Former CIA Chief: Republicans Are Worse than ISIS

 

A journalist tweeted this out.

I’ve covered extremism and violent ideologies around the world over my career. Have never come across a political force more nihilistic, dangerous & contemptible than today’s Republicans. Nothing close.

So, this professional media operative must be aware of ISIS, the Taliban, Boko Haram, Al-Shabaab, Janjaweed, Al Qaida (remember them?), the Shining Path… Pick any terror group in this twerp’s lifetimes; and American Republicans are worse.  Heck, this means Republicans are worse than Vladimir Putin.

Is it bad that General Michael Hayden, the Director of the CIA under George W. Bush and Barack Obama, agrees.

I agree. And I was the CIA Director.

This guy just said a third of his countrymen were “nihilistic, dangerous & contemptible.” Still think the Deep State doesn’t hate you?

Mike Pence reaffirmed his support for the Deep State. David A. French thinks this makes him a most excellent presidential prospect. (Because that Ron DeSantis person is just plain too Trumpy.)

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  1. DrewInWisconsin, Oik Member
    DrewInWisconsin, Oik
    @DrewInWisconsin

    Victor Tango Kilo (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):
    You can try hard to rewrite what he said so it fits your programming, but he said what he said.

    I’m still baffled how Trump-Republicans are worse than ISIS, Al Qaeda, or the Khmer Rouge.

    Doesn’t have to be true in order to make the program run.

    • #91
  2. Paul Stinchfield Member
    Paul Stinchfield
    @PaulStinchfield

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    The title of the post is misleading. It says “Former CIA Chief: Republicans are worse than ISIS.”

    But what Michael Hayden said was

    “I’ve covered extremism and violent ideologies around the world over my career. Have never come across a political force more nihilistic, dangerous & contemptible than today’s Republicans. Nothing close.”

    I would edit Michael Hayden to say “Die Hard Trump Republicans.”

    Obviously not nihilistic, except to those who use words in Orwellian ways.

    Obviously not dangerous, unless you assess angry words as being equivalent to actual terrorist attacks.

    Obviously not contemptible except in the eyes of fanatical deep-staters who think the rabble should shut up and take what they are given.

    • #92
  3. Paul Stinchfield Member
    Paul Stinchfield
    @PaulStinchfield

    Victor Tango Kilo (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):
    You can try hard to rewrite what he said so it fits your programming, but he said what he said.

    I’m still baffled how Trump-Republicans are worse than ISIS, Al Qaeda, or the Khmer Rouge.

    Because they are genuinely worse by the standards of the Deep State: ISIS and Al Qaeda are almost entirely foreign threats and thus post little danger. Patriotic citizens who are tired of being lied to by fake conservative Republicans whose real loyalty is to the Deep State and big donors, however, are an existential threat: If allowed to speak and organize freely they might persuade more and more Americans that they are right, thus threatening the gravy train (iron rice bowl?) And an America in which people are free to live their lives, neither bullied by bureaucrats nor impoverished by taxes and inflation nor terrorized by criminals, is an America that is not worth having.

    • #93
  4. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Victor Tango Kilo (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):
    You can try hard to rewrite what he said so it fits your programming, but he said what he said.

    I’m still baffled how Trump-Republicans are worse than ISIS, Al Qaeda, or the Khmer Rouge.

    They don’t think those people/groups were actual existential threats to the US.  They think Trump – and Trump supporters – are.

    • #94
  5. DrewInWisconsin, Oik Member
    DrewInWisconsin, Oik
    @DrewInWisconsin

    Victor Tango Kilo (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):
    You can try hard to rewrite what he said so it fits your programming, but he said what he said.

    I’m still baffled how Trump-Republicans are worse than ISIS, Al Qaeda, or the Khmer Rouge.

    Gary can surely explain.

    • #95
  6. Paul Stinchfield Member
    Paul Stinchfield
    @PaulStinchfield

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Victor Tango Kilo (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):
    You can try hard to rewrite what he said so it fits your programming, but he said what he said.

    I’m still baffled how Trump-Republicans are worse than ISIS, Al Qaeda, or the Khmer Rouge.

    They don’t think those people/groups were actual existential threats to the US. They think Trump – and Trump supporters – are.

    Undoubtedly the case. The wide-open southern border is evidence of this.

    • #96
  7. Bishop Wash Member
    Bishop Wash
    @BishopWash

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    Victor Tango Kilo (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):
    You can try hard to rewrite what he said so it fits your programming, but he said what he said.

    I’m still baffled how Trump-Republicans are worse than ISIS, Al Qaeda, or the Khmer Rouge.

    Doesn’t have to be true in order to make the program run.

    It’s as though it’s a lie and they think if they keep repeating it gullible people will think it is true. I think propogandists have a term for this. A Big Lie. Of course, one has to have a compliant media to continually spread the lie.

    • #97
  8. Django Member
    Django
    @Django

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    Victor Tango Kilo (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):
    You can try hard to rewrite what he said so it fits your programming, but he said what he said.

    I’m still baffled how Trump-Republicans are worse than ISIS, Al Qaeda, or the Khmer Rouge.

    Gary can surely explain.

    Nonsense cannot be explained. 

    • #98
  9. DrewInWisconsin, Oik Member
    DrewInWisconsin, Oik
    @DrewInWisconsin

    Bishop Wash (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    Victor Tango Kilo (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):
    You can try hard to rewrite what he said so it fits your programming, but he said what he said.

    I’m still baffled how Trump-Republicans are worse than ISIS, Al Qaeda, or the Khmer Rouge.

    Doesn’t have to be true in order to make the program run.

    It’s as though it’s a lie and they think if they keep repeating it gullible people will think it is true. I think propogandists have a term for this. A Big Lie.

    Where have I heard that before?

     

    • #99
  10. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    Bishop Wash (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    Victor Tango Kilo (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):
    You can try hard to rewrite what he said so it fits your programming, but he said what he said.

    I’m still baffled how Trump-Republicans are worse than ISIS, Al Qaeda, or the Khmer Rouge.

    Doesn’t have to be true in order to make the program run.

    It’s as though it’s a lie and they think if they keep repeating it gullible people will think it is true. I think propogandists have a term for this. A Big Lie.

    Where have I heard that before?

     

    Propagandist repeating a Big Lie that there was a Big lie?

    • #100
  11. DrewInWisconsin, Oik Member
    DrewInWisconsin, Oik
    @DrewInWisconsin

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    Bishop Wash (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    Victor Tango Kilo (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):
    You can try hard to rewrite what he said so it fits your programming, but he said what he said.

    I’m still baffled how Trump-Republicans are worse than ISIS, Al Qaeda, or the Khmer Rouge.

    Doesn’t have to be true in order to make the program run.

    It’s as though it’s a lie and they think if they keep repeating it gullible people will think it is true. I think propogandists have a term for this. A Big Lie.

    Where have I heard that before?

     

    Propagandist repeating a Big Lie that there was a Big lie?

    Something like that.

    • #101
  12. Randy Hendershot Lincoln
    Randy Hendershot
    @RicosSuitMechanic

    navyjag (View Comment):

    Dave of Barsham (View Comment):

    navyjag (View Comment):

    TBA (View Comment):

    Dave of Barsham (View Comment):

    navyjag (View Comment):

    Dave of Barsham (View Comment):

    navyjag (View Comment):

    Whoa! So wanting to have lower taxes, less regulation and energy independence now has me in the ISIS class? I don’t know how to shoot an AR-15. Could manage a .45 thanks to my ship’s Marines. But none in the house.

    Yeah, I was surprised myself that my opinions put me even beyond ISIS beheadings and Taliban rule. As a born and bred Tennessean, however, I do know how to shoot.

    Just like the Cole cousins in the great WWII sniper stories. So what did you shoot first? Squirrels? Wolves? Bears? Curious. One reason I will never hike in the Tennessee woods. Assume my WD-40 spray I have handy for the S.Fran coyotes would not work there.

    Sadly not very prolific (I grew up in West TN, kinda flat so most pests were small), it was actually skunks. Our home backed up to a field which was bordered on two sides by woods. Not sure why but they loved to hook up next to our house. ‘Possums and trash panda’s you can chase off, skunks you have to get rid of at range.

    Real men go hand-to-hand.

    Not me. Too old. Too fat.

    Primary: Rifle. Secondary: 45. Tertiary: Six Costco sized cans of Tomato Juice and a kiddy pool…and a thermal rated hammock that’s comfortable for at least three to four days.

    If I would only have bought the M-1 rifle the Army gave me to clean and shoot in 1964. Maybe a little too late.

    Not too late. Bought three of them, two in recent years. Check out the  Director of Civilian Marksmanship, thecmp.org.  .30-06 beats 5.56.

    I like ARs, but General Patton was right about the Garand.

    • #102
  13. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Randy Hendershot (View Comment):

    navyjag (View Comment):

    Dave of Barsham (View Comment):

    navyjag (View Comment):

    TBA (View Comment):

    Dave of Barsham (View Comment):

    navyjag (View Comment):

    Dave of Barsham (View Comment):

    navyjag (View Comment):

    Whoa! So wanting to have lower taxes, less regulation and energy independence now has me in the ISIS class? I don’t know how to shoot an AR-15. Could manage a .45 thanks to my ship’s Marines. But none in the house.

    Yeah, I was surprised myself that my opinions put me even beyond ISIS beheadings and Taliban rule. As a born and bred Tennessean, however, I do know how to shoot.

    Just like the Cole cousins in the great WWII sniper stories. So what did you shoot first? Squirrels? Wolves? Bears? Curious. One reason I will never hike in the Tennessee woods. Assume my WD-40 spray I have handy for the S.Fran coyotes would not work there.

    Sadly not very prolific (I grew up in West TN, kinda flat so most pests were small), it was actually skunks. Our home backed up to a field which was bordered on two sides by woods. Not sure why but they loved to hook up next to our house. ‘Possums and trash panda’s you can chase off, skunks you have to get rid of at range.

    Real men go hand-to-hand.

    Not me. Too old. Too fat.

    Primary: Rifle. Secondary: 45. Tertiary: Six Costco sized cans of Tomato Juice and a kiddy pool…and a thermal rated hammock that’s comfortable for at least three to four days.

    If I would only have bought the M-1 rifle the Army gave me to clean and shoot in 1964. Maybe a little too late.

    Not too late. Bought three of them, two in recent years. Check out the Director of Civilian Marksmanship, thecmp.org. .30-06 beats 5.56.

    I like ARs, but General Patton was right about the Garand.

    I liked the movie “Carbine Williams” too, starring Jimmy Stewart.

    • #103
  14. Paul Stinchfield Member
    Paul Stinchfield
    @PaulStinchfield

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Paul Stinchfield (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Douglas Pratt (View Comment):

    Paul Stinchfield (View Comment):

    Douglas Pratt (View Comment):

    Republicans are evil and stupid. Democrats care about you. That’s the message, and they hammer it constantly. Or as Roger Zelazny said, “So they play that on their fascist banjos, eh?”

    Lord of Light, by Roger Zelazny, 1967. A fine novel. From a dialogue between the protagonist and the hit man sent to (unsuccessfully) assassinate him.

    One of the authors on my obsession list. I dearly love his insidious puns. “You came to Heaven without a fortune? Unfortunate.” “I stuck my hand in the niche, hoping offhandedly it wasn’t booby-trapped.” And of course, spending half a chapter setting up a minor character so he could write, “Then the fit hit the Shan.”

    Now I remember why I don’t read Zelazny.

    The problem with puns is that they can interfere with the storytelling. “The the fit hit the Shan” seems like a good example of this, as it appears in a very serious dramatic scene, not some light comedy.

    That’s a lot of it, especially in his case. Stuff like that, especially after a deliberate pages-long setup, would have me throwing the book across the room, hopefully into a lit fireplace. (Because I probably can’t return the book for a refund.)

    My larger problem with Zelazny, though, is that he basically writes only fantasy. Even his “science-fiction” is really mostly fantasy. And I have no interest in fantasy.

    A counterexample of a joke that works better would be in Zelazny’s This Immortal, in which a biologist says “When the spiderbats return to Capistrano my slishi will be waiting”: It occurs in a cocktail-party event with much repartee and verbal fencing, as I recall.

    • #104
  15. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    Western Chauvinist (View Comment):
    Make America Great Again is a call to hold American government to her founding principles of ordered liberty. It may be many things, but it is NOT evil.

    And perhaps to your point, Trump’s new slogan is: Save America.

    • #105
  16. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    Dave of Barsham (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    It’s a little unbelievable how far this has come in just ten years. Even during the Cold War where it was thought (and later found not to be unfounded) communists were seeded everywhere. Now these people view nearly half the country as enemies in that same vein, and they hold an insane amount of power, influence, or both in the government. I’m not sure how any of this deescalates.

    I think you’re giving Hayden and others too much of the benefit of the doubt.  I don’t think he really believes it.  I think he’s lying.

    • #106
  17. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    Dave of Barsham (View Comment):
    “terrorist,” “insurrectionist,” and “dangerous,”

    I don’t think the top officials believe anything of the sort.  Maybe I’m in my own bubble, but why in the world would anyone label half the country with such extreme slander?  Why not just say, “Republicans are delusional, unbalanced, irrational and are dragging our country down!”?

    Why say that they are more dangerous and threatening than ISIS, unless they intended to arrest them, imprison them, torture them while in prison, or kill them, and they want the remainder to find this acceptable, or even good?

    • #107
  18. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    The title of the post is misleading. It says “Former CIA Chief: Republicans are worse than ISIS.”

    But what Michael Hayden said was

    “I’ve covered extremism and violent ideologies around the world over my career. Have never come across a political force more nihilistic, dangerous & contemptible than today’s Republicans. Nothing close.”

    I would edit Michael Hayden to say “Die Hard Trump Republicans.”

    You are an honorable man, and a fine piece of work.

    • #108
  19. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    Victor Tango Kilo (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):
    You can try hard to rewrite what he said so it fits your programming, but he said what he said.

    I’m still baffled how Trump-Republicans are worse than ISIS, Al Qaeda, or the Khmer Rouge.

    Gary can surely explain.

    No, he can’t.  And if he could he wouldn’t.  He will knit while the ropes swing.

    • #109
  20. DrewInWisconsin, Oik Member
    DrewInWisconsin, Oik
    @DrewInWisconsin

    Flicker (View Comment):

    I think you’re giving Hayden and others too much of the benefit of the doubt. I don’t think he really believes it. I think he’s lying.

    Then what’s the purpose? And does he understand what he unleashes with such things?

    • #110
  21. Red Herring Coolidge
    Red Herring
    @EHerring

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    The title of the post is misleading. It says “Former CIA Chief: Republicans are worse than ISIS.”

    But what Michael Hayden said was

    “I’ve covered extremism and violent ideologies around the world over my career. Have never come across a political force more nihilistic, dangerous & contemptible than today’s Republicans. Nothing close.”

    I would edit Michael Hayden to say “Die Hard Trump Republicans.”

    Depends on what the meaning of “is” is. 

    • #111
  22. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    Flicker (View Comment):

    I think you’re giving Hayden and others too much of the benefit of the doubt. I don’t think he really believes it. I think he’s lying.

    Then what’s the purpose? And does he understand what he unleashes with such things?

    I think it’s just coming into common speculation that the PTB (the WEF, etc.) really want to impoverish, control, and kill off the majority of the world’s population.  It’s unadulterated evil.  See Neil Oliver’s brief interview by Mark Steyn. in which Oliver says that it’s the only reasonable explanation.  And Oliver’s opinion video here (10 minutes).

    Some few people are waking up, and speaking about it.

    • #112
  23. Red Herring Coolidge
    Red Herring
    @EHerring

    Randy Hendershot (View Comment):

    navyjag (View Comment):

    Dave of Barsham (View Comment):

    navyjag (View Comment):

    TBA (View Comment):

    Dave of Barsham (View Comment):

    navyjag (View Comment):

    Dave of Barsham (View Comment):

    navyjag (View Comment):

    Whoa! So wanting to have lower taxes, less regulation and energy independence now has me in the ISIS class? I don’t know how to shoot an AR-15. Could manage a .45 thanks to my ship’s Marines. But none in the house.

    Yeah, I was surprised myself that my opinions put me even beyond ISIS beheadings and Taliban rule. As a born and bred Tennessean, however, I do know how to shoot.

    Just like the Cole cousins in the great WWII sniper stories. So what did you shoot first? Squirrels? Wolves? Bears? Curious. One reason I will never hike in the Tennessee woods. Assume my WD-40 spray I have handy for the S.Fran coyotes would not work there.

    Sadly not very prolific (I grew up in West TN, kinda flat so most pests were small), it was actually skunks. Our home backed up to a field which was bordered on two sides by woods. Not sure why but they loved to hook up next to our house. ‘Possums and trash panda’s you can chase off, skunks you have to get rid of at range.

    Real men go hand-to-hand.

    Not me. Too old. Too fat.

    Primary: Rifle. Secondary: 45. Tertiary: Six Costco sized cans of Tomato Juice and a kiddy pool…and a thermal rated hammock that’s comfortable for at least three to four days.

    If I would only have bought the M-1 rifle the Army gave me to clean and shoot in 1964. Maybe a little too late.

    Not too late. Bought three of them, two in recent years. Check out the Director of Civilian Marksmanship, thecmp.org. .30-06 beats 5.56.

    I like ARs, but General Patton was right about the Garand.

    But you can get an AR today. Finding a good Garand is a problem. 

    • #113
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