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Foreign Policy GOP Joe Biden Social Media

Lindsey Graham Uses Call With Ukrainian President To Bash Biden And Gets Ripped A New One On Twitter

On Saturday, several members of Congress spoke with Ukrainian President Voldomyr Zelenskyy via Zoom, and after the video call was finished, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) decided he’d post a video on Twitter what he called the “takeaways” of the conversation, even though doing so could well present a security risk for Zelenskyy.

Graham, however, like so many Republicans who have never and will never be President of the United States, couldn’t resist trying to pretend he knows something about foreign policy and diplomacy, even though the only thing he’s ever succeeded at is whining and complaining.

In his video of what he discussed with Zelenskyy, Graham included what can only be called a subtle but pointed criticism of President Joe Biden and the administration, remarking:

“Apparently, the United States is part of the problem, not the solution.” 

Yes, know-nothing, feckless members of the Senate who try to run foreign policy instead of staying in their lane are indeed part of the problem and have no solutions to anything.

Twitter lit up with mockery, snark, and anger aimed directly at the South Carolina Republican.

https://twitter.com/mosderdamm/status/1500146542325477379?s=20&t=U9aI-vT6gkhEFKXHHO3l3g
https://twitter.com/Potterchik/status/1500146861239377924?s=20&t=U9aI-vT6gkhEFKXHHO3l3g
https://twitter.com/JerseyMosquito/status/1500147024259395590?s=20&t=U9aI-vT6gkhEFKXHHO3l3g

https://twitter.com/RebelSnowOwl/status/1500150632241516549?s=20&t=U9aI-vT6gkhEFKXHHO3l3g
https://twitter.com/DorseyFilm/status/1500146889332690949?s=20&t=U9aI-vT6gkhEFKXHHO3l3g

No one wants to hear your crap, Lindsey. Sit down and shut the hell up.

Categories
Foreign Policy GOP WTF?!

Former Trump Administration Official Whines That Russia Is Being ‘Canceled’ For Invading Ukraine

Monica Crowley is a former Fox News host who later got a job in the Trump administration as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Public Affairs, even though her only qualifications were that she’d once been a host on Fox News.

And now Crowley is showing up on Fox to make a complete fool of herself as she comments on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, telling host Jesse Watters that Russia is being “canceled” just because they illegally invaded another sovereign nation:

“Look, Russia is now being canceled, right? I mean, between the fierce Ukrainian resistance and the widespread international financial sanctions and boycotts, and Russian teams being barred from international competition, Russia is being canceled.”

Of course, the idea of something being “canceled” is part of a larger narrative that the right-wing has been pushing for years now. If someone makes a disgusting statement and faces backlash for it, they’re supposedly being canceled. If people decide to boycott a business because they refuse to serve the LGBTQ community and that impacts their bottom line, that’s canceling something.

And yet, conservatives have no problem saying certain books shouldn’t be allowed in schools because they show the horror of slavery or reassure young people it’s OK to be different, to be an individual, and to love whoever you want.

Twitter wasn’t having any of Crowley’s whiny bullshit:

https://twitter.com/dyerson_s/status/1498832873171812357?s=20&t=bvhQSXd8GwTvarBVXh-Qhg

Categories
Donald Trump Foreign Policy The Trump Adminstration WTF?!

Delusional Trump Gets Slammed For Saying NATO Wouldn’t Exist If It Wasn’t For Him

Even though failed, twice-impeached former President Donald Trump is known for being a habitual liar and malignant narcissist, something he claimed today has set off a wave of angry responses.

In a statement he had his spokesperson, Liz Harrington, post on Twitter (since the one-term ex-president remains banned from the platform), Trump boldly claimed that were it not for him, the NATO alliance wouldn’t exist:

“I hope everyone is able to remember that it was me, as President of the United States, that got delinquent NATO members to start paying their dues, which amounted to hundreds of billions of dollars. There would be no NATO if I didn’t act strongly and swiftly. Also, it was me that got Ukraine the very effective anti-tank busters (Javelins) when the previous Administration was sending blankets. Let History so note!”

Talk about revisionist history. The Donald is now claiming that NATO would have crumbled if he hadn’t been president, despite the fact that he signaled on several occasions it might be time to disband the alliance, which was formed in 1949.

In 2019, NBC News reported:

The Russian Orthodox church celebrated Christmas on Jan. 7, but President Vladimir Putin received his present from America a few days late. The destruction or weakening of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has been the goal of Soviet and Russian leaders since the organization’s creation following World War II. New reports that President Donald Trump repeatedly discussed with advisors his conviction that the United States should leave NATO represent nothing short of a triumph for Russian national security policy — even if nothing definitive has happened (yet).

Who would have benefitted from the U.S. leaving NATO? Putin and Russia. And had Trump done so, the Russian army would likely have already gobbled up every member of the alliance within a 1,000-mile radius of Moscow.

It didn’t take long before pushback to Trump’s bullshit began to appear on social media:

https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1498317154361487360?s=20&t=QNnUED29AS87_aU6HmU2ZQ

When July 4 rolls around, will Trump claim the Declaration of Independence was his idea, too?

Categories
Foreign Policy GOP WTF?!

Lauren Boebert: Ukraine Needs To Be ‘Liberated’ From Oppression, But So Does Canada

For some time now, it’s been painfully obvious that Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) isn’t exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer, and that her main “talent” as it were is saying stupid shit that leaves people shaking their heads in disbelief.

As you’d expect, the Colorado Republican spoke at the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) convention in Orlando, Florida this weekend, but it was something she said after she’d finished her speech that set off a firestorm of mockery on Twitter.

Speaking with Fox Nation hosts Pete Hegseth and Kayleigh McEnany, Boebert was asked about the situation in Ukraine, where Russian troops have invaded and are now advancing on the capital city of Kyiv. She remarked:

“I pray for Ukraine and I wish them the best. They have a great president right now, who really said clearly, live free or die. He said, ‘I don’t need a ride, give me ammunition. The fight is right here.'”

Hey, that’s actually a great statement. Bobert deserves credit for that. We all wish the people of Ukraine the very best as they endure an attack from the Russian military.

But it was what Boebert said next that completely ruined her previous good work:

“But we also have neighbors to the north who need freedom and who need to be liberated and we need that right here at home.”

Apparently, Boebert thinks Canada needs “freedom” because Prime Minister Justin Trudeau dared to clear a convoy of trucks that had been parked on a bridge leading to the United States. The reason for the so-called “Freedom Convoy” was supposedly because a tiny percentage of Canadian truck drivers (less than 10%) don’t want to get vaccinated for COVID, so they decided to punish the rest of the country to satisfy their own selfishness.

Let the mockery begin:

https://twitter.com/TBprogressive/status/1498020918534160385?s=20&t=9wmiQd-_ZIpSCMs-qItIMw
https://twitter.com/ChrisTromp4/status/1498033304469184516?s=20&t=9wmiQd-_ZIpSCMs-qItIMw

Categories
Foreign Policy Russia Vladimir Putin

Putin ‘Startled’ By Anti-War Protests In Russia – And Terrified They Signal An ‘Uprising’ Against Him

As Russian troops continue to attack Ukraine at the behest of Russian President and mass murderer Vladimir Putin, there are increasing reports that anti-war protests are taking place across the country in response to the sudden incursion into a neighboring country.

The Guardian reports:

Vladimir Putin has said there is broad public support for the invasion of Ukraine that he announced just before dawn on Thursday morning. But by evening, thousands of people in cities across Russia had defied police threats to take to central squares and protest against the military campaign.

Police had made at least 1,702 arrest in 53 Russian cities as of Thursday evening, according to the OVD-Info monitor, as they cracked down on the unsanctioned protests. Most of the arrests were made in Moscow and St Petersburg, where the crowds were largest.

The protesters chanted: “No to war!” as they exchanged shocked reactions to the attack on Ukraine.

If Putin expected the Russian people to support his unproved attack without saying a word, it appears he was badly mistaken, and that, according to a noted Russia expert, must have the Russian leader terrified.

Appearing on CNN, David Remnick, who has researched and written on Russia for decades, was asked what he thought about whether or not Putin actually wants to try and rebuild the old Soviet Union. He responded:

“I think in a sense that what Biden seemed to be talking about the re-creation of this old Soviet Union — and all 15 of what were republics and what are now independent nations — is not only impossible but crazily expensive. Why did empires collapse all over the world, historically, not only the Soviet Union but Austria-Hungary and all the rest? Empire is expensive. Russia is not a wealthy country. Its entire economy is the size of the economy of Texas. And most of those resources come right out of energy extractions and very fragile economy for a country that large. Today we saw the ruble crater. We saw the Russian stock market crater.”

Remnick then turned his focus to the anti-war protests which began shortly after the Russian military began its illegal incursion into Ukraine:

“We also saw something very curious, and I have to say maybe even unexpected. Despite the continuing crackdown on dissent in Russia that’s been going on for years, we saw protests of modest scale in dozens of Russian cities. And over — according to one report over 1,500 arrests, brutal arrests and so on. So to see politics on the street is, I think, startling to Vladimir Putin as what he dreads the most, what he fears the most is some kind of uprising against him. And so we — we’re coming to a reckoning here where internal Russian politics are concerned, too.”

All of this, Remnick concluded, suggests that Putin may not know exactly how he can extricate himself from the precarious position he has created for his country, which could lead to his downfall:

“The question here that has to be at the center is, what does Vladimir Putin think he’s doing? Toward what end? How, in any way, does this help bring prosperity or even security to Russia? What threat is he responding to? Was Ukraine threatening Russia? Was NATO threatening Russia? No. I think that Putin, in large measure — not to make this into a novel — but in large measure, is responding to his own self-drama as a man of great power and wanting to expand Russian power, revive Russian power, after his failure to bring prosperity to Russia after 22 years in power.”

That last line is especially telling when it comes to Putin: He has failed to bring prosperity to Russia after 22 years in power. So now he thinks he can make up for that failure by invading his neighbors and threatening the NATO alliance. Sounds like a scenario that ends with Vladimir in a bunker under the Kremlin, gun in one hand and a dose of cyanide in the other. Here’s hoping that scenario plays out soon.