Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue
Something/Someone Old
I've been thinking about Jimmy Carter, lately. You'll see why, later in the OT. I'm posting this speech, not because I have a completely uncritical eye on Carter--he made some serious mistakes, primarily buckling under pressure to let the CIA back into El Salvador, letting the Shah come here for cancer treatment (aren't there any other places in the world he could get that?), deregulating business, and shutting down the government mental hospitals--but because I often get told that nothing's changed in America. At least, I get told that nothing's changed except that the fight against bigotry is succeeding better and better. Certainly nothing good has been lost that used to exist here, and no new evils have been invented and normalized. That's the story, anyway.
I now view Carter's deal with Sadat and Begin with less pure idealism than I did when I was 10 years old. But it's still well worth noting that, once upon a time, a President labored in the cause of peace, assumed that peace was and should be a national goal, and therefore, gave speeches telling the American people that we were advancing in the peace process.
Does anyone know what happened to Carter's "framework for peace in the Middle East?" I'm guessing it got flushed down the drain with green energy when Reagan got in. I don't know what Carter got them all to agree to in re: Gaza and the West Bank, and I'd like to know. I could wish that Yassur Arafat had also been included in that process, but I'm guessing there was no way that was going to happen, for many reasons.
Something New
This is, indeed, new.
There's been a small shift somewhere, either in the established power structure of our country, or in that power structure's policies. It could be either. If it's the former, then somebody in power at CNN has politics that have been largely unacceptable in this country for the past forty years. It's been unacceptable, for many reasons, for anybody to portray Jimmy Carter as anything but a political buffoon. It's permissible to say he's a nice man, doing many moral things once he left office, but certainly not permissible to say he was a desirable political leader. Not like Ronald Reagan, or George H.W. Bush, or the Clintons, or Barack Obama.
The reasons for this are not only personal to Carter--the current power structure could hardly endorse a President who did not order a single bullet fired or bomb dropped during his tenure (except in El Salvador, by the CIA, arguably his greatest error); who advocated for ending the petroleum economy and put solar panels on the White House; who talked about human rights; who suggested that the American people should practice thrift in their energy consumption; who had the gall to tell the American people the truth about what was happening, and what was likely to happen, to their culture, if they continued to abandon their ideals (something he has been mocked for ever since)--but also are part of the general erasure of the years 1932-1980 from our common understanding of history. The memories of the actual experience of the so-called "golden age of capitalism" must not be allowed to persist; else the people might actually realize the extent of the change that has been foisted upon them.
For these reasons, and likely others, Jimmy Carter has been mocked and ridiculed for forty years, while shitheads like Ronald Reagan and George Bush and all the dregs of the second Nixon administration that staffed the two Reagan Administrations have been lionized. And that includes getting lionized by Democratic Party heroes like Barack Obama.
So this is a little shocking to me: a CNN production reporting with a fair degree of historical accuracy the events of the Carter Administration, with clear appreciation for Carter's virtues: remarkable diplomatic ability, a soldier's true desire for peace, love of country, unbending morality, and, sitting rather oddly with that unbending morality, an uncanny ability to bring people together.
I guess that politics must have shifted somehow in the Democratic establishment; since Madeleine Albright was interviewed for this movie, it must have gotten the go-ahead from the shitheads who run the party. I don't know why they decided to let this history be told. Perhaps it's that Carter is so old that they no longer fear what he represents. Or perhaps it's because he came out of his political retirement to criticize Trump, and therefore the Democratic establishment can use him as one more tool in their ongoing project of looking like the vanguard of anti-racism. Either way, it's a relief to me to see some actual history of the age I grew up in. I wish everyone could watch it. I wish we could have a national discussion about it.
https://www.jimmycartermovie.com/
Something Borrowed
I got this for my mom for Christmas, but I had no idea how good it was! Actually, I had no idea it was an album of covers of big band music:
This is awesome!
Wainwright just does the singing. The band isn't his. I had never heard of Vince Giordano & The Nighthawks, but man, they're good!
Something Blue
I love Son House.
This song seems oddly appropriate for an OT mainly focused on Jimmy Carter.
Comments
Good morning, all!
Glad to see you all this morning. Hope you are all surviving the Empire as well as possible, and finding joy wherever you can.
Have a cuppa and draw up by the fire!
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Good morning...
Jimmy is no longer holding his Sunday school class.
https://news.yahoo.com/vaccinated-virus-jimmy-carter-wife-212759771.html
I've had several friends go over the years.
Tip O'Neal and the dim DC elites were his worst enemy and roadblock to progress. The hostage situation and oil embargo didn't endear him to the US public, and allowed for his defeat by Raygun.
He wasn't perfect, but who is? I voted for him twice.
We had some wild weather last night...2 more inches of rain added to 1" yesterday. Storms are predicted for tomorrow but we are in a lower risk region. Western and Central Alabama may get tornadoes.
Well hold on to your hat for a wild ride into our weather future.
Have a good one!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
It's good to see ya, Lookout.
One thing about Carter that I didn't mention--
He's one of those rare people who, when they decide they are Christians, actually take the tenets of their religion seriously. Christianity is still probably not the place for me, but I respect those among the Christians who try to live by what Christ said, rather than using their religion as a cover for some shitty kind of self-serving near-fascism.
It's a terrible shame that Carter and Kennedy had to be such enemies. That sort of thing has really screwed up our history (on top of all the other things that have screwed up our history). If Carter and Kennedy could have worked together, it might have been possible to avoid this forty-year descent into fascism. It would have been tough to push back even with them united; with them attacking each other it was really impossible. Seems it was a personal dislike, and, I expect, a cultural one: the urban upper-class guy from New England and the Christian Georgia peanut farmer who, while he was not what I'd call working class (he owned the farm, rather than being a picker working at the farm), certainly was far from an aristocrat. I'm guessing both men were to blame, one way or another.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Perhaps Irish~Catholic vs. English~Protestant played a role? n/t
That one hadn't even occurred to me, but you're
probably right.
Nice catch!
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Incredibly sad if that's the reason
Of course it is sad/unfortunate that they had this rift at all, but for it all to be based on religious beliefs... sigh. This ties nicely into my mindset this morning. I try to be tolerant, I really do... but there are times when I honestly feel that, as Hitchens said, religion poisons everything. (please, religious believers, can you hold your fire just this once. I know that some churches/religions do some good things. So did the Nazis, so do drug gangs for that matter... so yada yada... We all know this, and obviously not every church or religious person is bad. Granted. And I don't always feel so bitter about it, but my view is that, on balance, religion in general has done far more harm than good in this world. Too bad we are bound to be stuck with it anyway. **shakes fist at sky***)
It isn't religion at fault.
it is people using it for their own purposes. My guess purpose often is power.
Speaking of a "wild ride into our climate future"
I have a good friend,Robert,in Ketchikan Alaska and this morning he texted me "Two days ago sunny and T-shirts! one day later, 18 inches of snow." The worst since 2008.
He said "Ketchikaners" "are some of the worst drivers he's ever seen and the very worst at driving in the snow." He said a daughter of a friend of his works at a lodge above where he sells salmon got off work and slid down the hill,and through the guardrail (bay on the other side). "Her rear wheel caught caught the curb or she would be dead and frozen. Took over an hour to extricate her".
So did I
But I voted for Ted Kennedy in the primary.
Not Reagan. the supply side thing was upside down. Not enough capital? then why not issue more stock and sell it. No need to crush labor for prosperity. the '50s proved that.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Carter was far from perfect but
He was the best president of my lifetime and I have zero hope of seeing one better. It's not even that he was great. He's the only one I don't feel was completely controlled, even though he started the ball rolling on much of the currect neoliberalism.
And definitely the best ex-President, that's not even close.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
That's the point, exactly.
He's the only one I don't feel was completely controlled,
If you're controlled, it doesn't matter who you are or what you believe. Therefore, it doesn't matter whether you get elected or the next guy--unless the next guy is NOT controlled.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
A man can be a great human being and still be unfit for his job
The greatest ex-president we ever had. But an empty seat in the White house. And that temperature in government buildings nonsense. Ever try to type wearing gloves and an overcoat? Or sweat pouring off you?
Luckily i found how to "fix: our offices thermostat with a well placed jab with an iron bar.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Saw Jimmy just one time
for less than thirty seconds - but it made an impression.
Was in Portland, OR and there was a big, and rather rowdy and hostile demonstration (that I was part of) protesting support of the Shah that had completely surrounded the block downtown that the Hilton hotel- where Carter was speaking - occupies.
There is only one exit from the parking garage and when cops and SS had finally cleared the exit,
Carter's limo came out and stopped halfway out the exit. Carter got out, flashed the trademark smile, with a Nixon-style double peace sign (not that that's what Nixon intended them as), hopped back in the car and they drove off.
Damn, had to admire that. And have generally done so since. I remember his speech - that may have cost him the election - where, discussing energy, the environment, government finances and such he essentially told Americans that we need to live within our means. Reagan saying, essentially, 'party on, deficits don't matter' sounded like a whole lot more fun to people, apparently.
Voted 3rd party when he won, voted for him when he lost...
View of his record as president has come down a few notches due to recent reading of "America, What Went Wrong? by Donald Barlett and James Steele of the Philadelphia Enquirer, published in 1992. Which covers, in a lot of detail the looting of America enabled by government.
As one reviewer put it (back in 2012)
Reading that, I was surprised and disappointed to find out how much of the excesses and destruction that we associate with Reagan, Bushes One and Two and the Clinton years originate/were enabled by legislation that was implemented on Carter's watch.
The other negative is more recent, and maybe attributable in part to advanced age, possibly being out of touch and/or fed selective information; that being Carter's recent insistence that there was nothing of importance amiss with the Georgia 2020 election when there is plenty to suggest otherwise.
What really went on there may yet get revealed, as independent investigators and legislators have continued to pursue transparency, in spite of stonewalling by election officials.
Look forward to checking out the movie, thanks for the tip.
Heck, if the Democratic Party these days was anything like what Barbara Jordan says it's supposed to be about, even I might still belong to it.
Sure thing.
It was surprisingly good.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Good morning, cstms ~~
My living situation is taking a toll on me. Four more nights ~ I move on Saturday. I was thinking about PTSD and how destructive it is. It has destroyed the friendship I had with this woman. I am grateful she offered me a place to live but I was not aware of the price.
Jimmy Carter - one of my favorites. When my democrat dad told me he was voting for Reagan, I said - how can you vote for an actor??? I never could.
Enjoy the day!
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
I'm sorry to hear it's been so bad.
I'm glad you're moving soon.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
They finally plowed our street last night,
so I could get the snowblower out and cut us a path from the driveway to the single-plow-width cleared part of the road. Of course, several people with jacked-up 4WD vehicles had decided to come do doughnuts in the cul-de-sac out front yesterday, so I had to cut through several 2-foot-plus berms of refrozen ice from their whoopie tracks to get through to the one narrow plowed bit. That's just how it goes in CO, I guess. Makes me glad that our snowblower is pushing 40 years old: the old stuff is *tough*. I have a feeling that some of our neighbors will be nursing broken spiffy-shiny-new snowblowers here later on in the morning...
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Well, Carter did put solar panels on the roof of White House
But Reagan took them down in 1986 due to a roof leak. Seems like such a lost opportunity. Yah, some pundits look to his admin as the start of the neoliberal era when he deregulated airlines. The right wing always portrayed him as some coward even though he was personally chosen by Admiral Rickover to be in his nuclear submarine fleet. All the weapon systems that absolutely crushed Saddam in first Gulf War started their development under Carter like the stealth fighter.
some of those panels are still around...
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/carter-white-house-solar-pane...
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
How incredible!
I hope Carter knows they weren't wasted.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Raise your hand if you think it was more than just
a roof leak...
Sometimes I really object to just how pathetically LAME my oppressors are...
"but we had to take it down...the roof was leaking!"
It's just a constant stream of lame-ass excuses.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Carter is the only POTUS
in my lifetime (72 years ) that could walk the streets unafraid of the people after he left office. What he went on to achieve as ex- president far, far outshines his time in office, even as govenor.
The fact that all the other shithead ex- presidents fled the public sphere and holed up in their compounds or expansive ranches says to me they knew they sold out the people and were afraid to walk among them.
Not so for Jimmy. And I don't think it's because of his deep Christian belief in an afterlife, but that he truly believes his good works here on earth are not yet done.
I greatly admire this man.
Thanks CSTM for finding this film and sharing it with this community. I look forward to watching it.
And thanks for reminding me to throw a little $ to the Carter Center.
And now I'm off to the local Habitat for Humanity re-store to see if there is anything useful I can put to good use.
Welcome the Ides of Spring.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
That's a great point.
I don't count RR, because after his Presidency, he was basically incapable of walking around interacting with people without supervision anyway. At least, I'm guessing that's the case. He was pretty far gone while in office.
As for George H.W. Bush through Trump, well....you definitely have a point.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
There are a lot of places
- including most of Florida, where he lives - that Trump could walk around just fine in - at least at no more risk than anyone else would be in.
NYC or PDX maybe not so much...
But yes, Carter just about anywhere.
"Give you goodies at someone else's expense?"
What would those be?
The "goodies" I've been asking for include health care, a living wage, a planet that isn't dying, an end to the wars, basic human rights (as described in the Bill of Rights, the Magna Carta, the Code of Hammurabi and the Nuremberg Principles), and a functioning republic. I've also been asking for said republic to at least *try* to treat people equally under the law, and for its citizenry to treat its fellow citizens with decency and respect, regardless of which family they were born to or which gender they are. That about covers it.
Who counts these "goodies" as an "expense?" In fact, how could anyone call them "goodies?"
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
The truth is that most politicians *could* walk anywhere.
Americans, on the whole, are remarkably submissive. In most countries, the shenanigans of the bankers and politicians in 2008 would have resulted in violence. Here, it resulted in Occupy. Even the violent suppression of Occupy did not ignite a widespread uprising. It also resulted in a crappy Freedomworks project (the Tea Party) getting a lot more adherents, many of them probably not realizing that they were being played like fools. But even the ugliness of that project was expressed more in words than in physical violence.
The fact that we regularly discuss the destruction of property as an example of violence, and react to that with horrified outrage, itself shows that we are remarkably passive.
Alongside this remarkably passive and submissive attitude on the part of the majority, however, there is a hyper-violent (and pretty small) minority of people who form militias, stockpile weapons, etc. There is also a contingent of probably mentally ill people who become assassins because they want to impress Jodi Foster, or whatever (though that accounts for nowhere near all the assassinations that happen around here, many of which are probably committed by our own security state). The real issue here is not whether or not Trump *could* walk freely in a place, but whether or not his own guilt and fear prevent him from doing so. Same goes for most of the other former Presidents.
Carter isn't afraid, because, within himself, he knows he has no reason to be.
Which again, doesn't mean he is an angel.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
He just refused to stop acting out his values
even when the rest of the world--the world of power, anyway--rejected them. That takes guts.
He's what people *should* mean when they say "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good." He pretty much exemplifies the imperfect yet highly good individual.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Something ten years old: U.S.’s failed regime change op in Syria
https://www.antiwar.com/blog/2021/03/15/ten-years-since-beginning-of-fai...
Another something even older: 152 years since completion of the transcontinental railroad. A Chinese-American history retrospective (courtesy a news outlet owned by the Communist Party of China rather than our famously free Western press)…
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202103/13/WS604c153ca31024ad0baaef1f_1.html
Chinese were also the main labor force on the RR in Canada
Here's a short story showing the disregard for Chinese laborers' lives while working building the railroad in British Columbia Canada.
Trains begin and end in the Vancouver terminal (passenger) and freight trains in Port Coquitlam and they all go up Fraser Canyon to Kamloops where it goes to the cross Country mainline.
Working as a brakeman on the freight trains we only ran about 147 miles to a small train yard to hand over our train to a crew from Kamloops. Essentially we exchanged trains for each to go back home.
That's the setting for the story.
First of all the Fraser River is a powerful river and one part is named "Hell's Gate",quite a man made waterfall but not a place for any kind of watercraft to weather. People take pictures of the raging torrent and this is by where we exchange trains but with 'single track' you end up waiting in sidings to let more important southbound trains (ones with loads) to pass.
Many times our crew had to wait for a train to come out before we could go in the yard, and this siding is named "China Bar".
First of all there is nothing there but the siding and down below is "Hell's Gate" so one time when we were obviously gonna be stuck there a while I asked the old engineer why this siding had a name and why "China Bar".
He told me that the tunnel just behind us, carved thru solid rock, took a while to blast thru so there were more workers on site and some things,and people were moved via the river but as slowly as possible by tying the rafts to something on the shore then another spot ahead and when the raft got that far the first rope upstream was released and the raft went only as far as the next tie off allowed. This was repeated all down the canyon to where the river ran slower.
The engineer told me the story he'd always heard was that one day a raft full of Chinese had a line snap and down the canyon they went. The worst part of this story is that no attempt was made to either rescue them downstream or even look for the bodies, or possible survivors.
They were 'disposable' people for the Canadian Pacific Railroad.
But they got a siding named after them.
Just wanted to add
The Chinese laborers were supposed to continue the TCRR on to Alaska and meet up with the Russian Trans-Siberian RR somewhere under the Bering Strait, connecting the continents.
Much history, some true some false, that's involved with the demise of that plan.
Thanks for the link.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
hola cs
welp...
This just about covers it.
heh.
have a good one y'all
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OK, that's funny.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I don't care how good their beer was
they wouldn't be getting my business with an attitude like that.
And to think that is once was kind of cool to tell people you were from Oregon.
Without having to qualify it with 'well, but not from *that* part of Oregon'...