#george w. bush

[mikedawwwson]

"The Good War on Terror" written by Christopher Hayes.

I will be producing a print 'zine of this in the coming months. Join my Monthly 'Zine Club to get the first copies automatically sent your way!

#september 11 #9/11 #saving private ryan #steven spielberg #greatest generation #tom hanks #george w. bush #war on terror

[wallisninety-six]

I’m just gonna say it, while Russia’s invasion of Ukraine rightfully being condemned, is barbaric & beyond stupid, and left them with heavy sanctions- The US deserves that exact same treatment and should have been the most sanctioned country in the world after they invaded Iraq 20 years ago

1 million Iraqis dead- family, friends, children, and community gone, a whole region of the world destabilized, infrastructure destroyed, abuse of women and children, and extensive torture & torture networks and black sites that defy humanity. All from an *illegal* war, and it’s even worse when you look at all the other places we invaded- and the US received *zero* consequences for what it’s done. It’s only fair, right?

#anti-imperialism #iraq #george bush #joe biden #iraq war #invasion of iraq #imperialism #russia #George W. Bush #socialism #democratic socialism #communism #marxism #maoism #war in iraq #marxism-leninism

[salmonella-destroyer-of-worlds]

My God..

#dank memes #funny post #meme #dank #funny #funny pics #silly #funny pictures #dankest memes #humor #harambe #george w. bush #conspiracy theorists

[destiel-news-channel]

based on this post. Do i now have to come up with a ship name for Andrew Card and George W. Bush?

[Image ID: There are three images. The first one is similar to a title card and shows a screenshot froom the show supernatural. Dean and Castiel stand facing each other. The screenshot is faded and superimposed with a blue background from a news show. In the front is a logo which says 'Destiel News Channel'. The second is a screenshot of Castiel from the same confession scene. At the bottom is a newsticker with a headline which reads 'christs-cock forgor' and a subline which says 'Really, why is there so much sexual tension in this pic?'. In the top right corner of the image is a screenshot of a tumblr post by tumblr user @christs-cock. It shows the close-up of (then) President Bush being informed of the attacks on the World Trade Center by his chief of Staff, Andrew Card, while reading to children in a classroom on 9/11/2001. It is captioned with 'why is there so much sexual tension in this pic'. A reblog of the post by OP reads 'I didn't know who they were what they were saying and when that was' in capital letters. The third image is a screenshot of Dean from the same scene edited so that a text looking like subtitles spells out 'I love you'. /End ID]

#9/11 #george w. bush #andrew card #us politics #tumblr #destiel news channel #destiel #destiel meme #christs-cock

[monikatouhou]

#renko usami #post-merry renko #(real) #maribel hearn #merry hearn #yukaribel #yukari yakumo #george w. bush #yuyuko saigyouji #buzz aldrin #(pictured) #touhou #touhou project #hifuu #renmerry #own art

[deadpresidents]

Which President, in your opinion, was the most reluctant to seek the position? Which wound up hating it the most by the end of his term?

I am a strong believer that nobody truly becomes President of the United States "reluctantly". That's not exactly the kind of job that seeks you, especially the modern Presidency.

For a significant slice of American history, many of the people nominated for President acted as if they were being called upon to run when, behind-the-scenes, they were very active in building their campaigns and corralling supporters. Until the 20th Century it was frowned upon to openly run for the Presidency, but almost all of the Presidents wanted the gig.

I'd say that George Washington was probably more reluctant than most of his successors and likely would have preferred retiring to Mount Vernon after the Revolution, but I think he also recognized that he was the guy who needed to be the President that set the precedents. I think Ulysses S. Grant would have been perfectly happy to not be President, but once he was elected in 1868 he also wanted to keep the job. He even tried to run for a third term in 1880.

That 1880 election might have been the one case where the winner -- James Garfield -- genuinely wasn't interested in the Presidency at that point. He had gone to the Republican National Convention to support fellow Ohioan John Sherman (and defeat Grant's hopes for a third term) and gained some major attention after giving a well-received speech placing Sherman's name in nomination. When the candidacies of Sherman and James G. Blaine -- another anti-Grant candidate -- stalled, Garfield became a compromise choice and was eventually nominated on the 36th ballot. Garfield was apparently legitimately shocked by the events leading to him leaving Chicago as the GOP nominee.

By most accounts, William Howard Taft was far more interested in a potential seat on the Supreme Court than becoming President. At heart he was a judge and believed himself to be better suited for the judiciary than the Executive Branch. But Taft turned down three offers by Theodore Roosevelt to be appointed to the Supreme Court (in 1902, 1903, and 1906) because he felt obligated to complete his work as Governor-General of the Philippines and then Secretary of War. But Taft's wife desperately wanted him to become President and by the time of President Roosevelt's third offer of a seat on the Court, Taft was already being talked about as Roosevelt's hand-picked successor in the White House. And, as with all other Presidents, once he had a taste for the job, he didn't want to give it up, running for re-election in 1912 against his former friend, Roosevelt.

Gerald Ford is the only other President who hadn't spent a significant portion of his political career with his eyes on the White House. Ford spent nearly a quarter-century in the House of Representatives and his main ambition was to be Speaker of the House, but Republicans weren't able to win control of the House when Ford was in Congressional leadership positions. But even with Ford being a creature of Congress, he did attempt to put himself forward as a nominee for the Vice Presidency, first in 1960 and then in 1968, and Nixon kicked the tires on picking him as his running mate in 1960. No one wants to be Vice President without seeing it as a potential stepping stone to the Presidency, particularly at that point in history before Vice Presidents were empowered with some real influence within the Administrations they served in.

As for who wound up hating it by the end of their time in office, I think it's safe to say that John Quincy Adams didn't shed too many tears when he was defeated for re-election in 1828. And I'm sure he wouldn't use the word "hate", but nobody can convince me that George W. Bush wasn't thoroughly ready to escape Washington by late-2007. There were times in 2008 when he seemed like he just wanted to hold a snap election like they have in parliamentary systems and go home to Texas. If some Presidential insider published a book that said that Bush asked if he could just give the keys to the White House to Barack Obama in July 2008, I wouldn't be the least bit shocked.

On the other hand, if there were no term limits, Bill Clinton would have been running for President in every election since 1992 (and the crazy thing is that he's still younger than both of the presumptive 2024 nominees). I'm kind of surprised that he didn't make an effort to repeal the 22nd Amendment in the past 20 years. Clinton loved being President and was trying to find something Presidential to do until minutes before his successor was inaugurated in 2001.

#History #Presidents #Presidential Candidates #Presidential Nominees #Presidential Elections #Presidency #Reluctant Presidents #Politics #Political History #Presidential History #George Washington #President Washington #General Washington #Ulysses S. Grant #President Grant #General Grant #1880 Election #1880 Republican National Convention #James Garfield #President Garfield #William Howard Taft #President Taft #Chief Justice Taft #Gerald Ford #President Ford #John Quincy Adams #JQA #President Adams #George W. Bush #Bush 43

[oldinterneticons]

I'm practicing political abstinence. No Bush. No Dick.

#politics #usa #george w. bush #dick cheney

[bu-g-scuts]

W. jogging jiggle. I do love watching W jog...

#George W. Bush #W.

[tomorrowusa]

Happy Presidents Day! It's time for the results of the annual Presidential Greatness Project Expert Survey

So here are the five best and five worst presidents according to the 2024 survey. BTW, Grover Cleveland only gets counted once for this survey.

Here are the historians' collective rankings for the top five and bottom five.

I'm fully in agreement with #1 and #45.

The entire 12 page article (PDF) can be read here.

Lincoln, FDR, and Washington are in an exclusive group of greatness by themselves. Trump is in an exclusive group of odium all by himself. The ghosts of James Buchanan and Andrew Johnson are undoubtedly pleased that thanks to Trump, they'll never need to worry again about being considered the worst ever POTUS.

Some other tidbits from the survey.

Jimmy Carter (#22 overall) was chosen as the most underrated POTUS.

John F. Kennedy (#10 overall) was chosen as the most overrated.

The biggest rise in the rankings was by Barack Obama who rose 9 places since 2015.

The biggest decline goes to Andrew Jackson who tumbled 12 places since 2015.

Joe Biden is at #14 overall – in between John Adams and Woodrow Wilson. Though Biden is essentially tied with Adams; both having received scores of 62.66 points.

The ratings average which Republican historians gave to Biden (47.69) was significantly higher than the ratings average which Democratic historians gave to Trump (6.66). No, I didn't make up that 666. 👿

It's only history scholars who participated in this survey. They tend to take a longer view than most of us.

My biggest disagreements are that I would have placed Gerald Ford and John Quincy Adams higher and George W. Bush much lower.

A couple of articles about the 2024 rankings...

MAGA freaks out after Fox News reports Obama in top 10 presidents — and Trump in dead last

Presidential experts rank Biden 14th among presidents in survey, Trump comes in last

#presidents day #rankings of us presidents #potus #abraham lincoln #donald trump #joe biden #barack obama #jimmy carter #john f. kennedy #franklin d. roosevelt #george washington #john adams #woodrow wilson #james buchanan #andrew jackson #andrew johnson #john quincy adams #george w. bush #gerald ford #grover cleveland #election 2024

[politicaldilfs]

Bill Frist & George Bush

#Bill Frist #George W. Bush

[oldshowbiz]

2004.

The People versus Linda Ronstadt.

#linda ronstadt #Las Vegas #michael moore #america #George W. Bush #foreign policy

[eelhound]

"Sometimes I see people darkly warning that prosecuting Trump could set a precedent that would be used to prosecute Democratic presidents for their crimes. My response to this warning is best expressed in the title of a classic song by the band Panic! at the Disco: 'Don’t threaten me with a good time.'

I would love to see President Barack Obama, for example, face criminal prosecution for the many drone strikes he ordered around the world — including the strikes that killed radical imam Anwar al-Awlaki and his sixteen-year-old son, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, both of whom were US citizens. These strikes amounted to extrajudicial executions of terrorism suspects who hadn’t been convicted of any crime and who were nowhere near anything that could remotely be construed as a battlefield. In the case of al-Awlaki, there’s reason to think that it was an extrajudicial execution not even for clearly illegal acts but for the inflammatory words in his sermons.

And that brings us to the real double standard here. Trying to overturn an American election is the kind of crime the Justice Department takes seriously. Extrajudicially slaughtering scary Muslims in a foreign country, even ones with US citizenship, is not. Even George W. Bush invading Iraq based on lies doesn’t count. Hundreds of thousands of people died and millions became refugees, but those were the wrong kind of victims for our justice system to take an interest in them.

The solution to that double standard, though, isn’t to let Trump off the hook for conspiring to overturn a democratic election. It’s to indict George W. Bush. One president finally being subject to prosecution for some of his crimes isn’t nearly enough, but it’s a start."

- Ben Burgis, from "Donald Trump Being Prosecuted for His Crimes Is Good, Actually." Jacobin, 4 August 2023.

#ben burgis #quote #quotations #american imperialism #war crimes #american history #war on terror #jurisprudence #george w. bush #barrack obama #trump

[todaysdocument]

Five Presidents chat at the dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum on April 25, 2013. 

Collection BHO-WHPO: Records of the White House Photo Office (Obama Administration)

Series: Presidential Photographs

Image description: Presidents George H. W. Bush, Carter, Obama, Clinton, and George W. Bush, as well as First Ladies Barbara Bush, Rosalynn Carter, Hillary Clinton, and Michelle Obama are all outside the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum. They are casually chatting. 

#archivesgov #April 25 #2013 #2010s #Barbara Bush #George H.W. Bush #Rosalynn Carter #Jimmy Carter #Hillary Clinton #Michelle Obama #Barack Obama #Bill Clinton #George W. Bush

[shinobicyrus]

Brewing a cup of tea alone in my kitchen and started thinking about how when I was in high school the President of the United States of America started a disinformation campaign to start a pointless war in Iraq and how he's still able walk around a free man.

Over half a million Iraqi civilians. Thirty-five thousand American soldiers dead or wounded. A vivid memory of Colin Powell sitting in the UN holding a fake vial of anthrax, talking about mobile laboratories for producing bio-weapons Iraq didn't never had. Two-point-four trillion dollars and not a single politician, Democrat or "But how will be pay for it?" Republican Budget Hawk threatening to filibuster, or shut the government down over the expense.

It's not even a contentious political stance. It's not a fact that is regarded as controversial, or even argued by Republicans that the justifications for the invasion weren't a completely manufactured lie. And yet, and yet. No one in government lost their jobs, the senators of either party that voted for the war time and time again won re-election.

For some reason my two strongest memories of that time was sitting on the couch with my dog on a Sunday morning while a man on TV said "Ladies and Gentlemen, we got him" and when one of my classmates walked around school with a t-shirt she made herself, after some Blackwater mercenaries (called "civilian contractors" in the news, as if they put up drywall for a living) got ambushed and killed by some insurgents, which she painted to say: "Bomb Fallujah."

I drink my tea and feel old and very tired.

#Iraq War #American Imperialism #Politics #Hypocrisy #History #George W. Bush

[makingdonalddrumpfagain]

#george w. bush #the 'new' republican party #seditious domestic terrorism #tre45on

[deadpresidents]

To give a more serious answer to that earlier question about whether any Presidents were able to fly, yes, there were three who were trained as pilots.

The most famous is indeed George H.W. Bush, who was the youngest U.S. Navy aviator during World War II, and flew 58 combat missions in the Pacific during the war. He was shot down during a bombing mission over Chichi Jima, an island in an archipelago between Guam and the Japanese mainland in September 1944 and had to be rescued from the Pacific Ocean by an American submarine. That was just a few months after he was also forced to ditch his TMB Avenger bomber in the ocean -- while it still was fully loaded with the bombs for the mission he was on -- and barely escaped the plane before it exploded.

His son, George W. Bush, had a much-less decorated and much-more maligned military "career", but he was trained as a military aviator in the Texas National Guard. Bush 43's most famous flight was as a passenger while President when he landed on the USS Abraham Lincoln for the infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech, but he was definitely a trained pilot.

The first President to earn a pilot's license was actually Dwight D. Eisenhower. Despite his background as a career military officer, Eisenhower was not trained as a military aviator -- he earned a private pilot's license in 1939.

#History #Presidents #Presidential History #Presidential Backgrounds #George H.W. Bush #Bush 41 #President Bush #George W. Bush #Bush 43 #Dwight D. Eisenhower #President Eisenhower #General Eisenhower #Pilots #World War II #WWII #Pilot's license #Presidential Pilots