I Never Thought I Would Be Sayin' This

Maybe it is sort of like a broken clock.

Accurate twice a day as long as you don't attend to the Anno or Post business.

Before we dive in, do any of you recall the song My Grandfather's Clock?  I had not thought of it for years and yet it came upon me almost complete a couple months ago.  I heard a lot of fun anachronistic music growing up.

I dare not dwell on my abhorrence for the wholly gag-worthy trumpomania.  Leaving aside the all-too-numerous unnecessary wars our country has promulgated since the early 1960's, his campaign might leave the biggest single stain on the reputation of our country as a supposed bulwark and model of actual democracy and openness since the reign of reagan and before that of the noxious nixon.

Donald Trump, for all his obnoxious demagoguery, is adding value to the presidential campaign by calling former President George W. Bush to account for 9/11 and the Iraq war, which set in motion the growth and spread of al-Qaeda and the rise of the Islamic State. Former U.S. rulers rarely face consequences for the horrible things they do in office. Condemnation is considered impolite.

So good for Trump. Unfortunately, he shows no sign of having done his homework; so his charges against Bush are little more than soundbites, allowing Bush defenders to dismiss Trump as a kook. But this time he is not a kook.

Trump presumably does not mean that Bush knew where and when al-Qaeda would attack. Detailed foreknowledge is not part of the case against Bush. All we need to know is that Bush and his top people, starting with Vice President Dick Cheney, were too busy in their first eight months in office to bother about al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. Too busy doing what? Among other things, they were too busy looking for an excuse to overthrow Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

So excellent to hear the leading candidate of the party that has gone completely off the rails, no matter how loathsome he is as a person and demagogue and etc. actually speak those words.  The "party" whose banner he has more or less stolen is now conspicuously crippled by the spawn of their own long-time insistence on using hate-mongering, racism, and fear to motivate their pitifully whiny entitled white male former majority.