I will never understand fashion. Why does a store need ten new collections per year?

the only reason they need them is cause people are buying them. the supply side is never an issue…

I played Deus Ex and the FEMA camps are now ICE camps.

Empires do not fall with dignity or grace I suppose.

The ACLU released a report on these camps in August of 2024 called "Resistance, Retaliation, Repression: Two Years in California Immigration Detention".

Here's some of the issues it highlighted:

- forced labor in order to afford to eat. The $1/day "Voluntary Work Program" is the only way you're gonna get enough food to live. And if you refuse to work or try to protest, ICE doesn't have to give an excuse to send you into solitary confinement. CoreCivic sells this labor to companies

- extensive use of solitary confinement often for "minor disciplinary infractions or as a form of retaliation for participating in hunger strikes or for submitting complaints"

- dozens of documented deaths from forced labor and medical neglect

No doubt these issues have only gotten worse since the publication of this report.

https://www.aclunorcal.org/publications/resistance-retaliati...

Wait until you find out judges are appointed by the president...

It is actually amazing America managed to function as well as it has been to be honest.

The president only nominates them. The Senate confirms. Until the obama administration, judges required a supermajority of the senate to confirm, but a gop minority were filibustering all his nominees. So he asked the senate to remove the filibuster for judges. It was really the only use of the filibuster that made sense. Most democracies have independent commissions. Perhaps they all do now...

Yes. It's incredible that:

1. The loopholes were not exploited sooner.

2. No one cares about patching them, not before real-world identification, and not even after identification. They only keep increasing.

The only saving grace has been the two term limit of the President.

In a two party system, no one wants to get rid of the loopholes. Those currently in power don't think their opponents will have the opportunity to use it, and those not in power want to use it later when they finally get to be in power.

Check out the two parties wanting the Line Item Veto thinking only their side would be able to use it yet horrified to see the other side use it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line-item_veto_in_the_United_S...

Practically drugs comes into the US via containers and packages. And since the government has never even come close to shutting that operation down why screw around with drones?

In my own country the border guard is part of the military- its a special form of military police. They also protect embassies for some reason.

Trust me the US does not have a patent on bureaucracy... Over the centuries things just develop. One can only assume it made sense once.

The Netherlands did not even blink when unknown actors (read Russians) were flying drones around the country but balloons is too much.

My own country was perfectly fine sacrificing a region for monetary gain. In fact most countries have nationalized their oil and gas fields.

Except for the global south. That's how you get couped by the US (see Brazil 1964, Bolivia 1971, Iran 1953, Syria 1949, Iraq 1963, Indonesia 1965, Venezuela 2002, etc)

woops, this was meant to be a reply to forgetfreeman's comment

I remember with COVID a lot of sailors got stuck and nobody felt responsibility to do anything for them.

Sounds like pretty standard intelligence gathering that every police force in the world does.

Exactly it is not science but purely cosmetic. Which for some reason makes HN mad but guess what people choose cars based on how they look and how they are marketed! There has never been a rational man. Spock is not real.