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Selling say drugs that kill people (kids including) and illegal weapons that are often used for murders. Such activity is by western standards one of worst crim
by jajko 2y ago
Selling say drugs that kill people (kids including) and illegal weapons that are often used for murders. Such activity is by western standards one of worst crimes, especially in massive scale and run for profit. Even ignoring all other criminal activity, 25 to life seems like a adequate sentence.
It seems that from day 1 US is moving quite far from the place it was and projected itself to others for past decades. More ruthless, money above all, not much fairness in international dealings. Maybe US will be richer after those 4 years, but at current trajectory it will lose a lot of friends and partners.
Please realize this - for Europe, China starts to look like a great not only business but also military partner, much more reliable long term. This is how much such moves can fuck up things.
- ty6853 2y agoThat's mainly because it cuts into the US government profit margins. They and their favored contractors have been selling arms for profit and love drug running when it suits their aims as they showed with eg support for the Contras. It is important drugs stay illegal so powerful connected interests can maintain high profit and control. Without that, simple cocaine/meth/marijuana is just an agricultural or chemical commodity with essentially the margin of generic OTC drugs.
- jajko 2y agoYeah I meant more like some shady fentanyl that overdoses people en masse, not some rather harmless and sometimes even beneficial weed. The worst part are weapons, there is no way to spin it as something benign. Victor Bout for example got 25 years and there was no drug smuggling nor contract murders.
- ty6853 2y agoVictor Bout is free and selling weapons again with the blessing and release of the US government. Always was about profiting off of weapons. Don't believe what the US really got from it was one ditzy WNBA player.
- kortilla 2y agoThe US government does not have profit margins. It hasn’t run a balanced budget in decades. What are you even trying to say?
- rbanffy 2y agoThey might be alluding to regulatory capture by groups such as the NRA, big pharma, and the defense industry, which, for all purposes, are an unelected part of the government.
- 15155 2y agoI love how the NRA - which is almost entirely member-funded - gets lumped in with actual industries with eye watering margins.
- rbanffy 2y agoThey are a powerful lobby. Just mention "gun regulation" in DC to see how many of them there are.
- lupusreal 2y agoIn terms of money they really aren't that big, but they don't need much money to wield influence because their cause is very popular with a lot of voters and politicians know that.
- silver_silver 2y agoHe was serving 2 life sentences + 40 years, not one. Even the prosecutors only asked for 20. What he did was wrong, but the sentence was disproportionate. The judge intended to throw away his life to make a point.
- pixelsort 2y agoFitting then, that his release is happening to make a point with respect to judicial overreach in New York.
- tgv 2y ago> for Europe, China starts to look like a great not only business but also military partner Speak for yourself. China is still worse than the USA, and Xi isn't bound to any term limit, and has built up quite a following.
- rbanffy 2y agoChina seems to understand the concept of soft power, something the US has been neglecting for many decades in favor of less subtle military intervention.
- tgv 2y agoYou mean: bribery and economic pressure? It surely isn't cultural power.
- rbanffy 2y agoIt could start helping finance infrastructure projects, schools, hospitals, universities, and so on. Along that comes the opportunity to exercise cultural influence and develop consumers and suppliers for your own industry. It’s far less nasty than invading, freeing the people from their government and installing a puppet in its place. Also a lot cheaper. Any missile could pay for a school.
- rafram 2y agoRead up on USAID.
- monadINtop 2y agoWhich countries has china invaded, illegally or otherwise? Which governments have they toppled, covertly or openly?
- CrazyStat 2y agoTibet