FEMA Money For Maui Disaster Relief May Get Caught Up In A Partisan Fight Over Ukraine

FEMA Money For Maui Disaster Relief May Get Caught Up In A Partisan Fight Over Ukraine

But the effort to get a speedy appropriation has foundered after the Biden administration sought $12 billion in emergency funding that would extend disaster relief programs while simultaneously requesting some $24.1 billion in military spending for Ukraine in the same package.

That means that funding Hawaii’s needs for Maui’s recovery has been tied to funding to back Ukraine’s military, an increasingly unpopular topic in some Republican circles. When the House passed its fiscal 2024 defense authorization bill early this summer, a contingent of several dozen House Republicans sought to prohibit additional U.S. assistance to Ukraine.

Related:

Help Maui Fire Victims: Here’s How You Can Donate

The Kennedy hall of shame on Palestine

This is so bad, it’s almost parody but unfortunately it demonstrates Kennedy is no different to Biden, Harris and bi-partisan associates when it comes to Foreign policy and the ‘security’ of Israel. He can’t pronounce Chechnya. He calls the hijab “habib”. It’s a genuinely embarrassing display of ignorance and orientalism.

The Kennedy hall of shame on Palestine

H/T: The Most Revolutionary Act. Video via Due Dissidence

Source.

Leading liberal Zionist voices call for ending U.S. aid to Israel

The damage Israel is causing to its support base in the United States is becoming more apparent. A very bright warning flare went up this weekend, appearing once again in the New York Times. This time, it was columnist Nicholas Kristof who took a much bolder and far less speculative step than his colleague, Tom Friedman did last week by suggesting that the very heart of AIPAC’s mission—annual military aid to Israel—should be phased out.

Friedman, you might recall, floated the idea that a “reassessment” of the United States’ relationship with Israel might be on the horizon, if not already starting. As I noted, that was meant as a warning to Israel, not a reflection of any actual steps by Joe Biden’s White House to launch a policy process of reassessment. Indeed, as subsequent events confirmed, and as was indicated by the fact that Friedman cited no sources, even anonymous ones, this was the columnist trying to use his column to get Israel to back off because political winds are shifting. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not heed the warning, instead moving forward uncompromisingly on his domestic agenda and misleading the media about his conversation with Biden. Needless to say, that didn’t sit well in Washington.

Leading liberal Zionist voices call for ending U.S. aid to Israel

Wisconsin Senator Baldwin is No Friend of LGBT or Free Speech!

Wrote to Tammy Baldwin about how Republicans want to censor LGBT content with the KOSA bill that she is sponsoring! I included the following Techdirt article in my email! Not one word, about it, in her reply to me (which is just a form letter)! In fact, I didn’t bring up anything that she mentioned! As she is a LGBT person, I thought that she’d be concerned but I guess not?!

Related (previously blogged about):

Heritage Foundation Says That Of Course GOP Will Use KOSA To Censor LGBTQ Content

Meanwhile, Republicans are now freely admitting that they’re going to use KOSA to force websites to censor LGBTQ content. They’re literally proud of it. The Heritage Foundation, which at least used to have some principled stances before being taken over by culture warriors without any principles, is bragging about how it will use KOSA in this manner:

RFK Jr vows unconditional support for Israel as IDF massacres Palestinians!

RFK Jr’s hasbara makes me want to vomit! 🤮 He thinks children are legitimate military target!! 🤬

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. – Major Israel Booster

Before that discussion, Kennedy addressed in the interview his views in regard to the nation of Israel, making clear that he is a major Israel booster. Kennedy started off his comments in the interview by stating, “There’s nobody who’s running for president right now in either party who will be a better friend to Israel than me as president, and nobody who will articulate the moral case for Israel with the same erudition, the same persuasive power as me, because I believe it in my heart, it’s core to the values that I was raised with.” Later in his opening comment of the interview, Kennedy declared, “That friendship with Israel and making the moral case for Israel will be a key part of my presidency.”

Kennedy also declared in his opening comment of the interview that he will try as a candidate “to bring the Democratic Party back to its traditional support of Israel and to explain to my children’s generation the historical context and the moral case for Israel.” At least among the top Democratic Congress leaders — and the top Republican Congress leaders as well, though, devotion to the Israel government seems to be running very high already.

Further argued Kennedy in his opening comment, Israel expends great effort at the risk of its own soldiers to “avoid civilian casualties” in dealing with threats from its adversaries and is not an apartheid state. Later in the interview, Kennedy further asserted that a Palestinian has “much more rights in Israel than in any of the neighboring countries” and that “the best place” and “the safest place” in the Middle East for a Palestinian dissident to criticize his government is in Israel.

Related:

Kennedy: ‘As President, my support of Israel will be unconditional.’

Israeli forces kill two Palestinian teens in occupied West Bank

The shootings bring the number of Palestinians killed this year in the occupied Palestinian territories, which includes East Jerusalem and Gaza, to 202, with 165 of those in the occupied West Bank, said Khan.

31 of those killed are under the age of 18, she added.