A damsel in distress. Plural of Mongoose Update.

Rant and Rave about The Canna Trade.
Nightcrawler
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A damsel in distress. Plural of Mongoose Update.

Post by Nightcrawler »

AGD wrote:Didn't PoM turn himself in? Why is he fighting extratition then? :loony:
Precisely. This is making less and less sense by the day (if it ever made sense to begin with.)

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Post by Jesús Malverde »

All Nikki needs is a one way ticket to the UK. Looks like 608 USD will do it. I'll bet she'll spend more staying in Thailand for the next few weeks. As for Tom. He was apparently a key mastermind behind a world famous website that sold addictive meth, cocaine and heroin in the amount of tens of millions of dollars to addicts if I understand correctly. The sheer quantity of stupid required to do that job for years and not to salt away a mere few thousand from the millions passing through for a legal retainer in the near certainty that it would at some point be necessary almost exceeds the known human capacity for stupidity.

In one sense, one can view this predicament as the ultimate proof that Tom never was in this for the money--that his commitment was on some level purely ideological. In fact, not making any money seems to have been at the very top of his list of career goals, it surely isn't an easy thing to be instrumental in dealing those immense quantities of hard drugs and not to amass a considerable fortune. Just as being a top player in the cannabis seed business for years and not making a considerable pile--or at least enough to retain counsel--is probably rather difficult. Even if getting rich weren't your goal, it would most likely happen unless you took active steps to ensure it didn't.

So it appears Tom took a highly active role in selling multimillion dollar amounts of potentially deadly hard drugs to desperate addicts throughout the world through a highly profitable business model and did it for reasons other than money. In fact, not only didn't do it for the money, but made a very special point of and went well out of his way to not make any money doing it. So why? What sort of demented idealism is fed by supplying addicts with the poisons they require to harm themselves while at the same time happily consorting with and befriending people getting rich doing so? I assume some misguided amoral Randian libertarianism coupled with a monkish desire for self deprivation and poverty. At least until that poverty becomes a problem.

Is there a more charitable explanation? I'm obviously struggling to construct one.
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Mr. Natural
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Post by Mr. Natural »

AGD wrote:Didn't PoM turn himself in? Why is he fighting extratition then? :loony:
http://myplanetganja.com/viewtopic.php? ... start=1530" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
It's pretty well documented in the tread above that he was visited by Thai police, thrown in the back of a van and hauled off to jail. That's not how people usually turn themselves in.

He said that he wanted safe passage back to the U.S. to defend himself but the people he was in contact with in the U.S. government didn't accept his offer. Now that he's in prison in Thailand and if extradited he has no assurance of his safely arriving there, so he's fighting extradition.

Crooked DEA agents exist, that's a fact. If one thought PoM had part of a pass phase to a Bitcoin account containing millions and was trying to get it out of him, and PoM has anything to identify this guy, it's quite likely the guy would not like to see PoM not make it back to the U.S. If he's involved in the case, he'd be privy to information about his transport and could cause problems.
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Post by Mr. Natural »

I bet he's glad you're not going to be on his jury.

A guy is accused of being involved in a website doing millions of dollars in business, he should have loads of money stashed away but he's broke, can't afford a lawyer and you can't think of an alternative?

How about, it wasn't PoM who was working for Silk Road?

There's probably ten people on this site alone who can post and sound like him. Every time you check into a hotel in Thailand they photocopy your passport. Anybody could bribe a night guard $20 and get a copy of anyone's passport who stayed at the hotel.

Maybe he had some minor involvement, maybe he was contacted and hooked up SR with a programmer or security expert and they guy decided to pose as Pom. It just doesn't add up that if he was the "mastermind" behind SR that he'd be broke.
Jesús Malverde wrote:All Nikki needs is a one way ticket to the UK. Looks like 608 USD will do it. I'll bet she'll spend more staying in Thailand for the next few weeks. As for Tom. He was apparently a key mastermind behind a world famous website that sold addictive meth, cocaine and heroin in the amount of tens of millions of dollars to addicts if I understand correctly. The sheer quantity of stupid required to do that job for years and not to salt away a mere few thousand from the millions passing through for a legal retainer in the near certainty that it would at some point be necessary almost exceeds the known human capacity for stupidity.

In one sense, one can view this predicament as the ultimate proof that Tom never was in this for the money--that his commitment was on some level purely ideological. In fact, not making any money seems to have been at the very top of his list of career goals, it surely isn't an easy thing to be instrumental in dealing those immense quantities of hard drugs and not to amass a considerable fortune. Just as being a top player in the cannabis seed business for years and not making a considerable pile--or at least enough to retain counsel--is probably rather difficult. Even if getting rich weren't your goal, it would most likely happen unless you took active steps to ensure it didn't.

So it appears Tom took a highly active role in selling multimillion dollar amounts of potentially deadly hard drugs to desperate addicts throughout the world through a highly profitable business model and did it for reasons other than money. In fact, not only didn't do it for the money, but made a very special point of and went well out of his way to not make any money doing it. So why? What sort of demented idealism is fed by supplying addicts with the poisons they require to harm themselves while at the same time happily consorting with and befriending people getting rich doing so? I assume some misguided amoral Randian libertarianism coupled with a monkish desire for self deprivation and poverty. At least until that poverty becomes a problem.

Is there a more charitable explanation? I'm obviously struggling to construct one.
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Post by Jesús Malverde »

Mr. Natural wrote:I bet he's glad you're not going to be on his jury.

A guy is accused of being involved in a website doing millions of dollars in business, he should have loads of money stashed away but he's broke, can't afford a lawyer and you can't think of an alternative?

How about, it wasn't PoM who was working for Silk Road?

There's probably ten people on this site alone who can post and sound like him. Every time you check into a hotel in Thailand they photocopy your passport. Anybody could bribe a night guard $20 and get a copy of anyone's passport who stayed at the hotel.

Maybe he had some minor involvement, maybe he was contacted and hooked up SR with a programmer or security expert and they guy decided to pose as Pom. It just doesn't add up that if he was the "mastermind" behind SR that he'd be broke.
I agree, it doesn't add up. I'm basing my assumption on PoM being VJ/Cimon more on Tom's very pointed refusal to deny being that when given the opportunity than I am on any definitive pile of objective evidence. My theory in fact sucks and doesn't make much sense I'll admit. Except it's the best I can come up with given what I know. In the near certain event he is indeed extradited back to the US, I doubt his personal safety will be under any real threat, although his freedom will be under huge threat. But that return and risk is the very wish he expressed here! If he did what he is accused of, masterminding the SR site which appears to have had as its economic backbone selling addictive poisons to addicts who can't really provide proper consent to their side of the bargain, he really doesn't deserve much in the way of our sympathy. That doesn't mean he deserves to spend an inordinate time incarcerated for what is in fact a pretty ordinary offense once you unwrap it from its incredibly hyped sell job, and it doesn't even make Tom more morally culpable than say a tobacco or Big Pharma exec, who are likely to do worse entirely within the confines of the law. But selling junk to junkies or meth to tweakers, or enabling that if that's what Tom did, is not a cool way to make a living. It's not like selling cannabis or even psychedelics.

I think it most likely Tom was VJ/Cimon, that his "Diamond" story is partially or wholly a fabrication, and that he will be found guilty of his involvement with the SR site. He will very probably also like Ross be given a sentence beyond any reasonable amount commensurate with what he will be accused of having done and at that point become another victim of an insanely overzealous prosecution. If the presented facts bore out that he was VJ/Cimon and he were to be found guilty and sentenced to a year or two, frankly I'd think that would probably represent a reasonably just outcome.
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Post by LadyConjecture »

heh. seems like straight stories are hard to come by in all this, dun't it?

it's espicially hard when you can't look someone in the eye and have to take text as a verification of identity.

Thats why we need pictures. geostamped holding todays newspaper, in front of the jail sign with a guard.
pfft

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Post by Jesús Malverde »

Yes, having a moral sense and listening to it is just an awful thing isn't it? My main problem with libertarianism is generally its lack of any morality at all underpinning it. Yes, knowingly selling heroin to junkies to make profit is morally unsound. Care to actually enunciate a counterargument to that? Because i think if you try you will fail. I suspect you realize that as well and wisely won't try. Let's see.
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