The House on Wednesday night voted down an amendment to the Pentagon appropriations bill introduced by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) that would have banned the transfer of civilian-killing cluster bombs to other countries.
The amendment failed in a vote of 160-269, with only 85 Republicans and 75 Democrats supporting the measure.
Cluster bombs spread small submunitions, known as bomblets, over a large area. They are so hazardous to civilians because many of the submunitions do not explode on impact and can be found years or decades later, often by children. Due to their indiscriminate nature, cluster bombs are banned by over 100 countries.
The vote on Gaetz’s amendment came after the Biden administration announced a weapons package for Ukraine that included the second tranche of cluster bombs in the form of 155mm artillery shells. The administration first shipped cluster bombs to Ukraine in July. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has claimed that without the widely-banned munitions, Ukraine would be “defenseless.”
According to recent media reports, the administration has also agreed to provide Ukraine with Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) that will be armed with cluster munitions. The provision would be a huge escalation as the ATACMS have a range of up to 190 miles, meaning Ukraine could use them to fire cluster bombs into Russian territory.
The House also voted down two amendments aimed at reducing US support for the proxy war in Ukraine. One amendment, introduced by Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), to strip $300 million in military aid for Ukraine included in the Pentagon appropriations bill was rejected in a vote of 104-330 and only received support from Republicans.
Another amendment introduced by Gaetz would have cut off military support for Ukraine altogether. It failed in a vote of 93-339 and also only received support from Republicans.
Look up the names of those who voted in favor of continuing the transfer and you’ll see who has been paid off to do so. I condemn them all as Enemies of the People and call for their resignations. Of course, if those resignations are not forthcoming, I will be generous and give them the choice of The Wall or The Train Station. (They might want to avoid a lot of trouble and choose The Wall.)
A perverted version of corruption practiced by the bought and sold congress
Oh good, do you also condemn the Kremlin for the invasion, attacks, and annexation of a sovereign country?
You just can’t help yourself, can you? I mean, someone could comment on the weather, and you’d somehow squeeze either Putin or the Kremlin into the conversation. So Don, are you FOR the usage of cluster munitions? and before you ask, yes, I’m against Putin/Kremlin using them too.
Accurate observation. You direct question will go unanswered.
I blame the USA totally for that!! Purge the DC Ghouls.
It would be strange if US oligarchy opts for de-escalation. So, no one should be surprised. 160-269 is enough for them. They could make 60-369 but it costs more money. Otherwise no difference.
It’s. not a joke. Excuse me.
Democrats will not oppose their leader’s war on behalf of his Ukrainian paymasters. The Ukies could reveal a lot about the money going to Biden and his crack-addicted sex-abusing son, and Democrats know they must stick together when it comes to getting money through corruption. The whole point of socialism, or what the U.S. Dems falsely call “liberalism,” is to exploit the democratic system for personal profit.
That has nothing to do with socialism. What you describe is corruption & graft, and all civilizations suffer from that regardless of their economic system. “Socialism” means sharing the wealth and the expenses, as opposed to this crapitalist country where it’s everyone for themselves. Socialism is far more mentally and spiritually evolved than capitalism.
So weird how in the USA the Democrats have embraced war and the anti-war faction is entirely made of Republicans. If you told me that this would be happening today back in the 1980s, hell even the 2000s I’d have thought that you were off your rocker.
Bill Clinton made the Democrats just as bad as the Republicans. There’s no one left in Congress worth supporting, we need a revolution.
I’ll Second the motion!
I have a feeling the Demo Rats didn’t need the Clintons to make them as bad as the Repugninants. Remember Woodrow Wilson and Harry Truman? (Sarcasm)
I think that before Clinton, the Democrats were actually a lesser evil. They were still evil, but not as evil as Republicans. Clinton made them equally evil.
It is “so weird!” Especially true since their main platform is “protecting the environment!” Except that platform allows them to $HIT MORAL SUPERIORITY on our face, while they drag us into WWIII and our final “Clim@te Change!” (Sarcasm)
The Democrats’ main platform is not about protecting the environment. Their platform is more about the idiotic woke BS than anything. They’re just not as bad about the environment as Republicans. The Democrats prioritize U.S. empire, money, and power above all else, and have become another war party. War is bad for the environment and all species!
I agree with everything you said, except they didn’t become. They already were. WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam…
There used to be some Democrats in Congress who opposed these wars of empire. Once they gerrymandered Dennis Kucinich out of office — another reason we need proportional representation, BTW, no gerrymandering in that system — those Democrats became extinct. I realize that the Democratic Party establishment is just as bad on war as the Republican Party establishment, but the Democratic Party used to be the only party with members of Congress where there was any resistance to war. Now it’s the Republican Party.
There is no anti-war party. Being against a particular war, or at least certain aspects of it, while pushing for other wars doesn’t qualify one as anti-war.
At least they didn’t went as far as Canadian parliament.
That’s not what I was implying. Obviously the vast majority of the republicans are MIC uniparty. It’s just weird that there’s not even a single antiwar voice among the dems. Not one.
Yeah, this is backward. It used to be that the only anti-war voices in Congress (all two of them) came from the Democratic Party. Neither party is worth voting for nor supporting, so I guess this doesn’t matter that much, but it is kinda weird.
I hear you and I agree. But still, there is no antiwar party or even a faction of one.
Fair enough.
Do the right thing? Hell no, we’re the USA , we are above the law, beyond the law, we make the law! Thank goodness we’re the good guys,eh kiddie’s? Now go out and support the troops and at the checkout make sure you round up to support homeless vets…Or else!
( i have to write this because this corrupt pro war publication wont)
I call for the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau and the entire Canadian Parliament to be arrested for conspiracy to hide and protect the Nazi war criminal Yaroslav Hunka. How many others are they hiding?
This man was vetted extensively before he entered the Canadian Parliament, they knew exactly who he was. He is the worst of the worst of the Nazi’s, allegedly guilty of mass murder, ethnic cleansing and genocide. Revered and celebrated by the Canadian Parliament in what can only be described as an outrage.
As Volodymyr Zelensky the President of Ukraine was part of this scripted event he must also be arrested for taking part in this conspiracy. Volodymyr Zelensky is a supreme international criminal and must face war crimes tribunals for his many many crimes against the people of Ukraine and his crimes against humanity.
Yaroslav Hunka must immediately be extradited to Poland where he can be arrested and presented to the Hague/ICC.
Justin Trudeau must immediately be tested for cocaine use and arrested for his crimes against humanity.
These people are monsters, parasites on humanity, total psychopaths.
Justin Trudeau exceeded my expectation. He recently won my coveted “most disgusting DEMON” award after watching his speech blaming his own Na$i orgy on the Speaker and Russia. BUT, I haven’t watched a video clip of Biden, Killary, Nuland, Freeland, Obama, or Lindsey G for a few days. They’re strong competitors. (Sarcasm)
Your sarcasm always speaks to the truth NA!
Anyone from the U.S. does more harm, because the U.S. is the evil empire. Canada, western Europe, etc. are just vassal states of the U.S. and basically do what they’re told.
For what it’s worth, he has apologized.
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canadian-pm-apologises-after-parliamentary-speaker-publicly-praised-nazi-2023-09-27/
It’s not worth anything.
A fine idea, but hard to indict the Trudeau gov’t now when Canada (with the USA amd Ukraine) repeatedly voted AGAINST Russian Federation motions at the U.N. which sought to condemn the glorification of Naziism.
It’s been plain where Canada stands on this issue; the recent debacle in Parliament is only one more piece of evidence to the fact we citizens already ignored.
None of this will change under the Conservatives; in the rare chance of a Peoples’ Party gov’t, it would just dovetail with extant PPC policy. Support for the far Right and Authoritarianism is written into the gov’t DNA now.
Germany, Italy and Japan also refused to support the condemning Nazism resolution.
In the 2022 vote, yeah – 51 countries opposed, up from 3 in 2014 (USA, Canada, Ukraine), 4 in 2015 (USA, Ukraine, Canada, Palau) and 3 in 2016 (USA, Ukraine, Palau).
When you read the text of these declarations, they include condemning Holocaust denial as well. I read one of the USA apologetics for voting against and it comes down to “the wording might infringe on free expression”. POWERFUL weak.
Was the old man they showed an imposter maybe? On the one photo I know, he was in with other people and does not look 98 years old to me. He would have been 20 years old at the end of the war. He did not even need a wheelchair.
Asa long as it is just Ukrainians dying keep the war going it is really good for business.
We are being governed by an army of war criminals. In the end all of us will face collective guilt as a nation, just like Germans had to accept that they all were guilty for the wars.
In your (personal) defense, and that of other regular Americans, there’s basically nothing to be done against not only a corrupt government, but against a corrupt SYSTEM as a whole. Your Constitution does provide a series of escalating options to ‘deal with’ a tyrannical government, but, as evidenced by the Jan 6th incident, the US government has overwhelming force on its side.
I mean, had the rioters breached the inner sanctum of Congress and laid bare hand on the Orb of Democracy, that would have instantly changed – all obedience from all elected government officials, government employees, and all in the military, would instantly bow to the One among the rioters who held the Orb. No wonder the Dems, and much of the Left, call it an insurrection and feared it so greatly !
The Jan. 6th riot was about keeping King Donald in power and not about dealing with tyranny. It was one tyrant or the other.
From a matter of perspective, one might say the MAGAian Patriots at the Capitol saw the Democrats as the tyrants and an election stolen.
Any agents seeking to invoke the Constitution as justification for overthrowing a sitting US government will, by default, be declared unjust and insurrectionist by even a most evidently fascist regime holding the White House. With history written (and retconn’d) by the victors, only that overthrow found successful will ever be viewed as legitimate.
The American Revolution was illegal and terrorist; until it succeeded, and wasn’t.
We would need politicians with honor who really care about their Mother or Fatherland like the Russian people do. We have politicians for whom their homeland is nothing but a gold sh*tting donkey.
Agree entirely. And it was amusing (and telling) when a recent article about the budget fight and gov’t shutdown squabble, described a rider added in to reduce several ranking officials’ salaries (Defence Secretary Austin’s as one) from ~$220k to $1/year.
And none of Austin or others stepped forth to say “Go ahead, do so – I work for the good of my nation, not of my bank account.”
“Motherland,” “Fatherland,” and “homeland” are bullshit slogans used to sell Kool-Aid to the serfs.
Kool-Aid is delicious, yo ! So long as you lump in as-much-or-more sugar as the packet recommends, not cutting the sweetness & quality by axing 90% of the sugar like my Mom did.
Plus you can dye your hair with the crystals ! Goodness, so many uses for one product, it probably shouldn’t be shipped to “enemy countries” lest it also enrich uranium or oxidize rocket-fuel…!
😂
They sound like Third Reich terms to me. Mother Earth is fine, but the rest are disgusting.
There’s no such thing as collective guilt. If that were true everybody would be guilty for everything. We are only guilty for the the wrongs we do personally. That concept comes from the Mosaic Law and only applied to Israel, but the concept was carried into Western thought through Zionist influence.
In politics the winner determines that. All Germans were Nazis, all Germans were guilty. The victor writes the history. That is the way it is.
The real issue is, how responsible are regular citizens of a country when that country commits war- and/or human rights crimes? Are we responsible because we don’t stop these crimes? Because we’re not living on the street protesting against them? Because we didn’t overthrow the government?
I have no opinion one way or the other, these are just philosophical questions to think about and discuss. My view is that all mentally competent adults are responsible to at least some extent for all of their actions and inactions, but of course the extent is an issue.
Jeff, I personally believe we should all be rioting in the streets to shut this godforsaken government down.
It’s our responsibility.
If the people do try to do something about it, they are to be silenced and made into criminals or even shot down as in Kent State massacre a long time ago. Whether you believe Jan. 6 protesters were right or wrong, the state certainly made them examples of what not to do with their long sentences, in contrast to the BLM rioters in Chicago who got a multi-million dollar settlement from the state at the expense of the taxpayers. And, you brought up a point was to the ‘extent’ of the issue. That would be an arbitrary answer depending on the feelings of those asked the question.
find out the names of those supporting the use of weapons of mass indiscriminate destruction and immediately recall them to their respective states and impeach them with a vote of no confidence. anyone who supports mass murder of innocents should NOT be in power, but should be criminally charged and imprisoned.
Ukraine was asking the G7 for long range missiles to strike Iran and Syria. This is the country that NATO wanted to give nuclear weapons too. Have we all gone mad?
I just woke up and have not had my coffee yet. I read the headline and thought they killed Gaetz. 😉
Roman style.
That aside, I support the ban entirely.
Gaetz better watch out, it is not the end yet.