Why let innocence get in the way of chasing people down? That's the argument police unions have been making for years. Whenever society wants to improve and decriminalize something, it can't because the fucking cops want to have easy arrest targets. Fuck them. At least now we can stop pretending we don't live in a police state.
Please stop posting flamewar comments to HN. It's not what this site is for, it destroys what it is for, and your comments in this thread have unfortunately created the worst parts of it. We ban such accounts, so please don't do it again.
>That's what I would ask BLM protestors making people kneel on the basis of their gender, skin, or job, in the same ironic tone.
"Making"? I don't think that's true. People are doing it in respect of black lives, unlike when people are forcibly being abducted by unmarked federal police.
It's not the window breaking that justifies federal intervention, it's the local government acting as if the Rule of Law was optional that justifies federal intervention.
Do you live in or near downtown Portland? Because I do, and I can assertively state that the rule of law had not broken down prior to the arrival of federal agents.
Walking around downtown recently and finding little more than a single broken window and an "I'm hatin' it" spray-painted on a McDonald's makes this kind of fearmongering comment truly laughable.
I was told that my city of Portland Maine had riots going on by people living 300 miles away. We had a couple hundred people laying on the ground in front of a police station. The over-exaggeration of people and sources negative towards the causes of these protests is astounding
I witnessed rioters shooting mortars at PPB on the 4th of July. PPB sent teargas and flash bangs back at them. SW Broadway and Main looked like a war zone. They’ve been lighting fires around 3rd for weeks. The park around the justice center looks like a set from Escape From New York.
The Feds showing up didn’t start this. This nonsense has been going on in spurts since 2016.
The rule of law is not kept by generic authority figures in unmarked vans from a federal agency that hasn't declared itself and wasn't asked to intervene at a place and time where the issue doesn't require it and the victims are seen as the political enemies by the party whose president is in power. That's a dystopia - the opposite of rule of law.
I wonder if they're US Marshals, looks like the right uniforms based on some google image searches. I do see a patch too but it's too blurry to tell unfortunately
A 1000 ft condo costs about a million dollars in downtown Portland so let’s put that number in perspective before imagination goes to far.
The wealthy people who own those condos fund most of the local officials political campaigns so do you honestly believe local officials would be coming out against the federal government stepping in if they felt like Rule of Law had fallen apart?
I'm not an American. Many of us foreigners watching the US think that what's killing you people isn't Trump himself, but the obsession that "progressives" have with that man.
Democrats have spent years hating on Trump instead of building a good case for the 2020 election.
Why have a solid candidate and a solid policy package when instead you can have a senile corpse that can't put a sentence together, partnering with quasi-marxists that want to dismantle the rule of law.
The democrats achieved what nobody thought possible. They made Trump look sane.
I guess you haven’t been watching much TV during Obama’s time in the White House. The GOP post-policy strategy is just about opposing and nothing else. This was the case since the democrats made it clear with Obama that Republicans got nothing to offer to the American people other than destroying the economy Democrats built.
Also, you might be European but trump is loathed here (Western Europe) probably more than he is in the USA.
The job of the political opposition is to oppose. What the democrats have done in the last 3 years is a whole new level of bitching. And they haven't learned anything, they seem to be following the same strategy as in 2016. Believe me that insulting the electorate to their face isn't a very good tactic. The polling situation isn't very different from 2016, but the arrogance blinds them.
I'm from an Italian-Spanish family that emigrated to South America during World War II. I lived in Europe for 5 years, in Sweden (study abroad), and I'm a European citizen.
I'm very aware of how much Europeans despise Trump. I'm also aware of how much time and energy Europeans dedicate to American politics that should be dedicated to European politics.
In a way, the Trump obsession is also destroying Europe.
Here's a list of things that Europe needs to address urgently and that the European press doesn't discuss because it's either too ignorant or too "politically correct".
- Intra-eurozone balance of payments
- Bank leverage and household debt in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Netherlands
- Debt mutualization, also known as "Eurobond"
- Uncoordinated fiscal policy that makes Luxembourg and Ireland suck up all the capital
- Runaway government deficits in the south
- Dollar-denominated debt and shortage of dollar liquidity
- Border security of the outer borders of Schengen (Frontex)
- Energy dependency, especially from Russia
- Chinese corporate takeovers
- Need to get real about defense spending, NATO won't babysit Europe forever (unless you PAY)
- Corruption in Eastern Europe, especially Ukraine
>> The job of the political opposition is to oppose.
If that were the case than there’s no point in having a political system, is there?
Regardless, we’re back in the false equivalences territory. The GOP doesn’t have any policies. It’s a block of resentment that’s not even trying anymore to pretend.
The democrats have policies and as you say, they do their job and oppose (based on their policies). They don’t oppose for the sake of opposition like you’re suggesting. They have policies they seem to be able to articulate and stand behind.
Republicans don’t. Not any more at least not since they’ve lost two election cycles to Obama.
Your problems and complaints about the EU are not relevant to the discussion. Opposition to trump is based on his action, or inaction mostly and deliberate policies written by lobbyists and white supremacists. I’d say that’s a reason to be busy opposing him.
Ps you’re. Unless your talking genetics, how does this qualify you as a “European”?
>> If that were the case than there’s no point in having a political system, is there?
Yes there is. It’s like court, you have prosecution and defense.
>> They don’t oppose for the sake of opposition like you’re suggesting.
I didn’t suggest that they “oppose for the sake of opposition”. I said they oppose because that’s their job, to keep the current government “in check”.
>> Your problems and complaints about the EU are not relevant to the discussion.
They’re not complaints, they’re observations. Some of the items, not all, like defense and dollar liquidity are very relevant because of the geopolitical interplay.
>> Unless your talking genetics, how does this qualify you as a “European”?
I didn’t say I was European. I said I was a European citizen. You see, holding a European citizenship makes you a European citizen. I even voted in the last EU parliament elections.
I'm from an Italian-Spanish family from South America (grandparents emigrated to the New World during World War II), and I lived in Europe for 5 years (studying abroad).
When people think of currency, they tend to focus on the supply side (monetary policy) and forget to look at the demand side (necessary liquidity).
There is as much dollar-denominated debt outside the US as there is within. As counter-intuitive as it sounds, the crisis is creating more demand for US dollars, not less. This is why the Fed expanded the "dollar swap line" program. The "eurodollar" system is often overlooked, yet one of the most important drivers of the global economy.
Compare the policy of the Federal Reserve with the ECB (Eurozone) and the PBOC (China). And you will see why not only will the US dollar not collapse, in the coming years it may get so strong it could lead to a new Plaza Accord.
The Central Bank of Norway had to restart intervention in foreign exchange markets for the first time in decades. Norway, the #1 most developed nation in the world, experienced a dose of monetary reality on the 22nd of March (look up NOKUSD).
The so-called "rising power" of China is as marketable as it is absurd. Every other quarter there is a story of the PBOC injecting liquidity and lowering the capitalization requirement for banks. Needless to say, the Yuan still pegs to the US dollar for a reason.
Public opinion and mainstream media are divorced from financial reality, and we don't know if this is due to hysteria or sheer incompetence.
The surprise comes with the realization that the noisy political infighting of the American political class is orthogonal to almost everything.
The US may be a disaster, and simultaneously be the best in the world. Trump may be an idiot, and simultaneously be the smartest in DC.
Moral posturing isn't a substitute for good banking.
Amateur journalists use the term “EU” to refer to anything and everything related to Europe: the Commission, the Council, the Parliament, the National Governments, the ECB, etc. Sometimes even the continent of Europe is referred to as “the EU”.
I guess in this case EU would mean the EU Commission. But yeah it’s just a recommendation to the governments.
