America’s moment of truth on Ukraine

[robosmith]

America’s moment of truth on Ukraine

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The Republican rights pro-Russia interventionism is two-way. As Catherine Belton, author of "Putins People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took on the West," reported this week, Russian troll factories are giving Marjorie Taylor Greene's Republicans their talking points. Ken Buck, one of many Republican legislators to have recently quit politics in despair, calls Greene Moscow Marjorie’s agenda comes straight from the Kremlin. Historians compare Trump to Charles Lindbergh's pro-Nazi America First movement in the early 1940s. The difference is that Lindbergh got nowhere near the White House. Far from isolating America, a Trump presidency would switch US foreign policy in Vladimir Putin's favor.

All of which leaves Mike Johnson, the accidental speaker, in a no-win situation. The difference between backing Ukraine or Russia is as critical to US democracy’s future as it is for European security.

Like most Republicans, Johnson was initially an admirer of the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy's Churchillian defiance. Johnson voted for the first rounds of US funding in 2022. At that time, the Republican critique was that Biden was not doing enough for Zelenskyy. Johnson changed his mind on the last clean vote in September. Suddenly every dollar for Ukraine was a dollar less for US border security.

Johnson's dramatic switch has little to do with his stated reasons. The US can easily afford to keep funding Ukraine. At $113bn over the past two years, America's largesse amounts to less than 1 percent of federal spending over that time. Even that overstates it. Most of the money is spent at home on US-made military equipment, much of which is ageing and needed to be replaced.

In the coming days, Johnson will submit what will surely be Congress’s final chance this year to bolster a faltering Ukraine. In addition to tougher border security measures that some Democrats will see as a poison pill, his package will divert interest from Russia's sequestered assets and define part of the Ukraine aid as a loan. Neither gimmick is likely to sway Greene. Her aim is to stop any help from reaching Ukraine, not to help it in a fiscally responsible way. Johnson's hope is to supply Ukraine without being branded a MAGA traitor. In reality, he faces a simple choice; help Zelenskyy or please Trump. It is impossible to do both. 

 

The moment of truth comes tomorrow when the Ukraine funding bill is up for the final vote thanks to Johnson coming to his senses.

 

[robosmith]

The GOP Is the Party of Putin

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“RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA HAS MADE ITS WAY into the United States, unfortunately, and it’s infected a good chunk of my party’s base.” That acknowledgement from Michael McCaul, Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, was echoed a few days later by Michael Turner, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee. “It is absolutely true, we see, directly coming from Russia, attempts to mask communications that are anti-Ukraine and pro-Russia messages, some of which we even hear being uttered on the House floor.” Among the falsehoods that GOP members of Congress are repeating is the notion that the Ukraine war is a battle between NATO and Russia. “Of course it is not,” Turner told CNN. “To the extent that this propaganda takes hold, it makes it more difficult for us to see this as an authoritarian versus democracy battle.”

What makes it even more difficult to see reality is the presence in the GOP of dunderheads like Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who gushed to an Alabama radio show that “Putin is on top of his game,” while scorning U.S. media accounts of Russian behavior. “The propaganda media machine over here, they sell anything they possibly can to go after Russia.” Tuberville may be the dimmest Putin booster on the Hill, but he is hardly lonely.

It has been two months since the Senate passed, in a 70–29 vote (including 22 Republican yes votes), a $95 billion foreign aid bill that included $60 billion for Ukraine. The Republican-controlled House, by contrast, has been paralyzed. Stories leak out that Speaker Mike Johnson, apparently influenced by high-level briefings he’s received since capturing the gavel, has changed his posture and wants to approve the aid. But Johnson leads, or is at least is the titular congressional chief, of a party that contains a passionate “Putin wing,” and so he dithers. This week, Volodomyr Zelensky warned that Ukraine will lose the war if the aid is not approved. Yet Johnson headed not to Kyiv but to Mar-a-Lago. 

Looks like ^this is now old news. Tomorrow we shall see whether Johnson has broken loose from domination by the MAGA CULT. Today he mentioned his son is set to be inducted into the armed forces, and mentioned the danger to him of being involved in NATO Poland conflict if Putin takes Ukraine.