This is the continuation of Part 1 of a multi part post.
With the election of Ronald Reagan and the improvement of the economy and cooperation of Congress, the far left, whose next goal was to take over the Democrat Party, had to work well below the surface. Taking over universities, school boards, and starting to rewrite history were their early objectives. After the election of Bush XL1 in 1988, the left began to take a more aggressive approach. The first was to force Bush, who had stated as one of his campaign promises, "read my lips, no new taxes," to raise taxes. Bush had been riding a wave of popularity after the utter defeat and expulsion from Kuwait of Saddam Hussien and his huge army including the total devastation of his so called elite Republican Guard. Despite the quick decisive victory in 1991, Bush saw his popularity, then at an all time high, plummet by the 1992 elections. That election saw a populist candidate somewhat similar to Donald Trump, named Ross Perot. He was a Texas billionaire, who made his fortune in data storage, who had a broad spectrum of political beliefs. He had something of a populist platform including opposition to NAFTA. He bought 1/2 hour television segments to lay out his campaign and at one time led both Bush and Clinton with 39% of the possible vote, Bush was 34% and Clinton 23%. Despite these favorable numbers, Perot suspended his campaign temporarily, but by the time he resumed it after getting on all 50 state ballots it was too late. Still he got 18.9% of the vote, but no electoral votes. Clinton won with 43% and Bush came in second with 38%.
Though representing the Democrat Party, Bill Clinton was something of a pragmatist, driven primarily by greed for power, money, and legacy. Almost out of law school he became attorney general for the state of Arkansas and then its governor, never working in the private sector. His wife, Hillary, who has never showed any particular legal prowess, was hired by the Rose Law Firm, Arkansas's most prestigious at the time and made partner when Bill became governor. As First Lady, she decided to rewrite healthcare and spent a great deal of time and money on the effort, only to have it never even voted on. She was involved with one scandal after another, as it turned out, honed her skills at destroying or hiding evidence. A weak special counsel refused to indict her despite, numerous lies and evidence of obstruction of justice. Bill committed treason in order to get $20 million in campaign contributions for the Red Chinese Army for his 1996 campaign, by selling them missile guidance technology. The Lewinsky scandal, that occurred simultaneously, served as a diversion. Still WJC saw the advantage to working with Republicans who had taken over Congress on the basis of their "Contract with America." Even though he raised taxes and practice crony capitalism, the economy did well despite this, as a multi trillion dollar industry, the internet, began and rapidly flourished during his regime. Whether it was ego or bad advice, but when Janet Reno, Clinton's Attorney General, indicted Microsoft, one of the engines driving the stock market and the economy, the dot com bubble burst and led to a short, but unpublicized recession in 2000. Meanwhile the far left continued its efforts at taking over our universities. It should be noted the one of our current Supreme Court Justices, Elena Kagan, did away with Constitutional Law 101 at Harvard Law School and replaced it with Comparative Constitutional Law. Clinton's p4p continued up to his last days, pardoning Mark Rich, a wealthy oil trader, who ignored sanctions illegally dealt with Iraq. A gift to the planned Clinton library greased the way to the pardon.
During this period the far left was quietly continuing its take over of universities and school boards and political correctness raised its ugly head. Identity politics reared its ugly head as the left claimed Republicans were anti senior citizen, anti women, anti gay, and anti black (things haven't changed). I complained to my children's Jewish Day School when I learned that a teacher had told one of my children's classes that Jeb Bush, running for governor, was anti semitic. That prompted a call to administration, complaining that I did not want my children to listen to far left propaganda. I also complained about their text books, in particular history books. When I was told that these were the same books recommended by the California State School Board, I replied, "I rest my case."
The 2000 presidential election ended in controversy and the Gore vs Bush lawsuit went to the Supreme Court that found overwhelming for George Bush XLIII. Bush was just starting to turn the economy around after the recession of 2000 (the MSM never reported on it) when radical Islamists destroyed the World Trade center in NYC and murdered almost 3000 people. For a short time, as Americans tend to do, we and the world came together and soon American soldiers were sent to Afghanistan to attack Al Qaeda and its leader Osama Bin Ladin. The Taliban, anti America government was forced out and it and Al Qada took to the hills. The war continues to this day. A committee was formed to study the attack and Jamie Gorelick an assistant secretary of state under WJC was added to the committee to protect Clinton, who had several opportunities to take out Bin Ladin. In addition, she had forced rules that didn't allow the FBI and CIA to talk to one another. Another Clinton official, Sandy "the burglar" Berger was caught stealing classified documents in his socks.
At the same time Saddam Hussien began playing a game of chicken with President Bush over WMDs. Though minimal amounts were found, at least some were shipped to Syria and Libya. An audit by Paul Volcker, former Fed chairman, not only uncovered cheating in the oil for food program, but a bribe of $970k to America hater, Canadian communist and billionaire, and partner of Algore, who was supposed to be overseeing it. Based on WMDs, Iraq was invaded and Saddam Hussien was ultimately captured and executed. The story did not have a happy ending as multiple factions, including Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds fought something of a civil war as well as an Iranian backed guerrilla war against government and US Forces. The war in Iraq also became prolonged and began to divide members of Congress. As a result, the Democrats took control of Congress with the 2006 midterm elections and began dictating economic policy that included raising taxes and restrictions on banking and the economy. The Community Redevelopment Act (CRA) finally caught up with the economy and the housing bubble collapsed. President Bush and his cabinet were ill equipped to handle the recession and economic disaster. Some, in the most important positions, were in favor of big government. Bush who had been told that his spending on pursuing two wars and increasing the deficit was what was responsible. With the possibility of some large bank failures, Henry Paulson, Treasury Secretary, initiated a bailout, but not before Lehman Brothers went under. As it turned out Lehman Brothers was the chief rival of Goldman Sachs, Paulson's old firm. Shortly there after, it was decided to bail out AIG as "too big to fail," but the real reason was AIG owed Goldman Sachs tens of billions, that would have disappeared on Goldman's balance sheet with a bankruptcy.
That concludes the section on the Winds of War. In Part 2, I will describe the far left's take over of the Democrat Party and the rise of Barack Obama as its leader.
Monday, April 30, 2018
Saturday, April 21, 2018
The New Civil War: Part 1, The Winds of War
This is a multi part posting. I hope to take the reader through what led up to the new civil war, how it is progressing, and what we can do to win it once and for all.
Part 1: The Winds of War
The current civil war actually had its origins in the 1960s. The Supreme Court decision of Brown vs the Topeka School Board in 1954 combined with the passage of The Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act of 1963 and 1964, a first Civil War similarity, with Northern Democrats opposed to Southern Democrats. Democrat Party hypocrisy ruled the day as civil rights activists from the North came South to encourage voter registration and school integration while city schools in Democrat controlled large northern cities remained the most segregated in the country. The Viet Nam War was amped up by President Lyndon Johnson and opposition to the war mounted among college age students, when a draft lottery was begun.
Viet Nam was part of a former French colony called French Indochina. It was conquered by the Japanese during WW2, but France regained control after Japan was defeated. Indochina was caught up in a worldwide movement for independence and a gorilla war of mostly communist guerrillas ensued that resulted with the French being defeated at Dien Bien Phu. Indochina was then divided into the Kingdoms of Cambodia and Laos, and Republic of Viet Nam. Communist and non communist forces battled each other and an agreement was reach dividing Viet Nam into North Viet Nam (communist) and South Viet Nam, supposably democratic. The North was ruled by a Mao like dictator Ho Chi Min. The South had a series of elected but corrupt leaders. A civil war in the South between the government and Viet Cong (communists), who were aided by the North, began almost immediately. President Kennedy sent "military advisors" to help the South, but their number and role gradually increase until the Gulf of Tonkin event in which American warships were allegedly attacked by North Vietnamese vessels. Using this as an excuse, much like the sinking of the battleship Maine in Havana Harbor in 1898, American combat troops entered the war both against the Viet Cong and an infiltrating North Vietnamese Army. Our forces swelled to as many as 500K and ultimately we lost 50K soldiers. Until 1969, the war was run by Robert McNamara, the Secretary of Defense and Mc George Bundy, Under Secretary of State, two incompetents when it came to military strategy. General Westmoreland was the commander in the field and became their scapegoat for anything that went wrong. The two civilians running the war made many mistakes, telling the enemy where they would not attack, and thus allowing the North to concentrate its forces. (Sound familiar.)
The greatest anti war and anti draft sentiment came from college campuses and although college students were given a draft deferment, it ended when they graduated. This campus anti draft movement coincided with the so called fee speech movement and rioting on campuses with groups of leftist students seizing administration buildings. Much of Hollywood supported the students and the far left with actress Jane Fonda going to North Viet Nam and having her picture taken while sitting on a anti aircraft battery that was used to shoot down American pilots. Unfortunately, she was never arrested and tried for treason, and instead allowed to star in movies and sell exercise videos. Some Americas fled to Canada to avoid the draft. Violent demonstrators targeted the 1968 Democrat party Convention in Chicago, resulting in arrests and a trial of the "Chicago 12."
For some activists peaceful demonstrations were enough, but this leftist activity spurred two more violent movements, the Black Panthers and Students For a Democratic Society (SDS). The Black Panthers portrayed themselves as a sort of Robin Hood group, robbing banks and spreading some of the money around the black community. This provided them with goodwill and protection within the community, but they had gun fights with police and federal agents. Many were killed or arrested and went on trial and were convicted of a variety of crimes. SDS on the other hand sponsored demonstrations that may have become aggressive, but lacked serious criminality.
A personal account: in 1972 while a senior in medical school at St. Louis University, I heard of an anti Israel demonstration planned for the student union. (the left's hatred of Israel goes back a long way.) SLU is a Jesuit Catholic university and did not have an SDS chapter, but Washington University down the street did. WU also had a large jewish population, so when SDS decided to organize an anti Israel protest, it might find less opposition at the SLU. They rounded up 30 or so Arab and/or Palestinian students (?) from the St. Louis area and entered the student union chanting and carrying anti Israel signs, some comparing Israelis to Nazis with swatzikas. A classmate and I were there to meet them. We confronted them, tore away a sign and tried to run them out, The campus cops arrived just in time to keep any of them from getting hurt. Two Jews to thirty Palestinians seemed like pretty good odds to us.
Because SDS lacked a really violent arm, a group calling themselves the Weather Underground spun off from SDS, professing to be communist revolutionaries and began blowing up government buildings in Washington DC and police stations in New York City. and robbing banks Three of their own members died when a bomb making apartment in NYC accidentally blew up. Bill Ayers and his girl friend Bernadine Dohrn were two of the leaders. Ayers went into hiding and actually spent nearly a year at sea as a merchant seaman. When he was finally arrested he was released on a technicality. Dohrn actually spent a short time in prison. They married and became very good friends of the Obamas two decade later.
The war in Viet Nam and leftist unrest caused the economy to suffer. President Johnson took silver out of US coinage and eliminated the 25% gold backing that would limit the printing of money. President Nixon took us completely off the gold standard that allowed us to repay our foreign debts in paper rather than gold. By the end of the 1970s the stock market and the dollar had tanked and the government was issuing "Carter Bonds," denominated in Swiss Francs rather than dollars. Recognizing our weak leadership under President Carter, Iran took those in our embassy in Tehran hostage for 444 days.
During the 70s the educational system began to change. Liberal professors and college administrations began to dominate. The Democrat Party controlled almost every big city and were unable to provide adequate k-12 eduction as a result of their horrible policies. To make up for this, affirmative action was introduced at the college and graduate school level. Ethnicity became a significant factor in determining admissions. Years later the "free college" movement is affirmative action carried to its worst extreme.
With the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 things on the surface, at least, began to settle down but leftists and revolutionaries were still attacking our country below the surface. Although there was still disagreement between Republicans and Democrats the leadership actually found enough commonality to allow both sides to work together and so interest rates and unemployment dropped and the stock market rose, the economy improved, and taxes were lowered. Communism had run its course in Russia and Eastern Europe. But as the Iron Curtain began to fall, the Middle east was heating up. Civil War in Lebanon resulted in UN forces, lead by France and the US, arriving in Beirut to maintain peace in 1983. A Hezbollah suicide bomber drove a truck filled with explosives into a barracks and killed more than 200 marines. The US left Lebanon.
At home, the left continued its clandestine campaign to take over our educational system from kindergarten through college in order to indoctrinate our children. At colleges, history revisionism was begun, altering or ignoring our history to support a far left version. Black Studies were begun in many colleges, a good idea, but unfortunately at the forefront of ignoring or altering history to foster a far left vision for black students. Though slavery was a terrible period in our history, African Americans did much more than exist as slaves before the civil war. There were many who were not slaves, especially in the North, and who were regular citizens who contributed to their communities and to America, yet Black History courses seem to start after the Civil War.
To be continued:
Part 1: The Winds of War
The current civil war actually had its origins in the 1960s. The Supreme Court decision of Brown vs the Topeka School Board in 1954 combined with the passage of The Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act of 1963 and 1964, a first Civil War similarity, with Northern Democrats opposed to Southern Democrats. Democrat Party hypocrisy ruled the day as civil rights activists from the North came South to encourage voter registration and school integration while city schools in Democrat controlled large northern cities remained the most segregated in the country. The Viet Nam War was amped up by President Lyndon Johnson and opposition to the war mounted among college age students, when a draft lottery was begun.
Viet Nam was part of a former French colony called French Indochina. It was conquered by the Japanese during WW2, but France regained control after Japan was defeated. Indochina was caught up in a worldwide movement for independence and a gorilla war of mostly communist guerrillas ensued that resulted with the French being defeated at Dien Bien Phu. Indochina was then divided into the Kingdoms of Cambodia and Laos, and Republic of Viet Nam. Communist and non communist forces battled each other and an agreement was reach dividing Viet Nam into North Viet Nam (communist) and South Viet Nam, supposably democratic. The North was ruled by a Mao like dictator Ho Chi Min. The South had a series of elected but corrupt leaders. A civil war in the South between the government and Viet Cong (communists), who were aided by the North, began almost immediately. President Kennedy sent "military advisors" to help the South, but their number and role gradually increase until the Gulf of Tonkin event in which American warships were allegedly attacked by North Vietnamese vessels. Using this as an excuse, much like the sinking of the battleship Maine in Havana Harbor in 1898, American combat troops entered the war both against the Viet Cong and an infiltrating North Vietnamese Army. Our forces swelled to as many as 500K and ultimately we lost 50K soldiers. Until 1969, the war was run by Robert McNamara, the Secretary of Defense and Mc George Bundy, Under Secretary of State, two incompetents when it came to military strategy. General Westmoreland was the commander in the field and became their scapegoat for anything that went wrong. The two civilians running the war made many mistakes, telling the enemy where they would not attack, and thus allowing the North to concentrate its forces. (Sound familiar.)
The greatest anti war and anti draft sentiment came from college campuses and although college students were given a draft deferment, it ended when they graduated. This campus anti draft movement coincided with the so called fee speech movement and rioting on campuses with groups of leftist students seizing administration buildings. Much of Hollywood supported the students and the far left with actress Jane Fonda going to North Viet Nam and having her picture taken while sitting on a anti aircraft battery that was used to shoot down American pilots. Unfortunately, she was never arrested and tried for treason, and instead allowed to star in movies and sell exercise videos. Some Americas fled to Canada to avoid the draft. Violent demonstrators targeted the 1968 Democrat party Convention in Chicago, resulting in arrests and a trial of the "Chicago 12."
For some activists peaceful demonstrations were enough, but this leftist activity spurred two more violent movements, the Black Panthers and Students For a Democratic Society (SDS). The Black Panthers portrayed themselves as a sort of Robin Hood group, robbing banks and spreading some of the money around the black community. This provided them with goodwill and protection within the community, but they had gun fights with police and federal agents. Many were killed or arrested and went on trial and were convicted of a variety of crimes. SDS on the other hand sponsored demonstrations that may have become aggressive, but lacked serious criminality.
A personal account: in 1972 while a senior in medical school at St. Louis University, I heard of an anti Israel demonstration planned for the student union. (the left's hatred of Israel goes back a long way.) SLU is a Jesuit Catholic university and did not have an SDS chapter, but Washington University down the street did. WU also had a large jewish population, so when SDS decided to organize an anti Israel protest, it might find less opposition at the SLU. They rounded up 30 or so Arab and/or Palestinian students (?) from the St. Louis area and entered the student union chanting and carrying anti Israel signs, some comparing Israelis to Nazis with swatzikas. A classmate and I were there to meet them. We confronted them, tore away a sign and tried to run them out, The campus cops arrived just in time to keep any of them from getting hurt. Two Jews to thirty Palestinians seemed like pretty good odds to us.
Because SDS lacked a really violent arm, a group calling themselves the Weather Underground spun off from SDS, professing to be communist revolutionaries and began blowing up government buildings in Washington DC and police stations in New York City. and robbing banks Three of their own members died when a bomb making apartment in NYC accidentally blew up. Bill Ayers and his girl friend Bernadine Dohrn were two of the leaders. Ayers went into hiding and actually spent nearly a year at sea as a merchant seaman. When he was finally arrested he was released on a technicality. Dohrn actually spent a short time in prison. They married and became very good friends of the Obamas two decade later.
The war in Viet Nam and leftist unrest caused the economy to suffer. President Johnson took silver out of US coinage and eliminated the 25% gold backing that would limit the printing of money. President Nixon took us completely off the gold standard that allowed us to repay our foreign debts in paper rather than gold. By the end of the 1970s the stock market and the dollar had tanked and the government was issuing "Carter Bonds," denominated in Swiss Francs rather than dollars. Recognizing our weak leadership under President Carter, Iran took those in our embassy in Tehran hostage for 444 days.
During the 70s the educational system began to change. Liberal professors and college administrations began to dominate. The Democrat Party controlled almost every big city and were unable to provide adequate k-12 eduction as a result of their horrible policies. To make up for this, affirmative action was introduced at the college and graduate school level. Ethnicity became a significant factor in determining admissions. Years later the "free college" movement is affirmative action carried to its worst extreme.
With the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 things on the surface, at least, began to settle down but leftists and revolutionaries were still attacking our country below the surface. Although there was still disagreement between Republicans and Democrats the leadership actually found enough commonality to allow both sides to work together and so interest rates and unemployment dropped and the stock market rose, the economy improved, and taxes were lowered. Communism had run its course in Russia and Eastern Europe. But as the Iron Curtain began to fall, the Middle east was heating up. Civil War in Lebanon resulted in UN forces, lead by France and the US, arriving in Beirut to maintain peace in 1983. A Hezbollah suicide bomber drove a truck filled with explosives into a barracks and killed more than 200 marines. The US left Lebanon.
At home, the left continued its clandestine campaign to take over our educational system from kindergarten through college in order to indoctrinate our children. At colleges, history revisionism was begun, altering or ignoring our history to support a far left version. Black Studies were begun in many colleges, a good idea, but unfortunately at the forefront of ignoring or altering history to foster a far left vision for black students. Though slavery was a terrible period in our history, African Americans did much more than exist as slaves before the civil war. There were many who were not slaves, especially in the North, and who were regular citizens who contributed to their communities and to America, yet Black History courses seem to start after the Civil War.
To be continued:
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