Presidents tend to be selectively amoral egotists......or they never get to be President in the first place. Why else would someone sacrifice almost their entire lives to the pursuit of such a thing?
The US system is badly set up. At almost every level the US Constitution encourages, allows or requires corruption. It's a system designed to fail under load....and with over 300 million people in 50 states.....it's definitely overloaded.
The USA hasn't qualified for at least 50 years.....though most people prefer to believe otherwise. Cases like Manning and Snowden make that very clear.
The main reason I don't trust any government in any country to provide a just outcome in whistle blowers cases is that the governments typically show no regard for the law themselves. Over and over we have seen governments break their own laws in spying and data acquisition and use....and when they are caught they just make it legal anyway and no one is ever prosecuted.
The whistle blowers are talking to the people. The governments are deaf to news of their own crimes. It's up to each of us to see to it that criminal governments are at least held to account through the ballot box. if you don't......well.....Germany found out how that turns out back in the late 1930s. Sooner or later you get a leader who doesn't even make excuses for his crimes.
Totally agree. Monitoring the activities of foreign diplomats in your own country is standard operating procedure. To be expected.
This story is interned to confuse the ignorant and weak-minded.
China is governed by people who see themselves as deeply rational. The modern Republican Party, to them, is deeply irrational and exemplifies the reasons for avoiding democracy and hindering religion.
I can't disagree with them on this.
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China and Russia signed a treaty back in 2000 for much the same purpose: to give the world an alternative to American domination.
You're on shakey ground there. Employers ARE responsible for the actions (and their consequences) of their employees. This has been true for decades. Nothing new.
The US has always been somewhat corrupt and not very democratic.
Technology tended to limit the reach and power of the corrupt and to constrain the worst consequences of a lack of fair democracy.
Those days are over. The corrupt can now listen to you in your home through your own computer or cellphone without you knowing it.
You have nothing to fear if THEY think you've done nothing wrong.
The United States can't be trusted any more. They have all the powers they need to be an unaccountable dictatorship.....and only the will to do so cynically is lacking. That is only a matter of time given how the US political structures reward amoral cynicism.
Most extradition treaties don't include political 'crimes' or civil infringements. This is why the US has had to manufacture laughable "money laundering" charges against Kim Dotcom to have any hope of extraditing him from New Zealand.
Snowden's actions would appear to fall squarely into the political category. It will be interesting to see which bogus charges the US tries to conjure up to enable any extradition effort. Who did he murder? What back did he rob? What drugs was be selling?
I agree. People who put their guns ahead of their kids are beyond understanding.
A gun isn't a home appliance. It's is designed for killing.
People who make and sell them are grossly negligence in being willing to supply them to anyone at all. The only reason they can't is because regulations exist that prevent it...and these criminals fund the NRA to campaign to have even these regulations moved.
Guns are a cancer on the American mind. The results speak for themselves: Over 30,000 dead EVERY year thanks to guns....but everyone has to take their shoes off when they travel because ONE guy tried to blow up his shoes...and failed.
That is insane....and I don't expect insane people (gun nuts) to understand that.....I'm speaking to the people who aren't gun nuts.
I'm glad I don't live in the US. It would be so sad to live in a country with so little concern for the future that it was ready to crap in its own nest endlessly....thinking there would be no consequences.
Shale extraction techniques are pure poison for water tables everywhere. The US may well find it had loads of fossil fuels for a time....and ever higher rates of cancer for which no one else held accountable...(as usual).
The sheeple had better wake up soon or their kids (and their kids...and their kids) will be dying thanks to the oil addiction of the present generations.
These intolerant Muslim people need to grow thicker skin. If they let everyone who thinks their religion is nutty nonsense get them riled up they are going to have a long unhappy time of it.
They would be making better use of their time to protest the Taliban blasphemers who actively use Islam to justify shooting children in the head. http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/asia/7824802/Taliban-claims-attack-on-schoolgirl-justified
The blasphemous actions of the Taliban are a gross insult to Islam and make a joke of the Prophet Mohammad.
Agreed. That is exactly what happens where I live....and prostitution is legal here in New Zealand. The world didn't end...and the lives of hookers improved enormously. The risk to customers declined enormously. The health of all concerned is better protected by having the "profession" out in the open and free of fear.
Agreed. I live in New Zealand, where prostitution is legal. It is also regulated. People with criminal records can't own or operate brothels. People who work in brothels have access to all legal and social support around employer / employee law. They pay tax. They can call the police if things go sideways. The role of "pimp" is completely unnecessary - brothels and prostitutes advertise their services in the newspapers and - occasionally - on TV (late at night). Under-age prostitution is illegal and no 'reputable' (yeah....for real) brothel owner would risk their entire business by allowing it. "Human trafficking" is illegal and not hard to catch...so is very rare. More often it is willing workers from other countries seeking ways to get into the country to work illegally on a visitors visa. They "trafficked" themselves. Mainly Thais and Russians. Young, single women arriving from these countries for 'a holiday' can expect to be asked extra questions. Employers who hire them to work illegally are prosecuted.
Prostitution should be legal everywhere. I suspect it isn't legal so that the powerful can drop huge legal bricks on hookers who speak out about what the powerful have been up to behind closed doors.
Very true. One of the key advantages of the publicly-run health system is having direct control of the costs. In the American system the health corporations charge like wounded bulls and you either pay or you don't get care.
Large insurance companies are able to bargain prices down.....but they, in turn "ration" the care they pay for in order to protect their profit margins. The end result is similar to a public system where certain treatments might be rationed because of the (occasional or perpetual) limited capacity to supply treatment. In the public system, obvious bottlenecks can be met by adding more money...and profit isn't a concern. In the private system, the provider doesn't care have any direct incentive to provide additional capacity unless there is clear demand which will pay for it...and the insurors are willing to fund that many addtional treatments for their varying number of paying clients.
In a system of universal entitlement, demand is much LESS variable....as the measurement of it shifts from one company's book of clients to actuarial tables covering the entire population. This makes understanding what needs to be provided - and where - MUCH easier....which is one of the reasons universal health care systems are cheaper and more efficient then private ones.
But market-forces ideologues have been reluctant to accept the 40 years of clear, unambigious evidence that public health care systems provide more and better care for less money than a fragmented, poorly-integrated private system capable of only partial coverage.
Ideologues are into faith....not reality. So the rich in the US get good care...and everyone else gets whatever level of care their insurance company is will to provide.....or even les than that for the 20% of Americans who can't afford even the most basic insurance.
I do wish Americans did reality. Not being able to do it is their biggest weakness....and it is now beginning to really hurt them.
100% care that is crappy is most definitely an improvement for the people who had access to nothing.
The United States has wasted US$1.3 TRILLION dollars in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001. Half that amount could have run a nation-wide, public health system providing access to every man, woman and child.
If countries like Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Britain, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, The Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Hungary, Austria, Estonia, Lithu-freaking-ania......can provide good universal health care......then sure it is possible for the richest, most powerful nation on the planet to do it, too.
But apparently not. The problem clearly isn't money....it's too many ignorant-stupids in one place.
Julian Assange is not a traitor. The Rosenbergs were. You cannot be a declared an open citizen of another country and be a "traitor" to another. What he did was not even a crime, and the notion of extradition is dubious.
Totally agree. Assange is an Australian citizen who was working in the UK or Sweden publishing documents it is perfectly legal to publish in those countries. The Pentagon Papers of 30 years ago demonstrated it would also be legal for an American citizen to do the same in the United States.
Yes, the powers that be will illegally harass you and waste millions of dollars of taxpayer money in the process, but they very much want to discourage people who might expose their crimes.
All these incidents tell world is that the United States is run by amoral criminal elements. Nothing new there.
Slashdot Mirror
Presidents tend to be selectively amoral egotists......or they never get to be President in the first place. Why else would someone sacrifice almost their entire lives to the pursuit of such a thing? The US system is badly set up. At almost every level the US Constitution encourages, allows or requires corruption. It's a system designed to fail under load....and with over 300 million people in 50 states.....it's definitely overloaded.
The USA hasn't qualified for at least 50 years.....though most people prefer to believe otherwise. Cases like Manning and Snowden make that very clear.
The main reason I don't trust any government in any country to provide a just outcome in whistle blowers cases is that the governments typically show no regard for the law themselves. Over and over we have seen governments break their own laws in spying and data acquisition and use....and when they are caught they just make it legal anyway and no one is ever prosecuted. The whistle blowers are talking to the people. The governments are deaf to news of their own crimes. It's up to each of us to see to it that criminal governments are at least held to account through the ballot box. if you don't......well.....Germany found out how that turns out back in the late 1930s. Sooner or later you get a leader who doesn't even make excuses for his crimes.
Sounds like he would prefer to be a dictator. All that accountability and over sight stuff wore him down.
Your 4-pack of incandescents will last 4 x 8 weeks of use (in my experience)....whereas one CFL will last several years.....
Totally agree. Monitoring the activities of foreign diplomats in your own country is standard operating procedure. To be expected. This story is interned to confuse the ignorant and weak-minded.
China is governed by people who see themselves as deeply rational. The modern Republican Party, to them, is deeply irrational and exemplifies the reasons for avoiding democracy and hindering religion. I can't disagree with them on this. . China and Russia signed a treaty back in 2000 for much the same purpose: to give the world an alternative to American domination.
I agree. Any sales guy who does well at the top probably wasn't a very good sales guy. It's a completely different mindset.
These are deliberate "leaks" because they know few people actually believe official statements. That's why no one is looking for these "lakers"
You're on shakey ground there. Employers ARE responsible for the actions (and their consequences) of their employees. This has been true for decades. Nothing new.
The US has always been somewhat corrupt and not very democratic. Technology tended to limit the reach and power of the corrupt and to constrain the worst consequences of a lack of fair democracy. Those days are over. The corrupt can now listen to you in your home through your own computer or cellphone without you knowing it. You have nothing to fear if THEY think you've done nothing wrong.
Americans are "safe" now....in much the same way Germans were "safe" in 1936.
The United States can't be trusted any more. They have all the powers they need to be an unaccountable dictatorship.....and only the will to do so cynically is lacking. That is only a matter of time given how the US political structures reward amoral cynicism.
Most extradition treaties don't include political 'crimes' or civil infringements. This is why the US has had to manufacture laughable "money laundering" charges against Kim Dotcom to have any hope of extraditing him from New Zealand. Snowden's actions would appear to fall squarely into the political category. It will be interesting to see which bogus charges the US tries to conjure up to enable any extradition effort. Who did he murder? What back did he rob? What drugs was be selling?
They definitely have the storage capacity. Never doubt that for the simple reason that they spend billions of dollars on this.
I agree. People who put their guns ahead of their kids are beyond understanding. A gun isn't a home appliance. It's is designed for killing. People who make and sell them are grossly negligence in being willing to supply them to anyone at all. The only reason they can't is because regulations exist that prevent it...and these criminals fund the NRA to campaign to have even these regulations moved. Guns are a cancer on the American mind. The results speak for themselves: Over 30,000 dead EVERY year thanks to guns....but everyone has to take their shoes off when they travel because ONE guy tried to blow up his shoes...and failed. That is insane....and I don't expect insane people (gun nuts) to understand that.....I'm speaking to the people who aren't gun nuts.
I'm glad I don't live in the US. It would be so sad to live in a country with so little concern for the future that it was ready to crap in its own nest endlessly....thinking there would be no consequences.
Shale extraction techniques are pure poison for water tables everywhere. The US may well find it had loads of fossil fuels for a time....and ever higher rates of cancer for which no one else held accountable...(as usual). The sheeple had better wake up soon or their kids (and their kids...and their kids) will be dying thanks to the oil addiction of the present generations.
What were / are the subsidies for?
These intolerant Muslim people need to grow thicker skin. If they let everyone who thinks their religion is nutty nonsense get them riled up they are going to have a long unhappy time of it. They would be making better use of their time to protest the Taliban blasphemers who actively use Islam to justify shooting children in the head. http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/asia/7824802/Taliban-claims-attack-on-schoolgirl-justified The blasphemous actions of the Taliban are a gross insult to Islam and make a joke of the Prophet Mohammad.
Agreed. That is exactly what happens where I live....and prostitution is legal here in New Zealand. The world didn't end...and the lives of hookers improved enormously. The risk to customers declined enormously. The health of all concerned is better protected by having the "profession" out in the open and free of fear.
Agreed. I live in New Zealand, where prostitution is legal. It is also regulated. People with criminal records can't own or operate brothels. People who work in brothels have access to all legal and social support around employer / employee law. They pay tax. They can call the police if things go sideways. The role of "pimp" is completely unnecessary - brothels and prostitutes advertise their services in the newspapers and - occasionally - on TV (late at night). Under-age prostitution is illegal and no 'reputable' (yeah....for real) brothel owner would risk their entire business by allowing it. "Human trafficking" is illegal and not hard to catch...so is very rare. More often it is willing workers from other countries seeking ways to get into the country to work illegally on a visitors visa. They "trafficked" themselves. Mainly Thais and Russians. Young, single women arriving from these countries for 'a holiday' can expect to be asked extra questions. Employers who hire them to work illegally are prosecuted. Prostitution should be legal everywhere. I suspect it isn't legal so that the powerful can drop huge legal bricks on hookers who speak out about what the powerful have been up to behind closed doors.
Very true. One of the key advantages of the publicly-run health system is having direct control of the costs. In the American system the health corporations charge like wounded bulls and you either pay or you don't get care. Large insurance companies are able to bargain prices down.....but they, in turn "ration" the care they pay for in order to protect their profit margins. The end result is similar to a public system where certain treatments might be rationed because of the (occasional or perpetual) limited capacity to supply treatment. In the public system, obvious bottlenecks can be met by adding more money...and profit isn't a concern. In the private system, the provider doesn't care have any direct incentive to provide additional capacity unless there is clear demand which will pay for it...and the insurors are willing to fund that many addtional treatments for their varying number of paying clients. In a system of universal entitlement, demand is much LESS variable....as the measurement of it shifts from one company's book of clients to actuarial tables covering the entire population. This makes understanding what needs to be provided - and where - MUCH easier....which is one of the reasons universal health care systems are cheaper and more efficient then private ones. But market-forces ideologues have been reluctant to accept the 40 years of clear, unambigious evidence that public health care systems provide more and better care for less money than a fragmented, poorly-integrated private system capable of only partial coverage. Ideologues are into faith....not reality. So the rich in the US get good care...and everyone else gets whatever level of care their insurance company is will to provide.....or even les than that for the 20% of Americans who can't afford even the most basic insurance. I do wish Americans did reality. Not being able to do it is their biggest weakness....and it is now beginning to really hurt them.
100% care that is crappy is most definitely an improvement for the people who had access to nothing. The United States has wasted US$1.3 TRILLION dollars in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001. Half that amount could have run a nation-wide, public health system providing access to every man, woman and child. If countries like Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Britain, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, The Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Hungary, Austria, Estonia, Lithu-freaking-ania......can provide good universal health care......then sure it is possible for the richest, most powerful nation on the planet to do it, too. But apparently not. The problem clearly isn't money....it's too many ignorant-stupids in one place.
Julian Assange is not a traitor. The Rosenbergs were. You cannot be a declared an open citizen of another country and be a "traitor" to another. What he did was not even a crime, and the notion of extradition is dubious.
Totally agree. Assange is an Australian citizen who was working in the UK or Sweden publishing documents it is perfectly legal to publish in those countries. The Pentagon Papers of 30 years ago demonstrated it would also be legal for an American citizen to do the same in the United States. Yes, the powers that be will illegally harass you and waste millions of dollars of taxpayer money in the process, but they very much want to discourage people who might expose their crimes. All these incidents tell world is that the United States is run by amoral criminal elements. Nothing new there.