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Comment by adventured | Hacker News Reader

If you're going to do Ulbricht, which is a giant FU to the FBI (who Trump believes screwed him over), you might as well go ahead and do Assange and Snowden and finish the job. At this point in the unhinged circus show that the US has become, I'm really looking forward to it just to watch the spectacle that will be the deep state meltdown and media tantrum ('one of his final actions as President will be to demonstrate just how lawless the Trump Administration was' - or something like that).

I'd put money on Assange having a very slim shot at a pardon and Snowden having zero shot (Trump ultimately leans toward being a big government, big national security type).

Snowden, Assange, Ulbricht, Manning, Kim Dotcom - all under the Obama / Biden Administration, and now Biden is about to be President (the guy that took direct orders from Hollywood & Co. to go after Kim Dotcom). I'd also bet on another wave of martyrs at the hands of the Biden Admin.

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Wasn't something posted here a day or two ago about the possiblity of a Snowden pardon?

> Trump ultimately leans toward being a big government, big national security type

I'd say he has very little ideology that he's committed to other than his own personal gain. He's likely to pardon anyone who might have shown him fealty in the past or who is willing to engage in quid-pro-quo.

the whole selling of indulgences thing is what triggered the reformation ... maybe there will be an upside to all this corruption in the long term

He literally has no ideology or apparent political convictions of any kind. His position on any given issue can change 3 times in the same day and his disposition has no other pattern besides consistent inconsistency.

So strong opinions, weakly held? I've seen that way of thinking praised here on HN many times.

No, fleeting thoughts, barely there.

Or if you want to be more charitable, whatever opinion is most useful for the immediate moment. But I think that's an overestimation, lots of them aren't that coherent.

It's some combination of those things. Lots of them are just random filler and arbitrary ramblings, but the ones he gets pressed on repeatedly are answered in whatever way provokes a desired reaction at that exact moment. Some of it even seems to be remorseless and haphazard A/B testing. He's well beyond a severe pathological liar, as most such people would lack an innate desire to deceive with such intense frequency, and there might not even be a name yet for whatever trait he exhibits. Psychologists are just forbidden by their licensing body from commenting on a president's mental state while still in office.

Go read Barr's resignation letter. Trump is a high variance process that needs to be smoothed to understand him. Recall that Barr did not need to make a name for himself. Nor does Barr ever need another job.

I'm very curious- I went looking and didn't see what you're hinting at.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/14/politics/ag-barr-resignation-...

What am I looking for exactly?

Paragraphs 3 and 4 call out difficult, extended actions by the administration from which one can infer both ideology and political convictions.

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