Also repeal the "PATRIOT" Act while you're thinking about doing the right thing...
Trump says he is considering pardon for Edward Snowden
251–260 of 404 posts
Re: Trump says he is considering pardon for Edward Snowden
#252Earlier quoted context omitted.
they've intentionally selected the word due to it's negative context. The usage of "leaker" allows them to play to the 'orange man bad' narrative, which they value more than getting Snowden pardoned.
Are there any measurable metrics by which he is doing a good job?
Here's a few:
Criminal Justice Reform https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Step_Act
Opportunity Zones https://opportunityzones.hud.gov/
Can buy foreign pharmaceuticals https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2019/12/18/trump-admin...
Re: Trump says he is considering pardon for Edward Snowden
#253Earlier quoted context omitted.
Clearly Snowden has been useful to them, at least from a propaganda angle, and perhaps intelligence-wise as well. By now they've extracted all the value they were ever going to extract from him, and he may just be a cost center to them now, but you're absolutely right that if they wanted to be rid of him, it'd be trivial to do it.
How would he be a cost center?
I was speculating for the purpose of reasoning about whether they might want to get rid of him. How could he be a cost center? I don't know -- maybe they provide security for him?
Re: Trump says he is considering pardon for Edward Snowden
#254Re: Trump says he is considering pardon for Edward Snowden
#255I suppose on his mind this might fit with some sort of fight with the "deep state". Beyond that I would just chalk it up to some inherent capriciousness... bordering on concerning instability.
> does something I like
> No! It doesn't matter, his motives must have been terrible.
I will never understand this kind of reaction, when you get so emotional about something that all pragmatism goes out the window.
Re: Trump says he is considering pardon for Edward Snowden
#256Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not very. https://www.cnet.com/news/no-evidence-of-nsas-direct-access-...
Uhh, six years after that article, the justice system found PRISM had been commonly used unconstitutionally. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/secret-court-rules-fbi... I'd say that's pretty bad.
My article says that PRISM isn't what Snowden claimed it to be. Your article also does not dispute it. The issue that your article discusses is searches about Americans conducted on data collected from non-Americans outside the US (via Section 702). This is not mass surveillance on Americans.
Edit: We're having this conversation in two places. Consolidated in this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24175476
Re: Trump says he is considering pardon for Edward Snowden
#257Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, the most important one. Hasn't invaded any new countries.
He's done his fair bit of missile-ing and bombing. One also wonders why his silence on the Russian contract killing is so deafening...
The key word in gp being new. Of course through Obama, the us has racked up involvement in so many countries it's been meddling in that the bar is low. He hasn't deployed troops in Iran or Venezuela. (The killing of the Iranian general was in Iraq)
Re: Trump says he is considering pardon for Edward Snowden
#258Earlier quoted context omitted.
A lot of people believed Snowden's gross misreading of the documents he leaked, and that misreading paints a picture of deep state intelligence agencies run amok illegally spying on Americans. Of course, any literate person who reads the documents understands they don't support that picture, but there are enough barely literate QAnon believers to support an entire industry.
Then I guess even the FISC had a "gross misreading" since they found the program had been unconstitutionally used. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/secret-court-rules-fbi...
"Unconstitutionally used" ≠ "mass surveillance on Americans"
The issue that your article discusses is searches about Americans conducted on data collected from non-Americans outside the US (via Section 702). This is not mass surveillance on Americans.
The only program that collected Americans' data en masse in Snowden's documents was phone metadata collection, but it would be a huge stretch to label the way the documents described the data as being used as "mass surveillance." It certainly doesn't paint a picture of intelligence agencies run amok spying on everybody without regard to the law and without oversight.
Re: Trump says he is considering pardon for Edward Snowden
#259If he actually does it I'll seriously considering voting for him. He won't, though.
Trump is an expert at A/B testing public opinion, and this is a clear A/B test. "Considering" means he's gauging support and will use that data to make a decision. He's done this forever, and it's the reason he prefers in-person events for real-time A/B testing of ideas.
It's not a novel concept either, Biden and others regularly use this technique.
Re: Trump says he is considering pardon for Edward Snowden
#260Earlier quoted context omitted.
they've intentionally selected the word due to it's negative context. The usage of "leaker" allows them to play to the 'orange man bad' narrative, which they value more than getting Snowden pardoned.
Are there any measurable metrics by which he is doing a good job?
He'll be one of two presidents that have reduced the US's carbon emissions between first year and last year in office.