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My dad served in the navy in WWII, and like many others of the so called greatest generation, who, along with the country as a whole, benefited from Roosevelt's New Deal, Kennedy's New Frontier and Johnson's Great Society—GI Bill, affordable housing, subsidized higher education for their children, strong labor unions, social security, medicare and medicaid, a thriving economy, and more economic opportunity for all—started to like the sound of Reagan's policies of lower taxes and less government regulation because they thought it would beef up their investments and give them a comfortable retirement after all their hard work and sacrifice.

We can assume, looking at all the electoral success Democrats had through the decades after WWII up until Reagan's victory against Jimmy Carter in 1980, that these guys, and probably their spouses had been voting Democrat. The big shift happened with Reagan's landslide victory over Mondale in 1984 and the country has been on the decline ever since.

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That horses and sparrows analogy is disgusting. It basically says regular everyday folks should have to eat the sh*t big corporations throw out. So demeaning to ordinary people. Small businesses don’t operate like big ones. The small ones need to take tax breaks to reinvest in their small business, a family owned restaurant, for example. They have no stock to buy back like big companies do. I read once that voting Republican was tantamount to voting for a recession. They have been trying to gild their crap for years to make people think they are fiscally responsible.

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I agree. People who control the Republican party believe they are the chosen few ordained to run everything, including the government, so they can accumulate as much wealth for themselves as possible and leave the rest of us to fight over the crumbs. It's too bad that so many people are so ignorant and gullible that they allow themselves to be manipulated by these oligarchs who use wedge issues and the culture war to divide us so they can drive public policy in a way that benefits them to the detriment of the rest of the country.

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My father was in WWII. There is a big difference today. Those basically "in power" right now are the eldest kids of the WWII generation. When they were in their formative adolescent years, their fathers were overseas at war, and from every direction they heard constant tales of world war, and then the collapse of Europe and European empires and decades of nuclear threat and cold war designed to keep Americans distracted.

It's no surprise they are a bunch of paranoid psychotics who see demons behind every tree.

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The deregulation may have started under Reagan along with the revisions to the tax code that shifted the burden to those with W-2 income but the deregulation of the banks and the commodities exchanges under Clinton is what led to the crash in 2008 from which working Americans will likely never recover.

The focus is on the Republicans service to the NRA but the major issue with both parties is funding the war companies and the military at $2 trillion per year whille the government is not able to provide basic healthcare and education and retirement for its workers. The media has done a great deal to glorify wars and calling foolish soldiers heroes instead of stodges for the elites. When presidents resort to bombing men, women, and children for profit it is to be expected that amateurs will also build bombs and use assault weapons on their perceived enemies, even when these enemies are children. The teenager who killed 2 adults and 17 children in Texas is no different than our military sending cruise missiles into hospitals and schools and churches or dropping napalm on villagers to burn them alive.

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How will this effect us old retired folks living on subsistence social security? Specifically.

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I saw Dimon on cable news describing the hurricane. It sounds a lot bigger than one storm hitting one coast. You’re describing a set of global events. I’ve always called Reagan the worst president we ever had - but he had his precursor in Harding. Do the Tepublicans EVER learn? NO. Dollar signs in their chests - not a heart OR a brain

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My father was in WWII. Americans "in power" today are the eldest kids of the WWII generation. When they were in their formative adolescent years, their fathers were overseas at war, and from every direction they heard constant tales of world war, and then the collapse of Europe and European empires and decades of nuclear threat and cold war designed to keep Americans distracted.

It's no surprise they are a bunch of paranoid psychotics who see demons behind every tree.

What I don't understand is how they can be fooled into supporting fascism.

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The trillions that went into securities since 2008 had the main effect of bloating stock market prices to wild levels in the face of real economic decline, by adding to the pool dollars chasing dollars in the Wall Street Casino, with little of it ever going to the real economy, and creating billionaires like Christmas morning on Groundhog Day. Now that the flow of make-believe cash from the Fed has totally uncoupled the true value of securities from any connection to reality, the fragility of the scam is coming into focus. The real question is whether Dimon's heads-up is an authentic warning or a calculated trigger of a "correction" just in time for November elections.

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It's interesting to note Jamie Dimon's part in this sh*tstorm: "...JPMorgan Chase and its Chairman and CEO, Jamie Dimon, who has presided over five criminal felony counts, all of which the bank admitted to, while entering into an endless series of highly-suspect non-prosecution agreements and probation periods with the U.S. Department of Justice." (from Wall Street on Parade) They've been the recipient of numerous secret bailout loans from the Fed.

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Lots of good facts, history, and data here, but the conclusions, well, thanks for the great facts and history and data.

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