Had enough yet

[Lee Chowaniec]

To EV or not to EV

Sooner or later purchasing an EV will not be an option. People with means, living in homes with charging capability, etc., all gung-ho about saving the planet fail to consider the adverse impacts to the environment and hardships for the public.

Extremely frustrated: Renters can find no place to plug in electric vehicles

https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/auto...04839d6476424a

Even as it appears electric car sales are hitting a tipping point, those living in apartments and condominiums around the nation can find it difficult, expensive or outright impossible to find a way to plug in when they’re at home.

With nearly 1 out of 3 households living in apartments or condominiums, the goal of switching to electric vehicles to fight climate change and save on gas becomes all the more challenging.

“It’s definitely harder,” said Joel Levin, executive director of Plug In America. “The vast majority of EV drivers live in single-family houses.” Levin said his nonprofit advocacy group advises prospective EV owners to find locations where they can reliably charge on a regular basis. And while that might be tough for those living in multifamily buildings, especially older ones with more primitive power systems, there are other options.

[Lee Chowaniec]

Some indicators on inflation’s impact on American households

Biden, his administration, and suck-up media are telling the country they are not getting the message out that the economy is strong, the job market is booming, and that policies are being put in place to staunch inflation. Americans are not feeling it and 70% of the voters polled are saying American is heading in the wrong direction.

From today’s media reports:

As rising inflation continues to wreak havoc on the U.S. economy, a new study by LendingClub Corp (NYSE: LC) has determined nearly two-thirds of Americans are now living a paycheck-to-paycheck existence.

The study also found that paycheck-to-paycheck consumers were three times as likely to revolve credit card debt and carry higher monthly balances overall, with 29% of credit card holders stating they "always" or "usually" revolve their balances. Struggling consumers also tend to nearly exhaust the average credit card spending limit of $4,700, declaring an average balance of $3,800.

The new study was based on a census-balanced poll of 2,326 adults conducted from March 9 to March 11, with 52% of respondents identified as females, 32% were college-educated and 36% declared incomes of over $100,000 per year.

A new poll finds more Americans are borrowing money from family and friends than they were a year ago.

According to the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey, 25.6 million people, or more than 10 percent of U.S. adults, had to rely on their support network for financial backing, up from 19.1 million a year.


Fourteen percent of respondents who identify as millennials said in another survey that they borrowed money from their family members and friends, a 3 percent increase from April 2021.

Eleven percent of respondents who identify as Generation X said that they borrowed money from their family and friends in the survey, and 8 percent of respondents identifying as baby boomers said the same.

Seventeen percent of respondents who identify as Black also said in the survey that they have borrowed money from family members and friends, seeing a 6 percent increase from this time last year.

Fifteen percent of respondents who identify as Hispanic and 7 percent of those who identify as either white or Asian also said in the survey that they have borrowed money from family and friends.

The latest Census Bureau survey was conducted from March 30 to April 11, sending invitations to 1 million households and receiving a total of 63,769 responses. The survey had a weighted response rate of 6 percent.

[mark blazejewski]

January 6, 2021 has been called an "insurrection" which threatened our democracy, and some actors remain in confinement without bail.

Yesterday, Politico published a leaked draft SCOTUS decision which suggests that Roe v. Wade will be overturned; an arguably unprecedented breach of SCOTUS security, which tends to undermine the sanctity of the revered institution.

That leak, and its subsequent publication, IMHO, is as much a threat to our democracy as was the January 6, 2022 protest.

Will the Left view the leak and its publication as such a threat, or will it exploit the leak in order to benefit the Left in the November elections, and perhaps pave the way for SCOTUS expansion?

The Revolution marches on, eh?

How rare is a Supreme Court breach? Very rare

Court watchers can’t recall a previous time when a draft opinion was publicly disclosed before a decision.

Reference: https://www.politico.com/news/2022/0...inion-00029475

Supreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights, draft opinion shows

"We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled," Justice Alito writes in an initial majority draft circulated inside the court.

Reference: https://www.politico.com/news/2022/0...inion-00029473

[OutsidetheBox]

January 6, 2021 has been called an "insurrection" which threatened our democracy, and some actors remain in confinement without bail.

Yesterday, Politico published a leaked draft SCOTUS decision which suggests that Roe v. Wade will be overturned; an arguably unprecedented breach of SCOTUS security, which tends to undermine the sanctity of the revered institution.

That leak, and its subsequent publication, IMHO, is as much a threat to our democracy as was the January 6, 2022 protest.

Will the Left view the leak and its publication as such a threat, or will it exploit the leak in order to benefit the Left in the November elections, and perhaps pave the way for SCOTUS expansion?

I would say the bigger threat is overturning settled law that protects citizens privacy.

[mark blazejewski]

I would say the bigger threat is overturning settled law that protects citizens privacy.

My post did not argue the merits of the perceived decision, but spoke to the breach of SCOTUS security.

With that said, Dred Scott and Plessy v. Ferguson were also considered settled law.

The 13th Amendment and Brown vs. Topeka changed that status quo, eh?

Regarding privacy, how do you feel about vaccine mandates which attend a vaccine, which is strictly emergent from the world of emergency use authorization, perhaps is not be fully tested and assessed, and does not prevent the spread, or the contraction, of the subject virus?

What of the requirement of business patrons and employees who must provide proof of such vaccination in order to engage work or recreation?

The phrase "Papers Please" comes into my mind.

My body, my choice, seriously?

[mark blazejewski]

January 6, 2021 has been called an "insurrection" which threatened our democracy, and some actors remain in confinement without bail.

Yesterday, Politico published a leaked draft SCOTUS decision which suggests that Roe v. Wade will be overturned; an arguably unprecedented breach of SCOTUS security, which tends to undermine the sanctity of the revered institution.

That leak, and its subsequent publication, IMHO, is as much a threat to our democracy as was the January 6, 2022 protest.

Will the Left view the leak and its publication as such a threat, or will it exploit the leak in order to benefit the Left in the November elections, and perhaps pave the way for SCOTUS expansion?

The Revolution marches on, eh?



Reference: https://www.politico.com/news/2022/0...inion-00029475



Reference: https://www.politico.com/news/2022/0...inion-00029473

The Federalist just posted this...

The SCOTUS Abortion Decision Leak Is What Actual Treasonous Insurrection Looks Like

BY: ELLE REYNOLDS
MAY 03, 2022

If we allow the court’s process of upholding the rule of law to become poisoned by partisan leaks, the consequences will be cataclysmic.

For all the left’s cries of “threats to democracy” and “insurrection” about things like uncensored speech on Twitter or literally walking peacefully through a door, what happened Monday night appeared to be a far truer and more dangerous example of treasonous insurrection.

A purported first draft of the Supreme Court opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson, overturning Roe v. Wade and its protection of a woman’s legal ability to kill her baby, was leaked by an unknown source to Politico in an all-out attempt to agitate chaos and undermine the U.S. Supreme Court.

It seems obvious the leak was intended to incite fury with the potential to pressure the justices into changing their final votes, to push Congress to try to codify Roe, and to pressure Joe Biden to rush to pack the court. The justices and their families are now targets for threats attempting to sway their decisions, and the 2020 summer of rage is surely recent in the bench’s memory. Politico as good as admitted the leak’s coercive purpose:

Deliberations on controversial cases have in the past been fluid. Justices can and sometimes do change their votes as draft opinions circulate and major decisions can be subject to multiple drafts and vote-trading, sometimes until just days before a decision is unveiled. The court’s holding will not be final until it is published, likely in the next two months.

The Supreme Court is one of the few American political institutions whose authority is still widely and bipartisanly recognized, although Democrat chatter of packing the court last year has already eroded it. Such a leak is an outright attack on the court’s gravity and process, the justices’ trust amongst each other, and the rule of law.

If you want to find anything in America’s recent political memory that fits the bill of actual insurrection, look no further than this. Undermining the judicial process in such a calculated and consequential way is textbook insurrection, defined by Merriam-Webster as “an act or instance of revolting against civil authority or an established government.”

Neither speech on Twitter that challenges the regime’s narrative nor the events of Jan. 6, 2021, pose nearly the threat to the legitimacy of the U.S. government that this attack on our highest court of law could.

Chief Justice John Roberts must oversee a swift and thorough investigation. As constitutional law professor Josh Blackman wrote Monday night, any apparent participants in the leakage plot “should be referred to the Department of Justice for potential criminal activity, including theft of government property.”

As far as the court is concerned, the sooner it issues its official decision, the better — for the legitimacy of its decision in Dobbs and for the legitimacy of the court itself. Since Marbury v. Madison, America has always looked to the bench to be the final say in political debates. If we allow the court’s very process of upholding the rule of law to become poisoned by partisan leaks with the goal of forcing political pressure, the consequences will cause real damage to the republic.

Reference: https://thefederalist.com/2022/05/03...on-looks-like/

[mark blazejewski]

Yesterday, an unprecedent leak of a SCOTUS decision suggested that Roe v. Wade will be overturned. Since then, does it not appear that the Left, far from being outraged at the breach, which threatens the sanctity of the SCOTUS, has exploited the leaked decision for apparent political purposes?

With that in mind, this is an event on Vice President Harris' schedule for today:

2022-05-03 (4).png

This is what the We Are Emily Conference is all about:

Join EMILY's List for our annual We Are EMILY National Conference and Gala. This virtual and in-person event will celebrate the women taking the lead in defending our democracy and our right to reproductive freedom. The program will feature candidates, elected officials, and leaders from around the country, as we uplift the women who have inspired others to take action in their communities, and the upcoming generation of leaders who will continue to grow the movement to put more Democratic pro-choice women in office for years to come.

Reference: https://emilyslist.org/2022

[Lee Chowaniec]

A game changer, indeed!

While 42% of Americans surveyed said they strongly disapproved of the job President Joe Biden is doing and 70% of voters polled believe America is headed in the wrong direction, Biden and the Democrats catch a vitalizing break.

The Supreme Court may have just fundamentally changed the 2022 midterm election

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...e00cc6523c6ef2

The draft opinion from the Supreme Court that would overturn the right to an abortion is a massive story with a myriad of implications for the American public. It also may be exactly what Democrats need to solve their passion problem heading into the 2022 midterm elections.

Polling suggests that the issue could absolutely be a galvanizing one -- for Democrats and even independents. In a January CNN poll, almost 7 in 10 Americans (69%) said they opposed the Supreme Court overturning Roe. That includes 86% of Democrats and 72% of independents.

More than 1 in 3 said they would be "angry" if the court overturned the decision, while another quarter said the decision would leave them "dissatisfied." Just 14% said the decision would make them "happy." Among Democrats, a majority -- 51% -- said the decision would make them "angry" while 29% of Republicans said it would make them "happy."

[Lee Chowaniec]

Biden attacks MAGA crowd

Hillary Clinton attacked the Republican Party as having a ‘half basket of deplorables’ – racists, sexists, xenophobes, etc. Biden, the self-proclaimed unifier, having no good story to tell, just inflamed emotions further dividing the country by labeling 76 million Republicans as ‘the most extreme political action in history’.

Will the leaked Supreme Court Roe abortion documents have enough of an impact on midterm and 2024 election outcomes remains to be seen. It does show how far our political parties will go to divide and harm us in the process to serve their best interests.

Trump and the Republicans are the only ones who lie, are an existential threat to democracy, and are to be mistrusted and hated, right?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opini...e804ccab18429b

Went grocery shopping yesterday and filled my gas tank - $210. Heating and electric bills increasing, Spectrum, newspaper, etc. Need some good news!

[mark blazejewski]

I thought that covert operations and intelligence sharing are to be secret. So, why are U.S. officials admitting these occurrences publicly?

U.S. intel helped Ukraine sink Russian flagship Moskva, officials say

The flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet sank on April 14 after being struck by two Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship missiles, according to U.S. officials.


May 5, 2022, 5:31 PM EDT

By Ken Dilanian, Courtney Kube and Carol E. Lee

Intelligence shared by the U.S. helped Ukraine sink the Russian cruiser Moskva, U.S. officials told NBC News, confirming an American role in perhaps the most embarrassing blow to Vladimir Putin’s troubled invasion of Ukraine.

A guided missile cruiser carrying a crew of 510, the Moskva was the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. It sank on April 14 after being struck by two Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship missiles, U.S. officials said. Moscow said the vessel sank after a fire. The Moskva was the largest Russian warship sunk in combat since World War II. American officials said there were significant Russian casualties, but they don’t know how many.

The attack happened after Ukrainian forces asked the Americans about a ship sailing in the Black Sea south of Odesa, U.S. officials told NBC News. The U.S. identified it as the Moskva, officials said, and helped confirm its location, after which the Ukrainians targeted the ship.

The U.S. did not know in advance that Ukraine was going to target the Moskva, officials said, and was not involved in the decision to strike. Maritime intelligence is shared with Ukraine to help it defend against attack from Russian ships, officials added.

The U.S. role in the sinking has not been previously reported. But NBC News detailed last month how American intelligence shared with Ukraine had been instrumental in Ukraine’s successes to date, including in helping Ukraine target Russian forces and avoid Russian attacks.

American officials have expressed concerns that reporting about U.S. intelligence sharing with Ukraine could anger Putin and provoke an unpredictable response.

The White House did not immediately provide a comment to NBC News.

The revelation about the Moskva comes on the heels of reporting by The New York Times that intelligence shared by the U.S. had in some cases helped Ukraine kill Russian generals. American officials did not dispute that, but pushed back strongly on the impression that the U.S. was explicitly providing information with the intent of striking Russian military leaders.

“We do not provide intelligence on the location of senior military leaders on the battlefield,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters Thursday, adding that the U.S. shares intelligence with Ukrainian forces but does not tell them who or what to attack.

Current U.S. policy expressly forbids the sharing of lethal targeting intelligence about Russian civilian and military leaders, two U.S. officials familiar with the matter told NBC News.

The Moskva was considered Russia’s most lethal warship, rippling with cannons and missile systems, some of which were designed to defend it from attack. The credible account that it was hit and sunk by anti-ship missiles was widely seen as a deep humiliation for the Russian military.

In the early days of the war, the Moskva was part of what became an iconic incident, when officers on board ordered Ukrainian border guards on Ukraine’s Snake Island to surrender.

“Russian warship, go f--- yourself,” the guards answered.

They were captured and later freed in a prisoner exchange.

The sinking of the Moskva has reignited a longstanding debate among naval experts about just how vulnerable ships are to missiles and kamikaze drones.

In the aftermath, the Russian Navy pulled back from the Ukrainian coast, U.S. defense officials told NBC News.

Reference: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/nat...-say-rcna27559

US provided Ukrainian military with real-time info that allowed it to shoot down Russian troop transporter carrying hundreds of soldiers in early days of war

Reference: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ansporter.html

Reader, ask yourself this question: "How do you think the United States would react if Russia helped to shoot-down a U.S. military transport and sink a U.S. naval vessel???

[Lee Chowaniec]

The true cost of going electric

Thinking of purchasing an EV now with high gas prices or in the future when mandated, start learning about affordability and shortcomings.

https://www.gobankingrates.com/savin...utm_medium=rss

[Lee Chowaniec]

Has the radical left hijacked the moderate Democratic Party?

Biden’s labeling 76 million Republican and their party as ‘the most extreme political action in history’, has indeed inflamed the country.

Victor Davis Hanson unloads on the Biden Administration’s need to now use federal resources to attack “disinformation.” So the Department of Homeland Security recently announced the creation of a “disinformation governance board.”

Powerful and inciteful rebut!

The New Disinfomationists

https://amgreatness.com/2022/05/01/t...formationists/

The Democratic Party no longer exists. It is now hard left, as sanctimonious as it is shrill. Such zealots will not discard their ideology. Rather they would prefer to embrace dogma and stay unpopular than adopt and gain public approval.

The board’s executive director, Nina Jankowicz, at least has clear qualifications for the post. She previously had spread false rumors on social media that Donald Trump voters would show up at the polls in 2020 armed, and joined the mob’s chorus that Hunter Biden’s laptop was “Russian disinformation.” Perhaps the idea behind her hiring was “it takes one to know one.”

Do not expect a suddenly closed border, an abrupt resumption of the Keystone XL Pipeline, or a tough new federal crime bill. Do anticipate more wild conspiracy theories, more Russian disinformation, and more Pravda-like ministries.

[Lee Chowaniec]

The existential threat to democracy

The Biden administration, the Democratic Party elitists, radical leftists, and mainstream media hold Trump, the Republican Party and its 76 million voters, Putin, and even FOX News as the existential threat to democracy.

The Biden administration has proposed the Office of Disinformation and by appointing a hard left socialist to run the operation says much about silencing free speech. Elon Musk is demonized for daring to suggest free speech will be tolerated on Twitter.

The left is having a meltdown on the Supreme Court’s opinion on Roe, fail to realize their role in shipping jobs overseas and China’s prosperity, doubling-down on Biden’s failed policies while try to sell how great the economy is when inflation is killing the middle class.

The country is not buying the Biden propaganda as 76% of voters declare the country is headed in the wring direction and Biden’s approval rating is at 41%.

The following commentary by Stanford University professor Dr. Victor Davis Hanson is quite provocative in presenting his concerned threat to America’s democracy and decay.

Is America Heading for a Systems Collapse?

In modern times, as in ancient Rome, several nations have suffered a “systems collapse.” The term describes the sudden inability of once-prosperous populations to continue with what had ensured the good life as they knew it.

Abruptly, the population cannot buy, or even find, once plentiful necessities. They feel their streets are unsafe. Laws go unenforced or are enforced inequitably. Every day things stop working. The government turns from reliable to capricious - if not hostile.

Consider contemporary Venezuela. By 2010, the once well-off oil-exporting country was mired in a self-created mess. Food became scarce, crime ubiquitous.
Radical socialism, nationalization, corruption, jailing political opponents, and the destruction of constitutional norms were the culprits.

Between 2009 and 2016, a once relatively stable Greece nearly became a Third World country. So did Great Britain in its socialist days of the 1970s.
Joe Biden’s young presidency may already be leading the United States into a similar meltdown.

Hard Left “woke” ideology has all but obliterated the idea of a border. Millions of impoverished foreigners are entering the United States illegally—and during a pandemic without either COVID-19 tests or vaccinations.

The health bureaucracies have lost credibility as official communiques on masks, herd and acquired immunity, vaccinations, and comorbidities apparently change and adjust to perceived political realities.

After decades of improving race relations, America is regressing into a pre-modern tribal society.

Crime soars. Inflation roars. Meritocracy is libeled and so we are governed more by ideology and tribe.

The soaring prices of the stuff of life — fuel, food, housing, health care, transportation — are strangling the middle class.

Millions stay home, content to be paid by the state not to work. Supply shortages and empty shelves are the new norm.

Nineteenth-century-style train robberies are back. So is 1970s urban violence, replete with looting, carjackings, and random murdering of the innocent.

After the Afghanistan debacle, we have returned to the dark days following defeat in Vietnam, when U.S. deterrence abroad was likewise shattered, and global terrorism and instability were the norms abroad.

Who could have believed a year ago that America would now beg Saudi Arabia and Russia to pump more oil—as we pulled our own oil leases, and canceled pipelines and oil fields?

Our path to systems collapse is not due to an earthquake, climate change, a nuclear war, or even the COVID-19 pandemic.

Instead, most of our maladies are self-inflicted. They are the direct result of woke ideologies that are both cruel and antithetical to traditional American pragmatism.

Hard-Left district attorneys in our major cities refuse to charge thousands of arrested criminals—relying instead on bankrupt social justice theories.

Law enforcement has been arbitrarily defunded and libeled. Police deterrence is lost, so looters, vandals, thieves, and murderers more freely prey on the public.

“Modern monetary theory” deludes ideologues that printing trillions of dollars can enrich the public, even as the ensuing inflation is making people poorer.

“Critical race theory” absurdly dictates that current “good” racism can correct the effects of past bad racism. A once tolerant, multiracial nation is resembling the factionalism of the former Yugoslavia.

The culprit again is a callous, woke ideology that posits little value for individuals, prioritizing only the so-called collective agenda.

Woke’s trademark is “equity,” or a forced equality of result. Practically, we are becoming a comic-book version of victims and victimizers, with woke opportunists playacting as our superheroes.

Strangest in 2021 was the systematic attack on our ancient institutions, as we scapegoated our ancestors for our own incompetencies.

The woke have waged a veritable war against the 233-year-old Electoral College and the right of states to set their own balloting laws in national elections, the 180-year-old filibuster, the 150-year-old nine-person Supreme Court, and the 60-year-old, 50-state union.

The U.S. military, Department of Justice, FBI, CIA, Center for Disease Control, and National Institutes of Health until recently were revered. Their top echelons were staffed by career professionals mostly immune to the politics of the day.

Not now. These bureaus and agencies are losing public confidence and support. Citizens fear rather than respect Washington grandees who have weaponized politics ahead of public service.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, Attorney General Merrick Garland, former FBI heads like James Comey and Andrew McCabe, retired CIA director John Brennan, and Anthony Fauci head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases—have all politicalized and vastly exceeded their professional purviews.

They sounded off in public fora as if they were elected legislators up for reelection. Some lied under oath. Others demonized critics. Most sought to become media darlings.

This governmental freefall is overseen by a tragically bewildered, petulant, and incompetent president. In his confusion, an increasingly unpopular President Joe Biden seems to believe his divisive chaos is working, belittling his political opponents as racist Confederate rebels.

As we head into the 2022 midterm elections, who will stop our descent into collective poverty, division, and self-inflicted madness?

[Lee Chowaniec]

Transition to green energy obstacles

It will not be as easy going green as the experts predict – for energy supply demand and consumer affordability reasons. More frequent reports are being issued warning of the government’s overly ambitious timeline to convert to sustainable energy products and the dangers of total elimination of fossil fuels.

More information is reported on the environmental impacts on mining rare earth minerals, their source and availability, and clean energy product disposal impacts.

From California to Texas to Indiana, electric-grid operators are warning that power-generating capacity is struggling to keep up with demand, a gap that could lead to rolling blackouts during heat waves or other peak periods as soon as this year.

The risk of electricity shortages is rising throughout the U.S. as traditional power plants are being retired more quickly than they can be replaced by renewable energy and battery storage. Power grids are feeling the strain as the U.S. makes a historic transition from conventional power plants fueled by coal and natural gas to cleaner forms of energy such as wind and solar power, and aging nuclear plants are slated for retirement in many parts of the country.

The challenge is that wind and solar farms—which are among the cheapest forms of power generation—don’t always produce electricity and need large batteries to store their output for later use. While a large amount of battery storage is under development, regional grid operators have lately warned that the pace may not be fast enough to offset the closures of traditional power plants that can work around the clock.

Speeding the build-out of renewable energy and batteries has become an especially difficult proposition amid supply-chain challenges and inflation. Most recently, a probe by the Commerce Department into whether Chinese solar manufacturers are circumventing trade tariffs on solar panels has halted imports of key components needed to build new solar farms and effectively brought the U.S. solar industry to a standstill.

The reliability question has stirred strong debate in Texas, where a freak winter storm last year caused power plants of all kinds to trip offline, forcing the grid operator to call for dayslong blackouts to keep supply in line with demand. Many problems played a part—some power plants weren’t prepared for subfreezing temperatures, while others couldn’t operate for lack of fuel—but the failures collectively exposed the vulnerability of the state’s power market and resulted in calls for change.

Real costs of electric car ownership

The conversion to EV’s is equally complex and costly

https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news...28917cc3c57b74

At a time when it costs up to $100 to fill a gas tank, but as little as $10 to charge an electric car, buying an EV may seem like an obvious choice. But EV economics are complicated, and you need to be savvy about a lot of unfamiliar factors before you can stick it to the oil companies.

[mark blazejewski]

Why is it that there is so little in the way of discussion about peacefully ending this war; a conflict which tragically impacts the innocent civilian Ukrainian population?

With that said, is this nomenclature really necessary?

Biden Signs Lend-Lease Act to Supply More Security Assistance to Ukraine

MAY 9, 2022 | BY DAVID VERGUN, DOD NEWS


Today, President Joe Biden signed into law the "Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022."

The act authorizes the administration, through fiscal year 2023, to lend or lease military equipment to Ukraine and other Eastern European countries. The act would exempt the administration from certain provisions of law that govern the loan or lease of military equipment to foreign countries, such as the five-year limit on the duration of the loan or the requirement that receiving countries pay all costs incurred by the United States in leasing the defense equipment.

Any loan or lease of military equipment to Ukraine would still be subject to all applicable laws concerning the return of such equipment.

Under current law, payments received under leasing agreements with foreign countries are deposited in the Treasury Department as miscellaneous receipts and are classified as direct spending.

This act could increase amounts deposited in the treasury if the administration lends or leases equipment that it otherwise would not have provided under current law.

Conversely, those deposits would decrease if the administration lends or leases equipment at a reduced cost under the act relative to amounts it otherwise would have charged under its existing authorities.

Lend-lease has been used before, during World War II.

At that time, total of $50.1 billion, equivalent to $690 billion in 2020, worth of supplies were shipped. In all, $31.4 billion went to the United Kingdom, $3.2 billion to France, $1.6 billion to China, $11.3 billion to the Soviet Union and the remaining $2.6 billion to other allies.

Reference: https://www.defense.gov/News/News-St...ce-to-ukraine/


Just another pesky lesson from history, eh?

Will not Putin... interdict those targets much in the same way that Hitler interdicted the ships carrying equipment to England during the early days of World War Two?

To ensure safe passage, did not the American government designate certain areas of the Atlantic to be "waters of self-defense?"...


In 1941, after Hitler violated the "waters of self-defense" doctrine, this was President Roosevelt's response:

"In the waters which we deem necessary for our defense, American naval vessels and American planes will no longer wait until Axis submarines lurking under the water, or Axis raiders on the surface of the sea, strike their deadly blow—first."

References:

http://docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/091141.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e68eHegUgDU&t=128s