37 comments

[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 83.3 ms ] thread
Ongoing discussion (375 points, 9 hours ago, 300 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43045835
Is this account an AI bot? The only comments it posts are like this.
If it's a bot, it could self identify as such. In any case, it's a useful service. Maybe a regular user with some automated karma farming.
These "experts" have/had access to the most sensitive data.

Highly illegal[1] but sadly once the dust clears and Elon finally gets prosecuted he will receive a pardon.

We do not live in a fair society, it's as clear as night and day that the most powerful will never face the consequences of their crimes.

[1] https://youtu.be/GaZ7g0mPhLA?si=3ESWpntjJDishHD9

The last president literally pardoned his son for “offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024.”

Despite four years of saying he would absolutely not do this. Not even for a specific crime either - just a blanket decade of immunity.

Enough of your partisan bickering; it goes both ways.

Exactly, the pardon power should be taken away from the president and moved into a non partisan committee or something like that for these innocent rotting in prison.

It should also be illegal (which it is as far as I know) to retaliate against your political enemies.

Well, in that case, that’s great news for Elon Musk. If Kamala wins the next election, according to you, it should be illegal to retaliate against him.
That's not the same thing. Prosecuting someone for a crime they committed should always be done but firing someone for doing their jobs (FBI investigating j6) should not be allowed. Unless of course you broke the law at your job.
Well, that’s also great news for Elon Musk and Trump; they are arguing their political retaliation is also merely the investigation of crime; and frankly, just look at Hunter’s laptop in any tabloid, and it’s patently clear there is at least some truth to this (it’s not black-and-white). At some point the line is completely gray and politically up to opinion.
Civil servants (as are FBI agents) should be protected from arbitrary dismissal. The only exception I can imagine is political appointees, which can misplace their loyalty on the person who nominated them over the country.
Biden may beat Kamala again in the 2028 primaries and get elected just like he did in 2020.
So it's okay that anybody in Trump's White House can break any law? I disagreed with Biden pardoning his son and I disagree with this.
(comment deleted)
yes, left leaning people are now pretending like every thing is bad
The political pressure being applied was already extraordinary relative to the charges, had the current administration not been making more serious threats toward the exiting president's family then the pardon wouldn't have been necessary.

Leaving this context out is poor faith.

He also pardoned Anthony Fauci, Mark Milley, his brother, his sister, their spouses; but curiously, if this argument held water, why did he not pardon Jack Smith?
These are all people the incoming trump administration had threatened
It had nothing to do with Trump making it clear he would go after Bidens family...
There is such a large gulf between the two you could name it the Gulf of America. This false equivalence "both sides"-ism is ridiculous when one side is actively harming America which will remain for probably an entire generation to come.
Both sides are actively harming America in ways that will remain for more than a generation. The growing deficit will force us to devalue the dollar, which will remove the status of global reserve currency. This inevitably is going to raise the price of imports, which is why both sides are focusing on reshoring strategic manufacturing.

Currently we are getting a pass because all currencies are being devalued, and ours is devaluing slower than others. Growing deficits might cause us to devalue faster, or economic recovery might push foreign currencies into a stronger position.

EDIT: I’m not arguing that both sides are the same, or that one side isn’t better than the other. I’m arguing that neither side is taking our long term interests to heart.

You've got the causality backwards. Pulling back from the world and ending the US as a source of stability will destroy the status of global reserve currency. And the focus on the "deficit" (which tacitly ignores all the artificially-cheap loans given to the financial industry by the Federal Reserve) is just a kayfabe partisan point rather than a real analysis. In actuality that high price inflation from the first Trump term caused the first shred of fiscal responsibility from the Fed that we've seen in over two decades. Our country would be in a much better state if monetary creation could have continued with deliberate spending on domestic industry rather than being directed back at the everything bubble plus some magical-thinking tariffs.
they aren't very intelligent and have the inability to read news sources produced outside of the US.

why waste your time

Define "America". Your side believes that a billion people from all over the world could come here and it would still be "America" so I'm not sure what you even mean when you say someone is "actively harming" it.
Just yesterday a New York AG resigned because she was forced to drop a case. There won't be a prosecution of Elon.
The next admin probably would but that won't work if he gets one of those proactive pardons.
Unless a way is found to prevent pardons like these. They should never be used to protect members of the administration, or should not prevent investigations (actually, being proactively pardoned, one shouldn't be able plead the fifth).

OTOH, I understand why Biden pardoned his son - the incoming administration would absolutely crucify him for whatever they wanted. Just the effect of publicly accusing him without evidence already creates safety risks.

Which brings up another topic - public figures, elected or not, should be held accountable for their public communications in proportion to their impact.

Or we’ll have to wait 1,436 days before the prosecution starts.
Do you think Elon's relationship with Trump will degenerate to the point Trump will not issue a blanket pardon?
> Highly illegal[1] but sadly once the dust clears and Elon finally gets prosecuted he will receive a pardon.

I think there is a good chance that he will be abandoned. This administration is not known for sticking to agreements.

What's Elon's crime?
Finding how batshit crazy some of the ways the federal government of the USA spends the money it's borrowed
(comment deleted)
It's good it is not on government servers. It would be a security risk if it was.