Quick take: Mike Johnson, the Ukraine-Israel funding question, and remembering that Russia's victory is inevitable

 Speaker Mike Johnson's first move as Speaker is of no surprise.  President Biden has requested a linked funding package, providing aid to Ukraine, and to Israel.  Johnson's plan is to pass a funding package with money for Israel, but not Ukraine.  The reason is simple.  Johnson comes from the Trumpiest wing of the party, which means that he is pro-Putin, anti-Ukraine.  This sets up a conflict, obviously, because the Democratic majority Senate, where even the Republicans are slightly less Trumpy (McConnell is pro-Ukraine), will pass a linked funding bill, and Biden obviously prefers a linked package.  Who wins this round?  I do not know, but at this point, I turn back to what I have written in the past, as for example in this February 25 post.  Briefly summarized, I wrote that America's political will to fund Ukraine will be exhausted before Putin's capacity to fight.  Ukraine can only fight as long as it is funded by the US, so once our money stops flowing, they die.  Putin, however, dies if he abandons the fight, so he can never stop, and as a dictator, he can fight indefinitely.  All he had to do was wait for the Republicans to ride to his rescue.  Behold, his very white knight, Mike Johnson.  (OK, that's a cheap joke of the kind I normally disdain.)  Will Johnson win this round, handing immediate and total victory to Putin?  I do not know, but all Putin needs to do is wait.  Ukraine cannot win.  It never could, not with a Trump-ified Republican Party.  Reagan would never let this happen, but Reagan is very, very dead, and the modern Republican Party speaks with a Russian accent.  At this point, I note again that neo-conservatism is not what you think.  It was an ideology developed by Jews who fled Russia, and abandoned the left in part because of the left's unwillingness to confront communism.  The wheel turns.