Bush Psychology 101 – “A Terrible Secret” - Excellent stuff

[autorank]

What a mess we’re in and this article tells how we got there. It’s all about failing to live up to the family goals, being behind Jeb in everything but becoming president, and the inability to face reality and failure. Excellent!!!



Link: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0704/S00200.htm

The Psychology Behind G.W. Bush's Decision-Making
Thursday, 12 April 2007, 4:00 pm
Opinion: Guest Opinion

A Terrible Secret
The Psychology Behind George W. Bush's Decision-Making

By John P. Briggs, M.D. and JP Briggs II, Ph.D.

When we feel inadequate about some aspect of our lives, we work to submerge those feelings with compensations and defenses. Evidence is that in the case of George W. Bush, deep feelings of inadequacy and powerful defensive behaviors employed to submerge them and cover them up cripple the decision-making process he needs for his duties as president.

The dynamics of the president's cover-up involve a vicious psychological paradox: because he secretly anticipates the humiliating failure he has experienced all his life, he behaves in ways that ensure that he will fail. He makes hasty, risky, ill-informed decisions in which he relies on his defenses rather than judgment. When the decisions go bad, they reconfirm his inner feelings of incompetence and heighten his fear of being "found out." The feedback loop forces him into an ever deeper "state of denial" about the decisions and an ever-renewed tendency to make more flawed decisions.

Snip

For a psychotherapist it's impossible to believe that GWB's private mind doesn't sting with a emotional awareness we might imagine as follows: My father's "aid" has repeatedly turned my failures into apparent success. He has repeatedly indicated that he has little faith in me. In my secret heart I know that I have had no success on my own. I am not capable of it. Yet I must never let on that I feel this way. In fact, I must refuse even to allow myself to feel this way. I must show my father and the world that I am own man though I am not. That is the inner conflict.

How, then, must this son react inside when his father breaks down in tears in December 2006 in front a meeting of Florida state administrators, rambling on about the courage and rectitude that brother Jeb displayed in his gubernatorial defeat of 1994? Meanwhile, according to reporting by Bob Woodward, dad is "in agony, anguished, tormented by the war in Iraq and its aftermath." (13) It's like a scene out of Sophocles or Shakespeare. Huffington Post blogger Thomas de Zengotita captures the psychodrama of dad's tears perfectly. It wasn't as much about Jeb as "it was all about W. Little George is hopeless, and always has been—and Big George knows it, and always has, and so has the whole family…. Jeb was always the heir apparent. He was supposed to be The One." (14) Hopeless: The secret. GWB knows the secret; his family knows it. The trick is to keep the rest of the world from knowing it. Keep them from seeing what they see: that the emperor has no clothes. The trick, somehow, is to prove it isn't true. A difficult task.

[stellanoir]

1. But what you REALLY mean to say is

"He's an asswipe. Get 'im outta here."

1st rec

Yeah and that whole scene with Poppy and Jeb was just as they describe. Perverse family dynamics for sure.

[mod mom]

3. Jeb's a crook too-just recall FL 2000. the whole criminal family needs to be thrown

in the slammer.

[mod mom]

17. and he still is:

Florida's Voter Registration Database
Was Plagued With Problems in 2006,
Insider Emails Show

Documents...

Guest Blogged By Michael Richardson

The 18,000 "undervotes" in Sarasota and other questionable elections in November 2006 election were not the only problems faced by Florida voters last year. Most of them, in fact, likely have no idea just how bad it really was.

Florida's statewide voter registration database, and election management systems designed to work with it, were plagued in early 2006 with a host of problems. Some of the details are now revealed by a raft of email messages sent recently by a source to the non-partisan election integrity watchdog group BlackBoxVoting.org which posted them quietly on their site for public scrutiny.

Sixty-four email messages to election officials, spanning a four-month period from January to April 2006, from VR Systems, a Florida corporation, document a staggering series of serious problems with Florida's new computerized voter registration database during the early months of its implementation. The emails, from Jane Watson, a manager at VR Systems, provide a disturbing picture vis a vis a nearly day-by-day report from inside the software test lab.

The Florida Voter Registration System (FVRS) is statewide voter registration database described by Watson in the emails as a "home grown system" built by IBM to Florida specifications and maintained by Department of State staff. Voter Focus is a software system, unique to Florida, which provides election management functions to 60 Florida counties.

The emails tell the tale of software failures which began in January 2006 as programmers furiously work to solve program glitches and failures prior to the state's upcoming elections. The system went online before development was complete, in order to meet the January 1st deadline imposed by the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). The source of the Florida emails, an insider familiar with the development and implementation of the database who has requested anonymity, tells <http://www.bradblog.com/>The BRAD BLOG that, "The system should never have seen the light of day until the bugs were worked out. They used the voters and county election officials as guinea pigs to experiment on and test the program."

Documented failures include the software somehow, without apparent reason, switching the party registration for voters. As one of the emails describes: "We are seeing instances of voters being changed to a different party when there was no user activity. This is our top priority now." And the next day: "We worked this weekend on diagnosing voters whom we suspected as having had their party changed by Voter Focus...There were 3 counties with high numbers of suspected cases of this kind of inadvertent party change." ...

FULL STORY/COMMENTS FROM VR SYSTEMS:
<http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4355>http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4355

[Atman]

18. But Jeb's a BETTER crook. He might have pulled it off.

George, though, is hapless and hopeless.

.

[SharonAnn]

40. Oh, he's a crook, all right. But he's a smart one.

[LuckyLib]

60. Yes, and Jebbie can at least get from the beginning of a sentence to the end without losing his way.

[truedelphi]

72. When I saw the movie "Traffic" a film about drugs and

The drug war, as the film detailed the smooth upper crust blue blood business man,
all I could think was "He's Jeb Bush."

And of course the film viewer knows Mr. BlueBlood heads a major drug enterprise - but his community thinks he is worthy of political office.

As an offshoot of that, of course, if you were Mr BlueBlood, you'd soon be getting your finger in the election fraud dirty business.

And often I wonder what goes on with the missing children in Florida - Mike Malloy mentioning after Hurricane Katrina that N.O. children were sent to Florida and were placed in Florida schools, until Florida marshalls came and took them away. Teachers and school officials protested - and no one would say where the children were taken.

That exact same day, a decree had gone down in Saudi Arabia relating to sex with minors - with that nation deciding that it was no big deal.

[autorank]

31. And what was Jeb's accomplishment?

He did bad things too but he looked acceptable doing it. Now that's what I call dangerously
SUPERFICIAL!



From: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0703/S00474.htm

[autorank]

57. That's what I say ultimately.

But you know I'm wordy;)

[Jackpine Radical]

2. Well, to chime in on the shrink game,

I'd add that Poppy's anguish is a matter of intense shame rather than, say, remorse or any sort of altruistic torment. It's not even a matter of empathy for the wayward child. Poppy's ashamed of Shrub, like any poorly put-together parent whose child just pulled down his pants and pooped in public, and so he needs to keep up pretenses because Shrub's inadequacies reflect on the old man.

[Usrename]

41. the Oedipal loop-de-loop between father and son

Maureen Dowd has her moments.

http://us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780425202760,00.html

[Hubert Flottz]

4. I think fate is paying the family back for Prescott's part in WW II...

George hasn't even produced a son to carry on the old man's line.

[Bydand]

5. Psychology

Neurotics build castles in the air
Psychotics live in them
Psychiatrists collect the rent
I suspect that Briggs was one of the first two.

[Hubert Flottz]

9. So, do you think George is the sane one?

[CrazyOrangeCat]

13. That IS George, Hubert.

(He's experimenting with the internet tubes today.)

[Hubert Flottz]

14. You're supposed to be erasing today instead of writing George!

Are you nuts, crazy, or whut?

I'll bet George always wore out his pencil eraser faster than his pencil lead, in school.

Erasing was probably what he did best back then too. The only thing he was ever good at?

[CrazyOrangeCat]

15. One rule that George could never remember:

"Never ever make more lines in the morning . . .

than you can erase in the afternoon."


pass the Chimps Ahoy . . .

[me b zola]

63. But one rule that george never forgot...

"Never make more lines in the morning...

than you can snort by afternoon."


Vodka Aweigh!

[CrazyOrangeCat]

64. Indeed!

:spray:

[Jim Sagle]

56. And psychos like w burn them down after roasting and eating the inhabitants.

[badgerpup]

53. Daughters tend to carry DNA as well as sons...Nitpick alert

In fact, due to mitochondrial DNA, children are more closely related to their mothers than their fathers.

We all have our mother's mitochondrial and cellular makeup because that's what was in the pre-fertilized ovum...so that's what we end up with.

Jus' sayin....:shrug:

Of course the question arises of Little George's line being something that should be carried on...:scared::puke:

I hope the twins choose to remain childless.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

6. K&R

[jollyreaper2112]

7. Bush has a terrible secret

The terrible secret of space. Beware the shooter robot. He shoots bread at old men's faces.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

8. Very good read. Quite a bit of it has been covered before,

but I haven't seen this much depth. Also, lots of new stuff.

I found particularly interesting this whole bit on No Child Left Behind:

Why is the punishing aspect of testing and "failure" so prominent in the language and thinking of the law? Is this program Bush's attempt to help students learn where he failed to learn, or is he getting back at educators and education for his humiliating experience? Is he recreating for hundreds of thousands of students the despair he felt in front of the "tests" of his years as a student, being constantly forced "to measure up"? Consider the emotional overtones of the phrase "No Child Left Behind" as it might apply to the boy George Bush.

Recommended.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

11. yes, that is a fascinating theory.

[fasttense]

10. I would feel very sorry for crazy king george

if he hadn't been responsible for so many deaths and has made our country pay for his madness.

[dweller]

12. i thought that name was familiar

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020707R.shtml
Why Bush's Inner "Reality" Has Poisoned His Own Troop Plan
Feb. 07, 2007


he is a co-author (along with David Peat) of several favorite books of mine:
Looking Glass Universe
Fire in the Crucible: The Alchemy of Creative Genius
Turbulent Mirror: An Illustrated Guide to Chaos Theory and the Science of Wholeness


k&r
dp

[althecat]

21. Self delete - dupe n/t

[althecat]

22. AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY NOTE... I have added it to the original text now..

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY NOTE... I have added it to the original text now..
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0704/S00200.htm#a

John P. Briggs, M.D. is retired from over 40 years of private practice in psychotherapy in Westchester County, New York. He was on the faculty in psychiatry at the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City for 23 years and was a long-time member of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis. He trained at the William Alanson White Institute in New York.

JP Briggs II, Ph.D., is a Distinguished CSU professor at Western Connecticut State University and is the senior editor of the intellectual journal, The Connecticut Review. He is author and co-author of books on creativity and chaos, including Fire in the Crucible (St. Martins Press); Fractals, the Patterns of Chaos (Simon and Schuster); and Seven Life Lessons of Chaos (HarperCollins), among others. He is currently at work with a psychologist on a book about the power of ambivalence in creative process.

[autorank]

27. Thanks for the bioss

Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City

Very good credential. I found the writing sufficient to qualify them but this is helpful.

Lots of interest here on *'s brain, as it were;)

[laylah]

16. The only sorrow I feel for

*dumbass is how the death of his sister was handled...now THAT was sad and obviously scarred him deeply. On the other hand, even if she hadn't died, having "Quaker Oats" Babs for a mom, would have scarred anyone!

Jenn

[malaise]

19. Wow- great read

Lock up this lunatic.

[althecat]

20. Pleased you all like it.... you may also like "Dr. Bush and Mr. Hyde"

The good doctors who wrote this also liked....

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0509/S00292.htm

Dr. Bush and Mr. Hyde:
The Fundamentalist Shadow of George W. Bush

By John D. Goldhammer
Monday, 19 September 2005, 2:34 pm

A mouth that prays, a hand that kills.
— Arabian proverb

“How do you find a lion that has swallowed you?” asked Swiss psychologist, Carl Jung, commenting on the moral dilemma posed by the “shadow,” his insightful term for the dark, hidden side of the human psyche. The answer to Jung’s questions is “you can’t find or see that lion”—not as long as you are inside the beast. And therein resides the essential dilemma of a group’s dark side or shadow: it is nearly impossible for those caught inside a group’s belief system to see their own dark side with any clarity or objectivity. This hidden side grows over time, regressing, becoming more and more aggressive. It’s the “long bag we drag behind us,” says poet Robert Bly—where, as individuals, we dispose of all those things that are too uncomfortable to look at. “The long-repressed shadow of Dr. Jekyll rises up in the shape of Mr. Hyde, deformed, an ape-like figure glimpsed against the alley wall.”<1> Now imagine millions of Mr. Hydes and you have a sense of the group shadow of fundamentalist, right wing extremists dressed up as “compassionate conservatives,” led by George W. Bush. It’s like shifting from a hand gun to a nuclear bomb. And it began long ago in both the Moslem and Christian worlds.

... snip...

READ MORE:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0509/S00292.htm

[Alexander]

23. I think his sister Robin's death in 1953 really fucked with his head.

Particularly since his parents never told him Robin had leukemia, instead hiding it from him (Republican-style) and finally telling him once he realized she didn't come with them to pick him up from school as usual.

In articles I've read about the incident, Shrub has on occasion asked his parents "Why didn't you tell me?" over the years, because apparently he was unsatisfied with their answers.

I have a hunch George W. had the potential to be a good and decent human being until the day he realized his parents were deceitful liars.

[althecat]

24. I think all people are born with a capacity to be "good and decent human beings"

Tis nurture not nature that makes people bad.

[autorank]

29. Very good point. This helps explain Cheney and Rummy

What better way to exact revenge than by taking you fathers "greatest" moment, the Gulf War victory, and turning it on its head by doing what many people thought was the biggest mistake; failing to "finish the job."

Of course, Poppy had damn good advice on that little item. But no matter to George, it's all about getting even for a number of things. And to rub salt into the wounds, he did it with Cheney, Poppy's Defense guy and Rummy.

Terrific. We get to live out the sick family drama.

[Lisa]

36. one childhood friend said that George W. woke up screaming

I saw this in an article (NY Times or Wash Post?) discussing Bush's childhood. One of his school friends said he was sleeping over at the Bush house, when George W. had a nightmare about his sister. This was not long after she had died, so he would probably have been about 8 or 9. That is not too young to be aware of death, and to be frightened of it -- I know this from personal experience. Luckily my parents were there to help me through it. In Bush's case, it seems they were absent, or reluctant to talk to him.

I can't help wondering if Bush might have blamed himself. He saw what impact Robin's death had on his parents. And -- it's quite natural for kids with siblings to think, or even blurt out, that it would be so much easier if the other child would just "go away" -- especially if the sibling is taking up a lot of the parents' time, and mom and dad don't explain that this is because she is seriously ill. Imagine Bush being lavished, even smothered, with attention by his mom after his sister died. He might start to wonder if he had, in some way, been responsible. (Remember that back then, cancer was seen as a terrible, mysterious thing, and we still don't know exactly why some people get it and others who have all the risk factors don't.)

In the back of George W.'s mind is the possibility that he made a wish -- and his sister died -- and then he got everything he wanted. He is at once happy, and terribly guilty. Then the September 11th attacks happen, and it starts unfolding that way again. It wouldn't take too much to push him back into that mental state he had as a child, where he saw himself as the protector of his mother, and the one who must keep order against all dissent (disciplining his brothers), at his mom's request.

[Alexander]

38. The day Robin died, W's parents went GOLFING.

:wow:

I read this in the article.

That, to me, is just fucked up. No wonder he's so screwed up. It shows where he learned his callous disregard for other people.

[femrap]

43. For all we know * could have been

utterly brutal to his sister and then felt terribly guilty that he was the cause of her death????

And did the killing of the frogs begin before or after the sister's death?

Actually, his sadism is so over the top...why can't the damn family INTERVENE and put him into rehab now? The world would buy this excuse....quicker than Impeachment. The man is a dry drunk...and maybe he's hitting the bottle again.

He has to go....he is a fucking menace to the world and anyone in their right mind knows it...even his parents. Geez

[Alexander]

47. His sister died of leukemia, not sibling abuse.

George Sr. and Barbara had taken her to the hospital many times for treatments.

[femrap]

48. Of course...I know that.

Does that mean * wasn't pissed that she took all the attention away from him? That he was pissed at her? After all, he had no idea his sister was ill.

And the frogs?

[Madspirit]

25. George LaKoff

K&r...and I also suggest you read some George LaKoff. He analyzes Bush also.

...and he talks about how Democrats and liberals make much better parents than Republicans.

After all, when was the last time you heard a liberal say..."spare the rod, spoil the child"?

Lee

[Pacifist Patriot]

67. Lakoff's analysis of father-dominant parenting v. nurturant parenting is revealing.

I thought the family systems theory approach sure explained alot about the differences between the more divergent ends of the spectrum. It also gives hope for reaching those in the middle who identify with aspects of both.

[grasswire]

26. :::shiver:::

"If we don't confront his bullying, we risk an escalating assault on civil liberties and an increasing usurpation of power as he maneuvers to avoid facing the unequivocal humiliation he fears."

Even though we already have known most of this stuff, the article delivers a warning to us to act. Six years ago I said that his psyche and his familial dysfunctions were the worst possible scenario for the man at the head of the world's most powerful military. It's the stuff of epics, of tragedies.

Thanks for posting this article.

[WinkyDink]

28. For the old geezer to CRY over his old-men-themselves sons is SICKO.

In the context of losing an election. It's not like the family will suffer financially or that the sons have croaked.

This whole family is demented.

[AuntPatsy]

30. I think its been more than apparent for quite some time that little

george has serious problems which in my mind leaves me to suspect they all do for allowing this country to be so close to the destruction of a half way decent governing system, we need change granted as in new leadership but we must not let our guard down in keeping an eye on those new representives that they too fall into some sort of like governing...God forbid people take a break from keeping an eye on all politicians.

[juno jones]

32. Thank you for sharing these articles....n/t

[autorank]

33. You're welcome. Glad that they were helpful.

[stevedeshazer]

34. Wow, an epic description of Little George

Excellent.

[MasonJar]

35. Jeb is smarter and would have been more effective; however, it is

hard to envision anyone being worse than W.

[Mend]

51. I have a feeling you don't live in Florida....jeb really screwed up

this state beyond belief. The list is endless: crime, poverty, schools, roads, Terry Schiavo, environment, failure after failure. He is every bit as incompetent as his brother but he doesn't smirk or have those facial tics.

[Martin Eden]

37. Or maybe he's just a rat bastard ...

... who is using his power as president to enrich his oil buddies and others who put him in office.

And maybe deep down he's still the arrogant drunken frat boy who substitutes certitude for intellectual curiosity and believes everything Cheney tells him because he lacks the capacity to form a cohesive thought on his own.

A medically diagnosed psychiatric condition isn't required to account for the decision-making of this asshole.

[autorank]

39. The do NOT excuse anything. They do help explain it so we have some

concept of how we got to where we are. This the first piece like this I've liked since
Garry Wills "Nixon Agonistes," which was in an entirely different league since it was a
book and a brilliant sustained effort of several hundred pages.

The interesting thing is that the compensation that Bush engages in is well known to
many people who have no formal training in psychology. I've heard this any number of times
in a business context. The most popular Bush analysis is from a DC psychiatrist who gives
a thorough justification for his claim that Bush behaves like someone with anti social
personality disorder. Again, that's nothing new to many who refer to him in the same terms you
use.

I agree with you. I don't care what his condition is, * is a criminal and needs to be evicted and
then convicted.

At the same time, I want to know as much as possible, and this is a pretty decent piece of work,
very on target, imho.

[Martin Eden]

74. I agree that understanding what makes him tick is important.

I just want to reinforce that such an understanding must be placed in the context that the policies of his administration are not the product of a single warped mind. The neocon foreign policy is not his creation and the corporate-payback economic and regulatory policies are a furtherance of the cleptocracy that has long underlain the Repug party.

I see * as primarily a front man for powers behind the throne. His personal mental pathologies may explain some of the more visible behaviors and failures of his office, but we must continue looking past the man to see what we are up against.

We don't disagree; I'm just trying to add some perspective and my own $.02.

[Canuckistanian]

42. Just wondering about something

If Jeb was meant to be the "heir apparent" then why did we hear so little about him on the national stage before Shrub?

It seemed like the wheels were greased for George in Texas. Why not for Jebbie?

[femrap]

44. Jeb lost the FL Governor race in '94...

so that wasted 4 years. He won in '98, but too late to run for prez in '00. * had won Governor race in TX.

[Canuckistanian]

45. Ah, I see

It was just a matter of timing. So Jeb was tied up doing the FLA thing.

Curious choice, Florida. I'd always thought he'd be in Texas or Connecticut.

[femrap]

46. I don't know how Jeb ended up in FL....

I believe he married a woman of Cuban descent....I'm sure Babs and the clan weren't too happy about that. Florida has lots of Electoral Votes....

Anyone know how Jeb decided on FL?

[dalloway]

49. a long but riveting read....

I highly recommend the full article!

[autorank]

58. That's the great thing about "Scoop." They print real articles at the real length.

I love the footnotes at the end. Guess there's no teen haxor in the house to teach them
about hyperlinks. It's got the appropriate emphasis on the family factors of this
national nightmare. Sibling rivalry is an awesome force. As a younger brother who had
to pick up the mantel in a family headed by a domineering patriarch, JFK matured into a
leader with great vision and personal grace. * failed in hes quest in the most spectacular
way possible. Just after the 2006 midterms, someone asked Jeb Bush if he planned to run for
president. He responded with these words: "I'm finished." That's when * should have resigned.
He won!

[quiet.american]

50. A fine intellectual piece that confirms what I've always known - Bush is a damn PSYCHO. n/t

[Octafish]

52. Crazy monkey is still a warmonger.

The mass murderer will forever owe his success as a traitor to dear old Poppy.

His chief personal characteristic is a Stupidus Rex complex.

Ha ha ha ha!!!!

Thanks for a great article, autorank.

[Cha]

54. And our Nation has to be

embroiled in their tawdry family sagas. The bushits have made our country very sick.

How many people would otherwise be alive today if our rightful Prez Gore had been allowed to occupy his presidency?

[Triana]

55. Inside the Mind of a Sociopath...

..http://www.cix.co.uk/~klockstone/spath.htm

ALSO - get the book: The Sociopath Next Door - for a VERY detailed description of people like George W. Bush.

http://www.curledup.com/sociopat.htm

Your blood will curdle at knowing WHAT is running this country today.

[autorank]

59. Ignorance of this personality type is at our own risk.

You're right, these are very good resources.

Law enforcement professionals are quite familiar with this type of person.
It never occurred to me, but there must be DA's, profilers, and detectives
all over the country who've spotted this guy *. Yikes!

[Triana]

66. Ignorance of this personality type is at our own risk....

...damn straight. I can't remember the stats but it's on the link I posted. There are a lot of ppl like bu$hit out there. It is a matter of protecting yourself, family, money, sanity, and in this case, country to be able to recognize them. Many of them are pretty small-time and rather unnoticable unless you know what to look for.

Many of them are not 'axe murderers' or serial killers, but are nonetheless criminal. They simply have NO conscience. Everything is a game to them and everyone a pawn and playing piece in it and nothing more. They are sometimes very wealthy and influential and that lets them get away with the despicable stuff they get away with. Everyone supports them in it. Out of fear, if nothing else.

I'm thoroughly convinced that George W. bu$h is a sociopath/psychopath.

Another word used to describe these people: EVIL.

[rumpel]

61. father knows, he created a catastrophe of a human being...

How not to treat and raise your child.

Excellent piece, and yet a somber assessment of a man who holds the key to the red button.

[nicknameless]

62. Bush family rule: psychos beget psychos.

W. is continuing the long-standing family tradition of ripping off the middle and working classes to benefit the ultra wealthy.
He’s just particularly artless at it.

He was raised by unfeeling sociopaths, who didn’t allow him to grieve his sister’s death.
He then went on to torturing little animals, effing up in life and having daddy make his problems “go away” at the public’s expense.

I kind of suspected that pappy’s crocodile tears in Dec. ’06 were about his fears that W’s eff-ups could result in investigations, which could spill the beans on other family secrets. The BFEE has left a lot of buried bodies in their wake.

K&R

[loudsue]

69. BINGO!! Bush Sr.'s tears were about fear of being found-out.

Bush Sr. has been kissy ass with the most powerful figures in the world, like his family cultivated for generations. These powerful figures, operating like some well-polished mafia, for the most part, flew under the collective radar for CENTURIES.

Then comes little lord pissy-pants, and, thanks to the "internets", the whole house of cards was exposed to a LARGE handful of us "little people". It exposed Bush Sr.'s connections and atrocities, and the atrocities of his ancestors and extended family...the whole underbelly of the beast was exposed.

And if SIBEL EDMONDS could have her day in court, the whole beast (not just the underbelly) would be laid bare.

THAT has probably caused Bush Sr. some major points among the most powerful, when all he was trying to do was be a big "player" on the world scene.

I wish the day would come when the whole bush mafia, and all the tentacles, would be completely exposed for the whole world to see...every part and parcel...every morbid detail. And I wish it would come immediately.

:kick::kick::kick:

[The Wizard]

65. And

for the rest of his life he'll be known as the Decider. Some might say he's not playing with a full deck. The reality is that he has too many cards, too many marbles and three oars in the water. Even the Corleones knew to keep Fredo marginalized.
On the upside: The chances of another member of the Bush crime family rising to power have taken a dive.

[hippiechick]

68. This begs the question:

If even Poppy knows he's a failure-waiting-to-happen, and that Jeb was supposed to be 'The One' ... who the HELL pushed Caligula to the front of the stage for the 2000 nomination et al?

Is someone bigger and badder than the BFEE really running the show, and did they give Dimson the nod because they knew he was more malleable - and a little less bright - than Jeb?

One wonders about the behind-the-scenes power stuff at work here ... :tinfoilhat:


:hide:

[loudsue]

70. I think the stage had been set for the mafia by the Gingrich take-over,

and time was of the essence. I think if Gore had taken his rightful, LEGITIMATELY elected place at the head of government, a great deal of the bush/neocon crime family goals would have been set back for too many years.

:kick::kick::kick:

[underpants]

71. Is Rove the "Mad Monk" who enters into and ends up controlling the family?

Much akin to the royal family of Czarist Russia.

Just a thought.

[mod mom]

75. rOVE. I wonder if BFEE (poppy's crowd) now DESPISES rOVE, for turning the family

name into a kiss of death. Before idiot son, few knew of the evil that lurked behind the name. Now it's synonymous with EVIL, CORRUPTION AND DEATH.

Perhaps ole poppy should call up a few of his fiends (spelled correctly) and thank kkkarl what what he has accomplished!

[rox63]

73. Wow, great article!

A long but worthwhile read. K&R!

[autorank]

77. Isn't it though...

Great to see you. Well worth the read and these types of interpretations generally are less than
the seem originally. Bush is locked in a cycle that takes everyone down more and more with each
failure. He's relentless, I'll give him that. Hopefully, he'll be retired soon to "see opportunities
elsewhere.."

[Diane R]

76. I hope that our democratic leaders take time to read this before they negotiate with him. n/t