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Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov

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Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#361

Post by maxlamb »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #32
boolean wrote: 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.

Source? That is pretty horrifying if true

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#362

Post by least »

rsynnott wrote: post #292
least wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It speaks to the inherent flaws in any justice system. Presidential pardons are just one check against that. This lies squarely in line with what a presidential pardon is intended for.

A few people saved largely at random from a broken justice system is no sort of real solution; if anything it may actually make things _worse_, as it acts as an escape valve for sufficiently scandalous cases.

In some cases it can be used to broadly pardon people due to injustice. Carter blanket pardoned all Draft dodgers [1]. It doesn't have to be a "real solution" as that isn't the duty of the president to create law, which falls squarely in the hands of congress.

It doesn't make things worse. The only reason people think it makes things worse is because it at times serves to emancipate people they think are undeserving of it. This is a small price to pay for what broadly serves as a useful tool for justice.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proclamation_4483

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#365

Post by faitswulff »

nikanj wrote: post #312
hulitu wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Levandowski but not Snowden or Assange. Sigh. Snowden and Assange have no value in the market economy. Lewandowski, on the other side, has some interesting skills

And Lewandowski hurt Google, which makes him a good guy according to Trump.

This is much more likely than Trump putting any amount of reasoning into his decision.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#366

Post by jcranmer »

kjakm wrote: post #340
WalterBright wrote: post #111

It's important to note the reason the President has the power to pardon anyone for any reason is it's one of the checks and balances, the Constitution is full of them. It's meant as a check to blunt overzealous prosecutions. Note that the President does not have the corresponding power to convict anyone. An interesting set of pardons was when Andrew Johnson pardoned all the rebels in the Confederacy, including Jeffer…

As a foreigner Presidential pardons + the appointment (and life terms) of Supreme Court judges baffle me. How can a country that claims to be a leader in democracy have these two wildly abused bugs? Edit: fixed use of election instead of appointment

> the election (and life terms) of Supreme Court judges baffle me

SCOTUS judges are not elected; they are appointed by POTUS, after confirmation by the Senate.

At the state level, only about half the states use elections for their Supreme Court judges. However, the highly-polarized and roughly-evenly-split Midwestern states (MN, WI, MI, OH, PA) are among these, so it definitely will come across as more visible.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#367

Post by secondcoming »

matwood wrote: post #164
yread wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 nor…

The rules were

- the person had to look directly at the ok sign

- the ok sign had to be below the waist

Played it in Ireland too!

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#368

Post by jerkstate »

flowerlad wrote: post #316
orblivion wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if the president pardoned literally... everybody. I wonder what would happen. Maybe he got drunk and wrote something down and handed it to somebody. It's such a simple action, nobody can stop it, he can't take it back when he comes to his senses. Would the system even respond to it? Would they just open all the federal prisons?

> What if the president pardoned literally... everybody Or worse, had someone murder his political opponent and then pardoned him? This sort of thing was unthinkable a few years ago, but no longer.

We have had prior presidents commute sentences of people who bombed the senate while the other party had a majority, so your nightmare scenario has basically already happened (but the shoe was on the other foot)

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#370

Post by dkarl »

kjakm wrote: post #340
WalterBright wrote: post #111

It's important to note the reason the President has the power to pardon anyone for any reason is it's one of the checks and balances, the Constitution is full of them. It's meant as a check to blunt overzealous prosecutions. Note that the President does not have the corresponding power to convict anyone. An interesting set of pardons was when Andrew Johnson pardoned all the rebels in the Confederacy, including Jeffer…

As a foreigner Presidential pardons + the appointment (and life terms) of Supreme Court judges baffle me. How can a country that claims to be a leader in democracy have these two wildly abused bugs? Edit: fixed use of election instead of appointment

The people who created the system and decided on lifetime terms for Supreme Court judges had a lot of enthusiasm for democracy, but they could see it had flaws, and they wanted the judiciary to be much less sensitive to the mood of the public than the rest of the system. As disappointed (and angry) as I am to see the Republicans steal the Merrick Garland appointment and then replace RBG with someone who has flaunted her enthusiasm for overturning Roe v Wade, I'm glad Supreme Court justices can't be held politically accountable for their decisions. It means that power ranges from being accountable to the public on very short time scales (legislators in the House) to slightly longer (the president) to pretty darned long (senators) to extremely long (the Supreme Court, which reacts very slowly through presidential appointment after retirement or death.)
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