Is this president extremely concerned about drug dealers and gangs in the US? Why is he pardoning a drug trafficker?
Trump clearly values favoritism to a high degree. He is doing exactly as he has promised, running the country like a businessman. If you scratch his back, he will scratch yours. Principles take a back seat to "getting the job done". For other examples, see his changed stances on TikTok, various foreign interests, cryptocurrencies, EVs post Elon support, etc. And in the opposite vein, he abandons support for anyone wh…
Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon
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Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon
#662We need pardon reform. I’d argue the President should not be allowed to issue pardons that are: (1) Preëmptive ( i.e. absent conviction); (2) To himself, his current or former Cabinet members, or to any of the foregoing’s current or former spouses or children or grandchildren (or their spouses); or (3) Issued after the presidential election in the final year of their term. Furthermore, pardons for violent offences or…
An example of someone who could be pardoned would be someone committing an act of violence towards police to prevent them from enforcing a law which was later considered to be unjust and worthy of revolt against.
Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon
#663[flagged]
Aaron tried to give the world free access to information for no personal gain. Ross ran an online marketplace for drugs and other illegal materials for personal profit. The life sentence was ridiculous, but they're not he same at all. It's the difference between Chelsea Manning or Snowden leaking state secrets and someone who sells on state secrets to the Russians or Chinese.
I think thats a biased answer and strawman argument. He made a platform where anything coudl be sold as he was a libertarian. It actually echoes what the ethos of hackernews is, to build a product everyone uses.
He didnt sell anything, so your metaphor doesn't correlate at all.
Also Aaron las literally a CEO of a company. Im not complaining about Aaron, he did have higher thoughts on how to help society but my point was about entrepeneurship.
If you want to come onto a ycombinator forum and say "hey this website creator was bad", then argue the case without comparing him to "user" of the site, which was my pretty simple point. Otherwise you just make yourself look bad.
I do not agree with his behaviour, I am saying he made a site, and got into trouble because of what happened on it. This sets a precedent that affects startup entrepeneur. Its a simple concept I am discussing. So dont strawman this.
I want you to convince me, but if you need to be logical.
Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon
#664It's baffling to me that there are actually comments on Hacker Gosh Darn News of all places suggesting that Ross justly belonged in prison. He successfully created a tool to undermine one of the most unjust and predatory policies of the US State - the policy of drug prohibition. He's a damn hero. I don't understand why Trump, who most of the time seems like a simply awful human being with no end of appetite for state…
It's hard to know why he wouldn't - he conspired to have people killed, and facilitated illegal activity, i.e. the sale of all sorts of drugs. You might be saying "well, drugs shouldn't be illegal", or even, "well, conspiring to kill people shouldn't be illegal", but they were illegal at the time.
Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon
#665Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wish instead of criminalizing addiction we'd fund harm reduction centers and rehabilitation services. I would much rather the police be focused on stopping violent crime rather than these victimless crimes. Legitimizing drugs/prostitution makes is easier to regulate and ultimately make safer. Shoving this stuff into a black/gray market is what ultimately creates violent crime.
> I wish instead of criminalizing addiction we'd fund harm reduction centers and rehabilitation services. We tried that in SF, I was a supporter. Seeing it first hand with a with a family member in public school flipped me. Dumping money into people who aren't ready to convert back into tax payers (even in the most basic sense) while schools got the back burner was enough. Not to mention the tents.
Yeah although this is more a consequence of how SF decided to handle it. Rather than decriminalising they're just enabling users.
Look towards other countries with similar policies (Portugal, Netherlands, etc.) in their cases they saw a decrease in drug usage and fatalities. The difference is they decided to not encourage their behaviour by allowing open air drug markets to flourish, with kiosks just down the street handing out the necessary paraphernalia.
Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon
#666Some questions, as many of us are from another continent and are only marginally aware of the matter - so, for many here at HN: 1. Ross Ulbricht the ultimate entrepreneur? 2. Ross Ulbricht was a freedom fighter?
As a eu-er, yes and yes.
(For me, and many of my friends).
Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon
#667Earlier quoted context omitted.
Madoff got 150 years for non-violent charges (and he didn't even try to have anyone killed). Died in prison.
It is wildly harmful and an escalation of monstrous practices to look at one or several unjust actions and/or sentences and declare that those who do worse than the person who was dealt out such a retribution should receive an even longer sentence. If someone gets 10 years for smoking weed, the solution is not to put someone in prison for 20 years for punching someone.
On the same principle, noting that someone who punched someone got one day in jail is not a good justification for why someone shouldn't get two days in jail for smoking weed.
Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon
#668Earlier quoted context omitted.
I feel like I'm taking crazy pills reading the comments on this thread. Multiple teenagers (one in Australia) died from the drugs distributed on Silk Road. Ross was ok with selling grenades, body parts, etc on there. But everyone is saying he served his time ???
> Multiple teenagers (one in Australia) died from the drugs distributed on Silk Road more or less than those who bought drugs from street dealers? could it not be possible the silk road saved the lives of many more teenagers who would have died from street drugs otherwise?
I don't think those types of hypotheticals are taken very seriously in court rooms. One, they are effectively unfalsifiable, because it's a about harm that could have happened but didn't. Two, they can be applied universally. Any action might have prevented a catastrophe, after all. Courts persecute based on laws broken and harm done.
Ironically our justice system sometimes does persecute based on hypotheticals. For example persecution for driving recklessly, which is inconsistent with the principle above.
Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon
#669I think that we have to agree that anyone doing this today will definitely go to jail, and is my personal opinion that there must be a punishment. Now, the discussion could be if a life sentence is a fair sentence or not. I personally feel that a life sentence is a disproportionate punishment, moreover if the subject shows a different attitude after being in jail for more than a decade. Ten years time to medidate about what you did is plenty of time to change someone's mind, obviously if you are a person willing to do things differently.
Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon
#670Ross deserved prison 100%, but 2x life + 40 years in American prison, which is hell on earth on purpose. That's just beyond fc** up. All these people here saying his sentence is deserved. It's just sick. How is your crime rate going? Declining...right? ....nope
...and the chemicals he would have supplied are being sliced and diced (padded out, to make more money), and you have to (in my country) go to some pretty dodgy areas to get what you want.