Here's how the first Republican president addressed a Gold Star Mother:

Submitted by subir on Sun, 07/31/2016 - 7:42pm

This is the famous Bixby letter:

Executive Mansion, Washington, Nov. 21, 1864.

Dear Madam,

I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle.

I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.

I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom.

Yours, very sincerely and respectfully, A. Lincoln

I cannot even begin to make a comparison between the second Republican nominee for the presidency and the current one.

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Submitted by detroitmechworks on Sun, 07/31/2016 - 7:58pm
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of those that die in her wars, unless of course they match a nice little ethnic group she can use for a photo op.

She sees the troops as a fucking photo-op, just like the Rethugs.

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Submitted by fugwb on Sun, 07/31/2016 - 8:11pm

Kissinger. “Military men are just dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.”

No doubt she feels the same way...

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Submitted by subir on Sun, 07/31/2016 - 9:20pm

yet people keep using it.

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@subirgrewal

Submitted by detroitmechworks on Sun, 07/31/2016 - 9:36pm
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And it says that he referred to military men as

quote
Dumb, stupid animals to be used
Endquote

And then they go on to say as pawns to be used for foreign policy.

So, that's the source at least as far as I can find.

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Submitted by tapu dali on Sun, 07/31/2016 - 10:39pm
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Controversy surrounds the recipient, the fate of her sons, and the authorship of the letter. Bixby's character has been questioned (including rumored Confederate sympathies), at least two of her sons survived the war, and the letter was possibly written by Lincoln's assistant private secretary, John Hay.

...

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Submitted by fugwb on Mon, 08/01/2016 - 9:36am

The sentence was reported in "The Final Days", Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein

It was said by Kissinger in front of Alexander Haig, newly appointed White House chief of staff, in Haig new office in 1973

I quote to you the sentences related: as you may notice the quote between brackets is "dumb, stupid animals to be used" that was never denied by Kissinger

Quote:
....
In Haig's presence, Kissinger referred pointedly to military men as "dumb, stupid animals to be used" as pawns for foreign policy. Kissinger often took up a post outside the doorway to Haig's office and dressed him down in front of the secretaries for alleged acts of incompetence with which Haig was not even remotely involved. Once when the Air Force was authorized to resume bombing of North Vietnam, the planes did not fly on certain days because of bad weather. Kissinger assailed Haig. He complained bitterly that the generals had been screamin for the limits to be taken off but that now their pilots were afraid to go up in a little fog. The country needed generals who could win battles, Kissinger said, not good briefers like Haig.
.........
[paragraph]
On another occasion, when Haig was leaving for a trip to Cambodia to meet with Premier Lon Nol, Kissinger escorted him to a staff car, where reporters and a retinue of aides waited. As Haig bent to get into the automobile, Kissinger stopped him and began polishing the single star on his shoulder. "Al, if you're a good boy, I'll get you another one," he said.
end of quote
Source(s): Bob Woodward & Carl Bernstein
The Final Days
second Touchstone paperback edition (1994)
Chapter 14, pp. 194-195

Oh, I'm sorry, by good source you must mean Markos hasn't yet attributed this quote to Kissinger. So sorry. Please get back with us after you run it by him...

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Submitted by subir on Mon, 08/01/2016 - 11:11pm

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Submitted by on the cusp on Sun, 07/31/2016 - 8:15pm

about how far the Republican party has fallen from their greatest President.
I do spend a great deal of time feeling betrayed by the Party that has fallen far from the ideals of FDR.
Go Stein!!!!

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Submitted by dkmich on Sun, 07/31/2016 - 8:40pm

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Submitted by subir on Sun, 07/31/2016 - 9:26pm

"bone-spurs".

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Submitted by thanatokephaloides on Sun, 07/31/2016 - 9:42pm
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When the children of the elite die gloriously, let me know.

We had some of that (or at least at risk of that) in WWII. It's where we got JFK (yay!) and George Bush I (boo!) from. Both men were genuinely at risk from enemy fire in WWII.

those days are looooonnnng gone......

Sad

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Submitted by tourniquet on Mon, 08/01/2016 - 11:09am
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joseph kennedy junior, the eldest of the brothers, who was the one who was "supposed" to be president.

his plane, loaded with explosives, blew up over the channel in an early attempt at guided munitions warfare on a v1 launch site.

i'm guessing he volunteered for this, but talk about risky...

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Submitted by dervish on Sun, 07/31/2016 - 8:51pm
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is not without controversy, among other things, she is rumored to have lost two of her five sons, whereas three apparently survived the war.

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Submitted by dancingrabbit on Sun, 07/31/2016 - 9:08pm

Not only did Bixby lose just two sons, she was a Southern sympathizer from Richmond, Va., who did not save the letter, and it seems Lincoln did not write the letter but only *signed* it.

Thanks for the link. It was an interesting read.

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Submitted by Ellen North on Sun, 07/31/2016 - 11:07pm

Damn, only had two sons killed in a civil war? That's nothing! And the loss of only two sons fighting on the other side than that to which she was reportedly sympathetic would in any case negate any sympathy, diplomacy or attempt to reach out to the people for the purpose of whose welfare he was employed.

Naturally, one would expect the President to actually hand-write all personal letters sent to the parents of young men killed fighting in a civil war, rather than merely signing them. It's not as though he'd have anything else to do, especially after a civil war and under primitive conditions, without even a word processor. Why did he even bother, if only to make such a token effort? Most unRepublican.

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Submitted by dervish on Mon, 08/01/2016 - 10:34am
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that she's famous for having lost all five of her sons, like the Sullivans, yet only two apparently died. While even one death is tragic, the case doesn't warrant the attention that it gets.

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Submitted by subir on Mon, 08/01/2016 - 11:13pm

which is exceptional (even if there are questions as to whether it is entirely his work).

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Submitted by subir on Sun, 07/31/2016 - 9:24pm

the more you delve into it, the less simple, straightforward and morally unambiguous it or the uses to which it is later put become.

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Submitted by NotGeorgeWill on Mon, 08/01/2016 - 12:25am

because even as obnoxious as Trump is, in most polling he still has the edge over Clinton in terms of support from veteran and active duty military.

http://www.salon.com/2016/07/12/veterans_for_trump_the_partner/

Even as pig ignorant as Trump is, unlike Clinton he hasn't yet been an advocate for treating American military personnel like cannon fodder.

Trump is an embarrassment to the GOP. But Clinton's political career and track record aren't exactly something that Democrats can be proud of either. You don't get as rich as she has in as short a time span as she has in politics if you have been a strong advocate of anyone other than the obscenely wealthy.

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