rant · moment 8 of 16
Drone Wars, Debate Time Limits, and Obama Birther Photo Origins
from The October Surprise · #14
Audio-only archive episode — no video to seek.
4 minRant about the absurdity of debating war and drone strikes in two-minute answer limits, comparing it to The West Wing, then discussing the origins of the Obama-in-Kenya birther photo and Sidney Blumenthal.
- 21:25Tim finds it funny that a debate moderator discusses psychological warfare while discussing Syria drone strikes.
- 21:40Nobody knows who the rebels are that the U.S. armed in Libya or why the country was invaded in the first place.
- 21:51Hillary's strategy: avoid ground troops in Syria, just drone strikes and accept collateral damage like wedding casualties.
- 22:19Tim mocks the pitch to voters: 'We're not killing your kids, we're just going to drone them for 20 years.'
- 22:49Presidential debates limit answers to two minutes or less on matters of life and death, reducing foreign policy to a Twitter game.
- 23:07The West Wing finale actually tried removing time limits on debate answers, creating a fantasy-land version of how it should work.
- 23:33Trump took the birther conspiracy and ran with it after Hillary's campaign mirrored the Obama campaign's West Wing aesthetic.
- 23:53The controversial photo of Obama in traditional Muslim garb originated with Hillary's people, not Trump.
- 24:04Obama's mother allegedly did work for the CIA, positioning Hillary's claim of moral superiority on race-based attacks as false.
- 24:16When Tim says 'the company,' he means CIA or Comedy Central, though the only listeners are probably the actual CIA.
CIADonald TrumpBarack ObamaLibyaMiddle EastHillary ClintonSyriaSidney BlumenthalWest Wing