3 ms·

Yeah, that's worse than Watergate.

by ktRolster 10y ago

Synaesthesia 10y ago
So was COINTELPRO but nobody ever talks about that either.
- fit2rule 10y ago
  Yeah, MKULTRA too. Heinous times for American exceptionalism.
  - sitkack 10y ago
    Or pot laws targeting hippies and blacks, http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/23/politics/john-ehrlichman-richard-nixon-drug-war-blacks-hippie/ http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/23/politics/john-ehrlichman-richa...
    - fuzzfactor 10y ago
      Not to mention Nixon's manipulating the US dollar and economy in a way that was most disadvantageous to the greatest number of US citizens possible. On a scale that could never have been achieved by a foreign power from outside. To the degree that major ripples are still being felt today. Unfortunately Nixon's crookedness & destructiveness was not widely recognized by the majority of the public until after it was growing out of control and undeniable, so once he was gone the damage continued and the momentum was big. All of this is ancient history, but so many young people are not even aware. After US citizens were paid less than $21/oz in paper currency when their gold was federally confiscated in 1933, then had that currency devalued less than a year later to $35/oz, for almost the next 40 years it was then illegal for US citizens to own or trade in gold. IOW, until those who were devastated at the time had passed on or were no longer a powerful voting constituency. Daddy "Warbucks" had been a recurring character in the popular comic strip "Little Orphan Annie" over those decades. By the time Nixon got there, the dollar had been at that stable $35/oz for decades and huge amounts of the US economy depended on that stability, especially to survive through unprofitable quarters or years. When Nixon outlawed free enterprise temporarily in 1971 at the same time the dollar was allowed to float against gold ever since, it turned inflation from an annoyance into a huge sucking sound. It wouldn't have been such a strong nail in the middle-class coffin except there were statistically "no" citizens who had any gold whatsoever to legally participate in any appreciation in the dollar value of gold. And it would not be made legal to participate until years later, after the "Arab Oil Embargo" had been piled on, when few citizens had any remaining wherewithal, and gold had already skyrocketed after all that new oil money had been funneled overseas and driven up prices beforehand. Time was slipping away, to save what was left of "the accumulated wealth of working people since incomes had been taxed" required until Nixon's direct involvement in the Watergate crimes became provable. By then the less-devastated near-half of the general population began to finally find themselves in the same boat as the more-devastated near-half. At that point it became universally realized that Nixon could not be removed fast enough. After that, denial was universal too. Even though Nixon had been popularly re-elected, overnight nobody even talked about him any more. It was such a relief. For years. The millions who knew he was compromised from the beginning were not saying I-told-you-so any more to the millions who had been duped. No disgrace was socially required from those who had supported Nixon to the end. But you could find "nobody" who would admit to having voted for Nixon the second time. This was avoided by no one talking about it. Eventually, a more rosy collective retrospective developed over the years after millions of people had spent the time trying to find some element of Nixon's regime which could be respected in a way somewhat comparable to what you would expect from a good President. An instinctive response to try and salvage respect for an institution which was fully disgraced while they watched. There was only thing that rose to the surface and could be widely accepted as positive, since it hadn't yet had any discernable effect; "Nixon opened up China". Turns out that if Nixon had not done it then, it would have likely taken almost 20 more years to have been set in motion by someone else, giving the middle-class about another two decades which might have been enough to allow their survival to this day. Anyway, it's been 40 more years. The value of middle-class dollars has now been almost fully confiscated as the federal government continues to build its war chest. Interesting thing about currency wars, the general public can never know when (or if) they started or "finished", especially since they are providing the ammunition directly, bypassing all those expensive middlemen who are still trying to sell overpriced gunpowder to governments. But that gunpowder needs to go somewhere or it will lose value (inflation!), and it may be only a matter of time before someone with lots of gunpowder tries to turn currency into the knife at a gunfight. Again.

Yeah, that's worse than Watergate.

Synaesthesia 10y ago

So was COINTELPRO but nobody ever talks about that either.

fit2rule 10y ago
Yeah, MKULTRA too. Heinous times for American exceptionalism.
- sitkack 10y ago
  Or pot laws targeting hippies and blacks, http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/23/politics/john-ehrlichman-richard-nixon-drug-war-blacks-hippie/ http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/23/politics/john-ehrlichman-richa...
  - fuzzfactor 10y ago
    Not to mention Nixon's manipulating the US dollar and economy in a way that was most disadvantageous to the greatest number of US citizens possible. On a scale that could never have been achieved by a foreign power from outside. To the degree that major ripples are still being felt today. Unfortunately Nixon's crookedness & destructiveness was not widely recognized by the majority of the public until after it was growing out of control and undeniable, so once he was gone the damage continued and the momentum was big. All of this is ancient history, but so many young people are not even aware. After US citizens were paid less than $21/oz in paper currency when their gold was federally confiscated in 1933, then had that currency devalued less than a year later to $35/oz, for almost the next 40 years it was then illegal for US citizens to own or trade in gold. IOW, until those who were devastated at the time had passed on or were no longer a powerful voting constituency. Daddy "Warbucks" had been a recurring character in the popular comic strip "Little Orphan Annie" over those decades. By the time Nixon got there, the dollar had been at that stable $35/oz for decades and huge amounts of the US economy depended on that stability, especially to survive through unprofitable quarters or years. When Nixon outlawed free enterprise temporarily in 1971 at the same time the dollar was allowed to float against gold ever since, it turned inflation from an annoyance into a huge sucking sound. It wouldn't have been such a strong nail in the middle-class coffin except there were statistically "no" citizens who had any gold whatsoever to legally participate in any appreciation in the dollar value of gold. And it would not be made legal to participate until years later, after the "Arab Oil Embargo" had been piled on, when few citizens had any remaining wherewithal, and gold had already skyrocketed after all that new oil money had been funneled overseas and driven up prices beforehand. Time was slipping away, to save what was left of "the accumulated wealth of working people since incomes had been taxed" required until Nixon's direct involvement in the Watergate crimes became provable. By then the less-devastated near-half of the general population began to finally find themselves in the same boat as the more-devastated near-half. At that point it became universally realized that Nixon could not be removed fast enough. After that, denial was universal too. Even though Nixon had been popularly re-elected, overnight nobody even talked about him any more. It was such a relief. For years. The millions who knew he was compromised from the beginning were not saying I-told-you-so any more to the millions who had been duped. No disgrace was socially required from those who had supported Nixon to the end. But you could find "nobody" who would admit to having voted for Nixon the second time. This was avoided by no one talking about it. Eventually, a more rosy collective retrospective developed over the years after millions of people had spent the time trying to find some element of Nixon's regime which could be respected in a way somewhat comparable to what you would expect from a good President. An instinctive response to try and salvage respect for an institution which was fully disgraced while they watched. There was only thing that rose to the surface and could be widely accepted as positive, since it hadn't yet had any discernable effect; "Nixon opened up China". Turns out that if Nixon had not done it then, it would have likely taken almost 20 more years to have been set in motion by someone else, giving the middle-class about another two decades which might have been enough to allow their survival to this day. Anyway, it's been 40 more years. The value of middle-class dollars has now been almost fully confiscated as the federal government continues to build its war chest. Interesting thing about currency wars, the general public can never know when (or if) they started or "finished", especially since they are providing the ammunition directly, bypassing all those expensive middlemen who are still trying to sell overpriced gunpowder to governments. But that gunpowder needs to go somewhere or it will lose value (inflation!), and it may be only a matter of time before someone with lots of gunpowder tries to turn currency into the knife at a gunfight. Again.