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Comment by pedalpete | Hacker News Reader

I was thinking about this recently, and wondering the EU will start moving away from the USD, further weakening the global strength of USD and America. They are already dealing with BRIC, and the potential of crypto (likely Bitcoin) to remove any single currency as providing power to any country.

The US has benefitted hugely by being the reserve currency, but that strength is also a weakness that can be used against them, but only if the other countries collaborate, which the EU is most capable of.

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The benefit of the reserve currency is our ability to run huge deficits and the result is a loss of our industrial base. It's a double-edged sword but one that ends up leaving us vulnerable. If we had a major non-nuclear conflict with China, for example, they would out build us the way we out built the Germans in WWII.

There is no such thing as a major non-nuclear conflict.

except the one happening last three years? :)

If it was a non-nuclear conflict Russian would have been mowed down long time ago. The only reason why Russia is still in the game is defensive plans involving tactical nuclear weapons.

Only one side has nuclear weapons so it doesn't count.

Both sides do have nuclear weapons. Europe has France.

While there are no European armies in Ukraine, we are not neutral and thus in principle in some way at war with Russia. Presumably this is why our PM here in Sweden has said that we are neither at war nor not at war-- i.e. we're legally at war with Russia, but it's a sort of phony-war á la 1938.

counts even more if only one side has it

I see it the precise other way around, essentially the position parodied by Yes Prime Minister with Hacker's Grand Design.

Basically, there's never a sensible reason to use the nukes. Let's suppose the EU invades Russia. We seize Pskov, should Russia use its nukes? Of course not, we will nuke them in turn. If we take Novgorod, should they use them? Of course not, it'll be nuclear annihilation. St Petersburg, Pskov, Novgorod? No. Moscow? No.

There's never any reason to fire the missiles, and if they respond with a limited nuclear strike, we just match it with one causing, let's say, 10% more damage and keep pushing.

As long as you have nukes yourself nukes are irrelevant and won't be used other than in a limited way even as your conventional forces march through your enemy's capital.

As a US citizen horrified by the people that voted for Trump, this is my big fear too.

We have never had a weaker president that caused so many self-inflicted wounds.

This administration is shaping up to be self-immolation covered by the veneer of strength, for people that don't understand what strength is.

The small fraction of Silicon Valley that bent the knee to this narcissist wanna-be-king have shown themselves to be unbelievably weak too. It's surprising. I have lost so much respect for so many people over the past 6 months, but I fear much more for the future prosperity that we have needlessly destroyed.

"As a US citizen horrified by the people that voted for Trump"

Congratulations, you've been successfully propagandized to a point where you view people who don't vote the way you do as morally inferior. I'm sure that will help you persuade them in the future.

"This administration is shaping up to be self-immolation covered by the veneer of strength, for people that don't understand what strength is." Oh, so you know what strength is huh? Did you ever serve in the military? Do you even have friends who did?

Interesting that you ignore the fact that the previous president was mentally incapable of the job for increasingly long intervals as his term progressed, and was so incompetent on the Afghanistan withdrawal that he projected tremendous weakness that acted as an invite for Putin to launch a full scale assault less than a year later.

Biden did nothing for Silicon Valley, other than try to regulate AI to a point where only a small handful of massive companies had foundation models. Marc Andreesen didn't support Trump until AFTER the Biden administration bureaucrats met with him and told him they would ensure that they would only allow a small handful of foundation AI companies that they tightly regulated to exist. He was so horrified that he switched over.

The moral inversion it takes to claim that the people willing to stand agains the Valley's intense social conformity "weak" is also revealing about how brainwashed you truly are. You're just part of the mob, and if you lived in a super conservative place, you'd be part of that mob too. Freethinking requires courage, and I see none of it in the typical SV limousine liberal. Just a bunch of millionaires who hate the billionaires they envy.

I thought Andreesen on the surface publicly "heel turned" because the Biden administration and SEC made some really weak motions at regulating cryptocurrencies. I believe Andreesen's words were "CRYPTO REGULATION TERROR REGIME", or something like that. Every day there is a bigger and bigger crypto token scam becoming public, not always but sometimes involving the most powerful person in the United States.

JP, the tone of your answer actually jumps to all the conclusions, and name calling. Epi just said "he was horrified", he did not in any way suggest that the people who voted for Trump were inferior.

Having said that, Biden was a pretty crap and useless leader. That doesn't mean the opposite of Biden is doing better. At least Biden did fairly minimal damage with his inaction.

Do I disagree with Biden's take on AI? Sure, but did they actually have any teeth to stop progress? China's progress in AI proves not.

You were very quick to blame others for being successfully propagandized. I suggest you point the same magnifying glass on yourself.

We dislike in others what we see in ourselves.

I have no clue why people keep saying Biden was useless. He had to handle the COVID pandemic at its worst (after Trump 45's early actions made things worse) and managed to ease the economy to avoid (or at elast, delay) a recession compared to most other countries. He had to handle the decisions with the Ukrainan war which let the stand strong for 3 years, and unlike Trumps false promises he was starting to bring in local American production in light of realizing we were losing to China. He may not take full credit, but he also had an incredibly effective FTC/FCC that was harkening back to the days of attacking Robber Barons.

He was a good (not great) president in unprecedented bad times. He's no FDR but "inaction" would have had America in a truly awful situation. So where did all his "useless leader" narrative come from? Did people really get that brainwashed from one bad night as the proceeding precedent is spouting nonsense on the daily?

Wow, politics really doesn't belong here. I have no idea why your comment would be downvoted. I disagree that Biden was effective, but should you really be downvoted because people disagree with you?

You kinda make a good point regarding Covid, but at the same time, I think the action he took there was basically what any non-lunatic would do. It wasn't like he had some massive amazing plan and he actioned it. He just stopped the ignorance of previous administration.

WRT Ukraine, "letting them stand strong" wasn't strong enough. The delays and lack of significant support is, I believe, what has caused the war to drag on. It's like there being a person with cancer, and rather than giving them enough chemo to kill the cancer, you give them just enough that the cancer has difficulty spreading.

What was necessary was a conclusive coordinated action among allies, so that isn't entirely Biden's fault, but everything did seem haphazard.

Also, being in Australia, I think from an economic standpoint, you are overstating the easing of the economy. Everyone has faced some level of inflation, but when I go to the US, it seems to me that "real" inflation has hit you more than other countries I've visited.

Where Biden really failed was messaging, and the failure was at least in part related to his age.

Trump does an amazing job messaging. Sure, 99% of what he says is either a lie senile ramblings, but he’s out there all the time. A social media POTUS indeed.

It is depressing to think that future presidents will probably follow Trump’s lead. I liked having a boring president for four years who didn’t feel the need to be the center of attention all the time. I get that disciplined restraint must be balanced with communicating to Americans, like maybe the best kid was with Obama or Clinton, who communicated often but never did with so much bluster or arrogance.

I’m hoping the American people don’t require that level of bluster. I think a younger Biden who could have effectively communicated his empathy, accomplishments, challenges with inflation and etc… could have won again. The election really was very close.

Another data point is when many other politicians have tried to be like Trump, they have lost. We’ll just have to see what happens in 2 and 4 years.

You elected a mad king who is intent on tearing down the alliances that have made the US prosper over the last 80 years. I don't think your parent is the one who is brainwashed. Embracing tyranny is only "courageous free thinking" in a fever dream.

You don’t think there has been mad kings in the last 80 years? You think the Iraq/Afghanistan dalliances were not inherently domination oriented? JFK was killed for specific reasons that you can look up if you at all curious.

What does this even mean? Yes, the Iraq war was terrible. That doesn't make Trump any better.

Nixon's administration is sill within 60 years old, so of course this isn't the only attempt in 80 years. Sad part was we were actually good at shaming corruption back then. Not sure what happened to make us complacent to daily Watergate+ level scaandals.

> Marc Andreesen didn't support Trump until AFTER the Biden administration bureaucrats met with him and told him they would ensure that they would only allow a small handful of foundation AI companies that they tightly regulated to exist. He was so horrified that he switched over.

a16z investments are mostly Cryptos and some AIs.

Andreesen loves Crypto and he hates that it's being regulated like mad (cause tons of scamming going on).

Tons of scamming goes on over email too and we don't respond by shutting down email services

We don't shut down crypto, either. But if you scam people via crypto, then there are penalties, the same as there are for sending scams over email.

Coinbase is still operating.

The Biden admin tried to shut them down by suing them for being an unlicensed security exchange. And they did this even though the only time the issue has been ruled on by a judge it was determined that crypto is not a security.

Oh good, checks and balances work, unlike the current Admin

>>> Marc Andreesen didn't support Trump until AFTER the Biden administration bureaucrats met with him and told him they would ensure that they would only allow a small handful of foundation AI companies that they tightly regulated to exist. He was so horrified that he switched over.

That is the claim from Andreessen, and the way he told it sounded rather far-fetched. Has anyone else confirmed it?

Andreessen also claims (see Joe Rogan interview) that the US nuclear weapons testing program was some elaborate fake complete with fake movies of nuclear bomb tests. When someone makes such ludicrous claims, I tend to doubt anything else they say.

> Congratulations, you've been successfully propagandized to a point where you view people who don't vote the way you do as morally inferior.

Where did they say anything about moral inferiority?

> I'm sure that will help you persuade them in the future.

Why does this argument only work in one direction? Why can the conservatives mock liberals, "coastal elites", blue cities and states, and more than half of America endlessly and still win? Why

> Interesting that you ignore the fact that the previous president was mentally incapable of the job for increasingly long intervals as his term progressed, and was so incompetent on the Afghanistan withdrawal that he projected tremendous weakness that acted as an invite for Putin to launch a full scale assault less than a year later.

Ironic you talk about "successfully propagandized" earlier and are regurgitating right wing talking points.

> The moral inversion it takes to claim that the people willing to stand agains the Valley's intense social conformity "weak" is also revealing about how brainwashed you truly are. You're just part of the mob, and if you lived in a super conservative place, you'd be part of that mob too. Freethinking requires courage, and I see none of it in the typical SV limousine liberal. Just a bunch of millionaires who hate the billionaires they envy.

It takes special kind of mental gymnastics to end up supporting murderous dictators while talking about "free thinkers", "moral inversion", and "brainwashing". What did they teach you next, whatabouttism?

I hate Trump because I'm not propagandized. I no longer have any patience for pro-Trump rhetoric tbh. He's going to get a lot of people killed.

Embarrassed to be an American today. You're on the wrong side of history.

It's wild seeing life imitating art, but the recent Civil War movie had the sitting president serving his 3rd term as to what probably caused 19 states to secede, and Trump has talked about somehow finding a way to serve a third term. One could argue that's just typical Trump bluster, like him telling people they won't have to vote again, or blue states might disappear in year. But I'm becoming more convinced he actual intends to do these things.

BluAnon in full effect I see.

Which part, the Alex Garland movie, or the things Trump has done the past 40 days?

Euh, 6 January and letting them free. That's exactly what Trump is signalling. I'll be your get out of jail card.

Thanks for giving a different perspective here. Unfortunately, I have to respectively disagree.

> was so incompetent on the Afghanistan withdrawal

That was based on a deal Trump made with the Taliban. I don't know if Trump would have botched it too. I would put that on Bush who f*ed up that war completely.

But ultimately it boils down to the moral inability of Americans to fight an uneven war. The problem here is the appeasement policy that unfortunately both sides suffer from.

> projected tremendous weakness

I think that's overblown. There are cases where it was true and others (such as Ukraine) where Biden showed how he can hold back Russia without risking a single US soldier. That was pretty good.

> Biden did nothing for Silicon Valley

The CHIPS act? Intel etc. got a ton of money. Battery manufacturing moved back to the states with multiple factories opening up.

He brought back manufacturing to the USA and gave a lot in that sense. The fact that he kept policies going (no tariffs etc.) was a huge benefit to tech which relies on stability and globalization.

> Freethinking requires courage, and I see none of it in the typical SV limousine liberal.

I think using language like that goes counter to free thinking. I despise Trump as a person, but I accept that some of the policies and stances aren't wrong. Unfortunately, discourse is at a level where we can't even have adult conversations on the issues without name-calling.

If you wish to discuss the topic, I'll happily explain every reason I hate the current administration. Of which there is many, and of which is bound in ojective stories I can point to with sources.

If you wish to instead accuse me of propaganda with no basis, thanks for justiying one of the reasons I hate the administration and their supporters. Mud slinging doesn't interest me in this day and age and your entire rant is not only baseless but has so many holes and inaccuracies that I'd recommend reading your history before trying to re-write such statements. .

This is exactly on point, thank you for saying it.

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