I am no hawk, but from the moment Putin's army lined up at the border and insisted they were just there for exercises, I believed we needed to be ready to hit that invasion hard. When we played around sending our out dated equipment, and not enough of that, and when we refused to send planes or several of the most effective items on Ukraine's need list, I believed we were missing an opportunity to stop Russia before they got further, dug in, wore Ukraine's infrastructure down... It's like we just gave Ukraine enough to defend themselves but not enough to win. I read that the cost of American support to Ukraine was about what Americans spend on junk food in a year. We had no sense of proportion. And now we are dropping them on their asses in their hour of greatest need.
I read a fascinating analysis that said Ukraine started off well because they innovate from the bottom up and innovations spread as the advantages are recognized, but that innovations are recognized across the battle lines as well and are spread from the top down in the Russian military. Top down innovation is less nimble and effective, but more quickly applied. As the shock of discovering themselves less potent than they imagined has worn off the Russian military system, the strategically more effective top down approach coupled with more intact increasingly more militarized infrastructure has gained over the more innovative bottom up approach which had the initial tactical advantage.
It has been said before that either we fight Russia with Ukrainian blood and American arms, or we fight it later with American blood and American arms, at much higher costs. What is not usually said is that we will also be fighting a better trained, hardened reorganized Russian army outfitted with updated equipment and many hard learned lessons in modern warfare. When you fight an infection you take your full dose for the full course of the prescription. When you take a half dose and quit before the full ten days, you risk breeding a super bug. I'm afraid that is what we are doing now. We are breeding a super bug to unleash on our children. It scares me, it saddens me, and it makes me furious.
The analogy is spot on. The MAGAts are not only evil, they are stupid. Although I’m increasingly led to wonder if they have been paid off so as not to oppose Russian hegemony over Europe.
I agree, but I also wish Ukraine had taken the war into Russia rather than fighting a totally defensive war. (There was an early midscale exodus of Russians from Russia early on after the invasion because such a response was feared.) Ukraine has sent missiles in here and there to hit select targets, but there's been no follow-up, probably because of a lack of suitable armaments, as you've pointed out.
I also believe we along with others in the international community, in an excess (IMHO a misguided excess) of political caution, pushed Ukraine not to shoot over the border in order to pull the teeth of any claims Russia was defending itself... a claim they began the whole thing with anyway. Also, I'm pretty sure I recall that we stipulated that none of our missals or other arms were used across the border into Russia to avoid Moscow being able to make the claim that we/America was firing on them. We believed it would be more likely to lead to direct war with Russia and/or WWIII. Of course, they have been calling it our proxy war all along, too.
Yes, Judith! That is exactly why. Because of their lack of material resources, Putin expected to quickly overrun Ukraine's defenses. But a wealth of courage and determination have sustained their resistance for two years, along with American and EU military assistance.
Now aid from the U.S. has been choked off by MAGA extremists, in defiance of the will of a clear majority in both Houses of Congress. The threat to Ukraine is dire and immediate. There's no time to waste bickering over details of a sham immigration reform bill. The aid package needs to be passed now. Every day counts.
Everyone reading this can help by calling your Representative and urge them to immediately pass the combined aid package on its own. If you don't know their number, call the U S Capitol switchboard (202) 224-3121.
For more information, and more phone numbers to call, please visit www.FeathersOfHope.net
A long slow agonizing death. As always, Tom, a well crafted essay. We better start swimin' or we'll sink like a stone, because the times they are......
Sorry, but I think the party entered hospice care when Dwight Eisenhower caved in to Joe McCarthy requesting that he not defend George Marshall when campaigning for the ticket in Wisconsin in 1952, and died when Barry Goldwater got the nomination. Since then, it has been a chicken with its head cut off.
Anyone who votes for Trump or Republican candidates is voting eventually to send American troops to Europe to fight Russian troops in NATO countries. If we let Ukraine go, Putin will decide he can invade Europe itself and we will do nothing. Sic transit gloria indeed.....
To be charitable, what the GOP has done to itself is classic tragedy. Hubris and ambition warped it, and it is dead.
“But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” (James 1:14-15.)
“Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them.” - Barry Goldwater.
Well, you old rotting corpse, you're prophetic prediction came to reality.
I may have told you this before, Tom, but my father was a lifelong Republican...until Trump hit the scene, and he saw early on that things were "rotten in Denmark" and changed his voter registration to Democrat, because he said "I fought in 2 wars for this nation and I believed I was doing the right thing. This man is destroying that nation and I cannot continue to support a party that supports him." Because he lived in OK, he had to declare his party in order to vote. So, when he died one day shy of his 99th birthday in 2022, it was as a Democrat.
What hold does Trump have over all these Republicans that keeps them from being representatives of the people who put them in office? Have they totally forgotten those people and what they want? Do the phone calls, texts, emails an letters mean nothing to them? All Trump wants is the power; he doesn't care about the people in Congress. They are tools to get him what he wants and nothing more. I guess they can't see that, either.
For those who do not subscribe to the NY Times, Tom Friedman has an excellent essay on our RCBs* you might want to see - we really are about to step in the oom-pah.....
The magas are the new Know Nothing Do Nothing party. Their cowardice before a venomous serpent is a national disgrace. One can only hope the American Eagle electorate will do what it's capable of doing and did in 2020 and overpower the maga snake because it's unlikely the SCOTUS will do their jobs in interpreting the 14th Amendment just as the KNDN party is failing to do theirs.
Note: Here in Michigan the GOP is broke and in total disarray. The DeVos money isn't flowing the way it used to. It warms my heart.
Yay, Michigan! I can't believe I am applauding the DeVoses, but their withdrawal from funding our state's now shattered Republican party could have a domino affect with financial warlords in other states.
It gives me no joy to agree with you Tom. I’d held on to the slim hope that the Senate would pass the bill and put enough pressure on the House to eventually pass. Increasingly the opposition is becoming unrecognizable as loyal Americans. No more John McCain’s to stop the madness. Instead they have become the enemy within.
There's a real good article in today's WaPo about Republican fear that if they don't surrender completely they will be targets in Trump's retribution campaign.
Thanks for this Tom, the MSM is finally beginning to tell the truth about Trump, better late than never. Until similar reports show up on Fox or News Max, however, half of America will remain clueless. And these are not just political threats, many are actual death threats. One small glimmer of hope is today’s DC appeals court ruling that Trump is NOT immune from prosecution.
my opinion for a long time has been that there is going to be bad trouble with this election. I mean PHYSICALLY. I knew it a good two weeks before the 2020 election and it was pretty obvious it was going to be on January 6th.
the trouble this time feels much more vague and amorphous. if Biden wins, there's gonna be the same trouble (although TFF no longer CONTROLS anything except his army of morons with automatic weapons). a genuine, better-planned siege and god knows what. and as you've said several times, WE would have the better weapons, but are those weapons really appropriate for a civil war that's not defined by any geographical?
there's a big essay by Sean Wilentz in the latest NYRB in which he makes a solid, angry case for the Disqualification Clause to be invoked. in his case, it means something because Wilentz is one of the more careful, conservative (in the best sense) of the left-wing historians of my generation. in my own case, two other things make me like Shawn Wilentz. the first is that his dad owned the best of all NYC bookstores and the second is that he's the officially appointed Bob Dylan Historian. let me try to post the link, again praying there's no paywall.
he's quite correct to say that a lot of talk against using the Disqualification Clause by people who should know better is their fear of the violence that would occur. I was, I confess, a little bit on THAT chickenshit side until I read this. isn't it best to have the bad shit NOW? it's gonna be a lot stronger when (and if) The Loser once again LOSES. I realize this is a terrible thing to say, but these are terrible times.
The interesting thing about this is whether Republican VOTERS (excluding MAGATS) will think this is a good idea. Every Dem down to dogcatcher candidate needs to howl about this: "You, voters, wanted something done about immigration. Congress proposed something. The GOP leaders refused and could give no reasons besides wanting to keep you in fear. "
I was specific about "excluding MAGATS." I'm talking about "legacy" republicans (if it was good enough for granddad it's good enough for me) and those "one-issue" abortion voters whose issue has been "addressed" by Dobbs. There are no moderate Republicans in federal OFFICE any more. I think there well may be within the voting population. We always need to make that distinction.
And that, kids, is how milquetoast Senators representing smaller populations of ignorant, radicalized red states, abuse our democracy with their disproportionate voting power. Recess!
Now that the Russian assets in Congress have fully revealed themselves and publicly announced their allegiance to Dear Leader, might we hope that President Biden can find a work around...such as unfreezing Putin's accounts and sending that $ to Ukraine?
I am no hawk, but from the moment Putin's army lined up at the border and insisted they were just there for exercises, I believed we needed to be ready to hit that invasion hard. When we played around sending our out dated equipment, and not enough of that, and when we refused to send planes or several of the most effective items on Ukraine's need list, I believed we were missing an opportunity to stop Russia before they got further, dug in, wore Ukraine's infrastructure down... It's like we just gave Ukraine enough to defend themselves but not enough to win. I read that the cost of American support to Ukraine was about what Americans spend on junk food in a year. We had no sense of proportion. And now we are dropping them on their asses in their hour of greatest need.
I read a fascinating analysis that said Ukraine started off well because they innovate from the bottom up and innovations spread as the advantages are recognized, but that innovations are recognized across the battle lines as well and are spread from the top down in the Russian military. Top down innovation is less nimble and effective, but more quickly applied. As the shock of discovering themselves less potent than they imagined has worn off the Russian military system, the strategically more effective top down approach coupled with more intact increasingly more militarized infrastructure has gained over the more innovative bottom up approach which had the initial tactical advantage.
It has been said before that either we fight Russia with Ukrainian blood and American arms, or we fight it later with American blood and American arms, at much higher costs. What is not usually said is that we will also be fighting a better trained, hardened reorganized Russian army outfitted with updated equipment and many hard learned lessons in modern warfare. When you fight an infection you take your full dose for the full course of the prescription. When you take a half dose and quit before the full ten days, you risk breeding a super bug. I'm afraid that is what we are doing now. We are breeding a super bug to unleash on our children. It scares me, it saddens me, and it makes me furious.
The analogy is spot on. The MAGAts are not only evil, they are stupid. Although I’m increasingly led to wonder if they have been paid off so as not to oppose Russian hegemony over Europe.
In rubles.
Because they're too stupid to insist on dollars.
Hah!
I agree, but I also wish Ukraine had taken the war into Russia rather than fighting a totally defensive war. (There was an early midscale exodus of Russians from Russia early on after the invasion because such a response was feared.) Ukraine has sent missiles in here and there to hit select targets, but there's been no follow-up, probably because of a lack of suitable armaments, as you've pointed out.
I also believe we along with others in the international community, in an excess (IMHO a misguided excess) of political caution, pushed Ukraine not to shoot over the border in order to pull the teeth of any claims Russia was defending itself... a claim they began the whole thing with anyway. Also, I'm pretty sure I recall that we stipulated that none of our missals or other arms were used across the border into Russia to avoid Moscow being able to make the claim that we/America was firing on them. We believed it would be more likely to lead to direct war with Russia and/or WWIII. Of course, they have been calling it our proxy war all along, too.
Yes, Judith! That is exactly why. Because of their lack of material resources, Putin expected to quickly overrun Ukraine's defenses. But a wealth of courage and determination have sustained their resistance for two years, along with American and EU military assistance.
Now aid from the U.S. has been choked off by MAGA extremists, in defiance of the will of a clear majority in both Houses of Congress. The threat to Ukraine is dire and immediate. There's no time to waste bickering over details of a sham immigration reform bill. The aid package needs to be passed now. Every day counts.
Everyone reading this can help by calling your Representative and urge them to immediately pass the combined aid package on its own. If you don't know their number, call the U S Capitol switchboard (202) 224-3121.
For more information, and more phone numbers to call, please visit www.FeathersOfHope.net
.
A long slow agonizing death. As always, Tom, a well crafted essay. We better start swimin' or we'll sink like a stone, because the times they are......
Sorry, but I think the party entered hospice care when Dwight Eisenhower caved in to Joe McCarthy requesting that he not defend George Marshall when campaigning for the ticket in Wisconsin in 1952, and died when Barry Goldwater got the nomination. Since then, it has been a chicken with its head cut off.
There's certainly grounds for that analysis. However, like the Roman Republic, the Republican Party spent a long time in that hospice.
The last headless chicken is McConnel
Or at least when Margaret Chase Smith was defeated in 1972.
Anyone who votes for Trump or Republican candidates is voting eventually to send American troops to Europe to fight Russian troops in NATO countries. If we let Ukraine go, Putin will decide he can invade Europe itself and we will do nothing. Sic transit gloria indeed.....
To be charitable, what the GOP has done to itself is classic tragedy. Hubris and ambition warped it, and it is dead.
“But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” (James 1:14-15.)
Will the corpse turn out to be their own Frankenstein , or a blood sucking vampire. It will resurrect in some form. Hate is hard to kill.
“Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them.” - Barry Goldwater.
Well, you old rotting corpse, you're prophetic prediction came to reality.
I may have told you this before, Tom, but my father was a lifelong Republican...until Trump hit the scene, and he saw early on that things were "rotten in Denmark" and changed his voter registration to Democrat, because he said "I fought in 2 wars for this nation and I believed I was doing the right thing. This man is destroying that nation and I cannot continue to support a party that supports him." Because he lived in OK, he had to declare his party in order to vote. So, when he died one day shy of his 99th birthday in 2022, it was as a Democrat.
What hold does Trump have over all these Republicans that keeps them from being representatives of the people who put them in office? Have they totally forgotten those people and what they want? Do the phone calls, texts, emails an letters mean nothing to them? All Trump wants is the power; he doesn't care about the people in Congress. They are tools to get him what he wants and nothing more. I guess they can't see that, either.
God help us...
I'm not religious, but that quote GaryInSanDiego put up from James about how sin is created seems very apt to me in explaining this phenomenon.
For those who do not subscribe to the NY Times, Tom Friedman has an excellent essay on our RCBs* you might want to see - we really are about to step in the oom-pah.....
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/06/opinion/immigration-senate-house.html?te=1&nl=thomas-friedman&emc=edit_nttf_20240206
(RCBs = Republican Commie Bastards)
Gifted:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/06/opinion/immigration-senate-house.html?unlocked_article_code=1.TU0.tesj.PxkY6Ch31SPm&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Thank you for sharing. Dear God, this is frightening!
"Remember this week, folks — because historians surely will."
The magas are the new Know Nothing Do Nothing party. Their cowardice before a venomous serpent is a national disgrace. One can only hope the American Eagle electorate will do what it's capable of doing and did in 2020 and overpower the maga snake because it's unlikely the SCOTUS will do their jobs in interpreting the 14th Amendment just as the KNDN party is failing to do theirs.
Note: Here in Michigan the GOP is broke and in total disarray. The DeVos money isn't flowing the way it used to. It warms my heart.
Yay, Michigan! I can't believe I am applauding the DeVoses, but their withdrawal from funding our state's now shattered Republican party could have a domino affect with financial warlords in other states.
It gives me no joy to agree with you Tom. I’d held on to the slim hope that the Senate would pass the bill and put enough pressure on the House to eventually pass. Increasingly the opposition is becoming unrecognizable as loyal Americans. No more John McCain’s to stop the madness. Instead they have become the enemy within.
There's a real good article in today's WaPo about Republican fear that if they don't surrender completely they will be targets in Trump's retribution campaign.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/06/trump-revenge-republicans/
Thanks for this Tom, the MSM is finally beginning to tell the truth about Trump, better late than never. Until similar reports show up on Fox or News Max, however, half of America will remain clueless. And these are not just political threats, many are actual death threats. One small glimmer of hope is today’s DC appeals court ruling that Trump is NOT immune from prosecution.
The bully still controls. Didn’t these fools learn anything in middle school.
my opinion for a long time has been that there is going to be bad trouble with this election. I mean PHYSICALLY. I knew it a good two weeks before the 2020 election and it was pretty obvious it was going to be on January 6th.
the trouble this time feels much more vague and amorphous. if Biden wins, there's gonna be the same trouble (although TFF no longer CONTROLS anything except his army of morons with automatic weapons). a genuine, better-planned siege and god knows what. and as you've said several times, WE would have the better weapons, but are those weapons really appropriate for a civil war that's not defined by any geographical?
there's a big essay by Sean Wilentz in the latest NYRB in which he makes a solid, angry case for the Disqualification Clause to be invoked. in his case, it means something because Wilentz is one of the more careful, conservative (in the best sense) of the left-wing historians of my generation. in my own case, two other things make me like Shawn Wilentz. the first is that his dad owned the best of all NYC bookstores and the second is that he's the officially appointed Bob Dylan Historian. let me try to post the link, again praying there's no paywall.
he's quite correct to say that a lot of talk against using the Disqualification Clause by people who should know better is their fear of the violence that would occur. I was, I confess, a little bit on THAT chickenshit side until I read this. isn't it best to have the bad shit NOW? it's gonna be a lot stronger when (and if) The Loser once again LOSES. I realize this is a terrible thing to say, but these are terrible times.
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2024/02/22/the-case-for-disqualification-trump-sean-wilentz/
for TCinLA
Writers illuminate,
the shadows
where power lies hidden,
they shine.
Their words
forge connections,
bridging divides,
My admiration swells,
as they articulate
the unspoken,
revealing through the
veil of politics,
truths
that demand attention.
Could their revelations
guide us through the fog?
We hope. But I doubt it - things would be easier if they did.
Don’t underestimate your powerful words.
Oh, they'll affect people. Whether a larger result is the unknowable.
The interesting thing about this is whether Republican VOTERS (excluding MAGATS) will think this is a good idea. Every Dem down to dogcatcher candidate needs to howl about this: "You, voters, wanted something done about immigration. Congress proposed something. The GOP leaders refused and could give no reasons besides wanting to keep you in fear. "
Unfortunately I am sure that if Trump Wants It, then They Will Believe It.
I was specific about "excluding MAGATS." I'm talking about "legacy" republicans (if it was good enough for granddad it's good enough for me) and those "one-issue" abortion voters whose issue has been "addressed" by Dobbs. There are no moderate Republicans in federal OFFICE any more. I think there well may be within the voting population. We always need to make that distinction.
They all have been convinced that Dems are the worst choice, propaganda is powerful and smart is not immune
They have signed their death warrant at the polls.
Hopefully - if we work our tails off.
And that, kids, is how milquetoast Senators representing smaller populations of ignorant, radicalized red states, abuse our democracy with their disproportionate voting power. Recess!
Now that the Russian assets in Congress have fully revealed themselves and publicly announced their allegiance to Dear Leader, might we hope that President Biden can find a work around...such as unfreezing Putin's accounts and sending that $ to Ukraine?
Oh, please