TheOldGuy @TheOldGuy@qoto.org

US Senate Republicans forced the issue on Ukraine aid. Now comes the hard part - Washington Post

Last week, Senate Republicans capitulated when the House GOP signaled it wouldn’t take up a bipartisan bill that combined border security with funding for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

Rather than forcing the issue by showing how much Senate GOP support the bill had, even the deal’s supporters voted against proceeding with it.

This week, Senate Republicans went in a very different direction.

Despite House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) signaling that the House wouldn’t vote on the aid bill that stripped out the border security measures, 22 Senate Republicans voted for it.

The bill passed 70-29. The question now becomes just how much pressure the GOP senators have applied, and how committed the party’s foreign policy hawks are to compelling the House to act.

The internal and inter-chamber GOP clash that was forestalled on the border security deal might well be coming on the Ukraine-Israel-Taiwan supplemental.

The Senate vote reinforced something that has been plainly evident: that these pieces of legislation in all likelihood have strong majority support in both chambers. To the extent they’re not going to become law, it’s because House Republicans refuse to allow a vote.

The Senate vote demonstrated that — in spades. Getting 70 votes on something major is rare in this polarized age. It received the votes not just of 71 percent of senators who were voting, but 46 percent of Republican senators. The level of support echoed how the House has voted on Ukraine funding — the bulk of the aid bill — in the past. Every Ukraine funding vote in the House has received at least 73 percent support.

Ukraine funding opponent Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) reportedly acknowledged Tuesday, “If it were to get to the floor, it would pass; let’s just be frank about that.” [ Ukraine aid epitomizes an increasingly broken Congress]

There have been instances in which the House has punted [not taking up for vote] on issues receiving around this level of Senate support, but not many.

The justification for the House not voting on this bill would likely be that it doesn’t have majority support in the House GOP, which is a key threshold that House leadership often uses. Republican support for funding Ukraine has gradually fallen since Russia’s February 2022 invasion, to the point where the last funding vote received 46 percent support in the House GOP — the same figure from Tuesday’s Senate vote.

But that doesn’t mean Republicans who support the aid can’t try, and 22 Senate Republicans have at least gotten the ball rolling. There is already talk among Democrats of a discharge petition, in which a vote can be forced by a majority of the
House — i.e. the vast majority of Democrats and enough House GOP foreign policy hawks.

If a similar percentage of House Democrats supported the bill as Senate Democrats (just three on their side voted no on Tuesday), you’d need fewer than two dozen House Republicans to support a discharge petition. This option is regularly floated but rarely invoked.

Musk mocked Putin's interview with Tucker Carlson

— Mr. Putin, why did you invade Ukraine?
— I am going to explain it to you right now. You see, on May 28, 2016, a gorilla was shot at the Cincinnati Zoo…

🇺🇦@ukraine_report🇺🇦🔱

The Church in Russia could do a lot to prevent a war with Ukraine. But Patriarch Kirill actually blessed this war, calling it a war with the Antichrist.

He promised the participants in the aggression eternal life in case of death.

But in Bulgaria during the Second World War, the Orthodox Church did a lot to save tens of thousands of people.

When the Jews had already begun to be loaded onto the trains, the hierarchs of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church said: “We will lie on the rails if the train starts moving”... And the Jews were saved.

Today, Patriarch Kirill would be pushing cars with people going to a concentration camp.

The Russian Orthodox Church is one of the main propagandists of this shameful and criminal war. To be a parishioner of such a church
- a shame for any normal person. And after the victory over Putin’s Russia, the entire top of this KGB organization will appear in court.
Dmitry Chernyshev

Source Crimea Wind 🌬️

🇺🇦@ukraine_report🇺🇦🔱

@SETIEric well it's not going to happen. He is going on trial in March and again in April.

🔥🔥🔥 The MiG factory is on fire in Moscow

Russian Telegram channels report on the fire at the plant
MiG on Leningradsky Prospekt. According to preliminary data, the fire broke out "in a workshop that is being reconstructed," attached to the existing building of the plant.

In particular, the outbreak occurred on the 2nd and 3rd floors of the building - the cause of the fire is still unknown. The area of the fire is 70 square meters. Evacuation is currently underway. Several fire brigades are on their way to the scene, there is a risk of the fire spreading to other buildings of the plant.

There are currently no photos and videos from the scene.

Link to an article on production of MiG fighters.
An older article, but confirms there is a MiG factory there .

https://www.csmonitor.com/1992/1125/25061.html

🇺🇦@ukraine_report🇺🇦🔱Liz

Trumps ties to Russia resurfacing again for all to see

Trump’s ties to Russia are deep and well documented, including by the Senate Intelligence Committee, which was dominated by Republicans when it concluded that Trump’s 2016 campaign team had worked with Russian operatives. In November 2022, in the New York Times Magazine, Jim Rutenberg pulled together testimony given both to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation and the Senate Intelligence Committee, transcripts from the impeachment hearings, and recent memoirs.

Rutenberg showed that in 2016, Russian operatives had presented to Trump advisor and later campaign manager Paul Manafort a plan “for the creation of an autonomous republic in Ukraine’s east, giving Putin effective control of the country’s industrial heartland, where Kremlin-armed, -funded, and -directed ‘separatists’ were waging a two-year-old shadow war that had left nearly 10,000 dead.”

But they feared that NATO stood in the way and it was Trump's task to weaken it. And he is doing it the best he can. Trump’s 2024 campaign website calls for “fundamentally reevaluating NATO’s purpose and NATO’s mission,” and in a campaign speech he left clear what that means. He would side with Russia and encourages publicly his partner in crime to attack NATO members.

Not so long ago, many Americans—and especially most Republicans—would have considered anyone supporting such a view to be little more than a deranged and hateful anti-American fanatic.

Unfortunately it comes from a man who once held the keys to the U.S. nuclear arsenal and could once again become the commander in chief of the American military. No toddler with a tantrum, but the leader of one of America’s two major political parties has just signaled to the Kremlin that if elected, he would not only refuse to defend Europe, but he would gladly support Putin during World War III and even encourage him to do as he pleases to America’s allies.

Donald Trump would make the United States a friend to the Kremlin and an enemy to NATO. Putin knows it, and after today, so should every American.

Americans outside of Trump’s deranged personality cult should be stunned at his kind of betrayal of American principles and America’s allies.

Read more in the Letters from an American.

Source 2

@freerussia_report

🔱 Operational information as of 18.00 on 13.02.2024 regarding the Russian invasion

❗️ The main summary:

➡️ During the day, 52 combat clashes took place. In total, the enemy launched 1 missile strike, 94 air strikes, and carried out 89 attacks from rocket salvo systems on the positions of our troops and populated areas.

➡️ The enemy did not conduct offensive operations in the Kupyansk direction.

➡️ In the Lyman direction, Ukrainian soldiers repelled 2 enemy attacks in the area of Yampolivka, Donetsk region, and Belogorivka, Luhansk region.

➡️ In the Bakhmut region, units of the Defense Forces of Ukraine repelled 8 enemy attacks in the Bohdanivka, Ivanovsky and Klishchiivka districts of the Donetsk region.

➡️ In the Avdiivka direction, Ukrainian soldiers repelled 10 enemy attacks in the Avdiivka region and another 2 attacks in the Nevelsky region of the Donetsk region.

➡️ In the Mariinsky direction, the Defense Forces continue to restrain the enemy in the areas of Georgiyivka, Pobyeda and Novomykhailivka of the Donetsk region, where the enemy, with the support of aviation, tried 11 times to improve their tactical position.

➡️ The Russian occupiers did not carry out offensive actions in the Novopavlovsk direction.

➡️ In the Zaporizhia direction, units of the Defense Forces of Ukraine repelled an enemy attack in the area east of Malaya Tokmachka, Zaporizhia region.

➡️ In the area of responsibility of the "Odesa" anti-aircraft missile defense system in the Kherson direction, the enemy does not give up its intention to knock out Ukrainian units from the bridgeheads on the left bank of the Dnieper. During the day, the Russian occupiers made an unsuccessful attempt to storm the positions of our troops here.

🔥 During the day, the aviation of the Defense Forces struck 11 areas of personnel concentration, control points, and 3 areas where anti-aircraft missile complexes are located. The forces and means of air defense of Ukraine destroyed 16 attack UAVs of the "Shahed-136/131" type.

🔥 The units of the missile forces struck the personnel concentration area, 4 enemy artillery units, 1 control post, 2 ammunition warehouses, and the Russian occupiers' means of radio-electronic warfare.

Support the Armed Forces! Let's win together!✊
Glory to Ukraine!🇺🇦
AFU

🇺🇦@ukraine_report🇺🇦🔱

A fiery glow is observed in the area of ​​the Moscow Oil Refinery in Kapotnya, writes Shot.

Residents of the Kapotnya, Maryino and Brateevo districts said that at about 02:30 a.m. they saw a fiery glow in the sky.

Some eyewitnesses claim that an ambulance and two fire engines rushed to the scene, but the Moscow Department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations stated that “there are no active fires in Moscow”

Since last year, camera-equipped drones have been scouting the area around Moscow's largest oil refinery.

The last time a quadcopter was spotted near the Gazprom Neft refinery in Kapotny was in August 2023. Then the police found a video camera on the drone.

Also at the beginning of March last year, police detained a 37-year-old man who was
taking photographs in the area of ​​the oil refinery on Kapotnya Street. It turned out that he was a native of Ukraine and came to Russia shortly before the start of the war.

The Gazpromefti refinery in Kapotny
provides 40% of Moscow's gasoline needs and 50% of diesel fuel, and is also the main supplier of fuel for the capital's airports. In fact, every third car in Moscow is fueled by this refinery.

Two trains collided due to a drunken driver.
Russia of course

https://t.me/WarriorsUkrainian/21161

From "The Analyst":

CHASIV YAR IS NEXT

While Russia gets closer each day to its goal of taking Avdivka before March’s Russian fake president election, its other top of the list goal is Chasiv Yar on top of the hills in front of Bakhmut.
Intelligence sources have clearly identified it as a Russian target for mid March and the Russians have been transferring forces to the area to strengthen their efforts to take it.
This is why the recent Ukrainian counter attack in the area east of the hills took them by surprise and rather upset their own attack on the area at the base of the hills further south.
Ukraine had withdrawn under heavy pressure from a small forested area, and the Russians followed up with heavy armour - something they only do when they think they’re seeing a breakthrough moment these days.
The Ukrainians spoted the delay in the Russians taking advantage of their withdrawal and moved partially back in - they have the advantage of being on higher ground. This resulted in the destruction of half a column of Russian T-90’s and the rest bolted.
Russian activity in the Chasiv Yar area looks set to increase dramatically.
Not only are Ukrainian forces on the high ground but they have a series of prepared defence lines - structures they have learnt from the Russians that can be highly effective in holding back attacks and extracting maximum pain from any enemy troops.
While Russians are unbothered by who dies to achieve a goal, they do seem bothered by the statistics of how many - simply because of the problem of replacing the men that die, not because they care. Any offensive here looks set to be extremely bloody.
There is much discussion as to what to do about Avdivka. Supply lines are in essence cut, and time has to be given to get out of the easternmost areas when it finally happens - it seems inevitable barring some miracle, that something will give in the next week to ten days. But it’s not over yet and Russia must pay for every meter it takes.

Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦!

Mitt Romney

https://t.me/WarriorsUkrainian/21187

He filed his Supreme Court appeal

https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/donald-trumps-very-weak-supreme-court-appeal-just-landed-in-the-dumpster/54489/

The mainstream news is doing their " he is getting away with it all" song and dance.

https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/heres-how-you-know-trump-is-about-to-get-squeezed/54492/

Good afternoon. It's still quite chilly. But the snow has melted off the driveway, except in one very shady area.

Daily Losses
https://t.me/liveukraine_media/18149

In Dusseldorf, Germany, 17-year-old Ukrainian basketball player Volodymyr Yermakov was killed after he and his friend Artem Kozachenko were attacked with knives in the street. The latter is in intensive care. Both played for the ART Giants (U-19) youth team. The attack took place on the eve of the match. Local police are investigating the case, and there were witnesses at the scene.

"They were attacked with knives in the street simply because they are Ukrainians!" the Kyiv Basketball Federation wrote.

❗️UPD: Eyewitnesses reported that the boy was killed by a group of migrants from the Middle East who were shouting anti-Ukrainian slogans.

@liveukraine_media

Jeff Tiedrich

https://open.substack.com/pub/jefftiedrich/p/republicans-are-a-bunch-of-gutless?r=70k1h&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Who is Putin's best friend? Donnie.
https://open.substack.com/pub/robertreich/p/whos-vladimir-putins-best-friend-055?r=70k1h&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Joyce Vance https://open.substack.com/pub/joycevance/p/the-week-ahead-fff?r=70k1h&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email