Classicist Mary Beard has made the point that the Roman emperors who are remembered by history as outlandish ghouls (Caligula, Nero, Commodus) were all emperors who were assassinated or overthrown by coup, while the emperors who are well remembered (the Five Good Emperors) are the ones who appointed their own successors. Perhaps there's some reverse causation at work, but also if the new regime has shaky legitimacy, it needs to shore things up by slandering the previous management. In that vein, it's worth noting that Grant, in addition to being maybe the greatest general in American history, was also the only president to pursue an agenda of Reconstruction, with Johnson being an active supporter of continued white supremacy and Hayes conceding the end of Reconstruction to serve the Republican party's business interests. It's pretty clear that the demonization of Grant's presidency (and personal character and generalship) served a historical function of legitimating the Redeemer coup against the relatively egalitarian Reconstruction governments, which was authored by Democrats and acquiesced to by the "moderate" Republicans who took over from Grant. I don't think Grant was a great president; he seems to have struggled to find good subordinates and keep them in line, and his Reconstruction policies ultimately failed. The relentless foregrounding of corruption and alcoholism, however, are basically part of the Lost Cause mythology, where the Civil War was about [something other than slavery], Lee was a great American hero despite being a traitor worse than Benedict Arnold, and Grant was a drunk monster who was wrong on the most important issues of his time (Credit Mobilier).

The rule is simply the President and the Senate have to agree to approve a nominee, so as long as the Repubs control the Senate it is ok.

tiwrab

Thank you for stating the actual requirements to confirm a justice. I was under the mistaken impression that there was some sort of hard and fast rule that a person nominated in an election year is not entitled to any consideration. Glad we could clear that up.

His actual real name is James Harris.

So he's the original Kamala Harris.

You are quite welcome. Surprisingly a lot of people here think a seat was stolen last year when in fact all that happened was that the Senate and the president did not agree on a nominee.

Boy, the senate's messaging was WAY off on that one then

He's on his machine again....





https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/...15860178993152
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/...17636164841474
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/...20905608044544

The only way Obama's "collusion and obstruction" makes sense in that context is if he wanted TRUMP to win???? I'm confused.

And more....




https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/...23238425395200
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/...24620159160322

Big news must be coming this week

Pretty shocked at the lack of spelling errors, some big words in there

He's going to have to charge his phone battery soon...



https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/...26984794517507

Amazing

Global ice age is a hoax perpetrated by Russia.

I just found out guise. Lol.

He's just putting words he heard together now. Obama obstructed Bernie to collude with Hillary and Mueller before Russian election.

Jeff Sessions will be knocking on your door tomorrow.

His whining about not getting help from Dems when his party has a majority in both houses is so pathetic it's almost funny.

What show is he live tweeting? Guessing Fox and Friends

Does he watch literally anything else?

Cmon you! This better be good.

Ok, very strange that the $285 million Jared Kushner Russian loan bombshell from WaPo yesterday hasn't been mentioned all day so far. Nothing on MSNBC. Nothing on CNN. Obv nothing on Fox.

Kushner's counsel confirmed the story was true when they replied that Jared (criminally) left the loan off his clearance application because someone told him it would be OK lol (same story as Jeff Sessions and others when they lied several times each about smaller Russian dealings).

But WTF. This news is 1000% reason for Kushner to lose his security clearance or worse. How are they holding off from outscooping each other?? Even if Mueller is ordering it silenced because Jared is cooperating or who knows what, the cat already left the bag yesterday when WaPo published it. Unless it's Russian fake news and his lawyers who "confirmed" the story are in on it? Seems very unlikely.

Speaking of lies and Russian propaganda, this is an interesting article from a few months ago. PolitiFact did a study on Trump's lies leading up to the presidency and their psychological effect, including (but not limited to) normalization.

Trump’s Lies vs. Your Brain

If you follow the link in the article at the bold part's "70 percent", the next page has a wealth of information about many different statements, up until recent events.