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Just askin' about left and right in America ...

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Hoover image from

In these difficult polarizing times for our over-the-hill Republic, I can only speculate on some of the ironies of the current political situation in the USA (generalizations, granted, perhaps not acceptable to many, including myself):

1. During the Cold War (particularly the 50's, from the condemning perspective of the "left,") the "right "-- led by "fascist/racist/homophobic" FBI [under Hoover] /intelligence "agencies" unfairly/illegally/legally investigated "collaborators"/spies/Hollywood stooges supposedlyowned/paid off by the atheistic Commie-USSR which, these "spy-cleaning" organizations claimed, intended to disrupt /destroy our all-American "American way of life." The "left" howled in disagreement (don't ask -- ask? -- Reagan.)

2. Today, though, it seems it's all reversed: The "left" (granted, an amorphous term) is howling-I-hate-this-sleazeball Trump by expressing the "left"'s praise for our "objective," (and Trump-critized) all-American, trustworthy intelligence "community" (including Hoover's baby FBI) investigating Trump's "collusion" with the USSR which, it seems, aims to collude with Russia (Russia, btw, is not the USSR, as the bicoastal"intelligentsia" knows). Well, OK, Putin may be Stalin, depending on your historical perspective on the Roosevelt/Churchill meeting with Stalin at Yalta to "divide" Europe after WWII. Or maybe not.

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Again, without passing judgment, as a minor historian I note a certain irony -- a "pro-Russian" anti-FBI "Left" in the 1950s becoming an "anti-Russian" pro-FBI "community" morphing into a pro-"FBI"/ intelligence agencies in the 2010s.
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But maybe times have changed ... Also, as a non-economist (I confess I'm a failed humanist), may I note that the brilliant (but, frankly, slightly self-righteous) Paul Krugman laments the Trump "economic plan" (of course, if there is such a thing) -- because of its deficits it will fail .... but has not the "left""tolerated," encouraged federal deficits in the past? Again, just askin' ...

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3. Don't feel left out -- nobody's ever right ...



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