These days I normally roll my eyes and stop reading when I encounter someone saying "the elites" but in this case it is 100% appropriate: she was a member of a wealthy elite, and both deliberately and casually used her connections from the get go.
Her deliberate use was exploiting her very close childhood friendship with Tim Draper's kids to get Draper to fund her and use his network to find other investors and to get the message out. Another was her using her network to get a number of distracting and bizarre board members (ex generals and the like), especially when Vally VCs (other than Draper) refused to give the company the time of day.
The casual way I noticed was how she just slipped into a milieu of Ted talks, various "though leader" pieces, and circulated at Davos and wherever. No gawky fish-out-of-water period.
This is quite different from the typical nerd "has to get used to things" situation and gave her tremendous credibility with the rubes outside the valley.
I would drive or bike past their office on Page Mill and for a long time had no idea what they did, despite having been in the life sciences myself at the time. They were weirdly physically in Silicon Valley but simultaneously not part of it.
Seems to me to be a much stronger statement than “she used her connections and didn’t seem to care too much about doing so”.
Regarding her seeming effortless transition into the public spotlight, I’d imagine it’s learned from a young age as an “elite”. Fun fact, her great* grandfather made the yeast company you probably use.
"Specifically, the Three Strikes law made it possible for a repeat offender to receive a prison sentence of 25 years to life for a nonserious or nonviolent felony (for example, petty theft with a prior)"[1]
[0] https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/cruel-an...
In fact, if an act is a crime in multiple states (which is possible), you can be charged and punished separately by each state as well as the federal government if it is also a federal crime. This rarely happens even where theoretically possible, but it can (its much more common for other jurisdictions to prosecute if you are acquitted in one but the act could be prosecuted in another as well.)
For the California three strikes law, am I correct in guessing all three strikes have to be in the state of California, or can 1-2 of the earlier strikes be in another state?
If the former is true, is the optimal choice after 2 strikes to leave California permanently (other than ceasing criminal activity of course)?
The prior strikes don't have to be in California or under California law, but if they are convictions from another jurisdiction, the conviction must include all the elements of a California offense which would be countable as a prior strike (one that is classified as a “serious or violent felony”.)
The final strike must be a conviction under California law.
> If the former is true, is the optimal choice after 2 strikes to leave California permanently
Well, I suppose, but note that sonething like 23 other states and the Federal government have three strikes laws, too, and many of them (including the federal one) consider prior strikes from other jurisdictions.
And habitual criminals aren’t often warmly welcomed by foreign immigration authorities.
There is no such effect in the USA. Prisons are 100% not designed to rehabilitate anyone here.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Trejo#Life_of_crime_and_...
Just saying, in practice its clearly not about jailing menaces to society.
… or did you just want to flog your hobbyhorse regardless of how poor the fit was?
Worse than being common, I heard US wage theft eclipses all other theft in the US combined.
The bay area is famous for folks walking out stores with stolen goods:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/after-san-francisco-sho...
You can kill someone with a gun and spend just 7 years in prison.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Kate_Steinle
Btw, I fully support Holmes getting punished but lets not misrepresent the ground reality.
IMO the reason it seems low is that people get such unreasonably long sentences for doing far less.
Agreed. Of course she deserves more prison time for scamming the patients, but she wasn't convicted for that.
And 11 federal years is a longer sentence than 11 years in most state systems, since there is much less opportunity to serve less than a full sentence in the federal system (short of executive pardon/commutation). There’s very limited good conduct time, but no systematic parole eligibility and early release.
Possible typo, linked article lists $950.
Quote: "Grand Theft is punishable under California's “Three Strikes” system. (...) If you get three “strikes” on your record, you'll serve a minimum of twenty-five years in a state prison. (...) to be guilty of Grand Theft under CPC §§487(a)-(d), you must: Take property or services worth more than $950; or (...)".
Source is the same, i.e.: https://www.kannlawoffice.com/grand-theft.html
"Go big or go home" and no worries! Couple years in Federal summer camp and you go back to your cushy upper class lifestyle as a consultant or startup advisor, or "executive coaching" for other future/wannabe scammers
Don't blame me. Make better wishes.
It ends up being a long chain of probabilities. Would the real test have shown a false negative? Would the treatment have definitely cured them (given that most treatments aren't 100% effective)? Would they have even sought treatment? Etc, etc.
It's kind of like how if a substance ends up causing cancer it's very hard to prove that an individual got cancer from that substance. You can see the effect in aggregate, but at an individual level it's very hard to prove they got it from this substance instead of pollution or smoking or eating too much meat or flying or whatever.
This is the same. You can say in aggregate that the patients would have lived longer with accurate tests, but it's hard to say what an individual outcome would have been.