Another Public Figure Kicks the Bucket: Predictable Results
This comes from the IBD: Obama Adds Nancy Reagan To His Growing List Of Funeral Snubs.
Presidency: President Obama chose to skip the funeral of former first lady Nancy Reagan, opting instead to keynote a Texas hipster festival.
Who the hell cares? Last time I checked, Mr. Obama wasn't in any way, shape, or fotm related to either Saint Ronald the Reagan or Nancy Davis. Now, let's think about this: funeral or Hipster Festival? Hmmmmm.... Yeah, because funerals are just so fucking fun! Yeah, I always go to the funerals of perfect strangers when I'm looking to have a blast. Look at all the Barack is missing! Oh well, if he chooses to inflict the punishment attending some boring Hipster Festival that's his loss.
Sure, it isn’t traditional for a president to attend the funeral of a former first lady, and the president did pay verbal tribute to her, whose eight years in the White House restored the splendor, dignity and even glamour of the presidency, even as the work of her husband, President Reagan, ended the Cold War and ushered in a new era of prosperity. The first lady, who died Sunday in California, was a presence in her own right, and the dearest person to the heart of the greatest president of the 20th century.
I swear to Dog that if I dug up the moldering carcass, dusted Ronald off, and propped him up at the Reagan Library, these folks would be lining up around the block to fellate the withered old penis one last time.
The truth is that Nancy Reagan was an insufferable busy body, and a kook who had her own personal fortune teller. I guess that's where she got all that advice for Ronnie. Ronnie didn't end the Cold War. He learned about the sudden collapse of the Soviet Union the same way the rest of us did: he saw it on the telly. The Central IntelligenceStupidity Agency had not Clue One. I guess Nancy's fortune teller's crystal ball was in the shop for repairs that day. That much is clear: they were planning for the indefinite continuation of the CW. This was another case where the blind squirrel found a nut.
As for being the 20th century's greatest president, that's highly questionable. He fucked up, and fucked up BIG TIME. He had a chance to change things for the better for generations to come and totally screwed the pooch. Yes, he defied the Republican Establishment. He did the unthinkable: he challenged a sitting Republican president for the nomm in 1976. He damn near pulled it off. This career-killer didn't finish him off: he came back four years later and won by an enormous margin.
What did he do next? He tried to make peace with that very establishment. Beginning with making Bush the Elder his VP, he filled his administration with the same old establishment hacks. He had a golden opportunity to end the Fed, the IRS, dismantle the bloated Federal bureaucracy, eliminating useless agencies like the Dept of Energy (which has not produced even so much as one erg of energy) the Dept of Edumaykayshun that oversaw the destruction of a public educational system that was the envy of the whole world. Until the US and its public system of education, only the elites of the whole rest of the world received such quality education. He could have ended useless entitlement programs that accomplish absolutely nothing, starting with Head Start. When it came to welfare reform, Bill Clinton accomplished much more.
Speaking of useless FedGov agencies, departments, and programs, it was Jimmy Carter who gave us the Dept of Edumaykayshun. It was Saint Ronald the Reagan who not only failed to even try to make good on his campaign promises to "drain the swamp", he made the swamp even bigger. It was he who added the Dept of Veterans Affairs. Hasn't that worked out just swell? Seen the complaints about the quality of service our Vets get? Why do we need private charities like Wounded Warriors to take care of Vets? The Dept of Veterans Affairs id another useless department that serves no purpose other than enriching useless bureaucrats would be unfit for the private sector beyond being a barrista at Starbucks. Thanks Ronnie!
The last President who did anything to rein in the Fed was JFK -- another Democrat, and one William F. Buckley thought so liberal he refused to invite RFK onto Firing Line because, what would they have to talk about? (This is the same JFK who was a Cold War hawk, who spoke out criticizing Communism and the USSR regularly, who forced the USSR to back the fuck off before off-loading missiles in Cuba. If we dug him up, dusted him off, and informed him that he just awoke from a nice half-century nap, he would run as a Republican, and probably as a TEA Party candidate as well.) JFK signed Executive Order 11110 that established "US Notes" -- currency backed by gold and silver. He was the first -- and last -- POTUS who ever tried doing anything to cut the Federal Reserve down to size. Reagan could have done the same, he made campaign promises, but did not even try to keep a single one. He could have either signed a new Executive Order, or he could have reactivated JDK's original order. Did I mention that JFK was a Democrat?
He was the original hopey-chengey candidate (is it any wonder why the Big Zero so admires him? They're birds of a feather) who made big promises, and did nothing to bring any of it about. Saint Ronald the Reagan's smallest budget deficit was bigger than the largest deficit racked up by his immediate predecessor: that "tax 'n' spend" Democrat: Jimmy Carter. Maybe he could not have actually done any of this. It's one thing to try and fail, but something altogether different to not even try. Reagan was the first one to prove Abraham Lincoln wrong: you really can fool all the people all the time.
Reagan had the chance to realign American politics for generations, as had FDR. His "Reagan Revolution" died the day he left office. He threw open the doors and invited in the establishment termites, and they proceeded to bore from within until the whole structure collapsed.
Reagan was also the consummate hypocrite and cynic. He played the Fundievangelicals™ like a whorehouse piano. He damn well knew Rowe v. Wade would never be overturned, and that abortion was here to stay. Yet, he played the Pro-life movement from Day One. This asshole presented himself as a Son of small town Middle America, all the while living in one of LA's most exclusive neighborhoods. He presented himself as the avatar of "family values" as he divorced his first wife for the much younger, yiffier, Nancy Davis. Hell, his own kids couldn't stand him, and never visited him at the White House. This "good Christian" not once darkened a church door for the entire eight years. There was nothing genuine about him. He was an empty suit. He just hid it better than Lucemon. (Maybe Obama should have invested in acting school instead of organizing communitiees?)
The only campaign promise he kept was that he did, indeed, get the "kids" off pot...
...by getting them on crack. Good goin' there, you dipshit.
What else would you expect from a strictly B-grade x-actor who was upstaged by a monkey?
When it comes to Reagan worship, count me out.