September 1 - Bedside Note of President Franklin D. Roosevelt Regarding the Invasion of Poland by Germany, 09/01/1939
This item is a pencilled notation written by President Franklin D. Roosevelt while in bed on September 1, 1939 at 3:05 a.m., and records how he received news that Germany had invaded Poland and was bombing Polish cities, thus beginning World War II.
The note documents that Roosevelt received word of the invasion from Ambassador Anthony Biddle, through Ambassador William Bullitt. The note also documents the President’s order that all Navy ships and Army commands be notified by radio of the German invasion.
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…If you really want to know what’s going on, watch the corporations.
How can you do that? Follow the money — donations by corporate political action committees.
Look, for example, at the campaign contributions of commercial banks — traditionally Republican-leaning, but only mildly so. So far this year, according to The Washington Post, 63 percent of spending by banks’ corporate PACs has gone to Republicans, up from 53 percent last year. Securities and investment firms, traditionally Democratic-leaning, are now giving more money to Republicans. And oil and gas companies, always Republican-leaning, have gone all out, bestowing 76 percent of their largess on the G.O.P.
These are extraordinary numbers given the normal tendency of corporate money to flow to the party in power. Corporate America, however, really, truly hates the current administration. Wall Street, for example, is in “a state of bitter, seething, hysterical fury” toward the president, writes John Heilemann of New York magazine…
…The mood on the right may be populist, but it’s a kind of populism that’s remarkably sympathetic to big corporations…
…[Pres. Obama] finds himself very much in the position Franklin Roosevelt described in a famous 1936 speech, struggling with “the old enemies of peace — business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.”
And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Roosevelt turned corporate opposition into a badge of honor: “I welcome their hatred,” he declared. It’s time for President Obama to find his inner F.D.R., and do the same.
”Paul Krugman, continue reading… NYTimes
more on this from the constant reader via realitychex
“I’d love Mr. Rand to tell have told President Roosevelt..sorry your wheelchair means you have to work on the 1st floor. LOL.” - Marlee Matlin
President Roosevelt’s Second Bill Of Rights
via Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story
(repost as a tribute to passage of HCR)
President Roosevelt’s Second Bill Of Rights
via Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story
(via topherchris)
Status Quo? Hell No!
…The end result of bipartisanship is paring down a bill until it changes next to nothing of import. And then selling it as if it were the greatest thing since the last bucket of lukewarm spit to pass this way.
This is nothing new in politics. The money has always been on the side of the status quo, since change can be costly to one’s bottom line.
And the status quo has perennially been about “I’ve got mine. Screw you,” now hasn’t it?
Jean Edward Smith has a fantastic op-ed in the NYTimes today talking about FDR, the false sop of bipartisanship and the real value of a little more backbone:
…this fixation on securing bipartisan support for health care reform suggests that the Democratic Party has forgotten how to govern and the White House has forgotten how to lead.
Roosevelt understood that governing involved choice and that choice engendered dissent. He accepted opposition as part of the process. It is time for the Obama administration to step up to the plate and make some hard choices.
