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Incredibly important that we have this record as a democracy
by nof1 6y ago
Incredibly important that we have this record as a democracy
- bioinformatics 6y agoI agree. No one in government should be bleaching servers and deleting emails or wiping phones.
- untog 6y agoOf all the places to use that absurd made up concept of "bleaching a server"... Hacker News ain't it.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- malandrew 6y agoConsidering that one piece of software that was used in the incident alluded to was called BleachBit, it's an appropriate use of words AFAICT.
- untog 6y agoDo people often refer to 'bleaching' when they use BleachBit? I've never heard it used.
- bigbubba 6y agoI don't think I've ever heard of that particular software in any other context so... hard to say?
- zests 6y agoAnother elected official used the term 'bleaching' or 'acid washing' or something. Don't quote me on this but I seem to recall a fact checking agency rating the statement as "false" because "bleach was not used, it was software called bleachbit". It was a culture war microcosm.
- naniwaduni 6y agoYou may be thinking of this post: https://www.factcheck.org/2016/09/trump-pence-acid-wash-facts/ https://www.factcheck.org/2016/09/trump-pence-acid-wash-fact... ?
- zests 6y agoI am disappointed that this is downvoted on HackerNews of all places. Many of us understand the implications of running a personal email server in your basement/closet. All elected officials should be held to whichever standard we decide to set for them.
- brink 6y agoThe comment was flagged. I assume that it had something to do with Hillary's personal server?
- busterarm 6y agoHN is pulling its best Vancome Lady impression in this thread. LA LA LA LA LA
- kencausey 6y agoYou can counter that by clicking the time after the poster's name and then clicking the 'vouch' button.
- shrimpx 6y agoHow much karma do you need for that to be available?
- kencausey 6y agoI'm sorry, I don't know. But you are probably right that it does require some, perhaps 500?
- KineticLensman 6y agoI don't see a vouch button and I'm at 2450 ish
- ASalazarMX 6y ago
- nickff 6y agoWhy? I'm not trying to be facile, but I imagine most of the documents will never be read, and the most popular ones will either be self-serving or foolish. FDR made a point of leaving as little documentation as he possibly could, during a pivotal time in history, and it doesn't seem to have done any damage.
- bigbubba 6y agoMost of the documents may never be read, but the only way to preserve the valuable documents is to preserve all the documents, lest you lose the valuable ones during your hasty initial evaluation of document worth. Furthermore the worth of some documents may only become apparent in contexts that are not presently known or considered. Sometimes the worth of a document only becomes apparent many years later.
- nickff 6y agoI am an avid reader of history, but I don't find the detailed facts especially valuable. Can you come up with some examples of what real value (aside from entertainment/ammunition) these sorts of documents have? Having read about a number of previous presidents, I cannot think of any specific example made a difference; you might argue that the 'weight of evidence' makes a difference, but I'd be skeptical of that too.
- bigbubba 6y agoAn uncontentious example: Documents created by the Third Reich helped prosecute war criminals.
- nickff 6y agoI don't think the Trump administration is going around destroying census data and prison records. I'm also highly skeptical of the idea that any of the Nuremberg defendants would have gone free without 'private office' documents. As an example, Karl Doenitz was convicted on (somewhat dubious) charges that had nothing to do with Concentration Camps or PoW treatment.
- irrational 6y agoIncredibly important that we have this record for court cases.
- tossaway4123 6y agoOne of the things that makes a democracy (rule of the people) a democracy is that the executive is a servant rather than a king. A servant who doesn't need to hide anything, because all they're doing is what we want... right? Every President before the current one seemed to understand this principle pretty well... except for that Nixon guy. The real problem of democracy nowadays is, who is "we"? Trump seems to think of "we" like the royal "we", not even "we, my Republicans" and definitely not "we, the 300+ million living in the US" as a President would in a perfect world.
- kasey_junk 6y agoEvery president in recent history has been sued for record retention reasons. Here is a case against Obama for instance https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/transparency-first-100-days-presidential-records-and-communications https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/tran...
- lsaferite 6y agoDid we read the same article? You frame that link as a case against Obama, insinuating that his administration was trying to hide presidential records. What part of the linked article supports that exactly? > The Obama administration already has had several opportunities to indicate its approach in this area, and initial indicators are good—with room for improvement. > One of President Obama's "Day One" executive orders revised the implementation of the Presidential Records Act (PRA), revoking a Bush executive order that unduly restricted access to presidential records and reinstating the pre-Bush regime for implementing the Act.
- sonotathrowaway 6y agoWhataboutism only really works with relativism, because no honest account could seriously equate Obama and Trump’s approach toward democracy and the rule of law.
- kasey_junk 6y agoMy point was only that every President deals with litigation about the records placed in the Presidential Records Act. Obama was more progressive on this point (but was notably not progressive on FOIA requests). It’s effectively SOP for public records watchdog groups to sue Presidents at the end of their terms to ensure the Act is followed because its largely toothless without that action.