An interesting set of details amid a few reports on Ukraine, with one very interesting White House announcement under section 621 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (FAA).
First, as previously discussed within the year-end National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) there was a supplemental addition of $300 million more for Ukraine.
(VIA CBS) – The Biden administration Wednesday announced a $250 million military assistance package for Ukraine.
The aid package — the final of 2023 — will include arms and equipment, including air defense munitions, anti-armor munitions, ammunition for high mobility artillery rocket systems, and more than 15 million rounds of small arms ammunition, a State Department spokesperson said to CBS News.
“Our assistance has been critical to supporting our Ukrainian partners as they defend their country and their freedom against Russia’s aggression,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement, urging Congress to “swiftly” approve further aid to Ukraine. (read more)
Then, there’s something rather interesting….
Remember how we’ve talked about Ukraine being somewhat of a money laundering operation; and the entire series of events being akin to “world war Reddit” without any visible ‘boots on the ground’ war correspondent reporting; and the highly visible structure of the CIA running the operation from Foggy Bottom with the Dept of State controlling the outcomes… Remember all that?
Now, check out this little slush fund:
WHITE HOUSE – “By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 621 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (FAA), I hereby delegate to the Secretary of State the authority under section 614(a)(1) of the FAA to determine whether it is important to the security interests of the United States to furnish up to $20 million in assistance to Ukraine without regard to any provision of law within the purview of section 614(a)(1) of the FAA.” (link)
Who/what is that $20 million for?
Curiousor and curiousor….
POLITICO – “With U.S. and European aid to Ukraine now in serious jeopardy, the Biden administration and European officials are quietly shifting their focus from supporting Ukraine’s goal of total victory over Russia to improving its position in an eventual negotiation to end the war, according to a Biden administration official and a European diplomat based in Washington. Such a negotiation would likely mean giving up parts of Ukraine to Russia.
The White House and Pentagon publicly insist there is no official change in administration policy — that they still support Ukraine’s aim of forcing Russia’s military completely out of the country. But along with the Ukrainians themselves, U.S. and European officials are now discussing the redeployment of Kyiv’s forces away from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s mostly failed counteroffensive into a stronger defensive position against Russian forces in the east, according to the administration official and the European diplomat, and confirmed by a senior administration official.
This effort has also involved bolstering air defense systems and building fortifications, razor wire obstructions and anti-tank obstacles and ditches along Ukraine’s northern border with Belarus, these officials say. (MORE)
So, the official narrative has shifted from ‘winning‘ to ‘stalemate‘ to the more recent, ‘lose less’ and prepare for “giving up parts of Ukraine to Russia.”
Hmmm… 🤔What’s the DoS/CIA extra $20 million for, again?
Comrade Suspicious Cat remains, well, suspicious….
20 million to change the road signs that say “Russian Border” to a font that can be read from Kiev
When you have to go back to an appropriation from 1961 then you know they are really getting desperate to get every scrap they can before they are thrown out.
That’s not an appropriation, it’s a policy law on how money gets to other countries.
…and “Republicans” just let it happen…
What is THEIR cut of all this pork?
Exactly
“All revenue bills must arise in the House of Representatives” … HE DOESN’T HAVE THE G-D AUTHORITY TO GIVE MONEY FROM THE PUBLIC WITHOUT CONGRESS. When are reps from Congress gonna put their foot down??. . ANYBODY? Anytime??
So long as CONgress gets THEIR “10%” the answer is NEVER.
I thought that 10% went to the Big Guy. Boy AOC is gonna be pissed, to say nothing of Nancy. The latter may have to give up her $20 a pint gourmet ice cream.
On another note, my dad always said when he heard the word “gourmet” he was reminded of Hans C. Andersons’ story of The Emperor and His New Clothes. LOL!!!
If what you quoted, says “must arise” and not SHALL ARISE, he may legally have the authority? Personally, I hope what you quoted says, SHALL ARISE
“revenue bill” is a tax bill. Courts have never ruled on appropriation bills. House rules control the process via so-called “blue slip” (a motion passed to refuse consideration of a bill passed by the Senate and sent to the House).
“No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law” (Article I, Sec 9)
And in case your comeback to that is the Foreign Assistance Act just delegates that appropriation authority to the Executive, Article I, Sec. 1, the very first words in the main body of the Constitution make things explicitly clear: “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States.”
All means ALL. It is not delegable. If Biden wants money to go to Ukraine or to student loan bailouts or to welcome-packages to illegal aliens or whatever, he needs to get it passed through both houses of Congress. The Courts are not empowered to supersede what the Constitution has already enumerated.
but does he REALLY???…..he does this all the time, and gets away with it all the time……and the money goes where he sends it……it’s possible congress could stop it, but they don’t……so….no, he doesn’t need to go through congress to send money to his special friends……just like with soros das who won’t prosecute crimes, if nobody stops you, you can do whatever you want, forever…we put up with this shit, but i do not know why……..probbly because there’s nothing we can do about it….our “representatives” are all in on it……
Perfect 1-2 punch.
Problem is the dimo’rats can’t do math OR read. (And the RINOs just don’t care.)
Their $$ would go away, too!
Read Sec 614 (codified at 22 U.S.C. 2364) gives the President authority to reprogram appropriated funds, provided Congress is notified.
Don’t understand why that wasn’t challenged by the courts at the time the ’61 bill was put through…or anytime later.
The Space Race was just a few years old in 1961, so no one was going to question any laws or amendments that facilitated our positioning against the USSR. Another crisis not wasted, and another outsourcing of responsibilities by Congress to the Big Guys.
We know it today as “kickbacks” and that isn’t unique to politicians
1961 was the Warren Court. The Constitution was put on holiday and it has never really gotten back since.
Someone has to bring a Constitutional case forward through the federal court system in order to challenge it. The courts, on their own volition, cannot “challenge” what the other two branches do. Someone has to complain to the courts that the Constitution was violated. The federal courts, including the Supreme Court, are the weakest branch of the federal government. They have no power of the purse and no power of the sword.
Reprogramming is common practice. That does not mean it was ever Constitutional. It’s not. And if this $250M is being reprogrammed from some other appropriation, which one? It is never mentioned. But if that other appropriation was so unessential why was it ever made? Why are they funding hundreds of millions of unneeded dollars? Why is the only response to discovering an unnecessary expenditure not the return of those funds back into the Treasury? Two trillion dollars of what gets spent is in excess of USGovt revenues and must be borrowed. The Congress and the President have no business borrowing money in our name to fund items we do not need and are not Constitutional.
Okay when money is actually appropriated. By Congress, per the Constitution.
What country are you living in? The republic hasn’t existed in a long time bud.
And on it goes, the grift, and the graft. Where’s my check is zelensky’s mantra.
Zelensky has a waterfront mansion in Florida. Trump has one too but he earned and built it himself.
To follow up what I posted on the last page.
People are now apparently “fully eligible” for service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine in “Disability Group III,” comprising people who:
1. Are missing or blind in one eye
2. Are partially deaf
3. Have a tracheotomy
4. Have jaw defects that prevent normal chewing
5. Suffer from dwarfism (<130cm for men)
6. Have a missing or nonfunctional arm
7. Have an amputated leg up to the thigh
8. Are missing fingers
9. Are missing both feet
10. Have a pacemaker implanted
11. Have only one working kidney
12. Have only one working lung
13. Have suffered from "traumatic castration"
14. Have a brain abscess (!)
15. Have a substantial skull defect
16. Have Parkinson's (!)
17. Have extreme scoliosis
18. Have severe chest deformities
19. Have "severe adrenal insufficiency"
20. Have no bladder.
To be fair, a case of mild dwarfism might be useful for guys operating Soviet vintage tanks. Those things are pretty small and cramped.
The RF with 5-6x population advantage and a favourable casualty ratio, is of course not panic-recruiting cripples. Yet we'll be told Ukraine is winning right to the bitter end.
But if you check all 20, you can apply for a service animal.
They should all get emotional support animals anyway, for having to fight in intel’s phony war.
They have already sent all of the young people they could find to die in a useless neocon project.
Consider Ukraine under Zelenskky a test case for global depopulation; so revered by the Davos crowd.
“Mild dwarfism ” Zelensky would qualify.
He needs to have somebody wash his dirty little clothes and clean him up a little bit
These people are being sent to die. They are not given basic training, let alone advanced weapon system training. There are units deployed in quiet areas in the western regions where the children of elites and parliament members are deployed. The goal for our ruling elites is to stabilize the situation until the November 2024 election. They will always get their portion of laundered aid funds.
19. Have “severe adrenal insufficiency.”
So…The ones who manage to survive the Ukrainian adrenochrome farms end up here?
Great bunch, those Azovs.
The goal of the globalists is to kill the maximum number of White People.
How else can they get rid of western civilization?
And especially Christianity, which is responsible for western civilization!!!
Nope. The maximum number of Christian people. Witness Africa.
Depopulate disabled people via suicide by war.
We have plenty of healthy military-age illegal immigrants we could be sending them to fill up their ranks.
Gee…you think we could have some of that money to enforce our border too? Pretty please?
Dreamer
Teachers unions will never allow any Democrat to close the border.
Illegals and their high birth rates are cash cows for the teacher unions. Nothing else fills their failing K-12 classrooms and keeps teacher union dues flowing into Democrat causes.
Lotsa schemers and grift-groups have their fingers in the ever-growing pie of open-borders monopoly money.
Invade the world
Invite the world
In Hoc with the world
Too bad union officials aren’t the ones having to deal with it.
Crap Weasels
Co*kthistles.
Well said Lisa.
Kickbacks, kickbacks, kickbacks.
10% of $20 million means $2 million for Ol’Joe.
Hunter’s legal fees.
$20 million will buy Zelensky a nice chalet in Switzerland, with a guest house for Hunter.
Biden acts like Zelenskyy and Hunter are brothers anyway. Wonder if they both give him 10%?
Send a convoy of buses of illegals to Wash. Dee Cee! Rub their noses in it! FUkraine! MAKE IT BAD ENOUGH!
This is part of the pay increase to the federal employees
Poll: Do tax payers get a good ROI, on their mandatory investments in the US deep state?
Only if we develop a taste for Soylent Green when the DS meets #Retribution2024.
Considering where we are right now, what we need is a paddle.
The “Biden administration” are all incompetent, thieving scum
No, they are VERY competent, thieving scum.
Give the devil his due.
Make that the JoBama administration.
To be going through all this effort for a lousy $20 mil when they’ve pissed away $100+ bil shows clearly how desperate these demon possessed cretins have become. Wonder what Zelenskyy is threatening Dementia Joe with at this point?
They have to keep the bloodshed going until all possible Ukrainian witnesses to Biden’s bribery scam are dead.
If Biden gets 10%, what about the Kenyan, the puppy painter and the blue stain dress? They all must be in on it. What’s their cut?
Easy, each tax dollar buys US defense industry union member votes (D). That is job one.
These money laundering operations are only made possible because the CONgressional responsibilities of oversight and accountability are laughable at best.
Walk your precinct in 2024 – get a list from your county elections office and make sure there are not slackers in 2024.
Retirement packages, not for Ukraine but for the bureaucrat RATS. Half of it will go up Hunter’s nose.
(((Cold))) anger does not even describe what people are feeling.
Did Penny Pritzger figure in any of this? She was sent to Ukraine by Biden just BEFORE the Hamas attack on Israel. remember?, to assist Ukraine’s economic development. That’s a good one.
Great question...approved by Curious Cat!
OCT 2023 – KIEV – Penny Pritzker meets Zelensky –
DEC 08 2023 – Penny Pritzker, US Special Representative for Ukraine’s Economic Recovery
( 8 min 42 )
Washington Post – DEC 28 2023 – Ukraine gets modest U.S. weapons package, until Congress can agree to more
[…]While Ukraine waits for the passage of additional aid by Congress,
this latest package will be welcome news to soldiers at the front line, who have complained that already scarce ammunition supplies have declined in recent months.
[…]they have described as a dire funding situation to push Congress to approve Biden’s request for an additional $60 billion related to the war in Ukraine.
[…]With future funds uncertain, Ukrainian officials have placed more emphasis on domestic arms production.
Zelensky has vowed that Ukraine will produce 1 million drones next year
+ 431 comments on the page
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/28/ukraine-us-funding-reaction/
What I wish for these people, cannot be said out loud!
I’m no mind reader but I’ll bet I could come close.
There is nothing sovereign abut “Ukraine”. It is a badly drawn post-Soviet Union location on the map.
Distinct territories were cobbled together in the post-soviet haste, that never should have been incorporated into a single alleged nation. There is no glue to hole “Ukraine” together as it is currently constituted. Do the surgery. Cut off its healthy parts and let each part get on with their own national destiny.
The Z man knows where the Biden/Obama bodies are buried and he is pulling out all the stops. He is making sure he is on the money train and he knows his time is limited!
Even before the war started, I thought the smart move for Ukraine would be the Machiavellian approach. Russia is going to take the provinces it wants, so rather than fight a war Ukraine was certain to lose simply offer to SELL the provinces. This is what Napolean did with Louisiana. When the United States offered to buy the port of New Orleans the cagey French emperor offered to sell not only the city but ALL of France’s North American territory. He did this because he knew there was no possibility of holding it against Great Britain, so he took an L and turned it into cash. Simultaneously avoiding a humiliating defeat and augmenting his treasury.
If only Ukraine had been that clever.
If only USA Deep Stank grifters hadn’t been so greedy/blood thirsty.
Same with the Tsar selling us Alaska.
Could be anything. Vague suspicion the $20 million is for some kind of defense item or service prohibited under the Arms Export Control Act.
Logical assumption.
This president, vice president and the whole administration should be thrown in the trash with the turkey carcass and slam the lid shut.
Secession friends. It’s time.
Ukraine has already lost the war.
Many Ukrainian politicians have made cash purchases of
land and huge mansions in foreign countries.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is letting
the Ukrainian people get slaughtered for money.
Ukraine is called Money Laundering.
I can just imagine SlowJoe saying “I’m not going to give you this 20 million unless you give us 20 million for my laundry”.
I wonder: Will 250 mil even cover Mrs. Zelenskyy’s next shopping spree in Paris? What, if anything, she has left over, will probably go into remodeling the mansion in Florida.
And the Pub Critters in Congress do and say nothing.
One day it’ll all come to a head.
C’mon man! 10 percent for the Big Guy! And with inflation, it’s really less! How quickly they forget why they’re getting rich.
Interesting…
It does look like a
final slush fund payment.
The US narrative has also
changed from –
As Long It Takes
to
As Long As We Can.
Many picked up on the narrative
change by Biden,Blinken, etc.
during their recent speeches.
Another interesting thing…
During Putin four hour
Q&A last week he basically
said that if Poland and the other
countries bordering West
of Ukraine..that the parts of
Ukraine that were historically
part of their countries..that if
they wanted those areas back,
he would not stand in their way.
As long it did not jeopardize
Russian interests..go for it!
😂😂Kind of kills the Russia
wants to take over all of Ukraine
propaganda narrative doesn’t it?
💁💁🤷♀️
The Color Revolution in Serbia
last weekend looks to be another
major fail of the US/NATO. 👏👏👏
At the beginning of this Ukraine
cluster —— a lot of independent
analysts and journalists
frequently used the
term “rump state .
That seems to be more and
more a possibility every day.🤷♀️💁🤷♀️
Scaring Zelensky into a ceasefire
☝️☝️ The Duran ..Rumble.. 16 minutes.
They discuss the latest Psych ops
(propaganda) in the NYT about
US-Russia negotiations.
🤷♀️💁
🤷♀️💁 I saw clips of the Clare Daly
speech 👏👏👏
she fried Ursula Vonder Lying 🔥
MEP Clare Daly Brands EU Commission Head Ursula A ‘Frau Genocide’ | Dawn News English – YouTube
☝️☝️👏👏👍👍
Ukraine= Error 404
$20 million, less 10% for the Big Guy of course….
Zelensky doesn’t get out of bed in the morning for 20M (as one of the 90s supermodels quipped). But the Bidens do.
I guess Prez Joe needs an extra $2M to cover his Christmas expenses.
It good to be the U.S. President.
The American government already has the blood of nearly 700 000 men (Ukrainian and Russia) on their hands for not taking steps to prevent this war from happening. They made no attempt whatsoever to negotiate a peaceful resolution.
20 mil buys a lot of political persuasion.
Russia is playing rope a dope with Biden and Zelensky, the former spending itself into bankruptcy, the latter depleting its young men. Meanwhile Putin is crying all the way to the bank.
Did he buy a piece of Ukraine?
“Biden Admin Announces Release of Additional $250 Million in
UkraineBiden Family Funding”Headline edited for accuracy.
Zelenskyy and many others are blackmailing Biden, his family and many in the White House, Congress and other beauracrats. Taxpayer $$$ being used to keep under wraps. Same with China getting all the special treatments and favors. Why are elected reps so quiet? Why don’t they stop all this $$$ being sent to Ukraine? How does Biden get the authority to have a blank check? Calling my congressional rep falls on deaf ears.
Why are elected reps so quiet?
It’s called “don’t bite the hand that feeds you.”
Q: What is the $20M for?
A: The last person DoS/CIA sent to Ukraine. Fat boy, donut-loving Christy?
He on a mission for 12 more months. The fact that it has nothing to do with Ukraine is irrelevamt.
I smell a body parts market. Happy arms, kidneys and a new liver new year.
Hunter is facing big legal bills. Time to skim that 10% from another big Ukraine package.
I regret I have but one country’s national treasury to give to Ukraine.
How do you say deja vu in Vietnamese?
And what sort of wordsmithing is now in work to roll out ‘Ukrainianization’ and re-brand ‘Peace with Honor’ (resulting in neither)? And don’t forget ‘fiscal conservatism.’
Doom On You, Demo_rats…and Republican’ts.
Zionist Jews are at the bottom of this war and many others, including the one in Israel. Netanyahu shows up in Washington and dictates terms and strategy to non compus mentis Joe….. with impunity! Mentally deficient Joe makes their job so much easier. This fool can’t string two sentences together without a teleprompter. He needs a seeing-eye dog to find his way off a stage or onto and airplane. America has gone nuts! Joe gives hundreds of millions of Americans their medical marching orders, which they dutifully follow. How many lined up for numerous dangerous vaccinations? 220 million by one estimate!
If I wasn’t living through this bizarre farce, I would never in a thousand years believe it could happen. Putin, in a moment of candid honesty, said he thinks these people are ‘crazy’. I find myself agreeing with him, another thing I thought would never happen. We, ourselves, are living through and enabling the destruction of this great Republic.
Bidets 10%
I am well pleased Ukraine lost the civil war.