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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

#731

Post by jjmarr »

triceratops wrote: post #727
jjmarr wrote: post #726

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No matter how many have good grades, you can always pick the top n by grades. Which, if you're talking about "grades" as in GPA, is plausible. I live in Ontario and we're there. 40% of Waterloo students had above a 95% average in high school. The average GPA to get into UofT med school is 3.94/4.00 GPA. What has happened as a result is students killing themselves and each other. If you fail one test in any course,…

Too many kids want to be doctors and have the grades for it? That's an opportunity, not a problem. Training more doctors is just never an option for some reason. Don't build systems that reward amoral psychopaths.

We've opened a new med school after a decade of planning. 1.5% acceptance rate.

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

#732

Post by rithdmc »

Pay08 wrote: post #548
rithdmc wrote: post #515

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You really need to read up on your history. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47888542

The suffragette movement was hardly a revolution in the traditional sense.

Giving so many people the ability to vote was absolutely a fundamental shift in the social, political, or societal order, so is absolutely a traditional revolution. This is just the 'no true scotsman' argument.

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

#733

Post by globalnode »

renticulous wrote: post #421
globalnode wrote: post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

soldiers are disposable, they prolly threw him under the bus hoping that would be the end of the matter and they could walk away with the rest of the money.

Most Americans Can't Afford This Basic...Commodity? https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Zzwp_Ypsi9I

Very funny, thanks for adding that to my list of cynical ideas.

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

#734

Post by HDThoreaun »

themafia wrote: post #719
ghtbircshotbe wrote: post #714

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you provide a reference? From a Reuters article: > prosecutors said Van Dyke bet more than $33,000 on Polymarket between December 27, 2025, and January 2, 2026, that Maduro would soon be out of office and that U.S. forces would soon enter Venezuela Maduro was taken on January 3. https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-soldier-charged-...

Unless someone knows the bets are placed by an insider how does this create any sort of risk?

Incentivizes him to take on more risk to ensure mission success.

When someone bets 32k that a political opponent of the US is going to be kidnapped I think its fair to say some will assume it was placed by an insider.

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

#735

Post by HDThoreaun »

tranceylc wrote: post #588
fsckboy wrote: post #490

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's a blatant double standard if you have evidence of people "doing it and getting away with it", but you don't, you just suspect it. and it's scapegoating if blame is centered on a person or group to explain away the totality of a widespread (or made up) problem, and that is also not happening here, instead "a person did something" and got arrested.

I don’t understand the point of denying reality when it unfolds in front of you. Plenty of evidence for these things. Denial of obvious truth is an American epidemic and cultural export

The point is that none of the congressional cases would end in a conviction. So unless you want to suspend rule of law theres not really much we can do without some hard evidence.

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

#736

Post by scoofy »

CodeMage wrote: post #561
ghtbircshotbe wrote: post #437

Many people here are talking about how more powerful people are also corrupt and are getting away with it. All corruption is bad. This soldier put the life of everyone on the mission in danger by doing this.

> All corruption is bad. This is true, just like "all lives matter" is true, and it misses the point in the exact same way. Those people you are replying to are not saying that this soldier should get away with his corruption because more powerful people are getting away with theirs. They are saying that those who abuse greater power are doing greater harm, and that their corruption should be punished with greater ur…

Two wrongs don't make a right. Legitimizing small time corruption because bigger corruption exists just legitimizes corrupt behavior in general. It should be offensive no matter who does it.

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

#737

Post by CodeMage »

scoofy wrote: post #736
CodeMage wrote: post #561

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> All corruption is bad. This is true, just like "all lives matter" is true, and it misses the point in the exact same way. Those people you are replying to are not saying that this soldier should get away with his corruption because more powerful people are getting away with theirs. They are saying that those who abuse greater power are doing greater harm, and that their corruption should be punished with greater ur…

Two wrongs don't make a right. Legitimizing small time corruption because bigger corruption exists just legitimizes corrupt behavior in general. It should be offensive no matter who does it.

I have to ask: did you read what I wrote before you replied to me? I know the question might come across as an attack, but it's not. I'm genuinely curious about what process lead to your comment being a reply to mine, when mine explicitly states the following:

> Those people you are replying to are not saying that this soldier should get away with his corruption because more powerful people are getting away with theirs. They are saying that those who abuse greater power are doing greater harm, and that their corruption should be punished with greater urgency.

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

#738

Post by b0rtb0rt »

HDThoreaun wrote: post #734
themafia wrote: post #719

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless someone knows the bets are placed by an insider how does this create any sort of risk?

Incentivizes him to take on more risk to ensure mission success. When someone bets 32k that a political opponent of the US is going to be kidnapped I think its fair to say some will assume it was placed by an insider.

he was more incentivized for the mission to succeed? how horrible!

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

#739

Post by scoofy »

CodeMage wrote: post #737
scoofy wrote: post #736

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two wrongs don't make a right. Legitimizing small time corruption because bigger corruption exists just legitimizes corrupt behavior in general. It should be offensive no matter who does it.

I have to ask: did you read what I wrote before you replied to me? I know the question might come across as an attack, but it's not. I'm genuinely curious about what process lead to your comment being a reply to mine, when mine explicitly states the following: > Those people you are replying to are not saying that this soldier should get away with his corruption because more powerful people are getting away with thei…

I did read it. Your point is effectively irrelevant. It means the same thing. Creating an "urgency chain" is effectively the same thing as justifying behavior.

It's like saying "we shouldn't worry about enforcing traffic laws because we need to use our resources to bring war criminals to justice" when the reason where not bringing war criminals to justice isn't for lack of concern, it's just that we have no coercive power.

Caring about prioritizing things where we do not have coercive power is pointless.

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

#740

Post by jjk166 »

Pay08 wrote: post #509
jjk166 wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Return? We never had a reign of terror. There have been hundreds of peaceful revolutions.

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

I am familiar with the Reign of Terror, which gets capitalized because of it's singular uniqueness, but I am also not an 18th century French peasant, or a Frenchman at all for that matter. I doubt most of the people on this thread are either. When I say "we" I am referring to an immensely large group of people for whom "the revolution" refers to an event which did not include a reign of terror.
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