> All Republican congressmen are idiots.

This is a dangerous attitude. They may do idiotic things, and certainly some of them are absolutely anti-science loons, but every single thing the GOP does is in service of the overriding goal of regulatory capture. And there is a lot of brainpower behind all of this.

They don't want to fix anything. They want to break our government so that the GOP can point to the shambles and yell "See? It needs to be drowned in the bathtub, like St. Grover Norquist says!" and then attempt to hand the whole shebang over to their billionaire master/donors as private enterprise.

Regulatory capture is the goal. That's the true endgame. But they need to break democracy to do that.

They do that in a million little ways, by a thousand cuts, and it's a plan that's not only backed by billions of dollars from American oligarchs but is orchestrated and anchored by hundreds of think tanks. It's an ideology of pure greed that is propped up by shady organizations like the Federalist Society (to train up hyperconservative/extreme libertarian justices), REDMAP (to gerrymander everything), and ALEC (to allow corporations and lobbyists to directly write bills that benefit the wealthiest members of the corporate world).

What's going on with Walker and in several state legislatures is about breaking democracy. The GOP-manufactured deadlock over a ridiculous wall we don't need and subsequent shutdown are more ways to pretend that democracy doesn't work while in actuality it is simply being subverted by the bad actors in the GOP.

edit: for the "this is some kooky conspiracy theory" scoffers: no, it really isn't. This is all observable stuff that is being done openly at this point. A very good recent book on the topic is Jane Mayer's <em>Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right</em>.

According to the dictators handbook: https://www.amazon.com/Dictators-Handbook-Behavior-Almost-Politics/dp/1610391845

You should always pay your military.

Edit: if you are like me, then you will read this book and think HTF is Trump president when he is a complete idiot to these rules? Well, sadly, it all makes sense if Trump isn't the 'real' leader here..

Just want to encourage anyone who hasn't yet read it to tuck into Jane Mayer's amazing book <em>Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right</em>. It's easily one of the most important books of investigative political reporting released in the past decade.

She's one of our very best. If our system survives this stress test, it will be in large part because of the fearless and comprehensive journalism done by her and others like her.

edit: needed more coffee to write rite

EDIT: Just got permabanned and muted from this sub specifically for this comment. Speaks volumes, I'd say :/

r/kochwatch

https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Money-History-Billionaires-Radical/dp/0307947904

https://www.reddit.com/r/Libertarian/comments/aa6fb1/we_need_term_limits_for_congress/ecr3gmm/

TP USA, Ben Shapiro, and others are all funded by the Koch Brothers.

Big money and cronyism is paying for these right-wing nutjob cockpuppets to "own" college students and drum up fake support for "classical liberalism" and "preserving western civilization".

Lauren Southern's in on it. Jordan Peterson's in on it with his "intellectual dark web", gimme a fucking break. Steven Crowder's in on it as well.

It's all a marionette puppet show, and the Kochs are pulling at the strings.

Jane Mayer's Dark Money should be assigned reading for all Americans. Koch's are the architects but by no means are they alone!

You can't directly help, but there are things you can do: Learn. Understand why this is happening and how to fight it. Then, teach.

The book "The Dictator's Handbook" by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita (Amazon link (non-affiliate)) completely changed how I process information about these kinds of things. It talks at length about protests in dictatorships, why they happen, and why they sometimes don't happen. How governments fight them. How and why our own governments sometimes help and sometimes don't.

I really, really highly recommend it.

Sure. There are two books that are worth reading on the subject: Dark Money by Jane Mayer and Democracy in Chains by Nancy MacLean. Basically, for the last fifty years, a relatively small group of obscenely wealthy Americans has been pouring money into pushing the overton window to the right so that their libertarian ideals would become mainstream today instead of radical. It was essentially a response to the New Deal and what they saw as the spread of government totalitarianism. Through non-profit groups, university grants, SuperPACs, and other channels, they spread their ideas by educating new generations of young conservatives and getting radical right-wing politicians elected.

It has been depressingly effective. Right now we have wealth and income inequality worse than it's been in 100 years, but people are still afraid of "socialism," even when such policies would help the vast majority of Americans. But the wealthy have a lot of people convinced that the government can't be trusted and should have as little control over the economy as possible. So they can pay their workers peanuts, ignore environmental damage, avoid taxes, and spend billions on lobbying because they have people convinced that they should be allowed to because that's what liberty means.

This isn't some conspiracy theory either, this is actually happening. It is well documented. It's honestly terrifying and it is going to keep going until more Americans realize just how badly they're getting screwed. This has happened before too. The Progressive Era came after the Gilded Age and the New Deal came after the Great Depression, so we may be seeing such a shift happening already, but it's still going to be an uphill fight.

That's when the Koch noise machine kicked into high gear and hammered down on moving goalposts and gaslighting.

I encourage everyone to read or listen to <em>Dark Money</em> by Jane Mayer sooner rather than later.

If you want to hear more about this I recommend "Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right". Unfortunately - seminars like this are only the tip of the ice-berg. There are huge ideological enterprises set up with goal of establishing "beach-heads" at prestigious universities by setting up private organizations that are attached to the university but paid to publish certain results. Their role is usually to promote free markets and encourage the inclusion of economic costs in law (not just public good). The Mercatus Institute is another example of one of these privately-funded-but-publicly-housed organizations. They're the guys who made news a few months ago when they published a study on Bernie Sander's medicare-for-all plan that showed that even though it was expensive - it was still cheaper than what we're spending now.

I am a capitalist and made good money in business. I hate what has happened at the top of the economic ladder.

Some of the ultra-wealthy have used their money/power/influence to corrupt our systems. The Kochs are a prime example. For decades now, they have been creating think-tanks (hundreds) that promote their propaganda, anti-environment, anti-welfare, pro-fossil-fuel. They have also bought many of our elected officials by paying, through PACs, for their election. Those who don't play ball get "primaried" as the Kochs fund their replacements. It's largely been responsible for the lack of integrity of our elected officials today.

Their efforts have also helped to change the court system in America, by helping fund the appointment of numerous lifetime appointees who are beholden to their causes.

This is not capitalism. This is blatant abuse of the system and perversion of our government/society for their own benefit. They care not a bit about those below them except insofar as they manipulate them to cast their votes for the pawns of their choice.

Tons of details in two excellent books:

Dark Money - Jane Mayer

Democracy in Chains - Nancy MacLean

Hijacking top comment for extremely relevant obligatory plug:

Everyone should read Jane Mayer's <em>Dark Money</em> to better understand the Kochs and other ultra far right billionaires who have subverted our democracy

I would not call Trump himself an outright fascist—but he's certainly a nativist anti-intellectual demagogue, with strong authoritarian tendencies, who's fanning and manipulating ethno-nationalist resentment.

I'd call Trumpism is a proto-fascist movement.

Here's Robert Paxton's definition from The Anatomy of Fascism—the best I've come across:

"A form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion."

Speaking of the Koch Brothers, eeryone should read Jane Mayer's <em>Dark Money</em>.

It is absolutely essential reading for understanding what has happened to the Republican party and our greater political zeitgeist.

The best one I've seen so far is Robert Paxton's definition from The Anatomy of Fascism:

>"A form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion."

Dude, hate to break it, but high school never ends.

Wait 'till you get in the workplace.

But MGTOW gives you power.

Also read 48 Laws of Power. Lots of good advice.

It would be naive to assume he's actually killing drug dealers. I recommend The Dictator's Handbook before making any assumptions about why a dictator is allowing violence against a group.

https://www.amazon.com/Dictators-Handbook-Behavior-Almost-Politics/dp/1610391845

For example, let's say an earthquake hits your country and affects 100,000 people on the verge of starvation. Let's say 50,000 support you and 50,000 don't. Guess who isn't getting a single dollar of relief regardless of how much money streams in from Western charities.

Everyone should read New Yorker writer Jane Mayer's book about the Kochs and (to a lesser extent) other far-right billionaires, Dark Money.

For a contemporary view, Dark Money by Jane Mayer.

For a historical perspective, Democracy in Chains by Nancy MacLean.

Actually don't need to be tech-savvy, just economic-savvy(and if you're in this sub without knowing basic economics, you get McNuked :3).

Bitcoin mining can use various types of hardware to mine(including Graphic Processing Units/GPUs, such as the GTX 1080s in the OP).

Thus, demand for GPUs has increased. What happens to prices when demand increases?

That is why OP is butthurt about Bitcoin.

^(or the shortages in case there wasn't a price increase)

Trump has learned a lot from authoritarian, corrupt leaders throughout history. His playbook is literally from stuff like this https://www.amazon.com/Dictators-Handbook-Behavior-Almost-Politics/dp/1610391845

For reference, here's Prof. Robert Paxton's excellent definition from The Anatomy of Fascism:

>"A form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion."

We're not there yet, but this thing is blossoming.

> The U.K. has an armed ruling class and disarmed citizenry, which supports this. > > So... Like most of the world outside of the US?

I'm fairly certain that's not true. An armed citizenry raises the opportunity cost of establishing martial law, which is good for helping establish a government with more freedoms. Soldiers willing to shoot at and be shot by their neighbors cost more than soldiers who aren't willing to do that.

Jane Mayer, <em>Dark Money</em>

Nancy MacLean, <em>Democracy in Chains</em>

This is well-documented and reported. Please do some reading, specifically on John Olin and the Koch Brothers and James Buchanan and the neoliberal Mont Pelerin Society hostile takeover of higher education and public discourse in general. Even the Tea Party was astroturfed.

It's perfectly legal.

I'd encourage everyone to read this book who hasn't already.

Available on audiobook too if that's your bag. Very well researched.

I highly recommend /u/BadgerKomodo reads this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Liberal-Fascism-American-Mussolini-Politics/dp/0767917189

In great detail it explains how leftist ideologies feed a cycle of empowering governments to seize rights, stifle political speech, eliminate the ability for it's people to defend itself and subsequently the slow descent into totalitarian nightmares.

With countless real world examples of leftist ideologies leading to totalitarian dictatorships the book is well received by critics.

Republicans have been pushing the idea that Nazi’s we’re liberals for over a decade now. https://www.amazon.com/Liberal-Fascism-American-Mussolini-Politics/dp/0767917189

The craziest part isn’t even that this book got written. It’s that the right wing in America today shuns the author for not supporting Trump enough. Its crazy how far removed they’ve become from reality, even in just the last decade.

Unfortunately, after having read this book, I don't know what to do to combat the current system. It's been decades in the making and is now bought and paid for.

After reading The Fourth Turning and witnessing what has occurred the last 4 years and is currently happening now, yes. It was written in the 90s and predicted a great possibility of a WW2 type event sometime around 2020-2024. It posits it based on natural historical cycles and gives tons of proof and evidence, beyond conjecture. 9/11 came like being sucker punched and no one really had premonitions but now, you can feel it in the air. Heavy.

The only time that happens is when the military allows the people to storm the established regime - almost always because the established regime didn't give the military leaders enough money. Typical people cannot, have not, and will never destroy a standing state army.

Relevant CGP Grey video for clarity, but honestly the book Dictator's Handbook is much more thorough.

The Book he based that off of is called The Dictator's Handbook. Its his primary source, and is fantastic.

Been listening to it on my way to work over the last 3 weeks.

Read it, or be like me and listen to it.