Matt Gaetz tries to use Chinese Propaganda in a committee hearing

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https://www.thedailybeast.com/matt-gaetz-cites-chinas-fox-news-in-push-to-stop-ukraine-aid?ref=home

It did not go well. Nor did it make him look like anything but a duped GOP Congressman.

He would fit in well with some forum members.

Published by Adam Green

A 24 year Navy vet, cancer survivor, father, grandfather, assistant caregiver for my live-in mother-in-law. Enjoys golf, football (real and fantasy), being the best grandfather I can, supporting the endeavors of my children (both involved in the education of our younger generations) and tormenting my wife of 34 years. Also prefer bourbon over scotch, but will drink both, just not at the same time. Discovering craft beers and trying trying hard to get to a consistent golf swing.

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45 thoughts on “Matt Gaetz tries to use Chinese Propaganda in a committee hearing”

    1. If the information were true, why would a staffer get fired?

      If he KNEW it were true, (Never ask a question you don’t know the answer to in a setting such as that.) he would not have balked after the witness stated his feelings about the source.

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      1. If a staffer presented the article to Gaetz without verifying a reliable source, he should be fired. You don’t leave your employer exposed like that.

        Even if the information from a Chinese source is true, and it may well be, his boss should have known the source.

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    2. The line of questioning was not to elicit information but to score political points. Repeatedly Gaetz tried to force the Inspector General to answer unanswerable questions. The intellectual equivalent of proving negatives. Luckily he was a professional who stuck to what he could testify to and was not rattled by the hounding.

      The Azov Regiment has been incorporated into Ukraine’s National Guard for about a year now. They likely do get to use weapons and ammunition that we supply. So what? They are fighting Russian aggression. That is all that matters until the war is won.

      Obviously, Gaetz wants to score points for Russia by screaming “Nazis!” Bullshit. Ukraine’s military is about 500,000 strong. The Azov brigade at its pre-invasion peak had 900-2500 members most of whom are Nationalists fighting Russian incursions – not neo-Nazis.

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        1. “The point is that there are no good guys.”

          So, you keep saying. And in doing so, you equate invaders attacking a neighboring country with people defending themselves from invasion. The amount of sense that makes does not need me to elucidate. It stands on its own as nonsense.

          And, Gaetz offered nothing in support of that claim. He tried but fell on his face by relying on Chinese propaganda to score his gotcha moment. I would venture that the portion of American military personnel whose beliefs could be fairly categorized as “neo-Nazi” is also very low but quite possibly higher than Ukraine’s.

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        2. If you are a Ukrainian with a family and defending against Russian invaders, I would not dismiss him as a bad guy.

          But to each his own, I suppose.

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          2. You mean like us here. Or any nation that has people who would rather things were different.

            We just had an attempt to do so via violence. That doesn’t mean we should capitulate so a minority is happy. We do that by rights in our Constitution, not fragmenting ourselves as some conservatives have suggested.

            If what you say is true, then a short walk across the border into the welcoming arms of Putin and friends is certainly possible. Saying I want my farm to be in Russia, so change the border for me and everyone else around me, whether they agree or not.

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        3. Stuff that. Invaders are the bad guys. PERIOD. No matter how many times you spout that vile thought, it is just a way for you to love in your isolationist idea.

          Isolationism has never worked. That is NOT going to change.

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          6. “Keivinan Rus was the basis of the old Russian empire.”

            Uh, no it wasn’t. You don’t get your own facts. No matter how boldly you pretend to know thing that you have just made up. Or how willing you are to parrot Putin’s propaganda.

            The old Russian empire was built by conquest out of Moscow and St. Petersburg. Noy Kyviv. Ukraine was added by conquest between 1708 and 1783.

            https://www.history.com/news/ukraine-timeline-invasions

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          8. “I’m only going back as far as the status before the Russian Revolution.”

            Well, go back again. You still have it wrong.

            Kievian Rus more or less disappeared with the Mongol invasion in the 13th century. It was hardly the “basis for the old Russian empire” before, after or during the Russian Revolution.

            You and Putin are asserting a “fact” that is false – that Ukraine is somehow not a real country nor a real ethnicity.

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          9. I don’t dispute that there are people who see themselves as Ukrainian, just that the area they control does not align with that people very well.

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          10. “I don’t dispute that there are people who see themselves as Ukrainian, just that the area they control does not align with that people very well”

            If you are referring to the Donbas, it has never had an ethnic Russia majority. Of course, the real point is that Ukraine has very well established borders which Russia has repeatedly violated as it has done in other countries.

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          11. Those borders were set by the Soviet apparatchiks for the purpose of breaking up ethnic Russian populations.

            Ethnic majority? Hard to determine. Russian speaking and preferring to be Russian definitely yes.

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          12. “Ethnic majority? Hard to determine. Russian speaking and preferring to be Russian definitely yes.”

            It is impossible to determine now with loyal Ukrainians murdered and displaced, but the last census before the Russian invasions in 2014 was able to gather data on ethnicity in Donbas. Ethnic Russians were a minority. It was not even close.

            Zelensky is native Russian speaker. Next bogus argument?

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          13. “I don’t dispute that there are people who see themselves as Ukrainian, just that the area they control does not align with that people very well.”

            UKRAINIAN family (what is left of them) told me to tell you to stuff it.

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          14. “Remember that Ukraine is a creation of the Soviet era. It used to be half Poland and half Russia.”

            “Remember” from you is a tell that bullshit is sure to follow. The fact that this part of Eurasia has been fought over for millenia has NOTHING to do with the legal borders of Ukraine today. And whoever was in charge the people they were in charge of were Ukrainian – not Poles, not Russians.

            And, by the way, Ukraine fought for its independence in 1917-1921 but were eventually overpowered and forced to be part of the USSR.

            What you are now saying is exactly what Putin says – Ukraines have no right to be independent of Russia.

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          15. That is not the issue. That Putin wants Ukraine back in his fold via a brutal invasion is, however.
            Europe does not want Russia any closer. Certainly not after seeing his methods.

            You are talking pretense, not reality.

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          17. Because you refuse to see the truth. Your choice.

            If he only wanted the Eastern Oblasts, why invade the entire country with a major push towards Kyiv? Not necessary if he ONLY wanted the east.

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          19. “No, it is necessary to defeat Ukraine and force a withdrawal from the East.”

            And put in place a loyal puppet in Kyiv making it a de facto part of Russia.

            Can’t you ever stick to the facts? Putin denies that Ukraine is a separate country or has a right to be and his obvious initial war aim was to make that happen. Another in centuries of attempts to Russify the Ukrainians. All have failed and this one most spectacularly of all.

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          21. “I am going by the terms Putin has offered from the beginning.”

            Baloney. His terms did not just include legitimizing his conquest of Crimea and giving up the Donbas forever. They also included severe restrictions on the sovereignty of Ukraine including control of their foreign and trading policy. It was de facto annexation.

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          23. “We have no national interest in denying the people of the Eastern Oblasts in Ukraine their choice of government.”

            That is a very puerile statement of what this war is about. It IS in our national interests and those of our allies in NATO that aggressor nations not be rewarded for their aggression. As the Chinese peace policy paper put it. . .

            “Universally recognized international law, including the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter, must be strictly observed. The sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all countries must be effectively upheld. All countries, big or small, strong or weak, rich or poor, are equal members of the international community.”

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          27. “You realize that is the Chinese pretense for their intended annexation of Tiwan.”

            Sure.

            But, history is working against them. It was not part of China at all until 1683 when it was annexed by the dynasty in power. In 1895 China ceded it to Japan. It was part of Japan for 50 years until 1945 and has been an independent country every since. So, for the last 127 years Taiwan has not been part of China.

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          29. “Xi does not concur”

            That is undoubtedly true, but the history is what it is no matter how much some fascist aggressor tries to re-write it.

            Personally, I think the lesson Xi has learned from Putin is that wars of conquest are never as easy as you think they are going to be. The spectacle or Russian failure against motivated and capable people has to give pause to any warlike intentions. And crossing a 100-mile wide waterwide is far more difficult than marching across a border.

            Assuming he is some sort of pragmatist Xi and China will settle on continuing to cultivate already robust trading relationships with Taiwan and let the distant future take care of itself.

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      2. Truth be known, we probably have more neo-Nazis and racists in our own armed forces. Sometimes they reveal themselves and are kicked out.

        The rest become various gang members like the supposed Oathkeepers.

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  2. I also question if the information is true. Just because some Democrat claims it is propaganda isn’t very compelling. As a matter of fact if makes it more likely to not be propaganda but a case of deflection.

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    1. Didn’t know that Trump was a Democrat.

      “At a hearing Tuesday, Gaetz cited, and entered into the record, an article from a newspaper which the Trump administration designated as a propaganda outlet — apparently without knowing that’s what he was doing.

      Deflect THAT.

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