Summary
The Senate confirmed Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence in a 52-48 vote, with only Sen. Mitch McConnell breaking GOP ranks to oppose her.
Critics, including Democrats and some Republicans, raised concerns over her past meeting with Syria’s Assad, sympathetic comments on Russia, and prior support for Edward Snowden.
Gabbard reversed her stance on key intelligence policies during her confirmation.
Imagine not being excited for the destruction of the US empire.
Imagine pretending that you won’t be first in front of the firing squad, “queermunist.” If it gets as bad as it can get, you’ll never have a chance to celebrate the “destruction of the US empire.”
No one is going to be lined up for a firing squad because of Tulsi Gabbard. She’s just going to ruin the US intelligence community, which is easily one of the most evil institutions on Earth. This is literally the only good nomination, she’s perfect.
I’m more worried about the dipshits running the FDA and HHS into the ground ensuring bird flu becomes pandemic. How long until they make raw milk mandatory in school lunches? 🤮
I appreciate this take, thanks. It’s conceivable that the US intelligence community does some good in the world, but holy fuckin’ crap it’s inarguable that they do a lot of damage. Putting an absolute fool in charge of intelligence will probably be a disaster, but US intelligence is already a disaster. I’m more concerned about what Trump is doing to (virtually every) other function of government.
I didn’t say it would be specifically because of Tulsi, what I’m saying is that when a country like this one implodes, people in targeted minority groups end up on the receiving end of violence.
Fucking accelerationists, always pretending they won’t suffer when everyone else does. On behalf of my trans son and my gay daughter, fuck them all for celebrating the destruction of the country my kids (currently) live in, kids who will inevitably be on the receiving end of hate.
Naive fucking idiots.
The empire collapsing is not the same as the country collapsing and the empire must be destroyed for future of humanity. The US, as a country, can absolutely survive without being an empire. I’m celebrating the death of a death machine.
We don’t have to let our home be destroyed and we should stand up to Trump’s regime on domestic issues. I’m hardly an accelerationist. I’m trans! They’re gonna fucking kill me and I’m not celebrating that. But I am a revolutionary defeatist. In cases like this, where the empire is being destroyed and dismantled by people like Tulsi Gabbard, we should be happy it’s not worse.
Don’t confuse the country for the empire. They’re not really the same thing.
The empire collapsing is not the same as the country collapsing and the empire must be destroyed for future of humanity. The US, as a country, can absolutely survive without being an empire. I’m celebrating the death of a death machine.
No, you’re celebrating the death of a country. If the government of the United States collapses, that literally is the end of the country. It cannot survive that. It’ll shatter into at least 50 pieces, and a lot of people will die. It’s naivety of the worst sort to pretend that somehow society will march on without a fucking government.
Don’t confuse the country for the empire. They’re not really the same thing.
Fucking accelerationists and their ridiculous view of human nature.
The government isn’t going to collapse just because Tulsi Gabbard is pro-Snowden and anti-NATO.
What will collapse are the overseas assets and transational corporations and military bases and intelligence assets and NGOs and US-lead task forces and all the other shit that Tulsi Gabbard is going to be responsible for - as in, the most evil shit on Earth.
The empire will collapse. The government is going to be fine.
You:
We are literally watching the government be destroyed from the inside out, and accelerationist morons are cheering it on.
Hate to say it, but I don’t think that the downfall of the American hegemony would go well for queer folks, even a fucked up as it is. To a certain extent, global power IS a zero sum game. Especially in the context of Tulsi Gabbard, who seems to be aligned with Russian interests. If American influence wanes, that vacuum will get filled by soft power coming from Russia, China, or some combination thereof. Neither of them are huge fans of the queers.
They just see queer people as Western decadence/bourgeois moral decay etc. If the US reverses position, they will too.
Also, we fought for our rights before and won. We’ll do it again. We don’t need to ally ourselves with an evil empire.
What? You’re saying if America becomes less accepting of gay people, Russia will become more accepting? Like, having a pride parade in retaliation?
She’s not bad for the job because she’s incompetent though. She’s bad because she’s compromised and willing to say whatever she needs to say to advance her own interests and the interests of her patrons (Trump definitely, Modi and Putin maybe).
Intelligence was lied about to get us into the Iraq War and Gabbard has been super is hawkish about the drone war. She’s going to lead to more of that, not dismantle the institution. Get ready for manufactured intelligence about how Gaza has dirty bombs built by Iran and transported through the Suez Canal for some reason.
Has she been hawkish? I’m not seeing that - I see she once said she supports “very limited use of drones” and that’s it. Well, and also that time she condemned Trump when he illegally droned Qassem Soleimani.
Her whole deal during the Obama administration was criticizing him on Fox News for not calling terrorism “Islamic” enough and not doing enough drone strikes.
Bad enough US has not been bombing al-Qaeda/al-Nusra in Syria. But it’s mind-boggling that we protest Russia’s bombing of these terrorists. (tweet)
Al-Qaeda attacked us on 9/11 and must be defeated. Obama won’t bomb them in Syria. Putin did. #neverforget911 (tweet)
“In short, when it comes to the war against terrorists, I’m a hawk,” Gabbard told the Hawaii Tribune-Herald in 2016. “When it comes to counterproductive wars of regime change, I’m a dove.” (source, HTH original no longer online)
Good point. She seems to want the US to kill more nongovernmental targets.
So, no more regime changes per se, but a lot more propping up unpopular regimes. I could see this resulting in a much expanded droning campaign in Syria to keep the new government in power.
I’ll temper my excitement, she’s worse than I thought even if she’s better than many of the ghouls that Republicans usually choose.
And I’ll note that my concern is less her personal ideology and more her willingness to say whatever for personal advancement. I’m a resident of her state and thus have followed her career for a long time. She’s bounced between ideologies back and forth based on whatever would advance her career at the moment. If I had to guess I’d say this current incarnation might be more legit than others (she was raised conservative and 9/11 occurred during her formative years), but I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if this is just what’s useful to her right now.
Not that it did much good or deserves praise, but there was resistance to fabricating the WMD intel for Bush and some limitations on what they were willing to say (even while participating in a deadly deception). I don’t think Gabbard will have any resistance at all. Putting a charismatic liar who likes to be in front of the camera in a position that can influence military action (and which is most visible when military action is happening) with little risk of the public being able to check her facts is terrifying.
She’s bad because she’s compromised and willing to say whatever she needs to say to advance her own interests and the interests of her patrons (Trump definitely, Modi and Putin maybe).
Joke’s on you; the tankie troll you’re feeding is into that shit.
Accelerationist trash.
The part where I have to live through it sucks pretty hard. I’m also not certain that what will follow will be any better.
Yeah I’m sure the brown people on their way to the newly minted Guantanamo Bay concentration camp are real excited for what the collapse will look like.
An unsurprisingly dumb take by a tankie. Nothing happens in a vacuum. Having batshit people heading the American government is going to negatively affect more than just the US.
“Intelligence”
She is literally a Russian asset, and now she’s going to be our top intel official. We’re fucked.
This is truly the “move fast and break things” administration.
What’s with the skunk haircut? This chick is such a clown - listen to her on Bill Maher
This makes me sad.
Hold onto your chairs folks. It’s going to be kinda bumpy from now on. And not in a good way.
I agree with McConnell? Yuck.
I never agreed with him, but he’s at least an American. Maybe not the same ideals, but it’s clear he has some standards.
Always thought John McCain would be the last person I said that about.
Fuck McConnell. He played an enormous role in making this bed that we’re all forced to lie in now. No quarter.
No quarter.
unless there is a “hang” and a “draw” in front of it.
he’s at least an American
He’s not really. He fell in line, eventually, behind Trump’s attempted coup the first time around. He’s been undermining the American system for decades. And, in traditional fashion, now that all the walls and pillars he’s been systematically knocking out are starting to affect his living room, it’s all of a sudden a problem.
I will agree with you that the people who are still voting for Trump’s stuff are more stupid. They’re still knocking stuff out, and it’ll come back around on them pretty quickly. But McConnell certainly doesn’t get a pass for any of it. He’s not American, he just doesn’t want him to be the one getting hauled out in the street by the mob or Trotskyed, and he’s still sharp enough to see that on the horizon now.
He only voted “no” because he knew it wouldn’t make a difference, and this way he gets to pretend like he’s a reasonable person.
From Clickhole :
For the record I also despise the old turtle man.
And there goes the intelligence community.
Gabbard is going to be compartmentalized. They’re never going to let her near anything that matters.
Any basis whatsoever to your comment?
I wish you were right.
You have way too much faith in a collapsing government.
You know who else said exactly that? The people who made Hitler chancellor.
“Ve can control him.”
They have 19 year olds named big balls gaining access to all our information. You think she is going to have problems accessing information. Ha ha ha.
For awhile. There’s four years of purging and loyalty tests available to wear down institutional resistance.
Considering Gabbard’s history, by 2028, Putin will know what our intelligence community knows before Trump does.
Trump will never know it because he can’t sit through the briefings. He prefers to get his info from Fox.
Mr Trump’s request for numerous graphics may be a reflection of his longtime career as a real estate developer, where he evaluated building designs to visualise what the property would ultimately look like.
🙄 Yeah, I’m sure that’s the explanation.
I was going to say that it’s because Trump can’t read.
Ha ha ha this is ridiculous. What complete fools.
We’re literally going to turn into a worse version of Russia aren’t we.
Russian colony
Russian colon
Yes.
Don’t know if worse is really the right word, but yeah that’s very clearly the goal the GOP have been working toward.
Welcome, American Oblast!
Shouldn’t “intelligence” be in quotes for her position?
Wild watching the dumbest reactionaries on the internet get everything they ever wanted.
You’d think after Brexit, after the first Trump term, they’d have re-evaluated their pre-existing beliefs.
It’s like the worse their outcomes are the more certain that they are correct. It’s almost a coping mechanism.
They dont have a clue. Just a team and their team is winning so they are winning to. Even if their life goes to shit because of the shit their team does they can just hand wave it away as the other side’s fault.
”FIRST THINGS FIRST! ROUND UP ALL OF THE DALMATIONS!!!”, shrieked Gabbard.
Moron in charge of intelligence?
deleted by creator
Matched set with the moron in charge of the country….
Excuse me, it’s “Russian Puppet Moron in charge of intelligence”
They voted her in bc they dont want the Russians leaking all their dark secrets
