Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

I was promised a recession.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Republicans don’t trust women.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Come on, man.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

DeSantis transforms Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

No one could have predicted…

“woke” is the new caravan.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Because He’s An Amazing Human

Reader Interactions

63Comments

  3. 3.

    Rusty

    On a daily basis President Carter displays what it means to be a decent, caring and thoughtful human being. May he continue to make us all better people.

  4. 4.

    cain

    No one has had a more amazing post presidency than he. That he continuously and selflessly does the work of angels. Just amazing man. A person who holds up the best parts of religion.

  5. 5.

    FridayNext

    Heartwarming, but no masks? On an airplane? With 97 year old cancer survivor? Seriously?

  6. 6.

    Elizabelle

    Wasn’t sure if it was going to be Jose Andres or …  Jimmy Carter.  Happy to see he is healthy, traveling about, and getting some affection and respect.  Great man.

  9. 9.

    Betty Cracker

    Jimmy Carter may not have been the best president we’ve ever had, but he is surely among the best human beings who has ever served as president.

  14. 14.

    James E Powell

    @Betty Cracker:

    Very few people want to examine & understand the historical forces at work in the nation in the late 70s. The collapse of the New Deal coalition, the backlash from the Civil Rights movement, backlash against the Equal Rights Amendment, the anti-tax movement, the impact of losing the Viet Nam war, the impact of the third world nations in OPEC asserting themselves price-wise and showing how pissed they were about USA support of Israel in the Yom Kippur war, the end of USA dominance of the world economy, anti-colonialism in Iran & elsewhere, and a few more I’m not thinking of right now.

    Carter was attacked throughout his presidency by what was called the Kennedy wing of the party, but what I think we would now call the Democratic Establishment. They held a Mid-Term Convention just to slam him.

    I can’t imagine anyone being a successful president at that time. It might have been better long run for Ford to win in 1976 and let him take the blame for world events. But of course we can never know.

  15. 15.

    Kristine

    Went in for a blood draw this morning, and when told of the 45-60 minute wait was given the option of staying in the waiting area or waiting in my car. Everyone masked, though I saw at least one nose. I opted to wait in my car.

    Later this afternoon, I’m taking Gaby in for a check-up. Vet’s office has been curbside service for months and months. You can go inside with your pet, but one person only and distances are maintained.

    The contrast between the behavior of medical folks and the general public around here is jarring. I’m assuming I’ll be living the hermit life until year’s end at least.

    ETA: I guess that photo of Carter isn’t current but given how things are going pandemic-denial-wise, I wouldn’t have been surprised if it was.

  16. 16.

    Math Guy

    Carter was the first president I voted for – I turned 18 just a few months before the election. Never regretted that vote.

  17. 17.

    Mai Naem mobile

    The pic is apparently from 2017 so pre covid so no masks.  I think Jimmy Carter was probably the most qualified person for the presidency of recent times. Daddy Bush maybe comes close but he wasn’t an executive like Carter was in Jawjah and Carter knew more about nukes than Bush.

  20. 20.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    Jimmy Carter may not have been the best president we’ve ever had, but he is surely among the best human beings who has ever served as president

     
    If elected, I will be neither.

  21. 21.

    EmanG

    I can vouch for this as it actually happened to me! Was sitting on a plane, pre-takeoff. Looked up and there was President Carter, slowly working his way down the aisle and shaking every hand. Such a great presence. Also, his hands are huge!

  23. 23.

    Mai Naem mobile

    How do you feed kids floor sealant instead of milk? I don’t understand how this wasn’t caught. I’ve seen floor sealant and it is a thin white liquid but the consistency isn’t that of milk.

  25. 25.

    HinTN

    @Math Guy: I got to vote against Nixon in 72 for all the good it did. Too young in 68 but was at the Moratorium in 69 and the May Day “riot” the following spring.

  26. 26.

    KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager))

    @James E Powell:  I think Carter also suffered from the same “Not our kind, dear” sentiment of the Washington establishment that afflicted the Clintons. They were outsiders, and as such they were shunned, not welcome, seen as backwoods rubes. Never mind that both had been state Governors, Clinton had been a Rhodes scholar at Oxford, and Carter had seen the world as a naval officer. The snobbery, exclusion, and petty belittlement plagued and diminished both presidencies, both politically and with the press, from the beginning to the end.

  27. 27.

    Martin

    @James E Powell: Carter suffers from our obsession with having a hero to our story. You get real change by convincing 100 million people to make some small change to the world, not by electing a superhero. Carter got that.

  28. 28.

    Mike in NC

    Republicans have been bad-mouthing Jimmy Carter for 40 years. Funny how he never started a war, ignored terrorist threats, or tried to install himself as dictator. A good guy.

  30. 30.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    That’s really great Carter is doing that well with brain cancer. It wasn’t that long ago that brain cancer was pretty grim way to go.

  32. 32.

    James E Powell

    @KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager)):

    There was definitely a resentment against him because he seemed to come from nowhere. The major Democrats, Kennedy included, thought the 1974 post-Watergate midterm Democratic wave was another 1964 or even a 1936 and they thought it was party time for them. Then this one term governor comes along and steals their lunches. They had an Anybody But Carter movement before the convention. They were against him as much or more than the Republicans before he was inaugurated.

    Nobody in the Teddy Kennedy fan club wants to admit that he helped give us Reagan. Much more so than Bernie giving us Trump.

  33. 33.

    Ohio Mom

    As far as energy issues and climate change, Carter was before his time. But you only get credit for being before your time many years later, when the accolades are at best bittersweet. Mostly bitter.

  35. 35.

    Regine Touchon

    @EmanG: Years ago the same thing happened to one of my brothers.  He was quite impressed even though he’s a hard core republican.

  37. 37.

    J R in WV

    I have always thought President Carter was one of the best prepared men to have ever taken the oath of office. And there’s nothing easy about running a agricultural business in the deep south, either. No one else could have done any better at that time than Jimmy Carter did. A real mensch!

  40. 40.

    Ryan

    I can see Trump in that moment. Bitching and bitching for 3 hours over the PA about how the Democrat fraudsters stole the vote and that one need only look at the Boat Flotilla Gap with Biden as proof.

  44. 44.

    debbie

    Since it’s an open thread, reposting from dead thread below:

    I was just now in line to pick up a prescription, and NPR reported a Russian spy had been found at the ICC and arrested. He was trying to pass as a Brazilian intern.

    Twitter confirms:

    A Russian spy tried to infiltrate the International Criminal Court (ICC) that was investigating allegations of war crimes carried out in Ukraine by Russia using fake identification and spent over a decade building up his cover story.

    Read More:https://t.co/o3XcMeT4wU
    — Donald Standeford (@Don_Standeford) June 17, 2022

  45. 45.

    Gin & Tonic

    @debbie: Yes, true, and folks on Twitter are saying that his Portuguese is terrible. Dutch put him back on the next plane to Brazil.

    He studied at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, got a Master’s, and based on that got excellent recommendations. This blown cover is an *expensive* loss.

  46. 46.

    The Moar You Know

    I almost got run over by Al Gore’s motorcade once while walking in SF, not paying attention.  Those drivers do not fuck around.  Get out of the road because they are not stopping.

    It is quite a sight to see drivers going through that city at 90 miles an hour!

  48. 48.

    zhena gogolia

    I just got a push poll that mentioned the phrase “gas prices” about 1000 times. I told them gas prices weren’t affecting my behavior at all, I approve of Joe Biden’s performance, and I’m 18-24 years old.

  51. 51.

    Immanentize

    @The Moar You Know: Same happened to me and my friend leaving a restaurant in DC. She called it the Cheney Express and said it was a common feature in the District (about 2007).

  53. 53.

    FridayNext

    @Felanius Kootea:

     

    Thanks for everyone clearing this up for me. I do not regret being wrong about when this occurred, but I am sad that I now view everything through the experience of the pandemic.

  54. 54.

    ColoradoGuy

    I remember 1979 well. Jimmy underestimated the sheer scale of evil working against him. He didn’t realize that Khomeni and the Republicans were colluding against him to delay the release of the hostages, while all the TV networks led off the evening news with “America Held Hostage” banners behind the newscasters. Every night. And Volcker, the newly appointed leader of the Fed, decided to end inflation by bringing the entire economy to a standstill, with a stunning 20% interest rate.And the second gas crisis a year before.

    With the economy in free-fall, the hostage situation on the news every night, and the stealth takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention and the NRA the year before, Jimmy never knew what hit him. It took years for the revelations about the far-right takeover of the SBC and NRA to come out, along with the well-hidden GOP “October Surprise” to stall the talks.

  59. 59.

    gvg

    @KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager)): Carter caused some of his own problems. He ran as an outsider and specifically hired non Washington people. There was a good deal of popular dislike of the ruling elites and he used that and was sincere about it too.So he hired department heads that didn’t know how systems work. Not just the insiders get good jobs, but the practical stuff like how agencies get work done.  Experts is not a dirty word and he should have know better. But post Watergate I think the public opinion may have been inevitable.

    Naturally DC didn’t like that. Plenty of people are proud of being good at their jobs and resent being scapegoated.

    I don’t think Clinton made that kind of mistake. He just arrived when republicans were getting nuts.

  63. 63.

    jonas

    The pic of Carter is a retweet from like 5 years ago. Why the guy doesn’t point that out, idk.

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