Russia Ukraine week 18: The drip, drip, drip of Ukrainian ethical corruption

As of late July, despite attempts to downplay it, and to downplay the concerns of Ukrainian-born Congresscritter Victoria Spartz, Warmonger Joe and the Nat-Sec Nutsacks™ are STILL concerned about Ukrainian corruption, AP reports.

Spartz's Wiki page details more of her concerns (as well as detailing she's a loose-cannon MAGA wingnut). But, contra Huckleberry J. Butchmeup and others, at least some of her concerns appear legit. 

Related to that, a House special panel, primarily of Foreign Affairs Committee members, that visited Ukraine deliberately didn't invite Spartz, but she invited herself, per a CNN story from Friday. Being uninvited, she had to pay her own way. Probably guaranteed to make her criticism more acerbic.

The CNN piece also has the nutsacks admitting Ukrainian corruption is still a problem. JCS head Gen. Mark Milley is among the admitters.

Warmongers in both parties are questioning where she gets some of her information. Maybe they should keep reading what I read, like ....

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Meanwhile, another brouhaha erupted Friday when Amnesty International said Ukraine may be committing war crimes by deliberately stationing troops near hospitals, schools etc. And, the Ukrainian government got hugely offended. Plus, Amnesty's Ukraine office doubled-down on blank-check nationalism 110 percent, even to the point of defending the Ukrainian military's non-response to the Amnesty report.

NPR, in its story, says that it was able to confirm at least some of Amnesty's complaints.

More and more, the Nat-Sec Nutsacks™and the Ukrainian corrupt apparatchiks they defend remind me, per Pat Buchanan, of Zionists and their (also-Zionist) amen corner here in the US. Say ANYTHING bad about Ukraine or Israel and you get accused of either whataboutism (as you do if you mention Palestinians period) or false equivalennce.

And now, AI's Ukraine head, Oksana Pokalchuk, has resigned over that report. Shock me.

Huckleberry J. Butchmeup leaves Prez race

Goodbye, Huckleberry. (Screen capture from CNN debate)

Never exploring possible support by the Log Cabin Republicans, which would require him to confirm that certain long-standing innuendo might be true, Lindsay Graham is the latest AAA-level clown to leave the GOP's major league clown car.

Per my poll at top left, that means Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, Carly Fiorina, and the real What D. Fuck of vanity candidates, George Pataki, still haven't seen the light, for whatever reasons.

I think both of the first two are dumb enough to hold on to Iowa and hope they get more than 2 percent of the evangelical Religious Right vote. Fiorina still thinks she'd be as good a president as she was a Hewlett-Packard CEO. Pataki is just in love with himself.

I mean, seriously.

Anybody at the kiddie table (or who should be, Carly, Rand Paul) and who is either dumber, or more vain, or both, than soon-to-be-former Louisiana gov. Jenga, for doorknob's sake, is either one stupid mofo, or one egotistical one.

More GOP prez candidates face drop-out point

You'll notice that I have a poll at the top left corner of this blog. It asks which Republican presidential candidates are likely to drop out before the Iowa caucuses.

I put it up before Scott Walker surprised us all by doing so, even though he seemed to have money in the bank while still struggling.

Well, five of the six in that poll — Mike Huckabee, George Pataki, Bobby Jindal, Rick Santorum, and Lindsey Graham (figure out who he is) — along with Rand Paul, are all going politically broke, some rapidly.

Paul and Graham both have some reserves, but, by percentage of overspend, they're two of the three worst.

My venture is that, due to the nature of the Iowa caucuses, and that their overspend percentage isn't too high, Huckabee and Santorum hold on, hoping for a boost from the Protestant and Catholic Religious Right, respectively.

Pataki and Jenga (heh, heh) are both running "vanity" campaigns and we all know it. As soon as other people refuse to refund their vanity, those two are out.

Rand Paul may figure out a way to re-energize his daddy's supporters.

Butchmeup? What, the Log Cabin Republicans aren't backing him? Well, they could, if he'd openly give them a reason to do so.

Anyway, the poll's still up; cast your vote!

There is no #MissCongeniality in this GOP contest

The Dallas Morning News notes that, with less than three weeks left until the first GOP presidential debate, scheduled for Aug. 6 in Cleveland and limited to the 10 candidates riding highest in a consortium of five polls, several people are fixing to be on the outside staring in.

Among those? Since Rick Perry couldn't correctly count to 3 three years ago, it's not much surprise he can't count above 10 now; he is on the border of the cut. Rick Santorum's polling isn't a frothy enough mix. Bobby Jindal can't get enough potential Republican voters to play Jenga with him. John Kasich, not officially in the race until today, of course isn't officially in the polling. Carly Fiorina is no more popular than she was with Hewlett-Packard. And, George Pataki hasn't yet climbed above the level of one of Alphonse D'Amato's potholes.

How's THAT for snark?

Oh, and Huckleberry J. Butchmeup isn't butch enough for voters. Don't forget that.

Well, no, that's not enough snark.

Given that the Faux News debate rules say candidates must meet all constitutional requirements to be president, any chance we get some Ted Cruz birthers popping up? We could only hope.

The #Confederate flag and the Dept. of Amazing S.C. coincidences

Nikki Haley,
breeze-swaying hypocrite

OK, so South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is calling for the Confederate flag at the state Capitol to come down. Sounds nice, no?

No, not totally. Per this.

UPDATE, June 23: A special caveat. Haley clearly just wants to hide symbols from what she claims is the wrong interpretation, saying that Dylann Roof had "a sick and twisted view of the flag." Actually, while it may seem to be that, since the flag stood for slavery, not states' rights, and slavery based on skin color, while it's a sick view, it's not that twisted at all, actually. It's "logical," if one is honest about the flag's full history.

A takeout from this must-read by Ta-Nehisi Coates, at that link just above:

Nikki Haley deserves credit for calling for the removal of the Confederate flag. She deserves criticism for couching that removal as matter of manners. At the present moment the effort to remove the flag is being cast as matter of politesse, a matter over which reasonable people may disagree.

Bingo. This is all about new massaging of symbols, not facing the reality behind them.

That said? Even to do new massaging of a hateful old symbol won't be so easy.

A few caveats.

One, it will take state legislative action for that to happen.

Two, it will take a 2/3 vote of each house of the South Carolina Legislature to put it the agenda of a recently-called special session.

Three, if that doesn't happen, Gov. Haley will have to call for another special session.

Tim Scott,
self-hating hypocrite?

Chris Tomlinson thinks that a "woman of color" could make no other call, noting that Haley is Indian-American. Really, Chris? South Carolina's junior Senator, Tim Scott, is black, and until three hours ago, he hadn't called for the flag to come down, either. He's now done so, though he has yet to rebuke Republican presidential candidates who have denied that racism motivated Dylann Roof to murder nine people at a Charleston church a week ago.

Lindsey Graham,
frothy hypocrite

Meanwhile, the senior senator from the Palmolive State, Lindsay Graham, who is also known around these quarters as Huckleberry J. Butchmeup and just happens to be running for president, has also now called for the flag to come down, which puts us in the Department of Amazing Coincidences.

I don't know if M. N. O'Butch asked for a move in this direction to help his campaign, or something else is at work. Until three hours ago, Scott and Haley had largely been silent, and three days ago, Huckleberry was saying this is "part of who we are." That said, if CNN is right that he was "quietly" calling for it to come down three days ago, while publicly still playing Dixie on his dogwhistle, he's quickly reached a high level of douchery.

He's got the most capital to lose, relatively speaking, running for prez and needing to not appear totally wingnut, even as other presidential candidates for the GOP appeared chickenshit about the flag. And, as senior senator, and South Carolina's GOP kingpin, he's also got the most weight to throw around. Add in that the man seen by many as the Koch Brothers' anointee, Scott Walker, called Dylann Roof's actions motivated by racism already on Friday, and the candidates that have played the "not racism" card are scrambling. That said, Walker, like Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Rick Santorum, took past campaign money from Earl Holt's Council of Conservative Citizens. (Oh, there's a bunch of people on that list; feel free to give a few a Tweet.)

Back to Gov. Haley.

Given all I said, don't call me and don't wake me up until the flag is gone. Don't even think of calling me until it's on the agenda of an actual special session.

Oh, and beware of head fakes.

It's not totally true that the St. Andrew's Cross, was not the official flag of the Confederacy. Yes, originally, it was just a battle flag and the the "Stars and Bars" was the official CSA flag.

BUT, after May 1, 1863, the Rebel war flag was made the "canton" of the official CSA flag. Don't let anybody head-fake you on saying the Rebel war flag was not "really" a part of the Confederacy. This, too, is part of the full history.

This, in turn, is part of a larger claim that most people "don't really know what the flag is about." That, in turn, is usually accompanied by the claims that the Civil War wasn't "really" about slavery, and I've already crushed that one.

On Dylann Roof? Maybe "white trash" will be the next attempt to explain him away.

Oh, and speaking of "cantons," the Mississippi state flag still uses the Rebel flag for ITS canton. Today, Columbia, tomorrow, Jackson!

TX Progressives get frothy about Santorum, the end of the #txlege and more

The Texas Progressive Alliance hopes everyone is dry and safe as it brings you this week's roundup and the NSA has to do a bit of reset.

Off the Kuff reviewed how several bad bills met their end in the waning days of the legislative session.

Letters from Texas worries about the possible effect of the Supreme Court taking up the latest Texas redistricting case.

Lightseeker at Texas Kaos shines a bright light on the woeful lack of responsible, adult leadership among some in the Texas Legislature.  Texas Legislators Who Put the Child in Childish.

Socratic Gadfly, with a hat tip to a fellow TPA blogger and his favorite name for a certain Southern senator, killed the birds of both Rick Santorum and another possible GOP candidate.

Hillary Clinton visits Houston on Thursday to collect an award and raise funds, notes PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme is appalled at the level of racism and xenophobia exhibited by Texas Republicans who deny birth certificates to Texans born to not properly documented mothers.

From WCNews at Eye on Williamson. There are many Texans that need a government that works for them and not just for business, corporations and wealthy campaign donors. A Windfall For Business, Scraps For The Rest Of Us.

Neil at All People Have Value said that floods in Houston forced people to yield some habitat to Houston wildlife if only for a brief time. APHV is part of NeilAquino.com.


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And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

The Queso documents flood effects in Wimberley and rounds up a bunch of flood-related resources for those who need them.

Eric Berger tries to explain where all that rain came from.

Texas Vox celebrates an expansion of homeowners' solar rights.

Ashton Garcia advocates for gender-neutral bathrooms.

The Current introduces us to "Mansplainer: The Statue".

RG Ratcliffe reminds us that the Lege is hoarding $18 billion of our money.

Huckleberry J. Butchmeup is running for prez as ...

Huckleberry J. Killemall.

Pronounce both versions of the snarky last name takeoff on Sen. Lindsay Graham, and you'll get him in a nutshell.

The second version relates to his presidential campaign announcement. Here's a man running in the War on Terra, who thinks Obama's to blame for the current situation in Iraq (wrong in spades, but not necessarily for all the reasons some others may think Graham is wrong), who probably thinks Shrub Bush wasn't violent enough, and who maybe even thinks the same about Darth Cheney. Given that he hasn't actually "supported the troops" any more than most other House or Senate Republicans, his idea of sending more troops there is nonsense.

Worse than that, Graham is doing nuclear saber-rattling against Iran. And, supported the idea of presidential extra-judicial killing. In other words, he's scary and nucking futs.

That said, he has been mildly enlightened on immigration at times.

He's shown no special enlightenment on gay rights, though. And, although just being a lifelong bachelor isn't itself proof of sexual orientation, that first version of a mock last name notes that "lifestyle" rumors about Graham have been around for years.

They probably won't get much more traction, because I don't expect him to do that well.

However, if he DOES win his home state of South Carolina, with it being early in the primary cycle, more stuff will come flying over transoms. Count on it.

In other words, GOP foes may not discuss his campaign with a ...

Wait for it, wait for it ...

Straight face.

That's why it's funny that the NYTimes, in its story (the extra-judicial killing) says that Graham may seek to come from being at the back of the pack by "opening up."

Hah! Any "opening up" will be selective; I don't expect him to take a "wide stance" on opening up.

Oops. Was that out loud?

Friend Perry, who invented the Butchmeup name, has more on Graham.

I have more snark on the lifestyle rumors here, as part of my Rick Santorum presidential announcement.

Obama and war hawks on #ISIS vs reality-based Democrats

In light of the brutal murder of James Foley by the Islamic State in Iraq (portions of) and Syria (the semi-failed state of), US President Barack Obama is now hinting at upping involvement in Iraq.

A bit more detail here; the administration is saying troops are a possibility. "Under 300" sounds not too bad, right? But, in reality, it sounds like the "drip, drip, drip" of how we sent more and more to Vietnam.

And pressure to keep escalating that drip, drip, drip is certainly possible. It's very possible when you've got warhawk nuts like Sen. John McCain (R-Airplane Crashes) egging you on, along with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-I Might Be Gay).

Fortunately, at least one House Democrat, and one with a bit of say-so in matters, is saying "hold on":

“We shouldn’t allow this horrible act to provoke us into doing things that are counterproductive,” said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, on CNN’s "New Day." “There’s nothing ISIS would like more than having us reintroduce ground troops into Iraq, for example.”
 He said the U.S. “had to know that when we get involved with airstrikes, that ISIS is going to strike back at us in any way they can.”

Couldn't have said it better myself.

As for the ISIS brutality level? We're just upset because they might cut off oil, and because we've officially labeled them terrorists. That's in contradistinction to our ally in the War on Terra against Afghanstan, Islam Karimov, president of Uzbekhistan, who has boiled alive political opponents.

On the other hand, if you take Rick Perry seriously (and why?) ISIS has already crossed the border. As in the US border. Last I heard, Perry was sending the National Guard to the Travis County DA's office.

Graham ready to kill climate bill

South Carolina's Lindsey Graham shows that his persona as a "reasonable conservative" is bogus, as he threatens to derail Senate climate legislation over a claim that Majority Leader Harry Reid and other Democrats want to focus more on immigration.

First, immigration is divisive, to some degree, in both parties. Reid would have no desire to move ahead on it without true bipartisanship.

Second, per Politico, is a mix of hypocrisy, BS and cluelessness.

So what if Speaker Nancy Pelosi is pushing immigration?
A. That's the House side.
B. You numnuts Graham, the House has already passed a climate bill. Months ago.
C. Just a month ago, Graham said Obama needed to push harder on immigration reform.

Survey says? Graham was, even after forcing nuclear power blank checks into a a proposed Senate bill, getting too much blowback for his liking. Survey two says Graham may be casting eyes higher than the U.S. Senate, hence his worries on such blowback.

Hey, Lindsey? A single, rumored gay GOP Senator? You ain't getting anywhere near a GOP presidential nod.

So ...

Third, sink the bill, Lindsey, please! It's bad and getting worse by the minute.

Lindsey Graham wants fewer Ron Pauls

In South Carolina, the senator said the party must grow, and should do so by not being a party of “angry white guys” and by not let(ting) it be hijacked by Ron Paul.”

Let’s see Mullah Glenn Beck plays this one.

Nazi Joe Lieberman ups censorship play

Lieberman and fellow censorship senator Lindsey Graham are threatening to shut down the Senate unless their amendment allowing President Obama to censor all post-9/11 photos that allegedly show U.S. foreign actions in an unfriendly light by picturing abuse of “War on Terror” detainees is passed by the House.

Socialism, hell – worry about a police state

President Obama wants the legal authority to block any release of any photograph after 9/11 showing U.S. abuse of any detainee, and Congress is considering giving him that authority. That’s anything BUT “the most open and transparent (administration) in history,” contra Obama’s campaign trail promise.

Glenn Greenwald has details of the outrageousness. Lindsey Graham and Joementum are behind it.

Petraeus hearings – McCain becomes New Ager while Cornyn and Graham are wingnut suckups

Schmuck Talk Express™ says “We should choose to succeed.”

Just like that, eh? “Believe it and it will happen,” like some New Age mantra?

OK, Schmuck Talk, do you choose to follow Gen. Shinseki and put 500,000 troops in Iraq, although it’s too late for even that to succeed? Tell us what you’re going to do to actually create “success,” you deceitful warmonger.

Meanwhile, whether it’s a sign of old age in general, Alzheimer’s in particular, or what, McCain still can’t keep his Shia’s and Sunnis straight, calling al-Qaeda a Shi’a group.

Meanwhile, Texas quite-junior junior senator, John Cornyn, wants to almost literally run Petraeus up the flagpole and salute him with this petition:

Please know that we in Texas support you and all of the men and women serving our country with honor. We have entrusted you with a mission and respect the dignity you bring to our country and the job of leading our military in such a dangerous region of the world.

My response?

I pledge allegiance to the stupidity, wingnuttery and head-up-bunghole denialism of the junior senator from Texas, for the me for whom he does not stand, etc. etc.

Signed: Monty Python, at theholygrail@gmail.com.

Lindsey Graham, meanwhile, thinks Petraeus deserves a fifth star. For what? Being a politician?

And, where would we be without the neocomic relief of Joe Lieberman, claiming Iraq has had more political reconciliation than the U.S.

I guess he thinks that in Maliki’s Iraq, “reconciliation” flows from the barrel of a Mao-like gun.