I never said shit on them. I said not admire them. Certainly don’t treat them with religious veneration like Americans.
1 Like
This is really good. Nobody is calling them weird because of the way they look or based on who they love. We are calling their shitty, harmful policies weird because that is exactly what they are.
2 Likes
“fucking gross” is way over the top. It’s pretty reasonable to suspect that the Harvard->Military->National politics types (Desantis, Pete, others?) were strategic in building their resume.
1 Like
Tom Cotton.
2 Likes
Yeah, Bush and Cheney were great! A perfect invasion!
3 Likes
Okay? “strategically building a resume” sounds like just “building a resume” which sounds like something that’s 100% standard for every politician in modern history and quite a lot of normal people? It’s wild how normal stuff gets pathologized whenever Mayo Pete is involved.
2 Likes
For sure. It’s me wishing the world was one way, but it isn’t. But I can still dislike him for contributing to the world being that way.
1 Like
Indeed
It’s definitely not normal to join the military in 2009 at the age of 27 (or whatever the exact dates/ages are). Even among modern politicians, how many can say that?? No one would care if he joined the military out of high school or college, unless he made it the dominant aspect of his personality in which case we’d all be groaning.
It’s normal if you are doing it to build your resume. As Trolly points out, there’s nothing wrong with it. There’s also nothing wrong with pointing it out as a likely motivator.
Like, I don’t think it would “fucking gross” to opine that someone got their MBA and went into private equity because they were motivated by money.
1 Like
Going to war to build a resume for politics is pathological.
1 Like
Beshear appears to be quite a bit better in this setting than on the talk show circuit.
6 Likes
I genuinely have no idea why the age matters at all. Getting an education and then pursuing a military career as a springboard to politics could describe any number of basic-bitch politicians from Al Gore to Mark Kelly, but when it’s Pete somehow it’s pathologized as a devious rat-faced CIA plot to… improve his career?
If we’re just gonna shit on anyone who joined the military circa 2001-2024, good luck never winning a single election, because a lot of normal voters see that as not a super weird thing to do.
3 Likes
I decided to look up the dates so I wasn’t just guessing. Pete graduated college in 2004, but didn’t join the military until 2009. Apparently he had already traveled to Iraq and Afghanistan (whether or not you want to believe it was for the CIA). He had already worked in politics and began a full-time campaign for state treasurer in 2010, so clearly a future political career was on his mind.
That combination of events is not normal and is not the same as a propagandized 18-year-old joining the military a few months after 9/11. I don’t think everyone that joins the military is inherently a striver future politician who loves to kill brown babies. Most of the people that join the military are victims of the same propaganda that causes people to cheer “when I was deployed…” zinger lines. Pete, meanwhile, was well out of school, already involved in politics, and had already traveled to Iraq and Afghanistan, and yet joined the military when his assignment would likely be carrying out an unjust war, 6+ years removed from the original lies that got us into the war(s) when any knowledgeable observer should have realized it was bullshit. That’s not something to celebrate. Then he continues to advance the same pro-military propaganda that leads to 18-year-olds thinking military service is noble by using his manufactured military experience as a zinger line. That’s why he’s getting shit on for this, while others with military experience get more of a pass.
2 Likes
By the way, me finding this clip was partially a coping mechanism because Beshear is surging in the betting markets based on specious info about him getting additional security. Or maybe it was good info? I don’t know. But I’m preparing for the possibility that she’s going with the ultimate do-no-harm candidate instead of swinging for the fences. And if that happens, I’m at least glad to see one clip that shows him looking very capable on the stump.
1 Like
Oof, if that’s Good Beshear and they still pick him it seems like a huge missed opportunity. Right on brand, I guess.
1 Like
Yeah, he seems the most awkward attack dog amongst the VP candidates.
The surge seems to have been heavier on PredictIt than Polymarket, and he’s not in the lead on either one presently, so maybe it’s nothing. It’s certainly not what I’m hoping for. I just figured I would practice making peace with it.
Loving all the speculation in here about why Pete joined the military when the actual reason is readily available information.
let me google that for you. It’s a long read because of course, the actual reasons are nuanced.
I’m honestly fine with any of the picks, though I’m less excited about Beshear (boring) and Shapiro (the sexual harassment stuff will be red meat to MAGA). Pete or Walz would make me ecstatic, though.
Also, I’m pretty sure she’s already made up her mind:
1 Like