Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“That’s what the insurrection act is for!”

‘Museums aren’t America’s attic for its racist shit.’

Donald Trump, welcome to your everything, everywhere, all at once.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

I am pretty sure Katy Tur wasn’t always such a bootlicking sycophant.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

I was promised a recession.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

We’re not going back!

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about it’s history.”

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

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Reader Interactions

68Comments

  1. 1.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Is this the incident that the upcoming movie Lone Survivor is based on? I’ve gotten out of the habit of watching 60 Minutes. Are the segments available on line?

    ETA: Answering one of my own questions, there is a movie based on Lutrell and his comrades

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1091191/

  3. 3.

    hilts

    It may have been the most riveting and simultaneously horrifying interview I have ever seen.

    That segment took my breath away

  5. 5.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I didn’t see it. Pretty much stopped watching 60 Minutes a long time ago, and I’m mostly not sorry. But if this is worth watching, maybe it’ll be available on the CBS website? Maybe?

  7. 7.

    WaterGIrl

    Based on the link and the title of the movie in the first comment, I am guessing… 4 seals went in, and the fellow interviewed was the only one to make it out alive of a very harrowing situation? Also guessing… it was not a successful mission?

  9. 9.

    muricafukyea

    Wr0ng way libartarian curious Cole channeling his hero Glen Griftwald.

    Just stick with talking about house pets and you sorority friends and maybe you won’t embarass yourself so much.

  10. 10.

    raven

    @Elizabelle: A 4 man Seal team got over-run and only one made it alive. A rescue ship that went to rescue them took an RPG and all hands were lost.

  11. 11.

    debbie

    @WaterGIrl:

    Seriously harrowing, not the Hollywood kind of harrowing that most people think of. In fact, I wish all these war mongers would be tied down and forced to listen to that interview, like Alex in Clockwork Orange.

  12. 12.

    debbie

    @WaterGIrl:

    Seriously harrowing, not the Hollywood kind of harrowing that most people think of. In fact, I wish all these war mongers would be tied down and forced to listen to that interview, like Alex in Clockwork Orange.

  15. 15.

    Elizabelle

    @raven:

    How sad. Thank you.

    Incidentally, rooting for Mrs. Raven.

    Knew a 92-something with spinal stenosis. Would have been better if she’d had surgery earlier, but that was years ago and who knew she’d live to her 90s?

    Rooting for a comfortable outcome.

  19. 19.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @debbie: They wouldn’t learn.

    Karl Rove exchanged e-mails about Pat Tillman with Associated Press reporter Ron Fournier, under the subject line “H-E-R-O.” In response to Mr. Fournier’s e-mail, Mr. Rove asked, “How does our country continue to produce men and women like this,” to which Mr. Fournier replied, “The Lord creates men and women like this all over the world. But only the great and free countries allow them to flourish. Keep up the fight.”

    They put yellow ribbons on their cars and call it support.

  20. 20.

    WaterGIrl

    @debbie: That’s a powerful analogy. Wow. I am tempted to watch it, but I probably shouldn’t. I had to walk out of Apocalypse Now when I saw it all those years ago. I just couldn’t make it through watching all the horror or war in that movie.

  22. 22.

    WaterGIrl

    @Yatsuno: I haven’t been here much and hadn’t seen that nym before tonight. It only took one comment, and I thought “derp”.

  24. 24.

    raven

    @Elizabelle: To some extent. The strange thing is that is seems to be congenital in MY family. The Mayo and Emory both have great information and the surgery has become less intrusive. When she had her lower back surgery in the spring we were talking to the surgeon about my harrington rod and bone graft surgery and she told me what they did to me in 1974 would be considered “barbaric” by today’s standards.

  27. 27.

    Keith P

    Since I didn’t actually see the interview, I must say that you gave an incredibly informative summary. “Dude, I just saw the coolest thing! You should have been there!”

  28. 28.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @raven: They sure as hell do need their asses out there, and their kids’ asses too.

    Thinking very good thoughts for your bride. Hoping that the surgical fix is untoward, completely successful, and not too stress-filled for you. As well as complete with sufficient post-op opiates for her comfort. Rehab is plenty soon to have pain again.

  30. 30.

    RobertDSC-Power Mac G5 Dual

    Luttrell’s autobiography, Lone Survivor, is a very powerful read. I was mesmerized by his story.

    He has a second book about his time in the Navy called Service, but I haven’t read that one yet.

  32. 32.

    WaterGIrl

    @NotMax: He definitely needs to get some new material. :-)

    Either that, or it’s some automated commenting system – you enter 10 words and it forms sentences with those words combined with a few others.

  35. 35.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @lamh36: Thanks. I don’t know, but maybe i’ll feel moved to find out in a few days.

    I always thought the relationship, such as it was, was with ABC (Christiane Amanpour, e.g.), but the MSM is all so quiverfully incestuous these days that I can’t really keep up.

  39. 39.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @lamh36: oh pooh, I’m in moderation. Forgot about the insect word.

    Thanks. I don’t know, but maybe i’ll feel moved to find out in a few days.

    I always thought the relationship, such as it was, was with ABC (Christiane Amanpour, e.g.), but the MSM is all so quiverfully insectuous these days that I can’t really keep up.

  41. 41.

    Cacti

    We have got to stop putting our kids in these situations.

    Navy Seals are kids? When did that happen.

    Sorry Cole. The black ops guys aren’t the 18 year old who enlisted to escape a life of poverty.

  43. 43.

    WaterGIrl

    @SiubhanDuinne: Your comment made me smile. I got to see that one live. You just know he had that line in his pocket, but his delivery was perfect. And I’m pretty sure Joe Biden followed up the shiv with a smile that feels genuine, just like our President can do. Love that about both of them!

  44. 44.

    Keith P

    @WaterGIrl: Fuck yeah, I’m criticizing. No one in the conversation actually says what it’s about. Just a bunch of “Yeah, word!” and “SOLDIER!”s.

  45. 45.

    Lee

    IIRC this guy comes across as a wingnut. There was a part of the book he was whining about how the liberal press would react to him killing some civilians.

  46. 46.

    WaterGIrl

    @Keith P: I guess we see it differently.

    Comment 1 threw out the name of the movie and that he was a navy seal. My comment 7 got the bare bones of it correctly, just from the first comment and clicking the link to the database entry for the movie. Raven confirmed it with details in comment 10.

  47. 47.

    Mandalay

    @Cacti:

    Sorry Cole. The black ops guys aren’t the 18 year old who enlisted to escape a life of poverty.

    You certainly have a point. The other day I was listening to a discussion of this (now ex-) British marine , who has just received a life sentence for executing an Afghan:

    All three marines were seen in the film with the Afghan man, who had been severely wounded in a strike by an Apache helicopter gunship. In the footage the sergeant is seen firing a bullet into the chest of the man, who is covered in blood, and is heard saying: “There you are, shuffle off this mortal coil you c##t. It’s nothing you wouldn’t have done to us.” Turning to the others, he added: “Obviously this don’t go anywhere fellas. I’ve just broken the Geneva Convention.”

    The marine is 39, yet the speaker referred to him as a “great lad”! WTF??? A 39 year old man is not a “lad”, but for some reason some people feel the need to morph those in the military on the front line into innocent youths. They are not “kids” and they are not “lads”.

  48. 48.

    Mike in NC

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Karl Rove and Ron Fournier are the scum of the earth. And today “Parade” magazine had a slobbering piece on Dancin’ Dave Gregory. There’s a new circle of Hell for these Village maggots.

  49. 49.

    James E Powell

    Turning people into killers turns out to be a bad thing, eh? Who would have thought that?

  50. 50.

    James E Powell

    @James E Powell:

    There’s a new circle of Hell for these Village maggots.

    You know what really sucks? There is no hell. People like Rove, Fournier, and Gregory live lives of comfort and privilege. They are tied to each other with a many-stranded rope of narratives, all of which honor them. They are stars, you know? Stars shine on others and make their lives better.

    They believe it till they die.

  51. 51.

    Dead Ernest

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Dear S-D;

    so quiverfully incestuous…

    And I’ll keep saying, you’ve more than a charming way with the words. May be better said that you ‘charm’ words. I can imagine them jumping down from the bookshelves like the happiest little puppies, sitting on the floor all around you and eagerly awaiting your choosing another one of them.
    Cheers

  52. 52.

    Kiko

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: “A film version starring Mark Wahlberg will be released on January 10, 2014.”
    Sorry, but Marky Mark is a dealbreaker for me.
    Don’t look at me that way, you all have one actor you can’t watch.

  53. 53.

    Robert Sneddon

    @Mandalay: “Lad” is not age-specific in Britain. Being “one of the lads” runs well into middle-age and even through into retirement.

  54. 54.

    divF

    @raven:

    Thanks, we’ll see what the sawbones says.

    Doctors in the cognitive specialties (e.g. internal medicine) often refer to their surgical colleagues by what they correspond to in the building trades: carpenters (orthopedic), plumbers (cardiac), electricians (neurosugeons), and, well, GI surgeons practice the same trade as Ed Norton did on “The Honeymooners”. General surgeons are collectively referred to as butchers. If you look at the tools for some of them, it is difficult to avoid the comparison.

    ETA: I figured you’re of an age to know who Ed Norton is. Also, best of luck on the surgery.

  55. 55.

    Cassidy

    @Cacti:

    The black ops guys aren’t the 18 year old who enlisted to escape a life of poverty.

    Apples, oranges, and pears. But, without going into a lot of boring stuff about regular, conventional SOF vs. JSOC level grayer stuff, your regular SEALs are fairly young as the USN likes to tag them right out of Boot.

  56. 56.

    Paddy

    @raven: Harrington rod & bone graft? That’s what they put in me for scoliosis in ’71. How is that related to the stenosis?

    Barbaric is right. 2 years out of a 10 year olds life spent in a bed. I don’t dwell on it, but it sure implanted itself in me.

  58. 58.

    Peregrinus

    @Lee:

    I remember thinking this as well. A good bit of the book still makes for good reading, especially as at the time I was taking NROTC classes – but there are parts where you think he actually is going so far as to blame the media for the failure of his mission.

  59. 59.

    PIGL

    Comrade Dread: in ancient China, a vanguard of convicts would be sent to slit their own throats in sight of the enemy lines. Is that what you had in mind? ‘Cause I’d be all “Dude! Totally.”

  61. 61.

    Rekster

    @RobertDSC-Power Mac G5 Dual:

    The most totally unreadable book I may have ever picked up. I am a voracious reader of nonfiction dealing with war and I could only get through a chapter or two of Luttrell’s tome. Fortunately, I picked it up at the library and did not spend any hard earned money directly for that “writing”.

  62. 62.

    Yatsuno

    @Cassidy:

    your regular SEALs are fairly young as the USN likes to tag them right out of Boot

    Also before they get married. In fact SEALs are encouraged to not get married because of the whole emotional attachment thing. The military can’t order them not to, but it is frowned upon and does affect the selection criteria.

  63. 63.

    PurpleGirl

    @raven: Wishing you and Mrs. R the best outcome from any surgery.

    When I had the hemilaminectomy, they also chipped out a bit of spinal column to handle the spinal stenosis they saw on my MRIs. (I really need to have a new MRI done to see what the area looks like now, 19 years later.)

    No pain attributable to spinal stenosis in 19 years is to me a good outcome.

  64. 64.

    RobertDSC-Power Mac G5 Dual

    @Rekster:

    I have to disagree. His description of the selection process for SEALs, called BUD/S is great. I found it very inspiring. Of the many SEAL books I own, I liked his quite a bit.

    He does come across as wingnutty, yes. As for the movie, Mark Wahlberg is too short to play Luttrell, but I may end up seeing it anyway as I have an interest in SEAL things.

  65. 65.

    James E Powell

    @divF:

    I figured you’re of an age to know who Ed Norton is.

    Didn’t everyone see American History X and Fight Club?

  66. 66.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @debbie: As General Bufford said in The Killer Angels – the warmongers will just thump their chest and declare it was a glorious thing and that makes them realize the debt we owe to these dead Americans and keep on calling for more of the same. And that was during the American Civil War.

  67. 67.

    Rekster

    @RobertDSC-Power Mac G5 Dual:

    We’ll just have to agree to disagree! His wingnuttieness was too much for me to overcome. I have not read a ton of SEAL books but I have read a ton of other books regading this and other wars.

    I also spent 20 years in the US Navy, both enlisted and as an officer and knew a number of SEALS and also met a number of POW’s from Viet Nam and have huge respect for them.

  68. 68.

    Kevin Berger

    Oh boy, Marcus Lutrell and the whole “Lone survivor” clusterfuck…

    I certainly do not usually comment here, but for once, I’ll be tempted to delurk, just to point people out to those links :

    http://onviolence.com/?e=759 (read the complete series of articles)
    http://www.darack.com/sawtalosar/
    http://www.darack.com/sawtalosar/misinformation.php

    Basically, it all boils down to THE LONE SURVIVOR NARRATIVE IS BULLSHIT.
    It’s Navy/Navy SEAL “WOT” PR in its purest, undistillated essence.

    Or, how to take a badly bungled routine mission, by a crew of supposedly “high speed, low drag” types who yet fuck up at every turns (shit happens), get minced up by 8-12 (at best) ass-bandits (officially 30-40, but IIUC, even that was seen as an improbable number by the folks operating there) following a no-name local gangsta…
    And then have it turned to an inspirational story about some gutsy last stand against hundreds of “hard-core jihadis” protecting an “Al Qaida leader”… Hint : the book has been “co-authored” by a british writer specialized in young adult fiction focused notably on Navy SEALs, and the most lurid details, such as the young Afghani being spared after a vote, are most likely figments of his narrative mind…

    Anyway, Lutrell himself is/was an outspoken rightwing nut, very clear about his beliefs, though the first link seems to suggest he’s mellowed out.
    That’s fucking delightful to have the present assembly (mostly) gush over what is essentially a pre reveal Tillman-like fabrication, whose main protagonist is/was at complete odd with “liberal” values, and overtly so.

    Seriously, read the links above, it’s eyes-opening material, and not written by rabid anti-militarists neither (the closest one could come up with in regard to Ed Darack, is that he’s Team USMC, and that the “LS” debacle is for all purpose the Navy SEALs badly dropping the ball in what was a Marines-run theater, but still managing to steal thunder… I mean, one can outfight the Marines, sure… but one cannot out-PR them… it’s heresy!)

    And by the way, this is not an attack, neither on Lutrell as a man (I don’t care about him one way or the other, it’s usually his “G.I. Joe Six-packs fans I can’t stomach much), nor on the others who died there and then.
    It’s just that, I don’t know, rather than swallowing the narrative, I figured people here might prefer to have something perhaps closer to the truth, especially with the movie coming soon IIUC, “when the legend becomes fact, print the legend”, yeah, right…

    Headshot after headshot on advancing hordes of “taliban”, as opposed to the Afghan version of the Bloods or Crips manning a PKM and a RPG, and pinning down and then shredding a panicked and unprepared team of elite Western light infantry… the former pleases, and sells, the later, not so much.

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