International relations thread

[Alistair20000]

Haha - a Democrat member of the House has filed his own amendment to the bill which would designate Marjorie Taylor Greene as 'Putin's Special Envoy to Congress'.

House Dem files bill to make Marjorie Taylor Greene Putin's 'special envoy' to Congress (msn.com)

Will be interesting to see whether her amendments or his get more votes in their favour - as you would imagine near every Democrat will vote for his amendment I suspect it will actually come close to passing.

What a fukcing farce with so many dangerous situations around the world

 

[Phil Sayers]

What a fukcing farce with so many dangerous situations around the world

All a total farce but hopefully resolved as of Saturday - it is fairly likely that none of the proposed amendments will pass while the main draft bill will comfortably pass with Democrat support. What I am not sure of (Spoonz may know?) is whether the Senate then themselves need another round of voting on the House proposals and, if that results in any alterations at all, whether that then sends it back to the House for a further vote on the Senate amendments. If so, that would allow umpteen further obstructionism but it may be that the Senate just approve the House proposal unaltered so as to avoid that scenario.

The real farce is that someone like this can be elected, and then re-elected, to Congress:

Marjorie Taylor Greene - Wikipedia

I appreciate it is a wikipedia article but if it is even half accurate then it is really beyond belief. She probably should really be checked for rabies.

 

[Phil Sayers]

If 'before the summer' is literally taken to mean before 01 June, the first few F-16s should be over Ukraine within six weeks:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1780973643486376424

 

[Spoonz Red E]

All a total farce but hopefully resolved as of Saturday - it is fairly likely that none of the proposed amendments will pass while the main draft bill will comfortably pass with Democrat support. What I am not sure of (Spoonz may know?) is whether the Senate then themselves need another round of voting on the House proposals and, if that results in any alterations at all, whether that then sends it back to the House for a further vote on the Senate amendments. If so, that would allow umpteen further obstructionism but it may be that the Senate just approve the House proposal unaltered so as to avoid that scenario.

The real farce is that someone like this can be elected, and then re-elected, to Congress:

Marjorie Taylor Greene - Wikipedia

I appreciate it is a wikipedia article but if it is even half accurate then it is really beyond belief. She probably should really be checked for rabies.

As the Senate bill that was sent to the House has been split up each component part will have to go back to Senate for a vote.
This should be straightforward at Senate level unless any component is radically different from the original joint package Senate Bill.
They will push each one through and Biden will sign them off.

There could still be some shenanigans regarding the scheduling of each part but it does look like a genuine breakthrough in terms of getting aid to Ukraine.

House leader Johnston has had an interesting few days.
First stop - an unholy audience at Mar-a-Largo with Trump where he delivered a speech about 'Election Integrity'.
Second stop - an on-air admittance that Ukraine definitely should get aid and it is in America's interest to do so.
Third stop - a facedown with the Republican disruptive wing.

Those three steps suggest to me that he is really confident of being rescued by the Democrats when it comes to the votes on the separate bills and, indeed, any vote of confidence against him pushed forward by the Marjorie Taylor Green crew.

So he's provided cover for Trump, distanced himself from Trump, and exchanged nods and winks with the Democrats to put himself in a position to make the crazy crew inneffective.

Whether this is smart leadership or a skin saving exercise remains to be seen ...

 

[Phil Sayers]

Thank you, fantastic post.

 

[Avening Posse]

News breaking in Oz that an Israeli missile has struck Iran, near isfahan, a place where there is an airbase and nuclear facilities. Also reports of "explosions" suggesting possibly more than 1 missile

 

[Mr Jinx]

News breaking in Oz that an Israeli missile has struck Iran, near isfahan, a place where there is an airbase and nuclear facilities. Also reports of "explosions" suggesting possibly more than 1 missile

Seems like a weak response imho.

You either hit them hard, or not bother. And I wouldn't have bothered. For now at least.

I get the feeling it's going to rumble on for ages, à la Ukraine.

 

[Phil Sayers]

Russian TU-22 Backfire supersonic bomber (prominently featuring in Tom Clancy's Red Storm Rising) downed by a Ukrainian SAM 300km inside Russian airspace:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1781216422342910050

This apparently caused an additional bomber to then immediately abort its mission and return to base before it could fire its missile load.

 

[Phil Sayers]

Over three hundred Russian armoured vehicles destroyed while attacking (or abandoned during an attack and later destroyed) a single village over circa six months and they still haven't taken the village:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1781332809061142915

 

[iscalad]

Interesting
Argentine government applied to become global NATO partner (msn.com)