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You are here: Home / Open Threads / This is How You Talk To Assholes

This is How You Talk To Assholes

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Here’s that General Milley CRT*-in-the-military response everyone’s been talking about.

(OT, but I’d like to know what he found of military use in those Mouse books he mentioned, but that’s for another time.)

This isn’t quite as enamel-removing as that Austalian general’s blistering message on sexual abuse, but it’s exactly what is needed from our senior military leadership and elected officials.

The Republicans are weaponizing White nationalism–race based fascism–by dressing it up as “concern” for historical accuracy or American idealism or what have you. They are trying to regain power by denying the reality of our past and present, using very clever marketing to do so. You don’t win that fight by correcting them fact by fact. You win it by punching them (metapohorically) in the face.

General Milley does that within the bounds set by his uniform and his obligation to respond to civilian authority. Now we need our elected to go full bore as well, with the added freedom of expression they have compared to a serving member of the armed services.

Some are. More need to. And we need to work the media as hard as possible to shift the representation of this fight there. Twitter warriors, mount up!

Oh…and open thread.

*No, no, no…not those old-style TVs that some supply sergeant may still have to account for.

Reader Interactions

78Comments

  1. 1.

    Geeno

    General xxx?

    ETA: While I have never coveted “first!” – I do believe this the first time I’ve been first. It’s weird. I feel like everyone else must’ve been killed by the meteor.

  2. 2.

    pluky

    The extra sweetener to the General’s comment is that is was made using other than Gaetz’s time so he lost an opportunity to reply.

  3. 3.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Milley did a good job today. Good to see. I’ve been a bit iffy on him since some of his actions in the last days of Trump, but this was a good thing.

  7. 7.

    sab

    CRT is an advanced legal discussion in law schools and in legal theory. It never gets below that. It isn’t taught anywhere else. It isn’t taught in colleges. It isn’t taught in high schools. It isn’t taught in elementary schools.

    It is imprtant in it’s own venue (legal theory). Labelling race discussions anywhere else as CRT is simply an effort to never discuss race issues anywhere else. I realize that this is obvious to those who know about CRT, but it needs to be pointed out and emphasized to everyone else.

  8. 8.

    Tom Levenson

    @sab: This is true, but what I’m saying is that arguing the point at this level is a mistake.

    We need to start by saying what this chain of logic ends with: the Republicans want to lie to children to make the grownups feel better.

  11. 11.

    Roger Moore

    @Tom Levenson:

    We need to start by saying what this chain of logic ends with: the Republicans want to lie to children to make the grownups feel better.

    Republicans want to indoctrinate children with lies about our history to help maintain systematic racism.

  13. 13.

    RaflW

    GWB will sent them over to die in Iraq, and Matt Gaetz insults them for their sacrifice.

    That’s how Republicans ‘support our troops.’

  15. 15.

    dc

    @zhena gogolia: ​
     
    No, the general was referring to another idiot R from Florida who had commented before, and who was a Green Beret. Gaetz has never served in the military.

  17. 17.

    raven

    @zhena gogolia: Michael Waltz, R-Fla., cited a letter he received from West Point’s superintendent, Lt. Gen. Darryl Williams, which states that one course at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point teaches about critical race theory (Waltz’s office provided a copy of this letter to NPR). Waltz also referenced a seminar at West Point where an instructor reportedly taught about “understanding whiteness and white rage.”

     

    This dude was SF

  18. 18.

    jackmac

    Speaking of assholes. As the camera briefly showed Matt Gaetz smirking during Gen. Milley’s comments, I was left to wonder why he (Gaetz) hasn’t been indicted/arrested yet?

  20. 20.

    Benw

    Americans have festooned the US with so many myths to cloak white supremacy that they’ve effectively hidden actual America  Around 40% of Americans have jettisoned reality to preserve the myths

  21. 21.

    Ruckus

    @zhena gogolia:

    Gaetz in the military would have been either the company clown or the asshole who pealed potatoes for his entire enlistment. The company clown got verbal abuse and a lot of extra duty. Like getting to clean the wash room, with his toothbrush. And that’s if he lasted that long before a number of someones beat him around the head and shoulders repeatedly for being a complete asshole. We had one of those, he refused to take a shower. A week without is annoying. 2 weeks without is disgusting. 3 nets one a shower party, with extremely stiff bristle brushes and lie soap, (neither of which we ever saw used for anything else) applied extremely vigorously by the largest 6-8 members of the company and to every square inch of body. He got the message. No one spoke to him the rest of the time.

  23. 23.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I would like to see Matt Gaetz try to square off with Tikka. Tikka would take him out right smart-ish.

  25. 25.

    Gin & Tonic

    Speaking of assholes, since this is an open thread, it appears that John McAfee took his own life rather than face extradition from Spain to the US. Dude really went off the deep end quite some time ago.

  26. 26.

    Splitting Image

    Off-topic, it seems that a drug-addled, conspiracy-minded ex-businessman with several charges of tax evasion pending on him killed himself in prison today.

    I refer, of course, to John McAfee.

    I am hopeful that other, similar figures will follow his example.

  28. 28.

    Jager

    @Ruckus:

    Gaetz would have spent the better part of his days in Basic Training in the Front Leaning Rest Position. My old DI, Sgt. Raoul McGinnis would have had fun with Pvt Gaetz, starting with always mispronouncing his name. Gay-ets, would be my guess, since he pronounced Hughes, Hug-ess.

  29. 29.

    Another Scott

    @Omnes Omnibus: +1

    It was off-the-cuff, and he got one thing wrong (3/5 not 3/4), but the message he gave today from the heart and was exactly right.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  33. 33.

    Other MJS

    I can’t be the only nerd old fart who can’t stop seeing “Cathode-Ray Tube”.

  37. 37.

    BBminis

    @zhena gogolia: No he wasn’t. Milley took the time answering another Congressman’s question to swing back at Gaetz’s previous question. The other Congressman was a Marine.

  41. 41.

    Another Scott

    Dean Baker has a good and timely piece up at CEPR – A Bitcoin Transactions Tax:

    […]

    First and foremost, a tax on Bitcoin transactions would raise revenue. I would propose a substantial tax on transactions of 1.0 percent annually. This compares to the tax 0.1 percent on stock trades that has been put forward by Representative Peter DeFazio in the House and Senator Brian Schatz in the Senate.[1]

    The reason for suggesting a higher tax on Bitcoin, is that there would be little consequence for the economy if the Bitcoin market were seriously disrupted. People engaged in ransomware attacks might see somewhat more volatility in the value of their payments, and may find it slightly more difficult to change them back into traditional currencies, but otherwise there would be little economic impact.

    By contrast, even with all the speculative trading on financial markets, they do still serve a productive purpose, so we would want to be cautious about imposing a tax that could be destabilizing. As it is, a tax of 1.0 percent is hardly without precedent. The United Kingdom currently has a tax of 0.5 percent on stock trades. It had been 1.0 percent until 1986. Nonetheless, the UK had one of the largest stock exchanges in the world.

    Clearly a 1.0 percent transactions tax on Bitcoin will not shut down the market. However, it will substantially reduce the volume of transactions. It also is likely to make the currency less attractive to anyone who doesn’t need it for illicit purposes, which will reduce its value. This should mean that people will devote fewer resources to mining Bitcoin, which is a real win for the world.

    There is also the issue of how much revenue a Bitcoin tax would raise. Currently, trading volume is around $1 billion a day or $350 billion a year. A tax of 1.0 percent would get us $3.5 billion a year, if there were no decline in trading volume. But, of course, the whole point of the tax is to reduce trading volume and interest in Bitcoin. If we see volume cut in half, due to both less trading and a lower Bitcoin price, then we would raise $1.75 billion a year or $17.5 billion over the course of a ten-year budget horizon.

    This is not huge money in terms of the whole budget. CEPR’s “It’s the Budget, Stupid” budget calculator tells us that is would be equal 0.03 percent of the total budget. That’s not a huge deal, but not altogether trivial. The annual take is equal to roughly 110,000 food stamp person years.

    But there is another benefit of going the Bitcoin transaction tax route. We can experiment with enforcement mechanisms with little downside risk.

    It is often claimed that financial transactions taxes are unenforceable. The evidence suggests otherwise. The UK raised an amount equal to 0.2 percent of GDP annually (roughly $44 billion in the U.S. economy) from its tax on stock trades. (Other financial assets are not subject to the tax.) There are many other countries in the world that raise substantial revenue from financial transactions tax.

    We also have a modest financial transactions tax in the United States already. Stock trades are subject to a tax of 0.0042 percent. The tax raises roughly $500 million annually, which is supposed to finance the operation of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

    […]

    Baker always brings facts and evidence to his discussions. It’s refreshing!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  42. 42.

    sab

    OT We finally got a neighborhood taco truck,  five months after the inauguration. ( Biden people, we used to be a swing state.) It was delicious, but I bet the couple running it would love to have an air conditioned restaurant.

    They are friends of the owners of the actual restaurant two miles away.

    Why do no Mexican restaurants in NE Ohio serve tamales? The frozen grocery store ones are awful, and my family doesn’t have that tradition, nor do any families I know.

  43. 43.

    TaMara (HFG)

    I’ve watched that like 5 times since it appeared today and still get a thrill every time.

     

     

    @debbie: (I didn’t read the entire article) While I believe in redemption – that doesn’t replace consequences for one’s actions. As a matter of fact, I believe that is part of redemption – taking responsibility for your actions, facing the consequences – then you get to go on the redemption tour, steering others away from following in your footsteps of crime.

  51. 51.

    brantl

    Matty got spanked HARD and he didn’t even pay for it. I love it. That general has some backbone.

  55. 55.

    Another Scott

    It would be really terrific if the media stopped letting racists misuse “critical race theory” when they mean “actual American history.”

    — The Hoarse Whisperer (@TheRealHoarse) June 24, 2021

    +eleventy billion.

    I’m on the mailing list for Hillsdale College’s Imprimis newsletter (I assume I got on it via giving some money to McCain in 2000 (and Bradley at the same time)). The March 15 issue had some writeup on CRT. It is clear that the RWNJs have been pushing this through every bit of media in a coordinated way, hoping that it will turn into some gotcha thing for Democrats.

    The sensible press doesn’t have to play along. They don’t need to give editorial control to crazy partisans.

    Grr…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  56. 56.

    marcopolo

    A bit OT but just learned that there will be a planned nationwide march on August 28 in support of voting rights, “March On 4 Voting Rights.” MLK’s I Have a Dream speech was on August 28, 1963 so that’s where the date is from. Mark your calendars as there are supposed to be marches everywhere. Here’s the kickoff video.

    Also both Milley and Sec Def Austin were excellent today.

  57. 57.

    burnspbesq

    @jackmac:

    I was left to wonder why he (Gaetz) hasn’t been indicted/arrested yet?

    Patience. If you’re going to indict a sitting member of Congress for a particularly heinous crime, it’s helpful to have the case fully buttoned up.

  58. 58.

    Barbara

    I’m watching a documentary series called The Dark Side of Football.  I don’t think I will be watching any games next season.  And Sean Peyton is basically a thug, big surprise there, I know.

  60. 60.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @sab: Tamales aren’t my favorite but my spouse loves them. Mexican food in Denver is generally good but you can find too much masa too little filling tamales without trying too hard. I used to buy them from one particular stall at farmer’s markets but the sweet lady who owned it must have burned out.

    Have you tried Trader Joe’s refrigerated (not frozen) ones? They’re really not bad. I guess not a glowing recommendation…

  61. 61.

    OGLiberal

    @Tom Levenson: Agree with this.  Was just reading a story about some idiots in Loudoun County, VA, stirring up shit at a county school board meeting, getting all worked up about CRT.  The board members were like, “We absolutely do not teach CRT in our schools.”  Which is probably true, but they should have just said, “shut the eff up or get the eff out.”  Which they did, eventually (at least one of the idiots got arrested), but they should never have been on the defensive.

    Loudoun County went for Biden 61-35 and it’s been getting bluer and bluer since Obama won it in 2008.  Bunch of white dead enders terrified of change.  I saw photos of them and they just looked so angry – but my guess is that it’s more fear.

  62. 62.

    Shana

    @Another Scott: We get that too. A couple of times a year this jewish household gets that and put it right into the recycling bin. I suspect everyone in NoVA gets it.

  63. 63.

    Another Scott

    @Shana: Ah, thanks.

    It goes in the bin immediately here, too, but I happened to note the headline this time.

    Wikipedia says the circulation is 5.5 M.  Someone is spending serious cash on it…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  66. 66.

    Ohio Mom

    debbie @32:

    Anna Fried said that all learning is overcoming resistance.

    I read your link and this defense attorney apparently has a mix of “students” when it comes to having the motivation to let their defenses down and new information in.

    Will it work on the women who seem open to learning? I think it remains to be seen. A very able student catches on to new material quickly but most people need a fair amount of repetition in order to integrate new knowledge.

    Maybe this is the introduction that will need to be built on in order to stick? Or maybe the social pressures back home will lead them to backslide?

    I give the attorney props for using the teachable moment she’s been presented with. It may not work in the long run but not giving them a chance to open their minds would guarantee no forward movement at all.

    It’s almost quaint, in that it’s based on the idea that rehabilitation is a value to promote.

    Anyway, thanks for the link.

  68. 68.

    Another Scott

    @Another Scott: Oh, and to be clear, they’re being completely open about their goals.

    The screen-cap comments in the tweet below are by the same guy who was in the Imprimis article I mentioned above.

    Circling back, I’m not speculating about this. It’s how Republicans talk, and I hope WaPo reporters are aware that their uncritical acceptance that this foggy term is some defined, identifiable thing in the political consciousness is key to the strategy. pic.twitter.com/6V3YNjBFZC

    — southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) June 24, 2021

    Charlie Pierce was joking earlier that “CRT Crossed into the Neutral Zone”, etc.  But they’re explicit in wanting their sheeple to think that CRT killed their dog and stole their truck.

    The MSM pushing this stuff as being “controversial” and all the rest are carrying the GQP’s water.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  69. 69.

    JMG

    IMO nothing with the word “theory” in it is gonna scare even the right wing nut jobs too much. Americans don’t believe in theories. And even the scardier cats among Democrats are leaning into “this is racists who never want to admit it” defense.

  70. 70.

    James E Powell

    @sab:

    Is Luchita’s still around? Or La Plaza. Not sure where you are in NEOH. I was a west sider.

  71. 71.

    topclimber

    @Gin & Tonic: Your answer, delivered too late no doubt, is that each bar stands for three years of service. Or so one of the neurons in fog that is my mind tells me.

  72. 72.

    Ruckus

    @Gin & Tonic:

    How long he’s been on active duty, each stripe is 3 yrs in. He’s been serving since 1980 so this is his 31st yr so that’s 10 stripes on his left sleeve.

    Different branches do this differently, the navy is a stripe for every 4 yrs.

  73. 73.

    ian

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Thank you for appealing to people’s better angels.  Regardless if it will work, it is important for our own mental well being to have tried.

  75. 75.

    lowtechcyclist

    @debbie: ​

    Meanwhile, there’s a defense attorney who thinks the 1/6 insurrectionists are redeemable. Fool’s errand?

    As a Christian, I believe everyone is redeemable. But even if these people got a very slanted world view from their miseducation, they still had to know that they were committing crimes and endangering people’s lives.

    If they have genuinely been changed by being educated about America’s real history, that’s great. Hopefully that should help them understand why there’s a price which they must pay for their criming in the service of lies.

  76. 76.

    Matt McIrvin

    @JMG: A centrist peeve I have seen, however, is someone characterizing “you don’t know what critical race theory even means” as the liberal version of “it’s a magazine, not a clip”.

    And I can see it. The definition of “critical race theory” isn’t really the central issue here, since conservatives are not in fact complaining about a thread in graduate-level legal analysis. They’re complaining about school curricula increasingly incorporating honest assessments of the role of racism in American history, and giving that a name that plays as scary and elitist with their target audience.

  78. 78.

    Kay

    @Matt McIrvin:

    The people at the school board meetings now start screaming when anyone mentions “equity”

    “Equity” may not be uttered in a school board meeting.

    Good job, centrists!  In a country where the majority of public school students are not white (nationally) ‘equity’ may not be addressed. Who do they imagine attends public schools? I know none of them did but couldn’t they drop by one and find out?

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