Barbara Bush, Former US First Lady, Dies at 92

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Editor:

I read the comments section for the RT report on Barbara Bush’s death, and the tone of much of it repulsed me. You don’t mock a family at a time of death… that’s what my people taught me. I’ll confide that most of us received the same upbringing. Yes… I stand on the other side of the political barricades from the Bushes. There’s no doubt on that, for I’m a loud n’ proud leftist. I also like to think that I’m a decent human being. You don’t dance on anyone’s grave nor mock anyone giving condolences to a grieving family. I bow before the stark reality of death, which comes for all of us. I’m not a Rod Dreher, who mocked Patriarch Kirill for sending condolences to the Castro family on the death of Fidel Castro (His Holiness’ personal friend, I might add). I bow before the Bushes and give them my sincere condolences. I do NOT agree with their politics, but there are things that transcend politics, and if we don’t know that, we’re very poor and wretched human beings, indeed.

Вечная ей память

BMD

The wife of former President George H W Bush and mother of former President George W Bush, Barbara Pierce Bush, passed away at the age of 92. Bush served as both First Lady and Second Lady of the United States and was the mother of 2016 presidential candidate and 43rd Governor of Florida Jeb Bush. During her time as First Lady, she founded the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, a nonprofit that began a number of educational programs across the country. For her work improving literacy, she received The Miss America Woman of Achievement Award in 1997. She also received the Award for Greatest Public Service Benefiting the Disadvantaged in 1995. Bush said of her efforts to promote literacy:

It’s the most important issue we have.

She took an interest in the cause after her son Neil was diagnosed with dyslexia, and made frequent appearances on television and radio encouraging parents to read aloud to their children. In 1984, she wrote a children’s book called C. Fred’s Story. The book detailed the life of the Bushes from the perspective of the family dog. A second collection, Millie’s Book, also included stories about her beloved dogs. She donated all proceeds to literacy charities. In her later years, her children, Jeb Bush and Dorothy Bush Koch, ran the foundation while she remained an honorary chairman.

As First Lady, Bush was uncomfortable with the luxurious lifestyle that sometimes accompanies the presidency. She preferred a small car to a limousine and tried to journey by train or commercial airline whenever she travelled, much to the chagrin of the Secret Service. She was also famously disinterested in high fashion, preferring subtler tastes to designer clothes. Many began to emulate the “Barbara Blue” look, a simple dress with her signature three-strand pearls. A private woman, Bush also argued that the Republican Party should leave personal matters like abortion and homosexuality out of its platform. She once said, according to the Daily Telegraph:

I hate abortions, but I just couldn’t make that choice for someone else.

She also expressed her support for the Equal Rights Amendment, meant to improve gender equality, even though doing so nearly derailed her husband’s chances of becoming Ronald Reagan’s Vice-President in 1980. In 1988, she became the second future First Lady to speak at a national party convention, the first being Eleanor Roosevelt. While she generally stayed out of the limelight during her husband’s presidential campaign, those familiar with the campaign say she played an active role in developing strategy.

During a visit to a paediatric AIDS care centre, Bush also helped dispel myths about how people contract the disease. She was photographed holding a baby infected with the virus, at a time when many incorrectly believed that one could catch AIDS through physical contact. Time magazine credited Barbara Bush with influencing her husband’s decision to increase research funding for the disease. In 1990, she gave a commencement address at Wellesley College alongside R M Gorbachyova, wife of Soviet leader M S Gorbachyov. Confronting criticism from female students that she was too singularly defined by her husband’s actions, Bush gave a stirring speech that is now ranked as one of American Rhetoric’s Top 100 Speeches of the 20th Century. She ended the speech with:

Who knows? Somewhere out in this audience may even be someone who will one day follow in my footsteps, and preside over the White House as the president’s spouse… and I wish him well.

She also became active with the White House Historical Association and helped raise 25 million USD (1.54 billion Roubles. 157.2 million Renminbi. 1.64 billion INR. 31.4 million CAD. 32.2 million AUD. 20.2 million Euros. 17.5 million UK Pounds) to refurbish and restore the presidential residence.

Early Life   

Born in New York City in 1925, Barbara Bush was the daughter of Pauline and Marvin Pierce. Her father was the president of McCall Corporation, a publishing company behind major American magazines like Redbook, Popular Mechanics, and the Saturday Review. She was also a distant relative of Franklin Pierce, the 14th President of the United States. With her three siblings Martha, James, and Scott, Barbara grew up in the New York City suburb of Rye NY. Enjoying bike riding, tennis, and swimming, she attended boarding school in South Carolina as a teenager. At the age of 16, she met her future husband during a dance at Phillips Academy in Massachusetts. They dated for a year and a half, becoming engaged just before George H W went off to serve as a US Navy bomber pilot in World War II. During the war, he named three planes after his fiancée… Barbara, Barbara II, and Barbara III. When he returned in 1945, the two married in Barbara’s hometown.

Together, they had six children:

• George W
• Pauline Robinson
• Jeb
• Neil Mallon
• Marvin Pierce
• Dorothy

Pauline died of leukaemia at the age of four, a tragedy that greatly affected Barbara Bush. She was the grandmother of 17, and great-grandmother of seven. Frequently on the move, Barbara raised the children while her husband travelled on business. Throughout their marriage, they’d move 29 times, though they spent significant time in Texas, where her husband lost a race for the US Senate but later won a seat in the US House of Representatives. It was during her husband’s time as a Texas representative that Barbara first became involved in a number of charity organizations and formed relationships with a number of high-profile diplomats. George H W served as the head of the Central Intelligence Agency in 1976, and the severe secrecy of the job left Barbara feeling isolated. US News and World Report quoted her as saying:

I’d feel like crying a lot and I really painfully hurt.

To overcome her depression, she began volunteer work at a local hospice. She also delivered a number of speeches about the years the Bushes spent in China when George worked for the US Liaison Office. Barbara became Second Lady of the United States in 1980 after George H W became Vice-President under Ronald Reagan. It was during this time that she began to develop her interest in literacy issues. Barbara became First Lady after George H W defeated Democratic rival Michael Dukakis in 1988. Within 100 days of stepping foot inside the White House, Barbara had higher approval ratings than her husband and the Vice-President.

Life After the White House

George H W lost re-election to Bill Clinton in 1992, and the Bush family moved to Houston, Texas in 1993. Barbara continued her work in public service, volunteering with a number of charitable organizations. She became AmeriCares ambassador-at-large, joined the board of the Mayo Clinic Foundation, and supported the Leukemia Society of America, the Ronald McDonald House, and Boys & Girls Club of America. She also helped plan her husband’s presidential library, dedicated in College Station TX in 1997. Bush expressed great pride in her son, George W Bush, who followed in his father’s footsteps to become the 43rd President of the United States after the 2000 election. During his victory speech, George W thanked both of his parents:

Dad, I’m proud to be your son. I’m proud of my mother, who gave me love and lots of advice. I gave her white hair.

Barbara Bush became the second woman in American history to be both the wife and mother of presidents, following Abigail Adams. Several elementary and middle schools across Texas are named after the former first lady. The Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital in Portland ME is also named for her. She was the author of two autobiographies, Barbara Bush: A Memoir, and Reflections. The Office of George H W Bush stated:

Bush is survived by her husband of 73 years, President George H W Bush, five children and their spouses, 17 grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren, and her brother, Scott Pierce.

According to a spokesman, Bush, in failing health, recently decided to forego further medical treatment,. Bush suffered from chronic pulmonary disease, which made breathing difficult, but she was alert and lively up until the night before she passed away.

18 April 2018

Sputnik International

https://sputniknews.com/us/201804181063667477-bush-former-first-lady-us/

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12 November 2016. The End of the Bush/Clinton Duopoly

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Trump won because “more of the same” wouldn’t wash in Peoria. Full stop. The Clintons are dead politically. Chelsea Clinton will be a glitzy party animal in the usual NY Metro circles, nothing more. She might win a safe Dem congressional seat… that’s all. On the other hand, the Bushes have the financial and social creds to soldier on (they’re not parvenus like the Clintons… the Real Rich locked them out of Tarrytown). However, watch the Bushes “trim their sails”… they didn’t survive backing Hitler in the 30s for nothing. They’re survivors… like the Gardiners (a prominent NY family).

Nevertheless, the Bush/Clinton domination of American politics since 1988 is over. Obama was simply Hilly’s frontman… his foreign policy and domestic policy was hers, right down to the last jot n’ tittle. He did nothing to aid ordinary people in his administration… but he did wage war at Hilly’s instigation. Don’t forget that Vickie Nuland was Hilly’s protégé, and Obama obediently rolled over and played dead for every aggression that the Clintons and Bushes wanted. The American people voted out these two Mafia families. The Bushes have more savoir faire, but that’s because they’re Old Money. The Clintons are more open in their powerlust (do look at their associates such as Carville… I need say no more). Both Bushes and Clintons “triangulated”… both spat on their parties’ bases. Well… the American people spoke this year.

“No more Clintons”… “No more Bushes”… the Clintons will become tabloid nonentities (but they’ll always be in the news like the equally powerless Kardashians) and the Bushes will return to being one of the Old Money Set (trust me, they’re Social Register, and that’ll NEVER change). However, both are out of real politics. The people have seen through them…

BMD

A Blast from the Past… “Something Died on Election Day”… It’s as Good as it was When it was Written Two Years Ago… Four outta Five Ain’t Bad

A sign from the Anglo Southwest (the former Northwest Mexico under American occupation)… note the ignorant apostrophe in “White’s”… THIS is the Republican base on a good day… any questions?

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Editor:

This still has cred after two years… the only wrong guess was that the GOP would abandon the “dumb white Southern redneck” strategy. They “jess know” that Obama was born in Africa (if that were so, the GOP would’ve been before the SCOTUS toot-suite… and BHO wouldn’t have become president), that Willy Romney was OK in skipping the Vietnam War draft (but that all other “draft-dodgers” are scum), and that blacks and Mexicans are gumming up the welfare system (most welfare recipients are white). Still, four outta five ain’t bad!

BMD

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There was much to celebrate on election night. However, nothing is more worthy of our collective huzzah than seeing so many dumb Republican ideas implode, all at once. Let’s begin…

The Southern Strategy

Republican operatives have used some form of the race-dividing Southern Strategy since Barry Goldwater’s team invented it in the 1960s. That led to nearly 50 years of race baiting aimed at under-educated white rednecks. The Southern Strategy tapped into the ludicrous belief that black people are dumber, lazier, and more venal than white men are. It helped secure victories for Nixon, Reagan, and George Bush Sr by fomenting the view that white people needed to band together to keep black people from stealing the national cookie jar. Nevertheless, it fell entirely flat this time. Apparently, you can call the President a Muslim-Socialist-Kenyan-Anti-colonial-Black Nationalist-Terrorist-Food Stamp-lover who worships at the feet of his Southern Baptist-Anarchist Pastor. Although, you can no longer expect a large proportion of voters to take you seriously if you do. You’ll never see the Southern Strategy practised again. Good riddance to this maggot-laced pile of rubbish, we say. {this was his wrong guess… I wish that it HAD happened: editor}

That Karl Rove is a genius

Now… for the second presidential election… Karl Rove’s strategies and predictions crashed in spectacular fashion. His American Crossroads spent a mammoth 100 million bucks in rich guy’s money to try to buy national and local elections. End result? 1.29 percent of the millions Rove spent through Crossroads had the desired result. Arguably, his spending had a negative effect. There was also a sweaty late-night meltdown on Fox News, just at the moment they called the race for Obama. Just then, a wild-haired Rove realised his abject failure… on camera, no less. If he wasn’t such a despicable charlatan, one could almost feel sorry for him. However, two days later, he blamed his losses on “voter suppression by the Obama campaign”.

That Americans want a government that provides no actual services to actual citizens

Bubble conservatives believe that Americans don’t want the government to help anyone. On every issue from Obamacare, to Medicaid, to Medicare to disaster relief, Americans told exit pollsters just the opposite… and said so by large margins. Fully 60 percent of voters want taxes raised on at least the top earners to pay for government. (Only about 2 percent of households earn 250,000 USD or more.)

That you can take Donald Trump seriously on any topic

On election night, a seditious Donald Trump tweeted that the Obama victory was illegitimate and that real Americans needed to revolt. Combined with his birther jihad, what he illuminated is a small, pernicious, and simple-minded man… the kind who might insist that all of his employees call him “Mr”. Trump is best left to host his Celebrity Apprentice show (which itself looks more and more like Celebrity Rehab these days). Anything bigger is beyond his abilities.

That conservatives simply need to be more conservative

The Far Right always blames their governing failures on not being conservative enough. However, the rise of the Teabagger led to attempts to redefine rape into legitimate and illegitimate kinds. Then, attempts to defund Planned Parenthood and limit birth control. Then, talk of electrocuting border crossers and outright lies about food stamps, black people, and Jeep. It’d be hard to argue that the right-wing didn’t go far enough to the right. They went all in this time, and most of us responded with a thoughtful, “Not on your life, buddy”.

Therefore, now, those right-wing pundits operating in and around the Fox-Limbaugh bubble argue that the election “wasn’t a mandate”. However, those who still won’t call for a less radical Republican platform or still won’t admit that Americans no longer tolerate intolerance or intransigence don’t have the interests of the Republican Party in mind. They’re just trying to protect their own turf. They’re trying to keep that low-information white guy flapping on the outrage hook. Moreover, that’s just to keep the advertisers on their shows.

10 November 2012

Jimmy Zuma

Tucson (AZ) Sentinel

http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/opinion/report/110812_dyingmemes/something-died-election-day/

Editor:

The vilest usage in the language is “some of my best friends are (fill in the blank)”. I don’t have such… I have FRIENDS… full stop. I don’t enquire about their background… I enquire into their character. It’s time to call racism “racist”… you wonder why the Republican Party supports the Uniate racists in the Ukraine? It’s because they find kindred spirits there! Shitbirds of a feather DO flock together! The GOP hates blacks and Latinos as much as Galician Uniates hate Rusins, Russians, and surzhik-speakers (and all members of the real Orthodox Church of whatever nationality). They find that their hates are compatible. Both support killing, torture, and lynching… so, why does it surprise you to find the Republicans supporting the Uniate filth in the notional Ukraine?

I wish that the “Southern Strategy” were dead. It isn’t. It’s one of the foulest and most despicable aspects of the Republican Party. Vote AGAINST Republicans on Election Day… they’re for violence at home and violence abroad. The Democrats aren’t much better, but they’re not as racist. Don’t let the Republican “Pro-Life” plank mesmerise you… they’re in favour of a soulless corporate dictatorship with all the bennies of society flowing to the Affluent Effluent. That’s what you vote for when you vote Republican.

It’s your choice…

BMD

Please Don’t Lecture Russia

THIS was the REAL USSR… any questions?

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When I first visited Russia more than 30 years ago, it was still part of the USSR. The idea of any independent or critical press, of open debates in a parliament, or of popular demonstrations against government policies that would bring scores of thousands of people into the streets of Moscow, was inconceivable then. Today, Russia has many critics in the West, who accuse it of sliding back into dictatorship. What is their proposed solution? Usually, it is to criticise Russia and its leaders and try to strong-arm them into adopting policies of greater democracy and alleged greater respect for human rights.

These attitudes stem from a pervasive faith shared by liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans in the USA that’s so pervasive, that its greatest believers are totally unaware of how much they’re in thrall to it. They believe that democracy is the only acceptable political system around the world, and that, consequently, the USA should wage a ceaseless ideological crusade, not resting until, at least, all the major nations of the world share the same limitless blessings of a perfect democratic system.

Now, I’m all in favour of democracy myself… I prefer living within a fully-democratic system rather than under a communist, fascist, or repressive theocracy. However, I’m against waging wars to imposing the American, or any other, democratic system, on other nations. I’m equally opposed to a purely-ideological foreign policy that would treat the governments of the world purely according to how Freedom House and similar bodies grade them according to how it assesses their freedoms. This is hardly an anti-American position. George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Quincy Adams, and modern Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George Herbert Walker Bush, and Bill Clinton believed and acted exactly the same way.

Ironically, the history of the West and the USA over the past three-quarters of a century exposes the dangerous folly of such self-righteous fantasies. Britain and the USA only won World War II against Nazi Germany because they were allies with the USSR under Iosif Stalin. I believe that not one in 100,000 Americans alive today knows or remembers that it was the Red Army, not the American or British forces, which liberated the Nazi extermination complexes of Auschwitz and Majdanek in Poland.

Nor did Western pragmatism… or hypocrisy… end with the destruction of the truly-evil Third Reich. Many still hail President Nixon as an American statesman and peacemaker for his détente policy with the USSR and his outreach to China. Not all the repercussions of the Watergate scandal that forced him to resign can take that away. Yet, Nixon, like Reagan after him, supported the two most corrupt régimes on the planet for decades, which ground hundreds of millions of their unfortunate peoples into degradation and despair. These were the kleptocratic dictatorships of Indonesia under President Suharto and Zaïre (today called the Democratic Republic of the Congo) under President Mobuto Sese Seko.

Russia has come an amazingly long way since I first visited it in the spring thaw season of 1982. That doesn’t mean its political system is the same as those of the USA or the major nations of Western Europe. However, it’s no Indonesia under Suharto or Zaïre under Mobutu either. What’s more, the USA never had any trouble getting along with them. All the moral lecturing of Russia by Western critics misses two crucial points.

First, even if Russia were to relapse back into some form of strict authoritarian government… and so far it hasn’t… that wouldn’t make war or conflict with the USA or the West inevitable. The USA, the British Empire, and the communist USSR were reliable and exceptional successful allies to each other throughout World War II. Then, the USA and the USSR successfully steered clear of any direct conflict in the 44 years of the Cold War from 1945 to 1989. It wasn’t easy; at times, they came dangerously close to war. Second, ensuring Russia remains a democracy won’t be a guarantee of peace with Russia, even if such a starry-eyed, ill-defined, reckless, and irresponsible policy such as intervening in Russia’s internal affairs could ever succeed. For throughout modern history, democracies have often waged war on other countries, including on other democracies. The idea that the best guarantee of world peace is a world filled with, and dominated by, democracies is just another myth.

What the USA and Russia really need is a serious dialogue between their top leaderships aimed at defusing tensions and managing real and unavoidable conflicts of interest. Both nations need to work hard on identifying their areas of mutual interest, and expanding them. The last thing American and other Western leaders need to do is to cave into the mounting hysteria from the think-tanks and the armchair strategists churning out their endless morally-outraged columns for the op-ed pages, and embrace a policy of ideological criticism and name-calling against Russia. The two thermonuclear superpowers need to respect each other and improve their cooperation… the peace of the world demands it.

9 March 2013

Martin Sieff

Voice of Russia World Service

http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_03_09/Please-don-t-lecture-Russia/

Editor’s Note:

Orthodox people should note that Victor Potapov, Alexander Webster, James Paffhausen, and Rod Dreher have sold out to the American Consumerist Dream and to the American Democratic Fantasy. They’re Sergianists (those who suck up to the powers-that-be for the scraps that fall from the high table) of the foulest and worst sort. They’re part of the “mounting hysteria from the think-tanks and the armchair strategists churning out their endless morally-outraged columns for the op-ed pages, and embrace a policy of ideological criticism and name-calling against Russia”. Potapov was/is an open US government propagandist. Webster and Dreher are “stink-tankers”; Paffhausen is tied to the American Enterprise Institute (one of the most Far Right stink-tanks in the District). In short, these people are traitors to the Orthosphere, and we must treat them accordingly.

You can follow HH and his support of Social Justice… or you can follow the above sell-out jabronies who’re supporters of “Greed is Good” and “The Race Goes to the Swiftest” (that’s what support of the contemporary Republican Party means). I’ve chosen… it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know where I stand… by the way, I’m far from alone…

BMD