Anthony Levandowski Pardoned • Hacker News Board

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#581

Post by sn_master » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 4:49 PM UTC

wnevets wrote: post #571

and it only cost $2 Million [1]. [1] https://www.businessinsider.com/giuliani-associate-reportedl...

Please do not propagate unproven rumors. Most of that 73 person list are people who clearly don't have anywhere near those amounts.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#582

Post by ortusdux » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 4:50 PM UTC

DevX101 wrote: post #393

ortusdux wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technically, a president could pardon all federal marijuana convictions, and announce that they will continue to do so for the remainder of their term. Basically, it could be used to address systemic problems in the federal court system. A large portion of Biden's term will probably be spent trying to return to norms, so I doubt anything like this would happen.

I'm for legalization of marijuana but think that's a terrible idea. This effectively makes one person the arbiter of law.

I'm not necessarily advocating one way or another, just using an example to address the claim that while "The pardon doesn't do anything to address systemic problems in the justice system", it could.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#583

Post by thesausageking » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 4:50 PM UTC

NelsonMinar wrote: post #519

It's weird to see the Republican party embrace intellectual property theft. Levandowski stole from his employer and his colleagues at Google to enrich himself at Uber. Why would that possibly be worth a pardon?

They're not justifying it. Thiel was a big supporter of Trump and lobbied to get Levandowski a pardon, so Trump is returning the favor.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#584

Post by tommoor » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 4:51 PM UTC

20 of the pardons on that list are for people that were convicted of fraud, I'm sure he feels a certain empathy/kinship with these folks.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#585

Post by vlod » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 4:51 PM UTC

vmception wrote: post #437

dgellow wrote: post #363

No Assange, no Snowden. What a fool I am, I seriously envisaged that could happen... Instead it’s just more and more corruption.

Pay attention to that list, each pardon has a list of people who supported each pardon. Nobody from the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the ACLU is on that list. We are wasting our time and energy caring about either of those organizations. Let them stick to filing Amicus Briefs in courts, but they clearly have no pull or influence or backchannel despite our tech scene thinking they do.

>but they clearly have no pull or influence or backchannel despite our tech scene thinking they do.

These aren't some crappy organizations that do 'deals' to get their objectives. There's really (afaik) two ways to keep government in check. Voting and paying lawyers to sue the government when they do 'bad' things (read: against the law/constitution).

Disclaimer: I am a member of both EFF and ACLU.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#586

Post by BitwiseFool » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 4:52 PM UTC

masklinn wrote: post #505

me_me_me wrote: post #174

The fact that even fox news was onboard with pardoning Julian Assange and then he pardons Levandowski is... well ironic is an understatement. I am failing to find a word that encapsulates my feelings.

> I am failing to find a word that encapsulates my feelings. I don't know if there's a specific word for it in any language, but it's completely in character for trump to always pick the worst of two choices.

I believe it's called "4D Chess".

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#587

Post by sn_master » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 4:53 PM UTC

NelsonMinar wrote: post #519

It's weird to see the Republican party embrace intellectual property theft. Levandowski stole from his employer and his colleagues at Google to enrich himself at Uber. Why would that possibly be worth a pardon?

I can say similar things about many of the Obama pardons, but I'll get downvoted into oblivion if I do so. Pardon is by definition an admission of guilt, and Levandowski has already paid a steep price for what he did.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#588

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 4:53 PM UTC

fleshdaddy wrote: post #431

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #409

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that Levandowski, Snowden, or Assange deserve pardons.

Why is that? Do you not believe in whistle blower protections or do you think that Snowden lied?

I believe that once you leave the country with classified material then all bets are off.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#589

Post by usrusr » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 4:53 PM UTC

qwerty456127 wrote: post #496

dgellow wrote: post #363

No Assange, no Snowden. What a fool I am, I seriously envisaged that could happen... Instead it’s just more and more corruption.

I just wonder why. It seemed like pardoning Assange and Snowden could win him a huuuge bonus to popularity among people all over the world. Perhaps that was considered "too much" and could probably imply worse consequences so he hesitated to.

I don't think that he could have gained much support by pardoning them: I'd expect the groups of people who might still be pulled (back) on Trump's side and the group of people who would celebrate a Snowden or Assange pardon to be mutually exclusive. And if Trump is good at anything besides golf, it's correctly assessing whom he might sway and with whom all efforts would be wasted.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#590

Post by medium_burrito » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 4:54 PM UTC

boringg wrote: post #547

Paid a lot of money for that pardon I reckon even though he was clearly a criminal. The trump admin is such a sham. So glad that they are out of power - hopefully forever for the sake of the Us.

As opposed to Mark Rich, who was a much bigger piece of shit?