"He kept us safe"

I wasn't planning to do any G. W. Bush bashing this week, but Jeb's assertion in the other night's Rebublican debate that his brother George "kept us safe" was too much. His Presidency's first year ended with the 9-11 attacks and his last year ended with the worst economic crash in 60 years. In between were two disastrous wars which destabilized forever the middle east leading to Iran's ascendancy and the emergence of even more radical jihadists than ever throughout the region. There a growing list of countries that GWB and Dick Cheney must avoid at risk of arrest for war crimes charges. In between was a combination of spending for two wars with money borrowed from China and tax breaks for billionaires which led to exploding annual budget deficits. Okay. Okay. Okay. Enough of that. * * * * * * * * Back to the debates: My take away from the debate Wednesday night is that Republicans are tired of smart people who know stuff, they don't like gay people, minorities, or women, they want to eliminate the IRS, screw the environment, build a giant wall at the Mexican border and have Mexico pay for it, have a military ten times larger than it is now and make Sweden pay for it, give more tax breaks to billionaires, kick out all foreigners, take away people's health insurance, prohibit Muslim kids from making clocks, make everything great and tremendous, have the entire world be afraid of us, and have fewer vaccinations. * * * * * * * *Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner today called for a ban on clock building by Muslim teenagers. "I have the support of the entire Republican House membership. And most of their watches are made in China with the exception of a few Rolexes," he said. "We can't have Muslim teens making electronic stuff ----- look at Iran." * * * * * * * In other news, Tom Brady announced his support for Donald Trump: "His balls are fully inflated," Brady said. * * * * * * * Operation Jade Helm came to an end. Texas Freedom Fighters claimed victory against the United States. * * * * * * * * * * Tens of thousands of Syrian refugees are escaping the carnage in their country and straining the ability of European countries to help. * * * * * * * * "The difficulty is," explained President Obama, "that it's an unholy alliance of disparate and competing factions - religious zealots who want to impose their beliefs on others, narcissistic egomaniacs only interested in themselves, anarchists who just want to tear the government down, plutocratic cabals secretly pulling strings behind the scenes, corporate interest in mountains of money, and the old guard clinging to power-- and no one appears to be in charge. It's a free-for-all with no leadership and every one of the factions pursuing its own narrow self-interest no matter the damage to the nation. It's really a difficult situation with a great deal at stake." "So, what's the way out of this Syrian mess, then?" a reporter asked. "Syria?" the President said. "Hell, I was talking about the Republican Party."