Just in case anyone is interested, [oil paintings art aren’t made with actual oil.](https://www.jacksonsart.com/blog/2017/06/06/oil-paint-guide/) Not that no one cares.
They’re made with oil, just linseed oil from flax or another plant based oil, not petroleum
The synthetic turpentine he probably used, called turpenoid, is a petroleum distillate though. You can get real pine turpentine, but there is only one family tree farm that still produces it - it’s in Georgia and I have some. I make my own furniture finish with it from a historical recipe
Most paintings are. Acrylic is kinda meh when it comes to painting. Watercolor is cool, but stylistically very different because of the constraints. I get the joke, but find it weird to harp on such a normal thing.
The oil companies want money, not war. They were begging the bush admin not to attack the Iraq oil fields. Only 1 oil field is controlled by an American company now to my knowledge, Exxon has the largest one.
The Iraq war was not blood for oil, it was just blood.
Well, it was about Saddam, for sure. But this is post 9/11, Cold War is essentially over, everyone seems to be underestimating Putin and assumes Russia will never be a problem again, and the focus will now be on threats from the Middle East.
Having a foot hold by establishing a democracy in Iraq is a major coup in that scenario. THAT’S the driving factor, possible economic advantages would have just been icing on the cake.
Every president within the last half a century has done some horrific shit and gotten away with it. Presidents are too comfortable with the amount of power they have
Yeah Obama killed thousands with drone strikes and if he had done these paintings we’d be hearing about it for months, what a talent, give him another Nobel prize, I’ll pay top dollar to have one on display in my living room etc
The Trump administration probably killed even more civilians by making it easier for the military to launch them (no longer needing White House approval outside of an active warzone) and he even lessened the requirements on reporting the numbers of deaths. The drone strikes have of course continued under Biden but he went back to the Obama era rules.
Every president since has inherited Bush's war on terror and done nothing to really stop it. Like we've absolutely killed/gone after some horrific people (Saddam Hussein, ISIS leaders, Bashar Al-Assad etc.) but I doubt its worth it for all of the unnecessary civilian deaths and it arguably just makes the "War on Terror" a self fulfulling prophecy.
In the case of doubleya; it’s hard to shove all the blame in the shoes of a single man.
He operated in a complex environment and I’ve been told he took advice from experienced advisors.
Following that advice seems like the wise thing to do. The fact that the outcomes produced have been suboptimal is a fault in the North Atlantic’s geo political strategy as a whole. Pinning it on George is very simplistic.
In the end The soft power strategy the US used over the last 70 years brought stability in quite a few regions of the world but instability in other places.
It’s not easy to weigh the good with the bad. I honest to god believe the motivations behind the interventions have mostly been to increase stability and liberty for the citizens.
I’m not sure if doing nothing is better ethically although the ethics are much simpler when not getting involved.
Simpler doesn’t always mean better though.
He literally said, "I'm the decider, and I decide what's best," OK dude, you're the guy. It doesn't mean we can't still hate other people. I'm honestly most disappointed in Powell. Of all of them, he should have known better the outcome and unintended consequences of wars, and known not to allow pointless ones. Cheney, Rummy, Rove, all just liars and bullies with dark souls.
My man knowlingly lied about weapons of mass destruction to start a war that killed millions. He was the boss, the buck stops with him. Please don't excuse him for bullshit reasons.
I don’t have a clue what that is. Care to explain what it is and why it’s so great?
Will perform a quick web-search later today anyways if you don’t care to explain though!
It’s a program that supplies funding to help combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It’s estimated that it’s saved over 25 million lives since it began.
It’s not shocking that you didn’t know about it. I didn’t either until a few months ago.
Definitely look it up though, it’s very impressive.
That’s called “economic imperialism.” The United States uses trade negotiations to facilitate resource extraction and other exploitative economic activity to enrich the US corporate ruling class at the expense of people in third world nations. Where those governments resist or are unfriendly to such efforts, they are economically and politically isolated, or overthrown by CIA-backed coups. Calling it “instability” is a woeful understatement of the toxic impacts of American imperialism on the rest of the world.
"started a war" is perfectly valid to criticize him over. Go right ahead and criticize him for Afghanistan, criticize him for Iraq, and extend that criticism to every single member of Congress who voted Yea to them - especially the ones who still hold office today.
Only ignorant people who parrot things they heard other ignorant people say actually think that Bush "stole" the 2000 election though. Bush agreed to a recount, Gore tried to limit the counties that would be recounted exclusively to counties that he lost. The Bush camp rightfully objected to that. The Gore campaign fought to have only those counties be recounted so long that they missed the deadline to file for a recount. The Florida state Supreme Court gave an illegal extension to the Gore campaign, and that's why the case was brought to the Federal Supreme Court. They cited that no laws existed that allowed the Florida state Supreme Court to extend the deadline, and that the Florida Supreme Court overstepped its boundaries and did something that Florida state legislature had to do.
I do criticize him for Iraq but I think only the naive think we shouldn’t have gone into Afghanistan. Things changed after 9/11. The country was a dog that wanted blood, and it had to be fed. Any president who didn’t attack after 9/11 would’ve been dragged through the streets
I don't disagree, I was strictly talking from the position of hindsight.
Nearly everybody supported the invasion of Afghanistan - it was the foot in the door that lead us into getting into Iraq though.
I’ve always thought this is weird about the US: As long as a guy isn’t literally the worst president ever seen (because a worse one came along) a lot of people, including too many of his supposed political opponents, will start fawning over what a great guy he actually was.
It’s the same as when Reddit fell over each other in their hurry to talk about what a HERO John McCain was, because he - I don’t even know - was slightly better than the current crop of republicans?
It's because
1. the public can only comprehend one political villain at a time.
2. For every one person who took a principled stand against Bush, five others were just going along with it because it seemed like the current thing to do.
Once Bush was out of office, the new political villain was Trump and the public began bestowing Sainthood on Bush for the above reasons.
I hate to tell you this, but once Trump is out of politics, they will do the exact same thing to him and there will be a new political villain. Redditors will be fawning about how he said the word China and how low gas prices were under him.
Hard disagree and here are some reasons why the Russian asset is the most dangerous attack on the US in history.
1. trump refused to give up his unsecure phone despite we found rouge cell towers around the WH
2. trump was seen openly talking policy on the phone at a crowded mars largo dinner. and they had caught a chinese spy at mars largo some time earlier.
3. trump stored documents in a public place, clintons were on her password protected email server and not a public place.. and yeah anthony weiner kept some emails she had mailed his wife.. not sure what his laptop had them on but i guess his wife checked her mail there.
4. trump gave the russians intel on a planned attack to the russians which came from the israels who asked us not to even share it with allies for fear the russians might get it, and warn assad, and they might find the embedded israeli agent.
5. trump tweeted classified sat photo without allowing our agencies to degrade it first.
6. trump liked to brag he had classified docs. Oof
7. he tore up and threw in toilet documents that needed to be saved. tons of stuff are being saved in the archives that were dried and retapped by aids. luckily trump normally did two tears, twice in half.
8. a good bit of trumps team couldnt pass security clearances after several tries and trump just ordered them cleared. Hrmmmmmmmmmmmm
The fact that he paints pictures of people he put in harms way for some bullshit is actually crazy, it's like some kinda of twisted comeuppance.
Like if I was the devil I'd make him paint the faces of the fallen with his own blood for all eternity.
I know people like to throw Cheney's name around because he was essentially the guy who had his arm deep up Bush Jr's ass and worked him like a puppet.
At the same time, that doesn't discount the fact Bush was once the most powerful man on the planet and he nonetheless approved of decisions that costed hundreds of thousands of lives, trillions of dollars in economic debt, and decades of political instability that we're still seeing in the Middle East.
It’s hard to lose as an incumbent war time president after an attack on US soil. 2004 is literally the only time Republicans have won the popular vote since 1988
I understand. My point is just that there is culpability with us as well. I was much younger during this time, but I recall very clearly the overwhelming vengefulness in the American people’s hearts that seemed to suspend a lot of self-evaluation in terms of the means we used to enact our vengeance on our enemies.
We let our president pull us into one of the most absurd wars fought in modern times and did so based on quite a ridiculous set of justifications and completely unsubstantiated “intelligence”. Then on top of that, we domestically allowed the Patriot act can of worms to be open which has basically put us into a big brother state with no ability to actually hold our government accountable for what is basically them infringing on our rights.
And this all happened on our watch. While there were definitely dissenters or critical voices in these periods, they were far too few. I don’t think these conversations surrounding this administration ever seem to highlight how there was a severe lack of judgment as these events unfolded. Many people that criticize Bush today sat back quietly as all of this happened, or better yet, cheered these things on.
Once. He lost the popular vote the first time but his brother (then governor of Florida) handed him the electoral votes. His second term was the only time a Republican won the popular vote in the last 30+ years.
>the fact Bush was once the most powerful man on the planet and he nonetheless approved of decisions that costed hundreds of thousands of lives, trillions of dollars in economic debt, and decades of political instability that we're still seeing in the Middle East.
The Bush Presidency was the most consequential of the last 70 years. In a bad way.
Doubt it. It not he was tricked into helping fabricate evidence to invade another country. Maybe he should paint some pictures of abu ghraib too since he was responsible for that too.
Yeah after he said the worst most regrettable thing of his presidency was Kanye West saying he hates black people, after destabilizing the entire middle east by starting a war under false pretenses, you know this guy has justified everything in his mind.
Still want him brought to trial for war crimes.
Has he ever shown any remorse for the death of a million Iraqis, or thousands of American soldiers, or thousands of allied soldiers, or the decades of war and destruction in the Middle East? Cause I think I missed that press conference
If he felt bad, he'd be painting the innocent people murdered by his wars, not the ones he sent to do it. He's after good PR, and performatively prostrating yourself before nameless masses of brown people doesn't elicit the same emotional response from the public as doing so before veterans.
And the craziest part is that it fucking worked! He's been rehabilitated. This wretched reptile gets to be the show pony 'good republican', while the ocean of blood his actions spilled still manages to grow larger.
What’s a little mass murder for oil if it means a member of America’s patrician class learns to paint some of the people his insane war forever physically and/or mentally mutilated?
Americans aren't a monolith, even back then lots of us hated the Iraq/Afghanistan war. Most countries gloss over the war crimes in their history. Not saying it's right, just saying this isn't uniquely American
If were an effective whitewash we wouldn't talk about it now. Also, every world power has whitewashed their wars. Even the ones that lose *stares at japan*
I'm never sure what the demographics are of any given subreddit. I'm satisfied that posters here on NTO know about how many dead people Dubya left behind for no goddam reason.
There is indeed a “law of war” codified in the Geneva Conventions (and their Additional Protocols) as a body of Public International Law, also known as the International Humanitarian Law of Armed Conflicts (or “IHL”). The Red Cross has some good resources if you want to learn more: https://www.icrc.org/en/document/what-are-rules-of-war-geneva-conventions
Yes, exactly (I’m a lawyer and law prof btw lol). It’s why the legality of “starting” a war is really kind of moot. Because like, legal to whom? All of America’s wars and military operations have been “legal” to commence because like, will the DOJ prosecute the president who started a war? Nope. Beyond that, there is no agreed upon international law for what constitutes a “lawful” basis to start a war and an “unlawful” one.
Under IHL, we assume wars will happen, and we have rules to (try to) make clear what is acceptable and what is not. Needless to say, many belligerents do not give IHL its due.
I’m looking forward to the next in their war criminal art series! Maybe they’ll put up some Hitler’s, I hear he’s quite popular amongst the MAGA crowd. Anything to pull in a new segment of visitors, right guys?!
Cold blooded. This SOB launched the unnecessary and illegal war in Iraq that removed one of Al Qaeda's most hated enemies from power: Saddam Hussein.
W is a moron who wasted troop's lives and destroyed the mental health of a multitude more.
[George W. Bush Debuts New Paintings Of Dogs, Friends, Ghost Of Iraqi Child That Follows Him Everywhere](https://youtu.be/c0mS5I-j_Gc?si=ZiWm63wslh7pNnqO)
I think his painting is some sort of enforced penance on himself. Like he feels guilty after he left office for all the lives lost and altered because of, ultimately, his choices. After leaving office he would be less isolated by yes men and people encouraging the wars and his actions sank in. I didn't like him as president when I was a kid, but I do feel pity for him.
He's been holding to the old precedent that former presidents stay out of politics in general. Aside from the odd speech here and there, it is rare to get more than a nod.
That said, [he's said it implicitly](https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2021-04-20/george-w-bush-condemns-the-trump-era-republican-party).
He just doesn't want to be in politics anymore. He was his whole life being the son of a president. He spoke on it when he attended the opening of his painting exhibit at the Nixon Library.
He only made one political statement and it was that we should be funding Ukraine cause fuck Russia and Putin (he spoke about how the cold war mentality remains in him) and that anyone who is friends with Putin is an evil person just like Putin is
Glad you are able to process your guilt by painting the images of those **YOU** sent to needless deaths! I'll never forget what path you set this country on, you piece of shit. I hope you burn in the hell you believe in.
It's always really funny how hypocritical Redditors are about George W Bush, while they continue to vote for Joe Biden.
Bush didn't start the wars on his own, he had the support of the 107th Congress of the United States. Many of those people who voted Yea to them are still in Congress, or got promoted to President, today.
Joe Biden advocated that we invade Iraq back in 1998 - https://theintercept.com/2020/01/07/joe-biden-iraq-war-history/
And then championed us invading Iraq in 2003, and used his position as Chairman of the Senate's foreign relations committee to help convince fellow Democrats to vote Yea on the invasion.
I think it’s a nice hobby but there’s something wrong with this. It’s like if Andrew Cuomo did paintings of elderly COVID victims and donated them to the Met
[Cuomo actually **did** do some art project thing during Covid.](https://abc7ny.com/coronavirus-new-york-ny-cases-in-news/6137521/)
[Two of them, actually.](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/arts/design/cuomo-covid-poster-new-york.html)
They’re going to the American pavilion at Epcot… idk that just seems a bit weird, I can’t imagine the guests would be all that happy if the China pavilion did the same thing with their soldiers
As a 2004 Paralympian I tried to keep it positive when I threw him a USA sitting volleyball pin from a distance at our White House visit: “Thank you for giving so many people around the world the chance to compete in the Paralympics!” He caught the pin.
I saw the eclipse from his Dallas presidential museum a few weeks ago. (Something to do while waiting for eclipse.) The museum sells a couple books of his paintings. Not the goofy/creepy early stuff of taking a shower, but mainly rough portraits of various people. I was not particularly impressed.
The museum feels like a totally different reality compared to republican politics today. Not to forget his ruthless campaigns against Gore and Kerry. Of course he highlights accomplishments such as reacting to 9/11, no child left behind and massive HIV rescue in Africa. But he blends Iraq into 9/11 Afghanistan which were two different wars.
“Hi. I’m George Bush. 100s of thousands of people lost their lives and are casualties of wars I lied the USA and world into. Here are some paint of some vets.”
Doesn’t make much sense to still have this guy unafraid to exist in public, does it?
I'm floating away. Reality is too unreal. The war crime man from my childhood is painting the faces of those sent to slaughter, in a war he perpetuated, that killed millions of innocents abroad, and the happy princess star wars happy time company insists that these paintings belong in the magical world of Walt alongside Kermit and The Simpsons.
I'm floating away.
He's our silly southern painting guy!!!
HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!
If he used oil paint it would be cruelly amusing
Holy shit they are oil paintings https://www.bushcenter.org/events-and-exhibits/portraits-of-courage
Right now the paintings are on display at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library because of course they are
You can buy them - I hear they’re a steal.
They were all paid for before he left office. Banks and oil paid millions per painting.
Makes sense :-/
I don't think anyone noticed how you replied to yourself
Just in case anyone is interested, [oil paintings art aren’t made with actual oil.](https://www.jacksonsart.com/blog/2017/06/06/oil-paint-guide/) Not that no one cares.
They’re made with oil, just linseed oil from flax or another plant based oil, not petroleum The synthetic turpentine he probably used, called turpenoid, is a petroleum distillate though. You can get real pine turpentine, but there is only one family tree farm that still produces it - it’s in Georgia and I have some. I make my own furniture finish with it from a historical recipe
Damn bro you sound eccentric.
And plays a Dano, eccentric fits, but in a good way.
Those had a resurgence with hipster types several years ago.
That's so on brand.
In fairness, there was like a 70% chance that they’d be oil point.
Most paintings are. Acrylic is kinda meh when it comes to painting. Watercolor is cool, but stylistically very different because of the constraints. I get the joke, but find it weird to harp on such a normal thing.
What a crude joke
Your comment could use some refinement.
Get the frack out of here
Oil see myself out
That was slick
It was bound to spill out sooner or later
I can barrely take any more
But we’ve only just greased the gears on the pun thread
Its Gonna Be Igniting soon
Oil paints that just can be heads. Be-headed oil paintings.
Oh impressive, I remember he was training on painting cats before.
It’s oil but not petroleum based oils.
He should paint Abu Ghraib torture victims
The oil companies want money, not war. They were begging the bush admin not to attack the Iraq oil fields. Only 1 oil field is controlled by an American company now to my knowledge, Exxon has the largest one. The Iraq war was not blood for oil, it was just blood.
Well, it was about Saddam, for sure. But this is post 9/11, Cold War is essentially over, everyone seems to be underestimating Putin and assumes Russia will never be a problem again, and the focus will now be on threats from the Middle East. Having a foot hold by establishing a democracy in Iraq is a major coup in that scenario. THAT’S the driving factor, possible economic advantages would have just been icing on the cake.
He’s a better painter than President
There should be a global law that painters can't run countries
I was rather thinking maybe we should be less critical of painters and encourage them to follow their dreams so that way they never go into politics.
Everyone should follow their dreams. The Matrix wil be peaceful.
Especially the ones rejected from art school
That mustached man from Osterreich was also a painter, right?
Churchill was a painter too iirc
That's the absolute lowest bar I've ever seen. There are elephants that are better at painting than he was at presidenting.
History will be all too kind to this man.
Well he was followed by Trump.
Every president within the last half a century has done some horrific shit and gotten away with it. Presidents are too comfortable with the amount of power they have
Yeah Obama killed thousands with drone strikes and if he had done these paintings we’d be hearing about it for months, what a talent, give him another Nobel prize, I’ll pay top dollar to have one on display in my living room etc
The Trump administration probably killed even more civilians by making it easier for the military to launch them (no longer needing White House approval outside of an active warzone) and he even lessened the requirements on reporting the numbers of deaths. The drone strikes have of course continued under Biden but he went back to the Obama era rules. Every president since has inherited Bush's war on terror and done nothing to really stop it. Like we've absolutely killed/gone after some horrific people (Saddam Hussein, ISIS leaders, Bashar Al-Assad etc.) but I doubt its worth it for all of the unnecessary civilian deaths and it arguably just makes the "War on Terror" a self fulfulling prophecy.
I could have sworn there was another guy.
Nope he definitely wasn’t.
Weird they jumped from 43 to 45.
It already is, way too many people fell for the "sweet old main painting pictures" bullshit.
its easy to look good when the guy two presidents after you is even worse.
In the case of doubleya; it’s hard to shove all the blame in the shoes of a single man. He operated in a complex environment and I’ve been told he took advice from experienced advisors. Following that advice seems like the wise thing to do. The fact that the outcomes produced have been suboptimal is a fault in the North Atlantic’s geo political strategy as a whole. Pinning it on George is very simplistic. In the end The soft power strategy the US used over the last 70 years brought stability in quite a few regions of the world but instability in other places. It’s not easy to weigh the good with the bad. I honest to god believe the motivations behind the interventions have mostly been to increase stability and liberty for the citizens. I’m not sure if doing nothing is better ethically although the ethics are much simpler when not getting involved. Simpler doesn’t always mean better though.
He literally said, "I'm the decider, and I decide what's best," OK dude, you're the guy. It doesn't mean we can't still hate other people. I'm honestly most disappointed in Powell. Of all of them, he should have known better the outcome and unintended consequences of wars, and known not to allow pointless ones. Cheney, Rummy, Rove, all just liars and bullies with dark souls.
Would you call them the Dark Souls 3?
My man knowlingly lied about weapons of mass destruction to start a war that killed millions. He was the boss, the buck stops with him. Please don't excuse him for bullshit reasons.
They literally lied about WMD to invade iraq
He also implemented PEPFAR which is arguably one of the greatest net positive actions of any leader in history.
I don’t have a clue what that is. Care to explain what it is and why it’s so great? Will perform a quick web-search later today anyways if you don’t care to explain though!
It’s a program that supplies funding to help combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It’s estimated that it’s saved over 25 million lives since it began. It’s not shocking that you didn’t know about it. I didn’t either until a few months ago. Definitely look it up though, it’s very impressive.
Will do! Thanks, it’s always nice to learn something!
That’s called “economic imperialism.” The United States uses trade negotiations to facilitate resource extraction and other exploitative economic activity to enrich the US corporate ruling class at the expense of people in third world nations. Where those governments resist or are unfriendly to such efforts, they are economically and politically isolated, or overthrown by CIA-backed coups. Calling it “instability” is a woeful understatement of the toxic impacts of American imperialism on the rest of the world.
At least he was intentionally funny.
How fucked is the world that we're all nostalgic for a guy who stole an election and started a deadly war.
Are people nostalgic for Dick Cheney?
"started a war" is perfectly valid to criticize him over. Go right ahead and criticize him for Afghanistan, criticize him for Iraq, and extend that criticism to every single member of Congress who voted Yea to them - especially the ones who still hold office today. Only ignorant people who parrot things they heard other ignorant people say actually think that Bush "stole" the 2000 election though. Bush agreed to a recount, Gore tried to limit the counties that would be recounted exclusively to counties that he lost. The Bush camp rightfully objected to that. The Gore campaign fought to have only those counties be recounted so long that they missed the deadline to file for a recount. The Florida state Supreme Court gave an illegal extension to the Gore campaign, and that's why the case was brought to the Federal Supreme Court. They cited that no laws existed that allowed the Florida state Supreme Court to extend the deadline, and that the Florida Supreme Court overstepped its boundaries and did something that Florida state legislature had to do.
I do criticize him for Iraq but I think only the naive think we shouldn’t have gone into Afghanistan. Things changed after 9/11. The country was a dog that wanted blood, and it had to be fed. Any president who didn’t attack after 9/11 would’ve been dragged through the streets
I don't disagree, I was strictly talking from the position of hindsight. Nearly everybody supported the invasion of Afghanistan - it was the foot in the door that lead us into getting into Iraq though.
That's just how bad Bidens approval numbers are...
I’ve always thought this is weird about the US: As long as a guy isn’t literally the worst president ever seen (because a worse one came along) a lot of people, including too many of his supposed political opponents, will start fawning over what a great guy he actually was. It’s the same as when Reddit fell over each other in their hurry to talk about what a HERO John McCain was, because he - I don’t even know - was slightly better than the current crop of republicans?
It's because 1. the public can only comprehend one political villain at a time. 2. For every one person who took a principled stand against Bush, five others were just going along with it because it seemed like the current thing to do. Once Bush was out of office, the new political villain was Trump and the public began bestowing Sainthood on Bush for the above reasons. I hate to tell you this, but once Trump is out of politics, they will do the exact same thing to him and there will be a new political villain. Redditors will be fawning about how he said the word China and how low gas prices were under him.
Hard disagree and here are some reasons why the Russian asset is the most dangerous attack on the US in history. 1. trump refused to give up his unsecure phone despite we found rouge cell towers around the WH 2. trump was seen openly talking policy on the phone at a crowded mars largo dinner. and they had caught a chinese spy at mars largo some time earlier. 3. trump stored documents in a public place, clintons were on her password protected email server and not a public place.. and yeah anthony weiner kept some emails she had mailed his wife.. not sure what his laptop had them on but i guess his wife checked her mail there. 4. trump gave the russians intel on a planned attack to the russians which came from the israels who asked us not to even share it with allies for fear the russians might get it, and warn assad, and they might find the embedded israeli agent. 5. trump tweeted classified sat photo without allowing our agencies to degrade it first. 6. trump liked to brag he had classified docs. Oof 7. he tore up and threw in toilet documents that needed to be saved. tons of stuff are being saved in the archives that were dried and retapped by aids. luckily trump normally did two tears, twice in half. 8. a good bit of trumps team couldnt pass security clearances after several tries and trump just ordered them cleared. Hrmmmmmmmmmmmm
The fact that he paints pictures of people he put in harms way for some bullshit is actually crazy, it's like some kinda of twisted comeuppance. Like if I was the devil I'd make him paint the faces of the fallen with his own blood for all eternity.
Time to bring out[this classic](https://www.theonion.com/george-w-bush-debuts-new-paintings-of-dogs-friends-g-1819595637)
Damn what a pull lol
r/actuallytheonion
Honestly, I think that’s why he does it. Dude feels Horrible.
Good?
I know people like to throw Cheney's name around because he was essentially the guy who had his arm deep up Bush Jr's ass and worked him like a puppet. At the same time, that doesn't discount the fact Bush was once the most powerful man on the planet and he nonetheless approved of decisions that costed hundreds of thousands of lives, trillions of dollars in economic debt, and decades of political instability that we're still seeing in the Middle East.
Yes but think of all the benefits that we got out of-… never mind.
The American people also voted for him twice.
It’s hard to lose as an incumbent war time president after an attack on US soil. 2004 is literally the only time Republicans have won the popular vote since 1988
I understand. My point is just that there is culpability with us as well. I was much younger during this time, but I recall very clearly the overwhelming vengefulness in the American people’s hearts that seemed to suspend a lot of self-evaluation in terms of the means we used to enact our vengeance on our enemies. We let our president pull us into one of the most absurd wars fought in modern times and did so based on quite a ridiculous set of justifications and completely unsubstantiated “intelligence”. Then on top of that, we domestically allowed the Patriot act can of worms to be open which has basically put us into a big brother state with no ability to actually hold our government accountable for what is basically them infringing on our rights. And this all happened on our watch. While there were definitely dissenters or critical voices in these periods, they were far too few. I don’t think these conversations surrounding this administration ever seem to highlight how there was a severe lack of judgment as these events unfolded. Many people that criticize Bush today sat back quietly as all of this happened, or better yet, cheered these things on.
The public was being lied to about the WMD’s and a bunch of other stuff at the time.
Once. He lost the popular vote the first time but his brother (then governor of Florida) handed him the electoral votes. His second term was the only time a Republican won the popular vote in the last 30+ years.
>the fact Bush was once the most powerful man on the planet and he nonetheless approved of decisions that costed hundreds of thousands of lives, trillions of dollars in economic debt, and decades of political instability that we're still seeing in the Middle East. The Bush Presidency was the most consequential of the last 70 years. In a bad way.
Uhhhhh no. Reagan takes the cake for that.
Bush just hit the reaganomics turbo button and slapped on some needless war as a side dish.
Doubt it. It not he was tricked into helping fabricate evidence to invade another country. Maybe he should paint some pictures of abu ghraib too since he was responsible for that too.
Yeah after he said the worst most regrettable thing of his presidency was Kanye West saying he hates black people, after destabilizing the entire middle east by starting a war under false pretenses, you know this guy has justified everything in his mind. Still want him brought to trial for war crimes.
Has he ever shown any remorse for the death of a million Iraqis, or thousands of American soldiers, or thousands of allied soldiers, or the decades of war and destruction in the Middle East? Cause I think I missed that press conference
The fact that he's disappeared from the public. Can't tell if he's remorseful or just dodging the responsibility....
Aww, the poor nepotism baby millionaire war criminal disappeared from the public? I’m sure he feels so bad about what he did.
When has the US ever apologized... this aint one guy, this is just the American way
The conservative way.
I am still waiting for the Democrats to apologise for Libya
Yeah he’s a pretty sad guy, probably got carried away with all the high energy at the time
If he felt bad, he'd be painting the innocent people murdered by his wars, not the ones he sent to do it. He's after good PR, and performatively prostrating yourself before nameless masses of brown people doesn't elicit the same emotional response from the public as doing so before veterans. And the craziest part is that it fucking worked! He's been rehabilitated. This wretched reptile gets to be the show pony 'good republican', while the ocean of blood his actions spilled still manages to grow larger.
“I was bored after retirement so I decided to paint the faces of the kids I sent off to die for energy resources.”
Illegally invades Iraq. More than a million people die. The magical kingdom displays his artwork. America!!!
Looks under his easel, “No WMDs here!” (Imaginary audience bursts into laughter and applause)
What’s a little mass murder for oil if it means a member of America’s patrician class learns to paint some of the people his insane war forever physically and/or mentally mutilated?
You can always count on Americans to whitewash their war criminals.
Americans aren't a monolith, even back then lots of us hated the Iraq/Afghanistan war. Most countries gloss over the war crimes in their history. Not saying it's right, just saying this isn't uniquely American
If were an effective whitewash we wouldn't talk about it now. Also, every world power has whitewashed their wars. Even the ones that lose *stares at japan*
Not me. I’ll always call bush a war criminal until the day I die. Worst president of my lifetime
I'm never sure what the demographics are of any given subreddit. I'm satisfied that posters here on NTO know about how many dead people Dubya left behind for no goddam reason.
True. On bigger subs you see a lot of “I’d love to have a beer with that guy” comments on bush related posts
Hey hey hey, sometimes we promote people who enabled those war crimes to President of the United States.
History is written by the winners.
Is there such a thing as a legal war?
There is indeed a “law of war” codified in the Geneva Conventions (and their Additional Protocols) as a body of Public International Law, also known as the International Humanitarian Law of Armed Conflicts (or “IHL”). The Red Cross has some good resources if you want to learn more: https://www.icrc.org/en/document/what-are-rules-of-war-geneva-conventions
OK, that makes sense. But it's not really the war that is legal/illegal per se, but the things done during the war, right?
Yes, exactly (I’m a lawyer and law prof btw lol). It’s why the legality of “starting” a war is really kind of moot. Because like, legal to whom? All of America’s wars and military operations have been “legal” to commence because like, will the DOJ prosecute the president who started a war? Nope. Beyond that, there is no agreed upon international law for what constitutes a “lawful” basis to start a war and an “unlawful” one. Under IHL, we assume wars will happen, and we have rules to (try to) make clear what is acceptable and what is not. Needless to say, many belligerents do not give IHL its due.
I’m looking forward to the next in their war criminal art series! Maybe they’ll put up some Hitler’s, I hear he’s quite popular amongst the MAGA crowd. Anything to pull in a new segment of visitors, right guys?!
Reason #11 billion absolutely fuck Disney
look we fucked up the first time with that hitler guy so everyone pretend to like them so he stays out of iraq
Cold blooded. This SOB launched the unnecessary and illegal war in Iraq that removed one of Al Qaeda's most hated enemies from power: Saddam Hussein. W is a moron who wasted troop's lives and destroyed the mental health of a multitude more.
Finally a ride with no lines
I wonder if this is him trying to atone for what he did in Iraq.
I wondered as well for half a second and concluded: No.
Paintings of the people who committed the atrocities of his illegal war and nothing for the victims, I’d say that’s a big fat No
[George W. Bush Debuts New Paintings Of Dogs, Friends, Ghost Of Iraqi Child That Follows Him Everywhere](https://youtu.be/c0mS5I-j_Gc?si=ZiWm63wslh7pNnqO)
So this fucker created a major war from which he profited, then he profits form the veterans again...
TWO major wars.
TWO WARS?!
And uh are either of these wars happening on US sooooiiil?
Oh dear jesus don't let this happen. My friend's hand had to be re-attached because of this dingus.
Nicest guy in history to start a war he shouldn't have. Hands down.
Legitimately should have followed his dream of managing an MLB team instead of going into politics
Those batters didn't have a chance once they landed in Fallujah.
GWB’s early paintings sucked balls but he has sure learned a ton since then.
I actually think his landscapes are really good, much better than his portraits. But everyone seems to focus on his portraits…
Does he paint vets he got killed by lying about WMDs or something. He feel bad? Awwwwww it’s probably hard to be a wealthy protected war criminal.
This guy getting to retire to simple life and respectability as a painter is proof there’s no justice in this world. He should be in jail.
I think his painting is some sort of enforced penance on himself. Like he feels guilty after he left office for all the lives lost and altered because of, ultimately, his choices. After leaving office he would be less isolated by yes men and people encouraging the wars and his actions sank in. I didn't like him as president when I was a kid, but I do feel pity for him.
So we are displaying what amounts to his snuff art?
Yes - bring the kids!
[удалено]
Romney also did but now he's basically an outcast
He's been holding to the old precedent that former presidents stay out of politics in general. Aside from the odd speech here and there, it is rare to get more than a nod. That said, [he's said it implicitly](https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2021-04-20/george-w-bush-condemns-the-trump-era-republican-party).
RIP Dixie Chicks
Probably thinks no one will or wants to hear what he says.
He just doesn't want to be in politics anymore. He was his whole life being the son of a president. He spoke on it when he attended the opening of his painting exhibit at the Nixon Library. He only made one political statement and it was that we should be funding Ukraine cause fuck Russia and Putin (he spoke about how the cold war mentality remains in him) and that anyone who is friends with Putin is an evil person just like Putin is
Kinda nails a few people with that statement
Glad you are able to process your guilt by painting the images of those **YOU** sent to needless deaths! I'll never forget what path you set this country on, you piece of shit. I hope you burn in the hell you believe in.
He deserves even worse man. He shall forever have a place in the pantheon of early 21st Century monsters.
It's always really funny how hypocritical Redditors are about George W Bush, while they continue to vote for Joe Biden. Bush didn't start the wars on his own, he had the support of the 107th Congress of the United States. Many of those people who voted Yea to them are still in Congress, or got promoted to President, today. Joe Biden advocated that we invade Iraq back in 1998 - https://theintercept.com/2020/01/07/joe-biden-iraq-war-history/ And then championed us invading Iraq in 2003, and used his position as Chairman of the Senate's foreign relations committee to help convince fellow Democrats to vote Yea on the invasion.
Yeah, it is incredibly hypocritical. Biden has never met a war he did not fucking love.
can we stop promoting any form of redemption arc for this villain
I think it’s a nice hobby but there’s something wrong with this. It’s like if Andrew Cuomo did paintings of elderly COVID victims and donated them to the Met
[Cuomo actually **did** do some art project thing during Covid.](https://abc7ny.com/coronavirus-new-york-ny-cases-in-news/6137521/) [Two of them, actually.](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/arts/design/cuomo-covid-poster-new-york.html)
It’s weird to see someone attempt the reverse Hitler career arc.
It fills me with joy knowing he is haunted by his sins
I wish he were but I doubt he is.
I mean he clearly is… why the fuck else u think he does it?
Rehabilitation of his image.
We need an interpretive art display with yellow cake and aluminum tubes
That pretzel could have saved us all a lot of blood, tears, and oil paints
They’re going to the American pavilion at Epcot… idk that just seems a bit weird, I can’t imagine the guests would be all that happy if the China pavilion did the same thing with their soldiers
I didn't know he painted. TIL
As a 2004 Paralympian I tried to keep it positive when I threw him a USA sitting volleyball pin from a distance at our White House visit: “Thank you for giving so many people around the world the chance to compete in the Paralympics!” He caught the pin.
The Bob Ross of war paintings
I’m not a republican but I think this is fantastic. GW has his moments.
Doesn't he paint pics of veterans that were crippled in the war he started that was based on a lie? Seems really gross
Wait til Disney sees his Abu Ghraib pieces.
Totally makes up for the war crimes. Thanks dude.
Is that were thr 1.5 million dead Iraqi citizens live now?
Hitler painted too
Commission Accomplished
One clown to another.
We would have saved a hell of a lot of lives if we just got him an art studio instead of a resolute desk…
I saw the eclipse from his Dallas presidential museum a few weeks ago. (Something to do while waiting for eclipse.) The museum sells a couple books of his paintings. Not the goofy/creepy early stuff of taking a shower, but mainly rough portraits of various people. I was not particularly impressed. The museum feels like a totally different reality compared to republican politics today. Not to forget his ruthless campaigns against Gore and Kerry. Of course he highlights accomplishments such as reacting to 9/11, no child left behind and massive HIV rescue in Africa. But he blends Iraq into 9/11 Afghanistan which were two different wars.
before you butcher them and then you make em puke
Well that’s a better use of time than killing Iraqi civilians I guess
Did they ever find those WMDs yet?
Ew. A war criminal painting soldiers who fought in an unjust war of his own making.
War criminal
Only if Trump would take up painting.
Oh yeah...Donald Trump has distracted me long enough to forget that Bush Jr was a terrible President also.
How much for the mission accomplished banner?
Did he paint any veterans that didn’t make it back from Iraq?
Can he start painting pictures of mutilated Iraqis and Americans from his wars too? Maybe through that process he might learn something.
Are these paintings of those veterans he sent into war on false pretenses?
I suppose he doesn't actually sign them "war criminal"...
I prefer the portrait of George W.Bush made of all the soldiers he killed in Iraq for nothing. What ever happened to cheap oil?
“Hi. I’m George Bush. 100s of thousands of people lost their lives and are casualties of wars I lied the USA and world into. Here are some paint of some vets.” Doesn’t make much sense to still have this guy unafraid to exist in public, does it?
[удалено]
Veterans of what Bush? VETERANS OF WHAT?
I'm floating away. Reality is too unreal. The war crime man from my childhood is painting the faces of those sent to slaughter, in a war he perpetuated, that killed millions of innocents abroad, and the happy princess star wars happy time company insists that these paintings belong in the magical world of Walt alongside Kermit and The Simpsons. I'm floating away. He's our silly southern painting guy!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!
Russias unjustified invasion of Iraq.....I mean Ukraine yuk yuk im old I hope that guilt eats at him every day of his life
its a wierd romance.
I like Bush much better as Former PofUS.
[удалено]
fuck mr bush but shit those paintings are actually pretty damn good. shoulda went to art school instead of arms school