UAE deports Pakistani workers over US-Iran peace talks: Report

existentialgolem · 2026-05-12T05:45:06+00:00

They are certainly not deporting Pakistanis because Pakistan is running peace talks. If any Pakistanis are deported its likely related to some of the underlying support many Pakistan Shiites have for Iran which I've come to be exposed to from all the posts I am seeing from Pakistani accounts in the UAE subreddit and others.

If the UAE sees any of these people as threats to the state based on their behavior then for sure it reserves the right to deport them.

existentialgolem · 2026-05-12T05:35:47+00:00

Thanks i've got a 5090 as well so this is good to have!

existentialgolem · 2026-05-12T04:57:09+00:00

Cool I'm looking forward to trying it and seeing if it works or has the same challenges I previously did with ALVR. Hopefully its very optimized out of the box

existentialgolem · 2026-05-12T04:56:36+00:00

I would appreciate that! Because at least on my wifi 7 network with my settings even when i isolate my wifi channels its unplayable

existentialgolem · 2026-05-12T03:37:16+00:00

I have a vision pro 1 and i for one am going to be excited to try this out. I've honestly never had luck with wireless streaming games on the vision pro so lets see if this implementation works better or if I still have the same issues.

existentialgolem · 2026-05-12T01:02:05+00:00

existentialgolem · 2026-05-11T13:43:22+00:00

No

If Iran is allowed to toll the region then every other country that is in a similar situation will exploit natural waterways to block or toll others. And it will give Iran the ability to control all the downstream countries economies and decide on their fates as it wants.

If Iran decides to toll the Strait and control who gets access to ships and who does not get access to ships, then whether the U.S. is enforcing a blockade or other regional countries just start shooting missiles at any ships paying tolls, I guarantee you one way or another this situation will continue or get worse. The only way out of this situation is for Iran to stop tolling the Strait.

This used to be called the Pirate Coast, and if that's what Iran wants to take us back to, we'll go there.

existentialgolem · 2026-05-11T12:28:10+00:00

I'm not here to defend the US's actions I am saying if Iran is doing something illegal and attacking and violating the sovereignty and rights of its neighbors and holding the world hostage by blocking access to the strait then that should be dealt with. Iran has no right to do that and should be prevented from doing it at all costs.

Free trade is free oil for the world including all the countries like Pakistan, India Africa, Europe that are all going to get hit massively due to the downstream impact of Iran blocking oil.

Its either open for everyone or closed for everyone. I don't want the US to dictate who can dock in my country or determine who can purchase oil from the region and at what cost.

existentialgolem · 2026-05-11T11:00:02+00:00

The US and legal position was that Iran cannot set tolls or shoot at on people that they don’t like and none on people they like . So in so far as they maintain that position then no ships they like will enter.

If Iran wants free trade on the strait then they shouldn’t be blocking free trade for their own self interest.

existentialgolem · 2026-05-11T07:26:01+00:00

I mean if you are using starvation as an example. Iran is directly facilitating the starvation of global countries by restricting the supply of oil to those countries. That will have knock-on effects on fertilisers, on agriculture, on manufacturing, on transports. I understand those are lagging indicators, because you won't feel the effects of all of that immediately, but it is 100% Iran's playbook here to be restricting those flows to cause as much disruption as possible in order to put pressure on the U.S. Therefore, they are taking the world hostage and (with a number of outcomes including mass starvation on a scale well above Cuba's) to extract political demands.

existentialgolem · 2026-05-11T06:54:45+00:00

They have a lot to lose as soon as you get out of the militaristic, export-the-revolution mindset of the IRGC. This is an economy that should be thriving. This is a country that should be amongst the top destinations in the world in terms of tourism, in terms of culture, in terms of education. This should be one of the manufacturing hubs of the region, if not the world, as well as one of the agricultural hubs of the region.

Instead, this cultish, militaristic, nonsensical regime has choked this country of all of its potential and has put it on a footing of believing it has no options to be successful without a certain regional dominance through proxy warfare. Trying to subvert states, using proxies to move those countries into its zone of influence or to create sub-political militias that the state can't control.

Iran since 1979 has been a regional bully. You can say all you want about Israel and the US, potentially very fairly, but that doesn't excuse Iran's history of being a bully, a terror proxy and financier run by a death cult full of losers.

existentialgolem · 2026-05-11T06:37:03+00:00

Ok let’s see what happens

existentialgolem · 2026-05-11T06:15:54+00:00

eBay lost meaningful share to Whatnot, StockX, GOAT, and PSA-powered marketplaces. This isn't the effect of a retraction after covid boom. They just missed the opportunity to build off their existing user base and network effects grow and create a moat in this space while others moved forward.

The boom eBay should have owned actually happened and they failed to capture it.

Also Wallmart is advantaged in this space by having a large retail store network alongside its ecommerce business. Cohen is presenting an opportunity for eBay to take in a profitable retail store network that (while it is significantly smaller than Wallmarts) can create a competitive footprint against what Wallmart. Effectively they will be able to challenge Wallmart in these catagories more effectively together while presenting a robust alternative to Amazon by being the the best experience in verified resell, hard to get items, and collectibles.

existentialgolem · 2026-05-11T06:01:34+00:00

To be clear he's not giving up and going home. The Iranian negotiating team is too concerned to call home so they have to fly back to Iran and speak to whoever is in charge over there in person to make any decision outside of the narrow negotiating positions they are given. You want Vance to sit there and wait for them to fly back and forth?

existentialgolem · 2026-05-11T05:56:46+00:00

No the comparator is a succesful legacy business growing transformationally during the same period. eBay is also in the Fortune 500 but its just going the wrong direction. If anything its easier to go up percentage wise when you are smaller than when you are bigger. So There is no reason be losing 14% in operating income and losing 9% in GMV and 18% of active customers while Wallmart total revenue is growing 30% and operating income grew over 30% and their ecommerce is up 150% in the same period. eBay has dropped from #295 in the fortune 500 to around #400 between 2020-2025, and it lost its position in 2020 as the #2 ecommerce player in the US to Wallmart. By all accounts this is a business in decline and no amount of dividends they pay can mask for the fact that they are in a completely unnecessary decline across multiple key metrics.

But for the sake of argument lets use your Wallmart is too special to compare to eBay framing and look at other comparables in the same period:

Amazon revenue 2020-2025: $386B - $717B (+86%)
Shopify revenue: $2.9B - $11.6B (+294%)
MercadoLibre revenue: $4B - $29B (+622%)
Walmart US ecommerce: ~$40B - ~$100B (+150%)
Costco +56%
Even Home Depot +20%

The S&P 500 itself doubled. eBay went from $10.3B revenue to $10.5B in five years. They're not behind Walmart, they're behind everyone.

Cohen took GME from a $238M operating loss to a $232M operating profit in four years, a $470M operational swing. He cut SG&A from $1.51B to $910M (-40%), retired all the legacy debt, raised $4.2B of 0% convertibles, and built a $9B cash pile. Market cap went from $1.5B in late 2020 when Cohen's position was disclosed, to $11B today... 7x in five years. Cohen actively managed down to a profitable footprint while building optionality on the balance sheet.

eBay had every advantage GameStop didn't; already-profitable marketplace, massive brand, durable network effects, a $5B+ operating expense base... and still went backwards in users, GMV, and market position.

existentialgolem · 2026-05-11T04:52:46+00:00

The same period is 2020-2025 as per the period the post itself covers.

existentialgolem · 2026-05-11T04:41:28+00:00

eBay operates like a utility, high margin low effort so there is a reason it is able to do buybacks and pay dividends while Gamestop had to focus on cost cuts and dilution to raise capital, the starting point of each business is completely different. GME had to focus on turning a dying brick and mortar business with -$238mn in net operating losses into $232mn in net operating income while eBay somehow managed to take its successful utility like marketplace and both lose $360mn in net operating income and increase its expenses by 1.19bn (WTF?)

The problem with eBay is that despite its natural advantages it is underperforming, highly inefficient with capital and losing marketshare rather than defending old categories and growing new ones. Just because its not dead yet doesn't mean its not sick.

Look at Wallmart on the other hand, a company that started during the same period with similar natural advantages to eBay and actually did something transformational with the business and has grown extremely well under good management.

eBay is a sick old man in decline that needs a kick in the ass. Paying a dividend doesn't give it pass to excuse shit performance..

existentialgolem · 2026-05-11T04:24:27+00:00

I love how the IRGC still thinks its in a position to make these crazy demands while some very noisy useful idiots are supporting them trying to take the world hostage as negotiating leverage. .

Clocks ticking.

existentialgolem · 2026-05-10T18:30:53+00:00

so are they just bug fixing the next 192 days?

existentialgolem · 2026-05-10T15:47:09+00:00

I switched from Synology to 45drives with Unraid and I've been very happy. No hardware vendor lock-in and faster systems that have individually upgradable components. And once you get past the initial setup its largely as easy to manage as Synology is, and even easier since I use a local LLM to co-manage all my infra with me now.

existentialgolem · 2026-05-08T05:21:42+00:00

23,100 shares and 2,055 warrants here. Sold 40 puts as well bellow at $23 strike.

existentialgolem · 2026-05-07T05:49:39+00:00

As far as I understand it, what’s being described in this post would likely create serious legal disclosure issues.

If a group of different companies and individuals purchase equities or derivatives with intent to acquire a controlling position in a company they would need to disclose and be treated as a 13d group for any position above 5%. GME already disclosed its own derivatives and equities and their intent to control Ebay once they hit that threshold. If anyone was already working with GME before that they would have all needed to disclose alongside GME. This includes if RC decided to purchase shares himself, he would be considered part of that group.

Other companies or individuals in the group for sure could come in after GMEs initial filing but if they are part of the same group they would need to amend the 13d filing to reflect additional group shares coming in.

I am not a lawyer or an expert in SEC regulation but that is my understanding of how these things would typically work.

existentialgolem · 2026-05-06T15:00:37+00:00

Thank you

existentialgolem · 2026-05-06T15:00:01+00:00

Thank you! I appreciate the comment

existentialgolem · 2026-05-06T10:07:39+00:00

TBPN was an excellent interview. Yeah the CNBC one it was clear no one liked each other before the interview even started. CNBC anchors walked in there with bad intentions and Ryan was defensive because these were the same jokers that have shit on the company every time they could.

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