Hopefully, Putin turns his attention to us next.
Current Affairs Ukraine
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Martin Alvito
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Don't know why you would expect one. Anything that can get to sixty votes in the Senate cannot get 218 in the House.
A Congress lasts two years and has two sessions, one for each year. In this current era of divided government, a Congress passes somewhere around 300-400 bills that become public laws, about a quarter of which pass by the end of the first session. Output is low in the first session because there's usually a flurry of legislation after the November congressional elections. All the political posturing stops, legislative work gets done for a change and the president spends a few days robo-signing everything. All else equal, we should have observed 75-100 public laws, with three days left to run on the first session's calendar.
You know how many laws Congress has passed so far in the first session of this Congress? Twenty-two. They aren't even passing the usual rename-the-post-office nonsense that comprises a large fraction of modern congressional output. They have raised the debt ceiling once, kicked the can down the road twice on continuing resolutions temporarily funding the government, and otherwise done nothing of real substance.
Remember, this is a House majority where one of its own members remarked during the speaker fracas that they couldn't elect Jesus Christ speaker, if he returned.
Currently watching The West Wing, I know its fictional, but it really does give you a look into what happens in the US regarding polictics.
An utter farce.
Not claiming for 1 second its any better over here like.
Martin Alvito
Player Valuation: £50m
Right, yours is The Thick of It. Predictably, I find it far more entertaining than The West Wing. Your lot hand out far wittier, profane and bone-crushing insults when they get into a spat, for the most part. Few of us can keep up.
davek
Player Valuation: £150m
Interesting insight into Zelensky's strained relations with Biden from the Guardian:
In August, Franklin Foer revealed, in his book The Last Politician, that Zelenskiy “bombed” his first White House meeting with Biden, in September 2021.
The following is from my own reporting on the book, linked to at the bottom. Biden and Zelinskiy, Foer says failed to establish a rapport as the Ukrainian leader’s demand to join Natoand “absurd analysis” of alliance dynamics left the US president “pissed off”.
“Even Zelenskiy’s most ardent sympathisers in the [Biden] administration agreed that he had bombed,” Foer writes. “It suggested more difficult conversations to come.”
As in other sections of the book, Foer does not use direct quotes or cite sources when reporting the Biden-Zelenskiy meeting on 1 September. But his publisher, Penguin Random House, says the book is based on “unparalleled access to the tight inner circle of advisers who have surrounded Biden for decades”.
Elected in 2019 and under constant pressure from Russia, Zelenskiy had long sought a White House meeting. Donald Trump rebuffed him, because he refused to help dig up dirt on rivals including Biden – efforts which led to Trump’s first impeachment.
Foer claims Zelenskiy nursed “lingering resentments from the episode” and “at least subconsciously … seemed to blame” Biden, Trump’s successor in the Oval Office, “for the humiliation he suffered, for the political awkwardness he endured”.
The author also says Zelenskiy regarded Biden as weak, particularly over his decision to waive sanctions against a Russian company building Nord Stream 2, a gas pipeline to Germany, a move Zelenskiy saw as undermining Ukrainian economic and security interests.
Biden granted Zelenskiy a meeting but “didn’t think much” of him, Foer reports, particularly over friendly relations the Ukrainian president had struck up with the hard-right Republican Texas senator Ted Cruz, over the Nord Stream decision.
In protest, Cruz blocked confirmation of state department nominees.
“Whether he understood this or not,” Foer writes, “Zelenskiy was complicit with this stunt. It reeked of what the administration considered amateurism. To be fair, Biden didn’t think much of his Ukrainian counterpart, either.”
In August, Franklin Foer revealed, in his book The Last Politician, that Zelenskiy “bombed” his first White House meeting with Biden, in September 2021.
The following is from my own reporting on the book, linked to at the bottom. Biden and Zelinskiy, Foer says failed to establish a rapport as the Ukrainian leader’s demand to join Natoand “absurd analysis” of alliance dynamics left the US president “pissed off”.
“Even Zelenskiy’s most ardent sympathisers in the [Biden] administration agreed that he had bombed,” Foer writes. “It suggested more difficult conversations to come.”
As in other sections of the book, Foer does not use direct quotes or cite sources when reporting the Biden-Zelenskiy meeting on 1 September. But his publisher, Penguin Random House, says the book is based on “unparalleled access to the tight inner circle of advisers who have surrounded Biden for decades”.
Elected in 2019 and under constant pressure from Russia, Zelenskiy had long sought a White House meeting. Donald Trump rebuffed him, because he refused to help dig up dirt on rivals including Biden – efforts which led to Trump’s first impeachment.
Foer claims Zelenskiy nursed “lingering resentments from the episode” and “at least subconsciously … seemed to blame” Biden, Trump’s successor in the Oval Office, “for the humiliation he suffered, for the political awkwardness he endured”.
The author also says Zelenskiy regarded Biden as weak, particularly over his decision to waive sanctions against a Russian company building Nord Stream 2, a gas pipeline to Germany, a move Zelenskiy saw as undermining Ukrainian economic and security interests.
Biden granted Zelenskiy a meeting but “didn’t think much” of him, Foer reports, particularly over friendly relations the Ukrainian president had struck up with the hard-right Republican Texas senator Ted Cruz, over the Nord Stream decision.
In protest, Cruz blocked confirmation of state department nominees.
“Whether he understood this or not,” Foer writes, “Zelenskiy was complicit with this stunt. It reeked of what the administration considered amateurism. To be fair, Biden didn’t think much of his Ukrainian counterpart, either.”
davek
Player Valuation: £150m
I think this bit of business comes near the top of the list, don't you?
Malcom Tucker is my absolute hero and I'd love to be able say things like he does at work. But I'd be fired. Or on here actually. But that wouldn't AndyCing stand either.
Now get me a curly wurly.
Just wondering why you are posting a story that is 3 months old?
Ukraine’s Zelenskiy ‘bombed’ first White House meeting with Biden, book says
Demand to join Nato, coupled with claim France and Germany would leave, ‘pissed off’ US president, author Franklin Foer reports
Spadge Vernacular
Player Valuation: £70m
Aww that's nice Dave.
Martin Alvito
Player Valuation: £50m
They're trying over in the Senate, but the structural problem is insurmountable, and the data proves it.
If you think about who they are, it's not surprising that they're oil and water.
Joe Biden is a glad-handing, retail politician from the old school. He prides himself on talking to people one-on-one, in person, learning what they really think and trying to bridge gaps. He wants to govern from the bottom up. He reasons that if he cuts deals that give his constituents enough of what they want, and not too much of what they don't, they'll send him back to Washington. If you give him the choice between the evidence of his own senses, and a poll, he's taking his senses.
Zelenskyy is a former entertainer from the postmodern version of the Ronald Reagan media-management school of politics. To him, politics is a top-down game about messaging. Get the polls on your side, and you can start twisting arms the way Reagan did. This makes him well-suited to lead in a situation, like Churchill's, where winning requires some serious ally management. If you're popular with constituents in allied nations, your words carry weight, and you can get more of what you need to win the war.
Biden probably looks at Zelenskyy and sees an unreliable ally who doesn't understand politics or how to get things done, and vice-versa. Biden probably sees an image-conscious, skin deep politician of the sort he loathes, and Zelenskyy probably sees a fossil whose time has long since passed.
Just wondering why you are posting a story that is 3 months old?
Like Biden even remembers his name, the senile old fart.Ukraine’s Zelenskiy ‘bombed’ first White House meeting with Biden, book says
Demand to join Nato, coupled with claim France and Germany would leave, ‘pissed off’ US president, author Franklin Foer reportswww.theguardian.com
He’s now reduced to scrapping the floor, underneath the barrel of “ bad news for Ukraine “ that he dips into daily ?
Spadge Vernacular
Player Valuation: £70m
Dave, considering that you think that "The Guardian is MI6's creature" you seem to quote it an awful lot. Are you a big fan of M16?
Ever since Starmer went undercover with them, he's been the president of the fan club. True fact. Everyone knows.
Martin Alvito
Player Valuation: £50m
You think he secretly loves Patterson, and is drumming up encouragement and support for a young player he doesn't think gets his due? You could sell me on that.
Ukraine is exactly in the position the west wants them to be. If any western country actually cared about Ukraine they would have done more to actually win them the war.
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