MATTHEW MILLER ON MASS GRAVES FOUND IN GAZA HOSPITAL: "WE'RE INQUIRING WITH THE GOVERNMENT OF ISRAEL"
📹 US State Department spokesperson, Matthew Miller responds to a question about recent discovery of hundreds of bodies in three mass graves at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis, in the south of Gaza: "We're inquiring with the government of Israel."
When confronted with crimes against humanity, the Biden administration inquires about the issue with the government in question while simultaneously providing the munitions killing Palestinians on the dime of the American taxpayer.
Joe Biden has signed into law a bill that rushes $95bn in foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, a bipartisan legislative victory he hailed as a “good day for world peace” after months of congressional gridlock threatened Washington’s support for Kyiv in its fight to repel Russia’s invasion.
The Senate overwhelmingly passed the measure in a 79 -18 vote late on Tuesday night, after the package won similarly lopsided approval in the Republican controlled House, despite months of resistance from an isolationist bloc of hardline conservatives opposed to helping Ukraine.
“It’s going to make America safer. It’s going to make the world safer,” Biden said, in remarks delivered from the White House, shortly after signing the bill.
“It was a difficult path,” he continued. “It should have been easier and it should have gotten there sooner. But in the end, we did what America always does. We rose to the moment, came together, and we got it done.”
The White House first sent its request for the foreign aid package to Congress in October, and US officials have said the months-long delay hurt Ukraine on the battlefield. Promising to “move fast”, Biden said the US would begin shipping weapons and equipment to Ukraine within a matter of hours.
Biden admonished “Maga Republicans” for blocking the aid package as Ukrainian soldiers were running out of artillery shells and ammunition as Iran, China and North Korea helped Russia to ramp up its aerial assault on Ukrainian cities and critical infrastructure.
Rejecting the view that Ukraine is locked in an unwinnable conflict that has become a drain on US resources, Biden hailed Ukraine’s army as a “fighting force with the will and the skill to win”.
But the president also pressed the case that supporting Ukraine was in the national security interest of the US.
[...]
In an effort to attract Republican support, the security bill includes a provision that could see a nationwide ban on TikTok. The House also added language mandating the president seek repayment from Kyiv for roughly $10bn in economic assistance in the form of “forgivable loans”, an idea first floated by Donald Trump, who has stoked anti-Ukraine sentiment among conservatives.
Although support for the package was overwhelming, several Democrats have expressed their concern with sending Israel additional military aid as it prosecutes a war that has killed more than 34,000 people in Gaza and plunged the territory into a humanitarian crisis. Three progressive senators, Bernie Sanders, Peter Welch of Vermont and Jeff Merkley of Oregon, voted against the bill for its inclusion of military support to Israel.
On Wednesday, Biden called the aid to Israel “vital”, especially in the wake of Iran’s unprecedented aerial assault on the country. Israel, with help from the US, UK and Jordan, intercepted nearly all of the missiles and drones and there were no reported fatalities. The attack had been launched in retaliation against an Israeli strike on an Iranian consular site in Syria.
“My commitment to Israel, I want to make clear again, is ironclad,” Biden said. “The security of Israel is critical. I will always make sure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself against Iran and terrorists who it supports.”
Biden’s abiding support for Israel’s war in Gaza has hurt his political standing with key parts of the Democratic coalition, especially among young people. As he spoke, students at some of the nation’s most prestigious universities were demonstrating against the war.
Biden emphasized that the bill also increases humanitarian assistance to Gaza, touting his administration’s efforts to pressure Israel to allow more aid into the devastated territory. But House Republicans added a provision to the bill prohibiting funds to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, Unrwa, a “lifeline for the Palestinian people in Gaza” that Israel has sought to disband.
President Biden signed a foreign aid package worth $95BN containing foreign aid for Ukraine, Taiwan, and Israel and provisions to a TikTok ban.
The good: Ukraine and Taiwan funding.
The bad: TikTok ban and Israel funding.
See Also:
Vox: Ukraine aid and a potential TikTok ban: What’s in the House’s new $95 billion bill
That genocidal state forces are using drones and loudspeakers over the nuseirat camp, broadcasting cries of women and children to lure and target civilians.
Sorry I'm kind of dissociated and my vocab crashes during that can you explain the Biden drug thing in just. Shorter simple sentences.
Sure! You're not the only one who's mentioned being unclear on what it means either, and I'm happy to help
(Context for anyone else: US Sets Policy to Seize Patents of Government-Funded Drugs if Price Deemed Too High, via Good News Network, December 11, 2023)
From the very basics:
When drug companies create new drugs, they get a legal protection called a "patent." The patent means no one else can make or sell the same drug for whatever number of years.
Usually, this is about 10 years after the drug starts being sold to the public.
So, for those years, that one drug company is the only source of whatever medication. And since people need their medication, drug companies can charge however much money they want.
Meaning a lot of drugs that people need to live cost way too much money to buy.
So, with this, Biden told drug companies "Fuck you, if you keep making medicine too $$$ for people to afford, I'm giving your competition the right to make and sell those drugs too."
The US has never done anything like this before.
This is a huge threat to the whole (awful) drug industry in the US. It will save people thousands of dollars. If he does this, it will save lives.
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Edit 12/17/23: Quick note, as people have said in the notes, this only applies to drugs made in part using taxpayer money. Which is! Literally all of them!
Looks like the biden admin is showing the first signs of caving regarding its support for the israeli gvt and is attempting to distance him from it. This should not be allowed to happen. He has a hand in this genocide and stepping away is not enough.
The most recent statements have changed from overt support for israel to a concession that israel's civilian killings are too much, but he's now claiming to be unable to exert enough influence to stop them. This is not true. He is trying to continue allowing it while avoiding culpability when he should be opposing it directly.
Nicknames like genocide joe and genocidin biden seem to have his campaign afraid that he might not win a second term if he keeps aiding ethnic cleansing. Good. Until he halts all material aid he should still be treated as an ongoing genocide supporter. And even after that he will never be clean of the lives of the people he helped put to death.
UNITED STATES TREATS ITS ACTIVIST COMMUNITY LIKE TERRORISTS AS PROTESTS CONTINUE IN SUPPORT OF GAZA
📹 NYPD Counterterrorism units oversee student protests in New York City at Colombia University, where demonstrations have led to mass arrests of students and faculty in recent days.
The Biden administration and Democrats, with the full enthusiasm and support of the Republican Party continue to treat American student protesters as though they were terrorists, while President Biden accuses the students of "antisemitism".
"I condemn the antisemitic protests," Biden said in a speech on Monday, echoing unsubstantiated claims by the Israeli occupation and its lobby.