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And not just living plants, but also (quite dead) wood and products derived from wood, apparently especially if the CEO donated to the opposing political party

And not just living plants, but also (quite dead) wood and products derived from wood, apparently especially if the CEO donated to the opposing political party (the GOP): https://humanevents.com/2014/05/30/the-true-villains-behind-the-gibson-guitar-raid-are-revealed/ https://humanevents.com/2014/05/30/the-true-villains-behind-...

hellbannedguy 5y ago
"At one point in the saga, Juszkiewicz was told by government agents he could make his problems go away if he used foreign labor for manufacturing." Wow-- (I do get we should not be importing endangered s pieces of wood. This seems like someone overreacted? I guess the moral of the story is don't play around with the feds?)
- bsder 5y ago
  > I do get we should not be importing endangered s pieces of wood. This seems like someone overreacted? Exotic wood is in many ways like conflict diamonds. It funds some quite horrible people who will denude a country of its exotic wood if allowed--we have seen this in action already. Enforcement is far easier on the US side than on the origin side--which is normally some corrupt as hell dictatorship with people who are brutally poor.
woodruffw 5y ago
Apart from being poorly OCR'd, this article espouses a conspiracy theory that the actual facts on the ground just don't support. Gibson violated U.S. Customs law by accepting shipments of wood that they knew were mislabeled at the port of entry [1]. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibson#FWS_raids_&_Lacey_Act_violation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibson#FWS_raids_&_Lacey_Act_v...
bsder 5y ago
Everything is always politics ... however ... Both Martin and Taylor ran far, far away from this scheme. Gibson absolutely deserved the whacking they got. You can get around these problems in a legal way and be somewhat responsible. Taylor, famously, bought all the ebony stands in the world and promised to buy all ebony at the same price because the local population were cutting down rare ebony trees and leaving them to rot if they didn't have black heartwood. This, of course, creates a monopoly which is its own problem ... however, any solution you come up with has to take into account that the locals will destroy the extremely rare ebony trees for absurdly small (to us) amounts of money. You can work within the legal frameworks, and Gibson has more than enough staff to be able to comply. Gibson isn't some tiny company that unjustly trod by the government. Had you or I done this, we would be rotting in jail. Gibson merely got a fine and even got its wood back.
gamblor956 5y ago
Conspiracy theories aside, it has been illegal to import many varieties of wood into the U.S. and the EU for many years or even decades. The CEO of Gibson knew that he was illegally importing wood, and did it anyway. His comparatively tiny donations to the GOP were irrelevant.

hellbannedguy 5y ago

"At one point in the saga, Juszkiewicz was told by government agents he could make his problems go away if he used foreign labor for manufacturing." Wow-- (I do get we should not be importing endangered s pieces of wood. This seems like someone overreacted? I guess the moral of the story is don't play around with the feds?)

bsder 5y ago
> I do get we should not be importing endangered s pieces of wood. This seems like someone overreacted? Exotic wood is in many ways like conflict diamonds. It funds some quite horrible people who will denude a country of its exotic wood if allowed--we have seen this in action already. Enforcement is far easier on the US side than on the origin side--which is normally some corrupt as hell dictatorship with people who are brutally poor.

woodruffw 5y ago

Apart from being poorly OCR'd, this article espouses a conspiracy theory that the actual facts on the ground just don't support. Gibson violated U.S. Customs law by accepting shipments of wood that they knew were mislabeled at the port of entry [1]. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibson#FWS_raids_&_Lacey_Act_violation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibson#FWS_raids_&_Lacey_Act_v...

bsder 5y ago

Everything is always politics ... however ... Both Martin and Taylor ran far, far away from this scheme. Gibson absolutely deserved the whacking they got. You can get around these problems in a legal way and be somewhat responsible. Taylor, famously, bought all the ebony stands in the world and promised to buy all ebony at the same price because the local population were cutting down rare ebony trees and leaving them to rot if they didn't have black heartwood. This, of course, creates a monopoly which is its own problem ... however, any solution you come up with has to take into account that the locals will destroy the extremely rare ebony trees for absurdly small (to us) amounts of money. You can work within the legal frameworks, and Gibson has more than enough staff to be able to comply. Gibson isn't some tiny company that unjustly trod by the government. Had you or I done this, we would be rotting in jail. Gibson merely got a fine and even got its wood back.

gamblor956 5y ago

Conspiracy theories aside, it has been illegal to import many varieties of wood into the U.S. and the EU for many years or even decades. The CEO of Gibson knew that he was illegally importing wood, and did it anyway. His comparatively tiny donations to the GOP were irrelevant.