@audacityofdespair.bsky.social
Dramatist, author, apostate newspaperman specializing in artisanal contempt and discerning maledicta. The claim that I am the angriest man in television is faint praise indeed; the second angriest is yelling at an agent because residual checks are late.
✋ Former USG war crimes lawyer here.
Apropos of SecDef's remarks this morning:
Denial of quarter—even the declaration of no quarter—is a war crime.
And recognized as such by the US Government.
From DoD's Manual for Military Commissions.
Let there be as much outrage from politicians in Washington when kids go hungry as there is when I break bread with New Yorkers.
Poetry, Congressman. Poetry.
No. That did not cause a nation to capitulate. It resulted in an army's withdrawal only and a negotiated agreement. My language is specific to the claim of regime change.
At least he felt guilty later.
A lot of words to say what I just did. Employed singularly, and short of using weapons of nuclear annihilation, air power has never led to a nation's capitulation. Herman Goering, Curtis LeMay, Arthur Harris, Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon can all burn in a fiery hell of incendiary ordnance.
May I recommend you burn in hell along with Herman Goering, Arthur Harris, Curtis LeMay, Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon. Thanks.
You do you.
He's right. There is no history of air power alone defeating a nation. For regime change, or even to dismantle their nuclear assets, we're going to have to put boots on the ground against a nation of 90 million people.
It's tens of thousands of dead Americans or this war is shit.
This war is shit.
I decline to use that title. The change would require an act of Congress and none has occurred.
Sound on, same.
Sorry. I haven't had coffee.
It's genuinely terrifying that my country is at war and I can't tell the difference between a press conference by the Secretary of Defense and a pro wrestler hyping an upcoming match.
This is not hyperbole. Hegseth is emotionally incapable and intellectually void and that is an important job.
Get a fucking grip. Do you know what the FBI emphasized for decades to make itself an effective investigative agency against thr most complex forms of crime -- which is its role rather than street policing? Agents were encouraged to have degrees in either prelaw or accountancy.
Nope.
Imagine how it feels to veteran supervisors and field agents who actually knew what they were doing before these moronic ideologues took over.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down to 46,700. By her standards, she could at least send us a few more pages to read.
at least 40 percent of my countrymen and women are morons.
We are a nation of morons, embracing and elevating the most ridiculous coterie of submorons to lead us from the last shards of the American Century into the deepest chasms of ridiculous, absurdist moronity.
This is unbelievable even as farce.
Look deeper. The quietude on the part of the Sunni world masks the fact that we've taken sides with the Saudis, Gulf States and Egypt in their battle for Mideast hegemony with Iran. We chose our regional allies on a premise of cheap oil; but the price is paid in costly, repetitive warfare.
...Interventionists want to pretend that we keep the price-per-gallon below $3 by playing the Sunni v. Shiite war games? Bullshit. When you factor all the warfare and military aid, the actual price that Americans are paying -- for gas and in taxes -- pushes it up to $5 a gallon anyway.
...meaning any actual belief in markets would lead us to conclude that the need of an oil-producing nation is to move their product is as great as the need of any nation consuming oil. Price is too high, we buy elsewhere or pump more of our own or reduce demand by alt means. And fuck the wars....
A question that could and should have been asked before every single U.S. intervention in the Mideast: Do we need to be allied or friends with oil producers? Why? Or: How much do you want for a barrel of oil? If it's too much, we don't buy. If we'll don't buy, you can't eat or drink it....
Check my timeline on this platform. Have said same repeatedly.
Easy to get in. Hard to get out.
No. Read carefully. I am saying that there was at least a moral justification to the endeavor. Not so attacking Iraq as well.
We accomplished the stated goals re: Kuwait. Regime change in Iraq was not ever contemplated. And perhaps quite wisely.
This is dumb. Genuinely.
To claim that the American revolution -- and its immediate spread to Europe and then beyond -- was not revolutionary and exceptional because American democracy -- as all governance -- encompasses flaws and cruelties is a mug's game. Do better.
Two that we deserved to prevail.
The Korean action was not unjustifiable and call that a draw.
Afghanistan had justification in the wake of 9-11 and the Taliban's hosting of Al Qaeda. But we butchered that by going into Iraq for no credible reason.
Otherwise, we scarcely deserve victories.
In its moment, when democracy was indeed unique, it was a profound contrast. And 1776 was indeed the shot heard around the world. Call it exceptionalism, but it was exceptional. That kings and empires have fallen and better democracy is now practiced elsewhere is not underscoring.