"Former President Trump’s adulation of Putin today — including calling him a ‘genius’ — aids our enemies. Trump’s interests don’t seem to align with the interests of the United States of America.”- Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) in a tweet yesterday
"This moment of heightened danger and crisis makes it even clearer that the No. 1 domestic priority for all Americans who care about democracy is to make sure Trump never sees the inside of the Oval Office ever again. As democracy is threatened from abroad it can’t also be cannibalized from within." - David Brooks, NY Times, 'Defeat Trump Now More Than Ever'
As we watched 'Amazing Race' last night to try to get our minds off politics and the horrors Trump's cult is inflicting on the nation, the broadcast was suddenly interrupted for a CBS "Special Report". Nora O'Donnell appeared and announced the Russian invasion of Ukraine had begun, then transferred to correspondent Charlie D'Agata in Kyiv. The sounds of fighter jets overhead punctuated his broadcast of events at 5:15 a.m. Kyiv time. D'Agata for his part, looked nervous and - as Janice put it - already approaching shell shock.
Not long after, watching MSNBC's 'All In' on the DVR list , we were further horrified to learn a whole flock of Repukes - including Traitor Trump - were praising the invasion and glorifying Putin. 'Bloody traitors!' Janice screamed, adding: "They all ought to be hung!" Well, that would be the usual remedy for those who root for aggression that inveighs against U.S. interests and world peace.
But sure enough, as we saw on 'All In' with Alex Wagner sitting in for Chris Hayes, Trump had complimented his best bud Putin on a “smart move” to send “the strongest peace force I’ve ever seen” to the Ukraine border. “This is genius,” Trump said in a conservative talk radio interview at his Mar-a-Lago resort, echoing his past praise of the Russian president. “Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine — of Ukraine — Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful. He used the word ‘independent’ and ‘we’re going to go out and we’re going to go in and we’re going to help keep peace.’ You’ve got to say that’s pretty savvy.”
Why would this fungal scumball do such a thing? Well, hell's bells, he still wants to stay on Putin's good side lest he release the "pee tape". The inveterate asswipe also actually suggested using the same methods against Mexico. Muster up a large military force and just invade our southern neighbor in order to halt the movement of migrants to the U.S.
But Trump isn't the only traitor. Many on the Repuke Right have also been busy praising the move and Tucker Carlson is even panting for an interview with Putin like he had with Hungary's autocrat Viktor Orban. Mike Pompeo also got into the act, among others - all praising the invasion and Russian use of tactical force. It was among the most abhorrent and despicable things a citizen could behold and showed once more why this gaggle of maggots, thieves and liars must never be handed the keys to power again. As one Republican letter writer in The Sunday Denver Post put it:
"I beseech those who love the Republic - including independents - to raise your voices in standing against the wrong-headed Trumpers... Let's prevail this primary season and rid the GOP of the stranglehold of a failed and repugnant ex-president and his minions, and move on to fix our broken country"
As I wrote in an earlier post, the resolution of the Ukraine issue and NATO expansion concerns us all, the whole world, given the apocalyptic consequences that could ensue, e.g.
after which Jeffrey Sachs wrote along similar lines in the FT ( The US should compromise on Nato to save Ukraine) i.e. that Putin and Russia do have a case to make, i.e. to argue against NATO expansion to encompass Ukraine. As Sachs put it:
If war comes, Putin would of course deserve the blame and global opprobrium. Russia’s threats are thuggish and dangerous. Yet as misguided as the Russian actions are, American intransigence regarding Nato enlargement is also utterly misguided and risky. True friends of Ukraine, and of global peace, should be calling for a US and Nato compromise with Russia — one that respects Russia’s legitimate security interests while fully backing Ukraine’s sovereignty.
Hence, a U.S. compromise is warranted. It was Mikhail Gorbachev who willingly disbanded the Soviet Union in 1991 - after getting a "gentleman's agreement" with then President George Bush Sr.- i.e. that in return NATO would not expand further east. That promise was then repeated by German Chancellor Helmut Kohl to then Russian president, Boris Yeltsin. But ever since, as Sachs' FT column noted, given that it was never formalized (on paper), the U.S. and NATO didn't take it to heart. Instead we saw continued expansion right up to the Russians' doorstep. That it has incited the Russians and Putin is therefore no surprise, given the paranoid fear of encirclement which goes back to Tsar Peter the Great.
However, be that as it may, invading a small sovereign neighbor state is not the way to solve the problem. It would have been better for Putin to show good faith by first pulling his troops back. Then asking for a new round of diplomacy with Ukraine's future at the top of the agenda - specifically calling for no entry of Ukraine into NATO - in return for which Russia adopts a 'hands off'' attitude. That including the withdrawal of all separatist forces from the Donbass region.
Back to the Repuke traitors' response, it was ghastly that Tucker Carlson bloviated on Tuesday:
“Why do Democrats want you to hate Putin? Has Putin shipped every middle class job in your town to Russia? Did he manufacture a worldwide pandemic that wrecked your business? Is he teaching your kids to embrace racial discrimination? Is he making fentanyl? Does he eat dogs? .....It may be worth asking yourself, since it is getting pretty serious: ‘What is this really about? Why do I hate Putin so much?’. Has Putin ever called me a racist? Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him?"
Which isn't the point. The point is a much larger, authoritarian state rolling over a smaller one struggling to make democracy work as well as being independent. Carlson ought to know better than to peddle such deflecting horse shit, but having seen his antics during the pandemic - trying to get his FOX zombies to kill themselves by refusing to get vaccinated, it's not surprising.
Then there was useless Turd Mike Pompeo who also bloviated on FOX:
"He’s a very talented statesman. He has lots of gifts. He was a KGB agent, for goodness’ sakes. He knows how to use power. We should respect that."
But these comments do show everything any genuine American needs to know: that the Trumper cult of traitors and liars is unfit to govern. Indeed, the disgusting comments made by a cavalcade of these misfits reflects the current aberrant phenomenon of a once major political party (now a cult) openly siding with a U.S. adversary against an American president. These reprobates cite Putin’s "shrewdness and strength" and penchant to use force in order to draw a specious contrast with Biden, i.e. as weak and feckless. In reality, it is authoritarians drooling for authoritarian rule wbich ought to scare the bejeezus out of every American - even those who prefer not to see Trump hung from his orange neck.
The 'pukes drooling for Putin's iron fist is also reflective of their desire for a similar iron fist to rule Americans. After all, despite all the blathering lies of the reactionary Right media (think WSJ op-eds), Putin DID help Trump grab power in 2016.) Thus they are willfully blind to his role as an ultimate authoritarian leader who has jailed adversaries, shut down political opposition and moved to eliminate a free press and independent judiciary. This all suggests to me that those cheering for an enemy state - in this case the invader state - "also want hanging too." To adopt Janice's parlance.
Why should Americans care about what is happening now in Ukraine? Because it could very easily get out of hand, and Putin has even used not so veiled threats that he could resort to nuclear weapons if there is any outside interference in his plan to "de-nazify" Ukraine.
In the WaPo yesterday it was reported in the lead story on the Russian invasion:
"Some polling suggests that Republicans view Putin positively compared with their view of Democratic leaders ... but that is based on conversations with GOP voters, many of whom simply do not consider Ukraine a priority,"
NO, of course not! They'd rather focus on taking down Biden, so their vile cult can achieve unearned power in the mid-terms. Thereby potentially laying the groundwork to catapult their traitor hero Trump back into the presidency in '24. But if these fools are so obsessively dimwitted - regarding Ukraine as low priority - they need to watch again the clip below from the movie 'Threads' - the nuclear war bombing scene:
See Also:
by William Rivers Pitt | February 25, 2022 - 7:56am | permalink
And:
by Amanda Marcotte | February 25, 2022 - 9:02am | permalink
And:
by Robert Reich | February 24, 2022 - 8:24am | permalink
No comments:
Post a Comment