How and why are we feeling affection for this man? Oh no, that guy we used to think was the worst president who ever lived, back when we were young and innocent, did an interview on the "Today" program, and he was unkind to Dear Leader Trump! Yes, George W. Bush, whose presidency looks downright brilliant compared to Donald Trump's, very obviously thinks Trump is a dumb twat, but he's too nice to say it that way. Instead he said things like this:
Remember when we thought Mittens was the biggest disaster of a president that we could imagine? Ahhh....the good 'ol days. As stiff and robot like as Mittens is, I think he probably has more compassion in his pinky finger than Trump has in all 270 lbs. of his shitty self.
I seriously doubt that Ronald Reagan is in heaven at all. But then he may not be in hell either. Possibly the devil lifted a Mr. Spock eyebrow and said, "Under no circumstances are you getting in here. I do have standards, you know."
Mmm, I don't know. Maybe not so crazy. Maybe GWB couldn't have prevented it, but he did have an intelligence memo on his desk, actually headed, "Bin Laden Planning Attack on American Soil," and I understand the body of the memo even mentioned the use of airplanes. GWB went on four weeks' holiday, didn't he, and came back and still didn't read the bloody thing. Oh, agreed, any suggestion that he DELIBERATELY let it happen, or that the U.S. government even staged September 11 for some conspiracy theory reason, is one hundred per cent batshit crazy. But he was warned and did zip, so far as I know. Highly inept at best.
I might've been naïve, but I wasn't that young, and I remember why I disliked George Walker Bush. He lied like hell to lead his country into a war with a country that had nothing to do with September 11th. His biggest deliberate damned lies were probably, "Saddam was involved in September 11th" "Saddam has weapons of mass destruction" and "Iraq has links with Al-Qaeda." But there were others, and there was the deliberate exposure of Valerie Plame as CIA, risking her life, to get back at her husband because he wouldn't lie about Saddam Hussein getting uranium from Nigeria. There were lies of omission, naturally. The whole time the Bush administration's key members were chanting, "Saddam had links with al-Qaeda" like parrots on amphetamines, none of them once mentioned in public that 15 out of the 19 September 11th hijackers were Saudi Arabian or travelling on Saudi Arabian passports, or that none -- not one -- was an Iraqi.So they bombed Iraq to hell, invaded it, took it over, reduced it to chaos, and out of the flaming wreckage rose Islamic State.I wonder how many of those hate-filled fanatics were boys ten years old in 2003, seeing their parents and brothers and sisters blown apart?Now we have Donald Trump smirking, "GWB wasn't exactly wrong, he just wasn't as terrific as I am and he didn't go far enough."
the one decent public thing he did was when he declined to pardon Scooter Libby on the way out, suggesting that he may not have known what Darth Cheney and Turd Blossom were up to.
His 2003 flub was pretty bad, I never said that others couldnt still be upset about it or that anything you're saying is wrong. I'm just saying that being anti-Bush for me is something I equate with being young and in college and partially wanting to be influenced by my liberal professors and other students. I just don't have the muscle memory for Bush hatred anymore if that makes sense.
I think it helps that Bush is humble these days, stays out of politics except to support fairly nuetral causes, has been supportive of the Obama adminsitration and has always thought the right way about immigration ( acause dear to my heart),.
I mean, if you follow that logic, you could also blame Obama for Orlando or Boston or San Bernadino. I'm sure preventing terrorist attacks is not easy. It's more of a matter of reacting to it.
Everyone seemed to think that GWB was an idiot. So- that leads me to think that he wasn't intelligent enough to do any of the things that you just blasted out in anger. See- there was a guy called Dick Cheney who basically ran the show. He didn't 'let' 9/11 happen. He didn't make the best decisions, but once again- do some research on Cheney and research how many issues were handled by Cheney and others in the administration. At least GW had compassion and if you don't think he did then it's obvious to me that you don't comprehend much. This is the first time that he has spoken about anything political. He never said anything about Obama in the 8 years he was President. GW is still very active in Wounded Warriors and still spends time with families who have lost loved ones on the battleground. People don't give him credit for his kindness and see him as this evil dictator- when he isn't. Again. Research Cheney. At least he WENT to the daily briefings and acted like a leader. Trump is a complete egotistical asshole that doesn't care about anyone but himself.
Dubya was warned that 9/11 was in the planning stages and not only ignored the warnings, but dismissed them. Terrorism was not his priority; and in fact, the Clinton administration had made a big deal of telling the Dubya folks how critical it was to stay on top of terrorism threats.
Prior to New Year's Day of 2000, there were rumors that al-Qaida planned an attack for that eve -- and Clinton got all the heads of security agencies together, told them to cooperate as much as possible, and shook everyone down for all the manpower and data they had. Dubya never reacted to the 9/11 threat that way, even though he was repeatedly urged to. Therefore he let 9/11 happen.
If Al Gore had been elected president, and faced the same threat, there wouldn't have been a 9/11, because a concerted reaction would have yielded up the traces -- Zacharias Moussawi, who was already in jail, for instance, could have been identified as one of the hijackers, and exposed connections to the others. This never happened under Dubya, and so despite warnings and evidence under his nose, and a failure to carry out a robust anti-terrorism policy, 9/11 happened. He let it happen. He could have acted and he chose inaction. There's no clearer definition of responsibility.
Here's the thing about the vice-presidency: it's not allotted any power by the Constitution. And before Cheney, it was one mostly a position of powerlessness, where the incumbent attended lots of state funerals and headed one or two special committees that may or may not ever get anything done. Despite exceptions to that rule, the position was never well-regarded and is powerless.
So any power Cheney could have had was with Dubya's okay. If he wanted to throw Cheney into the outer darkness, where there is much wailing and gnashing of teeth, he could've done so in an instant. Dick Cheney, that wheezing, dead-eyed ghoul with a heart the size of a raisin, served entirely at the pleasure of Dubya.
And don't "Dubya has compassion" me, please -- he's responsible for all the soldiers wounded in Iraq he now does bike races with and all the widows and orphans he clowns around with out of his so-called compassion. We had no reason to invade Iraq, and he completely hijacked Americans' fear and sense of righteous anger after 9/11 to insist that Saddam Hussein had perpetrated 9/11 when he absolutely knew it wasn't true.
For fuck's sake, the monster deserves to be lying in a festering hole in The Hague, not painting pictures of his own backside in the shower.
More than one dreadful politician has seemed to be pretty tolerable once he's out of office. I'm thinking of one of our Australian politicos, Victorian state premier Jeff Kennet. While he was premier, his main distinctions were erecting monuments to his own ego and turning over our water, gas and electricity utilities to private companies to gain a Triple-A credit rating for the state of Victoria. So far as I can tell, a high credit rating means for a state just what it means for an individual -- being able to borrow more money than you'd ever be able to pay back, and getting stuck with the interest forever. As state premier, I couldn't stand him. But since he left office Kennet has come across as a kindly, reasonable character and put a lot of effort into supporting good causes.Seriously doubt I would ever be able to stand Trump, though, in or out of office.
By comparison. Only by comparison. Although I will grant that even back when he was President and making a hideous bloody mess, and I was enraged by his lies, I didn't detest him a quarter as much as I did Cheney and Rumsfeld. The characteristic expression of one was the coldest sneer I ever saw, and the other's, a smile like a cannibal shark's. And going by performance, the expressions seemed to match their inner natures.
You put it so well that I don't know what I can add. Except that I think you've nailed it precisely. And that "Penny Dreadful Says Resist" is succinct and cool.
Remember when we thought Mittens was the biggest disaster of a president that we could imagine? Ahhh....the good 'ol days. As stiff and robot like as Mittens is, I think he probably has more compassion in his pinky finger than Trump has in all 270 lbs. of his shitty self.
I seriously doubt that Ronald Reagan is in heaven at all. But then he may not be in hell either. Possibly the devil lifted a Mr. Spock eyebrow and said, "Under no circumstances are you getting in here. I do have standards, you know."
Mmm, I don't know. Maybe not so crazy. Maybe GWB couldn't have prevented it, but he did have an intelligence memo on his desk, actually headed, "Bin Laden Planning Attack on American Soil," and I understand the body of the memo even mentioned the use of airplanes. GWB went on four weeks' holiday, didn't he, and came back and still didn't read the bloody thing. Oh, agreed, any suggestion that he DELIBERATELY let it happen, or that the U.S. government even staged September 11 for some conspiracy theory reason, is one hundred per cent batshit crazy. But he was warned and did zip, so far as I know. Highly inept at best.
I might've been naïve, but I wasn't that young, and I remember why I disliked George Walker Bush. He lied like hell to lead his country into a war with a country that had nothing to do with September 11th. His biggest deliberate damned lies were probably, "Saddam was involved in September 11th" "Saddam has weapons of mass destruction" and "Iraq has links with Al-Qaeda." But there were others, and there was the deliberate exposure of Valerie Plame as CIA, risking her life, to get back at her husband because he wouldn't lie about Saddam Hussein getting uranium from Nigeria. There were lies of omission, naturally. The whole time the Bush administration's key members were chanting, "Saddam had links with al-Qaeda" like parrots on amphetamines, none of them once mentioned in public that 15 out of the 19 September 11th hijackers were Saudi Arabian or travelling on Saudi Arabian passports, or that none -- not one -- was an Iraqi.So they bombed Iraq to hell, invaded it, took it over, reduced it to chaos, and out of the flaming wreckage rose Islamic State.I wonder how many of those hate-filled fanatics were boys ten years old in 2003, seeing their parents and brothers and sisters blown apart?Now we have Donald Trump smirking, "GWB wasn't exactly wrong, he just wasn't as terrific as I am and he didn't go far enough."
the one decent public thing he did was when he declined to pardon Scooter Libby on the way out, suggesting that he may not have known what Darth Cheney and Turd Blossom were up to.
I don't think Babs wanted JEB! to be prez
not to imply I was one of the best of us, but I only did it "to get laid" until I realized that I was working too hard for pretentious pelt.
His 2003 flub was pretty bad, I never said that others couldnt still be upset about it or that anything you're saying is wrong. I'm just saying that being anti-Bush for me is something I equate with being young and in college and partially wanting to be influenced by my liberal professors and other students. I just don't have the muscle memory for Bush hatred anymore if that makes sense.
I think it helps that Bush is humble these days, stays out of politics except to support fairly nuetral causes, has been supportive of the Obama adminsitration and has always thought the right way about immigration ( acause dear to my heart),.
I mean, if you follow that logic, you could also blame Obama for Orlando or Boston or San Bernadino. I'm sure preventing terrorist attacks is not easy. It's more of a matter of reacting to it.
What a nice humanly thing to say about Ronald Reagan. Sarcasm... yeah. You are why this country is turning into a hateful nation.
Everyone seemed to think that GWB was an idiot. So- that leads me to think that he wasn't intelligent enough to do any of the things that you just blasted out in anger. See- there was a guy called Dick Cheney who basically ran the show. He didn't 'let' 9/11 happen. He didn't make the best decisions, but once again- do some research on Cheney and research how many issues were handled by Cheney and others in the administration. At least GW had compassion and if you don't think he did then it's obvious to me that you don't comprehend much. This is the first time that he has spoken about anything political. He never said anything about Obama in the 8 years he was President. GW is still very active in Wounded Warriors and still spends time with families who have lost loved ones on the battleground. People don't give him credit for his kindness and see him as this evil dictator- when he isn't. Again. Research Cheney. At least he WENT to the daily briefings and acted like a leader. Trump is a complete egotistical asshole that doesn't care about anyone but himself.
Dubya was warned that 9/11 was in the planning stages and not only ignored the warnings, but dismissed them. Terrorism was not his priority; and in fact, the Clinton administration had made a big deal of telling the Dubya folks how critical it was to stay on top of terrorism threats.
Prior to New Year's Day of 2000, there were rumors that al-Qaida planned an attack for that eve -- and Clinton got all the heads of security agencies together, told them to cooperate as much as possible, and shook everyone down for all the manpower and data they had. Dubya never reacted to the 9/11 threat that way, even though he was repeatedly urged to. Therefore he let 9/11 happen.
If Al Gore had been elected president, and faced the same threat, there wouldn't have been a 9/11, because a concerted reaction would have yielded up the traces -- Zacharias Moussawi, who was already in jail, for instance, could have been identified as one of the hijackers, and exposed connections to the others. This never happened under Dubya, and so despite warnings and evidence under his nose, and a failure to carry out a robust anti-terrorism policy, 9/11 happened. He let it happen. He could have acted and he chose inaction. There's no clearer definition of responsibility.
Here's the thing about the vice-presidency: it's not allotted any power by the Constitution. And before Cheney, it was one mostly a position of powerlessness, where the incumbent attended lots of state funerals and headed one or two special committees that may or may not ever get anything done. Despite exceptions to that rule, the position was never well-regarded and is powerless.
So any power Cheney could have had was with Dubya's okay. If he wanted to throw Cheney into the outer darkness, where there is much wailing and gnashing of teeth, he could've done so in an instant. Dick Cheney, that wheezing, dead-eyed ghoul with a heart the size of a raisin, served entirely at the pleasure of Dubya.
And don't "Dubya has compassion" me, please -- he's responsible for all the soldiers wounded in Iraq he now does bike races with and all the widows and orphans he clowns around with out of his so-called compassion. We had no reason to invade Iraq, and he completely hijacked Americans' fear and sense of righteous anger after 9/11 to insist that Saddam Hussein had perpetrated 9/11 when he absolutely knew it wasn't true.
For fuck's sake, the monster deserves to be lying in a festering hole in The Hague, not painting pictures of his own backside in the shower.
More than one dreadful politician has seemed to be pretty tolerable once he's out of office. I'm thinking of one of our Australian politicos, Victorian state premier Jeff Kennet. While he was premier, his main distinctions were erecting monuments to his own ego and turning over our water, gas and electricity utilities to private companies to gain a Triple-A credit rating for the state of Victoria. So far as I can tell, a high credit rating means for a state just what it means for an individual -- being able to borrow more money than you'd ever be able to pay back, and getting stuck with the interest forever. As state premier, I couldn't stand him. But since he left office Kennet has come across as a kindly, reasonable character and put a lot of effort into supporting good causes.Seriously doubt I would ever be able to stand Trump, though, in or out of office.
By comparison. Only by comparison. Although I will grant that even back when he was President and making a hideous bloody mess, and I was enraged by his lies, I didn't detest him a quarter as much as I did Cheney and Rumsfeld. The characteristic expression of one was the coldest sneer I ever saw, and the other's, a smile like a cannibal shark's. And going by performance, the expressions seemed to match their inner natures.
You put it so well that I don't know what I can add. Except that I think you've nailed it precisely. And that "Penny Dreadful Says Resist" is succinct and cool.