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Arms trading, the rise of conservatism, and some noisy helicopters from America's most diabolical President.
By: Chris Stevenson

Every ten or twenty years or so the major media coerces the public at large to lie about an undeserving politician who just died, that's why my commentary about the late president Ronald Reagan comes after all the hype immediately surrounding his death and funeral. Understand I was wise to Reagan's game from way back. If Richard Nixon had personality his name would be Ronald Reagan. Both just weren't equally corrupt, Reagan was worse. While Nixon due to his mother-of-all-scandals; Watergate, was forced to resign, or face impeachment, Reagan got away with his Contra-gate. Nixon was also unable to achieve what Reagan was able to achieve down the line, his greatest accomplishment in fact; effectively merging poor Whites with conservative values. Values tailor-made to cater to the rich. Nixon was at best only able to convert the old and the boorish geeks to conservatism; his personality was capable of drawing nothing more. Reagan was vibrant, witty, worldly-wise, humorous, and possessed a down-to-earth story-telling charisma that sucked in the young working-class White American, and even a few Blacks. That was the Reagan Revolution.

Roselyn Carter once said "Ronald Reagan made us comfortable with our prejudices," she obviously didn't mean that as a compliment. Therein lies the value of Reagan to White America at large, just as Reagan beat Carter in debates, and the 1980 presidential election. RR died on the same weekend that former president James Earl Carter christens a nuclear sub named after himself. There he goes again. Whereas today President Bush uses the specter of weapons of mass destruction to induce fear, Reagan's primary bait to blind the eyes of his followers was essentially a new red-scare. This fear tactic ignored the rise of neo-nazism, right-wing radio, and hate crimes, thereby preventing many Whites from looking at themselves.

And then there was the economic disparity between Blacks and Whites. The man who once told Russia's then-Premier Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall," was responsible for building the largest wall between the races that still exists today. While it's true that his administration saw a rise in the Black middle-class, unemployment rose, especially among poor Blacks. Reagan didn't just ignore poor Blacks, he mocked them. His buzz terminology toward Blacks on welfare; "big strapping bucks," and "welfare queen," was a not-so-slick way of inciting racial animosity that was passed off as just another of his many witticisms by Whites. Blacks weren't amused. That's why even though we know he's dead, most of us didn't appreciate the media overkill. This son of an alcoholic shoe salesman seemed to have a problem with Blacks holding down prosperous work even though he was a liberal democrat in the beginning.

The major media's history revision of Reagan not knowing about or participating in most of Iran-Contra is pure forceful stupidity at the very least. On 11/81 Reagan was presented with a plan to overthrow the Sandinista government called the National Security Decision Directive #17 at the cost of around $19.95 (not exactly infomercial money, it cost you $19.95 million). It was Reagan who approved the funding which authorized the CIA to use "UCLAs" (Unilaterally Controlled Latino Assets) to conduct covert military activities against Nicaragua's Sandinista government. What began as a 1985 plot to supply arms to the Contras in exchange for 7 American hostages held in Lebanon soon resulted in a sub-plot to funnel cocaine specifically into the inner cities of America starting with south central LA, and the bay area. The government's ties to Latino assets actually began decades earlier during the Roosevelt Administration as a pact to battle communism between the US, and the brutal regime of General Anastasio Somoza, dictator of Nicaragua. The ones who didn't know until too late, were you and I the taxpayers. This association continued right down to the Carter Administration after President Jimmy Carter put Somoza's human rights abuses under a microscope, making him back off, which allowed his regime to be overthrown and exiled.

According to the Iran/Contra Independent Counsel, Summary of Report Reagan not only knew about Iran/Contra, he tried to hide documents in connection to this from Independent Counsel investigators and Congress: "The secrecy concerning the Iran and contra activities was finally pierced by events that took place thousand of miles apart in the fall of 1986. The first occurred on October 5, 1986, when Nicaraguan government soldiers shot down an American cargo plane that was carrying military supplies to contra forces; the one surviving crew member, American Eugene Hasenfus, was taken into captivity and stated that he was employed by the CIA... President Reagan's secret sale of US arms to Iran was reported by a Lebanese publication on November 3."

Outcry from Reagan's critics may as well been muffled behind the ACU of one of his noisy helicopters (the only ploy he used to dodge answering questions), when he answered Iran's request to buy weapons from the US after publicly declaring them the enemy, US strength became undermined from that point on.

Pointblank can be read at www.voiceoffreedom.com <http://www.voiceoffreedom.com> and Black and alternative papers across the country, email comments to Stevenson at pointblankdta@yahoo.com