Incoming presidents are always given person of the year by Time. It's pretty much automatic. You can bet that if Kamala won, she would have been the person of the year. It's a meaningless award.

Cool... I prefer xfce, but cinnamon is nice, too. Have you tried xfce? Or did you just go with the default?

I love Mint. It's been my exclusive distro for about 10 years now. Do you use xfce or cinnamon?

I'm obsessed with interrogations, and have watched several hundred hours of them. It's interesting to see how many cops use the same techniques to get suspects to talk, and it almost always works.

The way to win is not to play.

As soon as it's clear you will be asked questions, immediately say, "I am invoking my right to refuse to answer any questions, and I will not answer any questions unless and until I can consult with an attorney."

And then don't let them trick you into changing your mind, because they will. They'll say, "Oh, I can't talk to you and answer your questions because you invoked your rights." It's a bullshit ploy to get you to rescind your invocation. They don't have anything to say that you need to hear.

The next thing you should say after invoking is, "Am I free to leave?" Because unless you're being legally detained, they must answer this question truthfully. If you are free to leave, get up immediately and leave. If you're not free to leave, "Keep your mouth shut, put your head down, and take a nap. If they say you can leave if you help then with a few questions, tell them to pound sand and get you a lawyer.

Talking to them, answering their questions, or agreeing to a polygraph will all get you locked up. Never take the poly, under any circumstances, even if you have nothing to hide. That test can only hurt you. It will never help you despite what they say. Don't do it.

Do all this, and you'll be back home in no time. Be strong, and don't make the mistake of thinking that honesty and cooperation will set you free, because it won't.

It involves more than just the perpetually online, but it's places like reddit, and 4chan, and all these other cesspools of the internet where the conspiracy theories and blind finger pointing coalesce, and swirl. They become the epicenters of misguided ideas, and corresponding conspiracies that build into a critical mass, and from which the outward expressions of these thought processes take hold in the greater national consciousness.

It's people who don't understand how things work spinning up stories that make easily understood sense of complicated ideas, and messy realities. And as more and more people latch onto these stories, and believe they are an accurate explanation of how the world works, it becomes truth to them, even if they can't explain it. And so what you're left with is a large group of people who really have no clue how the world works believing that not only is their story an accurate explanation, but that it's actually the people who understand the complexities at work who are the sheep, who don't understand what they're talking about.

The result is a large mass of people who are desperate to will their incorrect understanding of reality into existence. It's utter madness based entirely on ignorance, and the belief of the ignorant that their made-up stories are just as good as the objective reality that's supported by facts, reason, and empiricism.

Populism isn't an ideology, it's a rhetoric. It's the rabble rousing of people who blame the established order, whatever it may be, for all their problems. Populist leaders are always the ones who tell these disaffected people who don't really understand how anything works, that they are really correct, and everyone else is a sheep who promote the lies told by the establishment. Populism is almost entirely the intellectually bankrupt rantings of people who are looking for someone to blame.

The people driving this are chronically online internet dregs. These people spend all day on reddit, manufacturing stories and conspiracy theories about how all their problems aren't their fault, but the fault of a monolithic other commonly represented by corporations and shadowy government agencies. Nothing is ever their fault. They would all be super successful, masters of the universe if not for these ambiguous forces who are working to keep them down. And everything that happens in the world is a conspiracy, and only they are smart enough to see the real truth while everyone else is a sheep. That's who's behind this sentiment.

The response to this guy is dangerous. The rule of law, and the criminal justice process is they way to afford fair trials, and ensure the impartial administration of justice. What people are essentially supporting is vigilantism, and justice by way of reddit sentimentality. We are, above all else, a nation of laws, and I worry that a trend of declaring guilt or innocence based on the absurd internet popularity contests is eroding our foundational processes. Whether he's guilty or innocent, it's a matter for the courts to determine, not some conspiracy peddling, reddit randos.

That's madness! I think some people just don't understand basic opsec, and the importance of securing your devices when they're not in use. Especially in a coffee shop where all sorts of characters are lurking. It doesn't take a skilled scoundrel more than a few seconds to access sensitive information if the device is left unlocked.

I'll take a look. Thanks for the link!

I did a test exchange using #StealthEX, converting some BTC to XMR. Apart from the fact that the #bitcoin portion of the exchange (where I sent BTC to the address provided) took 20 hours, the exchange went through smoothly and I ended up with the correct amount of XMR in my #Monero wallet.

The bitcoin confirmation took so long because it was a 5 sat/vB transaction. I think that's the standard set by the StealthEX app. I watched as my transaction kept getting bumped to later and later blocks until it finally crossed the finish line. Once that happened, the exchange was pretty much instantaneous. Next time, I'm going to try to increase the fee so it doesn't take literally all day.

Ultimately, StealthEX lived up to their promise, and I'll be using them again in the future.

Wait, what? Why would intelligence agencies recruit pedophiles? That doesn't even make sense.

Your phone doesn't have a lock? That's... interesting. What sort of phone do you have?

Stack is pretty nice. I tried it out when I was searching for my wallet. Clean interface, well designed UX, intuitive controls. The only thing that really excluded it from further consideration is the fact that it's a multi currency wallet which I specifically didn't want. It's been good for you tho?

Yeah, I know what you mean. I don't like multi-currency wallets, including the main Cake Wallet, so I got the XMR only wallet. I tried most of the reputable BTC wallets and settled on Nunchuk because of its BIP49 support, extended functionality, support for different signing types, and it's super clean and well-designed UX.

It also supports Tapsigner (NFC signing card)which you can configure as your signing agent. Then you get the benefit of external hardware protection and the speed and ease of use of a software wallet. I'm really happy with it. What are you using as your BTC wallet?

Really? I thought it only connects to indexing nodes. I didn't realize you could connect directly to standard XMR nodes. That certainly raises my opinion of the wallet. I probably won't install it again because I'm so happy with the Cake XMR wallet, but it's good to know there's another quality option I can use if I want to go with something else.

It's got some cool features, but I use Cake's Monero wallet. It's just so clean, and intuitive. You can also link directly to an XMR node, including onion nodes, whereas Monerujo connects to some indexing node where you don't need to download the blockchain. It's sorta like a node proxy. It's fast, but I prefer the ability to connect directly to the node of my choice, especially the ability to connect to an onion node over tor.

The two bottom pics look very appealing. Magical. I like the little bubbles 😁

Utter nonsense. But to be fair, that's what nostr looks like when you first sign up. But if you stick with it, and follow good people (and mute the people who suck), it quickly transforms into an amazing place to spend time. But there is a learning curve, and you do have to fight your way through some truly horrible people to get to that magical place on other side.

I dunno 🤷‍♂️ I don't know the backstory. But I'd like to believe it involved a secret agent, some danger and intrigue, and finally unicorns and rainbows as the credits roll. But maybe I'm just a boy with a dream.