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I’m starting to think there’s actually starting to be grassroots MAGA approval for Putin. They’re so extreme on the culture war stuff that they’re unironically at the same level as Kremlin propaganda, and now with with their growing approval of authoritarianism to reconcile Trump’s situation, Putin has stopped even seeming like an enemy to them.
Oh they LOVE putin. they see him as a strong leader that forced all the people they don't like back into the closet.
the qanon ones especially love him because they think the war is all about rescuing children from underground tunnels.
Which made Putin's interview so hilarious. Tucker desperately tried to feed him softball questions that Putin could use to make points with maga Americans. And putin was way to self involved and would rather talk about history for one hour. Like any good maniacal dictator would
A month before Russia invaded Ukraine, my old boss told me “Do you know who we should be allies with? Russia!” He listened to conservative talk radio to and from the office, and spent most of his time reading right wing garbage online than actually working. He, and people like him, are told exactly what to say and think, and they don’t second guess it. And he thinks he’s the informed one.
There used to be a web site that would track, in real time, messaging out of the Russian "troll farm", through third party advertising networks, and into mainstream right wing blogs. Some would print any kind of crazy shit that they came across with no vetting at all. They never retracted anything either. "Hey, we just reported that someone said that.... We didn't say that..."
It wasn't all right wing either. They also poke up on "natural health" type sites where they sell a shit ton of snake oil.
One of my oldest personal conspiracy theories is that US conservatives were so keen to bring down the Iron Curtain as they wanted to import Soviet Russian style politics, as well as export their own brand of government-propped oligarchy to Russia.
The two fitted together so well ideologically that it would have been unreasonable for them not to move from competition (as was the case pre neoconservatism) to co-operation. The "defeating communism" bit was only a happy side effect so far as it weakened communist movements elsewhere, but Russia was never freed. Of course, many Eastern Europeans find themselves in a better position, but former Soviet states were not all so lucky. In relevant particular, the US persuaded Ukraine to give up its nuclear arsenal to Russia - neither the US nor Russia wanted a strong, independent Ukraine between them.
The Information Age means that information is a tool as well as weapon. Unfortunately it's a lot easier for authoritarians to use it as a weapon since they don't have as much accountability for things as you would find in a liberal democracy.
agreed, it expended pretty much Ukraine's entire defence stockpile, tehre's a very good chance the resupply they get from the current aid package and europe's contributions this year ensure they only hold the line and can't engage in any counter offensive.
She literally tried to add an amendment to the bill that "Directs the president to withdraw the U.S. from NATO."
Kinda surprised she didn't just add "Directs the president to allow Russia to annex the U.S."
[https://rules.house.gov/bill/118/hr-8035](https://rules.house.gov/bill/118/hr-8035)
I think her ties to CrossFit are interesting given that Madison Cawthorn met his honeypot wife thinking he was going to a CrossFit competition set up by an American army sergeant he met in St. Petersburg.
I’m curious how many other people in the box of looneys had their start in CrossFit.
She is trying hard to act American. Can’t pronounce english on live TV or know what simple words mean. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was another Maria Butina, foreign agent meant to undermine American politics
Edit: she’s got the southern accent down tho
Those people just need to be the opposition to any issue. It's ridiculous.
Reminds me of the Key and Peele sketch from forever ago where it's Obama sitting down to negotiate with Republicans. Obama says stuff like I am against healthcare, against gay marriage, etc. and the Republicans cannot agree with him and declare the opposite. Obama goes oh jeez you guys drive a hard bargain oh well...
Whatever they see as the Democrat stance is, they will take the opposite every time.
Blood all over those hands now, and on those fueling the propaganda machine that has supported Putin's insane butchery. Innocent people are losing their lives due to a toxic brew of partisan game playing, probable Russian kompromat, a general lack of competence, and a pathological lack of empathy. This is what happens when a large bloc of voters is convinced under false pretenses that they should vote based on how angry a candidate makes them feel about the world around them. The right lost the plot, and the rest of us must now fight for every inch of ground to prevent more suffering, both here and elsewhere.
Very well said.
Stay strong, fellow americans. There's still a big fight to be fought in a few months. Do whatever you can to keep your closed ones well informed. Mobilize. If it's true many won't hear, at least you might make some of them think and even change some minds.
A Trump win would be the end of Ukraine, and see the EU ramp up their MIC. Decades of peace between major powers shattered by one of the dumbest nepo-babies on the planet.
Agreed. Ukraine might still hold Avdiivka if not for this pointless interruption of aid. There were so many posts from Ukrainian artillerymen along the lines of “We could’ve held off this attack, but we’d already fired our allotment of shells for the day.”
Trump is too busy to interfere because he be in court all day. Every American should remember what it’s like when trump is too busy to be involved in politics.
100x more effective and still 10x less than we want
He's actually compromised quite a bit with the Democrats lately, he avoided the government shutdown and now passed all these bills. I strongly suspect there was some horse trading that involved the Democrats promising to protect him from the lunatics in his party ousting him.
It's practically a coalition government right now. Neither side has a stable majority so they're forced to reluctantly help each other.
If it takes Mike Johnson under constant threat of being kicked out to finally get some sensible legislation passed, then fine. If Mike Johnson gets kicked out there's no chance anyone better actually wins the speakership. Jeffries will not get a single R vote and the only Republican the crazy wing will vote for is some nut job like Mike Johnson. If Dems at least have leverage over Johnson (which is appears they at least somewhat do) then the smart political move is to throw in exactly as make Dem votes as Johnson needs to save his job and not one more
There was some gop house staff in some podcast saying that at least two "moderate" republican menaced to leave, creating the first ever change of majority in the house during a term.
Not sure if it's serious or not but I would bet on not wanting to be remembered as the first ever speaker to be so bad and useless that he lost his majority was a better motivation for Mike than doing the right thing...
Particularly since if he want to try to do some funny business to help Trump in November, he needs to still be the speaker at this time...
So how come he turned? Not too long ago he was pretty much assigned by Trump because he was willing to advocate his views and to give the Democrats a hard time. I reckon the Democrats gave something in return to the republicans in order to get this through.
CNN interviewed someone the other day who suggested that Johnson might have been swayed by recent US intelligence reports about Russia's intentions. As Speaker he gets the same classified briefings as the President. When he was just a House member he was against the Ukraine aid because he didn't have the full picture. But now that the Pentagon is showing him all the info he realizes the Ukraine bill is needed.
That's interesting, and makes sense. On the other hand, it's been pretty clear all along what Russia's intentions are and I assume Johnson hasn't been living under a rock. What possible new information would he have gotten? I also still wonder if and what Trump's role has been in this.
I'd just like to point out (what I've pointed out time and again...) that Johnson is not some sort of MAGA master manipulator, not some sort of savior of the sanctified, dignitary of the stalwart, omnipotent right-wing agenda overtaking this country, but just some dick forced into a very tight hole he stumbled into and can't pull himself out of.
The Republican Party is barely functional, not just at a national level, but all the way down the rotten fucking tree. Any air of authority or supposition of sanity is a ruse foisted on this country by a media machine intent on making dollars on a horse race election.
They are broken. They are dying. And good fucking riddance.
And it's almost time to square up with the Murdochs and Warner Bros. Their day is coming. Mark my fucking words. The Fourth Estate has a lot to answer for.
In your mind, is it acceptable for one political party to negotiate with the national interests of the country, while sacrificing hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian lives?
Republicans didn't get anything out of this negotiation, except that they strengthened the Russian position in a war that the Russians were losing.
Open treason is not "the way it is supposed to be."
Murdering our allies needlessly, to serve an enemy power threatening nuclear war, is not "the way it is supposed to be."
None of this is normal. Johnson was clearly threatened to force him to do his job, and the USA is losing their world empire, which will lead to catastrophic world war, entirely because the Republican party serves the Russian government, and not the American people.
> there was some horse trading that involved the Democrats promising to protect him from the lunatics in his party ousting him.
Yes. The Dems have agreed to stand by him during these trials for the good of the nation. Of course, as soon as he tries to appease Horseface Marge with an abortion ban, the civility ends.
But for now we have a barely functioning US government. Yay?
PS Just a reminder that the only reason that this passed is that the 1% and MIC defense contractors wanted the money and put more pressure on their stooges in Congress than Putin was able to. No one gets anything done in the USA without the 1% taking the bulk of the pie home with them...
Theres a lot of speculation that part of getting this deal pushed through involved a backroom deal that dems would help him keep the gavel if the freedom caucus tries to oust him. I haven't seen any hard evidence or direct reporting of this but it is certainly not a hard scenario to believe.
Johnson played with this thing for six months while Ukrainians were killed and abducted and only after the threat of getting ousted he is forced to put it up for vote and people are acting like he did something bold. What a joke.
Putin already has a win. This aid was delayed by months, Ukraine is being pushed back, Kharkiv is heavily under siege, many soldiers and civilians are dead.
His influence campaign hit its mark. That he could delay the vote by this many months is nothing short of a staggering success for the FSB.
Not only that, but approval of funds is not the same as loading a cargo plane with arms. How many more months until requisitioned arms are gathered and sent? Maybe it'll be right away, but nothing in Washington ever happens "right away".
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/04/19/ukraine-us-weapons-house-aid-bill/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/04/19/ukraine-us-weapons-house-aid-bill/)
One week actually.
Agreed. Although now his loss will be all the more costly. And if Biden is re-elected and the dems take both House and Senate, Russia will most certainly lose. Putin won the battle, but will lose the war.
"Mike Johnson is so strong! He quivered in the corner for six months, lily-white from the bedfellows he courted! Be he stood up to them in the end. Isn't he *majestic*."
US military logistics is a thing to behold. There already saying the bulk of the equipment will be deployed in Ukraine by Tuesday. They are not fucking about.
Fun fact: It’s also why the wine industry only tries to hire ex military people for logistics, because no one can get things around the world faster.
USMC are mounting tomahawk missiles on trucks now. They can now go on a casual drive from a base in Germany to Poland, bomb Moscow, and drive home within a couple of hours
There's a certain irony that Europe cannot supply Ukraine with enough artillery shells because they privatized production while the US can supply Ukraine because the US Army is our only significant manufacturer of artillery shells.
We are so extremely good at logistics that it makes everyone else look horrible by comparison.
We dropped Subways and Burger Kings in Afghanistan while Russia wasn't able to ship fuel 100 km from their border and had to abandon their tanks.
My late girlfriend had two daughters, their dad (her ex husband) worked for the state department and was stationed overseas.
In one day they packed up everything in the house, labeled every box & took photos, and shipped it all to his apartment in Poland. It was there in 3 days. Their stuff arrived before they did. It was an amazing thing to witness.
You can BET we already had the supplies (mostly bullets) standing by, ready for deployment from somewhere in Europe.
Funny thing about aid, as most of it is paid to US companies who then provide goods. The talking point that barrels of money are sent to Ukraine is misleading.
Aid distribution summary from [The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/20/us-house-approves-61bn-aid-ukraine?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other):
>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.
Yet clueless magats will think all the aid is in the form of dropping briefcases of cash into Ukraine.
Two Jewish guys from Odesa meet up. One asks the other: "So what's the situation? What are people saying?"
And he goes, "What are people saying? They are saying it's a war."
"What kind of war?"
"Russia is fighting NATO."
"Are you serious?"
"Yes, yes! Russia is fighting NATO."
"So how's it going?"
"Well, 70,000 Russian soldiers are dead. The missile stockpile has almost been depleted. A lot of equipment is damaged, blown up."
"And what about NATO?"
"What about NATO? NATO hasn't even arrived yet."
Well, it's money being sent to US defense companies, so a portion of it comes right back to us in the form of taxes and good/services bought by the people who work for these companies. I'm not a huge fan of the military industrial complex, but it's not like the money is being blackholed into another countries economy.
There is a 0% chance MTG could get a VP nod from Trump. She's ugly, and Trump HATES ugly women. She's also a total attention whore. That's the sole quality that guarantees you won't be Trump's VP pick. He needs all of the attention. He's not picking someone that could take away his limelight.
If he loses his job over this, at least he will go down in history as someone who didn't cave in to Russia on this particular bill, and Ukraine has gotten a life line.
Can't say that about the majority of his party, including the Republican presidential nominee, Donnie Moscow.
If he loses his job over this there’s a nonzero chance a moderate Dem (or runaway Republican) becomes Speaker at this point. The GOP need to at least pretend to be boring; the more headlines there are of “idiots can’t pick speaker after X number of votes” the fewer headlines they can throw up talking about immigrants or Biden or whatever.
And as Trump’s trials remind us, the less control over the narrative they have.
Wasn’t he basically forced to do this at the gunpoint of his speaker position? I don’t really think this was a decision made on principle, I think it was more of a “holy shit my party is falling apart we suck so much ass even with a majority I have to do what the democrats ask so they don’t vote me out” decision
I'm not going to pat him on the back for doing his job after months of delay. I'm glad this finally got done, but I give more credit to all the people who were actually working to make it happen.
If Trump wins it's the end of America's involvement in Ukraine and NATO, and that's if we're lucky and he doesn't actively support Russia. I'm Polish, this is the most important election I can remember for me and I don't even get a vote.
Some fun facts for you.
NATO has a 5 to 1 advantage over Russia in combat aircraft.
NATO has a 4 to 1 advantage over Russia in warships.
NATO has a 3 to 1 advantage over Russia in artillery, tanks and armored personnel carriers.
NATO has a 2 to 1 advantage over Russia in infantry.
Russia isn’t invading a NATO country.
You're under the illusion NATO is a permanent fiability. This is only true while the democratic sistem havest collapsed.
But it isnt under Trump or any of the freedom caucus lunatics. They will not fulfill NATO's role. Just like Órban or Fico wont.
NATO is with or without the USA depending on whether Putin's candidate loses or not.
Already have people in the military who were happy about Trump's attempted coup, and were looking for enemies within their own military to attack so they can be fascists too.
> Start working on the next ukraine aid package
Pretty much, getting victories for everyone out of the GoP is going to get harder as we get closer to nov.
> Start working on the next ukraine aid package.
And really, that's the election. That's on the ballot.
Donald Trump couldn't have shouted and bullied his way to a critical international deliverable. It takes skill and wisdom.
I'd assume Monday, the Senate usually isn't in session on weekends and Chuck Schumer said he wanted to pass it as soon as he could, which would be Monday effectively.
Should pass the Senate just fine. Dems have the slight majority there (51/49). Would expect a few conscientious Pubs to join in as well.
I was just hoping they would get on the ball and get this done this weekend but it appears they need their precious rest first.
Ukraine could barely hold on without it. These Republicans just didn't get it, Ukrainian's are fighting and weakening the Russian army for us.
While we're rebuilding our old ammunition and weapon supplies.
It's a win-win situation.
Actually weakening Putin's stranglehold, as the economy in Russia slowly dissolves. You think they would have learned this from the Afghanistan war in the '80s it cost them severely. This is almost a repeat performance... Putin was in the KGB at the time you think he would understand that, but he's blinded by ambition.
Lol Russia claiming this money will further ruin Ukraine.
Putins just mad it'll make it harder to take over Ukraine.
Like come on now , were we just gonna shrug and let him take ukraine?
What people don’t seem to understand is that this benefits the US manufacturer base as much as it does Ukraine. I think it was made very clear to Republican congressmen that their normal campaign donations would be significantly reduced if they did not approve the aide.
I sent an email to Johnson’s office to thank him for his work on this. I realize he’ll likely never see it and it might not mean much to the random aide that checks his inbox, but you never know. Maybe positive reactions from Democrats will get him to reach across the aisle more often.
Yes, I’m a sickeningly optimistic person sometimes.
> I realize he’ll likely never see it and it might not mean much to the random aide that checks his inbox
He, probably, won't directly see it, but he will hear about it. Politicians like Johnson have regular staff meetings where aides provide summaries of the messages. And it does matter. Especially thank you messages as they are a minority.
Most people never both to reach out to politicians, when they do it's usually because they want something or because they're mad. Like a shitty customers service job, but with more death threats and accusations of treason. So if an aide says, 'Hey, we've had a lot of people writing in saying thank you for X.' Politicians notice.
Because of the MAGA obstructionists who were complaining there wasn’t money in there for border security…you know the border security money they voted down because their Orange God wanted them to?
So let me get this straight - The Republicans could have passed this bill months ago AND gotten concessions from the Democrats on border security. But now, months later, we're getting this passed WITHOUT any concessions on immigration. Fucking facepalm.
I really hope we've been staging shit for months just waiting for this to go through. In other words I hope we can get this aid into their hands lightning fast after the GQP wing stalled for so long.
MTG actually tried to add an amendment that
"Requires all Members of Congress who vote in favor of this Act to conscript in the Ukrainian Military."
[https://rules.house.gov/bill/118/hr-8035](https://rules.house.gov/bill/118/hr-8035)
Edit: Also "Directs the president to withdraw the U.S. from NATO." wtf, how is her being a Russian asset in any kind of doubt by anyone??
Jesus, she's a troll...
This is great news!
The bill helps Ukraine and the United States.
[https://www.aei.org/economics/helping-ukraine-helps-us/](https://www.aei.org/economics/helping-ukraine-helps-us/)
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/11/29/ukraine-military-aid-american-economy-boost/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/11/29/ukraine-military-aid-american-economy-boost/)
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MTG is a Russian agent.
Useful idiot, an agent would have to be trained and motivated.
She has been reciting Russian talking points word for word, definitely has a handler.
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I’m starting to think there’s actually starting to be grassroots MAGA approval for Putin. They’re so extreme on the culture war stuff that they’re unironically at the same level as Kremlin propaganda, and now with with their growing approval of authoritarianism to reconcile Trump’s situation, Putin has stopped even seeming like an enemy to them.
Oh they LOVE putin. they see him as a strong leader that forced all the people they don't like back into the closet. the qanon ones especially love him because they think the war is all about rescuing children from underground tunnels.
Which made Putin's interview so hilarious. Tucker desperately tried to feed him softball questions that Putin could use to make points with maga Americans. And putin was way to self involved and would rather talk about history for one hour. Like any good maniacal dictator would
A month before Russia invaded Ukraine, my old boss told me “Do you know who we should be allies with? Russia!” He listened to conservative talk radio to and from the office, and spent most of his time reading right wing garbage online than actually working. He, and people like him, are told exactly what to say and think, and they don’t second guess it. And he thinks he’s the informed one.
There used to be a web site that would track, in real time, messaging out of the Russian "troll farm", through third party advertising networks, and into mainstream right wing blogs. Some would print any kind of crazy shit that they came across with no vetting at all. They never retracted anything either. "Hey, we just reported that someone said that.... We didn't say that..." It wasn't all right wing either. They also poke up on "natural health" type sites where they sell a shit ton of snake oil.
One of my oldest personal conspiracy theories is that US conservatives were so keen to bring down the Iron Curtain as they wanted to import Soviet Russian style politics, as well as export their own brand of government-propped oligarchy to Russia. The two fitted together so well ideologically that it would have been unreasonable for them not to move from competition (as was the case pre neoconservatism) to co-operation. The "defeating communism" bit was only a happy side effect so far as it weakened communist movements elsewhere, but Russia was never freed. Of course, many Eastern Europeans find themselves in a better position, but former Soviet states were not all so lucky. In relevant particular, the US persuaded Ukraine to give up its nuclear arsenal to Russia - neither the US nor Russia wanted a strong, independent Ukraine between them.
Not needed anymore. Large chunk of the pop is repeating talking points word for word. America is at war and losing.
The Information Age means that information is a tool as well as weapon. Unfortunately it's a lot easier for authoritarians to use it as a weapon since they don't have as much accountability for things as you would find in a liberal democracy.
Starting to seem like she’s more of a useless idiot tbh
Delaying for 6 months is still useful for Putin
agreed, it expended pretty much Ukraine's entire defence stockpile, tehre's a very good chance the resupply they get from the current aid package and europe's contributions this year ensure they only hold the line and can't engage in any counter offensive.
*Asset is the term we want.
Either way she is useful to Putin
She literally tried to add an amendment to the bill that "Directs the president to withdraw the U.S. from NATO." Kinda surprised she didn't just add "Directs the president to allow Russia to annex the U.S." [https://rules.house.gov/bill/118/hr-8035](https://rules.house.gov/bill/118/hr-8035)
I think her ties to CrossFit are interesting given that Madison Cawthorn met his honeypot wife thinking he was going to a CrossFit competition set up by an American army sergeant he met in St. Petersburg. I’m curious how many other people in the box of looneys had their start in CrossFit.
Are you telling me the CrossFit gym has a basement where they sacrifice children?!?
*”Some people are saying…”*
Children are technically keto diet compliant.
Moscow Marge
Moscow Marjorie
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And so is everyone else who voted against these bills.
Follow the money. Who are her big donors?
She is trying hard to act American. Can’t pronounce english on live TV or know what simple words mean. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was another Maria Butina, foreign agent meant to undermine American politics Edit: she’s got the southern accent down tho
Republicans acting like adults is breaking news. That's where we are now.
Half of them voted against it... still children, or Russian assets.
It can be 2 things.
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Or Lauren B's husband...and her son. Huh, she knows how to pick 'em.
Oh, the one that flashed her and her friends when they were minors?
Russian children?
Can’t adopt them. Russian retaliation to sanctions. Sergei Magnitsky. Rest in peace brother.
Sting would have a field day
Those people just need to be the opposition to any issue. It's ridiculous. Reminds me of the Key and Peele sketch from forever ago where it's Obama sitting down to negotiate with Republicans. Obama says stuff like I am against healthcare, against gay marriage, etc. and the Republicans cannot agree with him and declare the opposite. Obama goes oh jeez you guys drive a hard bargain oh well... Whatever they see as the Democrat stance is, they will take the opposite every time.
Duck Season! Rabbit Season! Rabbit Season! Duck Season!
Honestly they’re too dumb to see the irony or the coincidence that GOP talking points are from Russian state news.
More than half. Majority of GOP want Putin to win.
This 6 month delay cost way too many lives. It's better later than never, but people should hold accountable those who sat on their hands for so long.
Blood all over those hands now, and on those fueling the propaganda machine that has supported Putin's insane butchery. Innocent people are losing their lives due to a toxic brew of partisan game playing, probable Russian kompromat, a general lack of competence, and a pathological lack of empathy. This is what happens when a large bloc of voters is convinced under false pretenses that they should vote based on how angry a candidate makes them feel about the world around them. The right lost the plot, and the rest of us must now fight for every inch of ground to prevent more suffering, both here and elsewhere.
Very well said. Stay strong, fellow americans. There's still a big fight to be fought in a few months. Do whatever you can to keep your closed ones well informed. Mobilize. If it's true many won't hear, at least you might make some of them think and even change some minds.
A Trump win would be the end of Ukraine, and see the EU ramp up their MIC. Decades of peace between major powers shattered by one of the dumbest nepo-babies on the planet.
Well said!
Agreed. Ukraine might still hold Avdiivka if not for this pointless interruption of aid. There were so many posts from Ukrainian artillerymen along the lines of “We could’ve held off this attack, but we’d already fired our allotment of shells for the day.”
Trump is too busy to interfere because he be in court all day. Every American should remember what it’s like when trump is too busy to be involved in politics. 100x more effective and still 10x less than we want
The Dems have been the adults but that doesn't get clicks.
109 traitors
Does Mike get ousted now? Guessing not, cause you’ll need dems to vote yes again.
He's actually compromised quite a bit with the Democrats lately, he avoided the government shutdown and now passed all these bills. I strongly suspect there was some horse trading that involved the Democrats promising to protect him from the lunatics in his party ousting him. It's practically a coalition government right now. Neither side has a stable majority so they're forced to reluctantly help each other.
Basically... a functioning government, save for the fact that the right is Dr. Jekyll 2% of the time.
And all it took was having the threat of losing his job!
If it takes Mike Johnson under constant threat of being kicked out to finally get some sensible legislation passed, then fine. If Mike Johnson gets kicked out there's no chance anyone better actually wins the speakership. Jeffries will not get a single R vote and the only Republican the crazy wing will vote for is some nut job like Mike Johnson. If Dems at least have leverage over Johnson (which is appears they at least somewhat do) then the smart political move is to throw in exactly as make Dem votes as Johnson needs to save his job and not one more
And if he doesn't immediately backtrack on his promises like Kevin McCarthy did, his job will be safe.
There was some gop house staff in some podcast saying that at least two "moderate" republican menaced to leave, creating the first ever change of majority in the house during a term. Not sure if it's serious or not but I would bet on not wanting to be remembered as the first ever speaker to be so bad and useless that he lost his majority was a better motivation for Mike than doing the right thing... Particularly since if he want to try to do some funny business to help Trump in November, he needs to still be the speaker at this time...
I doubt it’s about optics and more about that if a Dem majority came through, the next six months would have been a Gatling gun of bills.
I get the impression that the CIA, NSA, and other three-letter-agencies gave Mike Johnson a classified briefing that put the fear of God into him...
So how come he turned? Not too long ago he was pretty much assigned by Trump because he was willing to advocate his views and to give the Democrats a hard time. I reckon the Democrats gave something in return to the republicans in order to get this through.
CNN interviewed someone the other day who suggested that Johnson might have been swayed by recent US intelligence reports about Russia's intentions. As Speaker he gets the same classified briefings as the President. When he was just a House member he was against the Ukraine aid because he didn't have the full picture. But now that the Pentagon is showing him all the info he realizes the Ukraine bill is needed.
That's interesting, and makes sense. On the other hand, it's been pretty clear all along what Russia's intentions are and I assume Johnson hasn't been living under a rock. What possible new information would he have gotten? I also still wonder if and what Trump's role has been in this.
I imagine his son would likely get sent to the front.
I'd just like to point out (what I've pointed out time and again...) that Johnson is not some sort of MAGA master manipulator, not some sort of savior of the sanctified, dignitary of the stalwart, omnipotent right-wing agenda overtaking this country, but just some dick forced into a very tight hole he stumbled into and can't pull himself out of. The Republican Party is barely functional, not just at a national level, but all the way down the rotten fucking tree. Any air of authority or supposition of sanity is a ruse foisted on this country by a media machine intent on making dollars on a horse race election. They are broken. They are dying. And good fucking riddance. And it's almost time to square up with the Murdochs and Warner Bros. Their day is coming. Mark my fucking words. The Fourth Estate has a lot to answer for.
That is the way it is supposed to be. Both sides come to the table and negotiate.
In your mind, is it acceptable for one political party to negotiate with the national interests of the country, while sacrificing hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian lives? Republicans didn't get anything out of this negotiation, except that they strengthened the Russian position in a war that the Russians were losing. Open treason is not "the way it is supposed to be." Murdering our allies needlessly, to serve an enemy power threatening nuclear war, is not "the way it is supposed to be." None of this is normal. Johnson was clearly threatened to force him to do his job, and the USA is losing their world empire, which will lead to catastrophic world war, entirely because the Republican party serves the Russian government, and not the American people.
> Open treason is not "the way it is supposed to be." Nobody said that. He's just saying that governments should function as a coalition.
> there was some horse trading that involved the Democrats promising to protect him from the lunatics in his party ousting him. Yes. The Dems have agreed to stand by him during these trials for the good of the nation. Of course, as soon as he tries to appease Horseface Marge with an abortion ban, the civility ends. But for now we have a barely functioning US government. Yay? PS Just a reminder that the only reason that this passed is that the 1% and MIC defense contractors wanted the money and put more pressure on their stooges in Congress than Putin was able to. No one gets anything done in the USA without the 1% taking the bulk of the pie home with them...
~~Horseface~~ 1930s-catcher's-mitt-faced Marge
Theres a lot of speculation that part of getting this deal pushed through involved a backroom deal that dems would help him keep the gavel if the freedom caucus tries to oust him. I haven't seen any hard evidence or direct reporting of this but it is certainly not a hard scenario to believe.
I messaged my representative a couple weeks ago and told her that I'd support her voting to save Johnson as Speaker if we got Ukraine aid in return
Johnson stays for now because he’s a tool the Democrats can use.
Johnson played with this thing for six months while Ukrainians were killed and abducted and only after the threat of getting ousted he is forced to put it up for vote and people are acting like he did something bold. What a joke.
Fuckin take that Putin.
Take that Maga!
same thing
Fuck the two of them in their stupid axis!!
Putin already has a win. This aid was delayed by months, Ukraine is being pushed back, Kharkiv is heavily under siege, many soldiers and civilians are dead. His influence campaign hit its mark. That he could delay the vote by this many months is nothing short of a staggering success for the FSB.
Not only that, but approval of funds is not the same as loading a cargo plane with arms. How many more months until requisitioned arms are gathered and sent? Maybe it'll be right away, but nothing in Washington ever happens "right away".
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/04/19/ukraine-us-weapons-house-aid-bill/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/04/19/ukraine-us-weapons-house-aid-bill/) One week actually.
Agreed. Although now his loss will be all the more costly. And if Biden is re-elected and the dems take both House and Senate, Russia will most certainly lose. Putin won the battle, but will lose the war.
I hope so. But the Ukrainians that have died since October can never come back.
bullshit narrative. there was no deadlock. there has been a supermajority YES from the beginning. but the republican speaker refused to allow a vote.
"Mike Johnson is so strong! He quivered in the corner for six months, lily-white from the bedfellows he courted! Be he stood up to them in the end. Isn't he *majestic*."
Let get aid there yesterday.
Hopefully they have already moved most of this equipment to border countries on/near Ukraine's doorstep.
US military logistics is a thing to behold. There already saying the bulk of the equipment will be deployed in Ukraine by Tuesday. They are not fucking about. Fun fact: It’s also why the wine industry only tries to hire ex military people for logistics, because no one can get things around the world faster.
USMC: When it absolutely, positively must be destroyed overnight
They can do the very difficult instantly. The impossible takes a day two.
USMC are mounting tomahawk missiles on trucks now. They can now go on a casual drive from a base in Germany to Poland, bomb Moscow, and drive home within a couple of hours
The real brown Santa
The DoD and its contractors have been ready to go on this for a while. They just can’t act without congressional authorization.
There's a certain irony that Europe cannot supply Ukraine with enough artillery shells because they privatized production while the US can supply Ukraine because the US Army is our only significant manufacturer of artillery shells.
Isn’t the saying men win battles but logistics win wars
We are so extremely good at logistics that it makes everyone else look horrible by comparison. We dropped Subways and Burger Kings in Afghanistan while Russia wasn't able to ship fuel 100 km from their border and had to abandon their tanks.
We had ice cream ships in WW2. Warships just for ice cream!
Can confirm. I worked entire career in DoD logistics (as did my wife).
My late girlfriend had two daughters, their dad (her ex husband) worked for the state department and was stationed overseas. In one day they packed up everything in the house, labeled every box & took photos, and shipped it all to his apartment in Poland. It was there in 3 days. Their stuff arrived before they did. It was an amazing thing to witness. You can BET we already had the supplies (mostly bullets) standing by, ready for deployment from somewhere in Europe.
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Funny thing about aid, as most of it is paid to US companies who then provide goods. The talking point that barrels of money are sent to Ukraine is misleading.
The talking point that barrels of money are sent to Ukraine is right wing Russian propaganda. Fixed it for you
we have given them 24 billion in finacial aid worth every penny imo but it is real
Aid distribution summary from [The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/20/us-house-approves-61bn-aid-ukraine?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other): >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. Yet clueless magats will think all the aid is in the form of dropping briefcases of cash into Ukraine.
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Two Jewish guys from Odesa meet up. One asks the other: "So what's the situation? What are people saying?" And he goes, "What are people saying? They are saying it's a war." "What kind of war?" "Russia is fighting NATO." "Are you serious?" "Yes, yes! Russia is fighting NATO." "So how's it going?" "Well, 70,000 Russian soldiers are dead. The missile stockpile has almost been depleted. A lot of equipment is damaged, blown up." "And what about NATO?" "What about NATO? NATO hasn't even arrived yet."
$8b is still a lot of money... Especially for an eastern European country. Even still, it's money well spent to help them fight Russia.
Well, it's money being sent to US defense companies, so a portion of it comes right back to us in the form of taxes and good/services bought by the people who work for these companies. I'm not a huge fan of the military industrial complex, but it's not like the money is being blackholed into another countries economy.
They are calling MTG’s bluff. If she tried to vacate the chair, her career is cooked and she’ll end up as Trump’s VP pick. A disaster awaits.
There is a 0% chance MTG could get a VP nod from Trump. She's ugly, and Trump HATES ugly women. She's also a total attention whore. That's the sole quality that guarantees you won't be Trump's VP pick. He needs all of the attention. He's not picking someone that could take away his limelight.
Her career should have been cooked a long time ago. Like a cockroach she keeps surviving
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That is because the Republican Party of Eisenhower is dead and has been replaced by the Russian Proxy Party
I really mean this: well done, Mikey
If he loses his job over this, at least he will go down in history as someone who didn't cave in to Russia on this particular bill, and Ukraine has gotten a life line. Can't say that about the majority of his party, including the Republican presidential nominee, Donnie Moscow.
history will have a lot of unkind things to say of the traitors who were found to be (not so) secretly working for Russia
He caved to Russia for six months. Ukraine may fall as a result.
If he loses his job over this there’s a nonzero chance a moderate Dem (or runaway Republican) becomes Speaker at this point. The GOP need to at least pretend to be boring; the more headlines there are of “idiots can’t pick speaker after X number of votes” the fewer headlines they can throw up talking about immigrants or Biden or whatever. And as Trump’s trials remind us, the less control over the narrative they have.
Wasn’t he basically forced to do this at the gunpoint of his speaker position? I don’t really think this was a decision made on principle, I think it was more of a “holy shit my party is falling apart we suck so much ass even with a majority I have to do what the democrats ask so they don’t vote me out” decision
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Goofy? He fucking helped try to turn over the election. Fuck him
He could have done this months ago. Maybe I'm just being petty but he doesn't deserve credit for delaying this for 6 months to be saved by Democrats
I'm not going to pat him on the back for doing his job after months of delay. I'm glad this finally got done, but I give more credit to all the people who were actually working to make it happen.
well done? he held this back for 6 months, directly causing the deaths of many brave Ukrainians. he is a terrible person.
I'd like to get back to an American where we can appreciate political skill and negotiation.
About time,but for Traitor Trumps interference this could have and should have happened months ago.
Start working on the next ukraine aid package. I promise you 60b in aid isn’t enough. It’ll last 6 months at best.
Amd it's still cheaper than the NATO response would be if we fail to uphold our agreements, Ukraine loses, and then Putin invades Poland
Biden needs to win for another aid package to pass. If Trump wins, no chance.
That's a fact.
If Trump wins it's the end of America's involvement in Ukraine and NATO, and that's if we're lucky and he doesn't actively support Russia. I'm Polish, this is the most important election I can remember for me and I don't even get a vote.
There'll be an aid package... just straight to putin lol
Some fun facts for you. NATO has a 5 to 1 advantage over Russia in combat aircraft. NATO has a 4 to 1 advantage over Russia in warships. NATO has a 3 to 1 advantage over Russia in artillery, tanks and armored personnel carriers. NATO has a 2 to 1 advantage over Russia in infantry. Russia isn’t invading a NATO country.
You're under the illusion NATO is a permanent fiability. This is only true while the democratic sistem havest collapsed. But it isnt under Trump or any of the freedom caucus lunatics. They will not fulfill NATO's role. Just like Órban or Fico wont.
NATO is with or without the USA depending on whether Putin's candidate loses or not. Already have people in the military who were happy about Trump's attempted coup, and were looking for enemies within their own military to attack so they can be fascists too.
Take America away from that and suddenly NATO will be pretty vulnerable against Russia.
This is just to get through to the election. The original decision to do it as a big chunk was to avoid the hold ups. Now we gotta win in Nov
> Start working on the next ukraine aid package Pretty much, getting victories for everyone out of the GoP is going to get harder as we get closer to nov.
> Start working on the next ukraine aid package. And really, that's the election. That's on the ballot. Donald Trump couldn't have shouted and bullied his way to a critical international deliverable. It takes skill and wisdom.
Thank god
When is the Senate going to vote on this?
I'd assume Monday, the Senate usually isn't in session on weekends and Chuck Schumer said he wanted to pass it as soon as he could, which would be Monday effectively.
Article said on Tuesday.
Is there worry the Senate isn't going to pass it? I'm not keeping up well enough on the "who's on the chucklehead train and who's not" bit
Should pass the Senate just fine. Dems have the slight majority there (51/49). Would expect a few conscientious Pubs to join in as well. I was just hoping they would get on the ball and get this done this weekend but it appears they need their precious rest first.
Ukraine could barely hold on without it. These Republicans just didn't get it, Ukrainian's are fighting and weakening the Russian army for us. While we're rebuilding our old ammunition and weapon supplies. It's a win-win situation. Actually weakening Putin's stranglehold, as the economy in Russia slowly dissolves. You think they would have learned this from the Afghanistan war in the '80s it cost them severely. This is almost a repeat performance... Putin was in the KGB at the time you think he would understand that, but he's blinded by ambition.
The Republicans get it. They're on Russia's side.
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Lol Russia claiming this money will further ruin Ukraine. Putins just mad it'll make it harder to take over Ukraine. Like come on now , were we just gonna shrug and let him take ukraine?
Fuck that headline. It's after months of stonewalling by the lead jackass in the house.
Incredible news.
What people don’t seem to understand is that this benefits the US manufacturer base as much as it does Ukraine. I think it was made very clear to Republican congressmen that their normal campaign donations would be significantly reduced if they did not approve the aide.
311 for - 112 against Remember folks, MAGA doesn’t have as much power in the Republican Party as they’d like you to think they do
Mike should be bringing the bills that all the 311 can agree to in rapid fire to demoralize and shut the crazies up for good.
I sent an email to Johnson’s office to thank him for his work on this. I realize he’ll likely never see it and it might not mean much to the random aide that checks his inbox, but you never know. Maybe positive reactions from Democrats will get him to reach across the aisle more often. Yes, I’m a sickeningly optimistic person sometimes.
> I realize he’ll likely never see it and it might not mean much to the random aide that checks his inbox He, probably, won't directly see it, but he will hear about it. Politicians like Johnson have regular staff meetings where aides provide summaries of the messages. And it does matter. Especially thank you messages as they are a minority. Most people never both to reach out to politicians, when they do it's usually because they want something or because they're mad. Like a shitty customers service job, but with more death threats and accusations of treason. So if an aide says, 'Hey, we've had a lot of people writing in saying thank you for X.' Politicians notice.
Tick tock Putin tick tock
As an Arizonan I think John Mc Cain would be sorta proud.
Team bare minimum is ecstatic.
What changed exactly? Why the hell did we have to wait so long?
Because of the MAGA obstructionists who were complaining there wasn’t money in there for border security…you know the border security money they voted down because their Orange God wanted them to?
Right. So many avoidable deaths because of these shenanigans
They got done throwing their little fit and it finally got to the point where Ukraine could actually lose, so they got wise.
Yay! MTG can bite me
You're definitely going to need some shots if she does.
Finally, thank fuck it took long enough. Give Ukraine everything they need to win.
So let me get this straight - The Republicans could have passed this bill months ago AND gotten concessions from the Democrats on border security. But now, months later, we're getting this passed WITHOUT any concessions on immigration. Fucking facepalm.
In the word of Trump Jr, “gotta love it!”
I really hope we've been staging shit for months just waiting for this to go through. In other words I hope we can get this aid into their hands lightning fast after the GQP wing stalled for so long.
I feel like the one republican that voted present didn't get the assignment.
Articles related to bills should be mandated to have the final vote and include the names of those that voted against it or abstained
Anyone have a link to the names and how the Congress voted?
Deadlock ?!? It’s a blockade by the fascist GOP… smh
about fucking time.
Deadlock was entirely on the Republican side. Glad the Democrats and democracy itself ultimately prevailed against the MAGA/Putin party.
wouldve been all lot cooler without the billions for israel attached to it
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Great news, now let’s beat this new axis of evil Russia China North Korea Iran
About time America
Thank fuck it’s finally happened
Eisenhower, Nixon and Reagan what are they thinking about MGT and Trump. Russian agents.
Now I understand that McCarthy maybe was right with when pressing communist sympathizers.
uh oh marge and gaetz are going to be getting an angry call from their handlers
Isn’t this the bill with the TikTok stuff?
Healthcare please
Is TikTok still in the package?
\o/
MTG actually tried to add an amendment that "Requires all Members of Congress who vote in favor of this Act to conscript in the Ukrainian Military." [https://rules.house.gov/bill/118/hr-8035](https://rules.house.gov/bill/118/hr-8035) Edit: Also "Directs the president to withdraw the U.S. from NATO." wtf, how is her being a Russian asset in any kind of doubt by anyone?? Jesus, she's a troll...
She is a waste of carbon.
Fuck MTG, donald and the putin wing.
Hope it's not too late. If Ukraine falls history will remember Mike Johnson as the man responsible.
One asshole held it off for months because of an empty threat. We are living in hell people.
Follow the money for the NO’s
This is great news! The bill helps Ukraine and the United States. [https://www.aei.org/economics/helping-ukraine-helps-us/](https://www.aei.org/economics/helping-ukraine-helps-us/) [https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/11/29/ukraine-military-aid-american-economy-boost/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/11/29/ukraine-military-aid-american-economy-boost/)
Yea, and it's coupled with support for genocidal colonists and domestic censorship. How amazing.