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Welcome back to Political Misfits on Radio Sputnik, where we bring you news, politics and culture - without the red and blue treatment. I am John Kiriakou here with Michelle Witte.
House Intel chair pushes for Ukraine aid, stat - POLITICO
Let’s start with the current Trump uproar - Donald Trump is telling Russia to invade Europe! On Saturday, Trump recounted an anecdote during a rally in South Carolina - “recounted,” because of course who knows if this happened or not. As he tells it, he was speaking to the leader of a “big country” - and let’s just hear what he said:
Trump clip
The headlines! Trump is “urging” Russian aggression! Silly. Trump, putting allies at risk! Marginal. Trump, undermining NATO’s security! Bit of a reach there. Now, during Trump’s administration, he talked a lot about NATO countries not spending enough defense, and took credit for spending increases that occurred under his administration. His critics said, hey, these countries promised to increase their spending back in 2014, so they’re just getting around to it, regardless of Trump. I think it’s silly to say this is Trump “urging Russia to invade” countries, but he does always talk about NATO as a purely transactional bloc, and the accusations that maybe that undermines faith in it - eh, those aren’t totally farfetched to me. I also don’t mind them. Is Trump any real threat to NATO?
Is anything a threat to NATO? My first guess is NATO expansion itself is the biggest problem here.
And on the topic of funding, we had Joe Biden scolding the US Congress in the company of German chancellor Olof Scholz this weekend, saying failing to send $60 billion more dollars to Ukraine is “close to criminal neglect.” The Senate has not yet passed an aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, though it is expected to this week - but given how votes went last week, I don’t know what to think, really. But it so far does not look like the aid will even get a vote in the house. And I have heard no regular person mention caring about this in any way. Scholz, apparently, came to the Congress to beg for this aid. What’s he care about it and was he begging for anything else?
I sure wish we could get foreign delegations to come to the US to push for health care reform and paid leave.
There are still protests underway in Poland over Ukrainian grain, with Polish farmers blocking border crossings and destroying grain coming in from Ukraine. Poland and several other countries imposed temporary bans last year on imports of Ukrainian grain. The EU has condemned such measures, instead offering financial assistance to help make up for the losses. So that’s still … EU taxpayers footing the bill for these EU farmers, who are nonetheless watching their markets be wrecked. Is there a solution here?
"Biden disparages Netanyahu" Biden disparages Netanyahu in private but hasn’t significantly changed U.S. policy toward Israel and Gaza
Biden moving closer than ever to a breach with Netanyahu over war in Gaza
OK, let’s talk a little bit about what’s going on between Joe Biden, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the US media. We have two depressing stories to get into, one from NBC, one from the Washington Post. NBC tells us “Biden disparages Netanyahu in private but hasn’t significantly changed U.S. policy toward Israel and Gaza.” Joe Biden apparently calls Netanyahu names behind his back and guys, he’s awfully mad about the war - but no point in airing dirty laundry in public, right? But according to WaPo, this is exactly what aides want Biden to do. Several of them are urging him to be more publicly critical of Netanyahu. They say “criticizing Netanyahu would allow him to distance himself from an unpopular leader and his scorched-earth policies while reiterating his long-standing support for Israel itself.” This is all actually disgusting - and I think the timing of it is pretty telling. Israel is launching a major offensive in Rafa. It’s already been bombing the city - a place Palestinians had been told to go for safety. Netanyahu has apparently ordered an evacuation plan to be drawn up, but we’ve seen how those evacuations went in the past, and two - at this point, where are these people going to go? If the last four months can tell us anything, it is that this is going to be a civilian bloodbath, and the US is once again fully supporting it in concrete material ways, only this time, the administration might say they’re not enjoying watching it. It’s actually less honorable than just cheering Israel on. This is obviously all political - but it’s hard to see who this scores points with. Anyone paying attention knows what’s actually happening, and anyone not paying attention doesn’t care. Why the shift?
What are we to make of arguments like the ones the Post airs that people familiar with Biden’s private comments said he has told them he believes it would be counterproductive for him to be too harsh on Netanyahu publicly. What are we to believe the US has prevented Israel from doing through our behind the scenes negotiating?
https://twitter.com/AkbarSAhmed/status/1756828125395079520?s=20
It’s an ill wind that blows nobody good, so while, yes, nearly 30,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in the past few months, John Kirby is getting a promotion! He’s being moved from a deputy assistant to the president to full assistant, and he’s going to get a new title - White House national security communications advisor. We’ve seen Kirby a lot over the past few months as National Security Council spokesperson, and before as a mouthpiece for the State Department and Pentagon. Now, he’s going to coordinate a separate, stand alone communications team that will handle national security communication across agencies. Maybe this is just personnel shuffling and treat delivering in Washington, but it says two things to me. One, it speaks to how everything is a GD national security issue now. The other is noted by HuffPost reporter Akbar Ahmed, who says the Biden administration has a pattern of treating foreign policy as a messaging issue - it’s not policy, it’s communications! He also says “A big reason for the pattern: the continued conviction among Biden + top aides that they *get* global affairs in a way few others can & should be trusted to do their thing, rather than be swayed by outside opposing voices.” We’ve talked a lot about Blinken being a bit of a lightweight - but apparently this team thinks it can do no wrong. That’s clearly not true from a policy point of view, but it feels like they’re even getting the communications wrong. Will this help?
Catch us up on the state of the transition in Ukraine’s military brass. Last week, the president replaced commander in chief Valery Zaluzhny with Oleksandr Syrski, who we touched on briefly - reportedly, he enjoys some prestige for having defended Kiev ably, but also has a reputation for throwing away soldiers’ lives for political ends. We are told Ukraine is rapidly running out of men and ammunition. Do we have any idea what Syrski plans to turn the tide?
Transactional "Trump Urges Russia to Invade Europe", Panicking Scholz Rushes to US, Biden Giving Coy Green Light to Israeli Cleansing of Gaza, General Butcher Comes to Avdeevka...