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Jimmy Carter has died

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371–380 of 879 posts

Re: Jimmy Carter has died

#371
post #20

Looking back, to me he was a much better president then people believed in the 80s. I believe if he got re-elected in 1980, the US would be in a much better place. One thing, it could be argued real work on Climate Change would have begun in 1981 as opposed to where we are now, which is just watching the average probably blowing past 3C in around 70 years from now. For his loss in 1980, I still blame Kennedy. RIP, he…

The term ‘climate change’ didn’t exist 45 years ago (except perhaps in a few technical circles). You’re using current knowledge/terminology/perspective to comment on things that were not in the mindset of the general populace or politicians at the time. I know this as I was there.

Sure but global cooling was all of mass media which is essentially climate change. (the media of course got it wrong)

Re: Jimmy Carter has died

#372
Carter, God bless him, was proof leadership is more than a title. He's proof you can have a positive impact on the world and not be a politician.

Carter sussed out a blueprint for future post-office presidents, but few have heard Jimmy's trumpets. For example, Obama. Obama could be doing great things, but he's too busy riding jet skis and schmoozing celebs, etc.

Carter's time in office might be questionable, but as a human he is legend; with an exceptional legacy.

Re: Jimmy Carter has died

#373
post #20

Looking back, to me he was a much better president then people believed in the 80s. I believe if he got re-elected in 1980, the US would be in a much better place. One thing, it could be argued real work on Climate Change would have begun in 1981 as opposed to where we are now, which is just watching the average probably blowing past 3C in around 70 years from now. For his loss in 1980, I still blame Kennedy. RIP, he…

Workers and unions would be worse off, though

Re: Jimmy Carter has died

#374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look a little harder. The people living through the 1970s knew how bad he was and chose to put him out. He had bad staff, bad relations with the overwhelmingly Democratic Congress, and we got the Mayaguez, iran hostage, stagflation, and other troubles too many to list. He was a bad president, a good man, and a great ex-president.

Most people I’ve spoken to about Jimmy Carter who were alive at the time seem to say the same as you. I’ve heard that living in America at the time was depressing and embarrassing. I have a feeling a lot of the praise for the man is from people who weren’t even around when he was president but have been fed some story about how he was great. I see a lot of praise for him online yet it’s very hard to find from the lip…

I know a far number who have come around on the republican side - but most of them were just barely old enough to vote.

Re: Jimmy Carter has died

#375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of the deregulation under Carter legitimately did need to happen.

The Motor Carrier Act and Staggers Rail are the only ones that come to mind? Shipping costs were high and routes were guarded and inefficient, and the railroad industry was in shutters. What else had you reckoned?

Some say the craft beer revolution was sparked by him signing the repeal of the outlawing of home brewing.

https://beerinfo.com/homebrewing-law-signed-by-jimmy-carter-...

Re: Jimmy Carter has died

#376
Why is this generic news article on hacker news. The guidelines clearly states anything you would probably find in regular National news probably shouldn't be on hacker news.

I want to get a break from the regular newscycle when going here.

Re: Jimmy Carter has died

#377
post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look a little harder. The people living through the 1970s knew how bad he was and chose to put him out. He had bad staff, bad relations with the overwhelmingly Democratic Congress, and we got the Mayaguez, iran hostage, stagflation, and other troubles too many to list. He was a bad president, a good man, and a great ex-president.

Did he create those problems or inherit them? The situations in Iran, OPEC, etc. long pre-dated Carter. Another problem was a military that was ruined in terms of morale and probably in wear-and-tear by Vietnam.

Mostly inherit them. However it is an open qusetion on if he handled them well. Would some other policy (that you get to think of in retospect and of course handwave away any bad parts that might happen with them) have done better?

Re: Jimmy Carter has died

#378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> And yet people will mock you for saying that both parties are the same. "Just say no" to nihilism[0]. 0 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihilism

Rejecting electoralism and demanding or organizing toward an alternative is not nihilism. Insisting that anything but electoralism is nihilism, might be.

Re: Jimmy Carter has died

#379

As a former president I wonder why he voted for Harris and went as far to tell others that he did so, but didn’t officially endorse. Seemed strange. A vote is tacit approval no? Was he against endorsements in general? He endorsed Mondale and Clinton iirc Regardless at least he wasn’t as divisive as 45. RIP.

I like it when presidents leave office and assume a neutral position on the next election and politics in general.

Re: Jimmy Carter has died

#380
post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"70s energy policy was a result of the oil crisis, not environment concerns." Quite - the environment was not much of a concern. Bear in mind that lead in petrol was your anti-knock agent and the catalytic convertor didn't exist. I remember really yellow coloured, sickly verges alongside roads and strawberry sellers in laybyes on the A303 ...

In the 1970s, the feared effect was global cooling. I doubt that Carter could have intervened in any case. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_cooling

> In the 1970s, the feared effect was global cooling

This is a common trope but it’s mostly been promoted by fossil fuel lobbyists to pretend climate scientists weren’t right than reality. That alternate history is mostly promulgated by the likes of noted-creationist Duane Gish or general purpose denialists like Stephen Milloy, but it doesn’t hold up when you look at the record.

People had been concerned about global warming since 1896, and scientists had been increasingly concerned before World War II. There were a handful of papers in the early 1970s predicting cooling based on aerosol effects BUT those did not reflect widespread consensus and other researchers at the same time published papers predicting warming, and those papers were considered stronger.

What most of this hangs off of is that Time magazine “Another Ice Age?” article which sounded dramatic but was actually inconclusive about the future. It sold a lot of issues, but it wasn’t exactly a climate science journal.

By the end of the 1970s, consensus had been reached that the earth was warming and most climate science research was focused on how it would happen rather than whether.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/2008BAMS2370.1

https://arstechnica.com/science/2016/06/that-70s-myth-did-cl...

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