dagblog - Comments for "Reagan: the Real Story"

Give the people what they

MrSmith1 — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 20:06:13 +0000

In reply to They lined up for miles to

Give the people what they want, and they'll show up in droves.

They lined up for miles to

cmaukonen — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 02:26:54 +0000

In reply to The American public believes

They lined up for miles to see him lying in state.

And that WAS the last time Reagan lied.

The American public believes

NCD — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 02:12:43 +0000

In reply to And Obama likes Reagan and

The American public believes Reagan was one of the greatest Presidents of all time. They lined up for miles to see him lying in state. To criticize Reagan would be political suicide.

And Obama likes Reagan and

cmaukonen — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 22:23:01 +0000

In reply to Nixon in retrospect was

And Obama likes Reagan and his policies ???

WTF ???

Nixon in retrospect was

NCD — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 19:47:59 +0000

In reply to I had not thought it possible

Nixon in retrospect was nothing as bad as Republicans since then. He was a liberal when he was not concocting penny ante break-ins. As bad as the GOP since? No way. See Reagan above. BTW, Daniel Ortega, the evil leftist bad guy in Nicaragua, is still there, President of the country. The Reagan supported Contras are gone, and Texas has not been invaded as Ronnie tried to imply was possible when he said 'Nicaragua, it's only 2 days from Texas'.

As I have said before, it seems the right runs the US, and it was the right that used the excuse of Watergate to let the Democrats get rid of Nixon, who was a secretive scheming guy, but a very liberal President who the right hated vehemently (EPA, OSHA, China trip etc). It's a tale for school kids that Watergate 'cleaned up abuse of power' in Washington.

I had not thought it possible

cmaukonen — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 19:34:05 +0000

In reply to Evidence of Ronnie's 'special

I had not thought it possible but worse than Nixon.

Evidence of Ronnie's 'special

NCD — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 18:50:37 +0000

In reply to Reagan: the Real Story

Evidence of Ronnie's 'special relationship' with the Mullahs of Iran when the US embassy hostages are released minutes after he takes the oath of office, PBS later does a Front Line implicating Reagan campaign people with making deals with Iran, to hold the hostages until after the election, which is treason. Sets the stage for the later illegal secret transfer of US weapons to Iran who are fighting US supported Saddam in a war that kills hundreds of thousands, and in which Saddam uses chemical weapons made in part with US supplies. Robert Fisk, correspondent of the UK Independent writes of riding on a train in Iran during the war, with soldiers stinking of and showing signs of being exposed to chemical warfare. Rummy visits and shakes hands with Saddam during this period.

Nightmarish recollections of Ollie North trading and selling arms and missiles to Iran, in some cases to gain release of hostages. Reagan denies, and the terrorists get out of control taking even more hostages, some killed, including Steve Kerr's dad, embassy and CIA employees.

The original intent of the arms deals was in order to get Iranian money for the Contras (Iran had to pay more for weapons and spare parts for the Shah's military equipment because Reagan had banned weapons shipments to them, raising the price and the money to be made) General Singlaub and Secord run the arms operation in the war in Nicaragua, where priests and nuns were tortured and killed. The operation exposed when Eugene Hasenfus C-123 cargo plane crashed with a load of illegal arms violating US law.

The Israeli Sabra and Shatila massacre in Beirut, leading to and followed by the deaths of 250 US Marines in their Beirut barracks, the botched US operation to protect citizens of Beirut and the quick exit afterwards.

The premature, against safety requirements due to cold, launch of the Challenger Space Shuttle so Reagan could mention them, and 'the first teacher in space' Christa McAuliffe, in his SOTU speech the next day, which speech was canceled and then attempts were made to cover up the known risks of O-ring failure at launch time temps. The shuttle blows up in seconds as the seals fail, as predicted by engineering tests. The seal design is then changed after a 2 year launch hiatus. Of course, the White House pressure to launch was 'deniable' and/or covered up, nothing written, even though it was known there was a communications set-up for Reagan to talk to the astronauts, and high level phone calls were made to shuttle directors in the days when the launch decision had to be made (fuel loading required about a two day window).

One final surprise is when George H W bush provides pardons for Caspar Weinberger, the former Sec. of Defense, and others related to what they knew and did in the Iran Contra scandal, the pardons made even though the honest, tenacious and no nonsense ('old-fashion Republican') special prosecutor, Lawrence Walsh, who wrote a book on his investigation, Firewall, had not even indicted them for a crime.

(No subject)

Donal — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 16:59:25 +0000

In reply to Reagan: the Real Story

(No subject)

Donal — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 16:44:19 +0000

In reply to Reagan: the Real Story

Sadly, most of us knew, or at

MrSmith1 — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 05:20:16 +0000

In reply to Reagan: the Real Story

Sadly, most of us knew, or at the least, strongly suspected the truth about him and we watched incredulously as he was, and still is, passed off as the "Greatest President in living memory" by the Republicans. I got to "meet him" once, way back in 1972. He had come to my college to speak to the Young Republicans club (in 1972, they were considered odd by the rest of the student body, even in Oklahoma), and I was appearing in a play.

Most of the actors in the cast were, like me, staunch McGovern supporters, but we were warned by our director and the head of the drama department to 'be nice' and 'don't make a scene', so we stood there and he came in with his orange fake tan and his dyed hair and we smiled and shook his hand. He made a couple of lame attempts at small talk, and then was quickly hustled off to his next appointment.

But I suppose that suspecting Reagan to be what, it turns out, he actually was, is what made this one of the greatest SNL sketches of all time: