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The gop is a fucking disgrace.

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Humiliatingly small and eclipsed by the derision of millions.

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Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

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Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

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Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

No one could have predicted…

T R E 4 5 O N

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Second rate reporter says what?

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You are here: Home / Politics / America / Breaking News! President George H. W. Bush Has Died

Breaking News! President George H. W. Bush Has Died

by | 180 Comments

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President Bush was, among many other things, a naval aviator in World War II.

The two different aviators’ verses:

Lord, guard and guide the men who fly
Through the great spaces in the sky.
Be with them always in the air,
In darkening storms or sunlight fair;
Oh, hear us when we lift our prayer,
For those in peril in the air!
Mary C. D. Hamilton (1915)

Oh, Watchful Father who dost keep
Eternal vigil while we sleep
Guide those who navigate on high
Who through grave unknown perils fly,
Receive our oft-repeated prayer
For those in peril in the air.
Emma Mayhew Whiting (1943)

Rest in Peace.

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

180Comments

  2. 2.

    Mnemosyne

    So is there any way for the Bush family to ban the sitting president from the funeral while still having a former president level of state funeral pomp? Because, frankly, I want them to be forced to have Trump give a eulogy so they can contemplate exactly what they created at leisure.

  3. 3.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mnemosyne: Yes. The Bush family will determine who, among dignitaries and VIPs, they want in attendance, given speaking parts at each part of the memorial services and funeral, etc.

  4. 4.

    Mart

    Not a fan. Ignored/complicit in Iran Contra, newborn’s torn out of incubators left to die so let us have a war, etc. Barbara Bush’s troubles about the blacks fleeing New Orleans after Katrina for lovely Houston – she spoke for him.

  6. 6.

    NotMax

    More saccharine than at a Sweet ‘n’ Low factory now on the TV. 1000 points of yuck.

    Where’s that fershlugginer remote?

  13. 13.

    Mandalay

    Although the outline of the following story about him is fairly well know, some of the details are riveting, and surely shaped him for the the rest of his life:

    Lt George Bush, then a 20-year-old pilot, was among nine airmen who escaped from their planes after being shot down during bombing raids on Chichi Jima, a tiny island 700 miles south of Tokyo, in September 1944 – and was the only one to evade capture by the Japanese.

    The horrific fate of the other eight “flyboys” was established in subsequent war crimes trials on the island of Guam, but details were sealed in top secret files in Washington to spare their families distress.

    Mr Bradley has established that they were tortured, beaten and then executed, either by beheading with swords or by multiple stab-wounds from bayonets and sharpened bamboo stakes. Four were then butchered by the island garrison’s surgeons and their livers and meat from their thighs eaten by senior Japanese officers.

    The future president escaped a similar fate because he ditched his plane further from the island than the other crews, and managed to scramble on to a liferaft. American planes launched a hail of fire at Japanese boats which set out to capture him, driving them back, and he was eventually rescued by a US submarine.

    When the black hull of the USS Finback surfaced in front of him, he thought he was hallucinating, he told Mr Bradley in a television film made to coincide with the publication of Flyboys. He had been vomiting, bleeding from a head wound, and weeping with fear. He said only four words to his rescuers: “Happy to be aboard.”

  17. 17.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @NotMax:
    I vaguely remember Ronaldus Magnus’ twenty-one gun salute on national tv. I bet they were giving that old senile, racist fool tongue baths too.

  19. 19.

    hilts

    @Mnemosyne:

    is there any way for the Bush family to ban the sitting president from the funeral

    In addition to Trump, Ivanka and Jared need to stay the fuck away. The entire Trump family is scum and none of them have any business attending these high profile funeral services.

  21. 21.

    Mandalay

    @TK:

    The last GOPper Pres. I somewhat respect. Somewhat.

    That’s exactly how I feel as feel.

    ETA: And one other small thing in his favor: he told the NRA to go fuck themselves and got away with it. I don’t think any other Republican politician can make that claim.

  22. 22.

    BR

    Same here@TK: Same here. But I wonder: did he ever apologize for the Wille Horton ad? I know Atwater did before his untimely death.

  24. 24.

    Mart

    OK I will say some good things about the CIA man. He raised taxes after his stupid vow no to, making him dead to his base. TV talking heads never say he was forced to do so after the reckless budget busting tax cuts by Reagan. I also admire his hatred for Ross Perot for rat fucking his likely re-election.

  25. 25.

    Mike in NC

    Trump will rise to the occasion and manage an offensive tweet or two on Saturday morning. Looks like his mancrush on Putin has cooled and he will need to lash out.

  26. 26.

    Rand Careaga

    Of the post-Eisenhower GOP presidents, I rank him alongside Gerald Ford as the least objectionable, and actually have few reservations about his performance in office. This said, he was sternum-deep in Iran-Contra, and pardoned at least one of the major players (who might have implicated him) on his way out the door.

  29. 29.

    Elizabelle

    I am genuinely sad. I saw him a few times in life. I liked that he did not take himself too seriously. RIP and Godspeed.

  30. 30.

    Mike in NC

    @oatler.: In the event he’s invited to speak, Trump will babble on for 45 minutes about his own personal greatness and wrap up with 45 seconds about Poppy Bush, who was “a disaster, believe me”. After all, he had brown grandchildren!

  31. 31.

    eemom

    meh.

    The funeral with its Dump or no Dump sideshow is gonna be interesting, though. As you may recall he was NOT invited to Barbara’s, but Melania was there and looked happier than we’ve ever seen her.

  32. 32.

    Elizabelle

    Not surprised. He lasted longer than I would have thought, after Barbara’s death.

    And I hope Trump goes nowhere near the funeral.

  33. 33.

    hilts

    @oatler.:

    I can’t see Trump giving a eulogy

    It would come across as a hostage video, because Trump has 0% empathy for any human being outside of his immediate family. He also has 0% gravitas. At his core, Trump is nothing more than a knuckle dragging Neanderthal.

  34. 34.

    PhoenixRising

    He signed the ADA & staffed Labor & Education with GOP lackeys who did all they could not to enforce it.

    Wait…does that count as saying something nice?

  36. 36.

    TomatoQueen

    He was the kind of Republican (and Yale man, for that matter) that people think of when they wonder where all the good Republicans went, the ones you could deal with–or, I suspect, the nostalgia-minded would like to think so. I used to think a “thousand points of light” was shallow lip service at best, but now it sounds like sanity.

  37. 37.

    Yarrow

    He chose to serve his country, as a naval aviator in war, and after in various roles. I didn’t agree with his political beliefs or some of the things he did, but I respect his service and believe he loved his country. He seemed to have a genuine friendship with both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama that was based on respect and a shared understanding of serving the country. The last several years must have been tough for him as he has been confined to a wheelchair and especially recently after losing Barbara, his wife of 70 years. RIP and condolences to the family.

  38. 38.

    Wapiti

    End of an era. When I was working with the Army Reserves in Houston, ~2000-2001, we periodically had to review the plans for his funeral, processions, etc., in Texas. Lots of moving parts. We hoped he’d live a long time.

    Rest in Peace.

  39. 39.

    Mike in NC

    @Elizabelle: My WW2 vet dad passed away in 2003 at age 85 a few weeks after I got back from a NATO exercise in Scotland. He and mom were married for 53 years and she was never the same after he was gone.

  40. 40.

    Elizabelle

    Very sad. He is a better man, than those who succeeded him.

    And he did go to war. As a very young man. I respect that.

  42. 42.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    If you had asked me twenty years ago, I would’ve said Bob Dole was a better man than Poppy Bush– Willie Horton, “card-carrying member of the ACLU”, the whole pledge of allegiance nonsense, the pardon of Weinberger that was as much obstruction of justice as anything trump has done– then two years ago Dole went all in for trump, and Poppy announced he was voting for Hillary.

    He had it in him to be a much better man, and president, than he was.

  44. 44.

    hilts

    @delk:

    Wouldn’t be prudent.

    If Billy Crystal can speak at Muhammad Ali’s funeral, I’d like to see Dana Carvey speak at George Bush’s funeral.

  45. 45.

    Corner Stone

    So, Trump had absolutely nothing to do with the statement purportedly from Trump and Melania.

  46. 46.

    SectionH

    I’ll always fondly remember him for being the George Bush of the Bloom County episodes where Bill the Cat was arrested for passing secrets? Steve Dallas as his attorney asks What Secrets? The FBI harrassed dude reads (and I am working from memory here) The Secret of the Sierra Madres, The Secret Garden, The Secret of Secret Deodorant, The Secret of George Bush’s appeal…” Steve looks at him and then says, “George Bush has no appeal.” Last panel, FBI guy with his balding hair standing up and his hands in the air: “THAT’S THE SECRET!”

    Long story for what was shown in 4 small panels, but omg I loved it then. Little did we know…

    I did like it when he resigned his NRA m’ship.

    @Yarrow: Of the whole family, he did seem to be the one who took noblesse oblige seriously. If I can use the term relatively without irony. He gets credit for that.

  47. 47.

    Elizabelle

    Bob Dole has survived him. And the Tea Party made mincemeat of Dole’s hopes to better care for veterans and/or the disabled. What shabby, shabby assed GOP followed this generation. For shame.

  48. 48.

    Quinerly

    Not going in for any Bush worship.
    Fuck anything Bush.
    Can’t grieve for him.
    I’m jaded over what his party has wrought.
    Plus, I remember the Willie Horton ad.

  49. 49.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Luciamia:

    Thank you. Time enough in the coming days to pick his legacy apart. For now, yes, family and close friends are grieving. Let’s give them the courtesy of a time to mourn.

  50. 50.

    Wag

    @Elizabelle:

    I agree. I never met him, but knew President Ford, and felt that both were men forced by history to play difficult hands that they wished hadn’t been dealt to them.

  52. 52.

    Mai Naem mobile

    Andrea Mitchell was going on and on about Bush 1 and civility and a different time and I kept on thinking ‘yeah, baby Willie Horton.’ I wonder with Bush 1 being the former CIA chief, the CIA will come up with some BS to keep Trimpov from coming to the funeral. Also too, I looked on the Twitter machine and Obama ofcourse bas a statement out right away. Nothing from Trumpov. What a shoddy press shop

  53. 53.

    NotMax

    @TomatoQueen

    Only thing every thought whenever heard “a thousand points of light” was that it was a sign to buy new drapes. And mothballs.

    The Bush family, for generations, have propagated a thousand thousand points of blight.

  54. 54.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @NotMax:
    I do. I’ll never understand why he won so resoundingly in 1980. I don’t care how bad the economy was, he was a racist, corrupt SOB. If I was Carter, I would have told him to shove that “There you go again” shit up his fucking ass and ask him why he intentionally kicked off his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi and made a speech about states’ rights.

  55. 55.

    Adam L Silverman

    @hilts:

    If Billy Crystal can speak at Muhammad Ali’s Izzy Izkowitz’s funeral, I’d like to see Dana Carvey speak at George Bush’s funeral.

    Fixed it for you!//

  56. 56.

    Mandalay

    @hilts:

    In addition to Trump, Ivanka and Jared need to stay the fuck away. The entire Trump family is scum…

    As someone else has already suggested, I don’t think they can really avoid inviting Trump and his wife, but my guess is that only Melania will attend. Trump may bomb some random country on the day before the funeral so that he really does have a national emergency on his hands, and has a decent excuse to stay away.

    And there is no good reason why anyone else in the Trump clan would deserve or receive an invitation, even if there was no animosity between the Trumps and the Bushes.

  57. 57.

    hilts

    @Elizabelle:

    And he did go to war. As a very young man.

    Yes, that’s a huge contrast from the gutless, bed wetting chickenshit who currently defiles the White House on a daily basis.

  59. 59.

    Mnemosyne

    @eemom:

    It’s apparently pretty uncommon for former presidents to attend a former First Lady’s funeral — it’s generally the other former First Ladies who attend in force along with the current First Lady.

    I remember this because of the goddamned freakout when former president Barack Obama didn’t attend Nancy Reagan’s funeral and it had to be patiently explained to them over and over why it would have been very unusual for him to attend.

  60. 60.

    oldgold

    In retrospect, after the sh*tshow we have experienced over the past two years, my opinion of 41’s presidency has markedly improved.

  61. 61.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Rachel Maddow’s podcast on Spiro Agnew is quite good, and one of the revelations (to me, and I think she asserts it was a historical scoop they uncovered) is that Poppy as head of the RNC, and at the request of Nixon and Agnew, leaned on prosecutors to back off. They didn’t

  64. 64.

    Petorado

    I “met” George H.W. Bush in 1980 when he came to my high school’s brand new track to go running bright and early in the morning while he was campaigning in the Republican primary against Ronald Reagan. Reagan, of course, won that race and that’s why a year later I’d have register for a newly re-introduced selective service while he saber-rattled his way through his foreign policy.

    Mr. Bush was a pleasant man who ran hard while no one else was around to watch, and I respected the fact that he had the discipline to push himself to a limit, even if it was only to achieve his personal goals and health.

    His politics I cared for not so much. His children … even less.

  65. 65.

    eemom

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??:

    I vaguely remember Ronaldus Magnus’ twenty-one gun salute on national tv. I bet they were giving that old senile, racist fool tongue baths too.

    Oh my GOD. Tongue baths doesn’t do it justice. It was 8 solid days of Kim Jung-Il-esque idolatry.

  67. 67.

    hilts

    @Mandalay:

    Melania is a clueless doofus which makes her the least repulsive member of this fucking first family. I can’t wait until this rogue’s gallery of scumbags vacate the White House.

  68. 68.

    Elizabelle

    @eemom: LOL. Reagan is different from GHW Bush, in my book.

    I remember someone telling the local news in DC that Reagan’s funeral was “Woodstock for Republicans.”

    How pathetic.

  69. 69.

    Corner Stone

    Still have no idea why people piss themselves on the altar of civility for people who not only do not deserve it, but have worked their entire lives to break it in the pursuit of power.

  70. 70.

    Mnemosyne

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I would not be surprised if it had been written during the Obama years or even earlier and passed along to Trump’s staff along with the other pending files. Newspapers usually write their obituaries years in advance and I’m guessing the White House press staff does the same once a former president reaches a certain age.

  73. 73.

    eemom

    @Yarrow:

    The last several years must have been tough for him as he has been confined to a wheelchair

    Didn’t stop him from grabbing women’s asses, as he apparently did all his life. Google it if you don’t believe me.

  77. 77.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @Elizabelle:

    I remember someone telling the local news in DC that Reagan’s funeral was “Woodstock for Republicans.”

    Pathetic doesn’t even begin to describe that. Nowadays, you don’t hear much about Raygun anymore. Since Trump has taken over the GOP and fully transformed it into an authoritarian ethonationalist party, anyway.

    Is it because of Trump or just the natural passage of time that Reagan has been seemingly forgotten?

    @eemom:

    In that case, I’m glad I was too young to be more fully aware. Reagan gets a lot of credit for winning the Cold War that he doesn’t deserve, imo. It would have driven me mad to hear the coverage.

  81. 81.

    joel hanes

    Maintained and strengthened an inappropriately close relationship with the House of Saud that has cost the US in many ways.
    Did a nearly perfect job of covering up after Iran Contra; the tracks point toward his door, but magically disappear a block or two before reaching it.

  82. 82.

    eemom

    @Corner Stone: @Corner Stone:

    Still have no idea why people piss themselves on the altar of civility for people who not only do not deserve it, but have worked their entire lives to break it in the pursuit of power.

    I think it’s a when they go low we go high thing.

  85. 85.

    Mandalay

    @Elizabelle:

    And he did go to war. As a very young man. I respect that.

    Me too. And doubly so since (given his family background) I’m sure it would have been a piece of cake for him to land a desk job in the military.

    I understand the criticism of him here for his politics and racism, but he was certainly no draft dodger. Actually, given his family background, his dad could probably have got him a job working for Hitler during the war.

  86. 86.

    Quinerly

    @Elizabelle: you are probably a nice person. It seems I am not. The Bush clan is pretty evil in my opinion. I’m old. My memory is long. Interesting socks on an old man doesn’t change shit for me. I guess it’s kinda neat he’s now with his evil wife. So there’s that……

  87. 87.

    NotMax

    This is going to totally drive the Mueller/Cohen revelations off the radar for the weekend, and come Monday they’ll have disappeared down the memory hole.

  90. 90.

    Ruckus

    I’ll say the thing mom taught me to say when someone you have little to nothing good to say about. After I say the little good.
    He served in combat and almost paid the ultimate price. He’s a fellow vet. That can never be forgotten.
    He voted for Hillary Clinton. Maybe he learned something decent at 92.
    After that, I got nothing.

  96. 96.

    joel hanes

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??:

    I’ll never understand why [Reagan] won so resoundingly in 1980

    Beloved movie hero of the generation that then comprised the majority of the electorate.
    Championed a positive narrative.
    Like Trump, was willing to make fantastically optimistic promises; Reagan apparently believed his.
    People were tired of Carter’s seeming ineptness;
    had the Eagle Claw raid to free the hostages succeeded,
    things might have gone differently, but luck was not with them.
    Hundreds of successive days when the evening news opened with a chyron “America Held Hostage”

    No one yet knew that Reagan was conspiring with the Iranians, who were then holding US embassy personnel hostage, to continue to hold them until after the election, to make Carter look even more ineffectual, a betrayal very similar in intent to Trump’s 2016 work with Putin, and Iran was an actual enemy state, whereas we nominally have normal diplomatic relations with Russia, and the Russians are not holding American’s hostage.

  98. 98.

    Ruckus

    @Yarrow:
    There is so little he does know it should be easy to tell if he knows. Has he tweeted about it? Does the tweet look like it was written by a 4 yr old? Because anything intelligent means he doesn’t.

  101. 101.

    Emma

    @Yarrow: You speak for me. He was flawed as we all are and I disagreed with his politics. But he didn’t terrify me, and he did some good things. Go home and godspeed.

  102. 102.

    joel hanes

    @eemom:

    I saw it when the thread had expired.
    You’re entirely welcome.
    Dockery and Son is one of my very favorites.

  103. 103.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @hilts: I am not sure Melania is as clueless as she appears to be. I sometimes think she’s Trumpov’s handler.

  107. 107.

    Msb

    He was the last person named Bush to think he owed his country service in war and peace.
    He was pro-choice until Reagan offered him the VP slot, after which he changed his mind, and described his former view as “a detail”. The reason why I haven’t voted for a Republican since 1976.

  108. 108.

    Ruckus

    @joel hanes:

    Russians are not holding American’s hostage.

    That depends on how deep shitgibbon is in it with his boss, Vlad. Because if it’s as far as I think it is, we are hostages.

  109. 109.

    Yarrow

    @NotMax: They will not disappear because more is coming.

    @Mai Naem mobile: Melania is just as bad as the rest of them.

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Exactly. The 2008 financial crash was also Obama’s doing and the eight year economic recovery is all Trump’s doing over the last two years. #RepublicanMath

  111. 111.

    NotMax

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist

    The name we never hear boo about re: the Mueller investigation is Allen Weisselberg, CFO of the Trump Organization, who was granted immunity late in August and presumably has been singing like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir since.

  112. 112.

    Gammyjill

    I never voted for him but I respect his long service to our country. And I liked the fact that he got along well with Clinton and Obama. I love the picture of Obama and the four surviving ex-presidents in Obama’s office.

    God speed, 41

  115. 115.

    Jersey Tomato

    Condolences to his family, but I can’t help but thinking of all the dead in El Salvador at the hands of the death squads he and Reagan supported and the covered up for. I feel sorrier for them and their families.

  118. 118.

    NotoriousJRT

    @hilts:
    because Trump has 0% empathy for any human being outside of his immediate family.
    His immediate family: himself, his hair, and his genitals.

  121. 121.

    Mary G

    I admired his military service and he certainly told the truth about voodoo economics and paid a price for it. Plus, he conducted a war in the Middle East after getting a coalition of other countries to help and split promptly after his limited objective was achieved, a lesson his son should have learned from. On the other hand, he participated in his share of ratfucking with Willie Horton and Iran Contra.

  122. 122.

    opiejeanne

    @Mart: I can say something good about Poppy Bush too: he referred to Trickle Down as Voodoo Economics. I laughed when I heard him say it and used it on phone calls from eager young Republicans (back when they still could find volunteers and didn’t have to pay people to call) trying to convince me to vote for more Trickle-Down Economics. And then I’d laugh.

    I guess Trickle Down was referred to as Reaganomics.

  125. 125.

    trollhattan

    The…uh…second-best Republican president of my lifetime. So there’s that.

    I applauded his unilateral missile reduction move, that was worth applauding and repeating. And he went to war despite being son of a rich, connected family. Could have raised better kids.

    r.i.p. sir.

  126. 126.

    NotoriousJRT

    @Corner Stone:
    Ivanka’s manner of speaking makes me think, “Wow, someone’s been into the laudanum early and often.” I believe Melanie is both malevolent and a stupid, but nonetheless fervent, white supremacist.

  131. 131.

    opiejeanne

    @joel hanes: I relate that conspiracy with Iran to continue to hold the embassy staff hostage with Nixon’s conspiracy to continue the Vietnam war until after he was elected.

  132. 132.

    opiejeanne

    @NotMax: Weisselberg was mentioned on the Rachel Maddow’s show tonight. I had to take a moment to remember who he was.

  133. 133.

    CaseyL

    I realize the Shitgibbon has eclipsed all previous GOPresidents in sheer awfulness, but the Bush Family is responsible for enough lasting damage (Iran Contra, S&L scandal, the first Gulf War, the second Gulf War, torture as official US policy, Katrina, etc. etc. upon etc) that I will never have anything good to say about any Bushes. (Except maybe Bush the Lesser’s daughters, who AFAIK turned out to be decent people.)

  136. 136.

    joel hanes

    @Ladyraxterinok:

    And national spokesman for GE, at conferences and on TV, when GE was a dominant player in industry.

    Oh, yeah : and Reagan was giving cartons of Chesterfields to all his friends.

  137. 137.

    CaseyL

    @joel hanes: I don’t think Iran-Contra was Reagan’s work, as he was pretty gaga by then, Always figured it was GHWB really running that one.

  138. 138.

    opiejeanne

    @joel hanes: I was relatively young and it sickened me. The Contras sickened me, the horror of the things they did, and the little pissant who lied to Congress for Reagan, Oliver North. I’d almost forgotten his name.

  139. 139.

    Mandalay

    @opiejeanne:

    The Contras sickened me, the horror of the things they did, and the little pissant who lied to Congress for Reagan, Oliver North.

    The irony is that the Contras, the CIA, Reagan, Bush, North et al were hellbent on defeating Daniel Ortega, and they succeeded in the short term, but he bounced back, and has been President of Nicaragua (again) since 2007. So much for granting “democracy” by overthrowing the government of a country you don’t understand.

  140. 140.

    eemom

    I’m not really in grave pissing mode, as there are plenty of other old republicans I’m saving that for; but I just want to point out one thing about Poppy’s sainted service in WWII that folks keep mentioning: EVERYBODY, rich and poor, fought in that war. It was just what people did in those days, and as far as wars go it was a righteous one. There’s no comparison to Vietnam with its “other priority” cheneys and its bone spur trumps.

  142. 142.

    Zinsky

    Hell is a little more crowded this morning with the passing of this creep. No kind words from me about this monster. How many innocent people in Nicaragua, Iraq, Kuwait, El Salvador and numerous other places around the world died because of this soulless man? Thousands! I hope the media doesn’t go on about what a “great family man” he was. Someone needs to remind them that Daddy Bush carried on a decades-long extra-marital affair with a woman named Jennifer Fitzgerald. Of course, because he is a Republican, the media didn’t make a big deal of it like they did with Donna Rice or Monica Lewinsky. No, I have no kind words for this evil man.

  143. 143.

    john fremont

    @TK: Bush signed into law the Americans With Disabilities Act, the current one mocks them on the campaign trail.

  144. 144.

    john fremont

    @Mary G: When George Bush broke his promise of “Read my lips, no new taxes” he was slammed by the hard right in the GOP, ya know for actually being fiscally responsible. Bush 41 was the first RINO to the conservatives. Reagan was criticized heavily for meeting with Gorbachev in his second term by the hard right but with the fall of the Berlin Wall that was dropped down the memory hole pretty fast. Reagan and Bush also campaigned for the Assault Weapons Bill as well.

  146. 146.

    Van Buren

    @Mart: Don’t forget the war in Panama.
    I actually have mixed feelings about him. So much better than all other recent Republican presidents, but that’s a low bar.
    I lost a little faith in America when a former CIA director was able to claim he was out of the loop and get away with it.

  147. 147.

    Nicole

    @eemom: Not to mention, Poppy was happy to pull strings to get his progeny into the National Guard (where Dubya may or may not have bothered to show up) come Vietnam.

  149. 149.

    fedlaw

    GHW Bush signed the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments, which added the acid rain, operating permit, and stratospheric ozone programs, and strengthened the criteria and toxic pollutant programs. But … the version he championed was weaker; he was outmaneuvered by Henry Waxman and others.

  150. 150.

    Ken

    @Mandalay:

    Trump may bomb some random country on the day before the funeral so that he really does have a national emergency on his hands, and has a decent excuse to stay away.

    He’s not decent so doesn’t need an excuse. It might still happen, because then people would be talking about Trump instead of GHW Bush, and that’s always for the best in his mind.

  151. 151.

    Ken

    @Yarrow:

    President Obama just visited George H.W. Bush in Houston on Tuesday.

    “President Obama, I want you to give my eulogy….”

    (Not in a million years, I know; besides it’d be dangerous with the shrapnel from all the conservative exploding heads.)

  153. 153.

    Mathguy

    David Brin, an astrophysicist and science fiction writer on GHWB: In the news. The patriarch of a clan that has done unimaginable harm to America, and by far the worst president of the 20th Century. By getting Boris Yeltsin to hire Bush-Cheney pal-oligarchs to “advise” the conversion of Soviet state industries, Bush ensured that the conversion would not be to liberal market democracy, but instead to mafia oligarchy, turning the Kremlin into as great – or worse – danger than ever. When Gen. Schwarzkopf begged to be given 48 hours to save all the Shiites of southern Iraq, GHWB refused, on orders from the Saudis, in effect allowing Saddam to murder a million people and guaranteeing Iraqi hatred of America for a century to come. This after he personally urged those Shiites to “rise up” against Saddam, promising our aid and deliverance. The worst stain on our honor since Vietnam.
    Want Irony? The one consistent trait of every GOP nominee for president is that they always choose a VP running mate who is spectacularly unqualified and dangerous. The only exception was Ronald Reagan, who appointed a man who was *on paper* extremely well-qualified! On paper, one of the most-qualified men ever to enter the White House. And the worst president of the 20th Century, who blighted all our future and all he touched.

  154. 154.

    Mathguy

    Should mention that I don’t agree entirely with Brin, since it ignores Harding (proto-Trump), Hoover (Mr. Depression) and Nixon (who may be the person that really destroyed our political system).

  155. 155.

    SFAW

    @Mart:

    I also admire his hatred for Ross Perot for rat fucking his likely re-election.

    A popular, but inaccurate, piece of folklore, i.e., Perot costing HW the election. Polls (exit or otherwise) showed a 50-50 split on Perot voters and their secondary preferences. No, I’m not going to provide any link, because it was semi-extensively “litigated” 25 years ago.

  156. 156.

    Raven Onthill

    I like these comments about how to think about how to conduct ourselves after the death of a figure like GHW Bush: “For everyone who didn’t have a personal connection to a famous person who has died, it’s moments like these that shape cultural memory – that’s why it’s important to be honest now more than any other time. Because it’s not personal, it’s about our whole society. Much like how the whole ‘run a country’s economy like a household budget’ is a BS analogy, ‘treat a national leader’s funeral like it’s your grandpa’s’ is, to put a harshly fine point on it, wrong and destructive.” – Dr. Kate Antonova, historian, CUNY

    I think she’s right. We don’t want the fascists turning him into a saint, the way they did with Reagan, who in no way deserved it. Brin is right. So are Corey Robin and Glenn Greenwald (!), who remind us of Bush’s pardons of the Iran-Contra criminals, paving the way for impunity for the criminals of the Bush II and now Trump administrations. Robin also reminds us of the Republican policy of stacking the judiciary with right-wingers, pointing out that, “The Willie Horton ad that helped get him elected was made by Floyd Brown. After ’88, Brown formed an organization to get Bush nominees onto the courts. One of those nominees was Clarence Thomas. The name of that organization was Citizens United.”

    We deserve justice more than than the dead man deserves courtesy.

  161. 161.

    Ella in New Mexico

    You know, folks, it’s really NOT that hard to separate the ugliness and sausage-making of political tactics largely contrived and orchestrated by scum-bag advisors the likes of Lee Atwater from the person, GHWB.

    Yes, he was at the helm of an administration that was the precursor to our CinC run amok today, but not singlehandedly nor the only one after him including our beloved Obama. Bottom line: He did no where the damage to this country either his predecessor or his successor Republicans have done, and he was a lifetime public servant and military hero.

    I can’t say I agreed with him on most of his politics, but the truth is he actually did do some good things, and was heavily criticized as “wimpy” and a “traitor” by the neocons and pre-Tea Party embryo of his own party. He was our last moderate Republican President, his family adored him as he did them, and for that I salute him.

  162. 162.

    Mike in NC

    All of Poppy Bush’s children were truly awful people and he never apologized for that fact.

  163. 163.

    Miss Bianca

    @Elizabelle: I’m not really sad, but there is a connection between our families as well – GHWB and my father were classmates at Yale, class of 45w (ie, “war class”, and we would have occasional news and views from Kennebunkport when we were up in Maine (my oldest sister and her clan live up there). No, not really sad, because he lived a long full life- much longer than my father, who died nearly 20 years ago. And of course, Iran-contra + Shrub, etc. Still…attention attention must be paid, so I will pay it.

  166. 166.

    Gelfling 545

    @Elizabelle: I too feel saddened. He comported himself with dignity and seemed to at least want to find a way to combine conservatism with kindness. (There isn’t one, but that’s another discussion ) I don’t hold him responsible for his wife’s ramblings anymore than I would Hilary Clinton for her husband being a hound or I’d expect to be held responsible for my ex late husband’s ranting. Probably that should read late ex husband. The other makes it seems like he’s come back from the dead.

  168. 168.

    John Fremont

    @fedlaw: Bush 41 also convened a commission on health care reform in 1989 or 90 that that ended up recommending state health care exchanges coupled to an individual mandate. It was very watered down compared to the protections of the ACA .Very tilted to the insurance companies’ interests

  169. 169.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Speaking of WH Bush

    Found out something interesting – when the UK got the polaris missiles for their subs in the ’60s one of the conditions for their use for the defense of Kuwait because that is the UK main source of oil. Apparently the US agreed to support the UK in less than nuclear options.

  170. 170.

    grubert

    “My momma taught me to only speak good of the dead.
    Well, he’s dead.
    Good.”

    – Molly Ivins.

    ( “Pappy” called Wellstone a “chickenshit”.. no, I don’t mourn )

  172. 172.

    StringOnAStick

    @Raven Onthill: Of all the takes here, your’s resonates the most strongly for me. It is also the first time I learned about the origin of the Citizens United group, thank you for that.

  173. 173.

    Zinsky

    @Mathguy: Absolutely, math guy. GHWB was banal and harmless-sounding, but many of his foreign policy decisions left a stain on this world as ugly and as egregious as others who have committed atrocities and crimes against humanity. Many forget that Bush was also the head of the RNC during the Watergate hearings and the impeachment and resignation of Richard Nixon. Bush slithered away after Nixon left office and hid in China as envoy, banging Jennifer Fitzgerald, while Bar stayed in the U.S., raising his miscreant sons. He was also a loathsome womanizer, as are Bill Clinton and Donald Trump. However, Poppy Bush always got a pass from the media. Pathetically, he was still groping young women into his 90’s. No, he was a pretty shitty human being all the way around and now the white-washing of his extremely tarnished career will begin in earnest. Sad.

  175. 175.

    Ella in New Mexico

    @zhena gogolia: reference is to the unhealthy-for-Democracy expansion of the unilateral power of the Presidency. Each in that line has successively stretched the limits of the former, with mostly bad results, regardless of necessity.

    Trump and his corrupt administration are currently stuffing themselves into the 6-sizes-too-small jeans of power left by all those behind him when it comes to Executive hubris.

    In case you missed that.

  176. 176.

    zhena gogolia

    @Ella in New Mexico:

    I did not miss the fact that Obama used his office for improving the country and conditions for all of its citizens. He is not to be compared to GHWB or any other Republican.

  177. 177.

    stan

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Bob Dole was a better man than Poppy Bush

    Bob Dole was a genuine combat hero though. I respect Bush for his service – he did his job, which was an exceptionally dangerous one – alongside many others. Not taking anything away from that.

    Bob Dole was a rifle platoon leader in WW2. Anybody in that job had a short life expectancy. One of his men got shot, and way laying out in the open. Young Lieutenant Dole went out to get him. He didn’t have to do that. He got his arm just about shot off by a German machinegun for his efforts.

    Both of them were awful political leaders but good young men.

  179. 179.

    brantl

    Bush senior was the head of the CIA, for Christ’s sake. He was also neck deep in the dope for arms deals during the Reagan administration, he wasn’t a good man.

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