dr_analog
razorboy
No bio...
User ID: 583
dr_analog
razorboy
10d ago
Steelmanning: the FBI prosecutor made up a crime, an SDNY prosecutor carried water for this made up crime and charged Cohen with it, and Cohen plea bargained it and a judge validated the plea bargain and thusly this made up crime is now a real crime in this court and they charge Trump with it in the future, too.
Skeptically: I understand you give up your right to defend yourself when you plea bargain but does this mean a judge will let you confess to things that aren't crimes? Are you completely surrendering to the prosecutor's legal determination?
dr_analog
razorboy
10d ago
Wasn't Michael Cohen charged and convicted for his part in this almost immediately, though? In 2018? The charge was referred by the special prosecutor's office, to a different NY DA, with the case allowed by a different judge?
Also, was it venue shopping? Wasn't Trump a resident of NY at the time, and didn't the crime happen in NY?
To steelman: actually, Trump didn't do anything illegal but due to multiple corrupt judges and multiple corrupt prosecutors they convicted Trump's attorney and Trump himself on what is a minor crime. All of this happening within one corrupt court, the SD of NY.
I view this lawfare as both morally wrong and deeply destabilizing.
Why is this lawfare? And why is it wrong? I can see both sides of the issue but want to make sure I'm not missing something.
Camp: this is terrible
This is a tragedy for justice. Trump did stuff that, sure it was technically illegal, but it took prosecutors like 5 years to charge him for this. The fact that it took so long is sus. The fact that it's during an election year is sus. Also, there are tons of people committing actual horrific felonies in NY that aren't being prosecuted. Additionally, it really seems like the prosecutor had to squint to find something to bust him with. This seems very politically motivated and like it sets a terrible precedent. It simply shows that you can prosecute any business leader for something if they infuriate the establishment enough. Additionally, you can't really read too much into this. He was charged and convicted in NY, a place that's full-on Trump Derangement Syndrome. He probably would've been sentenced to death for a parking ticket if the court allowed it. America is in danger.
for contrast
Camp: this is fine
This is a victory for justice. Even former Presidents are not above the law. He did a crime and he was convicted of it. He very much had a guilty mind, surrounding generally bad behavior, and did bad things while campaigning to be a leader of the country, one of the most important positions in the world. In the process of these morally bad acts he crossed a legal line and he's being called to account for it. Sure, it took a long time and sure it might have some twinge of political motivation to the timing, and this is a crime few people can really relate to, but you also want leaders held to a high standard and you also want them to be accountable. Juries may hate Trump but it's just implausible to expect even 12 New Yorkers to find him guilty of something just because they hate him. America has demonstrated its commitment to rule of law and we should celebrate.
dr_analog
razorboy
10d ago
Hey fam, for future reference this would have been better as part of your top post. You came in pretty hot with a video link and not that much background information.
dr_analog
razorboy
11d ago
All I'm saying is the CEO of the company that developed and deployed FSD has an obvious edge in AI and is well positioned to capitalize on it.
dr_analog
razorboy
13d ago
Ha. Amusingly, I had a friend who was consistently betting against Tesla on short-term puts but he forgot to renew them at some point this last go-around and that was right before the recent huge collapse happened.
Still too hard to bet against Elon.
I guess I consider the odds that your online communications will be intercepted and used against you are much, much more unlikely than your house burning down or being in a car accident.
I think this is because in the back of my mind I don't expect to receive at any time a call that we must start pitching molotov cocktails at the courts and then escape the state's retribution, whereas I suspect deep down a lot of people harbor that feeling. Or some other fanciful counter-cultural notion. And in that case I will regret not having swung everything over to Signal several years prior.
dr_analog
razorboy
13d ago
Sure, but there's a >99.999% chance the people worried about this don't do anything edgy or counter-culture enough for the FBI to look twice at.
dr_analog
razorboy
13d ago
I don't have an opinion on AI yet, but then again I don't understand why people are acting like OpenAI == Elon Musk
I think his early investment in OpenAI shows vision even if he did leave them for dead for not bending their knee to him.
Also, because FSD is amazing? It's pretty reliable! I mean it needs to be, like, 4-5 orders of magnitude more reliable and it's unclear if they can achieve that with their current tech stack but it's still one of the most remarkable AI achievements ever to have a car that can drive itself for an entire day, using only cameras, in any arbitrary environment and maybe only kill one pedestrian. I would absolutely say they're well positioned to capture a portion of an AI market.
dr_analog
razorboy
13d ago
I agree, many billion and trillion dollar empires are built on companies finding the cost of migration unbearable.
Microsoft probably should've sold Office for $1 for the entire 1990s.
dr_analog
razorboy
13d ago
I know how trolling works. I just have a hard time imagining teenagers using n-word today is all.
dr_analog
razorboy
13d ago
Hasn't China developed reusable rocket tech? ( despite not owning a single emerald mine!)
Not that I would expect the CCP to be awesome with allocating capital, but if you assume they're not completely incompetent then it would blow up the theory that SpaceX can't possibly gain economic advantage from it.
The coolest thing he's done recently is fire most of Twitter's staff, but we all kind of knew that most people weren't doing anything real at these companies, he just proved it
He helped other tech companies learn as well. Facebook, Google, and friends announced big layoffs after this display. A true visionary.
I mean they chickened out and only did 10-20% instead of 75%, but still.
I remember in the late 90s and early 00s, reading many a diatribe about how Microsoft was done. They then went on to grow by 10x and are almost hip again.
I'm not sure what changed all that much. They were just well positioned to tax computer industry growth and it grew massively. Hardly anyone can point to a brilliant innovation at Microsoft during this period.
To me, being a futurist brand guy that's well positioned to capture value in the growth of the transition to EVs, development of space, and AI is a pretty fantastic position. And unlike Microsoft, Elon still has big bets to make.
Speaking of which, have you made any bets?
dr_analog
razorboy
13d ago
One of my complaints about privacy and digital hygiene obsession that's so in vogue with early middle aged white people is that they all appear to believe that they're subversives, potential enemies of the state, and that they best adopt Signal for e2e messaging privacy, and use VPNs to avoid tracking, and limit their socials, etc.
There are other reasons to care about digital hygiene, but the most anodyne people worrying that the FBI is maintaining a dossier about them is probably an effect of five decades of media obsession with counter-culture and rebellion.
dr_analog
razorboy
13d ago
They are, at the minimum, exciting new brand development opportunities.
dr_analog
razorboy
14d ago
In my mind, right-wing is the true counterculture.
Can you say more about why you think that?
I was too young to see it happen but I've heard it from a lot of people.
My sources would be me ex-post facto searching for links that confirm gossip that I've heard. I think that would be a waste of your time tbh and I'll just say what I know.
Giuliani famously started rigorously enforcing cabaret laws in NYC, shutting dance clubs down.
There were similar pressures in Chicago though I think not Detroit.
(and if you were a techno producer-DJ living in NYC in the 90s you would probably prefer to move to Berlin than Detroit)
I also dated an older woman who was a record artist (like, a person that illustrates vinyl records) who said all of her techno clients moved to Berlin during this period.
dr_analog
razorboy
14d ago
Yes it had just been preppies up until the underground party. But nevermind that link is fake. So far just preppies?
Ugh. Looks like I have been duped. It was too good to check.
Part of the reason I was susceptible to this is because I was at a techno party in a junkyard in Berlin a few years ago and someone passed a bottle of Jagerneister to me and I asked what this big iron cross on bottle was supposed to mean. The guy who handed the bottle to me got up and screamed "it means I am Adolf Hitler!" and everyone nearby laughed and said HEIL HITLER!
Confused, but not sure what else to do, I took a drink and we moved on.
Anyway, the idea that there might be a Nazi-for-the-lulz-at-the-minimum undercurrent in German youth was seeded in me then.
There's clearly an urge to troll.
That all said, my bad.
dr_analog
razorboy
14d ago
It was cracked down on in the US in the late 90s due to adjacency with organized crime. Techno producers had to just up and move away from NYC to Berlin to continue their work. I'm not really sure what it was like in the 90s in Germany vs now, but it seems like it's all over the place in Berlin today.
Sorry, why wouldn't it be a federal crime if it is considered violating federal election law for his campaign for a federal elected office?
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