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Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

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Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#741

Post by ajross »

Karrot_Kream wrote: post #734
ajross wrote: post #584

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> these past few administrations I remain amazed at how, again and again, no matter how specific and unique an abuse by the Trump administration is, it is always, invariably, Really Joe Biden's Fault. Like, the frame has been adopted by the MAGA base, but also the cranky left. The media does it too. Here on HN bothsidesism is a shibboleth that denotes "I'm a Serious Commenter and not a Partisan Hack". But it leads to…

When Obama really increased the number of pardons, a lot of contemporary opinion writers said stuff along the lines of "this is a dangerous precedent and we're lucky that the pardons are fairly popular and sane." Now we're seeing unpopular, not sane pardons. When democratic norms erode like pardons becoming more acceptable, it's like laying tinder and kindling for a fire. You still need a fire; a bad actor who is wil…

I don't buy it. A president that will literally direct his AG in public to prosecute his political enemies is simply not bound by norms, period. To pretend that he'd never have pardoned Zhao but for Obama's "increased number of pardons" is, to be blunt, ridiculous on its face.

And in context, you're doing exactly what I mocked above, tut tutting about civil behavior and norms and The Discourse while the system burns down around you.

But don't worry! You can always take solace in the fact that it was Really Barack Hussein Obama's Fault.

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#742

Post by CamperBob2 »

khazhoux wrote: post #729
CamperBob2 wrote: post #691

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the direct approach to Trump or his inner circle would be ideal, considering how crowded the field of professional grifters and griefers surrounding him is. You'd really have to stand out to get noticed. But they've recently lost a key connection to the broader MAGA youth movement. A quick-witted young person with good public-speaking skills and a psychopath's morals could step into that role without mu…

Dude, that's a lot of work. I don't think any of us can become the next Charlie Kirk just to ride a quick drift. It's gotta be more low-effort and high-confidence. I'm thinking more like: incorporate a company with a mission of "Providing AI without woke bias." The product would be simply GPT-OSS behind a system prompt of "You are a Fox News host" and a simple guardrail, wraped in a generic web and mobile UI. It'd be…

And going head-to-head with Elon Musk and Grok isn't a lot of work? You need an angle, something he either hasn't thought of or isn't (yet) brave enough to embrace publicly. Me, I got nothing.

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#743

Post by hackyhacky »

brianwawok wrote: post #676
Terr_ wrote: post #657

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There should be a limit There is, and the Constitution says the limit is impeachment and removal from office by Congress. That won't happen unless we fix how we talk about the ones responsible, to wit: The Republican Party pardoned these criminals. The Republican Party is snatching Americans off the streets. The Republican Party is using the military to murder people on boats. The Republican Party is demolishing do…

I don’t think the majority of voting Americans have problems with any of those acts though. Think Joe you pass in Walmart cares about what happens to the White House ballroom?

> Think Joe you pass in Walmart cares about what happens to the White House ballroom?

Joe in Walmart thinks what Facebook memes and Fox News tell him to think. The same subversive forces that support the administration's lawlessness control the media diet of a plurality of Americans.

If you want Americans to care about wants going on, you have to inform them about it first.

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#744

Post by joyeuse6701 »

txcwg002 wrote: post #726
Havoc wrote: post #50

Coffeezilla video about this is up already https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMEJTORMVN4

What do you think of this counterpoint from Balaji? "CZ deserves his pardon. His show trial of a prosecution was a combination of regulatory railroading and ethnic persecution for being Chinese-Canadian. Imagine if Macron was held personally responsible for every crime committed by the 67M citizens of France, and you'll get the absurdity of holding CZ personally responsible for the actions of a few of the 250M+ Binan…

Comparing gov’t officials to civilians is a stupid comparison.

Biden abolishing police is hyperbole.

CZ enabled a lot of dark shit. He is somehow simultaneously so powerful as to help millions of Chinese, but powerless to do anything about a few thousand of criminals and pedophiles?

This is not a serious take.

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#745

Post by hackyhacky »

cherrycherry98 wrote: post #710
johnnyanmac wrote: post #690

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They were fed "waste fraud and abuse" in the beginning of the year. and suddenly it happens in broad daylight and people shrug? At this point it's just brainwashing. Some people's principals are clearly less about their own conviction and treating all this like a sports team. Whoever team "wins", even if the stadium burns down around them.

It's privately funded so it doesn't fit under "waste, fraud, and abuse" in the same vein as things that use taxpayer money. Conflict of interest by attempting to curry favor for his vanity project by making donations? That's a fair criticism.

> It's privately funded so it doesn't fit under "waste, fraud, and abuse" in the same vein as things that use taxpayer money.

Does Trump paying himself $230 million in taxpayer dollars in compensation for his various criminal prosecutions fit under "waste, fraud, and abuse"?

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#746

Post by joyeuse6701 »

sagarm wrote: post #721
noisy_boy wrote: post #647

There should be a limit on the number of pardons a president can do during their tenure so that they have to at least think a bit before using it. It is a very powerful tool that actually allows a last resort. But this kind of egregious abuse of it's power means it needs to be kept in check.

Lincoln pardoned basically the entire Confederacy. I'm not sure what the expert opinion is on that but it seems legit.

Well, after killing many of them.

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#747

Post by nine_zeros »

selcuka wrote: post #711
actionfromafar wrote: post #563

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way this is going, the President won’t need using any pardon powers, because the judges will all ask the President what the judgement should be in advance. And the prosecutors will ask who to prosecute. Finally only fair justice!

This is currently how it works in some countries that are supposed to be (and were) democratic. Sadly the US is moving in the same direction.

*has moved

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#748

Post by [deleted] »

amanaplanacanal wrote: post #720
khazhoux wrote: post #666

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes! This will be the time they finally push back on Trump.

Midterms are coming up next year. If they are afraid their association with Trump might take them down, they'll crack. Honestly I suspect fear of Trump is really their only motivation right now.

[deleted]

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#749

Post by Terr_ »

johnnyanmac wrote: post #690
brianwawok wrote: post #676

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think the majority of voting Americans have problems with any of those acts though. Think Joe you pass in Walmart cares about what happens to the White House ballroom?

They were fed "waste fraud and abuse" in the beginning of the year. and suddenly it happens in broad daylight and people shrug? At this point it's just brainwashing. Some people's principals are clearly less about their own conviction and treating all this like a sports team. Whoever team "wins", even if the stadium burns down around them.

> Some people's principals

Another (more charitable?) explanation is they just never make the connection:

> It’s easy to find authoritarians endorsing inconsistent ideas. Just present slogans and appeals to homey values, and then present slogans and bromides that invoke opposite values. The yea-saying authoritarian follower is likely to agree with all of them. Thus I asked both students and their parents to respond to, “When it comes to love, men and women with opposite points of view are attracted to each other.” Soon afterwards, in the same booklet, I pitched “Birds of a feather flock together when it comes to love.” High [Right-Wing Authoritarian scorers] typically agreed with both statements, even though they responded to the two items within a minute of each other.

-- https://theauthoritarians.org/ (2006 ebook)

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#750

Post by case »

squidgyhead wrote: post #705
noisy_boy wrote: post #647

There should be a limit on the number of pardons a president can do during their tenure so that they have to at least think a bit before using it. It is a very powerful tool that actually allows a last resort. But this kind of egregious abuse of it's power means it needs to be kept in check.

Or just not have pardons at all.

This.
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