Final thoughts on the great Jimmy Carter. I finished his epic biography. I also just finished The ‘Happiest Man on Earth: The Beautiful Life of an Auschwitz Survivor’ by Eddy Jaku which I was reading at the same time.
Jimmy never wasted a moment in his life. He was a true warrior for peace and equality. Other presidents and politicians take actions based on political calculations but Jimmy always did the right thing. He did not always succeed, but he achieved many great things and he never let fear of failure or fear of public humiliation or fear of not being re-elected deter him from pursing a path of justice. Even Obama, who I admire greatly, took safe passage on many areas where he could have done more. Jimmy always worked for peace even when it seemed impossible. He cared not that he frustrated his successors. He never gave any of them a free pass when they chose political expedience or status quo over pushing for peace and change.
There’s a great photo (included below), of Carter in the Oval Office with his successors. He is standing alone while the others are joking around for the photographer and you can see the disdain on Jimmy’s face. He was a hard man in many ways. He was both enormously complicated and single-threaded. If you fell short of his expectations, you would know that. There is an unwritten rule that former presidents retire quietly and do not publicly criticize their successors. Jimmy ignored that rule. He was particularly hard on Bush Jr. for his illegal invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan — pointing out correctly that in the 225+ year history of the US we have never preemptively invaded another country and chiding Bush for scoring cheap political points in the wave of US support following 9/11. Obama he admonished for ramping up rather than shutting down random drone strikes anywhere in the world where we wanted to assassinate someone.
I stand with Jimmy, although I would also fail miserably in his estimation for my lack of commitment to doing more to help the world.
Ronald Reagan was a populist. 100% B-grade movie style and 0% substance. A dummy. Just another one of the dumb Republican presidents foisted on us by ignorant voters and a silly electoral college system. Reagan, Nixon, Ford and two silly Bushes. In 100 years, history will show that Reagan, the Bushes and Trump were among the worst presidents of this period of time.
Reagan, after beating Carter in a landslide, never shook off his obsession with continuing to try to humiliate Jimmy Carter. My cheap psychological theory is that Reagan understood he was intellectually and morally inferior to Carter and he desperately tried to embarrass Carter as a way of elevating himself—as many insecure and people who are trying to operate above their level of competence do. Reagan, as Trump did years later, simply endeavored to ‘un-do’ everything his predecessor did. This was their way of trying to show that because they won the election, they could be 180 degrees opposite of their predecessor and then they would ‘win’. Rather than build on past successes and improving, Reagan (and Bush and Trump) chose to tear down good policy for populist cheers. History continues to validate Carter and diminish and expose Reagan. And I believe that will continue.
But the larger issue I come back to and wrestle with is social governance systems versus human behavior. In the end, in the final analysis, when the show is over, at the end of the day — we find human behavior is always the culprit. Different social systems can try to find the right balance between democratic input on governance and appropriate checks and balances to limit power, but we find no system has yet been contrived that can limit the ability of humans to manipulate circumstances to enrich themselves or consolidate power.
It’s easy to understand how a dictator abuses power when they find themselves in a position of no significant checks on authority. It’s much harder to explain how supposed democracies have resulted in great atrocities. I often cite the US because we are held up as a beacon of human rights by many. But if you asked African Americans or Native Americans or perhaps to a slightly lesser degree Asian-Americans and Latinos about our human rights record, you will hear a very different tale than than the one weaved by our embedded power structures. So perhaps we find that the ‘will-of-the-people’ is not the best way to elect leaders. The horror and heartbreak of slavery and Native American genocide is hard to comprehend. Try reading the ‘Trail of Tears’ sometime. I’ve tried 3 times and can’t get more than 1/3 through.
Oh, and by the way, The German people did overwhelmingly support the Nazi Party in 1932, setting the stage for Hitler’s rise to power even when he was fully transparent about his intentions (Mein Kampf was published in 1925). German voters felt so sorry for themselves after they suffered the consequence of losing WWI (a war that they started and resulted in around 20 million deaths) that they elected a lunatic to make themselves feel better and to try to elevate themselves back into a position of respect in the world.
Donald Trump, also an obvious lunatic, is now winning most of the presidential polls for the next election. So for us to continue to suggest that democracy, at least in the forms we have implemented, is some kind of amazing social governance system is crazy. Nearly all countries, perhaps all, have significant human rights abuses in their history — democracies, monarchies, dictatorships, communist regimes etc.
It’s a human problem — how can we not see that by now. We are the problem for 100% of the issues facing the world including our inability to create a social governmental system that doesn’t wind up favoring a few at the expense of the many and accelerate destruction of the planet as a bonus. Somewhere around 50% of the people in this world are too ignorant to be allowed to participate in governmental elections. The stakes are too high.
Sunday was Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride 2024. A nice motorcycle fundraiser that I try to do each year. I don’t generally like to ride in large groups. I prefer solitude when riding. But sometimes it’s okay and this is primarily European or vintage bikes and always good people. After the ride, Brittany met us at Hoffbrau House where we gathered for a post-ride beer. There were about 110 riders today and the weather was amazing — so all around good day.
Riding motorcycles is one of those things, like rugby, that’s hard to describe if you haven’t done it. There can be a lot of adrenaline, especially when pushing hard on a mountain road. Never quite knowing what is just around the bend or over the next hill. In a car, we are definitely passengers. But on a motorcycle, you become part of the machine — wrapped around it and hanging on in 5 points so you are tuned in completely. You feel the road and wind and hear the sounds in a way that reminds us we are fully alive at that moment. I’ve been riding since I was a teenager and don’t intend to stop until I can no longer handle a decent machine. I’ve had two pretty bad accidents over the years and a handful of times I’ve had to lay a bike down, but I’m still here and still riding.
We have two dogs at the house these days. Terri brought home an older, massively overweight and under-exercised black lab named Nilo. One of Terri’s customers died and apparently had no family to take the dog so she took him in. He and Marti are friends but very different. Nilo may be 10 or 12, but for years he ate like a king and had no exercise. So his joints are shot and he moves rarely and slowly when he does. Marti is as graceful and agile as poetry. She can go from dead asleep to across the yard in 3 seconds while it takes Nilo a full 3-seconds just to come to a standing position. But they are both beautiful. We are dieting Nilo and he is getting a little life back but he still moves like molasses in winter and just sort of lies around looking at the world from the floor.
“He killed my ma, he killed my pa, but I will vote for him”
— Charles Taylor’s campaign slogan for President of Liberia
From Crazy News!
“While COVID might have played a large role throughout your formative years, it is not unique,” he said. “Bad policies and poor leadership have negatively impacted major life issues. Things like abortion, IVF, surrogacy, euthanasia, as well as a growing support for degenerate cultural values and media all stem from pervasiveness of disorder.”
“I can tell you that my beautiful wife, Isabelle, would be the first to say that her life truly started when she began living her vocation as a wife and a mother.
Those comments are from a Kansas City Chiefs football player who gave the graduation speech at Benedictine College. Of course he’s an idiot and Trump supporter, but the larger question is, why the fuck does anyone think it’s appropriate for a pro football player to be giving a graduation speech. He’s not even a real football player — he’s the kicker for Christ’s sake. So there you go Benedictine College. You got what you deserved.
Also in Crazy News.
There is a report out that US Senators beat the S&P 500 by an average of 12% in 2023. Professional Hedge Fund managers beat the S&P by an average of 7%. So clearly our Senators are financial geniuses — kidding. They are of course inside trading because they have early access to critical information about specific companies and industries and then manage their portfolios to that unfair advantage.
There’s an older Nicaraguan cleaning lady at the UMass Memorial where I work. We’ve become familiar over the few years I’ve been coming here. Today she was sweeping the floor when I walked in and she said “I like you haircut’. So validation on the recent haircut and thanks for noticing.
Religions have been on my mind. They are still, after all these years, sowing chaos and fucking with people. The bullshit in Israel/Palestine of course is rooted in two diametrically opposed religions manipulating their people to hate the other and then act directly to harm the other side, or passively watch as others do. And of course to enable their leaders to take violent actions on their behalf.
I grew up Catholic and abandoned that shit when the flat-out silliness of it all became apparent. The constant signs of the cross (even when driving by a church), holy water, blood from wine, the pageantry and garrulously robed priests, the Old Testament etc. It’s all such obvious bullshit that it’s amazing they just keep chugging along. Taking people’s money and sowing fear and chaos. Heaven if you’re good and hell if you’re not.
Anyway. Off to better things. Shrimp is ready for the grill and it’s a beautiful night at BDR and I’ve a cigar and a book waiting.
Humbly Submitted
Robert Myres – Flanker, Portneuf Valley Rugby Football Club (ret.)
The Martini Tales 