Lawmakers Step Up Ukraine Aid Urgency

Plus: McCarthy condemns Marjorie Taylor Greene’s weekend speech but leaves questions about further actions.

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Good morning. President Joe Biden will deliver the State of the Union address tonight. (Early bedtime advocates are disheartened it will once again start at 9 p.m. ET, but they pledge to continue the fight for next year’s address to begin at a reasonable hour.)

Ukraine Top of Mind

Lawmakers from both chambers received a classified briefing on Monday night from top administration officials about the state of Russia’s unprovoked and brutal war of aggression in Ukraine.

As they left the briefings, members emphasized that Congress needs to quickly approve billions of dollars in new assistance for Ukraine.

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Comments (23)
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  1. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    Yes! 9pm is too late. America should go to bed! We’re a sleep-deprived nation.

    MTG and McCarthy showed their true colors.

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    Frank Lee

    McCarthy is a fool for playing into this woke BS. For every loner extreme nasty on the right, the left has tens of thousands to match. The difference is that the right cranks are bearded bunker dwellers without any friends. The left cranks are teaching in education, running mainstream media mouthpieces and living in the White House... and they are well-funded, well organized and much more dangerous to the country and democracy than are the 14 Hitler loving hermits that live in the US.

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    1. B Phillips

      Not sure what to say to this one. A bit over the top.

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      1. Avatar photo
        Logical

        How about "you got fries with that?"

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    Nick H

    I think Senator Kelly's answer about the ISS deorbiting is extremely unsatisfactory. The threat is not where the remains of the station would hit (although that is a threat) but that they would allow the station to deorbit in the first place. Russia has made no secret of the fact that they'd be just fine with retiring the ISS and moving forward on their own, so I'm sure they wouldn't really mind any excuse to let it deorbit. But it's in our best interests to keep the ISS in orbit. It has its flaws, but it's there. Replacing it with a new one (preferably in a higher, less inclined orbit) would take years. We need to rapidly ensure that we have multiple options for boosting the ISS when needed - options that don't depend on the Russians.

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    Mike B

    McCarthy is such a cuck. (Am I using that word right?)

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      Matt J

      With him, there's really no wrong way.

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  5. Avatar photo
    Paul Britton

    Putin’s rants about how Ukraine “belongs” to Russia — and how he “wants it back” — has been reminding me of the angry song by Bare Naked Ladies, “The Old Apartment”:

    Broke into the old apartment
    This is where we used to live
    Broken glass, broke and hungry
    Broken hearts and broken bones
    This is where we used to live


    Why did you keep the mousetrap?
    Why did you keep the dish rack?
    These things used to be mine
    I guess they still are, I want them back

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  6. Avatar photo
    Earl King

    Idiotic....we are directly funding Putins war by buying his oil....I want to pull my hair out this is so stupid. Yea it may make Biden’s poll numbers tank even more...So what he is 1 term President anyway. He is going to lose the House. So any agenda he wanted is dead. He only has one path moving forward. Bi-Partisanship. Otherwise he simply will be the lame duck he currently already is.

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    1. Avatar photo
      Logical

      "I’m not a praying man, but if I were, I would be on my hands and knees thanking the Almighty that during the worst crisis in Europe since 1945, the United States is led by Joe Biden, not Donald Trump."

      Max Boot, WaPo, Today.

      I shudder to think about the fate of the world if Trump won again.

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    2. Avatar photo
      rlritt

      Reason being is that the majority of Americans cannot reason from A to B to C. Great to refuse to buy Russian oil. I'm in as much agreement with that as you are. But we won't whine and moan when gas prices at the pump go up, because we understand causal relationships. Most Americans do not and the Ted Cruz and Marjorie Green and the other knuckleheads will flame the fires that economy (which is really doing well) is in tatters due to soaring prices. And many Americans will cry and act like the world is ending because gas prices are higher.

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      1. Avatar photo
        Earl King

        They’ll whine that we have oil and nat gas in the ground we are not going after. Apparently the idea of a “transition” to clean energy is lost. Some boob told Biden we could have Electric vehicle is a couple of years rather than several decades. 275 million registered cars and trucks. Avg age of the vehicle on the road is 11 to 12 years. Vast swaths of America will never by an E vehicle. I won’t because I don’t have the patience to wait 30 min for an 80% charge....It will take several decades to get anywhere near 50% let alone 100%. Sigh...the ignorance just grinds as me....

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          DougCLE

          Also, can we talk about the embedded carbon in unnecessarily replacing 275M existing vehicles with brand new ones? Or where all that lithium is going to come from for 275M battery packs? (Hint: The biggest reserves seem to be under the country we just pulled out of. The one that sits right at China’s back door.)

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          1. B Phillips

            details, details!

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            Earl King

            Indeed, Indeed

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        2. B Phillips

          I have a Tesla, wife just bought one too. You charge them overnight, I haven't had to use a supercharger in months. They are awesome I have to say!

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            rlritt

            Definitely the way to go, and in 100 years, they'll laugh at how foolish we were to hesitate. That is if we're still around.

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          Matt J

          Electric vehicle tech has progressed rapidly. In five years, if it only takes 10 minutes to get to 100%, will that change the equation?

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            Earl King

            Sure but Fuel Cells are the better way to go. You can’t put E batteries in land fills. They take an awful lot of rare earth metals to make. Recycling is a nightmare. How much rare earth will have to stripped? I don’t think the avg. middle class family can afford a Tesla charger in their garage. I don’t care if there is a $12,000 rebate for a $60,000 vehicle...Americans won’t buy it. At one point a few years ago...We sold 19 million new cars and trucks...but we sold 30 million used vehicles. So like I said it is not happening in my lifetime....We could use the same infrastructure as we have now for refueling....However the GND supporters and the Biden Administration want to all new charging stations...There are about 150,000 gas stations in America....How long do you think it will take to duplicate that number given your current fantasy of a 5 min charge? This is a long term pipe dream and like I said. Fuel Cell technology and we can use the current infrastructure....It is like most environmental nut jobs...They have no understanding of science. Ethanol is a horrible environmental disaster....but we keep doing it as it now has a constituency. Millionaire corn farmers. Doesn’t matter if the phosphates to grow corn go in to the Gulf of Mexico and create a 1200 mile dead zone in the mouth of Mississippi..Doesn’t matter the Ethanol turn to water and rusts engines....if it sits. People don’t think. Nuclear is a clean carbon free energy. Dangerous? Can be...but not much. Industrial accidents happen. Nah, fuel cells is the right science....but it won’t happen. One party has decided they know everything.

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    3. Avatar photo
      2sequoia

      Earl, the situation is much more nuanced than you seem to understand.

      Your partisanship blinds you how well Biden has handled this. There is plenty to criticize Biden over, but not about how he’s handled this. Thank god he’s our President right now.

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      1. Avatar photo
        rlritt

        He really has stepped up
        I'm impressed. It must gall the pro Trump crowd, which may be why they are so pro Putin.

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      2. Avatar photo
        Earl King

        I gave him credit for bringing everyone together but he did make mistakes. Two I can think of. Not arming Ukraine when in the spring Biden threatened Ukraine with a massive build up is one. Second is not implementing sanctions prior to the war. We heard him say that the threat of sanctions were to warn him off war. Then we heard Biden say “we never thought sanctions would stop him from invading”. Then the most fantastic thing was him saying lots give it a month....I think I spit my coffee out on that. Yes he has brought Europe around to finally push for big sanctions. However, that said without massive pro Ukrainian demonstrations by a European population would they have moved this far? IDK. All I know is that not sanctioning Russian Oil and Gas Europe and the US are feeding Putins war machine....It is unconscionable.

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