1. “I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have.”
2. “The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.”
3. “Die when I may, I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.”
4. “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.”
5. “Let us have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.”
6. “Labor is prior to and independent of, the capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.”
7. “Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction … nor of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.”
8. “Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well-wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the Revolution, never to violate in the least particular, the laws of the country; and never to tolerate their violation by others.”
9. “I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong.”
10. “There can be glory in failure and despair in success.”

He was born in Brookline, Massachusetts on May 29, 1917, in an extremely influential Roman Catholic Family and was the second of nine children. He joined and served in the Navy where he was in command of a Patrol Torpedo boat, PT- 109.

He was merely 29 years old when he joined the Congress (80th, in the year 1947). He ran for the Senator’s Office as a representative of Massachusetts and won the elections in 1952.

As President of the United States of America, he served office from 1953 until his assassination at a motorcade in the year 1960. He is known for his Foreign Policies and involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. His ambitious policies- both domestic and foreign, collectively called ‘New Frontier’ was a vision unparalleled in his time. JFK was one of the founders of the ‘Peace Corps’.

After two failures in a row, that is, the unsuccessful attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro- a communist leader in Cuba where the US lost 1400 CIAs and not very later the ‘Cuban Missile Crisis, he banked upon his greatest achievement in regard with Foreign Affairs: The signing of Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

Apart from his very successful political career, JFK was unpopular for having a string of affairs, many of which were conducted after his marriage to Jacqueline Bouvier in 1953. The most talked-about of them all was his romance with the Swedish paramour- Gunilla Von Post.

He met her before he tied knots with another and the affair continued long into his marriage. It is rumored that he wanted to end his marriage with Bouvier and marry Von Post instead and get her to the US. Von Post’s version of the sordid romance is accounted for in her memoir ‘Love, Jack’; this was how he signed off his letters addressed to her. These letters were extracted from her house and are being auctioned by RR Auction as reported on May 6, 2021, by The Associated Press.

Another highly a-flamed affair of the former President was the one alleged with Marilyn Monroe. The speculations began when the actress sang Happy Birthday to him. According to Time, the song filled with flirtatious gestures, in the breathy notes of Monroe, left many to wonder.

His widely known involvement with Mimi Beardsley, his assistant, was very prominently discussed. It brought him a lot of bad press, as attested in The New Yorker.

Another affair that had frantically been dissected was the one with Judith Campbell Exner, also covered in entirety by The Irish Times, their relationship and the reputation of the woman was dragged through the mud by several Republicans when there was an investigation set up to check whether or not JFK had any ties with the mafia.

Some things you might not know about him:

He was almost always in bad health. From very early on in his life, he had various physical problems, some of which kept him from joining the navy at first but he made his way through.

His father, extremely affluent at the time, made use of his connections to get JFK in the navy, their family doctor gave him a clear heath report so that he could pass the Navy criterion.

He wanted to become a journalist, a dream he gave up to fulfil his ‘duty’ to become the first Roman Catholic President of the United States of America.

He was honored with the Pulitzer Prize for his second book- ‘Profiles of Courage’ in 1957. It was later revealed that Theodre Sorenson, one of JFK’s confidants had a bigger role to play in the book writing.

His presidential debate with Richard Nixon was the first debate to be televised and JFK benefitted from it enormously, he not only won the elections but also made an emotional connection with his voters.

The former President always wanted to learn French but couldn’t manage to do so.

The story of the Oval Office Paperweight- a lofty shell of a coconut on which he had carved an SOS message intended for the Patrol Torpedo base, saved his life along with 10 of his crew members. It was made into a paperweight to preserve that memory.

He went through huge losses including the death of two of his four children- Arabella (still-birth) and Patrick (died after two days he was born).

He was the only President of the United States to be awarded the ‘Purple Heart’ and Navy and Marine Corps medal for his contribution to the Navy.

The President was a huge James Bond fan. He liked all the books written by Ian Flemming but absolutely adored the movies.

John F. Kennedy’s golden words:
1) “The interaction of disparate cultures, the vehemence of the ideals that led the immigrants here, the opportunity offered by a new life, all gave America a flavor and a character that make it as unmistakable and as remarkable to people today as it was to Alexis de Tocqueville in the early part of the nineteenth century.”- A Nation of Immigrants

2) “Perhaps our brightest hope for the future lies in the lessons of the past. The people who have come to this country have made America, in the words of one perceptive writer, ‘a heterogeneous race but a homogeneous nation. ”- A Nation of Immigrants

3) “Equality in America has never meant literal equality of condition or capacity. There will always be inequalities in character and ability in any society. Equality has meant rather than in the words of the Declaration of Independence, “All men are created equal and are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights.” It is meant that in a democratic society there should be no inequalities in opportunities or in freedoms. ”- A Nation of Immigrants

4) “If by a “Liberal” they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people-their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights and their civil liberties-someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a “Liberal”, then I’m proud to say I’m a “Liberal.”- Profiles of Courage

5) “And that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.”- In his radio- TV address to the nation on MLK’s Civil Rights Movement

6) “My fellow Americans, let us take that first step. Let us…step back from the shadow of war and seek out the way of peace. And if that journey is a thousand miles, or even more, let history record that we, in this land, at this time, took the first step.”  – In his Radio- TV address to the nation on the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

7) “The life of the arts, far from being an interruption, a distraction, in the life of a nation, is very close to the center of a nation’s purpose…and is a test of the quality of a nation’s civilization.”  – In his interview with LOOK magazine, ‘The Arts in America’

8) “We can say with some assurance that, although children may be the victims of fate, they will not be the victims of our neglect.”- Upon signing the Maternal and Child Health and Mental Retardation Planning Bill

9) “A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.”- Why England Slept

10) “The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.”- In Nashville at the 90th Anniversary and Convocation of Vanderbilt University

William Henry Harrison was the shortest-serving President of the United States of America. He died after just 31 days of joining the office. Harrison was 68 at the time of his inauguration, He became the oldest person to assume the U.S. presidency, a distinction he held until 1981. Harrison was in the military before he joined politics. He started his political career in 1798 after being appointed as the Secretary of the Northwest Territory.

During the 1836 elections, Harrison was nominated as the Whig Party candidate for President. However, he was defeated by Democratic vice president Martin Van Buren. Four years later, he was nominated again with John Tyler as his running mate. His election campaign was backed by his military career and the weak US economy at the time.

They together defeated Van Buren in the 1840 United States presidential election, making Harrison the first Whig to become the President of America. His achievements as a president include forming the first Whig cabinet in the US. Harrison died of a cold that developed into pneumonia. On April 4, 1841, he died, becoming the first President to die in office and with him died the Whig Party.

James A Garfield

James Garfield was the 20th President of the United States, elected in 1881. He became the US President after nine terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. His Presidency was strong, but after 200 days of joining the office, he was assassinated.

Garfield was elected to the Ohio Senate in 1859 as a Republican. During the secession crisis, he advocated to pressurize the seceding states back into the Union. He served as a major general in the Union Army during the American Civil War and went on to fight in the battles of Middle Creek, Shiloh, and Chickamauga.

He was first elected to Congress in 1862 to represent Ohio’s 19th district. Further on, Garfield went on to be elected for 18 years and became the leading republican of the House. In the 1880 presidential elections, he defeated Democrat Winfield Scott Hancock. Garfield was an advocate of agricultural technology, an educated electorate, and civil rights for African Americans. He was shot on July 2, 1881, by Charles J. Guiteau, an embittered office seeker.

 Zachary Taylor

Zachary Taylor was the 12th president of the United States, who presided from 1849 until his death in 1850. His term lasted for 492 days.

He was an American military leader who later on turned to politics. Taylor was earlier a career officer in the Army of the United States. After he led to victory in the Mexican–American War, over the years, he rose to the rank of major general and became a national hero of America.

The 1848 United States presidential was held on Tuesday, November 7, 1848. After the conclusion of the Mexican–American War, General Zachary Taylor of the Whig Party defeated Senator Lewis Cass of the Democratic Party.

As a president, Taylor kept his distance from Congress and his cabinet. It is said that 40 years in the Army made Taylor a strong nationalist; hence, he did not defend slavery or southern sectionalism. Taylor died unexpectedly of a stomach disease on July 9, 1850.

Warren G Harding

Warren G Harding was the 29th President of the United States. He served from 1921 until his death in 1923. His term lasted for 881 days. A member of the Republican Party, he was one of the most renowned U.S. presidents till that time.

He ran for the post of President as a Republican in 1920 and was considered a long shot. Before his nomination, Harding said, “America’s present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration; not agitation, but adjustment; not surgery, but serenity; not the dramatic, but the dispassionate; not experiment, but equipoise; not submergence in internationality, but sustainment in triumphant nationality….”

He won a cakewalk victory against Democrat James M. Cox and Socialist Party candidate Eugene Debs and became the first sitting senator elected President.

Harding’s term in office was filled with scandals, including Teapot Dome.  Harding was an advocate of technology and was sensitive to the state of minorities and women. In August of 1923, he died in San Francisco of a heart attack.

Gerald Ford

Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr presided as the 38th President of the United States from 1974 to 1977. He was a member of the Republican Party. Ford had also served previously as the 40th Vice President of the United States from 1973 to 1974. His was a partial complete term of 2 years, 5 months, and 11 days.

Even today in the history of America, Ford is the only person to have served as both Vice President and President without being elected to either office by the Electoral College.

After the resignation of President Richard Nixon for his role in the Watergate scandal, Ford became the first person appointed as the Vice President under the terms of the 25th Amendment. When Gerald R. Ford took the oath of office on August 9, 1974, as the 38th President, he said, “I assume the Presidency under extraordinary circumstances…This is an hour of history that troubles our minds and hurts our hearts.”

President Ford won the Republican nomination for the Presidential elections in 1976 but narrowly lost the election to his Democratic rival, former governor of Georgia Jimmy Carter.

Early numbers do not include the viewers of cable networks but it indicates a fall in viewership as compared to the former president, Donald Trump’s first address to the U.S. Congress, which attracted 48 million viewers in 2017.

Biden’s rating number suggests TV audience on Comcast Corp’s NBC, ViacomCBS Inc.’s CBS, Walt Disney Co.’s ABC, and Fox.

In his speech, Biden proposed the $1.8 trillion “American Families Plan” and appealed with Republican lawmakers to work with him on the divisive issue.

For the past year, the TV audiences for live events has fallen sharply.

According to the multiple sources, Trump’s eldest son has emerged as one of the former president’s chief advisor. Similar to his brother-in-law, Jared Kushner, who spent much of the last four years in attempts to promote Trump from inside in the West Wing, Trump Jr. has been making sure that the things are running smooth for his father to reappear as the presidential candidate.

But his role is not limited to this, he, who has never worked in the White House, is progressively influencing his father’s political career. Notably Kushner has taken break from the politics.

Earlier this month, when Trump was furious at televised interview with Gov. Asa Hutchinson over the Arkansan Republican’s stance on transgender issue. Normally, Trump would not pay much attention to such topics as he avoided the LGBTQ issues during his presidency, we could clearly see Trump Jr.’s impact.

To the outside, it may seem odd that Trump is addressing LGBTQ topics but for his inner circle, it was quite sure who had influenced him the most.

Donald Trump Jr. through his Twitter and Instagram has made a series of statements for the expansion of transgender rights. In a tweet, Trump Jr. had written about Cece Telfer, a transgender woman, who was qualified for NCAA Women’s Division II Outdoor Track and Field Championship in 2019, that her success was a “grave injustice to so many young women”.

One of the Trump’s said that “Don has the pulse of the base and knows where the energy of the party is, so he is sort of go-to person now on a lot of political things.”

According to his speech experts provided by The White House, President in his speech will say that “I am the fourth American president to preside over American troops in Afghanistan … and I will not pass this responsibility to fifth.”

Biden in his speech will also be seen arguing that the Republican and the Democrats who have been saying that with the U.S. withdrawing from the country, it will lose its objective – civil rights for Afghan women. Trump has faced a similar setback during his plans of withdrawing the troops.

“We cannot continue the cycle of extending or expanding our military presence in Afghanistan in the hopes of creating a better condition for our withdrawal,” President will be saying in his speech. “it is time for American troops to return home.”

He will also pay a visit to Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery where he will be paying respects to the soldiers who were martyred in the U.S.-Afghanistan war.

The conflict in Afghanistan which had the objectives to establish a democratic government, defeat Al-Qaeda, and put the Taliban out of power, have witnessed the death of around 2,300 American soldiers and at least 100,000 Afghan civilians. It has been costly too as at least $2 trillion are already spent.

Biden plans to say that “We can’t stay at war for something that happened 20 years ago, we need to focus on the future which will determine America’s standing in the years to come.”

Initially, the deadline to withdraw the troops were set on May 1^st but as the deadline has been extended, Biden’s administration has warned the Taliban that any attack on the U.S. troops while withdrawal will be met with a forceful response.

Even though U.S. military presence will be no more in the country, it will continue to provide humanitarian aids and will still support the Afghanistan government.

Some of the allies of Biden in Congress have warned against the withdrawal of the U.S. as it would drive Afghanistan into even more severe violence and chaos.

A U.S. Intelligence on Tuesday reported an assessment that predicted the near future of Afghanistan and it shows that “Taliban will gain the most out of this withdrawal and the government will continue to suffer to Taliban at the bay”.

That may have been the case for others but clearly not for Mrs. Harris, current U.S. vice president.

Back when Biden served as a VP under the former president, Barack Obama, he was asked by the president, what he wanted from the role. He wanted to be the last person in the room before he made important decisions.

When I served as Vice President, I asked to be the last person with the President before big decisions were made — and @VP is providing the same counsel to me. She’s the last voice in the room and never fails to speak the truth as we work to build our nation back better. pic.twitter.com/I4EXm204l3

— President Biden Archived (@POTUS46Archive) April 12, 2021

In a tweet which was retweeted by the Vice President, the president expects Harris’s role after his own time as vice president.

Mr. Biden and Mr. Obama often shared laughs together during their time in The White House, close personal relationship between vice-presidents and presidents haven’t been norm, says Perry.

President had once said that without consulting Kamala Harris he “there has not been a single decision I’ve made yet”. Each of Biden’s potential cabinet nominee were interviewed by her.

The American Jobs Plan is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to invest in the future of America. For this episode of our weekly conversation, I invited members of my Jobs Cabinet to break down their favorite parts. pic.twitter.com/Kyn0lEmVW1

— President Biden Archived (@POTUS46Archive) April 10, 2021

With the pandemic being dealt with, this could be the defining moment for America by “reimagining and rebuilding the new economy”, says The White House. Even though it is the world’s richest economy but it still ranked 13^th when comparing its infrastructure to other countries. In order to change this, President Biden on March 31^st, 2021 unveiled his American Jobs Plan.

In his first budget, he proposed $2.25 trillion for his Jobs Plan. He plans to spend a major chunk in transportation by fixing 10,000 smaller bridges that provide critical linking to communities and will modernize 20,000 miles of highway, main-streets and roads. Further under transportation, he plans to change thousands of rail cars, buses, renew airports and expands rail into new communities.

President Biden’s Jobs plan will be covering:

• A renewed electric grid, high-speed broadband service and delivery of clean drinking water.
• President plans to create jobs by having the buildings of childcare facilities, commercial building and schools are built or repaired in order to make them affordable, accessible and energy sufficient.
• Train Americans for the jobs of the future, invest in R&D, regenerate manufacturing.
• Create an employee-friendly workplace by making sure they know and have their rights of joining a union, bargain collectively with their employer

The White House further said that “about $2 trillion will be invested this decade.” “If passed alongside Biden’s corporate tax plan, it will be fully paid within the next 15 years and reduce deficits in the years after,” it continued.

Universal background checks are supported by the vast majority of Americans — and the majority of gun owners.

So let’s be clear, this is not a partisan issue. It’s an American issue.

— President Biden Archived (@POTUS46Archive) April 9, 2021

Over the last several decades, it has been hard for the legislators to bring a change in the society regarding various issues due to the rise in partisanship in the U.S. One of the major topics where the partisan is divided with their different ideologies and their opinions is gun control. With a rise in gun violence i.e. mass shootings, suicides, there exist a lot of disagreement regarding various gun control policies.

Out of all, there is this one policy – universal background checks – which is supported by the vast majority and consider to be a necessity. However, The U.S. Congress does not, and in 2013, they decided not to follow this action, though supported by a vast majority of Americans.

This may have been because of the National Rifle Association (NRA) which is said to be one of the most powerful groups in American politics. As per the current federal law, individuals do not need to undergo any background check when buying guns.

President Biden is currently tackling the same issue and for which he has signed six execution order on Thursday relating to gun restrictions. He also termed gun violence in America as an “epidemic and an international embarrassment.”

Jen Psaki, White House Press Secretary gave out a series of conflicting guidance to what the media had received on Tuesday from State Department Chief spokesperson, Ned Price, who said that the administration was in talks with the allies to ban the 2022 games.

Psaki began by saying, “certainly our hope is that we’re at a point where enough people across the county and hopefully across the world have been vaccinated, but we will rely on health and medical experts on that particular piece,” she added, “Our position to 2022 Olympics have not changed. We’ve not discussed and not discussing any joint boycott with allies and partners.”

“We of course consult closely with allies and parties at all levels to define our common concerns and established a shared approach, but there’s no discussion underway of a change in our plans regarding the Beijing Olympics from the United States’ point of view,” she continued.

Questions regarding ban of the Olympics were a result of Peach State’s new voting law.

The day after its signing Biden termed the new law as “Jim Crow on steroids”, further ahead he went on saying that he “strongly supports” moving the MLB’s mid-summer classic in protest.

Washington Post, which endorsed its candidacy, awarded him “Four Pinocchios”, for spreading misinformation about the state law’s impact on voting hours.”

The law expands early voting by adding a second mandatory Saturday. It also allows counties of opening two Sundays and can extend early voting hours beyond standard business hours.

MLB said Friday it was pulling its mid-summer classic out of Atlanta to protest against the law.

The move sparked a backlash as it moved from a city with a large population of minorities to a city of less minority population, Denver, Colorado.

Noticeable democrats, including voting right activist, with Stacey Abram, 2018 Georgia gubernatorial candidate, cautioned against hurting the small business just for the sake of one bill.

Earlier it was stated that all the troops will be deployed from Afghanistan by May 1^st but the President during his latest press conference said that the deadline seems unlikely.

White House Press Sec., Jen Psaki in a press conference said that Biden has “consistently over the course of the last decade spoke about his concerns about the war, and has consistently, even when he was vice president, so that should hopefully give people confidence about his commitment.” However, she did not give out the exact new deadline.

The statement came after the activist and progressive lawmakers worry that if the deadline of deployment of troops keeps on extending, it may result in a failure. While there are some who argue that the country would spiral out of control if the troops are withdrawn at such a pace, instead they could stay there a couple of months as it could pressure the Taliban to cut a deal with pro-American Afghans.

President’s advisor believes that he should not feel burdened by the agreement signed during Trump’s presidency with the Taliban, which establishes 1^st May as the date of withdrawal in exchange for which the latter will put a pause on offensives against America.

When serving as vice president under Obama, Biden did agree to send more troops to Afghan and now he has criticized the White House’s plan to stay involved in Afghanistan.

Before Biden, two of the US President, Barack Obama and Donald Trump were against the war going on for the past two decades, making it the longest ever war in American history. They both ended their term without bringing an end to it.

Psaki didn’t give any hint about the extension of the deadline and it is yet to know that if that decision will be approved by the Taliban and they will continue to halt their attacks targeting the Americans.

“I would consider a presidential run in the future if that’s what the people wanted,” Johnson told USA Today. “I mean that not flippant in any way with my answer. That would be up to the people, and I take a lot of pride in serving the audience and the consumer and people, in a variety of different ways . . . So I would wait and I would listen. I would have my finger on the pulse and my ear to the ground.”

It’s not the first time Johnson has mentioned that he’s considering public service as the next step in his career.

“A year ago, it started coming up more and more. There was a real sense of earnestness, which made me go home and think, ‘Let me really rethink my answer and make sure I am giving an answer that is truthful and also respectful.’ I didn’t want to be flippant ‘We’ll have three days off for a weekend! No taxes!'” he told GQ in a 2017 profile. “I think that it’s a real possibility”.

Even earlier, back in 2016, he was interviewed by the British offshoot of GQ and had a similar line of thought. “I’ll be honest, I haven’t ruled politics out”, he said. “I’m not being coy when I say that, but at the moment I am not sure. I can’t deny that the thought of being governor, the thought of being president, is alluring. And beyond that, it would be an opportunity to make a real impact on people’s lives on a global scale. But there are a lot of other things I want to do first.”

How a presidential run or any other political run for that matter may look for him is still ambiguous. In 2000, he spoke at the Republican National Convention, but in 2020, he endorsed Joe Biden and emphasized that he is a registered independent.

“As a political independent & centrist, I’ve voted for both parties in the past. In this critical presidential election, I’m endorsing @JoeBiden & @KamalaHarris,” he said on Twitter, adding, “Progress takes courage, humanity, empathy, strength, KINDNESS & RESPECT.
We must ALL VOTE.”

Obviously, third-party candidates have historically never broken through in the presidential election, though they have won other seats, up to and including Senate seats. So only time can tell where our beloved star’s political affiliations may lie.

For now, it’s just a fun storyline on Young Rock, we would like to see the lines between this bit of fiction and reality blur soon!