John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US • Hacker News Board

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

#481

Post by shapefrog » Wed, Jun 23, 2021, 10:01 PM UTC

njoubert wrote: post #250

api wrote: post #225

He clearly lost his mind at some point. Late John McAfee != early John McAfee. Heavy drug abuse and alcoholism looks to have played a role. Giving tons of money to a chronic addict (like he got when he cashed out of his company) can be a death sentence.

Do you have any experience with the stuff you’re making such bold statements about, because I have; and my god did you oversimplify things.

Tons of money, check Tons of blow, check

It was pretty simple at the time, blow up the nose, money to the hooker, repeat and rinse. It only got complicated when I ran out of money.

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

#482

Post by G3rn0ti » Wed, Jun 23, 2021, 10:02 PM UTC

smitty1110 wrote: post #468

G3rn0ti wrote: post #444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How high is the US income tax? And is it progressive?

Top end, which kicks in at a bit shy of $520k is 37%. Top end Long-term Capital Gains max rate is 20% at about $440k. These are numbers for individuals, they differ for married couples and households filing collectively.

At least that’s lower than in many European countries. In case of the income tax at least.

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

#483

Post by dleslie » Wed, Jun 23, 2021, 10:02 PM UTC

hristov wrote: post #373

sva_ wrote: 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

It should be noted that this Hunter S Thompson quote refers to Oscar Zeta Acosta. Acosta made a big difference fighting for the rights of poor and marginalized mexican-americans in east LA. He did something more with his life than just take a lot of drugs and be weird.

FWIW, if HST is to be believed, I think McAfee and Acosta would have gotten along:

Oscar was not into serious street-fighting, but he was hell on wheels in a bar brawl. Any combination of a 250 lb Mexican and LSD-25 is a potentially terminal menace for anything it can reach – but when the alleged Mexican is in fact a profoundly angry Chicano lawyer with no fear at all of anything that walks on less than three legs and a de facto suicidal conviction that he will die at the age of 33 – just like Jesus Christ – you have a serious piece of work on your hands. Especially if the bastard is already 33½ years old with a head full of Sandoz acid, a loaded .357 Magnum in his belt, a hatchet-wielding Chicano bodyguard on his elbow at all times, and a disconcerting habit of projectile vomiting geysers of pure blood off the front porch every 30 or 40 minutes, or whenever his malignant ulcer can't handle any more raw tequila.

— Hunter S. Thompson

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

#484

Post by tclancy » Wed, Jun 23, 2021, 10:02 PM UTC

rcurry wrote: post #470

The sad thing is that our government seems to make a point of screwing with kooks. I don’t care if McAffee owed some taxes - leave the guy alone, he’s obviously unstable, has major problems with drug and alcohol addiction and all they can do is try to bring him even lower. Poor guy had major problems even before the “heroes” of the FBI or the IRS or whatever started screwing with him. Let the poor guy ride off into t…

Well sure.

But do it for poor people first. There are a million people without millions suffering from similar treatment in the US.

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

#485

Post by doggodaddo78 » Wed, Jun 23, 2021, 10:02 PM UTC

Never speak ill of the dead, unless it's the truth.. seems like a final, fatalist drama move. Always with the drama for attention: guns, police, random projects, extreme this or that, vaporware never delivered, moving around a lot like a psychopath.. while light on the getting anything real accomplished other than staying in the media. Sigh.

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

#486

Post by anonytrary » Wed, Jun 23, 2021, 10:02 PM UTC

kyleee wrote: post #429

balls187 wrote: post #331

No black band for McAfee?

He probably deserves it for his tech contributions, but unlikely in this day and age due to the sordid nature of his final few decades

We should make a conscious effort to avoid this thinking. It's way too common for people to dismiss a brilliant man because of a few bad deeds or events that happened surrounding him. Genius is rarely accompanied by butterflies and rainbows. If we expect everyone to be perfect, there will be no one left worth respecting.

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

#487

Post by meepmorp » Wed, Jun 23, 2021, 10:03 PM UTC

willis936 wrote: post #451

madememakeacct wrote: post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I'd never kill myself" is exactly what a suicidal person _would_ say.. Great post.

They even had it tattoo'd on their arm in a cringey fashion to show how down-to-Earth and committed to this plane of existence they were.

That's like 300% sane!

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

#488

Post by kriberg » Wed, Jun 23, 2021, 10:03 PM UTC

freddie_mercury wrote: post #453

G3rn0ti wrote: post #418

30 years for tax evasion? No wonder he preferred to die. I mean, you’ll get jail time for severe cases of tax evasion in Germany, too, but it’s a couple of years at max and most of the time it’s on probation. How do you justify your draconic punishments in the US which is supposed to be a free country?

Germany has more draconic laws than the US in this situation, so I'm not sure what you're talking about. "Under German law, the maximum term for one count of aggravated tax evasion is 10 years. If an accused is convicted of more than one count, the court can increase the maximum to 15 years." The US is 5 years for each count, half of Germany's. Macafee was under accused of multiple crimes, which added up to the headl…

wouldnt it be 15 years, as thats the maximum?

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

#489

Post by gizdan » Wed, Jun 23, 2021, 10:03 PM UTC

rcurry wrote: post #470

The sad thing is that our government seems to make a point of screwing with kooks. I don’t care if McAffee owed some taxes - leave the guy alone, he’s obviously unstable, has major problems with drug and alcohol addiction and all they can do is try to bring him even lower. Poor guy had major problems even before the “heroes” of the FBI or the IRS or whatever started screwing with him. Let the poor guy ride off into t…

> I don’t care if McAffee owed some taxes - leave the guy alone, he's obviously unstable

This is ridiculous. Okay so let's leave all the rich people alone who claim they are unstable. McAfee made millions, from what I understand, he paid little taxes on that. That's stupid. I don't care how unstable you are, or how good you are donating your "fair share". You're still not excused from paying your taxes.

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

#490

Post by dragonwriter » Wed, Jun 23, 2021, 10:03 PM UTC

read_if_gay_ wrote: post #455

dragonwriter wrote: post #410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

That would have been a very long con since he has been tweeting things like this since 2019.

> That would have been a very long con since he has been tweeting things like this since 2019.

He started doing that not long after (or maybe concurrently with) announcing he was on the run from the USG in relation to the specific charges that he was ordered to be extradited to immediately before actually committing suicide.