Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't let Trump pardon anyone? People are outraged because it is outrageous.
Or better yet, prosecute corruption.
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Trump pardons convicted Binance founder
961–970 of 1001 posts
Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder
#962Earlier quoted context omitted.
And we're ok with murdering dozens of people that might maybe have some kind of drugs on them? In peacetime? Without evidence? Outside of our own territory/water? We're lucky Venezuela hasn't attacked us back yet.
> Without evidence? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45693880
True. Sometimes they hunt for the Titanic.
Do you also assume all black SUVs with tinted windows are drug smugglers? Because it's the same level of evidence. ie: it isn't.
Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder
#963Earlier quoted context omitted.
The U.S. is running an outdated installation of democracy. The French approach of just rebooting and reinstalling the entire thing seems like a good idea at this point. Except the populace is already badly split into warring camps.
For better or worse, the US constitution does not have provisions or a process for dissolving itself and developing a new constitution. The closest thing we have is the amendment process. In theory we could use that to rewrite the entirety of the constitution[0], but good luck getting the required votes in place on any possible replacement. The bar is pretty high: amendments need to be proposed by either a vote of 2/…
So theoretically if any one of the party in american system gets 2/3rd people of the same party and they all agree to one person and try to amend the constitution itself to add whatever they want, can't they theoretically create a purest form of dictatorship (one which lasts forever instead of just 5 years)
I mean given how much is already happening in America, I am just curious from a legal standpoint if there could be done something like that (forgetting the insane backlash but still), what could the president of america do to completely sieze the constitution ?
Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder
#964Earlier quoted context omitted.
Pardons by American presidents: - Bill Clinton: 459 - George W. Bush: 200 - Barack Obama: 1,927 - Donald Trump (first term): 237 - Joe Biden: 4,245 - Donald Trump (second term): 1,600 Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_pardoned_or_gra...
Numbers matter less than reasons. We should be asking why, not how many.
Would you be saying the same if the numbers were different?
Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder
#965There 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.
Right, the ability to pardon is a diplomatic tool. Sad that it's being used as a get your buddies out of jail free
card or a way to collect donations.
I think at this point whatever policy differences between us are probably secondary to just putting people in power, literally anyone, who aren't so corrupt it would be called too heavy handed in fiction.
Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder
#966Earlier quoted context omitted.
Numbers matter less than reasons. We should be asking why, not how many.
Would you be saying the same if the numbers were different?
Yes? Our boy in the big top hat pardoned the entire Confederacy—he's Pardons—Georg. Nobody would be dumb enough to use number of pardons to argue Lincoln was corrupt or abusing power.
4000 of Biden's pardons were mass pardons. 1500 of Trump's second term pardons are also a mass pardon of Jan 6, a decision I completely agree with. I would have pardoned them too because people were losing their minds over it to the point of not being able to be productive anymore. Honestly I feel the same way about the stupid laptop thing, you all clearly can't be normal about it so I'm ending it.
Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder
#967Earlier quoted context omitted.
Changpeng Zhao broke the law and got caught. Everyone agrees on that. What you present above is revisionist history about "political persecution," which is the favorite justification of the current administration for pardoning convicted felons, even in the total absence of any evidence supporting a conclusion of political persecution. See also George Santos, J6 rioters, etc. I don't think it's really necessary to pre…
You sound biased. If you believe this narrative, I got a few questions for you… - How was Binance any different than any other crypto exchange? - Should Coinbase and every other crypto platform be charged for the same crimes?
Coinbase had the "right" kind of people on their board, and reacted much more rapidly to KYC requirements. For good or for ill, that's the reality.
The real question is about Kraken. How they've managed to remain untouched is a mystery.
Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder
#968Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sorry, this is not true. All financial institutions are required to have AML controls, which cost a lot of money. These controls are mostly performative, but Binance wildly flouted them. This pardon means that basically no crypto company needs to worry about AML now, which is bad for the world. The reason that nobody gets convicted for this is because they have somewhat adequate controls, whereas Binance basically we…
The point being, no money laundering was pointed out to the court, although I sure this happened to some scale. Binance works with the police, before and after the conviction, it's not a laundromat like some Russian cryptocurrency exchanges. But you are right the AML controls were weak, and CZ was convicted for this. KYC requirements arrived to Binance very late. But they were not convicted of fraud (like Sam Bankman…
Binance also had internal communication that specifically told personnel to ignore certain AML rules and certain customers.
Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder
#969Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would add that SBF was at one point the 2nd largest donor to Democrats.
SBF/FTX was also a massive donor (using customer money) to Republicans. They routed that money through Ryan Salame, I guess to avoid appearing to be as unprincipled as they actually were. The common theme to the donations ("payoff" or "bribe" might be more accurate), whether to D or R was to weaken any push for crypto regulations.
Actually the opposite. SBF was lobbying for crypto regulations. Of course those regulations would benefit FTX as an incumbent.
Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder
#970Earlier quoted context omitted.
Regarding your first point - how about George Santos? I suspect Santos was more well known than any of the crypto-scammers, was clearly guilty, was derided by both ends if the political spectrum - yet Trump commuted him.
Commute != pardon. Santos is still convicted and guilty of all of those charges. He just doesn't have to serve the rest of the sentence. I'm not sure if those were felony charges, but if they were and he's in a state that doesn't allow felons to vote... A pardon makes it all go away. None of the baggage of convictions follow. Finding a job or a place to live is something they can do, as well as voting again.
By not pardoning, the state can't recharge them.