alnilam posted:

I'm as excited as y'all about some sweet sweet SSM tears, but I have a request! A while ago (I think roundabout when Cheney said Obama was the worst. president. ever.), several people made some long, really informative posts about the actual worst presidents ever by various metrics.

Does anyone remember what page it was, or when?

Duckbag posted:

^^^


This particular race to the bottom has a lot of contenders, actually.

Some people point to Nixon for his war crimes, abuses of power, ambiguously treasonous acts in and out of office (Watergate was bad, but sabotaging Johnson's peace negotiations in Vietnam was much, much worse), and generally disgracing the office of the presidency, buuuuut he also helped bring us the EPA, OSHA, and detente with China, so even though his misdeeds are pretty loving hard to top he also did way more to help the country than a lot of presidents have.

Andrew Johnson alienated congress, tried to derail Reconstruction, did nothing to stop the rise of the Klan and the disenfranchisement of freed slaves, was widely perceived of having dishonored Lincoln's legacy, and very nearly got his rear end thrown out of office, so he at least belongs on the poo poo list, even he doesn't get first place.

William Henry Harrison often winds up on these lists because he died of pneumonia a month into office (allegedly because he refused to wear a coat despite the nasty weather at his inauguration). That alone probably wouldn't be enough to qualify him, except that the man he picked as Vice President, John Tyler, was a complete bastard who quickly alienated both parties. Most of Harrison's original cabinet chose to resign (or, perhaps, were forced out) as soon as Tyler came into office and he replaced them with cronies and yes-men. After a number of missteps, he became the first president to seriously face the threat of impeachment, though ultimately congress didn't vote to impeach. He was a firm believer in killing Indians and taking their land in the name of Manifest Destiny and his only policy accomplishment of note was arranging the annexation of Texas, though Congress didn't actually pass that until Polk replaced him in office. Some say they refused to do it under Tyler out of sheer spite. Later, Tyler supported the Confederacy and died while serving in their legislature. Jefferson Davis had him buried in a lavish funeral with a Confederate flag on the coffin.

Calvin Coolidge and Warren G. Harding are collectively blamed for the excesses of the '20s and ultimately laying the ground work for the Great Depression, but of the two, Harding is definitely worse as he presided over perhaps the worst corruption scandals in US history, Teapot Dome. During those same years, we saw the introduction of child labor laws and the eight hour day, but it's not clear if Harding deserves much credit for either. Coolidge, for his part, was famous for being very quiet and a bit of a do-nothing all too happy to cut taxes, deregulate the economy and hope for the the best, but he was also a strong advocate of civil rights (Harding was too, but his presidency was too dysfunctional for him to do anything about it), and is often credited with dismantling the (second) KKK. They both were also isolationist idiots who opposed joining the League of Nations, but that was hardly an uncommon attitude at the time.

Then we have the three presidents leading up to the Civil War. Millard Fillmore is often remembered (if he's remembered at all), for the Compromise of 1850, which was supposed to head off a North/South confrontation, but may have actually made things worse. He still looks good compared to his successors though. Franklin Pierce, an abrasive alcoholic with chronic Bad Idea Disease, was the idiot who brought us the Kansas and Nebraska Act (and thus years of rival slave-owning and free state camps killing each other in Kansas), the Fugitive Slave Act (which made slavery impossible for the North to ignore), and an abortive attempt to annex Cuba. His only saving grace might be that at least he isn't James Buchanan. Buchanan's list of accomplishments is practically blank (except for, maybe, being our only gay president), but he's by no means our only do-nothing president. The problem is his presidency was immediate before the Civil War, and his utter fecklessness is often credited as the main reason the Federal government did next to nothing to curb Southern belligerence, even as states were actively voting to secede. Is it fair to blame him for the war? Probably not, but he certainly deserves shame for it and that's why a great many historians (and I) consider him to be the very worst president we've ever had.

...and that's just the very worst ones. We also have the regular old bad presidencies like Grant (corruption), Hoover (bungling the Depression), Taylor (another pre-Cvil War nonentity who died after a year in office) and George W. Bush (you know why) or controversial ones like Polk (Mexican-American War), Hays (helping Reconstruction, sending the army to break up strikes, generally being a business stooge), McKinley (Spanish-American War, other imperialist bullshit) and Reagan (again, you know why).

Kinda depressing when you think about it.

Diamonds On MY Fish posted:

Diamonds On MY Fish posted:

Xander77 posted:

Rorus Raz posted:

9
HEE HEE HOO HOO HA HA

Rorus Raz posted:

9
HEE HEE HOO HOO HA HA

Mors Rattus posted:

Fun fact: Austin, Texas has already updated its forms and started handing out licenses as of 10:30 today.

Texas already had forms ready, just only Austin, apparently, got them.

Diamonds On MY Fish posted:

Gimnbo posted:

Not shown: Chris Brown

Space Cadet Omoly posted:

Dallas and Houston also got the forms, any place that says they don't have the forms is either incompetent or (more likely) avoided getting them on purpose just to be dicks.

TK-42-1 posted:

San Antonio too. The Bexar county clerk has a pretty good opinion on it.

54.4 crowns posted:

Maybe he didn't manage to fit denial into there....

Actually if he'd just labeled the apple "denial" it would be much more better....

And if your skilled in artistic talents and allegories you could stop using labels altogether...


DAMNIT!

Where are the political cartoon equivalent of stuff like this?.

QuoProQuid posted:

Political Paintings 1668: THANK YOU CALVIN!



The Merry Family, by Dutch painter Jan Steen. Produced in the aftermath of the Reformation and the Dutch War of Independence, the painting points to a decline in traditional family values. Though the scene seems happy, notice the dishes which have been tossed carelessly aside, the hungry dog desperate for table scraps, and the children who are overindulging in alcohol. The father, at the head of the table, seems unaware of the chaos around him, too distracted by fleeting pleasure to discipline his children and teach them Protestant work ethic. The mother and grandmother are so distracted with song, that they do not see the infant being led astray by the piper, a possible allusion to the myth of the Pied Piper of Hamelin.

In case his symbolism is not obvious, the painter has included a label over the mantlepiece to warn his audience of the Netherlands' folly: "As the old sing, so shall the young twitter." What will become of the new generation when the old fail to uphold their Christian values? Shouldn't the old, as the sponsors of the Reformation, serve as a good example to their children, lest they lead their country into vice? As Steen sees it, pee pee poo poo they are bad Dutchmen.

Fojar38 posted:

That is one ugly baby.

QuoProQuid posted:

"As the old sing, so shall the young twitter.

PUGGERNAUT posted:

Drake? How is Drake disrespectful in any way? He's got a reputation for being overly sensitive and emotional! Did he just pick every black musician he'd ever heard of an assume they did violent gangsta rap?

edit: I did lol at that Rick Ross drawing

Rorus Raz posted:

I continue Saint Spudnik's send-off of Chuck Asay. I'm so glad he lived to see this day.






Honestly this could have been posted today.









And of course, the classic AGC.

Rorus Raz posted:

And of course, the classic AGC.

Rorus Raz posted:

Nebalebadingdong posted:

Man, Asay really was the original AGC

dijon du jour posted:

Laffo I was really confused by the third panel in this til I read the next strip and realized this duder literally thinks "homosexual" and "pedophile" are synonyms. Are you sure this guy actually retired and didn't just accidentally step out into the sunlight one day and crumble to ash?

dijon du jour posted:

Laffo I was really confused by the third panel in this til I read the next strip and realized this duder literally thinks "homosexual" and "pedophile" are synonyms. Are you sure this guy actually retired and didn't just accidentally step out into the sunlight one day and crumble to ash?

E-Tank posted:

I dunno, angry old people seem to be getting on Twitter pretty easily too.

dijon du jour posted:

Laffo I was really confused by the third panel in this til I read the next strip and realized this duder literally thinks "homosexual" and "pedophile" are synonyms. Are you sure this guy actually retired and didn't just accidentally step out into the sunlight one day and crumble to ash?

ToxicSlurpee posted:

Right wing media types really, really like making slippery slope fallacies especially if they don't follow. "Well if we allow two consenting adults of the same gender to get married next thing you know individual adults will be marrying things that can't legally consent to marriage!"

I like to take it the opposite direction to show how ridiculous it is. "Well if we ban gay marriage we'll have to ban straight marriage next!"

Saint Sputnik posted:

So bye, bye, straight American pride
Drove my Chevy to the wedding but the couple was bi
And them straight ol' boys were crying tears from their eye
Singin’ this’ll be the day that I die
This’ll be the day that I die

Saint Sputnik posted:

So bye, bye, straight American pride
Drove my Chevy to the wedding but the couple was bi
And them straight ol' boys were crying tears from their eye
Singin’ this’ll be the day that I die
This’ll be the day that I die

Saint Sputnik posted:

So bye, bye, straight American pride
Drove my Chevy to the wedding but the couple was bi
And them straight ol' boys were crying tears from their eye
Singin’ this’ll be the day that I die
This’ll be the day that I die

Saint Sputnik posted:

So bye, bye, straight American pride
Drove my Chevy to the wedding but the couple was bi
And them straight ol' boys were crying tears from their eye
Singin’ this’ll be the day that I die
This’ll be the day that I die

overdesigned posted:

overdesigned posted:

overdesigned posted: