Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

US axes website for reporting human rights abuses by US-armed foreign forces

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 453 posts

Re: US axes website for reporting human rights abuses by US-armed foreign forces

#61

Post by aDyslecticCrow »

foobarian wrote: post #27
aDyslecticCrow wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a feeling thats exactly how it was used. But that makes its removal even more odd. The hosting cost must be trivial; an email support form connected to a shredder. Defund the organization in charge of checking and follow-ups is one thing, but its complete removal just smell of incompetence or acknowledging of wrongdoing, or some sort of performance. And the response is also baffling. "sorry we migrated it syst…

Guessing some mid level functionary had to come up with 3 things to do that week and this is an easy bullet point. Saying "Actually we should keep this thing because we're playing 4D chess" doesn't look good on such a status report.

I'm not sure that holds up. Because whats written in the status report is the title of this article. And thats not a good looking status report.

This week we took down the "Warcrime report form" because its hosting costs the same as the office coffee machine maintenance.

.. oo gee, mabie that one sounds a bit important. perhaps I should leave that running.

Re: US axes website for reporting human rights abuses by US-armed foreign forces

#62

Post by actionfromafar »

LunaSea wrote: post #58
nerdsniper wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

* s/impeachment/“conviction by the Senate” Impeachment by itself has been shown to accomplish nothing. There is no other mechanism except conviction by the Senate to address constitutional or legal violations made by the president. Also no president has ever been impeached by a House which is controlled by a majority of the same party of the President. If Congress had a full Republican majority during Nixon’s years,…

This mostly shows that political parties are the problem themselves rather than the political mechanics of the system themselves.

Except that 2 parties emerge like clockwork from the political mechanics of the system. Winner-takes all almost guarantee a two-party system.

Maybe you didn't mean the system as broadly.

Re: US axes website for reporting human rights abuses by US-armed foreign forces

#63

Post by theptip »

LunaSea wrote: post #58
nerdsniper wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

* s/impeachment/“conviction by the Senate” Impeachment by itself has been shown to accomplish nothing. There is no other mechanism except conviction by the Senate to address constitutional or legal violations made by the president. Also no president has ever been impeached by a House which is controlled by a majority of the same party of the President. If Congress had a full Republican majority during Nixon’s years,…

This mostly shows that political parties are the problem themselves rather than the political mechanics of the system themselves.

Now we are talking. And the dynamic that makes political parties so toxic IMO is “first past the post” voting.

If it’s your team or the “worse” team, you tolerate any flaw in your team.

If there was a pressure valve where another party can simply take over (for example see Reform vs Conservative parties in the UK, not that I am thrilled with the underlying direction) then there is an alternative: cut bait and condemn what used to be “your team”, and start a new one.

Re: US axes website for reporting human rights abuses by US-armed foreign forces

#64

Post by docdeek »

This seems like a bad decision to me. Not only does it seem not to be in the spirit of the law (you can still report but not as easily now) but it's not clear why they shut it down at all. Cost? Inefficiency? Just wasn't getting used much? They have a better solution?

On the other hand, the US seems so partisan now that had the current administration told the world they were taking huma' rights abuse reporting seriously by creating a web form, some people would probably be criticized for that, too.

Re: US axes website for reporting human rights abuses by US-armed foreign forces

#65

Post by microtonal »

LunaSea wrote: post #58
nerdsniper wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

* s/impeachment/“conviction by the Senate” Impeachment by itself has been shown to accomplish nothing. There is no other mechanism except conviction by the Senate to address constitutional or legal violations made by the president. Also no president has ever been impeached by a House which is controlled by a majority of the same party of the President. If Congress had a full Republican majority during Nixon’s years,…

This mostly shows that political parties are the problem themselves rather than the political mechanics of the system themselves.

The political mechanics of the system result in a two-party system, because no other party ever stands a chance of getting seats. Coalition systems may be less stable, but when you need at least three parties to form a government, they tend to keep each other in check better.

Yes, I know that there are exceptions, but seats should be proportional to the vote. If you have 100 seats, that party only getting 5% of the votes should also have 5% of the seats.

In the country where I live, people do consider themselves leftist, centrists, or right-wing, but a vast majority only decides what specific party to vote during the campaign.

We have the opposite issue, since there is not electoral threshold, we now have a lot of small and middle-sized parties, making it harder to form a coalition. (Would be possible to address with an electoral threshold of 2-5%.)

Re: US axes website for reporting human rights abuses by US-armed foreign forces

#67

Post by titzer »

myth_drannon wrote: post #42
Fraterkes wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s wrong with being a subversive force?

I prefer creative forces, but life is not perfect. Every side is a subversive force. I just don't want to be on the receiving side as much as possible. Since what I consider subversive forces(Iran,Russia, China, Islam) try to change my world, I'm against it. I'm fine with US being a subversive force even if I consider some parts of it as a very negative and damaging.

Just wanted to point out that Iran, Russia, China, and Islam have orders of magnitude less power over you than your own political leaders. We should all hold our political leaders accountable when they break the law and ignore the constitution. "subversive forces" is a deflection at best, Orwellian doublespeak at its worst.

Re: US axes website for reporting human rights abuses by US-armed foreign forces

#68

Post by actionfromafar »

wonderwonder wrote: post #60

Lots of people seem to think Trump is some sort of king or going outside the law. Fact is he was democratically elected and working within the system of checks and balances established by our founders. Congress can stop him from doing things but the democratically elected congress allows him to continue. So they agree with his actions and are doing their job. Checked and balanced. The courts can stop him and indeed h…

> Every check and balance is working its just not making decisions the left agrees with. This is indeed what democracy looks like though. Mid terms are coming up and the people will once again have a chance to voice their opinion.

The Republican Party acts like the midterms don't matter at all.

Approval is plummeting, representatives ignore townhalls like the plague.

Re: US axes website for reporting human rights abuses by US-armed foreign forces

#69

Post by whateveracct »

hirvi74 wrote: post #29
excalibur wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When did the US government ever care about human rights? July 4 1776

Educate me. How cruel was the treatment from the British truly? My understanding was things like "no taxation without representation" was unrealistic due to the sheer distance and amount of time required to travel between the US and the UK. We're talking somewhere around 2-4 months one way. To send a rep back and forth with a message like: US sends rep -> Uk and rep interact -> rep goes back to US with UK decision ->…

The United States' way of government was revolutionary for its time, based on the cutting edge of human philosophy in many ways. The Bills of (negative) Rights in particular.

It is a shame that it is being destroyed at lightspeed the last year, and worse that many don't seem to care.

Re: US axes website for reporting human rights abuses by US-armed foreign forces

#70

Post by wonderwonder »

actionfromafar wrote: post #68
wonderwonder wrote: post #60

Lots of people seem to think Trump is some sort of king or going outside the law. Fact is he was democratically elected and working within the system of checks and balances established by our founders. Congress can stop him from doing things but the democratically elected congress allows him to continue. So they agree with his actions and are doing their job. Checked and balanced. The courts can stop him and indeed h…

> Every check and balance is working its just not making decisions the left agrees with. This is indeed what democracy looks like though. Mid terms are coming up and the people will once again have a chance to voice their opinion. The Republican Party acts like the midterms don't matter at all . Approval is plummeting, representatives ignore townhalls like the plague.

Which is awesome for the dems then correct? Reps will lose seats and then the Dems will have the house and enforce whatever checks and balances they choose.

If the reps win then the people have spoken and current actions continue.

Post reply on HN