2y ago

Secretary of Navy: Tuberville ‘aiding and abetting communists’ with military blockade

www.politico.com

The leaders of three branches of the U.S. military slammed Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) over his monthslong blockade of senior military promotions Tuesday, with one accusing the Republican senator of “aiding and abetting communists.”

“For someone who was born in a communist country, I would have never imagined that actually one of our own senators would actually be aiding and abetting communists and other autocratic regimes around the world,” Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro — a Cuban-born Navy veteran — said Tuesday during an interview on CNN alongside Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall and Army Secretary Christine Wormuth.

“This is having a real negative impact and will continue to have a real negative impact on our combat readiness,” Del Toro added.

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And pray thee, which "communists" would that be? Because last I checked, Russia was an oligarchy and China a capitalist quasi dictatorship.
- He’s doing it for pro Russia American Facists or who we simply call Republicans these days.
  
  He secretary of Navy (= saying "communists" for the ears of the pro Russia US facists) or Tuberville (= aiding and abetting Russia to make his electorate happy)?
  
  And the far right call everything they don't like either "woke" or "Communist" these days. It's interesting how the hard right especially now loathe anything anti-fascist, too. There was a point where they did not say the quiet part out loud, now they do.
- Cuba biding its time?
- Delivering impactful messaging is a good thing, actually.
  Also he's blocking appointments until the government penalizes abortions in the military btw.
  
  It's not impactful to me because I'm used to ignoring anyone whenever they claim something is communism.
- This, so much this. Communism, most especially the capital-C Communism the goofy Republicans rail against, are not really even a thing.
  
  I suppose an imaginary enemy is much more convenient than a real one, where your populist statements might face a reality check.
  It's very similar to how Republicans have this fetish with unborn children, yet conveniently forget to give a shit about children the moment they are born into a poor family.
- On the contrary, they're doing an exceptional job at it. One would imagine the US like a utopia if capitalism was designed to improve everyone's lives like rich fucks and their aspirants love to say.
  
  Keep guessing.
- I don't think it's helpful to gate-keep definitions. China says it's a communist country, and that's good enough for me. So goes Cuba, Best Korea, and Vietnam. Splitting hairs over the difference between Marxist-Leninist vs. Unitary one party Socialist State sounded cool and academic until I heard a libertarian claiming to be an anarcho-syndicalist and realized how 'well, actually' that shit sounds.
  People who look forward to an egalitarian economic and social order need to acknowledge the failures of real life socialism. Fuck the confederates, leftists are the real "lost causers". I don't know how to do socialism "right". But I know we can't get there by arguing semantics.
  
  I guess that means North Korea is democratic and a republic.
  
  Modern communists do recognize the failures of attempts at socialism. They recognize that those failures directly lead to Deng Xioaping and his friends taking control of China and destroying the socialist state. Simply because China declares itself communist does not make it so. I could declare myself the king of England do I suddenly get the throne just because I’ve claimed it? China, much like the USSR before it must declare itself communist due to the popularity that Mao has in the country. Unfortunately socialism died in China shortly after Mao. The “why did socialism fail” is exactly what communists study so that they can understand the pitfalls and try to move past them in the future.
  This isn’t a case of gatekeeping. China has become exactly what it hated the Soviets for — social imperialists.
  
  China says it’s a communist country,
  "China says"? You mean the one, and true voice of 1.3 billion Chinese people, that all agree with? Or even the majority?
  China is run by money like most of the rest of the world, therefore the system under the hood is capitalism. And since it's a one-party system, it's a de-facto dictatorship.
Some have touched on this but I think the reason for the communist comment is to get the people Tuberville IS supposedly accountable to ie his supporters, donors, voters, lobbyists etc. mad about what he’s doing. The top secretaries of the military don’t generally criticize sitting senators, but this is an intentional ploy to erode his support with a right-wing ostensibly pro-military anti-communist base.
    OK, so there's this wingnut Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Football) who's angry that the military reimburses officers for travel expenses when they need to go out-of-state for an abortion. Until that rule's changed, Tuberville has vowed to block all military promotions (who knew Senators had that power?) and now the Army, Navy and Marine Corps have no Senate-approved commanders in place.
    Other than how it screws over low-ranking officers, I really give no shits at all about Tuberville's blockade. It makes him look like an idiot, and he is an idiot, and I'm pretty sure the Army, Navy and Marine Corps can do all their armying, navying, and marine corpsing without Senate-approved leadership.
    But man, I got a laugh out of that "aiding and abetting the Communists" crack.
- Other than how it screws over low-ranking officers,
  The military has vacancies in senior leadership positions that cannot be filled, which is obviously a big fucking deal.
  In addition to hundreds of one-, two- and three- star generals and admirals, the holds delay the confirmation of the Pentagon’s top leaders — who make up the Joint Chiefs of Staff, including the chairman. Already, the U.S. Marine Corps is without a confirmed leader for the first time in a century. And by law, the current Joint Chiefs chairman, Army Gen. Mark Milley, will step down at the end of September, and the current Army chief will leave his post in early August. The nominees to succeed them have had hearings, but no votes
  https://apnews.com/article/tuberville-military-holds-senate-officers-45c4230a8aee5222bf32b43823e29acc
  
  And by not promoting a general that backs up hundreds of promotions down the officer ranks. Can't promote any LT's because a few caps can't get promoted because a couple of majs can't get promoted because some ltcol's can't get promoted because a col can't get promoted because tubby blocked a general.
- Hey, how can you be so rude? The man has excelled in a key leadership position in the country, one that a privileged few hold. Why are you ignoring all that and referring to him with his minor title of "Senator"?
  Please refer to him as "Coach" from now on, as that's the title he really values.
I do like how he translated this into wingnut-ese.
how about “seditionists”
Well when you put it that way this stagnation seems like a good idea!
Anyone else notice the Senator taking a nap in the background of the title image? Dude is passed out in whatever that hearing that is.
That's one hell of a reach
Welcome to The United States, where anything anyone doesn't like is automatically communism.
- If someone is born in a communist place and leaves it and later says this is bad like that is bad, it's not the same as your drunk uncle ranting about why he can't afford the newest F150
Lmfao....Tuberville helping communists? Dude is as right wing as they come. Communism is left. He's very much anti-communist. God I'm so sick of how this country has bastardized the word so much that they call literally everything they don't like communist.
Traffic bad? It's communist! Woke up sick? Communist! Kids giving you problems? Communist! Store was sold out of your favorite thing? Communist! Dog barked too loud? Communist! Bird crapped on your car? Communist! Burnt your toast? Communist!
Where does it fucking end? Please use a different fucking word, holy hell.
- And yet, his blockade is a big help to China. Plus, this is hitting him where it hurts. Do you think the people who vote for him want to vote for a "communist?"
- Try giving this more than two cursory seconds of thought.
  
  Sounds like something a communist would do.
  
  You could ponder it for years and that won't make it true. There are several different ways that this is reducing the militarys readiness, but 'spreading communism' isn't one of them.
  When politicians chooses to use lazy cold war fear mongering when real legitimate reasons exist they only make themselves look bad.
- Dude is as right wing as they come. Communism is left. He's very much anti-communist.
  While I agree with everything else you've said this bit kind of undermines your point. Left/Right particularly with regards to the US is almost irrelevant. The terms liberal and conservative are probably more useful/relevant although increasingly you could just say fascist/non-fascist as well unfortunately. Use of Left/Right to refer to Democrats and Republicans is really just historical shorthand at this point, particularly since Democrats are only Left relative to Republicans.
  Furthermore the whole thing is stupid because there really aren't any communists (as the term is meant when used by these people) left for the most part. Only one I can think of off the top of my head is North Korea. There's also the fact that it has always bothered me that Communist as it's typically used very much combines two different concepts/systems into one, that is economics and government policy/decision making. It's like arguing that Britain is a Feudalist society just because they have a monarchy (although that's not a great example since the monarchy is pretty damn vestigial at this point). Similarly it bothers me that people will use Capitalist as some kind of shorthand for Democratic as if Capitalism is a requirement of Democracy and vice versa.
- Lmfao…Tuberville helping communists?
  There's a strong argument to be made that his actions are doing exactly that. He passed the point where any reasonable person would have allowed the Military to perform the necessary promotions so they can get on with their Constitutionally assigned function.
  THIS asshole though needs to prove a political point so damn bad that he's hamstringing the readiness of our forces over it. Republicans need to find a way to deal with him.
- I don't think he's saying it because he believes this senator is actually helping communists. Rather it's just a way to put political pressure on him. It's the military branding him as someone weakening America and helping its enemies to his voters, and telling other Republicans that that is how they'll also be viewed.
- Leftists would shoot themselves in the face just to make a semantic point lol
  There is no way that the military putting pressure on Tuberville from the right is a bad move for you - take the fucking W where you find it.
  
  I don't completely disagree with you, but I'm not really a communist so it feels disingenuous to tell communists they should not object to being demonized. I am an atheist (functionally, but not really, and the difference is not relevant), and I know how it feels when atheists and satanists are used as a political bogeyman by the right wing. It's frustrating when someone you want to agree with is attacking someone you don't agree with by saying that person is like you.
  Communists don't want to be associated with Tuberville, and I can't blame them for that.
- What's with all the down votes? Regardless of this situation even, I'm confident a good amount of people in the US still have no clue what communism really is... or fascism, Marxism, banana republic, etc. I was constantly told in my childhood to watch out for communists, long before I was old enough to understand. The indoctrination continues.
  
  "Communism" is a leftover, inaccurate descriptor to say "Russia, China and North Korea." While inaccurate, the shorthand still works.
  And Russia is being an aggressor. So... if we accept the inaccuracy so the General can get a better soundbite, he's got a point.
  Then the caught-on-an-inaccuracy-but-losing-the-big-picture response... that caught downvotes. Because it lost the bigger picture.
  Or would rather Russia win, as later responses may have implied.
  
  You're correct but the down votes are because OP is completely missing the point to go on a useless rant.
  
  Good question. Probably bootlickers who have been propagandized their entire lives. China is far more capitalist than communist IMO. It's kind of a blend these days. They also think places like China & Russia are the enemy whe in reality our own government is the enemy and have progressively made things worse and worse for the poor and working class for decades.
- Try rubbing your last two brain cells together.
- You can aid communists unintentionally without being one. By his actions, Tuberville is aiding communist ragimes.
  Traffic bad? It's communist! Woke up sick? Communist! Kids giving you problems? Communist! Store was sold out of your favorite thing? Communist! Dog barked too loud? Communist! Bird crapped on your car? Communist! Burnt your toast? Communist!
  You're right about that. It has become the conservative mantra. Everything they dislike is "communist" or "socialist." Sometimes they throw a "radical" in there. The words have lost all meaning.

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