Tear Down This Reagan Myth

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Saturday November 09, 2019 · 11:23 PM PST

2019/11/09 · 23:23

Sorry I’m so late to this but I just wanted to make clear: Reagan’s trip to West Berlin in 1987 was an abbreviated disaster. He only stayed for a couple of hours. His visit generated one of the biggest riots in the lefty neighborhood of Kreuzberg for that very riotous year. The city was under lockdown with the U-Bahn (i.e. West Berlin’s subway) halted. People said you had to be invited to the speech and there certainly was less of a crowd than the visit by, for example, Jesse Jackson two years earlier and possibly no more than Carter attracted during his visit. Those were the circumstances. The fact that it’s constantly brought up is nothing but an attempt by the rightwing crowd to rewrite history and to continually place its fake heroes at the center of historical events for which it had no real effect.

(Dedicated to Mike Pompeo)

Song of the Year: "Donald Trump Makes Me Wanna Smoke Crack" (Ledinsky)

patachon

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Friday September 09, 2016 · 10:02 PM PDT

2016/09/09 · 22:02

YouTube Version:

YouTube Video

My Favorite ‘Video’ Version (absolutely fab):

http://ge.ne.ro/watch-video/41839

Three Billionaires Walk Into a Bar ...

patachon

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Thursday July 02, 2015 · 10:05 PM PDT

2015/07/02 · 22:05

Three billionaires walk into a bar. The first billionaire throws up his hands. "We're broke," he cries. The second billionaire throws up his hands. "We're broke -- all of us," he sobs. The third billionaire throws up his hands but before he can say anything, the bartender rushes over and shouts out, "you guys don't expect me to foot the bill again, do you?" The third billionaire smiles: "How do you think we became billionaires?"

Chicago Tribune: Nixon Standing Taller After First 100 Days

patachon

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Wednesday April 29, 2009 · 8:13 AM PDT

2009/04/29 · 08:13

Walter Trohan, 'Nixon Standing Taller After His First 100 Days', Report from Washington, Chicago Tribune (4/30/1969):

The first hundred days of Richard Milhous Nixon find him standing taller in the eyes of his countrymen and looming larger on the world horizon than most observers, and even many of his admirers, had expected....

...The business-like Nixon approach and the evident attention he gives to his homework before meeting the press, have paid off in a cordiality between the chief executive and the news media that has been surprising.

It can be expected to remain for some time, because the new administration is scrupulous in observing the right to know. Cabinet members and top officials are readily accessible on the record and for background sessions. They may not make much news, but they are available and apparently frank.... (p. B3)

*"Washington Correspondent Emeritus"

patachon

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Tuesday April 07, 2009 · 8:24 PM PDT

2009/04/07 · 20:24

Mike Quigley thanks his supporters at John Barleycorn in Wrigleyville (Chicago) for their help in achieving this progressive victory.

Quigley Thanking Supporters

In this heavily Democratic district, there was little doubt that the Democratic candidate would win but in this victory we have a true progressive who's made his career about challenging the machine.

Feeling on the street: Quigley was a County Commissioner in Cook County. We will sorely miss him.

Homage to Paul Harvey

patachon

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Sunday March 01, 2009 · 6:31 PM PST

2009/03/01 · 18:31

My first reaction to hearing that Paul Harvey had died -- to be honest -- was surprise that he was still alive.

It's not like I followed his career all that much. In fact, while he may have broadcast in Chicago, the first time I heard of him was in the wild squatter scene of West Berlin in the 1980s when one of the few radio stations in English was Armed Forces Radio and he was on that.

I can remember hanging out with the "posse", in the ramshackle surroundings of a building that only a few years earlier had been abandoned, passing around bottles of vodka and beer and engaging in the kind of crazy chitchat that only people in their twenties can do when all of a sudden out of the radio-cassette player came these memorable words:

patachon

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Wednesday February 18, 2009 · 8:22 PM PST

2009/02/18 · 20:22

First we got the bum rush from Blago & Burris. Now it's coming from the Chicago Tribune. Notice the use of the word 'swiftly' in this apparently personal editorial addressed to Gov. Pat Quinn:

In anticipation of his [i.e. Burris'] departure, you, Senate President John Cullerton and House Speaker Michael Madigan need to swiftly change state law to provide for special elections when Senate vacancies occur. Madigan, like Durbin, supported a special election on the Obama seat until he realized the Democratic Party might lose it. Elections are like that, Governor. Voters just might have minds of their own. But as you've been telling Illinoisans for decades, there's no reason to cheat citizens out of a voice on who should represent them.

Hear that? A pop election with guaranteed low turn-out dominated by media elite organizations like, oh I don't know, maybe the Chicago Tribune.

They're just dying to get a Republican in there. They'd sell their souls to do it.

Blagojevich: Burris a 'Good and Honest Man'

patachon

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Saturday February 14, 2009 · 4:58 PM PST

2009/02/14 · 16:58

Least we forget. From (ex-)Gov. Blagojevich's announcement of his pick for Senator:

Roland Burris is no stranger to the people of our state. Between 1979 and 1992 he served the people of Illinois as the state's comptroller and the state's attorney general. He has had a long and distinguished career serving the people of Illinois. He will be a great United States senator.

And now I'd like to ask everyone to do one last thing. Please don't allow the allegations against me to taint this good and honest man.

When a charletan calls someone "good and honest", it's time to run in the opposite direction.

The best of all outcomes is for Burris to resign and Gov. Quinn to name a replacement.

NPR's Scott Simon (Again)

patachon

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Saturday December 06, 2008 · 3:37 PM PST

2008/12/06 · 15:37

The Media is reporting that Democrats are divided yet again. Yes, as if close to six months of reporting on 'pumas' and the supposed irreconcilable differences between Hillary and Barack supporters weren't enough, we now have an updated version, which pits unhappy lefties against Obama's appointees.

Jed talks about MSNBC's David Shuster being so eager to prove this point that he used a Kos poll on people's reaction to Obama's national security picks. The problem was, as Jed pointed out, "that the results of the poll contradicted the point he was making".

The cake however goes to NPR presenter Scott Simon. Apparently he was unable to find any liberal to talk about liberal attitudes to Obama and was forced to rely instead on conservative WaPo columnist, Kathleen Parker. He even asked her to put herself "in the mind of a democratic liberal activist". The guy is a complete buffoon.

The truth is, liberals are goo-goo eyed about Obama at the moment -- just like the rest of the country. This blather about liberals being unhappy with Obama is just the latest version of Puma-nation.

patachon

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Thursday October 16, 2008 · 9:56 AM PDT

2008/10/16 · 09:56

Why is it that Republicans only start to notice you once your income soars above six figures?

I guess that's when all their polices finally have a chance to work. I mean, vouchers for schools, tax credits for health care -- that's only going to work if you can bring to the table some serious money on your own.

For the rest of us, it's 'you're on your own'.

And it's like this every election cycle. Out of one side of their mouths, Republicans say, 'balance the budget' and out of the other, they say, 'tax cuts for the rich'. Then a year or two later we find they really meant only 'one of the above'.

By now, most people have wised up to this trick. I mean, it's why we're going broke at the moment. So apparently this year's approach is to justify their focus on the $250k-and-over crowd by slapping on the label of "plumber".

No doubt, this is wonderful news for the building trades! Go into plumbing and be part of the top 1.5 percentile of household incomes nationwide! Who knew? How could the plumbers have been keeping this under wraps for so long?

patachon

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Wednesday October 15, 2008 · 10:14 AM PDT

2008/10/15 · 10:14

ACORN registered over a million new voters for the coming election. That's their real crime. Charges of fraud from the GOP is just the GOP's standard operating procedure.

It's all about voter suppression. And in that spirit, here's a blast from the past -- 1964 to be exact -- on the GOP's effort to "discourage" over a million people from voting called "Operation Eagle Eye":

Democrats charged yesterday that Republican organizations across the country were preparing to 'intimidate' Negro and other low-income voters through an aggressive Election Day strategy of challenges at polling places.

Senator Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota, the Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate, denounced the Republican "Operation Eagle Eye" as an indication that the GOP leadership was determined to 'harass those who are going to vote.'

"It should be called Operation Evil Eye," Senator Humphrey declared in Los Angeles.

more after the jump...

patachon

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Friday September 26, 2008 · 9:16 AM PDT

2008/09/26 · 09:16

My latest letter to the McCain Campaign:

Senator McCain,

Please stay in Washington.

We know refusing to go to Mississippi for the Debate and claiming you've "suspended" your campaign is nothing but a desperate publicity stunt. We know economics isn't your strong point, and that your role, such as it is, in the negotiations to hammer out a bailout agreement has been less than constructive.

But Senator McCain, keep at it.

There's no better way to illustrate how truly erratic and cockamamie your judgment is. You only came up with this stunt once your polling numbers started to head south. In the Midwest, we call this 'digging your own grave'.

So while you may have no leadership position in the Congress and hence nothing really to do, Senator please stay.

And sure that means Obama will have a nationwide forum in Mississippi all to himself but you'll be rendering a far greater service to this country by showing us all, as if we had any doubts, how utterly inadequate you are to the office of President of the United States, something you're doing quite nicely just staying where you are.

Thanks and best wishes,

LEO
webmaster
IllinoisDemNet

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Tear Down This Reagan Myth

Song of the Year: "Donald Trump Makes Me Wanna Smoke Crack" (Ledinsky)

Three Billionaires Walk Into a Bar ...

Chicago Tribune: Nixon Standing Taller After First 100 Days

Quigley Victory for Congress in IL-05

Homage to Paul Harvey

Bum Rush from the Chicago Tribune

Blagojevich: Burris a 'Good and Honest Man'

NPR's Scott Simon (Again)

Take Your Average Plumber Making $250k a Year...

GOP: Operation Eagle Eye (1964)

Senator McCain, Please Stay in Washington