This is the aspect of AI + surveillance that I don't think ppl talk about enough.
Plenty of boomers voted for Trump in 2024, but overall they were evenly split for Harris and Trump.
Gen X favored Trump.
Obama (2008) and Trump (2024) were both favored by Gen X.
I used to not understand how folks who voted for Obama would then vote for Trump but it's a real thing.
When you look at the voting demographic breakdown, it seems like Gen X is what put Trump over the top. I think that's probably what he's referring to.
it really is. Scary how effective it has been
I once was walking down the street and overheard a father talking to his young son (4yo?): "hey, you want to go watch the trash truck?" Like he was offering him a trip to the circus. They both seemed SO excited.
I have girls, and I thought this was pretty much the funniest thing I had ever heard.
It’s probably worth noting all of excess in US government spending that needs to be cut, will create a dangerous feedback loop and likely deflationary spiral because all of those excess jobs are also spending, buying homes, eating out, traveling, spending on marketing etc. When they stop/slow down - and then require social assistance - debt as a % of gdp screams higher.
Ie - That expansion of government and regulation is a direct consequence of manipulated markets trying to stop the natural deflation in free markets but also an integral part of them - robbing more jobs from the free market, and misallocating capital everywhere.
In other words, it’s going to be messy!
The debt needs to come down first and that means money printing and much higher inflation.
Or as nostr:npub1a2cww4kn9wqte4ry70vyfwqyqvpswksna27rtxd8vty6c74era8sdcw83a memes so effectively “Nothing stops this train”
In either event - #Bitcoin is your lifeboat.
I've been wondering about this. It seems like most of the job creation in the last few years are public sector. positions Firing all those people at once means a huge jump in unemployment, which seems (even for those of us who don't quite understand deflationary spirals) like it will create a whole bunch of issues.
Buckle up!
Not sure if this would count as an app or website, but I would love a Nostr equivalent of Outschool or other homeschooling/extended education programs.
?1731630300
President-elect Donald Trump tapped notorious anti-vaxxer and bear-meat aficionado Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services Thursday. The prospect of a man who has railed against fluoride in water and promised to stop research on drug development and infectious diseases for at least eight years heading the country’s public health initiatives has given many people pause. Reactions to the news have begun to come in, though none of those reactions mention Kennedy’s theory that chemicals in drinking water have resulted in “gender confusion.” Republican Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana took time away from saying that women should not be allowed to leave their state for reproductive care to lament vague “vaccine mandates” in support of Kennedy’s nomination. TAPPER: The medical community has been clear that what RFK Jr says about vaccines is false. They don't cause autism. Does that bother you at all? SENATOR-ELECT JIM BANKS: Look Jake, in the election Donald Trump won the popular vote pic.twitter.com/IWrHH8xkdn— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 14, 2024 Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis shocked many with his statement on X. “I’m excited by the news that the President-Elect will appoint @RobertKennedyJr to @HHSGov,” Polis wrote. “He helped us defeat vaccine mandates in Colorado in 2019 and will help make America healthy again by shaking up HHS and FDA. I hope he leans into personal choice on vaccines rather than bans (which I think are terrible, just like mandates) but what I’m most optimistic about is taking on big pharma and the corporate ag oligopoly to improve our health.” Polis’ support for RFK Jr. was a far cry from his feelings on the matter back in August, when he posted this. pic.twitter.com/IdbR2sISgM— David Weigel (@daveweigel) November 14, 2024 Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, an actual physician, readied his rubber stamp by writing that Kennedy “has championed issues like healthy foods and the need for greater transparency in our public health infrastructure. I look forward to learning more about his other policy positions and how they will support a conservative, pro-American agenda.” Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville, not known for being particularly bright, called the pick “absolutely brilliant.” And the always craven Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin seemed over the moon about an HHS chief who is as far out when it comes to public health as he is. I could not be happier that @realDonaldTrump has selected @RobertKennedyJr to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. He’s a brilliant, courageous truth-teller whose unwavering commitment to transparency will make America a healthier nation.— Senator Ron Johnson (@SenRonJohnson) November 14, 2024 Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts kept his reaction short and sweet. Dangerous. Unqualified. Unserious. https://t.co/jSwKkNrijC— Ed Markey (@SenMarkey) November 14, 2024 “Mr. Kennedy’s outlandish views on basic scientific facts are disturbing and should worry all parents who expect schools and other public spaces to be safe for their children,” Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden said in a statement, calling bullshit on the Kennedy-Trump allegiance. “When Mr. Kennedy comes before the Finance Committee, it’s going to be very clear what Americans stand to lose under Trump and Republicans in Congress.” Kennedy’s history of half-baked ideas about public health has some appeal among anti-science, anti-establishment circles. Now we all get to be subjected to his whims. Campaign Action
I'm still trying to wrap my head around that somehow over the past 5 or 10 years, the left became not just shills for war but also for big pharma.
Right?!
I like him, but even for the folks who don't - how much worse could things actually get in public health?
James OB spitting the hard truths on twitter. I agree with everything he says here: https://x.com/jamesob/status/1857049961235403101
No idea how this will turn out. For most questions it's not that hard to get an idea of what the future will bring based on incentive analysis and historical precedent. I don't know of a good historical analog for the successful transition from benevolent dictator to anarcho-consensus. If anyone out there does know of one it could be *very* fruitful to share with the right people. Something to keep in the back of your mind. Where my bitcoin anthropologists at?
My gut tells me that we will continue to thrash on the soft fork question with no meaningful progress until the scaling pains or some other problem grows to crisis level. This is a very clear historical precedent. After the crisis is widely acknowledged we'll select a new hierarchy of leaders to push through an engineering fix.
This will probably bring about another schism in the bitcoin community. I suspect we'll need to fork off Saylor and Blackrock. Honestly, good riddance. These fat cats were never cypherpunks and they never will be. But with them goes the promise of unlimited price appreciation with no effort. You'll still need to work a day job to grow your savings.
I think the pleb ossifiers are directionally correct, but I think their specific concerns are misplaced. They are right about proceeding cautiously. We're only gonna get one chance to displace fiat. We can't afford to fuck this up. But I think they take this anxiety towards change and put it all on the risks they can see and understand and take direct action on: soft fork activation attempts from within the bitcoin community. It's a whole lot easier to stall something than to push it through and acting in any capacity makes you feel accomplished, even if you are pulling in the wrong direction.
In my opinion, premature ossification is a much bigger problem. The risk is that bitcoin achieves far less than it's full potential. We get there through inaction. There is a massive pot in the center of this poker table. We need to ante up to stay in the game. We need to take measured, intelligent risks to win. But it's not a poker game, we're actually betting on the course of human civilization.
Personally, I think attempting any soft fork under the current level of mining pool centralization is an unacceptable risk. One reason I decided to work on this problem.
Another reason is that mining software has been long neglected. Historically, the smartest and most ideologically motivated devs are attracted to other layers of the stack. I know because I feel this pull as well. This is why we've got free, private, decentralized, self-hostable, cypherpunk software for nodes and wallets, but not for mining.
Things are turning around thanks to the hard work of a small group of engineers. Sv2 is complete and SRI is nearly production ready. I am extremely grateful to be in a position to stand on the shoulders of these giants. But I don't see a compelling story for small miners to run this software and build their own block templates. It's not enough to get hobbyists on board; in order to win this fight we need to make decentralized mining more profitable than centralized alternatives.
Braidpool is another very promising project. I hope they succeed. A decentralized monolithic mining pool would be metal as fuck but I fear that even with Braidpool we're still stuck in the local maximum of monolithic mining pools.
I smell opportunity. I see a path to fix big problems in bitcoin by focusing on the neglected layers of the stack. I think we can decentralize mining with new ideas and architectures that bring unstoppable cypherpunk energy to the space. If successful, the fruits of this labor will unleash a tsunami of innovation and human productivity. I'm ready to go surfing. 🏄
My secret hope is that solving a big existential risk that everyone can see and understand might be the psychological victory we need to head off a greater conflict in the future. If we get most of the pleb ossifiers on board, we won't need to fork off the fat cats. With overwhelming consensus they will see the shift in the weather and get with the program to protect their vast wealth. Sun Tzu said to always leave a path for your opponent to retreat. I think this wisdom is directly applicable here.
We can show the ossifiers that they were right to be cautious, vanquish an existential threat to bitcoin, and, if we act skillfully and with emotional intelligence, we can redirect their attention to the next looming crisis: scaling trustless self custody to every human being.
I don't know how to do this. It's a social influence game, which is an area I have always intentionally avoided. This is a nascent idea. I'm still turning it over in my head. Maybe some of y'all have a good perspective to share or can take this idea and run with it. Let me know what you think.
Thank you for taking the time to write this out. As a pleb, I have only the most abstract understanding of what you're talking about here but it worries me! I know that Odell had a discussion about it recently on nostr:npub10atn74wcwh8gahzj3m0cy22fl54tn7wxtkg55spz2e3mpf5hhcrs4602w3 and I'll catch up with that soon.
many folks would probably contribute to that bounty!
It's wonderful having you on here, Ken!
Yeah, I think that's the way things are going
I know what you’re talking about. I can’t find it right now, but here’s a good video. 🤙
https://video.nostr.build/8f433b3fa0ecf40325f45dd0a4cc53c78a8806e30d35d5e35c6480b11c4ed489.mp4
Thank you!
#asknostr
Does anyone have that graphic that shows the median housing prices in bitcoin (and in dollars)?
It's not a graph - just a simple depiction of 2 or 3 houses showing US prices at three points in recent history.
nostr:note1jgnhkela8ccew7ejx48h5w8efkx5d8azlqfl78zknnxzauzfqpksyprk2a
