State of Permanent Fake Emergency | Hacker News Reader

State of Permanent Fake Emergency

theatlantic.com

75 pointsmdhb22 comments

Enacting emergency powers is a classic move for dictators.

To be honest, I am hoping that the federal nature of the US and State's Rights will be the what prevents this administration from fully achieving its goals.

What states rights, he’s invading cities in flagrant violation of laws and norms.

As I understand it, California has already managed to push back to some degree.

This has been a problem prior to this administration as well. Emergency declarations, mandates, bans, lockdowns, and really any other violation of individual rights are a problem in free societies because they can be abused and used in authoritarian ways.

For example COVID emergencies were kept in effect long after it was appropriate. As a recently example, an election observer from the GOP in Washington state was charged and later convicted of a felony for not wearing a mask when serving as an election observer in the 2024 election (https://nypost.com/2025/02/16/us-news/washington-election-ob...), long after the pandemic ended.

I also read that the same state’s legislators often mark their bills as an “emergency measure” because it prevents voter initiatives (which I guess are like propositions in California) from changing the law. This happens elsewhere too for other procedural reasons. Like governors or whoever declaring an emergency because it allows them to unlock funds and spend, or it allows them to take some action that is otherwise prevented by law.

But setting these types of situations aside, there has been casual overuse of the words “emergency” or “crisis” everywhere. Climate emergency. Housing emergency. Homeless crisis. Drug crisis. And so on. None of these fit the definition of an emergency unless you contort things.

> For example COVID emergencies were kept in effect long after it was appropriate.

COVID didn't get the memo.

  Both Hazelo and Abuhl, who were election observers, challenged a mask mandate in the ballot counting room imposed by Island County Auditor Sheilah Crider, a Republican. She imposed the rule after 10 people in the office became ill with COVID during the primary ballot recount in August, and she didn’t want to jeopardize the health of the team of elderly volunteers. 

  https://www.southwhidbeyrecord.com/news/jury-finds-former-head-of-island-county-republicans-guilty-in-elections-office-mask-mandate-case/

As someone who has been screaming this for decades, I'm very underwhelmed by this article.

It's not the villain. It's the system.

As long as this is about an individual abusing a system and not the system itself, we will never be able to stop this.

I want to believe that we can come together to rein in the federal executive. However, it seems to only ever be a problem when the other side does it.

I'm not sure how it can be fixed. Emergency relief can't wait for normal processes. I'm open to suggestions though.

It can be extremely temporary though. You can only do so much in 30 days, whereas some of these 'emergencies' are indefinite and can last years.

Thank you. I'm as upset by the things this administration has done as the next person, but attacking it does nothing without addressing the circumstances that led to this situation (we've been in a state of emergency for decades now, for the record). The problems with the U.S. government run deeper than what can be weaponized in a campaign slogan, tweet, or ragebait article.

Some context:

https://www.history.com/articles/national-state-of-emergency...

https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/98-505

That’s a great link. A more specific example I’ll name is the IEEPA (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Emergency_Econom...), which is a law for emergency economic powers that is being used (abused?) by the current administration to implement tariffs. Prior to this administration, the law had been invoked like 30 times. There are still emergencies declared under it that have been in effect, continuously, for more than 40 years!

Worth looking at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_emergencies_i... too.

While Biden had 9 emergency declarations, worth noting that every single one (one arguably) was targetted at very bad actors engaged in creating international strife & suffering. Ditto for Obama, +1 on bird flu.

https://statesofemergency.com/

https://archive.ph/2025.09.02-133729/https://www.theatlantic...

France has been in a state of "emergency" for about 10 years now with the Vigipirate program.

>Vigipirate

This one [0]? It seems a rather normal response to things like terrorist attacks, etc.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vigipirate#History_of_alert_le...

Just as enforcing governement ID verification online is effective to protect children or something

While valid, those complaints are trivial compared to what the current US administration is doing.

At it's core, it is a systems problem.

When emergency powers are granted to the same person that has the power to declare the emergency, those powers are effectively no longer restricted to emergencies.

The exception will eventually swallow the rule.

Freedom? Well, that's just some people talkin'.

               -Don Henley

According to the author: > “When we caused harm—Vietnam, Iraq—it was because of our overconfidence and naivete, not evil intentions.”

But taking over Washington DC police for a few weeks is evil.

I really hate these people

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