politics
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
view the rest of the comments
A good list of CIA fuckers, but it also gives the CIA too much credit in a few places.
Again, the CIA wishes they were even half as competent as you think they are. They're a bunch of chuckle fucks who think they're puppet masters.
Sure, they can topple a government if they throw a shitload of resources into it, but they can't get their picked side to win. Not unless the picked side was already in control, like what happened in Congo.
But let's take a closer look at each;
Iran. The context of before the coup is important here. The US, UK, and Soviets had invaded Iran as part of WW2. The British then held the countries oil reserves and ruthlessly exploited them. This led to the election of a reformer named Mohammad Mosaddegh. He nationalized the Iranian oil fields, which led to an embargo.
The first CIA plan to get rid of Mosaddegh was to support about 18 legislators in their elections. Mosaddegh suspended that election. Which was not a popular move. The second plan was to pay a bunch of criminal leaders to protest and riot, but there were already protests and riots due to the embargo and suspended elections.
The British were actually the ones who first approached the military, but the Shah refused to cooperate until Mosaddegh dissolved parliament and declared himself the complete ruler.
Even then, the first coup attempt failed. The failure was to the extent that the US government was actually considering switching support to Mosaddegh because he was anti-Russia.
But the general picked for the coup attempt was never captured and continued to run around gathering support until he could try again. Mosaddegh made a bunch of mistakes, and the CIA was actually pulling out of the country when the second coup attempt was made, and like most coups, the second attempt succeeded.
And that's just Iran, Multiple outside governments working against a guy who was only really popular among his own ethnicity, and the coup failed the first time.
Guatemala; the CIA role was cut back massively because a CIA agent wanted someone to sign off on the illegal weapons being shipped into the country. The three dictatorships surrounding Guatemala were still on for the invasion, and the military officer who eventually seized power was good to go from the beginning, because he was part of another, earlier attempted coup.
Honestly, reading up on all of these coups shows how many times the CIA fucked up completely, and still bungled their way into a semi-successful coup. A good 2/3 of the time, the new government was not friendly with the CIA at all. You'd think, if they were all powerful masterminds, they'd have a better track record.
But no, all they do is get people killed. They're good at that. Often not the people they wanted to kill, but they take credit anyway, because they like to pretend that they're competent.
One might almost think that the CIA should be abolished 🤔
I'm all for the intel gathering side of it. But the active side? No, fuck that shit.
And if we have to lose the intel gathering side to get rid of the dumbasses who think they're James Bond? Then oh well. The intel gathering hasn't had the best track record either.
Cool, let’s get rid of the FBI and the NSA too. And also the Pentagon.
The FBI actually has a role they fulfil. They do it badly, and need massive reforms, but they do have a role. I'd even expand their domestic terror investigations. And re-open their office on right-wing domestic terror that was closed in 2009.
The NSA should be the "keep other countries from spying on us" agency. They've instead decided that the best defense is an all encompassing offense. They need a reset.
And the pentagon is the headquarters of the military. A sadly needed thing, especially with China and Russia being all imperialist these days. The only thing either country fears is an all out war with the US. Mostly because it would mean the end of most life on earth. (Some of the Southern Hemisphere would be virtually untouched, so it's not all life)
That doesn't mean I want any of it in Trump's hands again, but those three organizations do have roles that they should be fulfilling.
Are they also going to put themselves in prison?