Billions upon billions of dollars. $54 billion, including $20.6 billion in military assistance. That’s what America has committed to Ukraine for its defensive war with Russia (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/05/20/upshot/ukraine-us-aid-size.html?smid=url-share).
(Keep in mind, we don’t send actual dollars to Ukraine. For military equipment, for example, we send those dollars to our military industrial complex here in the United States to produce weapons needed by Ukraine. War supported by our government is a bonanza to suppliers like Raytheon and Lockheed Martin.)
Based on Ukraine’s recent successes against Russia the investment seems to be paying off. It’s way too early for any consideration of a victory lap for Ukraine or for its prominent benefactor, President Biden (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/13/opinion/ukraine-war-biden.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare).
It is fair to wonder, however, what would Donald Trump have done, or would do, if he were again commander in chief? Would he cut the chord of support? Would he regurgitate Putin’s claim that Ukraine is a bastion of neo-Nazis needing to be exterminated?
If Trump puppets win control of one or both chambers of Congress will they act to stop the flow of armaments and essentials to Ukraine?
Americans have a soft spot for underdogs, so I would hope we favor Ukraine for the long term, regardless of our politics.
Paper Trail: Paper-gate, Mar-a-Lago-gate or whatever the name of the moment is for the investigation of Trump’s cache of classified documents is at a momentary standstill. Except for lingering doubts that all of the documents Trump took with him to Florida have been uncovered.
There’s increasing speculation Trump might have transported boxes of documents to his Bedminster, NJ, country club. Here’s a recent Twitter post from Jeff Tiedrich showing boxes being loaded on a private jet three days after the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) sought the return of missing material from Trump back on May 6, 2021: https://twitter.com/itsJeffTiedrich/status/1568610619959513088?s=20&t=VmRSvnybsfQlmTuLwAzX7w.
A picture, they say, is worth a thousand words, but a video is so much better, especially if it is a Jimmy Kimmel parody (sorry, but as my tech skills are limited, you’ll have to wait until 5:33 of the YouTube monologue for the 1:05 minute clip of Box-gate): https://youtu.be/eL2fGiJzr6Q .
