US Politics Mega-thread - Page 1776

On March 28 2015 07:03 Introvert wrote:
Page 1776

On March 28 2015 06:31 Simberto wrote:
The better plan is probably "Don't topple governments from the outside, even if they are really really shitty. Whatever you try to impose on the country is going to end up worse than what they had before. Especially don't do any of that in the middle east."

On March 28 2015 07:18 oneofthem wrote:

disagree. intervention can be effective but it's fact dependent on the situation. can be a long process as well and change of plans may throw everything into disarray. generally it's still good to have stable, functioning states rather than totalitarian traps that only build up pent up frustration and leave behind ungovernable territory when they fall.

The White House is due to issue an ambitious plan to slow the growing and deadly problem of antibiotic resistance over the next five years – one that requires massive investments and policy changes from a broad array of US government health agencies, according to a copy of the report reviewed by Reuters.

The 60-page report is the first-ever to tackle antibiotic resistance so broadly. It was compiled by a government task force led by the administration’s top officials for health, agriculture and defense.

Administration officials were not immediately available to comment.

Doctors and health experts have warned for decades that rising rates of resistant bacteria are leading to tens of thousands of deaths, threatening to nullify modern medical advancements.

The goals include drastically reducing the rates of the most deadly “superbug” infections within five years, investing in new diagnostic tools and antibiotic drugs, improving antibiotic use, surveillance and prescribing practices in livestock and hospitals, and increasing international collaboration through foreign ministries of health and the World Health Organization.

A broad-based approach is necessary, experts said, because overuse of antibiotics from hospitals to US farms has created a problem that has quickly grown out of control. In January, the Obama administration proposed doubling the government’s investment in antibiotic resistance to $1.2bn.

On March 28 2015 07:23 Millitron wrote:

The problem with intervention is when the intervening country has a totally different culture than the target country. US intervention in Nazi Germany went quite well. Germany was a western country, had enlightenment ideals, and was generally not that different than the US.

Iraq had no history of democracy, no enlightenment history, and the borders were drawn arbitrarily, forcing groups who have hated each other for ~1000 years to try to coexist. There was no way a western nation was ever going to do anything but make things worse.

On March 28 2015 08:46 dAPhREAk wrote:

it also worked pretty well in Japan so I don't really buy into your simplistic argument.

On March 28 2015 09:01 Millitron wrote:

Japan had westernized heavily by WW2. They didn't have samurai anymore. Many were Christian. Many of the wealthy, and the government officials had studied in western nations. They were also culturally homogeneous. You didn't have arbitrary borders forcing factions that have hated each other basically since the dawn of time to live together.

On March 28 2015 09:17 dAPhREAk wrote:

are you honestly arguing that WW2 Japan was culturally similar to the West?

Two Texas men could receive life in prison for pot brownies

Two men arrested near Amarillo could receive life in prison after a sheriff’s deputy found pot brownies inside their vehicle.

Eli Manna, 30, and Andrew George, 27, were charged with possession of a controlled substance penalty group 2 over 400 grams, a first-degree felony in Texas that carries up to a life sentence.

The substances were found after a Potter County deputy stopped Manna’s vehicle for a traffic violation at 12:20 p.m. on March 17 on Interstate 40 near mile marker 55, police said. Manna and George have since bonded out of jail.

There was also less than an ounce of marijuana inside the vehicle, the police department said on Monday.


Texas law allows police to count the weight of all ingredients used in the production of foods with THC, the psychoactive substance in marijuana, as the total amount of controlled substance, which was the focus of a similar case near Austin last year that drew national headlines and backlash.

On March 28 2015 06:43 dAPhREAk wrote:
the problem with the "dont topple governments from the outside" is when you have the governments committing genocide. rwanda and cambodia come to mind.

On March 28 2015 09:25 GreenHorizons wrote:


How is this still a thing...?

On March 28 2015 09:30 Chewbacca. wrote:
That law is incredibly stupid and so are the two people. Also, charges were dropped.

On March 28 2015 09:01 Millitron wrote:

Japan had westernized heavily by WW2. They didn't have samurai anymore. Many were Christian. Many of the wealthy, and the government officials had studied in western nations. They were also culturally homogeneous. You didn't have arbitrary borders forcing factions that have hated each other basically since the dawn of time to live together.

On March 28 2015 09:50 Acrofales wrote:

Ah yeah. The good old days when USA swooped in and deposed Pol Pot, and stopped Hutus and Tutsis from killing each other. Or wait, none of that happened. Nor did Saddam get deposed when he was actually committing genocide. Nobody gives a shit about genocide unless it is geopolitically convenient to do so.

On March 28 2015 09:50 Acrofales wrote:

Ah yeah. The good old days when USA swooped in and deposed Pol Pot, and stopped Hutus and Tutsis from killing each other. Or wait, none of that happened. Nor did Saddam get deposed when he was actually committing genocide. Nobody gives a shit about genocide unless it is geopolitically convenient to do so.