PoliticalChic has the unusual distinction of wining both the 'Troll Of The Year', and 'Revisionist Of The Last Century' awards this past year. It is hard to follow the bunkum money buys when it wants to control the minds of its citizens. Anyone who has read any history on the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) realizes the power corporate propaganda has on the impressionable.
The most obvious observation one can gather from Garland Tucker's look back at history is why then did America crash after Coolidge and Hoover? The answer should be obvious to anyone, except an ideologue like Tucker, who works in the financial industry as a CEO and makes millions doing nothing productive. Is that a harsh judgment? Consider that 2008 was similar to 1930 and you wonder if the man has five brain cells. We crashed Garland because of the same hedged bet stupidity that brought us the great depression, only this time FDR and John Maynard Keynes' wise choices taught both Bush and Obama a great lesson and they stabilized the tragedy that could have been, and was after Coolidge/Hoover.
It is hard to counter the mass amount of stupidity put out by the corporate wingnuts, money talks, and when it wants more, it talks louder. But below are a few books for anyone interested in the real story. Oh and why do ideologues not look back at the Reagan/Bush crash and the Clinton/Bush crash? Both parallel the Coolidge/Hoover crash in obvious ways. Why? By the way progressivism as a movement ended in 1914 with the war, and only the great crash brought citizens back to the senses. We are on this ship together; time we learned that.
Amazon.com: The Age of Reform (9780394700953): Richard Hofstadter: Books
Amazon.com: The Great Depression and the New Deal: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) (9780195326345): Eric Rauchway: Books
Amazon.com: A People's History of the United States (P.S.) (9780061965586): Howard Zinn: Books
"Paints a vivid picture of how the supposedly rational capitalist system seemed to lose its collective mind, and it has spooky parallels with what we are witnessing now." Fortune
Amazon.com: The Great Crash 1929: John Kenneth Galbraith: Books
If interested in economic bubbles check this out:
Amazon.com: A Short History of Financial Euphoria (Penguin business) (9780140238563): John Kenneth Galbraith: Books
"Corporate propaganda directed outwards, that is, to the public at large, has two main objectives: to identify the free enterprise system in popular consciousness with every cherished value, and to identify interventionist governments and strong unions (the only agencies capable of checking a complete domination of society by corporations) with tyranny, oppression and even subversion. The techniques used to achieve these results are variously called 'public relations', 'corporate communications' and 'economic education'." Alex Carey
Amazon.com: Taking the Risk Out of Democracy: Corporate Propaganda versus Freedom and Liberty (History of Communication) (9780252066160): Alex Carey: Books
LOL. Another dimwit trying to sell everyone on the idea that Fascism, and it's virulent offspring, Nazism, were left wing movements. Righteous, you are a real stupid ass for even trying to rewrite history in that manner.
The Nazi's were not socialist, they were not left wing. Please explain Old Crock, would love to hear this tail.
Answer is here:
http://www.usmessageboard.com/politics/84756-where-did-the-word-nazi-come-from-4.html#post1472898
Tsk, tsk,....what has happened to good friend Middy?
Where is the good natured guy, with the sense of humor...and the civility?
Now, all his posts are chock full of personal invective, and name calling. But, a higher level of name calling, at least.
1. Since Middy has awarded me various titles, I must first admit that I have never used the term 'troll,' at least not outside of reading to the children...so I'll just guess that it means one who has an opposite viewpoint.
Now, let me try my hand at title-awarding:
let me give Middy the 'The Poster Most Eviserated by Events.'
I attribute the change in Middy's style, and attitude, to
the crash-and-burn of his political hero, the President who turned out to be the empty suit we on the right predicted he would be....in fact, he is merely a chalk outline.
2. Like 80-90% of the Obama supporters, Middy has been unable to man-up and take responsibility for super bad judgement. And apologize.
3. Now it gets worse.
Middy reads history, but can't seem to incorporate its lessons. Instead he whines about
revisionism, but is unable to refute the facts:
"Under the eight years of Harding-Coolidge, GNP grew at an average rate of 4½ % per year."
"the 20’s demonstrate the speed with which industrial productivity could transfer luxuries into necessities, and spread them down the class pyramid. The economic tide sweeping the country permeated the lower income sector of the economy. Prosperity was more widespread and more widely distributed than at any time in American history, right up until this point!"
"...Hoover as the start of the New Deal, which FDR continued." This statement was made by none other than the Demcratic Presidential candidate, John W. Davis.
"a. 1920 and 1980 resulted in conservative policies such as lower taxes and less government spending. These would be the polices of Harding, Coolidge, and Reagan. The years immediately following were of growth and prosperity.
b. 1932 saw the liberal policies of FDR, very different from the above. The result: deflation and economic stagnation, and a multi-year extension of the depression."
One can see immediately why Middy or any left winger wedded to the left-wing policies of FDR and President Obama would be chagrined....
I guess that what the old saying 'The hurt dog barks' means.
4. Now, to call me a 'revisionist' isn't so bad, if the meaning is still 'one who corrects and improves a doctrine,' as this is my raison d'etre, but there is the pejorative meaning, that I believe Middy is reaching for, i.e. straying from the truth.
If that is Middy's idea, then he should be able to rebut the above...
instead, he rebounds with the oh-so-porous "why then did America crash after Coolidge and Hoover?"
And so, we have a 'teachable moment'...get a pencil and paper, Middy:
a. Hoover instituted policies very different from those of Coolidge. In fact, Davis commented on them as I wrote in the post.
b. When has prosperity ever been permanent?
Is that the sound of crickets that I hear?
Left you slackjawed, eh?
5. Calling Tucker an ideologue, and "you wonder if the man has five brain cells" falls far short of reasoned debate, or fact-laden rebuttal. In fact, it smacks of
a child whose feelings have been hurt....which is exactly the situation.
6. Now for Middy's central mantra: "FDR and John Maynard Keynes' wise choices..."
I'll counter that with fact, and from a left wing source, as well:
a. In 1935, the Brookings Institution (left-leaning) delivered a 900-page report on the New Deal and the National Recovery Administration, concluding that “
on the whole it retarded recovery.”
b. John Maynard Keynes, in a letter published in the NYTimes, December 31, 1933, warned “ even wise and necessary Reform
may, in some respects, impede and complicate Recovery. For it will upset the confidence of the business world and weaken their existing motives to action.” Even Keynes saw the danger in treating the nation’s capitalists as an enemy, as “the
unscrupulous money changers,” as FDR called them in his first Inaugural.
Betcha' Middy could have written FDR's words, there.
7. For some reason, I suppose Middy needed the support of Old Rocks...a puzzlement in itself, includes a denial that "Fascism, and it's virulent offspring, Nazism, were left wing movements."
Fascism, nazism, progressivism all share the stamp of 'government and the collective are preeminent, as in the following:
"The Germans have a history of embracing
authoritarian rule. As the German philosopher Hegel said, “The
state says … you must obey …. The state has rights against the individual; its members have obligations, among them that of
obeying without protest” (Ralf Dahrendorf, Society and Democracy in Germany).
Wow, could have been written about the Democrats, eh?
Well, I'd best stop beating Midcan like a rented mule, or he may call me more mean name.
Now, write soon, hear?
