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EPA says it will eliminate its scientific research arm

(www.nytimes.com)
258 points anigbrowl | 5 comments | 18 Jul 25 23:00 UTC | HN request time: 0.487s | source
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jleyank ◴[19 Jul 25 00:00 UTC] No.44611189[source]▶
It's really depressing how the US system seems to have existed "on belief". Once somebody set out to damage or destroy it, away it went. Pretty much without a whimper.

As I recall, the system was set up with 3 branches of government in tension. Obviously, that was naive.

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asperous ◴[19 Jul 25 06:21 UTC] No.44613048[source]▶
The framers noted that the system was vulnerable to a single "faction" [1]. The solution was to have many competing factions. I think first-past-the-post, corporate election influence, and mass media consolidated power into a single faction that ended up causing the system to break down (in that the branches don't seem to be checking each other's power right now).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalist_No._10

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1. insane_dreamer ◴[19 Jul 25 07:27 UTC] No.44613331[source]▶
The Founders would never have approved of Citizens United.
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2. rtpg ◴[19 Jul 25 07:31 UTC] No.44613353[source]▶
Sure they would have! The elite of the United States that lead the revolution were all extremely mercantile and many were coming to the colonies to run their own little fiefdoms away from the crown.

One should acknowledge how many of the freedoms locked into the founding ideology of the US is pretty close to what libertarians reach out for. I don't know many libertarians arguing against Citizens United.

That isn't to say that the US can't aim for something different, and that the core of the nation today likely believes many different things.

We can choose our own destiny without trying to ascribe every good idea to what a group of people thought at the founding of the country.

3. ◴[19 Jul 25 07:58 UTC] No.44613485[source]▶
4. tzs ◴[19 Jul 25 13:44 UTC] No.44615424[source]▶
Yes they would have, for many of the same reasons the ACLU did [1].

[1] https://www.aclu.org/documents/aclu-and-citizens-united

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5. techjamie ◴[19 Jul 25 15:18 UTC] No.44616227[source]▶
I'm probably being cynical, but I take their reasoning for opposition with a grain of salt when they themselves partake in lobbying. Removing it would hurt them, too.

https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/american-civil-liberties-un...