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You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Late Night Throw-Away Open Thread: Promises, Promises

Late Night Throw-Away Open Thread: Promises, Promises

by Anne Laurie|  September 10, 20152:40 am| 30 Comments

This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Assholes, Peak Wingnut Was a Lie!

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Louie Gohmert: #IranDeal is step twd "nuclear Holocaust" and I'll quit Congress if it passes http://t.co/aIpqJdqYE0 pic.twitter.com/WbSf67Babq

— Talking Points Memo (@TPM) September 10, 2015

This is what you call a win-win https://t.co/CRba7w7Sda

— Michael Cohen (@speechboy71) September 10, 2015

INB4 Mr. Pierce.

Also, Jim Newell is really tearing it up at his new Slate gig:

… Heading into Wednesday afternoon, the Stop the Iran Deal Rally felt more like a coda for a failed summer campaign to scuttle the deal than a useful means of accomplishing anything. The deal’s grassroots opponents originally seemed to believe that members would be so overwhelmed with protests against the accord when they were home for their August recess that nary a one would dare return to Washington and allow the administration’s deal to skirt through. But even though the deal polls abysmally, the administration was able to successfully whip nearly all Senate Democrats in its favor. It will be implemented now—that is, until at least January 2017, when President Marco Rubio or Scott Walker tears it up on Day 1, or President Trump begins the process of “renegotiating” it in a way that Makes America Great Again.

But try telling that to these folks. And especially try telling them that Congress, specifically the Republican leaders in Sen. Mitch McConnell and Speaker John Boehner, have no tools at their disposal to stop it.

That’s how Tea Party Patriots and other affiliated groups conveniently shifted the focus of their rally once Senate supporters crossed the threshold of 34 votes last week: The deal will only go through if the Republican establishment allows it to pass. President Obama may “make Neville Chamberlain look like George Patton,” in the words of right-wing talk radio personality Mark Levin, but the Republican leaders would be even worse by allowing him to get away with it…

President Obama really should come out in favor of breathing, just to see how many Idiot-Americans pass out trying to refudiate such tyranny. I really think Gohmert would give it a shot — if the cameras were rolling, at least.

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Reader Interactions

30Comments

  1. 1.

    redshirt

    September 10, 2015 at 2:45 am

    lol as if

  2. 2.

    redshirt

    September 10, 2015 at 2:48 am

    Quote:

    The big thing about religion to me came during Nux’s vulnerability scene. I’m just going to keep going without spoiler tags, since the whole thread is marked Spoiler:
    “When Nux tells Capable that thrice the gates of Valhalla were open to him and he failed, she consoles him by telling him that he may have been destined not to die yet, to do something greater.
    Even though they’re rejecting the lives they had under Immortan Joe, they never once put down Nux’s beliefs, never once tell him that his beliefs are wrong. He is allowed to believe what he believes in, and it simply adapts to the situation at hand. Usually if a villain turns hero, his beliefs are challenged and turned on its head, and he gains a new structure of beliefs. As far as I can tell, there’s nothing that says he no longer believes in the glory of death and the ride to Valhalla. He simply goes about it on the side of good rather than the side of Joe.

    End of Quote

  3. 3.

    redshirt

    September 10, 2015 at 2:49 am

    You know my first statement doesn’t cost me my Forth.

  4. 4.

    BGinCHI

    September 10, 2015 at 2:52 am

    What I like about this whole Iran debate is that it has been substantive.

    The American people are interested in the complexities of this issue and have been really well served by the media in drilling down to what is important in the actual deal and its alternatives.

    It has also been refreshing to see politicians put away petty political gain for the sake of ensuring peace.

  5. 5.

    seaboogie

    September 10, 2015 at 2:53 am

    Wasn’t Rush supposed to be in Costa Rica by now?

  6. 6.

    Ian

    September 10, 2015 at 2:58 am

    I think we need senator Austin Powers of Arkansas ro take another look at this. No knowing what Dr. Khomenie put into the space machine. Or his evil child that plays the voice of Stewie Griffin.

  7. 7.

    Lige

    September 10, 2015 at 3:00 am

    Newell was Salon’s most insightful politics writer but always totally buried under the other more histrionic writers hopefully Slate is better to him. Now if only Pareene would actually start working again!

  8. 8.

    seaboogie

    September 10, 2015 at 3:08 am

    Maybe it should not come as a surprise that the ones in the majority in government, who are – and were elected to be – anti-government – don’t know the rules of government. Rock on Nancy Smash and the Honey Badger – Yertle and Orange Julius will never be abe to rein in the slavering id that drools and pants in rabid fashion, derailing what their actual overlords have bid them to do. This is one issue that deserves to pwn them. But Cruz is going to unfund the government, because we ladies are unable to manage our lady-parts without big government stepping in.

    Cruz’s wife must have an insanely adept imagination…Across the kitchen table, you can smell the bs, no matter how much bacon you have fried.

  9. 9.

    redshirt

    September 10, 2015 at 3:09 am

    I hope America aligns with Persia sooner rather than later.

    PERSIA IS COOL

  10. 10.

    redshirt

    September 10, 2015 at 3:30 am

    None of you r cool.

  11. 11.

    Villago Delenda Est

    September 10, 2015 at 4:31 am

    @BGinCHI: The snark. It is delicious.

    There is not a single substantive thing that these assholes object to. They can’t articulate any solid reasons for opposing it. It’s all about how the blah guy is blah, the Iranians can’t be trusted, nor can the Brits, the French, the Germans, the Russians, anyone at the State Department or DoD, or anyone on any of the ships at sea.

    It really is too bad the Constitution has such a high standard for tossing around “treason” as a crime. Because these motherfuckers really are pushing things.

  12. 12.

    Thoughtful Today

    September 10, 2015 at 4:32 am

    Colbert: http://www.cbs.com/shows/the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert

    Last two full eps .^)

  13. 13.

    Villago Delenda Est

    September 10, 2015 at 4:33 am

    @seaboogie: The Nuge is also supposed to be dead or in prison, yet somehow he’s not.

  14. 14.

    Hkedi

    September 10, 2015 at 4:49 am

    I want to see Obama come out against drinking bleach. Lord knows the gene pool needs a little clorox.

  15. 15.

    Sloegin

    September 10, 2015 at 6:58 am

    Meanwhile, candidate Clinton (as reported yesterday) gives thumbs up to the treaty she negotiated, then immediately dials up the anti-Iranian rhetoric to eleven.

    Smart move tactically? Strategically? Or a dumb move to give ammo to the other side just as ours posts a win?

  16. 16.

    Peale

    September 10, 2015 at 7:52 am

    @Sloegin: not certain. Iran is probably the least favorite country for the public for anyone over 40. There’s no one flying congressmen to Iran to change that view, no one gonna run ads on TV telling us that Iran is always right and that we must support Iran no matter what, no one paying media people’s salaries who wants unequivocal pro-Iranian stances circulated in public. I don’t think it matters one way or the other what Clinton says..,but the Democrats probably feel the need to state that they don’t like Iran even though they are at least wiling to talk with them. But since no one is going to be elected for pretending to be Irans best friend and advocate, she might as well make it clear that she won’t be hosting an Khameni for a state dinner.

  17. 17.

    Patricia Kayden

    September 10, 2015 at 8:13 am

    Bye Gohmert. Good riddance. He shouldn’t be allowed to backtrack on this promise.

  18. 18.

    Tom

    September 10, 2015 at 8:44 am

    “make Neville Chamberlain look like George Patton,”

    What does this even mean? I swear, it’s like they have their own secret language.

    I suppose it’s because they’re just talking to themselves at this point.

  19. 19.

    Tom

    September 10, 2015 at 8:46 am

    @Patricia Kayden: Don’t get too excited.
    – Rush promised to leave the country if the ACA passed.
    – Ted Nugent promised to be either dead or in jail if Obama won re-election.

    When you can’t trust a conservative nutbag to follow through on their promises, what is this world coming to?

  20. 20.

    SFAW

    September 10, 2015 at 9:17 am

    @Tom:

    When you can’t trust a conservative nutbag to follow through on their promises, what is this world coming to?

    Where we are today, maybe? And have been for the last 20-plus years?

    Oh, yours was a rhetorical question.

  21. 21.

    Calouste

    September 10, 2015 at 9:39 am

    But try telling that to these folks. And especially try telling them that Congress, specifically the Republican leaders in Sen. Mitch McConnell and Speaker John Boehner, have no tools at their disposal to stop it.

    That’s how Tea Party Patriots and other affiliated groups conveniently shifted the focus of their rally once Senate supporters crossed the threshold of 34 votes last week: The deal will only go through if the Republican establishment allows it to pass.

    This is an important dynamic. You can’t go around saying that this deal is the end of the world, and then not do everything possible to stop it, filibusters, the works. The GOP establishment might just think that this is another case of riling up the base, but the only thing that they are achieving here is that the base again feels betrayed by them and by them and keeps looking for someone outside the establishment who they think will be different. Trump, Carson, and Fiorina are polling combined at more than 50%, and this is only going to make them more popular. Riling up the base and then not delivering worked for the GOP establishment when they were the only game in town, say with Obamacare in 2010, although even then they lost quite a few seats to or due to the Tea Party.

  22. 22.

    Jeffro

    September 10, 2015 at 9:40 am

    @BGinCHI:

    What I like about this whole Iran debate is that it has been substantive.

    The American people are interested in the complexities of this issue and have been really well served by the media in drilling down to what is important in the actual deal and its alternatives.

    It has also been refreshing to see politicians put away petty political gain for the sake of ensuring peace.

    L
    O
    L

    Meanwhile, one GOPeeMyPants-er was so mortally embarrassed when a protester interrupted his guest Darth Cheney that he literally went berserk:
    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/did-a-top-iran-hawk-think-tanker-go-berserk-at-the-cheney-speech

  23. 23.

    Jeffro

    September 10, 2015 at 9:42 am

    @Calouste:

    This is an important dynamic. You can’t go around saying that this deal is the end of the world, and then not do everything possible to stop it, filibusters, the works.

    True! You can’t keep promising the Apocalypse (or at a minimum, High Noon) and not delivering. The problem is, a few of them (Cruz comes to mind first) would indeed be fine with delivering the Apocalypse if they thought it served their goals.

    Maybe we all really should be Boehner fans after all?

  24. 24.

    boatboy_srq

    September 10, 2015 at 9:51 am

    President Obama really should come out in favor of breathing

    Breathing, drinking water, etc. And against drinking bleach, playing in traffic, signing up for their Nigerian sweepstakes winnings and the like. All at once.

    Passing out is too easy on the GOTea: all they’ll learn is that Gun-Totin’ Capitalist Jeebus pushed life back into their bodies to carry on His Gud Werk against the Eeevil unGodly Kenyan IslamoFascoSoshulist. If the Reichwing is going to learn a lesson it’ll have to be something far more drastic; and we’ve already seen that being allowed to die impoverished slow agonizing deaths from preventable conditions (i.e. under the pre-ACA US health insurance system) isn’t a motivator.

  25. 25.

    boatboy_srq

    September 10, 2015 at 9:54 am

    @redshirt: No, but it might cost you the Firth… ,-)

  26. 26.

    boatboy_srq

    September 10, 2015 at 9:57 am

    @Tom:

    What about those bank robbers? The ones that made that suicide pact.

    Did they commit suicide?

    Obviously not, Damon.

    Then they’re unreliable.

  27. 27.

    Chris

    September 10, 2015 at 10:04 am

    @Calouste:

    This has been the entire Establishment/Base dynamic for decades.

    The Establishment keeps telling the base that literally everything is an apocalyptic, end of the world scenario that’s going to lead to the collapse of Western civilization (Medicare, pop music, gay marriage, mosques in Lower Manhattan) – and that literally everyone on the other side of the aisle is a communist/Muslim agent who’s plotting with our enemies to destroy America.

    And then they keep getting elected and… not doing anything about it.

    Because to them, that was all red meat that you toss out to keep the rubes entertained… but to the rubes, it was all real, and the fact that you’re not doing anything about it can only mean you’re in on the conspiracy too.

  28. 28.

    Denali

    September 10, 2015 at 10:47 am

    How low will these people stoop? Today my hometown newspaper included an ad showing Kristen Gillebrand, our Democratic Senator, dressed as an Arab, attacking her for -gasp- supporting the President and the agreement – instead of siding with Schumer and Israel. I can’t even.

  29. 29.

    Calouste

    September 10, 2015 at 11:04 am

    @Chris: Yep. But the problem for the establishment now is that, while for decades it was hard (but not impossible) to run an insurgent campaign against an establishment candidate, the internet and Citizens United have made that a lot easier. The House Majority Leader was run out of town by a Teabagger. And Trump is the current peak of that. The Establishment shouldn’t be surprised that, if you go around for decades saying that people shouldn’t trust government, that people end up voting against the people who are in government, but I bet they are.

  30. 30.

    Peale

    September 10, 2015 at 11:43 am

    @Tom: War is always the inevitable outcome of negotiations. The sooner we level Tehran the better. Even better if we have a general wearing riding pants and carrying a crop.

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