Please read this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benedict_Arnold
Care to make a point?
Pardon Snowden
151–160 of 814 posts
Re: Pardon Snowden
#152Snowden should be put on trial for committing treason. No matter how bad it is what he exposed. He broke the law[0]. What he exposed are policies of the United States by people put in power in a democracy and free country. If you don't want that shit happening in your country, let the people in power know. Go on the streets. Millions of poeple are not happy with what is going on, but literally nothing changed. Sadly,…
Kind of difficult to let your elected sycophants know you don't want it happening when nobody knows it's happening.
Re: Pardon Snowden
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
You know what? I don't think that's an unreasonable concern and it's exactly why this situation is so horrible. It's the return cold war communism paranoia. "Of course I'm allowed to do this, but will this get me on some watchlist?" I guess the ethical answer is that, the more people will sign this (think a million?), the less likely it is to be used as some kind of filter. Even though what's one million names in a d…
Precisely. And even as a non-U.S. national I worry if it would land me in trouble if I wanted simply to visit the U.S. on holiday again.
For me it's basically pushed the US far down the list of places to go for leisure. I see the risks as still being very small, but why take the risk when there are so many other great places to visit too?
US immigrations stands out for the least pleasant experiences I've had on entering a country, and that includes entering places like China, despite most of the time being perfectly fine (I used to fly in/out of SFO every 6-8 weeks for a period of about two years, so I got to compare them a lot).
For business, I will still go if necessary, but I'm finding that I'd take the same precautions for the US as I did for China: Make extra sure to have a full, recent backup, and move "everything" off my laptop onto online storage, just in case they decide to seize it.
Re: Pardon Snowden
#154The thing I hate about all petition sites is that they ask for my personal information for... what purpose exactly? They don't even seem to try to verify anything. They just look like scams to me, which is a shame because I really think they shouldn't be...
> The thing I hate about all petition sites is that they ask for my personal information
Yes, that's how any petition works. People really need to learn the basics of citizenship at school.
Re: Pardon Snowden
#155I believe when you wrote "socialist" you meant "authoritarianist"? Please don't mix-up those two concepts
In principle, yes you are right. However, there is only so much hedging and differentiation I can put into a post without turning it into an essay. What I wanted to say is "realsocialist" a la former Soviet Union or East Germany. I think part of the confusion is that I live in Germany, where socialist always means that kind of one-party authoritarian system. By this definition, e.g. Bernie Sanders would be a (left-wi…
> I live in Germany, where socialist always means that kind of one-party authoritarian system.
No, it doesn't. There are plenty of anti-authoritarian self-styled socialists in Germany.
Re: Pardon Snowden
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
You know what? I don't think that's an unreasonable concern and it's exactly why this situation is so horrible. It's the return cold war communism paranoia. "Of course I'm allowed to do this, but will this get me on some watchlist?" I guess the ethical answer is that, the more people will sign this (think a million?), the less likely it is to be used as some kind of filter. Even though what's one million names in a d…
You're allowed your quota of one medium-impact dissident action per week, just like everyone else. As it helps to keep up maintaining the illusion of democracy and free speech, you are actually doing your country a great service. If you start to do more, however... Consider yourself warned. ^^ In this case, I can reassure you though: Online petition clicktivism has been shown to be very ineffective, so it's only cons…
I'm the CTO of a startup that's trying to solve this very problem. Online activism isn't very effective, so our thesis is that small groups of determined people can affect change when they meet in person around specific issues and legislation. To facilitate this concept, we've built basically a mashup between Twitter, Meetup.com, and an API feed of legislation.
The goal is to find events going on in your area and you can join and be a part of the change. Sometimes just being able to find the events going on about certain topics is the hardest part.
We're launching on October 1st, so I'm hoping we can make a small, meaningful impact in fixing this.
Re: Pardon Snowden
#157Whether or not Snowden get's pardoned depends on one thing and one thing only: Whether Obama wants it as part of his legacy. Either way it's not going to happen till after the election and most likely not till the end of his term in January. I'd expect it to be more likely for him to be pardoned if Trump is elected as otherwise Clinton, by association, would be dogged with "granting quarter to an enemy of the state".
Of the 3 possibilities for granting pardon (Obama, Clinton and Trump), the only real chance for Snowden is Obama.
> Of the 3 possibilities for granting pardon (Obama, Clinton and Trump), the only real chance for Snowden is Obama.
Yep. I'd put it as zero with Clinton, non-zero but statistically insignificant with Trump, and 25% with Obama.
Re: Pardon Snowden
#158I say pardon him at this point, you'd be better off having him in America than somewhere in Russia being forced to leak further info for continued asylum
Snowden hasn't leaked anything since 2013. This is kind of a trifling point but it's one that the US government has intentionally misconstrued in the past. Snowden handed off his documents to journalists in HK and hasn't released anything personally. He doesn't have the capacity to release new material because he doesn't possess any of it anymore.
Re: Pardon Snowden
#159Why isn't this on top of some subreddit as well?
Re: Pardon Snowden
#160can he do that? pardon someone that hasn't been apprehended nor trialed yet?
Clinton pardoned Marc Rich [0] who was, at the time of the pardon, a fugitive in Switzerland.