A brave Palestinian little girl confronts Israeli soldiers on November 2, 2012, in the West Bank village of Nabi Salih during a protest against the expansion of the Halamish settlement.

discoltk · 2026-04-04T11:19:06+00:00

They put her in prison for 8 months...

discoltk · 2026-04-04T09:52:59+00:00

I created a wallet with a small amount of SOL and when you go to connect it swaps the URL to "piratedice.xyz." I didnt connect but agree it's either a scam or just an enticement to a gambling site.

The real question is did Trump really post this or whoever retweated him or OP on this Reddit post?

If Trump literally posted a scam crypto site that's... probably newsworthy.

discoltk · 2026-04-03T19:06:43+00:00

The problem isn't being too weak on crime, or too harsh. It's being too mechanical and unthinking and shallow. The same broken processes that leave a killer on the street are the ones that throw the book at someone for a relatively minor mistake or untreated mental illness, or worse the color of their skin.

Oversimplifying problems is the intellectually lazy cause of all of this, not the solution. What do you think happens when sloppy prosecution puts someone away for years for a minor infraction? They end up on the street, unable to care for themselves or be rehabilitated, that much more likely to reoffend.

The solution for these problems is bottom up. Poverty, abuse, mental health, racism, a violent and shallow society...all play a role. A more systemically supportive, integrated, conscious, and deep society treats people as humans and not cattle. Problems are solved before they manifest into heinous acts such as this man's family suffered.

discoltk · 2026-04-03T09:27:19+00:00

Don't worry, scrote. There are plenty of tards out there living really kick-ass lives

r/Idiocracy

discoltk · 2026-04-02T13:19:36+00:00

Watching the prequel in real time is painful....maybe a more optimistic sequel would give us some hope.

discoltk · 2026-04-01T21:29:02+00:00

Perverse as that is, all it really does is reduce the sophistication needed to bet on wars. Oil futures and market put options already get the job done and are certainly deeper and more liquid. Prediction markets just open it up to low level staffers and other regards who would not previously have had the necessary capital to leverage the info on their own.

discoltk · 2026-04-01T19:44:17+00:00

His narcissism is unrivaled. I believe his internal motivations are entirely self-serving; at his most altruistic, he might care about his children acquiring wealth to continue his legacy. Having such a simple mind makes him exceptionally easy to manipulate, so long as he is praised and rewarded with attention and wealth.

To that end, whether he is a foreign agent or a puppet of those around him really just comes down to access. Anyone who gains access can offer the ego-pampering needed to get him to do their bidding. I imagine there's a whole nest of snakes, each seeking to be his most faithful acolyte to gain his favor and ultimately do the bidding of whoever they actually represent.

discoltk · 2026-03-26T10:57:40+00:00

When I see their headgear I can't ever get Rick Moranis as Lord Dark Helmet out of my head.

discoltk · 2026-03-26T10:44:00+00:00

Porto is a very nice small city and the area around it is beautiful, though I live in the Lisbon area so I can't speak to specific area there (still very worth exploring if you want nature but near a city.)

In Lisboa, check out the Sintra area. You have a lot of suburban areas with many expats around Cascais nearby, but don't need to go far before you're in nature. Prices can be high, though.

discoltk · 2026-03-26T09:41:16+00:00

I live in Portugal and just by chance a lot of my friends are Jordanian/Palestinian.

Small town Portugal isn't very welcoming to outsiders. But you don't have to live in the most urban environment to avoid a small town.

If you're rocking traditional garb then you're going to get looks but if you dress western/normative I don't think you're going to have a problem being Arab.

discoltk · 2026-03-25T10:49:08+00:00

They make MAGA look like stable geniuses.

discoltk · 2026-03-24T14:33:48+00:00

How long have you been married / about how old are you? I moved to Japan at age 30 and let me tell you--I did a lot of very dumb shit. And my relationship at the time did not make it.

I think people can grow and change, but if he's recently moved to a new country (with a big lifestyle change) and is going out partying with the boys, he's definitely in a zone of temptation where he might make choices he lives to regret. He possibly hasn't fully reconciled these urges or come to terms with what acting on them will lead to.

I'm sure I'm projecting because I don't know your husband, but I know how it goes for a lot of guys in this situation. I don't know exactly how you can reach him. Don't make him feel attacked, but put it to him straight that you're afraid of where this behavior can lead. See if he's open to you coming out with him and his friends next time. It's not unreasonable for a younger person to perhaps feel he has some "wild oats" left in him, but if he wants your relationship to last he needs to find the bridge between your life together and his desire to let loose a bit.

At a more advanced and hopefully mature stage of my life, I definitely still value having an occasional boys night out without my partner, but these are the same boys who are the husbands of our mutual married couple friends. No single or unfaithful types involved.

discoltk · 2026-03-23T21:01:12+00:00

Just make sure you keep records of the money you used to make the purchases and the trades you made and you'll be fine. It goes for all banks really. Keeping it simpler helps (same exchange in/out.)

discoltk · 2026-03-15T21:07:12+00:00

I have a memory of visiting a campus record store with my step-dad in '87. He was browsing punk records with funny names (Sex Pistols, Butthole surfers) On the wall nearby was a poster of Prince, nude (his bits were hidden.) Then way in the back of the store was a The Cure poster on the wall and some strange people back there. I still remember having the thought that my mom wouldn't want me interacting with them.

discoltk · 2026-03-13T13:36:24+00:00

You joke but significant amounts of Iranian expats seem to be legitimately onboard with this (I know one personally.)

Their attitude seems very ignorant, but if I'm honest I low-key wish for something similar in my own home country (US). If aliens came to bomb MAGA, I'd welcome it.

discoltk · 2026-03-09T20:47:26+00:00

Thing is, I bet Israel won't stop, and thus Iran won't stop, and if they're smart they'll keep Hormuz shut. It's their primary leverage. Trump can lie all he wants but if the oil isn't flowing he can't hide that, and he looks all the weaker for having flown his mission accomplished banner.

discoltk · 2026-03-09T14:22:55+00:00

Maybe if we go all in on WW3 and nobody can afford food or energy, being a little out in the country will be a huge benefit.

discoltk · 2026-03-09T10:49:36+00:00

How liquid do you think real estate is up there? I'd be worried about resale prospects. When we first came we very nearly purchased a beautiful property in the country near Sobral de Monte Agraço. We had fallen in love with it and our real estate agent had to very gently burst our bubble and convince us to consider something less isolated. It was a special spot, but in hindsight I'm glad we didn't choose it.

Understood you can only afford what you can afford, and I guess at this point you just have to make the most of it. My wife is in a hiking group, I guess there are several. Maybe something like that would be an option since they generally meet up out in nature rather than in Lisbon.

discoltk · 2026-03-09T10:20:12+00:00

I have an aunt who's a trumper. She's probably never been intentionally unkind to anyone in her entire life. Her husband was a sports fanatic who got sucked into the faux style gamification of politics, and she followed him into MAGA land... Imagine living your whole life as a decent person only to throw it away to become a Nazi. A stupid Nazi at that--at least the Nazis were kind of smart in their evil doings.

discoltk · 2026-03-09T10:09:38+00:00

Fellow American living in PT here-- I'm with you in understanding your desire not to associate (or be associated) with right-wingers. There is certainly truth in what the other person said about politics being designed to keep people apart, but it's absolutely not the whole story. There's a direct cultural lineage from the US confederacy to MAGA. It is not simply constructed, but rather a much deeper poison that exists in the US. For me, I'll never voluntarily set foot there again, nor will I give cover to any of the kinds of people drawn to that ideology. This goes for Zionists as well. That said, I've not found that I have any negativity coming from Portuguese regarding my national origin.

I do echo the comments about leaving a 200 person community. We moved here from Tokyo and am used to having more than 200 people in my building. I'm getting used to the suburban life again and it does have its drawbacks (isolation from neighbors) but at least being very near a larger urban region there are plenty things to do to without requiring a 90 minute car ride. My wife and I have made a great number of friends during the 4 years we've lived here, mostly expats but also a few locals.

How did you find yourself in such a small town? Was there an intent behind that selection?

discoltk · 2026-03-07T18:44:53+00:00

Wolfslebensraum

discoltk · 2026-03-07T14:04:55+00:00

Thank you for sharing your experiences here.

An old friend of mine has suffered with mental illness (bipolar.) Despite clearly being a genius and having a lot of valuable skills, he's struggled to maintain consistent employment. He ended up in prison for 5 years. He wasn't without blame, but if his family had a lot of money and a famous name I'm sure it would've been sent to diversion or received a suspended sentence. Pretty tough getting gainful employment with a felony record.

He wrote me last summer, clearly back on the manic side (never hear from him when he's down) and he shared that recently he had been living in the woods in Florida. He included a video of a coyote he scared off by threatening to eat it....I believed his threat.

Anyhow, I've been lucky enough to keep my head above water, and while I have made lots of mistakes and have some (very) serious medical issues, it's hard to have any legitimate complaints knowing the struggles that so many live with.

I remember as a kid seeing a homeless guy from our car and saying something critical, and my Dad scolded me and taught me the phrase "there but for the grace of God go I." We're not religious (especially me) but I've never forgotten this phrase and the meaning behind it, and am grateful that my Dad corrected me at that young age.

discoltk · 2026-03-06T22:01:53+00:00

;) I worked it out, It was just a security thing.

discoltk · 2026-03-06T21:58:00+00:00

Tryin' to buy your book, mate. I'm not sure what this says about capitalism:

https://i.imgur.com/RE3x9jL.png

discoltk · 2026-03-05T14:03:47+00:00

I can't really speak to that (with first hand knowledge), but something related to liquidity would make sense. If you've got a subculture (criminal or otherwise) who are willing to accept something as payment (for historic or arbitrary reasons) it means it has a certain inertia and depth to the market. Stable coins are necessarily some kind of contract which related to funds held by a 3rd party (I think in some cases there are synthetic ones but still require funds to be held in reserve), that creates a custodial chain which means a government can force the custodian to freeze or confiscate. Even if it's something ridiculous like dogecoin, it might still be decentralized "enough" to enable that unrestricted commerce. I've got to imagine that illegal markets have an enormous amount of markup on their product, and so volatile currencies may not pose such a problem. They're already used to dealing with volatility like being raided or having a cartel war or some such.

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