apropos Bush... I heard a curious third hand tale recently
At a recent international meeting, not the G8 summit as it happens, I was told by a reliable source, that Bush was very ebullient meeting with allied leaders, but acted mildly bizarrely.
As I heard it, Bush would actually undercut US negotiating positions on items of medium importance, contradicting or undermining his people doing actual dealing, and as far as the other side could tell, doing so purely out of contrarian spite (I am intepreting here).
That is, Bush would make concessions or negate US claims purely because he could, and precisely because it would fuck things up, not for a reason or to advance some greater US interest.
It sounded completely insane, yet strangely believable. Almost nihilistic.
Not sure what to make of it.
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Question: is this behavior new, or has he behaved like this all along?
I wasn't there, but my understanding from the conversation is that this is new.
He just doesn't care any more. Lost interest. Wants to just have fun. Show to his direct underlings that he is still the boss. Fumbling to do something that will rescue his presidency from the damnation of history. All of the above?
I'd like to know.
I suspect some element of "show them who is the boss", some element of nihilism.
Fits with the disinterested frat boy personality that he seems to harbour. He can just amuse himself and not care if it hurts anybody or anything else; he may in fact derive enjoyment from the very fact that it hurts others. What are they going to do after all - fire him?
Maybe he knows the Apocalypse is at hand and he is going to hasten the Second Coming by unleashing nuke-u-lur hellfire upon the world.
It's astounding to me how prophetic the following turned out to be:
Bush: 'Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over'
Sounds like Bush is going local - he is apparently vetoing the Medicare bill that cancels the ~ 10% paycut for MDs - tomorrow - despite it passing Congress with > veto majority.
Coincidentally, Medicare had held off implementing the paycut until July 15 - they will now actually have to cut MD reimbursements this month, until and unless Congress overrides.
Chatted with some MDs about this - one said they were dumping all the junior MDs and taking on higher workload; one said he thought he'd take 10-20% net pay cut (actual cut depends on specialty); and one said he'd stop taking Medicare patients if this went through.
Senate vote was tight, if Bush can push ~ 3 GOP senators to change their vote, the bill may remain vetoed.