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Jimmy Carter has died

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Re: Jimmy Carter has died

#521
post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Agreed, and that's always a problem when evaluating political (and some other) performance. It's easy to say 'they could have done better'; it's easy to say 'they couldn't have done more in the circumstances'.

Re: Jimmy Carter has died

#522

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blaming Kennedy is a take I hadn't heard before. I always gave the folks behind Reagan a lot of credit, as it is a historical fact that they conspired with a foreign power to hold the American hostages until after the election. > A Four-Decade Secret: One Man’s Story of Sabotaging Carter’s Re-election > A prominent Texas politician said he unwittingly took part in a 1980 tour of the Middle East with a clandestine age…

Reagan's entire administration was swamped in corruption and scandals. People really don't remember just how many investigations, charges, and convictions there were. People only remember Iran-Contra and the hostage crisis; it was so much worse. Reagan even cheated in a televised debate; someone stole Carter's notes and gave them to Reagan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scandals_of_the_Ronald_Reagan_... Ronald "Small…

yeah, seeing the situation 40-50 years later... maybe history really does rhyme

Re: Jimmy Carter has died

#523
post #473

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can buy catastrophic healthcare coverage, can't you?

Everyone already has it, the cost is just absorbed by the public instead of being taken out of the taxes of the person receiving the emergency care, assuming they can’t afford the hospital bill.

Having doctors treat and stabilize patients because they are required by EMTALA is an entirely different animal than having catastrophic medical insurance.

Real catastrophic medical insurance caps how much you owe whereas the debt you accumulate from a doctor who was obligated to treat you is not capped. That debt follows you until you pay it off or declare bankruptcy like the 500,000 other Americans do each year.

To add insult to injury, we already spend $5000 per capita on our publicly funded healthcare system, which is enough to fund basic universal healthcare systems in other countries.

Let that sink in. We spend $11,000 per capita on healthcare per year. 45% is publicly funded with taxes and the other 55% is privately funded.

We’re already spending enough for TWO universal healthcare systems (for many countries), yet we have 500,000 filing for bankruptcy due to medical bills each year.

Based on what we’re spending, we can afford two systems: A socialist system that covers everyone and a private healthcare systems that provides world class treatments to anyone who can afford the insurance premiums.

Instead, we have two corrupt and dysfunctional systems, a lot of gaps, and a record number of people profiting off our dysfunction.

Re: Jimmy Carter has died

#524

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"That's higher than any other president by a massive amount" - Any modern president. Abraham Lincoln had a 2859.40% increase. Martin Van Buren had a 1458.32% increase. We've had quite a few over 200%.

One wonders what was going on during Lincoln's presidency that could have contributed to such a massive increase.

Something about State's rights. It's a mystery.

Re: Jimmy Carter has died

#525
post #337

RIP Jimmy Carter. A model of living meaningfully in old age. The Onion has many funny bits on the guy's age[0]. "Former President Jimmy Carter, 98, announced Tuesday that he had gotten his recent vasectomy reversed," "Jimmy Carter Makes Pact With Dianne Feinstein That If Both Single In 50 Years They’ll Marry Each Other,""Jimmy Carter Concerned Desire For Fresh Faces In Democratic Party May Hurt His Chances In 2020" I…

and they finished it with: "48-year old rabbit finally finishes the job". https://theonion.com/48-year-old-rabbit-finally-finishes-the...

link to the original 3000x2254 picture: https://tinyurl.com/25ybcrh4

Re: Jimmy Carter has died

#526
post #487

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some problems he inherited. But Iranian crisis was his own making. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/10/ayatollah-khom...

There was that coup Eisenhower OK'd in 1953. I can see how Carter not supporting another coup would be taken poorly.

And yet he supported a coup. He was just too "blind" to see which one. And it's a little far fetched to call an armies call to take over the unstable situation a coup when the current head of the state is incapable to take any action because of a serious illness.

Re: Jimmy Carter has died

#527
post #497

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would argue that he was pro-peace. He wanted both Israel and Palestine to exist, not one at the expense of the other. Just as he peace treaty with Egypt was pro-Peace not pro-Egyptian. For this reason he opposed Israeli settlements in the West Bank saying they were leading to a situation akin to apartheid, eg https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2022/02/israels-... It wasn’t very successful as a proposition…

[flagged]

It is similarly the indigenous land of the Palestinians.

Re: Jimmy Carter has died

#528

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is an ideology that is gaining popularity in Israel though. I am regurgitating what Israel's own Finance minister is saying. "In an interview for the documentary, In Israel: Ministers of Chaos, produced by European public service channel, Arte, [Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel] Smotrich claimed that Israel would expand “little by little” and eventually encompass all Palestinian territories as well as Jordan, Leb…

I have little desire to defend Smotrich (nor would Israelis, as his extremist party is currently polling at ~3% support), but even he wouldn't dare claim support for something as far-flung as the alleged "Greater Israel" ideology. On the contrary, after Smotrich was merely perceived to lend support for expansionism, having spoken at a conference behind a graphic reminiscent of the Irgun's emblem depicting the entire…

This is an insightful and correct comment.

Up front, I am a fervent Zionist, with just a personal musing:

Accumulation of many discussions post 10/7 made me reevaluate how I think, and thus talk about, the greater Israeli political factors.

It's unconvincing when framed in terms of more rabid politicians with little popular support. At the end of the day, people correctly perceive that this isn't a temporary political situation, even when they don't know a Smotrich from a Smeagol.

If they do, it's unconvincing because these people are the government, and hold the levers of power to implement the vision regardless of what percentage of voters back it up specifically. To wit, Ben-Gvir proudly announcing new settlements in Golan Heights.

Re: Jimmy Carter has died

#529

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reagan's entire administration was swamped in corruption and scandals. People really don't remember just how many investigations, charges, and convictions there were. People only remember Iran-Contra and the hostage crisis; it was so much worse. Reagan even cheated in a televised debate; someone stole Carter's notes and gave them to Reagan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scandals_of_the_Ronald_Reagan_... Ronald "Small…

When I was taught the Metric System in elementary school it felt like we were being whisked into the future. I know it may sound like I'm putting too fine a point on it, but by joining the rest of the developed world (and more specifically, the scientific community) it felt like a step along a path to a global community. Reagan tossed the whole thing and we were snapped back to feet, inches, ounces, pounds, Fahrenhei…

I tried to track down the reasoning (I mean you would think a right-leaning pro-business president would support the Metric system), this came up:

https://themetricmaven.com/terminating-metric-with-extreme-p...

He did sign the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 into law. The measure declared that the metric system of measurement to be the preferred measurement system for U.S. trade and commerce.

But he also defunded the US Metric Board.

I suspect he didn't care about metric enough to fight other conservatives over it.

Re: Jimmy Carter has died

#530
post #457

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if Reagan and Carter were the same on deregulation, it would be a huge logical error to conclude that the parties were "the same." But it's even more comically wrong because it's being pointed out that the presidents were different!

Politics, mēh! The divergence of the Democrats and Republicans is twenty first century. They were not identical back in the day, but they were broadly the same pro business pro money machines. Not unusual, happens in most parts of the world.

> They were not identical back in the day, but they were broadly the same pro business pro money machines.

I don't know how you think that stopped in the 21st century. They just hid it behind the blatant attack on the growing identity movements.

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