For the last 60 years or so, the Republican party had the issue of defense all to itself. It began during the Vietnam years, when Democrats slowly became the anti-war party (most of them, anyway), leaving the door wide open for Republicans to declare themselves pro-military, pro-defense, pro-anything that shot bullets or floated or flew or blasted off and blew stuff up. They lavished money on the defense budget, raising it every year, often voting more than the Pentagon requested, building ships the Navy didn’t want, giving the Air Force more fighters than they asked for, and catering to every Army request for upgrades of their weapons. Republicans even made room for the special needs of the Marines, such as modifying F-35 jets so that they take off and land vertically, even when the modifications made that massively costly weapons system unnecessarily complicated and more expensive.
I am of the opinion that there is method to the Republican madness. Either they are tacitly supporting Tubes' quest to keep those positions open so that a future President-for-Life Trump can fill them with MAGA loyalists or Republicans are tacitly supporting Tubes' quest to rid the military of women. I think it's time for Biden and Schumer to start rattling cages about recommended base closures. And for Austin and the new JCS chief to start making plans to move personnel out of bases in Alabama to points elsewhere. They could also stop awarding shipbuilding contracts to shipyards in Mobile and moving that work to Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Maine.
I shouldn't even start I'm so angry and disgusted and horrified and all of that. Until Tuberville came along, Ron Johnson was the dumbest damned Senator in Washington. Tuberville has that glazed over look of stupidity I've come to think I see in all the far right Republicans out there today. He is an unadulterated, undeniable, blatant, overt and idiotic racist and a freaking high-level putrid misogynist who thinks women should not be in the military, much less have healthcare. Nobody likes Tuberville except the worst among us. I was born and raised in Alabama. Even in the 40s and 50s, we knew we were considered low down on the totem pole and a friend of mine about 20 years ago thought all the roads there were dirt roads. They might as well be. You can spiff some things up to their highest level but you can't take the dumb racist out of the dumbest people in the country and Alabama may just be number one on that, though Florida, Tennessee and Texas are vying for the spot.
When I was a kid, my father (WWII noncom, served in North Africa and Italy) taught me a song he used to sing in the army. To the tune of "Mademoiselle from Armentières," it started "Mississippi's a helluva state, parlez-vous" and concluded "Mississippi's a helluva state, a**hole of the forty-eight." We've had 50 states for decades, but as far as I can tell, Mississippi is still in the running.
I became a Republican even before I could vote in 1976 because I believed that they represented patriotism and protecting the country. After my tour in Iraq I came home to the lies of the GOP and the nomination of Sarah Palin. I left the GOP in 2008 because I saw the trajectory they were on. Your article is spot on. They have become the anti-American democracy party and the supporters of the most evil autocrats in the world while attacking us at home. They do not support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, because they are both.
In 1976 the GOP was no longer associating themselves with Ike. He was the last Republican who put this nation and her good people ahead of party. All others since were engaged in performative political theater (with a few notable exceptions, Chuck Hagel-William Cohen) spewing hollow platitudes re: natsec and patriotism.
It was back in the late 60s and early 70s when they began a messaging campaign to demonize liberals and Democrats. The next step was foreseeable, dehumanizing all others that were not Rs/cons.
Agree, Ir shoulda been a wake up call for those still wed to the idea the GOP was all about law and order, natsec, and patriotism. Their idea of law and order was Torture by Memo, natsec attacking a sovereign country cuz Jr. Cheney and Rummie had a feather across their ass re; Saddam, and patriotism to them was a fucking flag pin on their labe and Freedumb Friesl rather than in one's mind, heart, and soul for others to proclaim, never self.
They conned millions with their messaging and advancement of fallacies. Something Trump immediately recognized and took full advantage of and still does.
True, all true -- but in New England (where I grew up), Republicans remained relatively reasonable until fairly recently. I'm not a fan of former governor Charlie Baker, but he was no MAGAt. Plausible rumor has it that he didn't run for a third term last year because he wouldn't have survived the GOP primary, the Massachusetts GOP having gone full MAGAt since 2016.
I keep reading and hearing that Tuberville is doing this because abortion. I know that’s why he says he’s doing it. But is that really why? Or is he pulling a McConnell except with the military instead of the Supreme Court? Could he be trying to hold these positions open assuming that trump is going to be reinstalled in the Oval Office? He was one of the senators trump and Giuliani were trying to call during the attack on the Capitol.
I've been thinking he's more like a dog with a bone -- he's got it between his teeth and he's not letting go, even if he doesn't remember how it got there or know what to do with it.
As for Tubby the Tuba (aka a dumb jock) I don't know why his R. buddies don't publicly kick him in the pants, and Senators of both parties don't try to get him expelled.
Re the Certifiable Caucus, they can't be voted out soon enough to suit me. They are unhinged, unfit, and what in hell has happened in this country, anyway?
"It is clear that the National Service Law of 1953 is not applied to all Israelis, and that large groups within the Israeli public – particularly women, ultra-Orthodox, Jews, and Arabs – are consistently provided with the opportunity to refrain from completing full compulsory service."
Now I know Israel is a small country with an equally small military, but I can see that if you are required to serve your country for at least 3 years, you will at least have some inkling of what you're talking about if you happen to run for office and somehow by luck or circumstance end up on the Defense Committee that approves the budget, appropriations, and the appointments of general officers within the 4 branches of the said military you're supposed to know something about.
But we don't have that because our military is all-volunteer and perhaps that's all right in peacetime, but what if we had a war tomorrow and we needed to draft everyone? I wonder how the Republicans would do then?
I know-it's only when we're the victim that they become belligerent and bellicose about the readiness of the military, but when you have people like former football coaches and private firm lawyers who have never been in anything but a cheering section we're talking about clueless and utterly stupid people who like waving a flag before saluting it.
I wish I could hope that the voters who voted Tuberville into office will vote him out, but I'm afraid that he's from the same section of people who fill out the ranks of the gravy train seals and those who attacked the Capitol on Jan 6th.
It will be another generation to correct this disaster and I'm not hoping for any dramatic changes in the Republican party until they evict all the Magats out of it. That's going to take a lot of time.
I am all for the option of encouraging 1 year (or more) of well paid public service. The options could include military service, and Biden's new CCC program, and existing programs like Vista, Peace Corps, and the National Health Service Corps. I did the latter for 2 years in Appalachia. Amazing experience, and changed world view!
Don't overlook Americorps, celebrating 30 years since founding. And it's integrated. In 2001, on a x-country road trip, I walked through a park and met three members of Americorps and visited with them awhile. Two young white guys with an African-American woman sitting between them with her arms across their shoulders and a small American flag stuck in her hair. https://americorps.gov/
"Serve" your country? Defendant Trump is the whitehead (okay, orange head) on a pool of wealthy pustulants who believe that "serve" refers to the people who bring them food, beverages, and, since the vast majority of them are men, the people who serve them with sex. One of the best things this country ever did for me was to force me to serve it in the military because there was a draft, and I was classified 1-A. (It was between Korea and Vietnam, so the real matter of life and death in the Army artillery was only theoretical.) If you read Tuberville's bio on Wikipedia, you will not be surprised to learn that he served his country before being elected to the Senate exactly as long as Donald Trump had before being (more or less) elected President --- which is to say, not even a nanosecond.
Of course there would be those who would be unfit to serve, and probably dodge the draft the same way Trump did, but it would have the beneficial effect of making (hopefully) better people out of kids who weren't going anywhere fast. Not smart or rich enough for college, not trained for any job, they'd be able to learn how to show up for reveille every morning and tie their shoelaces properly.
The military has saved countless people from ending up either dead or in prison over the years, I'm sure.
The wealthy will always be among us, being scavengers and bloodsuckers. Thus as it has always been. Just raise their taxes to cover their assets.
Here's the however/wrinkle: you got a doctor's letter saying you have bone spurs? fine, Donny. Give us two years helping build houses for the homeless and working poor. Military is not the point: serving your country is.
You're right-the military is not for everyone-but as others have suggested, service to the community/country through other means would possibly do as much good.
We need to instill the sense of serving others, not oneself, which is the problem with most of Congress-they're in it for themselves most of the time, and not for the voters who put them there. At least that's the problem with most of the Republicans. "the public be damned, I've got to take care of me first!"
Lucian, today it's defense, being added to abortion, transgender "transgressions," brown-skinned immigrants, supporting white-skinned Ukrainians, George Soros and the Jewish-controlled space lasers, Anthony Fauci --- you get it.
They are using Eric Hoffer's book The True Believer as a playbook: "The technique of a mass movement aims to infect people with a malady and then offer the movement as a cure." And: "Hatred is the most accessible and comprehensive of all the unifying agents. Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a god, but never without a belief in a devil."
MAGA wants only an authoritarian ruler of their persuasion: white, Christian, racist, et cetera.
January 6, 2021 was a cheap replay of November 8-9, 1923, Hitler's Munich putsch. Hitler learned from that failure: the Nazis would have to get power at the ballot box, which they did while never getting a national majority vote. Need I mention that Trump has never won a majority of the national vote?
Sleep well, indeed. [Insert the alarmed emoji of your choice here.]
As soon as Trump started running, my husband pulled out our copy of The True Believer and we both re-read it . It is one of two Republican playbooks. The other is Mein Kampf.
You are exactly right. We should always (ALWAYS) remember that the only book not about himself which we KNOW (sworn statement, first divorce and Marie Brenner's profile of Trump in Vanity Fair in 1990) Donald Trump has read as an adult is My New Order, an annotated collection of Hitler's speeches, published in 1941.
The substance of this latest Republican stunt is not the point. The voter outrage and disgust that it will trigger, that is the point. This is just another cynical stunt to keep the pot on a boil. A public in a foul mood is good for Republican candidates because voters will take it out on Democratic incumbents and candidates. Actually, things are actually very good to excellent right now. But polls show that most of us think things are awful, terrible. And don't get me started on Hunter Biden . . .
But what about Hunter and his famous lap top, doesn't that concern every red blooded American? I forgot to add fascist. It makes me want to slap these people silly, I wouldn't deign to punch them, that's something you do to someone with a spine. The lot of them are spineless, every damn one of them. Military service in a time of war was the best thing that ever happened to me, it wasn't without it's costs which I pay every day, but I would do it all again in a little minute. My life was greatly enriched by learning that I could actually walk into hell for my brothers in arms, and did. Nothing that I have experienced in my life since has come close to the intensity of that service, I'm blessed to have experienced it. Would you want any of those people anywhere near you when the shit hits the fan, I thought not. Zelensky has more courage in his toe nail clippings than the lot of the repugnantkin scum put together. I know that I'm getting old and that I suffer fools poorly, but what a trial these idiots are putting us through. We have real problems that need to be addressed, these clowns are manufacturing problems because they don't want to address the problems that we naturally have. To think that I thought that the insipid Sessions was bad, and he was, his replacement takes stupidity to a whole other level.
The unfair situation of women in the military in Republican controlled states wouldn't exist at all if Tuberville's fellow Republicans hadn't passed the anti-abortion laws to begin with; but like the anti-democratic, anti-American pro-Russian element in the GOP House that Lucian talks about
is power drunk. Surely there must come a time when we as a nation on the brink of disaster because of their failure to govern responsibly we must take drastic step such as the president announcing some kind of national emergency where each one of these people are forcibly removed from office at least temporarily so the government can function as its supposed to. Our national security and very existance as a democratic Republic is at stake.
Of course nothing like this will happen in reality but would make a good Hollywood movie.
In 1968 after the Kennedy/King assassinations, I had to visit the base HQ of the 9th Infantry Division outside of My Tho, SVN. Along with me was our Advisory Team/Province's G-2 (Intelligence), a Major, West Point grad, class of 1960 (?).
What we saw was shocking. The place looked like it was out of control, and obviously divided by race. The major said "Let's go to their O club, we need a drink", which was true, but I said something like I don't want to spend another minute here; I didn't feel safe.
Believe me when I say that the US Army was headed nowhere but down. It had to make drastic changes ASAP. The young Lt. Truscott knows and saw our Army as I saw it. We were lucky our enemies never acted on it.
I'm always in favor of bars that charge about 20 cents a drink! My advisory team had one little bar open to all ranks. Never had a problem, and you really got to know each other.
GOP - Groupies of Putin? Surely it's music to Vlad's ears when he hears that Matty, Margy and the rest of the caustic clown caucus are threatening aid to Ukraine and screwing our own military.
Question: Aren't military bases considered Federal Property? How is it illegal for a member of the Federal Military to receive a medical procedure on a Federal Military Base regardless of what State it's located in? 🤔
Hyde Amendment forbids a single Federal dollar from going to pay for the medical procedure of abortion. (Don't tell anybody but it has and that wld inc. on mil bases worldwide. No Mil MD is going to let a fellow sistah die due to a medical emergency by telling her, sorry but you have to find a civ ambulance/medvac helo and a civ hospital in the next 30 min or you're a goner).
My thought was, for example, an ectopic pregnancy, fetus growing outside of the uterus - like I almost had 4 years after my tubes were tied, presenting with severe pain in my fallopian tube area, but my daughter had magically found her way through the maze! (after 3 sons). I had been referred to an obstetrician specialist. Also, not sure all military bases provide OB/Gyn care on base:
Just seems odd to me that with so many women serving in the military these days (?) that "routine" OB/Gyn care wouldn't be available on base. Specialty care (as you have described) I would expect to be something that would require going off base for. But I really don't know what the actual situation is so that was why I was asking the question ☺️
Neither do I. I will check with an OB/GYN from North Carolina who is part of our "Heather's Herd" political advocacy group who has kept up on this issue.
I suggest referring the question(s) to Planned Parenthood or Jessica Valenti who writes the newsletter Abortion, Every Day.
Here is a link to a recent article on the underlying goal of denying women (and girls) access to any reproductive options while lying to them in the process.
So it turns out Schumer IS able to sideline Tuberville. Why did he wait all this time, and why only for 3 people? Announce that the senate will be open 24/7 until all nominees are confirmed and once Tuberville's and Grassley's and Mcconnell's prostates explode I guaran damn tee every nominee will be confirmed by 10am tomorrow.
I am of the opinion that there is method to the Republican madness. Either they are tacitly supporting Tubes' quest to keep those positions open so that a future President-for-Life Trump can fill them with MAGA loyalists or Republicans are tacitly supporting Tubes' quest to rid the military of women. I think it's time for Biden and Schumer to start rattling cages about recommended base closures. And for Austin and the new JCS chief to start making plans to move personnel out of bases in Alabama to points elsewhere. They could also stop awarding shipbuilding contracts to shipyards in Mobile and moving that work to Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Maine.
Peter, I wholeheartedly agree with your comments. Pack up and move the big NASA facility in Huntsville as a start. See if that gets a reaction!!
Yes, Great Idea.
I shouldn't even start I'm so angry and disgusted and horrified and all of that. Until Tuberville came along, Ron Johnson was the dumbest damned Senator in Washington. Tuberville has that glazed over look of stupidity I've come to think I see in all the far right Republicans out there today. He is an unadulterated, undeniable, blatant, overt and idiotic racist and a freaking high-level putrid misogynist who thinks women should not be in the military, much less have healthcare. Nobody likes Tuberville except the worst among us. I was born and raised in Alabama. Even in the 40s and 50s, we knew we were considered low down on the totem pole and a friend of mine about 20 years ago thought all the roads there were dirt roads. They might as well be. You can spiff some things up to their highest level but you can't take the dumb racist out of the dumbest people in the country and Alabama may just be number one on that, though Florida, Tennessee and Texas are vying for the spot.
Don't forget Arkansas!
OMG no! And she just pulled another "you can't see my records even though i'm your governor and it should be available" Republican power stunt.
Beautifully said, Mary Virginia, beautifully said!!
When I was a kid, my father (WWII noncom, served in North Africa and Italy) taught me a song he used to sing in the army. To the tune of "Mademoiselle from Armentières," it started "Mississippi's a helluva state, parlez-vous" and concluded "Mississippi's a helluva state, a**hole of the forty-eight." We've had 50 states for decades, but as far as I can tell, Mississippi is still in the running.
Yes it is. It's my neighbor state in Louisiana and I always think of Mississippi as still living in the 1800s.
Lucian,
I became a Republican even before I could vote in 1976 because I believed that they represented patriotism and protecting the country. After my tour in Iraq I came home to the lies of the GOP and the nomination of Sarah Palin. I left the GOP in 2008 because I saw the trajectory they were on. Your article is spot on. They have become the anti-American democracy party and the supporters of the most evil autocrats in the world while attacking us at home. They do not support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, because they are both.
Peace,
Steve
In 1976 the GOP was no longer associating themselves with Ike. He was the last Republican who put this nation and her good people ahead of party. All others since were engaged in performative political theater (with a few notable exceptions, Chuck Hagel-William Cohen) spewing hollow platitudes re: natsec and patriotism.
It was back in the late 60s and early 70s when they began a messaging campaign to demonize liberals and Democrats. The next step was foreseeable, dehumanizing all others that were not Rs/cons.
Agree, Ir shoulda been a wake up call for those still wed to the idea the GOP was all about law and order, natsec, and patriotism. Their idea of law and order was Torture by Memo, natsec attacking a sovereign country cuz Jr. Cheney and Rummie had a feather across their ass re; Saddam, and patriotism to them was a fucking flag pin on their labe and Freedumb Friesl rather than in one's mind, heart, and soul for others to proclaim, never self.
They conned millions with their messaging and advancement of fallacies. Something Trump immediately recognized and took full advantage of and still does.
Pax
Correct on every point sir.
~respect~
The John Birchers declared IKE a commie.
True, all true -- but in New England (where I grew up), Republicans remained relatively reasonable until fairly recently. I'm not a fan of former governor Charlie Baker, but he was no MAGAt. Plausible rumor has it that he didn't run for a third term last year because he wouldn't have survived the GOP primary, the Massachusetts GOP having gone full MAGAt since 2016.
Agree. Having been birthed in ME, primarily raised and educated in MA, the Rs were traditional pragmatics rather than idealogues.
Thanks for your service and getting home safely, Steve.
Agree. They are simply there to disrupt and be in the spotlight. They are rude simpletons.
I keep reading and hearing that Tuberville is doing this because abortion. I know that’s why he says he’s doing it. But is that really why? Or is he pulling a McConnell except with the military instead of the Supreme Court? Could he be trying to hold these positions open assuming that trump is going to be reinstalled in the Oval Office? He was one of the senators trump and Giuliani were trying to call during the attack on the Capitol.
Both I'm sure. Puppets can be made to do things for many reasons.
It's hard to imagine that this low-brain thinks that far ahead. He's not armed for three dimensional chess, me thinks.
I didn’t say it was his idea.
Maybe he's just doing what he's told to do.
Perhaps.
Would not want to get inside Tuberville's black hole of a noggin under any circumstance.
It fills his campaign coffers. That's why.
I've been thinking he's more like a dog with a bone -- he's got it between his teeth and he's not letting go, even if he doesn't remember how it got there or know what to do with it.
I've read that a number of military heavy districts in Virginia are trending blue for this very reason.
Just reading your post brought joy to my heart. I hope & pray you are right.
I knew you'd weigh in on the West Point nonsense.
As for Tubby the Tuba (aka a dumb jock) I don't know why his R. buddies don't publicly kick him in the pants, and Senators of both parties don't try to get him expelled.
Re the Certifiable Caucus, they can't be voted out soon enough to suit me. They are unhinged, unfit, and what in hell has happened in this country, anyway?
This is why I'm almost to the point of supporting a national enlistment requirement like what Israel has-that of compulsory conscription, applied across the board for every one. Although the Israeli model does have its; drawbacks (as described in this white paper: ( https://ethz.ch/content/dam/ethz/special-interest/gess/cis/center-for-securities-studies/resources/docs/INSS%20memo159.pdf)
"It is clear that the National Service Law of 1953 is not applied to all Israelis, and that large groups within the Israeli public – particularly women, ultra-Orthodox, Jews, and Arabs – are consistently provided with the opportunity to refrain from completing full compulsory service."
Now I know Israel is a small country with an equally small military, but I can see that if you are required to serve your country for at least 3 years, you will at least have some inkling of what you're talking about if you happen to run for office and somehow by luck or circumstance end up on the Defense Committee that approves the budget, appropriations, and the appointments of general officers within the 4 branches of the said military you're supposed to know something about.
But we don't have that because our military is all-volunteer and perhaps that's all right in peacetime, but what if we had a war tomorrow and we needed to draft everyone? I wonder how the Republicans would do then?
I know-it's only when we're the victim that they become belligerent and bellicose about the readiness of the military, but when you have people like former football coaches and private firm lawyers who have never been in anything but a cheering section we're talking about clueless and utterly stupid people who like waving a flag before saluting it.
I wish I could hope that the voters who voted Tuberville into office will vote him out, but I'm afraid that he's from the same section of people who fill out the ranks of the gravy train seals and those who attacked the Capitol on Jan 6th.
It will be another generation to correct this disaster and I'm not hoping for any dramatic changes in the Republican party until they evict all the Magats out of it. That's going to take a lot of time.
I am all for the option of encouraging 1 year (or more) of well paid public service. The options could include military service, and Biden's new CCC program, and existing programs like Vista, Peace Corps, and the National Health Service Corps. I did the latter for 2 years in Appalachia. Amazing experience, and changed world view!
I agree, MaryPat. This idea has always seemed like a win-win to me.
Don't overlook Americorps, celebrating 30 years since founding. And it's integrated. In 2001, on a x-country road trip, I walked through a park and met three members of Americorps and visited with them awhile. Two young white guys with an African-American woman sitting between them with her arms across their shoulders and a small American flag stuck in her hair. https://americorps.gov/
WONDERFUL!! Yes, Americorps!!!
"Serve" your country? Defendant Trump is the whitehead (okay, orange head) on a pool of wealthy pustulants who believe that "serve" refers to the people who bring them food, beverages, and, since the vast majority of them are men, the people who serve them with sex. One of the best things this country ever did for me was to force me to serve it in the military because there was a draft, and I was classified 1-A. (It was between Korea and Vietnam, so the real matter of life and death in the Army artillery was only theoretical.) If you read Tuberville's bio on Wikipedia, you will not be surprised to learn that he served his country before being elected to the Senate exactly as long as Donald Trump had before being (more or less) elected President --- which is to say, not even a nanosecond.
Of course there would be those who would be unfit to serve, and probably dodge the draft the same way Trump did, but it would have the beneficial effect of making (hopefully) better people out of kids who weren't going anywhere fast. Not smart or rich enough for college, not trained for any job, they'd be able to learn how to show up for reveille every morning and tie their shoelaces properly.
The military has saved countless people from ending up either dead or in prison over the years, I'm sure.
The wealthy will always be among us, being scavengers and bloodsuckers. Thus as it has always been. Just raise their taxes to cover their assets.
Here's the however/wrinkle: you got a doctor's letter saying you have bone spurs? fine, Donny. Give us two years helping build houses for the homeless and working poor. Military is not the point: serving your country is.
Great closing. LMRAO.
-Obligatory service should not be restricted to the mil.
-The mil is NOT for everyone. Never has been, never will be.
-Reservists and NG are in place for a reason.
-Drafts DON'T get everybody, not even 50%. Never has.
-All should serve (18-24mo.) and all means all yet doesn't mean in the mil alone.
You're right-the military is not for everyone-but as others have suggested, service to the community/country through other means would possibly do as much good.
We need to instill the sense of serving others, not oneself, which is the problem with most of Congress-they're in it for themselves most of the time, and not for the voters who put them there. At least that's the problem with most of the Republicans. "the public be damned, I've got to take care of me first!"
Yes conscription should be a broad field of service.
Lucian, today it's defense, being added to abortion, transgender "transgressions," brown-skinned immigrants, supporting white-skinned Ukrainians, George Soros and the Jewish-controlled space lasers, Anthony Fauci --- you get it.
They are using Eric Hoffer's book The True Believer as a playbook: "The technique of a mass movement aims to infect people with a malady and then offer the movement as a cure." And: "Hatred is the most accessible and comprehensive of all the unifying agents. Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a god, but never without a belief in a devil."
MAGA wants only an authoritarian ruler of their persuasion: white, Christian, racist, et cetera.
January 6, 2021 was a cheap replay of November 8-9, 1923, Hitler's Munich putsch. Hitler learned from that failure: the Nazis would have to get power at the ballot box, which they did while never getting a national majority vote. Need I mention that Trump has never won a majority of the national vote?
Sleep well, indeed. [Insert the alarmed emoji of your choice here.]
As soon as Trump started running, my husband pulled out our copy of The True Believer and we both re-read it . It is one of two Republican playbooks. The other is Mein Kampf.
You are exactly right. We should always (ALWAYS) remember that the only book not about himself which we KNOW (sworn statement, first divorce and Marie Brenner's profile of Trump in Vanity Fair in 1990) Donald Trump has read as an adult is My New Order, an annotated collection of Hitler's speeches, published in 1941.
Agree. (Adding w/o subtracting) ignorance and fear to hatred. All negative emotives appeal to the dark souls.
To quote Groucho Marx: "Whatever it is, I'm against it." We are in the hands of Russian-owned, ignorant lunatics.
The substance of this latest Republican stunt is not the point. The voter outrage and disgust that it will trigger, that is the point. This is just another cynical stunt to keep the pot on a boil. A public in a foul mood is good for Republican candidates because voters will take it out on Democratic incumbents and candidates. Actually, things are actually very good to excellent right now. But polls show that most of us think things are awful, terrible. And don't get me started on Hunter Biden . . .
But what about Hunter and his famous lap top, doesn't that concern every red blooded American? I forgot to add fascist. It makes me want to slap these people silly, I wouldn't deign to punch them, that's something you do to someone with a spine. The lot of them are spineless, every damn one of them. Military service in a time of war was the best thing that ever happened to me, it wasn't without it's costs which I pay every day, but I would do it all again in a little minute. My life was greatly enriched by learning that I could actually walk into hell for my brothers in arms, and did. Nothing that I have experienced in my life since has come close to the intensity of that service, I'm blessed to have experienced it. Would you want any of those people anywhere near you when the shit hits the fan, I thought not. Zelensky has more courage in his toe nail clippings than the lot of the repugnantkin scum put together. I know that I'm getting old and that I suffer fools poorly, but what a trial these idiots are putting us through. We have real problems that need to be addressed, these clowns are manufacturing problems because they don't want to address the problems that we naturally have. To think that I thought that the insipid Sessions was bad, and he was, his replacement takes stupidity to a whole other level.
The tyranny of cowards 😡‼️
The unfair situation of women in the military in Republican controlled states wouldn't exist at all if Tuberville's fellow Republicans hadn't passed the anti-abortion laws to begin with; but like the anti-democratic, anti-American pro-Russian element in the GOP House that Lucian talks about
is power drunk. Surely there must come a time when we as a nation on the brink of disaster because of their failure to govern responsibly we must take drastic step such as the president announcing some kind of national emergency where each one of these people are forcibly removed from office at least temporarily so the government can function as its supposed to. Our national security and very existance as a democratic Republic is at stake.
Of course nothing like this will happen in reality but would make a good Hollywood movie.
Your analysis is right on and deserves a wide audience
In 1968 after the Kennedy/King assassinations, I had to visit the base HQ of the 9th Infantry Division outside of My Tho, SVN. Along with me was our Advisory Team/Province's G-2 (Intelligence), a Major, West Point grad, class of 1960 (?).
What we saw was shocking. The place looked like it was out of control, and obviously divided by race. The major said "Let's go to their O club, we need a drink", which was true, but I said something like I don't want to spend another minute here; I didn't feel safe.
Believe me when I say that the US Army was headed nowhere but down. It had to make drastic changes ASAP. The young Lt. Truscott knows and saw our Army as I saw it. We were lucky our enemies never acted on it.
Excellent storytell.
Reminds me of the dozen or so reasons Officer Clubs should go poof whether at home or abroad.
I'm always in favor of bars that charge about 20 cents a drink! My advisory team had one little bar open to all ranks. Never had a problem, and you really got to know each other.
lol. Can't argue with that, Rich.
GOP - Groupies of Putin? Surely it's music to Vlad's ears when he hears that Matty, Margy and the rest of the caustic clown caucus are threatening aid to Ukraine and screwing our own military.
Question: Aren't military bases considered Federal Property? How is it illegal for a member of the Federal Military to receive a medical procedure on a Federal Military Base regardless of what State it's located in? 🤔
May have to go off the base for procedure?
I'm trying to understand why they would have to go off base. Why couldn't the procedure be done on base? 🤷
Hyde Amendment forbids a single Federal dollar from going to pay for the medical procedure of abortion. (Don't tell anybody but it has and that wld inc. on mil bases worldwide. No Mil MD is going to let a fellow sistah die due to a medical emergency by telling her, sorry but you have to find a civ ambulance/medvac helo and a civ hospital in the next 30 min or you're a goner).
Ahhhh thanks for that information!
You're welcome. Anytime for any reason.
My thought was, for example, an ectopic pregnancy, fetus growing outside of the uterus - like I almost had 4 years after my tubes were tied, presenting with severe pain in my fallopian tube area, but my daughter had magically found her way through the maze! (after 3 sons). I had been referred to an obstetrician specialist. Also, not sure all military bases provide OB/Gyn care on base:
https://www.military.com/benefits/tricare/tricare-maternity-care-options.html/amp
Just seems odd to me that with so many women serving in the military these days (?) that "routine" OB/Gyn care wouldn't be available on base. Specialty care (as you have described) I would expect to be something that would require going off base for. But I really don't know what the actual situation is so that was why I was asking the question ☺️
Neither do I. I will check with an OB/GYN from North Carolina who is part of our "Heather's Herd" political advocacy group who has kept up on this issue.
The OB/GYN's response:
"I'm sorry, I do not know the answer.
I suggest referring the question(s) to Planned Parenthood or Jessica Valenti who writes the newsletter Abortion, Every Day.
Here is a link to a recent article on the underlying goal of denying women (and girls) access to any reproductive options while lying to them in the process.
https://open.substack.com/pub/jessica/p/the-gops-plan-to-ban-birth-control-09e?r=aidb7&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
So it turns out Schumer IS able to sideline Tuberville. Why did he wait all this time, and why only for 3 people? Announce that the senate will be open 24/7 until all nominees are confirmed and once Tuberville's and Grassley's and Mcconnell's prostates explode I guaran damn tee every nominee will be confirmed by 10am tomorrow.
Cloture was invoked involving only those Rs agreed to vote upon. The hold/objection remains in place for all others.
Again, just hold the senate 24/7 and we’ll get unanimous consent after about 14 hours.
That's something the MajLdr would privately inform the MinLdr of a day or two before pulling the trigger.
Clearly Tubberville is an insolent and petulant child in an adult world. His R-siblings need to step up as would or else suffer the consequences.