THE GOP'S DECLARATION OF WAR

“Ni Shagu Nazad.”

That was Stalin’s order to the Red Army in World War II: “Not one step back.” He enforced the rule with battalions of NKVD goons behind every Red Army battle formation; goons with orders to shoot anyone they found “malingering” and not advancing with the rest, regardless of the odds in the specific event.

That is the policy of today’s Republican Party. Regardless of results in any election, the cause of any Republican defeat has nothing to do with the unpalatibility of the programs they present as the future if they are in power, the programs that keep leading to their defeats in 2018, 2020, 2022 and now 2023.

“Not One Step Back.”

Despite the whacking the Republicans took in Ohio in the fight over abortion and the campaign to legalize recreational use of marijuana, Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman, has a full list of changes he wants to make: "This statute was written by the marijuana industry and should not be treated as a cash grab for their cash crop at the expense of a state trying to emerge from the opioid epidemic. The General Assembly may consider amending the statute to clarify the questionable language regarding limits for THC and tax rates as well as other parts of the statute."

Huffman and Ohio House Speaker Jason Stephens issued a similar warning about the abortion amendment, even though repealing a constitutional amendment is hard once it's on the books. Both supported the failed effort in August to make it harder to change the constitution, by changing the number to pass from a majority of 50.1% to a super majority of 60%, which was specifically aimed to thwart the abortion amendment.

Ohio House Speaker Stephens said yesterday that Tuesday's vote isn't the end of the conversation: "The legislature has multiple paths that we will explore to continue to protect innocent life."

Huffman suggested voters could see abortion issues on the ballot again in the future. "Life is worth fighting for. As a grandparent of eight, the life of a baby is always worth the fight. The national abortion industry funded by wealthy out-of-state special interests spent millions to pass this radical language that goes far past abortion on demand. This isn't the end. It is really just the beginning of a revolving door of ballot campaigns to repeal or replace Issue 1."

In Florida, Judge Lucy Cannon is working to insure that in the trial she is overseeing the American public doesn’t learn that - while in office - Trump spilled highly classified intelligence to Russians in the Oval Office, that he tweeted out a classified spy satellite photo; that later, as a private citizen, he showed what he called a “highly confidential” secret Iran attack plan to a writer and publisher at his golf club in Bedminster. That he allegedly disclosed highly sensitive information about U.S. nuclear submarines to an Australian billionaire at Mar-a-Lago who then spread it to scores of others. The last thing this “judge” and the rest of the Trumpscum want is for it to finally sink to the American public in that Trump kept 100-plus secret classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, including in a bathroom and on a stage, even after authorities asked for their return.

The in-the-bag media doesn’t go far out of their way to let voters know that last month, Trump boasted on the campaign trail about threatening to abandon NATO’s mutual protection commitment, even if Russia attacked a NATO member; that he’s treating convicted January 6th insurrectionists as patriotic heroes and talks repeatedly about pardons for all or most of them.

The mainstream media might let a report out that last week in the Senate, Republicans themselves began confronting the intolerable, dangerous and ongoing betrayal of the United States by some of their colleagues, that by this coming December - next month! - 89% of all general officer positions in the US military will have been effected by Tuberville’s blockade.

The Tuberville blockade has to be understood as part of what appears to be a coordinated campaign to undermine the United States and our democracy in a time of rising global instability and challenge.

Right now Republicans are:

Blocking hundreds of Pentagon appointees, weakening our military and encouraging our adversaries to challenge us across the world.

Blocking over 60 State Department appointments, including 37 Ambassadorships and the Ambassadors to Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon. Makes is far harder to achieve diplomatic solutions to our global challenges.

Blocking critical cybersecurity legislation, turning off a DHS program called Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS), and are now working to terminate DHS programs to counter use of drones by terrorists here in the US and the office which works to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction against the American people.

Blocking appointments of U.S. Attorneys, as a way of weakening the Department of Justice and the rule of law more broadly.

Fighting additional aid to Ukraine, once again appeasing Putin and enabling Ukrainian genocide; holding hostage aid to Israel.

There’s practically no talk of their threat to once again shut down the American government a week from tomorrow night

What they’re about is clear when they elevate Insurrectionists, including a man who was one of the primary architects of the effort to overturn the 2020 Presidential election and end American democracy to be the Speaker of the House of Representatives, second in line of succession to the president

They aren’t meeting in dark alleys or holding their conspiratorial meetings in candlelit basement rooms where the door is only opened to a knock in the proper code. The conspire in public and hold press conferences to announce their accomplishments and what’s next.

When he was interviewed Tuesday night about the election on Fox News and Newsmax, Scott Perry, chairman of the House Fweedumb Kawkuss, appeared coatless, wearing a lavender-colored shirt and a pale yellow tie. Where have we seen those fashion choices before? Jim Jordan may not have been elected Speaker, but “Jordanism” is on display throughout the House Republican Caucus.

On Newsmax Tuesday night, former Senator Rick Santorum also announced the Republican position on elections when he said that we can’t have all these popular measures on the ballot to be decided by the voters. “Thank goodness that most of the states in this country don’t allow you to put everything on the ballot, because pure democracies are not the way to run a country.”

And if “pure democracy” is allowed to work, Republicans will start the day after to work and find a way to subvert, revise, or revoke the result if it’s not what they want.

“Ni Shagu Nazad.”

Not. One. Step. Back.

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