Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

Weird. Rome has an American Pope and America has a Russian President.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

The lights are all blinking red.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

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

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

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

Consistently wrong since 2002

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

Republicans do not trust women.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Military / Late Night Terrorshow Open Thread: The ‘Commander-in-Chief’ Is TERRIFIED

Late Night Terrorshow Open Thread: The ‘Commander-in-Chief’ Is TERRIFIED

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Not exactly, at least not yet…

From the Atlantic article Cheryl cited earlier:

… Yet another, related, explanation concerns what appears to be Trump’s pathological fear of appearing to look like a “sucker” himself. His capacious definition of sucker includes those who lose their lives in service to their country, as well as those who are taken prisoner, or are wounded in battle. “He has a lot of fear,” one officer with firsthand knowledge of Trump’s views said. “He doesn’t see the heroism in fighting.” Several observers told me that Trump is deeply anxious about dying or being disfigured, and this worry manifests itself as disgust for those who have suffered…

Trump has been, for the duration of his presidency, fixated on staging military parades, but only of a certain sort. In a 2018 White House planning meeting for such an event, Trump asked his staff not to include wounded veterans, on grounds that spectators would feel uncomfortable in the presence of amputees. “Nobody wants to see that,” he said.

Drip… drip… drip…

Live like a male mandrill, lose like a male mandrill. Very Serious Media People… smell weakness:

Reader Interactions

88Comments

  1. 1.

    Mike in DC

    There’s going to be a cascading series of news outlets corroborating these accounts. And it may culminate in some of the sources going public. At which point real damage happens.

  2. 2.

    Sebastian

    I am in awe. This is like a torpedo hitting the ammo hold. After this, everything will stick: Russia, the mob, the rapes, everything. And right before Labor Day Weekend, Jesus Christ.

    Best of all, Republicans chained themselves to him. Savor, fellow jackals, savor.

    TICK TOCK MOTHERFUCKERS.
    TICK FUCKING TOCK.

  4. 4.

    feebog

    @Mike in DC:  At least a few of these sources have to go public to remove all doubt.  It isn’t going to touch his core supporters of course.  He actually could murder someone and they would call it self defense.  But after all the flag hugging and cloying patriotic rhetoric this could leave a mark.

  5. 5.

    piratedan

    reams of stories just waiting to come out?

    jaysus… if they just sat back and actually dug into any five of the scandals from the last six months in any kind of depth, that should be telling.

    The problem is, with Trump, there’s sometimes two, three scandals a fucking week. The media never digs deeply into any of them, because the fucker keeps putting more scandal kibble out to be scarfed…

  6. 6.

    NotMax

    “That was your favorite president (ME!) doing a flawless imitation of the mirror universe Trump. GET A GRIP, Failing Media Creeps!”

    //

  7. 7.

    Chris T.

    I’ve often thought that the deepest emotion driving Trump is fear.

    Then again, that might be true of most (all?) narcissists.

  8. 8.

    Cathie from Canada

    But Nancy Pelosi got a haircut, so both sides….

    Actually, in a normal time, a story like this, once confirmed, would likely force a president to resign.  I cannot believe that Trump could survive it if Kelly and others are willing to go on the record about what Trump has said.

  9. 9.

    RaflW

    Any person alive and in possession of an electronic device of any sort has seen Trump’s detached self-absorption, penchant for cruelty, and reckless disregard of anyone not named Donald or Ivanka Trump.

    So of course this military story rings true. Treating others like shit, even people most others call heros (maybe especially them!) is as central to his personal style — a phrase much too gentle for his sociopathy — as being ‘John Barron’, or shafting the skilled trades who built his condos.

  11. 11.

    KirkwoodATL

    I spent a semester in Belgium attending classes with a group of students from The University of Leuven. At the end of our semester, the Belgian students planned a surprise for us, their American colleagues, and took us to the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery and Memorial. The students shared stories that were passed down from their parents describing how thankful they were that American soldiers came and helped the people of Belgium and the Netherlands in WW2 after liberation. They had much admiration for our soldiers. We then toured the cemetery. It was very touching and I was proud of our soldiers who died to help liberate Europe. To hear our president and commander in chief denigrate those soldiers who gave their life is devastating. Thank God my father made it through Vietnam as an army ranger in the 1st cavalry and fought in the Tet Offensive and he did not die or was captured. He obviously would have been considered a “loser“ according to this shameful president.  This POS is disgusting and isn’t fit to stand in front of these men much less be the Commander in Chief.

  12. 12.

    Martin

    So, I don’t think Trumps base will care. If evangelicals can excuse away audio of ‘grab ’em by the pussy’, they’ll easily excuse this.

    I think the bigger thing is that in a span of 3 hours or so, 3 different media outlets had something distinct to add to this story, with the AP confirming all of it. That can’t be a coincidence. Lincoln Project already had an ad ready to go.

    This was a hit, and a good one, and why blow it first week of september if you didn’t have better hits to roll out in October, the morning before a debate, etc

  13. 13.

    Amir Khalid

    If my national leader were found to have shown this kind of contempt and loathing for the country’s military personnel, his own party would hound him from office. Let’s see if any Republican poliician has the decency to condemn Trump.

    Four years ago, Trump could have his most shocking transgressions exposed and suffer little or no damage. i don’t think he can now; and judging by his reaction to this story, he seems to think that way too. He, his White House, and his campaign must be at panic stations right now. Good. Their Schade brings us Freude.

  14. 14.

    NotMax

    May have missed mention of this.in earlier threads. FYI.

    Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson [on Sept. 2] shared that he and his family have been recovering from COVID-19 over the past two-and-a-half to three weeks.

    [He] said he tested positive for COVID-19 along with his wife and two daughters. Source

  15. 15.

    TS (the original)

    @Cathie from Canada:

    It would probably force a Prime Minister out because some of his party members would be unlikely to support him in a vote of no confidence. The only way to force trump out is impeachment & that needs republicans with backbones.

  16. 16.

    Poe Larity

    Trump said the troops stole all the billions unaccounted for in Iraq. Of course, he might have meant that in admiration, so theyd be winners?

  17. 17.

    Eljai

    I saw the AP reporter, James LaPorta on Rachel tonight.  He said when the Atlantic article came out that  he couldn’t believe it.  He then contacted his sources who confirmed the story.  No disrespect to Mr. LaPorta, but I believed it the moment I heard it.  It sounds just like something Trump would say.  I wonder what it is that makes some people give this slimy turd biscuit the benefit of the doubt.  I just don’t understand.

  18. 18.

    RaflW

    Since T took office, I’ve visited Sachenhausen concentration camp, and on another trip, the Normandy American cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer.

    Each has left a huge impression on me. Both represent parts of history we cannot forget, or allow ourselves or our leaders to lose sight of. Laying wreathes at our war cemeteries should engender for any high office holder the weight of each important decision they make.

    There but for the sake of FSM go I would be a good, humbling thought. And T is incapable of humility or compassion. So until he’s out, and his 100s of elected enablers are diminished or better yet run out of town, we must be vigilant.

    Good night, all.

  19. 19.

    Martin

    @Chris T.: Yeah, it is. Narcissism is basically being unable to face  your true self, and creating a fake persona instead. Trumps true self is a loser, and that’s what he deep down believes, and he can’t face it. It doesn’t matter if its true or not, its what he believes is true. And so the fake persona is always trying to prove itself to not be the thing that the true self identifies as. It’s not that different from body dysmorphic disorder in general concept.

    So yeah, Trump is terrified of the ‘loser’ label and everything he’s been taught is associated with that label. I’m sure Fred had something to say about military service while he was helping secure those deferments for his son. And Trump didn’t attend a military academy out of interest – he was sent there because that was the punishment for young men who couldn’t get their shit together, which is obviously how Fred viewed him.

    It’s terrible that has defined his life, but the real crime is the legions of people who surround him and enable this shit.

  20. 20.

    Geminid

    @RaflW: the story not only rings true, but by his panicked reaction trump has essentially confirmed it. “When you throw a rock into a pack of hounds, the one that yelps is the one you hit.” The cowardly cur is yelping loud because he knows the story is true.

  21. 21.

    piratedan

    @Eljai: I completely get where you’re coming from, the press writes down what he’s been saying for the last four years but they never bothered to process it and understand it.  For some reason, THIS touches a nerve… and the rest of us sit back and wonder how the fuck can the nation survive with a group of context free dipshits like this being who the nation depends on for reporting the events of the day.  As if violation of international law, treason, nepotism, lying, influence peddling, sexual assault, racism and condoning violence and introducing fascism into the national discourse was just politics as normal.

  22. 22.

    NotMax

    OT. 8 p.m. and it’s over 90 degrees outside. Not the most pleasant of days; periods of constant heat sap all vitality from me.

    Three fans humming in different parts of the room so it’s tolerable in the area of the desk. Even so, above normal regimen of hydration a must.

  24. 24.

    sanjeevs

    @Martin: I agree this was planned. They must be lining up around the block to spill on the things Trump has said and done.

    I’m waiting on the IC to start dropping things. They completely failed to do their jobs in 2016. Lets see if they can do something now to save the country from a traitor.

  25. 25.

    Chris T.

    @NotMax: Ugh. We were looking at the option of retiring to Hawaii but concluded that it was too hot, and with global warming continuing, would just get worse. (We opted for just south of Canada in WA instead. Still waiting for new voter reg to take effect so we can drop our mail in ballots into the nearby ballot drop box.)

  26. 26.

    Jay Noble

    Sometimes I think I live in an insulated time bubble called Balloon-Juice. All of this I remember hearing about when it happened. Same with the Falwell stuff last week. Samantha Bee has a YouTube up from a year ago. There is so much I’ve picked up in here the last few years that I’m often gobsmacked when people in the non-BJ universe are like “Oh Gawd did you hear about?” Why yes, yes I have and thanks to tha Jackals I can point you to some more relevant material.

    I don’t know how long I’ve been hanging here but THANK YOU, John for gathering this bunch of well-informed, passionate Jackals.

  27. 27.

    TS (the original)

    @piratedan:

    The international scene comes quickly to mind, decimating NATO, The UN & WHO (in the midst of a pandemic) hardly rated a mention in the political media.

  28. 28.

    joel hanes

    @Sebastian:

    They even brought in SHS

    Because if there’s anyone with a rock-solid reputation for veracity with respect to the actions and statments of Donald Trump, it’s Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

    Right?

    “… she burns facts and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smokey eye.  Like maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s lies.  It’s probably lies.”

  29. 29.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Eljai: Right. Why would anyone dou t this? We have repeated similar public comments from Trump about McCain, Gold Star families and others. He regularly attacks anyone he feels didn’t measure up in some obscure way. He attacks basically everyone, including his own children.

    Some of this was even reported before – items like the skipping military honors because it was raining even though the other world leaders still showed up.

  31. 31.

    NotMax

    @Chris T.

    Don’t want to give the impression it’s often like this (although yes, climate change has bumped up what passes for usual average seasonal highs). The trade winds have been mighty finicky this year. Without their influence the couple of handfuls of beastly hot days become much more noticeable.

  33. 33.

    Steeplejack

    Blake News above makes the point that I was thinking about earlier: “October surprises” can cut both ways.

  36. 36.

    mrmoshpotato

    Without reading any of the post or comments – Dump is a traitorous, orange, pussy-grabbing, Soviet shitpile mobster conman who has been slurping away at the Kremlin’s asshole since at least 1987 when he took out full-page newspaper ads trashing the NATO alliance.

    Traitorous Soviet shitpile!

  37. 37.

    Bill Arnold

    @Sebastian:

    I am in awe. This is like a torpedo hitting the ammo hold. After this, everything will stick: Russia, the mob, the rapes, everything. And right before Labor Day Weekend, Jesus Christ.

    It is fun. And everyone who wants to can play. Twitter is on fire; journalists are high leverage and (usually) low-traffic.

  39. 39.

    Eljai

    @piratedan:  @MisterForkbeard:

    Exactly!  It’s like that Maya Angelou quote “When someone shows you who you are, believe them the first time.”  He showed us who he was the first time and yet here we are 20,000+ examples later.  No one should doubt the depth of his depravity at this point.

  43. 43.

    West of the Rockies

    @Sebastian:

    And to think, he could have just not run for president… He could be s(h)itting on his golden toilet, soiling porn stars, running his dreary fiefdom…

  45. 45.

    mrmoshpotato

    @West of the Rockies:

    And to think, he could have just not run for president… He could be s(h)itting on his golden toilet, soiling porn stars, running his dreary fiefdom… 

    Yup.  A bazillion times this.

    Not that JEB!, Dick Joke Marco or Disgusting-face Cruz would’ve been any better.

  46. 46.

    Sebastian

    @Bill Arnold:

    You nailed it, it’s fun! I’ve been glued to Twitter all evening. Taking way too much pleasure in observing all the standard moves completely fall flat.

    i was THIS close to tweet an Ari Fleischer CSPAN clip (the watch what you say one) at Sean Davis, co-founder of The Federalist but then reconsidered.

  47. 47.

    James E Powell

    How many stories since 2015 have been guaranteed to bring an end to Trump’s campaign or presidency? Does anybody keep track of the number?

    Does anyone keep track of how long the press/media consider to be a story? I think the record is three days.

    I will keep putting my dollar down on “They will never desert him” until it loses for the first time.

  51. 51.

    Sebastian

    @James E Powell:

    This is different. The United States has over the past decades elevated the military to sainthood. This is so blatant, not only is there no defense, you can shut up every Republican instantly.

    Absolutely amazing.

  53. 53.

    piratedan

    @mrmoshpotato: the part I find incredulous is that they trot out SHS  as if she’s some sort of ethical paragon of truthiness and expect us to buy it.

    While I fully expect some shoes to drop from this story, I am still dubious that this will be the death stroke.  There is a well paid cadre of spear carriers for the other side who will credulously inform us that we shouldn’t believe our eyes and ears (much less our hearts) and that we simply don’t understand what was meant or that our interpretation of the context is incomplete and finally break down and tell us that the troops are immaterial and are simply tools to be used and that they should shut up and do their jobs and be grateful for the opportunity to serve.

    If nothing else, some more faces were consumed by more leopards and maybe a few more survivors will understand the danger.

    The part that I find shocking isn’t what Trump said, we’ve all reached the conclusion that he’s a very malformed person for a looong damn time, it’s that here we are after a cavalcade of shit, that some members of the press are just now having a Casablanca moment.  I feel like doing a John McClane and shouting “Welcome To The Party!!! Pal!” and still have a fear that we’re gonna get FBI’ed at the end.

  54. 54.

    Steeplejack

    @TS (the original):

    Rachel Maddow said tonight (Thursday) that the NATO ministers are having a special meeting on Friday, supposedly to discuss the poisoning of Alexei Navalny. It will be interesting to see how Trump plays this in the middle of his current meltdown.

  55. 55.

    scott (the other one)

    @mrmoshpotato: They would have nominated people 99% as bad, sure, and signed into law every heinous bill passed by Congress, sure. But they would not have nominated Boof and they would not have ordered the systematic torture of little kids at the border, and for that alone, any of those other sentient pieces of fecal matter would have been greatly preferable.

  57. 57.

    Grace

    @James E Powell: Sadly, I agree with you. I’m not on Twitter so can’t speak to that but just checked the MSN home page newsfeed and all I see is a couple headlines, one that would make you think Dems are trying to rehash what he said publicly about McCain in 2015 and another bullet pointing several of these stories but under the headline that he denies them all. Political junkies on Twitter (and decent people) consider this a bombshell but I don’t think it will move a single one of his supporters nor will it last as a major story past the next shiny outrage du jour.

  58. 58.

    Brachiator

    Trump has been, for the duration of his presidency, fixated on staging military parades, but only of a certain sort. In a 2018 White House planning meeting for such an event, Trump asked his staff not to include wounded veterans, on grounds that spectators would feel uncomfortable in the presence of amputees. “Nobody wants to see that,” he said.

    I despise Trump. And I despise those of his supporters who love him and who claim that they love the “heroes” who put themselves in harm’s way and yet tolerate this sort of bullshit from the Coward-in-Chief.

  60. 60.

    Brachiator

    @Steeplejack:

    It will be interesting to see how Trump plays this in the middle of his current meltdown.

    In 2017, the United States was “concerned” when Navalny was found guilty of some trumped up charges.

    The State Department has escalated its reaction to “deeply concerned.”

    The United States is deeply concerned by reported preliminary conclusions from German medical experts that Russian opposition activist Aleksey Navalny was poisoned. If the reports prove accurate, the United States supports the EU’s call for a comprehensive investigation and stands ready to assist in that effort.

    Trump himself doesn’t have much to say, so far.

  62. 62.

    patrick II

    @Chris T.:

    I’ve often thought that the deepest emotion driving Trump is fear.

    Then again, that might be true of most (all?) narcissists.

    I think it is the driving force for the entire right-wing.

  63. 63.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    “I would be willing to swear on anything that I never said that about our fallen heroes…What animal would say such a thing?”

    With Dump it’s always projection or confession

  65. 65.

    Kent

    @Chris T.: That’s partly why we moved our family to WA from TX four years ago.  Also of course because TX.

    Nice actually living in a state that cares about democracy.

  66. 66.

    Ruckus

    @Chris T.:

    Narcissists have issues. 1st they think they are better than everyone else. 2nd they are afraid that someone might find out that they are full of shit. 3rd they generally have more than one deficit, so a number of other personality defects which usually makes the major one worse. The culmination of shitforbrains crappy life, his inability to actually accomplish much of or anything positive, his monetary situation – which allowed him to never ever have to prove that he’s actually capable of anything other than fucking up, have brought him to the world’s attention as a massive fuckup and horrible human. The only people that seem to back him are racist morons. And possibly the massively delusional. But I repeat myself.

  68. 68.

    NotMax

    Sigh. Codiing fix.

    @Steeplejack

    Not difficult to predict.

    “Our so-called ‘allies’ (who can’t take a decent dump without OUR HELP) once again Surrendering their time and wasting OUR MONEY chasing Fake News and Wild Rumors. Super sad!”

    //

  70. 70.

    Calouste

    @Sebastian: I’m sure every Republican in Congress will shut up instantly when asked about this by a reporter. And then claim they haven’t heard about it and have to rush because they’re late for lunch. At 9 AM.

  71. 71.

    Sebastian

    @Calouste: 

    They’ll try for sure. But they won’t escape this. This is going to be THE topic during Labor Day Weekend. Families, friends, local press, their political opponents will happily get in front of cameras and lambast them.

    I feel this is it. It’s indefensible, cannot be spun, and it won’t go away. What kind of distraction is big enough? And wouldn’t it be immediately seen as such?

  72. 72.

    raven

    The suspect in the death of a far-right protester in Portland has been shot dead by US marshals in Washington state, according to local law enforcement officials.
    Michael Forest Reinoehl, 48, a regular attendee during weeks of protests, was killed during an encounter in Lacey, Washington, south-west of Seattle on Thursday evening, said the Pierce county sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer, according to the Olympian news site.

  75. 75.

    Tim C.

    I think we are underestimating just how evil most remaining Republicans are.

    Here’s why this doesn’t matter.
    1) Fox will give them a pathway to deny the reality of the statements, some classic non-denial denial.
    2) Some community college professor somewhere said something mean about white people, therefore this doesn’t matter.
    3) It’s just more proof that the lamestream media and deep-state are marxist traitors who are trying to keep America from being great.
    4) They all knew what Trump was in 2016, and they didn’t care then.

  76. 76.

    debbie

    @David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:

    Trump needs to fire his mouth. It betrays him at every opportunity.

    It’s hardly a stretch to know as fact that he has called soldiers suckers and losers when he very loudly proclaimed McCain was not a hero because he allowed himself to be captured.

    Trump can lie about what he says, but the video clips don’t lie.

  78. 78.

    Chris Johnson

    @mrmoshpotato: 
    Absolutely Jeb! would have been better. Think about what you’re saying for a half second.

    And the thing is, no, he couldn’t have not run for President. He didn’t do it out of a sense of duty, or convenience, or even really glory-seeking. He was threatened into it, which means there’s someone on the end of that leash, and it’s a damn sturdy leash otherwise he’d be treating it with the same contempt he treats absolutely everything.

  79. 79.

    Chris Johnson

    Also: the right wing terrorists are effectively Trump soldiers. It costs them a great deal in terms of stability, lack of direct support from their leader, organization: they have to pay out of their own pockets and with their own peace of mind to make all that up themselves, and it is partly against overblown monsters and partly out of a cult of personality. Effectively, they are Trump’s personal soldiers, seeking his approval and doing his bidding.

    They will tend to identify with ‘real’ soldiers, dress like them, consider all the ‘real’ soldiers to be also on their side and so on. Trump can deny everything but this cuts to the heart of him: somebody with total contempt for those who serve him cannot forever command loyalty, and when it breaks it can break HARD. It depends on how badly, and how tellingly, the mask slips. Seems like this is a bad one as these things go.

    So this is basically telling all his terrorists, ‘go die for me… you loser. Anything nice I say about you is lip service, really I think you are worthless’. If the man could even persuade himself to lament and grieve the loss of some right-wing terrorist he could fuel the martyr mechanism and really pump people up… but he can’t help but despise everybody other than himself, and this is a hell of a handicap for someone pretending to be a leader. It’s fine despising your enemies but deadly to despise your own friends, and that’s Trump all over.

  80. 80.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @NotMax: Forget about “seasonal highs” – any denier will tell you they’re pretty much the same as over the last 50-60 years, and they aren’t really wrong (having lived through that period in pretty much the same place, I can attest to that).

    Look instead at overnight lows. In the 50s and 60s I grew up in an urban/suburban row house without A/C[1], and even in a Baltimore summer (not for the faint of heart or the humidity-averse) we could sleep fairly well with window fans drafting through, except for maybe 10-12 nights when the thermometer stayed in the upper 70s.

    These days[2] the overnight low summertime temperature rarely drops below the upper 70s from June 15 through September 15. Often the lows are in the 80s. Even when the daytime highs don’t break 90 F[3]. And for the same reason: Global warming puts more H20 into the atmosphere, more cloudy days ensue (keeping the highs down) and more cloudy nights (which trap the day’s heat in the air near the ground[4]).

    So if you run into CC deniers, you might ask them whether it’s been cooling down at night in summer the way they remember.

    [1] An interior-group RH – 2 exposed walls with limited possibilities for drafting through.

    [2] Living in a different interior-group RH, in an equally-dense section of uptown Baltimore City. With window A/C, thank doG.

    [3] Had a lot of those the past few years, mostly cloudy with afternoon/evening thunderstorms, some quite violent though mercifully brief.

    [4] Why do you think deserts cool off so rapidly after sundown? Dry cloudless skies allow the day’s heat to be radiated into space as infrared.

  81. 81.

    Another Scott

    @piratedan: +1

    But it’s even more for me.  Enablers around him have known these things and more for years, but they continue to bury the news and work for him.

    They also have no bottom.

    Why didn’t Kelly resign and condemn him?  Anyone think to ask him that?  What will it take for Donnie’s Lackeys to understand that he is dangerously unfit?

    Dignity Wraith, indeed…

    Grr…

    Cheers,

    Scott.

  82. 82.

    tokyokie

    At the time that der Trumpenführer skipped the ceremony at Aisne-Marne Cemetery a couple of years ago, I told my wife that he did so rather than get his elaborate combover wet. Turns out I was right on the money about the soulless bastard.

  85. 85.

    Hob

    @piratedan:

    spear carriers for the other side who will credulously inform us that we shouldn’t believe our eyes and ears (much less our hearts) and that we simply don’t understand what was meant or that our interpretation of the context is incomplete

    Michael Tracey, whom at least half a dozen people still consider to be on the left in some way, is way ahead of you. You see, Trump was obviously making an anti-war statement about how the troops shouldn’t have been put in harm’s way, and only “neocon-lite” people would misunderstand him as somehow being an asshole. I think Tracey might be in league with Big Opthalmology, trying to produce an epidemic of eye-rolling injuries.

  86. 86.

    Hob

    @West of the Rockies: Like a lot of the “this word makes no sense, why doesn’t a related word exist” things that everyone wonders about, the explanation of this one is simply that some words survive and others don’t— with a side helping of “prefixes haven’t always meant the same thing.”

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