this post was submitted on 22 Jan 2025
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[–] TokenBoomer@lemmy.world 62 points 1 week ago

Fuck it. I’m gonna rob a bank, give Trump half, and get pardoned.

[–] mount_snowden@lemmy.ml 47 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Don't be fooled - Trump cut a deal with the Libertarian Party promising he would do this if he won the election. It seems that yet again, he can conceive of no morality greater than transactionalism.

[–] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 17 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Compromising with voters? What a violation of politician ethics. Democrats would never to that

[–] Eezyville@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 week ago

Democrats: My way or the highway! Fall in line and support what we tell you to. This is how you're supposed to feel about these issues.

Trump: Lets make a deal. You vote for me and I'll do XYZ for you.

[–] timewarp@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

How does that fool people? It sounds like you're scared that some people may consider his pardon to be semi-good & it bothers you that he might be capable of some good too?

[–] Eezyville@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 week ago

They can't think like that. Trump has to be hated so he can only do bad things.

[–] davel@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 week ago

Well now I’m wondering who this could fool and how…

Fooled by what?

[–] jaybone@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

But he won the election, why does he have to keep his word to the libertarian party? What are they gonna do if he doesn’t follow through?

[–] Hotzilla@sopuli.xyz 28 points 1 week ago (1 children)

President of a civilized country should not have this power.

[–] Celediel@slrpnk.net 11 points 1 week ago

Key word here is civilized.

[–] schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 22 points 1 week ago

Now, no one can say anymore that Trump has never done anything positive.

[–] HelixDab2@lemm.ee 20 points 1 week ago (1 children)

So, here's a thought to mull over.

Most crimes committed with firearms are pursuant to drug trafficking. Gangs fight other gangs to control drug territory, because it's extremely lucrative. When I lived in Chicago, the gangs were hyper-local; the police had dismantled the leadership of the large gangs, leading to the fracturing of the gang structure, and creating more, and smaller gangs, all fighting over turf, and where and to whom they could sell drugs.

When you move that off the streets and anonymize all of it, you remove the motivation to commit violent acts. A gang on street A is no longer competing with a gang on street B for customers; now they might be competing with someone across the country, or in another country entirely. Not only that, but you de-motivate adulteration of drugs; if you sell low-purity trash, or cut your percs with fent, your customers now have a plethora of other options to try.

The Silk Road made drugs and the drug trade safer for everyone. If this had become the norm, instead of p2p sales, we could have seen significant drops in violent crimes associated with the drug trade.

[–] Spookyghost@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Or just decrimilize them and dont let a guy who tried to order assaninations out of prison.

Eh, we let healthcare CEOs roam the streets..

[–] adespoton@lemmy.ca 19 points 1 week ago (5 children)

I have to say… even with the Elon influence, I didn’t see that one coming. Ulbricht stole capital from the rich and enabled stuff including human trafficking considered evil by the religious right. But I guess he also stuck it to The Man, for which he is being rewarded.

[–] timewarp@lemmy.world 22 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Human trafficking is considered evil by everyone unless you're a pedo/psychopath

[–] knighthawk0811@lemmy.ml 17 points 1 week ago

now we know why he was pardoned

[–] jagged_circle@feddit.nl 17 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Human trafficking was not allowed. Not even CCs were allowed. Silk road didn't let you sell anything that harmed others.

Also, how did Ulbricht steal from the rich?!?

[–] ghost_of_faso3@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 1 week ago (4 children)

If anything he made it easier for the rich to wash their money and buy ketamine

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[–] john89@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 week ago

He's also partially responsible for why cryptocurrency has any worth at all.

[–] stink@lemmygrad.ml 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Did he human traffic? From what I read years ago he didn't allow CP, fake passports, or other things he deemed "unethical", broad statement I know

[–] jagged_circle@feddit.nl 9 points 1 week ago

He did not. This is misinformation. He also didn't sell drugs, other than maybe some mushrooms in the very first days

[–] 000999@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 week ago

Human trafficking? Stealing from the rich?
He pioneered an online marketplace for drugs and also tried to have people assassinated (allegedly)

[–] RegalPotoo@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago (8 children)

Keep in mind that a big part of why Ulbricht was in jail was paying to have multiple people murdered

[–] jagged_circle@feddit.nl 16 points 1 week ago (2 children)

False. Those charges were all dismissed. Dont spread misinformation.

[–] RegalPotoo@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago (2 children)

He paid money to have people killed in order to protect his profits

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/silk-road-drug-vendor-who-claimed-commit-murders-hire-silk-road-founder-ross-ulbricht

The fact that he wasn't convicted of it doesn't mean it didn't happen

[–] Glitterbomb@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Speaking of convicted, pretty sure at least two of the FBI agents assigned to investigate him WERE convicted and sent to jail for personally stealing funds from silk road during the investigation. The whole thing was mishandled from the beginning and the people he 'ordered to kill' weren't even real people, they were fake identities created by the same FBI agents that were posing as the hitmen and mishandling evidence. Reeks of entrapment.

[–] ghost_of_faso3@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 1 week ago

As always violence is a result of fed involvement, remove them from the picture and everything is fine.

[–] jagged_circle@feddit.nl 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Allegedly*

Fact: nobody was actually killed.

Fact: He wasn't convicted, so this is just the government claiming someone they dont like did something without proving it (again the proof lacking is the payments, because nobody died)

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[–] comfy@lemmy.ml 15 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Correct me if I'm wrong: IIRC the feds sent back mock pictures to 'confirm' the victims were killed, so I don't know if anyone was assassinated in reality but, as you said, Ulbricht payed to have them murdered.

[–] jagged_circle@feddit.nl 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You're correct. They were all scams, including one by the US government

[–] db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 1 week ago (2 children)

That doesn't mean they're scams. Ross really did earnestly pay to get people killed, he just got caught in a honey trap trying to do so and that's a good thing

[–] SpicyAnt@mander.xyz 16 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I have seen this repeated multiple times on Lemmy. When I look this up, I find:

So, the charges are dismissed with prejudice, the DEA agent imprisoned for corruption, the alleged victim testifies in his favor. What makes the other narrative compelling? I see people citing the court document in which the claims were made..... But what is the value of that document if the result was a dismissal with prejudice? Shouldn't that support the innocence narrative?

I am genuinely curious. I'm not necessarily advocating his innocence, I want to understand what other people know that makes them so convinced that he is guilty of this.

[–] HelixDab2@lemm.ee 9 points 1 week ago

Just to note, charges dismissed with prejudice means that the prosecution can't correct the errors and re-file the case. It's usually done when the judge has pretty compelling evidence that the charges are garbage, or there's really egregious prosecutorial misconduct.

[–] jagged_circle@feddit.nl 2 points 1 week ago

when the government puts a gun in the hands of someone under pressure and whispers in their ear "do it. Kill them. Pull the trigger" I'd say they're innocent 100% of the time

If you manipulate someone into doing a violent crime, the person who did the manipulation is the criminal

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[–] azl@lemmy.sdf.org 10 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Was it? It wasn't mentioned in the article and I don't think I've ever heard that before.

"Ulbricht was found guilty of charges including conspiracy to commit drug trafficking, money laundering and computer hacking."

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[–] ShitPosterior@hexbear.net 11 points 1 week ago

Amazing outcome

[–] ghost_of_faso3@lemmygrad.ml 9 points 1 week ago

my brother is free thanks for giving us a platform that allowed a safer way of acquiring and consuming drugs

[–] CrimeDad@lemmy.crimedad.work 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Have any other good pardons come through?

[–] jagged_circle@feddit.nl 5 points 1 week ago (3 children)
[–] HelixDab2@lemm.ee 4 points 1 week ago

Probably one of the best pardons to come out of Biden, TBH.

[–] CrimeDad@lemmy.crimedad.work 3 points 1 week ago

Yes, I was also very happily surprised to hear that. There's just so much more coverage about all the cynical pardons. I'm hoping there were more truly deserving pardons than just these two. I know Biden did something for non-violent drug offenders, but I think I heard that a bunch of those people were already out.

[–] mathemachristian@hexbear.net 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

now normally a german surname running a dark web website would be a massive red flag, but do the Ulbricht's get a pass because of Walter?

[–] OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 week ago

Legend. Huge congrats to Ross and his family for this outcome. Here's to many more DNMs coming up in the future!

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