They seem to be trying to emulate Russia, Hungary, or even Nazi Germany. So probably similar things. The US tech oligarchs seem to want something like Dark Enlightenment, while the other politically powerful sect seems to want christo-fascism; all seem to be white nationalist to varying degrees.
I’ve played around a bit with woodworking, and have only used cheap 1x and 2x spf lumber to avoid wasting expensive wood, but it often warps pretty bad. Especially every time I’ve tried to glue-up 1xs to make tops or panels. Is there a trick or something, or is better wood needed?
I’d guess it’s mostly the AI autocomplete stuff. I.e. you keep on typing until the AI guesses it right then press tab to save keystrokes. LLMs are really bad at making test cases in my experience; they, ironically, can’t do the simple but nuanced computations needed to figure out what the output should be given the inputs, or to recognize and test the edge cases.
He could be insane and doing it for graft. He obviously sees himself like a mobster and tries to operate like one. My theory is he wants to individually negotiate tariffs to solicit bribes from businesses and foreign countries. It’s not exactly 4d chess. He just knows he has the power to pressure the richest and most powerful people on the planet, so he’s going to use that power to enrich himself and family. I don’t think he actually understands much about tariffs or much of anything though.
Also, the evidence of insider trading and market manipulation is pretty convincing to me. I don’t think that was the original intention, but Trump, or those around him saw the opportunity and took it.
Years ago, I used to just ignore letters. Nothing happened for years. Moved and switched ISPs (smaller, regional), then was banned by that ISP after a few months, lol. Copyright holders can sue you, so it’s just an odds thing.
I just use a VPN now. Used Tribler before I set up my Arr stack, because Tribler didn’t work well with it. Tribler is faster than i2p if you use 1 hop, but theoretically, the Movie Picture Association could run an exit node and still sue you, if you only use 1 hop. (Actually, it’d probably be a legal gray area for them to run an exit node because they would be facilitating piracy).
They can require ID verification of all users, as is done in some states in the US to access pornography sites.
Not sure if serious. Recession is almost certain, and the only fiscal “stimulus” that’s likely to come is tax cuts. Will probably turn into a depression. But even the Great Depression had a huge amount of fiscal stimulus and progressive reforms to help get out of it. Not to mention, the crashing of the economy appears to be purposeful:
We live in a capitalist society (unfortunately). Rich people hoard their capital during recessions, which means fewer job openings. I graduated HS during the 2008 recession, and it took me 6 months of applying everywhere I could to get a temp job in a factory paying minimum wage (and no benefits or any job security at all, of course). It was literally hard to get a job at McDonald’s or Wendy’s. IIRC, it took nearly both of Obama’s two terms for the job market to recover to what it was. So yeah, you may be able to find a job after a lot of hunting, but everyone’s so desperate they’ll accept anything. The way things are going with deregulation and all that, I wouldn’t be surprised if company-towns make a comeback (which, incidentally, is kind of like the corporate city-states people like Peter Thiel, who worked with Musk and groomed JD Vance, openly talk about).
I think a lot of them are ideological psychos. Saw an interview with Forbes magazine founder, and he’s giddy about these tariffs because he thinks they’ll enable tax cuts. I don’t think he cares if his shares tank or whatever, as long as he doesn’t have money “taken away” from him to help the poors.
I’ve been unemployed for months (very hard finding a job right now) and may not be able to afford to pay my mortgage soon. Thinking about buying an old RV once I need to start dipping into my investments to pay my bills, because my investment money won’t last me long with my high mortgage payments. I’m probably a bit “underwater,” so will probably need to just “walk away” from my mortgage if I can’t find a job. Half my investment money is currently in gold, maybe 5% in European defense stocks, and the rest in cash. My investments were mostly in tech a couple months ago, but I felt like the AI bubble was going to pop soon, and there’s no way the economy will be good during the self-coup that’s happening right now. I do have some food and water stored in case of some kind of disaster. Probably need to get some dental work done while I can. Also stocked up on ammo in case something crazy happens, like roaming death squads, so I can go out fighting. Might put another 10% in gold today; not really sure if we’re going to experience monetary deflation or inflation yet; could see it going either way, depending on the Fed, fiscal policy, and if countries start abandoning the dollar.
In my limited experience of just living in bad neighborhoods, most gangs I’ve encountered are just small groups of kids that sell drugs, rob, burglarize, fight, and occasionally kill kids in other small groups. From talking to older people that were in gangs (well, they still consider themselves to be in a gang, but the gang doesn’t functionally exist or do anything), things were much different in the 80s and 90s. Guessing it differs depending on the city though (there aren’t really “territories” in my city; drugs are sold through apps/text).