American English reading practice: John McCain, Trump, and torture

Afin de travailler votre amerloque, voilà un reportage sur la torture, John McCain, et Trump.  On débute avec du vocabulaire, et puis je vous invite à suivre le lien vers l‘article dans son intégralité.

For more on a proud US military veteran’s opposition to Trump’s immoral ideas about torture, see this post.  Do you have corrections for my crappy French?  The Comments section awaits you.

Speaking out on torture and a Trump nominee, ailing McCain roils Washington

to speak out: to say something by way of a public statement, typically criticizing something.  Note that the preposition here is on, but it could also be about, and possibly others.

ailing: sick.  If English had the concept of langage soutenu, this would be soutenu, like many of the words in this article.

to roil: to stir up, to disturb, to put in a state of disorder (see Merriam-Webster, sense 2)

Sen. John McCain is 2,200 miles from Washington and hasn’t been on Capitol Hill in five months, but he showed this week that he remains a potent force in national politics and a polarizing figure within the Republican Party.

potent: powerful

polarizing: “to break up into opposing factions or groupings: a campaign that polarized the electorate” (Merriam-Webster, sense 3). Today’s Republican Party can generally be divided into people who like McCain, a war hero and basically OK guy right up to his recent death–versus immoral shitbags who cravenly support Trump no matter how low he stoops into the mud.  Thus: he’s a polarizing figure within the party.

But his declaration Wednesday in opposition to Gina Haspel, President Trump’s nominee for CIA director, has uniquely roiled the political scene. The denunciation has prompted reactions from fellow senators and a former vice president, as well as intemperate remarks from some Republicans aligned with Trump, including a White House aide.

It has revived the fierce debate over torture and its effectiveness in extracting information in the years since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks — from a man who speaks from experience. McCain was held for 5½ years in a North Vietnamese prison, often deprived of sleep, food and medical care, after a jet he piloted was shot down over Hanoi.