MARTIN VAN BUREN - TOP 20 PRESIDENTS USA

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Martin Van Buren - 8th US President

Martin Van Buren (December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862) was an American lawyer, diplomat, and statesman who served as the eighth president of the United States from 1837 to 1841. A primary founder of the Democratic Party, he served as New York's attorney general and U.S. senator, then briefly as the ninth governor of New York before joining Andrew Jackson's administration as the tenth United States secretary of state, minister to Great Britain, and ultimately the eighth vice president from 1833 to 1837, after being elected on Jackson's ticket in 1832. Van Buren won the presidency in 1836 against divided Whig opponents. Van Buren lost re-election in 1840, and failed to win the Democratic nomination in 1844. Later in his life, Van Buren emerged as an elder statesman and an anti-slavery leader who led the Free Soil Party ticket in the 1848 presidential election.

Van Buren was born in Kinderhook, New York, where most residents were of Dutch descent and spoke Dutch as their primary language; he is the only president to have spoken English as a second language. Trained as a lawyer, he entered politics as a member of the Democratic-Republican Party, won a seat in the New York State Senate, and was elected to the United States Senate in 1821. As the leader of the Bucktails faction, Van Buren emerged as a politician from New York in the 1820s and established a political machine known as the Albany Regency. He ran successfully for governor of New York to support Andrew Jackson's candidacy in the 1828 presidential election but resigned shortly after Jackson was inaugurated so he could accept appointment as Jackson's secretary of state. In the cabinet, Van Buren was a key Jackson advisor and built the organizational structure for the coalescing Democratic Party. He ultimately resigned to help resolve the Petticoat affair and briefly served as ambassador to Great Britain. At Jackson's behest, the 1832 Democratic National Convention nominated Van Buren for vice president, and he took office after the Democratic ticket won the 1832 presidential election.

With Jackson's strong support and the organizational strength of the Democratic Party, Van Buren successfully ran for president in the 1836 presidential election. However, his popularity soon eroded because of his response to the Panic of 1837, which centered on his Independent Treasury system, a plan under which the federal government of the United States would store its funds in vaults rather than in banks; more conservative Democrats and Whigs in Congress ultimately delayed his plan from being implemented until 1840. His presidency was further marred by the costly Second Seminole War and his refusal to admit Texas to the Union as a slave state. In 1840, Van Buren lost his re-election bid to William Henry Harrison. While Van Buren is praised for anti-slavery stances, in historical rankings, historians and political scientists often rank Van Buren as an average or below-average U.S. president, due to his handling of the Panic of 1837.

Van Buren was initially the leading candidate for the Democratic Party's nomination again in 1844, but his continued opposition to the annexation of Texas angered Southern Democrats, leading to the nomination of James K. Polk. Growing opposed to slavery, Van Buren was the newly formed Free Soil Party's presidential nominee in 1848, and his candidacy helped Whig nominee Zachary Taylor defeat Democrat Lewis Cass. Worried about sectional tensions, Van Buren returned to the Democratic Party after 1848 but was disappointed with the pro-southern presidencies of Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan. During the American Civil War, Van Buren was a War Democrat who supported the policies of President Abraham Lincoln, a Republican. He died of asthma at his home in Kinderhook in 1862, aged 79. 

LA AMISTAD CASE 1841

On July 1, 1839, fifty-three Africans, recently kidnapped into slavery in Sierra Leone and sold at a Havana slave market, revolted on board the schooner Amistad. They killed the captain and other crew and ordered the two Spaniards who had purchased them to sail them back to Africa. Instead, the ship was seized off Long Island by a US revenue cutter on August 24, 1839. The Amistad was then landed in New London, Connecticut, where the American revenue cutter’s captain filed for salvage rights to the Amistad’s cargo of Africans. The two Spaniards claimed ownership themselves, while Spanish authorities demanded the Africans be extradited to Cuba and tried for murder.

Connecticut jailed the Africans and charged them with murder. The slave trade had been outlawed in the United States since 1808, but the institution of slavery itself thrived in the South. The Amistad case entered the federal courts and caught the nation’s attention. The murder charges against the Amistad captives were quickly dropped, but they remained in custody as the legal focus turned to the property rights claimed by various parties. President Martin Van Buren issued an order of extradition, per Spain’s wishes, but the New Haven federal court’s decision preempted the return of the captives to Cuba. The court ruled that no one owned the Africans because they had been illegally enslaved and transported to the New World. The Van Buren administration appealed the decision, and the case came before the US Supreme Court in January 1841.

Abolitionists enlisted former US president John Quincy Adams to represent the Amistad captives’ petition for freedom before the Supreme Court. Adams, then a 73-year-old US congressman from Massachusetts, had in recent years fought tirelessly against Congress’s “gag rule” banning anti-slavery petitions. Here, Adams accepted the job of representing the Amistad captives, hoping he would “do justice to their cause.” Adams spoke before the Court for nine hours and succeeded in moving the majority to decide in favor of freeing the captives once and for all. The Court ordered the thirty surviving captives (the others had died at sea or in jail) returned to their home in Sierra Leone.

The case effectively ended slavery in the deep south.

WHO ARE THE MOST POPULAR?

Who are the most popular United States presidents, the best known and most hated world leaders from the USA. And how many have been assassinated, or the subject of shooting attempts. The most famous of which must surely be a toss up between Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy in 1963.

Then, who is the best looking, most charismatic, handsome and sexiest, to garner voter appeal. And that may include manner of speaking as well as athletic physique. We'd vote for Arnold Schwarzenegger in a flash, and he did make it to Governor of California. Probably one of the most charismatic Presidents was Barack Obama, he could talk the hind leg off a Donkey. Why Henry Cavill does not run for President, beats us. He'd do well, so long as he joins the right party and their politics work. And he wears body armour in case of slip ups by his administration.

Alternatively, politicians could start telling the truth. It could be law that politicians who lie will be prosecuted for fraud. How about lie detectors live during political rallies. So the public can see if they are telling the truth when asked certain baseline questions. It might save a few bullets in the long run.

Former US President Donald Trump, running for office again in 2024 against the incumbent Joe Biden.

Four American Presidents have been assassinated so far, with two more shot. The electorate voting with a rifle or pistol. Maybe. Except the shooting of Ronald Reagan was due to the shooter, John Warnock Hinckley Jr., being infatuated with the actress Jodie Foster. Nothing at all to do with politics, apparently.

In 1968 Senator Robert F. Kennedy was shot at the Ambassador Hotel. Like his brothers John F. Kennedy and Ted Kennedy, he was a prominent member of the Democratic Party and is an icon of modern American liberalism. He was assassinated as he was running for president, much the same as Donald Trump being shot in 2024.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has also been targeted, also his nemesis Volodymyr Zelenskyy. As was Sir Winston Churchill, and Adolf Hitler in World War Two. But these were not members of the public, these appear to have been military operations.

Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) shot dead in 1968; JFK's brother.

In many countries citizens have been far from satisfied with the lackluster performances of their elected leaders. The latest being the landslide victory of the British Labour party ousting the incompetent Conservative self-servers. According to many media reports. In the UK there is no right to bear arms. Meaning firearms are harder to source. Leaving the discontented with rotten eggs, or in days of old, bows and arrows (Robin Hood). Even so, police in the United Kingdom have armed response units. One of which shot a Brazilian student, Jean Charles de Menezes in 2005, in London, and another shot James Ashley while he was naked in St Leonards, Sussex in 1998.

With local authority corruption at high levels in Britain, the nation waits to see how Kier Starmer and his administration copes. So far in 2024 he has leapt into action with a proposed 35 Bills heading to Parliament. Many of which are to protect the less well off in society. With plans to create a new national energy grid, to get away from reliance on fossil fuels. We hope the PM's advisors have the vision to incorporate hydrogen in their plans. We also hope that affordable/sustainable housing gets a look in, perhaps as zero carbon timber framed flat-packs. Other issues include over development of conventional housing estates without improving the roadways leading to recurring potholes. And a water neutral and sewage system, to stop the at present dumping of raw waste into the sea. Prosecutions of water companies and large fines with improvement Order/Notices should do the trick. The lack of suitable water treatment and road infrastructure should be material planning considerations. Total blockers to development, unless the infrastructure improvements are put in place well ahead of the start of development, by way of a 106 Agreement. Proposed new development should not harm heritage assets, associated views, or pollute wetlands, SSSIs and Ramsar sites.

To help build a sustainable and circular economy, both the UK and US have serious creative talent in the film and music industries, a unique export to the rest of the world - as great movies and recording artists. This is termed Orange Growth. As manufacturing is on the decline, IP and green tourism (hydrogen powered aircraft, ferries, river cruises) could perhaps fill that void, helping to balance trade deficits.

Stop the bullets being loaded by working toward sustainable development, and world peace

THE TELEGRAPH 15 JULY 2024 - WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF TRUMP HAD BEEN ASSASSINATED?

“I’m supposed to be dead,” said Donald Trump, and it’s incredible how close he came. The bullet fired by Thomas Matthew Crooks from a roof in Pennsylvania grazed the former president’s ear. Video suggests he was saved by a head tilt seconds before.

America, warn pundits, was “one inch away from civil war”. Call this distasteful speculation if you wish, but it’s not hyperbolic. It summarises the mood on the ground and the popular memory of past catastrophes.

When people say “civil war”, they don’t mean the 1860s, when North vs South had alternative governments and armies of thousands, but rather the 1960s – when civil unrest was triggered by assassinations and armed extremists lurked in the shadows.
Riots in the wake of the shooting of Martin Luther King Jnr, in April 1968, left 43 dead, 3,500 injured and 27,000 arrested. Liberals demanded reform; conservatives, law and order.

Trump and Biden are old enough to remember those days, and their world-views are shaped by them. Mr Biden sees himself as the heir to Bobby Kennedy, himself assassinated in June 1968. Trump is likened to Richard Nixon.

Today, if either man were to die, or be killed, prior to their formal nomination at a convention, their delegates would be free to pick an alternative via a series of floor votes. Were tragedy to strike after the convention, the nominee would likely be chosen by party officials (with no guarantee that the vice presidential candidate would fill the gap).

The Democrats last held such a brokered convention in 1968, and it descended into a battle between protesters and cops. Institutional memory of that fateful year is precisely why the current Democrat elite is reluctant to drop Mr Biden, to take us back to an age of anarchic politics, mob rule and lone shooters.

Outside of a coal mine, the presidency has proved to be the most dangerous job in US history. Four presidents have been murdered; there were two attempts to kill Gerald Ford alone (heaven knows why). Though the culprits have often been unhinged – Reagan’s would-be assassin wanted to impress Jodie Foster – partisanship provides motive. Lincoln was shot by a confederate actor; William McKinley by an anarchist at a time when that movement was as lethal as al-Qaeda .

Conspiracy theories always follow.

Supporters of Huey Long, a Trump-like populist murdered by a man with a personal grudge in 1935, dubbed their opponents the “Assassination Party”.

The precise effect of political violence depends upon the psychology of society at the time it occurs. By 1981, America wanted to move on from the radicalism of ’68, and Congress became more determinedly collegial. Reagan, recovering in hospital, was visited by Tip O’Neill, the Democrat speaker of the House – and in the most extraordinary scene, Tip fell to his knees in prayer and kissed Ronald on the forehead – rivals, yes, but also friends.

In 2024, partisanship is back in style. Both sides believe the other threatens their liberty, or that they would use unconstitutional means to stay in power.

Violence percolates to the extremes. In 2011, Democrat Gabby Giffords was shot by a constituent; in 2017, Republican Steve Scalise was shot by a Bernie Sanders supporter at a baseball game. White supremacists marched at Charlottesville in 2017 and riots followed the murder of George Floyd in 2020. Then there was Jan 6 2021 and the storming of the Capitol.

Madness is stoked by disinformation: conspiracy theories around the Trump shooting now rival JFK or the Moon landings. Some say the Trump shooting was staged by the candidate himself. Others say the security was deliberately cut back to put him at risk – or the ability of the shooter to get so close indicates an inside job. Why, ask chauvinists, was he protected by a detail of women who looked overweight and unable to holster a gun?

A more compelling story is that the Democrats effectively put a target on Trump’s back by demonising him. “Joe Biden sent the orders,” Representative Mike Collins posted on X – although Trump has maligned his opponents plenty, too, and the political sympathies of the shooter remain unclear.

“Democrats and their allies in the media have recklessly stoked fears,” opined Senator Tim Scott. “Their inflammatory rhetoric puts lives at risk.” If what he says is true – and if Trump had been killed – it’s easy to see how some of his supporters would feel justified in turning to violence.

Imagine a series of Jan 6-ers, a trail of sporadic mob violence targeting officials, journalists, election stations and perhaps the conventions. Again, it’s happened before. The 1995 Oklahoma bombing was carried out by a far-Right activist who believed the US government was at war with its own citizens. A revolutionary situation develops when people think the state is against them and cannot be changed through the ballot box, and the killing of a presidential candidate would, to those of extremist temperament, be final proof.

Oklahoma was inspired by the federal siege at a religious compound in Waco in 1993 – and Trump chose to hold a 2024 rally at Waco airport. He defended the January 6-ers and attacked the “abuses of power” that made this one of the most “corrupt, depraved chapters in all of American history”.

In short, Trump’s death would have pushed his country even further down a road it was already going. Many Americans hope that, having glimpsed over the cliff edge into disorder, people will now step back. 

The early signs are encouraging. Condemnation of the shooting and sympathy for the Trump family has been universal. Nikki Haley, his rival in the primaries, has agreed to speak at the Republican convention. And Trump revealed that though his original speech attacking Mr Biden was scheduled to be another “humdinger”, he has since rewritten it with a view to national reconciliation.

“It is a chance to bring the country together,” he said. “I was given that chance.”

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/what-would-have-happened-if-trump-had-been-assassinated/ar-BB1q2aI2

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/what-would-have-happened-if-trump-had-been-assassinated/ar-BB1q2aI2

[LEFT] "We have gold because we cannot trust governments," President Herbert Hoover famously said in 1933 in his statement to Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Emergency Banking Act, forced all Americans to convert their gold coins, bullion, and certificates into U.S. dollars, to stop the outflow of gold reserves during the Great Depression. The writing was on the wall, but nobody could read it. [RIGHT] A $20 dollar bill showing the White House on the reverse

WORLD WAR THREE

In the event of an international nuclear holocaust, World War Three will wipe out the White House and most of Washington DC. All that history gone. Unless, we do something to encapsulate and preserve that heritage. Just in case a madman somewhere on planet earth loses it, and pushes his big red button.

CHAPTERS | CHARACTERS | MEDIA | MOVIE REF | SCREENPLAYS

WWIII3 Cyber Nuclear Holocaust is an original John Storm political thriller.

  MARTIN VAN BUREN (8TH), ANTI SLAVERY, SLAVE TRADER & TRADING - WHO ARE THE TOP TEN (10) BEST AND WORST PRESIDENTS OF THE USA - MOST LOVED, HANDSOME & GOOD LOOKING WORLD LEADERS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

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