I am from Brazil, and I must ask: Why the US citizens and government propaganda insists that US is about freedom, when US ignores its own constitution, takes away freedom from its citizens, and most important to me, takes away freedom from citizens of other countries while claiming to do the exact opposite? I am from Brazil, and many people here remember the US backed (and enforced sometimes) rightwing government tha…
Very little of this is actually true, at least with regards to what the U.S. does internally. As flawed as the U.S. government is, it's still better than almost any government outside Western Europe, and is in some ways better than governments in Western Europe (e.g. with regard to free speech), though worse in others. The U.S. government very rarely ignores the Constitution, although many things it does are greeted…
U.S. Secretly Obtains Two Months of A.P. Phone Records
141–150 of 241 posts
Re: U.S. Secretly Obtains Two Months of A.P. Phone Records
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
Intervention in Chile was wrong, but it can also be used by neocons Why neocons specifically?
Because as a group neocons are the ones that are most ideologically behind global interventionism.
Not sure why you were modded down. As with most of history's great plots and conspiracies, the people involved cheerfully published exactly what they planned to do ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Ce... ), and everyone acted surprised and dismayed when it happened.
Re: U.S. Secretly Obtains Two Months of A.P. Phone Records
#143I am from Brazil, and I must ask: Why the US citizens and government propaganda insists that US is about freedom, when US ignores its own constitution, takes away freedom from its citizens, and most important to me, takes away freedom from citizens of other countries while claiming to do the exact opposite? I am from Brazil, and many people here remember the US backed (and enforced sometimes) rightwing government tha…
Very little of this is actually true, at least with regards to what the U.S. does internally. As flawed as the U.S. government is, it's still better than almost any government outside Western Europe, and is in some ways better than governments in Western Europe (e.g. with regard to free speech), though worse in others. The U.S. government very rarely ignores the Constitution, although many things it does are greeted…
[deleted]
Re: U.S. Secretly Obtains Two Months of A.P. Phone Records
#144So inside of just a few days, we have political opposition groups targeted for audits -- including questions about donors and volunteers -- and surveillance of the press. The easier we make it for some analyst in FBI headquarters to determine everywhere a potential terrorist cell has been, the easier we make it for some other analyst to conduct political spying and harassment like the world has never seen before. You…
"You can't pick one and not get the other."
Actually you can. But it requires ethics, something the current administration has tossed by the wayside.
Re: U.S. Secretly Obtains Two Months of A.P. Phone Records
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
> we have political opposition groups targeted for audits What happened was the IRS decided to ask extra questions for groups attempting to register as charities but suspected to be engaged in political activities. If, as you say, they were "political opposition groups" then the IRS was completely correct in reviewing their applications; they didn't qualify to be charities. Why do "political opposition groups" deserv…
Non-profits, not charities; many of the 27 types of 501(c) organizations are not charities. Here we're talking about 501(c)(4) groups, which are explicitly allowed to engage in politics, with limits. See this for more: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5698931
They're social welfare groups, by law. And the intent of the registering persons is not to create a social welfare group, but to hide the identity of political donors.
The creators in this case gave their groups names indicating they intended to use the group fraudulently. The IRS was completely correct to investigate them.
Re: U.S. Secretly Obtains Two Months of A.P. Phone Records
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
Chile is an interesting example because it is one of very few areas where US action saved a large number of people from death. In case it matters, I'm against interventionism and I'm Canadian, but I've visited both Cuba and Chile and even the nicest parts of Cuba are worse than the sketchy port city of Chile. If I were Chilean I wouldn't be outraged. And many of the Chileans that I talked to were not. I think there a…
> If I were Chilean I wouldn't be outraged. I did some light reading on this topic. How exactly were a large number of people saved from death? Did you misspeak? Because from what I've read, the overthrow of Chile's elected government actually resulted in a large number of people dying/being tortured/'disappearing'. I'm guessing the Chileans who you spoke to weren't from that group.
"In late August 1973, 100,000 Chilean women congregated at Plaza de la Constitución to vent their rage against the rising cost and increasing shortages of food, but they were dispersed with tear gas.[18]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_Chilean_coup_d%C3%A9tat
People on all sides of the political spectrum were distraught. It wasn't as clear cut as "left versus right" or "poor versus rich".
Re: U.S. Secretly Obtains Two Months of A.P. Phone Records
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
" Second amendment's been gone for a while. " Not even close. True if you live in one of 10 very bad states, two of which oddly are shall issue concealed carry ones that just went very bad (Connecticut and Colorado), but continuing that concealed carry theme, i.e. the "bear" in "the right to keep and bear arms" (RKBA), there's been a nationwide sweep of shall issue, starting in Florida in 1987 and ending with Iowa an…
> since it's the ultimate check on an out of control government. Realistically, a bunch of pea-shooters stand no chance against the US military. This holds true whether it's Americans or hired sub-Saharan mercenaries driving the tanks.
> Realistically, a bunch of pea-shooters stand no chance against the US military. This holds true whether it's Americans or hired sub-Saharan mercenaries driving the tanks.
The people bearing arms isn't to shoot at the government. That's a common misconception.
It's a deterrent - enough people armed and willing to shoot at the government means that the government doesn't come knocking to create the situation wherein everyone loses.
It's basically p2p/distributed mutually assured destruction.
Eric Blair once wrote: "That rifle hanging on the wall of the working-class flat or laborer’s cottage is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays there."
"Stays there" both in the RKBA sense, and "stays there" in the "above the mantel and not taken down out of necessity" sense.
Re: U.S. Secretly Obtains Two Months of A.P. Phone Records
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
Now, you can hardly judge a country on one or two acts of unrelated political activism abroad... :P More seriously, it's complex--painting it in the simplest broad strokes of "The US only cares about corporations" is unfair. The US is not the US; it's a combination of local, state, and federal governments and bureaucracies. There's almost certainly near no magical evil council sitting atop it all scheming about how t…
> There's almost certainly near no magical evil council sitting atop it all scheming about how to wring profits from other countries at any cost You're evidently not familiar with the concept of lobbying.
>> There's almost certainly near no magical evil council sitting atop it all scheming about how to wring profits from other countries at any cost
You're evidently not familiar with the concept of lobbying.
Clearly neither are you. It's not like there's one big magic evil lobby firm that tries to suppress everything in your best interest.....
Re: U.S. Secretly Obtains Two Months of A.P. Phone Records
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
Non-profits, not charities; many of the 27 types of 501(c) organizations are not charities. Here we're talking about 501(c)(4) groups, which are explicitly allowed to engage in politics, with limits. See this for more: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5698931
They're social welfare groups, by law. And the intent of the registering persons is not to create a social welfare group, but to hide the identity of political donors. The creators in this case gave their groups names indicating they intended to use the group fraudulently. The IRS was completely correct to investigate them.
Now wait a second: in the message I'm replying to, you said they were "charities ... suspected to be engaged in political activities". Now they're social welfare groups ... but how is hiding the identity of "political donors" a problem? They're allowed to do that!
And you need to be more specific about how these charities, excuse me, social welfare groups, are fraudulent, you haven't clearly outlined what you claim they're doing that's a fraud.
Re: U.S. Secretly Obtains Two Months of A.P. Phone Records
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
as far as global hegemons go, the U.S. is the most benevolent such entity in the history of the world. Well, that's some real comfort. You heard it here, better than the Roman and British empires! The reference point should be absolute moral good, not third-world dictatorships. The whole "city on a hill" idea and what have you. That is what the top-level comment is getting at: Blatant hypocrisy from a state whose den…
Have a good time chasing platonic ideals. You can sometimes achieve them in programming; People, however, are too broken to ever achieve them in politics.
You don't always have to reach your goals to gain benefit from pursuing them.