Shocking degree of fence-sitting from the government representative (missed his name) on BBC News this morning.
Is this what it means to have “checks & balances” - that they don’t fall off the fence?
I think we’re seeing the reality that we don’t have democracy, we don’t have rule of law.
We simply have interests. And when I say “we”, I mean those of significant wealth and therefore power.
Realpolitik, I’m sure they can condemn it but are people prepared for the consequences such a course would entail?
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This is the problem, and it’s why Kier is screwed either way here. There is no right option.
Condemning the US and going against them will spiral very quickly. This needs to be played out by diplomats behind closed doors, at least for now. Not be played out on high pressure interview across social media and the news.
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But this is why values are important.
We need to be predictable. International laws are law regardless of who breaks them. Otherwise we become bad faith actors who do what is convenient and our words mean nothing.
This happened to political discourse, with people bending everything to suit the moment and now we’re at each others’ throats all the time. If we do that globally, it’s going to be tribal warfare and might is right.
And whenever the easy road is taken for short term comfort, we always end up worse off - we just miss the opportunity to take a stand before wrongs are normalised.
If we’re worried about bullying, show me a bully who ever responded well to weakness.
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Unfortunately international law isn’t really law & more just agreements as there is no meaningful sovereign body that can enforce them.
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Correct, but if we don’t play by the rules, then it does collapse.
If we don’t call it out, we condone and facilitate the breakdown of the very norms that protect us.
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America has never really played by the rules, though, this is just an extension of that.
They’re not a signatory of the Rome Statute that established the ICC. They also have the literal Hauge Invasion Act (Or whatever it’s formally called).
The US does not care for international law.
It’s not quite directly the relevant quote, but still stands for this scenario:
”Democracy dies when good people stay silent”
And boy, the silence is deafening right now.
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Chinas raging about it this morning
Of course they are, if this was a President other than Trump who we all assume is only acting in his self interest the narrative would be “The US has just taken control of Chinas No1 source of oil”.
Which is what people are forgetting, this action gives the US a real Strategic weapon against China. China attacks Taiwan? The US turns off their oil.
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This just isn’t true though. Venezuela has the most oil, but currently is very bad at outputting it.
That was 2024. But I’m pretty sure Russia and the middle east supply China with the vast majority of their oil.
Happy to be corrected on that though.
Venezuela has a lot of oil (the world’s largest untapped amount, IIRC) but it’s a type of oil that’s difficult to extract and is therefore less profitable for the producer and more expensive for the consumer than other sources.
I offer my own Insta link
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DTEJlg0kgFV[instagram.com]
Can anyone remind me how that is working out for Harry Dunn?
Harry Dunn: Justice for family three years after crash death - BBC News -
and this just for the lolz
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Wasn’t this always so? We backed Taiwan before it was a democracy, and many others, because they weren’t communist, we backed Pinochet because he was against the Argentine Junta, I’m pretty sure Greece and Spain were both NATO members before they were democracies, we have many allies in the Middle East, but only one of them is a democracy, etc. We even sided with Stalin to beat Hitler.
FYI your Instagram link still includes your details. Remove everything from the /?igsh= bit to keep it anon. Unless it’s not your link, of course.
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Thanks - just had to do that to mine too! doh!
As we’re offering Instagram links:
As a note, this may be the one you shared but apparently that link is blocked by my company policies… despite me not being a part of any company nor connected to any company’s wifi…
I don’t follow? That crime took place in England?
yes it did - sorry
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