161–170 of 241 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's allowable. In fact I thought last decade some reporter went to prison for years for "contempt of court" for refusing to comply with a valid subpoena (but I forget the name).
Judith Miller was jailed for refusing to out Bush administration sources who outed Valerie Plame's status as a covert operative as political retribution.
Earlier 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…
It's easy to forget that the American Revolution is what ignited the fire of liberty and republican ethos, and catalyzed all of today's democracies to end or augment monarchial rule. The world in the 18th century was not -- and today still is not -- able to grow and nurture a powerful country towards "absolute moral good." The world is still a primitive and dangerous place full of despots at worst in inequality at be…
There's no doubt that villains abound .. the question is, does the world need a "global policeman"? The historical record shows that these powers, even when acting with the best intentions, usually lengthen suffering where they intervene by distorting local and regional power dynamics. And more often than not, the motives for selecting a given site at which to intervene are less than scrupulous (Britain in India, US in Iraq) or are perpendicular to the host's interests (Vietnam), in which case there is no excuse for the resulting fallout.
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…
That's true. Internally the US functions as a quite good democracy. But don't get too complacent. Off of the top of my head:
- Death penalty. In 2013. Including for 15 year olds and the mentally ill in some states. - Disproportionate number of blacks in jail. - World incarcerations record. - Segregation until some 40 years ago (and "in practice" segregation still today). - Slavery until 140 years ago. - Mass surveillance. - Awfully class based health care system. - Horrendous labour laws. - McCarthyism.
>As for externally--the Constitution puts almost no limits on the American government's ability to intervene in foreign affairs, and most Americans would agree that the U.S. has zero obligation to do anything internationally other than what advances its own interests.
It's not that the US has ever done anything else ("other than what advances its own interests"). Except for some amounts of "foreign aid" and other crap to help secure a pro-American government lackeys here and there.
Unfortunately, it has also done a lot of stuff to "advance its own interests". After the big colonial powers declined, it has royally fucked up countries the world over like there's no tomorrow. Where "advancing it's own interests" means "doing whatever, from invasion to establishing a dictatorship to get whatever resources and military support it needs, in the terms it wants it, to the detriment of the locals".
>Remember, as far as global hegemons go, the U.S. is the most benevolent such entity in the history of the world.
Compared to what? The Roman empire? I'd say it has been on par with the European colonial powers (France, UK, Belgium, etc) in taking advantage of the poorer 2/3 of the world, from the enslavement of African people to work in the South, to direct invasions, proxy wars and establishing puppet governments and dictatorships.
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we have political opposition groups targeted for audits That could be extremely ugly politics, or it may not be. Paying special attention to tax status compliance of anti-tax activists might just be a pragmatic profiling. Kind of like giving extra attention to young men flying alone on one way tickets while checking no luggage.
"Kind of like giving extra attention to young men flying alone on one way tickets while checking no luggage." That's the only way I travel right now. Pragmatic or not, that's bullshit.
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we vote for people, not for policies. we have almost no choice whatever about the policies, particularly with respect to foreign policy and security policy.
Well, you don't vote for the guy with the better hair, do you? How do you distinguish between options at the voting booths, if not by their policies? I'm sorry, but that blows my mind.
You distinguish their policies when their policies are distinct. Obama hasn't closed Gitmo. Obama hasn't ended the warrantless wiretapping program. Obama hasn't discontinued the TPP negotiations or brought any useful transparency to the process. Obama hasn't refused to sign any budget unless it includes significant cuts to defense spending. I could go on. Which of these things do you imagine Romney would have done better?
Earlier 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…
It's easy to forget that the American Revolution is what ignited the fire of liberty and republican ethos, and catalyzed all of today's democracies to end or augment monarchial rule. The world in the 18th century was not -- and today still is not -- able to grow and nurture a powerful country towards "absolute moral good." The world is still a primitive and dangerous place full of despots at worst in inequality at be…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, you voted in the elections, didn't you?
we vote for people, not for policies. we have almost no choice whatever about the policies, particularly with respect to foreign policy and security policy.
I understand what you mean but one of the big problems in US politics is that citizens vote for people not policies. Most people are uninformed and it's not completely their fault. It's because the politician's are allowed to attack each other, lie about each other and there isn't an unbiased major media outlet the public can turn to for the truth.
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…
> Very little of this is actually true, at least with regards to what the U.S. does internally.
The majority of the OP's comment is not about domestic US politics, it's about support of dictatorships abroad. I'm guessing you are not very familiar with the history of Latin america, you should read up on that before making comments like this again. By the way, the US backed ex-president of Guatemala was just found guilty of genocide[1], Hillary Clinton said Egypt's dictator Mubarak was a "friend of her family", and the US strongly backs the regime in Saudi Arabia which is one of the most repressive in the entire middle east. When Madeleine Albright was asked if she thought the death of half a million Iraqi children due to the sanctions was too high a price to pay, she said "I think...the price is worth it"[2].
> The U.S. government very rarely ignores the Constitution
Are you aware that it was recently revealed that Henry Kissinger was recorded saying "The illegal we do immediately, the unconstitutional takes a little longer"[3] Or are you familiar with the regime of secret law that surrounds drone assassinations, do you think that just because the president can get his lawyer to write him a permission slip that it makes assassinating US citizens abroad constitutional? What about locking people up in Guantanamo bay without a trial? What about torture? What about the 4th amendment. Do you even know which one that is, or why that is relevant to the article about spying on reporters from AP? What about freedom of the press?
> As for externally--the Constitution puts almost no limits on the American government's ability to intervene in foreign affairs
Have you even read the constitution? It doesn't sound like it. The entire point of the constitution is to constrain the ability of the government to do things. It says that the government is bound by all foreign treaties[4]. It also happens to say that congress is the only body of government that can declare war, even though after Vietnam that clause has pretty much been ignored.
> as far as global hegemons go, the U.S. is the most benevolent such entity in the history of the world
are you serious?
[1] http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/13/us-guatemala-riosm...
[2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM0uvgHKZe8
[3] http://rt.com/news/wikileaks-assange-release-files-475/
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_Six_of_the_United_State...
Not my department [29c3] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mnuofn_DXw
Enemies of the State [29C3] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBp-1Br_OEs
after this nothing of what happened here should surprise you
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…
If a US cope beats you, you most likely hit the lottery, in other countries if they didn't beat you, you hit the lottery. The rest of your examples are oversimplifications. What if US didn't exist and tyrants didn't fear anyone? How many local if not world wars would we have?
As for oil, US lost trillions fighting Iraq and Afghan war, not sure what you mean. But yeah, generally speaking US wants countries to drill as much as possible to have cheaper and plentiful oil.