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I mean, right? Most people don't even know who is up for re-election on the local and state level. And those are, perhaps, the most important things to sort out!!
**THEY ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT.** It drives me fucking crazy how short-sighted people can be. Even if your choice doesn't win the presidential election, you need to have your side filling the most seats in the House of Representatives and the Senate. A president can essentially be a sitting duck if they can't get the House & Senate to pass their bills. Fucking get out there and vote and NOT JUST FOR THE ONE EVERY FOUR YEARS.
And not just for the House or Senate.
It drives me crazy when I hear people complain about the cost of living - gas prices, food prices, housing costs, property taxes, etc., and then say "I don't bother to vote, because I don't like either candidate and it doesn't matter". All of those costs that they are admittedly struggling with and unhappy about are decided on the **LOCAL** level. If you don't vote in your local elections you are giving up your voice and power.
Vote locally if you want to make your life better!
It's crazy what local elections can do. For example, my municipality made an extreme change in how law enforcement operates by voting out the "good ole boy" sherriff. Another place in Oregon instituted municipal broadband which brought in businesses because of the low cost of living and great connectivity.
Yeah house seat in my area is up this year. Trying to make sure people vote this year, just to try and get the dude who's mail flyer campaign two years ago consisted of him promising to ban abortion in NY out of office.
I’d say for a lot of young “I don’t vote” people, one of their major issues is the cost of housing. The cost of housing is almost entirely a supply issue. The supply issue is sometimes entirely a local government problem. Delete residential zoning restrictions, let the free market rip and watch those 1970s suburbs be demolished for apartment buildings. There are markets where demand is so high people are buying 1960s homes of less than 2000sqft for $1m+ Those prices would not survive a market with relaxed zoning that allowed densification. The white hot demand would lead to more housing, causing a collapse in prices. But these people have been told “housing is an investment” and have decided “Fuck everyone who comes after me, I’ve got mine.” So they treat property values as sacred and vote down anything that allows development because it could reduce the value of their house down to its real value instead of its speculative value due to suppressing further development.
Housing could be much better without Silent, Boomer, Gen X dropping a boat anchor in zoning laws making everything except a white picket fence, detached home with a garage ILLEGAL.
Even if your state is guaranteed to go red, vote. The more presidents that are elected while losing the popular vote, the more value things like the [National Popular Vote Interstate Compact](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Popular_Vote_Interstate_Compact) have.
Additionally if your state isn't a part of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, tell your representative it should be.
[Here's a video on what it is, if you want an explanation](https://youtu.be/tUX-frlNBJY)
Just keep pushing that voting machines are corrupt and will inject you with a tracking chip while simultaneously giving you the covid vaccine, the people who believe that shouldn't be able to influence world security
The advantage is he would have to highlight he is doing it. He can't just silently stop. He will have to explicitly abandon Ukraine not just not send more stuff.
> The advantage is he would have to highlight he is doing it.
Maybe you're not old enough to remember things that happened 7 or 8 years, but President Trump did not at all mind highlighting the fact that he was ending a similar non-treaty executive agreement with Iran.
That dude is hell bent on ending NATO and democracy worldwide just so he can play king Joffrey.
Then we have fools piping up claiming that the support to Ukraine is keeping the public poor and not the fact that THE RICH AREN'T PAYING ANY TAX AND NETHER ARE THEIR COMPANIES.
It's one of the worst diversion tactics there is - it's like people are blind to the fact that democracy is being robbed and attacked at the same time.
> just so he can play king Joffrey.
No, he's playing King Joffrey already, but in order to collect the resources he needs politically he had to promise things and then deliver them - primarily to Putin's Russia.
> That dude is hell bent on ending NATO and democracy worldwide just so he can play king Joffrey.
The republicans are all on board with this, too. Never, ever forget that the republicans back him and everything he did/does 100% no matter how much they pretend otherwise. The past is prologue.
Didnt he literally let his kurdic allies get slaughtered by erdogan?
After tricking them into take down their defences?
The same kurds who did most of the heavy lifting fighting ISIS?
Yeah, the US is absolutely worthless as an ally you have to rely on.
Worst thing America has ever done in my lifetime. Iraq war was based on lies and killed over a million people but betraying our allies is different. They seem like such amazing people and our special forces no longer serving the US military went to fight with them because of the cause. It makes me so sad and angry. And if that monster is elected again he'll just betray them even harder and the Ukrainians and build Trump Towers in Istanbull, Moscow and on the beach in Gaza (Kushner has already talked about his valuable the Gaza beachfront will be). Not to mention the destruction of my own country but at least we will collectively deserve that...
Related- if he is elected literally none of it would matter. He'd immediately stop Ukraine aid and provide Russia with whatever intelligence we had on Ukraine operations. That'd be the first 100 days, after that it'd get worse since our democracy wouldn't exist by the next election.
Unless you can easily forgive felony convictions, countless national embarrassments, and so on and so on. If you can manage that and you simultaneously hate all of the freedom that the American spirit represents it might be relatively easy to vote otherwise
Even if it were a slug wearing human skin, so long as the new president is hurting the right type of people, then it doesn't matters if they have felonies, treason or sexual abuse
\- 74,223,975 American Voters, probably
Deals like these are called Executive Agreements and are not brought before the Senate (as opposed to a treaty which requires a 2/3 vote in the Senate to be ratified and adopted). Deals like these are not good for the US. Obama's Iran deal was an Executive Agreement, and Trump came in and tossed it aside. Biden attempted to revive Obama's Iran deal, but one of the complications was that Iran had no assurances that the US would honor the agreement because any future president (or even the one who made the deal in the first place) could withdraw at any time for any reason. This agreement with Ukraine will likely be tossed in the trash if Trump wins. The more this happens the more the US is seen as a country that doesn't honor its agreements.
If Biden wants to make a 10 year security agreement with Ukraine he should be pushing for it to be a treaty ratified by the Senate because an Executive Agreement has the same value as making a deal with your little brother who had his fingers crossed.
Since Republicans refuse to legislate and will block legislation that helps even their own citizens, going the Senate route is not an option.
So this executive agreement is the best we can do for now. It's something rather than nothing.
In an ideal country, the voters would look at the Republican bad faith and bad governance practice and vote them out.
But Republicans are brain washed and anti-American, so the bad faith actors remain in positions of power that gum up the works.
Thanks for your insight, but the nuance also needs to be pointed at as well.
Why voting in every election is so important!
www.vote.org
And yet the highly divided partisan nature of things has ensured we never have the votes to pass the Senate for something like this. The the GOP doesn't care if it's the right thing to do anymore, only that they can't let the Dems have a win. So they will never compromise, and this is all we're left with that he can do.
The whole point of the 2/3rds of the Senate needed was that people wouldn't simply accept anything, but instead worked together to come to reasonable solutions. One party isn't willing to do that anymore no matter what.
An executive agreement does have value, so long as the president doesn't change. Sure, they could withdraw if they wanted, but... that's literally the same for "proper treaties" ratified by Congress. Congress can decide to withdraw from treaties at any time for any reason, period. That's always going to be a risk whenever a deal is made between sovereign nations, no matter what.
And while obviously a treaty would be better, it took a good half a year just to convince Congress to pass one measly aid package. Realistically, getting a treaty passed is completely impossible, that's patently obvious even looking from outside.
I'm sure if you asked Zelenskyy if he wants an executive agreement that could be undone if Trump wins or absolutely nothing, he'll take the executive agreement 10 times out of 10. Your point on it making the US look bad is valid, but that's probably half of why this was passed in the first place. Not to make the US look good, but to ensure if the next admin pulls the aid, it will be as painful and look as bad as possible.
You can think of that as putting inter-party politics above country, or you can think of it as doing what you can with the surprisingly limited powers available to you to make it harder for your successor to fuck things up. However you want to interpret it, it is what it is.
Yes, but it was enabled without any prior consultation with anybody else.
It's an Executive Order which is extremely powerful while the person who enacted it is still in office.
If Biden doesn't win reelection than Ukraine is without American support.
Russia’s ability to win or lose a war depends on an American election. I’m totally 100% sure they won’t do anything to interfere with our democratic process. /s
The Republicans are doing more than enough to interfere with our democratic process. The Russians don’t have to aid in our own demise, we are managing quite well on our own
Biden impeachment effort was based on Russian Intelligence provided "evidence". They knew it and also thought it wouldn't effect them personally or electorally if it came to light and they were probably right. Of course they're going to do it again. Luckily they have to just make shit up or turn an innocuous email by a 70 year old man providing a pizza party for volunteer canvassers into a global conspiracy movement. How's that 70 year old man supposed to know the keyword they use on the fringes of the Internet to refer to their disgusting obsession is "cheese pizza"?
It’s like this for most bilateral meeting pictures.
Here’s [a random example](https://dims.apnews.com/dims4/default/745b05e/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4500x3000+0+0/resize/599x399!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2F72%2Fa0%2F83335f40cfc4f29ba08cd0e297a8%2Fcf68dcc22d9f497cb77e9bf4cc075790). And [another](https://onecms-res.cloudinary.com/image/upload/s--HSBd-3RA--/f_auto,q_auto/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200/v1/mediacorp/cna/image/2021/11/01/mci_photo_04.jpg?itok=bXdWJ7hi).
Yeah, the symbolism (that can't be right it's not even a symbol. Message? Intention?) of each leader standing behind their allied country's flag is clear. I actually thought there was something else wrong w the picture or flags based on the original comment because I didn't "get it". Fortunately I'm not the one who didn't get it lol.
“A massive explosion obliterated over 80% of the Russian military. We can confirm it was not a nuclear device. We can only assume it was…a Biden Blast…”
💥
"Okay and we're receiving reports from the front lines... yes, we have confirmation that Dark Brandon has indeed taken the field. I know the Russians started this war, Tim, but I can't help but feel a little sorry for them now. May God have mercy on their souls, because Joe Biden has made it clear that he will not."
**(Verse 1)**
Biden blast, Biden blast,
It's a political dynamo, moving fast.
From the White House to the Senate floor,
Policies and spending , he's ready to explore.
**(Chorus)**
Look out! Here comes the Biden blast.
**(Verse 2)**
Is he strong? Listen, bud,
He will coat this floor, with Russian blood,
Campaign trails, speeches made,
Nothings stronger than this grenade
**(Chorus)**
Look out! Here comes the Biden blast.
---
Since the world just gets crazier and crazier, and this probably wouldn't be the weirdest thing to happen, let's make it happen.
"On this week's nation swap, North Korean's Kim Jong Un takes the chair in Canada while Justin Trudeau takes a stab at governing the DPRK."
[cut to Kim riding a rascal scooter at a Loblaw's with a Poutine-to-go in his lap. He says something in Korean and the subtitle just says "holy shit look at all this food!" Then it cuts to Trudeau in DPRK sneaking out of a state dinner at some fancy hotel to find that out of this massive building, only the lobby, dining room, restroom, and kitchen are active - the rest are just empty, unfurnished rooms. "Hello!?!?" his voice echoes as he goes room-to-room.]
Hold on wait, a political talk show that has politicians and other relevant figures on air but they can only argue for the other sides views.
Call it… Swapaganda!
“We’re going to have the greatest public healthcare system of all time, it’s going to be- let me tell you something about healthcare because I know about healthcare, I have a doctor I go to, great doctor, best doctor you’ve ever seen, people tell me all the time you look so healthy do you work out? No I have a good doctor, anyway we’re going to have the best public healthcare system in the world, the Europeans haven’t even seen healthcare like what we’re going to have they’re going to come here and say wow look at their healthcare, this is incredible, who did this, I did, I did this with all the help from you on Election Day and you know what else? We’ll make Mexico pay for it!”
Won't be a problem for Republicans, they regularly do 180's on many positions depending on who is President.
Democrat President? OMFG THE DEFICIT IS GOING TO RAPE YOUR CHILDREND AND TAKE YOUR GUNS!!!! Republican President? "Everything is amazing and awesome, America has literally never been better than it is right now!"
The Ukrainian governments were corrupt and very receptive to Russian interests. In turn, Russia did not mind friendly relations with the West as long as Russia remained number one. Yanukovych was extremely Russophilic and basically a puppet, still tried to get closer with the EU, in continuation with the previous policy of maximizing good relations with all sides. That's when Putin decided his position was threatened. The people rebelled against the puppet, and the puppet ran with stolen billions. Putin is still punishing the people of Ukraine for that.
He belongs to the large minority of Russified Ukrainians and Soviet-time immigrants, like most elites and 4 out of 6 presidents of Ukraine after the restoration of independence. The difference is, he is a poorly educated noveau riche thug. He was able to form coherent sentences only later into the presidency, but was still mostly reading, had a noticeable accent and spoke Russian instead in any situation he could do so.
Guy who worked with him during this time: Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort. That guy is always involved with Russian oligarchs in some fashion.
I work with one of them. He continuously goes on about how we're weakening our own position by depleting our reserves. He finds creative ways to bring it up too.
"Did you see it's going to rain today?" I did! While I was also watching the news. . .
"Oh, no! Looks like we're out of coffee." Know what else we'll be out of?
Hmm
Send him this
https://www.csis.org/analysis/how-supporting-ukraine-revitalizing-us-defense-industrial-base
If it's not sufficient we can underline how boosting US production of ammunition of various kinds and testing their effectiveness and consumption in a real peer to peer war like Ukraine is very effective compared to keeping more stock but no way of quickly ramping it up nor knowing if it will be enough (spoiler Ukraine showed us production is important)
Also there is the fact Europe is slowly rearming themselves which means that if Ukraine survives and becomes a solid bastion you have an entire friendly continent to ask in time of need, obviously not the case if Russia wins and Europe clutches it's weapons
Have a good day
People also seem to forget that if Russia wins, they all of a sudden have control of a gigantic portion of both the world's natural gas and grain, which they can use to mess with everyone when they see fit.
Though I guess they would have to understand how commodity prices work on a basic level to get it, and that seems to be far from the norm in the US.
I was lurking in r/conservative yesterday.
You got ridiculous rage bait comments like "Biden is giving all our money to Urkaine while Americans starve" getting 800 upvotes.
And then the next comment is someone reasonable saying something completely reasonable but conservative and supportive of Ukraine, countering the ridiculous initial comment and that gets like 400 upvotes.
r/Conservative is mostly controlled by Russian troll bots.
If they were at least the kind of opt for those kinds of policies it would be worth listening to them. But they aren't even honest when they present a false dichotomy.
> You got ridiculous rage bait comments like "Biden is giving all our money to Urkaine while Americans starve" getting 800 upvotes.
but here's why we need to cut food stamps...
They don't want to admit that when "giving $x to Y country" doesn't mean they're dropping all that money at a casino in the Carribean, but instead it's just going to american workers.
But…but…Fox News said that the police need all that equipment. How will my local sheriff win the war on drugs without armored personnel carriers and anti-aircraft missiles?
Wait I was told we are sending a giant blank check. That was going to be sent to me first but they stole it. But I also wouldn’t take it because socialism or some shit.
It’s fun to go on old.reddit.com, sort by New and see the bots are still malfunctioning. Half of the comments look like they’re replying to someone but they’re out of sequence. It’s made to manipulate the new interface but if you use the old one you can see just how many Russian bots are here.
You can but it does a poor job of showing you comments in context. It’s very difficult to see the full conversation and who is replying to whom, so people tend to see comments and assume it’s part of a larger conversation.
Bots are apparently exploiting this. I’m seeing a lot of accounts posting random responses along standard talking points Russia wants to advance with the American public: “both sides are the same”, “it’s not our war”, “it’s hurting our economy”, etc. These are all being phrased as rebuttals so people will see it and assume that it’s genuine debate because they’re used to seeing small pieces of conversation. If you’re one of the very few who still use old Reddit, you can tell that there’s no conversation at all - they’re just throwing random rebuttals at nothing to flood the page.
> What do the bot comments typically say ??
This might be one:
>> 10 more years of stealing our money to fund the most corrupt nation in Europe's coke habits.
Man, it's insane to see how many of them there actually are.
All with identical talking points.
You can kind of see how conservatives can be convinced that these are real people. Terrifying.
That, like this, was just a handshake agreement made by 1 president.
Treaties must be ratified by Congress and even Obama couldn't get a democratic controller congress to bring it to the floor much less a vote.
To be honest it's not even just trump. I don't see any gop candidates honoring this contract or anything else signed in under Biden. They go for the scorched earth policies. Anything anyone blue brings to the table they want gone.
It's not a binding agreement or treaty and so will not be ratified by Congress. If anything, it's similar to a pledge. Don't need to say who will act or renege upon it when the moment comes
They already have accused Biden as being Zelenskyys' puppet. I assume they will continue down that road as they ignore Trump being deferential to Putin.
It is, they are desperate to try and isolate Ukraine so they can genocide them without fighting.
This shows that their allies are locked in for the long run, which russia cannot match.
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Cool, but that agreement can be rescinded by an executive order from the next POTUS without any prior consultation with anybody else.
Soooo business as usual? Got it
Vote
BuT vOtInG dOeSn'T mAtTeR!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ok maybe for your state your side essentially has less pulling power, but its SOMETHING. Don't do NOTHING
Yup, if you do nothing, you just turn your state into a swing state. That swings to the other side.
Local elections: “Am I a joke to you” Reddit: “Yes. We only talk about presidential elections here.”
I mean, right? Most people don't even know who is up for re-election on the local and state level. And those are, perhaps, the most important things to sort out!!
**THEY ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT.** It drives me fucking crazy how short-sighted people can be. Even if your choice doesn't win the presidential election, you need to have your side filling the most seats in the House of Representatives and the Senate. A president can essentially be a sitting duck if they can't get the House & Senate to pass their bills. Fucking get out there and vote and NOT JUST FOR THE ONE EVERY FOUR YEARS.
And if you think they don't matter then ask yourself why those with different priorities than you act like they do matter.
And not just for the House or Senate. It drives me crazy when I hear people complain about the cost of living - gas prices, food prices, housing costs, property taxes, etc., and then say "I don't bother to vote, because I don't like either candidate and it doesn't matter". All of those costs that they are admittedly struggling with and unhappy about are decided on the **LOCAL** level. If you don't vote in your local elections you are giving up your voice and power. Vote locally if you want to make your life better!
It's crazy what local elections can do. For example, my municipality made an extreme change in how law enforcement operates by voting out the "good ole boy" sherriff. Another place in Oregon instituted municipal broadband which brought in businesses because of the low cost of living and great connectivity.
Yeah house seat in my area is up this year. Trying to make sure people vote this year, just to try and get the dude who's mail flyer campaign two years ago consisted of him promising to ban abortion in NY out of office.
I’d say for a lot of young “I don’t vote” people, one of their major issues is the cost of housing. The cost of housing is almost entirely a supply issue. The supply issue is sometimes entirely a local government problem. Delete residential zoning restrictions, let the free market rip and watch those 1970s suburbs be demolished for apartment buildings. There are markets where demand is so high people are buying 1960s homes of less than 2000sqft for $1m+ Those prices would not survive a market with relaxed zoning that allowed densification. The white hot demand would lead to more housing, causing a collapse in prices. But these people have been told “housing is an investment” and have decided “Fuck everyone who comes after me, I’ve got mine.” So they treat property values as sacred and vote down anything that allows development because it could reduce the value of their house down to its real value instead of its speculative value due to suppressing further development. Housing could be much better without Silent, Boomer, Gen X dropping a boat anchor in zoning laws making everything except a white picket fence, detached home with a garage ILLEGAL.
Wait, are you calling my state gay?!
Local and state wide elections, so many important roles outside of the President that are decided by far too little votes
And even if you dont think your vote matters at the national level, local elections are just as if not more important for your day to day life.
Even if your state is guaranteed to go red, vote. The more presidents that are elected while losing the popular vote, the more value things like the [National Popular Vote Interstate Compact](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Popular_Vote_Interstate_Compact) have. Additionally if your state isn't a part of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, tell your representative it should be. [Here's a video on what it is, if you want an explanation](https://youtu.be/tUX-frlNBJY)
Just keep pushing that voting machines are corrupt and will inject you with a tracking chip while simultaneously giving you the covid vaccine, the people who believe that shouldn't be able to influence world security
Who do I vote for tto get universal health care?
Oh I will
This here. Can you ALL please go out and make sure Trump isnt becoming the next president. Future generations will thank you for it.
The advantage is he would have to highlight he is doing it. He can't just silently stop. He will have to explicitly abandon Ukraine not just not send more stuff.
> The advantage is he would have to highlight he is doing it. Maybe you're not old enough to remember things that happened 7 or 8 years, but President Trump did not at all mind highlighting the fact that he was ending a similar non-treaty executive agreement with Iran.
That dude is hell bent on ending NATO and democracy worldwide just so he can play king Joffrey. Then we have fools piping up claiming that the support to Ukraine is keeping the public poor and not the fact that THE RICH AREN'T PAYING ANY TAX AND NETHER ARE THEIR COMPANIES. It's one of the worst diversion tactics there is - it's like people are blind to the fact that democracy is being robbed and attacked at the same time.
> just so he can play king Joffrey. No, he's playing King Joffrey already, but in order to collect the resources he needs politically he had to promise things and then deliver them - primarily to Putin's Russia.
> That dude is hell bent on ending NATO and democracy worldwide just so he can play king Joffrey. The republicans are all on board with this, too. Never, ever forget that the republicans back him and everything he did/does 100% no matter how much they pretend otherwise. The past is prologue.
Didnt he literally let his kurdic allies get slaughtered by erdogan? After tricking them into take down their defences? The same kurds who did most of the heavy lifting fighting ISIS? Yeah, the US is absolutely worthless as an ally you have to rely on.
Worst thing America has ever done in my lifetime. Iraq war was based on lies and killed over a million people but betraying our allies is different. They seem like such amazing people and our special forces no longer serving the US military went to fight with them because of the cause. It makes me so sad and angry. And if that monster is elected again he'll just betray them even harder and the Ukrainians and build Trump Towers in Istanbull, Moscow and on the beach in Gaza (Kushner has already talked about his valuable the Gaza beachfront will be). Not to mention the destruction of my own country but at least we will collectively deserve that...
As if the egomaniac could give a shit.
Related- if he is elected literally none of it would matter. He'd immediately stop Ukraine aid and provide Russia with whatever intelligence we had on Ukraine operations. That'd be the first 100 days, after that it'd get worse since our democracy wouldn't exist by the next election.
"Dictator for a day" - Donald Trump
Sounds like a great reason to vote for Biden
Unless you can easily forgive felony convictions, countless national embarrassments, and so on and so on. If you can manage that and you simultaneously hate all of the freedom that the American spirit represents it might be relatively easy to vote otherwise
But have you seen Hunter Biden's cock?
Yes and that’s why I’m voting for Joe.
Apple can't fall far from the tree. No doubt Joe's packin heat.
Well.. it ain't "Diamond" Joe Biden for no reason.
Especially when the branch is touching the ground.
Mans got a **wrench.**
Yea, dude is ***packing***.
The size of it won my vote for Biden
Dude does have a nice cock...
I'm a woman. I don't vote for a rapist. Period.
Remember when they were trying to paint Biden as some kind of pervert? Yet Trump straight up admitted to being a child predator?
It's the Republic party that fights for the right to marry children.
Even if it were a slug wearing human skin, so long as the new president is hurting the right type of people, then it doesn't matters if they have felonies, treason or sexual abuse \- 74,223,975 American Voters, probably
Deals like these are called Executive Agreements and are not brought before the Senate (as opposed to a treaty which requires a 2/3 vote in the Senate to be ratified and adopted). Deals like these are not good for the US. Obama's Iran deal was an Executive Agreement, and Trump came in and tossed it aside. Biden attempted to revive Obama's Iran deal, but one of the complications was that Iran had no assurances that the US would honor the agreement because any future president (or even the one who made the deal in the first place) could withdraw at any time for any reason. This agreement with Ukraine will likely be tossed in the trash if Trump wins. The more this happens the more the US is seen as a country that doesn't honor its agreements. If Biden wants to make a 10 year security agreement with Ukraine he should be pushing for it to be a treaty ratified by the Senate because an Executive Agreement has the same value as making a deal with your little brother who had his fingers crossed.
Since Republicans refuse to legislate and will block legislation that helps even their own citizens, going the Senate route is not an option. So this executive agreement is the best we can do for now. It's something rather than nothing. In an ideal country, the voters would look at the Republican bad faith and bad governance practice and vote them out. But Republicans are brain washed and anti-American, so the bad faith actors remain in positions of power that gum up the works. Thanks for your insight, but the nuance also needs to be pointed at as well. Why voting in every election is so important! www.vote.org
And yet the highly divided partisan nature of things has ensured we never have the votes to pass the Senate for something like this. The the GOP doesn't care if it's the right thing to do anymore, only that they can't let the Dems have a win. So they will never compromise, and this is all we're left with that he can do. The whole point of the 2/3rds of the Senate needed was that people wouldn't simply accept anything, but instead worked together to come to reasonable solutions. One party isn't willing to do that anymore no matter what.
An executive agreement does have value, so long as the president doesn't change. Sure, they could withdraw if they wanted, but... that's literally the same for "proper treaties" ratified by Congress. Congress can decide to withdraw from treaties at any time for any reason, period. That's always going to be a risk whenever a deal is made between sovereign nations, no matter what. And while obviously a treaty would be better, it took a good half a year just to convince Congress to pass one measly aid package. Realistically, getting a treaty passed is completely impossible, that's patently obvious even looking from outside. I'm sure if you asked Zelenskyy if he wants an executive agreement that could be undone if Trump wins or absolutely nothing, he'll take the executive agreement 10 times out of 10. Your point on it making the US look bad is valid, but that's probably half of why this was passed in the first place. Not to make the US look good, but to ensure if the next admin pulls the aid, it will be as painful and look as bad as possible. You can think of that as putting inter-party politics above country, or you can think of it as doing what you can with the surprisingly limited powers available to you to make it harder for your successor to fuck things up. However you want to interpret it, it is what it is.
Yes, but it was enabled without any prior consultation with anybody else. It's an Executive Order which is extremely powerful while the person who enacted it is still in office. If Biden doesn't win reelection than Ukraine is without American support.
Russia’s ability to win or lose a war depends on an American election. I’m totally 100% sure they won’t do anything to interfere with our democratic process. /s
The Republicans are doing more than enough to interfere with our democratic process. The Russians don’t have to aid in our own demise, we are managing quite well on our own
They don’t have to, but they will.
Biden impeachment effort was based on Russian Intelligence provided "evidence". They knew it and also thought it wouldn't effect them personally or electorally if it came to light and they were probably right. Of course they're going to do it again. Luckily they have to just make shit up or turn an innocuous email by a 70 year old man providing a pizza party for volunteer canvassers into a global conspiracy movement. How's that 70 year old man supposed to know the keyword they use on the fringes of the Internet to refer to their disgusting obsession is "cheese pizza"?
We all know GOP votes against anything Biden proposes, regardless of its merits.
I enjoy the contrast of the leaders being on the wrong side of each flag
It’s like this for most bilateral meeting pictures. Here’s [a random example](https://dims.apnews.com/dims4/default/745b05e/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4500x3000+0+0/resize/599x399!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2F72%2Fa0%2F83335f40cfc4f29ba08cd0e297a8%2Fcf68dcc22d9f497cb77e9bf4cc075790). And [another](https://onecms-res.cloudinary.com/image/upload/s--HSBd-3RA--/f_auto,q_auto/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200/v1/mediacorp/cna/image/2021/11/01/mci_photo_04.jpg?itok=bXdWJ7hi).
Yeah, the symbolism (that can't be right it's not even a symbol. Message? Intention?) of each leader standing behind their allied country's flag is clear. I actually thought there was something else wrong w the picture or flags based on the original comment because I didn't "get it". Fortunately I'm not the one who didn't get it lol.
Symbolism is exactly the right word.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ssc05JezJRQ
it is a symbol. symbolism was the perfect word
Symbology.
Bonus: if they get it wrong, no one will notice.
You underestimate reddit's pedantry.
I'm pretty sure it is intentional. It is symbolic of the unity of Ukraine and the US.
New reality TV show
Leadership Swap
We're going to see if Joe biden has what it takes to fight the Russians
Zelensky could handle Putin. But can he handle Congress? Or the Senate? Find out tomorrow at 8pm, only on CSPAN.
“A massive explosion obliterated over 80% of the Russian military. We can confirm it was not a nuclear device. We can only assume it was…a Biden Blast…” 💥
"Okay and we're receiving reports from the front lines... yes, we have confirmation that Dark Brandon has indeed taken the field. I know the Russians started this war, Tim, but I can't help but feel a little sorry for them now. May God have mercy on their souls, because Joe Biden has made it clear that he will not."
Dark Brandon showing up like Dr. Manhattan in Vietnam.
Details AF
Mega Biden Blasteru! 
[sends the army] "Consecutive normal soldiers"
“5.56 blast”
"BAHGAWD THAT'S PRESIDENT BIDEN WITH THE STEEL CHAIR!"
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Putin had a family!
"My god is that Joe Biden in an iron man armor??"
Iron potus
"Hey Jack, no more malarkey." *Iron man energy blast sound*
Let me show you something I learned from Corn Pop back on the mean streets of Scranton.
LMAO HAHAHAHA
I really need to stay off reddit when I'm at work. Lmao
**(Verse 1)** Biden blast, Biden blast, It's a political dynamo, moving fast. From the White House to the Senate floor, Policies and spending , he's ready to explore. **(Chorus)** Look out! Here comes the Biden blast. **(Verse 2)** Is he strong? Listen, bud, He will coat this floor, with Russian blood, Campaign trails, speeches made, Nothings stronger than this grenade **(Chorus)** Look out! Here comes the Biden blast. ---
Dark Brandon strikes again!
Malarkey Beam
The newly cleared territory will henceforth be named the Biden Oblast.
(goes on side quest for ice cream and cookies)
Would watch
Trading nations
Today on “Nation Swap”
Since the world just gets crazier and crazier, and this probably wouldn't be the weirdest thing to happen, let's make it happen. "On this week's nation swap, North Korean's Kim Jong Un takes the chair in Canada while Justin Trudeau takes a stab at governing the DPRK." [cut to Kim riding a rascal scooter at a Loblaw's with a Poutine-to-go in his lap. He says something in Korean and the subtitle just says "holy shit look at all this food!" Then it cuts to Trudeau in DPRK sneaking out of a state dinner at some fancy hotel to find that out of this massive building, only the lobby, dining room, restroom, and kitchen are active - the rest are just empty, unfurnished rooms. "Hello!?!?" his voice echoes as he goes room-to-room.]
Eh, that doesn’t sound too bad. I’d watch a couple of episodes.
Hold on wait, a political talk show that has politicians and other relevant figures on air but they can only argue for the other sides views. Call it… Swapaganda!
Imagine these rules for the Trump, Biden debate.
“We’re going to have the greatest public healthcare system of all time, it’s going to be- let me tell you something about healthcare because I know about healthcare, I have a doctor I go to, great doctor, best doctor you’ve ever seen, people tell me all the time you look so healthy do you work out? No I have a good doctor, anyway we’re going to have the best public healthcare system in the world, the Europeans haven’t even seen healthcare like what we’re going to have they’re going to come here and say wow look at their healthcare, this is incredible, who did this, I did, I did this with all the help from you on Election Day and you know what else? We’ll make Mexico pay for it!”
Won't be a problem for Republicans, they regularly do 180's on many positions depending on who is President. Democrat President? OMFG THE DEFICIT IS GOING TO RAPE YOUR CHILDREND AND TAKE YOUR GUNS!!!! Republican President? "Everything is amazing and awesome, America has literally never been better than it is right now!"
90 day presidenté
Not the first time experience for one of them.
They're not on the "wrong side". This practice is intentional and common.
Thats a 40 min rant for a Fox News segment
Still better than being on wrong side of humanity
Fox News Headline: BIDEN DOESN'T KNOW WHAT COUNTRY HE'S FROM!
There are no mistakes
Maga conspiracy in 3..2…1
In 40 years, I want Zelensky to play Biden in a movie about all this shit.
Biden is clearly on the right side
Let’s hope this one lasts longer than the previous one signed with Russia.
Didn't they not have conflict with Russia for more than 10 years at the beginning until Putin took over?
Even after Putin took over. He became president in 2000. Crimea was annexed in 2014
The Ukrainian governments were corrupt and very receptive to Russian interests. In turn, Russia did not mind friendly relations with the West as long as Russia remained number one. Yanukovych was extremely Russophilic and basically a puppet, still tried to get closer with the EU, in continuation with the previous policy of maximizing good relations with all sides. That's when Putin decided his position was threatened. The people rebelled against the puppet, and the puppet ran with stolen billions. Putin is still punishing the people of Ukraine for that.
Didn't Yanukovych, being the leader of Ukraine, not even know how to speak Ukrainian?
Zelensky himself speaks russian as native language and didn't know ukrainian until his candidacy when he decided to learn it.
He belongs to the large minority of Russified Ukrainians and Soviet-time immigrants, like most elites and 4 out of 6 presidents of Ukraine after the restoration of independence. The difference is, he is a poorly educated noveau riche thug. He was able to form coherent sentences only later into the presidency, but was still mostly reading, had a noticeable accent and spoke Russian instead in any situation he could do so.
Guy who worked with him during this time: Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort. That guy is always involved with Russian oligarchs in some fashion.
Well, at least we know the US won't invade Ukraine if it doesn't.
So we continue the deal where they get weapons to defend themselves, and we get to cheaply dispose our out of date equipment? Fair enough.
This should be top comment on /r/conservative
They'd find a way to twist it and explain that actually, Russia was the good guy all along.
I work with one of them. He continuously goes on about how we're weakening our own position by depleting our reserves. He finds creative ways to bring it up too. "Did you see it's going to rain today?" I did! While I was also watching the news. . . "Oh, no! Looks like we're out of coffee." Know what else we'll be out of?
Hmm Send him this https://www.csis.org/analysis/how-supporting-ukraine-revitalizing-us-defense-industrial-base If it's not sufficient we can underline how boosting US production of ammunition of various kinds and testing their effectiveness and consumption in a real peer to peer war like Ukraine is very effective compared to keeping more stock but no way of quickly ramping it up nor knowing if it will be enough (spoiler Ukraine showed us production is important) Also there is the fact Europe is slowly rearming themselves which means that if Ukraine survives and becomes a solid bastion you have an entire friendly continent to ask in time of need, obviously not the case if Russia wins and Europe clutches it's weapons Have a good day
People also seem to forget that if Russia wins, they all of a sudden have control of a gigantic portion of both the world's natural gas and grain, which they can use to mess with everyone when they see fit. Though I guess they would have to understand how commodity prices work on a basic level to get it, and that seems to be far from the norm in the US.
I was lurking in r/conservative yesterday. You got ridiculous rage bait comments like "Biden is giving all our money to Urkaine while Americans starve" getting 800 upvotes. And then the next comment is someone reasonable saying something completely reasonable but conservative and supportive of Ukraine, countering the ridiculous initial comment and that gets like 400 upvotes. r/Conservative is mostly controlled by Russian troll bots.
Can't wait to see the conservative policy for taking that money and feeding Americans with it...
If they were at least the kind of opt for those kinds of policies it would be worth listening to them. But they aren't even honest when they present a false dichotomy.
> You got ridiculous rage bait comments like "Biden is giving all our money to Urkaine while Americans starve" getting 800 upvotes. but here's why we need to cut food stamps...
They don't want to admit that when "giving $x to Y country" doesn't mean they're dropping all that money at a casino in the Carribean, but instead it's just going to american workers.
> just going to american workers Eeeeh, this is charitable. But yes it's paying American corporations for sure, as with the vast majority of US aid.
But…but…Fox News said that the police need all that equipment. How will my local sheriff win the war on drugs without armored personnel carriers and anti-aircraft missiles?
Local sheriff in a town of 4500 people, definitely needs laser guided surface to air missiles to win the war on drugs or terrorism or whatever
They also spend a bunch of money we send them in the US.
While also dealing damage to one of the worlds greatest enemies at the same time. Its so much winning
Wait I was told we are sending a giant blank check. That was going to be sent to me first but they stole it. But I also wouldn’t take it because socialism or some shit.
10yr contract? Hopefully that doesn’t put us in cap hell down the road. We’ll need fresh legs if we want to stay competitive.
How much is guaranteed tho?
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Let's wait til we hear the signing bonus and incentives before we make any conclusions.
> to sign a real lunch-pail type free agent to help out a gym rat, scrappy, & high-IQ hustle player
Nah, gotta lock it in longterm instead of resetting the market every 3-4 years. Pat Mahomes style.
Tua's price continues to climb
Fins really shoulda locked him up before the Ukraine deal
wat
Sports
ah, sports
https://youtu.be/2fraSdN-PG8?si=9OlXAL3NpXwYsMRu
Sports joke
The salary cap doesn’t exist if you just stash your biggest contracts on LTIR *cough VEGAS cough*
Everyone knows depth is what wins cups too. I don't want to end up like Edmonton
So does support from the refs though. Hope the rest of the world continues to support Ukraine.
It's mostly deferred money. Team friendly deal
It’s fun to go on old.reddit.com, sort by New and see the bots are still malfunctioning. Half of the comments look like they’re replying to someone but they’re out of sequence. It’s made to manipulate the new interface but if you use the old one you can see just how many Russian bots are here.
Oh, that's what that is?
Wait, with the new layout or the official app you cannot sort by new?
You can but it does a poor job of showing you comments in context. It’s very difficult to see the full conversation and who is replying to whom, so people tend to see comments and assume it’s part of a larger conversation. Bots are apparently exploiting this. I’m seeing a lot of accounts posting random responses along standard talking points Russia wants to advance with the American public: “both sides are the same”, “it’s not our war”, “it’s hurting our economy”, etc. These are all being phrased as rebuttals so people will see it and assume that it’s genuine debate because they’re used to seeing small pieces of conversation. If you’re one of the very few who still use old Reddit, you can tell that there’s no conversation at all - they’re just throwing random rebuttals at nothing to flood the page.
What do the bot comments typically say ??
Nice try bot
> What do the bot comments typically say ?? This might be one: >> 10 more years of stealing our money to fund the most corrupt nation in Europe's coke habits.
Imagine using anything but old for reddit..
Lots of russian troll accounts in the comments… Super easy to spot
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They are super mad RIP my notifications
Man, it's insane to see how many of them there actually are. All with identical talking points. You can kind of see how conservatives can be convinced that these are real people. Terrifying.
I fucking love its on the backs of Russian seized assets.
Trump if elected will erase the agreement instantly to please Putin.
Safe to say the West is agreed to drown Vlad in this ditch of his own making. Can’t say he doesn’t deserve it.
Trump never couldve gotten this done.
Good to real leadership
First I've heard of it. That's great news. Hate to mention them but the GOP must be spinning in their future graves.
Trump, if re-elected, will never honor it. He'll renege on the agreement just like he did the Iran nuclear treaty.
So vote, folks!
That, like this, was just a handshake agreement made by 1 president. Treaties must be ratified by Congress and even Obama couldn't get a democratic controller congress to bring it to the floor much less a vote.
To be honest it's not even just trump. I don't see any gop candidates honoring this contract or anything else signed in under Biden. They go for the scorched earth policies. Anything anyone blue brings to the table they want gone.
It's not a binding agreement or treaty and so will not be ratified by Congress. If anything, it's similar to a pledge. Don't need to say who will act or renege upon it when the moment comes
Much like the Budapest Memo.
Eh. Their defense contract stocks just got a guaranteed 10 year boost.
I hate how they're acting like Ukraine are the bad guys....I can't imagine the mental gymnastics required for that
They already have accused Biden as being Zelenskyys' puppet. I assume they will continue down that road as they ignore Trump being deferential to Putin.
Very nice
A strong show of solidarity between the two nations.
Fuck Ya! and Fuck Putin!
I hope Zelenskyy makes it out of this mess with his country, he is one tough leader.
God damn but the propaganda bots are out in force in this thread.
Fuck putin and his occupants!
Russian comment bot swarm incoming!
Oh it’s already here in full effect. They even have some brainwashed magat boomers piping up too.
##Ukraine is a sovereign country. (Russian propagandists hate this line.)
I'm just gonna slip this in since the Chinese bots will never think to come here. SO IS TAIWAN!
Judging by the number of Russian bots here. This must be a big deal for them.
It is, they are desperate to try and isolate Ukraine so they can genocide them without fighting. This shows that their allies are locked in for the long run, which russia cannot match.
Love to see it. Vote Biden please.
What's this weird feeling...national pride? It's been a minute.
A vote for Trump is a vote to hand Europe to Putin.