By the time W’s presidency was over, all the centrists and tote-baggers hated him so much that I felt like a W apologist when I talked to them, but now there’s a lot of weird W nostalgia. People say shit like “I’d be so happy to have Bush instead of Trump”.
I’m here to tell you that there’s not that much difference, that “alternative facts” and “fake news” aren’t that different than what went on under Bush. You all know the original “reality-based” quote, but here’s another one, from Mark McKinnon, the faux cowboy “centrist” asshole who now wanks around with Mark Halperin:
And for those who don’t get it? That was explained to me in late 2002 by Mark McKinnon, a longtime senior media adviser to Bush, who now runs his own consulting firm and helps the president. He started by challenging me. “You think he’s an idiot, don’t you?” I said, no, I didn’t. “No, you do, all of you do, up and down the West Coast, the East Coast, a few blocks in southern Manhattan called Wall Street. Let me clue you in. We don’t care. You see, you’re outnumbered 2 to 1 by folks in the big, wide middle of America, busy working people who don’t read The New York Times or Washington Post or The L.A. Times. And you know what they like? They like the way he walks and the way he points, the way he exudes confidence. They have faith in him. And when you attack him for his malaprops, his jumbled syntax, it’s good for us. Because you know what those folks don’t like? They don’t like you!” In this instance, the final “you,” of course, meant the entire reality-based community.
You may also remember this, from David Broder:
We cannot yet calculate the political fallout from Hurricane Katrina and its devastating human and economic consequences, but one thing seems certain: It makes the previous signs of political weakness for Bush, measured in record-low job approval ratings, instantly irrelevant and opens new opportunities for him to regain his standing with the public.
(To his credit, Broder later said he as appalled that he’d said this.)
The same dark forces are at work again trying to prop Trump up. They changed the headline but Brian Beutler has a screeshot.
Hunter Gathers
He’s doing nothing but proving he watches TV all fucking day. Like everyone else 70 and older.
The Moar You Know
This is true. And they have the numbers. We have the money. I don’t know how this story ends, to be honest. Uncharted territory for the US.
Other nations that have “gone there”, their experience shows that this has not ended well.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
Brian and Jeet are the crown gems of the-once-again-actually-liberal New Republic.
Doug!
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD):
I agree.
Seth Owen
But they don’t have the numbers. They think they do, because they think that ‘big, wide middle’ of America (the REAL America to them) is still the majority, but it isn’t. The majority lives on the coasts and in the big inland cities. The big wide middle has been losing population for generations. The peculiarities of our electoral system mask it to some extent, but they don’t have the numbers and will have fewer as time passes.
Major Major Major Major
@The Moar You Know: but it’s not true at all. Our candidate got more votes in 2000 and way more votes in 2016.
SatanicPanic
I get piled on every time I say this, but Trump is a terrible man, but the George W Bush admin committed terrible acts that even Trump may have a hard time exceeding, if only because Trump is so stupid. DJT hasn’t done anything on the level the Iraq War, YET.
Another Scott
@Hunter Gathers: And he reads RWNJ Twitter and reposts crap from there. He’s especially bad about that this morning.
(sigh)
Cheers,
Scott.
Heidi Mom
@The Moar You Know: I’d say the 2016 popular vote total shows that we have the numbers. They have more acres, not more people.
Chyron HR
He has the strongest, greatest hurricanes! Incredible destruction! Thanks!
Frankensteinbeck
@The Moar You Know:
They do not have the numbers. We outvoted them by 3 million in the last election, despite considerable voter suppression. They have the advantage of having stuck a thumb on the scale when they had the power to do it. All that vast red heartland is so thinly populated that our coastal elite enclaves have more actual people in them.
gvg
No, Bush was not the same as Trump. some of the same fools supported him but they weren’t every darn one and total kooks. Plus Bush learned some things and actually tried to learn and did not try to enflame every murderous impulse American’s have ever had against each other.
I recall being appalled when i heard Bush Jr. was being coached by his dad’s foreign policy experts before the debates on facts about various countries including who were the Presidents or Prime Ministers and capitals etc. Trump can’t even do that and won’t. Won’t even try.
Major Major Major Major
@Chyron HR: “do you remember Obama’s hurricanes? They were disasters.”
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@Doug!: I think the BJ lexicon should add an addendum to the “Even the liberal New Republic” entry, as its spot has now been taken by Fuck the Fucking New York Times.
Also, besides Kornacki and Walsh, who are the most professionally successful Salon alums? (With the understanding that he his doesn’t mean the best ones).
SatanicPanic
I get pooped on every time I say this, but I will continue to point out that Trump hasn’t done anything on the scale of the Iraq War yet. I repeat, hasn’t YET done anything that horrible. He might get around to it, or he might not because he’s an idiot, but so far, not yet.
Also, I am repeating the word yet so none of you quote me while leaving that out, like a bunch of you did last week. F*ckers.
Mel
Tweeting some largely unintelligible blurps about something he saw on television, in between bouts of tweeting petty grievances is now called “presidential engagement”?
I guess every 13 year old in the nation is showing presidential engagement everyday by those standards.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
The photo of Pence in the WH situation room whileTrump sat alone in a red baseball cap at Camp David was stunning.
One other thing – Camp David has at least a nine hole course. Did a club head strike a golf ball this weekend?
Archon
@The Moar You Know:
I’d actually flip it around. We have the numbers but they have the money, insofar as if the monied elite in this country ever had to pick between right-wing fascism or real socialism they would choose fascism in a New York minute,
rikyrah
BREAKING: Illinois just became to 10th state to enact automatic voter registration! https://t.co/lwnz3y6wOA pic.twitter.com/VLTKZyN1aV
— Common Cause (@CommonCause) August 28, 2017
AVR is signed into law in Illinois, estimated to add 1 million new eligible voters to the rolls. https://t.co/sMDcBxPn9a
— flippable (@flippable_org) August 28, 2017
rikyrah
WaPo: The new details “point to the likelihood of additional contacts between Russia-connected individuals and Trump associates.” https://t.co/Z2SJigw2ID
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 28, 2017
Ruckus
@Heidi Mom:
Well it was acres that the EC was meant to protect from the snarling jackals in the first place.
Also, Doug!
Doesn’t Broder write crap like this all the time and when it comes back to bite him in the ass he’s always appalled that he said it? IOW he never learns what an ass he is. If he normally was even just OK maybe he could get a break now and then. But he isn’t so why should he get credit for this?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Well it’s more in way one prefers an abscess tooth to a chopped off leg, but to be fair to Bush he never conspired to undermine the United States with a foreign power like Trump has.
rikyrah
Surrounding yourself with generals, militarizing the police, and pardoning criminal allies are all steps in the direction of…something. https://t.co/Opr9jeM3ht
— Bearded Stoner (@beardedstoner) August 28, 2017
Roger Moore
@The Moar You Know:
If they had the numbers, why have they only won the popular vote once in the past 25 years? They can barely keep up by gerrymandering and suppressing the vote like crazy. This is why I say our #1 priority the next time we have control over the government has to be a new VRA. If we can make sure our government is actually representative of the people, we will win far more often than not.
rikyrah
“Dad, I love you.”: This man found his father for the first time since Harvey hit after his interview on CNN https://t.co/ktQWIxEg13 pic.twitter.com/hhJoONNzO5
— CNN (@CNN) August 28, 2017
Major Major Major Major
Barron. Still not respecting the dignity of the office.
rikyrah
Here’s the list of military weapons Trump will now allow police departments to receive, virtually free of charge. https://t.co/jAfWbq9ezI pic.twitter.com/5fD5nXQ67o
— Samuel Sinyangwe (@samswey) August 28, 2017
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@SatanicPanic: Most likely because he’s ceding foreign policy to The Generals.
Of course the tale of the dovecote, the kite, and the hawk applies here. As does that of the ass’ three masters.
SatanicPanic
@rikyrah: That’s awesome!
rikyrah
uh huh
uh huh
OSHA has erased data on worker deaths from its home page, changed its policy to disclose fewer fatal accidents. https://t.co/OEYNj1Uhma
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 28, 2017
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@SatanicPanic:
My personal take is that while Bush is, was and always will be a moron, that he is not a malevolent, vindictive narcissist by nature.
rikyrah
Remember how EVERYTHING was ‘ Obama’s Katrina’?
Now, we have something WORSE than Katrina, yet….nada.. peanuts from the gallery…
SatanicPanic
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Well yeah, he was Cheney’s puppet, and while I am not sure I’d call Cheney a narcissist, he’s every bit as evil as Trump, and much smarter (not that THAT’S saying much). Do we give GWB a pass because the bad ideas he sold weren’t his? I lean towards no.
Doug!
@SatanicPanic:
I have the exact same experience.
ThresherK
@Ruckus: I think you’re right about Broder. Akin to Ann Landers, who in her dotage seemed to write one column a week fessing up that a reader pointed out she was wrong, but never managed to stop writing things readers had to correct her on.
Doug!
@Ruckus:
Well, he’s dead so I try to be a little kinder than I would otherwise be.
The Moar You Know
OK, all you guys saying “they don’t have the numbers”. You are wrong.
Yes, gerrymandering. Yes, voter suppression. Yes, stacked courts. Yes, Citizens United. Yes, intransigent Congress. All known problems. We’ve known about them for over a decade, most of them.
Democratic Party does: nothing.
So, yeah, they do have the numbers, because we consistently and systemically fail to address problems while they are addressable. And folks, they may well not be addressable anymore. This administration has at least another three years and some months left in office, and have already proven to have no qualms about doing whatever it takes to get their way.
SatanicPanic
@Doug!: I just want to make the point that while Trump is personally a moron, a terrible person, and a fascist, ANY Republican president is going to pursue policies that are f*cking awful. We can’t trust any of them.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@SatanicPanic:
Hillary would['ve] totally get/gotten us into direct war with Russia
@rikyrah: I think here the issue is that Trump is disgracing the relief efforts but not materially impairing them that much.
Kay
Sorry – I love newspapers and I buy some but the NYTimes political coverage is terrible. Don’t tell me the editorials or substantive news coverage makes up for it- it doesn’t.
It’s ALL “what makes President Trump tick?” like his “worldview” is what’s at issue here, like he HAS a worldview apart from being an asshole. Just horrible. Consistently.
i don’t know what it is -is it the NYC thing, is it the ‘hate Hillary Clinton’ thing- I don’t know but it’s really bad.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
As others have noted, they don’t have the numbers, not really. Electing toxic leaders by such narror margins in the EC is not good for the future of the country.
And quite frankly I don’t care how they feel. Trump IS an idiot. That’s a fact. It’s demonstrable. Fuck McKinnon.
SatanicPanic
@The Moar You Know: Democrats helped get rid of gerrymandering in California.
Ruckus
@Doug!:
That just means he can no longer write the crap he got paid to write. I’m sorry but I don’t see why we sanitize the work or person of someone after they die when we wouldn’t before that.
We all die, some of us at least tried not to be dicks when we were here.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: Vichy Times is garbage. Haven’t clicked them with the exception of stories I can count on the fingers of one hand since last October. I used to begin my day with it for years.
Doug!
@SatanicPanic:
It’s not about individual people, it’s about a movement, a mindset, and a toxic media environment.
The truest worst ever spoken, and not just about politics: “It’s not personal, it’s business.”
Goblue72
@SatanicPanic: Nor has he presided over starting the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Bush gave us a two-fer of awfulness.
Trump is a punter in comparison.
SiubhanDuinne
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Do you have a link? I’ve searched using “image” and the usual key words, and have not found it. Would like to see. Thanks.
Another Scott
@The Moar You Know: Change doesn’t happen instantly, or even quickly, all that often in politics. Redistricting after the Census can have a huge impact (and willing to break the rules and norms and redistrict outside of the customary times).
The cards have been stacked against the Democratic Party for a while, but they still manage to get more votes (overall).
We need to elect more people at state and local offices, we need to support our political machinery, we need to turn out every possible vote for our team, and we need to bring lawsuits when the laws are bent beyond all recognition.
Blaming the Party isn’t productive, in my view. The Party is mostly people who spend their time and energy trying to make things better. If they’re “doing it wrong” in your view, then jump in and help. Tell us what you would do that isn’t being done.
Cheers,
Scott.
Goblue72
@SatanicPanic: Not really. The anti-gerrymandering ballot proposition in California was put forward by Schwarzenegger and the CA GOP. CA DEM Party opposed it. It still won.
SiubhanDuinne
@Ruckus:
Broder’s been dead for six years (EDIT: as I see a couple of other people pointed out already).
schrodingers_cat
@SatanicPanic: Self defeating negativity is the ticket don’t you know? We are so fucked, ever and ever for all eternity. Heads Rs win, Tails we lose.
ETA: Frankly I think it is self indulgent in the extreme. We may or may not win, but this bath of negativity and constant depressive dialog is counter productive.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@Seth Owen:
An ever increasing percentage of an ever shrinking demographic…
Look at how badly the neo-Nazi/KKKers were out numbered this past weekend at various ‘free speech’ rallies around the country…
catclub
@The Moar You Know:
1. Except Clinton got a majority of the votes. Even if they have more numbers, it is nothing like 2-1, more like 53-47.
2. They have the political money, or again, very evenly matched overall. They certainly have more billionaires who want to get heavily involved with political money. Kochs, Adelson, Mercers, the guy in NC, Sinclair broadcasting, etc. Soros is brought up so often because he is about the only one on the Democratic side.
so this is not really true.
Ruckus
@SatanicPanic:
I don’t think many are giving GWB a pass. Just saying that as bad as he was, and that’s bad, on any scale except the one the asshole in office now has his butt firmly sitting on, he had the capability to learn something occasionally. He wasn’t completely void of humanity. Would he be better that drumpf? I think so. Yes we got involved in 2 unimaginable wars, we had the biggest recession in history……… I’m not building a very good picture here am I? But we are 7 months into drumpf’s bullshit, tell me shrub was worse. Yes he was incompetent, but not to this level. Yes he surrounded himself with assholes, but compare how big of asshole drumpf is with who he surrounds himself with. And do remember that at least I’m not saying I want shrub, just that if my choice is only one or the other, I’m going with shrub.
SatanicPanic
@Goblue72: Fair point, I remember there being some prominent Democrats in favor, but the party itself was opposed. I withdraw this point but will point upthread to Rikrah’s post at #18- Illinois became the 10th state to have automatic voter registration.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: I cannot believe the IL governor signed this. Happy to see that he did, but I am truly shocked. What was he thinking?
SatanicPanic
@Ruckus: Up to this point, sure Trump is worse. But in two weeks, unless something really extraordinary happens, that’ll no longer be true.
rikyrah
A rare sight: minimum wage shrinks in a major U.S. city
08/28/17 10:40 AM
By Steve Benen
We’re accustomed to seeing the minimum wage move in either a progressive direction or remaining stagnant and not moving at all. What we don’t generally see is a minimum wage shrinking.
Welcome to St. Louis, Missouri, where locals have benefited from a $10 minimum wage for several months – until today. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported over the weekend:
To be sure, we’ve seen some instances in which Republican-led state governments have intervened to block city-wide minimum wage increases before they took effect – see Birmingham and Cleveland, for example – but what makes St. Louis unusual is that the city’s increase, following a lengthy court fight, already took effect earlier this year.
In other words, the GOP-imposed preemption law will take away an increase that locals have already enjoyed. And while it’s not yet clear how many employers will take advantage of the change, roughly 35,000 local workers could be affected.
Omnes Omnibus
@The Moar You Know: No , they do not have the numbers. If they did, voter suppression, gerrymanding, etc. would not be necessary.
randy khan
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
It was a great weekend for golf, so it’s hard to imagine he didn’t play. On the other hand, he never seems to play anywhere but on his own courses.
WaterGirl
@Major Major Major Major: I know! (breathless!) Not to mention that he turned his back on the county as he boarded the airplane!
So far this kid is the only Trump I don’t despise, and that’s probably because the only thing I’ve read about him is that he is shunned by his siblings and that they are picking on him for his totally appropriate clothing.
Gelfling 545
@Major Major Major Major: If the kid was wearing a clown suit, THAT would be in keeping with the dignity of the office under Trump.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@WaterGirl: I don’t seem to recall Tiffany being much of a shitbag (which would bring us to a grand total of two non-shitty Trumpsters).
randy khan
The original Times headline kind of reads to me like a badly-executed effort to throw some shade – “a display” suggests it’s just a performance, and the article seems consistent with that approach. (The detail about the hat, in particular, seems like it’s pointing that way.)
catclub
@Omnes Omnibus:
I wrote about the same thing, but have re-thought. Given the gerrymanders they have the numbers in the State Houses and and House of representatives.
Saying ‘but without all the gerrymandering’ is presently magical thinking. It is there (and part of their numbers, just like the lack of Democratic turnout in off year elections is) until it is dismantled.
Ruckus
@SatanicPanic:
Well I can’t tell the future all that well, maybe that’s my problem.
I’ll repeat, I DON’T WANT SHRUB. I DON’T WANT DRUMPF. What I wanted was a fully competent human being to be president. More of us voted for that person. We got fucked, royally fucked. And while they don’t know it, so did the people that voted for the asshole. But, and it’s a big, round, firm but, as a human being, even as president I don’t think shrub is as bad as drumpf. He’s horrible, no question. I lost everything in his recession. Every fucking thing. I was homeless because of him. I know how bad he was. This is worse for the country. This is worse for the world. And I fear it may be worse for me and millions of others if he has his way.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): IIRC she posted some crazy ass picture– maybe by that guy who did all the right wing “art” of the ghosts of Washington and Lincoln gazing approvingly at Bush, and Obama lighting the Constitution on fire– of trump being blessed in the Oval Office by a giant zombie Jesus. I feel more sympathy for her than I do the other Large Adult Spawn, but she’s probably just as if differently fucked up.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Previous statement duly retracted.
You’re probably thinking of Jon McNaughton.
Kay
Big news!
The Ohio gov race is my project this year so you-all have to put up with my obsession :)
If Cordray gets in he will be the presumptive D winner of the primary not because it will be fixed or anything nefarious but just because he’s won statewide before and he’s genuinely an impressive and talented person.
sukabi
Well, thank goodness there are a few reporters out there NOT trying to polish this steaming pile.
Quite the juxtaposition of photos…
O. Felix Culpa
@Hunter Gathers:
Bullshit. Trump may be doing this, but I know plenty of 70-, 80-, and even 90-year-olds who are intellectually engaged and active giving back to their communities. Our disgust at Trump and his Fox-viewing constituency need not extend to the entire demographic, which results in stereotyping just as odious as what he and they engage in.
Kay
@randy khan:
That’s what bugs me about it -though. There’s always this subtext that he’s a delightful eccentric. I’m sick of it. It’s coddling and sucking up. It’s how you treat a mayor, not the President. He’s not “unusual and fascinating”- he’s a mean spirited jerk.
O. Felix Culpa
@rikyrah: Yay Illinois! Let’s pressure more states to follow suit and to enact vote-by-mail as well.
Bruce K
Choosing between W and the cheeto is like choosing between Stage III bone cancer and hemorrhagic fever.
SatanicPanic
@Ruckus: Sure, GWB is someone I would rather golf with, and I’d trust him more not to wreck my car, but I wouldn’t trust him to do a better job of crisis management than Trump. SO FAR.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
That’s him. Oh boy…. he is fucked up. I don’t see the picture I remember Poor Tiffany posting, but that guy’s style definitely inspired it.
Mnemosyne
The people who are blaming the Democratic Party for our current predicament seem to forget how Bill Clinton’s defeat of Reagan’s designated heir, George HW Bush, caused the right-wing billionaires to lose their shit and dedicate the next 25 years of their lives to getting a permanent Republican majority, no matter what.
What were the Democrats supposed to do in order to counteract Fox News? I’d like to hear some actual suggestions.
Calming Influence
“Seriously engaged”. How hard is it to be “seriously engaged” in what’s happening in fucking Texas?!1? Here’s a fully technical briefing on the Texas situation: “It’s raining like a cow pissing on a flat rock. It will continue to rain like a cow pissing on a flat rock for another week. If you live in Texas, find something that floats.”
This asshole shouldn’t be allowed to walk around without wearing a helmet, and they treat him like a fucking genius because he knows it’s raining.
Ohio Mom
I can’t say much good about Bush but in addition to not colluding with the Russians to get elected, he also didn’t spend his presidency stuffing his pockets — and helping his family members to staff theirs — in full view of the world.
Yeah, there was that stadium deal in Texas years before but that is probably every big stadium in every city, somebody makes a killing on the land deal. And it was a one shot deal.
Also, I know this is wrong to say but if that is Meania in the dark green dress, that is not a flattering shot. I will now retract my claws.
different-church-lady
Bush was dumb and incompetent, but he had a moderately functional human soul. Many of the people in he surrounded himself with were evil.
Trump himself is just evil itself; Trump = Bush – soul + racism. In the end they have the same voters, except Trump gives them MORE of what they really want.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
about voters
a relatively small number of white swing voters went for the guy who promised them herrenvolk socialism because all the people on TV told them there was something scandalous about Hillary Clinton’s email accounts. These people:
Omnes Omnibus
@catclub: I disagree. Saying that they have the numbers is saying that there are more of them than there are of us. If and when that is true, we are in real trouble. We just need to get our people to turn out; we need to make sure they have the IDs they need; and we need to fight limits on voting with everything we have.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Provided: A noncomprehensive list of ridiculous Jeebus schlock paintings
O. Felix Culpa
@Omnes Omnibus:
Amen to that!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): I made a google, and it looks like it was posted by a fake Tiffany Trump page, or trump fan page, or something. Fucking Facebook. I don’t get it. Anyway, here’s the picture.
so maybe there’s hope for Tiffany yet, maybe she’s the mole!
Mel
@Ruckus: I hear you. We are struggling to rebuild our lives through 15 years of my serious illness and the additional losses and horrors heaped on by of the Bush recession.
I am afraid for all of us in this country, and for the ramifications of this for the world at large. Treaties broken or threatened. Disengagement on the fronts of world health, the climate, social justice, diplomacy, peacekeeping. Pardoning and excusing vile racists and their disgusting beliefs.
International students that I taught some years ago are in disbelief. They want to know how this could happen, and how a country that they felt made them feel welcome not so long ago could be so filled with hate and fear. How do you even begin to try to explain that?
stinger
@Kay: I for one will be interested to follow this race at a remove (your comments here are pretty much my only window into OH politics). So, obsess away!
goblue72
@SatanicPanic: I think Gray Davis supported it. And the goo-goo wankers Common Cause supported it. Some random local Dems may have supported, and the CA GOP did their usual thing and bought off a handful of African American organizations to provide a veneer. But Pelosi was opposed, Boxer was opposed, California Democratic Party was opposed and the major civil rights legal groups were opposed (NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Mexican American Legal Defense Fund, and Asian-American Pacific Legal Center).
Biggest bankrollers of Prop 11 were a Schwarzenegger affiliated PAC and Charles Munger, Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, aka Warren Buffett’s company. Munger also bankrolled Prop 20, which added Congressional districts to the re-districting commission system. (Prop 11 just covered state leg offices)
Combined with another ballot proposition (or maybe it was in 11, I can’t remember), CA primary switched to a jungle primary. Instead of top vote getters from each primary facing off in General, the top two vote getters of any party now face off in general. In a lot of districts, this can mean two Democrats facing off in the General. Which was precisely the plan of the CA GOP and the business community. In a lot of districts, a GOP candidate was never going to win in the General. But, a “Mod Dem” funded by the business community could. Its shifted the balance of power in the state house to a group of Mod-Dems, many of whom were bankrolled by the Western States Petroleum Association.
Chris
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…
Remember his “Goodbye from the world’s biggest polluter!” at the G8 meeting?
Remember when he was asked if he thought he owed the Iraqi people an apology for not doing a better job of rebuilding, and he wisecracked “that we didn’t do a better job, or they didn’t do a better job?”
Remember that hi-larious moment of “nope, no WMDs over here… maybe over here…?” in the White House press room?
Remember when it was pointed out to him that al-Qaeda wasn’t a problem in Iraq until after the invasion and he just shrugged and said “so what?”
Yes, it’s true that Bush wasn’t Donald Trump – he wasn’t Eric Cartman. It’s true that he was largely an intellectually lazy and incurious asshole who was happy to leave most of the work to others. And it’s true that he wasn’t deeply personally involved in, and that he didn’t very much care about, all the worst crimes of his administration. But, it’s non-trivial that every time he did pause to acknowledge all the destruction in his wake, it wasn’t to express guilt or sorrow – it was either to express indifference or to laugh or gloat about them.
Bush may not have been the sharpest tack in the drawer, but he knew how much damage he was doing to the world and he didn’t give a shit. It was all just a big joke.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I thought THE MOOCH was the mole.
Mel
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): Why does Jesus look like a buffer version of the guys in a .38 Special cover band that played at my neighbor’s wedding reception in 1989?
At least there were cats in a couple of the paintings. We have to cling to some small joy, right?
Citizen Alan
@SatanicPanic:
As I contemplate the majestic awfulnessof the Dolt45 Administration, I am frequently both horrified and terrified to think that we have not yet gotten to the point in the Bush Administration when 9/11 happened.
Citizen Alan
@Ruckus:
A minor nit, but thankfully past tense is always appropriate when discussing Brodeur now. For which I’m eternally grateful. Honestly, when I’m depressed he is one of the people who can cheer me up a little bit by fantasizing about what he’s going through in hell
Mnemosyne
@Citizen Alan:
I was thinking the same thing the other day. ?
catclub
@SatanicPanic:
this is very similar to the ‘like to have a beer with’, made more amusing by the alcoholism of the person. Likewise for wrecking a car vis a vis Trump being a non-drinker.
J R in WV
@SiubhanDuinne:
How can you tell?
catclub
@Ohio Mom:
Bush told Cheney to fuck himself when Cheney wanted to bomb Iran in 2006 – 2008. I give him full credit for that.
Doug!
@catclub:
There’s lots of good stuff to say about Bush but he inflicted a lot of damage on the country.
Ruckus
@Chris:
All of this is true. He didn’t give a shit. Problem as I see it is that drumpf does give a shit. Only about himself for sure but giving a shit about that to the degree that he does is what makes him more dangerous.
Let me ask questions. How many people made the point that shrub had the nuclear codes? How many people have made the point that drumpf has the the nuclear codes? How many people were afraid that shrub would wake up at some point during the day and use them? How many people are afraid that drumpf will watch faux news or wake up at some point and use them because he feels personally attacked? And remember this is a man who is taking his ire out on an entire nation because a black man said something about him at, not just a dinner but a roast.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@catclub: @Doug!: There’s also guinea worm eradication.
Another Scott
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Zooks! Perspective! How does it work?? Maybe Mr. Burns’ trap door is under the rug or something…
It’s comical, and has to be fake.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Heidi Mom
@Ohio Mom: Bush didn’t demonize Muslims. Seemed like simple human decency at the time, seems like a really big deal now.
Cheryl from Maryland
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): OMG, those make William Holman Hunt’s Light of the World seem actually good!
leeleeFL
W managed to make me nostalgic for NIXON! I know,right! He was awful, caused much misery and pain and angst, but TRUMP is beyond belief in his Evil venality. And his Royal Vermin are no better. At least Jenna and Barbara were decent human beings with consciences and such. The only kid that gets a by is Barron. At 10, he is innocent and untouchable. I am so sad for my Country. I console myself with the fact that we have survived much. And Trump has wasted little time showing his awfulness in full bloom.
dww44
if this is the wrong thread to post a couple of Harvey related comments and questions, I’m sure someone will tell me so. All day long on my TV cable news, all the guests, overwhelmingly Republican one,, are 1) going to great lengths to praise the effectiveness of FEMA at the federal level and 2)absolutely everyone, including the pundits are trying to gin up controversy and/or ding the Democratic and Black mayor of Dallas for NOT ordering a mandatory evacuation. Virtually every update on the storm takes an opportunity to gin up a controversy. Mostly Abbot declines to ding the Houston mayor, but all the others do. I am so sick of everything being politicized and now I know for sure which side of the divide is responsible for the incessant blame assigning. I’m sure we liberals and Dems are guilty too, but the last couple of days have been a revelation for me. The conservative world is trying to atone for Katrina by laying everything bad about this storm’s rescue efforts at the feet of the Houston mayor.
Ruckus
@dww44:
Did you expect different? The Huston mayor laid out why they didn’t order mass evacuation. It wasn’t a oversight, or even a fuck up. A mass evacuation may have made it far worse than it will probably be. When you are between a rock and a hard place, neither is a good answer. But if you know that the rock might miss you or just break your arm and the hard place will kill you, you take what you can. People who have no concept of consequences will always Monday morning quarterback. It doesn’t cost them anything and it makes them sound authoritative, OK it does to them and all the rest of the Monday morning quarterbacks.
Ruckus
@J R in WV:
You can’t. He’s been replaced by some nameless replicant.
randy khan
I’ve now seen the first Republican talking point on the conference room photos in the wild (that is, Facebook): It shows Trump is doing the right thing because he is letting the experts handle this and recognizing that they know more than he does.
So far I’ve restrained myself from pointing out that my cat knows more than he does, but it’s taking some effort.
Ohio Mom
@goblue72: I’ve never heard of a Jungle Primary before, but now that you’ve explained it, the list of who supported the changes to the California system, and the list of those against it, makes sense.
Especially Charlie Munger. How he and Buffet pull off that “Aw shucks, we’re regular guys” routine I will never understand. Wolves in sheep’s clothing, the both of them.
It sounds like a very bad idea.
Remember when Clinton wanted to appoint, I think her name was Lani
Davis, to one post or another, and there was a big fuss made because she was an authority on different methods of structuring elections to make them more fair?
No, no, no, we couldn’t have that because how could you say the system needs improvement!
But in the years since, there have been so many under-the-radar efforts put into place, like Jungle Primaries, and term limits, that make things less representative, less fair, less democratic…
Greg in PDX
I saw the original headline this morning and assumed it was followed by an opinion piece. i was kind of stunned when it was supposedly a news report below it. Apparently, they received a lot of blowback from people like me and changed it. Too bad for them the internet never goes away.
jl
I’ve compared Dub favorably to Trump, but I hope I have never typed explicitly or implied that we would ever ‘want’ Dub (not even to replace Trump, since the early Dub team was at least competent enough to initiate bad policies on a wider scale than Trump has yet demonstrated)..
In fact, one of my points was that, despite the fact that Dub is a better person with better intentions than Trump, and much smarter than Trump (which I hasten to point out is faint praise), horrible things happened under Dub and because of Dub and the influence of the guy he picked for veep, Cheney.
In terms of policy, Dub did show capacity to learn and change course. But to a much lesser extent than Reagan, and only after irreparable damage was done. Also, Dub did initiate a few good policies. I remember that some of good policy moves that happened under Obama, and which horrified the racist, or cynical, Obama haters, were actually initiated by Dub. Dub was dubbed a liberal because he was such a failure that even reactionaries wanted to distance themselves from him, but maybe also because he did initiate a few good policy initiatives, at a time when the GOP reactionaries became so degraded, that only mindless savagery is acceptable policy to them.
Sad thing is that the few good Dub policies will be minor footnotes compared to his gigantic failures.
Also, Dub has done some good work as ex-pres, on African-American museum, and for charity, that I cannot imagine Trump would even contemplate.
Comparing Dub to Trump is a delicate exercise, but I think is useful from time to time, to demonstrate the continuing decline of the GOP and their teabagger and MAGA supporters into complete insanity and barbarity and incompetence and intellectual and moral bankruptcy.
David Evans
@SatanicPanic: You shouldn’t need to add the word “yet”. “He hasn’t done X” is equivalent to “He hasn’t done X yet”, since we only have knowledge of the past and present.
Greg in PDX
The ignorant collection of pompous know it all’s over at Red State are saying that any injuries, deaths etc are the fault of the Mayor because he is a Democrat who disobeyed the Governor’s evacuation order just to spite the Republicans. I kid you not.
jl
@Greg in PDX: Also, because, he is one of ‘those people’ Look for dog whistles soon. The hook will be whether there should have been a mass evacuation order for Houston as the storm approached. Ii think that is a very debatable issue. But the racists and MAGAts will argue that for any average dope, certainly any good white man, like Abbott, a mass evacuation order should have been a no-brainer. Which is silly, but it won’t stop them.
jl
And if the mayor had decided to evacuate the city, and thousands of people had drowned stuck on flooded freeways, or died of exposure stuck out in the countryside, out of gas, and nightmare to find them all food potable water and shelter, then clearly the mayor didn’t ‘do it right’ like any white man fool could have done. The racism and stupid will burn deep and it is just getting started.
Ruckus
@jl:
That’s good stuff right there.
I will repeat that I don’t want either of them as well. I will also repeat something I wrote on BJ not that long ago. I think that shrub is one of the worst presidents ever, for sure in the bottom 5. But he’s been relegated to a better position because drumpf can fill all of the bottom 5 spots by himself, he’s that bad.
jl
@Ruckus: Maybe Trump will sue Dub someday for the services rendered? Can go after the descendants of Pierce, Tyler, Buchanan, Johnson and Harding too? Maybe descendants of US Grant and Chester Arthur for prompting historians to give them right and proper re-evaluation?
Ruviana
@Ohio Mom: Lani Guinier. Though I love the idea of Lani Davis!
Ruckus
@jl:
Suing is his trademark. Wonder if he’ll try to sue ole Vlad. Bet that would work out well.
J R in WV
@Ohio Mom:
W Bush allowed Cheney to run his grant Second Iraqi War byt the seat of his pants, and Cheney and his minions flew C-130s full of Benjamins ( Hundred Dollar Bills!! ) shrink-wrapped on pallets into Iraq with NO ACCOUNTING of those funds. The money is just gone…
I suspect Cheney took hundreds of millions, maybe not in cash, maybe in investments that matured after Cheney left political office. Maybe a slicker trick I’ve never heard of. But that cash walked away, and that wasn’t by accident. Cheney never lost a thousand dollars without knowing where it went and why.