Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

Cole is on a roll !

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

This fight is for everything.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

This blog will pay for itself.

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

Israel, don’t be dumb like we were in the US after 9/11!

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

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

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

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Let’s finish the job.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

In my day, never was longer.

Somebody needs to explain to DeSantis that nobody needs to do anything to make him look bad.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

He imagines himself as The Big Bad, Who Is Universally Feared… instead of The Big Jagoff, Who Is Universally Mocked.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / The Death of Shame

The Death of Shame

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Some things just leave me speechless:

A year ago, Navy SEAL Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher was wearing drab prison scrubs at a brig near San Diego, facing murder charges that could have sent him to prison for the rest of his life. Now he is modeling his own lifestyle clothing brand, endorsing nutrition supplements and positioning himself as a conservative influencer with close ties to the man who helped clear him — President Trump.

It wasn’t always this way, was it? People used to have some shame, right? Like, William Calley didn’t launch a cologne brand or something and I just missed it, right?

We live in the worst timeline.

Reader Interactions

73Comments

  3. 3.

    Ruckus

    The person who brought on the death of shame has never had any shame whatsoever so all he’s really done is bury shame under his tons of gold spray painted bullshit. And it stinks exactly like what you expect it to.

  4. 4.

    randy khan

    People like Gallagher never had any shame. But once upon a time they were shunned. Now people celebrate them, so of course they take advantage.

  5. 5.

    mvr

    @The Ancient Randonneur:

    According to the linked article from Wikipedia, Calley expressed remorse in later life.

    Which is not to say he should not have been punished more seriously than he was in fact punished. You can’t let shit like this go by like its nothing.  Or else it will happen even more often than it otherwise would, which is still too often.

  8. 8.

    NotMax

    “Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you no sense of decency?”  
      – Joseph Welch

  9. 9.

    Jay

    The State Department ran a full blown investigation to find out who at the US Embassy in Brussels liked a Chelsea Clinton tweet. We get closer and closer to a banana republic each day @realdonaldtrump stays in office. https://t.co/oqCDHpythQ— David Cicilline (@davidcicilline) December 31, 2019

    And of course, the FTFNYT ran what is little more than a full page style ad for the scumbag’s “leisure line”, “fake charity” and of course, his Nazi knifemaker.

  14. 14.

    Bruuuuce

    David Calley didn’t launch a cologne brand or something and I just missed it, right?

    Two words: Ollie North

  16. 16.

    Bill Arnold

    What’s with the name “salty frog gear”? Is it a play on Pepe the Frog (the alt-right appropriation)?
    I’m feeling some possible meme ignorance here.
    FTR, there are no frog species that breed in saltwater and only two well known species that can survive salt water:
    Salt Water Frogs? (Johann Cruz, December 20th 2010)

  17. 17.

    Jay

    There's a very selectively edited clip of Biden going around making it seem like he's promoting white supremacy. He's not. He's saying that violence against women has deep roots in English jurisprudence. This is from March of this year, same thing. https://t.co/5mnlhnviEZ— ?Dante Atkins? (@DanteAtkins) January 2, 2020

  18. 18.

    Drdavechemist

    @Jay: Cicilline is my representative and I love that he is speaking up loud and clear about abuses like this. Have run into him at CVS in my neighborhood and will always tell him how much I appreciate the work he’s doing in DC.

  21. 21.

    Just Chuck

    I guess “Blue Falcon Gear” was already taken?

    Free Big Chicken Dinner with every purchase.

  23. 23.

    Jay

    @Bill Arnold:

    and “Gear” to make crappy clothes seem more “military macho”, as “Tech” has been appropriated by Geeks and “Tactical” has been so over used during the War of Terror that it’s become a punchline.

  25. 25.

    Anne Laurie

    @Bill Arnold: What’s with the name “salty frog gear”?

    I’m guessing Gallagher, or his lawyers, figure that using any variation on SEAL would be terminated with extreme legal prejudice.  And, of course, Eddy is ‘salty’ like a good sailor. So… Pepe the right-wing frog, but in salt water, wink wink!

    Like the OK / White Power / circle-game “joke”.  The sort of stunt that’s hilarious in the eighth-grade boy’s locker room…

  28. 28.

    Jay

    More FTFNYT,

    The Times really is a mess. These headline writers screw up at least once a week at least. Any how long ago did Bret Stephens write about Jewish genetics. The place is just a disaster. There is no leadership and no quality control. pic.twitter.com/vlratUbGR9— Howard Dean (@GovHowardDean) January 1, 2020

    According to the FTFNYT, sticking 2 million people in Concentration and “ReEducation” Camps, while taking their children to be reprogrammed as culturally empty good little workers is “weaning”,……

  32. 32.

    Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)

    This is what happens when one of a democracy’s two parties decides that the only purpose it has is trying to piss off decent people.  That’s really the only animating drive they have left.  Nazis were true believers when they went in for genocide.  If we were to ever get to that point here, the only reason Republicans would be doing it would be that Democrats and other decent people would hate it.

  33. 33.

    Jay

    @Formerly disgruntled in Oregon:

    The funny thing is, most of the people calling this disinfo out, are leftie/anarchist/anti facist/tech geeks who in the NatSec epic fail in 2016 took on part time/full time jobs, identifying, tracking, mapping and deplatforming disinfo and extremists,

    and they don’t even like Biden,

  38. 38.

    Patricia Kayden

    So it looks like a new white supremacist trick is accounts like this one, which purport to be Jewish but target activist Black accounts with messages like this to try and stoke hostility between Blacks and Jews. https://t.co/w0ZqIMAyur— Bunny Sparber קיניגל שׁפּארבּער (@maxsparber) January 1, 2020

  39. 39.

    CaseyL

    The national id is unleashed, and it ain’t pretty.

    I root for an asteroid more and more every day.  We already have the climate catastrophe: all we need is something that guarantees the end of humans along with everything else.

  42. 42.

    Jay

    @CaseyL:

    As far as we know, there exists only one planet where life has taken root and evolved,

    who knows, after we are gone, the next form of life on this rock that evolves, will actually be good, moral, decent, and intelligent.

    They should get their chance at the brass ring.

  43. 43.

    Bill Arnold

    @Patricia Kayden:
    Ewww, from the replies to that,

    There is definitely forum chatter on 4chan an elsewhere that talks about targeting Black Hebrew Israelites to inflame them to get them to go off half cocked towards Jews. BHI are similiar in nature to NOI Clarence X/Poor Righteous Teachers. Some of them are def. Skitzophrenics.— kr1st0f (@AYATOMM_COM) 1. Januar 2020

    This would be the definition of stochastic terrorism. Pandering to psychosis, gas lighting people that are already a vulnerable population is extremely dangerous.— kr1st0f (@AYATOMM_COM) 1. Januar 2020

    I had been seriously wondering about whether these recent anti-semitic incidents were being stoked. Sigh. The open question now is whether unstable individuals are being personally targetted for destabilization.

  45. 45.

    Kay

    Dave Weigel
    @daveweigel
    “I don’t understand the idea that they’re going to do terrible things, then we’re going to compromise. The idea that through personal relationships or something, this system will work again, I don’t believe.”

    This is Steyer but it made me smile. He sounds frustrated. Understandably.

  47. 47.

    Jay

    This is nothing new. It’s been happening since day one of this administration. We have been telling anyone who would listen that Trump and Pence are systemically rolling back LGBTQ rights by any means available. This is heartbreaking and scary, but it’s nothing new. https://t.co/Vx5j3wXll8— Charlotte Clymer?️‍? (@cmclymer) January 2, 2020

  49. 49.

    Patricia Kayden

    Imagine the idea of a place where you can buy personal access to the president & the money you spend goes into his personal bank account. How much we've changed in 3 years that this is no longer shocking. https://t.co/T2eTs5ndwM— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) January 2, 2020

  51. 51.

    Jay

    Glad the prisoner swap between Russia & Ukraine happened. It's good news. But ask yourself: why would Russia want to receive Ukrainian policemen who shot and killed Ukrainian protesters in 2014 unless those policemen were on the Kremlin's team? https://t.co/fqgKy5OEgj— Michael Carpenter (@mikercarpenter) December 31, 2019

  52. 52.

    CaseyL

    It feels like shit is accelerating.  There is too much happening, happening all at once, and none of it is good.

    (OK: Good things are happening.  But they seem minor in context to the ongoing atrocities.)

  55. 55.

    Jay

    A federal judge formally blocked North Carolina’s new voter identification law, ruling that discriminatory intent was likely a motivating factor in how the measure was crafted-this could have big consequences in a key state in the 2020 election. https://t.co/heDQ2XdSG8— Amee Vanderpool (@girlsreallyrule) January 1, 2020

  57. 57.

    Jay

    @Kamala.Harris.2020:

    Salty is slang for:

    – inappropriate language,

    – a Navy Sailor,

    – a Navy CPO, ( non-commissioned officer)

    – a Navy guy with NFLTG, ( disgruntled by some accounts, realist by others)

    the War Criminals “line of leisure gear” aligns in his demented mind with all definitions.

  58. 58.

    Jay

    California had free public college until Reagan ended it in the 1960s. NYC had free public college until the 1970s. When the federal government built public housing there were fewer homeless.These issues didn't come from Mars. We are talking about getting back what we once had.— Margaret Kimberley (@freedomrideblog) December 31, 2019

  60. 60.

    West of the Rockies

    @Patricia Kayden:

    This kind of shit is all Republicans have now:  sowing discontent and resentment, gerrymandering, purging voter rolls, disinformation campaigns, etc.  They are losers. The only way for them to win is to cheat.  They are intellectually and morally bankrupt.

  61. 61.

    Jay

    2020 starts off well,(ish) on the SJW front.

    So, moron supposed “bee expert” looking for work twits diss about a gallery of peoples “bee” tattoos tor being taxinomically incorrect.

    Get’s ratioed online because:

    #1, it’s the Manchester Bee, long (1520 AD) a symbol of the City of Manchester, Britian, their work ethic, labour support, etc,

    # 2, it was adopted as a symbol of support, memorialization of the victims, of the bombing of the Arianna Grande Concert.

  62. 62.

    joel hanes

    @Jay:

    There is nothing inevitable or even probable about the emergence of what we call “sentience” (consciousness and intelligence)

    If the hominins go extinct, our type of intelligence is very unlikely to arise again on Earth.

  63. 63.

    David Chop

    It wasn’t always this way, was it?

    I’m old enough to remember Ollie North running for Senate.

    So yeah, same as it ever was.

  64. 64.

    Villago Delenda Est

    The Vichy Times betrays its bias by stating that Donald cleared the war criminal Gallagher.   The vile sociopath was convicted.  Accepting the pardon is an admission to his crimes.  Find another specific victim, Navy, and take this shitstain back to court after Donald’s gone and prosecute his ass and lock him up.

    Forever.

    Also, the vile thing that is Dean Baquet needs a tumbrel ride for his collaboration with fascists.  Same for Haberhack.

  65. 65.

    Viva BrisVegas

    @joel hanes: If the hominins go extinct, our type of intelligence is very unlikely to arise again on Earth.

    Then we’d better hurry up with inventing AIs, because we monkeys have got no chance of surviving our own stupidity.

  67. 67.

    Jay

    @joel hanes:

    sentience is a facist humanist construct designed to keep other species down,

    humans speak and understand one “language” class,

    Dolphins, several.

    Refute this in Salish Sea Orcinious dialect please.

     

    only semi snark.

  68. 68.

    Booger

    @Jay: There will be not be complex life forms after this plays out. There won’t be sources of oxygen needed for complex life to metabolize at the necessary rates.

  69. 69.

    Edmund Dantes

    A lot of you haven’t seen Full Metal Jacket and it shows.

    • [narrating] Graduation is only a few days away and the recruits of Platoon 3092 are salty. They are ready to eat their own guts and ask for seconds. The drill instructors are proud to see that we are growing beyond their control. The Marine Corps does not want robots. The Marine Corps wants killers. The Marine Corps wants to build indestructible men, men without fear.
  70. 70.

    J R in WV

    @Villago Delenda Est:

     

    Yes, indeed. A Pardon never clears the criminal, it merely undoes the criminal punishment meted out to the criminal. Actually, it confirms the guilty act in my mind, much as a guilty plea will.

  72. 72.

    Bill Arnold

    @Booger:

    There will be not be complex life forms after this plays out.

    Nah, the biosphere has been through worse.
    However, it is quite possible that humans will manage to kill off all large-brained megafauna, including humans.
    Humans need as a species to be much more serious about stopping/reversing global heating (and etc). It’s still possible.
    Also, what Jay said: the members of many species are conscious. Some species (other than humans) use language, have cultures, etc.

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