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Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

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Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#661

Post by dcolkitt »

noisy_boy wrote: post #566

Whats up with sprinkling of "xyz is an upstanding citizen and father to n beautiful children." ? They are clearly not an upstanding citizen - otherwise they wouldn't require a presidential pardon. Being father to children is not an achievement and any two consenting healthy adult man and woman can produce them irrespective of their standing in society. And beauty of children is a criteria for pardon now? What if the…

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 strongly updates my priors about their character.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#662

Post by floatrock »

noisy_boy wrote: post #566

Whats up with sprinkling of "xyz is an upstanding citizen and father to n beautiful children." ? They are clearly not an upstanding citizen - otherwise they wouldn't require a presidential pardon. Being father to children is not an achievement and any two consenting healthy adult man and woman can produce them irrespective of their standing in society. And beauty of children is a criteria for pardon now? What if the…

It sets the narrative on relatable humanizing neighborly fluff in order to dodge the messy grey reality of the world.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#663

Post by mlazos »

knuthsat wrote: post #525
tomComb wrote: post #495

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they get rich by selling books and speeches I have no problem with that, and am surprised by the number that do. People might not like that, but it isn't corruption. If, on the other hand, a president makes his presidency about doing favours for the rich and powerful then he won't have to write books and speeches afterwards.

I have a problem with that. It shows moral corruption. It's not corruption in the legal sense but outlines the issue of why the pardons do not make sense. ex-POTUS is still an influential individual and is just profiting after the binds of the position are lifted. I think it would be a pretty nice decree to disallow the president to become extremely wealthy X years after presidency. Let the influence slowly fade and…

Honestly most former presidents do “good work” in this sense. The power is gone so now there’s less outside influence. This law seems arbitrary and has no purpose, there’s like 4-5 former presidents alive at a time? This “problem” is at the bottom of my list of problems that need solving.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#665

Post by warkdarrior »

twox2 wrote: post #500
leto_ii wrote: post #436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "But what already happened doesn’t really matter. You don’t need to know that history to build on what they made. In technology, all that matters is tomorrow." To me this is a mind-numbing display of ignorance. Once you understand that you're not the first human being to ever have existed and that the people that came before you (even way before) are not dumber than you, you will immediately realize that there's a…

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…

> 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.

That is an immensely myopic view. Analyzing the game up to now and understanding the opponent's style of play and tactical preferences are very useful in planning your next move, especially when you have multiple, equally weighted choices.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#666

Post by listenallyall »

klmadfejno wrote: post #537
vmception wrote: post #437

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pay attention to that list, each pardon has a list of people who supported each pardon. Nobody from the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the ACLU is on that list. We are wasting our time and energy caring about either of those organizations. Let them stick to filing Amicus Briefs in courts, but they clearly have no pull or influence or backchannel despite our tech scene thinking they do.

I don't think I can think of any non-profit more deserving of donations than the ACLU in my opinion.

pre-2010 ACLU? sure. The current ACLU, where free speech isn't absolute, but must be weighed against upsetting the apple cart on other issues? nope.

https://www.axios.com/aclu-leaked-memo-free-speech-civil-rig...

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#667

Post by dgellow »

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.

You don’t remember the NSA director lying under oath in front of the Congress about the exact crimes Snowden revealed?

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#668

Post by barbacoa »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #496
dgellow wrote: post #363

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

I just wonder why. It seemed like pardoning Assange and Snowden could win him a huuuge bonus to popularity among people all over the world. Perhaps that was considered "too much" and could probably imply worse consequences so he hesitated to.

I think Trump is afraid of pissing off the establishment. The FBI has been criminally investigating Trump literally his entire time as president. The Mueller investigation is over but the SDNY office is still investigating his finances hoping to find something they can nail him on.

It's also been reported that Mitch McConnell threatened to support the impeachment if he pardons Assange. Though this claim has not been substantiated.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#669

Post by neilparikh »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #596
fleshdaddy wrote: post #577

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You realize Snowden didn’t just dump all of these documents on a torrent site right? Given that he’s not a professional journalist and was risking his freedom he grabbed what he could and took it to reputable journalists to do the work of ensuring the leak doesn’t endanger others without a good reason. What else do you expect him to do? If he’d gone to a superior he’d be rotting in jail and we would have no evidence…

>If he’d gone to a superior he’d be rotting in jail and we would have no evidence of mass surveillance in this country. Everyone says this but it's pure conjecture. We don't know what would have happened and now we never will.

There are known cases of people trying to raise concerns through the correct channels and still facing retaliation. For example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_A._Drake

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#670

Post by beaugunderson »

dcolkitt wrote: post #661
noisy_boy wrote: post #566

Whats up with sprinkling of "xyz is an upstanding citizen and father to n beautiful children." ? They are clearly not an upstanding citizen - otherwise they wouldn't require a presidential pardon. Being father to children is not an achievement and any two consenting healthy adult man and woman can produce them irrespective of their standing in society. And beauty of children is a criteria for pardon now? What if the…

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
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