Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

291–300 of 307 posts

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

#291

Post by smcl »

jki275 wrote: post #217
smcl wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ahh I imagine that means a lot of crimes go unsolved then?

There isn't really a lot of crime in Japan. It's culturally very shameful to be a criminal or to have a criminal in the family in Japan, and the entire culture is based on maintaining the family honor.

What I meant was that if the system is only interested in pursuing cases where there's a very likely conviction at the end, there must be a large percentage of unsolved crimes even if the absolute amount is smaller than the USA/UK/Germany/$comparisonCountry.

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

#292

Post by sunstone »

vaxman wrote: post #257

This is a sham, Gohn was a political prisoner and to do this before Memorial Day and during the Covid outbreak is pretty low. The US courts need to dismiss the request for extradition of American patriots who are accused of helping free him or the Administration should get involved. Canceling plans to use Japanese modules on github for a mission critical system —I don’t need drama in my tech!

There are almost 300 comments on this story and not one of them (that I read) has mentioned how shady the Japanese government have been in the handling of this case. They basically conspired with management at Nissan to have Ghosn taken into custody on trumped up commercial charges because they weren't happy with how they perceived Ghosn was planning to deal with Nissan which were entirely legal.

Once they had him in custody they then proceeded drag out the process of his legal situation when they ought to have proceeded as promptly as possible. But since they didn't have much of a legal case they decided to just drag their feet and let him rot in custody.

US authorities would do well to put as much investigation effort into the process in Japan as they put in investigating these two.

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

#293

Post by braythwayt »

AcerbicZero wrote: post #170
braythwayt wrote: post #64

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…

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.

Not whataboutism, although I credit it may look that way if you tilt your head and squint.

If someone says, “Trump is a criminal,’ and I say, “Yes, but what about her emails,” that’s the canonical whataboutism. I’m trying to justify Mr. Trump’s wrongdoings and/or deflect from discussing them.

Now consider is someone says, “Mr. Trump is not up to the Ethical standard of US Presidents,’ and I reply, “What about Richard Nixon?”

That has the same words, but a different semantic meaning. I am not saying, “Mr. Trump is fine, because Nixon.’ Nor am I trying to have a long discussion about Nixon that deflects from a discussion about Trump. I’m saying, “Check your presumption that US Presidents have some kind of ethical standard, and here is a counterexample.”

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

#294

Post by jki275 »

smcl wrote: post #291
jki275 wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There isn't really a lot of crime in Japan. It's culturally very shameful to be a criminal or to have a criminal in the family in Japan, and the entire culture is based on maintaining the family honor.

What I meant was that if the system is only interested in pursuing cases where there's a very likely conviction at the end, there must be a large percentage of unsolved crimes even if the absolute amount is smaller than the USA/UK/Germany/$comparisonCountry.

You misunderstand. They arrest someone and then coerce them to confess. The actual truth of guilt or innocence is not really relevant.

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

#295

Post by eee_honda »

unhomedcoder wrote: post #204
oh_sigh wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

if 90% of tech talent stays at FAANG, collects their pay check which puts them in the top 3% of income earners, and never leaves the Walled Garden Golden Handcuffs of FAANG, that shows the strategy works to suppress potential competitors. not to mention while you are employed at FAANG, you are forbidden from contributing to open source projects and the Company automatically owns any side projects you may create. when…

Id like to have a chat w. you about all the above. How can get in touch?

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

#296

Post by dang »

pmoriarty wrote: post #75
blantonl wrote: post #63

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…

" It's made a complete mockery of what has always been a silent service and honorable job" Killing people and enabling the mass murder machine that is the military is not and has never been honorable.

"Eschew flamebait. Don't introduce flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say. Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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

#297

Post by dang »

md2020 wrote: post #97
pmoriarty wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" It's made a complete mockery of what has always been a silent service and honorable job" Killing people and enabling the mass murder machine that is the military is not and has never been honorable.

[flagged]

Please don't respond to a bad comment by taking the thread even further into flamewar. That helps nothing. Especially not generic flamewar topics like Nazi Germany.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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

#298

Post by thatfunkymunki »

loeg wrote: post #230
poof131 wrote: post #120

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 numbers aren't quite apples to apples; real military don't pay income tax, while private citizens ostensibly owe taxes earned anywhere in the world. Additionally, the tax rate on contract work is higher than one might expect from W-2 work. In practice, maybe some military contractors illegally evade taxes. I am wiling to believe take-home net of legal taxes owed is higher for private contractors, but the gap is s…

military does indeed pay income tax, i was on active duty for 8 years and filed every year. The tax advantage is just that the housing allowance is nontaxable, because it can be optionally provided as a house on base instead in a lot of cases.

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

#299

Post by loeg »

thatfunkymunki wrote: post #298
loeg wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The numbers aren't quite apples to apples; real military don't pay income tax, while private citizens ostensibly owe taxes earned anywhere in the world. Additionally, the tax rate on contract work is higher than one might expect from W-2 work. In practice, maybe some military contractors illegally evade taxes. I am wiling to believe take-home net of legal taxes owed is higher for private contractors, but the gap is s…

military does indeed pay income tax, i was on active duty for 8 years and filed every year. The tax advantage is just that the housing allowance is nontaxable, because it can be optionally provided as a house on base instead in a lot of cases.

I suppose I should have qualified that with "don't pay much income tax?"

Depending on your rank and what your active duty is like, much can be excluded.[1]

> Combat pay: Compensation for active service while in a combat zone

Combat zones: much of the middle east, including relatively stable countries that aren't Afghanistan or Iraq, as well as the Balkans.[2]

> Enlisted member, warrant officer, or commissioned warrant officer. If you are an enlisted member, warrant officer, or commissioned warrant officer, none of your combat pay is included in your income for tax purposes.

For officers, the exclusion has a threshold. That threshold is:

> For 2019, the applicable amount is $8,803.50 per month

Or $105,600/yr income not subject to taxes.

In addition to BAH being excluded as you mentioned, there's also BAS, BAS, OHA, other housing benefits, moving and travel, healthcare, all not subject to income taxes.

These are all sources of income (in an accounting, not IRS sense) civilians would need to pay taxes on. As a result, active military pay a much lower tax rate on their income than civilians with the same pre-tax income.

[1]: https://www.irs.gov/publications/p3#en_US_2018_publink100017...

[2]: https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/combat-zones

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

#300

Post by stonogo »

goatinaboat wrote: post #287
stonogo wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Hazard pay" is $150 per month at most. The "free lifetime healthcare" gets eroded every congressional session (for a while there they took away dental coverage), and the VA health care system has a well-deserved reputation for being a nightmare factory. There is no such thing as a "zero-interest mortgage." The only benefit to a VA loan is the zero-down-payment. The only way to retire on a full-salary pension is to s…

Hazard pay" is $150 per month at most. Re-enlistment bonuses in the SEALs can be as high as 6 figures...

Re-up bonuses for special operations are capped at $100k amortized over half a decade. It's good, but it's hardly wealth.
Post reply on HN