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Ex-lottery worker who rigged winnings gets 25 years in prison

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Re: Ex-lottery worker who rigged winnings gets 25 years in prison

#231

Post by justadeveloper2 »

lostlogin wrote: post #209
gknoy wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Documentation sounds like it would do very little to deter rendition by a nation-state.

Kidnapping from another country followed by torture has only been done by a couple of countries recently. The term 'rendition' sounds much more civilised though, and 'nation-state' makes it sound like a government other than that of the US might do it to Snowden.

It's an ugly, ugly exercise of power.

I have the odd tie in of having lived near an airport in NC where the CIA was operating small jets to conduct those "renditions" (read: kidnappings) overseas during the Bush II years.

The other place in the US that is weird: The base known as "The Farm" right next to Colonial Williamsburg which is neither fish nor fowl--a lot of people and things get moved in and out of the US from there with zero accountability.

We badly need to get the US government back under control because the things done in our names are simply evil.

Re: Ex-lottery worker who rigged winnings gets 25 years in prison

#232

Post by justadeveloper2 »

metalliqaz wrote: post #89
notfromhere wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that he defected to Moscow, staying in the US wasn't an option

Crazy that people still believe this stupid lie, easily debunked by 30 seconds on Wikipedia. Even crazier is that the people who really wanted to string Snowden up by the neck were the conservatives, because they love law enforcement and are willing to give up freedom in order to fight Islamic terrorism. In other words, supporting Big Brother despite ostensibly wanting less government. Crazier still is that those sam…

That is what terrifies me--people who are ostensibly conservative but then are all pro-military and pro-big-government and you find out all they want is some tax break or other stupid consideration that benefits them personally. Democrats are not immune to this behavior, either--I have met few who disfavor big government and think they can somehow control the beast. They can't.

I guess those conservatives who have military backgrounds felt that Snowden betrayed them and put them in greater jeopardy. The problem with that is, it's hard to prove the value of what Snowden did. Harm may well have been done in the small, but at the same time there was great justice in the large. Being a whistleblower was the ethical choice; if you look the other way, you're no better than the prison guards at the concentration camps who weren't full-on members of the Nazi Party.

Re: Ex-lottery worker who rigged winnings gets 25 years in prison

#233

Post by justadeveloper2 »

reactor4 wrote: post #197
toomanybeersies wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The FBI does operate overseas: https://www.fbi.gov/about/leadership-and-structure/internati... Here's an article on using the FBI as more or less another branch of special forces: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/insid...

I seem to remember Brandon Webb's book "the red circle" where he relates FBI agents were attached to seal teams to do forensics in theater after operations.

Which is just another example of how government expands its scope and rarely ever contracts.

Re: Ex-lottery worker who rigged winnings gets 25 years in prison

#234

Post by justadeveloper2 »

jonknee wrote: post #97
cm2187 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When a country really wants to get you, there aren't many safe places in the world. The terrorist Carlos got abducted by the French intelligence service. Eichmann by the Israeli services. There are less famous cases (like the Kalinka Bamberski case). What's interesting in that in all of those cases, these illegal means of grabbing the suspect abroad didn't invalidate the case against him and in all of those examples…

There aren't many safe places in the world if you're a terrorist or wanted for other types of violence, but financial crime is practically a national industry in lots of places.

China.

Re: Ex-lottery worker who rigged winnings gets 25 years in prison

#235

Post by ahhhhhhhhhh »

bradleyjg wrote: post #136
ahhhhhhhhhh wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>but I think people know what a longshot is. Gambling addiction and various mega-jackpot ticket-purchasing fervors are an indication that many people can't really comprehend the odds. A human can easily visualize 1 (the number of jackpot winners), but less so the scale of the 292,201,337 chances you have to lose (Powerball odds) If you had a contest where you asked someone to pay $5 to correctly choose a single grain…

I think this is broadly correct. Your system 1 (in Kahneman terms) can tell the difference between 50/50 and 1/10 but something like 1 in 1000 in is put in the same bucket as 1 in 100,000,000 -- unlikely but not impossible. If you want to actually work with odds like that you need to use system 2 to compute something more tractable like EV (~$0.75 on a $2 ticket for tonight's drawing). In the interest of full disclos…

I think we've all made gambles despite the odds. That's a bit of an unescapable human element.

Re: Ex-lottery worker who rigged winnings gets 25 years in prison

#237

Post by wbl »

Bootvis wrote: post #187
wbl wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cancellation had no effect on the ability of Venezuela or Russia to permit him to travel.

The part where the plane was forced to land.

Had Snowden been in Evo Morales plane nothing could have been done about it. That plane was extraterratorial.

Re: Ex-lottery worker who rigged winnings gets 25 years in prison

#238

Post by [deleted] »

temp-dude-87844 wrote: post #38
rdtsc wrote: post #7

> "It's difficult even saying that with all the people that I know behind me that I hurt." It is interesting to think about who he considers he hurt. The potential winners who relied on lottery winning to secure a future for their families? The lottery workers? He is a criminal surely, but isn't the whole lottery system a tax on lack of education and it just gives false hope to people and encourages gambling. He redu…

While I support the idea that lottery and gambling is for 'entertainment purposes only', if one never buys into the lottery, they can never obtain the winnings. Buying exactly one ticket per drawing at least places one in the pool of potential winners, despite the odds being rather long. Although the expected value is still minuscule, it's an unquantifiable improvement (since we can't divide by zero). And before you…

[deleted]

Re: Ex-lottery worker who rigged winnings gets 25 years in prison

#239

Post by gnaritas »

damontal wrote: post #177
gnaritas wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On a bitcoin exchange like Coinbase. Plenty of people have millions of dollars of Bitcoin. 10 million USD is about 2500 bitcoins, that'd barely move the market if purchased all at once, not at all if spread out over a day or two. 24 hour trading volume is about 3 billion USD.

doesn't coinbase require a link to a bank account? so you'd need to have millions in your bank account to buy the BTC.

The topic is moving capital across borders, that presumes you already have said capital and naturally yes that would be in a bank. Buying millions in bitcoin is not illegal, it will not be difficult, it doesn't matter if your bank reports the money transfers.

Re: Ex-lottery worker who rigged winnings gets 25 years in prison

#240

Post by notfromhere »

metalliqaz wrote: post #89
notfromhere wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that he defected to Moscow, staying in the US wasn't an option

Crazy that people still believe this stupid lie, easily debunked by 30 seconds on Wikipedia. Even crazier is that the people who really wanted to string Snowden up by the neck were the conservatives, because they love law enforcement and are willing to give up freedom in order to fight Islamic terrorism. In other words, supporting Big Brother despite ostensibly wanting less government. Crazier still is that those sam…

Snowden leaked a lot about foreign intelligence programs run by the US. That's not whistleblowing, that's espionage. it's naive to think China and Russia helped him pass through without something in exchange.
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