How are things in Yemen?

[pineapplemike]

Republican leaders move to stall House from taking up Yemen bill
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/12/ ... 56088.html

Republican leadership in Congress moved to stall until next year a broadly supported congressional resolution aimed at ending US support for Saudi Arabia's bombing campaign in Yemen.

The move came as part of a tight procedural vote on Wednesday in the US House of Representatives on an $837bn, five-year agriculture bill.

Tucked within the rules governing the bill is a provision that says the War Powers Resolution, which fast tracks certain bills, won't apply to any resolution related to Yemen for the rest of this Congress.

The move will effectively block the House from taking up any bill on Yemen this year, even if one makes it through the Senate. The House is expected to pass the farm bill later on Wednesday.

The 206-203 House vote is a temporary win for President Donald Trump who has advanced a policy of US support for the Saudi Arabia in Yemen and its wider, regional standoff with Iran.
...
House Republicans said a closed-door briefing by US Secretaries of Defense and State scheduled for Thursday would give members of Congress an opportunity to review and discuss the situation in Yemen with senior Trump officials.

The House action on Wednesday effectively undercuts the debate over Yemen in the Senate where a bipartisan majority voted 63-47 earlier this month on a preliminary procedure to advance the measure blocking US military action in Yemen.

Outgoing Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, who is retiring from Congress, had said he would support the Trump White House and oppose the measure on Yemen.

House narrowly votes down legislation that would cut US military support for the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen, congressional aide tells me, saying it fell 3 votes short.

7 Democrats abstained.

Rep. Thomas Massie Condemns ‘Illegal and Unconstitutional Action’ to Prevent Vote on Yemen War
http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/co ... -yemen-war

Speaking Wednesday on the US House of Representatives floor, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) explained how the House leadership, through the House Rules Committee, on Tuesday night violated both the US Constitution and the War Powers Act in taking action to prevent a debate and vote on whether the US military should continue to be involved in the ongoing war on Yemen. This “illegal and unconstitutional action,” Massie describes, includes in the farm bill rule to be considered in the House a provision dictating that House members cannot, pursuant to the War Powers Act, bring to the House floor proposals to terminate US military actions overseas as Massie and colleagues have attempted to do in regards to US involvement in the Yemen War.

On November 28, a US Senate floor vote discharged from committee Senate Joint Resolution 54, such a measure seeking to end US military support for the war. That vote is a key step toward debating and voting in the Senate on the US military’s involvement in the war.

The House leadership action, Massie further explains has implications beyond the war on Yemen, as the leadership is “preemptively sweeping all of the power of the Congress under the War Powers Act under the rug for the entire remainder of this congressional session,” that is until a new Congress begins in January. The leadership’s action, continues Massie sets a “horrible” and “dangerous” precedent with the House speaker “grabbing more power” to ensure that the Congress gives “more power to the executive branch” and that House members abdicate their “constitutional responsibility to decide when and where our military should go”

[SuburbanFarmer]

LOL He still thinks that congress has anything to do with Infinity War. What a rube.

[heydaralon]

That military powers act has been violated so many times that it has actually become the norm. Bringing it up for a war we are not even in is pointless imo. When Congress wants that power back, they can take it through collective action. Until that time, they can stamp their feet in feigned anger. Remember when John Kerry got on his hands and knees and begged Bush to run the Iraq war by Congress, so they'd rubber stamp it? I do. What a joke.

[SuburbanFarmer]

Congress can't take shit back. They gave away a key power to the Executive, and it's gone now.

[heydaralon]

If they all banded together against the executive, they 100% could take it back. If they really really felt a war was unjustified, they could cut off funding. They don't have the spine to do that, but it could be done. The executive is not Caesar. They do not want the power back man, because it would lead to them having to take responsibility.

[Fife]

This is fine.

Democrat On Why He Voted to Prolong Yemen War: ‘I Don’t Know a Damn Thing About It’

Stein: Can you explain your vote on the Yemen resolution?


Peterson: Yeah. It didn’t belong there.


Stein: Why not? Couldn’t you just have come back and done another vote?


Peterson: No — we’ve worked for two years on this farm bill, and I’ll be damned if I let anyone screw it up.


Stein: Do you have any thoughts about the war in Yemen?


Peterson: I don’t know a damn thing about it, and it should be in there and it — it didn’t do anything anyway. [my emphasis]


Stein: What do you mean by that?


Peterson: All it did say was that they couldn’t have a vote or something. Didn’t authorize anything, it didn’t — you know. Our party gets off on tangents. It’s ridiculous.

[SuburbanFarmer]

Tangents. Yeah, definitely not Caesar.

[clubgop]

Tangents. Yeah, definitely not Caesar.

Yes a fucking tangent. This Democrat from his district wants this farm bill, it gets held up cause of Yemen, ask the people of that district. Wanna bet how they feel about it? This is politics.

[SuburbanFarmer]

Tangents. Yeah, definitely not Caesar.

Yes a fucking tangent. This Democrat from his district wants this farm bill, it gets held up cause of Yemen, ask the people of that district. Wanna bet how they feel about it? This is politics.

You’re right. But if this is the way our foreign policy is going to be determined... hail Caesar.

[clubgop]

Tangents. Yeah, definitely not Caesar.

Yes a fucking tangent. This Democrat from his district wants this farm bill, it gets held up cause of Yemen, ask the people of that district. Wanna bet how they feel about it? This is politics.

You’re right. But if this is the way our foreign policy is going to be determined... hail Caesar.

Well foreign policy is an executive function. Congress like a board of directors just approves or disapproves. And no one but needs care one bit about Yemen. It's a proxy fight with Iran and Russia and all it cost us is some money and equipment to the Saudis. Personally, if those two want to throw down, let them. I dont want to get into the middle of that. Just dont underestimate the TDS here. If we were to stop supporting the Saudis, the same people that are criticizing him for it would just turn around, as they are now with the Syrian, Afghanistan withdrawals and say it some sort of Russian plot. You cant win with these people.