Attack of the clowns
Tommy Tuberville and Rand Paul tell the worlds despots they've got their backs
Into harms way
United States military forces are moving into harm’s way after the shocking attack by Hamas terrorists into southern Israel from the Gaza strip. As of latest reports at least nine American citizens are dead and an unknown number have been taken hostage after attacks that have shocked the world and are already being called “Israel’s 9/11.”
As you read this the sailors and Marines of the United States 5th Fleet have arrived in the area of operations in the eastern Mediterranean led by the newest aircraft carrier in the U.S. Navy, the USS Gerald Ford, and its strike group. In addition, U.S. Central Command has moved land-based U.S. Air Force aircraft into the region including F-35, F-15, F-16, and A-10’s to deter any outside entities from intervening in the crisis and show support for Israel.
What is truly unacceptable is that those forces are deploying with hundreds of vacancies in their senior military leadership and key diplomatic positions unfilled all thanks to Florida based Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville and Kentucky’s Rand Paul. Because of their own personal crusades on reproductive health travel reimbursement and COVID conspiracy theories our service members will risk their lives hobbled by their own political leaders.
Key positions left vacant
According to reports a shocking number of important posts relating to this crisis are unfilled.
The list includes:
- 5th Fleet Commander and Deputy Commander
- U.S. Central Command Deputy Command and Chief of Policy
- U.S. Air Force Central Command Commanding General
- U.S. Navy Chief of Naval Operations
- U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff
- Ambassador to Israel
- Ambassador to Lebanon
- Ambassador to Egypt
- Ambassador to Kuwait
- Ambassador to Oman
Never before has the Senate privilege of placing a hold on an Executive Branch nomination been used to place a blanket hold on such a staggering number of key positions and neither Tuberville nor Paul will budge to change their minds. To say they are aiding and abetting our enemies wouldn’t be an understatement in any way.
Why not just comply?
I’ve seen a lot of people either saying that the Department of Defense should just comply with what Tuberville wants and stop reimbursing service women and family members for their travel when seeking reproductive healthcare not available where they are stationed. That the policy is too political. That at this point its DOD and the Democrats fault for not giving him what he wants. Why don’t they just pass all of the nominations individually like they did for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs last month?
No on all counts.
First, and foremost, our service members don’t get to choose where they are stationed and if local laws will prevent them from getting legal healthcare that is available in other parts of the country. Since Federal law prevents DOD from providing abortion services, they have to seek it on their own. Like any healthcare procedure not available where they are stationed the DOD will cover the cost of travel to seek the care. It’s only political because right wing extremists have made it political.
Second, Tuberville and Paul are just Senators. They are each just one of a hundred in half of a co-equal branch of government. They are not Constitutionally allowed to singularly dictate federal law or policy. If they want to change the law or amend regulations all Tuberville needs to do is write a bill or an amendment, work with colleagues to get cosponsors and supporters, submit the bill to the Senate for processing in committee and if put forward, a vote in front of the entire Senate. That is the process. That’s how a Senator changes the law.
It's not by throwing a tantrum and simply sticking his fingers in his ears and closing his eyes like a petulant child. The DOD must not give into this hostage taking any more than we would to Hamas and their demands.
Third, with over 300 promotions now on hold it would essentially eat the entire Senate calendar to pass them all. It is not physically possible to individually pass each promotion and it will only serve to completely shut down the Senate for normal business.
The obvious answer
Often the answer to a question is the most obvious. The fact is that Tommy Tuberville is stupid and lazy. There isn’t some master plan to delay these promotions until Trump is re-elected. He isn’t trying to do Putin’s bidding by undermining the war in Ukraine. The former football coach with an physical education bachelor’s degree is just a stupid and lazy person who thought he could manipulate the Biden Administration into doing his bidding and when they called his bluff, painted himself into a corner he can’t get out of.
Tuberville insists on being called ‘Coach’ even as her serves in the Senate and prides himself on his supposed military heritage as his father served in World War II. But, he is also monumentally dumb. For years he has said his father “earned 5 Bronze Stars” in combat when in fact he was referring to his five bronze service stars on his medal for deploying to the combat zone signifying the theaters he served in. Not the actual medal for combat services and/or bravery.
Tuberville recently was strongly rebuked when he had the audacity to sit on the Senate Armed Services Committee and tell a witness that absolutely no one on the committee was “more military than me.” Senator Mark Kelly, a Navy veteran and former astronaut, took note that at least four of the committee members were actual veterans and three of them served in combat. Tuberville never served a day in his life and ran a fake foundation for veterans that he had to close down after I sparked a media investigation over his illegal record keeping during the 2020 campaign.
The answer is he is a deeply and mind numbing idiot of a man and this falls on the Republicans to solve this impasse and to do so immediately. The real cowards here are the other Republicans who are silently sitting by the side letting this go on. Where is Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and his leadership team? Why have they allowed their caucus to undermine national security?
Projecting weakness
One of the major attack lines that Republican after Republican has used against President Biden since the attack by Hamas is that this is a result of the Administration “projecting weakness” on the global stage. Nothing could be closer to the truth but further away.
The weakness being projected to the world is that a major political party of the United States has given itself over to an extremist wing that is attacking our own government, politicizing our military, and undermining our national security like nothing since the Civil War.
The Republican Party is telling the world that any despot and dictator can do whatever they want as long as it makes Biden, and the Democrats look bad and gets them more clicks and clips from Fox News. The ruthless enemies of the world are watching, and they know the GOP has their backs to tie the hands of the United States.
We must defeat them at the ballot box and pressure them to do their jobs. Our national security demands it.
Of course, feel free to give him a call too.
We are the laughingstock of the world because of stupid sh-t like this (not to mention the chaos in the House, the constant shutdowns of the federal government, or the threat thereof, etc., etc.).....................
My biggest fear is that, thanks primarily to the previous election of Donald Chump, and the current chaos of the GOP, the world will essentially become destabilized. Before Chump was elected the world could look to the U.S. as a stabilizing power with a mighty military that could deploy rapidly to any part of the world, as the need arose. During the Chump years we became a worldwide political laughingstock, and now the GOP has kneecapped the military to the point that those countries being led by the despots and dictators are not afraid to make major military moves because they know we are at a point of governmental weakness. The terrifying part is that the GOP does not recognize their part in this world destabilization, and they are not making any effort to correct their childish behaviors.