The Real Ronald Reagan

I received an email from the irrepressible John Linton directing me to an essay by Christopher Hitchens by writing, "Hitchens on Reagan is a joy to read." You can find it @ http://www.slate.com/id/2283940/
It being one hundred years since Ronnie RayGunZap, as we called him back in the 60's & 70's, was born, there is a plethora of all things RayGun in the so-called 'lamestream media'.
When I think of Reagan, which is hardly ever, come to think of it, the first thing that comes to mind is his infamous quote, "Trees cause polution." He said it seriously and with a straight face. The next thing is the comment his 'handlers' attributed to him, while in hospital after being shot, near death and awaiting an operation. He alledgedly looked up at the doctor saying, "I hope you're a Republican." Thing is, Reagan had what is known as a 'sucking chest wound'. No one, not even the Gipper, can speak with a wound of that type.
I was at a coffee shop recently where I heard a vehement argument. One older gentleman said that Reagan should be placed on Mount Rushmore; the other maintained it was a travesty he was not already "up there." A younger fellow, overhearing the conversation chimed in with, "To hear you gentlemen talk, you would think Reagan's shit didn't stink."
"What the hell you mean, young fella, Reagan did NOT shit!" said one of the old gents.
Ronald Reagan was a 'rat', as it was known back in his day. Or, should I say, a 'rat-fink'. Now he would be called a 'snitch'. According to the article, Remembering the Reagan We May Never Know, by ALESSANDRA STANLEY,in the NYTimes 2/4/11, about The History channel’s biography “Reagan,” on Tuesday, "The film notes that while Reagan declined to name names to the House Un-American Activities Committee in public when he was president of the Screen Actors Guild, he did privately cooperate with F.B.I. investigators under the code name Informant T-10."
Something the folks at Fox News will not tell you is that RR started out as a left winger. Because of that he was not trusted by true right-wingers, like J Edgar Hoover, the cross-dressing head of the FBI, who kept his position for decades because he had the dirt on everyone. In chess there is a saying, "The threat is stronger than it's execution." Hoover did not have to blackmail anyone because the threat would suffice. To become POTUS, Reagan would have to 'prove' he was 'worthy'. What better way than to turn in people with whom you worked?
In the article, Secret FBI files reveal covert activities at UC
Bureau's campus operations involved Reagan, CIA, at the website, http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2002/06/09/MNCFLEADIN.DTL, it is written, "And after he was elected (governor of California), the FBI failed to report that Reagan falsely stated on a federal security clearance form that he never had been a member of any group officially deemed subversive, an omission that could have been prosecuted as a felony." Guess he got on Hoover's good side...
No one gets to the top of the ladder without climbing over others, but with RR, he not only climbed over the University of California President, Clark Kerr, but put on spikes, grinding them into Mr Kerr's back, ripping him to shreads, and causing blood to gush forth!
I quote from the article: "According to thousands of pages of FBI records obtained by The Chronicle after a 17-year legal fight, the FBI unlawfully schemed with the head of the CIA to harass students, faculty and members of the Board of Regents, and mounted a concerted campaign to destroy the career of UC President Clark Kerr, which included sending the White House derogatory allegations about him that the bureau knew were false.

The FBI, in contrast, developed a "close and cordial" relationship with Reagan, who made campus unrest a major issue and vowed to fire Kerr during his 1966 gubernatorial campaign."

Reagan is probably known most for his so-called 'Trickle-down economic' theory. His VP, George H W Bush called it "voodoo economics" when he ran against RR for the Republican nomination, and that ought to tell you something. From Ms Stanley's article: "Many of the biographers, journalists and policy experts who appear in the film are critical of Reagan’s social policies. But one of the most damning testimonials comes from a fan, the economist Arthur Laffer, ardent proponent of supply-side economics and father of the Laffer Curve.

“Trickle-down economics is if you feed the horse enough oats, the sparrow will survive on the highway,” he explains cheerfully."
Now that's Lafferable! A real knee-slapper, ain't it? That's how the 'elite' feel about the hoi polloi!

At least the French people got to eat cake! "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche."