Don't blame me, I voted for the other guy. (Politics General)

@Commune  
That implies that only Autocratic regimes can do shit to other countries
 
Is it not democratic for Roman Emprerors to genocide tribes after a poll from the people voted for it?

@Broken Adam  

 
The problem with this statement is none of us voted for it. All of the time it was appointments made outside of the Democratic sphere or operations conducted away from the public eye. US operations in Latin America weren’t open and public affairs and only really came out as being US military and intelligence affairs after the fact or well into it. In these cases even the CIA or operating allies of the CIA has tried to kill or had killed journalists who were going to bring shit to light on what happened, such as Hugo Spadofora.
 
 
Iran-Contra and CIA ops to sell cocaine in the US to fund the Contras weren’t really anything anyone agreed to before hand. Neither we’re massacres of villagers in Quatemala.

@Violet Rose in The Rain
 
>”muh Russia!”
 
Obviously America would never ever do such a horrible thing!
 
Never
 

 
Ever
 

 
Not even once (rumoured)
 

 
It also puts the kibosh on the arguments about Picking fights with US allies. Remember that Trump already does stupid terrible things, and you don’t need to make shit up about him in order to justify opposing him.
 
The last two, Gough Whitlam (Australia; overthrown by the CIA due to Pine Gap) and Norman Kirk (New Zealand; rumoured to have been poisoned due to being a bit too left-leaning)

@Dustcan  

 
I think their real priority was packing the courts. See Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. The next president can always undo the tax cuts, but these court picks will have an impact for years or even decades, and they can impact more than just the tax issue down the line.

@AaronMk  

 
There was some knowledge about what the CIA did, it was just dismissed as conspiracy theories
 
Remember when Ron Paul mentioned the CIA’s involvement in Iran and was called a moron by the media until the CIA confirmed it?

@Ebalosus  
Hey, if it’s bad when we do it, it’s bad when Rusher does it. And if Rusher can do it to us, they can do it to anyone. Do you want Putin scrounging up the most brain-dead yokel in your country and making him Prime Minister?

@Broken Adam  

 
It was less the CIA confirmed anything and more Congressional investigated rumors and triggered the massive legal battle over Iran-Contra. John Kerry was looking into the rumored CIA activity in Honduras which would have blown open the cocaine case but for trounced by the CIA and the investigation ended until Gary Webb picked it up himself and released the then series of articles on the matter that makes up the book Dark Alliance.
 
But there was nothing Democratic about the arming and training of central American militaries to be more effective killers. Or how the CIA slipped bombs onto the airplanes of South American elected leaders who were slightly too left wing for them. Or how they armed Pinochet to overthrow the democratically elected socialist Allende because Allende was threatening to nationalize the copper industry what was almost entirely run by America; and after the Pinochet overthrow became entirely American.
 
There wasn’t anything Democratic when Kissinger had organized the Laotian Secret War against the Laotian Communist Party which had more bombs dropped over the country than the cumalitive total of all other bombs dropped in war until then. Or even the expansion bombing into Cambodia. They may have openly bragged about arming the Taliban, but no one voted for it.
 
Likewise no one approved of or was knowledgeable of the time the CIA and MI6 overthrew Mossadegh and replaced him by the authortarian Fazlollah Zahedi because Mossadegh wanted to take over BP’s oil assets in Iran for use by Iran for Iranian development and not BP for BP profit.
 
As well, it recently came out by a former RF pilot that the British we’re responsible for shooting down the airplane transporting the UN Commissioner General Dag Hammarskjöld on his way to help oversee a cease fire in the war, because what the west wants more out of the Congo is cheap computer metals.
 
And no one ever does anything about it and when anyone does the justice is light or non-existent. Oliver North has never been punished and went on to run a defense company with the rest of his COA buddies and to be a Fox News correspondent. Elliot Abrams too is still alive and free, despite helping to orchestrate and cover up the genocide of Mayans during the Gatemalan Civil War and other violent affairs in Latin America despite having the job description of a human rights promoter for the US Government.
 
Their bringing Killer Elliot back to help with Venezuela.
 
If comparisons to the Roman Empire is to be carried out, the CIA is like the Praetorian Guard. They answer to no one or very few people and are beyond reasonable justice.

@Background Human  
How likely is war with Russia?

@Background Pony #88F0  
About as likely as Half Life 3

@neutralgrey  
Though they seem very intimidating

@The Smiling Pony  
The word socialism has been thrown around so much I’m not even sure what it means anymore

@neutralgrey  
Maybe the real socialism was the friends we made along the way.

@neutralgrey  
Historically, among socialists, it has meant worker ownership and administration of workplaces, services, and production however how this administration is to be done and how worker ownership is to be done has been a major point of contention within the socialist left, so socialism doesn’t have any clearer definition of that among the general socialist left.
 
–Except among Marxists; Marxists have two definitions of socialism so far that I can tell: 1. a mode of production and distribution characterized by social ownership of the means of production and a planned economy, and 2. the first phase of communism. I use the first definition.
 
–And then you have the liberal definition of socialism which is basically any state ownership of services or industry. Basically anything left of Hitler.

@MxQuinn  
So a general surface level description is workers own the means of production

@neutralgrey  
Worker ownership and administration of production and services, yes. Workplace democracy.

@Ebalosus  
“u menchin russur that means i win”

Will Russia invade the rest of Ukraine ?

I hope the bill in Washington passes to end the “personal and philosophical” objections for vaccines.
 
Let’s nip this in the bud before we bring polio back.

@Zincy  
Same.

@Zincy  
or just send all anti-vaxxers to some deserted island in the middle of the ocean.

Only one acceptable exception to mandatory vaccinations: immunocompromised children.

@Angrybrony  
Lets not do that. They’ll be able to survive for generations that way