Russia's Invasion of Ukraine

[River]

I read last night that the Speaker doesn't want to vote on it because there are no border security measures. Except he didn't want to vote on those either. His dishonesty is tiresome.

[RoseMorninStar]

I read last night that the Speaker doesn't want to vote on it because there are no border security measures. Except he didn't want to vote on those either. His dishonesty is tiresome.

Because it will show the Republicans up for exactly what the 'border crisis' is.. fear mongering they use for personal political gain. They have no other policies to run on except culture war hate.

[N.E. Brigand]

The Senate is going to pass the Ukraine-Taiwan-Israel security funding bill tomorrow. Earlier today, Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah (and former Massachusetts governor and 2012 Republican presidential candidate) said this bill represents "the most important vote we will ever take as United States senators." Even so, more than 30 Republican senators will vote against it, and in the House of Representatives, Speaker Mike Johnson says the bill won't be voted on at all.

There is a possibility that Speaker Mike Johnson will present an alternate bill that includes Ukraine aid and border funding, but I suspect if that happens, it would be a poison pill measure with provisions that no Democrat could agree to.

There is also talk that House Minority Leader, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, may try to use a "discharge petition" to force the House to vote on the Senate's bill. That would require the bill to first sit for 30 days, following which Jeffries would need to get signatures from a majority of House members (i.e., some Republicans would have to sign) in order to advance it to a floor vote. This method has succeeded less than 10% of the time it's been tried.

I was wrong about the vote in the Senate today: the Ukraine-Taiwan-Israel funding bill passed with only 29 no votes, and three of those were Democrats: Jeff Merkley of Oregon, and Vermont's two senators: Bernie Sanders (technically an independent) and Peter Welch. Those three apparently voted no because the funding in the bill for Israeli security includes no human rights stipulations.

The 26 Republicans who voted against Ukraine funding today were:

Alabama -- Katie Britt, Tommy Tuberville
Arkansas -- Tom Cotton
Florida -- Marco Rubio, Rick Scott
Indiana -- Mike Braun
Kansas -- Roger Marshall
Kentucky -- Rand Paul
Mississippi -- Cindy Hyde-Smith
Missouri -- Josh Hawley, Schmitt
Montana -- Steve Daines
Nebraska -- Deb Fischer, Pete Ricketts
North Carolina -- Ted Budd
Ohio -- J.D. Vance***
Oklahoma -- James Lankford,* Markwayne Mullin
South Carolina -- Lindsay Graham,** Tim Scott
Tennessee -- Marsha Blackburn, Bill Hagerty
Texas -- Ted Cruz
Utah -- Mike Lee
Wisconsin -- Ron Johnson
Wyoming -- John Barrasso

*James Lankford co-authored the Ukraine / border bill that failed.
**Lindsay Graham is generally a foreign policy hawk. Yesterday he said that because Donald Trump opposes funding Ukraine, Graham would only support a loan not an outright payment. I suppose we'll never know what leverage Trump has on Graham.
***Ugh, one of my senators.

[N.E. Brigand]

Russia has put multiple Estonian officials, including the nation's prime minister, Kaja Kallas, on a wanted list for having taken down monuments in Estonia to Soviet solders. And over the past year, Russia has doubled the number of troops stationed near the Estonian border.

[Frelga]

Estonia is a NATO member. For all our sakes, we need Putin stopped in Ukraine, or we really will get a WWIII.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

For all of our sakes, we need Putin and Trump stopped, or we really will get a WWIII.

That is only partly hyperbole.

[N.E. Brigand]

The Senate is going to pass the Ukraine-Taiwan-Israel security funding bill tomorrow. Earlier today, Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah (and former Massachusetts governor and 2012 Republican presidential candidate) said this bill represents "the most important vote we will ever take as United States senators." Even so, more than 30 Republican senators will vote against it, and in the House of Representatives, Speaker Mike Johnson says the bill won't be voted on at all.

I was wrong about the vote in the Senate today: the Ukraine-Taiwan-Israel funding bill passed ... the 26 Republicans who voted against Ukraine funding today were:

... **Lindsay Graham is generally a foreign policy hawk. Yesterday he said that because Donald Trump opposes funding Ukraine, Graham would only support a loan not an outright payment. I suppose we'll never know what leverage Trump has on Graham.

Just nine months ago, Graham was in Ukraine and said this to President Zelenskyy:

"I will continue to stand with and for Ukraine’s freedom until every Russian soldier is expelled from Ukrainian territory"

[N.E. Brigand]

Apparently Vladimir Putin made Tucker Carlson look like a fool, openly mocking him as being a mere entertainer and noting that Carlson tried and failed to join the CIA in his youth.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Vladimir Putin can jump in a lake, but before he does, I'm tickled that he said today that Tucker Carlson didn't ask "tough questions"!

[N.E. Brigand]

Ukraine sank another Russian ship yesterday.

- - - - -
Sen. Mitch McConnell says even more Republicans would have voted for Ukraine aid if they could have done so anonymously.

- - - - -
And what outcome will Ukrainians accept? Well:

[N.E. Brigand]

"The Russian pilot who defected to Ukraine last year by flying a military Mi-8 helicopter across the shared border has been found dead in Spain — months after the government he abandoned swore it would seek revenge." Someone shot him to death.

[N.E. Brigand]

A Chilean-American filmmaker, novelist, and journalist named Gonzalo Lira died last month of pneumonia while in Ukrainian custody. For some years a resident of Kharkiv, Lira was originally arrested last May on charges of spreading Russian propaganda, which is currently illegal in Ukraine; among other stories, he appears to have claimed that the Russian massacre of Ukrainians in Bucha was faked. He was released but rearrested in July for violating his bail conditions by attempting to flee the country. He claimed last summer that he had been tortured in prison; Ukraine's government denies this. A number of commentators on the right (including Elon Musk) have tried to present him as a political prisoner who was "executed" for sharing the truth, and in the past few days, some have compared his fate to that of Alexei Navalny. In life, Lira does appear to have been a nasty far-right troll (see the picture at the bottom of that link), but of course that doesn't mean he deserved imprisonment or death, and I would welcome more scrutiny into this case.

[N.E. Brigand]

Svalbard, really?

[Frelga]

Radio Free Europe (And other source)

Friends of noted Russian blogger Aleksandr Morozov said on February 21 that he committed suicide after citing unnamed sources online saying that Russian troops might have lost up to 16,000 troops while fighting for the Ukrainian city of Avdiyivka.

Morozov is said to have shot himself, although it's not clear how many times.

[N.E. Brigand]

Former football coach and U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville, Republican of Alabama, today said that he hasn't voted for any Ukraine funding because "I know they can't win." He says that Donald Trump knows it too, but that Trump "can make a deal with Putin."

(The deal presumably would be the carve-up of Ukraine that seems to have been Russia's goal in helping Trump win the 2016 presidential election.)

[Dave_LF]

Every time I see a headline along the lines of "Biden administration responds to latest Russian atrocity by imposing additional sanctions on...", all I can think is why the h3|! weren't you doing that already.

[Frelga]

Putin's house cleaning continues. Reported but not confirmed that Strelkov/Girkin is dead. He was the war criminal responsible for the downing of the MH17 flight over Ukraine. He was arrested by Putin for blog posts that criticized how the war was conducted and demanded that harsher measures be used. His wife posted on Telegram that he was found hanging in his cell.

After the death of Navalny, there was a bet going around the Russian channels on whether Girkin will get to taste Easter kulich. It seems we now know.

[RoseMorninStar]

I saw a YouTube video recently that commented on a Canadian family who moved to Russia to get away from all of the gay flags/woke-ness and to be among like-minded people. Once they were in Russia (oops!) they realized they were not allowed to say whatever they wished on their YouTube channel. Good luck with that folks.

Freedom isn't just for thee.

[Jude]

There's more - their money was seized when they arrived, so they can't leave, even though apparently they want to.

I feel sorry for the kids, they didn't choose to have idiot parents.

[RoseMorninStar]

There's more - their money was seized when they arrived, so they can't leave, even though apparently they want to.

I feel sorry for the kids, they didn't choose to have idiot parents.

Ah, so you are familiar with that story as well. Yes, I do feel sorry for their.. I think it was 8? children. I hope one isn't gay because with 8 kids, the odds are there. I know far too many religious zealots (and their hate) and it's left me pretty sour.

[N.E. Brigand]

Rep. Patrick McHenry, Republican of North Carolina, who was the acting Speaker pro tempore for three weeks in October (following the removal of Speaker Kevin McCarthy and before the election of Speaker Mike Johnson), today said the House should have an opportunity to vote on the Ukraine aid bill crafted by the Senate.

It may be notable that McHenry has decided not to run for reelection this year.