Russia/Ukraine conflict

[madodel]

Despite attempts by Greene and other MAGAs to torpedo it with poison amendments, the Ukraine support bill has cleared the initial preliminary vote in the US House with 165 Democrats and 151 Republicans voting for it. Final vote could come as soon as Saturday.

Bipartisan House coalition advances Ukraine aid

 

[DrGriz]

Despite attempts by Greene and other MAGAs to torpedo it with poison amendments, the Ukraine support bill has cleared the initial preliminary vote in the US House with 165 Democrats and 151 Republicans voting for it. Final vote could come as soon as Saturday.

Bipartisan House coalition advances Ukraine aid

Better support from Rs than I anticipated. Good to see.

 

[Crutonius]

Better support from Rs than I anticipated. Good to see.

I could easily see centrists going for this. There's a lot in there for everyone.

 

[DanCar]

Articles similar to above. Washington Post is pay walled for me.
Quote: The foreign aid package passed the procedural hurdle by a margin of 316 - 94 in the House on Friday morning.
A total of 165 Democrats chose to back the rule put forward by Republican Speaker Mike Johnson – 151 members of his own party also voted in favour.
Thirty-nine Democrats and 55 Republicans voted against the measure.

Ukraine and Israel aid packages head for House vote in defiance of GOP far right

Democrats stepped up for the Republican speaker’s foreign aid bills

www.independent.co.uk

Ukraine, Israel aid advances in rare House vote as Democrats help Republicans push it forward

The House has pushed a $95 billion national security aid package for Ukraine, Israel and other U.S. allies closer to passage.

apnews.com

US House advances Ukraine and Israel aid, Tik Tok ban with help from Democrats

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson relied heavily on lawmakers from the rival party to overcome a blockade from his conservatives colleagues.

www.scmp.com

Quote:
The US$95 billion aid package also contains national security and sanctions provisions with bipartisan support. It also allow the confiscation of Russian dollar assets, something critics allege would weaken the status of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency.

The bill would ban the popular social media app Tik Tok if China’s ByteDance does not divest itself from the company. The deadline to do was extended in the latest plan to up to 360 days, well past the November US elections.

The package mandates sanctions on Iranian oil but does not expedite natural gas exports due to objections by Democrats. It has US$9 billion in humanitarian aid including for Palestinians due to pressure from Democrats.

Because the contents of the package were negotiated behind the scenes with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and the White House, it is expected to clear the Senate despite conservative vows there to delay the process.

 

[navguy12]

 

[iPlug]

Excellent short clip - Historian/Professor Timothy Snyder corrects political propaganda related to Nazism/Fascism:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1781337606808060042

 

[iPlug]

U.S. Pentagon ready to deliver as soon as the aid package passes:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1781390670910914852

 

[DanCar]

Video versions of today's written reports. The third video, PBS, is the most informative but the longest, 7 minutes.

Video of bomber going down:

 

[Tiger]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1781311185930830265

 

[iPlug]

Ukraine continuing to increase their response; petroleum assets and power plants hit in this latest counterattack:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1781637569072996797

 

[iPlug]

Visual confirmation from the Ukrainian strike destroying several Russian air defense units a few days ago:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1781604750867542211

 

[iPlug]

This is the way. With dictator Putin at the helm, Russia’s war economy can run as is for many years. ~1000 Russian casualties daily average will not deter Vlad. But increasing the number, range, and sophistication of deep strikes by Ukraine on Russian military and petroleum infrastructure will slow his machine. Russia has long been a nuclear armed gas station with nearly all technologies parasitized off the West. One must starve the beast…

 

[Bouba]

This is the way. With dictator Putin at the helm, Russia’s war economy can run as is for many years. ~1000 Russian casualties daily average will not deter Vlad. But increasing the number, range, and sophistication of deep strikes by Ukraine on Russian military and petroleum infrastructure will slow his machine. Russia has long been a nuclear armed gas station with nearly all technologies parasitized off the West. One must starve the beast…

That might be the plan.....but it might take longer than expected....

Russia to grow faster than all advanced economies says IMF

The IMF estimates Russia's economy will grow faster than the likes of the US, UK and Germany this year.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[SwedishAdvocate]

That might be the plan.....but it might take longer than expected....

Russia to grow faster than all advanced economies says IMF

The IMF estimates Russia's economy will grow faster than the likes of the US, UK and Germany this year.

www.bbc.co.uk

How much of the IMF's predictions are based on the Russian Dictator's own numbers/lies?

But yes... I do of course also think that the Western sanctions on the Dictator's Russia should be stepped up considerably.

 

[iPlug]

That might be the plan.....but it might take longer than expected....

Russia to grow faster than all advanced economies says IMF

The IMF estimates Russia's economy will grow faster than the likes of the US, UK and Germany this year.

www.bbc.co.uk

I was arguing the other way around. My inspiration for the post was actually the 3.2% IMF forecast for Russian growth this year that your article referenced. That 3.2% is based on several factors including undisrupted Russian oil production, refining, and export as well as no additional success with sanctions. If Ukraine continues to accelerate their attacks at current trend extrapolation, Russian GDP this year will likely fall significantly short of that.

As an aside, we commonly accept GDP to mean growth of an economy. Indeed, it may be the single best metric to look at that (most of the time). But in Russia's case, it is due to its war economy which introduces much structural rot, so holds less accuracy in this regard. For example, if a large percent of a population is deployed to digging and refilling holes, they will experience a massive increase their GDP and yet did not actually grow. For the non-economist enthusiasts it may seem unintuitive that spending and consuming alone make GDP grow (over the short to medium term).

GDP = Consumption + Investment + Government Spending + Net Exports

How much of the IMF's predictions are based on the Russian Dictator's own numbers/lies?

But yes... I do of course also think that the Western sanctions on the Dictator's Russia should be stepped up considerably.

The numbers from the IMF are probably not tainted from Russian meddling, but one may be cautious of numbers Putin may force to be (?mis)reported or not reported at all through their central bank.

 

[iPlug]

Finally!

https://twitter.com/x/status/1781741717206540393

 

[Crutonius]

It appears that the US, having exhausted all other options, has chosen to do the right thing.

 

[SwedishAdvocate]

Paywalled:

Blinken to warn China over weapons-related exports to Russia

Washington considers sanctions on Chinese financial institutions, according to people familiar with the situation

www.ft.com

 

[DanCar]

No Dems voted no. More than half the Reps voted no.
If you want to see the speakers speech after passage. Nothing much new.

 

[iPlug]

Final formalities - the Senate is anticipated to pass the bill as early as Tuesday, then Biden will likely sign immediately.