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Comment by throwaway27448

1 day ago

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). 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.

50 comments

throwaway27448

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nixon_why69  1 day 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.

aqme28  11 hours 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  8 hours 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  5 hours 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  6 hours 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…

_fat_santa  1 day 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

close04  1 day 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  1 day 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  2 hours 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/)

        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.

treebeard901  1 day 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...

  • sysguest  12 hours 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

hypeatei  1 day 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  1 day 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.

austin-cheney  10 hours 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  9 hours 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  9 hours 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.

      1 reply →

    • defrost  9 hours ago

      Remarkable that Epstein confined his pedophile activities to a single location.

      No, wait:

        In 2008, Epstein reached a plea deal with prosecutors after the parents of a 14-year-old girl told Florida police that Epstein had molested their daughter at his Palm Beach home.

      Hmm ... would that be the same Palm Beach home that Trump visited a good many times back when he was best of chums with Jeffrey and sending him the nude outline sketches?

      7 replies →