Oddbean

Trump picked Vance as his VP running mate. Notably from a financial analyst perspective, Vance disclosed owning bitcoin a few years ago, and has expressed the view that the dollar being the global reserve currency has hollowed out the US industrial base.

Notable that #Project2025, #Trump's playbook which he has called "our plan" wants to send you to prison for watching porn among other rollbacks of your rights. They also want to have checkpoints between states to stop women from seeking abortions. If they want to ban porn and shred the first amendment, how safe are people who develop technology which challenges the state? Learn more at defeatproject2025.org. https://njump.me/nevent1qvzqqqqqqypzqyzk32zdtpasv7rvpucc79h7t8thqqlms307wpy9l5rydlhxrm2mqy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnyv9kh2uewd9hj7qg4waehxw309a3kzunvdaej6cmyvgh8gmms9uqzqqpmtegk30t9hlhza8r2f9lwer78rxgwas05prnuhc2a8lfy7tlalfsl8m

Fascinating. I have previously been addicted to porn. It was an ex girlfriend who really got me into it. Trouble with porn is it takes away the ability of our imagination to work for itself. It can be a gateway to all kinds of psychological and physiological negatives. Certainly was for me. I equate it to Crack - I did that too on and off; the more you do, the less satisfying things become and it only leads to extremes. In the end, I was weakened and full of guilt. In moments of clarity of who/what you are and what you have become, it can feel terrifying. Despite years of being away from them, I still occasionally have an urge. A total ban? I'm not sure, who am I to decide that, as well as being fundamentally undemocratic. I think it all starts with education - like most things. Kids must be made aware of the long term dangers. Finding a way to healthily regulate the industry would not be a bad thing in my view, parameters could be set as an imperative to exclude certain preferences. One thing is for sure, the current trajectory can only have devastating consequencesfor the long term

Kinda awkward having to find a new VP after you, you know, tried to get him killed. No wonder his VP and most of his former cabinet won't endorse him https://image.nostr.build/bf8438e6155c477ccae16e35037300c5384d942868f3aaeff2372945c000a492.png https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/02/trump-aides-wont-vote-for-him/

lol - if his 'former' VP endorsed him it would be a NEGATIVE. And he had very few honest people around him. Is this a character flaw? Maybe - but Trump does trust people to do the right things. Politics is relatively new to him - along with a WHOLE NEW level of deception. I for one don't think he will make the same mistakes again. We will know pretty early if he drains the swamp - time will be critical. He must eliminate the deep state quickly or they will eliminate him.

Being the global reserve currency most certainly warrants outsourcing your manufacturing base and changing to a consumption based economy. Your currency will be too strong to do anything else. Only way I see the US bringing back its manufacturing to the homeland in a meaningful way is to allow for nominal wage deflation. The way to pull that off is to revalue the gold that the Treasury has in its vaults

Is this not just rehashing a currency war that will result in pegged currencies or alike revaluing their currencies in kind❔ Allow real supply/demand to determine the value of currencies to keep governments honest and avoid inflationary societal collapses.

The Dollar being the reserve currency and that serving as the root cause for hallowing out the industrial base is such a profound insight for a citizen (let alone a politician) to have. Pretty sure this appointment will have some ramifications

The notable thing is that Bitcoin has become a topic worth political discussion. It is being marketed to the mainstream population thanks to lobbying by a new aristocracy. This is how the real world works.

Vance's questions to Powell on this topic are interesting: "Now, I know the strong dollar is sort of the “sacred cow” of the Washington consensus, but when I survey the American economy, and I see our mass consumption of mostly useless imports on the one hand, and our hollowed-out industrial base on the other hand, I wonder if the reserve currency status also has some downsides, and not just some upsides as well." https://www.vance.senate.gov/press-releases/icymi-senator-vance-questions-chairman-powell-on-the-u-s-dollars-reserve-currency-status/

As an anarchist I still appreciate bitcoin supporters in the government which rules over me because I'd rather be comfortably using bitcoin than risk going to jail or confiscation each time I make a TX.