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Members of Congress engage in two types of travel, publicly funded, and privately funded. When publicly funded it is referred to as a CODEL, Congressional Delegation, and categorised as "official business". These trips often happen over holiday weekends. Whether it's official or not, depends on who is picking up the tab. House Members are required to file quarterly reports. Senators????
Foreign policy is an executive branch function, under the State Department. Blinken and his subordinates (or bosses) would be the ones who can represent the United States in an official capacity. That is literally the purpose of the Department of State.
Members of Congress can represent themselves only, even if their representation falls under "official business" of Congress (and it does, since Congress has a role in foreign policy funding). That does not make them official representatives of the US though.
CODEL leaders often visit the Oval Office in advance......
They may not be the official US representatives for...... but that doesn't mean they can't convey accurate and timely information, particularly if the leader and POTUS are from the same party.
Members of Congress engage in two types of travel, publicly funded, and privately funded. When publicly funded it is referred to as a CODEL, Congressional Delegation, and categorised as "official business". These trips often happen over holiday weekends. Whether it's official or not, depends on who is picking up the tab. House Members are required to file quarterly reports. Senators????
No-no, these three ( Shaheen, Portman and Murphy) went for a sightseeing in Kiev- just to enjoy the weather.
Except for all three happened to be the members of the Senate's Foreign Relations committee.
But other than that - of course it was "private business" - yeah...
It just goes to show you that Ukraine is a fake nation. You can't just draw lines on a map and call the lands therein a country. You need to consider a dozen different factors such as ethnic make up and economics.
All nations are FAKE, except for maybe the USA.
When I became a citizen I had to swear allegiance to the Constitution of the United States.....not to a nation. Pretty exceptional.
Anyway, Ukraine is split between Catholic and Orthodox. I don't follow Ukraine politics but it seems to me that there needs to be more discussion of this in the media.
Getting back to fake nations!! I just had to renew my American passport and this time they asked the countries of my parents birth.
That's fine, except the countries of my parents birth do not exist anymore.
I had to ask clarification.
Do I write down, the countries that existed when they were born or the country that exists there today??
The young kids were shocked and clueless....countries cease to exit!!! They had to go talk to a supervisor!!
All nations are fake....with the possible exception of those that you swear allegiance to an IDEA, rather than a physical state.
When I became a citizen I had to swear allegiance to the Constitution of the United States.....not to a nation. Pretty exceptional.
Anyway, Ukraine is split between Catholic and Orthodox. I don't follow Ukraine politics but it seems to me that there needs to be more discussion of this in the media.
Getting back to fake nations!! I just had to renew my American passport and this time they asked the countries of my parents birth.
That's fine, except the countries of my parents birth do not exist anymore.
I had to ask clarification.
Do I write down, the countries that existed when they were born or the country that exists there today??
The young kids were shocked and clueless....countries cease to exit!!! They had to go talk to a supervisor!!
All nations are fake....with the possible exception of those that you swear allegiance to an IDEA, rather than a physical state.
As you yourself have noticed, countries sometimes disappear from the world map, seemingly eternal empires disintegrate and turn into dust on the roads..but the REAL nations always remain, no matter what..
When I became a citizen I had to swear allegiance to the Constitution of the United States.....not to a nation. Pretty exceptional....
All nations are fake....with the possible exception of those that you swear allegiance to an IDEA, rather than a physical state.
Actually, it's the other way around.
When you swear allegiance to an IDEA, that means that true nation per se doesn't exist.
All these people are gathered from all over the world, with a purpose to support the *idea.*
True nations don't exist in order to support the "idea."
They exist on a basis of common culture, bloodlines and history.
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Anyway, Ukraine is split between Catholic and Orthodox.
No it's not.
Ukraine is Orthodox ( and so is Russia because of the common origin.)
There is a bit of the GREEK Catholic church encroachment in the West of the country, with an attempt of the Catholic church to sway things its way.
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I don't follow Ukraine politics but it seems to me that there needs to be more discussion of this in the media.
Of course there is a need for it, but it's not going to be done precisely for a reason that it might bring to light things that US government prefer to be hushed.
Quote:
Getting back to fake nations!! I just had to renew my American passport and this time they asked the countries of my parents birth.
That's fine, except the countries of my parents birth do not exist anymore.
I had to ask clarification.
Do I write down, the countries that existed when they were born or the country that exists there today??
The young kids were shocked and clueless....countries cease to exit!!! They had to go talk to a supervisor!!
No-no, these three ( Shaheen, Portman and Murphy) went for a sightseeing in Kiev- just to enjoy the weather.
Except for all three happened to be the members of the Senate's Foreign Relations committee.
But other than that - of course it was "private business" - yeah...
I've not suggested it was not official, in fact I think it was, given that all three are members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and that they met Zel, (the official rep of Ukr.) as opposed to travelling and only meeting with commercial business interests.
I've not suggested it was not official, in fact I think it was, given that all three are members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and that they met Zel, (the official rep of Ukr.) as opposed to travelling and only meeting with commercial business interests.
Oh I've just been sarcastic, after DKM's "they are not official US reps."
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