Showing posts with label potus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label potus. Show all posts
Oct 28, 2025
May 12, 2025
It's Coming
MAGA loves nothing more than a sweet juicy conspiracy fantasy. They spent 4 years telling us Biden was dead and somebody in a mask was acting as president.
There's no reason for me not to assume they have something ready-made for when Trump finally croaks.
And it's not unreasonable to think it'll be a variation on Judge Roy Bean, and Eva Peron, and JFK Jr, and Elvis, and and and.
The cottage industry that pumps out horseshit "RealThink" will undoubtedly produce hundreds of "sightings".
- a dance club
- a golf course
- a ball game
- McDonald's
- climbing Denali
- returning from a visit to Mars with Elon
The only "saving grace" could be that whoever succeeds him will need to bury him. The new dictator really doesn't want the last guy casting any shadows.
Of course, there's always a fair shot that the new guy will claim that he's in touch with Trump - because why would you not invoke the power and authority of the Holy POTUS?
Fake lord have mercy.
Apr 19, 2025
Clap Back
The prick can't even be bothered
to signal the minimum respect
at the passing of a former President
Three ex-presidents denounce the current one in a two-week stretch
While presidents have been at odds before, there is often a sort of camaraderie among the small club of individuals who have served in the highest office in the land.
Barack Obama urged Americans to resist President Donald Trump’s bullying. Joe Biden warned that Trump is wrecking the “sacred promise” of Social Security. Bill Clinton decried the emphasis on grievances and the need to dominate.
In an extraordinary stretch of just over two weeks, three former presidents have taken to the public stage to sound the alarm against the current occupant of the White House, despite the tradition that former presidents generally refrain from publicly criticizing their successors.
Obama, Biden and Clinton did not explicitly name Trump, but their message was unmistakable. The three Democrats said, as much by their presence as their words, that these are unusual times for American democracy, that norms are being disregarded and extraordinary measures are required. The only living president who has not spoken out since Inauguration Day is Republican George W. Bush, though he has made little secret of his antipathy for Trump.
“Former presidents are uniquely qualified and situated to raise their voices and warn the American people if the country is taking a dangerous turn,” said Timothy Naftali, a historian at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. “Think of them as a sort of advisory council to the people of the United States. And when the advisory council sounds the alarm, the people should listen.”
The ex-presidents made their statements in settings that underlined their points and their alarm.
Obama spoke on April 3 at Hamilton College in Upstate New York, one of the country’s oldest colleges, pushing back against Trump’s pursuit of universities and other institutions and urging those with resources to fight back.
“It is up to all of us to fix this,” Obama said. “It’s not going to be because somebody comes and saves you. The most important office in this democracy is the citizen, the ordinary person who says, ‘No, that’s not right.’”
Biden, speaking in Chicago on Tuesday at the national conference of Advocates, Counselors and Representatives for the Disabled, denounced Elon Musk’s cuts to Social Security, his first public remarks since leaving office. “The last thing [beneficiaries] need from their government is deliberate cruelty,” Biden said, adding, “In fewer than 100 days, this administration has done so much damage and so much devastation.”
Clinton spoke at an emotional ceremony in Oklahoma City on Saturday morning to commemorate the bombing 30 years ago of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, which killed 168 people. Clinton compared the way that city has come together with the current national divisions.
“It’s like everybody is arguing about whose resentments matter most, whose resentments are more valid, when it’s okay to stretch the truth a little bit to gain an advantage,” Clinton said. “If our lives are going to be dominated by the effort to dominate the people we disagree with, we are going to put the 250-year march to a more perfect union at risk.”
Clinton praised the service of federal workers at a time when Trump is slashing the federal workforce. He also made a case for humility. “It does you good every now and then to admit you’re wrong,” he said.
It is unusual for a single president to publicly excoriate his successor, historians say, given the American tradition of seamless transfers of power and the principle that the country has one president at a time. For three to do so in such short order may be unprecedented.
“What is really significant is this is happening before the end of the first 100 days of the Trump presidency,” Naftali said. “Ordinarily, former presidents give the current president space to establish himself and learn the rules of the road. … But these presidents already see the contours of the changes that President Trump wishes to bring.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The three Democratic presidents spoke in terms of fundamental American traditions and values. But their relationship with Trump is also marked by personal animosity, as Trump has aimed attacks and insults at each of them or their family members.
He has repeatedly mocked “Sleepy Joe” Biden as a senile, elderly figure who has no idea what he is saying much of the time. Three months into his second term, Trump continues to regularly disparage Biden.
After Biden defeated him in 2020, Trump falsely claimed the election was stolen, an assertion he still clings to. He has attacked Biden’s son Hunter as a criminal and drug addict, recently ending Secret Service protection for Hunter and Biden’s daughter Ashley. (Hunter acknowledges spiraling into addiction after the death of his brother, Beau.)
When Obama first ran for president, Trump falsely suggested he had not been born in the United States, an assertion seen by many as racist. And he harshly attacked Clinton’s wife, Hillary, his opponent in the 2016 election, calling her “Crooked Hillary” as his crowds chanted, “Lock her up!”
The Democratic presidents, in turn, have said Trump’s violations of legal and democratic principles make him unfit for the presidency. Biden in 2022 called Trump supporters “a threat to our very democracy” and said the GOP under him had turned toward “semi-fascism.” He has said he ran for president in 2020 because of Trump’s support of white supremacists after violence in Charlottesville.
Obama, during the last presidential race, called Trump “a 78-year-old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems” and compared him to former Cuban president Fidel Castro “ranting and raving about crazy conspiracy theories.”
Clinton, who left office 24 years ago, mocked Trump’s age at the Democratic National Convention in August and again on Saturday, noting that he himself is younger. “Donald Trump — a paragon of consistency — is still dividing, blaming and belittling,” Clinton said.
This sort of rancor is not typical for the men who have held the country’s highest office. While presidents have been at odds before, there is often a sort of camaraderie in the small club of individuals who have borne the weight of the job.
After running a bitter race against each other in 1976, Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford developed what Carter called “mutual respect” and “intense personal friendship,” agreeing that the longest to live would speak at the other’s funeral.
When Bush unveiled Clinton’s portrait in 2004, he spoke with affection, saying, “The years have done a lot to clarify the strengths of this man. … Bill Clinton loved the job of the presidency. He filled this house with energy and joy. He’s a man of enthusiasm and warmth.”
Such sentiments have not been much in evidence in recent years, even as the presidents appeared together at Carter’s funeral and Trump’s inauguration, both in January.
Obama, Biden and Clinton have all seemed struck by the sheer frenzy of the first stretch of Trump’s second term. At the end of his talk on Saturday, Clinton stressed that the United States has a wealth of institutions and assets.
He asked, “Are we really going to put them at risk to prove we’re always right and our resentments are more important than someone else’s?”
Apr 6, 2025
A Real POTUS
Siri, show me something a real president does.
@hollywood.smooth NO HONOR OR RESPECT FROM THAT POS. #trump #honor #soldierscominghome ♬ original sound - HOLLYWOOD ★AKA★LOLO💜💙💜💙💜
Jan 21, 2025
Jan 18, 2025
Remember This
The last paragraph from Jack Smith's report:
"The Department's view that the Constitution prohibits the continued indictment and prosecution of a President is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the Government's proof, or the merits of the prosecution, which the Office stands fully behind. Indeed, but for Mr. Trump's election and imminent return to the Presidency, the Office assessed that the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial."
Jan 13, 2025
Today's Quote (redux)
 |
| Teddy Roosevelt |
To announce that there be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.
Jun 9, 2024
Go, Jimmy Go
Jimmy Carter is a man of kindness and grace - a man who's done well at living his values - and apparently, he's one tough motherfucker.
Jimmy Carter condition: ‘No change,’ says his grandson
Jason Carter, the oldest of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter’s 22 grandchildren, updated the former president’s status for Southern Living magazine. He said the 99-year-old is “experiencing the world as best he can as he continues through this process.”
The average hospice stay is around 70 days, although for many it may only be a couple of weeks. Carter entered hospice care in February of 2023.
“God had other plans,” Jason Carter said about his grandfather unexpectedly hanging on for so long. Rosalynn Carter died last November. The two were married for 77 years.
“After 77 years of marriage… I just think none of us really understand what it’s like for him right now,” Jason Carter said.
The younger Carter says his grandfather isn’t awake every day, but still talks to his relatives when he is awake.
Jason Carter recently visited his grandfather, who is receiving care at his modest home in his tiny hometown of Plains, Georgia. He says the two watched an Atlanta Braves game and talked about The Carter Center, as well as the family.
“I said: ‘Pawpaw, you know, when people ask me how you’re doing, I say, ‘Honestly, I don’t know.’ And he kind of smiled and he said, ‘I don’t know, myself.’”
“It was pretty sweet,” he said.
- Carter brought more positive change to the Middle East than any president in the decades before or since
- He signed more legislation than any post–World War II president except LBJ
- He warned of the dangers of climate change before the threat even had a name
- His human rights policy played a huge and largely uncredited role in the collapse of the Soviet Union - more so, perhaps, than any policies enacted by his successor Ronald Reagan.
Jimmy Carter condition: ‘No change,’ says his grandson
- Jason Carter updated his grandfather’s condition
- Nobody expected this long in hospice care, he said
- Carter not always conscious, but still talks to family
Jason Carter, the oldest of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter’s 22 grandchildren, updated the former president’s status for Southern Living magazine. He said the 99-year-old is “experiencing the world as best he can as he continues through this process.”
The average hospice stay is around 70 days, although for many it may only be a couple of weeks. Carter entered hospice care in February of 2023.
“God had other plans,” Jason Carter said about his grandfather unexpectedly hanging on for so long. Rosalynn Carter died last November. The two were married for 77 years.
“After 77 years of marriage… I just think none of us really understand what it’s like for him right now,” Jason Carter said.
The younger Carter says his grandfather isn’t awake every day, but still talks to his relatives when he is awake.
Jason Carter recently visited his grandfather, who is receiving care at his modest home in his tiny hometown of Plains, Georgia. He says the two watched an Atlanta Braves game and talked about The Carter Center, as well as the family.
“I said: ‘Pawpaw, you know, when people ask me how you’re doing, I say, ‘Honestly, I don’t know.’ And he kind of smiled and he said, ‘I don’t know, myself.’”
“It was pretty sweet,” he said.
Feb 19, 2024
POTUS Rankings
Presidents ranked by people who know about such things
- Lincoln - 93.87%
- FD Roosevelt - 90.83%
- Washington - 90.32%
- T Roosevelt - 78.58%
- Jefferson - 77.53%
- Truman - 75.34%
- Obama - 73.8%
- Eisenhower - 73.73%
- LB Johnson - 72.86%
- Kennedy - 68.37%
- Madison - 67.16%
- Clinton - 66.42%
- J Adams - 62.66%
- Biden - 62.66%
- Wilson - 61.8%
- Reagan - 61.62%
- Grant - 60.93%
- Monroe - 60.15%
- GHW Bush - 58.54%
- JQ Adams - 55.41%
- Jackson - 54.7%
- Carter - 54.26%
- Taft - 51.67%
- McKinley - 51.23%
- Polk - 49.83%
- Cleveland - 48.31%
- Ford - 46.09%
- Van Buren - 45.46%
- Hayes - 41.15%
- Garfield - 40.98%
- Harrison - 40.64%
- GW Bush - 40.43%
- Arthur - 39.61%
- Coolidge - 39.38%
- Nixon - 36.41%
- Hoover - 34.08%
- Tyler - 32.99%
- Taylor - 32.97%
- Fillmore - 30.33%
- Harding - 27.76%
- Harrison - 26.01%
- Pierce - 24.6%
- Johnson - 21.56%
- Buchanan - 16.71%
- Trump - 10.92%
Nov 17, 2023
Today's WTF
The judge in Denver found that Trump did indeed engage in an insurrection, but somehow, she opines that doesn't disqualify him under the 14th amendment.
Donald Trump can appear on Colorado’s 2024 Republican presidential primary ballot, judge rules
Similar lawsuits have been filed in other parts of the country, none of which have been successful
Donald Trump incited an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but he can still appear on the Republican presidential primary ballot in Colorado next year, a Denver District Court judge ruled Friday in a case that could have national consequences.
Judge Sarah B. Wallace’s 102-page ruling comes in a lawsuit filed by a liberal political nonprofit based in Washington, D.C. It argued that Trump’s role in the deadly Jan. 6 riot disqualifies him from running for president under the 14th Amendment and that he shouldn’t be allowed to appear on Colorado’s presidential primary ballot.
Section 3 of the amendment bars “officers of the Unites States” who took an “oath … to support the Constitution of the United States” and then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof” from holding federal or state office again.
Wallace found that while Trump “incited an insurrection … and therefore ‘engaged’ in an insurrection,” the 14th Amendment “does not apply to Trump” because he is not an “officer” of the United States.
“Part of the court’s decision is its reluctance to embrace an interpretation which would disqualify a presidential candidate without a clear, unmistakable indication that such is the intent of Section Three,” she wrote.
Wallace’s ruling came after she heard five days of testimony, including from police officers who were at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, two congressmen and constitutional experts.
While Trump is unlikely to win the general election in Colorado in 2024 if he is the GOP nominee — he lost to President Joe Biden, a Democrat, by 13 percentage points in the state in 2020 — the ballot-access case could still have major consequences on the national stage.
The nonprofit that brought the lawsuit, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, which doesn’t disclose its donors, is likely to appeal the ruling. The Colorado GOP, which fought the lawsuit, said it expects Wallace’s finding to be challenged.
Legal experts believe the questions of whether Trump should be allowed to run for president again will eventually land before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Similar lawsuits have been filed in other parts of the country, none of which have been successful.
On Tuesday, Michigan Court of Claims Judge James Redford said deciding whether an event constituted “a rebellion or insurrection and whether or not someone participated in it” are questions best left to Congress and not “one single judicial officer.” A judge, he wrote, “cannot in any manner or form possibly embody the represented qualities of every citizen of the nation — as does the House of Representatives and the Senate.”
Last week, Minnesota’s Supreme Court rejected another effort to block Trump from appearing on Minnesota’s GOP primary ballot next year.
The Colorado lawsuit was brought on behalf of a group of Republican and unaffiliated voters. The defendant was Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat whose office took a neutral stance on the case.
“The court determined that Donald Trump is eligible to be placed on the Colorado ballot in the March presidential primary,” Griswold said in a written statement on Friday. “This decision may be appealed. As secretary of state, I will always ensure that every voter can make their voice heard in free and fair elections.”
Colorado’s presidential primary will be held March 4.
A face that will live in infamy
WTF, lady!?!
I think I kinda get it. Sometimes, the courts are saying "You guys in the legislature have to fix this shit so we can help you", but goddamn - this sounds like such a fucking cop out.
Similar lawsuits have been filed in other parts of the country, none of which have been successful
Donald Trump incited an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but he can still appear on the Republican presidential primary ballot in Colorado next year, a Denver District Court judge ruled Friday in a case that could have national consequences.
Judge Sarah B. Wallace’s 102-page ruling comes in a lawsuit filed by a liberal political nonprofit based in Washington, D.C. It argued that Trump’s role in the deadly Jan. 6 riot disqualifies him from running for president under the 14th Amendment and that he shouldn’t be allowed to appear on Colorado’s presidential primary ballot.
Section 3 of the amendment bars “officers of the Unites States” who took an “oath … to support the Constitution of the United States” and then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof” from holding federal or state office again.
Wallace found that while Trump “incited an insurrection … and therefore ‘engaged’ in an insurrection,” the 14th Amendment “does not apply to Trump” because he is not an “officer” of the United States.
“Part of the court’s decision is its reluctance to embrace an interpretation which would disqualify a presidential candidate without a clear, unmistakable indication that such is the intent of Section Three,” she wrote.
Sorry not sorry, but saying Trump isn't "an officer of the government" may be true now - on Nov 17, 2023 - but on Jan6 he was President Of The United Fucking States. So your whole premise is total fucking bullshit.
Wallace’s ruling came after she heard five days of testimony, including from police officers who were at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, two congressmen and constitutional experts.
While Trump is unlikely to win the general election in Colorado in 2024 if he is the GOP nominee — he lost to President Joe Biden, a Democrat, by 13 percentage points in the state in 2020 — the ballot-access case could still have major consequences on the national stage.
The nonprofit that brought the lawsuit, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, which doesn’t disclose its donors, is likely to appeal the ruling. The Colorado GOP, which fought the lawsuit, said it expects Wallace’s finding to be challenged.
Legal experts believe the questions of whether Trump should be allowed to run for president again will eventually land before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Similar lawsuits have been filed in other parts of the country, none of which have been successful.
On Tuesday, Michigan Court of Claims Judge James Redford said deciding whether an event constituted “a rebellion or insurrection and whether or not someone participated in it” are questions best left to Congress and not “one single judicial officer.” A judge, he wrote, “cannot in any manner or form possibly embody the represented qualities of every citizen of the nation — as does the House of Representatives and the Senate.”
Last week, Minnesota’s Supreme Court rejected another effort to block Trump from appearing on Minnesota’s GOP primary ballot next year.
The Colorado lawsuit was brought on behalf of a group of Republican and unaffiliated voters. The defendant was Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat whose office took a neutral stance on the case.
“The court determined that Donald Trump is eligible to be placed on the Colorado ballot in the March presidential primary,” Griswold said in a written statement on Friday. “This decision may be appealed. As secretary of state, I will always ensure that every voter can make their voice heard in free and fair elections.”
Colorado’s presidential primary will be held March 4.
Aaaaaargh!!!
Jan 24, 2023
Again?
Jesus H Fuq. Pretty goddamned sloppy.
Classified Documents Found at Pence’s Home in Indiana
Can we please stop fucking up the whole State Secrets thing?
It has to be obvious now that several somebodies in various places at various levels of government either aren't paying attention, or are actively fucking with things they're not allowed to fuck with.
Classified Documents Found at Pence’s Home in Indiana
The documents were “inadvertently boxed and transported” to the former vice president’s home at the end of the Trump administration, Mr. Pence’s representative wrote in a letter to the National Archives.
Aides to former Vice President Mike Pence found a small number of documents with classified markings at his home in Indiana during a search last week, according to an adviser to Mr. Pence.
The documents were “inadvertently boxed and transported” to Mr. Pence’s home at the end of President Donald J. Trump’s administration, Greg Jacob, Mr. Pence’s representative for dealing with records related to the presidency, wrote in a letter to the National Archives.
The letter, dated Jan. 18, 2023, said that the former vice president was unaware of the existence of the documents and reiterated that he took seriously the handling of classified materials and wanted to help.
Mr. Jacob wrote that Mr. Pence relied on an outside lawyer after classified documents were found in recent days at the residence and former private office of President Biden. Mr. Jacob also said the lawyer could not specify anything more about the documents because the lawyer had stopped looking once it was clear the documents had classified markings.
The disclosure adds more questions about how classified material is handled at the top levels of government at a moment when Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump are both subjects of special counsel investigations on the matter.
Mr. Trump has been under federal investigation for nearly a year for how hundreds of documents with classified markings, as well as hundreds of pages of presidential records, wound up at his private club and residence, Mar-a-Lago.
Mr. Trump resisted the urging of aides to give boxes of documents with unknown contents to the National Archives. When he eventually turned over 15 boxes, archives officials found hundreds of pages with classified markings. Mr. Trump later faced a grand jury subpoena to turn over any remaining documents, and one of his lawyers wrote a statement saying everything had been turned over. When investigators found evidence that was not the case, the F.B.I. searched his club in August.
Mr. Biden, by contrast, has cooperated since the discovery of documents at his nonprofit offices and then his home. Mr. Jacob, who was Mr. Pence’s general counsel while he was vice president, stressed cooperation in the letter to the National Archives.
Still, aides to Mr. Pence had previously said they were confident that the vice president had not retained any classified documents after he left office.
Aides to former Vice President Mike Pence found a small number of documents with classified markings at his home in Indiana during a search last week, according to an adviser to Mr. Pence.
The documents were “inadvertently boxed and transported” to Mr. Pence’s home at the end of President Donald J. Trump’s administration, Greg Jacob, Mr. Pence’s representative for dealing with records related to the presidency, wrote in a letter to the National Archives.
The letter, dated Jan. 18, 2023, said that the former vice president was unaware of the existence of the documents and reiterated that he took seriously the handling of classified materials and wanted to help.
Mr. Jacob wrote that Mr. Pence relied on an outside lawyer after classified documents were found in recent days at the residence and former private office of President Biden. Mr. Jacob also said the lawyer could not specify anything more about the documents because the lawyer had stopped looking once it was clear the documents had classified markings.
The disclosure adds more questions about how classified material is handled at the top levels of government at a moment when Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump are both subjects of special counsel investigations on the matter.
Mr. Trump has been under federal investigation for nearly a year for how hundreds of documents with classified markings, as well as hundreds of pages of presidential records, wound up at his private club and residence, Mar-a-Lago.
Mr. Trump resisted the urging of aides to give boxes of documents with unknown contents to the National Archives. When he eventually turned over 15 boxes, archives officials found hundreds of pages with classified markings. Mr. Trump later faced a grand jury subpoena to turn over any remaining documents, and one of his lawyers wrote a statement saying everything had been turned over. When investigators found evidence that was not the case, the F.B.I. searched his club in August.
Mr. Biden, by contrast, has cooperated since the discovery of documents at his nonprofit offices and then his home. Mr. Jacob, who was Mr. Pence’s general counsel while he was vice president, stressed cooperation in the letter to the National Archives.
Still, aides to Mr. Pence had previously said they were confident that the vice president had not retained any classified documents after he left office.
Jun 15, 2022
Teddy Roosevelt, POTUS #26
On April 23, 1910 - a year after leaving office - Theodore Roosevelt gave what would become one of his greatest rhetorical triumphs.
The most famous section of his speech still resonates and inspires.
It is not the critic who counts.
Jul 9, 2021
A Reminder
Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was an American military leader who served as the 12th president of the United States from 1849 until his death in 1850. Taylor previously was a career officer in the United States Army, rose to the rank of major general and became a national hero as a result of his victories in the Mexican–American War. As a result, he won election to the White House despite his vague political beliefs. His top priority as president was preserving the Union. He died sixteen months into his term, having made no progress on the most divisive issue in Congress, slavery.
As president, Taylor kept his distance from Congress and his cabinet, even though partisan tensions threatened to divide the Union. Debate over the status of slavery in the Mexican Cession dominated the political agenda and led to threats of secession from Southerners. Despite being a Southerner and a slaveholder himself, Taylor did not push for the expansion of slavery, and sought sectional harmony above all other concerns. To avoid the issue of slavery, he urged settlers in New Mexico and California to bypass the territorial stage and draft constitutions for statehood, setting the stage for the Compromise of 1850. Taylor died suddenly of a stomach disease on July 9, 1850, with his administration having accomplished little aside from the ratification of the Clayton–Bulwer Treaty. Fillmore served the remainder of his term. Historians and scholars have ranked Taylor in the bottom quartile of U.S. presidents, owing in part to his short term of office (16 months), though he has been described as "more a forgettable president than a failed one".
Jul 7, 2021
Happy Anniversary
We can have a long hot vociferous discussion about his presidency - whether or not he did OK, or if the fact that he didn't start any shit with any other countries was a good thing or a weak thing, or if he deserved the blame for this or that, or credit for something else, or whatever.
But there's no debating the fact that Jimmy Carter is a good and decent man.
...or that he got lucky and married well.
Jul 1, 2021
The Rankings Are In
It seems weird, but 45* does not come last in the survey of Best Presidents.
They put him at 41st - just 3 places from the bottom.
A note, if you please: Remember that while there have been 46 "presidencies" (including Biden now), there have been only 45 men who've served as president. Grover Cleveland occupies 2 slots because his terms weren't consecutive.
Despite being impeached twice, former president Donald Trump is not the worst president in U.S. history, according to 142 presidential historians surveyed by C-SPAN, the results of which were released Wednesday.
But the survey doesn’t give Trump much to brag about either. He ranked lower than William Henry Harrison, who was only president for 31 days, and John Tyler, the only former president buried in a coffin draped with the Confederate flag.
So who ranked worse than Trump? According to the historians, presidents Franklin “Bleeding Kansas” Pierce, Andrew “First to Be Impeached” Johnson and James “Failed to Stop the Civil War” Buchanan, who came in last.
To be clear, this was an informal survey whose respondents were selected by C-SPAN, not a scientific poll. Dozens more historians were invited to complete the survey this time than in years past. C-SPAN said this was to reflect “new diversity in race, gender, age and philosophy,” but that also makes it harder to compare it to previous surveys.
Still, the respondents are all distinguished presidential historians covering a broad range of perspectives, and there are insights to gain from their collective opinions.
Even with all the new historians participating, the top and bottom rankings remained unchanged. Since 2009, the top four presidents have been: 1) Abraham Lincoln 2) George Washington 3) Franklin D. Roosevelt and 4) Theodore Roosevelt. (Washington and FDR switched places in the 2000 survey.) The bottom three have been always been Pierce, Johnson and Buchanan, in that order.
The survey is conducted only when there is a change in administration, so that each presidency can be evaluated in its entirety. The historians do not rank the presidents themselves. Instead they are asked to rate each president from 1 to 10 on 10 leadership categories; the averages of all of the ratings are then ranked. The 10 categories are public persuasion, crisis leadership, economic management, moral authority, international relations, administrative skills, relations with Congress, vision/setting an agenda, pursuit of equal justice for all and performance within the context of the times.
Trump got his best average rating on public persuasion, in which he came in 32nd. On moral authority and administrative skills, however, he came in dead last.
Alexis Coe is one of the historians invited to do the survey for the first time, after her well-regarded 2020 book “You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington.” In her newsletter, she said she “jumped for joy” when she received the survey, then “agonized over every rating” for months. What about vision/setting an agenda for James K. Polk, who brought enslaved people to the White House and also annexed Texas? Warren G. Harding certainly rates low on moral authority, she wrote, but how low for his policies and how low for cheating on the first lady?
“I’ve yet to study a president who’s a perfect 10,” Coe wrote.
The president whose reputation has improved the most in the past two decades? That’s Ulysses S. Grant, who started at No. 33 and is now ranked 20th. Grant has had a number of sympathetic biographies in recent years, and these days gets more credit for Reconstruction and his diplomacy than condemnation for his alleged corruption.
No president has fallen quite as much as Grant rose in the same period; but Trump-favorite Andrew Jackson fell the most, from No. 13 to No. 22. It is perhaps a reflection of changing attitudes in the public. Soon Jackson may fall right off the $20 bill.
Other interesting patterns reveal themselves in the rankings. The five presidents from 1933 to 1969 — FDR, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson — rank in the top 11, making it the best stretch of presidents historians say America has had. The worst stretch came from 1837 to 1869, with the notable exception of four-time champion Lincoln.
In 2017, former president Barack Obama entered the ranking at No. 12, though Howard University historian Edna Greene Medford warned The Washington Post at the time that “historians prefer to view the past from a distance, and only time will reveal his legacy.” Four years later, a little distance seems to be doing Obama’s legacy good — he is now ranked No. 10.
President Biden will not be included in the C-SPAN survey until he has left office.
C-SPAN is not the only outfit conducting presidential rankings, and other recent surveys have included Trump before he left office. In 2018, when Boise State University surveyed presidential scholars for its Presidents & Executive Politics Presidential Greatness survey, Trump came in last. And that was before the two impeachments, the coronavirus pandemic and the Capitol insurrection.
Read more Retropolis:
The 10 worst presidents: Besides Trump, whom do scholars scorn the most?
‘A hack job,’ ‘outright lies’: Trump commission’s ‘1776 Report’ outrages historians
The 10th president’s last surviving grandson: A bridge to the nation’s complicated past
‘His Accidency’: The first president to die in office and the constitutional confusion
Jun 28, 2021
AKA: Consciousness Of Guilt
Glenn Kirschner, on Bill Barr's interview in The Atlantic:
And be sure to catch the Mitch McConnell piece of it (starting at about 6:50).
These guys crooked as fuck. I'll go ahead with a blanket condemnation, saying all politicians are first and foremost concerned with gaining and keep and wielding power. The cliche is true - you can't do as much if you don't win the election.
OK fine, but when you have to stay in power in order to stay out of prison, you've taken things just a few steps too far.
Jan 21, 2021
How We Got Here
Joe Biden is one of those guys who sees the shit that goes on and tries to do something about it.
Susan Bro recognized the palpable anger and open bigotry on display in the mob that attacked the United States Capitol this month. It reminded her of the outpouring of hate that killed her daughter, Heather Heyer.
That was in 2017, when white supremacists, self-avowed neo-Nazis and right-wing militias marched on Charlottesville in the name of intolerance — and former President Donald Trump — and one of them drove a car into a crowd, fatally injuring Ms. Heyer. More than three years later, Ms. Bro and other Charlottesville residents say they have a message for the nation after the latest episode of white violence in Washington, and for President Biden, who is emphasizing themes of healing and unity in the face of right-wing extremism.
Healing requires holding perpetrators accountable, Ms. Bro said. Unity follows justice.
“Look at the lessons learned from Charlottesville,” she said. “The rush to hug each other and sing ‘Kumbaya’ is not an effective strategy.”
The Capitol attack and Mr. Trump’s handling of it felt eerily familiar to many residents of Charlottesville, where the 2017 Unite the Right rally not only forever tied the former president to violence committed by white extremists, but also inspired Mr. Biden to run for president and undertake “a battle for the soul of this nation.”
After the rally and Ms. Heyer’s death, Mr. Trump declared that there were “very fine people on both sides” of the conflict and defended the actions of the right-wing mob. It was all a harbinger of things to come: the mix of misinformation and prejudice that Mr. Trump had inspired among a segment of Republicans; the reliance on false equivalency with progressive protesters; the willingness to use the bully pulpit of the presidency to inflame tensions; and the continued episodes of violence.
Charlottesville also showed the electoral backlash that Mr. Trump’s actions inspired, and how a movement to affirm multiracial democracy has grown in response to threats. Locally, a surge of activism helped elect the city’s first Black female mayor, Nikuyah Walker, and changes have been instituted like the creation of a civilian review police board.
Mr. Biden regularly invoked Charlottesville during a campaign in which he reclaimed five states that Mr. Trump had won in 2016. And though Mr. Biden nodded to the violence here and at the Capitol during his inaugural address on Wednesday, he framed the solutions in the sort of terms that Ms. Bro questioned, demonstrating a belief that kindness and compassion could overcome systemic discrimination.
“I know speaking of unity can sound to some like a foolish fantasy these days,” Mr. Biden said. “I know the forces that divide us are deep and they are real. But I also know they are not new. Our history has been a constant struggle between the American ideal that we all are created equal, and the harsh, ugly reality that racism, nativism, fear and demonization have long torn us apart.”
Mr. Biden’s tone was echoed by several other inaugural speakers, who delivered a clear and unified message: Democracy was tested in Mr. Trump’s administration, through events like the mob violence in Charlottesville and Washington. They argued that Mr. Biden had been elected to directly confront it — and that he knew the gravity of the challenge.
“We can join forces, stop the shouting, and lower the temperature,” Mr. Biden said. “For without unity, there is no peace — only bitterness and fury.”
But in interviews this week, Charlottesville activists, religious leaders and civil rights groups who endured the events of 2017 urged Mr. Biden and the Democratic Party to go beyond seeing unity as the ultimate political goal and prioritize a sense of justice that uplifts the historically marginalized. When Mr. Biden called Ms. Bro on the day he entered the presidential race in 2019, she pressed him on his policy commitments to correcting racial inequities. She declined to endorse him, she said, focused more on supporting the antiracism movement than any individual candidate.
Local leaders say this is the legacy of the “Summer of Hate,” as the white supremacist actions and violence of 2017 are known in Charlottesville. When the election of Mr. Trump and the violence that followed punctured the myth of a post-racial America, particularly among white liberals, these leaders committed themselves to the long arc of insulating democracy from white supremacy and misinformation.
If he can be faulted for anything, it's that his sense of indignation-spurring-immediacy has made him a little over-reactive in the past.
I think his instincts are good, especially those for peace-making, but he can come off as a little impetuous, and as a painter of blue skies and rainbows.
And if he manages to stay out of the trap where you end up totally uncool for having tried to be cool, then he's got a real shot.
The really good news so far is that he's able to choose his gang from a huge talent pool of qualified professionals who're eager to jump in and serve.
We'll see.
NYT: (pay wall)
Susan Bro recognized the palpable anger and open bigotry on display in the mob that attacked the United States Capitol this month. It reminded her of the outpouring of hate that killed her daughter, Heather Heyer.
That was in 2017, when white supremacists, self-avowed neo-Nazis and right-wing militias marched on Charlottesville in the name of intolerance — and former President Donald Trump — and one of them drove a car into a crowd, fatally injuring Ms. Heyer. More than three years later, Ms. Bro and other Charlottesville residents say they have a message for the nation after the latest episode of white violence in Washington, and for President Biden, who is emphasizing themes of healing and unity in the face of right-wing extremism.
Healing requires holding perpetrators accountable, Ms. Bro said. Unity follows justice.
“Look at the lessons learned from Charlottesville,” she said. “The rush to hug each other and sing ‘Kumbaya’ is not an effective strategy.”
The Capitol attack and Mr. Trump’s handling of it felt eerily familiar to many residents of Charlottesville, where the 2017 Unite the Right rally not only forever tied the former president to violence committed by white extremists, but also inspired Mr. Biden to run for president and undertake “a battle for the soul of this nation.”
After the rally and Ms. Heyer’s death, Mr. Trump declared that there were “very fine people on both sides” of the conflict and defended the actions of the right-wing mob. It was all a harbinger of things to come: the mix of misinformation and prejudice that Mr. Trump had inspired among a segment of Republicans; the reliance on false equivalency with progressive protesters; the willingness to use the bully pulpit of the presidency to inflame tensions; and the continued episodes of violence.
Charlottesville also showed the electoral backlash that Mr. Trump’s actions inspired, and how a movement to affirm multiracial democracy has grown in response to threats. Locally, a surge of activism helped elect the city’s first Black female mayor, Nikuyah Walker, and changes have been instituted like the creation of a civilian review police board.
Mr. Biden regularly invoked Charlottesville during a campaign in which he reclaimed five states that Mr. Trump had won in 2016. And though Mr. Biden nodded to the violence here and at the Capitol during his inaugural address on Wednesday, he framed the solutions in the sort of terms that Ms. Bro questioned, demonstrating a belief that kindness and compassion could overcome systemic discrimination.
“I know speaking of unity can sound to some like a foolish fantasy these days,” Mr. Biden said. “I know the forces that divide us are deep and they are real. But I also know they are not new. Our history has been a constant struggle between the American ideal that we all are created equal, and the harsh, ugly reality that racism, nativism, fear and demonization have long torn us apart.”
Mr. Biden’s tone was echoed by several other inaugural speakers, who delivered a clear and unified message: Democracy was tested in Mr. Trump’s administration, through events like the mob violence in Charlottesville and Washington. They argued that Mr. Biden had been elected to directly confront it — and that he knew the gravity of the challenge.
“We can join forces, stop the shouting, and lower the temperature,” Mr. Biden said. “For without unity, there is no peace — only bitterness and fury.”
But in interviews this week, Charlottesville activists, religious leaders and civil rights groups who endured the events of 2017 urged Mr. Biden and the Democratic Party to go beyond seeing unity as the ultimate political goal and prioritize a sense of justice that uplifts the historically marginalized. When Mr. Biden called Ms. Bro on the day he entered the presidential race in 2019, she pressed him on his policy commitments to correcting racial inequities. She declined to endorse him, she said, focused more on supporting the antiracism movement than any individual candidate.
Local leaders say this is the legacy of the “Summer of Hate,” as the white supremacist actions and violence of 2017 are known in Charlottesville. When the election of Mr. Trump and the violence that followed punctured the myth of a post-racial America, particularly among white liberals, these leaders committed themselves to the long arc of insulating democracy from white supremacy and misinformation.
Jan 20, 2021
Knives Knives Everywhere
So we kinda saw what was probably supposed to be the big push for plutocracy.
The shit Qult45 pulled (and didn't pull off) in DC on Jan6 is putting a lot of Republicans at odds with each other.
I haven't sorted it out yet, and I'm not expecting I'll every get it all sorted out, but this from National Review is basically a full on declaration of the internal war(s) that we should be watching the GOP struggle with for a while.
NRO:
Witless Ape Rides Helicopter
Well, that sucked.
Memo to MAGA and all its myriad fellow-travelers: Maybe Death of a Salesman as presented by Leni Riefenstahl just wasn’t the show Americans were dying to tune into this season.
And, while we’re at it, maybe turning your party over to Generalissimo Walter Mitty, his hideous scheming spawn, and the studio audience from Hee-Haw was not just absolutely aces as a political strategy.
Think on it, Cletus. I know this whole thing still sounds like your idea of a good time — how’s that working out for you?
Let me refresh your memory: On the day Donald Trump was sworn in as president, Republicans controlled not only the White House but both houses of Congress. They were in a historically strong position elsewhere as well, controlling both legislative chambers in 32 states. They pissed that away like they were midnight drunks karaoke-warbling that old Chumbawumba song: In 2021, they control approximately squat. The House is run by Nancy Pelosi. The Senate is run, as a practical matter, by Kamala Harris. And Joe Biden won the presidency, notwithstanding whatever the nut-cutlet guest-hosting for Dennis Prager this week has to say about it.
Donald Trump is, in fact, the first president since Herbert Hoover to lead his party to losing the presidency, the House, and the Senate all in a single term. Along with being the first president to be impeached twice and the first game-show host elected to the office, that’s Trump’s claim to the history books. Well, that and 400,000 dead Americans and the failed coup d’état business.
As for the ratings Trump fears and worships, ask the Third Lady: Melania Trump departs the scene the most unpopular presidential wife in recorded statistical history.
You Trumpish Republicans sneered that Joe Biden was too corrupt and too senescent to win a presidential campaign, that he was one part mafioso and one part turnip.
That turnip kicked your dumb asses from Delaware to D.C.
So you rioted. Real smart move, Cletus.
Five Americans are dead. Barricades have been erected around the Capitol. Thousands of federal troops have been deployed to the streets of Washington. State capitols have been obliged to prepare for siege. Americans blame you for this — and they are not wrong.
“Trust the plan,” the QAnon cultists say. Is this what you were planning? I know you are stupid, but you are not that stupid.
“Oh, but he fights!” you’ll say — over and over and over. He didn’t fight — he tweeted. He’s ten feet tall on social media and a pushover in real life. Trade deficit: up. Unemployment rate: rising. Abortion rate: rising. Beijing: rising. The coronavirus body-count: rising.
But he sure did tweet a lot!
And he pardoned Roger Stone — at least he took care of that pressing national priority.
“But the judges!” you protest. Fair point: Trump’s absurd attempts to overturn the election through specious legal challenges were laughed out of court by the very men and women he appointed to the bench. Even his judges think he’s a joke.
Everybody has figured that out. Except you.
And so, goodbye, Donald J. Trump, the man who wanted to be Conrad Hilton but turned out to be Paris Hilton. Au revoir, Ivanka and Jared, Uday and Qusay — there’s a table for four reserved for you at Dorsia. So long, Melania — it’s still not entirely clear what you got out of this, but I hope it was worth it. A fond farewell to Ted Cruz’s reputation and Mike Pence’s self-respect, Lindsey Graham’s manhood and Fox News’s business model. In with “Dr.” Jill Biden, out with “Dr.” Sebastian Gorka.
Good night, ladies, good night, sweet ladies, good night, good night.
I’m sure we’ll all meet again. But I’d really rather we didn’t.
Witless Ape Rides Helicopter
Well, that sucked.
Memo to MAGA and all its myriad fellow-travelers: Maybe Death of a Salesman as presented by Leni Riefenstahl just wasn’t the show Americans were dying to tune into this season.
And, while we’re at it, maybe turning your party over to Generalissimo Walter Mitty, his hideous scheming spawn, and the studio audience from Hee-Haw was not just absolutely aces as a political strategy.
Think on it, Cletus. I know this whole thing still sounds like your idea of a good time — how’s that working out for you?
Let me refresh your memory: On the day Donald Trump was sworn in as president, Republicans controlled not only the White House but both houses of Congress. They were in a historically strong position elsewhere as well, controlling both legislative chambers in 32 states. They pissed that away like they were midnight drunks karaoke-warbling that old Chumbawumba song: In 2021, they control approximately squat. The House is run by Nancy Pelosi. The Senate is run, as a practical matter, by Kamala Harris. And Joe Biden won the presidency, notwithstanding whatever the nut-cutlet guest-hosting for Dennis Prager this week has to say about it.
Donald Trump is, in fact, the first president since Herbert Hoover to lead his party to losing the presidency, the House, and the Senate all in a single term. Along with being the first president to be impeached twice and the first game-show host elected to the office, that’s Trump’s claim to the history books. Well, that and 400,000 dead Americans and the failed coup d’état business.
As for the ratings Trump fears and worships, ask the Third Lady: Melania Trump departs the scene the most unpopular presidential wife in recorded statistical history.
You Trumpish Republicans sneered that Joe Biden was too corrupt and too senescent to win a presidential campaign, that he was one part mafioso and one part turnip.
That turnip kicked your dumb asses from Delaware to D.C.
So you rioted. Real smart move, Cletus.
Five Americans are dead. Barricades have been erected around the Capitol. Thousands of federal troops have been deployed to the streets of Washington. State capitols have been obliged to prepare for siege. Americans blame you for this — and they are not wrong.
“Trust the plan,” the QAnon cultists say. Is this what you were planning? I know you are stupid, but you are not that stupid.
“Oh, but he fights!” you’ll say — over and over and over. He didn’t fight — he tweeted. He’s ten feet tall on social media and a pushover in real life. Trade deficit: up. Unemployment rate: rising. Abortion rate: rising. Beijing: rising. The coronavirus body-count: rising.
But he sure did tweet a lot!
And he pardoned Roger Stone — at least he took care of that pressing national priority.
“But the judges!” you protest. Fair point: Trump’s absurd attempts to overturn the election through specious legal challenges were laughed out of court by the very men and women he appointed to the bench. Even his judges think he’s a joke.
Everybody has figured that out. Except you.
And so, goodbye, Donald J. Trump, the man who wanted to be Conrad Hilton but turned out to be Paris Hilton. Au revoir, Ivanka and Jared, Uday and Qusay — there’s a table for four reserved for you at Dorsia. So long, Melania — it’s still not entirely clear what you got out of this, but I hope it was worth it. A fond farewell to Ted Cruz’s reputation and Mike Pence’s self-respect, Lindsey Graham’s manhood and Fox News’s business model. In with “Dr.” Jill Biden, out with “Dr.” Sebastian Gorka.
Good night, ladies, good night, sweet ladies, good night, good night.
I’m sure we’ll all meet again. But I’d really rather we didn’t.
Nov 7, 2020
Election Update
Still a ways to go - there will be tantrums and lawsuits and possibly violent outbursts - but we're gettin' there.
And btw - we just elected the first-ever woman Veep, and the first-ever POC Veep.
And I'm tickled all to pieces to say,
disregard all that shit down there.
Where We At?
Simple answers: We don't know where we're at. We only know we're not where we need to be, but we might have a bead on it, and there are some faint glimmering indications that we're moving slowly in the right direction.
We think.
We hope.
Maybe.
Dunno yet.
The AP has made the call for Biden in Arizona, but no one else has joined them in that one.
The prospects that North Carolina will flip are very dim, and nobody knows what the fuck Alaska's doing.
So that gives us 3 states to concentrate on: Pennsylvania, Georgia and Nevada.
Let me just take a short moment right here to reiterate my thinking on how much the Electoral College sucks.
I'm all for protecting the rights of minority parties, but the EC (and the Senate) have been unduly and unfairly and dishonorably weaponized to make them tools of oppression when the GOP is in power, and an effective bagful of sand that an asshole like Mitch McConnell can pour in the gearbox when they aren't.
This shit has to change.
Anyway, Biden is up, and even though we're going to have a shitty time of it for a while, eventually he's going to be President-Elect Joe Biden.
Prob'ly.
Did everybody notice the cutesy bullshit of Nevada actually putting "none of the above" on their ballot?
You want better candidates? Fine - me too. But you know what - maybe you could get up off your fucking ass and go find one for us. I've got zero patience for that whiny-butt bullshit.
Show up or shut up.
Speaking of Showing Up: There're 210 million adults here in USAmerica Inc, and while this election turned us out in big numbers, Voter Participation still came in under 70%.
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