This is the President

Once upon a time we had a singing dog in the White House. No, we're not talking about the current occupant - the singing dog in question was named Yuki and he was owned by President Lyndon Baines Johnson. 

Yuki, a terrier mix, was found by the president's daughter in Johnson City, Texas on Thanksgiving Day in 1966. LBJ's daughter, Luci, presented Yuki to the president as a a gift and the two became inseparable. LBJ danced with Yuki at his daughter's wedding and even wanted to include him in family photos, before the first lady put her foot down. 

The excerpt of LBJ and Yuki singing comes from an odd record entitled "Dogs Have Always Been My Friends" an album full of dog stories from LBJ. 

Also in this episode, Harmon and I discuss our Rosanne Barr conspiracy theories, the lack of presidential portraits at the US border and Donald Trump's lack of a diaper changing partner.

She said what? Oh no she didn't! 

As the opinions continue to roll in about Michelle Wolf's appearance at this years White House Correspondents Dinner - amid calls to drop the whole ceremony entirely - we take a look at the White House Correspondents Dinner. Beginning in 1920, right up to the Trump jokes of 2018, we'll run through the entertainment and delve into some of the traditions of the WHCD.

To put it mildly, 1968 was a bad year for LBJ.

The Tet Offensive, the North Korean seizure of the USS Pueblo, assassinations of MLK and RFK, a supreme court battle, riots in the streets during the 1968 Democratic convention and a duplicitous Richard Nixon were just among the few issues he faced in that fateful year. 

In this special episode, we're joined by noted scholar and author Kyle Longley, author of LBJ's 1968: Power, Politics, and the Presidency in America's Year of Upheaval to discuss what made 1968 such a not-that-great of a year.  We'll touch on all of the bad points of LBJ's 1968, Kyle's pick for best LBJ phone call and what LBJ and the current president have in common. 

Harmon is out in New Zealand, but you can still to pick up a copy of Harmon's new book, Meet the Deplorables, now available on Amazon. 

This episode is also sponsored by BLACKBX. Running a restaurant, bar, pub or retail business? Offer your customers fast, free and secure wireless while gaining awesome customer insights.

Get started with a FREE trial today. 

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast over at iTunes!

Jimmy Carter, the first Social Media President? Sure, why not? Because on March 5, 1977 Jimmy Carter did something that no other Chief Executive had done before him: host his own Ask Me Anything. 

With CBS commentator and anchorman Walter Cronkite sitting next to him, President Carter fielded 42 questions (selected from over 9 million calls) from United States citizens ranging from the gasoline tax to Uganda to the Yankees playing an exhibition match in Cuba - with no screening and no prepared notes. 

It was a one of a kind event, as Walter Cronkite noted in his introduction: 

This is a unique occasion, in the sense that it marks a new approach to communication between the President and the people of the United States. It is indeed historic--unique, historic--and we must also say an experiment since the President has never taken part before in this sort of a broadcast.

The event was so unique, in fact, that it never happened again. Which is kind of a shame because it seemed like a good idea. Such a good idea, in fact, that Reddit would popularize this type of Q&A session over 40 years later.

Do you remember where you were when the Miracle on Ice happened? Were you even alive?

Jiminy Xmas - it was thirty friggin eight years ago. But, for those of you who were around, it was a moment you're never going to forget. It was February 22, 1980 in Lake Placid, New York that the underdog USA Olympic hockey team, comprised mostly of amateur players, beat the seasoned and professional Russian hockey team. Take that commies! 

In today's previously unreleased phone call, we get to listen in as President James Carter phones up to the locker room in Lake Placid to congratulate the team and invite them down to the White House.

And the best part? Not only did the US of A win, but so did our way of life. 

In addition, Harmon and Scott return with their first "Whether or Not Weather Update" for the first time in over a year, we go through a few classic US hockey team coach Herb Brooks "Brooksisms", and you'll feel the thrill and excitement of being a real New Yorker when you hear the construction outside Harmon's apartment.

Super Bowl Sunday is this week!

So we decided to get into the spirit by taking the Presidential Time Portal back to 1973 to hear President Nixon's predictions about the impending match up between the Washington Redskins and the undefeated Miami Dolphins. 

In our phone call this week, the president talks about the upcoming Super Bowl VII - as well as his 60th birthday - with Laugh In hosts Dan Martin and Dick Rowan. Just a little over four years before this phone call, Nixon appeared on Martin and Rowan's show and uttered the show's catchphrase "Sock it to me", for which he received a sum of $210 dollars (Almost $1500 in 2017 dollars) which went straight into the Elect Nixon fund.

Have you ever heard the phrase "Drinking the Kool-Aid"? Do you know where it comes from? Do you really?

It's an image that few Americans who were around at the time can forget: bodies - some piled on top of each other - sprawled around a crude tin-roofed building in the middle of the South American jungle. A mass suicide of over 900 church members who willingly (and some not so willingly) drank cyanide laced punch at the request of their leader, the Reverend Jim Jones.  The place was officially known as the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project or, as most people called it, Jonestown. 

The evening news of November 18, 1978 carried the shocking images around the globe and soon Americans began asking themselves the familiar question - how could this have happened?

In this episode, we'll be taking a look at some of the background to the Jonestown Massacre and, as this is a podcast called "The is the President", the US President's response to tragedy. In this case, a press briefing from President James "Jimmy" Carter on November 30, 1978. We'll also play a portion of what is known as the "Jonestown Death Tape", a harrowing real-time recording taken by Jonestown leader Jim Jones as he exhorted his followers to their deaths. And we'll try to set the record straight on the drink involved - despite the ubiquity of the phrase, the drink mix used in Jonestown was actually "Flavor Aid" and not "Kool Aid." 

If you'd like to read more about the goings on in the Guyanese jungle, Jonestown, the Rev. Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple, there's an excellent website maintained by San Diego State University that contains pictures, recordings, and a treasure trove of primary source documents.

On a lighter note, Harmon and Scott also discuss the merits of Philadelphia's cheese steaks, the James Bond movie "On Her Majesty's Secret Service," and the possibility of President Oprah.  

WARNING: This episode contains graphic audio of people in extreme distress. 

In addition, we're welcoming a new sponsor onboard - Dennis Miller. Yes, THAT Dennis Miller. Maybe you’ve seen him on “The O’Reilly Factor.” Perhaps you remember him from his days as an anchor of the “Weekend Update” segment on “Saturday Night Live.” 

So wherever you may know him from, now you’ll have the chance to see Dennis Miller

live at the Silver Legacy Resort Casino in Reno, Nevada on Saturday, Feb. 10, 2018.

Tickets start at $49.50 and can be purchased at the Silver Legacy web site. Enjoy 20 percent off a hotel room on the night of the show with the purchase of a show ticket. What a great Valentines Day idea! 

Use offer code TIX18 when purchasing.

This episode is also sponsored by BLACKBX. Running a restaurant, bar, pub or retail business? Offer your customers fast, free and secure wireless while gaining awesome customer insights.

Get started with a FREE trial today.

In this week's episode, we'll delve into the real story behind one of the most famous political photographs of all time, which you can see over there to the right. A pictures that does such an amazing job of catching a specific moment in time that it is now in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

The place is Amarillo, Texas and the time is November 3, 1960 - just a few short days before the 1960 presidential elections. US presidential candidate John F. Kennedy and his running mate Lyndon Johnson make a brief touchdown in the Texas panhandle on a whirlwind campaign stop. They'll be speaking briefly at the Amarillo airport before jetting off to their next engagement.

The Kennedy campaign team, always planning ahead, ensured that flight traffic would be stopped long enough for the candidates to make their brief speeches. What they didn't realize, however, was that some of the pilots of the waiting planes weren't exactly the biggest Kennedy fans. So they made their displeasure known and tried to harass the candidates with the loudest tools at their disposal - their jet engines

The result? Well, you'll be able to hear for yourself when you listen to our episode where you can hear - for the first time ever - just how loud those engines were! Also - Harmon brings us the latest Trump news from that famous shithole, Brooklyn, and tells us about his latest book, Meet the Deplorables, now on Amazon.

In addition, we're welcoming a new sponsor onboard - Dennis Miller. Yes, THAT Dennis Miller. Maybe you’ve seen him on “The O’Reilly Factor.” Perhaps you remember him from his days as an anchor of the “Weekend Update” segment on “Saturday Night Live.”

So wherever you may know him from, now you’ll have the chance to see Dennis Miller

live at the Silver Legacy Resort Casino in Reno, Nevada on Saturday, Feb. 10, 2018.

Tickets start at $49.50 and can be purchased at the Silver Legacy web site. Enjoy 20 percent off a hotel room on the night of the show with the purchase of a show ticket. What a great Valentines Day idea!

Use offer code TIX18 when purchasing.

This episode is also sponsored by BLACKBX. Running a restaurant, bar, pub or retail business? Offer your customers fast, free and secure wireless while gaining awesome customer insights.

Get started with a FREE trial today.

Merry Christmas everyone! 

Wait - can we say that?

Well, maybe not now, but back in 1985 - hell yeah! Not only could you say Merry Christmas until you vomited red and white, but you could sing about Santa AND Baby Jesus on prime time TV.

Damn! Those were the days. 

Sound intriguing? Hold on - what if we threw in a Russian defector, Pat Boone and Emmanuel Lewis into the mix. Holy Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer - that's a hell of a special. It's our first ever Christmas special and you're not going to want to miss this one.

PLUS - Harmon and Scott discuss the Judge Roy Moore election, Trump craziness and who - exactly - is a puppet. And to top it all off, we plug Harmon's just published book Meet the Deplorables, now available on Amazon.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Wishing all of our listeners the best this holiday season. Actually just listeners in the US, because in the rest of the world there is no Thanksgiving and today is just a normal day. 

But we're not letting that stop us in bringing you the very best in US presidential holiday spirit!

So we dug into the archives to find today's presidential tape from November 18, 1981 - President Reagan's first Thanksgiving in office. 

Today's tape captures the traditional ceremony as the leaders of the National Turkey Federation presented President Reagan with a holiday gobbler, an occasion that stretches back into the Eisenhower presidency. 

In our special holiday episode we delve into the White House Turkey Presentation and how the tradition of pardoning the presidential turkeys started, get the latest updates on the current president's latest Twitter battle, discuss the merits of various Tom Hanks movies and plug Trumpcon in NYC - a festival of YUGE - proportions.