Mitch McConnell tells U.S. to 'wake up' to threat of Russia on Ukraine war anniversary

[News Junkie]

Source: Washington Post

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Friday urged the United States and its allies to renew their resolve to help Ukraine as it stands up to Russian “thuggery,” tacitly pushing back against members of his own party who have become loudly skeptical of Ukraine’s fight as the conflict passes the one-year mark.

“America and our friends need to finish waking up from our holiday from history, welcome Finland and Sweden into NATO by this summer, and make significant investments in military modernization and our defense-industrial capacities that are commensurate with the major challenges we face,” McConnell said in a statement, shortly before appearing alongside President Sauli Niinisto in Helsinki to support Finland’s bid to join NATO.

The message marked a stark contrast to the one pushed by former president Donald Trump and some congressional Republicans, who criticized President Biden’s trip to Kyiv earlier this week and have called for ending or slowing aid to Ukraine. In a tweet, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga), a hard-right ally of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and one of dozens of House Republicans to vote against Ukraine aid in May, called Biden’s trip “insulting” and proof that he “chose Ukraine over America.”

But nearly 50 U.S. lawmakers, including McConnell and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), traveled to the Munich Security Conference in Germany last week to reassure European allies that Congress, which is split between a GOP-controlled House and Democratic-controlled Senate, will continue to support Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with weapons and funds.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/02/24/mitch-mcconnell-tells-us-wake-up-threat-russia-ukraine-war-anniversary/

[brush]

1. Ok, there's some kind of shift in the time/space continuum as...

I've agreed with McConnell on a couple of major issues lately — repug candidate quality and now Ukraine aide.

Something is up.

[yonder]

7. Impending retirement, fewer irons (except DoD) in the fire?

Realizing his own mortality?

[Dustlawyer]

56. I was just saying the other day I think ol' Mitch will retire at the end of his term.

[agingdem]

13. I get the distinct feeling ol' Mitch is not a fan of Kevin

and his loathsome band of screeching MAGA traitors...and I think Mitch is doing his damndest to distance himself from Jordan and his bogus revenge hearings...Senate class versus House trash...

[electric_blue68]

88. I read decades ago, and I don't know how true it was then, nor if it still holds true...

today that The Senators often looked down on Congressmen & Congresswomen

I'm taking ? 40+ yrs back. Quite before Newt Gingrich.

Anyone else ever here this?

[blue-wave]

19. He's disagreeing with

Trump's message concerning Ukraine. It's all part of an attempt to pivot the republiCon masses away from Trumpism and back to a more traditional conservative message. McConnell and company don't want Trump as the next presidential nominee.

[ShazzieB]

22. Makes sense to me.

Mitch can't stand Trump or what he's done to the GOP. Promoting support for Ukraine and making Trump look weaker at the same time sounds like a win-win to me.

I'm sure I won't like whoever he supports in preference to Trump, but that's a battle for another day.

[brush]

25. trump would definitely be a candidate quality issue.

But so would any republican IMO.

[KPN]

62. THIS. It's the only rational explanation ... As we all know Mitch wants the Republicon Party to

succeed and be in control at any cost. It won't happen with the J6 crew in charge of the Party, so this ... even if it happens to align with the Democratic Party view. He certainly isn't doing it because he has somehow seen the light.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

27. Wants more and more money for the MIC...said so explicitly, so get lost Mitch.

The Russian army has proven incompetent…so need more money cause??? Makes no sense Mitch, unless MIC campaign money and dark money and pac money has corrupted you….when does money ever corrupt? Ad money absorbing media should ask, but won’t….money.

[brush]

32. Huh? We're talking more money for Ukraine aide.

You do get that, right?

[EX500rider]

59. What the war has proven is weapons stockpiles decrease at a alarming rate in a modern war.

We need to ramp up production capabilities and stockpiles.

[Snoopy 7]

30. don't let him full you

Mitch McConnell has been purchased by Putin for over 1 million dollars. McConnell is just hoping Russia gets clobbered so he can get out from under Putin's thumb. If Putin looses all the republicans that have been bribed by Putin hope to get from under his thumb. Don't forget about Sen. Richard Shelby (Ala.), Steve Daines (Mont.), John Thune (S.D.), John Kennedy (La.), Jerry Moran (Kan.) and John Hoeven (N.D.), and Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), spent July 4 in Moscow’s U.S. Embassy. These people never tried to tell anyone they went there until, the cat came out of the bag and they were caught...

[brush]

41. Why would you think McTurtle agreeing for funds to Ukraine...

is fooling me? All I posted was that I'm in agreement with McTurtle for only the second time in the millennium. You know McConnell was just over there yesterday with a delegation to follow Joe Biden in showing he and his group of Senators were there to also stand shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine.

I do remember that group going to Moscow back during traitor trump's admin. Times have changed and Putin is viewed as a brutal war criminal now by most people except the MTG, Gaetz and a few other idiot repug House members.

They'll find out it's best not to side with war criminals.

[fleabiscuit]

58. Shit. A million dollars is chump change for Mitch.

[Volaris]

34. What's up is what has always been...Yertle is for sure a vicious bastard,

But he's NEVER BEEN STUPID (it's what actually makes him extremely politically dangerous when he wants to be).

[onetexan]

52. THIS!!☝️

[PortTack]

57. Exactly! He's very clear in his message that russia is a threat to the US

The man we all love to hate has this one issue right

[brush]

69. Agreed. He's a smart, tough old bird, but I think he's one the right side...

one this issue.

[harun]

54. From day 1 of Russia's invasion of Ukraine I felt horrified how

it was going to make the worst of our worst politicians look good and right. They have been parroting how we need to spend endlessly on defense and war leaving health care coverage and accessible higher education behind. Because of one empire building thug in Moscow the whole world gets punished and society gets pushed in a direction backwards.

[KPN]

63. It hasn't made the worst of our worst look right.

I include Gaetz, MTG, Boebert and the rest of the J6 crew in that category. But yeah, there is that unfortunate side-effect when it comes to the typical Republicon mantra -- Defense, Defense, Defense! On the upside, assisting Ukraine pretty much puts a bullet into their never ending tax cut goals/plans for the haves. In the long run, I'm with you though -- as are many I suspect, as was Eisenhower 60-some years ago.

[brush]

70. Biden and Dems for the most part know we can do both.

Others, mostly repugs, spin it loudly that we can't.

[harun]

72. Agree, they all know we can do both. GOP just doesn't want to take any extra

resources from the top 1% to do it. I do think Dems would do that but don't pursue it aggressively enough.

[soldierant]

67. This story may be related -

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143038682
Rare blizzard warnings issued in Southern California....

I wouldn't exactly call SoCal hell even though it is the reddest part of California, but...

[Cha]

2. Good! Tell deSadist to Wake the

the Fuck up, too!

[peppertree]

15. deSadist is hoping Putin will do for him, what he did for El Cheeto in 2016

But unfortunately for Ron the Evil Smurf, I'm pretty sure Putin has his hands full right now.

[Phoenix61]

35. Ron the Evil Smurf😂😂😂nt

[peppertree]

36. Those boots...

[Abolishinist]

39. Hah! Every time I see this I think...

Photoshopped, right? But no...

These BOOTS Are Made for Walkin'!

?

[peppertree]

40. Talk about beauty and the beast!

[Abolishinist]

42. This one's pretty good as well...

[peppertree]

43. No doubt about it - he'll never live that one down

Whoever talked deSaster into wearing those, a grateful nation salutes him/her.

[Bayard]

49. I posted something about Ron's white go-go boots a few days ago

And got reamed for it.

[EX500rider]

60. Well it is pretty standard attire around commercial fishing boats in Fla nt

[Layzeebeaver]

86. These boots are make for Wokin'!!!!

Couldn't help myself...

[machoneman]

53. Puss-in boots? What a joke of a man! The military dressed and capped man is smiling his ass off!

[BaronChocula]

3. The U.S. is already aware, Mitch

It's the RepubliQans you need to convince.

[2naSalit]

9. Well, to be fair...

And not that he deserves it, they do think that they are the Americans.

[SWBTATTReg]

4. Then Moscow Mitch, why don't you wake up your own repugs, some of whom refuse to

support Ukraine?

[Warpy]

5. I think most Democrats are fully awake

Republicans are the ones echoing the Russian mouthpieces on Pox thinking it makes them sound clever and suggesting we've done enough and now it's time for negotiations.

Uh, no, assholes, Russia needs to lose this one, all of it, and Putin needs to lose at least his office because of it, along with all his hand picked honchos in intelligence, the military, and state media.

Then maybe the next guy can do what Putin should have done 9 years ago, try to renegotiate the use of the harbor at Sevastopol.

[brush]

71. Agreed. And when the hell is Russia going to ever go to a democratically...

elected government instead of this strongman, dictatorship model that keeps invading neighboring countries at least once a decade?

Hungary 1956, Czechoslovakia 1968, Afghanistan 1979 into the '80s, Chechnya the '90s, Georgia 2006, eastern Ukraine 21014, and now western Ukraine 2022.

Damn, Russia, the cyar/dictator/apparachik/peasant/proletariat model doesn't work for modern nationhood, never has.

[Warpy]

81. I think they're going to need a long time to fgure it out

Right now, it's the old Czarist model, something that didn't change during the USSR, the ruling class of Czar and vassals just got a coat of red paint. Instead of being serfs bound to the land, the people were workers, bound to the land or the factory. Meet the new regime, much the same as the old regime.

Right now, most people remember the near anarchy of the 1990s, when everything was run by a bunch of punks in gangs, as their taste of western liberal, democratic values. They have no idea that it wasn't, it was just the sort of thing that always happens in a power vacuum. However, that's the propaganda they've been fed and they buy it, everybody hated the 90s. When Putin first got elected in the early 00s, he cleaned up the gangs and that's why so many people still regard him as a hero instead of the murderous thug he is now and who largely has lost the plot.

The problem is that nobody wants to return to the 90s, and since Putin hasn't been grooming a successor, that's exactly what they're likely to get unless the old Politburo fossils still haunting the upper house of the Duma are allowed to pick one.

[brush]

87. Great analysis. I hadn't realized the '90s was so traumatic...

to the nation and its peoples. Having looked at it from a western perspective, and maybe even a pro-Gorbechev one, him and his wife seemed to be modern and sophisticated reformers and a match for western leaders. I didn't understand why he was so unpopular — well, perhaps I do. His reforms led to the dismantling of the Soviet Union and the nation's sense of self as a world power equal to the US and the west.

Then as you say they had to work thru the chaos of Yeltsin and the other pretenders, the gangs andd oligarchs, all to get to Putin, unfortunately, who imposed order out of the disorder.

But isn't Dugin in his ear preaching the destiny of Russia is an empire that reaches from the Baltics to Vladivostok — the nation's eleven times zone span not being enough?

[2naSalit]

6. Mitch is WOKE, Mitch is WOKE...

Look out!

The magats are gonna be all over this like stink on sh*t.

[ShazzieB]

24. It looks like the GOP presidential primaries may turn out to be a blood bath!

I hope both sides mess each other up good!

[brush]

73. Indeed, he's woke on this issue, which makes him 99%...

percent evil and not the usual 100%

[2naSalit]

74. That much?

I'm shocked that we're talking whole numbers here!

[brush]

75. Well, maybe 99.5%?

[2naSalit]

76. Ya know...

I almost want to think he has a conscience. Almost.

[brush]

77. He does come from the generation when the USSR was our staunch enemy.

Some of these current repugs weren't even born when the Russians were grooming trump in the '80s to be an asset to them.

[2naSalit]

78. I've thought about that...

I remember the Cuban missile crisis and the last third of the cold war.

[OldBaldy1701E]

8. I have to wonder what financial ties Mitch has to the MIC?

Because this statement is hysterical.

"...and make significant investments in military modernization and our defense-industrial capacities that are commensurate with the major challenges we face.”

We are already the most modern military on the planet. How much money do you make in the military game, Mitch? You DO realize that most of the 'challenges' we face are of our own creation, yes? No? Oh... never mind.

[stopdiggin]

29. that was (I believe) particularly aimed at our allies

(capacities as plural?) But further - I think the message was for a return to more conventional conservative (and GOP) stance - which acknowledges that the 'warming' of the Cold War has largely been a matter of window dressing after all. And the 'waking up' part could be pointed at people within his own party. (as well as our allies, and the world at large)

As deplorable as the man is ... I gotta' say ...

[slightlv]

33. I detest Mitch McConnell

with burning passion... but I think, in his old age and looking back at what he engendered and encouraged, I do believe Mitch is afraid of the nuclear bomb landing on the east coast. Our military IS great... our weapons, as they go, are also top rate. But there is room for improvement and upgrade to newer ones, because research has been so downgraded by republicans. I honestly believe Mitch is afraid this is WWIII already (and I'm kinda there with him in that thought. I see these as the first steps being taken.) I don't know if Russia's nukes work anymore. It almost wouldn't surprise me if they didn't. But the same oligarchs that have enabled them to deteriorate are the same corporate oligarchs over here who have taken our money and cut corners on research and nuts and bolts on our equipment. Don't forget the fiasco when our soldiers first went into the Iraq war. How many Humvees did we contribute money to groups to "upgrade" to armor that might withstand IEDs?

Beyond that, I ain't giving Mitch any other credit for thought. Me, I'm concerned about upgrading (and recreating) civil defense type things. But then... I'm old and remember hiding under my desk during "duck and cover."

[EX500rider]

61. "....most of the 'challenges' we face are of our own creation, yes?"

Last edited Sat Feb 25, 2023, 01:09 PM - Edit history (1)

Military-wise not so much.

China trying to control & own the S China sea a 1,000 miles from their shore and threating to invade Taiwan is not our doing, nor is N Korea building nukes and being belligerent, nor is Russia's push to expand it's borders.

[OldBaldy1701E]

82. You think those three things are 'most of the challenges we face'? (n/t)

[EX500rider]

83. In a thread about the Ukraine war, yes.

It's not a healthcare thread or a post about women's rights.

[texasfiddler]

10. I thought being woke wasn't a GOP thing.

Obviously, being woke means having a clear understanding of reality and doing the right thing. I'd rather be awake or woke and not asleep and zombie like. Fucking GOP assholes.

[SouthernDem4ever]

79. I am so tired of these stupid words made up and spread by right-wing non-think tanks

to denigrate anyone that doesn't agree with their greed based ideology of the top one tenth of one percenters getting to own all of us and do with us as they please.

[BigmanPigman]

11. Why don't you first address your GQP pals in the House?!?

It is not a request for "Americans" but for the Putin lovers in the GQP House. Mitch, speak to YOUR party, not the overall US. Go to the source, buddy!

[madamesilverspurs]

12. Does this mean

that "Moscow Mitch" is giving back the millions of dollars Russia pumped into his PAC??

Something smells.


.

[peppertree]

14. While collecting millions of dirty Putin money, of course.

[japple]

16. Well Moscow Mitch, you should know. Are you regretting your past relationship

with Russia or are you just getting soft in the head?

[oldsoftie]

17. "Holiday from history"-- I like that. And its accurate.

These idiots need to remember just what Russia has done over the past 100 yrs
And there aren't enough cultists to stop UKR aid.

[Mr. Ected]

18. If Moscow Mitch says something and FOX doesn't report it

Does it make a sound?

[Skittles]

20. it's HIS FUCKING PARTY that is the fucking problem

he should be addressing THEM

[dalton99a]

21. Moscow Mitch decides he doesn't want Moscow Mitch as his epitaph

[Sessuch]

23. Aluminum Plant

Did'nt McConnell get screwed by some Russian Oligarch who promised Elaine Chao to build an aluminum processing plant in Kentucky?

[FakeNoose]

37. That was before the sanctions, and I thought it was Deripaska

The oligarchs don't have so much cash to throw around these days. Some of them even lost their super-yachts.

[BradBo]

26. Comrade Mitch says what now?

[C Moon]

28. It would appear someone cut off his supply of rubles.

[IronLionZion]

31. Get Woke?

Nah, his party wants everyone asleep.

[roamer65]

44. Moscow Mitch must own Lockheed Martin or Raytheon stock.

That would explain this tidbit.

[SouthernDem4ever]

45. Hey Mitch, why don't you start with Russian TV aka Fox News

Maybe if you could get them out of Putin's butt it might make a difference to the ignoramuses that watch them.

[LudwigPastorius]

46. Putin's last check must have bounced.

[Justice matters.]

47. MoscowMitch should ask hair furhair how many military top secrets he sold to putler

And which ones about what exactly.

[Justice matters.]

48. Oh, and BTW, he was sleeping when he refused to tell his GQP colleagues...

to vote YAY for hair furhair's first impeachment (and the second one) too?

Pretty sure he wants everyone to forget that, eh?

[pfitz59]

50. Mitch McConnell is the greatest threat to America.

He's proven it again and again

[DFW]

51. I have good news for McConnell

No need to wake us up. We knew that long ago. However, if he wants to inform some people who are in dire need of being woken up, he might have a little chat with his own Congressional Republicans, especially the ones in the House. What he has to say will come as a complete surprise to them.

[oswaldactedalone]

55. REPUBLICONS IN DISARRAY!!

Where are the headlines about this?

[Mysterian]

64. It shows you how insane the republican party has become

when Mitch Fucking McConnel is the voice of reason.

[LiberalFighter]

65. Wake up? What has Biden and the USA been doing for the last year with Ukraine?

[cstanleytech]

66. Where was Mitch when Trump was caught getting help from Russia during the 2016 elections?

[Beartracks]

68. Republicans are only "skeptical" of Ukraine's fight...

... because President Biden, a Democrat, is supportive of it.

Republicans will politicize ANYTHING, and then claim you're being "partisan" if you call them on their bullshit.

=============

[Martin68]

80. I hate to agree with Mitch, but he's right. Better to spend billions now to defeat Russia than

spend ten times as much after Putin has absorbed Ukraine, Poland, Romania, etc as he reconstitutes the Soviet Union's empire.

[samsingh]

84. moscow mitch the traitor and asshole who ignored russians attacks on the us political system

[keroro gunsou]

85. I Guess that Putin's last check...

Bounced. Why else would Moscow Mitch come to his senses….

[twodogsbarking]

89. Mitch advising people to be woke.