Pride In The Military Isn't Something You Read About Frequently Here

My grandfather came from Russia to America when he was 14. Most of his family were denied entry and wound up in Brazil. Far more of my grandfather's relatives are in Recife, Natal and Salvador than in the U.S. They are doctors, lawyers, businessmen, teachers, an artist and so on. They speak Portuguese and when I've met them I had to communicate with Spanish. That didn't lend itself to developing anything real.

When I watched the testimony of Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman at the impeachment hearing yesterday, I couldn't help but feel some kind of bond. Both our families were Russian Jews finding refuse in the U.S. to escape persecution in Russia, mine from the czar and his from the Soviets. Both our families were extremely grateful and extremely patriotic. My father American-born father was an FBI agent who then enlisted in the Army to fight the Nazis. Alexander Vindman and his brothers also enlisted in the military. He was a spectacular witness and the most amazing contrast anyone could have to Trump's oldest worthless sons, who has never worked a day in his life and is the least patriotic person-- other than his father-- that I've ever seen. Trumpanzee Jr. spent his day on Twitter disparaging Vindman while Vindman, who still has shrapnel in his body from fighting in Iraq, was endangering his career by testifying to Congress in a way that displeased Trump and his cronies.

The Republican attorney, Steven Castor, kicked off the GOP attempt to smear him, insinuating he is loyal to Ukraine, not the U.S. He also asserted that Vindman "isn’t really that senior." Fox and other far right propaganda operations is all over this. The GOP and its allies are trying to claim Vindman has dual loyalties. This is typical of the far right in terms of always accusing Jews of having dual loyalties-- plain old neo-fascist anti-semitism.

An L.A. Times editorial pretty summed it up: Republicans Smeared Vindman At Impeachment Hearing. It backfired Spectacularly.

This week, people were surprised by a piece in Foreign Policy Magazine showing that military and national security officials have been contributing more money to Bernie than to any other candidates, including Trump.

Foreign Policy examined how much money was donated to campaign committees from employees of the State Department, the military, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Justice Department, drawing on data from the Center for Responsive Politics. When combining contribution amounts together, Sanders is the biggest beneficiary of national security support, followed by Buttigieg and Warren. Democratic front-runner Biden and President Donald Trump trail behind those candidates, ranking no higher than third for any one department.

...Despite the presence of two veterans and an incumbent president in the race, no candidate has raised as much as Sanders in military contributions.

“I would never have guessed that. [Sanders] would have been way down my list of possible answers if this were a Final Jeopardy question,” Larry Sabato, the director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, wrote in an email. “He’s mainly about economic equality and Medicare for All.”

A Sanders campaign aide pointed to the senator’s promises to “end the endless wars” and the many years he has spent on the Veterans’ Affairs Committee as reasons for his popularity with military employees. “It shouldn’t be a surprise that these things draw support from so many in the military, but Bernie is extremely proud to have it,” the aide said.