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Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

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Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#641
post #539

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I voted for Trump because his policies more closely align with my beliefs than any other candidate on my ballot. I am very disappointed in his response to the election results after it was clear there wasn't proof of enough fraud to change the result, and I'm very disappointed in the pardons.

Please stop down voting posts like this. If we want HN to remain a welcome space for civil discourse for everyone, we need to respect other people's candid statements. Remember, Trump won 47% of the popular vote which likely includes a large number of HNers. We should not alienate those people.

"I invested with Bernie Madoff because his returns matched my investment goals". Yes, knowing why someone got conned is itself valuable information. But standing on its own, it reads as an endorsement.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#642

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I voted for Trump because his policies more closely align with my beliefs than any other candidate on my ballot. I am very disappointed in his response to the election results after it was clear there wasn't proof of enough fraud to change the result, and I'm very disappointed in the pardons.

I hope you are disappointed in yourself for having beliefs that align with a fascist who incited an insurrection against the United States.

Not that disappointed, I bet.

Same old story. "I'm shocked, shocked that there's gambling going on!"

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#643

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

Here is my wild speculation:

- Trump can't afford making more enemies in the intelligence community, or simply does not want to.

- Assange and Snowden are libertarians' heroes, but libertarians didn't even vote for Trump this time, right? The percent of libertarians voting for an independent candidate was larger than the gap between Trump and Biden, even though Trump was probably the most libertarian president in the past 30 years. For instance, Trump refused to expand federal government's power during Covid, and he deregulated a lot to defer policies to states. Not that I like or dislike Trump's policy, mind you -- just my assessment. So, Trump may simply ignored the requests to pardon Assange and Snowden.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#644
post #482

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

Why WOULD Trump pardon assange or snowden?

To do what's right for Freedom and The People, as he continually claimed but never actually followed through on.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#645

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently only 2 million - https://www.businessinsider.com/giuliani-associate-reportedl...

If this is true, then Trump has made what? At least 100 million dollars? I hate the man but I can't help but respect him on some level for gaming the system so well!

Pretty sure Giuliani is just pocketing the money since Trump stopped paying him his legal fees and Rudy probably just wanted to come up with a new vertical.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#646
post #500

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's ignorant, it's just another framework of looking at the world. Consider a chessboard that's in the middle of a game. The moves up to that point don't matter. Only the current state of the board matters and you make the best move given the current position. This is how this person sees technological progress, and I'm inclined to believe he's right... within the context of technology. Beyond that, I…

In an ideal sense that’s true, but to use your analogy to make the opposite argument: consider someone that has no knowledge of what kinds of moves where made previously in this chess game and other historic chess games, even though theoretically they can figure out a good move given enough time to read the board but that is prohibitively infeasible. On the other hand it is people who have studied games of chess play…

I do like this take.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#647
post #417

It's important to note the reason the President has the power to pardon anyone for any reason is it's one of the checks and balances, the Constitution is full of them. It's meant as a check to blunt overzealous prosecutions. Note that the President does not have the corresponding power to convict anyone. An interesting set of pardons was when Andrew Johnson pardoned all the rebels in the Confederacy, including Jeffer…

Sorry to break it to you, but as with many things in the US constitution, the reason the President can pardon people is because it's a modified copy of the British constitutional system of the time. The House is Parliament, the Senate is the House of Lords, and the president can pardon people because King George III could and the office of the presidency is a limited term elected kingship. Executive orders are Royal…

Constitution also grants the power to suspend the constitution

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#648
post #506
post #433

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This myth that the US constitution is in any way "good" is weird. It's one of the earliest; and fortunately others leared from its mistakes. Including the US itself, when it had considerable influence in drafting the WW2 losers constitutions, which uncoincidentally are quite different from the US. Checks and balances essentially don't work in the US. The best bit is simply a decent judiciary, but that was mostly copi…

I strongly disagree. A check and balance has been on great display in recent weeks. A President has stated, "the election was a fraud, I should get another term". Congress has stated, "the election was correct. Moreover, we may choose to prevent you from holding office ever again." The judiciary agrees. That Congress is likely to deadlock is arguably a feature, not a bug. (That voters don't demand better from their c…

On nixon: might well be. But it's never happened so far, and that's because congress is hyper deadlocked by design and a ridiculously high bar of non-proportionally-represented senators need to agree to convict. Just compare that to other democracies that can switch their executive with a simple majority in one house, yet remain stable.

As to congresses deadlock being a feature: it may well have been intentional; but it's pretty plausibly a long term fatal blow. Countries need to be able to evolve, and when small minorities can prevent that (and we're not their yet, but it's moving that way), you're creating really perverse incentives for horse trading, leading to really low quality law making, and thus low respect for congress. It's not out of the question that this might lead to the nation's dissolution in our lifetimes - what happens when elections are legally stolen?

On impeachment: we'll see what happens with trump who happens to be a perfect case to check whether this feature of the constitution is more than hot air; but given how stacked the deck is against conviction, I'm not holding my breath - and if it's not going to happen now, it never will - not only was he utterly shameless in undermining the election (knowing full well that democracy is worth fighting for, i.e. raising tensions dangerously) and addition literally using combative language and calling for as close to a stormin of the capitol as possible while trying to retain plausible deniability, we're also just post election that shifted the balance of the senate against him. This is pretty much the best case scenario for an impeachment, and it's far from a sure thing.

Additionally, the current election was upheld largely because of states still sticking to extra-legal solid traditions. Those however, are not constitutionally protected; i.e. what worked was american culture & tradition (sometimes backed by state law), not really the american constitution. I mean, for scale: it's easier to throw out an election than a president, which is absolutely Not Ok.

Some of your other objections relate to tradition, e.g. such as puerto rico not being a state. This has nothing to do with the constitution; this is purely a political tradition. And indeed; many traditions are fine - while I think there's no question on the specific instance of puerto rico deserving statehood, the point is that the constitutional bar is very low despite the fact that it allows senate packing. A malicious populist could easily abuse that, if convenient, were it not for the real protection: tradition&culture, not the constitution.

The US has a solid set of traditions and an extremely civic culture; and that's why it works - not because of the constitution.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#649
post #593

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read some reporting that the going rate was only $20k, 10 up front and 10 after.

link?

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/17/us/politics/trump-pardons...

Sorry, it was 100k, 50 up front:

"A onetime top adviser to the Trump campaign was paid $50,000 to help seek a pardon for John Kiriakou, a former C.I.A. officer convicted of illegally disclosing classified information, and agreed to a $50,000 bonus if the president granted it, according to a copy of an agreement."

And this is not to trump, but rather to his groupies to talk to him on your behalf. At least on paper.

Still, probably a good value if you actually get it.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#650
post #593

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.

I read some reporting that the going rate was only $20k, 10 up front and 10 after.

I'm a little bit confused.. I am ecuadorian (efefctively 3rd world), we manage ourselves in dollars. I live in a somewhat affluent side of a main city, even tho I am not rich myself, and on a daily basis I see cars which are 50k+, one behind the other. Even though this people are corrupt (most of them, tax evasion, etc..), I'd argue that US corruption would be on another different scale... 20k for a presidential pardon from the president of the US, that's the price of a Chinese manufactured brand new car.
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