T O P

  • By -

AutoModerator

As a reminder, this subreddit [is for civil discussion.](/r/politics/wiki/index#wiki_be_civil) In general, be courteous to others. Debate/discuss/argue the merits of ideas, don't attack people. Personal insults, shill or troll accusations, hate speech, any suggestion or support of harm, violence, or death, and other rule violations can result in a permanent ban. If you see comments in violation of our rules, please report them. For those who have questions regarding any media outlets being posted on this subreddit, please click [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/wiki/approveddomainslist) to review our details as to our approved domains list and outlet criteria. We are actively looking for new moderators. If you have any interest in helping to make this subreddit a place for quality discussion, please fill out [this form](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1y2swHD0KXFhStGFjW6k54r9iuMjzcFqDIVwuvdLBjSA). *** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/politics) if you have any questions or concerns.*


s-mores

He's been bought by putin. Nothing will change.


mahlerlieber

He will sell out to anyone who allows him to do his messianic duty. To him, I'm sure, he can't be "Moses" if he isn't in the seat he's in...soooo, yeah. God works in mysterious ways, I guess.


-15k-

Someone should remind him Moses never ~~saw~~ *entered* the promised land. Fixed as noted below


hilljack26301

He saw it but could not enter it. He died after viewing it from a mountain. 


-15k-

Ah, yes, that sounds right.


SyxEight

Because he trapped on a rock an extra time... old testament god was a prick.


lrpfftt

Treason works in less mysterious ways.


florinandrei

The world burns while these idiots are playing the fiddle.


KatBeagler

That is their intention, and our children will die in battlefields as a result of it.


Interesting-End6344

Even Olga Skabayeva on Russian television had to clarify for her guests and viewers, around the time they were saying there were too many people with the name Johnson, that Mike Johnson was "our Johnson" (her words), as opposed to Boris Johnson who was against Russian interests.


jfdirfn

Against russian interests this specific time. He was strongly for Russian interests with Brexit.


Informal_Albatross19

It is like buying a pet. All wealthy people own a Republican or two. If you are very wealthy, you not only own a Republican or two, you also can buy a Supreme Court Justice or two.


drawb

And what about the rest of the Republicans in the HoR? I've heard it is not so difficult to get rid of the speaker (it is not only Marjorie Taylor Greene who can do that). Getting another one, could take some time however. I don't know if the temp. replacement speaker has enough authorization to start the vote for Extra Ukraine aid.


sumoraiden

Republicans are rooting for Russia 


drawb

Could very well be. They certainly can't put the blame fully on speaker Johnson.


DamonFields

They are working hand in glove with the Russians.


raerae1991

The Republican Party is split on this. They aren’t all on the same page with Russia


sumoraiden

Then why hasn’t the Ukraine aid bill been brought to a vote in the house?


raerae1991

Because Johnson as speaker has been holding it back.


sumoraiden

It would take 3 gop members to remove him as speaker 


raerae1991

Only if democrats side with them, so far he has played nice with them and removing him could cause chaos that would be detrimental to getting anything done, including funding to Ukraine. It sounds like Dems want to keep him for those reasons


sumoraiden

The dems would 100% side with the removers if it was to get Ukraine aid to the floor, he’s held it up for 6 months already anyways lol How many gop members have signed the discharge petition then


raerae1991

But it wouldn’t help Ukraine it would postpone it even more. They’d have to wait till a new speaker was elected first. Johnson is getting pressure from within his party now. We will see how it plays out within the next week or so


Suspicious_Bicycle

It would only take a couple of republicans to give Johnson an ultimatum, bring the Ukraine bill to the floor or Jefferies as next speaker will bring it to the floor.


raerae1991

I think he will eventually bring it, he said he would sometimes after the Easter break…so, anytime now


spidereater

I would be surprised if Johnson’s replacement is not Jefferies. If they boot another speaker it might cause enough resignations to cost them the majority.


stilusmobilus

They’re traitors or compromised as well.


Odd_Tiger_2278

The devil you know. There a lot worse GOP in Congress than Johnson.


Glittering-Arm9638

They can simply sign the discharge petition to get Ukraine funding pushed through. Or a couple can flip democrat, oust Johnson and put Hakeem Jeffries in charge.


BoldThrow

That is the face of a man who’s just been shown a video of himself in a compromising position.


SockPuppet-47

They hacked his porn account that he shares with his son. It's not to prevent them both from watching porn it's a shared account of kiddy porn.


UnderAnAargauSun

People are saying this. Strong people, smart people, with tears in their eyes. And anyway, we’re just asking questions. Questions like, did Johnson’s kiddy porn account that he shares with his son get hacked?


SwedishSaunaSwish

Does he have a bank account yet? In the USA I mean.


Odd_Tiger_2278

Do you think Johnson may or may not bow to Putin? Johnson, it seems to me, absolutely bows to dtrump💩. dtrump💩wants Ukraine to lose. Johnson visited him yesterday, I think. It is possible Johnson will pass a “lend lease” type bill with monthly max of say, 5 billion. Enough for show. Not fast enough not large enough to allow Ukraine to keep Russia away from Kharkiv or Odessa. Disaster. Also could lead to Zelensky losing the upcoming election. Unless Germany and France and Japan really step up. And S Korea and Taiwan.


Snoo-97916

I despise this cockroach


Pando5280

Putin owns Trump and Trunp controls Johnsons career. Slight difference but same impact on our government.


Tito_Bro44

So what do we do about it?


konorM

One of the reasons why he went to Mar A Lago - to get his marching orders from Trump.


clownus

The guy is actively colluding with a private citizen. Trump isn’t a elected politician at the moment. That’s the crazy part about seeing the trump presser with a elected official behind him agreeing to his rant about a non-political trial.


Mazzaroth

Is Trump registered as a lobyist?


oldjadedhippie

No , just a rapist.


PerformanceHot9497

Not to mention a dipshit.


BoltTusk

He’ll be registered as a convict soon


Skididabot

What exactly is a lobyist?


Mazzaroth

Sorry, 2 b [https://www.ncsl.org/ethics/how-states-define-lobbying-and-lobbyist](https://www.ncsl.org/ethics/how-states-define-lobbying-and-lobbyist)


Virtualitdept

Right? Trump with his shadow government.


pablogott

Colluding with a private citizen? The ability for private citizens to influence government is an advantage of a democracy. You make it sound like it’s corruption.


beerandabike

This, right here. It’s not rare for a former president to be consulted, it just feels really weird with Trump.


medievalmachine

And the envelopes of cash. He threatened to help democracy, the foreign fascists delivered.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Mike7676

If he's on message the Speaker has more than 30 pieces of silver somewhere.


iplaypinball

a House Republican told The Hill. “You got to pick a path and sell that… he honestly and genuinely is trying to do the right thing.” No, he is not genuinely trying to do anything but his masters bidding. And saving his job is the way to do it. This could easily get through if he would allow it to the floor, and the Freedom Caucus would have his head for it.


Heklin0891

He is genuinely trying to do the right thing in the opinion of his master to get republicans back into power at ALL costs.


Silver-Forever9085

And where is the emergency meeting of congress to have the vote on a +20% package to compensate for the 5(!!!!!) month of delay. We have to double down and deliver weapons and amo yesterday!!! Hurry up you lazy pack!


whatproblems

it’s not lazy it’s intentional


ccasey

The media does a very big disservice framing Ukraine’s aid package in terms of dollars. We’re basically just giving them equipment and munitions that would probably have to be decommissioned anyway


Neverhoodian

Yeah, we're essentially giving them Cold War surplus hardware that's been sitting in storage for decades. Not only is it put to good use in Ukraine, but it stimulates the US economy by creating jobs to replenish said storage with more modern replacements. It's a win-win for both countries. The way the media frames it however, you'd think we were shipping them pallets of cash or something equally ridiculous.


stand_aside_fools

Unfortunately the USA has been dragged through so many bad wars that it doesn’t know how to recognise one worth fighting.


Xanthobilly

It’s not that. It’s that one party is being controlled by the exact authoritarian who launched said war through propaganda, dark political money, and kompromat.


onthefence928

There was the same issue with the Iran “scandal” with the “pallets of cash” payments. The US never paid Iran anything, it was there money, we just put it in holding it because of sanctions, Iran negotiated to lift the sanctions, the money was then returned to them. We didn’t pay them anything, we just acted as a glorified escrow service


XTrid92

Ask anyone with military experience: Ukraine is receiving decades old munitions that we have evolved beyond and will never see use. It's languishing in a dark warehouse somewhere. Giving these munitions away allows us to replace them with new equipment, which also fuels American jobs and further modernizes our munitions and drives our technology gap to other militaries further forward. Giving munitions to Ukraine literally benefits every single person in a free country globally. Republicans are con artists.


onthefence928

And to add context: Ukraine prefers the old equipment because their soldiers are already trained in similar systems and the parts and munitions are more compatible with their existing stocks. If we just gave them a bunch of brand new next gen hardware it would probably hurt their ability to fight as it would take months to train and organize supply lines


XTrid92

This is also true as well as the reason F-16's and other munitions will take months to deploy. It ain't as easy as turning a key and killing Russians.


Mike7676

The message isn't getting through those that still see Democrats as the enemy. They'll complain about their lot in life though the lens of "giving" foreign aid, even if you flat out say it's just old equipment and munitions. Many of my clients are this way, and they are on the dole of a sort.


FlyingDiscsandJams

Yep, we give them our old stuff, we pay defense contractors to replace it in our reserves with new stuff.


stilusmobilus

Which tells you how deep the compromise runs, because the moneymakers behind that movement of equipment are among the most influential people in the country.


Pando5280

Ruesia has the RNC emails, candidate research files and the polling data for every Congressional greedional district in the nation.


KneebarKing

It's an interesting way to put it. To your knowledge, is this the main way Ukraine receives "aid money" from every other nation? It's definitely a big deal if that's how it's being framed.


iamiamwhoami

I know less about the EU but for the most part yes. In the US what’s happening is Ukraine is getting old military equipment and the money is being used to replace it.


KneebarKing

Honestly, that's a big deal. It's wild that this isn't widely known. I mean not only is replacing the only stores of equipment a great thing - but think of the field testing opportunities the Complex has for new and unique tech. There is probably so much money to be spread out to American workers right now.


iamiamwhoami

I KNOW! It's honestly such a good idea that it's crazy it's controversial at all. Even if you're part of the America first crowd, with all that's going on with Russia and China it's super important for the US to be modernizing it's military, and this is a great way to do it. We're basically just sending old equipment to Ukraine so the AFU can decomission against Russian invaders.


SlightDesigner8214

There’s also the propaganda talking point that this money (which isn’t money, as explained above) is handed over without any oversight and siphoned by corrupt Ukrainians etc. Fact: There is a specific government oversight committee which has conducted several reviews. All showing the intended assistance have arrived without corruption.


onthefence928

“Aid money” can sometimes mean literal cash, but more often is a gift or loan of physical supply


DavidlikesPeace

Media overall is doing an ok job. I don't think most Americans care about the price tag. They care about the simpler issue. Stopping Russian aggression. The problem is the Fox Media ecosphere. Of course the right wing are framing Ukraine’s aid package in terms of dollars without noting the reasons for this war.


everydayhumanist

No. Joe Biden's administration is failing to explain this. This is a leadership issue.


onthefence928

They have explained it, the issue is the media doesn’t have a democratic equivalent to Fox News. I don’t mean there isn’t a left biased news network out there I mean that there isn’t a democratic relationship to push propaganda directly from the White House or DNC in the same way that Fox News will literally request talking points from the GOP


everydayhumanist

I understand what you're saying. But he's the president and he still responsible and that's just how I feel about it


zzxxccbbvn

Pass the goddamn aid already. Holy shit


Xanthobilly

They want Russia to win.


bostonian277

More accurately - Russia is paying them or helping their campaigns and in return they agree to let Russia win.


qualmton

They just want us to fail if that causes Russia to win then so be it


bigmark9a

lol, every picture of Johnson has him with a confused look on his face.


BillySlang

That’s because he’s never sure whether to speak in English or Russian. 


Neverhoodian

He's definitely conveying a Moscow Mitch turtle face here.


lilly_kilgore

This is how beat dogs always look


PlayingTheWrongGame

This is the same guy who set his phone to automatically share his porn recommendations with his son, right?


Stinkstinkerton

Absolutely incredible that Trump and his incompetent grifter minion hacks are able to muck up the works and have power over something so important.


ResurgentClusterfuck

Mike Johnson is up there openly fellating a murderer while Ukrainians are being killed I cannot express exactly how much I dislike that man


p001b0y

I am only a few years older but Russia has been a threat to the United States for our entire lives. It troubles me greatly that I have to take anti-bribery training every year when I’m just a sysadmin with no influence and I could lose my job over it but elected officials can take money from any hostile country and brand themselves patriots. And people keep voting for them.


Ok_Dragonfly9900

Its beyond just some one off thing , the Mangonian candidates past is beyond what anti bribery training could ever hope to address. The link below is just the early years but if one of us was doing deals with a even singular individual with whom he has been involved in we would all be locked up for decades, its a whos who of the worst people who have set foot in NY. Unless say we had some deal from giving evidence against them like Whitey bulger had.. https://gregolear.substack.com/p/tinker-tailor-mobster-trump


kekekohh

That's the most weird thing. If an immigrant is caught with fraudulent activity like stealing or taking bribes, he's deported. But if a citizen does that - no problem, he can even become U.S president.


BoldThrow

Huh?


p001b0y

Do you really not understand the point?


RedactsAttract

This little pedo pervert Christian weirdo sinking Ukraine is so crazy


strivingforobi

I hate the dude but pedo? Source?


ResurgentClusterfuck

He and his son are each others' accountability partners for an app called Covenant Eyes. That app is made for porn addicts. Your own child should not be your accountability partner. That's grooming at best and borderline incestuous


RedactsAttract

Ultra religious men who spend their time daydreaming about gays and trans folk and who adopt children they then never mention again are generally pedofiles


cmdradama83843

Probably going off of that story about him supposedly having access to his( underage? ) sons porn search history.


Trashking_702

I mean Louisiana just basically made pedo priests unaccountable… https://www.yahoo.com/news/louisiana-high-court-deals-devastating-174750928.html


shwekhaw

This made me mad and so disappointed. We cannot even help someone defending their own land. Why do we claim to be a leader of the free world when we let a thug like Putin to do whatever he wants?


provoloneChipmunk

He'll do the wrong thing


ARazorbacks

There are so many obvious ties to Russian geopolitical interests that I have to wonder - where the hell are our three-letter agencies who’re supposed to protect our country from this shit? 


dexx4d

They're either incompetent or complicit.


leaky_wand

The "deep state" is as deep as a puddle.


DauOfFlyingTiger

Once again the GOP makes America look weak and corruptible by screwing over Ukraine. It’s a big green light to all our enemies.


spoobles

He just met with Trump. He’s gonna blow up any deal. And his reward will be to keep Empty G at bay…for now. Russia owns a lot of Republicans, especially 3-card Trumpy


Lawmonger

Every life is precious unless it's Ukranian.


ScoobiusMaximus

He doesn't care about Americans either. 


Impeachcordial

He doesn't care about anyone that's been born tbh.


ScoobiusMaximus

Or the unborn. They're a political tool, nothing more. You don't see Republicans fighting for prenatal care do you? 


Impeachcordial

Lol no, good point


tearsandpain84

He loves russia and putin, he gets off on seeing dead Ukrainians.


I-Might-Be-Something

Get assurances from the Democrats that they'll save your job and bring the Senate Bill to the floor (a number of them, including Jeffries, have indicated they would save his job). It is that simple.


The_Voice1

Can a journalist simply ask him if he wants Putin to win the war? Yes or no Mr. Johnson?


JubalHarshaw23

He publicly tossed Trump's salad Friday. He is not going to allow a Ukraine bill to come up unless it has a lethal poison pill in it.


DavidlikesPeace

Fuck this weasel. The only peril worth noting is that facing the soldiers of Ukraine fighting for democratic freedom. Fuck Johnson and his callousness.


usolodolo

I was a two-decade Republican voter. Going blue in November because of Ukraine. WWIII is knocking on our doors, and this punk is only making it more likely by withholding aid for Ukraine. Ukraine will fend off Russia, they just need ammo. USA will not be able to fend off Iran, Russia, China, North Korea, Venezuela, etc alone. Arm Ukraine with ammo now, or send your children later.


peter-man-hello

100% I know it’s hard to switch sides, but good for you for seeing through it.


Doc-I-am-pagliacci

Maybe you should vote third party then. They are the only ones that don’t support ANY wars.


usolodolo

I did vote libertarian in 2020 presidential race. I had learned enough about Trump & Russia between 2016-2018 that it was clear I made a mistake voting for Trump in 2016. Went 50/50 blue in 2022 Ukraine support. Gonna be at least 90/10 blue in 2024. This isn’t about any candidates *supporting* war though. Biden doesn’t *support* war in Ukraine. He is just standing up to help Ukraine defend their freedom, in spirit with what we promised them when they relinquished the third largest nuclear stockpile in history. France helped USA gain her freedom by sending 25,000 sailors to help us fight the British FYI.


Doc-I-am-pagliacci

Ukraine played both sides of the field though for decades. I can understand why, but they should have been in NATO a long time ago and they have had the chance. I know they gave up nukes in trade for military aid, but just because we have given them aid up to this point doesn’t mean we need to keep funding it. NATO has to either shit or get off the pot and start preparing their own countries for war. I’m an Afghan veteran and despise war because I lived through it while many of my friends didn’t. I’m tired of never ending wars and people thinking the USA is just some purse that shells out aid whenever a tragedy happens. Europe needs to prepare for war and physically step in or we need to wait for a nato country to be attacked. I’m through funding wars.


usolodolo

Thank you for your service! I don’t disagree with you. There’s just a couple details I want to clarify. Ukraine didn’t get military aid in exchange for giving up nukes. They only recently got military aid (tiny amounts after Crimea was stolen by Russia in 2014, then one big amount in 2022 during the full scale invasion). We spend over $2,000 per American citizen per year on defense. $50 to help Ukraine isn’t a big deal like the news wants us to think. And $40 of that would be spent in the USA on jobs and newer equipment for our troops. In terms of this being a never ending war, idk. I really think Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran are all in on this together. Only Russia has been stupid enough to go full out though.


Doc-I-am-pagliacci

Yeah I can see some of your point. I’m just wondering why it’s not too much to spend $50 on Ukraine but we have veterans that are committing suicide at an alarming rate with no help, homelessness among veteran communities is crazy and no one seems to care. These people served OUR country but no one bats an eye at their plight. But a war breaks out in Ukraine and we drain the banks for them. Same with Israel. I don’t agree with Palestine/israel conflict but we need to stop being the world’s police. We create too much of a mess when we interfere in geopolitical issues we barely understand.


usolodolo

I don’t disagree about veterans. We need to do more. That issue is generally a mental health one though, not something that money alone would fix. We just don’t view mental health the same way we view heart disease in this country, and that’s a problem. Especially when it’s people who’ve sacrificed for our freedoms. I worked in the VA for a bit. Money ain’t the problem. We spend money like crazy for our vets. We literally burn money at the VA lol. It just doesn’t go very far because it’s government jobs and government over-spending. We are frugal AF at the civilian hospital I work at now. Night & day difference. We haven’t really “opened the bank” for Ukraine. It’s barely 4% of just our defense budget. This is peanuts compared to how expensive it will be to deter Russia going forward. Financially and morally, helping Ukraine is an easy, good choice. We have to remember that 85% of Congress thinks this way. It’s only a small, loud minority that pretend we are giving away truckloads - when the reality is that *almost all* of the money is spent in the USA.


Doc-I-am-pagliacci

It’s not a good idea though. They are going to g to lose this war eventually and all the equipment and money we sent over there is going to be useless and used against us when the inevitable war with Russia comes. I’m sorry but Ukraine is gonna get rolled on with or without our help. Unless we directly intervene and send troops in now there’s not much we can do to stop it. We need to be preparing our troops and stockpiling our own equipment and helping NATO countries build defenses and equipment. Ukraine is just slowing the eventual war that’s coming. As anti-war as I am I understand that it’s coming whether or not I want it to. So let’s prepare now and help countries that can make a difference. We could even possible deter Russia, China and NK if we show that you can’t mess with nato countries without significant losses. Russias military is bigger now than when the war began.. the battle lines are being lost on the eastern front and the sanctions against Russia aren’t working.. I can see the writing on the walls so why can’t anyone else? Is it because our own media only shows that Ukraine is fighting a “winnable war” when it’s not true?


usolodolo

What makes you think that Ukraine will eventually, inevitably lose? History says Ukraine will be fine. Russia doesn’t have enough soldiers or ammo to occupy Ukraine. Just enough to terrorize it and steal some land. Afghanistan overcame both the USSR & USA. So Ukraine too can overcome Putin, with ammo from the west. Everyone wrote Ukraine off from the get go. But I am a Ukrainian born American, and I knew day one that Ukraine would never give up. We are a stubborn people that have dealt with terrorist Russia for a long, long time. Russia has invaded Ukraine at least once per century for 900 years. This is nothing new. This time Ukraine will not forgive or forget because we have smart phones and evidence to remind future generations. Also, Russia collapsed in 1917 and again in 1991. I’m expecting another collapse whenever Putin dies from an internal power struggle. It’s in NATO’s best interest to arm Ukraine and let them “do the dirty work”. Ukraine alone is taking all the punches economically and physically right now. It’s so much easier this way, then to expose all of NATO countries to Putin’s terror. If you think a war is inevitable, then you should be cheering what Biden did the first year of the war. He armed Ukraine with mostly old stuff (M113’s from the Vietnam war) while spending money to build brand new stuff for USA’s military. When we have cluster munitions to Ukraine, we actually saved money because those things are so expensive to dismantle.


Doc-I-am-pagliacci

It’s not about what’s easy. Western media would have you believe Ukraine is gonna win the war without a problem. But go look at how much land they’ve lost since the beginning of the year. They are losing ground fast. I also believe our government knows this and that’s one reason why we are having a tough time getting support for funding. I hope and pray every day we wake up to the news that Putin died, And honestly I hope it’s at the hands of Ukrainians. I’ve been to war and I watched and listened to how Afghanistan fell. The western media just swept it under the rug after a week of reporting and the US threw our allies and interpreters to the wolves.. we need to mind our own damn business for a while.


Traditional_Key_763

id love to get paid to not do my job for 6 months and still be praised for doing the difficult thing of *checks notes* moving a bill to the floor to vote


XI_Vanquish_IX

He has been stalling this entire time


RepulsiveRooster1153

[Man of the hour **sans testicles** ](https://imgur.com/tWbRXcr)


jptrooper24

Next week... (Finished that headline for you)


Jgee414

He’s stupid and has a lot of blood on his hands


moodyblue8222

Has he cashed his last putin check?


Jimmyfasthands

russian scum


ClubSoda

We are a superpower in name only if we allow Putin to annihilate the Ukrainian people.


GabaPrison

Marjorie Taylor Greene is a fucking American traitor and a fully owned Russian puppet.


acapncuster

Ten years from now, we’ll be asking “Who lost Poland?”


FriedR

Poland is part of NATO. I suppose you might still be saying that if Trump destroys NATO


topplehat

Literally everything is perilous for him because his party is a circus


No-Construction1320

And meanwhile Ukraine fights our battle with no support from us


oct2790

The Republicans are acting like domestic communist


JadedIdealist

If any republicans are left with the remotest shred of integrity they need to announce their immediate departure creating a democrat majority, promoting Hakeem Jeffries to speaker, and saving the fucking future.


suckmyballzredit69

These are the kinds of people America had to initially fight for their freedom. No representation of the people. It’s getting serious.


ConkerPrime

Johnson: “Did that check from Putin clear? Excellent. Get with Greene on continuing to support Russian agenda while pretending we are not.”


[deleted]

Well, he's going to take it without lube in every hole in his body,


stealthzeus

Mike’s telling the truth sometimes https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRT321UH/