[jthomas1600]

Anybody study this period much? I recently read Ronald Reagan's auto biography and am now readying a biography of J.E. Hoover. In Ronald Reagan's bio he spoke at length about the "communist plot" in the 20's and following decades to take over America. Apparently ousting communist sympathizers occupied much of the FBI's time in the early days.

What I find even more interesting is the apparent corruption being portrayed in the Hoover book. According to the book, when the FBI wasn't ousting commies they were taking kick backs from and then protecting the bootleggers. The President in office when Hoover began his work in government law enforcement was Harding. Apparently it's widely accepted that Harding was our must corrupt president ever. It seems he created a "frat house" mentality amongst the boys in Washington.

Two things occur to me as I'm reading...1st is, "they never taught that in school" 2nd is that for all the complaining we do things could be a lot worse.

[JerryLove]

Originally Posted by jthomas1600

Anybody study this period much? I recently read Ronald Reagan's auto biography and am now readying a biography of J.E. Hoover. In Ronald Reagan's bio he spoke at length about the "communist plot" in the 20's and following decades to take over America. Apparently ousting communist sympathizers occupied much of the FBI's time in the early days.

For Reagan that goes back to a dispute between Hollywood's major studios and the actor's union which went rather wrong.

But this bad behavior never stops... whether we are disussing the interrment of Americans of Japaneese descent, or the deliberate non-treatment of black men with Syphilus in Tuskigi in the 40s, or the blacklisting of "communists" in the 50s, or the testing of LSD on unknowing civilians in the 60s; we are pretty rotten (and so is most everyeone else)

What I find even more interesting is the apparent corruption being portrayed in the Hoover book. According to the book, when the FBI wasn't ousting commies they were taking kick backs from and then protecting the bootleggers. The President in office when Hoover began his work in government law enforcement was Harding. Apparently it's widely accepted that Harding was our must corrupt president ever. It seems he created a "frat house" mentality amongst the boys in Washington.

In the 1980s congress outlawed giving monety to terrorists (the Contras specifically),

So Reagan traded arms to Iran in violation of embargo (and who were at the time at war with our ally Iraq, whom Reagan via Rumsfield gave chemical weapons to), and then stole the proceeds which he used to buy weapons for the Contra terrorists (whom he compared to the Founding Fathers of the US).

Moreover, the CIA under Reagan was helping the Contras to funnell cocaine into the US to further fund their operations (mostly involving kidnapping children to use a child-soldiers, growing and smuggling drugs, and killing bunches of people).

Two things occur to me as I'm reading...1st is, "they never taught that in school" 2nd is that for all the complaining we do things could be a lot worse.

The thing is... it *is* a lot worse than you think.

[Demon_Hunter]

Originally Posted by JerryLove

The thing is... it *is* a lot worse than you think.

But we put a stop to those damn commies! Thats what counts, Jerry. You ought to know that!

[slap_j]

It makes you scared of people who call themselves "Reagan conservatives."