Jeb Bush amazes me (UPDATED WITH NEW INFO - CHECK IT OUT!)

[Samantha]

Last edited Thu Jun 4, 2015, 12:04 AM - Edit history (4)

I have known since Election 2000 he had ethical challenges. I am sure most of you know that as well.

I have heard it said more than once that his parents considered him the smart son. You must have read that as well.

It seems every time I hear him comment on something these days, his words make my jaw drop. He is just so simple. Does he actually think we who hear these things take them seriously? Knowing what we know now, he still thinks we were right to attack Iraq? George W. Bush* kept us safe? Call me crazy, but I didn't feel very safe on September 11, 2001, watching the Pentagon burning from downtown DC where I worked.

And when one thinks about the fact Florida is a 2016 must-win for him, why -- knowing there is an overabundance of senior citizens residing in Florida -- would he say he believes we have to raise the Social Security retirement age to 70? What was he thinking! Or was he thinking?

And speaking of "thinking", does he think that Election 2000 happened 15 years ago and everyone has forgotten about it? We the people are just too dense to realize that his manipulations of that contested election and the shady maneuvers that followed were to force the outcome to favor his brother? Catastrophes such as 911, an illegal invasion of Iraq, the 2008 economic crash, and a ten trillion dollar deficit kept off the general ledger for the next guy to fix ensued. We call those debacles collectively the Bush* legacy. That legacy was made possible by Jeb Bush, who greased the road to the White House for his brother -- Florida Supreme Court decision be damned! The right to vote is not necessarily paramount!

Someone should tell these commentators who have reported gushingly about Jeb's intelligence that simply being smarter than George W. does not necessarily a wise man make.... But the fact that some Republicans think he is the right person to occupy the Oval Office is not amazing -- it is terrifying.

Sam

Postscript edit:

Apparently, Lawrence O'Donnell and an election watchdog (his name is something like Fred Wertheimer -- phonetic) also truly find Jeb amazing. Lawrence just reported on his show tonight a 15-page letter has been sent to the Attorney General asking for an investigation as to whether Jeb has violated campaign finance laws. Lawrence said the election watchdog did not bother sending the letter to the FEC since it only investigates civil violations. The letter forwarded to the Department of Justice asserts Jeb has violated criminal law and cites several statutes.

The glaring (pardon the expression) elephant in the political campaigning room is the fact that Jeb has raised through his PAC approximately One Hundred Million Dollars. The current restrictions limit what someone exploring a run can raise to a figure reasonably suited for expenses during the exploration. Question: who needs One Hundred Million Dollars to explore his or her election viability?

I am going to check out a couple of things on Google, and if I find what I am looking for, I will update this edit.

Here is more: check out this truly cool article I found on the Huffington Post: How Jeb Bush Is Thumbing His Nose at Voters with his Super Pac Scheme.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/27/jeb-bush-super-pac_n_7154030.html

[Skittles]

1. repukes live in a bubble where the concerns of others are not really noted

so yes, it is very possible indeed the latest Piece of Shit Bush actually believes his own drivel

[Samantha]

2. I do not believe anyone could argue with your point!

And thank you for posting on my thread. I was hoping someone would say something, and you did!

Sam

[AgingAmerican]

14. And they lack any ability for introspection

They have absolutely no self awareness. They never consider the consequences of their actions.

Malignant narcissism codified.

[Puzzledtraveller]

3. Jeb is a dick

You can see it in his face, (obvious I know) but yeah, even for my republican parents who really don't know their party like we do think he's a dick.

[Samantha]

5. There is just NOTHING there

But it is good to know some Republicans like your parents recognize this.

Thanks for posting on my thread.

Sam

[Paka]

4. The stupid runs deep.

[Samantha]

6. Very profound!

You should put that in your signature line.

Thanks for posting on my thread.

Sam

[Wounded Bear]

7. His base is that stupid, I have no doubt.

Well, by 'base' I mean the rank and file Fox-bots that will follow the Repub party like lemmings. His real base-the 1%-seems to like simpletons in the oval office. Easier to manipulate.

I have seen nothing to convince me that the 30% or so that always vote Repub will change at all.

Our biggest problem is probably the M$M. Will they report any of this honestly? Shit, the Repubs absolved Bush of any blame for 9/11, and blame Pres Obama for the 2008 crash. There is some serious fuck-up-edness in our opponents, and the media has not helped much to inform them otherwise. Fox is always on the attack and the rest of the media has been pretty passive.

Without some media support, we can't get any leverage from the 'middle' of the electorate.

[Samantha]

9. It is very subtle but it not just Fox that does this

I listened to Andrea Mitchell a short time today, and she remained focused on the CNN poll which reported the percentage of people who think Hillary's honesty is questionable. On and on about her credibility. I kept thinking where are the CNN report's on the credibility of Walker, Perry (now under indictment), Christie (many of whose staff have already been indicted) on and on and on down the list. Answer to the question: there were no CNN polls on the Republicans. Surprise, surprise.

More and more Republican commentators are showing up on MSNBC, and I believe as time goes on it will continue to deepen. It is the Comcast influence.

Thank you for posting on my thread.

Sam

[djean111]

19. Yes, the MSM is very RW, but I think that anyone who is presented as THE front-runner will

be focused on. The GOP clown club is still composed of moving targets. Once one or two seem to be emerging as front runners, they will be under more scrutiny. Right now, it is left to the candidates themselves to try and look better than the others.
Plus, the MSM already has a bunch of Hillary ammo from the last time she ran in the primary.

[Samantha]

22. I hear from time to time Scott Walker is a frontrunner

I find that mindboggling. How is it possible voters outside of Wisconsin do not know his record, his demeanor (perhaps I should say contempt) towards his constituency and his connection to the Koch Brothers? I just do not get that.

Sam

[djean111]

29. Same thing with Chris Christie. I think a certain segment of the voting population LOVES them

some arrogant authoritarian assholes. They do not connect them with their own lives.
On the other hand, gotta mention that it is disheartening, voting for someone and having them win and just calmly do something else. So - why get all invested in what happens after election day? For many, that's when the outrage and calling and emailing and asking the politician they voted into office - to do what they said they would do. Or start hearing excuses why they cannot.

[Samantha]

34. I have not been able to stand to look at or listen to him since he came on the scene

He is a simple bully. I do not understand why anyone would want someone with his demeanor and low-lying tactics in office. I just don't get it....

Sam

[Cha]

8. It shows how much respect he has for the teaparty, Sam.. he's insulting anyone's intelligence by

what he says.. but he knows they don't know any better because they've been thoroughly brainwashed and I mean thoroughly!

[Samantha]

10. Well, Cha, you do not seem very brainwashed to me!

You sound right on the money.

I just don't understand him. He can't win like this should he be the Republican nominee unless of course he resurrects some of those 2000 maneuvers. And he would still have the majority of the Supreme Court on his side just as his brother did! So there is always that.

Thanks for posting on my thread. Always a pleasure talking to you.

Sam

[SoapBox]

11. Good post Samantha.

[lovemydog]

12. I think he's smart and lazy.

I think some of the other GOP candidates are smart and misguided. And some are plain stupid.

[Sherman A1]

16. Agreed

I think you hit the nail on the head. He is very, very smart, however I believe he also lives in something of a bubble/echo chamber where all you hear is what you want to hear.

[Duppers]

20. "Smart" ?

Wow, really?

[Samantha]

23. Is a synonym for your word "smart" cagey

He is kind of slick I do believe, but I do not think he is particularly intelligent. He does know how to play the game.

I too love my dog, and thanks for posting on this thread.

Sam

[lovemydog]

47. Yes, cagey or street-smart or maybe opportunistic.

I think we often look at people with different views as stupid and consider smart a compliment, but I definitely don't mean it as a compliment. I think he's very insensitive to others' needs and desires, and not very informed on history, particularly history of people with backgrounds different to his own. But I just don't want to underestimate him, because I think with both him and his brother, they do seem to understand how get votes and sometimes make their opposition appear to be elitist. Maybe the word I'm looking for is opportunistic. Thanks for the thread. It's an interesting subject.

[uponit7771]

46. Like his brother when it came to oil Bush could talk your ear off

[NBachers]

13. I can't wait for Attorney General Katherine Harris and Secretary of State John Bolton

Weren't they rumored to have a long-simmering affair?

[tblue]

15. He stole the WH for W

There's no doubt in my mind he'd do the same for himself.

I agree with everything you said except I've been wondering lately if W isn't the smart one.

P.S. Two words: Katherine Harris

[Samantha]

24. Your post made me laugh

We need to preserve that statement that W is truly the smart Bush brother and use that against Jeb. It does not get much more humiliating than that.

Sam

[nxylas]

17. He'll win the way McCain and Romney won

The teabaggers don't like him, but as the old cliche goes, "the problem with far-right politics is that everybody wants to be Fuhrer". They will split their vote between the approximately 25000 far-right candidates and leave the party establishment's choice as the last (old, white, rich) man standing.

[DonCoquixote]

18. what is dangerous about Bush

is that the tea Party knows how to make him look like a "moderate". Do not forget, Rick Scott is in power because he ran on the idea that Bush's hand picked seat warmer, Bill McCullough, was not GOP enough, and he won. This enable Jeb to say "look centrists, my own party hates me." There is nothing as dangerous as a fact that, although it MAY be true, is not placed in a proper context. No, he is not the craziest of the GOP, but that is like saying someone is the nicest inmates of the asylum for the criminally insane. Yeah, you might be able to have a conversation with him, but that does not mean he will not kill you the minute your back is turned.

[Samantha]

26. Very pithy analysis of Jeb

and pretty accurate I do believe.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the man. I also believe he is dangerous in so many ways.

Sam

[n2doc]

21. The Social Security 'game' is to play old against young

So JEB is claiming SS is in danger of insolvency. But he has a 'cure'! Screw the young 'uns! Nothing he is proposing will affect the retirees currently in Florida, or those about to move there.

And at the same time the RW propaganda is telling the young that SS won't be there for them. So why fight?

And JEB is hardly the only one spouting this crap.

[Samantha]

27. Yes, it is, n2doc

Fortunately, Bernie started batting this down in the last couple of days. I do think there is a chance that we will do better this time at dismantling their propaganda machine this run.

In preparing for the 2000 election, Karl Rove made a list of things to pit one group of Americans against another. He strove to keep the electorate so incensed with social issues, it would take its eye off the real goals the Republicans planned to implement. To a certain extent, that plan worked. We still see it operational today.

My hope is that in time more and more voters learn exactly how the Republicans manipulate driving hate and contempt into the election dialogue. Certainly though I do not mean to undermine some of those issues; I just do not believe differences of opinion on them should be used as weapons against us as a society.

Many young people believe they will not have Social Security benefits because the Babyboomers have drained the pot. This is not true. We are the only generation to pay for two sets of retirements -- one for the generation ahead of us as well as our own. This resulted from the compromise reached in the early 80s to "save" the plan from insolvency. That compromise also raised the retirement age. Young people might be right to believe Social Security might not be there for them, but it will be the Republicans, among them prominently Pete Peterson who wants it dissolved, not the Babyboomer generation that deprives them of this great benefit.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this matter.

Sam

[MisterP]

32. was't that the old propaganda from 2001? "SS will be BROKE by 2010!"

or whatever: the point's not to save SS, it's to scare people into voting for "reformers"

[Samantha]

35. Here is the problem, MisterP

There is a huge Social Security Trust Fund of about 2.8 trillion dollars. These dollars were accrued over time as a result of the early 80's compromise. That negotiation increased the FICA withholding on participants in order to shore up a fund that would cover retirement monies when the onslaught of Babyboomer retirements started. Once that was over, things would go back to "normal" -- so it was reported. In the aftermath of that agreement, the Babyboomers not only paid the retirement of the generation ahead of us, we prepaid our own retirement. We are the only class which has funded two sets of retirements.

For some reason or another, politicians thought it would be okay to "borrow" from this fund. And so they did, leaving government bonds as IOU's. Now that the time has come that those funds are desperately needed, the government cannot withdraw from that account without selling a like amount of treasury bonds. In this economy, that is difficult to do.

Add to that that some very wealthy businessmen do not like paying FICA taxes because it cuts into their bottom line and you have the reason for hearing that Social Security is going broke. The truth of the matter is that Social Security has been looted by Uncle Sam but for some reason, people are reluctant to say that....

Abolishing Social Security might make that debt evaporate. If not that, cutting it would certainly help.

Sam

[MisterP]

37. it's the same model as the USPS: make it plump up its own retirement fund, then

sell off both fund and agency "because it can't profit under the government": same trick Deng Xiaoping and the guys who sold off Conrail pulled

[Samantha]

39. I do not understand why that legislation passed in the early 2000s (2003?) is not repealed

I do know certain people want the post office dissolved as obsolete. Then there are certain business people who want the work the post office performs shifted to them - in other words privatize it. I do think when Staples started to get wobbly, some such as Romney saw this as a possible way to shore up that company. Finally, there are just those ruthless politicians who want the post office dismantled since it has one of the largest unionized work forces in this Country.

The post office is a national treasure which performs great work at low prices. I just don't get why some Dems don't join together and fight to get that legislation passed by Bush* repealed. If that were to happen, the post office would be operating in the black.

Sam

[MisterP]

43. disaster capitalism: you get the pension and you get the agency (now profitable

again all of a sudden since it's not bleeding itself to support 75 years of retirement)

[Orsino]

25. Toeing the Republican line makes everyone sound stupid.

How smart Jeb or any other clown-car passenger actually is is utterly irrelevant to the campaign or to how such a person would govern. Money will tell them what to do, they will do it, and whenever they stop to explain themselves they will appear foolish.

Jeb is smarter than Rick Perry, but it matters not a whit.

[Samantha]

33. I totally agree with you

but it is sad to think of all the citizens in this Country that actually buy into this hogwash and vote for these people. When will they wake up?

Sam

[liberal N proud]

28. Simple and Stupid has worked twice before for the bush's

There is no reason for them to change their strategery now.

[Samantha]

30. Pretty acerbic point

You will get no argument from me on this.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Jeb.

Sam

[blm]

31. I'm amazed that ANY Bush is still allowed to remain in this country. Traitors-R-Us

should have been shut down after the BCCI Report.

[Samantha]

40. The Bush family is above the law

That is the only explanation I can offer.

I can't believe the CIA Headquarters in Langley has been named after George H.W. Bush:

Prior to its current name, the CIA headquarters was formally unnamed.[2] On April 26, 1999,[3] the complex was officially named in the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1999 for George H. W. Bush,[1] who had served as the Director of Central Intelligence for 357 days, between January 30, 1976 and January 20, 1977, and had served as the 41st President of the United States.[4]

The simple name "The George Bush Center for Intelligence" appears to me to be a direct contradiction in terms....

Sam

[blm]

42. That BS CNN poll was set up to rehab Bush name. They always manage to succeed

at that ploy, because today's corpmedia bends over backwards to make sure pro-Bush/anti-Dem propaganda succeeds.

I posted a thread about how they time their revisionist propaganda (piggybacking on current Dem infighting and disarray) and most every reply assumed it was an attack on primary process.

Doh!!!

Those who forget this nation's Bush history and ignore the corpmedia's commitment to protecting Bushes will force the rest of us to live through ANOTHER Bush WH.

[hifiguy]

36. He's like all the rest of the repukes.

Caught in the act of fucking a goose he would claim, with a straight face, to be fluffing the duvet.

[libdem4life]

38. This is a new one, and way too many times it would be appropriate to use it.

[sofa king]

41. One can be much smarter than W...

... and still be deeply stupid. Jeb could be twenty percent smarter than W and still have a double-digit IQ.

[Samantha]

44. I tried to make that point very politely above

but your pointed version is much more pungent.

Thanks for posting on my thread.

Sam

[hifiguy]

45. GHW hd some brains.

He was a lying, sneaking, treacherous, double-dealing shitweasel, but he had some brains.

His sons are morons to a man.

[Samantha]

48. I do not think George H.W. Bush is a moron

I have always found him contemptible because of some of the clandestine roles he played. I do believe he knew beforehand that John Kennedy was going to be assassinated. There definitely was a group of people in the Federal Government that disagreed with John Kennedy's policies and plans. They definitely were angry over the refusal by Kennedy to go after the Russians during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Additionally, Kennedy had plans to end the war in Viet Nam, something at that time not publicly disclosed. There were also other social programs he wanted to implement conservatives did not like. All in all, a group of very right-leaning war mongers regarded Kennedy in the White House as a national security risk they were duty-bound to remove. IMHO

So I have no respect for George H.W. Bush but I do think he did the right thing is rescuing Kuwait from Saddam Hussein. His sons are a different story. I personally believe we should close the book on Bushes in government service -- but this of course has to come from the voters. I try to do my part in convincing them by writing threads like this one.

Thanks for posting your thoughts on the matter on this thread.

Sam