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Let’s Talk ‘Treason’
Treason is one of the few crimes specifically mentioned in our Constitution. And the courts have been very specific in what constitutes the offense. In Cramer v US the 5-4 majority declared:
A citizen intellectually or emotionally may favor the enemy and harbor sympathies or convictions disloyal to this country’s policy or interest, but, so long as he commits no act of aid and comfort to the enemy, there is no treason. On the other hand, a citizen may take actions which do aid and comfort the enemy—making a speech critical of the government or opposing its measures, profiteering, striking in defense plants or essential work, and the hundred other things which impair our cohesion and diminish our strength—but if there is no adherence to the enemy in this, if there is no intent to betray, there is no treason.
And that was written in 1945 when the United States was operating under the last full-blown Congressional declaration of war. Today a sitting United States senator accused a former Congresswoman and current Lt. Colonel of the United States Army Reserve of treason. And people cheered.
I hold no special regard for Ms. Gabbard. She’s a Democrat and I think some of her ideas are absurd. But I have no need to insist that any policy difference I have with her meets any definition of “treason,” let alone the Constitutional one.
And while I also hate the “chicken hawk” trope, the end of the military draft in this country has created a huge divide where those who rattle the loudest sabers and advocate for war are the ones whose children are the most unlikely to be asked to bear the burden.
The Romneys are an especially large family and an “Army of None.” Daddy George, who was 34 at the time of Pearl Harbor, didn’t enlist. Mittens got four deferments during Vietnam. Older brother Scott avoided it, too. None of his children have served.
Nor has his peanut gallery of supporters. (As an aside I will give the Kristol family props here. Bill’s son Joe was a USMC infantry officer in Afghanistan from September 2010 to April 2011.) It’s only us lowly “proles” who offer up our children for their hubris. And I’m sick of it.
I’m also sick of politicians who tell me Ukraine’s borders are inviolable to the tune of $13.6B but not a dime for our own southern border. In 2016 Jimmy Carter’s pollster, Patrick Caddell, declared that the United States was in a “pre-revolutionary” state. If someone doesn’t get their act together soon the revolution will come. And it won’t be pretty. Then we can talk about the real meaning of treason.
Published in General
Mitt Romney is a better Democrat than Tulsi Gabbard is.
Will no one rid us of this turbulent RINO?
Agree with the OP 100%. I’m not suckered by Gabbard’s charms or her Maverick schtick, but she served, and she’s no traitor. By the way WILLARD, we are not at war.
I’m sure that whatever logitarian twaddle she’s peddling about Russia etc is all nuanced right out of the common sense zone, but whatever. Romney has dozens better targets for such an accusation, and we’re STILL not at war.
Either our sanctions and arms support are peaceable, or we are a belligerent. Which is it?
In all of our arguments here, I don’t think I’ve seen the word treason or traitor used.
Romnie na xuy!
Mitt “Orca” Romney, Republican fail whale, best be careful with trying to harpoon Tulsi Gabbard in open water.
Tulsi Gabbard has a suit against Hillary Clinton for suggesting she is a Russian agent.
Hopefully, she will soon have similar suits against both Mitt Romney and Jay Nordlinger.
Oops.
https://rumble.com/embed/vunay2/?pub=4
Thank you Dr Fauci.
Even when we had a draft, the well-off and connected were able to get deferments. The rest of us, not so much.
Lately, when I see some Congresscritter’s social media saying we have to get involved militarily in the RUS-UKR fracas, I reply, “Your children first!” I’m sure it annoys the social-media intern.
I am pretty pro-Ukraine at the moment; however, every time something like this happens I question that position more and more.
Call him by his preferred name. Pierre Delecto.
I’m not sure we have a dog in this fight. Ukraine was listed by Ernst & Young as the third most corrupt government on the planet after Brazil and Colombia. The extent to which that corruption reaches into to our own is what makes me skeptical about this whole thing. Burisma, the Ukrainian natural gas company is just the tip of the iceberg. While internet memes falsely claimed that more politicians had sons on the payroll, the corruption still reached their inner circles.
David Leiter, John Kerry’s former chief of staff is their DC lobbyist. Cofer Black, an ex-CIA spook and Blackwater vice-chair who advised Romney’s 2012 campaign joined Burisma six months after Hunter Biden left its board.
To an extent we have a dog in this fight because NATO and the Biden administration choose to have a dog in this fight. Once you get publicly involved you are part of the narrative. Additionally Putin isn’t stopping with Ukraine, so the question is what is our next move. It appears from where I am sitting our next move is fecklessness.
Nordlinger is deranged.
Web Hubbell sure has an ugly child.
Oh what a tangled Webb we weave when we practice to conceive.
I don’t think it’s necessary for us to have on-the-ground involvement in order to prevail against Russia.
There are three equally big dogs involved in this fight: China, Russia, and the United States. This is the moment that China and the United States stand united for sovereignty and for the UN Security Council of which all three are members. China and the United States should tell Russia with no uncertain terms to stand down. Russia needs to use words, not military force, to assert its position. That is how civilized people work things out today.
I of course agree with you, but this is the eminently reasonable position which preceded both World Wars. That doesn’t make it a harbinger. Just not proof against anything.
This is why I continue to refer to Ukraine as a money-laundromat. Even Zelensky’s election to the Presidency has some pretty questionable aspects. Ukraine has been ill-used by the world’s oligarchs. When our Ruling Class beats the war drums for Ukraine, is it the people they’re concerned about, or their own holdings? Are they just vultures picking over what little meat remains on its bones?
Words in such a situation don’t mean much without force. That is the simple reality.
Don’t forget about the Podestas.
Perhaps, but he is also a firm advocate of freedom, a friend to oppressed people in other lands, and the best classical music critic since Shaw. There are many voices to be heard.
He’s a ridiculous NeverTrumper who is only slightly less obnoxious than his former podcast-partner Mona Charen.
He should stay in his lane and stick to classical music. His political sense is broken.
Pfizer CEO will recommend 40 new vaccinations to proactively get ahead of this new threat.
In what way is Nordlinger an advocate for freedom? Because he supported a corrupt impeachment of Trump? Did a put a Libyan flag on his profile picture, when H.Clinton arbitrarily initiated a civil war in Libya?
Well, that photo certainly ruined my appetite; I’ll skip lunch today.
Don’t look now but the Guardian is reporting that the UK banking system is corrupt and helping Russians. Who knew?
We now have what is perhaps the most feckless administration in our history.