Moron Morgan Reynolds

Morgan Reynolds is one of the shining stars of the 9-11 "Truth" movement. He's a former Chief Economist in the Labor Department in the Bush Administration, which of course makes him very well qualified to comment on unemployment rates and payroll percentage increases, somewhat less qualified as a historian (as we shall see).

Discussing how difficult it is to convince people of the "Truth", Reynolds writes:

Governments throughout history have provoked or staged attacks on their own people to serve the powers behind the throne (“the money power”), glorify themselves, engage in vast government spending, reward friends, exert domestic control, stimulate the juices of war, annex neighbors and pursue vast geostrategic rearrangements (the “global domination project”). A few examples:

* Nero burned Rome to blame the Christans A.D. 64
* US provoked Mexican-American war 1846
* USS Maine sinking 1898
* Lusitania sinking 1915
* Reichstag fire 1933
* Hitler’s staged attack on the Gleiwitz radio station 1939
* The “surprise attack” at Pearl Harbor 1941
* Bay of Pigs conspiracy 1961
* Operation Northwoods 1962
* LBJ’s Gulf of Tonkin conspiracy 1964
* Kuwaiti baby incubator hoax 1991
* Bush Jr.’s 9/11, yellow cake and WMD scams


Of course, very few of those, upon reflection, turn out to be conspiracies, but conspiracy "theories". Nobody knows if Nero deliberately burned (a section of) Rome; evidence against it includes that the fire destroyed his own palace.

The myth that FDR allowed Pearl Harbor to happen is frequently touted by the same folks who would have us believe FDR was our greatest president. I have read quite a bit on this subject, including the famed Toland book, and the sense that I get is that much like 9-11 there were clear concerns that something was up, but not enough specifics for the attack to be prevented. Note as well that if the conspiracy theory were true on Pearl Harbor, that FDR would be reviled as the most evil person to hold the office of the presidency.

The Reichstag fire? Most historians now believe it was started by a deranged communist, not by Hitler and his goons. The Lusitania? If it was intentionally sunk or allowed to be sunk, then the goal of drawing America into the war was unsuccessful, as it took another two years before we entered combat. The Gulf of Tonkin? A recent study by the National Security Agency indicates that one of the two claimed attacks did not occur, but the other did.

I'm surprised since he put in the Bay of Pigs "conspiracy" that he failed to mention the conspiracy to invade France on D-Day. The baby incubator story? Hey, news accounts are sometimes inaccurate; were the reports of child rape in the New Orleans Superdome planted to give the Bush Administration a reason to take over management of the Katrina evacuation?

You get the picture. All of these conspiracy theories are just that, "theories", and presenting a list of them does not improve the credibility of the 9-11 Truthers. Indeed, this section shows how goofy Reynolds is:

Many Americans know that the JFK, RFK, MLK and other assassinations were inside jobs, and Nixon’s Watergate and Reagan’s Iran-Contra are proven conspiracies with criminal convictions.

Yes, and Watergate and Iran-Contra were quickly discovered, but somehow these other conspiracies have never been revealed. And the assassinations of JFK, RFK and MLK were done by Lee Harvey Oswald, Sirhan Sirhan, and James Earl Ray, respectively.

On the Screw Loose Change Nutbar-o-Meter, Reynolds rates:



Hat Tip to BG in the comments.