This is one of the best summaries I have seen of what Republicans will do if they are elected and gain control. It’s about two minutes. Please watch and share.
She leaves out one salient point, made by Kevin McCarthy. The Republicans will cut aid to Ukraine and use the money to finish building Trump’s Great Wall (that Mexico was supposed to pay for).
Diane Ravitch's blog 
If I really believed that the Republicans were going to cut off weapons to ukraine that alone would make it worthwhile to vote for them. But the Republicans are just as beholden to the weapons cartel and the military as the Democrats are, so that’s just a fever dream.
LikeLike
Dienne, you won’t be satisfied until Putin seizes all of Ukraine.
Will you cheer for him when he invades Poland? The Baltic states? I expect you really want him to reassemble the Soviet Union.
LikeLike
As you yourself point out, Putin has been in power for 20 years. What’s taken him this long? Why hasn’t he already conquered all of Europe, Asia, Africa, etc. if he’s such a blood-thirsty land-grabbing maniac? He’s invaded, what, two or three countries in his entire 20 years? What do you think is holding him back?
Or might it be that he has invaded those few countries in response to very specific provocations (which, again, we can argue whether those provocations justify said invasions)? Maybe there are rational reasons for what he does, even if you don’t agree with him (and even if those motivations are self-interested)?
LikeLike
This is my last response to you, Dienne.
Putin invaded Ukraine in 2008.
He invaded Ukraine in 2014.
The West did nothing so he figured he would grab the whole country this time with a lightning strike on Kyiv, decapitating the leadership and installing a puppet regime.
His invasion was completely unprovoked.
What he didn’t count on was Ukrainian resolve.
Nor did he count on a United NATO.
If he had invaded when his puppet Trump was in power, the US and NATO would have let him take Ukraine.
His vaunted army is falling, so now he is trying to destroy the country by eliminating its power and water, assuring that Ukrainians will freeze and starve and die during the winter.
Yes, he has been in power for 20 years.
The Russian parliament just voted him a term lasting until 2036.
He has killed or imprisoned all political opposition.
He has completely censored the press.
Dissidents are beaten and arrested.
What part of Putin do you admire so much?
His ruthlessness?
His ambition to rebuild the USSR?
His brutality?
Don’t bother responding as I won’t post anything more defending Putin’s war.
LikeLike
dienne77,
Putin is a brutal tyrant and he has a symbiotic relationship with the Russia Bratva. Evidence based on facts and reliable news sources proves Putin is a thug, a mass murderer of innocent people, a fraud, a crook, and a tyrant is overwhelming.
LikeLike
“might it be that he has invaded those few countries in response to very specific provocations (which, again, we can argue whether those provocations justify said invasions)? Maybe there are rational reasons for what he does, even if you don’t agree with him (and even if those motivations are self-interested)?”
It chilling to read these words expressing so much empathy and compassion and understanding for Putin — this person finds Putin’s murderous rampage of Ukraine to be “rational” so even if other people don’t, that is all the reason this person needs to attack critics of Putin and defend Putin’s atrocities.
The folks on here criticize Biden and Obama 100x more than this person has ever criticized Putin. This person never had any empathy for the women and children of Afghanistan when this person repeatedly condemned as “murderers” the US presidents like Obama who didn’t immediately withdraw and leave them to the mercy of the Taliban. Instead, she said those US presidents were killers. So why doesn’t this person call Putin a killer too? Why are Putin’s atrocities MORE justifiable to this person? Because Putin has his own reasons and we should empathize with those?
On the contrary, she sounds like Father Coughlin from his radio speech after Kristallnacht in 1938, blaming Jews for Kristallnacht. Hitler, like Putin, is blameless because Hitler had very specific provocations, just like Putin.
This person treats Putin the way she treats Trump. Instead of criticizing any of their most abhorrent actions, this person claims that they are justified and it is Trump and Putin who are the real victims.
This isn’t amusing anymore. It is DANGEROUS. When the Republicans are empowered and start rounding up their enemies, it will be folks like this writing posts like this who will make it possible by fascist-splaining to us about how those victims deserved it. And we will have given those people normalizing evil the credibility they should have lost more than 5 years ago.
LikeLike
What is happening in Ukraine today is a daily series of war crimes. Because Putin’s incompetent army can’t win on the battlefield, Putin is targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure. His goal is to ensure that Ukrainian civilians—the elderly, women and children—have no heat, no electricity, no water—during the harsh winter.
Putin is EVIL incarnate. I truly don’t understand anyone who tries to justify his unprovoked war against Ukraine, it’s sovereignty, and its civilians.
LikeLike
Thank you, Diane. Death and destruction inflicted on innocent people can never be justified under any policy or measure of human decency. That fact that it happens in one place or era never justifies it anywhere at any time. This blog should never be a forum for inhuman, cruel lunacy parading as an informed debate.
LikeLike
Putin violated the UN charter by attacking another sovereign nation. He has repeatedly violated international law by annexing part of that sovereign nation. He has now made a fool of himself by “annexing” Ukrainian territory that he does not control. He has conmitted numerous war crimes, including kidnapping civilians and thousands of Ukrainian children.
LikeLike
News about your favorite War Criminals, Dienne:
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/putins-attack-on-ukraine-documenting-war-crimes/
LikeLike
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/russia-war-crimes-watch-ukraine-hospitals/
LikeLike
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/interactive/ap-russia-war-crimes-ukraine/
LikeLike
Looking forward to the day when the Russian criminals are standing in the dock at the International Court of Justice.
LikeLike
You will be looking forward until the day you die.
And beyond that, if there is an afterlife.
LikeLike
There might be a surprise this time. But Tsar Rumplesputzkin the Little probably won’t live to be tried. Some patriots in Russia will take him out before then.
LikeLike
If Putin were tried in hell, no lawyer there would be low enough to take him as a client.
LikeLike
Aliens “might” also arrive today from the Alpha Centauri star sector.
But what “might” happen is not the critical thing.
What has a fairly significant probability of happening is.
I’d put the arrival of aliens before the trial of Putin.
LikeLike
And you said trial store the criminal court, which is what I responded to — not that someone might bump him off.
LikeLike
Politics Girl is very direct and clear. The DNC should hire her for messaging. I’m sure the Democrats would then be called “negative.” Too bad! The Republicans keep winning with negative messaging. Sometimes it’s not enough to simply present a platform. By outlining what the GOP will do, the Dems. would energize more voters to wake up and show up at the midterms, which is often a problem for Democratic voters. Not only do we need more elected Democrats, we need to stop the GOP from stealing what’s left of our democracy.
LikeLike
You are totally correct. The average trumpanzee has no idea what will happen to them if the GOP gains control of the govt. They just want to “own the libs”, apparently at any cost to themselvers.
LikeLike
Not sure why so many people obsess about “owning the libs”. That’s not worth much. Libs are a dime a dozen.
LikeLike
The all important reason to vote Democratic: SCOTUS, SCOTUS, SCOTUS, SCOTUS AND SCOTUS. Any time the GOP is in control, it will appoint yet another far right wing/libertarian type to the Supreme Court. You never know when a SCOTUS vacancy might pop up, so it is important to vote D.
LikeLike
A few months ago heard a Republican congressman saying that we should cut off aid to Ukraine and spend the money on building the Berlin Wall on the Mexican border because immigrants are “invaders”.
LikeLike
As a history guy, I look at what’s happening in the world and it looks a lot like the 1930’s–here, compared to Europe. The rise of fascism in Italy and Germany–with strong elements in the US–had features similar to today’s world. It’s a very scary time.
LikeLike
We are Germany in 1932.
LikeLike
Though Whatsisname looks more like the Italian guy…
LikeLike
Il Duce DeSantis? And he traded the black jackboots for some lovely white go-go boots.
LikeLike
If DeSantis donned white go-go boots, he could be Rocket Man (aka, Elton John) , in addition to being a Top Gun Navy Pilot and a Navy SEAL who fought in Fallujah, Iraq.
https://original.newsbreak.com/@matthew-c-woodruff-1599275/2763071305590-opinion-no-ron-desantis-was-not-a-navy-pilot-nor-was-he-a-seal
LikeLike
Or, which the white go-go boots, DeSantis could also be Crapton Fantastic
LikeLike
Or Benny and the Jets
LikeLike
Ronny and the Jets
LikeLike
LikeLike
Want to know what is at stake in the coming elections (2022 and 2024)? Well, among other things,
The Republican Study Committee of the House of Representatives has recommended raising the age for eligibility for Medicare and Social Security to 67 and 70, respectively; has called for cutting benefits for people who retire before the full eligibility ages; and wants to privatize parts or all of these programs.
LikeLike
What surprises me is that anyone at all is surprised when repubs are reported to think about cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other egalitarian-adjacent policies. They think about it all the time, especially when they say they want to “save” it. (Note: Never improve, expand or stabilize, only save.) No need to watch their lips.
LikeLike
Yes, the GOP wants to “save” Social Security and Medicare by privatizing them or making them optional.
LikeLike
Senator Rick Scott released the Republican agenda a few months ago and it recommended that Social Security and Medicare would no longer be entitlements. Instead they would be reviewed for changes every five years.
LikeLike
Somehow Dems need to convince trumpanzees that GOP wants to destroy social security and Medicare. Even they would be furious with that.
LikeLike
Yes. It sunsetted both every five years, and both had to be renegotiated from scratch.
LikeLike
Raising the age is OK, cuz they will probably just eliminate SS and Medicare entirely, in which case it won’t matter how old you are.
LikeLike
If anyone ever needed proof that Republican voters are insane, the fact that “Dr. Fraud” is in a statistical dead heat with Fetterman in the Pennsylvania Senate race is it.
Oz is a fruit loop and so is anyone who would actually vote for him.
LikeLike
From the Huffington Post, On “The View,” the host remarked after seeing a poll showing most white suburban women are supporting Republicans: “Like roaches voting for Raid.” (I don’t know what poll it was.)
LikeLike