‘Warmonger,’ ‘Traitor,’ ‘Nazi,’ Etc.

The House of Representatives has passed legislation aiding three U.S. allies: Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. Senator Mike Lee, the Utah Republican, has called this “the warmonger wishlist pushed through by Speaker Johnson.”

In truth, it is Vladimir Putin who is the warmonger — the war-maker. The aggressor. Iran is a war-maker, an aggressor — on its own and through its proxies, such as Hamas. China threatens Taiwan.

The Ukrainians are fighting for their very right to exist. Israel’s right to exist is under attack. Taiwan’s right to exist is denied by the PRC, and Xi Jinping is eyeing Taiwan hungrily.

Don’t let the likes of Mike Lee call day night, and up down. I mean, they will do it — but they should not go unopposed, and uncorrected.

• Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Republican congresswoman from Georgia, called Speaker Mike Johnson “a traitor to our country.” When Greene is calling you a traitor — you must have done something right.

• A majority of Republicans in the House voted against aid to Ukraine (so Greene and other such Republicans can have that consolation). Previously, a majority of Republicans in the Senate had voted against aid to Ukraine. These included Lee, J. D. Vance, and Josh Hawley, naturally. But they also included Tom Cotton, Marco Rubio, and Lindsey Graham.

So you can see where the weight of the Republican Party is.

• Congressman Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) said something arresting, about the bill to aid the Ukrainians: “We need to pass it before they’re all dead.”

• Here is something from the Daily Caller:

I would say to them: Thank you. You are helping a people defend itself against a brutal, murderous invasion. You are helping a people stave off subjugation, by a behemoth dictatorship next door. You are helping the Ukrainians fight for their freedom, their independence — their right to exist. At the same time, you are buttressing the U.S. interest. So, again: Thank you.

• Over the past two years, many Americans have displayed the Ukrainian flag, and many other Americans have not liked this, one bit. In January 2023, I paid tribute to Viktor Fainberg, who had died at 91. He was one of the seven citizens of the Soviet Union who went to Red Square in August 1968 to protest the Kremlin’s invasion of Czechoslovakia. These people were incredibly brave (and paid horrible prices). Let us name them:

Konstantin Babitsky, Larisa Bogoraz, Vadim Delaunay, Vladimir Dremliuga, Viktor Fainberg, Natalya Gorbanevskaya, Pavel Litvinov.

One of the things they did, in Red Square, before the KGB set upon them, was wave Czechoslovakian flags. Why did this do this? Because they were Czechoslovakian? No — because they were human beings, and wanted to express solidarity.

I understand that impulse. I share it.

Do you know who informed me about the seven in Red Square? Vladimir Kara-Murza, who since April 2022 has been a political prisoner of Putin’s.

• Earlier this year, President Biden said, “I’m wearing my Ukraine tie, my Ukraine pin, which I’ve been wearing because they’re in dire straits right now.” The expected people mocked this, including the (new) Heritage Foundation.

In a post, I recalled President Reagan, in December 1981 — who asked the American people to express solidarity with the Poles, who were being cracked down on. Reagan said,

When 19th-century Polish patriots rose against foreign oppressors, their rallying cry was, “For our freedom and yours.” Well, that motto still rings true in our time. There is a spirit of solidarity abroad in the world tonight that no physical force can crush. It crosses national boundaries and enters into the hearts of men and women everywhere.

In Red Square that day, in August 1968, one of the placards held up by the brave seven said, “For Your Freedom and Ours!”

• A reader told me about something I had not heard about: the “Overrun Countries” stamps. Let me quote Wikipedia on the subject:

The Overrun Countries series was a series of thirteen commemorative postage stamps, each of five-cent denomination, issued by the United States over a fifteen-month period in 1943 and 1944 as a tribute to thirteen nations overrun, occupied, and/or annexed by the Axis Powers during or shortly before World War II.

The stamps depict, in full color, the national flags of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Norway, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Greece, Yugoslavia, Albania, Austria, Denmark, and Korea, with the names of the respective countries underneath. To the left of each flag appears the symbol of a phoenix, symbolizing the renewal of life, and to its right appears a kneeling female figure with arms raised, breaking the shackles of servitude.

That’s the spirit. Here is what the stamps looked like:

• Bill Pascrell is a Democratic congressman from New Jersey. He’s an old codger: 87. He served in the U.S. Army from 1958 to 1967. About the Mike Lees and the MTGs and the rest — he just doesn’t care, bless him:

• Here is a sight to make a lot of people gag — while others of us cheer:

• Many people have been led to believe that Vladimir Putin is a “defender of Christian civilization” and “Christian values.” You can see this all over the social media, in comments sections, etc. In some quarters, it is close to an article of faith.

For Time magazine, Peter Pomerantsev has written a piece titled “Russia’s War Against Evangelicals.” The author is a Soviet-born British journalist and book-writer. I recently talked with him in a podcast. (For a post on this, go here.) His new piece begins as follows:

After they beat Azat Azatyan so bad blood came out of his ears; after they sent electric shocks up his genitals; after they wacked him with pipes and truncheons, the Russians began to interrogate him about his faith. “When did you become a Baptist? When did you become an American spy?” Azat tried to explain that in Ukraine there was freedom of religion, you could just choose your faith. But his torturers saw the world the same way as their predecessors at the KGB did: an American church is just a front for the American state.

• Routinely, opponents of Ukraine call it “Nazi.” The more Putin’s forces act like Nazis, the more his supporters and excusers call Ukraine “Nazi.”

Yesterday, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty published a report headed “Insta-Nazis: How Claims of ‘Rehabilitating Nazism’ Are Molding a Militaristic Society in Putin’s Russia.” An interesting and blood-chilling report.

Often, people accuse others of what they themselves are guilty of.