Integrity. Capitalism without regulation is a painful slippery slope where more and more is lost and given up to feed the beast and always requires much complicity at each step from average people who have little choice but to say yes in the short term when collectively we’re all hurt in the long term. Pollute the water? Outsource the labor? Cut back the benefit? Shrink the product? It starts with capitalist, then politicians are bought…then every company and executive, then middle management…they all give in. You have kids now thinking this is how the world has always or should work.

Integrity is a stalwart against many ills, and it’s desperately needed to return.

Ego (in the broad, classic sense of our need to have self identity) and–increasingly–loneliness due to the husk of societal interactions many developed nations have let wither due to overwork, TV and privatization of public spaces.

/monkeyspaw - “a complete set of Fallen Empires. Enjoy!”

Ah, sorry I found the link through Google, didn’t know there was a paywall, I don’t have a sub either. It looks like if you read the top before the paywall it still has the article summary; London rents rose 11.4% YOY.

I use brave as default search on Firefox, and search in incognito by default. On mobile, brave doesn’t save the “disable AI” setting so the slop is there for every search, not to mention slowing down the process.

As if to prove your point on London, this is timely…https://www.ft.com/content/fa6fdb8e-c36e-4854-8b3a-1552ab41f217

To directly fund the president’s choice of Bitcoin reserve to the spectacular enrichment of himself, Texas and anyone else in the know. The oil rush is on and there will only be one winner…

Label creation is nothing better than generalization to avoid critical thinking. While helpful at an elementary level for a basic understanding of the world, is generally harmful to humans being better humans.

Historically used as a weapon of manipulation by fascists (immigrants are x, Jews are y, etc), it’s also come into common use among “liberals” in the US who started dropping to the level of conservatives post-great recession or around the time the whole population had smartphones and their news from Facebook. It’s why the US has arrived at such toxic levels of “discourse” in society, false dichotomies, and echo chambers.

David is right up there with Samuel L Jackson for me in his unique and satisfying delivery of the F-word and it’s derivatives.

Yeah we can all trust Meta, who never should have been allowed to purchase Whatsapp for antitrust reasons exactly like this. Whatsapp was innovative and very successful outside the US, rather than compete with their own decent product Facebook just absorbed them and gulped their users.

Nikola Tesla was working on proof of concept from 1900 until JP Morgan pulled project funding in 1917.

I’m a man. Staying with my wife at mt sister’s flat while touring her city. Sister had 3 roommates. Went out and enjoyed the nightlife. Went to the bathroom in the dark at whatever o’clock and on my way back to our bedroom I went into the wrong door, and was in one of the sister’s roomates rooms. Got super confused and couldn’t find the door to the hallway again because there was all this kitch on the wall and I kept trying to find the door handle. Woman in the room was sleeping but she had a little dog that was growling and yipping at me, I was mortified at the thought of the woman waking up from the dog and asking wtf I was doing in her room so I just sat down against the wall and tried to find the door handle in the dark. Couldn’t do it. Dog kept yipping louder. Woman yelling dog to shut up. Her boyfriend called and they had a quick conversation in the dark, he was drunk. This went on for about 15 minutes before she finally turned on the lamp next to her bed and found me, arms around my knees, rocking against the wall waiting for the inevitable explosion and freakout. She couldn’t have been nicer and I left. We had a great laugh about it the next day when I apologized profusely over breakfast.

I can’t imagine what 90% of people let alone 99.9% of women would have done in that situation but I appreciated how she handled it. Definitely top 5 “don’t forget you did this” moment my brain pulls up from time to time in mortification.

Sure: now that they know Elon is going to force through or dismantle any approvals still needed to drive with unproven tech, they may as well not miss the boat.

For people who have been trained to eat junk food news, the headline is all they have the attention and critical thinking skills for.

The Luddite - An anticapitalist Tech blog helped me understand why these seemingly contradictory worldviews don’t necessarily have to be–its a matter of what and for whom technology has been put to use.

As an example, Louis Pasteur gave away his patent for the good of medicine. It sounds almost impossible to believe against the modern backdrop of pharmaceutical companies that don’t even want to develop cures, they want “subscription” customers.

People have been trained now that since no one watches out for them they have to take their pound of flesh however it can be gotten–this is what stands out to people when they talk about societal decay, selfishness and anomie but it can be difficult to put ones finger on without understanding the workings of the machine.

Up voted for the dark humor but sincerely it’s Feudalism. A central state nor laws cannot be relied on for order nor process so those with the means purchase or are anointed with safety and power.

“guys, I thought when we removed checks and balances and due process and accountability and made power and wealth for personal benefit at all cost our golden idol that…well that only applies to the poors right? I mean there is no timeline in which that would ever be used against me unfairly right? I understood it that I am only allowed to benefit from this sort of arrangement. Right ? Guys?”

It’s difficult for hubris and naivety to coexist but he’s managed to pull it off with this panicked effort. Seriously the Wiley Coyote moment as he looks down and feels the first tug of gravity.

Falling Down was in my head this week. The number of people in the US that are close to it is so high, it’s barely fringe. Ironically Trump might just trigger a revolution when he tries to clamp down.

Return On Assets? Roids or Adrenaline?

Mortal Kombat