Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

A Senator Walker would also be an insult to reason, rationality, and decency.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

The willow is too close to the house.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

“But what about the lurkers?”

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

Come on, man.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

You are here: Home / Don’t you know what happened down there?

Don’t you know what happened down there?

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The Washington Monthly on the other 9/11:

If trees had the capacity for language, the towering Ombu off Avda Jose Arrieta on the outskirts of the Chilean capital of Santiago would tell a tale of brutality and redemption, of nature’s capacity to forget, and man’s determination to remember.

The tree is one of the last vestiges of Villa Grimaldi, a former artist’s retreat that was used in the early 1970s by General Augusto Pinochet’s secret police to house and torture more than 4,000 political prisoners – including the former president, Michelle Bachelet, who paid the price for her father’s service in the air force of deposed President Salvador Allende.

A “Peace Park” now surrounds the tree; and for a visitor enjoying its tranquility, it’s easy to forget that between 1973 and 1978, at least 240 political prisoners were “disappeared” from the Villa. Some of them took their final breaths blindfolded beneath the Ombu’s knotted bough, or hanging from its majestic branches.

Many serious people eulogized Pinochet when he died:

It’s hard not to notice, however, that the evil dictator leaves behind the most successful country in Latin America. In the past 15 years, Chile’s economy has grown at twice the regional average, and its poverty rate has been halved. It’s leaving behind the developing world, where all of its neighbors remain mired. It also has a vibrant democracy. Earlier this year it elected another socialist president, Michelle Bachelet, who suffered persecution during the Pinochet years.

Like it or not, Mr. Pinochet had something to do with this success.

For shame, for shame. Sometimes I hope there is an afterlife.

Reader Interactions

154Comments

  1. 1.

    Liquid

    I don’t appreciate your crude inference about “girl-down-there-parts” Thus you should be executed and yaddahypenetc.

  3. 3.

    Villago Delenda Est

    The scum on the WaPo editorial board when that was published should all be hanging from lampposts somewhere.

  7. 7.

    Corner Stone

    Amb Marc Ginsburg, SecState Kerry or Cokie Roberts?
    Not sure who could have written that OpEd.
    Oh, wait. It could’ve been a thousand peeps.

  13. 13.

    geg6

    You are almost as good an artist with a Clash song as the Clash was, Doug. Damn.

    On topic, disgusting and embarrassing that. But it’s what the WaPo does. Look at their roster and tell me I’m wrong.

  14. 14.

    Jane2

    My next-door office mate fled from Pinochet’s Chile. I don’t think I’ll be sharing that article with him.

  15. 15.

    cokane

    never forget that margaret thatcher stood by pinochet all the way up until his death, long after his crimes had been exposed

  16. 16.

    Roy G.

    omg, the last paragraph is, ahem, killer:

    The contrast between Cuba and Chile more than 30 years after Mr. Pinochet’s coup is a reminder of a famous essay written by Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, the provocative and energetic scholar and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who died Thursday. In “Dictatorships and Double Standards,” a work that caught the eye of President Ronald Reagan, Ms. Kirkpatrick argued that right-wing dictators such as Mr. Pinochet were ultimately less malign than communist rulers, in part because their regimes were more likely to pave the way for liberal democracies. She, too, was vilified by the left. Yet by now it should be obvious: She was right.

    //

    All I can say is, please remember Victor Jara.

  19. 19.

    srv

    I’ve heard there’s a whole Liberal Spring in Chile about the Pinochet years.

    We should send Nooner down there on a drinking binge.

  21. 21.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein talks in detail how The Chicago School of Milton Friedman withy the help of Pinochet turned Chile into a Businessman’s paradise at the expense of the little guy. May Friedman spend his eternity in hell, with pictures of murdered workers and labor activists while listening to Victor Jara, in minor key.

  23. 23.

    Ash Can

    Perhaps the best thing that could possibly be said about Pinochet is that he helped people — not anywhere near enough people, but some, at least — see the truth about the people who supported him, e.g., Thatcher, Reagan, and Kirkpatrick.

  28. 28.

    Chris

    @Roy G.:

    In “Dictatorships and Double Standards,” a work that caught the eye of President Ronald Reagan, Ms. Kirkpatrick argued that right-wing dictators such as Mr. Pinochet were ultimately less malign than communist rulers, in part because their regimes were more likely to pave the way for liberal democracies.

    They might not have needed to “pave the road for democracy” if they hadn’t, how can I put this, overthrown the democracy that already existed, you know, right before Pinochet came to power. By overthrowing it. I’m sorry, the argument here is “we should credit Pinochet for Chilean democracy, because even if he overthrew it, our crystal ball said there was a good chance it would grow back after he died, eventually, maybe, and it’s surely to his credit”? You’re too kind, Jeannie. You really are, you know.

    The other thing that goes unsaid in this is that while it’s absolutely standard fare for right wing governments to overthrow democracies (Chile, Guatemala, Iran, Zaire, Greece)… to my knowledge, there has never been a communist government that didn’t come to power by overthrowing what was already an obscenely brutal and authoritarian regime. Not in Czarist Russia, not in Nationalist/warlord-run China, not in colonial Indochina, not in quasi-colonial Cuba, not in dynastic/fascist Nicaragua… nope, can’t think of any. The reason I judge right wing coups like Pinochet’s so harshly is that they by definition entail a giant step backwards from something free and representative to something… incredibly not. Whereas communist revolutions generally degenerate into a “plague on both your houses” scenario, and while the communists are not the good guys of the story, it’s kind of hard to argue that their opponents are either, by any definition that fits those “American liberal democratic values” these guys are always braying on about.

    Oh yes, and this absolute gem;

    Yet by now it should be obvious: She was right.

    Really? Right wing regimes = democratic future, communist regimes = not?

    Soooooooooo… How do you explain Eastern Europe, exactly?

    ETA: I am accepting corrections about Nicaragua, if anyone more knowledgeable wants to get into that. From what recall, the Sandinista government did transition to democratic elections within about a decade, which is not bad for a revolutionary government. Though of course, critics will argue that was because of U.S. pressure.

  30. 30.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Chris:

    How do you explain Eastern Europe, exactly?

    Reagan said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” and, lo, it was done.

  33. 33.

    Chris

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    What an inconsiderate prick.

    Why didn’t he do that in Beijing, and Havana, and Pyongyang, and Hanoi, and Phnom Penh, as well? And Tehran?

    My God! All these dead people! All these marks on the Black Book of Communism who would still be alive if he’d only worked his magic in their countries, too!

    Hey, Ronnie, why do you love COMMIES so much, anyway?

  34. 34.

    Roger Moore

    @Roy G.:

    right-wing dictators such as Mr. Pinochet were ultimately less malign than communist rulers, in part because their regimes were more likely to pave the way for liberal democracies.

    That’s an impressive amount of wrong to pack into just one sentence.

  35. 35.

    srv

    Sen. John McCain called a Russian plan for Syria to hand over its chemical weapons a stalling tactic, a day after President Barack Obama addressed the nation over possible diplomatic progress and the need for a credible U.S. military threat.

    The Arizona Republican expressed severe skepticism about the possibility of compromise—whose origins he called “queasy”—that arose this week and urged the White House to give the diplomatic track limited time to play itself out. “I’m worried that we have a game of rope-a-dope for a while, and the slaughter goes on,” he said.

    Angry Gramps is getting queasy angry.

    In other news

    Saul Goodman Gets Breaking Bad Prequel Spinoff Pilot Order at AMC
    …
    What started off as a potential rumor or even a joke became real today when AMC announced that Better Call Saul has been green lit to a pilot order.

    We can no doubt credit Kerry for this gaffe.

  37. 37.

    Cacti

    The soon to be sainted John Paul II loved him some Pinochet

    Old fella just had him a soft spot for dictators and kiddie diddlers. .

  38. 38.

    Corner Stone

    @srv:

    We can no doubt credit Kerry for this gaffe.

    Nah. They’ve been working on it for a few seasons now. Keeping it strictly on the hush-hush.

  39. 39.

    trollhattan

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Sooo, the paper’s official position then? Dear god they had their collective heads up the neocons’ arses, didn’t they?

    But things are so different now, with their heads up the paleocons’ arses.

  41. 41.

    trollhattan

    @srv:

    I am so watching a series based on Saul. Better have Huell, too.

    Loving the “LWYRUP” plate on his Caddy. For sure, Saul.

  43. 43.

    srv

    Shiping Bao, the medical examiner for the Trayvon Martin case, has been fired.

    Bao was let go from the Volusia County Medical Examiner’s Office last week, officials said Wednesday.

    Authorities provided a copy of his termination letter, but did not specify a reason.
    The letter says Bao was given a choice to resign.

    He didn’t. So, he was terminated Friday.

  46. 46.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @S. cerevisiae: But dictators make things so easy. One just has to obey and all your dreams will come true. Cheaper than sending ten dollars to the Church of the Sacred Bleeding Heart of Jesus located somewhere in Los Angeles, California.

  47. 47.

    mzrad

    We just saw the movie _No_ about the western-type marketing efforts used by the No campaign in the 20-some days they had access to the national television audience to make their case against allowing Pinochet another 8-year term. I recommend this film: it shows how to deliver a successful message using the tools of today’s commercial landscape. They work, even to get rid of Pinochet.

  48. 48.

    Sly

    @Roy G.:

    The contrast between Cuba and Chile more than 30 years after Mr. Pinochet’s coup is a reminder of a famous essay written by Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, the provocative and energetic scholar and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who died Thursday.

    Whenever I need a pick-me-up, being reminded that Jeane Kirkpatrick is still dead never disappoints.

  49. 49.

    danielx

    @srv:

    Actually my first thought was that they outsourced that one to Our Lady of Stolichnaya. It does remind me of the deathless prose that flows ever so gently from what passes for La Noonan’s mind. Mostly particularly since her very own patron saint Ronald of Reagan never met a right wing Latin American dictator that he didn’t like.

  51. 51.

    danielx

    @Sly:

    True, and if that doesn’t get it for you just remember that Andrew Breitbart is still dead also.

    Richard Cheney is still alive, due no doubt to his daily quaffing of pureed Afghan childrens’ livers from the jeweled skull of an Iraqi child.

  55. 55.

    Liquid

    This is one of those times I nearly regret we don’t have the rabid mmfa trolls.

    You can always call them cowards (which they are) and exhort them to pick up a rifle and not be cowards which they will never do because…well… they’re cowards.

  57. 57.

    srv

    @Liquid: I’m pretty sure the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts crowd would want to troll a French blog.

    You’ll have to do better than call them cowards. Maybe cheese eating surrender monkeys.

  59. 59.

    Liquid

    Eh, the french partisans more than made up for France’s capitulation. Nevertheless I will kill the lion and build the bridge.

    @Omnes Omnibus — Wait, we need a reason?

  60. 60.

    Corner Stone

    @Liquid:

    This is one of those times I nearly regret we don’t have the rabid mmfa trolls.

    Who is “we”, and wtf are you babbling about?

  62. 62.

    srv

    The CIA has begun delivering weapons to rebels in Syria, ending months of delay in lethal aid that had been promised by the Obama administration, according to U.S. officials and Syrian figures. The shipments began streaming into the country over the past two weeks, along with separate deliveries by the State Department of vehicles and other gear — a flow of material that marks a major escalation of the U.S. role in Syria’s civil war.

    As predicted.

  65. 65.

    Sly

    @danielx:

    True, and if that doesn’t get it for you just remember that Andrew Breitbart is still dead also.

    Kirkpatrick soft-pedaled crimes against humanity at the highest echelons of American diplomatic power, and aided and abetted those who committed them. Andrew Breitbart was a spittle-soaked third-rate hack whose only lasting effect on American politics is that he showed some back-bencher congressman’s johnson to the world and thus prevented him from skeeving his way into the NYC mayoralty.

  66. 66.

    Mike G

    Pinochet wasn’t just “less malign” to the neocons, he was their best buddy in South America.

    Pinochet laid bare the right wing’s horseshit babbling about the primacy of “freedom”. They were perfectly eager to embrace a mass-murdering torturer and dictator who raised their investment returns a few points on the broken bodies of thousands of Chileans. The only freedom they give a shit about is having lots of investment choices.

  67. 67.

    Corner Stone

    @Omnes Omnibus: It has been discussed on some threads here. If you want to come storming into the middle of a conversation, you shouldn’t get pissy when you aren’t totally au courant.

  68. 68.

    Liquid

    McCain Chickenhawks vs. Typical bullshit about France \\= Hey John, pick up a rifle and get ready to drop!

    Fucking Acer net\book, if you even look at a button uit’s up there.\\\.

  71. 71.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Corner Stone: Nice. But the thing is that srv has been claiming that we will be in a boots on the ground type of war in Syria by December. That’s his/her prediction. I am interested in seeing a cite to this specific prediction.

  73. 73.

    Chris

    @Mike G:

    Pinochet laid bare the right wing’s horseshit babbling about the primacy of “freedom”. They were perfectly eager to embrace a mass-murdering torturer and dictator who raised their investment returns a few points on the broken bodies of thousands of Chileans. The only freedom they give a shit about is having lots of investment choices.

    One of the three slogans of Ingsoc in “1984” was “Slavery is Freedom.” Besides devaluing political language to the point of uselessness, the inner meaning of that is “slavery for the masses means freedom for the inner party.” If you take it that way, all of their BS about “freedom” makes sense.

    (I love Orwell, and have found him to be a sadly excellent source on understanding the teabaggers… particularly all the shit about Doublethink and Newspeak).

  75. 75.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @srv: @Corner Stone:

    This admin has free reign to up the covert war, but it’s clear they are not willing to wait – and they know they can’t topple Assad without it getting hot.

    A fair point. I asked for a cite and I got one. I am not sure it says what srv claims it does, but I won’t argue the point.

    @srv: You didn’t? I will accept your word. I made a mistake. Sorry. Would you like to take back the liar comment?

  76. 76.

    Liquid

    Hard to watch ‘Ghost in the Darkness” and afford MD the same amount of respect post Cunnilingus-gate. (Joan Wilder!)

    “I’m going to join them now. We have to try to convince each other that we’re still brave.”

  78. 78.

    BGinCHI

    Fuck all the Reagan criminal cunts, male and female.

    Criminals all. Enjoying Satan’s kiss if there is any justice.

  82. 82.

    srv

    @Omnes Omnibus: I will take it back but hate you equally with the furries.

    It is easy to see how you Obots get confused about what “war” is is.

    *this does not mean Special Forces are not present in Jordan, Turkey and Syria, but then as you also know, Demoncrats don’t consider these “boots” either.

  88. 88.

    JasonF

    It’s hard not to notice, however, that the evil dictator leaves behind the most successful country in Latin America. In the past 15 years, Chile’s economy has grown at twice the regional average, and its poverty rate has been halved. … Like it or not, Mr. Pinochet had something to do with this success.

    Dear Washington Post: You wrote that obituary 15 years after Pinochet left off and turned over power to the socialists and left-wing parties, you stupid fucks.

  89. 89.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    “For shame, for shame. Sometimes I hope there is an afterlife. “

    I hope not because the same people who make life miserable here on earth will be doing their best to make the afterlife twice as miserable.

  91. 91.

    Liquid

    ’04 — Sean Penn: “Last year I went to Iraq. Before Team America showed up, it was a happy place. They had flowery meadows and rainbow skies, and rivers made of chocolate, where the children danced and laughed and played with gumdrop smiles!”

  95. 95.

    Suffern ACE

    @Odie Hugh Manatee: yep. For all we know, we’re going to be punished for not building the leader a bigger pyramid and we’ll end up conscripted into the Emperor of heaven’s army.

  97. 97.

    Liquid

    Alert Ted Koppel!

    oh and as an aside if anyone is going to leave out a consonant it would have to be ‘oogle.’ It’s incredibly lame but I’m sure you’ll understand why I mentioned it…

  104. 104.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    @Yatsuno: I think Berke Breathed was right to stop Bloom County. If he had kept on, it would have turned into the same kind of crap that is the current state of Doonesbury, which seems to run on inertia.

  105. 105.

    Yatsuno

    @The prophet Nostradumbass: He morphed into Outland, which was its own brilliance but didn’t possess the overt politicism and downright mockery of Bloom County. If he had stopped altogether, he would have been haunted for all his days. That said, oh MAN what he would have done with Dubya. Stopping was good for him. How good it was for the rest of us is debatable.

  106. 106.

    max

    @Yatsuno: Ted Koppel is a waffle

    ‘If I had a hammer/I’d hammer me a commmmmiiiieeeeee!’

    max
    [”KITZI! Your sorority doesn’t even admit blacks!’ ‘Hold it, girls, contradiction city…”]

  107. 107.

    Liquid

    I was at 7th grade camp for a week and brought a few of the anthologies. (Mary Kay / Bonfire / Tales). Shared them with a few guys in my class and we’re still close friends twenty years later. So “special place” and all.

  109. 109.

    Liquid

    Fuck Putin.(Hi NSA!) Watch “The Ghost and the Darkness.” Lots of fiction, Tsavo, no manes but the best part is that those lazy Huns blew that shit up during WWI.

  110. 110.

    balconesfault

    The WaPo OpEd board makes the comparison between the economies of Cuba and Chile … without mentioning the massively harmful effects of the US trade embargoes on Cuba over that time?

    Journalistic malpractice of the highest order.

  111. 111.

    piratedan

    @amk: kinda amazing to watch the ODS happening real time as Republicans embrace the guy who most likely sold the chemical weapons to Syria in the first place get hailed as a hero for offering to step in and take them out of Assad’s hands. Completely ignoring the fact that Obama and Putin had been talking for weeks (i’ve seen it alleged as actually years) and while all this shit was going on in the UN, with Russia blocking everything at that level, he’s now seen as a good guy to prevent Obama from doing what he wanted the UN to do all along. Yet somehow Obama is the one being “maneuvered and manipulated” and he still may send in the planes if Putin doesn’t deliver on his statement that they’ll recover the Chemical weapons from Assad. It’s awesome to watch all of these erstwhile good faith players in the US line up behind our President on this…. just shows how deeply they must loathe him.

  112. 112.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    @srv:

    The CIA has begun delivering weapons to rebels in Syria…

    Which rebels, the noble extortionist rebels, the noble kidnapper rebels, or the noble jihadi rebels?

  113. 113.

    EconWatcher

    @Chris: Well, I have to quibble with you about Russia. The Bolsheviks did not overthrow the tsar and his odious regime; he was already gone. They overthrew the short-lived and provisional Kerensky government, which was clearly attempting to begin the process of creating democracy, and included many decent people such as Vladimir Nabokov’s dad. But I think your overall point stands: I’m not aware of communists ever coming to power by overturning a longstanding democratic tradition, the way Pinochet did.

  116. 116.

    Liquid

    0130 PST and we actually have to put our $ where our botoxed mouth is (are?) Fuck that I’m gonna watch Ratatouille.

    By the time you have read that first line xX amount of non-american ‘people’ have died.

    ETA– Shit, Germany just rolled in so that will have to wait.

  117. 117.

    dmbeaster

    Favorite Kirkpatrick memory? Her defense of the raping and murdering of the Catholic nuns by El Salvadorian right wing death squads:

    “I don’t think the government (of El Salvador) was responsible. The nuns were not just nuns; the nuns were political activists. We ought to be a little more clear-cut about this than we usually are. They were political activists on behalf of the Frente (the guerrillas) and somebody who is using violence to oppose the Frente killed them.”

    So I guess Pinochet was showing restraint in comparison, and was even more laudable.

    Also, the same Pinochet lovers excuse torture by the USA. Its all for a good cause.

  119. 119.

    Liquid

    Ok, little tip for you curmudgeons — You start cooking, with her help (break the egg/ a little spice/knead the beef/etc) then you watch something related, then you finish.

    Oh, you mean my handmade meatballs (heh) can just soak in the sauce for at least an hour and up to three hours? Nice! let’s have a little wine while I get up to ‘stir the meat” every twenty minutes.

    Just…don’t do salmon..srsly.

  120. 120.

    Patricia Kayden

    @piratedan: If things go as planned and Syria turns over its chemical weapons to Russia, I’d like to see how the media can spin this as a loss for President Obama. I see it is as a huge win for this administration — they got what they wanted from Syria without the military intervention that the American people didn’t want.

    Rightwingers with ODS have another 3 years to rant and rave about everything President Obama does. I’m just glad he’s in charge and not McCain/Palin (shudder) or Romney/Ryan.

  122. 122.

    Liquid

    ETA — Goddammit, if she wasn’t threatening my life..

    Date a French Chick. (AND/OR)
    Pre-heat pan with a little olive oil + a few slices of fresh garlic
    1 x lb ground beef
    1 x Egg
    Free Italian Seasoning
    Free Garlic Flakes
    Form meat into orbs.
    Turn meatballs every few minutes.
    Let them cook for about fifteen minutes
    Once they’re done dump them into favorite sauce
    Cover and let them simmer for at least an hour
    Stir every fifteen minutes.
    Pray.

  123. 123.

    WereBear

    @Chris: (I love Orwell, and have found him to be a sadly excellent source on understanding the teabaggers… particularly all the shit about Doublethink and Newspeak).

    He saw it from the beginning. But I guess the ways people fool themselves are timeless and universal.

    It’s easy to see what a slug-like organism such as Cheney would get from embracing right wing policy; money and power. I still find what motivates their minions far more slippery to grasp.

    I’ve settled on a bone-deep inferiority, a parasitic worldview in which they only advance while nestled in the intestines of much larger creatures.

  124. 124.

    magurakurin

    @Cacti:

    yeah, well Catholics and Fascist just go good together, like a Reese’s Cup. Spain and Franco, Mussolini and Italy, Frank Rizzo and South Philly, even Hitler manage to get them to do some photo ops.

  126. 126.

    cvstoner

    Like it or not, Mr. Pinochet had something to do with this success.

    Yes, in the same way that Hitler had something to do with the creation of the European Union, Franco with democracy in Spain, and Stalin for downfall of the USSR.

    These people just love the whole “growth through pain” trope. Idiots.

  128. 128.

    cvstoner

    @magurakurin:

    yeah, well Catholics and Fascist just go good together, like a Reese’s Cup.

    The Catholic Church has always backed those who promised to make them the state religion.

  129. 129.

    MomSense

    This is the second morning I have watched morning joe. I think he is very very sad that people don’t love Bloomberg.

    Steve Schmidt thinks the white house has been amateurish. Does he forget we have seen his operational skills in action also, too?

    Lots of concern trolling. Poor Joe is beside himself about deBlasio. He has talked to lots of liberal democrats (D Wall Street) who are really worried.

    This show is the worst.

  130. 130.

    cvstoner

    @Chris:

    (I love Orwell, and have found him to be a sadly excellent source on understanding the teabaggers… particularly all the shit about Doublethink and Newspeak).

    Indeed. He was quite the essayist, too. England Your England!

  131. 131.

    MomSense

    @MomSense:

    Now they are talking about how the Democrats have never tried to promote ObamaCare from the beginning. If they did try to build support for it, they would get the base back but they’re not even trying.

  133. 133.

    Suffern ACE

    @MomSense: which base? The liberal democrat Wall Street banker base who is scared of diblasio? I mean that’s who they’ve been talking to…

  134. 134.

    MomSense

    @Baud:

    How can he stand it?? Talk about lack of self awareness. That is the most narcissistic bunch of entitled BS artists I have ever seen.

  137. 137.

    MomSense

    @Suffern ACE:

    which base? The liberal democrat Wall Street banker base who is scared of diblasio? I mean that’s who they’ve been talking to…

    The only base that matters to them.

    Apparently Bloomberg was going to do a lot of campaigning for candidates across the country and now they don’t want to touch him and that is a shame because they don’t appreciate how much he has done for this city. Going back to Giuliani who transformed the city. It used to be #2 only to Sarajevo on the worst cities to vacation in and now it is wonderful!

    Poor Mika tries to insert the idea that this has to do with stop n frisk but they are talking over her so she has to try to look very serious while the men blather on.

    Raven, hurry back!!

  138. 138.

    El Cid

    The Pinochet-sympathizers always like to just leave the status of Chile-before-Pinochet as only existing in the (internally and US caused) Allende Presidency economic strangulation crisis.

    Chile existed before Pinochet, and before Allende. It had been democratic. It was highly developed for Latin America. It had industry, and a workforce, and unions, the like.

    Chile wasn’t some failed banana republic before Pinochet came and brought them fire. (Or, more accurately, fired upon them.)

  139. 139.

    MomSense

    @Baud:

    I have seen some diaper blow outs that would make you gag and have been thrown up more times than I can count but clearly I am ill prepared for the morning ho mess.

  141. 141.

    MosesZD

    My understanding was the growth was because he abandoned all his early policies that had lead to massive economic problems and that for a very long time, Chile first contracted and then lagged in growth behind the other Latin American States. And that almost all of that growth was ‘catch up’ and that Chile, in the end, still lagged in total GDP increase during his tenure as dictator and for many years thereafter.

  142. 142.

    MomSense

    @Suffern ACE:

    I have no idea what on earth they are thinking. Wasn’t Ho all hot to trot on the third way, Bloomberg as an Independent for President stuff with Ho positioning himself to run with him? Could be diBlasio destroyed his comeback fantasies.

    There must be currency ink in the water there and even though they all know it is a neuro toxin, they keep drinking it because someone very serious (probably Trump) said it has anti-aging benefits.

  143. 143.

    Suffern ACE

    @MomSense: I think what pisses them off most is that they didn’t get to appoint the king. Bloomberg didn’t actually endorse Quinn. The press just read between the lines that she was his favorite an acted like he had made a pronouncement that carried weight with the voters. She had “signals” and “signs” and nothing else from him.

  144. 144.

    Tone in DC

    @El Cid:

    Chile wasn’t some failed banana republic before Pinochet came and brought them fire. (Or, more accurately, fired upon them.)

    Good one.

    The VSP don’t like history very much. There are too many parts of it they seemingly would like to forget, omit or ignore. Just a few, from Latin America.

    Guatemala in 1954
    Ecuador in 1981
    Honduras in 2009

    It’s decent length list..

  145. 145.

    MomSense

    @Suffern ACE:

    And the way they were discussing Syria and Putin in the most superficial way taking every opportunity to bash the President was beyond frustrating. Even James Skeletor Carville was in on the act even after someone said that both Clintons had endorsed strikes on Syria.

    How is it they cannot grasp the concept that the US has been pushing a diplomatic solution regarding the chemical weapons for over a year and finally Putin agreed after being faced with the credible threat of force and the desire to not be such an asshole to the rest of the world right before he hosts the Olympics where he would rather avoid one of the aggrieved groups in the Caucasus using a loose, Syrian, CW to destroy his games?

  146. 146.

    Chris

    @EconWatcher:

    Correction accepted.

    @WereBear:

    It’s easy to see what a slug-like organism such as Cheney would get from embracing right wing policy; money and power. I still find what motivates their minions far more slippery to grasp.

    Well, here’s one pretty good theory (about a year old, but I saved the link because I thought it was worth it).

    I’d say – a sense of self-worth. The party keeps telling them that they’re special, that they’re better than all these other people, that the mean libz who don’t recognize it are just jealous of their awesome success, that all the problems in their life is because of other people conspiring against them because they’re so exceptional… etc etc etc. It’s a tempting drug that’ll go right to your head, especially if you lock yourself up in a bubble where that’s all you ever hear.

    @lou:

    I covered that, I just called it “Zaire” instead. :D Don’t actually know which of the names was in use at the time.

  147. 147.

    kednedub

    I know this is late (just read teh lede) but “fuck the Post’s editorial board and the clown car they rode in on”

  148. 148.

    drkrick

    @Chris: The Sandanistas might just as well have transitioned to democracy more rapidly it they hadn’t had to deal with domestic terrorism continually after overthrowing the Somocista dictatorship. What U.S. pressure can take credit for is the winner of those first elections, as reporting at the time indicated Nicaraguans were highly motivated to vote for the U.S.-approved candidates so we would leave them the f*** alone for a while.

  149. 149.

    drkrick

    @lou: That one’s really more on the Belgians, isn’t it? Sort of like the relative US/USSR responsibility for defeat of the Nazis on the Eastern Front.

  150. 150.

    Chris

    @drkrick:

    I think you mean the second elections. As I recall, the U.S. promised to stop helping the contras if the Sandinistas allowed elections… which they did… and won. Under a fuckton of international observers, including American ones, all of which certified that the elections had been legit, but Reagan was like, “well, we were just kidding – it’s not democracy unless our candidate wins” and kept up the terrorism. Then, you had the next election, and America’s candidates won like you said.

  151. 151.

    pseudonymous in nc

    I liked how the WaPo used Fidel as their contrast with Pinochet, while gloating about his “approaching death”. In 2006.

    The WaPo likes it some right-wing dictators.

  152. 152.

    Someguy

    @Chris: All these dead people! All these marks on the Black Book of Communism who would still be alive if he’d only worked his magic in their countries, too!

    240 dead communists at the hands of Pinochet is a tragedy and an outrage. A hundred and a half million dead, mostly intentionally starved to death by other communists, is but a statistic.

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