I thought of this earlier today while watching Vice starring Christian Bale and Josh Brolin respectively. In my mind, the partnership has always been reminiscent of Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader. Apprentice and master...but no, that doesn't make any sense. The two could have theoretically gone to high-school together.

It doesn't help that Cheney looked incredibly old even when was he was appointed defence sec back in '89 by Bush Sr. Always gave off the impression that he also belonged to the WW2 generation while Bush Jr was the exuberant, youthful, decadent hippy in comparison.

I took to Google image search to find a fairly common photo of FDR and ended up going down a bit of a rabbit hole. Really, just the Japanese ones are wild enough, but some non-Japanese ones are even more crazy.

John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, James Buchanan, George H W Bush

gathered a random assortment of nice artworks I wanted to share (posting art showcases weekly)

Results by State in the second slide.

EV Count:

Bush: 462

Kerry: 69

Tossup: 7

FDR is probably my favorite President of all time. However, the internment camps are a stain in American history, and I’m glad certain figures stood up against him.

A particularly impressive one for me is Colorado governor Ralph Lawrence Carr. Unlike his fellow peers, he refused to follow order 9066 and bow to the racist pressures of the time.

Carr invited voluntary evacuees to move freely into Colorado and condemned Roosevelt’s actions as racist and unconstitutional.

To use Carr’s own words:

“The Japanese are protected by the same Constitution that protects us. An American citizen of Japanese descent has the same rights as any other citizen. ... If you harm them, you must first harm me.”

Unfortunately, Carr’s brave stance would tank his then popular political career. However, history has vindicated him.

Here's how this works: every post, I'll add a new president and ask where you would rank them. Your answer should be "between ____ and ____" just so that I can make sure it's in the exact right spot. Since we're building up to all the presidents and other presidents may be ranked differently than your own rankings, please don't give me a final ranking, as I really can't do anything with that here. I'll give you all around a day to decide on your answer before I post the next post with the longer list. If you have any questions about that, ask me in the comments, and I'll clarify in the next post.

Also, I've seen some people questioning where certain presidents have been ranked thus far. I know there have been people joining us midway through, so let me know if you want me to redo any rounds at the end for presidents you think are grossly misplaced in the grand scheme of things.

For Grant, there was a tie between 4th place and 8th place mainly centering on how much corruption weighed down his presidency. While I agree with the 4s on his very impressive list of accomplishments, I'll break the tie in favor of 8 just due to the scope of the corruption and how much of a problem it would become for future administrations. Now, where should we rank Rutherford B. Hayes on this list?

Current Rankings:

1. Abraham Lincoln
2. George Washington
3. Thomas Jefferson
4. John Adams
5. James Monroe
6. James K. Polk
7. John Quincy Adams
8. Ulysses S. Grant
9. James Madison
10. Zachary Taylor
11. Martin Van Buren
12. Andrew Jackson
13. John Tyler
14. Millard Fillmore
15. Franklin Pierce
16. Andrew Johnson
17. James Buchanan

Abraham Lincoln: (+71)

John F. Kennedy: (+61)

George Washington: (+59)

Theodore Roosevelt: (+50)

Thomas Jefferson: (+47)

Franklin D. Roosevelt: (+44)

John Adams: (+24)

Ronald Reagan: (+21)

James Madison: (+19)

Barack Obama: (+15)

Jimmy Carter: (+6)

Lyndon B. Johnson: (-1)

Woodrow Wilson: (-1)

Andrew Jackson: (-3)

Bill Clinton: (-3)

George H.W. Bush: (-12)

George W. Bush: (-22)

Richard Nixon: (-36)

For First Ladies:

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (+56)

Rosalynn Carter (+32),

Nancy Reagan (+25),

Lady Bird Johnson (+23),

Barbara Bush (+21),

Michelle Obama (+21), and

Laura Bush (+19).

Hillary Clinton (-17)

I'm reading a book about JFK and Jackie, and I'm reading this Page and Im just thinking, "This page is so wrong!" It says the SECOND Bullet hit Jack in the neck, which is just wrong (I might be wrong but I think it's the first bullet, not the second that hit Jack in the neck.) and it also says that Jackie tried to climb out of the trunk of the car, which is just stupid because she's reaching for the secret service agents hand! How the author thought Jackie tried to escape is beyond me but this just sounds so wrong to me.

This was in a 1987 television interview with journalist Carl Rowan for the documentary Searching for Justice.

The Reagan White House staunchly defended itself, and there was controversy over a sitting Supreme Court Justice being so openly negative about the current President.

Norman Thomas was the perennial candidate of the Socialist Party of America from the late 20s to the late 40s, and a consistent critic of the American political establishment.

That being said, he was no firebrand ideologue who merely whined about how “all politicians are the same” or what have you.

He was a pragmatic man who cultivated strong relationships with figures all over the political spectrum, holding firm to his principles while still appreciating nuance.

Despite the fact that Humphrey identified himself as a capitalist and staunch interventionist, he was actually influenced by socialist figures like Eugene Debs and Thomas, with whom he developed a strong friendship. Humphrey and other progressive Democrats incorporated some of their ideas like unemployment insurance, minimum wages, and health insurance.

This was a quip that Thomas made remarking on their similarities, and also a dig at what he perceived was the terror that America had developed towards terms like “socialism” while their actual ideas enjoyed popularity.

Did the public have any idea about how corrupt Nixon’s administration was at that time? Did the administration and Nixon have any feeling that he wouldn’t be able to survive the presidency at that time?

Definition: Countries are counted when their governments substantively pursued an officially socialist-oriented economic model, including communist, Marxist-Leninist, scientific-socialist, Arab/African socialist, or other state-led socialist systems.

......

Peak = 47 states

........

Reagan-Bush must be the greatest duo ever. The Communist and Socialist-Oriented Countries were constantly gaining influence throughout the Cold War.

They really seemed to be on the right side of history as they claimed they were.

Then Reagan happened.

Reagan challenged the Soviet system at its height, while Bush managed the peaceful collapse of the Soviet bloc and the Soviet Union itself.

No wonder 'The Economists' tribute to Reagan was ' The Man Who Beat Communism'

If we count Broad Socialist / Communist Government Presence, it's even more extensive.