Here is a counter-arguement. It is the responsibility of the citizens to make sure things like the Patriot Act or ICE are used in a fair manner with oversight and restrictions.
The notion that “the government” is some external entity is an easy and satisfying polemic, but it’s not helpful in a practical sense.
Did the thugs at the Blackstone criminal gang decide to play hardball with the recent demand to increase the size of bribes?
I hate the term “cope”, but there honestly is no better way to describe this article.
From my experience living in the US, a significant portion of the local population (be it far right or centre right) are generally supportive of crime and corruption. The centre right opposition is incapable of any meaningful action on crime and they are too involved in local corruption schemes to change. And a significant portion of the centre-right electorate also support crime. Not saying it was always like that or it can’t change; this is a mere (extremely subjective) evaluation of the current situation.
From the perspective of people in other countries (that support democracy, efficient governance, innovation), it is reasonable to assume that Americans cannot be relied upon in any substantive manner irrespective of whether the far right or centre right is in power; at least for the next 30-50 years. Much of their civil society and civil service (that was world class at one point) is completely debased and have been replaced by local criminals and regressives.
It is reasonable to assume this is not going to change any time soon. Instead we’ll have usual pompous bullshit.
To quote Barack Obama:
“You know, don’t tell me you’re a Democrat, but you’re kind of disappointed right now, so you’re not doing anything. No, now is exactly the time that you get in there and do something,” he said. “Don’t say that you care deeply about free speech and then you’re quiet. No, you stand up for free speech when it’s hard. When somebody says something that you don’t like, but you still say, ‘You know what, that person has the right to speak.’ … What’s needed now is courage.”
What’s needed now is courage?
What the fuck does this even mean?
Not to mention the tedious polemics about free speech.
Not an American (although I have lived there for several years and travelled extensively), it doesn’t matter if the Democrats win.
I say this as someone who always votes and has done tactical voting many times.
The US centre right is incapable of addressing corruption and criminality, not only because the party apparatus is itself corrupt, but because most American centre right voters are simply too well off to risk rocking the boat. They’ll keep trying to avoid addressing corruption until it’s too late.
The corruption of the centre right is a symptom, with the cause being American society (specifically a large portion of centre right voters).
This is not doomerism in the least. In any country/context, the first step to overcoming immense odds is recognizing what the problem is. If you don’t take the first step, you’ll definitely never get to your goal.
It is not my intention to be petty and have a laugh. Until centre right public totally rejects comical American-style polemics about alleged commitment to “free speech” and “free markets”, they will never address corruption and debasement of their institutions.
And yet Obama and other senior centre right figures are still parroting the same shallow, tedious copytext that they’ve been pitching for the last years.
If a commoner got caught money laundering, they would get fucked.
I actually had my bank accounts frozen because I miscalculated a quarterly tax payment by 2 dollars equivalent in local currency. Had to ask my family members to pay because all my money was frozen.
I will add that corruption isn’t unique to the US of course. I am from Ukraine and it’s actually what I hate most about my country, how people don’t pay taxes and come up with dumb excuses like “well the oligarchs are stealing, we should start at the top first”. That being said, at least people here recognize that corruption is wrong and that there is no real way forward without addressing it.
Considering that this fellow was reinstated by the Democrats, it means they don’t really feel any pressure from the public.
This is not a recent thing either. I was living in the US in the late 2000s and I thought it was interesting how Obama decided to simply not prosecute the financial services oligarchs gangs after the great recession. One would think this is a historical opportunity to make them take responsibility for their actions.
Cuellar was charged in 2024 for allegedly accepting $600,000 in bribes from two foreign entities, according to an indictment released by the Justice Department. The indictment accused Cuellar of accepting payments from Azerbaijan’s state-run oil-and-gas company after they had been laundered through shell companies owned by his wife.
America is so corrupt. And so many people there have the gall talk about other countries.
Not an expert, but this seems relatively reasonable. If anything one would think Roblox will eventually fall under this process, that being said, I am just thinking out loud, I could be wrong.
It should be challenged by Australians. An American oligarchic organziation by definition shouldn’t be able to have any influence on national policies. If the Americans ever clean up their act, which is unlikely, then one should at least consider whether they should be allowed to file such challenges.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Roblox gets blocked too. Although this is complete speculation on my part.
Is there anything specific around why Roblox would not be banned?
Fascinating stuff! It’s like russia with extra steps and a gigantic amount of comical ostentatious posturing about freedoms and liberty.
Americans do love their theatrics!
Almost none of them are morons. They are all cunning, sophisticated and they spend all their time on work and their goals.
No need to underestimate them.
If anything their weaknesses lie in arrogance, ignorance (not the same thing as being stupid) and low tolerance of dealing with challenges they haven’t encountered. As things stand today, this weaknesses haven’t really caused them any problems, but that doesn’t this will always be true.
Mr Prescott, who until June 2025 was an independent adviser to the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines and Standards Board, also highlights serious problems with BBC Arabic’s reporting on Gaza, in which it apparently gives extensive space to the views of Hamas.
I was curious what this meant, so I read the relevant section and while some of the arguments seem suspect, there were definitely massive red flags with the policies of BBC Arabic.
Haven’t read the US election part yet, but the points raised in the intro don’t sound coherent.
EDIT: The US election part is a lot less convincing. They should have explicitly stated that they are combining two separate sections from the speech, but the argument seems more like a technicality. Some other minor points were fair, but there were a lot of incoherent arguments. One example.
The BBC sometimes fell into using, without attribution, contested language such as “reproductive rights”. This signals to many BBC viewers, particularly those in America, a biased mindset.
Reproductive rights isn’t a contested term.
Terrible headline.
This was a helpful and concise blogpost.
Americans oligarchs are comical in their approach to corruption.
An assumption based on undeniable facts:
I will note that you where very cavalier without you “Trump pressure”, I merely pointed out that you are not aware of factors that would lead to Ukraine to vote with the US beyond “Trump pressure”.
India, a russian ally, has been very public about their opposition to recruitment by the russians and India does not have exit restrictions for specific professions.
Think whatever you want. It honestly sounds like you are unwilling to consider that you might not be seeing the full picture.
It doesn’t need government cooperation, and I haven’t seen anything that indicates it except social media accounts that can’t think of an alternative
Are you sure about this? Note that I didn’t mention anything about the process.
I said that there is no way this is happening without the authorization (if not direct, committed support) of the Cuban government. This is a country that still has exit restrictions on certain types of professions.
They see a military age male, suddenly getting a large amount of money that their salary clearly can’t support (they know this because they would have to validate their profession to give them a passport to leave the country), getting a passport and flying to russia and they can’t connect the dots?
But yes, Russia is recruiting from poverty stricken areas, and often the people signing up aren’t told they’re going to war or even joining a military till they get to Russia.
I am well aware of that. But do you see the difference between Uzbekistan and Cuba? Specifically how getting from Cuba to russia without the authorization and support of the Cuban government is very unlikely compared to say Uzbekistan.
So why shouldn’t Ukraine (which is where I live btw) not treat Cuba like an enemy state? What’s your logic here?
The Cuban government has sent thousands of Cubans to fight for the russians.
The Cuban foreign ministry didn’t deny their presence, they claim they have nothing to do with this (which is clearly bullshit, Cuba is an island and average salaries are way too low to get an international passport).
Considering the above, why shouldn’t Ukraine treat Cuba as an enemy state (like North Korea)?
That’s why I said your original point is misleading, there are legitimate reasons for Ukraine to support sanctions against an enemy state.
My would you require strong pressure to diplomatically oppose a country that is directly aiding a genocidal imperialist invader (while also pretending to oppose imperialism)?
What is your logic here?
If anything it makes perfect sense to support sanctions against your enemy (i.e. Cuba).
Imagine showing this news article to someone in 1998 or 2000.
Or perhaps even 2015, which wasn’t that long ago.