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.
Fuck the republican traitor filth.
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.
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?
Remember when Republicans used to yell “better dead than red!” to show their hostility to the USSR and communism?
Now too many of them are preoccupied with twerking for the authoritarian roach that emerged from the USSR’s corpse (and which still has a lot in common with it).
Also, the Republican party is now the red party, which is pretty funny.
Nothing surprising for everyone who already knew that what they disliked about the USSR wasn’t really the totalitarianism, just the lower wealth unequality.
And just as it was back then, the red menace was ALWAYS about distracting the masses away from voting against corporate interests
Wait, we can vote against corporate interests?
You can vote for whoever you want actually.
Don’t forget they changed the pledge allegiance to put in under God to shove another thing in the Russians face.
And the money
I don’t get what’s strange about this. They didn’t like commies, Russia is no longer even calling itself socialist, so why would they still be hostile to the Russians?
What if I told you all he funding we have given Ukraine has only harmed them?
Then I’d call you a complete liar with a weak grasp on reality, and a poor understanding of where and when you ought to open your ill-informed mouth, before I walked off and continued with my day, secure in the knowledge that you’re as wrong about something as it’s physically possible to be.
That’s what.
Sorry, too subtle. Go say that to the Russian shill but even more louder.
Then I’d call you ignorant with a weak grasp on facts.
Lol. You’re trying to troll but failing miserably.
If I am trolling and you keep responding then that means I am winning… Thank you!
Is that how the performance metrics work at those centers? If you do well do you get more potatoes?
Removed by mod
Like I said: failing miserably. An effective troll foments FUD. You are only receiving ridicule.
Like I said; if you think I am a troll and you respond then I win. I will take the W!
4 day old account, all but two comments are pro-russian. Guess lemmy is getting popular enough to attract attention from the Russian troll farms.
Removed by mod
Removed by mod
Removed by mod
Removed by mod
Removed by mod
Removed by mod
deleted by creator
It’s almost comical to see “leftists” scream about the lies that Trump and GOP tell - but if you suggest there was a diplomatic solution they explode immediately lol. War propaganda is working incredibly well these days and any pacifist notion is attacked as subversive and downvoted. Vast majority of millennials and gen Z are just as brainwashed and are murderous war mongers the boomers were.
PS: I’m really missing a fitting word for this. They are not fascists and nationalists or imperialists is too weak. War mongers sounds a bit lame too.
I think millenials and older know about how the left used to be the party of peace and the right was the war mongers. Now some of the rights is still warmongers but the left is just as bloodthirsty. Its like “Putin must pay!!! Send more Ukrainian young men to their death!!!”
You mean they don’t know about the left being pro peace? Or that they are overcompensating because they do know?
There is a documentary by Adam Curtis about how the rhetoric in geopolitics changed to good vs evil, not just Reagan but all the third way leftists. A very successful PR / brainwashing campaign.
But ever since Ukraine started this has massively changed on reddit which is supposedly “leftist”. Presumably the “science and technology of propaganda” is improving. If the Irak and Afghanistan happened today, there wouldn’t be any major opposition to it online. There wasn’t any in mainstream media either at the time, but back then the internet actually was less… warmongery?
I dont know if they dont know what the more traditional leftists believed in back in the 90s and earlier, or other interests have taken over their rhetoric, or if they are just using the oppressor - oppressed world view to pick Ukraine and Palestine. Do you think they got co-opted by big business interests or something else?
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”
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. 🤷🏼♂️
The Democrats outsmart Republicans yet again.
Next up: border secured just in time to win the November elections.
Define securing the border, because that goal post is mounted to a bullet train by republicans as long as trump isn’t president.
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?
No
deleted by creator
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
deleted by creator
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.
deleted by creator
Didn’t you just say you weren’t American? Why are you discrediting the experience of people living in the US?
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.
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?
Both parties are evil because this is an evil country that must be stopped.
Removed by mod
Nothing screams serious/authority like a video game reference username lol.
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?
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
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
Trump definitely would dial it back, so you’re totally not a bad faith liar after all!
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.
Hell fucking yeah!
Moderate Rebels 6.0
Reminds me of Charlie Wilson’s war.
Man, Sorkin doesn’t miss. I wish there were more movies like this.
Fun fact: No one cares with your Arab bias.
Yet you cared enough to reply
They (bi-partisan) are coming for your social security though. No money for the people, only wars.
https://twitter.com/SSWorks/status/1729584226658381828?t=w2RFSDx5k8auaZId2WWFYA
Yes. Let’s kill Russians!
That’s wrong way to say “let’s help Ukraine survive”.
Politically I want Ukraine to have aid but can we at least admit that the president using a weird tradesies loophole to provide aid that Congress has explicitly rejected…kinda sucks?
Sucked when Reagan did it, sucks when Biden does it.
It would suck if the reasons congress had rejected it were remotely honest or moral.
Reagan did it through bad regimes - at least Biden is doing through democratic governments. AND they are weapons we’d have to decommission anyway. BIG DIFFERENCE between this and Reagan. Stop being disingenuous.
I’m not being disingenuous, I’m complaining about the method and not the result.
They are not necessarily weapons we HAVE to decommission, the president decides that in addition to the sale price so legally it could be anything.
Yeah no one here agrees with your argument except the pro Putin crowd. I can only assume that’s what you want.
Somehow I doubt the pro Putin crowd is on board for helping Ukraine and I can’t imagine the 8D chess mind games it would take for them to decide Executive vs Legislative division of powers minutia is the game plan for taking down Biden.
What really sucks is that the Republicans are all towing the Trump line because it’s an election year and Trump will make or break their campaign. Trump loves a good dictator and thinks he’s buddies with Putin.
Let’s focus on the fact that Biden is exploiting a loophole and going around policies, and not on the fact that those bigotry-motivated policies are very much risking triggering WWIII, on the ground that it is an “eLeCtIoN yEaR”. sure.
Because if russia finally wins its invasion of Ukraine, they won’t stop there, but we won’t let them conquer the rest of Europe peacefully.
Besides, it’s a well known fact, the context never matters, that’s why we have dumb robots applying the laws to everyone without any context or interpretation rather than a complete, complex judicial system.
That way, if someone tries and commits suicide, lands on your car, killing themselves and making you paraplegic, you get charged with death penalty for killing them, the exact same way the driver of an armored SUV, charging in a crowd, blinded by hate, would get charged with death penalty.
I’m agreeing with you on wanting to help Ukraine, but think about what this power does. If Trump takes over he could make an agreement to give military equipment to Turkey so that Turkey arms Russia. He could give Mexico enough military equipment to pay for The Wall. He could give Saudi Arabia military equipment for nothing and then “unrelatedly” his son in law gets another few billion dollars to manage. It’s just structurally not good to give the president this power, Congress has to have the power of the purse.
The ends don’t justify the means because this isn’t the ends. This will keep happening under all presidents for all sorts of reasons. And this isn’t the only way to get money to Ukraine so the moral weight isn’t just on this. He could get to a deal with House Republicans, or he could push other countries to fund Ukraine more unrelated to using the loophole. There are options.
I also disagree with your “oh sure, let’s focus on this instead of the REAL stuff”… I’m not saying to ignore Ukraine funding. We can talk about two things at the same time. You’re the one saying to ignore the loophole because something you like is happening right now.
The US political system is so far beyond your “respect your power” pipe dream it’s laughable you can make this comment with a straight face. The entire Republican Party has become a one trick pony of obstruction and doing nothing. They can’t even fund the fucking government.
Its that line of thought that gives rise to authoritarians. We have to believe in the Constitutional separation of powers.
And for the record the Republicans are funding the government, so far. They’re just doing it by CR instead of an actual budget.
Lol. We already have authoritarians. Wake up boomer, your idealistic ideas are exactly why we are here. Democratic capitulation of Republican authoritarianism and fascism has created a dysfunctional and unsustainable system. Username checks out.
So you’ve just gone full circle and now you’re pro-authoritarian because the other guys are too. K.
You have completely jumped the shark if you think appropriating decommissioned weapons to an ally to help a democratic country fight against a dictatorship is “authoritarian”. It’s been done for over 50 years imbecile.
Removed by mod
Sorry you think literally all critiques of presidential power and recommendations on the Constitutional separation of powers are trolling.
Removed by mod
Haha well I’m writing paragraphs of nuanced explanations of my views. You’re the one repeatedly posting single-line comments swearing and calling me a troll with zero explanation so…not to “I’m rubber you’re glue” ya on this one but you might be the troll in this interaction.
Sure. I understand that perspective. And it’s a logical fallacy. Saying a lot of things that wouldn’t typically warrant justification with a response, doesn’t de facto warrant an equally prolific response. Ben Shapiro logic.
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.
