You don't get that job without being the type of person who will only ever respond to coercion attempts with an equal amount of indigance. The sole reason for the position to exist is to act as a canary in a coalmine so to speak
She even admits she was due to stand down at the end of the year, they could have just waited her out. Instead it seems her calling a spade a spade was just too intolerable for them to bare
If that's all it takes to provoke the desired reaction from them it doesn't bode well at all. It's no wonder they were so easily led into a war with Iran on a leash
Well, they need the troops willingness to do whatever Trump tells them now, not next year. So they want propaganda for the troops and stars now and Stripes should be the medium, not annoy the administration by providing the troops with uncomfortable truth or facts.
Despite my other post I find it grimly amusing in a sort of Eastern European fatalist way that people expect the military to be anything other than a total propaganda-and-secrecy argument. You're the people who will kill who you're told to, guys.
"You're the people who will kill who you're told to, guys."
Yes, but sometimes they think for themself, refuse stupid orders and sabotage equipment (or even toilets), like what seemingly happened to some US battleships.
This 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?
A US president does not have authority to start a war, Congress has, according to Constitution. The president only serves as a Commander in Chief.
So at any point Congress can stop any military action issuing an immediate ruling preventing the president doing anything. If our congressmen don't do that it means they approve it.
It's our, USA, war, not Trump's war. Because we elected the congressmen.
Citation needed. You lot elected him before, seems likely you elected him again. Pretended he won by cheating instead of because your democracy is in dire need of a refit will do little but alloallow the next facists to win as well.
Not OP. I believe it is from folks like this. It is compelling but it can also difficult to pin down the exact details. They rely mostly on statistics based oddities.
I do appreciate that they are not interested in over throwing the 2024 election, just ensure that any possible gaps are covered for future elections.
> The Election Truth Alliance is initiating a call for hand counts of paper voting records associated with the 2024 U.S. General Election, and is advocating for full hand counts prior to certification for all future U.S. elections.
People who didn't vote are effectively votes for whoever wins. All the non-voters need to be counted towards Trump's victory number. It's a huge majority.
I voted for Harris but I live in North Dakota, so because of the electoral college, my vote didn't count. I'll be voting 3rd party for all presidential elections from now on
How come this logic does not apply to democratic politicians? Why is it that them winning election by small margin does not imply that everything they do is good and legit for conservative people like you?
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?
It's not genocide to stop handouts to the third world. It's genocide to go around murdering white farmers in mass to take their land, as is happening now in South Africa and previously happened in Zimbabwe.
The Germans owned the holocaust because they lost WW2 and afterwards became a vassal state of the Allies and later just the US. History is written by the victors.
The Germans "owned" the holocaust because the Nazis (German) started, conducted, and maintained the systematic collection, extermination, and destruction of certain classes of the population under their control.
I assume the point is that what make them acknowledge and repent from what they did is that they lost the war.
Many massacres and genocides are "owner-less" and obscured by history. To give a few exemple, you might find, but the trail of tears is not as front-and-center in US' history teaching as the holocaust is in German history teaching.
You'll find similar situations for all colonial powers who didn't get dismantled and forced to accept their wrongs after losing a war. You may even go as far as to say that Germany is the outlier here.
Congress voted to stop counting days to allow the tariffs to keep going without having to actually act on it! Congress overruled time passing. These people are fundamentally breakers of reality, aren't just unserious: they are anti serious. RFK and all of this is a perpetrated act to be grossly anti reality, to defy all reason. No reality supports any of what's happening, there's no reality where any of that GOP agenda can win, so they have declared war on reality. https://www.ntu.org/publications/detail/congress-should-not-...
This stopped being alternate realities a while ago, as it became a collective project to form anti-realities.
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.
But if Republicans are Zionists, and Democrats are too, what hope is there for peace in the Middle East?
I can understand that Israel's long-time strategy is to keep all their neighborhood in a state of permanent mess so that nobody is strong enough to be an existential threat. But after almost a century, it's clear this is not working.
Historically the codified office of the Ombudsman came to Sweden after the Swedish King had to search refuge in Turkey and observed a similar position there.
I love that story, shows you that the world always was quite small and that what we perceive as progressive and backward countries is just a matter of time.
Can you give some more context? I looked into Wikipedia and the relevant text there is giving different vibe:
> Charles XII was in exile in Turkey and needed a representative in Sweden to ensure that judges and civil servants acted in accordance with the laws and with their duties. If they did not do so, the Supreme Ombudsman had the right to prosecute them for negligence.
This and also, "Wait, so you didn't do anything when ... ?"
It gives you a new found level of empathy or, at least, understanding for the people throughout history who "should have done something". We all (well, most of us) grew up thinking that if we were a workaday German (fill in the conflict) with Jewish neighbors that we'd have obviously hidden them in our attic or whatever. It turns out the reality of taking that class of action is actually a lot more fraught that your 4th grade self thought it was.
Would you harbor a neighbor facing deportation to some far flung prison camp? You have to be willing to face the consequences of losing your home, job, liberty and life. If not, what would change the calculus enough for you to do so? If you know they're in your country legally? If they were pregnant? If the prison was rumored to be executing people?
It was notable that in Minneapolis enough people were doing this kind of thing that ICE were seriously impaired, and had to resort to escalation and shooting Americans in the street.
> It turns out the reality of taking that class of action is actually a lot more fraught that your 4th grade self thought it was.
It's funny my entire adult life has been me slowly realizing that no, it is not. It is easy to do what is right, it is easy to see what is right to do. Stop making excuses and do it.
I don't know where you live or what your life situation is but this line of reasoning is quite privileged and naive. It's one thing to _do direct action_ somewhere like France where the stakes are relatively low but in the US, where there is no social safety net and bankruptcy, foreclosure and friends are forever looming, there is a very real calculus (as outlined in my previous comment ...) for people with adult responsibilities to consider.
You're right, you don't know. Just as a quick relevant summary I'm american, old enough to be retired if that were possible, and have lived most of my life in poverty, illness, and incarceration with long stretches of homelessness.
These are your adult responsibilities, it's time to grow up.
Vance is far shrewder than many of the surrounding idiots. My guess is that he went because someone like Trump thought it a good idea, and kissing arse is Vance’s current strategy.
Well its the only winning strategy currently, thats for sure.
But good for us, more visits of these folks who have very negative image in rest of the world. Any corrupt entrenched a-hole would be nice, what about Fico in Slovakia? Orban's best buddy in mindset and methodologies. Next one is Babis in Czech republic. With that done, EU would be free from corrupt russian double agents, for now at least.
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.
> exclusively be around some cases where police intervened for certain comments on transgender issues
Those tended to be gratuitously misreported as well, where the reports would say "this person was arrested for making [relatively innocuous comment] on social media]" and then you discover that the actual issue was a lengthy period of harassment and doxing directed at a specific trans person. Or encouraging other people to burn down a hotel, or so on.
just a note: the RSF World Press Freedom Index is not based on hard data or sound statistics, it's based on a few questionnaires sent to journalists picked by RSF itself.
How many it's unclear, but it was ~150[0] some years ago, of which 50 in France[1] to monitor 180 countries.
It's worth as a generic "are we doing better than last year?" but I wouldn't consider ranking to be particularly meaningful.
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.
You will be subject to mandatory facial recognition technology with long-term storage, though. The US may certainly be the worst but Europe is also going in an authoritarian direction.
In "why not both" news, both sides are pursuing increasingly aggressive immigration enforcement, which is imposed on everyone who goes through an airport.
(Intra-Schengen flights lets you avoid most of this, but the heavier enforcement on extra-Schengen is the tradeoff)
I haven't seen it here much (apart from proper rednecky comments equating carrying gun everywhere with some actual personal freedoms but those are rare).
But most US population ain't HN, at all. Most don't travel, get their opinion on the world from CNN or Fox news with corresponding results and thus have rather primitive view on rest of the world (sorry, that is true, one needs to travel a bit to understand world).
You don't travel when you are crushed by debt and rising costs from all sides, do you.
This is not only an American problem. Most people in most countries get their view of the rest of the world from mass media and social media. In some places people think particular groups they meet or read about (e.g. tourists or workers) are typical of the country they come from.
Travel produces different distortions. A lot of British people think the rest of the world is a lot better than it is because they visit places on holiday: they visit nice places and have good experiences. I have known some to get into messes when they actually try to live somewhere else.
I think you can turn this into a proper, nuanced position by contrasting how the US typically values protection of free speech higher than protection from libel/slander/defamation.
Just consider prominent recent examples, like the german student protester that was investigated by police and had his sign confiscated (it just said "Merz (current cancellor) suck balls"). This seems ridiculous and draconian by US standards.
Like the standard of denying people entry to the country based on their social media posts? Or deporting them for the same? Or the standard of tear-gassing a peaceful "No Kings" crowd of U.S. citizens, full of children?
I work at a German university. We had pro Palestinian protests 4 times a year for a while now and there has not been a single arrest. In fact there has not been a single police officer present over the past 4 years that would have even carried out an arrest. The only reason for a police officer to typically enter university grounds are noise complaints.
The case you quoted did happen, but it is one of a few crazy outliers. In the meantime you have literal university police bashing in on protesters, border police looking into peoples smart phones and policing their social media, students being expelled for pro palestinian positions, ...
As an European, you think you actually have free speech? Go say something negative about Muslims or your country being full during any protest, I dare you. Because you will absolutely face criminal charges for that.
People say shit about Muslims and our country being full all the time and nothing happens.
The law does make it illegal to insight violence though so if you publicly suggest buring down a hotel you might find yourself in trouble.
It makes a lot more sense than being investigated by the FBI because you wrote a negative article about the head or being charged for reposting some cryptic numbers.
> 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.
> 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.
One would expect that system would learn and change, and we wouldn't have trump fucking up half of global economy so beautifully on his morning whims just to get rich as a side business of being potus (or reverse, probably).
Something tells me that after this dark period is over, there won't be many lessons learned and things changed for the better in the system. 'Great system' not being so great after all (which it isn't, there are much better and more democractic systems implemented all around the world).
Republicans as usually will shield just about anybody including mass rapist and murderer just to not lose face, and democrats will just again have this inept look with 'we couldn't change a damn thing because XYZ but we asked nicely'.
The system also learned to stop pressuring Republicans to resign in shame. Roger Ailes was a media consultant and advisor to Nixon. Ailes vision of a TV network that pushed a pro-GOP administration message under the banner of unbiased journalism manifested in Television News Incorporated and later Fox News. He viewed television as a useful tool to reach the lazy masses who preferred not to read the news or perform their own critical thinking.
> 'we couldn't change a damn thing because XYZ but we asked nicely'
They literally can’t do anything. The constitution is structure so the party not in power can only obstruct legislation (filibuster). The current Supreme Court is literally rewriting the constitution or how the constitution has been interpreted for over one hundred years. They’re the bigger threat (to the US at least)
> One would expect that system would learn and change
The problem I have with that is that the typical American I encounter online appears to not perceive themselves as part of that system. And if you read your own founding documents We The People are supposed to play a pretty profound role within that system.
Only in the past year or ao I got the feeling that some appeared to have gotten the realization that they are not the temporarily embarrassed millionaires they always pictured themselves, but are in fact a lot closer to the homeless people whose tents you may pass by in your commute.
Some may have even realized that this is not a failure of the system, but a feature for those people who you chose to represent you.
The only two ways I see out of this mess is (1) collective bargaining (through unions and similar and (2) a ship of Theseus-like rebuilding of the established political personal within established party structures. Ideally both in tandem. Be part of the system and change it.
There's a fair number of non-bot MAGA voters in here too. The usual pattern is they say something stupid and then whine and bitch about the downvotes they get. Unfortunately the slavering morons are all around us these days.
The Trump administration is basically Reagan 2.0, but our political process has degraded to the point where the corruption and graft are even more blatant this time. Many of the current cabinet were involved in the Reagan admin too.
Their actions are the same - gutting the administrative state, squashing environmental regulations, persecuting queer people and racial minorities. Mass deportations. These were all hallmarks of the terrible Reagan presidency too. Even "Make America Great Again" is a reused slogan from the Reagan days.
Unfortunately the same uneducated morons who hold Reagan up as a great president are behind Trump right now, cheering this car crash of an administration even as they get us involved in new wars.
I think that normalizes the radical changes Trump has made, including aggressively challenging election results, ending the independence of the Department of Justice and FBI, and using them to attack political enemies, extraordinary expansion of a federal law enforcement force (apparently to serve Trump's political interests), nationalist trade policies including high tariffs, undermining national security allies, undermining intelligence secrecy, appointing people highly unqualified by existing standards, threatening freedom of the press (including having private sector allies acquire a dominant share of news and other public communication), ...
> It took four months from the time I applied and went through a series of three interviews before I was selected from a field of 20 applicants and brought onboard. This is a critical time for the newspaper to be without an ombudsman who can fight against censorship and control.
Something tells me the process of finding a replacement ombudsman will be much faster. Hegseth probably already has someone in mind...
> 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.
timfsu | 10 days ago
J0nL | 10 days ago
She even admits she was due to stand down at the end of the year, they could have just waited her out. Instead it seems her calling a spade a spade was just too intolerable for them to bare
If that's all it takes to provoke the desired reaction from them it doesn't bode well at all. It's no wonder they were so easily led into a war with Iran on a leash
lukan | 10 days ago
Well, they need the troops willingness to do whatever Trump tells them now, not next year. So they want propaganda for the troops and stars now and Stripes should be the medium, not annoy the administration by providing the troops with uncomfortable truth or facts.
pjc50 | 10 days ago
lukan | 10 days ago
Yes, but sometimes they think for themself, refuse stupid orders and sabotage equipment (or even toilets), like what seemingly happened to some US battleships.
t-3 | 10 days ago
lukan | 10 days ago
system7rocks | 10 days ago
deepsun | 10 days ago
A US president does not have authority to start a war, Congress has, according to Constitution. The president only serves as a Commander in Chief.
So at any point Congress can stop any military action issuing an immediate ruling preventing the president doing anything. If our congressmen don't do that it means they approve it.
It's our, USA, war, not Trump's war. Because we elected the congressmen.
xnx | 10 days ago
These needs to be repeated everywhere until people understand it. Same situation with tariffs.
voidfunc | 10 days ago
Trump won the popular vote and if we use logic from above all the non-voters are in fact supporters as well.
DiabloD3 | 10 days ago
Trump has admitted openly that he won due to mass tampering with voting machines, and thanked Elon Musk for his help.
Your analogy falls apart.
ozlikethewizard | 10 days ago
HerbManic | 10 days ago
I do appreciate that they are not interested in over throwing the 2024 election, just ensure that any possible gaps are covered for future elections.
> The Election Truth Alliance is initiating a call for hand counts of paper voting records associated with the 2024 U.S. General Election, and is advocating for full hand counts prior to certification for all future U.S. elections.
https://electiontruthalliance.org/
Hikikomori | 10 days ago
NDlurker | 10 days ago
tzs | 10 days ago
voidfunc | 10 days ago
NDlurker | 9 days ago
watwut | 10 days ago
piva00 | 10 days ago
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?
AlexCoventry | 10 days ago
LNSY | 10 days ago
m00x | 10 days ago
boromisp | 10 days ago
logicchains | 10 days ago
actionfromafar | 10 days ago
voidfunc | 10 days ago
rswail | 10 days ago
Who else should have "owned" it?
pyrale | 10 days ago
Many massacres and genocides are "owner-less" and obscured by history. To give a few exemple, you might find, but the trail of tears is not as front-and-center in US' history teaching as the holocaust is in German history teaching.
You'll find similar situations for all colonial powers who didn't get dismantled and forced to accept their wrongs after losing a war. You may even go as far as to say that Germany is the outlier here.
user3939382 | 10 days ago
jauntywundrkind | 10 days ago
This stopped being alternate realities a while ago, as it became a collective project to form anti-realities.
jasomill | 10 days ago
— Stephen Colbert, 2006
https://www.c-span.org/clip/white-house-event/user-clip-step...
Terr_ | 10 days ago
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 something about #3 changes or until #47 finally succumbs to dementia.
tdeck | 10 days ago
https://capitalandempire.com/p/top-democrats-try-to-stop-vot...
benterix | 10 days ago
I can understand that Israel's long-time strategy is to keep all their neighborhood in a state of permanent mess so that nobody is strong enough to be an existential threat. But after almost a century, it's clear this is not working.
pjc50 | 10 days ago
tdeck | 10 days ago
riffraff | 10 days ago
how would that look like? I mean, more than what it looks like now. The man is spouting nonsense every single day.
niemandhier | 10 days ago
I love that story, shows you that the world always was quite small and that what we perceive as progressive and backward countries is just a matter of time.
gostsamo | 10 days ago
> Charles XII was in exile in Turkey and needed a representative in Sweden to ensure that judges and civil servants acted in accordance with the laws and with their duties. If they did not do so, the Supreme Ombudsman had the right to prosecute them for negligence.
Animats | 10 days ago
[1] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politic...
jmward01 | 10 days ago
vrganj | 10 days ago
ethagnawl | 10 days ago
It gives you a new found level of empathy or, at least, understanding for the people throughout history who "should have done something". We all (well, most of us) grew up thinking that if we were a workaday German (fill in the conflict) with Jewish neighbors that we'd have obviously hidden them in our attic or whatever. It turns out the reality of taking that class of action is actually a lot more fraught that your 4th grade self thought it was.
Would you harbor a neighbor facing deportation to some far flung prison camp? You have to be willing to face the consequences of losing your home, job, liberty and life. If not, what would change the calculus enough for you to do so? If you know they're in your country legally? If they were pregnant? If the prison was rumored to be executing people?
pjc50 | 10 days ago
47282847 | 10 days ago
giraffe_lady | 10 days ago
It's funny my entire adult life has been me slowly realizing that no, it is not. It is easy to do what is right, it is easy to see what is right to do. Stop making excuses and do it.
ethagnawl | 10 days ago
giraffe_lady | 10 days ago
These are your adult responsibilities, it's time to grow up.
jimnotgym | 10 days ago
linohh | 10 days ago
generic92034 | 10 days ago
/s
benterix | 10 days ago
lostlogin | 10 days ago
kakacik | 10 days ago
But good for us, more visits of these folks who have very negative image in rest of the world. Any corrupt entrenched a-hole would be nice, what about Fico in Slovakia? Orban's best buddy in mindset and methodologies. Next one is Babis in Czech republic. With that done, EU would be free from corrupt russian double agents, for now at least.
2ndorderthought | 9 days ago
lostlogin | 10 days ago
fragmede | 10 days ago
watwut | 10 days ago
freehorse | 10 days ago
saidnooneever | 10 days ago
pjc50 | 10 days ago
Those tended to be gratuitously misreported as well, where the reports would say "this person was arrested for making [relatively innocuous comment] on social media]" and then you discover that the actual issue was a lengthy period of harassment and doxing directed at a specific trans person. Or encouraging other people to burn down a hotel, or so on.
tdeck | 10 days ago
rob74 | 10 days ago
2ndorderthought | 9 days ago
amelius | 10 days ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Press_Freedom_Index
rob74 | 10 days ago
VBprogrammer | 9 days ago
GJim | 10 days ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist_Democracy_Index
The USA's score has taken rather a tumble since 2016 (I wonder why?).
riffraff | 10 days ago
How many it's unclear, but it was ~150[0] some years ago, of which 50 in France[1] to monitor 180 countries.
It's worth as a generic "are we doing better than last year?" but I wouldn't consider ranking to be particularly meaningful.
[0] https://web.archive.org/web/20130819031406/http://en.rsf.org...
[1] https://akademie.dw.com/en/the-press-freedom-index-by-report...
2ndorderthought | 9 days ago
tick_tock_tick | 10 days ago
cma | 10 days ago
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/feb/...
ilogik | 10 days ago
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/28/politics/justice-departme...
piva00 | 10 days ago
koliber | 10 days ago
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.
ilogik | 10 days ago
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
bjourne | 10 days ago
pjc50 | 10 days ago
(Intra-Schengen flights lets you avoid most of this, but the heavier enforcement on extra-Schengen is the tradeoff)
nerdsniper | 10 days ago
Arkhaine_kupo | 10 days ago
But tbh its so much nicer when journalists self censor to not lose their job because of access to healthcare.
Or when billionaires buy entire media empires and fire journalists critical of the goverment.
Bezos owning WP, Murdoch owning everything else, Sinclair owning local stations... the free speech is so fucking goood
benterix | 10 days ago
tokai | 10 days ago
kakacik | 10 days ago
But most US population ain't HN, at all. Most don't travel, get their opinion on the world from CNN or Fox news with corresponding results and thus have rather primitive view on rest of the world (sorry, that is true, one needs to travel a bit to understand world).
You don't travel when you are crushed by debt and rising costs from all sides, do you.
graemep | 10 days ago
Travel produces different distortions. A lot of British people think the rest of the world is a lot better than it is because they visit places on holiday: they visit nice places and have good experiences. I have known some to get into messes when they actually try to live somewhere else.
myrmidon | 10 days ago
Just consider prominent recent examples, like the german student protester that was investigated by police and had his sign confiscated (it just said "Merz (current cancellor) suck balls"). This seems ridiculous and draconian by US standards.
lubujackson | 10 days ago
Or literally investigating all protestors, at scale? https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/19/us/politics/justice-dept-...
atoav | 10 days ago
The case you quoted did happen, but it is one of a few crazy outliers. In the meantime you have literal university police bashing in on protesters, border police looking into peoples smart phones and policing their social media, students being expelled for pro palestinian positions, ...
solid_fuel | 9 days ago
The DHS is sending subpoenas to google over mildly critical online posts. [0] By your own standards, that must be ridiculous and draconian too, yes?
[0] https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/us-dhs-aclu-lawsuit-canadian-j...
moi2388 | 10 days ago
swordsith | 10 days ago
VBprogrammer | 9 days ago
It makes a lot more sense than being investigated by the FBI because you wrote a negative article about the head or being charged for reposting some cryptic numbers.
pjc50 | 10 days ago
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.
kakacik | 10 days ago
Something tells me that after this dark period is over, there won't be many lessons learned and things changed for the better in the system. 'Great system' not being so great after all (which it isn't, there are much better and more democractic systems implemented all around the world).
Republicans as usually will shield just about anybody including mass rapist and murderer just to not lose face, and democrats will just again have this inept look with 'we couldn't change a damn thing because XYZ but we asked nicely'.
pjc50 | 10 days ago
The system did learn and change: they got a lot better at exploiting it. The effort to stack the Supreme Court with Republican partisans took decades.
raisedbyninjas | 10 days ago
bonesss | 10 days ago
And now we get near-daily “worse than Watergate” headlines and facts…
le-mark | 10 days ago
They literally can’t do anything. The constitution is structure so the party not in power can only obstruct legislation (filibuster). The current Supreme Court is literally rewriting the constitution or how the constitution has been interpreted for over one hundred years. They’re the bigger threat (to the US at least)
atoav | 10 days ago
The problem I have with that is that the typical American I encounter online appears to not perceive themselves as part of that system. And if you read your own founding documents We The People are supposed to play a pretty profound role within that system.
Only in the past year or ao I got the feeling that some appeared to have gotten the realization that they are not the temporarily embarrassed millionaires they always pictured themselves, but are in fact a lot closer to the homeless people whose tents you may pass by in your commute.
Some may have even realized that this is not a failure of the system, but a feature for those people who you chose to represent you.
The only two ways I see out of this mess is (1) collective bargaining (through unions and similar and (2) a ship of Theseus-like rebuilding of the established political personal within established party structures. Ideally both in tandem. Be part of the system and change it.
2ndorderthought | 9 days ago
None of this is normal.
red-iron-pine | 9 days ago
reddit at least puts speedbumps up
solid_fuel | 9 days ago
TitaRusell | 9 days ago
Not a lot of bleeding hearts over here for criminals lol.
solid_fuel | 9 days ago
Their actions are the same - gutting the administrative state, squashing environmental regulations, persecuting queer people and racial minorities. Mass deportations. These were all hallmarks of the terrible Reagan presidency too. Even "Make America Great Again" is a reused slogan from the Reagan days.
Unfortunately the same uneducated morons who hold Reagan up as a great president are behind Trump right now, cheering this car crash of an administration even as they get us involved in new wars.
mmooss | 9 days ago
rob74 | 10 days ago
Something tells me the process of finding a replacement ombudsman will be much faster. Hegseth probably already has someone in mind...
2OEH8eoCRo0 | 10 days ago
Congress, where are you?
homeonthemtn | 10 days ago
Something we are all coming to realize a little too late