#COVID Fund Scam | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

aboringredmop · 2 months ago

Text

k still don't know how im gonna post the videos (YouTube? unlisted?someone please help) but I can't sleep so I thought it'd write down whatever I remember happening!

(edit: here's the full recording! )

Becky and Joe walked on stage wearing sunglasses and red leather jackets and threw 3 of the trio plushies into the crowd. didn't get one unfortunately but it's really cool some people got free plushies :)

they made this robot child called the Inspiration Child, who's clearly meant to be a nod to ai (can learn from our show and generate it's own content!)

they explained how they met (and had some dodgy animated retelling), and how they started with small projects like commercials and music videos, until they came up with designs of the trio (and a mysterious fourth fella)

they made the designs first, then made the set, then the song and finally wrote the script for creativity. red guy was just a red mop head with legs at first ("alien squid thing") but Joe put the red guy head on for shits and giggles once and Becky thought it was hilarious so they kept it in the show

they were really not expecting it to blow up, and when Sundance called because they wanted to show creativity Becky thought it was a scam caller lol

they talked about the kickstarter and the credit card fraud kid. the mailed him saying "hey maybe dont do that" but the kid didnt know how to undo it cuz he just found a website full of credit card information and went ham, so Becky and Joe had to contact kickstarter because people were pulling out of the funding because they thought the project was overfunded (kickstarter was very difficult to contact)

they also made (lighthearted) fun of nsfw fluffybird art ((no padlock 😔) "using OUR characters to act out their SICK FANTASIES" - Becky) and theorists, especially because most if not all of the webseries is just them fucking around.

Inspiration Child also says something along the lines of "wow what a cool show with a great message of how corrupt the media is. I hate the media!"

Becky and Joe had these rules to make the show as vague as possible (no pop culture references, no names, no swearing and way too much detail put into small things)(the duck guy drag queen absolutely obliterates the no swearing rule lol)

they talk about the pilot, how they focused too much on the story because they felt like they had to due to it being on the big screen now, and how it ended up ruining the atmosphere and such of the pilot. they did show the entire thing sped up but my phone sucks ass so I could not get it to focus correctly. I'll see what I can salvage so you people can dissect frames of your blorbo you're Legally Not Allowed To See (which is also the official reason we don't get the pilot)

also pilot concept art showed that Mean Steve is in fact just called Key

they showed a whole post-it wall full of ideas for the tv show. don't know how much I got on footage, but what stood out most to me were 2 episodes called Money and Christmas. Joe mentioned "clock in a wheelchair" specifically

also really fun fact. Becky made the Lesley suit during covid, and pretty much threatened Baker into writing a human character into the show to wear it. concept art also shows Lesley with a mask made out of the same fabric, don't know if this was part of the original suit tho

they showed Warrens old models (?). he was gonna be a wayy more ugly looking silicone pug-worm thing y'all got lucky with the bald fuck

lily and todney were directly based off of some cancelled show about two porcelain doll children with panda parents. do not for the life of me remember what it was called but Becky and Joe were very enthousiastic about it (UPDATE: Candy and Andy!)

international release of the show soon!

Inspiration Child talks about what he's learned and sings a little song, then generates his own dhmis inspired content of a cult meeting in a forest at night. the dhmis Discord server called this "potential new content" but I doubt it

3 cultists walk on stage, face the screen backs to the crowd, drop their cloaks and boom! drag queens!!!

they were not mentioned on the site or during earlier parts of the show at all so they were a complete surprise. I asked Becky about it later during the night and she said she really wanted them there, so she asked and they were excited to! hope this means more official content with them soon I love them

they dance to There's Three Of Us, then Duck lipsings the shredder song which turns into a techno remix while Red and Yellow dance during the background

then Duck and Yellow make out while Red tries to undress to the instrumentals of the Fucked Up Part of Creativity but can't get out of his suit on time before the song ends

the drag queens, Becky and Joe and the Inspiration Child walk around during the meet and greet later and I got signatures from all of them! except inspiration child he didn't have thumbs

the drag queens were so fucking funny. Duck adopted inspiration child and loudly yelled at everyone to "GET AWAY FROM MY FUCKING CHILD" (their duck voice is sooo good). yellow stood in a corner staring at a wall for like 10 minutes and red was constantly awkwardly hovering just outside the frames of pictures (and also could not see shit lmao)

Becky liked my shirt! (the one with the melting trio heads) said she handdrew it

I'll post the signatures and some more stuff tomorrow because it is. 5 am

edit Heres the signatures! yellow guys is Italian I think? and means hi I love you :)

(the liyskaen is duck trying to spell my name. they got pretty close)

#dhmis #dont hug me im scared

73 notes · View notes

manorpunk · 1 month ago

Text

Teach Me, Maria-sensei! 6️⃣

Usonia is a supranational union of states, roughly akin to the European Union, located within the former contiguous United States (often called the ‘former 48’) as well as parts of Canada. It was formed as a joint effort between the major post-crisis states (New England, the Great Lakes Republic, Texaplex, the Chicago Daimyoate, Tripartite California, etc) in the hopes that a centralized authority would bring order to the vast and ungoverned Midwest Autonomous Zone, and because the respective heads of state all agreed that it should be someone else’s problem. It remains to be seen whether the election of Sunny Roosevelt as the first president of Usonia has thrown a wrench into those plans.

+++++

Maria: So here’s the thing. All of this didn’t have to spell the end for the federal government. Zombie Covid, the Yellowstone eruption, Florida sinking… These were all bad and killed lots of people, of course, but it doesn’t necessarily follow that the government would collapse.

Sunny: Was it a straw that broke the camel’s back type of deal?

Maria: Partly, perhaps, but that’s not where I’m going with this. You see, at the time, the American aristocracy was storing a significant amount of their wealth in the form of real estate, for boring and complicated reasons. The destruction of the Polycrisis quite literally wiped a significant portion of their assets off the map. Property values plummeted across much of the nation, and hundreds of billions of dollars in wealth evaporated essentially overnight. This activated a panic amongst the billionaire class, who, fearing total societal breakdown and/or any repercussions at all for their actions, preëmptively retreated to their specially prepared underground bunkers, each containing their own small town of support staff, effectively immune from government intervention - though they were not immune to angry mobs, as they would learn in the forties.

Sunny: That’s the 2040s, because we’re in the future.

Maria: Have you seen the footage where [REDACTED] gets dragged out of his saferoom and publicly cannibalized?

Sunny: Omg my gosh, who hasn’t seen that? So bonkers.

Maria: It’s so good. But in any case, it was that withdrawal of support and psuedo-independence of the billionaire class, resulting from the destruction of property being used not for housing but as wealth storage, which ultimately broke the back of the federal government, or in other words… America died as a real estate scam.

Sunny: Callback!

Maria: In the immediate aftermath of the federal government’s collapse, the state governments attempted to pick up the slack. Results were mixed, in the sense that everyone failed at it but some people failed harder than others. The larger and more populous states had a better chance, but they were all dealing with their own problems - California was dealing with the Jefferson rebellion, Texas was caught up in the Norteño wars, and New York was being constantly harassed by the murine legions of Grunst the Rat-King.

Sunny: Didn’t Grunst run for lord-mayor of New York back in the fifties?

Maria: Indeed. Honestly he wouldn’t have even been in the bottom third of New York mayors.

Sunny: That’s the 2050s, because-

Maria: You did that joke already.

Sunny: It’s a good joke, Maria.

Maria: Anyway, the less populous states in the Midwest and Great Plains barely even managed an attempt at independent governance before any semblance of central government disappeared and the situation deteriorated into general banditry and warlordism.

Sunny: Okay, I get why all that happened, sorta, but how did it all happen so quickly?

Maria: There are two reasons. One, smaller states were more dependent on the federal government to provide funding for services like healthcare and education, and secondly… I’ll put it this way. If you had to choose who was in charge, and your choices were an ax-wielding Mad Max biker or, say, an average member of the Nebraska state government, which would you pick?

Sunny: …

Sunny: …ough, that’s grim.

#teach me maria sensei #sunny roosevelt #maria lorraine

15 notes · View notes

whyisstarkidfollowingmeshoo · 3 months ago

Text

Speaking of that RENT show with Jeff Blim…

Jeff revealed they still owe him $1,000 for the job. It's nuts. It's crazy. Watch starting on 1:37:03 mark below.

youtube

A while ago, I posted on my main blog about another artist not getting paid fairly, but that was by a big corporate company. It reminded me that Jeff wasn’t paid for his role as Roger for a small independent theater company. Big or small, companies should pay their workers (contractual or not) fairly.

The company behind the RENT show — I may have their name wrong, tho — is called Cupcake Theater. I don’t know if Jeff will ever work for them again, but it's not like he was happy to mention that he hasn't been paid yet. That said, he did share that he was happy to perform in the musical after the whole COVID pandemic, and that in some way, it was kind of like payment.

Also, let me remind you that Jeff and Jon Matteson raised a lot of money on Twitch to continue the RENT show, so it’s wild that the company still hasn’t paid the artist who helped them keep it going. And honestly, a lot of people probably watched the show because of Jeff. The most viewed videos on LA TheatreSource’s YouTube channel features, you gueeeessseddd it!!!"

Also, they used videos of Jeff for marketing on IG. They knew he has a bigger fanbase than the others, so it’s verrrry contradictory that they didn’t pay him — especially since that kinda goes against the show’s message. Maybe. Kinda. I’ve only read the summary and watched bits of RENT, so yeah.

Jeff wasn’t mad or anything, maybe just disappointed, but it would be nice to hear that he finally got paid, even if it’s a delayed payment from back in 2022 or whenever. IDK. Like, what the fuck? Don’t scam your artists.

Anyway, I hope this doesn’t blow up into something negative (did not expect this to get so long either), because Jeff was pretty chill about it, despite still being owed $1,000. But maybe him being so nonchalant about it is part of the reason why he still hasn’t been paid. Or maybe he got tired of following them up about it and gave up and swore not to work with them again, and hopefully told other artists. But unfortunately Cupcake Theater is still pretty active.

Also yeah if anyone from Cupcake Studios is reading this, please pay Jeff or else (lol jk but srsly tho what the fuck. He said he hasn't been paid yet. What's your side of the story?)

Jeff Blim, you beautiful, stupid, scammed artist. You need that $1,000 for your coffee fund. It’s the only thing that makes you happy during your livestreams.

Anyway, here's Wonderwall.

youtube

#jeff blim #jeff blim livestream #jon matteson #a teensy jon matteson mention because that really spreads the message sorry jon matteson fans but this post is more about his buddy #cupcake studios' rent #cupcake studios #RENT #LA Theater #Los Angeles theater #independent theater #fair pay #don't get scammed get paid #one song glory #Youtube #roger davis rent #oh I just realized something since Jeff is such a rich Taurus he doesn't need the money hahahaaha tell that to your socks with holes

12 notes · View notes

magz · 1 year ago

Text

Post Banner Image: Magz art of a black angel. Icon image: art by zephyo, a dark skin girl with braids that look like the morning sky.

Introduction Post

Magz / Entropy. 👤

Mid-20s. Mixed Black. TME. Taken.

Mute / Non-Speaking / Non-Verbal*.

"Third World". Multiply Disabled. Pro-Palestine 🇵🇸.

About Page. | Links Page.

Support: Main Financial Stability Fund Post.

Status: [OFFLINE + QUEUE + ASKS OFF] Hiatus, login infrequent.

[hiatus] Art Livestreams, Wednesdays (sometimes) ~3:30pm AST - Youtube & Twitch.

For safety: Because of neuro-cognitive disability - will not spread personal donation posts from people we don't know / don't recognize / not vetted by others, anymore.

other than LinkTree for link page

Open Source, or Free Access / "Alternatives to"

Paywal Removal (not by Magz)

Mullvad Browser: Alternative To Incognito Mode

Magz Search Engine (Not Google. Temporarily unavailable/deleted. other public searxng instances until then)

Open Source Note Apps - Alternatives to "Notion"

Home Assistant - Open Source Alternative to Amazon Echo (not magz post)

Google Suite "Free" Alternatives

Free + Free Trial AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) Apps for Android Device

non-social media book tracking app / site: candlapp.com

alternatives to amazon book stuff (not by magz)

Alternative to pantone - amend

- Tips for Google Chrome users to Firefox n de-Google

Disability and Tips

Disabled Cooking and Eating (not by Magz)

Disabled Cooking Book (not by Magz)

Image Description Primer (not by Magz)

Psych Ward Alternatives: Peer Respite and Safer Hotlines List (not by Magz)

"Critical Thinking" Sheet - Transcribed (not by Magz)

Donate Your Voice For Disabled People - VocalID (Clarification Against Misinformation)

"The Long Covid Survival Guide" Book

"How to Adult" when no one taught you - Books

ADHD, Executive Dysfunction. "How to fix 'waiting mode'" (Transcribed)

"Pay the ADHD tax upfront" (not Magz post)

"The Half Year Reset: How to turn your year around" Guide (Transcribed)

Autism Terminology Masterpost (not by Magz)

The People's CDC - International Covid Information And Safety (not by Magz)

myalgic encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue, or ME/CFS. And "pacing" (not by Magz)

Grip toggle aid tool (not by Magz)

mental health - self-care assessment (not by magz)

Tip: easy general cleaner for metal and other material

Art & Crafts

Art References (not by Magz)

basics: draw mobility aids (not by Magz)

make plushie pattern from 3d model (not by magz) / site: https://plushify.net/

Leftism

"The War on everyone" - Identify Modern Fascism

U.S. and U.K: Join the IWW union

History & Culture

1800s jewish books GDrive (not by magz)

history: sephardic and mizrahi jewish (not by magz)

#pinned post #(*used be able speak.) take neuro meds + at-home language therapy + use tools - for ability text good n think good. whatever.#from global south. have progressive disability + multiple disability. am sexy. etc.#o post #new pin post

126 notes · View notes

longwindedbore · 17 days ago

Text

I could be wrong but here’s a SCENARIO ~ With EXPORTS being 40% of US manufacturing…it’s more likely than not that Tariffs will be ignored in the Second Term like ‘Mexico will pay for the Wall’ was in the First Term.

A Threat sparks INFLATION

In the Second Term the INFLATION driven by the Threat of Tariffs could provide a rational for cutting PAYROLL TAXES to ‘give’ the Consumers more money to deal with inflation.

Some businesses are already raising prices because, y’know, Tariffs R Coming.

Inflation leads to ENDING SOCIAL SECURITY

Of course the Payroll Taxes cut will be those for SOCIAL SECURITY and MEDICARE.

[Trump discontinued collection by Executive Order on 2020 as part of his Covid ‘response’]

Cutting SSI & Medicare will ALSO give an equal tax break to businesses which pay the other half.

SSI and Medicare collected in any year pay for the next year. There isn’t any investment in the US or in any of the several dozen countries that provide general retirement through taxes. But good luck trying to explain that to USAmericans.

As the ‘terminal events’ for Retirees increase due to Seniors being unable to afford medical costs, let alone housing or food, additional cuts will become ‘reasonable’.

Endin SSI leads to RETIREMENT FUNDS in the STOCK MARKET

Eventually, ‘retirement’ funding will be transferred to the Rich Caste’s greatest Ponzi Scheme: keeping the Stock Market expanding by continuous influx of ‘investors’ 401ks and IRAs

‘Investments’ managed by the Nepo-baby Kleptocracy of ‘Ivy League Legacies’. Investments which the ‘investors’ can’t withdraw until they retire.

WHAT ABOUT MARKET CORRECTIONS?

Alas, periodical there will be a major STOCK MARKET CRASHES that will result in ‘Corrections’.

Generally CORRECTIONS involve is a BIG INCREASE in the NATIONAL DEBT to bail out the Finance Sector.

Unfortunately the Corrections only have “Thoughts and Prayers’ for the ‘investors’ whose retirement funds will be wiped out.

Like my and my wife’s 401k savings evaporated in the Crash of 2008.

Although we and everyone else lost most of it, the Bush Administration was able to create an $8 Trillion loan out of thin air to bail out the banks whose ‘sub-par dirivatives’ scam had crashed the worldwide economy.

BUT, the Bush Admin spread the bailout (or the recording of it) through 2014 so that the apparent blame for the increase fell on the next Admin.

Market Corrections leads to the 99.9% GETTING SHAFTED

3 notes · View notes

darkmaga-returns · 5 days ago

Text

By Deane Waldman, M.D., Vance Ginn

A recent post-election doomsday headline reads, “Trump’s White House return poised to tangle health care safety net.” The following are quotes from the litany of dire predictions that Trump will destroy the Medicaid safety net.

“...increase uninsured rate”;

“...create new barriers to abortion”;

“...erode...[ACA]...consumer protections”;

“...insert work requirements into Medicaid”;

“...impose funding cuts to the safety net insurance”;

“...challenge federal agencies that safeguard public health.”

The last is particularly egregious after the immense medical, financial, and societal harm done to the American people during the COVID scam by the FDA, CDC and NIH, the very agencies tasked with “safeguard[ing] public health.” Challenge is the least that should be done to them.

Rather than disprove the above accusations in detail, consider why and how the U.S. medical safety net is indeed a tangled, complex, inefficient structure that spends too much and doesn’t provide adequate medical care. Answer: Washington. The federal government is constantly over-regulating Medicaid and Medicare so that medical care becomes increasingly less accessible while spending insane amounts of taxpayer dollars doing it.

The original 1965 Medicaid medical safety net was intended “to increase benefits [for a small number of Americans] under the Old-age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance System.” In 1966, four million Americans were enrolled in Medicaid. With repeated federal expansion of eligibility rules over 57 years, the Medicaid safety net covered 92.3 million Americans — 27.6 percent of the entire population — by December 2022.

Not only did CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid) greatly expand eligibility over the years, it also increased benefits. The resulting medical costs of the program skyrocketed to consume 10 percent of the entire U.S. budget in 2023.

2 notes · View notes

mariacallous · 1 year ago

Text

It only took a jury four hours to decide that former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried had committed large-scale fraud—and that included their dinner break. Leading politicians, investors, and observers, not to mention a number of high-profile journalists, in contrast, managed to stay oblivious to it for years. Two recent books illustrate how and why he got away with it, at least for a while.

The first one, Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon by Michael Lewis, illustrates it by example. Early reviews alerted me that the book took a charitable view of SBF and his enterprise, and yet I still struggled to believe what I was reading as I started making my way through it. The preface is a flashback to 2021. Interesting, I thought—Lewis is taking us back to the day when he fell for SBF’s narrative of crypto-fueled do-goodery. That assessment was overly optimistic.

The first real chapter of the book is a litany of examples of Bankman-Fried behaving like an unbearable, childish jackass who lies a lot … written in the manner of a hagiography. “The funny thing about these situations was that Sam never really meant to cause them.” Lewis writes. “He didn’t mean to be rude. He didn’t mean to cause chaos in other people’s lives. … With him it was never personal. If he stood you up, it was never on a whim, or the result of thoughtlessness. It was because he’d some math in his head that proved that you weren’t worth the time.”

It does not improve much from there. Somehow, the villain of his book is John Ray, the current FTX CEO, who was appointed after the crypto exchange’s bankruptcy, and whose filings suggest that he has made significant progress in recovering missing customer funds.

The second book, Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud by Ben McKenzie with Jacob Silverman, illustrates Bankman-Fried’s rise and fall by painting a picture of the whole crypto industry as a hive of scams and villainy. Its basic argument runs as follows. Loose monetary policy after the global financial crisis of 2007-09 and bailouts of chunks of the financial industry produced a context of distrust that facilitated the creation of cryptocurrencies as an alternative to sovereign money.

A new wave of easing was set loose when the COVID-19 pandemic triggered an economic crisis and led to a situation where asset bubbles were more likely. The main bubble that flourished was crypto, and with bubbles come fraudulent schemes—or so the story goes.

The juxtaposition of the two stories highlights an interesting aspect of SBF’s rise and fall: the class markers that convinced those around him that he was a genius, not a spoiled con artist. Sure, macroeconomic conditions mattered. In response to concerns about currency debasement and expansionary monetary policy as drivers of cryptomania, I would make note of the generous U.S. fiscal response to the pandemic that gave households plenty of cash to speculate with, as well as the boredom of especially the first months of the pandemic. I ended up watching all of the films Jeanne Dielman and Sátántangó for the first time; far be it from me to blame people for turning to drinking or gambling.

But macroeconomic conditions alone do not account for Lewis’s sympathetic approach to SBF. Lewis wrote The Big Short! The heroes of that story are the likes of Steve Eisman and Meredith Whitney, not Joseph Cassano and Howie Hubler: the people who saw through the bubble, not the people who gambled and lost. A Going Infinite-style account of the global financial crisis would find a man who behaved obnoxiously while assigning incorrect ratings to collateralized debt obligations and treat him sympathetically, if not admiringly. And that’s even before we get to the fraud that Bankman-Fried so clearly committed.

While the macroeconomic context may offer a partial explanation for the crypto bubble, it does not explain why Lewis and many others admired SBF the way they did. Nor do the regular features of every bubble—the fact that lots of money is involved, or that riding a bubble until (just before) it bursts can be very profitable, while shorting one is difficult.

A number of idiosyncratic characteristics of the crypto bubble, and of SBF and his firm, may better explain their appeal. First, there is the nature of the technology—can we say of the securities?—itself. While the underlying assets in the global financial crisis were tangible, cryptocurrencies, with their reliance on algorithms and distributed consensus and proof-of-work or proof-of-stake mechanisms, are very much unlike real estate. Who are we to doubt those who know magic?

There was a deep conviction among those who didn’t understand crypto that there must be something to making money out of thin air, even as skeptics pointed out that it was, in fact, just as stupid as it sounded.

All that was happening was large-scale gambling: Will the price of Dogecoin, featuring the face of a Shiba Inu dog, continue to go up? Will the official cryptocurrency of the Cameroonian separatist entity of Ambazonia appreciate further? What will this non-fungible token representing Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey’s first tweet sell for tomorrow? Nothing but a continued inflow of speculative cash could keep these bets afloat; no value or income was being generated by the underlying technologies.

Then there was the ideological edge of the movement. While the housing bubble was aligned with a political push to promote homeownership and a broader ownership society, those ideas never inspired the kind of commitment that crypto does among its biggest fans. That commitment is fueled by skepticism of government-issued currencies and an appreciation of some level of privacy (or an even more hard-line libertarian attraction to the ability to pay for illegal goods and services, or to evade taxes).

McKenzie highlights a related aspect of the crypto craze: its cultlike nature. The loss of trust in traditional financial institutions that he diagnoses created a desire for community that manifested itself in the creation of multilevel marketing (MLM) dynamics of enthused individuals spreading the gospel of the new currencies. The get-togethers and online communities that he describes in the fourth chapter of his book highlight how this works in practice—a world where “being scammed is a necessary educational experience in order to be reborn in the community of the free.”

For a more recent illustration of the bizarre groupings forming around blockchain technology, I refer you to a Bored Ape Yacht Club event that took place in Hong Kong earlier this month, where attendees who had paid thousands of dollars to say they owned digital art of an ape gathered to accidentally get blinded, reportedly by shoddy ultraviolet lights. Cryptocurrencies and related technologies are better suited for MLM schemes, because unlike mortgage derivatives, retail investors can easily access this gambling technology.

But to some extent, all of that was for the rubes, and SBF was playing at a very different level—one where he was able to con people as smart as Lewis. The cult-like scene most important to SBF’s appeal to intellectuals was a different one: the world of so-called effective altruism.

This is a movement focused, at least in theory, on doing good effectively and efficiently. It is associated with ideas ranging from the purely altruistic—such as kidney donations—and the relatively uncontroversial—cost-benefit analysis: dollar for dollar, do mosquito nets save more lives than water sanitation projects?—to more speculative ones, such as an emphasis on long-term catastrophic risk and “earning to give.”

Assessments of existential risk often come down to calculations involving small, hard-to-estimate probabilities, as well as difficult decisions around modeling uncertainty and the relative value of benefits enjoyed by future generations. This leaves a lot of room for rigging the numbers—especially when science-fiction fantasies about the impact on future generations come into play. Why eradicate malaria today when you could save billions of lives in the future from the threat of super-intelligent artificial intelligence—by investing in a buddy’s project?

That suspicion was not alleviated by the calculations a prominent effective altruist produced to show that donating $50 million to his buddy’s congressional campaign would serve humanity better than donating it to various charitable purposes. Earning to give, which SBF claimed to engage in, is the idea that instead of working directly toward one’s cause, one should maximize one’s earnings and use the proceeds for good.

This should, of course, trigger at least two concerns. One, how do you commit to using the proceeds that way as opposed to channeling them to your relatives? Two, once you place yourself at a remove from the good works, what constraints remain? Does consequentialism force you to violate rules, norms, and basic accounting standards?

Effective altruism is important to the story of FTX both directly—Bankman-Fried recruited a good number of self-described effective altruists to work for his firm, and he used the network to raise money for his crypto exchange—and for our purpose of figuring out why SBF was and remains so appealing to at least some outside observers.

A few examples: In May 2022, commentator Matthew Yglesias wrote a piece titled “Understanding Effective Altruism’s move into politics” with the subheading “SBF is for real,” a judgment based, among other things, on the academic work of Bankman-Fried’s mother: “SBF was raised by a leading consequentialist moral theorist.”

Writing for the New Yorker, Gideon Lewis-Kraus argued earlier this month that “one can’t help but feel like the existence of the trial, as necessary as it is, seems a little arbitrary” because Bankman-Fried might well have gotten away with his crimes. Perhaps long-termism, taken to an extreme, leads one to think that of life as a mere game of probabilities without real stakes, not unlike the video games that he so obnoxiously used to play (not very well) during video calls.

Either way, effective altruism gave SBF, and crypto with it, a veneer of respectability that it might not have had otherwise. The alternatives, like the argument that the purpose of our large-scale gambling is to give the unbanked access to financial services, were not an easy sell.

The effective altruism connection does not matter solely because of the ideas and human resources it brought SBF. The movement is one with close ties to elite academia, associated with academics such as Will MacAskill at the University of Oxford, who served on the board of a grantmaking operation funded by FTX and was a close SBF associate, or Peter Singer at Princeton University. Bankman-Fried’s father is a professor at Stanford Law School, though he also worked for FTX for 11 months. His mother is a professor emeritus at Stanford Law School, where she specialized in the field of legal ethics, such as it is.

These connections—and these are certainly not the only ones—may explain some of the sway that SBF had over America’s intellectuals. “None of what the Bankman-Frieds did was for show; they weren’t that kind of people,” writes Michael Lewis.

FTX’s post-bankruptcy lawyers allege that the couple enriched themselves by accepting $26.4 million from their son. Surely our kind of people wouldn’t do such a thing.

12 notes · View notes

shellsinadune · 5 months ago

Text

Nicotine Patches are promising for ME/CFS, Long COVID, and Fibromyalgia!!!

This is what I've been doing for a few months, I went from moderate-severe ME/CFS to mild-moderate. I've been able to go out for 2 hours without using my wheelchair, and my crashes haven't been any worse than my pre-patch normal days. I haven't seen anyone else talking about it, but it's a huge game changer and if it works for even one more person that's worth someone saying I'm a shill or something. I don't have fibro, so I can't say what it's like in that regard.

For people worried about scams: they don't recommend a singular brand and I am not being paid by anyone. I don't know who Dr Leitzke is funded by, though, so if anyone has more information on that, I'd love to hear it.

#good post op #disability tag #thenicotinetest #the nicotine test #disability #cripple punk #chronic illness #me/cfs #myalgic encephalomyelitis #chronic fatigue syndrome #long covid #fibromyalgia

3 notes · View notes

thisiskatsblog · 1 year ago

Note

There are only a few people who shape the views, beliefs of every single larrie, whose arguments and authority are unquestioned by those in fandom: verily-i-say, lapelosa-blog, lawyerlarrie, srslycris, worshippedlove, tellmethisisnotlove, goodbyeadulhood-blog, thisiskatsblog, bulletprooflarry, lesbianslovelarry, seasurfacefullofclouds, goodmorningtoyouuniverse. All formed and keep forming the larry system of beliefs. But 2 have used it to get money - you and lesbianslovelarry / 28nachos

Interesting list. Good friends most of them. You're forgetting a few (freddieismyqueen and theharrylouistreatise come to mind).

Your last sentence is manifestly incorrect or incomplete, depending on how you define "using it to get money".

Many people in this fandom have sold their art.

Several people in this fandom at some point or other had paypal donate or buy me kofi buttons on their blogs.

I've never done either.

What I have done, together with a number of others, as part of Rainbow Direction/Take me home from narnia, is the following:

Asked people to donate art to TMHFN/Rainbow Direction

Again, with the help of others, put up a webshop where people could buy this art on t shirts mugs and other things

Had the proceeds from these sales sent to a paypal account we started up in 2014 in the name of Takemehomefromnarnia

Donated the proceeds of the sales to LGBTIQ organisations such as Itgetsbetter, London LGBTQ switchboard, ILGA, Young out Here, Rainbow International and others from that paypal account.

Reported transparently to the general assembly of TMHFN and the readers of their blog on all comings and goings on the account - how much money came in and how much money went out

Reported transparently, and in advance to potential buyers of the RD "merch" when we wanted to also start using that money not only to donate to externals but also to keep up the blog and website of takemehomefromnarnia/rainbow direction (which we had been funding out of our own pocket until then).

Taken down any art that people wanted retracted from the shops

Not promoted the RD/TMHFN "merch" in years as people are perfectly enjoying making their own rainbow outfits for each occasion.

Set up the tmhfn Paypal of takemehomefromnarnia in such a way that the money remaining in the account and any proceeds that might potentially come in still (very unlikely, hasn't happened in the last three years), are used to fund the annual subscription to maintain the domains the group owns so the historical record can remain.

As this annual subscription goes up like crazy every year, I've also had people repay concert tickets I've had to resell due to COVID, to the TMHFN PayPal account. Which means basically instead of recovering the money I lost, I asked people to donate to TMHFN. I am and always was one of the main persons donating to the TMHFN account. The other main ones were people involved in Rainbow Direction. So yeah, no profit there.

That's it.

I know you'd like to paint it as if I'm getting rich out of scamming young people but that's really not what this is you dumb fuckwit.

11 notes · View notes

collegecoward · 2 years ago

Note

my dad got laid off and im a college student taking night classes- are there any good ways to work from home that arent scams?

I'm so sorry that your family is going through a rough patch. The first place I might start, just to help you in the short-term, is to check with your college and see if they have any emergency fund grants. Some places you might look for this information/who you can reach out to include your advisor, financial aid, your college's dean of students office, TRIO program, and student support services office.

(Note: If you see emergency grants related to COVID-19 or HEERF funds, those grants might not be available anymore. Many colleges were given short-term federal COVID relief dollars to help students cope at the height of the pandemic.)

On the job reliability front, I'm so glad you're looking out and aware of scams! I like the Better Business Bureau website in general for checking out businesses and brands I'm unsure about: https://www.bbb.org/ and sometimes Glassdoor will have warnings about particular employers from former employees.

@bitchesgetriches has an interesting article about finding remote jobs (as well as tons of other great career advice!). Couple of jobs that came to my mind: medical billing, data entry, and assistant gigs (be careful with the assistant ones, lots of variety and mixed results in my experience; watch those job descriptions).

Lastly, I'd also recommend going through a staffing/temp/talent agency like Robert Half (a reputable company, recommended to me by my old boss who was the best). There can be pros and cons to this depending on the opportunity, but these agencies get hired and paid by by companies to go find employees, which may help you find more legit options!

Best of luck! I'm rooting for you!

#job hunting #employment #unemployment #financial aid #college

24 notes · View notes

blackandredblog · 1 year ago

Text

Anarchapulco 2024

I don't know what craziness I've just stepped into. But it's a rabbit hole that is fucking terrifying.

I was watching a video from More Perfect Union about how the US and Puerto Rico itself have created a wealth inequality that is as profoundly unique as it is disturbing.

In a clip from this video, I noticed something called Anarchapulco in the background. So, I paused it and looked it up.

Original More Perfect Union video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4ulSk0EqX

Upon looking up this AnarchApulco nonsense, I first click to see what it costs, completely missing the fact that they have a menu at the top for NFTs.

The tickets are $600 per person.

So I click on the speaker page. It's as diverse as a Connecticut country club squash team, filled with white grifters pushing conspiracy theories, crypto, and tips to living like them (which never includes being handed their wealth or social connections to acquire wealth).

The speaker page: https://anarchapulco.com/speaker-page-2024/

The leader of this shitshow is a self-proclaimed AnCap Libertarian named Jeff Berwick. Dude pushes Crypto, NFTs, and his own newsletter called the Dollar Vigilante.

Next is Max Igan. Max Igan has links to MeWe and Rumble (far-right friendly platforms). He also uses the term "globalist" in his biography on "The Other Side of Midnight" which appears to be some sort of right-wing, online radio station.

For those unfamiliar, "Globalist" is a euphemism for Jew. It's a frequent term used by far-rights, like Alex Jones.

The biography here: https://www.theothersideofmidnight.com/bio-max-igan/

Next is Larken Rose. He's another AnCap Libertarian. He's done time for tax evasion. And is well-known enough that Wesley Snipes tried to use Rose's arguments at his own tax evasion trial.

Rose is pushing his new movie, about a plantation that likens actual slavery to wage slavery and capitalism. While there are parallels, Rose (who is white) wrote a script in which he drops the N-word in an opening scene. Beyond that, the movie is full of exposition and lacks any real talent or vision for storytelling.

I'm not going to go through every grifter on this list, because I do have actual work to do, but there are two more standouts beyond the pasty homeopaths, internet-only radio disk jockeys, and COVID deniers.

Next up is David Weiss. He's a flat earther. And I'm not just being an asshole calling him names, he RUNS the Flat Earth Podcast. He truly believes we live on a flat earth.

Worse than even being a science-denier, this dumb motherfucker has a "Flat Earth Crash Course" whose opening YouTube video features Owen Benjamin.

For those unfamiliar with Owen Benjamin. He's a failed actor and comedian that is an Olympic-level racist and antisemite. He's recently popped back up on Alex Jones' InfoWars because he needs a new audience to grift after his last scam fell through. Who'd have guessed your neighbors wouldn't let you crowd fund a members-only, "free speech" Ruby Ridge-style compound... in Idaho.

Benjamin's Wikipedia Page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owen_Benjamin

I was going to do one last sketch on Ian Smith, but, to be honest, he's just a gymbro science-denier that sells "water treatments" and supplements.

What's the point of all this?

These grifters are insidious and the far-right is trying to appropriate leftist terminologies and twist them.

They take small grains of truth, the base rhetoric of AnComs and grow genetically modified shitmuffins from them. If you ever doubt this is happening, remember that Nazi is short for National Socialist German Workers' Party.

Watch yourselves out there, keep your heads on a swivel, and don't assume that people are who they say they are.

4 notes · View notes

nityarawal · 1 year ago

Text

We left messages for Amanda and Debbie in Executive. Do you need their numbers? I prefer Amanda.

She helped with the airbnb bank fraud last year.

I need refunds on all scams now Paige. You and Amanda settle this tonight. Judges want current bank statement to so they can forgive debts from local scams at court/bank & Sheriff- who got busted on foul play.

Thanks!

Nitya

Yeah- California is the abortion & rape = baby factory State!

Could you please confirm this is a fake check? Sal has made mistakes before and seems sort of senile about continuum with BBVA since he's so new! Please let Idyllwild Town Crier know to stop Trafficking our peeps on Cons. They shouldn't advertise this and a murderer sex offender in one week right?

Could you send latest statement for my judges so they can forgive my registration fees due to PNC management robberies in covid with Mary Sue Haney.

This was bank fraud there. We don't trust the 22.7m federal employees raping our mothers and stealing. Please fire Sal.

Sent to my boss Sue-

Sal- the manager said it was a fake check and refused to cash it! He's a a**hole! I had to get Jerry Sue Haney fired. Do you want executive number? He's likely a fraud- not your check! Lol

I will let executive office know. He's also had a senior moment about my last 7 years of banking there.

Lmk if you can call them & fix it with Wells Fargo? Also- I mentioned I can't launder money in any way on the rental. I am on a state stipend- not enough- but they would've withdrawn my food and pay if they thought there was a way to Capitalism on us again!

---------- Forwarded message ---------

From: nitya rawal <[email protected]>

Date: Tue, Oct 17, 2023, 6:24 AM

Subject: Re: Resume For Driver Job

To: Sue Patrick <[email protected]>

Aloha! You got all my responses via text? Did you get a place secured here? Are you still coming on 20th?

I'm moving into a new place & seeing Dr's but will be available.

Lmk if you need anything and did you send check? I didn't see anything last week! You said you'd send tracking too so maybe didn't get to it?

I am most often texting. Email isn't as reliable. Maybe I'll open another acct. Tmobile also is spotty in Riverside.

Country life is simple.

I try to exonomise and only run into towns when need to! (:

Hope packing is going well.

Blessings & Peace,

Nitya

On Wed, Oct 11, 2023, 11:04 AM Sue Patrick <[email protected]> wrote:

Congratulations You have been chosen for the Job you have all I have been searching for as an Experienced Driver I can't wait to meet you in person meanwhile I will be in Idyllwild , CA for the next 4 months. Anyway I am particularly glad you are willing to be my driver. I will want you to know that I will be responsible for the ( Car hire cost and the Gas fee)All I will be needing from you are your driving skills. I also would like to bring to your notice one more time that I found a car which I will be renting, it's a Mercedes-Benz G 63 AMG ( 2017 Model )so I will make arrangements for the car rental and then will let you know ahead of time when it will be delivered to your address.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: My arrival date remains Friday 20th of October All flight details / itinerary will be emailed to you in advance prior to my arrival so as to give you ample time to get yourself prepared and ready.

PAYMENT TERMS: This is my second time, my first was 3 yrs. ago . I would be glad if you can help me check around for luxury apartments close to you, an apartment that is very classy and if possible has got a Jacuzzi, if not I am already working on securing an apartment for myself. Concerning the payment, I will send you a payment in the form of a check which will contain payment for your first week duties and the amount needed for the car rental. Once you receive the check, I want you to have the check deposited at your bank, deduct the sum of $485 as payment for the first week's service and then have the remaining funds on the check as payment for the car rental so they can start processing the delivery of the vehicle to your address as soon as possible.

Furthermore, I will be happy if you could get back to me with the following details of yours so that the payment can be issued out to you right as soon as possible and delivered via postal mail. Also I need you to confirm that your details and address are correct to avoid any mistake during delivery by the postal service company .

To proceed, email me the following:

Full name:

Street Address:

City: State

Postal code:

Cell and Home:

Age:

Alternative Email address:

I will appreciate your quick response if you are completely satisfied with the offer as I am willing to go ahead and issue out the funds by this week for the payment of your first week's service and for the car rental.

I look forward to your quick response.

Best Regards,

Thanks.

On Sunday, October 8, 2023 at 02:08:31 AM GMT+8, nitya rawal <[email protected]> wrote:

Yes, I am interested in the position.

On Sat, Oct 7, 2023, 7:20 AM Sue Patrick <[email protected]> wrote:

Thanks for the reply it was highly appreciated, I will be staying in the area of Idyllwild, CA for 4 months your services will be needed only for 2 days in a week is a part time Job and flexible I don't think this will disturb your other Jobs,

Please kindly confirm the following questions to proceed:

1. Would you be available to drive me during the weekdays, basically on Mondays?

2. Apart from Monday, Would you be able to drive me on Friday ( evening shift )?

3. Do you have mailing experience via ( UPS or FED-EX )?

PAY: I am offering you $242.5 x 2days = $485 weekly.

A total of 6 hours per week .

I will appreciate your swift response and get back to me so we can sort out details and proceed further, My Cell phone number is 206-259-5071. You can easily send texts.

Thanks and God bless you,

Dr Patrick.

On Saturday, October 7, 2023 at 03:41:24 AM GMT+8, nitya rawal <[email protected]> wrote:

I am interested in the position. All sounds good so far!

Thankyou for the opportunity!

I look forward to reviewing your proposal further.

Blessings,

Nitya

On Wed, Oct 4, 2023, 10:51 PM Sue Patrick <[email protected]> wrote:

Hello,

Thank you for applying. I'm glad to read from you regarding the Personal Driver job. I am looking to hire a Personal Driver Immediately . This is a great opportunity for a dedicated personnel with exceptional driving skills and stellar customer service. This position requires a high level of professionalism, vast knowledge of the surrounding area and traffic rules.

I'm Dr. Sue Patrick, I'm from Newark, New Jersey. I am 74 years old, educated (Retired Medical Practitioner ),I'm cultural, have got a great sense of humor, good morals, very down to earth and with a noble character. I enjoy meeting people and making new friends, I can say particularly that I do have a very kind heart. Although due to my age I'm hearing impaired so I communicate mostly via text and email. Anything other than that I am fit and healthy .

I will be coming to your city for the next 4 months for charity work, seminars and a little holiday for myself. As part of my trip, I will be going to leisure spots, cinemas, site seeing, Deaf Culture Seminars etc. I will be spending 16 weeks, so I am going to need a personal driver/chauffeur during my stay, The ideal candidate must be a safe driver with experience and also have some sort of mailing experience via UPS or FedEx as I would be mailing out some charity goods periodically.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: My arrival date is on the 16th of October so basically I have just over 2 weeks to finalize plans. All flight details / itinerary will be emailed to you in advance prior to our arrival so as to give you ample time to get yourself prepared and ready. On the first day, you will pick me up from the airport and drop me off at the luxury apartment I'm renting. I want you to know that I will be responsible for the ( Car hire cost and the Gas fee ) so all i will be needing you for is your driving skills, that's all. I also would like to bring to your notice that I've found a car which i will be renting for you to drive , it's a Mercedes-Benz G 63 AMG ( 2016 Model )so I will make arrangements with the head office of the car hire company and then will let you know ahead of time when it will be delivered to your preferred location/house.

Hope to read back from you Asap.

Best Regards,

Dr. Patrick.

On Thursday, October 5, 2023 at 06:58:02 AM GMT+8, nitya rawal <[email protected]> wrote:

4 notes · View notes