The omnibus bill and Republican betrayals
Yes, they passed it, and just about everyone on the right is angry and shrieking “Betrayal!”:
Despite the outcry, though, Republicans in the US Senate soldiered forward to stab their voters in the back, and now, we have their names.
The writer then links a tweet by Greg Price, giving the names of the eighteen GOP senators who voted for the bill. Some are the usual: Romney, Collins, Murkowski. Some are not, such as Cotton.
Am I angry? Yes, but not in exactly the same way as a lot of the people on the right who are outraged at it. I’m angry first of all that the GOP didn’t win the Senate in 2022 so that we would have gotten a chance to see what they would have done had they taken power. That would have been a much better test of their mettle at this point than this monstrous bill – which, by the way, I also wanted them to fight against much more strongly.
But I believe I somewhat understand the reason for their acquiescence. I don’t agree with it and I don’t like it. But it’s not preposterous and it really is possible they avoided something even worse, which is the argument they give for having done what they did.
What am I talking about? This (from streiff at RedState, who is not a McConnell fan):
My point being that McConnell is duplicitous and can’t be trusted, but he does enough bad crap that it isn’t necessary to invent stuff to blame him for.
Yesterday, the Senate passed a massive, bloated spending bill. They did so when they could’ve killed the bill, passed a continuing resolution, and let a GOP House craft an alternative spending bill next year. McConnell spoke in support of passing the bill from the Senate well.
Streiff then links to the full text of McConnell’s remarks. I’d like you to actually read them and think about what is being said. Do I agree with it? As I said, not really. Do I think it’s an absurdity? No, I don’t. Because the reality is that when the next Senate is seated, the GOP will be in an even worse bargaining position in the Senate and the situation might have become even worse. Despite the fact that the GOP would also then be controlling the House, any decent House budget bill could not have gotten past the Senate.
Here’s another McConnell statement on the same subject:
Month after month, year after year, competitors such as China are methodically pouring money and planning into upgrading and modernizing their own militaries. They are constantly probing new ways to expand their military, intelligence, economic, and political reach — indirectly or directly threatening American forces and our allies’ and partners’ forces.
“Under these perilous circumstances, cutting defense spending in real dollars, as Democrats first wanted to do, is not an option.
“And embarking on a potentially endless cycle of continuing resolutions that give our military real-dollar funding cuts because of inflation, and give Defense Department leaders no certainty to plan and invest — that is not an acceptable option either.
If you don’t control the Senate or the presidency, and only control the House by a few votes – and this will be the reality in January of 2023 – how do you get what you want? A person might respond to that question by saying that some how the Democrats would figure out a way to do it. But you know what? Even the Democrats weren’t always able to do it in this past session of Congress although they controlled both houses as well as the presidency. Remember the votes on ending the filibuster and on HR1, their pet project? They couldn’t accomplish either.
I want to add one more thing. A lot of people are very angry because they believe that McConnell stated the following absurdity:
McConnell: "Providing assistance for Ukrainians to defeat the Russians is the number one priority for the United States right now according to most Republicans. That's how we see the challenges confronting the country at the moment." pic.twitter.com/NPmzWRzoz1
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) December 20, 2022
If I had a dime for every pundit on the right who quoted that, enraged, I’d have a fair amount of money. In my post yesterday on the budget vote, I didn’t get into that issue, but I did include a quote from a Mollie Hemingway article that mentioned it in passing. Here’s what she wrote about that particular remark:
Many Republican voters support helping Ukraine fight Russia’s unjust invasion, but it is absolutely nowhere near their top issue, contrary to McConnell’s false claim…
But it turns out that the McConnell quote is a truncated one. I’m not sure who it was who originally put forth the truncated version – it might have been the tweeter Greg Price, or it might have been someone else or several other people – but it’s misleading.
So let’s set the record straight. You’re still free to detest McConnell and/or to think the budget bill is absolutely horrific and he should have waited, but he didn’t say that arming Ukraine was the most important issue to Republicans. Someone truncated the quote in order to drive Republicans even further apart than they already are, and I’ve seen this many times before and it’s usually successful.
Here’s the fuller quote:
This omnibus bill — it’ll be on the floor — provides a real dollar increase for the Defense baseline and a real dollar cut for the non-Defense baseline — if you exclude veterans. That is absolutely critical and breaking the pattern we’ve had in the past when we’ve ended up in one of these situations where every time Republicans tried to get an increase in defense, we would in effect have to pay a ransom to the Democrats on the domestic side, wholly aside from the needs of the country. So let’s step back and say, “What are the real needs of the country right now?” In the defense part of our expenditures, making sure the Defense Department can deal with the major threats coming from Russia and China — providing assistance for the Ukrainians to defeat the Russians. That’s the number one priority for the United States right now — according to most Republicans. That’s sort of how we see the challenges confronting the country at the moment. So admittedly, I’m pretty proud of the fact that with a Democratic president, a Democratic House, and Democratic Senate, we were able to achieve through this omnibus spending bill, essentially all of our priorities.
To paraphase: he’s saying that the GOP got what it basically wanted for defense and at least didn’t get an increase for non-defense items (and even got a “real dollar cut” for non-defense items). Then he goes on to refer only to the defense side of the bill, and says we need to make sure the Defense Department can deal with “major threats” from Russia and China; that’s obviously not about Ukraine, because China is not involved there and he also has talked about China being a big defense issue in a related statement I’ve already quoted in this post. And then he adds “providing assistance for the Ukrainians to defeat the Russians.” When he then says “that’s the number one priority for the United States right now,” it should be clear that he means number one defense priority, and he’s speaking primarily of threats from both Russia and China to the US and then adding on the Ukraine part as a threat from Russia under the “defense against Russia” category.
So what’s up with the truncated quote? Why make things even more bitter on the right than they already are, by not at least giving the context? I can almost guarantee most people so very angry about what he said will never learn what he actually said.
There are many reasons to be angry with McConnell, but let’s stick to what he actually does and what he actually says.
And this is why we are doomed. Mitch McConnell is a truly horrible political figure who is one of the chief architects of Failure Theater and supports a host of policies and viewpoints actively harmful to the people he’s supposed to represent. BUT HEAVEN FORBID WE BE EVEN SLIGHTLY UNFAIR OR INACCURATE WHEN IT COMES TO CRITICIZING HIM.
It doesn’t matter that McConnell is largely responsible for the GOP failing to take over the Senate. It doesn’t matter that he supports handing Ukraine (and the U.S. defense contractors supplying them weapons) a virtual blank check. It doesn’t matter that McConnell hasn’t shown 10% of the same interest in our southern border catastrophe, the persecution of the Jan. 6 protestors, or the fascistic fusion of the FBI and Twitter to censor and suppress factual information.
Nope. What matters is that McConnell is being slightly mischaracterized and marginally misquoted. That’s what matters.
Neo, do you ever wonder how the Left was able to infiltrate and take over so many American institutions? I suspect a big reason for it was people like you kept making objections like this. You often talk about this stuff in life-or-death terms and then you get all prissy about being fair to a garbage person like Mitch McConnell. The latter does not really fit with the former.
Mike
Seeing as china is our no 1 adversary we should arm ourselves and keep our powder we should force political officers like bishop garrison out of the pentagon rehire all those soldiers fired due to the vaccine mandates impeach those officials involved in the tragic hka affair but we are doing none of that
McConnell is as bad as it gets. It tells you something about the Senate Republican caucus that 3/4 of them want bad-as-it-gets as their floor leader.
We are rewarding all those demolishing the last institution that mattered bejng the military continuing the drawing down of our stockpiles, continuing with the pronoun game
Which allies will remain
https://www.theepochtimes.com/saudi-arabia-gets-closer-to-china-while-moving-away-from-us-gregory-copley_4937822.html
Miguel cervantes on December 22, 2022 at 6:38 pm said:
Seeing as china is our no 1 adversary …
This!!! Russia has the same defense spending as Italy.
Ukraine has 140000 dead, and we are risking nuclear war, but yeah, let’s insanely escalate with Russia instead of seeking a peace settlement
MBunge:
Yep, gotcha.
False but accurate, right?
Just like the left says.
Our whole budgeting process has become unbelievably corrupt. It is no accident that there is never a “clean” spending bill, and that every cycle becomes a crisis. Rahm Emanuel spoke to that.
On a subtext of the outcry. For reasons that baffle me, financial support for Ukraine’s defense has become a big issue with some who purport to be Conservative. I am thinking, for instance, of Tucker Carlson.
I do not know how a thinking person, especially a Conservative, could not whole heartedly support opposition to Putin’s naked aggression. With money for Pete’s sake. I know that Ukraine is not a poster country for a corruption free democracy; but neither are we, and this spending bill is evidence of that. The essential fact is that Ukraine is a European democracy, and Russia invaded them on a ludicrously flimsy pretext. To assume that a successful Putin would stop with Ukraine is fanciful. I know that the Baltic States, among others, do not indulge in such wishful fantasy.
Besides, compared to what we squander on a routine basis, including in Afghanistan and Iraq, the dollar amount is not excessive. It may not have yet reached the level of what was ceded to the Taliban in our ill-advised departure from Afghanistan. (We have no idea what was left behind in Iraq, and how much of that will eventually pass to Iran.)
https://thefederalist.com/2022/12/21/gop-cant-be-successful-until-mitch-mcconnell-is-gone/
I don’t know if it’s been linked to heretofore, but here’s Mollie Hemingway’s critique of McConnell. Agreeable compendium of what he does do and what he does not do. Note, he’s only in place because most Republican senators are satisfied with him.
No its not a democracy as we understand it why do pelosi.biden obama kerry who were always soviet tools want this so much. If we were serious would we be purging our military would we emptying our strategic reserve
Would we be doing everything to force a ruinous surrender upon our country
We know afghanistan ended in blood and tears the same people are in charge now did they learn any lessons
We have spent 5 years of afghan appropriation in one year of course that moves the needle somewhat we have al hijra invasion by mass immigration on our borders or reconquista
M Bunge, you get a bit carried away. Some Conservatives, of which I am one, believe that Trump did as much to lose the Senate as any one person. It is virtually undeniable that he put loyalty to Trump as the criterion for supporting primary candidates; and that was costly in key races. He still had a legacy of political support and squandered it.
I do not always understand McConnel, but I never doubt that he is a savvy politician within the constraints imposed on him by the Senate’s demographics. We may not like the way he practices the art of the possible, but I doubt anyone could do much better.
Anticipating your lengthy rebuttal. Well, not really, truth be known.
Brendan:
Roosia wants. Roosia threatens to nuke the west over Ukraine. Roosia has already had 90,000 KIA (includes their DNR and LNR proxies). Your 140,000 Ukrainian KIA? Dubious. But you be you.
Why would you bother to resist Xi? They are way over there across the Pacific Ocean. What do you care about that renegade island or maritime travel through the South China Sea? Or even Xi’s inroads into Africa, the South Pacific, or in America itself? I suspect there will always be reasons that such things will always be someone else’s problem.
Xi has killed 500k to a million america (from covid or with covid doesnt matter) 100k a year with fentanyl wages war with our youth through tiktok. He gets every drop of russian oil india leaves on the table
Oldflyer,
But how much should we give Ukraine? We are currently at something like a $100 billion. $200B? $500B? A trillion?
I’m not saying we should give them zero but the seeming blank check is pretty damn outrageous to a lot of people.
How much of the money will actually go for improving our military, and how much for transitioning? At this point, can we trust the Federal government to do anything right? What’s to prevent Brandon from using any money for, oh, investigating DeSantis?
Cheney had the right idea one (dick not liz)
https://twitter.com/kerpen/status/1605951452437938178?t=NnnyBMEnTCs9Yn3wsDjubA&s=19
Brendan:
Correction the 90,000 KIA is for Russian soldiers since February 24, 2022, doesn’t include the militias or territorials from Donetsk or Luhansk (DPR or LPR). Roosia has managed in 9 months to far, far exceed the US death toll in Vietnam.
Roosia wants.
Vlad wants to expand his army to 1.5 million men, pretty impressive for a defense budget less than that of Italy.
100 gazillion quadrillion ducats.
McConnell does what he does so that he can increase his power and wealth by increasing that of his cronies, through appropriations, which is and always has been the real business that most Congressmen and Senators on both sides –“the Uniparty”–concern themselves with.
Not judges, not securing the borders, not making wise laws or advancing issues relevant to social conservatives.
Appropriations.
It really does work about the same way on the Left. What Neo highlights as “failures” for the Left to get what it wants is really the Democrat half of the Uniparty shafting THEIR base in order to deliver for cronies and clients.
Until this point is grasped, endless failure theater. Vote for the Rs because no one else will protect you against the scary Ds. The Ds make the same case to THEIR base, exactly.
Meanwhile the pork and logrolling and appropriations go on unabated, and the Globetrotters and the Generals split the gate after every show just as always.
But people who go to Globetrotters games don’t think it’s real basketball, so to that extent they are one-up on us.
In the long run, the only cure is to become anti-incumbent at the national level. Until we realize that most of them on both sides are playing us all for suckers, the profitable farce will continue.
In the meantime, work to strengthen conservatives in local and state elections. State and local governments have lots of power and we should make use of that.
Miguel, since you have the numbers, I will not go to the trouble of researching actual amounts.
Please help me out.
How much aid have we given to Ukraine in dollars?
What was our Afghanistan expenditure for the 20+ years? (When you cite the appropriation for five years, I assume it was the most recent five years, when we really only had a token force in Afghanistan.)
What was the value of the equipment and infrastructure that the Taliban inherited?
What exactly have we given Ukraine that diminished our own huge military capability? It does dwarf all others.
(Editorial comment; I believe the most serious threat to our military capability is the woke policies imposed on them.)
Finally, what would be the cost if Putin succeeded in Ukraine? Were there no lessons to be learned from 1938?
Of course, there is an alternative. We could stand aloof and let Putin take Ukraine, and maybe other countries on Russia’s border (watch out Baltic States); then hope that Russia exhausts itself trying to pacify hostile populations. It happened in Afghanistan, and we learned about that as well. Hard on the conquered and threatened, of course. But so what? Why pay for others to defend their borders when we won’t defend our own?
Another potentially positive outcome would be for those bloated, bureaucratic drains on the U.S. treasury, known as the UN and NATO, to be finally proven worthless; and for that to lead to their demise.
I was all fired up over the gulf war (the only real benificiary was bin laden) i found the outcry over bosnia plausible i was dubious over kosovo i thought iraq and afghanistan expeditions were necessary and proper the first served as a training exercise for al queda we know how afghanistan ended up the lesson they give the yikes of captain yafi the payoffs that continue to the taliban maybe in exchange for smuggling hundreds of cells into this country
Art Deco:
In this post I mentioned that I had linked to that Hemingway article in yesterday’s post, and I had also quoted it at length. In today’s post I just dealt with a small portion of it where she got the McConnell quote wrong. She leads with the truncated quote – I would guess that she probably did not realize that it was truncated – and goes on at some length about it. In fact, a great deal of her article is based on it.
Then she goes on to quote McConnell again, disapprovingly, when he said he was “pretty proud of the fact that with a Democratic president, Democratic House, and Democratic Senate, we were able to achieve through this omnibus spending bill essentially all of our priorities.” In that case it is Hemingway who is providing the misleading quote, because he was talking about his defense priorities there.
I usually like Mollie Hemingway, but that entire article that you linked of hers is based on two misleading quotes. Did she not bother to check what he actually said?
It is my impression that lots of people on the right hate McConnell anyway. I’m not a fan of his. But I notice that (a) they seem to have no trouble misrepresenting what he is saying, in order to make their points, and (b) they don’t say what they think would have happened in January of 2023 in the next session of Congress, and whether a better deal could have occurred, and how that could have been accomplished.
I think less of Hemingway for that piece.
Griffin, the number is more like $50B.
For comparison, how much has Biden pledged to Uganda, and other despicable dictatorships using child labor, so they can (allegedly) increase their ability to mine–and sell to us– the stuff needed for “green” technology? And further enrich Dictators, of course. I saw one figure, unverified, of $350B. A lot at any rate. Then, he pledged $20B, along with Japan, to get Indonesia off of coal; and $8B to South Africa. The beat goes on.
“How much aid have we given to Ukraine in dollars?”
$22 billion so far (Note the difference between authorization and appropriation.)
“What exactly have we given Ukraine that diminished our own huge military capability?”
Nothing. The weapons we have given them are performing their intended function. E.g., Javelins were built to destroy Russian tanks. What are they doing in Ukraine? Destroying Russian tanks. And at no risk to American lives.
“Finally, what would be the cost if Putin succeeded in Ukraine? Were there no lessons to be learned from 1938?”
Trillions. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is the first part of a southern push to take Ukraine, Moldova, and eastern Romania. This will be followed by a northern push to take Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and eastern Poland. All but Ukraine and Moldova are NATO members.
If Russia succeeds in the Ukraine, World War III is on. For real.
“In that case it is Hemingway who is providing the misleading quote, because he was talking about his defense priorities there.”
Not his defense priorities, per se, but his top-line budget priorities. He’s saying that for the first time in years they were able to increase real (i.e. after inflation) defense spending while making real (i.e. after inflation) cuts to non-defense spending (except for veterans).
Given that the Democrats control the House, the Democrats control the Senate, and the Democrats control the White House, there’s no way that the priorities within the defense and non-defense budgets were all Republican priorities. Congress doesn’t work that way. But for Republicans to get their way on the top-line numbers is a win. If you have a losing hand, take a small pot if you can get it.
Note that I haven’t dug into the details of the omnibus bill enough to know whether I support it or not. But I understand now McConnell’s argument, thanks to our hostess.
mkent:
One of the problems with McConnell is that he shouldn’t need someone to interpret what he’s saying in order for people to understand why he does what he does. Even if he explained himself with crystal clarity, a lot of people would still be very enraged about it, but it helps to at least not speak in a way that’s so easily misunderstood.
Then again, as Karl Popper said: “It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood.”
I am curious about the aid to the Ukraine. When dollars are quoted as aid, are they dollar dollars or the dollar amounts of the military hardware we are sending? It does make a difference.
By the way, I am all for helping Ukraine in their fight for their existence.
I am not a Tucker.
Well, duh. You only control the House. It is obvious you won’t get what you want. They should instead keep the democRATS from getting what they want. All spending bills are raised first in the House.
Robert Shotzberger:
I think, as I said, that they should have waited till the new Congress was installed. However, the deadline was upon them and they had choices to make. One option was to force a government shutdown by doing nothing, which in the past always seemed to backfire against the Republicans. Another was to pass a bill that got them some things they wanted and avoided a shutdown (that’s what they did). Another was to pass a continuing resolution. McConnell said this about that [emphasis mine]:
A person doesn’t have to agree with what McConnell is saying, his priorities, or his motives, to see the point of what he’s saying. There is nothing easy about negotiating when you don’t have the power to get what you want.
SHIREHOME, I agree that a better accounting is needed of where exactly the money is going and for what.
Here is information on the Polish Patriots:
“On March 28, 2018 the Ministry of National Defence signed the deal worth $4.75 billion for two Patriot Configuration 3+ batteries for deliveries in 2022. The purchase includes Northrop Grumman’s Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System (IBCS) and four fire units equipped with four AN/MPQ-65 radars, 16 launchers, four Engagement Control Stations, six Engagement Operation Centers, 12 IFCN Relays and 208 PAC-3 MSE missiles”
Not including replacement missiles at $3 mil a pop.
SHIREHOME; Chases Eagles:
Here you go.
I saw Lindsay Graham on Fox tonight. He explained why he voted for the omnibus. The Dems proposed a 5% increase in defense spending and a 13% increase in non-defense spending. McConnel managed to get that reversed to a 10% increase in defense spending and a 7% increase in non-defense spending. Graham thought that they needed to take it while it was on the table. – not wait to see what the House would come up with. Bah, humbug!
As oldflyer and Frederick state, our budgeting process is totally corrupted. This bill was packed with pork. Lots of bad, bad pork. So, instead of thinking about fiscal sanity, they claim their number one priority is defense spending. Why can’t defense spending and fiscal sanity be equally important? I think Frederick provides the answer. D.C. truly is a swamp. Filled with pigs who are feeding at the public trough.
I want a strong military, but a nation that believes they can have both guns and butter in equal amounts is eventually not going to be able to afford either.
Tucker: Clapping like seals for Zelenskyy, and the harsh consequence of not clapping.
It’s an extremely expensive clown show. We might as well enjoy it.
The ESSENTIAL question here is:
Why would anyone trust the Democrats on ANYTHING?
There is absolutely NO reason to believe anything they say…
In fact, the opposite the case. You KNOW they are lying. ALL THE TIME.
So this supposedly rational excuse of “HOPE OVER EXPERIENCE” is actually INSANITY….
…as “Biden” and his merrye helpers continue their broad, multi-targeted swaths of destruction across the country:
Just a few examples….
“Inside The Fentanyl Factories Churning Out Death And Misery Across America”—
https://blazingcatfur.ca/2022/12/23/inside-the-fentanyl-factories-churning-out-death-and-misery-across-america/
“Biden is killing El Paso”—
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2022/12/22/biden-is-killing-el-paso-n519638
“Voting with feet: New York losing people at fastest rate of any state, Census finds”—
https://justthenews.com/nation/states/center-square/census-new-york-lost-more-people-any-other-state
“The War on Merit Takes a Bizarre Turn;
“Why are administrators at a top-ranked public high school hiding National Merit awards from students and families?—
https://www.city-journal.org/war-on-merit-takes-bizarre-turn
…Just a very few….
They mostly all vote for it because they can’t not. No one wants to face the problem we are broke beyond broke. To them the interest payments never will come due because it’s all fake money to them.
You would get more responsibility out of teenagers with a open credit card to spend with all their friends.
But worse for a thousand citizens is shoveling money to the Marxists at DOJ to go after them and destroying their lives.
Whatever any politicians priorities or room to maneuver I think, financially, we are just screwed.
“But worse for a thousand citizens is shoveling money to the Marxists at DOJ to go after them and destroying their lives.”
Merely Obama’s / “Biden” ‘s unusually bent and very shrewd sense of humor once more on display….
I think there are a lot of people on the right who don’t want to hear what McConnell is actually saying. They would prefer to scapegoat McConnell or the “monoparty” or whatever than to face the reality of the situation.
Its like lando negotiating with vader imflation will continue the invasion will continue the bureau mind fark will continue i dont curse but i am familiar with them in several languages, like the carib chieftain hatuey if this is what democracy looks like paraphrasing beschloss i dont want it
We are not merely broke toting up 100 trilion dollars we are going plaid its funny thing on the way to the forum absurd
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/12/22/star-witness-cassidy-hutchinsons-credibility-questioned-after-january-6-materials-released/
We do not, at this time, need an increase in military spending. We need to stop harassing soldiers with woketardery and distorting and disfiguring policy within the services to pump up the number of dames in the armed services. The repulsive crew in charge will not do these things no matter what is the military budget. McConnell et al act as if it was a great thing to score an increase in the military budget. The only component of the military budget to increase in nominal terms ought to consist of a COLA for servicemens’ compensation. A mess of pottage.
Note, what the Republicans should have been willing to concede in the end was as follows: (1) a COLA for certain categories of federal employee (servicemen, uniformed police, engineers, and those in ‘dirty jobs’); (2) a COLA for cash, voucher, and insurance programs for the elderly, the disabled, veterans, disaster victims, and the interstitially unemployed. Beyond that, they should have been aiming for chop chop chop. Reductions in real terms, certainly if not nominal terms as well. For starters, consider an end to every spending program instituted after December 2019.
This is why he enabled the steal why mr potatoe head is in the senate and the others
I do not always understand McConnel, but I never doubt that he is a savvy politician within the constraints imposed on him by the Senate’s demographics.
He’s a bagman for donors. He’s not the least bit interested in starboard policy goals.
Not when these wombats milley and austin are in charge
They would prefer to scapegoat McConnell or the “monoparty” or whatever than to face the reality of the situation.
The ‘reality of the situation’ will hit you and every other poseur when the U.S. government cannot sell its Treasuries.
Thanks, Neo, for this explanation. All I knew was what I heard on Fox Business while driving. Naturally, they don’t like the bill. But understanding more about what they thought they were doing is helpful.
I usually agree with Mollie Hemingway and I wish she would read your commentary on this.
Now, Pelosi with a small majority in the House was extremely aggressive in pushing her agenda. I don’t know if the Republican majority will prove itself effective, and of course the Senate will be worse than it is now.
Just a reminder:
“Omnibus Bill Has Extra Funds For DOJ To Pursue More Jan. 6 Lawsuits”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/omnibus-bill-has-extra-funds-doj-pursue-more-jan-6-lawsuits
Meanwhile, the nation’s ethicists are raising grave concerns about Musk.
(But of course they are…)
“Musk’s Neuralink Promising For Disabled, ‘Ethical Concern’ For Masses, Experts Say”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/musks-neuralink-promising-disabled-ethical-concern-masses-experts-say
It would be nice if the money we get for defense actually went to defense and not social justice in the military. We are the laughingstock of the world. These corrupt politicians like to burn through our money like drunken sailors without a care in the world, because THEY grifted enough to make themselves rich.
Thanks for the info Neo. People throw around the dollar amounts as it is all Cash, and it is not. Per your site a lot of money will not be spent for several years. And some goes to procurement to replace the hardware we are sending. I guess the old saw about Lies and Stats is true.
It is easy to criticize McC, and I do not like him, but maybe he is being more realistic than given credit for his actions.
I dunno. The military is not under civilian control, per Milley’s subservience to China after the 2020 election and some brass have been active in undermining Trump when he was president and in supressing dissent.
They could use a budget cut.
Are we allowed to question and criticize the idea that other countries, China and Russia primarily, are an existential threat to the United States of America and its people? Just as human caused climate change is a made up crisis these threats from China and Russia that demand an obscene expenditure increase on defense are just accepted without challenge.
China and Russia primarily, are an existential threat to the United States of America and its people?
Question it all you like. Just come up with arguments and not witless “I don’t see” assertions.
Now, Pelosi with a small majority in the House was extremely aggressive in pushing her agenda. I don’t know if the Republican majority will prove itself effective, and of course the Senate will be worse than it is now.
The Democratic Party is malevolent and promotes its vile agenda, which Democratic voters favor or about which they pretend. The Republican ‘leadership’ is crooked and feckless and doesn’t represent its base at all. They won’t be ‘aggressive’ in pursuing anything but cash from donors.
Over $100 billion to Ukraine this year alone. We give about $38B to Israel over a ten year period and people on the left freak about that.
That kind of money is absolutely insane.
Trump wanted $5 billion for the border wall and people were outraged including some Republicans but hey what’s a hundred billion to one of the most corrupt countries in the world.
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/republicans-should-offset-future-aid-to-ukraine/
And again I’m not saying we should give them nothing but this amount is insane with apparently no demands on them.
The US Navy is part of the DOD. Here are some condescending clues: ships cost money to build. maintain, scrap. Ships wear out and sink. Ships sometimes burn and are essentially destroyed while docked in the US (USS Bonhome Richard). Ships sometimes run into other ships or the shore or seamounts (submarines). These things all cost money.
Some may think that China has been building hundreds of ships in the last decade or so and claiming various parts of the South China sea. Some may think that China has not been acting somewhat unneighborly towards the Philippines, VietNam and other sundry nations in that area. Lord love a duck! And nothing to see (or sea) and sing Kum ba yah. Cue the “That’s way across the Pacific Ocean!”
“Insane” may not mean what you think it means, Griffin.
Mine is not an “I don’t see” objection, it is that there is no demonstrable threat that is best addressed by a substantial build up of defense and military capability. McConnell’s explanation and justification is propaganda. The threats to us from China are technological, economic, and social. We are not threatened by Russia and its actions in Ukraine, nor anywhere else. It is not that I don’t see, it is that the threat does not exist.
The threats to us from China are technological, economic, and social. We are not threatened by Russia and its actions in Ukraine, nor anywhere else.
1. What do you think the technology will be used for by an ambitious political elite in China.
2. Your second remark is an arbitrary assertion, and a false one.
That kind of money is absolutely insane.
The term ‘insane’ does not mean what you fancy it means.
The objection to the border wall is not its costs. It’s that it disrupts the Democratic Party’s population replacement policy.
Art,
But I know what pompous blowhard means.
After “Insane” I’m not sure you know what those words mean either.
Nutters on Roosiam media think about nuking Yellowstone National Park to touch off the supervolcano. Putin threatens to nuke any and all since February 2022. But of course Roosia is not a threat to the US.
Indeed, nothing to see.
Kum ba yah.
steve walsh:
I’ve certainly heard about other threats, and not just to us but to allies as well. To take just one example of such a threat, see this.
Some background information:
What Was Included in the US $1.8 Billion Aid Package — Patriots, JDAMs, Grad Rounds and More! -Suchomimus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvozgbTHORM
There are people as stupid as swalwell and beschloss on russian state media?
Couple of points: China and Russia are not existential threats to us as long as we can defend ourselves. Picture making ourselves easy pickings. Might change?
World War II has, I think subliminally, become the definition of wars won and lost.
Germany, more or less, lost WW I. France got the Saces back. Millions died. That’s the European Usual.
The complete flattening of the enemy, taking over, hanging big shots, occupation, remaking society from dog catcher on up is new. The Franco-Prussian War, ginned up by Bismarck for domestic purposes, shoved the borders around some, Napoleon III retired to his fortune in England.
The Wars of: League of Augsburg, Spanish Succession, Austrian Succession, Seven Years War. All the same.
Anybody remember the results of the Russo-Polish war, 1919-1920?
We could still “Lose” a war with unfortunate consequences, even if the armchair MacArthurs laugh at the prospect of being totally overrun by Russia or China. We have the FBI for that.
You willing to risk nukes to retake Hawai’i from a sudden invasion? Didn’t think so. Of course, nobody would even try. They would so not even try, we don’t even need to defend the place. Right?
It’s been said that “a single French platoon” resisting the remilitarization of the Rhineland 1936 would have led the senior German officers to take out Hitler. They knew they didn’t have the combat power to stand up to the French, not to mention others in the vicinity who would have had an interest in the business.
I suspect the “single French platoon” phrasing was meant as a trigger for the nearest battalions and regiments. Not forty guys all on their own.
But Hitler was right about his enemies. See Sowell, “Intellectuals and War”. They all proved beyond all doubt it would never happen. Hitler read them.
I don’t follow McConnell’s doings so whether he was sincerely interested in the defense issue or was using it as an excuse I have no idea. The issue is that defense spending has to have predictable contours for the people doing the work.
When I was in, fifty-plus years ago, Basic took eight weeks and Infantry AIT took nine, plus admin time before and between meaning about twenty weeks to get a wet-behind-the-ears Light Weapons Infantryman barely ready to be a useful replacement to a unit in combat. That’s after drafted and gone through the draft physical and other testing and getting a shipped out date from whatever location at home.
So a reasonably physical guy goes from sillyvillian to brand new rifleman in …six months. You want more complicated stuff done?
How long to get enough tanks for the Armor crewmen?
Westmoreland said his initial task in Viet Nam was distributing shortages.
The other stuff in the budget…we can do without for an extra couple of months. People who say, for example, that public education is going to collapse absent another dozen billion dollars can be ignored.
We can afford to delay the Anti-Racism Tools Initiative for college ed classes by a couple of months, or centuries. We can endure a degree of uncertainty there.
Are we not sending enough money to the voluntarily unemployed? Another couple of months of legislative wrangling won’t kill them.
I recall thirty plus years ago when the left discovered…HORRORS…that defense spending was only 80% as effective at stimulating the economy as non-defense spending. This lasted maybe about fourteen minutes until somebody recalled that defense spending was supposed to be a 100% drag on the economy. At twenty cents on the dollar, we could easily double our defense spending. Easily. Ooops.
Point being, being wrong on defense could be expensive, whether it’s an existential issue or something we really wish hadn’t happened and we’re getting smuggled communications from our relations about how horrible things are under the….whatever it is that would never happen.
Miguel yes they are, and they say what Vlad thinks is useful. Funny that.
“It is not that I don’t see, it is that the threat does not exist.”
Those non-threatening Russian tanks sure are killing an awful lot of Europeans. And those non-threatening Russian missiles are sure putting a dent in food shipments in the Black Sea. And those non-threatening Chinese missiles are keeping shipping out of almost half of the peripheral seas around Taiwan. And I’m sure those non-threatening Russian and Chinese nukes will have no effect whatsoever on American cities should they be launched.
We’re in the middle of a European war with the enemy threatening a full-on World War III, and some people are acting like a small child hiding in the closet during a house fire.
Miguel:
Now the odds of a RS-28 Sarmat (Satan 2) setting off the Yellowstone super volcano are pretty low IMO, but the odds of Roosia or the West just shrugging off a full exchange of ICBMs are pretty low, a bit more than a bloody nose (cue Col. Jack Ripper). So Roosia threatens; and suffers 100,000 KIA in 2022.
But Roosia wants, Ukraine now, later Roosian wants, what? Whatever it can get. “You will get nothing, and like it!”
Anyway, the idea that Roosia poses no threat is, unique.
“We are the laughingstock of the world.”
On the contrary, we are the most respected nation in the world. Since February the dollar is way up against other Western currencies as investors “flee to safety” as the old saying goes. Our military alliances are growing stronger, our weapons are called “magical” by our allies, and the Russian struggles in Ukraine have shown the world just how effective our military is.
If we had a capable government, or even one vaguely pro-America, we could take advantage of the situation for our and the world’s benefit. Alas, we’ll all struggle.
All I know is currently the GOP controls none of the federal government. In just a little over 2 weeks, the GOP will control the House of Representatives. It is not hard to figure out that you have more leverage in just 2 weeks than you do today.
Alternatively, you can simply pass a new budget while the Democrats currently control all of the federal government. Sure, there may not be anything you can do to stop them. However, 18 Republican Senators joining in doesn’t make sense to any voter that understands the first paragraph I wrote. That’s the leadership we have from Mitch McConnell, and it isn’t good enough. Everything else is an excuse for bad leadership.
“Oh, but the judicial branch!” As noted by someone quite a while ago; the minimum bar for a party in control of the Senate and White House should be to support their President’s nominations for the Judiciary and other parts of the Executive Branch. Congratulations to Mitch McConnell for hurdling the lowest bar.
Leland:
More leverage in the House and less leverage in the Senate.
Right now the split in the Senate is 50/50, and although Kamala Harris can come in to break a tie and favor the Democrats, she’s not a member of the Senate and her vote doesn’t matter in terms of Senate organization. Right now with a 50/50 split, the committees and all of that are shared. Because the new Senate will be 49R/51D, that will change and the Democrats will be totally in control in that sense.
That’s my understanding of it, anyway.
It’s a little more unclear than usual because Sinema is now Independent, but apparently that doesn’t change things because she and the other Independents like Sanders caucus with the Democrats.
Gop will go the extra mile and add a dozen or more votes to the worst nominees the dems dont reciprocate
Even when the gop had a senate majority it had a heck of a time getting nominees through jacksaws like mccain and graham
mkent avers against “We are the laughingstock of the world.”
With “On the contrary, we are the most respected nation in the world.”
Evidence? The rising value of the dollar.
But continued dollar strength has been expect to continue until mid-decade regardless of politics, at least, mostly because our economic rivals like Europe have screwed up so badly.
No. You’re confusing the flight to safety and China’s cyclical and Covid19 induced economic weakness with “US admiration” or respect. These are very different matters.
As Peter Zeihan is wont to say, with the most secure productive and geostrategic base, we have economic advantages no place else enjoys.
Adam Smith’s punning quote about there being “a lot of ruin in a nation,” especially now.
Zeihan further adds that the US has to screw up a great deal politically to destroy its economic strengths.
THE VITAL QUESTION THEN is when does political decline, institutional decline self-abuse, lead to economic suicide?
That’s when the USD answer will coincide with abandonment of the US.
This is what’s going to be tested throughout this decade. Repeatedly.
Unfortunately.
Indeed, Roosia and Xi land are the way of the future.(farce) “Laughingstock of the world,” remember, Brandon has consequences.
Leland
I do not think the Republicans have party discipline. There is still a three way civil war going on between the GOPe, the Trump wing and the Neo Cons. Having a majority in the House signifies nothing.
There is still a three way civil war going on between the GOPe, the Trump wing and the Neo Cons.
There is no such thing as a Neo Con.
Art Deco
Whatever. That is just a label. Like Susan Collins being Republican.
A “civil war” between the GOPe, the Tuckerites, and the Conservatives. They are all just labels ….. or caricatures?
Tuckerites claim to be the “Trump Wing” but I don’t think it is a good map. Isolationists have never gone away politically.
This is the road we are on. Even though we, on the face of it are not a “democracy”:
THE FALL OF THE ATHENIAN REPUBLIC… “A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse over loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship.”
Well athens fell to the oligarchs in the forever war (pelopenessian war) socrates was its most famous victim
Miguel Cervantes
Huh? Athens fell to Sparta backed by Persian money. Athens maintained a democracy but the main war advisor was a strategos, first Pericles then after his death Cleon.
Anyway, the only Oligarchs I know of is the Thirty Tyrants after Athens had surrendered. They were overthrown and a democracy installed.