Eetan
5d ago
Tammany Hall was built by men, and brought down by men too.
Is political corruption correlated with gender, are male politicians more or less corrupt than female ones?
Eetan
5d ago
But I do point out that the DSA has listed, official factions and causes that are deadly serious actual Marxists and Communists. These people think Lenin had it right and we have to commie harder in America. Lauren pauses for a second - actually pauses - and states she didn't know about things like The Marxist Unity Group who advocates for
This part of the tale needs more explanation.
Why Lauren pauses? What, if anything she knows about Marxism, both in theory and practice? Does she know who Lenin and Marx were?
Eetan
5d ago
Lots of opportunities in the neighborhood for aspiring great power expansion and empire building that would not cross world's first super power and their greatest ally.
But this game is not about painting map and gaining high score, this is about achievement of liberating the second holiest land and third holiest mosque. Yes, this is not supposed to be easy, even if you are experienced player!
Eetan
5d ago
I won't say it's posturing but it's in the service of his 'man of the people' image and once he's out of office
It is posturing, but not to "the people."
It is posturing to the activist class, whose idea of poor is stuck in early 19th century, who imagine that the poor are starving and even 30% discount on bread and potatoes would alleviate their plight. Actual poor people never asked for this.
Eetan
6d ago
If Iran is rational geopolitical player, why it still cares about the Palestine issue, not only in words but also in substantial and costly deeds?
Egypt that is just next to Israel could throw their Muslim brothers to the Zionist sharks and benefitted greatly.
Eetan
6d ago
Xitter has recently also lively discussion about the Lauren question, and proposal of abolishing women right to vote triggered massive xitterstorm.
Obviously, if you took away the right of women to vote, then in the short run some of them would be mad about this. But that’s it. You understand that, right? Nothing else bad happens.
According to "Wanye" nothing would happen when the 19th is repealed. Why he proposes it then? Just for clicks? He indends something to happen.
Wanye compares his proposal to DSA proposals of socialist America (which, in worst case, would result in something like Hugo Chavez, not Lenin or Stalin, which would be indeed rather bad).
So what is the worst what can happen when the 19th is gone?
TL;DR: We do not know.
Wanye does not imagine end of democracy and establishment of strong man rule. Many historical cases when voting was either formally abolished or reduced to empty charade, when no matter how you vote, El Presidente always wins and people who bitch too much about it fall out of windows.
I believe Wanye when he says he does not want this. I believe him that he wants democracy to continue and voting staying meaningful, only with restricted franchise based on penis possession.
This, limiting of democratic franchise, never ever happened in modern recorded history.
Wanye, is proposing something far more revolutionary than all DSA combined. As a self professed conservative, he should do some soul searching and second, third and fourth order thinking.
"But in the 19th century, men only voted and things were fine! We must retvrn!"
No, 19th century was not fine. It was, among other things, age of rabid nationalism and psychopathic war mongering, leading to the great unpleasantness of 1914. If you want this back, say so.
If not, onus is on you to bring some strong evidence that today's manoids became civilized and are not the bloodthirsty beasts of recent past.
Eetan
6d ago
This Bob is not equivalent of Lauren, this Bob is far more politically advanced person with ideas and opinions formed beyond mere icks, yucks and yikes.
Eetan
6d ago
Soccer is left-coded because it's third world coded. US Europhiles are absolutely not "philic" of the sort of European who loves soccer.
Who needs sport that can be played by any ragged urchin in Latino, Arabic or African favela? Real sport for real Americans needs heaps of expensive gear to just begin.
Eetan
6d ago
valuations can be anihilated at the whim of a random guy at a game company
This matters if you intended to hold these cards as long term investment (that would be indeed unwise).
Eetan
6d ago
The specific mechanism of the laundering isn’t relevant here, what is relevant is being able to satisfy whatever test the tax collectors or police demand.
"Since my childhood, I loved cards and collected lots of them, this was my passion. And one day, when I bought card pack and opened it, all world's luck fell on me!"
"Yes, Rainbow Fire Farting Crocodile Mouse was there! One of the most valuable cards in the world, worth 10M bucks!"
"Here is my card collection, here is the receipt from game shop where I bought the pack, here is the capital gain tax I reported and paid as a good citizen."
"Sure this misunderstanding is cleared now?"
Eetan
6d ago
This is why precious metals, artwork, and rare old large bill such as various countries thousand dollar bills are used for account settlement in various criminal orgs.
Traditionally, rare stamps were also used as means to hide large sums of wealth and transport them around the world. You can see this in old crime and spy stories, rather accurately - per weight in gram, these tiny squares of colored paper are probably the most valuable things in the world (excluding some really exotic substances).
There were good paranoid reasons for Stalin's holocaust of stamp collectors.
This now fell into abeyance, because stamp collecting is now just niche hobby with limited appeal. Stamp nerds know each other, and if sus strangers arrived with suitcases full of rare philatelic treasures for sale, it will be instantly noticed.
Fortunately, modernity offers new, ever better alternative.
Imagine small pieces of paper, looking innocent and childish to ordinary normie (or ordinary orangutan in uniform rummaging through your pockets and luggage at border or airport), that can have value up to 7-8 $ figures, are not registered anywhere, are not on any blockchain and can be bought and sold all over the world with minimal or zero oversight.
Imagine collectible cards. If you are serious criminal neededing to move/launder large sums of money, and are not nerdy enough to trust crypto, Pokemon and other cards are the things for you. It began in East Asia, bellwether of the world and is now a thing worldwide.
You can add it to your crime mastermind files, if it isn't already there.
Eetan
6d ago
Nice article, illustrating in practice famous quip of Winston Churchill (or someone else): "The best argument against democracy is five minute talk with average voter."
Good complement would be writeup of Billy Bob, lifelong Republican.
"Bob loves America, guns and Jesus. Bob hates communists and terrorists. Bob believes that America must stand with Israel for all time and fight communists of Russia and China and terrorists of Iranistan to the victorious end. Bob is certain that America is the greatest power in the world, and if she took her gloves off, she could easily finish communists and terrorists in single afternoon ... etc, etc."
Obviously, neither Lauren nor Bob are qualified to make decisions about policy both domestic and foreign. And, even more obviously, neither of them is, despite their eager participation in democratic process, really making any decisions.
The experts, the best and the brightest are making the decisions, but how bright and how good they really are?
Writeup of Edward E. Expert, graduate from one of most prestigious universities of the world with long career in most prestigious govt, private and NGO organizations, description how he thinks, how he feels and what he knows about the world is needed the most.
Eetan
8d ago
The Case Of Missing Judas Statue
Wars both cultural and kinetic rage in the real world as usual, and are getting a bit boring. No surprise that the xitterspace decided it is the best time to refight long forgotten battles.
One of the greatest xitterstorms of recent days was the case of missing Judas Statue.
Judas statue? The guy from Bible? Who is building his statues? Wokeness had gone really too far!
According to Darryl Cooper, popular podcaster and xitterer, the Bolsheviks back in 1918 at direct order of Leon Trotsky himself did it.
Makes logical sense. Bolsheviks were bad. Judas was bad. Therefore, Bolsheviks would love Judas.
Some people nevertheless doubted the story. Why should dialectic materialists and scientific atheists care about Judas? This only made the pro-statue crowd double and quartuple their efforts and turned the xitter storm into wildfire of the day.
"The stories about statue come only from White Guard propaganda and began appearing about 5 years after the statue was already erected? No pictures of this statue, nothing about it in Red newspapers and official Red propaganda announcements?" Well, the evil Reds had to build the statue in complete secrecy!
So where the tale came from? It turned out that history nerds, including local history nerds from Sviyazhsk on Volga river, population 243 where the statue was supposed to stand according to the earliest reports, already resolved this mystery.
It all begins in fiery year of 1918, at the beginning of Russian Civil War. At the time, it was, for world historic event it turned out to be, rather lackluster affair - few tens of thousands of combatants on both sides struggling for power over former Russian Empire. On the Red side, the main forces were Latvians.
On the White side, it was, of all people, Czechs and Slovaks. Yes, Russian civil war was wild story, story your editor would tell you to tone down to something approaching realism.
And one of Red Latvian commanders was Janis Judins who in August 1918 fell in battle with Czechoslovaks on the outskirts of Kazan and was buried with honors in Sviyazhsk.
While Danish diplomat Henning Kehler whose book was the original source of the statue tale was at the time in the area.
"Judins" and "Judas" are not so different words, especially when you cannot speak and read Russian and (reasonably) expect the worst from the Reds.
And so was the story born, spread around the world, outlived Soviet Union itself and lasted till the internet age. Lesson: when you make up tall tales, it might be the most influential and consequential thing you will ever do in your lifetime.
Eetan
8d ago
But if you’re trying to design society
The last thing I want would be to "design society". And if you have such grand ambitions, you know well you ain't going to make it all the way up to the post of Supreme Leader.
Otherwise, what, we curse a quarter of the population to ill health, every generation?
There ain't any "we", they curse themselves. You do not have to go full boomer mode to accept that cooking is today cheaper and easier than in all recorded history.
And if such situation is really so grave, it will not last long. If you can't survive without slave who will feed you, pick your garbage and wipe your ass, you ain't going to survive, and you wouldn't be missed.
Eetan
8d ago
you’re just not going to get working men to cook healthy meals for themselves.
Well, this is their choice and their problem. If they see cooking as something so degrading that they prefer failing heath and early death to such dishonor, who are "we" to dissuade them.
"I will never eat bugs!"
"Not even Israeli bugs? Why are you so anti-semitic?"
Eetan
10d ago
Mayor Mamdani's grocery stores. Good idea or disaster waiting to happen?
Good idea, but needs little tweaking. The perfect, universally popular bipartisan compromise would be:
Nation wide federal government owned grocery stores, selling only Israeli products.
You will eat hummus made of apartheid and genocide, and you will like it.
Eetan
11d ago
Suppose a time traveler came back from the year 2100 and told you that, in his time, Britain (or Germany, or France) was 99.6% white and 94% Christian, the way it was in 1951. Unfortunately, before he could explain how such a thing came to pass, he gets hit by a lorry, dying instantly.
What would you think had happened?
Timeline 1:
Second Cold War heated up, all sides built massive WMD stockpiles (nuclear, chemical, biological, AI) as they used to be at the peak or the previous round, kept them on hair trigger and then someone banged on the big red button with his shoe.
The (tiny numbers) of dwellers in the wastelands that used to be Europe are descendants of inhabitants of few rather remote villages, and they are praying really hard.
Timeline 2:
AI assisted bio and genetic technology delivers all science fictional promises and more. Human DNA is mapped and completely resolved, genetic engineering becomes as available and affordable as cell phones are now.
Everyone can now select their offsprings genes, and everyone excepting few weirdos selects white genes. Everyone always wanted to be white, and science and technology now made the dream possible. Just like viagra replaced rhinoceros horns, DNA editing will replace all existing skin lightening treatments.
In unrelated development, Christian religious revival powered by breakthrough in missionary AI sweeps the lands that used to be Europe, and everyone is now Christian (at least until Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu religious AI developers step up their efforts and close the gap).
Eetan
11d ago
I disagree with both extremes. Crypto is just a tool, one that can be used for good or evil depending on the people who interact with it. The first bank robbery probably happened 15 minutes after the first bank opened.
Not the same thing, bank robberies today tend to be rather primitive affairs, rarely successful (with rare exceptions).
And robbing bank from the inside requires decades of grind and hard work (and good connections) before you are promoted to position where you can squirrel away the dough.
Crypto crime is career open to anyone in the world with internet access, the ultimate meritocracy.
Eetan
11d ago
Is there any hope for a proper right in the west?
No, and according to your definition, nowhere else. If your only measure of "right wing" is zero tolerance of furiners, then the most "right wing" place in the world is North Korea (setting aside worst shitholes where no one wants to go, Zimbabwe has no immigration problem).
1/Being openly racist/xenophobic and accepting no foreigners
2/Being totally closed to immigration
3/Allowing tourism only
4/Allowing tourism and temporary residence/work visas
5/Allowing permanent residency without citizenship/voting rights
6/Allowing citizenship with a through background assimilation check aswell as having at least a certain number of years living in the country.
7/Allowing citizenship for third generation migrants married to a native.
And even the Best Korea now promotes tourism and is somewhere around tier 3 on your scale.
The biggest win in terms of institutions that the right has gotten in the west was
Nothing with abortion, it was rolling back of gun control in US. See this infographic how gun nuts won.
Remember, even Texas was no carry zone. US gun culture is not something inherited from pioneer and cowboy times, it was created in living memory by hard work and hard fight of millions.
Lesson: it is easier to rally people to fight to defend something they have (even pew pew fun toys) than to take something from other people for no benefits for themselves (why should I care about Shaniqua's unborn bebe when even Shaniqua herself DNGAF).
Anti-abortion movement is the most severe case of pathological altruism in the world, more true than pro immigration activism (with more immigrants, you get cheaper Doordash and Uber, with less abortions, you personally win only more poverty and crime).
Grand Theft Crypto, Episode LXXVI
New week is here, time for new culture war happening is here. Maybe it belongs to finance thread, but both cryptocurrency and cryptocrime are now inseparable part of our culture.
Coldcard Hardware Wallet Flaw Linked to $70 Million Bitcoin Theft in 41 Minutes
An attacker drained 1,196 Bitcoin addresses in 41 minutes on July 30, taking 1,082.65 BTC worth about $70.2 million at the time.
Yes, safe crypto technology had proven to be unsafe once again. Follow the links in the article for more nerd details.
Why is this important? This time, this not due any fault or slip at the user side - their only mistake was trusting the professionals of Coinkite business operating since 2013 and considered one of the best by everyone in crypto.
Bitcoin is not to blame, Bitcoin worked as intended. The random numbers generated by Coldcard were not random.
Little parable for non nerds to grok what is it all about:
You have big pot of gold, and are very afraid you will lose it. Where to hide your treasure? You want to stay anonymous, you do not want anyone ever know that you are a rich man.
Fortunately, your bank provides deposit boxes, fully anonymous where anyone with key can come and withdraw the deposit, no questions asked.
Now, you have problem where to hide the key, so you do not lose or misplace it. No worry, you buy safe, made by trustworthy long established manufacturer that is 100% secure from crackers. You put your key inside, and feel relieved.
Until one day, you find the safe empty, the key vanished. You hurry to bank in panic, and your greatest fears come true. Someone was there, and emptied your deposit box. Your treasure is gone.
What happened? The super secure safe was unsafe. There was manufacturing fault that enabled anyone to open it if he knew about it. Some criminal mastermind learned about the vulnerability (For more mastermind points, he worked in the safe manufacturing company and put the fault there himself. For maximal mastermind points, he founded and operated the company himself, in a proper long con.) sneaked to your safe and squirreled away the key.
If your rage is pointed at bank, it is misplaced. Rightful target of your rage is the thief (good luck finding him, the chap can be now in Uruguay, Uganda or Uzbekistan, the world is big) and the safe company (good luck recovering anything from them). Just say farewell to your wealth and learn to love the hobo life.
Now, what are lessons of the episode?
1/ Another proof that crypto hadn't brought world peace and harmony as some more devoted fans promised, but crypto made crime cool again. Grisly, retarded and boring ordinary everyday crime stays, but evil genius was conjured from pages of pulp novels to reality.
2/ Trust no one. If you want to make you crypto stash really secure, you need to make your own random number generator, this means using the gold standard of physics, radioactive decay. No randomer random events can be found in this universe.
Too much work? Say good bye to crypto and invest in white powder. What you put in your nose, no one can take away from you ever again.
edit: links
It might be of interest to add some more context to recent habbenings involving Morocco.
There is more at stake in this part of the world than two Spanish towns on the coast.
It all hinges on Western Sahara.
What is this Colorado sized thing with weirdly drawn borders?
It is disputed land and the dispute has two sides.
Tl;DR explanation of 56 years old unresolved problem you probably never heard about:
Side A:
This patch of desert is ancient Moroccan land, stolen by infidel colonizers and justly returned. The people living there are Moroccans, who are thanking God every day that they were reunited with their homeland. Everything is fine, everyone except gaggle of grumpy terrorists is happy, no reason for anyone to complain.
This position is hold by Morocco, US and Israel, all alone against the world.
Side B:
This patch of desert is country of Western Sahara, the people living there are ancient Western Saharan nation, dialect they are speaking is separate language. The country is illegally occupied by Morocco, and deserves their self determination.
This position is hold by UN and the whole international community.
Overall, it is issue about #1234 in importance, and the international community is fine with not doing more than ocassionally sending strongly worded protest letter.
Excepting Algeria. Algeria and Morocco are neighbors, and not happy neighbors. Western Saharan problem is still a problem because Algeria supports Western Saharan freedom fighters to such degree that Morocco was forced to build biggest and most beautiful wall in the world to defend this territory.
Morocco-Algeria relations were bad for a long time and are getting worse. OSINT nerds consider this part of the world as top hot spot where another big war, war between two professional state armies, not rag bands on pickup trucks, can erupt at any moment, make the current times yet more spicy and take the world by surprise.
So it is another national honor thing, you might be thinking. Arab Muslim brothers killing each other over useless desert, many such cases.
Not so. This is one of few wars in the world that make economic sense, where Marxist analysis is applicable, together with the infamous Mexican troubles.
We all, except advanced breatharians, need eating regularly, our food comes from plants (whether directly or with animal in between) and plants crave fertilizer. And crucially important are fertilizers containing phosphorus.
Phosphate fertilizer comes from phosphate rocks and these are not renewable resources.
And Morocco, including Western Sahara, is one of world's top producers. Excepting China, the top producer. Looking at proven phosphate resources, the situation is even more lopsided.
So this whole situation is even more important than it looks, and deserves monitoring. Watch Algeria–Morocco border, put your eyes off Rafah and off Hormuz, put them all on Bou Craa. So when in some possible future timeline you will be monitoring empty plate on your dining table, you will know why it happened.
edit: links
Eetan
15d ago
Saving Private Lump, Or Why Military Doesn’t Work Anymore
On the wild fields of xitter, the newest masterpiece of the oldest genre in history "why the youff suck so much these days?" dropped.
This time not from usual moral/religious POV, but from tough military guy one.
Why Military School Doesn’t Work Anymore
What's wrunff with the yuff? Are they drunkards, druggies, young deliquents, incorrigible violent thugs?
Nope, it is worse. They are lumps.
"And that brings us to the final group composing the plurality of students at Marathon Academy: “lumps.”
Lump is not a diagnostic category, but rather my own term for something I often saw but that resisted definition, a sort of combination of democratic man, last man, and mass man, the larval stage of the bugman that never quite sprouts wings. A lump is neither especially good nor bad, but rather a defined mass of inert matter. It lacks energy, focus, and will. Lumps, like plants, passively sustain themselves from their environment, but while flowers grow towards the sun, lumps gravitate towards vapes, porn, and electronic stimulation.
...
In particular, my school, like most military schools, absorbed a large number of young men simply impervious to motivation and lacking all drive. This is an increasingly common problem across the world of education and for society as a whole, and dealing with it requires rethinking a number of assumptions about the ends of modern life.
And what is the solution of lump problem? Beating.
In another age, in the same place, the student in question would have been punished for his lackluster academics with a trip to what was then known as the “bull ring,” where he would have received motivation of a physical nature. Failing that, once he’d caused enough of a headache for the student leadership, he would be run around the campus and introduced to a holly hedge at full speed, a practice known as “bushing.” By my time, bushing had long since been proscribed by the ever-growing Blue Book of rules and regulations, along with glass bottles, PT in excess of ten push-ups, and harsh language.
Notice that author does not say that the student is violent, undisciplined or disobeying orders, the offence deserving punishment is "lackluster academics". Private Lump cannot memorize his multiplication tables. Solution is beat him until he manages. Or he is beaten to death.
See parts of the world that believe in beating, for example Eastern Europe. Under tsars, communists and democracy, brutality was and is the rule at home, in schools, army and prisons, and the result is hundreds of millions of well adjusted and highly accomplished people who make their countries the shining light of the world.
Still, according to author's long experience, the lump problem is new one, the lumps were unheard of just few decades ago.
So where they came from?
It is possible that neoliberalism did it.
The lump is the end-stage refined product of neoliberalism, the perfect managerial object. He is the sort of lifelong boy a committee of women might design for maximum lack of systemic threat.
It is also possible that lumps were always there, but not in military academies.
Lumps, as people with no "energy, focus, and will" went with their life as laborers working enought to provide basic food and shelter, or, if from rich and connected families, were given some no effort sinecure where they could doze in the office all day.
In old times, military profession was highly prestigious and military schools had choice of the best students. Now, aspiring elite human capital goes elsewhere, and military is increasingly seen as dumping ground for losers and rejects.
What is the solution? No more peacekeeping missions, anti terrorist actions and special military operations, but retvrn to great wars ending in glorious victories, accomplishments so shining that every young man with motivation and drive would want to wear uniform and be part of winning team.
Eetan
17d ago
You don't see how this is humiliating?
Professional beggars and scroungers do not feel their way of life as humiliating, they see themselves as smart and clever and see dumb mugs who believe their sob stories with the deepest contempt. Ofc, the professionals are in the game for more concrete gains than some football game points.
Every day is day of some great culture war battle, or anniversary of some great past battle.
And this day is no different.
This day is Tyrone Day. The Road King Day.
Tyrone always wanted to drive big car, but he couldn't, because he was born as poor Black man. This made Tyrone very very sad.
One day, when Tyrone was, as always, walking on foot while watching rich whites in luxury cars whizzing around, he had enough. Tyrone pulled his gun, carjacked Lamborghini from some white swine and went on joy ride.
The grand joy ride, the greatest ride in Tyrone's life. Tyrone revved up the car to the max, the pigs had no chance to catch him. Until Tyrone crashed the car and killed himself.
Everyone remembers Tyrone, everyone sees him as heroic freedom fighter against racism and oppression.
When every Black man becomes hero like Tyrone, the white pigs will pay for all their crimes and Black people will be finally free.
Yes. this uplifting story really happened. Even in the case it hadn't happened exactly as described here, it is real and will continue to inspire all of us.
Rest in power, Tyrone.
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