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

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191–200 of 307 posts

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

#191

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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…

To stop this problems and other problems, like people in places like the SEC immediately going to work for companies under SEC investigation when they leave, and other revolving doors, it would probably be worth paying higher-level people (special forces operatives, District Attorneys, EPA commissioners etc.) a much higher level of pension that starts paying immediately after leaving the job, contingent on their lifetime disbarment from certain kinds of employment. If the person wishes to go work in such a position, that money needs to be paid back immediately.

It won't stop everyone, but done correctly it could stem the most egregious of revolving doors.

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

#192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

>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.

I think it's very likely that entities like drug cartels already pay for things like location data for DEA agent's cellphones.

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

#193

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.

I met a guy at NewSpace several years ago and we were talking about the role of the US military in space exploration. I was expressing my wariness of a militarized space force, the possibility of us ending up under a military junta, etc, but he was less worried. He kept making the point that mercenaries were the norm in the past and that the US military actually has an incredible record for never seizing control. He…

> the US military actually has an incredible record for never seizing control.

I wonder if the civil war counts here.

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

#194
post #172
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's responsible to pay for good journalism.

Paywall complaints, which this is a variant of, are off topic here. They're always the same, which means they just add noise. HN is a site for diffs. Diffs are what's interesting. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10178989 https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...

That is very fair, but why allow piracy with paywall workarounds? Are those considered off topic or illegal? It is a gray area, but people asking for a paywall workaround also seems OT in comments? I only ask because I think its important to the world to have good journalism because it helps to keep the other side of the fence (business and politics) accountable. And I believe that bypassing paywalls hurts that balance of powers.

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

#195

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Oh, I agree that it’s essential to a functioning justice system. I’m just upset about corrupt prosecutors. For example, sometimes, even with all the evidence pointing to Person A, the police will still railroad (an unrelated) Person B because they, for some reason, can’t admit they’re wrong.

Corrupt prosecutors are evil and way too common. Prosecutors are supposed to be the gatekeeper -- they should be a bulwark against injustice. I wish there was some plea offer reform to stop prosecutors from making coercive plea offers. I think that is one of the worse offenses against justice. E.g., offering plea deals with a choice of pleading guilty to a misdemeanor with no jail or you get multiple felonies thrown…

Plea bargains are evil. It’s my belief that if your case is not rock solid enough that you need to resort to a plea bargain, you shouldn’t be prosecuting that person.

Also, how are plea bargains not perjury? You’re saying, “I did it” even if you didn’t.

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

#196
post #109

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IIUC it's the same as anyone else being in the military for 20 years. That's not really enough IMHO for the level of training they have.

Part of the allure of the job is that it's supposed to be about abstract values like honor, duty, loyalty, patriotism etc. and not about compensation. It can't be otherwise, because then you have to accept that the job is basically just about killing people in exchange for money.

And yet I'm sure there are plenty of reasons these roles can make you quite cynical about those values (specifically, if leadership has those values) and decide it's no difference. Might as well make more in private industry without needing retraining.

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

#197

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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 t…

What I wouldn't give for an Eisenhower Republican resurgence and an FDR Democrat resurgence...minus the racism or segregationism allowing policies. But fiscally and socially, they were way better than anybody we've got in politics now.

That’s because we had adults voting then

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

#198

you know the plausible conspiracy theory that FANG etc companies for the past 15 years have been deploying an anti-competitive strategy of soaking up tech talent into excessively compensated jobs and putting them to work on vaporware BS projects that get canned after 3-5 years? even though GoogaAppaFaceSoftZon waste billions of dollars keeping tech nerds on the hamster wheel, that is still cheaper than the risk of ha…

> into excessively compensated jobs

This is the problem with your conspiracy theory. I work for a FAANG, and maybe about 1/3rd of the people who quit end up leaving to start or join a startup. Paying them tons of money gives them the exact resources to go off and start that competitor.

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

#199
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's the original interview [1]. He was trying to explain that he was looking for a wife that was resourceful. But since explaining what he meant by 'resourceful' was difficult he gave the example that his ideal wife should be able to get him out of prison in another country. [1] https://www.wired.com/1999/03/bezos-3/

Pretty sure all you need are high-level State Department contacts, not necessarily "a very particular set of skills", so to speak.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/abcnews.go.com/amp/Internationa....

the State Dept would be the last entity on Earth who i would approach for help in a foreign hostage situation.

just ask Kayla Mueller's parents. after CIA gave ISIS over $1 BILLION worth of weapons, the Obama State Dept threatened to charge Kayla's parents with Material Support of Terrorism if they paid the ransom to ISIS to free their daughter. ISIS wanted to free her for money. instead, she was brutally executed.

honk. honk.

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

#200
post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its frustrating when people trot out FAANGM as if thats a standard take just anyone can get. Its great if you can get through the interview process at some place decent (I did for the record). But that's like saying "I'll just go play for the NBA". Competition is stiff

Well,yes,it is tough,but then again,if someone's pulling $400K in total comp writing code, that's not something that just lands from the sky. Outside of tech industry you'd need to be a VP, or even a CEO to clear that kind of money,so yes, it's expected to be tough.

Totally agree with you but in the context of the comment I replied to the guy made it seem as if it's like why take this government pittance when I can just wave a magic wand and get a job and get a job at

I was merely pointing out that it is muuuuuch more difficult than that comment made it seem.

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