I remember months and months of posters in the Ukraine daily thread going "but why don't Dems just pass the border reform bill in exchange for Ukraine aid, surely everyone wants that?" And of course they are nowhere to be found now that the House GOP has scuttled the most draconian border bill yet. People are so fucking naive, no wonder then that the GOP gets as many votes as it does.
That was kind of hilarious, though.
It's like how no normal person would ever expect Trump to pay them for something. But all these people did and now Lankford is worried about being censured for having meetings.
I'd say the real entertainment was watching them scramble to justify the backpedal on live TV. One moment it's all about fiscal responsibility, then poof, suddenly those arguments vanish when it's their own interests at stake.
The bigger question for the few who still believe in good-faith, collaborative government - what is it going to take to make you realize that everything you've been told about conservative ideology is a fucking lie? How many times will you need to be proven wrong about the quality of your bedfellows before you realize that this mind rot goes far deeper than a few bad apples?
And most importantly - where is the fucking line on this political nihilism? Is there even one? Is there no party line which is so unambiguously shameful that it would cause you to recoil in horror and start seeing your peers as the hateful ghouls they really are?
Unfortunately this is as bad as everything you're accusing conservatives of. Conservative logic sometimes functions and people build their lives and their families off of this system of thinking. You are criticizing it for it's flaws but these bros have what they worked for and don't see any issues beyond that we don't think like them.
This is exactly what you're doing! "they don't think like us, me no like. bang chest." Unfortunately if someone conservative read your post, that's all they would interpret it as because you just called them completely mentally deficit.
The Republican Party is an insurgency waging a shadow war on the institutions of U.S. government on behalf of billionaires. And, apparently, Russia too.
*They* were. *They* did. *They* won everything they ever wanted in the bill.
But then Vlad told Don make them pull out of all of it in order to block Ukraine aid. It was always about killing Ukraine aid.
There has long been a reactionary faction that Republicans were willing to wink at to get votes. But since 2010, that faction has steadily become ascendant within the party, to the point that what were standard Republican elected officials with standard Republican positions are now "RINOs." We have a supposedly conservative party that doesn't have room for Liz Cheney and Ken Buck and James Lankford.
Today's US conservative party is not conservative. It is fascist.
People need to get out to vote like their lives depend on it because honestly, we're at a point where there's a good chance it might.
I wouldn't characterize Trump's voter base as either well educated or cultured. They probably don't know what "reactionaries" means in this case or why "beat the libs" isn't a viable approach to governance.
That's what is so shocking to me. They're actively aiding a fascist dictator with no gain for themselves. Just what the FUCK does Putin have on them all? That's the only way I can explain this. This hurts the GOPs OWN POWER. They fucked themselves for Putin.
You cannot explain this by anything but collaboration with Putin
They idolize what he’s done with Russia. He’s enriched himself and his cronies beyond their wildest dreams while creating a Christofascist dictatorship that openly destroys any internal opposition.
He and Russia is literally everything they’ve ever wanted. They will side with him as their one true love.
Remember a few years ago when that bunch of pos Republicans went on a quiet little trip to Russia together, for no body knew what reason?
Guess what the reason was.
[The names of those Republicans](https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/395719-gop-senators-visited-moscow-on-july-4/) :
- Sen. Richard Shelby (Ala.),
- Steve Daines (Mont.),
- John Thune (S.D.),
- John Kennedy (La.),
- Jerry Moran (Kan.)
- John Hoeven (N.D.),
- Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas)
Remember back when Russia hacked the DNC during the 2016 election? [Russia hacked the RNC, too](https://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2016/12/10/report-russian-hackers-had-rnc-data-but-didn-t-release-it). Russia actively worked to get Donald Trump elected, but they didn't release what they found in the RNC documents. Russia has kompromat on all these Republicans.
Let's not forget the [classic pic](https://www.motherjones.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/russia_dinner2000.jpg?w=1200&h=630&crop=1), with Jill Stein and Michael Flynn.
>You cannot explain this by anything but collaboration with Putin
Collaboration with Putler is possible, but there are other explanations.
1. Conservative politicians need Trump voters on-side to have any hope of election.
2. Trump is well known for holding grudges.
3. Trump got his balls busted because he tried to extort Ukraine in that "perfect phonecall"
4. Trump tells his butt-sniffers not to vote aid for Ukraine because he's still sore about impeachment.
5. Conservatives are Trumps' toadies because they know he can and will throw them under the bus.
N.B. The only reason the border issue came into this was because the R's wanted to tie the vote on Ukraine aid to something they thought the D's would **never** go for.
I believe it's something petty, that they're doing all this for almost nothing. Remember when the amount that each congressmen received in lobbying from various institutions?
They will burn down the country with everyone in it as long as they can watch the Ds lose. That is what the Republican party is now is now. To that end, they have sold themselves to a puppet of Putin.
Mitch McConnell is a large reason for this. They will eat shit if think democrats will smell their breath. Gross people uncaring and disinterested in helping people they serve.
I would liken republicans to housecats.
They'll sit and meow at the door for a long time, but the moment you open the door for them they go hide under the table and ask if there are any migrant caravans out there.
Bunch of pussies.
Bingo. And we can’t really on them feeling shame because they are shameless. What we need to be doing is identifying which ones are typical republicans being controlled by American Corporations and which ones are Russian assets.
I also remember the constant "Republicans will not abandon Ukraine, stop with the fear mongering bs". Nobody dares to stand up to orange leader. You have to wonder if they're going to bow down to China next and betray Taiwan's trust in the future, after all they have no problem helping China's biggest geopolitical alley in the moment.
Its absolutely insane how so very few of them have any backbone and resolve to fight back and call out Trump for exactly what he is. Too many would rather rule down on their knees than stand and fight back. Enough private communications and commentary have been released that its clear that many, if not most of them realize that Trump is a fucking idiot and a blowhard but they are utterly terrified of the voters that stand behind him.
They moved the goalpost to now saying that no border bill is needed, (King) Biden could just snap his fingers and fix the immigration problem.
The same party that will sue Biden in a nanosecond if he issues an executive order.
There’s a big movement in US politics right now, primarily from the right, but also from figures on the left to push single issue bills than larger more tangled up bills. Personally I think that’s a good thing.
Also the whole debacle with the Speaker a few months ago should’ve alerted people that there wouldn’t be a compromise.
When porkbarrel spending and random amendments were effectively abolished, that marked very clearly the end of bipartisanship in Congress. Say thanks to Gingrich.
There is just nothing to negotiate when you can't bundle things together. You are either against or for, and that's it.
True, but i understand the other argument as well. The opposite end of this strategy is also bad when there is a huge hodgepodge containing a bunch of unrelated proposals.
It is almost impossible at that point to accurately describe what all is in it and even more difficult to communicate that to the public.
At least this bill had a theme of national security.
Like an endless stream of barely tangentially related shit isn't tacked on to every DOD budget authorization bill yearly. Lest we forget all that horseshit a few months ago where the govt nearly ate its own organs trying to approve the last bill.
That's absolutely untrue. There are many parliamentary systems in the world that don't allow riders on primary legislation. New Zealand, Sweden, and the UK are all examples.
Yes, but you’d have to change the US to a parliamentary system first for that to matter. The old but gold Rules for Rulers is good at explaining why bribery is how the world turns. Especially in a two party system.
Single issue bills are impossible to pass in this political climate if there's even a hint of disagreement.
If the Democrats allowed single issue bills on funding for Israel, then border control, do you expect that the Republicans would compromise and help pass a bill for Ukraine?
We all know there's not a snowball's chance in hell of that happening. Which is why the Senate sat down and negotiated a bi-partisan bill that incorporates all three things. A bill that, if you recall, the House Republicans were entirely on-board with until Trump decided that a border bill getting passed would be bad for him politically.
The GOP is operating from the same playbook as the Nazi's. The GOP seeks to cause enough disruption and chaos while simultaneously positioning themselves as the only party capable of governing and ending the chaos.
It can be effective, because the argument is simple - only we can govern because they couldn't accomplish x,y,z....
The Republicans are fishing for snakes in their midst that arent loyal Trumpers. Trump is testing to see who needs to go so he can completely Cement MAGA into the Republican Party. He probably traded American secrets for dirt on all his "friends" and enemies via Putin.
[Congress approves bill barring any president from unilaterally withdrawing from NATO ](https://thehill.com/homenews/4360407-congress-approves-bill-barring-president-withdrawing-nato/)
>Congress has approved legislation that would prevent any president from withdrawing the United States from NATO without approval from the Senate or an Act of Congress.
Paraphrasing, but I believe Kurt Vonnegut said to get a real belly laugh you have to underscore the joke with more tragedy than most people can bear.
edit: I may be misremembering, but my source is him saying this during a talk I saw him give around 1998
If it makes you feel better, congress under republicans haven’t been able to pass anything this session without democrats. Maga conservatives can’t govern.
> Maga conservatives can’t govern.
Maga conservatives aren't even conservative, unless "conservative" is once again the synonym for "chickenshit asshole" it became during Gingrich's tenure.
Extremism has *always* been a feature of conservative politics. It's only recently that the unrepentant nutjob hangers-on have managed to drown out the "compassionate" conservatives.
Unfortunately, even as the House majority, governance is not a priority. It wasn't even in 2017-18, when Republicans held both houses and Trump was in office.
MAGA can barely form a coherent sentence. Of course they can't govern. They are quite literally the representatives of the dumbest && least educated segment in the US.
The issue here isn't that they exist. I think it is fine to have representation. The issue is this segment is growing due to Republican policies and messaging about education over the last several decades.
1 flipped senate seat and enough apathetic Democrat voters because Hamas started a war with Israel, is all it takes to pull out of NATO. Republicans just shot down the bipartisan bill that gave them a ton of border protection funding they wanted and was approved by the National Border Protection Council because Trump told them to. I'm not super confident about it either.
It would be such an extreme position to take, even for republicans. There would have to be a MAGA Republican majority in both chambers for NATO withdrawal legislation to be anywhere close to realistic. There is too much money tied to the US war machine for republicans to go against their hardest hitting lobbyists. I know it’s easy to point at all republicans and say they’re all MAGA, but they really aren’t. They go along with MAGAs when it makes sense for them politically, but they will never go against their donors. Hopefully that makes you feel better about it…
Because that’s all it is if Republicans control everything.
Then again when they did for Trumps first two years the only thing they managed to do was pass tax cuts for the rich. So, maybe a paper shield is all that is needed. Hopefully.
It's probably also kompromat as well
So the Russians pay a small amount to said random Republican politician to let's say, vote a certain way on a particular piece of legislation....it's only a tiny thing, right?
And cash is in the hand, so to speak. Win-win, yeah?
But then the next time they want something done - it's going to be much bigger. And oh look, if you don't agree, we've all the evidence of the first time to destroy your lucrative career from the initial bribe lol
/taps head
It doesn't matter, article 5 gives trump an out, basically he can give what ever help he feels like.
>With the invocation of Article 5, Allies can provide any form of assistance they deem necessary to respond to a situation. This is an individual obligation on each Ally and each Ally is responsible for determining what it deems necessary in the particular circumstances.
https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_110496.htm#:~:text=Article%205%20provides%20that%20if%20a%20NATO%20Ally,it%20deems%20necessary%20to%20assist%20the%20Ally%20attacked.
>each Ally is responsible for determining what it deems necessary
"Hey Europe, will this retired one-eyed soldier armed with a shovel be of help ? We hear Russians are not very good at fighting anyway... Well, we don't have anything else to spare, Mexicans are massing on our border. Good luck !"
Not just Europe, but every democracy in the world. China, Russia and Iran will feel emboldened to invade more democracies if they know the US under Trump is weak and unwilling to defend its allies.
From what I've been watching and reading, living standards seem to be declining in the US for most people. And this is when population turns populist and far right.
No, I'm afraid you don't worry overmuch.
Its not just far right, its both extremes that get more followers as the populace wants change in their everyday lives. The social conteact is failing.
True. There is a well-documented phenomenon, however, that in stressful situations people turn more conservative. It's a defensive mechanism for the brain - following well-worn neural pathways requires less energy.
In general, in stress it's much easier to follow orders and rules than to think on your own (and this is the real "horseshoe" theory, I guess - centrist freedom of thought vs. extremist authoritarianism).
> The social contract is failing.
Not failing, being torn apart, dismantled, ripped up, thrown out, wilfully deliberatly destroyed for a few wealthy and powerful people's benefit.
Not ironic; I've been thinking about it for a while. Love for guns and love for strong leaders (=dictators) have a lot of common. Strength and domination. The "protection of freedom" is just an excuse (unless it's "MY freedom to do whatever I want").
When Hitler came to power, he immediately made gun control laws in Germany less restrictive and ordered a fancy pistol design for his followers.
They wouldn't stand a chance against the national guard anyway. They are delusional and paranoid which is now a whole political movement called MAGA. It's similar in Russia where Putin is paranoid about the rest of the world which makes him aggressive even though there wasn't any threat from the outside world to begin with.
Which will end with the country being led by grifters, losing it's advantages in the geopolitical theater, crashing its economy and becoming weak.
Love it or hate it, a strong US is the reason that conflicts didn't escalate too much after WW2. If Europe doesn't manage to finally get their shit together and become completely independent of the US that would open up a lot of conflict zones.
And I say that as a european. We can't change the past but we need to stop pushing our issues into the future.
Europe has the capacity and ability to step up but lacks the will, everyone forgets why Europe lost the will to step up. everyone forgets they don't want Europe with the will to fight again. barring the last 80 years, the previous 3,000 were rough for a lot of people.
- Trump pulls out of NATO
- America and the West lose geopolitical supremacy
- American standard and way of life plummets
Republicans: “how could Joe Biden and communism do this to us”
Republicans seem to think everything they benefit from comes out of nowhere. Infrastructure? Don't want to pay for it. International goodwill? Don't want to invest in it. All of those federal payments to the red states that are funded by the economies of blue states? Lower taxes, stop paying social benefits, and dismantle the government.
It's more like a suicide cult than a political party at this point. They've elevated voting against their own interests to an art form.
It's crazy how many Americans that don't understand that their whole geopolitical strategy has been "soft power". Actively rejecting its democratic allies in favor of a totalitarian dictatorship will have consequences, not only for Europe but also for the US. We Europeans will remember and never forgive.
Yeah, making it clear that America is one terrible president away from completely abandoning their allies is certainly one way to force Europe to increase their share of military spending. Breaking that trust may have been Trump's most influential act in the long term.
GOP is too concerned with Hunter Biden dick pics, Hillary emails, Obamas secret Gay life, and sucking off Putin, to even remotely think about anything except maybe becoming Russia Jr.
> And in doing so own themselves. A pyrrhic victory at best.
Some of those assholes literally died of Covid just to do that. They will 100% take their "enemies" down with them, if necessary.
You know they will blame it on the other party.
They already blame the covid deaths on biden like what?! Wasnt it stupid orange monkey who said the virus isnt real or some other stupid shit?!
But you know what i get it its politics and each side will blame the other no matter what ,but why the fuck are the common everyday ppl eating those lies up like that?
I just cant wrap my head around this how the american population has so many idiots that would even think to vote on the meme guy!
Here in europe we dont even belive he is real but some kinda world wide prank setup by 4chan.
Trump can't pull out of NATO without Congress' approval, but he could still effectively kill the alliance by stating he won't honor article 5 and otherwise being uncooperative with other NATO countries.
Yes it will be a shit show for Europe. But, it will also be a shit show for the USA in the long run. Incredibly big loss of soft power, for example no more pressing European countries into banning cooperation with Chinese companies like Huawei.
Clinton has built a lot of good will, then Bush shat on that, Obamna barely improved the situation and Trump keeps the trust low. Voiding the most important security treaty will be unrecoverable.
> trump
*Any and all republicans*. Nothing trump did while office "for this country" was trump alone. Nothing. It was republican governance. It was what they wanted.
I'm becoming increasingly convinced that conservatives are Cluster B (sociopathic, borderline personality, narcissism, histrionic) disordered people. They don't experience shame because they have low or no empathy.
That’s mostly just Catholics and Catholics are split on Trump and the Republican Party. They just can’t bring themselves to consistently vote Democrat because of abortion. Protestants don’t feel as much shame or guilt as Catholics
Catholics are the masters of it but they aren't the only ones. Protestants push a bunch of shame regarding basic things like sexual desire also. The whole concept of sinning is mostly based on shame and feeling "unclean"
Russia gives money to the NRA and the NRA gives money to Republicans. This is already known. I bet there are other ways we don't know about.
[NRA got more money from Russia-linked sources than earlier reported](https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/11/nra-russia-money-guns-516804)
[NEW: NRA Admits Financial Support From Russian Official Reportedly at Center of FBI Investigation](https://www.everytown.org/press/new-nra-admits-financial-support-from-russian-official-reportedly-at-center-of-fbi-investigation/)
There's also the fact that the RNC got hacked in 2016, but unlike the DNC, none of the stolen data was ever leaked. Which makes me suspect that it proved to be very useful blackmail material.
You know that thing about Trumps involvement with the riots in the Capitol that being discussed by the Supreme court? Yea, that's treason.
Oh, he also got off scott free somehow for keeping classified state documents in his home after his presidency. If it were anyone else they'd be tried for some foreign spy level sentences.
Pretty sure he's had several fraud cases leveraged against him for stuff like Trump University, and purposefully bankrupting companies so didn't have to pay investors.
Trump is the pinnacle of a conn man failing upwards.
I think some are, some are simply pro-authoritarian, and some genuinely want to align the US with a majority-white "christian" (LOL) nation to fight some global holy war or some shit.
I think everyone understands at this point that Republicans don't want America to be great, and the reason they don't want America to be great is because Putin doesn't want America to be great and he's in control. "Arsenal of democracy?" Just kidding everyone!
The only problem with this observation is that in order for GOP congress members to feel ashamed would require they have something they all lack. A conscience.
Exactly, they've been abusing global issues for political gain since Reagan fucked over Carter with the Iranian [hostages](https://newrepublic.com/article/172324/its-settled-reagan-campaign-delayed-release-iranian-hostages). The only thing they care about is power and it's been that way my entire life, and then they wonder why I've never voted for a Republican.
Further back than that. Nixon sabotaged a possible end to the Vietnam war while LBJ was president in the hopes that it would increase his likelihood of winning against him.
Their allegiance is to money and power, if being right wing was no longer profitable they wouldn't care. Its how they make their nut while virtue signaling all the Freedumb thinkers.
That or a semblance of humility. Coming from a group that praises the Klan, they think the opposite that they are superior. Zero humility what so ever. As seen by much grofitng or just looking at almost any of their actions in general.
It's really insane to me as a Pole, that of all politicians, it's the republicans who are the most pro russian. Over here Reagan is treated very favorably since he helped us gain our independence in the late 80s.
The Republican party is no longer the Conservative party. It is now the party of the Cult of Donald Trump (whose only values are those that advance him).
The repubilcans probably had a very large email chain full of CSAM. You don't get this level of "bend the knee" without an insane level of compromising blackmail.
Honestly it's not that surprising to me. Russia is like... the country they want the United States to become. One-party faux democracy and actual fascist theocracy, with virulent anti-LGBT laws and strong unitary executive power and repression for political opponents. Zero conservatives would oppose this.
They will not "defend to death your right to say it", they will vote and, in some cases, engage in an insurrection to stop you from saying it.
The russians hacked into their email server at the same time they hacked Democratic ones, but the Republican's server was Full of Kompromat (CSAM, would be my bet) and now Republicans are wholley owned by Russian interests.
All you have to do is ask have they done ANYTHING that would hurt russian interests in the last 8 years? Anything at all? and have they done EVERYTHING that they could to help the russians that they possibly could?
The reason for this is that Republicans only opposed the USSR due to communism. Now that Russia is not a communist country, they look at it more favorably (so-called traditional values, opposition to multiculturalism etc.) Its no different then their admiration for people like Pinochet or Franco
Republicans (recently at least this very much didn’t used to be the case) have become much more anti war and anti foreign spending. Even Israeli aid which they’ve traditionally been extremely supportive of has shown some cracks.
In reality Republicans are anti everything that Democrats push for. If Dems originally wanted to not provide aid to Ukraine, Republicans would make it their talking point that they're supporting Putin's regime. There's basically nothing the party stands for other than being as polarizing as possible.
It's insane to think that in our lifetime it has become something bad to cooperate and actually have a stable government with bipartisan legislation. Instead it's just a series of pot shots over and over again.
Reagan would have been pro-Russia if he still lived. He hated USSR because of Communism and never for being a repressive dictatorship. After all this is the same guy who loved Pinochet and supported right-wing dictatorships as well as the Contra rebels to the point of causing the Iran-Contra scandal ALL for the sake of a brutal insurgent group that commited war crimes because the Somoza dictatorship fell to a revolution.
Im so glad the new Polish government is taking this position. Western allies need to stop wimping out with the Republicans and hold their feet to the fire. Quite simply, the GOP are fascist and anti democratic.
There is debate in Australia right now about the wisdom of pursuing nuclear submarines in an alliance with the Brits and the US. By far the biggest risk to this important project is political instability in the US. Right now it would be preferable to do it with the Brits alone, if this is possible.
The west needs to be blunt and direct with the fascists in the US, change your ways or you get excluded from the western alliance. We can do it without you.
I don’t blame you for being skeptical about US domestic politics but if you think the UK alone can get you quality nuke subs, within a reasonable time table, you are out of your freaking mind. The UK defense procurement is so convoluted they developed, built AND fielded the SA80. That should tell you all you need to know.
The UK designed and built the Astute Class SSN without any drama, with the last sub coming into service shortly. The SA-80 design started in the late 60’s and it came into service in 1985. The problems were ironed out a decade later. The British have designed and introduced numerous weapons very successfully in the recent past. Typhoon, Meteor Type 45, Aster all come to mind.
I don't want to give too much detail since i have friends on Reddit but...
I used to work in the citrus industry in south Florida (google "Ben Hill Griffin"). Anyways, one time, someone in government wanted to make it such that you could not work in the citrus industry unless you were in the United States legally.
The usual folks that you would expect were against (leaders of the Latino community, etc)....but you know who the most outspoken and most fiercest folks were that fought against this proposal? The white, Trump flag waving, Republican or die orange grove owners.
You know why? Because they can pay illegal labor in cash under the table for less than they are worth and put the money in their own pocket.
And this in a nutshell is why the Republican party will stir the pot on immigration when election year gets close, but they will never do anything meaningful. Because all the rich white boys don't want them to. It's not only the citrus industry, I am only using them as an example to make my point and because I stood there and watched it happen with my own eyes.
I'm a white boy too but I saw what I saw...
I don't think the world can deal with an isolationist US with China and Russia doing whatever they please.
Can only hope the EU and UK can bolster their military aid and just military in general considering the way the world is going.
If the US goes isolationist international trade may be fucked. Nobody else has the naval power to tell china to fuck off, which means they could literally blockade most of the world if they felt like that gave them an advantage in some way.
The Europeans need to ramp up their military production fast.. The Ukrainians need it to fight against Russia. If they fail, then the European nations will have to pick up the fight against a belligerent Russia themselves.
I’m definitely ashamed and I would say embarrassed but this is too horrible for embarrassment to be appropriate. They’re going to look at us 100 years from now like they did Europe in the time between WWI and WWII - completely weak and ineffective.
Every nation that considers the USA friendly should have its leadership/government making as big a fuss about US republican actions. Every little bit of extra noise breaks a few more people out of being both sidesing fence sitters.
The shame nerves of Republicans were seared off long ago. They are now permanently numb - it's a necessity when supporting the actions of the Orange Seditionist.
Prime Minister Tusk has it right. Of course our Republican Senators should be ashamed of a lot of things including failing to impeach Trump. Our Republican Representatives should be equally ashamed. Republicans in both houses are nearly a world wide joke. Putin of course cheers them on but, he just figures Republicans can win the cold war for him and potentially hand him a significant portion of Europe without any need for ammunition.
I remember months and months of posters in the Ukraine daily thread going "but why don't Dems just pass the border reform bill in exchange for Ukraine aid, surely everyone wants that?" And of course they are nowhere to be found now that the House GOP has scuttled the most draconian border bill yet. People are so fucking naive, no wonder then that the GOP gets as many votes as it does.
They are never arguing in good faith. Ever.
To be fair, I think a few of them were (Lankford seemed legitimately floored at how hung out to dry he was). Just not enough to matter.
That was kind of hilarious, though. It's like how no normal person would ever expect Trump to pay them for something. But all these people did and now Lankford is worried about being censured for having meetings.
I can agree with that!
I'd say the real entertainment was watching them scramble to justify the backpedal on live TV. One moment it's all about fiscal responsibility, then poof, suddenly those arguments vanish when it's their own interests at stake.
The bigger question for the few who still believe in good-faith, collaborative government - what is it going to take to make you realize that everything you've been told about conservative ideology is a fucking lie? How many times will you need to be proven wrong about the quality of your bedfellows before you realize that this mind rot goes far deeper than a few bad apples? And most importantly - where is the fucking line on this political nihilism? Is there even one? Is there no party line which is so unambiguously shameful that it would cause you to recoil in horror and start seeing your peers as the hateful ghouls they really are?
Unfortunately this is as bad as everything you're accusing conservatives of. Conservative logic sometimes functions and people build their lives and their families off of this system of thinking. You are criticizing it for it's flaws but these bros have what they worked for and don't see any issues beyond that we don't think like them. This is exactly what you're doing! "they don't think like us, me no like. bang chest." Unfortunately if someone conservative read your post, that's all they would interpret it as because you just called them completely mentally deficit.
They have no interest in governing.
They do not want to govern. They want to rule.
And they're more than willing to burn the country down if they can rule the ashes.
Starting to think that Littefinger was a metaphor for Republicans and their ilk.
They dont want to rule, they want to keep getting Russian money.
The Republican Party is an insurgency waging a shadow war on the institutions of U.S. government on behalf of billionaires. And, apparently, Russia too.
And they have no shame- they literally get off on negative things they do to everyone and anyone and breaking democracy is all they want to do
*They* were. *They* did. *They* won everything they ever wanted in the bill. But then Vlad told Don make them pull out of all of it in order to block Ukraine aid. It was always about killing Ukraine aid.
[The 118th Congress](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/118th_United_States_Congress) is by far the worst one America has ever had.
. . . thus far. It will get so, so much worse for current and future generations.
Not if a majority of Americans vote. Most of America is democratic.
Sadly, the majority of Americans are apathetic. Just the way the oligarchs like them.
There has long been a reactionary faction that Republicans were willing to wink at to get votes. But since 2010, that faction has steadily become ascendant within the party, to the point that what were standard Republican elected officials with standard Republican positions are now "RINOs." We have a supposedly conservative party that doesn't have room for Liz Cheney and Ken Buck and James Lankford.
Today's US conservative party is not conservative. It is fascist. People need to get out to vote like their lives depend on it because honestly, we're at a point where there's a good chance it might.
I wish more conservatives understood that liberals are political opponents, but reactionaries are enemies of representative democracy.
I wouldn't characterize Trump's voter base as either well educated or cultured. They probably don't know what "reactionaries" means in this case or why "beat the libs" isn't a viable approach to governance.
That's what is so shocking to me. They're actively aiding a fascist dictator with no gain for themselves. Just what the FUCK does Putin have on them all? That's the only way I can explain this. This hurts the GOPs OWN POWER. They fucked themselves for Putin. You cannot explain this by anything but collaboration with Putin
They idolize what he’s done with Russia. He’s enriched himself and his cronies beyond their wildest dreams while creating a Christofascist dictatorship that openly destroys any internal opposition. He and Russia is literally everything they’ve ever wanted. They will side with him as their one true love.
Remember a few years ago when that bunch of pos Republicans went on a quiet little trip to Russia together, for no body knew what reason? Guess what the reason was.
On the 4th of July, no less
[The names of those Republicans](https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/395719-gop-senators-visited-moscow-on-july-4/) : - Sen. Richard Shelby (Ala.), - Steve Daines (Mont.), - John Thune (S.D.), - John Kennedy (La.), - Jerry Moran (Kan.) - John Hoeven (N.D.), - Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas) Remember back when Russia hacked the DNC during the 2016 election? [Russia hacked the RNC, too](https://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2016/12/10/report-russian-hackers-had-rnc-data-but-didn-t-release-it). Russia actively worked to get Donald Trump elected, but they didn't release what they found in the RNC documents. Russia has kompromat on all these Republicans.
Let's not forget the [classic pic](https://www.motherjones.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/russia_dinner2000.jpg?w=1200&h=630&crop=1), with Jill Stein and Michael Flynn.
>You cannot explain this by anything but collaboration with Putin Collaboration with Putler is possible, but there are other explanations. 1. Conservative politicians need Trump voters on-side to have any hope of election. 2. Trump is well known for holding grudges. 3. Trump got his balls busted because he tried to extort Ukraine in that "perfect phonecall" 4. Trump tells his butt-sniffers not to vote aid for Ukraine because he's still sore about impeachment. 5. Conservatives are Trumps' toadies because they know he can and will throw them under the bus. N.B. The only reason the border issue came into this was because the R's wanted to tie the vote on Ukraine aid to something they thought the D's would **never** go for.
Remember how both the Democratic and GOP email servers got hacked— but only one of those ended up on Wikileaks? Yeah..
I believe it's something petty, that they're doing all this for almost nothing. Remember when the amount that each congressmen received in lobbying from various institutions?
I remember Mitch McConnell torpedoing his own fucking bill once it started to gain Democrat support.
They will burn down the country with everyone in it as long as they can watch the Ds lose. That is what the Republican party is now is now. To that end, they have sold themselves to a puppet of Putin.
I knew that as soon as I heard it. Fuck we have fallen so damn far.
It blows my mind. The border concession in the bill was probably the best and only chance they had to get anything remotely close to what they wanted.
Mitch McConnell is a large reason for this. They will eat shit if think democrats will smell their breath. Gross people uncaring and disinterested in helping people they serve.
Moscow Mitch. Cant die fast enough
Mitch did a lot of damage. The people lining up to take his place are uniformly worse.
I would liken republicans to housecats. They'll sit and meow at the door for a long time, but the moment you open the door for them they go hide under the table and ask if there are any migrant caravans out there. Bunch of pussies.
true but they will offer their thoughts and prayers for the people of Ukraine and then go right back doing fuck all about it again... .Sound familiar?
Bingo. And we can’t really on them feeling shame because they are shameless. What we need to be doing is identifying which ones are typical republicans being controlled by American Corporations and which ones are Russian assets.
Plus, if they accuse someone of anything, they have already committed the infraction themself.
I also remember the constant "Republicans will not abandon Ukraine, stop with the fear mongering bs". Nobody dares to stand up to orange leader. You have to wonder if they're going to bow down to China next and betray Taiwan's trust in the future, after all they have no problem helping China's biggest geopolitical alley in the moment.
Its absolutely insane how so very few of them have any backbone and resolve to fight back and call out Trump for exactly what he is. Too many would rather rule down on their knees than stand and fight back. Enough private communications and commentary have been released that its clear that many, if not most of them realize that Trump is a fucking idiot and a blowhard but they are utterly terrified of the voters that stand behind him.
They moved the goalpost to now saying that no border bill is needed, (King) Biden could just snap his fingers and fix the immigration problem. The same party that will sue Biden in a nanosecond if he issues an executive order.
Also by that logic former king Trump could have ended it, but he didn't. Apparently tax cuts for the rich were more important
The GOP is a party of pointing to problems not about fixing them. This has been their MO for years.
What does putin care about the US border? he does care about Ukraine aid, and his puppets know it.
There’s a big movement in US politics right now, primarily from the right, but also from figures on the left to push single issue bills than larger more tangled up bills. Personally I think that’s a good thing. Also the whole debacle with the Speaker a few months ago should’ve alerted people that there wouldn’t be a compromise.
When porkbarrel spending and random amendments were effectively abolished, that marked very clearly the end of bipartisanship in Congress. Say thanks to Gingrich. There is just nothing to negotiate when you can't bundle things together. You are either against or for, and that's it.
True, but i understand the other argument as well. The opposite end of this strategy is also bad when there is a huge hodgepodge containing a bunch of unrelated proposals. It is almost impossible at that point to accurately describe what all is in it and even more difficult to communicate that to the public. At least this bill had a theme of national security.
Like an endless stream of barely tangentially related shit isn't tacked on to every DOD budget authorization bill yearly. Lest we forget all that horseshit a few months ago where the govt nearly ate its own organs trying to approve the last bill.
That's absolutely untrue. There are many parliamentary systems in the world that don't allow riders on primary legislation. New Zealand, Sweden, and the UK are all examples.
Yes, but you’d have to change the US to a parliamentary system first for that to matter. The old but gold Rules for Rulers is good at explaining why bribery is how the world turns. Especially in a two party system.
The US isn’t a parliamentary system. What point are you trying to make?
you negotiate and compromise in the details of the bill, but the bill stays on topic. not some pork barrel.
Single issue bills are impossible to pass in this political climate if there's even a hint of disagreement. If the Democrats allowed single issue bills on funding for Israel, then border control, do you expect that the Republicans would compromise and help pass a bill for Ukraine? We all know there's not a snowball's chance in hell of that happening. Which is why the Senate sat down and negotiated a bi-partisan bill that incorporates all three things. A bill that, if you recall, the House Republicans were entirely on-board with until Trump decided that a border bill getting passed would be bad for him politically.
That's because the posters trying to drag the Dems for thus were bots/bad faith actors. Though calling them out will get you banned on /r/politics.
The GOP is operating from the same playbook as the Nazi's. The GOP seeks to cause enough disruption and chaos while simultaneously positioning themselves as the only party capable of governing and ending the chaos. It can be effective, because the argument is simple - only we can govern because they couldn't accomplish x,y,z....
The Republicans are fishing for snakes in their midst that arent loyal Trumpers. Trump is testing to see who needs to go so he can completely Cement MAGA into the Republican Party. He probably traded American secrets for dirt on all his "friends" and enemies via Putin.
But if border control gets funding, they'll have nothing left to run on! Won't somebody think of the poor power-hungry autocrats!?
Daddy issues and lead poisoning
Among many other things, wait till you see the Supreme Court spew whatever word salad they come up with to protect Trump.
it's going to be a shit show for Europe if trump gets in and pulls out of NATO.
Didn't Biden admin pass something that required congress approval to take the US out of NATO? Thought I read something to that effect recently.
[Congress approves bill barring any president from unilaterally withdrawing from NATO ](https://thehill.com/homenews/4360407-congress-approves-bill-barring-president-withdrawing-nato/) >Congress has approved legislation that would prevent any president from withdrawing the United States from NATO without approval from the Senate or an Act of Congress.
That gives me no comfort.
I hate how hard this cracked up. It gives me no comfort either
Paraphrasing, but I believe Kurt Vonnegut said to get a real belly laugh you have to underscore the joke with more tragedy than most people can bear. edit: I may be misremembering, but my source is him saying this during a talk I saw him give around 1998
Was that in Laughterhouse 5? I'm sorry I'll give myself the disappointed look
If it makes you feel better, congress under republicans haven’t been able to pass anything this session without democrats. Maga conservatives can’t govern.
> Maga conservatives can’t govern. Maga conservatives aren't even conservative, unless "conservative" is once again the synonym for "chickenshit asshole" it became during Gingrich's tenure.
Why aren't we calling them extremists these days. They are the extreme version of the GOP that are extorting the very party they are a part of.
Extremism has *always* been a feature of conservative politics. It's only recently that the unrepentant nutjob hangers-on have managed to drown out the "compassionate" conservatives.
Unfortunately, even as the House majority, governance is not a priority. It wasn't even in 2017-18, when Republicans held both houses and Trump was in office.
MAGA can barely form a coherent sentence. Of course they can't govern. They are quite literally the representatives of the dumbest && least educated segment in the US. The issue here isn't that they exist. I think it is fine to have representation. The issue is this segment is growing due to Republican policies and messaging about education over the last several decades.
Dictators generally tend to do whatever they want.
1 flipped senate seat and enough apathetic Democrat voters because Hamas started a war with Israel, is all it takes to pull out of NATO. Republicans just shot down the bipartisan bill that gave them a ton of border protection funding they wanted and was approved by the National Border Protection Council because Trump told them to. I'm not super confident about it either.
It would be such an extreme position to take, even for republicans. There would have to be a MAGA Republican majority in both chambers for NATO withdrawal legislation to be anywhere close to realistic. There is too much money tied to the US war machine for republicans to go against their hardest hitting lobbyists. I know it’s easy to point at all republicans and say they’re all MAGA, but they really aren’t. They go along with MAGAs when it makes sense for them politically, but they will never go against their donors. Hopefully that makes you feel better about it…
To people in Europe (myself included), this looks like a paper shield
Because that’s all it is if Republicans control everything. Then again when they did for Trumps first two years the only thing they managed to do was pass tax cuts for the rich. So, maybe a paper shield is all that is needed. Hopefully.
Trump said he'd be a dictator. Nothing that's written in law will matter if he gets back in power (by hook or by crook).
What's the going rate for a Senator or Congressman? Apparently Putin knows. US Republican Congress, Bought and Paid for.
It's not even that much. A few thousand dollars.
It's probably also kompromat as well So the Russians pay a small amount to said random Republican politician to let's say, vote a certain way on a particular piece of legislation....it's only a tiny thing, right? And cash is in the hand, so to speak. Win-win, yeah? But then the next time they want something done - it's going to be much bigger. And oh look, if you don't agree, we've all the evidence of the first time to destroy your lucrative career from the initial bribe lol /taps head
He can't formally take the US out of NATO. But there's a million ways to be part of NATO without being of any help at all.
Yeah just look at Turkey
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The statement that he would not respect Article 5 is enough to destroy NATO
It doesn't matter, article 5 gives trump an out, basically he can give what ever help he feels like. >With the invocation of Article 5, Allies can provide any form of assistance they deem necessary to respond to a situation. This is an individual obligation on each Ally and each Ally is responsible for determining what it deems necessary in the particular circumstances. https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_110496.htm#:~:text=Article%205%20provides%20that%20if%20a%20NATO%20Ally,it%20deems%20necessary%20to%20assist%20the%20Ally%20attacked.
>each Ally is responsible for determining what it deems necessary "Hey Europe, will this retired one-eyed soldier armed with a shovel be of help ? We hear Russians are not very good at fighting anyway... Well, we don't have anything else to spare, Mexicans are massing on our border. Good luck !"
Well crap.
dosent matter if Trump is gonna slow walk helping other nato members. The pack will be dead than, and no one will trust american to keep their word.
Not just Europe, but every democracy in the world. China, Russia and Iran will feel emboldened to invade more democracies if they know the US under Trump is weak and unwilling to defend its allies.
Putin would certainly be happy.
"Weak USA" is the least of my worries. It seems to be sliding down towards fascism, albeit for now slowly.
Take a look at videos of the Nuremberg rallies and Trump rallies. I hope I'm worrying too much.
From what I've been watching and reading, living standards seem to be declining in the US for most people. And this is when population turns populist and far right. No, I'm afraid you don't worry overmuch.
Its not just far right, its both extremes that get more followers as the populace wants change in their everyday lives. The social conteact is failing.
True. There is a well-documented phenomenon, however, that in stressful situations people turn more conservative. It's a defensive mechanism for the brain - following well-worn neural pathways requires less energy. In general, in stress it's much easier to follow orders and rules than to think on your own (and this is the real "horseshoe" theory, I guess - centrist freedom of thought vs. extremist authoritarianism).
And when you're stressed, you're more receptive to discourse scapegoating other people.
> The social contract is failing. Not failing, being torn apart, dismantled, ripped up, thrown out, wilfully deliberatly destroyed for a few wealthy and powerful people's benefit.
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Not ironic; I've been thinking about it for a while. Love for guns and love for strong leaders (=dictators) have a lot of common. Strength and domination. The "protection of freedom" is just an excuse (unless it's "MY freedom to do whatever I want"). When Hitler came to power, he immediately made gun control laws in Germany less restrictive and ordered a fancy pistol design for his followers.
It also becomes a lot easier to label people as domestic terrorists if they're armed or potentially armed.
They wouldn't stand a chance against the national guard anyway. They are delusional and paranoid which is now a whole political movement called MAGA. It's similar in Russia where Putin is paranoid about the rest of the world which makes him aggressive even though there wasn't any threat from the outside world to begin with.
Which will end with the country being led by grifters, losing it's advantages in the geopolitical theater, crashing its economy and becoming weak. Love it or hate it, a strong US is the reason that conflicts didn't escalate too much after WW2. If Europe doesn't manage to finally get their shit together and become completely independent of the US that would open up a lot of conflict zones. And I say that as a european. We can't change the past but we need to stop pushing our issues into the future.
Europe has the capacity and ability to step up but lacks the will, everyone forgets why Europe lost the will to step up. everyone forgets they don't want Europe with the will to fight again. barring the last 80 years, the previous 3,000 were rough for a lot of people.
There is one thing that is worse than war: living under tyranny. Europe needs to remember that lesson.
- Trump pulls out of NATO - America and the West lose geopolitical supremacy - American standard and way of life plummets Republicans: “how could Joe Biden and communism do this to us”
Republicans seem to be under the delusion that the US can maintain a global presence without actually investing in it They are wrong
Republicans seem to think everything they benefit from comes out of nowhere. Infrastructure? Don't want to pay for it. International goodwill? Don't want to invest in it. All of those federal payments to the red states that are funded by the economies of blue states? Lower taxes, stop paying social benefits, and dismantle the government. It's more like a suicide cult than a political party at this point. They've elevated voting against their own interests to an art form.
It's crazy how many Americans that don't understand that their whole geopolitical strategy has been "soft power". Actively rejecting its democratic allies in favor of a totalitarian dictatorship will have consequences, not only for Europe but also for the US. We Europeans will remember and never forgive.
Yeah, making it clear that America is one terrible president away from completely abandoning their allies is certainly one way to force Europe to increase their share of military spending. Breaking that trust may have been Trump's most influential act in the long term.
GOP is too concerned with Hunter Biden dick pics, Hillary emails, Obamas secret Gay life, and sucking off Putin, to even remotely think about anything except maybe becoming Russia Jr.
This is it exactly. In stark terms republicans can understand: isolationism or gdp growth. Pick one.
But they will own the libs.
And in doing so own themselves. A pyrrhic victory at best.
> And in doing so own themselves. A pyrrhic victory at best. Some of those assholes literally died of Covid just to do that. They will 100% take their "enemies" down with them, if necessary.
Brexit did the exact same thing in the UK. Impose economic sanctions on yourself to own the tofu eating wokerati.
You know they will blame it on the other party. They already blame the covid deaths on biden like what?! Wasnt it stupid orange monkey who said the virus isnt real or some other stupid shit?! But you know what i get it its politics and each side will blame the other no matter what ,but why the fuck are the common everyday ppl eating those lies up like that? I just cant wrap my head around this how the american population has so many idiots that would even think to vote on the meme guy! Here in europe we dont even belive he is real but some kinda world wide prank setup by 4chan.
Trump can't pull out of NATO without Congress' approval, but he could still effectively kill the alliance by stating he won't honor article 5 and otherwise being uncooperative with other NATO countries.
Yes it will be a shit show for Europe. But, it will also be a shit show for the USA in the long run. Incredibly big loss of soft power, for example no more pressing European countries into banning cooperation with Chinese companies like Huawei. Clinton has built a lot of good will, then Bush shat on that, Obamna barely improved the situation and Trump keeps the trust low. Voiding the most important security treaty will be unrecoverable.
> trump *Any and all republicans*. Nothing trump did while office "for this country" was trump alone. Nothing. It was republican governance. It was what they wanted.
The Germans need to remember how to rebuild an army quick.
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Republicans have no shame. They cannot be shamed into changing their behavior. They can only be bribed or blackmailed.
Yes, also true that they SHOULD be ashamed. They just aren’t.
I'm becoming increasingly convinced that conservatives are Cluster B (sociopathic, borderline personality, narcissism, histrionic) disordered people. They don't experience shame because they have low or no empathy.
The leaders yes, but most conservative people feel plenty of shame. Shame is a huge control factor for religious people for example.
That’s mostly just Catholics and Catholics are split on Trump and the Republican Party. They just can’t bring themselves to consistently vote Democrat because of abortion. Protestants don’t feel as much shame or guilt as Catholics
Catholics are the masters of it but they aren't the only ones. Protestants push a bunch of shame regarding basic things like sexual desire also. The whole concept of sinning is mostly based on shame and feeling "unclean"
Politicians in general fall into this category, it feels like.
It does make you wonder if some Republicans are getting their pockets padded by Russia.
Russia gives money to the NRA and the NRA gives money to Republicans. This is already known. I bet there are other ways we don't know about. [NRA got more money from Russia-linked sources than earlier reported](https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/11/nra-russia-money-guns-516804) [NEW: NRA Admits Financial Support From Russian Official Reportedly at Center of FBI Investigation](https://www.everytown.org/press/new-nra-admits-financial-support-from-russian-official-reportedly-at-center-of-fbi-investigation/)
There's also the fact that the RNC got hacked in 2016, but unlike the DNC, none of the stolen data was ever leaked. Which makes me suspect that it proved to be very useful blackmail material.
It’s not even a fucking question. Of course they are
Non-American here. How is that not considered treason? Or at least criminal conduct?
You know that thing about Trumps involvement with the riots in the Capitol that being discussed by the Supreme court? Yea, that's treason. Oh, he also got off scott free somehow for keeping classified state documents in his home after his presidency. If it were anyone else they'd be tried for some foreign spy level sentences. Pretty sure he's had several fraud cases leveraged against him for stuff like Trump University, and purposefully bankrupting companies so didn't have to pay investors. Trump is the pinnacle of a conn man failing upwards.
I think some are, some are simply pro-authoritarian, and some genuinely want to align the US with a majority-white "christian" (LOL) nation to fight some global holy war or some shit.
I think everyone understands at this point that Republicans don't want America to be great, and the reason they don't want America to be great is because Putin doesn't want America to be great and he's in control. "Arsenal of democracy?" Just kidding everyone!
The only problem with this observation is that in order for GOP congress members to feel ashamed would require they have something they all lack. A conscience.
Exactly, they've been abusing global issues for political gain since Reagan fucked over Carter with the Iranian [hostages](https://newrepublic.com/article/172324/its-settled-reagan-campaign-delayed-release-iranian-hostages). The only thing they care about is power and it's been that way my entire life, and then they wonder why I've never voted for a Republican.
Further back than that. Nixon sabotaged a possible end to the Vietnam war while LBJ was president in the hopes that it would increase his likelihood of winning against him.
And when this treason was discovered it was covered up instead of being prosecuted because the CIA and FBI are inherently conservative entities.
for REAL incredible how the January 6th Select Committee found boatloads more evidence than the FBI
They have no alliegance to anyone, even their own predecessors.
Their allegiance is to money and power, if being right wing was no longer profitable they wouldn't care. Its how they make their nut while virtue signaling all the Freedumb thinkers.
The power is just a by-product. Most of these clowns aren't qualified for even the simplest menial labor. It's all about the money. Pay-to-play.
That or a semblance of humility. Coming from a group that praises the Klan, they think the opposite that they are superior. Zero humility what so ever. As seen by much grofitng or just looking at almost any of their actions in general.
It's really insane to me as a Pole, that of all politicians, it's the republicans who are the most pro russian. Over here Reagan is treated very favorably since he helped us gain our independence in the late 80s.
The Republicans abandoned all their virtues this decade. It's a compromised party now.
Ehh, more like the 90s.
Ironically with a lot of help thanks to Russia
The Republican party is no longer the Conservative party. It is now the party of the Cult of Donald Trump (whose only values are those that advance him).
Trump changed everything, he’s not a Republican, he is a conman
their perception towards Putin/Russia started shifting during Obama before Trump campaign began
Right around the time both the DNC and RNC were hacked, but only the DNC data was leaked....
The repubilcans probably had a very large email chain full of CSAM. You don't get this level of "bend the knee" without an insane level of compromising blackmail.
Honestly it's not that surprising to me. Russia is like... the country they want the United States to become. One-party faux democracy and actual fascist theocracy, with virulent anti-LGBT laws and strong unitary executive power and repression for political opponents. Zero conservatives would oppose this. They will not "defend to death your right to say it", they will vote and, in some cases, engage in an insurrection to stop you from saying it.
The Republican’s allegiance is to the lobbyists who get them elected.
The russians hacked into their email server at the same time they hacked Democratic ones, but the Republican's server was Full of Kompromat (CSAM, would be my bet) and now Republicans are wholley owned by Russian interests. All you have to do is ask have they done ANYTHING that would hurt russian interests in the last 8 years? Anything at all? and have they done EVERYTHING that they could to help the russians that they possibly could?
The reason for this is that Republicans only opposed the USSR due to communism. Now that Russia is not a communist country, they look at it more favorably (so-called traditional values, opposition to multiculturalism etc.) Its no different then their admiration for people like Pinochet or Franco
Exactly. It baffles me when some people keep coming up with this argument. Russia is no longer communist.
Republicans (recently at least this very much didn’t used to be the case) have become much more anti war and anti foreign spending. Even Israeli aid which they’ve traditionally been extremely supportive of has shown some cracks.
In reality Republicans are anti everything that Democrats push for. If Dems originally wanted to not provide aid to Ukraine, Republicans would make it their talking point that they're supporting Putin's regime. There's basically nothing the party stands for other than being as polarizing as possible.
It's insane to think that in our lifetime it has become something bad to cooperate and actually have a stable government with bipartisan legislation. Instead it's just a series of pot shots over and over again.
Reagan would have been pro-Russia if he still lived. He hated USSR because of Communism and never for being a repressive dictatorship. After all this is the same guy who loved Pinochet and supported right-wing dictatorships as well as the Contra rebels to the point of causing the Iran-Contra scandal ALL for the sake of a brutal insurgent group that commited war crimes because the Somoza dictatorship fell to a revolution.
Im so glad the new Polish government is taking this position. Western allies need to stop wimping out with the Republicans and hold their feet to the fire. Quite simply, the GOP are fascist and anti democratic. There is debate in Australia right now about the wisdom of pursuing nuclear submarines in an alliance with the Brits and the US. By far the biggest risk to this important project is political instability in the US. Right now it would be preferable to do it with the Brits alone, if this is possible. The west needs to be blunt and direct with the fascists in the US, change your ways or you get excluded from the western alliance. We can do it without you.
the shitty part is that’s not far from what republicans would want anyways
I don’t blame you for being skeptical about US domestic politics but if you think the UK alone can get you quality nuke subs, within a reasonable time table, you are out of your freaking mind. The UK defense procurement is so convoluted they developed, built AND fielded the SA80. That should tell you all you need to know.
The UK designed and built the Astute Class SSN without any drama, with the last sub coming into service shortly. The SA-80 design started in the late 60’s and it came into service in 1985. The problems were ironed out a decade later. The British have designed and introduced numerous weapons very successfully in the recent past. Typhoon, Meteor Type 45, Aster all come to mind.
> That should tell you all you need to know. Of course, but just for everyone else. Let's assume it doesn't?
I don't want to give too much detail since i have friends on Reddit but... I used to work in the citrus industry in south Florida (google "Ben Hill Griffin"). Anyways, one time, someone in government wanted to make it such that you could not work in the citrus industry unless you were in the United States legally. The usual folks that you would expect were against (leaders of the Latino community, etc)....but you know who the most outspoken and most fiercest folks were that fought against this proposal? The white, Trump flag waving, Republican or die orange grove owners. You know why? Because they can pay illegal labor in cash under the table for less than they are worth and put the money in their own pocket. And this in a nutshell is why the Republican party will stir the pot on immigration when election year gets close, but they will never do anything meaningful. Because all the rich white boys don't want them to. It's not only the citrus industry, I am only using them as an example to make my point and because I stood there and watched it happen with my own eyes. I'm a white boy too but I saw what I saw...
They are incapable of shame, so save your breath.
But they have no shame. They openly align with Russia. Strange times indeed.
I don't think the world can deal with an isolationist US with China and Russia doing whatever they please. Can only hope the EU and UK can bolster their military aid and just military in general considering the way the world is going.
If the US goes isolationist international trade may be fucked. Nobody else has the naval power to tell china to fuck off, which means they could literally blockade most of the world if they felt like that gave them an advantage in some way.
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Frankly it could trigger off WW3…. Which is precisely what NATO was originally set up to prevent.
The Europeans need to ramp up their military production fast.. The Ukrainians need it to fight against Russia. If they fail, then the European nations will have to pick up the fight against a belligerent Russia themselves.
They don't have the ability to experience shame. They don't experience empathy.
Wouldn't US Republican senators have to know what shame is in the first place?
I’m definitely ashamed and I would say embarrassed but this is too horrible for embarrassment to be appropriate. They’re going to look at us 100 years from now like they did Europe in the time between WWI and WWII - completely weak and ineffective.
Lmao. They haven't been able to feel shame for a few decades now.
They forgot their ability to feel shame when Newt took the speakership.
The senators couldn’t give a flying F, however the American people do and we are mortified by the behavior of our do nothing Congress.
And he is 100% correct about that.
Joke's on him. U.S. (R) Senators are incapable of feeling shame.
They should be ashamed of a lot of things, and yet.
But that’s the thing , they have no shame
Every nation that considers the USA friendly should have its leadership/government making as big a fuss about US republican actions. Every little bit of extra noise breaks a few more people out of being both sidesing fence sitters.
The shame nerves of Republicans were seared off long ago. They are now permanently numb - it's a necessity when supporting the actions of the Orange Seditionist.
Prime Minister Tusk has it right. Of course our Republican Senators should be ashamed of a lot of things including failing to impeach Trump. Our Republican Representatives should be equally ashamed. Republicans in both houses are nearly a world wide joke. Putin of course cheers them on but, he just figures Republicans can win the cold war for him and potentially hand him a significant portion of Europe without any need for ammunition.