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U.S. arrests former Green Beret, son, in connection with Ghosn escape from Japan

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Re: U.S. arrests former Green Beret, son, in connection with Ghosn escape from Japan

#161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hello, have you met the US Criminal Justice System? No, not that one. I mean the system used for the poor and/or coloured and/or from a "shithole country." The one that cages children and has decided that prisoners do not need soap or disinfectant in the middle of a deadly pandemic. The one that shoots first and asks questions later. The one that systemically plants evidence. The one that takes performs "parallel con…

>I have difficulty accepting that the US is up to first-world standards, whatever they may be. This wasn't a thread about the US justice system, the only person making it so and making claims about what it is/it isn't is you. Just because something is shitty doesn't excuse other things for being shitty as well.

Under no circumstances am I claiming that Japan has an acceptable justice system, or that it is no worse than the US. I do claim that using “the first world” as a standard of justice is a flawed argument.

I think we can argue that Japan’s justice system is flawed, without introducing the claim that the first world has a worthy standard of justice.

If we do, I think it’s fair game to point out that the first-world has problems of its own, and give an example. In another reply, I also take Canada to task.

I am not claiming that because I consider argument-by-comparison-to-first-world-justice flawed, therefore the argument that Japan has unacceptably poor justice is flawed.

The remainder of the argument seems persuasive to me.

Re: U.S. arrests former Green Beret, son, in connection with Ghosn escape from Japan

#162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Were your parents rich?

How does the answer to this add to or subtract from the substance of the ancestors' posts points?

Qualifies the background necessary to become a pilot and then have the time and resources to go through the Q-course and hang around for 6 more years while nearing one's 30s.

Keep negging - but you can't separate people's life choices from backgrounds that enable them.

Furthermore, it speaks volumes about the person not caring about financial stability.

Re: U.S. arrests former Green Beret, son, in connection with Ghosn escape from Japan

#163

It's been extremely disturbing to see how much the culture of special operations military has changed in the past 20 years. Previously, Navy Seal and Green Berets operated in silent, keeping the sausage making of military special operations quiet and secret, just doing their duty. Now, it seems like every Navy SEAL now publically writes a book, sponsors a coffee line, or slaps their name, likeness and story all over…

The privatization of the military is one of the most corrupt and corrosive things our country has done in a while. I flew F-18s for the Navy and did a ground tour in Iraq with Special Forces. Look at the pay grades in 2020.[1] E3-E6 are making about $25-40k in salary. With some hazard pay and Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) and Subsistence (BAS), depending on where you live (if not in the barracks) maybe you are ma…

They were almost certainly not clearing $1k a day, the company who contracted them was.

Re: U.S. arrests former Green Beret, son, in connection with Ghosn escape from Japan

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The privatization of the military is one of the most corrupt and corrosive things our country has done in a while. I flew F-18s for the Navy and did a ground tour in Iraq with Special Forces. Look at the pay grades in 2020.[1] E3-E6 are making about $25-40k in salary. With some hazard pay and Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) and Subsistence (BAS), depending on where you live (if not in the barracks) maybe you are ma…

The privatization of the US military is a consequence of the monetization of war that went into full swing around the 2000's. Or so I read from the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shock_Doctrine

I guess we moved from Eisenhower's concern about the influence of the Military-Industrial complex to concerns about the privatization of the Military-Industrial complex. Have we entered a new phase: Gig-Economization of the Military-Industrial complex?

This passage from a 2011 NPR article on the 50th anniversary of Eisenhower's warning caught my attention:

Eisenhower was worried about the costs of an arms race with the Soviet Union, and the resources it would take from other areas -- such as building hospitals and schools.

https://www.npr.org/2011/01/17/132942244/ikes-warning-of-mil...

Seems especially prescient at the moment.

Re: U.S. arrests former Green Beret, son, in connection with Ghosn escape from Japan

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hello, have you met the US Criminal Justice System? No, not that one. I mean the system used for the poor and/or coloured and/or from a "shithole country." The one that cages children and has decided that prisoners do not need soap or disinfectant in the middle of a deadly pandemic. The one that shoots first and asks questions later. The one that systemically plants evidence. The one that takes performs "parallel con…

For the future, you may want to cite this link: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/08/thirty-two... It's not about Jeffrey Epstein, but 32 interesting deaths in US prisons. The one about guards burning a man to death with hot water was... unique.

Japan's correctional system is considered safer than many others but it certainly has it problems.

Generally they are more like strict military prisons with highly strict and specific rules and regimentation. Punishment for violating rules may include loss of privileges and often having to maintain stress positions (aka torture) for hours across multiple days.

Reform is underway but as like as everywhere else it is making slow progress.

https://www.prison-insider.com/countryprofile/prisonsinjapan...

Re: U.S. arrests former Green Beret, son, in connection with Ghosn escape from Japan

#166
post #19

The whole escape was likely coordinated by Ghosn's wife who it seems passed the Jeff Bezos test. Commenting on what he looked for in a wife, Bezos once said in an interview "The number one criterion was that I wanted a woman who could get me out of a Third World prison"

Possibly people are missing the fact that his wife is Lebanese things don't work quite the same there :-) I used to work for a Lebanese company in London and all the Lebanese directors had very nice cars but the special ones with stepped on engines and body Armor. They also manged to get a kidnap victim back just like that at the Hight of the civil war I suspect money changed hands but also "we know where you live wh…

What kind of company did you work for?

Re: U.S. arrests former Green Beret, son, in connection with Ghosn escape from Japan

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think about it, it's a bit odd that there are so few mercenaries in this day and age. When you look back on history then from what I can tell, mercenaries were much more common.

Given the increased importance of having better tech and weapons in modern warfare, maybe the modern equivalent of a mercenary should include private contractors/R&D alongside boots on the ground.

I'm sure it already does. All of those companies selling information to the police are probably selling it to well-connected private entities as well. Or hell, the mercenaries may just own these tech companies outright: look at the devos family.

Re: U.S. arrests former Green Beret, son, in connection with Ghosn escape from Japan

#168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is also how Los Zetas formed. A bunch of elite soldiers figured out they could make a lot more money as enforcers for drug cartels.

If you think about it, it's a bit odd that there are so few mercenaries in this day and age. When you look back on history then from what I can tell, mercenaries were much more common.

It's not an accident. Nation-states spent an awful lot of time and money building up professional armies precisely because they had long experience depending on mercenaries. They knew that there were only two ways depending on mercenaries ever ended: either the country couldn't pay the mercenaries enough, in which case they sold them out to a higher bidder; or it could, in which case the mercenaries would eventually get tired of only getting part of the country's wealth, so they'd overthrow the government and take all of it. Professional armies let the nation-state escape this trap.

Unfortunately professional armies fail the one test that matters these days, which is the number of opportunities they provide for private actors to siphon money into their own pockets. So we have decided to ignore the lessons of history, because private profit today is worth social collapse tomorrow.

Re: U.S. arrests former Green Beret, son, in connection with Ghosn escape from Japan

#169

> U.S. Arrests Former Green Beret, Son, in Connection with Ghosn Escape from Japan Would the title have been clearer if it were " U.S. Arrests Former Green Beret and Son in Connection with Ghosn Escape from Japan " I understood the title as meaning that the former Green Beret's name was Son and that said Green Beret was already cited in the media because the title didn't include a "full name", only "Son".

Given recent headlines, I wondered for a moment whether Masayoshi Son had served in the U.S. Special Forces.

Re: U.S. arrests former Green Beret, son, in connection with Ghosn escape from Japan

#170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Japanese criminal justice system is not up to first world standards. "The litany of violations that commonly take place while the detainee is in daiyou kangoku would befit places such as China, Turkey, or the Israeli occupied West Bank. Detainees are subject to extremely long (e.g. over twelve hours) questioning sessions, designed to wear them down. Sleep deprivation is common, as is the deprivation of adequate f…

Hello, have you met the US Criminal Justice System? No, not that one. I mean the system used for the poor and/or coloured and/or from a "shithole country." The one that cages children and has decided that prisoners do not need soap or disinfectant in the middle of a deadly pandemic. The one that shoots first and asks questions later. The one that systemically plants evidence. The one that takes performs "parallel con…

Thanks for the nice "whataboutism" example. Bonus points for obviously being smart enough to get the point, but missing it on purpose just to do the whataboutism routine.
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