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jajko | on: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon
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 | parent | next
That'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 | root | parent | next
Yeah 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.

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kortilla | root | parent
The US government does not have profit margins. It hasn’t run a balanced budget in decades. What are you even trying to say?
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silver_silver | parent | next
He 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 | root | parent
Fitting then, that his release is happening to make a point with respect to judicial overreach in New York.
tgv | parent
> 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 | root | parent | next
China seems to understand the concept of soft power, something the US has been neglecting for many decades in favor of less subtle military intervention.
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monadINtop | root | parent
Which countries has china invaded, illegally or otherwise? Which governments have they toppled, covertly or openly?
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