Drug cartel assassinates its enemies with bomb-toting drones • Hacker News Board

Re: Drug cartel assassinates its enemies with bomb-toting drones

#171

Post by asdff » Mon, Aug 31, 2020, 4:35 AM UTC

otoburb wrote: post #122

DethNinja wrote: post #113

As humanity gets access to higher and higher technology, more and more smaller scale, non-governmental actors will get access to weapons that can cause asymmetrical damage. We will definitely get to a point where a single determined person can destroy an entire city. I strongly believe this is basically the great filter faced by all intelligent species in the universe. Only way to overcome this great filter is by ado…

>> I also believe humanity’s chances of escaping the great filter is ~0% That turned dark, quickly. I was nodding my head up until that point. Things may look bleak now, but I live believing that humanity’s chances are higher than a measly ~0%.

I think we are fundamentally too tribal and violent as a species. I think there is nothing we can do against millions of years of natural selection favoring the furthering of your kin at the expense of your species. We aren't wired for civilized society, it has to be learned and ingrained and even then, we revert to our tribal tendencies at the slightest encounter with an unknown.

Re: Drug cartel assassinates its enemies with bomb-toting drones

#172

Post by CamperBob2 » Mon, Aug 31, 2020, 4:38 AM UTC

eanzenberg wrote: post #80

grugagag wrote: post #72

Legalizing all drugs would kill these cartels almost instantly. People who do drugs do them anyway and find a way to even if they’re illegal. If drugs weren’t illegal all that money wouldnt end up in mexican cartels pockets.

This is untrue, as drug cartels still make tons of weed to sell in areas where it’s already legalized.

Yes, just as they still smuggle tobacco products into areas where they are perceived to be excessively taxed. The problem is overtaxation, not the nature of the product.

Re: Drug cartel assassinates its enemies with bomb-toting drones

#173

Post by asdff » Mon, Aug 31, 2020, 4:42 AM UTC

tw04 wrote: post #84

eanzenberg wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is untrue, as drug cartels still make tons of weed to sell in areas where it’s already legalized.

Citation please? The profit that Colorado and other states are reporting makes it hard to believe the black market is even a shadow of its former self in those states.

In California, the black market is estimated as twice the size of the legal market (1). This is the natural result when you make it excruciatingly difficult to open legal businesses, and impose in some municipalities (including Los Angeles) north of 30% taxes on product with no break given for medical patients who might rely on this for their disease. There is also a lack of enforcement of illegal dispensaries, which contributes to there being at least 2835 illegal dispensaries compared to 873 licensed dispensaries state wide (2).

1. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-08-14/californ...

2. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-09-11/californ...

Re: Drug cartel assassinates its enemies with bomb-toting drones

#174

Post by grugagag » Mon, Aug 31, 2020, 4:43 AM UTC

kumarvvr wrote: post #141

grugagag wrote: post #72

Legalizing all drugs would kill these cartels almost instantly. People who do drugs do them anyway and find a way to even if they’re illegal. If drugs weren’t illegal all that money wouldnt end up in mexican cartels pockets.

The fear of punishments probably keeps many kids / young adults off drugs. The fear of incarceration and a criminal record probably does more to keep people off drugs than actual incarceration. I find the argument for legalizing drugs as some sort of a benevolent all-in-one solution a complete idiotic solution. Drugs like Heroin, Meth, Cocaine, etc should absolutely be banned and IMV the scope and scale of punishment…

The fear of punishment can be replaced with the fear of becoming a junkie and education can prevent that. Sure, some will become junkies and so be it, it's their life and that choice belongs to them. When I say legalizing drugs I don't mean encouraging them. Drugs like Heroin, Meth, Coke (and the list doesn't end here) are indeed dangerous and disgusting, but people still do them and the reason is because their lives are messed up or they themselves are messed up. If drugs were legal accessible junkies wouldn't need to turn into criminals. With illegal drugs there is a great incentive by drug dealers to hook more and more people up and make them do whatever it takes to get their next dose. If the next dose is very easy to get and cheap I bet you'd either not see junkies come to light or a lot of them would be semi-functional and be on drugs throughout their lives without many of us not even be aware of it. The fear will come from seeing irresponsible people ruin their lives and not wanting to be one of them. Alcohol too has a high potential of abuse and yet not a large number of people abuse it as it was thought during the prohibition.

Re: Drug cartel assassinates its enemies with bomb-toting drones

#175

Post by asdff » Mon, Aug 31, 2020, 4:44 AM UTC

grugagag wrote: post #72

Legalizing all drugs would kill these cartels almost instantly. People who do drugs do them anyway and find a way to even if they’re illegal. If drugs weren’t illegal all that money wouldnt end up in mexican cartels pockets.

The cartels will still be in businesses if the legal option included a 30% tax, as we see in California with the legal weed business.

Re: Drug cartel assassinates its enemies with bomb-toting drones

#176

Post by vmception » Mon, Aug 31, 2020, 4:45 AM UTC

phobosanomaly wrote: post #164

vmception wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are countries that routinely chop peoples heads off in a form of due process that we would not recognize or respect for seemingly minor actions. Even the most developed nations have laws to chop off the hands of thieves. We vilify and drone people with the same belief systems merely because they are not associated with an existing state, non-state combatants. There is simply no distinction I can lean on that wo…

If I understand correctly what you are saying, you are arguing that we take the world as it is, not as we wish it to be. I very much respect that position. However, I would argue that there is definitely not a consensus. The Mexican people are fighting with their lives against these organizations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grupos_de_Autodefensa_Comunita... Mexico has a central government that is weak in some resp…

Right. Its a good message and diverges a bit from my point:

All organizations can access the capital markets now. It a waste of public resources from the “legitimate” states to try to whitelist transactions so stop burdening everyone over that because its pointless. The end.

I am curious how the market will value these enterprises if they begin giving steady dividends. The price discovery is fascinating.

Re: Drug cartel assassinates its enemies with bomb-toting drones

#177

Post by asdff » Mon, Aug 31, 2020, 4:48 AM UTC

Yc4win wrote: post #97

anitil wrote: post #85

I actually work in the drone detection/jamming field. My only surprise is that this sort of thing doesn't happen more often. We already see drones used for drug smuggling and privacy violations, as well as the use of drones to carry IED payloads. Drones are an amazing tool but as with any tool, they can be used in nefarious ways.

Has there been any progress with coming up with a system that can _reliably_ jam them?

I don't know if you could ever stop a low cost drone short of using a shotgun. Even if you had some sort of directed EMP technology, the drone could position itself along the correct precomputed vector from far away, cut off electric, and glide the bomb to the target silently.

Re: Drug cartel assassinates its enemies with bomb-toting drones

#178

Post by vmception » Mon, Aug 31, 2020, 4:48 AM UTC

hammock wrote: post #48

barkingcat wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also engaged in massive transcontinental drug trafficking, and in many cases were vertically integrated. They owned the land/fields, the people/slaves, the plantations, the drug crops/opium poppies, the processing chain, and also the sales, and the troops/armies were used to force people to take/buy drugs. If you refused to buy or take the drugs, they would burn your entire country down to ashes, and of course,…

Sounds kind of like what certain world powers do with oil and mining these days.

That’s because nothing has changed except we learned that it is easier to manage regions if you dont annex them and instead let the nearest bystander run the country.

The people there accept it and it is cheaper and you still get the resources for all eternity, which is all you really wanted.

Re: Drug cartel assassinates its enemies with bomb-toting drones

#179

Post by grugagag » Mon, Aug 31, 2020, 4:49 AM UTC

stephentmcm wrote: post #145

rexpop wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, your response is literally "let them hold us hostage, it's safer than upsetting the status quo."

>Now a long approach of gradual decriminalization and legalization may work, with the ability to operate legally the need to utilize violence decreases over time as it's generally bad for business. For the record I'm pro-legalization, but just flipping the status quo overnight isn't going to fly here. Saying "just legalize all drugs" doesn't solve the problem, someone still has to make the drugs, can we just give all…

No, it's not easy to dismantle cartels and that is because of how much money and power they amassed under the current status quo. But making drugs legal would definitely cut the cartels funding and they would eventually dwindle into obscurity and small time crime. The current power of the cartels is only due to the big money that are in the game, hundreds of billions of dollars a year!!

Re: Drug cartel assassinates its enemies with bomb-toting drones

#180

Post by cameldrv » Mon, Aug 31, 2020, 4:49 AM UTC

DethNinja wrote: post #113

As humanity gets access to higher and higher technology, more and more smaller scale, non-governmental actors will get access to weapons that can cause asymmetrical damage. We will definitely get to a point where a single determined person can destroy an entire city. I strongly believe this is basically the great filter faced by all intelligent species in the universe. Only way to overcome this great filter is by ado…

Not that providing equal opportunities is a bad thing by any means, but I don't think it solves this problem. In a city of a million people, even a very egalitarian one, the most psychopathic person in the city is going to be pretty psychopathic.