firesteelrain

3 ms·

1.
by firesteelrain 11d ago
He leaked WAY more than necessary and didn’t seek out official whistleblower channels. Stuff that didn’t even have to do with US privacy. Say what you want about spying on foreign adversaries but every government does it to another one and
2.
by firesteelrain 11d ago
It was his choice to leak as himself. He could have used whistleblower routes (which was investigated and he only sent 1 email but never reported it) Really have to question his motives
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by firesteelrain 12d ago
He could have returned to the US. His citizenship wasn’t revoked.
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by firesteelrain 12d ago
About Russia? Nope.
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by firesteelrain 12d ago
He isn’t deserving of a pardon or exile by the damage he did. But he could have stayed and faced the consequences if the cause was sincere
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by firesteelrain 12d ago
He didn’t have to flee at all
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by firesteelrain 12d ago
There isn’t one under the law so no. Why wasn’t the whistleblower process followed? Why didn’t he try to contact his congressman/ senator ? He could have said I don’t want a clearance anymore and disclosed his concerns. He could have r
8.
by firesteelrain 12d ago
The problem is he can’t excuse the offense under the Espionage Act because it doesn’t have a public interest defense. One could argue that it should have that defense. But that doesn’t mean the resulting trial would have been a “muppet tria
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by firesteelrain 12d ago
Oh it was very serious what he did. But it was odd he went to Hong Kong then to Russia on his was to Ecuador. It wasn’t well thought out
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by firesteelrain 12d ago
He could have returned to the US. He chose to exile in Russia. He was already fleeing. I posted a bunch about it below
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by firesteelrain 12d ago
He was faced with the possibility of arrest or hoping for full asylum in Russia. It was another calculated gamble. But I don’t agree he was stuck. It was all self created problem. No one forced him to take the circuitous route he took and n
12.
by firesteelrain 12d ago
He wasn’t stuck : his lawyers would contact the State Department and arrange a surrender. There is also the case of limited validity to return to the US. He chose to apply for asylum still and exiled himself. I am not making the case one wa
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by firesteelrain 12d ago
That’s true
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by firesteelrain 12d ago
Yes so his default option was to return to the US and face arrest so he applied for asylum (as a US citizen still)
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by firesteelrain 12d ago
He wasn’t stateless. Stateless means no country recognizes you as a citizen. He just faced arrest if he returned. Same as any other fugitive. People seeking asylum still have a country and citizenship. Also he wasn’t facing treason charges.
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by firesteelrain 12d ago
I get it I didn’t leak national security information but it doesn’t change the fact that he wasn’t stateless. That’s the part I was referring to
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by firesteelrain 12d ago
He actually fled the US before the leaks became public to Hong Kong but it was a calculated risk because Hong Kong has extradition treaty with the US. So he was fleeing already. He could have returned to the US however he would have most ce
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by firesteelrain 12d ago
People became ambivalent. Snowden fled eventually to Russia. Some people viewed him less relevant over time as the archive merely trickled out. When he fled to Russia, he looked less like a martyr and more like a national security informati
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by firesteelrain 12d ago
This isn’t the gotcha you think it is. They do.
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by firesteelrain 12d ago
Ok that’s pretty creative to say “America did it 200 years ago” into a permanent license to copy and steal. Hell of a standard
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by firesteelrain 12d ago
Huh? Patent systems go back hundreds of years! Yes nobody owns the idea of the lathe. We need to get past that. But for centuries, societies have recognized that someone who spends time and money developing a particular invention or manufac
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by firesteelrain 12d ago
This is all a bit of a strawman. Lathe technology as a concept isn’t being disputed as stolen. Tariffs don’t fix the copying problem. My point is the country in general has a policy of copying and stealing
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by firesteelrain 12d ago
I agree some policy choices were made to get us in this situation. Biden largely left the first Trump era tariffs in place. The disagreements are on the broadness of them
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by firesteelrain 12d ago
how does a small US manufacturer compete when a foreign producer can duplicate 70–80% of the functional product at a fraction of the cost?
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by firesteelrain 12d ago
That’s my point
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by firesteelrain 12d ago
I don’t think it’s completely fine to steal others technologies and products no. There are ways to be competitive and in an ethical manner
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by firesteelrain 12d ago
Yes, I agree that China can copy Sherline’s IP and it’s a form of theft. An estimated 70-80% of the parts can probably be made in China. If you would like a breakdown I can provide it. Sherline, for example, specifies spindle nose runout of
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by firesteelrain 12d ago
How much is because of Chinese clones/stealing of IP thus making manufacturing in the US cost prohibitive?
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by firesteelrain 13d ago
Controlled narratives
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by firesteelrain 13d ago
I had access to an invite only forum I don’t remember the name of but got access to it by word of mouth. It had Xbox games, movies, everything. No torrent, direct download. This was 2003-2004 timeframe. I eventually stopped using it but it

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