European News 🇪🇺Feb 7

The Epstein scandal is taking down Europe’s political class. In the US, they’re getting a pass.

As Europe moves to address its shame, it’s highlighting the comparative lack of accountability in the U.S.

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/06/epstein-europe-america-fallout-00769506

The Epstein scandal is taking down Europe’s political class. In the US, they’re getting a pass.

As Europe moves to address its shame, it’s highlighting the comparative lack of accountability in the U.S.

Politico
Show threadGerbrand van DieyenFeb 7
@eunews final sums it up well: “We as Americans need to be looking at ourselves in the mirror. Why are we not having that same reaction [as Europe]?” said Rufus Gifford, a former Obama-appointed ambassador to Denmark. “Without a doubt how Trump has acted has filtered down to broader society. But I think the question that we have to ask is whether or not this existed before Trump, and Trump is just a symptom of that larger problem.”
Show threadTzimisce FleshFeb 7
@gerbrand @eunews I mean, the guy before him did get away with murder and torture, so it's probably a tad older than Trump.
Show threadKid ManiaFeb 7

@flesh @gerbrand @eunews
They've (American Presidents of BOTH stripes) have been getting away with murder and torture since their inception. I would challenge anyone to come up with an administration that didn't do murder and torture. Count em on one hand right?

And since 9-11 there has not been a single one. ☠️ 🇺🇸 ☠️

Show threadGerbrand van DieyenFeb 7
@clintruin @flesh @eunews no and no president did anything to abolish institutes of oppression there predecessor had set up. Biden could have abolished ICE but chose not to. Not to mention Obama.
Show threadobscurestarFeb 7
@gerbrand @clintruin @flesh @eunews I love how in your head presidents exist in a vacuum with no outside influences. Grow up. Look at how many lies the right has been able to fuel out of the BLM protests and immigration has long been their boogeyman man. Had Obama done as you say we'd STILL be stuck in a right wing fascist totalitarian regime because they could have whipped up 3x the fear. Citizens United made sure of that. But keep screaming 'both sides'. It's what the right wants.
Show threadTzimisce FleshFeb 7
@obscurestar @gerbrand @clintruin @eunews "We were just following orders" aah argument.
Show threadobscurestarFeb 8
@flesh @clintruin @gerbrand @eunews Nothing like that. It's the 'No True Scotsman' thing I have issue with. No one is flawless. Trying to go 'both sides' and assert Obama is just as bad as Trump is approaching racism. Tacitly saying that no person of color could be better than a narcissistic racist pedophile. It's profoundly dishonest. Presidents don't have unlimited power. If they did, Trump would have us all in shallow graves by now.
Show threadTzimisce Flesh
@obscurestar @clintruin @gerbrand I'm not perfect, I can be snappy with people sometimes.
I did not, however, issue kill orders on foreign civilians. Nor did I oversee a torture facility.
These are not things one should be expected to forgive.
"No true Scotsman" doesn't apply when the person in question is provably a monster.
Obama isn't Scottish, we know that for a fact. It's not a fallacy to acknowledge that. He is also, as demonstrated by his actions in office, not a good person, nor anywhere close to leftist. Because these words have meanings and he provably doesn't fit.
And no, it's not racist that the one black guy the party allowed to be the Head War Criminal is a bad person. All the white people before him and after him were shit, too. His race is hardly relevant in the conversation. Other than it'll be inevitably used as a shield from criticism of his actions.
The American State is rotten, has been since the beginning, and any Head of State is rotten by extension.
You seem to cling to the belief that the Democratic Party is a meaningful opposition and antithesis to Republican behaviour and ideology. And they really aren't. They still represent the same corporate and nationalist interests, just with a half-heartedly progressive spin. They're not "both sides", because it's not just a 1v1, as much as both parties want you to believe. Politics exists outside of the two party system and virtually any voice of principled opposition has been pushed out of electoral politics at this point. The framing of there being two sides gives Democrats an excuse to be somewhat less hordible and present it as virtue. And it gives the Republicans further ability to misrepresent any opposition or alternatives.
If you cannot see that the Democrats are complacent at best and enthusiastically supportive at worst in most the abuses the State commits on its citizens and foreigners alike, then you really don't see the actual issue.
Feb 8 at 1:11amWeb
Show threadobscurestarFeb 8

@flesh @clintruin @gerbrand
OR, Here' a grounded narrative: The dems looked at the number of evil fucking Karens who'll turn on gay, trans, and PoC in a heartbeat and said, 'There are too many of these vacant effs, they'll elect some populist fascist idiot like Trump if we're not careful and all those people will lose everything. We best aim for harm reduction until we can guide them to seeing that these guardrails benefit them as well.

All or nothing is a stupid 2-party system game.

Show threadTzimisce FleshFeb 8
@obscurestar @clintruin @gerbrand And how does a secret torture prison help reduce harm exactly?
Show threadobscurestarFeb 8

@flesh @clintruin @gerbrand Are you talking about Bush's CIA black sites that Obama closed or when he mandated that the military adhere to the laws and not use the torture that Bush approved and Ron DeSantis was jerking off to?

EDIT: Guess I'll respond to your cowardly hit and run attacks by responding to myself now that you're gone:

Show threadobscurestarFeb 8

@flesh @clintruin @gerbrand

RESPONSE:

Yes, you're a purity troll. Why don't you spend half a second comparing the number of deaths you need to attribute to Obama VS the numbers done by Nixon, Reagan, Bush, Trump.
We'll be fair to your false scale appeal and even leave out any mass deaths caused by blocking information to diseases and focus just on their warmongering.

You know so much about Obama, you must have numbers for them too unless you're just a troll. Now share them with the class.

Show threadobscurestarFeb 8
@flesh @clintruin @gerbrand
Let's take one that purity trolls like to scream, "Clinton signed Don't Ask Don't Tell." .. He did, and to leave it there completely ignores that it was the height of the AIDs epidemic and the GOP had fear and ignorance on their side and were working on permanent eradication of LGBT rights. We were THANKFUL for DADT at the time. It was progress in that landscape. Yes, it was also garbage that hurt us but it was better than the alternatives.
Show threadTzimisce FleshFeb 8
@obscurestar @clintruin @gerbrand I don't think that justifies extrajudicial murders of foreign civilians, actually.