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Comment by somrand0 | Hacker News Reader

this is reminiscent of that time I heard that South Korea had prosecuted and found an ex-president[1] guilty of crimes!

There was a Samsung VIP involved too. [2,3]

I was quite impressed because putting ex-presidents on trial is (was?) illegal in my own country! (there was a referendum recently, but I'd need to look up the outcome of that, no ex-presidents are on trial as far as I know)

I'm telling this because 'recently', they overturned that ruling.

so even if he goes to jail, let's wait 3 or 4 more years after any public rulings to check if he's been pardoned.

There was a Samsung VIP involved too. [2,3]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_Geun-hye#Pardon_and_relea...

[2] https://www.bbc.com/news/business-55674712

[3] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/samsung-heir-lands-pres...

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To be fair, when you learn that South Korea has prosecuted and convicted most of it's ex-presidents (also one assassination and one suicide)... I'm not sure it makes South Korea look uncorrupt. It makes me figure some combination of routine corruption in the presidency and corrupt political retribution by successors.

https://apnews.com/article/f4de2c758f70450583bdf1539e3fa3bd

> To be fair, when you learn that South Korea has prosecuted and convicted most of it's ex-presidents (also one assassination and one suicide)... I'm not sure it makes South Korea look uncorrupt.

Or, alternatively, they realize it's impossible to run a country and not be corrupt. Then, all "presidents" are actually defacto dictators. Not too far off the reality of the matter...perhaps the US should get on this train.

Maybe we should just decide that all presidents go to prison after their term, automatically. If you aren't willing to do that, I guess you don't really want to be president badly enough.

Joking aside (I think I'm joking)... what else would "getting on that train" even look like?

I'm also not sure if what you said was an alternative to what I said. I said it may point out that South Koreas presidency is routinely corrupt, and you said "alternatively, what if they just realize all presidents are corrupt" -- that doesn't seem an alternative, those seem consistent!

Ultimately I think the issue is that the people attracted to power are likely the last people that ought ever be granted such. And democracy makes this even more true since you pair power seeking with fast talking. I wouldn't be surprised of SBF had political aspirations. He'd have fit right in.

the US is on another train, they don't have this problem because POTUS is not the real executive power... that changed for national security reasons probably since around september 2001, or before.. impossible to know.

moreover, the usa security apparatus designed south korea. they're a subsidiary country of the city of washington corporation (or something); i.e. they're on the same train already.

I must add that this is pure speculative guesswork, I ain't got no 'clearance'.

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