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Jack Hunter

For those who still don't understand, 'no fly zone' = war

Neocons are using the ‘unpatriotic conservatives’ smear again

From my latest at BASEDPolitics, "In 2003, George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum penned the infamous ‘Unpatriotic Conservatives’ essay for National Review, which sought to discredit and shun anyone on the Right opposed to a U.S. war in Iraq.

Frum’s smear did not age well. Today, the U.S. invasion of Iraq is considered one of the worst foreign policy mistakes in American history, including by the last Republican president.

Now, some conservatives are warning against a U.S. war over Ukraine.

What has been the neocon response? If you oppose this war you’re ‘unpatriotic!”

Read the entire column.

Everyone who disagrees with me is a Russian agent

From my latest at BASEDPolitics, “The NSA whistleblower was likely being sarcastic, but he is—rightly—mocking a common neoconservative tactic that many on the Left now also use: Arguing that not wanting a new U.S. war over Ukraine (or any other country) means you are siding with the enemy…

Just ask ‘Russian Stooge’ Rand Paul, who once committed the unpardonable sin of wanting diplomacy with Russia instead of war. The late Senator John McCain accused Paul of ‘working for Vladimir Putin’ for opposing bringing Montenegro into NATO (aka preventing war). Or recall when former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accused former Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of being a ‘Russian asset’ due to the veteran Gabbard’s non-interventionist views.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said of Trump in 2018, 'Just as I have said to the president: With him, all roads lead to Putin,' further fueling the conspiracy theory that continues to permeate her party.

Right now, the debate over whether or not the U.S. should take military action is the primary determiner of which Americans are or aren’t Russian agents in the minds of many Democrats.

If you oppose a new war, you might be one.”

Read the entire column.

Why can't Snowden come home?

"We just got more proof that the U.S. government is collecting our data.

'The CIA has a secret, undisclosed data repository that includes information collected about Americans, two Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee said,’ the Washington Post reported Friday.  ‘While neither the agency nor lawmakers would disclose specifics about the data, the senators alleged the CIA had long hidden details about the program from the public and Congress…’

In the nine years since Snowden’s revelations, we have learned time and again that the U.S. government, via the NSA, CIA, FBI, etc. have continued such practices.

In 2020, a federal court ruled that the government spy program Snowden revealed was illegal.

So… if our government behaved illegally and we know about it primarily thanks to a single whistleblower…why is Snowden still exiled in Russia, on the run from U.S. authorities?”

Read the entire column.

Rand Paul wants to block billions in US weapon sales to Egypt over human rights violations

"Paul’s bill was introduced earlier this week and referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. If passed it would reject the billions in U.S. weapons sales to Egypt.

'The United States cannot proudly affirm human rights to be at the center of our foreign policy, while it arms a regime at war with its own people,' the senator wrote.

'That is why I will force the Senate to vote on a resolution that would cancel the latest military sale to Egypt’s criminal masters,' Paul said. 'Mere slaps on the wrist cannot hide the inescapable fact that the United States has handsomely rewarded Egypt as it degenerated into one of the most autocratic places on the globe. America should in no uncertain terms demonstrate that we will no longer strengthen a strongman.'

The senator listed a number of the Egyptian government’s reported abuses, including its horrific treatment of a 14-year-old child."

Read the entire story.

When the U.S. government illegally spied on Martin Luther King, Jr.

Government officials once said that National Security Agency surveillance in no way collected the private data of American citizens. Thanks to Edward Snowden, in 2013 we learned that the U.S. government was collecting everyone’s information en masse. Government promised that the 2001 Patriot Act (passed after 9/11) would only be used to target Islamic terrorists. Today, it is used more to fight the war on drugs and other criminal activities that have little to no connection to terrorism.

In 2018, the FBI finally admitted it had spied on Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Just this week, a new report showed that the NSA was still spying on all of us with few to no restrictions.

This kind of abuse is nothing new. In the mid-20th century, the NSA and FBI would spy without a warrant on suspected “domestic enemies” of the U.S.

Among those 'enemies?' Martin Luther King, Jr.

Yes, as we celebrate Black History Month, there was a time when the most cherished hero of the 1960s civil rights struggle was viewed by our government not as a champion of racial equality but the 'most dangerous Negro of the future of this nation,' as the FBI called him."

Read the entire column.

Establishment Republicans team up to attack Tucker Carlson for opposing US war in Ukraine

From my latest at BASEDPolitics, "Politico reported Tuesday that hawkish Republican politicians are getting upset because Carlson’s 'America First' message is registering with voters back home.

These Republicans have a message for Tucker: We’re in charge. Not you.

But are they?

In a story that reads more like an opinion column at times, Politico  reporter Andrew Desiderio writes, 'Republican senators are unmoved by Tucker Carlson’s relentless warpath against support for Ukraine—even as it widens an existing rift in their party.'

'The Fox News prime time host and others on the far-right' (author’s note: hawkish Republicans aren’t considered 'far-right' anymore? That’s new!) 'have excused and even rationalized Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine and downplayed its relevance to U.S. national security,' the Politico story reads.

'And while GOP senators are shrugging off his name-and-shame campaign, Carlson’s views are permeating the GOP base in a way that could undermine Republicans’ efforts to emphasize cross-party unity as they seek to deter a Russian invasion of Ukraine,' the piece continues.

In other words, Carlson is messing up hawks’ plans for the next war. Which is… the entire point of what he’s doing."

Read the entire story.

Former ACLU head blasts org’s decline away from championing free speech

From my latest at BASED Politics, "On Friday, HBO host and comedian Bill Maher interviewed former American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Executive Director Ira Glasser on his HBO program 'Real Time.”

Glasser has spoken out in recent years about how much his former organization has drifted away from its roots of fearlessly defending absolute free speech for all. He argues that partisanship has diminished the ACLU, dragging it leftward to the point of no longer defending those whose speech doesn’t reflect their 'values.'

Glasser wanted viewers to know why he believes the ACLU’s step back from defending free speech is dangerous for the preservation of basic constitutional freedoms in the United States.

'So you were a head of this organization for 25 years, almost, from 1978 into this century,' Maher began. 'It’s changing. It was a stalwart defender of free speech and civil liberties. Is it still that?'

'Not as much,' Glasser answered."

Read the entire story.

Nancy Mace wants to end federal prohibition of cannabis

Forbes reported on Tuesday about Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace’s efforts to end federal prohibition of cannabis through her States Reform Act. The story details how both corporate giant Amazon and Charles Koch’s free market advocacy group, Americans for Prosperity, are on board.

The piece also digs into the reasons why Mace thinks legalizing cannabis should be a Republican issue.

Libertarian-leaning Republicans like Mace, Rep. Thomas MassieSen. Rand Paul, and others have long tried to demonstrate how 'big government' can harm Americans in ways that go beyond taxation and overreaching bureaucracy.

The war on drugs has ruined countless lives for generations, particularly for racial minorities.

Read the entire story.

Populists on the right are now openly challenging Republican war lust

My latest at Responsible Statecraft, “The fight on the right for what constitutes a conservative or Republican foreign policy continues. This time the battlefront is Russia and Ukraine.

That there is a fissure on this issue among conservatives is in a way, a big deal, showing that the 'America First' restraint approach that garnered support among the base didn’t go away completely when power changed hands in Washington and its chief advocate, Donald Trump, left town. Unfortunately, many Republicans have gone back to form and are talking like it’s the post 9/11-era — as if Trump’s criticisms of George W. Bush’s wars and nation-building had no effect on their party whatsoever…

Suddenly more conservatives and Republicans began speaking out against the prospect of U.S. military action in the region.

‘The United States should not be involved in any future war in Ukraine,’ charged libertarian populist Republican Congressman Thomas Massie on Monday.”

Read the entire column.

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