Biden plays the warrior in Europe but folds when it comes to protecting voting rights at home
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Biden plays the warrior in Europe but folds when it comes to protecting voting rights at home
Sullivan says the Russian invasion could come today.
A war “could happen as soon as tomorrow”, warned Jake Sullivan, America’s national security adviser. — ABC’s “This Week”
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nine months before elections that will determine control of Congress, voting rights advocates are worried there’s not enough time to fend off state laws and policies that make it harder to vote. They view the changes as a subtler form of past ballot restrictions such as literacy tests and poll taxes that were used to disenfranchise Black voters, a vital Democratic constituency.
President Biden reportedly told Russian President Vladimir Putin on a phone call yesterday that there would be “swift and severe costs” if Putin chooses to invade Ukraine. The question remains, costs to whom? The Russians haven’t invaded and it’s not clear that they will. But our cost for bringing NATO troops and weapons to Russia’s front door is paid in advance, not just in taxpayer dollars, but in economic instability and energy shortages.
Have you looked at your gas bill lately? Mine nearly doubled this month.
It seems that Biden wants to play the strongman in Europe in the face of goading by Republicans. He’s not only ratcheting up the cold-war rhetoric, he’s even threatening to shut down Germany’s energy supply if war breaks out.
“If Russia invades — that means tanks or troops crossing the border of Ukraine again — then there will no longer be a Nord Stream 2,” Biden said at a press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. “We will bring an end to it.”
…thus, bringing new meaning to the term power broker. I’m wondering how the German people are receiving Biden’s threat to turn off their heat this winter in order to punish Putin. Germany has so far refused to send military aid to Ukraine in hopes of keeping the energy supply chain open.
Germans are fully aware that their country’s role in World War II still casts a long psychological shadow.
Side story…
In 1990 I was in the former Soviet Union with a group of American athletes, coaching and playing baseball, which had just become an Olympic sport. As I was out walking in St. Petersburg with my friend Dan, a hulking former Detroit Lions lineman, a little old Russian woman came up to us, turned and spit on Dan’s shoes, muttered something in Russian, and walked away.
When we returned to our Russian host’s house and told him about the incident, asking if it was a sign of anti-Americanism, he said no. “Don’t worry, she probably thought Dan was German.”
Soviet WW2 losses, civilian and military, are put at 26.6 million.
According to the latest polls, only 27% of Americans want this country involved in a war with Russia over Ukraine. I’m guessing that the Russian people don’t want one either. Let’s hope Putin and Biden are looking at those numbers.
The fix is already in on Texas midterms
Back home, however, Biden is pleading impotence when it comes to protecting the voting rights of those being disenfranchised by Republicans.
In Texas, a restrictive new voting law is sowing confusion and erecting hurdles, especially for Black and Latino Texans trying to vote in the state’s March 1 primary. Republican-appointed election administrators are rejecting thousands of mail-in ballots, leaving voters uncertain about whether they will even be able to participate.
The rejection rates provide an early opportunity to assess the impact of Senate Bill 1, one of the dozens of restrictive voting laws enacted by Republicans across the country last year amid an avalanche of false claims, many from former president Donald Trump, that the 2020 presidential race was tainted by widespread fraud.
The bill specifically targets voting initiatives used by diverse, Democratic Harris County, the state’s most populous, by banning overnight early voting hours and drive-thru voting — both of which were used heavily by voters of color last year.
Former presidents Trump and Barack Obama were quick to issues executive orders when it came to achieving their policy objectives. Obama used a wave of executive actions branded as “we can’t wait” to increase environmental regulations and shield from deportation young immigrants (“dreamers”).
But Biden apparently lacks ganas when it comes to standing up to his old Republican Senate pals and so the country is left acceding to the new confederates’ demands on “states’ rights.”