Anthony Levandowski Pardoned • Hacker News Board

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#831

Post by war1025 » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 7:56 PM UTC

emn13 wrote: post #806

war1025 wrote: post #740

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> don't think the original senate had states that had 80X the representation by population, as we have today between CA and WY. I would argue the "false-positive" state that in this case is California. Imagine if the entire Eastern seaboard was divided into three States. That would be equally imbalanced.

Texas is only slightly smaller. But perhaps splitting both in 3 (or whatever) would be a good start. Or split any state that has more than 4% of the nations population (that would include FL and NY). Practical hacks like that might mitigate the imbalance, but really - the senate needs proportional representation too. It's OK that small states are slightly over-represented, but the current state of affairs is pretty c…

The House is supposed to represent the interests of the people. The Senate is supposed to represent the interests of the states.

Each state is supposed to be an equal member of the union, which is why they each get equal voice in the senate. Up until the early 1900s senators were appointed by state governments rather than being popularly elected.

It's sort of fallen out of fashion to identify strongly as a member of your state rather than just as a citizen of the United States, but I think this year has demonstrated that state governments still have a lot of influence and autonomy.

I for one have been very pleased with my state's handling of the situation and have been glad to live here rather than somewhere else.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#832

Post by ketamine__ » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 7:56 PM UTC

NelsonMinar wrote: post #519

It's weird to see the Republican party embrace intellectual property theft. Levandowski stole from his employer and his colleagues at Google to enrich himself at Uber. Why would that possibly be worth a pardon?

Can he be retried in state or local court?

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#833

Post by sixstringtheory » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 7:57 PM UTC

dionidium wrote: post #677

0xdde wrote: post #514

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People are basically the same as they always have been And you came to this conclusion without reading any history? This is too absolutist a statement. Sure, some things need to be relearned through experience, but there are also plenty of cases where you don't want to waste time reinventing the wheel.

The downvoters are thrashing a straw man. Obviously nobody believes you're supposed to recreate society every 20 years ex nihilo. What I'm arguing is that the case for reading history has been overstated. Specifically, I was reacting to the claim that, "Human behavior seems to be notoriously consistent across centuries." I agree. It is. Human beings react to the same emotions and incentives they always have and there…

> Human beings react to the same emotions and incentives they always have

And we know this... how? Studying history!

> and there's no library big enough to change that

Who's trying to change human nature? This is a strawman you are thrashing. Studying history is about understanding human nature, not changing it. Just like studying physics is about understanding projectile motion, not about changing the gravitational constant.

The idea behind studying history is that we use the insights gained from it to try to solve new challenges in reasonable ways, instead of ways we'd know were likely to fail if we'd just cracked open a book.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#834

Post by mcguire » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 7:57 PM UTC

emn13 wrote: post #433

DevX101 wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Constitution has some excellent checks and balances but the blanket pardon isn't one of them. The pardon doesn't do anything to address systemic problems in the justice system and has become a channel for doling out political favors.

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…

"And even that is more poorly executed than elsewhere, due to the political nature of judicial appointees, and esp. due to the tradition of direct elections of some judges."

How do you pick judges if you don't appoint them or elect them?

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#835

Post by joshuahaglund » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 7:58 PM UTC

coryfklein wrote: post #781

acdha wrote: post #774

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can say that when any significant percentage don’t follow him in lockstep. Very few elected officials are willing to disagree with him in public, most backed dishonest claims or opposition to public health measures, and he has high approval ratings from Republican voters: it’s his party.

Yes, but in the context of presidential pardons there is nothing the GOP can do to either back the president or not back the president. It doesn't make sense to attribute presidential pardons to The Republican Party when there is a sole individual who decides who to pardon and why. I'll point out that, now that Donald Trump is out of power, many in the GOP in general have been rather quick to turn their backs on him…

Come on, suicide? If you loose your job for saying "this is unethical" do you call that suicide? It's called having a backbone. "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor." These GOP folks who stood behind Trump but are now critical choose the side that's winning at the time rather than stand up for what's right.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#836

Post by sn_master » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 7:59 PM UTC

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #794

sn_master wrote: post #775

Earlier quoted context omitted.

James Robert Adelman? Teresa Clark?

OK, great: James Robert Adelman: pardoned after being convicted of embezzling from his company, sentenced to 12 years imprisonment, which he served . Teresa Clark: convicted of "Knowingly disposing of a firearm to a person convicted of a crime punishable by a term of imprisonment exceeding one year (three counts); falsification of firearms purchase forms (two counts)", sentenced to 3 years probation and 1 year of hou…

Point of pardon is to restore one's rights such as voting and gun ownership and eligibility for public and other positions. Commutation is only one aspect of pardon.

Most of yesterday's pardoned folks also either fully served or served a majority of their sentence.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#837

Post by sn_master » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 8:00 PM UTC

wnevets wrote: post #776

sn_master wrote: post #748

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So do I for you dismissing an entire administration as corrupt.

How exactly would you describe Anthony Levandowski's pardon?

Under the logic of picking a single bad example, every single US administration is corrupt.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#838

Post by koheripbal » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 8:02 PM UTC

coldtea wrote: post #268

koheripbal wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is how all non-violent criminals are treated. Many many prisoners were even released in the early days of the pandemic.

> This is how all non-violent criminals are treated. Not, all. Some are shot on the spot, despite being non-violent, unarmed, or even a kid playing. Others get life for "three strikes" (non violent).

Anecdotes are not useful in deciding policy, and trends do not show an unusual number of people of color being shot.

Also, three strikes laws apply to carrier criminals that commit repeated felonies, which in most states require at least one of those felonies to be violent and severely so.

https://freebeacon.com/issues/study-no-racial-difference-pol...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-strikes_law

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#839

Post by tacon » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 8:03 PM UTC

sn_master wrote: post #587

NelsonMinar wrote: post #519

It's weird to see the Republican party embrace intellectual property theft. Levandowski stole from his employer and his colleagues at Google to enrich himself at Uber. Why would that possibly be worth a pardon?

I can say similar things about many of the Obama pardons, but I'll get downvoted into oblivion if I do so. Pardon is by definition an admission of guilt, and Levandowski has already paid a steep price for what he did.

>Pardon is by definition an admission of guilt

That is one of the oldest myths about pardons. While you do not have to accept a pardon, your acceptance is not an admission of guilt. All the soldiers in the Confederacy did not have to admit their guilt. All the Vietnam draft dodgers did not have to admit their guilt. And Caspar Weinberger did not admit his guilt when Bush 41 pardoned him, because neither thought he had committed a crime.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/five-myths/five-myths...

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#840

Post by sanderjd » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 8:03 PM UTC

sn_master wrote: post #587

NelsonMinar wrote: post #519

It's weird to see the Republican party embrace intellectual property theft. Levandowski stole from his employer and his colleagues at Google to enrich himself at Uber. Why would that possibly be worth a pardon?

I can say similar things about many of the Obama pardons, but I'll get downvoted into oblivion if I do so. Pardon is by definition an admission of guilt, and Levandowski has already paid a steep price for what he did.

Which ones?