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Comment by Lendal | Hacker News Reader

"It has always been this way, this is normal" is the typical first response to tyranny. It puts you on their side, which is fine if that's where you want to be. Just be aware of it. If you think it's wrong, you definitely don't want to be taking the side of "it's normal," because whether or not it's normal is irrelevant when your government is doing immoral and tyrannical behavior in your name.

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Weird response to a pretty benign question.

Asking whether or not something is new or how frequently it's been done in the past isn't saying it's acceptable nor does it put them on the side of tyranny. In fact, a sign of tyranny would be a significant uptick in the number of these searches, and how else would you be able to see that worrying signal without answering the question they asked?

The best moment to fix this was yesterday. The second best time to fix it is now.

Ok? That cliche is true of every single problem on Earth.

Sometimes it's helpful to write things or say things out loud even if they're obvious. Like my comment right now.

It’s not even true if you want to be pedantic about it

The quote is actually “the best time to plant a tree was 30 years ago. The second best time is today”

29 years ago, 28 years ago … all better than today. There are an infinite number of times better (and worse) than today.

> Weird response to a pretty benign question.

How was this question:

> I think basically every country exercises this power

You quoted something that wasn't part of the question, which was "I'm wondering if this is a new thing".

Their impression was that it wasn't and that other countries do similar things. Stating your understanding of a situation helps guide discussion and helps people answer your inquiries. Doing that should be encouraged, not somehow treated as an endorsement of tyranny.

> how else would you be able to see that worrying signal without answering the question they asked?

Was anyone ever refused entry because they had an image poking fun at Kamala Harris? There, your question has been answered.

I guess the question is whether the reporting is politically motivated because someone doesn’t like the current admin or grounded in historical fact.

I get what you’re saying and agree. But if there is no statistically significant jump in the number from historical data for previous administrations then I can conclude that the reporting is politically motivated.

Sure but that means November will have no impact on what CPB does. It’s always happened and will continue to happen just like stock trading with insider information by congress members will continue to happen regardless of November results. The vote came up and it was voted down and I don’t see that changing. I don’t see the spying on citizens changing. The NSA spied on Congress and they did nothing about it.

It’s disingenuous to imply that November will have an effect on either of those topics.

Actually and very obviously, what's happening now is new and worse.

My math teacher used to say that “obviously” means “I don’t know how to prove” and “trivially” means “tenuously at best”. Thanks for the demo of this in action.

It’s been a thing since 1789: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_search_exception

Enough alarm bells are ringing to suggest that this is not normal. The persecution of political enemies isn't even a veiled threat, they are spoken outright in public.

Right like the ~400 subpoenas on Republican lawmakers by Jack S with the tenuous linkage to the Jan riot. You might have reason to subpoena 10 or even 30 lawmakers who may have had some linkage but going after ~400 seems dubious.

An event like the Jan 6th putsch attempt would, in pretty much every democracy that has got some sense of self-preservation, result in at the very least intense public hearings, and outside of the European Union that bans the death penalty under all circumstances, followed by the chief perpetrators getting strung up at the same gallows they brought to hang Mike Pence off of.

The fact that barely any consequences came for those instigating the putsch, except a few of those dumb enough to do stuff like parade around in front of cameras, is completely inexcusable.

The brought a mock up of a gallows -the same kind other protesters bring to anti-Trump rallies. Should we punish people who went into the Congressional buildings? Yes! (Keep in mind we have hosted protests in Congress too) Do they need to subpoena ~400 lawmakers and $10 donors to the campaign? I think it’s obvious that that is overreach and intimidation.

> The brought a mock up of a gallows -the same kind other protesters bring to anti-Trump rallies.

I'm not aware of this being a widespread practice at anti-Trump rallies.

> Do they need to subpoena ~400 lawmakers and $10 donors to the campaign? I think it’s obvious that that is overreach and intimidation.

Well... it's not unlikely that there might have been "inside help" from lawmakers and/or their staff or even general Congressional staff. The purpose of an investigation is to go, dig deep and fully take apart whatever conspiracy there was.

As for the donors - anti-terrorist laws in pretty much every country don't care if it was just a $10 donation. Donate to a cause that ends up being terrorists, be labeled as a terrorism supporter.

the gallows mockup was one of the reasons for the reaction to the Jan 6th stuff.[0] , although as far as what political party the owning group is using it for or against is sort of up for grabs.

[0]: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/16/us/politics/jan-6-gallows...

Rioting is not terrorism. Terrorism usually involves conspiracy and planning they're typically not one-time, ad-hoc events. I know governments all over the world like to go overboard with that terms since Sep 11 because it's a get-them for free kind of card, but to me it means actual infliction of terror. A mock gallows is not. If it were, lots of protests with burning effigies, etc. could quite possibly be considered terroristic events.

The biggest mistake of Joe Biden's life was not making sure that Trump was in handcuffs on the afternoon of January 20th, 2021.

Subpoenas are an investigating tool. It's part of gathering the data. I think you may be confused. It's not in any way a punishment.

Do you think at that point he had it out for Republicans in general? Republican congressmen were appalled by what happened on Jan 6th, and it was only because they thought Trump would just go away that he wasn't convicted in the Senate.

Trying to frame that investigation as some sort of political witch hunt is ridiculous.

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