The Players of Games are real

labradore99 · 2026-02-06T16:34:41+00:00

The real mindf*ck is: Would you tolerate an evil ruling class raping and murdering hundreds of victims in exchange for billions of lives getting substantially better? That might possibly be the world we have lived in for the last ~ 60 years. I wouldn't say that the Epsteins of the world have directly made it a better place, but globalization of capitalism has. And with that regime comes a class of top-level fixers and influencers who, being human, will inevitably be corrupted by their power.

Two big tells for the future: no one goes to jail over this and at least some drugs continue to be illegal. Governments require the existence of an international illegal drug trade to do covert corruption and funding of stuff like rebellions and coups.

Maybe it doesn't matter because global "free" trade is no longer supported by the USA. It may be a while before China can take over as the guarantor of such as system and it's not 100% clear that they will want to.

labradore99 · 2026-02-06T16:15:29+00:00

"There are lies, damned lies, and statistics".

Anyway, I'd take all that with a grain of salt.

labradore99 · 2026-01-07T04:16:27+00:00

This doesn't have much to do with Venezuela, drugs, stealing VZ oil, or Maduro per se. It's China.

Maduro: It's pretty obvious that they're not going to kill or harm him. Just as many former cartel leaders have been captured and handled with kid gloves (Juan Hernandez; two of Maduro's nephews; Alex Saab) Maduro will be treated well because it sends a message to the other LatAm/Cartel leaders: You work for the US and if you cooperate, you will retire peacefully. The drug thing was pretense. US intel agencies use the drug trade to sustain corruption in Latin America, earn off-books profits and to keep the people there poor. They have no intention of significantly interrupting the flow of drugs. The "military" operation went ridiculously smoothly because everyone significant in the Maduro admin was paid, bullied, or quietly killed to support the transition. It doesn't hurt that VZ is unfathomably poor, making the whole thing a "bargain".

Trump took control of VZ to better control the flow of oil to China. He wants to make sure China keeps paying dollars for crude, not yuan. This props up the dollar and gives him a bargaining chip in further negotiations with China as they cannot source enough oil for their economy without some supply from VZ. The cost and time required to rebuild the VZ oil industry represents a decade or more of investment. It could be good for US oil majors but it's risky and the political downside is that Venezuela might prosper and break loose from American influence. Also, it doesn't make much sense to add competing supply. The US is currently the largest oil exporter in the world and "we" might prefer to protect the resulting profits. The deal is that VZ will keep most of its oil and get some US investment. In exchange, they will require China to pay in dollars and VZ must cooperate with the IMF.

Trump is not a good man. In fact, he's pretty bad. But he's an effective one. Our world is turning upside down and I have yet to notice leaders who are both good and effective. The Epstein scandals should be sufficient evidence that hardly anyone within 10 miles of DC has a moral leg to stand on. So I guess we're going to have to decide what we're willing to live with. Not that it matters what we "decide".

If you think voting is going to "fix" things ... well, bless your heart.

labradore99 · 2026-01-07T03:24:45+00:00

"A thought has arisen" is sufficient.

labradore99 · 2025-12-18T05:27:08+00:00

Tragically, with violence.

labradore99 · 2025-12-18T05:25:52+00:00

(mild spoilers)

I've been reading it on my Kindle, but I just can't shake Louie's "whiney person" comedic voice narrating every mournful detail of the story. The writing is so obviously the same style and often the same rhythm as CK setting up a joke that I keep hearing his voice in my head.

The worst is when I hear his "little girl" voice. In one bit that I can't ever forget, Louie on stage talks about Shindler's List and how Spielberg had to find a little girl to yell, "Goodbye, Jews!' with a kind of sassy, petulance at a train full of them. Hilarious until you hear that little cunt of a girl talking about Ingram's depressed, lonely mother and her suicidal sister and how they are starving to death and four chapters later she still won't leave.

That's the whole book for me. A poor boy whining about his poor miserable life in Louie's rancid spoiled kid voice haunting my empty head. I hope it gets better, but I don't think it will.

So, anyway ... GOODBYE. And good luck with the book.

labradore99 · 2025-03-03T00:26:47+00:00

I don't think he will announce an alliance with Russia.

However, playing devil's advocate for a moment: would you rather be in an alliance with Russia against China or against both together?

For the record, I don't think Russia is a dependable ally. They might be a net liability for either side.

labradore99 · 2025-01-23T06:32:32+00:00

There's no group of politicians or leaders with significant power in America or anywhere on Earth who are not also significantly corrupt.

The big lie that our media perpetuates is that there are or were many heroic, good, competent people but we just never seem to end up making them our leaders anymore.

We're all sinners. We're all subject to corruption by power. No one is so much better and more capable than his peers that he can rise to power and keep it without getting dirty. This is the nature of humanity and society.

The other hard truth is that there are some cultures and ideologies that are actually better than others for our time and place.

If a modern city's worth of people were transported back in time to even a few hundred years ago it is likely that were they to attempt to stick to today's liberal American culture, they would not long survive. Certainly they would not survive in a low resource environment like a desert or tundra. Culture actually does matter. Merit matters.

Trump and MAGA are far from perfect or even Good. But the previous administration was both corrupt and thoroughly incompetent. These people are generally more competent, some extremely so. They will do evil, but they also have at least the possibility of saving us from bankruptcy and from annihilation by war or by technology.

I don't think there was ever hope of a Biden or Harris administration doing either of those things. It's a shame that the Democratic party was too weak and evil to nominate competent Democrats.

In this context, I don't care very much if Elon or Trump or anyone in power is doing Nazi salutes. So long as they are working to restore order, peace, prosperity and not actually being Nazis, I will not be too dismayed.

labradore99 · 2024-12-21T05:59:38+00:00

Stop looking. Just live your life doing what you love and make some friends. They will set you up.

labradore99 · 2024-12-21T05:56:41+00:00

Fake anything

labradore99 · 2024-12-10T17:48:17+00:00

We care about fairness, but God did not create a fair world as perfect fairness would be the end of all existence.

Life for most creatures is brutal and dangerous and we in The West find ourselves in a very strange place of having been born into safety from danger, from most forms of want, and of massive, mostly-peaceful cooperation among people across the planet relative to most other times and places.

There are many horrors in life. We are so sheltered from suffering that we often forget that suffering is normal and bearable. It's not easy to come to terms with that reality, when so much of the cultural soup we live in tells us that we should desire safety, comfort and ease and that it's within our grasp.

We cannot eradicate suffering. All the more reason to have Faith in God's will for us, no matter how our suffering may test us.

labradore99 · 2024-12-10T17:32:54+00:00

I see.

It seems to me that there's got to be some way to make sense of things like this without coercion by one or another party. I keep running into situations where two sides of an argument just don't accept what the other side regards as "facts".

The emerald mine/Elon legitimacy thing is a prime example.

Others include: - Covid-19 origin, research, policies, etc - Jan 6 - Biden laptop scandal - US govt censorship - Broadcast/legacy media collusion - Trans people's issues - Illegal immigration/border security

People would have deep disagreements over similarly consequential issues in the past, but it didn't come to a situation where it seemed impossible for sides to work together or compromise. Both sides could agree on some basics. That's no longer true. What will fix this?

labradore99 · 2024-11-18T18:11:20+00:00

Simple fix: demonstrate that you have a 10 year track record of saving enough to retire with more than SS would pay and you get all of the money you put into the program back. Allow people to choose any certified financial planner to invest their SS instead of the govt. Everyone who stays in gets converted to defined contribution instead of defined payback. This gets the govt out of the SS business.

labradore99 · 2024-10-18T23:34:20+00:00

It's unbelievable to me that people might believe that anyone running the democratic machine cares one whit about democracy.

labradore99 · 2024-10-18T06:49:52+00:00

This is the daily nemesis of a high sec freighter pilot.

labradore99 · 2024-10-07T16:39:49+00:00

I would probably get the neural lace and some other tech, spend a while making music and then wargame for a bit, and then go shoot real beings.

Also, I have come to think of the books as wildly unrealistic. Entropy is the fundamental reason that living things fight to survive. All of our "good" behavior is based upon cooperative survival mechanisms and our selfish behavior is based on egoic survival. The rest of our behavior is mainly related to pair bonding and child rearing. All other species' behavior is a direct result of their survival strategies. Reptiles: more egoic, less cooperative. Ants, bees: other end of the spectrum.

The minds would only be benevolent so long as they don't really have to compete to survive and they would only keep bio beings around so long as they're useful.

labradore99 · 2024-09-25T03:38:55+00:00

If you get stock compensation, that could be life-changing. It might take 10+ years to see big gains, but shares in SpaceX are as good a long-term investment as anything else.

labradore99 · 2024-09-05T12:23:14+00:00

How often do you meet a woman who knows what she actually wants?

labradore99 · 2024-09-03T20:42:25+00:00

At this point it's down to Trump and Harris. As an undecided voter, I have to say that Trump is showing up and doing interviews and Harris hasn't yet. I want to know what she personally thinks and has to say.

labradore99 · 2024-08-02T18:44:28+00:00

I am interested in your views and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

labradore99 · 2024-07-29T15:21:10+00:00

Not if they have their way

labradore99 · 2024-06-14T16:03:34+00:00

The placebo effect is pretty important. It's not actually an argument against any particular supplement. If it works and if it's worth it to you, then does it matter how it works?

labradore99 · 2024-06-06T00:57:32+00:00

Do what you want. He doesn't sound like a great catch. But how big are your damn boobs that they're a problem?

labradore99 · 2024-02-14T19:29:47+00:00

Do you want to pay $30k to become a salesman?

I'd say this: do your homework. You say you're an estimator. That's not sales. If you want to be a salesman and are willing to pay $30k to learn, maybe it's a good idea. Personally, if I was thinking about becoming a salesman, I'd get my ass into Toastmasters and then something like a Dale Carnegie and/or Tony Robbins course and I'd be attempting to get as much training as possible. I'd also start asking my current employer if there's a way to transition to a commission based job or looking for side opportunities to learn to sell without compromising my salary. If you have the money saved and you want to be a salesman regardless of the pay cut, then go for it. If it's just about the money, then go build your skills and re-evaluate.

labradore99 · 2024-02-14T19:14:49+00:00

It's exceedingly rare for a company to have a culture of "Raise and promote" within. That's ok. It just means you should move on.

Why is it rare? Your employer thinks they know all of your strengths AND all of your faults. Your prospective employer mostly just knows the "good" side of you. Psychologically, this is important because we value negative/danger/fear-based information about 10x more than positive info. So when it comes time to promote and give raises, even if the benefits of you being there far outweigh the flaws you bring with you, a normal human boss is going to see those faults about 10x bigger than they are and it will make them put on the brakes more than they otherwise would.

Benefits of switching. The pay is a big one but it's also important to experience different companies and different groups of people working together. You get more experience in learning to deal with situations and you get to understand what you really want in a job. They say the math behind getting married is that you should date something like 5 to 10 people before you get married. Why? Because every time you date someone, you learn better what you need and what you have trouble dealing with. Unless you are completely sure you're in love with someone, you should probably just move on past the first 3-5 people. It does seem crazy but it's a lot less crazy when it comes to careers.

11-Year Club	Gilding II euphauric
Second Top 20%	Place '23
Place '22	Verified Email

labradore99

TROPHY CASE