Things the news pundits and politicians don't say anymore

Growing up in the 70's I used to hear things on the news, and from conversations by adults, that I don't hear anymore. Here's a partial list.

1) We don't want to be the World Police.

I remember hearing that everyone agreed, Democrat and Republican, that we didn't want to stick our noses into everyone's business.
And then 9/11 happened, and this was forgotten.

2) We have a mixed economy.

I remember my grade school teacher telling us that we didn't have a capitalist economy. We had a mixed economy. We also had the highest standard of living in the world.
Now the pundits tell me that we are a capitalist economy, and we don't have the highest standard of living in the world anymore.

3) We need to protect some industries for national security reasons.

Before NAFTA it was understood that some domestic industries were necessary in case we needed to go to war with other nations. For instance, we needed a domestic textile industry in case we went to war with the nation that manufactured our clothes.
But that sort of thinking got in the way of corporate profits. So national security took a backseat in trade negotiations.

Anyone remember other examples?

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arendt's picture

Dead in the age of "stooge of Putin":

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

Dead in the age of Fox News:

You are entitled to your own set of opinions; you are not entitled to your own set of facts.

(I believe this was Daniel Patrick Moynihan.)

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snoopydawg's picture

@arendt

You are entitled to your own set of opinions; you are not entitled to your own set of facts.

Not quite dead yet ....

Smile

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

detroitmechworks's picture

And I remember when they first rolled out the "Terrorist" propaganda.

Honestly, the stuff they sling now feels like it's right out of an Episode of "G.I. Joe" with "ISIS" or "Taliban" in the place of "COBRA". And nobody took it seriously.

I also remember that far fewer people shouted over each other and when that started the cameras usually seemed to turn away at that point.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyQVjGdJ60g]

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

@detroitmechworks
was the worst thing in the world.

Now it never even gets mentioned (i.e. Afghanistan).

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@detroitmechworks You just reminded me of another one:

No nukes.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Not Henry Kissinger's picture

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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

snoopydawg's picture

@Not Henry Kissinger

By golly that's it! This is what is happening with Russia Gate. When it first started I said that this is just the new way of saying that Saddam had WMDs, but the PTB knew that people wouldn't fall for it again so instead they just started saying that Russia interfered with the election and once Her lost because of it people started believing it. Even after Brennan stated that he saw no evidence that Russia got anyone to change their votes people are still repeating that all 17 intelligence agencies agree that Russia interfered with the election. This was after Obama told us that Our election systems are the safest anywhere in the world and that no one can hack into them people are still repeating that Russia hacked the voting machines and changed people's votes. Everyday it seems like there is something more added to things that Putin has done and not just in this country. Russia bots responsible for Brexit don't you know?

Why the big push for Russia Gate? So people will give their permission for us to go to war with Russia. And guess what? It's working!

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

TheOtherMaven's picture

@snoopydawg

They either don't see the cliff ahead, or they don't care.

(By the way, the "lemmings over cliff" meme is semi-mythical. What really happens is that the population periodically explodes and the lemmings start a centrifugal rush to get away in all directions. The Disney sumbeedges cemented the meme by purchasing lemmings for one of their "nature films" and then forcing the rodents off a cliff.)

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

WaterLily's picture

@TheOtherMaven That's positively awful!

(I already hated Disney, and now I hate them more).

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lotlizard's picture

@TheOtherMaven  
called “The Lemming with the Locket.”

https://www.comics.org/issue/11966/#102145

Characters:
Donald Duck; Huey; Dewey; Louie; Uncle Scrooge
Synopsis:
Scrooge hides the combination to his new safe in a locket that accidentally falls around the neck of a lemming that Donald and the nephews have brought to his office. The lemming escapes onto a schooner, and the ducks follow the ship to Norway, where they find millions of lemmings marching to the sea.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@snoopydawg It took a LONG time of saturation messaging for it to start working. I thought they were going to have to give it up, they were getting such low compliance even after a year of pushing the message. But they stuck to it, by golly, and ramped up the volume even further, and the American public finally tapped out:

Apologies to Chris Jericho for using him as a metaphor for CIA psy-ops.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Not Henry Kissinger "Soft power" is propaganda and mind control. Although I always thought that economic domination was part of soft power. Maybe not sanctions, but things like the IMF and the World Bank.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

WoodsDweller's picture

Peace Dividend

Peace dividend is a political slogan popularized by US President George H.W. Bush and UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the early 1990s, purporting to describe the economic benefit of a decrease in defense spending. It is used primarily in discussions relating to the guns versus butter theory. The term was frequently used at the end of the Cold War, when many Western nations significantly cut military spending

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"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

@WoodsDweller

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@WoodsDweller was always my favorite.
Is that wrong?

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Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .

Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .

If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march

WoodsDweller's picture

@Tall Bald and Ugly
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju-lptJweTc]

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"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@WoodsDweller Here's one:

Labor-saving devices, automation, and new technology will give everyone a life of leisure!

If you want a good view of this one, ride the big ball at Epcot:

big ball.jpg

It's actually a geodesic sphere.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Don't know if these count.

Better dead than red.

We had to destroy the village to save it.

Don't ask what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country.

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@MrWebster

We had to destroy the village to save it.

See Ramadi, Mosul, and Raqqa.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@MrWebster They may not say "red," but the sentiment behind that one is alive and well.

"We had to destroy the village in order to save it" is only outdated because nobody thinks they need to justify destroying the village anymore.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@MrWebster How about these?

Human rights

Due process

The President can't order assassinations

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Lily O Lady's picture

won’t support a “breast is best” resolution by the UN affiliated World Health Assembly because it would hurt the formula industry. ‘Cuz how ya gonna work three jobs to buy formula for your baby if there isn’t any formula to buy? Then what are you gonna feed your baby? /snark

Edit: changed WHO to UN affiliated World Health Assembly.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

thanatokephaloides's picture

@Lily O Lady

We are still protecting baby formula manufacturers. We won’t support a “breast is best” resolution by the UN affiliated World Health Assembly because it would hurt the formula industry. ‘Cuz how ya gonna work three jobs to buy formula for your baby if there isn’t any formula to buy? Then what are you gonna feed your baby? /snark

Three ways "breast is best":

1. The cat can't get at it.
2. Always instantly available at perfect freshness.
3. And those cute containers it comes in! Wink

(old joke)

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Lily O Lady's picture

@thanatokephaloides

La Leche League. Now my daughter is.

Back in the late 70s I heard about terrible consequences of formula use in the US. The story was that soy protein used wasn’t sufficient to support infant brain development. So the formula was banned in the US but then sold overseas!

This recent story makes me wonder if they slanted the 70s story making it sound like a mistake that was corrected. Formula seems fraught with problems such as expense and mixing with unsafe water supplies. Problems are ongoing. Breast is best but it just doesn’t suit capitalism.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

thanatokephaloides's picture

@Lily O Lady

Back in the late 70s I heard about terrible consequences of formula use in the US. The story was that soy protein used wasn’t sufficient to support infant brain development. So the formula was banned in the US but then sold overseas!

And that's before you get to the problems folks of certain ethnic lines have with unfermented soy. I belong to some of those lines myself. Unfermented soy can cause all manner of griefs to consuming humans of any age.

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Lily O Lady's picture

@thanatokephaloides

countries until stocks were used up. But the problem of watering down formula to stretch it due to cost has a similar effect and doesn’t go away.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Lily O Lady See John Steinbeck.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

ggersh's picture

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

...but disco still sucks.

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detroitmechworks's picture

@Blueslide [video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5mGNRgKFOI]

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

thanatokephaloides's picture

@detroitmechworks

Them's [disco sucks] fightin' words.

The music definitely does NOT suck! Now, for those of us whose age is floating right around 60 at this time, some of the culture surrounding disco certainly sucked; but once liberated from the search for a partner, it's freakin' amazing how wonderful much of that music is!

A pair of examples:

The brilliant and beautiful Donna Summer, may she rest in loving kind Peace:

[video:https://youtu.be/VF_o7aSjl_E]

And this orchestral piece. Anyone claiming that this "sucks" needs his head examined:

[video:https://youtu.be/RLTJ95kj9ng]

Wink

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

@thanatokephaloides
I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the end of this thread your right to say it.

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

WaterLily's picture

@UntimelyRippd Well played. (Or not, as the case may be).

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boriscleto's picture

@thanatokephaloides

Shit, that was 22 years ago?

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" In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry, and is generally considered to have been a bad move. -- Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy "

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@thanatokephaloides I didn't much like disco at the time, but I like it more and more as I age.

And I didn't *hate* it, even then. I saved that for most of the pop of the 80s. How someone as talented as George Michael could have made "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" is beyond me.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

thanatokephaloides's picture

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

detroitmechworks's picture

@thanatokephaloides Growing up as a kid that would have gotten me beaten.

Now... It just means I can sing along at pride. Smile

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

Citizen Of Earth's picture

Or any at all.
Maybe it's because the wars are so 'out of sight' now. They even hide the arrivals of troops coffins at the tarmacs now. I guess TPTB learned their lesson about bad PR.

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Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.

@Citizen Of Earth The media blackout on flag draped coffins returning home is not a figment of anyone’s imagination or a coincidence.

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Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

detroitmechworks's picture

@Citizen Of Earth but I'm doing what I can on the poetry and Satire fronts. Smile

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

Citizen Of Earth's picture

@detroitmechworks
with their poetry recitals at the "coffee" houses. Smile
You are ahead of your time detroitmechworks.

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Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.

@Citizen Of Earth There are still Poetry Slams happening

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boriscleto's picture

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" In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry, and is generally considered to have been a bad move. -- Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy "

As a kid, I used to hear older adults say something along these lines to young people, "Gee, I'd give anything to be your age again". I never hear anyone older say that now but do hear the sentiment, "I wish I'd never had kids" or "I'd hate to be young" or "So glad I'm old".

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thanatokephaloides's picture

@coolepairc

Sad but true As a kid, I used to hear older adults say something along these lines to young people, "Gee, I'd give anything to be your age again". I never hear anyone older say that now but do hear the sentiment, "I wish I'd never had kids" or "I'd hate to be young" or "So glad I'm old".

I thank God every day that I never had kids. (I'm 59.)

For most males, a period exists during one's very early sexual maturity where "I'm pregnant" means "time to go kill yourself". Usually, this starts around age 17 and should end by about age 20.

I have yet to live one day outside of that unfortunate period. And, as I said, I'm 59.

It's called "no access to stable adult-wage livelihood". Supporting a family, just like buying acreage, is no place for a tempgig worker. Or a sub-adult wage worker. Or one who is up to his eyebrows in student-loan debt. One flatly needs unimpeded access to a steady livelihood to do any of that. And, try as I might, I was never able to achieve that.

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

I don't have to agree with the President.

Dissent is not treason.

Congress declares war. (a little rusty even by the time I got there, but still a going concern)

Innocent until proven guilty.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

TheOtherMaven's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

with their "ALWAYS Believe the Victim" mantra. We were required to assume guilt based on nothing more than an accusation - something this country has always been highly vulnerable to (see: Salem Witch Trials, HUAC/McCarthy Era), but at least there used to be lip service to formal court procedures.

Now, all someone has to do is to get an accusation into the mass media, and we are supposed to immediately turn on the accused and metaphorically rend them limb from limb. It doesn't even have to be anything serious - a mere claim of insufficient ideological purity is a trigger. (See: current furor over Ocasio-Cortez.)

Well, excuuuuse me if I decline to join any lynch mobs.

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@TheOtherMaven I agree with you about innocent until proven guilty. As for ideological purity, well, often the same people demanding that we #BelieveAllWomen are the same ones telling us we have to vote for Hillary Clinton and that we shouldn't be Berniebro puritybots.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

End world hunger
The end of poverty

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

LeChienHarry's picture

and the fairness doctrine for television and radio networks.

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You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again you did not know. ~ William Wiberforce

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