Older DUers: this is feeling like the 70's all over again

[superpatriotman]

Convoys
Expensive gas
Inflation
Rising interest rates
Post war
Post Watergate
A well-meaning President roadblocked by a political minority
Conservative backlash after the Great Society
Evangelism on the rise
Cold War with Russia
Immigrant blaming

History repeats itself…breaker, breaker add the internet to the 70s and here we are.

[FalloutShelter]

1. Right on the money.

Waiting for Disco to come back from the dead. At least there was dancing.

Have a Heart on me. Great post.

[superpatriotman]

2. Alexa

Play some Disco music.

[FalloutShelter]

4. HAHA ...yep. Alexa has my jam.

[Klaralven]

9. Heart -- '70s had some of the best rock music ever

Greatest opening acoustic guitar solo ever.

[FalloutShelter]

11. Love HEART!

Have one on me. Thanks for sharing.

[Klaralven]

21. Thanks!

[ForgedCrank]

12. "Waiting for Disco to come back"

Smack your mouth!

[FalloutShelter]

14. HAHAHAH

[fightforfreedom]

28. America never recovered from disco.

[Amishman]

3. Had this discussion with my dad, he said the difference is that there is more raw hatred now

He's worried about full blown civil war

[Walleye]

16. I agree the hatred and violence are more widespread now

[djm5971]

5. Yep

There are many similarities. At least I have Dead and Company to see in concert. I can pretend it's the 70s and Jerry is still around...

[milestogo]

6. But no DISCO.

[scipan]

85. Ahh, that's a blessing.

[AwakeAtLast]

90. K-Pop

Which would you rather?

[mopinko]

7. and all fomented by oligarchs.

then it was the saudis, now they are homegrown.

[cayugafalls]

25. THIS, so much this...

Spot on, mopinko.

My head is spinning at how they have successfully fooled the people into fighting each other, rather than fighting them.

As long as they control the message, it will be hard to ever gain the upper hand.

The M$M needs to be broken up again...and ripped from their bloody hands.

[Klaralven]

8. The return of stagflation driven by energy prices

Imports of commodities and goods denominated in dollars will drive inflation.

The US economy is less competitive with other countries who will be able to pay higher prices for raw materials and manufactured goods.

[Throck]

10. A bit short.

None of the free love.

Everything gets you sent to HR these days.


At least pollution is down and Lake Erie isn't burning.

[Walleye]

18. 70s were at the golden age of sex- After the birth control pill and before HIV

[Hortensis]

27. ! :)

[wnylib]

33. And the Cuyahoga River isn't burning either.

Last edited Fri Feb 11, 2022, 12:05 PM - Edit history (1)

[niyad]

62. Have you ever heard Kristin Lems song, "Cuyahoga River"?

[wnylib]

66. No, never heard it or heard of it.

But I do remember Johnny Carson joking about the river fire on the tonight show.

[niyad]

68. I would have posted it, but my computer has a weird glitch that won't let

me link, or copy and paste.

[Eyeball_Kid]

67. I remember Randy Newman's song. n/t

[Blues Heron]

13. those were good convoys back then - these ones are pure evil

breaker breaker spreader coming through! cough cough...

nice try, though kind of a stretch

[Lochloosa]

15. ....

[genxlib]

17. Yes

And it is hard not to follow that thread into the future and wonder what the Reagan 2.0 will look like.

Much like Carter, Biden is a good man that is in danger of being overrun by worldwide circumstances that are not within the control of any President.

[Klaralven]

30. Biden seems more like Ford

Both had long Congressional experience, no executive experience.

Ford pardoned Nixon; Biden has gone easy on Trump.

South Vietnam collapsed; Afghanistan collapsed.

Inflation started following the '73 oil crisis.

Swine flue pandemic.

Moderate at odds with the more radical wing of the party.

[genxlib]

35. You could make arguments for either

But neither one bodes well. These are terrible conditions to govern in and whomever gets stuck with them gets blamed.

Fortunately, there is time to recover for '24 but the midterms are running out of time to see a rebound.

[Klaralven]

41. In Ford's midterm election, the Democrats picked up 5 Senate and 48 House seats

In Carter's midterm, the Republicans got some of their losses back.

[genxlib]

52. Midterms are always bad for the parties in the White House

Conditions in the economy and elsewhere can certainly have an impact on how bad it can be.

[Klaralven]

75. Ford's midterms were particularly disastrous. Dems held the House 20 years until Clinton's midterms

All the way through the Reagan and Bush 1 years.

[Polybius]

76. Except for Bush in 2002, Republicans actually gained

Probably because he was still popular from 9/11.

[genxlib]

81. Yep

And the republicans were particularly craven about using fake patriotism as a weapon.

What they did to Max Cleland was criminal. That was one of a million examples of how they maliciously slandered Democrats for having the temerity of not being blood thirsty war mongers.

[Chainfire]

19. I think the times are more akin to the 1930s.

The rise of Fascism.

[nini]

24. Agreed.

I didn’t fear we’d lose democracy in the 70s.

[wnylib]

40. True. I sometimes feared in the early 70s

that there would be civil war at home over the war in Vietnam, and we did call Nixon "King Richard," but I never feared that the whole democratic system would collapse.

More Dems in Congress then.

[doc03]

20. You add Disco, Leisure suits, Double knit, stupid convoy movies, labor concessions

plant shutdowns, the F---g Bee Gees it is the worst decade of my life.

[wnylib]

42. I felt like the 80s were the worst decade.

(I like the Bee Gees.)

Don't forget the 200th birthday celebration in '76.

The 80s were Raygun and Bush I.

[Captain Zero]

22. Not until there are CDs paying 19-22 percent

And this time I have cash to put into them.
So I fully expect we WON'T be seeing those certificates of deposit. haha.
Anybody seen some?

[superpatriotman]

23. You're thinking of the Reagan 80s

When the prime rate topped 15% in 1982. It could have been a 70s hangover, but Reagan monetary policies and voodoo economics did not help.

[Klaralven]

34. It was Paul Volker who raised interest rates and stopped inflation

President Jimmy Carter nominated Paul Volcker to serve as chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System on July 25, 1979.[17] He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on August 2, 1979, and took office on August 6, 1979.[18] President Ronald Reagan renominated Volcker to a second term in 1983.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Volcker

[lonely bird]

53. Stopped inflation is an interesting term

I don’t disagree that inflation came to a halt. How many here want interest rates on mortgages and other long term notes to skyrocket? Inflation is a human response. There is no price fairy raising prices no matter what demand does. Somebody, somewhere decides to raise prices.

Re: energy much has been made regarding fracking and how we are suddenly the world’s largest producer. There is economically recoverable and technically recoverable. If prices are not high enough producers will minimize production. Fracking, as everyone knows, isn’t the same as regular drilling. In addition, iirc, frack wells individually do not produce on the same scales as standard drilling. So you need multiple lines out of each well and many more wells. Of course, none of this takes into account commodity speculators.

An interesting idea is looking into hedge funds to see how much housing, particularly rental units, they are buying.

[Klaralven]

71. Fracked wells decline in production quicker and have a shorter production life

And they require a lot more cheap Chinese drill pipe to drill all those multiple lines.

But coking coal and iron ore prices are going up, so even if tariffs were lifted, cheap Chinese drill pipe is no more.

[mountain grammy]

26. There are more guns..

way more guns. Exponentially more guns and gun injuries and deaths.

[twodogsbarking]

29. Innocent people gunned down and called the victims.

[wnylib]

43. Tin soldiers and Nixon coming.

I heard the victims blamed for their own deaths.

But there were also voices saying, "My God! We're killing our own children now."

[AngryOldDem]

31. Sure does.

[twodogsbarking]

32. Innocent people gunned down and called everything but victims.

[superpatriotman]

36. Too much Disco hate in this thread

If you don’t like to dance you probably won’t be a friend to me.

You Should Be Dancing.

[Poiuyt]

47. We should all dance like Elaine

[Ligyron]

48. Girls sure do like to dance.

And of course, every girl's crazy 'bout a sharp dressed man.

Three piece suits were hard to tolerate down here in Florida but the great coke helped some.

[sagetea]

37. yep...

Was telling my daughter the same thing yesterday. I told her because of the convoys, they put signs on highways saying no convoys no caravans, etc on federal highways. They can literally be arrested for it. not sure if the signs are still there though!

sage

[Rebl2]

38. Was thinking the

same thing last night.

[KS Toronado]

39. Could someone jog my memory please?

Because of Inflation, didn't we have a freeze on prices and wages?

[wnylib]

46. Yes, we did. I think that was under Tricky Dick.

[NH Ethylene]

59. It was!

I was just telling my daughter that this could never happen now because we buy so much internationally. We could never put a freeze on prices.

[cinematicdiversions]

44. Don't forget disgraced former President with Plumbers. NT

[Tommy Carcetti]

45. Somehow it feels a lot worse.

Granted, I was very nominally a part of the 70s and have no personal memory of it, but this seems a lot more precarious.

[wnylib]

51. It does seem more precarious now,

and I remember the 70s well. I was in my 20s. Maybe it seemed less threatening to me then than now because I was younger then and in agreement with civil rights, women's rights, and ending the war that wasn't a war because it was never declared.

Today the greatest threat is from the right. We were not a threat to the nation's continuation as a democracy in the 70s. Our movements were trying to fulfill the promise of democracy.

[yaesu]

49. In a capitalist country those with all the money hold the power, in a communist country those

in power hold all the money. We were battling communism in the 70's, they were battling capitalism. Democracy is almost impossible under both capitalism and communism as we are sadly witnessing.

[treestar]

50. The main difference

is many progressive laws were passed during that era. Progress of women's rights, a liberal court, Roe v. Wade.

[L. Coyote]

54. Big difference

We've gone from Silent Majority to Moral Majority to Stupid Majority.

[BlueIdaho]

60. The M$M turned them into a "majority"

In fact it’s a less that 30% of the country. A stupid minority.

[L. Coyote]

70. In fact, all three have never been anything except minorities.

They just call themselves the majority, which is neither silent nor moral, but it is stupid.

[Grumpy Old Guy]

55. I was thinking the same thing.

[Gore1FL]

56. This reference is more 1960's

By I was listening to Barry McGuire's Eve of Destruction and was amazed at how much of still worked, and how much of it worked in different ways, but was still valid.

[burrowowl]

61. One of my favorites! Ty

[pandr32]

57. Lots of similarities there

You can add civil rights pushes
commercialism
a push to legalize marijuana

[Yanicosco]

58. Too familiar n/t

[azureblue]

63. True, but--

The difference is that we were in our 20's back then and we were active in changing the world, fighting against corporate America, the "powers that be", etc.. And we were willing to get out and demonstrate.

Now, I have yet to see people in the same age group that active and visible.

We were thwarted because we underestimated the brutality of the push back - beatings, gassing, murder, and more. This begat the yippies, the militants which the Powers pushed back hard, even bombing a neighborhood.

Our generation was built on knowledge, love, sharing, kindness, understanding. But this bunch of MAGAs / Nazis revel in the exact opposite. Even though our values are the same as espoused by Jesus, Buddha, etc.

The same mistakes are being made, of underestimating the people who are destroying Democracy in America. They are shameless, they don't care about laws and, frankly, it's beginning to look a lot like the world of Robocop to me. The republicans WILL NOT LISTEN to anything that we say or anything that does increase their power and wealth. WE can't treat them like rational beings any more because they have proven time and again they are not rational.

MAYBE, if we can mount huge demonstrations, MAYBE if we can be aggressive. MAYBE if we can get airtime where we make fools of the media, MAYBE we can turn the tide.

And MAYBE, just maybe, this is our second chance at making things right, of building a world of peace and love. But it will take what amounts to a war to do it. Make no mistake - the Repub cult will not go down without a fight.

[Evolve Dammit]

64. 10-4 Good Buddy. Nice handle. What's your 20?

[Nanuke]

65. Add Book Banning

I had my first job teaching High School English in 1979. That year the local school banned two books I taught for American Lit: Of Mice and Men and To Kill a Mockingbird. Shocking.

[Pepsidog]

69. My state NJ during gas crisis I recall waking up early to get in line to buy gas on.Gas was sold

on and odd/even system according to the last digit of your license plate.

[Uncle Joe]

72. I hope disco comes back.

Thanks for the thread superpatriotman.

[Polybius]

73. "A well-meaning President roadblocked by a political minority"

Please explain that one. Republicans blocked Carter's programs with the filibuster in the 70's?

[turbinetree]

74. Experience the draft and not having the right to vote...those days

[superpatriotman]

77. I almost forgot!

The Southern Strategy.

Here's a warning from an -ex Trumper:
https://www.salon.com/2022/02/11/joe-walsh-on-what-the-left-doesnt-get-trumpworld-would-happily-this-country-down/

[smirkymonkey]

78. Yes. Just Without The Polyester!

[FakeNoose]

86. Oh Gawd, the hairstyles weren't bad but the clothes were horrible

Thank goodness my days for mini-skirts are long over.

[Vinca]

79. It does, doesn't it? That's when we bought our first house and it cost all of $24,000

and the interest rate on the mortgage was something like 17%. Of course, now there are no houses to buy for as little as $240,000 where I live and if you find one it's usually for something that needs as much work as our crummy, little $24,000 house. The shit really hit the fan back then and it's not looking too rosy now. I don't see inflation going down until they get the supply chain and price gouging under control. This morning I paid $9.99 for some keto cereal. When I think back to the 70's, that amount was a significant portion of our weekly grocery bill.

[lame54]

80. Without the cool soundtrack

[bigtree]

82. I don't feel like any of that ever receded

...maybe just from some people's view.

It's actually encouraging how many more of us are actually demanding social and political changes than we managed in the '70s. I know it may look like it was dominant then, but I remember our more isolated group of resisisters labeled as hippies and anti-American for our efforts.

I also remember a more cliquish resistance than the more diverse and diffused activism we see today.

[superpatriotman]

84. Now we are called socialists

and anti-fa

[Texaswitchy]

83. I was just out of high school.

Wore out a car going back and forth to Austin.


Taking my union apprenticeship training.

Good times.

Go back in a second.

[Progressive dog]

87. Nah

I lived through the 70's too. The price of gas is a little higher in terms of real money, but the average car gets much better gas mileage.
Inflation is so far only a short term problem, in the seventies it was a very long term problem. In the 60s, unions negotiated salary increases tied to inflation. The interest rates now are still at some of the lowest rates ever. They rise and fall all the time. In the mid 70's, my bank paid me 12% on a CD and I was paying 8 1/2% on a 20 year mortgage. Today's mortgages are less than 4% for a 15 year mortgage. CD's at most banks are under 1% for 1 year and less than 2% for 2 years.
We did not have a cold war with Russia, it was with the Soviet Union and the block of puppet countries that stood with it.
Immigrant blaming has gone on forever, it didn't begin in the 70's.
History may repeat itself, but this isn't the 70's.
On the bad side, our population has increased by over 100,000,000 (almost a third) since 1979. The world population grew about 75% or more than 3 billion people. This is a problem, in the 70's much of the world went hungry. There is going to be a point where it will be impossible to grow enough food for everyone. Of course more people meas more consumption of everything people use. At the current rate of use, oil will be gone in less than 50 years. Natural gas will sometime be gone, too. But this still isn't the 70's, there is much more to worry about IMO.

[Stinky The Clown]

88. I have been thinking Jimmy Carter era.

That wasn't his fault and this isn't Biden's fault.

[Irish_Dem]

89. This is worse than the 60's or 70's. Far worse.

We may lose our democracy.

[BannonsLiver]

91. Evangelism is not on the rise.

[brooklynite]

92. How was Carter "roadblocked by a political minority"?

Democrats had 60 Senators from 1977-1978 and 57 from 1979-1980.