I don't know if the Mourning (sic) Joe gaggle is aware of this,

[MrScorpio]

But I was actually AWAKE during the presidencies of Reagan and Pappy Bush and both of those assholes deserved to be rotting in federal prison rather than having their ugly mugs carved into Mt. Rushmore.

Iran/Contra, anybody?

Reagan: Started his campaign off in Philadelphia, MS - The exact same place where three civil rights workers were assassinated years earlier. He did that on purpose to demonstrate a new Southern Strategy.

Reagan cut taxes and ran up the budget, exploding both the debt and deficit.

Reagan misrepresented the threat of the USSR, heating up the Cold War, making the possibility of war that much more extant. Except he KNEW that an actual war against the Soviets was complete suicide, so he focused his aims against the Third World, throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East and Africa. Countless numbers of people died through both direct US military action and proxy wars. Miscasting anti-colonial, indigenous and democratic movements as "Marxist" and "Soviet satellites" in order to get the support of the American people.

Reagan supported the Apartheid Government of South Africa and the despotic regime of Saddam Hussein. He bailed out other depots around the world, like Marcos, Pinochet and Rios Montt.

Reagan ran the massive Pentagon scam of Star Wars to wastefully throw money at Defense Contractors.

Reagan went to war against organized labor with the firing of the PATCO air traffic controllers.

Reagan promoted racist stereotypes to cripple social contract programs.

The Cold War was still going strong when Reagan left office, he had no clue that Gorbachev would dissolve the USSR years later. Something that exposed everything that Reagan said about the so-called Soviet threat as lies.

These are just a few of the things that I remember about that senile old reprobate. His successor was also a piece of work.

Using racist fears to get elected through Willie Horton ads.

Bush deregulated the savings and loans industry, causing their complete collapse.

Bush instigated an invasion of Panama to punish a nation that refused to get on board with his proxy war in Central America.

When Saddam Hussein, whose nation was drowning in debt from a war against Iran (who was also armed by the United States) asked Bush's ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie, what would the response of the US be if Iraq invaded its neighbor, Kuwait for that country's outright theft of Iraqi oil reserves, Bush's ambassador gave Saddam a green light to invade.

Did I mention that the slant drilling equipment that Kuwait used to steal Iraqi oil came from the US?

Did I mention that the Kuwaitis lied to a Congressional committee about false stories of Iraqis killing Kuwaiti infants and stealing their incubators?

Did I mention that Bush himself refused to deescalate the situation, ran up the propaganda against Iraq in order have his war.

Did I mention that Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction were obtained with the direct permission of both the Reagan and Bush administrations?

Did I mention that they both lied about EVERYTHING?

Again, these are just some of the things that I remember off the top of my head, because I was working in the PENTAGON at the time and saw these things with my own eyes.

Clarence Thomas, White House astrologers, Grenada, Lebanon, Angola, Welfare Queens, we start bombing in…


Mt Rushmore?

FUCK NO!

[6000eliot]

1. I can sort of understand why the right holds him in such high esteem.

It's the uncritical reaction of the mainstream media that I don't get. Weren't they the ones that originally brought all of this slime to light? Do they think we will just forget?

[MrScorpio]

2. It's cowardice, pure and simple

It's easier to feign amnesia of the historical perspective on TV and prevent risking a backlash from the Right, than tell the unvarnished truth.

Reagan and Bush will always be bastards with an incredible amount of blood on their hands to me. No media white wash will ever clean them.

[JHB]

5. Reminding people of facts is 'liberal bias'

One other item the OP didn't mention is the systematic placement of politically active conservative-movement partisans in the courts, and at relatively young ages to ensure "their" people would be there for decades.

[MrScorpio]

6. I left a whole lot out

I'm hoping that other posters, like yourself, will fill the void.

[JHB]

18. Well then...

BCCI
October Surprise
Overlap of Contra-supply and drug-running networks, leading to CIA interference with DEA efforts to stop cocaine trafficking

plenty more

[appal_jack]

30. Remember the Lebanon bomb attacks too under Reagan

The Beirut Barracks Bombing (October 23, 1983 in Beirut, Lebanon) occurred during the Lebanese Civil War, when two truck bombs struck separate buildings housing United States and French military forces—members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon—killing 299 American and French servicemen. The organization Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the bombing.
Suicide bombers detonated each of the truck bombs. In the attack on the American Marines barracks, the death toll was 241 American servicemen: 220 Marines, 18 Navy personnel and three Army soldiers, along with sixty Americans injured, representing the deadliest single-day death toll for the United States Marine Corps since the Battle of Iwo Jima of World War II, the deadliest single-day death toll for the United States military since the first day of the Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War, and the deadliest single attack on Americans overseas since World War II.[

(snip)

The blasts led to the withdrawal of the international peacekeeping force from Lebanon, where they had been stationed since the withdrawal of the Palestine Liberation Organization following the Israeli 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Beirut_barracks_bombing

[Foolacious]

3. "White House astronomers"?

Did you mean astrologers?

[MrScorpio]

4. Fixed! Thanks!

[rfranklin]

7. Actually Reagan raised taxes tremendously in 1982, on the backs of working people...

but he also tripled the deficit.


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/08/opinion/the-great-taxer.html
The first Reagan tax increase came in 1982. By then it was clear that the budget projections used to justify the 1981 tax cut were wildly optimistic. In response, Mr. Reagan agreed to a sharp rollback of corporate tax cuts, and a smaller rollback of individual income tax cuts. Over all, the 1982 tax increase undid about a third of the 1981 cut; as a share of G.D.P., the increase was substantially larger than Mr. Clinton's 1993 tax increase.

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/02/05/142288/reagan-centennial/
Reagan nearly tripled the federal budget deficit. During the Reagan years, the debt increased to nearly $3 trillion, “roughly three times as much as the first 80 years of the century had done altogether.” Reagan enacted a major tax cut his first year in office and government revenue dropped off precipitously. Despite the conservative myth that tax cuts somehow increase revenue, the government went deeper into debt and Reagan had to raise taxes just a year after he enacted his tax cut. Despite ten more tax hikes on everything from gasoline to corporate income, Reagan was never able to get the deficit under control.

[MrScorpio]

8. Thanks for that clarification nt

[liberalmike27]

13. The Top Tax Bracket

Also was lowered to $28,000 a year, subjecting many, many more people to the top bracket. What did that do? It made a lot more people sympathetic to the right-wing, and the rich, since they too were suddenly affected by it. This is rarely talked about.

But yea, it was like a "who did the best war" fest when I was listening to it. I'd normally be asleep, but I hurt my arm yesterday, some kind of nerve pinch and it was keeping me awake.

[stockholmer]

22. actually it was even worse, the top tax rate in 1988 kicked in for individuals making only $17,850

and only $29,750 for married couples. Today, those incomes would be equivalent to $33,229 and $55,382 respectively.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2010/sep/22/barack-obama/barack-obama-says-taxes-are-lower-today-under-reag/

That is an insanely low threshold for the top tier. Even here in Sweden the top tier is only on income over roughly $57,000 for an individual, and $115,000 for married couple.

[JHB]

28. Additional nuance:

In 1978 there were 25 tax brackets ranging from 14 to 70% (33 brackets if filing as head of Household). Adjusted to 2011 dollars, the 14% rate kicked in at just over $11,000, climbing to the 50% bracket at $162,434, and the 70% hitting income above $699,294 (taking these numbers from Married Filing Jointly).

In 1983: there were 13 brackets ranging from 11% to 50%. The 11% started at (adjusted) $7,660, climbing to 50%(the max) at $246,457.

In 1988: there were just two brackets: 15% and 28%. The 15% rate kicked in at $0 (not a typo) for all income up to (adjusted) $56,427. Above that it was 28%.

Reagan's trick was to lower most peoples' taxes a little, but take a chainsaw to the rates at the top. Most people didn't really notice the massive culling of brackets and rates at the top because they didn't have to deal with them (and those that did have to deal with it mostly approved).

[rfranklin]

9. Incubator babies story created by PR firm Hill & Knowlton using Kuwaiti diplomat's daughter as shill

Anyway, there was an incredible conflict of interest between the
caucus and Hill & Knowlton, the most important aspect of which was
that the Congressional Human Rights Foundation, which was a
fund-raising arm of the caucus, had its offices, rent-free, in the
Hill & Knowlton headquarters. The Hill & Knowlton executives were also
representing as clients habitual human rights violators like Turkey,
Indonesia and China. You might ask yourself why Lantos and Porter were
allowing this arrangement. In any event, the star of the hearing was a
young 15 year-old girl named Nayirah -- no last name, no address, no
occupation -- who said that she had volunteered at Kuwaiti hospitals
and had seen the babies pulled from incubators and left to die on the
cold floor.

Now, to this day, I cannot tell you whether or not this story, which
turned out to be utterly fake, was manufactured by historically-astute
public relations executives in collaboration with the Kuwaitis, who
had read World War I history and had learned how successful the German
atrocities against Belgian babies and nuns had been in getting public
opinion on the side of the allies and getting the United States into
that war.

Nobody at the hearing, no reporter said, "Nayirah, that is a terrible
story; I am on the verge of tears. But what did you do after you put
the babies on the floor to die? Did you call for help, did you try to
pick one up, what happened then?"

The most fundamental and most elementary questions that a reporter is
supposed to ask were not asked. Niyarah was a fantastic propaganda
success. Hill & Knowlton made a brilliant little video news release
out of it, which they beamed all over the world. It was on NBC Nightly
News and millions and millions of people saw this. My brother saw
Niyarah testify, and it brought him to tears. That was the beginning
of the campaign. The campaign had begun to "get legs" as we say in the
public relations and news business.
http://whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/LIE/HK/HK_IRAQ.html

[malaise]

10. Did you notice that Joe Scum was surprised that Kennedy was being

considered?

[MrScorpio]

11. No surprise at his reaction at all nt

[liberalmike27]

15. Soution? Current TV

If you've got it, Bill Press, then Stephanie Miller (this week Fugelsang) on Current TV are better options.

[stanwyck]

27. Yes,, I DID notice that.

as if Joe could be more annoying. Have you noticed that Joe is so lazy that he merely repeats what the smarter people on how show say - as if he said it first? He does this ALL the time.

[LittleGirl]

12. good stuff, thanks

bookmarking for future reference. I was politically asleep during those years. After watching Nixon say "I'm not a crook" I didn't believe a word about politics from them (the politicians) or the media.

[DhhD]

46. Reagan had the gaul to ask the public during his re-election campaign

"Aren't you better off now than you were four years ago?" My answer was hell no, as everything I have was four years older due to terrible inflation. Remember loans with 13.5% interest on home purchases? And he got re-elected anyway by promising a better tomorrow. Just like M Money is promising today. Only a sucker sheep gives in to this kind of feed.

I believe that if the ACA had not have passed, we would all be getting medical credit cards for health care. I believe that corporate credit cards would wouldbe the results of the Republican alternative to ObamaCare. Those credit cards are already present in the dental care world.

Dental and medical credit cards are the ultimate form of privatization.

[LittleGirl]

64. Yep! I've seen those dental cards.

I had to quit school in 82 because my paltry earnings was TOO much to qualify for a Pell grant. I didn't finish college until I was 45 because of what Reagan pulled. And yes, I remember my sister and her husband were paying 13 or 14% interest on their mortgage. Those days were awful. I remember working in a restaurant and had to start claiming the 8% tax on my total sales for those tips whether I made a 8% tip or not. Reagan raised my taxes and I worked part-time! I'm just glad I never voted for the smuck.

[Swede Atlanta]

14. Ditto all of that plus.....

Reagan sat silent as tens of thousands of Americans, mostly young gay men, died of AIDS. He did absolutely nothing. He wouldn't even say the word or hardly acknowledge anything was going on.

I will never forget him nor Pappy Bush for their refusal to be President of ALL Americans and not just those that you happen to like.

I hope that undistinguished B-movie actor is eventually held accountable for his crimes. If there is a God, please make it so.

[DCKit]

16. I know a lot of Central Americans who suffered under their policies.

Yeah, those fuckers belong under the jail.

[JustAnotherGen]

17. Glad to know

I wasn't the only one yelling at the t.v. this morning!

And with that - I've turned into my father. Seriously- I was 7 when Reagan won - so the majority of my childhood was spent listening to my hollering and yelling at the CBS Evening News!

[mountain grammy]

19. "While Reagan Slept"

A wonderful and informative book by the late, great Art Buchwold. Reagan taxed unemployment benefits for the first time. Say whaaat? He changed the country all right, and our survival has been in doubt ever since.

[stockholmer]

20. Liberal Caller Punks Rush Limbaugh Regarding Ronald Reagan's 'Conservatism'

Toss these out to your Gipper-worshipping 'conservative' acquaintances, it will make their heads spin:

Mike Stark chatted with Rush LImbaugh on the Friday before Ronald Reagan's 100th birthday. He decided drop some inconvenient knowledge and ask for a little bit o' reconciliation. transcript available at StarkReports.com

----------------------------------------------

Reagan The Liberal

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2011/06/27/reagan-the-liberal/

----------------------------------------------------------

Ronald Reagan officially too liberal for modern GOP

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/07/21/997013/-Ronald-Reagan-officially-too-liberal-for-modern-GOP

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Reagan's Liberal Legacy: What the new literature on the Gipper won't tell you.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2003/0301.green.html

[Overseas]

21. K&R. I remember too.

[AtroposCutter]

23. Wrecker Reagan raised taxes 11 times,

a fact his hugest sycophant, Bathtub Grover, is happy to overlook...for some obscure reason with some feeble excuse.

[12AngryBorneoWildmen]

24. Beautiful Piece Mr. S.

Now with Texas et al changing textbooks to the liking of Louis Gohmert types, all is lost.

[ananda]

26. True dat.

nt

[FSogol]

25. You forgot: Reagan ignored the largest health care crisis in American History.

Reagan =

[LynneSin]

29. I say we build a Mt Crapmore and put their faces on it

And in the hollows of the mountain we fill it with nuclear waste

[ieoeja]

31. You got Savings & Loans wrong.

Reagan deregulated them and ignored the collapse. One of the first things Bush did was to admit that the S&L collapse was occuring and create the Resolution Trust Corporation to take over failing S&Ls then sell their assets.

I assume most of those S&Ls ended up going to cronies. But at least he did save the depositors. My checking was with an S&L that failed at the time. It switched hands several times, and I never had a day where my money, little as it was, was unavailable.

[Stainless]

32. Despicable Buffoons

Mt. Rushmore doesn't need to be defaced by putting those ugly mugs on it. I also lived through their stupidity and incompetence. They disgust me for being evil, lying thugs.

[PatSeg]

33. Joe did say something that rang true to me

"We are all children of FDR and Reagan."

Because of FDR, we have Social Security, a minimum wage, unemployment insurance, FDIC, securities regulation, and bank reform.

Because of Reagan, we have deregulation, supply side economics, the lowest union membership in over 70 years, and a rapidly declining standard of living.

[raouldukelives]

34. Reagan felt like the first real Manchurian President.

Almost as if he was groomed & packaged by corporations to sell us all out.

[PatSeg]

35. Yep, they hired an actor

Makes perfect sense. They didn't have to "train" him, just give him a script.

[Raster]

63. "Almost as if he was groomed & packaged by corporations..."

There is no "almost" to it. Ronnie the Raygun was groomed and packaged by his corporate masters.

[pansypoo53219]

36. i have a danish epal who watched some fluffy european thing on reagan.

so i gave him MY take. and even tho i was a teen, i remembered well as i did NOT LIKE him + saw what his claptrap did.

[bvar22]

37. Reagan only did ONE thing right that I remember.

When the Marine Barracks was bombed in Lebanon in 1983 killing 245 Americans,
he Cut & Ran.
He refused to waste American Lives and Treasure staying in a country where we were not wanted.

A lot of Conservatives don't remember that about Cut & Run Ronnie.
I enjoy reminding worshipers of St Ronnie about that,
but I also wish our current administration would follow the same policy.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

40. Yup, and after Reagan faced criticism for cutting and running like a coward

he invaded Grenada.

http://www.democracynow.org/2004/6/10/remembering_reagans_invasion_of_grenada

Don't forget that Bush the elder was being called a "wimp" just before Desert Storm.

[Mosaic]

38. Morning Joke

I am allergic to even 1 second of Morning Joke. Even watching that for a minute is hazardous to your liberal health. Avoid it like Faux. The mind of Scar is like a black hole devouring all who listen to it. It is toxic tv.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

39. Pitty you didn't work in the CIA so you could rail against

the hypocrisy of his tossing his wife out there before the public with her "Just say no." campaign while his CIA was importing cocaine from their own fields in Columbia to fund covert operations outside of congressional review.

That was the MAIN THING kept out of Iran/Contra.

The great anti-drug Reagan/Bush administration was the biggest drug runner of them all.

I read a piece years ago from a whistleblower who described in detail a shipment he saw delivered to an offshore Texas oil rig. Forget the whole "Miami Vice" joke of '30 keys' smuggled in the hidden compartment of a fibreglass speedboat, we're talking cargo ship holds and tonnage.

[NewJeffCT]

41. Reagan had more White House personnel

indicted & convicted than all other 20th century presidents combined, if I'm not mistaken.

[just1voice]

42. I guess nobody cares about torture camps or the War Crime Act of 1996

or the definition of WMD. Weapons of mass destruction used to be called that because they could cause mass destruction, so the chemical weapons sold to Iraq were not weapons of mass destruction.

Also, a study released a while ago showed that 63% of republicans still believe Iraq had WMD, which your post seems to concur with. There's a huge difference between a chemical weapon that disperses quickly and a nuclear weapon, which is what the criminal Bush administration claimed Iraq had.

Finally, MSMedia whores lie through their teeth almost every time they open their mouths and after years of them lying for a living, anyone who actually believes that what they say is purposely and willingly being dumb.

[Flint Stone]

44. Seems to me that Glass-Steagall died

on Clinton's watch. And BTW, he signed NAFTA too. And lets not forget the beginning of the butchering of the social safety net when he signed "Welfare Reform" either.

[MrScorpio]

45. What does any other president have to do with Reagan and Bush?

Is this an attempt at a thread jack?

[Flint Stone]

47. The OP blamed Bush for Bank Deregulation

Blame Reagan, Bush, Baby Bush, but don't dare mention the the land mines Clinton laid for America's working people.

Since I'm independent, I don't have a historical partisan lens to look through.

[MrScorpio]

48. I said nothing about banks, I was talking about the Savings and Loans

That happened under Pappy Bush's watch.

And if I remember correctly, Reagan and Pappy bush predated Clinton.

You're quite free to start your own anti-Clinton thread, by the way.

[Flint Stone]

50. When listing facts turns into Clinton Bashing.....

I must realize that there are liberal versions of TeaBaggers.

[MrScorpio]

51. "Liberal Teabagger"? Moi?

Well, I've got just the thing for you, fella:

[Flint Stone]

52. I'm not trolling

But I'm smart enought to know that both parties have fucked this country up. Apparently, you're not that smart.....

[MrScorpio]

53. Oh, now I know that you're a troll

You guys can't help yourselves, can you?

[lumpy]

57. Perhaps we realize that both parties have fucked up in certain areas, however the Republican

Party gets the gold medal for doing more deliberate damage to this country (and humanity) than the Democratic Party has ever dreamed of. History proves that. The GOP has evolved into the epitome of Buck and Mommon worship to the exclusion of decency.

[Thinkingabout]

49. Reagan cut funding for research on Alzheimer's and

Guess who was in need some years later. Perhaps if Reagan had push research and stem cells was explored advancements could have resulted and the following years of reduced stem cell research would not have occurred. He also showed signs in his last four years in office, this is a sad illness.

[Zoeisright]

66. Yep. He was a complete asshole.

I wasn't sad at all that he got it. He also cut funding for cancer research when my 25-year-old husband was going through chemo. I hope Reagan's burning in hell.

[amuse bouche]

54. Excellet thread

I firmly believe that Raygun is the worst president in our history

[lumpy]

55. If the bulk of US citizens had as good a memory as Mr.Scorpio, or

at least paid as much attention to our leadership actions, we would truly be the greatest nation.

[WinstonSmith4740]

58. Don't forget...

"Did I mention that the slant drilling equipment that Kuwait used to steal Iraqi oil came from the US?"

Not only did it come from the US, it came from Haliburton.

[MrScorpio]

60. Damn skippy, I already knew that, by the way

I served it up and you hit it outta the park!

[Gregorian]

59. AMEN!

I hereby honor this thread with rec 99.

It feels good, but it hurts. It makes me angry. I helplessly watched them as they fucked the lives of so many people.

[lordsummerisle]

61. I was watching that show too

and found it vomitous (to use a Stephanie Miller-ism) and shut it off in disgust...

[spanone]

62. pre-recorded gibberish. m$nbc sucks until 3pm

[Zoeisright]

65. Hey Morning Joke, what about the dead intern in your office?

I will NEVER stop bringing that up.

[gopiscrap]

67. I agree whole heartedly

I was 22 years old when he got elected and I remember arguing with my in laws and telling them how awful I thought gthat diaper riddled moron was...my bigest objection to him was that he made selfishness fashionable in the US (wiped out Kennedy's request: "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country" that selfishness has been plainly evident for the past 32 years and we are suffering greatly as a nation for it today. To me, he was the worst president ever!!! FUCK him!!!!

[tex-wyo-dem]

68. Rec...you nailed it!

Although Nixon was bad in a lot of ways, I always saw him as just the precursor to what lay ahead. Poppy, IMO, was the real power behind Raygun and, in fact, felt he should have been POTUS, even to the point of having Ronnie offed by Hinkley, who just happened to be the son of a good family friend.

Reagan/Bush Sr years were bad, worse than Nixon, but just set the stage for Bush Jr who put them all to shame.

The cabal runs deep.