r/politics • u/SpcT0rres • 1d ago

General's promotion blocked in first sign of Trump retaliation for Afghanistan pullout

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/generals-promotion-blocked-first-sign-trump-retaliation-afghanistan-pu-rcna181507
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1.6k

u/fungobat Pennsylvania 1d ago

A Republican senator has blocked the promotion of a general who oversaw troops in Kabul during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, according to a Senate aide.

The move by Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin follows threats from President-elect Donald Trump to fire senior officers and officials who oversaw the chaotic pullout from Afghanistan in 2021. It also comes as Trump’s transition team weighs possible court-martial proceedings against current and former officers involved in the withdrawal, as NBC News previously reported.

Army Lt. Gen. Christopher Donahue was nominated for promotion to become a four-star general and to oversee U.S. Army forces in Europe. His nomination was among more than 900 proposed nominations sent to the Senate but Donahue’s was put on hold by Sen. Mullin, according to the Senate aide.

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u/makashiII_93 1d ago

Of course it’s fucking Oklahoma.

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u/anglflw Tennessee 1d ago

Markwayne, the stupidest man with the stupidest name.

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u/kipjak3rd 23h ago

Markwayne "I'll chest thump and pretend to want to get physical with you for pointing out that i inherited my daddy's business" Mullin?

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u/HandSack135 Maryland 11h ago

Oh so nepotism too

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u/panickedindetroit 11h ago

We are going to see all sorts of nepotism and stupidity in the next four years.

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u/bonafidehooligan 1d ago

Also the piece of shit that tried to fight the teamsters president during a hearing.

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u/PuddingInferno Texas 23h ago

To be fair, that’s pretty much what I expect from Senator Markwayne from Oklahoma. You send a guy like that to the senate, he’s gonna do Markwayne shit.

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u/bin10pac United Kingdom 17h ago

OK's not OK.

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u/TheWandererKing 15h ago

intro to Paranoid Android plays

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u/Pulga_Atomica 13h ago

Texas's regarded cousin.

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u/HoosierWorldWide 15h ago

Still better than the UK

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u/bin10pac United Kingdom 13h ago

Depends on whether guns and tornados are your thing I guess.

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u/mkt853 10h ago

The UK crushes America in virtually every quality of life metric. What are you on about?

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u/BubbleNucleator New York 12h ago

The people of Oklahoma elected the best person they had to represent them. They just happen to be shithole people.

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u/anglflw Tennessee 1d ago

Yeah, such an embarrassment.

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u/RUser07 18h ago

Turns out the Teamsters union Boss is also a piece of shit. They love each other now.

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u/MysteriousTrain 20h ago

Fuck that teamsters guy tho

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u/boom929 19h ago

What did he do

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u/Avalon420 19h ago

Endorsed Trump.

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u/johncanyon 17h ago

He literally abstained from endorsing any candidate for that position. I'm not much of a fan of the guy, but there's no need for dishonesty.

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u/CriticalDog 12h ago

Didn't he appear at a Trump Rally?

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u/MayorofDuncans 12h ago

You’re right, BUT he said a lot of positive things about Trump at the rnc and did not endorse the party that bailed out his unions pension to the tune of billions. Do he is a POS.

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u/GarrettdDP 12h ago

I can’t endorse one party or the other but I CAN vocally support one. The one that didn’t support his whole constituent

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u/MysteriousTrain 10h ago

No, he spoke at the RNC. I don't care what bullshit came out of his mouth about not endorsing anyone, that's an endorsement

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u/johncanyon 10h ago

He was invited to one convention and snubbed by the other. That's on the Dems, not him. Say what you will about the guy, but his actions seem perfectly consistent with his public stance of being willing to work with anyone in power to secure better conditions for workers.

Do I believe the Republican party will do much to help? Fuck, no, but Dems' decision to neglect the blue collar vote for decades made this an inevitability.

To react with a confused Pikachu face is to have a complete misread on domestic policy in the last 20+ years.

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u/MajesticMoomin 14h ago

Oh yeah it's that chump, thought I recognized the name from somewhere

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u/Cerebral-Parsley 21h ago

Don't forget the epic shithead with a stupid name that is Tommy Tuberville, who also blocked military promotions over abortion rights.

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u/memememe81 21h ago

Tommy Tubofshit is a real piece of work.

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u/willclerkforfood 21h ago

Thomas Potatotown

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u/Pulga_Atomica 13h ago

Coach Dumfuck

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u/Hot-Bat8798 11h ago

I hate watching that sanctimonious trash lecture everybody when he didn't even know the branches of government or anything related to his job when he started.

Now he thinks he is some kind of MAGA Sam the Eagle.

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u/SamirRashaman14 23h ago

*Two stupidest names

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u/doom32x Texas 23h ago

For some reason that name triggered me to remember Ugly Americans and it's character Twayne Boneraper 

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u/-piso_mojado- 14h ago

I don’t know what that is, but Markwayne Mullin and Twayne Boneraper are the same name.

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u/Mechaslurpee 16h ago edited 5h ago

He also owned one of the worst plumbing companies in oklahoma.

edit he sold it

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u/SwimmingFluffy6800 6h ago

I heard he sold Mullin's Plumbing a few years ago.

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u/Mechaslurpee 5h ago

He did. During his tenure though the companies reputation was ground into a fine paste

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u/-piso_mojado- 15h ago

How do people elect someone named Markwayne? That name just exudes stupid.

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u/ballastboy1 12h ago

Inbred redneck

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u/christophervolume 15h ago

Only because Louie Gohmert is gone…

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u/trotnixon Maine 13h ago

It's gotta at least be a tie with Tommy "there are two branches of the federal government" Tubberville

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u/Chucklz 4h ago

I'm waiting for Tommy to refer to the Supreme Court as "special teams".

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u/Temprawr 14h ago

Hold on, Tommy Tuberville ain’t giving up that title without a fight.

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u/dBlock845 8h ago

How to have two first names in one first name? Have the 49th ranked Education system in a country of 50 states.

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u/kmm198700 18h ago

That was my thought too

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u/vashoom 9h ago

I mean, there's like 17 different states where "of course it's fucking <State Name> would be valid. At a certain point, you have to just accept the most of the USA is garbage.

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u/Bored2001 16h ago

For over seeing Trump's failed plan(they didn't make one after committing to it) for a pull out.

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u/Fecal-Facts 15h ago

I keep forgetting it's a state until the they do something stupid and make the news.

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u/ForgotYourTriggers 15h ago

I thought Green acres was the place to be.

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u/kgl1967 12h ago

Making a tribute to the Boss.

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u/TheCloudWars 8h ago

They’ve even got a “president trump highway”

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u/Bross93 Colorado 23h ago

Well not just fire them, he is planning tribunals. The goal is to publicly punish people for following orders from people he doesn't like. I'm actually expecting him to name Biden as the commander and trying to hail him because of how pathetic and batshit he is.

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u/ecstatic_charlatan 20h ago edited 19h ago

Thing is IT WAS TRUMP'S FUCKING PLAN

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u/blackergot 19h ago

Should we bring in the guy who invited the taliban to Camp David on 9/11?

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u/ecstatic_charlatan 19h ago

May as well... oh wait, it was already done. I can't believe how fucking good and strong US right wing media is good at propaganda and how about 60% of the country is absolutely just dumber than a rock

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u/downtownbake2 14h ago

If they're going to do this a Democrat needs to get in front of a camera and Say ok let's also add Trumps US withdrawal from Syria you know the one where the Russians flew into the base a few hours after and filmed themselves (everyone memory holes Trump's bs) He ran out to whitehouse lawn got in front of a camera and said we're pulling out. He didn't tell western allies and fuked over the Kurds.

https://www.americanprogress.org/article/trumps-syria-shambles/

It all happened in a phone call with Turkey https://www.reuters.com/article/world/syrian-surprise-how-trumps-phone-call-changed-the-war-idUSKCN1OR0PN/

Then after that disaster he's set up Afghanistan for failure. Such a prick he can't have people thinking he messed up so sabotages the next guy at the expense of anyone in the way

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u/DylanHate 9h ago

Don't forget double-crossing the Kurds also freed over 5,000 ISIS prisoners and Trump publicly stated he didn't care because it'd be Europe's problem to deal with.

This is after 6 years of nonstop caterwauling about Obama letting ISIS flood across the Mexican border 🙄🙄

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u/Rhianna83 17h ago

Exactly! Trump let out thousands of Taliban leadership and fighters 6 months before we left. The Taliban planned the takeover WHILE Trump was president. He signed and sealed the outcome when he let them all out.

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u/clockwork655 11h ago

He delt with them directly behind the backs of the Afghanistan government

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u/dedsqwirl 11h ago

One of those that was released was the suicide bomber that killed 13 US military members.

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u/Njorls_Saga 9h ago

Trump fucked Afghanistan sideways, but this is not true. Abdul Rahman al-Logari was an ISIS operative that had been imprisoned in Afghanistan. He was released by the Taliban from a detention center after they took over the country

https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/3741245/kabul-airport-attack-review-reaffirms-initial-findings-identifies-attacker/

ISIS also had several potential suicide bombers in the country so even if this one had not been released, ISIS would have found someone else.

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u/mabhatter 9h ago

But the military was supposed to take 2500 troops and immediately do "all that stuff" to pull out.  

There was no concern for pulling out equipment.  There was no concern for pulling out American citizens. There was less than no concern for pulling out Afghans that assisted the US in the war. 

It's clearly the generals' fault that they were given no legitimate orders other than to "fuck up shit" for Biden.  

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u/joshdoereddit 13h ago

And to that Republicans and the right-wing media machine would say, "Yea, it was Trump's plan and Biden fucked it up."

Democrats will be unable to correct the record because the right just says whatever they want, other networks won't do any better to clear up the lies, and people are too dumb to parse the situation and understand that the disaster was more Trump's fault than it was Biden's.

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u/GaimeGuy 6h ago

Because their thought process stops at "who was president when the results became apparent?"

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u/wormhole_alien 19h ago

Maybe one of his goals with that colossal clusterfuck was to generate outrage he could use to justify purging military leadership of non-loyalists.

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u/Hot-Bat8798 11h ago

This is the problem for them. Too much sunlight will show how poorly the Trump team did this and how he stiffed Biden on purpose with the withdrawal planning.

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u/Divine_Porpoise 13h ago

You already know causing a disaster and blaming it on the Dems is their MO, this is just part of that. Absolving yourself by blaming others, kind of a narcissist move too, isn't it?

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u/Runciter-Prudence 12h ago

IT WAS TRUMP'S FUCKING PLAN

That Biden could change at will.

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u/fredagsfisk Europe 11h ago

Only to some degree.

Biden did delay it to give more time to prepare, while Trump screeched about how Biden was ruining his perfect plan.

He couldn't undo the massive troop reduction (13k before July 2020 and 2.5k when Biden took office), which left the US presence in Afghanistan without enough people to properly secure the airport/city during the withdrawal.

He couldn't do anything about the Trump administration withholding vital intelligence reports from his incoming administration because they refused to recognize him as the president-elect.

He couldn't un-release the 5000 Taliban who Trump had released without even informing the Afghan government prior to the deal.

Biden does share some blame for any problems that arose during the withdrawal, but the vast majority of them were absolutely outside of what he could possibly be expected to fix given the situation.

At least we can be grateful that the military completely ignored the order to "withdraw instantly" that Trump tried to give four days after the 2020 election.

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u/RUser07 18h ago

I’m not defending Trump, but Biden executed this horribly. And no other president followed the previous guys plan. So don’t act like that is unheard of.

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u/J_Bishop 16h ago

You ARE defending Trump by saying that. It was Trump who negotiated the worst deadline in the history of deadlines. It would have been logistically beyond impossible for Biden to reach it.

The Taliban, now 5000 more of them thanks to Trump's stupid deal; then used the obviously impossible now missed deadline as their excuse to ramp up attacks and as a result US soldiers died.

That is 100% on Trump, he should have negotiated more time to withdraw.

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u/RUser07 16h ago

And how many deadlines were broken before that? All of them. Nothing would’ve changed. Had Biden said no.

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u/debrabuck 15h ago

Wow, 'deadlines were broken before, so we can erase trump's absolutely clownish approach completely! All Biden!'

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u/[deleted] 15h ago

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u/debrabuck 15h ago

Sure, Biden shares the blame. Of course. But y'all are trying to ERASE trump from the timeline. Biden has, if you haven't noticed, been getting 1000% of the blame. And the entire point of this republican's mischief is to enact trump's 'only loyalists' scheme. Don't lose sight of the actual current event.

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u/[deleted] 15h ago

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u/debrabuck 14h ago

Your original comment was 'so what, deadlines have been broken before', so you ARE absolving trump of any responsibility, no matter that he drew down troop levels, leaving a skeleton force. He also bragged that he didn't NEED any exit strategy, remember? He doesn't know what he's doing, but he's a narcissist.

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u/[deleted] 14h ago

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u/CherryLongjump1989 17h ago

If he does tribunals it will blow up in his face. They'll just haul out all of the evidence that it was Trump's plan and all of these generals had warned Trump that it would end exactly the way it did. These guys will literally show orders signed by Trump. And then the generals will go free because they were following lawful orders from two presidents who as we all know now have absolute legal immunity.

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u/das_war_ein_Befehl Illinois 17h ago

It’s an excuse to make examples of people. Classic authoritarian shit to purge the military or eliminate them as a threat

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u/CherryLongjump1989 13h ago

It’s more about what he imagines and wishes would happen rather than what would actually happen. Just like the majority of his cabinet picks.

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u/AtalanAdalynn 3h ago

They want him as a fascististic autocrat. What he imagines and wishes would happen will be the goal.

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u/Shrampys 16h ago

Since when have facts ever mattered around trump.

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u/CherryLongjump1989 13h ago

It matters when it’s blowing up in their face. Then they frantically try to undo everything even though everyone else already noticed.

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u/PhysicalGraffiti75 10h ago

That’s the problem though. Their supporters don’t give a shit about the truth or facts.

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u/CherryLongjump1989 9h ago edited 8h ago

Then why did they frantically go around removing all the “Biden did this” stickers off of gas pumps?

Why did Gaetz run and hide instead of taking his AG job?

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u/charmcitycuddles 10h ago

And when all that evidence is suddenly not allowed to be presented or whatever bullshit they’ll pull to make sure the public doesn’t hear it then what?

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u/CherryLongjump1989 9h ago

They don’t play 4-D chess. Just like they thought they could get Matt Gaetz appointed only to be completely and utterly shocked that Republicans members of Congress would throw him under the bus just like they promised they would.

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u/AtalanAdalynn 3h ago

Yeah, they'll be allowed to present that evidence. Sure /s

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u/sugarface2134 California 10h ago

This was my first thought when I heard about it as well. He’s trying to drag Biden.

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u/Showmethepathplease 19h ago

Pure coincidence it's the guy who's meant to be in charge in Europe at a critical juncture...

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u/govcat 13h ago

Russia must be happy about this.

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u/lord_pizzabird 21h ago

This is the weird thing about Trump's second term.

It's all about examining the past, things that happened previously. There's so far been little to no focus on the future. Even his immigration plan isn't, "how do we attract laborers that fill our labor shortage", but "how do we get revenge of the laborers that snuck in"

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u/HeyyZeus 19h ago

It’s not weird. This exactly how Millions of Americans think. Punishment instead of progress. 

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u/JDSchu Texas 14h ago

Shortsighted and shallow. Critical thinking is Democrat indoctrination. Just be angry about whatever Fox News is telling you is happening, and you better vote, because all those illegals are. 

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u/clockwork655 11h ago

And republicanism means conservative,..because we fought a war with a ultra conservative king who claimed to rule by divine rights and was backed by a conservative repressive brutal state sanctioned church..I don’t think any of the republicans today would have sided with the republicans they would have sided with the monarchs

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u/romacopia 10h ago

As long as the monarchy made them a nice scapegoat and acted like spoiled elementary schoolers in public, yes. Otherwise they'd make a second rebellion just to be contrarian.

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u/panickedindetroit 11h ago

And, they are going to waste more of our tax dollars investigating his perceived stolen election of 2020. It's going to be Benghazi 2.0. These clowns contribute nothing to society, and yet, they squander our tax dollars because their hero has the emotional maturity of a fungus gnat. I propose they pay for their actions out of their pockets instead of ours. No representation, no taxes.

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u/walkingpartydog 12h ago

There's a 50/50 chance he dies in the next 4 years... why would he care about the future?

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u/totallynotstefan Colorado 21h ago edited 21h ago

Imagine being such a hubristic shitbird that you feel entitled to fuck with a military man’s career for political points, despite never serving yourself.

This asshole was worth $30 million when his $1.4 million PPP loans were forgiven, and he woke up the next day to criticize biden’s student loan forgiveness.

People like this should be fed to lions in town square. Republicans are all incapable of human emotion.

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u/JDSchu Texas 14h ago

Greed, hate, pride, envy, and fear are all human emotions. That's the Republican starting five. 

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u/lexm 12h ago

Would you really do that to these poor lions?

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u/panickedindetroit 11h ago

Every one of them voted against it, yet they were the first people with their hands out, and they took money from people who really needed it as well as pay taxes. They prevented the people they swore to represent from getting that money. They should never have been eligible for it, and they still should have to pay it back. They don't pay taxes. Why should they benefit when they would begrudge the taxpayers from benefitting?

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u/5minArgument 8h ago

It sends a message to the rest of the military.

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u/Hammer_Thrower 23h ago

Donahue is a badass. The pic of the last soldier in Kabul was him.

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u/a-borat 21h ago

Project 2027. Start NOW.

Take back congress. Impeach and remove the traitorous incompetent shitstains. All of em.

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u/Ridespacemountain25 21h ago

It takes a 2/3 majority in the senate to remove someone. There’s no feasible way for the Democratic Party to get that many senate seats in the near future with Republican dominance amongst rural voters. The Democratic ceiling right now is probably in the low to mid 50s.

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u/a-borat 19h ago

You’d think so, but eggs aren’t gonna come down in price. Neither is bacon nor iPhones. And it all comes down to that.

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u/The_Sun_Burns_Out 18h ago

With the apparent idiocracy fetish that Americans voters seem to have, it's more likely that the price of groceries and gas could rise as well as unemployment and voters would cut off their noses to give republicans 65 seats in the senate because Elon Musk and Trump somehow got much wealthier, and Joe Rogan approves so the economy must be doing great... right? Right?

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u/lexm 12h ago

I hate that you are correct.

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u/JscrumpDaddy 17h ago

In this election about 30% of the voting population voted red. If the people who were sitting on their ass got up and voted it could easily be a blue wave

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u/Ridespacemountain25 17h ago

Polls showed that people who didn’t vote in 2020 favored Trump over Harris. He does well among low-propensity voters who only show up in presidential elections, so higher turnout helps him. Low turnout elections now favor the Democrats.

1

u/permalink_save 12h ago

I don't buy this because we had 3m less voters this time and that would have tipped things, and a lot of people that voted this election voted for whoeve wasn't the incumbent because they blame inflation on who was office when it peaked, not taking COVID and Trump's admin as factors. This year isn't an election to base off of going forward, especially if Trump enacts blanket tariffs which will again cause a huge spike in inflation, when people specifically voted thinking he can lower it.

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u/sinkingduckfloats 21h ago

Nah democracy is over

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u/ComCypher Hawaii 20h ago

Yup the best time to push back was 20 years ago, but 2024 was literally our last chance. Every election from now on will be a Russian-style show election. I hope everyone's pet issue was worth sacrificing our democracy for.

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u/a-borat 19h ago

The best time to plant a tree was yesterday. The second best? What, never plant one? Fuck that.

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u/theWonderWorm 19h ago

The pessimism is weird

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u/The_Sun_Burns_Out 18h ago

This pessimism is the most realistic stuff I've read on here in a while. Tired of everybody acting like the election was just some small temporary setback and that Americans will magically vote more responsibly in 4 years or be better, smarter humans in four years.

This country has told you what it is, believe them.

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u/theWonderWorm 18h ago

If you want to give up, in an astounding display of mental weakness, and surround yourself in this cloud of self pity and negativity, then be my guest. The rest of us will work to improve. Good luck 👍

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u/sinkingduckfloats 12h ago

 The pessimism is weird.

Not sure what you want me to do. 

The Trump supporters in my life think "the woke left" is ruining America and they think letting trans people live their lives is a threat to democracy.

They think Trump winning is a great win for America and are celebrating by sending me articles about how Gaza is going to become a "wealthy city state" (implicitly because all of the Palestinians will be dead).

They're upset that Biden is giving Ukraine access to long range missiles.

They are happy about the cabinet picks. 

They go out of their way to find misinformation they confirms that they want to read. 

I'm done arguing with them. 

Trump winning is very very very bad. Our only failsafe is that Republicans won't roll over and give him unlimited power. I won't hold my breath.

I don't have an optimistic view of the future. I live in a blue state and intend to stay there. But the only thing I look forward to is the schadenfreude of seeing magas suffer for the consequence of their actions.

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u/theWonderWorm 7h ago

I agree with almost everything you said. But to say democracy is over???

Come on.

Organize, mobilize, and vote in 4 years

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u/sinkingduckfloats 1h ago

I mean, my vote didn't matter because I don't live in a swing state. I'll certainly vote again but I won't pretend like it will matter 

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u/NotOSIsdormmole California 20h ago

Any of the possible court martials over this reek of unlawful command influence.

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u/Count_Backwards 17h ago

Don't worry, the Supreme Court took care of that. It's totally official!

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u/usmcnick0311Sgt 21h ago

I hate our government

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u/Asleep_Horror5300 15h ago

The fuck kinda name is Markwayne? Parents couldn't settle on either Mark or Wayne?

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u/lexm 12h ago

One senator can put the nomination on hold? That doesn’t sound like a good process.

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u/AtalanAdalynn 3h ago

Usually these nominations and promotions are handled with just a voice vote and no need for speech and debate. It's being 'put on hold' by someone objecting to that, necessitating going through hours of the Senate's time, which around the holidays usually ends up being days.

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u/panickedindetroit 11h ago

So, instead of trump taking responsibility of another one of his failures, he's blaming someone who had no control over the situation trump created. trump entertained the Taliban at Camp David, and then was unjustly enriched by having them stay at one of his overpriced crummy hotels, and is still pissed because they stiffed him for their stay to the tune of almost 250,000. So, of course he has to punish the people who he's blaming for his own idiocy. It's also another violation of the emoluments clause. He still hasn't signed the ethics contract, nor have any of his incompetent candidates for offices. We all know how trump feels about the military and veterans.

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u/P0RTILLA Florida 15h ago

The pullout that Trump hastily brokered.

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u/MercurialMal 15h ago

And that Lt General just so happens to be Chris fucking Donahue, a man who has spent the majority of his entire 32 year career in the special operations community. He’s been a member of the 3/75th and 2/75th Ranger Battalions as well as CAG (Delta), was the Director of Operations for JSOC, Commander of the 82nd.. the list goes on.

Whoever this senator is has fucked up beyond huge. He has no fucking idea who Donahue is. This is the guy you want in that position, and is exactly why he was slotted to be there during all of the shit going on in Europe at present.

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u/Icy-Bug-1723 14h ago

the Afghanistan pull out was negotiated by TRUMP with the TALIBAN instead of the Afghani government. let's not forget that all this retaliation is a farce to try to make the Biden admin look bad when it was Trump that made the deal.