third world population is not to their benefit either. And then there is that very small segment who appear to have inordinate power over our government, whose goals include hoarding as much money as they can and controlling the population, keeping them down, as much as possible. Kennedy was not among them.

[roguevalley]

5. you would never know it. He stood up for us. I remember.

[Octafish]

9. True. Yet, he was Different.

Unlike the boys in the Bush crime family, the Kennedy children were raised to use government service to give back to the community and nation. Two quotes to consider:

"Money trumps peace." -- George Walker Bush, describing commercial interests and prospects for war on Iran at a press conference.

"You both went to the same country?" -- John F. Kennedy, upon being briefed by Pentagon and State Department officials just returned from Vietnam.

[T S Justly]

3. K&R (nt)

[Octafish]

8. JFK tapes offer lesson in income inequality

By Tom Putnam | GLOBE CORRESPONDENT JANUARY 24, 2012

DURING THE last days of his presidency, John F. Kennedy had a number of concerns on his mind. In tapes being released today by the Kennedy Library, we hear, for example, the president focus on his reelection and issues of economic inequality. What can we do, he asks his political advisers, to make voters “decide that they want to vote for us, Democrats? What is it we have to sell ’em? We hope we have to sell them prosperity, but for the average guy the prosperity is nil. He’s not unprosperous, but he’s not very prosperous. He’s not . . . very well-off. And the people who really are well-off hate our guts.’’ As questions about growing social inequity increasingly dominate our current political dialogue, it may be instructive to look back at how these issues played out a half century ago.

Having witnessed the country survive the Great Depression and World War II, JFK understood the economic and military vulnerabilities of democratic capitalism. Though insulated by his family’s wealth, JFK was affected by the poverty he witnessed on the 1960 campaign trail. One of the memorable lines from his inaugural address “if a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich’’ helps explain his first executive order: increasing surplus food allotments to poor communities across the nation.

Once in power, his economic policies were ideologically balanced, combining, for example, a proposed tax cut to stimulate the economy with efforts to raise the minimum wage and expand unemployment benefits. Like the current incumbent, JFK’s legislative efforts - especially those designed to help the poor and advance civil rights - were often stymied by members of Congress. During his 1962 State of the Union address he reminded his congressional colleagues: “The Constitution makes us not rivals for power but partners for progress. . . It is my task to report the State of the Union - to improve it is the task of us all.’’

In terms of his administration’s relationship with the “really well-off,’’ his most famous confrontation came during the steel crisis in 1962. Having helped to negotiate a non-inflationary wage settlement with the United Steelworkers Union, Kennedy thought he had an agreement with industry executives that, in exchange, they would not raise the price of steel that year.

CONTINUED...

[T S Justly]

10. Thank you, Octafish, for showing the motives behind the conspiracy to murder a President. K&R (nt)

[woo me with science]

12. Thank you very much for posting this.

Kennedy was very much concerned about the practices that are destroying our country right now. I also don't think you can overestimate the importance of his attempt to take on the Federal Reserve.

K&R

[Lint Head]

6. I heard personally from a well placed music business corporate CEO who has since passed away, that

he attended many meetings of the 1% back then. He was a multimillionaire and well connected. He would travel to corporate meetings related to his company and different corporate groups. He described the hatred for Kennedy as being vile at these meetings. So, Kennedy was right. This person, who shall remain nameless, said, as soon as he heard Kennedy had been shot, that he was not surprised and he knew executive members of these corporations were very elated that JFK was out of the picture no matter how it happened.
I have never bought into the whole conspiracy thing and obviously a lot of people speculated on JFK's death. But this confirms to me what he said, that the monied interests during that time hated what Kennedy stood for.

[Octafish]

7. Not many today know JFK battled Wall Street.

Professor Donald Gibson detailed how in his 1994 book, Battling Wall Street: The Kennedy Presidency.

From the book:

"What (J.F.K. tried) to do with everything from global investment patterns to tax breaks for individuals was to re-shape laws and policies so that the power of property and the search for profit would not end up destroying rather than creating economic prosperity for the country."

-- Donald Gibson, Battling Wall Street. The Kennedy Presidency

More on the book, by two great Americans:

"Gibson captures what I believe to be the most essential and enduring aspect of the Kennedy presidency. He not only sets the historical record straight, but his work speaks volumes against today's burgeoning cynicism and in support of the vision, ideal, and practical reality embodied in the presidency of John F. Kennedy - that every one of us can make a difference." -- Rep. Henry B. Gonzalez, Chair, House Committee on Banking, Finance, and Urban Affairs

"Professor Gibson has written a unique and important book. It is undoubtedly the most complete and profound analysis of the economic policies of President Kennedy. From here on in, anyone who states that Kennedy was timid or status quo or traditional in that field will immediately reveal himself ignorant of Battling Wall Street. It is that convincing." -- James DiEugenio, author, Destiny Betrayed. JFK, Cuba, and the Garrison Case --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Even though he was from one of the wealthiest families around, President Kennedy used his power in government to make this a better country for ALL Americans. Contrast that with Prescott Bush and his descendants, who use their time in office to enrich their friends and themselves through war.

[Norrin Radd]

11. kr

[Octafish]

13. Why Mr. Hardball Found JFK Elusive

EXCERPT...

Let me name just four books that do push the envelope and forge a new frontier, all of them released since Parmet’s. They are: JFK: Ordeal in Africa, The Kennedy Tapes, Battling Wall Street, and JFK and Vietnam. These books deepen our understanding of  both John Kennedy and that turbulent age much more than the Parmet study does.

CONTINUED...

http://consortiumnews.com/2012/01/03/why-mr-hardball-found-jfk-elusive/