this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2023
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[–] [email protected] 68 points 10 months ago (4 children)
[–] [email protected] 25 points 10 months ago

Why provide healthcare when we can provide death and destruction instead!

[–] [email protected] 21 points 10 months ago

You can have 3 free COVID vaccines, as a treat.

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[–] [email protected] 59 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Can’t forgive student debt can’t pay for healthcare yet we can have war, ffs

[–] [email protected] 16 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

The government actually has infinite money

Not that I'm saying we should throw money into these wars, but rather that we should have no issue taking care of healthcare and student debt.

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (3 children)

While I'm openly in favor of supporting Ukraine, it's important to note that the vast majority of this type of military aid is provided in kind.

So really, it's a proposal to give US Defense contractors $100b+ to replenish and restock the DOD with new kit and munitions for the old kit and munitions that we're providing to Ukraine. Which then get into the use accounting tricks e.g. depreciation values, etc.

The annual military aid to Israel is a little different, it's more like a loss leader coupon: give Israel money that they have to spend with US Defense contractors, which then also incentivizes them spending their own budget on complementary systems that can be integrated with those systems, munitions, support contracts, etc.

Although in this case, I believe it's primarily munitions and other kit that the DOD already has in warehouses.

This is oversimplified, but I just see these headline figures always being confused for pallets of cash.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (8 children)

I don’t live in Ukraine. I need healthcare now. Let Blackrock and Vanguard fund Ukraine.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago (2 children)

While I'm openly in favor of supporting Ukraine

How about Palestine?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

If the Palestinians had received a quarter of what Ukraine has received in the last three years Israel would be no more. I certainly don't have a problem with that.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Do I support giving arms to Israel? No, but that wasn't the point of my post. It was an very high level explainer to head off the inevitable portrayal of this as a direct cash transfer.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Sweet! So it'll help the rich get richer and won't help any of us who don't work on the defense industry. Love it!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

I'd try to explain the geostrategic and humanitarian benefits to helping one of the world's largest bread baskets defend against imperial conquest by an mafia run gas station, or do a deeper dive into Putin's desire to reconquer the old USSR satellite states, or the associated risks if he was successful, but I don't think you really care to have you opinion shaped by analysis and the realities of great power poltics, so I'ma leave you be.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I fully support giving aid to Ukraine. Just not so sure about funding the destruction of Palestine by a country with one of the world's strongest economies

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

I never said I supported funding Israel's military, I don't. I just added that mini explainer because it's a different method of military aid than we provide Ukraine, and the proposal is bundled together.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Sorry, this is on me - I should have been more clear in my first reply. I just think it's fucked up that we're spending all this money to support genocide when "we couldn't afford" to spend on US citizens. Defense contractors make a shit ton of money from war and the rest of us won't have anything to show for it. Again, speaking strictly about the middle east. Russia is a significant threat to the world so I'm fine with my tax dollars are going toward stopping their bullshit.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 10 months ago (3 children)

How about helping your own fucking citizens first?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

US citizens have already enough weapons

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Great, let's ask them for 200 and help fight homelessness and help student loan debt

[–] [email protected] 27 points 10 months ago

"defense" industry lapdogs absolutely drooling at the steak Genocide Joe's dangling over their heads

[–] [email protected] 21 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Remember when we used to make fun of parliamentary governments when they became “without a government.”

Well joke’s on us right now with a Speakerless House.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Well joke’s on us right now with a Speakerless House.

Sounds like an issue for Republicunts.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (2 children)

And people who want to fund death, which is a shockingly large number of Democrats.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Deaths would happen regardless if they can't defend themselves

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Reading half of the comments in this thread, I officially hate America.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I wonder what a poll in the US would look like if they let the people vote on this. But its an all or nothing vote. Like we vote to give both countries aid or neither.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Why?

Why do we need to fund a genocide to stop a genocide?

Just why?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago (2 children)

The worst part about being pro Ukraine and pro Palestine is realising Ukraine supports Israel.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Ukraine's funding disappeared as one of the concessions for the 45 day funding bill while republicans pick a new speaker.

I think Zelensky is trying to play this smart because it ties something he needs (military funding) to something republicans need to support (Israel)

Whether or not he agrees with it doesn't matter, because as a leader this is the best move for him to get funding back.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

100% this… words are cheap, and he needs to do everything he can for his country… supporting palestine or staying silent gets him nothing, and potentially loses quite a bit in retaliation

it really doesn’t matter what he thinks is fair or just

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

So I need to vote against supporting Ukraine?

I feel like you get it, you're just trolling.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

What happens when we can no longer move balances around and dish out money to maintain the global status quo

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Some Republican lawmakers have grown skeptical of the need to fund Ukraine's war with Russia, and have threatened to halt government altogether to put an end to chronic U.S. budget deficits and fiscal spending fueled by $31.4 trillion in debt.

"The world is watching and the American people rightly expect their leaders to come together and deliver on these priorities," said Biden's budget director, Shalanda Young, in a letter to acting House Speaker Patrick McHenry.

She also told Congress of plans to submit another request for funding to deal with natural disasters, high-speed internet, child care and wild-land firefighter pay "in coming days."

Some $14.3 billion of Friday's funding request for the 2024 fiscal year would be dedicated to Israel, much of it to support the country's air and missile defense systems and other weapons purchases.

The request includes billions to replenish the country's military equipment, and would provide economic and security aid and support for refugees in the United States.

"The unwavering bipartisan support for Ukraine in the United States is incredibly encouraging for all of our warriors and for our entire nation," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on Friday on social media.


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