But massive pressure was reportedly exerted by the White House in order to ensure the aid bill’s passage. Per a Washington Post report, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R–La.) was summoned to the Oval Office in late February—along with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R–Ky.), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D–N.Y.), and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D–N.Y.)—under the guise of discussing how to avoid a government shutdown. The meeting was actually “a plan to pressure Johnson to push through a Ukraine aid package that was deeply dividing House Republicans,” per the Post.

The tradeoffs are awful no matter how you slice it. The White House, and the bipartisan consensus in favor of endlessly depleting America’s coffers to pay for wars elsewhere, was able to get its way. But even if you were gunning for the right-wing flank of the GOP that was looking to cut foreign aid, it’s also worth contending with the real tradeoffs that would come there, in terms of Ukraine struggling to defend itself from Russia’s unjust invasion. European allies have come to its aid, yes, but it’s an open question as to whether any of this will be enough.

Tin soldiers and Abbott’s coming: At the University of Texas at Austin, law enforcement appears to be responding quite aggressively and indiscriminately to anti-Israel/pro-Palestine student protesters. They have arrested more than 50 people (including a photojournalist) and seemingly went after those doing nothing more than peacefully protesting.

It’s important to me to be able to call balls and strikes, and, look: Readers of Roundup know that I think the Columbia student protesters are crazy and the tent encampment should not be allowed on private property but I’m simultaneously not a huge fan of hundreds of Texas state troopers roughing up students for exercising their speech rights.

Plus, it sure seems like Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is more interested in making a show out of this crackdown than respecting rights and avoiding First Amendment lawsuits. In his own words: “Arrests being made right now & will continue until the crowd disperses. These protesters belong in jail. Antisemitism will not be tolerated in Texas. Period. Students joining in hate-filled, antisemitic protests at any public college or university in Texas should be expelled.”

But you cannot arrest people for…”hate-filled, antisemitic” speech, all of which is ugly but totally legal.