I'm going nuts with all the posts I'm seeing about Biden and Gaza.
Yes, I hate what's happening in Gaza.
Yes, Biden is president.
No, there's nothing he can legally do to stop it. He can encourage Bibi to stop slaughtering people - and he is. He can delay shipments of weapons - and he is. He can't violate US law or signed treaties. He's not a dictator, here or in Israel. He can't just do whatever he wants.
And, seriously - how would ANY of this be better with Trump?!?!?
No, he can't. Not unilaterally. He would need Congress, and the House is controlled by people who will burn it all down rather than give Biden something he wants.
@ScottSoCal and what do you base that claim on? What law or treaty requires him to send Israel money and weapons?
If it was already required, why was Congress voting on it?
Why did he have to BYPASS CONGRESS to send them "emergency aid"?
Civics classes are great. Take one.
@ScottSoCal That's your answer? Telling me I'm dumb while you're out here claiming Biden is legally required to do something he is lobbying and going around Congress to do?
You plainly have no idea what you're talking about.
@blueemu @ScottSoCal As an outsider, I don’t know the intricacies of the treaties that may be in place, but I know one thing: Biden could be pushing for Congress to suspend all shipments of weapons to Israel. He could take that stand, and it would matter, whether it was successful or not.
Everytime I see this argument I never see any one argue Trump would make the situation better. We all know Trump will make it worse, much much worse, more deaths, more places.
What's complicated about choosing less deaths?
@chris @blueemu @ScottSoCal
@ArtBear @ScottSoCal @chris That's not the argument happening here.
Which do you want #Trump or #Biden?
@blueemu @ScottSoCal @chris
@blueemu @ScottSoCal scottsocal, you are aggressively wrong: https://www.axios.com/2024/05/13/us-presidents-red-lines-israel
@ScottSoCal @blueemu he himself can cut off the weapon sales that HE is negotiating and stop talking to Netanyahu like he's anything other than a genocidal psychopath.
@ScottSoCal Walk it back and apologize
@pixplz @ScottSoCal
For real. This is some awful dialog for someone that appears to want other people to accept their point of view
@ScottSoCal LOL at first I thought this was your reply to him @blueemu
Yeah civics classes are great, we all need to keep our knowledge fresh since stuff changes after you leave high school! 😂
@ScottSoCal How I wish this were true. Unfortunately the POTUS has a whole budget of his own for sending weapons or money to buy weapons to Israel or whatever other country he so chooses. He has been sending weapons to Israel pretty much non stop since Oct., no Congressional approval needed. cc @blueemu
It is American law that an American administration may not supply weapons to a government which is not adhering to accepted human rights standards in its conduct while using them. When our State Department experts prepared a report this year documenting Israel's failure to adhere to those standards, Blinken and Biden refused to accept the report from their own experts. Biden is ignoring the law in order to support a genocide. His hands aren't tied: they're bloody.
@ScottSoCal toward the end of Obama's presidency, I had started to read "Presidential Power" by Neustadt (https://adambrown.info/p/notes/neustadt_presidential_power ), after O. mentioned in an interview how much he felt that book was representative of his office; most of what needs to be done had to be done by influence, not by commanding people.
Then Trump came in, and started throwing ketchup on the wall when he didn't get his way. 😭
1. Good. Pay attention, please. We need attention.
2. Biden is gaslighting people to think he can't change things while he works overtime to shield Israel from responsibility or consequence stemming from their actions.
3. No one thinks Trump will be better, but asking him to be better now won't change anything. Maybe you can deduce why we talk about Biden now.
feel the same
IMO the people making these Biden-blaming posts *know* it would be even worse with Trump, they simply don't care
for some, pretending Gaza is somehow Biden's fault makes it easier to look in the mirror than just admitting they're happy to usher in fascism if they think it will lower their taxes
straight up MAGAs don't need an excuse to vote for fascism, but for those who won't admit even to themselves that money is their god, GOP crafts a different kind of lie
@ScottSoCal The fact is, Trump has already said he’d blast Gaza out of existence, so it would absolutely not be better with him. He and Bibi are two peas in a pod.
@ScottSoCal For the reasons you list a month ago I decided to compare all post WW2 US presidents on their complicity in offensive deaths. Biden and Gaza included. The US presidency is a brutal position all things considered.
What I found was that Biden is second best in 70 years. Not what I expected given how mad everyone is at him.
Here is the chart.
@ScottSoCal Right??? What do they think trump will do? He'd probably ENCOURAGE the extermination of Gazans 🥺
@ScottSoCal Say it with me now: He can stop sending them money and weapons.
He has that ability. He wants votes from pro-Israel groups, though, so he won't.
So tired of this "poor Joe is trying his best" narrative. It's crap. He has supported this slaughter from day one.