šØ MCCONNELL SUPPORTS BIDEN AID PACKAGE In a big bipartisan show of support, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has come out in support of President Biden's aid package for Israel and Ukraine.
āWe haveā¦competition from China, and Russia and we still have terrorism problems,ā¦ pic.twitter.com/67tGHuclsi
— Chris D. Jackson (@ChrisDJackson) October 22, 2023
MCCONNELL SUPPORTS BIDEN AID PACKAGE In a big bipartisan show of support, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has come out in support of President Biden’s aid package for Israel and Ukraine.
āWe haveā¦competition from China, and Russia and we still have terrorism problems, as the Israelis have certainly experienced in a brutal wayā¦So I think that requires a worldwide approach rather than trying to take parts of it out, ” McConnell said.
In the face of continued doubters, President Biden just keeps getting things done on a bipartisan basis.
Per the Guardian, “Republican Senate minority leader says he and president are āin the same placeā on support linked to both conflicts”:
Mitch McConnell offered a strong endorsement on Sunday of the Joe Biden White Houseās $106bn aid proposal to Israel and Ukraine, saying he and the president were essentially āin the same placeā on the issue.
McConnell, the powerful Republican leader in the Senate, also rebuffed some of his GOP colleagues in the Senate who have called for a package separating assistance for the two countries, saying it would be āa mistakeā during an interview on CBSās Face the Nation.
The Republican leader offered significant backing to the White Houseās $106bn request, including $14bn in assistance to Israel, $60bn in aid to Ukraine and another $14bn to improve security on the US Mexico border. An additional $10bn would be allocated to humanitarian relief as well as an additional $7bn to the Indio-Pacific region…
āI view it as all interconnected,ā he said during the interview. āIf you look at the Ukraine assistance, letās ā letās talk about where the money is really going. A significant portion of itās being spent in the United States in 38 different states, replacing the weapons that we sent to Ukraine with more modern weapons. So weāre rebuilding our industrial base,ā he said.
He added: āNo Americans are getting killed in Ukraine. Weāre rebuilding our industrial base. The Ukrainians are destroying the army of one of our biggest rivals. I have a hard time finding anything wrong with that. I think itās wonderful that theyāre defending themselves.ā…
.@LeaderMcConnell says "a significant portion" of Ukraine aid from Congress is being spent in states to make weapons.
"We're rebuilding our industrial base. The Ukrainians are destroying the army of one of our biggest rivals. I have a hard time finding anything wrong with that." pic.twitter.com/24janX3kbr
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) October 22, 2023
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, also said on Sunday that Israel had restored some water and power access to Gaza.
āIsrael turned on one of the pipelines six or seven days ago ā there are a couple of other pipelines that weād like to see restored,ā the USās top diplomat said during an interview on NBCās Meet the Press.
Blinken also noted that 20 trucks that were recently allowed in to Gaza provided clean water, saying: āWeāre getting more that we hope will be moving as early as today…
Blinken also said Israel had no intention of governing Gaza long term after the war.
āIsrael cannot go back to the status quo,ā he told NBC. āAt the same time, what Iāve heard from the Israelis is absolutely no intent ā no desire to be running Gaza themselves. They moved out of Gaza unilaterally, unconditionally a couple of decades ago. But they canāt be in a position where theyāre constantly under threat of the most horrific terrorist attacks coming from Gaza. So, something needs to be found that ensures that Hamas cannot do this again, but that also does not revert to Israeli governance of Gaza, which they do not want and do not intend to do.ā…
Additionally, McConnell said the US House needed to fill its vacant speakership before 17 November, when funding for the government is set to expire. āWe need one because the House canāt do anything without a speaker,ā he said. āAnd itās a ā itās a problem, but I hope itās gonna get solved pretty quickly.ā
WATCH: @SecBlinken tells #MTP some of the water pipelines in Gaza have been restored, "but there are a couple of other pipelines" Israel should restore.
"We're getting more [aid through trucks] that we hope will be moving as early as today ā¦ and are moving as we speak." pic.twitter.com/Fq5RFt3ulv
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) October 22, 2023
Medium Cool ā Equilibrium!
Alison Rose
I mean. I’m glad to see it, but…agreeing with McConnell on anything makes me feel like I need to scrub myself down with a Brillo pad.
oldster
I am so, so relieved that Biden is rock solid on tying together aid to Israel and Ukraine.
Earlier this week I thought about sending the WH a message making the case for why both are vital to our security — why both are being targeted by Russia — why both are being attacked with weapons from Iran.
And before I could send it, Biden himself made all of these points in a speech.
Now, he has gotten McConnell on board, too. Ā Let’s hope that the House reconstitutes itself into a functioning body next week, and we get this legislation passed.
Ideally, under Speaker Jeffries!
cain
You need to give Palestinians ownership – and that means they need to be generating income, wealth, and stability. That’s how you get rid of elements like Hamas. A status quo that nobody wants to fuck with because chaos is no longer desired.
Hamas creates chaos and perpetuates a cycle of revenge and death in partnership with the right wing govt of Israel. Both of them don’t want a two state solution.
lollipopguild
Biden is what REAL leadership looks like as compared to trump’s loud mouthed lying blowhard bullshit where he praises our enemiesĀ and attacks our friends and allies.
satby
Countdown until the crazy caucus in the House starts screaming about McConnell being a RINO.
The rope that they thought they were using on McCarthy is now a big ol lasso around themselves. If the Democrats had plotted the Freedumb caucus’ debasement they wouldn’t have succeeded as well.
Mike in NC
We were so lucky when Fat Bastard put his imbecile son-in-law in charge of bringing lasting peace to the Middle East. /S
Gin & Tonic
I suspect I disagree with McConnell on just about everything, but his reasoning for his support for Ukraine is unimpeachable.
Fair Economist
McConnell is just lusting after power as usual. He doesn’t want the crazy stink from the antics of House Republicans to wreck his hope to take the Senate next year. So he’s acting reasonable.Ā But politics is often about getting people to do the right thing for the wrong reasons,Ā so, fine.
cain
BTW, for you mastodon’ers – you might like this web app that helps you find more followers based on who your followers follow.
https://followgraph.vercel.app
Rand Careaga
@Alison Rose:
I get it, but think of ChurchillāHitler, Stalin, Satan, Hell: some assembly required. Iāll take any ally of convenience we can get for the duration. Doesnāt mean that afterward, if there is an afterward, we have to sing kumbaya with āem.
mrmoshpotato
@Mike in NC: But the pasty-faced pile of shit made the Middle East better than it’s ever been! /S
artem1s
As much as I despise McConnell, I’m glad he’s around and the Senate GOPer’s aren’t imploding like their House counterparts. Yes, we need a Speaker and this seems like the worst possible time for the House to be out of order. But on the other hand, they didn’t have a united front of hateful assholes doing everything they could to destabilize the situation in the name of Patriotism, their invisible Sky God, NRA and the industrial military complex.
H.E.Wolf
We can take comfort in the likelihood that McConnell feels the same way about agreeing with us. :)
Alison Rose
@H.E.Wolf: LOL true.
SteveinPHX
McConnell knows he’s a “short-timer” and may well be trying to burnish his rep as his time goes short. I hope he rots in the hot place, but I’ll take anything I can get off that bastard. Greasing the skids for this aid bill helps.
Betty Cracker
Well, the narrow band of badly-informed nitwits who end up deciding the Electoral College vote outcome every four years are always bleating about bipartisanship, according to exhaustive studies of their ilk. Whoās bipartisan now, mofos?
sdhays
McConnell is old school in that he actually does despise Russia and considers it a national adversary. Heās been consistent on that, his handling of Trump notwithstanding.
I also wonder if he reads the writing on the wall and doesnāt think the House Republicans are going to come out of this with an actual functioning majority with more leverage than the Republican Senate Minority.
Another Scott
@satby: It’s really easy for the Senate to beat up on the House, and vice versa.Ā There’s institutional tension between them.Ā It happens a lot.
Nobody in the House GQP conference cares what Moscow Mitch says.Ā They’re probably going to ignore him.
We’ll see!Ā :-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Anne Laurie
Oh, they’ve been doing that on social media since McQarthy first stepped down.
I suspect part of the timing of these Sunday-morning pundit tv interviews was to further gin up the kkkrazy before tomorrow’s big ‘no, this time for realzies’ GOP speakership vote.Ā Many fish-belly white arses shall be shown… and many clips useful in future ads to the low-info voters stockpiled!
Ray Crossley
This is the kind of thing that can happen because Biden does that thing so many self-righteous, leftier-than-thou types complain about — refers to important Republicans as his friends.
MattF
Also, TFG has designated McConnell as an enemy, so Mitch being more influential is bad news for the Orange One. But thereās been a lot of bad news for him lately. Electoral-vote.com has a detailed review of the bad news for OO on the Chesebro front, and it is, indeed, bad news.
Yarrow
It’s going to be funny if Biden’s the one who helps usher in lasting peace in the Middle East. Also, it would be great.
Geminid
@cain: I agree with what you say here, and would add that normalization of relations between Israel and Arab countries can further economic development in Gaza, and I think political conditions as well.
Besides Egypt in 1978 and Jordan in 1994, no Arab state ever recognized Israel and exchanged ambassodors since the State of Israel was founded in 1948. But 3 years ago Bahrain, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates took that step. Since then these countries have slowly built cultural and trade relations with Israel.
I thnk that people tend to underrate these “Abraham Accords” because they were made while Trump was President and Netanyahu was Prime Minister. But they culminated a process that had gone on for 20 years at least. And Trump’s influence may have been negative; Arabs saw for the first time since the Second World War an American government that could not be relied upon, and that they needed to reconcile with a regional power.
Normalization is not that popular among Arabs. A poll taken a year ago showed support at little more than 20%. Interestingly, Palestinians were the most supportive, at 40%. This despite the fact that Palestinian political leaders bitterly denounced the 3 countries that recognized Israel.
Right now, support for normalization is probably down to single digits, but I think that will change after this war ends. It will take a while, but I think some Arab countries like Saudi have made normalization a strategic goal, and they will not let Hamas stop them.
A few months ago I was researching the topic, “Arab soldiers in the Israeli Army.” There was a lot on this, including stories about a brawl on an Army base between soldiers from an Arab unit and ones from a mostly Jewish unit. There were also stories of Arab IDF members who would not wear their uniforms in their home towns while on leave.
So there are plenty of problems, but overall, participation by Arabs in this and other Israeli institutions is on the rise. One of the 8 parties in the last government was Arab. In the last election, Mansour Abbas’s Ra’am party increased its Knesset representation from 4 to 5 MKs, so his joining an otherwise Jewish government was in effect endorsed.
An article in a Saudi magazine showed how that government is preparing its citizens for better relations with Israel. I could not read the article, but I saw the cover. It showed three handsome Arab men in IDF uniforms. They looked like they could be in some Chippendales act in their spare time! This slick lifestyles magazine would not have published this story without government approval.
Wyatt Salamanca
If a broken clock can display the correct time twice a day, I suppose McConnell can take the correct position on an issue once every 20 years.
hrprogressive
McConnell might be an awful person, but he’s not stupid.
He knows this is not just the right thing to do, it is the popular thing to do.
He knows the Fascist Caucus is good for getting retweets and that’s about it.
M31
I had a friend a long time ago explain that other Arab countries love that Palestinians are oppressed since it takes attention away from their own gov’ts failures, (this I’ve heard elsewhere and it makes sense) but interestingly, also that other Arabs had low opinions of Palestinian people, and he gave a list of stereotypical complaints about them and it was very amusing (if you can use that word) that all the supposed bad traits of Palestinians are things that are also negative stereotypes of Israelis, i.e., “pushy” “annoying and self-righteous” “abrasive” etc.
lol, almost
(just that one guy’s opinion, I don’t have any idea if those sentiments are reflected anywhere)
Misterpuff
I guess I should be more circumspect with my use of Moscow Mitch from now on (What he said about Ukraine was 100% spot on), but I will continue to keep my eyes on him until he permanently freezes.
Another feature of Ancient Biden, he’s friends with all the difference makers or he knows where their skellys are buried.
Chris Johnson
@sdhays: McConnell despises everybody and is one of the most badass politicians I’ve ever seen. He’s been taking as much money and influence from Russia as Trump ever has, he furthered their aims exactly as long as he thought they could beat or control the US, and as soon as it became clear they could not, Russia was dead to him and no threats or anything else, made any difference.
It’s almost strangely admirable. He’s a monster, but by GOD he’s not a coward. And has no morals, none.
May the United States stay more powerful than Russia, China etc. for every last second left in his life. Because if not, he’ll betray us again without a second thought. But as long as we are going to win, McConnell will be shivving anybody fool enough to think they should be loyal to Putin, or Xi, or anybody else who came around bribing our government’s people. And he will do it happily, with flair and panache and gusto, just as much as he would enjoy backstabbing US.
This fucking guy. Seriously!
Another Scott
ICYMI, …
None are believed to have 217 easy votes yet. Orange Tang has said he doesn’t want Emmer. Presumably he doesn’t like Scott either.
Cheers,
Scott.
Hoppie
I can proudly say I voted against Addison Mitchell McConnell III (of the famous southron Turd family) SIX timesĀ (changed my voting registration to California after 2014).Ā Even a stopped clock….
zhena gogolia
@Chris Johnson: Your characterization of him matches JL Cauvin’s version.
Geminid
@Geminid: Another normzlization vignette:
A few months after Israel and the UAE began diplomatic relations, two young men showed up in the coastal city of Haifa. They wore the white robes and head coverings common to Gulf Arabs, and drove a shiny luxury car. They cruised the seaside esplanade for while, blaring Emirati pop music out the windows. Then they parked and got out to cheerfully greet a small crowd of curious Haifa residents. Pretty soon they were posing for selfies and group pictures.
Then they surprised the onlookers with the news that they hadn’t flown in from the Gulf, but rather had driven over from an Arab town 20 miles away. It sounded like the Haifa residents took this news in good humor, but as theĀ Times of IsraelĀ reporter noted, they might not has been so welcoming if they’d known the two men were fellow citizens and not tourists.
I thought this story showed that at least some Jewish Israelis really welcome normalization. I can see why. They’ve lived in a mostly hostile region all their lives, and the accords with Bahrain, Morocco and the UAE are hopeful signs that this might change.
Frankensteinbeck
McConnell has been RINO-in-chief for years. Ā He doesnāt care. Ā The crazy wing can do nothing to him. Ā Trump was McConnellās puppet and never knew it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Not that I trust this particular scorpion, but I do find it interesting that he doesn’t seem to have quite the same dedication to total obstruction with Biden that he had with Obama.
I wonder why…
AlaskaReader
This is your reminder that Republican voters are every bit as vile and demented as those they elect.
There is no redeeming value in any Republican. Ā Not a one of them.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Yup
Ivan X
@Alison Rose: thanks for saying it perfectly. Itās painful, and I preferred it when my hate for him was pure and unambiguous. But, I mean, I cannot argue here.
Itās also apparent to me that if the identical proposals were being made by Obama, or Hillary Clinton, well, would he be so kumbaya? Probably not. So, thanks Biden, if not for the right reasons. Iāll get out my Brillo pad.
Alison Rose
@Ivan X: Hey, at least we’ll all be very well exfoliated. Thanks, Mitch!
Other MJS
@Geminid: Thanks for your remarks. Whatever you’re smoking, I want some.
kindness
McConnell wasn’t espousing liberal dogma there.Ā Mitch was pushing his conservative schtick about spending money here and that would benefit them there.Ā I’m happy to take conservatives assistance but Mitch sells the whole thing short.Ā We are linked and we aren’t just doing it as a profit/upgrade exercise.
Citizen Alan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I think he’s just sort of mellowed out because he thinks he’s won. Trump gave him massive tax cuts and a conservative judiciary for generations to come. And if they republicans take the senate next year, there will be no way to undo that even if biden wins again. Or at least, not in the turtle’s lifetime, and he’s not someone to give a micro fuck about what happens to the rest of the world after he’s dead.
Geminid
@Other MJS: I’m not smoking anything, just researching a complex situation. I figure that if I care about something I should be interested enough to inform myself more about it.
David š āThe Establishmentāš Koch
Geminid
@M31: Saudi Prince Bandar gave an interview a couple years that touched on the Saudi Arabian/Palestinian relationship. Saudi Arabia has helped the Palestinian people as best it could, Bandar said, but Allah had cursed the Palestinians with bad leadership and there wasn’t anything his country could do about that.
Bandar was an influential Saudi diplomat in his day, and his interview may have reflected the views of Arab Gulf state rulers.
Frankensteinbeck
@Citizen Alan:
While everything you said is true, I am sure it is very, very important to an old Southern aristocrat like McConnell that Biden is a white man. Ā McConnell was the first to flip his shit and declare total war when Obama was elected. Ā He is a racist ass motherfucker. Ā Biden is his social class, and McConnell can unbend slightly.
randy khan
@Fair Economist:
And we shouldn’t forget that, in general, the Senate has great disdain for the unwashed masses in the House. Ā McConnell most likely thinks the House Republicans are unprofessional idiots (although he never would say that where anyone could overhear) who do not understand the impact of what they’re doing. Ā This is partly a move to make them do something that will help them – passing the aid package – despite their stupidity.
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@Frankensteinbeck: agree, and donāt think this should ever be forgotten. McConnell considers himself a patriotic American, but given our history thatās not enough.
@Geminid: also agree. The people in the war zone usually want peace. War hold the most appeal to those direct or cheer it from afar.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
It’s good to know there areĀ some lines McConnell won’t cross, but that doesn’t excuse all the lines heĀ has crossed – refusing to confirm a Supreme Court nominee who the entire Senate agreed was extremely qualified, for one. I still say he should roast in hell and his name should go down in infamy, but the House “Freedom” Caucus and their godhead are lower still.
WereBear
I’m thinking of it as: McConnell Admits Defeat.
Paul in KY
@cain: The only people who can really get rid of Hamas are the Palestinians.
Paul in KY
@lollipopguild: No shit… :-)
Paul in KY
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Tis a mystery, it is….