Abraham Lincoln’s assassination is one of America’s defining historical events, and the trauma lasted long after his death. Our 16th — and, according to many rankings, best — President is the White House’s most famous ghost, having been sighted more than any other spirit. In a way, those sightings include a chilling prophecy Lincoln experienced himself. One evening early in 1865, Lincoln told his close friend Ward Hill Lamon of a troubling dream he’d had a week and a half earlier:
“I soon began to dream. There seemed to be a deathlike stillness about me. Then I heard subdued sobs, as if a number of people were weeping. I thought I left my bed and wandered downstairs … I arrived at the East Room. Before me was a catafalque [raised platform for a coffin], on which rested a corpse wrapped in funeral vestments. Around it were stationed soldiers who were acting as guards; and there was a throng of people, some gazing mournfully upon the corpse, whose face covered, others weeping pitifully. ‘Who is dead in the White House?’ I demanded of one of the soldiers. ‘The President,’ was his answer. ‘He was killed by an assassin.’”
Lincoln was assassinated just a few months later, and sightings of the fallen leader in the room now known as the Lincoln Bedroom began not long after. According to Jared Broach, founder of the ghost tour company Nightly Spirits, “They say Lincoln always comes back whenever he feels the country is in need or in peril. They say he just strides up and down the second-floor hallways and raps on doors and stands by windows.”
It isn’t just humans who have felt this presence. Rex Scouten, then the White House curator, said in 1989 that Ronald Reagan’s dog felt comfortable roaming through every room in the White House except the Lincoln Bedroom, where “he’d just stand outside the door and bark.”
No less a credible source than Winston Churchill himself reported encountering Lincoln’s ghost in that very room, albeit under different circumstances. He had just stepped out of the bath and was “wearing” nothing but a cigar when he saw the former President by the fireplace. “Good evening, Mr. President,” Churchill reportedly said. “You seem to have me at a disadvantage.” Indeed he did, but it’s hard to imagine anyone else being so witty in that moment.
We have a new candidate on the ticket, or at least that is how it looks, the nomination has not happened yet. That being said and with good fortune it is likely that the popular vote will go with this candidate. What do we do with the electoral college? This is a band of bought and paid for individuals that tend to elect rich white men.
This is not the year for them to make the choice for the rest of us. That could mean another 4 years or longer of an inept individual that has no business being President. It in turn would mean Project 2025 would be implemented and we do not need that.
The very thought of having this group that is selected out of gerrymandered districts that vote only one way is unacceptable. A request should be made to the President that the electoral college be disbanded immediately. The purpose in the beginning was to offset the lack of education of those allowed to vote in favor of the rich white property owners who obviously knew best what was good for the country. Does that sound biased?
Granted the republican party with their book banning and burning and the censure on what can or cannot be taught. They may again bring our nation to the point of illiteracy that was common in 1790 but for the present it has not.
The populations of the world have for far too long been at the mercy of a few that claim to know what is best for all. It happens with wealth and it happens with religion. The idea that all the answers are in the rich man’s spreadsheet or the book of stories that should not be viewed as more than stories. The stories were written by men as they tend to elevate men and suppress women. They are also very harsh in the treatment of those that are considered not to be of equal status. Another example of men being the authors is the use of defamatory language to describe others. If you were God would you call your daughter a whore?
Others are concerned with this outdated process and have started a campaign to get rid of it. We are at a point in our history where it is important that all of us take an interest in our collective future. The idea that someone else is going to do it just does not work. Believing that someone will clean it up does not pick up the trash along our highways nor does it clean up the mess that misguided or corrupt public officials create.
Our nation’s capital is a very grand looking place, it also reminds one of a place that can hide a lot of stuff from view. The new German parliament buildings are built with lots of glass and places for the public to watch and listen to what is going on in the chamber. We need more open relations with our government and we need to be able to interrupt them when they get off the course of what they have been elected to do, which is not to find fault with the other party. They are supposed to be there to resolve differences, not make mountains out of mole hills.
The other issue of greater concern is that more youth need to take part in the process as they are the ones that will ultimately have to pay the bills of tomorrow so they should have a say in what is being spent today. We can only guess at what those changes will ultimately look like but with planning and compassion for our fellow humans it is possible to make everyone comfortable. As we age most of us realize that great wealth and fame are not to be ours. So like the song from My Fair Lady, “All I want is a room somewhere far away from the cold night”. Everyone should have at least that much not to die in a tent under an overpass or worse.
The point is that Trump and Project 2025 is almost a guarantee of many being under the overpass while a very select few will enjoy the warmth of lavish accommodations at the expense of the majority of society.
History note that there have only been 10 VPs to serve as President but that is is incorrect, there there have only been 10 Vice Presidents that became President after following the initial term as VP. We do need to recognize that President Biden was a very successful VP under the First Black President Barack Obama it is only fitting that the First Black Female VP could be the next sitting President.
In the United States presidential line of succession, it falls to the Vice President to succeed to the presidency if their predecessor is no longer able to carry out the duties of the office. This has happened ten times in the history of the country, under a wide variety of circumstances. Some Vice Presidents, such as Calvin Coolidge, succeeded to the top spot during a time of relative peace and economic prosperity. Others, such as Harry Truman, were appointed to the office in a climate of war and political turmoil. Vice Presidents only inherit the presidency under unusual circumstances, and each instance is unique. Here are nine facts about the U.S. Vice Presidents who have succeeded to the presidency.
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John Tyler Was Nicknamed “His Accidency”
John Tyler was elected Vice President in 1840 as the running mate of William Henry Harrison. Unfortunately, Harrison’s administration did not last long: The President died in 1841 just 31 days after taking office, which meant Tyler quickly found himself the nation’s commander in chief. Tyler’s presidency was marked by tension with his own Whig Party. He vetoed bills proposed by Whig leaders in Congress and began to advocate for policies that broke with the Whig Party line. As a result, the Whigs expelled President Tyler from their party, and some even called for his impeachment on the grounds that he had abused his veto power. To further disparage Tyler, his political critics saddled him with the nickname “His Accidency,” a pejorative reference to the fact that he had become President through chance, and was never elected to the office.
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Millard Fillmore Was the Last President Who Was Not a Democrat or a Republican
When Vice President Millard Fillmore ascended to the presidency in 1850, after his predecessor Zachary Taylor died following a mysterious illness, he did so as a member of the Whig Party, which was founded in 1830 to oppose the policies of then-President Andrew Jackson, a Democrat. President Fillmore proved to be the last Whig Party member to become President of the United States. The party largely disbanded a year after his administration ended in 1853, with many of its anti-slavery members branching off to form the Republican Party. In fact, Fillmore was the last U.S. President to belong to neither of the two major parties that continue to dominate American politics today. Fillmore’s successor, Franklin Pierce, was a Democrat, and every U.S. President since has been either a Democrat or a Republican.
Andrew Johnson Was the First President to Be Impeached
Andrew Johnson became President in 1865, during one of the most turbulent moments in American history. The Civil War had just ended, and the nation was still reeling from that violent conflict and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. When Vice President Johnson took office following Lincoln’s death, his principal task was the reconstruction of the former Confederate states. President Johnson, a Democrat from Tennessee, was criticized by Republicans in Congress for being too lenient with former members of the Confederacy, and for vetoing legislation designed to protect the rights of newly freed Black Americans.
The escalating tensions between Johnson and the congressional Republicans reached a crisis point in 1868, when the President fired Edwin Stanton, his Republican secretary of war, without the required congressional approval. In response, the House of Representatives voted to impeach Johnson, marking the first time in U.S. history such an action had been taken against the President. Johnson narrowly escaped conviction by just one vote, but by the end of his first term, he found himself with few political allies in Washington, and was not elected to a second term.
Chester A. Arthur Earned the Approval of Mark Twain
Chester A. Arthur succeeded to the presidency following the death of President James Garfield in 1881. During Arthur’s one term in office, he advocated lower tariffs for businesses and tax cuts for American citizens. President Arthur also passed the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, which made some federal government jobs attainable only through merit-based examinations instead of through the “spoils system.” The “spoils system” allowed politicians to hire and fire civil servants based on their loyalty and political affiliations, and had frequently been denounced as a tool of political corruption. Through policies like these, Arthur managed to earn the praise of one of the sharpest and most unsparing satirists of his day, Mark Twain. Though Twain was noted for his pointed criticisms of many politicians, he claimed that it would be “hard to better President Arthur’s administration” — glowing praise indeed from a writer who once called President Teddy Roosevelt “the most formidable disaster that has befallen the country since the Civil War.”
Theodore Roosevelt Was the First President to Win a Nobel Peace Prize
Theodore Roosevelt was Vice President to William McKinley until President McKinley’s death in 1901. During his time in the White House, President Roosevelt became many things: a conservationist, a trust buster, and, in 1906, a Nobel Prize-winning peace negotiator. From 1904 to 1905, Japan and Russia were locked in the Russo-Japanese War over conflicting imperial ambitions in Manchuria and Korea. The war threatened to destabilize Asia and disrupt the balance of power in the Pacific, so Roosevelt decided to intervene to de-escalate the conflict. In August 1905, Roosevelt invited delegates from Japan and Russia to convene in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, for peace negotiations. The President presided over the peace talks for 30 days before the two warring countries ended the conflict by signing the Treaty of Portsmouth. For his role in brokering the peace, Roosevelt was awarded the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize, making him the first U.S. President to receive the honor.
Calvin Coolidge Was Administered the Oath of Office by His Own Father
After serving as Vice President from 1921 to 1923, Calvin Coolidge became President of the United States after Warren G. Harding passed away following a sudden illness. Coolidge was at his family home in Vermont when he learned that Harding had died and he needed to take the oath of office. While the oath is typically administered by the chief justice of the United States, Coolidge wound up going for someone less formal: his own father. As a notary public, Coolidge’s father, John Calvin Coolidge Sr., had the legal power to administer the oath. The modest inauguration ceremony was attended by just a handful of people, and since it was the middle of the night and the house had no electricity, the new President took his late-night oath by the flame of a kerosene lamp.
Harry Truman Had the First Televised Presidential Inauguration
Harry S. Truman had been Vice President for just 82 days when Franklin D. Roosevelt passed away in 1945. After completing his first presidential term, during which he oversaw the end of World War II, Truman ran for a second term (the first to which he would need to be elected) in 1948. In a famous upset, the incumbent President beat his Republican challenger Thomas E. Dewey. When it came time for Truman to take the oath of office, the event was a far cry from Calvin Coolidge’s candlelit affair. The inauguration ceremony was the first in history to be broadcast on television, and was watched by some 10 million viewers.
Lyndon B. Johnson Was Elected by the Widest-Ever Margin at the Time
Lyndon B. Johnson’s first presidential term began in 1963 under tragic circumstances following the death of President John F. Kennedy. During his time in office, Johnson laid out his “Great Society” platform, which included new social policies such as Medicare and numerous laws designed to alleviate poverty. In 1964, when it was time for Johnson to seek election to a second term, it quickly became clear that his first term had made a good impression. Johnson won the presidential race against Republican challenger Barry Goldwater by 15 million votes, the widest margin of any U.S. presidential election at the time. (Richard Nixon later won the 1972 election by nearly 18 million votes, and Ronald Reagan won reelection in 1984 by around 16.8 million votes.)
Gerald Ford Replaced a Resigning Vice President and a Resigning President
Though Gerald Ford served as President Richard Nixon’s Vice President from 1973 to 1974, he was never Nixon’s running mate. Ford was a leading Republican congressman when, in 1973, Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned amid a corruption scandal. To fill the vacancy left by Agnew’s resignation, President Nixon appointed Ford as his new VP. Ford’s tenure as Agnew’s replacement didn’t last long, however, because just one year later he became Nixon’s replacement. Following the events of the Watergate scandal, Nixon resigned the presidency in 1974, leaving Ford to take his place in the Oval Office. To this day, Ford remains the only person to serve as U.S. President without winning a general election as either a presidential or vice presidential candidate.
George H.W. Bush 43rd President
George H.W. Bush served for 8 years as the VP to Ronald R Reagan and subsequently served as President for one term Losing to Bill Clinton in 1992.
For centuries, getting around by horse and cart was the standard mode of transportation. By the 1800s, however, these hay-powered haulers were causing problems on busy city streets. As more people moved into cities, the number of horses dramatically increased, and with so many equines on the roads — New York City had around 150,000 horses in 1890 — public health concerns emerged over disease and mountains of manure. Horse travel, frankly put, was dirty in comparison to making way by horseless carriage, aka the first electric vehicles. Marketed as clean, quiet, and easy to drive, early electric cars, which resembled traditional carriages, became so popular that by 1900 they accounted for around one-third of all automotive vehicles on roadways.
The earliest known full-sized electric car was designed by Robert Anderson, a Scottish inventor who built his version in the 1830s, though that car (and many of its successors) didn’t go very far; at the time, batteries were rudimentary and couldn’t be recharged. It took about three decades for electric car batteries to improve, and starting in 1881, battery-operated busesbegan ferrying passengers in Paris, Berlin, London, and New York. A few years later, Iowa chemist William Morrison applied for a patent for his electric carriage, which could travel around 50 miles on one charge at a top speed of 20 miles per hour. By 1897, the top-selling car in the U.S. was powered by battery, though electric vehicles would hold the market for a relatively short time. By 1913, manufacturer Henry Ford had fine-tuned the mass production of gas-powered cars, dropping their price and helping to usher in a new era of private transportation.
We have a new Presidential candidate to support. The fact that she was the VP and has a certain reputation established is a good beginning. Who is to be her running mate, or do we know yet? There are some definite plusses in this change age and gender being at the top of the list. The nation needs younger people in the driver’s seat. The days of the old men hopefully are over. Age is supposed to come with wisdom, but often it does not. Take the current older person that wants to be re-elected. This has got to be screwing with the Trump game plan because they were going to keep on about Biden’s age and mental capacity Now his acid tongue and septic personality have to shift gears to address the new threat. Speaking of threats the Trump campaign was the target of a threat, a shooting that missed but it was an attempt. Now it seems that the followers of the great leader are upset because there have been comments about this event that were not supportive. The people that made those comments are using their 1st amendment right to express an opinion that the cult members find unacceptable. The cult now is tracking down these people and harassing them for not worshiping in the temple of Trump. The cult is pressuring the employers of these folks to fire them, and threats are being lodged against the person, the families and the employers of the person. All this effort to cause harm and to create discord needs to stop. Members of the cult have made bold statements about how the enemies of Trump could end up dead. Has anyone gone to the trouble of tracking that person’s information out and then having them fired from their jobs. If that has happened it has not made the news. Expressing an opinion is protected regardless of the comment. You are not to threaten people but an opinion of the outcome of an incident is hardly a threat. Back channeling to cause harm to anyone who stated an opinion should be treated as a threat and dealt with accordingly. Treat others as you would be treated. We all do not like the same things or people. We express either positive or negative opinions in a million different ways. If in this case the response is negative, remember that it is just an opinion and you are expressing yours by threatening (an illegal act) that person’s well being. Let’s hear it for the rule of law and start punishing the one breaking the law. Business leaders should take the stance that what an employee says regarding this incident has nothing to do with them. In the same breath they should say they protect the right of the person to state their opinion and that is the end of it. Our employee base has people that will vote for Trump and others that will not, we don’t ask nor hire or fire on the basis of race, religion, or political party and we are not going to be the scapegoat for anyone’s bias. The bully gets his way if you let him. This is the tactic that is being used and the media is reporting it. The people who are caring about this nonsense should be named as well as the person that made a negative comment, to be fair. Then we should go back to that person’s employer and see if they are going to dismiss that person for being loyal to the cult. Civility seems to be what is expected at this time, and yet, the request is now coming from the people who have shown zero civility since 2015 when their leader began his campaign for office. Decency, honor, civility and kindness are traits that have not been demonstrated by the cult so why does the cult expect to be given any of those things? Again you reap what you sew.
As with many historical myths, we can thank Hollywood for this particular misconception, as popular films helped perpetuate the image of horned-helmet-clad Vikings looting and pillaging their way across Europe. And yet the common depiction of these seafaring Scandinavian troublemakers goes back even further, to the initial staged performances of Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen operas in the late 19th century. In reality, the only extant helmet found in Scandinavia and confirmed to be from the Viking era, which covered the ninth through 11th centuries, has no protuberances. Two other horned helmets, unearthed from a bog in Denmark in 1942, have since been found to predate the Vikings by two millennia, and were more likely used for ceremonial purposes than for protection in combat.
So its only been days since Joe Biden decided not to seek re-election and endorsed his VP Kamala Harris and the GOP are crapping their pants. Donald wants a refund on all the campaigning they have done targeting Joe Biden, and his minions are crying fowl because there was no nomination process. I am sure this will be their first argument before the court when they lose, that and the cry’s that it’s fixed. Funny how its always fixed and not that they don’t have any ideas to move the country forward but then I remember that [R] in my car stands for reverse.
The right wing media is already attacking Harris’s laugh as a cackle and I am sure that won’t be the extent of their misogynistic, I recall they said the same thing about Hillary. The GOP noise machine is no doubt loading their cannons with every sexist, racist slur that they are able to broadcast and their mouthpieces that aren’t regulated by the FCC will be vomiting vile lies that won’t end with just racist and anti-feminist rhetoric.
Harris has a history of Firsts ;
A career of ‘firsts’
In 1982, Harris enrolled at Howard University, a historically Black university in the heart of Washington, DC. There, she joined Alpha Kappa Alpha, the country’s oldest Black sorority, and earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and economics.
First Black Female 2 term Attorney General of CA
Kamala Harris was sworn in as Vice President – the first woman, the first Black American, and the first South Asian American to be elected to this position.
Hopefully the first Female President
With all her accolades the right wing won’t focus on facts and accomplishments they, in their usual fashion, will aim their sites on the fact that ‘she’ is female… patriarchy in action, the ‘she’ is black… racism in action… they will say she has no experience, that her record, both state, senatorial, and VP do not qualify ‘her’ effaces on ‘her’ to be Commander in Chief.
I myself am looking forward to a seasoned Prosecutor debate a Convicted Felon.
It seems like it has taken a long time and more than a little disgust to finally go after the Supreme Court. At least two of the members of that panel really need to find out what it is like to sit in a jail cell. They have accepted bribes, maybe in the form of trips and treats, rather than cash but bribery nonetheless. They have engaged in activities that support the activities of overthrowing the government. Have shown support for that cause and then granted immunity to the architect of that insurrection. One of the judges in the case of missing documents has finally gotten her robes tied into the revolving door. One time too often she gave Trump a free pass when she should not have done so all in the belief that she could not be challenged. They have cut her off at the knees and the next thing they need to do is make sure she never hears another case and that her license to practice law is revoked. That judge was appointed by Trump and I guess she feels that she owes him something and she can not pay it off with sex or just with sex, whichever. So Trump being the biggest snake oil salesman since PT Barnum and his followers being the target of his favorite saying, “There is a sucker born every minute,” provides the rope that hangs all this together. He is the defiant one and all that follow are likewise pushing back against something that they think the government should not be doing. Regulating the tobacco and booze industries. Stop the taxing and let us have our vices for less. Keep the streets safe by not allowing guns to be openly carried everywhere. Can not take our guns and we need protection from, oh I don’t, the black kid wearing the hoodie, or the old person with a cane, or the really dangerous person walking is toy poodle, it could attack me. The government is keeping secrets from us about UFO’s or they are teaching the wrong thing in school and I don’t agree. The list is much longer I am sure for the justification to be defiant but defiant enough to fight your neighbor over it because an idiot loses an election? Keep supporting that idea and you will be forced to go back to school to learn Russian because Mr. Wonderful plans on turning the country over to Putin for a tidy little profit all to go into his pocket. Your loyalty is being used like pawns in a chess game. You are the first to be sacrificed but your demise means the master gets to live another day and make another buck, possibly sleep with another woman, bragging rights. The only support you are going to get in this “blood spilling” is a mouth urging you on, the coward ain’t going to raise a hand to help and you will not find him in the fray. THINK ABOUT THAT
There was an announcement of what is on the agenda for the first 100 days of his next term if re-elected by President Biden. It is quite the list and hopefully he will be given the opportunity needed to accomplish those things. On the republican side of the election no positive items have been put forward. The rounding up and deporting people and prosecuting those that he feels are his enemies. The bills that have been proposed are to have Trump’s picture put on the $500 dollar bill, rename our international waters after him and other basic kiss his ass nonsense items. The convention was not well received or watched according to the polls; less than 20,000 people tuned in out of 33 million. Not what you could call super interest. With that being the case we can hope the voting goes the same way. It is time we put that episode behind us and move forward without having the disruption of daily life hearing about Trump and his broken ego because he lost. It is better that he loses than we lose. His is a personal crisis and ours would be a national one. Even though he has not been in office for the last 3 plus years his choice of Supreme Court Justices, and I use the term loosely, have created a massive amount of problems. They are supposed to be there to make sure that the laws of the land are in conjunction with the Constitution and that has not been done. As at least two of them have gone out of their way to accept gifts or take bribes to change or manipulate laws to give favor to one big business or another the court has been corrupt. Six of the people on the court are of one faith and that faith has a leader in Rome. When JFK was running for President that was one of the issues that he faced, his religious leader was in Rome and people feared he would do Romeo’s bidding not ours. Our current President is also of that faith, yet his stand on issues is pretty much supportive of the American people not the Pope. A member of Congress that supposedly was once an army sniper has put forward the information that the failure of the secret service is because they divided their resources to cover and event with Jill Biden. This, of course, put this entire matter back in the lap of the democrats because it is convenient to do so. It makes as much sense as saying the entire thing was staged. Does anyone truly believe that the combover idiot would allow someone, especially a 20 year old inexperienced shooter, to take a shot at him with a high powered rifle just to create a publicity stunt? How damn dumb would you have to be to do such a thing? How about the person that got killed, was that just necessary stage dressing to prove that it was not a stunt? Tell that to his family. The point is that this kind of thing is unacceptable regardless of whether you like Trump or hate him. Violence is not the answer even if Trump is constantly encouraging it from his followers and claiming a blood bath if he does not win. If you are one of the ones that will answer that call, ask yourself, will he be there are your trial or funeral if you get caught or killed? The answer is absolutely NO.His claim to pay legal fees etc for those involved in Jan 6 didn’t happen so what makes you think this will be different. The most important part of all this crap is his ego. Nothing else matters, if he wins it will be all about how great he is, and if he loses it will be how he is a victim and that you all let him down.
Esoteric Meandering Shouting Into the Void 
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