Sen. Tim Scott's Faustian pact with the conservative devil
The Tuesday Talking Points!
Kudos to Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Sen. Mitt Romney (Utah) for announcing plans to vote "yay" for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's historic nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. The pair will join Republican Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) in ensuring that KBJ will have some level of bipartisan support in the roll call vote that should take place before week's end.
Sen. Mitt Romney will join fellow Republican Sens. Susan Collins (top) and Lisa Murkowski in voting “yay” for KBJ
The sad reality is that KBJ should have near unanimous support, but the Supreme Court vetting and confirming process has become as bitterly partisan as every other facet of D.C. politics.
Such is why I am disappointed, but not surprised that Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), one of only two Black men in the Senate (Democratic Sen. Cory Booker being the other) stated yesterday that he will vote "Nay." While I understand the rumors that Scott wants to be selected as Donald Trump's running mate in 2024, I suspect that years from now, Scott and his descendants will bear the shame of rejecting the first Black woman to serve on the nation's highest court. Until the votes are cast, there’s still time for Scott to honor our ancestors by voting “yay,” but I assure you that I shan't hold my breath 😆.
Stay tuned…
Ukraine on the Offensive
As I’ve written many times over the past few weeks, Russia is a bully and, from time immemorial, the truth has always shown that bullies only stop bullying when they are soundly defeated!
Ukrainian soldiers have fought amazingly well against their Russian foes over the past two months!
Nearly two months after invading Ukraine, an attack that made little logical or logistical sense, Russia is being whipped by most objective indicators! Part of Russia’s struggle is that Ukraine's soldiers and foreign fighters who have joined their cause are using some of the latest American made high tech weaponry to decimate Russian forces.
Yesterday, the Pentagon announced that even more military equipment is heading to Ukraine, including 10 of the highly effective Switchblade drones that are equipped with tank-busting warheads!
A Russian tank in fiery ruins in Kyiv, Ukraine
Credit is surely due to President Joe Biden and a bipartisan congressional effort that is ensuring that Russia takes its losses without direct American military intervention, one that could raise the stakes to possible nuclear war.
War is not the answer
Yesterday, the world commemorated the 54th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination and last night, while checking out newspaper headlines from that tragic event, what immediately struck me was how the North Vietnamese Communist regime in Hanoi announced its willingness to negotiate—if the U.S.'s massive bombing campaign stopped!
All across America on April 5th of ‘68, Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination shared headlines with a Vietnam War that he strongly protested…
Dr. King was killed on April 4th, 1968 and a month later, a still saddened Army Capt. Charles Hobbs deployed to Vietnam during the thick of the infamous Tet Offensive. This photo was taken near Saigon, South Vietnam in August of ‘68…
Well, we now know that negotiations proved futile in 1968 and that the war lasted another seven years until 1975, when North Vietnamese regulars and Viet Cong guerillas sacked Saigon, the South Vietnamese capital.
Similarly, while negotiations continue to take place to end the Russia-Ukraine war, it is clear that Russian Dictator Vladimir Putin wants to use the promises of peace to reorganize his attack and begin anew!
While such is my very non-expert "point," my arguments are bolstered by a real expert, Dr. James M. Dubik, the retired U.S. Army Lt. General and senior fellow at the Institute for the Study of War who wrote in an op/ed for The Hill: "The Ukraine war is at a point where fighting and negotiating must complement one another. It’s not 'either/or.' Wrong is the belief that a lull in fighting would be good for negotiations. The opposite is true. Creative diplomacy works better when it’s backed by an enhanced force position. The allies should not pressure Ukraine’s leaders to negotiate too early. Right now, Putin is weak and knows it. He is trying to create a window for his forces to refit or reconstitute and then reposition without pressure. Neither the allied leaders nor Ukraine should give Putin this opportunity. All must keep the pressure on Putin — in Russia and on the battlefield."
Indeed...
War Crimes
As a World War II history buff, I have always been inspired by the slogan "Never Again," one that's been used time and again since the world learned of Nazi Germany's Holocaust that left 10 million Jewish and Roma civilians dead in Europe.
But as I rapidly approach my fifth decade of life, it is clear to me that much of the world sees "Never Again" as a mere slogan, because in every conflict since the end of World War II, there have been atrocities committed by military personnel against civilians, including ones committed by the American military (See Army Lt. William Calley and the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam, for reference).
A Ukrainian woman surveys dead civilians who were killed by Russian soldiers…
While the above photo of Russian atrocities in Ukraine has sent shockwaves around the journalism world, I'm at a loss as to why anyone is shocked—such inhumanity is par for the course, sadly, and but another reason why war mongering and warfare remains “Hell,” as Union General William Sherman famously quipped in the 19th Century.
In Memoriam
The Romans frequently used the Latin idiom "Tempus Fugit," translated in English as "Time Flies," and such was my feeling this morning when Facebook Memory reminded that eight years ago today, my Hobbs-Cambridge family gathered to say goodbye to James Rudolph "Rudy" Cambridge, 47.
Rudy, a fast and powerful tailback/linebacker who was nicknamed "Choo," was a loving son, brother, husband, father, and cousin who passed away all too soon.
Cousin Rudy (#34 sixth row) transferred from Miami Killian High School to Columbus High, where he joined Alonzo Highsmith (#99) and Mike Shula (#10) to form a dominating backfield that played for the 7A state championship in 1983. Each would play college ball; Rudy at UCF and Morris Brown College, Highsmith at Miami, and Shula at Alabama.
From teaching me how to skateboard, to keeping other kids from laughing at me when I had yet learned to crack and eat crabs as a little boy, to my closely following him and his teammate Alonzo Highsmith as they dominated Miami area high school football in the early 80s, to his patient (and oft humorous) advice about girls (and then women) when I was growing into a man, Rudy, without question, was one of my favorite cousins that I loved and admired beyond words!
Rest in eternal peace, "Choo!"
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