The Senate on Wednesday night voted down resolutions introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to block several weapons transfers to Israel, but the effort received more support from Democrats than expected.
Eighteen senators — Sanders, Sen. Angus King (I-ME), and 16 Democrats — voted in favor of the first resolution that would have blocked the transfer of 120mm tank shells to Israel. Seventy-nine senators voted against the resolution, including Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who opposes US military aid to Ukraine and previously joined efforts against weapons transfers to Saudi Arabia that supported its brutal war in Yemen.
The second resolution to block 120mm mortar rounds for Israel failed in a vote of 19-78. The third resolution, which would have blocked a JDAM bomb kit shipment to Israel, failed in a vote of 17-80.
The White House came out strongly against the resolutions ahead of the vote, putting out talking points that claimed any senator who voted to block the arms shipments to Israel would be helping Hamas.
“Disapproving arms purchases for Israel at this moment would … put wind in the sails of Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas at the worst possible moment,” the Biden administration said.
A day earlier, Sanders and his cosponsors — Peter Welch (D-VT), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) — gave a press conference where they explained their reasoning for wanting to block the arms transfers, pointing to the starvation of Palestinians and atrocities being committed with US weapons.
Sanders said US military aid to Israel was illegal due to US foreign assistance laws that prohibit providing weapons to countries that intentionally block aid or commit human rights violations.
“Israel is clearly in violation of these laws,” Sanders said. “Under these circumstances, it is illegal for the US government to provide them with more offensive weaponry. Joint resolutions of disapproval are Congress’s tool to enforce those laws.”
Slogans versus Palestinians starving and US law. Slogans win. And 18 votes were more than expected. These people are horrible.
They sold their souls at the dollar store a long time ago … the interesting thing to me is that normal humans vote for these lizards (to keep the wrong lizards from getting in, I'm sure) …
"the interesting thing…is that normal humans vote for these [crimes against humanity enabling] lizards"
Here's a shot at one big pic explanation:
When a special-interest-beholden 'party of the people' antidemocratically refuses to come out swinging for clearly popular wants and needs – govt-controlled big pharma drug prices, say – there is a perversion of citizen wants and needs
taxing the rich or beating swords into ploughshares falls away as a driving citizen pov. And then people stay home – or other, angry and sick compensatory 'wants' surface
… and all 79 took the oath to "uphold & defend the Constitution and Laws of the US". 79 prima facie cases of Treason!
"Slogans win. FLAWLESS victory."
Mortal combat, indeed.
Bernie is the best!!!
I wonder how Bernie feels playing such a devoted sheepdog for the Dem Party, only to be spit on every time he does something he really believes in …
He is an old man and maybe he regrets and feels sick to how low he fell so late in life. It is like penitence after confession.
Easy to please on an empty gesture.
Maybe he wants save some of his past honorable service?
To be fair, who could have imagined what a disaster genocide Joe would be?
Joe shmo. It’s time to stop blaming a U.S. policy in the making since 1948 on one man who may or may not be alive and has very little say.
True, genocide Joe is only finishing it, he may not be able to and Trump will be left holding the bag, who knows and who cares Joe or the Don in case Netanyahu can’t make it.
You know something, your hint is a possibility, “may not be alive” under present conditions anything could become possible, we are governed by mad criminals.
I wish this were true. He talks the talk but when he had the chance to expose the DNC for the cheaters, crooks and warmongers they are, he folded his tent, acquiesced for a few “attaboys” and supported them.
There were no others with even a little courage and decency ready to support him. A report card of our intellectually and morally bankrupt and corrupt leadership, nothing but human garbage. So disgusting. And no change in sight.
I think that calling for no arms exports to the entire Middle East is perhaps more likely to lead to success if there are not only lobbyists from the arms industry in the Senate.
https://mondoweiss.net/2024/11/senate-rejects-effort-to-block-arms-sales-to-israel/
The MIC is working overtime!…
I think Bernie is trying to save a little of his past honor, he knew his no vote would change nothing.
Nutshell
sometimes one should do the right thing to do because its the right thing to do an that is called integrity and being true to thyself which is the most important and hardest thing to do as a thinking caring human being…
Or you are not here to change the world into your idea of utopia,you are here to change yourself and in so doing you improve and become a role model as othes…
I totally agree. But politicians sell their honor to get the job, most of them are not normal, they are Psychopaths living in a bubble. There are some exceptions, but since the wall fell there is no balance at all, all we have are power hungry deranged narcissists, starting with Clinton, people without conscience. I may be wrong, but I think Bernie came down to earth again, to err is human.
We all sell ourselves for many things each and every life,each and every day. Its a matter of degree. What about you and i who ‘know better’ and still are you or i on the front line? Your well fed, as i am, as the people who are suffering are not. What do you do? What am i doing? Each of us has a garden untended…We are what we are because thats what we do!. Spewing idle rage on keyboard is not the way to enlightment,peace or happiness.
What else can we do? We have no honest national debate because we do have a controlled press, we do depend on our jobs and can lose them by disagreeing with the official narrative, we lose friends for the same reason, our votes have no value, only big money Oligarchs count, so all that is left to do is to demonstrate peacefully and even that is risky.
The best I could do to register my opposition was not to vote. I refused to vote for war criminals regardless of party, and that is all there was to vote for.
I would like to know how many voters abstained as I did. What about total % of voter participation? The nation is known for low turnout, how about the last election?
How far into the deep end
you ask me
danger lurks there
sharks and nasty things
i read ann franks words
barely a teen and too wise
i think of eugene debbs
how he ate just 1 meal a day
he replied how could i eat more
knowing so many go to bed hungry?
ah my little heart
what else can one do
count the stars in the sky
the grains of sand on a beach
say your prayers
in a soft tosty bed?
Where are the giants of yesteryear
those brave and courageous
who face the horror
and say no more
who see the crime
and scream out for justice
ah,
little heart
that person
is in your mirror
its totally [up to] you
if you listen
Partisan or patriot
in your heart
there
your answer
but dont look here
i have none
Where are the giants of yesteryear???
There must be some somewhere.
In our mirror
of today
do we see our heroes
of yesterday
In that mirror
is a hero of today
funny the face looks
just like you
As we stand upon their shoulders
the line stretches far back
each generation
is supposed to
Be true to thyself
to honor the sacrifice
to continue the struggle
not to worship or lay laurels at their feet
It is up to us
to rise
grasp the dirty levers of our machine
exploitation oppression and repression
do whatever is possible…
Yes … this particular moment, more than 13 months into this slaughter of tens of thousands of women, children, and men, is a particularly bad moment to stop the slaughter because …
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God."
They made sure Senator Sanders and RFK Jr. never had a chance of winning the democrat nomination for President. The democrat primary was rigged from the beginning. Here's why:
https://x.com/BernieSanders/status/1859348322743431620
It is time to point out the degree of the extreme mental sickness of the deranged Netanyahu and his followers, the insanity of the settlers and the Israeli population supporting the most brutal genocide in history, and then scream they are the victims and to blame them is anti-Semitism. And our sadistic millionaire journalists in MSM earn more money for spreading it to a stupid public.
https://x.com/ChrisVanHollen/status/1859358441187242442
What a phony SOB Van Hollen is.
He never defended the right of self-defense of the Palestinian people, their human rights, and he failed to address the American genocide Joe funded massacre of the Palestinian people, 70% of the victims are women and children. Disgusting. Genocide Joe is guilty of the war crimes being committed with the support of the American people.
79 senators know not to question the masta.
Even at the end of a demented, failed Biden presidency, it proves where the power really is, the insane ruling butchers are sitting in Tel Aviv, claiming to be the victims.
‘Legacy of Horror’- White House Staffers Slam Biden’s Policy towards Israel
…..Around 20 White House staffers have criticized United States President Joe Biden for not enforcing an ultimatum on Israel to take “concrete measures” to improve humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip or face potential restrictions on arms provisions, Politico reported.
“You are running out of time to do the right thing, but decisive action could save precious lives in the next two months,” the staffers wrote, according to a letter obtained by the American news outlet……
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/legacy-of-horror-white-house-staffers-slam-bidens-policy-towards-israel/
Only one of them resigned.
I never knew how evil, vindictive, and sadistic genocide Joe really is, he is a despicable creature.
The congress s a sick sick place.
Congress is US Mafia big time…!
You have unfairly offended the Mafia.
"Corrupt" is a better description.
Money may not be able to buy love but it sure as hell can buy politicians as AIPAC has so effectively demonstrated in the US congress.
Fortunately it's getting extremely expensive for aipac these days, $2.5 million / rep / election.
Why couldn't AIPAC have been in Vegas that day instead of Tupac ?
They are criminal elements who know how and where to get more coals to feed the fire.
Adelson alone had 100 million $$$ for Trump.
Thomas Massie: "Every member of Congress has an "AIPAC guy""
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FlSIJJdpj4c
Biden's war on Russia is a morally corrupt enterprise. Biden's financing Israeli criminal activity is a morally corrupt enterprise.
Senate or House votes to diminish our full-throated support for aggression and murder abroad constitute empty exercises.
The People have spoken out against Biden's plans via the election. The people will be ignored. This is call democracy.
Don't forget, the elected POS has promised to continue genocide Joes politics. There was nothing to vote for, every vote supported the same governing criminal elements, a morally self imploding nation.
Hamas, persisting to hold hostages,
gives cover to these money grubbers.
Both sides must be pressured.
As long as Hamas hold hostages the war will continue. Why Israel stop and let Hamas hold their people.?
Lebanon isn't holding any hostages.
Same shit different day. Israel has no intention of stopping the war/genocide/ethnic cleansing whether the hostages get released or not. Are you willfully ignoring what Isreal's leadership has been saying? They couldn't be clearer.
You said my thing in better & fewer words. AGAIN.
(sulks a bit)
The hostages are safer in the hands of Hamas than the IDF who do kill their own people and torture thousands of Palestinian hostages including women and children, that would not look good when the whole world could watch the beaten bodies of thousands of Palestinians, young and old, men and women, and children.
That would really improve the public opinion of the civilized Zionist-Israelis. Losing the propaganda war is a real disaster for the losing Israelis.
False. This war will continue until the ASI has ethnically cleansed (or sufficiently genocided) Gaza to the point where Good Proper Human Israelis may move in, bulldoze, and rebuilt on the graves of the "Palestinian animals" you so obviously and callously despise.
Your rhetoric is unconvincing cover for your inexplicable blind adoration for the Apartheid State of Israel and your inhuman indifference towards Palestinians.
You steadfastly refuse to admit why you fawn over the ASI at the expense of your humanity, morality, credibility, and rationality. This leads us to believe you're a hateful, zealous, racist Zionist for whom only The Chosen People™ matter for some undefined reason, and every other life is a place for The Israelites© to wipe their feet on the way to actualising their own bulls**t Bronze Age mythology.
If I'm wrong, actually explain how, where, and why.
Vegas heavily favours you not actually doing this.
For those wanting to stop sending JDAM bomb kits, would you rather Israel drop one accurate place bomb on a terrorists cell or 6 regular bombs scatter all around the terrorist cell?
False dichotomy.
Not your biggest problem in this argument, however.
First you need to demonstrate conclusively a) who or what a "terrorist cell" is, and that b) the IDF is targeting ONLY them.
At present, the ASI is dangerously vague on (a) and evidently and demonstrably lying about (b).
THEN you need to demonstrate why heavy bombing, especially in high-density "danger close" civilian areas, is your ONLY option – how you completely ruled out every other far-less-dangerous-to-innocents option.
Tim, how can a normal commonsense human being defend and excuse such brutal, irrational, mad, human animals, the kind the Israeli society has become, even their children are psychopaths. The deranged, psychopathic parents are totally out of it, they don't see what they are doing to their own children, so sad.
My sorrow includes the Israeli children who's parents sold them for their deranged greed for land that does not belong to them and hate of the lawful owners.
"…any senator who voted to block the arms shipments to Israel would be helping Hamas.
“Disapproving arms purchases for Israel at this moment would … put wind in the sails of Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas at the worst possible moment,” the Biden administration said."
If you're not WITH us, you're AGAINST us.
George W must be rolling over in his terrible-art studio right now.
It's either Black or White…! Choose one to be painted…!
The 'Stones suggested red doors would ideally be painted black.
Once again the Congress ignores the will of the people?
It's official Bernie may be a communist but he ain't a Zionist.
So on the chicken or egg question, is the US empire running the expansion in the ME via colony Israel or is Israel running the expansion for its own imperialism via financial US assist, I had previously concluded that it was always a US empire long range plot.
And then someone on another site said, “Eventually colonies declare liberation”. So is Israel the actual current empire running the hegemony? All western countries seem captured by the same constraints of never a criticism.
Who are the good guys anymore?
Seems i cant see them through the terror and destruction
of hospitals kids women and schools
whitewashed as 'right to defend'
Who are the bad guys?
fighting for freedom and self-determination
from inside an open-air prison
busting out
thats the crime?
When your lil' buddy
is a certified
psychotic
serial killer
As you protect sauron
from justice and morality
you then become
accomplice to those very crimes
ah,
but if the kids really knew history
a peoples history as it were
you were a criminal all along
ask what a redskin is
mlk at riverside church
said as much
"the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today: my own government.”
We've not come a long way baby
we have a lying conniving cheating treasonous insurrectionist
as president
the last is the worst
We are not the good guys anymore
if we ever were
was it just a lie for manipulation
or was it a dream
NOW a broken dream
woke and dead
Beautiful lyrics describing such an ugly inhumane civilization.
Many thanks.
ah,
yet
scares me most
what if
the abyss
is really us?
Each of us says
inside
most of the time
the world is insane
yet i am not[?]
For what i scream
against
from within i feel
without
Survival
as in rome
do so
not to be noticed
stand up
make a stand
from the trenches
a snipers breakfast
i want to do right
its really all it seems
the only thing
deeds
my hypocrisy
is only equaled
by my foolishness
still..
i do aspire
yet recoil
from this nightmare of insanity
As vehicles roll by on the highway
oblivious to their work
i pick up the dead
sometimes a very mess
still
i carry it off the road
with words
peace
love
respect
sorry
under the grass
in the shade
i lay it down
i wipe my hands with dirt
i go my way
sometimes
i get to help a caterpillar
cross the road
atop a pole
look up at an eagle
staring down at me
US is clearly violationg its own law…! Diplomatic effort to enforce this law has failed by the United States of Israel members…! It's time to enforce this law by the axes of Resistance…! Houthis should Now target all the ships and planes carrying weapons to Israel…!
Let loose the nukes of war!! yeahhaa
'And my axe!!!'
I really didn't think it would, did anybody else here believe it would? 59 standing ovations for Bibi in Congress should give one a clue.