he was in for life

  • Hexboare [they/them]@hexbear.net
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    14 hours ago

    The connection was made by linking the username “altoid”, used during Silk Road’s early days to announce the website, and a forum post in which Ulbricht, posting under the nickname “altoid”, asked for programming help and gave his email address, which contained his full name

    criminal mastermind (libertarian edition)

    • Babs [she/her]@hexbear.net
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      8 hours ago

      The evidence was shaky enough that they didn’t charge him with it, but did talk about it in court to make him look like a scary and dangerous man who needed to be locked away for life.

      p sus imo.

    • DavidGarcia@feddit.nl
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      9 hours ago

      from what I vaguely remember, the order was sent from the admin account that was originally his account, but the account was managed by three different people at different times, including the FBI guy that stole the bitcoin… I think?

      So it’s not really clear if it actually was him.

      that’s what his supporters claim anyway

      • Des [she/her, they/them]@hexbear.net
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        9 hours ago

        not a supporter here but familiar with some of the lore behind it. but i do think he was absolutely being made an example of. but yeah the Dread Pirate Roberts name was passed through a number of hands, hence the reference to Princess Bride. not sure if he had access to it at that point or was just on a different admin account

  • darkcalling [comrade/them, she/her]@hexbear.net
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    14 hours ago

    Trump does this for this questionable guy because someone whispered his name in his ear and yet Biden only commutes Leonard Peltier and puts him in a position where Trump can either have the FBI harass him to death in home confinement or maybe even send him right back to prison because he merely commuted the sentence rather than pardoning. Fuck Biden. Even when he does something sorta good it’s done so incompetently incompletely and badly as to be almost more a taunt than a good deed.

    • DavidGarcia@feddit.nl
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      14 hours ago

      it was a promise to the libertarian party. it was their one condition to free this guy to funnel votes to Trump

    • ReadMoreBooks
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      14 hours ago

      Q: How do you know when a politician is lying?

      A: Their mouth is open.

      To be incompetent at something good they’d first need to intend something good.

    • ReadMoreBooks
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      13 hours ago

      I don’t know why this specific person chose to own a plant. But, having been to prison, I know exactly how he got it.

      We learn to love ourselves by learning to love others. An intentional progression often starts with a plant, then a fish, a cat, a dog, and then other humans.

      Prisoners often suck at love for self and others. In the US, the best of Christians often fight for them to have rehabilitative programs to overcome substance abuse and learn to love. They also understand that most prisoners have tremendous value for any comfort or convenience not usually found in prison.

      So, they get approval, give away plants to whomever wants them, and then teach their thing to whomever wants to show up.

      • ReadMoreBooks
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        12 hours ago

        Replying to my own post with my experience loving a plant.

        The air in prison is cool and dry. We don’t have access to larger pots. We only get partial sun for a few hours through our little cell window.

        Keeping a plant alive means improvising materials to fix the cheap pot, curating every stem and leaf like a bonsai tree to keep it small, and replacing soil.

        Replacing soil isn’t allowed. We’d be searched before we went outside, then again more thoroughly before coming back inside. But, a few inmates ran a “store”. It’s like Red from Shawshank, with predatory prices and interest, enforced with third party physical violence.

        For my cellmate and myself, I bought a a pair of $20 phone cards from commissary to pay the store for enough soil to fill two pots. Then, I taught my cellmate that we could split the worm.

          • ReadMoreBooks
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            9 hours ago

            The store’s owner asked me what I wanted it for. Much later I think I’d figured out how he got it done. I also had educational books coming in, was giving them away, and all the stores just let me have it.

            Snitches get stitches. Stay in school.

            Assortment of books I “imported”: many Bibles, God on the Dock, Capital, The Conquest of Bread, Animal Farm, 1984, Huckleberry Finn, The Grapes of Wrath.

  • leftAF [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    16 hours ago

    Now do all the drug “offenders”… I am glad he got released somehow. Sucks the DOJ stole the 3B$ in buttcoin that was recovered which had been stolen from Silk Road. He “only” owed 180M.