trump versus W

[mnmoderatedem]

I used to separate the two. Due to the Iraq war. A dividing line which probably would not be crossed even for the idiot in chief.

But now we have Iran. A war apparently dotard has become "bored" with.

Mar a logo documents. Epstein. Jan 6. Countless other absurdities.

And now Iran. trump is a far far worse president than W.

I never ever ever thought I would say that about anyone.

Sadly and shockingly that is the reality we face.

[newdeal2]

1. W's administration looks world class compared to this shit show

Professional and moderate in comparison.

But I’m not sure if I feel that way because so much time has passed that I’ve forgotten, or Trump is so much worse, or both.

[Crunchy Frog]

2. Compared with Trump, W is a towering intellect.

[Joinfortmill]

16. This!

[hot2na]

3. Trump wants his "Mission Accomplished" moment too.

Trump so wanred to be like “W” strutting around the deck of an aircraft carrier, dressed up like a fighter pilot declaring “mission accomplished.”

Careful what you wish for Trump. The Iraq war stretched beyond the end of “W’s” presidency and resulted in the unnecessary deaths of thousands of US servicemen, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi’s.

[EuterpeThelo]

5. Sadly, you're right

and even W was haunted enough to paint his guilt-laden portraits of the warriors he killed and wounded. Trump couldn't care less and, IMHO, gets OFF on the carnage and death he is causing, like a little boy sacrificing plastic green army men.

[EuterpeThelo]

4. My late husband and I

began dating in 2001, shortly after 9-11. We'd been friends for a few years but it was that event that made us realize how short and precious life is and acknowledge that we'd been in love the whole time.

As a child of immediate post-WW2 England, his greatest fear was fascism coming to his beloved, adopted country. We despaired together over the torture, the extraordinary renditions and indefinite detentions, the unqualified cronies and religious bigots taking over government, the shredding of civil/human rights and the economy, the embarrassment on the world stage, and, of course, the wars based on lies. He was the one that wrote forceful, righteous rants in his letters to the editor; I was the one out yelling and raving and carrying mock coffins through the streets of Hollywood. We had deep, deep trauma bonding over the Bush presidency.

We honestly never thought it could get any worse than W...and then along came the Tangerine Taint.

After nearly 20 years of living through all of it together and watching hope creep back in during the Obama presidency, I lost him to COVID in June of 2020. It was my final hope for him that he was too sedated to understand that Twitler's weaponized incompetence was the reason he dying, but I'll never really know because I didn't even get to say goodbye.

We didn't even get to clink glasses when Darth Cheney died. I mean, you bet I raised one, but between doing it all by myself and Dick now feeling like the Diet Coke of Evil, it all felt so anticlimactic...

[harumph]

8. Very sorry to hear that. It must have been devastating.

I have to believe we will get to the other side of all of this.

[EuterpeThelo]

9. Thank you, Harumph

Sometimes I still can't believe I'm having to live through all of this without being able to talk to him about any of it (well, other than my whispering aloud to him and getting answers only in the form of butterflies, coins, songs on the radio). I too try to believe we will, and still do everything in my power to contribute to that outcome, but he and I both were self-taught students of history, so...

[Smackdown2019]

6. W was an idiot, but he had trusted staff

W was an idiot... ever since his first public statement he made on his Texas farm when the reporters were asking of the Supreme Court win announcing his win of Gore and a tacky reporter asking about a bandaid on his forehead; his reply, "its a zit". Of all the political lies a political will or can make, this one should of been a lie to the public... lol, could of said a scratch from brush.
But, what W has over Trump is honestly and takes advice from that knows their stuff.

Either way, i withdrew my stocks that day of the zit and put into Treasury bonds...

[thesquanderer]

7. Yes. I had that discussion with a friend during Trump's first term...

She said that Trump was the worst president in her lifetime. And I said, no... that while Trump was the worst human being we'd had as president, he wasn't the worst president because, unlike W, he was not responsible for lots of death... thousands of our troops and perhaps hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians in W's unnecessary war. (And torture too!) But once Trump's botched response to covid led to a huge number of unnecessary deaths in the U.S., I could no longer attribute to Trump's defense that, well, at least he didn't kill people. And now we have Iran.

And the Bush administration's disregard for the Constitution via the PATRIOT Act and warrantless surveillance (and supposedly having called the Constitution just a goddamned piece of paper) seems almost quaint next to Trump's disregard for the Constitution.

Yup, I never thought we would ever have another President as bad as W, much less one even worse.

[Martin Eden]

10. W started two long wars of occupation. 5,000 US troops died, and upwards of a million people in the region

It remains to be seen how many will die as a result of Trump -- not just from the war in Iran, but from eliminating USAID and slashing domestic programs at home and probably wrecking our economy.

W was despised around the world for his illegal war in Iraq, but Trump is turning the USA into an international pariah while attacking our institutions at home and shredding our Constitution.

I wrote the poem below for W when he left office, but have not yet worked on one for Trump.

I'd tell you to go fuck yourself
But that is much too kind
If you could perform that feat
You'd take pleasure in your behind

I'd like to say eat shit and die
But you deserve much more
You should suffer all the grief and pain
Of your misbegotten war

Though I can never make you think
Or feel, or understand
I'll take solace when you hear your name
Cursed throughout the land

From inside a lonely prison cell
Dark and bare and cold
Where every day you pay for your crimes
Until you're sick, heartbroken, and old

When you finally leave this earth
You fucked over oh so well
If there is a God and afterlife
You're going straight to hell

[Cosmocat]

11. HW was not horrible

as POTUS, though he did a lot of dirt on his way to the White House.

But, Rs potuses kept getting worse.

Reagen was the literal wolf in sheeps clothing. He aw shucks, soft spoken bullshit while he did a LOT of harm.
HW
W, who was Reagen light - a dipshit with a smarmy "charm" who again, did a lot of damage.

Then DT.

[Katinfl]

12. W is like Thomas Jefferson compared to trump.

Don’t know how we ever got through 8 years of W, let alone t’s first 4 and now another 4. God help us.

[Joinfortmill]

17. Don't despair, I think the Grim Reaper is at his door.

[Katinfl]

21. Sure hope you are right.

[mwmisses4289]

13. For me it was Nixon; GW was doing his best to emulate nixon.

But I knew t would make both of them look like Sunday school teachers. Not sure who its attributed to, but someone said if t had been the son of a rich man, he would be sitting in jail with no hope of parole.

[IzzaNuDay]

23. I felt Nixon's shenanigans started GOP corruption.

At least in that time, the GOP had some scruples. Went downhill with Reagan, both Bushes and with Cheeto, the GOP is looking the other way!

[IbogaProject]

14. The same GOP was behind them both

And now 25 years later the rot is now visible. This has been underway ever since the Eisenhower Admin imported between 70 and 80,000 Nazi (Good German) families. They rebuilt the GOP and have been investing their old German fortunes and slowly planning a better marketed mor slick Nazi system. Iran was hit with regime change in 1953 and the whole Military Industrial system swelled since then.

[Joinfortmill]

19. Like most things, it was complicated...

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/august-7/eisenhower-signs-refugee-relief-act-1953

'On August 7, 1953, with the Cold War in full force, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs into law the Refugee Relief Act (RRA) of 1953, providing U.S. visas primarily for refugees and escapees from communist countries. Replacing the Displaced Persons Act of 1948, which had expired the year before, the RRA allowed the United States to legally admit 214,000 immigrants through its borders, including many still displaced by World War II.

“In enacting this legislation, we are giving a new chance in life to 214,000 fellow humans,” Eisenhower announced after signing the bill. “This action demonstrates again America’s traditional concern for the homeless, the persecuted and the less fortunate of other lands.”'

then there is this:
https://www.trumanlibraryinstitute.org/the-displaced-persons-act-of-1948/

Truman recognized the inherent biases and anti-Semitic policies bound up in Congress’ supposedly generous act. In his address to the American people regarding the act, Truman denounced its blatant discrimination and xenophobic undertones: .. Then, in 1950, Truman succeeded in persuading Congress to enact an amended version of the legislation. The amended act permitted the entrance of another 200,000 refugees over the course of the following two years, just as the original version had, but it removed the cutoff date which previously blocked the entrance of thousands of Jewish refugees.

“It is with very great pleasure that I have today signed H.R. 4567, which amends the Displaced Persons Act of 1948. The improvements embodied in H.R. 4567 now bring the American principles of fair play and generosity to our displaced persons program.”

[Escurumbele]

15. The real difference between the two of them is that as dumb as GW is/was as president, and lets face it, he was another

puppet, but him and the people around him were not traitors, they did not sympathize with Putin and other dictators, and at the end of it, as bad as they were, they acted based on an erroneous ideology, which does not excuse them for all their crimes from which they were never made accountable for, something that I was very disappointed about Obama/Biden.

Now the idiot-in-chief...this is a guy who has never loved his country, he has loved what his country and his dad have done and continue to do for him, he is the antithesis of JFK's famous quote " Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.", he sees the USA as a bank, some entity where he can withdraw money from by cheating, he hates people, regardless of where they come from, he goes against immigrants because they are easy target for him and his base. I could write forever about the evil buffoon, but I believe we all know who he, his family and those around him are. Whoever wrote that quote "When you say that 'he is an idiot', we all know who you are talking about." is so on point.

The GOP followed on Grover Norquist recommendation to the tee, here is what he said:
"All we have to do is replace Obama. ... We are not auditioning for fearless leader. We don't need a president to tell us in what direction to go. We know what direction to go. We want the Ryan budget. ... We just need a president to sign this stuff. We don't need someone to think it up or design it. The leadership now for the modern conservative movement for the next 20 years will be coming out of the House and the Senate. [...]
Pick a Republican with enough working digits to handle a pen to become president of the United States. This is a change for Republicans: the House and Senate doing the work with the president signing bills. His job is to be captain of the team, to sign the legislation that has already been prepared."

And there you have it!

[lark]

18. I know what you mean, I felt the same way.

How could any president ever be worse than W, was my thought back then. Now we have an outright criminal fraudster, grifter, rapist, hste filled vile monster in charge and every day it gets worse!

[Norbert]

20. Much as I was against the war in Iraq

Bushie did build a coalition of countries that were with the US. He also presented his case to Congress and sought approval.

The idiot did not build a coalition of countries. Why? Because he would have had Israel and Hungary only. Most of Europe would have told him to pound sand. As for seeking Congressional approval, lol. The Legislative Branch has been his personal doormat for a year now.

The result. With Dubya, we knew it was coming and approximately when. With Dickhead, we get a weekend surprise. The reaction with the US citizens and the world? Predictable.

[Katinfl]

22. We were attacked in 2001 and allies came to help.

This time the US attacked another country and our allies refuse to help clean up the mess he made. Can you blame them?

[The Blue Flower]

24. I judge them equal in incompetence

This current a**hole wins hands down in corruption.

[Wounded Bear]

25. The GOP has been spiralling downward since Ike...

With the possible exception of Papa Bush, each repub president has been worse than his predecessor. I guess you could say that Ford was "OK" but he was a non-entity place holder.