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Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

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Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#101
post #80
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or powerful ones: https://twitter.com/rsingel/status/1351783622362030082

The "ok" hand sign isn't a white power sign just because some people have decided it to be. It's meant ok since as long as anyone can remember. I'm not willing to accept I can't say okay now because some liberal thinkers have decided that that's now become racist. People need to lighten up a bit and not make everything an affront.

The ok hand sign can be a perfectly innocuous hand sign in some circumstances, or a white supremacist dog whistle in others. The very purpose why it was adopted by white supremacists is this confusion - this has been explicitly researched by human rights groups.

Of course, the symbol itself carries no white supremacist overtones, just like the swastika in itself does not carry any nazi symbolism (as opposed to, say, a crosssed out star of David, which would be an explicitly anti-semite symbol). However, it's association with and repeated use by Nazi Germany is what gave it a nazi symbolism. Even for such a widely reviled symbol, there are still non-taboo uses. In particular, a left-facing swastika (sauwastika) is a common Buddhist symbol, found often in Asian media with no Nazi connotation. That means that a bald person waving a swastika flag could either be a nazi skin head, or a buddhist monk - context will usually tell you which.

This is similar to "states rights" rhetoric - it has both its literal sense, the discussion of the amount of power states should have vs the federal government; but it also refers more specifically to the "right" to slavery the civil war was fought over. When you hear someone speak about it, you need more context to know which sense is being used.

Human language is complicated like this.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#102
post #66

Trump pardons former Uber executive Anthony Levandowski on the recommendation of a panel that includes Peter Thiel and Palmer Luckey.. (EDIT: Palmer Luckey) -> who famously caught on camera flashing a white supremacy sign in a photo with the conspiracy theorist Chuck Johnson and Steve Bannon (who was also pardoned today)- just hilarious levels of corruption all around

do you have any evidence for these? I googled and couldnt find any photos of Thiel

https://twitter.com/slpng_giants/status/922563981826441216

Here's the photo of Palmer Luckey with Bannon. He claims in this tweet that he was flashing the sign "ironically" as a hoax in this reply: https://twitter.com/PalmerLuckey/status/922575384817950726

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#103
post #2

> Mr. Levandowski has paid a significant price for his actions and plans to devote his talents to advance the public good. As a thief, he should be in prison. He hasn't paid any price. He's still a millionaire, will probably start another company and raise billions in next 3 years.

Not only this, but Mr. Levandowski has made it clear he thinks his car failing to cause the first self-driving fatality would mean they were behind . The man believes manslaughter is the cost of doing business for innovation. He should be in prison for much more than he got.

The first death in a powered airplane was where one of the Wrights crashed carrying a passenger, and he died.

Should the airplane have never been invented and the Wrights jailed for trying?

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#104
post #55

I'm going to go around the interesting tech angle here and comment on how many people on this list have been pardoned for petty drug crimes. *Corvain Cooper – President Trump commuted the sentence of Mr. Corvain Cooper. Mr. Cooper is a 41 year-old father of two girls who has served more than 7 years of a life sentence for his non-violent participation in a conspiracy to distribute marijuana.* Life sentence for "consp…

If the goal was real justice, why is this left to the 11th hour storm of bullshit pardons? Isn't this being used as an obvious distraction when it could have happened much sooner?

One theory: they're not in office anymore, so they won't as easily be bothered because [person pardoned] committed a crime, which of course they'll be chased like a hawk for doing, just in case, especially in the case of certain pardoned people.

edit: removed some inflammatory text that was unfair to all involved.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#105

I didn't realize how many pardons are handed out by presidents. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_pardoned_or_gra... Without passing any judgement on the validity of the pardons the sheer number of them surprised me. Trump - 94 as of Dec 23, 2020 (going up obvs) Obama - 1,927 Bush - 200 Clinton - 459 Bush Sr - 77 ... The most interesting one to me was President Ford pardoning President Nixon. TIL.

> The most interesting one to me was President Ford pardoning President Nixon. TIL.

Done in the name and hope of "national healing". There were even talks about Biden pardoning Trump in order to prevent the precedent of a new administration pursuing an outgoing administration by legal overreach... was utter madness IMO even before the attempted putsch by his supporters, but now it's untenable.

Personally, as a half German and half Croat I can only say one thing when I look at the histories of my home countries: for any form of healing to succeed, criminal actions by any government must be dealt with transparently and impartially by the appropriate institutions in a speedy manner, otherwise the only thing that will breed is resentment.

The Nazi regime crimes were dealt with by the Nuremberg trials and the supporters were assessed under de-nazification, the result was that every German could see that high crimes did not go unpunished and that our neighbor countries could trust us again.

Contrast this to the post-Independence Wars Balkans, where half the war criminals of all sides were not prosecuted at all as they died and not much research happened into what they did, and of the other half the majority was protected by their respective ethnic's governments for sometimes decades. The result? Ugly nationalism and hatred are as alive as ever in the region.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not a US citizen, but to me it seems to be ridiculous to give one person the ability to unilaterally make decisions on the lives of individuals. Not just these pardons, but also the barbaric rushed executions Trump performed. It appears to me to be antithetical to a democracy that claims to have a separation of power.

> barbaric rushed executions Source?

Think they're referring to this:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-55236260

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#107
post #47
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...is a Presidential pardon final come the next Administration? Or has that not really been tested in court?

A pardon requires delivery and acceptance. (Actually, I think delivery is incomplete without acceptance.) Theoretically an incoming president could recall the pardon if it hasn't been delivered. Not sure what may constitute as delivery; or acceptance, for that matter. I don't think the manner of delivery or acceptance has been tested, let alone enumerated. If it's as simple as a phone call, then presumably nothing co…

There was an even more interesting question raised on r/NeutralPolitics about whether the pardon has to even be made public. It seems there's an interpretation of the law where the pardon only becomes public when the recipient makes use of it in a public court.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#108
post #50
post #21

The one who's awaiting his own trial can still give pardons other people?

He's not yet been indicted criminally, and per DOJ rules he can't be until noon on Jan 20. His facing a Senate trial for impeachment doesn't remove the pardon power. That also expires at noon on Jan 20.

Him facing an impeachment trial does remove the pardon power, but only for things related to the impeachment.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not only this, but Mr. Levandowski has made it clear he thinks his car failing to cause the first self-driving fatality would mean they were behind . The man believes manslaughter is the cost of doing business for innovation. He should be in prison for much more than he got.

The first death in a powered airplane was where one of the Wrights crashed carrying a passenger, and he died. Should the airplane have never been invented and the Wrights jailed for trying?

There's a difference between accepting the costs of progress and actively wanting to be indirectly responsible for death.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#110
post #8

> Stephen K. Bannon – President Trump granted a full pardon to Stephen Bannon. Prosecutors pursued Mr. Bannon with charges related to fraud stemming from his involvement in a political project. Mr. Bannon has been an important leader in the conservative movement and is known for his political acumen. This one is hilarious. The "political project" was raising money for a border wall via crowdfunding and putting it int…

I've seen some legal opinions that the pardon doesn't matter that much since he could apparently be tried on a state level anyways.
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