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Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov

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Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#681

Post by UncleMeat »

unishark wrote: post #318
UncleMeat wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Context matters in almost all human communication. And humans are pretty good at negotiating context. Scuba divers won’t lose the symbol. But scuba divers also don’t protect a bunch of people posing with Richard Spencer and making the gesture.

> And humans are pretty good at negotiating context. In politics? I think people are pretty bad at understanding context about people they see as having different values. The way you handle uncertainty is to fill in the blanks with prior knowledge, also known as bias. When someone has a bias against the person, that turns quite ugly.

Less well in politics, but still well enough. Certainly well enough not to be confused about its use when diving.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#682

Post by dragonwriter »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #557
1MachineElf wrote: post #532

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He was investigated for 2 years and is still accused to this day for Russian collusion. Pardoning either Snowden, who is in Russia right now, and Assange, who is accused of being a co-conspirator in the Russia collusion accusations, would be like throwing gasoline on that fire. I don't see how he could do it without alienating most of his establishment support, which he still needs after leaving office.

IMHO nobody (including and especially members of the establishment) seriously believes Snowden or Assange are actually Russian spies, really. Snowden just had to flee to Russia because that was the only counterpart to the US which is sufficiently powerful and interested to possibly hide him and also just enough civilized&westernized to tolerate.

> IMHO nobody (including and especially members of the establishment) seriously believes Snowden or Assange are actually Russian spies, really

I think lots of people think Assange has been (“is” is a murkier question) a Russian asset, but not so much a spy (someone who serves as an agent for collecting information) as an active influence agent.

For Snowden, I think that’s probably less common.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#683

Post by ganoushoreilly »

mlazos wrote: post #653
staunch wrote: post #541

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The blame for what he was forced to do belongs with the officials that were violating the constitution. They should be exiled for failing to uphold their oaths. Instead, Snowden is in exile. Snowden was just the first honorable American to come across the information and he did his best to expose it safely, by giving it to journalists to release, after consulting with the government. We can't expect whistle blowers t…

HN loves Snowden so much it makes no sense to me. He could’ve gone to the Senate/House intelligence committees, and not been in trouble. Worst case nothing would’ve gotten done, but since they were lied to, I don’t think he would’ve been ignored.

They also leave out the fact that he had been reprimanded for his actions numerous times, to include being removed from roles and duties because of his negative actions. The fact that he moved from the CIA back to an NSA supported role without this being disclosed is ridiculous in of itself.

Edward had a childish reaction to release documents that had nothing to do with Xkeyscore (of which the media claim as the reason for his release), particularly those of Tailored Access Operations [TAO]. This was the action of a petulant individual lashing out at the system however he felt he could. Don't let it be ignored that he was specifically working in a capacity supporting operations in China.. then fled there before moving on to Russia. No one talks about or acknowledges that Edward was in a support role and not an "Operator" at the agency either. He was pissed because he applied twice and was denied, in part due to his horrible support on operation plans.

He wanted to act out and damage the NSA and their mission.

The hero worship of Snowden is deplorable. I only wish the american public had a real understanding and grasp of what goes on to keep their "bubble" safe and sound. Edwards actions have had an outsized impact and unfortunately it won't be mad public in a nonclassified space for many years to come, because of further operational impacts.

He was 100% a traitor.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#684

Post by dcolkitt »

beaugunderson wrote: post #670
dcolkitt wrote: post #661

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would argue that creating a new human being is an act of charity. Most people are very happy to exist, and probably grateful that their parents chose to create them. Especially given the fact that parenting requires a huge investment of time and resources. That doesn't mean that parents can't be bad people, or that parenthood is the only criteria of goodness. But knowing that somebody chose to become a parent stron…

For a compelling opposing view see "Better Never to Have Been": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Never_to_Have_Been

I've read it. Benatar does a lot of mental gymnastics to arrive at his conclusion.

But the simple argument, that he never overcomes, is how many people if given access to a time machine would use it to prevent their own birth? How many would use it to prevent the creation of life on Earth? Even after reading Benatar's carefully crafted tome, I doubt that very many readers would be convinced to change their answers to these questions.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#685

Post by emreca »

ardy42 wrote: post #629
s0cur10us wrote: post #625

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was under impression that the self-pardon story was part of the information warfare campaign. Is there any proof to the story?

> I was under impression that the self-pardon story was part of the information warfare campaign. Is there any proof to the that? Part of the what?

Information Warfare

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#686

Post by dcolkitt »

gfxgirl wrote: post #676
dcolkitt wrote: post #661

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would argue that creating a new human being is an act of charity. Most people are very happy to exist, and probably grateful that their parents chose to create them. Especially given the fact that parenting requires a huge investment of time and resources. That doesn't mean that parents can't be bad people, or that parenthood is the only criteria of goodness. But knowing that somebody chose to become a parent stron…

plenty of people don't choose or choose under a kind of duress (religious guilt)

Sure, that's true. And in past times that was a stronger critique. But in the modern Western world, this only applies to a tiny fraction of parents. The vast majority of parents today willingly chose to become parents.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#687

Post by Udik »

fredophile wrote: post #332
Udik wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "ok sign is a white power symbol" thing started as trolling on 4chan. It doesn't mean anything apart from being useful to infuriate other people. You're being trolled.

I agree that a bunch of people from 4chan spreading misinformation online could be considered trolling. Taking it into the real world is a step I have a hard time believing. What would the troll's logic be? "I'm going to make all these suckers think I'm a racist"? That seems like an unusual step from anonymous online activity.

Trolling, at least in its original meaning, is not "spreading misinformation". It's saying things for the sake of provoking anger in other people that you despise or you just don't connect emotionally with. So it makes perfect sense to me for rightwing trolls to excite anger and confusion in leftwing people by appropriating a completely innocuous gesture and using it as a provocation. It doesn't really have to mean anything or to capture or express your true beliefs- the important thing is just that others will go nuts over it.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#688

Post by ardy42 »

angry_octet wrote: post #678
ardy42 wrote: post #594

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Hello deadlock! Come on down! Deadlock is not the worst thing, and the solution to it is not necessarily to remove as many locks as possible. The actual problem in the US right now is that checks and balances are strong enough to allow one party to block things, but not strong enough to deter waiting until your party stochastically has enough power to get things done. This is exacerbated by having one party's ideol…

I think we know that Mitch would have blocked every Biden appointment if the Dems hadn't won Georgia. Waiting 2/4/6/8 years to resolve a deadlock isn't a great idea. The checks and balances in the Senate were ignored by Mitch to get things done, rather than compromise. Since Congress makes its own rules, and 51/49 is enough to change a rule ('the nuclear option'), supermajority would have to be a constitutional amend…

> Since Congress makes its own rules, and 51/49 is enough to change a rule ('the nuclear option'), supermajority would have to be a constitutional amendment... And then 45% would be enough to halt government. I guarantee you this would then happen regularly.

That was the problem with the Senate's supermajoriy requirements: basically the only thing holding them in place was convention, so they fall in the face of someone willing and able to make unsentimental tactical power plays.

IMHO, someone like McConnell would have behaved very differently if he knew his opponents could block him just as easily as he has blocked them. His apparent effectiveness is almost entirely a result of his greater willingness to hypocritically use then discard convention when it gets in his way. He'd never have gotten his tax cuts or judges if he wasn't able to bend the rules.

> Other systems have mechanisms to force elections if deadlocks are persistent.

I think something like that could be a genuine improvement.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#690

Post by wnevets »

sn_master wrote: post #679
wnevets wrote: post #652

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not a rumor, its an outright accusation by former CIA operative John Kiriakou

CIA operatives don't lie for political gain purposes?

You're absolutely right, trading pardons for cash would be completely out of character for the previous administration. Anthony Levandowski's conviction was obviously a miscarriage of justice and its a good thing it was corrected at the very last minute.
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