The point isn’t that Bush knew there weren’t WMDs in Iraq, but that he didn’t care whether there were or not. This is the difference between a lie and bullshit… a lie is saying something you know to be untrue, bullshit is saying something without caring to find out if it’s true.
April 2017
Current Affairs
In ranking him in comparison to his predecessors of the 20th-century, Stalin is Putin’s only peer in the realm of political achievements. However, they used radically different methods.
Head of Rossiya Segodnya
Let’s keep it simple. In the past century, only two Russian rulers were “great”… I V Stalin and V V Putin. This isn’t a comment on their morals or goodness as men… it’s a comment on their effectiveness as rulers. Make no mistake, V V Putin has no peers amongst contemporary leaders (except for Paramount Leader Xi of China)… the others are pygmies… moral midgets and not statesmen in any way. G W Bush, Obama, and Trump (and Madame Hillary too) are farcical figures in comparison.
I dislike the American rightwing “Putin fanboys”… they don’t like the real V V Putin… they’ve made a false idol of the man (especially, Anglo rightwing Orthodox converts). However, that doesn’t negate Vladimir Vladimirovich’s stature as a leader nor does it cancel his place in history (which is secure).
G W Bush was a spoilt rich kid, Obama was an obedient Step n’ Fetchit for the oligarchs, and Trump is nothing but a salesman… a shyster trickster with nothing but a fancy sales-patter and a glitzy exterior (hiding a monstrous vacuity). Madame Hillary is the worst one of the lot, though… she’s a greedy and self-absorbed self-aggrandiser of the worst possible sort. Nothing is illicit for her if it advances her personal position or enriches her. The first three are merely morally corrupt and bad men. Hillary is malevolent and utterly foul (what does that tell you about the loud n’ nasty Hillarybot trolls that infest the net?). As bad as Trump is, he’s not the amoral votary of evil that Hillary is.
Thank God for VVP… he’s keeping the world on an even keel…
BMD
People who think everything is great and who think that those with grievances should just “move to some other country” didn’t elect Trump. Rather, they elected him due to his condemnations of the financial élite and promises of government action to fix up the economy. The major opponents of Trump don’t oppose him for being a “warmonger”, but because he’s allegedly friendly to Russia and not committed to “humanitarian intervention”.
Bush’s politics were a middle-class endorsement of the Establishment against those “troublemakers” and “bleeding hearts” who wanted change. Trump took office in a wave of isolationist and populist sentiments, which other forces didn’t capture. I remember the Bush years very clearly, and I’ve interacted with many Trump supporters. The demographic may be similar, but the worldview of Middle America drastically changed in the last eight years. Criticise Trump all you want, but projecting Michael Moore rhetoric from 2002-07 onto the current moment is just plain silly.
2 April 2017
Caleb Maupin
Voices from Russia 
20 January 2019. Back After Three Months of Hell…
Tags: Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton, personal philosophy, personal reflection, political commentary, politics, Ronald Reagan, United States, USA
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It’s been three months since my last post in October. Nicky’s health continued to deteriorate and I was getting about two to four hours of sleep a night, combined with six-day work-weeks. Finally, in November, he had to go to hospital. He’s now in rehab. This has given me the chance to recover from that period of too much work and not enough rest. I’m still working hellish hours, as that’s the only way that I can earn enough to pay the bills. I’m also going to be 65 and I’m unable to retire because of Republican cuts to Social Security (the new age of full retirement benefits is now 70, thanks to Republican greedsters allied with Establishment Dem Corporate Ass-kissers).
The system of oppression put in place by Reagan and refined by Clinton, Bush II, and Obama put most working people under the boot of worthless sorts such as hedge-fund managers, subcontractors, real-estate developers, and stock-market drones. The “conservatives” and “liberals” are the same… it’s like the last scene of Orwell’s Animal Farm… there’s no difference between Establishment Republicans and Democrats… both favour the fatcats over the common man. The worst came this January… I got a raise… from 11.00/hour to 11.10/hour, that is, I now get 4.00 USD more a week. That’s because the minimum wage in New York State went up to 11.10/hour. In effect, my employer said to me by doing that:
This is common throughout the USA. For the first time in its history, the USA is full of quietly desperate people. You see, since the Affluent Effluent are doing well, that’s the only thing that matters. It doesn’t matter that hedge-fund shysters ruined Sears and Toys r’ Us deliberately to earn short-term profits… the affluent managers got off relatively scot-free. The workers got fucked with no vaseline? That’s just the “invisible hand of the market”… the management class says:
That’s not so. Bernie scares the shit out of them. The new class of US Representatives includes people who truly rile he Corporate Class. Trump and Clinton were of the same social background… they were “strivers”, people who wanted to be in the upper reaches, but who were kept out by the Rockefellers, Whitneys, Mellons, Scaifes, and Gardners. Obama, as a Harvard-educated corporate lawyer, was actually of higher social standing than those two are. These two are the poisoned fruit of the noxious era brought forth by Reagan, refined by the Clintons, continued by Bush II, and brought to its logical culmination by Obama. Remember, in 2008 Obama had plenty of aid for fatcats impacted by the Great Recession, but next to nil for ordinary folks.
However, do note that the NYT, WaPo, and CNN all ignore the Yellow Vests in Europe… the media is trying to bury it. Yet, reality has a way of asserting itself. The most popular Dem candidate for 2020 is Bernie… not Warren… not Biden… not Gabbard… but will the DNC pull its head out of its ass and go back to FDR? Remember, the first president to attack the New Deal was Harry Truman… not a Republican. He was a corrupt Pendergast Machine pol who made deals with Republicans… he allowed Taft-Hartley and he instigated the Cold War. McCarthy ran rampant because Truman let him (Ike stopped McCarthy… never forget that). However, the existence of the USSR meant that the American Corporate class didn’t want to let the working people get influenced by socialism. They used two things… one, they allowed the workers to have relative prosperity, and two, they used relentless propaganda to demonise socialism. When the USSR fell and the USA congratulated itself on winning the Cold War (wrongly, but that’s what happened), the Managerial Class felt that they could do as they pleased. The Clintons did more to harm working people than Reagan ever did.
Yet, we’re at the end of an era, not the beginning of one. Trump is a result, not a cause. Hillary Clinton is a result, not a cause. Remove both, and the infection is still there. However, we can bring back the New Deal, and take it further. Socialism is the most-favoured political stance of the young… it’s simple… the greed of the Corporate moloch has ground them down with massive student debts. Shall we see a change? Yes… the only question is how violent the transition will be. I hope that it would avoid that. God willing, I’d hope that would be so.
Well, I’m back. Maybe, not every day, but I’m feeling well enough to take my place on the firing line. Keep it focused and keep it prudent. You win nothing by pointless bravado or pseudo-intellectual vapouring. Take my hand… the way won’t be easy, but we can make it if we stand united…
BMD