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florduh

florduh

Well-Known Member
uhhhhhhhhhhh let me be clear. I am not "complaining" about Silicon Valley Libertarians begging the government for help. Quite the opposite. I think this is a delightful story. Should probably be moved to the Heart Warming Stories thread.

I'm not even upset about the bailout. The government/Fed did the right thing here. These Tech Bros were just confused. They thought the FDIC insured deposits up to $250,000....

...or, secretly, up to infinity if your company invented an app. Common misconception.

www.newstatesman.com

Silicon Valley Bank unmasks the hypocrisy of libertarian tech bros

They push for small government – until their companies are under threat.
www.newstatesman.com www.newstatesman.com

Thiel himself is so committed to libertarianism that he has established an eponymous foundation to “defend and promote freedom”. He has also invested at least $500,000 into the Seasteading Institute, an organisation that wants to establish a series of tiny, ocean-bound nations, each run according to laws set by their founders. Larry Page, the co-founder of Google, has previously suggested a “limit” on laws to “some set of pages”. “When you add a page, you have to take one away,” he said. But stuck on a sinking ship this weekend, Silicon Valley found itself begging the state for help.
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FrDlG0ZXsAIkRcq


Ayn Rand rather famously only got by in her old age with the assistance of Social Security and Medicare. I'm detecting a pattern here. Namely...Free Market Fundamentalists having their asses saved by FDR.

economy fdr GIF



www.theverge.com

Floating solar panels could completely power thousands of cities

Why “floatovoltaics” could be the future of solar energy.
www.theverge.com www.theverge.com
Researchers found that 6,256 cities across 124 countries could, in theory, meet all their electricity demand from solar panels deployed on nearby water reservoirs. They would just need to cover about 30 percent of the water’s surface with floatovoltaics. The researchers analyzed 114,555 reservoirs around the world using multiple databases and then modeled potential power generation using realistic climate data.
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Added benefit:

And since all those floating arrays would block enough sunlight to reduce evaporation, the researchers also projected major water savings. Cumulatively, the panels would conserve about as much water as 300 million people might use annually (or roughly 106 cubic kilometers per year).
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florduh

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news.yahoo.com

Joe Manchin says he looks at his 2018 vote on easing bank regulations 'differently now' after Silicon Valley Bank's collapse

In 2018, 13 Democrats joined Republicans in loosening bank regulations. The older regulations likely would've put greater scrutiny on SVB.
news.yahoo.com news.yahoo.com

This is like handing your drunk friend his car keys after he promises he's good to drive, only to have that friend cause a 50 car pile up. Then saying "in retrospect, I should've handled things differently..." yeah, no shit.

Or, I guess you could always double down....

theintercept.com

Senators Aren't Ready to Blame Themselves for Silicon Valley Bank Implosion

“I think that we need to see what has actually transpired.”
theintercept.com theintercept.com

This makes more sense when you realize that the 67 Senators who voted to deregulate SVB are all wholly owned subsidiaries of bank holding companies.

FrRXJsMaUAAsDOL


Wait...Idaho elected Senator Crapo lol?

"Who ya votin' for, John?"

"Oh, I'm a 'Crapo Man' myself. Guy sounds like he knows how to get shit done!"
 
Babylon Drifter

Babylon Drifter

Black Taoist
Madtater said:
These fucking idiots.

They think people are so stupid they dont realize we already knew that.

Seriously these people need to GTFO.
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Nah the only idiots are the voters who believe them and allow the treason and travesty to go on.

They also KNOW that people are in fact stupid enough to believe them, the majority of the time they don't even try to tell a believable lie anymore.

There are plenty of people who will make every excuse in the world to defend the current situation and blame everyone but the guy sitting behind the desk that used to have a sign that read " the buck stops here." Just give it a bit, you'll see what I mean.
 
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florduh

florduh

Well-Known Member
Janet Yellen and Jerome Powell are demons. But it's pretty fucking rich for Senator CrapForBrains to be talking given that he personally voted to deregulate SVB in 2018.

Maybe he should take some personal responsibility for his own corruption here.

www.vanityfair.com

This Bank Panic Should Not Exist

The most important bank in Silicon Valley has failed, triggering economic uncertainty nationwide. To blame: tough-talking tech dudes, a reckless Congress, contradictory monetary policy, and even Barney Frank.
www.vanityfair.com www.vanityfair.com
The real outrage is that any of this became necessary at all. If Congress hadn’t gone out of its way to deregulate banks like SVB, SVB very likely would not be in this situation. Back in 2018, 17 Senate Democrats joined a unanimous bloc of Senate Republicans to eliminate important capital and liquidity rules for 25 of the 38 largest financial institutions covered by American banking law. Becker and other executives of large regional banks insisted that the rules written in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis were too stringent—they were designed for multitrillion-dollar behemoths, but firms with as little as $50 billion in assets were being subjected to them. Sensing a political fundraising opportunity, swing-state Democrats helped Republicans write a bill to aid guys like Becker, and then pitched it to the public as a lifeline for mom-and-pop operations.
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Also... every bank was hit by interest rate hikes. Not just SVB. Though the Fed still bears a lot of responsibility here. Mostly because they went even FURTHER than Congress in deregulating scam banks like SVB.

www.levernews.com

Regulators Greenlit SVB’s Risky Investments

Following lobbying efforts, the Federal Reserve exempted Silicon Valley Bank’s venture capital investments from a key risk management rule.
www.levernews.com www.levernews.com

In this particular example of that deregulation, the Federal Reserve created significant carve-outs to the so-called Volcker Rule, named after former Fed chairman Paul Volcker. That regulation was supposed to prevent federally insured banks from owning or investing in private equity or hedge funds — opaque pools of assets that are considered illiquid, meaning they cannot be easily sold and turned into cash.
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florduh,
Babylon Drifter

Babylon Drifter

Black Taoist
The first of 150 suspicious action reports that were filed by banks about the Bidens and then promptly covered up until now.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1636413817151275021

"Subpoenaed bank records identified President Biden’s daughter-in-law Hallie (right) as the previously unknown family recipient of Chinese cash in 2017, according to reports.
The information creates an unexpected new avenue for investigation — and the memo notes the bank records don’t include the first names of all Biden family recipients, meaning there may be others involved, in addition to Hunter Biden and first brother James Biden.

Hallie Biden is the widow of Beau Biden, who died of brain cancer in 2015, and the mother of two of the president’s grandchildren, Natalie and Robert Hunter. She dated the president’s other son, Hunter, from around 2016 to 2019.

“Democrats described our subpoena as providing nothing more than records for Papa John’s and Starbucks, but they failed to mention the records we’ve received documenting the Biden family’s business schemes,” Comer told The Post, referring to committee ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin’s disclosure of the subpoenas this week."


Huh, someone in China paid 3 million dollars in 3 months to 3 members of the Biden family. Exactly what service or goods were Joe, his kids and brother providing to China?

Keep in mind there are more red flagged bank transactions to the Bidens still waiting to see the light of day. There is no excuse or loophole that allows this sort of influence over a sitting president.

If you haven't read Unrestricted Warfare it's available on Amazon or on the net in. pdf. It's taken from China's Peoples Liberation Army manual on warfare.

"Even a relatively insignificant state can incapacitate a far more powerful enemy by applying pressure to their economic and political systems."
 
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florduh

florduh

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florduh

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florduh said:
That's good. But if the International Criminal Court wants to have any legitimacy they better hurry up and issue a warrant for this guy too:

Click to expand...

Wait, nevermind. They can't arrest W. About 8 months before we launched the illegal Iraq War, Bush signed a law stating that if any US Official or Serviceman is detained by the ICC...America will invade The Hague.

U.S.: 'Hague Invasion Act' Becomes Law

www.hrw.org www.hrw.org

U.S. President George Bush today signed into law the American Servicemembers Protection Act of 2002, which is intended to intimidate countries that ratify the treaty for the International Criminal Court (ICC). The new law authorizes the use of military force to liberate any American or citizen of a U.S.-allied country being held by the court, which is located in The Hague. This provision, dubbed the "Hague invasion clause," has caused a strong reaction from U.S. allies around the world, particularly in the Netherlands.
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I learned this little fun fact way too late in life.
 
His_Highness

His_Highness

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king
florduh said:
Wait, nevermind. They can't arrest W. About 8 months before we launched the illegal Iraq War, Bush signed a law stating that if any US Official or Serviceman is detained by the ICC...America will invade The Hague.
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As much as I hate to admit this.....when Trump was in office the thought entered my head many times that I sure would have preferred me some Dubya regardless of the fact that he was as dumb as a box of rocks.......
 
florduh

florduh

Well-Known Member
His_Highness said:
As much as I hate to admit this.....when Trump was in office the thought entered my head many times that I sure would have preferred me some Dubya regardless of the fact that he was as dumb as a box of rocks.......
Click to expand...

I lived in LA for almost all of it, so I definitely heard that a lot. At the time I never disagreed. There was always this background fear that one day he'd nuke Finland because their PM made fun of his hair or something.

But now, in retrospect...I couldn't disagree more. I think it's hard to think of a more odious criminal in US History than W. Mayyybe Henry Kissinger, who is somehow still alive.

Knowing what we know now, George definitely cooked up that bullshit war out of nothing. He lied the American people into a war that killed upwards of a million people. And set off a tinderbox that fucked over multiple continents to this very day.

And passing that "We'll invade The Hague" law months before he launched that war. He basically said "hehehe...we're about to do some war crimes.......Now watch this drive."

The rest of his Presidency was a shitshow too. I wonder how much recency bias goes into stuff like this.
 
Babylon Drifter

Babylon Drifter

Black Taoist
florduh said:
That's good. But if the International Criminal Court wants to have any legitimacy they better hurry up and issue a warrant for this guy too:

Click to expand...


Well, that wouldn't matter a bit and I find it fairly disingenuous that our media is hyping anything to do with an "International" court system the USA doesn't recognize. But then our entire media is disingenuous so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

From the courts own FAQ:

"The US is not a state party to the Rome Statute. The US participated in the negotiations that led to the creation of the court. However, in 1998 the US was one of only seven countries – along with China, Iraq, Israel, Libya, Qatar, and Yemen – that voted against the Rome Statute. US President Bill Clinton signed the Rome Statute in 2000 but did not submit the treaty to the Senate for ratification. In 2002, President George W. Bush effectively “unsigned” the treaty, sending a note to the United Nations secretary-general that the US no longer intended to ratify the treaty and that it did not have any obligations toward it."

As far as Putin goes, this was likely done to prevent him from attending G20. Unless he leaves Russia those warrants on him are likely to be as effective as his international arrest warrants on the Rockefellers and George Soros.are (unless they go to Russia) .
 
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Babylon Drifter,
florduh

florduh

Well-Known Member
I don't find Jon Stewart as funny as I did like a decade ago. But the man is extremely talented at interviewing demons, exposing them for what they are.


"People" like Larry Summers and Jerome Powell say we need to fight inflation by forcing a recession. They, incorrectly, argue that wages are a major driver of higher prices. They believe we need to slow wage growth. And the best way to do this is to put millions of Americans out of work, forcing wages down.

When Stewart points out that the biggest single cause of higher consumer prices is simple corporate price gouging. Summers, a corpo whore, is offended by this. He says "if market conditions allow you to charge a higher price, you should be able to charge a higher price."

The Demon fucked up here and Stewart called him on it. Because you see... "market forces" have recently allowed workers to demand slightly higher wages. But when "market forces" start to favor Labor, the Fed steps in to try and force wages down by causing a recession.
 
florduh

florduh

Well-Known Member
On the 20th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War, here's a clip that perfectly demonstrates how insane and bloodthirsty this country was at the time.


Thomas Friedman was the leading Liberal columnists of this era. He argues that, while the stated purpose of the war was bullshit, America needed to vaporize a million Muslims. And it didn't really matter what Muslims or whether or not they had anything to do with 9/11.
 
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