(Image by NEIVANMADE)
Last night the Russians opened up on the emergency first responsders in Izium:
Dreadful aftermath of the attack on first responders base in Izium. Dedication of first responders is striking: they stay and will continue their heroic service, undeterred.
Thank you to those who clarified: Steyr fire trucks are a generous gift from Austria. This specific… pic.twitter.com/ATtO4VSNXV
— Maria Avdeeva (@maria_avdv) October 27, 2023
Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.
May today everyone be united by the feeling of how much the Ukrainian language, all our people went through, so that Ukraine will always be free – address by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
27 October 2023 – 20:43
I wish you good health, dear Ukrainians!
Report for the day.
A special ceremony to honor the memory of our fallen heroes – Heroes of Ukraine. I awarded the orders of the Golden Star to the families of soldiers. 21 warriors. The Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine. Completely devoted to the state, their comrades, and their duty to Ukraine. Eternal memory to them! And eternal gratitude.
Today, I held two international conversations: with the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the President of the United Arab Emirates. We discussed our common defense of international law, the implementation of the Peace Formula, and the advisors’ meeting in Malta, which starts tomorrow. We also talked about what can be done to prevent a large-scale war in the Middle East and a greater catastrophe for people.
I discussed with Prime Minister Sunak our joint steps to strengthen our defense, including anti-aircraft missile systems and anti-drone means.
And there’s a very powerful package from Germany – exactly what we agreed upon with Mr. Chancellor. Before winter, we will receive anti-aircraft missile systems, another Iris-T system, missiles for air defense, artillery rounds, and radars. This will significantly aid our soldiers and the defense of our cities. Thank you, Olaf!
I held a Military Cabinet meeting regarding the situation on the main battlefronts. Kupiansk, Bahmut direction, Avdiyivka, Maryinka, and Melitopol direction. Ensuring our defense and offensive actions, including long-range weapons and missiles. I thank all the warriors who are holding their positions firmly and eliminating the occupiers. This week has significantly increased Russian losses. This is how it should be.
I conducted a meeting on shelters – ensuring their readiness and accessibility for people. The tasks that were set and the results achieved. A complete review of all shelters in Ukraine has been carried out. A special website has been created where one can see the condition of shelters across the country and the progress of shelter-related work. The Ministry of Strategic Industries is overseeing this. Overall, at the local level, most regions are taking shelter-related matters more seriously. We must continue this work.
And one more thing. Today is Ukrainian Literature and Language Day. As always, many people were united on this day by the nationwide radio dictation of national unity. May today everyone be united by the feeling of how much Ukraine, the Ukrainian language, and all our Ukrainian people endured, accomplished, went through, survived, and did to ensure that Ukraine always remains free and one day celebrates its victory. Its own. Long-awaited.
I am grateful to everyone who fights and works for our country and our independence! We remember each and every person who gave their life for Ukraine!
Glory to Ukraine!
Germany:
An additional IRIS-T air defense system with missiles, 4 APCs, drones – these and other much-needed weapons are included in a new package of military aid from Germany.
This announcement came a day after a phone conversation of @rustem_umerov with his German colleague Boris…
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) October 27, 2023
An additional IRIS-T air defense system with missiles, 4 APCs, drones – these and other much-needed weapons are included in a new package of military aid from Germany.
This announcement came a day after a phone conversation of @rustem_umerov
with his German colleague Boris Pistorius.Grateful to the German partners for their unwavering support!
🇺🇦🤝🇩🇪
@BMVg_Bundeswehr
Robotyne:
Rapid disassembly of a Russian T-90 tank in Robotyne. pic.twitter.com/R5ckfFYgVe
— Dmitri (@wartranslated) October 27, 2023
Vuhledar:
Another town in Donetsk region destroyed by the occupiers, the front-line Vuhledar. pic.twitter.com/OD26Wt1dz4
— NOELREPORTS 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 (@NOELreports) October 27, 2023
Yalta:
Reports emerge of an assassination attempt on Oleg Tsaryov in Yalta. He is wanted in Ukraine for accusations in treason and collaboration with Russia.
— Maria Avdeeva (@maria_avdv) October 27, 2023
Oleg Tsaryov has been shot and is in critical condition in Crimea, according to Russian reports. A former member of Ukraine's parliament for Yanukovych's Party of Regions, Tsaryov was one of Russia's early Novorossiya puppets in eastern Ukraine back in 2014 and is wanted by Kyiv. https://t.co/gk9NNAptNx
— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) October 27, 2023
Other resources are now saying he was actually shot, not stabbed.
Suppose we will find out soon what really happened.
— Dmitri (@wartranslated) October 27, 2023
Oleg Tsaryov, who was shot earlier today, is actually a relatively mild pro-Russian agent. His notes in Telegram were not as radical as those from many other commentators. I'm saying relatively because they were still heavily anti-West and anti-Ukrainian, just slightly more…
— Dmitri (@wartranslated) October 27, 2023
Oleg Tsaryov, who was shot earlier today, is actually a relatively mild pro-Russian agent. His notes in Telegram were not as radical as those from many other commentators. I’m saying relatively because they were still heavily anti-West and anti-Ukrainian, just slightly more reasonable.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the attempt on his life was an inside job, perhaps a conflict of interests with other separatist forces.
Russia’s Embassy in DC:
The Russians endorse Elon and Sacks pic.twitter.com/AxzuwE2GFV
— Marc Bodnick (@MarcBodnick) October 27, 2023
For you enthusiasts of Russian military equipment going boom:
The White Wolf unit of the SBU eliminated numerous targets in three weeks. Among them 7 tanks, 17 APVs, 1 demising machine, 12 trucks, 10 artillery systems, 1 pole-21 EW system, 21 positions, 2 command posts and an ammo warehouse. pic.twitter.com/ICurUIP2A2
— NOELREPORTS 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 (@NOELreports) October 27, 2023
The new Speaker of the House has now made it clear that there will be no bundling of aid for Ukraine and Israel and for Ukraine aid to be considered, let alone pass, the Biden administration must satisfy the House GOP majority’s concerns regarding the purpose of continuing to support Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s genocidal re-invasion. Also, any additional aid for Israel would have to be offset by cuts to other programs. Reuters has the details:
WASHINGTON, Oct 26 (Reuters) – Newly elected U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said on Thursday that funding to support Ukraine and Israel should be handled separately, suggesting he will not back President Joe Biden’s $106 billion aid package for both countries.
Johnson, speaking in an interview on Fox News, has concerns about Ukraine funding in general, and believes any money for Israel will need to be funded by cuts elsewhere.
He met Biden on Thursday and said he told White House staff “our consensus among House Republicans is we need to bifurcate those issues.”
Biden wants Congress to provide $106 billion in supplemental funding, with the bulk of the money going to bolster Ukraine’s defenses and the remainder split among Israel, Indo-Pacific and border enforcement.
Johnson said of Ukraine funding: “We want to know what the object is there, what is the end game in Ukraine.
“The White House has not provided that,” he added.
Biden is betting that including money for Israel and immigration will help convince House Republicans wary of sending additional money to Ukraine to support the measure.
“Israel is a separate matter – we are going to bring forward a standalone Israel funding measure (of) over $14 billion,” Johnson said in the interview. He said House Republicans will look for other areas to cut in the budget in order to finance the funding for Israel.
There will be no more aid for Ukraine appropriated as long as the GOP holds the majority in the House. The reason for this is that the Biden administration cannot answer Johnson’s question:
“We want to know what the object is there, what is the end game in Ukraine.
“The White House has not provided that,” he added.
The reason that the Biden administration has not, will not, and cannot provide an answer to that question is that the end game in Ukraine is up to the Ukrainian national command authority in Kyiv, not the US’s in DC.
I expect aid for Israel will eventually be forthcoming. Too much of the GOP’s white evangelical base will demand it, but because of the domestic political realities – being able to beat the Biden administration over the head with the issue – the House GOP will get its budgetary concessions and cuts in the programs for the neediest Americans.
And that’s if they can actually pass anything at all and don’t just wind up shutting things down by accident in mid-November because the members of the House GOP caucus can’t get along with each other.
Unfortunately, the EU is having its own problems in getting more aid appropriated for Ukraine. Reuters also has the details on this:
BRUSSELS, Oct 26 (Reuters) – Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Thursday opposed the European Union giving Ukraine 50 billion euros in aid, and his Slovak counterpart cited corruption in expressing reservations over extending new financial support to Kyiv.
The two spoke at a summit of the EU’s 27 national leaders, who highlighted diverging priorities in a first debate on where to put money from their shared budget in the next four years.
Orban drew criticism from some of his peers at the summit for having met Russian President Vladimir Putin in China this month as Moscow wages a war against Ukraine and the European Union is shunning the Kremlin.
The EU is due to decide in December on a revision of its 2021-27 budget worth 1.1 trillion euros ($1.2 trln), which is already strained by emergency spending during the COVID pandemic and since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
The bloc’s executive proposed that member states chip in more to the shared coffers to provide 50 billion euros to Ukraine and spend another 15 billion euros on migration. Another proposal would allocate 20 billion euros in military aid for Ukraine.
Budgetary decisions require unanimity and divisions were on display on Thursday.
Orban said Hungary would not back more aid for Ukraine unless it saw “a very well-justified proposal”.
“The one in front of us … that’s not going to work. So, for the time being, we will reject that as well and we will see where we get in December,” he said.
Orban’s comments came as Budapest is trying to unlock billions in aid envisaged for Hungary in the EU budget but blocked by the executive European Commission over rule-of-law concerns.
Slovakia’s Robert Fico – in Brussels a day after being appointed prime minister for the fourth time – said Bratislava would no longer support Ukraine militarily.
“We will only concentrate on humanitarian aid,” Fico wrote on social media from Brussels.
Fico cited endemic corruption in warning against providing new resources to Kyiv, according to two EU diplomats briefed on the leaders’ closed-door discussions.
Other states in eastern Europe disagreed, with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda saying the proposed 50 billion euros for Ukraine was not enough.
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said that – beyond supporting Ukraine – joint expenditure should grow for improving EU defence capabilities.
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo backed continued support for Ukraine but also called on the Commission to make better use of the cash in its own coffers.
“What is on the table today is unacceptable for us,” he said.
“We ask the Commission and other institutions to look at their own funds and look at the funds that are not being fully used … instead of asking the member states for bigger contributions.”
More at the link!
Canada has some in need of refurbishment armored fighting vehicles, but it is unclear if they will make it to Ukraine. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has the details:
The Canadian Army has dozens of older armoured personnel carriers it plans to send to the scrapheap this year — even though a private company has offered to refurbish them for use in Ukraine.
The Department of National Defence (DND) says 67 tracked light armour vehicles (TLAVs) out of a fleet of 140 are “parked awaiting final demilitarization and disposal, or are being used as a source of spare parts” for the 73 vehicles that remain in service.
All of the M113 troop carriers, which have been in service for decades, are in “poor condition” and are awaiting disposal, DND says. The Canadian army also has 195 LAV II Bisons and 149 Coyote armoured reconnaissance vehicles that will be taken out of service this year, as well.
The department says they will be replaced within the next few years by new Armoured Combat Support Vehicles (ACSVs).
Armatec Survivability, based in London, Ont., has offered to update surplus armoured vehicles, the federal Conservative opposition noted this week.
David Pratt, a former Liberal defence minister who speaks for the company, said the proposal is for the “refurbishment of armoured vehicles in a number of variants, which could include infantry fighting vehicles, ambulances and support vehicles” — but he insisted the M113s are not part of the plan. He refused to offer further details, citing “commercial confidentiality.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is due to visit Ottawa on Friday, where he’s expected to ask Canada for more military equipment, including additional armoured fighting vehicles and tanks.
Canada already has donated eight Leopard 2A4 tanks, 39 new ACSVs and 208 Roshel Senator armoured four-by-fours — part of what is now a $1.8 billion arms package for the embattled Eastern European nation.
A senior DND official this week acknowledged the Armatec proposal, adding no decision has been made. He would not indicate whether the proposal was being looked upon favourably.
“Ultimately, that’s a decision that we pass up to policymakers and then we try and act,” Ty Curran, the deputy director general of international security, told the House of Commons defence committee on Tuesday.
Curran said Armatec’s pitch is one of several unsolicited offers that have landed on federal desks since the all-out Russian invasion of Ukraine began last year.
“The challenge, of course, around any of the donations that come out of … [Canadian Armed Forces] inventory is balancing out the operational requirements,” he said.
In a written response to a CBC News request for information on the M-113 vehicles, DND said that of the 73 operational TLAVs, 30 are considered reserve and are being held at military depots. That’s in addition to the 67 already considered surplus and about to be junked.
Canada has to consider multiple factors before donating battlefield equipment to Ukraine, the department’s written statement added.
“Any equipment donated by Canada must be battlefield sustainable, but more importantly, must meet a specific need identified by Ukraine and be equipment that the Ukrainians are trained to use and have the resources and capabilities to maintain,” the department said.
“The remaining quantity of M113s not being employed by the CAF are either awaiting final demilitarization and disposal due to being in very poor condition, or are being retained as a source of spare parts for the operational fleet.”
The Ukrainians are very familiar with the operation and maintenance of the M113. Ukraine has received, or is in the process of receiving, over 560 of the troop carriers from the United States, Lithuania, Denmark, Spain and Italy, among other countries.
During Tuesday’s committee hearing, Conservative defence critic James Bezan said both the United States and Australia are interested in partnering with Canada in the Armatec venture because they also want to put their surplus vehicles into the field for Ukraine.
More at the link!
That’s enough for tonight.
Your daily Patron!
There are no new Patron tweets or videos posted today. So here’s some Ukrainian puppies from the #puppiesofukraine feed:
Because we could all use some puppies to get us through the week! 🐶 The Hachiko team brought food for these little guys in the liberated city of Lyman in eastern Ukraine. It’s not far from the frontline & Russia keeps attacking so families haven’t returned. #PuppiesOfUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/xLqR4RIMJn
— Nate Mook (@natemook) April 26, 2023
Nom nom nom #puppiesofukraine pic.twitter.com/QU10Fup1S3
— Rebekah Maciorowski (@bekamaciorowski) September 26, 2023
Open thread!
MobiusKlein
What happens to the Ukraine / Israel funding when the Senate takes a house bill, and expands it to more things? Is that even allowed?
Alison Rose
I’m afraid to think of what things will look like in Ukraine in three months or six months or a year from now. Or even sooner. They have proven themselves vastly stronger and more resourceful and resilient than many in the West expected. But without crucial aid from other countries, there is only so far that can take them. It ought to be a no-brainer to continue to support them, but then…the people refusing to do so have no brains, so perhaps that’s not an accurate assessment.
And those people would rather be on the side of the country that attacks first responders, and hospitals, and kindergartens. And they will call themselves moral and good. They are anything but.
Video of Zelenskyy giving awards to families of fallen heroes. All of them lost because of a bunch of maniacs across the border and heartless sociopaths around the world. I appreciate the clear compassion and respect on his face for all of the family members.
Thank you as always, Adam.
japa21
Once again, thank you. As I mentioned last night, I do expect aid for both Ukraine and Israel to be passed. It will be messy, but anything sent to the Senate will be rewritten and sent back. It will then be up to the House GOP leadership to explain why they don’t want to provide aid to Israel.
Johnson has already committed to a CR. Again it will be sent to the Senate which will rewrite and pass with bi-partisan support.
Basically, the end game is simple. Ukraine survives as Ukraine wants to survive. Anything less than that is a win for Hamas supporting Russia. If Israel is willing to help Ukraine, then so should we be. Johnson has a rude awakening coming.
Martin
@MobiusKlein: It’d need to go through reconciliation. The House might allow it to go through since that’s a vote that constituents don’t usually notice. Depends on whether the objection to Ukraine is ideological or purely political.
And it’ll also depend on what the response to this by constituents is.
And the Senate could simply hold the line and allow the government to shut down over this demand. I suspect that’s the most likely outcome anyway, so it wouldn’t just be this issue causing it.
Another Scott
@japa21: +1
Nobody knows the future, but I think that’s the way it’s going to work as well.
There are noisy people in the House screaming “no blank check” for Ukraine, but Ukraine isn’t getting a blank check as it is… They’re trying, as always, to hold sensible things that Democrats care about hostage. It won’t work.
(To be clear, of course Democrats won’t get everything they want. But neither will the GPQers.)
I’m reminded that Johnson is the GQPers 5th choice as Speaker this year. (Qevin, Scalise, Jordan, Emmer, Johnson.) He’s very, very weak.
We’ll see.
Slava Ukraini!!
Cheers,
Scott.
hrprogressive
A couple of updates back it seemed like the House orchestrating a government shut down was going to be a feature, not a bug, of the speaker imbroglio.
Do you still foresee that happening, or are they really going to avoid it?
With the Fascist Caucus clearly holding the “We’re not like them, we just vote like them” Republicans by the short hairs…I mean.
Is it wrong to say everything is going to be completely FUBAR until at best 2025, and even then, only if Democrats are lucky enough to wrest power back from the GOP with the trifecta?
It’s hard to see how the Fascist Caucus didn’t completely win, at least temporarily.
Adam L Silverman
@MobiusKlein: It would go to conference. If it cannot be reconciled in conference, then it dies. If it comes out of conference the way the House wrote it, and then passes both chambers on the conference reconciliation vote, which it won’t as it won’t get through the Senate, but let’s say it did, Biden would veto it.
Adam L Silverman
@Another Scott: He broke the caucus rules to get elected by refusing to drop out when he lost in the internal caucus vote and was the only one of those five to actually get 220 votes from the GOP caucus to be elected Speaker when his nomination finally made it to the floor of the House. This is more votes than McCarthy got when he was elected speaker. He is also supported by the leader of the GOP: Trump. He is the strongest of all five.
The amount of pollyanism and denial here is constantly amazing.
To quote Tbogg:
A man who helped plan and conspired to overthrow the constitutional order is now the Speaker of the House. The insurrectionists won. They won because not a single one of the elected and/or appointed GOP officials involved in the coup has been held to account. Trump and Meadows may be, but they may also not be depending on how their trials go. But not a single GOP member of the House or Senate involved has been or will be held to account. Because that would make Merrick Garland sad. And we can’t have that.
Adam L Silverman
@hrprogressive: I think they will try to jam the Senate with 12 appropriations bills filled with poison pills and significant and unacceptable cuts to programs and services. Whether they can actually pass them or they just stumble into a shutdown is another story. Same if they have to do another short term CR.
hrprogressive
@Adam L Silverman:
I mean, I guess a “we passed everything, it’s all the Dems’ fault” wouldn’t surprise me.
But really, your comment above mine really kinda speaks to what I was saying.
I’ve gone down “doom spirals” before about where this country is headed, and I thought last year was going to get ugly. It didn’t, thankfully, but…
A literal Fascist is now the Speaker. The “Regular” GOP voted for him too. The Democrats are too obsessed with institutionalism and bipartisanship to tell America how much danger we’re really in.
Hard not to feel like – unless the voters get the hint between now and next year – the endgame for them is just about here, isn’t it?
Gin & Tonic
Damn shame that Tsaryov survived. Hopefully not for long.
cain
Curse these people and their institutionalism. If you don’t pursue and beat them – they’ll just keep coming back for more.
I’m hoping that the special prosecutor will find more evidence of crimes and then get them. But yeah, the speaker of the fucking U.S. is an insurrectionist and 3 in line for the Presidency. Unfuckingbelievable.
cain
I don’t agree with this statement. The Democrats have had many iterations with the GOP to know by now that bipartisanship is impossible. The fact that they stayed together as a caucus is a testament to that. Older politicians are being replaced by relatively younger ones who do not have any memory of “comity” with the Republicans.
I might believe it of Merrick Garland though.
hrprogressive
@cain:
Why do Democrats keep talking about bipartisanship then?
They should have stopped that years ago and told voters “You all need to elect us, and only us, because the GOP is a danger to the Republic”
But even through the speaker disaster, Jeffries kept going on and on about “bipartisan solutions” and “compromise”
They’re gonna hand the keys to the Republic to the Fascist GOP because that’s the compromise between them taking it via bloodshed.
Cameron
@Adam L Silverman: I totally agree it’s going to be rough sailing, at least until next year’s elections and maybe longer. In foreign affairs, we’re connected to two hot conflicts (which might become one) and at the moment it doesn’t look like there are any good outcomes on the horizon for either of them. Domestically, COVID is still around and the Swinish Oaf walks free; on top of that, a fascist religious nut is second in line for the Presidency and he’s in a position where he can really jam up the whole Federal government. No, Pollyanna was a fictional character.
Dagaetch
@hrprogressive: Because there’s a large contingent of voters, and an even larger contingent of reporters, who desperately want to believe that everything is just hunky dory and people can still come together and sing kumbaya. There’s a handful of elected Dems who might still actually believe it on some level, but I firmly believe that most of them have open eyes at this point and are just playing the political game with talk about bipartisanship.
glc
@hrprogressive: Why indeed …
The answer is more or less: “That’s a principle I have always held to.” It is what it is.
hrprogressive
@Dagaetch:
@glc:
You’d think that people who claim to be fans of saving democracy would fucking tell people the truth when the Republic is at stake, but no, they are all well to content to pretend we live in a “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” version of society, when we absolutely do not.
It’s shit like this why I do legitimately think the USA isn’t going to exist as it does now by the end of the decade, if nothing changes.
Another Scott
@Adam L Silverman: Heh.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but in 2022 you told us to expect a shutdown. There was a last-minute CR instead. You’re often, and understandably, pessimistic about what can be done with this Congress. You’re not always right.
Nobody can infallibly see the future, especially the future of this chaotic Congress. We can all have equally respectable views about what we think is likely or possible.
Sorry that I apparently still annoy you whenever I have a different view or a different interpretation.
If it will make you feel better, I can stop commenting on your threads.
Cheers,
Scott.
Adam L Silverman
@Another Scott: You don’t have to stop commenting. And, frankly, I was surprised we did not see a shutdown.
Bill Arnold
@hrprogressive:
“nothing changes” is not something that actually happens over 7 years in a rapidly changing world. You needn’t worry about that. (Worry about global heating…)
How many people here in mid 2019 expected that the Democrats would, in 2020, keep the House, win procedural control in the Senate, and defeat the incumbent president?
hrprogressive
@Bill Arnold:
Yeah but we had a global pandemic and an awful mismanaging of same that helped defeat Trump in 2020.
Now, people are ignoring both the still-occurring pandemic, the rising threat of Fascism – see the new Speaker! – and oh, yeah, also the climate is collapsing too.
And Democrats and Joe Biden are busy extending olive branches to those who would just as soon shoot them than vote with them.
It’s madness.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, … TheDrive.com:
Inshallah.
Slava Ukraini!!
Cheers,
Scott.
Priest
Well, the Mr. Smith goes etc. Version of Washington was that corrupt machine politicians in the states control who and what goes on, and they succeeded in manipulating things so there was “grassroots” letters pouring in opposing Mr. Smith. The only Hollywood-ization was villain Claude Rains unbelievably breaking down just as the evil machinations have succeeded. We would be well advised not to expect any of our current villains to follow that example.
Bill Arnold
@hrprogressive:
Also, notably, Jair Bolsonaro.
B. Netanyahu handled it OK, but still lost power (mostly other reasons) from mid 2021 to end of 2022.
Also, some power shifted worldwide towards labor, due in part to removal through death and retirement/disability of part of the labor force. (Manifested as optional world-from-home for many in the developed world, for others as improved wage and workplace rules negotiating positions.)
Yeah. Though people are not ignoring Fascism. And ups are happening as well, e.g. recent Polish elections.
And it is usually wise to extend olive branches, both for affect(/optics) and because there is always the possibility of shifts in the loyalties of individuals, while continuing one’s business.
Re Ukraine funding, the GOP house majority is tiny, with a good possibility of shrinkage, and with significant intra-party disunity and fissures/fault lines.
randy khan
Johnson is trying to calibrate between the members of his caucus (maybe a majority, maybe not) who want to fund aid for Ukraine and the members of his caucus who do not (which probably includes him, but he is not the only player here). This rhetoric is his effort to get the Ukraine aid separated from the rest, but neither the Administration nor the Senate is likely to bite, and then he and his fellow travelers will be in a bind. I don’t know how they’d respond to that, but not funding Israel, disaster relief, and border security (yech, but it’s there for a reason) just to get their way on Ukraine is not an optimum choice for Republicans. If they’re not really stupid, they’ll realize this is not the hill to die on, but I will admit I can’t guarantee that.
YY_Sima Qian
@Bill Arnold: Bolsonaro’s handling of the pandemic was on par w/ Trump’s, in fact the two often fed off each other. He was a committed antivaxxer. It was the state governments in Brazil that led what effective response there was, w/ the Bolsonaro administration trying to hinder their efforts every step of the way.
AJ of the Mustard Search and Rescue Team
Is it against BJ rules to say the F word in a comment? I’m happy to abide by the rules, but my sentiment for tonight is “Fuck David Sacks,” utterly and completely.
Sebastian
According to multiple rumors, the new speaker appears to have a gay hooker problem in New Orleans and there are other rumors that his former staffers (male) have stories to tell as well.
I am long popcorn futures.
AlaskaReader
Thanks Adam