4 ms·

I don't think I contradicted myself at all. I said mostly operating outside the ability of Americans to restrict (some aspects do, some aspects don't). And I s

I don't think I contradicted myself at all. I said mostly operating outside the ability of Americans to restrict (some aspects do, some aspects don't). And I said I think it will help, if the globe pitched in to restrict the US Federal Govt. There's no contradiction there at all. The push-back by international powers would accomplish international restriction of the Feds that US citizens cannot short term (US citizens mostly have no influence over New Zealand justice, nor trade relations with Singapore, nor military relations with Japan, and so on and so forth). It would take a very large cultural shift to get the US military out of Japan from our side (it would take more than just a new President). Japan, however, can and should kick the US military out tomorrow morning. Ditto Germany. It's better if you stop thinking of America as a 'normal' nation, and start thinking of it as an international superpower that has 180 military bases around the globe, with its fingers in every pie. Americans for example have zero influence or control over the Federal Reserve. You'd have to turn congress inside out to then get laws passed that reach to the Fed. Other nations can however change their relationship with the Fed and its banking arms. American voters would have to reform the entire government top to bottom before they got to restricting CIA activities in Italy (for example). Italy however, can get started on that tomorrow morning. The US Government is extremely large and powerful, and it has a superpower's reach globally. It makes perfect sense that it would help if the rest of the world pushed back against its international abuses. Let me provide you an example: I can vote for a congressman, that single congressman cannot realistically stop the NSA at this point, the NSA has a budget equal to the budget of Greece. It would take a complete government overhaul to restructure the NSA, and that will take a long time. Other countries however, at their choosing, can immediately alter what they allow departments like the CIA or NSA to do in their jurisdiction (and or at least make the effort to push back). The US Government is not one thing, it's a massive entity with many powerful heads that operate independent of each other.

mih 14y ago
> Japan, however, can and should kick the US military out tomorrow morning. Ditto Germany Citizens of other countries are similarly held hostage by their governments too (although some to a much lesser extent than the US). The US however has too much clout over other governments to allow what you state to happen.
- grecy 14y ago
  Wow, once again I see people comparing America to second and third world countries. Yes, people in those countries have it worse than people in America. People in first world countries are not "held hostage" by their governments. Why, why, why would you compare America to Second and Third world countries instead of looking to the top of first world countries and striving to be better?
  - jfoutz 14y ago
    Mostly because the US is very very diverse. If I move two counties over, my life expectancy goes up 5 years. It's probably fair to say 1% of the US is third world. At the very least, Alabama's immigrant ghettos are concretely third world. http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/456/reap-what-you-sow?act=1 http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/456/r...
    - grecy 14y ago
      That doesn't mean you should compare the country to second and third world countries when analyzing if something needs improvement or not That's like comparing America's murder rate to El Salvador and saying it's perfectly fine. Instead, it should be compared to first world countries, and it's soon very clear that it's not OK and is a serious problem for such a prosperous country.[1] This kind of comparison leads to apathy. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate#2010s http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentiona... (sort the list by "most recent", and have a look where the United States sits compared to the next first world country.
      - anamax 14y ago
        > That doesn't mean you should compare the country to second and third world countries when analyzing if something needs improvement or not He didn't say that the US didn't need improvement. The US' diversity means that the comparison is complicated. In fact, when you compare the US apples and oranges to apples and oranges in other countries, you find that the US is doing reasonably well. You're seeing consequences of the fact that the apple countries don't have oranges. We'd be happy to give some oranges to apple countries so they can show us how to do it correctly....
tzs 14y ago
> Japan, however, can and should kick the US military out tomorrow morning. Ditto Germany. Why would Germany do that? They want the US bases there. The people in the areas around the bases have good relations with the people stationed at the bases, and the bases bring in a lot of money to the local economy. In fact, Germany provides subsidies to the US for the bases, similar to the kind of subsidies states and countries give to businesses they want to attract or keep.
Porn_Monopolies 14y ago
//Italy however, can get started on that tomorrow morning// It can't, and it won't, for three obvious reasons: Large sections of the connected people in Italy are well aligned with CIA / US goals [you might want to know about Operatio Galdio]; and in a broader extension, Italy's power-elite are the same as the power-elite in Russia, the USA and everywhere else. Their economy is firmly under the wrack, and the IMF (and by extension, Wall st / the State Department) have very real hooks to prevent Italy 'devolving' towards anything but Disaster Capitalism. Power doesn't work like that. You can kick out the CIA, but policy & actual control isn't made by the CIA. The CIA is merely a tool used by the US government - and is probably doing exactly the same thing as the Italian police, which is targeting any counter-culture / anti-Capitalist elements in Italy at the moment. Ask your local Central American government about kicking out the CIA btw ~ these odd, right-wing, military driven coups tend to crop up.

mih 14y ago

> Japan, however, can and should kick the US military out tomorrow morning. Ditto Germany Citizens of other countries are similarly held hostage by their governments too (although some to a much lesser extent than the US). The US however has too much clout over other governments to allow what you state to happen.

grecy 14y ago
Wow, once again I see people comparing America to second and third world countries. Yes, people in those countries have it worse than people in America. People in first world countries are not "held hostage" by their governments. Why, why, why would you compare America to Second and Third world countries instead of looking to the top of first world countries and striving to be better?
- jfoutz 14y ago
  Mostly because the US is very very diverse. If I move two counties over, my life expectancy goes up 5 years. It's probably fair to say 1% of the US is third world. At the very least, Alabama's immigrant ghettos are concretely third world. http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/456/reap-what-you-sow?act=1 http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/456/r...
  - grecy 14y ago
    That doesn't mean you should compare the country to second and third world countries when analyzing if something needs improvement or not That's like comparing America's murder rate to El Salvador and saying it's perfectly fine. Instead, it should be compared to first world countries, and it's soon very clear that it's not OK and is a serious problem for such a prosperous country.[1] This kind of comparison leads to apathy. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate#2010s http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentiona... (sort the list by "most recent", and have a look where the United States sits compared to the next first world country.
    - anamax 14y ago
      > That doesn't mean you should compare the country to second and third world countries when analyzing if something needs improvement or not He didn't say that the US didn't need improvement. The US' diversity means that the comparison is complicated. In fact, when you compare the US apples and oranges to apples and oranges in other countries, you find that the US is doing reasonably well. You're seeing consequences of the fact that the apple countries don't have oranges. We'd be happy to give some oranges to apple countries so they can show us how to do it correctly....

tzs 14y ago

> Japan, however, can and should kick the US military out tomorrow morning. Ditto Germany. Why would Germany do that? They want the US bases there. The people in the areas around the bases have good relations with the people stationed at the bases, and the bases bring in a lot of money to the local economy. In fact, Germany provides subsidies to the US for the bases, similar to the kind of subsidies states and countries give to businesses they want to attract or keep.

Porn_Monopolies 14y ago

//Italy however, can get started on that tomorrow morning// It can't, and it won't, for three obvious reasons: Large sections of the connected people in Italy are well aligned with CIA / US goals [you might want to know about Operatio Galdio]; and in a broader extension, Italy's power-elite are the same as the power-elite in Russia, the USA and everywhere else. Their economy is firmly under the wrack, and the IMF (and by extension, Wall st / the State Department) have very real hooks to prevent Italy 'devolving' towards anything but Disaster Capitalism. Power doesn't work like that. You can kick out the CIA, but policy & actual control isn't made by the CIA. The CIA is merely a tool used by the US government - and is probably doing exactly the same thing as the Italian police, which is targeting any counter-culture / anti-Capitalist elements in Italy at the moment. Ask your local Central American government about kicking out the CIA btw ~ these odd, right-wing, military driven coups tend to crop up.