quote:

Originally posted by satch:
During WWII LBJ was in the Navy and a plane he was in transporting him and others in the S.Pacific had to make a quick lamding on an deserted island. After a few days they were rescued and LBJ got a medal, the others nothing.
The planes name was the Swoose Goose piloted by a guy named kurtz. He named it after his new born daughter Swoosie kurtz.

I’m not sure that is what happened. I find no record of the plane landing on a deserted island, languishing for a few days. There is some uncertainty about the plane coming under fire. It appears that MacArthur may have awarded Johnson a Silver Star for not panicking when the plane experienced mechanical troubles and had to drop out of the mission!

Johnson was often economical with the truth. He often claimed he had an ancestor at the Alamo. A biographer looked into it, found no evidence of anything even close and confronted him with the discovery.

Johnson looked at the researcher with the expression that he was talking to the stupidest person on earth, and said, “Well, I know that. My great great grandfather was at San Jacinto, but nobody has ever heard of that.”

They looked into that, and it wasn’t true, either.

I will NEVER make the mistake of uttering that asshat's name in my mother's presence. Her reaction would make one think she is temporarily overcome with Tourette's. "With a passion..." doesn't even come close to the level of abhorrence she has for that man...

No one's talking about the connections between Johnson, Carlos Marcello, and the Kennedy assassination.

link

Thanks for sharing that video by Dinesh D’Souza about LBJ.

My first reaction is that there is no record of Johnson in the KKK because as far as I have ever known, there was no or inconsiderable KKK activity around here during Johnson’s adult lifetime. Nevertheless, it could have been.

Johnson was a very unusual person. As far as I can tell, he was as “flexible” in his morals as anyone I have ever heard of, an almost perfect chameleon who could, and did all his life, reflect the values and ideas of whoever he thought he needed to in order to get his way.

Take the example of that conversation D’Souza discusses with Sen. Richard Russell. Johnson’s purpose was to persuade Russell to vote for the legislation, not oppose it. Which approach was likely to achieve that goal? The approach of the moralist? The approach that leveraged Russell’s own deeply held prejudices?

In his early career, Johnson mastered the art of cozying up to powerful older men. FDR, Sam Rayburn, Richard Russell, the Browns of Brown and Root who subsequently financed his rise to power, and many others.

John Connally told about Russell quit going to baseball games in Washington because LBJ would go with him and drive him nuts constantly talking politics, all that Johnson cared about.

It is not surprising that Johnson used racially provocative language, routinely. That was how people talked before about 1960 or so around here. We had 3 restrooms and two drinking fountains in public buildings, the railroad station, even the Dairy Queen here until sometime in the 1960’s or so, and separate schools.

When he got out of office he gutted AF 1 including removing the wood paneling off the walls.

I thought he was a real lowlife indeed.

I always wondered how good of a shot he was from a grassy knoll?

quote:

Originally posted by Aquabird:
When he got out of office he gutted AF 1 including removing the wood paneling off the walls.

I thought he was a real lowlife indeed.

I always wondered how good of a shot he was from a grassy knoll?

Dumb ass remark of the day here. It is very difficult to have serious, entertaining, enlightening discussions with stupid stuff like this.

LBJ did have, during his time in office, the only private airport in the country with an ILS, installed by the Air Force, out at his ranch. I’m told he refused to let them remove it.

Of the many politicians existing throughout the planet, what percentage would you think are in politics to sincerely help their constituents and not simply feed at the trough of dishonest money?

My take with LBJ and so many others: Zero

You?

quote:

what percentage would you think are in politics to sincerely help their constituents and not simply feed at the trough of dishonest money?

It's a very small number.
Ronald Reagan. Calvin Coolidge. Perhaps Harry Truman.

Of course, the Clintons took graft and corruption to a whole new level.

quote:

Originally posted by Birdvol:
Of the many politicians existing throughout the planet, what percentage would you think are in politics to sincerely help their constituents and not simply feed at the trough of dishonest money?

I think some office-holders and office-seekers are cynical and/or power-hungry and/or greedy to start with. No question.

But I also think some probably started out with high aspirations. The system grinds that down pretty quickly, though.

There is an excellent exposition of the corrosive effects of the current system in Chapters 4 and 5 of Charles Murray's recent book "By The People" which I am currently reading.

To avoid taking the thread far off-track, let me just say that the entrenched structural incentives are there for a legislator who started out with the motives of Mother Theresa to morph into a Lyndon Johnson.

quote:

Originally posted by Birdvol:
Of the many politicians existing throughout the planet, what percentage would you think are in politics to sincerely help their constituents and not simply feed at the trough of dishonest money?

My take with LBJ and so many others: Zero

You?

I doubt it is binary, either/or. Often one helps oneself by helping the ones who help you.

There is no doubt that Johnson was extremely ambitious. According to reports, he elevated constituency services in his Congressional office to a religion, requiring a response go out the same day a letter was received, earning bureaucratic complaints that he or his staff drove them nuts to get helpfor the folks back home. He earned high marks and much loyalty for the electrification of the hill country south and west of Austin.

He also encouraged big advertisers to buy ads on his radio station, which earned them points when it came to legislation they favored, and they found it very advantageous to do so.

He was interested in small banks, of which Texas had 1400 back then, no branch banking allowed. I had a customer who owned stock in one. I arranged a sale of a relatively small amount on one occasion with another stock broker in town, and later learned that that guy was acting for LBJ which got me some minor grief, as they were trying to keep him out of the bank. Who knew?

As I said in my first post in this thread, he was a complete weasel, no doubt about it.

quote:

Originally posted by synthplayer:

The Dinesh D’Souza talk was very good.
I appreciate you posting that!

Thanks for the D’Souza lecture. I watched 30 minutes of it and will return and finish it.

quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:

quote:

what percentage would you think are in politics to sincerely help their constituents and not simply feed at the trough of dishonest money?

It's a very small number.
Ronald Reagan. Calvin Coolidge. Perhaps Harry Truman.

Of course, the Clintons took graft and corruption to a whole new level.

The Clintons even cleaned out the WH before they left stealing items that actually were supplied by the peoples taxes.

I received this link this morning from an old friend who served two tours in Vietnam. Martin Cade is a photojournalist. He attended a reunion of U.S.A.F. “Thud” pilots who flew in Operation Rolling Thunder. Their comments make me “dislike” Johnson even more—assuming that’s possible. Johnson and McNamara’s conduct of the air war in Vietnam cost even more lives than I realized. Cade’s photos are terrific.

Martin Cade—F-105 Thunderchief Reunion

If there's a yearly award for Best Politician, it should be named after LBJ. I had a civics teacher in HS (whom I greatly admired) who spoke glowingly about Johnson's ability as a politician, every position he held: Congressman, Whip, minority ldr, majority ldr...Johnson used every lever available in that position to achieve his goals. The guy held and remembered every IOU from his colleagues, his gift of gab would either charm or, grind whomever was in his cross-hairs.

A girl asked, Then, was he also the best president?. To which he replied, He got a lot of bills passed and TRIED to help a lot of people - in hindsight, those ideas actually hurt more people than they helped.. Class ended with a lot of confused looks.

quote:

Originally posted by TMats:
I received this link this morning from an old friend who served two tours in Vietnam. Martin Cade is a photojournalist. He attended a reunion of U.S.A.F. “Thud” pilots who flew in Operation Rolling Thunder. Their comments make me “dislike” Johnson even more—assuming that’s possible. Johnson and McNamara’s conduct of the air war in Vietnam cost even more lives than I realized. Cade’s photos are terrific.

Martin Cade—F-105 Thunderchief Reunion

Thanks for that link. Fantastic photos and content!

Not the worst. Worse than Obama - I'd say he was more successful in passing socialism and quasi-socialism. Way worse than Carter, who didn't get much done.

But not worse than FDR, who started the whole ball rolling with the New Deal.

Johnson is fascinating, but I can't support his politics. He may have thought he was helping, but he was wrong. Socialism doesn't help.

quote:

Then, was he also the best president?.
To which he replied, He got a lot of bills passed and TRIED to help a lot of people - in hindsight, those ideas actually hurt more people than they helped...

Your teacher kind of summed it all up right there.

LBJ got a lot done. In a way, that's admirable, in and of itself, and worthy of study. It's not easy to bend the world to your will. However, he moved the world in the wrong direction. When things move far enough and long enough in the wrong direction it's almost impossible to get back what was lost.