Comments on Badtux the Snarky Penguin: The toxic legacy of Ronald Reagan

One of the aspects of the Reagan administration th...

2008-10-12T08:33:24.893-07:00

One of the aspects of the Reagan administration that was implemented was this notion of supply side economics (aka trickle down economics) was going to help everyone in the end. I have yet to be convinced that it does really work. If anything, it creates lots a low paying jobs at places like Wally-world.

I think that supply-side assumes that if big business gets tax breaks that they won't pocket that money and somehow pass it down to the Joe Sixpack. It assumes that the businesses will either charge less than what the market is willing to pay or they will pay their employees more than what the market says their worth. Judging from fact that REAL wages is relatively flat and CEO compensation is skyrocketing, I think it is safe to say that it just simply not happening.

Your point was well taken, but you missed on the "...

2008-10-11T17:54:20.506-07:00

Your point was well taken, but you missed on the "rottenness" of the carter admin. Verify your recollections with the stories of behind the headlines involving regan and his party prior to the convention, along with where he sent his minions to talk to heads of state. And tell me that was a fair election.

The first time I ever bought gold and buried it in...

2008-10-11T17:51:03.037-07:00

The first time I ever bought gold and buried it in my yard, 50 farking ounces of it, was when The Gimper was preznit. I was THAT convinced he was going to fumble his way into a nuclear war, and I wanted to be able to survive, if life was possibly still worth living after such an event. (I know your views on gold, Tux, but ask yourself -- if TSHTF in a big way, would you rather be WITH a pile of non-edible Maple Leafs, or WITHOUT them?)

Then the theory of nuclear winter began to unveil. At the time, I was living in a rustic small town on the shore of Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, where the winters were bad enough in normal times. Radioactive super-winters would be beyond survivability.

So I gave up on the idea of riding it out as a rugged, gold-coin-flashing Northwoodsman, and just kept my fingers crossed that the doddering old fuck wouldn't blow us all up. I still reviled him, though. If I had only known that the evil but intelligent Bush the First was actually running things, I would have been more at ease.

FWIW, I was working in a town named Laurium, where George Gipp, the real "Gipper," was born. He was the son of Lithuanian migrants who came to work the copper mines in this remote, frozen town. He was a drunken roughneck who could play good football. Myths built up around Gipp's noble character, much as they did around Reagan's. The actual Gipp was more interesting than the plasticene one. But as Firesign Theatre so aptly put it, "Everything you know is wrong."

Go further back in history, love. Memo PPS23 by Ge...

2008-10-11T11:04:39.786-07:00

Go further back in history, love.

Memo PPS23 by George Kennan
From Wikisource

also sarah palin is exactly what ronald reagan was...

2008-10-11T04:13:32.478-07:00

also

sarah palin is exactly what ronald reagan was -- only with a skirt, tits and a wink. but she makes reagan look like einstein....

and she is extremely dangerous

badtuxthis may be the best post you have written (...

2008-10-11T04:07:22.969-07:00

badtux
this may be the best post you have written (and your sure write a ton of good ones) - no one has explained the failure of reagan better than you. he was the ice cream man giving away the free cone to the kids - who now adored him, but the parlor was eventually going bankrupt.

i hated and hate ronald reagan -- everything about him. he was a bad actor with good acting skills and charm - but zero for brains. and it is quite obvious we dont want leaders with brains. this is one of the reasons why a parliamentary govt works better. you can have your ronald reagan go to funerals, state dinners, the olympics and shake hands - run the state. but you can have your true intelligensia run the government. the people will see the face of reagan but could have the brain of an obama actually make USA inc. viable.

reagan did one thing that bush jr didnt - he had a lot of smarter people around him - creepy and nefarious, but smarter. 43 has NOT ONE smart person around him. cheney is not smart - he is cunning. condi is smart but ineffective and useless. the rest of them are fucking idiots. and they have take the reagan house of cards and finally collapsed it.

america STILL wants something for nothing - even the man who yelled socialist at the mccain rally - i would bet he gets his FEMA money if their is a flood in wisconsin.

the real crime of the republicans is the dumbing down of america and the zero dollars and effort put into education. we are a nation of millions of ignoramuses and now have nothing to show for it except a bunch of nukes.

and i predict - it will get much worse

thanks - this was great - i will link to this later

The genius of Ronald Reagan was that HE TOLD PEOPL...

2008-10-11T01:55:23.315-07:00

The genius of Ronald Reagan was that HE TOLD PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANTED TO HEAR. He identified that Americans wanted a free lunch. He identified that Americans wanted to be told soothing lies of patriotism and consumerism, that Americans wanted to be told "greed is good", "buy now, pay later", "hard work is for suckers". He never said any of these things, of course. What he actually said was all pious and shit. But by the examples he set, this is what he told America.

And they fucking ate it up, man. Like goddamned caviar, just guzzled it right on down with a stupid-ass smile on their face. Well guess what, motherfuckers. It's 28 years later and now you Reaganauts are gonna reap what your senile-ass con artist idol sowed. He's dead and buried, but you're still here. Satisfied?

- Badtux the Rude Penguin

I never could figure out why everybody thought tha...

2008-10-11T01:16:58.869-07:00

I never could figure out why everybody thought that Ronald Regan was such a great president. During the Regan administration was when the evangelicals and theocrats saw the gate open to the Republican party for them to ride in on the back of Ronald Regan under the guise of conservatism. There was also the fact that from the videos and material that I have seen coming from the Regan presidency, he had some REALLY strange conspiracy theories about the Soviet union being secretly allied with aliens. I would not be surprised if he had Alzheimer's BEFORE he was elected president. I think the only reason why people idolize him so much is because he was very charismatic with his "folksy" attitude. This resonated with people who scorn the intellectual, blue-blood ivory tower mentality that many people think is characteristic of the "liberal establishment" in American politics. The fact that Reagam survived an assasination attempt also put the living "martyr" effect in his favor. This is similar to the phenomenon how everybody was willing to get in line to fellate W. Bush just because he happened to be president during the 9-11 fiasco even though his poll ratings were in the toilet before then.