Fair enough, but the DTA exempted from the law the CIA, who were in fact the ones operating the black sites and engaging in torture. What happened at Abu Ghraib was already illegal under the UCMJ and international law, so the DTA was basically window dressing. It wasn’t needed to stop military abuses, and it was powerless to stop CIA abuses.
Yes, I think that’s fair.
Quite aware of that (I used to teach it, in fact the whole policy crosswalk to the Executive Order, finally in 2011) but Executive Action was needed to beat the CIA into shape on that. Which he promised to do if elected in 2008.
It did however prohibit “cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment” of “any prisoner of the U.S. Government”, including prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.
The man wasn’t perfect, but you’re reaching here. :) In any case “Mute Cloaking Device is now activated”. PM me if you feel the need to “Last word”. :)
That’s a good way to put it, Miramon. The GOP had been dogwhistling to the deplorables. The Palin nomination raised a huge sign with glowing neon arrows, inviting them all in and offering free cable, wifi, and continental breakfasts. One of the best things you can say about McCain is that he seemed to have been aghast at what he did.
Yeah, that’s fair. I would be okay with some pithier version of that put on his gravestone.
Not sure if facetious.
I haven’t seen what you mention for a month or so, and that was literally the first time in years. We tend to wound each other superficially and it’s more often in the good-faith exercise of pedantry.
-Tom
Charlie Pierce, awesome as usual.
This is not to minimize the genuine affection and love that was on display. John McCain was a beloved figure to many of the people who came to bid him farewell. But there was so much subtext under the proceedings that the mantle shattered, and subtext became text, plain as the rain that fell and passed while the service continued. This was a funeral with more than one purpose—to celebrate the passing of John McCain and to summon a rebirth of politics that did not so much reek of grift and vodka.
Very good, thanks for posting. And I hope he’s right.
all DT remembers about McCain
To me, the sad part about this whole thing is that Donald Trump is more in tune with what most Americans think of John McCain than this show of solidarity among the ruling classes.
Instead of taking an opportunity to criticize imperialist war, bi-partisan privatization bonanzas, and a garbage “universal” health care system, we eulogize over a ho-hum politician. Even the right-wingers knew how phony he was.
Trump’s divergence from people like obama, bush, and mccain is more style than substance. Changing these people around is pretty much rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic given the issues the USA has these days. If the protest is just about ‘trump’, then it’s about nothing. That’s my problem with these never-trump coalitions. They’re never about anything other than trump- they’ll never do the things that need to be done to prevent another trump, to deal with this country’s problems instead of more bipartisan non-solutions.
No. For Trump is all due to personal slights. If McCain sucked up to Trump and still did everything else the same, Trump’s opinion and actions would be completely different.
This is laugh-out-loud material. One raises taxes on the wealthy to provide health care to people, the other cuts taxes for the wealthy to take health care away from people. But it’s a style difference!
The ACA was a handout to insurance companies- it’s quite literally the worst “UHC” system anyone could possibly have thought of. The notion that they felt the need to include the mandate, for example, tells a lot about where Obama’s priorities lay.
I think you’ll find that while the people at that funeral are more polished, they are still quite sensitive to personal slights.
That’s a view that you can certainly argue, but when the argument leads you to conclude that the side that wants to expand access to health care to more people is on the same side as the ones who want to take it away, you’ve made a wrong turn.
Also, too: Point to the 60 votes in the Senate in 2009 for a single-payer plan.
Oh dear. That’s just too, too bad.
The rest of the comment is debatable, but I think this part is wrong. If you are going to require insurance companies to cover anyone who asks at the same price regardless of prior conditions, then you need a mandate in order to avoid free-riders. Otherwise people will wait to buy insurance until they get sick, which will drive up prices, which will drive out healthy people, which will further drive up prices, which will drive out more healthy people, etc. etc. Removing the mandate guarantees the system will go into a death spiral.
You can guess which political party has been doing their best to weaken or remove the mandate.
If you could get to a single-payer system or something close to Medicare For All, you could try to do so without a mandate.
But outside of that, Rothda is correct. Without mandate and government subsidy, it’s hard to make the math add up.
And I think most Democrats – outside the dwindling Ben Nelson wing of the party – thought in 2009 of the signed-into-law version of the ACA as a work in progress that (like Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid) would be refined and moved towards towards more fully realized universal healthcare over the years.
Aaannyway. This is a good piece.
This comment is nearly incomprehensible to me.
OK EVEN accepting that ACA was a handout to healthcare companies…even IF that was true… things like addressing pre existing conditions, health care for all. and keeping your kids on your plan till they were older had real value to everyday Americans. Even if their was corruption to it, it also had benfit to it. Most of Obamas solutions were heavy handed flawed and overly expensive (and benefit to some rich sector). but I give him credit it did have some value to the average voter.
Trump on the other hand is stripping away consumer protections, and people like betsy devos are allowing the things you are talking about to run even more rampant…with no perceivable benefit to average Americans.
We went to a benefit to the average American being maybe low balling a 4 under Obama to being generously speaking a 1 under Trump.
Where the benefit to the ruling class went uncharitably from a 7 for the ruling class to a 11 of 10 under Trump. Though mainly in the sectors he favors.
Also, the hate of bipartisan non solutions is exactly what you founding fathers designed our system for. Its the only way it works. It would work better without the corruption of special interest and super pacs, but this is how our country was designed to operate!
Even if that weren’t true, any non partisan solution means ignoring entire sectors of the voting public, and taking away their voice. Essentially THAT IS imperial rule.
sooo…wow
I have come to feel pessimistic lately about the future of America — demoralized because so many of my fellow citizens have endorsed a demagogue who threatens our democracy. But the McCain funeral offered a welcome moment of hope and grace — a promise of deliverance — at a dark time in our nation’s history. It affirmed what McCain himself said in his farewell statement when he affirmed his “heartfelt faith in Americans.” “Do not despair of our present difficulties but believe always in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here,” McCain counseled. “Americans never quit. We never surrender. We never hide from history. We make history.”
I despair today a little less after the uplifting spectacle of the McCain funeral. I left feeling, as no doubt the funeral’s architect and honoree intended, re-energized in my desire to fight for the principles that he dedicated his life to. I hope others feel the same way. Together we can restore the tarnished beauty of America.
It’s possible that Max and I are being overly optimistic on America, but as Warren Buffett has said many times you’d go broke betting against the place. One thing is for sure between my friends funeral a couple of weeks, the amazing music at Aretha’s funeral, and the sheer majesty of McCain’s, I became a fan of the power od funerals these last few weeks.
