Showing posts with label Tuberville. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tuberville. Show all posts

Saturday, December 16, 2023

Now the House crazies are pulling a Tuberville

The irresponsible," we don't care about national security matters", wing of the GOP House is now pulling a Tuberville, holding a national security matter hostage to their hardline, extremist demands on the southern border to satisfy their fear of national contamination by immigrants. It has nothing to do about choosing between two budget line items. . It is about a political stunt..  We need to give this kind of action a name..and it is Tubervilling.  Sen. Tuberville's actions were considered silly and finally self-defeating, a stunt to make sure his constituents knew he was hard-core anti-abortion, but our military suffered.  In this House case, an issue vital to our national security is at stake: Ukraine's ability to hold the line against Russian imperial aggression.

A footnote: I used the term "House Crazies" to describe this hard-core radical right-wingers in the current US Congress.  In Colorado, the term House Crazies originated in the 1970s and was applied to a similar group of fanatical right-wingers in the state legislature. The current group is a reincarnation of the Colorado version, just as obstructive, destructive, attention-grabbing, off-the-charts right-wing ideologues and irresponsible in their political maneuvering.  The most famous of the Colorado House Crazies of the 1970s was Anne Gorsuch, mother of the current Supreme Court Justice, Neil Gorsuch..  https://www.denverpost.com/2017/03/19/neil-gorsuch-anne-burford-colorado/

From my November  7 blog posting on Tuberville's shenanigans. :

The GOP  Senators demanding policy changes to border policy as a condition of aid to Ukraine is an outrage and dangerous to our national security interests.. It is the latest example of the Senate holding national security interests hostage to their directly unrelated priorities, even though the majority of them support Ukraine's war..  Their inability to deal with Sen. Tuberville holding up military and diplomatic post approvals until his version of anti-abortion law is adopted is another example of GOP hostage taking. .. The House Speaker backs  GOP hostage-taking of demanding a cut in IRS funding before approving aid to  Ukraine.  This is nuts. It may be good politics and strategy, but it is a stupid way to make public policy.  National security and defense are at stake and should be considered on its merits, not tied to unrelated issues. That the GOP playing politics with it is a shocker: What is being hurt by this strategy once was the top priority of the GOP: national defense and national security. The GOP were the hawks in our very recent history. Now, strangely enough, the Democrats and the GOP have changed places.  Biden was wise to include in his funding proposal not only aid to Ukraine and Israel but also address GOP wishes on added compliance to existing laws to border security funding and more attention to the potential aggression of China in increasing military aid to Taiwan. This is the GOP response? It is the height of irresponsibility.  Ronald Reagan just turned over in his grave.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/senate-republicans-outline-border-security-measures-they-want-as-a-condition-for-aiding-ukraine/ar-AA1juDlU?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=DCTS&cvid=091c13eef49040b8d67949766e74ba88&ei=1W 



Friday, December 15, 2023

Why US Orban and Putin lovers are delusional and and how they are dangerous

 The mutual support and admiration society of US, Orban, and Putin lovers have a familiar ring. It is part of the same anti-democracy movement that permeates MAGA, and it starts with Donald Trump.  It is coming to a head with aid to Ukraine as House members and some Senators are whining; why doesn't Europe do more or let us just let them rot.  Yesterday, Orban of Hungry, the darling of CPAC, Trump, and the crazed MAGAs in Congress, revealed himself as a bonafide ally of Russia. Orban yesterday successfully blocked EU aid to Ukraine, just as the anti-democracy elements in Congress have done it so far by pulling a Tuberville, using an unrelated domestic issue of anti-immigrations on the Southern Border., They obviously do not care much for American national security with their irresponsible disregard,  using threats to undermine our national security as a tool to score points against Biden and his agenda and to promote Trump's attempt to get a second term...   Putin is just waiting for MAGA.Trump to get elected so they will do what he has been able to do: defeat the independence and pro-democracy war efforts in Ukraine and to absorb Ukraine eventually into Russia, having eliminated any viable opposition and with the knowledge the US will no longer come to Ukraine's defense.  Next are the Baltics. . There is already so much evidence of what each one of these participants in this axis of Putin lovers within the US and abroad want that they present both a threat to domestic pro-democracy and national security interests.,  Hungary blocks €50bn of EU funding for Ukraine (bbc.com)

.  This is so similar to 1938-1941 it should be instructive of what a loser this MAGA/isolationist/America First is. Making America weak again is no protection from empire-building dictators.  We know how that turned out.  It is not unlike the leadup to Pearl Harbor, so richly described by Rachel Maddow's recent book" Prequel," with allies of Htiler in the US as part of NAZI wannabes, agents, American Firsters, German-loving, and FDR haters did to keep the US out of the war in Europe during Hitler's march Poland, blitzing England, grabbing Sudetenland, and Poland. They succeeded...until Germany declared war on the United States.  The weakness of the US to keep on top of national security and defense protection against potential aggressive enemies also led to Pearl Harbor.  Before we knew it, we were fighting a two-front World War.   Appeasement of the US fascist sympathizers,, and appeasers in the US was what Hitler counted on to keep the US out of Europe, and with Pearl Harbor, he mistakenly calculated the US was too weak in both mind, will, and resources to fight back in a war with both Pacific and Atlantic theaters. 

We are in danger of leading Putin down an illusional primrose path to his easy reassembling of the old USSR empire. The only difference is Putin is not advocating Marxism but Russian ultra-nationalism and a dictatorship that oppresses opposition, destroys smaller countries' independence to govern themselves and achieve their own prosperity, eliminates opposition press,  and protects the wealth and interests of the powerful, using force, assassination, and imprisonment as their tools.  It is a recipe for years of violence, conflict, and bloody revolt.

  It is the ultimate stupidity for this minority of anti-democracy MAGAs to do what they are doing and, likewise, the ignorance and wrong-headedness of their supporters. This is undermining American national security interests that will eventually lead to the US being involved directly with not only contributions of treasure but also the loss of our own blood.  History will come back and bite us in the rump. 

 Dictator Putin has made it his goal to reassemble the empire that was once USSR .. His ultra-nationalism has Russian mass support.  That wannabe dictator Trump has made it clear he will end aid to Ukraine and just hand it on a silver platter to Russia, and Putin just has to hold on long enough of the trench warfare there until Trump gets his hands on the Oval Office. Putin will then be free to roll across their former satellites in Eastern Europe. because he will be under the impression no one will stop him. Putin’s plan for a new Russian Empire includes both Ukraine and Belarus - Atlantic Council    To think otherwise, you are kidding yourself.

 This sabotaging Ukraine aid is because a small group of self-aggrandizing,  delusional, and isolationist politicians want to score anti-Biden points. They have figured out a strategy to do it in the face of much larger bi-partisan support of Ukraine. The Tuberville strategy of holding national security interests hostage to anti-abortion policy is working here, too.  The pro-Putin/Orban fawners are using immigration/southern border policies to hold hostage further Ukraine support. They are tail-wagging the dog, and they are the greatest danger to our national security interests that exist at the moment, with actions that will make America look weaker again, encouraging an empire-building Putin to continue his march into the rest of Eastern Europe.  The difference is that Biden appears ready to "compromise" on border policy; the goal is shared: getting those who truly are seeking refuge from home country oppression separated from those who are seeking a better economic future, as the current law requires..

  The main difference on immigration between Biden and Trump/MAGA, though, is humane treatment, not putting "illegals" in concentration camps, deporting them even if kids and spouses are "documented" and they have been living here,  otherwise being law-abiding, for years. Trump's Orban-like attitude toward immigrants is the same that fueled that Hungarian dictator Orban to power in the face of Syrian refugees, that Immigrants need to be stopped from coming into the US because they are: poisoning our blood'. That is a racist bullhorn worthy of Hitler's fascists. Trump's anti-immigrant comments draw rebuke | CNN Politics    

A word to those on the left from one who is hardly viewed as right-wing on civil rights and domestic issues. This initiative from the extremists on the right has nothing to do with the immorality of war; it is a political strategy to give them more power and an anti-democratic ideology. Playing their game of Putin love/isolationist/ appeasement will only lead to the possibility of getting ourselves involved in a hotter, wider war, not with a proxy like Ukraine, but actively ourselves. If we reduce our defense budget by the 10% Ukraine is costing us, do you really think the savings will be applied to domestic social programs instead of reducing taxes on the rich?    Do not be played.  The reason we are in this position now is because of a power-mad hyper-nationalist Putin, determined to recreate an empire they lost in ending the Cold War.


 

Tuesday, November 7, 2023

Holding national security hostage to unrelated legislation: Irresponsible games the GOP plays

The GOP  Senators demanding policy changes to border policy as a condition of aid to Ukraine is an outrage and dangerous to our national security interests.. It is the latest example of the Senate holding national security interests hostage to their directly unrelated priorities, even though the majority of them support Ukraine's war..  Their inability to deal with Sen. Tuberville holding up military and diplomatic post approvals until his version of anti-abortion law is adopted is another example of GOP hostage taking. .. The House Speaker backs  GOP hostage-taking of demanding a cut in IRS funding before approving aid to  Ukraine.  This is nuts. It may be good politics and strategy, but it is a stupid way to make public policy.  National security and defense are at stake and should be considered on its merits, not tied to unrelated issues. That the GOP playing politics with it is a shocker: What is being hurt by this strategy once was the top priority of the GOP: national defense and national security. The GOP were the hawks in our very recent history. Now, strangely enough, the Democrats and the GOP have changed places.  Biden was wise to include in his funding proposal not only aid to Ukraine and Israel but also address GOP wishes on added compliance to existing laws to border security funding and more attention to the potential aggression of China in increasing military aid to Taiwan. This is the GOP response? It is the height of irresponsibility.  Ronald Reagan just turned over in his grave.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/senate-republicans-outline-border-security-measures-they-want-as-a-condition-for-aiding-ukraine/ar-AA1juDlU?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=DCTS&cvid=091c13eef49040b8d67949766e74ba88&ei=1W