Hello, I.T.C.H.ers!

Well, if not for the death of Senator Robert Byrd, enabling Senate Republicans to halt Wall Street/Financial Reform legislation, those laws (and this Wall Street Frauds Make Wonderful Cartoons series, would have concluded this past weekend. That fact — the fact that if not for Republican obstinance, I wouldn’t have needed to make this post today - just makes me ITCHy, to remind people what one would think they couldn’t possibly forget (but, a great many have). I.e., that the failed financial ideology of the Republican Party, and the bent of its stalwarts to ignore all apects of reality that contradict with that ideology (facts, apparently, have a liberal bias — so ignore them!), are what have placed our nation in its current mess.

Namely, the Republican Party and its wreckless, irresponsible, incompetent governance during the eight years of the worst president in all of American history — George W. Bush — has piled one mess after another upon this country. Future administrations (including the current one) will be required to spend their entire terms attempting to dig out from under the disastrous ruin of the previous eight years of G.O.P. rule, which sealed their position in history as worst ever, with its farewell gift of a Second Great Depression. They would have us forget this, screaming about mounting debt (90%+ of which they created, and the current additional debt made necessary, to save us from sinking even lower, into the pit the Republicans dug). Out of power, they scream for financial restraints which they themselves did not follow when they were in power. Republicans would have us forget that theirs is the same identical spiel they spouted back in 2000, which they failed to adhere to the moment they were in control of the government, but which we’re supposed to believe they won’t do this time. Bull!

Well, being the party that created our Second Great Depression, let’s go back and look at their rhetoric during the Presidential Election of 1928 — which gave us President Herbert Hoover, and the Republican-caused First Great Depression!

Below follows excerpts from the giveaway pamphlet, Pictorial History of the Department of Commerce under Herbert Hoover, published in 1928 by the Hoover-Curtis Campaign Committee of New York State, and illustrated by editorial cartoonist Robert Satterfield.

Below, an example of how Herbert Hoover, if elected, will be great for American Prosperity!

Click on any picture, to open a larger version.

Next, how Hoover supposedly defeated “a Great Depression” (as he phrased the post-WW I recession - an example of how wildly overblown word choices can later come back to haunt you)…

More examples of how, according to this G.O.P. pamphlet, Hoover’s policies will mean more money for everyone…

This final extract doesn’t really have anything to do with the economy — I just find it amusing that more than half a century before Al Gore’s claims to have “invented the internet”, apparently Herbert Hoover was claiming to be “the Father of Modern Radio”.

So, as you listen to this year’s Republican rhetoric on how they better know how to handle the economy — despite the fact that those exact same policies have now given us two Great Depressions — try to unplug your head from the Fox News Propaganda Network, and learn to think for yourselves. As per the adage, Those who fail to learn from history’s mistakes, are doomed to repeat them.

On a separate but related note, this past Wednesday — June 30, 2025 — a survey firm working for Wall Street Hedge Funds, made the mistake of choosing my home phone to ask opinions. This “survey” was incredibly leading and biased, asking questions in a manner to attempt to sway the opinions of those being questioned, to favor dangerous Wall Street practices, as opposed to being an true scientific study. This was affirmed near the end, when they started asking questions wanting to know whether my opinions on Wall Street and Hedge Funds after changed over the course of the survey, due to the “information” they had imparted.

Their questions were aimed towards opposing any legislation by Congress which might impose restrictions on hedge funds and the practice of short selling. A number of their questions began with the (mis)leading information, that no hedge funds had received a government bailout — which is deliberate wordplay and trickery — because the truth is, while no hedge fund received a government bailout - the institutions which were packaging and selling them, did. Questions were posed asking “which of these two statements do you agree with more”, at which point one statement would involve the innocence and value to the country, of hedge funds and short selling, while the other statement - which was anti-hedge fund — was phrased in such an extreme and over-the-top manner, as to make anyone who agreed with it appear to be an idiot. (Still, I went with the anti-Wall Street idiots, rather than play into this bogus survey’s game.) I’m certain this survey will be foisted upon the brain-numbed masses who watch Fox News, and, that it will be used to attempt to convince the more spineless amongst our elected representatives, to remove provisions to watch over the Wall Street robbers who can more freely steal, sans regulations. So now, when you hear this piece of crap-science, you’ll know what it really is!

Click here to find prior Wall Street Frauds Make Wonderful Cartoons entries, and related I.T.C.H. posts. This series will continue, so long as the debate on financial reforms continues in Congress (except Mondays and holidays, during which I’d already had other material planned).

Doug Wheeler

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