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

451–460 of 816 posts

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

#451

Post by pixl97 »

RhysU wrote: post #32
zaptheimpaler wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The modern US conservative party really does seem to believe only in that one principle and nothing else. They will pardon actual sex traffickers like Andrew Tate and worse as long as they're on their side. They will defend any action at all by Trump, no matter how vile or illegal or stupid or wrong. It's not a sleight of hand if its true.

Go read a few months worth of the National Review. Many prominent conservative thinkers are not particularly big fans of Trump. They like portions of his initiatives and policies but not him as a standard bearer, because he does dumb, ill-principled stuff at odds with conservatism. Peggy Noonan of the WSJ can't write two sentences without letting you know how much she disdains Trump, e.g.

>Peggy Noonan of the WSJ can't write two sentences without letting you know how much she disdains Trump, e.g.

This is the functional equivalent of a fictional character named Neggy Poonan saying "I really hate the Nazi's, but you know if I don't vote for Hitler the other guy will win"

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

#452

Post by Tangurena2 »

enoint wrote: post #130
jcgrillo wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe I'm making an incorrect assumption, but I assumed the information was already classified. He was betting on an outcome of a planned military operation based on his knowledge of those plans. My assumption is that information is super closely guarded, and likely classified at a high level. Telegraphing your invasion plans is generally not something you do unless you want disaster, right?

Yeah the DoJ proclaims, “Our Office will continue to hold accountable those who misuse confidential or classified information in a way that undermines and exploits our national security.” But isn’t wire fraud harder to prove than leaking classified facts?

> But isn’t wire fraud harder to prove than leaking classified facts?

No. From the Justice Department's own criminal resource manual:

> the four essential elements of the crime of wire fraud are:

> (1) that the defendant voluntarily and intentionally devised or participated in a scheme to defraud another out of money;

> (2) that the defendant did so with the intent to defraud;

> (3) that it was reasonably foreseeable that interstate wire communications would be used; and

> (4) that interstate wire communications were in fact used

https://www.justice.gov/archives/jm/criminal-resource-manual...

Generally, to be successfully prosecuted for a crime, the prosecutor has to show that each and every "element" of the crime has to have happened. On the above page, there were 3 different court precedents who ruled what elements that the prosecutor needed to prove were in those cases.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Element_(criminal_law)#

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

#453

Post by Tangurena2 »

dan-robertson wrote: post #288
looksjjhg wrote: post #177

That’s hilarious … so he’s arrested and put on trial and all the senate and congress are doing the exact same and free? lol

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…

Congress sometimes includes an exemption for themselves from some crimes. Others are excused by the Constitution:

> The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensation for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States. They shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place.

Explanation:

https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artI-S6-C1-2/...

As for insider trading:

> The law prohibits the use of non-public information for private profit, including insider trading, by members of Congress and other government employees.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STOCK_Act

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

#454

Post by diabeetusman »

koolba wrote: post #348
Arkhaine_kupo wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You really need to wonder? The 10 best performing historical congress people stocks are all republican,a ll men, all funded by lobbys like heritage foundation... But the face of insider trading becomes a democrat and a woman Its sooo diffcult to guess why it happened

[flagged]

Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes.

Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive.

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

#455

Post by jubilanti »

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.

But the people almost never do, and that reason is power.

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

#458

Post by xphos »

dctoedt wrote: post #379
IsTom wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Historically aristocracy was the military class. Nowadays in authoritarian societies it looks like it's mostly matter of time before military takes the lead.

> Nowadays in authoritarian societies it looks like it's mostly matter of time before military takes the lead. See, e.g., Iran's IGRC. Counterexamples: China, Russia — and the U.S.?

China dervies a ton of authority and Legitmacy from the PLA (peoples liberation army) and Russia is run by from Inteligence service members of the KGB low level ones to be sure but I don't see how China and Russia are counter examples. The US isn't their yet we will see if the backslide happens in the next two years but I think its of a different qualia than we see in the "typical" Authorithian State.

Ironically I was watching Nuremberg last not and is is schocking how close some of the leaders of this country are to characters like Hermann Göring, or Hitler himself in talking points. They are certainly populists but the language they used is MGGA (make german great again) so to speak. And factually that were not particular that good at it either most of Germans recovery is really due to the liberal government that pass laws that built the Autobahn were laws not by the Nazi party. They certain jumped on them and accelerate them but effective governence is not really for the populist

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

#459

Post by Plasmoid »

triceratops wrote: post #432
mothballed wrote: post #412

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> Medical schools require a lot of volunteering But...why? Why not just let in the applicants that have the best grades?

Because there are so many applicants that have good grades.

A more cynical view is that the governing boards want a way to pick and choose who they let in. So they create "holistic" application systems to get "360 degree view of the candidate".

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

#460

Post by tarentel »

d--b wrote: post #246
HWR_14 wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kalshi is regulated and trading in this way on Kalshi is explicitly illegal. PolyMarket does not operate under US laws and I don't know if the same insider trading rules are a separate violation on top of just participating.

Why would Polymarket not operate under US laws? It's based in New York, and has already been fined by the CFTC. It's all in the wikipedia page. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymarket

I don't know the exact legality of it all, but Polymarket wasn't operating in the US up until recently. Even though they are now, they maintain two separate markets. One that is somewhat regulated in the USA and a blockchain based market outside the US. For most of its existence it has very much been offering things that were illegal in the US even though they are based in NY.
Post reply on HN