URBAN LEGENDS: PRESIDENTS AND DRIVING

URBAN LEGEND: Presidents are not permitted to drive.

During a recent event at the White House, Donald Trump told reporters that he is not allowed to drive. His statement came as he announced his decision to purchase a Tesla in support of Elon Musk. This has left many wondering why the President cannot drive.

Recently, Donald Trump announced his decision to buy a Tesla but admitted that he wouldn’t be able to drive it. Speaking at the White House, he explained that he hasn’t driven in years. The President said, “I’m gonna buy one, now here’s the bad news. I’m not allowed to drive. And I love to drive cars.” Instead, he said he would keep the vehicle at the White House for his staff to use, adding that they were excited about it. Trump also added, “I’m not allowed to use it. Can you believe it?”

Like all former U.S. presidents, Trump is prohibited from driving on public roads, a restriction that applies even after leaving office. The Former Presidents Act of 1958 enforces this rule, ensuring that ex-presidents remain under constant Secret Service protection and other security measures, including monitored mail screening. 

Most presidents, even Donald Trump abide by the rule, but presidents in the past like Richard Nixon would drive to the dismay of the secret service trying to protect them...

THE MOON LANDING: FACT OR FICTION - PART TWO

Those who believe the Moon landings were faked offer several theories about the motives of NASA and the United States government. The three main theories are:

SPACE RACE: Motivation for the United States to engage the Soviet Union in a Space Race can be traced to the Cold War. Landing on the Moon was viewed as a national and technological accomplishment that would generate world-wide acclaim. But going to the Moon would be risky and expensive, as exemplified by President John F. Kennedy famously stating in a 1962 speech that the United States chose to go because it was hard. The Soviets had been sending uncrewed spacecraft to the Moon since 1959, and "during 1962, deep space tracking facilities were introduced at IP-15 in Ussuriisk and IP-16 in Evpatoria (Crimean Peninsula), while Saturn communication stations were added to IP-3, 4 and 14,"the last of which having a 100 million km (62 million mi) range.The Soviet Union tracked the Apollo missions at the Space Transmissions Corps, which was "fully equipped with the latest intelligence-gathering and surveillance equipment." Vasily Mishin, in an interview for the article "The Moon Programme That Faltered," describes how the Soviet Moon program dwindled after the Apollo landings.

NASA funding and prestige: Conspiracy theorists claim that NASA faked the landings to avoid humiliation and to ensure that it continued to get funding. NASA raised "about US$30 billion" to go to the Moon, and Kaysing claimed in his book that this could have been used to "pay off" many people. Since most conspiracists believe that sending men to the Moon was impossible at the time, they argue that landings had to be faked to fulfill Kennedy's 1961 goal, "before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth." In fact, NASA accounted for the cost of Apollo to the US Congress in 1973, totaling US$25.4 billion.

Vietnam War: The American Patriot Friends Network claimed in 2009 that the landings helped the United States government distract public attention from the unpopular Vietnam War, and so crewed landings suddenly ended about the same time that the United States ended its involvement in the war. In fact, the ending of the landings was not "sudden". The war was one of several federal budget items with which NASA had to compete; NASA's budget peaked in 1966, and fell by 42% by 1972. This was the reason the final flights were cut, along with plans for even more ambitious follow-on programs such as a permanent space station and crewed flight to Mars.

The main argument againt the moon landing conspriracy is that for the lie to work, thousands and thousands of people would have to be involved. To organize such a hoax on the American people would take probably as much work as America just landing on the moon. I recently watched a documentary on this topic, and I used to say that we 100% landed on the moon, but the documentary showed some compelling evidence that we did not land on the moon. Now I am not as certain. What do you think? Have we ever been to the moon or was the moon landing just another government lie?