Claire's tests came out fine. Thanks to those who emailed.
"An Income Tax on even 1%, is Equivalent to Slavery" -- Thomas Jefferson
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned Congress on Tuesday during a private briefing that if they do not pass more aid to Ukraine, it would “very likely” lead to U.S. troops fighting a war in Europe.
Several Republican senators walked out of a briefing on Ukraine aid Tuesday as it descended into a row over the border crisis, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky unexpectedly canceled a video link appearance to appeal for more US money.
Utah Senator Mitt Romney and Nebraska Sen Deb Fischer walker out of the classified briefing early, the AP reported, saying that Republicans were angry they heard nothing on the migrant crisis at the US-Mexico border.
The 2024 budget for the US Department of Defense is $877 billion. Total US military spending is $1.51 trillion if you include the additional $633 billion spent by 6 other agencies. That would include money spent for nuclear weapons by the Department of Energy and for benefits and medical care by Veterans Affairs. Please note Medicare is paying for the medical services of veterans over 65.
According to preliminary reports, a Su-24M tactical front-line bomber of the Russian Aerospace Forces was shot down during its combat sortie over the Black Sea.
The Su-24M was reportedly operating under the cover of the Russian Su-30SM fighter aircraft. According to Ukrainian reports, the bomber was shot down by the US-made MIM-104 Patriot is a surface-to-air missile system deployed near Odessa.
What’s with the world’s fascination with dead, dying and orphaned children? Wait, before you condemn what seems to be callousness, my point is this: our focus is to the exclusion of those children’s fathers, uncles and big brothers? Intentional or not.
Fascination or fixation, it’s basically the same – it amounts to a diversion, perhaps to make the toll appear lower than it really is. Perhaps because our compassion is measured.
Today, it’s dead young Palestinians.
NATO statements about need to prevent a “direct clash” with Russia is a distraction, aimed at whitewashing alliance leaders before their votes, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.
In late November, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the alliance’s main goal is to prevent a war between NATO and Russia.
With its supply of Western weapons dwindling and little sign of change from the NATO powers, Ukraine will be incapable of launching another counteroffensive like last summer, an analyst told Sputnik. However, barring a mutiny or political crisis, a collapse of the Ukrainian war effort isn’t necessarily imminent.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, during a rare trip abroad, to discuss oil production, OPEC+ and the wars in the Gaza Strip and Ukraine.
People’s Servant Party leader Davyd Arakhamia (2nd from left) at the peace talks between delegations from Russia and Ukraine in Turkey, March 29, 2022. (Photo by Lokman Akkaya/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
A top Ukrainian official has newly confirmed that the war could have ended – and tens of thousands of lives could have been saved – had Ukraine and its NATO allies accepted a peace deal with Moscow weeks after the February 2022 invasion.
Tempers boiled over during a classified Senate briefing on Ukraine on Tuesday afternoon, when Republican senators insisted on talking about security along the U.S.-Mexico border while Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and military officials tried to keep the discussion focused on the war.
