Arnold Schwarzenegger was never known as bright, a thinker or someone who understood the consequences of public policy. He is still proud of AB 32, an effort to “fix” climate change. Instead this bill caused massive unemployment, started the movement of people and firms out of the State. For those that stayed behind we have higher costs for services or products, a wide range of government red tape (which is costly) and delays for months and years (adding inflation to the costs) before a project can go forward.
So it is not surprising the Arnold has taken the words and advice of a Democrat operation, Col. Vindman, who misrepresented facts before Congress and then was forced to resign from the military.
“There was just one problem though: The nasty short passage in Schwarzenegger’s message beginning at the 3:09-minute point comparing Vladimir Putin’s scorched earth war on Ukraine with what he called the Jan. 6 “insurrection.”
All the same stuff, right?
Aside from the obvious problems of it — its false equivalence of a crowd protesting election fraud that got out of control in Washington apparently with some official complicity and blundering, and the queasy-making memories Russians themselves would have of their own protests against election fraud in Russia over the past decade, the comparison was irrelevant and gratuitous.”
Comparing the war crimes of Putin to mostly peaceful protest in Washington is outrageous. This proves Arnold failed his civic class, his ethics class and obvious should see someone about his mental disorders.
The ugly hand of Vindman in that Schwarzenegger Russia video
By Monica Showalter, American Thinker, 3/17/22
Arnold Schwarzenegger, the disgraced, discredited, washed-up actor who wrecked California as governor, came close to redeeming himself a little, with his beautiful nine-minute message to ordinary Russians trying to tell them the truth about the Ukraine war.
It was an amazing piece — heartfelt, authentic, persuasive, un-spinny, and kind in tone. What’s more, it made Joe Biden, who courted his idea of youthful social media influencers to spout his party line, not realizing that a whale of a social media influencer with millions of followers and actual knowledge of Russia was sitting right there in the grizzled face of decrepit old Arnold Schwarzenegger.
There was just one problem though: The nasty short passage in Schwarzenegger’s message beginning at the 3:09-minute point comparing Vladimir Putin’s scorched earth war on Ukraine with what he called the Jan. 6 “insurrection.”
All the same stuff, right?
Aside from the obvious problems of it — its false equivalence of a crowd protesting election fraud that got out of control in Washington apparently with some official complicity and blundering, and the queasy-making memories Russians themselves would have of their own protests against election fraud in Russia over the past decade, the comparison was irrelevant and gratuitous.
Why did he include that nonsense, which not only ruined the rest of the message like a turd in a punchbowl but managed to remind many Americans that he had gone rotten on them?
Buried deep in the New York Times article about it was probably the answer:
The former governor’s social media accounts have nearly 61 million followers, according to Daniel Ketchell, his spokesman, who said the statement was written by Mr. Schwarzenegger and his communications team and fact checked by retired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, whom Mr. Schwarzenegger knows socially.
Formerly a top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council, Colonel Vindman was a prominent witness in former President Donald J. Trump’s first impeachment trial, testifying about a phone call in which Mr. Trump asked President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine for help with investigations against his political opponents.
Vindman, of course, is on a mission to discredit President Trump. Ukraine and Russia are just his handy vehicles. He was the de facto whistleblower, using a CIA pawn as a frontman, and put on a big show for the cameras as he testified at President Trump’s first impeachment. The second one was a second shot of course from the same old disgusting crowd. Since then, he’s been involved with creepy groups such as the Lincoln Project in his monomania to Get Trump.
How Vindman and Schwarzenegger actually got to know each other “socially” is weird stuff, since the pair are hardly in the same social league, and don’t share the same geography.
It was such a disgusting little addition to an otherwise good video monologue that it’s hard to think it wasn’t put there for a purpose. “I want to tell you the truth,” as Schwarzenegger began his video, was turned into a lie right there, and may well lose some of the Russians he’s trying to reach.
What a way to ruin what should have been a nonpartisan message.
It goes to show that rabid leftists, NeverTrumps, and the Washington swamp never stop in their guilty-conscience mission to Get Trump, meaning, the likely purpose of this video may well have been to take a shot at Trump, discredit him, thus legitimize Joe Biden and worse yet, legitimize Biden’s foreign policy blundering, which includes his Ukraine corruption machinations. This is particularly so since the message was delivered in English and Schwarzenegger is more than capable of delivering his message in credible Russian, even if reading from a transcribed script.
What a sad thing. Arnie almost did something redeeming. But then he did what the swamp wanted, letting Vindman get his rocks off instead of focusing on changing some minds in Russia.
