
The Whistle-Blower Knows How to Write - kawera
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/27/opinion/whistleblower-complaint.html
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spacedog11
The professor, author of this article, misses the point that the whistleblower
is an "intelligence officer". Intelligence officers very regularly write
extensive yet concise reports to their leads or higher up management, so it's
not surprising that s/he wrote the memo well.

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aylons
I believe you are interpreting some surprise that is not there. He takes the
complaint as an example of good writing and that's it. He does not try to
infer anything about the writer from it.

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mc32
One interesting bit is that the whistleblower law was changed very recently[1]
to allow hearsay (not fist person account) in a complaint. Some people
(obviously biased) are claiming the complainant had assistance composing the
complaint.

Guess we’ll find out what it’s all about soon enough.

[1]according to Repub lawmakers.

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jakelazaroff
Given that the ICIG and DNI both found the whistleblower credible, I don’t
really know how to interpret attempts to dismiss it for being a secondhand
account as anything other than entirely partisan.

~~~
tomohawk
That's a really low bar, and does not even rise to the level of preponderance
of evidence. It might be something that a grand jury might look at, but that's
about it.

We have an anonymous whistle blower making hearsay claims, coincident with the
allowing of hearsay claims as whistle blower claims.

We have the Speaker of the House instigating impeachment proceedings without
following established process of calling a roll call vote. Instead, calling it
based on her own authority. This unjustifiable departure from precedent and
good governance is really revealing her motivations.

We have Senators Leahy, Menendez, and Durbin leaning on the prosecutor in
Ukraine. Are they going to be impeached?

[https://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/5-4-18%20Menend...](https://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/5-4-18%20Menendez%20joint%20letter%20to%20General%20Prosecutor%20of%20Ukraine%20on%20Mueller%20investigation.pdf)

We have President Obama doing the exact same thing, leaning on Ukraine.

[https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/09/double-standards-
on-u...](https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/09/double-standards-on-ukraine/)

And then there is the behavior of the Bidens, enriching themselves by selling
foreign influence.

Obviously, the Speaker can exercise her power and could impeach a president
for waking up on the wrong side of the bed as long as she could get enough
votes, but that doesn't mean that this is anywhere close to being a wise idea.

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andy_ppp
This is a well written comment and should not be downvoted. The downvoting
button is not for disagree (which I do). If you have a problem with what
tomohawk wrote I’d suggest writing a comment so we can benefit from your
analysis.

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jakelazaroff
I think the problem people have is that below the second paragraph, it’s
entirely whataboutism that distracts from the discussion rather than adds to
it.

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tomohawk
Whataboutism would be bringing up something like President Obama directing
hundreds of billions of dollars to the Iranian government and saying this
really doesn't compare.

The provided examples are related to previous activities by high government
officials in regards to Ukraine, indicating a pattern of activity between the
officials of both states. Does the current presidents behavior fall outside of
this? And the Biden's behavior is part of the whole issue. Is a president
wrong to, as part of the treaty signed by both parties, bring up something
that looks pretty rotten? All of these things need to be considered together.

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aylons
This is a very nice, short and well written column by a professor that solely
analyses the writing of the complaint.

For a crowd that proud themselves for being objective and analytical, HN has
missed the point by a lot here.

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Svip
I also noticed that he writes dates in the `%d %M` format (e.g. 25 July),
which suggests that he is probably an intelligence officer. (I think they said
he was an CIA operative?)

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mcphage
Does that make me a spook?

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ineedasername
I don't know, _are_ you a spook? Knowing that would help me answer your
question.

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mcphage
I'm a person who likes writing in "29 September" format, which apparently
suggests that I'm an intelligence officer (when actually I'm neither of
those).

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ineedasername
It's not the date format that makes you a spook, it's the denial that you're a
spook, because that's just what a spook would say ;)

~~~
mcphage
Ah! I can't believe I fell for that!

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anonymousiam
Begins with a conclusion of wrongdoing, but doesn't address alternative
possibilities such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which Hunter Biden
has likely violated.

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paganel
If I’m not mistaken The New Yorker magazine had published a “good-feel” story
about Hunter Biden and the relationship with his father in August or so,
definitely before all this scandal was made public. It looked like white-
washing, and coupled with this present whistle-blower thing it certainly looks
like a planted story. The powers that be should have tried something different
in order to topple Trump, because, as you say, Hunter Biden is definitely a
crook and all this will only make Trump come out stronger. If it matters I’m
not a US citizen and I’ve never set foot in the States.

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busterarm
The Hunter Biden story has been in the public since May, just nobody picked it
up until recently.

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tptacek
The New Yorker "feel good" story this person refers to, which ran in July (not
August), covers Hunter Biden's Ukraine ties critically and at length.

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paulpauper
That is it? Was expecting more.

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ineedasername
tldr: An educated person in an important position that probably involves a lot
of writing actually knows how to write well.

I think this whole issue is very important, but there really are some extreme
acrobatics going on to fill every possible moments with coverage. Next up:
rumors say the whistle blower went to college; eats food; breathes air.

