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

US special forces soldier arrested after allegedly winning $400k on Maduro raid

cnn.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

411–420 of 816 posts

Re: US special forces soldier arrested after allegedly winning $400k on Maduro raid

#411

Post by pavas »

vlan0 wrote: post #402
Razengan wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> their relationship to power The word "power" is so ironic in human cultures: It's the people with the guns (and muscles) that have the literal physical power. They could shoot the aristocrats dead if they wanted to. The aristocrats' "power" is make-believe like the rest of their papers and numbers: The various psychological barriers which dissuade the gun-bearers from ever reaching the "want to" part.

Exactly this. They live in houses with glass windows. We could take this world any time we choose.

Chill out brother. Life's good.

Re: US special forces soldier arrested after allegedly winning $400k on Maduro raid

#412

Post by mothballed »

alistairSH wrote: post #383
samsari wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're almost right, but "class" and "caste" are not synonyms and cannot be used interchangeably.

Except in the United States it is true. Something like 80% of new military recruits come from military families (parent, sibling, uncle/aunt, or grandparent). Similarly over the last few decades the number of medical doctors who have immediate family who are also doctors has grown. Social and economic class in the US is increasingly set in stone and hereditary.

Medical schools require a lot of volunteering and things like 'slinging hot dogs to pay tuition' don't count unless you grew up without clothes surviving on rabid dogs in the holler of W Virginia working the coal mines from age 8. We all know who has time to volunteer or do minimum wage healthcare instead of work the best paying shitty side job they can get: the rich.

It's set up heavily tilted so you have to be rich, or dirt poor enough for a sob story, or a desired minority. Even if you do volunteer a lot and are middle class, you probably didnt know anyone that could help you into the most prestigious positions. A middle class person of equal aptitude would likely go into something like engineering or law which have fewer class-signalling non-academic purity tests.

Re: US special forces soldier arrested after allegedly winning $400k on Maduro raid

#413

Post by bendbro »

vkou wrote: post #203
int32_64 wrote: post #67

It seems like it would be highly demoralizing to US soldiers that they are prosecuted for betting on the outcomes of the battles they are risking their lives for but those insider trading commanding them aren't.

> It seems like it would be highly demoralizing to US soldiers that they are prosecuted for betting on the outcomes of the battles they are risking their lives for but those insider trading commanding them aren't. Why? The enlisted military has never had any issue with similar double standards in the past. George 'AWOL' Bush handily swept the military vote, as did Donald 'Bone Spurs' Trump. Likewise, veterans routine…

Veterans generally don’t need additional support or benefits. Disability is basically a second pension at this point. SCD for veterans under 45 has risen from 16% in 2008 to 39% in 2022 [0]. If you know any young veterans, then anecdotally you will see this is true. You can (and should) get partial disability for all kinds of aches and pains that in a normal career would go ignored.

[0] https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/2024/demo/acs-5...

Re: US special forces soldier arrested after allegedly winning $400k on Maduro raid

#414

Post by b112 »

Bnjoroge wrote: post #404
b112 wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

you are incredibly naive, ignorant or oblivious if you dont think a primary reason was because of their race in TULSA in 1921. Cmon man -read some history

I don't think you're replying to who you think you are, for I've specifically said it was because they were black, and not due to other factors.

Re: US special forces soldier arrested after allegedly winning $400k on Maduro raid

#415

Post by bendbro »

harimau777 wrote: post #369
dinkumthinkum wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually completely agree with your last phrase. Who are you to tell them anything, particularly with such ironic condescension?

In a democracy the citizens decide who leads the military not the military.

Please study the venn diagram below:

((military) citizens)

Re: US special forces soldier arrested after allegedly winning $400k on Maduro raid

#416

Post by [deleted] »

Spooky23 wrote: post #364
b112 wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Oh it was becuase of their race for sure. For the type of man who joins a lynch mob, the only thing worse than a black man being black was him being “uppity”. The black community resisted the lynching and stood up for the poor bastard they wanted to murder. Their prosperity as a community and individually gave them the fortitude to fight back. It wasn’t “because they were rich”. It was because they had agency and dar…

[deleted]

Re: US special forces soldier arrested after allegedly winning $400k on Maduro raid

#417

Post by simonh »

tcp_handshaker wrote: post #405
samsari wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're almost right, but "class" and "caste" are not synonyms and cannot be used interchangeably.

class, cast, scum... the tokens are not really relevant, only the facts: "‘Absurd Corruption’: Disgust as Eric Trump Brags About Scoring $24 Million Pentagon Deal" - https://www.commondreams.org/news/eric-trump-pentagon-contra...

The thing is, a LOT of people voted for this, knowing perfectly well what they were voting for.

Re: US special forces soldier arrested after allegedly winning $400k on Maduro raid

#418

Post by [deleted] »

a_victorp wrote: post #306
dan-robertson wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually don’t know the details of the specific crimes. Eg if you’re a soldier and you post on Facebook that you’re about to go on a raid to depose a head of state, that’s presumably a secrecy violation you would be punished severely for. The insider trading can be like this too in that you’re improperly using the information you are privy to due to your being an insider. If you’re a congressperson and you tweet th…

He was charged with "unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of non-public government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud, and making an unlawful monetary transaction.". Supposedly, unlawful use of government confidential information could also be applied to legislative and other people in the government

[deleted]

Re: US special forces soldier arrested after allegedly winning $400k on Maduro raid

#419

Post by alistairSH »

mothballed wrote: post #412
alistairSH wrote: post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except in the United States it is true. Something like 80% of new military recruits come from military families (parent, sibling, uncle/aunt, or grandparent). Similarly over the last few decades the number of medical doctors who have immediate family who are also doctors has grown. Social and economic class in the US is increasingly set in stone and hereditary.

Medical schools require a lot of volunteering and things like 'slinging hot dogs to pay tuition' don't count unless you grew up without clothes surviving on rabid dogs in the holler of W Virginia working the coal mines from age 8. We all know who has time to volunteer or do minimum wage healthcare instead of work the best paying shitty side job they can get: the rich. It's set up heavily tilted so you have to be rich…

That gating on medical training has always been there (at least for 40 years, if not more). But the number of doctors from doctor families has increased.

And just generally, socioeconomic mobility has decreased in the US across the population.

Re: US special forces soldier arrested after allegedly winning $400k on Maduro raid

#420

Post by lyu07282 »

pavas wrote: post #411
vlan0 wrote: post #402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly this. They live in houses with glass windows. We could take this world any time we choose.

Chill out brother. Life's good.

Don't worry nobody here said anything even remotely political, it wouldn't even occur to them, so your status quo is safe.
Post reply on HN