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.

  • phdepressed@sh.itjust.works
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    10 months ago

    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.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      He does not have authority to make it legal. Again laws.

      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 president is not a dictator

      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.

        • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          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.