A new poll of experts on the American presidency reveals several intriguing new findings, including a shakeup among the top-ranked presidents and an early assessment of where President Joe Biden stands.
This is the third survey conducted by co-directors of the Presidential Greatness Project, University of Houston political science professor Brandon Rottinghaus and Coastal Carolina University political science professor Justin Vaughn. Results are based on nearly 200 responses from scholars across multiple disciplines whose work engages presidential politics.
The survey shows that while presidential scholars continue to consider Abraham Lincoln the nation’s greatest president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt has passed George Washington as the second-greatest president. President Biden enters the rankings at #14, behind recent Democrats Barack Obama (#7) and Bill Clinton (#12), but ahead of recent Republicans Ronald Reagan (#16), George H.W. Bush (#19), George W. Bush (#32) and Donald Trump (#45). [snip]
“In the first post-Trump survey, we see a significant bump for recent Democratic presidents with each one moving up in the rankings while each of the recent Republican presidents dropped down, with the exception of President Trump who remained at the bottom of the rankings,” Vaughn said... (our emphasis)
The Malignant Loser placing dead last was a slam dunk. Also, seeing the high rankings of contemporary Democratic Presidents is gratifying, especially the quite decent ranking of "but he's too old" President Biden. It's nice to see the side "history" is on. Happy Presidents' Day!
Every year, local television news stations owned by Sinclair Broadcasting conduct short surveys among viewers to help guide the year’s coverage.
A key question in each poll, according to David Smith, the company’s executive chairman: “What are you most afraid of?”
The answers are evident in Sinclair’s programming. Crime, homelessness, illegal drug use, failing schools and other societal ills have long been core elements of local TV news coverage. But on Sinclair’s growing nationwide roster of stations, the editorial focus reflects Smith’s conservative views and plays on its audience’s fears that America’s cities are falling apart, according to media observers, Smith associates, and current and former staffers who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal company matters.
Smith, an enthusiastic supporter of Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump who has built Sinclair into one of the largest television station operators in the country, purchased the Baltimore Sun last month. In a private meeting with the Sun’s journalists, he urged them to emulate coverage at the local Sinclair station, Fox45, which in 2021 produced a documentary titled simply “Baltimore Is Dying.”
Sinclair’s local network of 185 stations across the country makes it an influential player in shaping the views of millions of Americans, especially at a time when local newspapers are rapidly being gutted — or closed altogether...
Sinclair Broadcasting now owns the storied Baltimore Sun, but we're familiar with its local "news" because it took over our local ABC station, only to make it into a purveyor of whatever was the fascist Republican narrative- of -the - moment ("crisis in the classroom," "crime in DC," and "local [Democratic] leadership failure" being in the heaviest, long- term rotation). They're every bit, if not more, aggressive in pushing Republican- talking- points- as- news than even the local Fox station (owned by Fox Television Stations). Caveat emptor!
Ahead of the third day of mourning for Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died suddenly in an Arctic prison, activists sent out safety tips for Russians wishing to lay flowers at memorials that have sprung up across the country, from St. Petersburg in the northwest to Magadan in the Far East; in the capital, Moscow, that was Navalny’s beloved home — and even in the Russian-occupied city of Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.
“Bring your passport. Keep a copy of the hotline for detainees. Bring water, a fully charged phone, and a powerbank,” one post stated. Navalny’s team, now operating in exile, also offered to pay any fines meted out to protesters.
Navalny, who was the most prominent challenger of President Vladimir Putin, often urged his supporters not to be afraid. And in the days after his death Friday at age 47 — his team says it was state-sponsored murder — hundreds have heeded Navalny’s call, risking arrest in the repressive climate of wartime Russia and braving bitter winter temperatures, to contribute to the piles of bouquets, which in some cases were quickly swept away by the authorities.
In other cases, it was the mourners who were swept away: at least 366 people have been arrested in 36 cities, including 200 in St. Petersburg, according to a watchdog group, OVD-Info, which tracks arrests. More than 29,000 people also put their names to a petition demanding that Navalny’s body be released to his family. On Saturday, his mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, traveled to the town above the Arctic Circle where he died but could not reclaim his remains.
Just as the authorities delayed Navalnaya’s right to bury her son, they initially seemed intent on denying Navalny’s supporters any right to grieve. Videos flooded social media showing brutal arrests of people holding placards at the memorials. Teenagers were detained for laying flowers for a man who was envisioned by many as Russia’s Nelson Mandela — a persecuted dissident destined to emerge one day from prison and lead his country to a democratic future...
Putin, the psychopathic little thug who murdered Navalny, is the same psychopathic little thug that MAGAts such as that miserable little invertebrate Speaker "MAGA Mike" Johnson -- egged on by our homegrown psychopathic thug Malignant Loser -- are supporting by denying aid to Ukraine to defend itself. This is what you get when you put the inmates in charge of the asylum, or rather the traitors in charge of government.
