RUTHFULLY YOURS

The Associated Press is trying to make hay out of a non-issue, highlighting that former President George W. Bush is somehow at odds with the Trump administration over the issue of Russian election meddling.

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Former President George W. Bush said on Thursday that “there’s pretty clear evidence that the Russians meddled” in the 2016 American presidential election, forcefully rebutting fellow Republican Donald Trump’s denials of Moscow trying to affect the vote.

While never mentioning President Trump by name, Bush appeared to be pushing back on Trump’s attempts to have warmer relations with Russia, as well as his comments on immigration.

Actually, none of this describes reality. Did he really forcefully push? AP gave no evidence of that in its story. Meanwhile, Trump, via his United Nations ambassador, Nikki Haley, and others, has condemned in downright overharsh terms the Russian electoral meddling problem. What’s more, relations with Russia are the frostiest they’ve ever been, as the full shutdown of the Russian consulates in San Francisco and elsewhere – as well as the word of my own Russian sources – would suggest. There’s no daylight on the issue, so score nothing on the ignorant and ideologically motivated Associated Press piece.

Actually, it sounds like the AP was trying to make news out of a lot of non-news. The subject at hand was George W. Bush’s speaking engagement in Abu Dhabi, which was put on by the Milken Institute. Though I suspect he was paid well to attend this event, which was dubbed ‘A Conversation with George W. Bush, 43rd President of the United States.‘ I couldn’t find any evidence of quid pro quo, the delayed bribery of high-paid speeches that made his father as well as Bill Clinton and Barack Obama so famous in their post-presidencies. The Milken Institute is reputable and so far as I can tell, there wasn’t any. The AP didn’t have any news there.

But there was real news in that event. It was how old and tired Dubya looked and how little he had to say. Milken obviously paid a lot for nothing, given that Bush had nothing new to say, except perhaps the knowledge that Bush hadn’t grown any in his post-presidency. Every single thing Bush said in fact was some trope he said earlier. Nothing revealed a scintilla of new thinking in him after the nightmare of the Obama years and the resulting ascent of President Trump. Nothing. Like the Bourbons, he’s learnt nothing and forgotten nothing.

“There’s pretty clear evidence that the Russians meddled,” Bush said at a talk in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. “Whether they affected the outcome is another question.”

File under Captain Obvious.

Speaking of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Bush called him “zero-sum.”

“He’s got a chip on his shoulder,” Bush said of Putin. “The reason he does is because of the demise of the Soviet Union troubles him. Therefore, much of his moves (are) to regain Soviet hegemony.”

Something that came out decades ago when Putin lamented the demise of the Soviet Union. No perspective on what Putin (who suppressed any celebration of the 1917 Russian revolution) might think today. Bush wouldn’t have any idea about it.

Putin “is pushing, constantly pushing, probing weaknesses,” the former president said. “That’s why NATO is very important.”

The old Rumsfeld trop about weakness provocative, plus the unquestioning loyalty to multilateral institutions, never mind that most of NATO never bothers fulfilling the money aspect of its obligations. Too easy to dump them on us. More history passing Bush by.

Bush also criticized Trump’s decision to scrap a program implemented by former President Barack Obama’s administration that allows young immigrants living in the U.S. illegally who were brought here as children to remain in America.

“America’s their home,” the 43rd American president said. “They’ve got to get it fixed.”

Got to get it fixed? Fix what? The broken law, the broken border, or the problems it’s created for those who fail to follow the law? Remember how Bush couldn’t articulate his views and as a result got nothing done?

Bush also criticized Trump’s decision to scrap a program implemented by former President Barack Obama’s administration that allows young immigrants living in the U.S. illegally who were brought here as children to remain in America.

“America’s their home,” the 43rd American president said. “They’ve got to get it fixed.”

Bush acknowledged that he tried to overhaul America’s “broken” immigration system, but failed.

“There are people willing to do jobs that Americans won’t do,” he said. “Americans don’t want to pick cotton at 105 degrees (Fahrenheit), but there are people who want put food on their family’s tables and are willing to do that. We ought to say thank you and welcome them.”

Absolutely mummified view of illegals, romantically imagining they are all lettuce pickers who want to put food on their tables. Does he know about the people in factories who displace low-wage African Americans? The many-degreed DREAMers who get free rides through college while American kids carry tens of thousands in debt? Does he mean the charmers who murdered Kate Steinle and now the Indiana Colts football player, continuously coming back after deportation? Does he even know that the proposed reforms on the table all include provisions for the agricultural workers, whose work indeed is valuable? If every illegal were a lettuce picker, we would not see the mass opposition we now see to illegal immigration and an unguarded border. But all of that is too complext for Dubya, who is old, tired and out of ideas.

He’s just busy collecting speaker fees, and saying nothing.