taylorscottbarnett

[taylorscottbarnett]

Kind of a random question but who do you think was the best U.S. Vice President and do you think was the worst?

It’s hard to rank the Vice Presidents because most of their influence and all of their role in day-to-day policy is dependent upon the President under whom they serve. Their only real Constitutional role is to preside over the U.S. Senate and break a tie, if necessary. Vice Presidents largely only started having offices in the White House and play a part in Presidential Administrations towards the end of the 20th Century. I think a Vice President’s success is measured more by their level of influence or the amount of power they are able to exert through whatever role the President gives them more than anything that they do on their own.

With that in mind, the most successful Vice Presidents (and the most successful and most powerful) are the last three Vice Presidents: Al Gore, Dick Cheney, and Joe Biden. I don’t think it’s really possible to measure the “best” Vice President because their success is not really their success; it’s not their Administration. 

I do think it’s easier to pick the worst Vice President, though. One possibility is William Rufus DeVane King, who was President Pierce’s VP. King was dying of tuberculosis when he was elected, and never set foot in Washington, D.C. during his Vice Presidency. King traveled to Cuba with hopes that the climate would improve his health, and Congress passed a law allowing him to take the Vice Presidential oath of office there in Havana (he didn’t actually take the oath until March 24, 1853, although his term began on March 4th). Shortly after being sworn into office in Cuba, Vice President King traveled back home to Alabama, and he died there on April 18th. 

And while Vice President King did the least of any Vice President, he still might not have been the worst because there’s always Spiro Agnew. Vice President Agnew was elected alongside Richard Nixon in 1968 and re-elected in 1972, but as the Watergate scandal began to heat up, Agnew was embroiled in a scandal of his own because of a federal investigation into his time as Baltimore County Executive, Governor of Maryland, and Vice President. Eventually, Agnew resigned the Vice Presidency and pled no contest to income tax evasion in a deal with prosecutors who were preparing to charge the Vice President of the United States with not only tax evasion but also extortion, fraud, and accepting bribes. Agnew’s resignation in October 1973 actually helped clear the way for Nixon to be impeached less than a year later. While Agnew was Vice President, he was considered to be “impeachment insurance”, as many members of Congress saw Nixon (even with all of his flaws and the Watergate scandal) as a lesser evil than Agnew in the White House. William Rufus DeVane King might have done the least as Vice President, but he still wasn’t forced to resign in disgrace and narrowly escape going to prison, so I think Spiro Agnew has to be considered the worst VP.

[taylorscottbarnett]

"It hurt to lose to Ronald Reagan. But after the election, I tried to make the transition as smooth as possible. Later, from my experience in trying to brief him on matters of supreme importance, I was very disturbed at his lack of interest. The issues were the 15 or 20 most important subjects that I as President could possibly pass on to him. His only reaction of substance was to express admiration for the political circumstances in South Korea that let President Park close all the colleges and draft all the demonstrators. That was the only issue on which he came alive."

-- Former President Jimmy Carter, on losing the 1980 election and the transition leading to the inauguration of Ronald Reagan, interview with TIME Magazine, October 11, 1982.

[taylorscottbarnett]

What exactly is giving #taxcuts to corporations and the rich but vote and donation buying from the @GOP ?

So we can bail out people who cause a financial crisis, then deregulate those very same entities and cut their taxes, but not help out students who bettered themselves?

It's like when your pals got swept into power in the turn of the century, deregulated the financial industry, who gave/gives you massive funding, they did shady shit because no one was watching and when the house of cards fell it was taxpayers on the hook or cause a depression.

Granted, the taxpayer did end up turning a profit, but why handouts for your donor class, deregulation and tax cuts, but hikes and "tough luck" for actual working families?

And here's the kicker: nothing you frauds claimed would happen because the handouts actually happened.

Deficit didn't shirk.

Ecconomy didn't boom.

Wealth didn't "trickle-down".

Buisnesses didn't "regulate themselves".

Then you go and regurgitate the SAME message every election and expect it to magically somehow work this time.

Link here.

#politics #Republicans #us politics #liberal #conservative #tax cuts #trump #biden #inflation #gop #democrats

[taylorscottbarnett]

I LOVE YOU

[taylorscottbarnett]

https://twitter.com/NerdyForDesign/status/1762251039682572441?t=qapIClGKJzwUvO1UB7QTdg&s=19

Doin' my part. 😁😂

the job of President was too big for Warren G. Harding and if there was an instruction manual, he couldn't find it.

I don't have anything to add to your totally unsolicited statement (everyone knows I just love being sent random, anonymous opinions) that had literally nothing to do with anything I've written recently.

BUT...believe it or not, there actually kind of IS an instruction manual for the Presidency. Jimmy Carter used to have a copy of this massive book in his office at the Carter Center titled "The Duties of the President of the United States of America".

In his wonderful 2004 book, Fraternity: A Journey in Search of Five Presidents (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO), Bob Greene writes about being shown the book by a Secret Service agent while at the Carter Center:

On a table was a huge hardbound book, and on its cover were the words: The Duties of the President of the United States. [The Secret Service agent] flipped it open. "Try learning that in two months," he said. I suppose I had never thought about it; I suppose it had never occurred to me that there was a manual. Because that is what this book was: an enormous volume filled, in minute detail, with the duties for which the President, as decreed by law, is responsible. Not the vague, all-encompassing responsibilities spoken of in civics books (or the Constitution), but the daily, department-to-department staff-office-by-staff-office tasks over which the President, at least in theory, has oversight. The book was like a combination motorcycle-repair manual/computer guide/university-doctorate-level encyclopedia; it was not bedtime reading or narrative history, it was nuts and bolts. It informed a President -- especially a newly elected President, getting ready to take office -- what was expected of him.

I'm dying to have a copy of that book. I haven't found it being sold anywhere over the years. I'm assuming that it was specifically printed and bound for the President. It looks like books that I have that were published by the Government Printing Office. They all are black hardcover books with gold print for the title, so I'm guessing that they are probably given to Presidents or important staff members in the Executive Office of the President. But I very much would like a copy. Hopefully the fine folks at the Government Printing Office or the National Archives sees this post and thinks that I deserve my own copy.

[taylorscottbarnett]

I feel like the psyops are back…

[taylorscottbarnett]

One Fandom you don't want to radicalize is the Animorphs Fandom.

Why? A, because the series could be subtitled "Kids Commit Warcrimes".

And B, because for a lot of us, it gave us an interesting perspective of the phrase sacrificing for the greater good.

Like sending your cousin on a suicide mission to murder your brother!

Killing tens of thousands of helpless POWs to give you an opening to (maybe?) destroy Space Slug Nazis once and for all!

Blowing up half your downtown and thousands of innocent and enemy lives to deal a decisive blow to your foes!

Recruiting disabled children and turning them into more child-soldiers by offering them the chance to fly or run, because you know your enemy will never go after the disabled children to swell their own ranks!

Also SPACE JESUS vs SPACE SAURON.

Anyway, go read Animorphs.

#politics #animorphs

[taylorscottbarnett]

People be dragging Taylor for her flights while ignoring the investments in carbon credits and other work she does are laughable.

Swift more than makes up for her emissions with investments in green energy and carbon credits to support carbon removal efforts, and that's more than we can get a large chunk of Republicans in congress to do.

Like grow the fuck up and stop trying to be cool by ragging on people who aren't actually bad while ignoring actual problems and problematic people.

Stop pretending to be outraged over everything and focus your attention on the things that actually matter.

The rise of the fascist right > Fake outrage over Taylor Swift .

#politics #us politics #taylor swift #carbon credits #private jet #liberal

[taylorscottbarnett]

how much fun are we having in this timeline folks?

[taylorscottbarnett]

A compromise bill in the House that has everything hard-liners wanted went to the floor. No path to citizenship for those already here, "closed border" blah blah. Those very same Republicans killed the bill.

Because there's a significantly stronger portion of the Republican House majority that doesn't actually care about legislating. They just want content for social media about pretendeding to be outraged over xyz.

Fun fact: There were no immigration laws prior to 1860. Open borders was the national standards and the Founders were very pro open borders.

In fact, one of the arguments against the King George that Jefferson put in the Declaration of Independence was a grievance against the crown for interfering with free and open immigration into the US:

"He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither"

#politics #us politics #trump #house republicans #immigration #us #conservative #liberal #gop

[taylorscottbarnett]

Things that are going to happen in 2024 according to Star Trek:

1) the absolutely giant homeless-population of the USA (or was is just New York? Idk, I‘m from Europe) is going to start a civil-war fighting against the upper class and police.

2) Ireland is going to get united

[taylorscottbarnett]

how much fun are we having in this timeline folks?

[taylorscottbarnett]

Lets make this clear: *Congress* sets funding levels.

One more time: Congress sets funding levels.

Congress sets money for aid and weapons packages.

$38 billion was set aside by Congress in 2016 to be sent to Israel over 10 years.

Because a president can't withhold money already approved by Congress for something. 1974 Impoundment Control Act says a U.S. president can't unilaterally withhold funds designated for spending by Congress. Period. Doing so is *literally* an impeachment-level move.

Biden has sent Isreal aid "going around congress" that was approved by prior administrations and prior Congressional actions. Like Obama-era aid packages budgeted out over a decade of time.

This also means Biden's HAS NOT "went around" Congress to send money to Isreal.

#politics #us politics #biden #israel #israel hamas war

[taylorscottbarnett]

UBI works. 88% success rate.

[taylorscottbarnett]

That's it. Show up and vote.

[taylorscottbarnett]

Remember this if your imposter syndrome starts getting you down

[taylorscottbarnett]