• Lung@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Yes the hypocrisy and showmanship here is out of control. Of course Biden could send aid to Ukraine without Congress, but I guess it’s better for him to make the Republicans look bad before the election. Pure evil stuff

    It’s shady shit like this that is a constant reminder, that we are being painted a false dichotomy by the ruling parties. And people eat it up, chanting “Republicans bad” and downplaying the genocide. Of course Palestinians don’t have nukes so America & Israel can just go hog wild and bathe in the charred bodies of children with no awkward escalation problems

      • mathemachristian[he]@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        We’re saying he helped israel in a way that didn’t need approval from congress, why isn’t he doing the same for Ukraine?

      • Lung@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        The article math linked lays it out but it’s always the same formula. Someone declares an emergency (like Blinken just did for Israel) and then just goes ahead and appropriates the funds

        But broadly, presidents may issue executive orders for just about anything. The way this works is congress reviews them after the fact, and new presidents tend to review them when they come into office

        Read the wiki page on Executive Orders, history, and constitutionality if you think I’m lying. And yes, Trump even declared an emergency and took privilege to build the wall in recent memory. But there’s been literally wars, desegregation, ordering all mined gold to be given to the treasury… by executive order

        The big picture is that American presidents have extremely broad powers and the only real recourse is impeachment. This is generally a good thing, it makes the government tremendously more efficient

        The other big picture is that the Pentagon refuses to explain where they use 1-2 trillion dollars per year. This is dark money that runs the world, and that’s not a secret. They don’t pass audits, and they barely try. So most of the country’s money is used for military spending, and frankly it’s hard to imagine they can’t find some cash for key nato borders