Thank you Carter family for just surrounding Jimmy so that

[malaise]

the ghoulish media cannot again demonstrate that they have no fucking decency

[malaise]

1. Live coverage

[Hekate]

2. What did they do this time? Try to talk to the poor guy?

[peppertree]

4. More than a few would've if they could've, the vultures

A 99-year old man who can barely move - and it's "President Carter!! President Carter!! What are your feelings right now!!"

To think that just four short years ago, he was still helping build houses.

[malaise]

6. The most wonderful thing that the.Carters did for me these past two days

was to include Imagine in both memorial services.
Never have I needed that anthem more.
Thank you Rosalynn.

[peppertree]

9. Aww. And he did indeed try to put it in practice.

Carter was only the second president to try, in any meaningful way, to rein in the CIA from its worst abuses (the first, of course, was Kennedy).

When he took office, they were working hand-in-glove with every manner of autocrat, kleptocrat, narco and war criminal you can imagine - all in their obsession against "commienism."

It was said that most of their (then-secret) budget was spent on sheer destabilization - including, as you know, against Jamaica's Michael Manley.

Carter appointed an Admiral - instead of a "company man" - to head the agency, increased oversight, and had hundreds of the worst miscreants fired (many of whom were merely using the CIA for self-enrichment, or to settle personal scores).

Ultimately, they found ways to work around him (including, some believe, arranging the May 1979 gasoline crisis) - and the CIA returned to business as usual after he left office.

But after Iran-Contra, Crackgate and more (including, it's believed, Flight 800), many in the CIA came to understand he was right: that they had let the patients to take over the asylum - and that they had turned into a giant snake eating its own tail.

They had allowed ideological obsessions and sheer greed and ego to undermine the agency - badly. And that's what Carter sought to prevent.

The Trump regime, of course, tried to turn the CIA into Cheeto's personal attack dog - but they showed that whatever else they need to work on, they haven't forgotten the lessons of the dark pre-reform era.

[malaise]

10. Precisely

So it was real

And you nailed matters destabilization

[peppertree]

11. Thank you. Indeed, Carter was himself on the receiving end of some of that.

To this day, if you ask most older Americans (particularly Republicans) what's the first thing that comes to mind when you mention Carter, they'll tell you this:



What people didn't know, is that Hess petroleum - which at the time owned the largest refining complex in the free world - had shut it down for two weeks for no real reason.

Nor did they know that Leon Hess was a major backer of George Bush's 1980 campaign - which he announced just days later.

That complex (in the Virgin islands), as you may know, also supplied other service station chains - leading to a chain reaction of shortage and hoarding that led to the scenes above, especially coming on Memorial Day weekend as it did.

[malaise]

12. Big oil as usual

Family Bush did an awful lot of evil.
By the way I will never forgive Reagan for taking down Carter’s solar panels. He was way ahead of them.

[peppertree]

13. True - Reagan had learned from his California days to always stay in good terms with Big Awl

"Energy security" What's that?

The old fool even caved to their demands that he dramatically expand "lease stockpiling" - which really set off the practice of, as the name implies, stockpiling oil exploration land leases without ever actually doing any explorin'.

And sure enough, oil output steadily declined after Reagan green-lit large-scale stockpiling - from almost 9 million barrels a day in the early 1980s (which was enough to finally pop the OPEC oil bubble), to 5 million by 2008.

I suspect somewhere in Sawbone Arabia, there's a major avenue called Ronald Reagan Way.

"We owe the old falafel so much," a Sheikh might say.

[Evolve Dammit]

15. The only good news was that those panels went to Unity College in Maine, and may still be in use?

[malaise]

16. That is good news

Still these people are scum ags

[Evolve Dammit]

17. The veneer of civility that existed since Ronnie has been ripped off. We know who and what they are.

There is no longer any disguise. Our mission is to make sure they never win another election. Of course they are already claiming it will be/is/was rigged..... Just like last time and what works well for dictators. mhi:

[malaise]

18. Indeed

The naked truth is visible

[SeattleVet]

19. I was stationed at Plattsburgh AFB, NY during this time...

we were right on Lake Champlain, and CB radio was a huge thing at the time.

We used to talk with a guy with the handle 'Bargemaster' on a regular basis. He worked on gasoline transport barges. Several times he had to return to his main station since there was no place to take the shipment of gasoline...the storage tanks were all pretty full.

If you drove around to some of the terminal areas during the colder winter months you could see the frost line on the tanks where then liquid level was, and they were definitely at least 3/4 full.

We were sort of lucky during the even/odd rationing period - it was only a 22-mile drive north to the Canadian border, where we could buy as much as we wanted on any day that we wanted. Back then the price difference wasn't a huge deal.

[peppertree]

26. Wow. Thanks for the great anecdote.

Sure. The hoarding played a major role in the whole fracas - and was no doubt coordinated.

Big Awl, as you know, is utterly cartelized. And their involvement in politics has been a fixture of American life for over 100 years - certainly since their John Birch days.

I like to joke that the modern GOP is a marriage between John Birch and Jim Crow.

The only gay marriage they seem to approve of.

That said - thanks again for sharing your first-hand knowledge; nothing like seeing something first-hand. And thank you for your service.

[malaise]

24. Your post has even more meaning with the war criminal Kissinger's death

He was part of the destabilization here, there and everywhere

[peppertree]

25. Thank you. What timing, eh?

Last edited Thu Nov 30, 2023, 10:17 AM - Edit history (1)

Kissinger is the best thing that ever happened....to China.

A) Because he kick-started the policy of encouraging our craven CEOs to move most of our manufacturing there, as a way to distance them from the Soviets (which, alas, didn't make them a U.S. ally either);

and B) Because nobody in the last century has done more to undermine U.S. standing abroad - especially in the third world - than Kissinger. Nobody.

Kissinger became synonymous with the "ugly American" foreign policy.

The fact that he was an immigrant only underscored that perception - as it's no secret in other countries that immigrants to the U.S. often become "more Catholic than the Pope" (as the Spanish put it) in order to ingratiate themselves with those who might boost their careers.

That was always his guiding light: his career - the national interest (to say nothing of the world's!) be damned.

And now, he is.

[malaise]

27. This should be an OP

You nailed it

[peppertree]

28. Why, thank you. What a nice compliment.

And the same with you, malaise.

Whenever I see a 'let me make this pellucidly clear' - I know I'm about to read a great and concise recap of the latest controversy or quandary.

All the Best!

[malaise]

29. Back at yah

Peppertree
I have three pepper trees in my backyard - two wiri wiri and one scotch bonnet 😀😀

[Hope22]

20. I loved the music and the quiet spaces between music and speakers.

The funeral was so peaceful with kind people speaking loving words. It was very cathartic. With so much divisive discourse these days the event was really remarkable!

[malaise]

21. I also loved the short lessons read by the great grands

Last edited Thu Nov 30, 2023, 11:15 AM - Edit history (1)

because Jimmy and Rosalynn actually lived them.
I agree with you 100%. It was calming in the middle of way too much madness.

[calimary]

22. That was a genuinely lovely and tender moment.

I got choked up.

One of the best songs ever written.

[malaise]

23. They lived its deep meaning

My anthem - one of the best songs ever written.

[malaise]

8. I didn't watch network news yesterday but some DUers were

upset with the ghoulish photos of Jimmy.

[twodogsbarking]

3. Thank you malaise. Let's not ignore that the mfs were chasing Melania.

[Bundbuster]

5. K&R - "The ghoulish media" could not be more apt, Malaise

[DownriverDem]

6. Read the MAGA repub comments

on Yahoo. They are appalling.

[malaise]

14. I'll pass

Thanks 😀