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

cnn.com

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

#701

Post by watwut »

Forgeties79 wrote: post #560
mpalczewski wrote: post #520

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Maduro was president of a sovereign country. It's funny how we accept the importance given to that statement. when he's just some dude who took control of a country and gave himself that title. As if the social construction means anything in this situation.

Honest question: Would you feel similarly if the shoe were on the other foot? If we had a hostile presidential takeover and another country, for reasons completely unrelated to that , showed up at the WH and executed this kind of “mission”? Maduro was a piece of…let’s keep this polite and say “work.” Everyone agrees. Does that mean what the US did was acceptable? There’s a lot of nuance and context being glossed over…

> Maduro was a piece of…let’s keep this polite and say “work.” Everyone agrees. Does that mean what the US did was acceptable?

Maduro was replaced by his equally unelected second. It is not as if Venezuela became democracy or something. Instead, a bunch of leaders got promotion including the main torturer.

I find it mind boggling that it is called regime change. Regime remained in place.

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

#702

Post by watwut »

troglodytetrain wrote: post #556
regularization wrote: post #488

Corruption means something legitimate is happening that can be corrupted. Maduro was president of a sovereign country. A bunch of kidnappers and murderers invaded the building he was in in Caracas, murdered everyone in the room, then kidnapped him and his wife. What's the "mission"? To pop up in some room and slaughter everyone in it, then kidnap his wife and him? In order to help steal the resources, billions of dol…

I guess thats one way to look at it. But thats morality for you. I'd just suggest maybe get less involved with the internet and as the kids say these days 'go touch some grass'. Because, frankly, I don't think the average, or even marginal Venezuelan would agree with you at all, as, they have actually had to deal with this dictator.

> Because, frankly, I don't think the average, or even marginal Venezuelan would agree with you at all, as, they have actually had to deal with this dictator.

They still have to deal with a dictator. Just one that is willing to pay extortion money to America. Venezuela did not had elections and has still the same regime in the same power.

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

#703

Post by gtowey »

Larrikin wrote: post #694
wholinator2 wrote: post #504

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the United States i suspect some portion of this is due to "legacy" admissions whereby some child is admitted to a competitive program or given very advantageous scholarships not because of their hard work and displayed competence, but because of their parents. I know that it will be very possible for my children to end up at ivy league if they take the legacy advantage I've given them, even though ivy league has…

Legacy admission was removed in response to affirmative action being destroyed by the Trump administration.

I'm not sure what you're trying to say here. They were not "removed", they were made to be disallowed if and only if the school wanted to receive a certain kind of government funding. Some schools have enough money that they can ignore this. Notably, Stanford said they would give up the funding to keep their policy of legacy admissions.

So the richest, most prestigious schools where legacy admissions are a gateway to the upper classes, will keep the policy.

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

#704

Post by kergonath »

vlan0 wrote: post #646
kergonath wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. What matters is not raw power, it’s balance. The power of one guy with guns is kept in check by the power of other guys with guns who stand to benefit from the status quo. The aristocracy’s game is to play with this balance to make sure that no other rival force emerges. They do…

This is true up until it isn't. Their security is through obscurity. Being able to deflect the masses. Manipulating the balance, if you will. But they are not special. They are still unprotected sacks of flesh. And we've recently seen just how vulnerable they are. If that desire spread, you will see more.

> This is true up until it isn't.

Indeed. Then, there’s a revolution and heads start rolling. But again, this does not happen when power disappears; it happens when the balance changes, e.g. when a significant chunk of the army sides with a part of the people.

> Their security is through obscurity

Not at all. They can be very blatant about it. Look at Iran for example. Or Russia. Everyone knows who controls what, there is nothing obscure about it.

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

#705

Post by epistasis »

hrimfaxi wrote: post #675
epistasis wrote: post #450

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would require a functioning legislative branch that could pass laws. However a major political program of the past decades has been to gum up Congress and prevent its functioning. There's very limited bandwidth to accomplish legislation, and there's hundreds of good fixes that can't fit through, so I doubt the US will be able to fix this anytime soon, unless there's bigger scandal.

This would make sense if Congress never passed laws. They can and routinely do. That they don't limit their behavior is unsurprising.

The passage of some laws is completely consistent with my description of a dysfunctional system that can not get many good reforms through.

Getting some bills passed does not equate to adequate legislative capacity.

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

#706

Post by SJC_Hacker »

kergonath wrote: post #381
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.

> 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. What matters is not raw power, it’s balance. The power of one guy with guns is kept in check by the power of other guys with guns who stand to benefit from the status quo. The aristocracy’s game is to play with this balance to make sure that no other rival force emerges. They do…

“You can always hire one half of the poor to kill the other half”

- someone

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

#707

Post by niyikiza »

Razengan wrote: post #358
Frieren wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only aristocrats can play that game. The soldier is being punished for doing something not allowed for his class status. This is how a caste system works. People is not judged based on their actions but their relationship to power.

> 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.

Reminds me of the riddle[1][2] from Game of Thrones / A Clash of Kings:

Lord Varys: Three great men sit in a room: a king, a priest, and a rich man. Between them stands a common sellsword. Each great man bids the sellsword kill the other two. Who lives, who dies? Tyrion Lannister: Depends on the sellsword. Lord Varys: Does it? He has neither crown, nor gold, nor favor with the gods. Tyrion Lannister: He has a sword, the power of life and death. Lord Varys: But if it's swordsmen who rule, why do we pretend kings hold all the power? When Ned Stark lost his head, who was truly responsible? Joffrey? The executioner? Or something else? Tyrion Lannister: I've decided I don't like riddles. [pause] Lord Varys: Power resides where men believe it resides. It's a trick. A shadow on the wall. And a very small man can cast a very large shadow.

[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2070135/characters/nm0384152/ [2] https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/503606-oh-i-think-not-varys...

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

#708

Post by BobBagwill »

ryandrake wrote: post #505
waterhouse wrote: post #469

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No matter how many have good grades, you can always pick the top n by grades—unless there's a ceiling that the top m > n have all hit. Which, if you're talking about "grades" as in GPA, is plausible. MCAT seems more relevant, though. According to Claude: "Roughly 0.1% or fewer of test-takers score a perfect 528 in any given year — typically only a few dozen individuals out of the ~120,000 or so who sit for the exam a…

I think OP's point was that the governing boards don't want the people with the top n grades. They want certain people, and by making the admissions criteria fuzzy, they can pick and choose those certain people and then say "well, our admission criteria is subjective," and "we are looking for 'well rounded people," and all kinds of other vague weasely ways to let them legitimately shape the student body in the way th…

One of my roommates who was premed had a "hot car" poster as a motivational study aid. After a short term as a candy striper at a local hospital, he changed majors. The system works! ;-)

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

#709

Post by Forgeties79 »

k12sosse wrote: post #683
cestith wrote: post #584

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In this scenario, is the person in the Oval Office a rapist, child molester, serial fraudster, corruptly manipulating stock markets, steering government money to his children’s own weapons companies, assassinating other world leaders, committing the war crime of declaring no quarter, committing the war crime of threatening to destroy all significant civilian infrastructure in another sovereign nation, committing the…

Don't forget his incontinence, and that whole literal bulldozing of your democratic institutions.

Incontinence can happen to anyone. No need to pick on things that people can’t control. Especially when he has so many legitimate targets to hit.

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

#710

Post by [deleted] »

ErneX wrote: post #607
regularization wrote: post #488

Corruption means something legitimate is happening that can be corrupted. Maduro was president of a sovereign country. A bunch of kidnappers and murderers invaded the building he was in in Caracas, murdered everyone in the room, then kidnapped him and his wife. What's the "mission"? To pop up in some room and slaughter everyone in it, then kidnap his wife and him? In order to help steal the resources, billions of dol…

He was the illegitimate president, he stole the last elections. Plenty of evidence of it. Add to that all the human rights crimes they committed (national guard death squads who killed in the thousands on the poorest areas of the country just to name one). This was investigated by the UN, led by Michelle Bachelet (former president of Chile).

[deleted]
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