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Abbreviated pundit roundup: Ukrainian victories change the equation [1]

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Date: 2022-09-16

Paul Waldman and Greg Sargent/WaPo:

One strange thing about this saga was how it combined Trump’s relentless race-baiting with his zeal for forcing the country into utterly needless social and political conflicts.

Removing those names is a long overdue correction of an outright obscenity. But Trump seemed like the last Republican determined to keep the Confederate names on the bases.

But after Trump forced the issue, it could no longer continue under the radar. And no conservative could offer even a moderately persuasive argument for why U.S. soldiers should train and live at bases named for enemies of the United States who fought in support of one of the worst evils in human history.

Yet by doing that, Trump ended up pushing the country to take a firm stand — against his position. As long as almost nobody knew or cared who Braxton Bragg, Henry L. Benning, or John Bell Hood were, their names could be honored on military bases. A few names could be removed here or there without any sense of urgency.

We forget this now, but Trump tried to make [Confederate-named military bases] into a major battle in the culture wars, an existential test of whether the nation would succumb to the dark forces of political correctness.

Overlooked? ⁦ @FoxNews ⁩ says it’s modeling from its latest poll shows GOP gaining just 1 House seat & failing to win control. GOP pollster: “a small Dem edge like this would produce a very modest swing to the Rs & something close to a tie in control” https://t.co/hKKQXV8gve

AP:

Support for Biden recovered from a low of 36% in July to 45%, driven in large part by a rebound in support from Democrats just two months before the November midterm elections . During a few bleak summer months when gasoline prices peaked and lawmakers appeared deadlocked, the Democrats faced the possibility of blowout losses against Republicans.

All this may widen the class-inversion. In white-collar US, inflation may be more of an inconvenience than an existential threat, which provides space for voters to prioritize their values on issues such as abortion or Trump’s threat to democracy. https://t.co/t7uiMFPVLM

Bloomberg:

“It’s a combination of a number of text messages, radio traffic, that kind of thing. Thousands of exhibits,” Representative Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat who chairs the committee, said Wednesday.

“It’s a combination of a number of text messages, radio traffic, that kind of thing. Thousands of exhibits,” Representative Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat who chairs the committee, said Wednesday.

Good thread from Terry Moran:

It may be worth saying something out loud here. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is obviously the greatest international security crisis since 9/11. And, at this point, it’s got to be said that Joe Biden and his team have handled it masterfully. 1/

Julia Ioffe/Puck News:

There’s this absolute generational divide. There is, for example, the 35-year-old couple I met in Pskov. They are horrified by what’s happening but their parents are for the war and think they are being paid by the American government to be against it. Meanwhile, their children are being taught in school that the way to differentiate real information from fake information is to go on the website of the Ministry of Defense and if the information is on there, then it’s real. If it’s not, it’s fake. I can understand why they would want to save their children from the Russian school system.

Moscow is unbearable. I couldn’t stand being there. In the square where I live, I saw the PriceWaterhouseCoopers sign come down and the Starbucks close and the office towers empty out. Even the faces have changed. They’re completely different. You suddenly see these fat men with beer bellies and t-shirts with Z’s on them. It’s astonishing the speed with which the public has changed. Some people still recognize me on the streets and thank me, while others literally spit at me.

The former queen mother of the Russian opposition, now living in exile, reflects on the terror that drove her compatriots from the capital, the contempt among those left behind, and the oligarchs who are on the verge of revolt.

An updated thread on the wartime #leadership demonstrated by @ZelenskyyUa – with a focus on visiting troops in the field, particularly in the wake of the successful Kharkiv offensive. 1/10 🧵 pic.twitter.com/EsOqTMthjS

Bulwark:

General Mark Hertling: Russia's Army Is Terrible. But It's Not Over.

Our deep-dive into the War in Ukraine

On Russian army corruption

Charlie: So what has happened? When we look at the success of this counter-offensive and the failure of the Russians, is this all about the new Western weapons? Or is it a more complex story? … I'd like to get your take on why you think the Ukrainians were able to be so successful in the short term, and the role of Western weaponry and the strategy that they've employed.

Lt. Gen. Hertling: Well … I kind of bristle every time I see on the internet or on television shows or listening to podcasts, when I hear people say that it's all about the Western technology, and we should give them more. We should give them everything they want.

Because, whereas that's certainly a part of what has made Ukraine successful in defending their motherland, there are so many other complexities involved, as you just said.

The first thing is the Ukraine army has transformed over the last 15 years, and I proudly say I was a small part of that when we were training with the Ukrainian army, when I was commander in U.S. forces in Europe…

So, we started that way back in about 2008, and truthfully, it was for selfish reasons. It was because Ukraine had volunteered to send forces to both Iraq and Afghanistan, which they did until the very end of both of those wars, and we needed them to be competent on the battlefield and fight shoulder to shoulder with us. They were not that kind of an army when we first started working with them.

So, over the last 15 years, they have transformed internally. They have conducted western style training events and exercises, they have built a more professional Leadership Corps, not only at the senior officer level, but at the NCO or the sergeants level, and they have really bought into the Western approach to security. So, that's another factor.

But, one factor that not a whole lot of people are saying much about is, truthfully, the Russian army is bad.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/9/16/2123008/-Abbreviated-pundit-roundup-Ukrainian-victories-change-the-equation

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