Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

Dear legacy media: you are not here to influence outcomes and policies you find desirable.

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

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

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

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

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

Second rate reporter says what?

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Open Thread: They Were All in One Place, and Yet, No Meteor…

Open Thread: They Were All in One Place, and Yet, No Meteor…

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If this were a tv script, it would be rejected as too scattershot, not to mention lacking in verisimilitude. Yesterday, Code Pink demonstrated its highest function as a banana peel in the path of pompous warmongers…

Dana Milbank described the scene for the Washington Post:

… Cheney hyperbolized, hyperventilated and gave rein to hyperactive imagination — “desperation . . . cave . . . neutered” — and the audience at the normally sedate American Enterprise Institute was riled. When Michaela Anang, a student from Boston with the liberal group Code Pink attempted to heckle the “war criminal” Cheney, Marc Thiessen, the moderator (and online columnist for The Post), leaped up to block her, audience members shouted “get out of here!” at her, and one man, in jacket and tie, engaged her in a violent tug of war to confiscate her banner.

“Thank you very much,” Cheney said with a wry grin.

Supporters of the Iran deal are probably saying the same to Cheney. They are probably more grateful still that applauding Cheney from the front row were Paul D. Wolfowitz, a principal architect of the Iraq war, and Sen. Tom Cotton, (Ark.), author of the Senate Republicans’ letter to the ayatollahs attempting to kill the deal during negotiations. In the second row were former congresswoman Michele Bachmann and I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the Cheney aide whose tenure led to a prison sentence.

Surely, those who would like to see Congress undo the nuclear agreement can’t expect that rolling out Cheney is going to save the cause. When it comes to dire predictions based on scary intelligence, the former vice president wouldn’t seem to have the best track record…

Extra credit, here’s the tug-of-war luzer trying to play Risk with real weapons…

Reader Interactions

140Comments

  2. 2.

    dedc79

    Cheney’s post-VP “career” makes me wish we had a version of Seppuku here in the U.S. Although he probably would’ve just dodged (“deferred”) it anyway.

  3. 3.

    beltane

    That video really does say it all about the neocon tough boys. Mr. “Let’s Create a False Flag Operation” does manage to tear off a tiny bit of the Code Pink sign as he tumbles backwards on his ass. This must count as a victory in the circles he travels in.

  4. 4.

    Josie

    What is amazing to me is that the politicians supporting Kim Davis and bloviating against the Iran deal either don’t realize or refuse to see how ridiculous they look to anyone with a brain cell working. How can they possibly think that they can tack to the center for a general election after such shenanigans?

  9. 9.

    skerry

    The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing today about Planned Parenthood without inviting Planned Parenthood to participate. The “experts” included 2 women who were described as “abortion survivors” – whatever the hell that means.

  11. 11.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @Elizabelle:

    It’s the image in the second to last tweet. If you can’t see the image, it’s:

    Tom Cotton is Desperate for Dick
    Cheney’s Validation on Iran Deal

    Yes, that’s exactly where the line break falls. Accident possible, but doubtful.

  13. 13.

    goblue72

    @Josie: They are counting on the half of the electorate without functioning brain cells. You add in their base – the 1% – and you’ve got the 50+1 needed for victory.

  14. 14.

    jl

    A publicly announced false flag operation?
    I guess that would give it some real credibility, we’d know the sponsor really meant business, and Bigtime!.

    Anyway, I read a headline that Netanyahu is running around saying he ‘won’ somehow, so I don’t see the big problem.
    I mean, if Netanyahu says something, it must be true.

  17. 17.

    gratuitous

    I understand that Sen. Cruz spoke at the rally to stop the Iran deal, and fear-mongered that everyone was going to die a horrible death if the agreement was concluded. He then left, no shit, to go to a meeting about defunding Planned Parenthood. Apparently, nobody that Sen. Cruz cares about is going to die from lack of public health care provided by Planned Parenthood.

    I’d really like to see one of the chucktodds ask Sen. Cruz about this little discrepancy in his alleged thinking.

  18. 18.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Elizabelle: Did they change their iPhone app? Now I can’t click on anything at all there without getting a resistible offer to subscribe for $14.99 mo.

  19. 19.

    Woodrowfan

    @beltane:

    Mr. “Let’s Create a False Flag Operation” does manage to tear off a tiny bit of the Code Pink sign as he tumbles backwards on his ass. This must count as a victory in the circles he travels in.

    it’s being mounted on a plaque to display in his den as we speak.

  21. 21.

    ThresherK

    Whenever someone puts together the phrase “rolling out Cheney”, it reminds me of Lionel Barrymore as Mr. Potter in It’s A Wonderful Life.

    Is that, also, not by accident?

  23. 23.

    jl

    I’m also wondering about the billing for Trump and Cruz for the event.
    Cruz don’t want to crowd Trump’s fame?

    Will Trump insist on receiving top billing as ‘2016 GOP presidential front-runner’ at upcoming debates?
    How about ‘2016 World Champeen GOP presidential front-runner’?
    Or will he want to trademark it, and make the RNC pay to use it?

    If they can’t reach a great deal, grounds for breaking his pledge?

    So many important questions in the GOP pres primary.

  24. 24.

    Elizabelle

    @Gin & Tonic: Don’t know, but I have such a HARD time following through when I decide to resubscribe to the Fred Hiatt – Jeff Bezos WaPost. Just can’t do it …. (although the Post does have some quite good reporters. Jim Tankersley and several more… would like to support that work …)

    And thanks to all who explained the headline. Still can’t see it, but no longer need to …

  25. 25.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @skerry:

    Generally speaking, “abortion survivors” are women with pre-existing mental health issues who blame their continuing mental health issues on the fact that they had an abortion so they can avoid having their mental health issues addressed.

    That’s assuming they didn’t make it all up for attention, of course, like the woman who was huge in Christian circles because she claimed to be a Holocaust survivor.

  27. 27.

    Calouste

    @Josie: Well, for one, sister-molester supporter Mike Huckabee is just in it for the grift. He knows he is never going to make it to the general, and it’s not even in his plan. That would for one thing, involve spending some of that cash he is raking in. Ain’t gonna happen.

    Cruz is just mad, and Trump is Trump.

  30. 30.

    Hungry Joe

    I remember when Reagan announced that we would be sending “covert aid” to some group — the Contras, maybe. That the aid was no longer covert, his having announced it and all, didn’t seem to faze him or anyone around him. Publicly announcing a false flag operation is pretty much the same thing. It worked then, so …

  32. 32.

    Brachiator

    Austin Buetner’s Day Off

    Although Balloon Juicers sometimes like to see the mainstream media as a malignant monolithic power, every now and then there is a disturbance in the force which reinforces how irrelevant they have become.

    Earlier, Austen Buetner, publisher of the LA Times was abruptly fired by his Tribune Company overlords, and almost no one noticed. The Times used to be a California power, a shining jewel of the WASP Ascendancy. Now, it limps along, passing its last bit of profit to the parent company.

    It’s also very telling that, deprived of his company email account, Buetner did not give interviews about his firing to another paper, to a TV or radio station. He posted the news on his Facebook page.

    Sadly, even in its prime, the Times would rarely be witty enough for a “Desperate For Dick” headline.

    To his credit, Buetner had some interesting ideas on how to keep the Times relevant to the city in the digital age, but the Tribune guys, like mobsters of old, just wanted to come by now and then for a payoff for corporate profits, and didn’t want anyone else trying to muscle in for a piece of the action. There had been some rumblings that wealthy patrons wanted to turn the Times into a non-profit public service organization, but it’s hard to see how that would work with increasingly declining revenues.

  33. 33.

    Hal

    What I don’t get is why the pre deal status quo was better for the anyone; Israel, the middle east, the United States?

    What is being lost post deal that these people find so outrageous?

  34. 34.

    skerry

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): It seems that these women survived *being* aborted – not survived after having an abortion.

    The “panel of experts” asked to speak at the hearing titled “Planned Parenthood Exposed: Examining the Horrific Abortion Practices at the Nation’s Largest Abortion Provider”, includes the two women who will recount the story of how their mothers attempts to abort them failed.

    “I have long believed that if my birthmother’s abortion would have taken place at a Planned Parenthood, I would not be here today,” Melissa Ohden will tell lawmakers on Wednesday.

    From the Guardian

  35. 35.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): Jane Roe worked the wingnut welfare circuit for a while as well.

    I think they have motivational speakers who claim to have survived a botched abortion.

    ETA: or see comment #34 above

  37. 37.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @skerry:

    I’ve often thought that a large number of the anti-abortion folks are ones who know — either subconsciously or by being told — that their parents hate and resent them for being born and would have aborted them if they’d had a choice. It’s a really sad situation, but they need to deal with those feelings of rejection with some good therapy rather than running around trying to impose their neuroses on everyone else.

    Because, seriously, how would you know that your mother wanted to abort you unless some asshole decided to tell you in order to hurt you?

  38. 38.

    RaflW

    So what will David Brooks say about Duck Dynasty offering GOP foreign policy advice?
    (I’m betting nothing. But you know it hurts him, somewhere deep inside. This is why he has to lash out and lie in his bothsiderism.)

  39. 39.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Alex: The shirtless foldout pinup is for the CPAC crowd. What good conservative leaves money on the table?

  40. 40.

    Elizabelle

    @Brachiator: I did see that. Didn’t know much about Buetner, but seemed his heart was in the right place.

    I like the “Essential California” newsletter.

  42. 42.

    Kay

    “Exceptional” is the name of the Cheney book. Gross. Also, Dick Cheney looks like an idiot in that cowboy hat.

    Everyone knows in a just world these two would be mopping floors in a veteran’s hospital, right? Just so we’re clear.

  43. 43.

    Baud

    They Were All in One Place, and Yet, No Meteor…

    If I were God, I would also refuse to do the voters’ job for them.

  45. 45.

    Calouste

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): Or that boy who said he had gone to heaven and back, and only retracted that after he had sold 1 million books.

    You’d almost think that people who take a 2000 year old book literally somehow self-select for being gullible.

  46. 46.

    Patrick

    @skerry:

    Why do they bother calling it a hearing when just one side is heard? Since they already had made up their minds before the “hearing” had started, why waste our hard-earned tax dollars on the “hearing” itself?

  48. 48.

    JPL

    @Elizabelle: I subscribe to the NYTimes and sometimes go incognito on the Washington Post in order to reset the count. I have to admit though, it normally is not necessary.

  49. 49.

    Mary G

    It is hot as hell here (93 or 99, depending on which you believe) and now the wind is blowing up a storm. Succulent plants are flying up and down the driveway. I want our old climate back.

  50. 50.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @beltane:

    I guess we would need a transcript of her testimony, but either someone told her that her birth mother tried to abort her, or she somehow inferred it. Because it is 100 medically and scientifically impossible for an embryo or fetus to remember anything.

  51. 51.

    JPL

    NBC or CBS didn’t cover Sarah’s statement, suggesting Obama call off the dogs and praise the police for doing their job.
    CBS did mention James Blake (ret. tennis player) being tackled by undercover police for looking like someone who committed credit card fraud. He was on his way to the US Open. I’m glad that Blake decided to talk about it. Maybe Sarah will commend the police for a job well done.

  52. 52.

    beltane

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): I sometimes post on the 23andMe forum. As one would expect, adoptees are overrepresented there. Many of them report having been told all kinds of horrible things by their adoptive parents, religious leaders, and other mean people. A Congressional hearing is not really the most appropriate forum for dealing with feelings of rejection and abandonment.

  53. 53.

    Brachiator

    @Elizabelle: You subscribe to the LA Times? You are a very rare specimen, these days. In an office where I do business, no one under 35 subscribes to any newspaper. Any info they get, they get online. This cannot be good for any newspaper.

  56. 56.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @jl:

    if Netanyahu says something, it must be true.

    Well, Bibi spoke to the Congress and no one yelled out “You Lie”; so it must be true.

  62. 62.

    Mike J

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Did they change their iPhone app? Now I can’t click on anything at all there without getting a resistible offer to subscribe for $14.99 mo.

    I spoof my user agent string when I browse on tablet/phone.

  65. 65.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @Brachiator:

    We tried to subscribe to the LA Times for work through their website and they somehow subscribed us to the Baltimore Sun instead, but never actually sent either paper. They just charged us three times until we finally figured out what was going on and canceled it. And, of course, no one at customer service at the LA Times had a fucking clue.

  68. 68.

    beltane

    @JPL: It’s a lot of bullshit. A friend of mine was twelve years old, waiting to get into a Midtown movie theater with her very wealthy, and wealthy looking, fashion designer mother, when they received similar treatment at the hands of the NYPD. The reason given was that “neighbors” were complaining about prostitution, because I guess every black woman, even if dressed like Princess Diana, a just a prostitute who can be arrested and roughed-up at will.

  70. 70.

    JPL

    @beltane: Christie came out a few days ago and said that Mayor DeBlasio made an error in getting rid of stop and frisk.
    Meanwhile Sarah wants the President to call the dogs off and respect the police.

  72. 72.

    Germy Shoemangler

    @Baud: It would demonstrate the idiocy of the GOP.

    I still can’t come to grips with the fact that she was the vice-presidential candidate.

  74. 74.

    JPL

    @Germy Shoemangler: I linked to mediate but the first place I saw that was on Dave Weigel’s twitter feed. He linked to person who took the video.
    They don’t even pretend anymore.

    I just want the news to cover it.

  80. 80.

    Another Holocene Human

    @beltane: All transwomen walking in public are prostitutes too and can be charged with soliciting for, you know, being in public. Trufax.

  82. 82.

    Another Holocene Human

    Grr, a higher up in my union decided to take out some of his excess of aggression on me today (expected) by ranting about the Kim Davis thing (not expected). Saying judges shouldn’t legislate and other RW derp. Apparently this doofus doesn’t understand that the Supreme Court of the US (and the Supreme Courts of the separate states) can throw out unconstitutional laws. This guy calls me a fucking idiot all day long because apparently I don’t know how to negotiate. He genuinely knows a fuckton about contracts and how the negotiating process works which is why we want him around but … jesus.

    And at the end of the day, I don’t know if he was serious or just fucking with me. I’m just glad I’m not him.

  85. 85.

    Mandalay

    When interviewed afterwards, the protester was brutally effective in getting her message across in as few words as possible. I find it impossible to improve on her responses in this off-the-cuff interview:

    Why did you attend Tuesday’s event? What message were you hoping to send to Cheney and other attendees?
    Dick Cheney is a notorious warmonger, a proponent of torture and a war criminal. If he was going to suggest that a room full of people should listen to him on foreign policy issues, then of course CodePink was going to be there to suggest otherwise. I went as a representative to remind them that Cheney was so wrong on Iraq, and he’s wrong on Iran. We need to support the Iran deal. We need diplomacy now, it’s time for my generation to demand it.

    Were you surprised that you got as close to Cheney as you did? Apparently security isn’t that tight for the former vice president.
    Not really. It’s not easy to be surprised by those sort of things since being with CodePink for the past couple of months. You know what surprises me? That Cheney was up there at all and not in jail as a war criminal.

    Did you have any idea who the guy on the losing end of this tug of war was?
    No. You don’t really have time for introductions when someone is forcefully trying to pull private property out of your hands! I was really taken off guard by his aggression.

    Did he say anything to you during the altercation?
    No, but actions speak louder than words. I heard his message loud and clear; he’d rather promote violence over peace, it’s unfortunate. To me there is no explanation for supporting war. We should be supporting the Iran deal to prevent just that! Also I don’t see the need for theft when confronted with a truth you’re not willing to hear.

    She stays on message, and repeats herself only for emphasis. Clinton or Sanders need to make her a job offer right now. She’s brilliant.

  91. 91.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Baud: On second second thought, he may just be a RWNJ on religious matters since he’s obvious repeating their talking points and has completely forgotten his fourth grade civics.

    And does it suck when you run into serious union people who are completely stupid on any other issue? Yeah. It sucks. All this shit is connected.

  92. 92.

    JDM

    What got me about the video with Banner-Pulling-Boy was that the woman holding it didn’t even work at yanking it back. Just stood there holding it calmly. It looked like a mom holding a blanket that her 3-year-old is trying to pull away. Just stand there relaxed until the kid tires out.

  97. 97.

    J R in WV

    You all are being distracted by the humor in that headline, and not seeing the reality that they published. The sub-head below the head that you are all laughing about (which is really funny!) says:

    The Freshman Senator has Accepted that the Iran Deal Will Survive Congressional Review

    Which is all the real news in the whole pile of steaming Republican BullCrap.

  98. 98.

    Another Holocene Human

    @WaterGirl: Thankfully we don’t work together. Except on union stuff.

    A couple years ago he and this other union guy said some weird stuff at a group gathering about their relationship with Christ so….

  101. 101.

    beltane

    @JDM: That’s exactly what it looked like. The Code Pink woman just stands there while the doofus flails around and unbalances himself. I imagine that if this fellow ever ends up in the same room as a Muslim cleric he will not only crap his pants, but also manage to slip on the resulting mess.

  102. 102.

    Another Holocene Human

    @J R in WV: I wondered if that was true though, they say he “accepted it” but Tom Cotton seems to have an actual problem accepting and integrating basic facts. I figured they were being kind at best, propagandists at worst.

  103. 103.

    JDM

    @Hungry Joe: know a guy who was hit by shrapnel when his plane was hit by gunfire from Cubans in the Grenada fight. The reason: Reagan’s people had – for whatever reason – told the Cubans they were coming. Actually told them at the point they were supposed to have landed, but they were delayed. I have to wonder why on earth you’d tell the people you’re saying are the enemy; shouldn’t you just let them be surprised?

  104. 104.

    Roger Moore

    @Kay:

    Everyone knows in a just world these two would be mopping floors in a veteran’s hospital, right?

    I don’t know that. I know that in a world of conventional justice, they would be facing criminal charges in The Hague. In a world of poetic justice, they would be disappeared to a black site in the Middle East and then transported to Gitmo for indefinite detention.

  105. 105.

    Germy Shoemangler

    @JPL:

    Rand Paul is going to hawk like his daddy, if he expects to make big bucks.

    Gold and reversible mortgages seem to be the preferred products. And lifelock identity theft protection.

  111. 111.

    WereBear

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): It’s a really sad situation, but they need to deal with those feelings of rejection with some good therapy rather than running around trying to impose their neuroses on everyone else.

    Yep, only it will never ever never happen.

  112. 112.

    Roger Moore

    @Mary G:
    It was very hot here earlier, but we actually got a brief shower, after which it cooled down substantially- though that means into the mid 90s instead of the mid 100s. I’ll take it.

  114. 114.

    Mandalay

    @JDM:

    What got me about the video with Banner-Pulling-Boy was that the woman holding it didn’t even work at yanking it back.

    Although it is not clear in the video in the O/P, the big guy ushering her to the door (immediately to her left) calmly but firmly told Banner-Pulling-Boy to let go of the banner, and he obeyed instantly.

    Fighting with a woman didn’t bother Banner-Pulling-Boy at all and I suspect it was only the prospect of getting his ass kicked that made him sit down real fast. And it’s all on video for everyone who knows him to see. Sweet.

  115. 115.

    Brachiator

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): The best people, in editorial and circulation are either gone or neutered. The Times was not perfect, but everyone understood that you had to get the paper to the customer and resolve customer service problems efficiently. This was during the eras of Otis Chandler and later Tom Johnson. The decline is surprisingly pitiful.

  116. 116.

    WaterGirl

    @raven: I was just thinking about her/them today. Again, I should say. I am guessing that now the daughter will go ahead with her plans to relocate.

    Just a shitty, shitty thing all around.

  117. 117.

    Another Holocene Human

    Am I the only one who took the bait and watching the licking video? Must I bear this pain alone?

  118. 118.

    Patrick ii

    @jl:
    Trump should get one of the world championship belts like the wrestler ‘s wear and he should come onto the debate stage with the belt held high over his head like Rick flair in his heyday.

  119. 119.

    Jeffro

    @Josie:

    How can they possibly think that they can tack to the center for a general election after such shenanigans?

    I don’t think they’re thinking “tack to the center” – they’re thinking “50% + 1 vote = win”

    Edit: I see goBlue got there first…sigh…

  121. 121.

    Brachiator

    @Woodrowfan: One guy in the office subscribed to the Times and would bring it into the office. People would keep the sport section and immediately throw out the rest of the paper. People will go to various news sites online, but physical newspapers are simply obsolete. The shift is pretty much definitive.

  122. 122.

    Steeplejack (tablet)

    @Another Holocene Human:

    Dude, I clicked over, and just the still was enough to stop me from proceeding. You did it to yourself.

    You gotta realize that (a) there are things you don’t want to see on the Internet and (b) you can’t unsee them if you do. Click wisely.

  123. 123.

    PaulW

    @Josie:

    How can they possibly think that they can tack to the center for a general election after such shenanigans?

    They don’t plan on it. They plan on having their BJ buddies running the Sunday Talk Shows to convince enough people that they are Centrist, Sensible, Intelligent Sociopaths.

  125. 125.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Okay, tell me this isn’t weird:

    First I saw that tweeted headline

    TOM COTTON IS DESPERATE FOR DICK

    Then I scrolled down and the first ad to confront me was for

    PROFESSIONAL STUD FINDERS

    Coincidence?

  127. 127.

    Adam L Silverman

    Clawson, who got so worked up in his attempt to explain the false flag potentiality, actual butchered who was going to attack who. That aside, The Washington Institute for Near Eastern Policy (WINEP or The Washington Institute) is actually the research arm of AIPAC. I’ve had to bring this issue up, and specifically what Clawson proposed the Israeli do – sink a U.S. submarine and make it look like Iran did it – in briefings with several senior Army generals, as well as in an interagency working group I was involved in on behalf of an Army 3 Star. It is never received well and many of those I explain this too get all worked up and often for the wrong reason: that I’m somehow slandering Clawson and WINEP. The mind, it boggles.

  129. 129.

    sharl

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I’ve had to bring this issue up, and specifically what Clawson proposed the Israeli do – sink a U.S. submarine and make it look like Iran did it – in briefings…

    Holy Moly!

    Has anyone asked Clawson his opinion about the 1967 USS Liberty incident? Sounds like he might have been okey-dokey with it.

  130. 130.

    redshirt

    Sorry, I didn’t read the thread yet, I just need to note for the record that the Republican Party is using one of the coots from Duck Dynasty at a foreign policy event.

    Makes Trump look like a serious candidate.

    What’s Honey Boo Boo’s stance? Is she ag’in it?

  132. 132.

    Adam L Silverman

    @sharl: Shari, the question I always ask is “imagine the response if an American citizen at a pro-Arab or pro-Muslim think tank made a similar type of statement at a conference at a different and well regarded think tank in front of a group of military and civilian officials?” The response would be pretty easy to imagine. Fifth column, terrorist sympathizer, calls for Congressional inquiries, etc.

  133. 133.

    Adam L Silverman

    @PurpleGirl: You’re quite welcome. It’s my pleasure to be able to help out. The sad thing is that there are some solid thinkers at WINEP. Their Iran scholar is top notch and some of his analysis is really good. The problem is that I am never sure how to vet his reports given who pays his salary…

  134. 134.

    Anne Laurie

    @Adam L Silverman: Thanks — I didn’t know about Clawson/WINEP specifically, but I hoped someone here with more foreign-policy cred would know if his idea was as looney-tunes as it sounded to me!

  138. 138.

    sharl

    @Adam L Silverman: I was somewhat rattled when I first discovered Karen Kwiatkowski’s Pentagon insider accounts that came out in 2003-4 (also, too); elections really DO have consequences (h/t Capt. Obvious). I know there are always goofballs like Clawson bending the ears of anyone inside the Beltway who will listen, so keeping judgment-impaired types out of the White House and senior Cabinet positions really matters. I hate the idea that guys like Clawson might get a receptive audience one day with someone with the authority to act on nutty and deadly crisis-initiating ideas like this.

    I’m sorry the Code Pink gal didn’t give him a serious ass-kicking, but of course, that’s not how they roll…

  140. 140.

    redshirt

    More reason to vote Hillary: Keep this wackjob on the fringes.

    Instead of the Government Insiders! I wish more people understood what a difference this makes, these days.

    To elect a Republican is to invite a poison that will ruin everything it touches.

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