#gregory meeks

At least a small number of House Republicans are apparently growing cojones. Not only did the House pass a War Powers Resolution to end the Trump Iran war but it also voted in favor of aid to Ukraine and additional sanctions on Putin's Russia.

US lawmakers advanced legislation to provide more military aid to Ukraine and tighten sanctions on Russia, marking the first time since President Donald Trump's re-election that major such legislation advanced over White House resistance. The 218-204 vote by the Republican-controlled House of Representative cleared the way for a final vote on the Ukraine Support Act later on June 4. Though six Republicans joined Democratic lawmakers in the June 3 vote, it was unclear if it would get final approval. The measure advanced with support from Democrats and a small group of Republicans, highlighting divisions within Trump's party over US policy toward Ukraine and Russia. The Ukraine Support Act, introduced by Representative Gregory Meeks (Democrat-New York), would provide $8 billion in military financing loans to Ukraine, extend the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) through 2027, and impose additional sanctions on Russia.

I can imagine Putin calling Trump to express his disapproval while playing the famous pee tapes in the background. 😆

This bill still has a long way to go to become law. But it's significant that it passed in the first place.

The only way to bring the war to an end is to defeat Russia. Putin is still talking like he owns the lands he covets in Ukraine. What has changed in recent months is that Ukraine is using its homegrown technologically advanced drones to demolish Russia's oil infrastructure and hit military industrial facilities deep into Russia.

Even Marco Rubio thinks Russia is now going nowhere with its invasion.

Hours before the House vote, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a notably blunt assessment of Russia's military campaign during testimony before Congress, arguing Moscow has failed to achieve its original war aims and may never secure the objectives it currently seeks through negotiations. "I don't think there's any doubt at this point in the minds of most observers around the world, and I would say in the minds of some inside of Russia, that the invasion of Ukraine has been a strategic disaster for them," Rubio told lawmakers.

People like to be on the winning side and Ukraine is showing that it can go on the offensive against Russian aggressors. Just yesterday, Ukraine struck a naval base and an oil terminal in St. Petersburg – Putin's home town. Smoke rose high above the city as international delegates were arriving to participate in a major economic conference.

So assisting Ukraine is probably seen, at least by some House Republicans, as associating with an underdog winner rather than with loser Putin.

And it's not just sentimental reasons. When Middle Eastern countries were looking for new ways to defend against Iranian missiles and drones, they got technological assistance from Ukraine rather than Russia.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Dems

Amee Vanderpool at SHERO:

Following the US Supreme Court's ruling on July 8 that cleared the way for the Trump administration to continue mass firings by lifting a lower court injunction that had paused layoffs, more than 1,350 employees at the State Department were terminated via email. On July 11, the State Department sent out Reduction In Force notices to 1,350 employees in an attempt to gain "higher quality" staff, according to Michael Rigas, the US Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources, who testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on July 15, mere days after the notices were sent out. "Even though there were certainly people who were qualified and great patriots who were separated from service, what you can take comfort in knowing is that the people who remained actually were selected using merit systems principles, to actually have ranked as higher quality — in terms of tenure, in terms of experience, in terms of skills — to be able to carry out the mission," Rigas told House Foreign Affairs Committee Members in an attempt to justify for the rapid and chaotic dismissal of so many career professionals. "For the State Department to become an effective instrument of American Foreign policy, we must reform and streamline our institution," Rigas said in his prepared testimony. The Trump administration, through Michael Rigas, sought to defend the quick layoffs that were hastily arranged and perfectly timed to occur after the Supreme Court ruling, but before any further litigation could continue on the case that might jeopardize the terminations. You would think that such an enormous and essential undertaking would require years of study and planning. But this latest round of substantial State cutbacks was devised and implemented by two young advisors to the Trump administration, who have no real expertise in anything other than selling their far-right strategies.

The cutbacks focused on foreign programs and services that were aimed towards LGBTQ+ communities, maternal and reproductive health, and minority groups. The theoretical impetus for these terminations stemmed from the appointment of 26-year-old Samuel Samson as a Senior Advisor to the State Department by Donald Trump. On May 27, just weeks before the Court gave Trump the green light to fire more people, Samson published an article for the State Department on Substack, titled "The Need for Civilizational Allies in Europe." [...]

The practical operation of terminating 1,350 State Department employees was spearheaded by Jeremy Lewin, a 28-year-old former agent of Elon Musk’s DOGE Agency, who oversaw the sloppy dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) earlier this year. Lewin, a Harvard Law School graduate, has previously worked as a research assistant for Laurence Tribe and co-authored an essay in The New York Times with Tribe, an outspoken critic of Donald Trump. Both argued for leveraging frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine, but now Lewin is acting as a preverbal political hitman for Donald Trump and the “America First” theory that dominates the Project 2025 missive. Lewin, who is now serving in the newly created slapdash position of acting undersecretary for foreign assistance, humanitarian affairs, and religious freedom, was promoted on July 11, the day of the layoffs, to become the agency’s third-highest-ranking undersecretary under Marco Rubio. He is one of the youngest individuals to hold that rank in the State Department’s history, possibly the youngest. In his short tenure with the federal government, Lewin has been promoted three times, and the Trump administration appears to be intent on rewarding his hard work with new titles that seem to have been created especially for him.

[...] Perhaps the best descriptor for these new Trumpian young guns, which includes Samson and Lewin, was when Representative Gregory Meeks (D-NY), the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s top Democrat, called them “a small cabal of unqualified MAGA extremists.” Meeks continued when speaking about the latest overhaul of employees at the State Department: “This wasn’t a serious review of national security needs, it was a political stunt [and] the result? The most damaging brain drain in the State Department’s modern history.”

Charlie: Look. I may not be a saint, but it's not like I’ve killed anybody. I’m not an arsonist. I’ve never found a wallet outside of an IHOP and thought about returning it but saw the owner lived out of state so just took the cash and dropped the wallet back on the ground.

Cameron: Okay, that's really specific, and that makes me think that you definitely did do that.

--

Todd: Name a more iconic duo than my crippling fear of abandonment and my anxiety. I'll wait.

Neil: You and me!!!

Todd, tearing up: Okay.

--

Charlie: How did none of you hear what I just said?

Todd: I’ve been zoned out for the past two and a half hours.

Neil: I got distracted about halfway through.

Knox: Ignoring you was a conscious decision.

--

Charlie, at an awards show: Well, first of all, I’d like to thank Meeks, the love of my life, for telling me Cameron was going to win so don’t bother to prepare a speech.

--

Knox: I didn't drink that much last night.

Pitts: You were flirting with Charlie.

Knox: So what? He's my boyfriend.

Pitts: You asked if he was single.

Meeks introduced the EAGLE Act—the House version of the bipartisan Strategic Competition Act—in May and included measures to boost a global climate change plan while eviscerating sections related to affirming support for Taiwan. Meeks also rejected several suggestions from House Republicans on national security challenges related to the Chinese Communist Party.

Michael Sainato at The Guardian:

Congressional Democrats are introducing a bill that would provide childcare relief to federal workers affected by the shutdown of the federal government, as it drags on through a second week.

Parents would be reimbursed for fees paid to childcare facilities during the shutdown under plans initiated by Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. Any federal employee who has been furloughed, or remains working through the shutdown without pay, would be entitled to support under the Federal Worker Childcare Protection Act of 2025. The bill authorizes the General Services Administration to receive official documentation for childcare expenses from federal workers to apply for reimbursement. “When you talk to federal workers right now, a lot of them are exhausted. They’re proud of what they do, but they’re tired of being treated like their lives are expendable,” Omar said in a statement on the bill.

“This administration has made it clear it’s not interested in standing up for workers – but I am,” she added. “As a working parent, I know the importance of having reliable childcare. This bill is a small but necessary way to show that their work and their families matter.” About 100 childcare centers previously operated in GSA-managed federal spaces, providing childcare for thousands of children daily, but the so-called “department of government efficiency” eliminated the GSA office that managed these facilities earlier this year. Co-sponsors of the bill include the congressional Democratic representatives Pramila Jayapal, Summer Lee, Gregory Meeks, Jerry Nadler, and Rashida Tlaib.

Neil: From now on we will be using code names.

Neil: You can address me as Eagle One.

Neil: Charlie is “been there done that”.

Neil: Todd is “currently doing that”.

Neil: Pitts is “it happened once in a dream”.

Neil: Meeks is “if I had to pick a friend”.

Neil: And Cameron is..

Neil: Eagle Two

Cameron: Oh thank god.

--

Knox: There's no way he likes me back.

Todd: Charlie would throw himself in front of a moving car for you.

Knox: Charlie would throw himself in front of a moving car for fun.

--

Neil, at Todd: Would you like to stay for dinner?

Charlie, from the kitchen: Would you like to stay forever!?!

--

Todd: Sorry I’m late, I was doing things.

Neil: Hi, I’m ‘things’.

--

Meeks: I still have no idea how I’m attracted to you...

Charlie: Yeah, well, you’re stuck with me, and no take backs, honey.

--

Neil: Hey, I’m getting in the shower. Wanna help me out?

Todd: ...Have you never taken a shower before?

--

Neil: Being gay is a constant battle between "I wish to sit on a window bench with my lover, our legs tangling as we listen to the birds" and "Hey, let's go throw rocks at fascists" and I think that's very sexy of us.

Todd: If the window's open and you time it right, you can do both.

--

Charlie: Are you a painting?

Knox: What-?

Charlie: Because I want to pin you to a wall.

Neil: OH GOD I THOUGHT YOU WERE GOING TO SAY YOU WANTED TO HANG HIM OR SOMETHING-

--

Meeks: What are you in the mood for?

Charlie: World domination.

Meeks: That's a bit ambitious.

Charlie: You are my world.

Meeks: Aww...

Charlie:

Meeks:

Charlie:

Meeks: OH.

--

Charlie: Meeks, you love me, right?

Meeks: Normally I’d say yes without hesitation, but I feel like this is going somewhere I won’t like.

--

Todd: Fine! Judge all you want but...

Todd, points at Knox: Married a lesbian.

Todd, points at Neil: Left a man at the altar.

Todd, points at Pitts: Fell in love with a gay ice dancer.

Todd, points at Cameron: Threw a girl’s wooden leg in a fire.

Todd, points at Charlie: Lives in a box!

--

Neil: My future partner must be brave, strong, intelligent, successful and organized.

Todd: *steps on a caterpillar and proceeds to drop to their knees and sob while apologizing profusely*