Eetan
4hr 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According to "Wanye" nothing would happen when the 19th is repealed.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
6hr 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
8hr 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
9hr 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
9hr 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
10hr 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
11hr 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
2d 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
2d 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
2d 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
4d 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
5d 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
5d 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
5d 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
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.
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