Saint Ronnie and the downfall of - well just about everything.....

I wanted to share a short piece by Thom Hartmann - and whatever you think of his political leanings you cannot discount his FACTS.


Did Reagan Kill Entrepreneurialis --- www.truth-out.org...

American entrepreneurialism is dying a slow and steady death.

Before Reagan came to Washington, small mom and pop shops were the backbone of our economy. You could walk down any main street or strip mall in this country, and it would be rare to find a big box retailer or a large chain store.
If you needed groceries, you went to the local grocer. If you needed a new hammer, you went to the local hardware store.
But then Reagan came along.
He stopped enforcing the Sherman Anti-Trust Act in 1982, and handed out massive and unfair tax breaks to large corporations and their executives and stockholders, all at the expense of the small businesses that had built the American economy.
As a result, mom and pop stores began to close, because they simply couldn't afford to compete with the big box stores that were growing out of control.
This is a trend that has been going on ever since Reagan stepped foot inside the White House.

and there is more:

Similarly, it's time stop giving massive subsidies to large corporations, and instead encourage the Small Business Administration to give more money to true mom and pop kinds of businesses.
We should also listen to Sen. Bernie Sanders, and strip federal highway money from any state that tries to lure business away from another state.
Next, we need to bring back the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, so that corporations can no longer grow out-of-control and eat up Main Street USA.

I'm grumpy today, it's hot and it takes a while to get used to. When I get grumpy I tend to lose patience and tolerance for others especially those who follow political/economic/social theories that have 30/40 years of hard data to discredit them - the tricle down, voodoo crowd - hey it's what they teach, and all they teach, in most colleges and business schools. It's the dominant paradym of life in todays - world.

It's been pleasant to see 'capitalism' , Smith's good old 'invisible hand' be shown for just what it is - what it's always been - "PRIVATE PROFIT at PUBLIC EXPENSE".

Of course, for Chicago School devotees (where high priests are trained) the answer is to follow a broken theory even further into the abyss rather like lemmings into the sea.

Why is it so hard to give up old ideas - why do we idenify with old ideas.

How did Greed become good - the philosophical 'natural state' (I think that's what it's called - been a while) where no one knows anything about anyone else nor gives a hoot about them and is completely ruled by self interest - that's a bunch of 7 year olds on the playground - not adults. This is just one of the ways greed is justified.

The big race is on - to see who becomes the first Trillionaire - WTF? The billionaiares will kill millions of people in the pursuit of the title.

Crud - I'm way off topic.

We've had a few presidents since Reagan was in office. Neither Republican nor Democrat did anything to change this. Got anything else? How about pointing the finger at the current administration? We're into the second term if you didn't know

first Trillian-Aire
my guess is this guy,,,
thanks to ObamaCare.
just go with it,,

a reply to: FyreByrd

Careful....saying anything bad about Saint Ronnie can be a very dangerous thing. He's near deified by some.

I consider him one of the 10 worst presidents we've ever had. but thats just me.

originally posted by: Bilk22
We've had a few presidents since Reagan was in office. Neither Republican nor Democrat did anything to change this. Got anything else? How about pointing the finger at the current administration? We're into the second term if you didn't know

Sorry if I was offense to you. I'm pointing out a turning point - In fact, I think Saint Ronnie was (and all presidents since Jimmy Carter) are mearly figureheads.

a reply to: FyreByrd

USA lost legitimacy when they offed JFK, RFK and MLK. That was the fight, and peace lost. In the process the US lost it's soul. The figureheads, all vetted, came after that.

a reply to: FyreByrd

Reagan was ushered in by the National Association of Manufactures. They wanted a smiling face that was familiar to the American public, a face they trusted.Throughout the previous decades the NAM had been putting in place the structure for the change you speak of and needed only that face to sell it to the people.

Lincoln once pointed out that you can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.
Reagan proved the new maxim, You can fool enough of the people enough of the time.

This brief thread got me to thinking and brought me to the powell memo:

reclaimdemocracy.org...

A memo written by corporate lawyer Lewis Powell to the US Chamber of Commerce in 1971. Richard Nixon's Administration would place him on the Supreme Court a couple of months later.

It's a well written re-frame of the now disproven domino effect in the captialist arena:

“General Motors, like American business in general, is ‘plainly in trouble’ because intellectual bromides have been substituted for a sound intellectual exposition of its point of view.” Mr. St. John then commented on the tendency of business leaders to compromise with and appease critics. He cited the concessions which Nader wins from management, and spoke of “the fallacious view many businessmen take toward their critics.” He drew a parallel to the mistaken tactics of many college administrators: “College administrators learned too late that such appeasement serves to destroy free speech, academic freedom and genuine scholarship. One campus radical demand was conceded by university heads only to be followed by a fresh crop which soon escalated to what amounted to a demand for outright surrender.”

Never once does he consider the mear possiblity that the 'opposition' has valid complaints and seeks rational answers to those concerns. His exposition is purely one of 'us' (Big Business) vs 'them' (everyone else - including small business). i.e.....

If our system is to survive, top management must be equally concerned with protecting and preserving the system itself.

I find this arrogance offensive and hence the secrecy. This memo was leaked to Jack Anderson years after it's inception.

I've not been able to find the original Anderson article yet and have to run but will continue to look as I can - for my education if not yours.

Happy Wednesday.

originally posted by: FyreByrd

originally posted by: Bilk22
We've had a few presidents since Reagan was in office. Neither Republican nor Democrat did anything to change this. Got anything else? How about pointing the finger at the current administration? We're into the second term if you didn't know

Sorry if I was offense to you. I'm pointing out a turning point - In fact, I think Saint Ronnie was (and all presidents since Jimmy Carter) are mearly figureheads.

The WTO has probably had the largest negative impact on the US economy across all sectors. That happened in 1995. Clinton was president. Let's add NAFTA under G. HW Bush/Clinton to that as well. Should we be surprised these men would be influenced by money from big business concerns?

a reply to: Bilk22

Not at all and as my posts have pointed out I agree it is across the board, hence the reference to the Powell Memo....

You seem to be taking offence at my disparagement of Ronald Reagan; well I take offense at the 'Saintificattion" of this puppet.

originally posted by: FyreByrd
a reply to: Bilk22

Not at all and as my posts have pointed out I agree it is across the board, hence the reference to the Powell Memo....

You seem to be taking offence at my disparagement of Ronald Reagan; well I take offense at the 'Saintificattion" of this puppet.

Take offense? No. However I take exception to the idea that hope and change was the order of the day and yet nothing has given us hope for change and the left constantly looks right to point fingers of blame. Got it?

a reply to: FyreByrd
You can go back to 1970 when the middle class saw its peak, Nixon was president and since then republicans have held the white house for 28 years compared to 17 years with democrats. So what wrong with American and what party has been in control? The right wing media machine will tell you everything wrong with America is because of progressives, communists, liberals, yet these groups they blame has not held the executive office as long as the right wing have.

Ronnie did whatever he could to cater to and support the big corporations look where we are at today?

George H Bush/Clinton did what they could to usher in globalization with nafta, this further destroyed our manufacturing based economy turning us into a service based economy with part time and minimum waged jobs. Clinton also hired 600,000 cops to appease the republicans lust for a more police state,zero tolerant society.

George W Bush completed the militarization of our civilian police force, he also brought a general militarization of government across the board. Does the department of education, land management or any other government department need its own police force? GWB's administration is a great example of what modern day fascism looks like.

Obama is just as bad as the past presidents as he didn't do anything about the situation we find us all in.

Historically speaking a president that grabs power, when replaced by the next president, the next president normally doesn't undo what the preceding president has done.

The current political environment will lead to the fall of this nation its only a matter of time.

a reply to: Bilk22

No I don't got it. You seem to be projecting here. The left doesn't like the President's agenda whatsoever and complains quite loudly and with FACTS.

Have to have the last word?

Just have to laugh out loud at the responses. Frye you seem to be the person taking offense and LD wants to count numbers to prove Republicans are more evil, not even considering what party held what branch and what time.

I think I can admit that all have let us down and the letter next to their name is irrelevant. This goes for the current sitting president as well. He's no different and in many ways is worse. Imagine if democrats controlled both houses. That would be a nightmare. At least having republicans, repugnant as most of them are, keeps some kind of check on things.

Edit: Frye what "facts" does the "left" respond with? Most from the left would rather have their tongue roll up in their head than criticize this president.