What Ronald Reagan Said When Korean Air 007 Was Shot Down by the Soviet Union in 1983
Move evidence for the case that the past was a different planet:
My Twitter feed is blowing up with the observation that "We had leaders, once," but I am just as interested in minor details, like the way Reagan evinced comparative respect for "the Congress," how he swerved between steely moral condemnations and detailed technical arguments, and how he topped the whole sundae with a call for…reducing nuclear weapons.
Also–for those making the usual hay about President Barack Obama going to fundraisers instead of aping Ronnie, do note that this speech took place five days after the event.
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Do not what? Do not note? Do note?
It's a typo, obviously. He meant to say "knot".
Dew knot?
I thought it was naught
Do naught, not note!
Isn't "naught" just Massholian for "not"?
Can't be Massholian, there's no superfluous "r" in it.
*Don Knotts that this speech
Well...there was also just a wee bit more incentive to score political points slamming the Soviets then there is in slamming the Ukrainian separatists.
Say what you want about Reagan, but that man knew how to talk to the citizens of this country and gave the impression that he actually gave a damn, unlike the disconnected piece of shit inhabiting the White House right now.
"Damn it, Jim, I'm a community organizer, not an actor!"
Ha...sigh...
Unfortunately for us that's all he was, a ventriloquist's dummy. While he was blowing smoke up our ear he was shoving a d--k up the a$$ of the average American for his puppetmasters on Wall Street.
In the eighties a lot of people in Wall Street went to jail. How many went to jail in the nineties, or later, smart guy?
lolwut
Well said and absolutely true. Reagan actually did give a damn. This Marxist phony we have now doesn't.
Reagan was a superior speaker than Obama.
By miles and kilometers.
"do not that this speech took place five days after the event."
Matt. /narrows gaze.
I believe the correct units of measure are either parsecs or light-years when expressing figurative distances of this magnitude.
Unless you're talking about the Kessel Run, in which case it's permissible to replace time with distance. Also, Han shot first.
"Also?for those making the usual hay about President Barack Obama going to fundraisers instead of aping Ronnie, do not that this speech took place five days after the event."
It took longer to figure out exactly what happened back then.
I don't remember, did Reagan go do Republican fund raiser the day it happened?
Reagan only took a weekly paper, so it took him longer to learn about world affairs and the internal workings of his own administration.
He didn't have the luxury of ESPN to inform him of the daily happenings in his administration.
Most of what I know about how a president handles a crisis comes from Independence Day but is it normal for the POTUS to follow current events by reading the newspaper? You would think they would have competent advisers or at least access to the internet. I think the president should step into the modern world and ditch the newspaper so he (or she) can keep up with current events.
Two words mister President: "Plausible Deniability.
+1 Macbook
of course, it's normal. What is worse than administration claims of Obama having learned of things through the media is the media's acceptance of those explanations.
it's NOT normal.
Needz moar caffeine.
What do you expect from a corrupt media that is all in for Obama?
You've ruined my joke about Obama claiming to learn about nearly every crisis faced by his administration in the newspaper with overanalysis.
Sadly it wasn't a joke.
"Also?for those making the usual hay about President Barack Obama going to fundraisers instead of aping Ronnie."
So, he didn't let this crisis go to waste!
What was "the take"?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yeA_kHHLow
P.S. "Obama aping Ronnie" is racist.
+1 joe running back to lowell
If I recall correctly, in Reagan's day, each morning his staff would assemble a daily briefing book of world affairs put together from various news outlets. I think this was the standard practice for all presidents of that era.
Even from the intelligence services...
They couldn't necessarily track things like this back then. For all we know, our intelligence services could track the missile that shot the plane down--that technology didn't necessarily exist back then. Our intelligence services would probably have to go through a deductive process, with people assets inside the USSR verifying this or that...
They just couldn't know from their independent sources what actually happened, and you didn't want to get it wrong. If Reagan had jumped the gun when it turned out to be a terrorist or engine failure, it would have made us look foolish. And back during the Cold War, there was a much lower tolerance for presidents who make themselves look foolish.
As long as the progtards get their Marxism and unrestricted infanticide they will tolerate any and all kinds of pathetic bullshit from one of their own.
God Damn Obama
God Damn the democrats
LOL!
How do you really feel. Just so happens I agree completely.
And back during the Cold War, there was a much lower tolerance for presidents who make themselves look foolish.
Are you kidding? Nobody ever questioned the President and no President ever faced any type of punishment for Cold war screw-ups. What happened to Reagan for Beirut? He just invaded Grenada to make everybody forget.
Yup, nobody questioned Reagan. What, are you retarded? Or a recent college grad?
What do you mean by "questioned". Did anybody ever do anything of consequence for anything Reagan did - even when he was actively violating Boland Amendment?
Yeah people talked and squawked but did absolutely nothing. In addition, it if the President or any of his staff didn't want to answer questions nobody tried to force them.
The reason why it took four days is they were putting that stupid dog and pony show together with edited tapes to show "the bloodthirsty commies shot down the plane in cold blood without any warning"
Wasn't it James Baker who famously said we can say something today and 200,000 people will read it. When we retract it 200 will.
The idea that the Reagan administration wanted to get it straight is an even bigger joke than Reagan himself.
You are a fool and the biggest joke on this site.
For Reagan to have absorbed anything they would have had to make a movie of it and convince Reagan on of the actors was him.
Hollywood generally likes to depict the US president like a modern King Arthur bravely riding into battle against evil forces. If there was really was an alien invasion, destroying everything with its superior forces, my guess is that the the president would probably be cowering and wimpering in fear. And I am not only talking about the current president, I would guess this would be the general behaviour from most politicians on both the left and right.
If the aliens come to destroy us our command structure would be target #1.
Maybe Obama and ACLU ton, but I. Doubt the Bushes or any previous presidents would cower. Hell, I think even Carter would go,out on his feet like a man.
I meant to reference Clinton in the first sentence, but my iPad has a strange notion of auto correct.
Pappy Bush and Carter were not cowards. GWB That's debatable.
While it is rarely a poor choice to bet against the courage and integrity of any politician, in this case, we have an example to discuss.
In November of 2004, the President was visiting Santiago, Chile, when a scuffle brought out between Chilean security guards and some Secret Service men, only a dozen feet from where the President and the First Lady were standing.
What did the President do when confronted by a low-grade riot among a dozen heavily armed men? Cower and whimper in fear? Run away? Do absolutely nothing (which is what everyone else did)?
No, he strode over, pushed his way through the Chileans, grabbed one of the agents, and pulled him to safety.
Like a boss.
Well, actually Kennedy was in combat as a PT boat commander. He was considered a hero by his crew for his actions after they were sunk.
Full disclosure: I am not a fan of Kennedy, but I believe in giving a man credit when he does something good. I doubt I will ever have to do that with Obama.
Yeah, but it isn't like he is reading "Family Circus". When the President wakes up, he is given a collection of articles, selected for him by staff, as well as summaries prepared by White House analysts.
STOP BRINGING UP FACTS!
No 24 hour new cycle though. It took like weeks for the news to reach anywhere do to the fact it was all carried by horseback.
Obama still hasn't made a national speech on the humanitarian crisis on our southern border, which has been ongoing to the point that even Dems are condemning him. And some of you are expecting him to make a coherent and sober comment about the plane being shot down in the Ukraine?
Hell, according to insiders, he was told of the incident by Putin. I guess he was waiting on the Rachel Maddow Show to get his dose of daily news.
Maybe nobody has told him about it yet, if only he knew he would do something. Somebody get him a major newspaper quick!
I bet the fuck stick got word of the tragedy from one of his staff members who read about it on the internet. Obama mentioned the crash for what, 2 minutes in his speech yesterday then continued with prepared remarks and got a pit beef sandwich? I mean, holy fucking hell, you can't make this shit up. Obama just doesn't care anymore, does he?
And sounded very wooden in the process.
If you guys should put yourselves in the shoes of Team Obama, you would understand that this poses a number of very difficult problems for them. As an empathic person, I really do feel their pain. Unlike the economy or the Middle East or the US messes in Iraq and Afghanistan, Bush's policies with respect to Russia and its neighbors showed no signs of catastrophe. I imagine that Team Obama is racking their brains trying to figure out how to blame this on Bush and the recalcitrant House Republicans. It's no wonder that it is taking time for some meaningful response.
Anymore? You're giving him WAY too much credit. He just doesn't bother to pretend anymore.
look, the man's not gonna do a photo op for the sake of doing a photo op, or make a speech just to hear his own voice. Unless it involves a banquet hall full of Team Blue high rollers; then it's game on.
I've always thought he loved nothing near so much as the sound of his own voice. Fancies himself an orator, you know.
This is why I cringe whenever someone comments that the Left "cares" or "has a moral" this or that. The Left has no compassion or morals whatsoever. When your entire political party is made up of sociopaths and psychopaths, it's not surprising that its leader can crack jokes, fundraise and play golf while the country goes up in flames.
The only thing that bugs me more is when they smugly talk about how intelligent their leaders are. Obama is a fucking moron. The man is stupid.
Indeed. Obama is neither intelligent nor wise. But I have to admit I don't hear his sycophants talk about his brilliance as much as I used to.
Let us know when he launches a $1 trillion ground war against the wrong country.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!
It really is like that, isn't it?
Bush has been out of office for six years now--and yet, somehow, no matter how stupid Obama behaves, it's all supposed to be okay because what Bush did was stupid, too.
Is there anywhere else in the world where this kind of logic works?
Yeah, Office Bob, you accidentally shot an innocent mother of four, but don't feel too bad--the last guy used to shoot babies on purpose!
Talking Reagan comparisons is fine but Bush?
NO FAIR!!! NO FAIR!
Reagan was in more or less the same situation.
The comparison is between the situations, in other words.
Obama is in this situation. What did he do?
Reagan was in the same situation. What did Reagan do?
Do you see the difference between that and comparing Obama's clear incompetence--in this situation--to anything and everything Bush ever did in every situation?
Because everyone else does see difference. Everyone else but you, Shrike.
But don't you see, Obama is in the same situation as Bush, and he *hasn't* invaded Iraq. Why, he goes for hours at a time not invading Iraq. No wonder his staffers are so star-struck.
Let us know when he launches a $1 trillion ground war against the wrong country.
I could not agree more with whoever is playing this part today. To a complex thinker who uses 8% more of his brain than everyone else there is the worst person who ever lived and there is everyone else. At no point at any time may any other person be criticized for their abject awfulness because by definition they are not the worst person who ever lived. Even when such a person who cannot be criticized laps the worst person who ever lived with incompetence he still is categorically above opprobrium because at one point he was not the worst person who ever lived. That is the standard I apply in politics and in every other aspect of my life.
Is that now the threshold for being declared "neither intellignet nor wise"? Because I know lots of people who are dumb as rocks and have never launched a $1 trillion ground war against the wrong country.
Dumbya proved his ignorance in every endeavor he undertook.
Dumbya proved his ignorance in every endeavor he undertook.
As has Obama. What's your point?
He genuinely truly doesn't understand why one person's stupidity doesn't justify another's.
Can you imagine working with someone who thinks that way?
God forbid you ever had to work FOR anyone who thought like that!
If I thought Bush's stupidity somehow justified Obama's stupidity? I'd never say it out loud in the office for fear it might effect my career path!
"He genuinely truly doesn't understand why one person's stupidity doesn't justify another's."
Of course he doesn't. His entire mindset is "Yay TEAM!!!" - a zero sum game. If Bush was stupid, somehow that makes Obama less stupid becuase TEAM!!
If you want to talk about stupid, talk about Clinton. He destroyed his legacy and the 2nd half of his presidency because he couldn't keep his dick in his pants. How stupid is that. Also Clinton got a lot of credit for the economy because he listened to Gingrich.
Not true. Obama has actively worked to cut the deficit in half from the one he inherited and would eliminate it entirely if not for the House.
(Simpson Bowles)
Sometimes that Derptard, he looks right into you. Right into your eyes. You know the thing about a Derptard, he's got... lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eye. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be livin'.
(Simpson Bowles)
(Was rejected by Obama and the senate, making the house irrelevant)
How has he worked to cut the budget deficit, by spending more each year? Sometimes the deficit just goes down on it's own.
Oh bullshit. Obama's budget proposals re always struck down unanimously by his D controlled senate. The budgets are always just under $4 trillion.
So no, he isn't planning on balancing shit. M'kay?
More liberal lies. The sequester resulted in reducing the deficit. Obama has done noting to reduce the deficit.
Let's talk about the National Debt.
2008 - $9 trillion
2014 - $17.5 trillion.
He gets communism and unrestricted infanticide from Obama. So he is saying Obama has a free pass to be a worthless fucking piece of shit.
Obama is president currently you stupid fuck. Have you figured that out yet?
Or is it that as long as you shitbags get your communism from Obama he can be as big a stupid fuck as he wants. Is that your point?
And you prove yours with every post you make.
My comment was for MarkinLA.
I myself spent most of today not launching a $1 trillion ground war against the wrong country. I've been tempted several times, but I'm kept on the wagon, simply be knowing that if I succeed in not launching a $1 trillion ground war against the wrong country, Palin's Buttplug will defend me against the accusation that I compare badly to Reagan.
Last I checked, a significant number of democrats voted yea for H.J Res 114 authorizing force in Iraq (including future president Clinton). Bush isn't the only one complicit in that debacle.
Leave FDR and Truman and LBJ alone!
Seriously? You and your kind should be begging us for forgiveness for your support of this shitsack. Instead you want to double down.
Kill yourself.
Afghanistan surge ? How much was that colossal failure ?
I don't think he's dumb john, he vacillates and he self centered.
I've known real professors--smarter than Obama--who have no business being in positions of leadership whatsoever.
What brains Obama has, and I think he's smart, don't make up for the fact that he couldn't lead a football team. He couldn't successfully run a single fast food franchise.
Lots of smart people couldn't because they're incompetent leaders.
Obama is an incompetent leader.
Just so.
Take away Barry's checked boxes and he's just another back bencher representative from Illinois. He's demonstrated no intelligence whatsoever.
"I've known real professors--smarter than Obama--who have no business being in positions of leadership whatsoever."
This. Smart is not what it's about. Smart people often make terrible leaders because they are too busy himming and hawing over contingencies and can't make decisions.
In my experience, I've seen dumb-asses who shoot from the hip make much better leaders than intelligent, highly analytical people simply because they can make decisions quickly (and decisively).
The problem with "leadership" is that sometimes you lead people off the cliff or to their doom. Hitler and Stalin were both great "leaders". I just wouldn't want such a leader.
To be a bit more precise, Obama is an incompetent leader of any organization that does not rely on the blind faith of its followers.
Obama led an exceptional campaign organization, crushing his opponents in both the Democratic and Republican parties. I think Obama was an extraordinary leader of the faithful. One cannot deny his leadership success in organizing his ascent to the presidency.
The problem is that Americans do not agree that Obama's policies are wonderful. The fault does not lie with Obama; it lies with the American people.
Well put. To paraphrase what someone posted here a few days ago***, he excels at identifying grievances and leading the rhetorical attack on behalf of the aggrieved. He struggles when he can't fit an argument into that framework.
*** insert shout-out here, if I could remember who wrote it...
Most smart people aren't. They just memorize things well and therefore got good grades in school.
And, everyone told them their whole lives they were smart.
If all your decisions are poor, you aren't smart.
He's an incompetent leader.
And it isn't just because of this one failure--it's all the other leadership failures that are catching up to him.
There's this weird dichotomy, where he believes a) that the government should be responsible for everything and b) that his responsibilities as president are basically nothing.
A leader can't burn that candle at both ends for too long without people starting to feel instinctively like something isn't right.
Thank you. Every time I hear some "journalist" or politician talk about how intelligent Obama is, I want to puke.
I have seen no evidence of his intelligence. He is a slippery, clever, lying weasel. Nothing more.
Au contraire.
The Left does have morals.
Trotsky wrote the definitive essay, Their Morals and Ours.
Following up in the tradition, Saul Alinsky, Obama's inspiration, wrote, "The man of action views the issue of means and ends in pragmatic and strategic terms. He has no other problem; he thinks only of his actual resources and the possibilities of various choices of action. He asks of ends only whether they are achievable and worth the cost; of means, only whether they will work. ... The real arena is corrupt and bloody" and "the ends justify almost any means" and "you do what can with what you have and clothe it with moral garments."
Yes he has.
I'd say Obama is no match for Reagan. Neither was Bush I or II or Clinton, Carter or Ford...
The man had to respond to this horrible crime and not start a nuclear war. The Soviets were out of their minds in the early eighties with with all the old men grabbing power and dying. What a time.
CSB: I was in grad school in the mid 80s, and my PhD advisor was Romanian (escaped from Ceaucescu). After one of the old guys (I think it was Andropov) kicked the bucket, I asked him, "So, what do you think about the Russian Premier dying?" He looked up at me from his desk, and without hesitating said: "They are bastards. I hope they all die."
I'm sorry, but my pedantry must assert itself: Andropov wasn't premier (nor were Brezhnev, Chernyenko, or Gorbachev). They were all general secretaries of the Central Committee of the CPSU and (eventually) chairmen of the presidium of the Supreme Soviet. The premier, back in those days was Nikolai Tikhonov (until 1985) and Nikolai Ryzhkov (for the rest of the 80s).
Obama sure is a lucky bastard. Right when the IRS scandal was hitting fever pitch the illegal minor scandal took over the 24/7 news cycle, and just when that was getting all the attention the Mayla downing now takes over. Fast & Furious ---Benghazi---IRS---Illegal minors---Russian downing of plane.
And all the "minor" scandals in between like Snowden/NSA.
It's interesting how the media, both broadcast and print, are holding him accountable for his incompetence? Wait, never mind, that's alternate universe world.
You could not find one single mention of the IRS email scandal on NPR or CNN and probably still can't.
Not true.
There's plenty of reasons to criticize CNN and NPR (bias, being one), but they do tend to cover pretty much everything that's going on.
Shhhhh! The media is out to get Team Red, don't you know?
Shhhhh! The media is out to get Team Red, don't you know?
The media is out to get non-statists. That include your favorite media whipping boys.
Never saw it on front page and I checked daily.
Like I said, they cover almost everything... in a biased manner. And before P's B can butt in, I'll add that all major news outlets are obviously biased one way or the other. It's how they make money.
Reagan blamed his Alzheimers for not knowing about the mother of all scandals - Iran-Contra.
The Teflon President is right.
Juvenile nonsense. No he didn't.
Well, I miss real scandals like Iran-Contra. Today's flimsy fake scandals are just chickenshit wanna-be's.
Using armed bureaucracies to oppress your political rivals and quiet the press is pretty weak tea, all things considered.
Using armed bureaucracies to oppress your political rivals and quiet the press..
Catherine Engelbrecht the lady in charge of True the Vote one of the groups targeted by the IRS also had multiple government agencies show up at her home and business to "investigate" her.
These bureaucracies coordinated efforts to suppress and harass a target- that's the very definition of a police state.
"Today's flimsy fake scandals are just chickenshit wanna-be's."
So the border crisis, Benghazi, veterans who died while on waiting list, and victims fast and furious and drone attacks are just Onion satire?
Obama is also sending arms and other assistance to rebels. We were already doing that in AFG and he did nothing to stop it.
So basically, Obama has made all of Reagan's mistakes but achieved none of his foreign policy success. The guy went on burger run and didn't cancel his fund raising after the incident.
You don't understand: the boarder, Benghazi, veterans, fast and furious, Obamacare, etc., those don't really matter to US citizens.
However, exchanging arms for hostages with Iran, during an arms embargo? Funding contras in Nicaragua? That effected real Americans.
Reagan's BS is central America is what has led to this current run of "refugees". maybe you forgot Ronnie letting all of them in back then. Many got amnesty and started the chain migration. MS-13 was the result and should have named themselves the Reaganistas in honor of their founding father.
Reagan was a worthless turd.
Did you name test up? It is it some pablum you lapped up from Thinkprogress.
Stupid cunt.
The cunt comment was intended towards PB. Apologies.
The refugees are coming because all the commie run countries are broken down shitholes full of starving people. This is why it's important to exterminate communists.
They aren't really refugees and they weren't then. It was just some idiotic cold war extension of the Cuba policy that Reagan bought into.
Look we have your people coming here, aren't we great!!
Unfortunately like the moron Carter, Reagan couldn't see that those countries were happy to get rid of their peasantry.
Now they have a base in our country and the La Raza types catering to them to increase their political power and a gutless Congress. It was all perfectly predictable to anybody willing to see. However, the Reagan administration thought they would get their votes and destroy the wages of working people so were very supportive.
He never did any such thing.
Shrike can't tell the difference between what Reagan really did and the voices in his head.
Well, he did have Alzheimers so give him the benefit of the doubt.
Give YOU the benefit of the doubt? About your bizarre long-demonstrated hatred of Ronald Reagan?
Reagan was forgetful about names. So am I.
The consensus is that his symptoms didn't really materialize until 1992, long after he'd left office.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Ronald_Reagan's_Alzheimer's_letter# Announcement_and_reaction
Certainly, he demonstrated more of an ability to reason during the last days of his presidency than you have in any random thread over the last...however many years.
This time with a better link:
http://tinyurl.com/qx6oh3u
Watch Reagan's video above and compare to kne of your choosing of Obama. Then get back to us with your notes.
Reagan was an OK president but not nearly as libertarian as Carter or Clinton both of whom kept spending down.
Reagan was a big big spender and put the EITC into high gear - and defense went off the charts.
I'm so glad Clinton was around to stop the GOP-controlled Congress from ramping up spending and expanding the debt. He really showed them by vetoing all their ridiculous spending measures.
Nothing compared to Barry who holds the record for average spending a %GDP. Clinton only kept spending down because he completely lost control of congress in 94. And he gave us the biggest expansion of entitlements in 50 years. Oh, but it's OK because he raised taxes even more!
Oh, and remind me who the speaker was during Reagan's term. Starts with a T...
Carter libertarian. That's rich.
"he" should refer to Barry.
Carter deregulated everything in sight.
And the largest spending cuts were passed by Clinton and the Dems with zero GOP votes in 1993.
And spending as a % of GDP peaked with Bush the Lesser and has fallen each year since.
What a lying sack of shit you are:
http://blogs-images.forbes.com.....chart1.png
Liar. Your chart ends in 2009.
Here is a real chart with links:
http://aneconomicsense.com/201.....der-obama/
Who controlled the House during the Reagan Administration, Dave?
Oh, right.....
http://money.cnn.com/2014/01/2.....index.html
"A big driver of that trend is the Budget Control Act, which both parties agreed to in 2011 to avert a disaster over the debt ceiling.
The Budget Control Act gave birth to the ill-conceived sequester -- the arbitrary budget cuts that primarily hit domestic and defense spending and put a restraint on discretionary spending levels for much of the next decade."
And
"Then deficits will starting to climb again, reaching 3.5% by 2023. And in the decade after, they will get bigger still.
That's partly due to an expected rise in interest rates -- and hence higher interest payments on the country's accumulated debt.
But two other big reasons: Obama and lawmakers have yet to tackle the growth in spending on entitlements and to figure out how to overhaul the tax code."
Congress reneged on budget reduction promises made to Reagan. As always, democrats don't deal straight.
What's obamas excuse?
Current events really don't deserve comparison to KAL 007, because back then, you didn't have a third-world airliner, run by bean counters, taking chances with their planes over an area where an illegitimate regime could benefit from a convenient false-flag event.
Keep stroking, Putin approves!
To paraphrase what my first brother-in-law's father said about Moe Bandy, I thought you had better sense than that. I really did.
Oh, and Reagan's rhetorical skills were awesome. Without constructing straw-men or using ad hominem he built the case against the Soviets like a really good prosecuting attorney. Evidence based, bitches.
All Obama seems capable of is straw-manning and ad hominem.
+1 "some people say..."
From the single bar I've heard, he has a lovely singing voice.
Just as a side note, after the Korean airliner was shot down, Reagan made the decision to give GPS to the world.
At the time GPS was a military application only, but due to Reagan's leadership, he made it available to civillians as a way to prevent this kind of tragedy from occurring.
We wouldn't know it for 20 more years, but the decision to open up GPS really changed the world for the better for a lot of people, and opened up dozens of new industries of consumer goods.
Regardless of what one might think of its more cynical policy making, the Reagan administration was in fact made of more serious men and women than more recent administrations. And when the world burps up the inevitable, occasional crisis .... well, the current dorm room bullshit artist that is commander in chief should make us all nervous.
More criminals you mean. Weinberger, Watt, Ollie North come to mind immediately. Cap got pardoned, of course.
Where are the emails?
Yes, yes, one looks back nostalgically on those good old days, when the press wasn't so servile, the political class not so thuggish, when the Justice department wasn't so corrupt and the presidency not so sophomoric, sociopathic and imperial.
Who are all superior to the best of Obama's people. His cabinet includes boosters of child molesters and traitors. You exalt these people. When the next Red Scare cones I hope you are destroyed by it.
Five years after the Korean 007 massacre, there was the Iran Air 655 massacre. Here is what Reagan said about that. (One should mentally do the strike-throughs and insert appropriate Ukraine, Malaysian and Russian reference in place of Persian Gulf, Iranian and US references.)
I am saddened to report that it appears that in a proper defensive action by the USS Vincennes this morning in the Persian Gulf an Iranian airliner was shot down over the Strait of Hormuz. This is a terrible human tragedy. Our sympathy and condolences go out to the passengers, crew, and their families. The Defense Department will conduct a full investigation.
We deeply regret any loss of life. The course of the Iranian civilian airliner was such that it was headed directly for the USS Vincennes, which was at the time engaged with five Iranian Boghammar boats that had attacked our forces. When the aircraft failed to heed repeated warnings, the Vincennes followed standing orders and widely publicized procedures, firing to protect itself against possible attack.
The only U.S. interest in the Persian Gulf is peace, and this tragedy reinforces the need to achieve that goal with all possible speed.
Yeah, but I guess that would be in contrast to Putin rather than Obama.
Exactly. Putin should simply reword Reagan's statement to put it into today's context.
I'm a fan of this Reagan classic: "A few months ago I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions still tell me that's true, but the facts and the evidence tell me it is not."
And as Reagan continued, "As the Tower board reported, what began as a strategic opening to Iran deteriorated, in its implementation, into trading arms for hostages. This runs counter to my own beliefs, to administration policy, and to the original strategy we had in mind."
Those were the days when the press had at least a few watch dogs and a President would appoint a Tower Commission, which could do a credible and substantial assessment of an administration's actions and misdeeds. Today, alas, it's all servile lewinskies and a thuggish executive authority running on cynical, dormroom snark.
Same shit, different corn in the shit.
It cycles. But this current cohort is in contention to be the worst political class and the most servile press since the civil war.
What difference, at this point, does it make?
If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.
In the immortal words of Hank Hill:
"Lord, I miss voting for that man."
What's with all the Reagan dick-sucking here? He was a fuckin' idiot (followed by four more effin' idiots).
Crude, but true. Who will the next fucking idiot be in 2016?
I'm afraid to ask. I really am.
He was not perfect, but he was probably more competent than most.
What's with all the Reagan dick-sucking here? He was a fuckin' idiot
Let's see. Before Reagan, 1B human souls enslaved by Socialism. After Reagan, not nearly as much.
I named my daughter Reagan. Few humans have ever lived who have actually produced the Human Liberty that Ronald Reagan did. Even in spite of all those times when he was Liberty's enemy.
No. He wasn't.
Ron was a far better actor in the White House than he ever was in Hollywood.
Politics is Hollywood for ugly people.
Brian,
And your message is?
Barry is a far better community organizer in the White House than he ever was in Chicago.
FTFY.
And your point is?
And, your point is?
Reagan didn't have brains enough to be the White House Ball Monitor. He was all talk unless he was doing the bidding of corporate America and screwing working people. He was their ventriloquist's dummy set out with a set speech and a set mark like they trained him when he was selling soap. No questions allowed lest the ball fall off this trained seals nose.
He was behind "free trade". Yeah he had that academic dufus Paul Craig Roberts also shilling for it. Now Roberts insists if he knew it was all about cheap foreign labor and not expanding exports like the corporate execs said he would have been against it. That shows what fools they were - no street smarts against the history of labor relations in the US.
He tasked the NSF with creating the big lie campaign of a "tech worker shortage" that resulted in H-1B visas and half the people with STEM degrees not working in that field.
He looked the other way while illegals were used to break unions even looking the other way while meatpacking companies sent buses to Mexico. Then he amnesties them for their vote after constantly talking about borders needing to be enforced.
But hey after shelling Lebanon and getting those Marines killed in Beirut, he invaded Grenada so the students could be "saved". It only took two days since the maps were old and nobody bothered to get a new one from the medical school, but those are just minor details like that helicopters crashing and rangers dying needlessly.
Why not post the Reagan speech five years later when the US accidentally shot down an Iranian airliner?