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
I created an HN poll asking the community their thoughts.
John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US
501–510 of 1001 posts
Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US
#502Was just reading about McAfee freebasing bath salts from old posts on an old Joe Rogan forum and not paying taxes seems like the absolute least he was up to:
>I've processed 23 kilos of this stuff in the past year or so, and bump it myself every day - in fair quantities the hypersexuality... is beyond belief. I have had a number of acquaintances (both male and female) who have rubbed their genitals way past the point of bleeding and still couldn't stop.
>In all honesty, a first time user, or a user on a large dose, when presented with food, will simply figure out a way to include it in the ongoing sex play with their partner. If alone, they will figure out a way to fuck it, or shove it up their rectum. This is not a joke. Everything on the Tan becomes a sex partner or a sex aid. If only visually. I will not, anymore, let anyone on Tan be alone with my dogs for example.
>A local brothel owner (prostitution is legal in my country) talked me out of a large amount of Tan and provides it to his working girls and their customers. The idea was to simply increase business by having hornier customers and more authentic product. It worked for a while, and then girls started taking larger doses and giving customers larger doses. They began leaving and running off with customers - some after a single contact with the customer.
>If a person takes a large dose of the Tan and has the misfortune to have no partner at the time, then truly terrible things happen. A number of men, and women, have molested strangers after massive doses of the pure product (which is why I no longer provide it to anyone other than trusted friends - everything else is cut 50 to one). Twice, users on large doses have tried to molest my dogs.
>I have distributed over 3,000 doses exclusively in this country. They call it SPT (I named it) and it is a seriously hot underground topic here. I know of at least a dozen people who spend virtually full time playing with this, and hundreds trying to get samples, which I dole out with meticulous care. Anyone caught sharing this with another without my consent doesn't get any more.
https://www.resetera.com/threads/john-mcafee-this-might-be-t...
Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US
#50330 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?
Not just that but as a US citizen even if you aren't living in the US anymore you still have to pay US taxes. The 2014-2018 income taxes he owed were while staying abroad. The US forces you to renounce your citizenship to get out of paying taxes to a country you don't live in. IANAL but that's my understanding.
Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US
#50430 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?
Prison time for tax evasion is extremely rare in the US. Almost always the IRS just collects the penalty and moves on. The only real exceptions are either for criminals with a lot of other charges stacked up (eg mob bosses). Or a public figure making a political statement like Wesley Snipes. Not saying this is good or bad. Just saying it’s how it is. Joe Sixpack who fails to report some cash income will almost certai…
Selective enforcement is bad. The fact that the law says that you could go to prison for one year for not filing taxes on time, but that it's rarely enforced means that they should fix the law.
Using it only on "bad guys" is a recipe for the government punishing people that disagrees with them.
Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US
#505The 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…
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
― George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman
I've always used this as an excuse for what might be considered being weird (at least that's what my family tells me).
Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US
#50630 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?
> which is supposed to be a free country A common misconception. The United States takes the constitution seriously, but doesn’t even rank in the top 15 countries according to most freedom indexes.
Depends what you value. You have to really look at what the freedom indices are using to rank countries.
Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US
#507What 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.
HST did a lot more than do drugs and be weird, but I wouldn't imagine a computer nerd who clacks on a keyboard to know much about Gonzojournalism or the effects it's had on American culture.
Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US
#50830 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?
My understanding was the IRS will give you a chance to pay back your taxes with penalties, and they only criminally charge people as a last resort. Is that not the case? Or perhaps only for people who aren't being egregious with their evasion.
Livestreaming your cryptocurrency-fueled presidential bid while living on a houseboat in international waters to evade arrest may qualify as "being egregious".
Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US
#509One of his last messages, just a few days ago. It is sad and thoughtful: There is much sorrow in prison, disguised as hostility. The sorrow is plainly visible even in the most angry faces. I'm old and content with food and a bed but for the young prison is a horror - a reflection of the minds of those who conceived them. https://twitter.com/officialmcafee/status/140301918407478887...
Also this tweet is interesting.
https://twitter.com/officialmcafee/status/131680121508322509...
May he rest in peace.
Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US
#510Earlier quoted context omitted.
The US and Eritrea. I knew this was a thing, but I had always assumed a US citizen living abroad only ended up paying tax to the IRS if the tax they paid to the foreign government was less than what they would have paid to the US, and only the difference is paid. But it seems that’s not the case, and you get an exemption for “only” the first $108,700 of your earnings. As with everything the IRS does, it seems complex…
Why person needs to go through the hassles and expenses to file tax return every year to the country where he/she doesn't not live in any longer? What kind of state sponsored racket is this?
With the major caveat below, on the face of it, it doesn't seem much less arbitrary to tax by citizenship than by residence in certain cases. For instance, as someone that grew up in the US and went to public schools, I certainly used far more public resources there than in my current country of residence, and would also (as a citizen) have access to an indefinite further amount of resources such as consular representation, retirement benefits if retiring there, etc. It seems about as arbitrary to me to pay taxes in a country that I cannot unilaterally choose to continue living in, due to immigration obstacles.
However, given that the global consensus is to tax by residence, the US should absolutely change its policy to avoid the hassles due to this inconsistency.