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

#531

Post by auggierose » Wed, Jun 23, 2021, 10:20 PM UTC

gizdan wrote: post #489

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.

I guess Google, Facebook and Apple are stupid then too.

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

#532

Post by rOOb85 » Wed, Jun 23, 2021, 10:21 PM UTC

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

That's one of my favorite quotes. I can really relate to it.

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

#533

Post by Klinky » Wed, Jun 23, 2021, 10:21 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…

The dude was found liable for two people's deaths, and evaded taxes, like... I dunno. He doesn't seem like that great of a guy. He seems like a self-centered reckless narcissist leaving destruction in his wake.

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

#534

Post by okamiueru » Wed, Jun 23, 2021, 10:21 PM UTC

stickfigure wrote: post #145

chris11 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the best outcome would have been a trial with a fair outcome. But he went down to South America, started making drugs, and got accused of rape and murder. The legal system should assume innocence before trial, though in my personal opinion he was an evil man.

You got the continent wrong. I don't have much of an opinion about McAfee, but it bugs me a bit when people who know less than I do have stronger opinions.

> You got the continent wrong.

I'm not the person you replied to, but, do you mean they got the continent wrong because Belize is in Central America, and thus technically North America? Seems like an unnecessary nitpick.

If you thought he mistook Spain to be in South America, then, maybe the guidelines here would be of help. From my own experience, it is better to not assume people know less than you.

Then again, maybe you are referring to something else, in which case it would be nice to know what.

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

#535

Post by hownottowrite » Wed, Jun 23, 2021, 10:22 PM UTC

When is he getting a black bar?

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

#536

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

auggierose wrote: post #531

gizdan wrote: post #489

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

I guess Google, Facebook and Apple are stupid then too.

Yes. Yes, they absolutely are, and they should be prosecuted for their tax avoidance. Same with Amazon and all other companies. I, as lone individual tax payer, paid more in taxes in the UK than Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Apple did, probably combined. That is not okay.

Edit: evasion > avoidance.

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

#537

Post by voldacar » Wed, Jun 23, 2021, 10:24 PM UTC

What an incredible life.

Annoying antivirus creator, Belizean designer drug producer (and possibly murderer), bitcoin enthusiast, international outlaw, possible creator of the LSJ island drone videos...

I never really interacted with him but I will miss him all the same

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

#538

Post by layer8 » Wed, Jun 23, 2021, 10:24 PM UTC

nigerian1981 wrote: post #416

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

I always remember by Geography teacher correcting me on my incorrect use of wether instead of whether and explaining that the former meant a castrated ram.

The way I remember how to write it is that "weather" and "whether" have the same number of letters.

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

#539

Post by aplummer » Wed, Jun 23, 2021, 10:24 PM UTC

auggierose wrote: post #531

gizdan wrote: post #489

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

I guess Google, Facebook and Apple are stupid then too.

There is a massive difference between following poorly written laws correctly and breaking the law.

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

#540

Post by CobrastanJorji » Wed, Jun 23, 2021, 10:25 PM UTC

AdamN wrote: post #438

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?

US indeed has draconian punishments. However 30 years is a starting/worst case scenario to encourage a plea bargain. Plea bargains are horrendous and really should be banned or made extremely rare.

I completely agree, but plea bargains are also the basic mechanism by which the justice system functioned. They represent something like 95% of convictions. If everybody who currently took a plea switched to demanding a trial, we'd need at least twenty times as many judges and juries.

I'm not against that, mind you, I'm just saying that you are proposing a massive sea change in the legal system. Everything about the recommended sentencing to basic questions like "what incentives can we offer to flip on someone" would need to be completely rethought.