My apolitical husband asks me the other day..

[boston bean]

"you ever hear of Ron Paul"?

I said, "yeah, why are you asking..", as I'm thinking what a fruitcake Ron Paul is....

He goes on to tell me that he keeps seeing this commercial on TV where Ron Paul tells everyone a new financial crisis worse than 2008 will hit.... And if he's right, basically armageddon..

He was asking because he wanted to know if there was reason for concern and who was this guy, was he believable?

I told him to switch the channel if it comes on again and go on about life as if he never heard that crazy man speak.

Then I went out and found the video, and it's basically one of those advertisements that points you to a web site, where you can learn more... I find this absolutely disgusting that someone makes a video to take advantage of peoples fears to make money.

I don't want to post a link to it, but if you want to go find it, just type in the google.. Ron Paul TV commercial.

[lovemydog]

1. I haven't seen it but I can imagine it's pretty shrill.

I assume he's trying to sell a book or something even more expensive at the web site?

So many weird commercial that play on people's worst fears.

There's one on the radio that says they'll help you reduce or consolidate your credit card debt. I think it's sponsored by credit card companies.

Ever notice all those kinds of commercials have some name like Liberty or Freedom or Mutual of blah blah or American blah blah or something. The most friendly & benign sounding names are the ones that seem to be screwing people the most.

[boston bean]

2. Yeah, he's selling videos... to "learn more"...

Here is an article about it, I guess at one point it was only web ads... but it is now on television..

http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/ron-paul-radio-and-internet-ads-watch-out-for-the-coming-eco#.avLjbKa2r

[rogerashton]

3. Gold bug

I haven't found a link I would want to post, but Paul has been a shill for companies that sell "investments" in gold for years. He has put his money where his mouth is, i.e. put his own money in gold, and apparently lost a lot as a result. All this is consistent with his political fantasy, that "government is debasing the currency," but he may be getting a bit desperate to cover his losses. That is only my conjecture, please note.

About the word "mutual." Real financial mutuals are the property of the depositors, and ideally run in the interests of the depositors -- on the whole, a good thing. However, over the last 30 years or so, some big ones have been "demutualized," sold out as for-profits, and some of those have been very aggressive. "Washington Mutual," WaMu, which collapsed in 2008, was one of these demutualized financials -- unfortunately, there is no truth in labeling law for banksters.

[DFW]

9. I hate those scams

They buy gold coins from Heritage in Dallas all the time. Heritage doesn't fool with bullion like Krugerrands or gold bars, but they do handle old gold coins. The marketers then sell the things for some crazy mark-up to people to whom they have beem telling for decades that the paper dollars and the stock market will vanish ANY DAY NOW into smoke, so they had better stick up on gold RIGHT AWAY, and preferably, from them. They buy the coins from Heritage at fair market wholesale, and then mark them up 75% or more and then sell them as investments, which means the poor suckers have to wait for the gold market to go up 75% for them to break even. Try investing in the stock market based on the Dow at 31,500 and see how long it takes you to recoup your investment.

I know Ron Paul has been pushing for a return to the gold standard, but it's one thing to tout an antiquated system, and quite another to be a shill for scam artists feeding off people who believed in him and are then cheated out of 45% of their investment the second they buy it.

[Vinca]

4. That ad has been coming up on MSNBC fairly often.

I was tempted to go to the site and see what schlock he was pimping, but I was afraid I'd suddenly start getting bizarre pop-ups and email. I definitely don't want Ron Paul's puss following me around the Internet.

[djean111]

5. Any time you see that kind of ad - on TV, in print, on the internet - the person shilling it

will save YOU, the discerning and savvy lucky person, for only $139.00, no, wait! for the next ten minutes! Only $99.99! then if you close the screen - no, wait! Wait! only $59.99! Or if you call a number, I suspect there will be someone whose only mission in life is to get your credit card number.

Always, there is a newsletter to buy, with additional special reports. Or coins to invest in, etc.
The people who would really know that this is going to happen are privately feathering their nests, building their arks, preparing to take advantage of everybody else. Because they engineered it.

[boston bean]

7. To be using his past position as a congressman who spent 20 some odd years in Washington

is a on a bit of a different level than the guy trying to sell juice machines...

[djean111]

11. I think this must be his retirement plan. Or he is part-owner of the group he is shilling for.

Makes him no better than Sir Weeps-a-Lot from GlennBeckistan.

[boston bean]

12. exactly... nt

[Warren DeMontague]

6. Let me take a wild guess: BUY GOLD!!!!!!!

I'm just sort of shocked that your husband is apolitical--- it's clearly front and center for you. How does that work? I mean, I would think it comes up all the time.

[boston bean]

10. Believe it or not, it really doesn't....

But I do know he votes democratic...

He's just not interested in discussing it much... I guess that's why I post on the DU! LOL

Maybe DU has helped my marriage! hahahahahahaha

[Warren DeMontague]

14. I hear that.

My wife and I know we're in general agreement on just about 99.99% of everything political, so at this point those conversations are kind of moot. Plus- the importance of this can't be overstated- the local paper here is pretty much useless, down to 3 days a week delivery of almost nil content. So politics don't come up, like, at the dinner table unless there's a big story or a GOP columnist with a particularly egregious piece of asshaterry on the opinion page.

Plus neither of us are nearly as strident, or pissed off, as we were during the Bush years. I think we got burned out.

She started off farther to the right and I was farther to the left (not by much; I remember we had a big fight over the merits of a SPHC system back in 2002 or so) than we both are now, we've sort of met in the middle with age.

Invariably she knows she will vote for the D in the big elections, but I'm the one who is obsessive enough to research the dog catcher candidates for us, or figure out which folks running for the school board are using code words that flag them as a stealth religious right plant.

[boston bean]

15. Right..

For something to penetrate his bubble, I know it's got to be reaching a lot of people... that was my reason for posting.. Every once in a while I'll ask him if he's heard something or other... and if so, use it as a barometer as to how many people are thinking about something... Because I think most people are like him!

If he was a republican, we probably wouldn't have made it past the first year... Going on 23 years now, this October.

[Warren DeMontague]

17. Congrats!

I couldn't be married to a Republican, either. I know people who do it, but .... it'd be tough

[bettyellen]

16. Love that you obsessively research the dog catcher candidates

Where I am the local scene is so complicated-awash in corruption with pols switching alliances and doing back door deals I don't always have time to keep up. Lots of good people get greedy and turn corrupt. I have a rabid friend I check with before voting for school board and such.

[Warren DeMontague]

18. The internet definitely helps.

But yeah, the religious right school board thing comes to mind because I totally spotted one this last round.

Last thing either of us wants is creationists mucking around with the science curriculum.

[RandiFan1290]

8. "just type in the google.. Ron Paul TV commercial."

No thanks

[boston bean]

13. I didn't think many people would

but thanks for the rolly eye smiley...

[KamaAina]

19. Your apolitical husband?!

How on Earth do you manage to make that work??