I agree, except that I wouldn’t classify Israel as a top intelligence power.

Their dependence on the USA is immense.

For European purposes, Egypt (Suez) and Turkey (both Bosporus and the land link to Asia) are the most important regional allies. Both or very populous and could become a new source of cheaper labour, now that Eastern EU countries are becoming more expensive.

Iran, Iraq and the Gulf countries are important as long as we can’t have Russian and/or American fossil fuels. But even then, Turkey and Egypt are the broker between us and them.

I agree, which is why I advocate for reform, not abolishment.

Perhaps AI companies should pay a 15% surcharge on their services and that money goes directly into the arts.

It just so happens that in AI it’s about copyright and with margarine (and most other technologies) it’s about patents.

But the point is the same. Technological development is held back by law in both cases.

If all IP laws were reformed 50 years ago, we would probably have the technology from 2050, today.

Sam Altman is a grifter, but on this topic he is right.

The reality is, that IP laws in their current form hamper innovation and technological development. Stephan Kinsella has written on this topic for the past 25 years or so and has argued to reform the system.

Here in the Netherlands, we know that it’s true. Philips became a great company because they could produce lightbulbs here, which were patented in the UK. We also had a booming margarine business, because we weren’t respecting British and French patents and that business laid the foundation for what became Unilever.

And now China is using those exact same tactics to build up their industry. And it gives them a huge competitive advantage.

A good reform would be to revert back to the way copyright and patent law were originally developed, with much shorter terms and requiring a significant fee for a one time extension.

The current terms, lobbied by Disney, are way too restrictive.

We will have to see.

Apple can charge $400 more, but if Samsung doesn’t, then they will lose market share.

And the EU is still one of the worlds three biggest markets.

So I am not really concerned.

And worst case, I switch to a Fairphone, which might not be bleeding edge, but it is still a better phone than my previous gen flagship Samsung or the flagship iPhone that came before it.

I see it as just running 2 years behind.

Yes, and they just want to “own the libs”.

They will find excuses to cut funding for the liberal universities.

Economic mobility is usually determined by things like IQ, EQ and other marketable skills. So I don’t really know if your proposal is the right way to measure it. But such data would at least give some insight.

In the USA, most research I have seen says they have low economic mobility, because the rich have access to the best schools, etc.

But still, it’s not zero. Both JD Vance and AOC are examples of economic mobility.

One of them still fights (or appears to fight) for the class they came from, the other is successfully recruited to serve the interests of the ruling class.

Were they born in 1908 (and ignoring race and gender for the moment), then probably both of them would have been leaders for the working class.

True, but nowadays most people don’t work in factories.

The modern equivalent would be the cashiers of Walmart and the baristas of Starbucks.

Again, why comment on something when you don’t understand it?

You definitely don’t need a stable supply of energy to own and trade Bitcoin. You don’t even need markets or exchanges. You don’t need a stable internet connection, or an internet connection at all. You just need the ability to send a minuscule amount of data to the internet. And you could even do it by passing a piece of paper to someone who has the ability to connect to a proxy.

Fucking poor kids in Africa own bitcoin. Usually through a very cheap prepaid mobile phone plan that doesn’t even have proper internet access. In fact, it is rapidly replacing USD cash as a store of value in the third world. Don’t talk out of your ass if you’ve never been to a third world country.

Only mining is energy intensive, but it can be done anywhere.

Also, when it comes to Russia, Ukrainian intelligence is top notch due to historical ties.

But TBH, I do think Europe needs to find a way to make peace with Russia and with the Middle-East, specifically Turkey, Egypt and Iran.

They are our direct neighbours. The cold war idea that we could have a powerful friend across an ocean, while having strained relationships with our direct neighbours just isn’t going to be a good strategy going forward.

Correct, but there is a lot of nuance.

Indeed, when things get bad, the public is willing to take risks. When everything is good enough, they don’t revolt.

However, successful revolts do require intelligent and capable leaders.

What the rich have realized, is that if they ensure smart and skilled kids get picked out of the drudgery and get comfortable working for the rich, then the exploited class will not really have anyone to lead them.

Put another way, in 1908, every factory had a few leaders working at the lowest levels. And they are the ones who spearheaded strikes and such.

Nowadays, society is really stratified in terms of skill.

Anyone who grew up poor, but had talent to organize, probably ended up in some kind of middle management or professional job and makes 2x the average.

Convincing these people to have class solidarity is difficult. Only a few of them actually see the bigger. Those tend to become middle or upper management or politicians, making 3-5x the average workers salary. And of those, only a very select few are willing to fight for the common man.

So yeah, the rich engineered a system that they can control. To actually change anything is going to be very difficult.

No. Why comment if you don’t understand the technology?

If done properly (i.e. self-custody and good OpSec), no one can know if you own bitcoin and how much. And if you are really paranoid, the more obscure privacy coins like Monero make it very easy to conceal your holdings. Which is why they are getting banned across the world.

So no one can take it through force, because they don’t even know you have it.

Imagine walking up to someone with a large wrench and beating them until they give you the keys to their Monero.

Maybe 0.001 percent of people actually have Monero. The other 99.99% of people you torture will not have anything.

So what if Gilead takes over and you have to escape to Canada to be safe?

Good luck taking property or physical assets across a border. But crypto… Easy peasy.

Lmao, this is obviously a troll.

It’s not even satire, just straight up trolling.

When you use the cover, guess what gets blocked? The cameras.

So no more sentry mode.

This just makes the cybertruck an even more attractive target.

Respectfully disagree.

Sure, there are scam coins that benefit Trump.

But Trump doesn’t control bitcoin and other decentralized coins. No country can control it. Therefore, it’s a safe haven in times of uncertainty.

And I rather hold Bitcoin than physical gold. Much easier to protect, transfer and sell compared to physical gold.

I agree.

Ideally, there are two types of profiles:

Archivalists who have a lot of storage and need pretty good uptime, but no need for high bandwidth. They should be rewarded for archiving, because they don’t really get a lot of upload credit.

Distributors who need low storage, high bandwidth, robust connections when online, but not necessarily high uptime. They just distribute the new and popular stuff.

I think the better private trackers recognize this and have systems in place to provide credit to people who seed rare torrents.

“Getting green” to me means Greenwashing, lots of talk and ignoring actual solutions.

Solving climate change means getting carbon emissions under control as soon and fast as possible.

Which means a focus on energy use by buildings and road transport, and a willingness to use all economic and technological solutions that accomplish that goal.

A whopping 2.5% of global emissions are from air travel.

And I’m fine with it. Solidarity is necessary for a just transition.

But it won’t be a significant stop on climate change.

Getting our buildings and cars green will have a much bigger effect.

I consider myself someone who is always in search of truth.

When I realized evangelical Christianity has some hardcore lies and hypocrisy, I left it.

I did eventually find my way back to a more traditional version of Christianity that is interested in truth and love.

I read up on it. I think the main thing was the many Kurds, especially Turkish Kurds, don’t want to fight Turkey anymore. The PKK had a lot of trouble recruiting people. And many Kurdish leaders are actually allied with Erdogan. I believe Erdogan has two Kurdish ministers.

But with their autonomy in Syria and Iraq, the hardliners were still holding out and hopeful.

However, in Syria, Turkey dealt them quite some hard blows these past years and got the US under Trump to abandon them. The final piece is that the new Syrian regime is allied with Turkey and Trump is back in office.

So they basically have a choice, stop fighting or look forward to years of fighting against bayraktar drones.

Of course, I am sure Erdogan put in a lot of deal sweeteners that we don’t know about. At the end of the day, Turkey and Syria both need peace with the Kurds for their own stability and growth. And the Kurds have significant leverage, even if independence is not in the cards.

I do agree, but it does take 3-5 years, unless the EU is willing to turn into a wartime economy. But the political will for that is just not there.