Well, Kelly Sadler is dying, as well. We all are. It’s what we do from the day we’re born.
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This is a concept I’ve been trying not to think about for a while – our current politics is end-stage youth culture.
Trump is an out-of-the-gate Baby Boomer, grew up (as it were) 99.9th percentile for entitlement and privilege, and now he’s old, rich(ish) and powerful. His words and actions are what he would have done as the king of his junior high school social hierarchy. Personal validation, decades overripe and stinking like a durian.
I’m hoping our next president is an adult. Might be too much to ask.
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I don’t know that this is a terribly abnormal thought to have when you’re trying to plan a future and some ancient relic on his deathbed is holding you back out of what seems like sheer fossilized spite.
On the other hand, most non-psychopaths know not to give voice to those thoughts, and the future they’re planning is terrible and should be opposed at all costs. So, Republicans: still awful.
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That is a pretty low blow.
Its much more fair to say “It doesn’t matter, he didn’t actually do anything when we started torturing 16 years ago.”
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Well, that’s any given morning for me.
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Absolutely. But I (and more to the point, my wife) draw the line at calling ones’ wife a c*&t.
I dont know about John McCain’s wife, but my wife would be offended. And I would consider it a bad model for the kids.
But hey, Im just very old fashioned.
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No, sir. I agree.
It’s just that I always find it amusing how righty-tighties always use the foul language example as a guage for how “evil” lefty-loosies are. Using foul language as a tool to aid in the abuse of someone, that’s something worse.
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Ironically, the whole GOP is dying. Funeral services o be held Nov. 7.
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I should make sure to drink plenty of water that morning, because it’s my hope there’s a hell of a lot of gravestones to piss on.
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Posterity will ne’er survey
A nobler grave than this:
Here lie the bones of GOP:
Stop, traveller, and piss.
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It must really suck for McCain that the party he’s devoted his life to has become this openly monstrous thing that attacks even him. I’d feel worse for him if he hadn’t devoted his life to working for this openly monstrous thing…
Every time I see someone talk about “both sides” and “compromising” in the current political climate I think, “Hey you Jews and Nazis - can you meet in the middle? Is it okay with you if we only gas half the Jews?” Compromising and “meeting in the middle” with monsters mean you’re still being monstrous; that isn’t compromise, it really means you’ve just conceded to the monsters.
The problem is that those celebrating are his exact same stripe of asshole (and worse).
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Yup. Like Dennis Hastert (famous boy wrestling coach) or Newt “sanctity of marriage” Gingrich. Hypocrites.
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Ah, the good ole’ Washington Times. The gift of Rev. Moon’s Unification Church that keeps on giving. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Times
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I’d be right there beside you being unconcerned about this if they weren’t insulting him as part of a concentrated effort to institutionalize our torture regime.
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Yeah, so what if he talked? My career army officer dad said he told his superiors in Vietnam, “if you don’t want me to talk under torture, then don’t tell me any secrets.”
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Disparaging a guy who was tortured for years & calling him a “songbird” is egregious enough- doing so while he’s dying deserves the fascist tag.
But yes - everyone talks - tells them whatever they think they want to hear.
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So I respect your position on this but at the moment I am taking a different position (I doubt others will share my view). I appreciate that Haspel was relatively enthusiastic about enhanced interrogation techniques and that is a serious error of judgement as far as I am concerned. However the commentaries I have read from people who actually served with her are generally positive about her. I am not particularly concerned about her following orders and disposing of tapes because I am pretty sure those tapes would have been a disaster for the CIA. I am not a friend of the CIA, but if I was a loyal staffer I would probably have decided to get rid of those tapes as well, as they would have inflamed opinion against the agency, and dragged its name through the mud. Luckily for Haspel, she didnt have a decision to make because her boss made it for her.
The fact that she is a lesbian (or at least currently identifies as one) also makes me more sympathetic to her candidacy, at least at the margin.
If I really believed they were going to bring back torture I would take your position. At the moment I think the question is whether the Agency will continue to protect those who followed orders and tortured. I think they will continue to be protected regardless. So I see no reason to hold Haspel accountable for her complicity with a policy when no one else is accountable. Those who introduced the policy are the ones who should be held accountable.
I’ve been thinking of this movement for some time now as the Belligerent movement. It’s been bubbling up for years, and I don’t see signs of it abating. It seems to have caught up a lot of folks who are otherwise apolitical, but respond very favorably to being able to wallow in no-no behavior. Trump was their ideal candidate, and Hillary was their ideal nemesis. Also known as the FuckYouMom! movement.
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I’ve heard this is a bit of a myth. Many people, when tortured, just shut down and don’t say anything. Lots of people who were waterboarded gave up struggling and simply started inhaling water, allowing themselves to drown (or course they were resuscitated).
Torture is for the gratification of the torturer.
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