You don’t support the troops, you support the war machine
July 28, 2022 7:43 PM   Subscribe

Jon Stewart unleashes 9m37s of righteous outrage over the the Senate blockage of the PACT Act, meant to fund health care for veterans suffering diseases from burn pits and other such hazards during service. Salty language abounds.
posted by hippybear (55 comments total) 35 users marked this as a favorite
 
Good on him. Fuck these shitbag senators. Good to see that Jon Stewart is angrier of late.
posted by Windopaene at 7:59 PM on July 28, 2022 [6 favorites]


bless you Jon
posted by robbyrobs at 8:24 PM on July 28, 2022 [2 favorites]


I’m glad he’s giving them hell, but can’t bear to watch.

Does Jon call out Republicans specifically as the ones blocking this? Because it’s 41 Republican senators that blocked this, including 25 that had voted for it just a month ago before it went to reconciliation with the House.

Every Democratic Senator was in favor of this bill.

Sen. Chris Murphy offers a likely reason why the Republicans betrayed the disabled veterans on this bill.
posted by darkstar at 8:38 PM on July 28, 2022 [6 favorites]


Does Jon call out Republicans specifically as the ones blocking this?

Yes. In name, with lots of cursing, as they justly deserve.
posted by mcstayinskool at 9:11 PM on July 28, 2022 [21 favorites]


“If this is America first, then America is f*cked.” No truer words.
posted by metatuesday at 9:50 PM on July 28, 2022 [17 favorites]


Making the military accountable for decades of contaminating environments around the world is a very important cause (one recent example), and it is one that could do with a sponsor who hasn't pushed Covid conspiracy theories that have helped contribute to killing and sickening millions.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 9:51 PM on July 28, 2022 [2 favorites]


a sponsor who hasn't pushed Covid conspiracy theories

sorry to add to this derail, but that's nonsense. are you referring to when he went on a late night show and basically said the lab leak theory made sense, and did so in a funny way? well, even the latest study that says the bulk of evidence supports the food market hypothesis (which absolutely could be true) still can't find the host animal species and admits that it requires some pretty statistically wild predictions. and stewart was damn right to distrust the chinese government when it comes to lying about.. well, everything. just as he does the US government, except much more so.

so, no.
posted by wibari at 10:05 PM on July 28, 2022 [24 favorites]


Let Toomey know what you think. Here is the contact form.
posted by metatuesday at 10:12 PM on July 28, 2022 [1 favorite]


I just keep thinking of what happened the last time he made a speech like this. Ten days later the bill in question passed.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:35 AM on July 29, 2022 [11 favorites]


Run Jon run. Please!
Senator Stewart? President?
You already have some of the most critical attributes:
- integrity
- a belief we can do better
- Ironclad scrupules and a willingness to violate them
- The faintest hint of charm
- a brand
posted by pmaxwell at 4:09 AM on July 29, 2022 [2 favorites]


No. More. Celebrity. Politicians.

I love Jon. But no. He can do more good where he is.
posted by ook at 4:19 AM on July 29, 2022 [50 favorites]


Run Jon run. Please!

Not a chance. He's mega-rich and semi-retired. Dude goes on vacation with Obama and Springsteen.

It's somewhat frowned upon for Presidential candidates to publicly refer to Senators as "motherfuckers". Why would he give up that privilege? Also, he's rumoured to have been way into cocaine in the eighties. Who needs the press sniffing around (pardon the pun) decades into one's past? Basically, it would be a massive demotion and pay cut, with the bonus risk of assassination, both literal and figurative.
posted by Optamystic at 4:23 AM on July 29, 2022 [8 favorites]


Run Jon run. Please!

He's one of our best watchdogs against government malfeasance. Why would you want to lose that?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:25 AM on July 29, 2022 [8 favorites]


I deliberately didn't watch this because I gave up on him a decade ago due to his relentless both-sides-ism. It sounds like maybe he has woken up to reality (or maybe rejoined my particular bubble), which would be nice.
posted by The Bellman at 6:25 AM on July 29, 2022 [6 favorites]


I miss my old boss.
posted by nevercalm at 6:40 AM on July 29, 2022 [4 favorites]


I'm so impressed at the people who are benevolent enough to share with us reasons that we should be mad at Jon Stewart instead of being mad at the 30 Republicans who are literally playing politics with the lives of me and my friends. Well done. You've identified the real enemy. You're definitely adding hominem to the discussion.
posted by Etrigan at 7:01 AM on July 29, 2022 [95 favorites]


I don't think this is a change for Jon Stewart - the specific issue of the government not supporting veterans (and also 9/11 first responders) is one that he's been consistently passionate about. (And why wouldn't he be? I think a lot of New Yorkers who were in New York on 9/11 feel very strongly about the Bush administration using 9/11 as a pretext for forever war in the Middle East, and then trying to tar everyone anti-war as insufficiently patriotic. So for their "support the troops" rhetoric to ring so hollow when veterans actually need support...)
posted by Jeanne at 7:04 AM on July 29, 2022 [11 favorites]


I'm part of group (Tuesdays with Toomey) that has been protesting outside of Toomey's offices across Pennsylvania every Tuesday since November 2016. The man is a menace and we are delighted to see him go.

But let me tell you, I DO NOT want to spend the next six years of my life protesting a Senator Oz. So please, for me, would you send a couple of bucks to John Fetterman's campaign? Or, if you live in Pennsylvania, volunteer with his campaign or your local Dem organization.

(And while you are at it, support Josh Shapiro's campaign for governor. His opponent, Doug Mastriano, is literally working towards creating an "explicitly Christian" country.)
posted by mcduff at 8:05 AM on July 29, 2022 [29 favorites]


I just talked to a burn pit exposed vet this morning and sent him this clip, so thank you for sharing it. Toomey and the other senators who changed their vote to play fuck fuck games with people’s lives are absolutely vile and should absolutely be hounded for this. And maybe more senators need to be called mothefuckers more often. Maybe they would stop being motherfuckers.
posted by corb at 8:29 AM on July 29, 2022 [6 favorites]


I'm so impressed at the people who are benevolent enough to share with us reasons that we should be mad at Jon Stewart instead of being mad at the 30 Republicans who are literally playing politics with the lives of me and my friends. Well done. You've identified the real enemy. You're definitely adding hominem to the discussion.

Serious question: did some stuff get deleted?
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:53 AM on July 29, 2022 [3 favorites]


did some stuff get deleted?

About half.
posted by Etrigan at 9:08 AM on July 29, 2022 [4 favorites]


I don't think there's any reason to be an ass about Jon Stewart here. Even if a person comes down on the side that he has sometimes misjudged where he could/should try and make a difference, this is, as EmpressCallipygos points out above the kind of thing where it is established that he very much can make a difference, and he's sure trying.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:28 AM on July 29, 2022 [6 favorites]


Jon Stewart is doing more good outside the system calling out their bullshit. He’s a comedian and a commentator who isn’t willing to compromise his values in the service of expediency.

Sounds like a good President, but the actual office would force him to compromise his values to the point we wouldn’t recognize him anymore. We are heavily influenced by movie Presidents like Thomas Whitmore in Independence Day (Bill Pullman) or Josiah Bartlet from West Wing (Martin Sheen). They had clarity of vision and solid values, but they only ever faced one problem at a time, with, without serious complications.

Jon exists in a perfect space right now where he can do no wrong. Let him go home at the end of the day, keeping his problems and peccadillos to himself. He’s a better prophet than President.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 9:34 AM on July 29, 2022 [1 favorite]


> did some stuff get deleted?

About half.


But...it strangely seems to be back? Referring to the comments about "giving up on his both-sides-ism" and comments which seem to have taken a bit he did on Colbert's Late show....seriously.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:43 AM on July 29, 2022 [1 favorite]


Let Toomey know what you think. Here is the contact form.

Just used it to compare how Congress treated my Veteran grandfather, who got his malaria taken care of after he served in Guam in 1943, to this.

Some of us peaceniks are families of vets as well.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:55 AM on July 29, 2022 [3 favorites]


About fucking time......
posted by goalyeehah at 10:05 AM on July 29, 2022


Beau Biden was exposed to burn pits during his military service; Joe Biden learned, from a book, about the possible cancer link after Beau's death, at 46, from Stage 4 glioblastoma. Biden on The Burn Pits: The Poisoning of America’s Soldiers: “There’s a whole chapter on my son Beau… He was co-located [twice] near these burn pits.”
posted by Iris Gambol at 10:08 AM on July 29, 2022 [1 favorite]


Stewart said it right around 4:15: The cruelty is the point.
posted by JohnFromGR at 10:09 AM on July 29, 2022 [2 favorites]


P.S. I want to see focused anger like this used by the democratic on all fronts....
posted by goalyeehah at 10:19 AM on July 29, 2022 [8 favorites]


Heading back to first causes - the practice of open air burning like this is illegal in much of the US, no? Which raises the question, who green lit the practice in Afghanistan? Captain Pyro? Major Burns? Colonel Matches? General Napalm-in-the-Morning? Someone signed the order, I want to know who.

I also would like to know how this is affecting Afghans.
posted by BWA at 10:21 AM on July 29, 2022 [7 favorites]


I'm so impressed at the people who are benevolent enough to share with us reasons that we should be mad at Jon Stewart instead of being mad at the 30 Republicans who are literally playing politics with the lives of me and my friends. Well done. You've identified the real enemy. You're definitely adding hominem to the discussion.
Yes, this. I feel like this ought to be posted at the top of nearly every politics thread ("…we should be mad at X instead of being mad at the 30 Republicans…").
It's the same derail over and over on here.
posted by Ahmad Khani at 10:37 AM on July 29, 2022 [4 favorites]


I love the guy over Stewart's right shoulder losing it when Stewart says,

"These motherfuckers live to 200. They're tortoises..."
posted by goalyeehah at 10:37 AM on July 29, 2022 [3 favorites]


It's the same derail over and over on here.

It's a common tactic for trolling and disinformation, to attack the messenger instead of addressing the message. It does seem to derail discussions here particularly easily.
posted by LooseFilter at 10:44 AM on July 29, 2022 [7 favorites]


we should be mad at Jon Stewart instead of being mad at the 30 Republicans who are literally playing politics with the lives of me and my friends

"Instead"?!

I believe they're suggesting you can be upset and disappointed at Stewart and the republicans.
posted by dobbs at 10:48 AM on July 29, 2022 [9 favorites]


"Veterans aren’t the only ones reporting health problems. The Department of Defense currently operates 38 toxic burn sites in the U.S., mostly in low-income, rural communities. [...] The private sector operates an additional 23 open burning and detonation facilities, which handle a range of explosives, including munitions, fireworks, and car airbag propellants. Other government agencies, like the Department of Energy and NASA, operate six more. While the materials destroyed in overseas burn pits and at open burning and detonation sites here in the U.S. are not identical, they do release many of the same harmful emissions: acidic gases, toxic metals, dioxins, furans, volatile organic compounds, fine particulate matter, and polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. [...]

"[W]hile the Department of Defense has largely discontinued the practice overseas — with some exceptions — the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, shows no signs of closing the 40-year-old regulatory loophole that allows open burning and open detonation to continue across the U.S." (Grist, May 4, 2022)
posted by Iris Gambol at 10:49 AM on July 29, 2022 [7 favorites]


Nine respiratory cancers added to list of illnesses presumed caused by burn pit smoke (Military Times, April 25, 2022) Veterans Affairs officials this week will add nine respiratory cancers to the list of illnesses presumed caused by burn pit exposure, easing the path veterans suffering from those conditions have to take to get disability benefits. The move follows promises by administration officials last fall to speed up care and benefits for veterans exposed to burn pit smoke in Iraq, Afghanistan and other overseas locations over the last 32 years.
posted by Iris Gambol at 10:49 AM on July 29, 2022 [1 favorite]


I believe they're suggesting you can be upset and disappointed at Stewart and the republicans.

To which many of us would respond that such a point would make more sense if the sins of Stewart and the Republicans were in any way equitable - and they're just not.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:50 AM on July 29, 2022 [27 favorites]


Jon Stewart who did the "GREAT PEOPLE ON BOTH SIDES" march, before Trump was even President? That guy?


Yeah, itching to listen to him.
posted by pompomtom at 11:16 AM on July 29, 2022


Yeah, itching to listen to him.

I'm sure the veterans of America will be pleased you value your own principles over (checks notes) their continued medical care.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:58 AM on July 29, 2022 [26 favorites]


Wow! This is as bad as I've ever seen it! Thanks for trying, dobbs.
posted by The Bellman at 12:00 PM on July 29, 2022 [2 favorites]


At the risk of re-focusing our ire on the truly evil culprits in all of this, via Reddit:

Republican Senators Fist-Bump to Celebrate Killing the Veteran’s Healthcare Bill

This needs to make it into a VoteVets ad on heavy rotation for the midterms.
posted by darkstar at 2:28 PM on July 29, 2022 [8 favorites]


People can be super correct on some issues, and terrible about others. I will say it's deeply disappointing how him and other comedians unreservedly support Dave Chappelle.

His is the only voice in the news about this particular issue regarding veterans and that's also amazing and amazingly sad it stands alone.
posted by tiny frying pan at 2:39 PM on July 29, 2022 [3 favorites]




I get that for some of you, Jon Stewart pushing the lab leak theory for funsies has no consequences to your life and therefore bringing it up is a "derail." And some of us are Asians living in America who have to deal with rising hate crime as a result of this kind of irresponsible BS, so...

It's great that he's advocating for this cause. It's also not great that, for example, he continues to support Dave Chappelle. Consider, perhaps, that some of us choose to bring up Jon Stewart's missteps not as some kind of smug gotcha in an abstract debate, or to show support for Republicans(?), but because those missteps have actual consequences for our lives.
posted by cultanthropologist at 3:57 PM on July 29, 2022 [16 favorites]


The quest for the entirely perfect messenger for any cause is futile. It's better we support people who fight fights we agree with while we hope they grow beyond their past mistakes than simply discard that fighter entirely.

Although that's just my opinion and I've long believed I'm in the minority about this here on Metafilter.
posted by hippybear at 4:03 PM on July 29, 2022 [13 favorites]


It's circular firing squads all the way down....
posted by Pendragon at 4:36 PM on July 29, 2022 [7 favorites]


Yeah, itching to listen to him.

I'm sure the veterans of America will be pleased you value your own principles over (checks notes) their continued medical care.


Good grief, what?

How hard is it to understand that one can support veterans, the cause for veteran health care, the specific case of veterans affected by burn pits, and still not be okay with Jon Stewart for various reasons? Why do people here who are otherwise smart have to boil complicated issues down to for us/against us false equivalency baloney?

Jon Stewart has done many good things, and continues to work tirelessly for veterans and their health issues, particularly issues that came about in the line of duty. It is also true that Jon Stewart's support of Dave Chapelle when Chapelle has repeatedly made transphobic jokes is extremely disheartening, especially given the noisy rise of anti-trans sentiment and legislation in the US. It is also disappointing that Jon Stewart made the sorts of jokes about lab-grown covid that a number of bigots have used as reasons for anti-Asian bigotry and anti-Asian violence.
posted by oneirodynia at 5:38 PM on July 29, 2022 [11 favorites]


How hard is it to understand that one can support veterans, the cause for veteran health care, the specific case of veterans affected by burn pits, and still not be okay with Jon Stewart for various reasons? Why do people here who are otherwise smart have to boil complicated issues down to for us/against us false equivalency baloney?

You are 100% super-welcome to start an FPP about Jon Stewart being a shitheel because of his support of Dave Chappelle. Because is actually not about Jon Stewart, it's about veterans with cancer getting shafted yet again
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:35 PM on July 29, 2022 [9 favorites]


Does anyone know what the "technical error" was that required this second vote?

Also, are we not doing mod notes when comments get deleted anymore? Or were there no deletions in this thread? I'm confused.

Also also, without defending Jon Stewart, this thread seems like a weird time and place to focus on his sins even if he is the one making the argument that Republican Senators just screwed over sick veterans.
posted by Reverend John at 8:44 PM on July 29, 2022 [3 favorites]


Mod note: Nothing has been (or ever was) deleted here. We don't have 24/7 modding now, and we don't have the mod resources to try to keep threads like this from being super messy, so please realize that participants need to check themselves sometimes to try not to entirely derail the topic. That said, the post was not presented as [post about burn pit vote], but as [Jon Stewart on burn pit vote], and if Stewart is a major part of the focus, expect that people will talk about Stewart apart from this one issue. That doesn't mean it's fine to make this into just a big useless argument about whether disagreement with him on thing X means one doesn't care about thing Y. Let the observation be observed and then carry on with the main topic. It can be done. EmpressCallipygos, you've commented more than anyone, and have actually assured that this has become more about policing fellow commenters and reactions to that than returning to the main subject. Please do not do this.
posted by taz (staff) at 10:45 PM on July 29, 2022 [5 favorites]


What I don't get ( Okay I do, deep down but eh ) is why Toomey would be all in on derailing this? is it that his new lobbyist job requires he prove he's a cruel POS? Maybe it's to show folks in PA, that hey, maybe elect Fetterman and not Oz, if you want shit to actually get done.
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 5:02 PM on August 1, 2022 [1 favorite]


As frustrating as the Democratic Party can be (and often is) on making incremental progress, they are at least pointed in the right direction on most issues.

It’s situations like this legislation, and with judicial appointments, and executive orders, and expanding ACA, and infrastructure, and climate change, and expanding Medicare, and, and, and… that really emphasize the point: if you want to make actual progress, we have to elect more and better Democrats.

Yes, we can vote for our favorites in the Primary, and support third parties on the local level to build long-term capacity. But as long as it’s a 2-party system governed by Duverger’s Law, and as long as there is no viable third party in a given race — one that actually has a shot at winning — then we have to vote for more Democrats in the General election. If we don’t, we get a hyper conservative SCOTUS that rolls back human rights, a Senate that’s gridlocked (or worse, run by Republicans), and the most recalcitrant members of the Dem party get to set the agenda even if the Dems are in control. And we have what should be an obvious, noncontroversial bill to provide health care to veterans getting killed by the Party of Cruelty.

More Dem senators, more Dem representatives, more Dem state legislators, Secretaries of State, councilpeople, school board members, dogcatchers, etc., etc., etc. we don’t have to like the Democratic Party. We don’t have to keep quiet about their failures, and their weakness, and their cozy relationship with lobbyists, and the myriad ways they aren’t boldly progressive enough. We just need to recognize, clear-eyed, that they’re the only viable thing standing between us and fascism right now.
posted by darkstar at 12:50 PM on August 2, 2022 [2 favorites]


The Senate passes help for veterans exposed to toxins, after a reversal drew fury (NPR, Aug. 2, 2022, 10:05 PM) The U.S. Senate, in a bipartisan 86-11 vote, approved a measure to provide health care and benefits for millions of veterans injured by exposure to toxins, from Agent Orange in Vietnam to burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The 11 "no" votes included: Mitt Romney of Utah, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Mike Crapo of Idaho, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Mike Lee of Utah, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, James Risch of Idaho, Richard Shelby of Alabama, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina. All 11 senators also voted against the bill in June.

Yesterday: Veterans groups and Jon Stewart have protested for days, putting Senate Republicans on the defensive for holding up a bill to provide health care for veterans exposed to burn pits. (NBC News, Aug. 1, 2022, 2:12 p.m.) Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., hopes to bring the PACT Act back to the floor as early as Tuesday, saying veterans “shouldn’t have to fight a second war here at home just to get the health care benefits they rightfully deserve.” And Republicans — facing extraordinary pressure from the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Wounded Warrior Project and other groups — are signaling that they will be on board this time.
posted by Iris Gambol at 10:03 PM on August 2, 2022 [4 favorites]


The veterans camped out on the steps outside the Senate all weekend, braving the heat, the humidity and occasional thunderstorms and sleeping on the hard concrete stairs.
I think this had a lot to do with it. I can confirm as a member of various veteran groups, I got the “come pull fire watch on the steps” email. Nobody wants another Bonus March.
posted by corb at 2:20 AM on August 3, 2022 [4 favorites]




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