5242

That doesn’t cut it with me. Sending our troops into a combat role for which they were neither trained nor equipped, lead by a SecDef who was at best incurious about the entire operation, all without the slightest inkling of what achievable victory conditions might be while conducting one of the most fucked up occupations in military history is criminal negligence combined with towering incompetence.

5243

+1. Their decisionmaking was, at best, tragically incompetent. Given the tremendous costs to the people of Iraq, the region and our own troops, that war is easily the worst decision made by our government in the past 50 years.

But I think it went beyond incompetence. “Keeping us safe [from terrorists]” was not, in my view, the primary reason we invaded Iraq. I’m not even sure it was a key consideration. The neocon agenda was broader, more ambitious and stupendously ignorant of reality. 9/11 was more a justification for what followed than the cause.

It’s not safe to let the GOP run foreign policy again until they disavow the neocon influence.

5244

I don’t think you can ascribe this to one party. Clinton’s foreign policy looks a lot like Rubio’s for example. I’d also point to the Right to Protect crowd.

5245

For what it’s worth, I don’t disagree with anything you just said, John. I’m not the best communicator and I tend to phrase things poorly (especially when I’m writing out a post piecemeal while waiting for a compile to finish at work :)), but all I really meant was “I agree and I feel even worse for the civilians there, as I think their suffering and loss of life are often overlooked here in the States”.

5246

I mean to ascribe it, not to one party, but to one influence group, the neocons. They happen to have an outsize influence in the GOP. Their particular “remake the mideast to protect Israel and maybe get us some oil” agenda is the issue. They’re not the only source of foreign-policy f-ups, but none is more pernicious in my view.

5247

Oh, without a doubt. I should’ve addressed that aspect of your earlier post when I replied. Those 10s of thousands, if not 100s, of deaths. . .we couldn’t care less about. It’s just a number on a page, and for a lot it’s just dead Arabs/Muslims, so we made the world better in their jaundiced view.

IL’s comment on Clinton is one of the reasons why a lot of liberals/progressives don’t like her, she’s too hawkish. Most Dems talk tough, they’re scared of getting beaten up if sounding soft on defense or Murica’s manifest destiny of power projection, but she seems to take it a bit further.

5248

Good laugh of the day, courtesy of Bette Midler (via Facebook):

5249

From Trump’s Facebook:

RESPONSE TO THE LIES OF SENATOR CRUZ:

Ted Cruz is a totally unstable individual. He is the single biggest liar I’ve ever come across, in politics or otherwise, and I have seen some of the best of them. His statements are totally untrue and completely outrageous. It is hard to believe a person who proclaims to be a Christian could be so dishonest and lie so much.

Cruz said I would be appointing a liberal judge when in fact I will appoint a great conservative and I am the only candidate who has gone so far, at the debate, as to suggest two individuals I feel would best represent the conservative values we need to protect: William “Bill” Pryor Jr. and Diane Sykes.

Cruz says I am pro-choice, when in fact I am staunchly pro-life and have been for a long time. Like Ronald Reagan, on many issues, I have evolved.

Cruz says I am in favor of ObamaCare, when in fact I have spoken about repealing and replacing this disaster of a system at every speech throughout my campaign and since it’s inception. Meanwhile, Cruz was responsible for getting Bush to put in the judge that failed to vote against ObamaCare twice.

Cruz says I will try to take away your second amendment rights, when I am one of the strongest proponents of the right to bear arms and I say so in every speech that I have made for years. I am a proud member of the NRA and so are my sons.

Cruz has become unhinged and is lying with the hopes that his statements will go unchecked until after the election and he will save his failing campaign.

In Iowa, Cruz told thousands of Ben Carson voters that Dr. Carson had left the race and to instead vote for Ted Cruz. He apologized when the race was over. Likewise, his fraudulent voter violation form sent to Iowa voters. If Ted is going to continue to lie with such desperation, I have no choice but to fight back.

One of the ways I can fight back is to bring a lawsuit against him relative to the fact that he was born in Canada and therefore cannot be President. If he doesn’t take down his false ads and retract his lies, I will do so immediately. Additionally, the RNC should intervene and if they don’t they are in default of their pledge to me.

I am the strongest on the borders and I will build a wall, and it will be a real wall. I am strongest on illegal immigration, strongest on ISIS, strongest on the military and I will take care of our Vets. I will end common core and preserve the second amendment. I will renegotiate our trade deals and bring our jobs back to our country. I am the only person who will Make America Great Again.

5250

Cruz on yesterday’s Meet the Press said that if Hillary is elected that spells the end of religious freedom in America. Are you scared yet? Are you unable to square a Christian candidate who wears his faith on his sleeve yet lies like. . .well, a politician?

An older couple hit our doorstep a few weekends ago working to replace Boehner’s seat with a Republican. His flyer listed that he was “Pro Freedom,” so I asked if his opponent was running on an anti freedom platform. They just looked at me, so I explained that actually listing pro freedom was, frankly, insulting to anyone with a brain because no one is going to run the opposite campaign, but you’re slyly and rather dishonestly suggesting that they are by positioning yourself in a such a manner. They just kept looking at me. The wife looked at my wife and said, “You are Melissa, right? You’re still registered as a Republican.” To which I was all, “What? Oh, you’re so divorced.” :)

5251

So does anyone have a picture of Trump riding on a conservative unicorn?

5252

Pretty sure he said (or would have said) that about Obama too.

PS - fun story ;)

5253

Hey, it’s their religious freedom to oppress people because of their religion.

Wait, that doesn’t quite make sense …

5254

Well heck, I hadn’t realized that Trump was the strongest on all that stuff! Damn, I’m glad he took time out of all his minority-hatin’ to let us know, or I might have voted for someone weaker on everything.

5255

That’s my favorite bit. The threat to go third-party rears its head again.

5256

I will personally give $100 to an interviewer who asks Trump what Common Core is and why he would end it.

5257

I actually finding reading that sort of fascinating, in terms of the reading level it’s obviously targeted at. Random readability score tests online peg the FB post at about an 8th-grade level. A random set of prepared remarks from Sanders, on the other hand, is at about the 11th grade level.

I’ll leave it to other commenters to expound upon that.

5258

Erick Erickson’s RedState defending the gov’t taking property for environmental purposes??? Who’da thunk it?

Jeb Bush as governor was doing things for public interest. There is a notable environmental impact from disappearing wetlands, and does do harm to the state when it happens. The same goes when there is a crop disease that could wipe out a key staple of Florida farmers. That is public good. That is the type of thing the government has to do sometimes.

The next thing you know, they will be defending Climate Change regulations… I’m genuinely curious as to whether the sun will actually rise in the East tomorrow…

Go Trump Go! ;)

5259

Wow, I’m surprised the Sanders campaign is aiming that high. A lot of his political savvy comes from his ability to package bigger ideas in catchy soundbites. Or is 11th grade reading level more about grammatical competence than it is about complexity?

5260

It’s a composite of a lot of things (and very fuzzy to calculate accurately, especially with a free general purpose online system), from word length to word rarity, phrase length and complexity, etc. (not even sure what all factors the tests I used took into consideration).

I’d pay less attention to the specific numbers and rather the [relative] gulf between them. I happen to think that Sanders’ speeches do tend toward the simplistic, and his clarity is unparalleled. For Trump to wind up significantly “simpler” than that is, well, you know.

I wouldn’t call it a scientific study or anything–I’m not cross-comparing speeches delivered on the same issue, or multiple speeches from each, or using a good control–but everytime I read something longer than Tweet-length from Trump, I’m always struck by how much it reminds me of YA fiction or even early reader chapter books in its construction. Short, blocky phrases that repeat key information excessively and throughout, big, bold clear ideas, thick, meaty words.

I’m basically saying he constructs his sentences using the linguistic equivalent of Duplo blocks, I guess.

5261

Trump’s tirade literally sounds like something a child would say.
“Ted Cruz days stuff, but nuh uh! NUH UH!!”