As the Republican Party’s blockade of aid to Ukraine drags into its fourth month, the U.S. government under Pres. Joe Biden has found a clever new way to give Ukraine’s forces the weapons and ammunition they need to defend their country.
It is, in essence, an American version of Germany’s circular weapons trade—the so-called Ringtausch. The United States is gifting older surplus weapons to Greece with the understanding that Greece donates to Ukraine some of its own surplus weapons.
Greek media broke the news last week. According to the newspaper Kathimerini and other media, the Biden administration offered the Greek government three 87-foot Protector-class patrol boats, two Lockheed Martin C-130H airlifters, 10 Allison T56 turboprop engines for Lockheed P-3 patrol planes plus 60 M-2 Bradley fighting vehicles and a consignment of transport trucks.
All this hardware is U.S. military surplus—and is available to Greece, free of charge, under a U.S. legal authority called “excess defense articles.” Federal law allows an American president to declare military systems surplus to need, assign them a value—potentially zero dollars—and give them away on the condition that the recipient transport them.
which republicans are pro-russia?
All of them.
And their children. And grandchildren. Also their car inspectors.
you’ll forgive me for asking for some kind of proof.
Follow the bread crumbs. Every Republican policy benefits Russia. There was the team of traitors that went over and met with Putin on the 4th of July. It was proven that Russia aided the Trump campaign. No Republicans stood up against it or called it out for what it is. Knowing all of that and then supporting and actively still trying to write policy that hurts America and helps Russia man’s all Republicans are Russian supporting traitors.
this is conjecture. i was hoping for something more concrete.
You won’t find anything concrete with your head so far in the sand.
this, also, is not evidence: it’s rhetorical posturing
I don’t care what the talking head have to say. as for the elected people, I think it’s hard to call their statements pro-russia. at least, if these are the most damning, I would not conclude they are pro-russia.
I’d like to hear what they have to say about Russia, not just Russia’s relationship with Ukraine.
The ones that take Russian money.
is there a list of them?
https://accountability.gop/ukraine-quotes/
If there was a “list” you’d ignore it anyways, stop acting like you can be swayed by evidence
the list is just one step. once there is a list of accused, i’d want to see the evidence.
of course i can be swayed by evidence, but the ukraine quotes you provided are not very convincing, and many of them aren’t even from people in government.
I’m sure some sites have a list, they have not been very secretive about it.
I’ve been following this from around 2018, you don’t need to read many articles about the gop to see the pattern between the politicians and their handlers.
Yes you don’t trust anecdotal evidence and all that, so if you can be bothered go and find the real dirt on gop, or don’t I’m not your boss.
I don’t need to build their case for them. I’m justified in doubting them without clear evidence.
Fair enough, but it’s hard to present clear evidence when dealing with kompromized individuals. And pootin is an expert in keeping things hidden.
Please play some role reversal here - given the above, what evidence could be presented to make a convincing case?
I’ll give a starter: an FBI investigation of the presumably kompromized.
I’m sorry, this reads like maccarthyist russophobia through and through. if someone supports Russia, they can just say that. none of them did.
Yes.
Sounds like Vietnam.
Also sounds like every conflict in US history. So what?
That is sort of a self damning question you asked.
How have all of those armed conflicts gone for the US when the executive end runs around Congress ?
Again what is your point?
Are you saying it’s better to let the Ukraine flail? That sounds like a moronic thing to imply.
Both the Ukraine and Greece are our allies so why wouldn’t we help them?
I think we owe Ukraine as we removed their nuclear deterrent. That is very much on the USA.
But that doesn’t mean that IRAN-CONTRA should be valid US foreign policy. Lend Lease worked until it didn’t.
That’s the dumbest thing I’ve heard. We aren’t helping Ukraine because we own them one. We are helping Ukraine because it’s in best interest of the entire world.
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You are dense as they come if you think this is the only reason we are helping.
Please expand as I’m not sure what part of Vietnam you are referring to.
The other land we know nothing about part
Moderate Rebels 6.0
Good news. Fuck Republicans. Slava Ukraini.
The Republican way is to smugly grease palms, but the way around them is simply via Greece and shrug. 🤷🏼♂️
What the point of democracy if no one care what half of the voters want.
I think your question is misguided. Democracy doesn’t mean a two-party system race to the bottom. Democracy can see democratically elected politicians that better resonate with each individual voter by eliminating first past the post voting and using ranked choice voting instead. The problem isn’t that “half the country disagrees”. You can’t please everyone. The problem is that we’ve been divided and weaponized against each other, so the tribalism keeps us from finding common ground we may have. I doubt anyone votes FOR a candidate anymore. They seem to just vote AGAINST another candidate. Democracy works. It’s our implementation of it that’s failing.
Ranked choice voting isn’t a game changer. Almost every problem in US politics can be traced back to the hundred year old cap on the size of the house of representatives.
Not institutionalized lobbiests and corruption?
By having more reps their power is diffused, and a single lobbyist can’t meet meaningfully with twice the members they are now. The increased size would make lobbying more expensive and put a higher demand on campaign contributions, which is another expense. It also changes district size, which is important because a company may need more locations to have a meaningful impact on those districts.
While it’s possible the percentage of corrupt representatives stays the same, the increase in absolute number should make it easier to expose some of them. This could serve as a small check on corruption.
The biggest thing is that it’s more than twice as hard to get 20 people in agreement than 10.
The system has more than one critical flaw.
Time to prune the Tree of Liberty
Working hard to put people before Party - https://represent.us/
The Democrats outsmart Republicans yet again.
Next up: border secured just in time to win the November elections.
These comments look so much like the comments from a sports team sub.
Biden totally should have ran the ball there at the end, then Trump wouldn’t have enough clock left before the end to win! It’s like reducing politics down to it’s absolute dumbest, I can’t imagine why more and more people are choosing not to participate.
You think Biden closing the border as soon as he’s able is a good thing?
Like, you understand that wouldn’t just be a one time thing right? Future presidents could do it to, and Republicans actually do out things in motion in their first days.
I mean, Biden went from saying the border wasn’t an issue to saying we need that literally over night.
That doesn’t concern you?
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it’s mostly due to the hot economy, but American voters don’t understand that)
What?
The economy is propped up by record breaking fossil fuels drilling and corporations increasing prices 2-3x while not raising pay…
That’s something virtually every American is aware of right now…
And while Biden trying to brag about the economy hurts him. Either he doesn’t understand that very basic thing, or he doesn’t give two fucks about theaverage American, just corporations and billionaires.
Which has been a critique of American neoliberalism since James Carville started spouting all this stupid shit to begin with
Holy hyperbole batman. Prices rose by about 15% on average and wages rose as well, but not as much (between 7 and 12% depending on the source).
Which given 10 years of almost no inflation and moderate wage growth, is not that surprising.
Unemployment at a 60-year low, real wages at a 50-year high. That’s not to say there aren’t problems (largely the cost of housing, education and healthcare eating up all the gains over the last half century), but the economy is good, Jack.
Haven’t you heard? Statistics are globalist propaganda 🙄
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No, the person I replied to said increased immigration is due to our “hot economy”…
But it’s not, because all that money is going into a very small amount of pockets.
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Oh wow…
Yeah. I don’t think me explaining anything else to you is gonna help then bud.
The difference is I’m going to do something so I never accidentally try again.
Didn’t you just say you weren’t American? Why are you discrediting the experience of people living in the US?
But objectively, illegal immigration is at record high numbers.
No it isn’t. Not even close. This is just assuming that because Republicans say it is that it’s actually the worst its ever been. Somehow every presidential election it’s the worst its ever been and news organizations parrot the accusation without just calling them out on the BS.
https://www.factcheck.org/2021/03/the-facts-on-the-increase-in-illegal-immigration/
It would be good if you could cite a source that wasn’t almost 3 years old. It looks like since this article, monthly CBP encounters at the southern border have more than doubled:
https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/southwest-land-border-encounters
They’re apprehending more because they’re more able to track them, not because there were more than in 2000. And at the same time the people being apprehended are much more likely to be seeking asylum (aka legal). We can’t know the precise number of illegal immigrants, but it’s pretty safe to say it’s no where near the 2000s.
https://www.npr.org/2022/10/24/1130841306/new-record-in-border-patrol-apprehensions
I feel like that was just a dare to the Republicans. That way when they kill the bill, they can’t point to Biden as the cause.
This was my interpretation as well.
Or the fact that he can just bypass congress to give weapons to Israel, or the record oil extraction during his first term? Dems pretending their party isn’t actively destroying the world is wild.
Are we still pretending bOtH sIdEs or are we just skipping straight to “democrats are evil don’t vote for them” now?
As a Canadian, yeah both of your right wing parties are essentially the same. Brown kids will be bombed and oil will be pumped.
And these lies will lead to trump again. Thanks for that
Trump definitely would dial it back, so you’re totally not a bad faith liar after all!
where is the lie?
Dems will lead themselves there, just like they did in 2016. Stop blaming voters for your party’s incompetence.
I’m blaming morons spreading discontent and shitty ass ideas and that’s fully fair. Thanks for changing the subject though
>are we just skipping straight to “democrats are evil don’t vote for them” now?
i’ve been there over a decade.
Both parties are evil because this is an evil country that must be stopped.
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I was wondering when someone would finally call me out on that lol
But I’m quite serious about hating America. No one should be president and we should do everything possible to make that a reality.
Seems like it’s usually just you and I down here lol. Let me guess, disillusioned American?
Nothing screams serious/authority like a video game reference username lol.
No
Define securing the border, because that goal post is mounted to a bullet train by republicans as long as trump isn’t president.
I love seeing Biden copy republican ideas. Really great to see the bipartisan effort to fuck people over.
“uh actually I really care about border security now”
Jfc these peoples ideals change as the wind blows. All it takes is a geriatric to tell them to care about it
Sweet.
More debt for war, and this one isn’t even ours. That totally worked great when we did it in Iraq in the 80’s.
As if we haven’t racked up enough of that over the last 40 years.
Greece is gonna pay 4 or 8 billion dollars for the F-35(depending on whether it buys 20 or 40 of them). The US is just giving old surplus crap to Greece so that Greece will give its even older surplus crap to Ukraine.
And while i am not the biggest supporter of the current conservative government, i think Greece will continue having elections, wont use chemical weapons on any minorities or invade a tiny neighbour. So i dont see how Greece is comparable to Iraq.
It’s not debt at all because it isn’t new hardware. The program is literally giving old surplus hardware to allies and then they give their old hardware away to Ukraine.
and this one isn’t even ours
It will be if Ukraine falls, I guarantee it. We pay now, or we pay more later having left them to suffer and die while China watches the West clutch pearls. There is no not paying. Putin made that decision for us.
It will be if Ukraine falls, I guarantee it.
This is the justification every single time.
I’m honestly sick of hearing it, especially when Americans can’t get their own tax dollars back in aid.
Just get off with this tired argument. The US is the STRONGEST ECONOMY IN THE DAMN WORLD RIGHT NOW. We have built our land on the backs of every other nation on the planet pretty much. If nothing else, we deserve to give some back as a nation just to balance the scales, just to allow every armchair economist/philosopher/world leader here and every other stupid-ass social media platform to spout the bullshit they pull out of their half-brain ass.
Homelessness in the US went up 12% last year, in one year, alone.
What’s tired is watching us continue our warmongering when the neglect of our own people has grown to such a vulgar extent. It doesn’t matter how strong our economy is when all it’s doing is making a handful of people wealthier and funding other countries’ wars to our own detriment.
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A nation can address more than one thing at a time.
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Tax millionaires and above at a commensurate tax rate.
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Stop voting for people who only ever vote to slash social service programs, like housing aid and renter’s rights. Now who, might I ask, is the group that does that every damn time?
And, as another poster reiterated, this is surplus equipment That’s being given away. Thankfully, it’s not going to some podunk police department so they can sit on their ass while a school gets shot up (see: Uvalde, TX) or used as urban assault vehicles against civil rights protesters (see: protests all over the country). Furthermore, while exporting weapons of war may have moral qualms in some cases, maintaining strong allies against aggressors is of benefit to the entire alliance, and puts our factories (and the workers in those factories and industries) to work, earning money to shelter, feed, and clothe their families.
A nation can address more than one thing at a time.
You partisan folks always repeat this, as if our government’s doing anything other than spending its time figuring out ways to spend more of our money on war.
Tax millionaires and above at a commensurate tax rate.
That will only happen if you vote third party. All the legislators in Washington ARE millionnaires.
Now who, might I ask, is the group that does that every damn time?
Both of you, ever since Clinton.
Congratulations - that’s the stupidest thing I’ve read all day. NOAA, NWS, HUD, Dept of Education, DoT, NASA, AMTRAK, BLS, Census… That’s just off the top of my head. Hyperbole is hyperbolic. Get rekd.
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Great news!
Apropos nothing:
The Republicans are falling in line with disgraced ex-president Donald Trump’s personal hatred of Ukraine—and equally personal fondness for authoritarian Russia. The Republicans’ allegiance to Trump—and therefore to dictators and military aggressors—wasn’t an issue for Ukraine until they narrowly gained control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the November 2022 elections. When earlier funding for Ukraine ran out in late December, Rep. Mike Johnson—the extremist House speaker—refused to put additional aid to a vote.
The direct language is a pleasant surprise, and honestly more than I expected from FORBES. Have they always been this willing to call out Trump and his enablers?
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Hell fucking yeah!
Let’s spread weapons all over the world and cross our fingers that we get the outcome we want.
the outcome we want
Profit.
Edit: lmao downvotes from angry capitalists?
Hey, no - let’s actually let Ukraine fall and allow the Putim regime this one because… the alternative is better for us? (the US and our allies, the rest of Europe and the fucking world…)
I’m idealistic, but some people just don’t have any damn common sense.
I mean anti-communism, democracy, freedom, the soveignty of nations, and profits are all on the same side for Ukraine but still the Republicans object.
Maybe figure out which PACs are cashing checks for Rubles or Yuan.
At almost 1/3 of a trillion dollars last year, arms exporters and manufacturers win.
Umberto Ecco’s rule #8 of fascism: “The enemy is both strong and weak.”
Hey Republicans, which is it this time? Is Biden a demented old fool or a dictator? lol.
Dark Brandon strikes again.
For most of my lifetime, any American screeching about the President arming NATO allies in order to prevent Russian expansion into Europe would have been seen as a traitor.
Lead poisoning is a helluva drug.
Umberto “Eco”
They’re talking about the lesser known Umbero Ecco, the dolphin.
Umberto Echolocation
At least this time it’s for a good cause…
But wouldn’t this be the second time in six months Biden is doing arms deals without congressional approval?
I just don’t see why everyone is excited to see Biden acting like a Republican on this stuff, but when it’s time for Biden to help Americans, he still can’t do anything without Congress
It’s like people honestly believe Dems only have to aim a smidge higher than the current Republican.
There’s no standards other than that, and that’s a huge danger to America, we can’t let whatever idiot Republicans run dictating what kind of president we’ll have for half a decade.
‘federal law allows…’ – congress (not this moronic majority in the house) previously passed legislation that was signed into law that allows the president to give this stuff away
Except, this explicitly does have congressional approval. Congress has long ago authorized the President to get rid of obsolete, outdated, surplus tech.
when it’s time for Biden to help Americans, he still can’t do anything without Congress
The whole appropriations stuff really puts a crimp on executive power when it comes to expenditures. It’s fundamentally different from moving stuff around.
This.
It was always a white lie to claim the US was sending Ukraine billions in aid. The Democrats liked to pump up the numbers, because supporting Ukraine was and is politically popular. And the spending bills also contained nice pork for the military industrial complex.
But it has almost exclusively been old stock being sent. Stuff that is very valuable, since no other Ukrainian ally has the huge stockpiles that the USA has, but it was always worth much less than it was being billed for.
Now Biden is following a more boring, but more honest (in accounting terms) procedure.
Similar to what the Germans did.
As for helping Americans, he has also explored every possibility to reduce debt and prescription drug costs and to invest in infrastructure.
For example, much more has been spent on student loan forgiveness than on Ukraine.
For student loan forgiveness, I believe the tally is $137B. And that is real cash. For Ukraine the total is $75B, but a lot of that is pumped up valuations of old military stock. The actual value of what Ukraine received is closer to $40B
The actual value of what Ukraine received is closer to $40B
And replacing the old stock with newer, better kit will result in equivalent or more being spent inside America.
He has literal campaign promises he can fulfill without congress…
He’s been “looking into” them since assuming office, because he’s doesn’t really want to do them.
Cannabis can be descheduled in a day if he wanted too. Instead he pardons people but leaves it federally illegal.
While saying that forgiving student debt without fixing the cost of college wouldn’t fix anything.
Even tho that’s what he’s doing with cannabis users.
There’s no consistent logic to Bidens actions, he just does whatever he wants to do, and if he doesn’t want to do it, he says a president has no power and can’t do anything.
If people believe him, then it depresses turnout because the literal president keeps telling voters the president doesn’t matter. If they don’t, it still depresses turnout because people think Biden specifically won’t do anything.
The solution is the same it’s been since before FDR:
Try to help Americans and the votes will follow.
Maybe you should review what each branch of the US government can do, plus follow the news on things the President attempts
I have
Biden can order it be removed from the federal drug schedule. It being on that schedule is why it’s federally illegal
It’s what he said he’d do “decriminalization”.
But instead of doing that when he took office, he backtracked and has been “looking into if he can do that” for a couple years now…
Biden can not unilaterally deschedule or reschedule a controlled substance. He can do what he is doing, by pressuring the DEA, HHS and FDA to deschedule it, but without congress approval he can not use a executive order to reschedule Marijuana as per the controlled substance act
I think Elizabeth Warren knows more about this than either of us…
The DEA can do it, and Biden can tell the DEA to do it.
So when Biden defenders claims he can’t, it’s like when billionaire defenders say CEOs can’t raise wages.
They can they just don’t want to.
Hell, Biden just ordered every federal agency to return to office, I don’t know why anyone would think federal agencies are above the president in the chain of command, but when it’s convient a whole bunch of people love to say it…
But also, we have to vote Biden because if we don’t trump will be president and in charge of every federal agency!
This shit is fucking old man.
In your linked article it says the DEA has final authority, the president does not have the power to tell federal agencies what to do, he can make suggestions or pressure them. Even the “biden ordered every federal agency to return to office” is bull shit. He suggested returning to office but each agency can do what they want, and they have since many agencies have no plans to return to office.
Government process is slow, but it looks like Biden is pursuing pardons for pot convictions and trying to get states to do the same, as well as fix their laws. I also see a bill that passed in the house to reschedule marijuana but blocked by Republican filibuster in the senate.
First, I am announcing a pardon of all prior Federal offenses of simple possession of marijuana.
Second, I am urging all Governors to do the same with regard to state offenses
Third, I am asking the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Attorney General to initiate the administrative process to review expeditiously how marijuana is scheduled under federal law.
—-
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/01/us/politics/marijuana-legalization.html
passed 220-204, is unlikely to secure 60 votes to pass the Senate
Government process is slow,
It doesn’t have to be…
It can be descheduled in a day if Biden wanted to.
Instead he told people to “look into it”
Like, let’s say I owed you a $100, and everytime you asked me, I said I was looking into it.
Then three years after that, I said:
Sorry man, it’s a slow process
That would be true. But it’s also bullshit because I’m the one slowing it down and if I really wanted to I could just hand you the hundred bill I’ve had in my pocket for three years…
He has the DEA reevaluating what schedule it is classed as. He does not have authority to make it legal. Again laws.
He tried to forgive significant student loan debt for everyone and got stopped by SCOTUS. He still has forgiven a lot of debt but it takes work to figure out who he can do it for without congressional approval and the SCOTUS ruling. Student loans are also based in laws that he can’t as easily bypass.
He is trying to help Americans and he has. Not as much we’d like but a hell of a lot more than the GOP.
The president is not a dictator.
He does not have authority to make it legal. Again laws.
He can’t make it federally legal.
But he can remove it from the federal schedule, which is why it’s illegal.
Then it would default to being federally legal.
Try to get nicer tho, I almost didn’t take the time to explain that for you.
Edit:
The president is not a dictator
The biggest reason to vote Biden is trump would be a dictator if elected…
Biden himself says that.
It’s hard to convince voters Dem presidents have no power, but Republican presidents would have all the power so we need to vote D so nothing can fundemantally change.
The logic doesn’t add up, and that’s why 1/3 of Americans don’t vote.
Because they are know nothings?
Republicans break the laws. Democrats don’t.
But democrats don’t hold Republicans accountable for breaking the law…
So saying Biden cant" do anything is wrong.
Like, imagine your playing a game with a toddler, and the toddler constantly cheats but you let them because they cry if you don’t.
If it’s just a game, sure, let them have their way.
But if you bet 100 million dollars on the game, you need to either stop them from cheating, or bare minimum start cheating too. Because even tho you’re playing against a literal toddler, if you follow the rules and let them cheat, you ain’t going to win the fucking game.
Edit:
And Biden can’t really claim that high ground when he just went around Congress to “sell” Israel weapons that are being used to commit a genocide, especially when the money they used to “buy” the weapons came from American taxpayers anyways.
I think the social liberals have always been the leaders on anti corruption practices. We don’t do enough. Change starts at the bottom though. Biden is not going to reform the DNC. That’s what the primary will be for four years from now, assuming we don’t end up with a dictator who cancels elections.
Tell me you don’t understand American politics without telling me you don’t understand American politics, why don’t ya?
I just don’t see why everyone is excited to see Biden acting like a Republican on this stuff
Their preferred network news program doesn’t report on anything other than war, so they think it’s a top priority, even though their fellow Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck and can’t access health care.
It’s called determinism.
Slava Ukraini!
-Turkey disliked that-
Turkey and Greece got beef going back to the bronze age. Two of the best armed members of the EU, with those guns pointed at each other. This isn’t the first time Ukraine has benefited from that situation.
You’re thinking of Persians - back in the bronze age, proto-Turks were still in central Asia. Also, Turkey is not an EU member, you’re thinking NATO.
Turkey’s been on our Shit List ever since they started flying Russian Jets, fuck em.
They get a pass on colonialism and genocide, but you draw the line at breaking embargos?
I think the whole Turkey having started buying Russian armaments predates the current embargo. Like, I can recall them buying some Russian anti-air defense shit designed to down NATO aircraft about 5 years ago or so.
So it’s been more so about Erdoğan trying to assert some weird ass attempt at displayingf dominance. That fucker’s been the president for a decade straight now, looking awfully lot like a despot at this point. And they’re a NATO member right there, mmhm. Yup.
You ignoring the Armenian genocide or the invasion of Cypress is really weird.
It’s such a geopolitical mess because their geography is vital but that same reason is why they’ve historically been an enemy so there is a lot of bad blood and distrust
Biden: Does something good again
Repblicans, unable to stop him: “Sorry Putin, we failed you. This time.”
I hope Putin does the, “don’t fail me again… Republicans (mechanical breathing noises)” thing, and then they fail him again.
Putin: Also, you are to wear these clown shoes and refer to yourself as “Mary”.
Putin: I have altered the deal. Pray I don’t alter it any further.
