Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What's Going on at the FBI?

lawfaremedia.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 189 posts

Re: What's Going on at the FBI?

#121

Post by monkeyfun »

bananapub wrote: post #60
arunabha wrote: post #8

It's wild to think I'd ever say this, but the next four years will be the stress test of the strength of US institutions against an authoritarian president. If they survive the next four years, they will likely survive pretty much anything.

I think you're underestimating the damage he's done and will do. semi-permanent changes: - complete radicalisation of an entire congressional party against functional democracy - complete politicisation of the entire federal government - normalisation of just straight up lying to the Senate in confirmation hearings (RFK on everything, Patel on q anon) - normalisation of just straight up lying during campaigns (no ide…

The lying is the most incomprehensible to me. I actually had a conversation with a family member about RFK's lies (including lies about Bernie Sanders! Which everyone around seemingly tried to suppress him from defending himself on!).

To give an example of what the process felt like with another case I made the mistake of talking about (makes a better story than just the pure lies of the rfk conversation, where said family member just lied constantly and started making things up about bernie sanders):

- elon musk probably didn't do a nazi salute multiple times - and if he did it was misinterpreted - no i don't want to see the videos - and i don't care anyway

For context btw, this family member literally had their grandparents suffer under nazi occupation in ww2.

It's also wild that this family member has already actively been harmed by trump's policies including the forced RTO, and literally just ignores it. They just ignore painful examples when they're brought up, or claim it's all part of trump's plan and the only way it could possible have been done. Yes, as if it was just an inevitable occurrence like a natural disaster and thus not trump's fault.

Re: What's Going on at the FBI?

#122

Post by cinquemb »

mdhb wrote: post #119
cinquemb wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When i see those people start to take actions that they have refused to do so for decades despite the warning signs along the road, I will take those motivations seriously. Right now, its just a clown show in regards to that.

Just as an example of what I mean here. I genuinely don’t mean to imply this as any kind of threat whatsoever just as a friendly pointer but I don’t think yelling “what are you going to do about it?” In a public forum under an alias attached to your real name is a particularly sensible move at the moment. Lots of things that might have not been a big deal a week ago I would feel a lot less sure about now personally.

No matter what happens to any of us personally writing messages here is going to change the situation for those who have ignored the writing on the wall for so long.

People will have hard choices to be made, doubly so for those who have avoided making them. It's great that you seem to now be questioning things you have thought unquestionable; things unfolding now are no surprise to me, and i expect things to get worse, even beyond the current administration or the next until I see people make hard decisions globally.

Re: What's Going on at the FBI?

#123

Post by pseudalopex »

mdhb wrote: post #120
pseudalopex wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don’t think a lot of Americans have any concept of exactly how much the rest of the world hates them right now. It is worse. Many don't care. They believe in American exceptionalism.

This is unfortunately what I mean when I said before that everyone is very aware of that fact and a lot of people are now suddenly very motivated to provide them with a free reality check until they’re able to deal with their oligarchy problem. I just watched a stadium full of Canadian hockey fans boo a black woman in a wheelchair singing the national anthem. I’d politely suggest that while that might look like a fun…

I would suggest not assuming everyone you converse with is American.

Who thought Canadians booing the US anthem was funny? I saw anger from jingoistic Americans. Sorrow from others.

Re: What's Going on at the FBI?

#124

Post by happytoexplain »

reverius42 wrote: post #91
blurbleblurble wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Half the country did not. 1/3 of eligible voters. Which doesn't even count people under 18. And to say that everyone who voted for him "wanted him" is a stretch.

If the 1/3 of eligible voters who stayed home thought they were opposing Trump, uh, I have some news.

Active opposition is not the only alternative to "wanting". Further, as the parent points out, even voting for somebody isn't necessarily "wanting" them (I've certainly voted for candidates I explicitly do not want), and staying home is obviously an even lower bar.

These are famous problems with most voting systems, especially the USA's.

I.e. the parent is correct.

Re: What's Going on at the FBI?

#125

Post by credit_guy »

monkeyfun wrote: post #107
SlightlyLeftPad wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think when you look holistically at the promises that China has made, and broken, it still doesn’t make sense to align with China. That could change in the future but the time isn’t now. An example; look at what they’ve been doing in the South China Sea, Hong Kong or Xinjiang. Some instability in the U.S. is definitely uncomfortable but the alternative is not better.

What are some of the broken promises? I'm not well informed on the subject and now you've got me really curious.

The promise that everything will be fine in Hong Kong?

Re: What's Going on at the FBI?

#126

Post by throwawaythekey »

navane wrote: post #97
throwawaythekey wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes it a coup? Trump was elected on a platform of government reform and that's what he is doing.

Many dictators, including the famous great, started out by being elected into government.

In my mind democratically elected and coup are antonyms. If you are against trumps style of cleanup then I would probably stick to illegal, although that is TBD, radical or destructive.

Re: What's Going on at the FBI?

#127

Post by lantry »

monkeyfun wrote: post #107
SlightlyLeftPad wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think when you look holistically at the promises that China has made, and broken, it still doesn’t make sense to align with China. That could change in the future but the time isn’t now. An example; look at what they’ve been doing in the South China Sea, Hong Kong or Xinjiang. Some instability in the U.S. is definitely uncomfortable but the alternative is not better.

What are some of the broken promises? I'm not well informed on the subject and now you've got me really curious.

The post mentions Hong Kong, which is something like this:

- Hong Kong was ceded to the UK after the opium wars in 1842

- The British returned it in 1997, under an agreement that its economic and political systems wouldn't change for 50 years

- starting in the 2010s (less than 20 years later), the PRC has been pressuring the Hong Kong government to drop colonial-era democratic reforms, extradite critics of China, and in general curtail civil liberties.

Presumably OP is referring to the PRCs actions to integrate Hong Kong before 50 years have elapsed. I'm not an expert here, this is just my layman understanding from reading American news

Re: What's Going on at the FBI?

#128

Post by guappa »

Juliate wrote: post #39
thih9 wrote: post #20

I’m not from the US and news like this change my perception of that country - it seems unstable; just like I’m not considering a Wordpress blog, I’d think twice before any long term plans that involve the US. The comparison to the Wordpress drama works surprisingly well for me, complete with vendettas and an overzealous leader, just on an even larger scale and affecting more people.

That. The impact on commercial, technical, cultural influence of the USA is incredible. How could we have any insurance that these (personal and professional) US-based infra/tools companies (even AWS, Microsoft, Apple) could be even operating as expected, and in good faith, now that some petulant, inconsequential mixed-business-political leader is able to trigger that level of damage on a whim?

The only insurance is using libre software only and dropping them completely.

Re: What's Going on at the FBI?

#129

Post by guappa »

credit_guy wrote: post #125
monkeyfun wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are some of the broken promises? I'm not well informed on the subject and now you've got me really curious.

The promise that everything will be fine in Hong Kong?

I think "fine" and "you can ignore laws" aren't precisely identical in all cases.

Re: What's Going on at the FBI?

#130

Post by guappa »

emptysongglass wrote: post #89
DyslexicAtheist wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

imagine being energy dependent on a regime that bullies you from Washington, and being asked to increase security spending to 5% of GDP by purchasing US weapons systems. while being told by the same regime they might take over Greenland or the Panama canal. when putting US foreign policy into perspective over the past 30 (or more depending where you are) years, then aligning with China suddenly looks a lot less awful…

Other NATO partners being asked to increase defense spending to 5 percent is entirely reasonable. And that's with or without Trump asking for it. I live in Europe, I am European: we've outsourced our own defense for far too long. It is absurd that a country presenting an existential threat to us has been met with more supplied resistance from a country across the earth than Europe. It's long past time for Europe to w…

I think we should not buy anything from USA, while their goal is just to sell us overpriced weapons.
Post reply on HN