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CBS continuing America's penchant for rehabilitating monsters, George W. Bush wants to tell you about compassionate conservatives
- Thread starter WrenchNinja
- Start date
Trump simply took off the veneer, but every disaster of Trump's making sprang from standard Republican ideology and practice.
Fuck science, fuck giving anyone but rich people money, figure out your own healthcare, the stock market is more important than your life, you have no rights as an employee, etc etc
yep, absolutely. compassionate conservatism is wolves in sheep clothing bullshit.
making evil, greed, and theocratic authoritarianism palatable since 2000
You're painting a picture of Bush that we know is false. He went the extra step of pushing falsified intellegence and lying about links between 9/11 and Sadam. He ordered our CIA to tortue people and set up a special prison camp to sidestep the laws over prisoner treatment.
While he is a human being and not cartoonishly evil 24/7 (unlike Trump), he still intentionally and deliberately ordered our forces to commit horrible crimes.
Yeah. Also we can't forget that he supported and campaigned on the failed Federal Marriage Amendment, which would have outlawed gay marriage in the US Constitution. So compassionate!
true. can probably go back further too, sadly. fuck reagan, fuck bush, and fuck every single republican
listen, he was trying to HELP those gay people by saving them from hell
The last 20 years have been quite something for the military industrial complex. Bush and his cronies ate well for themselves, and the world will be paying the price for it for generations to come because this dumb country refuses to hold powerful people accountable.
This Map Shows Where in the World the U.S. Military Is Combatting Terrorism
The infographic reveals for the first time that the U.S. is now operating in 40 percent of the world's nations
www.smithsonianmag.com
/https://public-media.si-cdn.com/filer/76/45/7645fe6c-a982-4828-bdff-7043074884b2/counterterrorismmapweb.png)
And it's probably not counting all the mercs under our umbrella (not including our own uniformed soldiers who may or may not be operating as low paid mercs in some spots).
Some of these we had before Bush or were put in after Bush, but this proliferation of war onto the world is very much Dubya's legacy. Piece of shit neocon.
Also from today, look at this compassionate Repub asshole.
John Boehner: Obama 'set everybody on fire' and caused racism in the Republican Party with 'speeches'
Former House Speaker (R-OH) on Sunday suggested that former President Barack Obama shared the blame for racist elements in the Republican Party. During an interview on NBC's Meet the Press, host Chuck Todd noted that "white supremacist" ideas are "creeping" into the Republican Party. "And...
www.rawstory.com
All these old Trump voters coming out the woodwork to make sure that the party remembers they should do the loud parts quietly again.
I agree with the above, except for the post office bit. This was done in by both major parties in Congress. Bush only signed the bill. So let's not pretend Democrats aren't responsible for the USPS situation.
Hell, Biden still refuses to fire the old Board members and send DeJoy packing.
I also would say that Afghanistan situation was caused much, much earlier by CIA shenanigans with Pakistan and basically creating the Taliban to fight the Soviets. That has been going on since the 80s.
But yes, Bush was terrible for the world and for US.
The last 20 years have been quite something for the military industrial complex. Bush and his cronies ate well for themselves, and the world will be paying the price for it for generations to come because this dumb country refuses to hold powerful people accountable.
This Map Shows Where in the World the U.S. Military Is Combatting Terrorism
The infographic reveals for the first time that the U.S. is now operating in 40 percent of the world's nations
And it's probably not counting all the mercs under our umbrella (not including our own uniformed soldiers who may or may not be operating as low paid mercs in some spots).
Some of these we had before Bush or were put in after Bush, but this proliferation of war onto the world is very much Dubya's legacy. Piece of shit neocon.
Also from today, look at this compassionate Repub asshole.
John Boehner: Obama 'set everybody on fire' and caused racism in the Republican Party with 'speeches'
Former House Speaker (R-OH) on Sunday suggested that former President Barack Obama shared the blame for racist elements in the Republican Party. During an interview on NBC's Meet the Press, host Chuck Todd noted that "white supremacist" ideas are "creeping" into the Republican Party. "And...
All these old Trump voters coming out the woodwork to make sure that the party remembers they should do the loud parts quietly again.
A black man talking is what caused racism. I mean, it's hyperbolic, but this is exactly what happened in America to mainstream it.
Also, white supremacist ideas can't "seep into" the party when they've been a form of mobilization in the party since the Civil Rights Movement. Must we forget the rotted corpse of neoliberalism that thought referring to black people as "monkeys" was so funny he giggled both times he brought it up in a phone call? I'm talking about Reagan if my remarks seem esoteric.
Amusingly, if you press these rancid ass ghouls about the topic of "when" referring to white nationalism coming into the party, it's coincidentally always after their reign; it was just the next guy. The next guy couldn't do it unless there was a blueprint and a literal platform that placated it. It doesn't take over in just one election cycle. The only time it was there in silence was in 2012, but it was there for Romney nevertheless as he, shockingly, shielded it as The Thing to mobilize on. And he still got the white vote.
To give a current example of this, look at the disinformation in the COVID era. That didn't just occur within the last 13 months. It was institutionalized to distrust experts and call them "Marxists" the second they proposed and eventually conceded to the positions that rejected conservative social impositions, with economics being the last body of "science" to do so. They've collectively turned away from reality because they've allowed literal liars, falsehoods, and misinformation to be the way their entire political belief system operates. And again, how it operated from the beginning includes white nationalism. You get COVID denial by supporting climate denial, by supporting rejection of data showcasing inequality, to lies about the dangers of universal health care, to lying to the public about forever wars. All you have to do is talk about "tradition" and this is the key: it's just "white value" that's being referred to. They just gum it up in spooky language.
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Im sure families of the people that got killed and tortured during his administration feel he is very compassionate.
Along with Mittens, he's one of the most compassionate living Republicans.
So, you know, that's massively depressing on every level.
So, you know, that's massively depressing on every level.
Bush cabinet was one of the most notorious conservative cabinets ever, to the point of overshadowing or even ignoring him. Bush was mainly for show, to appeal to the voters, kinda like a bad copy of Reagan.
Trump had far more power over his cabinet
Just wild to read. The absolute mental gymnastics and utter capacity to ignore what actually happened is actually kind of impressive when you peel it back a bit.
absolute desperation from the media and political figures to reassemble the elite consensus of the 90s/early 2000s, not realizing that Bush, amongst others, completely obliterated it in the first place
This sort of latitude is only ever granted to American politicians, of course. You'd never hear them talk this way about questionable political leaders and heads of state from non-western nations, about how they're doing their best and they're decent people.
This man is an absolute monster, and so is his dad. He should be tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity. And yet why? Why isn't he? It is because nearly every single member of the political class in this country is just as monstrous as he is. To condemn him is to condemn themselves. The American regime is the most destructive in the world, and we must never forget that fact. Anytime you feel like cheering for this or that politician, remember that.
EDIT:
If you want to really see some shit watch this. I dare you not to scream in anger.
EDIT:
If you want to really see some shit watch this. I dare you not to scream in anger.
I think it goes beyond being a monster, and just more into how America normalizes violence. We had someone in this very thread justify a war started for known lies, even at the time. America is a profoundly violent place, and thus, none of the violence is damning. Can you be shocked that the country that bombs civilian weddings and gets mad at people who leak this fact and argue such people need to be executed by the government is also the same country where children are murdered in schools? That there's a collective numbness to the entire thing? When police are armed as if Los Angeles is Fallujah, you're a lost society.
Worse still is the entire political system of ghouls and monsters still given credibility and airtime. Why the fuck should anyone on this earth listen to Bill Kristol? He wanted a war with Iraq before Dubya was even in office. Or David Frum, the literal piece of shit that coined the term "The Axis of Evil"? Or Jennifer Rubin who I have to be reminded of still gets some presence despite foolish and ghoulish shit on camera just years ago, well after the fact "regime change" has been a predominantly lost project for America, unless we start counting the coup countries are all doing wonderfully and in lockstep with America's imperialist tendencies. Somehow these awful fuckin' people are given legitimacy, despite being wrong on conservative estimates, and outright evil in humanitarian ones.
How America has such a normalized position for violence, even when the evidence shows the violence we're advocating doesn't even get us the results we're trying to justify violence for is incredibly damning. Absolute failed state, here.
While it's true the bill was pushed through with bipartisan support (and absolutely fuck the Dems for contributing), the admin decided to weigh additional anchors on the USPS via the bill, also the cherry on top that is Bush saying "lmao we can open your mail at any time when we deem it to be under emergency conditions".
Oh, so Jr decided to be extra shitty about it. The whole thing is ridiculous, and yeah, Dems shouldn't be let off for this disaster.
Couple quick notes...
Regarding folks like your aunt, this is a conversation your having on multiple levels of her psyche, regarding deeper intentions, truth and living in congruency.
Your also grinding against cultivated ignorance and Ill intentions by a portion of the country who are willing to lie, etc. in order to keep believing what they want to believe.
For a few years now I've been intentionally trying change people like your aunt. In my experience it's doable, but the success rate is pretty damn low.
(Start conversations on common shared beliefs and values to build rapport and trust. When pushback gets intense, back up and circle back if possible to a shared value point, etc.)
If her heart and intentions on a deeper level are genuinely kind and compassionate, you can make progress, but the world she belongs to in many cases is working to discredit what your trying to do and show her.
I know someone with an amazing heart, etc. She didn't vote for trump but she was close to doing so. Sadly 80% of her friends and family lean right. Many of those people make racist jokes and commentary around her which I know bothers her and she feels is wrong, but she tries to ignore it because she loves these people.
For awhile she was pushing back and trying to call them out. The problem was the echo chamber would pushback and she would get it from all sides leaving her drained and upset.
She's a good person but she's not going to give up the majority of her friends and family, which is where many of these types of people find themselves.
They have many strong memories, feelings and experiences with those friends and family members. Those mental and emotional bonds are not easy to break and people will use mental gymnastics to protect those they love and care about.
Trying to facilitate change in people who don't want to change or who don't see a problem in thier current models is difficult, but it's doable.
Seeing a lot of ostensibly left wing/progressive people fall for this in recent times really calls their judgement on anything into question. Its massively, monumentally shallow to judge things on such a surface level. "But look at this picture of Bush smiling and laughing with Michelle Obama, he can't be that bad!"
Trump was visibly, verbally offensive to experience, and has done some a lot of damage but he isn't responsible for a war that not only killed hundreds of thousands of innocents, propelled the region into further conflicts that have killed hundreds of thousands more but also did irreversible damage to the American psyche, let alone the thousands of soldiers killed and maimed and the trillions of dollars wasted.
But there are people that still think Trump was worse somehow.
Trump was visibly, verbally offensive to experience, and has done some a lot of damage but he isn't responsible for a war that not only killed hundreds of thousands of innocents, propelled the region into further conflicts that have killed hundreds of thousands more but also did irreversible damage to the American psyche, let alone the thousands of soldiers killed and maimed and the trillions of dollars wasted.
But there are people that still think Trump was worse somehow.
These are the same people who call Romney and McCain RINOs, having completely forgotten that they were their previous 2 presidential candidates before Trump.
I was a big fan of Obama, but during his presidency, I kept saying his relentless drone attacks on the Middle East were going to be in the first paragraph of his legacy. I don't believe that anymore (the rise of Trumpism overshadows everything about Obama's reign aside from being the first black president), but I still think the seeming dichotomy of Obama being a good, intelligent man but still bombing the bejesus out of foreign countries says all we need to know about the American presidency.
Last year when Obama released that book and said he had to utilize the drones otherwise he would be seen as "soft" on terrorism made by blood boil. It completely destroyed whatever shred of respect I had for him left at that point.