Baffled European

Category: Plain stupidity

  • Tied up in blockchains

    Is cryptocurrency inherently fraudulent, or is that simply the way it has turned out? It is useless for any everyday task and indeed hostile to normal users. You got an elderly relative who struggles with online banking? Not only will they not understand how to set up and use a wallet, they also won’t understand how they suddenly lost all their coin. Or how somebody managed to steal it all.

    It’s no accident that the convicted fraudster should cash in on this scam himself. After all, it’s not so long ago that he was bilking the gullible with a set of NFTs (remember them?). Apparently, 40% of his wealth comes from the two coins he launched earlier this year. The value of both has collapsed, that’s no problem. The point of them was to transfer money from fools to the fraudster, and that has happened. The biggest “investors” in this scam have earned direct access to the president.

    The aim is now to tie various coins – including those from the president – to the US dollar. This is driven by the greed and corruption of the government, as well as the subservient Republican party. It will happen because some Democrats are fascinated by this shiny thing and think it is the future somehow.

    It’s as if the whole establishment of the USA is determined to destroy the country by every means possible. I don’t understand why so many are so enthusiastic about this project.

  • The most beautiful word

    Liberation is not quite going as planned. The trade war that was supposed to make the whole world treat the USA “fairly” is starting to make a mark.

    After weeks of trying to get China to start negotiations, the USA finally gave in and announced a great new deal. It was nothing of the sort, merely suspending the absurd 145% tariffs for 90 days and replacing them with an only slightly less absurd 30% rate in the meantime.

    Scott Bessant proudly announced before the talks that they had identified five or six areas of importance to the US economy and they were going to focus on those. I’m no expert, but I would have done this part first, and only then picked a fight with a massive, powerful rival. Alienating the rest of the world does not help. In fairness, it does look like none of this was Bessant’s idea, ace economist Ron Vara being the likely source of the policy.

    Walmart has announced price rises, leading to a wave of orange fury. Apparently, Walmart and China should “eat” the tariffs, although it’s not clear how anybody can absorb a rise of 145% of the purchase price. Even 30% is asking a lot.

    Hard to sympathise. Corporations, big and small, were so afraid of the “socialism” of Harris, they voted for a criminal who has now hit them with effectively a massive rise in corporation tax. Serves them right.

  • I’m a loser

    One of the few successes of the 45th presidency was the end of the war in Afghanistan. Started by Bush Jr, this continued with Obama because nobody could see any way out. Our great commander changed that by simply surrendering to the Taliban, then declaring victory. His supporters cheered him along for this great achievement. His opponents were stunned – they hadn’t thought of this approach, but they wanted out as well. The result was a chaotic retreat from a war that should never have started in the first place.

    This approach to military engagement has continued. The challenge was to stop the Houthi rebels in Yemen. The president wanted to crush them and wanted it done in 30 days. Many in the military thought this would not work, but they were sacked.

    The US strategy was to fire lots of missiles at the Houthis. The Houthi strategy was to hide in underground bunkers and wait until the missiles had gone away. The Houthis had the right idea, because they were fighting an enemy who not only had a deadline, but had also broadcast their war plans to the whole world in a “secret” video conference.

    The costs of this are staggering. The US burned through $1bn in this month-long campaign. Stocks of munitions are severely depleted, particularly high-precision and long-range missiles. It has achieved precisely nothing – there has been no change to Houthi operations.

    The president declared “victory” of course.

  • Racists are just idiots

    It’s time to take a stand against racism. The president signed an orange order back in February to address a brewing humanitarian crisis. This is the atrocious way that some whites have lost out in South Africa.

    It breaks the heart. To see these fine specimens, descendants of the great Aryan race, reduced to their present state of online influencers and lifestyle coaches. To make amends for this historical slight, the USA is chartering a jet to fly 49 across the Atlantic, where they can go back to the good old days of blacks being second-class citizens.

    The South African government treats this as the silly political point-scoring that it is. But freedom of choice and all that – they can go if they want to. Probably it will be a relief that they no longer have to deal with a bunch of pampered whiners.

    OK, I have a couple of questions.

    First, why is this necessary in the first place? These people are obviously racially superior. Their pure Nordic stock is clear to all who see them. So why are they doing so badly? Why doesn’t their race simply raise them above the subhumans around them?

    Second, since the US government is explicitly recognising the evils of racial discrimination, why don’t they stop being immensely racist in all their other policies?

    Can’t complain too much. They can make themselves look stupid and squander money. Go ahead.

  • Antipope

    Pope Leo XIV is the first pope born in the US. His views and actions seem to reflect a solid Catholic. You wouldn’t expect anything otherwise, him being pope, but there are general expectations. He meets them more or less.

    How did maga take the news? Initial excitement, as they fabulated he was a registered Republican, until a spoilsport showed he had no party allegiance. Then the bomb dropped. He had criticised JD Vance in a tweet. “Extremely concerning,” noted interplanetary space-hopper Elon Musk.

    This was only the first of many shocking revelations. He had retweeted a criticism of the president himself! Worse yet, he had repeatedly honoured George Floyd. “WOKE MARXIST POPE” screamed Laura Loomer.

    Maga are aghast. How could the Catholic Church possibly elect a pope who has publicly criticised their president? The answer was quick to come: there is a deep state within the Church which globalists are using to promote the woke agenda.

    These people hate everybody. Everything politicised over a few trigger issues. Utterly intolerant of anybody who thinks differently to them, to the extent they generate conspiracy theories to explain away opposing ideas rather than address them. This extends to the leader of the largest Christian church in the world – supposedly Christians themselves, they reject his message without listening.

    There’s no way to deprogram this level of fanaticism. I don’t know how anybody can deal with delusion like this. Removing them from power would be a good start.

  • Management

    When it was introduced, Tesla claimed a ten year waiting list for the Cybertruck. This was based on preorders, which disappeared rapidly as the problems with the vehicle became clear. Tesla is now stockpiling Cybertrucks, with an estimated six months inventory parked in fields, unsold. Heavy discounting, attractive specifications, nothing works – nobody wants to buy them. It’s too expensive to close the factory, so they continue to produce them. The stockpile grows.

    Intergalactic superbrain and 4D chess grandmaster Elon Musk is the man responsible for this situation. Of course, he is also the man charged with raising the efficiency of the US government. Let’s take a quick look at how that’s been progressing.

    The head of FEMA was sacked yesterday and has been replaced by another lackey. He should have a good four or five weeks to get his feet under the desk before the first hurricane.

    All 37 divisions of the National Science Foundation are being abolished. The aim is to give more political control over the remains of what science is being conducted.

    The head librarian has been fired. She was also responsible for the Copyright Office and so stood in the way of the various AI machines trying to steal other people’s work.

    National parks are being hit with another round of layoffs, the science directorates being disproportionately hit. The remainder is subject to crippling bureaucracy and micromanagement.

    There’s more. Thank goodness they have such a gifted manager.

  • Fallen star

    Energy Star was set up in 1992 to reduce the energy requirements of computers. Its success led to similar standards for lighting, heating and other appliances. Loads of numbers are thrown around to show its effectiveness: TLDR; it costs little and saves a lot.

    Obviously, maga denies climate change as part of their general rejection of reality. However ignorant and irrational, it is at least predictable. For some reason, they are also rejecting energy efficiency measures as well. Presumably the two issues are so tightly linked in their brains, they are unable to see any difference.

    They are cancelling Energy Star in the name of government efficiency. There will be no further drive to reduce energy consumption of equipment, nor will there be any further ratings of new products. This will hit all consumers, business as well as private.

    What is striking about this is the extravagent, willful waste of it all. It’s not enough for them to convince themselves that reality is a left wing conspiracy, they have to behave in the most inefficient way possible.

    Surely even those who hate environmental politics must recognise the value of lowering your outgoings? Is it about owning the libs? Or is it because the country is being run by oligarchs who don’t care about the cost?

    Whatever, they think they can outperform the rest of the world by being less efficient and having higher costs. It’s an interesting idea. See how it works.

  • Gone with the Revenge from Alcatraz

    Star Wars day yesterday, and the White House was on the ball. They are on a run at the moment, what with the Pope picture and that. Anyway, they wound up their AI generator and let it produce a suitable picture for the occasion. The result was a president with the physique of Conan the Barbarian, holding a light sabre. A red light sabre at that: the computer is intelligent enough to give him the weapon of one of the space nazis.

    Maybe it was this that prompted the next semi-coherent orange order. He has now added a 100% tariff, his favourite word, to all movies produced outside the USA. He doesn’t trust foreign movies because they are “messaging and propaganda” and therefore a “National Security threat”.

    This is part of a broader complaint. Parasite, a South Korean film, won an Oscar for best picture a few years ago, “what the hell was that all about? Can we get Gone With The Wind back, please?”

    Is this the impulse behind his plans to reopen Alcatraz? It’s been closed for over 60 years and is now a tourist attraction. Doesn’t matter, there won’t be any tourists anymore. Is it because he saw Clint Eastwood there in a film once? Good film that. Fine actor. Morgan Freeman as well, he’s black you know. Or was that the Shawshank Redemption?

    People voted for this. I hope they are all satisfied with what they’ve got.

  • Destruction, piece by piece

    Reagan is ultimately to blame. In 1986 he gave this famous quote: “The nine most terrifying words in the English language: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”

    It gets your attention, pithy and direct. If you put it in the context of the time, it also sort of makes sense. Unfortunately an entire right-wing religion has sprung up around these words. The modern idea seems to be that government is evil, extraneous and needs to be destroyed entirely. At the very least, that’s what they are trying to do.

    The latest efficiency drive against government waste is the National Weather Service. Over 1000 meteorologists have been cleared out, with 30 offices no longer having any senior officer. The person who liaises with media and local emergency services when there’s a problem. Such as a hurricane in Florida, one of the closed offices.

    I mean, why is the government involved in this at all? If you want to know the weather, you just go to an app and it will tell you everything you need to know. All that weather data, it’s just simply there! An unalterable fact of nature.

    The trouble is that all this reorganisation is being performed by people who have no idea what they are doing. They take the world as it is for granted and do not understand the processes and systems in operation. Literally nothing at all will work after they have finished.

  • Looming disaster

    Mike Waltz has left the group chat. He lasted the 100 days as National Security Advisor, but is now being pushed over to UN Ambassador, a job that his master is not interested in. His card has been marked since he invited a journalist to a supposedly top secret discussion, proving himself to be a major security risk to the administration.

    Or was that the reason? Is this another intervention by Laura Loomer? She is claiming credit for his sacking, as well as his deputy. There was already a clearout in the National Security Council a month ago after she cast doubt on the loyalty of its members.

    Nothing to do with her officially, but she has a hold over the president. She’s the one who invented the nonsense about immigrants eating dogs. An interesting point, since she filmed herself on Youtube actually eating dog food, in order to show the quality of what her sponsor is selling.

    Her direct activism led her to handcuffing herself to Twitter headquarters in some tiresome “freedom of speech” stunt, only to be forced to beg police to cut her free a couple of hours later when nobody took any notice.

    Basically she’s an attention-seeker. Continually ramping up the outrage quota to get more clicks and donations.

    Is it a good idea to have your security officials appointed by somebody who thinks 9/11 was an inside job? Give it a go, why not.