GE exalts Reagan in new TV ad while pandering to the right and rewriting history
GE now joins the Reagan History Rewrite project as a new contributor, blanketing the airwaves with this nonsense, celebrating Ronald Reagan's "Centennial" while pandering to the right wing with tales of his majesty and legend.
Angelo (aka StopBeck on Twitter) was kind enough to list some facts as an antidote for GE's spin:
Ronald Reagan destroyed unions...cut the budgets for education, EPA, poverty programs, etc...engaged in a public policy initiative aimed specifically at screwing over the poor...advanced the prison-industrial complex...hollowed out the Federal government to the best of his ability...ironically espoused the belief that government was the enemy (hello! he was the president *facepalm*)...was reckless and neglectful in responding to HIV/AIDS...tried to cut disabled people from social security rolls (that’s right...disabled people)...HUD grant fraud…Sewergate…
And let's not forget the greatest achievement of his Presidency: the Iran-Contra arms for hostages deal.
GE takes billions of dollars for defense contracts and other goodies from our government, and sees nothing wrong with singing Reagan's praises on Rush hate talk radio?
I'm waiting for their celebration of JFK to balance things. And a unicorn. And maybe a pony, too.
Ed.: Be sure to read the definitive discussion of the Reagan mythmaking machine -- and how it is a significant cog in the mighty conservative-movement Wurlitzer -- in Will Bunch's Tear Down This Myth: How The Reagan Legacy Has Distorted Our Politics and Haunts Our Future, an important read for every progressive.
You know that new law that takes the student loan program away from the private lenders? That law undid what Reagan did during his time in office. He is the one that gave the program to the bankers in the first place and basically gutted Pell Grants.
At the time we were told that it was cheaper to have private lenders handle every thing for a fee from the govt. plus the interest paid while kid was in school and what it really was was a big kiss to the loan industry.
At the same time Reagan's admin gutted Pell Grants forcing more students to get loans that had to be paid back rather than grants that didn't. That meant more money for the banks on payments and interest.
...he uses big words like 'particularly' and 'delicatessen.' -- Jack
The story is always that it's cheaper for private industry to run whatever, how many times has it worked? None.
By Teabagger standards, Reagan was a commie sympathizer.
that the government shouldn't be paying for students "intellectual curiousity". His lack of intellect combined with Shrub's lack of curiousity has led this country to the brink of disaster.
I had a fully funded nursing scholarship which Reagan cut once in office. Tell me how supporting nurses education hurts the country? I had a heavy student loan burden already just to get into a profession which is tough and not paying out the big salaries. That scholarship made the difference to alot of people about staying in the nursing program.
No surprise the Rwing would try to spin Reagan into their patron saint.
We just have to stick to the truth.
Good post on an important subject.
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
"The Authoritarians"
Dr. Robert Altemeyers groundbreaking, empirical research into the Authoritarian mindset, basis for John Deans work, "Conservatives without Conscience"
It's like reading the opposing teams playbook playbook!!
http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/
Creating a myth around Reagan isn't surprising, as the Republicans have nothing to offer but slogans. The GOP now stands for Glenn, O'Reilly, Palin.
Raygoon -
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Which Democratic president's (I'm sorry, Democrat president's) centennial is Fox "News" bankrolling? When that happens, I'll concede that they're mirror images of each other.
students at my school who identify as conservative or Republican. 88% think Reagan never raised taxes. 74% think he balanced the budget and 23% think he never negotiated with terrorists.
'Merkin ignorance as a whole.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
From Texas? Sounds like they are already teaching from the new conservative textbooks.
For all the right's criticism that Obama is "the Mesiah" of the left, I have never seen such fawning. Airports, Federal buildings, schools & streets names after him, a proposal to put his face on the $50 bill and rumblings of a FIFTH face on Mt. Rushmore. All for a man who was, to be generous, a mediocre president.
The irony is, by the Republicans' own "purity test", HE WOULDN'T QUALIFY TO EVEN BE A REPUBLICAN TODAY! Especially with his flip-flop on stem cell research.
Yet he impacts me to this day; my unemployment INSURANCE (a "policy" both me and my employer contributed into to) is now taxed. It's bad enough I have to try to live on 40% of what I made before, Thanks to Ronnie Ray-gun, I have to pay income tax on it!
You're not alone. Any Federal worker, after 1983, who had worked in the private sector, paying into Social Security, either before or after their Federal job, can only draw 55% of their S.S. benefits. Also, they can't draw the survivor benefits upon the death of their spouse. The B-grade actor and laundry soap shill called it "double dipping", even though the hypocritical S.O.B. drew FOUR pensions. One was the Actor's Equity pension, two was the California Governor's Pension, three was the U.S. President's pension, and four, believe it or not, was Social Security. Screw the American People and be worshipped as God on Earth. Jeezus, what a country!
Ed Schultz's paycheck.
(does this mean we boycott Ed?)
How does G.E get awat with "funding both sides"?
(how many here are Ed Schults fans?)
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
So, throw the baby out with the bathwater?
...or come to terms with the fact that we have Stockholm syndrome.
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
I'm not a big fan of babies.
as long as you worship the blastocyst to fetus.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
everyone funds both sides
they pay for access not ideology
G.frickin'E. has no business in this pandering to a jackass of a man who blatantly bargained with the real enemies and whose lies and deceit, okay and arrogance and hubris and avarice, brought about so many laws and rules to hurt people. Ronald Reagan was an A.C.T.O.R. and that's all he was!
if you boycott GE you can't watch NBC or its other organs.
http://www.ge.com/products_services/directory...
I was wondering if Obama should do to the Tea Baggers what Reagan did to the war protesters at Berkley and Santa Barbara. Or maybe Obama should do what Nixon did at Kent State to the Tea Baggers. Reagan was a senile old windbag and the Tea Baggers would treat him like they treat McGandpa.
Don't leave out my favorite, Ollie North importing drugs to America so Reagan can illegally fund the Contras and arm Iran and Iraq, all the while clueless Nancy is walking around mumbling "just say no".
via overdubbing.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
via overdubbing.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
No wait, I get him mixed up with that other fellow, Bonzo. I like how the Bush 2.0 people tried to emulate Reagan's greatness at wearing western hats and splitting wood by having Junior "clear brush." Haven't seen that image much lately. Didn't he move to the suburbs?
But what makes him the Conservative hero was that he could smile that pretty smile while he stuck the shiv into the poor, the black, the handicapped, and the disenfranchised.
That's why he's their hero. George H. W. Bush sneered while he did that.
His son (name, never to be named, spit 3X's and cross myself for even thinking of him) smirked.
That was poor form. You needed Reagans smile to do the damage he did, and still be a hero to millions.
And everyone, except a few of us in those days, loved that smile. Since 1979, when I tried to explain to people Reagans faults, racism, and hypocracy, they looked at me like I'd just spit on their Grandfather.
I want to buy Bunch's book. But it'll have to wait until I get beyond the subsistance salaries I get from my two minimum wage jobs.
And just think, I'm only one or two more minimum jobs away from being called a "Great American" by W (AAAAAARRRRGGGG! name, never to be named, spit 3X's and cross myself for even thinking of him. Now, I'll have to cut out my tongue for mentioning him!)!
and I agree with you wholeheartedly... it's all in the acting that craptastic 'man' did that made people think he somehow did something great... when in reality he did nothing great or even close to it. Reagan was a fool and a fake... that's all.
His smile concealed a pretty awful legacy. In addition to the shameful moves already mentioned, Reagan also let the domestic steel industry go belly up, with thousands of jobs headed to overseas mills and thousands of Americans out of work. What did he care that a Rust Belt formed? He lived in the Southwest, abandoning his Midwest roots. Meanwhile, he preached voodoo economics and had to raise taxes. Oh, old Ronnie was a piece of work.
Reagan, The Father of Teleprompters!
"GE exults Reagan..." Duh. Raygun worked as a corporate bagman before he was in public [sic] service and during his time in public [sic] service. Why is it any surprise that he'd continue his pro-corporate ways even in death?
After he switched from the Democratic to the Republican party and before he started running for offices, GE hired him to tour its facilities around the country, and lecture the employees on their proper places as non-unionized serfs beholden to their corporate lords and masters. It was also at around this time that he made that hysterical (in several senses of the word) recording for "Operation Coffeecup" (look it up - and the recording is on Youtube), explaining how Medicare would turn the US into a sattelite of the Soviet Union and enslave us all.
When it was announced that Reagan had Alzheimer's, my reaction was, "It took them this long to notice?". There were many times in those eight years (and the period from 2001-2009) that I sincerely wished that the Zero Year Curse, in effect since 1840, would assert or re-assert itself.
When he put our troops in Lebanon to get blown up then took them out right after then attacked Grenada to make us forget his blunder.
Republicans are liars and simply cannot be trusted.
That last, great US military "victory".
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
on the BBC about the fall of the Berlin Wall. Reagan wasn't even mentioned in the first or third segments and briefly mentioned in the second.
The Wingnuts would say that the BBC is willing to discard their reputation just to be part of the worldwide conspiracy against the Republican Party.
firing the Traffic controllers in 1981, Reagan was always an asshole in my mind. He also surrounded himself with great "patriots" like Ollie North, Ed Meese, Alexander Haig, and the mother os all asshole Dick Cheney.
We should embrace Ronny for the time he was a (not-so-great) actor and when headed up a union (SAG).
Oh wait - that was before he lost it.
Nevermind.
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
I think you're right.
I bet as an actor he worked and even socialized with LGBT people too.
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
some names rather less flattering in those days.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
In the days of the studio/star system, those types of stories never got out. Victor Mature is a classic example; he wasn't outed until after he died. My mother took it really hard (much to her own surprise.)
"Courtesy is owed. Respect is earned. Love is given." --Unknown author, found in Guide to Texas Etiquette by Kinky Friedman
In my lifetime I didn't think there could ever be a worse President than Nixon, then came Reagan, so I thought will there can never be a worse President than Reagan, then came George W. Bush. There is a much over looked thread surrounding Nixon, Reagan, Bush 1, and Bush 2. Ford pardoned Nixon for his blatant criminal activity, Clinton decided not to pursue the blatant criminal activity of Reagan and Bush 1, and Obama will not go after the blatant criminal activity of George W. Bush. Maybe if at some point we as a county held the Republicans accountable for their actions they would stop trying to turn the country into a Fascist's state.
"We bring good things to
lightwhites!""Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
Are Americans Too Broken by Corporate Power to Resist?
http://www.alternet.org/media/146128/are_amer...
"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
Too many people can't find the off button when the media lies outright. Those people are volunteer victims of corporate power. Not too broken to resist - they are begging for it . . .
"Please sir, may I have another?"
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
like this one.
"Courtesy is owed. Respect is earned. Love is given." --Unknown author, found in Guide to Texas Etiquette by Kinky Friedman
Wasn't Reagan also involved in the first "October Surprise" when they made a deal with the Iranians to sell weapons for the hold off on the release of the hostages until Reagan had won... That's what I heard.
"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
Nixon Kissinger were first
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_surprise
Gave us GWBush,it was the starting point for every thing we see at this time.If only it were exposed. Now,it is 'down the memory hole'.October Surprise was....fascism,step one.
....the fools do not realize,a population that can ,..... not paticipate .............in the 'economy'...,can not keep it viable!..........."we are listening,.......and we're not blind.,......this is your life....this is your time."
that they sure are trying real hard to make sure the modern day "know nothing" party doesn't whither and die on the vine. Can't have Whitey become irrelevant in politics, lol
Reagan and Bush 41 were TRIED and Convicted of supporting the Contra Terrorists and CIA mining the harbors of Nicaragua in the World Court (International Court of Justice).
Reagan Naturally Withdrew our support for that court before the Ruling was made and claimed the Court had no jurisdiction.
The Court ordered Restitution to Nicaragua of $41 Billion of which the US has not paid one dime.
Is illogical to think Bush 43 used that same tactic to insulate himself form any Prosecution by the International Criminal Court?
Donaldd
Talk about pallin' around with terrorists . .
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
Let them pray to their false idol at their own risk. It really shows you how lacking they are in leadership today that they have to constantly look back to a mediocrity for validation.
"We will find fulfillment not in the goods that we have, but in the good we can do for each other."
Robert F. Kennedy
They should replace the stone owl at the Bohemian Grove with a likeness of Ronny Raygun.
:)
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
"Ask any Native American elder. When Owl manifests in a stone form, it means a lack of empathy. Shamans the world over manifest their power animals as living beings, just as they are in nature, not as stone idles. The owl is indeed a great one to have as a tutelary spirit. When people begin to see their power animals as stone idles it means they have lost their empathy with the four leggeds of the animal kingdom, and with the two leggeds, the humans. It means they are pursuing self interest over service to others."
Maybe the stone owl is the perfect symbol after all.
"We will find fulfillment not in the goods that we have, but in the good we can do for each other."
Robert F. Kennedy
That was GE's slogan when Reagan hosted GE Theatre on TV in the late 1950's. By 1980 he headed the "Regress Is More Important" posse. GE is off message similarly now. Awoah is us.
There you go, fixed it for you. After all, how are the serfs going to prosper if the lord of the manor doesn't?
"We will find fulfillment not in the goods that we have, but in the good we can do for each other."
Robert F. Kennedy
Ronald Reagan was a the biggest fraud to ever occupy the White House. His eight years in office and his legacy have doomed the working men and women of this country to a life of mediocre aspirations unless luch intervenes. He and his henchmen made certain their friends got rich at the expense of their fellow citizens. It sickens me to see people worship him. Clear thinking Americans know that Reagan's policies were disasterous. He was an ignorant demagogue, had no intellect, and was only interested in anecdotes rather than understanding poliies. He was a disaster whose effects are being felt today.
But W by far was the biggest fraud we ever had as a president. Reagan ranks right up there, but at least his presidency wasn't determined by the supreme court.
But W is a product of the Reagan legacy...there ARE no moderate Republicans.
Reagan permanently altered the direction this country goes. His presidency was a turning point into all the shit we are in now. Let's not forget his energy policies. After the 1973 oil embargo Carter's energy programs reduced domestic consumption of oil about 25% (from 21 mbd to 17 mbd). Reagan declared there was plenty of oil in the North Sea and the North Slope of Alaska, both of which are now in steep decline. This country is now totally delusional about oil supplies and the extent of our oil dependence.
Let's not forget the Savings and Loan fiasco, the fact that more high level people in his administration were convicted of felonies than any previous administration, and his discovery of the South as the new base of the Republican party.
Bush wanted to emulate Reagan and give him credit, W did a tremendous job of expanding the shitpile. Reagan was the author.
Amazing that a lot of people said that Reagan made them believe in America again. Alternative universe anyone?
Reagan put mentally disabled people out on the street. Can't let those people freeload off the guvmint.
We love the "house of satan" in America. Although, I didn't much like the Ge, 20 Mule Team Borax, sissy cowboy guy, who tucked his pants into his sissy boots, that presented the so-so "b" series type of GE shows on the black and white television, I love the fact that the "man, in the name of the number six, three-score and six" did the greatest things for American satanic lovers:
1. Traded nuclear weapons to the Iranians for hostages, something no American had ever done before.
2. Cut and ran like a little girl out of Lebannon. Something no American ever did before either.
3. Raised taxes the highest on middle incomers by removing ALL THE FUCKIN' DEDUCTIONS OF EARNINGS THE BANKS WE'RE MAKING ON US. Something no American ever did before.
4. Was the first to raise the deficit the highest ever. So high, no other American ever did that before.
Oh, I love the satanic man who lives in the GE "house of satan"...But.......I won't buy anything GE anymore. I am not suppose to cast my pearls to swine.....Plus, satan, really is a man and a bad actor. That's what the Bible says....he'll go down and get sealed for 1,000 years. That's how long it will take to forget how evil he was.
and I know I shouldn't, that his family has given permission to use him in this ad.
Jeanne
But is the shine still there? Is the teflon still able to do it's work? I think there are enough angry people in this country who are sick and tired enough of the image to send it to the waste bin. I also see SNL doing a whole rendezvous segment of their own.
Jeanne
Limp-Dick happily sucks the corporations dicks at any time.
Reagan started the cheating on wives example for all dirty, lowlife Reslugs.
Reagan's social policies were bad enough. But it was his economic policies that really failed the most.
A simple google search on subjects like "historical graph on unemployment by month", "historical graph of U.S. recessions", "presidents and prosperity", etc. will reveal that Reagan's economy was a disaster on almost every factor that matters. No wonder his job approval rating fell so low so quickly and remained there for so long...and that was right after he'd been shot when you'd expect his job approval rating to skyrocket, so you can imagine how much hatred this country really had for him.
Between Reagan and Bush The First, they shared maybe two or three "ok" annual result years economically out of 12. Otherwise, their presidencies were plagued by recession after recession, massive private sector job losses and business failures, historic peacetime deficits and debt.
Reagan still holds the record for highest post-WWII era peacetime unemployment rates (10.8%). And it isn't as though he inherited that from Jimmy Carter. Far from it. Reagan inherited declining unemployment rates (mid-low 7s), declining inflation and interest rates (thanks to the wisdom and courage of Carter and his Fed Chairman Paul Volker to make the difficult but unpopular decisions necessary, inflation and interest rates topped out and began a steady decline in March '80, almost a year before Reagan took office, beginning the taming of the hyper inflation Carter inherited from Nixon/Ford).
But Reagan disproportionately cut the top marginal tax rates dramatically, raised FICA taxes and others on the rest of us to pay for them (still the biggest adjusted-for-inflation tax increase of the past 50 years or so was signed by "tax cutter" Ronald Reagan!) and saw deficits and debt rise so much he transformed the USA from the world's biggest creditor nation to the world's biggest debtor nation within a single presidency. His.
And by the time his VP took over as president housing prices were already beginning to plummet in what would now be considered the "second" biggest drop in housing values along with a similar drop in Americans' personal wealth since The Great Depression.
Sound familiar?
Man in the dark suit standing on the right-hand side of the pic...isn't that Lee Harvey Oswald shooter Jack Ruby?
Unbelievable. That guy shows up more places than Forrest Gump.
... Alex P. Keaton. Ironically, Limbaugh pointed one of his biggest, erroneous criticisms at the actor who made the worship of Reagan seem like a perfectly normal way of life.
They have an email address on their website. I emailed and asked if we haven't immortalized Reagan enough. Especially the national airport named after him, when he fired all the air traffic controllers. They answered me as well.
Even if it were understandable for a president to change the terms of the social security trust fund after someone has been forced to make mandatory contributions for over ten years, just because they go on later in life and get a low paying civil service job thus earning a small civil service pension, should not be cause for them to lose their widow's pension. Talk about unconstitutional...As far as I'm concerned the republican party should do the honorable thing and shut down all federal programs. This includes but is not limited to Social Security, Medicare, VA hospitals, the Civil Service System, and all programs that begin with the word Title.
This from a company whose CEO states he will no longer hire American workers, or was the Emerson. Not that there is a spit worth of difference between the companies anyway. I have been told that I should maintain silence when I don't have anything nice with butterflies and roses, and lollipop dreams to say. Consider this my silence.
Imagination at Work.
"[...] an important read for every progressive."
How about: ... and important read for everyone! Not just one political ideological group. Don't swing the pendulum hard the other way on this. The truth is the truth, and everyone should be made aware of it.
'nuf said.
Let's not forget his funding of Central American death squads.
I did some minor corrections to the script.
(open with picture of governor reagan gradually bring up the music from the last :30 of the "West Wing" theme)
Before he went after citizens exercising their rights...(video of the in the CA Statehouse)
Or secretly lengthened the captivity of embassy personnel in Iran by striking a deal with their captors(video of the release split screened with his taking the )
Or began the destruction of our economy...(video of him and Greenspan with h w bush's voodoo economics underneath.
He was wrong about social security(his socialism comment), attacked the poor and downtrodden(vid of his welfare mother talk), encouraged supremacist organizations(vid of his announcement in the city that birthed the klan), emptied the facilities(video of homeless), and started the entire that lead us to this...sound of W. bush speaking and video of the Iraq invasion...
He was a "B" actor(video of "Bonzo goes to College")
Are you sure you want to celebrate that?(FTB)
I like my version better.
He was a "B" actor(video of "Bonzo goes to College")
Are you sure you want to celebrate that?(FTB)
I like my version better.
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