American Presidents: Totalus Rankium - Update and Q&A

Episode Date: February 5, 2022

Update on why we have been away and what is happening next. Plus a Q&A session. 

Welcome to Totalus Rankium. This week, update us! Hello and welcome to Totalus Rankium. I'm Jamie. And I'm Rob. And we're not ranking anything. It's an update. We did an update before where we basically went, yeah, not going to be able to do shows for a while.

And I'm hoping this is a bookended update where this is an update saying, you know what? Things might be happening soon yeah they are yeah i'm not i'm not fully committing but no let's just say notes have been typed not completed but but i'm most of the way there four six four six of the way through jfk's episode almost the same as two thirds that's right you could you could use the more simplified fraction if you're one of those crazy people. But no, no, four steps. So that's good. So, Rob, how are you?

I'm okay. Thank you, Jamie. That's a good segue. I liked it. It was quite a hard cut, I thought. But, you know, we'll go with that. No, no, we'll go for it. Yes, I'm good.

Thank you very much. I just want to say thank you to all the amazing responses online on Twitter, on Facebook I assume on Instagram I'm not great at checking that where yeah, all of you listening

who have sent me a message, thank you so much I have not been able to keep on top of it I know there are people who have sent me lovely things that I have not responded to, although I did try, but there was just a lot of messages. Yeah, there were. Yeah, so I feel maybe we should explain what's been going on slightly. It's been a tough year, Jamie.

It has, yeah. Yeah, I won't go into detail, but let's just say there has been several things that would be usually considered big enough to really knock you off for quite some time. And yeah, it just kept coming. So yeah, I realised that I needed for my mental health to take some time off. And then it took me about a month to realize i'm going to actually need some some actual medical help here and then it took me about another two months of being given medication

and it just sending me like completely loopy because it wasn't working uh but now finally things are just about settled yeah i remember seeing you when you first started you were just a bit weird i was from medication i mean shaking and rocking backwards and forwards yeah yeah yeah oh it was it was not it was not good yeah i didn't enjoy that it's fine i'm i've i'm trying something else now and this this is working and i'm able to focus on things for a bit more yeah it's done wonders, Jamie. I mean, some people say that you shouldn't drink your way through your problems. I do feel like I've just trivialised mental health.

Yeah, yeah. So for a long time, this podcast is actually what I used to help me get through any hard times I was having because, well, it kept me focused on something and it gave me something to do. And it's been wonders. And people sometimes ask me how I have managed to keep to a weekly schedule for so long and doing a weekly schedule of a podcast this size is just crazy. Well, that's partly it.

It was to help me when I was struggling. But yeah, this year things just got a little bit too much. And I really do think more people need to talk about their mental health rather than just pretending I was, I don't know, just having a bit of a break because I felt like holiday. No, no, these things need to be talked about because a lot of people have been going through a hard time. The world's a tough place to be in at the moment,

and always has been. So, yeah, I suppose it's my way of trying to make it more socially acceptable, talking about things like this, I suppose. Letting people know that they're not alone if they're suffering as well so I'm getting to the point where I think I can start doing the podcast again

so I'm not going to say right from next week we are back on schedule and we'll have an episode a week, I don't know if we'll be able to do that to begin with, but I am certainly hoping that by the end of this weekend, we will have JFK's notes done. And by this time next week, we will be recording his episode.

And by the weekend after that, it will be released. And after that, we'll see. We'll see. I think mentally, I just need to get through jfk because getting halfway through his his episodes and then going i can't do this anymore um i just need to i need to break the back of jfk that's what i do which shouldn't be too hard because he had massive back problems oh yes yeah i'm just dying to know what happens in his presidency well yeah who knows Jamie who knows what happens no who knows

two term one term three terms maybe maybe who knows so right so that's pretty much the update to sum up thank you very much for all the kind words everyone and

yeah we're hoping to be up and running in some capacity soon hooray hooray um right uh so now i mean this is the first time we've recorded anything since i don't know start of october end of september yeah it's been a while it has been a while so i don't know what do you want to end of September? Yeah, it's been a while. It has been a while. So, I don't know, what do you want to do? I mean, I suggest, by the way, you turn off now. Nothing from now on will be important or interesting. But me and Jamie have got time to kill.

We spent a while setting up the Zoom call, so that's why I do something. Yeah, that's longer than anticipated. Yeah, yeah. Well, we do have some questions. Yeah. Do you want me to ask the questions and you can answer them if you don't look I won't look I'm not looking put it away

this is questions from our discord server if you're not on our discord server go and check it out there's a link somewhere where's the link Jamie if you're a patron do you have to be a patron to go on the discord yep all our patrons are on there nice if you're a patron though do you have to be a patron to go on the discord yep they're all our patrons on there

nice nice excellent yeah so if you're a patron you can join our discord so yeah come along

and chat it's such a lovely community there now there's just lots of friendly people chatting about all sorts you don't need to come on and talk about the podcast

it's just people being friendly there's a Jeff section there's a Rocky the photo gallery section yeah there's a rob's editing hangout and because i'm a bit jealous of that there's a jamie star trek channel which is uh the best one of course of course of course i don't think i've ever been in there no is everyone dressed up oh yeah yeah of course of course with little pointy ears anyway yeah questions from elspeth directed at you this is why i'll ask them because they don't know about me apart from one i could

answer that's fine um stop moving and typing uh from elspeth um how would you go about finding your primary and secondary sources both in terms of identifying useful ones and in terms of actually getting access to the documents so how do you find the good ones and how do you get access to the tricky ones oh good question it depends uh depends on Romans or Presence uh I I approach both series very differently uh Romans I tend to when I'm first looking for sources I I go on the Wikipedia article scroll to the bottom and just look for primary sources, follow links and see, can I buy this book? And if I can't buy the book, is there an online version?

And if that doesn't work, I have access to Birmingham University's library, which is very useful. So I can see if there's copies there. So I do that and then I read all the primary stuff that I can, and then i'll start looking for secondary sources uh just by googling things or asking listeners um yeah so the internet basically whereas uh the presidents uh because primary sources are just insane uh i just google recommendations for the best biography on each president and then read the second resource first. And then if I find something interesting that I want to go deeper into, I'll find prime resources that link to that specific detail. So, yeah, that's how I go about it.

That's a good answer. Cheers, Jamie. Cheers. It's all right. No problem. Got another question. We've got a question from Quinn here. It said, who would win in a fight, a Mr. Stabby-sized Rocky or 100 Rocky-sized Mr. Stabbies?

Are they fighting each other? I think, yes. Yeah, I guess so, yeah. Right, okay. They're fighting each other. Well, Rocky is incredibly stoic.ic i mean he doesn't fight he's he just well no mr mr rocky's night rocky's not in this i just i had to reread it to understand it oh right okay sorry sorry say it again mr so a mr stabby oh no no no no you're right no No, yeah. A Mr. Stabby-sized Rocky. So a big Rocky.

Big Rock, yeah. Or a hundred Rocky-sized Mr. Stabbies. So Giant Rock or lots of little tigers. Giant Rock versus lots of little lions. Yeah. Can the Giant Rock utilise gravity? They do that almost exclusively. Of all the things rocks do do that is the one thing they do do i'm gonna say it depends on their starting positions if they are both starting like on a plane then i'm going to say it's a draw uh i think the hundred little lions will get bored

and wander off and it's a draw but I think if the rock starts above the lions, then the rock will win. And if the lions start above the rock, the rock would still win. So it's all about starting positions. It's like the Grand Prix. But it's also about tigers attacking a rock. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, how far are they going to get through? Well, not very far. That's why it's a draw. Get through scratch marks. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. They'll, how far are they going to get through? Well, not very far. That's why it's a draw. Scratch marks. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Okay. They'll just tire and wither away. Yeah, yeah. But they get bored. They'll wander off. It's a draw. Yeah, that's true. Okay.

Good answer. Another question from Ellsworth. Oh, wow. Loads. You have compared some Romans in the series to a couple of Discworld characters. Any other Discworld analogues you've encountered that haven't made the official podcast cut um i made an entire twitter thread on this you did the first i think i got all the way up to commodus so i have put all 12 i have matched up discord characters to the first first handful of emperors i can't remember who I said was who, though.

That took me a while to do. I'll have to dig out that Twitter thread and retweet it. I remember I started one as American President Says Chickens, but I got to the second one and I stopped. Oh, you should have stuck with that one. That sounds like Twitter gold. We could have gone viral. Could have gone viral. Yeah. Just like twitter gold we could have gone it does could have gone

viral yeah just like covid oh too soon next question this is kicker of kicker of l's in the face president you're most looking forward to covering after jfk uh trump for me it's Trump all the way Carter Ah Howard Carter or Jimmy Carter Either I want to know if he's an all around good egg as much as people say he is Before we discovered Hayes

Carter was the one that everyone said Oh what a nice guy And he's still alive at the time of recording. I know, it'll be interesting. I was going to say, it'll be interesting to see if, hopefully he still is, because I think he's still building houses or something.

He's still doing sort of community work. Oh, he's doing all sorts, yeah. What a guy. I want to know, I want to know what he's up to and what is, yeah, was he really that good? Or will we find that he was actually secretly a massive racist like most of them white pointy hood in the cupboard ready to come out of the drop of a drop of a slur i'm gonna say carter um i'm dreading doing uh nixon and

reagan and clinton and trump those are the ones I'm really dreading because I just know those ones are going to be tough to turn into episodes. Yeah. You have to cherry pick as best as you can. Right, Ellsworth again. Which RexyPod host pair would win in a three-legged race? Not us.

No, not us. Obviously not us. Us two are not in any way athletic whatsoever. No. No. I seem to remember Graham and Ali, I think, are into their sport a bit. They're pretty live, aren't they? They seem it, yeah.

I'd put more money on them than us. Yeah. What about Puntifax? Yeah, she's full-on athletic, goes to the gym and all sorts. But I don't know how much Fry is. No. But they probably would have the edge. I'm just going to say we're losing.

We are probably losing. You know what? I'd be willing to go up against John and Andy. We might be able to take John and Andy on. I think so. Us v. Saga thing. That's John and Andy on. I think so. Yeah. It's an Usby saga thing. That's it. Come on. That's what we're going to do. Okay. Although we'd stop halfway and go to the pub.

Or four of us. Yeah. So we both win. Both podcasts win. Excellent. Okay. Awesome. Right. Abri412. How many Jeff encounters have you had in everyday life and what were the results of said encounters? I don't know. Do I meet many Jeffs in real life i mean i'm a primary school teacher so uh i mean obviously yes but i mean they're small they're young they're learning you've got to give them some slack

no no but yeah no i don't think i've ever come across a real jeff in real life that's good that is good unless i'm the jeff and that's always a possibility if you don't think I've ever come across a real Jeff in real life. That's good. That is good. Unless I'm the Jeff. And that's always a possibility if you don't think you've met one. That's a good point, actually. Yeah, that's always worrying. Or you're Schrodinger's Jeff. That made no sense.

Maybe I am. Okay, next. So what Roman president things are you into lately? Ooh. Well, yeah, you see, we've both had a couple of months off. So, I mean, what have you been doing with your time off? What have you got into? I've been collecting vinyl.

And I've gathered quite a collection. Guitar playing, I'm enjoying that. I'm getting a bit of Renaissance with guitaring as well. I'm sort of coming back to it and enjoying it a bit more which is quite fun I've learnt how to finger pick on a guitar

which I couldn't do before so yeah you're getting very good you're very good so that's

good yeah I've been doing some artwork what else have I been doing you've got you've got a

bass guitar you're going to decorate as well. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll definitely do that at some point. Yeah, Jamie's given me a bass guitar to decorate about, what, nine months ago now? Could have made a baby in that time, Jamie. That's what we could have done.

He probably would have hugged hard enough uh yeah uh what else have we been doing oh oh yes no generally writing music um as as listeners as the podcast will know uh the the music in the podcast is usually written by me um but yeah i've been writing writing music and stuff so that's been fun. Cool. I've enjoyed that. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. Okay.

We got a couple more? That's good. Oh, we got quite a few more. Oh, God, have we? Right. Okay. This could be it for the rest of the thing. Right.

Okay. Oh, no, I can see the next one. So it's clearly directed at you. So I'm going to ask you the question. Why is Deep Space Nine the best Star Trek? Well, let me tell you. Yeah. Deep Space Nine, the best Star Trek.

Well, let me tell you. Yeah. So, when DS9 started, DS9 started Deep Space Nine, which is a sub-series of Star Trek, which started, I think, in 1990. This is future editing Rob here. Don't worry. I'm going to spare you. I mean, honestly, it went on for a while.

You don't need to hear this, do you? Maybe you do. Tell you what, I'll put it on at the end so those of you who don't want to listen to this can just turn it off before the end. Anyway, I should probably let Jamie finish. Jamie Moore released a Star Trek with great writing, great characters, and Dax, oh, yeah. Pleased to hear it.

Well, Rob, when we start doing our Star Trek to Taz Rankin for our patrons, for our Senate, you'll know more. I will know more because we're going to go for all the captains, aren't we? Yep. We'll do series one, all the captains, series two, all the Spocks.

Could do that. Are there multiple Spocks? Oh yeah, well, multiple actors playing different Spocks, so that do that. Are there multiple Spocks? Oh, yeah. Well, multiple actors playing different Spocks. So that would be interesting. Oh, right. That's a great idea. You could do Kirks as well.

Oh, I've got one. That's a great idea. I like that. Okay, fine. We'll do that. Thanks, Rob. Okay. You're a material generating machine.

Right. Close it. I'm asking the questions. Okay. You ask the questions. I've got one job. Okay. How many Roman emperors would it take to screw in a light bulb

and which ones? Well, none of them have seen light bulbs so I think they'd all sort of struggle maybe. Unless it was shown beforehand. But I mean, it's fairly intuitive though,

isn't it? Even if you've never seen one before. You've got a screw and a place to screw something in. And Romans did have screws. Yeah, exactly.

The bayonet ones might be slightly trickier but I think why are they set around why are they set a thing what the bayonet ones are annoying aren't they yeah they're ridiculous

it's like using imperial measurements it's stupid right I'm going to say the best person to screw in a light bulb is going to be

Justin too Justin too the light fitting as in yeah I'm screwing the light fitting as in yeah i'm screaming the light bulb just into the yeah okay i like that also because he was mad as a box of frogs uh he's the only one who wouldn't be questioning what was going on he'd take in his stride it's just not a tuesday for him so yeah yeah that's what i'm gonna say he's barking yeah exactly yeah okay the next few

questions are the same one elsworth and alibat um how do you feel about the cult you have created oh i i i love it i love the fact that there is a really lovely community online where everyone just comes on and chats about stuff when we first set up the discord i really tried to keep on top of it and read everything and then it just became too big too quick. And now I just jump in every now and again and just see the massive conversations have happened. But yeah, no, it's fantastic. It's really good. Again, join our Discord if you're not joined our Discord yet.

It's got lots of people on. There's always someone on there. That's the crazy thing. It doesn't matter when it is. I can just go on Discord, type something. Like just now when we've said what should we do after we've given the update i know maybe people have got questions we type in any questions and then instantly there's a whole bunch of questions it's weird

but yeah good what i feel like we should do but is impossible is we should try and get our totanus rancium cult and get them to fight the cults of the other Rexypots, but there's going to be a lot of overlap. So, uh... I know, I see, I have a different view. We need to join together and take on other podcasts. Oh, you see, that makes much more sense. History of Rome, we need to take on History of Rome.

Right, okay, let's take on Mike Duncan. Because we'd have Rockies to throw at them and we've got Jeffs. We'll take on the History of Rome fans and we'll take on the History of Rome fans and we'd take on the hardcore history fans. Yeah. That's what we'd do. Do you sit at home and think,

what the F are we talking about? Are they talking about now? Oh, again, on the Discord. Yeah, no, no, I do. But in a fun way, because I just check it out occasionally and go, yeah, nice. Yeah.

Are you concerned about any of the living presence will come after you if you don't give them an american are we gonna get sniped by carter i think is what he's asking i think that's the only way you can interpret that question and i am worried about carter he's he's famed for going after people who do him wrong yeah no i'm a bit worried about carter but i think the rest will be fine yeah right yeah i just hope we don't we're not disappointed that's the that's the biggest thing yeah yeah me too uh jeff cv gallows said if you can impose your own rule over american government what things would you change to operate more akin to the british parliament and then vice versa. That's really tricky because both systems are flawed.

Yeah. OK, for a start, the American government needs something like prime minister's questions. The president should be dragged in front of the Senate chamber once a week and be forced to answer questions. That they don't answer. Which they don't answer, but still, it's still something, at least. There is at least that accountability. The fact that that was not written into the Constitution is surprising

because there's a lack of accountability. The executive branch in America can be far too distant from the legislative branch. Can almost operate in spite of and independently of in some regards. So, yeah, I think definitely there should be something like that. And then over here, is there anything from the American system that I'd like to see? I do like the press thing every, is it every day? Where they do the press call with, is it,

every day where they do the the press call with is it plus poll every day jamie maybe back in the good old days uh yeah trump's got rid of that idea i'll be honest i don't know if biden's administration does a press conference every single day it used to be the norm uh trump did about five uh see don't don't get me wrong our political system is far far from perfect in this country there are many things i'd like to see changed but things that i want to see from the american system would you like a constitution because we don't have one uh no no written constitutions um too binding are too binding uh they they are really good especially from 200 years ago well this is it they're really good short term um it's understandable why you can

create one when you're forming a government it makes sense first 25 50 to even 100 years written constitution is a very good idea uh but even with the best will in the world even if you're literally there saying, look, we can amend it, honest. It's not rigid. Look, we're doing 10 amendments immediately to prove to everyone you can amend it. After 100 years, it just has become embedded

into the national psyche that, no, the amendments can't be changed. The constitution can't be changed. It's what the founding fathers wanted. It's almost like a religious thing, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, because we don't have a constitution in this country we are we uh just use precedent and uh law well not not just law but um tradition uh yeah yeah you could argue that means someone could come in and just start doing what they want but i would argue back that it's more flexible and so far it's certainly worked in this country

arguably better than a country that has a written constitution that's a good question though it is a very good question i'm sure i would think of something um eventually if i thought hard enough about the american system i do like how straightforward it is that the country votes for their president because we don't vote for our prime minister. We vote for a local MP and then the MPs choose their leader. So, but to be honest, most people don't even realise that in this country.

They just vote for the party with the leader in charge. They want to see his prime minister. Yeah, that's true. But yeah. I don't know what my mp does to be fair but i vote yeah for them because yeah yeah you vote for the party yeah good question i liked that question yeah okay here we go uh okay in all serious sake this is ali bass again uh what do you get the most joy from regarding the pods uh three things one i really enjoyed doing the research and just learning about history because i'm a massive nerd two it gives me an excuse to hang out with you and just have fun open a beer and just chat once a week always useful and then

three uh the the community that has been built around. I mean, it's just great that there are all these people who love the podcast. I have made genuine close friends through this podcast. Yeah, and that's really good. That's a nice one. That's a nice one. What about you, Jeremy?

Actually, your second point is it's fun learning things, but actually it's just really nice to just spend time with you. It's been great because before we did the podcast, we didn't see each other often. No, we probably saw each other

about three times a year for a while, which is crazy to think of now. And it made me really sad. But when we started doing this, it made me feel really happy. So, you know, spending time with you is thank you, Rob. Oh, there you go. Oh, be that nice. Right.

Yeah. Okay. We got any more? Which American? Yeah. Oh, loads. Okay. Should we go through them all?

How many more? Should we choose like five more? Oh, no, I don't think there are actually that many more questions. Oh, there's about 20 more. There's 20 more comments, but most of them aren't questions. Okay, fair enough. Yeah. And some we can answer quite quickly.

So which American state would you most like to reclaim for Britain? Oh, modern or like original 13? I think original 13. Because that was because that was reclaiming that is like just be taking over yeah that's that's definitely pennsylvania because they were winners of the nicest state award like for years running weren't they if you remember uh modern state i'm going to say let's have texas back not that we ever had texas uh no not because i mean there's nothing wrong with texas apart from what's obviously wrong have texas back not that we ever had texas uh no not because there's nothing wrong with texas apart from what's obviously wrong with texas uh but i also i i also just think that if i was to choose a funniest state for britain to suddenly own i think texas would be the funniest

one it's so good little ge would. Little Georgia. Yeah. I just figure it's like, well, if we're going to take back the whole thing, then let's start in Texas and work our way out. Yeah. So I'd go for Louisiana. Oh, yeah. Actually, let's just get New Orleans and everywhere else.

That's what I mean, yeah. Yeah, okay. We'll be happy then. We don't even need Louisiana. Let's just have New Orleans. We'll put it on the south coast of Britain britain yeah it'd be fine yeah it'd be fine i'll do that yeah it's all good uh do you have any new year's resolutions uh no didn't didn't get that far sorry nice question but no um ali bat for to ask jamie why don't you obsessively share history dogs every

move is that not normal behavior um no basil's quite he's real as basil if you didn't know um he is uh he's actually quite shy as animals go um and i just i just don't want the lawsuits when he grows up. Yeah. It's like his parents, they put their kids on Facebook and Twitter. Look, my kid's really ill. Like their kid with the flu and then, you know, getting sued. How would Basil deal with the fame?

Well, he wouldn't. He wouldn't. He'd turn to the drugs. We've seen it happen before with animal internet sensations. Maybe your cats with their catnip yeah yeah exactly come put it down yeah um yeah sensible i think it's sensible yeah i think so uh anyway next question if you could change the election results of any election which would it be and why not in this season that's too easy, yeah. And a floor with which loser of the election

do you think would have made a good president or better president when the man who won? I think 2000 was the obvious one because that was a pretty contentious ending, wasn't it? Yeah, I mean, we'll be covering that. And that was frankly awful and dodgy. Wasn't it like one area in Florida that swung the whole election? It was one brother being in the right place at the right time making a call.

Yeah, you know what, Jamie? You got there before I did. You're right. I would go for the 2000 election just because it set a precedent that these elections are not as secure as you might think they are. Nope. Yeah, so, yeah.

Yeah, 2000. I don't think Gore would have been, like, the best president in the world ever, but it wouldn't have been hard to be worse than Bush. No. But it's weird, though. Bush has gone through a bit of renaissance i think seeing trump really yeah i mean it's clarified when you're well known for being

one of if not the most idiotic president of all time when someone else comes along just one president after you who's even more idiotic it's uh yeah anyway yeah next yeah uh do we have any more um oh no i think we've reached the end so there we go so hopefully in in a week's time from listening to this there will be a jfk episode i'm i'm not going to promise but i'm going to say it's going to be there. And me saying it's going to be there might give me the kick to get it done. So, yeah. Okay. Right. Well, thank you for listening to our wafflings on.

I really hope none of you kept on listening after I warned you not to, unless you really wanted to. No, I think it's well worth it. Was it? Some good questions answered. I've had some good questions actually to be fair all of them were, especially the Star Trek ones Star Trek 1

right, okay, well thank you very much for listening and until next time goodbye goodbye future editing rob here don't don't say i didn't warn you um here is jamie's star trek answer enjoy well let me tell you so uh when d9 started, DS9 started Deep Space Nine, which is a sub-series of Star Trek, which started, I think, in 1994,

during which The Next Generation was still going on for another two years. Anyway, so Star Trek was always a bit twee and a bit sort of everything's amazing in the future but ds9 added a bit of realism to it and it was one of the first tv series to do a start doing series long story arcs genuinely one of the first to start doing that uh across a whole series and then it did it across multiple series um i just added a sense of realism added a sense of um like there's an episode based on war where you actually see the characters really struggling with that and these people have been that hold up for months with no supplies and

you'd never see that on star trek 4 so it's more genuine more realistic star trek with great writing great characters and dax oh yeah