There’s an idea going around that virtues are anti-competitive. That being loyal, honorable, honest, generous, kind, etc… puts you at a disadvantage. It’s one of those half true statements. It’s true if your society is shit, but in a decent society it can be disadvantage, and if a society has predominantly virtueless people in charge, […]
power
We have a very odd spectacle right now: Anthropic’s CEO has said the US government cannot use Anthropic products if they will not guarantee that they won’t be used for autonomous military robots (firing without human intervention) or mass surveillance. The Pentagon has responded by threatening to eminent domain Claude, and make their own version. […]
More Epstein documents have been dumped, and they’re atrocious. It seems like most of the US elite was involved. There are two reasons for this. One is that people who are super-powerful and super-rich feel like ordinary morality and laws don’t apply to them, and rape and torture and pedophilia are, to them, an ultimate […]
As sometime contributor DanfromTo points out, Epstein performed “necessary” tasks for the elite: control thru blackmail and the provision of experiences many of them genuinely want to have. Power is allowed to people who can be trusted with it by other members of the elite, who will do what the elites want: whether that be […]
The latest episode is an attempt to suggest Epstein was working for Russia: Epstein is being described by the Polish PM as a possible Russian spy. If so, it would explain a great deal. All the Epstein “evidence” would actually be kompromat taking in the rich and powerful to serve Kremlin interests. https://t.co/yr9gnQv5mc — Phillips […]
First, a lovely prelude to hint at the bigger and darker story. Then come the books that help unpack the black box: — Beckert, Jens and Matías Dewey, eds. 2017. The Architecture of Illegal Markets: Towards an Economic Sociology of Illegality in the Economy. Oxford University Press.— Binder, Andrea. 2023. Offshore Finance and State Power. Oxford […]
by Rudabeh Shahid, Nischal Dhungel, and Shakthi De Silva* In September, Nepal became the third South Asian country in three years to see its government collapse under the weight of mass protests. After the government banned twenty-six social media platforms, young Nepalis poured into Kathmandu’s streets, furious at what they saw as an attempt to silence […]
First economic: The US dollar is down 5% over the last six months against a basket of currencies. And over the past year, it’s lost 9.6%. The biggest winner against a dollar has been the euro which has gone up 13% however, which truly is a win for Europe because it makes their natural gas […]
First, I want to follow up on this: “I am due to have a conversation with a friend that lives in Denmark tomorrow and I’m going to ask him about energy prices.” His reply, and I paraphrase as I did not record it or take notes: “if we still had to make our house payment, […]
“The empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide. Thus it has ever been.” 三国演义 ~by Luo Guangzhong Earlier I promised to post my plan to prevent a war between the United States and China over Taiwan. I’ve traveled and met with Taiwanese diplomats. They are some of the most sophisticated operators I’ve ever […]