321–330 of 466 posts
Note that two of the other popular opposition parties’ leaders are in the prison right now. Imamoglu is the candidate for the main opposition party (CHP, Social Democrats) and is leading in the polls. There are multiple investigations for Imamoglu as well. So imprisonment or a political ban is still on the table. This was just a low-key attempt to disqualify him without further ado.
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Given that people are being arrested for the most stupid reasons in Turkey, I can understand people not wanting to put their life on the line. 10 years ago I could have seen people protesting (see Gezi park protests) but now ? Not really. What's worse is that somehow plenty of Turk are fine with it. Inflation above 100% for long time, crappy salaries, people can't even afford rents but the leader's party still get ab…
Trump can't run for election again as it's his second term. Voting doesn't apply.
The SC said that didn’t matter, it would take an act of congress to disqualify him.
The same mechanism prevents (or doesn’t, rather) him from running for a third term as prevented him from running as an insurrectionist.
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> Can't this be fixed easily by another university bestowing an honorary degree to this guy then? No. That’s a technical solution to a political problem. But, we’re on HN ! Does anyone have a good English translation of the relevant statute? The loopholes to a certificate problem are with the certification authority—how is a compliant degree defined?
Cancelling his degree is just as technical a solution to a political problem.
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Unfortunately, a lot of countries are doing a similar thing as these countries, there’s a lot of authoritarians taking over all over the world. I think people should talk not only about the history or events in one country, but also talk about how other places are following in their footsteps and how we can prevent it from going forward where we can. Also, interestingly, when folks talk about how the USA is sliding i…
Sure I see that trend of downvoting too, but I also see a trend where the American users on HN hijack topics that aren't about America to talk about America because they feel that there isn't enough content on social media about America or something? It's a phenomenon that I think many users from outside of the US will agree is a pernicious problem on all social media platforms. Americans should be more aware of this…
I don’t really want to derail this thread any further though, and I’m not Turkish so I can’t comment on the actual topic other than to say I wish them luck.
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From the article it sounds like they were revoked due to causing property damage to the university. Even if you disagree with that move, it seems like a rather different situation.
>" Even if you disagree with that move, it seems like a rather different situation." Nope. It is the same. Twisting arms to remove opposing political views. If they've committed crimes then there are laws to deal with it.
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We had Japanese internment camps, Jim Crowe laws and McCarthyism and survived. Let's not write off American democracy just yet.
These things were despicable but not an attack on the system itself. This time is different. I haven’t written American democracy off yet, but I wouldn’t bet the farm.
I have seen the culture on HN change in the ten years I have been a member. The people who defend Trump and his policies now would never have done so 10 years ago. It goes to show that the USA we remember doesn’t seem to exist anymore.
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The US requires a fairly high minimum age and for someone to be born American. Those requirements seem also a bit silly and stand in the way of voters expressing their wishes. For some fun times, have a look at the requirements to become president in Singapore. Basically, you either have to have been a senior civil servant before or the CEO of a large and profitable company. https://www.eld.gov.sg/candidate_president…
Having someone born in the country they are looking to lead seems silly to you? With that restriction, it has taken quite some time for a foreign adversary to have a puppet elected vs just shipping in some carpet bagger. Having a minimum age also allows for some decent life experience. After all, 35 years old is not that old.
Yes and it looks especially silly for a country which used to pride itself on being composed primarily of immigrants. In fact the current president is one of the people who was pushing conspiracy theories about a previous president not being eligible - the "birther" movement around Barack Obama. At the time that movement was small enough and the far right was distant enough from the levers of power that people could laugh it off. But it would not surprise me whatsoever if in the future the US right pulled something similar to what Turkey did here, stripping a rival candidate or a portion of the electorate of their status to strengthen their own bid.
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We had Japanese internment camps, Jim Crowe laws and McCarthyism and survived. Let's not write off American democracy just yet.
These things were despicable but not an attack on the system itself. This time is different. I haven’t written American democracy off yet, but I wouldn’t bet the farm.
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Given that people are being arrested for the most stupid reasons in Turkey, I can understand people not wanting to put their life on the line. 10 years ago I could have seen people protesting (see Gezi park protests) but now ? Not really. What's worse is that somehow plenty of Turk are fine with it. Inflation above 100% for long time, crappy salaries, people can't even afford rents but the leader's party still get ab…
Trump can't run for election again as it's his second term. Voting doesn't apply.
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An authoritarian can weaponize any law really
Well, yeah, but you have to get more creative to weaponize "thou shalt not kill".