April 19, 2024
Mike Johnson has been stalling Ukrainian aid for months, each time giving a different excuse. But yesterday, he came with a very clear message, condemning russia and expressing his support of Ukraine. What made him change his mind?
I think I might have an explanation. Last week, I wrote that one of the reasons the US is more willing to help Israel than Ukraine is that Israel has a very strong and systematic lobby in the US. For example, there are strong religious ties, especially with the Protestant community.
Ukraine needs to build the same strong lobby, working systematically with congressmen, organizations, churches, and communities. Several days ago, a large group of Ukrainian representatives came to Washington, DC with that very mission.
One of such meetings took place between Mike Johnson with Serhii Gaidarzhi, whose wife and 4-month-old son were killed by russians during the attack on Odesa on March 2. Importantly, the Gaidarzhi family were Evangelical Christians, same as Mike Johnson.
Personal meetings like these can have a profound impact on a person, and I believe that it made an impact on Mike Johnson.
……
Another post from prof. Sheremeta:
Today, russian terrorist state attacked Dnipro, hit a railway station, killed people, killed children. Ukraine needs air defense systems now!
……….
And one more :
The US Congress just passed (404-14) a measure to condemn Iran’s attack on Israel. Why would anyone vote against this resolution? Here are the names of the 14 NO votes.
Democrats:
Ilhan Omar
Jamaal Bowman
Cori Bush
Greg Casar
Rashida Tlaib
Jonathan Jackson
Pramila Jayapal
Hank Johnson
Barbara Lee
Summer Lee
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Ayanna Pressley
Delia Ramirez
Republicans:
Thomas Massie
“What made Speaker Mike Johnson change his mind about Ukraine?”
That’s a good question. Will we ever find out?
But, wait, let’s see what happens first before we praise Johnson. I simply don’t trust him anymore.
Yeah, we’re no mind readers, we can only come up with possible explanations. But first, we have to know how this ends. Should the bill still fail for some weird reason, Johnson may have fooled us once again. 🤔
Although I don’t want to think about it, he or another dork might come up with yet another lame excuse to delay the vote. Tomorrow, we’ll all be smarter.
The answer is, he didn’t. Those with political agendas were spouting propaganda and trying to think for him. Now that the legislation is finally released, people can see they were wrong. Funny how Johnson and Trump were condemned for meeting and now that there’s legislation helping Ukraine, they claim they changed their positions, lol. We will see what happens tomorrow but my hunch is there will be A LOT of people that should apologize if they want to maintain a shred of credibility.
I will never apologize, Red, because after 6 grueling months of Ukraine running low on ammo, they both have hands dripping with Ukrainian blood. And, we’ll wait for the fat lady to sing on this.
That’s your right and I support you on that. I don’t know how you can justify 6 months of waiting versus all the Ukrainian deaths in 2014 and 2022 but that’s your business.
Whataboutism won’t revive the thousands of Ukrainians who died because of Trump’s and Johnson’s shenanigans, RSM. Fuhgedaboutit. 👿
Funny how Johnson and Trump’s meeting turned out to be some nice legislation for Ukraine. Put that in your pipe and smoke on it for a while. There isn’t your hard left whataboutism, its called comparative analysis in the real world. You should try it.
We weren’t discussing the other failures of US policies for that past 10 years. We were discussing the failures of Johnson and other pro-ruskies in Congress.
At any rate, you know all too well about my attitude regarding us not honoring the Budapest Memorandum … the failures of Obama, Trump, and Biden. I also denounce Clinton for forcing Ukraine’s surrender of its nukes. Not to mention the other Western leaders. And so on, and so forth.
“Ukraine’s surrender of its nukes”
Isn’t it the case that Ukraine had Soviet weapons stationed on its territory, but never had control over these weapons? So while there were thousands of former Soviet nuclear warheads, as well as hundreds of intercontinental ballistic missiles and bombers, left on Ukraine’s territory, Ukraine couldn’t actually have used them.
Agreed, but there is hardly any moral comparison between the dithering in congress compared to allowing two…two!…invasions of Ukraine.
As Mr. Ofp rightly wrote, tovarich RSM, “6 grueling months”! That’s inexcusable, no matter how hard you try. This deliberate blockade of support did cost thousands of lifes! Trump and Johnson have reservations in hell, they can’t avoid that fate.
🔥👿🔥
“now that there’s legislation helping Ukraine, they claim they changed their positions, lol.”
Mike Johnson voted against two different appropriations bills that aimed to provide aid to Ukraine, one in 2022 (“Additional Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act”) and another in 2023.
2022 – https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2022145
2023 – https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2023503?Page=2&Date=09%2F28%2F2023
“Why would anyone vote against this resolution?”
Possibly because it was provoked by Israel’s illegal assasination strike against Iranian officers in Syria. Under international law, actually an act of war, so the retalliatory strike by Iran was fair game. If I was a US Congressman, I wouldn’t have voted for the condemnation, neither. I probably would have abstained or have had an ice cream outside instead, though. 😕
It’s actually three posts from the prof.
They were separated by dividing lines, but sorry for any confusion.
The first was about Spewker Johnson, the second about Dnipro and the third about Israel.
In the first post he provides his theory for Johnson’s about turn; the meeting with the surviving husband of the Christian family murdered by putler. He may well be right.
Yeah, I noticed, Scradge. Ok with me to present a summqry of Sheremetas recent pists in this way. My comment above was about the part about the Iran resolution of US Congress, of course. As a “law and order” minded guy, I’m for following international law, whenever feasible. And I can only see Netanyahu’s deliberate escalation with Iran as an obvious plot to stay in power, by neverending war. That guy is a gangster, not much better than Putin or Khameini, imho. 😕
Maybe being called “our Johnson” by the gloating nazis in the Kremlin didn’t sit well with him.
A lot of people were wrong about him, funny how that happens when someone is quiet…
To stay quiet when witnessing horrible, murderous injustice ain’t a virtue, RSM.
🤨
Exactly, and both sides are guilty of that.
Ok, RSM, but not to the same degree. Trump either odered to block deliveries to Ukraine, or in your view, he simply let it happen, despite having the political leverage to stop MTG & Co. Who else showed that high level of ignorance about Ukrainian lifes being under extreme threat? 😕
“What made Speaker Mike Johnson change his mind about Ukraine?”
Possibly it was hearing about what Russia was doing to his fellow Baptists in Ukraine…
Russia’s War Against Evangelicals
“After they beat Azat Azatyan so bad blood came out of his ears; after they sent electric shocks up his genitals; after they wacked him with pipes and truncheons, the Russians began to interrogate him about his faith. “When did you become a Baptist? When did you become an American spy?” Azat tried to explain that in Ukraine there was freedom of religion, you could just choose your faith. But his torturers saw the world the same way as their predecessors at the KGB did: an American church is just a front for the American state.”
(The article continues…)
https://time.com/6969273/russias-war-against-evangelicals/