December 13, 2014

Suppose Elizabeth Warren posted on DU under an assumed name

If she posted some of the things she says - say, about the White House being in bed with bankers, that the CPP was cruel and disgusting - how would DUers react?

December 13, 2014

The LEFT needs to realize that TORTURE is OVER

Look people, we get it: you don't want people, even foreign people, to participate in certain activities that may make it difficult to drive, operate heavy machinery, breathe, or support a normal cardiac rhythm. Truth be told, while I get that our brave and patriotic Activity Directors have very stressful jobs, even I think they sometimes do go a smidge too far. But unlike you moonbats, I don't get all sanctimonious about it.

In any case, our President has ended some of these "enhanced interrogation" techniques so most of us can relax. Deep breath now, folks! It's all good!

But some on the Left are harshing our buzz: they keep raising the whole "extraordinary rendition" thingy, claiming that it's outsourced torture, the Trans-Torture Partnership if you will. Nothing could be further from the truth. Let me say this in a one-sentence paragraph so it looks like I'm being direct and honest:

The people we kidnap for extraordinary rendition are not tortured. Period.

Yes, back in the old days, when extraordinary rendition was invented by Bill Clinton and Al Gore, there may have been a little rough play. But that's a thing of the past: when our President ended torture by ending some enhanced interrogation techniques, he also made a profound change in the "rules" around extraordinary rendition which ensures that all prisoners are treated humanely and with dignity, from the moment they're snatched off the street and drugged into submission, until the last of their body parts are released by the partner country that agrees to serve as their host.

Now, this is all a little technical for the Lumpenproletariat that frequent DU, so rather than bore your with legalese, I'll demonstrate this critical change in the rules as a pretend conversation between the US and the host country. It could be any participating host country, such as Egypt, Jordan, Afghanistan and Morocco or the others that are proud to work alongside us on the War on Terra!

US: "Hey host country! We grabbed this guy off the street because we suspect he has a lot of Terra! in him. We think he wants to overthrow your government, too. Could you give him food and shelter for a few years?"

Host country: "No problem!"

US: "And while you're at it, can you torture the @#$% out of him?"

Host country: "Hell yeah!"

That was then; this is now:

US: "Hey host country! We grabbed this guy off the street because we suspect he has a lot of Terra! in him. We think he wants to overthrow your government, too. Could you give him food and shelter for a few years?"

Host country: "No problem!"

US: "And could you not torture the @#$% out of him? We won't actually check to see if you're not, because we trust you!"

Host country: "LOL. Sure. "

And there you have it! Unlike the torture-filled extraordinary rendition of yesterday, today's detainee-guest cannot be tortured, thanks to unverifiable assurances from our partners.

"But Manny!", some on the Left protest, "shouldn't we have some way of verifying that the people we snatch off the street aren't being subjected to unspeakable abuse?" LOL! That's why you people don't get paid the big bucks! Insisting on verification would send a signal to these countries that we don't trust them, which could make them angry, and you definitely don't want to get on the bad side of these countries - let's just say that the word vivisection was not in my vocabulary until I started researching these places.

So, in conclusion: it's all the Left's fault.

Regards,

Third-Way Manny

December 12, 2014

Elizabeth Warren: Citigroup is holding our country hostage.

The short story is that Republicans are threatening to shut down the government unless rules, drafted by Citigroup, are enacted that let the big banks gamble using FDIC deposits as backup - this could decimate or even wipe out FDIC's deposits that insure our bank accounts if bets go bad.

It's not enough that Wall Street destroyed home prices and retirement accounts - now they get to destroy our bank accounts, too.

December 12, 2014

Why is Siegelman in jail, the war criminals not?

Why are the only people being prosecuted and jailed due to torture, the ones who reported the crimes?

Department of Justice? Really?

December 12, 2014

Am l just paranoid, or has deceit become more-generally accepted?

Not referring to the good netizens of DU, of course, and not just to these guys...



But it seems to me that lying has become an accepted part of daily life at all levels of society. A couple of days ago, I had a meeting with some folks who lied like crazy. When I pointed out the dissembling, they just kinda shrugged it off. No embarassment.

It got me thinking... it seems like this kind of thing has become a common, accepted occurance. I don't think this was the case a couple of decades ago.

Maybe just my perception?

Thoughts?

December 11, 2014

Some folks seem more OK with the defense of torture and torturers,

than they are with the people who don't want those things protected, or glorified.

Blows. My. Mind.

December 10, 2014

Can I ask a favor?

If you accuse someone of an earlier post that says something horrible, please be ready to supply a link to the post.

Sometimes people who write horrible posts forget they wrote it. Perhaps they have dementia.

And sometimes people who make accusations are just utterly full of @#$&.

And jurors: letting people make awful accusations without supplying evidence is *not* Ok. Hide the damned things, please.

(Yes, I know this post will get locked. But I had to get that out of my system.)

December 10, 2014

Should President Obama continue to shelter war criminals?

December 10, 2014

A big shout out tonight to John O. Brennan, CIA Director!

Thanks Director Brennan!

If you hadn't been such a stupid @#$%ing thug and totally @#$%ed with US @#$%ing senators, there's no way Feinstein would have gotten us what little accounting of your agency's horrific activities that we got today.

Hacking senators' computers and stealing files! More brazen or stupid, I can't decide.

And it seems like you had a hand in "enhanced interrogation" yourself. I pray that if moral and competent leadership is ever restored to our Executive branch of government, you are put on one of your beloved extraordinary rendition Lear jets and flown to The Hague for the type of fair trial that you love to deny to others.

Our @#$%ing country does not torture people!

No!

December 9, 2014

Can people here have an adult conversation?

(Update at bottom)

Ok, we tortured some folks. Nothing new here.

Ok, so we tortured a lot of folks, and we tortured them a lot, and the CIA didn't tell everything to everybody, but that was for everyone's good: we need to keep our torture techniques a secret, so our enemies won't have the same effective techniques that we do.

And, make no mistake, these techniques work. We now have a world-class dataset of terrorist scream volumes, and it fits a binomial distribution nicely. The CIA did it's job here. They are patriots.

So can we dispense with the sanctimony? Really, who among us wouldn't do what they did? Only people who hate America, or who have any morals. People like Glenn Greenwald.

Enough!

Time to move on from this episode that does little but feed the sanctimony-trolls.

Let's look to a brighter future, where the TPP will raise living standards for all Americans... and have I told you about Soylent Green? Not yet? You're gonna love Soylent Green.

Regards,

Third-Way Manny

UPDATE: um... this is, more or less, what our President said. In public. About torture.

“We tortured some folks... It’s important for us not to feel too sanctimonious in retrospect about the tough job those folks had, ... “A lot of those folks were working hard under enormous pressure and are real patriots.”

So a quick note to anyone who thinks I suck for using terms like this as sarcasm: sarcasm is a far better use for them than the fetid spew that poured from our President's mouth on this subject. Torture is an international war crime, a crime against humanity. Anyone with a #$%^&ing heart understands that. Coddling, defending, and covering up torture are degenerate actions.