In 2002, the CIA captured a man in Afghanistan who had been working at a “terrorist training camp” that had originally been founded by — the CIA. They accused him of being a member of al Qaeda. He wasn’t, but he had lots of information about the organization, which he willingly supplied under ordinary questioning. But factions in the CIA were convinced he knew more. So they ordered him to be tortured, horrifically, relentlessly. The agent in charge of the torture mocked the victim for only “acting” like he was losing his mind as the torture went on. The agent’s

We all have our private madness I’m no exception to the rule I know those waves of inner torment So all-consuming and so cruel I have seen the world fading All its fullness drained of hue And the long wait for its returning Never knowing when it’s due If there was a god to pray to If I had a soul to heal You would see me every evening Go down to the church and kneel ©2017 by Chris Floyd

WASHINGTON – President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order today overturning the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, saying former President Abraham Lincoln’s action had been “hugely unfair” to Southern property owners.  “Free enterprise more important than political correctness!” Mr. Trump tweeted immediately after signing the executive order. “Beanpole Abe should know better! Sad!” After Mr. Trump’s phone was gently prised from his hand by recently named Chief Operating Officer and Grand Vizier of the United States of America and All Its Dominions (Present and Future), Steve Bannon, the President read a prepared statement announcing the formation of a new Reparations

Lee Fang of The Intercept put up a tweet on Saturday that was so stunning in its historical ignorance and dangerous in its implications that I was driven to write a few brief replies. I’ve copied them below, cleaning up the format for easier reading, but not changing the wording. I’ve added a few further points afterward. Lee Fang ‏@lhfang Lefty riots in 1968 gave us Nixon, LA riots gave us the 1994 Crime Bill, riots over a message board troll will help Trump win reelection
 Chris Floyd ‏@empireburlesque @lhfang I lived thru the Wallace campaign in the South &

Below is another carefully curated selection from my long-running discussions with the learned Theban in the White House. Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump  MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
 Chris Floyd ‏@empireburlesque @realDonaldTrump MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! IMPEACH FILTHY CROOKS WHO USE PUBLIC OFFICE FOR PERSONAL PROFITS!
 Chris Floyd ‏@empireburlesque @realDonaldTrump MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! PUNCH A NAZI IN THE FACE! Chris Floyd ‏@empireburlesque @realDonaldTrump YES! I WILL GLADLY CONTRIBUTE TO THE PRICE OF YOUR PLANE TICKET TO ANY OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD! GET THE PUTZ OUTTA HERE!
 Chris Floyd ‏@empireburlesque @realDonaldTrump Trump can’t take it; Putzie-Führer goes on vacation after two

Trump keeps another campaign promise. During the race for the presidency, Donald Trump said he would “go after the families” of terrorists. On Sunday, his 10th day in office, he did just that: he killed 8-year-old Nawaar al-Awlaki, the daughter of US citizen Anwar al-Awlaki, an accused al Qaeda operative killed by Barack Obama in 2011. (Obama later killed al-Awlaki’s teenage son, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, in what the US called a “mistaken” drone strike on an open-air cafe. Abdulrahman was not even alleged to have any connection to terrorism.) “She was hit with a bullet in her neck and suffered for

Donald Trump used his first nationally televised interview as president to declare his firm belief that “torture works.” Of course, as innumerable studies have shown, torture doesn’t “work” at all – if by “work” you mean the gathering of credible information. However, for Trump’s purposes, torture will work very well indeed.  Thomas Jones, writing in the London Review of Books, points out this apt quote from Why Torture Doesn’t Work: The Neuroscience of Interrogation by Professor Shane O’Mara: “The usual purpose of torture by state actors has not been the extraction of intentionally withheld information in the long-term memory systems

Saturday Night Live had a really funny ha-ha joke the other night. Making fun of Trump’s whiny tweet asking “Are we living in Nazi Germany?” the funny ha-ha SNL news guy said brightly: “Of course not! At least Nazi Germany had the guts to take on Russia!” You see how really ha-ha funny that is? Sure, more than 25 million people died as a result of this display of “guts,” and sure, the Holocaust was greatly accelerated by the invasion, which brought millions of more victims within its evil purview, and yeah, OK, it was an act of naked, insane

I keep trying to get my head around the much-bruited notion that Trump and the Establishment (or the Deep State) are at war with one another. While lurid headlines might give that impression, in actual fact, Trump has appointed the most “Establishment” cabinet imaginable, pandering to every aspect of our elites’ agendas. He’s put an oil man in the State Department. He’s put rabidly pro-war figures in charge of the Pentagon and national security. He’s given control the economy and most domestic policy to that avatar of the Establishment, Goldman Sachs (at current count, six GS executives or alumni hold

Various factors have kept long-form writing at a minimum lately, but shorter blasts on Facebook have been possible from time to time. Below is a edited selection of a few rants from a month of madness: Progressives Convert to Langley Literalism “The CIA said it. I believe it. That settles it.” This is apparently the new progressive version of the old Bible Belt bumper sticker. Below, the Washington Post, after five days, walks back its Friday fake news scare story, which was wrong on virtually every assertion of “fact” in the original. Meanwhile, Trump hobnobs with mobsters and his business