I hope you’re right, but my cynicism in electoral politics has only gotten worse these past five years.
Was it just Manchin who was the hold out, or were there others?
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No idea.
I know the new admin has a lot on their plate, but they really need to deliver on these checks and soon.
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The US is ■■■■■■.
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I’m reminded of a sticker I saw on a Melbourne train years ago, where someone altered a “Fare Evasion Is Stealing” sign with the word “Privatisation” taped on top of the first two words.
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Yes but you know government involvement in things like electricity markets/pricing is god-dang communism.
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And here I was mistakenly assuming the the temperature in Texas was a balmy 28c all year round?
At the bottom of that link is a story about the deportation of a now 95 year old former low ranking Nazi concentration camp guard back to Germany. The bloke has been in the US for +70 years and I take it, been a decent hard working contributor to society. Is it right to keep going after these people literally decades after the events or should there be a limit to how long they’re pursued?
Some evils should not have a statute of limitations on them.
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On the situation in Texas, it will be interesting if anyone severely hurt/killed can successfully sue the power companies and they commercial board that regulates. The Federal government wrote a report into the previous freeze (about 10 years ago) and they didn’t act on it; surely that is gross, if not criminal, negligence?
“But aside from that, Mrs Lincoln, how was the play?”
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There should be no time limits for crimes against humanity.
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The Cruz Cancun trip is the gift that just keeps giving…
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But we don’t pursue the minions of the Serbian regime that went ape on its neighbours during the 90’s. S Milosovic and other high ranking officials but the foot soldiers who guarded the unfortunate Albanians, no. The perpetrators of the Rwandan atrocities have also been allowed to move on. We don’t seem to want to go after low level Japanese military personnel either. This fellow wasn’t Goebbels, he was just out of his teenage years and was a seemingly good citizen for 70+ years. Why are former Nazis treated differently?
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I agree with you about infantry.
I’m not so sure I agree about concentration camp guards, although I see we’re you’re coming from.
Simplistically, two wrongs don’t make a right. Society should track these people down as well.
I suspect the difference is you have nazi hunters who have made finding these people their live’s work. Simon Weisenthal etc. While other genocides don’t have such a group of people.
I’d equate low level foot soldiers as wehrmacht not nazis.
There is legislation in the US in relation to nazi sponsored assistance. He might meet this threshold as an SS soldier.
As to the other examples, willing participants to crimes against humanity should also face justice.
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I don’t think anyone would have an issue anyone who was involved in the balkan or Rwandan atrocities being dealt with. The major difference is that there aren’t organised groups doing so, not that people believe they should be given a free pass.
And no, we don’t generally go after low level Japanese or German infantry. Because usually, they didn’t do anything wrong. Being a guard is usually something very different, my memory is that those were not general troops but members of special troops. They also were witness to significant crimes against humanity, and not infrequently participated.
The comparison would be, I’d have no problem with China, Philippines or South Korea asking for the deportation of someone involved in running the Comfort Women scheme. No matter how lowly their role in that organisation was.
That all said, reading a bit more it seems the Germans have dropped the case due to lack of evidence, so the US action does seem bizarre.
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Per the Guardian report the German case was started and closed AFTER the deportation was proposed?
So what was the trigger?
I have a vague recollection (and this could be wrong, I’m too tired to google it right now) that the US basically has a zero-tolerance policy for concentration camp personnel. Especially if the guy got in to the USA in the first place by lying on his immigration forms - I’m sure that someone of his age group from Germany would have been quizzed about their wartime activities, and ‘were you ever a concentration camp guard’ would have been on the list of questions.
Once he got to Germany, the actual charges would depend on finding witnesses and evidence to prove specific counts of individual crimes he committed. I don’t believe that ‘being a concentration camp guard’ is criminal there, the courts are required to convict based on actual individual acts they committed while there. The burden of proof his high, and much much higher this long afterwards.
But the burden of proof for US Immigration is much lower (assuming he didn’t get citizenship at some point). Worked in a concentration camp? Lied about it to immigration? Fk off and never, I mean NEVER come back.
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