No President has done such damage to the country and its people as he has done.

A lot of those are 'aging out', at least.

And were raised to think of Republicans as the Party of Dubya.

Hope they take their bigotry and sexism to the grave with 'em, so the rest of us can live in relative peace and freedom.

I swear - hardly a week goes by when I do not see something else that reinforces everything I thought about the dreadful, dismal reagan years. That era was a downright miserable eight-year orgy of greed, selfishness, delusion, corner-cutting and cheating at the very highest levels, where it was ALL ABOUT rich-get-richer, poor-get-poorer, rights-get-trampled, foxes guarding every henhouse, pirates and thieves running amok (because we simply could NOT have all those annoying pesky regulations in our way all the time, could we?!), and everyone but the one-percent not only got trickled on but flat-out PISSED and SHAT upon. That was such a grim, blighted, utterly God-forsaken time. America was literally drowning in Kool-aid. HORRIBLE. And in at least the last half of that era, that fucker was quite literally losing his frickin' mind and propped up for the gullible public like some pathetic, dog-eared cardboard cut-out.

It was the WORST of times in the most Dickensian sense. And there was no best of times for counterbalance. Unless of course you were a member of the coddled class. Everybody else was thoughtfully invited to go suck an egg or jump in the nearest lake, lulled into complacency by "Trickle-down! Rising tide raises all boats! You'll get yours too! One of these days reeeeeeeeeeal soon! We promise!"

Yeah, nobody realized what those fiends really meant when they insisted again and again and again - "Don't worry! Just keep on believin' and votin' for the GOP! Be patient! You'll get yours too!" Yeah. We got ours alright. In the shorts.

My hope is that I live long enough to see that bastard's name begin to be REMOVED from all the high schools and freeways and bridges and boulevards and government buildings out there from coast to coast. They can leave it on a dam or two if they absolutely have to see it emblazoned on some big public place somewhere (the more obscure the better). I want my Simi Valley Freeway BACK!!!! AND Washington National Airport, too!!!!

much of a gullible public ate it up. I agree with you about that time. I was in misery over his election, over every single, spiteful, stinking piece of Gingrich shit that got shoveled onto his desk for signatures, and over the massive outsourcing of jobs he oversaw, the unions he smashed and the wreck he made of foreign policy.

He was reelected with 49 states only losing DC and Minnesota. I was too early to fully understand this but obviously he had something in the first four years that people liked. Don't ask me what it was because I was very young (not infant but a child).

there was a reason he was called Rap Master Ronnie....he was an mediocre actor, but a fine salesman...

and we bought the product

...of which Al Gore was a founding member, and which turned the Democratic Party away from its New Deal and Great Society ideals, was founded. I think those are worthy ideals which posed a real threat to the power of the wealthy in this country, and that THAT was the reason why powerful corporate interests backed Reagan. The DLC only cared about winning elections for the Blue Team; it cared nothing about the working people of America, as Bill Clinton proved when he pushed through NAFTA.

Going back to the 1984 election, however, it is important to remember that Walter Mondale, who was something of a European-style Social Democrat, got a solid 40% of the popular vote. He openly ran on a platform of peace with the Soviet Union, of opposition to imperial intervention in Third World countries, of some kind of real national health care system, and of raising taxes on the rich and upper middle class in order to provide services and lower the deficit. No matter how you slice it, 40% is a sizable minority. Just a 5% swing in Reagan voters would have put a Mondale into the White House.

New Democrats never, ever talk about that. For good reason.

I think what appealed to many voters back then was the constant drumbeat of "If you work hard, you too can be wealthy." Look at the TV shows that came out in the early '80's. Dallas, Dynasty, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, all these shows that celebrated wealth. It was a sharp change from the more socially aware shows of the '70's, such at All in the Family, Maude, Sanford and Son, and, of course, M*A*S*H. I think it was a very deliberate, very calculated, and very insidious, propaganda campaign to roll back all of the reforms that had been accomplished over the previous 50 years.

Reagan himself was just the figurehead.

Instead of pointing out that Mondale got 40% of the popular vote running on liberal principals & standing by those principals, dem leadership used the shocking electoral red map to justify abandoning liberal principals & hopping on the gravy train. At the same time they were running as fast as they could from the word 'liberal' because a two bit actor poked fun at it. IMO, they have looked weak ever since.

An astute observation on the difference in TV shows. Look at the crap we have now. The top shows are 'reality' based TV, pitting one team against the other. Us vs. them, red vs. blue.

After the oil shocks of the 70s and the defeat in Vietnam, many people just wanted to feel good about America, even if it meant denying reality. Saint Ronnie tapped into that, and put in motion policies that have this country teetering on the brink of disaster. He and his masters and henchmen deliberately undermined everything that made this country great for most of us, and instead fostered the oligarchy we have now...with, as you point out, the active participation of the so-called Democrats.

Thanks for the analysis. My theory on the DLC is that they create a wall of sorts on the left that prevents the Dems from going as far left as progressive would like to go to actually fix the country for the 99%. The DLC seems to help limit the Dems to what Republicans will allow and put in place measures that Dems would not otherwise support.

Imagine if a non-DLC candidate came in after Reagan/Bush with a similar campaign (not exact) and still did the "are you better now than 4/8 years ago" spiel and then really fixed problems? WITHOUT repealing Glass-Steagall. WITHOUT the 3 strikes mentality for the department of corrections. WITHOUT NAFTA.

Can we unbrainwash some tea partiers to join the 99%? Can we carve support for a 99% candidate out of 99% of the population?

To do list before we have a chance to elect a 99% candidate:
-Election reform to bring back a representative gov't
-campaign finance reform
-preserve net neutrality
-stop allowing lying on news shows and news networks (dust off and reinstall the Fairness Doctrine)

Also, cross-kick for this net neutrality thread http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023659882

All hail the power of the mighty gipper and his virulent right-wing vision of America that is fast-ly reaching maturation, thanks to every successive Congress and administration and a virulently corrupt right-wing Supreme Court.

Reagan and the courts: A sober assessment

Michael C. Dorf
FindLaw Columnist
Special to CNN.com
Wednesday, June 9, 2004 Posted: 2:17 PM EDT (1817 GMT)

EXCERPT...

The lower federal courts: A one-sided impact

Because the Supreme Court hears very few cases, most of the decisional federal law in the United States is generated by the lower courts. Reagan's impact on the lower federal courts was more clearly one-sided than his impact on the Supreme Court.

To be sure, President Reagan made a number of truly stellar appointments to the lower federal courts -- powerful intellects such as Alex Kozinski of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, and Richard Posner of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit. While every judge who honors his or her oath of office attempts to follow the law as he or she best understands it, these judges -- and some others -- distinguish themselves from their colleagues by ruling in no ideologically predictable pattern. Instead, they write persuasive and interesting opinions reaching an array of liberal, moderate, and conservative results.

The run of judges appointed by President Reagan, however, have followed a distressing pattern. To paint with broad strokes, where possible, they take a stingy view of the rights the law affords people.

A former law clerk to a prominent Reagan appointee to the federal appellate court once told me that his erstwhile boss said he liked to dismiss at least one case per week on jurisdictional grounds. The former clerk was not joking, and the judge's remark was consistent with his and many of his colleagues' rulings.

One might explain some of what I am calling stinginess as compassion directed elsewhere. Many petitioners in the federal courts are people who have been convicted of crimes; by denying their rights, Reagan judges may claim they are protecting the rights of crime victims.

Fair enough, but Reagan's appointees have fashioned legal doctrine and issued particular rulings that deny the rights of minorities facing race discrimination, asylum seekers, workers, the disabled, and other innocents whose losses do not translate into victories for anyone but the government.

Reagan v. Reagan's judges

Perhaps the best way to evaluate Reagan's legal legacy is by juxtaposing his own compassion with the philosophy of his appointees.

In his efforts to shrink the size of the government, President Reagan cut federal programs on which many people relied. Some of these people contacted Reagan and explained the hardships that resulted. It was reported that Reagan would sometimes try to help the individuals about whose cases he learned but that he would not revise the general policy that led to the particular hardship and to the many more hardships about which he did not have firsthand knowledge.

CONTINUED...

http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/06/09/dorf.reagan.courts/

That would be news to me. I thought it was the commander in chief along with his national security council and secretary of defense and secretary of state decide war issues. Which judge wants attack on Syria?

For instance, the nation's top judge gets to set up the FISA court with his hand-picked crew:

And the Secret Government plays a central role in war and the profits generated thereby. WikiLeaks let us know just how insidious a role this Secret Government plays:



So, yes, the judges do play a big role in war and its profits. And, yes, while Reagan did not appoint Roberts to SCROTUS, Reagan did enjoy Robert's racist thinking. Of course, Roberts would go on to play a role in foisting George W Bush on us, 5-4, as an attorney working Florida.

Almost forgot:

Know your BFEE: Siegelman Judge is a big-time War Profiteer

Serious, long-lasting harm was done by that person.

The Reagan Machine.

....his smoke and mirrors economic policies made him look good, but destroyed the economy of the US for decades:

He solved the "inflation" problem by removing petroleum prices and credit/mortgage rates from the calculation

He solved the unemployment problem by reducing those on unemployment benefits from 52 weeks to 26 weeks, instantly reducing the "unemployment rate" by about 50%

He allowed the beginning of outsourcing to other countries

He "created" jobs by allowing high paying skilled jobs to go overseas, being replaced by almost twice as many jobs at less than half the wages - more jobs, less net income for Americans

He "reduced" taxes by lowering the tax rates but at the same time eliminating a slew of middle class tax deductions, resulting in a net tax increase for millions at a lower tax rate

I can go on and on but you all get the point.

Institutional racism ran rampart during Reagan's rein! Nancy Reagan reminds me of Ann Romney; you can almost here them say please don't touch me brown person. Ronald Reagan was a diabolical human being and I hope he, both Bushes & Cheney rot in hell!

one hapless moment when she stepped up to the podium to address some fawning crowd? The handlers fell all over themselves and each other trying to massage that one away. Oh, she didn't mean it! She misspoke! It came out wrong. Inartfully worded. MY ASS.

There is no level of Hell low enough for that schmuck OR bush/cheney to rot, as properly and thoroughly as needed.

He was the one who made stupidity and mean-spiritedness popular. Without him, George W. Bush could never have been president.

They wanted cut throat capitalism, they voted for it and they are getting it.

Evil men who created an Empire of Evil, marking 50 years on Nov. 22, 1963.



As for the stooge, Ronald Wilson Reagan, a resource of Truth:

The Reagan Page, courtesy of Third World Traveler.

he is an absolute fucking douchebag and the worst president we have ever had. Not only was Reagan a racist and mean spirited...he was a whore for business at the expense of the poor. He made it popular to be a selfish asshole.

EXCERPT...

Reagan’s story at GE is, to a startling degree, the story of labor relations executive Lemuel Boulware. When Boulware hired Ronald Reagan he was a conventional, patriotic, anti-communist liberal Democrat. He was not thought to be particularly well-informed or articulate. Under Boulware’s guidance, Reagan sparred with GE’s unionized employees and received what he termed his “post-graduate education in political science” from 1954 to 1962. He became thoroughly familiar with basic economics, and came to share Boulware’s strong conviction that business performs an essential public service. He also thought about a wide range of other public policy matters stretching even to the core concept of what was to become the Strategic Defense Initiative.

SOURCE: The American Enterprise Institute

http://www.american.com/archive/2007/february-0207/how-reagan-became-conservative/

Lemuel Bulware helped create the standard model for making things sound "right" and why so few among the exploited realize they are being screwed royal.

Thanks for the thread Octa. Lemuel Boulware is straight out of a Dickens's novel.

with the hard, cold reality. reagan did make it okay to be racist again.

and to think: he won with a lot of votes from those formerly known as democrats. I can't even post what I really think here, but suffice it to say, they were little different than today's teabaggers by voting against their own best interests. or rather: voting for hurting brown people. there I said it...because it is true. be in touch soon

Reagan and the Salvadoran Baby Skulls by Robert Parry, Consortium News 2007:





Edited to add: This reference has been posted to DU multiple times (A couple by me!); but, it's something that we should never be allowed to forget.

I live in Guatemala now. Every single day I see the living reminders of the US-inflicted horrors where over 250,000 Guatemalans were slaughtered a few short decades ago. Skulls? Baby skulls as candle holders and good luck charms?

by Alec Dubro
www.tompaine.com/, May 13, 2007

EXCERPT...

Domestically, he opposed every legislative remedy for African Americans, betraying a meanness of spirit and an open racism. As Sidney Blumenthal wrote in The Guardian in 2003:

Reagan opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, opposed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (calling it "humiliating to the South&quot , and ran for governor of California in 1966 promising to wipe the Fair Housing Act off the books. "If an individual wants to discriminate against Negroes or others in selling or renting his house," he said, "he has a right to do so." After the Republican convention in 1980, Reagan traveled to the county fair in Neshoba, Mississippi, where, in 1964, three Freedom Riders had been slain by the Ku Klux Klan. Before an all-white crowd of tens of thousands, Reagan declared: "I believe in states' rights."

It's hard to believe now, but in 1965, a higher percentage of congressional Republicans voted for the Voting Rights Act than Democrats. Reagan, then, wasn't following party tradition; he was making a grab for the white racist vote-and it worked. Southern Democrats abandoned the party en masse for one more welcoming to white supremacy. No wonder so many loved, and still love, the man: He validated people's whiteness.

It's true that Reagan knew enough to occasionally disguise his racism. He appointed Samuel Pierce to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development, where Pierce presided over the halving of housing subsidies. No matter. Reagan couldn't remember the man's name. Once, at a reception for the nation's mayors, he greeted Pierce with a '"Hello, Mr. Mayor." Despite this, a few black conservatives, such as Armstrong Williams, were willing to validate him as someone who knew better than the "civil rights establishment" what was good for African Americans.

But it was in foreign affairs that he showed that he could rise above mere opportunism and flaunt his racism for all the world to see. He was the best friend that South Africa's apartheid government had in the developed world.

CONTINUED...

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Ronald_Reagan/Reagan_WhiteAsSnow.html

You are most welcome, noiretextatique! Truth is what Democracy craves.

and as an African-American, his election was not "morning in America". it was a white backlash, plan and simple, to perceived gains by non-whites, women, etc., and that's exactly how it felt. I know a lot of people here voted for him and changed later, but the damage had already been done, here and abroad. and we never really recovered.

Wish I were a fast reader! Takes me forever...


Hate how he's given (cleverly took) credit for changing US - Russian relations, with that "Tear down this wall, Mr. Gorbachev" sound bite. He was good at simple-minded one liners, and too many people accept that kind of thing.

Edit: no, not cleverly... Camera hogs have an instinct for punch lines.

And so Poppy took charge...



And We the People are left holding the bag, trillions and trillions and trillions worth, again and again and again.

I believe Bill Hicks had it right.

He could deliver the lines and hit his marks, but really had no clue about the long term consequences his Presidency would have no this country. Can you imagine if Ron had used his acting talents to further a progressive agenda? Me neither...he'd never have been seriously considered for a Republican Presidency.

Great post, as always Octafish.

when he was elected my dad cringed at the thought of him running the country.

"Reagan ... was most definitely a global empire builder, a servant of the corporatocracy. At the time of his election, I found it fitting that he was a Hollywood actor, a man who had followed orders passed down from moguls, who knew how to take direction. That would be his signature. He would cater to the men who shuttled back and forth from corporate CEO offices to bank boards and into the halls of government. He would serve the men who appeared to serve him but who in fact ran the government - men like Vice President George H. W. Bush, Secretary of State George Shultz, Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, Richard Cheney, Richard Helms, and Robert McNamara. He would advocate what those men wanted: an America that controlled the world and all its resources, a world that answered to the commands of that America, a U.S. military that would enforce the rules as they were written by America, and an international trade and banking system that supported America as CEO of the global empire."

SOURCE: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Ronald_Reagan/RonaldReagan_page.html

Details on Perkins and his work, "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man":

http://www.wanttoknow.info/johnperkinseconomichitman

world and all of it resources, an al-Assad that answers to the command of the American President , a military that can handle writing it own rules when it invades Syria and a banking system that can sanction Iran. Same old corporatist rule speaking on the World.

from "Bedtime for Bonzo" was a good idea?

Thankfully, to help spread light when the protectors of the First Amendment won't, Maria Galardin's TUC (Time of Useful Consciousness) Radio. The podcast helps explain how we got here and what we need to do to move forward, starting with putting the "Public" into Airwaves again:



Once you control what people think about -- or can think about -- it's easy to get them to think about what YOU want them to think about. And that makes it a LOT easier to get them to do what you want.

we got Bonzo himself.

We got some hints here and there through Iran Contra, but do we really know? And how much of it has really gone away? Trickle down and welfare queens have been in vogue ever since.

Jimmy Savile's extraordinary access to Margaret Thatcher detailed in secret files



Jimmy Savile gleefully informed the prime minister about "my girl patients" after meeting her at a Downing Street fund-raising ceremony where he sought advice on charities' tax deductions.

A letter preserved in Downing Street's records sheds fresh light on the extraordinary access the now disgraced BBC television presenter enjoyed at the height of his popularity.

In the letter sent to Margaret Thatcher during her first year in office, Savile displayed all his brazen charms. The note, featuring a prominent colour photo of himself, declared: "Dear Prime Minister, I waited a week before writing to thank you for my lunch invitation because I had such a superb time I didn't want to be too effusive.

"My girl patients pretended to be madly jealous and wanted to know what you wore and what you ate. All the paralysed lads called me 'Sir James' all week. They all love you. Me too!! Jimmy Savile OBE xxx."

CONTINUED...

http://m.guardiannews.com/uk/2012/dec/28/jimmy-savile-access-margaret-thatcher

Thanks to Corporate McPravda, Hydra, we now know that questions like yours will never be asked! Thank you for your concern, Citizen! Good luck with the Trickle 10 Downing Street Memo and all that, wot?

well...then there was shrub.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/10/17/157477/-List-of-Reagan-administration-convictions#

"By the end of his term, 138 Reagan administration officials had been convicted, had been indicted, or had been the subject of official investigations for official misconduct and/or criminal violations. In terms of number of officials involved, the record of his administration was the worst ever."

The OCTOPUS in Dallas: Poppy involved in JFK Assassination

May his son's "administration" be remembered as the worst of the 21st Century, or Heaven help us all.

PS: Agree about corruption, in terms of venality and using power for the revolving door. For example, Ed Meese and associates may remember WEDTECH. The national security advisor Richard Allen may remember a gift from friends in Japan. 136 more that never seem to get mentioned in history or when their perpetrators are mentioned in Corporate McPravda.

Thanks for the thread, Octafish.

...for proposing universal health care.



Operation COFFEECUP - How Reagan Worked to Stop Universal Health Coverage in 1961

In December 1961, the AMA pulled out all the stops to prevent President John F. Kennedy from proposing universal health coverage. For their effort, they recruited a TV-personality.

Write those letters now. Call your friends, and tell them to write them. If you don't, this program I promise you will pass just as surely as the sun will come up tomorrow. And behind it will come other federal programs that will invade every area of freedom as we have known it in this country, until, one day . . . we will awake to find that we have so­cialism. And if you don't do this, and if I don't do it, one of these days, you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children, and our children's children, what it once was like in America when men were free.

Sounds familiar to Tea Party crapola of today. Ironic: Corporate McPravda avoids mentioning how one has-been B-movie actor took part in the organized opposition to Medicare in the early 1960s. Here's the story, thanks to Mr. Scott E. Starr:



If you get a chance, the geotheology blog continues with details on Operation COFFEECUP. The American Medical Association bankrolled the "mellifluous voice" of Ol' Pruneface.

PS: I bring this all up because so many believe history started only yesterday. The rightwing warmongers and greedheads have been organized for a long time. They've demonized liberals like me and my political heroes as socialists and communists. The nation has devolved politically to the point where even the leaders of our own party run away from the word, "Liberal." It's past time America realizes supporting the causes of the rich helped launch the political career of America’s first presidential Reverse Robin Hood.

PPS: You are most welcome, Uncle Joe!

Peace to you, OctaFish.

An accomplice to murder, if I may be so bold . . . .

Reagan began his campaign talking about mythical 'welfare queens' riding around Harlem in Cadillacs and ended it talking about the nations of the world uniting to fight off an invasion from outer space.

A few DUers may remember Reagan's rhetoric about how great it would be for the world to unite to fight off.....say an invasion from outer space. Actually, Uncle Ronnie had aliens on the brain. His handlers had to delete some references to an alien attack from his later speeches.

There's a story that Reagan grabbed Steven Spielberg, after a showing of Close Encounters of the Third Kind to give him a 'if-you-knew-what-I-know talk about UFOs.

And of course, there's the famous: "Trees cause more pollution than automobiles" statement.

If it wasn't for the lasting damage done by this TV-cowboy-turned-politician, he'd be nothing but a joke!

Thanks for helping destroy the myth, Octafish!

A real WOW! What's ironic is I knew somebody who DID do in real life what Reagan only imagined remembering from a movie:

Sonny Eliot, famous Detroit weatherman, flew a B-24 over Germany. On one mission, the bomber was badly shot up. Sonny, the pilot, stayed at the controls until everyone managed to bail out -- including a wounded crewman who had to be loaded into a parachute and tossed out the bomb bay. THEN Sonny himself bailed out. The entire crew was taken prisoner, but survived the war. A great man who put others ahead of himself.

ETA what Roseanne said about the Business:

Roseanne Barr - MK ULTRA Rules In Hollywood

EXCERPT...

Hollywood is the one that keeps all of this power structure. They perpetuate the culture of racism, sexism, classism, genderism and keep it all in place. They continue to feed it, and they make a lot of money doing it. They do it at the behest of their masters, who run everything.

I speak on behalf of Hollywood. I go to parties, Oscar parties and things like that and big stars pull me aside, take my arm and whisper: “I just want to thank you for the things you say.” And it blows

I remember Sonny so very well, what a lovable guy. A great piece of Detroit History, thanks for the reminder.

Wonderful thread, sir. I'd still like to buy you a beer.

For taking the time to post this with the clear images, links, etc. etc. Well done!

EXCERPT...

He had little apparent reason to fear labor politically, with opinion polls at the time showing that unions were opposed by nearly half of all Americans and that nearly half of those who belonged to the unions had voted for him in 1980 and again in 1984.

Reagan,in any case, was a true ideologue of the anti-labor political right. Yes, he had been president of the Screen Actors Guild, but he was notoriously pro-management, leading the way to a strike-ending agreement in 1959 that greatly weakened the union and finally resigning under membership pressure before his term ended.

Reagan's war on labor began in the summer of 1981, when he fired 13,000 striking air traffic controllers and destroyed their union. As Washington Post columnist Harold Meyerson noted, that was "an unambiguous signal that employers need feel little or no obligation to their workers, and employers got that message loud and clear -- illegally firing workers who sought to unionize, replacing permanent employees who could collect benefits with temps who could not, shipping factories and jobs abroad."

Reagan gave dedicated union foes direct control of the federal agencies that were designed originally to protect and further the rights and interests of workers and their unions.

Most important was Reagan's appointment of three management representatives to the five-member National Labor Relations Board which oversees union representation elections and labor-management bargaining, They included NLRB Chairman Donald Dotson, who believed that "unionized labor relations have been the major contributors to the decline and failure of once-healthy industries" and have caused "destruction of individual freedom."

Under Dotson, a House subcommittee found,the board abandoned its legal obligation to promote collective bargaining, in what amounted to "a betrayal of American workers."

The NLRB settled only about half as many complaints of employers' illegal actions as had the board during the previous administration of Democrat Jimmy Carter, and those that were settled upheld employers in three-fourths of the cases. Even under Republican Richard Nixon, employers won only about one-third of the time.

Most of the complaints were against employers who responded to organizing drives by illegally firing union supporters. The employers were well aware that under Reagan the NLRB was taking an average of three years to rule on complaints, and that in any case it generally did no more than order the discharged unionists reinstated with back pay. That's much cheaper than operating under a union contract.

The board stalled as long before acting on petitions from workers seeking union representation elections and stalled for another year or two after such votes before certifying winning unions as the workers' bargaining agents. Under Reagan, too, employers were allowed to permanently replace workers who dared exercise their legal right to strike.

Reagan's Labor Department was as one-sided as the NLRB. It became an anti-labor department, virtually ignoring, for instance, the union-busting consultants who were hired by many employers to fend off unionization. Very few consultants and very few of those who hired them were asked for the financial disclosure statements the law demands. Yet all unions were required to file the statements that the law required of them (and that could be used to advantage by their opponents). And though the department cut its overall budget by more than 10 percent, it increased the budget for such union-busting activities by almost 40 percent.

CONTINUED...

http://www.dickmeister.com/id89.html

PS: You are most welcome, JustAnotherGen! Truth is what Democracy craves.

"If there's to be a bloodbath, let it be now," with regard to student protests in the Vietnam days. I'll never forget that one.

Rec

From Dan Moldea:

President Ronald Reagan's professional life--his acting career, his personal financial fortune, and his rise in politics--has been interwoven with and propelled by a powerful, Hollywood-based entertainment conglomerate named MCA. For nearly fifty years, Reagan has benefited both personally and financially from his association with this sixty-two-year-old company--formerly known as the Music Corporation of America--as well as from his close association with the firm's top executives: Jules Stein, Lew Wasserman, and Taft Schreiber.

Everyone involved has greatly profited from this relationship. MCA helped to make its client, actor Ronald Reagan, a multimillionaire; and the favors that were returned by Reagan, the former president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the former governor of California, have helped to transform MCA into a billion-dollar empire and the most powerful force in the entertainment world today.

Reagan and his closest friends have portrayed and defended the president's business transactions with MCA, which date back to 1940, as being totally above suspicion. But there remain numerous unanswered questions and allegations about the relationship between Reagan and MCA. These doubts raise delicate issues that involve possible personal and political payoffs--as well as links to major Mafia figures, particularly Beverly Hills attorney Sidney Korshak, who has been described by federal investigators as the principal link between the legitimate business world and organized crime.

In 1962, the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice tried to resolve some of these questions, but their secret investigation was settled out of court before the evidence could be presented. The results of the probe were never made public, and no one close to MCA was ever indicted. However, through the Freedom of Information Act, many of these documents have been recovered and are excerpted in this book.

These records show that Reagan, the president of SAG and an FBI informant against Hollywood communists, was the subject of a federal grand jury investigation whose focus was Reagan's possible role in a suspected conspiracy between MCA and the actors' union. According to Justice Department documents, government prosecutors had concluded that decisions made by SAG while under Reagan's leadership became "the central fact of MCA's whole rise to power."

CONTINUED...

http://www.moldea.com/MCA.html

PS: Tank yuh, malaise. You know how I feel about you and the Spanish ambassador -- JEALOOOUS!

Last edited Wed Sep 11, 2013, 05:06 PM - Edit history (1)

He saw it devolve into the neo-Confederacy of today, overseen by the Bushes, which he justifiably loathes as a "multi-generational family of fibbers."

As for Tricky Dick, he was a tool.



Sen. Richard Nixon, a made man of the BFEE, with with Sen. Prescott S. Bush.

The compassion of Richard Nixon: 'If he gets shot, it's too damn bad.' (on Ted Kennedy)

Airport, and hang Reagan in effigy from the eaves between the pillars in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

The peaceful exploration of space was the best thing to happen to jobs in history. At its peak, 400,000 Americans were employed in the Apollo Project.



Imagine if President Kennedy had lived, where the nation would be today? I believe, if we could figure out how to the moon and back, we could face any problem on earth and solve it -- from ending hunger, poverty and ignorance to creating a lasting peace.

Problems today's GOP considers intractable (see Poppy Bush inaugural "More will than Wallet&quot such as joblessness, poverty, crime, would be tackled, instead of ignored, like they've done with public education. And the treasures accumulated since would be used to make life better for everybody on earth instead of sitting in a secret Swiss bank account.

But, no. The conservatives killed the New Deal after LBJ and the Great Society. For the space program, it started with Nixon. Instead, they gave the store away to War Inc, who sank the national treasure into the "Money trumps peace" crowd.

Other than that, for some greedy warmongering treasonous reasons, the rightwing loathes everything good in this world. Not that it was only the Democratic president what got us to the moon, let alone kept us out of nuclear war and integrated the FBI and Secret Service.

Know your BFEE: Siegelman Judge is a big-time War Profiteer

...and...

Ex-CIA officer John Kiriakou sentenced for leaking name on agency's use of torture.....

...and...

up to be Republicans.

Coolidge was the master mind behind the depression of the 30s..

in fact, once hoover realized he was screwed he attempted to throw government money at the problem.. it was just too little too late :p

And they are the ones* screwing America now.

What's different today, is we don't have Smedley Butler or FDR to stop them.



Baron de Rothschild and Prescott Bush, share a moment and some information, back in the day.

* Of course, it's not just a few rich families's offspring who screw the majority today. They've hired help and built up the giant noise machine to continue their work overthrowing the progress FDR and the New Deal brought America for 80 years.

Why would the nation and world's richest people do that? Progress costs money. And they don't want to pay for it, even when they've gained seven times more wealth than all of history put together. Instead, whey continue to work -- quasi-legally, through government and lobbyists -- to amass even more, transferring the wealth of the many to themselves.

And instead of an armed mob led by a war hero on a white horse, their weapon is "Supply Side Economics." To most Americans, that means getting trickled down upon.

(Cribb, an old-line Paleoconservative, was the longtime head of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, which funds such promising young campus conservatives as James O'Keefe.)

http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/hijakjustice.html

According to The Washington Post, James A. Baker III and Michael K. Deaver referred to Meese as the "Big Bigot," and conservatives referred to his top assistant, T. Kenneth Cribb Jr., as the "Baby Bigot."

When Swells Collide:

Mille grazi, starroute! I had no idea about the little feller. Such a warmonger for an "academic." And a son of Dixie, to boot!

He and Ed Feulner at the Heritage Foundation both retired recently, but they've been pals forever and are on the same old-line, hard-right page. For example, an old ISI organization list from the 90's included William H. Regnery -- he's the white supremacist member of the Regnery family

There's also this (quoted at http://llamabutchers.mu.nu/archives/066998.php): "Ken Cribb, president of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, once told me this story: A South Carolinian of many generations, he had just decided to attend Washington & Lee, and his grandmother remonstrated, 'Why would you want to go to a Yankee school?' 'But Grandma,' Ken pleaded, 'Virginia seceded!' His grandmother stared at him for a moment and then replied, 'Mighty damn late.'”

I find in my notes that at one point Sidney Bluimenthal was claiming that ISI was at the heart of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. That may be overstated, but they're certainly near the top of a tight nexus of groups that includes the Heritage Foundation, Young America's Foundation, Citizen's United, and the Capital Research Center (whose Matthew Vadum did more than anyone else to destroy ACORN and taught Glenn Beck everything he knows.) The last I checked, ISI was the second-largest recipient of grants from conservative foundations, after the Heritage Foundation.

Here's an article on ISI's campus activities from 1997 that still provides good background: http://influx.uoregon.edu/1997/cons/

And the Internet Archive cache of another, from 1996: http://web.archive.org/web/20110526185409/http://www.digitas.harvard.edu/~perspy/old/issues/1996/mar/madison.html

And something on the Collegiate Network from 2004: http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/thomism/conversations/topics/930

And just to cap it off, there's something about Scalia and ISI that appeared at Newsmax in 2003:

http://web.archive.org/web/20060618214337/http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/10/24/145151.shtml

Oct. 24, 2003

WASHINGTON – U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia says though “it would be foolish” to say that the “one-sided nature of institutions of learning” is the product of “some left-wing academic conspiracy,” “it would also be unrealistic to think [such a conspiracy] does not exist.”

Speaking Thursday to about 800 guests at the 50th anniversary dinner of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI), the respected jurist faulted many academic “experts” on constitutional law for ignorance and for attitudes he considers uninformed and arrogant. What’s more, he despairs that many in academia and the judiciary, including some of his colleagues on the high court, are following such wrongheaded legal interpretations. ...

Scalia, who as a college student once received a fellowship from ISI, said the organization’s educational approach had been marked “by a special concern for an historical understanding of our constitutional traditions, conveying to students the contemporary elements of what [the late scholar and author] Russell Kirk called ‘the roots of American order.’"

Thank you for the heads-up on Cribb, Feulner and Regnery the Twisted. I will learn more about them.

The Russell Kirk guy was most insiduous, a founder of the neo-conservatives, and one of the greedheads Galbraith warned us about:

"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness." -- John Kenneth Galbraith

Kirk has roots in the Great Lakes State, which became a testbed for friendly fascism (a repost below):

Larry Arnn, the president of Hillsdale College recently used the phrase "dark ones" to refer to his institution's minority enrollment.





Hillsdale is home to a very nice bronze of former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, BFF of Ronald Reagan and conservatives everywhere, including Arnn. People the world over feel her politics reverberate today, unfortunately.

The great DUer Junkdrawer reminded me that it wasn't just Thatcher and the modern conservatives who use nefarious tactics to rule over the Untermenschen. In fact, it goes back quite a ways, to the time when one group feels itself superior to another. News today about events from almost 75 years ago show that these oligarchs and racialists did big business with evil, and that the UK helped Hitler sell a billion in gold after the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1939.

Thankfully, not all Caucasians with power are evil. Untold thousands if not millions volunteered to defend the union and defeat the slavemasters in the Civil War, as did thousands more to fight the fascists in Spain and millions in World War II to defeat the NAZIs.

What's maddening is that the NAZIs and their ideology are still around. The reason for that can be found in the heart of America's national security state.

I know you know most of this, but I'd like others who stumble on it to see the connections. Truly appreciate your input and all you do. Thank you, starroute!

Proof: http://www.hulu.com/watch/531137

Thanks for posting that. Colbert is brilliant.

often.

It's a great thread. Thanks for posting with links and documentation.

That wasn't a dog whistle. That was a bull horn.

Not so much on the Obama is a warmonger and traitor... I think that is pretty much bullshit.

The guys who are there no matter who's smiling for the cameras. The Greenspans and the Cheneys and the whole pack of insiders, experts, and advisers who all seem to suckle from the same Friedmanite and imperialist tits. That sort of "in charge,"

Read his reply to me just below.

President Obama has appointed the people who emptied $16 trillion from the nation's banks to positions for reinfusing $16 trillion into the nation's banks, courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer. I call it more than a case of being "Buy-Partisan." Here are a few of the Big Wigs on Team Obama:

Larry Summers and Jacob Lew and Penny Pritzker.

Buy-Partisan to the core of money and power. Which is a sign they're buy-partisan pretty much on domestic policy and foreign policy, too. Of course, people don't like to talk about these unseemly subjects. Like this guy, Cass Sunstein, who helped get Bush and Cheney off the hook...

And one more point about why I wrote not entirely, Justice Kagan sent Don Siegelman back to the slammer:



So, while I absolutely love Justice Sotomayor, no matter what your or some people say, there are many important reasons to be concerned about the current administration, a Democratic administration and president, for whom I voted twice in general elections and support.

That said, it is my responsibility as a citizen of the United States and as a writer who believes in democracy and the Democratic Party to spell out the truth as I see it. Want me to spell out a few more, Ohio Joe? Better yet, want to show where I'm wrong?

I don't recall saying or even implying there is nothing to be concerned about. I have in fact expressed concerns about a number of things. I also don't rise anywhere close to the level of calling the President a traitor.

46. I do agree that reagan was a pos and responsible for a lot of shit wrong today but...

Not so much on the Obama is a warmonger and traitor... I think that is pretty much bullshit.

PS: Sorry about the typo, Ohio Joe. I meant to write, "you."

Yeah... I see what you are doing there.

Otherwise, please don't libel me.

"his President is why America today is run by warmongers and traitors!"

Wait... Let me guess... The President has nothing to do with running the country? Yeah...

Me, having the foolish notion that the President does have something to do with running the country, stated my opinion that he is not a traitor, to which you replied:

"Not entirely."

Just a little bit of a traitor? Sheesh... At least have the conviction to own it if you are going to do it.

So where, in the entirety of what I wrote on in part of what I wrote, am I wrong?

Is This Barack Obama's 2nd Term? Is it Bill Clinton's 3rd? Or Is It Ronald Reagan's 9th?

They say that elections do matter, and that there are real differences between Republican and Democratic presidents. But backing up the view to 30 years, that difference looks a lot more like continuity, both at home and in America's global empire.

By Bruce A. Dixon
Black Agenda Report managing editor

The answer is yes to all three. Ronald Reagan hasn't darkened the White House door in decades. But his policy objectives have been what every president, Democrat and Republican have pursued relentlessly ever since. Barack Obama is only the latest and most successful of Reagan's disciples.

SNIP...

In Barack Obama's case all he had to say was that he wasn't necessarily against wars, just against what he called “stupid wars.” Corporate media and “liberal” shills morphed that lone statement into a false narrative that Barack Obama opposed the war in Iraq, making him an instantly viable presidential candidate at a time when the American people overwhelmingly opposed that war. Once in office, Barack Obama strove mightily to abrogate the Status of Forces Agreement with Iraq which would have allowed US forces to remain there indefinitely. But when the Iraqi puppet government, faced with a near revolt on the part of what remained of Iraqi civil society, dared not do his bidding, insisting that uniformed US troops (but not the American and multinational mercenaries we pay to remain there) stick to the withdrawal timetable agreed upon under Bush, liberal shills and corporate media hailed the withdrawal from Iraq as Obama's “victory.”

Barack Obama doubled down on the invasion and occupation of large areas of Afghanistan, and increased the size of the army and marines, which in fact he pledged to do during his presidential campaign. Presidential candidate Obama promised to end secret imprisonment and torture. The best one can say about President Obama on this score is that he seems to prefer murderous and indiscriminate drone attacks, in many cases, over the Bush policy of international kidnapping secret imprisonment and torture. The Obama administration's reliance on drones combined with US penetration of the African continent, means that a Democratic, ostensibly “antiwar” president has been able to openly deploy US troops to every part of that continent in support of its drive to control the oil, water, and other resources there.

The objectives President Obama's Africa policies fulfill today were put down on paper by the Bush administration, pursued by Bill Clinton before that, and still earlier pursued by Ronald Reagan, when it funded murderous contra armies of UNITA in Angola and RENAMO in Mozambque. It was UNITA and RENAMO's campaigns, assisted by the apartheid regimes of Israel and South Africa that pioneered the genocidal use of child soldiers. Today, cruise missile liberals hail the Obama administration's use of pit bull puppet regimes like Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda, all of which shot their way into power with child soldiers, to invade Somalia and Congo, sometimes ostensibly to go after other bad actors on the grounds that they are using child soldiers.

CONTINUED...

http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/barack-obamas-2nd-term-it-bill-clintons-3rd-or-it-ronald-reagans-9th

"Cruise Missile Liberals"...ouch!

Not just a cheapskate, but the scum of the earth, a guy happy to take food out of the mouths of hungry children, which is Satanic, let alone one of the most un-democratic people ever "elected" president.

Their "offense"? Being in the way of capital.

The New York Times, Washington Post, and most of the rest of Corporate McPravda looked away.

FWIW: They're as much traitors as Poppy, Smirko and the rest of the Bush Crime Empire.

Remember "El Mozote"?



Lost History (Part 1): Death, Lies and Bodywashing

WASHINGTON -- On Sunday, May 5, a solemn ceremony took place in an open grassy space at Arlington National Cemetery. A small memorial stone was unveiled to honor 21 American soldiers who died in secret combat against leftist guerrillas in El Salvador. As family members wiped tears from their eyes, Salvadoran children placed tiny American flags next to the soldiers' names, unknown casualties from the 1980s.

"For too long, we have failed to recognize the contributions, the sacrifices, of those who served with distinction under the most dangerous conditions," said former U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador, William G. Walker. The next day, The Washington Post focused on the human interest side of the story in a front-page piece entitled "Public Honors for Secret Combat."

But what received short-shrift amid the honors and the tears was the remarkable confirmation that for much of a decade, the Reagan-Bush administrations had conducted a secret war in which American soldiers engaged in not-infrequent combat. The 21 dead surpassed the number who died in the 1989 invasion of Panama.

Yet, the war in El Salvador was waged with hardly anyone in Congress or the national news media catching on to the U.S. combat role. Indeed, throughout the 1980s, the White House and Pentagon routinely denied that U.S. soldiers were in combat in El Salvador -- and few reporters challenged the official story.

Shortly after taking office in 1981, President Reagan dispatched 55 Green Beret trainers to El Salvador to teach the Salvadoran army better techniques for defeating a resilient band of Marxist-led guerrillas. For years, the Salvadoran military had been more adept at running death squads against civilian targets than at cornering an armed enemy in the country's mountainous terrain.

To allay public fears about another Vietnam War, however, Reagan limited the number of Green Berets to 55 and ordered them to avoid combat zones. They were to train only, not advise the Salvadorans in combat situations as Green Berets had done in Vietnam. They also were forbidden to carry M-16s. They were to have only side arms, for self-defense.

Missing the Story

All of these U.S. government pronouncements, the Arlington ceremony made clear, had been lies. But the Post story made only a passing attempt to explain why so little was known about these years of classified combat and why the government cover-ups had been so successful.

"Reports of firefights involving U.S. troops were closely held, and field commanders were told in no uncertain terms not to nominate soldiers for combat awards," the Post reported. It then quoted Joseph Stringham, a retired one-star Army general who commanded U.S. military forces in El Salvador in 1983-84.

"It had been determined this was not a combat zone, and they were going to hold the line on that," Stringham said. "I've puzzled over why. It may be something as fundamental as the bureaucracy not wanting to reverse itself."

CONTINUED...

http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/lost1.html

Like my son said last week, if there's military action in Syria, it's Reagan's fault!

Let me pile on:

This nightmare is ongoing and the only way We as a Nation will wake up is with the bracing cold water of hard truth.

You, though, I'd knock, gently, on the outside door sill.

Hated him for many other reasons, didn't know about this dog whistle deal.

The Bush Family's Slaveholding Past

Was their dynasty built on slavery?

By: Edward Ball|Posted: February 15, 2008 at 12:00 AM
TheRoot.com

The image most people have of slavery involves a cotton plantation with a big white house, a black village where 300 people live in cabins and a cruel overseer in the wings. This was not the model followed by the ancestors of President George W. Bush when, 175 years ago, they enslaved about 30 people on the shores of the upper Chesapeake.

SNIP...

A new book by Jacob Weisberg, The Bush Tragedy, mentions in passing that at one time some of the president's family owned slaves. Weisberg doesn't dwell on the links between the White House and the antebellum past except to say the Bush clan's story is a long-held "family secret." The Bush Tragedy, a revealing book about family dynamics in the Bush political dynasty, treats the slavery matter only briefly, focusing instead on the "spectacular, avoidable flame-out" of the receding administration. But the story that joins the 43rd president to predecessors who held title to dozens of people bears retelling in detail.

The skeletal facts surfaced in April 2007, when an amateur historian named Robert Hughes published his research in the IllinoisTimes, a small paper out of Springfield. Hughes found census records showing that during the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, in Cecil County, Maryland, five households of the Walker family, the president's ancestors via his father's mother, Dorothy Walker Bush, had been slaveholding farmers. The evidence is simple but persuasive: genealogies of the Bush family match up with census data that counted farmers who used enslaved workers. With this, the president joins perhaps fifteen million living white Americans who trace their roots to the long-gone master class.

SNIP...

The family, nevertheless, seems to have looked back with nostalgia on their old slave hold. There are two pieces of evidence for this. In The Bush Tragedy, Jacob Weisberg refers to one of the later patriarchs, David Walker, as "a believer in eugenics and the 'unwritten law' of lynching," and cites as proof a letter Walker published in the St. Louis Republic in 1914. Black people, he wrote at the time, were more insidious than prostitution and "all the other evils combined."

The second piece of evidence is within living memory. In 1930, when they could afford it, the family again embraced the antebellum lifestyle. That year President Bush's great-grandfather, George Herbert Walker, bought Duncannon plantation, an old cotton estate in South Carolina, to use as a hunting retreat and vacation home. His namesake, George Herbert Walker Bush, the current president's father, spent many youthful vacations on Duncannon, where teams of black cooks, valets, and drivers served him and opened doors when he approached. The Bush heirs no longer own Duncannon plantation; but for a time, the estate provided a version of the baronial life, to which the antebellum Walkers aspired, but never achieved.

CONTINUED...

http://www.theroot.com/views/bush-familys-slaveholding-past



Then there's the Old Money from overseas...