American History

[Crafty_Dog]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m88fG9b5yqU

[ccp]

yes he mentions this he tells us in 'Killing Reagan'

he states Nancy was the Jill Biden of the 80s.

I read Killing Crazy Horse and Killing Patten.  both really good easy reads.

I am waiting to get his book coming out September I think about rating the Presidents.

he ranks Biden 45 out of 46.  James Buchanan  ( possibly our first gay President) as 46.

But of course the lib historians tell us Biden is near the top.   

[ccp]

very good video

I remember I had tears in my eyes when Reagan was shot.

I think the only time I had tears in my eyes for a President was at the very end of reading  Carl Sandberg's biography of Lincoln.

We all know the outcome. Yet reading his book seemed to bring Lincoln to life and the end of the book was the end of his life.  I had to blow my nose and wipe away the tears.

[Crafty_Dog]

https://rumble.com/v56yv51-the-history-behind-the-republican-and-democrat-animal-political-symbols.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=One%20America%20News%20Network

[Crafty_Dog]

https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/a-brief-history-of-presidential-primaries?fbclid=IwY2xjawEecxhleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHYlbuWYGBAQF1l7WVfKYpH6w-4GEdittl9i35kpNQWsL369TEQgLEvEPsQ_aem_7yDx5cySYa1qekvrGIj--A

[ccp]

Something BBG post yesterday about Nixon being a target of the MSM going way back prior to Watergate (Alger Hiss) and this speech was mentioned so I looked it up and am posting it here.
It is interesting but it is 29 minutes long. It does show Nixon's excellent political instincts unlike today's many bozos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpWwgwytdzk

[ccp]

https://www.americanrhetoric.com/top100speechesall.html

[ccp]

Newt could not compliment Rob enough, but I notice the compliments were not necessary returned.

In any case both believe the Warren Commission was a "cover up and Rob through his research apparently in a Apple Podcast concludes there were 4 and maybe 5 shooters in Dallas that day.

He says he has identified 4 and perhaps rogue CIA venture and with something related to mafia.

https://gingrich360.com/2024/08/09/newts-world-episode-737-rob-reiner-on-how-killed-jfk/

We also learn who the lady in 'Harry Met Sally' who said "I'll have what she is having" is.

 


Perhaps, but it is not like this has not been researched before:

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/34988.VERY_BEST_JFK_ASSASSINATION_BOOKS_

[DougMacG]

https://townhall.com/columnists/calthomas/2024/08/22/reagan-the-movie-n2643712

The antidote to Kamala and the commies.

[ccp]

As a person who hated to try to play golf, who hates to watch it, and could care less about golf, I long for a Prez who does not golf.  Indeed, I find people who are addicted to golf somewhat annoying actually.

It may be a long wait:

https://primeputters.com/list-of-u-s-presidents-who-did-not-golf/

We need a Prez who likes to participate in martial arts or tennis!

[DougMacG]

This came up in a discussion with the 'other side', people don't know how far back and how high up the election fraud and cheating goes. 

Source AP, Texas Monthly and Tapes held in the LBJ Library.

https://apnews.com/article/lbj-stolen-election-box-13-mangan-c818e478ec509c65585d3094bda69f96

https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/go-ask-alice/

https://discoverlbj.org/items/browse?collection=43

It wasn't his only cheat and it most certainly changed the course of the nation.

Begs the question:  Was LBJ involved in the JFK assassination?  Release THOSE files and tapes!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The statement comes from Luis Salas, who was the election judge for Jim Wells County’s notorious Box 13, which produced just enough votes in the 1948 Texas Democratic primary runoff to give Johnson the nomination, then tantamount to election, to the U.S. Senate.

“Johnson did not win the election; It was stolen for him. And I know exactly how it was done,” said Salas, now a lean, white-haired 76; then a swarthy 210-pound political henchman with absolute say over vote counts in his Mexican-American, South Texas, precinct.

[ccp]

https://www.newsnationnow.com/entertainment-news/rob-reiner-proof-four-men-jfk/

https://gingrich360.com/2024/08/09/newts-world-episode-737-rob-reiner-on-how-killed-jfk/

[Crafty_Dog]

Cool History - The Veterans Exempt
Veterans Exempt

Also known as the Veterans Exempt Flag, it represents one of the many groups that came together to form a patchwork of American forces. The Veterans Exempt, or Veteran Exempts, was a New York State militia group formed in July of 1812 and led by Captain Melvin Woolsey. The group was made up of Revolutionary War veterans who were otherwise exempt from military service due to their age, but who volunteered their service during the Battle of Plattsburgh nonetheless, and provided a valuable reserve in a time of crisis.

The Battle of Plattsburgh -

Also known as the Battle of Lake Champlain, this major turning point in the War of 1812 took place in Plattsburgh Bay on Lake Champlain.

With Britain already controlling Canada, both the Americans and the British recognized the importance of Plattsburgh as the gateway to New York’s waterways. And so, in early September 1814, a British army of nearly 10,000 well-trained, battle-hardened soldiers entered New York State from Canada and advanced toward Plattsburgh, where they waited to engage with American forces until their naval fleet arrived.

Outnumbered & Underpowered

At dawn on September 11, 1814 the battle began. American ground forces were outnumbered three to one, and the American naval ships were also underpowered. However, in a pivotal strategic move, U.S. Master Commandant Thomas MacDonough anchored his fleet in Plattsburgh Bay, forcing Captain George Downie and the British navy to sail around Cumberland Head peninsula, and allowing the U.S. to strike first.

American Victory

Within 20 minutes, a cannonball from the USS Saratoga struck Britain’s Confiance, killing Captain Downie. The battle continued for another two hours, with the three ships on each side taking on considerable damage.

 However, in yet another brilliant strategic move, MacDonough was able to maneuver the Saratoga so that its unharmed side faced the Confiance. With inexperienced gunners, no leader and severe damage, the Confiance was unable to do the same, and with one final devastating blow, the British ships were forced surrender.

Realizing it would be impossible to control the area and resupply ground forces without control of Lake Champlain, the British Army was forced to retreat, as well, despite a considerable advantage over the Americans.

The American victory on Lake Champlain boosted morale, put an end to Britain’s plans to seize more American territory, and ultimately encouraged peace negotiations between the U.S. and England. On December 24, 1814, the Treaty of Ghent was signed, officially ending the War of 1812.

[Crafty_Dog]

This source is unknown to me:

https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2013/08/04/breaking-history-part-1/

[Crafty_Dog]

Have not read this yet

https://www.independent.org/issues/article.asp?id=408#:~:text=According%20to%20Day%20Of%20Deceit,anchor%20it%20in%20Pearl%20Harbor.

[DougMacG]

Have not read this yet

https://www.independent.org/issues/article.asp?id=408#:~:text=According%20to%20Day%20Of%20Deceit,anchor%20it%20in%20Pearl%20Harbor.

Book is from 2000, interview 2002.

I don't want to believe this even though I'm no fan of FDR. If true, foreknowledge without acting on it sounds to me like being complicit in a mass murder of 2400 American young men, and all the implications that come from that.

[DougMacG]

Free Beacon gives credit to America's first female President.

Are they wrong?

https://freebeacon.com/men-of-the-year/2024-man-of-the-year-jill-biden/

[DougMacG]

Jimmy Carter died at age 100, may he rest in peace.

My first reaction is that I'm not going to go on the forum and post something negative about him.

Instead, here he is in his own words, wrong, dead wrong, speaking badly about another president, Trump. Election denial 2016, right before election denial became, "The Big Lie".in this case, it was a great big lie:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1144621211516903424

In his post Presidency, he certified the Hugo Chavez fraud, destroying a once rich, Latin American nation.

At least our current President can honor the life and career of President Jimmy Carter by saying, he is no longer the worst we ever had.

[ccp]

 The cable coverage seemed to be far more focused telling us how  charitable he was after his Presidency then anything about his presidency.

Surely his post Presidency  was  (at least in part) an emotional exercise trying to preserve his image after being a failed president.

The only good Presidential thing I remember him doing was playing referee between Begin and Sadat with the latter two winning a Peace prize and and Sadat who could be said to deserve the most credit paying with his life.

Yes he was "ahead of his time".  But not especially in a positive way.
He promoted solar, spoke of climate change DEI and much of the LEfT's agenda we see today .
I recall a professor giving a graduation speech promoting Carter as some sort of visionary and at the same time offering an image of Reagan as the destroyer of worlds.

How did that work out?

[DougMacG]

On Carter’s watch, the “misery index” a combination of inflation and unemployment, topped out at 21.98. Instead of his own inept presidency, the Georgia Democrat blamed the people.

“The symptoms of this crisis of the American spirit are all around us,” Carter said on July 15, 1979. “For the first time in the history of our country, a majority of our people believe that the next five years will be worse than the past five years. Two-thirds of our people do not even vote. The productivity of American workers is actually dropping, and the willingness of Americans to save for the future has fallen below that of all other people in the Western world.”
---------------------
While in office, he created the Department of Energy and the Department of Education. In a hotly contested decision, he gave away the American-built Panama Canal. He faced an energy crisis sparked by war in the Middle East and an Arab oil embargo, which Carter called the “moral equivalent of war.”

But critics saw his address to the nation on the energy crisis while wearing a sweater as a sign of weakness in American global leadership. He seemed to ask Americans to get by with less and lower national expectations. In a struggling economy, he provided the equivalent of $11 billion to bail out a failing Chrysler Corporation as Japanese car imports flooded the struggling American automobile market.

In his famous “malaise speech” towards the end of his term, he epitomized the economic malaise the nation was experiencing under his leadership with high gas prices, inflation, and slow economic growth.

Hat tip Instapundit

[ccp]

https://www.newsmax.com/us/jimmy-carter-democrat-president/2024/12/29/id/1193263/
I would definitely rate Carter ABOVE Biden.

While it is expected for Biden to say something good about a former President who just passed, I think Rush might have been able to see something "self serving" about these comments from Joe.

Like when he called Clinton's saying something to the effect to Muhammed Ali about public redemption at the time of his being chosen to light the Olympic Torch (Atlanta, '96) as being so self serving.

[Crafty_Dog]

TimStar
  · 20h  ·

The 1619 Project Hulu series claims the South joined the American Revolution due to fears the British would abolish slavery. This is supposedly a reaction to a proclamation by the colonial Governor of Virginia, lord Dunmore, offering freedom to any slaves who fought for the British. As Phil Magness has pointed out, this ignores many facts, such as: 1) Dunmore was a slaveowner himself. 2) Dunmore issued this proclamation from a Royal Navy ship he'd fled to, after the Revolution had already begun in Virginia.

However, I would add, that by 1776 slavery had only been abolished in England, by judicial decision. It hadn't been abolished in the British Empire, including Canada and the Caribbean. The British anti-slavery movement had just begun, and its first goal was banning the slave trade, not ending slavery itself. And the founders of Britain's anti-slavery movement were all Dissenters, thus barred from holding public office or entering any licensed professions in England at the time. So, they had zero members of Parliament amongst their ranks at the start, which is why they had to recruit William Wilberforce, who not a Dissenter but an evangelical Anglican, thus able to hold office as a Member of Parliament.

This can be shown by how much longer it took for Britain to take any action against slavery. Seventeen years AFTER the Declaration of Independence, Britain invaded Haiti after the Haitian Revolution had driven out the French, hoping to capture it as a slave colony for the British Empire. Haiti had been the richest colony of the French Empire, due to its sugar plantations.

Britain didn't even ban the slave TRADE, much less slavery itself, until 1807, 31 years after the Declaration of Independence. And lest anyone take that to mean Britain was far more anti-slavery than the USA, that is only one year before the US banned the slave trade, which was in 1808. Notably, in the US Constitution passed in 1789, 1808 was set as the earliest year the slave trade could be banned. So, banning the slave trade was contemplated by the US 13 years after the Declaration, and it was done as soon as constitutionally permissible, not later.

As for slavery in the British Empire itself, that wasn't abolished until 1838 to 1848 - 62 years after the Declaration of Independence. Meanwhile, some US states abolished slavery during the Revolutionary War itself, while the rest of the North abolished it shortly after the war. Slavery remained legal in Canada and the British Caribbean for decades after it started getting abolished in the northern USA.

Furthermore, some of the American Indian tribes fought on the British side in the Revolutionary War, including the Mohawks from whom I'm partly descended (a very small part). The Mohawks had slavery, as did many other tribes. So, the British were perfectly willing to ally w/ slavers against the USA in the Revolutionary War.

I'm only aware of a single document from either side of the Revolutionary War in which slavery was actually condemned as such. That was Thomas Jefferson's first draft of the Declaration of Independence, which listed Britain's introduction of slavery into America as one of the many offenses of the Crown. It was removed under protest from the South, but at least it was actually there at first.

I'm not aware of any similar condemnation of slavery from the British side of the war. In fact, one of the British dragoons infamous for killing prisoners in the Carolinas, Banastre Tarleton, went on to become a great opponent of banning the slave trade after returning to Britain and becoming a Member of Parliament

[Crafty_Dog]

HT to our Doug:

https://spectator.org/the-greatest-president-you-never-learned-about/

[DougMacG]

HT to our Doug:

https://spectator.org/the-greatest-president-you-never-learned-about/

Thank you.  Well worth reading. I put an excerpt in the political economics thread. Also want to note this about President Calvin Coolidge, champion of equal rights, with policies that Democrats opposed:

"Coolidge was also a visionary who championed equal rights. Shortly after assuming office in 1923, he declared to Congress that the rights of African Americans were “as sacred as those of any other people” and that it was both a “public and private duty to safeguard those rights.”

He advocated for anti-lynching legislation but was blocked by congressional Democrats. Coolidge’s opposition to racism and prejudice saw millions leave the KKK, and the lynching of blacks decreased. His central piece of Civil Rights legislation was the granting of U.S. Citizenship to Native Americans living on reservations."

In contrast, recall that the prior Democrat Woodrow Wilson was an outright racist who did nothing positive on these fronts.

[DougMacG]

Stephen Green at instapundant, PJ Media, vodkapundit does a nice Cliff Notes recap for President's Day:
https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2025/02/17/rating-the-presidents-on-presidents-day-n4937045

Washington (1789-1797): First president. Revolutionary War hero. 'Nuff said.

Adams, J. (1797-1801): Kept us out of Europe's wars except for an undeclared naval war with France. Expanded army and navy, good. Signed Alien and Sedition Acts into law, bad. One of our most thoughtful Founding Fathers. Worth remembering.

Jefferson (1801-1809): Bought Louisiana, nurtured American industry, kicked Barbary a**. Our most philosophical Founding Father. Worth remembering.

Madison (1809-1817): Draw a nation-saving stalemate with Britain in the War of 1812. Our most politically practical Founding Father, primary author of the Constitution. Worth remembering.

Monroe (1817-1825): Signed Missouri Compromise, outlawing slavery north of 36°30'. Author of the Monroe Doctrine, protecting the Western Hemisphere from further European predations. Last Founder to serve as president. Gave us Florida Man. Worth remembering.

Adams, J.Q. (1825-1829): First nepo baby president. Ambitious big-government agenda (for the time) frustrated by Congress. Served in Congress after losing reelection. Political fecklessness helped give rise to Andrew Jackson and the Democrats. Meh.

Jackson (1829-1837): Ended the Second Bank of the United States, paid off national debt. Was otherwise authoritarian. Maybe not among the worst presidents, but among my least favorites.

Van Buren (1837-1841): Primary founder of the Democrat party, nevertheless opposed slavery. Otherwise forgettable.

Harrison, W.H. (1841-1841): Died one month into only term. Who?

Tyler (1841-1845): Strict constitutionalist, foreign policy successes with Britain and China, accomplished little domestically. Meh.

Polk (1845-1849): Took the western U.S. from Mexico, admitted Texas as a slave state, compromised with Britain over Oregon without war, yet helped set stage for Civil War. Worth remembering.

Taylor (1849-1850): Died after about a year. Meh.

Fillmore (1850-1853): Best remembered as our least-remembered president. Meh.

Pierce (1853-1857): Supported the Kansas–Nebraska Act, laying a foundation of the Civil War. One of the Top 10 worst.

Buchanan (1857-1861): Fiddled while the country slid into Civil War. Top 10 worst.

Lincoln (1861-1865): Saved the Union. 'Nuff said.

Johnson, A. (1865-1869): Impeached. Tried to readmit Southern states with zero protections for freed slaves. Top 10 worst.

Grant (1869-1877): Was a better general and memoirist than a president, but was still an excellent president who took Reconstruction and black civil rights seriously. Second term was sadly marred by scandal. Worth remembering.

Hayes (1877-1881): Won office in the House with a shameful deal to prematurely end Reconstruction. Ordered the Army against striking railroad workers. Meh.

Garfield (1881-1881): Assassinated before accomplishing much. Meh.

Arthur (1881-1885): Signed the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act of 1883 that would help give birth to the Deep State. Meh.

Cleveland (Round One) (1885-1889): Helped birth the regulatory state with the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. Meh.

Harrison, B. (1889-1893): More big government shenanigans with the Sherman Antitrust Act, spendthrift. Sort of a George W. Bush Republican but with a beard. Meh.

Cleveland (Round Two) (1893-1897): Feckless. Meh.

McKinley (1897-1901): Gave us "sound money" with the gold standard, took Spanish territories (Philippines, Puerto Rico, Cuba) in war, showed how to defeat Muslim extremists, annexed Hawaii, great economy. Assassinated in second term. Defeated proto-socialist William Jennings Bryan twice. Worth remembering.

Roosevelt, T. (1901-1909): A force for good on the world stage, activist Progressive in domestic politics. Would go on to fracture GOP and give rise to Woodrow Wilson. Worth remembering but with serious caveats.

Taft (1909-1913): Quite large. Better SCOTUS than POTUS. Meh.

Wilson (1913-1921): Proto-fascist before his stroke, proto-Biden after. Top 10 worst.

Harding (1921-1923): Returned us to pre-Wilson normalcy. Died before accomplishing much. Mostly notable for some corrupt appointees. Meh.

Coolidge (1923-1929): Cleaned up Harding's personnel mess. Worked very hard at making it appear as though the president had little to do. Shrank the regulatory burden. Believed in low taxes and racial equality. Worth remembering.

Hoover (1929-1933): Inherited a great economy but did literally everything wrong when the crisis hit in 1929. Helped created the Depression that FDR would turn into the Great Depression. Top 10 worst.

Roosevelt, F.D. (1933-1945): Excellent war president, terrible negotiator against Stalin. Big-government bully. Fundamentally altered the relationship between the individual and Washington for the worse. Top 10 worst.

Truman (1945-1953): Saved countless lives with The Bomb. Stood firm against Stalin. Undid the New Deal's hostile business climate. Ordered the desegregation of the military, which didn't really "take" until Eisenhower. Coined Orwellian "police action" for Korean War. Worth remembering.

Eisenhower (1953-1961): Like Coolidge, worked very hard to make the presidency look easy. Massive economic boom. Generally successful foreign policy marred by choosing the wrong side in the Suez Crisis. Prescient warning against Military-Industrial Complex. Worth remembering.

Kennedy (1961-1963): Deeply flawed human, fast learner as POTUS. Supporter of civil rights, space program. Chose LBJ for Veep, a decision that still haunts the nation. Assassinated. Worth remembering but with serious caveats.

Johnson, L.B. (1963-1969): Vietnam, radical expansion of FDR's welfare state, dependency advocate, used civil rights "support" as a political cudgel, "guns and butter" approach led to serious inflation, sadly desperate to be loved. Top 10 worst.

Nixon (1969-1974): Both an enabler of and a victim of the Deep State. Sold out his own Veep for temporary political advantage. Sold out Taiwan for Beijing. Took us off the gold standard, worsening LBJ's inflation. Wage and price controls, Keynesian. Plusses: Ended the Vietnam War on decent terms; ended the draft; supported Israel after surprise attack in 1973.

Ford (1973-1977): Excellent restorer of norms. Pardoned Nixon to begin national healing — at great political risk. Hands tied by Democrat Congress when North Vietnam tore up peace agreement. Worth remembering, but mostly as a caretaker when that's what the country needed.

Carter (1977-1981): Malaise. Stagflation. Hostage crisis. Afghanistan. Departments of Energy and Education. Gave away Panama Canal. But he also deregulated airlines and craft beers. Top 10 worst.

Reagan (1981-1989): The Gipper was awesome in almost every way. Won the Cold War without firing a shot. Happy ideological warrior made conservatism cool. Tax cuts. Deregulation. "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" Challenger disaster address. Beset by scandal in his second term, chose a Bush for running mate, Lebanon. Worth remembering? I'll never forget.

Bush, G.H.W. (1989-1993): Oversaw peaceful dissolution of the Warsaw Pact and then the Soviet Union. Gulf War was a model of coalition-building and waging limited war (if less so on the latter). Clarence Thomas but also David Souter. Tax hike, immigration act, regulation, and post-presidency sullied GOP brand. Worth remembering but sometimes for all the wrong reasons.

Clinton (1993-2001): Normalized bimbo eruptions. Surprisingly moderate on domestic policy but only after the country turned against his Big Government projects (Clinton Care, semiautomatic weapons ban) in 1994 election. Corrupt to the core. Gave Beijing MFN status, setting stage for Cold War II. Barely missed out on Top 10 worst due to economic growth and firing hundreds of thousands of government workers.

Bush, G.W. (2001-2009): Innovative warfighting approach that ignored initial Pentagon advice toppled the Taliban in weeks. Took unearned blame for Katrina response, financial meltdown. Iraq War. Big Government Republican — PATRIOT Act, Medicare D, etc. — who did even more than his father to sully the GOP brand. On the bottom end of Meh.

Obama (2009-2016): America's first Red Diaper Baby president poisoned America's race relations, weaponized the federal government, strengthened and made the Deep State his own, radicalized the military's officer corps, normalized the word "trillions," and set multiple landmines that his successors are still setting off. First president to govern from behind the scenes after his departure. I could go on. Top 10 worst.

Trump (Round One) (2017-2021): Three years of solid policy (not to mention SCOTUS picks) undermined by Deep State and his own COVID response.

Biden (2021-2025): Puppet of Obama and Deep State/Progressive NGOs. Mean. Demagogic. Divisive. Senile. Normalized the mutilation of children. Ineffectual except at bankrupting the country and hamstringing the economy with massive regulatory schemes. I could go on some more. Top 10 worst.

Trump (Round Two) (2025-202?): Comeback kid with a vengeance. Will go down as one of the greats, truly transformative, if the next four years fulfill the promise of the last four weeks.

[Body-by-Guinness]

Fantastic cliff notes version, Doug!