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Before I get attacked for allowing this rag in my house, let it be known that my wife likes the crossword puzzle, and there is something nostalgic about getting the Sunday paper for people of our age.
Today was ridiculous. I'm no Trump supporter, but Ezra Klein's editorial is ridiculous.
Next, in the business section (?) there is a Ross attack.
It's all grossly unfair, but I really wish bitcoin wasn't so completely aligned with Trump. There is plenty of blame to go around for that.
I didn't include quotes since I just wanted to focus on the visuals of these two section front pages.
I take it your wife's not a fan of doing puzzles online/on her phone? The NYT Puzzles sub is only $30 or so a year and explicitly does NOT include the rest of the paper.
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I know. In fact she subscribes to that. She likes doing the Sunday puzzle on the actual paper. What can I say?
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I still occasionally buy the Sunday paper. It is an pleasant nostalgic indulgence to read a printed broadsheet. They probably will not exist in a decade or two but while they still do, enjoy.
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I never liked Ezra Klein. There was just always something about the way he writes that feels smarmy and condescending, even though he's actually not that smart. I tried reading his book Abundance and got the same feeling---even though I largely agree with the book's message, I just really did not enjoy the writing style.
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Totally
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72 sats \ 1 reply \ @kepford 22h
A thought repeatedly occurs to me with all the outrage I see about almost everything Trump does.
Imagine how these people would respond to a President Ron Paul. Based on some of the relatively minor changes from Trump vs Paul's I can't even imagine how they would respond to a principled liberty focused man that has character.
When you strip away the outrage related to Trump's personality and ego you are left with minor shifts. I mean, yeah when your world view is about as wide as a pencil he's extreme but when you view the whole of political though he's pretty mild.
I can't shake the sense that this is more about defending the elite. The system. The deep state. The status quo. Whatever term you are comfortable with.
I'm not convinced Trump isn't owner by these groups but the reactions to him are more telling than anything he has done.
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He's not ideological at all. He's a bull in a china shop. His ability to make stuff happens is what scares these people. I still think these people think they are smarter than they are. They don't get the actual problem.
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36 sats \ 0 replies \ @OT 21h
Trump only has 3 years left? The next guy can go back to hating on Bitcoin.
BTW, this is typical Ezra.
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a rich folk hero --i reckon thets a compliment --sounds like a winner to me
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36 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 23h
These people have done a great job of destroying what small sliver of respectability I had for them going back before 2016. It was small then but I have zero today.
At the time my respect for Trump was also small. Still is, but hasn't reduced. They have done this to themselves. It's hard to believe these people can suck so bad and opposing someone. Truly amazing that so many "elites" still seem completely flummoxed by Trump's ways and patterns. They somehow can simultaneously overestimate him and underestimate him.
They aren't sending their best. Clearly. I feel no sadness for the demise of the respectable class. I do wish we lived in a more civil and kind society but you can't put that on Trump. He's the effect. Not the cause. What people should be thinking about is what follows him. Not him. He's nothing more than a signal to the deep problems we have as a society. The deep divide and moral failure of the ruling class. God help us.
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I try to maintain the belief that Bitcoin doesn’t care about media narratives…. or Donald Trump. Perhaps I am too naive.
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I think you're right in the long run. Sometimes I need to remind myself of that.
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10 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 22h
Yeah, bitcoin doesn't. But far too many bitcoiners still do.
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The railhead of the globalist agenda
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US global hegemony is increasingly unviable. Trump at least tacitly acknowledges that. He was debanked by the banks who have owned US presidents for decades and so is seen as disruptive- disruption is needed as USA adapts to and deals with its declining global hegemony. China and its tribute states are openly defying US hegemony. Most US citizens are not yet able to accept this reality and the changes that are now all but inevitable but Trump does implicitly seem to. MSM here in New Zealand now calls Trumps America a rogue state and to the extent that Trump is abandoning the world view that has been dominant since the 1980s they are right. America is retreating from its role as the global super power to one of seeking to preserve as much of its wealth as possible as China comes to dominate global trade and wealth. Decline of empire is never easy but it can be managed, or it can lead to collapse.
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China can have New Zealand, please. I would much rather the US be a small uninfluential country with no allies and no UN recognition than see it completely abandon true capitalist ideals like the rest of the Anglosphere.
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China is already far more important and valuable to NZ exporters and consumers than the US. We produce a large portion of the dairy exports globally and China pays the best price for them and multiple other food and textiles we export- as opposed to the USA that blocks export of many NZ products/commodities to protect US farmers from a free market. Do not delude yourself that the US is an open and free market- it is not..it is rife with protectionism and farm subsidies.
NZ and China have had a Free Trade Agreement since 2008- successive US governments have refused to negotiate a free trade agreement with NZ because trade protection lobbies within the US are so powerful.
The TPPPA was hoping to include the US but the US opted out, leaving Canada, NZ, Australia and Japan to join with most S.E.Asian nations in this major regional FTA. China is now aligning with the TPPPA.
China is much more able to embrace free trade because it has a competitive manufacturing economy while the USA does not.
The 'free market' USA is a sick joke- the USA is not interested in free trade and cannot cope with free trade as shown by its repeated rejection of bilateral and multilateral ftas. Even now USA is reneging on the FTAs it has demanding they be renegotiated in its favour...thats not free trade that's is a dying hegemony trying to bully itself a better deal and fend off insolvency.
Can you sell $7T USTs before Christmas? Good luck with that Uncle Sam. Yes the US will be less influential as the consequences of its crony capitalism and loss of U$D extraordinary privilege impact.
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International trade agreements aren't a priority for me. I'm talking about maintaining a free market that respects property rights domestically. For all it's flaws, the US does have a much freer market within its borders than most countries. Taxes are lower, the courts are far more respectful of free speech, and the current leadership is probably the second most Bitcoin-friendly regime on earth. We're only getting called a rogue state by jealous nocoiners. Their opinion doesn't matter.
If every other country and half of this one all desperately want to be communist state-worshippers, that's largely outside of our control. They're only hurting themselves. The important thing for the capitalist side is that we carve out at least one sliver of the planet where private ownership of Bitcoin is permitted. That's all we need to claim a high quality of life for ourselves.
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The problem as I see it is that the US has enjoyed its extraordinary privilege for so long that US has lost sight of what real wealth creation is. It is not the parasitic rentseeking financialisation that the US has dominated since the 1980s and it is not the ceaseless squandering of fiat reserve currency issuance to fund massive military budgets and massive and chronic trade and fiscal deficits. The USA is facing insolvency- the collapse of demand for the USTs that were once the most desirable forms of liquidity globally- because you cannot operate chronic deficits indefinitely. The US productive economy is in a dire state due in large part to the corrupting influence of its extraordinary privilege due to its hegemony of global financial markets- but that hegemony is in decline- globally central banks now hold more gold than USTs. Retreat from its role as global super power to that of a regional power is quite a logical and viable option and one that Trump does seem to be adopting. Bitcoin certainly has a valid role in preserving wealth as USD declines and China is increasingly the centre of global trade and trade payments. I suspect Trump is adopting a similar strategy to what Britain did as it declined- building tax havens real and virtual and seeking to retain as much wealth independent of the rising mercantile empire of China. Bitcoin is an obvious part of such a strategy being free of dependence upon any nation state or centralised authority- but Bitcoin is unlikely to be the major currency used for trade payments- that is much more likely to be the Chinese Yuan because they now dominate global trade.
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I don't know what makes you think chronic deficits are a strategic error unique to US policymakers. The reason any government issues fiat in the first place is to run a chronic deficit.
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And that now results in US debt servicing now exceeding military spending. If UST 10 year price now goes over 5% USA is facing insolvency. Not sure what makes you think that is a good place to be.
Fiat is not there to enable chronic deficits- it can enable investment in productive infrastructure and capacity- as China mostly uses it- but USA and the corrupt bankster controlled neoliberalised west has squandered fiat debt capital issuance and leverage upon non productive parasitic asset price pumping for decades - that is voodoo economics self destruction 101.
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No it can't. Fiat currencies only go in one direction, to zero. That's why neither of us has any interest in holding dollars or yuan over BTC.
When the CCP "invests" in infrastructure, that money is being sourced from somewhere else, no different from the US fiat system. You're assuming the CCP is spending it more efficiently than whoever they took it from. They aren't.
Ezra Klein is a cunt
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Oh wow
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