Presidents come and go and, hopefully, this one will be held accountable.

I'm an agnostic, but when I read about what he does, it makes me devoutly wish that hell exists. He has made countless people's lives hell on earth, and he doesn't care at all. No one is holding him accountable in this life: it's inconvenient for those in power.

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Loquebantur 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It's a systemic issue, not due to one man.

What gets overlooked here is the US IC itself being a probable cause: the habit of "housecleaning" by killing individuals suspected to be possible (even only prospective) leaks of inconvenient information is very real.

The recent cluster of weird deaths and disappearances of scientists linked to secret military research has a similar pattern to it: a statistically highly unlikely density of "suicides, accidents & mishaps".

The assumption, those actions were "justified" somehow is entirely baseless: there is no transparency and no effective oversight. What is supposedly being kept secret there might simply be illegal corruption or embarrassing and inconvenient to those in power.

	▲	andrewflnr a minute ago \| parent \| next [-]
		There are long standing systemic issues, and then there's also one man making things dramatically worse in new, stupider ways.
	▲	TFNA an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Almost every discussion here on HN about those "deaths and disappearances of scientists linked to secret military research" has been about how, when you actually dig into the data, they have been very statistically likely.

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ajsnigrutin 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

So have many others before him.

The only difference is, is that before him we had "Iraq has weapons for mass destruction! we must attack them, before they attack us, we're in danger!", and now there's "we're going in and we're taking the oil!".

So from "we can do whatever we want if we lie" turned into "we can do whatever we want", not really relevant to all the people killed.

But hey, some americans would say that "It's worth it" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP_VnVlFhXU

	▲	fn-mote 30 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Nobody is holding up those other guys as shining paragons of virtue either. “Other people did it too” is not an excuse for immoral behavior. I think the parent and I basically agree.

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SubiculumCode 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Not every nation survives a tyrant by the virtue of patience.

	▲	DivingForGold an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Especially in Russia...

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MBCook 32 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

You’re kidding right?

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squidbeak 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Just as important, the US will need to figure out exactly what strings Putin's managed to attach to Trump - kompromat? threats? bribes? elaborate man management? something else? - or this vulnerability could be exploited again.

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inigyou 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

None. No vulnerability. The population and the RNC just voted for a known Russian asset for some reason.

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SubiculumCode 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Our vulnerability is an open internet that includes Russia, leaving our populace completely open to Russian influence campaigns of micro targeted propaganda, recruitment, and incitement.

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analognoise an hour ago | parent [-]

I like how the “Chinese propaganda” against datacenters was found to be mostly a collection of facts.

While Russian propaganda is more clumsy and emotional, we’ve produced such an unequal society with such low regular education and outright corruption that people fall for it. That says something negative about US, not them.

If we admit our system cant even survive an open internet, it should be dismantled or reformed rather than free exchange closed.

	▲	SubiculumCode 33 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Education would blunt, but not eliminate the threat of nation-state funded micro targeted influence campaigns. Moreover, it would take years, and we have the problem now. In terms of data center propaganda and fact. Both are true. China is funding anti data center sentiment for geopolitical power, while at the same time, there are legitimate reasons for people to not like/ or fear AI. The problem is we (the U.S.) have to solve both. We cannot let China have significantly better AI models than we have because that is a real national security threat, while AI also threatens potential mass destruction dangers and an avenue of utter concentration of wealth, etc
	▲	don_esteban 21 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		This. I lived in a communistic country, where BBC/Voice of America/Radio free Europe were banned/jammed, under the pretext of 'your feeble minds will not be able to resist the insidious allure of western burgeois propaganda'. Seeing the same argumentation from the west's side is disheartening. We are now in the west, but (almost) full circle back where were before.

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estearum 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It's almost certainly just that Trump is a fundamentally fragile, insecure man. He has proven over and over that he will happily fellate (proverbially speaking) any man who says nice things about him, and at least refrain from assaulting most women who say nice things too.

Putin (and everyone else) knows this.

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lesuorac 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Idk maybe there is something nefarious but afaik Putin's always been cordial with Trump as well as let him do various investments in Russia. I'm not sure there's much reason for Trump to alienate his friend; if you've ever see Trump's staff meetings you'll know how much cordiality is important to him.

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AngryData an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I think Trump is just that naturally that stupid and always has been.

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TheOtherHobbes 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

All of the above, plus death threats.

Trump isn't the weakness. The weakness is the almost complete collapse of the checks and balances around the president. If those were in place Trump would have been in prison by the end of 2021 at the very latest.

The DOJ, the military, both houses, the AIPAC wing of the Democrats, and corporate media are all fully captured. So are "independent" organisations like the NRA.

The Supreme Court is mostly captured. The lower levels of the judiciary are still holding out, but have limited enforcement ability without the DOJ.

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noir_lord 4 hours ago | parent [-]

It's why I don't see the US making the course correction it actually needs - realistically the "best" feasible outcome is that a presidential election is held and a business as usual democrat is elected who will immediately not address any of the problems for whatever reason (part of the system/paid by the same people pick one).

Candidates come and go but the system endures and it is the system that is rotten at every level all the way down to the core.

Then 4-8 years later the GOP candidate wins subservient to the same interests as Trump and the US Gov is back there again.

Not really sure what the outcome is for the US at this point, things will have to get a great deal worse before enough Americans decide this is unacceptable but that state can last years/decades before the dam breaks.

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SubiculumCode 2 hours ago | parent [-]

The winning Presidential campaign message would be this: I promise to work to reduce the power of the Presidency via supporting and campaigning for legislation and Constitutional amendments. It is time for Congress to once again be ascendent like it was in the first century of our great Republic.

We need a G. Washington, who refused more power than he was offered, setting precedents and expectations.

	▲	don_esteban 14 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		No, that is your wishful thinking. Based on recent years and the power of personalized AI influence campaigns, the winning Presidential campaign message (after 4 years of 'change nothing substantial Democrat' would most likely be 'I need real, full (silently: fascist) power, to finally drain the swamp'.

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oneshtein 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Epstein files?