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kpete Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 10:00 AM
Original message
Reagan Sucked. Deal With It.
Edited on Tue Mar-30-10 10:01 AM by kpete
Reagan Sucked. Deal With It.

…and another thing, the Berlin Wall didn’t fall until a full year after Bush The Elder was elected… thanks in no small part to Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms, Lech Wałęsa’s Solidarity, The Pope’s moral focus and the people of Easter Europe desire to make a better world for their children … well after Ronny Ray Gun had been fitted for a drool cup.



One more point. The disintegration of the Soviet Union itself in 1991, already weakened by the collapse of the Warsaw Pact alliance, was inevitable once Russia followed the Baltic States lead and threatened to secede from the union.

Stick that in your teacup.

http://www.reachm.com/amstreet/archives/2010/03/30/reagan-sucked-deal-with-it/
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CBHagman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 10:05 AM
Response to Original message
1. Amen, fellow DUer.
Unfortunately there has been not only a concerted effort to rewrite history -- See Duncan Hunter's idiotic claims about Central America, and Dana Rohrabacher's hypocrisy about Iran-contra during the arms-to-Bosnia investigation during the 1990s -- as well as wholesale glorification of R Squared.

On the day they held his funeral I went out and got my hair cut and then went to a Salvadoran restaurant. It seemed the civilized, and appropriate, thing to do.

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kpete Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 10:08 AM
Response to Reply #1
7. yummy
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dmosh42 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 10:06 AM
Response to Original message
2. Plus he started the cut the tax for the wealthy...
and laying the load on the middle class. But, the media loved him!
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lumpy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 10:09 AM
Response to Reply #2
8. As well as escalating deregulation which allowed capitalistic
corporations to go hog wild.
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Enthusiast Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 08:29 AM
Response to Reply #2
64. Some of that huge tax cut
was paid for by social security increases that were to correct social security funding shortfalls forever.

You couldn't trust a fucking Republican then and you can't trust them now.
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Ishoutandscream2 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 10:03 AM
Response to Reply #2
77. Yes, remember when he was called the "Teflon Man"?
The media did cover his mistakes, that's for sure.
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mrcheerful Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 10:06 AM
Response to Original message
3. It's not us you have to convince that Raygun was a lier and worse it's his adoring
worship base who believe Raygun was god that you have to convince, good luck on that.
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KG Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 10:11 AM
Response to Reply #3
9. plenty of 'reagan democrats' on DU.
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laughingliberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 11:29 AM
Response to Reply #9
21. Yep.
I don't get it. Do we just have a lot of people here who don't remember it wasn't always this way? Do they not remember there was a time when workers' wages actually went up and people made enough money to live on and government regulated business and kept the vultures at bay?
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mrcheerful Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 01:00 PM
Original message
Thats the problem people adjust so fast to change they forget what it was like
before the change. It was why Rayguns generations of welfare queens worked so well, folks didn't remember what the old welfare system was like before Nixon when it was mostly run by private faith based charities. The welfare system didn't really help folks until Nixon started the food stamp program.
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hfojvt Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 11:36 PM
Response to Reply #21
37. no,time moves very fast
I taught college sophomores in 1989 and I would talk about Reaganomics and think "they remember this since it was such recent history" Then I realized that they were only about 10 when Reagan was first elected and they probably were not paying attention or understanding very much, at least most of them. I still remember some of the election of 1972 when I was 10. And that was over twenty years ago. So there are lots of adults under 35 who don't remember anything pre-1990.
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EFerrari Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 11:41 PM
Response to Reply #21
41. I don't think wages have kept up with cost of living since I started working
in 1976 or so. I'm glad I didn't know what we were in for! lol
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Lasher Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 07:05 AM
Response to Reply #41
48. They haven't


Stay-at-home moms went to work trying to keep up, and this is why median family income has fared somewhat better than average hourly wages.
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obxhead Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 09:13 AM
Response to Reply #41
74. Except for Congress and Senate, they get cost of living increases.
every year because its just way to hard to live on a low six figure salary these days.
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pattmarty Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 07:08 AM
Response to Reply #21
49. Most importantly, do they remember when the Democratic party..............
..........was the party of the poor, working class, middle class? Now it's the party of "big business", Wall st and banks in general and the military corps. Oh, I forgot one of their "new" constituents the insurance companies.
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HughBeaumont Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 07:09 AM
Response to Reply #21
51. Hmmm, and when, OH WHEN, did that stagnation START?
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dotymed Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 10:12 AM
Response to Reply #21
79. I presume
no one remembers the FAIRNESS DOCTRINE that reagan had abolished. Too bad people can not remember what unbiased television looked like. Reagan sold the truth to the highest bidder....BTW, America is following the same path as the USSR, if the status quo continues, America will no longer exist.
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RaleighNCDUer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 01:24 PM
Response to Reply #21
89. Actually, there are a lot of youngsters who don't remember.
If you were a teen or younger in Reagan's time it must have seemed kind of like how the 50s did to many of us. All those John Hughes movies never said a thing about politics, there was no draft or on-going war to ramp up tensions. Even those of us who were aware were disappointed - I went to an on-campus rally against the crimes in El Salvador and of the 30-50 people who showed up more than half were my age and older; fewer than half were students. It was an age when greed was good, when THE degree to get was an MBA, when society had put the shame and guilt of Vietnam behind us - with the help of Rambo and Chuck Norris going behind enemy lines to finally win the war.

I think it is much like my own vague memories of Ike - even as I grew older and more radicalized I held a peculiar affection for the popular perception of him, so much that even now I am surprised when reading Truman's biography how much Truman loathed him.
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Jamastiene Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 08:11 AM
Response to Reply #9
58. Yes, there are...unfortunately. n/t
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wizstars Donating Member (792 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 10:33 AM
Response to Reply #9
81. That is a misnomer, a contradiction in terms
If you supported Ray-gun, you cannot be a Democrat.

No Way. No how.
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Solly Mack Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 10:06 AM
Response to Original message
4. Damn sure did
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YOY Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 10:06 AM
Response to Original message
5. If you want to make your USSR collapse easier say this:
Edited on Tue Mar-30-10 10:18 AM by YOY
Do you know who defeated the Soviet Union? The Soviet Union defeated the Soviet Union. They refused to adapt/adjust to an increasingly modernizing time and relied on a single party system incapable of honest open debate. Sound familiar?
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unblock Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 10:32 AM
Response to Reply #5
11. it still baffles me why they give reagan the credit instead of capitalism vs. communism.
for 70 years, the line always was that the soviet union would collapse because capitalism is inherently better than communism.

one would think they would find in the soviet union's collapse the ultimate proof of capitalism's enduring superiority.

but no, they decided to take all that and hand it over to an ex-president.

:shrug:
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YOY Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 11:26 AM
Response to Reply #11
20. Wasn't even Capitalism vs. Communism.
Edited on Tue Mar-30-10 11:34 AM by YOY
It was a single party running things. Too totalitarian to voice real problems or discuss issues. It was accept the party line or go piss in the wind.

Lenin's initial model (not claiming superiority but stating historical fact) contained a petty bougosie class of small business owners running things in their business as they seemed fit. Stalin put a stop to that. Who knows? If Stalin had never existed and they had a true parlimentary system we might still have a USSR around but more in the flavor of a enlarged Swedish system...difficult to imagine on such a scale. Possible non-functional.

When one loses plurality in a so-called democracy things stagnate.
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unblock Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 01:00 PM
Response to Reply #20
26. yes, the ussr never really tried communism, just as the usa never really tried capitalism.
true capitalism means actual competition, open information, and internalization of externalities (making sellers and buyers pay for third party costs, such as pollution).



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liberation Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 10:42 AM
Response to Reply #26
82. Oh, we tried true capitalism. What do you think the gilded age was?
Edited on Wed Mar-31-10 10:46 AM by liberation
The whole "if it looks bad it ain't capitalism" is a rather dishonest meme.

Even Adam Smith warned that "pure" capitalism was sociopathic in nature, and that is why he actually advocated the need for government oversight and the establishment of "social contracts" for corporation in order to curve the very serious issues with basing a whole economic system around capital, which is by all intents and purposes a rather limited and sociopathic in nature metric.

For all his faults. Marx did in fact see the limitations of capitalism, which at its core is nothing but the replacement of the feudal power structures, with similar ones in which lordships were replaced by capitalists. It is no coincidence that feudal societies used used an "invisible being up in the clouds" as the justification for their unfair pyramidal power structures, and why capitalist also use that "invisible hand of the market" to justify their similarly unfair pyramidal power distribution.

In other words, never trust anyone who uses imaginary "friends" to justify their insane social theories. Capitalists, just like the priests and lords who came before them, require a lot of "trust" and compromises from the middle and lower classes, while providing very little in terms of proof for the justification of their requests. I am yet to see that god religious people love to talk about so much while beating me into submission with their bibles, and I am yet to see that famous hand who capitalists love to us to beat us into submission. These people are expecting us to waste our lives working ever so hard so that our finite reality complies somehow with their insane expectations of infinite growth. It is insane, and thus witness the perennial bust/boom cycles we have been putting ourselves for the better part of forever.

Time to evolve I say...
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unblock Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 06:23 PM
Response to Reply #82
97. that's where the internalization of externalities comes in.
if you have a third party cost or benefit without the third party being paid or charged, than you've strayed from true capitalism.

the gilded age was not true capitalism, because there was insufficient competition, insufficient information, and uncompensated innocent victims all around.

the laissez-faire people are not advocating true capitalism, even if that's what they claim. they're advocating letting big sellers do whatever they can get away with and letting buyers and small sellers get screwed. that's no more true capitalism than it's true football to let the richest team cheat, claim victory, and ignore the refs. true football requires officials keeping things fair. true capitalism requires regulators keeping trades fair.
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AnArmyVeteran Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 11:17 PM
Response to Reply #20
36. Henry Kissinger said the USSR would have fallen if Reagan never existed.
Kissinger said the end of the USSR would have occurred give or take six months of the actual date no matter what Reagan did. Reagan bankrupted our country and gave huge tax cuts to the wealthy and deregulated business leading to the savings and loan scandals of the 1980s and the current collapse of our economy.

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YOY Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 07:08 AM
Response to Reply #36
50. A very delicate way of saying that he had nothing to do with it.
Kissinger may be evil in may ways...but not a neocon.
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Cirque du So-What Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 10:33 AM
Response to Reply #5
12. I'm a root cause analysis kind of guy
Edited on Tue Mar-30-10 10:34 AM by Cirque du So-What
so if I were to assign a root cause to the failure of the Soviet Union, I go with stagnation of oil prices on the world market, denying the regime the hard currency necessary to hold their empire together.

On edit: in any event, it wasn't St. Ronnie what whupped the Rooskies; as you said, they defeated themselves.
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YOY Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 11:30 AM
Response to Reply #12
22. Like I said...inability to accept change. Causes stagnation.
If you cannot openly discuss problems and any discussion to anything amounts to nothing more than questioning the party line...you are dooming yourself.

Right about now we have one party that won't even discuss items...and the other that acts as if they are trying to discuss things with anything more than petty children.
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ellie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 10:07 AM
Response to Original message
6. +1 million
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Bluenorthwest Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 10:16 AM
Response to Original message
10.  A horrible President and an awful man
Maybe the worst of all Presidents in fact. His arrogant Christian silence as AIDS swept the planet cost millions of lives, in the name of his faith. In my eyes, he was a monster.
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tsstranger Donating Member (582 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 09:13 AM
Response to Reply #10
72. RayGun was a puppet
A puppet for the religio-crazies, the rich and big business. Worst president in decades until the Idiot Prince, AWOLBush, took his title.
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Ardent15 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 10:34 AM
Response to Original message
13. The ghost of Reagan is the most dangerous spirit in America now
nt
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blondeatlast Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 10:35 AM
Response to Original message
14. Reagan was a disaster on so many levels. that graphic sums it up well.
When I hear people talk up the old fool, I laugh an point out much of the same stuff.
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peekaloo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 10:36 AM
Response to Original message
15. rumor has it
so did Nancy. }(
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Echo In Light Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 10:37 AM
Response to Original message
16. k/r
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lpbk2713 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 10:40 AM
Response to Original message
17. RayGun was a 'B' Grade actor and a 'D' Grade President.




Nancy and her astrologer ran the country from behind the curtain.





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adigal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 10:41 AM
Response to Original message
18. I am always amazed that Reagan the fool is a god now
He was so stupid, and obviously, suffering from Alzheimer's (two separate issues) that even during his first term, his aides would drag him off the podium during press conferences to answer questions for him. I wish we had youtube back then! Everyone would be able to see what an imcompetent he was.
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MisterP Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 12:34 PM
Response to Reply #18
86. often, they'd rev up the chopper's engines when reporters asked him non-preapproved questions
Edited on Wed Mar-31-10 12:42 PM by MisterP
and he'd hold up his hand to his ear, make a stupid face, and climb aboard

and, more to the OP's point, there are 70K Salvadorans, 30K Nicaraguans, 100K Guatemalans, and many, many Afghans, Mozambicans, and Angolans in the grave because of him; and--if, as the triumphalists screech, he did overthrow the USSR--he caused the shortening of their lifespans by nearly a decade and the throwing of Russia into astounding poverty while it was sold off to billionaires (who the US press calls "human rights activists")
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harun Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 10:42 AM
Response to Original message
19. Don't care about the man. However, the ideology he trumpeted is one
of the worst in America's history.
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bobthedrummer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 11:36 AM
Response to Original message
23. Yep. K&R + "Reagan and the Salvadoran Baby Skulls" by Robert Parry
Reagan and the Salvadoran Baby Skulls
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/012907.html
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Ignis Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 01:22 PM
Response to Reply #23
27. +1 for that article. Chilling stuff.
And a hearty FU to Raygun.

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HillbillyBob Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 12:41 PM
Response to Reply #27
87. Ditto
Im too sick/sore from surgery to rant about that lowlife sob ...
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Ignis Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 01:28 PM
Response to Reply #87
90. Feel better soon.
And save your bile for shipping to the Reagan Presidential Library. :D
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HillbillyBob Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 04:13 PM
Response to Reply #90
95. If I could afford the frivolous expense I would order up some
Edited on Wed Mar-31-10 04:17 PM by HillbillyBob
truck loads of pig shit and have them dumped on the lieberrys(sic) lawn, and rushes and roves and........
PS thanks for the well wishing. This time was not as bad as the last 3 but still hurts like the dickens.

If you have not had colon cancer screening and you are over 40 now is the time to schedule one..This is my 4 round and it aint fun.
Get those polyps removed if you can.it will save you much agony later on.
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Ignis Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 04:29 PM
Response to Reply #95
96. You should post that info in the DU Men's Group.
I kid! I kid! :hide:

But it's still great info that most men don't consider until they're past the prime age to catch these things early and treat them before they turn into a real problem.

Hang in there. :hug:
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The Magistrate Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 09:57 PM
Response to Reply #23
31. Thank You For Putting This Up, Sir
People must remember these facts.
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wizstars Donating Member (792 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 11:22 AM
Response to Reply #23
83. Thank you for that link!
Reading it makes me sick that that man was our president, and worse, that misguided, stupid people think he was a good man or a good president.

A shit-stain on America is what he is.

Bush, too.
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HughBeaumont Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 11:43 AM
Response to Original message
24. Sucked the chrome offa trailer hitch.
Totally controlled by his corporate handlers. A spokespresident. Opened the floodgates for the Corporatists to start gutting manufacturing/industry and usher in THE SERVICE ECONOMY!! Signed legislation that turned a boring humming economy into a winner-take-everything casino where the House always WINS .. . with YOUR tax dollars! It's FLAWless!
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upi402 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 11:46 AM
Response to Original message
25. the beginning of the end
and we were so easy to fool, with the media being turned into a propaganda organ of conservatism.
:grr:
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leftupnorth Donating Member (657 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 07:06 PM
Response to Original message
28. Tea cup and my photobucket!
Love it!

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Raster Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 09:43 PM
Response to Original message
29. Kicked and highly recommended. One of the WORST Presidents in my lifetime.
The only good thing to come from ronnie raygun was his son, Ron, a good, decent, intelligent man. Everything his father wasn't.
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pattmarty Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 07:17 AM
Response to Reply #29
52. I believe he has a daughter that is liberal too. The shithead one...........
........is the "adopted" one a real ass hole and not too bright Michael Reagan. All he does in his writing is to use his "dad's" name in every column he "writes" to try and make his pathetic self famous.
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Nikki Stone1 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 09:46 PM
Response to Original message
30. Reagan was the beginning of the end. And he was a real asshole in California
That nice sweet image created for him in the national election was so totally false. Reagan shows up in this video about half way through dealing with the student demonstrations on campus at UCSD. A total asshole

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5311625903124176509#
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Reader Rabbit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 06:50 AM
Response to Reply #30
45. You know it. And don't forget that CA had the #1 public school system in the nation...
...when Reagan was elected governor. Now it's in the bottom 40's, and his acolytes are attempting to do the same thing to public education on a national basis.
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liberation Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 10:23 AM
Response to Reply #45
80. Yup, UC tuition used to be free (or ridiculously) cheap for CA residents
Edited on Wed Mar-31-10 10:25 AM by liberation
and the UC was (and still is) the best public university system worldwide.

The funniest part is to hear conservatives bitch about the current state of things, and wax poetic about how great the 50s and 60s were in CA.

Conservatives simply don't get faced by the fact that they have been the ones in power in the past 3/4 decades and have been way too busy advocating for the dismantlement of the same systems and policies which led to the prosperity they claim to miss. Their logical dissonance is glorious: they hate labor, education, and public investment. Yet *those* were the actual reasons why CA was such a prosperous state: CA had a huge level of public investment (most infrastructure was built during that time period), top notch education easily accesible to anyone, and living wages guaranteed via collective bargaining which allowed estable families.

I frankly found it rather troubling that Mr. Obama thinks so highly of such a scum bucket as Reagan. Who is the face of the movement which is hellbent in destroying (and has done so rather successfully) everything the middle and lower classes worked so hard to build. It is sad to see Democrats supporting those who are/were hellbent in destroying the New Deal.
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Cresent City Kid Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 10:47 PM
Response to Original message
32. I hate the '80s
I was 15 when he was elected, and at the time I feared he would undo the '60's. Looking back, it's more like he undid the whole 20th century. The whole GOP theme since Reagan has been to reinstate the 1890's.
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donheld Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 11:06 PM
Response to Original message
33. k & R bookmarked
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AnArmyVeteran Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 11:11 PM
Response to Original message
34. REAGAN CAUSED UNEMPLOYMENT & THEN LIED
REAGAN CAUSED UNEMPLOYMENT & THEN LIED

Reagan was so dishonest that for the 1st time in our history he ADDED everyone in our military to the 'employment' figures to increase the employment percentages. When you add millions of soldiers to the pool of working people it decreased the percentage of unemployed.

Reagan used this tactic to cook the books but right wingers don't care about facts or the truth. All they care about is worshipping the Reagan myth, which is a total fabrication.

Reaganomics was called 'VooDoo Economics' by GHW Bush. Even Bush Sr knew Reagan's scheme was a fraud.

Under Reagan any employment gains were due to people having to work 2, 3 or 4 jobs just to make ends meet. Underemployment became the norm. Women were forced from their children because they had to work. Corporations forced 35 hour work weeks on employees so they could eliminate their benefits.

Reagan was evil.
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pattmarty Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 07:25 AM
Response to Reply #34
54. If anyone here remembers the commercial time per hour on TV.......
......back in the 60's, 70's and 80's BEFORE Reagan changed the law/rules at the FCC. I forget the exact number, but it was something like 5-10 minutes per hour, now it's like 20 minutes per hour. Ever say or hear someone say; "gee honey, wasn't there just a commercial on a couple of minutes ago?" ANOTHER of his legacies. It's kind of funny that maybe in 50 yrs or so he will be judged as one of the worst presidents and LBJ will be judged as one of the best.
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AnArmyVeteran Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 11:14 PM
Response to Original message
35. Reagan killed 241 US Soldiers in Lebanon then Cut & Ran, but not one rightwinger complained...
Reagan gave arms and billions to the enemy, including Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden. He traded arms for hostages in a secret deal before he became president. Reagan was a traitor in every sense of the word. Reagan also sent 241 Marines and other servicemen and women to their deaths in Lebanon. He handcuffed them with rules of engagement to the point where they could not defend themselves against two lone suicide truck bombs. Right wingers tout Reagan as a god of Defense, but he couldn't even protect 241 soldiers. Within two weeks Reagan CUT & RAN pulling out all military from Lebanon. But right wingers still live in their fantasy idolizing their fake god Reagan.
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EFerrari Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 11:38 PM
Response to Reply #35
38. The list of his sh!t is so long, it doesn't even fit on that photograph
in type anyone can see.

He exported torture to Southeast Asia, Central America and to North Africa. He was human scum. Most of the anti-American hatred out there can be tracked right back to the old felon.
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RaleighNCDUer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 02:00 PM
Response to Reply #35
92. And then trumped up the Grenada invasion so people would
forget about Lebanon.

And the hell of it is, it worked.
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Ardent15 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 11:39 PM
Response to Original message
39. kick
This asshole was no hero.
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jaysunb Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-30-10 11:40 PM
Response to Original message
40. Hated sex ????
Edited on Tue Mar-30-10 11:52 PM by jaysunb
In light of the many stories Ive heard about Nancy and her "abilities" I find this more than a bit odd. :shrug:
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rasputin1952 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 06:45 AM
Response to Reply #40
43. Like most Conservatives...
He hated sex for everyone other than himself...everyone else that indulged in sex was "evil"...BTW, the only way he could Nancy to shut up was to...(think of the mental

picture),

then use this...




:evilgrin:
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lutefisk Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 12:40 AM
Response to Original message
42. Andrew Faulds called Reagan an "incoherent cretin", and I agree.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1828&dat=19811030&id=DaEeAAAAIBAJ&sjid=GKcEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3551,9865942

I love it when our allies say it like it is. I remember reading that quote nearly 30 years ago, and I still admire Faulds for saying it.
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ShortnFiery Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 06:47 AM
Response to Original message
44. Oh you got that right!
If you want "a tell" to discern the republicans from the democrats in the D.C. area, take notice of how they refer to our Airport?

National Airport? ===> A Democrat
Reagan National Airport? ===>Republican
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TatonkaJames Donating Member (502 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 06:58 AM
Response to Original message
46. Just Like Arnold...
I don't think he was intelligent enough to do any of this. He had all those handlers around him who ran the show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skQuhoG7fFM
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pattmarty Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 07:04 AM
Response to Original message
47. Sacrilege!!! This is st ronnie, the bestest president ever!!!
I always said he should have gotten an Oscar for his "role" as president. To this day I don't know which he was shittier at, being president or being a 5th rate "B" movie "actor".
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Hersheygirl Donating Member (353 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 07:19 AM
Response to Original message
53. The truest statement I have ever read.
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smoogatz Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 07:27 AM
Response to Original message
55. And yet the right wing fellates his moldering corpse relentlessly.
Edited on Wed Mar-31-10 07:37 AM by smoogatz
He was the only Republican president in recent history that was even marginally popular--the rest were ridiculed and despised by the time they left office.
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Enthusiast Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 08:42 AM
Response to Reply #55
66. And he is all they have.
Think about it. Reagan, a complete failure as president, is the only Republican president they can point to uphold their brand in the entire 20th century. This is why they must insist, contrary to the evidence, that he was great beyond measure. Unreal.
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Brewman_Jax Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 07:47 AM
Response to Original message
56. Reagan was scum
the "Zapman" let neo-conservatism out of the closet, made racism fashionable, made failed economic policies not only mainstream, but part of the lexicon, etc. One of the worst presidents of our time and still the scumbag repubs worship St. Ron and continue the bullshit of naming more stuff after him.

Also, he made President G.W.Bush* possible. :puke:
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Earth Bound Misfit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 07:58 AM
Response to Original message
57. You're being too kind.
Edited on Wed Mar-31-10 08:02 AM by Earth Bound Misfit
He was a racist scumbag who did more to divide the population of this country than anyone I can recall.

I would piss on his grave if ever I could.

ETA: Enthusiastic KNR
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on point Donating Member (613 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 08:12 AM
Response to Original message
59. Jimmy Carter via Charter 77 deserves credit for Berlin Wall Fall
One of the problems with rethug penchant for re-writing history is not even getting it right in the first place. JImmy Carter deserves credit for the fall of the Berlin wall and the communist states.

He did this by pointing out the Soviet Union was a 'worker state', yet allowed no labor unions. He logically forced the Soviet Union to agree to Charter 77 which allowed people to form 'organizations'. It was the force of these organizations, such as Polish Solidarity, that forced the various states into more and more freedoms until the walls fell.

It was not Raygun spending them into oblivion via a massive, wasteful US arms build-up. Their economic woes had more to do with basic conflict with between freedom needed to innovate, and the repression needed to keep people from owning and using basics like typewriters, copiers and computers. The economic woes also are due to the ill considered military attempt to take over Afghanistan,, which we rightly helped resist.

The Afghan bit by the way is when Osama bin Laden was our CIA tool and we helped the Taliban gain power. One potential conspiracy scenario never adequately explored (except somewhat by Jesse Ventura !), is that he continued to be a CIA tool and was used by the Neo-cons in a 'false flag' attack on the WTC. This might explain why he can't be found, and we let him go. SInce there has been no investigation of this scenario that I know of to date, this has to be considered speculation as there is no evidence. It does however put so many pieces together is a Nice neat package.
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jaysunb Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 12:26 PM
Response to Reply #59
85. Good post !
welcome to DU :hi:
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newtothegame Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 08:14 AM
Response to Original message
60. Who exactly is this intended for?
:shrug: You're not going to find many Reagan fans on here.
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Enthusiast Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 08:43 AM
Response to Reply #60
67. It's a form of therapy.
And I could use some.
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newtothegame Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 08:49 AM
Response to Reply #67
69. Fair enough. I think most DU'ers have "dealt" with Reagan sucking already though. nt
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RaleighNCDUer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 02:05 PM
Response to Reply #69
93. Actually, we will be dealing with his suckiness for generations to come.
That's the only thing I will give him - he was a game changer.

So were Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot; the difference there being they were all eventually repudiated by their people.
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h9socialist Donating Member (584 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 08:22 AM
Response to Original message
61. Yes, Reagan was a monstrosity . . .
. . . and I blame him, more than anyone else, for capitalism's orgy of the last 30 years. Still, his son Ron is a good guy, and like hearing him on Air America. So I would hate for my critique of the father to reflect badly on the son. Nevertheless, old man Reagan ranks with Domitian and Nero in my gauge of historical disasters.
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Enthusiast Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 08:26 AM
Response to Original message
62. Thanks for reminding us, kpete.
How much of that social security money did Reagan spend to help keep the books (look) balanced?

He was as much of a piece of shit as Dubya Bush.
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FailureToCommunicate Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 08:29 AM
Response to Original message
63.  Raygun and the Repubs in Congress fought hard against rights for people with disabilities
like the Section 504 legislation.

Also remember his evil hatchet man David Stockman and his "supply side" economics.

Thanks for the good reminder list!
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Enthusiast Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 08:37 AM
Response to Original message
65. Reagan killed the Fairness Doctrine!
What kind of an asshole would do that?
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Enthusiast Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 08:46 AM
Response to Original message
68. He mandated that we pay
taxes on unemployment benefits! What kind of an asshole would do that? Especially in light of the fact that he caused the unemployment. I was there baby, I won't forget.
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vincenzoesq Donating Member (171 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 08:55 AM
Response to Original message
70. Only one positive I can see
is raising the drinking age. We now know that until the mid or late twenties, the prefrontal cortex is still developing, the brain cells are not fully myelinated, and the dendrites are furiously blossoming and pruning. This is the worst time to introduce alcohol, nicotine, or other drugs into the brain, (or the liver, which is not fully developed) --not even mentioning the 16,000 deaths per year attributable to alcohol. We're talking permanent damage and a much higher risk of addiction. Not trying to hijack your thread. Reagan was a dolt, but for me, your list would have been more effective without this statement.
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Scurrilous Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 09:07 AM
Response to Original message
71. K & R
:thumbsup:
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Douglas Carpenter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 09:13 AM
Response to Original message
73. Ronald Reagan made selfishness respectable
There was a time when even most Republicans - even those who would have called themselves conservatives - believed in principle that the government had a responsibility to at least help those who genuinely cannot help themselves - Ronald Reagan rewrote the moral conscience of much of the world and turned unbridled selfishness into a virtue. This alone makes him one of the most monstrous figures in modern world history.
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Fire1 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 09:58 AM
Response to Original message
75. Sucked, big time!! K&R n/t
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fatbuckel Donating Member (518 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 10:00 AM
Response to Original message
76. He did de-regulate everything...oh,wait...that sucked,too...
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mdmc Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 10:09 AM
Response to Original message
78. Thanks for the OP
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opihimoimoi Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 11:28 AM
Response to Original message
84. NATIONAL DEBT went from 350 bil to 3.5 TRIL...600 ship Navy...he wasa puppet propped up by the GOP
masters...

the man was an actor,,,,a fraudulent leader....false hero
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Tierra_y_Libertad Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 12:43 PM
Response to Original message
88. Yes. But, he only sucked between the drools.
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marmar Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 01:44 PM
Response to Original message
91. Screams from the "Amen" corner
:applause:

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butterfly77 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-31-10 02:08 PM
Response to Original message
94. Kick &Recommended!!!
:kick:
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