Senate passes Ukraine aid, Israel funding and TikTok crackdown, sending bill to Biden's desk
Source: NBC News
April 23, 2024, 7:00 AM EDT / Updated April 23, 2024, 10:01 PM EDT
WASHINGTON The Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a $95 billion package to provide critical aid to Ukraine and enact a provision that could lead to a nationwide ban on TikTok.
The vote of 79-18 sends the package to the White House. Fifteen Republicans and three Democrats voted against the legislation. The House passed the package on Saturday. Biden said Tuesday night that he will swiftly enact the measure.
"I will sign this bill into law and address the American people as soon as it reaches my desk tomorrow so we can begin sending weapons and equipment to Ukraine this week," he said in a statement. "This critical legislation will make our nation and world more secure as we support our friends who are defending themselves against terrorists like Hamas and tyrants like Putin."
The package includes $60 billion in aid to Ukraine that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said would give his country a chance at victory against Russia. It also includes $26 billion in assistance to Israel and humanitarian relief in Gaza, in addition to $8 billion for security in Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/senate-hold-key-test-vote-ukraine-aid-israel-funding-tiktok-ban-rcna148685
oldsoftie
(12,615 posts)And I hope we see a big increase in the amount of destroyed russian weaponry.
Response to BumRushDaShow (Original post)
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honest.abe
(8,685 posts)hueymahl
(2,510 posts)And there are many less restrictive ways to address the concerns, which is what 1st Amendment law requires. This law should be struck down as unconstitutional, but given the Republican packed court, who knows.
honest.abe
(8,685 posts)So this is probably a non-issue.
oldsoftie
(12,615 posts)The CCP controls TikTok. They force-fed our kids dangerous info. They take all your personal info; not just what you give them but ANYTHING on your phone; passwords, Authentication coeds, etc. They push pro trump/anti-Biden info. They push Pro russia/anti UKR info. And when a large segment of our population admits they get most of their "news" from TIkTok then yeah ITS A BIG PROBLEM
But too many people are buying into these cutesy little ads from good 'ol American citizens claiming they'd be out of business without TikTok
Chinese diplomats are trying to stop the ban. Wonder why Chinese diplomats would be involved? Wonder why CHINESE citizens aren't even allowed to USE it?
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/17/china-lobbying-tiktok-congress-00152819#:~:text=The%20Chinese%20Embassy%20has%20held,of%20the%20Capitol%20Hill%20staffers.
MarineCombatEngineer
(12,449 posts)the democratic ideals I was raised on means that the US comes to the aid of democracies that are attacked by the forces of evil and tyranny, yeah, I know that sounds corny, but there it is.
I know that as a country we haven't always upheld the principles of what this country stands for and that is a shame, but for the most part, we are the country that other democracies look to when the ugly head of evil and tyranny strikes.
Right now in Ukraine, they are fighting for their very existence because an evil man, Putin, decided to illegally invade a sovereign nation and any help we can send them to defeat this evil is the right and moral thing to do.
If Putin isn't stopped now and does over run Ukraine because the world didn't act, then I truly believe that Putin will be embolded to push further into Europe which will definitely start WWIII and then we're into it.
hueymahl
(2,510 posts)But let me make this counter-proposal. Condition the money on Ukraine entering real peace talks. Start with trying to get a cease fire. Then once a peace is achieved, use the money to rebuild Ukraine and fortify its defenses so that Putin can't push further.
This has the least chance of us losing control of the situation and sparking WWIII. Currently we are just pouring fuel on the fire and wasting the lives of hundreds of thousands of young men and women.
MarineCombatEngineer
(12,449 posts)I disagree with conditioning the aid to forcing Ukraine into negotiating with a tyrant like Putin who has shown no interest in negotiations unless it's on his terms, which is abject surrender by Ukraine, but, that said, I do respect your position even as I disagree with it.
hueymahl
(2,510 posts)If an earnest, all out effort at peace fails (which will require Ukraine to make concessions, admittedly), then I would see that position as the only rational one left. Until then, I just think it is too aggressive and risky.
Emrys
(7,266 posts)Zelensky, on top of his other efforts, has been busy drawing together a peace conference to take place in Switzerland:
Switzerland said Wednesday (10 April) it would organise a high-level peace conference for Ukraine in mid-June, but without Russia, which promptly slammed the event as a US-orchestrated plot.
Ukraine and up to 100 countries would attend the conference at the luxury Burgenstock resort near the central city of Luzern on June 15-16, which Swiss President Viola Amherd said she would host.
This is a first step in a process towards a lasting peace, she told reporters in Bern.
Amherd acknowledged that we will not sign a peace plan at this conference but we hope to start the process.
https://www.euractiv.com/section/europe-s-east/news/switzerland-to-host-ukraine-peace-conference-in-june-without-russia/
Now, you may object that this isn't "real" because it excludes Russia. It has long lost any credibility as an actor or negotiator in good faith, so its inclusion at that stage would be pointless and simply hand its representatives another opportunity for disgraceful grandstanding. The conference will explore, in Zelensky's words, a "fair" settlement as a basis for an end to hostilities.
The results of that probably won't please you either. Tough. It will almost certainly exclude handing Russia the chunks of Ukraine it's devastated and pillaged that were granted to Ukraine by international treaty. Putin himself signed over Crimea to Ukraine at the turn of the century, confirming earlier agreements - something he seems to have conveniently forgotten or sought to shamelessly renege on just as he's sought to renege on a host of other treaties, in some cases going back centuries.
I've read your claims to some sort of "high ground" as a lonely pacifist. As a long-time peace campaigner who was very active in the 1980s, your arguments are the sort that give the peace movement a bad name. You repeat Russian propaganda, seemingly without realizing it. You would have Ukraine capitulate to continued savage acts of aggression and complete disregard for international law and human rights. You're dangerously close to adopting the same propagandistic arguments, but you don't seem to realize it no matter how many people try to persuade you. What you keep proposing would inevitably lead to even greater bloodshed and an even more protracted conflict.
You need to find out about how Russia has treated areas and people it has claimed during the conflict since 2014. Aside from the vast number of horrible atrocities, including rape, torture and various other acts of wanton sadism and murder, it's had no concern for human rights or democracy, and has victimized various groups, including a number of religious ones. These are the areas and people you claim would be only too happy to continue under Russian governance. It's nonsense and it's shameful.
What you keep suggesting would not lead to any sort of meaningful peace. That can only come when Russia withdraws behind its internationally agreed borders and ceases its savage attacks on human population centres. But all the signs are that all that would happen would be a tense pause as Russia regroups and prepares for its next adventure. We went through all that when it seized Crimea.
Your arguments reek of the same sort of US isolationism that kept America out of the Second World War until it came under attack on its own soil. It is an attitude that's completely out of step with the rest of NATO (Hungary excluded), whose countries have a very clear idea of what they face with Russia and Putin at its helm. They're not stupid, and they're largely not natural warmongers. But they do have longer memories than you seem to have.
How many times do Russian propagandists have to set out what their kleptocratic scofflaw government plans to do before you finally wake up and believe them? Check out Julia Davis on YouTube or Twitter - she gives daily updates on the insane, bloodcurdling violent sadistic murderous imperialistic fantasies that drive the current Russian regime from the very mouths of its own state-sponsored propagandists.
To focus just on Putin himself, in the period around his interview with Tucker Carlson (which ended up giving even Carlson second thoughts about the asshole), he was asked about the prospects for peace negotiations.
He said that it would be stupid for Russia to even think about negotiations while Ukraine was so horribly short of armamaments as there was so much more Russia could gain by fighting on.
That is who you'd have Zelensky negotiate with from a position of weakness and surrender to.
Quit supporting Putin and his fellow travellers in the name of your illusory "peace". It's an insult to the many innocent dead and maimed Ukrainians and those who will keep suffering if you have your way and the many brave pacifists who've had to confront and adapt their philosophy in the face of real-world events.
oldsoftie
(12,615 posts)...unless they begin with him being able to keep everything he's taken as well as the REST of the 4 Oblasts that "voted" to become part of Russia. He also insists that UKR be "demilitarized".
How can anyone on THIS site not know this?
orangecrush
(19,624 posts)Is "more war and less free speech"?
Really?