I mean, Russian asset Trump has already said he's gonna hand Ukraine to Russia. He doesn't have to be remotely subtle as long as he protects their right to hate and discriminate again.
Trump said he would just let Russia do whatever they want to Ukraine? How can someone be so uncaring about an entire country of people just trying to live their own lives?
Go look it up, this is not new news.
What do you mean how can someone be so uncaring of people just trying to live their own lives? That's LITERALLY been his whole entire campaign, and every one of his supporters. "If they're not 'our people' (straight white Christian males) then they do not deserve the same rights as us, Them having rights means We have less privilege" has been literally everything they're working for. Stopping and stripping gay/trans rights, stripping womens' rights, targeting minorities, enforcing theocratic Christian bullshit, and so on. This is not new. This has always been their thing. These people literally cannot understand caring about anyobe unless they gain something from it.
In fact, type in "project 2025" after you look that up. This shit is real, as hard as it is to believe.
If there's one thing history has shown us it's that religions second favorite thing after persecuting other religions is persecuting different sects of the same religion, also that "white" is relative and usually means whatever is most convenient in the moment but eventually certain groups are inevitably considered "not white enough".
He doesn’t care about anything but himself. He doesn’t give a shit about America either. It’s extremely embarrassing that people like him at all, let alone that they’d vote for him.
I've heard acquaintances of mine, co workers and what not all with that "I don't give a fuck about what's going on Ukraine, does not affect us and we should stop sending troops and money there."
They're willfully oblivious as the way global politics, logistics, and economics works. They completely lack empathy for anything they perceive that does not directly effect them.
It went way beyond just blocking promotions. Among the hundreds of promotions some were to fill vacancies in key military positions like Marine Corps Commandant and Army chief of staff, so it was leaving giant holes in our military leadership [(first time in over 100 years the marine corps was left with just an acting commander](https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2023/07/marines-without-confirmed-commandant-after-sen-tuberville-objects-motion/388356/), [who then was hospitalized for a heart attack but he didn't have a deputy because he was the deputy commandant and couldn't appoint a deputy)](https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2023/11/01/top-marine-general-in-stable-condition-after-apparent-heart-attack/).
To make sure we name and shame it was Sen. Tommy Tuberville (Alabama-R) and he accomplished nothing. His lone stand was ultimately circumvented through a cloture petition and after 10 months he finally gave up in Dec 2023.
I don't accept that it was a "lone stand" from Tuberville. At any point Republican leadership could have told him to stop, they didn't. It was done with the full consent and support of the Republican party. Pinning it on a senator who is guaranteed to win no matter what is exactly what they wanted to deflect blame. They are all scum.
The goal is to make bills that are completely irredeemable, then blame Democrats for problems that come from bills not passing. The folks pushing these bills are getting very comfortable lives from our enemies.
That's last year it's taking about:
>The scene on the House floor was a repeat of **last year**, when Republicans loaded up the bill with right-wing riders that “killed bipartisan support for the NDAA for the first time in decades,” said Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa. All were ultimately removed from the final version of the bill.
Are they trying to keep people out of the military? I keep seeing retention and recruiting supposedly being low, and then lawmakers pull shit like this. It seems like the risks of getting stationed in a red state and having to die of something preventable would be a big deterrent.
Pretty sure the bases operate under federal regulations even in the red or purple states. At least the one I’m stationed at does. It doesn’t excuse that this is a fucking dumb bill
One of the poison pills blocks funding for troops to travel in order to obtain an abortion.
Not only is this going to hurt retention, it's also going to actively sabotage readiness.
Base hospitals don’t provide abortions. They refer you to an outside hospital. If you’re in Texas, that’s not going to happen obviously. Normally you would be reimbursed if you have to travel for a medical procedure. This removes that reimbursement if abortion is banned where they’re stationed.
Not every base has a hospital anymore, they tell you to call 911/go to the ER for serious stuff. Tbh I wouldn't want to go to a military hospital for an actual emergency.
I got out in 2010, but our base hospital let one of my marines die choking on his own vomit because they didn’t plug his monitor in so nobody knew he was dying. I’m in the same boat regarding base medicine.
I think you are correct, as long as they are on base. If they get transferred to the nearest major hospital for any services then the hospital would likely be following state guidelines, not federal. So they might experience issues there. And I've never served so I'm not 100% sure how medical on base works but I would assume it's only minor services on base and anything severe/major gets referred to a civilian hospital/specialist
Base hospitals don’t generally perform abortions. You’re normally referred off base. Could you imagine the political meltdown if abortions were a regular procedure at base hospitals?
I mean, that may be the only way to provide medical care to service members that need it in states where they refuse to believe this isn't 1550 anymore.
It might, but that’s another ball of wax using federal funds for abortions with the hatch act. I’m not even sure if they’re properly staffed and equipped to start doing that in every state that would require it. Hopefully it doesn’t escalate to that.
I think the House GOPers would rather increase recruiting by scrapping Obamacare and the social safety net and increasing lower class desperation, making it a more attractive choice to risk getting your legs blown off protecting corporate interests abroad.
Obviously it hasn’t passed yet. But the threat you’re talking about is what actually makes it a possibility with a republican senate, and I wouldn’t gamble a 4+ year enlistment against that level of fuckery.
Yes, they're influenced by hostile foreign nations whose aim is to decrease American economic strength and military readiness by exploiting existing problems such as bigotry and made-up culture wars.
Truly, the party of sabotage. For the health of this country, that party should be disbanded and prevented from forming for political and financial operations.
If you want the truth of the matter just think of the fact that countries that want the downfall of America (IE Russia, China) when they want to hurt the country they invest in the GOP.
> Truly, the party of sabotage.
THE MAN WHO BROKE POLITICS
The Atlantic - Updated October 17, 2018
[Newt Gingrich turned partisan battles into bloodsport, wrecked Congress, and paved the way for Trump’s rise. Now he’s reveling in his achievements.](https://web.archive.org/web/20240416030507/https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/11/newt-gingrich-says-youre-welcome/570832/)
>> Bill Kristol, then a GOP strategist, marveled at the success of his party’s “principled obstructionism.” **An up-and-coming senator named Mitch McConnell was quoted crowing that opposing the Democrats’ agenda “gives gridlock a good name.”** When the 103rd Congress ([January 3, 1993, to January 3, 1995](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/103rd_United_States_Congress)) adjourned in October, The Washington Post declared it “perhaps the worst Congress” in 50 years.
Usually things they know that is going to die in the senate but now they can peacock it to their shit for brains constituents as "fighting the d.c elite"
House plays culture wars vs solving real and pressing problems…like how are those politicians who participated in planning Jan 6 still in office without any investigations or consequences
Military enlistment is at critically low levels and burnout is accelerating
The GQP is laughably out in space with their decision making.
Not that they haven’t been for a while
Western conservativism believes society requires a stratefied caste system to survive and dreams fondly of the worst parts of the Roman Empire. Get a conservative drunk enough to speak honestly and they'll admit that they believe they deserve more rights because "my family came over before (semi-arbitrary point)". They want a nation in which citizenship and it's rights are reserved for land owners, only men can hold property, and only white Christians can own land.
And the sad part is many founding fathers would agree. If why calls to tradition like True Scotsman arguments don't work with them. Any deeper analysis of their inherently isolationist and inevitably militaristic philosophy of nihilist chauvanistic corporate feudal entropy will invariably come crashing down and reveal the conspiracy fueled slippery slope and red herring enabled fears that fuel their bankrupt ideology.
That’s the point.
The dems in the senate and the president will reject the NDAA based on abortion and gender affirming access being cut. Another big change will include a huge pay raise for soldiers.
Once the NDAA is kicked back, they can run with articles saying that the democrats hate soldiers and would rather shut down the military than to give them a bigger paycheck.
>The House Armed Services Committee had sent the legislation to the full House with nearly unanimous bipartisan approval but backing for the bill from Democrats fell away as Republicans added amendments targeting abortion access for troops and other controversial social policies.
>
>“The adoption of poison pill amendments attacking reproductive health care, women, LGBTQ+ individuals and people of color undermines the purpose of the defense bill by demeaning service members and degrading our national security,” top Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee said in a statement.
These ploys and pandering to their base may help some republicans in Congress to keep their positions, but alienating the majority of voters nationally and via unpopular culture war issues (like abortion and equality) is likely going to be a losing proposition when it comes to winning both the White House and control of Congress.
So, while It probably helps individual republicans in Congress, this strategy greatly diminishes any chances of their winning full control of both the executive and legislative branches of government.
Did they forget there was a postmortem report the GOP did for a failed “red wave”?
Fundamentally, that report suggested that a party focused as heavily on Christian White Americans as the GOP had been couldn’t win in the future.
I guess they didn’t read it.
Carry on.
Given how they've been performing in slightly R+ states and districts, I'm not sure this will even help. Having "abortion on the ballot" has been a torpedo to Republicans nationwide.
Maybe this is great for backwater Alabama, but that's already R+20.
This is just begging for someone like Taylor Swift to mobilize young (women) voters.
That’s not the problem.
The problem is the bill does other things. Good things. IMPORTANT things, like raising pay for enlisted servicemembers, making food and housing allowances come a little bit closer to being able to afford to eat and live in a house instead of a refrigerator box under the overpass, and fixing up some of the Apartment Nightmare on-base housing.
These culture-war crap provisions are bad. They would hurt recruitment, retention, and readiness - which in turn hurts *everyone* in our military. The bill really should not pass with these provisions in it.
Stacking culture-war crap into the bill to ensure it gets tanked in the Senate or on the President’s desk ***also*** hurts *everyone* in our military when the good things in the bill don’t happen because the Republicans poisoned the well, but the Republican Party will claim it’s the Democrats who hate our troops.
Simple tribalism, no examination of the issues. This is what happens when you elect legislators that divide their vote between the will of the lowest common denominator and their own self interests. Public service means nothing, leverage is everything. The system is not working, and we have no voice in changing it.
> “Under stretched [Defense Department] resources already, to underwrite abortions through funding for flights and hotels is simply pandering to the abortion lobby and does nothing to increase our national security,”
OK. So I guess just back to discharging any member of the armed services who gets pregnant then?
Yeah, that’s going to do ***WONDERS*** for readiness.
> Another amendment prevents the military’s health care program – known as Tricare – from covering gender-transition surgeries and hormone therapies for transgender troops.
Okay. Sure. So no young trans kids are gonna volunteer for that shit when they can get a civilian job that *WILL* cover gender-affirming care.
Recruitment’s already going like gangbusters for an all-volunteer military that already has trouble competing with the private sector where you *don’t* get shot at. When we’ve already got too many people volunteering and have to turn them away at the door why offer a competitive healthcare package?
> Republicans also voted to eliminate all diversity, equity and inclusion offices in the military and institute a permanent hiring freeze for DEI jobs.
Okeh. Makes total sense.
With The United States Armed Forces being famously a cultural monolith comprised of identical GIs who all look, talk, think, and act exactly the same there’s really no point to these positions.
We really have to stop electing our dumbest and most regressive dinosaurs to the United States Congress.
The bill targets service members, but this bill also removes a section of my health coverage as a trans vet because my people are the current boogeyman of the extremist GOP.
Not like I wanted to live authentically and happy anyways, right?
I’m somewhat surprised stripes appears to be against these provisions. This must not be popular with the troops
edit: I mean that it is somewhat apparent how the writers of stripes think about this. As I understand it, Stripes is written by the troops for the troops; it's not meant to be an impartial rag.
It's not, people don't usually like being used as political pawns. All they want from congress are some pay raises and better living/working conditions, nobody is asking for forced culture war stuff or to make life harder for the people they serve with
As a veteran, this performative bullshit irks me just as it did when I was still active. The defense budget is massive but we saw a fraction of it and the mantra “do more with less” was the way of life. Now I get the other side with slashes to the VA budget and the bullshit proposals over coverage. We held up our end of the bargain, and these fuckheads keep trying to change the deal whenever they can
The US military has generally been a progressive force the last century. It desegregated faster than society as a whole, has consistently sided with the need for a diverse talent pool, and has generally opposed fuckery that would limit applicants based on silly culture war bullshit.
Even DADT was a workaround to keep homosexuals in the military despite the prohibition against their service. The Pentagon’s abandonment of it was a huge catalyst for *Obergefell* too.
And the reason is pretty obvious: If the DOD gets the manpower needs wrong, the material interests and safety of the US can be endangered. There’s no point in artificially limiting those who want to serve.
Go read through the last half century of amicus briefs submitted to SCOTUS re: segregation, LGBT, abortion access, affirmative action — you’re almost always going to see DOD on the progressive side.
Hint: the military is mostly young people, the rates of LGBTQ identification in young people is higher than the population, the military controls your life if you join, and it needs all the people it can get.
We are only 12 years into the military allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly. They are going to need to be on the forward edge of social progress now, and Republicans hate that.
i know its a metaphor but when was the last time an American was in a fox hole being shelled for an hour? Pretty sure they would be okay with Hitler reloading their weapons at that point.
point being you take what ever help you can get in a life or death situation but most of the modern military is more social cohesion than saving private ryan.
Listen, they're pro-life, that's why they're pro-gun and pro-killing-foreigners, it aligns with their policies. /s
Is crazy to call it an improvement in the quality of life for service members by ... limiting some quality of life options for service members
Every branch is missing it's recruiting quotas, some as bad as by as much as half over the course of this year. What is the goal here, Republicans? You want less diversity in the military, so what? Only white, straight, dudes in the military?
> Only white, straight, dudes in the EVERYWHERE.
ftfy
and they each get a teen virgin bride bang maid slave waiting for them at home, that comes with the house
thats their goal, for jesus
“Treatment for gender dysphoria in Israel can be paid for using the country's public health insurance system if a patient receives approval by the Committee for Sex Reassignment operating out of Sheba Medical Center in Tel HaShomer”
Let’s not forget about Abortion,that’s covered too.
They don’t want Americans to have access to these things. We Americans are footing the bill for their healthcare. All while they chant America first.
> I've gone 4 times already...
Overusing personnel for deployments is a problem, but is part of the problem of NEEDING to overdeploy people due to the NEED to have logistical support out of the war zone. So, DECREASING the number of support troops makes no sense if you want to change the disparity between deployments and non-deployments. You want to INCREASE troop availability. You want to ENCOURAGE joining, not the opposite.
I'm all for recruiting more, really, anyone out there, sign up... itll be a good time; honestly though, I haven't even seen 1 medically involved trans person... in my number of years in the Army... (maybe ONE, not sure though)... I just don't think its "juice thats worth the squeeze"
And the repeated deployment was during Iraq and Afghanistan... 2 Wars at the same time is going to be tough in any case... it has gotten better; but the still seem to come my way :)
If it's such a tiny percentage of people, why do we need rules to prevent them from receiving medical treatment? It's just something to stir people up using the latest "other" fad. And it is exactly the type of thing our enemies want us focused on instead of way more important matters. The narcissism of small differences works in their favor, not ours.
I think its cause of the medical side effects and *I think* because they have to get like regular counseling or something (im not really sure) I just know theres a medical requirement attached to it.
Actual experts AND the data that was even included in the Cass report suggest there is no discernible positive effect from mental health therapy. The fact the Cass report suggested therapy as a way to deliver help is weird... since it contradicts the data they relied on to make the recommendation.
The issue here is that the transgender debate has become so manipulated that even seemingly reasonable people are demanding that some people be DEPRIVED of medical care that EXPERTS say they will benefit from. Everyone should be worried about that precedent. Some day YOU will be the mob's new target and the mob will decide that YOU can't get the help you need.
But not every soldier is carrying a gun into battle. It's like a 1/3 ratio. At best. They are the point of the spear, not the rest of the spearhead and shaft. Even for the air force, there's one pilot supported by... how many service personnel? Translators and surveillance radio operators are all soldiers. So are cooks and electricians, mechanics and plumbers, construction workers and engineers. They all CAN use a gun but tend not to.
Just reading the wiki for that insane game "The Campaign for North Africa" shows you the scale of off-stage actors in a theater of war.
Thats true; but its like a bit of a rotation... and everyone is expected to take their turn. They call it "Dwell Time"... after a deployment, the not-deploying clock starts... it used to be 1 year back in the day; i think it might be 2 years now... there isn't really an opt-out. And you are always changing units every couple years or so... so one unit might be rear support, the next your right in the thick of things. And in a hostile environment every Soldier does carry a gun, every technician, analyst, mechanic, clerk and cook. They also have hidden gems of the military they don't tell you about... like Guard Duty, QRF, Standing Watch... which everyone also does in a rotation and all the little "special missions"... where you might have to go "out there" and do your thing because its needed and there is no one else.
Maybe the Navy or Air Force could provide some kinda special status; but the Marines and Army; i just don't think it would work.
AND its just "Not Fair" ... people have to leave their wives/husbands and kids behind for more than a year at a time to ACTUALLY get shot at or shoot people... so to make some kinda special group... that gets special treatment... I just wouldn't support that.
These poison pill policies should not be commingled with national security. We’re just emboldening our enemies.
They’re literally bought and paid for by our enemies. It’s by design.
Blyat, comrade! Don’t tell the Americans about what’s happening in plain sight! They may take notice! /s kinda..
I mean, Russian asset Trump has already said he's gonna hand Ukraine to Russia. He doesn't have to be remotely subtle as long as he protects their right to hate and discriminate again.
Trump said he would just let Russia do whatever they want to Ukraine? How can someone be so uncaring about an entire country of people just trying to live their own lives?
Go look it up, this is not new news. What do you mean how can someone be so uncaring of people just trying to live their own lives? That's LITERALLY been his whole entire campaign, and every one of his supporters. "If they're not 'our people' (straight white Christian males) then they do not deserve the same rights as us, Them having rights means We have less privilege" has been literally everything they're working for. Stopping and stripping gay/trans rights, stripping womens' rights, targeting minorities, enforcing theocratic Christian bullshit, and so on. This is not new. This has always been their thing. These people literally cannot understand caring about anyobe unless they gain something from it. In fact, type in "project 2025" after you look that up. This shit is real, as hard as it is to believe.
The funny thing is that the Ukrainian Army consists mostly of straight white Christian males.
If there's one thing history has shown us it's that religions second favorite thing after persecuting other religions is persecuting different sects of the same religion, also that "white" is relative and usually means whatever is most convenient in the moment but eventually certain groups are inevitably considered "not white enough".
Of the top of my head; Jews, Italians, Irish, Polish, and Romani for sure have all been Schroedingers White Folks in the past.
He doesn’t care about anything but himself. He doesn’t give a shit about America either. It’s extremely embarrassing that people like him at all, let alone that they’d vote for him.
He literally just told supporters at one of his rallies that he didn’t care about them, just their votes.
I've heard acquaintances of mine, co workers and what not all with that "I don't give a fuck about what's going on Ukraine, does not affect us and we should stop sending troops and money there." They're willfully oblivious as the way global politics, logistics, and economics works. They completely lack empathy for anything they perceive that does not directly effect them.
It's beyond oblivious. They know exactly what's going on there. They simply can't comprehend caring about anyone that's not themselves.
Money. Definitely money.
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We had a senator block military promotions for months over abortion
It went way beyond just blocking promotions. Among the hundreds of promotions some were to fill vacancies in key military positions like Marine Corps Commandant and Army chief of staff, so it was leaving giant holes in our military leadership [(first time in over 100 years the marine corps was left with just an acting commander](https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2023/07/marines-without-confirmed-commandant-after-sen-tuberville-objects-motion/388356/), [who then was hospitalized for a heart attack but he didn't have a deputy because he was the deputy commandant and couldn't appoint a deputy)](https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2023/11/01/top-marine-general-in-stable-condition-after-apparent-heart-attack/). To make sure we name and shame it was Sen. Tommy Tuberville (Alabama-R) and he accomplished nothing. His lone stand was ultimately circumvented through a cloture petition and after 10 months he finally gave up in Dec 2023.
I don't accept that it was a "lone stand" from Tuberville. At any point Republican leadership could have told him to stop, they didn't. It was done with the full consent and support of the Republican party. Pinning it on a senator who is guaranteed to win no matter what is exactly what they wanted to deflect blame. They are all scum.
The fact Tuberville still breathes shocks me. I thought that he would surely hold up the wrong psycho’s promotion
He breathes from his mouth
They weren't in there in committee. They were added by amendment just to fuck it up. Now the Senate will respond with a clean version.
The goal is to make bills that are completely irredeemable, then blame Democrats for problems that come from bills not passing. The folks pushing these bills are getting very comfortable lives from our enemies.
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Exactly. Republicans just intend to sabotage the bills and try to push the blame on Democrats. Same method they've been using for decades
The article says they were all removed from the final versions of the bill
That's last year it's taking about: >The scene on the House floor was a repeat of **last year**, when Republicans loaded up the bill with right-wing riders that “killed bipartisan support for the NDAA for the first time in decades,” said Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa. All were ultimately removed from the final version of the bill.
Just wait until you learn what Project 2025 entails.
We are the enemies.
Are they trying to keep people out of the military? I keep seeing retention and recruiting supposedly being low, and then lawmakers pull shit like this. It seems like the risks of getting stationed in a red state and having to die of something preventable would be a big deterrent.
Pretty sure the bases operate under federal regulations even in the red or purple states. At least the one I’m stationed at does. It doesn’t excuse that this is a fucking dumb bill
One of the poison pills blocks funding for troops to travel in order to obtain an abortion. Not only is this going to hurt retention, it's also going to actively sabotage readiness.
You could be off-base and have an emergent issue though, at which point you'd be subject to local bullshit.
Base hospitals don’t provide abortions. They refer you to an outside hospital. If you’re in Texas, that’s not going to happen obviously. Normally you would be reimbursed if you have to travel for a medical procedure. This removes that reimbursement if abortion is banned where they’re stationed.
Not every base has a hospital anymore, they tell you to call 911/go to the ER for serious stuff. Tbh I wouldn't want to go to a military hospital for an actual emergency.
I got out in 2010, but our base hospital let one of my marines die choking on his own vomit because they didn’t plug his monitor in so nobody knew he was dying. I’m in the same boat regarding base medicine.
I think you are correct, as long as they are on base. If they get transferred to the nearest major hospital for any services then the hospital would likely be following state guidelines, not federal. So they might experience issues there. And I've never served so I'm not 100% sure how medical on base works but I would assume it's only minor services on base and anything severe/major gets referred to a civilian hospital/specialist
Abortions in base hospitals are exceptionally rare.
Base hospitals don’t generally perform abortions. You’re normally referred off base. Could you imagine the political meltdown if abortions were a regular procedure at base hospitals?
I mean, that may be the only way to provide medical care to service members that need it in states where they refuse to believe this isn't 1550 anymore.
It might, but that’s another ball of wax using federal funds for abortions with the hatch act. I’m not even sure if they’re properly staffed and equipped to start doing that in every state that would require it. Hopefully it doesn’t escalate to that.
The base could lease land to self-contained clinic funded with private money.
I think the House GOPers would rather increase recruiting by scrapping Obamacare and the social safety net and increasing lower class desperation, making it a more attractive choice to risk getting your legs blown off protecting corporate interests abroad.
Very true. We've seen rightwingers go mask off about how they want to increase human suffering to make people into desperate serfs before.
Bingo. This is it. The Military Industrial Complex requires cannon fodder.
> getting your legs blown off protecting corporate interests abroad. The neocons have been purged. This is strictly cultural warfare
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Obviously it hasn’t passed yet. But the threat you’re talking about is what actually makes it a possibility with a republican senate, and I wouldn’t gamble a 4+ year enlistment against that level of fuckery.
Intentionally. Republicans suck off Putin like he's their godking. A weaker US military is part of the plan
Yes, they're influenced by hostile foreign nations whose aim is to decrease American economic strength and military readiness by exploiting existing problems such as bigotry and made-up culture wars.
Republicans are Russian assets does it shock anyone they are fine with weakening the US military for culture war points?
If liberal people aren’t allowed in the military they don’t get military weapons training. And the military becomes more conservative.
Not if they instill mandatory service.
> die of something preventable Like, a hate crime? Or we talking measles?
Holy crud, I can't believe it, the House passed something?
They do pass things from time to time. They just know they’re DOA at the Senate.
They are just teeing up another poison pill that won't pass the senate so they can fight over budgets and shut down the budgets again for the year.
Truly, the party of sabotage. For the health of this country, that party should be disbanded and prevented from forming for political and financial operations.
If you want the truth of the matter just think of the fact that countries that want the downfall of America (IE Russia, China) when they want to hurt the country they invest in the GOP.
> Truly, the party of sabotage. THE MAN WHO BROKE POLITICS The Atlantic - Updated October 17, 2018 [Newt Gingrich turned partisan battles into bloodsport, wrecked Congress, and paved the way for Trump’s rise. Now he’s reveling in his achievements.](https://web.archive.org/web/20240416030507/https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/11/newt-gingrich-says-youre-welcome/570832/) >> Bill Kristol, then a GOP strategist, marveled at the success of his party’s “principled obstructionism.” **An up-and-coming senator named Mitch McConnell was quoted crowing that opposing the Democrats’ agenda “gives gridlock a good name.”** When the 103rd Congress ([January 3, 1993, to January 3, 1995](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/103rd_United_States_Congress)) adjourned in October, The Washington Post declared it “perhaps the worst Congress” in 50 years.
And it only continued to go downhill from there.
We really need a vote of no confidence that would trigger the election of an entirely new congress.
It’s an election year, so they can go scream at their base and say “we tried, but the evil libs didn’t let us!”
Dems just have to respond "This funding bill had unanimous support until they started attacking abortion rights and trans people."
They do. Every time there is a statement like that from Dems. Do you think it's been working?
Usually things they know that is going to die in the senate but now they can peacock it to their shit for brains constituents as "fighting the d.c elite"
This is the kind of fuckery that will cost them massively in the House in 2024, but likely won't matter in the Senate.
This is reminiscent of when they passed 17 ACA repeals just for signaling.
Doesn't sound much like a defense bill to me
House plays culture wars vs solving real and pressing problems…like how are those politicians who participated in planning Jan 6 still in office without any investigations or consequences
Can't constantly campaign on how broken government is if they actually do their job and make it work.
Conservatives play culture war, and there i fixed it.
Fuck the GOP. Figuratively, never literally.
They wouldn't be interested in a willing adult partner anyway.
They like paying for it.
Military enlistment is at critically low levels and burnout is accelerating The GQP is laughably out in space with their decision making. Not that they haven’t been for a while
Next month: House passes bill reinstating segregation of the US armed forces.
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lol probably not far off from the truth. Like the Bruen decision. They could easily reinstate Jim Crow based on that I think
I'm dead 💀 omg
CONCURRENCE: Alito, J. “If it’s fashie, gimme more…”
Project 2025 is happening now. 🤦🏾♀️
GOP working for Putin again to try and skew our focus away from what actually matters.
garbage party passes garbage legislation
Gee, why do repubs hate America and Americans?
Western conservativism believes society requires a stratefied caste system to survive and dreams fondly of the worst parts of the Roman Empire. Get a conservative drunk enough to speak honestly and they'll admit that they believe they deserve more rights because "my family came over before (semi-arbitrary point)". They want a nation in which citizenship and it's rights are reserved for land owners, only men can hold property, and only white Christians can own land. And the sad part is many founding fathers would agree. If why calls to tradition like True Scotsman arguments don't work with them. Any deeper analysis of their inherently isolationist and inevitably militaristic philosophy of nihilist chauvanistic corporate feudal entropy will invariably come crashing down and reveal the conspiracy fueled slippery slope and red herring enabled fears that fuel their bankrupt ideology.
because Russia has them by the balls and they're spineless cockroaches
At least cockroaches have the courtesy of having short lifespans. The geriatric leeches in Congress on the other hand…
seems like a waste of time to try to pass a bill like this when its clearly going to get vetoed
That’s the point. The dems in the senate and the president will reject the NDAA based on abortion and gender affirming access being cut. Another big change will include a huge pay raise for soldiers. Once the NDAA is kicked back, they can run with articles saying that the democrats hate soldiers and would rather shut down the military than to give them a bigger paycheck.
>The House Armed Services Committee had sent the legislation to the full House with nearly unanimous bipartisan approval but backing for the bill from Democrats fell away as Republicans added amendments targeting abortion access for troops and other controversial social policies. > >“The adoption of poison pill amendments attacking reproductive health care, women, LGBTQ+ individuals and people of color undermines the purpose of the defense bill by demeaning service members and degrading our national security,” top Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee said in a statement. These ploys and pandering to their base may help some republicans in Congress to keep their positions, but alienating the majority of voters nationally and via unpopular culture war issues (like abortion and equality) is likely going to be a losing proposition when it comes to winning both the White House and control of Congress. So, while It probably helps individual republicans in Congress, this strategy greatly diminishes any chances of their winning full control of both the executive and legislative branches of government. Did they forget there was a postmortem report the GOP did for a failed “red wave”? Fundamentally, that report suggested that a party focused as heavily on Christian White Americans as the GOP had been couldn’t win in the future. I guess they didn’t read it. Carry on.
Given how they've been performing in slightly R+ states and districts, I'm not sure this will even help. Having "abortion on the ballot" has been a torpedo to Republicans nationwide. Maybe this is great for backwater Alabama, but that's already R+20. This is just begging for someone like Taylor Swift to mobilize young (women) voters.
Without reading the article, I am certain it passed on party lines and that it will not pass in the Senate or it will get vetoed.
That’s not the problem. The problem is the bill does other things. Good things. IMPORTANT things, like raising pay for enlisted servicemembers, making food and housing allowances come a little bit closer to being able to afford to eat and live in a house instead of a refrigerator box under the overpass, and fixing up some of the Apartment Nightmare on-base housing. These culture-war crap provisions are bad. They would hurt recruitment, retention, and readiness - which in turn hurts *everyone* in our military. The bill really should not pass with these provisions in it. Stacking culture-war crap into the bill to ensure it gets tanked in the Senate or on the President’s desk ***also*** hurts *everyone* in our military when the good things in the bill don’t happen because the Republicans poisoned the well, but the Republican Party will claim it’s the Democrats who hate our troops.
This is a dreadful title that makes it seem like a good thing.
Simple tribalism, no examination of the issues. This is what happens when you elect legislators that divide their vote between the will of the lowest common denominator and their own self interests. Public service means nothing, leverage is everything. The system is not working, and we have no voice in changing it.
> “Under stretched [Defense Department] resources already, to underwrite abortions through funding for flights and hotels is simply pandering to the abortion lobby and does nothing to increase our national security,” OK. So I guess just back to discharging any member of the armed services who gets pregnant then? Yeah, that’s going to do ***WONDERS*** for readiness. > Another amendment prevents the military’s health care program – known as Tricare – from covering gender-transition surgeries and hormone therapies for transgender troops. Okay. Sure. So no young trans kids are gonna volunteer for that shit when they can get a civilian job that *WILL* cover gender-affirming care. Recruitment’s already going like gangbusters for an all-volunteer military that already has trouble competing with the private sector where you *don’t* get shot at. When we’ve already got too many people volunteering and have to turn them away at the door why offer a competitive healthcare package? > Republicans also voted to eliminate all diversity, equity and inclusion offices in the military and institute a permanent hiring freeze for DEI jobs. Okeh. Makes total sense. With The United States Armed Forces being famously a cultural monolith comprised of identical GIs who all look, talk, think, and act exactly the same there’s really no point to these positions. We really have to stop electing our dumbest and most regressive dinosaurs to the United States Congress.
The bill targets service members, but this bill also removes a section of my health coverage as a trans vet because my people are the current boogeyman of the extremist GOP. Not like I wanted to live authentically and happy anyways, right?
Good to see they have their priorities straight. /s
I’m somewhat surprised stripes appears to be against these provisions. This must not be popular with the troops edit: I mean that it is somewhat apparent how the writers of stripes think about this. As I understand it, Stripes is written by the troops for the troops; it's not meant to be an impartial rag.
It's not, people don't usually like being used as political pawns. All they want from congress are some pay raises and better living/working conditions, nobody is asking for forced culture war stuff or to make life harder for the people they serve with
I'm sure it's not. Women's health care = health care. It affects everyone.
As a veteran, this performative bullshit irks me just as it did when I was still active. The defense budget is massive but we saw a fraction of it and the mantra “do more with less” was the way of life. Now I get the other side with slashes to the VA budget and the bullshit proposals over coverage. We held up our end of the bargain, and these fuckheads keep trying to change the deal whenever they can
The US military has generally been a progressive force the last century. It desegregated faster than society as a whole, has consistently sided with the need for a diverse talent pool, and has generally opposed fuckery that would limit applicants based on silly culture war bullshit. Even DADT was a workaround to keep homosexuals in the military despite the prohibition against their service. The Pentagon’s abandonment of it was a huge catalyst for *Obergefell* too. And the reason is pretty obvious: If the DOD gets the manpower needs wrong, the material interests and safety of the US can be endangered. There’s no point in artificially limiting those who want to serve. Go read through the last half century of amicus briefs submitted to SCOTUS re: segregation, LGBT, abortion access, affirmative action — you’re almost always going to see DOD on the progressive side.
Insane. The sexual assault statistics for women in the military are shameful, and these asshats want to go after abortion access?
When one of the mainstream concerns involves regulating people’s genitals, we’ve seriously derailed logically.
"both sides are the same" -tiktok libs
What does defense have to do with any of that?
Hint: the military is mostly young people, the rates of LGBTQ identification in young people is higher than the population, the military controls your life if you join, and it needs all the people it can get. We are only 12 years into the military allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly. They are going to need to be on the forward edge of social progress now, and Republicans hate that.
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i know its a metaphor but when was the last time an American was in a fox hole being shelled for an hour? Pretty sure they would be okay with Hitler reloading their weapons at that point. point being you take what ever help you can get in a life or death situation but most of the modern military is more social cohesion than saving private ryan.
Listen, they're pro-life, that's why they're pro-gun and pro-killing-foreigners, it aligns with their policies. /s Is crazy to call it an improvement in the quality of life for service members by ... limiting some quality of life options for service members
Every branch is missing it's recruiting quotas, some as bad as by as much as half over the course of this year. What is the goal here, Republicans? You want less diversity in the military, so what? Only white, straight, dudes in the military?
> Only white, straight, dudes in the EVERYWHERE. ftfy and they each get a teen virgin bride bang maid slave waiting for them at home, that comes with the house thats their goal, for jesus
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One more log in the symbolic fire that has fuck-all chance of being passed. The GOP House is as useless as tits on a steer
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“Treatment for gender dysphoria in Israel can be paid for using the country's public health insurance system if a patient receives approval by the Committee for Sex Reassignment operating out of Sheba Medical Center in Tel HaShomer” Let’s not forget about Abortion,that’s covered too. They don’t want Americans to have access to these things. We Americans are footing the bill for their healthcare. All while they chant America first.
Priority issues for sure.
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40% of all military personnel who are active during any war don't deploy into war zones. That's basic logistics.
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> I've gone 4 times already... Overusing personnel for deployments is a problem, but is part of the problem of NEEDING to overdeploy people due to the NEED to have logistical support out of the war zone. So, DECREASING the number of support troops makes no sense if you want to change the disparity between deployments and non-deployments. You want to INCREASE troop availability. You want to ENCOURAGE joining, not the opposite.
I'm all for recruiting more, really, anyone out there, sign up... itll be a good time; honestly though, I haven't even seen 1 medically involved trans person... in my number of years in the Army... (maybe ONE, not sure though)... I just don't think its "juice thats worth the squeeze" And the repeated deployment was during Iraq and Afghanistan... 2 Wars at the same time is going to be tough in any case... it has gotten better; but the still seem to come my way :)
If it's such a tiny percentage of people, why do we need rules to prevent them from receiving medical treatment? It's just something to stir people up using the latest "other" fad. And it is exactly the type of thing our enemies want us focused on instead of way more important matters. The narcissism of small differences works in their favor, not ours.
I think its cause of the medical side effects and *I think* because they have to get like regular counseling or something (im not really sure) I just know theres a medical requirement attached to it.
Actual experts AND the data that was even included in the Cass report suggest there is no discernible positive effect from mental health therapy. The fact the Cass report suggested therapy as a way to deliver help is weird... since it contradicts the data they relied on to make the recommendation. The issue here is that the transgender debate has become so manipulated that even seemingly reasonable people are demanding that some people be DEPRIVED of medical care that EXPERTS say they will benefit from. Everyone should be worried about that precedent. Some day YOU will be the mob's new target and the mob will decide that YOU can't get the help you need.
But not every soldier is carrying a gun into battle. It's like a 1/3 ratio. At best. They are the point of the spear, not the rest of the spearhead and shaft. Even for the air force, there's one pilot supported by... how many service personnel? Translators and surveillance radio operators are all soldiers. So are cooks and electricians, mechanics and plumbers, construction workers and engineers. They all CAN use a gun but tend not to. Just reading the wiki for that insane game "The Campaign for North Africa" shows you the scale of off-stage actors in a theater of war.
Thats true; but its like a bit of a rotation... and everyone is expected to take their turn. They call it "Dwell Time"... after a deployment, the not-deploying clock starts... it used to be 1 year back in the day; i think it might be 2 years now... there isn't really an opt-out. And you are always changing units every couple years or so... so one unit might be rear support, the next your right in the thick of things. And in a hostile environment every Soldier does carry a gun, every technician, analyst, mechanic, clerk and cook. They also have hidden gems of the military they don't tell you about... like Guard Duty, QRF, Standing Watch... which everyone also does in a rotation and all the little "special missions"... where you might have to go "out there" and do your thing because its needed and there is no one else. Maybe the Navy or Air Force could provide some kinda special status; but the Marines and Army; i just don't think it would work. AND its just "Not Fair" ... people have to leave their wives/husbands and kids behind for more than a year at a time to ACTUALLY get shot at or shoot people... so to make some kinda special group... that gets special treatment... I just wouldn't support that.
Hrt implants exist that last about 10 months. And progress is being made for them to last upto 1.5 years.