Tim H. Blessing

Alvernia University Professor of History and Political Science; specialty--US Presidency and voting behaviors. Retweets do not mean approval.

[Hanin Ghaddar @haningdr]

This is HUGE!
- These clans are the core of the Shia constituency in the Bekaa region.
- The Bekaa Shia have more loyalty to their tribes than to Hezbollah.
- The implications of such political statement on the group are enormous.

[Tim H. Blessing @Blessti]

Achness Falls--Scotland--Near Rosehall and Lairg, Northern Highlands https://t.co/tejB2l3Jdl via @YouTube

[Tim H. Blessing @Blessti]

Folks, this is the real thing. The owner and I talk distilling--in a storefront location in Whitesburg, KY.

Kentucky [Legal] Moonshine--Kentucky Mist Distillery--Whitesburg, KY https://t.co/GhJad6JP76 via @YouTube

[Tim H. Blessing @Blessti]

Driving Through Windstorm near Elgin, Moray, Scotland https://t.co/8gk9tzj6UC via @YouTube

[Tim H. Blessing @Blessti]

A performance by Peter Noone (lead singer for Herman's Hermits) of "Silhouettes"--a truly golden Golden Oldie.

https://t.co/TTPsYmE4RS

[Tim H. Blessing @Blessti]

"CaroI of the Bells"--String Quartet--Sinking Spring, PA https://t.co/U7grJksMug via @YouTube

[BNO News @BNONews]

WATCH: Bystander disarms active shooter at Bondi Beach in Sydney

[Tim H. Blessing @Blessti]

https://t.co/RBfd5cEVXw

[Tim H. Blessing @Blessti]

https://t.co/KSE9zEpoY8

[Tim H. Blessing @Blessti]

Interview with President Charles Curtis
Bluntly: Mr. President: as you know, a lot of people saw your removal of President Hoover in 1931 as an overthrow. You testified about it obliquely before the Garner Committee, but you have never spoken directly to the issue, so I am deeply appreciative of your willingness to sit down with me. As you know, a goodly number of Americans regard your action as a “coup.” Perhaps we could start there?

President Curtis: And that’s the right place to start. As you know, the Constitution provides that—here, let me read it to you: “In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the Congress may by law provide for the Case of Removal.”

There was no question that President Hoover, a fine man, had become more or less “frozen” in place. Nothing he did helped the Great Depression at all. People were starving. Although the number of suicides has been greatly exaggerated, they were on the rise. In much of the nation, you couldn’t cash a check. Long breadlines were everywhere. The situation was disastrous. And we could do nothing but ignore Japanese expansionism. Perhaps twenty or twenty-five percent of the people were unemployed and that’s a low count, Mr. Bluntly. It only includes those looking for work. A goodly number of people had given up, so the government didn’t count them. That was our fault.

[He shook his head and paused.]

We’ll never know the correct figures.

[He looked down at the gold watch chain stretched across his stomach.]

Yet, the very few who were able to speak to him told me that he [Hoover] was in a desperate state. No appointments, no visitors, he was coming in at nine every morning and just sitting behind his desk. I couldn’t get in to speak to him. His staff loved him, but they had become demoralized, depressed. When his chief secretary committed suicide, it fell to me to do something, so I went straight to the Senate leadership & said the president had lost his ability to discharge his duties. And I asked that an appropriate law be passed. I figured Hoover would veto it, but he did nothing—didn’t sign it, didn’t veto it. So, it became law. I am not sure that, at that point anyway, he really understood what was happening. He’d fought his way from being an orphan, being in poverty, to being a very wealthy engineer, welcome on every continent. Then he’d saved millions and millions from starvation almost single-handedly. He was the most capable man I’d ever met and that includes TR. And he couldn’t do a damned thing. Nothing worked. It destroyed him.

We couldn’t afford another Calvin Coolidge scenario where a president was completely paralyzed by his emotions… we couldn’t afford another Wilson. What was happening to our country, I asked myself. Nothing against Lou Hoover, she was probably the only reason he could make it as far as his office. But she didn’t want to be another Edith Wilson. So, Congress passed a law, they set up a commission, the members all were senior members—and they did it right. Very deliberate and proper in every way. We were taking an enormous step, and we had to get it right.

But something had to be done. Wilson’s last two years—[Vice-President] Marshall should have removed him; he was more dead than alive. Harding? Nice fellow, hard-working, worked himself to death. Trusted his friends too much. But [he suddenly gave me a hard stare], the so-called “Harding scandals” were vastly overblown once he was conveniently dead and couldn’t defend himself. Almost all press smears—just selling papers. You folks put the country on the rack, you know.

Coolidge? [he looked down again at his watch chain], one of the brightest men ever to be a president, but his son’s death unhinged him. I’ve seen the papers—he suffered a massive breakdown, never recovered. [Curtis’s voice grew soft], it killed him. It killed him. Coolidge was a decent man, maybe a little prickly at times. I had heard that, towards the end of his term, he would fly into irrational rages. I think those stories are probably true.

And then Hoover descended into this state where he couldn’t go forward or back. It must have been terrible for Lou. I think, I think [even more softly], I think she was glad when we removed him.

Bluntly: Then a year later, he was dead. There have always been questions…

Curtis: You’re a reporter and a fine one, but that’s a question you can’t ask. In your time, you waited over sixty years for the files on President Kennedy and Dr. King…

Bluntly: … and you became our first Native American president. My readers won’t know that.

Curtis: I’m an Indian… I was born an Indian, I lived an Indian, I will die an Indian.

Bluntly: Registered member of the Kaw tribe.

Curtis: First Indian Senate Majority Leader. First Indian Vice-President. First Indian President. You know what else I was first at? I was the first jockey who became Senate Majority Leader and all that. If you live long enough, you can stack up a good many “firsts.”

Bluntly: Some would say that you did not live as an Indian. That you lived more as a white man.

Curtis: You know, your reputation is well-deserved . . . as is your name. Let me answer that. Once upon a time there were a lot of white guys out in our part of the country. And Indian lasses—“lasses” is Scottish, right—no problem with that? Prefer “squaws????” [Raised his eyebrows and paused,] Ok, so a great many Indian lasses were pretty good looking. And darned if they didn’t do what comes naturally, I don’t want to shock you, but they did so for generations… they did or there wouldn’t have been generations, right??? And no one was dropping in on them checking whether someone who was 3/8th Kaw and 1/4 Comanche and the rest maybe French, maybe not, was enjoying the fruits of the land at night.
[He bent his head down and looked over his glasses at me and laughed.]

Well, it seems to me that people want some romanticized notion of an American Indian if they are to be considered real Indians. Truth to be known, I drifted into a “white” occupation. I was riding horses at tracks, driving “hacks” [horse-drawn taxis], and working as a part-time clerk in a law office. After a while, I knew a little law. Hib Case, that’s the attorney, began to give me little cases to try, minor things. So I started to read Hib’s lawbooks ‘cause I needed to. Before long—

Bluntly: Two years.

Curtis: I qualified for the bar. Then it was natural, ‘cause I get along with people, to drift into politics. I guess I am only an Indian if I wear buckskin breeches and live on the res’. I spent most of my youth on a reservation, I am not interested. Winter on a reservation is no picnic. Houses in a town are nicer… and very much warmer. Very proud of my ancestry, always have been, but I don’t see that I have to be miserable to be some type of official “Indian.”

There’s one other “first,” you know. I was the first to introduce the Equal Rights Amendment. Me in the Senate and Don Anthony over in the House. Both of us were Kansans.

You see, live long enough, you get a bunch of firsts.

You have one too, Mr. Bluntly, you’re the first reporter I am giving an interview to.

Now, Mr. Bluntly, I got a bet for you. You know, even when I was President, I liked to go to the track and play the ponies, drove the Secret Service crazy. Knew all the tracks. Read the Racing Form every day. Kind of a passion of mine. Nothing wrong with putting a little money down.

Bluntly: [laughs]

Curtis: You’re taking the Mobius Subway home as you usually do, I’m sure. Look for an older guy, looks like a professor… [he rustled around in his desk obviously looking for something. Held up a card.] … thin patches on the elbows of his coat jacket. Tartan bowtie. Graying curly hair. Dr. Merritt Turnbull. Here, give him this card, tell him I’ll meet him at the Brattle Club—scotch and soda—usual time, maybe bring a pad and pencil, we have a little chatting to do

[Bluntly looked down at the card. Curtis had written ‘Brattle Club-Scotch n Soda—Usual.’]

… I am betting you find him. He’s always on that line. Likes riding it. Brilliant chap. One of the world’s great mathematicians, even if a touch eccentric. I could use his skills on bets. Like I say, it’s kind of my passion.

Bluntly: Thank you, Mr. President.

[Tim H. Blessing @Blessti]

@JonathanTurley In response to your question about other political agendas it might have, type in "slave" or "businessman" and see what you get. There are a whole bunch of unwoke words that set it off. Funny, but when I write "slave," I mean "slave." To soften the word is morally reprehensible.

[Tim H. Blessing @Blessti]

Here’s how you do it. You make a speech to your people that they must bear the unbearable. Then you ask for terms. Trump will offer generous ones and Bibi will acquiesce too. You can have an internal policy, but externally you follow US guidelines. Peace reigns and you restore your country. See: Hirohito, Emperor.

[Tim H. Blessing @Blessti]

@JonathanTurley Is she quite mad??? These actions are going to be popular except among the very hard-core.

[Tim H. Blessing @Blessti]

@JonathanTurley The Presidency has reserved powers. The LA Purchase, the Merryman decision, the Cuban Quarantine, the immediate response to the Berlin Blockade, and on were all taken under those powers. Such powers can be restrained but the cannot be removed.

[Tim H. Blessing @Blessti]

@RobVaughnNews Congratulations!

[Tim H. Blessing @Blessti]

https://t.co/9A3NJlTwnN

[Tim H. Blessing @Blessti]

@PamelaGeller https://t.co/wHt5ogVEwJ

[Tim H. Blessing @Blessti]

@dotcirclerjw @JDunlap1974 There have been exactly two judges arrested under such charges in this presidential term. Both have prima facie cases against them. It is a damned poor inquisition that nets only two fish. Due process was & is being followed.

[Tim H. Blessing @Blessti]

"Politics ain't beanbag" as Chris Christie likes to say, and he's right, but this was playing with everything up to and including the nuclear codes.

[Stephen L. Miller @redsteeze]

I warned you. They have no bottom.