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2y ago

Biden asks Congress for $40 billion to support Ukraine, replenish US disaster aid and bolster border

apnews.com Biden asks Congress for $40 billion to support Ukraine, replenish US disaster aid and bolster border

The Biden administration is asking Congress to provide more than $13 billion in emergency defense aid to Ukraine and an additional $8 billion for humanitarian support through the end of the year.

Biden asks Congress for $40 billion to support Ukraine, replenish US disaster aid and bolster border

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477 comments

More money being pissed away on Ukraine? Wow. That Zalensky guy must have photos of a naked Biden with some White House aide or whatever. This is a joke and a massive abuse of US taxpayer money. When does this end? How is the US benefitting from this? Oh, we aren’t at all. Hmmm. I wonder if there is something behind the scenes going on here? Like some other motive? I mean, it’s the Biden’s….. sort of a shady track record.
And don’t gimme a bunch of whataboutisms either. Don’t care. This Ukraine thing is a farce. Enough. We’re done.
- How is the US benefitting from this?
  Draining the resources of geopolitical rival without dead troops, weapons exports and lucrative contracts for reconstruction.
  You should read war is a racket https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html
  The guy who wrote it, smedley butler, was a highly decorated major general
  Capital loves war which is why the US has been at war for something like 92% of its miserable existence. Of course the average person gets fucked
  
  Geesh. Ain’t that the truth?
  
  Sadly yes, the US benefits WE don’t
  
  Buy stocks and join the cynic train.
  
  Being a communist and a war profiteer are incompatible
  
  But what if I want dead US troops?
  
  Be the change you want to see in the world
  
  We all do
- How is the US benefitting from this?
  well it's making europe reliant on US energy, for one (with all the ramifications that entails)
  
  And getting NATO to 'pay their fair share'
  to Northrop on top of it
- It's kind of funny seeing these kind of comments on Lemmy and playing the "alt-right or tankie" game before you see someones instance.
  What we as the west get from helping Ukriane, is soft power in that it sends a message to other dictators around the world that we won't just sit back and let them plough into another country, and while we might not start WW3 over it, we will support them to make it hard as possible for you.
  
  It's kind of funny seeing these kind of comments on Lemmy and playing the "alt-right or tankie" game before you see someones instance.
  huh, i see comments like yours and i think "lib moron" and then i don't give it another thought.
  
  Maybe you should stop plowing into other countries yourselves, you bloodthirsty psychos.
  
  The UK hasn't invaded anywhere in almost two decades, what are you waffling about.
  
  Yeah, invasions are out of fashion. All the West does is make a country's development contingent on their willingness to let the West exploit their natural resources and labor and then cut said development if they fund a social program or coup them if the "locals" are uncooperative. All after gutting these countries for hundreds of years via colonialism. You don't need to do an invasion when you can just put a noose around the neck of a country.
  Oh and the West still does invasions look at Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria. And UK special forces have been in Syria, the Sudan, Nigeria, and others as recently as last year.
  https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/may/23/uk-special-forces-have-operated-secretly-in-19-countries-since-2011
  
  Average neoliberal Pirate. Your bloodthirsty country should return all the gold and art that was stolen from all around the world.
  PD: Read about neocolonialism.
  
  Nah, I'm good cheers.
  
  Yeah neocolonialism the thing Russia is attempting right now. If you oppose neocolonialism you should oppose Russia.
  Or do you just hate western countries for fashy past grievances reasons?
  
  Hey, Space Neoliberalist. If you ever touch some real theory (instead of reading Harry Potter and The Washington Post), like Lenin. You would know that this is an inter-capitalist conflict (you know what that means?). If you think that USA is helping in good faith (and not in the interest of colonialism exploitation in the long run), you are an idiot.
  “fashy past grievances reasons”
  So denouncing the crimes of the west is fascist now?
  -“Hey USA shouldn't have supported dictatorships in Latin America with their Plan Cóndor, or helped in the coup against the democratic elected Salvador Allende. Or dropped two atomic bombs in two civilian cities, or having the highest incarcerated population doing slave labor, or burn with napalm villages, or puting children in cages in the border, or….”. I could be all night talking about USA crimes. A whole month with the Nato members crimes.
  -”Shut up fascist.”
  Is always projetion with you liberals. Scrath a liberal, and a bloodthirsty nafo fascist bleeds.
  
  The problem with "both sides" arguments is you tacitly admitting your side is wrong when you do that.
  Yeah sure the US shouldn't have done those things in the past. But these are past grievances, which is the cornerstone of fascist thinking. "Our present day horrible actions are justified because of the horrible things others have done in the past!"
  Whatever US and any other NATO members did wrong in the past doesn't make what Russia is doing today right.
  Also, why should Ukrainians suffer so that Russia can expand their empire?
  I have no doubt about the ability of fascists to go on and on about past grievances. But what grievance do you have with Ukraine specifically?
  
  The
  are strong in this one.
  You clearly didn't read the Lenin book I linked and, by seeing your activity in here, you are close to the ban.
  So I just want to say that is so fucking funny that you think that the passing of time exonerates USA from their crimes. I mean, how much time has to pass? They are still putting children in cages, invading countries, having the highest incarcerated population, making coups in foreign countries, etc.
  But let's follow your logic, and let's wait a few years. That way all the Russian crimes will be just past grievances.
  Let's just do that.
  Fascist idiot
  
  Why should ukranians suffer so that the us can expand its empire?
  
  Whatever US and any other NATO members did wrong in the past doesn't make what Russia is doing today right.
  It was wrong for the US to coup Ukraine's government, but also wrong for Russia to intervene to stop the coup government from killing civilians after like 8 years, got it.
  
  The people of Ukraine got tired of being a Russian puppet state and removed Putin's crony. The instant they did that Russia started taking territory from Ukraine.
  You're weird little narrative only works if you believe that Ukrainians don't have a right to self determination and believe they shouldn't have sovereignty over their land. This is simply Russian neocolonialism, Russian imperialism, and Russian Fascism.
  
  The people of Ukraine got tired of being a Russian puppet state
  the pre-maidan government was not a puppet. europe and russia were both courting ukraine for her resources and president what's his ass took the better deal that putin offered. if that makes it a puppet government, what does that make the coup government where the US picked high ranking officials?
  
  You're weird little narrative only works if you believe that Ukrainians don't have a right to self determination and believe they shouldn't have sovereignty over their land.
  Your weird little narrative only works if you believe the denizens of Crimea and Donbas don't have a right to self determination and sovereignty over their own land.
  This is simply Russian neocolonialism,
  Neocolonialism isn't just "colonialism happening today". Neocolonialism is what the west is doing having Ukraine sell off its land and industries in bulk to foreign capitalists via privatization.
  
  Bud I'm begging you read one serious academic text analyzing the rise and system of fascism, before you do something embarrassing like call indigenous people complaining about what the US has done to them fascists for airing past grievances.
  
  Holy shit at least look the fucking word up in a dictionary before you try to turn it around on someone else you buffoon
  Even if you were going to butcher the term 'colonialism' THAT'S the one that's relevant if a country is being occupied militarily.
  WHY DO YOU SPEAK AT ALL. YOU NEED SO MUCH READING AND LISTENING BEFORE YOU STOP SPEAKING NONSENSE. INVESTIGATE WHAT YOU SAY AAAAAAAA
  
  Neocolonialism understander has logged on
  
  How dare you call me a murderer? I haven't killed anyone in almost two years!
  
  Except that in this case they are saying that while killing someone.
  
  AKSHULLY right now I'm just repeatedly stabbing a man. We can't know for certain if he's actually dead until I'm done.
  
  Tell that to Yemen.
  Also 'we haven't invaded anywhere in the very immediate past (though the genocidal war criminals who perpetrated our last invasion are still important and celebrated public figures)' is a pretty fucking weak justification from a country insisting on being world police.
  
  Absolute brain worms claiming this as a talking point
  
  we as the west
  
  Have you heard of scotland/wales/northern ireland?
  
  Scotland were willing participants in an act of union what formed Britain you absolute melt.
  
  Don’t worry, it’s not like half the people in Scotland want to leave the UK. That could never possibly happen! Imagine! Voting to leave a huge unpopular imperialist neoliberal organization! Utterly preposterous! Could never happen in a million years!
  
  One that they were happily part of for several hundred years don't forgot. They had a referendum and decided to stay, you can't keep running them every few years until you get the result you like. Besides Scotland leaving the UK and the resulting chaos of negotiations will make Brexit look like a walk in the park, the SNP aren't honest with their voters about that.
  
  you can't keep running [referendums] every few years until you get the result you like.
  That’s where you’re wrong 😉
  
  you can't keep running them every few years until you get the result you like.
  That's literally democracy. Why do you hate democracy?
  
  It's a form of democracy, but how many systems practice full direct democracy on every issue all the time?
  
  National self-determination is an important issue, so if many people support secession, you should hold frequent votes on it
  
  you can't keep running them every few years until you get the result you like.
  Haha self-determination goes brrr
  
  Noticing you didn't defend the other two instances
  
  They were in Afghanistan until 2014
  https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/war-afghanistan
  
  No the message to other dictators is ‘be useful to us, or else’
  
  yeah exactly
  
  This would be a great emoji
  
  Probably a two part emoji or it's too small.
  
  https://hexbear.net/post/310898
  
  that it sends a message to other dictators
  What message is America sending to the dictators that we bankroll while they perform genocide using US equipment and training?
  
  Those are the other dictators. There's also our dictators - those are the good ones!
  
  won't just sit back and let them plough into another country
  Do you think the west has a genuine interest in consistently enforcing this or do you just not care when people you like do it?
  
  Only white countries though, when it comes to black people and brown people you don't give a rats ass, there's still dictators all over the world that none of you even give a s*** about
  
  That's fine but why are they banning socialist parties, integrating fascist paramilitaries into the army, and privatizing land? That all seems a little familiar.
  
  Yeah we've really cultivated a lot of prestiege on this one, the west definitely hasn't absolutely embarrassed itself and unified large swathes of the world against it. And hey, it only took like three rounds of sabotaged peace talks and and multiple generations of Ukranians fed into a big novelty Northrop-Grumman branded meat grinder.
  
  it sends a message to other dictators around the world that we won't just sit back and let them plough into another country,
  You mean like the collective west did to Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya? Who's supposed to send the message to our dictators when it's time to stop?
  
  we won't just sit back and let them plough into another country,
  only WE plough into other countries USA! USA! USA!
  
  You could say the same thing but with putin sending the message and it would be more acurate.
  
  For some people, everything has to be a conspiracy. Logical, easily verifiable reasons for things can't possibly be the truth to them. Especially if it comes from the opposing political party, it is automatically false to them. Even if verifiable.
  Honestly I wasn't sure of the benefit either, but your response makes so much sense. I don't know why there always has to be conspiracies for obvious stuff.
  
  *Except if that country is Palestine. They can get ploughed
  
  This is giving "the UN is an effective international governance body" energy.
- We're giving Ukraine our table scraps that are too nice to toss, but too expensive to keep. They're using them to defeat a long-standing geopolitical foe at no costs to American lives.
  Ukraine doesn't need dirt to get our help, this is the best money the US has spent since Lend-Lease.
- The high energy prices mean its no longer profitable to run heavy industries in europe. So the us is cannibalizing some of german industry. Thats the profit the us gets.
- Supporting free and democratic Ukraine is preferable to letting fascist Russia become neighbors with NATO.
  
  I agree wholeheartedly with supporting Ukraine, but Russia has had a land border with NATO for twenty years at this point. They just pretend they don't so that they can cry "NATO expansionism!"
- When does this end?
  When Russia is defeated.
  How is the US benefitting from this?
  It's sending a message to authoritarians. Don't invade countries or we'll send the other country stuff to make it go badly for you. This has a chilling effect on authoritarians, making them refrain from this kind of activity. This improves global security, which results in better trade, which improves the global economy. The US being on the globe benefits from this.
  Also, do you like how much you're paying for groceries? Could it be this war is causing a disruption in grain supply? You know that stuff that goes into bread, the feed that cows eat, etc? Yeah, I know people on the internet are all blaming their own governments (in basically every country, LOL) for high grocery prices, because no one wants to say that's it's Putin. Sure there is probably some assholes jacking up the prices more than necessary, but do you think all the corporations and all of the governments got together and decided to do this? Nope the inflation, the high grocery prices, it's because of Putin's bullshit.
  Not to mention all of the influence campaigns Russia is running on the internet. You know where you're constantly being influenced by the internet towards burning down the capital of your own country? That's a disinformation campaign designed to destabilize NATO countries. Taking down Putin will lessen that buillshit. I say lessen because after seeing Russia's success other countries like China are getting in on that game now too. But one asshole at a time.
  
  Don't invade countries or we'll send the other country stuff to make it go badly for you
  Man I wish someone sent that message to the US before they invaded Iraq and Afghanistan, carpet bombed Syria and Libya, and funded various forms of jihadist militant groups for the past 20+ years.
  There's exactly one county that's been toppling democracies and bankrolling dictators for almost a 100 years and it's
  baby.
  
  And people were worried when CatholicSocialist got banned that we wouldn't hook any more whales
  
  We should keep this one around, he's kinda funny, when he's not dropping the epic chungus racism one-liners
  
  I just noticed that this is an away game lol
  Not really our call here if they stick around or not
  
  The posters crusades
  
  Imagine being an unironic NAFO loser.
  
  yeah its definitely putin's fault everything is more expensive and not corporate greedy price-gouging. remember, everything is putin's fault! the west is perfect!
  
  Snowball ruined the windmill!
  
  You know where you're constantly being influenced by the internet towards burning down the capital of your own country? That's a disinformation campaign designed to destabilize NATO countries.
  Seeing how you NAFO psychos behave has actually completely convinced me that the only path forward is to burn DC (and Langley) to the ground and that NATO must be dismantled if there's ever going to be lasting peace. Congratulations.
  
  Not Langley! That's where I live! LOL
  A little secret, don't tell anyone... I'm a member of NAFO because I bought some stickers from their website. Everything else you got going on is just paranoid delusions that you came to by reading too much glavset propaganda on the internet.
  
  Comical levels of projection from the person who is incapable of anything beyond regurgitating propaganda you'd find on CNN
  
  It's sending a message to authoritarians. Don't invade countries or we'll send the other country stuff to make it go badly for you
  Help i fucked up, I accidentally sent the stuff to the Saudis not the Yemenis who being invaded.
- Go touch yourself to a printout of shirtless Putin on a horse. Jesus.
  
  Right, because there isn’t possibly any other motives here or objectives. Like the circus guys said: There’s. Sucker born every minute.
  
  The fact you can't see that you're the sucker isn't a surprise to anyone but you. Stop watching fox news, it's rotting your brain.
  
  The fact that you're assuming this person is a Fox "News" consumer is emblematic of the overall media's coverage of the war in Ukraine. A person can be anti-war and still part of the left. But not according to you, or others who immediately jump to things like, "go back to licking Putins boot, watching Fox News, etc." You are shutting down any sort of constructive conversation.
  The media has made the war in Ukraine a moral imperative by making it democratic Ukraine vs authoritarian Russia. War makes everything black and white. So it becomes impossible to say something like, "Russia's invasion of Ukraine is wrong" while also saying "The US should not support Ukraine with weapons."
  I am anti-war. I do not think the US should support Ukraine with weapons. To me, I am extremely skeptical of the simplistic idea that we are aiding democracy and staunching authoritarianism. I think that kind of of rhetoric pervaded the conflicts in the Middle East, and I think in those cases, it was more accepted by the public that the US was acting in a more imperialistic manner. I think that fits closer to the mark here, too.
  For one thing, the US was directly involved in Ukraine's revolution in 2014, trying to position people in power who had a more EU friendly demeanor. And they helped expand NATO bases closer to Russian borders. These two things, while they certainly do not justify Russia's invasion, I'm sure made them feel threatened. Now, I don't have much historical knowledge of Ukraine or Russia, but certainly they've had more than just a geographic relationship over the past century or so. If Russia was involved in a Mexican revolution, trying to make them friendlier to Russia rather than the US, I'm sure the US would have a problem with that. Still, the US would not be justified in invading Mexico, as Russia is not justified in invading the Ukraine. This is just to point out the same type of meddling that the US does all across the globe in the name of "democracy" or "free market capitalism", we were doing here, too.
  I think it's doubtful that this is all purely in the name of democracy. After all, look at what is happening to Palestine. They are a country occupied by the authoritarian state of Israel, and we do nothing. So, to me, there are other factors at play in Ukraine. One, I think, is that war is profitable. "Defense" companies like Raytheon and BAE actually have an interest in perpetuating war, as it brings in profits. So big firms are going to support giant aid packages, as it means they're going to get business.
  Another, I think, is that war is politically profitable. When you can get your party to demonize an individual or country and unite around the noble war effort, it's just another issue you've manufactured to get their vote.
  Anyways. I just don't buy that this war is about democracy or any higher moral value. I think it's about money, to be honest, and politics. Mostly money. It's a proxy war between the US and Russia and I think the media has pushed the narrative that it is a morally imperative war between Ukraine and Russia because it is financially interested in perpetuating the conflict. I don't think the US has an interest in actually ending the war.
  And overall, I just think war is one of the greatest evils, and I will almost never support it. Real people are dying for fucking what? If that makes me a Fox News watcher, or conservative, or Putin lover, or whatever name you want to sling my way, I guess so be it. It's dumb, but so be it.
  Edit: if you're downvoting me without a rebuttal, you're part of the problem that I'm referring to -- a complete dismissal of dissenting opinion on the war. If you disagree with what I've said, please comment why because I'd like to hear your viewpoint so that I can adjust mine appropriately. I'm not interested in name-calling, but an actual conversation about this topic would be cool.
  
  Edit: if you’re downvoting me without a rebuttal, you’re part of the problem that I’m referring to – a complete dismissal of dissenting opinion on the war. If you disagree with what I’ve said, please comment why
  People on the internet don't owe you a debate.
  Especially when the prompt is a somewhat sanctimonious effort-dump sealioning "we should let Russia have Ukraine" as if its a reasonable liberal imperative, all in response to a stupid one-liner.
  
  Thank you for the insults, I guess the point of my effort dump is moreso that I dont think it's really as black and white as people make it, I think it deserves some nuance. Which is a little ironic because you summed the whole thing up in six words! Haha
  But no, I don't think it's very unreasonable to be against a war. You do? I do not support Russia. But I don't think the US should be sending military aid to Ukraine.
  Edit: or, I mean against this war
  
  Your entire rant boils down to "I disagree with Russia's invasion, but since they did it anyway they should have no consequences, even when they commit genocide". A conversation isn't required to counter this dogshit position.
  
  Well, I actually didn't say any of that, but thanks for stripping any nuance from what I said, creating a strawman, and then attacking that, instead.
  
  No amount of nuance will make your core position tenable to those that think Ukraine deserves outside (e.g. NATO) support to protect them from the Russian invaders. You simply don't think Ukraine deserves support, condemning them to genocide. Everything else you said is weird posturing to try and disguise your actual point. It's not our first rodeo, we can all see right through this.
  
  I don't think they should be condemned to genocide, but I don't think we should be sending them weapons. I think Biden should be talking to Putin in some capacity, which he is not. Radio silence. I think that exacerbates the war.
  I don't think this weird moral imperative is real, like we're America so we ought to do something. I don't think that it's real because, just like in Russia, where you've got an active conflict and you've got some Russian propaganda calling for the denazification (what you've correctly referred to as genocidal) you also have, in Israel, active conflict of genocidal nature between Israel against Palestinians, but we do nothing.
  So you're saying, we, America should condemn Palestine to genocide? Or how about the Uhygur peoples? Should we engage in a proxy war with China? Certainly, according to your claims that otherwise we are dooming them to genocide by their occupying country.
  That moral imperative you're talking about is fabricated, because if the US government actually cared about these people -- Ukrainians, Palestinians, or Uhygur -- we'd be sending military aid to all of them, or else we'd be "condemning them to genocide," as you say.
  This aid is not going to Ukraine to help them endure genocidal forces. It's going there to perpetuate our constant war economy that is reliant on conflict. It's going there to unite the political party against an outside evil and to further the US geopolitical and global free-market goals.
  
  Classic, of course you follow with whattaboutism. Like I said, we've seen the Russian talking point already. Next.
  Also the US isn't single handedly supporting Ukraine. You need to dramatically increase your whattaboutism to cover the other 50 or so countries.
  
  Its just a lack of consistency, I don't know what to tell you. You can't tell me the US sends military aid to Ukraine in order to "defend democracy," when in numerous other cases of sovereign countries being occupied, we do nothing, or we even support the occupiers, in Palestine's case.
  This lack of consistency lends itself to the idea that there are further interests besides "defending democracy" for which we send Ukraine weapons. I'm not sure how else to put it. If it were about the moral imperative of defending occupied people's, you can pick out numerous similar examples where we have not acted, and you just have to conclude that there are other factors behind the US sending aid to Ukraine. One is the perceived threat the country feels from Russia, which I think is probably exacerbated by the press. One is the perpetuation of the constant war economy we have, and one is the increased political unity that war brings.
  But I'm curious about your position, you're dismissing my arguments as "whataboutism," but what exactly would you assert instead? Do you think that Ukraine deserves our aid more than Palestine does? Is it that Russia is a grave threat to the United States? I'm genuinely curious
  
  When you stop watching The View, MSNBC & The Rachel Madcow show, Ill consider dumping Fox News. :).
  
  I already don't watch any of that drivel so you got yourself a deal buddy. You just go ahead and let me know when you want to uphold your end and dump fox news.
  
  My end? Did we make some sort of pact? Please. Face it: everyone has their favorite sources for stuff and it’s always based on what they agree with. You’re not above this.
  
  You said you'd consider dumping fox news when I stopped watching the programs you mentioned. That sounded like a pact to me.
  The problem with all news media these days is it no longer gives you the facts without it also telling you how you should feel about the facts based on their particular biases. If you only look to the sources that confirm your bias you're not getting properly informed on the issues, you're simply existing in an echo chamber having your views reaffirmed by the others that share them without ever hearing or considering there might be more to the story.
  I never claimed to be above being affected by this myself, but I am consciously aware of how serious a problem it is. I do the best I'm able to see all sides of an issue, from multiple sources, the more non-biased the better (though this is getting increasingly more difficult), and then I make up my own mind as to what I think without allowing the media to tell me how I should feel.
  Fox news is one of the worst sources for biased news as it is the only news network that was started with the agenda of specifically appealing towards a conservative audience. They have even won defamation lawsuits by arguing their shows are performances and shouldn't be taken as fact. They've always cared more about ratings than the truth... MSNBC is a close second on spewing drivel catering to liberals. I wouldn't trust anything either of them say without first doing some independent research on my own.
  
  Can’t disagree about the popular news networks. I actually read a few headlines and articles from several, just to entertain myself. I know that they all have a slant. That being said, this Ukraine thing is getting ridiculous now. A gajillion dollars and counting. Where is it all going? Anyone tracking it? Are we SURE golden boy Biden isn’t involved in some "cheesy" stuff here? His track record certainly supports it. What other nations are chipping in here? Or is it the usual: everyone hates the USA until they need money or military support. Hmmmm.
  This Zalensky guy seems like a snake too. How rich is he now?
  
  Ok what rational motive is there for supporting Putin? I'll wait.

477 comments