SideburnsOfDoom

> That gambling actually led to people getting those homes. The people losing them was the correction.

Well, yes but there is a distinction between "led to" vs "losing them". The first is indirect, the second is not.

You could expand that as "That gambling by banks offering these risky mortgages to unsuspecting people, actually led to people getting those homes. When the banks who did this did not bear the costs of their actions, and passed them on to their customers, the people losing their homes was the correction."

> Sunk cost fallacy is not relevant to future investment

Outside of future choices, what in the world is sunk cost fallacy in fact relevant to? Do you understand words?

Not to disagree with you too much, but

> I am still shocked Spain/Italy and USA are considered 'first world' countries.

They're a mix. Rural southern Italy isn't the same as e.g. Milan or Venice. I've walked from 1st world to third world within a few blocks in San Francisco. It's a slightly longer walk in Cape Town.

> I was surprised by the penetration level of the mobile devices - everything had a QR code, you could buy/sell/send money,

I've has exact same experience in places in Africa (1). Yes there's poverty and crime, but also if the technology is affordable, effective and reduces the need to handle cash then it's adopted fast enough.

People's understanding of that part of the world is also decades out of date. Mobile devices actually "leapfrogged" the wired telecoms network rollout (2), but that was decades ago. Africa is huge and diverse, and it is not going to be China this decade, but also it's changing fast.

And it might be China-aligned as China positions to be a reliable trading partner with affordable goods. It's possible that affordable Chinese solar-battery electricity systems will cause another leapfrog. This includes Chinese EVs (3).

1)

https://www.m-pesa.africa/

https://www.payshap.co.za

2) https://mg.co.za/news/tech/2014-06-12-cellphones-create-a-te...

3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo---4TAIEA&t=528s

> The classic reply to this is that inequality reduces the agency of people to make decisions in the society - IOW it causes _power_ inequality.

Yes!

> But the reply to that is that it is orthogonal to the discussion.

Bafflegab.

> Power should be distributed in a way that increases efficiency

Sophistry. Why is "efficiency" a goal and how would you even define it?

Look at the current pollical great power of Oligarchs. Does this strike you as "efficient"? I see it as producing poor outcomes, and that's all.

It's not "90% tax" it's 90% or similar tax rate at the highest band, which most people will never reach.

Despite you showing your bias by phrasing option 1 to look childish, I think it's more or less what happened, actually. It doesn't take much "collusion", just greed and short-sighted self-interest from greedy, short-sighted self-interested people with influence to wield.

And you till haven't cited how that 1) this definitely didn't happen and 2) high tax rates in the highest band is a bad idea.

> Perhaps they realised it’s not a good policy?

Citation needed that it's not a good policy. Parent comment explained why it was good, and your reply is "or perhaps it was actually bad".

There's a simpler explanation as to why it was rolled back: the people with the most money and power didn't like it and wanted it gone, and worked over time to accomplish this.

> the poltical demands trans people make in the explicit name of trans rights necessarily entail enlisting the state to help destroy gender distinctions

This is hysterical in both senses of the word, and also nonensical.

> Last time it was opposing LGBTQ and racial discrimination and now it is technology

Wut? None of those 3 things are like the others. This is gibberish.

> Non trivial number of people believe that everyone is equal in abilities.

really? Have you ever met anyone like this?

Cool story, but also another straw man - not relevant to the article and to "We should absolutely aim to lower this gap".

> Attempting to use the government to destroy hierarchies is utopian

yes, "destroy hierarchies" is utopian. But that's a complete straw man version of "reduce very high levels of inequality that have highly visible political impacts".

North Korea has an official ideology of "Juche", and "The goal of Juche is to establish a self-reliant state" (1)

It may not be like that in practice. But nevertheless, self-reliance is in their stated goals, and North Korea is one of the least "open" states in the world.

I think you can make the case that they "try to be self-sufficient". They do try.

As for Israel, eh, it depends. They certainly don't rely on neighbouring countries.

1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juche#Core_principles

> at most, 52% of the voting British public

Indeed. And, At a point in time ten years ago. In voters who skewed older.

See the Voter Flow diagram: https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1pj8kzd/voters_and_...

> I'll keep a log of system time to detect any "jumps" and then "behave normally" if I detect this.

This makes no sense, the system clock would be set before the suspect package is even pulled down. There isn't a "jump" just a reboot and system start at a "totally real" point in time.

And the premise is that this package can evade detection of its suspect code by using an ever-increasing amount of odd code? Yeah, that's a hard strategy.

> And if every malware developer worth their salt now introduces code to "wait out" that period of time, we're back to square one.

Of course this is an arms race, but the time setting inside the sandbox doesn't need to be the same as outside.

> My wife and I recently went on a 7 week holiday around Europe.

Yes, USB-C is very common in Europe, and indeed worldwide. And this is partly as a result of European policy:

> One common charging solution for all

> USB-C is the common port.

https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/sectors/electrica...

> Exactly the same meaning and connotation.

No, it does not have the exact same meaning.

The first means that her optimism kept her in some functional state, without it, she would collapse.

The second means that her optimism continues over time, despite obstacles.

The first doesn't emphasise how longstanding her optimism is, the second does. The second doesn't emphasise how important her optimism is, the first does.

Sadly the current Conservative leadership have fallen quite far, prioritising cheap culture-war nonsense instead

https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/kemi-badenoch-says-tory-hopefu...

Ed Miliband has been doing really well as Energy Secretary, "overseeing a boom in clean energy investment, driving jobs and growth" (1)

But he hasn't been there for very many of the last 16 years.

1) https://observer.co.uk/news/politics/article/miliband-bids-t...

> this is the penultimate special case.

If Binface is the second-last special case, who is the last one?

> Ukraine's sovereignty after the 2014 coup

This phrasing, referring to the Maidan in 2014 as a "coup" is reliable indicator of pro-Russia crankery.

> With Donetsk and Lugansk, Russia did not annex; those areas seceded from Ukraine, declared independence

Yep, here is more of it.

> Investigating Farage for failing to declare donations and gifts is neither “lawfare” nor a plausible means of removing him as an MP. It’s just the Parliamentary Standards Comittee doing its job. No legal penalty is on the cards.

All true, but I would caveat it, "no legal penalty is on the cards from the Parliamentary Standards Comittee"

We know that there are multiple dodgy dealings, and at least one SAR (Suspicious Activity Report) has been filed. We cannot rule out actual legal penalties in general, nor should we. Seeking a popular mandate should not be used as an get-out of legal accountability.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/nigel-farage-...

This happened a couple of El Niño cycles ago, in the 2015-2016 one:

> The City of Cape Town began experiencing a drought in 2015, the first of three consecutive years of dry winters brought on possibly by the El Niño weather pattern and perhaps by climate change

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Town_water_crisis

It's quite possible that this one could worse.

Kinda, yes,

However there is a larger tradition of comedy candidates in the UK than in the USA. See also the Monster Raving Loony Party https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official_Monster_Raving_Loony_...

And this sketch from Monty Python in 1970 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVI5ZOT5QEM

> Mitch outlived him.

We can't be certain of that.

> Maybe on X, in which case I'd recommend getting off of X.

Agreed, get off X anyway.

> This isn't true at all in general online discourse.

Maybe, but is this relevant? Was the grandparent comment "general online discourse" or was it specific online discourse coming from a place that does in fact use such language in that way.

And let us not forget "Holding Out For a Hero"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWcASV2sey0

Binface would have my vote for his policy on Brexit alone. He is unafraid to say that "Brexit is a shitshow", and to call for "bin Brexit".

> he claims that he is accountable only to the voters in his constituency

To add to this,

* Mr Farage's logic seems to be that if If he is accused of a financial crime then he can pick the jury who will try him, finding the most sympathetic audience. And if this jury goes his way, all future financial crimes can be answered with "the people have spoken!"

A pro-sleaze campaign, a vote to specifically endorse ongoing corruption is not very common. And not strictly speaking admissible in a court of law.

It's gamesmanship to avoid due process. The prosecutors should not play along. Kudos to the political parties who are not playing along.

* Mr Farage made this move shortly before this was reported: "Farage’s £5m gift reported to UK crime agency over money laundering concerns" , and he knew that was coming, as "Farage was given a deadline of 1pm on Tuesday to respond .. He gave a video address at 2pm"

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jul/07/revealed-fa...

* Mr Farage in this speech claimed that he was "most attacked politician in the country". It's true that he had a milkshake thrown at him. Meanwhile, 2 sitting MPs have been murdered, Jo Cox and David Amiss, among other serious incidents such as arson.

https://news.sky.com/story/victoria-thomas-bowen-avoid-jail-...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo_Cox

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Amess

* It is quite possible that Mr Farage is in fact taking money by unfriendly foreign governments, to influence UK politics to our detriment. Is there a word for that?

> Starship is going to be huge when it's finally operational.

Any day now. Yep, real soon, honest!

> It could be that this person has something profound to say

Some commentators are unknown for good reason, or otherwise not worth the effort to get to know. Cory Doctorow is not one of those.