8 ms·
When the physicists need burner phones, that's when you know America's changed
- whatshisface 2y agoOne of the important things to watch for is the linkup of the papers please people with the internet scanners. Right now they seem to be limited to seizing your personal effects, but that is a matter of coordination between departments of the government. If there are laws against it, they are adjacent to other laws which were ignored even in previous years. Once that occurs the use of professional use devices will not make the crossing safe.
- FredPret 2y agoSounds like a social credit score derived from your entire online identity. I hope that picture of reality stays in Black Mirror. It would represent a huge decline in personal liberty in the West so I’m betting it will be so unpopular as to be impossible, especially as older voters are replaced by digital natives who are aware of the problem.
- tdeck 2y ago> I’m betting it will be so unpopular as to be impossible People have said the same thing about gutting Social Security, but it seems like that's on the chopping block right now unfortunately.
- FredPret 2y agoSocial Security is very popular but hasn’t been baked into the Western soul for the past 1-2k years like the idea of personal agency & liberty has. In addition, SS requires a budget so is more open to controversy. Respecting individuals is free; violating their rights requires a budget as well.
- Avshalom 2y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_slave_trade https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_slave_trade Whose personal agency and liberty?
- FredPret 2y agoSlavery was always widespread; it was Westerners who saw the moral inconsistency between their self-image and owning slaves, and then fought wars with one another and others to end it globally. The journey from serfdom to modern human rights was a long one, but it had a clear upward trend.
- gessha 2y ago> personal agency & liberty Those two were very suppressed under monarchy and the Christian religion. It wasn’t until modern secularism that those two truly blossomed.
- FredPret 2y agoEven so there were clear steps in the right direction. Monarchs grew steadily more circumscribed from a de jure point of view. Eventually they became constitutional monarchs, then mere figureheads. Their de facto power also went from absolute steadily downward. The same trend happened with Christianity: at one time the Pope was so powerful, he broke up the Holy Roman Empire. But there were many reformations, revolutions, Protestantism. There's a clear trend of decentralization across the entire West, spanning a thousand years - because of individuals insisting on what we now call their inalienable human rights.
- tdb7893 2y agoI think we're seeing right now that at least a decent fraction (even if it's not half) would be for it as long as it targets the right people. I think it's a mistake to think people in general are very tied to specific civil liberties for other people.
- FredPret 2y agoThis Far Side Gallery comes to mind: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/57843176441267398/ https://www.pinterest.com/pin/57843176441267398/ Any large slice of humanity will contain lots of jerks; but our progress over the past couple of thousand years has been too widespread and consistent for me to think that they'll hold us back permanently.
- thrance 2y agoEverything can be made popular through the right wing propaganda pipeline, given enough times. Republicans are now happy to see medicaid and medicare taken away, tariffs imposed on everything they buy...
- tdeck 2y agoIndeed, in 5 years we'll have centrist "thought leaders" telling us that maybe we should give up on women's suffrage because it's a losing issue.
- collingreen 2y agoOnly 5 years? Women voting seems like an easy segue from "DEI policy" or from "politics are so ugly now we need to protect the women from it". I won't be surprised if we see some calls to have voting _by household_ come back, potentially under the (nonsense) guise of fighting rigged elections.
- netsharc 2y agoYour comment assumes the sanctity of elections... How much can I win betting the 2026 or 2028 elections will look more Russia-like (or Turkey-like) vs. an election that could be called "free and fair"?
- AlecSchueler 2y ago> I hope that picture of reality stays in Black Mirror. Hasn't the Secretary of State said that several hundred people have already been targeted this way? This picture of reality is already real life for many people, their colleagues and their families.
- epistasis 2y agoThis is already happening to find out who has been supporting Palenstinians in Gaza, and conflating that as support for Hamas, and then deporting people. Permanent residents a people with student visas are advised to not travel due to the risks or arbitrary detention, search of social media, and deportation on trumped up charges. This researcher, asked to carry frog embryos by her advisor in the way back from France, has been detained becuase od the paperwork around them and may be deported to a hostile nation on those grounds: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/27/russian-scientist-harvard-medical-school-ice-detention https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/27/russian-scie... I only link to this one because it's closest to my very narrow area of biology but this sort of thing is happening daily and on even more egregious grounds. We currently live in an authoritarian state, we just don't all realize it equally, yet.
- peepeepoopoo116 2y ago[flagged]
- vvpan 2y agoYou must be Russian, there is no term "yellow journalism" in English really.
- MaysonL 2y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_journalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_journalism
- vvpan 2y agoI misspoke - it is not used often compared to Russian. I have read that Wikipedia page before, yet I have not heard the term used in my 20+ years in the US and people do not know what I am talking about when I use it. But what I am alluding to is that that account signed up just to leave that Russian-sounding comment. And now it has been flagged. Russo-bot.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- rsoto2 2y agoThanks mod, of course there is no secret police being built for use on college campuses. (https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/federal-task-force-combat-antisemitism-announces-visits-10-college-campuses-experienced https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/federal-task-force-combat-ant...)
- renewiltord 2y agoThe people opposing these things do themselves a serious disservice by conflating someone who attended the funeral of the top guy of a designated terrorist group with the biologist moving biomaterial between research labs. Now every time I hear one of these stories I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop and hear about how the frog biologist attended Prigozhin’s funeral (purely out of recognition for his work as a chef, of course)
- jimbob45 2y agoWould these people feel the same if he’d attended Hitler’s funeral rather than a Hamas funeral?
- freen 2y agoTrue advocate for freedom of speech here.
- tialaramex 2y ago"In accordance with Hitler's wishes, their corpses were carried outside to the garden behind the Reich Chancellery, where they were placed in a bomb crater, doused with petrol, and set on fire" I would describe attending this "funeral" as merely "arriving too late". Hitler was dead, Germany was in ruins. I'd have more questions about somebody who travelled for the funeral of Levrentiy Beria, because it appears some people (unaware, or deliberately without thinking about what Hitler had ordered done) liked Hitler, I can't find any records of people who liked Beria, they only feared him.
- whatshisface 2y agoThere are in reality only two types of actions, those that are illegal, and those that you think you have every right to do.
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- renewiltord 2y ago
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- pmags 2y agoI'm a US scientist and the use of minimalist phone and a laptop is something I'm planning for all my travel. This is for the simple reason that I have determined, based on a large body of cases that are accumulating at a disturbing rate, that the current US administration considers themselves "above the law". Furthermore, the administration has shown that they are eager to carry out actions that violate due process and freedom of speech against anyone they perceive as opposing their policies/views. EDIT: I'm happy to document such cases for those who have not been paying attention, but I also encourage those who are doubtful to simply search the many examples that have been posted here on HN (unfortunately, many flagged in an attempt to suppress discussion).
- dataflow 2y agoDo you not feel unsafe sharing this publicly?
- whatshisface 2y agoThat is not really relevant, because you sort of have to say what's true whatever happens to you, as required at the intersection of the duties of a scientist, of a citizen of a republic, and even on the basis of the basic tenants of the country's majority religion. In some sense to live a steady life you have to be resigned to potential misfortunes, even if you do not want them to happen to you.
- roxolotl 2y agoI’ve been struggling with this. I’ve recently started using a new handle as a way to distance myself a bit. I wouldn’t expect it to hold up under scrutiny though. And then I wonder about the moral obligation to say what is right. So is it worth, or even morally right, to create a new pseudoanoynomous identity?
- lantry 2y agoIt is easier to change your behavior, but it is better to change your government.
- mjevans 2y agoI hear Canadian's are a nice and respectful people. Though as many as can need to stay behind as true patriots who will __actively vote__ in the every election to try to restore freedom and democracy in America.
- hbsbsbsndk 2y agoCanada has imported a lot of the same culture war BS as the US. If you're LGBTQ or support human rights Canada is not much better.
- MattGaiser 2y agoThere’s a major difference. Those people are out of power in Canada.
- DanHulton 2y agoI think I know roughly where you're coming from -- I mean we absolutely have our share of bigots in or seeking power -- I don't think you realize how very bad it has gotten in the USA very recently. I have friends who fit in the categories you are describing, who have definitely put up with some shit occasionally here in Canada that would not dream of even visiting the USA, and know people in the USA who are actively looking to escape northward, in fear for their literal lives. With a looming election that has a cartoonishly, Trumpian, "populist evil" candidate for the leadership of our country, yeah it could definitely get worse, and even to the same amount quite easily. But at least for now, there's a very real -- though definitely not perfect -- refuge for LGBTQ2A+ of all stripes up here.
- AlecSchueler 2y agoHave they "imported it" or are there outside actors trying to destabilise society by pushing divisive ideas?
- mixmastamyk 2y agoThe sad fact is that everyone needs a “burner” laptop and phone these days for travel. Not limited to the trump administration either.
- atoav 2y ago*when traveling to the USA or other nations with questionable stances towards basic human rights A scientist should not worry about having a "wrong" finding about the actual world stored on their digital devices, period. A don't have a burner phone and within the extended European continent never have felt the need to, including things like the Balkans.
- mixmastamyk 2y agoNot about “shoulds.” Five eyes, Russia, China, etc are happy you’re comfortable.
- andix 2y agoYou don't need a "burner" laptop/phone for entering the European Union. There are no routine checks of electronic devices except the usual x-ray machines.
- ohgr 2y agoYeah travel in and out of Europe all the time. No issues ever. Still devices are locked and encrypted though.
- andix 2y agoEncryption is great, but in general it is not really needed, as long as you are not a suspect of a crime.
- ohgr 2y agoIt is required when you’re the victim of a crime however so it’s a good precaution. (Had my phone swiped once) If you have adequate physical security it is less necessary thus my home desktop is not encrypted.
- timewizard 2y agoAmerica changed right after 2001. People have been asleep this entire time, presuming that their government would never target them, even though they've slowly been building a giant surveillance network that could only have this ultimate purpose. Pretending this is "Trump's America" or "Obama's America" or "Bush's America" is ridiculous. They've all participated in building these walls around the country and our freedom.
- rsoto2 2y agoThe last five administrations have bombed the poorest country on the planet. Now people are being disappeared by police amidst public cheers. Even the mods on this website think the above headline is sensationalized, meanwhile a few months ago they hosted the AMA of an IDF soldier that probably helped murder children. Major parts of society are pacified and numb.
- bongodongobob 2y agoI'm guessing this is being downvoted because the crowd here is too young. Our reaction to 9/11 was horrifying to anyone with a brain at the time.
- Cyph0n 2y agoPrecisely. The framework has been in-place since 9/11. The government (i.e., Democrat and Republican) has been testing the limits of what it can get away with, very gradually, ever since. What Trump is doing right now is nothing but an application of this “domestic security” framework. Heck, the government even gave everyone a taste of what’s to come with the repression of pro-Palestine college protests across the country, and the dystopian shutdown of any criticism of a foreign country. You can always ignore the use of repression on people or causes you don’t agree with, but don’t start complaining when you or your cause is the one being repressed.
- steve-atx-7600 2y ago[flagged]
- thrance 2y agoTrump and his goons hate science and critical thinking. Supposed "gender ideology" or "woke mind-virus" are just dumb pretexts given to suppress anyone who would dare criticize them.
- jeetoid 2y ago> Trump and his goons hate science and critical thinking this is really entirely subjective and I'd be surprised if something like this isn't moderated for being flamebait
- TimorousBestie 2y agoIs it really subjective, at this point? I could understand someone arguing this in 2015, but now? The Trump administration drastically cut the budget of basically every govt agency that does or supports scientific research and decimated staffing. Is that not an objective fact? Is there some alternative one?
- brianmurphy 2y agoAcross the board budget cuts say nothing about supporting the scientific method. These university could easily fund their projects out of their massive multi-billion dollar endowments. We should ask why they aren't.
- TimorousBestie 2y ago> Across the board budget cuts say nothing about supporting the scientific method. Semantic nihilism. It’s a basic fact of political science that governments enact policies in order to achieve outcomes. Or if you prefer cybernetics, there’s always Stafford Beer: “The purpose of a system is what is does.”
- tredre3 2y agoThe title is trying to imply that people are being targeted for being physicists or other "benign" scientific work, but that is not the case; Their expressed political opinions are why they're targeted. It's still wrong, it's still bad, but there's no need to mislead people.
- atoav 2y agoScientists are people who for a living often need to cross international borders. The current administration has shown no respect for the Rule of Law and the borders are the place where you will be affected in the worst way if someone gets provoked by something. Lawful or not, you may not be on US soil yet when it happens.
- roxolotl 2y agoThere is no such thing as benign scientific work. Questioning the nature of reality at its core is a radical act. As we’re seeing with tons of biology research there are right and wrong questions. It is only time till that spreads.
- rsoto2 2y agoNo, the title is implying when professors are being targeted that's when fascism is here; because that's sort of historically what has happened(and it has been historically based on political beliefs, race, or physical appearance) CS Professor arrested today https://www.reddit.com/r/immigration/comments/1jmrtzz/indiana_university_cs_professor_has_been_arrested/ https://www.reddit.com/r/immigration/comments/1jmrtzz/indian...
- drstewart 2y ago>CS Professor arrested today So? Does being a professor give you some kind of immunity against crimes?
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago> Does being a professor give you some kind of immunity against crimes? The state has been able to prove precisely zero crimes in a court of law thus far. By Rubio’s admission, they may be arresting without warrants. The criminals are the ones covering their faces while pretending to act under the colour of law.
- delichon 2y agoThere may be a silver lining. I think that John Roberts is in the mood to spank, and if Trump comes before him with an expansive interpretation of his plenary powers, Roberts will see him as a convincing counterargument. There could be a definitive ruling supporting the free speech right of non citizens.
- p_j_w 2y agoTrump will just ignore the courts. Vance said he should do as much during the campaign and our electorate still foolishly voted for him, so they know there will be no consequences.
- ipsocannibal 2y ago85% of Trump's base think this is a bad idea. Trump is not that impervious to public opinion. Especially from his allies. Trump can't escape the laws of political gravity and isn't militarily strong enough to control the country. If he was Congress would have been jailed by now. He will resist and bend the rules as much as he can. But he needs the system to not break do the barrons don't overthrow his ass.
- p_j_w 2y agoThey would’ve said inciting a violent insurrection was bad before he did it too. But once he actively did it they fell in line and continued to back him. They will fall in line when his disobeys a court order.
- rufus_foreman 2y agoJohn Roberts is playing with fire. As are the district court judges.
- Trasmatta 2y agoJohn Roberts is one of the people that have been Trump's biggest enablers. I have no faith that he will do anything other than performative actions.
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- rsoto2 2y ago[flagged]
- HideousKojima 2y agoDamn, clearly must be for ideological crimes against the regime and not the hundreds of other actual crimes he might have committed. Rather than waiting a day or two for the actual charges to be published to the public, let's assume the former because orange man bad.
- dpkirchner 2y agoTrump and his staff are indeed bad (obviously), so it is safe to assume the worst, and possibly be pleasantly surprised if/when it's shown to be a legitimate arrest.
- khazhoux 2y ago> it is safe to assume the worst, and possibly be pleasantly surprised if/when it's shown to be a legitimate arrest. Why would you make an assumption in this case with no evidence or data? Are you saying the majority of FBI arrests are now driven by politics? Would you be surprised to learn that there have been similar foreign national arrests under previous administrations?
- BJones12 2y agoThe FBI got a warrant to search his house. That's not immigration-related. https://www.idsnews.com/article/2025/03/iu-professor-bloomington-carmel-fbi-search https://www.idsnews.com/article/2025/03/iu-professor-bloomin...
- j_bum 2y ago> The looming crisis in the US is beginning to remind people in Europe of the 1930s, when the UK and the US began to realise that Jewish scientists needed to be rescued from the Nazis. I feel like I’m living on a different planet. I am not saying things are OK in the US at the moment, but … are you kidding me? This is one of the most asinine statements I’ve ever read.
- thrance 2y agoThe comparison is apt. Things didn't start that bad in Germany either. But day by day, reform after reform... Look back on the past, imagine hearing about a visiting french scientist getting detained at the border for having criticized the president under Obama, and realize how insane that would have been, how normal it seems today, how far this country has gotten and where it is currently headed.
- j_bum 2y agoI agree that it is insane what’s happening. I do not think this country is on a good trajectory. But I think the analogy in TFA is also insane.
- thrance 2y agoTime will tell I guess, let's hope it really is unwarranted.
- p_j_w 2y ago> But I think the analogy in TFA is also insane. Why? This change has happened over the course of a couple of months. The trajectory is there.
- j_bum 2y agoTFA is equating the beginnings of the ethnic cleansings of a highly and historically persecuted peoples to the authoritative actions against politically active citizens and non-citizens. I’m sure there are many cases with classified rationale, and many that are also blatantly illegal. I’ll keep reiterating: I don’t think what’s happening in the US is ok. But I also don’t think the analogy is ok.
- assimpleaspossi 2y agoIt seems that the examples given in the article are about non-US citizens caught in a tangle of sorts but some physicists are wanting to apply it to themselves as a whole.
- SapporoChris 2y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_They_Came https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_They_Came ""First They Came" (German: Als sie kamen lit. 'When they came', or Habe ich geschwiegen lit. 'I did not speak out'), is the poetic form of a 1946 post-war confessional prose piece by the German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984). It is about the silent complicity of German intellectuals and clergy following the Nazis' rise to power and subsequent incremental purging of their chosen targets. Many variations and adaptations in the spirit of the original have been published in the English language. " When you see things happening to those outside your circle you might feel safe, but many times you are just further down the list and your time will come.
- brianmurphy 2y agohttps://owl.excelsior.edu/argument-and-critical-thinking/logical-fallacies/logical-fallacies-slippery-slope/ https://owl.excelsior.edu/argument-and-critical-thinking/log... "A slippery slope fallacy occurs when someone claims that a position or decision will lead to a series of unintended negative consequences. These negative consequences are often bad and/or increasingly outlandish. The person using the slippery slope fallacy takes these consequences as a certainty and does not analyze the logic of their own position. A slippery slope fallacy can be used as a deflection to avoid discussing the merits of a position, shifting the field of debate."
- einarfd 2y agoSo where is the slippery slope in the Martin Niemöller poem? The transgression against the groups does not change, it is just repeated on different "troublesome" out groups. I guess you can argue that the last line, where the I of the text is taken, is the slippery slope. But that seems a bit contrived. My reading of it is that it is an admonishing against accepting injustice against groups that you yourself is not part of, and that if you do not speak up. Then who will speak up for you, if you need it.
- xqcgrek2 2y agoThis is a thinly sourced opinion piece selling FUD.
- mirawelner 2y agoI’m working at a biomedical lab at UPitt full time and another biomedical at CMU in my “free time”(lol) and it’s bizarre how it’s now totally okay to talk about politics at work. People are sharing political articles on the teams chat.
- guelo 2y agoWhen politics is coming for you shouldn't you talk about it?
- tayo42 2y agoMaybe not talking about politics is a problem. Like how we all started talking about salaries when we weren't supposed to and now we have a better sense of what our worth is in the job market. If no one talks about politics, no one gets challenged. Maybe that used to be ok, but now we can retreat to pseudo anonymous communities online or consume algorithm suggested content that only reinforce or create more extreme positions.
- mirawelner 2y agoI really like the comparison between talking about politics at work and talking about salaries at work. They are both things that were just 'not allowed' for vague reasons and they both turned out to be really important things to bring up at work.
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- d_burfoot 2y agoI view the current political situation as a historical rhyme of the bloody wars of religion in Europe that saw Catholics and Protestants murdering each by the millions. As with the C v P wars (or Sunni vs Shia in Islam, or Hindu vs Muslim in India), taking a side is the wrong ethical stance; the right stance is to view it clearly as a brutal tribal struggle, and take steps towards a just and honest peace.
- aaomidi 2y ago[flagged]
- generalizations 2y ago[flagged]
- aaomidi 2y agoNone. And that metaphor does not really apply here as neither of these groups are actively advocating for the annihilation of the other, especially in the context of the US. They may have in the past, but we're talking about the present.
- generalizations 2y agoThe past is just as available to inform us as the present, as your reference to past nazis indicated. It's an inconvenient comparison, but it remains apt. I think most people like to believe that current events are special, but they rarely are. Just takes a little bit of historical perspective to realize.
- LastTrain 2y agoNot yet. Just advocating taking sovereign nations by force. Abducting without due process. Raw political retribution against enemies. So yeah let’s just sit back and chill and see what happens next maybe we’ll get lucky.
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- throw7 2y ago"elite institutions devoted to freedom of inquiry and the telling of uncomfortable truths" That's rich. That hasn't been true for our "elite institutions" for some time now, although I do remember some notable exceptions... University of Chicago comes to mind.
- GistNoesis 2y agoI am wondering about hardware keyrings like Yubikeys : From a security point of view is it safe to cross international borders with them ? How do you connect back to your accounts without one when all your devices are based on two-factor authentication if your hardware keyring has been seized when by customs. Could you be detained for not "remembering" the second factor to unlock the keyring ?
- wkat4242 2y agoYou could definitely be denied entry and most likely you would be. In terms of detainment, probably only temporarily until they put you on the plane back. Unless they have serious suspicion of something like terrorism they can't just hold you indefinitely for not cooperating. Ps IANAL. So take this with a gain of salt but I've never heard of someone actually being jailed for not giving access.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- rcbdev 2y agoThis might be the first semi-plausible consumer use case for smart cards as a second factor. One could, reasonably, conceal a smart card as a health insurance (EHIC) or debit card and pass otherwise adversarial border controls with them. This, of course, is a rather fictitious scenario.
- submeta 2y agoLet’s not lose sight of the cause and effect here. The Israel lobby leaned hard on Trump to stamp out any whisper of criticism against Israel. Meanwhile, groups like Betar are gunning to deport pro-Palestinian students, crowing on X about how they’ve compiled lists of critics and handed them straight to the Trump administration. You can spot the same playbook in Germany, where they’re scheming to strip citizenship from dual-nationality migrants if they dare speak out against Israel. In Berlin, police are brutally pummeling pro-Palestine protesters—scenes you’d never expect to see in Germany. Then there’s the clampdown in UK and other European countries on journalists and everyday folks calling out Israel’s moves in Palestine. Across the West, these anti-free-speech tactics are piling up, all to muzzle anyone who questions Israel.
- thegrim33 2y agoYeah this is the last straw for me. This thread breaks pretty much every rule HN has, the comment thread is filled with absolutely vile, delusional, partisan hate and propaganda, it's been on the front page for hours and no moderator has decided to remove it, not enough users have flagged it to get rid of it, I'm officially giving up on HN at this point. Not going to waste my time any longer flagging and downvoting political content and trying to keep HN good. The propagandists and hate have won and have majority control over it now. Every day a third of the front page is political/social/mainstream news content which isn't supposed to be here. Adios. Time to find the next place.
- krapp 2y agoBye.
- bongodongobob 2y ago[flagged]
- anonfordays 2y ago[flagged]
- fmxsh 2y agoAs a new HN user, I find it is saturated with political interests, and it is distracting... Well ignore it then... Yes, that's why I avoid Reddit etc. I try to ignore not just political discussions, but the atmosphere that inevitably seem to form in such a space. Doesn't matter what side,... An echo chamber is bad regardless. If I want one, I would go elsewhere. Perhaps there's an idea in this community that "we are better than the rest, and can carry out political discussions, because, after all, we are right in our opinions, and we only do it when 'necessary'". Aren't there a solution, like create HN/pol... Or create a separate TLD for it. If you are going to have political content, can't there be a way to filter it out? I limit myself to analyze the political stuff for the sport of pointing out bad rethorics and such, not because I care about either side or any side, but for the sake of analysis.
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- submeta 2y ago> AIPAC’s Jonathan Kessler co-authored a guide on doxing American professors who protest against Israel in 1984! > Here he is giving a pep talk to Zionist students on how to takeover student gov to reverse democratically voted policies “just like how AIPAC does it in Congress” https://x.com/GenXGirl1994/status/1906088715249656167 https://x.com/GenXGirl1994/status/1906088715249656167
- nine_k 2y agoThe lady is indeed in trouble, because she apparently broke an explicit regulation: «Biological materials imported through passenger or pedestrian travel must be presented to CBP for inspection» [1]. I very much doubt though that it's a kind of offense that should provide grounds for deportation. Deportation to the country that would certainly incarcerate her for her political position is a bad idea on may levels; first of all, it's inhumane. If the case really devolves down to the deportation for real, I wonder if some other countries would offer her asylum, because it's definitely better that a prison, especially a prison in Russia. [1]: https://www.cbp.gov/border-security/protecting-agriculture/importing-biological-materials-united-states https://www.cbp.gov/border-security/protecting-agriculture/i...
- dctoedt 2y ago> she apparently broke an explicit regulation What I read was that it was a paperwork oversight — it wasn't that she wasn't allowed to bring the materials into the country, it was that she didn't check some kind of box on a form.
- nine_k 2y agoNot just that: you have to take the red corridor and allow inspection of the specimens, and have a paper to let you bring them in. I remenber handing an apple to the border check officer on return from Europe, because the apple contained seeds, and uncontrolled plant seeds are a no-no.
- NotYourLawyer 2y ago[flagged]
- dang 2y agoSince we've asked you many times to stop posting flamebait and/or unsubstantive comments to HN and you've continued to do it repeatedly, I've banned this account. If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future. They're here: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html. --- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43223083 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43223083 (March 2025) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42661453 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42661453 (Jan 2025) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42526674 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42526674 (Dec 2024) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38225621 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38225621 (Nov 2023) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37358816 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37358816 (Sept 2023) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36994995 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36994995 (Aug 2023) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35646889 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35646889 (April 2023)
- AlexeyBelov 2y agodang, I have a question. I've found out that banned account can still post, it's just that their comments are automatically [dead]. But people still vouch for such comments regularly, so what does it actually mean to be banned?
- dang 2y agoThe main thing being banned means is that the account's posts are killed by default—that is, they begin in the [dead] state, which is removed from the default public view. Users who turn on the 'showdead' setting in their profile can see all the [dead] comments, but no one else can. Occasionally, a [dead] post is actually good for HN. (Even banned accounts sometimes post good submissions or comments, and we don't necessarily want those to remain invisible.) In such cases, users can vouch for the [dead] post to unkill it, i.e. to take it out of the [dead] state and restore it to full public visibility. Only a tiny fraction of [dead] posts get restored in this way, so the vast majority of posts by banned accounts remain [dead]. We're sometimes asked why we allow banned accounts to continue to post to HN (albeit in a [dead] state). Wouldn't it be better to block them altogether? It's a bit counterintuitive, but this would actually be worse. Many of the banned users would simply create new accounts—and those comments would be publicly visible until we caught them and banned them again. So, paradoxically, allowing banned accounts to keep posting (but in a default-invisible state) is the way to minimize their effect on HN. Trying to restrict them further would just end up exposing more people to the abusive posts. The main disadvantage of this design, in my experience, is that users sometimes forget that they turned 'showdead' on in their profile, and then wonder why they're seeing such dreadful stuff in the comments! So if you turn 'showdead' on, please remember what this means: you're basically signing up to see the worst stuff that the internet has to offer on this forum. Why turn the setting on at all? Well, many HN users are the curious sort who either want to see everything under the hood, or who feel strongly about censorship and want the freedom to decide for themselves what they think about banned accounts. Also, not all the posts that end up in the [dead] state are bad—there are many ways for a good post to end up [dead] by mistake (including false positives by spam filters), and users with 'showdead' turn on are able to vouch for those and restore them.
- banku_brougham 2y agoIts basically a dead letter now, and has been fading for at least 20 years now >No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
- fmxsh 2y agoHow about this quote: > Perhaps that’s because most of British academia still can’t get its head around the idea that the US is now an enemy, not an ally, and that the “special relationship” is yesterday’s story. That's a bold statement. John is using language in a manipulative way. By moving the word "enemy" into a context where it is not justified (is it really war, rather than typical negotiations?), he aims to create a dramatic perspective on a thing that is not obviously dramatic. Drama is the basis of the argument. The cases he bring up do not seem to justify the conclusive dramatic language.
- AlecSchueler 2y agoThe US has made itself an enemy of open research and the scientific community, and the article prior to the point you quoted actually does a good job in outlining why people feel that way. Typical negotiations don't look anything like the policies they're inacting, not like retracting research or cancelling funding on the basis of including keywords that the party deems problematic (regardless of actual content), and certainly not like threats of annexation or extra-judicial disappearances if students writing political pieces in their college magazines. It is a bold statement and it does sound dramatic, but it's still probably an understatement if you look at what has been happening. It's honestly dumbfounding to continue to see people defending this as in any way normal.
- fmxsh 2y ago> ... but it's still probably an understatement if you look at what has been happening. That's exactly what I would question. Does the author look just as hard in the other direction and, with intellectual honesty, defend those cases? (should he? why? why not?...) My general sense is the "other side" may have experienced similar treatment that is now being complained about. No, I don't mean it is therefore necessarily justified. I really mean that—I do not think it is therefore necessarily justified. If I side with any of them, either side may decide I'm no longer in the in-group. Rather than either side being right, both have the same potential for corruption, and that's the real enemy. This is not a specific answer to the effort you offered in explaining the situation. I would have to look deeper into it.
- hackburg 2y ago[dead]
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]