The leaders of three branches of the U.S. military slammed Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) over his monthslong blockade of senior military promotions Tuesday, with one accusing the Republican senator of “aiding and abetting communists.”

“For someone who was born in a communist country, I would have never imagined that actually one of our own senators would actually be aiding and abetting communists and other autocratic regimes around the world,” Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro — a Cuban-born Navy veteran — said Tuesday during an interview on CNN alongside Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall and Army Secretary Christine Wormuth.

“This is having a real negative impact and will continue to have a real negative impact on our combat readiness,” Del Toro added.

  • @raspberriesareyummy
    link
    731 year ago

    And pray thee, which “communists” would that be? Because last I checked, Russia was an oligarchy and China a capitalist quasi dictatorship.

    • @TheJims
      link
      English
      531 year ago

      He’s doing it for pro Russia American Facists or who we simply call Republicans these days.

      • @raspberriesareyummy
        link
        91 year ago

        He secretary of Navy (= saying “communists” for the ears of the pro Russia US facists) or Tuberville (= aiding and abetting Russia to make his electorate happy)?

        • AmberPrince
          link
          fedilink
          251 year ago

          I think Del Toro said communists just so Republicans would care. Since they seem to believe communists are at your local food back, or teaching kids in schools.

      • @CharlesDarwin
        link
        English
        21 year ago

        And the far right call everything they don’t like either “woke” or “Communist” these days. It’s interesting how the hard right especially now loathe anything anti-fascist, too. There was a point where they did not say the quiet part out loud, now they do.

    • @SCB
      link
      51 year ago

      Delivering impactful messaging is a good thing, actually.

      Also he’s blocking appointments until the government penalizes abortions in the military btw.

      • Semi-Hemi-Demigod
        link
        fedilink
        -11 year ago

        It’s not impactful to me because I’m used to ignoring anyone whenever they claim something is communism.

        • @SCB
          link
          51 year ago

          Then that tells me you’re probably not a Republican voter which means this message isn’t for you as you already don’t support Tuberville’s unhinged crusade to ban abortions in the military.

          • Semi-Hemi-Demigod
            link
            fedilink
            -61 year ago

            I don’t think it will be impactful for them either because they have complete loyalty to the Republican Party above all else and think killing babies is wrong.

            • @SCB
              link
              4
              edit-2
              1 year ago

              Primaries are how you win these fights, and they’re trying to paint Tuberville as bad for the military (because he is) to his own constitutents, who dislike killing babies and also dislike “communists” and the military being hurt.

              More to the point, the hope is clearly that the threat of this primary challenge will make him drop his blockade.

              The alternative is to do nothing and let one person’s personal vendetta fuck up our military.

              • Semi-Hemi-Demigod
                link
                fedilink
                -41 year ago

                I don’t think it’ll work, and if it does he’ll probably get replaced by someone worse, but I wish them luck.

    • @CharlesDarwin
      link
      English
      31 year ago

      This, so much this. Communism, most especially the capital-C Communism the goofy Republicans rail against, are not really even a thing.

      • @raspberriesareyummy
        link
        31 year ago

        I suppose an imaginary enemy is much more convenient than a real one, where your populist statements might face a reality check.

        It’s very similar to how Republicans have this fetish with unborn children, yet conveniently forget to give a shit about children the moment they are born into a poor family.

      • iByteABit [he/him]
        link
        fedilink
        01 year ago

        On the contrary, they’re doing an exceptional job at it. One would imagine the US like a utopia if capitalism was designed to improve everyone’s lives like rich fucks and their aspirants love to say.

    • @yesman
      link
      -1
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      I don’t think it’s helpful to gate-keep definitions. China says it’s a communist country, and that’s good enough for me. So goes Cuba, Best Korea, and Vietnam. Splitting hairs over the difference between Marxist-Leninist vs. Unitary one party Socialist State sounded cool and academic until I heard a libertarian claiming to be an anarcho-syndicalist and realized how ‘well, actually’ that shit sounds.

      People who look forward to an egalitarian economic and social order need to acknowledge the failures of real life socialism. Fuck the confederates, leftists are the real “lost causers”. I don’t know how to do socialism “right”. But I know we can’t get there by arguing semantics.

      • @CharlesDarwin
        link
        English
        21 year ago

        I guess that means North Korea is democratic and a republic.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        11 year ago

        Modern communists do recognize the failures of attempts at socialism. They recognize that those failures directly lead to Deng Xioaping and his friends taking control of China and destroying the socialist state. Simply because China declares itself communist does not make it so. I could declare myself the king of England do I suddenly get the throne just because I’ve claimed it? China, much like the USSR before it must declare itself communist due to the popularity that Mao has in the country. Unfortunately socialism died in China shortly after Mao. The “why did socialism fail” is exactly what communists study so that they can understand the pitfalls and try to move past them in the future.

        This isn’t a case of gatekeeping. China has become exactly what it hated the Soviets for — social imperialists.

      • @raspberriesareyummy
        link
        01 year ago

        China says it’s a communist country,

        “China says”? You mean the one, and true voice of 1.3 billion Chinese people, that all agree with? Or even the majority?

        China is run by money like most of the rest of the world, therefore the system under the hood is capitalism. And since it’s a one-party system, it’s a de-facto dictatorship.

  • wrath-sedan
    link
    fedilink
    201 year ago

    Some have touched on this but I think the reason for the communist comment is to get the people Tuberville IS supposedly accountable to ie his supporters, donors, voters, lobbyists etc. mad about what he’s doing. The top secretaries of the military don’t generally criticize sitting senators, but this is an intentional ploy to erode his support with a right-wing ostensibly pro-military anti-communist base.

  • Doug Holland
    link
    15
    edit-2
    1 year ago

        OK, so there’s this wingnut Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Football) who’s angry that the military reimburses officers for travel expenses when they need to go out-of-state for an abortion. Until that rule’s changed, Tuberville has vowed to block all military promotions (who knew Senators had that power?) and now the Army, Navy and Marine Corps have no Senate-approved commanders in place.

        Other than how it screws over low-ranking officers, I really give no shits at all about Tuberville’s blockade. It makes him look like an idiot, and he is an idiot, and I’m pretty sure the Army, Navy and Marine Corps can do all their armying, navying, and marine corpsing without Senate-approved leadership.

        But man, I got a laugh out of that “aiding and abetting the Communists” crack.

    • @SCB
      link
      181 year ago

      Other than how it screws over low-ranking officers,

      The military has vacancies in senior leadership positions that cannot be filled, which is obviously a big fucking deal.

      In addition to hundreds of one-, two- and three- star generals and admirals, the holds delay the confirmation of the Pentagon’s top leaders — who make up the Joint Chiefs of Staff, including the chairman. Already, the U.S. Marine Corps is without a confirmed leader for the first time in a century. And by law, the current Joint Chiefs chairman, Army Gen. Mark Milley, will step down at the end of September, and the current Army chief will leave his post in early August. The nominees to succeed them have had hearings, but no votes

      https://apnews.com/article/tuberville-military-holds-senate-officers-45c4230a8aee5222bf32b43823e29acc

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        101 year ago

        And by not promoting a general that backs up hundreds of promotions down the officer ranks. Can’t promote any LT’s because a few caps can’t get promoted because a couple of majs can’t get promoted because some ltcol’s can’t get promoted because a col can’t get promoted because tubby blocked a general.

    • @dhork
      link
      English
      101 year ago

      Hey, how can you be so rude? The man has excelled in a key leadership position in the country, one that a privileged few hold. Why are you ignoring all that and referring to him with his minor title of “Senator”?

      Please refer to him as “Coach” from now on, as that’s the title he really values.

  • @CharlesDarwin
    link
    English
    141 year ago

    I do like how he translated this into wingnut-ese.

  • mr_robot
    link
    English
    01 year ago

    Anyone else notice the Senator taking a nap in the background of the title image? Dude is passed out in whatever that hearing that is.

  • Semi-Hemi-Demigod
    link
    fedilink
    -41 year ago

    Welcome to The United States, where anything anyone doesn’t like is automatically communism.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      141 year ago

      If someone is born in a communist place and leaves it and later says this is bad like that is bad, it’s not the same as your drunk uncle ranting about why he can’t afford the newest F150

  • varoth
    link
    English
    -541 year ago

    Lmfao…Tuberville helping communists? Dude is as right wing as they come. Communism is left. He’s very much anti-communist. God I’m so sick of how this country has bastardized the word so much that they call literally everything they don’t like communist.

    Traffic bad? It’s communist! Woke up sick? Communist! Kids giving you problems? Communist! Store was sold out of your favorite thing? Communist! Dog barked too loud? Communist! Bird crapped on your car? Communist! Burnt your toast? Communist!

    Where does it fucking end? Please use a different fucking word, holy hell.

    • Flying Squid
      link
      481 year ago

      And yet, his blockade is a big help to China. Plus, this is hitting him where it hurts. Do you think the people who vote for him want to vote for a “communist?”

      • @ThwaitesAwaits
        link
        -11 year ago

        You could ponder it for years and that won’t make it true. There are several different ways that this is reducing the militarys readiness, but ‘spreading communism’ isn’t one of them.

        When politicians chooses to use lazy cold war fear mongering when real legitimate reasons exist they only make themselves look bad.

        • @Thrillhouse
          link
          English
          211 year ago

          They didn’t say spreading communism though.

          They said aiding and abetting communist and autocratic regimes, which is very different.

    • @orclev
      link
      151 year ago

      Dude is as right wing as they come. Communism is left. He’s very much anti-communist.

      While I agree with everything else you’ve said this bit kind of undermines your point. Left/Right particularly with regards to the US is almost irrelevant. The terms liberal and conservative are probably more useful/relevant although increasingly you could just say fascist/non-fascist as well unfortunately. Use of Left/Right to refer to Democrats and Republicans is really just historical shorthand at this point, particularly since Democrats are only Left relative to Republicans.

      Furthermore the whole thing is stupid because there really aren’t any communists (as the term is meant when used by these people) left for the most part. Only one I can think of off the top of my head is North Korea. There’s also the fact that it has always bothered me that Communist as it’s typically used very much combines two different concepts/systems into one, that is economics and government policy/decision making. It’s like arguing that Britain is a Feudalist society just because they have a monarchy (although that’s not a great example since the monarchy is pretty damn vestigial at this point). Similarly it bothers me that people will use Capitalist as some kind of shorthand for Democratic as if Capitalism is a requirement of Democracy and vice versa.

    • Buelldozer
      link
      fedilink
      131 year ago

      Lmfao…Tuberville helping communists?

      There’s a strong argument to be made that his actions are doing exactly that. He passed the point where any reasonable person would have allowed the Military to perform the necessary promotions so they can get on with their Constitutionally assigned function.

      THIS asshole though needs to prove a political point so damn bad that he’s hamstringing the readiness of our forces over it. Republicans need to find a way to deal with him.

    • RaineV1
      link
      fedilink
      121 year ago

      I don’t think he’s saying it because he believes this senator is actually helping communists. Rather it’s just a way to put political pressure on him. It’s the military branding him as someone weakening America and helping its enemies to his voters, and telling other Republicans that that is how they’ll also be viewed.

    • @SCB
      link
      71 year ago

      Leftists would shoot themselves in the face just to make a semantic point lol

      There is no way that the military putting pressure on Tuberville from the right is a bad move for you - take the fucking W where you find it.

      • themeatbridge
        link
        -3
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        I don’t completely disagree with you, but I’m not really a communist so it feels disingenuous to tell communists they should not object to being demonized. I am an atheist (functionally, but not really, and the difference is not relevant), and I know how it feels when atheists and satanists are used as a political bogeyman by the right wing. It’s frustrating when someone you want to agree with is attacking someone you don’t agree with by saying that person is like you.

        Communists don’t want to be associated with Tuberville, and I can’t blame them for that.

    • @BruceCampbellschin
      link
      61 year ago

      What’s with all the down votes? Regardless of this situation even, I’m confident a good amount of people in the US still have no clue what communism really is… or fascism, Marxism, banana republic, etc. I was constantly told in my childhood to watch out for communists, long before I was old enough to understand. The indoctrination continues.

      • @APassenger
        link
        6
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        “Communism” is a leftover, inaccurate descriptor to say “Russia, China and North Korea.” While inaccurate, the shorthand still works.

        And Russia is being an aggressor. So… if we accept the inaccuracy so the General can get a better soundbite, he’s got a point.

        Then the caught-on-an-inaccuracy-but-losing-the-big-picture response… that caught downvotes. Because it lost the bigger picture.

        Or would rather Russia win, as later responses may have implied.

      • catsarebadpeople
        link
        fedilink
        51 year ago

        You’re correct but the down votes are because OP is completely missing the point to go on a useless rant.

      • varoth
        link
        English
        -161 year ago

        Good question. Probably bootlickers who have been propagandized their entire lives. China is far more capitalist than communist IMO. It’s kind of a blend these days. They also think places like China & Russia are the enemy whe in reality our own government is the enemy and have progressively made things worse and worse for the poor and working class for decades.

    • @MajorJimmy
      link
      31 year ago

      Try rubbing your last two brain cells together.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      1
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      You can aid communists unintentionally without being one. By his actions, Tuberville is aiding communist ragimes.

      Traffic bad? It’s communist! Woke up sick? Communist! Kids giving you problems? Communist! Store was sold out of your favorite thing? Communist! Dog barked too loud? Communist! Bird crapped on your car? Communist! Burnt your toast? Communist!

      You’re right about that. It has become the conservative mantra. Everything they dislike is “communist” or “socialist.” Sometimes they throw a “radical” in there. The words have lost all meaning.