Live data from Hacker News

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

bbc.com

861–870 of 1001 posts

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

#861

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think people like that always have positive energy whether feigned or real. It's what attracts people (and money) to them. Famous celebrities, high level execs, politicians that I've met all had similar outward charm.

Taking in to account he was drunk he must be real

Umm, no. Plenty of people have outward personas that they can maintain through extreme intoxication.

Guy Burgess was well known when a British diplomat for protracted alcohol binges accompanied by all sorts of poor decision-making, but he never let slip that he was a Soviet spy.

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

#862

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think people like that always have positive energy whether feigned or real. It's what attracts people (and money) to them. Famous celebrities, high level execs, politicians that I've met all had similar outward charm.

That, and he was already wealthy by the point the OP ran into him. I’m still poor and every additional dollar I receive increases my happiness immensely. Dollars buy dignity and he had no restraints in life at all financially.

This works less and less as you earn more. At some dozens/dollars a day (I don't even mean homeless, I mean when you pay the rent and only have some crumbs left - I have a lot of experience living this way) every additional dollar makes you happier. As soon as all your basic needs are covered you (I) lose all the emotional interest in money and only feel interested in experiences, free time and increased security.

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

#863

Should the title be changed to the more journalistic "died by suicide", or just "died" with suicide left to the article body? "Committed suicide" is generally not the recommended phrasing largely due to associations with criminality - see https://reportingonsuicide.org/recommendations/ as well as https://ethics.journalism.wisc.edu/2018/10/04/a-guide-to-res... and https://www.nami.org/Blogs/NAMI-Blog/June-2018/Why-Sui…

Are the autopsy results in already? If not... no.

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

#864
post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's unfortunate that a lot of things we like about people, doesn't really go hand in hand for making good choices otherwise.

Yes I've met a number of personable people who I completely disagreed with on politics and their actions, as long as you don't challenge their ideological stances. It's kind of like dealing with an alcoholic as long as you don't challenge their addiction everything tends to go well. It happened to me just last night on the phone. The human mind is a complex thing.

So you are surprised people are combative if you challenge their beliefs? How is that weird. That's seems completely normal to me.

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

#865
post #751

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Relevant Eric Weinstein tweeted this few minutes ago: > I have two bits of information about JE that are not public. > 1) An interchange from McAfee on Epstein. > 2) Knowledge that Epstein was asking after me in a late email just before he died. I have no idea why. There is no more contact about Epstein than one meeting about 20yrs ago. > With that said, there now is nothing I know of again on Epstein that is private…

What is with the downvotes? What am I missing that I should know because I don't see anything out of place with this post? (serious question)

If I were to take a guess, it might be because the quoted text comes across as conspiratory and opportunistic. It's not that Weinstein shouldn't be free to post tweets about what he likes. It's just that it had no relevance here.

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

#868
post #675

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or you know...you could pay your taxes and stop stealing from the rest of us.

To be fair, the dude doesn't live in the US. There are only two countries in the world that tax citizens overseas, and the US is one of them. I'm certainly not excusing his actions (and I'm sure he dodged taxes in many ways), but I have to say that as a Spanish citizen having lived in the US, Ireland, and now Japan, the US tax code is batshit insane.

> To be fair, the dude doesn't live in the US. There are only two countries in the world that tax citizens overseas, and the US is one of them.

The tax evasion for which he was indicted covered 2014 through 2018; while there are gaps in the information I can find quickly about his residency, in 2015 he apparently resided in Tennessee (and in 2013 in Oregon). So even if we were to accept that taxation of nonresident citizens was fundamentally illegitimate, that wouldn't invalidate all (possibly not any, again, I can't find any nob-US residency information in the covered period, only once he announced he was on the run from the tax investigation in 2019, and some before 2013.)

And even if all the tax allegations were grounded in illegitimate taxation, there's also the securities fraud charges.

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

#869

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> IMO extradition over unpaid taxes is kind of severe? He wasn't indicted for unpaid taxes, but for tax evasion , which is a different thing (and securities fraud.)

That's true! My bad. Nonetheless, I think financial crimes really do not deserve extradition, especially for a deranged geriatric. He would have likely came to the US again at some point, I have no idea why this was necessary.

> He would have likely came to the US again at some point,

He announced he waa on the run from the tax investigation before he was criminally indicted for invasion (Jan 2019, the indictment was issued in 2020.) Why do you think he would come back after being indicted?

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

#870
post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's unfortunate that a lot of things we like about people, doesn't really go hand in hand for making good choices otherwise.

Yes I've met a number of personable people who I completely disagreed with on politics and their actions, as long as you don't challenge their ideological stances. It's kind of like dealing with an alcoholic as long as you don't challenge their addiction everything tends to go well. It happened to me just last night on the phone. The human mind is a complex thing.

Why would you have to agree on politics to like someone? Comparing someones ideologial stance with a severe addiction is pretty messed up, dude. Are you so sure your stance is the absolute right one?
Post reply on HN