Goodbye Ireland...

[I B Hankering]

Originally Posted by Clerkenwell

Where's William Jennings Bryan when we need him to run for office?

Bryan ran and ran and ran, but he never won; kind of like Ralph Nader.

[discreetgent]

Originally Posted by Clerkenwell

Where's William Jennings Bryan when we need him to run for office?

A prohibitionist and avowed anti-evolutionist, just what we need
He was also considered to be the leader of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party.

Heh, something for everyone not to like these days

[Clerkenwell]

Wouldn't worry about the prohibition and anti-evolution ideas; plenty people back then thought that. There's no argument about those any more.

But does the following ring true when we seem to be elevating money, its preservation and its interests over working people (delete 'gold' and insert 'euro'):


There are two ideas of government. There are those who believe that if you just legislate to make the well-to-do prosperous, that their prosperity will leak through on those below. The Democratic idea has been that if you legislate to make the masses prosperous their prosperity will find its way up and through every class that rests upon it.
You come to us and tell us that the great cities are in favor of the gold standard. I tell you that the great cities rest upon these broad and fertile prairies. Burn down your cities and leave our farms, and your cities will spring up again as if by magic. But destroy our farms and the grass will grow in the streets of every city in the country.
My friends, we shall declare that this nation is able to legislate for its own people on every question without waiting for the aid or consent of any other nation on earth, and upon that issue we expect to carry every single state in the Union.
I shall not slander the fair state of Massachusetts nor the state of New York by saying that when citizens are confronted with the proposition, “Is this nation able to attend to its own business?”—I will not slander either one by saying that the people of those states will declare our helpless impotency as a nation to attend to our own business. It is the issue of 1776 over again. Our ancestors, when but 3 million, had the courage to declare their political independence of every other nation upon earth. Shall we, their descendants, when we have grown to 70 million, declare that we are less independent than our forefathers? No, my friends, it will never be the judgment of this people. Therefore, we care not upon what lines the battle is fought. If they say bimetallism is good but we cannot have it till some nation helps us, we reply that, instead of having a gold standard because England has, we shall restore bimetallism, and then let England have bimetallism because the United States have. If they dare to come out in the open field and defend the gold standard as a good thing, we shall fight them to the uttermost, having behind us the producing masses of the nation and the world. Having behind us the commercial interests and the laboring interests and all the toiling masses, we shall answer their demands for a gold standard by saying to them, you shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.

[I B Hankering]

Originally Posted by Clerkenwell

. . . . I tell you that the great cities rest upon these broad and fertile prairies. Burn down your cities and leave our farms, and your cities will spring up again as if by magic. But destroy our farms and the grass will grow in the streets of every city in the country.
. . . . you shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold [Euro].

Well adapted. I always did like that speech.

Yet if “Boy” Bryan, a pacifist and isolationist, had been elected president in 1896, one has to wonder if the U.S. would have annexed Hawaii or colonized the Philippines? Probably not. Consequently, would U.S. and Japanese interests been at loggerheads over Asia in 1941? Who knows. Yet, if there hadn't been a Pearl Harbor, when would the U.S. have ever entered the war—if ever—during WWII? Bryan was an honest and well intentioned man, but he was the wrong man for the time.

BTW, Bryan did win the Scopes Trial. However, that fact has often been obscured or lost since the condescending, liberal-Eastern news and intellectual establishments successfully ridiculed him—and those like him—for his (their) beliefs. Darrow’s loss; however, doesn’t make Darwin’s observations less valid. I’m just against the liberal elite who assume they are more wise and prescient than anyone else who might happen to disagree with them – lol.

Let me mention that Bryan’s father Silas was Scotch-Irish, so I can claim to be keeping this thread on topic.

[pjorourke]

Originally Posted by Clerkenwell

The terms of the deal were confirmed over the weekend. Ireland (population just less than 5 million) will borrow c.80 billion Euros - roughly $100 billion - from its 'friends' across the rest of the EU.

To get the equivalent number for the UK and US populations, multiply the loan by 12 and 60 respectively.

Where's William Jennings Bryan when we need him to run for office?

Ouch!!! Thats $20K apiece. Thats going to awful hard to pay back.

[charlestudor2005]

Originally Posted by pjorourke

Ouch!!! Thats $20K apiece. Thats going to awful hard to pay back.

They can pay for it in snakes and potatoes...oh, they don't have those anymore.

[discreetgent]

Originally Posted by pjorourke

Ouch!!! Thats $20K apiece. Thats going to awful hard to pay back.

Ha; I bet a bunch of these loans are ultimately forgiven or discounted.

[Camille]

Originally Posted by pjorourke

Ouch!!! Thats $20K apiece. Thats going to awful hard to pay back.

Yes and Portugal and Spain are not far behind either..

[pjorourke]

Originally Posted by discreetgent

Ha; I bet a bunch of these loans are ultimately forgiven or discounted.

Agreed, since the beneficiaries of these PIGS deals is the European financial system. They'd lose a lot more money if things cratered.