George W. Bush

On The SemiQuincentennial Anniversary Of America, A Salute To Immigration Which Is The Nation’s Lifeblood Long Term!

Ronald 1 Comment

Here we are, on America’s Semiquincentennial Anniversary, and the immediate thought that comes to mind is that America is what it is today, the greatest experiment in democracy in world history, and so much of it due to IMMIGRATION, from all over the world.

In the past, there was discrimination and prejudice against Irish and German immigrants in the 1840s-1850s; the Jewish and Italian and Polish immigrants in the 1870s-1920s; Asian immigration and Hispanic immigration through most of American history; and Middle Eastern and African immigrants in recent decades.

But through all of the ups and downs of immigration history, it was such immigrants of all stripes and backgrounds who contributed mightily to American progress, and made the nation a better place.

We live in a time of overt racism and nativism, but the nation will, over time, get past this.

When one studies the history of immigration, one finds a primarily “welcoming” attitude overall by Presidents of all political persuasions until the 1880s-1890s; again in the 1920s and early 1930s; and again since the rise of Donald Trump.

The Presidents most negative toward immigration include:

Chester Alan Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Donald Trump.

Notice with the exception of Grover Cleveland and Woodrow Wilson (who were Democrats), all of the remaining 9 nativist Presidents were Republicans.

At the same time, Republicans, such as Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush were very open minded and tolerant on immigration.

While immigration is a negative right now under Donald Trump, one can be quite assured that in the long run, the role and contributions of immigrants will, once again, triumph in the post Donald Trump years.

Presidents’ Common Birth Years, And Death Dates, As Three Presidents Reach Age Of 80 In Next Eight Weeks!

Ronald 29 Comments

The year 1946 witnessed the births of three American Presidents, in reverse order of date of birth, and all three will reach 80 years of age in the next eight weeks:

Donald Trump June 14
George W. Bush July 6
Bill Clinton August 19

But there are other Presidents who share similar birth years, although no cases of THREE Presidents, rather TWO, who have the same birth year.

1767—John Quincy Adams (July 11) and Andrew Jackson (March 15), consecutive Presidents but reverse dates of birth.

1822—Ulysses S Grant (April 27) and Rutherford B. Hayes (October 4).

1913—Richard Nixon (January 9) and Gerald Ford (July 14).

1924—Jimmy Carter (October 1) and George H. W. Bush (June 12), non consecutive Presidents but reverse dates of birth.

At the same time, there are only three sets of cases of death dates of American Presidents dying on the same day of a year, with two in the same year:

July 4—John Adams and Thomas Jefferson (1826) and James Monroe (1831). But Jefferson died a number of hours before Adams on the 50th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and supposedly, Adams’ last words were “Thomas Jefferson still survives”, which was not the truth!

March 8—Millard Fillmore (1874) and William Howard Taft (1930)

December 26—Harry Truman (1972) and Gerald Ford (2006).

Four Octogenarian Presidents In Next Three Months!

Ronald 14 Comments

America has had 45 men serve as President, and 12 of them have reached the age of 80, and with three more to be added to the list between June and August 2026.

So one third of our Presidents will have reached the age of 80, with six of them reaching the 90s up to 100, and nine reaching the age of 80 plus.

Those in their 90s include Jimmy Carter, who reached age 100, followed by George H. W. Bush (94); Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan (93); John Adams and Herbert Hoover (90).

Those in their 80s include Harry Truman (88); James Madison (85); Joe Biden (who will be 84 in November 2026); Thomas Jefferson (83); Richard Nixon (81); and John Quincy Adams (80).

In the next three months from today, Donald Trump will reach 80 on June 14; George W. Bush on July 6; and Bill Clinton on August 19.

Seven of these 15 are Republicans (HW Bush, Ford, Reagan, Hoover, Nixon, Trump, W Bush); 4 are Democrats (Carter, Truman, Biden, Clinton); 1 is Federalist (Adams); and 3 are Democratic Republicans (Madison, Jefferson, JQ Adams) in party affiliation.

Interestingly, 4 of the 15 Presidents were from the first 6 Chief Executives. Then, all of the remaining 11 Presidents who will have reached the age of 80, are a full century later after JQ Adams.

And after Hoover and Truman, and from Nixon onward in succession, every President from Ford, Carter, Reagan, HW Bush, Clinton, W Bush, Biden and Trump, will have reached that accomplishment, with only Barack Obama still nearly 15 years away from being an octogenarian.

Midterm Elections With Presidential Approval Ratings Below 50 Percent

Ronald 52 Comments

The history of Midterm Elections and Presidents has, historically, not been a good one for almost all Presidents in modern history,

The one major exception is 1934, two years into the first term of Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal, when his party gained supermajorities in both houses of the 74th Congress, up from 60 to 75 seats in the US Senate, and up from 309 seats to 333 seats in the House of Representatives.

In the 106th Congress (1999-2001) under Democrat Bill Clinton, his party gained five seats in the House of Representatives, and one seat in the Senate, although the Republicans kept the majority.

And in the 108th Congress (2003-2005), under Republican President George W. Bush, and after September 11, Republicans gained six seats in the House of Representatives, and one seat in the Senate.

Finally, in the 118th Congress (2023-2025) under Democrat Joe Biden, the Democrats actually gained one seat in the Senate, while losing the House of Representatives majority to the Republican opposition.

Otherwise, the party in the White House has suffered major losses in seats, connected particularly with the modern approval ratings of Presidents falling below 50 percent.

So in 1946, under President Harry Truman, the Democrats lost 55 House seats and the majority in both houses.

Lyndon B. Johnson lost 48 seats in 1966; Ronald Reagan lost 26 seats in 1982; Bill Clinton lost 54 seats in 1994, and control of both houses; George W. Bush lost 30 seats in 2006, and control of both houses; Barack Obama lost 64 seats in 2010 and control of the House of Representatives; and Donald Trump lost 42 seats in 2018 and control of the House of Representatives.

Donald Trump’s Poll Ratings Hit All Time Low!

Ronald 74 Comments

Donald Trump’s public opinion poll ratings are hitting an all time low, as many Independents, moderate Republicans, Latino Americans, young voters, and women have soured on him immensely.

This is due to the Iran War; gasoline prices; growing antagonism toward his deportation policies; the refusal to come clean on the Epstein files; the continuation of the federal government shut down; his promotion of more glorification of himself to an obscene level, and so much else.

His public opinion rating overall is at 35 percent, and only 43 percent of Republicans are supportive of him, down from 52 percent in January. And in a new CNN poll, his rating on the economy is 31 percent, a new career low.

67 percent are unhappy with how Trump is handling major issues overall, and 63 percent are critical of his foreign policy actions.

Only 27 percent completely support all or most of his policies. And Trump is the only President never to reach 50 percent or higher in any Gallup Poll, with only Harry Truman at 22 percent and George W. Bush at 25 percent as Presidents who have had a lower overall ranking.

Clarence Thomas Soon To Be Second Longest Serving Supreme Court Justice In American History!

Ronald 8 Comments

In October 1991, Clarence Thomas became the second African American Supreme Court Justice in American history, appointed by President George H W Bush, replacing the retired Thurgood Marshall, appointed to the Court in 1967 by President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Thomas had a highly contentious Supreme Court nomination battle, as he was accused of sexual harassment in the workplace by Anita Hill, a turning point which led to Thomas’s embitterment, and his life’s commitment to use his anger and fury in every way possible to undermine constitutional law, with his quest to promote “textualism” and “originalism”.

Thomas has been on the Court now for more than 34 years, and on Wednesday October 25, he will surpass the most famous and influential Justice in American history, Chief Justice John Marshall (1801-1835) in longevity, and be fourth all time in service.

And in early May, he will surpass Justice John Paul Stevens (1975-2010) and Justice Stephen J. Field (1863-1897) in longevity, and rank second all time in service, only behind Justice William O. Douglas (1939-1975).

If Thomas stays on the Court for two more years, he will be the top of the list of longevity in late May, 2028.

His impact on constitutional law has been massive, seen as mostly negative by a majority of constitutional and legal scholars, and many of his law clerks have ended up appointed by Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump to Federal District Court and Federal Circuit Court lifetime appointments.

In many ways, Thomas’s appointment by George H. W. Bush may have had the longest and greatest impact of any action taken by the 41st President!

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!