True, and my friends are all NCOs anyways. Just analysts with no ability to affect policy.

Yeah man, Shep and Garrus are just meant to be best buds.

I wouldn't know. I got out two years ago so I'm out of the loop. The IC take their jobs seriously though. One of the most important rules is in regards to collection on US citizens. The fact that there is an investigation at all should tell you something.

I will say that a good 90% of my former military intelligence comrades (liberal and conservative) don't buy what the Trump administration is selling.

Most are just guys I served with in various units in the army. Saw them everyday but not people I spent alot of off duty time with. One in particular though was like an older brother to me. We went through military language school and were stationed in Korea together. I always thought he was an exceptionally smart and…

It blows my mind. I have friends in the intel community who should know better but are huge Trump supporters so they continue to push this bullshit.

Because then they win.

Thinking things are cool is uncool.

WHY WAS THERE BACON IN THE SOAP????

Yes, I'm sure Orwell was anti-authoritarianism no matter the ideology but the book is still on the surface a critique of distinctly left-wing authoritarianism.

True, communism doesn't always lead to tyrannical rule from an all powerful despot. Vietnam is a pretty good example. However, in my opinion human beings are just flawed in that respect. We evolved from tribal primate societies with an alpha in control and our natural tendency is to replicate that on a macro level.…

That's what I'm trying to say. Political ideology isn't monolithic on either side and one can criticize certain aspects of it without condemning the rest. I fully believe that Orwell thought that socialism could do good things for mankind but I also believe that he knew the horrors that the extreme form of it could do…

I don't think that political ideology is easily described as an aisle but to say that it's a torus (I had to look that one up lol) doesn't make much sense to me either.

I don't think Obama was a tyrant, but he definitely wasn't as squeaky clean as some like to suggest. Don't forget that it was on Obama's orders that an American citizen was blown to bits by a drone missile without trial.

Was Stalin not the head of a communist government? Is communism not a leftist ideology? If Animal Farm was an attack on Stalin's Russia as you agree then how could it not be an attack on leftist politics?

It's deflection pure and simple. As National Security Advisor Rice was one of the people legally allowed to unmask American citizen's identities. The leaking to the press of the identity of those unmasked was the illegal act, and whoever did so should be prosecuted. Also, try asking Trump fans why Trump's associates…

That doesn't mean he wasn't critical of extreme left ideology. I'm a conservative but I frequently criticize the beliefs of those on the extreme right-wing. I fail to see how anyone could read Animal Farm and see anything other than a critique of Stalinist Russia.

He is hardly unique in that regard (Mao, Pol Pot, Castro, Kim Il Sung and his descendants).

None yet, but Trump has repeatedly stated that he wants to make changes to libel laws which would be used to stifle unfriendly press.

Beer: Nectar of the gods it is.