Surprise!

Wingnuts were for recovering Bergdahl before they were against it.

The wingnuts were for recovering Bergdahl before they were against it. As long as he was in captivity, it was the President’s fault for not doing more to bring him home.

Author: Mark Kleiman

Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out. Books: Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken) When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993) Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989) UCLA Homepage Curriculum Vitae Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com

8 thoughts on “Surprise!”

  1. Well, it is awfully nice of them to spare the Army the bother of having an Article 32 hearing and all that rot. Too bad that JAG no longer exists to handle that kind of thing.

    In hearing stories about Bergdahl's state of mind before he went missing, I was wondering if he could have had some kind of Rudolf Hess-style harebrained idea that he could make peace between the parties to the war, just as Hess flew to Scotland to arrange direct talks with His Majesty's Government in 1941. We all have a license to speculate since the truth will never be known.

    Too bad we will never learn the facts. Too bad that company commanders never filed any after-action reports on patrols in which members of his platoon were killed. Too bad that no one in his chain of command documented anything at the time he actually was captured. Thank God for talk radio and cable TV.

  2. On Rachel's show this evening, she gave the following key to GOTP behavior (and especially McInsane behavior):

    1. Recommend that President Obama do something (say, target particular Russians close to Vladimir P after he seizes the Crimea, and kick Russia out of the G-8 for good measure).
    2. Wait for President Obama to take said advice.
    3. Excoriate President Obama for being weak and ineffective for taking such half-hearted measures (or behaving illegally or…. ).

    Apparently no one has told them that The Memory Hole is an Orwellian fictional device and doesn't exist.

    1. That’s where you’re mistaken. If you live in Conservative World, commentators are happy to forget party lines that are no longer operative, and web sites regularly purge information that might be outdated or confusing. Search engines and other sites that insist on keeping references that conflict with the current Truth are known thereby to have a liberal bias.

      1. I don't think so. We've had deluded people as long we've had people. Self-delusion is pretty common and GOTP has that in spades. General elections aren't won with the base. They can be lost without the base, but they aren't won by the base. General elections are won in the middle.

        As long as the middle consists of low (or no-) information voters, the reactionaries can get away with this crap. Reduce the low-information voter numbers to a minimum and the jig is up.

    2. Sadly, I think you are mistaken about the Memory Hole. I think it's functioning quite nicely in our country these days.

      The only way to counter the sucking sound you hear coming from the hole it to keep the memories alive by constant shrill repetition. It appears the GOP understands and practices that principle, while the Dems expect adults to have adult attention spans.

  3. Check out the pronouncmenets about Bergdahl that politicians have tweeted and then deleted (here ). Did I say, “Great to hear he’s been released”? I meant . . .

  5. If only Bergdahl had left behind an email that said he was:

    "ashamed of America" AND wanted to drown it in a bathtub.

    With that extra clause he would now be running for Congress with substantial rightwing investment, or perhaps better, working a Koch sinecure somewhere. Without the clause, his hometown had to cancel his welcome home party for fear of right wing militias bringing the heat.

    Fame is a fickle master when one's audience consists of goats, monkeys, and teahadis.

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