But he considers the question and he has this answer really ready. He says, declaratively and simply, yes, there are two things that he intended to get done during his lifetime. Two things that were on his to do list that he hasnt quite been able to finish that he would like to finish before he dies. He said, the first one was middle east peace. He had already been given the Nobel Peace Prize in part for his work in pursuit of that goal. Middle east peace. But yes, thats still not done. Still work to do there. Thats one. And then this was the second thing. The second thing still on his to do list that he said he hoped to do before he died. In the time you have left, what would you like to see happen . Completely eradicated before i die. I would like the last guinea worm to die before i do. That was president jimmy carter speaking in 2015. He was 90 years old. President carter is now 99 years old. It turns out hes getting very close to having that wish fulfilled. Whats a guinea worm . Guinea worms are a thing that humans can get essentially as a parasitic infection. You can have infected water that has the larva of guinea worms in it. I could show you what that means in humans. Im not going to. I have seen the photos myself in terms of what it mean for Human Infection and how these worms grow in your body. I have seen these photos. I am haunted by them. Im not going to show them here. Trust me, it is vile and very, very memorable. Basically you unknowingly drink water that has the larva of the worms in it. Then the worm grow inside your body and the guinea worms dont necessarily kill you but they can make you incredibly debilitatingly sick for months at a time and theyre excruciatingly painful. And these things have been around forever. Scientists have found their remains in 3,000yearold mummies. In the Old Testament, there is a description of fiery serpents attacking the israelites in the desert. Some scholars think that what that might have been referring to in the Old Testament was actually guinea worms. These things, im sure theyre beloved to each other, right . Im sure they have friends and moms. But to us humans, they are a plague and they have been causing horrific human pain and misery for thousands of years. Particularly the little kids mpl. In 1986, six years before he was voted out of presidency, former president jimmy carter decided to use his pull and his sway, his remaining power in the world to tray to rid the world of this one particular awful plague. Because it was a doable thing. Getting rid of this not goody worm thing, its not a hightech solution. Its not dependent on some scientific miracle. It just takes focus and where with all and somebody to lead the effort. People, basically, the solution is people have to know how to identify when they have the infection so they dont spread to it others and people need to do simple filtration of their Drinking Water so they dont invest the larva. For literally thousands of years, we as humans could not get together to do these two basic things. But jimmy carter decided to try to do it. So you know, basic stuff. Doctors and care for people with this disease and education about it and also, Little Straws that you can drink through to filter your Drinking Water. Thats basically the whole program. When jimmy carter started working on this, there were 3. 5 million active cases of Guinea Worm Disease in the world. That means 3. 5 Million People who were in excruciating, unbelievable pain from infection with this parasite. But he got to work to try to get rid of it. And 32 years into it, when he did that interview at the age of 90, he said he was hoping the last guinea worm in the world would die before he did. Well, yesterday jimmy carter turned 99 and it looks like he really might get his wishful as of today, the Carter Center says that in the first eight months of this year, from january 1st to august 31st, if you look at the first eight months of this area, combined in total, the number of known cases of Guinea World Disease anywhere in the entire world is six. Not 6 million, not 6,000. Six cases. When jimmy carter started this eradication program, there were 3. 5 million simultaneous cases in the world. Now in total combined all eight months of this year, there are six cases on earth. The only human Infectious Disease that has ever been eradicated is small pox has the to vaccines as of 1980. We might be about to have the second. Right now human kind is on the door stop of eradicating a terrible human Infectious Disease for only the second time in the history of earth. Its not strength to a big scientific breakthrough. Its thanks to jimmy carter who turned 99 years old yesterday. Earlier this year the last times reported how former President Carter would talk about his joy at one visit he made to go see the progress of this program that he was running. He visited a School In Rural Nigeria and he said some of the school kids came out to greet him with a sign that said, watch out, guinea worm. Here comes jimmy carter. Former President Carter said of all his in his public life, thats the favorite. Watch out, skinny worm. Here comes jimmy carter so happy 99th Birthday, mr. President. Middle east peace may still be a work in progress but this other goal, you might get to cross it off your list. Jimmy carter turning 99 years old yesterday. With jimmy carter and his beginy worm eradication program, we have one model for how a former american president can make the best use of his post presidency years. There are other models, too. And we will talk later on this hour about the remarkable scenes in court today in new york. Former President Donald Trump deciding to be in the courtroom today in new york even though he did not have to be. This today was the civil case brought against trump and his adult sons and top employees of his business and his business itself. It is a civil case in which the new York Attorney general has alleged Insurance Fraud and falsified Business Records and financial records. The basic allegation from the Attorney General in this lawsuit is that trumps Real Estate Business is built on fraud. It is built on systemic, sustained, deliberate financial fraud. What the Attorney General is claiming here, former President Trumps Lying Insistence that hes way richer than he actually is has not just been pitiful but harmless bragging by a sad man. The allegation is that those lies were materially consequential in business terms in a way that New York State is now going to make him pay for. Now, when youre a defendant in a criminal case, when youve been criminally charged, you dont have a choice about showing up in court while the case is being tried. You have to be there in a criminal case. This isnt a criminal case. This is a civil case. So donald trump did not have to be there in court today. He chose to be there today nevertheless, which itself tells you something about how important this case is to him. Nobody will get prison time out of a civil case like this. Hes facing potential prison time in the four other cases in which he has been criminally indicted but not this one. This is a civil case but it is the one where he very well could lose his whole business and all its properties that he cares about. This one he cares about. Today elected to be there at the trial in person. He will apparently be there again tomorrow. He spoke to reporters outside the courtroom. He called the judge in the case the rogue judge. At one point talking about new York Attorney general Letitia James who brought the lawsuit. He said, quote, you have to go after this Attorney General, which felt im speaking in laymans terms here, but that felt very much like him crossing the line when it comes to the way he has talked judges and prosecutors and other people involved in the various Court Proceeding in which he is implicated. You ought to go after this Attorney General . What did he mean by . So well talk about that a little later on. Well talk with someone who was in the courtroom today and try to sort it what we can expect in the days ahead with this case, particularly since it looks likes this one is really agitating the former president and it is one in which he may end up himself on the witness stand testifying under oath. But you know, the news gods move in mysterious ways. This contrast in todays news between the jimmy carter post presidency at his 99th Birthday and the trump pose presidency in court today in new york, sort of feel a little like it is here to help. Here to help us right now in terms of understanding what is going on in this moment in american politics. Particularly with our two Major Political parties. Because as much as i have found it frustrating for years, there is still even now unbelievably a lot of lazy punditry. A lot of lazy assuming out there in the press that our two major parties in this country are basically the same. That theyre Mirror Images of each other. The actual news from the actual world is here to disprove that. Today, Congress Just narrowly averted a Government Shutdown this weekend, right . Today congress was consumed with drama over whether the farthest right faction in the Republican Party will be successful in their efforts to oust the republican Speaker Of The House. Why do they want to oust him as Speaker Of The House . Because he had the temerity to work with democrats on a bill that kept the government from shutting down. Thats kind of their sum total of their argument against him. I mean, for them, it is selfevident that grave crime is enough. If House SpeakerKevin Mccarthy will commit the mortal sin of working with the democrats on anything, that obviously, he must lose his job. He can no longer be a republican Speaker Of The House. And that is what today was consumed with in congress. Thats what congress will be about for at least the rest of this week and maybe longer. Congressman matt gaetz tonight actually filed his motion to vacate, which means within two legislative days, members of the house will have to take up the future of mccarthys speakership thanks to gaetz objection that mccarthy had the temerity to work with democrats. Nobody knows whether this will work, what the price if they clues to do that. We dont know how republican theres line up for and against mccarthy. Fox news is reporting that some republicans who like mccarthy might try to expel matt gaetz altogether. That should make for some happy times. Bottom line, whether or not republicans succeed in ousting their own Speaker Of The House, over this narrow miss on a Government Shutdown, whether or not it ultimately ousts him for the speakership. The message here is clear, right . I mean, in the Republican Party, if you work with democrats on anything, you are in big trouble as a republican. That is where the Republican Party is at right now. Meanwhile, heres how the democratic candidate is campaigning for election. There was a time in america when we expected leaders to put people over politics. When instead of shouting, people from different parties talked and listened. But for joe biden, compromise isnt a way of the past. Its how hes building managers future, passing hundreds of bynum laws. A law to rebuild our roads and bridges that puts americans to work, to make america a leader in hightech manufacturing, bringing good jobs home. Laws to improve Veterans Health care and strengthen gun safety. Every one of those laws, bipartisan. He hasnt gotten everything he wants, but thats not how he measures success. For joe biden, success means lifting everyone in america, no matter where you live or who you voted for. Because he is a president for all americans. Im joe biden and i approved this message. He hasnt gotten everything he wanted but thats not how he has success. You may object to that strategy. Some of that imagery can be hard to swallow. Condoleezza rice and reagan and even john mccain. But thats joe biden. President biden has always been a very collegial guy, with his democratic colleagues and republicans. It is a core part of how he works as a politician and therefore of what people expect from him in politics. Yes, he is a liberal, a progressive on almost all policy issues but he will work with everyone. Hell always try to find middle ground. Thats joe biden. Hes been doing this literally for decades. Its not a surprise that this is how he works and how he is campaigning for reelection. For him to be campaigning for reelection saying, i wont get everything i want, i dont think were supposed to get everything we want. Were supposed to work it out together. Contrast that with what it takes to rise in republican politics right now. Democrats are campaigning for office by saying, ill compromise and find middle ground. Republicans are run out of their party for even thinking about that, let alone doing it. There is no way to both sides this. One of these things is not like the other. The two parties are working on two different projects. And the reasons for that are myriad but heres another piece of it that we are just learning. Nbc news has just broken a news story tonight. A very provocative story within the last hour that may give us a little bit of a window into why the two sides, the two Major Political parties in the United States right now seem like they are coming from two different planets and they are trying to do two totally different things. It may have a little to do with the relationship between the fringe, the extreme and the middle. The distance between the, you know, not just not governing but really far out there sort of nonrespectable fringe, and the actual fworning part of the story. In 1997, the Flagship Conservative Magazine in the National Review went through one of its periodic purges. They realized as they periodically do that they were employing some writers that were publishing some pieces that were just too racist. They have periodically realized this over the history of this magazine. They have to do this when they have ended up publishing people who claimed that white people are naturally more intelligent than everyone else. White people are genetically superior to all other races. They were publishing a guy who said white parents and asian parents should teach their children to avoid black people. They published a guy who said america was in a genocide of white people because of nonwhite people coming into america. The National Review has had to do these purges pertally. The one in 1997 resulted in a new home being founded effectively for people like that who the National Review has to fire. In 1999, an organization was set up called vdare. And vdare they say stands for the name virginia dare, who they say was supposedly the first white child born in colonial america. You can see where this is going, right . The founder of vdare, one of the guys, he set it up as an academic hub for people sounding racism. I dont mean that in a vague way. I mean it specifically. The founder of vdare calls himself a racial nationalist. It means in this nation, it should just be the one race. He said the Obama Administration was a minority occupation government, meaning it was not an American Government but a minority occupation by some foreign entity. He also says, and forgive me for even quoting this, he says that hispanics, quote, specialize in rape. He says the United States is a white nation. So this is stuff off the edge, right . At least it used to be. In 2018, cnn reported that a Speech Writer in the Trump White House had spoken at a White Nationalist conference and done a panel with the founder of vdare a few days before election day in 2016. When that news came out on cnn, that Speech Writer was fired from the Trump White House. These guys have to land somewhere, right . It turns out that guy who went straight from appearing with the vdare guy at the White Nationalist event the week of the 2016 election, he went straight from there to a job working in the Trump White House as a Speech Writer there after. When he was fired from even the Trump White House, he first