Favouriting this for the next time someone on here tells me we don't have free speech in Europe, only in the US
Who's still claiming the US has free speech?
Freedom House. But then again, most of their funding comes from the US state department.
Ombudsman column: The Pentagon is trying to silence me
41–50 of 126 posts
Re: Ombudsman column: The Pentagon is trying to silence me
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
Who's still claiming the US has free speech?
People who frame UK as oppressive hellhole, but somehow like former Hungarian leader and know all the talking points of the American conservative right.
Moreover, the repeating talking points of these people seemed to exclusively be around some cases where police intervened for certain comments on transgender issues (and imo indeed police shouldn't). It was a big issue back then, but when police intervenes now (mostly UK/germany) for certain comments on the palestinean issues, or when bank accounts are blocked for this reason (under cross-border requests from the US no less), they no longer seem to care. Makes you think whether they did not really care as much about free speech itself, actually.
Re: Ombudsman column: The Pentagon is trying to silence me
#43Favouriting this for the next time someone on here tells me we don't have free speech in Europe, only in the US
Why? The police aren't at his door and he's not been arrested it's not a good thing but we are still miles away from Europe.
She is a woman.
There are so many shades of gray in freedom of speech. In free European countries the police are also not at the door of outspoken government critics.
If you are alluding to dictatorial European countries like Russia and Belarus, the US is miles away and moving in their direction. Compared to Western Europe, there is no difference.
Re: Ombudsman column: The Pentagon is trying to silence me
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why? The police aren't at his door and he's not been arrested it's not a good thing but we are still miles away from Europe.
Writing an op-ed can get the police on you here. The first amendment isn't supposed to only apply to citizens. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/feb/...
A photo of seashells gets you indicted:
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/28/politics/justice-departme...
Re: Ombudsman column: The Pentagon is trying to silence me
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If our congressmen don't do that it means they approve it. These needs to be repeated everywhere until people understand it. Same situation with tariffs.
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As far as I understand the US president is not a king that governs by decree, there's a whole other branch of government also elected to represent the will of the people, a branch where negotiations, debates, voting takes place to determine how the country should be.
People voted for Trump which had as one of its key promises during election "no more wars", perhaps it's ok that the another branch of government stop something which people didn't vote for?
Re: Ombudsman column: The Pentagon is trying to silence me
#46This is deeply disturbing. The terrible, incoherent messaging and strategy around the Iran war (unapproved by Congress) is connected. This is an administration that is seeking less freedom, not more. What entity would sue on behalf of the ombudsman?
> What entity would sue on behalf of the ombudsman? What entity could ? Most of the unprecedented madness of the last few years boils down to: 1. The President does something flagrantly illegal. 2. The remedy is Congress impeaching and removing the President from office. 3. Republicans legislators are completely complicit, and have enough votes that #2 doesn't even start to happen. The crimes will continue until some…
Democratic leadership are also all Zionists who not-so-secretly approved of the war, which is why they stalled the war powers vote until after he attacked.
https://capitalandempire.com/p/top-democrats-try-to-stop-vot...
Re: Ombudsman column: The Pentagon is trying to silence me
#47Favouriting this for the next time someone on here tells me we don't have free speech in Europe, only in the US
Why? The police aren't at his door and he's not been arrested it's not a good thing but we are still miles away from Europe.
Where is there a problem in Europe?
I if want to go to the US on the other hand, I need to give them my social media accounts. That doesn't sound like free speech to me
Re: Ombudsman column: The Pentagon is trying to silence me
#48Favouriting this for the next time someone on here tells me we don't have free speech in Europe, only in the US
People who say there is no free speech in Europe have never lived in an authoritarian country.
Re: Ombudsman column: The Pentagon is trying to silence me
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
JD Vance has to save all of Europe because of checks notes lack of free speech. /s
Well, he did a good job of freeing Hungary from Orban. So, cut him some slack. /s
Paradoxically they are so stupid they thought they are actually helping Orban not realizing Europeans consider them idiots.
Re: Ombudsman column: The Pentagon is trying to silence me
#50> The House and Senate Armed Services committees have long had an interest in ensuring that unfiltered news went to the troops who are fighting for our country and deserved to read the truth, not propaganda. In the late 1980s Congress was alarmed at attempts of military personnel to “suppress unfavorable news” of the Iran-Contra affair and other issues. Congress mandated that Stars and Stripes be editorially independent and created the position of ombudsman in 1991 to monitor the situation and report to Congress at least once a year.
Funny how the same situations of recent history keep resurfacing. Not only "Iran", but we should recall the details of Iran-Contra: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Contra_affair
> further funding of the Contras by legislative appropriations was prohibited by Congress, but the Reagan administration continued funding them secretly using non-appropriated funds
Oh look, it's presidential power contradicting Congress again!
> "what began as a strategic opening to Iran deteriorated, in its implementation, into trading arms for hostages."
US attempts to deal with Iran, has incoherent strategy, gets rolled, lies about it.
> Eleven convictions resulted, some of which were vacated on appeal. The rest of those indicted or convicted were all pardoned in the final days of the presidency of George H. W. Bush
Misuse of the presidential pardon power, again, which enables the president to direct people to commit crimes in the sure knowledge that they will not be held accountable to the law or other branches of government (Americans call this "checks and balances" for some reason).
One of those people was Oliver North, who turned his experience providing arms illegally to enemies of the United States into a long career at propaganda organizations the NRA and Fox news.
And so here you are again.