DanCar
Active Member
$8 billion in frozen russian assets heading to Ukraine if Senate and Prez approve. Ouch! That is got to hurt vlad.
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Russia has already said they would retaliate on one of their propaganda Kremlin mouthpiece media sites, RT:$8 billion in frozen russian assets heading to Ukraine if Senate and Prez approve. Ouch! That is got to hurt vlad.
How Russia targeted France and radicalised Emmanuel Macron
He is now one of Europe’s leading Russia hawks
Claims s-200 used to shoot down bomber for first time.
Ukrainian soldiers destroy Russian Tu-22M3 bomber: Weaponry used revealed
Read morenewsukraine.rbc.ua
It appears that the US, having exhausted all other options, has chosen to do the right thing.
What made Speaker Mike Johnson change his mind about Ukraine?
Beau of the fifth Column has an interesting take on Mike Johnson's flip flop on Ukraine:
Let's talk about Johnson, Ukraine, and what's next....
Beau thinks this might be 4D chess by Johnson to take over the Republican party. Beau had predicted something like this might happen a few days ago: Let's talk about the House aid plan...
That is about 190 miles, 300 km north of Ukraine.Ukraine continuing to increase their response; petroleum assets and power plants hit in this latest counterattack:
Yes, maybe Johnson realized Trump wouldn’t matter; or did they both realize Putin won’t matter?Beau of the Fifth Column suggested this is part of a well thought out master plan by Mike Johnson to take over the Republican party. I cannot come up with a better explanation. The timing makes sense since passing the FISA bill against Trump's orders indicates his power over the party may be waning.
If Trump gets elected then this outright defiance may have been political suicide so the odds that happening probably informed Johnson's decision.
If Trump is no longer pro-Putin then hisYes, maybe Johnson realized Trump wouldn’t matter; or did they both realize Putin won’t matter?
I must have been looking in all the wrong places. Perhaps someone here knows the answer and can tell me if I'm wrong or correct. I do have the advantage here: not just decades of experience first somewhat as an insider, then as a very fascinated outsider, of American foreign policy...AND with a father and uncle who were about as involved in not just participating but actually shaping US foreign policy as one can be.
SO: Of those $60.x billion in "funding" Ukraine that the House has approved and the Senate is about to, HOW MUCH will be earmarked for purchasing US weaponry made in the US by US citizens....and taxpayers...for US companies...also taxpayers? Is the answer 95% or 100%? Because, experience tells us, that is the way it is almost every single time.
Unfortunately, one cannot prejudice those in the states or districts that are home to those who voted against this bill. Meaning, of course, that those clamoring against it are that much more hypocritical.
Is this too political for this thread and forum? Let me ask. Ah: the answer is No. Yay.
In the Ukraine bill, of the $60.7bn, a total of about $23bn would be used by the US to replenish its military stockpiles, opening the door to future US military transfers to Ukraine. Another $14bn would go to the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, in which the Pentagon buys advanced new weapon systems for the Ukrainian military directly from US defense contractors.
There is also more than $11bn to fund current US military operations in the region, enhancing the capabilities of the Ukrainian military and fostering intelligence collaboration between Kyiv and Washington, and about $8bn in non-military assistance, such as helping Ukraine’s government continue basic operations, including the payment of salaries and pensions.
SO: Of those $60.x billion in "funding" Ukraine that the House has approved and the Senate is about to, HOW MUCH will be earmarked for purchasing US weaponry made in the US by US citizens....and taxpayers...for US companies...also taxpayers? Is the answer 95% or 100%? Because, experience tells us, that is the way it is almost every single time.
The House also voted on the three other bills that will be packaged with the Ukraine bill as a single measure to go in front of the Senate. The House voted in favor of providing $8.1 billion in support for Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific by a vote of 385–34. It approved more than $26 billion for Israel, including $9.2 billion in humanitarian aid not specifically for Gaza but for populations in crisis, by a vote of 366–58. And it voted 360–58 to place additional sanctions on Iran, seize Russian assets, and require the Chinese owners of TikTok to sell the company within nine months if they want it to continue to be available on U.S. app stores.
The total price tag of the measures is about $95.3 billion. About $50 billion of it will be used here in the U.S. to replenish the supplies that will go abroad.
The backlash was fierce. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the outspoken Georgia representative, immediately filed a resolution demanding Johnson’s removal, called the bill a “sham”.
“I don’t care if the speaker’s office becomes a revolving door,” Taylor Greene told Steve Bannon, Trump’s former adviser, on his War Room channel. “The days are over of the old Republican party that wants to fund foreign wars and murder people in foreign lands while they stab the American people in their face and refuse to protect Americans and fix our problems.”
Branded “Moscow Marjorie” by former Republican representative Ken Buck, who said she gets her talking points from the Kremlin, Taylor Greene went further by accusing Ukraine of waging “a war against Christianity”.
“The Ukrainian government is attacking Christians, the Ukrainian government is executing priests,” she said. “Russia is not doing that. They’re not attacking Christianity.” (In fact, according to figures from the Institute for Religious Freedom, a Ukrainian group, at least 630 religious sites had been damaged or looted in Russia’s invasion by December last year.)
Does this correspond to Mike Johnson’s alleged plan to take over the Republican Party (according to Beau), or does it contradict that theory??In my Guardian newsfeed this morning, Unexpectedly, this was also included:
Republicans erupt into open warfare over Ukraine aid package vote
As the speaker of the House finally allows a vote to go forward on aid, GOP infighting is tearing apart the partywww.theguardian.com
It's saying there are (at least) two wings of the party that have some major points of disagreement. Johnson, apparently, came to the realization that he falls in with the more traditional (Reagan) wing, and has calculated he has the support from enough democrats (for now) to survive this backlash.Does this correspond to Mike Johnson’s plan to take over the Republican Party (according to Beau), or does it contradict that theory??
I’m not quite following…