Category Archives: Democrats

The Do-Nothing Republicans’ Reliable Impotence And Inaction

Argument, Democrats, Donald Trump, Elections, IMMIGRATION, Republicans, South-Africa, The Establishment

A previous blog post, “In Praise Of The Whip: To Whip Or To Rein Is Not The Question,” highlighted the anatomy of a typical Republican retort to the perennial winners, the Democrats.

It is always the Democrats that set the terms of the debate. Republicans simply internalize the rules of the game set by their masters, the Democrats,  and then play a reactive, rather than a proactive, game. Panting hard. Mentally unfit and flaccid.

Before Trump, those who crashed the Southern border conducted themselves as they are doing now.

During the Trump presidency, a “bureaucratic wall was erected, “expelling every unauthorized immigrant on the southern border.” Trump had tightened eligibility criteria for asylum-seekers at the border, as well as forcing a wait in Mexico while decisions were being made. Glacially.

The US doesn’t have borders, a fact President Trump tried hard to remedy by erecting a “bureaucratic wall.”

US laws permit anyone—other than white South Africans—to arrive at that border, do their Les Misérables act, claim to face a “credible fear” back home, get a court date, and bolt like so many rabbits, to be seen again only at the voting booth, the welfare office, the DMV and at DACA demonstrations.

Have you heard how loud the Haitians interviewed complain? Not once have I heard gracious, civilizing, polite words, such as “please” and “thank you.” Instead, it’s, “America hasn’t provided us with food, a place to sleep, to bathe; healed my baby”. Already entitled and angry, these are people who are coming here not to forge a better life, but to receive one. The incoming Haitians are the future malcontents holding up signs that read “America is racist.”

What all the veiled allusions to “catch-and-release loopholes in American immigration law” imply is this: Ostensibly, there’s no way to turn interlopers away once they plonk themselves on the US border, demand a translator and spin some yarn.

Republicans had the opportunity to change the law when, a few years back, they dominated both Congress and Senate,  the presidency and the gubernatorial field. They opted against it. The immigration tipping point has long since come and gone.

Against the impotency of the Republicans, observe the Democrats. These vampiric operatives have focused the first term of the Biden presidency on using the DOJ, the Security and the Surveillance State to destroy Trump and as many of his followers as possible. These good people have been thoroughly marginalized and demonized—their country made diverse to the point of distrust.

The best the GOP can do for you, MAGA America, is a LETTER. The World is flowing into the US, no end in sight. Instead of on-camera vigils at the Open Border, impeachment attempts, law suits, state legislation, daily pressers; Republican have been penning polite letters about the threat at our Southern border from terrorists. More recent laughable, ‘dear Democrat’ letters from the GOP have inquired whence go the Haitians once released, all via a polite letter campaign. Letters—and TV visits with Tucker to commiserate.

* Image credit

With Friends Like Gen. Mark Benedict Milley, America Doesn’t Need Enemies

Britain, China, Democrats, Foreign Policy, Military, Republicans

NEW ON HARD TRUTH: In “With Friends Like Gen. Mark Benedict Milley, America Doesn’t Need Enemies,” David Vance and myself marvel at the institutional tolerance in the United States—among spineless Republicans, especially—for Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff:

In the dying days of the Trump presidency, Milley is alleged to have contacted the Chinese to promise them he’d give them plenty notice if the United States were to attack them. Azimuths and all, presumably.

Finally, pundits are using the “T” word; pundits, but not Republicans on Capitol Hill.

WATCH:

OR, LISTEN AND SUBSCRIBE TO THE HARD TRUTH PODCAST:

Sure enough—and this is so very curious—Fox News has shelved the Milley breaking-news story, on its website and in live reporting. As David and I were had predicted, the GOP and its TV appendage would back-down.

Who Are The ‘Trapped’ ‘Americans Living In Afghanistan’? Nobody Has Asked

America, Conservatism, Democrats, Foreign Policy, Islam, Journalism, Media, Terrorism

Who the hell are these “Americans living in Afghanistan”? What are they doing in such inhospitable climes, in a country most of whose people hated the American presence?

I can’t find a thing on their nationalities, origins, whereabouts, and occupations, although my guess is that U.S. citizens in Afghanistan lived within army erected green zones, paid for by American taxpayers.

And what is their business in Afghanistan? The incurious moron media never ask (although watch conservatives who monitor dissident content miraculously come up with these questions following publication of this material).

Growing up in Israel, I recall many Israelis, in those days, went to Africa to help a few friendly nations learn how to … farm in the desert, something Israel had perfected. What are our citizens doing in Afghanistan? Is nobody curious?

The blowhards on Fox News have been whooping it up with partisan battle cries such as, “Hostages, Americans behind enemy lines. Teach the Taliban a lesson, Corn Pop.”

Dare I ask if these Americans are making money off military contracts, the spoils of the military-industrial-complex?

My colleague, David Vance, did some digging. He sends a likely breakdown of “Americans in Afghanistan,” via “Danger Zone Jobs, which tracks more than 300 companies with overseas contracting jobs in Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries.” It reeks:

“US troops remain in Afghanistan and as many analysts pointed out, the military numbers, whatever they end up being, have typically been supported by even more private contractors. As long as troops are on the ground in Afghanistan, civilian contractors will be there with them. …The two primary sources of jobs in Afghanistan are with private contractors supporting the military and companies who subcontract to various international relief and development efforts.”

“Approximately 29,389 DoD contractors supported operations in Afghanistan during 1st quarter FY19, an increase of 16.4% from 4th quarter FY18. Local Nationals comprise 21.5% of total contractor force; 23,078 US/TCN remain to redeploy.”

The distribution of contractors in Afghanistan by mission category are:

Base Support 4,140 (14.1%)
Construction 2,113 (7.2%)
IT/Communications Support 951 (3.2%)
Logistics/Maintenance 9,271 (31.5%)
Management/Administrative 1,881 (6.4%)
Medical/Dental/Social Services 88 (0.2%)
Other 690 (2.4%)
Security 4,842 (16.5%)
Training 1,372 (4.7%)
Translator/Interpreter 2,138 (7.3%)
Transportation 1,903 (6.5%)
Total: 29,389

MORE.

*Image care of WSJ.

Afghanistan And The Sunk-Cost Fallacy

Argument, Democrats, Economy, Foreign Policy, Homeland Security, Military, Neoconservatism, Republicans, War

Joe Biden is right in his “Remarks on Afghanistan“: “… if Afghanistan is unable to mount any real resistance to the Taliban now, there is no chance that 1 year — 1 more year, 5 more years, or 20 more years of U.S. military boots on the ground would’ve made any difference.”

Tempting as it may be for right-thinking conservatives and paleolibertarians, in particular, to use the inevitable collapse of the charade in Afghanistan against Biden—honesty demand we avoid it.

TV Republicans, no doubt, will join the shrill CNN females and their houseboys, who love nothing more than to export the nanny state, in bashing Biden for his decisive withdrawal. The president said, “I stand squarely behind my decision. After 20 years, I’ve learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw U.S. forces.”

Falling into the Republican line of partisan, tit-for-tat retorts is wrong. The man made the right choice—as opposed to Barack Obama’s. Afghanistan was a war Obama had adopted.

Beware especially the military men, who will flood Fox New with the sunk-cost fallacy. As I explained in “GOP Should Grow A Brain, Join The Peace Train“:

Military movers and shakers are heavily vested in the sunk-cost fallacy—the irrational notion that more resources must be committed forthwith … so as to ‘redeem’ the original misguided commitment of men, money and materiel to the mission.

“To that end, repeated ad nauseam is the refrain about our ‘brave men and women of the military,’ whose sacrifice for [Afghani] ‘freedoms’ will be squandered unless more such sacrifices are made.

The Skeptic’s Dictionary dispels this illogic: ‘To continue to invest in a hopeless project is irrational. Such behavior may be a pathetic attempt to delay having to face the consequences of one’s poor judgment. The irrationality is a way to save face, to appear to be knowledgeable, when in fact one is acting like an idiot.’

Besides, it’s time the military heed its paymasters, The American People, a majority of whom don’t want to send U.S. soldiers back into Afghanistan.”