I finished my book on Andrew Jackson last night. I feel dumber for having read that flaming pile of dog poo. I mean, if I wanted an uncritical assessment of the Hero (as he's referred to in the book, with Hero capitalized), I would have just dug up some old campaign literature. I feel like I need to read one or two other books to get a more even handed retelling of his presidency. There's a lot to say about his presidency and it is very complicated. Instead, what I got was, Andrew Jackson, savior of the Indians! Andrew Jackson, single handedly straightening out all of America's foreign policy problems after those idiots Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and Adams screwed it all up! Andrew Jackson, friend of the slave! All the bad stuff was Van Buren's fault! Jesus. I will say this: one of the things that reading these books in order does is show some of the bias that individual authors have in how they treat the same events. Broadly speaking, though, JQA's tenure as Secretary of State is widely lauded, but this author asserts that Jackson thought he was an idiot and screwed the country in his dealings with Spain by not getting Texas. In other hands, JQA's deal with Spain is lauded as a tremendous victory. The author here treats Jackson's assertion as fact without examining what the deal did accomplish.
What is especially galling to me were two things: the treatment of Jackson's War on the Bank of the US and his appointment of Roger Taney to the Supreme Court.
Jackson went to war on the bank of the US and his "plan" war to have receipts from the Federal Government deposited in banks strewn all over the country -- and these banks had to be friendly to Jackson. He made that a primary issue in his re-election campaign and he won in a landslide. The author asserts that Jackson was the first president to stake his re-election campaign on an issue like this. Not sure that's true, but if so, to what end? This was just populist demagoguery in service of an incoherent policy tinged with cronyism. The author laments in one sentence at the end of the book that unfortunately, Jackson didn't have a better plan to replace the BUS. Yeah, that is unfortunate, because the whole system collapsed within one year of Jackson leaving the presidency. To wit:
In the United States, there were several contributing factors. In July 1832, President Andrew Jackson vetoed the bill to recharter the Second Bank of the United States, the nation's central bank and fiscal agent. As the bank wound up its operations in the next four years, state-chartered banks in the West and the South relaxed their lending standards by maintaining unsafe reserve ratios.[2] Two domestic policies exacerbated an already volatile situation. The Specie Circular of 1836 mandated that western lands could be purchased only with gold and silver coin. The circular was an executive order issued by Jackson and favored by Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri and other hard-money advocates. Its intent was to curb speculation in public lands, but the circular set off a real estate and commodity price crash since most buyers were unable to come up with sufficient hard money or "specie" (gold or silver coins) to pay for the land. Secondly, the Deposit and Distribution Act of 1836 placed federal revenues in various local banks, derisively termed "pet banks," across the country. Many of the banks were located in the West. The effect of both policies was to transfer specie away from the nation's main commercial centers on the East Coast. With lower monetary reserves in their vaults, major banks and financial institutions on the East Coast had to scale back their loans, which was a major cause of the panic, besides the real estate crash.[11]
The author does mention, though, that the price of cotton was good, so the Old Hero himself was able to ride this out. Well, good for him, I guess.
As for Taney, the author merely states that Taney was "one of Jackson's best appointments". He does not mention that Jackson appointed him to the Supreme Court twice and that he failed to be confirmed in his first attempt. He does mention, though, that he nominated Taney to be secretary of the Treasury despite Taney having no experience in that realm and that the Congress rejected that nomination. He also does not even mention the fact that Taney authored the Dred Scott decision, probably the worst Supreme Court decision in history. Nope, one of his best appointments. I mean, if you aren't going to at least mention that, then just delete Taney from your book.
Would you be willing to read a different more balanced Jackson biography (if one exists) or are you moving on?
I'm moving on for now, but would like one once I'm done. Unfortunately, the Dread Pirate tells me that that book may not exist.
...until you write it
LOL.
I will say that the guy who wrote the JQA book, James Traub, wrote an absolute masterpiece, the best of these books that I have read so far, hands down. I was laughing out loud at times and just could not get enough of it. What a brilliant secretary of state. What a clueless president. What a terrible husband and father. What socially inept nerd. But, JQA's post presidential turn in the House of Representatives was him as a brilliant troll of the pro-slavery crowd and I laughed as I read of his constant nose-tweaking of that crowd. And yet, it was balanced. JQA was a very interesting character, immensely talented and immensely flawed. At the end of the book, you feel like, wow, for all his faults, what a great American. And then Traub slips in a quote from none other than Walt Whitman basically saying that JQA was unpopular and he deserved to be unpopular. It was unsparing and totally appropriate. You are left with this feeling that he was great and he sucked, too. Kind of the same feeling that you had for the previous 500+ pages. To go from the sublime to the ridiculous was a true letdown.
Another amazing story in the JQA book. He was a big supporter of Harvard and also a frustrated poet. He wanted to be a great poet, but he was... not talented. Anyway, he went to some graduation, maybe it was his son's, at Harvard and commented on the program, and he remarked in his journal that the poet (remember, he thought he was a poet) reading was terrible. That poet's name? Ralph Waldo Emerson. LOL.
You ever thought about posting reviews of these books? At Goodreads or wherever? Your take on the Jackson book would be appreciated by someone, I'm sure.
After I finished reading the book, I did, in fact, go to goodreads and there were a fair number of 5 star reviews. There were some, though, that were honed in on exactly what I was saying. I feel more confident in saying what I did because I read those reviews. Wanted to be sure it wasn't just me.
But yes, I've thought about writing some reviews. About halfway through the Jackson book, I decided to start taking pictures with my phone of sections of the book that I thought were noteworthy. In Kindle, I can highlight those sections, too. I'm hoping to write more about each book to inform the citizenry here of what I've seen, but also to help me remember what I've read a little better.
The other thing I've come to realize is that the opinions of what I've read about one president can be shaded somewhat by their mention in subsequent books. I am hopeful that the Van Buren book is going to shape my understanding of Jackson a little more. I'm about 15% the way through it (it's a quick read) and I'm finding a lot more balance. Since Van Buren was a key player in the Jackson administration (SOS in first half of first term, VP in second term), there may be a lot said about Jackson here.
When I was little, he was my favorite President because we shared a name (and as 5 year olds go that's super important)
Now, I don't think I know of one redeeming quality of the man. He may be my most disliked president, at least on a personal level.
I think there is something to be said about some of the things that he did. He did appeal directly to the people in a way that other presidents hadn't before, which I think is good. But, it was in service of some pretty shitty policies and he did a pretty damnable job of misinforming the public, which seems to happen quite a bit these days, too. A more nuanced book would be pointing that out and saying, hey, this can be good, but if the president is gonna lie or misinform the public, it has a really toxic effect.
I mean, if the president involves the people by spreading misinformation and your response is Yay, Democracy, you might not have gotten the whole story. But I'm ranting.
Man, you have a pair of presidents that share your name, to be sure.
Man, you have a pair of presidents that share your name, to be sure.
Yep, real pair of winners
There is a reason 45 had Jackson's portrait hanging in the Oval Office.
He did keep the British from seizing New Orleans.....
That part of the book was the best part. Maps, pretty thorough discussion, what Jackson did right, how he got lucky, etc. Pretty balanced description of the battle.
He also declared marshal law in New Orleans......
Sunrise in St. Paul, MN today: 7:20 AM. Sunset: 7:20 PM. 12 hours. I am a fan of DST and the change, even if it takes me a day or two to adjust. But, that 7:20AM is a little late for sunrise when we have 12 hours of daylight. I'd push the change back about a month, tbh.
Sunrise in beautiful downtown Gettysburg is 7:50 a.m.
That's middle of the winter late.
We make up for it by having sunset at about 9:30 in mid-summer. It stays somewhat light past ten.
you guys have sun?
Yes. We just can't see it right now.
Kinda like the recent stimulus check. Or the one before it, for that matter.
The CPBL season has started. I used Google translate to follow one of the games, which gives some interesting translations.
The Rakuten Monkeys is translated as the "Peach Apes". One of their pitchers has a name that translates as "Overdone". What I assume is an RBI ground out to second translates as "Assassinated on the second base rolls the earth, two outs, with one RBI, third base has someone." A line single to center (I assume) is "a flat hit in the middle direction, and took first base."
The Peach Apes defeated the Unity 7-Eleven Lions 12-4.
I remember listening to some Mexican League in college. Double play translates directly as "double killing"
Not such a gentle reminder here; the furnace in my office is not working.
Fixed. There will be heat this afternoon!
RIP to Yaphet Kotto, who portrayed the wonderful Al Giardello in the somehow still not streaming Homicide: Life on the Streets
He was so great in that. Also loved him in Across 110th Street, one of the grittiest crime dramas of all time.
In strange but good news my first show was moved up 5 days. Saturday can’t come fast enough.
Break a leg.
Show = shot. But we all get one chance, right. Effing autocorrect.
Dude!
We had a Town Hall meeting earlier at work. One of the HR speakers said she was "Super Excited" about something. Blech.
I also hate it when in meetings people say they are "Passionate" about something. I hear "Rabid".
I usually hear, "I need to justify why I'm doing what I'm doing because I have no idea"
There are days (like when my furnace breaks down) when I grumble about running my own business, but comments like these make me so glad I made that leap. Yes, there are stresses. A lot of them. But I am happy to take these stresses over those stresses.
I'm very lucky I work at a place that tries very hard not to condescend to their employees and involves line staff in helping affect change. I'm afraid to leave because every other job I've had has been toxic and that's too much stress for one lifetime.
I once worked for a chain that looked at all employees solely as assets. I will never again work anywhere that does not view employees as extended family. It is something I am passionate about. Oops sorry... it is something I am rabid about! 🙂
I’m a middle manager for a nonprofit museum. The institution fired a security guard the other day. Black woman fired by a white manager. Members of my team are foaming at the mouth calling this a racist hit job. All of my team are white, 3/4 male. One of them is more vocal calling our place of work a modern day plantation where we’re they’re slaves to management. This can’t be farther from the truth. We’ve engaged in deai training for 8 months, everyone kept their jobs through the pandemic (with 8-10
weeks of pay to stay home to flatten the curve) pay raises were frozen at this time last year but were reinstated three months later with back pay for the three missing months. Everyone is going to get about 3% in raises this year (no other nonprofit in town is getting any sort of pay raise), there have been forced retirements of some cancerous (and openly sexist) managers from the bad old days, and the institution just finished an 18month long strategic plan that reorganizes the whole place so that employees can have clearer channels of communication and more agency in the day to day operation of their work area. This place is in the middle ground of managing 150 employees but trying to ensure everyone feels valued, and yet there is a whole lot of people wanting to burn it to the ground over a situation they have no clear understanding of because the info is confidential and the release of which would certainly get the place sued.
Oy.
Having lived the "I can't talk about it" life for over a decade, I hear you, brother.
Management makes mistakes. Some managers are atrocious in various ways. But the flip side....
I think today is the first time one of our serious starting pitchers didn't have that good of a game. Our starters have been pretty darn good so far in Spring Training.
I didn't listen to the game, but looking at the printed play-by-play it looks like Berrios got hurt by a lot of weak contact that found holes.
That brought a very large smile to my face. Thanks for sharing! Diabolical, funny, and uplifting all at once.
On my journey to eat healthier, I have found that forgoing dressing on a salad or wrap is just fine if I sprinkle Bleu or Gorgonzola Cheese crumbles and add some veggies grilled with just a bit of my sriracha meltdown sauce. I never thought I would be able to "86" blue cheese dressing from my diet, but there you go. Now if I can figure out how to resist my wife's meatloaf.
My wife throws some vegetables in a blender and mixes then into meatloaf. I think that counts as health food.
Fair point... and you are enabling me. 🙂
Is a salad dressing really a dressing without several quarts of mayo?
I am sensing an ongoing conversation/battle around here regarding dressings and vinaigrettes.
So the wife got me into Kale salad, but only under certain circumstances: Kale, berries, mandarin orange slices (from can is OK), toasted almond slices, and balsalmic vinegar/olive oil mix. Takes away the dryness but you're still eating power food. Oh and you can't leave the kitchen when the almonds are toasting - close work needing constant supervision.
NBBW edit - use peach flavored or ginger lemon white vinegars. No mustard.
Jacques Pepin’s dressing for me. Red wine vinegar, olive oil, Dijon mustard, garlic, sea salt and cracked pepper. Some fresh herbs, maybe, if I got ‘em. Relatively healthy and oh so tasty.
Some crumbled blue cheese is always a good thing.
Oh man. Blue cheese is like the food I would take with me to a deserted Isle. I'd be like Hurley on Lost
Pick an island with a cave.
So in my last checkup with Dr. Fear, he tells me I've gained 20 pounds since the COVID. But I heard earlier this week the national average weight gain was 29lbs. FTW!!
I am down 22 pounds since COVID, however, I was down 32 pounds last fall.
I went up between 20 and 25. I am down 15 since the start of 2021. Covid contributed to both the weight gain and loss.
My weight's been flat through all this, but so's my physical activity, unfortunately
I finished my book on Andrew Jackson last night. I feel dumber for having read that flaming pile of dog poo. I mean, if I wanted an uncritical assessment of the Hero (as he's referred to in the book, with Hero capitalized), I would have just dug up some old campaign literature. I feel like I need to read one or two other books to get a more even handed retelling of his presidency. There's a lot to say about his presidency and it is very complicated. Instead, what I got was, Andrew Jackson, savior of the Indians! Andrew Jackson, single handedly straightening out all of America's foreign policy problems after those idiots Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and Adams screwed it all up! Andrew Jackson, friend of the slave! All the bad stuff was Van Buren's fault! Jesus. I will say this: one of the things that reading these books in order does is show some of the bias that individual authors have in how they treat the same events. Broadly speaking, though, JQA's tenure as Secretary of State is widely lauded, but this author asserts that Jackson thought he was an idiot and screwed the country in his dealings with Spain by not getting Texas. In other hands, JQA's deal with Spain is lauded as a tremendous victory. The author here treats Jackson's assertion as fact without examining what the deal did accomplish.
Would you be willing to read a different more balanced Jackson biography (if one exists) or are you moving on?
I'm moving on for now, but would like one once I'm done. Unfortunately, the Dread Pirate tells me that that book may not exist.
...until you write it
LOL.
I will say that the guy who wrote the JQA book, James Traub, wrote an absolute masterpiece, the best of these books that I have read so far, hands down. I was laughing out loud at times and just could not get enough of it. What a brilliant secretary of state. What a clueless president. What a terrible husband and father. What socially inept nerd. But, JQA's post presidential turn in the House of Representatives was him as a brilliant troll of the pro-slavery crowd and I laughed as I read of his constant nose-tweaking of that crowd. And yet, it was balanced. JQA was a very interesting character, immensely talented and immensely flawed. At the end of the book, you feel like, wow, for all his faults, what a great American. And then Traub slips in a quote from none other than Walt Whitman basically saying that JQA was unpopular and he deserved to be unpopular. It was unsparing and totally appropriate. You are left with this feeling that he was great and he sucked, too. Kind of the same feeling that you had for the previous 500+ pages. To go from the sublime to the ridiculous was a true letdown.
Another amazing story in the JQA book. He was a big supporter of Harvard and also a frustrated poet. He wanted to be a great poet, but he was... not talented. Anyway, he went to some graduation, maybe it was his son's, at Harvard and commented on the program, and he remarked in his journal that the poet (remember, he thought he was a poet) reading was terrible. That poet's name? Ralph Waldo Emerson. LOL.
You ever thought about posting reviews of these books? At Goodreads or wherever? Your take on the Jackson book would be appreciated by someone, I'm sure.
After I finished reading the book, I did, in fact, go to goodreads and there were a fair number of 5 star reviews. There were some, though, that were honed in on exactly what I was saying. I feel more confident in saying what I did because I read those reviews. Wanted to be sure it wasn't just me.
But yes, I've thought about writing some reviews. About halfway through the Jackson book, I decided to start taking pictures with my phone of sections of the book that I thought were noteworthy. In Kindle, I can highlight those sections, too. I'm hoping to write more about each book to inform the citizenry here of what I've seen, but also to help me remember what I've read a little better.
The other thing I've come to realize is that the opinions of what I've read about one president can be shaded somewhat by their mention in subsequent books. I am hopeful that the Van Buren book is going to shape my understanding of Jackson a little more. I'm about 15% the way through it (it's a quick read) and I'm finding a lot more balance. Since Van Buren was a key player in the Jackson administration (SOS in first half of first term, VP in second term), there may be a lot said about Jackson here.
When I was little, he was my favorite President because we shared a name (and as 5 year olds go that's super important)
Now, I don't think I know of one redeeming quality of the man. He may be my most disliked president, at least on a personal level.
I think there is something to be said about some of the things that he did. He did appeal directly to the people in a way that other presidents hadn't before, which I think is good. But, it was in service of some pretty shitty policies and he did a pretty damnable job of misinforming the public, which seems to happen quite a bit these days, too. A more nuanced book would be pointing that out and saying, hey, this can be good, but if the president is gonna lie or misinform the public, it has a really toxic effect.
I mean, if the president involves the people by spreading misinformation and your response is Yay, Democracy, you might not have gotten the whole story. But I'm ranting.
Man, you have a pair of presidents that share your name, to be sure.
Yep, real pair of winners
There is a reason 45 had Jackson's portrait hanging in the Oval Office.
He did keep the British from seizing New Orleans.....
That part of the book was the best part. Maps, pretty thorough discussion, what Jackson did right, how he got lucky, etc. Pretty balanced description of the battle.
He also declared marshal law in New Orleans......
Sunrise in St. Paul, MN today: 7:20 AM. Sunset: 7:20 PM. 12 hours. I am a fan of DST and the change, even if it takes me a day or two to adjust. But, that 7:20AM is a little late for sunrise when we have 12 hours of daylight. I'd push the change back about a month, tbh.
Sunrise in beautiful downtown Gettysburg is 7:50 a.m.
That's middle of the winter late.
We make up for it by having sunset at about 9:30 in mid-summer. It stays somewhat light past ten.
you guys have sun?
Yes. We just can't see it right now.
Kinda like the recent stimulus check. Or the one before it, for that matter.
The CPBL season has started. I used Google translate to follow one of the games, which gives some interesting translations.
The Rakuten Monkeys is translated as the "Peach Apes". One of their pitchers has a name that translates as "Overdone". What I assume is an RBI ground out to second translates as "Assassinated on the second base rolls the earth, two outs, with one RBI, third base has someone." A line single to center (I assume) is "a flat hit in the middle direction, and took first base."
The Peach Apes defeated the Unity 7-Eleven Lions 12-4.
I remember listening to some Mexican League in college. Double play translates directly as "double killing"
Not such a gentle reminder here; the furnace in my office is not working.
Fixed. There will be heat this afternoon!
RIP to Yaphet Kotto, who portrayed the wonderful Al Giardello in the somehow still not streaming Homicide: Life on the Streets
He was so great in that. Also loved him in Across 110th Street, one of the grittiest crime dramas of all time.
In strange but good news my first show was moved up 5 days. Saturday can’t come fast enough.
Break a leg.
Show = shot. But we all get one chance, right. Effing autocorrect.
Dude!
We had a Town Hall meeting earlier at work. One of the HR speakers said she was "Super Excited" about something. Blech.
I also hate it when in meetings people say they are "Passionate" about something. I hear "Rabid".
I usually hear, "I need to justify why I'm doing what I'm doing because I have no idea"
There are days (like when my furnace breaks down) when I grumble about running my own business, but comments like these make me so glad I made that leap. Yes, there are stresses. A lot of them. But I am happy to take these stresses over those stresses.
I'm very lucky I work at a place that tries very hard not to condescend to their employees and involves line staff in helping affect change. I'm afraid to leave because every other job I've had has been toxic and that's too much stress for one lifetime.
I once worked for a chain that looked at all employees solely as assets. I will never again work anywhere that does not view employees as extended family. It is something I am passionate about. Oops sorry... it is something I am rabid about! 🙂
I’m a middle manager for a nonprofit museum. The institution fired a security guard the other day. Black woman fired by a white manager. Members of my team are foaming at the mouth calling this a racist hit job. All of my team are white, 3/4 male. One of them is more vocal calling our place of work a modern day plantation where
we’rethey’re slaves to management. This can’t be farther from the truth. We’ve engaged in deai training for 8 months, everyone kept their jobs through the pandemic (with 8-10weeks of pay to stay home to flatten the curve) pay raises were frozen at this time last year but were reinstated three months later with back pay for the three missing months. Everyone is going to get about 3% in raises this year (no other nonprofit in town is getting any sort of pay raise), there have been forced retirements of some cancerous (and openly sexist) managers from the bad old days, and the institution just finished an 18month long strategic plan that reorganizes the whole place so that employees can have clearer channels of communication and more agency in the day to day operation of their work area. This place is in the middle ground of managing 150 employees but trying to ensure everyone feels valued, and yet there is a whole lot of people wanting to burn it to the ground over a situation they have no clear understanding of because the info is confidential and the release of which would certainly get the place sued.
Oy.
Having lived the "I can't talk about it" life for over a decade, I hear you, brother.
Management makes mistakes. Some managers are atrocious in various ways. But the flip side....
I think today is the first time one of our serious starting pitchers didn't have that good of a game. Our starters have been pretty darn good so far in Spring Training.
I didn't listen to the game, but looking at the printed play-by-play it looks like Berrios got hurt by a lot of weak contact that found holes.
But they wouldn't move Game 1 off of Yom Kippur for Koufax.
What to do about the incomplete border wall?
One idea.
That brought a very large smile to my face. Thanks for sharing! Diabolical, funny, and uplifting all at once.
On my journey to eat healthier, I have found that forgoing dressing on a salad or wrap is just fine if I sprinkle Bleu or Gorgonzola Cheese crumbles and add some veggies grilled with just a bit of my sriracha meltdown sauce. I never thought I would be able to "86" blue cheese dressing from my diet, but there you go. Now if I can figure out how to resist my wife's meatloaf.
My wife throws some vegetables in a blender and mixes then into meatloaf. I think that counts as health food.
Fair point... and you are enabling me. 🙂
Is a salad dressing really a dressing without several quarts of mayo?
I am sensing an ongoing conversation/battle around here regarding dressings and vinaigrettes.
So the wife got me into Kale salad, but only under certain circumstances: Kale, berries, mandarin orange slices (from can is OK), toasted almond slices, and balsalmic vinegar/olive oil mix. Takes away the dryness but you're still eating power food. Oh and you can't leave the kitchen when the almonds are toasting - close work needing constant supervision.
NBBW edit - use peach flavored or ginger lemon white vinegars. No mustard.
Jacques Pepin’s dressing for me. Red wine vinegar, olive oil, Dijon mustard, garlic, sea salt and cracked pepper. Some fresh herbs, maybe, if I got ‘em. Relatively healthy and oh so tasty.
Some crumbled blue cheese is always a good thing.
Oh man. Blue cheese is like the food I would take with me to a deserted Isle. I'd be like Hurley on Lost
Pick an island with a cave.
So in my last checkup with Dr. Fear, he tells me I've gained 20 pounds since the COVID. But I heard earlier this week the national average weight gain was 29lbs. FTW!!
I am down 22 pounds since COVID, however, I was down 32 pounds last fall.
I went up between 20 and 25. I am down 15 since the start of 2021. Covid contributed to both the weight gain and loss.
My weight's been flat through all this, but so's my physical activity, unfortunately
Same
so, water below the surface on Mars? Duh.
How 'bout that - Mrs Runner was up to starting Firefly
Is there a half-baked brakeft this year?
Also fantasy baseball draft/keepers?
Outside the Gophers I have watched very little college ball but I'll still fill out a bracket if we are doing one
Ditto. I'm an easy mark.
Since when has that ever stopped anyone?