Wonderful insight. I spend many years traveling in EU, to include my own research as to why the flood of migrants didn't dissipate (until COVID 19). I met many wonderful members of the public, but concurrently noticed the attitude you mention was prevalent among government officials.
I was working in the Arabian Peninsula before, during, and after B. Hussein Obama's term in office. Before and for a short time during, the Arabs by and large sang his praises because they viewed him as a Muslim ... they were genuinely excited over the prospective future. After maybe a year or so into his first term, you really didn't want to even say his name around Arabs because of the betrayal they felt over his policies.
I'm going to disagree with you. Having lived through the Carter years, most of them as a Capitol Hill staff. I lived through the lengthy gas lines, the double-digit inflation, the embarrassments abroad, and the inane focus of micromanaging protest permits in Lafayette Park. As bad as Joe Biden and Barack Obama have been, Carter retired the trophy.
I lived through those years too, though not in DC. Carter was why I became a conservative. We can agree to disagree agreeably. They all have their downsides. We should be able to do better. And Carter at least gave us Reagan 😉
I think many share your view, though obviously not a voting majority. As I’ve said many times, if we set aside the rhetoric and the shameless ending, however, i think Trump has a record that keeps him from the bottom. But reasonable people disagree.
Tell us, what exactly it is that you like about democrats and their perfect lifetime record of turning every organization, village, town, city, county, state, and country they run into a pile of rancid stinking steaming brown stuff?
Here, let me fill you in on just a few of the democrats' 'accomplishments', just on the City level, many of which they've run for seventy-five plus years:
The ten worst run US Cities
The ten US Cities with the worst bed-bug problem
The ten most rat-infested US Cities
The ten cities with the highest homeless rate
The ten most dangerous US cities
The five US cities among the world's thirty most dangerous
The ten Cities with the worst roads
The ten cities with the worst high schools
The ten Cities with the most government debt per taxpayer
Oh, we're not "arguin", I'm rubbing your nose into the "facts". And, if you stick with posting "blah, blah, blah, blah, blah", then you won't have to hope that people won't rub your nose in the "fact" that democrats have nothing but "a perfect lifetime record of turning every organization, village, town, city, county, state, and country they run into a pile of rancid stinking steaming brown stuff"!!!
Here's let's re-visit just a few 'accomplishments' of the America-haters you so love, this time on the State level:
The ten States with the Highest Gas Taxes:
1. California at 0.6810 / gal
2. Illinois at 0.6650 / gal
3. Pennsylvania at 0.5870 / gal
4. Washington at 0.5282 / gal
5. Indiana at 0.5170 / gal
6. Michigan at 0.4800 / gal
7. Maryland at 0.4719 / gal
8. New Jersey at 0.4265 / gal
9. North Carolina at 0.4065 / gal
10. Oregon at 0.40 / gal
The ten States with the highest per capita household and government debt:
1. Hawaii @ $82,650 & $13,681.67
2. California @ $84,730 & $13,867
3. Colorado @ $89,170 & $11,944
4. Oregon @ $66,950 & $10,232
5. Nevada @ $66,020 & $8,880
6. Maryland @ $80,130 & $10,277
7. Massachusetts @ $74,260 & $14,544
8. Connecticut (tie) @ $64,670 & $14,820
8. South Carolina (tie) @ $53,410 & $7,199
8. Washington (tie) @ $82,300 & $11,597
The ten States with the highest State & Local tax burden:
Doubling down on the stupid things you posted I see.
I didn't say anything you demanded I defend.
If you can't avoid straw men accept that you're not above the thinking line. If you want to be over the thinking line go look up what a straw man argument is.
No one is obligated to argue with you if you can't master remedial critical thinking skills.
Now if you are done being a Fox News droid go find someone else to entertain you.
You clearly have never had a thought of your own.
I'll educate you this one time knowing you're too much swine for this pearl but I will try anyway.
Democrat cities are the top in almost every category because almost all cities are Democrat cities because Democrats are the party of the city.
Trying to denigrate (that means put down) the wealthiest and largest state: California and the wealthiest and largest city: New York is just something you do because your TeeVee told you to.
While I agree with most criticisms of Biden, I have a background in economics and as such recognize that inflation is caused essentially by several things: (1) a reduction in the supply of goods and services, (2) an increase (or lack of a corresponding reduction) in the demand for goods and services, and (3) government mandates that increase the price of goods and services to achieve some "social good."
The COVID pandemic caused a worldwide reduction in the supply of goods and services, although it can be argued with politically biased 20/20 hindsight that the Biden administration's policies exacerbated this excessively in the U.S.
But the response on the demand side -- by creating money and distributing it to people unemployed by the pandemic -- was largely a function of the Federal Reserve that was appropriate to a point, but continued with too much money creation for too long.
But getting back to Democrat culpabilities, the two worst are the "clean energy" mandates in the so-called "Inflation Reduction Act," and the pervasive desire to "insure working people a "living wage"" through minimum wage mandates.
I recognize the long-term necessity of transitioning from fossil fuels to other forms of energy, but oppose doing it through subsidies to politically favored corporations (other than, perhaps, in nuclear energy development). And I also support a BASIC government "safety net" for all citizens who are willing to work if they are not disabled. But the best approach to that is the Earned Income Tax credit and certain in-kind programs like Medicaid and subsidized job training -- and NOT minimum wage mandates that freeze unskilled people out of the labor market.
"I recognize the long-term necessity of transitioning from fossil fuels to other forms of energy . . . "
Then you don't understand energy. There is absolutely no need to abandon fossil fuels. We are fortunate in America to have plentiful supplies of natural gas that will last for centuries. That's true even with the current state of the art technology for extraction and consumption, both of which will surely improve.
I don't know why the engineers have not sounded the alarm. Wind and solar will *always* be unreliable. Natural gas is 100% reliable, and incomprehensibly abundant in North America.
Is the addition of an H in George W Bush a typo? I’m not sure how the man who marshaled an international coalition to convincingly eject Saddam Hussein from Kuwait while avoiding broader conflict and who set the stage for the economic boom under Bill Clinton by reducing deficits etc, can be viewed less favorably than his feckless son who exploded deficits, mishandled Iraq and countless other foreign policy decisions, whose naive policy on housing led to the Great Recession, and misguided No Child Left Behind reforms undermined public education and tanked academic achievements, and the list goes on. His administration can’t be described as competent or conservative, and the backlash to his fallings helped lead to Donald Trump.
WTH Extra i hope on this piece. Last night friends and I were discussing the fact that President Carter was no longer the worst in our lifetime (though we all agreed that he was probably the best former president). Biden will certainly takes the number 1 slot as the worst in our lifetime.
And he surely will, as he pushes catastrophic punishment of israel in the Useless Nations, as did Ovomit on his way out. Never mind that the Muslim scum still keep and torture American citizens. Burning in he'll would be too good for him and cohorts.
I wrote off Joe Biden as a hack and a rather brainless one in 1988. In the interim, I've lowered my opinion. He is the worst man ever installed in the White House, a corrupt creepy cranky quasi senescent hack (well, the quasi is only there for the alliteration).
Easy for me to predict in Jan 2024 that Obama was planning to push Biden out and install Harris or Michelle Obama.
Biden was onboard with the lawfare. Not his idea and Joe was already out of touch anyway, but someone convinced Joe that the Dems needed an overwhelming margin in the minority vote to win.
Biden's personal motivation to approve the lawfare was to force Trump to drop from the race so that Joe could pardon Hunter and then announce he was not running in 2024. However, Trump kept pushing on and Biden's job then was to push back harder before resigning. Trump forced the issue so long that Biden's incompetence was exposed in a debate.
Obama quickly pushes Harris as the candidate, bypassing the primary selection process that Harris could never hope to win. Barack had Michelle give a speech at the Dem national convention, setting her up for 2028 or 2032, indications that her claims of not wanting to (eventually) run for office were a smokescreen. If POTUS, Harris would have been a hand-puppet for Barack, and his reasons for wanting such power were mentioned in the article.
Except Trump won. So many people despised Harris more than Trump, just like people had despised Trump more than Biden in 2020. In fact, Trump is so disliked by enough voters that Biden would likely have been re-elected if of sound mind and body.
I enjoyed the comments in this section about Carter.
Disagree about G H W Bush.
Would agree about GW Bush and VP Cheney.
G H W Bush was skull and bones, then OSS, then CIA. He is the Bush mentioned in a memo around the time of the JFK assassination, but he denied it. He was CIA before becoming Dep Director of CIA, regardless of his official positions, and remained CIA as POTUS.
GW Bush might be the dumbest person ever to serve as POTUS (Harris seems worse), and VP Cheney was the most disliked Sec of Defense ever, even worse as a VP. As an aside, Hegseth is a substandard choice.
Nixon is the worse POTUS in the last 60 years. If you don't know why, it is because too many things he did are still classified, but classified only to keep the information from the public, and not because it should be.
Yes, LBJ was horrid, to include sacrificing brave US sailors on the USS Liberty in order to support a faked '67 6-day war. Faked because Israel was not reacting, they had instigated the conflict and kept that secret.
WASHINGTON — A former Navy attorney who helped lead the military investigation of the 1967 Israeli attack on the USS Liberty (search) that killed 34 American servicemen says former President Lyndon Johnson (search) and his defense secretary, Robert McNamara (search), ordered that the inquiry conclude the incident was an accident.
In a signed affidavit released at a Capitol Hill news conference, retired Capt. Ward Boston (search) said Johnson and McNamara told those heading the Navy's inquiry to "conclude that the attack was a case of 'mistaken identity' despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary."
Boston was senior legal counsel to the Navy's original 1967 review of the attack. He said in the sworn statement that he stayed silent for years because he's a military man, and "when orders come ... I follow them."
The USS Liberty was an electronic intelligence-gathering ship that was cruising international waters off the Egyptian coast on June 8, 1967. Israeli planes and torpedo boats opened fire on the Liberty in the midst of what became known as the Israeli-Arab Six-Day War (search).
In addition to the 34 Americans killed, more than 170 were wounded.
Israel has long maintained that the attack was a case of mistaken identity, an explanation that the Johnson administration did not formally challenge. Israel claimed its forces thought the ship was an Egyptian vessel and apologized to the United States.
After the attack, a Navy court of inquiry concluded there was insufficient information to make a judgment about why Israel attacked the ship, stopping short of assigning blame or determining whether it was an accident.
It was "one of the classic all-American cover-ups," said Ret. Adm. Thomas Moorer, a former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman who spent a year investigating the attack as part of an independent panel he formed with other former military officials. The panel also included a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, James Akins.
"Why in the world would our government put Israel's interest ahead of our own?" Moorer asked from his wheelchair at the news conference. He was chief of naval operations at the time of the attack.
Moorer, who has long held that the attack was a deliberate act, wants Congress to investigate.
Israeli Embassy spokesman Mark Regev disputed any notion that Israel knowingly went after American sailors.
"I can say unequivocally that the Liberty tragedy was a terrible accident, that the Israeli pilots involved believed they were attacking an enemy ship," Regev said. "This was in the middle of a war. This is something that we are not proud of."
Calls to the Navy seeking comment were not immediately returned.
David Lewis of Lemington, Vt., was on the Liberty when it was attacked. In an interview, he said Israel had to know it was targeting an American ship. He said a U.S. flag was flying that day and Israel shot it full of holes. The sailors on the ship, he said, quickly hoisted another American flag, a much bigger one, to show Israel it was a U.S. vessel.
"No trained individual could be that inept," said Lewis of the Israeli forces.
In Capt. Boston's statement, he does not say why Johnson would have ordered a cover-up. Later in a phone interview from his home in Coronado, Calif., Boston said Johnson may have worried the inquiry would hurt him politically with Jewish voters.
Moorer's panel suggested several possible reasons Israel might have wanted to attack a U.S. ship. Among them: Israel intended to sink the ship and blame Egypt because it might have brought the United States into the 1967 war.
However, LBJ was always willing to nuke the Soviet Union and willing send in a full invasion to Cuba, which is why Castro backed off and why the Soviet Union decided to maintain a "cold" war. Don't know what you all believe as the reasons for the JFK assassination--5 shooters--but the CIA's James Angleton got involved because of what really happened during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The CIA only sent 3 of the shooters.
Dr Chine, great summary of the USS Liberty attack, however you diminish those facts and your excellent telling of what happened when you conclude with the CIA/Kennedy theory. A theory that has been debunked many times )by multiple investigators) not all of which could have been on the take. Again great comment and summary of the USS Liberty attack.
Lynn Gardner, I believe you are sincere, so I offer a piece or two of info that can be seen on the Zapruder film as exists on the internet.
When both of JFK's hands go to his throat, that can only be from an entry wound.
If shot in the back of the neck by a (copper-cased) rifle bullet, one hand will instinctively go to the entry point, as much of the kinetic energy of the rifle bullet dissipates in the strong muscles, ligaments, and tendons that hold up the skull.
It is never true that someone shot in the back of the neck with such a rifle bullet will put both hands toward the front of their neck.
As an aside: a Secret Service Agent physically coerced a surgeon at Parkland Hospital in Dallas at the time, this is known for over 60 years. More recently, such as in the Hot Springs Village Voice, a person is claiming that the agent was Elmer Moore and that Moore confessed to this person that Moore told the surgeon to change the wound from entry to exit.
This wound needed to be an exit wound after a poor shot by the shooter at the Dal-Tex building (not CIA), who was there because of Henry Crown's connections. The Dal-Tex shooter hit JFK once in the back and the 2nd shot missed the motorcade and almost hit James Tague in the foot. Tague was standing by the overpass.
James Tague required medical assistance because the shot fragmented the cement and cut his face. Angleton didn't know about the shooter, so that was the shot that could not be explained after the medical record for James Tague. As a result, a young lawyer named Arlen Specter, who was helping the Warren Commission with the cover-up (just look who was on the commission), invented the single bullet theory.
Without the Dal-Tex shot almost hitting James Tague, the three bullet theory holds up: one shot hits JFK's throat, one hits Governor Connally, and one blows away much of the right side of JFK's skull.
Instead, they need an exit wound to travel to Connally.
The 5th shooter, another shooter that Angleton didn't know about, was the shooter that Sam Giancana sent to Dallas. He entered the storm drainage system and shot with a hand gun from the storm drain, which is why JFK's skull was so fragmented. This shot obscures any effect of the shot from the grassy knoll on the Zapruder film.
A Cuban exile and partner missed JFK from 6th floor of TSBD and hit Connally. They exited via windows at the backside of the building in workmen uniforms on scaffolding already erected for workers.
Zapruder left camera at home because he knew about Dal-Tex shooter and didn't want forensic evidence. Angleton's plan was to wound JFK with triangulation of fire, then Oswald (witness saw him on 2nd floor of TSBD drinking a soda) was to be the patsy. But Henry Crown wanted JFK dead and for the CIA to be blamed.
An employee of Zapruder's bugged him about the camera. Zapruder's office was in the Dal-Tex building and that was an ideal location to film the motorcade coming down North Houston Street and then turning onto Elm Street.
Zapruder got the camera to allay suspicion, but then took an employee with him to a lousy location to film the motorcade, but an ideal location to capture on film the triangulation of fire without evidence of the shot(s) from the Dal-Tex.
Instead, Zapruder got on film the devastating head wound from the close and angled shot from the storm drain, which violently sent JFK's head back and to the left. Witnesses testified the limo driver hit the brakes just before, and the limo almost stopped, so JFK's head started forward before this shot. CIA photo-analyst Dino Brugioni saw the original before the Secret Service took the film to Hawk-Eye Works,, in part so the technicians could make it appear the limo didn't slow and then speed up. Still, the storm drain shot was a devasting blow in the plan to blame only Oswald.
The government would not allow the public to see the Zapruder film until years later, when Jim Garrison used a subpoena for the trial of Clay Shaw. LIFE magazine only showed stills, and Zapruder claimed he was too traumatized by the head shot, so LIFE didn't show that.
Oswald was going to "escape" and flee to Cuba to get close to Castro. This scheme was diabolical and brilliant, and would have worked. Oswald was also an FBI informant (besides a CIA operative) and J Edgar Hoover approved of Angleton's plan, so that the FEDS were going to move Oswald out of Dallas and out of the state police control, so he could then escape.
Henry Crown didn't know about the CIA-FBI scheme, and ordered Jack Ruby to assassinate Oswald, who "knew too much."
Hopefully you realize why this murder will never be solved, and any such evidence was gone from files over 60 years ago, if it was ever there.
Guess why RFK was assassinated? It wasn't Sirhan Sirhan (2 shots toward RFK, the rest discharged into the hotel staff that wrestled him to the ground). RFK was not just going to re-open the JFK assassination investigation, he was going to link it to Henry Crown and the shooter at the Dal-Tex building.
For the longest time I had figured Jimmy Carter was the worst POTUS of my lifetime. I was a teenager during most of the Carter Era, but I can remember the misery index, stagflation, our 53 American hostages held in the U.S. Embassy by Iranian radicals approved by the Ayatollah, every night on ABC’s Nightline Ted Koppel kept a running tab of the days the hostages were kept under duress, Carter’s failed rescue attempt, high gasoline prices and the gas lines … Carter was the source of our nation’s malaise.
Even now … I am sick of his funeral procession. I turn the channel whenever a news station reports on the status of his memorial. I think Jimmy Carter was properly canonized by the cartoon series The Simpsons, so many years ago.
But Carter was definitely eclipsed by Barack Obama, for all of the reasons as mentioned by Danielle.
However, I would gently suggest that as rotten as Joe Biden is, the presumption now is that he doesn’t fully possess his mental faculties, that these last four years of Biden’s tenure are really in fact a defacto Obama third term. I think Biden is surrounded by Obama proxies, like Susan Rice, along with an assortment of other Obama re-treads. Obama had said that he had yearned for a third term in which he was more of a puppet master of the POTUS rather than actually occupying the Oval Office for a third term.
It seems more and more like this scenario could be a very real possibility.
As far as the worst POTUS of our lifetimes, if there was a Nobel Crap Prize, then I would suggest that the award should be shared by both Obama and Biden, partners in crap together. 💩 💩
Don't forget Obama initiated the transgender activism/ideology and the weaponization of the Federal Agencies...he was and is a Neo Marxist and Closet Muslim in the shadows.
Actually Obama is the favorite US president of Europeans. Why? His undisguised contempt for America and Americans is very similar to their own.
Wonderful insight. I spend many years traveling in EU, to include my own research as to why the flood of migrants didn't dissipate (until COVID 19). I met many wonderful members of the public, but concurrently noticed the attitude you mention was prevalent among government officials.
I was working in the Arabian Peninsula before, during, and after B. Hussein Obama's term in office. Before and for a short time during, the Arabs by and large sang his praises because they viewed him as a Muslim ... they were genuinely excited over the prospective future. After maybe a year or so into his first term, you really didn't want to even say his name around Arabs because of the betrayal they felt over his policies.
Great eulogy of the Biden presidency. Jimmy Carter can rest a little easier when he meets his maker.
I'm going to disagree with you. Having lived through the Carter years, most of them as a Capitol Hill staff. I lived through the lengthy gas lines, the double-digit inflation, the embarrassments abroad, and the inane focus of micromanaging protest permits in Lafayette Park. As bad as Joe Biden and Barack Obama have been, Carter retired the trophy.
I lived through those years too, though not in DC. Carter was why I became a conservative. We can agree to disagree agreeably. They all have their downsides. We should be able to do better. And Carter at least gave us Reagan 😉
Not wishing to speak too ill of the dead,I’m inclined to agree!
Carter may have been wrong on most things, but I never doubted that he loved his country. Obama and Biden both seem to despise the US.
Trump was the worst President. Biden was the best in my lifetime.
At least Tinker has a good sense of humor. Or he's a total moron without any thinking ability. Could be both.
I think many share your view, though obviously not a voting majority. As I’ve said many times, if we set aside the rhetoric and the shameless ending, however, i think Trump has a record that keeps him from the bottom. But reasonable people disagree.
Tell us, what exactly it is that you like about democrats and their perfect lifetime record of turning every organization, village, town, city, county, state, and country they run into a pile of rancid stinking steaming brown stuff?
Here, let me fill you in on just a few of the democrats' 'accomplishments', just on the City level, many of which they've run for seventy-five plus years:
The ten worst run US Cities
The ten US Cities with the worst bed-bug problem
The ten most rat-infested US Cities
The ten cities with the highest homeless rate
The ten most dangerous US cities
The five US cities among the world's thirty most dangerous
The ten Cities with the worst roads
The ten cities with the worst high schools
The ten Cities with the most government debt per taxpayer
I don't respond to people too stupid not to make up an argument and demand the other person defend it.
You're not smart enough for the debate you want to have, as evidenced by your straw man non sequitur.
Oh, we're not "arguin", I'm rubbing your nose into the "facts". And, if you stick with posting "blah, blah, blah, blah, blah", then you won't have to hope that people won't rub your nose in the "fact" that democrats have nothing but "a perfect lifetime record of turning every organization, village, town, city, county, state, and country they run into a pile of rancid stinking steaming brown stuff"!!!
Here's let's re-visit just a few 'accomplishments' of the America-haters you so love, this time on the State level:
The ten States with the Highest Gas Taxes:
1. California at 0.6810 / gal
2. Illinois at 0.6650 / gal
3. Pennsylvania at 0.5870 / gal
4. Washington at 0.5282 / gal
5. Indiana at 0.5170 / gal
6. Michigan at 0.4800 / gal
7. Maryland at 0.4719 / gal
8. New Jersey at 0.4265 / gal
9. North Carolina at 0.4065 / gal
10. Oregon at 0.40 / gal
The ten States with the highest per capita household and government debt:
1. Hawaii @ $82,650 & $13,681.67
2. California @ $84,730 & $13,867
3. Colorado @ $89,170 & $11,944
4. Oregon @ $66,950 & $10,232
5. Nevada @ $66,020 & $8,880
6. Maryland @ $80,130 & $10,277
7. Massachusetts @ $74,260 & $14,544
8. Connecticut (tie) @ $64,670 & $14,820
8. South Carolina (tie) @ $53,410 & $7,199
8. Washington (tie) @ $82,300 & $11,597
The ten States with the highest State & Local tax burden:
1. New York @ 12.75%
2. Hawaii @ 12.70%
3. Maine @ 11.42%
4. Vermont @ 11.13%
5. Minnesota @ 10.20%
6. New Jersey @ 10.11%
7. Connecticut @ 10.06%
8. Maryland @ 9.44%
9. Oregon @ 9.41%
10. Delaware @ 9.38%
The ten most expensive States to live in:
1. Hawaii
2. Washington DC
3. Massachusetts
4. California
5. New York
6. Alaska
7. Maryland
8. Oregon
9. New Jersey
10. Maine
The ten States with the worst roads:
1. California
2. Rhode Island
3. Nebraska
4. Wisconsin
5. New York
6. Hawaii
7. Massachusetts
8. Louisiana
9. Michigan
10. New Jersey
Doubling down on the stupid things you posted I see.
I didn't say anything you demanded I defend.
If you can't avoid straw men accept that you're not above the thinking line. If you want to be over the thinking line go look up what a straw man argument is.
No one is obligated to argue with you if you can't master remedial critical thinking skills.
Ah, so still trying to deny "reality" and the "facts", well you go girl.
Here, let me rub your nose into just a few more of the democrat America-haters 'accomplishments:
The ten States with the highest homeless rate:
1. California
2. Vermont
3. Oregon
4. Hawaii
5. New York
6. Washington
7. Maine
8. Alaska
9. Nevada
10. Delaware
The ten States with the highest population loss:
1. New York
2. California
3. Illinois
4. Pennsylvania
5. Louisiana
6. Oregon
7. West Virginia
8. Maryland
9. Mississippi
10. Ohio
Now if you are done being a Fox News droid go find someone else to entertain you.
You clearly have never had a thought of your own.
I'll educate you this one time knowing you're too much swine for this pearl but I will try anyway.
Democrat cities are the top in almost every category because almost all cities are Democrat cities because Democrats are the party of the city.
Trying to denigrate (that means put down) the wealthiest and largest state: California and the wealthiest and largest city: New York is just something you do because your TeeVee told you to.
You really are pretty stupid aren't you?
While I agree with most criticisms of Biden, I have a background in economics and as such recognize that inflation is caused essentially by several things: (1) a reduction in the supply of goods and services, (2) an increase (or lack of a corresponding reduction) in the demand for goods and services, and (3) government mandates that increase the price of goods and services to achieve some "social good."
The COVID pandemic caused a worldwide reduction in the supply of goods and services, although it can be argued with politically biased 20/20 hindsight that the Biden administration's policies exacerbated this excessively in the U.S.
But the response on the demand side -- by creating money and distributing it to people unemployed by the pandemic -- was largely a function of the Federal Reserve that was appropriate to a point, but continued with too much money creation for too long.
But getting back to Democrat culpabilities, the two worst are the "clean energy" mandates in the so-called "Inflation Reduction Act," and the pervasive desire to "insure working people a "living wage"" through minimum wage mandates.
I recognize the long-term necessity of transitioning from fossil fuels to other forms of energy, but oppose doing it through subsidies to politically favored corporations (other than, perhaps, in nuclear energy development). And I also support a BASIC government "safety net" for all citizens who are willing to work if they are not disabled. But the best approach to that is the Earned Income Tax credit and certain in-kind programs like Medicaid and subsidized job training -- and NOT minimum wage mandates that freeze unskilled people out of the labor market.
"I recognize the long-term necessity of transitioning from fossil fuels to other forms of energy . . . "
Then you don't understand energy. There is absolutely no need to abandon fossil fuels. We are fortunate in America to have plentiful supplies of natural gas that will last for centuries. That's true even with the current state of the art technology for extraction and consumption, both of which will surely improve.
I don't know why the engineers have not sounded the alarm. Wind and solar will *always* be unreliable. Natural gas is 100% reliable, and incomprehensibly abundant in North America.
Is the addition of an H in George W Bush a typo? I’m not sure how the man who marshaled an international coalition to convincingly eject Saddam Hussein from Kuwait while avoiding broader conflict and who set the stage for the economic boom under Bill Clinton by reducing deficits etc, can be viewed less favorably than his feckless son who exploded deficits, mishandled Iraq and countless other foreign policy decisions, whose naive policy on housing led to the Great Recession, and misguided No Child Left Behind reforms undermined public education and tanked academic achievements, and the list goes on. His administration can’t be described as competent or conservative, and the backlash to his fallings helped lead to Donald Trump.
Nah. It wasn’t a typo. I’ll circle back with an explanation.
WTH Extra i hope on this piece. Last night friends and I were discussing the fact that President Carter was no longer the worst in our lifetime (though we all agreed that he was probably the best former president). Biden will certainly takes the number 1 slot as the worst in our lifetime.
Fantastic summation of the Obama/Biden legacy. I'm saving this as part of my cache of evidence for their destructiveness. Well done!
Biden still has 20 days to make his legacy worse.
And he surely will, as he pushes catastrophic punishment of israel in the Useless Nations, as did Ovomit on his way out. Never mind that the Muslim scum still keep and torture American citizens. Burning in he'll would be too good for him and cohorts.
"a fearful American president whose main obsession was 'escalation.' "
I call that out, not because it's the only part worth calling out, but because Kamalala used that very same word.
The goal is not to avoid "escalation." The goal is to advance US interests.
Good article!
I wrote off Joe Biden as a hack and a rather brainless one in 1988. In the interim, I've lowered my opinion. He is the worst man ever installed in the White House, a corrupt creepy cranky quasi senescent hack (well, the quasi is only there for the alliteration).
". . . the previous four years had been exhausting."
Why? Because the Embassy was moved to Jerusalem?
KeystoneXL Pipline was approved?
ISIS was crushed?
Marginal income tax rates were reduced?
Domestic energy production exceeded domestic consumption?
Kasem Suleimani was killed?
North Korea was brought to heel?
Obamacare penalties were eliminated?
Illegal immigration was stopped?
WTH, you pansies?
Easy for me to predict in Jan 2024 that Obama was planning to push Biden out and install Harris or Michelle Obama.
Biden was onboard with the lawfare. Not his idea and Joe was already out of touch anyway, but someone convinced Joe that the Dems needed an overwhelming margin in the minority vote to win.
Biden's personal motivation to approve the lawfare was to force Trump to drop from the race so that Joe could pardon Hunter and then announce he was not running in 2024. However, Trump kept pushing on and Biden's job then was to push back harder before resigning. Trump forced the issue so long that Biden's incompetence was exposed in a debate.
Obama quickly pushes Harris as the candidate, bypassing the primary selection process that Harris could never hope to win. Barack had Michelle give a speech at the Dem national convention, setting her up for 2028 or 2032, indications that her claims of not wanting to (eventually) run for office were a smokescreen. If POTUS, Harris would have been a hand-puppet for Barack, and his reasons for wanting such power were mentioned in the article.
Except Trump won. So many people despised Harris more than Trump, just like people had despised Trump more than Biden in 2020. In fact, Trump is so disliked by enough voters that Biden would likely have been re-elected if of sound mind and body.
I enjoyed the comments in this section about Carter.
Disagree about G H W Bush.
Would agree about GW Bush and VP Cheney.
G H W Bush was skull and bones, then OSS, then CIA. He is the Bush mentioned in a memo around the time of the JFK assassination, but he denied it. He was CIA before becoming Dep Director of CIA, regardless of his official positions, and remained CIA as POTUS.
GW Bush might be the dumbest person ever to serve as POTUS (Harris seems worse), and VP Cheney was the most disliked Sec of Defense ever, even worse as a VP. As an aside, Hegseth is a substandard choice.
Nixon is the worse POTUS in the last 60 years. If you don't know why, it is because too many things he did are still classified, but classified only to keep the information from the public, and not because it should be.
Yes, LBJ was horrid, to include sacrificing brave US sailors on the USS Liberty in order to support a faked '67 6-day war. Faked because Israel was not reacting, they had instigated the conflict and kept that secret.
WASHINGTON — A former Navy attorney who helped lead the military investigation of the 1967 Israeli attack on the USS Liberty (search) that killed 34 American servicemen says former President Lyndon Johnson (search) and his defense secretary, Robert McNamara (search), ordered that the inquiry conclude the incident was an accident.
In a signed affidavit released at a Capitol Hill news conference, retired Capt. Ward Boston (search) said Johnson and McNamara told those heading the Navy's inquiry to "conclude that the attack was a case of 'mistaken identity' despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary."
Boston was senior legal counsel to the Navy's original 1967 review of the attack. He said in the sworn statement that he stayed silent for years because he's a military man, and "when orders come ... I follow them."
The USS Liberty was an electronic intelligence-gathering ship that was cruising international waters off the Egyptian coast on June 8, 1967. Israeli planes and torpedo boats opened fire on the Liberty in the midst of what became known as the Israeli-Arab Six-Day War (search).
In addition to the 34 Americans killed, more than 170 were wounded.
Israel has long maintained that the attack was a case of mistaken identity, an explanation that the Johnson administration did not formally challenge. Israel claimed its forces thought the ship was an Egyptian vessel and apologized to the United States.
After the attack, a Navy court of inquiry concluded there was insufficient information to make a judgment about why Israel attacked the ship, stopping short of assigning blame or determining whether it was an accident.
It was "one of the classic all-American cover-ups," said Ret. Adm. Thomas Moorer, a former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman who spent a year investigating the attack as part of an independent panel he formed with other former military officials. The panel also included a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, James Akins.
"Why in the world would our government put Israel's interest ahead of our own?" Moorer asked from his wheelchair at the news conference. He was chief of naval operations at the time of the attack.
Moorer, who has long held that the attack was a deliberate act, wants Congress to investigate.
Israeli Embassy spokesman Mark Regev disputed any notion that Israel knowingly went after American sailors.
"I can say unequivocally that the Liberty tragedy was a terrible accident, that the Israeli pilots involved believed they were attacking an enemy ship," Regev said. "This was in the middle of a war. This is something that we are not proud of."
Calls to the Navy seeking comment were not immediately returned.
David Lewis of Lemington, Vt., was on the Liberty when it was attacked. In an interview, he said Israel had to know it was targeting an American ship. He said a U.S. flag was flying that day and Israel shot it full of holes. The sailors on the ship, he said, quickly hoisted another American flag, a much bigger one, to show Israel it was a U.S. vessel.
"No trained individual could be that inept," said Lewis of the Israeli forces.
In Capt. Boston's statement, he does not say why Johnson would have ordered a cover-up. Later in a phone interview from his home in Coronado, Calif., Boston said Johnson may have worried the inquiry would hurt him politically with Jewish voters.
Moorer's panel suggested several possible reasons Israel might have wanted to attack a U.S. ship. Among them: Israel intended to sink the ship and blame Egypt because it might have brought the United States into the 1967 war.
However, LBJ was always willing to nuke the Soviet Union and willing send in a full invasion to Cuba, which is why Castro backed off and why the Soviet Union decided to maintain a "cold" war. Don't know what you all believe as the reasons for the JFK assassination--5 shooters--but the CIA's James Angleton got involved because of what really happened during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The CIA only sent 3 of the shooters.
Dr Chine, great summary of the USS Liberty attack, however you diminish those facts and your excellent telling of what happened when you conclude with the CIA/Kennedy theory. A theory that has been debunked many times )by multiple investigators) not all of which could have been on the take. Again great comment and summary of the USS Liberty attack.
Lynn Gardner, I believe you are sincere, so I offer a piece or two of info that can be seen on the Zapruder film as exists on the internet.
When both of JFK's hands go to his throat, that can only be from an entry wound.
If shot in the back of the neck by a (copper-cased) rifle bullet, one hand will instinctively go to the entry point, as much of the kinetic energy of the rifle bullet dissipates in the strong muscles, ligaments, and tendons that hold up the skull.
It is never true that someone shot in the back of the neck with such a rifle bullet will put both hands toward the front of their neck.
As an aside: a Secret Service Agent physically coerced a surgeon at Parkland Hospital in Dallas at the time, this is known for over 60 years. More recently, such as in the Hot Springs Village Voice, a person is claiming that the agent was Elmer Moore and that Moore confessed to this person that Moore told the surgeon to change the wound from entry to exit.
This wound needed to be an exit wound after a poor shot by the shooter at the Dal-Tex building (not CIA), who was there because of Henry Crown's connections. The Dal-Tex shooter hit JFK once in the back and the 2nd shot missed the motorcade and almost hit James Tague in the foot. Tague was standing by the overpass.
James Tague required medical assistance because the shot fragmented the cement and cut his face. Angleton didn't know about the shooter, so that was the shot that could not be explained after the medical record for James Tague. As a result, a young lawyer named Arlen Specter, who was helping the Warren Commission with the cover-up (just look who was on the commission), invented the single bullet theory.
Without the Dal-Tex shot almost hitting James Tague, the three bullet theory holds up: one shot hits JFK's throat, one hits Governor Connally, and one blows away much of the right side of JFK's skull.
Instead, they need an exit wound to travel to Connally.
The 5th shooter, another shooter that Angleton didn't know about, was the shooter that Sam Giancana sent to Dallas. He entered the storm drainage system and shot with a hand gun from the storm drain, which is why JFK's skull was so fragmented. This shot obscures any effect of the shot from the grassy knoll on the Zapruder film.
A Cuban exile and partner missed JFK from 6th floor of TSBD and hit Connally. They exited via windows at the backside of the building in workmen uniforms on scaffolding already erected for workers.
Zapruder left camera at home because he knew about Dal-Tex shooter and didn't want forensic evidence. Angleton's plan was to wound JFK with triangulation of fire, then Oswald (witness saw him on 2nd floor of TSBD drinking a soda) was to be the patsy. But Henry Crown wanted JFK dead and for the CIA to be blamed.
An employee of Zapruder's bugged him about the camera. Zapruder's office was in the Dal-Tex building and that was an ideal location to film the motorcade coming down North Houston Street and then turning onto Elm Street.
Zapruder got the camera to allay suspicion, but then took an employee with him to a lousy location to film the motorcade, but an ideal location to capture on film the triangulation of fire without evidence of the shot(s) from the Dal-Tex.
Instead, Zapruder got on film the devastating head wound from the close and angled shot from the storm drain, which violently sent JFK's head back and to the left. Witnesses testified the limo driver hit the brakes just before, and the limo almost stopped, so JFK's head started forward before this shot. CIA photo-analyst Dino Brugioni saw the original before the Secret Service took the film to Hawk-Eye Works,, in part so the technicians could make it appear the limo didn't slow and then speed up. Still, the storm drain shot was a devasting blow in the plan to blame only Oswald.
The government would not allow the public to see the Zapruder film until years later, when Jim Garrison used a subpoena for the trial of Clay Shaw. LIFE magazine only showed stills, and Zapruder claimed he was too traumatized by the head shot, so LIFE didn't show that.
Oswald was going to "escape" and flee to Cuba to get close to Castro. This scheme was diabolical and brilliant, and would have worked. Oswald was also an FBI informant (besides a CIA operative) and J Edgar Hoover approved of Angleton's plan, so that the FEDS were going to move Oswald out of Dallas and out of the state police control, so he could then escape.
Henry Crown didn't know about the CIA-FBI scheme, and ordered Jack Ruby to assassinate Oswald, who "knew too much."
Hopefully you realize why this murder will never be solved, and any such evidence was gone from files over 60 years ago, if it was ever there.
Guess why RFK was assassinated? It wasn't Sirhan Sirhan (2 shots toward RFK, the rest discharged into the hotel staff that wrestled him to the ground). RFK was not just going to re-open the JFK assassination investigation, he was going to link it to Henry Crown and the shooter at the Dal-Tex building.
For the longest time I had figured Jimmy Carter was the worst POTUS of my lifetime. I was a teenager during most of the Carter Era, but I can remember the misery index, stagflation, our 53 American hostages held in the U.S. Embassy by Iranian radicals approved by the Ayatollah, every night on ABC’s Nightline Ted Koppel kept a running tab of the days the hostages were kept under duress, Carter’s failed rescue attempt, high gasoline prices and the gas lines … Carter was the source of our nation’s malaise.
Even now … I am sick of his funeral procession. I turn the channel whenever a news station reports on the status of his memorial. I think Jimmy Carter was properly canonized by the cartoon series The Simpsons, so many years ago.
See: https://youtu.be/PUjylIGjoh4?si=Lcb0ewOlOt5eBzXO
But Carter was definitely eclipsed by Barack Obama, for all of the reasons as mentioned by Danielle.
However, I would gently suggest that as rotten as Joe Biden is, the presumption now is that he doesn’t fully possess his mental faculties, that these last four years of Biden’s tenure are really in fact a defacto Obama third term. I think Biden is surrounded by Obama proxies, like Susan Rice, along with an assortment of other Obama re-treads. Obama had said that he had yearned for a third term in which he was more of a puppet master of the POTUS rather than actually occupying the Oval Office for a third term.
It seems more and more like this scenario could be a very real possibility.
As far as the worst POTUS of our lifetimes, if there was a Nobel Crap Prize, then I would suggest that the award should be shared by both Obama and Biden, partners in crap together. 💩 💩
Don't forget Obama initiated the transgender activism/ideology and the weaponization of the Federal Agencies...he was and is a Neo Marxist and Closet Muslim in the shadows.