navguy12
Active Member
According to other published documents, at least partially, Russia conducts its financial transactions and payments with Iran in gold.
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According to other published documents, at least partially, Russia conducts its financial transactions and payments with Iran in gold.
Senate's border deal teeters on brink of collapse
During a private meeting on Monday night, Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell did not forcefully whip for or against the bill, according to two attendees.www.politico.com
Well this is extremely depressing. I don't think we're going to be of much help this year.
Hang in there, Ukraine. Maybe next year we'll have a government that isn't so nihilistic.
Does any country hold Rubles outside Russia?
Not going to happen. Regardless of the Ukraine funding (which I totally support) it was insane to have it lumped into another stupid omnibus type bill involving the border when the border is in total crisis. Even more insane to cobble this bill together in secret and try to force it through the Senate with little time to review or add amendments this week. Even the moderate Republicans who were openly supporting the bill a few days ago are running in horror after getting a chance to read some of the particulars last night.I really do wish that some Republicans would break from their party and vote for this
I agree, insane to have such a large omnibus with unrelated items. I'm no expert in American politics, but that was the only chance for it to be passed, something for everyone. Until Johnson decided he wanted only stalemate. Hopefully he would now be open to direct funding for Ukraine, but I have my doubts.Not going to happen. Regardless of the Ukraine funding (which I totally support) it was insane to have it lumped into another stupid omnibus type bill involving the border when the border is in total crisis. Even more insane to cobble this bill together in secret and try to force it through the Senate with little time to review or add amendments this week. Even the moderate Republicans who were openly supporting the bill a few days ago are running in horror after getting a chance to read some of the particulars last night.
As you already pointed out, the Speaker of the House already said the bill is dead on arrival.
I'm pretty sure I read somewhere, maybe here, that Iran and China demand payment in real currency or in resources like oil. They may be psycho murderers but I doubt they're that stupid.Does any country hold Rubles outside Russia?
The House is trying to pass a stand alone military aid package to Israel right now. These things can be done in a more transparent way if our politicians wanted to do so.I agree, insane to have such a large omnibus with unrelated items. I'm no expert in American politics, but that was the only chance for it to be passed, something for everyone. Until Johnson decided he wanted only stalemate. Hopefully he would now be open to direct funding for Ukraine, but I have my doubts.
I agree, insane to have such a large omnibus with unrelated items. I'm no expert in American politics, but that was the only chance for it to be passed, something for everyone. Until Johnson decided he wanted only stalemate. Hopefully he would now be open to direct funding for Ukraine, but I have my doubts.
LAVROV: (Through interpreter) So every morning, I would listen to the Russian anthem. We were told that Ukraine is not going to exist anymore, that you are not needed anywhere. You're - nobody waits you anywhere back home. And then we were told, like, you need to leave, and you need to go to a different place where you're going to study.
Not going to happen. Regardless of the Ukraine funding (which I totally support) it was insane to have it lumped into another stupid omnibus type bill involving the border when the border is in total crisis. Even more insane to cobble this bill together in secret and try to force it through the Senate with little time to review or add amendments this week. Even the moderate Republicans who were openly supporting the bill a few days ago are running in horror after getting a chance to read some of the particulars last night.
As you already pointed out, the Speaker of the House already said the bill is dead on arrival.
This aligns with virtually all of the commentary I have read on the subject. The only way out is for Biden to use other means to provide weapons and support, which the move through Greece was an example of. I maintain that the Executive Branch has the ability to do more than it has even w/o official congressional action.Claiming that there is some particular in the bill that is unacceptable is an excuse. The border deal is pretty much everything that was in Trump's request back in 2018 that died in Congress (when the Republicans controlled both houses). Senator Lankford (R-OK) said as much the other day on Fox News. The reason they are running from the bill is fear of retribution from one particular presidential candidate who wants to see the bill fail.
The border situation is a mess, but it's been a mess for decades, there is nothing all that new. This bill addresses the main problems. Among them are the courts that determine the asylum requests have been underfunded and understaffed which leads to delays of years before asylum cases are heard. This bill authorizes hiring enough judges to reduce the backlog and eventually get the hearing delay down to a few weeks.
The convoy that went down to the border to confront the horrors got there a few days ago and found it really wasn't anywhere near as bad as certain media was making it out to be.
Goofy 'God's Army' convoy on Texas border shows Trump's MAGA movement is just one long con
The primary problem at the border is a refugee crisis. Europe is facing the same sort of problem as people displaced by wars and bad situations in the developing world are trying to get into countries the developed world to escape their troubles at home. Getting to Europe is more difficult because there isn't a decent land route from the developing world into Europe that doesn't involve crossing Russia. The US has a land border that connects to the developing world.
Coyotes are making good money exploiting the asylum situation from desperate refugees. They have flooded the system in the US with too many refugees for the US system to handle as it's currently running.
The claims that the current administration is just letting everyone in is false. The Biden administration has deported more people in 3 years than Trump did in 4. But the laws as they are now require anyone who gets into the US and asks for asylum to get a hearing before being forced to leave. Because of the backlog in the courts, people can end up living in the US for 10 years before getting a hearing.
These games are driven more by politics than by policy. The Democrats are fine to make it policy, but the Republicans are just playing political games with it. It's Lucy and the football over and over again
Football gag
Separating the bill into support for Ukraine and Israel from the border is a non-starter, because the House Republicans will just refuse to pass funding for Ukraine. Last fall funding the government was linked with Ukraine funding. McCarthy promised to pass both if they were split. When they were split, the government was funded and the Ukraine bill died without reaching the floor for a vote.
There are lots of things that "should be" that are non-starters because of the obstructionism going on by the extremists in Congress and others who have their agenda to promote who have influence over Congress.
There are probably enough votes in Congress to get this passed if it was just put up for a vote, but the sway of one man who is not in government and his followers has the rest scared to take action.
This aligns with virtually all of the commentary I have read on the subject. The only way out is for Biden to use other means to provide weapons and support, which the move through Greece was an example of. I maintain that the Executive Branch has the ability to do more than it has even w/o official congressional action.
Not going to happen. Regardless of the Ukraine funding (which I totally support) it was insane to have it lumped into another stupid omnibus type bill involving the border when the border is in total crisis. Even more insane to cobble this bill together in secret and try to force it through the Senate with little time to review or add amendments this week. Even the moderate Republicans who were openly supporting the bill a few days ago are running in horror after getting a chance to read some of the particulars last night.
As you already pointed out, the Speaker of the House already said the bill is dead on arrival.
- The EU diplomacy chief, Josep Borrell, has visited a course for Ukrainian law enforcement personnel whose job it is to restore law and order in territories returned from Russian control. It covers arresting dangerous residents as well as dealing with war crimes and mass graves. “Discovering mass graves and then having to inform the relatives, this is not a joke, this is something that has to be done with adequate psychological capacities,” Borrell said. Training is run by gendarmes from EU countries including France, Spain, Portugal and Lithuania.
- Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has decreed the creation of a separate branch of Ukraine’s armed forces devoted to drones. Zelenskiy has pointed to drone production domestically and with partner nations as strategically vital, and pledged Ukraine will produce a million in 2024. The commander in chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, said in a comment for CNN last week that drones “along with other types of advanced weapons” help Ukraine avoid being drawn into costly positional warfare.
- Ukrainian special forces have said they blew up a drilling platform in the Black Sea that Russia was using to increase the range of its drones. The operation, dubbed Citadel, was conducted at night and also captured “important enemy equipment”.
- Polish and Nato warplanes had scrambled because “intensive long-range aviation activity of the Russian Federation is being observed, related to missile strikes on the territory of Ukraine”, Poland’s military said.
- Joe Biden told Republicans in Congress to “show some spine”, stand up to Donald Trump and stop playing into Vladimir Putin’s hands as he acknowledged that an exhaustively negotiated, bipartisan bill that includes security funding for Ukraine is stalled. “All indications are this bill won’t even move forward to the Senate floor,” said the US president. “Why? The simple reason: Donald Trump. Because Donald Trump thinks it’s bad for him politically.”