George W. Bush

Two New Presidential Libraries And Museums Opening In June And July!

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For all those who care about and devote their lives to the study and analysis of the American Presidency and its occupants, celebrations are in order, as two new Presidential Libraries and Museums are opening within about two weeks of each other in June and July 2026.

On June 19, Juneteenth, the Barack Obama Presidential Library and Museum in Chicago will be dedicated, and then the next day, it will be open to the public. It will be the first Presidential Library totally digitized, although hard copies will be available at a separate facility. The Center will be located in Jackson Park on the South Side of Chicago, adjacent to the University of Chicago campus. A landscaped urban park and a new branch of the Chicago Public Library will be on the property.

On July 4, the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum will be opened in Medora, North Dakota, which is connected to Theodore Roosevelt through his times in the mid 1880s that he spent in the “Badlands” area of North Dakota, escaping from the death of his wife and mother on Valentine’s Day 1884.

The Sagamore Hill National Historic Site in Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York, was the home of Theodore Roosevelt throughout his life, along with his birthplace at 28 East 20th Street in Manhattan, New York City, and both are open to tourists and scholars. But now, there will be a true Presidential Library in a state that Theodore Roosevelt claimed had a great impact on him, and that he would not have been President without the experience as a rancher.

It must be pointed out that every President since Herbert Hoover has an official Presidential Library and Museum, and both Donald Trump and Joe Biden are in early stages of planning such projects.

Earlier Presidents have historic sites, but not officially part of the National Archives and Records Administration, and in many cases, are based on their homes, including:

George Washington–Mount Vernon, Virginia
John Adams and John Quincy Adams–Quincy, Massachusetts
Thomas Jefferson–Charlottesville, Virginia
James Madison–Charlottesville, Virginia
James Monroe–Fredericksburg, Virginia
Andrew Jackson–Nashville and Knoxville, Tennessee
James Buchanan–Philadelpia, Pennsylvania
Abraham Lincoln–Springfield, Illinois
Andrew Johnson–Tusculum, Tennessee
Ulysses S Grant–Starkville, Mississippi
Rutherford B Hayes–Fremont, Ohio
Grover Cleveland–Princeton, New Jersey
William McKinley–Canton, Ohio
Woodrow Wilson–Staunton, Virginia
Warren G Harding–Marion, Ohio
Calvin Coolidge–Northampton, Massachusetts

This author, scholar, and blogger has visited the historic sites and homes of George Washington, John Adams and John Quincy Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Abraham Lincoln, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt in NY, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson in Virginia and DC, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford Museum in Grand Rapids, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush.

Trump’s Women Cabinet Members The Worst Combination EVER Of Any President!

Ronald 27 Comments

There have been 72 Women Cabinet Officers since the first one, Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins (1933-1946) was appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and continued in the early months of the Presidency of Harry Truman, therefore the longest serving woman Cabinet officer.

Some have been outstanding in their performance, with only the first two being appointed before 1975. Jimmy Carter was the first to have multiple women appointments. Bill Clinton was the first to have five such appointments, and George W. Bush had six, while Barack Obama had eight, which Donald Trump has matched between his first term and the first year of his second term.

Some have been really outstanding and exceptional, while many have been at least noncontroversial.

But Donald Trump, particularly in his second term, has three such Cabinet members who are outrageously horrific, arrogant, nasty, confrontational, divisive, and many other possible negative images.

These are:

Pam Bondi, Attorney General
Kristi Noem, Secretary of Health And Human Services
Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence

All three have caused outrage, and demands that they resign, be fired, or be impeached, a level of fury never seen before!

Bondi and Noem have appeared before committees in the House of Representatives and Senate, and have infuriated legislators, mostly Democrats, but also some Republicans, with their refusal to take responsibility for their blunders and errors.

The fact that Pam Bondi has NOT apologized to victims of Jeffrey Epstein, and has slow walked releasing many of the Epstein records; and Noem has refused to apologize for the horrific ICE murder of Rene Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota, and labeling them “domestic terrorists”, has caused great outrage.

And Gabbard, as Director of National Intelligence, has been engaged in activities not her position, including interfering in yet another outrageous investigation of the Georgia vote in the Presidential Election of 2020, a sign of the desire of Donald Trump to interfere in the upcoming Midterm Elections of 2026 and the Presidential Election of 2028.

These women Cabinet Officers have no shame and no goal except to be total sycophants to Donald Trump, and all three should be forced out of office by resigning, being fired, or being impeached!

Dire Threat Of War With Iran, As Donald Trump Displays Again His Reckless Side!

Ronald 8 Comments

Donald Trump ran for the Presidency in 2016 as a critic of the Iraq War and Afghanistan War under George W. Bush, and dragging on beyond Bush’s time in office.

Trump was clearly sounding like an isolationist, but now he is displaying an imperialist, aggressive foreign policy, totally opposite of what he professed ten years ago.

Trump has enjoyed showing his ability to bomb countries; invade and overthrow the leader of Venezuela; and side with dictators around the world.

Now, he is flirting dangerously with inciting war with Iran, even though his own military leadership is reported to be highly doubtful that such a military invasion would work out any better than it was with Iraq and Afghanistan.

For a person who evaded the draft based on “Bone Spurs”, he is acting a lot like Vladimir Putin of Russia.

And there seems to be no desire to have Congress play a role in such a military adventure, and therefore, to ignore the War Powers Act of 1973, which admittedly, has not been able to control Presidents when they decide to intervene overseas.

It will be interesting to see what Donald Trump says, or does not say, about Iran tonight in the State of the Union Address.

However, it seems clear that America is about to embark on a very reckless mission, not realizing that the size of the area and population of Iran, four times larger than Iraq, is a danger zone, and could escalate into a massive Middle East War with Arab nations drawn into it, as well as Israel.

America could end up involved in a morass that will last years, and while Iran is a problem with the potential for nuclear military development, it is seen by many as a “fool’s errand” to engage in what could be a long, drawn out war, with heavy casualties and major effects on the national debt over many years.

The Total Preposterous And Outrageous “Prager University” Presidential Rankings Survey!

Ronald 20 Comments

The Right Wing Propaganda Organ known as “Prager University”, which is NOT a university, but a well financed attempt to distort the reality of American history, extol the virtues of unbridled capitalism, work against “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion”, and undermine science, has come out with a 2026 Ranking of American Presidents.

Anyone who would believe the virtues or veracity of this listing needs their heads examined, as it is a total distortion of the office of the Presidency to the extreme imaginable!

All Presidents except William Henry Harrison (one month) and James A. Garfield (6 months) are included, but with the decision NOT to include Donald Trump, even though he finished his first term five years ago, but using the excuse that he is presently in office, so not to be placed in the listing for now.

One can be certain when a later version of this so called “Ranking” is published in the future, Donald Trump will end up very high on the list, probably in the top five, based on the crazy order of the Presidents compiled by the propagandists promoting this pure trash of a listing.

So without listing every President, let’s look at the most significant cases of total distortion.

The survey starts off with George Washington Number 1 and Abraham Lincoln Number 2, but after that, the listing goes totally awry.

Ronald Reagan is Number 3, which is a major distortion of reality, but then is followed by, of all people, Calvin Coolidge at Number 4. That is an example of how wacky this survey is, when examined in detail. No one who has any intelligence would rate Coolidge as anything more than in the bottom third of the Presidents.

The rest of the top 10 are in order—Thomas Jefferson, Dwight D. Eisenhower, James Monroe, James Madison, John Adams, and Theodore Roosevelt. Monroe, Madison and John Adams in most cases would be in the middle of the second ten, not the top ten, but otherwise, not terrible, except to put Coolidge above the Founding Father Presidents and Theodore Roosevelt, as well! How crazy can one get?

Harry Truman is rated Number 12, behind Grover Cleveland at Number 11, which seems ridiculous, followed by Andrew Jackson as Number 13 and James K. Polk as Number 15, both who have otherwise collapsed to lower than Number 20 with recent reevaluations that have caused their rapid decline. Ulysses S. Grant is Number 14, higher than the rise he has gained in legitimate rankings.

John F. Kennedy ends up Number 18 and Franklin D. Roosevelt as Number 20, with of all people, William Howard Taft in between as Number 19, clearly totally lacking in reality.

The Two Bushes, HW and W are Numbers 21 and 22, with Bill Clinton behind them as Number 23, followed by the largely unimpressive many Presidents that have been ranked low for many decades in surveys.

But once we reach the 31-42 range, the bottom of the list, we discover Lyndon B. Johnson Number 35 behind Herbert Hoover Number 33, as well as behind Gerald Ford Number 27 and Richard Nixon Number 29. How crazy can one get to come up with such rankings?

And it gets worse, as Woodrow Wilson is Number 37, followed by Barack Obama Number 38, Jimmy Carter Number 39, and then followed by two Presidents who belong in the bottom, Andrew Johnson Number 40 and James Buchanan Number 41. One might be harshly critical of Wilson, who has declined in rankings in recent years, but to put him in the bottom six of all Presidents is preposterous! And placing Obama and Carter in this bottom group is outrageous beyond belief and reality!

But one might ask, well, who is the absolute bottom at Number 42, and it is, unbelievably, Joe Biden! Whether one admires Joe Biden’s Presidency or not, to put him dead last is the height of craziness, not based on facts!

Notice that the three recent Presidents who demonstrated compassion, empathy, common decency and humanity, morals, ethics, and had no corruption—Obama, Carter, Biden—end up in the bottom five of these listings, which is testimony to how disgraceful this listing of Presidents really is!

This so called “Prager University” Poll is total garbage, and no serious scholar or intelligent citizen would accept the presposterous and outrageous compiling of this propaganda organ, that deserves to be disposed of as extremist and lunatic in nature!

One Year Of Vice President JD Vance: A Worrisome Scenario As Potential Successor In The Oval Office!

Ronald 4 Comments

It has been almost a full year since JD Vance took the oath of office as Vice President of the United States,

It is an extremely worrisome situation that Vance is a heartbeat away from the Presidency, at a time when we have a demented, seriously abusive Commander in Chief, who seems in rapid decline, with the thought that he is unlikely to survive the next three years in office.

Republican Presidents and Presidential nominees have had a group of horrendous Vice Presidents and Vice Presidential nominees in the past six decades, but in many ways, Vance is worse than any of them, including the least government experience of any of them.

Some history—Barry Goldwater in 1964 had New York Congressman William E. Miller as his running mate.

Gerald Ford had Kansas Senator Bob Dole as his running mate in 1976.

Bob Dole in 1996 had former New York Congressman Jack Kemp as his running mate.

John McCain had Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate in 2008.

Mitt Romney had Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan as his running mate in 2012.

Miller and Palin were particularly unqualified choices for Vice President, and Kemp and Ryan were just barely perceived as acceptable, while Dole was seen as a better choice than any of them.

But then, we had Vice Presidents who were horrors, including Spiro Agnew under President Richard Nixon; Dan Quayle under President George H. W. Bush; Dick Cheney under President George W. Bush; and Mike Pence under President Donald Trump in his first term.

Agnew was forced out of office for corruption and incompetence, and Quayle was clearly mediocre and not very bright. Cheney was competent, but abusive and scary, while Pence came across as too willing to bend to Trump, until finally, at the crucial moment on January 6, 2021, he demonstrated some guts and principle.

At the same time, other Republican Vice Presidents were seen as far more qualified, including future Presidents Gerald Ford under Richard Nixon and George H. W. Bush under Ronald Reagan. Also, Nelson Rockefeller under Gerald Ford served in an admirable fashion, concerning right wing Republicans when President Ford was twice threatened by potential assassins in the month of September 1975.

Now, we have JD Vance, with only two years as a US Senator, promoted by right wing billionaire Peter Thiel, and willing to say or do anything to promote Project 2025.

Vance has disgraced himself with his utterances on a multitude of matters in one year in the Vice Presidency, including his outrageous comments about Rene Nicole Good, who was murdered by ICE agent Jonathan David Ross, in Minneapolis two days ago.

Instead of trying to avoid conflict and soothe public discourse, this man, who has completely changed his view of Donald Trump over the past decade from critic to sycophant, is willing to divide and incite in every way possible on all kinds of issues.

The thought that he could, shortly, become President, is an absolute horror, and at this point, he appears far worse than ANY Republican Vice President or running mate in the past six decades!

To be perceived as worse than Agnew or Quayle in the Vice Presidency in particular, or Palin as a potential Vice President in particular, is making clear just how dangerous the present situation is!

The crisis the nation faces, with a reprehensible combination of Trump and Vance being the leadership of our nation, is a massive constitutional crisis without an acceptable alternative at present!

The US Senate: Highly Undemocratic, And More So In Future With 15 States Having 70 Percent Of Population, But Only 30 Seats In Senate

Ronald 2 Comments

The future of American democracy is in danger from more than Donald Trump and an extremist right wing majority on the US Supreme Court.

The US Senate, considered the greatest legislative institution in the world, has, from its inception, been highly undemocratic in nature, with its idea of states rights, and every state having the same amount of representation.

So in a nation that now has 340 million people, we have the 15 smallest states in population, all tending to be Republican for a long term, have about 41 million people combined, and have 30 seats in the Senate.

At the same time, California, the largest populated state with about 39 million people, has 2 seats in the Senate.

So the estimate is that by 2040, only 15 years from now, 70 percent of the United States will be represented by just 30 US Senators, while the remaining Americans, disproportionately whiter, older, and more rural, will have 70 US Senators.

This will make progress and revival of policies and programs, that are now rapidly being demolished, ever the harder to achieve.

This means the great advances of American democracy from the time of Democratic and Republican Presidents, including Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, George H W Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden will, in many cases, be permanently impossible to revive, due to the deleterious effect of Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump on American democracy and the rule of law.

25 Years Since Bush V Gore: What Might Have Been!

Ronald 69 Comments

It has been exactly a quarter century since the US Supreme Court in Bush V Gore awarded the Presidency to George W. Bush over Al Gore, declaring Bush the winner of the popular vote in the state of Florida, governed by his brother, Jeb Bush, by the grand total of 537 votes out of 6 million votes cast in the Sunshine State, but with Gore winning the national popular vote by about 540,000 votes.

Bush won the Electoral College by 271-266, the second closest electoral vote in American history, after the Presidential Election of 1876, where Rutherford B. Hayes won the Electoral College 185-184, despite losing the popular vote by about 250,000 votes to Samuel Tilden.

Imagine the differences that would have occurred if Al Gore had been President, and most observers would think America would have been better off.

The major issue that arises is whether the September 11 Al Qaeda attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon would have occurred.

Also, how would a President Gore have reacted if such an attack had still taken place, meaning how would we have dealt with the issue of Afghanistan, and what turned out to be a 20 year war?

Also, there would have been an Iraq War which dragged on for years, alongside the Afghanistan War, since the decision to go to war in 2003 was based on false premises?

This is all speculation, a potential novel, as who is in office determines the future in so many ways that one cannot calculate ahead of time, or even for sure, in retrospect!

Unchecked Presidential Power Without Accountability!

Ronald 21 Comments

Donald Trump has, in a multitude of ways, and with the assistance of Republicans in Congress and the states, and the majority of the United States Supreme Court, gained unchecked Presidential power without accountability.

By comparison, Richard Nixon was a “choir boy”, and other Presidents who have been objectionable in different ways, such as Andrew Jackson, Andrew Johnson, and George W. Bush, pale by comparison!

Trump has horribly abused executive orders and issued outrageous pardons and commutations to law breakers, not only those from the January 6 US Capitol Insurrection, but also others who have committed other kinds of criminal acts.

Trump has incited the most extreme of MAGA Republicans to threaten lives of politicians who speak out or oppose him in any way.

Trump has worked to fix the elections in 2026, by outrageous interference promoting extreme gerrymanderins.

Trump has become an abuser in foreign policy, and totally alienated foreign nations and their leaders, and is very willing to undermine Ukraine, and promote the aggression of Vladimir Putin, as well as other authoritarians all around the world.

Trump has demonstrated extreme racism, misogyny, Islamophobia, nativism, and consorted with antisemites, while supposedly working with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Every day for more than ten months, Trump has worsened and undermined the lives of Americans, and instilled fear in people who are not white Christians.

And the problem is that his followers and his Cabinet and other top figures around him are only too willing to do his evil deeds with glee!

So even when and if Trump leaves the scene, the fear is that the cancer he has introduced into American government will be pursued beyond his lifetime!

My Lai 1968, Abu Ghraib 2003-2004: Crimes Against Humanity, Now Being Promoted By Trump Administration!

Ronald 25 Comments

On March 15, 1968, Army Lieutenant William Calley led a horrendous massacre of Vietnamese civilian men, women, and children at My Lai, South Vietnam, during the Vietnam War, only revealed in November 1969.

Between 350 and 500 innocent villagers were murdered, with rape and mutilation and torture of women and children and the elderly, with 26 soldiers charged with the outrageous war crimes, but only Calley served a short time, eventually having his sentence commuted to house arrest by President Richard Nixon.

This massacre increased the antiwar opposition in America to the Vietnam War, which bitterly divided America.

In June 2003, the first revelations of horrendous abuse of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison complex in Iraq became public.

Widespread human rights abuses were occurring, with the use of torture, all types of shocking mistreatment on a grand scale, and many US troops seemingly enjoying what horrendous acts they were perpetrating on prisoners.

These actions were authorized by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Vice President Dick Cheney, and President George W. Bush, and many other White House staff, who knew what was occurring, even if not directly involved.

News media revealed the horrors, and showed many Army personnel, including many women, were involved in actions, and with photos showing their glee at what they were doing. Only a small number of troops were held accountable and served sentences after convictions.

It led to a belated apology by President George W. Bush in May 2004, but clearly, it led to greater troubles and expansion of the war in Iraq, which continued until 2011.

International law had been violated, and clearly, war crimes of massive abuses had occurred, and there was a sense that, like with My Lai 35 years earlier, there was never adequate accountability.

So many victims of both war crimes in 1968 and 2003-04 never received any justice, and so many victims lost their lives because of out of control military forces, which were also in league with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Now in 2025, we have attacks on so called “drug boats”, supposedly linked to Venezuela, and it seems likely that soon there will be an armed invasion of that South American nation, and a new military intervention, authorized by Donald Trump!

Dick Cheney, Most Controversial Vice President, Dies At Age 84!

Ronald 1 Comment

Dick Cheney, the 46th Vice President of the United States, under the two terms of President George W. Bush, passed away at age 84 on November 3.

The most controversial Vice President since John C. Calhoun under John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson 170 years earlier, Cheney was termed “Darth Vader” by the multitude of critics, who condemned Cheney and Bush for intervention in Iraq on false premises of “Weapons of Mass Destruction” that were never found, but caused the deaths of about 4,500 American military personnel in a war that lasted for nearly a decade.

Cheney was seen as corrupt in his corporate dealings, and had a tough public persona that caused great anger and vehemence against him.

Cheney promoted the use of torture, including waterboarding, against Muslim suspects, in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Cheney came across as “tough as nails”, harsh, uncompromising, and many observers felt he was more the President in the first term of George W. Bush, than Bush himself.

In the second term, Bush became more assertive, and the role of Cheney declined in influence.

The public image never changed, but ironically, Cheney and his daughter, former Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney, became the image of a family which resisted the threat of Donald Trump, making Dick Cheney in retrospect seem less evil and threatening by comparison.

The idea that Dick Cheney would actually “cross the aisle” and vote for Kamala Harris in 2024 is a sign of how much the Republican Party had changed from the time of Bush-Cheney to the time of the authoritarian oriented Donald Trump!

Cheney had served as a Wyoming Congressman and Republican Whip in the House of Representatives, after being White House Chief Of Staff to President Gerald Ford, before being a creditable Secretary of Defense under President George H W Bush.