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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 9th, 2023

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  • I feel like using percentages would be more meaningful. The Dow Jones peaked at 381 just before crashing in 1929. So using absolute numbers can’t be compared because the entire DJ wasn’t worth the drops we are seeing today.

    I in 1929 it lost~10-12% on its worst days

    So far Trump is losing ~5% approx each day

    It’s not exactly a stellar endorsement. I’m only saying that you are comparing things at today’s dollar value, when the value of currency changes over time.

    This Wikipedia page shows that the worst days by percentage are not where we are yet.

    However… Rank, President (AFFILIATION), date, DJ, Point loss, %loss

    1 Reagan ®, 1987-10-19, 1738.74, −508.00, −22.61%

    2 Trump ®, 2020-03-16, 20188.52, −2997.10, −12.93%

    3 Hoover ®, 1929-10-28, 260.64, −38.33, −12.82%

    4 Hoover ®, 1929-10-29, 230.07, −30.57, −11.73%

    5 Trump ®, 2020-03-12, 21200.62, −2352.60, −9.99%

    6 Hoover ®, 1929-11-06, 232.13, −25.55, −9.92%

    7 McKinley ®, 1899-12-18, 58.27, −5.57, −8.72%

    8 Hoover ®, 1932-08-12, 63.11, −5.79, −8.40%

    9 T. Roosevelt ®, 1907-03-14, 76.23, −6.89, −8.29%

    10 Reagan ®, 1987-10-26, 1793.93, −156.83 , −8.04 %

    All republicans. I note that the biggest daily gains were also republicans but most of them are related to the big drops e.g a day, week or month later, so they basically tank the index then the index recovers some time later.




  • You know how sometimes your get so frustrated at someone you struggle to eloquently articulate your dislike of them because there are so many facets to that dislike. This is how Elon makes me feel these days. I struggle to put it in the simplest terms.

    It really bothers me that he thinks he deserves pity while denying it to others. It bothers me that his attitude towards money comes from never having had to worry about it. It bothers me that he thinks that he can take actions that threaten people’s livelihoods and even their lives and expects to be loved for it. It bothers me that the only way he can rationalise why people hate him is that they have brainwashed or paid by the left rather than having legitimate grievances with him. It bothers me that he thinks if you aren’t a billionaire it’s because your are lazy/don’t deserve to be and that their hard work is not equal to his. Lastly it bothers me that I don’t know if he genuinely holds these positions or if he just uses them as justification to do horrible things.



  • Let’s be real, they aren’t gaming gpus.

    The pricing isn’t aimed at the general public though certainly some will but but the main customer for these at this pricing is business. Even at a third of the price it is hard to justify.

    It has been a long time since I felt that buying a new graphics card was necessary as opposed to being a luxury. There was a time when you needed to buy a new card or you couldn’t run new games but that hardly happens now. When Gpus were quite new, as a student I was buying a new one every other year. Now it seems more like you only need to buy a new card if you are chasing ultra quality at high framerates. It’s been weird a while since I felt like graphics quality was clearly better. Maybe ray tracing was one addition that made me think there was some kind of advance, but in all truth, the baseline for graphics now is so high that it is entirely secondary to game play. When I was a kid game reviews used to have a separate score for graphics. Yes I’m old. On all of the above YMMV. So I can’t justify spending more than even $500 on a card if it is only about things looking slightly better. I will only spend on one when I have no choice now.


  • I meant any incoming administration in 4 years would have to win big in all 3 houses to demonstrate to the world that this 4 years was unwelcome and unexpected. Incidentally that’s also what would be needed to effect the change BUT. A sizable proportion of the US electorate has shown an appetite for what is happening and historically the republicans always seem to do better than they should despite all the horrible shit they do. So I don’t have faith that the next election would go as we hope.

    In 2024, despite, or maybe because of his first term, Trump won the popular vote, and project 2025 was also not a secret.

    So the question would be, what reform or reforms would convince the rest of the world the USA wouldn’t pull the same moves again?

    Donor caps? Media regulation?

    The problem is not just getting trump out in 2028, it’s keeping his followers out in 2032, 2036, 2040 etc.


  • With respect, it will take the US a lot longer than 4 years to rebuild the trust that has been destroyed. Even a return to the norms of the last 75 years, while it would be welcomed by the traditional allies, would mean nothing if it can be reversed so easily again in 8 years and sharing secrets and cooperation with an “ally” like that is dangerous.

    Foreign policy changed radically in a matter of weeks. The US is no longer predictable or reliable.



  • “Here is your big mac meal”

    “but I ordered a McChicken sandwich”

    “don’t worry, our AI suggested swapping your order because it predicted you actually prefer chicken based on your order history which it got from facial recognition when you walked in so we started preparing it before you ordered which also meant we’d get your order out 9.4 second faster! Isn’t it so clever, eh?”

    “what about my drink, I didn’t order diet coke?”

    “we gave you diet because our AI indicated that you probably have diabetes based on body weight analysis and McDonald’s is committed to healthy eating as well as maximising profits”

    “I want to talk to the manager.”

    “the manager was replaced by AI last month, corporate felt on site managers were one of the biggest expenditures for the branches and felt AI can offer more value. I’m sure the AI will be able to help you at that terminal over there. If not, we can escalate to the corporate AI which is authorised to offer 1% off coupons and has a slight antisemitism problem…”

    “the terminal over there? The one with the queue 30 minutes long?”

    “yep, that’s the one. Have a great day!! Oh it looks like our conversation took longer than the time we saved. Oh well, isn’t AI though”




  • In that article it is mentioned that Trump is going back on an agreement he signed a few years ago.

    Therefore agreements made with Trump do not mean anything. He will choose not to honour them if and when it is convenient to him.

    But then I guess we already knew that from his business practices.

    The art of the deal is to make the other side believe you are honourable, use that credibility to offer more than you intend to give and leverage them to give you what you want. Then invent a pretext to cancel the deal and keep your ill-gotten gains.

    The problem with governments dealing with trump is that they trust him to be true to his word. I do not believe he will. I fear he will use this approach with Ukraine to hand them over to Poo-tin. Then when it’s to late for the international community to do anything he’ll just say Zelenskyy didn’t hold up his end of the bargain.



  • Let’s say Russia invaded and occupied Alaska. The US tried to get them out but couldn’t. After valiant fighting for years they turn to the international community for help. The EU accuse America of starting the war and start directly negotiating with Russia without the US at the table. The rest of the world says you need to sign this deal to give us your resources but we won’t guarantee your security in return but as part of the deal to end the war swiftly you need to let Russia have Alaska. The US says that is unacceptable and the rest of the world says that they are being disrespectful and don’t really want peace.


  • I’m glad Europe is backing him.

    It was hugely ironic that Trump and Vance sat and told Zelensky how things are based on what they’ve watched on TV, cutting off his attempts to correct them and then called him disrespectful.

    It had the feeling of a pupil reporting to the headmasters office for punishment for fighting back against a bully. The headmaster didn’t need to hear his side of the story because violence is not the answer.

    I’m conscious that an analogy like this can appear insensitive and diminish the whole thing. Especially as Zelensky tried to say several times. “I’m not playing cards” when Trump made analogies about “you don’t have the cards right now.”