StringJunky

He's having Mein Trumpf ghost-written as we speak.  

1 hour ago, J.C.MacSwell said:

Trump may or may not be more likely to win than in 2016 or 2020, but IMO he's considerably more dangerous.

He's more naked in his ambitions now. Tin Pot Dictator, Ahoy!

13 minutes ago, toucana said:

The fanbase recently started a GoFundMe campaign to cover his costs after the latest Judge Engoron ruling. The GoFundMe allegedly raised around $84,000 in the first 24 hours - which equates to around 0.01% of the billion or so that TFG will need to cover all his legal costs, fines and interest payments. That's a "long row to hoe" as they say.

If we assume his strongest fans are on Truth Social, he has 607 000 monthly users that might be sucker enough to pay $1650 each to clear a billion debt. I doubt it though.

39 minutes ago, MigL said:

Boots are a different matter; I have 20 year old cowboy boots that cost $600 Can back then.
None of my sneakers or running shoes are over a year old.

But while on the subject of comparing/complaining about  totally different things ...

I have a fully automated espresso machine that only needs water, coffee beans and the push of a button.
It cost me $2500 Can two years ago. It is currently not working properly, and needs over $400 Can in repairs.
I used a stove top percolator for a bit. I like the aroma when it percolates but hate the wait.
So I bought a $150 Can Nespresso machine and use $30 Can for 100 pods from CostCo instead of $15 Can bags of coffee beans.

The espresso is fast, just as good, and I can almost get another two machines for the cost of repairing my 'good' one, never mind buying another. Someties 'better' isn't always a better idea.

( I just had to get this story off my chest; it makes me so angry ! )

IMO unless you get it straight from the roasters, they are pretty much the same. A bit like the difference between getting bread straight from the bakery and off the shelf. The smells that make coffee and bread exceptional are short-lived.

1 hour ago, iNow said:

And that’s why she’s down in GOP polls and votes 

Just her presence in the political limelight  is diverting attention and money off him. She's an asset to her opposition.

On 2/13/2024 at 2:56 AM, AIkonoklazt said:

(I saw TheVat quoting you, forgot I still have you on block, unblocked)

I don't think anyone who is outside of the industry, either in north/south/east/west, would or perhaps even could comprehend the scale. A colleague joked to me about fusion power, and I kinda doubt if that's enough even if it outputs 10x. Just that monster data-center network used to model-condition (hate using the word "train" in reference to machines) and respond with uh... $7T worth or even $1T worth of hardware is on the level of entire usage swaths of medium-sized COUNTRIES, not just cities as in the case of power-gobbling crypo-mining farms.

I'm going to respond with the same sort of line I used in the first thread.

Let me put it this way. Someone ask you for $7000 dollars for something that could be done for much less than $500, on top of the fact that he already acknowledged elsewhere to someone else that spending money on that particular thing would be useless. Are you still not going to call this a grift?

I see where you are coming from. In your mind the numbers won't compute. That's how I'm feeling about Trump and his ability to find the money he is increasingly liable for, as an example. At the end of the day, the prevailing resource availability sets the limits at what can be realized.

The 2020 GOP presidential election spend was $793m. With inflation, let's say it will be $1B this year. The GOP will have to find the $1B plus his court fees, which are nearing half a billion already. He could easily clean up an election years worth of revenue. Can his fanbase  support that?

37 minutes ago, iNow said:

How would you target the ads? What population would be most convincible?

By now, after 9 years of every 3rd news story being about him, everyone knows exactly who they’re voting for in a few months (or more specifically, whom they’re voting against) 

Hayley's on it:

Quote

Nikki Haley said she is less concerned about Donald Trump’s legal troubles than how the former president planned to pay the crushing penalties for his actions.

“My biggest issue is I don’t want the RNC to become his legal defense fund. I don’t want the RNC to become his piggy bank for his personal court cases. We’ve already seen him spend $50 million worth of campaign contributions toward his personal court cases,” Haley told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Friday.

“Now we see him trying to get control of the RNC, so he can continue not to have to pay his own legal fees,” Haley continued. https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/17/haley-rnc-trump-money-00142050

6 hours ago, swansont said:

TFG raiding his political coffers, and that of the RNC (now that Lara Trump is in charge) means less money spent on actual campaigns. 

If I were Trump's opposition, my attack ads would be on how much Republican-base money is being diverted away from  actually getting the party back in government.

2 hours ago, iNow said:

There’s about 237 other ways they’re already tracking you on existing devices you already have or interact with in shops and on public streets. Recommend not stressing too much on the tv. Go for convenience over maximum security unless you’re Jason Bourne.

They’ve already got a master ad and manipulation profile for you personally… and there’s lots and lots of “theys” with different StringJunky consumer profiles used to sell ads and political manipulations and do so in an automated way via algorithms and AIs. Heck… Even your bank and credit card companies are selling data about your purchase items and transaction types, vendors, GPS locations and more. The insurance companies are pulling your movement patterns from your car. These profiles often understand us better than we understand ourselves (see also: TikTok).

Basically, the toothpaste is already out of the tube and it isn’t gonna get put back in due to a different brand tv purchase. 

But you don't have sex in the shop, amongst other things. In the public space, there isn't lot we can do, but in my home they can fuck off. Any government part of 3 Eyes, 5 Eyes spy rings, whatever, can employ one of the other co-miscreants to infiltrate and do the dirty work for them. They also send legal notices to comms companies saying to the effect; "We want to spy on this person and you are legally bound not to notify our targets." Proper Orwellian.

We are no longer in the realm of personal paranoid fantasy that requires unattainable technology. One would be naive to think they aren't trying every trick they can.

Quote

A former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) software engineer who was convicted for carrying out the largest theft of classified information in the agency’s history and of charges related to child abuse imagery was sentenced to 40 years in prison on Thursday.

The 40-year sentence by the US district judge Jesse Furman was for “crimes of espionage, computer hacking, contempt of court, making false statements to the FBI, and child pornography”, federal prosecutors said in a statement. The judge did not impose a life sentence as sought by prosecutors.

Joshua Schulte was convicted in July 2022 on four counts each of espionage and computer hacking and one count of lying to FBI agents, after giving classified materials to the whistleblowing agency WikiLeaks in the so-

Joshua Schulte was convicted in July 2022 on four counts each of espionage and computer hacking and one count of lying to FBI agents, after giving classified information in the so-called Vault 7 leak. Last August, a judge mostly upheld the conviction.

WikiLeaks in March 2017 began publishing the materials, which concerned how the CIA surveilled foreign governments, alleged extremists and others by compromising their electronics and computer networks.

Joshua Schulte was convicted in July 2022 on four counts each of espionage and computer hacking and one count of lying to FBI agents, after giving classified materials to the whistleblowing agency WikiLeaks in the so-called Vault 7 leak. Last August, a judge mostly upheld the conviction.

WikiLeaks in March 2017 began publishing the materials, which concerned how the CIA surveilled foreign governments, alleged extremists and others by compromising their electronics and computer networks.https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/01/joshua-schulte-cia-wikileaks-secrets-trial-sentenced

Have we noticed how many of these "traitors" seem to uniformly land with illegal porn or rape charges?

2 minutes ago, TheVat said:

Sokay, and now I'm going to look up Fallen Angel later.  (RW duties call atm).  Thanks for the info.

 It''s Weeping Angel. To get you started: https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/25/15421326/smart-tv-hacking-cia-samsung-weeping-angel-vulnerability

2 minutes ago, TheVat said:

Simple method: Roku stick on ten year old LED tv.  No mic.  No power to tv and Roku unless we're watching.  Power strip off.

@StringJunky I didn't see any text in your earlier reply.   Zen?

 

WAIT NEVER MIND.  The whole post appeared after refresh.

Sorry. I accidently posted before adding text.

5 minutes ago, Sensei said:

Simply, don't plug TV to the Internet.. Make sure there is no open WiFi around you etc. Don't let TV to use your WiFi hotspot created by phone etc. etc. If you do so, change password on the phone every time you are done with the TV.

ps. I know a person who cuts the circuit connections on a Visa debit card that allows NFC/RFID transmission....

 

I'm in the market for a tv, so this stuff is high in my mind atm.I have read to avoid using the in-built wifi, primarily because tv manufacturers only issue software updates for two or three years.

5 minutes ago, TheVat said:

I've heard this, don't know if that's a real thing.  I opted not to buy a so-called Smart TV due to the suspicion about them and the mics.  Five seems like a lot, though!  🙂

It's real enough. Just look at the spec of a modern tv. Our dear respective governments conceived of Fallen Angel around 2017, which was an exercise in remotely accessing and controlling smart tv's. The brave insider who shared this is now doing 40 years for treasonous acts in the US. The actual outcome of the exercise, is irrelevant in my eyes, as it clearly demonstrates our governments have the proactive intent to undermine whatever privacy we have left.

Some TVs have 5 or more microphones in them, listening for keywords. Ditto other devices.

1 hour ago, dimreepr said:

Like he won't play double or quits, with his Patek Philippe... 

He'd sell his kids if he thought it was worth it. 

1 hour ago, swansont said:

What he owes is even more, because they charge interest. It comes to more than $450 million

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2024/02/16/donald-trump-real-estate-fraud/72267145007/

Apparently so, reading later, it seems people who challenge these types of judgements pay interest from the day after the court case.  He can't use campaign funds on this either because it's not a political matter.

Leave the battery out of the device overnight. AFAIK ip addresses are only temporary and if your device is absent from the internet for long enough, it will be assigned a new ip.

Trump's down for another judgement of $350m-ish. The judgement summary:

Quote

SUMMARY
Donald Trump and entities he controls own many valuable properties, including office buildings,
hotels, and golf courses. Acquiring and developing such properties required huge amounts of
cash. Accordingly, the entities borrowed from banks and other lenders. The lenders required
personal guarantees from Donald Trump, which were based on statements of financial condition
compiled by accountants that Donald Trump engaged. The accountants created these
“compilations” based on data submitted by the Trump entities. In order to borrow more and at
lower rates, defendants submitted blatantly false financial data to the accountants, resulting in
fraudulent financial statements. When confronted at trial with the statements, defendants’ fact
and expert witnesses simply denied reality, and defendants failed to accept responsibility or to
impose internal controls to prevent future recurrences. As detailed herein, this Court now finds
defendants liable, continues the appointment of an Independent Monitor, orders the installation
of an Independent Director of Compliance, and limits defendants’ right to conduct business in
New York for a few years. 

https://eddsa.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/public/452564_2022_PEOPLE_OF_THE_STATE_OF_v_PEOPLE_OF_THE_STATE_OF_DECISION_AFTER_TRIAL_1688.pdf

38 minutes ago, TheVat said:

Very sad to hear of Navalny's death.  A light has gone out of the world.

Heroic... no less. Vladimir Kara-Murza will not be far behind, I think. He's had the poison treatment as well. People like these humble me.

9 minutes ago, iNow said:

Reach for the stars, maybe you’ll get lucky and reach the moon. That sort of thing. 

Embedded in that idea, is all the associated waste that we can't afford ecologically.

12 minutes ago, iNow said:

You’ve summed up the way Trump voters feel about Biden quite accurately. 

It's that very poison that actually animates the MAGAs. Most people would turn away.

5 minutes ago, TheVat said:

FAANG seems to have become a retronym, since two of the companies have changed their names (it would now be MAANA, I guess?).  I am never sure how to take stereotypes of "eastern" or "western" minds, but I suspect some folks at companies like Mercedes, Zeiss, Bosch, Porsche et al would dispute that Europeans (well, Germans, at least) can't do complexity, precision and efficiency.  

(somewhere I hear Basil Fawlty yelling don't talk about the war!)

 

I share his bafflement.  Maybe Altman has a Prometheus complex, like some others in the tech world.  Are there not people in his circle who can talk him off the ledge?  This does seem to verge on delusional.

"It's not rocket science - it's much more difficult" goes one of the inside jokes. The link gives a run-through of the chip making process and issues.

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2021-chip-production-why-hard-to-make-semiconductors/

Hopefully, people are forewarned after learning the historical antics of the FAANG founding CEO's and how they got where they are.

I have read recently that, collectively, Western-cultured minds are not naturally tuned to the demands, complexity and intensity of large scale chip manufacturing. We don't seem to do precision and conformity as a form of cultural second nature, like the Eastern Asians. They are doing this stuff today, and not us, for a reason, methinks.

Each individual fertilization event is unique and each pollen spore will provide its own genetics. A dozen different pollen varieties on a single tree will produce that many types of crosses.