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Coach Rab

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    House Passes Bills For Ukraine and Israel

    in Political Arena

    Posted

    On 4/20/2024 at 1:23 PM, BarryLaverty said:

    Congress actually getting things done today. 
     

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/house-brink-approving-ukraine-israel-045005904.html

    The House passes billions in aid for Ukraine and Israel after months of struggle

    STEPHEN GROVES and LISA MASCARO

    Updated Sat, April 20, 2024 at 1:04 PM CDT6 min read

     

    WASHINGTON (AP) — The House is pushing swiftly through a series of votes in a rare Saturday session to approve $95 billion in foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel and other U.S. allies, Democrats and Republicans joining together after a grueling monthslong fight over renewed American support for repelling Russia's invasion.

    With overwhelming support, the House approved the Ukraine portion, a $61 billion aid package, in a strong showing of American backing as lawmakers race to deliver a fresh round of U.S. support to the war-torn ally. Some lawmakers cheered, waiving blue-and-yellow flags of Ukraine.

    The $26 billion package aiding Israel and providing humanitarian relief to citizens of Gaza also easily cleared. Each segment of the aid package faced an up-or-down vote. A national security bill that includes a provision forcing sale of the popular platform TikTok was quickly approved, as was another supporting Indo-Pacific allies.

    The unusual process is allowing unique coalitions to form around the bills, pushing them forward. The whole package will go to the Senate, where passage in the coming days is nearly assured. President Joe Biden has promised to sign it immediately.

    “The eyes of the world are upon us, and history will judge what we do here and now,” said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

    The weekend scene presented a striking display of congressional action after months of dysfunction and stalemate fueled by Republicans, who hold the majority but are deeply split over foreign aid, particularly for Ukraine as it fights Russia's invasion. Speaker Mike Johnson, putting his job on the line, is relying on Democratic support to ensure the military and humanitarian package is approved, and help flows to the U.S. allies.

    The morning opened with a somber and serious debate and unusual sense of purpose, Republican and Democratic leaders united to urge swift passage that would ensure the United States supports its allies and remains a leader on the world stage. The House's visitor galleries crowded with onlookers.

    “Sometimes when you are living history, as we are today, you don't understand the significance of the actions of the votes that we make on this House floor, of the effect that it will have down the road," said New York Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “This is a historic moment.”

    Passage through the House would clear away the biggest hurdle to Biden's funding request, first made in October as Ukraine's military supplies began to run low. The GOP-controlled House, skeptical of U.S. support for Ukraine, struggled for months over what to do, first demanding that any assistance be tied to policy changes at the U.S.-Mexico order, only to immediately reject a bipartisan Senate offer along those very lines.

    Reaching an endgame has been an excruciating lift for Johnson that has tested both his resolve and his support among Republicans, with a small but growing number now openly urging his removal from the speaker's office. Yet congressional leaders cast the votes as a turning point in history — an urgent sacrifice as U.S. allies are beleaguered by wars and threats from continental Europe to the Middle East to the Indo-Pacific.

    “The only thing that has kept terrorists and tyrants at bay is the perception of a strong America, that we would stand strong,” Johnson said this week. “This is a very important message that we are going to send the world."

    Opponents, particularly the hard-right Republicans from Johnson's majority, argued that the U.S. should focus on the home front, addressing domestic border security and the nation's rising debt load, and they warned against spending more money, which largely flows to American defense manufacturers, to produce weaponry used overseas.

    Still, Congress has seen a stream of world leaders visit in recent months, from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, all but pleading with lawmakers to approve the aid. Globally, the delay left many questioning America's commitment to its allies.

    At stake has also been one of Biden's top foreign policy priorities — halting Russian President Vladimir Putin's advance in Europe. After engaging in quiet talks with Johnson, the president quickly endorsed Johnson's plan this week, paving the way for Democrats to give their rare support to clear the procedural hurdles needed for a final vote.

    “We have a responsibility, not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans to defend democracy wherever it is at risk,” the House Democratic leader, New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, said during the debate.

    While aid for Ukraine will likely win a majority in both parties, a significant number of progressive Democrats are expected to vote against the bill aiding Israel as they demand an end to the bombardment of Gaza that has killed thousands of civilians.

    At the same time, Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has loomed large over the fight, weighing in from afar via social media statements and direct phone calls with lawmakers as he tilts the GOP to a more isolationist stance with his “America First” brand of politics.

    Ukraine's defense once enjoyed robust, bipartisan support in Congress, but as the war enters its third year, a bulk of Republicans oppose further aid. Trump ally Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., offered an amendment to zero out the money, but it was rejected.

    At one point, Trump's opposition essentially doomed the bipartisan Senate proposal on border security. This past week, Trump also issued a social media post that questioned why European nations were not giving more money to Ukraine, though he spared Johnson from criticism and said Ukraine's survival was important.

    Still, the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus has derided the legislation as the “America Last” foreign wars package and urged lawmakers to defy Republican leadership and oppose it because the bills do not include border security measures.

    Johnson's hold on the speaker's gavel has also grown more tenuous in recent days as three Republicans, led by Greene, supported a “motion to vacate" that can lead to a vote on removing the speaker. Egged on by far-right personalities, she is also being joined by a growing number of lawmakers including Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who is urging Johnson to voluntarily step aside, and Paul Gosar, R-Ariz.

    The speaker’s office has been working furiously to drum up support for the bill, as well as for Johnson, R-La.

    The package includes several Republican priorities that Democrats endorse, or at least are willing to accept. Those include proposals that allow the U.S. to seize frozen Russian central bank assets to rebuild Ukraine; impose sanctions on Iran, Russia, China and criminal organizations that traffic fentanyl; and legislation to require the China-based owner of the popular video app TikTok to sell its stake within a year or face a ban in the United States.

    Still, the all-out push to get the bills through Congress is a reflection not only of politics, but realities on the ground in Ukraine. Top lawmakers on national security committees, who are privy to classified briefings, have grown gravely concerned about the situation in recent weeks. Russia has increasingly used satellite-guided gliding bombs — which allow planes to drop them from a safe distance — to pummel Ukrainian forces beset by a shortage of troopsand ammunition.

    Yep.  
     

    More Ukraine First BS.

    Suggest something for America, they can’t agree on how to spend it, but let’s give Ukraine a blank check to spend it however they want.

    Stabbing spree in Australia kills 6….if only someone had a gun

    in Political Arena

    Posted

    41 minutes ago, Monte1076 said:

    And want to be able to define what it is. I mean, there's a thought out there that if you want to own a gun you are mentally unfit to own one, and therefore you should not be allowed to.

    Dude, you should see what some of the cable/satellite channels advertise...

    There are too many diagnosis to define the dangerous mental health disorders.  Thinking just off the top of my head, the dangerous ones would be like ODD, Schizophrenia, Bi-polar disorder, Gender dysphoria, intermittent explosive disorder (random and frequent bouts of getting super pissed for no reason).  

    These are just my experience from hearing stories from the wife.

    Think of the studies from CTE research and how they may have caused the OJ, Aaron Hernandez, and other suicides etc.

    It's scary.

    Stabbing spree in Australia kills 6….if only someone had a gun

    in Political Arena

    Posted

    16 hours ago, Lobo97 said:

    Again, NONE of this would change anything! It is NOT a gun problem, it's a people problem. I don't understand why democrats can't understand this. 

    Democrats play the party of treatment for mental illness.  Instead, they normalize it.

    Until we start treating the people, we will continue to have these issues.  Normalizing homosexuality, transgenderism, drug use, pedophilia, and the Hollywood lifestyle is what is (in my personal opinion) the root cause of this.  It has been happening since the 80s and 90s with television shows on stations that broadcast to every American progressively.  lt is scary to see what ABC finds as a normal show these days.

    • Like 1

    'Catastrophic,’ ‘a shock’: Arizona’s abortion ruling threatens to upend 2024 races

    in Political Arena

    Posted

    17 hours ago, DannyZuco said:

    And I am okay with it being a state issue, I just want it to be a constitutional amendment in the state, not just a law. A constitutional amendment allows direct democracy--meaning the people get to vote on it.....if the majority says "NO Abortion", I would live with the vote. But I am willing to say that the Pro-Birthers would not stop if the vote was for legalized abortion.  

    If that happened, it would take away a key political talking point for both parties.  So they would never let it go that far

    Greedflation Is Real

    in Political Arena

    Posted

    15 hours ago, DAWG91 said:

    It's fair.  The left wants to spend us into oblivion,  and those on the establishment "right" are simply too scared of being called names to oppose it.  Neither side has the courage to say NO.

    Because they don't want to lose CONTROL OVER US.

    Greedflation Is Real

    in Political Arena

    Posted

    27 minutes ago, BarryLaverty said:

    What's confusing for me is that Republicans like to point fingers about inflation at the Biden administration and nowhere else, and I have yet to see a solution proposed that would bring inflation down from Trump and his MAGA minions. Please share with me if I have missed it. 

    What is Biden's solution?  Give away money to people who take out irresponsible loans?  Invest hundreds of Billions into Green Energy?  Send hundreds of billions to Ukraine and Israel to destroy things?

    All of these things, plus pandemic policies that he supported led to this inflation.  

     

    • Like 2
    • Thanks 1

    Greedflation Is Real

    in Political Arena

    Posted

    1 hour ago, BarryLaverty said:

    Corporations, especially in the food industry, have gradually become monopolies and can fix pricing unfettered. I believe that the government should play a part in attacking that, as food inflation is regressive more to those with less income. 

    https://eatamericano.com/blogs/thoughts-from-the-peanut-gallery/the-food-industry-a-game-of-monopoly

    I believe our government does play a part in it... by lining their pockets.

    • Like 1

    Greedflation Is Real

    in Political Arena

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Coach Rab said:

    Companies/Corporations have a standard that they set for themselves where they at minimum do not change the money made in profits each year.  That is a problem with the stock market, you want higher income each year that you are invested in these companies each year so it causes 2 things.

    1) More sales to increase profit or

    2) Increased prices to cover the lack of or stalemate of sales

    There is such thing as "greedflation" but it is enabled by the government.  

    95% of Americans (this is a made up number) would not take a pay cut to increase the value of their company.  Why would you expect the company to take a pay cut to assist Brandon and his inflation?

    The only way to regulate profit margins are through communist, socialist, and imperialist governments and essentially all that you would be doing is taking those profits and giving it to government to piss away again

    • Like 1

    Greedflation Is Real

    in Political Arena

    Posted

    Companies/Corporations have a standard that they set for themselves where they at minimum do not change the money made in profits each year.  That is a problem with the stock market, you want higher income each year that you are invested in these companies each year so it causes 2 things.

    1) More sales to increase profit or

    2) Increased prices to cover the lack of or stalemate of sales

    There is such thing as "greedflation" but it is enabled by the government.  

    95% of Americans (this is a made up number) would not take a pay cut to increase the value of their company.  Why would you expect the company to take a pay cut to assist Brandon and his inflation?

    • Like 1
    • Thanks 1

    Eclipse April 8

    in Political Arena

    Posted

    Quote

    (Turn around)
    Every now and then I get a little bit lonely
    And you're never coming round
    (Turn around)
    Every now and then I get a little bit tired
    Of listening to the sound of my tears
    (Turn around)
    Every now and then I get a little bit nervous
    That the best of all the years have gone by
    (Turn around)
    Every now and then I get a little bit terrified
    And then I see the look in your eyes

    (Turn around, Bright-eyes)
    Every now and then I fall apart
    (Turn around, Bright-eyes)
    Every now and then I fall apart

    (Turn around)
    Every now and then I get a little bit restless
    And I dream of something wild
    (Turn around)
    Every now and then I get a little bit helpless
    And I'm lying like a child in your arms
    (Turn around)
    Every now and then I get a little bit angry
    And I know I've got to get out and cry
    (Turn around)
    Every now and then I get a little bit terrified
    But then I see the look in your eyes

    (Turn around, Bright-eyes)
    Every now and then I fall apart
    (Turn around, Bright-eyes)
    Every now and then I fall apart

    And I need you now tonight
    And I need you more than ever
    And if you only hold me tight
    We'll be holding on forever
    And we'll only be making it right 'cause we'll never be wrong
    Together we can take it to the end of the line
    Your love is like a shadow on me all of the time
    (All of the time)
    I don't know what to do and I'm always in the dark
    We're living in a powder keg and giving off sparks
    I really need you tonight, forever's gonna start tonight
    (Forever's gonna start tonight)

    Once upon a time I was falling in love
    But now I'm only falling apart
    There's nothing I can do
    A total eclipse of the heart

    Once upon a time there was light in my life
    But now there's only love in the dark
    Nothing I can say
    A total eclipse of the heart

    (Turn around, Bright-eyes… Turn around, Bright-eyes… )

    (Turn around)
    Every now and then I know you'll never be the boy
    You always wanted to be
    (Turn around)
    But every now and then I know you'll always be the only boy
    Who wanted me the way that I am
    (Turn around)
    Every now and then I know there's no one in the universe
    As magical and wonderous as you
    (Turn around)
    Every now and then I know there's nothing any better
    There's nothing that I just wouldn't do

    (Turn around, Bright-eyes)
    Every now and then I fall apart
    (Turn around, Bright-eyes)
    Every now and then I fall apart

    And I need you now tonight
    (And I need you)
    And I need you more than ever
    And if you only hold me tight
    (If you'll only)
    We'll be holding on forever
    And we'll only be making it right 'cause we'll never be wrong
    (And we'll never)
    Together we can take it to the end of the line
    Your love is like a shadow on me all of the time
    (All of the time)
    I don't know what to do and I'm always in the dark
    We're living in a powder keg and giving off sparks
    I really need you tonight, forever's gonna start tonight
    (Forever's gonna start tonight)

    Once upon a time I was falling in love
    But now I'm only falling apart
    Nothing I can do
    A total eclipse of the heart

    Once upon a time there was light in my life
    But now there's only love in the dark
    Nothing I can say
    A total eclipse of the heart
    A total eclipse of the heart
    A total eclipse of the heart

    (Turn around, Bright-eyes… Turn around, Bright-eyes… Turn around… )
    (Woo～ )
    (A～ah, a～ah )
    (A～ah, a～ah )
    (Woo～ )

     

    Eclipse April 8

    in Political Arena

    Posted

    Quote

     

    That's great, it starts with an earthquake Birds and snakes, and aeroplanes And Lenny Bruce is not afraid
    … Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn World serves its own needs Don't mis-serve your own needs Speed it up a notch, speed, grunt, no, strength The ladder starts to clatter With a fear of height, down, height Wire in a fire, represent the seven games And a government for hire and a combat site Left her, wasn't coming in a hurry With the Furies breathing down your neck
    … Team by team, reporters baffled, trumped, tethered, cropped Look at that low plane, fine, then Uh oh, overflow, population, common group But it'll do, save yourself, serve yourself World serves its own needs, listen to your heart bleed Tell me with the Rapture and the reverent in the right, right You vitriolic, patriotic, slam fight, bright light Feeling pretty psyched
    … It's the end of the world as we know it It's the end of the world as we know it It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine
    … Six o'clock, T.V. hour, don't get caught in foreign tower Slash and burn, return, listen to yourself churn Lock him in uniform, book burning, bloodletting Every motive escalate, automotive incinerate Light a candle, light a motive, step down, step down Watch your heel crush, crush, uh oh This means no fear, cavalier, renegade and steering clear A tournament, a tournament, a tournament of lies Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives and I decline
    … It's the end of the world as we know it (I had some time alone) It's the end of the world as we know it (I had some time alone) It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine (time I had some time alone) I feel fine (I feel fine)
    … It's the end of the world as we know it (time I had some time alone) It's the end of the world as we know it (time I had some time alone) It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine (time I had some time alone)
    … The other night I drifted nice continental drift divide Mountains sit in a line, Leonard Bernstein Leonid Brezhnev, Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs Birthday party, cheesecake, jellybean, boom You symbiotic, patriotic, slam but neck, right, right
    … It's the end of the world as we know it (time I had some time alone) It's the end of the world as we know it (time I had some time alone) It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine (time I had some time alone)
    … It's the end of the world as we know it It's the end of the world as we know it It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine (time I had some time alone)
    … It's the end of the world as we know it (time I had some time alone) It's the end of the world as we know it (time I had some time alone) It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine (time I had some time alone)
    … It's the end of the world as we know it (time I had some time alone) It's the end of the world as we know it (time I had some time alone) It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine (time I had some time alone)

     

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