Senate Republicans

Support Of Israel And Ukraine Linked, Especially For American Jews!

Military support for both Israel and Ukraine has become essential to promote and preserve democracy against Hamas and Russian authoritarianism.

Particularly for American Jews, and Jews around the world, there is an emotional commitment to preservation of both nations’ ability to survive against massive threats to their sovereignty.

Personally, this author and blogger, being Jewish and whose ancestry is from Ukraine, and with Israel being the national homeland of the Jewish people, feels a special affinity to continued support for both nations.

The vast majority of the Democratic Party is behind continued support of Israel and Ukraine, while many Senate Republicans and some House Republicans agree.

But the MAGA Republican element, as respresented by Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan’s bid to be Speaker, are a dire threat to Ukraine, and unreliable on their Israeli support, as they bow to the evil of Donald Trump, who now attacks Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for accepting Joe Biden’s victory in 2020, and praises Hezbollah, the threat to Israel from Lebanon. And Trump was impeached in 2019 for trying to force Ukraine to help him against Joe Biden, and is a known supporter of Vladimir Putin and the Russian Federation!

Pulitzer Prize Board Upholds Awards Of 2018 To NY Times, Washington Post, On Trump-Russian Collusion In 2016 Presidential Election!

The NY Times and Washington Post, the two “national” newspapers, have received the most Pulitzer Prizes for Journalism in American history–with the NY Times winning 132 and the Washington Post 65.

In 2018, both newspapers won the Pulitzer Prize once again, for their reporting of the Donald Trump Presidential campaign in 2016 colluding with the Russians and Vladimir Putin to help defeat Hillary Clinton.

Donald Trump was and remains outraged by such accusations, although a Senate Republican committee in 2019 reaffirmed the truth about that election, that Trump’s narrow victory in three states was fixed!

But now, the Pulitzer Prize Foundation has upheld the correctness of the awards given four years ago, a reaffirmation of freedom of the press and promotion of the truth!

The Republican Party Is More Horrendous Than Ever!

It is hard to believe, but the Republican Party in Congress is more horrendous than ever before!

A party which used to have a substantial number of moderate Senators in the past has gone totally nuts!

Yesterday, this author and blogger condemned the handling of the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson by Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, including Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Lindsey Graham, and Tom Cotton.

Now Marsha Blackburn is added to that list making fools of themselves in the hearings.

But even outside of that issue, now we have Indiana Senator Mike Braun who says that Interracial Marriage, declared constitutional in Loving V Virginia in 1967, should never have been accomplished by the Supreme Court.

This is part of setting constitutional law backwards, along with the threat to abortion rights Roe V Wade (1973), and Griswold V Connecticut (1965), which promoted the constitutional right to sexual privacy and legalized contraception for married couples.

Although Braun now has backtracked, it is clear that leave it to the Republicans, and they would interfere with the privacy rights of Americans, not only interracial marriage, abortion, and contraception, but also gay marriage, if given the opportunity.

This is right wing totalitarianism, denial of basic human rights, and going back to the years before the Warren Court (1953-1969) and forward!

Rational Republicans Are Deciding To Abandon Office, Or Leaving The Party!

Rational Republicans, facing bitter attacks, and threats, are deciding to abandon office, or leaving the party.

There is a need for a strong, alternative party in a democracy, so the need is present for those who are Republicans to stay and fight.

But Congressman Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio has decided not to run for reelection after four years in the House of Representatives, after having voted to impeach Donald Trump after the January 6, 2021 US Capitol Insurrection.

And New Hampshire state legislator William Marsh has become so disgusted that he has announced he is becoming a Democrat, after attacks on him for insisting on an appropriate COVID-19 Vaccine and Mask Mandate, bitterly opposed by the Republican Party locally and nationally.

Others, such as Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois have joined the January 6 House Committee investigation, with Cheney being Vice Chairman, working with Democrats to push the probe.

Both face a difficult path for reelection, as do the other House Republicans and Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, who also voted to impeach Donald Trump, and face the voters in 2022.

The 35 House Republicans Who Supported Creation Of A January 6 Insurrection Commission, But Will Senate Republicans Follow?

The number of House Republicans who supported the impeachment of Donald Trump in January, after the US Capitol Insurrection of January 6, was ten members.

The number of House Republicans who voted last week to support the creation of a January 6 Insurrection Commission is 35 members, which is one sixth of the Republican House membership, with 175 Republicans voting against the bill.

They come from 23 states, including 4 from New York; and 2 each from Florida, Texas, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Washington, Nebraska, Utah, and Arkansas.

The other states are California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Oregon, Indiana, South Carolina, West Virginia, Iowa, Wyoming, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Idaho.

The big question is whether 10 Republican Senators would go along with the creation of the January 6 Commission, and one would think the 7 Senators who voted to convict Trump in February 2021 (Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Pat Toomey, Richard Burr, and Bill Cassidy) would do so, but already it seems unlikely that will happen!

It is believed that up to 15 Republican Senators “might’ support the creation of the Commission, but no certainty, when it should be supported by all who want the unvarnished truth!

In any case, there will be a House Commission formed by Nancy Pelosi, and the Republicans will nnly harm their own reputations, and their political futures, by working to deny a full investigation, with their full participation.

Covering up or denying reality will not play well, and will only doom the Republican Party future!

Barack Obama And The American People Given A Christmas Gift By The Caving Of The House Republicans And Speaker John Boehner!

The House Republicans, led by Speaker of the House John Boehner, caved in this afternoon, under pressure from the Wall Street Journal, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Karl Rove, and numerous Senate Republicans including a new convert, Senator John McCain of Arizona, and agreed to the two month temporary extension of the payroll tax cut, unemployment compensation, and delay in Medicare cuts to doctors.

The House Republicans were pushed into a corner, and this is a major victory for the American people, the Democrats, and President Barack Obama, who finally took a no negotiation stand and forced the hand of Boehner, Eric Cantor, and the Tea Party radicals.

The effect of this victory is that Boehner has been weakened as Speaker; the Tea Party radicals have been shown to be destructive to the nation at large; Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy, the chief deputies to Boehner, have been shown for the deceit they practiced on Boehner in their mad rush to seize power from him; and this event has likely assured a Democratic majority in both houses of Congress!

The Republicans have, symbolically, shot themselves in the foot, and will have trouble convincing the American people that they care about the middle class, and that they are not beholden to the corporations and the top one percent wealthy in this country!

Barack Obama looks a lot stronger and more assertive as a result of this confrontation, and with Ron Paul rising in Iowa, and being exposed for his racist and anti Semitic past, and with the GOP in total disarray, the odds of Obama winning reelection have improved tremendously!

Senate Republican Obstructionism: Not A Winning Strategy!

The House Republicans disgraced themselves by their behavior this weekend as that chamber passed the Health Care reform legislation.

Now the Senate Republicans, led by Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, and with the full backing of John McCain, have decided to be totally obstructionist, and to pledge to do everything to delay or prevent the “reconciliation” bill designed to make the newly minted Health Care reform better than it presently is.

So, as a result, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid plans all night sessions to prevent delay in the enactment of “reconciliation” beyond this pre Easter week.

If the Senate Republicans think this is a good image they are presenting the nation, they will soon discover how wrong they are!

Already, the first polls out after the enactment of Health Care reform indicate that 49 percent favor the legislation, compared to 40 percent opposed.

The GOP is about to have a rude awakening! Health Care reform is here to stay, even with 14 states trying to promote its repeal in the courts!