Wikipedia: August 9, 1974 – Richard Nixon becomes the first President of the United States to resign from office, an action taken to avoid being removed by impeachment and conviction in response to his role in the Watergate scandal. Vice President Gerald R. Ford becomes the 38th President upon Nixon's resignation, taking the oath of office in the East Room of the White House.

This is ridiculous. Trump has been trying to be nice and he has only a few days left. But Nancy wants him to get out now.

        New York Times

BREAKING NEWS

Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House would move to impeach President Trump over his role in inciting a violent mob if he did not resign “immediately.”

Friday, January 8, 2021 12:54 PM EST

In a letter to members of the House, Ms. Pelosi invoked the resignation of Richard M. Nixon amid the Watergate scandal, when Republicans prevailed upon the president to resign and avoid the ignominy of an impeachment, calling Mr. Trump’s actions a “horrific assault on our democracy.”

Read the latest

Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy in 1960

Vice President Nixon shakes hands with President-elect John F. Kennedy in Key Biscayne, Fla.

The Wall Street Journal

OPINION

COMMENTARY

Nixon’s Noble Pass on a 1960 Recount

There was real evidence of fraud, but the country couldn’t afford a crisis.

By Irwin Gellman

January 5, 2021

Vice President Richard Nixon was preparing to leave office in January 1961, but he still had several constitutional duties to carry out. On Tuesday, Jan. 3, as president of the Senate, he had the task of convening that body for the meeting of the 87th Congress. Later that week, as spelled out in the 12th Amendment, he presided over a joint session of Congress to “open all the Certificates” and count the Electoral College votes that would declare his rival—Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kennedy—the winner of the 1960 presidential election.

The pageantry for the joint session began when two tellers carried the electors’ ballots into the House chamber. Nixon, walking alone wearing a dark suit and a forced smile, followed them to the rostrum where the session was gaveled to order at 12:55 p.m. Nixon began the vote count, which would last for more than an hour. When the tally was complete, Kennedy had received 303 electoral votes, Nixon 219 and Sen. Harry Byrd 15.

Before adjourning the joint session, Nixon asked the speaker for “permission” to make a brief statement. He declared that his defeat and his opponent’s victory were an “eloquent example of the stability of our constitutional system and of the proud tradition of the American people of developing, respecting and honoring institutions of self-government.” He congratulated his opponents and declared Kennedy the new president and Lyndon Johnson the new vice president.

After the long and tedious count, the chamber erupted with a prolonged ovation. Montana Democratic Sen. Mike Mansfield commented: “What a way to go . . . with dignity and with head held high.” Minnesota Sen. Hubert Humphrey said that the vice president’s remarks would “go down as one of the truly historic messages. It was one filled with humility. It was a gracious and a very thoughtful pronouncement.”

It had been one of the closest elections in American history—marked, as we know now, by substantial electoral fraud—but Nixon did not challenge the result. On the contrary, he directed two of his chief aides, campaign manager Robert Finch and campaign press secretary Herbert Klein, to tamp down calls for a recount. He asked the New York Herald Tribune reporter Earl Mazo to stop writing articles on allegations of fraud in Illinois and Texas. He told Attorney General William Rogers not to investigate voting irregularities and telephoned Illinois Gov. William Stratton, a fellow Republican, urging him to certify Kennedy’s triumph in his state.

Nixon, even with the allegations of widespread corruption that had occurred in Texas and Illinois, believed that a recount could trigger a constitutional crisis that would damage the country. The American political system had to stand as the beacon of democracy in the world.

Mr. Gellman is author of “Campaign of the Century: Kennedy, Nixon and the Presidential Election of 1960,” forthcoming this fall.

Copyright ©2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Appeared in the January 6, 2021, print edition as 'Nixon’s Noble Pass on a 1960 Recount.'

Republicans are anti-science morons.

AAAS

Science

EDITORIAL

It's just louder this time

H. Holden Thorp

October 30, 2020

As if there were any doubt that U.S. President Donald Trump has no respect for scientists, he now refers to public health scholars as “Fauci and all these idiots.” That's how he's describing experts in virology, immunology, epidemiology, and infectious disease. Never mind that after recovering from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), Trump suddenly became excited about future vaccines and “Regeneron,” which is what he calls monoclonal antibodies in general. (Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is probably thrilled to have achieved the product-brand status of Xerox and Kleenex, but Eli Lilly also has developed promising monoclonals, and more are in clinical trials.) Apparently, no one told the president that scientists from these same fields—many of whom live in “Democrat-run cities” or college towns and are immigrants who wouldn't be here under his policies—created these drugs and carried out the decades of science that made them possible. This paradox of loving the drug but hating the science is nothing new. It's just louder this time.

Republican presidents were not always rhetorically hostile to science. As described earlier this year on this page, on the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, James Morton Turner and Andrew Isenberg carefully traced how the United States got to this point. In the 1970s, President Richard Nixon worked hard to pass important pieces of public health and environmental legislation that were approved with large bipartisan majorities in Congress. Then, when Ronald Reagan arrived as a candidate in the 1980 election, he advocated teaching creationism in public schools and mocked environmental science and regulation. In his brand of conservatism, the free market and American exceptionalism could not coexist with a shared responsibility for caring for the planet or its inhabitants.

Vice President Mike Pence is carrying on Reagan's tradition. In a widely viewed speech on the House floor when he was a member of Congress, Pence extolled “intelligent design.” He cited a then-recent study of new fossils, which enhanced our understanding of how human life unfolded on Earth, as evidence that evolution was invalid because scientists were always changing theories when new data were obtained. He was criticizing scientists for doing science, as my colleague Jon Cohen recently tweeted. If Pence thinks we can't change our understanding with new data, then we'd have to go back to breathing phlogiston and being orbited by the Sun.

The paradox has played out for years. Many Republicans in Congress have been strong advocates for science funding, especially for the National Institutes of Health, although some simultaneously espouse antiscience views and embrace creationism. Biology is the study of evolution, and biomedicine is applied evolution. Why would creationists spend money to study and apply this heresy? Because they want their new medicines. They want to tell their constituents that they are fighting diseases that are harming their families. Arguing for science funding by promising new cures has been a winning political strategy for the 75 years that the United States has had federally funded science.

A recent survey from the Pew Research Center found that only 20% of the political right has “a lot” of confidence in scientists. Yet when folks at this end of the political spectrum get sick, they want the best treatments that secular academic medicine can provide. The consequences of this are profound and especially apparent in the COVID-19 crisis. The same politicians who are criticizing public health guidance are praising vaccines and antibodies without acknowledging that they come from the same principles and researchers as masks and social distancing.

When the presidential election is over, science will face an important choice. Should the scientific community try to get the missing 80% of the ideological right to understand its people and its methods? Or should science write it off as a lost cause and continue to take the funding while providing the outstanding new medicines?

"President Ford's Congressional Testimony on Nixon Pardon" This 3 minute video would be interesting for the people who are old enough to remember when Richard Nixon was thrown out the window.

Interesting stuff from the New York Times.

John Ismay
Staff writer

Dear reader,

Since 1943, Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake in the Mojave Desert has served as a testing ground for the Navy’s research and development of munitions. Karen Piper spent part of her childhood there, from 1971 to 1982, amid the explosions, the roar of low-flying jet aircraft and the secrecy that came with her parents’ jobs. The base was closed to outsiders, but its million-acre expanse was a playground for Piper, her sister and their friends. Now a professor of English at the University of Missouri, Piper has folded stories from her childhood at China Lake into a new memoir called “A Girl’s Guide to Missiles: Growing Up in America’s Secret Desert,” which was published by Viking in August. I spoke with Piper about what it was like growing up with weapons engineers as parents.

Your book starts with your returning to China Lake with your mother as members of an archaeological tour group to see ancient petroglyphs on the base. Your guide tells you and everybody else not to touch any unexploded ordnance. Did you ever come across any unexploded munitions there as a kid?

No, no, no. I never did. I thought it was kind of funny that it said that in the brochure for the petroglyph tour. My mom and I got a laugh out of that. Of course it’s a possibility, but you don’t think about it growing up there as much. You find weird metal pieces in the desert, but you don’t know what they are.

Can you tell me what your parents did on base?

My mom and dad went to work on base from 7:30 to 4:30 every day. My dad worked on the Sidewinder missile. My mom worked on the Tomahawk. She was a computer scientist, and my dad was an aerodynamicist who worked on getting the missile to fly straight. My dad was a real perfectionist and obsessed with getting the job right. And his worry was that if he didn’t get it right, the missile would hit the wrong people. He didn’t feel bad about working for the war industry, but he felt very anxious about what would happen if the missiles didn’t work right.

And that came to a head when your father found out about the secret bombing campaign in Cambodia, right?

When he found out that the United States was illegally bombing Cambodia, he assumed they bombed the wrong place by accident, or that the bombs had malfunctioned, or the pilots had gotten lost. He was a navigator in World War II, and he knew that could happen. When he finally found out that President Nixon was lying to him, that was a powerful moment in his life. He seemed angry and discouraged at the same time. Because he was extremely ethical almost to the point of naîveté. My father didn’t lie, and he assumed other people didn’t lie, either. It messed with that belief system of his. The world wasn’t as honest as it seemed.

You say in your book, “People don’t become weapons developers because they want to kill people,” but “once people end up in the world of weapons, they tend to stay.” Can you explain what you mean by that?

Nobody consciously wants to be in an industry about killing people. But when it’s between that and you being unemployed and can’t feed your kids, you take the job. To this day, my mom has better benefits than I do. There’s more job security in the weapons industry. And to my dad, after getting laid off from Boeing, the world looked a little risky with two kids. The pay wasn’t great, though.

You describe the flora and fauna of the desert as an even bigger concern than bombs at China Lake. Tell me more about it.

There wasn’t much for kids to do there, and my mom was scared about all the little critters in the desert. Sometimes they got in your house, too. We never had rattlesnakes in the house, but we did have scorpions and spiders. There were rattlesnakes outside, and we loved to chase them. The desert was really our babysitter.

Interview has been condensed and edited.
Did you live or work at China Lake? Email me to get in touch: John.Ismay@nytimes.com.
--
John Ismay is a staff writer who covers armed conflict for The New York Times Magazine. He is based in Washington, D.C.

It would be so nice if what happened to President Nixon would also happen to President Fucktard Trump.

For some strange reason I was thinking about Richard Nixon who was president from January 20, 1969 to August 9, 1974. He was the only president in American history who was forced to get out of the White House. I'm old enough to remember how he repeatedly fucked up and was dishonest about it. I was wondering what his last speech was so I looked it up.

Richard Nixon - White House Farewell

I think the record should show that this is one of those spontaneous things that we always arrange whenever the President comes in to speak, and it will be so reported in the press, and we don't mind, because they have to call it as they see it.

But on our part, believe me, it is spontaneous.

You are here to say goodbye to us, and we don't have a good word for it in English -- the best is au revoir. We'll see you again.

I just met with the members of the White House staff, you know, those who serve here in the White House day in and day out, and I asked them to do what I ask all of you to do to the extent that you can and, of course, are requested to do so: to serve our next President as you have served me and previous Presidents -- because many of you have been here for many years -- with devotion and dedication, because this office, great as it is, can only be as great as the men and women who work for and with the President.

This house, for example -- I was thinking of it as we walked down this hall, and I was comparing it to some of the great houses of the world that I have been in. This isn't the biggest house. Many, and most, in even smaller countries, are much bigger. This isn't the finest house. Many in Europe, particularly, and in China, Asia, have paintings of great, great value, things that we just don't have here and, probably, will never have until we are 1,000 years old or older.

But this is the best house. It is the best house, because it has something far more important than numbers of people who serve, far more important than numbers of rooms or how big it is, far more important than numbers of magnificent pieces of art.

This house has a great heart, and that heart comes from those who serve. I was rather sorry they didn't come down. We said goodbye to them upstairs. But they are really great. And I recall after so many times I have made speeches, and some of them pretty tough, yet, I always come back, or after a hard day -- and my days usually have run rather long -- I would always get a lift from them, because I might be a little down but they always smiled.

And so it is with you. I look around here, and I see so many on this staff that, you know, I should have been by your offices and shaken hands, and I would love to have talked to you and found out how to run the world -- everybody wants to tell the President what to do, and boy, he needs to be told many times -- but I just haven't had the time. But I want you to know that each and every one of you, I know, is indispensable to this Government.

I am proud of this Cabinet. I am proud of all the members who have served in our Cabinet. I am proud of our sub-Cabinet. I am proud of our White House Staff. As I pointed out last night, sure, we have done some things wrong in this Administration, and the top man always takes the responsibility, and I have never ducked it. But I want to say one thing: We can be proud of it -- five and a half years. No man or no woman came into this Administration and left it with more of this world's goods than when he came in. No man or no woman ever profited at the public expense or the public till. That tells something about you.

Mistakes, yes. But for personal gain, never. You did what you believed in. Sometimes right, sometimes wrong. And I only wish that I were a wealthy man -- at the present time, I have got to find a way to pay my taxes -- and if I were, I would like to recompense you for the sacrifices that all of you have made to serve in government.

But you are getting something in government -- and I want you to tell this to your children, and I hope the Nation's children will hear it, too -- something in government service that is far more important than money. It is a cause bigger than yourself. It is the cause of making this the greatest nation in the world, the leader of the world, because without our leadership, the world will know nothing but war, possibly starvation or worse, in the years ahead. With our leadership it will know peace, it will know plenty.

We have been generous, and we will be more generous in the future as we are able to. But most important, we must be strong here, strong in our hearts, strong in our souls, strong in our belief, and strong in our willingness to sacrifice, as you have been willing to sacrifice, in a pecuniary way, to serve in government.

There is something else I would like for you to tell your young people. You know, people often come in and say, "What will I tell my kids?" They look at government and say, sort of a rugged life, and they see the mistakes that are made. They get the impression that everybody is here for the purpose of feathering his nest. That is why I made this earlier point -- not in this Administration, not one single man or woman.

And I say to them, there are many fine careers. This country needs good farmers, good businessmen, good plumbers, good carpenters.

I remember my old man. I think that they would have called him sort of a little man, common man. He didn't consider himself that way. You know what he was? He was a streetcar motorman first, and then he was a farmer, and then he had a lemon ranch. It was the poorest lemon ranch in California, I can assure you. He sold it before they found oil on it. [Laughter] And then he was a grocer. But he was a great man, because he did his job, and every job counts up to the hilt, regardless of what happens.

Nobody will ever write a book, probably, about my mother. Well, I guess all of you would say this about your mother -- my mother was a saint. And I think of her, two boys dying of tuberculosis, nursing four others in order that she could take care of my older brother for three years in Arizona, and seeing each of them die, and when they died, it was like one of her own.

Yes, she will have no books written about her. But she was a saint.

Now, however, we look to the future. I had a little quote in the speech last night from T.R. [Theodore Roosevelt]. As you know, I kind of like to read books. I am not educated, but I do read books -- and the T.R. quote was a pretty good one. Here is another one I found as I was reading, my last night in the White House, and this quote is about a young man. He was a young lawyer in New York. He had married a beautiful girl, and they had a lovely daughter, and then suddenly she died, and this is what he wrote. This was in his diary.

He said, "She was beautiful in face and form and lovelier still in spirit. As a flower she grew and as a fair young flower she died. Her life had been always in the sunshine. There had never come to her a single great sorrow. None ever knew her who did not love and revere her for her bright and sunny temper and her saintly unselfishness. Fair, pure and joyous as a maiden, loving, tender and happy as a young wife. When she had just become a mother, when her life seemed to be just begun and when the years seemed so bright before her, then by a strange and terrible fate death came to her. And when my heart's dearest died, the light went from my life forever."

That was T.R. in his twenties. He thought the light had gone from his life forever -- but he went on. And he not only became President but, as an ex-President, he served his country, always in the arena, tempestuous, strong, sometimes wrong, sometimes right, but he was a man.

And as I leave, let me say, that is an example I think all of us should remember. We think sometimes when things happen that don't go the right way; we think that when you don't pass the bar exam the first time -- I happened to, but I was just lucky; I mean, my writing was so poor the bar examiner said, "We have just got to let the guy through." We think that when someone dear to us dies, we think that when we lose an election, we think that when we suffer a defeat that all is ended. We think, as T.R. said, that the light had left his life forever. Not true.

It is only a beginning, always. The young must know it; the old must know it. It must always sustain us, because the greatness comes not when things go always good for you, but the greatness comes and you are really tested, when you take some knocks, some disappointments, when sadness comes, because only if you have been in the deepest valley can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain.

And so I say to you on this occasion, as we leave, we leave proud of the people who have stood by us and worked for us and served this country. We want you to be proud of what you have done. We want you to continue to serve in government, if that is your wish.

Always give your best, never get discouraged, never be petty; always remember, others may hate you, but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself.

And so, we leave with high hopes, in good spirit, and with deep humility, and with very much gratefulness in our hearts. I can only say to each and every one of you, we come from many faiths, we pray perhaps to different gods -- but really the same God in a sense -- but I want to say for each and every one of you, not only will we always remember you, not only will we always be grateful to you but always you will be in our hearts and you will be in our prayers.

Thank you very much.

Richard Nixon - August 9, 1974

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Nixon had a dishonesty problem but at least he wasn't a moron like Trump.

Nixon did some things right.

Wikipedia - Richard Nixon

Nixon ended American involvement in the war in Vietnam in 1973 and brought the American POWs home, and ended the military draft.

Nixon's visit to China in 1972 eventually led to diplomatic relations between the two nations.

On the plane back to the White House from China the press wanted Nixon to visit them. Nixon was expecting the usual harassment but instead the press gave him a standing ovation.

Nixon initiated détente and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with the Soviet Union.

He enforced desegregation of Southern schools.

Nixon established the Environmental Protection Agency which Fucktard Trump has been trying to destroy.

In 20 years of retirement, Nixon wrote nine books and undertook many foreign trips, helping to rehabilitate his image into that of elder statesman.

Nixon's worst mistake: Watergate scandal