The thing about Donald Trump is that he is so awful that every day, he does something big and terrible, we focus on it, and then tomorrow he does something else and we focus on that, and on and on. But the real story is all the tens of thousands of little awful things that happen to real people because of the one big thing we focus on. Every shitty thing he does has a ripple effect- like the butterfly effect, but every new outcome is terrible. Remember last year when he pardoned the murderer Clint Lorance? Here are the stories of the soldiers who served with Lorance and testified against him:
Only a few hours had passed since President Trump pardoned 1st Lt. Clint Lorance and the men of 1st Platoon were still trying to make sense of how it was even possible.
How could a man they blamed for ruining their lives, an officer the Army convicted of second-degree murder and other charges, be forgiven so easily? How could their president allow him to just walk free?
“I feel like I’m in a nightmare,” Lucas Gray, a former specialist from the unit, texted his old squad leader, who was out of the Army and living in Fayetteville, N.C.
“I haven’t been handling it well either,” replied Mike McGuinness on Nov. 15, the day Lorance was pardoned.
“There’s literally no point in anything we did or said,” Gray continued. “Now he gets to be the hero . . .”
“And we’re left to deal with it,” McGuinness concluded.
***Read the whole thing.
Raoul Paste
If I read the whole thing it would ruin my day
The worst part is that my neighbour would defend Trump for anything, including this
debbie
He sounds like one of Kay’s low-quality hires. I wonder what Lorance thinks about Trump’s refusal to condemn or even stop Russia from paying the Taliban to murder his fellow soldiers?
Baud
Patriot
FarmersSoldiers.Just Chuck
I’d just say to any T supporter: “You’re okay with bounties on our soldiers then?”
But I don’t bother talking with them in the first place. Dog knows they left the rationality playing field long ago.
Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)
I hate this fucking guy so fucking much. His gift is ruining people’s lives.
Kropacetic
@Just Chuck: I’d just say to any T supporter: “You’re okay with bounties on our soldiers then?”
To one of the obvious bullshit rejoinders; “whatabout X?”, “fake news”, or “it’s Obama’s fault.”
JPL
@Raoul Paste: It’s a sad but important story to tell, because trump could care less about our troops. It might ruin your day also.
dmsilev
Highlighted reader comment:
JPL
@dmsilev: Hannity’s show ignored calls from soldiers that were there.
Kropacetic
Less than not caring at all? Perhaps if he were directly, personally promoting harm to the troops rather than simply turning a blind eye.
Mary G
I saw a tweet yesterday from a post doc who had just resigned from Cornell because his wife was denied a visa. The comments were full of people saying “Come to the EU, we’d be happy to have you both” except for one MAGAt who thought now an American (white man) who’d been unfairly passed over would get the job. Aarggh.
JPL
@Mary G: So much for the best and the brightest.
Frankensteinbeck
Yes. I don’t think he’s getting worse. It’s just that every single day he does more damage. It keeps piling up.
Bluegirlfromwyo
“And we’re left to deal with it”=every decent American 1/22/21 (FSM willing!)
dmsilev
@Mary G: We’re trying to figure out what to do about incoming international students, graduate students mostly, who were expecting to start in the fall and who might have visa difficulties. If there was a sane administration, “you guys are making a mistake, please try to fix” might be a fruitful argument, but with these assholes it’s basically spitting in the wind.
Just Chuck
@Kropacetic:
He is, through active negligence. He knew, he did nothing, he knows, he continues to do nothing. That is a conscious choice. We’re only quibbling whether It’s just his assholish imbecility or outright treason.
Martin
@Frankensteinbeck: He’s getting worse. He was listening to the campaign staff, and at least trying a little bit to appeal to a broader set of voters. I don’t think it ever worked, because it was always so weird and awkward and obviously insincere, but it’s clear he has since stopped listening to them.
mali muso
@dmsilev: Same here. So many students who don’t know if embassies will be open in time for them to get a visa. Then no clue as to whether or not the various “Travel Bans” (EU, UK, etc.) will exempt student visa holders by August.
Meanwhile Canada is eating our lunch when it comes to attracting the best and brightest.
scav
@Just Chuck: Of course they’re more than fine with bounties on the heads of American soldiers, This way, someone makes a profit — shareholders rejoice!
Kropacetic
@Just Chuck: Sorry, I was trying to be subtly pedantic, not implying that Trump isn’t a malicious traitorous fuckwit.
MisterForkbeard
@Just Chuck: I think that’s actually how we need to frame this. It wasn’t JUST inaction – we didn’t just sit there with regard to Russia. Trump has actively promoted them and given them concessions while this is going on.
He’s continuing to reward Russia while they put bounties on our soldiers. That’s not “doing nothing”, that’s actively encouraging more bounties.
PsiFighter37
The complete abuse of the pardon power by Trump is awful. Not just this case, but for Arpaio, for Dinesh D’Souza, for Scooter Libby. It’s just like with the Medal of Freedom – it’s been made worthless by King (Shit) Midas’ touch.
Mike in NC
We’ve read that Fat Bastard wants to stage a yuuuuge fireworks display over Mount Rushmore on July 4th to celebrate his bloated ego and possibly start a massive forest fire. Is that really the best he can do? Why not demand a parade like the one the 28th Infantry Division did in August 1944, with 24 men abreast marching under the Arch of Triumph in Paris to mark its liberation from the Nazis?
PsiFighter37
@Mike in NC: Maybe the upshot of Trump possibly destroying one of the biggest tourist attractions the state has to offer is that South Dakota votes against him. First-hand view of the damage his idiocy does might awaken some of those folks. I generally found the people living there when I visited to be pleasant.
J R in WV
@Just Chuck:
My money is on outright, deliberate treason. I’ve decided this whole Coronavirus-19 thing is Trump carefully following the playbook. NO, not the playbook developed by the CDC during the Bush administration, NO NOT the playbook developed by the Pandemic Working Group during the Obama administration.
He’s following Putin’s playbook, carefully designed to first destroy the American economy, followed by the wildfire epidemic sweeping the nation with death. Just wait for the mass graves dug with heavy equipment, filled with our friends and relatives! That will cause a great celebration for Trump.
Ask yourself: If Trump were actually working for the Russians, what would he do differently? Occam’s Razor tells us, he is obviously working for the Russians, there is nothing he could do that would make things worse, he’s carried that mission out perfectly.
Hard to believe, but I’m sure Putin gave him instructions very carefully, and warned him that any fooling around would result in a very long tumble down a concrete flight of stairs for Trump. And that’s why he is doing such a great job! For Putin!!
Kropacetic
Maybe it’s time to stop interpreting Republican admonitions to “support the troops” as meaning anything other than “don’t question (Republican) civilian leadership when they put the troops in harm’s way.”
Kropacetic
Don’t worry. We already have people out there with rakes.
Leto
Trumpov and his base, including every Republican official, let the US/world know what he thinks about us when he shat all over the Khan family. When he shat on John McCain. When he told La David Johnson’s widow: he knew what he was signing up for. And they did nothing. They cheered it on.
Fuck’em. They use us for props. They don’t give a shit about us. And I’ll say that to every crazy fucker who tries to say otherwise.
Roger Moore
@dmsilev:
Yeah, having a bunch of egghead scientists say they’re making a mistake will just convince them to double down.
joel hanes
@Frankensteinbeck:
I don’t think he’s getting worse.
He is getting continually worse in effect because all the norms and constraints that sorta restrained him at first have been broken, and the sorta-sane though evil advisers like Sessions and Kelly and Mattis have been pushed out. Good God, look at who is DNI. Look at who is Chief of Staff (sorta). Barr is much worse than Sessions. etc.
PsiFighter37
@J R in WV: I think you are vastly overestimating Trump’s ability to plan anything. I would only believe this if it comes out that Trump has been calling Putin every day, which would very much suggest he is being handled actively.
Roger Moore
@Mike in NC:
Because it would be really bad PR when nobody showed up for the parade out of fear of COVID.
LankyLoo
I read that this morning, and it just broke my heart.
jonas
@mali muso: I believe students are indeed exempted from the EU travel ban.
Roger Moore
@Kropacetic:
“Support The Troops” (or some variant) has been used to shut down legitimate criticism of our leadership at least since WWI.
Dupe1970
@dmsilev: Jfc! As a Director in call center I work really hard to learn all the agents names. I have struggled at times but it is important. That meant walking the floor talking to them and memorizing over 100+ names. It also meant letting them make fun of me when I messed up names or forgot who told what. This couldn’t be bothered to learn the names of 50 or so soldiers and he bragged about it.
senyordave
@Mike in NC:We’ve read that Fat Bastard wants to stage a yuuuuge fireworks display over Mount Rushmore on July 4th to celebrate his bloated ego and possibly start a massive forest fire.
I think it would be more appropriate to have a Nuremberg type rally, circa 1936 (see link). Most of his supporters would feel right at home.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMbd-UYyEd0
Steeplejack
Respite movie alert!
A Hard Day’s Night coming up at 4:30 EDT on TCM.
senyordave
@Dupe1970: I used to work for Nielsen in finance, and I dealt with the call centers all the time (I used to help come up with bonus plans for interviewers, or RAs as they were known). I knew the names of all the supervisors, and I only dealt with them directly on occasion. I always felt like if I was going to be in meetings with people, even if it was only once a quarter, the least I could do was learn their names.
The call center directors I worked with, like you, knew al the names of the people. It is common courtesy.
gene108
@dmsilev:
Pray that people can hold out until Biden is sworn in, and hope D’s control the Senate, so his State Department personnel get confirmed, and can fix this mess.
Otherwise a lot of graduate programs, in a lot of schools will struggle to find students
low-tech cyclist
@LankyLoo:
Mine too. Nobody should have to go through what those men are having to endure.
Except for Lorance and the bullshit ‘patriots’ who have taken up his cause. They should have to endure it twenty times over.
mali muso
@jonas: Yes, on the EU side (ie. American students can still go there for studies) but from everything I have read, there is no such exception for students coming to the US from Europe or the UK. The initial EU travel “ban” proclamation carved out exemptions for American citizens, green card holders and dependents, but not students. One would think that a functional government might adjust these kinds of things to include things like student travel, but nah.
PsiFighter37
That was a long article – I had started earlier but just finished. Heavy stuff.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
Programming note:
TCM will run “1776” on Saturday at 2:30 PM Eastern (set your DVRs)
Kropacetic
So many of their slogans/supposed principles are designed to hide some ugly truth.
“Personal responsibility” doesn’t mean anything like taking responsibility for one’s own actions. It means that if you are harmed by industry, abuse of power, or by any other means by a sufficiently influential person; that’s your problem to deal with so don’t seek redress from the US government and certainly don’t seek to implement policies that would prevent these abuses in the future.
Quaker in a Basement
Am I the only one here who doesn’t subscribe to WaPo AND does not know how to hop over the paywall?
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
Who could have known
raven
@dmsilev: He’d only been there two days. I suspect the troops we not eager to become buddies with a fuckin butter bar who just showed up.
Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
@Raoul Paste: I readt almost the whole thing and now I’m outraged and have a ruined day. The orange one loves his killers of furriners. He doesn’t try to win hearts and minds here, why bother over there where everyone is a terrorist in his feverswamp little brain.
debbie
@Quaker in a Basement:
I use Reader Mode (I have Chrome). Google for whatever browser you use and install it. When you hit the paywall, click on the little icon that gets added to the right of the address bar and you’ll get a text version of the article (no photos).
Yutsano
@Leto: That article pissed me off at the very end. Slipping in Lorance’s sexuality as a possible cause of them hating him was a low blow even for WaPo. I don’t give a shit that Lorance is gay and I can guaradamntee you none of the soldiers did either. But ordering a war crime after three days in? Yeah I wouldn’t mind sending both Lorance and the SEAL who’s name is slipping my brain right now to The Hague and see how they do there. Fuck Clinton and Dubya for not signing up to the International Criminal Court.
kindness
Shit I read way too much. I feel awful. I feel terrible for they guys in the unit. I feel enraged by Trump, Hannity and the sociopath who Trump pardoned.
Karma needs to come quickly but that isn’t how it works.
The Moar You Know
Lorance knows the names and everything else about the members of his squad who testified against him, because he’s threatened to kill them.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mike in NC: That was a dark day for the “America First” crowd.
Villago Delenda Est
@raven: One needs more than just a few days to earn the respect of one’s soldiers. They salute the rank, not the individual, until the individual has proven they deserve the rank.
One of my happiest moments of my career was returning to my old unit and having a soldier who was new after I was reassigned ask me if I was “THE LT Est” that the 3rd platoon always talked about, because they missed me.
SeattleSlew
The article was beyond sad. As a sufferer of bipolar disorder I struggle with these problems and yet I can only imagine what the men are going through. I feel for them.
I still don’t understand how we elected someone so evil.
TriassicSands
You’re both right. The undeniable fact is that there is no bottom to the Trump abyss. He is capable of anything. He’s not a worse person than he was the day he took office, but he has constant opportunities to do worse things. And he never misses an opportunity to be more depraved, idiotic, or corrupt.
We should be prepared for attempts to fix the election that go beyond anything we’ve seen before. He knows he can appeal to foreign governments for help and face no accountability since the Republican Senate is every bit as corrupt as he is.
He will continue to do things that absolutely amaze, but not surprise us. He will find ever more despicable ways to show us he is the worst person on the planet,* but I don’t think it’s really a question of him getting worse. The potential is limitless.
* I call him the worst person on the planet, because unlike virtually every other human being, Trump appears to have absolutely no positive qualities. None.
Rekster
I read the story in WaPo shortly after it was posted. All I can say is that it was a great piece of journalism that made me angry, sad, and just fucking pissed off. Hannity, Hegseth, and Trump are menaces to this nation.
Those platoon members did the right thing and they suffered unimaginable pain for their actions. I feel for each of them and their traumatized families.
If there is a hell I can’t wait for the comeuppance that the Fox personalities and Trump face some day.
Also, fuck Lorance and the Shetland pony he rode in on.
Dave
I read the whole thing. It is the strongest testimony I’ve read illustrating Trump’s total unfitness for office. How any member of the armed services or veteran can support this piece of shit is beyond me. Maddening. This is tough competition for his failure to protect the country from the ravages of COVID-19.