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If you’re wondering where lies as a policy started, it started with the last GOP administration.

The aide said that guys like me were “in what we call the reality-based community,” which he defined as people who “believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. “That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” he continued. “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality – judiciously, as you will – we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors … and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”

(via Faith, Certainty and the Presidency of George W. Bush – The New York Times)

This isn’t Trumpism. This is the GOP.

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10 Epic Failures of the Bush Tax Cuts

In a rare moment of candor last week, the third-ranking Republican in the House admitted the failure of the Bush tax cuts. “You know, I think it’s fair to say, if the current tax rates were enough to create jobs and generate economic growth we’d have a growing economy,” Mike Pence acknowledged, adding, “It’s not working now.” Given that the Bush years produced the worst economic growth in the past 50 years, Pence is sadly correct. But sadder still is the dismal performance of the Bush economy across almost every indicator that counts. From moribund job creation and sinking household incomes to skyrocketing deficits and record income inequality, Republican economic stewardship over the past decade has been a disaster.

From 10 Epic Failures of the Bush Tax Cuts | Crooks and Liars

So the argument becomes “They haven’t done what we claimed they would do, but that’s no reason to undo the policy. ”

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Krugman on Bush Derangement Syndrome

The symptoms of Bush Derangement Syndrome, in its fullest version, are that you believed

1. That the Bush tax cuts were sold on false pretenses, and were fiscally irresponsible

2. That the Iraq war was sold on false pretenses, and that invading Iraq was a mistake

3. That for all his posturing, Bush was actually doing a bad job of fighting Al Qaeda

4. That the use of torture was ineffective as well as immoral, and was hurting America

5. That the economic expansion of the middle Bush years, such as it was, was driven by an unsustainable housing bubble

6. That the Bush administration was distorting science to avoid taking action on climate change

Crazy stuff, with one common theme: it was all true.

URL: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/19/derangement/

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New king of Tonga sworn in

The new king of Tonga has been sworn in today, 24 hours after the death of 88-year-old King Taufa-ahau Tupou IV in a New Zealand hospital after a long but unspecified illness.

His successor is noted for his fondness for wearing a monocle and military uniform, and driving around in a London taxi.

New king of Tonga sworn in – Times Online

As much as I might dislike W, at least he doesn’t wear a monocle. Seriously, any leader wearing a f%ing monocle is just asking for a coop.