@pluralistic : ...America's unabashed dollar weaponization has been getting worse for years, but under Trump, the weaponized dollar has come to constitute an existential risk to the rest of the world, sending them scrambling for alternatives. As November Kelly says, Trump inherited a poker game that was rigged in his favor, but he still flipped over the table because he resents having to pretend to play at all:
Once Trump tried to steal Greenland, it became apparent that the downsides of the dollar far outweigh its upsides. Last month, Christine Lagarde (president of the European Central Bank) made a public announcement on a radio show that Europe "urgently" needed to build its own payment system to avoid the American payment duopoly, Visa/Mastercard:
Now, there's plenty of reasons to want to avoid Visa/Mastercard, starting with cost: the companies have raised their prices by more than 40% since the pandemic started (needless to say, updating database entries has not gotten 40% more expensive since 2020). This allows two American companies to impose a tax on the entire global economy, collecting swipe fees and other commissions on $24t worth of the world's transactions every year:...'
There's a reason every decentralized system eventually finds its way onto a platform: platforms solve real-world problems that platform users struggle to solve for themselves.
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An old-fashioned credit-card imprinter; its handle is a cracked and dirty American flag. Under the slip is a gold Trump Card. Looming over the imprinter is the top half of Trump's face, brooding and squint-eyed; it has been altered to increase its orangeness, to add bloodshot sclera to his eyes, and to add liver spots. At its bottom, the face merges with a bubbling, hellish cauldron of smoke and flame.
As November Kelly says, Trump inherited a poker game that was rigged in his favor, but he still flipped over the table because he resents having to pretend to play at all:
OG App is the coolest app you never heard of. Back in 2022, two teenagers unilaterally disenshittified Instagram by making an "alt-client" that restored all the parts of Insta that made it a success and blocked all the antifeatures that Meta crammed down users' throats after they had them locked in.
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An EU flag; the stars have been replaced with a ring of Threads logos, tinted yellow. In the center floats the disembodied head of Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse avatar. It has been modified: a black bar scrawled with grawlix covers the mouth.
Obviously, that is dead now. Donald Trump, debilitated by white matter disease and his endemic incontinent belligerence, has flipped the table over in a poker game that was rigged in his favor because he resented having to pretend to play (TM November Kelly):
The best summary of Trump's trade "philosophy" comes from Trashfuture's November Kelly, who said that Trump is flipping over the table in a poker game that's rigged in his favor because he resents having to pretend to play the game at all.
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A detail from a US $100 bill. The bill has been tinted orange. Ben Franklin's face has been replaced with an indistinct blur surmounted by Trump's hair. The lettering in the scrollwork beneath the portrait reads 'TRUMP.' The '100's have been turned into '000's. The writing 'ONE HUNDRED' now reads 'NONE HUNDRED.' The series issue has been changed to '47.' The Secretary of the Treasury's signature has been replaced with Trump's.
A website dedicated to naming ICE and Border Patrol employees is coming under a “prolonged and sophisticated” cyber attack after the Daily Beast revealed it planned to make public 4,500 names of federal immigration staff. ...
Public disclosure receives the least protection under most laws and carries the highest risk. It may be protected in limited circumstances, such as when:
You reasonably believe disclosure serves the public interest
You’ve attempted other channels without success
There’s immediate danger requiring public warning
Even then, protection is uncertain and depends heavily on specific circumstances and applicable laws.
High risk along with public identification means the leaker probably wants to comply as much as possible to state and federal law. From the article:
Skinner said he planned to publish “the majority” of verifiable names, while carving out exceptions for positions like childcare workers and nurses
i often think about the imaginary world and its creatures me and my best friend used to create and play with as kids and even a good chunk into teen hood. on the occasions we see each other, there's sometimes a glimpse of it shining through, little inside jokes or knowing stare conversations.
we always treated it like a big secret and i don't think she has the intention of changing that. but we also always wanted to write it down as a story.
does anyone else have a rich imaginary world they played stories in as a kid? have you since returned to it or made it into art?
An open source repairable printer. ( www.crowdsupply.com )
I stumbled across this link in the comment of another post, and thought it was super promising! ...
Europe takes a big step towards a post-dollar world ( pluralistic.net )
https://i0.wp.com/craphound.com/images/11Feb2026.jpg?w=840&ssl=1 ...
Threads' margin is the Eurostack's opportunity ( pluralistic.net )
https://i0.wp.com/craphound.com/images/30Jan2026.jpg?w=840&ssl=1 ...
Trump and the unmighty dollar ( pluralistic.net )
https://i0.wp.com/craphound.com/images/26Jan2026.jpg?w=840&ssl=1 ...
Massive ICE Goon ID Leak Halted by Cyber Attack From Russia ( www.thedailybeast.com )
A website dedicated to naming ICE and Border Patrol employees is coming under a “prolonged and sophisticated” cyber attack after the Daily Beast revealed it planned to make public 4,500 names of federal immigration staff. ...
LIVE from the protests in minneapolis ( www.youtube.com )
#StatusCoup reports #LIVE on the ground from the protests in #minneapolis ...
Here's what vector embeddings and transformers are in LLMs
I finally get vector embeddings and this whole thing about transformers. ...