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Eva Seifert's avatar

Lovely sentiment. Now tell Hamas, Putin, and all the other dictators. And yes, I know that even the US has been complicit in violence. That's what organizations like the UN, NATO and others exist - to try to stop wars or at least contain them.

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Oldandintheway's avatar

The UN was a great idea, but had no real enforcement mechanism. It stopped nations like Russia from going to war -- until they wanted to go to war. Then, they were powerless.

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E2's avatar

The P5 in general, and their veto power in particular, seems destined to have crashed the effectiveness as a global peacekeeper, even if everything else worked.

On the other hand, outside conflict zones, the UN still coordinates and delivers an awful lot of humanitarian and development aid (46 and 29% of the budget, respectively).

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Oldandintheway's avatar

They are the organization that gets tasked with trying to clean up the mess created by the wars they can't stop.

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Eva Seifert's avatar

Lack of enforcement seems to be a problem in many areas - Supreme Court, Congress (thanks McConnell!), even in the Parties themselves.

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Oldandintheway's avatar

As I have said previously, the US courts are proving to be as effective at stopping corruption as the French Maginot Line was at stopping the Germans. Trump seems to be able to bully his way though every felony. Spending tens of millions of dollars on lawyers gives access to a completely different legal system. Any other person would have been in jail months ago. In some countries he would have been executed -- which is what he wants to do to all his critics if he gets reelected.

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Eva Seifert's avatar

Agree in part. Yeah, TFF*G should have been in jail, and Garland should have sicced Jack Smith on him a lot earlier. But TFF*G has been losing cases in court, including several appeals courts lately. Right now, I think the problem we face is that the courts are trying, as is the DOJ, but many areas of the country/society aren't. The GOP is all in on the whiner-in-chief, including those with some semblance of power, and the rabid voters among them are literally threatening people's lives and families. The few Rs with any balls really need to consolidate their money and strengths and actively, openly, oppose both the Party and Trump. Right now, they seem to be scattered voices fighting the tornado. They need to actually, actively consolidate and open their mouths loudly. Pick Cheney, Christie, Bloomberg, someone sane - which leaves out everyone in the current R "candidates".

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suzc's avatar

Mills of the gods grind slowly but they grind exceeding fine. Fingers crossed. I don't think its good lawyering but the apparent awe of the Office of the President no matter who holds it -- and the fear of the armed MAGA mob. But yes he should have been handcuffed Jan 7 and the courts should be pushing these cases through asap instead of deferring to his nonsense.

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