3 ms·

Probably less about tax revenue and more about the executive branch squeezing tech companies to assert influence.

by notyourwork 7mo ago

ambicapter 7mo ago
I doubt the current executive branch has enough brain trust to understand these sort of tactics.
- lenerdenator 7mo ago
  "Trump's stupid" is how we got here. You don't need to be smart to get where he is. You just have to have the willingness to engage in shady business practices, have enough money to outlast opponents in a courtroom, and exist in a society where there's no real pressure on people who do those things.
bonsai_spool 7mo ago
> Probably less about tax revenue and more about the executive branch squeezing tech companies to assert influence. Absolutely not about this, as is clearly reported in the linked article.
- notyourwork 7mo ago
  Because the article said so? That’s your rationale for saying the executive branch isn’t weaponizing the rest of government offices for their own influence and benefit. Sorry, color me unconvinced until this administration shows good faith.
  - bonsai_spool 7mo ago
    > Because the article said so? Because... the article clearly says the case began under the FORMER administration, and goes further to say that it's not clear whether the CURRENT administration is going to drop the case.
    - ryandrake 7mo ago
      Am I the only one who thinks it's totally bonkers that a lawsuit can outlast a 4 year presidential administration? I mean, I get it, court cases can be complex, but what on earth could they be continuously doing for four years? I would love to see an hour by hour accounting of the time actually spent by humans on a case like this. My guess is that it's like a poorly run software project: mostly empty, where Person X is blocked waiting on the output of Person Y for weeks, and so on.
      - bonsai_spool 7mo ago
        > Am I the only one who thinks it's totally bonkers that a lawsuit can outlast a 4 year presidential administration? I take it you've never been party to a civil lawsuit between business entities or with the government.
      - gamblor956 7mo ago
        When I was still at a firm, several of our clients were fighting off investigations related to the Bermudan loss harvesting scheme that started in the 1980s. The investigations started in 2003 and weren't resolved until 2013.
      - helterskelter 7mo ago
        This is the nature of any non-trivial litigation. It can take a long time just to source all the records of what's being argued over, then it takes a long time to argue over what's allowed, then a long time to argue what all of it means, then a long time to argue over which laws, jurisdictions and precedents apply, then a long time to figure out when the judge (who is juggling >1000 cases) can fit you in, then your legal counsel is on vacation, then the complaint gets amended and you have to reevaluate everything you've been fighting over for the past half decade, repeating much of the above, then opposition replaces their counsel (that's a 60 day pause), then the judge dies from old age, and then finally everybody forgets about it because space has expanded so much since you started the case that nobody can communicate anymore and the universe is going into heat death. Kafka was trained as an attorney, after all.

Probably less about tax revenue and more about the executive branch squeezing tech companies to assert influence.

ambicapter 7mo ago

I doubt the current executive branch has enough brain trust to understand these sort of tactics.

lenerdenator 7mo ago
"Trump's stupid" is how we got here. You don't need to be smart to get where he is. You just have to have the willingness to engage in shady business practices, have enough money to outlast opponents in a courtroom, and exist in a society where there's no real pressure on people who do those things.

bonsai_spool 7mo ago

> Probably less about tax revenue and more about the executive branch squeezing tech companies to assert influence. Absolutely not about this, as is clearly reported in the linked article.

notyourwork 7mo ago
Because the article said so? That’s your rationale for saying the executive branch isn’t weaponizing the rest of government offices for their own influence and benefit. Sorry, color me unconvinced until this administration shows good faith.
- bonsai_spool 7mo ago
  > Because the article said so? Because... the article clearly says the case began under the FORMER administration, and goes further to say that it's not clear whether the CURRENT administration is going to drop the case.
  - ryandrake 7mo ago
    Am I the only one who thinks it's totally bonkers that a lawsuit can outlast a 4 year presidential administration? I mean, I get it, court cases can be complex, but what on earth could they be continuously doing for four years? I would love to see an hour by hour accounting of the time actually spent by humans on a case like this. My guess is that it's like a poorly run software project: mostly empty, where Person X is blocked waiting on the output of Person Y for weeks, and so on.
    - bonsai_spool 7mo ago
      > Am I the only one who thinks it's totally bonkers that a lawsuit can outlast a 4 year presidential administration? I take it you've never been party to a civil lawsuit between business entities or with the government.
    - gamblor956 7mo ago
      When I was still at a firm, several of our clients were fighting off investigations related to the Bermudan loss harvesting scheme that started in the 1980s. The investigations started in 2003 and weren't resolved until 2013.
    - helterskelter 7mo ago
      This is the nature of any non-trivial litigation. It can take a long time just to source all the records of what's being argued over, then it takes a long time to argue over what's allowed, then a long time to argue what all of it means, then a long time to argue over which laws, jurisdictions and precedents apply, then a long time to figure out when the judge (who is juggling >1000 cases) can fit you in, then your legal counsel is on vacation, then the complaint gets amended and you have to reevaluate everything you've been fighting over for the past half decade, repeating much of the above, then opposition replaces their counsel (that's a 60 day pause), then the judge dies from old age, and then finally everybody forgets about it because space has expanded so much since you started the case that nobody can communicate anymore and the universe is going into heat death. Kafka was trained as an attorney, after all.