Tag: Cheney

Perspective

George Bush got a pass from history that I will never understand. He starts a war for a completely fictionalized reason, which results in hundreds of thousands of people dying, and an entire generation of war vets coming home, damaged for the rest of their lives, and you can see them on the streets. Why are they on the streets? Because George Bush started a war for no reason. Right? And then not to mention the devastation that is left over in Iraq because we started a war for no reason. Right?

…And somehow this doesn’t matter and we’re obsessing about Trump’s tweets when there is a guy in Texas…

(Larry Wilmore: You know who was against that war? Your boy Trump.)

I don’t think Trump is nearly as egregious as George Bush. I don’t think it’s even close. He started a war on the basis of a lie. A complete falsehood which he told to the American people that had nothing to do with 9-11. Which devastated tens of thousands of lives, cost a trillion dollars, and left a generation of American soldiers devastated and wounded and somehow he’s perceived as this genial guy down in Texas painting pictures and giving speeches.

What is the matter with us? There is nothing Donald Trump has done that has come even close to the human devastation of George Bush’s time. Not even close. Not even close. I mean, Trump is a deeply objectionable figure, but he has not resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people for no reason.

George Bush is a war criminal. That is what a war criminal is. Someone who enters into a disastrous conflict for no good reason. For worse than no good reason. For a completely trumped up, ridiculous reason. The choice of things that Americans get riled up about has always amazed me.

Malcolm Gladwell

Something I’ve pointed out a few dozen times myself. As much as Trump is an active threat to the proper functioning of the United States, and a fraudster that is duping us of millions of dollars for every day he is in office, he hasn’t yet descended to the level of war criminal that Bush, Cheney, et al occupy.

The Orange Hate-Monkey hasn’t gone that far down the scale of evil yet. Yet. The back and forth occurs at 40:45 in this episode of Larry Wilmore: Black on the Air.

Malcolm Gladwell on ‘Talking to Strangers’ (Live) | Larry Wilmore: Black on the Air

I also took the time to listen to It’s Been a Minute With Sam Sanders,  Best-Selling Author Malcolm Gladwell On ‘Talking To Strangers’: A Live Conversation. Both podcasts were worth the time, and you gain an insight into the personality of Sandra Bland that isn’t available anywhere else unless you just happened to run across her Youtube channel yourself, as well as why every time you call a racist a racist you are in some small way handing a victory to institutional racism.

It is worth noting that not prosecuting George W. Bush, Dick Cheney et al for their war crimes leads directly to Donald Trump becoming president. Which means that in some small part, Barack Obama is to blame for the predicament that we find ourselves in today. George W. Bush was not prosecuted for war crimes because the Obama justice department chose not to make a case of the conspiracies and lies that lead us into war in Iraq.

Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives lost, the foundation of DAESH (what the media in the US calls the Islamic State) hundreds of thousands of Syrian lives lost, thousands of American lives lost, more than a hundred thousand injured and disabled US veterans, trillions of dollars wasted. George Bush and his administration get a pass for all of that when all of that sprang directly from the lie that Iraq was somehow involved in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. President Obama gave him that pass.

Had George Bush been prosecuted. Had the known crimes against humanity committed by the Bush administration been subjected to inquiry, justice and restitution, the Republican party would not have felt that they were still in the right when it comes to their delusions about foreign policy. Their delusions about christianity. The place of the US government as part of a whole world which requires governance. Requires justice.

They would have known that their beliefs were based on lies because the criminal proceedings would have made the truth of this blatantly clear. Whether they agreed with the verdicts or not, in the end, the trial of George W. Bush for war crimes would have altered the trajectory of the Republican party if not resulted in its destruction and reformation as a viable opposing party to the Democrats.

Instead we let George Bush off the hook. And what we got for letting him off the hook was transparently racist hatred of Barack Obama and an unrepentant Republican party willing to sacrifice everything on one last chance to get their beliefs enshrined as public policy, even if that meant they had to destroy everything they pretended to hold dear in the process.

What we got for our inaction on the crimes of the Bush administration was civil war in Syria and unrest across the entire region that we refer to as the Middle East. How many millions of lives will be negatively impacted by our unwillingness to get involved in the Syrian civil war?

Morning Edition – Survivor Of Torture In Syria’s Prisons Is Telling His Story

Climate change is a portion of the reason why Syria descended into civil war. Civil war is always more complex than any one group involved in the civil war ever wants to admit. An extended drought in the region lead to crop failures and the migration of the starving farmers into cities and towns where they demanded aid and assistance from the Assad government. Instead of responding with aid, Bashar al Assad imprisoned these protestors and forced the dissident groups within his country to ally with outside forces in order to topple his government. Topple his government so that the poor in his country could be given the assistance that they needed to weather the crisis brought on by climate change.

The conservatives here in the US deny that climate change is real, and they further deny that we have any reason to think that the human tragedies occurring in Syria and elsewhere around the world are our responsibility. All while we pump out more carbon dioxide than any other country as technically advanced as our own.

BBC

How many millions of people, if not billions of people, will suffer and possibly die because of the denialism that we allow to fester in our country, when it comes to climate change? Why do we allow these people who deny science to lead our country? Why do we think that they have a right to believe things which are demonstrably not true? Will flat earthers be given a seat at the leadership table next?

Morning Edition – We Are On The Front Line Of Climate Change, Marshall Islands President Says

That is perspective. Study it closely.

Felonious Traitors

“I think what is crucially important to remember here is that you had Strzok and Page, who were in charge of launching this investigation, and they were saying things like, ‘We must stop this president.’ ‘We need an insurance policy against this president.’

“That, in my view, when you have people that are in the highest echelons of the law enforcement of this nation saying things like that, that sounds an awful lot like a coup. And it could well be treason.”

Liz Cheney through MSNBC

What gets me is these hypocritical assholes want us to say nice things about their lying, cheating, insane president; but spent eight years telling us, through the media, just how bad Barack Obama was. They were committing treason every day, if we use their standard of measurement. Treasonous, especially in light of the fact that:

Obama Best President Since Eisenhower

Peter Strzok?

Peter Strzok, Counter-Intelligence Hero

Donald Trump is something that smells foul spilled on the sidewalk in front of you that you carefully step around, by comparison. It is not even questionable, given Trump’s actual record in office, that we should have taken measures to insure that he could not be president. If we, as Americans, have any sense left, we will take measures to make sure he is punished for his crimes, and make sure that no one like him will ever attempt to hold office again.

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Daughter of a guy who helped sell weapons to Saddam, who ignored repeated warnings from the intelligence community until America was attacked, who then started an illegal war based on false and manufactured information that got 4000 Americans killed — some by those same weapons — wants to talk about treason.

Then again, I guess Liz Cheney knows a traitor when she sees one about the same way Julie Nixon Eisenhower knows a crook.

Stonekettle Station

Dick Cheney Thinks Trump Has Gone Too Far

When the evil psychopath who thinks Preemptive War, Rendition, and Indefinite Detention are good ideas, who came up with TORTURE AS NATIONAL POLICY, a guy who half the civilized world considers a murdering war criminal, yeah, when THAT soulless cybernetic bastard thinks you’re over the line, when Dick Cheney comes down on the same side as the French, as Muslims, as LIBERALS … well, you know, maybe that should tell you something.

Stonekettle Station
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That gave me pause last night. Cheney? He can be all loose with the truth when it’s his balls in the vice, but when it looks like the mob that every Republican candidate has embraced since Reagan decides to go full goose bozo and demand the personification of the rhetoric they’ve been raised on, NOW he discovers solid moral ground not based on fear.

Too late, Dick. You are going to hell with the rest of the people you brought to power.

…torture as national policy was instigated in the 1950s by Allen Dulles upon his becoming head of the CIA. It was simply that it wasn’t used in OUR nation until the CIA’s prohibition against acting within the borders of the US was quietly retired.

Nothing that is revealed about the CIA surprises me. Like the KGB there isn’t a depth of horror beyond their reach. On the other hand, a history to point to does not exonerate the vampire. He’s the one who still thinks it was a good idea and defends it.

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If you love the principles that make the foundation of our laws — and of the United States in a general sense — then you should take your leave of Trump, and for that matter, of any candidate who would cheerfully ride into power the same constituency Trump is mining. What you stand for and who you stand with matters. It’s time to stand away from Trump. As far away as you can get.

Whatever

It’s Called Torture

I have resisted writing on this subject. I’ve resisted writing on this subject because it’s black and white to me.  As a matter of course you treat innocent people (people not convicted of a crime) as if they haven’t done anything wrong. People are in the wrong place at the wrong time even when you’re fighting a battle in a third world country.

This view puts me at odds with most law enforcement, even in the US, where any visit to the holding cells for people recently arrested will result in horrified outrage at the treatment of people awaiting processing. But depraved conditions in the local holding pen because of the tight-fistedness of local government is nothing compared to intentionally causing physical and emotional pain to people simply because we can, because we are in charge and want to assert our authority.

There is an excellent essay up on Stonekettle Station right now on this subject.  Jim Wright has the experience to back up what he says when it comes to the subject of taking prisoners in a time of war, of just how hard it is to take a high moral road when you really are in the thick of it.

I, me personally? I would do whatever it took, including torture, if that was the only way to save the city, if that was the only way to save my family, if that was the only way to save you. As a military officer, yes, I would. Absolutely. I wouldn’t order my men to do it, I’d do it myself. I shove a hose up the bastard’s nose and turn on the water. I’d shoot out his knees. I’d cut off his balls. You bet. If that’s what it took. I’d do it without hesitation.

And I’d do it knowing I was breaking the law, and I would expect to be tried for the crime and sent to prison.

I would.

Because even if I saved the day, I’d be wrong.

Good intentions do not justify evil.

A just cause does not justify injustice. No more than if I donned a cape and tights and drove around Gotham in the night killing criminals without trial or due process.

Stonekettle Station

It’s worth noting, in our depraved current era, that not even Batman killed the subjects he pursued in the original comic books.  The same is true for all the heroes of previous generations.  They didn’t kill, they didn’t torment, they didn’t torture. That was what the villains did. That was why the Punisher was a villain when introduced in the comic sphere.  Because he killed, he tortured. He was evil.

Nowadays our heroes are not heroic in any sense of the word.  Sports stars pummel their wives unconscious on video and go unpunished. Beat their children to the point that they need medical attention, and expect to be let off without suffering consequences. Police officers are filmed strangling and shooting unarmed men, and remain unprosecuted. Politicians don’t even flinch at being caught in hypocrisy any longer. They just explain it away as some thing they said but didn’t really mean.

I only have one response for people who think we should be subjecting prisoners to torture, which is what enhanced interrogation techniques are.  You can be seen as free of hypocrisy, supporting the systematic use of torture, if you willingly undergo it yourself. I mean, if innocent people can be subjected to this kind of treatment, then anyone should be able to undergo the treatment without ill effects.

Christopher Hitchens thought waterboarding was no big deal, until he allowed himself to be waterboarded. here’s the video of it.

Vanity Fair (via Archive.org) & Christopher Hitchens
Youtube Video – Christopher Hitchens Gets Waterboarded

I expect Dick Cheney to submit himself to waterboarding, or to the Hague for prosecution for war crimes.  He should do so within the week.  Unlike someone subject to waterboarding, I wouldn’t suggest you hold your breath waiting for that.

Accidents Happen

Accidents Happen was the reported response by Harry Whittington today when questioned over the VP shooting him last weekend in Texas.

Dick Cheney’s Got a Gun (dead link)
dickhunt.ytmnd.com

On another note, I was listening to Rush Limbaugh (whom I have lovingly referred to as a modern age Joseph Goebbels for about as long as he’s been on the air) defending Cheney against the conspiracy theorists that are calling the show and spinning their theories concerning the accident yesterday. He kept referring to them as idiots.

Sorry there Joey, but from where I’m sitting there is plenty of idiocy to go around. Granted it was an accident, but only an idiot fires blind in the direction that your hunting partners are in. Only an idiot pulls the trigger when there is a guy wearing safety orange visible in your sight.

The local authorities have been using this incident and the airtime concerning guns, to lament on the number of people who go hunting and don’t take gun safety courses. Maybe Mr. Cheney should look into them. I took gun safety classes back in the seventies. The curriculum was a little different when I took them. The curriculum was called dad smacking me on the head when I did something stupid while carrying a loaded weapon. I don’t think I’d volunteer to instruct the VP though. He’s liable to mistake me for a bird as well.

THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART HEADLINES – CHENEY’S GOT A GUN – 2/13/2006

“Yes, as you’ve just heard, a near-tragedy over the weekend in south Texas. Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot a man during a quail hunt at a political supporter’s ranch. Making 78-year-old Harry Whittington the first person shot by a sitting VP since Alexander Hamilton.

“Hamilton, of course, shot in a duel with Aaron Burr over issues of honor, integrity and political maneuvering. Whittington? Mistaken for a bird.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart – Cheney’s Got a Gun