Lord_AsmodeusgoeticSobriquet:Here is your magical cryptic riddle-tumour: I AM A TIME MACHINERegistered Userregular
So I don't want to distract from the horrible and very important major story still ongoing, but this seems like it belongs here more than anywhere else
A Trump administration appointee at the United States' agency responsible for foreign aid has a history of inflammatory rhetoric aimed at refugees, the LGBTQ community and women.
The comments come from Merritt Corrigan, the recently appointed deputy White House liaison at the US Agency for International Development, in tweets in 2019 and 2020. CNN's KFile reviewed 400 previously unreported tweets from Corrigan's feed, which were captured by the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.
Corrigan previously worked at Hungary's Embassy in the US where she repeatedly tweeted support for far-right Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, calling him "the shining champion of Western civilization," according to ProPublica, which reported on several of Corrigan's tweets on June 5.
Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Lincoln
Given his past "friendships" and associations, he knows which rocks to look under.
I mean being a despicable person is already a pre-requisite for signing on with this Administration, so it's no wonder they're despicable in some other manner too.
Heck, as long as you can stay in Trump's good graces, or worm your way into them, maybe he'll cover for you with the DOJ, if there's any criminal liability.
Given his past "friendships" and associations, he knows which rocks to look under.
I mean being a despicable person is already a pre-requisite for signing on with this Administration, so it's no wonder they're despicable in some other manner too.
Heck, as long as you can stay in Trump's good graces, or worm your way into them, maybe he'll cover for you with the DOJ, if there's any criminal liability.
Theres also the fact that the republican party has been purity testing itself for the past 20 years to make this sort of attitude not merely tolerable but desirable.
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ShivahnUnaware of her barrel shifter privilegeWestern coastal temptressRegistered User, Moderatormod
People are regularly shitty to their minority in-groups, but there is something extremely weird about a woman ambassador and USAID appointee saying that women should be disempowered.
People are regularly shitty to their minority in-groups, but there is something extremely weird about a woman ambassador and USAID appointee saying that women should be disempowered.
Well, not her, personally. She’s one of the good ones.
Anyone with any moral or ethical integrity would refuse to serve in the Trump admin
Like as far as I am concerned, it's a qualifier; if you would serve, you lack moral and ethical integrity
I'd argue that there were people who continued to serve in hopes of keeping the US from being completely given over to the interest of ideologues, grifters and lunatics.
I think we can draw a distinction between “life long members of the government” and “the next eager not-a-coffee-boy/future bus undercarriage inspector” that I believe is being referenced here.
Someone who has been in government since Reagan is probably just doing a job.
Someone who accepts a role in this administration now knows what’s up, and either approves or doesn’t care, and we passed that being remotely reasonable a long time ago.
Forar on
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
I think we can draw a distinction between “life long members of the government” and “the next eager not-a-coffee-boy/future bus undercarriage inspector” that I believe is being referenced here.
Someone who has been in government since Reagan is probably just don’t a job.
Someone who accepts a roll in this administration now knows what’s up, and either approves or doesn’t care, and we passed that being remotely reasonable a long time ago.
Or someone is legitimately terrified of what trump is doing/has done/will do and is desperatley trying to do a Schindler's list wrt maintaining some base level of functionality. Like, we can pretty much write off anyone appoints directly, but people who have been part of the machine for the past 3 years? I can see giving them the benefit of the doubt.
I think we can draw a distinction between “life long members of the government” and “the next eager not-a-coffee-boy/future bus undercarriage inspector” that I believe is being referenced here.
Someone who has been in government since Reagan is probably just don’t a job.
Someone who accepts a roll in this administration now knows what’s up, and either approves or doesn’t care, and we passed that being remotely reasonable a long time ago.
Or someone is legitimately terrified of what trump is doing/has done/will do and is desperatley trying to do a Schindler's list wrt maintaining some base level of functionality. Like, we can pretty much write off anyone appoints directly, but people who have been part of the machine for the past 3 years? I can see giving them the benefit of the doubt.
The more tell-alls we get out of this administration, the more credible the whole "it could be so much worse if not for me" stories start to sound. Not enough to excuse most of these chucklefucks, but still.
I think we can draw a distinction between “life long members of the government” and “the next eager not-a-coffee-boy/future bus undercarriage inspector” that I believe is being referenced here.
Someone who has been in government since Reagan is probably just don’t a job.
Someone who accepts a roll in this administration now knows what’s up, and either approves or doesn’t care, and we passed that being remotely reasonable a long time ago.
Or someone is legitimately terrified of what trump is doing/has done/will do and is desperatley trying to do a Schindler's list wrt maintaining some base level of functionality. Like, we can pretty much write off anyone appoints directly, but people who have been part of the machine for the past 3 years? I can see giving them the benefit of the doubt.
The more tell-alls we get out of this administration, the more credible the whole "it could be so much worse if not for me" stories start to sound. Not enough to excuse most of these chucklefucks, but still.
And we shouldn't because a lot of these people were fucking terrible; Christie, Bolton, Sessions... all are absolutely terrible human beings but they at least nominally had some respect and understanding of what there job was and how to do it, and every single time that trump has installed a fresh crony they've managed to be even more corrupt and incompetent.
Hence why I can see how people would continue to punch in on a daily basis despite how the executive has become an HR Geiger level nightmare.
It’s kind of crazy that literally nothing really happened with the Russia bounties. Trump claimed it was a hoax, and I guess there’s not much else you can really go when the admin just straight up says fuck it i am a crook
It’s kind of crazy that literally nothing really happened with the Russia bounties. Trump claimed it was a hoax, and I guess there’s not much else you can really go when the admin just straight up says fuck it i am a crook
He could be impeached if Republicans in the Senate hadn't already decided that Trump is the hill they're willing to die on.
I think we can draw a distinction between “life long members of the government” and “the next eager not-a-coffee-boy/future bus undercarriage inspector” that I believe is being referenced here.
Someone who has been in government since Reagan is probably just don’t a job.
Someone who accepts a roll in this administration now knows what’s up, and either approves or doesn’t care, and we passed that being remotely reasonable a long time ago.
Or someone is legitimately terrified of what trump is doing/has done/will do and is desperatley trying to do a Schindler's list wrt maintaining some base level of functionality. Like, we can pretty much write off anyone appoints directly, but people who have been part of the machine for the past 3 years? I can see giving them the benefit of the doubt.
The more tell-alls we get out of this administration, the more credible the whole "it could be so much worse if not for me" stories start to sound. Not enough to excuse most of these chucklefucks, but still.
And we shouldn't because a lot of these people were fucking terrible; Christie, Bolton, Sessions... all are absolutely terrible human beings but they at least nominally had some respect and understanding of what there job was and how to do it, and every single time that trump has installed a fresh crony they've managed to be even more corrupt and incompetent.
Hence why I can see how people would continue to punch in on a daily basis despite how the executive has become an HR Geiger level nightmare.
You just reminded me of Sessions being abused and humiliated, in tears after berated him. Such a happy memory for me.
In the days since The New York Times broke the news on U.S. intelligence examining claims of Russian bounties being offered to kill American military personnel in Afghanistan, President Donald Trump has turned his ire not at the Russian government, but instead on two of his favorite enemies: the news media and their confidential sources.
According to two people familiar with the matter, the president in recent days has privately expressed—“rather loudly,” in the words of one of the sources—his desire for a leak investigation into how that story ended up in the Times, and his wish for the leaker or leakers to face a heavy prison sentence.
It’s one of a number of ways in which administration officials and Trumpworld figures, including the president himself, have oscillated between claiming the story about the Russian bounties is false and asserting that the intelligence is accurate (though uncorroborated) and therefore dangerous to share with the public.
In the days since The New York Times broke the news on U.S. intelligence examining claims of Russian bounties being offered to kill American military personnel in Afghanistan, President Donald Trump has turned his ire not at the Russian government, but instead on two of his favorite enemies: the news media and their confidential sources.
According to two people familiar with the matter, the president in recent days has privately expressed—“rather loudly,” in the words of one of the sources—his desire for a leak investigation into how that story ended up in the Times, and his wish for the leaker or leakers to face a heavy prison sentence.
It’s one of a number of ways in which administration officials and Trumpworld figures, including the president himself, have oscillated between claiming the story about the Russian bounties is false and asserting that the intelligence is accurate (though uncorroborated) and therefore dangerous to share with the public.
I love it. Trump's decision to claim that this is a hoax should have resulted in no follow up if it was in fact nothing more then a conspiracy theory.
By doing this sort of internal investigation all he's done is confirm that he lied to the american people. :snap:
In the days since The New York Times broke the news on U.S. intelligence examining claims of Russian bounties being offered to kill American military personnel in Afghanistan, President Donald Trump has turned his ire not at the Russian government, but instead on two of his favorite enemies: the news media and their confidential sources.
According to two people familiar with the matter, the president in recent days has privately expressed—“rather loudly,” in the words of one of the sources—his desire for a leak investigation into how that story ended up in the Times, and his wish for the leaker or leakers to face a heavy prison sentence.
It’s one of a number of ways in which administration officials and Trumpworld figures, including the president himself, have oscillated between claiming the story about the Russian bounties is false and asserting that the intelligence is accurate (though uncorroborated) and therefore dangerous to share with the public.
I love it. Trump's decision to claim that this is a hoax should have resulted in no follow up if it was in fact nothing more then a conspiracy theory.
By doing this sort of internal investigation all he's done is confirm that he lied to the american people. :snap:
This has been a continuous thing. They don’t understand the concept of Streisanding something.
Just like Bolton’s book. It actually dropped with a bit of a thud when it came out, but the fact that they Streisanded the hell out of it for weeks ahead of publication was a much bigger media event (and did a lot more to publicize the negative portrayals involved) than the book itself.
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FencingsaxIt is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understandingGNU Terry PratchettRegistered Userregular
In the days since The New York Times broke the news on U.S. intelligence examining claims of Russian bounties being offered to kill American military personnel in Afghanistan, President Donald Trump has turned his ire not at the Russian government, but instead on two of his favorite enemies: the news media and their confidential sources.
According to two people familiar with the matter, the president in recent days has privately expressed—“rather loudly,” in the words of one of the sources—his desire for a leak investigation into how that story ended up in the Times, and his wish for the leaker or leakers to face a heavy prison sentence.
It’s one of a number of ways in which administration officials and Trumpworld figures, including the president himself, have oscillated between claiming the story about the Russian bounties is false and asserting that the intelligence is accurate (though uncorroborated) and therefore dangerous to share with the public.
I love it. Trump's decision to claim that this is a hoax should have resulted in no follow up if it was in fact nothing more then a conspiracy theory.
By doing this sort of internal investigation all he's done is confirm that he lied to the american people. :snap:
This has been a continuous thing. They don’t understand the concept of Streisanding something.
Just like Bolton’s book. It actually dropped with a bit of a thud when it came out, but the fact that they Streisanded the hell out of it for weeks ahead of publication was a much bigger media event (and did a lot more to publicize the negative portrayals involved) than the book itself.
To be fair, I think it dropped with a Thud because most people realize that Bolton is also garbage, but competent and professional garbage.
It thudded because it didn't tell anyone (on either side) anything they didn't already know. The only thing new was the added credibility of coming from a specific person instead of an anonymous source.
It thudded because he wanted to cash in on a book deal rather than testify before Congress.
I think there's an irony here, that if he HAD testified, and convincingly, and it shone an even brighter light on the malfeasance of Republicans in Congress, it could have been one of the more definitive books of this term.
He banked on "If I don't testify, it'll make people curious", and was met with "Fuck that guy putting money ahead of country". Whereas if he had testified, or at least really tried to, it's possible people would have bought it to see what else he had to say, as there's only so much you can say in hearings due to time constraints and Republicans pissing away half the question time.
I'm not even sure testifying would have helped sales. From the start the audience for his book has (IMO) been limited to beltway socialites who go to those kinds of DC parties, younger political functionaries who also go to those parties, and the legion of bland, "above the fray," DC media people who all incestuously swap inane columns and twitter plugs for time on each other's shows and pundit panels, and only deal in the kind of hot take commentary that gets people to call in on the phone lines.
Who else was ever gonna read a bland exercise in axe grinding by Mr. Super Ego himself, John Bolton? Any non conservative, even slightly informed reader knows what that dude is about and isn't going to waste their time. And the base isn't interested in reading about high level foreign policy disagreements; anything written above a 5th grade reading level is straight out for them. And neither they, nor the respectable old guard are interested in supporting traitors to the cause anyway. So what does that leave you? Business travelers and boomers? Fox News has poisoned the boomers and nobody is traveling for business anymore.
And probably the worst thing? The book title is legit terrible.
I'm not even sure testifying would have helped sales. From the start the audience for his book has (IMO) been limited to beltway socialites who go to those kinds of DC parties, younger political functionaries who also go to those parties, and the legion of bland, "above the fray," DC media people who all incestuously swap inane columns and twitter plugs for time on each other's shows and pundit panels, and only deal in the kind of hot take commentary that gets people to call in on the phone lines.
Who else was ever gonna read a bland exercise in axe grinding by Mr. Super Ego himself, John Bolton? Any non conservative, even slightly informed reader knows what that dude is about and isn't going to waste their time. And the base isn't interested in reading about high level foreign policy disagreements; anything written above a 5th grade reading level is straight out for them. And neither they, nor the respectable old guard are interested in supporting traitors to the cause anyway. So what does that leave you? Business travelers and boomers? Fox News has poisoned the boomers and nobody is traveling for business anymore.
And probably the worst thing? The book title is legit terrible.
Insider tell-alls are a time-honoured way to make money off your time in politics. Especially with Trump's administration. We've seen it happened multiple times already.
The problem for Bolton I think is that everyone already hated him on the left and then he pissed everyone off even more with his shit and so I think there's a distinct amount of people actively deciding to not buy his book because fuck that guy. Which doesn't exist for most of the previous books of this type.
Not much new was learned that we didn’t already know, but they did get Esper to admit that he knew of intelligence of Russian payments back in February. Which we already knew he did, but now at least it’s in the public record.
Keep in mind that Trump was trying to scapegoat the briefer for not telling him. Which shouldn’t fucking matter because the President should be able to read, but since his attention span is roughly equivalent to a-
SQUIRREL!!!
...ahem...
Anyhow, since Esper admitted he knew it blows up that talking point. It’s not much, but something.
GEN Miley did say something that might get him fired though:
“Are we doing as much as we could or should? Perhaps not.”
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BlackDragon480Bluster KerfuffleMaster of Windy ImportRegistered Userregular
I don't know much about Milley, all the family and friend connections I have are Navy and Air Force, not Army; but what sort of push back would the rank and file get up to if the President fired the head of the Joint Chiefs for fucking candor about a known foreign operation where everyone deployed to the Graveyard of Empires is a now potential payday for the Taliban?
No matter where you go...there you are. ~ Buckaroo Banzai
Not much new was learned that we didn’t already know, but they did get Esper to admit that he knew of intelligence of Russian payments back in February. Which we already knew he did, but now at least it’s in the public record.
Keep in mind that Trump was trying to scapegoat the briefer for not telling him. Which shouldn’t fucking matter because the President should be able to read, but since his attention span is roughly equivalent to a-
SQUIRREL!!!
...ahem...
Anyhow, since Esper admitted he knew it blows up that talking point. It’s not much, but something.
GEN Miley did say something that might get him fired though:
“Are we doing as much as we could or should? Perhaps not.”
The other part of this and the one that's critical at this juncture is that whether trump knew in febuary of this year (or 2019 for that matter) is ultimately less important then the fact that ~even if he didn't know until the same time we did~ trump has adamently refused to consider any sort of response to russia's actions.
Im sure he’s a milkshake duck or something, but Milley has been a pleasant surprise with his public statements and actions ever since the church gassing
Im sure he’s a milkshake duck or something, but Milley has been a pleasant surprise with his public statements and actions ever since the church gassing
One, that sure is some kind of fucking sentence there, ain't it?
Second, it definitely seems (from the outside, anyway) that he had a pretty good come-to-Jesus moment that night. I hope it lasts.
Im sure he’s a milkshake duck or something, but Milley has been a pleasant surprise with his public statements and actions ever since the church gassing
One, that sure is some kind of fucking sentence there, ain't it?
Second, it definitely seems (from the outside, anyway) that he had a pretty good come-to-Jesus moment that night. I hope it lasts.
I suspect that people are hedging their bets on trump's re-election; if trump loses in november having been blindly loyal is probably going to get them sucked down the memory hole along with him, but getting fired because you didn't back his line of bullshit is liable to be like an ejector seat from an exploding plane.
I don't know much about Milley, all the family and friend connections I have are Navy and Air Force, not Army; but what sort of push back would the rank and file get up to if the President fired the head of the Joint Chiefs for fucking candor about a known foreign operation where everyone deployed to the Graveyard of Empires is a now potential payday for the Taliban?
Virtually none. The rank and file troops ... don't do that. Like it's not impossible, per se, it's just ... literally unthinkable for most US troops. After you've been in a half dozen years or so, you're just not programmed to consider that as an option
I don't know much about Milley, all the family and friend connections I have are Navy and Air Force, not Army; but what sort of push back would the rank and file get up to if the President fired the head of the Joint Chiefs for fucking candor about a known foreign operation where everyone deployed to the Graveyard of Empires is a now potential payday for the Taliban?
Virtually none. The rank and file troops ... don't do that. Like it's not impossible, per se, it's just ... literally unthinkable for most US troops. After you've been in a half dozen years or so, you're just not programmed to consider that as an option
I think the most you'd really see is reduced retention among the people who found it troubling. That'd actually be pretty terrible, both for the obvious reason that losing experienced people you might have otherwise kept is bad, and also because it necessarily selects against people who value ethics in their decision-making.
That said, I also could see some pressure the other way if people decide to stick around out of spite. Like, fuck it, I'll make them fire me for doing my job right.
I don't know much about Milley, all the family and friend connections I have are Navy and Air Force, not Army; but what sort of push back would the rank and file get up to if the President fired the head of the Joint Chiefs for fucking candor about a known foreign operation where everyone deployed to the Graveyard of Empires is a now potential payday for the Taliban?
Virtually none. The rank and file troops ... don't do that. Like it's not impossible, per se, it's just ... literally unthinkable for most US troops. After you've been in a half dozen years or so, you're just not programmed to consider that as an option
I think the most you'd really see is reduced retention among the people who found it troubling. That'd actually be pretty terrible, both for the obvious reason that losing experienced people you might have otherwise kept is bad, and also because it necessarily selects against people who value ethics in their decision-making.
That said, I also could see some pressure the other way if people decide to stick around out of spite. Like, fuck it, I'll make them fire me for doing my job right.
Senior leaders also directly talk with outside agencies such as veterans groups and the like. While it would be highly unethical (and illegal) for a uniformed service member to solicit an outside group for political reasons, there is a lot of private candor that goes on between senior leaders and some group leaders.
For example, if General or Sergeant Major So and So are having a private meeting with some veterans group about a random event being planned, and they casually mention to each other their personal opinion on service members being assassinated by Russia, well, it’s just a personal opinion being expressed and that’s not illegal as long as it’s kept private from the rank and file and not solicitation.
Veterans groups have a good bit of political power, so they could direct their ire at Trump and the GOP, which some are actually doing. I’ve seen at least one veteran PAC ad expressing outrage at the bounties.
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Remember a million years ago, back in early January of 2020 when Iran shot down a Ukrainian plane, killing all 176 passengers, after the US assassinated an Iranian general in Iraq?
Pepperidge Farm remembers.
Anyhow, Iran “released” their report yesterday on that investigation.
I put “released” in quotes because Iran didn’t actually release it, but gave some of the details through Iranian state news Fars.
But it essentially says what we all kind of assumed, that it was human error amidst Iran scrambling to react to Trump trying to strongman. The report says that an Iranian air defense unit was moved, but they failed to recalibrate their instruments for the new location. There was also a failure to ground commercial aircraft by Iran, and a lack of communication between the air defense unit and higher command. This led to a misidentification of the plane as a hostile with no way to confirm, deny, or get approval through communication, leading to the plane being shot down.
My area of expertise wasn’t ADA (air defense artillery), but I am proficient in mortars and the basics of artillery. But if you have to move a mortar a significant distance, like several miles, then you have to account for even minor things that can affect the weapon, like changes in elevation, air density, even small changes in longitude can affect the accuracy due to subtle differences in the magnetic field can make a difference.
Though to be honest, it shouldn’t really matter if the instruments were calibrated or not, as they shouldn’t be firing their weapon without approval anyhow. It’s like saying that car you just plowed into should have had a recent tune up, even though you were drunk when you plowed into it.
Iran also arrested six people involved in the event, but didn’t specify if it was the operators of the equipment or someone else in the chain of command. In the US at least, artillery cannot fire without specific clearance from the commander and it’s a big no-no to do so for a variety of reasons, with a big one being that we don’t want to hit friendly or neutral aircraft or what we’re shooting down doesn’t crash on a home or something.
It’s just an epic cascade of fuckup all around.
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Though to be honest, it shouldn’t really matter if the instruments were calibrated or not, as they shouldn’t be firing their weapon without approval anyhow. It’s like saying that car you just plowed into should have had a recent tune up, even though you were drunk when you plowed into it.
While that's true, the circumstances surrounding the epic cascade of fuckup didn't really lend themselves to waiting. The US had just assasinated a senior military and governmental authority, and were threatening further retaliation.
Holding fire in that situation might have been the morally right thing to do, but if it was a US airstrike, the punishment these guys would have got for NOT firing would have likely been worse.
So, they were kinda fucked regardless.
And that's assuming the guys arrested were actually responsible. Not uncommon for authoritarian regimes to throw those they think are disloyal under the proverbial bus, to make it seem that they're doing the right thing.
Though to be honest, it shouldn’t really matter if the instruments were calibrated or not, as they shouldn’t be firing their weapon without approval anyhow. It’s like saying that car you just plowed into should have had a recent tune up, even though you were drunk when you plowed into it.
While that's true, the circumstances surrounding the epic cascade of fuckup didn't really lend themselves to waiting. The US had just assasinated a senior military and governmental authority, and were threatening further retaliation.
Holding fire in that situation might have been the morally right thing to do, but if it was a US airstrike, the punishment these guys would have got for NOT firing would have likely been worse.
So, they were kinda fucked regardless.
And that's assuming the guys arrested were actually responsible. Not uncommon for authoritarian regimes to throw those they think are disloyal under the proverbial bus, to make it seem that they're doing the right thing.
No idea who got arrested. Could have been the guys at the battery, their commander, some randos who they just wanted to scapegoat, etc
I was gonna originally write that I had mixed feelings on the arrests, but I abstained because we don’t know who got arrested. If it was the guys on the ground who panicked because they thought the US was bombing them and accidentally shot down a plane because they lacked proper guidance and communication, I’d be hard pressed to say that’s justice because it’s the Iranian military leadership who is responsible to ensure their units know what they are doing and don’t fuck it up.
Obviously Trump set the whole chain of events in motion and I think the ultimate blame falls on him, but at the same time, that doesn’t excuse Iran for putting anti-air rockets in a civilian flight corridor with substandard equipment and no leadership, guidance, or communication.
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Though to be honest, it shouldn’t really matter if the instruments were calibrated or not, as they shouldn’t be firing their weapon without approval anyhow. It’s like saying that car you just plowed into should have had a recent tune up, even though you were drunk when you plowed into it.
While that's true, the circumstances surrounding the epic cascade of fuckup didn't really lend themselves to waiting. The US had just assasinated a senior military and governmental authority, and were threatening further retaliation.
Holding fire in that situation might have been the morally right thing to do, but if it was a US airstrike, the punishment these guys would have got for NOT firing would have likely been worse.
So, they were kinda fucked regardless.
And that's assuming the guys arrested were actually responsible. Not uncommon for authoritarian regimes to throw those they think are disloyal under the proverbial bus, to make it seem that they're doing the right thing.
It was definitely a shitty situation and a hell of a fuckup.
Keep in mind that if it was an actual airstrike (and reasonable people were expecting US airstrikes) the punishment for not firing would probably have been almost immediate death. The first wave of a full on US air attack would absllutely have targeted Iranian air defenses and killed this crew. Even getting a warning or opportunity to take a shot would be somewhat surprising.
With their awareness of the situation at the time, they were the front line against an overpowering USAF attack on their country, and were literally in the crosshairs.
It doesn't excuse them, but throwing a bunch of 20-something air defense operators in prison or worse completely sidesteps the systematic failures at high levels in both the US and Iran that created this situation. Plenty of this blood is on Trumps hands.
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Trump appointee at USAID repeatedly made anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ comments, said 'female empowerment is a civilizational calamity'
Given his past "friendships" and associations, he knows which rocks to look under.
I mean being a despicable person is already a pre-requisite for signing on with this Administration, so it's no wonder they're despicable in some other manner too.
Heck, as long as you can stay in Trump's good graces, or worm your way into them, maybe he'll cover for you with the DOJ, if there's any criminal liability.
Theres also the fact that the republican party has been purity testing itself for the past 20 years to make this sort of attitude not merely tolerable but desirable.
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Like as far as I am concerned, it's a qualifier; if you would serve, you lack moral and ethical integrity
By this point, yeah. The first year or so I was willing to consider the possibility that some of them thought "I can fix this from within."
They've all been weeded out, and everyone has seen how futile their efforts were.
I'd argue that there were people who continued to serve in hopes of keeping the US from being completely given over to the interest of ideologues, grifters and lunatics.
Someone who has been in government since Reagan is probably just doing a job.
Someone who accepts a role in this administration now knows what’s up, and either approves or doesn’t care, and we passed that being remotely reasonable a long time ago.
Or someone is legitimately terrified of what trump is doing/has done/will do and is desperatley trying to do a Schindler's list wrt maintaining some base level of functionality. Like, we can pretty much write off anyone appoints directly, but people who have been part of the machine for the past 3 years? I can see giving them the benefit of the doubt.
The more tell-alls we get out of this administration, the more credible the whole "it could be so much worse if not for me" stories start to sound. Not enough to excuse most of these chucklefucks, but still.
And we shouldn't because a lot of these people were fucking terrible; Christie, Bolton, Sessions... all are absolutely terrible human beings but they at least nominally had some respect and understanding of what there job was and how to do it, and every single time that trump has installed a fresh crony they've managed to be even more corrupt and incompetent.
Hence why I can see how people would continue to punch in on a daily basis despite how the executive has become an HR Geiger level nightmare.
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He could be impeached if Republicans in the Senate hadn't already decided that Trump is the hill they're willing to die on.
You just reminded me of Sessions being abused and humiliated, in tears after berated him. Such a happy memory for me.
By finding the leakers.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-gives-putin-a-pass-on-bounties-so-he-can-target-leakers-instead
I love it. Trump's decision to claim that this is a hoax should have resulted in no follow up if it was in fact nothing more then a conspiracy theory.
By doing this sort of internal investigation all he's done is confirm that he lied to the american people. :snap:
This has been a continuous thing. They don’t understand the concept of Streisanding something.
Just like Bolton’s book. It actually dropped with a bit of a thud when it came out, but the fact that they Streisanded the hell out of it for weeks ahead of publication was a much bigger media event (and did a lot more to publicize the negative portrayals involved) than the book itself.
To be fair, I think it dropped with a Thud because most people realize that Bolton is also garbage, but competent and professional garbage.
I think there's an irony here, that if he HAD testified, and convincingly, and it shone an even brighter light on the malfeasance of Republicans in Congress, it could have been one of the more definitive books of this term.
He banked on "If I don't testify, it'll make people curious", and was met with "Fuck that guy putting money ahead of country". Whereas if he had testified, or at least really tried to, it's possible people would have bought it to see what else he had to say, as there's only so much you can say in hearings due to time constraints and Republicans pissing away half the question time.
Who else was ever gonna read a bland exercise in axe grinding by Mr. Super Ego himself, John Bolton? Any non conservative, even slightly informed reader knows what that dude is about and isn't going to waste their time. And the base isn't interested in reading about high level foreign policy disagreements; anything written above a 5th grade reading level is straight out for them. And neither they, nor the respectable old guard are interested in supporting traitors to the cause anyway. So what does that leave you? Business travelers and boomers? Fox News has poisoned the boomers and nobody is traveling for business anymore.
And probably the worst thing? The book title is legit terrible.
Insider tell-alls are a time-honoured way to make money off your time in politics. Especially with Trump's administration. We've seen it happened multiple times already.
The problem for Bolton I think is that everyone already hated him on the left and then he pissed everyone off even more with his shit and so I think there's a distinct amount of people actively deciding to not buy his book because fuck that guy. Which doesn't exist for most of the previous books of this type.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/09/us/politics/congress-russian-bounties.html
Not much new was learned that we didn’t already know, but they did get Esper to admit that he knew of intelligence of Russian payments back in February. Which we already knew he did, but now at least it’s in the public record.
Keep in mind that Trump was trying to scapegoat the briefer for not telling him. Which shouldn’t fucking matter because the President should be able to read, but since his attention span is roughly equivalent to a-
SQUIRREL!!!
...ahem...
Anyhow, since Esper admitted he knew it blows up that talking point. It’s not much, but something.
GEN Miley did say something that might get him fired though:
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~ Buckaroo Banzai
The other part of this and the one that's critical at this juncture is that whether trump knew in febuary of this year (or 2019 for that matter) is ultimately less important then the fact that ~even if he didn't know until the same time we did~ trump has adamently refused to consider any sort of response to russia's actions.
One, that sure is some kind of fucking sentence there, ain't it?
Second, it definitely seems (from the outside, anyway) that he had a pretty good come-to-Jesus moment that night. I hope it lasts.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
I suspect that people are hedging their bets on trump's re-election; if trump loses in november having been blindly loyal is probably going to get them sucked down the memory hole along with him, but getting fired because you didn't back his line of bullshit is liable to be like an ejector seat from an exploding plane.
Virtually none. The rank and file troops ... don't do that. Like it's not impossible, per se, it's just ... literally unthinkable for most US troops. After you've been in a half dozen years or so, you're just not programmed to consider that as an option
I think the most you'd really see is reduced retention among the people who found it troubling. That'd actually be pretty terrible, both for the obvious reason that losing experienced people you might have otherwise kept is bad, and also because it necessarily selects against people who value ethics in their decision-making.
That said, I also could see some pressure the other way if people decide to stick around out of spite. Like, fuck it, I'll make them fire me for doing my job right.
Senior leaders also directly talk with outside agencies such as veterans groups and the like. While it would be highly unethical (and illegal) for a uniformed service member to solicit an outside group for political reasons, there is a lot of private candor that goes on between senior leaders and some group leaders.
For example, if General or Sergeant Major So and So are having a private meeting with some veterans group about a random event being planned, and they casually mention to each other their personal opinion on service members being assassinated by Russia, well, it’s just a personal opinion being expressed and that’s not illegal as long as it’s kept private from the rank and file and not solicitation.
Veterans groups have a good bit of political power, so they could direct their ire at Trump and the GOP, which some are actually doing. I’ve seen at least one veteran PAC ad expressing outrage at the bounties.
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Pepperidge Farm remembers.
Anyhow, Iran “released” their report yesterday on that investigation.
https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-middle-east-53382794
I put “released” in quotes because Iran didn’t actually release it, but gave some of the details through Iranian state news Fars.
But it essentially says what we all kind of assumed, that it was human error amidst Iran scrambling to react to Trump trying to strongman. The report says that an Iranian air defense unit was moved, but they failed to recalibrate their instruments for the new location. There was also a failure to ground commercial aircraft by Iran, and a lack of communication between the air defense unit and higher command. This led to a misidentification of the plane as a hostile with no way to confirm, deny, or get approval through communication, leading to the plane being shot down.
My area of expertise wasn’t ADA (air defense artillery), but I am proficient in mortars and the basics of artillery. But if you have to move a mortar a significant distance, like several miles, then you have to account for even minor things that can affect the weapon, like changes in elevation, air density, even small changes in longitude can affect the accuracy due to subtle differences in the magnetic field can make a difference.
Though to be honest, it shouldn’t really matter if the instruments were calibrated or not, as they shouldn’t be firing their weapon without approval anyhow. It’s like saying that car you just plowed into should have had a recent tune up, even though you were drunk when you plowed into it.
Iran also arrested six people involved in the event, but didn’t specify if it was the operators of the equipment or someone else in the chain of command. In the US at least, artillery cannot fire without specific clearance from the commander and it’s a big no-no to do so for a variety of reasons, with a big one being that we don’t want to hit friendly or neutral aircraft or what we’re shooting down doesn’t crash on a home or something.
It’s just an epic cascade of fuckup all around.
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While that's true, the circumstances surrounding the epic cascade of fuckup didn't really lend themselves to waiting. The US had just assasinated a senior military and governmental authority, and were threatening further retaliation.
Holding fire in that situation might have been the morally right thing to do, but if it was a US airstrike, the punishment these guys would have got for NOT firing would have likely been worse.
So, they were kinda fucked regardless.
And that's assuming the guys arrested were actually responsible. Not uncommon for authoritarian regimes to throw those they think are disloyal under the proverbial bus, to make it seem that they're doing the right thing.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/12/politics/trump-puerto-rico-hurricane-maria/index.html
No idea who got arrested. Could have been the guys at the battery, their commander, some randos who they just wanted to scapegoat, etc
I was gonna originally write that I had mixed feelings on the arrests, but I abstained because we don’t know who got arrested. If it was the guys on the ground who panicked because they thought the US was bombing them and accidentally shot down a plane because they lacked proper guidance and communication, I’d be hard pressed to say that’s justice because it’s the Iranian military leadership who is responsible to ensure their units know what they are doing and don’t fuck it up.
Obviously Trump set the whole chain of events in motion and I think the ultimate blame falls on him, but at the same time, that doesn’t excuse Iran for putting anti-air rockets in a civilian flight corridor with substandard equipment and no leadership, guidance, or communication.
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It was definitely a shitty situation and a hell of a fuckup.
Keep in mind that if it was an actual airstrike (and reasonable people were expecting US airstrikes) the punishment for not firing would probably have been almost immediate death. The first wave of a full on US air attack would absllutely have targeted Iranian air defenses and killed this crew. Even getting a warning or opportunity to take a shot would be somewhat surprising.
With their awareness of the situation at the time, they were the front line against an overpowering USAF attack on their country, and were literally in the crosshairs.
It doesn't excuse them, but throwing a bunch of 20-something air defense operators in prison or worse completely sidesteps the systematic failures at high levels in both the US and Iran that created this situation. Plenty of this blood is on Trumps hands.