Most governments knew what they were doing when they elected to shutdown the entire global supply chain network, their own economies/businesses for the sake of a virus that has a 99.9 percent survival rate. I'm assuming, and this is giving them credit, that the damages as a result of the lockdown strategies were miscalculated and ended up being more severe than they thought it would be.

They knew the end result would be slow economic growth and high inflation, but perhaps they did not expect such a severe degree of stagflation.


They followed "the science," according to them, and not basic economics.

Gun buyback events are utterly useless and emblematic of the larger dichotomy that the gun control absolutists face. That is -- who are the folks that show up to these gun buyback events? Are criminals incentivized to sell their firearms to authorities or would they rather keep their unmarked/unregistered firearms to themselves for criminal activity? Are the types of law abiding citizens to comply with gun buyback events also the types of folks that you need to worry about committing abhorrent violent crime?

This is not uncommon at all. Banks will use the funds deposited by their clients in order to generate profit. Clients receive interest payments. I don't support these matters unless the clients are properly informed of the risks, but it's probably also true that the folks that deposit fiat into a bank are looking for stability, not investment returns.

The main issue I see here is that the banks and government in China are essentially one entity. Using funds for developmental purposes creates a conflict of interest. CCP is looking to expand their their country's reach thus if they were to put funds into projects that fail or get a negative ROI, the citizens are out of luck.

At this point, German officials really deserve all the scorn they can possibly receive: https://theconversation.com/hydrogen-cars-wont-overtake-electric-vehicles-because-theyre-hampered-by-the-laws-of-science-139899



Hydrogen produced vehicles are not the future. They're dangerous and not efficient. Instead of providing reliable energy through oil and gas with existing infrastructure, they continue to invest in unreliable green energy initiatives at a time when Germans might be facing freezing in the winter. I hope Germans are not celebrating these sort of accomplishments.

I don't consider myself to be a Bitcoin absolutist by any means, but I am more of an absolutist towards crypto than I am of fiat. Saving fiat has no inherent benefit due to built in inflation that is systematically introduced by the central banks to maintain the economy. Had the fiat systems been pegged to a tangible asset, or revert back to the gold standard, I'd feel differently.

Even with any drawbacks of BTC, I'd choose it over fiat where my purchasing power is lost by default year over year.



Slight push back on this point: I agree with you generally, but it's also true that folks living in the first world take digital media for granted. A lot of people don't have this luxury which pushes further from the goal of mainstream adoption.

If you want to understand the pro life position, it is not about controlling women, it's about protecting the life of the unborn.

The pro-lifers believe life starts at conception and that the human life has the right to live whereas the most extremist pro-choice groups believe in abortion up to birth. Controlling women is just used as a strawman argument.

This wouldn't have to be as contentious of an issue if abortions were made illegal after certain development stages. Aborting a baby after it has a heart beat sounds like murder and much less about controlling women, doesn't it? Maybe not even a heart beat. What about brain activity?

I'd draw the line around 12-15 weeks or so.

IMO they want to stop drilling all together and force big corporations to switch to green energy. There is no need to create a nationalizing of drilling. Granted, I have no idea of the actual reason Biden chose to halt new drilling leases at a time when Americans are facing record high fuel prices and when there's a global energy shortage, but I suppose that the green energy fanatics were able to sway him into siding with the environmentalist oppose to the working people.

If the U.S. could get away with nationalizing oil production, I suppose they would do so by weaponizing federal leasing permits, but my understanding of their oil drilling situation is that most drilling occurs on private lands. Perhaps could also reduce subsidies for oil and gas too.

Never, not under democratic administrations. It's now explicitly part of their platforms to be anti-energy. If a pro-oil and gas President came into office, they wouldn't produce enough oil to be a sole supplier, but they could increase global supply enough to ease restraints if they were compelled to. Current administration in the U.S. has no intentions on exporting energy. They would rather spend trillions in green climate change initiatives and see Europe beholden to the Russians.

I've been loosely following India's overhaul of crypto currency from high taxes to what will eventually be an outright banning. They'll be one of the largest countries in the world to have done it, which sparks my interest as I believe other countries will attempt to mimic their model.

I'm more convinced India was using bribery as a scapegoat so they could make a palatable excuse to the public as to why they want to ban crypto, not that they would need one, but it helps. Nirmala Sitharaman has said crypto goes against India's fiscal and monetary policy (I'm glad she admits it, unlike other governments). Their intention is fairly clear.

I understand India has more corruption problems than other nations, but I'm not inclined to believe this corruption would be solved by banning crypto.

U.S. declares monkeypox a health emergency: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/04/health/monkeypox-emergency-us.html

Over 7k confirmed cases of monkey pox according to the CDC this year: https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/response/2022/us-map.html

Here we go again...Cases primarily among gay and bisexual men engaging in sex with strangers. Given that homosexuals are on the intersectional scale, they'll get special privileges that other folks were not allowed during COVID restrictions. Meaning, sex festivals won't be shut down for monkeypox, but attending a wedding or a funeral for your loved during COVID was unacceptable.

It's a blatant lie that the increased energy prices are caused by corporate greed. The energy companies operate on specific margins that are independent of what the raw materials for the goods they produce are sold at. No matter what the cost of the raw materials, the profit margin on relative terms will stay the same. It seems as if the UN doesn't understand supply and demand, nor recognize the tight energy constrains that were artificially placed on countries who decided it was prudent to ditch oil/gas for greener and less efficient forms of energy.

They got what they asked for. I suppose it's easier to demonize the big oil/gas corporations instead of pointing out that the revitalization of energy in Europe away from fossil fuels, and the dependence on foreign sources, got them in the mess they're in.

China has hardly embraced capitalism. They've been successful in modernizing their economy because they rely on hundreds of millions of their citizens to be subject to absolute poverty while they expanded their manufacturing/export industry. If it only took slave labor to successfully launch an economy, then sure, China could be considered a successful story of communism. Fortunately, developed society has higher standards than that.

Twitter hired some mega legal corporation to make sure they get their billion dollar settlement, Elon Musk has also employed a large law firm to fight his battle.

My prediction is a bunch of lawyers making a lot of money, and both parties losing in the end. Twitter would love nothing more than to get Elon Musk to pay 54 bucks a share for a worthless social media platform that has a market value of half that. This won't happen. Musk would like to back out of the deal without paying the billion dollar breakup fee. This probably won't happen.

He's using the bot accounts as an excuse for his arrogance in overpaying for a company that he was out of his mind to purchase. Call it a buyer's remorse, if you will. I don't doubt twitter is riddled with bot accounts, I just don't believe this is the reason he's backing out of the deal, oppose to the fact he's paying 15-20 billion over the market rate for a social media platform.

Roughly half of Germans use gas to heat their homes, so yes, you're correct - https://www.dw.com/en/germany-stockpiling-wood-in-fear-of-gas-shortage/a-62601419

It amazes me that Germany is resorting to stockpiling wood for the upcoming winter because they would rather freeze to death than utilize Russian energy. They're firing up coal and nuclear power plants in response in addition to stockpiling wood. I hope they're prepared.

It's not really going up. Keep in mind, Bitcoin has not yet faced a global economic crisis (I don't consider COVID-19 an economic crisis as it was artificially created and then artificially resolved through re-openings/money printing). Changes in the U.S. economy aren't necessarily indicative of a the global economic status, nor are small changes in Bitcoin's price directly correlated to the state of the U.S. economy. And to be clear, the recession effects usually lag. Once companies begin to stop hiring or lay off workers, that's when the global ramifications happen. Large corporations beginning to slow their economic activity is what creates a snowball effect. Perhaps that's when BTC's price can really be analyzed within the context of a recession.

It's the same reason why the U.S. was not willing to put a no-fly zone back in March, they don't want to escalate. They're satisfied with a war by proxy. It's what the U.S. has been doing with Russia in the middle east for years as they were dealing with Bashar al-Assad. As long as they don't escalate with a direct declaration of war, war by proxy seems to be a winning strategy.

Funny enough, I speculate she's taking this trip because god forbid if she wasn't coming back, she's already at the end of her life anyways. Had a great run, only to be taken out by a Chinaman.


It's really Joe Biden who started this. Had he been slightly more lucid, China would not play him for a fool. Pelosi needs to take this trip as to thwart Chinese efforts to take Taiwan within the immediate future. Of course, we all know Taiwan is already gone. This trip just delays the inevitable.

I suppose you've killed the cancer if you've also killed yourself. In which case, great solution you got.

Stories like yours are pretty common IMO. Disinformation campaign and high regulations create the perception that Bitcoin is tainted or damaged materials, with some nefarious notion attached to its usage. I'm glad you were wise and saw past the propaganda, many aren't.


And in fact, money laundering and terrorism are some of the most common excuses the government gives when outright banning or regulating Bitcoin. They pick these excuses meticulously. The average citizen doesn't understand complex issues surrounding financial fraud or national security, so the government likes to give a palatable excuse that people can get behind.

Of course, Bitcoin has little to do with money laundering or terrorism. Throw around those buzzwords though, and somehow people rally behind the cause no matter what it is.

"Ban bitcoin, it'll stop the terrorists!" Leaves me pondering.

That's what the bounty's for. Ukraine presumably is not going to offer funds for worthless information that's unverifiable. Russians are already having their assets seized but I have not inquired as to how Ukraine plans to seize crypto wallets unless they're tied to exchanges or other centralized banking platforms. It's not good for crypto exchanges to be attaching themselves as the moral arbiters, but perhaps it's their fault if they choose to keep funds on centralized platforms. Tough luck.