Joe Biden Is Arming Greece So Greece Can Arm Ukraine—And Pro-Russia Republicans Can’t Stop Him
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.
Pro-any other country than your own, and that you were elected to serve is traitorous. I'm not big on nation-states and all that stuff personally. And these folks very much are, so by their own definitions they are traitors. I am kind of amused by Sister City agreements, where cities share solutions, without any way to force the other to comply. It's down right friendly anarchism.
Did you forget to take some meds or something? This is incomprehensible.
I've seen it multiple times, seems like some sort of copy-pasta or maybe a bot?
Looks like schizo-posting is back on the menu!
The first 3 sentences are actually coherent. The last 2 too. But the first 3 don't belong with the last 2. It's like they're 2 different posts.
Calling it a schitzo-post may have been a bit off, but I legit have no other words in my vocabulary to describe how weirdly off kilter their comment is. They went from some type of criticism of elected officials working with other countries only to skip over to an entirely different thing about sister city agreements. It just kinda is bizzare overall.
Though I sometimes pull the same shit, sleep deprivation and autism are a terrible combination when it comes to coherence.
Schizo stuff tends to be coherent, it's just that it's coherent in a frame of reference that exactly one person in the world gets. On the far end of the spectrum people just don't have enough computation capacity to take your frame of reference into account -- not because of lower capacity, but because there's too much shit on their plate at the same time: Effort is focussed on keeping one's own thoughts at least half-way straight while the external world is secondary. Whereas on the functioning (yes I'm going to use that word) end of the spectrum you probably learn somewhere in school age that you need to slow your mind down and sprinkle in a couple of useful metaphors so the normies can understand. Dunno if my subconscious is less bubbly than that of full-on schizophrenics, or I have natural talent processing things better, or a knack acquired by sheer luck, or just better at not giving a fuck about some things, but it's definitely also a skill that can and absolutely should be honed.
For the curious, the EASE scale should give a good impression of how it looks from the inside.
That's got to be a bad AI bot in training, right?
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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZqVUjziexk
At least he used an ally instead of an enemy as Reagan did.
Technically Reagan did use an ally first: Israel. The Iranians were a little pissed when they saw the Israeli customs stamps on their weapons.
The middle men, so to speak. But not really the same, though in the same dodge the issue situation. The biggest difference being Reagan sent weapons illegally via a known declared enemy.
Iranian government is always pissed about something. Oh no a woman playing chess
Great news!
Apropos nothing:
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?
I'm surprised too. This is Forbes staff too, not a random contributor.
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.
More so that sort loved the USSR: it provided the ultimate boogyman they could use to justify just about anything.
Accuse your political foes of being commies, and "investigate" them. Advance Christian nationalism by pointing at the "godless Soviets". Need to get your political donors want some sweet defense contracts? -- well we need weapons to fight the reds.
The USSR did the same thing with the "decadent west".
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.
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.
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?
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!
You must live a pathetic existence to count being called out for being an incompetent troll as a win. It took longer than usual to type this as it’s harder to type while laughing. Thanks for the hilarity imbecile!
I think its funny. You said nothing and then started to rage because I didnt stay the standard set of lines. The more you type the funnier it gets.
Now it’s not funny but sadly pathetic that you crave attention so much someone just responding to your pathetic comments makes you feel like you “won”.
Oh man, I dont want you to think poorly of me! You opinion is super important!
Da
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
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. 🤷🏼♂️
Slava Ukraini!
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?
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.
No
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.
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
Hell fucking yeah!
-Turkey disliked that-
Turkey's been on our Shit List ever since they started flying Russian Jets, fuck em.
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
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.
FTFY
If I spoke for all Americans then the answer would be different.
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.
Reminds me of Charlie Wilson's war.
Man, Sorkin doesn't miss. I wish there were more movies like this.
Sounds like I'm watching this today
Moderate Rebels 6.0
Fun fact: Greece is an observer member of the Arab League
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".
Isn't that at risk of pissing Turkey off?
Not sure how their relations are with Greece these days.
I hope Erdogan is fuming, what an asshat
I've got no love for the guy, he's a borderline dictator, but he does have a say in who gets into NATO, which is kind of important if you want to keep Russia in Russia.
Cunt wrangling is an important part of diplomacy. I'm sure they have another name for it.
And as I said, I don't know how their relations are with Greece (wasn't good when I was a kid, and visiting one of them would stop you visiting the other when they checked the stamps in your passport), but there's still a huge sticking point over Cyprus that's stopping them ever being an EU member.
US also just sold a bunch of F16 to Turkey and a whole bunch of upgrades to their existing F16s. It was part of a deal (blackmail) when turkey didn't want to allow Sweden into nato. After they agreed, they got their planes and upgrades.
Sounds like Vietnam.
Please expand as I'm not sure what part of Vietnam you are referring to.
The other land we know nothing about part
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.
deleted by creator
Everything is black and white to you which is why you’re dense.
👍
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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.
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.
As the President is Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces though, isn't this a strategic prerogative of the position though?
Selling equipment that has been made obsolete could be a military prerogative, which is why the law is written like that, but selling below market value in exchange for a political favor is certainly not a necessary military power, and not one you would want a military to have.
Take the specifics out of it and think of it like gold bars. Does Treasury need gold bars? Probably. Say they have the ability to buy and sell gold bars to fit their legal requirements. Whatever, right? Who cares. That's part of their job. Now say the president starts giving away gold bars for free to his friends. Not really the same thing as "selling" anymore. That's obviously a qualitatively different thing.
That equipment and those gold bars are worth something, they were paid for by US tax dollars and revenue from a sale would go back to pay back the US debt. But they are being given away for free. So that is the same thing as giving away tax dollars. Which should be a Congress decision.
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.
The pro-authoritarian thing you said is that we don't have to respect the Constitutional separation of powers.
Just wanted to point out that whether it is an undemocratic move or not does not depend on the recipient of the aid.
While I 100% agree with you that it is good that Ukraine is getting its weapons again, I really doubt that Russia would do anything if they won.
If all support for Ukraine stopped today the Russian military would still have been absolutely devastated by this war and winning won't help them. And I highly doubt that the population would just sit back and accept the new state of affairs, the Russians would be dealing with constant resistance basically forever.
It would be like Germany trying to occupy France in the second world war except with basically no personnel, no equipment, and with people who are highly subject to corruption and a very high tendency for randomly defecting. And then with all that going on they're going to attack NATO, no chance.
I wish you were right, but unfortunately you aren't. I answered you. My phone crashed. I am not answering again. Fuck phones. Fuck this half assed world where nothing means anything, and anyone's utterly uninformed opinion takes 2 minutes to hastily put in a comment, and 2h to refute. That is, if none of your fucking 10192994848595 layers of abstracted software fucks up. I'm out.
So my opinion is uninformed but yours is informed despite the fact that military experts have given similar advice.
Interesting but I suppose it's massively helpful if you don't actually bother to refute me and just tell me I'm wrong.
I can do that to, you're wrong but I'm not going to say why or provide any evidence because I'm just going to give some flimsy excuse
What don't you understand with "I am not wasting 2h again on some fucking stupid software crashing and losing all I typed?"
I don't care what you think. Or what you believe. You have already shown enough that I know I have better things to do with my time. So follow my lead and downvote away, but you won't take my time.
Edit: that fucking app somehow prevented me from downvoting myself. I had to use another for that.
Sorry, but arguing with "My app crashed so just shut up", as much as I understand the frustration, is just stupid. Don't you think? You did not say a single word about their topic and are just getting needlessly angry and abusive.
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.
I get what you mean but the block in Congress is based on bad faith. Sometimes you gotta get pragmatic.
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 Greece does with their surplus is none of my business.
The president giving away military hardware your tax dollars paid for is certainly your business. The fact that Greece is sending other equipment to Ukraine is the best part of this haha.
Imagine a future President Trump sending military hardware for free to Saudi Arabia and Hungary and not mentioning the US getting anything back for it. Is it still not your business?
Even if you like the outcome here the mechanism sucks.
Why would I have a problem with giving surplus to an ally? We already do that with SA, and probably Hungary. Both also American allies.
If we were selling the military hardware to Greece for a fair market price, I'd agree.
But giving it away for free is different. With this power, only the decency of whoever is currently president prevents them from sending billions of dollars of value to basically any country they want, since things like this laundering through Greece can happen. It's not just allies, it's anyone any ally is up for helping.
And those billions in value don't pop out of nowhere, it's tax dollars being given away.
Even if you're not opposed to money being given away to any particular country, you should be a little uncomfortable with giving the Executive Branch the power to give away money like this. It could just as easily be Trump giving hardware to Russia via Turkey. There are no rules preventing it. That is a Congress decision.
First of all, it's not giving away money, it's giving away useless hardware.
Second, the US is getting a lot from this in a strategic sense. This is not about money, it's about weakening one of their biggest adversaries without sending their own soldiers. If Ukraine falls, there is a lot to lose for them and others.
He's not saying this case is wrong, he's saying he's not comfortable with the president having that kind of unilateral power, especially considering what Trump might do with it. I can't say he's wrong. Imagine Trump giving away half the military to whoever books Mars a Lago for a month.
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.
Except, this explicitly does have congressional approval. Congress has long ago authorized the President to get rid of obsolete, outdated, surplus tech.
'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
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
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.
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 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 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.
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...
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.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/10/06/statement-from-president-biden-on-marijuana-reform/
—-
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/01/us/politics/marijuana-legalization.html
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:
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...
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...
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/democrats-urge-biden-administration-deschedule-marijuana-rcna136241
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.
Tell me you don't understand American politics without telling me you don't understand American politics, why don't ya?
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.
Let's spread weapons all over the world and cross our fingers that we get 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.
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.
Time to prune the Tree of Liberty
Working hard to put people before Party - https://represent.us/
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.
The system has more than one critical flaw.
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.
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
Here you go.
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.
Yes.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A nation can address more than one thing at a time.
Tax millionaires and above at a commensurate tax rate.
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.
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.
That will only happen if you vote third party. All the legislators in Washington ARE millionnaires.
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.
We are.
Homelessness is up 12% and you and yours only care about shipping more of our money off to war, even if it gets a fascist elected.
We are rekkd.
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.