Finally, we arrive at the era of Bush 2, George
W., henceforth known in my blog as the Shrub. How this man became President is a
mystery. Heck, how he graduated from Yale Law School is beyond me. The man can
barely string two words together and coherent thoughts are foreign to him. I
guess when your daddy is rich, ex Congress, exCIA, ex Vice President, ex
President, you can get away with a lot. In my Is Paris Burning Series? on
terrorism, I wrote of his disasterous Mid East policy, so for information on that
I refer you there. All I need say here is that it has left us with a bunch of
half decided battles, wars that will seemingly last forever, and a smear of
deep red blood spread over the Mid East that is rapidly spreading to Europe. We
have earned the enmity of most of the Moslem world.
At
home, he did no better. To be fair, the bank scandals that ultimately crippled
the economy were not his doing. No,the Old Gipper convinced Congress that we
didn't need any silly regulations hampering industries and they said a
collective, "yes Sir." and dutifully repealed a lot of them. When the
Shrub took office, the chickens came home to roost and we learned that some of
the Nation's largest and most trusted Investment Banks were running scams that
would make a common grifter blush, all the while giving themselves huge bonuses
and raises.
Had
it just been the wealthy who were hit when the crap hit the fan, I wouldn't
care. After all, when you lie down with pigs, you ahould expect to get a might
dirty, but many of the funds that failed were held by people who were just
trying to get ahead in life, young couples thinking to the future of their
kids and older couples hoping for a nice retirement. Gone, swindled. Again, not strictly
the Shrubs fault, but when the truth became obvious, I don't recall him calling
for criminal charges and prison terms. No, of course not, these were his
buddies, his financial bakckers. In other words, these were the guys calling
the shots and he knew not to mess with them.
To
say I did not like him is an understatement, but, in retrospect, he almost
looks good next to Obama. Almost. Our current President has less business
holding that job than Elmo. He is arrogant and has come to believe that his
word is law. I remember when the Government was in one of its perpetual budget
crises. He threatened to block Social Security checks from being issued. When
it was pointed out to him that such a move would cause great hardship for many,
he made it clear tha he was unmoved by that and that he would follow that
course of action if Congress did not bow to his wishes. Blessedly, they did.
He
has no comprehensive foreign policy. We are told, by him, that we have a plan,
it will work, and he is sticking to it, despite great evidence to the contrary.
The whole thing is a miserable failure. He is however pushing Climate
control, something Americans are not as concerned about. Terrorism and the
Economy, those are our basic issues right now, but Barry will have his way, and
I guarantee that he will push through an agreement that will be a disaster,
just like the horrible deal he made with Iran over their nuclear program.
Are
Americans afraid? Damn right they are. They have come to see the government as
the enemy and with good reason, since they have made a mess out of a great
Nation.We have had years of constant, extreme change and on top of that, we
have no idea where we are headed and no sign of a real, competent leader (sorry
Trump, you do not inspire trust, no matter how much you try to sound like one
of us). Pile stress upon stress and anyone will break. We haven't broken yet,
but how much more we can take is questionable. In the next, and last part of
this series, I will, attempt to throw out a few ideas. Nothing will be easy.
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