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John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US

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Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US

#401
Abolishing taxes on movable private property, in favor of a tax on land ownership, would solve this.

No one would be persecuted internationally because they refused to surrender their privacy and property in filing an income tax return and fulfilling the payment obligations imposed on them, respectively. To enforce a land tax is straightforward: you don't pay the tax, you are evicted from the land, and lose your rights over it. Who owns what land is also always known, by virtue of the fact that registry of a land title with the government is a prerequisite of owning land.

Economists also consider it "the perfect tax":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_value_tax

Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US

#402

From McAffee in 2019, "Getting subtle messages from U.S. officials saying, in effect: "We're coming for you McAfee! We're going to kill yourself". I got a tattoo today just in case. If I suicide myself, I didn't. I was whackd. Check my right arm. " https://twitter.com/officialmcafee/status/120086428376625152...

I have found that "I'll never kill myself. There's always something to live for" is something that is very easy for people who are safe and happy to say, and I pray that these people will always be safe and comfortable enough to not change their mind on this for their own sakes. When you're sitting in a tiny concrete box and looking at the very distinct possibility of spending the rest of your life in such a box, eit…

Why does the box being in the U.S or Spain matter to him, he would literally be in a box anyway. From his twits it seems he already made peace with being jailed and even said that quote while in jail.

Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US

#403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have hard time believing this, either that he died or his motive. Tax evasion has one of the most lenient punishments of white collar crimes.

He had enough charges lined up (up to 5 years for every count, IIRC) that he would likely be imprisoned for life. Goes without saying but he was also an incredibly paranoid person.

He was 75.8 years old at the time of his death and the average life expectancy for a male in the United States is 76.3.

Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US

#404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was he convincted of murder, or are you acting as the judge and jury based on third hand media reports?

People aren't automatically innocent in the eyes of the public just because they successfully avoid seeing a trial for nearly a decade by fleeing the country they are wanted in. McAfee's behavior surrounding the charges does absolutely nothing to help his perception. "Innocent until proven guilty" is really only applicable in the context of formal judicial punishment. Absent formal judicial proceedings, it is complet…

*two people

Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US

#406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because whatever he says in a trial becomes public record and widely reported on.

A lot of down voting of perfectly reasonable comments in this thread...

That's perhaps because so many of them, are like virtually all of yours, persisting in pushing "he was killed by the government!" based, as far as I can tell, solely on him saying "I would never commit suicide so if it looks like I did, the government must have done it." Why are we all dismissing that, right? We're dismissing it because we're looking at McAfee's history. The man loved to make grand, conspiratorial statements with absolutely nothing to back them up. Take a walk through his Wikipedia page, and don't go "pfft, Wikipedia" -- I'm talking about the parts with extensive supporting links here. In a very real way, McAfee loved being a troll. No judgement on him (at least for that), but I honestly don't see how anyone can deny it was a huge facet of his later life.

I don't doubt that at the time he said he wouldn't commit suicide, he meant it, but based on other tweets quoted among these comments, he was very clearly in a state of depression brought on by his incarceration -- and, for god's sake, he'd spent most of the last decade as a fugitive. This is a man who went to extreme lengths to avoid being in prison. So when you keep asking, over and over, "What makes you think he would possibly commit suicide to avoid spending the rest of his life in prison," the answer is "literally everything the man had been doing before he was caught."

Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US

#407
post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He could have killed himself anyway--- that is obvious , but his past statements still need to be taken seriously, and extra care and doubt need to be applied to the reported story.

Do the past statements of a clearly unhinged individual need to be taken seriously?

Unless you are very sure that McAfee was "clearly unhinged individual", it is a strong statement and ad hominem. Doesn't help add to the discussion than mere gossip.

Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US

#408
post #319
post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think he lost his mind, but rather decided that it was more fun to seek attention than credibility.

Mostly towards the end of his life it would appear. I don't recall hearing anything about him prior to 2016 and the run-up in crypto.

He routinely popped up in the news over the last 20 years at least.

Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US

#409
post #23

What a strange life he lived. I'm not going to make a value judgement about whether or not he was a 'good' person, but I do applaud the fact that he dared to deviate from the norm. "There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die." -- Hunter S Thompson RIP

I came across a Wired article on McAfee from 2012 describing his life in Belize, and it's quite a story. Starting an antibiotic lab, hiring armed guards with automatic weapons, trying to clean up drug crime in a small town, sleeping with 17-year-olds (one of which tried to kill him), pointing a loaded gun to his own head, getting raided by the police and jailed, lots of paranoia, and that's just the highlights. It's worth a read.

https://www.wired.com/2012/12/ff-john-mcafees-last-stand/

Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US

#410

From McAffee in 2019, "Getting subtle messages from U.S. officials saying, in effect: "We're coming for you McAfee! We're going to kill yourself". I got a tattoo today just in case. If I suicide myself, I didn't. I was whackd. Check my right arm. " https://twitter.com/officialmcafee/status/120086428376625152...

As cynical as it might seem, there is an alternative possibility: in spite of getting a tattoo saying he would not kill himself, and in spite of posting a tweet saying he would not kill himself, he went ahead and killed himself.

> As cynical as it might seem, there is an alternative possibility: in spite of getting a tattoo saying he would not kill himself, and in spite of posting a tweet saying he would not kill himself, he went ahead and killed himself

In fact, if you have people who will believe you (either becuase of who you are or who your target is), and a beef against someone, and see a confluence of circumstances likely to lead to a place where suicide is your only way out, why wouldn’t you set them up to take the blame if it got to that point (especially if you blamed them for the situation driving in that direction, so you might feel that it was a lie in only peripheral details, but not grand narrative.)

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