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Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov

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Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#161

Post by dragonwriter »

jfk13 wrote: post #158
t-writescode wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These aren't problems with the power, they're problems with people that abuse the power. We've had presidential pardons for centuries, and they are both a carry-over from the time of kings, and they could arguably serve as a short-circuit against injustice at the hand of the legislature. Not everything illegal is wrong. Not everyone in prison is serving a just sentence, no matter what the legal system declares it to…

If the argument here is essentially that we should trust the president to know better than the legislature and courts, why don't we just go with absolute dictatorship for all purposes?

The power the President is entrusted with here is solely to remit punishment. The idea is that this is an area where going overboard is less harmful than the alternative.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#162

Post by yannis7 »

curious if this is a direct challenge to Google by people like Thiel who have had a historic beef with them [0] - according to the "Super Pumped" book [1], it was Larry Page who personally ordered the litigation against Levandowski - and he was pretty decisive about it.

[0] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-15/thiel-urg... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Pumped

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#163

Post by logicchains »

gigatexal wrote: post #72

The Trump saga lasted 4 years though it will probably take the rest of my lifetime for the US to heal from Trump and all the acolytes his administration emboldened; from the radical right, to enabling grifters, to draconian and in humane immigration policies (kids in cages, wtf?!?), and a whole lack and mistrust of science, not to mention the rise of QAnon and just the overall tarnishing of any semblance of American…

>kids in cages, wtf?!?)

I'm sure you've heard this before, but Obama built the cages.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#164

Post by matwood »

yread wrote: post #93
kenneth wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Or you can use context instead of absolute judgment. When done under water in a scuba suit, it probably means ok. When done when posing with Steve Bannon it probably means white power sign.

Yeah, context is key. We played a game as kids where if you looked at one of us with the ok sign, the one doing the sign got to punch you in the arm. It was joke.

Even though this new origin is a bit of the tail wagging the dog (it started as a joke on 4chan), the ok sign has taken on the meaning of a white power sign in certain situations.

Unfortunately, people have trawled old pics and attacked people for using normal hand gestures. Context and nuance appears to be completely lost on many.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#165

Post by refurb »

bluelu wrote: post #96

According to https://techcrunch.com/2021/01/19/former-google-engineer-ant... "Instead, Alsup sentenced Lewandowski to 18 months, but delayed his prison time until the pandemic was under control. Levandowski also agreed to pay $756,499.22 in restitution to Waymo and a fine of $95,000." So he didn't even spend a single minute in prison. Wow

I mean serious criminals are being released from prison in CA due to Covid so I’m not sure he’s getting special treatment in that aspect.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#166

Post by logicchains »

GordonS wrote: post #141
wrnr wrote: post #36

Why so negative, a little bit of clemency even if people are guilty will do a great deal to help heal the nation. This list reads like an indictment of the justice system, life sentences for non violent drug offences, yikes. I'm glad for everyone, welcome back.

I support a lot of these pardons for non-violent drug offences, mainly because the US justice system issues such needlessly long sentences, and the US penal system is so harsh. But AFAIK, Trump hasn't done anything to address these while in power, and given his usual rhetoric about "law and order" targeted at a very conservative audience, the cynic in me can't help but wonder if a lot of these pardons are to detract…

>But AFAIK, Trump hasn't done anything to address these while in power

https://www.npr.org/2018/12/17/676771335/how-trump-went-from...

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#167

Post by dragonwriter »

logicchains wrote: post #163
gigatexal wrote: post #72

The Trump saga lasted 4 years though it will probably take the rest of my lifetime for the US to heal from Trump and all the acolytes his administration emboldened; from the radical right, to enabling grifters, to draconian and in humane immigration policies (kids in cages, wtf?!?), and a whole lack and mistrust of science, not to mention the rise of QAnon and just the overall tarnishing of any semblance of American…

>kids in cages, wtf?!?) I'm sure you've heard this before, but Obama built the cages.

> I'm sure you've heard this before, but Obama built the cages.

I'm sure you've heard this before, but Obama implemented policies to limit the necessity for their use, while the Trump Administration deliberately maximized their use.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#168

Post by bosswipe »

Udik wrote: post #113
spacemanmatt wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The white supremacy sign is a white power sign because white supremacists use it to signal each other. It is called a "dog whistle" because people like you cannot hear it accurately.

My issue with the term "dog whistle" is that it's being abused to attribute nefarious meaning to just anything you want irrespectively of the actual content of the message- by definition the "dog whistle" is something that the message doesn't obviously contain. It's a free interpretation license card. I think out-of-context interpretation is the major issue of our times: we got used to the idea that it's perfectly fi…

The question is, why has it become popular for white supremacists to flash this hand sign? If they are intending to convey that they are white supremacists and we are successfully understanding the message then that is what the hand gesture means. It's like a new word. The trollish origin doesn't change the fact that it has this new meaning in these contexts.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#170

Post by smoe »

kazinator wrote: post #90
spacemanmatt wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The white supremacy sign is a white power sign because white supremacists use it to signal each other. It is called a "dog whistle" because people like you cannot hear it accurately.

Whoa there, Roofus; have a Milk-Bone of information: "In 2017, users on the message-board site 4chan[40][41][42] aimed to convince the media and other people that the OK gesture was being used as a white power symbol. According to The Boston Globe, users on 4chan's /pol/ ("Politically Incorrect") board were instructed in February 2017 to "flood Twitter and other social media websites...claiming that the OK hand sign…

From the same section you quoted:

“According to the ADL, by 2019 some white supremacists had begun using the OK symbol "as a sincere expression of White Supremacy", and many white supremacists have acknowledged using the symbol as a gesture of White Power.”

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