Update • 8/15/23: You may have missed this last week. The Biden Administration is placing the wrong people in charge of our foreign policy. Take note of this name -- Victoria Nuland. She is now our Deputy Secretary of State serving under Antony Blinken.
In 2014, Nuland was in Ukraine with top US officials, Senators John McCain and Chris Murphy. She was on the ground encouraging a rally of protestors in front of the Presidential Palace in Kyiv. The protest turned violent with a coup to overturn the pro-Russian, but duly elected, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich. How would you have felt if Putin's foreign policy advisors were present on January 6th egging on the rioters?
Honest people put themselves in the chair of their opponents to prevent wars, not make them. (Watch this incredible footage from the documentary, starting at 44:01 through 49:17 with journalist Robert Perry's insights about this US interference from Nuland and others --"Ukraine on Fire." Our point is we are being badly informed and letting these people get away with it when we don't have to. LIV
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LIV thinks it might be fine for political parties to make their own decisions about debates, but not if they are receiving public dollars for their primaries. Both parties certainly do have government-subsidized primaries.
The RNC (Republican National Committee) has a crowded presidential primary. Their first debate is scheduled for August 23. So far, five candidates -- DeSantis, Haley, Ramaswamy, Burgum, and Scott -- have qualified and indicated they will engage in the debate. Donald Trump will say next week if he's in or not. The RNC's criteria for participation were reasonable, though difficult. Details here.
The DNC (Democratic National Committee) is, so far, sticking to their guns that they are supporting President Biden and there will be no debate. Given what is happening with all the "war talk" and war funding without accountability thanks to the vote of Democrats like Bernie Sanders and Joe Manchin (who both know better), we believe there is nothing more important than a debate in both primaries. Sorry, DNC, you have to let Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Marianne Williamson in the debates with polls indicating they represent millions of voters.
Why a primary debate on both sides is SO necessary!
Hold on to your wallets and your hindquarters. This NY Times opinion article, "America is Living on Borrowed Time," correctly insists on dealing with America's out-of-control debt, but check out their framing:
"Republicans must accept the necessity of collecting what the government is owed, and of imposing taxes on the wealthy. Democrats must recognize that changes to Social Security and Medicare, the major drivers of federal spending growth going forward, should be on the table. Anything less will prove fiscally unsustainable." NY Times Opinion, July 5, 2023
Pop Quiz: What is glaringly missing from this statement?:
If you guessed it's the bloated beached whale of Pentagon spending, you would be right. We Americans are seen to be chumps. We're supposed to put Social Security and Medicare on the chopping block, but we cannot touch the Pentagon's historically well-known wallet pillaging!
ACTION, PLEASE! Head off the No Debate DNC at the pass!
Call your Member of the US House of Representatives. Find them here.
Ask them where they stand TODAY on getting the US to move towards diplomacy to end the conflict in Ukraine and to stop the escalation of spending and weapons.
If your member is a Democrat, ask him or her to urge the Democratic National Committee to hold primary debates.
Then, let us at LIV what you learned from reaching your Congressional Representative. Send us a note about who you spoke with and what they said. Email us here: contact@livtx.org.
Thank you! ______________________
Recommended:
Read this article, The Intercept, August 2, 2023, "Senate Democrats Blocked Watchdog for Ukraine Aid, Ignoring Lessons from Afghanistan."
Watch the entire "Ukraine on Fire" a documentary by Oliver Stone.
Regarding the debate issue, Biden is an incumbent president running for reelection. It is very typical for party leadership to treat an incumbent president as the only feasible candidate. How many debates have either party held in the past two or three decades in presidential primary contests where there was an incumbent running? Not only did the RNC not hold any debates in 2020, it openly endorsed the incumbent in early 2019 and some state parties cancelled their primaries and caucuses entirely and just awarded the delegates to him. And it wasn't as if he had no opponents at all; a couple did announce that they were candidates, but they dropped out when it was clear the race was heavily…