U.S. to send Ukraine $5.5 billion in new fiscal, military aid

U.S. to send Ukraine $5.5 billion in new fiscal, military aid

The $4.5 billion budgetary grant will fund urgent government needs including payments for pensions, social welfare and healthcare costs, bringing total U.S. fiscal aid for Ukraine to $8.5 billion since Russia’s February invasion, the U.S. Agency for International Development said.

…

The $1 billion arms package announced by the Pentagon is the largest single military package under President Joe Biden’s drawdown authority, including long-range rocket munitions and armored medical transport vehicles.

…

The fiscal and military aid packages – both first reported by Reuters on Monday – are drawn from a $40 billion aid package for Ukraine approved by Congress in May.

Overall, the United States has contributed more than $18 billion to Ukraine this year.

So-called Fiscal Conservatives on my FB timeline.

How Pelosi’s Visit Hurts Taiwan

When Nancy Pelosi made her ‘woke’ flight to Taiwan the U.S. seemed to hope for a Chinese military reaction to it. It positioned an aircraft carrier and two amphibious landing ships in the region. It also shipped additional fighter planes to Japan and South Korea.

How Pelosi’s Visit Hurts Taiwan

Lee Barrett mentioned, in his recent video, that sand is also used for semiconductors.

U.S. election cycle drives new confrontations with China, Russia

Global Times | August 1, 2022

Dim mid-term election prospects of Democrats risk igniting more tensions

With less than 100 days to go before the US mid-term elections, many US media outlets, polls and observers see the Democrats’ prospects dim. A new Bloomberg Economics study showed that “President Joe Biden’s party can expect to lose 30 to 40 seats in the House and a few in the Senate too, easily wiping out razor-thin Democratic majorities,” Bloomberg reported on Saturday.

U.S. election cycle drives new confrontations with China, Russia

Pelosi expected to visit Taiwan, Taiwanese and US officials say and Could Get Us All Killed!

Nancy Pelosi Taiwan Visit Could Get Us All Killed

Related:

Pelosi expected to visit Taiwan, Taiwanese and US officials say

Officials also believe the Chinese leadership doesn’t completely grasp the political dynamics in the United States*, leading to a misunderstanding over the significance of Pelosi’s potential visit. The officials say China may be confusing Pelosi’s visit with an official administration visit, since she and Biden are both Democrats. Administration officials are concerned that China doesn’t separate Pelosi from Biden much, if at all.

The ‘eccentric, bigoted’ Pelosi does not care about others’ thoughts, but Biden is the key in the 82-year-old’s planned Taiwan trip

Pelosi is in the presidential line of succession, thus the administration takes extra care of her security when she travels overseas, the White House said on Tuesday, according to CNN.

They’re well aware that Pelosi is the second in line of Presidential succession!

Calling a recession and blaming it on interest rates

The latest US GDP figures for second quarter of 2022 renewed the debate about whether the US economy was in a recession or not. Real GDP contracted in the second quarter of this year by a 0.9% annualised rate (or by 0.2% quarter over quarter). That meant the US economy had contracted for two successive quarters, and so ‘technically’ (by that definition) was in a recession. Real GDP is now up only 1.6% from Q2 2021. And business investment is slowing, up only 3.5% from this time last year, the slowest rate since the end of the COVID slump in 2020.

Calling a recession and blaming it on interest rates

Japanese Lawmakers Make Rare Taiwan Visit to Discuss Potential Conflict + Taiwan not included on Pelosi’s travel list. Crimea drone attack. Update 2

Japanese Lawmakers Make Rare Taiwan Visit to Discuss Potential Conflict

Japan is essential to the US’s plans to boost alliances in the region to encircle China, and Washington is encouraging Tokyo to expand its military. Analysts told The South China Morning Post that a conflict sparked by US intervention in Taiwan could leave Japan and other US allies in the region badly exposed, and in the middle of a situation they have not properly planned for.

Related:

Pelosi lists destinations amid Taiwan row

Pelosi to Lead Congressional Delegation to Indo-Pacific Region

Former Bolivian President Evo Morales Calls For a Global Campaign to Eliminate NATO

In interview with a British journalist, Morales says the U.S. uses NATO to provoke wars and sell weapons. U.S./UK-backed coup against him in 2019 was undertaken for lithium and because his government advanced an alternative economic model to the neoliberal “Washington Consensus”

Former Bolivian President Evo Morales Calls For a Global Campaign to Eliminate NATO

Don’t say we didn’t warn you – Symposium of China’s top think tank sends classic, pre-war warning to provocative Pelosi

“Don’t say we didn’t warn you!” – a phrase that was used by the People’s Daily in 1962 before China was forced to fight the border war with India and ahead of the 1979 China-Vietnam War, was frequently mentioned during a forum held Friday by a high-level Chinese think tank, as analysts warned that open military options and comprehensive countermeasures ranging from the economy to diplomacy from China await if US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gambles with a visit to the Taiwan island during her Asia tour.

Don’t say we didn’t warn you – Symposium of China’s top think tank sends classic, pre-war warning to provocative Pelosi

The value of the federal minimum wage is at its lowest point in 66 years

The value of the federal minimum wage has reached its lowest point in 66 years, according to an EPI analysis of recently released Consumer Price Index (CPI) data. Accounting for price increases in June, the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour is now worth less than at any point since February 1956. At that time, the federal minimum wage was 75 cents per hour, or $7.19 in June 2022 dollars.

The value of the federal minimum wage is at its lowest point in 66 years

NATO, the Left, and the Path to Peace

Posted on the United National Antiwar Coalition July 13, 2022 by Alan Freeman, published on The Valdai Discussion Club, July 4, 2022

If anyone tries to justify a monstrous and unnecessary human sacrifice on the grounds that it’s for the best, then they are measuring ‘good’ in dollars instead of bodies, and they’re not part of the left, because the left stands for humans, not property, Valdai Club expert Alan Freeman writes.

NATO, the Left, and the Path to Peace