#Trump’s anti- #Ukraine view dates to the 1930s. #America rejected it then. Will we now?
by Robert Kagan
The original #AmericaFirst Cmte was founded in Sept 1940. Consider global circumstances at the time. 2 yrs earlier, #Hitler had annexed Austria & #invaded & #occupied Czechoslovakia. 1 yr earlier, he had invaded & conquered Poland. In the 1st months of 1940, he invaded & occupied Norway, Denmark, Belgium & the Netherlands.
In early June 1940, British troops evacuated from Dunkirk, & #France was overrun by the #Nazi#blitzkrieg. In Sept, the very month of the cmte’s formation, German troops were in Paris & Edward R. Murrow was reporting from #London under bombardment by the #Luftwaffe. That was the moment the #AmericaFirst movement launched itself into the battle to #block#aid to #Britain.
#HouseRepublicans urged Schumer to "schedule a trial on the matter expeditiously."
#Schumer & his staff have promised to start the process of swearing senators in as jurors the day after the articles are received in the chamber. Washington Senator Patty Murray, the #Senate President Pro Tempore, will preside over the #Mayorkas#impeachment trial.
Moscow has found better ways to conceal #influence ops, by using harder-to-trace tech, to amplify arguments for #isolationism before #UnitedStates elections, acc/to disinfo experts & #intelligence.
In recent days, #intelligence agencies have warned that #Russia has found better ways to hide its #InfluenceOperations, & Treasury issued #sanctions last week against 2 Russian companies that it said supported the Kremlin’s campaign.
The stepped-up ops, run by aides to #Putin & Russian #military intelligence, come at a critical moment in the debate in the #UnitedStates over support for #Ukraine.…
The result is that much of the original speech is First Amendment-protected — say a member of #Congress [#HouseRepublicans] declaring that resources being sent to #Ukraine should instead be used to patrol the southern border of the #UnitedStates. But the amplification is engineered in #Russia or by #RussianInfluencers.
#Trump Says Little on #Gaza, & Nothing About What He’d Do Differently
In the ~5 months since #Hamas invaded #Israel on #Oct7, igniting the most divisive #ForeignPolicy crisis of #Biden’s presidency, Trump has said noticeably little about the subj.
“So you have a war that’s going on, & you’re probably going to have to let this play out. You’re probably going to have to let it play out, because a lot of people are dying,” #Trump said in an interview w/Univision a month after the attack. His main advice to #Netanyahu & the #Israelis …was to do a better job w/ “public relations,” because the #Palestinians were “beating them at the public relations front.”
As funding for #Ukraine faces an uncertain future in #Congress, the #US#Army has been left to foot the bill for hundreds of millions of dollars in support for Ukraine’s #war effort against #Russia over the last few months — & Army ofcls are increasingly concerned that w/o new funding, they will have to begin pulling money from other critical projects to continue supporting Kyiv.
Since Oct 2023, the beginning of the fiscal year, the #Army has spent >$430M on various ops, including training & troops, transporting equipment, & #UnitedStates troop deployments to Europe.
“We’re basically taking it out of hide in the Army,” a snr Army official told CNN.
So far, that bill has been paid from the Army’s #Europe & #Africa Command.
Europe’s #security elite braces for #Trump, searches for back-up plans
For months now, much of #Europe has been watching #UnitedStates#politics w/ numb dread, seeing President #Biden’s weakness at the polls & fearing a return to the years when Trump threatened the #international order that left them prosperous & cozy under the US military’s security blanket.
What they see in the presidential race does not give them much hope, many of them said. One person asked w/ concern whether #Biden’s health was likely to hold out until November. Another asked about the possibility of a contested Democratic convention. Most worried about the fate of #UnitedStates aid to #Ukraine.
#Democrats who want to support Ukraine asked European colleagues to talk to #Republicans. …
Some are trying. A range of European ofcls & diplomats describe what might be considered a two-pronged approach to #Trump-proofing: trying to sell #MAGA America on the existing world order while also preparing for the possibility that it crumbles.
Trump & top advisers have talked w/fmr Hawaii congresswoman #TulsiGabbard about #ForeignPolicy & how the #Defense Dept should be run in a 2nd Trump term…. The talks w/ #Gabbard — who has staked out a role as an outspoken critic of aid to #Ukraine & US military interventions overseas — are part of a broader conversation about how Trump would manage the #Pentagon differently if voters award him a 2nd term….
Last May, #LindseyGraham (R-SC) visited Ukrainian President Volodymyr #Zelensky in #Kyiv, warmly embracing the embattled leader & later urging President #Biden to “do more” to help the nation as it fights off #Russia’s invasion.
But this week, #Graham voted repeatedly against sending $60B in #aid to that nation as well as against other military funds for Israel & #USallies in the Indo-Pacific. The longtime hawk dramatically announced on the #Senate floor that he also would no longer be attending the #MunichSecurityConference — an annual pilgrimage made by #world#leaders to discuss #GlobalSecurity concerns that’s been a mainstay of his schedule.
“I talked to President #Trump today & he’s dead set against this package,” #Graham said on the #Senate floor on Sunday, a day after TFG said at a rally that he would let the Russians do “whatever the hell they want” to #NATO allies that did not spend enough on #defense. “He thinks that we should make packages like this a loan, not a gift,” Graham said.
We're definitely moving toward the unsocial network if we aren't already there. Bowling alone? Forget it. Apparently the desired tech future — maybe not mine or yours; what #BigTech is pushing — is about isolationism, where you don't even have to leave your desk (worker drones!) or your bunker (#TechBro overlords!)
#Isolationism is also being pushed by another — political — group. 😕
"The state of affairs among MAGA Media diehards as it sits today is remarkable. A subset of America actually purports to boycott Disney, the world's preeminent entertainment company; Bud Light, once America's most popular beer; Target, the quintessential brick-and-mortar shopping destination; Pfizer, the pharmaceutical company that produced life-saving Covid-19 vaccines;"
@FloydyStu@Miro_Collas@DrALJONES I think #isolationism and #greed above all are the problems. Here I am in California, USA, and you are in France (presumably) and we are holding this discussion across the Internet. Too many in the #right want to limit this and it just can't be. We are all too dependent on each other and need to realize that fact.
"Ireland’s prime minister has said he is 'concerned' to see the UK 'disengaging from the world', and accused it of turning inwards by leaving the EU, slashing international aid and now considering abandoning a human rights treaty."
To all those folks on Mastodon complaining that American news stories such the air out of the place and any US news story needs to be labeled with a CW:
Good luck seeking to live in a protected bubble in which what happens in the US doesn't affect you outside the US.
Britain tried that approach with Brexit, vis-a-vis Europe. How's that working out?