British Officials Portrayed Reagan as a “Bozo”

[DonViejo]

WRITTEN BY Nico Hines and Ben Jacobs

In the early1980s, senior members of the British foreign service were appalled by what they saw as the American president’s bumbling ignorance and lack of interest in world affairs.

Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan were often portrayed as geo-political soul mates, but government files declassified in London on Wednesday expose a deep British disdain for the president who was described in official papers as homophobic, uninformed, disinterested and, not to put too fine a point on it, “a Bozo.”

The British Foreign Office files seen by The Daily Beast show that Prime Minister Thatcher was warned President Reagan had little interest in world affairs and was unable to sustain a serious conversation about contemporary politics.

The damning critiques, which expressed sheer incredulity that this man could occupy the White House, were shared at the highest levels of government before and after Reagan’s first State Visit to Britain in 1982.

Despite the hostility of her advisors, Thatcher appeared to strike up a close relationship with Reagan based on their shared values. They loudly battled Communism together and were determined to vanquish the post-war economic consensus, which had been based on the work of John Maynard Keynes, in favor of trickle-down economics and low taxes.

Successive British ambassadors in Washington were deeply unimpressed with the former California governor, however. Sir Nicholas Henderson, who was in the job when Reagan was elected, described him as a dogmatic and simplistic man. “He has clear-cut opinions, not to say prejudices, as was apparent to me when he told me à propos Keynes that it must not be forgotten that he was a homosexual,” Henderson wrote in his United States Annual Review of 1981.

more
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/30/british-officials-portrayed-reagan-as-a-bozo.html

[johnp3907]

1. Not "Bonzo?"

[kairos12]

29. He was a chimp of the old blockhead.

[johnp3907]

40. !

[eppur_se_muova]

2. Hmmm ... sounds like Ms. Thatcher may have served as "Reagan's brain" ...

he had no ideas of his own, so she implanted hers. It would be verrrry interesting to find out what their conversations were really like.

[muriel_volestrangler]

20. And, to combine posts #2 and #3 ...

[eShirl]

3. Reagan and W are the Bozo bookends of the "conservative" era

Reagan had more charisma.

[merrily]

12. Doesn't that assume that the conservative era will end when in 2016.

God, I hope that's correct.

That's the biggest smile I've had all day.

[Cosmocat]

31. Yeah ...

Sadly, their bullshit continues to be gobbled up in big portions by the populace of this country ...

Not seeing an end in sight.

[merrily]

32. I've seen glimmers.

But, when the two largest political parties are telling you the country can't afford to do anything for you, what do you believe?

Thing is, people are so tired and beaten down, they can't pay attention. Maybe they don't even want to.

I wonder how people managed to organize into unions while mines were collapsing on them and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was ablaze. In addition to working lord knows how many hours a day for next to nothing.

Maybe we're just a much softer lot than they were.

[Cosmocat]

42. That is it

"We" are too affluent.

Now, it is based far to much on debt, but end of the day, our lives simply are too comfortable to really tune into what is going on/have the energy to really fight the bullshit.

I do presentations on government and voting, and at the last one I did, I noted that our turnout for our PRESIDENTIAL election (not even a mid term of off year election) was less than Afganistan's recent election - where the threat of and actual attacks shut down hundreds of polls. People there literally face death if they vote.

Not everyone, but people seriously complained about how demanding it is for them to get up and out the door a little earlier before work or to vote after work ...

The "brilliance" of the republican bullshit is that it sells getting something for nothing AND that you have absolutely on responsibility, there is always some boogyman who is beaten up as the cause of all the problems in the world.


As long as they get free reign to advance their bullshit, and given that we now have a complete CORPORATE media, they will, this will be the reference points for the general population.

Things have to be REALLY, REALLY bad for them to suffer consquences. It took Bush lying us into Iraq and blowing up the federal budget and economy to get democratic power in DC, and that lasted TWO years before this country for no god darn good reason gave the republican's one of the biggest mid term wins in modern history in 2010.

AND, even at that, there was slippage.

While he didn't get prosecuted, Reagen's admin DID get investigated and SOME people were held accountable for Iran/Contra.

Iraq was far more significant, and NOTHING, literally NOTHING happened to them for it.

I apologize for being negative, but I see no glimmers, I just see republicans as being as relentless as the Borg and our country being too affluent to give a shit.

[merrily]

43. ....

Not everyone, but people seriously complained about how demanding it is for them to get up and out the door a little earlier before work or to vote after work ...

Sure.

That said, the USG creates federal work holidays for all kinds of political reasons. Some Christian holidays, though so doing probably created an Establishment Clause problem, Labor Day, etc.

Why not federal laws to ensure that people can vote without standing on ine in the wind and rain for 2 hours, plus another hour or two indoors?

I have to laugh when they talk about Florida's cutting back on Sunday voting or whatever. My blue, blue state has voting on one day, always has. And they hassle you about absentee ballots. People in nursing homes had to apply every year, even though the Secretary of State claimed that was not necessary. As if family members knocking themselves out to visit a loved every day and check up on their care, etc., are up for an annual hassle with the Mayor's Office.

Does someone in a nursing home until they die really need to submit a doctor's letter for a medical excuse every year? (I think that is gradually changing, now that Dems all over the country started shaming Republicans for things like that.)

In 2004, when blues in my blue blue state flocked to the polls in an attempt to unseat George the Second, I probably could not have voted at all, if I had a standard job, unless I lied and took a sick day.

A guy who works in my building works two shifts in Boston, 7 am to 3pm, then 3 pm to 11 pm in a building about a block away managed by the same company. However, he lives (and therefore has to vote) an hour's drive away from expensive Boston.

What would be so awful about giving employees three hours off to vote, provided they furnish the employer proof of having voted?

Or allowing people to vote where they work, as well as where they live? It's 2014. There is no reason I have to shout my name and address at a poll worker and watch them open a huge book to see if my name is there, then check it off by pen. And God forbid if I moved ten blocks away, into a different polling area, and forgot to notify the city far enough in advance of the primary or election.

God or Al Gore or techies made the internet some decades ago. Any reason, in 2014, that devices of some kind that can access the internet cannot be available to poll workers at the polls, with the names of all registered voters in the state.

Meanwhile, the technology that spies on us is jaw dropping. What does all of the above tell you about how much they really care if we vote? Now, why is that? and why did Democratic pols in Congress and elsewhere cry foul in both 2000 and 2004, yet do nothing significant about preventing stolen elections, except hold House hearings that proved how easy elections were to steal with computerized voting?

What glimmers do I see? For just one thing, compare the national conversation during Obama's first term with the national conversation after Occupy and various worker uprisings (Hotel cleaning staff and fast food employees, to name two). No more "The nation can no longer afford entitlements." No more Cat Food Commission. No more Grand Bargain Committee. Now, the election issues for November are going to be, "How are you loving Obamacare, red states?" and "Raise the minimum wage, dammit!"

Also, look around DU. Not exactly lock stop, nonstop cheering Dems and booing Republicans, is it? People are saying, "Screw your interest in getting re-elected until you keel over. What about the 99%?"

[Cosmocat]

44. Yeah

you don't have to sell me on doing something to free up EVERYONE to vote.

But, given that what we have now, sadly, is non-stop efforts by republican's to KEEP people from voting, and again, the sad fact that no on really seems to give a shit about it, we aren't going to see that anytime soon.

It is what it is, and if people were less comfortable, they would fight through whatever obstacles they face.

Which again, are a lot less threatening than what a lot of people in other countries face.

I would note Oregon, which has mail in ballots, they do a LITTLE better than the national average.

But, again, I am absolutely with you on doing whatever we can to get more people out to vote.

I don't see how the mid terms are going to go well. There isn't the unifying lunacy of Obamacare as the greatest threat to the country in our history, but it still has been so successfully negatively framed it will be a net negative in November.

And, as a non-presidential and the mid term with a democratic president dems will sleepwalk through it while Rs will find enough energy on whatever bullshit they can gin up to have more of their folks at the polls.

Thanks for talking and while I am being a wet blanket, I do appreciate your hopefulness.

We can both hope that your sense wins out ...

[merrily]

48. You're welcome.

It's funny because I am usually the one being accused of being the wet blanket.

I do have hope and I do think we can impact our destinies. But, not by using the means most want to use, like signing internet petitions or calling Congress or their state houses. That doesn't harm, unless one assumes that, by so doing, they've "made their voice heard" to anyone who gives a rat's pellet and need not think or do further.

When I say that, everyone "hears" it as giving up, but I am really saying we have to do other things, foremost being getting more creative in our thinking. Organizing and participating in mass boycotts, is one example of a perfectly legal tactic. So are demonstrations that are bigger, more persistent, and better planned and publicized than we've been managing of late. (TOS require me not to urge acts that are not perfectly legal, so I won't, bu thinking more creatively about cause that we create and effect on the PTB is key.)

I also think a fairer system in terms of more than two parties having a realistic chance of winning is key to making people vote. Getting rid of the filibuster would help, too and more accountability to the public in general. I think people have little interest in toggling back and forth between Democrat and Republican, only to have both of them blame the other and/or the Supreme Court for everything.


The answer(s) is out there. We just don't, as a rule, look really hard or long or collectively. They have think tanks. We don't.

Now, I'll stop because when I make a post like this, the first poster who replies to me gets banned. It's happened at least three times that I know of.

[HooptieWagon]

4. Reagan was a bozo.

But compared to W he was a freaking Einstein. And its not like Britain hasn't had some bozo leaders in their history....

[merrily]

13. W had Rove.

For such a bozo, W got pretty much what he wanted and got away with it, too.

Luckiest turd on the planet.

[NightWatcher]

5. He wasn't a Bozo, he was an actor suffering from dementia and alzheimers who was used as a puppet

Get it straight you limey bastards.

[Thirties Child]

7. +1,000

You got it

[otherone]

11. 1

[progressoid]

6. He was unable to sustain a serious conversation about ANYTHING.

[merrily]

33. Yet, he lives on in the video of the campaign in which he blows

Mondale away.

Democratic Party changed a lot after 1980, including instituting super delegates. So did D.C. The numbers of lobbyists began increasing dramatically and quickly. No wonder the corporatist deified him, Alzheimers and all. And continue so to do.

[Scuba]

8. Yeah, that's how a lot of us saw him.

[Auggie]

27. ^^THIS^^

[calimary]

38. And we still do.

When I saw him come to national prominence, I was actually terrified. I thought - he's such a smooth talker that he's going to sweet-talk and sell people all kinds of shit and they'll buy it RETAIL, and love it to death and ask for MORE! I thought because of his skills and his phony-ass Captain America schtick, he was probably gonna be the most dangerous man in America. MAN I didn't know HOW much!!! When he finally died, my first thought was - "hmmm... death of a salesman." His legacy is absolute POISON to the entire American psyche. It'll take us generations to get it out of our system.

[shenmue]

9. Not far off

I think I will live in England someday. They seem to have got it right.

[Prophet 451]

17. We did for a while

But the current vandals-in-charge are privatising the NHS by the back door and imposing rules that the long-term unemployed must visit the JobCentre every day.

[LeftishBrit]

50. Unfortunately, we didn't get it right either. You elected Ronnie, but we elected Maggie.

[Skidmore]

10. Doesn't exactly cast Thatcher in a good light given that the two of them were

like conjoined twins.

[merrily]

14. Why? Her job was to do what she thought best for her country, not to be a true friend to Reagan.

If she could manipulate the most powerful man in the world, and still have him dote on her, more power to her.

My beef with her is her politics.

Also have to wonder why Nancy's astrologer did not pick this up. (j/k)

[6000eliot]

15. Then Bush came along and made him look like a genius.

[merrily]

16. Meh. In secret, they probably portray quite a few people as bozos, especially USians.

New Kids on the Block. Broke away from their country. Cowboys and Indians. Uncivilized. Etc.

[genwah]

18. Shocked! I'm shocked...well, actually, no.

[PumpkinAle]

19. Spitting Image- The full presidents brain is missing Ep.1

[kath]

21. "sheer incredulity that this man could occupy the White House" - yeah, I felt that, from the minute

The bozo was elected.
incredulity and disgust.

[DrBulldog]

22. Many of us already knew this back then ...

... I recall a lot of press rumors going around that said the same thing. I also remember giving my 60-year-old mother hell when she said she was voting for Reagan instead of Carter - but sadly Reagan went on to con the entire older generation into believing his utter nonsense about government and economics.

And thus we are now in our colossal ugly national mess because of Ronald Reagan - he initiated the destruction the two decades of structural progressiveness - the true golden age of America - of the 60s and 70s, as well as committed major federal crimes without being held accountable, and after 30+ years we can all witness the incredible mass effect on our middle class and our children of electing a moron to the White House.

[Hoppy]

23. Imagine their opinion of McChimp.

[eppur_se_muova]

25. Son of Bozo *and* Bonzo ? nt

[KansDem]

24. That's "PRESIDENT Bozo" to you, Engländer!

Versteh?

[Octafish]

45. Hier spricht die Stimme der Energie...

...von Hassefest 1980 am Detroit (Biker-herz von Hinckley?)

[Spitfire of ATJ]

26. New voters were born during Clinton and grew up under Dubya....

They know Republicans are full of shit.

[get the red out]

28. Truth hurts

Oh well.

[underpants]

30. Gorbachev "We just saw him as an actor reading his lines"

Gorbachev said basically that in an interview about "Tear down this wall" just after Reagan died.

[NC_Nurse]

34. So true. Glad somebody saw that the emperor had no clothes...

[LeftishBrit]

35. So he was!

(and by the way, up with Keynes, and down with Maggie!)

[Segami]

36. Ya,...so,..the Brits had it right.

He was a BOZO!

[Gothmog]

37. Reagan was a bozo

The Brits were correct in their assessment

[lumberjack_jeff]

39. Manipulable doofuses are the best kinds of friends, right Maggie? n/t

[Octafish]

46. Bozo for White Power and Dark Forces

Larry Arnn, the president of Hillsdale College recently used the phrase "dark ones" to refer to his institution's minority enrollment.

“The state of Michigan sent a group of people down to my campus, with clipboards … to look at the colors of people’s faces and write down what they saw,” Arnn explained. “We don’t keep records of that information. What were they looking for besides dark ones?”

Hillsdale is home to a very nice bronze of former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, BFF of Ronald Reagan and conservatives everywhere, including Arnn. People the world over feel her politics reverberate today, unfortunately.

The great DUer Junkdrawer reminded me that it wasn't just Thatcher and the modern conservatives who use nefarious tactics to rule over the Untermenschen. In fact, it goes back quite a ways, to the time when one group feels itself superior to another. News today about events from almost 75 years ago show that these oligarchs and racialists did big business with evil, and that the UK helped Hitler sell a billion in gold after the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1939,


Thankfully, not all Caucasians with power are evil. Untold thousands if not millions volunteered to defend the union and defeat the slavemasters in the Civil War, as did thousands more to fight the fascists in Spain and millions in World War II to defeat the NAZIs.

What's maddening is that the NAZIs and their ideology are still around. The reason for that can be found in the heart of America's national security state.

[Shankapotomus]

47. Reagan portrayed Reagan as a Bozo

I mean, come on.

[TroglodyteScholar]

52. Bingo.

[kelliekat44]

49. Is this part of the Snowden revelations? nt

[Sanity Claws]

51. Portrayed?

How about accurately depicted?

[greatauntoftriplets]

53. Accurately so.