Presidential Nicknames: Critical Musings

 "Georgie" Washington? 

 

 The U.S. press is increasingly referring to President Biden as "President Joe Biden (Italics mine).  While this nicknaming of the President has precedent, and Mr. Biden has referred to himself as "Joe," there is something slightly seedy, and  rather more than undignified about this shortening of President Joseph Biden's name.      

    However this argument turns out, it set me to wondering what nicknames might be given to Presidents of the past, and how that could change the way we look at them. Here are some examples:

 

• Presidents Georgie Washington, Bush, and Bush
• Presidents Jack Adams, Jack Q. Adams, and Jack Tyler 
• Jim Madison, and Jim Monroe, Jim Buchanan
  
• Andy Jackson and Andy Johnson
• Bill Hank Harrison
• Milly Fillmore
• Jimmy Polk
• Uly Grant
• Ruth Hayes
• Jim Garfield
• Chet Arthur
• Ben Harrison
• Grove Cleveland
• Woody Wilson
• Warren Gamey Harding
• Herbie Hoover
• Frank Roosevelt
• Lyn Johnson
• Rich Nixon
• Barry Obama
• Donny Trump

    If this list is long, it is because we have had many Presidents (whew). 

 

Press -- With No Other Major Races Going On -- Opines Wildly About Virginia Governor's Race

                                            Terry McAuliffe, former Governor of Virginia

Quickly --

 

  ... polls have shown McAuliffe, who previously served as governor from 2014 to 2018, tied with Republican former business executive Glenn Youngkin with the election a week away — and the president's own popularity is on the decline.

     --St Louis Post-Dispatch

 

Here we have a typical article from the press these last days on the race for Virginia governor.  I have been following the various polls on Nate Silver's Five Thirty-eight. I have paid special attention to the aggregate of all polls, which I find to be about the best way to account for the variations in poll results.  

 What the Post-Dispatch (otherwise a pretty good newspaper) does not say is that Youngkin's numbers have also gone down in recent days, and that McAuliffe still leads.  In fact, McAuliffe has led the entire way, although by a smaller margin recently.  

But this can partly be explained by Youngkin becoming more known. It is telling, moreover, that his numbers are deflating slightly.  It seems to me that is not what a candidate wants to see one week before the election.  No wonder Youngkin's approach is increasing in intensity and, dishonesty* -- and ugliness.   

*For example, his latest ad inaccurately accuses Mr. McAuliffe of wanting the government to come betwee parents and their children.  This is simly preposterous.  (I plan to have a source for this soon.) 

 

 

Frankly, he's a menace.

 The vast majority of voters all hoped he would disappear from the limelight.  Sadly, this was not to be.  And it appears it will not be until stronger political force is brought to bear. 

No one wishes him any physical harm.  But the general populace must take him much more seriously.  First, the media must take his threat much more seriously.  

More later

 **********************

Meanwhile, please see post here about Robert Kagan article.  

Tony Bennett Does It One More Time

 Here is Tony Bennett, master songster on his 95th birthday not only singing through difficulties, but reaching the top of the mountain.  Mr. Bennett here shows that not only could he still perform marvelously, but that even at an advanced age, one can still grow and develop beautifully.

Listen to the shine, the confidence.  That is experience building on experience,  and showing forth on a new day in a new way.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=yNrvXw9juNs&feature=share

Courtesy CBS

Americans’ Trust in Media Drops to New Low

While the media obsesses over President Biden’s approval ratings, trust in the media has fallen to the second lowest level since 1997.

Let us not forget the media’s awarding Donald Trump with over a billion dollars in free publicity in the 2016 campaign.  

In contrast, there is little mention now of Mr. Biden’s accomplishments, to wit, success in seeing that vast numbers of Americans have received the COVID vaccine resulting in millions getting back to work; the shipment of free vaccine to countries all around the globe; a scandal-free administration; a constitutional government; a crack-down on violations of anti-trust law;  a comprehensive infrastructure plan;  economic aid to the newly unemployed, plus cities and states; and the list goes on.

One wishes gratitude was as prized a value as the glorification of opinion numbers.

Trust in Media Sinks 

 https://news.gallup.com/poll/355526/americans-trust-media-dips-second-lowest-record.aspx

President Biden’s Approval Numbers Improve

 With the Afghanistan withdrawal fading into the background, Americans seem more likely to support the President in a new NPR/Marist poll.

Americans do want their President to succeed, and President Biden’s strengths appear to be winning over more people at this time.

President Biden’s Approval Numbers Recover Somewhat

Blockbuster Washington Post Essay on The Current Threat to the Constitution

 Coming Soon:  Bombshell article by Robert Kagan explains in detail the current threat to our democracy -- why it matters, and some suggested actions to prevent the toppling of our democracy.

URGENT

More later.  

(Source:  Washington Post, Sunday, September 26, 2021, Section A)

Biden Approval Rating Higher Than Trump’s Low; Media Unjust — Again

 Quick link —

https://news.yahoo.com/fact-check-bidens-approval-rating-190153653.html

Video Special: Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior // Sounds Like Reign

It's all... one world.

Reconstruction Revisted (Part 3): The End

 The Great Strike of 1877 brought out the worst of the new American system.  This new duopoly was the alliance between the federal government and the Republican Party.  And this Republican Party had became the party of big business in relatively quick order.

As strikes of aggrieved workers spread across the country and persisted, the Hayes administration was besieged with anxious requests from governors, towns, and business interests to protect factories and railroads from the strikers, both violent and non-violent.  President Hayes responded by sending in the army with few strings attached.  This allowed authorities to side with business owners against the workers, and after many battles -- pitched and otherwise -- to quash the workers' movement, if only temporarily.  

Thus, we see that along with suppression of the American Natives, every-day hard-working Americans were also confronted with armed encampments of federals. Gone was the army effort to protect Negro rights. In its place was a new order:  a unified Federal government and capitalist front determined to destroy workers' rights.  

We live with this legacy yet today. 

Re-examing Reconstruction: Part 2

     Eric Foner in his book, Reconstruction, summarizes the elevation of Hayes to the Presidency after a protracted political and legal battle.  To summarize Foner in turn, the gifted author places the installation of Hayes as more the end of a process starving the Reconstruction effort, rather than the beginning of it.  Then there was the fairly rapid turn away from the needs of Freedmen (former slaves) to other efforts, such as the extirpation of the Nez Perce in the West.  And in this effort, Hayes was more than complicit in that he was the Guiding Chief of the Army which pursued them.  

     Thus, after the election of Hayes, the blacks became for all intents and purposes a forgotten race for one hundred years.  

to be continued

Re-examining Reconstruction

                                                            President Rutherford B. Hayes

 

  Briefly --

 PART 1

 For those who may not know, Reconstruction was the period in the U.S. following the Civil War during which the federal government attempted to assist the South in rebuilding its society and economy.  

I have just been reading about the Tilden-Hayes controversy in the Presidential election of 1876, by Eric Foner.  This is the most complete account I have read so far.  The story is complicated in its techanical aspects, but the out-come was that Hayes would be President and Reconstruction would largely come to an end.  

I'll have more to say about how this affects my view of President Hayes later. 

It Is Becoming Clearer: Big Media Is a Big Problem

 Big media -- the system whereby major media companies are bought and sold in a way which limits political discourse -- is becoming a big problem.  

Take for example news in today's New York Times  that a German (!) company is buying Politico, an online news source valued by many for its insider information and astute commentary.  This is the kind of transaction simply should not be.  

This sickening buying-in (quite literally) to Washignton, D.C. politics by a foreign company raised instant alarms with me. Is there no hope for prohibiting such journalistic intrusions?

There is at least one important person who wants to take on Big Media -- in this case Big New media.  That one person is none other than President Joe Biden, and the company is none other than Facebook.  Our home-grown cable news channel this evening alerted me to the desire of the Biden Administration to break up Facebook into independent and smaller companies which would be much less likely to dominate the spread of minsisnformation, for one thing.  

May this effort succeed.  And may it lead to a more thorough cleaning-up of the rotten power system of Big Media in America. 

Bay of Pigs Fiasco Led to a Kennedy Reconsideration

   Espeicially for those interested in world affairs -- 

  In these confusing days of pandemic and other world uncertainties, it may be useful to review the aftermath of the 1961 fiasco at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba.  This invasion, overseen ultimately by the new and inexperienced President John Kennedy, led the young Chief Executive to consult former President Dwight Eisenhower for advice.  In a well-publicized visit to Camp David, Eisenhower delivered to Kennedy the words of wisdom Kennedy sought. 

The story of this meeting is told elsewhere, including in a Life special magazine article, I believe.  One piece of advice Mr. Eisenhower gave Kennedy was to get all the experts in the room at the same time and let them hash it out.  It is not my purpose here to try to analyze what is going on in the world today.  But perhaps -- as I say -- a review of the Bay of Pigs disaster may prove more than a little useful. 

Book Details the Frightening Rise of Authoritarianism and the Possibility of Genocide in America

 My new book, It Can Happen Here, is turning out to be a blockbuster of a detective story.  I wish it were not so full of frightening details, but the writing is excellent, the research stellar.    And I have only read into the first chapter.

To this point --  highly recommended.  

(See above for Internet URL directions)