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I think this is actually the opposite of the correct conclusion—just look how influential Patreus cheating on his wife was (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrae

I think this is actually the opposite of the correct conclusion—just look how influential Patreus cheating on his wife was (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petraeus_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petraeus_scandal). I seriously doubt that Kash Patel doesn't have a bunch of skeletons to dust off and show the world; the man is a weirdo (much like the rest of the administration). EDIT: I actually misread the comment; I think we're likely in agreement. My bad.

hypeatei 7mo ago
There is so much corruption and impropriety in this administration that skeletons don't matter anymore. Looking at what sunk officials in previous administrations provides a sense for just how far gone we are, but it's not an indicator of what future consequences will be.
- Loughla 7mo ago
  Dan Quayle lost a serious bid because he couldn't spell potato. Now look at where we're at. It really is wild. Right, wrong, or indifferent. How far we've shifted is absolutely wild.
  - throwaway27448 7mo ago
    Dan Quayle also had the charisma of a potato. Let's not overfit this curve.
Jare 7mo ago
I don't know, these days skeletons seem to be treated as funny decoration and we're in a permanent state of Halloween.
- redanddead 7mo ago
  Sullying Halloween's good name
- scrollop 7mo ago
  Trump doesn't have a few skeletons in his closest, he boasts a series of catacombs.
- vibrio 7mo ago
  …Better plan all day Better plan all week, better plan all month, better plan all year…. (Sorry, esoteric song lyric that applies.)
- larodi 7mo ago
  Human Condition is now a generally accepted baseline.
stronglikedan 7mo ago
[flagged]
- thejazzman 7mo ago
  Trump is currently in office ;)
- snapcaster 7mo ago
  This simping is such a bad look. Why go to bat for a man who wouldn't piss on you to put out a fire? Act like a man jesus christ
treebeard901 7mo ago
Maybe the hackers will release information connecting Patel to the Noem and Lewandowski grift operations with govt contracts. Out of the four companies allowed to bid for the $220 million advertising contract, 3 were linked to Noem and Lewandowski and one to Patel. Im sure they are all doing it...
- MyHonestOpinon 7mo ago
  Well, if the president sets the example. What can you expect from the rest ?
- sysguest 7mo ago
  well if you're listing your hopes, not talking from what those hackers brought... that just means the operation is a dismal failure -- nothing to see this really undermines iran hackers' claims regarding 'big things' on trump administration
close04 7mo ago
> look how influential Patreus cheating on his wife was Those times have passed. I'll restate what I said in a comment some days ago: >> 50 years ago the press was "impeaching" presidents. Today presidents are "impeaching" the press The current strategy is "keep the outrage hose on full blast and eventually people get desensitized". It works.
- mc32 7mo ago
  The press was stupid. They were doing stupid gotchas like swiftboats, fake reports on GWB (Dan Rather), but couldn’t care less about things like the CIA and the crack cocaine connection[1], or lots of other things the government gets away with (including Clappers total information awareness unconstitutional surveillance efforts) The press is always carrying water for someone but that someone is rarely the public unless is just pure coincidence. [1] there was one reporter who dared but the toll from the story resulted in his suicide, some years later. His colleagues poo-pooed his reporting on the connection.
  - jyounker 7mo ago
    * The Swiftboat thing was completely an ad campaign if I remember correctly. I remember most media covering it as BS. * The contents of Dan Rather report on GWB was true. There was one document which was sketchy, but the whole report didn't hinge on the one document from an officer's office. (E.g. Ex-senator Ben Barnes's interview is reasonably indicting: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/transcript-barnes-on-bush/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/transcript-barnes-on-bush/) The media did fall down though. Only one outlet went to the the Officer's secretary (who was still alive) to ask if she had typed the document. She looked at it and said (summarizing here) that it wasn't the document she typed, but it was the same contents. What's interesting is how easily the media is distracted. What's even more concerning though, is that when the more centrist major media has tried to be less gullible, they've been vilified. (E.g. trying not to be suckered by miraculous appearance Hunter Biden's laptop.) It's a mess, and the only way out of it is probably limits own media ownership.
nixon_why69 7mo ago
I'd like to chime in and say that that Kash Patel, while completely unprofessional and incompetent, is way less of a weirdo than the rest of the administration. His scandals are all about shirking job responsibilities to party and sightsee. That's not great from the FBI director but its way more normal than the rest of them.
- nickburns 7mo ago
  So you mean to point out that the sitting FBI director is a bro's bro.
- embedding-shape 7mo ago
  I dunno, a sitting FBI director testifying under oath about details that are clearly false, goes above and way beyond "to party and sightsee". At least in my world it puts him up there together with the rest of the weirdos.
  - kelipso 7mo ago
    A sitting FBI director testifying under oath about details that are clearly false is tradition at this point.
- mikeyouse 7mo ago
  That's not remotely true of his history.. he's a full on Jan-6er, deep into Q-Anon, he was involved in numerous serious scandals during the first Trump admin (Nunes Memo / Russiagate 'parallel' investigation: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/01/the-men-behind-the-nunes-memo/551825/ https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/01/the-men...), he has a number of sketchy moneymaking side-businesses, he was formerly living with a GOP megadonor 'Timeshare Tycoon' as roommates in Vegas (https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/trump-fbi-pick-kash-patels-vegas-roommate-is-timeshare-tycoon-accused-of-shady-practices https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/trump-fbi-pick-kash...), he collected enemies' lists for Trump which resulted in firing of most of the Iran counterintel team right before we started launching attacks because they had the termerity to investigate why Trump was showing donors top-secret maps of Iran after he left office..
_fat_santa 7mo ago
I was just reading a X thread that published some of the more notable things and overall it's pretty innocuous. The most "controversial" thing thus far is he took a trip to Cuba
ChrisMarshallNY 7mo ago
My favorite explanation of the Petraeus scandal: https://vimeo.com/100348256 https://vimeo.com/100348256
- cindyllm 7mo ago
  [dead]
aqme28 7mo ago
I think theirs was the right conclusion, but for the wrong reason. If there was anything really damning, Iran would rather use that as leverage. The fact that they released it publicly means that the most embarrassing part of it is just the hack in itself.
- ikr678 7mo ago
  If I was Iran I'd leak the innocuous stuff first to let them know I had access to potentially more damning things, to try and force the US to the table.
  - kortilla 7mo ago
    That would only work if there was something damning to Trump or someone in charge of Iran negotiations. Trump has no problem cutting people loose otherwise
- ls612 7mo ago
  From the news I’ve read the most “embarrassing” things in his personal email are photos of him smoking cigars, holding a bottle of rum, and posing in front of a supercar. What a scandal…
austin-cheney 7mo ago
Like what? We have two presidents, including the current one, that took multiple trips to a pedophile island. What skeletons could be greater than accusations of punching a child in the face after they bit the dude’s penis during forced sodomy?
- Amezarak 7mo ago
  There is no credible evidence that either of the Presidents you alluded to visited "the island". It's amazing to see conspiracy theories promulgated on HN.
  - austin-cheney 7mo ago
    There is lots of evidence that these two presidents were on the pedophile island many times, and one of their wives. That is well established. There is no evidence released to the public directly linking those two men to specific sex acts by name. There is unnamed evidence released by the US DOJ specifically describing the assault I described in the prior comment. Again, none of this is theoretical, conspiracy, or conjecture. It’s in the documents released by the government that the government has confirmed as authentic.
    - Amezarak 7mo ago
      No doubt you are aware that the claims about Clinton originated with the founder of the Epstein Mythos, Virginia Giuffre, who we know for a fact was a serial confabulator. While she was inarguably one of Epstein's victims, she also made several claims that were demonstrably untrue, she could not keep her own stories straight, the FBI concluded internally that she was totally unreliable and that she was even lying about what the FBI told her, other victims contradicted her, and she was herself forced to recant on several subjects, including admitting that her "autobiography" book was a work of fiction. If you doubt me, feel free to read the FBI memo about her. In the case of both Clinton and Trump, there is no evidence that either of them visited Little St. James, and plenty of evidence otherwise - for example, Epstein even says so about Clinton in an email. > It’s in the documents released by the government that the government has confirmed as authentic. The documents are "authentic" in that yes, a real schizo did really tell the government he heard it secondhand 30 years ago that this happened and also that he discovered Hilary Clinton was behind the WTC bombing. (For some reason, people like you always leave that part of the bombshell revelations out.) I am for total transparency generally, but this whole saga has been a major disappointment for me in that the level of public discourse is so lazy and low that its clear that in a purely utilitarian way, it would have been better to not release it. Hopefully long-term the sacrifice of many people whose reputations are being destroyed over little or nothing is worth it. Every crank call about celebrities is being treated as gospel.

hypeatei 7mo ago

There is so much corruption and impropriety in this administration that skeletons don't matter anymore. Looking at what sunk officials in previous administrations provides a sense for just how far gone we are, but it's not an indicator of what future consequences will be.

Loughla 7mo ago
Dan Quayle lost a serious bid because he couldn't spell potato. Now look at where we're at. It really is wild. Right, wrong, or indifferent. How far we've shifted is absolutely wild.
- throwaway27448 7mo ago
  Dan Quayle also had the charisma of a potato. Let's not overfit this curve.

Jare 7mo ago

I don't know, these days skeletons seem to be treated as funny decoration and we're in a permanent state of Halloween.

redanddead 7mo ago
Sullying Halloween's good name
scrollop 7mo ago
Trump doesn't have a few skeletons in his closest, he boasts a series of catacombs.
vibrio 7mo ago
…Better plan all day Better plan all week, better plan all month, better plan all year…. (Sorry, esoteric song lyric that applies.)
larodi 7mo ago
Human Condition is now a generally accepted baseline.

stronglikedan 7mo ago

[flagged]

thejazzman 7mo ago
Trump is currently in office ;)
snapcaster 7mo ago
This simping is such a bad look. Why go to bat for a man who wouldn't piss on you to put out a fire? Act like a man jesus christ

treebeard901 7mo ago

Maybe the hackers will release information connecting Patel to the Noem and Lewandowski grift operations with govt contracts. Out of the four companies allowed to bid for the $220 million advertising contract, 3 were linked to Noem and Lewandowski and one to Patel. Im sure they are all doing it...

MyHonestOpinon 7mo ago
Well, if the president sets the example. What can you expect from the rest ?
sysguest 7mo ago
well if you're listing your hopes, not talking from what those hackers brought... that just means the operation is a dismal failure -- nothing to see this really undermines iran hackers' claims regarding 'big things' on trump administration

close04 7mo ago

> look how influential Patreus cheating on his wife was Those times have passed. I'll restate what I said in a comment some days ago: >> 50 years ago the press was "impeaching" presidents. Today presidents are "impeaching" the press The current strategy is "keep the outrage hose on full blast and eventually people get desensitized". It works.

mc32 7mo ago
The press was stupid. They were doing stupid gotchas like swiftboats, fake reports on GWB (Dan Rather), but couldn’t care less about things like the CIA and the crack cocaine connection[1], or lots of other things the government gets away with (including Clappers total information awareness unconstitutional surveillance efforts) The press is always carrying water for someone but that someone is rarely the public unless is just pure coincidence. [1] there was one reporter who dared but the toll from the story resulted in his suicide, some years later. His colleagues poo-pooed his reporting on the connection.
- jyounker 7mo ago
  * The Swiftboat thing was completely an ad campaign if I remember correctly. I remember most media covering it as BS. * The contents of Dan Rather report on GWB was true. There was one document which was sketchy, but the whole report didn't hinge on the one document from an officer's office. (E.g. Ex-senator Ben Barnes's interview is reasonably indicting: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/transcript-barnes-on-bush/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/transcript-barnes-on-bush/) The media did fall down though. Only one outlet went to the the Officer's secretary (who was still alive) to ask if she had typed the document. She looked at it and said (summarizing here) that it wasn't the document she typed, but it was the same contents. What's interesting is how easily the media is distracted. What's even more concerning though, is that when the more centrist major media has tried to be less gullible, they've been vilified. (E.g. trying not to be suckered by miraculous appearance Hunter Biden's laptop.) It's a mess, and the only way out of it is probably limits own media ownership.

nixon_why69 7mo ago

I'd like to chime in and say that that Kash Patel, while completely unprofessional and incompetent, is way less of a weirdo than the rest of the administration. His scandals are all about shirking job responsibilities to party and sightsee. That's not great from the FBI director but its way more normal than the rest of them.

nickburns 7mo ago
So you mean to point out that the sitting FBI director is a bro's bro.
embedding-shape 7mo ago
I dunno, a sitting FBI director testifying under oath about details that are clearly false, goes above and way beyond "to party and sightsee". At least in my world it puts him up there together with the rest of the weirdos.
- kelipso 7mo ago
  A sitting FBI director testifying under oath about details that are clearly false is tradition at this point.
mikeyouse 7mo ago
That's not remotely true of his history.. he's a full on Jan-6er, deep into Q-Anon, he was involved in numerous serious scandals during the first Trump admin (Nunes Memo / Russiagate 'parallel' investigation: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/01/the-men-behind-the-nunes-memo/551825/ https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/01/the-men...), he has a number of sketchy moneymaking side-businesses, he was formerly living with a GOP megadonor 'Timeshare Tycoon' as roommates in Vegas (https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/trump-fbi-pick-kash-patels-vegas-roommate-is-timeshare-tycoon-accused-of-shady-practices https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/trump-fbi-pick-kash...), he collected enemies' lists for Trump which resulted in firing of most of the Iran counterintel team right before we started launching attacks because they had the termerity to investigate why Trump was showing donors top-secret maps of Iran after he left office..

_fat_santa 7mo ago

I was just reading a X thread that published some of the more notable things and overall it's pretty innocuous. The most "controversial" thing thus far is he took a trip to Cuba

ChrisMarshallNY 7mo ago

My favorite explanation of the Petraeus scandal: https://vimeo.com/100348256 https://vimeo.com/100348256

cindyllm 7mo ago
[dead]

aqme28 7mo ago

I think theirs was the right conclusion, but for the wrong reason. If there was anything really damning, Iran would rather use that as leverage. The fact that they released it publicly means that the most embarrassing part of it is just the hack in itself.

ikr678 7mo ago
If I was Iran I'd leak the innocuous stuff first to let them know I had access to potentially more damning things, to try and force the US to the table.
- kortilla 7mo ago
  That would only work if there was something damning to Trump or someone in charge of Iran negotiations. Trump has no problem cutting people loose otherwise
ls612 7mo ago
From the news I’ve read the most “embarrassing” things in his personal email are photos of him smoking cigars, holding a bottle of rum, and posing in front of a supercar. What a scandal…

austin-cheney 7mo ago

Like what? We have two presidents, including the current one, that took multiple trips to a pedophile island. What skeletons could be greater than accusations of punching a child in the face after they bit the dude’s penis during forced sodomy?

Amezarak 7mo ago
There is no credible evidence that either of the Presidents you alluded to visited "the island". It's amazing to see conspiracy theories promulgated on HN.
- austin-cheney 7mo ago
  There is lots of evidence that these two presidents were on the pedophile island many times, and one of their wives. That is well established. There is no evidence released to the public directly linking those two men to specific sex acts by name. There is unnamed evidence released by the US DOJ specifically describing the assault I described in the prior comment. Again, none of this is theoretical, conspiracy, or conjecture. It’s in the documents released by the government that the government has confirmed as authentic.
  - Amezarak 7mo ago
    No doubt you are aware that the claims about Clinton originated with the founder of the Epstein Mythos, Virginia Giuffre, who we know for a fact was a serial confabulator. While she was inarguably one of Epstein's victims, she also made several claims that were demonstrably untrue, she could not keep her own stories straight, the FBI concluded internally that she was totally unreliable and that she was even lying about what the FBI told her, other victims contradicted her, and she was herself forced to recant on several subjects, including admitting that her "autobiography" book was a work of fiction. If you doubt me, feel free to read the FBI memo about her. In the case of both Clinton and Trump, there is no evidence that either of them visited Little St. James, and plenty of evidence otherwise - for example, Epstein even says so about Clinton in an email. > It’s in the documents released by the government that the government has confirmed as authentic. The documents are "authentic" in that yes, a real schizo did really tell the government he heard it secondhand 30 years ago that this happened and also that he discovered Hilary Clinton was behind the WTC bombing. (For some reason, people like you always leave that part of the bombshell revelations out.) I am for total transparency generally, but this whole saga has been a major disappointment for me in that the level of public discourse is so lazy and low that its clear that in a purely utilitarian way, it would have been better to not release it. Hopefully long-term the sacrifice of many people whose reputations are being destroyed over little or nothing is worth it. Every crank call about celebrities is being treated as gospel.