41st President George H. W. Bush dead at 94

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41st President George H. W. Bush dead at 94

Postby cmsellers » Sat Dec 01, 2018 6:17 am

So former president George H. W. Bush has died at the age of 94. He was admitted to Houston Methodist Hospital in April, though it's not clear to me if he's been there that whole time. Apparently Barbara Bush also died in April, which I didn't even realize.

HW was my second-favorite president since at least Eisenhower, and might have been my favorite save for Clarence Thomas: I hold a grudge both over the presence of such a complete nut on SCOTUS and the treatment of Anita Hill during his confirmation, so I judge him really harshly for that. Still, there's a lot that he did which I'm really happy with, and I like him far better than the much more popular presidents who bookended him, or the son who served four years longer and made a mockery of the family name. He was already pretty senile and at 94 it was clearly his time, but I will miss him all the same.
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Re: 41st President George H. W. Bush dead at 94

Postby JamishT » Sat Dec 01, 2018 6:43 am



I weirdly like political dynasty families, and I've never heard very many bad things about H.W.'s time in office. I'm curious to see what the reactions will be, especially when compared to McCain.
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Re: 41st President George H. W. Bush dead at 94

Postby Krashlia » Sat Dec 01, 2018 7:45 am

It was kinda only a matter of time.
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Re: 41st President George H. W. Bush dead at 94

Postby Absentia » Sat Dec 01, 2018 8:46 am

Krashlia wrote:It was kinda only a matter of time.


Unless you know something I don't, it's only a matter of time for all of us.


I think H.W. benefits in hindsight (at least in my mind) because he was the last president before the ugly modern era of politics, back when people were able to disagree with the president without thinking he's the Antichrist. No cutthroat legislative tactics, no over-the-top punditry, no all-consuming 24-hour cable news cycle. It's sad to see one of the last remains of that era slip away. Hang in there, Jimmy Carter.
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Re: 41st President George H. W. Bush dead at 94

Postby Aquila89 » Sat Dec 01, 2018 10:33 am

Following his wife, who died in April after 73 years of marriage. This is not uncommon for old married couples.
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Re: 41st President George H. W. Bush dead at 94

Postby cmsellers » Sat Dec 01, 2018 5:13 pm

Absentia wrote:I think H.W. benefits in hindsight (at least in my mind) because he was the last president before the ugly modern era of politics, back when people were able to disagree with the president without thinking he's the Antichrist. No cutthroat legislative tactics, no over-the-top punditry, no all-consuming 24-hour cable news cycle. It's sad to see one of the last remains of that era slip away. Hang in there, Jimmy Carter.

I don't like Jimmy Carter. Pardoning the Vietnam draft dodgers is the only thing he did that I liked, and reintroducing Selective Service easily negates that. Meanwhile, his post-presidency anti-Israel activism really irritates me. The best that I can say of him is that he's an evangelical who resisted the toxic culture which began to consume evangelicalism around his time and culminated in white evangelicals seeing Trump as their earthly savior.

I'm also think it's worth pointing out that HW's Rove, Lee Attwater, in entraping Gary Hart and running the Willie Horton ad, probably did as much to inaugurate the modern era of politics as anyone not named "Newt Gingrich." So you're right that he probably didn't have to contend with modern politics, but he indirectly helped create it. Yet I've never really held that against HW personally, maybe because he always seemed like someone who was very hands-off in his campaign.

I will say that HW's style of presidenting reminds me a lot of Obama, or Obama's reminds me of HW, and Obama is my favorite post-Eisenhower president. Though given my longstanding hostility to Kennedy, Johnson, and Reagan, that leaves pretty easy competition. Plus, I deeply admire HW's principled stand against broccoli.
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Re: 41st President George H. W. Bush dead at 94

Postby Krashlia » Sat Dec 01, 2018 9:23 pm

Absentia wrote:
Unless you know something I don't, it's only a matter of time for all of us.




Some People tend to go shortly after their spouses do.
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Re: 41st President George H. W. Bush dead at 94

Postby Deathclaw_Puncher » Tue Dec 04, 2018 7:13 am

Regardless of your thoughts on HW, one thing we can all agree on is that Sully is a good boy.
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Re: 41st President George H. W. Bush dead at 94

Postby Tuli » Tue Dec 04, 2018 6:17 pm

I don't know anything about his presidency, but a mourning dog always brings a tear to the eye. :( And 73 years of marriage is really respectable.
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Re: 41st President George H. W. Bush dead at 94

Postby SandTea » Wed Dec 05, 2018 1:06 am

Deathclaw_Puncher wrote:...one thing we can all agree on is that Sully is a good boy.


Not all evidently. "Don’t Spend Your Emotional Energy on Sully H.W. Bush" -

https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/12/sully-hw-bush-service-dog-george-hw-bush-funeral.html?via=rss_socialflow_twitter

But Sully is not a longtime Bush family pet, letting go of the only master he has known. He is an employee who served for less than six months...

...But it’s a bit demented to project soul-wrenching grief onto a dog’s decision to lie down in front of a casket. Is Sully “heroic” for learning to obey the human beings who taught him to perform certain tasks? Does the photo say anything special about this dog’s particular loyalty or judgment, or is he just … there? Also, if dogs are subject to praise for obeying their masters, what do we do about the pets who eat their owners’ dead (or even just passed-out) bodies?

The photograph, in other words, is not proof that Sully is a particularly “good boy” or that “we don’t deserve dogs,” as countless swooning tweets put it on Monday. On its own, it says almost nothing other than the fact that Sully was, at one point in the same room as the casket of his former boss. This is simply a photograph of a dog doing something dogs love to do: Lie down.


My guess is a person who like to have attention going against the grain or being contrary so, here, I am just presenting something for everyone on here to blame on millennials or outrage culture or whatever to get that little bit of rage dopamine for the day that'll keep ya fueled.

I will, of course, remember HW for puking and not in a bad way. At least it was actual vomit instead of twitter word. Our flags in town have been at half mast since the news.
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Re: 41st President George H. W. Bush dead at 94

Postby cmsellers » Wed Dec 05, 2018 1:27 am

SandTea wrote:
Deathclaw_Puncher wrote:...one thing we can all agree on is that Sully is a good boy.


Not all evidently. "Don’t Spend Your Emotional Energy on Sully H.W. Bush" -

https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/12/sully-hw-bush-service-dog-george-hw-bush-funeral.html?via=rss_socialflow_twitter

Not me, but I wasn't going to say anything because "that dog is lying down because it's resting" is an opinion I expect to get little sympathy here. I'm thumb you for showing me I'm not alone if you hadn't been so quick to suggest that expressing an eminently reasonable but deeply unpopular opinion is attention-seeking or contrarianism.
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Re: 41st President George H. W. Bush dead at 94

Postby Kate » Wed Dec 05, 2018 11:13 pm

cmsellers wrote:
SandTea wrote:
Deathclaw_Puncher wrote:...one thing we can all agree on is that Sully is a good boy.


Not all evidently. "Don’t Spend Your Emotional Energy on Sully H.W. Bush" -

https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/12/sully-hw-bush-service-dog-george-hw-bush-funeral.html?via=rss_socialflow_twitter

Not me, but I wasn't going to say anything because "that dog is lying down because it's resting" is an opinion I expect to get little sympathy here. I'm thumb you for showing me I'm not alone if you hadn't been so quick to suggest that expressing an eminently reasonable but deeply unpopular opinion is attention-seeking or contrarianism.
I kind of think that doing it in response to people enjoying something specifically to harsh their vibe is attention-seeking contrarianism. I read, "wah wah wah people like things I don't like stupid people way wah wah" from that message, basically because the author was super aggressive, condescending, and abrasive. I also thought "the dog could just be lying down" but didn't feel a need to lecture and ridicule people who found deeper meaning in it.

Calling people demented for getting some emotional value out of this picture is not reasonable, it's the kind of thing assholes do. Even if someone thinks it is, it is clearly a dick move to say it.
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