South Korea To Pardon Samsung's Lee, Other Corporate Giants (apnews.com) 34
Samsung's de-facto leader secured a pardon Friday of his conviction for bribing a former president in a corruption scandal that toppled a previous South Korean government, an act of leniency that underscored the tech company's huge influence in the nation. From a report: Lee Jae-yong's pardon is partially symbolic since he was released on parole a year ago after serving 18 months of a prison term that would have ended in July, and critics say the billionaire has remained in control of Samsung even while behind bars. Still, the pardon will allow the heir to the electronics juggernaut to fully resume his management duties and could make it easier for the company to pursue investments and mergers. The Justice Ministry said President Yoon Suk Yeol, who as a prosecutor investigated the corruption scandal involving Lee, will issue the pardon Monday, a national holiday when some 1,700 people are set to receive clemency, including other top business leaders.
Lee, 54, was convicted in 2017 of bribing former President Park Geun-hye and her close confidante to win government support for a merger between two Samsung affiliates that tightened Lee's control over the corporate empire. Park and the confidante were also convicted in the scandal, which enraged South Koreans, who staged massive protests for months demanding an end to the shady ties between business and politics. The demonstrations eventually led to Park's ouster from office. [...] Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon said the pardons of the business tycoons were aimed at "overcoming the economic crisis through encouraging business activity" at a time when South Koreans are grappling with rising prices, high personal debt and a faltering job market.
Lee, 54, was convicted in 2017 of bribing former President Park Geun-hye and her close confidante to win government support for a merger between two Samsung affiliates that tightened Lee's control over the corporate empire. Park and the confidante were also convicted in the scandal, which enraged South Koreans, who staged massive protests for months demanding an end to the shady ties between business and politics. The demonstrations eventually led to Park's ouster from office. [...] Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon said the pardons of the business tycoons were aimed at "overcoming the economic crisis through encouraging business activity" at a time when South Koreans are grappling with rising prices, high personal debt and a faltering job market.
Unless... (Score:1)
Unless you are conspiring with Trump in crimes then at the last second he doesn't pardon you because his lawyers correctly inform them that pardoned people can't plead the 5th to protect him from them being forced to turn against him.
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We should be getting government out of so many things it has absolutely no business being in.
Trump? Biden? Fuck them both. Imagine if government were substantially and irrevocably downsizes do
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"to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men"
Complex societies require complex governments.
The policies and laws that govern a complex civilization must infringe upon the evil, greedy, sociopaths and there are no obvious answers everybody can agree on -- even easy answers must upset some fools. If the differences in leaders are insignificant then you no longer have a say in government; if you desire this then you are anti-democratic.
Re: Unless... (Score:2)
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In a way I guess I am, because of the tyranny of the majority.
With that argument, you are by definition anti-democratic.
51% have the power to take from the 49% against their will.
The same can be said with the numbers flipped. Why should 49% get to tell the other 51% how they will live their lives? The actual problem there is the fact that both sides have no desire to come to an agreement. Or worse, that one or both side(s) simply cannot tolerate the other and would be better off going their separate ways.
As for the 51% telling the 49%, that's the literal agreed upon rules that the country is founded on. If you have an iss
Re: Unless... (Score:2)
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Imagine if government were substantially and irrevocably downsizes do it didn't really matter which asshat got voted in.
Then the government would be pointless, and corporations would run amok without even lip service to appease anyone but the shareholders.
Corporations are not anyone's friend. In the US especially where they effectively are their own governance (Citizens United), and the general public views / needs are widely held as irrelevant. Giving them even more power is just tempting fate.
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Are you completely blind to irony? I'm just wondering because, out of all of your sockpuppet accounts, you posted that using one of the ones based on "rsilvergun".
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Hahaha. TDS is a serious disease.
Kid, you need to learn the difference between legitimate discourse and comical trolling, and quickly before someone says something as a joke that may trigger you so hard you have an aneurism.
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The going price for a Trump pardon would have been well into the 10s of millions.
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And the second they showed 50 milliseconds of anything other than complete mindless loyalty, Trump threw them under the nearest bus with his own two hands.
Well that's silly of them isn't it. You need to show loyalty to get a pardon. Don't bite the hand that feeds you.
The going price for a Trump pardon would have been well into the 10s of millions.
Nah, way below that. No need to guess, we know the figures. https://www.theguardian.com/us... [theguardian.com]
It's got nothing to do with Samsung (Score:3, Insightful)
To stop this we would need a massive education push with strong emphasis on teaching Critical Thinking skills (yes, critical thinking is a skill that can be learned). And, well, you don't think that they didn't notice that? [house.gov]
Hell, as soon as it looked like the younger generations might actually have enough education and critical thinking skills to see past this bullshit they immediately moved to shut down our Democratic Republic [salon.com].
They know exactly what they're doing [snopes.com], do you?
It's a troll trying to derail the conversation (Score:2, Informative)
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You know what,
I wasn't actually trying to troll. That foaming in the mouth response I got though, that I did expect, because that's diplomacy and discussions these days.
I'm actually going to retract what I said, I have no reliable information anymore, any search results have washed anything relating to the so called proof of it, and the one piece of video I can find now says, "They actually just all went home because they were tired" even though I swear someone under oath before said they were went home.
As
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> any search results have washed anything relating to the so called proof of it
Occam's Razor:
A) The Deep-Dems scrubbed the entire web of solid election fraud evidence and no GOP anywhere kept a copy.
-Or-
B) You're off your meds.
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Yeah yeah, someone has a different opinion, meth meth drugs crazy mental illness cancel cancel cancel, rabble rabble rabble.
That's a double edged sword of a behavior, smile when it comes back.
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B.
Offtopic & trolling [It's got nothing to do wi (Score:2)
Yeah, that sounds terrible. Let's focus on that instead of people counting votes, ...
Details here [lostnotstolen.org],
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Please see a doctor, your mental illness is out of control.
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> push with strong emphasis on teaching Critical Thinking skills
Representatives who get elected by morons have no interest in increasing critical thinking education. In fact, their incentive is the opposite. It's partly why they push silly religions that value prayer + gut feeling over actually doing research and reasoning. You don't need to exercise your brain if you have Jesusnet + Gutnet to give you answers.
> He's a member of their ruling class. And we do not spill the blood of kings. Doesn't matte
Its simple (Score:1)
Pardon for a bribe (Score:2)
So, the original crime was bribery (of a government official). Then the hugely rich convict gets a pardon (from a government official). The optics aren't great, but being rich somewhat blunts the hurt from those optics.
This will cause then problems eventually (Score:3)
Their chaebol strategy is going to cause them problems eventually. Those family dynasties are in the second generation, so all is well and good. But family dynasties almost never last beyond generation 3/4 for a whole bunch of reasons. If they don’t transition their economy beyond a few companies that keep-it-in-the-family, the second half of this century is gonna go downhill fast for their country.
China is in the same boat because their government is basically a family affair. I’ll stick with old-fashioned, boring, exhausting, argumentative western democracy. It’s infuriating, but the system is constantly bringing in new life and fresh blood.
Re: This will cause then problems eventually (Score:2)
Samsung is especially dangerous on that front. That one company is 20% of South Korea's GDP. They could wreck the country's economy almost at will.
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It used to be the traditional thing to do in China too, thousands of years ago, which is presumably how the Japanese adopted that custom.
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China is in the same boat because their government is basically a family affair. I’ll stick with old-fashioned, boring, exhausting, argumentative western democracy. It’s infuriating, but the system is constantly bringing in new life and fresh blood.
Not really, China's big problem is their rising middle class. The Chinese government is designed to rule a country entirely composed of peasants similar to a European feudal model with the lords at the top, a few select nobles and the rest being serfs and freemen. The middle class is a problem because they start to gain power enough to demand things, luxuries, rights, a say in their own governance. Once that happens the feudal system falls over, not just because lords and nobles have to cede power to the mi
Re: This will cause then problems eventually (Score:2)
Korean Government Destroys Own Economy (Score:2)
They seem to believe that money, talent, and strategic assets consolidated into two huge conglomerates (Samsung and LG) gives competitive advantage in international trade. This is actually a well-known recipe for a slow grinding down of the economy.
Big business invests the vast majority into R&D but small business provides the vast majority of innovation. Big conglomerates suppress innovation within their own ranks, as people are just assigned what to work on, instead of being allowed to take ownershi