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The pro-immigrant voicemail once left by Sen. Marco Rubio’s mother to her son is at the center of Spanish-language ads calling out his failure to permanently protect immigrant families in his state, and across the nation. 

“This is advice from the person who loves you most in the world,” says a voice portraying the late Oriales García Rubio. “Please don’t mess with the immigrants. They are human beings just like us, and they came to the country for the same reasons that we came: to work, to improve their lives. Don’t hurt them. Poor little ones.”

The Florida Immigrant Coalition Votes (FLIC Votes) notes that Rubio formerly touted the voicemail to reporters, playing the recording for TIME Magazine in 2013. That same outlet even hailed him as “The Republican Savior” that same year. But nearly a decade later, Rubio has failed to heed the advice given to him in the message.

RELATED STORY: ‘We are not going to be props again’: Venezuelan activists target Rubio over immigration inaction

“Rubio himself comes from a family of immigrants who came to the United States in the 1950’s,” FLIC Votes said in a statement received by Daily Kos. “Rubio has publicly stated his family ‘immigrated to America with little more than the hope for a better life’; yet the senator has failed to support policies to protect immigrants, instead has supported policies that attack them and separate families.”

As previously noted, Rubio has in recent years failed to support humane immigration bills putting undocumented immigrants on a path to legalization, including hundreds of thousands of people in the state of Florida.

While three Florida Republicans were among the nine GOP members overall who last year voted for the Dream and Promise Act—a bill that would protect Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, Temporary Protected Status holder, and farmworkers—Rubio did nothing to help advance the legislation in the Senate. 

“Even though the senator seems to have forgotten his immigrant roots, prioritizing his political aspirations, his mother certainly didn’t,” FLIC Votes continued. TIME Magazine’s Michael Grunwald reported at the time that García Rubio’s heartfelt, Spanish-language message reminded her son that “undocumented Americans—los pobrecitos, she called them, the poor things—work hard and get treated horribly.”

This voicemail would not prove to be the last time an immigrant mother urged Rubio to use his power to protect families.

As previously noted, a group of immigrant moms confronted Rubio on Capitol Hill in 2013, worried over rumors that he was walking away from the comprehensive immigration reform package he was supposedly championing. “I am the author of this bill, this proposal,” a flustered Rubio told the mothers, adding that he didn’t understand why he was being asked to commit to himself. But the moms’ fears were absolutely right. By 2016, Rubio had voted for a mass deportation president.

“Marco Rubio is a political chameleon, constantly shifting positions depending on whatever is politically convenient for him at any time,” FLIC’s Thomas Kennedy told Daily Kos. “In 2013, he supported immigration reform but ultimately voted against his own bill because of pressure from the tea party.” But Rubio has gone even further: During his failed presidential run, he endorsed an end to the popular DACA program.

“His own mother begged him in a voicemail released to the public ‘not to mess with the immigrants,’” Kennedy continued. “He didn’t listen and now he has embraced the full nativism and anti-immigrant hysterical vitriol of Trump’s Republican Party.”

RELATED STORIES: Marco Rubio’s anti-LGBT record continues on, following defense of Florida GOP’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill

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Evergreen: Marco Rubio is awful

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Amy Wax, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, took her entitled self to the stage of Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Today show Monday and laid her full-Karen a** out for the world to see.

Wax, 69, has a history of sharing her bigoted opinions about Black and brown folks. But her latest screed targeted the alleged “resentment, shame, and envy” harbored by “Black and other “non-Western” people for  Westerners’ “outsized achievements and contributions.”

When Wax was done criticizing Black Americans, she moved on to Asian and South Asian Indians, focusing particularly on doctors at Penn and Brahmin women from India.

They “are on the ramparts for the antiracism initiative for ‘dump on America,’” she said, complaining that Brahmins “are taught that they are better than everybody else because they are Brahmin elites and yet, on some level, their country is a s—hole. … They’ve realized that we’ve outgunned and outclassed them in every way. … They feel anger. They feel envy. They feel shame. … It creates ingratitude of the most monstrous kind.”

Again, this is not the first time Wax has laid her racism bare.

On Jan. 24, in an interview with Concordia University professor Gad Saadshe, Wax said, “Given the realities of different rates of crime, different average IQs, people have to accept without apology that Blacks are not going to be evenly distributed throughout all occupations. They’re just not, and that’s not a problem. That’s not due to racism.”

And in early January, The Daily Pennsylvanian reported that a petition garnered 800 signatures after Wax claimed that “the United States is better off with fewer Asians and less Asian immigration.”

Penn Law School dean Theodore Ruger said at the time that Wax’s comments were “anti-intellectual,”  “racist” and “diametrically opposed to the policies and ethos of this institution.” He added that “they serve as a persistent and tangible reminder that racism, sexism, and xenophobia are not theoretical abstractions but are real and insidious beliefs in this country and in our building.”

The Philidelphia Inquirer reports that Wax is currently facing a faculty senate review that could result in sanctions against her. Wax has worked at Penn for two decades and is a tenured professor.

In 2018, Ruger barred Wax from teaching mandatory first-year law courses after students became enraged over a video in which she said she’d never seen a Black Penn Law student graduate at the top of their class.

Neil Makhija, a Penn Law lecturer who also serves as executive director of Indian American Impact, a national South Asian civic and political organization tweeted Tuesday:

“Prof Amy Wax resents that she sees all the ‘brown faces’ at Penn Medicine and wants to ask them ‘why did you come here?’ Meanwhile, most were born in the U.S. and Americans all their lives. And are probably going to be the ones to treat her if she’s in the hospital.”

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Fiona Hill is a longtime Russia expert who has repeatedly distinguished herself as someone willing to speak boldly, from the strong warning she offered about Russia’s efforts to undermine U.S. democracy during her testimony at Donald Trump’s first impeachment hearings to her statement soon after Russia invaded Ukraine that using nuclear weapons would be in character for Vladimir Putin.

Hill’s expertise on Putin—she co-authored a biography of him—inflects her read of Donald Trump, who she was able to observe in detail during her time as senior director for European and Russian affairs at the National Security Council in his administration. A New York Times Magazine look back at Trump’s treatment of Ukraine highlights an important passage from her recent memoir, There Is Nothing For You Here: Finding Opportunity in the Twenty-First Century: “In the course of his presidency, indeed, Trump would come more to resemble Putin in political practice and predilection than he resembled any of his recent American presidential predecessors.”

RELATED STORY: Fiona Hill: Putin tried to warn Trump he would go nuclear, but Trump didn’t understand the warning

In the Times piece, Hill offers more thoughts on that basic assessment, describing how “He would constantly tell world leaders that he deserved a redo of his first two years,” because, “He’d say that his first two years had been taken away from him because of the ‘Russia hoax.’ And he’d say that he wanted more than two terms.”

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When interviewer Robert Draper suggests Trump was joking, Hill responded, “Except that he clearly meant it.”

Hill also heard David Cornstein, Trump’s ambassador to Hungary and a longtime friend, say similar things about Trump’s ambitions. “Ambassador Cornstein openly talked about the fact that Trump wanted the same arrangement as Viktor Orban”—the prime minister of Hungary, one of the autocratic leaders Trump so admires—Hill told Draper, “where he could push the margins and stay in power without any checks and balances.” 

But it was the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol that fully clarified for Hill who Trump is and what his ambitions are. “I saw the thread,” she told Draper. “The thread connecting the Zelensky phone call to Jan. 6. And I remembered how, in 2020, Putin had changed Russia’s Constitution to allow him to stay in power longer. This was Trump pulling a Putin.”

Yeah. And U.S. institutions and democracy were strong enough to withstand it once, but we can’t afford a second attempt. Especially since, as Hill also told Draper, “Putin has been there for 22 years. He’s the same guy, with the same people around him. And he’s watching everything”—everything that happens through U.S. elections and changing administrations. 

As Hill warned during her impeachment testimony, “President Putin and the Russian security services operate like a super PAC. They deploy millions of dollars to weaponize our own political opposition research and false narratives. When we are consumed by partisan rancor, we cannot combat these external forces as they seek to divide us against each other, degrade our institutions, and destroy the faith of the American people in our democracy.” Donald Trump is at this point Putin’s eager ally in doing that.

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The California woman shown on video tackling the teen son of Grammy Award-winning trumpeter Keyon Harrold after falsely accusing the child of stealing her phone pleaded guilty to the heaviest charge against her, a felony hate crime. Miya Ponsetto pleaded guilty specifically to the charge of unlawful imprisonment in the second degree as a hate crime though she was also charged with aggravated harassment, District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced on Monday.

“Under the terms of the plea, Ponsetto will be required for two years to abide by the terms of her California probation stemming from a separate case, continue counseling, and avoid further interaction with the criminal justice system,” the district attorney’s office wrote in a news release. “Under the terms of the plea, Ponsetto will be required for two years to abide by the terms of her California probation stemming from a separate case, continue counseling, and avoid further interaction with the criminal justice system.”

RELATED STORY: Supervised release handed down after Keyon Harrold’s son falsely accused of stealing iPhone

It’s only if Ponsetto doesn’t comply with the terms of her plea agreement that she faces state prison; the term would be between one-and-one-third and four years—a leniency she hasn’t exactly earned. 

Ponsetto had three open cases in California in 2020 alone, Naomi Puzzello, a spokeswoman with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, confirmed last year. Ponsetto was charged with public intoxication when she, her mother, and a third person were involved in a physical altercation at a hotel on Feb. 28. She was charged with driving under the influence when a witness saw her drive away from a supermarket “clearly intoxicated” and responding officers spotted open containers of alcohol and marijuana in her car on May 29, Puzello said. Ponsetto was also charged with driving with a suspended license and, in a separate incident, resisting arrest, driving under the influence, and driving with a suspended license.

When questioned specifically about attacking the Black teen on Dec. 26, 2020, at Arlo SoHo hotel in Manhattan, she told journalist Gayle King: “I’m a 22-year-old girl. How is one girl accusing a guy about a phone a crime?”

King pushed Ponsetto on her defense. “You have to at least understand your actions that day,” the journalist said. “You seem to have attacked this teenager about the phone. And then it turned out he didn’t even have your phone. That’s the thing. You’re 22 years old, but you’re old enough to know better.” At that point, Ponsetto, seated next to her attorney, extended her hand forward and said, “Enough.”

District Attorney Bragg said in a statement: “Ms. Ponsetto displayed outrageous behavior. As a Black man, I have personally experienced racial profiling countless times in my life and I sympathize with the young man victimized in this incident. This plea ensures appropriate accountability for Ms. Ponsetto by addressing underlying causes for her behavior and ensuring this conduct does not reoccur.”

Both Ponsetto and the hotel later admitted their regrets in the incident, Ponsetto saying in her interview with King that she “could have approached the situation different.” The hotel apologized to Harrold and his son days after the initial incident in a statement emailed to Daily Kos. 

“We’re deeply disheartened about the recent incident of baseless accusation, prejudice, and assault against an innocent guest of Arlo hotel,” the hotel said in the statement.

“In investigating the incident further, we’ve learned that the manager on duty promptly called the police regarding the woman’s conduct and that hotel security intervened to prevent further violence; still, more could have been done to de-escalate the dispute.

“No Arlo guest—or any person—should be subject to this kind of behavior. We want to apologize to Mr. Harrold and his son for this inexcusable experience, and have reached out to them directly to express our sincere regret and to offer help in dealing with this traumatic event.”

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump represents Harrold and his son in a lawsuit against the hotel, which initially allowed Ponsetto to make demands of the teen despite her having checked out of the hotel and no longer being a guest.

“When Miya Ponsetto couldn’t find her cell phone, she defaulted to blaming and assaulting an innocent Black teenager and was aided by the Arlo Hotel staff, who backed her up instead of defending their Black guest,” Crump said in his statement. “It’s highly disappointing that she was permitted to plea down, only receiving probation. We won’t change the culture until we hold people accountable for their outrageously bad behavior.”

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In a major disappointment to immigrant families and advocates in the state, Kansas’ Democratic governor this week signed Republican-pushed legislation that majorly rolls back a Wyandotte County ordinance that sought to limit collaboration between local law enforcement and federal immigration officials.

The Safe and Welcoming Act had passed the Unified Government of Wyandotte County’s Board of Commissioners by a 6-4 vote just this past February, and had the support of a wide coalition of groups across the state. It’s a fact that this type of policy makes communities safer. The legislation also opened up municipal cards for local residents who lack IDs.

But Gov. Laura Kelly’s likely GOP opponent this fall, state attorney general Derek Schmidt, has supported legislation that would roll back the ordinance. The Kansas City Star reported Kelly initially seemed to oppose the bill pushed by Schmidt and Republicans, but apparently flipped, approving the bill on Monday. Advocates slammed it as “political cowardice” and “moral betrayal,” the report continued.

The report notes that if Kelly had decided to veto the bill, GOP lawmakers would’ve likely had enough votes to override her. Kelly in fact did veto three other bills this week, but not this one. “Kelly’s decision was met with immediate outrage from Wyandotte County activists,” including Metro Organization for Racial and Economic Equity organizer Marcus Winn, The Kansas City Star said.

“It’s clear that there are Kansas political leaders from both parties guided more by personal ambition than the common good of our state,” Winn said in the report. “Moving forward, we plan to remind all our elected officials, regardless of party or position, that they work for the people and hold them accountable.” 

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The report also notes that the legislation passed this week would “clarify that those ID cards could still be issued but couldn’t be used to satisfy state law for identification purposes, including voting.” It’s unclear if this means that lawmakers were pushing the right-wing trope that undocumented immigrants vote, but just to be clear, they can’t vote. In fact, it’s the GOP that’s frequently behind shocking reports of voter fraud.

Local residents had expressed optimism and joy when Wyandotte County passed the ordinance in January. Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation organizer Yazmin Bruno Valdez told KCUR at the time that one-fifth of residents in the region lack a photo ID. She’s lacked one for two decades.

“I felt very like, you know, like not a part of society. I felt like there were several things that I couldn’t do,” she said in the report. “When I had to go to my senior prom, they didn’t let me in ’cause I didn’t have an ID. Despite being a student at my school, I needed a driver’s license or a state-issued ID. That was something I just didn’t have as an immigrant. And these are just small snippets of my life, small snippets of everybody’s life here in Wyandotte County.”

Advocates in states like Texas have successfully enacted enhanced library cards that can be used as IDs. “That’s something that we need, whether we need to pick up a prescription or pick up our kids from our schools, get a library card, simple everyday activities,” Valdez continued to KCUR. “Without an ID, we can’t get these things done.”

Kansas state Sen. David Haley, a Democrat, called Kelly’s approval “a real kick in the teeth,”The Topeka Capital-Journal  reported. “I understand it is an election year but that’s a kick in the teeth.” Kelly had notably defeated the notoriously anti-immigrant Kris Kobach in 2018. But this move unfortunately appears to be the latest in Democratic lawmakers apparently succumbing to GOP-pushed fears and narratives during election season.

While President Biden’s decision to end Stephen Miller’s debunked policy that has for more than two years used the pandemic as an excuse to stomp on U.S. asylum law is a just and moral decision, two Senate Democrats who are up for reelection, Mark Kelly and Maggie Hassan, are among those who have joined a group of Senate Republicans to delay the president’s action. Hassan, who represents New Hampshire, also released a widely-panned ad from the southern border:

Another Senate Democrat who is up for reelection, Raphael Warnock, is not part of the group that introduced legislation to delay the end of Title 42, but did release a statement opposing the Biden administration’s action. “Your statement is deeply concerning to us, considering our commitment to supporting policies that ensure the humane treatment of migrant communities,” Latino and immigrant groups told the senator, in a statement reported  by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

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As we celebrate the recent win by Amazon workers in Staten Island, New York, we thought it only fitting for The Good Fight column to speak with the international president of the two million-member Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Mary Kay Henry.

Known for a number of successes, Henry may be most celebrated for the historic “Fight for $15 and a Union” movement, which has helped 24 million working Americans win increased wages.

In 2010, Henry was the first woman elected to lead SEIU and has since earned numerous honors for her tireless work.

RELATED STORY: ​​‘The day I found Harvey Milk’s dead body was the moment I knew’: Cleve Jones, famed LGBTQ activist

Henry spoke with Daily Kos via email, answering questions about the future of unions,  President Joe Biden and holding him to his promises of support, and what inspires her to keep pushing forward and fighting the good fight.

Henry tells Daily Kos that workers across the country have walked off the job, raised their voices, and demanded more over the last two years. She says approval ratings of unions in America are at a 60-year high, and younger workers are coming together to unionize at millennial media companies such as Starbucks, Amazon, video gaming companies, and beyond.

“Young people and workers of color are leading a national movement, refusing to return to the status quo and making bold demands to be respected, protected, and paid a living wage.”
But to understand unions, Henry says, it’s also important to understand workers.

“The problems facing unions are one and the same with problems facing workers, because workers are the union,” Henry says.

She explains that gig companies, such as Uber and Lyft, have denied workers minimum wages and essential benefits by “abusing the law” and “misclassifying drivers as independent contractors.” She adds that unions have additionally sustained a “40-year attack from corporations,” and “some politicians who are set on putting corporate profits ahead of the workers who make those profits possible.”

When it comes to the conversation around what’s been dubbed the “Great Resignation” in the last couple of years, Henry calls it the “Great Reckoning,” saying that workers are “exercising their power in creative ways” to “improve their workplaces and demand more from their employers.” She applauds workers, saying they have shown “tremendous courage and determination” as companies have continued to “squeeze workers” and tried to shut down unions.

When I ask Henry about Amazon specifically, she writes that “the workers in Staten Island stood up to one of the largest, most powerful companies in the world and won—even in the face of their bosses’ relentless, multimillion-dollar union-busting campaign. This victory will spread like wildfire and continue to fuel the passion and the fight of workers everywhere demanding a voice on the job.”

Of course,  we all know that there’s no comparison between President Trump and President Biden. But Henry reflects that while on the campaign trail, Biden promised to support unions and has since been the “most pro-union president in history,” joining with workers to put companies such as Amazon and McDonald’s on notice.

“The Biden Administration has delivered real change, from signing an executive order raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour for federal contractors to flipping the switch at the NLRB [National Labor Relations Board], to passing serious investments that support the creation of good, union jobs—despite extremist opposition from members in the Republican Party hell-bent on destroying unions and our democracy. It’s astounding that not one single Republican is backing efforts in Congress to lower costs for American families, create good union jobs and invest in the caregiving economy that all of us depend on.

“Yet, even with a supportive President and Congressional leadership, we know we need to fully transform the rules for workers to build power. And we know what real recovery looks like: It means seizing a once-in-a-generation opportunity to invest in care solutions that will lift up the Black, brown, and immigrant women who power our economy and our families. We need good jobs, with good pay, and workplace protections for those who have been traditionally excluded. With these investments, we can create an economy that can support the needs of all in our country. It’s up to our leaders to make the choice to build a strong foundation for an equitable recovery.”

Despite the many challenges to unionizing some of the nation’s largest companies, Henry says she remains hopeful and inspired by the workers themselves.

“Even in the face of unyielding corporate opposition, are mobilizing every day to create an economy that works for working people. Nearly ten years ago, fast-food workers with the Fight for $15 and a Union laid a marker by walking off the job to demand $15 and a union, and their relentless mobilizing continues to this day and is being carried forward by a renewed generation of working people at Starbucks, Amazon, across major airports and hospitals, and so much more. If you are paying attention to the voices of working people exercising their power, you will always find inspiration and hope for the future.”

The Good Fight is a series spotlighting progressive activists around the nation battling injustice in communities that are typically underserved and brutalized by a system that overlooks them.

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If you happened to catch last month’s debate-stage chest-bumping altercation between two Ohio GOP candidates running for the state’s open Senate seat, then you have a point of reference for the man who apparently thinks middle-class Americans aren’t paying enough in taxes.

Mike Gibbons, who narrowly leads the Republican primary, remarked last fall that “the middle class is not really paying any kind of a fair share.”

Gibbons, a millionaire investment banker, made the comment during a September podcast produced by the local business journal, Crain’s Cleveland Business. But the remark is being newly scrutinized due to a recently released 11-point Republican agenda in which Senate GOP campaign chief Rick Scott said Republicans plan to raise taxes on working families by more than $1 trillion over the next decade.

In the video, Gibbons, seated in front of a campaign backdrop, explained, “The top 20% of earners in the United States pay 82% of federal income tax—and, if you do the math, and 45% to 50% don’t pay any income tax, you can see the middle class is not really paying any kind of a fair share, depending on how you want to define it.”

It’s one of those comments that doesn’t read any better in context. Gibbons goes on to accuse Democrats of spinning a narrative that “the middle class is getting screwed” because they need middle class votes to win elections, according to the Washington Post. Gibbons states he has nothing against a progressive structure but concludes, “How much of the total tax bill can a very small percentage of the nation pay and still be a democracy?”

Gibbons’ comments have a similar feel to Scott’s declaration that everyone needs “skin in the game” on taxes, although his campaign was quick to deny that he has any intention of raising taxes on middle-class Americans.

“Mike Gibbons does not support tax increases on any American—and never has,” campaign spokesperson Samantha Cotten said in a statement.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is likely dying a slow death over the whole situation. Scott released the tax hike agenda in defiance of McConnell, who had explicitly planned to release exactly no information about what Republicans planned to do if they won back the Senate Majority this fall.

Now the Ohio Senate race, which in regular times should be a gimme for Republicans, is awash in the debate over raising middle tax classes. If Scott hadn’t released his memo, Gibbons’ interview might have gone unnoticed—or simply been considered a singular gaffe. But in the context of Scott’s GOP agenda, the question of Republicans raising taxes on working Americans has become a focal point for the moment.

One of Gibbons’ opponents has even reposted the video to his YouTube account under the caption “Tax Hike Mike Gibbons.”

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We seem to be having Russian History Month. There has been the head of the Russian orthodox church reaching back 900 years to claim that neither Ukraine nor the Ukrainian church is “real.” Vladimir Putin has insisted that Ukraine is not a country because it “illegally left” the USSR. And on Tuesday, Russian diplomats insisted that Japan pay them back for gold supposedly stolen in 1920.

Over the last few weeks, Kos has written several times about the importance of logistics and how Russia’s issues on this front ensured that their plans to march into Kyiv didn’t just fail, but were doomed to fail. Kos has also taken a look at Russia’s multiple issues of communications and why it doesn’t have the experienced NCOs to hold together things on a tactical basis. Russia is also short of clear lines of command to maintain strategic goals, is saddled with a lot of poorly maintained equipment, and is utterly lacking in the intelligence necessary to predict the actions of their opponent at any scale.

On Tuesday, as ever more Russian forces are crowded into eastern Ukraine, President Zelenskyy desperately seeks the materials to keep his nation afloat, and everyone braces for a battle that will define the future. Let’s take a quick look at two battles where all those issues facing Russia were true. Except we’re not looking at Russia, we’re looking at the United States. And we’re not looking on the European steppes but at the Pacific Ocean.

On August 7, 1942, a massive U.S. fleet approached the islands of Guadalcanal, Tulagi, and Florida in the southern Solomon Islands. There the fleet successfully landed Marines, captured two airfields under construction, annihilated a small Japanese base, and drove construction workers into the jungle. After two days of hard fighting, U.S. forces stepped down from high alert on the evening of August 8. They had control of the islands, two large naval forces standing in the strait between Guadalcanal and Tulagi, a screen of destroyers guarding the entrance to the area, a carrier fleet providing air cover, and reconnaissance planes making loops to warn of any Japanese approach. The admiral in charge even expressed a wish that someone would attack, showing confidence in their position.

That night, a much smaller Japanese fleet sailed into the area under cover of darkness, opened fire on the southern half of the fleet, and either sunk or sent into flight every major ship. Then it turned to the north, did the same to the northern fleet, and escaped beyond small Savo Island after taking only light damage. On the U.S. side, four heavy cruisers were utterly lost. Another was seriously damaged and left adrift. Two destroyers were also left with serious damage, unable to continue the fight. 1,077 men were killed—almost as many as the Marines would lose on Guadalcanal over the course of that whole infamously terrible campaign. And all those troops onshore would be left without air cover, without cover from the sea, and short on supplies, setting up everything that was to come.

What went wrong? What didn’t. A U.S. spotting plane had seen the Japanese fleet—in fact, two planes spotted them while approaching. But those planes were under a different command. Since the naval operations were secret, the planes didn’t know the U.S. ships were off to their east and weren’t all that concerned about the course the Japanese fleet was taking. It took more than 8 hours for the first message to reach the U.S. ships. Even when it did, everyone misinterpreted what the spotting planes had seen. 

It wasn’t just the planes that were under a different command. The naval fleet was actually split up among different admirals, and after the landing, the commander of the carrier fleet unexpectedly announced he was taking his ships and leaving the area. Surprised, the overall commander of the landing fleet called in his next in command for a conference. That next in command failed to put anyone in charge of the southern fleet, where he had been stationed, and no one bothered to notify the northern fleet of what was happening. In fact, no one bothered to notify the northern fleet that anything was wrong even after the Japanese sailed into the strait and attacked the southern fleet. The Japanese got to stage two separate surprise attacks because no one on the U.S. side thought to pick up a radio. And all during the fight, the two guys really in charge were somewhere else, complaining about the other admiral and the carrier fleet. They didn’t even see the action.

Command, control, logistics, communications … they failed every test. And the result may have added a year to the war in the space of just minutes.

What may seem stranger is that this battle came just after the resounding U.S. victory at Midway, a battle where combined groups of bombers operating from multiple carriers came together to sink three Japanese carriers and genuinely turn the tide of the war. How is it possible that the U.S. could be so coordinated at Midway and so utterly hapless at Savo Island? The answer is that it wasn’t.

There’s one more big factor in warfare that Kos hasn’t really discussed: luck.

As Kos has covered, Russia’s lack of NCOs, inexperienced soldiers, and top-heavy management style makes it hard for them to coordinate more than two or three battalion tactical groups (BTGs) at a time. In fact, most of Russia’s actions seem to be single BTGs, or even partial BTGs, being flung around Ukraine without the support they need to actually hold a position, or contest a position against dug-in opponents.

At Midway, the U.S. had exactly that same problem. The U.S. kept trying to get off waves of planes, but each carrier was having its own set of difficulties, resulting in planes going up in small clusters all morning, rather than forming a coordinated attack. A handful of fighters here. A slightly larger grouping of attack bombers over there. Some dive bombers who took a wrong turn and came from another direction.

None of it was working as designed, and the Japanese defenses took out these flights almost as soon as they arrived. Throughout most of the morning, not one bomb or torpedo reached a single Japanese ship, while several of the U.S. flights were wiped out to a plane.

However, that chaos turned out to be just what the U.S. needed. The Japanese had already launched half their planes and needed a 45-minute window to recover them, get them stowed away, and get another flight ready on deck. U.S. planes kept hitting them every time it seemed they were about to get that window. Not by design. By luck. 

And when the Japanese finally managed to get all their planes landed, stowed, fueled, and re-armed for a response, that was when two separate flights of U.S. bombers—launched in different directions at different times—just happened to show up at once, hitting the Japanese fleet from opposite sides of the sky. Exhausted and frustrated by a morning of constant attacks, the Japanese watched as a handful of bombs went right through openings in the Japanese carrier decks and found all those planes. With their fuel. And their bombs. Japan lost three carriers, lost any chance at taking Midway, and may have lost the war. In about eight minutes.

That happened despite U.S. issues with command, control, and communication. Sometimes, things just do.

As all those tanks in the Donbas get ready to roll, just hope that Russia has all Savo Islands, no Midways.