Ex Gov George Pataki just said on CNN, that they have seen NO evidence of US humanitarian

[Laura PourMeADrink]

aid inside Ukraine. And he and his group have traveled all over the country.

[peppertree]

1. "Someone from Farce News told me to say this - said they'd make me relevant again"

Pat-achy on sodium pentothal.

[DURHAM D]

2. He is a Republican.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

4. Why in the world would anyone who has dedicated so much time

To Ukraine make this up? Seems absurd. So easy to prove wrong.

Even weirder was Fredericka on CNN acting like it was no big deal. Zero curiosity! Is she a journalist?

[2naSalit]

3. And he and his group have traveled all over the country.

With their eyes closed?

[Laura PourMeADrink]

6. ??? He said they've been to most every part. So to me there's got to be some truth

Either he's making all this shit up. Or it's true they're not able to get in there. Or somewhere in between. If you are a group that has made multiple trips to the Ukraine, you would think you would do something to figure out why humanitarian aid is not getting thru?????? And if you're making it up? Well why would you do that to undermine your own endeavors?

[mcar]

5. My and SOs charity got 3 tons

Last edited Sun Dec 4, 2022, 02:32 PM - Edit history (1)

of medical supplies into Ukraine in June. We have photos to prove it.

[Lucinda]

9. ❤️ ✿❧🌿❧✿ ❤️

[Ocelot II]

7. Is he talking about direct US government aid or US-based NGOs?

And does he have any reliable way of knowing what's coming from whom?

[Laura PourMeADrink]

19. It wasn't an expose! It was a comment he made that they were all

Surprised that they didn't see any evidence of ALL the humanitarian aid people have donated to. Period. Paragraph.

[Sneederbunk]

8. Ask the Ukrainians.

[onecaliberal]

11. 👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻

[Hortensis]

10. Interesting, Laura, and agree his claim does sound...attention-grabbingly dramatic.

With the Republican Party building its propaganda to support planned cuts in aid to Ukraine we need to keep a cool eye on claims like this from Republicans like Pataki, and Republican tilting media.

I looked for more info on this claim, but it's apparently too early.

For general information, I did find a Factcheck.org infromation piece from two days ago, after a critique by a different Republican, a congressman this time, of "Democrat" Ukraine spending.

U.S. Aid to Ukraine, Explained

...When asked whether Republicans would “make it more difficult” for Congress to approve Ukrainian aid, Rep. Mike Turner criticized the $40 billion package enacted in May, saying: “We don’t need to pass $40 billion large Democrat bills … to send $8 billion to Ukraine.” ... ( )

https://www.factcheck.org/2022/12/u-s-aid-to-ukraine-explained/

Buckle up on this one. It's going to be a bumpy ride.

[spooky3]

15. Link didn't work for me nt

[Hortensis]

17. Just did here, maybe came back up? Here's a link to Factcheck.org's

"featured posts," Spooky3, with this one at the top of the list:

https://www.factcheck.org/featured-posts/

Hope it works.

[Bev54]

12. Humanitarian aid is sent and distributed by NGO's

already in Ukraine and are Ukrainians. Just like all the aid from Europe, it is taken to the border towns and handed over to Ukrainian groups to distribute. What was he looking for? US flags on everything?

[spooky3]

14. Jose Andres and his group have spent lots of time

And money there, per the donor updates they send.

[dutch777]

13. Can't speak to aid such as bags of rice but my wife's company has Ukrainian consultants

under contract so they continue to get a paycheck in US dollars which seems pretty humanitarian to me. It's a tech company and other than different time zone hassle, it seems to be win win for all.

[Elessar Zappa]

16. He's full of shit.

[Hortensis]

18. I'm reminded, Putin DESPERATELY needed a Republican takeover of congress

to as much as possible stop U.S. assistance to Ukraine. He needed it to stave off possible ultimate defeat in both Ukraine and of his dreams of restoring the Russian hegemony. Possibly a personal existential need as well.

Putin STILL needs the Republicans to block as much U.S. assistance as they can. And people in and out of office, like jumped-to-power Marjorie Taylor Greene and media folk like Tucker Carlson and Glenn Greenwald for the right and left respectively, push for that in and out of congress while parroting Russia's propaganda distribution here in the U.S.

We still don't know what hooks Putin has had some influential RW decisionmakers hanging from all this time, but to me all this is also a reminder that they exist. Russia's been famous for decades for heavy use of blackmail in foreign policy and warfare. There's no reason to think they're not still compromised and/or willingly colluding.

It's also a reminder that Russia and Putin's authoritarianism are admired by authoritarian voters, on the left as welll, but especially among the highly authoritarian MAGAs, themselves famous for admiration of dictators.