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

bbc.com

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

#741

Post by pupdogg »

gpt5 wrote: post #581
Me1000 wrote: post #569

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It should absolutely be discounted. There's literally no evidence suggesting he was murdered. He was about to be extradited, the US Government was well on their way to making an example of him. There was no incentive to murder him.

Also of note - suicide in the US is extremely difficult if you've been identified as someone with intention. You get checked on every 15 minutes, including at night (which can be a torture by itself)

15 minute checks aside, I’m pretty sure every federal prison has enough amount of cameras to keep an eye out from the local central command station…especially in 2021. Still surprised there was no evidence of this sort for Jeffery Epstein.

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

#742

Post by selectodude »

Trias11 wrote: post #493
carl_dr wrote: post #472

Earlier 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?

The idea is that you receive the services and benefits of your US passport even when residing overseas.

Also keep in mind that you can write off any taxes paid to a foreign government so it's really just a tax on those who make lots of money in low-tax jurisdictions.

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

#743

Post by h2odragon »

hellbannedguy wrote: post #708
fastball wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He hadn't been one of the richest people on the planet in more than a decade. Definitely did not have enough money for literally any lifestyle, especially seeing as it appears he owed a lot of money in back taxes.

He didn't strike me as a bully. He seemed to like his dogs (which I get!), and was out for the little guys of the world. He didn't like authorities whom abused their power. I found him refreshing compared to most wealthy guys. I am sad he's gone. I wish it wasen't fear over the IRS though. (I don't think anyone should do jail time over taxes. You can take their money, but no jail time. Oh yea, I don't care if he was…

> He seemed to like his dogs

We offered the McAffees a puppy shortly after they moved to TN; they came out and played with the litter for a couple hours in our front yard, and they were both very much "dog people".

Our pack wasn't aggressive, as such, but everyone found them intimidating. John was quite happy being chewed by multiple small hounds, and the rest of the pack was OK with the idea of him having a pup.

Alas, they weren't stable enough to give a good home to a dog at that time (and told us so before the pup was ready), so that puppy went elsewhere; but I was delighted to meet them both and found them decent people to spend a bit with.

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

#744

Post by neverminder »

anonytrary wrote: post #486
kyleee wrote: post #429

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Nowadays people put the politics and social sensitivities first, unfortunately even HN crowd which should be way more objective than your average twitter warriors. Unproven accusations against a dead man who can no longer defend himself suddenly become facts.

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

#745

Post by fatbird »

jjk166 wrote: post #690
azernik wrote: post #614

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a legal standard, not a social or historical one.

It's a logical standard. You can't prove a negative (ie that you didn't do something and thus are innocent), so the burden of proof must always be on those making a claim to show that it is true. While it might not be as dangerous for the gossip column to employ fallacious reasoning as it would be for a court of law, that doesn't stop it from being wrong.

It's not a logical standard, and you can prove a negative. For example, I can prove that I'm not dead, that there's no elephant in the room with me as I type this, and that my wife is not having sex with someone else right now because I can see her on the couch.

I wish people would stop saying you can't prove a negative. You can prove that you didn't do something by proving something else that logically excludes you doing it--such as being somewhere else at the time.

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

#746

Post by bena »

boomboomsubban wrote: post #368
bena wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What he knows is immaterial though. Whatever McAfee would "reveal" would just be his word. Which isn't great. Unless he knows how to obtain evidence of things, what he "knows" is just rambling. Movies have instilled in us this notion that simply knowing something is good enough. It's not. Let's pretend for a second that McAfee knew that certain public figures were, without a doubt, 100%, Satanic pedophile lizard peop…

It's not impossible that his word could provide evidence, he may know where (possibly metaphorical) bodies are buried.

His word alone? No. It would have to be words to the effect that it would tell people where to look for actual evidence.

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

#747

Post by marcan_42 »

midasuni wrote: post #725
marton78 wrote: post #454

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, that military won't pay itself...

Having a US passport entitles citizens to a lot of benefits globally, those benefits have to be paid for. It would seem odd that you can benefit from the US growing up, and once you make it, you can move to the Cayman Islands and not pay for the benefits you have received

Having a European passport entitles citizens to a lot of benefits globally too, but oddly enough I haven't paid taxes to any EU country since the day I moved out and nobody expects me to.

I'm not sure why the US thinks it is so special that it is entitled to tax people who happen to be born there even if they have nothing to do with the country any more. You aren't taking a loan on taxes during your childhood; that period is sponsored by everyone else. It goes both ways.

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

#748

Post by colordrops »

chipotle_coyote wrote: post #406
colordrops wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 st…

Or perhaps it's a bunch of people with preconceived notions and reactionary clicking like yourself. I challenge you to find a comment by myself that insists he was murdered. And the comment I was referring to that I said was reasonable was not pushing any particular narrative, but positing a reason why someone might want to murder him. That's not the same as saying he was murdered.

There is so much reactionary outrage online that people accuse you of supporting a belief for simply discussing it even if you didn't push it and haven't committed to it.

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

#749

Post by dragonwriter »

boomboomsubban wrote: post #368
bena wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What he knows is immaterial though. Whatever McAfee would "reveal" would just be his word. Which isn't great. Unless he knows how to obtain evidence of things, what he "knows" is just rambling. Movies have instilled in us this notion that simply knowing something is good enough. It's not. Let's pretend for a second that McAfee knew that certain public figures were, without a doubt, 100%, Satanic pedophile lizard peop…

It's not impossible that his word could provide evidence, he may know where (possibly metaphorical) bodies are buried.

> It's not impossible that his word could provide evidence, he may know where (possibly metaphorical) bodies are buried.

Yes, and even if not, testimony alone is evidence, even if it doesn't lead to other evidence.

It may or may not be evidence that a trier of fact views as credible or sufficient on its own to meet the applicable standard of proof, but it is evidence.

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

#750

Post by koolba »

Tweet from him late last year, Oct 2020:

> I am content in here. I have friends.

> The food is good. All is well.

> Know that if I hang myself, a la Epstein, it will be no fault of mine.

https://twitter.com/officialmcafee/status/131680121508322509...

Hang on while I go grab my tinfoil hat.

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