We’re having a podcast this afternoon, about what to about this rapidly disintegrating country.
I’d appreciate it if people would show up in the comments and tell us what to do.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
How much detail do you want? I have the broad outlines of a plan but I have yet to succeed in explaining it in a way that seems to capture anyone else’s imagination. TLDR: we build our own government, from the bottom up. (I’m immediately hearing the objections… okay, I need to update my writeup, don’t I. (The existing writeup is 12+ years old, when the crisis was less obviously Here Now.)
All wide ride on the mid term elections. If the incompetence, chaos, and stupidity keeps on, it will be an opportunity to retake the Senate and House. To remove Musk and his imps from government. Now is the time to find strongest candidates possible. And to go back to Clinton’s dictum. “Its the economy stupid!”. Most voters voted Trump because they beloved Trump would be good for the economy in overwhelming numbers.
reposted once again.
We passed that point long ago, probably at least a decade ago.
The Blue states have a lot of power, most of the economy and roughly half the population with 173 million people.
Yeah, I’ve been thinking about this exact scenario for days.
.1. The USA is over with. Done. Dead.
.2. The Red states have won and taken over.
Out and loud white racists and misogynists now rule over us as dictators.
.3. So why should the Blue states remain part of the USA?
I can’t see any reason to.
.4. The Blue states could just get together and say, we are leaving, bye now.
We will keep our tax money for ourselves.
We won’t join you in reversing history and living in the 1800s before the first Civil War.
This is a win-win situation.
The Red states hate us anyway, so they get rid of a bunch of democracy loving, over educated white and nonwhite people.
The Blue states get to skip the Fascist stage and whatever dark places they are going to.
If the USA is over with, why should we remain a part of a Fascist dictatorship that doesn’t like us and we don’t want them either?
I don’t know what the answer is, but I have taken to doing 2 things.
1) Calling my US senators nearly daily. Nearly because life is busy and sometimes the wait times are really long. I have found that Amy Klobuchar’s Minneapolis office is much easier to get through on busy days. I remind them that they are my only representatives left with any power and they need to assert it or lose congress forever.
2) Not giving up hope. When George HW Bush pardoned those scheduled to testify about his involvement in Iran-Contra, I thought it was the end of democracy. It was not. When white-water land deal turned into a multi-year legal witch-hunt, I thought it was the end of democracy. It was not. When the supreme court declared GWB president, I thought it was the end of democracy. It was not. Similarly, when GWB decided to build the Defense Intelligence Agency as an alternative source of truth on intelligence matters, I thought it was the end of democracy. It was not. The two failures to impeach the orange turd were even more times when I thought it was the end of democracy. It was not. At each juncture, after a bit of time, I saw them in the broader context.
When the dust settles, I am ready to demand that all members of the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society be declared members of a terrorist organization and having them removed from public office and banned for life from ever holding office again.
As an added, I am paying really close to the ‘Un-F**cking the republics’ non-negotiables to adopt them as my positions as well.
To set the mood, first, someone has to set their hair on fire. Only way to fix this is get all 3 seats of power, and make damn sure this never happens again. This assumes Felonious Orange cedes power, at the end of his term, which is pretty iffy. We need an amendment, which states anyone found guilty of a felony cannot run for high office. We need integrity/honor, in Congress, which has been replaced with rabid partisanship. And we need for lying ass right wing radio/TV/internet, made to stop brainwashing idiots with provable lies, misinformation, and logical fallacies, thereby making stupid contagious.
I don’t see it happening, but that would make a good start.
Here is a little thing but the principle (read George Lakoff) is sound. Let us stop calling the bogus “department” that Musk is using to destroy the government by the acronym they have chosen. It has nothing to do with efficiency. Let’s use another frame: DOGD for Department of Government Destruction.
Over and over we complain about these sociopathic oligarchs and theocrats and, as we do so, we nevertheless buy into their language. We need to add language-shaping to our resistance strategies. The “faith” people in the White House? Call them what they are, theocrats, or American Taliban.
When we use their language and framing we are admitting they are into our heads. Let’s get into their heads. Let them complain about our language using our language.
It feels a bit silly to try to capture this in a single comment post, but… The biggest structural problem we face is capitalism. I often see pie in the sky solutions that usually boil down to either vote harder or create a massive structural change in government/society without any actionable steps to get there. I don’t believe that electoral politics is the answer (I’m not saying don’t vote. Keep using whatever electoral or other tools you have, but don’t fool yourself into thinking that you can vote your way out of capitalism). Here’s some of the actionable steps I’ve been thinking about:
– Educate yourself and have a material basis for your theory of change. “I hate MAGA” is not a material basis for change. Use your knowledge to find common cause, even with people you may have considered your enemy (as long as you are not supporting bigotry and hate). Show solidarity.
– Support the marginalized when you see them attacked in public. Show solidarity.
– Join/form a union. Our power is in our numbers and in our labor. Harness that. Show solidarity.
– If you’re in a union, become more active. Attend meetings, support what you like and advocate for changing what you don’t within the union. Show solidarity.
– Engage with other unions and workplaces. Help other workplaces form unions. Build a labor movement. Show solidarity.
– Engage with your community. Form strong bonds with like minded people. Rally around common cause. Maybe you join a group dedicated to improving civil infrastructure. Maybe you help at a food bank. Whatever it is, form strong ties and build relationships between unions, workers, charities, marginalized groups and neighbors. Show solidarity.
– Expand your network and coordinate planning. Is that civil infrastructure group planning a protest or attending a city council meeting to improve something? Support them (obviously not if it’s hatred or fascism) and show up with your union members, or charity workers, or support group members. Do this even if it is not your core issue. Show solidarity.
– Take action one issue at a time. Maybe it’s healthcare, maybe it’s defending LGTBQ+ people, maybe it’s getting out the vote. If another group comes to you for help for a different core action, see what you can do to help. Show solidarity.
– Prepare for a general strike. Strike whether it’s legal or not. Strike whether you were successful in forming a union or not. Prepare to break things. Prepare to be attacked, financially, emotionally and physically. Use the networks you’ve helped build and nurture to support each other. Show solidarity.
I could go on, but you get the gist. Power doesn’t surrender willingly. We need to use the power we do have to take it from them. It was Unions and the labor movement that forced the powerful to implement the meagre social safety net that is now being shredded. We can do it again. But it will be messy. The real enemy is not the uniformed person that voted for Trump thinking their life might get better. The real enemy is the billionaire and oligarch class that bought the government.
I know I’ve been beating the same drum this the whole post, but one more time for the cheap seats: show solidarity.
The son of a friend, a beautiful young man named Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche, was a victim in a famous incident (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Portland_train_attack) where he and two other men tried to intervene with a racist monster who was terrorizing several women. For their efforts, the thug whipped out a knife and slashed the throats of all three men. I will forever be haunted by his statement as the men clutched their throats: “That’s not going to heal”. Taliesin and another man, Ricky Best, did not survive.
That’s where we are now. This is not going to heal.
Only half in jest : a CIA hit squad could do wonders to stop the rapid decline of our nation.
Easy! From UK admittedly. Get a half decent Democrat leader!
Show up unannounced at your senators’ state offices. Tell the staffers you demand that the senators shut down all senate business until this illegal takeover of our country and its institutions ends,
Also, sign up with generalstrikeus.com. When they have 11 million people on board they will announce a general strike.
“Go not gently into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
Dylan Thomas
Best advice yet
I think the US became a failed nation when Congress shortsightedly capitulated to thugs in fear of losing their jobs, which they will, anyway. Nobody has called 911 on the Musk Cohort trespassing on government property and violating who knows how many security regulations accessing government data.
And as if in tribute to Caligula putting his horse in the Senate, we have our very own horse’s ass, the flaccid limber-member Senator Chuck “Impotent” Schumer leaping around like a coked-up Muppet shouting, “We will win! We will win!” all the while doing nothing but wring his hands and wet his pants.
The model is post-Soviet Union Russia, oligarchs on one end, crime syndicates in the middle, packs of dogs running in the streets, and us.
Thomas Scott @12: Do not go gentle…
Also, Bruce Cockburn
“You gotta kick at the darkness till it bleeds daylight”
“Easy! From UK admittedly. Get a half decent Democrat leader!”
You’re an ignorant fool.
Start paying for everything with cash. Not debit cards, not prepaid cards, not with your phone. Cash.
In case you missed it, Muskrat illegally accessed all the data at OPM (Office of Personnel Management) and BFS (Bureau of Fiscal Service). His basement-dwelling incels have undoubtedly data-mined everything on those deeply questionable hard drives. That means that he now has the data for everyone who has ever filed a tax return, paid into or received Social Security, Medicare, etc.
Your money rats you out more than anything else.
Think I’m kidding?
The reason that companies want your data so badly is because it’s predictive.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/shopping-habits.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp
Delete all your shopping apps, accounts, etc., since most if not all of them continue to track you long after you’ve made your purchase.
Stock up on essentials, again, paid with cash. Given Tangerine Palpatine’s willingness to have the dumbest trade war in the history of the US, I am expecting the economy to tank or at least become wildly volatile, which means shortages. Ask anyone who actually needed ivermectin during the initial Covid 19 pandemic.
If you are female, delete all those menstrual trackers or other healthcare apps. For that matter, you should delete all the healthcare apps on your phone, as well as any that track your daily habits, unless you have a crying need for them (cardiovascular risk, diabetes blood sugar trackers, etc.).
And for anyone who is going “so what if they have my financial data? They already had it before.” True, but they didn’t data mine and analyze it. If your profile shows that you pay your rent or mortgage with government assistance or even get food stamps, ask yourself how well could you manage if those benefits were suddenly a week late? How well could you cope if Medicare or Medicaid suddenly changed their list of allowable procedures or medications? If the answer is anything like “not well”, now you know what levers the Muskrat and his minions can pull to insure your compliance.
@3 raven
Red states vs blue states is not really workable, because even in the reddest and bluest states there are large areas dominated by the opposite political spectrum. That said, it does seem likely that USA does in fact blow apart as the country is not homogenous enough to tolerate a dictator with a single vision. Whether or not that happens in the next 2-10 years seems to be dependent on a few obvious things, plus I’m sure things that haven’t been forseen yet.
Here are a few of the more obvious things:
– if Trump defies court rulings against him and pardons those who act on his orders to continue to defy the law, then rule of law will be dead, No rule of law = no government. The only way to defeat this would be impeachment followed by criminal conviction, which everyone knows is not going to occur.
– If democrats have a poor showing in the next midterms, then the carnage will continue
– if the SC decides to go along with all the republican moves then it will leave few alternatives except secession.
I think the SC isn’t quite ready to go full Orban in the US just yet, and I think the midterms will be good for democrats, so while US democracy does appear to be on life support I’m not sure it’s dead yet.
Start paying for everything with gold.
or carrots.
or wool.
“Don’t Panic”
(Or, “Keep Calm and Carry On”)
um, and… ahem.
Be Woke.
“Start paying for everything with cash. Not debit cards, not prepaid cards, not with your phone. Cash.”
Good luck with that.
(Don’t forget your smartphone!)
yeah, i think it’s best to assume all of your information has already been compromised a thousand times over in any of the corporate and medical data leaks that have happened. we are at the mercy of a world of thieves and bullshit, paying for things with cash just makes you more vulnerable to the thieves that work a switchblade instead of a database.
Caught part of the podcast when it was live, and I’ll look for a video of it. I saw some reasonable ideas for practical resistance.
I wonder where my state of AZ falls to the folks advocating secession of the ‘blue states’. Have they considered for example what the borders would look like? The typical ‘red state’ map looks like a big L pasted across the states, covering the southeast and going up the midwest, so it doesn’t sound very practical. And then what, write off some states like mine over a couple of percentage points?
[tytalus, video is right there, in the OP]
@22 Yeah, given how crappy most commercial organizations are about protecting data, it’s a miracle that more people aren’t the victims of identity theft. The difference is that when you pay your doctor or accountant or car mechanic, all the thieves are getting is your credit card number and name. When the BFS and OPM databases are compromised, the thieves get everything–your Social Security Number, date of birth, parents’ names (including mother’s maiden name), names of spouses/ex spouses (and all their information), children’s names, all your financial information, your entire employment & academic history, every place you’ve ever lived–all in one place.That is a very large degree of difference and it’s also one-stop shopping (as it were).
More to the point, your stolen data can be predictive as well as compromising your current activities. (See the link in my initial post.) And it can be weaponized. You were pregnant and now you’re not? Surprise, now you are up on charges of obtaining an illegal abortion. (Which has actually already happened in some red states.) PrEP medications on Obamacare? That information is in the BFS (somewhat indirectly). Transitioned & have a whole new name, Social Security Number, entirely new identity? Your original AAB identity is in BFS, linked to your new one (via the Social Security Administration and the IRS).
I’m not saying this to freak people out, I’m just concerned that people are taking the BFS and OPM breaches far too cavalierly.
@21 My smartphone is and always has been app-free. If I want privacy at home, I stick it in a copper mixing bowl or (if you are American) you can use one of those old EZ Pass shielded bags or pretty much any RFID blocking material. Aluminum foil in a pinch. Duh.
@19 Considering the rapid advance of the new bird flu, we sure aren’t going to be bartering chickens. And given that the new HHS secretary doesn’t believe in vaccinations for anybody, including poultry (and especially black people–with a really racist explanation why), I’m sure the bird flu pandemic will drag on.
Link didn’t go through
https://www.yahoo.com/news/rfk-jr-stunning-claim-black-205907305.html
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/rfk-jr-s-history-of-medical-misinformation-raises-concerns-over-hhs-nomination/
…
Sure.
It runs no applications on top of its operating system.
It however, can do GPS and knows where it is. Cell towers are like a backup.
It’s always pinging the network, no?
It has a fairly sensitive microphone.
And a camera.
Etc.
@4 – RobinMHolt – When we use their language and framing we are admitting they are into our heads. Let’s get into their heads. Let them complain about our language using our language.
Bumper sticker mentality is what they deploy. I don’t think the Democrats are capable of duplicating that. But you are correct, the only way to reverse the flow is adapt a strategy that grasps the minds of uninformed who operate on that level, which happens to be how most Americans process information.
@ 10 – fergl – Easy! From UK admittedly. Get a half decent Democrat leader!
That is a big problem with the democrats, while they have a few good/great minds, they are missing a leader who has the charisma to dominate like Trump.
@ #3 – canadiansteve– if Trump defies court rulings against him and pardons those who act on his orders to continue to defy the law, then rule of law will be dead, No rule of law = no government.
No law means the only laws that will be enforced are those that favor Trump and keep him in power., That is the only way Trump will have it. He will be the government and run the country like he ran his businesses. We know how that turned out, most people involved were hurt and he walked away with bucks in his pocket.
So what.
I can’t see why this is not really workable.
It is already almost the status quo.
We already live in a Red State dictatorship!!! The Red states don’t seem overly concerned that half the voters are Blue voters who don’t want to live under their dictatorship.
Why is it OK now for Red states to run a dictatorship with roughly 173 million Blue people but it is not OK for the Blue State Union to have Red people?
The inconsistency is obvious.
Yeah, it is a complication but we have to work with what we have, not what we want. Any Red voters who can’t stand living in a Blue state democracy can always move to the Red Trump fascist dictatorship and invade Canada or whatever their latest atrocity is. And Vice Versa. There is already some assortment based on politics in the USA.
BTW, this doesn’t have to be violent.
In fact, violence probably won’t be necessary or even work.
.1. We already know that modern Hi Tech civilizations are very, very fragile. It took one crazy billionaire and 6 college kids two weeks to wreck the US government.
The Blue states could just find another billionaire, hire a few college kids, and wreck all the Federal facilities in Blue states, which is a huge amount.
.2. The Reds hate us anyway and don’t want us around. We are all that is left between them their 1,000 year xian Reich.
They might just wave bye bye and set up their ugly East German style police state.
Texas used to always threaten to secede.
We would have been better off saying, OK. As long as you take Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana with you.
I can’t really discuss something this complicated in a comment box on Freethoughtblogs.
It is a lot more complicated.
What happens to Social Security and Medicare payments when the Feds hold those trust funds and our old people live in Blue States?
We could probably make those up with the Blue State Federal income taxes being diverted from the Feds to the states.
The Blue states send $2 trillion or so in taxes to the Federal government every year.
In a Red state dictatorship, that is taxation without representation.
Which is why we revolted from the UK.
To summarize, Rule of Law is dead. Dead. Dead.
If the Trump reich, just ignores the courts, then the court system is also dead.
He can do that.
The courts don’t have any enforcement powers of their own.
That is under the president.
What are the courts going to do, call the FBI, which Trump controls?
FWIW, there is and was a perfectly legal way to kill USAID, the Education Department, and Medicaid.
Congress set those up and they could pass laws tomorrow that abolish them and redirect that funding.
The GOP controls both branches of congress and that makes this immediately possible. (Forget the 60 vote rule in the senate. They could repeal that too.)
Trump and the GOP didn’t do that because they wanted to see how far they could go towards setting up a dictatorship.
Which as it turned out was very far in a very short period of time.
raven, ‘woe is us’ is not the very most helpful message I can imagine.
(But sure, doom’n’gloom, that’s what you hawk)
@27
Hence my DIY Faraday cage. It isn’t pinging anything without a usable signal. Occasionally it’s annoying when I want to make a call & the system wants to update because it hasn’t been in touch with the network but that’s about it.
Likewise, the microphone and camera aren’t getting turned on either when in the Faraday cage. I’m fully aware that Pegasus and other spyware programs are out there.
If I feel like slipping the electronic noose, I just head to the closest dead zone with the cell turned on, wait for the signal to die, slip the phone into an RFID blocker, go where I want to go. The system thinks I’m still in the dead zone because my cell never “reemerged” and started pinging the network.
Alas for the days of removable cell phone batteries. None of this would be necessary if the battery was removable from smartphones.
Sure, the minute I want to use the smartphone, it’s tracking again but that would be equally true with a flip phone or a standard non cell phone.
Guardian article linked here FWIW :
https://proxy.freethought.online/pharyngula/2025/01/03/infinite-thread-xxxiv/comment-page-4/#comment-2253741
StevoR, that column is about someone’s opinion about “Democrats in a new generation are punching back hard. And, in so doing, showing their colleagues how to overcome their reputation for dithering”.
(Is that ‘us’, as per the OP? Nope)
@2cheerfulcharlie
Plus
@10. fergl : “Get a half decent Democrat leader!”
Who? Who would you suggest?
Well, maybe, at least some of the ones mentioned in that Guardian US columnist Margaret Sullivan’s article linked in #35 specifically Jasmine Crockett, Chris Murphy and Jamie Raskin are worth knowing about and supporting or people that could help here?
@29. stuffin too.
@36. John Morales : “Us” is everyone but on the progressive side of politics, what passes for a left wing albeit ONLY in America (political wings speaking -which is hard to do through their feathers or is it bat fur or gliding lizard scales a-n-y-h-o-w) the Democratic is relatively left wing albeit very centre reichwing for a left wing. But ist what they have to work with and we we inthe broader global ( & Pharyngulite) community have to works with.
Or, if the democratic party really si dea dand useles then do we go with the likes of the Greens as a third party given they have manifestly failed to come up with a realistic alternative or .. what exactly? A new left-wing party which would be what led by who exactly? With what actual hope of getting where?
I doubt future elections will be free or fair over in the Sates so what , if anythingcan we do?
PS Haven’t yet had time to view the YT video in the OP so apologies if discussed there.
PPS If the rule of law is dead then there’s no crimes – just might makes right. That has implications which, well, thi isn’t the place to spell those out. I do wonder if Trump_Musk is actually trying to provoke violence to then exploit and crack down on?
Clarity fix : Or, if the Democratic party really is dead and useless – BIG IF there – then do we go with the likes of the Greens ..or who / what else?
Plus how can we win or fight unfree and unfair elections -even more so than already have been?
FWIW #10 fergl : I think Kamala harris was amore than a half decent Democratic party leader and nominee. Technically, she actually won but was robbed by voter suppression despite coming from Astronomical Units behind. If only Biden had stood aside half way through his term and given her a chance as POTUS.. & Democratic leaders had done much more to crack down ont he MAGAt seditionists and traitors and made sure Trump was behind bars where he belongs. Musk too. Espo after that SCOTUS POTUS immunity BS ruling. Too late now.
@9John Watts : “Only half in jest : a CIA hit squad could do wonders to stop the rapid decline of our nation.”
I do seriously wonder what the US military leaders and intelligence agency leaders are thinking and what they could potentially do if they actually cared about their oaths and serving their country which Trump is doing the opposite of. Of course, its unlikely anyone there inany position to doanythingwilllet anyobne know befoe it’s decided and it would be most unwise of them to doso and give warning. Here’s hoping? A coup right now woiuld in fact be a counter-coup and perhaps the best hope the remnants of the USA still have in my view.
Starmer is in no sense “a half decent” Labour leader. He won the leadership by systematic lying, and it turns out the lies weren’t even his own – he’s a puppet for someone called Morgan McSweeney, who no-one ever voted for and whose driving motivation is hatred of the left. At the election last year, Labour won fewer votes than in the disastrous defeat of 2019 – they won courtesy of the Tories, who had fucked-up so royally everyone knew Labour could win with a dead sheep as leader, and Trump-fan Nigel Farage, whose Reform Party UK Ltd. (it’s not a real party, it’s a limited company mostly owned by Farage) split what was left of the Tory vote.
Further to #40 – oh, and since the election, Labour’s performance has been so dire some polls now show them behind Farage’s fascists, and Starmer’s own popularity is somewhere between those of Covid and rabies – there is already talk of replacing him.
KG @ 40 Geoffrey Howe died in 2015 and I don’t think that the Conservatives would consider him now.
Still think that Muskmelon isn’t after your data?
https://futurism.com/elon-musk-treasury-blockchain
BTW, most of the planet is completely fucked if Muskmelon gets his way. You thought SBF caused stock market problems? It will look like change in the sofa cushions compared to this.
NO.
Saying that Treasury officials are breaking the law by approving payments that are fraudulent is like saying your healthcare insurance is breaking the law by approving reimbursement to healthcare providers who make a mistake in billing. In both cases, there are procedures to rectify the problem.
Also, how is blockchain supposed to prevent this exactly? Blockchain is a digital forever record of exchange of assets (in this case, the cryptocurrency), nothing more. It doesn’t have magical powers to prevent fraud and any ability to track the actual currency is already duplicated in the real world with real world currency.
Speaking of SBF…
https://futurism.com/the-byte/sbf-parents-trump-clemency
“@36. John Morales : “Us” is everyone but on the progressive side of politics”
Mmm. I reckon it’s meant to be about USAnians, not about you and me. I don’t live there.
Again: that article you posted is about someone’s opinion about the Democratic Party’s wonderfulness, not about what “us” should do. Not relevant to the question at hand.
Again:
The article’s ‘us’ is exclusively and explicitly about Democrats in a new generation pushing and overcoming a reputation and showing their colleagues. Not the ‘us’ in the OP.
—
“Also, how is blockchain supposed to prevent this exactly? Blockchain is a digital forever record of exchange of assets (in this case, the cryptocurrency), nothing more.”
It’s public. Everyone can see every transaction.
https://futurism.com/blockchains-unhackable-getting-hacked
So should we be building stadiums so “everyone can see every transaction”? Because that’s clearly worked so well as a deterrent.
silvrhalide, sure, because they’re public in a consensual way. Nothing is perfect.
Mind you, it’s more robbery than fraud, and it’s not the easiest thing ever.
You gotta have at least half of the stake to do it.
(And it’s not 2021 any more)
https://hacken.io/discover/51-percent-attack/
No, it’s 2025 and bots are more ubiquitous and cheaper than ever.
https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/02/19/239592/once-hailed-as-unhackable-blockchains-are-now-getting-hacked/
So the public watching cryptocurrency will have a front row seat to the carnage. Without really being able to do anything about it.
Still waiting to see how that will prevent hacking of cryptocurrency.
BTW, your link is a dead link.
Look at the date.
“That’s because most are based on blockchains that use proof of work as their protocol for verifying transactions.”
Maybe in 2019. That’s the super-expensive way to do it, and the most fraught.
You do get Ethereum (you know, the attack you featured from 2019) now uses proof of stake?
Also, consider: how much computation might be needed for Bitcoin to be 51% hacked?
(Many billions of dollars of mining gear, that’s for sure. For starters. And the power to run them)
—
That’s the thing with consensus systems; the more participants, the harder to game.
[OT]
“So the public watching cryptocurrency will have a front row seat to the carnage.”
Any day now.
(checks actual records)
Initial Value (2009): $0.0009
2011: $29.60
2017: $14,156
2021: $46,306.45
2025: $153,839.64
Yup. Looking grim, that is.
(I’ve learnt people find it hard, in general, to cope with new stuff)
[info]
“BTW, your link is a dead link.”
I just cleaned my cache and checked.
Live for me, for sure.
It begins thus: “In the landscape of Web3, the 51% attack stands out among other blockchain security vulnerabilities. It’s an exploit that undermines the core principle of decentralization in blockchain, allowing hackers to manipulate transactions, exemplified by the notorious $18 million double-spend attack on Bitcoin Gold.
This article takes an in-depth look at this vulnerability, unfolding its working mechanisms, potential risks, and security measures.”
—
Anyway. It’s not saying anything any other source does. Go look.
[sigh — does not. This is well-known stuff, since even I know it]
That looks very grim indeed. That kind of exponential growth is simply unsustainable. What happens when it hits a brick wall in another year or five or ten? There will surely be some kind of upheaval.
Or a plateau.
[OT + Meta + inspired by BB]
Take Japan. Great standard of living, but no economic growth for a while now.
Terrible demographic pyramid, in the sense of people who work and contribute to the economy.
Zero or even negative interest rates, stagnation, stagflation, whatever.
But, hey… sure doesn’t seem terrible to me.
—
That’s the thing; why need growth be ever eternal?
What’s wrong with a very high plateau?
(No good reason, other than ideology)
Silverhalide @17
Did you get that from the horse’s mouth?
@ 48, 49 I did look at the date. As you would have know if you actually read the post.
Why exactly do you think that cryptocurrencies would use the 51% gambit when smart bug vulnerabilities are cheaper and faster?
Did you miss the part where if the people whose cryptocurrency was stolen were not made whole? That money is gone forever. As compared to the USD, where the full faith of the US government (specifically Dept of the Treasury) will make you whole again.
@ 50 That’s the money you have today. If you get hacked, it’s gone and you’re not getting it back.
The problem with using AI to monitor suspicious activity is that it is reactive rather than proactive, the way a human sysadmin could be. AI only knows the known bugs, which means that some human has to find them first.
You still haven’t explained how consensus systems will prevent hacking. Sure, additional eyes can (maybe) find the hack after the fact but it’s not preventative. When the cryptocurrency bubble bursts, a lot of the formerly-too-expensive-to-hack cryptocurrency will become much cheaper to hack as the miners bail on the whole enterprise.
“Did you miss the part where if the people whose cryptocurrency was stolen were not made whole? That money is gone forever.”
Um, that’s the nature of theft.
Whether gold bullion, false teeth, USA dollars or whatever.
Anyway: @46, “silvrhalide, sure, because they’re public in a consensual way. Nothing is perfect.
Mind you, it’s more robbery than fraud, and it’s not the easiest thing ever.”
(Or: I fucking bleedingly obviously did not miss it)
—
Oh, well. I had not realised it’s impossible to steal someone’s USD, since the full faith of the US government (specifically Dept of the Treasury) will make you whole again.
(Pickpockets be happy!)
What part of me @47 (“sure, because they’re public in a consensual way. Nothing is perfect.”) was confusing to you? Everything can be hacked. In principle.
Look, I am not making shit up. These are actual things.
Here: https://www.statista.com/statistics/377382/bitcoin-market-capitalization/
(But sure, failing upwards. Very strange!)
[OT]
In the news: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/feb/10/man-who-lost-bitcoin-fortune-in-welsh-tip-explores-purchase-of-entire-landfill
@shelldigger, #5:
Absolutely not. No way. Never.
Do you not remember something important that happened in 1994?
If a felony conviction was enough by itself to disqualify a person from holding office, any corrupt future régime would only have to ensure likely opponents were convicted on some spurious charge or other, to prevent any serious challenge.
My wife just showed me an article stating that DOH!GE is now eyeing Social Security. Maybe that will get the more geriatric conservatives to start pushing back.