WOW.………… It's No...…… Small Wonder That I...….. Hate The Dictatorship Of The Rich Such Tyranny & Barbarism!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was moved by my sorrow to write a poem about our loss:

Eulogy for 41

The patriot & humble servant
who lived his life & served our country
honorably & with dignity
died sometime Friday
I guess it must have been.
I learned of our loss
while waiting for Saturday's weather report:
40s, partly cloudy--a good day
to bike to the park
and birdwatch with friends.
On the streets, the people
bore with fortitude
the burden of their grief.
My friends & I
spoke of our sorrow
not even once.
White-throated sparrows scratched in the leaf litter
as they always do.
Blue jays called to one another in the treetops.
Northern shovelers spun their vortexes on the wind-ruffled lake.
Eight times zones east, on Highway 80
where on February 26, 1991,
Coalition warplanes dropped cluster bombs
at the front & rear of a column
of retreating Iraqi soldiers & foreign workers
retreating to Iraq
& then for 10 straight hours
bombed those trapped within
& bombed anyone trying to escape,
melting car windshields,
turning tanks to shreds of metal,
blasting & incinerating thousands of human beings,
the mild night wind stirred the sand
above the bulldozer-dug mass graves.

In any country where the individual who coordinates its intelligence agencies becomes the nation's president - well, you know just what that means. Among mainstream "journalists" in the United States, Bush's tenure as DCI from 1976-1977 is regarded merely as an embellishment to his resume.

They didn't call him "killer Bush" for nothing.

"Shut up and sit down."
Bush's command to families of missing veterans sums up his class contempt for ordinary folk:https://m.youtube.com/watch...

I remember that.

I'm no fan of any of the Bushes. But to summarize what he said in that clip as "Shut up and sit down" is grossly unfair.

It isn't. He really said that.

Not in the clip you shared he didn't.

The corporate media's lionization of Bush Sr. (& the insistence that we hoi-polloi take their efforts seriously) seem to carry a hint of desperation on the part of the ruling elite. As does the rapid push-back against anyone who questions his near elevation to sainthood.

Happily, many on social media aren't having it & their comments reflect a genuine disgust with the endless extolling of the "virtues" of the former head of Murder Inc. & war criminal president.

The late comedian Bill Hicks made some of his best material about Bush and his murderous legacy.

I've only made it through the first paragraph and couldn't love this article more!

The blood of the thousands of AIDS related deaths in the 80s still stains his hands. I do not mourn this man. I rejoice, celebrate and dance around his funeral pyre. He is not deserving of respect and I'm glad he is dead.

I agree wholeheartedly. I lost too many friends to AIDS in the 80s and 90s. I do not forgive or forget.

While this is an excellent critique of HW Bush, I would have also liked to see discussed his deliberate refusal to speak publicly about the HIV/AIDS crisis, or to fund HIV/AIDS research, education, prevention, or drug treatment, continuing the legacy of his cruel predecessor/conspirator, Reagan. By the time Bush spoke on the HIV/AIDS crisis (14 months into his presidency), nearly 100,000 people had already died. Both of these men have this blood on their hands, in addition to their imperialist wars.

I believe that the neglect of the AIDS crisis was deliberate. I believe that it made Reagan and Bush happy that so many homosexual people were being wiped out. For that they must NEVER be forgiven.

Beginning in 1945, the Allied forces conducted a series of military tribunals in the city of Nuremberg, Germany. The tribunals were convened to prosecute prominent members of the political, military, judicial and economic leadership of Nazi Germany, who planned, carried out, or otherwise participated in the Holocaust and other war crimes before and during World War II.

Although there is much analysis and criticism contrasting the victorious Western powers' realpolitik agenda with the exalted official goal of pursuing, ostensibly without fear or favor, comprehensive justice for the victims of the Third Reich's genocide and ethnic cleansing, at the time there was at least a recognition that crimes against humanity "cried out to heaven" for redress.

"The world" would simply not allow heinous war criminals to escape free and unpunished, and the Nuremberg sponsors and prosecutors were generally considered to be doing the work of angels.

How times have changed! Curiously, in recent decades the idea of bringing war criminals to justice has become largely obsolete and passé, at least when it involves crimes against humanity committed by US officials, or governments allied and protected by the US-dominated Western hegemony.

In the US, war criminals are now posthumously celebrated as inspirational patriotic heroes. All of their inconvenient, heinous atrocities and predatory depredations are simply discreetly avoided, or reduced to examples of the heroic agon, or burden, of a worthy statesman wrestling with hard choices and decisions.

In our present-day "Through the Looking-Glass" sociopolitical surrealism, the fatuous piety abjuring "speaking ill of the dead" has metastasized into a bacchanal and glurgefest of maudlin reverence and posthumous unconditional positive regard.

I first became aware of this pathological response when Nixon died in 1994. Although I was still mired in the conventional progressive-liberal mindset, I was astonished at the public reaction-- or at least the mass-media Team Coverage-- of Richard M. Nixon's death and funeral.

The transformation of Nixon from nominally-disgraced "crook" to a Great, if "flawed", Amerikan was instantaneous, and startling. I didn't go out of my way to watch and read the mainstream media reports, but I couldn't help being exposed to some of it.

I wasn't surprised that fork-tongued politicians glibly and blithely praised the deceased Nixon. But I was amazed when celebrities of all stripes, and even the "journalists" and correspondents covering the funeral, joined in the effusive hagiography.

I wondered if perhaps a different Richard M. Nixon was being laid to rest; I didn't recognize the one being lionized.

More recently, John McCain's long-anticipated death prompted a fawning orgy of adulation orders of magnitude greater than the seemingly-spontaneous rehabilitation of Nixon in 1994.

And now the rehabilitation of George the First proceeds apace. It's worth noting that, like the elevation of self-serving charlatan and war-criminal McCain to quasi-divine status in death, the overweening praise for Bush is exacerbated by Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS). That is, much of the bloated praise for Bush pointedly commends Bush's "presidential" demeanor, and contrasts Bush's putative "dignity" and "resolve" with Trump's crass, freewheeling style.

In short, George H.W. Bush gets bonus points for Not Being Trump.

For the next week or so, I dare not turn on the TV or access Internet news without first putting on a pair of hip boots.

My feelings exactly. Fortunately, I got rid of my television years ago. The idea of having a brainwashing machine inside my home, violating the sanctity of my domicile, was intolerable.

If only getting rid of the goggle. box inoculated us from bourgeois pressures. It is however not that easy.
Every issue of WSWS contains extracts from the main bourgeois papers. Learning how to analyse them, reveal the lies and distortions within them, is a key component of becoming a Marxist.
The same is true for that peddler of lies in the corner of every living room (and elsewhere).
Pressure of work, paying bills meeting capitalist social norms etc all impinge on our thinking, social outlook, if we fail to fight against.

I get my news via the Internet. A television is an intrusion of garbage and insanity. I am particular about what I allow to enter my home.

Good riddance to this life-long enemy of working people, swindler, CIA operative, and war criminal! The entire Bush family is, and always has been, political representatives of the very worst elements of the U.S. ruling class. They are arguably one of only three family political dynasties, from the old-line American Northeastern elites, that publicly exercised great political influence over many years; the other two are the Roosevelts and the Kennedys. The Bushes are undoubtedly the most thoroughly despicable and evil of the three families, they were never associated with anything positive for the U.S., and George H. W. Bush was the most influential of the lot, over the longest period of time.

His father Prescott Bush, who was elected to be a senator from Connecticut in 1952, was a principal at both Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH) and at Union Banking Corporation (UBC). The Justice Department seized assets of both corporations several times from late 1942 until 1951, under the Trading With the Enemy act; for their continuing involvement with German banking and industrial interests after hostilities between the U.S. and Germany began. In fact BBH, UBC and Prescott Bush covertly continued financial relations with various German interests and people until as late as 1951. There are questions about the Prescott Bush's involvement in the escape from Germany of various high ranking Nazis and the movement of financial and other resources out of Germany. (See "Bush – Nazi Dealings Continued Until 1951" – Federal Documents, John Buchanan and Stacey Michael, Nov 2, 2005, available at < https://www.globalresearch.... >, and "How Bush's grandfather helped Hitler's rise to power", Ben Aris and Duncan Campbell, Sept 24, 2004, available at < https://www.theguardian.com... >). Prescott Bush was also one of the main patrons of the young Richard Nixon when he was recruited (after answering a newspaper ad) to oppose the liberal congressional representative Jerry Voorhies.

The long history of treasonous relationships, financial swindles, involvement with "intelligence agencies and covert operations, and work with the most reactionary segments of the domestic U.S. political factions continued with George H. W. Bush, and his children George W. Bush, and his brothers, Jeb, Marvin, and Neil. From the assassination of John F. Kennedy to the thousands of attacks on Cuba, to the dope dealings of the CIA, to banking, stock, and real estate swindles, to involvement with the plotting and execution of the 9-11 operation, the Bushes were always involved.

Living in the US one is constantly assailed by total and utter lies, told in the most saccharine, schmaltzy way by the mainstream media. The feting of John McCain was hard to take. The fawning over the former head of the Bush organized crime family is unbearable. Again, wsws is the oxygen of truth.

And what the corporate media is doing to George H.W. Bush is the same thing that occurred when Ronald Reagan died and seemingly everyone in the media was singing his praises.

"I will never apologize for the United States — I don't care what the facts are. ... I'm not an apologize-for-America kind of guy."-- George H. W. Bush
________________

Spoken like the true servant to barbaric US capitalism's ruling class that he was following the intentional shooting down of an Iranian passenger jet over the Persian Gulf on 3 July 1988 by an SM-2MR surface-to-air missile fired from USS Vincennes, a guided missile cruiser of the United States Navy.

All 290 passengers, which included 66 children, were murdered. The Navy later awarded special commendation medals for "meritorious service" to two of the top officers who were serving on the USS Vincennes at the time.

I highly doubt this particular crime warranted mention during the past weekend's orgy of hagiographies of this contemptible man on the network and cable propaganda mills. As the late Harold Pinter noted in his 2005 Nobel acceptance speech, when it comes to American crimes against humanity:

"It never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasn’t happening. It didn’t matter. It was of no interest. The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It’s a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis." [...]

"Political language, as used by politicians, does not venture into any of this territory since the majority of politicians, on the evidence available to us, are interested not in truth but in power and in the maintenance of that power. To maintain that power it is essential that people remain in ignorance, that they live in ignorance of the truth, even the truth of their own lives. What surrounds us therefore is a vast tapestry of lies, upon which we feed. [...]

"But my contention here is that the US crimes ... have only been superficially recorded, let alone documented, let alone acknowledged, let alone recognised as crimes at all. I believe this must be addressed and that the truth has considerable bearing on where the world stands now. Although constrained, to a certain extent, by the existence of the Soviet Union, the United States’ actions throughout the world made it clear that it had concluded it had carte blanche to do what it liked."

https://www.nobelprize.org/...

Pinter's speech was brilliant and should be taught in schools.

Nauseating. Of course, all these people singing Bush's praises support him in every way, including the Democrats. Obama's statements nearly made me lose my breakfast. All of the snakes have come out from beneath their rocks to sing the praises of murder and oppression, lies and death.

Just as a matter of record I wonder how much the George H.W. Bush funeral spectacle is costing the taxpayers. We cannot afford Medicare for all but we can afford to squander unlimited taxpayer dollars to parade around and ultimately drop in a hole in the ground the putrid corpse of the man who put Clarence Thomas on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Yeah, he was scum, Sorry didn't read all of this as don't want to sully my mind by his scummy ways at the moment.

History is not a conspiracy, but there are indeed conspiracies in history. I've never been quite sure we knew everything about the friendship between the Hinckley and Bush families.

The Democrats have picked up on the GOP robbery tactic.

"A little known fact is that Bush wrote it with the blood of children he incinerated at the Amiriya bomb shelter in Baghdad."
https://twitter.com/AliAbun...

thank you, thank you for this history lesson and for setting the record straight.

George HW Bush-- a “kinder, gentler” war criminal--he personifies the personality and character of the ruling class--US Presidents are expected to be ruthless and expedient in protecting the interests of the wealthy, but they're also expected to proceed in a manner which is sophisticated enough to deceive the public.

That's one of the reasons why Trump is so detested by certain segments of the ruling class and the Democratic Party leadership--his crude corruption and actions are "too overt." They prefer a more "elegant criminal."

They prefer an iron fist in a velvet glove, A.K.A. bourgeois diplomacy.

In regards Pelosi’s comments,and indeed their comments regarding McCain,workers should be reminded who Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders have thrown their cards in with.

Yes, indeed they should. Thank you Patrick Martin, for pulling aside the curtain and showing us the rotting and putrid machinery.

100% Carolyn.I had noted down a couple of years ago for my own benefit that it is Patrick Martin who is the most prolific writer on the wsws in terms of number of articles written.But there is both a quantitative and qualitative dimension to this.His strengths in American political reporting,writing on domestic politics and how they relate to foreign policy objectives of the world hegemon for me are somewhat the benchmark.I always try and remain alert to his comments,his asides, his core observations..."there is alotta meat there with them potatoes".

I have read about this. I too believe the CIA was behind it.

You will find this documented in Joseph's McBride's meticulous study about the Kennedy assassination INTO THE NIGHTMARE (2013). Naturally, the demise of "gentle George" Herbert is a focus of attention on McBride's FB site that contains a link to his 1988 C-Span interview

Read Family of Secrets by Russ Baker for a through examination of the generations of the Bush Family

Yes, highly recommended!

Slaughtered relentlessly during the invasion of Kuwait, the Bush administration again lied when it stated that the young conscript army would not be attacked if they left Kuwait without their weapons.

The road to Basra then became a “turkey” shoot.

Body bits scattered all around and the stench of burnt human flesh hunger in the air for days after.

The bourgeois media wants us to forget these appalling war crimes.

They should know: we will not!

Never has someone been able to hide his true personality from the public as well as GHWB. He even denied his involvement with the CIA (which went back to the early 1950's) from the public. The Phoenix Program, the alleged involvement in the death of JFK, Operation Condor. It goes on and on. Read about the Bush Family inFamily of Secrets by Russ Baker.

Yes.I put it to the readers of the wsws that he went to the grave knowing who the murderers were of both JFK and RFK.

I notice that - as with John McCain - much of the praise for Bush -- that he was "decent", "patriotic", "honorable", "loved his family" etc. -- has the convenient feature of leaving out any description of his policies.

I read in a Counterpunch essay this morning (and I'm not going to bother confirming it) that in an interview yesterday Doris Kearns Goodwin lovingly mentioned that George H.W. Bush, "liked to wear socks."

Chris Matthews on MSNBC hosts a show called Hardball where he claims to ask those hardball questions which no one else asks. But what he, along with the rest of the compliant media, will not do is to raise these issues about George H.W. Bush which the wsws has incisively brought up here.

You are 100% correct. However, if they do raise these questions they will do so at their own peril. See Dan Rather's reporting of Bush 41"s military service record.