https://archive.li/uexvJ

Tuberville, who’s singlehandedly blocked hundreds of military promotions in protest over the Pentagon’s abortion policies, said he’s not going to change his mind and doesn’t care that people aren’t being promoted.

After the US Supreme Court reversed decades of precedent in overturning its decision in the Roe v. Wade abortion access case in 2022, the Pentagon announced its plan to reimburse service members who need to travel out-of-state to receive abortion services.

Tuberville, a Republican senator out of Alabama, took exception to the decision and said he’d use his power to stymie any military nominations and promotions he could. Since February, he’s blocked more than 300 promotions.

    • Blackbeard@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Indeed. He’s just as disingenuous, illogical, and pants-shittingly stupid as his voters. All they care about is the tantrum, and it’s about fucking time the military learned that the GOP doesn’t give a damn about anything except using them as props.

    • Ferris@discuss.online
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      1 year ago

      I cant help but to have noticed a lot of places on Lemmy where autocorrect has clearly gone wrong. We need a phone keyboard that produces options and a squiggly when it wants to correct something, maybe. I turned off my autocorrect for that reason, which raises its own set of problems lol.

      no offense intended, of course <3

      s/constitutes/constituents, likely.

    • GiddyGap@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Going from beloved coach to detested political trash. Way to destroy your legacy.

  • TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    The dems need to plaster this smug fucks face leering over a dead soldiers body with the caption “Because of Republican Inaction. I Wasn’t Ready.”

    These ads write themselves.

    • jonne@infosec.pub
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      1 year ago

      Eh, the only reason Doug Jones won in Alabama was because he ran against an admitted pedophile, and that contest was close.

      Tuberville knows he can get away with a lot of shit as long as he stays Republican.

    • GivingEuropeASpook@lemm.ee
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      God, my memory of them from when I was a kid is such that this would be a scandal in 2004. Do you think they were always like this? I don’t.

      • DigitalTraveler42@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        They have always been this way, they pander to the military because too many of us in the military and veterans eat that shit up with a smile, but when it comes time for raises, better housing, lawsuits, the massive rape and harassment problem, the gang problems, pollution, and so many other problems they turn a blind eye to, instead they want to kick out people for being gay.

        • ScrollinMyDayAway@lemm.ee
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          Remember when Biden was speaking before Congress and mentioned cleaning up the toxic ‘burn pits’ that have harmed veterans, and MTG and Boebert stood up and started booing him?

          • DigitalTraveler42@lemmy.world
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            I mean those shit monkeys were booing and being trash in general, it was just poor timing for their dumbasses that they started booing about something that actually helps veterans.

  • knotthatone@lemmy.one
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    1 year ago

    He’s an ass, but this isn’t single-handed. He only has this power because his fellow Republicans (and Manchin, and probably Sinema) are allowing it. If a handful of Republicans wanted to fix this, they absolutely could.

    • teft@startrek.website
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      From an NPR article:

      Why don’t the Senate leaders stop him?

      The current Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has made it clear he considers Tuberville’s blockade an abuse and an outrage. The GOP’s McConnell has also said he does not support the “blanket hold” on military nominations. Both have acknowledged the pleas coming from the Pentagon and from the ranks, and they have done what they could to encourage Tuberville to stand down.

      But the leaders cannot simply bulldoze the senator from Alabama. Their power is restrained by Senate rules and traditions and by the sentiments of their respective caucuses.

      If the issue here were an ordinary piece of legislation, the leaders would seek a unanimous consent agreement that would bring that matter to the floor. Individual senators may object to that with a notice that they seek “extended debate” on that legislation. This is an implicit threat to filibuster, and the majority leader routinely files a cloture petition and holds a vote.

      If cloture fails, the legislation does not go to the floor. If three-fifths of the Senate supports cloture, the legislation can be brought to the floor with time limits on debate.

      Presidential nominations have been largely exempt from this since 2013 when a Democratic Senate majority decided only nominations to the Supreme Court would be subject to filibusters. In 2017, a Republican majority decided to extend that exemption to include Supreme Court nominations.

      Nonetheless, Tuberville’s maneuver has the effect of freezing confirmations for the current backlog presidential nominations because they are submitted in batches for group consideration and approval. The batching procedure itself requires unanimous consent, allowing even one senator to stand in the way.

      The Senate majority leader could bring the nominations to the floor one by one for consideration by regular procedure, but that would require two to three days for each. Had the Senate tried to individually process even the first 150 promotions Tuberville blocked back in February, it could have done little else in the months since – and it would still be far behind on confirmations. That is scarcely practical when the military alone submits hundreds a year and the larger executive branch far more.

      Moreover, just as the Pentagon bristles at having a single senator dictate its personnel policy, so the Senate leaders are loath to have individual senators deciding when and if the Senate can proceed with normal business using its usual procedures – such as the batching of nominations.

      • jonne@infosec.pub
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        1 year ago

        Translation: there’s nothing really stopping us from going around Tuberville, but we feel the senate’s stupid arcane rules are more important than national security and having responsible people in charge if Trump tries to do a coup again.

        • GivingEuropeASpook@lemm.ee
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          Literally. Oh, it’s too long to do it one by one? Maybe prioritize then? Confirm 2-3 of the biggest promotions in order to prevent the Senate from abdicating it’s Constitutional responsibility and ceding control of the military entirely to the executive.

          I really don’t care about US military readiness but I do value checks and balances, and right now the Senate is refusing to serve as one.

          • evatronic@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            You know what happens when I have a lot of work to do and not enough time in the workday? I stay late. I work weekends. I drink a lot of coffee and get that shit done.

            “It takes too long”? Fuck you, keep the Senate in session and do nomination after nomination until these geriatric fucks pass out.

      • onionbaggage@lemmynsfw.com
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        1 year ago

        So fucking take them to the floor one by one and do the damn thing. It’s not like you’re legislating anyway with a Republican House.

      • rambaroo@lemmy.world
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        How the fuck does it take two or three days to promote one person? Holy shit the Senate is such a useless organization.

  • HomebrewHedonist@lemmy.ca
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    I believe that there is an active conspiracy to destroy the USA from within and this is proof of that. Follow the money and you’ll uncover who is behind it. My guess, China, Russia and maybe some Oligarchs around that.

      • Dicska@lemmy.world
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        There’s obvious Russian interest in disrupting US society and politics, but they are only able to achieve anything if there is demand for it. And oh boy, there is, unfortunately. The Russians/Chinese can dump all their money into influencing US politics if voters were intelligent and well informed enough to know better. Sadly, this is not the case.

  • el_guapazo@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    He’s stalling until Trump is elected, then push through the white supremacists.

  • LEDZeppelin@lemmy.world
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    Why are other republicans quiet on this one? Why they don’t tell Tubertool to fuck himself and vote on those promotions?

    Entire GOP is complicit in destroying the military preparedness. Republicans all are harming the armed forces, Tubertool is just a tool they are using.

    • snooggums@kbin.social
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      Because someone is undermining the ability of the Biden administration to do things, and when it is reported most people will juat blame Biden instead of paying attention to the actual problem.

      Not doing anything benefits the Republicans.

    • TwoGems@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Well that would require telling their fellow Russian assets to stop harming the U.S. and we can’t have that!

    • AlwaysNowNeverNotMe@kbin.social
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      Because no republicans currently in office have any reason to attack him since they aren’t running against him.

      And because I’m sure this both saves the government a couple nickels and them a couple approvals.

      • CarbonatedPastaSauce@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        This absolutely does not save the government/taxpayers any money, quite the opposite. When they lose qualified staff to attrition over bullshit like this, it’s very expensive to replace them. And given enough time, it will start to impact military readiness across the board, if it hasn’t already.

        • AlwaysNowNeverNotMe@kbin.social
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          Oh of course, it’s similar to continuously repaving roads every twenty years using materials that cost half as much as those that last a century. You “save money” on the budgets that you sign. Consequences be damned.

  • HWK_290@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I wonder what his constituency thinks. I mean, the ones with more than 2 brain cells to rub together. Surely his phones should be ringing off the hook. I know he doesn’t care but I hope there’s some noise being made

    • ATQ@lemm.eeOP
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      He hates the people they hate. That’s more important to them than supporting the military, which they claim to do.

    • hoodatninja@kbin.social
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      “Support our troops“ is a cudgel to use against your political opponents, not an expression of any concern for the military

      • blivet@artemis.camp
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        Exactly. I understand the impulse, but catching them in a contradiction is pointless because they have no actual principles.

  • 👍Maximum Derek👍@discuss.tchncs.de
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    Now that it’s impacting military readiness the executive has made it possible for those awaiting promotion to act in the role that they will eventually have. So, effectively, what Tuberville is doing is removing Senate oversight from the process. It’s a self-own and he’s super proud of it.