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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 5th, 2023

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  • Economists at JP Morgan, the largest US bank by assets, published a research paper on de-dollarization in 2023.

    In reference to the global economy as a whole, they concluded that, “while marginal de-dollarization is expected, rapid de-dollarization is not on the cards”.

    However, they argued that, “Instead, partial de-dollarization — in which the renminbi assumes some of the current functions of the dollar among non-aligned countries and China’s trading partners — is more plausible, especially against a backdrop of strategic competition”.

    The JP Morgan economists added, “This could over time give rise to regionalism, creating distinct economic and financial spheres of influence in which different currencies and markets assume central roles”.

    This seems inline with the Chinese leadership game of influence, as well as the clown show that the US has become. Even with the interest still there from the US standpoint two decades of GWT, the lack of prioritize spending on following our so called values, the very high debt to GDP ratio we are running, the lack of real legislative ability, plus other challenges, all make the fundamentals seem less fundamental. Although China very much has it’s own issues such as an excess of manufacturing, a housing bubble, and a very steep demographic bubble. So their fundamentals are seemingly similar in question, but they have a marked ability to pivot quickly and do seem to be using their status as the 2nd largest economic to garner the same level of influence.

    Whether either has staying power of economics and global influence for the next 50 years is a very interesting question.

    I certainly don’t count the US out yet, but even if the election settles things down, there is some real work to do which has little to do with the current hotly discussed policy topics. I’d be curious about your opinions?


  • True, but worth reading their about page and privacy page. Not saying it’ll stay this way, but the way they are running is something that makes more sense then being sold as a product to Google. And you aren’t getting much of an incognito these days with all the fingerprinting they are doing.

    I will admit kagi search isn’t the highest performer, but it’s viable. DDG, Start page, etc. Might give you more privacy, or not (hard to tell with DDG these days), but it might be worth trying a different model for a while.

    I miss the days when the internet was truly free, but in lieu of that we have to have something better. Kagi is a start.



  • That’s an interesting example, I’ll have to look it out and see if the context bears it out. I say that as although yes he might have only gotten 43%, the question is how many registered voters didn’t vote and how many eligible but unregistered voters there were.

    Vermont has a fairly high voter turnout, but looking at Vermont’s Secretary of State 2016 had a voter turnout of 63% of Voting Age Population from census population. So that 185k of 505k thousands people who didn’t vote.

    Also if I have the right numbers from Vermont’ SOS, that’s 43% of the state total 63% who voted.

    I’ve read other demographic breakdowns on those who don’t vote which is worth looking into, but it’s hard for me to see someone say that there isn’t a mass when we have this huge population of American citizen who don’t vote. Something between 35-45% of the US just doesn’t. That’s a huge swath of disenfranchised people.




  • A brief technical summary from iMAP reveals what happens when users attempt to access sites using Cloudflare and Google DNS.

    • On Maxis, DNS queries to Google Public DNS (8.8.8.8) servers are being automatically redirected to Maxis ISP DNS Servers;

    **

    • On Time, DNS queries to both Google Public DNS (8.8.8.8) and Cloudflare Public DNS (1.1.1.1) are being automatically redirected to Time ISP DNS servers.

    “Instead of the intended Google and Cloudflare servers, users are being served results from ISP DNS servers. In addition to MCMC blocked websites, other addresses returned from ISP DNS servers can also differ from those returned by Google and Cloudflare,” iMAP warns.

    "Users that are affected, can configure their browser settings to enable DNS over HTTPS to secure their DNS lookups by using direct encrypted connection to private or public trusted DNS servers. This will also bypass transparent DNS proxy interference and provide warning of interference,” iMAP concludes.

    Essentially Malaysia law required ISP to drop DNS entries for some sites, local users started using public DNS. ISP started redirecting public DNS requests, and local users started using DNS over HTTPS.

    The pirate wars continue in their arms races.


  • “Harris immediately framed her candidacy with a specific false reference to this case as a contest of ‘prosecutor vs. convicted felon,’” Trump’s filing says.

    Harris’ framing is an “inaccurate attack,” it adds, without describing an inaccuracy. Harris is a former district attorney for San Francisco and attorney general for California; in May, Trump became the first former president convicted of a felony.

    In brief response papers filed Friday, prosecutors called Trump’s latest recusal effort “vexations and frivolous.”

    Trump’s “regurgitated” complaints about Loren Merchan’s work with Harris have already failed twice, including at the appellate level, and amount to little more than “overheated, hyperbolic rhetoric,” prosecutors added.

    The letter alleges that Authentic Campaigns earned “over $7 million in compensation” for its work on campaigns involving Harris. The letter doesn’t allege that Authentic Campaigns’ work for Harris ever overlapped with her father presiding over the hush-money case.

    In May of 2023, the New York Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics found that Merchan wasn’t compromised by his daughter’s political activities, writing, “A relative’s independent political activities do not provide a reasonable basis to question the judge’s impartiality.”

    This feels like an article on two unrelated topics, but it’s Trump so I should not be surprised.