cdolan

If I was in charge, I'd try to find as many non-spammy and wholesome Content Creators, like Mark Rober or Dustin /w Smarter Every Day, and have them figure out a way to scale a program/syndication that attracts content creators similar to them.

Youtube is great. You can learn anything on Youtube... but Youtube is also filled with absolute trash childrens programming that literally rots my kids' brains as they watch it. Thats not to mention the unfathomable child porn rings that were caught time-stamp commenting unintentionally suggestive poses by underage kids...

We need a curated Youtube for the curious mind that doesn't waste my time with 3 minutes of content stretched to 11 mins to get monetized.

I would argue none of us have any idea if there is a "trillionaire" in the world because we are notoriously bad at guessing someone's total net worth.

As support, I would point you to this 10 year old article on Moammar Gadhafi, where he was estimated to actually be worth roughly $200b USD - an unheard of number in 2011. https://www.forbes.com/sites/edwindurgy/2011/10/25/did-moamm...

This week, if Bezos were not divorced, he would be worth $300b USD: https://www.celebritynetworth.com/articles/billionaire-news/...

And finally, the ProPublica Peter Thiel $5b USD ROTH IRA is worth *double what Forbes thought Thiels entire net worth is per the 2020 Forbes Billionaire List* (he is on page 3... look at the massive jump in the animated graph!): https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/

That said, the IRS had 20 years of tax returns stolen from it which would detail the richest Americans, and so it is unlikely anyone in the USA is a trillionaire.

Source/Sauce?

> Where is the line for something like the lab leak hypothesis?

Recent history seems to have an answer - thats off limits until it fits the narrative!

I believe you and tend to think that myself (my newest PC with ~2 year old parts has a noticeable impact on my home energy usage).

I suppose my critique was more to prove a point that the news can be slanted either way and I find that frustrating.

Could you not argue the exact opposite point with the same underlying facts? Meaning “requiring modern low power CPU’s is a great thing for the environment”?

And how reasonable is it to say these PCs will be immediately trashed? Seems like a straw man argument - I know plenty of schools that will happily run Win10 until 2030

Do you know today what they will do with these thousands of files on other people’s personal details?

Do you think they will just… delete them? Because if so I’ve got a great time traveling hot tub to sell you

Shh that inconvenient truth doesn’t fit the narrative.

I assume the IRS had them stolen but perhaps you are correct and it was an IRS employee who feels like this is a noble thing to do.

The US Constitution would disagree with you.

Edit- the “Bill of Rights” sorry

When I say public figure (which Mr. Thiel is, despite his harassment by Gawker and other quirks, but I get your point) I am referring to the thousands of non-public figures who have had their personal tax details stolen and shared with ProPublica, who seemingly did nothing to deserve this.

Forbes thought his personal wealth was 2 billion.

This reveal puts his ROTH IRA alone at $5 billion (it owns stock in companies other than PayPal and Palantir)

That is a material change in Mr. Thiel’s privacy.

"Responsibility" is a very strange word in your comment to me.

Snowden leaked government program details. How in the world is that the same about thousands of private citizens (aka not public figures) personal financial details?

How are these individuals not being "responsible"?

The only unresponsible person is the person(s) who leaked the details, and ProPublica for monetizing it.

Well said, take my upvote.

Personal privacy and the belief that you are innocent until proven guilty (no matter how "obviously guilty" you are), are two things we've really forgotten in the USA and perhaps the modern world in general.

Hey thanks for actually answering my (somewhat rhetorical) question haha.

The true theft is the thousands of private documents on private citizens stolen from the IRS and provided to ProPublica

In the USA they have been private for a long time (forever perhaps, I don't know the full 200 year history on them). In modern times (2000 or later) they have certainly been very private, though.

Whats the argument for being selectively harassed by leaking your sensitive financial details?

Counter point - Information was stolen and is being held that doesn't change the common narrative or introduce new information ("our tax system needs help").

Have you considered the amount of identity theft that can occur when you have 15-20 years of tax information on thousands of individuals? And that information has obviously been duplicated many times if it made its way from the IRS, through an informant, and into the hands of at least one person at ProPublica?

I don't intend to defend "the system" and the fact ultra-rich can become even more ultra-rich, or the morality/fairness of that. I do find it very alarming that its apparently "OK" that Pro-Publica has intimate financial details of thousands of Americans - enough to completely ruin their lives if in the wrong hands - and its "OK because they have a lot of money".

Thats not OK to have on any American, wealthy or not, in my opinion.

Government spending is almost entirely leveraged by debt and these documents prove that these "ultra-rich" pay a large absolute dollar amount of taxes (albeit lower than 30%). That is factually non-zero.

I am all for a healthy debate on the topic, but I disagree the reporting is responsible. Responsible reporting, in my opinion, would involve nameless "there is a $5 billion Roth IRA out there... the system isn't working", rather than naming private citizens who believe their tax returns from 2005-2020 are private information.

Edit: And I think it may be of public curiosity to know about what goes on in the billionaire class. I get that, to a degree. My original point was that ProPublica is admitting that they are in control of thousands! of American's tax returns for the last decade and a half. There is no guarantee that the IT administrator or summer intern is going to keep that data safe.

Debating wether tax returns should or should not be public is a great debate to have, I agree. The country should be having that debate. And if we decide tax returns should be made public, it should happen in the future so everyone is on the same page.

The fact is that US tax returns are private information, regardless of what other countries are doing or what you and I think should be done.

I am aware of the fact its popular to dislike the ultra-rich, but is this not worrying to the general public?

   ProPublica has obtained a trove of IRS tax return data on thousands of the country’s wealthiest people, covering more than 15 years.

Someone leaked not only Gates, Bezos, Musk, etc data, but thousands of private citizen's intimate financial disclosures (edit: seemingly for the purpose of weaponizing the data against them).

What crime were these thousands of people convicted of to deserve this?

Why do you not want to eradicate hunger, inequality, mental health problems, and general suffering?

I ask such an absurd question in response to your equally absurd question because of course everyone wants to eradicate these issues! But it is not possible to fully eliminate being monetarily poor (by somehow making everyone wealthy), or hunger (by overproducing food and creating distribution), etc.... and so a realization that tradeoffs must be made given our finite resources will better frame our collective decisions as a society.

Fear is one hell of a drug.

But really, I think many people are laser focused on not just minimizing risk of COVID, but now trying to zero out COVID risk, that having any reason to delay receipt of a vaccine isn't a pre-existing medical condition is considered a form of aggression.

At some point we transitioned from "bend the curve" to "eradicate the virus", and this seems like a byproduct of that mental shift.

Tweet Translation using Google Translate:

“#EnPlenaria| With 62 votes in favor (by show of hands) the opinion and bill of law that recognizes the #bitcoin as currency of legal use.

@AsambleaSV #LeyBitcoin “

Draft copy of the legislation: https://mobile.twitter.com/nayibbukele/status/14024468904662...

The president of El Salvador, @nayibbukele, participated in a Twitter Spaces conversation around 1-2 AM US eastern time. Some quotes available here: https://mobile.twitter.com/APompliano/status/140249358880671...

For the comment-only readers:

This is draft legislation currently being voted on as of 8 pm UTC

For purely cosmetic marketing sites I tend to enjoy it

Refreshing to have a logical back and forth these days. Good day to you!

Again I realize my comment is semi off topic as this has to do with Australian/Chinese relations, but my point was that, as an American, it’s amazing this question was completely off limits for roughly a year. Not trying to opine on wether Australia is in the right or wrong, or vice versa.

That first year during/after the outbreak is the best time to find the right answers regarding origination. Not play politics, on that I think I agree with you.

I do not agree that, because a topic becomes political, it is somehow better to avoid finding the truth. I read your comment to have the following logic which I strongly disagree with:

- Asking if this was a lab-leak origination is/was a politically charged question, and - politically charged questions should be avoided. (Perhaps even to the point of ignoring the topic or taking action to silence discussion) - therefore, we should not ask about the origins of the outbreak.

I realize this is somewhat unrelated, but it still boggles my mind that it was a cancellable offense to suggest an investigation occur for a lab-leak origin from March 2020 through roughly January 2021.

I do not know what to make of it, but something about that feels terribly, horribly awry.

I appreciate the fact you said this and find it ironic you are being downvoted for this heresy!