Jimmy Carter dead at 100

[Kirkland Laing]

https://apnews.com/article/jimmy-car...a3eec276020dd7


Former President Jimmy Carter has died at the age of 100. Being old enough to remember when he was President, I can't help but think of the stark contrast between the Presidents of those days, and the Presidents of today... most notably Donald Trump. You couldn't ask for a more colossal difference between the two. Whether you liked Jimmy's presidency or not... whether you agreed with his policies... the point is that he was a President to be respected. He was a dignified man, worthy of respect and admiration.

How sad that the world has changed to the point where we now have to debate whether a guy like Donald Trump makes a good President or not.

Carter got a lot of flak for supposedly being weak-spined... and the blame for the Iran hostage crisis of that time fell squarely on him. Only when Ronald Reagan "came to the rescue" was U.S. image finally rectified in the world's eyes. Not saying it was that simple... but that was the general take at the time. Still... Carter was a man who many looked up to.

R.I.P., Jimmy Carter.

How was the hostage crisis Jimmy Carter's fault?

I clearly said that was how people saw it at the time. In actuality, it was more complex than that, and was a result of a situation that had been brewing for some time. The US's longtime support of the Shah of Iran, coupled with the Shah's poor handling of his country's ultra religious sector, apparently created the resentment that eventually resulted in the hostage crisis. Carter was a victim of bad timing, as usually happens in these cases. Fact of the matter is... the hostages didn't come home until Reagan had taken over. Circumstances surrounding that are obviously debatable.

The United States trained and equipped a really bad secret police dictatorship that repressed everybody in Iran, not just the religious nuts. Carter just happened to be in charge when it blew up. The circumstances aren't really debatable. The last time we discussed Jimmy Carter was when one of the Reagan people involved in negotiating about the hostages with the new Iranian regime behind Carter's back admitted it, albeit after he'd died.

Add that on to Reagan negotiating arms for hostages later on in his term with the same regime, getting caught and admitting it, or Trump doing something similar with Ukraine, or Nixon with the Vietnamese. Nixon actually had a deep state going. He co opted the CIA and FBI to bug and ratfuck his political enemies, negotiated with North Vietnam during a war for political gain, was caught red handed and the Democrats didn't release the proof because it would have torn the country apart:

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21768668

Something tells me if it had been the other way round the Republicans would have released the information and we'd still be hearing about it half a century later as evidence of why the Democrats are a bunch of traitors.

This shit just presses my buttons, shut up Kirkland.

Have a look at this instead. Which states voted which way in the election Carter won. Quite interesting.