Ronald Reagan - Lest We Forget . . .

Today, many of us marvel at all the stupid and contradictory things said by the right-wing crazies who seem to be all around us. People like Glenn Beck, Michele Bachmann, Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin come quickly to mind. But, there is one god-like person all of them idolize and bring up every chance they get as their heroic “Great Communicator”:

RONALD WILSON REAGAN

Reagan was the “B” grade Hollywood actor who was convinced he had all the answers for everything for everyone. He first became governor of California and later went on to serve two terms as the President of the United States of America. Some people think he was elected because he ‘looked and talked presidential’. He certainly talked in simplistic terms which appealed to people on an emotional level, and - he was an actor after all, albeit a decidedly mediocre one.

And that heroic ideal of the people who are often called ‘bat-shit crazies’ today, was no slouch in the utterance of stupid, absurd and contradictory things himself. In fact, in re-reading some of them, one gets the feeling that Ronald Reagan may have been the advance guard for making obtusely ludicrous pronouncements. Reagan sometimes makes his followers seem bright in comparison, except for maybe Dan Quayle who is a study in himself. Here are just a few of the things Ronald Wilson Reagan said over the years:

"It's true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?"


"I am not worried about the deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself."


"I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national emergency -- even if I'm in a Cabinet meeting."


"Well, I learned a lot....I went down to (Latin America) to find out from them and (learn) their views. You'd be surprised. They're all individual countries"


"Facts are stupid things."


"Trees cause more pollution than automobiles."


"All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk."


"The state of California has no business subsidizing intellectual curiosity."


"I don't believe a tree is a tree and if you've seen one you've seen them all."


"Approximately 80 percent of our air pollution stems from hydrocarbons released by vegetation, so let's not go overboard in setting and enforcing tough emission standards from man-made sources."


"We are trying to get unemployment to go up, and I think we're going to succeed."


"What we have found in this country, and maybe we're more aware of it now, is one problem that we've had, even in the best of times, and that is the people who are sleeping on the grates, the homeless who are homeless, you might say, by choice."


"I have a feeling that we are doing better in the war than the people have been told." (about Vietnam)

"...the moral equal of our Founding Fathers." (about Nicaraguan contras)

"...a faceless mass, waiting for handouts." (about Medicaid recipients)

"Unemployment insurance is a pre-paid vacation for freeloaders."

" . . . until now has there ever been a time in which so many of the prophecies are coming together. There have been times in the past when people thought the end of the world was coming, and so forth, but never anything like this."


I believe that the future is far nearer than most of us would dare hope.””


“Even though there may be some misguided critics of what we're trying to do, I think we're on
the wrong path.” (about welfare reform)


"We're not building missiles to fight a war. We're building missiles to preserve the peace."


“Where would this country be without this great land of ours?”

Ronald Reagan was a big champion of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of Great Britain, who was often compared with him. Maybe that’s why I find it so amusing to consider what she really actually thought of him:

"Poor dear, there's nothing between his ears."
           ~British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher

Not to be outdone, some of Reagan’s international contemporaries had a similar opinion:

"What planet is he living on?"
           ~President Mitterand of France

Larry Speakes, Reagan’s own press secretary said preparing him for a press conference was,

"...like reinventing the wheel."

So, you see, when you take the time to really analyze things, you realize these new crazies have a great deal to live down to.

Are Some Tea Partiers Gun Nuts?

Are Gun Nuts Part of the Tea Party Movement?

You can bet your pink pig’s pretty lipstick they are!!!

Gun nuts are out in force at many Tea Party meetings - many openly armed with anything from pistols to assault weapons. No doubt many are carrying concealed weapons too. They are not hesitant about their belligerency and threatening postures.  They are openly claiming to be ‘armed and ready’ for revolution. Many appear to be trying to intimidate all opposition.

This phenomenon seems to be an overboard reaction to their perception and claims that President Barrack Obama is, A): a Muslim; B): A non-citizen, C): a socialist, D): a communist, E): planning to seize all firearms, F): planning to enact legislation making firearms ownership illegal. They are also motivated by extreme, self-feeding paranoia over illegal immigration, abortion, and religion.

‘Liberals’ are routinely denigrated as communists, socialists, ‘libotards’, traitors and so on - without a shred of evidence except in an invented, self-induced paranoia. A prime propaganda source for them is Glen Beck of Fox News. That would be the Glen Beck college drop out, drug addict and alcohol abuser who relentlessly expounds on these themes in his broadcasts.

I can not recall any other group maintaining this level of threat, intimidation and belligerency besides militia crazies and hate/racist groups like the Ku Klux Klan.

All this fear and paranoia is seized upon and fed with incessant propaganda designed deliberately to inflame these people, from sources like the irresponsible Fox News and National Rifle Association (NRA), evangelical church, anti-abortion, militias and anti-immigration groups.

Are they dangerous?  Yes.  You can bet your pig’s lipstick on that too. Any group of armed people motivated by anger, fear and paranoia is intrinsically dangerous by definition. In fact, there have already been incidents of violence and even murder attributed to these paranoids. It doesn’t seem to occur to them in their perception of ‘protecting their rights’ they are heavily infringing on the rights of others.

But, I am also encouraged that leveler heads both inside and outside the Tea Party movement will prevail. I believe most Tea Partiers are probably sincere people, and in their own way as reasonable as can be expected by any group motivated by anger and fear. I also believe the authorities are keeping an eye on the more extreme elements of the Tea Party movement and will act if and when necessary.

Further, I believe Tea Partiers are seriously overestimating their potency in general and in due course will be relegated to the sidelines where they belong by the electorate at large.  I also believe Tea Partiers seriously underestimate the reaction of more moderate people in the event of a showdown.  For one thing, many, if not most ‘moderates’ also own and know how to use firearms.  One other thing: many of us were also well-trained in the use of them during our military tours.

Here are a few 'signs' of Tea Party gun nuts

And, I kid you not!

How to Tell If You May Be a Tea Party Whacko

Lately I’ve been troubled about how to define the Tea Party people.  They seem to come from all over the map. It is claimed some are Democrats (Polls show 5%).  A very many are conservative Republicans, and Libertarians to be sure, and many seem to come from radicalized fringe groups like militias and white supremacists.

From the hodgepodge of misspelled and mis-punctuated signs they like to wave about, it is fairly obvious many Tea Partiers are borderline illiterates.  Some seem to be way over the border in fact. And, many Tea Partiers seem to be otherwise normal people who have been mobilized from the complacent, self-satisfied comfort of their sofas and arm chairs to attend the meetings.   There they worship their intellectually challenged heros like Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin who are the ones who mobilized them in the first place.

After a good bit of though I have discerned many commonalities which help describe the disparate group of people who call themselves Tea Partiers.   It was simply a matter of sitting down and giving the issue sufficient thought.  I am sharing my conclusions with everyone in the hopes it will help those who may suspect they may be whackos themselves to draw their own conclusions.  Shown below is my ‘calculator’ which will help you decide.  Simply enter an ‘X’ or checkmark in the boxes for the characteristics which describe you, then total the number of marks you make.  A convenient scoring index at the bottom will help you decide for sure:

(Double-click on the chart below to expand)

*A Modern American Tea Party

John McCain called me last night.  “There’s gonna be a Tea Party tomorrow.  Six O’Clock.” he said.  “And by the way, I don’t know how everyone got the idea, but I AM NOT ANY DAMNED MAVERICK!  Just because I wrote that damned book with the sub-title, The Education of an American Maverick doesn’t mean I am one!  Who’d a ever thunk?”.

“But never mind all that.  The party is at Newt Gingrich’s place over on Denial Road.  Newt is going as March Hare, bless his old, retrograde soul. I need to warn you too, Glenn Beck will be there, and he’s mad as a hatter.  He even calls himself ‘the Hatter’ like he’s proud of it, and goes around bragging about his ‘tea partying’.   When he’s not crying that is. On the other hand the White Queen Sarah Palin will be there too, which should make up for the Hatter, even it gets pretty tiring hearing all her bragging about how she really IS a maverick.  God, what an impossible woman!”

But hard as I tried, I still got to the party two hours late.

“Oh, no matter,” said the Hatter at the door.  “It’s six o’clock here on Denial Road.”

I looked at the clock over the mantel and sure enough it read six o’clock.  “How ever can that be?” I wondered out loud. 

“Oh, me’n old Newt, and Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter and Pat Robertson and a whole bunch of other red necks keep trying to turn the clock back.” said Hatter. “Turns out that’s really hard and unconstitutional and all, but we have managed to stop the damned thing.  Would you like some tea?”

He held out a cup, but the moment I reached for it he threw it over his left shoulder and laughed like a banshee.

“You can’t sit there!” he screamed as I nervously moved towards a chair. “That’s a true patriot’s chair!  And you’re not a true patriot even if you did serve our country and I never did. I had good, compelling, patriotic reasons and decided to serve in other ways.  Besides, it paid one helluva lots better.  But, not to change the subject, answer me this. “Why is a raven like a writing desk?"

Bewildered, and beginning to feel a bit uneasy, I said, “Well, I’m sure I don’t know. . . . because Poe wrote on both?”

“I didn’t think you’d know!” he cried as he broke into large, wet tears and slobber ran freely down his chin.  “Please God! Anybody got any Oxycotin?  Hard liquor? Oh, God,  I didn’t think so!  That socialist Obama is going to have a death panel decapitate me!  I have it on indisputable authority! And his health care plan is going to save so much money it will wreck the economy!  Look how many insurance company CEO’s it will put on the street.  Oh woe is us, oh woe is us!”

“But, you’re not in the insurance business.” I felt I should point out.

“Not so!  Not so!” he screamed.  “I’m on the payroll of over 27 insurance companies.  Not officially of course, but like they take really good care of real and true patriots like me.”

I started to ease towards the door, but the White Queen appeared on the scene before I could get through.  Hatter screamed in ecstasy.  “Sarah!  Sarah!  Thank God you’re here to stand up for patriotic Americans! You’re the only thing standing between us and the Russians!”

“Praise the Lord,  and lock and load, you betcha!” smiled Sarah.  “Anybody seen my lipstick?  Gotta reload you know.”

I noticed the Queen’s crown was a little crooked and gently mentioned it to her.

“Not a problem.  When you’ve got the Lord on your side, nothing is ever really out of kilter.’ she said.  “But, even if it is you can pray it away.  You can pretty much do as you like.  Rational doesn’t matter.  In fact, reality doesn’t even need to compute for a true Christian like me, praise the Lord!”

I heard a loud ‘amen’ from Pat Robertson across the room.  But the White Queen whispered, “Pay him no mind.  No matter what he claims, I know he hasn’t been perfected yet.  I’ve had the demons cast out of me, and he never has.”

“But, aren’t you two on the same page?” I asked.

“Oh yes, we both do the Lord’s work.” she replied. “And so far it’s been paying pretty well for both of us.  But, Pat’s in the actual God business, and I only get him to help me out when I need him.  The Lord’s mighty helpful in politics these days you know.  Anyway, Pat is a has been.  I’m the here and now.  In fact, I’m the future! But, enough about me.  Who are you anyway?”

I looked at the floor for a moment and said,  “I'm just your average, normal everyday American.”

“Oh, you mean like Joe Six-Pack and Joe the Plumber?” she smiled.

“Not exactly.” I said. “Actually, I read and pay attention to things around me.  Also, I speak pretty good English and and can spell actual words and really respect education, sobriety, calmness, deliberation, thoughtfulness and common sense.”

The Queen sniffed.  “Oh, those things!  Not that important.  Just look at me!  Guys like Joe Six-pack are just the salt of the earth, or at least the salt of the good old US of A.  Those guys are the ‘real America’.  And, they’re so, so easy to control.  They’re the heart of the Tea Party movement you know.  They believe absolutely everything we feed them - especially if I wiggle my ass a little and give ‘em a cutesy smile, silly putzes!  You can’t go wrong with a gun either.  They eat that crap up.  That’s why I love those words like ‘reload’ and ‘don’t tread on me’.  Keeps me in the public eye you know, and that’s the main thing.”

The party didn’t last long and there weren’t that many there altogether.  I said my good byes as politely as I could and eased away.  I don’t think I will go to another one.

*This is an imaginary, spoof story, with all kinds of intended resemblance to the real thing.

The 'Soul' of the Republican Party

In other posts I have mentioned the seemingly inexorable trend towards the destruction of the Republican Party.  I have said it almost seems like some evil plot by enemies of the party.  Perhaps that is so,  but I can not find any real evidence of  that.

Instead, it seems more like some ugly political suicide at the behest of the neoconservative far-right wing of the party, holding a gun on everyone else in the party.  The neoconservatives' implacably insist on their own brands of perverted dogma, 'nothing else, and nothing less, so help us God'.   The result is a radical shift far right which other factions of the party seem powerless to resist.   Core values and principles are abandoned wholesale and left bleeding by the side of the road.  Whenever any group so abdicates its core principles and its abrogates values to the prejudices of lowest common denominators, how can you not expect damage or destruction of the party? 

Many neoconservatives believe and say the 'soul of the Republican Party' today is represented by, among others,   popular talk show personalities Sean Hannity,  Bill O'Reilly,  Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh.  These figures broadcast through either Fox News or Clear Channel Communications, and often both.  Three of them (Hannity, O'Reilly, Beck) are catholic, or ex-Catholic in the case of Beck who has now converted to Mormonism.   I mention this because it seems to a trait among Catholics towards strictness and obedience to 'doctrinal truths'.  Extreme examples are the infamous 'inquisitions' during Medieval times in the 13th centry and the Roman, Spanish and Portugeuse inquisitions supremacy during the 16th century.

Between the four of them, Beck, Hannity, Limbaugh and O'Reilly, only one finished college (O'Reilly) with the others having dropped out early in their 'educational careers'.  At least two are or have been confirmed drug addicts (Beck, Limbaugh).   Beck has been accused of rape.  O'Reilly has been sued for sexual harrasment with the suit being settled out of court, reportedly for millions of dollars.

These people freely and deliberately engage in outrageous claims and flaming rhetoric, the more outrageous and sensational the better.  This seems hugely attractive to the lower educated classes in the country, many of whom accept their claims as gospel while disregarding realities.  There are strong anti-elite, anti-intellectual and anti-progressive currents running through all their broadcasts.  Due to their popularity among the rank and file who call themselves conservatives, Beck and Limbaugh are now the most highly paid people in broadcast media today, with a following of millions of Americans.

Since the repeal of the FCC's 'Fairness Doctrine' by President Reagan, social and political issues have become polarized  into opposite partisan camps, as a result of the influence of broadcast media on those who follow them.  Before its repeal, the Fairness Doctrine compelled broadcast media to offer the opportunity to present contrasting or opposing viewpoints.  The Supreme Court upheld its legality. However, it was an FCC rule and not mandated by legislation although Congress. 

Unfortunately for the Republican Party,  their media wing now seems to captured by special interest groups and dominated by the Fox Broadcasting and Clear Channel Communications.  Each of these entities have their own agendas, neither of which is necessarily aligned with the interests of the American people, although they both stridently claim to do so.

Fox Broadcasting is owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.   Murdoch hired Roger Ailes to create the Fox News Channel which he now runs and which is now the preeminent cable news channel in the country. 

Ailes was the media consultant for Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and Rudy Guiliani.  His specialty is political sensationalization.  He is the author of the  'Orchestra Pit Theory", saying:  "If you have two guys on stage and one guys says, 'I have a solution to the Middle East problem', and the other guy falls into the orchestra pit, who do you think is going to be on the evening news?"

Clear Channel Communications owns over 1200 radio broadcast stations throughout the US, and dominates in many regions being the only stations available.  Their board of directors is headed by wealthy far-right neoconservatives, largely from Texas or Oklahoma.  At least one director (John H. Williams) is a member of the infamous Bohemian Club of San Francisco.

Oh yes, it is clear some decidedly slanted 'reporting' is going on here.   Much of it is duplicitous, deceitful, and created opinion masquerading as truth and reality and has swayed elections.  It is neither reality nor truth.  Americans are being deceived and the credibility of Republicans is being destroyed. 

Will the so-called 'Soul of the Republican Party' ultimately destroy the party?