Blueberry
11mo ago
What do you mean? Example? I think Musk is politically naive, or guileless, he will tell directly what his plans are. There is no subtext, no reading between the lines, no scheming behind the scenes.
Blueberry
11mo ago
My prediction: this doesn't fizzle out, Elon remains on bad terms with the admin, Trump makes an example of him albeit not in the most extreme sense
In this case can Elon retaliate? Him financing in the mid terms anti-trumpers (maybe even dems) would be a threat.
Blueberry
11mo ago
NYTimes is reporting that aides to Trump are urging him to "cancel all of Musk’s contracts and launch several investigations into [him]" Bannon is quoted as saying “They should initiate a formal investigation of his immigration status because I am of the strong belief that he is an illegal alien, and he should be deported from the country immediately.” The Investigations would look at Musk's alleged drug use and immigration status, and his security clearance would be revoked.
Quote from NYT megathread: „House Democrats are jumping on Elon Musk’s allegation that President Trump’s name is in the supposedly secret documents the federal government has on powerful men who were in the orbit of the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. They immediately called for the release of the Epstein files.
„Elon Musk’s friends and associates on Thursday are in a state of disbelief. Several said they, like the rest of Washington, are glued to their computers as they watched their friend joust with President Trump, unsure what exactly his plan is.“
——————
State of disbelief? Me too, me too… What the fuck is happening?
On the personal level everyone knows that two galaxy sized egos will sooner or later clash, on the cultural level the MAGA jocks and the grey tribe nerds are not natural allies: As soon as Musk was out of the door Jared Isaacman‘s nomination for NASA director was revoked.
I am still shocked about the sudden implosion. The coming Moon landing and Artemis missions with SpaceX lander … not happening. Mars mission? Not happening with a hostile administration. Musk supported MAGA because Biden ignored him? Boy, will that be a rude awakening. On the other side: Trump has now an enemy with 200 million followers and who owns the dominant conservative online corner.
Blueberry
11mo ago
What is your new wifes opinion on her? Any female understanding/repudiation?
Blueberry
11mo ago
Some of us are extremly online though. Try to imagine explaining every sentence to a normie.
Blueberry
11mo ago
Catturd following Trumper who worships Elon Musk.
Ask him what his opinion of the new rift is between Musk (no more debt) vs Trump (trillions of new debt)!
Blueberry
11mo ago
To return to the original point, my opinion is that AI kvetching is largely driven by people wanting a safe way to express the sentiment that life in the West is just generally going downhill. … Anecdotally my extended family in the old country seem to be much more optimistic about the future and everyone seems pretty optimistic about AI despite being mostly pretty poor by first world standards. Each generation saw pretty drastic jumps in quality of life and things are looking upwards for the next generation too.
This is insightful and food for thoughts! The explanation makes sense, but even better that this trend is showing up in the data of a study.
pretty much nobody in the first world thinks life will look better in a century without some sort of eschatological transformation.
I wonder why that is. Capitalism/Market economy of ideas converged on doomerism as being more attention hogging? Or some underlying malaise which lead to insecurity?
Blueberry
11mo ago
Lab leak has a few things going for it, but these are always presented in isolation and no pushback. It is worth to read through Scotts Lab-Leak-Megapost, which is itself only a summary/review of the 15 hours of Lab-Leak-debate videos. I wouldn't rule out Lab-Leak completely, but I downgraded its probability.
Blueberry
11mo ago
Yet, the most visceral image of it is Bill Gates releasing non-viral mosquitoes to a room of white people:
Ha, didn't know that. It is quickly over though, more dorky thing in a longer nerdy presentation by Gates, than a flashy publicity stunt.
Blueberry
1yr ago
“This Post from @kanyewest has been withheld in Germany, France, Poland based on local law(s). Learn more”
Blueberry
1yr ago
https://x.com/tradcathdixie/status/1920542560436605010
"Former rector of the Major sem here says he saw Prevost in Rome privately saying the TLM in his private chapel at the congregation of Bishops, 3 or 4 yrs ago." He wouldn't lie. He has been around quite some time. He had the only indult to say the TLM at the USCCB office in Baltimore back in the 90s.
Blueberry
1yr ago
He also served 30 years in Peru and is not a WASP (well, obviously):
Wiki:
Robert Prevost was born in Chicago on September 14, 1955, the son of Louis Marius Prevost and Mildred Martinez. His father, who was a United States Navy veteran of World War II and school administrator, was of French and Italian descent, and his mother of Spanish descent. Prevost speaks English, Spanish, Italian, French, and Portuguese, and can read Latin and German.
Congratulations United States, you are Pope!
Edit: Sorry if that is too short but I am currently watching the livestream from Europe and am totally baffled.
Blueberry
1yr ago
NAACP: In response to the family’s wishes, we have now closed the GoFundMe page.
Respect for that!
Everyone always forgets the Orthodox, just because they are more spiritual/mystic and far far away …
The Orthodox also hold to both scripture and tradition (and recognize ecclesiastical (not theological) supremacy of the Pope if the schism is mended), so this points to this being the correct position instead of sola scriptura.
The Mormon hierarchy being effective(?) and therefore true is a novel point, but on an emotional level I prefer religion being a bit shrouded in mystery and vague and having thousands of years of wobbly-wobbly history with burning of incense, while Mormonism and Joseph Smith is too modern-american-conman-heretical-cult-constructed for my liking.
Blueberry
1yr ago
Maybe Matthew just got confused. Jesus prophesied first the destruction of the temple (itself an ending, and one which would be in a generation) and then later got asked by the disciples more about this terrible event but also the end times (different event).
Blueberry
1yr ago
prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing.
If I recall correctly the old BBC show animated that joke with a bogus math formula how color pigments mixed together gives a black painting color, but all color lights mixed together is a white light.
Blueberry
1yr ago
Universi Dominic Gregis, article 36 states, “A Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church who has been created and published in a consistory has, by that very fact, the right to elect the Pope.”
So the argument is that Francis implicitly did away with the 120 rule by appointing more cardinals (under the voting age limit) and so going himself over this number?
Blueberry
1yr ago
Did confession lead you to self reflect or even change behavior? And what is the situation like? Is it like in the (Italian mafia) movies? Does the priest ask questions or explore an issue or just led you talk? Do you feel strange going in or going out of the confession box?
The Mayflower pilgrims tried first to build a collectivist society. “Their ideal was the communism found in Plato’s Republic. All would work and share in common, knowing neither private property nor self-interested acquisitiveness.”
It was a disaster, a death spiral into low productivity and social conflict, which could only be remedied through the reinstatement of private farms, which egoistic incentives caused hard work which produced a bountiful harvest:
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/the-pilgrims-tried-socialism-and-it-failed/
The less industrious members of the colony came late to their work in the fields and were slow and easy in their labors. Knowing that they and their families were to receive an equal share of whatever the group produced, they saw little reason to be more diligent in their efforts. The harder working among the colonists became resentful that their efforts would be redistributed to their more malingering neighbors. Soon they, too, were coming late to work and were less energetic in the fields.
As Governor Bradford explained in his old English (though with the spelling modernized):
“And so, assigned to every family a parcel of land, according to the proportion of their number for that end . . .This had a very good success; for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted then otherwise would have been by any means the Governor or any other could use, and saved him a great deal of trouble, and gave far better content. The women now went willingly into the field and took their little ones with them to set corn, which before would allege weakness, and inability; whom to have compelled would have been thought great tyranny and oppression.”
Blueberry
1yr ago
Kurzgesagt had last week a video about population collapse because of low fertility rate:
It has the charming title: "SOUTH KOREA IS OVER". All caps, which is not normal for kurzgesagt titles, so you know DOOM is coming.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ufmu1WD2TSk
It is a short video with 14 minutes but it explains at breakneck speed the topic succinctly and in depth. The depressing conclusion is that South Korea can't really do anything, the low fertility is an unstoppable freight train and it will hit (end) the country. Even if a wonder happens and the fertility will rise to replacement level next week, the country would still have massive problems in 30 years. And because this wonder is not happening … the country is over
I’m Korean, born and raised in this country, and after watching this video, I just sat in silence for a while. Not because it shocked me, but because it said out loud what so many of us already feel deep inside: that it’s too late. There’s no fixing this anymore.
It is barely comforting that the West (and other countries too) are heading in a similar direction. Maybe accelerationism is the solution here: The faster South Korea is imploding the sooner other countries will wake up and do something.
Blueberry
1yr ago
https://www.stlouisfed.org/timely-topics/how-much-u-s-currency-held-abroad-why
Currently, non-U.S. residents hold a little bit over $1 trillion in U.S. currency, and that’s about 45% or almost 45% of the total amount of U.S. currency that’s held.
foreigners holding our currency abroad are essentially making an interest-free loan to the United States …
So currency is like a government bond, but it’s a government bond that pays no interest. So if, for example, an American tourist were to go someplace in the world where U.S. dollars were accepted in exchange for payment for hotel services or restaurant services or some sort of trinkets or souvenirs, then you know if the U.S. tourist shows up in Jamaica and pays some place for souvenirs with U.S. dollars, then the U.S. tourist is getting something of value that is in exchange for little green pieces of paper that cost the United States more or less nothing to make.
Now, if the owner of the souvenir shop in Jamaica just circulates that currency within Jamaica and it stays there forever, then Americans have gotten goods and services of value — souvenirs or tourism services — in exchange for something that costs us more or less nothing. But if, say, in 10 years, somebody in Jamaica decides to take those U.S. dollars and exchange them for U.S. goods and services, then what the United States has done is gotten goods and services for 10 years in exchange for almost nothing, and then 10 years later, we have to pay for them, say, in terms of goods or services or other assets. And so we’ve gotten a 10-year interest-free loan for the amount of the currency that was paid for the original souvenirs.
Trailer: https://youtube.com/watch?v=4yzcg2rtMnI
Netflix made a documentary about the dorky crypto couple who stole 4 billions in Bitcoin. They couldn’t figure out in 6 years (hack in 2016, in custody in 2022) how to wash the wealth.
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