Former First Lady Nancy Reagan has died. My condolences to her family and her many admirers.
I want to share one thing with you that immediately sprang to my mind when I heard the news.
“Virtually every major move and decision the Reagans made during my time as White House Chief of Staff was cleared in advance with a woman in San Francisco [Joan Quigley] who drew up horoscopes to make certain that the planets were in a favorable alignment for the enterprise.” -Michael Deaver, from his memoir, For the Record: From Wall Street to Washington, (San Diego: Harcourt Trade Publishers, 1988).
I don’t miss the 80’s.
I didn’t even know she was still alive.
My own mother has been in the hospital three times this week.
Time is funny that way.
I’m sorry about your mother. Hope she gets better!
I thought Nancy was dead already, too.
Thanks. She’s 90 now and different organs aren’t holding up their end of the bargain.
Best hopes and wishes to you and your family, Bob. My parents have died; losing the last parent created a big transition for everyone in my family. I feel for you, whatever your circumstance.
It’s a testament to how insane the GOP has become that frankly Nancy Reagan’s astrologer was probably better at making policy decisions than Mitch McConnell or Donald Trump
The astrologer actually made decisions.
Only in the sense that she was the final word on to go or not go. But she probably drew up the charts to get the answer Nancy wanted.
I knew Nancy was still alive, but I knew she was probably getting close to the end.
Condolences to her family. However, I duly note that it wasn’t her kids – with whom she often had a contentious relationship – who made the announcement of her death.
The photo is pretty funny. Nancy also enjoyed the close personal company of the Chairman of the Board. I’m not so sure that she “just said no” to Frank.
Yeah, probably Nancy’s astrologer made more sense than anyone in today’s R party. Maybe we can invite her back to provide some advice?? Or has she also shuffled off this mortal coil?
Seriously? Don’t imagine he heard “no” very often. lol
How ironic it is that a First Lady who is remembered by so many as a person of grace and elegance passed only days after the classless (R) debate. That the Party still holds the Reagan years in reverence for their costuming the elegance of the Office (remember Nancy’s gowns?) yet today their members scream ‘you lie’ at the current occupant and consider it just good fun to discuss the size of their dicks during a Presidential debate.
Nancy may have looked elegant but Michelle is elegant.
The person that a majority of Democrats are rejecting:
It literally made me cry (and that’s not easy to do).
Information on CIW for those not familiar with this remarkable movement.
Six hours and counting of hagiographic coverage of Nancy Reagan’s passing on Fox, CNN and MSNBC. I just watched Anderson Cooper call in his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, so she could testify to how great great great the Reagans were. Little Andy agreed.
Our liberal media.
Ah. America’s own Aristocracy acknowledging she who would be Queen. I’m sure Gloria (and probably also Anderson) viewed Nancy, the commoner actress, as part of the hired help.
Yeah, Liberal media my azz…
President Obama and Michelle on Reagan’s passing:
“Nancy Reagan once wrote that nothing could prepare you for living in the White House. She was right, of course. But we had a head start, because we were fortunate to benefit from her proud example, and her warm and generous advice.
Our former First Lady redefined the role in her time here. Later, in her long goodbye with President Reagan, she became a voice on behalf of millions of families going through the depleting, aching reality of Alzheimer’s, and took on a new role, as advocate, on behalf of treatments that hold the potential and the promise to improve and save lives.
We offer our sincere condolences to their children, Patti, Ron, and Michael, and to their grandchildren. And we remain grateful for Nancy Reagan’s life, thankful for her guidance, and prayerful that she and her beloved husband are together again.”
Not surprising that they’re classier than me.
Nothing to say about Nancy except rot in hell. But what happened to Steven D’s story?
Did kos threaten to sue or somethng?
I’m logged in but when I click on the link for that story it says I have to be an Admin or something to Moderate it. It won’t let me see the comments.
I’m assuming a flag is set on it that is hiding the comments or something. But since it has 50 comments, maybe something else is going on…
Dunno.
My wife J is very, very upset about what Kos is threatening to do on 3/15. She’s a big Bernie fan.
Cheers,
Scott.
Markos is making a big fucking mistake there. He should reconsider.
Troubling. Always dislike seeing posts with so many good comments disappear.
I appreciated your summary of some of your Daily Kos experiences; they helped me put some things together.
I’ll accept that as a peace offering. It will hold better if for some time into the future you let my comments about HRC, Obama, and the DEM Party stand without responses to any of it from you and I do the same with yours on those subjects. IOW on those subjects we exist in separate corners.
I’m willing to consider your request, and I’d like to comply. I’ll point out that this request works against the concept of a blog community which encourages dialogue. It also sets up a situation where I’m responding to what is in essence a unilateral demand by you.
I can put down my pride and agree to that, but I merely ask you to consider the consequences of your most strident sentiments before you post them. I’m not the only one who has recoiled from some of the stuff you’ve posted here, just as you are not the only person here to object to my posts. I’ve got a lot to think about on my side of the fence there.
We’ve each done our individual levels of homework. Calling those with whom you disagree deluded, cultish and uninformed, whether they are within or outside this community, is a low road I don’t want to be forced to experience without the right to speak out against it.
Thank you for your consideration of accepting the branch on these terms.
Suggest you read your above comment again because it exemplifies what you frequently do that makes “dialogue” between us unconstructive. Being mature means recognizing when one is on such a different wavelength from another individual that communication is impossible. Sometimes the gap can close on it own if left alone for a period of time. Sometimes the gap never closes enough for any meaningful dialogue to take place. Let it be. For now.
Will add one other thing — “homework” isn’t merely doing Google searches and pulling up some article that confirms one’s opinion/position. The internet allows us to quickly find anything that satisfies a single quest. Absent prior education, experience, expertise, knowledge in a subject area, one can’t even evaluate individual and isolated articles for meaningfulness, veracity, how it fits with history and known experience, etc. Then how does one apply one’s position with the evidence.
An example, if you’ve seen “The Big Short,” all the big shots thought the sky was the limit with the MBS, CDOs, and CDS and a few guys figured noticed that it wasn’t working. Others not in the securities biz, such as Billmon and myself, could see that the real estate market was in a serious bubble but we didn’t know how it was mechanically being fueled nor when it would pop. But had no doubt that it would pop and it wouldn’t be pretty when it did. This was contrary to what Greenspan, Bernanke, Paulson, and Goolsbee were preaching and continued to preach after people like me were pointing out that it was popping. During that period of time I wasn’t interested in “dialogue” with people disputing my interpretation and conclusions with reports or speeches made by Greenspan, et al. I viewed them and their appeals to authorities as engaged in C. Wright Mills labeled as Crackpot Realism. Doesn’t matter if one dots all the i’s and crosses all the t’s if the premises are all wrong.
We’ll see how it goes. Neither one of us is leaving, so we appear to be stuck with continual exposure to and irritation with each other.
Maybe we can enjoy a laugh together:
Our disagreements are of similar importance. Theirs might be more important.
We’ll be informed, of that there is no doubt. Steven’s post has been read, and cannot be unread. It was told from his point of view, with his set of claims. I’m looking forward to reading Martin’s representation of this “bloody” blog history.
These incidents provide me a sense of satisfaction that the comments threads at Daily Kos were never appetizing to me; I picked the right blog host. As we well know from the comments section at this blog, BooMan essentially doesn’t ban commenters. At least he hasn’t during my time here. The fact that Frog Ponders have exhibited decent senses of restraint have helped him pursue that philosophy.
It’s also notable that a plurality of commenters here have spoken out in various levels of disregard for BooMan’s general advice and views during this primary, yet he has maintained his interest in facilitating open dialogue.
You may not believe in the eighties, but I still believe.
In his 1990s autobiography, My American Journey, Colin Powell mentioned how he had noticed the strange timing of events when he worked in the Reagan White House; colleagues clued him in to the reason why.
Also, it’s been several decades since I read Haynes Johnson’s Sleepwalking Through History, but I think it was Michael Deaver who told him at a dinner party that he (Deaver) had seen Reagan cry hundreds of times in public, but not once in private. (Related in a footnote in the book.)