ComradeKayAdams

Thanks, Pete! Good to see you around these parts! You still visit BillsFans.com? Points # 1, 2, 3, 6, and 7 have absolutely NOTHING to do with “workers owning the means of production.” Not even tangentially. Point # 4 is a caustic rebuke of laissez-faire economics. Um…quite the egregious logical fallacy to conclude that such a rebuke is advocacy for socialism, no?? There’s a lot of middle ground between the two! I personally advocate only for social democracy at the national level, although I’ll also note that we do have plenty of evidence of democratic socialism succeeding at the very local level and for specific economic goods markets. Point # 5 is absolutely a call for greater government involvement in the American health care system. But if you somehow consider the adoption of something like a universal health care system as the acceptance of socialism, then you are also conceding that LITERALLY THE REST OF THE INDUSTRIALIZED COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD are thriving bastions of socialism. Point # 8, on its surface, is simply about accepting a well-established subfield of the natural sciences. While the usual discursive corollary to this is a necessary call for more government intervention into the free markets (in the form of publicly funded R+D, energy/transportation public works projects, Keynesian stimulus bills for select companies, etc.), so to properly address the magnitude of the climate crisis in a timely manner, this is all still a far cry from a call for actual socialism. Now we COULD have a meaningful discussion on the nature of land/resource ownership in a modern society, but that might also require too many sentences for MAGA to read. I already assumed most of you MAGA types long ago stopped reading what I’m typing right now… To be VERY clear, Leh-nerd, there is no “gift exemption” in an ethical vegan lifestyle. You are to either return the product to the store or give it to someone else, with the idea that this other person receiving the product won’t then have the need to purchase their own. Absent these two options, however, there is no coherent ethical stance against consuming the product yourself. The animal has already suffered, unfortunately. Now regarding my personal situation with Juicy Couture, it was a (rather expensive) perfume set that my grandma bought for me as a combined birthday/high school graduation gift. I appreciated the effort she took to find out what kinds of products girls my age might like, and I also didn’t officially become a vegan until college. Furthermore, I was misinformed about Juicy Couture’s 100% cruelty-free stance for several years afterward. Now you COULD argue that I should be giving them to someone else, but to be honest…the various scents still trigger different positive memories from my college years….so you can say that I’m holding on to them for sentimental reasons, even though these perfumes are no longer part of my “regular scent rotation” now that I’m well into my 20’s. I think what I’ve always loved most about the Medusa story is the insight it provided into ancient Greek society: everything ranging from their fear of wild snakes to their resentment toward their gods (i.e. fate). I believe Ovid’s conception of Medusa’s hair was 100% snakes and 0% human hair, so these alleged “products used to tame it” would have simply been mice feedings, right? In any event, Leh-nerd, your commentary on housewives narcissistically “yammering” away on life’s trivialities can easily be construed as a deeply misogynistic trope derived from a legacy of patriarchal power systems. Moving on…let’s talk a bit more about my Medusa costume for tonight! Yay!!! So the key feature is neither the coiled serpentine hair, nor the green puffy long-sleeved bodycon dress, nor the gold hosiery, nor the gold heels…it’s all about the eyes, Leh-nerd. Imagine: yellow-colored contact lenses plus a meticulous charcoal-colored eye makeup application that produces the classic doe-like effect, thus making the entire eye region “pop” like a muthaf*cka. You seriously think male partygoers will avert my gaze and avoid turning into stone, Leh-nerd?? You even Medusa Halloween costume, bro??!! When I say “turning into stone,” of course, I’m referring to getting sucked into an hours-long discussion with me on everything ranging from Buffalo Bills superiority over the New Jersey Jests…to climate change-resistant hardwood tree species native to the Adirondacks. As you probably figured, there will be a fair number of Gordon Gekko-wannabe Strong Island frat boy dipsh!ts at this party, not quite prepared for this sassy upstate NY hippy…el oh el. Anywho…glad to see you here, Leh-nerd! Even though you are smelly MAGA “garbage” at the moment, I still think we can metaphorically pull you out from the trash can, wash you off, and toss you into the recycling bin. Just keep reading my posts and think deeply about what I say. Every word of mine has intention. <<< Narrator: Kay suddenly slithers away from Two Bills Drive. Leh-nerd checks his watch and realizes his entire afternoon has passed. >>> <<< Other Narrator: reminds the original Narrator to partly reassure Leh-nerd that tonight is daylight savings! >>>

LOLOL…yup, sooo true!! MAGA has fashioned quite the image of themselves as a bunch of manly men manlying around with their manly manliness, driven by some masculine ideal of purely rational thought. They perceive Harris voters, meanwhile, as overly emotional and irrational types, driven by this stereotypically feminine decision-making construct. And yet here we are…the “f*ck your feelings” crowd losing their collective sh!t over a singularly random comment from a senile lame duck president. Imagine that!! The ”garbage” remark, however, was perfectly apt. Behind each MAGA’s veil of machismo lies a prisoner of their own combined low IQ and EQ…a Platonic ideal, if you will, of the “stupid a*shole.” Let’s delve a bit deeper into the dullardly mind of a MAGA, shall we? What specifically DEFINES these sh!thead simpletons? Here I shall emphasize PUBLIC POLICIES and not their personality peccadillos, as reflected from their Dear Leader/Boyfriend a.k.a. Donald Trump. I’ll only highlight a small handful of issues which I don’t think others here have already addressed: 1. Corporate oligarchy: MAGA dumb-dumbs like to think of themselves as heroic populists fighting some poorly defined “establishment,” and yet they have an equally poorly defined stance on Citizens United v. FEC (2010). They don’t seem all too perturbed that post-2016 Trump now embraces the concept of billionaires purchasing government power. 2. American imperialism: MAGA claims they are anti-war and against the MIC, but they also embraced various “might-makes-right” Trumpian foreign policies against not-white-enough peoples: thousands of Middle East drone strikes, keeping troops in Afghanistan, bombing Syria repeatedly, occupying countries over oil, provocatory assassinations of Iranian generals, organized coups in Venezuela, backing a Saudi-led Yemen genocide, etc… And what about reducing the bloated military budget?? Nope! “We need to maintain only the bestest, most tremendous military,” insist Trump and his acolytes. 3. Gaza: This issue is really just an extension of the broader American imperialism that MAGA idiots and Trump embrace. When you are a Judeo-Christian supremacist and an Islamophobe, Zionism is second nature to you. Apartheid practices, collective punishment war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and genocide are all rationalized. The Leahy Laws are ignored. Illegally occupying Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, and now southern Lebanon are all condoned. Trump’s contributions, ultimately, to October 7 are conveniently forgotten (exiting the JCPOA, moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, mediating the Abraham Accords, and recognizing the Golan Heights annexation). 4. Economic philosophy: MAGA morons, ever the champions for the working class, willfully choose to embrace the free market fundamentalism of their slightly more intelligent libertarian sociopathic comrades. My Gawd…we could write lengthy doctoral dissertations, right here in this forum, on all the foolishness which stems from their ridiculous oversimplifications of the highly complex field that is macroeconomics. But let’s note only the most recent example of their foolishness: their blind support of Trump’s high tariffs/zero income tax idea, which is straight out of the famously progressive utopian era that was America’s Gilded Age. Even if one were to explain the blatantly regressive nature of this plan to these Austrian school sycophants, they’d probably just shrug their shoulders and tell you, “Meh. Go, like, pick yourself up from your bootstraps. Or something.” 5. Health care: Is your family overwhelmed with medical debt? Are you dying from cancer because you can’t afford treatment? Stuck in a terrible job because you’re afraid to lose your health care plan? “Too bad,” says MAGA. “F*ck off and die.” We’re all still waiting on Trump’s amazing health care plan, by the way. LOL… 6. Abortion: Simply put, you are every bit a “garbage” human being if you are okay with women in certain states being legally forced to carry their rapist’s fetus to term. Moreover, you are not very smart if you don’t understand exactly how legal abortions well beyond the first trimester (i.e. keeping reproductive health decisions strictly between a mother and her health care professionals, not the government) are necessary for prioritizing a mother’s health, life, and general safety. 7. Transgender rights: People who can understand science can understand that the concept of gender identity is linked to the gender-determining morphology and function of the human brain. In the vast majority of humans, this particular gender identity marker also happens to match the sex determined by that person’s chromosomes and reproductive equipment. For MAGA, however, science is really really hard; bigotry and bullying, meanwhile, are super duper fun! 8. Anthropogenic global warming: El. Oh. El. For many people, middle school earth science was a trivial endeavor. For MAGA, both their cognitive limitations and their complete disregard for negative externalities invite a horrifying (yet admittedly highly entertaining!) array of delightfully grand conspiracies. Scientific conspiracies, evidently, fill the vacuum that is their pathetic scope of scientific understanding. That’s all the morning polemicizing for now. Gotta get ready for work. Also, everyone please wish me luck on my Halloween party costume this weekend: Medusa, the tragic feminist martyr from Greek mythology (but the SEXY version…with a puffy long-sleeved bodycon dress, bedazzled with sequins and glitter and sh!t, while drenched in sundry floral aromas from Juicy Couture*). Woohoo! Enjoy the coming weekend, everyone! Yes, even all you MAGA dullards…you too! GO BILLS. CIRCLE. DEM. WAGONS. SQUISH. DEM. FISH. *-yes, I’m well aware that Juicy Couture isn’t 100% cruelty-free. These perfumes were gifted to me. This addendum is directed at all the disputatious TBD PPP posters** who are always trying to spot my hypocrisies, but who always fail spectacularly in doing so. **-namely, Leh-nerd Skin-erd.

Yep, this is basically what I’m predicting. More specifically, I have Harris winning 287 to 251 in electoral votes (i.e., all seven swing states minus Georgia and North Carolina). Two basic reasons why: 1. I’m expecting a systemic overperformance in the polls very similar to what was observed during the 2022 midterms, fueled by unmarried women’s opposition to Dobbs v. Jackson WHO plus independent voters’ revulsion to January 6 election results denialism. 2. Trump’s overreliance on low-propensity voter demographics (mostly male ones). Lots of mainstream political analysts seem to be forgetting that voter preference doesn’t fully equate to voter enthusiasm.

JOSH overrated?? Hawk Tua is going down. We spit on THEIR thang. “Not safe for work, Kay. Your mind is in the gutter. Message from the mods.” My fault, Two Bills Drive, But haikus I use to lube. Fish Squish Week excites. “What did we tell you?! It’s a family forum. Your final warning.” I can’t help myself… A five-seven-five format At least I maintain! “This is true, Adams. A haiku Hill you are not. The poet abides.”

Coach Babich to Big Play Tom, Coach Babich to Big Play Tom: Take your steroid shot and put your helmet on. “10” Coach Babich “9” To Big Play Tom: “8, 7, 6” Commencing kickoff, “5” Uniform on. “4, 3, 2” Check cleats… “1” And may God’s love “Let’s go!” Be with you. This is Coach Babich to Big Play Tom: You’ve really made the grade! And the media want to know which jersey number you wear. Now it’s time to lead the secondary, if you dare! This is Big Play Tom to Coach Babich: I’m stepping onto the field. And I’m floating deep in a most peculiar way, And the Cards’ formation looks very different today. For here am I sitting in a Cover One. Far behind my teammates. James Conner is running through, And there’s nothing I can do. Though I'm past one hundred thousand years, I'm moving very slow, And I think Beane knows which way my career is to go. Tell my baby mama I love her very much. She knows. Coach Babich to Big Play Tom: Your positioning’s bad, there’s something wrong. Can you hear me, Big Play Tom? Can you hear me, Big Play Tom? Can you hear me, Big Play Tom? Can you he…. Here am I floating behind Hamlin. Far beyond the play. Marvin Harrison Jr. really flew, Another Hail Murray we just blew…

Same! I grew up with two annoying older brothers: both varsity athlete mesomorph types, whereas I myself have always been disadvantaged with more of a diminutive ectomorph physique. Nevertheless, the one thing I have always been blessed with is a resourceful survivor spirit! So while there’s no way I could physically take on Coach McDermott, I do consider the brain to be the most powerful muscle in the human body. Coach McD strikes me as a guy wound just a bit too tight, perhaps secretly dealing with a multitude of mental health issues ranging from paranoia and insecurity to chronic anxiety and insomnia. My strategy of choice would therefore be to personally subject Coach McD to months of torturous psychological manipulation, ideally culminating in a life-threatening eating disorder. Once the eating disorder has advanced to a stage requiring in-patient hospitalization care, I will come visit Coach McD at the Catholic Mercy Hospital of Buffalo. Though to be clear: no mercy will be offered to him by me on that final day. As I saunter over to his hospital room bed, Coach McD’s eyes will fully widen as he sees me, like a woodland owl forced to acknowledge its indefatigable apex predator. “You again! Why?! Why did you do this to me?! Was it the 13 Seconds game? The pathetic Bengals playoff home game? Too many men on the field for the final play of last season’s ridiculous Broncos game? All I ever wanted in life was to bring gridiron joy to all you lovely Western New Yorkers! Why, Kay? Why?!” This is the moment where I then slowly lean in towards him, gently stroke his arm, massage his shoulder, and whisper softly into his ear, “Because I could, Sean. Because I could.” As I get up and walk away, a nearby nurse vigorously holds down Coach McD’s emaciated and flailing body to the hospital bed, as his pale Irish countenance turns bright red like an aged star approaching supernova status. “Curses to thee, of sly mind and small body, and with neither sling nor stone…another favorable victory I have blown!” Sean rather poetically screams out to yours truly. “May you welcome as your eternal abode the fiery pits below, you Baphomet-worshiping banshee! Arrrgggh!” << END SCENE. >> << BEGIN EPILOGUE. >> The rhythmic clicking of Kay’s VEERAH stiletto heels echo through the hospital hallway as she walks away from Coach McDermott’s room. The reverberating clicks grow louder, drowning out the distant flatlining emission from Sean’s electrocardiogram. Kay suddenly removes a wig and rubber facial mask, revealing herself to be…<<dramatic pause>>…Tyler Dunne in drag! Eeek! The “Go Long” journalist, evidently all along, was playing his own long game on poor ol’ Sean.

It might be!! Anecdotally, I can say that I know this under-30 female demographic quite well. I probably have about 500 or so of them in my extended social network. We are part of the “childless cat lady” demographic whom J.D. Vance and his WEIRD acolytes despise so much. Based on my Instagram surfing alone, I get the strong sense that we are pretty much all committed now to voting for Harris-Walz. I could analyze the “why” in a million different ways, but let’s start with the most obvious: we can’t be allowing any state in the union to force a 10-year-old girl to give birth to her rapist’s child. Reactionaries have failed “Team Menstruation” horribly with their interpretations of the Ninth, Tenth, and Fourteenth Amendments (plus the First, Fourth, and Fifth…). DEEP THOUGHT ALERT: I often find myself contextualizing contemporary politics through the prism of history. I’m seeing potential parallels on the horizon with Republicans and the Whig Party. Abortion could ultimately divide and destroy the Republican Party in a similar way that slavery divided and destroyed the Whigs. Anyone else agree?? Disagree??

Trump is their OG communist, actually! Anyone else remember Executive Order #13948 back in the summer of 2020?? Oh, Commie Kay remembers… Right-wingers were praising this price control on prescription drugs because political tribalism often trumps (pun delightfully intended!) political principles. “Communist” is just a label now that has been rendered devoid of any meaning beyond “someone conservatives don’t like.” My very limited (and possibly erroneous) awareness of Kamala’s grocery price control proposal is that it would be a sunset provision reserved specifically for proven food price gouging. Temporary price controls do have a history of success when restricted to societal emergency situations. Permanent price controls, on occasion, can also work; you already mentioned such an example involving a price floor (minimum wages) and one involving a price ceiling (trust busting). But while price collusion is a type of market failure like any other, it can sometimes be difficult to prove conclusively. So one’s educated opinion of Kamala’s policy efficacy will depend on how obvious one thinks the evidence of collusion may be (based heavily on corporate profit margin histories), along with what one thinks are the causal factors of our present inflation: corporate price gouging (yes), lingering cost-push international supply chain issues (yes, somewhat, due to strife abroad and what not), cost-push energy supply shocks (LOL…an eyeroll for those who don’t understand how international energy free markets work yet dogmatically cling to them…), demand-pull stimulus effects (sure, though not in the way right-wingers think because CARES and ARP also prevented dangerous deflationary collapses), a lax monetary policy (certainly not ruling out artificially low interest rates and aggressive money supply expansions), etc. Kamala is also proposing a price control on rent, and right now I’m equally unfamiliar with the details of this particular policy. My firm belief, however, is that you can’t just throw government subsidies at this problem without addressing root causes (namely: corporate oligopoly effects on local housing markets). Furthermore, I’m an unapologetic tree-hugging eco-fascist who rages deliriously at the specter of creeping suburban sprawl; when I so much as hear mere MURMURS of lowering housing costs via a widespread government promotion of increases to the supply…BIG TROUBLE. EDIT: Misspelled “murmurs.” Terrible.

Note that I’m referring strictly to market socialism models in my response: 1. Taxation: You’re always going to have tax requirements, with all of the accompanying potential headaches, whenever you have public services. Market socialism is not necessarily any better or worse than other forms of government in this regard. Even societies practicing anarcho-capitalism will feature an annoying array of “tax-like” user fees that must be paid. 2. Nationalization: Market socialism definitely doesn’t forbid privatization! Private companies won’t be shut down as long as their ownership structures meet certain regulatory criteria. 3. Central Planning: The whole point of market socialism is to NOT have top-down micromanagement of a macroeconomic system! Government intervention into a free market isn’t the same concept as a centrally planned economy. No economic system of any practical merit is truly laisse-faire because many types of market failures are inherent. 4. Various Inefficiencies: On the microeconomic level, not all goods and services are the same. Some of them function better outside the profit motive (national defense, law and order, firefighting, transportation infrastructure, health care, water utilities, possibly all forms of energy, etc.). On the macroeconomic level, the theory behind market socialism is that societies are maximally efficient when socioeconomic mobility is optimal, and that socioeconomic mobility is optimal when labor exploitation is minimal (i.e., a laborer receives reasonable compensation for his/her contribution to the final product…so no cases of subsistence on food stamps while the capitalist accumulates wealth surpassing that of small countries…). The underlying theory is all rooted in standard Keynesian economics plus well-established Marxist critiques of capitalism. You basically want more people fully engaged in the economy, from both a consumer’s point of view and an investor’s one. You may recall from my previous post, however, where I did acknowledge my reservations with the ability of market socialism to set labor wages and generate entrepreneurial speculation. Successful food co-ops are succeeding within the framework of a decidedly capitalistic economy; billionaires can be genuinely unique in their risk-taking personalities. There are no simply defined problems with obvious solutions in the world of political economics, even though socialists and libertarians alike may implore you otherwise. That is my current belief.

For completeness, the number of states where abortion is on the November ballot stands at 11: Arizona, Nevada, Montana, Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota, Missouri, Arkansas, Florida, Maryland, and our beautiful home state of New York. Arizona and Nevada are 2 of the 6 key swing states in the presidential election, while Montana has a hotly contested Senate seat in play. 5 of those 6 key swing states (including Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania…all but Georgia) also have a Senate seat up for election in 2024. Ohio’s Senate seat election could be influenced by the abortion issue, as well. It’s going to be a real challenge for the Democrats to sweep the 7 aforementioned Senate elections in order to reach an overall 50-50 Senate tie. But if they continue the trend of outperforming polls since Roe v. Wade was overturned, then it’s more than just possible and maybe even becomes the most probable outcome.

Oh…well that last sentence of mine was actually typed tongue-in-cheek, though your inability to recognize that was a failure of my writing style and not your reading comprehension! I’ll try to answer your questions: When market socialists speak of transitioning beyond the current U.S. mixed economy, they’re usually thinking of models that don’t meaningfully alter the existing ratio of private businesses to public services (well…aside from the health care industry…and maybe also the energy industry…). So all that would really change is the matter of who owns the means of production and the particular way this ownership is distributed. These ownership details, however, would then fall under government regulation. A simple example of what I mean: you want to start a business, but your business model involves you collecting 99.9% of all profits while the rest of your employees split the remaining 0.1% in the form of very low-wage jobs. The market socialist government steps in and tells you that, as founder/CEO, your personal profit collection is to be capped at, say, 51% while the rest of your employees are collectively entitled to the remaining 49%. So you can still make your high-quality products at lower costs to the consumer and with better worker compensation than your competitors. The key difference is that the socialist government more aggressively enforces minimum standards in the worker compensation component of your business plan. In case you’re wondering why I’m just a social democrat and not a full-blown market socialist: for me, it’s much more about data-driven macroeconomic optimization than it is about the restrictions to certain entrepreneurial freedoms. There ARE situations in which I believe supply-side solutions best promote growth (especially if there is greater national oversight of outsourcing, stock buybacks, taxation loopholes, etc.). My reservations with market socialism models are related to potential unintended consequences arising from supply-side market distortions as well as from labor market distortions. At least for the time being, I’d be more than okay with a robust social safety net that includes universal health care and the complete elimination of medical debt.

Were you wanting me to respond to the article, B-Man? I can do that: 1. GDP: I have a HUGE problem here with the author’s economic interpretations. According to him, Minnesota’s state GDP (per capita) fell below the national average as a direct consequence of progressive policies. I’m familiar with mountains of international macroeconomic data typically indicating the opposite correlation. Moreover, GDP has clear limitations in its usage for defining economic (and especially societal) health. Let’s dust off our introductory macroeconomics textbooks and recall one of its key operational definitions: [GDP] = [Government Expenditures] + [Private Consumption] + [Private Business Investments] + [Export/Import Differential]. It’s quite easy to imagine how a rare global pandemic can alter this formula for a random, mostly landlocked northern state in ways unrelated to the state’s public policies. Population changes affect this metric, too, and there’s no data specifically supporting a tax flight hypothesis for frigid Minnesota. What was the magnitude of Minnesota’s GDP fall, by the way?? That might also be relevant to the narrative formation… 2. George Floyd Protests/General Crime: The only criticism in the article with merit, in my opinion. Walz himself has acknowledged mistakes he has made during his tenure as governor, with respect to law and order in the state of Minnesota. I view such an admission as a sign of character strength. Voters who prioritize this issue are free to hold that against Walz, though I would remind these voters that crime is predominantly the domain of state and local politicians, not that of the POTUS. 3. Public School Test Scores: The declines between 2019 and now are part of observed nationwide phenomena not limited to Minnesota. They pretty much have everything to do with COVID and pretty much nothing to do with “woke agendas.” I don’t fault Walz for school closure policies that just about everyone else in the country and world followed. 4. Rural Popularity: I didn’t find his “mostly rocks and cows” remark to be an expression of contempt for rural people. Not at all! Rather, I interpreted it as a cute way to describe a basic political strategy. Since I hate arguments of “whataboutism,” I’ll reserve my thoughts on Vance’s “Hillbilly Elegy” for another time… 5. Military Record Controversy: Doesn’t bother me one bit. A middle-aged family man changed his mind and decided to retire, for whatever reason(s), after 24 years of service. Even if we were to assume cowardice as the singular explanation…so what?? The second Iraq War was beyond stupid, deeply immoral, and completely unrelated to our national security. Choosing not to die for the MIC and for corporate oligarchs is a sign of intelligence, as far as I’m concerned! Since I said that I’m against “whaboutism” arguments, I promise not to bring up Trump’s bone spurs… TL;DR Summary: Walz is super awesome. A social democrat’s dream candidate. His pragmatic progressivism is the perfect gateway drug for a potential revolutionary transition into market socialism by mid-century << crosses fingers >>.

Perhaps. If that’s the case, then she will be exposed during the debates and during any interviews scheduled after the Democratic Party convention. In the meantime, I’m guessing that her campaign team is specifically instructing her to keep a low profile while they iron out policy details leading up to this convention. Actually…Kamala COULD avoid any difficult interviews altogether and cruise to an easy 303 electoral votes victory, provided the following occur: 1. A pivot to the center on immigration. 2. Clarifications of the messaging on crime, inflation, and transgender rights. 3. An unambiguous positioning to the left of Biden on the Gaza genocide. 4. Stylistic wins over Trump in the debates. 5. Strong campaign ground game efforts in the college towns of the six swing states (Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada). 6. MOST IMPORTANT: the maintenance of good campaign vibes with delightfully irreverent memes. “Brat summer” must seamlessly transition to “brat fall.”

A below average president whose political impotence helped contribute to the rise of neoliberalism. Far from the worst ever, however. I don’t feel like treading into the deep weeds of 1970’s macroeconomics right now, but my basic opinion is that the underlying issues went well beyond the purview of his office. Reagan, in fact, ended up benefiting greatly from Carter’s chairman of the Federal Reserve (Paul Volcker). As for the non-economics stuff: I think Carter was pretty good on the environment, civil rights, and foreign diplomacy. Mixed feelings on the Carter Doctrine. The Iran hostage crisis was poorly handled, no doubt, though its occurrence was a consequence of several decades of American imperialism that happened to blow up on Carter’s watch. Sure, though a lot of PEPFAR’s success can be attributed to its subsequent years, once all the ridiculous Christian moralizing that imbued the program during its earliest incarnation was removed. Bottom line: I do like PEPFAR, but it doesn’t move the approval needle for me when you factor in the second Iraq war, Afghanistan, the loss of freedoms from the Patriot Act, the inability to prevent 9/11, his Katrina response, causal factors of the Great Recession, the national debt, global warming denialism, all of the LGBT bigotry, etc… GWB not only failed to address major crises that were presented to him, but he unnecessarily created entirely new ones and failed to anticipate others on the distant horizon. Ugh…fine. I’ll bump him slightly ahead of Andrew Johnson. Happy now??

THANK YOU. From my unapologetically biased perspective as a progressive, I’d easily rank him as the worst president of the American Neoliberal Era (1980-2024+): 1. Clinton 2. Obama 3. Reagan 4. Bush Sr. 5. Biden 6. Trump 7. GWB He’s probably in the running for worst ever…even worse than the likes of Johnson, Buchanan, Harding, etc.