Will OpenBazaar Succeed Where Silk Road Failed?
A new company looks to erase the limits on what can be bought and sold online.
OpenBazaar—a blockchain-based, fully decentralized online market—makes it possible to sell anything to anyone, anywhere in the word, for free.
We know what you're probably thinking: Hasn't that been tried before, and didn't it land Ross Ulbricht in prison for life without the possibility of parole? But the team at OB1, the company that's developing the OpenBazaar network, is quick to point out that their product doesn't have the vulnerabilities of Silk Road, the online marketplace Ulbricht ran that got him busted for money laundering and conspiracy to traffic drugs.
For one thing, OpenBazaar is not a website—it's a peer-to-peer network that runs on open-source software that users download and install on their computers, similar to a BitTorrent client. The software connects people to a network where they can trade with other users without a middleman taking a cut.
Unlike Silk Road and eBay, OB1 doesn't maintain servers, host product listings, or store transaction data. Because of that structure, the company has no control over what is bought and sold. Whereas the online craft market Etsy forbids the sale of Washington Redskins–branded merchandise, for example, and Walmart restricts the sale of music bearing a "parental advisory" label, OpenBazaar puts absolutely no limits on what can be listed. And since the source code is publicly available, it would be virtually impossible for a governmental entity to shut the platform down.
"We're merely providing a software tool to the masses, and each user is deciding what they do, how they participate on the network," explains OB1's 33-year-old CEO, Brian Hoffman. "So just as someone can write something derogatory in a Microsoft Word document, Microsoft is not liable for that."
It's this aspect of the system—the direct interaction between individual users, free from political oversight—that worries critics. Won't OpenBazaar become simply a means for buying narcotics and other contraband?
In fact, OB1 has its sights set on something far bigger than the drug trade. It intends to compete with the giants of online commerce like Amazon and Alibaba and disrupt the very nature of the world's $1.6 trillion internet commerce industry. And it has gotten some significant support as it pursues that lofty goal. Last year, the company received $1 million in venture capital from cryptocurrency heavyweights Union Square Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz. Angel investor William Mougayar, too, has contributed seed funding to the venture.
"While it may seem amazing that Silk Road did hundreds of millions of dollars, maybe even a billion dollars, worth of illegal goods, a billion dollars is nothing in terms of how much e-commerce gets done each year," Hoffman says. "If six months from now OpenBazaar is just flooded with drug listings and illegal services, then most likely it wasn't a good enough solution for the world's trade. I would consider that a failure, because this is more about building a free market, not just an illegal market."
He points to small businesses all over the planet that are already springing up to sell their wares—from comic books to caramel waffle cookies—using the OpenBazaar platform.
"If we work hard to allow users to self-police, to do things legally, properly, easily, cheaply," he says, "they will rush in and overwhelm whatever could possibly come in from the dark side of the internet."
This article originally appeared in print under the headline "Will OpenBazaar Succeed Where Silk Road Failed?."
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Even though they are playing the “we’re not hosting it” card, Napster and LimeWire were both shut down for “enabling or facilitating” illegal activity. So they are still operating in a gray area and will most likely come under some significant governmental pressure if they reach a critical mass.
Not any gray area to it from the standpoint of, if a state actor wants them shut down they will be.
My best friend’s sister makes $90 an hour on the internet . She has been out of a job for six months but last month her check was $14750 just working on the internet for a few hours. Go this website and click tech tab to start your work?this website?…. http://www.Trends88.com
That’s not how it works. There is nothing to shutdown. Napster and Limewire both were companies that either stored the actual files or hosted the exchange website, which means there was centralized data on servers somewhere. This project seems to be built on blockchain. If this is the case, then there is no centralized data to go after. There are no servers. The gov. would have to find a flaw in the software or go after every individual computer/mobile phone on earth that has stored the protocol. Sure they can punish the creator after the fact but you can’t put the genie back in the bottle once it’s out. that is the beauty of blockchain and distributed networks.
…and the govt loves low hanging fruit. It’ll fit right in with their approach to making the world safe…for children.
They’ll probably be happy to not be able to shut it down. Think of how many more pigs they can hire to go after end users selling cupcakes with a license. For the children. You just can’t have people buying and selling anything they want. Something bad might happen. I predict loads of media pants shitting followed by sheep pants shitting over this.
Without a license of course.
Hm, blockchain Napster. Trademark!
Just Relaks – If This Sound Good For You – Popcorn First !!!
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Just Relaks – If This Sound Good For You – Popcorn First !!!
Latest Update More HD Quality Movie Complete Available Here:
? ? ? http://bit.ly/2g6t4Gl ? ? ?
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Gozer the Gozarian | 10.27.16 @…
Spacetime Squirrels now?
I don’t get the thinking that goes against such networks. When it comes to drugs, those should all be legal anyway. Unless you force someone to take drugs, where is the crime?
As for stuff that is and should be illegal, such as hiring a hit man for example, what does the venue have to do with anything? If you meet a hitman in a coffee shop, they don’t go after the coffee shop, do they? That’s because they realize that coffee shops can’t vet all their customers or monitor each customer’s conversation. Why is the web different?
Look at this guy trying to opress us with logic.
Uh, actually they do. At least when it comes to drugs. Run a low-rent motel in a down-scale neighborhood? Do people sometimes do drugs in your rooms? Yeah, the cops will try to shut you down and take the business.
But at least there, there’s a (flimsy) rationale that the owner has some obligation to prevent this stuff or if your business is all about facilitating criminal activity like say a biker bar owned by a gang and used to plan their crimes or function as a safehouse.
It will be interesting to see how this holds up on a network that has no owner. They’re probably going to go after the guys who wrote and maintain the code used by the P2P network.
“If you meet a hitman in a coffee shop, they don’t go after the coffee shop, do they?”
OMG, that’s true! We need to shut down coffee shops immediately! /average idiot.
It shouldn’t happen bit this guy is going to end up in prison. They’ll get him on something no matter how much of a stretch it is.
Or he’ll be hiding in NZ.
Well, at least he’ll be in the one place Tony won’t go.
What was the story behind Tony and NZ? I missed it and that’s the second reference I’ve noticed.
Tony said he’d move to ‘his bungalow’ in New Zealand if Trump was elected.
Do they have the internet in NZ?
If so, not far enough.
They do, but it’s garbage Oceania internet. And frankly I like NZ and would rather not have Tony there scumming it up.
Speaking of garbage and Oceania, Tony would fit right in with the giant garbage patch.
I’ll be in NZ in January. Maybe he’ll let me stay with him?
I think NZ has pretty strict immigration laws. Being fed up with an elected official in your home country likely isn’t enough.
Just Relaks – If This Sound Good For You – Popcorn First !!!
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One problem: Being open source, nothing prevents the gubmunt from setting up its own servers advertising anything they want, and reporting where the purchased goods are sent. Customer gets the package, DEA gets the customer.
One question: with no central servers, how does OB1 make any money? If the downloaded source includes code to send a percentage to OB1, it should be trivial to modify the source to stop doing that.
To make it clear (EDIT button!), this setup is vulnerable where Silk Road wasn’t because it is distributed and doesn’t force buyers and sellers through its central servers. Therefore it has no control over what software connects to others, other than having defined some protocol. The system they’ve set up can work well; but I don’t see how they can make any money off it, or prevent compromised programs subverting the secrecy.
The problem of the gubmunt knowing the buyer’s address is the same as with Silk Road. Someone buying physical product has to provide a shipping address. I’m not sure OB1 makes it easier, but it sure doesn’t solve the problem.
As for the money – I don’t think they intend to make money. I think this is simply a protest thing and an interesting practical exercise.
Make it, release it into the wild. See what happens.
They just got a $1M investment. Surely those backers expect some return.
Business support, consulting, etc. Of course, being open source software, other people will be able to get in on that action but they’ll have a head start and name association. He’ll make some nice bank and move on to the next thing.
Unless you’re trying to trade something illegal, then your “problem” is not a problem. This is a tool for enabling trade, nothing more, nothing less. You could build a platform on top of this technology (or another), which introduces a central third party though which all trades take place, and thereby anonymize transactions, but that would be a different thing.
As far as govt is concerned, the main issue is that trade will occur directly person-to-person, so it presents many of the same inherent problems, from a tax standpoint, as a cash-only physical marketplace. This is where lack of a central server comes into the picture, and where authorities should begin to become nervous, and more so than they should ever have been about a niche silk road.
As for making money, aside from investment seed money (and what Agammamon said), I’d guess the general idea would be, hopefully, to make money in the future by serving the market they create, in the new and unique ways that it affords. There will be opportunities for offering arbitration services, providing software solutions tailored to buying & selling, etc, etc. I’d think of how this will initially look, and what it may become, as being something like the difference between buying & selling on craigslist and ebay; there can be a lot of room for making money through facilitation of trade.
“There will be opportunities for offering arbitration services, providing software solutions tailored to buying & selling, etc, etc.”
‘Vetting users.’ That’s how Uber justifies its cut. Personally, I don’t think software should be judged by someone’s ability to extract rent from it.
“there can be a lot of room for making money through facilitation of trade”
There are markets for that. Peer to peer is all about cutting out the middle man. I know, a shocking concept.
“How does this come into the question?”
Ask others. The question of extracting rent from the software is repeatedly addressed here in the comments. You yourself discuss the issue.
“OpenBazaar is not remotely similar to uber (which we know you think, given your other posts down-thread)”
I know. Uber is designed with rent extraction in mind. OpenBazaar is not.
“Another shocking concept: most stores and warehouses are not physically constructed by their owners’ own two hands.”
Peer to peer cuts out the middle man whose pockets you seem intent on lining. For what reason, I can only guess.
“can only look toward the future, toward possibly providing third-party services and solutions to make money from it.”
They can also ask for donations. Like Bittorrent’s site. They don’t even have to bother thinking up services and solutions.
“If OpenBazaar wants similar success, they can follow suit.”
They can centralize. Defeats the purpose but who knows, they may make some money.
” it will have to be done by providing third-party software and services ”
I’ve been using peer to peer for years now and never felt the need for third party software or services. Still, there are always sheep to be shorn.
Centralize what?
OpenBazaar is essentially a Kademlia-style network. In order to “centralize” it (whatever the hell that is supposed to mean in your muddled thought process), it would be necessary to make it into something else. Doing so would not cause OpenBazaar to cease to exist, it would just create another, essentially different platform.
So, no, “they” cannot “centralize”, and it doesn’t even make sense to put those words together into a sentence, in this context.
Which is par for the course, since you’re apparently either deranged, or a poorly-implemented chatbot.
“In order to “centralize” it (whatever the hell that is supposed to mean in your muddled thought process), it would be necessary to make it into something else. ”
Exactly my point. You’re catching on despite yourself. Centralize means to ‘undecentralize’ something. If you can understand decentralized, mentioned in the first sentence of the article, then centralized shouldn’t be too much of a reach for you.
“Doing so would not cause OpenBazaar to cease to exist, it would just create another, essentially different platform.”
Exactly my point. You’re catching on despite yourself. If the folks of OpenBazaar want to be successful, that’s what they’ll have to do. I suggest they do the uber thing.
“…and other contraband” you know, like stolen property, child-pornography, people, stuff like that. Oh, and poor Ross Ulbricht? What a waste of oxygen, he. No, I’ll file this under the same category as California bathrooms.
California bathroom. What, like, twice as big as it needs to be and with two sinks and a TV?
I might just be filthy rural scum but I’ve always found the TVs in bathrooms in major cities to be one of the weirdest, dumbest things to come out of the electronic era. What’s the freaking point? It’s just there to spew advertising at you, and clearly I’m responsive to products I associate with taking a shit.
I suppose we should lock up Congress for funding highways, then.
“…and other contraband”
Oxygen! Black market oxygen that has not gone through the rigorous federal checking out process! I predict a huge market in the stuff as soon as the potheads who don’t vape discover sucking smoke into your lungs is not as healthy as they were told.
There is a third party involved in all transactions making such activity easily policable.
No. FYTW
“So just as someone can write something derogatory in a Microsoft Word document, Microsoft is not liable for that.”
Just wait until Hoffman (and maybe Bill Gates) is staring down the double barrels of Senator Charles Schumer’s legislative tits.
One question. Who’s the new AG? There’s your answer.
Hi, Preet, I’m going off-topic. Here’s something you can investigate:
Presidential electors harassed, threatened by anti-Trump left
“…anti-Trump groups have been circulating lists with personal information of the actual electors and encouraging people to pressure them into becoming “faithless electors,” i.e. not voting for Trump even though he won the election in their state. The results have been predictable….”
Voter intimidation is wrong, illegal, and unconstitutional, until it’s not.
One can do no wrong if in pursuit of The Good.
Preux & Proper Is Taking Deep-Dish Pizza to the Next Level
Magical things happen when you pile shrimp, chicken, smoked mozzarella, and jambalaya tomatoes onto biscuit dough
“Sore winner” syndrome: Why are Donald Trump’s supporters still so angry? Abraham Lincoln understood
They won the battle, but the war’s not over ? and in their hearts they know they’ve surrendered to ugliness
“It’s not surprising that the election of Donald Trump would cause an upheaval in civil society. The differences between the two visions of America that were presented in this campaign couldn’t be more stark, and it’s inevitable that they would play out beyond the political system….
“Much of the unrest on the left has taken the form of protest marches and school walkouts, while the right is more inclined to drunken hooliganism, flying the Confederate flag and the like. This is America. We have free speech and a right to assemble, and regardless of how we feel about the “message” being sent by people on the other side, they have a right to say it.
“But there also have been many reports of anonymous defacing of property with white power slogans and other racist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic phrases. And there are now hundreds of stories of individual acts of bullying and even hate crimes coming from people who call themselves Trump supporters, aimed at fellow Americans they see as their enemies.”
These incidents of vandalism have all been in very very deep blue areas – which scremas “Flase flag” Whowever, there is open video of violence and hooliganism from anti-trump people that definitvely makes clear who the perpetrators are.
Hey, these incidents happen in predominantly white areas. Racism proven!
Van Jones even called it Whitelash!
These incidents of vandalism have all been in very very deep blue areas
Over on David Thompson’s blog, there’s an amusing subthread going on where one of the normally sane commenters is trying to claim California isn’t a deep-blue state.
Thats bullshit. Aside from one or two instances every goddamned bit of that is being done by lefty agitators.
If 60M+ Trump voters wanted to get fucked up and do fucked up shut no one would have to tell us about it. It’s all BS.
Oh, Salon… never change.
Retro Baltimore: Abe Lincoln and Sarah Hale, the mother of Thanksgiving
“The United States might seem like a tense place this post-election Thanksgiving season, but in 1863, it was worse.”
No more Civil War art at the [Miinnesota] Capitol?
“”I believe that the art in the Governor’s Reception Room should be more welcoming and also more broadly representative of our state’s history. It should better represent the full complexion of our state and a more varied perspective on our history, geography and culture,” [Governor Mark] Dayton wrote….
“…disagreement remains over what to do with the four…portraits ? “The Battle of Nashville,” “The Fourth Minnesota Entering Vicksburg,” The Second Minnesota Regiment at Missionary Ridge” and “The Battle of Gettysburg.”
Those paintings have been removed from the Governor’s Reception Room so they could be restored. At issue is whether they should return at all….
“Architect Ted Lenz serves on the [Capitol Area Architectural and Planning] Board and voted in favor of removing the Civil War paintings from the reception area….He [said] that the Governor’s Reception Room is Minnesota’s living room, and it should reflect the state’s entire history.
“Part of the litmus test for me is can you walk into that room a seventh-grader, a fifth-grader, a college student and let them look at that and have them say, ‘Yeah, this helps tell my story. This is the Minnesota I love,'” Lenz said.”
They’re sore winners.
They should go with this
OT: from one of my vegan friends:
Ha ha, really ethnically sensitive there.
Yeah. I’d also like to know how eating a random turkey is analogous to eating your dog. Pretty sure I’d be pissed if I owned a turkey as a pet and someone decided to kill and eat it without my permission as I would with a pet dog.
Quite old, but still hilarious:
For every animal you don’t eat, I’m going to eat three.
That is hilarious! Although I’m a little too fat already to be sponsoring a vegan.
Sponsor never gets old.
Bwuh?
“Open your mind and your heart to unquestionably accept my stupid premises and sense of moral superiority.”
I am thankful that I am aware that we are all connected, including animals
In the sense that we’re all part of an ecosystem consistently devouring each other for energy, sure. In some pseudo-religious hippie nonsense? Nope.
Children’s cartoons are more honest about this than she is.
This guy was connected with a bear for a short time.
“Mmmm…Bambi’s mom sure tastes delicious, nom nom nom.”
(I’m afraid Peter Singer ruined vegetarianism for me, and I associate these folks with an attempt to blur the distinction between humans and other animals, to the disadvantage of the former)
” to the disadvantage of the former”
How are you victimized by people who don’t eat meat?
Singer advocates infanticide and he’s a very prominent vegetarian.
Don’t make me go Godwin.
There are other vegetarians besides Singer and Hitler. They don’t all advocate infanticide.
Sure, but I see what can happen if we say that humans and non-human animals are equivalent.
That’s a recipe for abolishing a distinctive concept of human rights.
“That’s a recipe for abolishing a distinctive concept of human rights.”
It’s expanding the concept of human rights. It’s notable that a bit over 200 years ago, Wilberforce, the same guy that organized an important campaign against the slave trade, also was behind the first animal rights group.
The infanticide stems from his embrace of Utilitarianism. His vegetarianism is incidental.
“if we say that humans and non-human animals are equivalent.”
I don’t think it’s a widely held view, though the preponderance of those holding the view may well be vegetarians or even worse.
What does this culturally insensitive prick have against yellow dog?
It’s got to be exhausting being that smug.
My daughter is vegan and is nothing like that. In fact, her 7 year old daughter can eat whatever she wants when they go out. She’ll bring vegan dishes to Thanksgiving, and my wife will make a side or two for her as well. The rest of us eat Turkey.
RE: Will OpenBazaar Succeed Where Silk Road Failed?
A new company looks to erase the limits on what can be bought and sold online.
“OpenBazaar is not a website?it’s a peer-to-peer network that runs on open-source software that users download and install on their computers, similar to a BitTorrent client. The software connects people to a network where they can trade with other users without a middleman taking a cut.”
I wish OpenBazaar the very best of success.
However, as we all know, it is only a matter of time before The State will take over this enterprise by strangling it with endless red tape, needless regulations, stupid laws, etc. If Trump the Grump wants to make an important impact on the economy, he will do his best for de-regulation of a number of industries. But I doubt that will happen because I doubt OpenBizzare gave him any “campaign contributions.”
I was just looking over the ‘fake news’ stuff and saw that list of supposed fake news sites. I also remember what the Clinton campaign said about crushing news organizations that ‘have no right to exist’. We really dodged a bullet when Clinton lost. The idiots at Reason that have been foaming at the mouth over Trump were really just whistling past the graveyard. Idiots.
Idiots.
Reason tried to be useful.
They should be ashamed they’re far too establishment to even be considered for the list.
Thanks to Reason I learned that Trump found the discovery of a dead judge with a pillow on his face somewhat questionable.
No doubt she would try and bring back the “fairness” doctrine to try and kill talk radio.
A PRO-LIFE WHITE HOUSE
How a Trump presidency will threaten women’s reproductive rights
“Repealing the Affordable Care Act
“Under Obamacare, birth control for women is free, in any form, from pill to IUD….
“What exactly will happen to Obamacare is unclear….
“A vehemently anti-abortion vice-president
“Trump himself has flip-flopped on abortion, so anything he said in the past should be taken with a grain of salt. But Mike Pence, his second-in-command, has been a staunch anti-abortion crusader….
“A conservative-leaning Supreme Court…
“Making the Hyde Amendment permanent law…
“Defunding Planned Parenthood…
“State-level anti-abortion efforts…”
Right on!
Consider it a Fairness Tax on Male Privilege.
“Under Obamacare, birth control for women is free, in any form, from pill to IUD….
well except for the insurance premiums which are going up 30% per year.
Oh, and for the record, prostate surgeries are ‘free’ for women as well (whether you want them or not)
Fuck off, slaver…
I will stay out of your bedroom if you stay out of my wallet.
The hip thing lately is inviting government into the bedroom, and paying for the attention.
No more forcing nuns to pay for birth control and human abortions?
“free”
They have no concept of this word
OpenBazaar is not a website?it’s a peer-to-peer network that runs on open-source software that users download and install on their computers, similar to a BitTorrent client.
Well, *that* will certainly keep the wolves at eBay.
I don’t understand what any of that means but drugs are bad mkay, so off to the pokey you go – Sessions
Why does anyone *need* OpenBazaar? – Sessions
Hopefully he doesn’t hear it as Open Brassiere or he totally will go apeshit.
OT: If Trump gives Secretary of State to Romney, could Romney could extend the power of his magic underwear to protect the USA?
Maybe instead of building a wall, we could just build a yuuuuge pair of underpants and bless them appropriately. Mexico can pay for it and wear them for us. What should Canada get so they don’t feel left out? A woolen cap to keep them toasty?
I think it’s the other way around, isn’t it? You have to have magic underwear before you’re permitted to marry.
He can’t do that. Love hasn’t won the polygamy battle yet.
The first time I read this, I was thinking Mia Love.
What should Canada get so they don’t feel left out? A woolen cap to keep them toasty?
A new set of Depends? to freshen up Canada’s Diaper?
Weirdest diaper ever. Covers the elderly, flaccid Florida, but infantile California crybabies.
Doesn’t that imply that Canada’s a big baby though?
Uber is wildly successful and its owner extracts rent from every transaction. If OpenBazaar wants similar success, they can follow suit.
There are already a dozen sites that have stepped into the void created when the government seized Silk Road. The government can keep chasing after them, but there will always be someone ready to open a new online black market. OpenBazzar will need to provide some function not already available to get the critical mass of people using it to sustain it. I can’t think of what that might be.
“OpenBazzar will need to provide some function not already available to get the critical mass of people using it to sustain it. I can’t think of what that might be.”
People have been using an OS like Linux for decades now. If there’s a necessary ‘critical mass’ of users, it’s a lot smaller than what is required for a profit seeking business.
“People have been using an OS like Linux for decades now. If there’s a necessary ‘critical mass’ of users, it’s a lot smaller than what is required for a profit seeking business.”
You learned this from your lemonade stand?
“You learned this from your lemonade stand?”
Software is successful if it fills a niche. Critical mass is not a concept that is important for intangibles. Lemonade is notoriously tangible.
Thank you, Mr. Obviousman.
Butt-hurt ‘community organizer’ whines:
“Obama warns Trump: ‘If you’re not serious’ about the presidency, ‘you probably won’t be there very long'”
http://www.sfgate.com/technolo…..621228.php
I’m hoping Trump answers from behind a podium labeled “Office of the President Elect” and tells that lying POS that advice from lame-duck losers will be treated as it should be: Ignored.
The Trump-Obama meet-up accurately sums up Obama’s response to the election.
Obama’s “what has happened to my life” look is priceless.
“Oh, muh legacy, muh poor legacy! It’s all about me! Me, me, me! Look at me, pay attention to me, love me!”
/Obama
Fuck you, Fight for 15 morons.
Ordering kiosks are going to be installed in all McDs.
Now to use tele-robotics to eliminate most of the other staff.
There’s an app for that
Stuffed mushroom caps? Mozzarella sticks?
that’s a matter of “which bag in the freezer” to drop in the deep-fryer
At least you can complain to somebody when a human screws up your order. 🙂
“We will now connect you to our call-center in Bangalore to process your consumer-feedback. Please hold“
AG Sessions will be looking into your ‘mushrooms caps’.
They’ve had these in Beijing for a while now.
There’s still room for fuckups when it gets to the humans, though. But the fuckupery is significantly lowered.
Fight for zero. (for low-skilled workers anyway)
Just wait until you can use your computer/phone to order a meal and a drone flies it out to you, both cutting down on the costs of having employees as well as opening up locations that were previously unusable. When you don’t need to consider your location needing good access from the road or even be in a place where people can find it, you can obtain cheaper real estate and operating costs can go down even further. It’s a damned shame that Amazon will probably be the first there and get a huge leg up over everyone else simply because our laws are retarded and protectionist towards the very biggest businesses who can afford to lobby to have them changed.
John hardest hit.
I want to believe this is real.
She’s Canadian, so i’m guessing that’s a no
This is real
Poor guy.
Forest needz MOAR throbbing penis trees for AC
What does SJW mean?
WELP I’m moving to Kenya!
Boycott $tarbuckkk$!1!
What a guy!
“Obama tries to ease Trump concerns”
[…]
“LIMA, Peru ? Warning against a rush to judgment, President Obama sought Saturday to ease concerns in Latin America that President-elect Donald Trump will wipe out trade deals and create other international problems.’
http://www.sfgate.com/world/ar…..625511.php
Imagine the relief!
Lima, Peru. So Obama is ensuring them that the American demand for Llamas will remain high?
My question is whether anyone is listening to his patronizing BS with anything other than curiosity.
If I’m PM of West Trashcanistan, I’m calling Trump to find out what Trump is considering, not some has-been.
The peasant class in Latin American are generally uneducated and very naive. Sort of like the peasant class in the USA, only worse. The educated people there? Probably think he is full of shit just like all of their own politicians.
It’s a good thing Trump is going to deport all those Peruvian pan flutists.
And llama herders.
Right, he assured them that they will only have to worry about the international problems that Obama already created.
“If you like your civil wars and declining American influence, you can keep your civil wars and declining American influence.”
I just bought 2 bottles of Russian vodka to help welcome in our new Trumputin overlords. I hope it pisses off some Democrats as well.
*checks bottle*
Mine’s from Connecticut 🙁
I didn’t even know they make it there, but I just saw some gin made in Baltimore. I just glanced at it while going down the gin aisle and I guess it was sloe gin being it was brown. And sloe gin is some weird and scary looking shit that I’ve never tried. What vodka is made in CT?
Gordon’s.
Gordons makes vodka? I knew they make gin. I thought they were in London or somewhere in the UK.
Wikipedia says they produce vodka only in the US and Venezuela (!).
I’m going to bet the US distillery was some legacy vodka brand, and when Diageo formed (*merger of Guinness & Grand Met in the late 1990s), they probably took the Gordon’s label, and slapped it onto whatever thing was being produced in the US at the time as a brand-extension, and called it good.
*i probably used to know, but have forgotten. That deal was the very first thing i ever covered as a research analyst.
Yeah, that’s what I figured too. I like it because it’s relatively cheap, good enough to drink, and comes in big plastic bottles.
US and Venezuela. That’s a weird combo. Is it commie vodka? Every time I drink Russian vodka I want to cuddle with a girl named Natasha and 3 woolly sled dogs.
Mine was apparently bottled in Ballmer, but I deliberately bought the cheap stuff since I’m using it to spike my eggnog, not drink straight.
Apple to help Make America Great Again?
Sure, iThingy fans won’t mind paying $7K for their phones.
How much is robotics now days?
Then Trumputin demands they build their widgets in the US of A with real humans!, cause jerbz and Make Murika great again!, so they hire illegals because no one else will work for $15 a day, but then Trumputin deports the illegals, then Apple has to hire unionized American employees for $25 an hour. And presto, there you go, 7K iPhones! Murika becomes great again because no one has a shitty Apple phone!
LOL like a union worker would slum it for only $25 an hour.
Everyone who voted against him will no longer be able to communicate.
Hm… let me think about this one for a moment.
No?
Are Canadian politics more ridiculous than American politics? You decide.
Well, we don’t have time to talk about farts, racism is taking up all the time.
No, because they will claim that their passionate resistance prevented Hitler.
I think after this election you guys are slightly ahead, but we’re always trying to catch up.
Not the first time we’ve had freak outs over ‘f words’ though.
For outright batshit insane, no one can beat Canuckistan and the Aussies right now, but the US and the Eurotards are nipping at their heels.
Well this is also coming from Elizabeth May, the crazy Green Party candidate who has their one seat in Parliament. It’s like if you gave Jill Stein actual political power, it’s not representative of the majority of Canadian politicians.
Now Elbowgate and anything Zoolander says, that’s traditional Canadian political derp.
Trump’s going to do his best to make a Warren/Stein ticket actually look attractive for 2020.
They’ve come a long way since “that depends on whether I embrace His Lordship’s principles of His Lordship’s mistress.”
Slideshow of Parliamentary insults
*or* his Lordship’s mistress
So you wanna hear the f-word, do ya?
al Jazeera is worried about fascism
“The foul stench of fascism in the US
“‘White America may be shocked by the election of Donald Trump, but black and brown America smelt it coming.'”
Does the Qatari economy count as fascist?
*checks Freedom House*
Yep, still “Not Free”. But I’m sure the American intelligentsia is reading this with consternation.
Double down motherfuckers. Double down.
Don’t you mean goatfuckers? 😉
Double down motherfuckers
Nice band name.
Ye who smelt it, dealt it?
Speaking of those assholes
Rare footage of Ben Carson endorsing Trump at the GOP Convention:
http://tinyurl.com/jhvzc3n
OB1? How jive. BazaarO is way better.
“Help us OB1, you’re our only hope”
Uhg
OT: So I just read a blurb in the mag about “No Man’s Sky”. I go to Steam and it’s the first game I’ve ever seen rated “Overwhelmingly Negative”. Anyone tried it?
Yes. I have 113 hours in it.
So everyone’s wrong? 🙂
Depending on what wrong means. Here’s my take on it. The game was probably the most overly hyped game in history. So all these starry eyed fanboys pre-ordered the game. Then when it didn’t turn out to be the greatest fucking thing ever to happen to gaming, they threw an epic fucking hissy fit. Talking about pants shitting. This election is nothing in comparison to what that was.
Myself, I NEVER pre-order games. Aflter release day, I go to Steam, read the comments, then watch Youtube live streams, which there will always be copious amounts of after any major release, the same day. So I thought, well this looks pretty cool. I never buy into hype. It’s a very unique and fun game IF you like exploring, for quite a few hours. Definitely worth $60. I mean I’ve spent more than than on lunch that I didn’t like. But for the pants shitting snowflakes, $60 and being disappointed by a game is like a life threatening crisis. They’re like SJWs, seriously.
Buy it and play it for less than 2 hours on Steam, and you can refund if you don’t like it. Don’t expect epic combat, there is none. There is no multi-player, so don’t expect that either. But the game is pretty and there really is nothing else like it. Watch some Youtube and see what you think.
I pre-orderd Obduction because I had confidence in the creators of Myst. But yeah normally I would never.
Alternatively, you can just buy Kerbal Space Program, spend several real-time months trying to get to another planet, and then feel really, really smart when you actually succeed.
I have that game, it’s pretty cool, just totally different sort of game where you get to actually learn about the physics of space flight.
If you want a space game for combat, definitely Elite Dangerous. I also own Star Citizen which is an amazingly stunning unfinished game which will run at about 15 FPS with 3 way GTX 1080 SLI, lol.
It was so freaking overhyped… even I heard about it. and i hardly ever play games at all.
So i bought it and put in maybe 2 dozen hours before i realized the entire game was effectively “Shooting Rocks”, broken up by the occasional 2-sentence conversation with a Fish-person-alien. Who did nothing and served no purpose in the larger game-world.
the variety generated by the ‘procedurally generated worlds’ was laughably shallow. They were all slight variations on the same few themes. some rocks, some animals, some weather. You pretty much saw the entire universe in 2 hours or less.
It was like the “New Coke” of video games. Something everyone acted was going to be some revolutionary-paradigm-shifting-game-changer.. .but which ended up being “shittier than both old-coke and regular pepsi”
I can understand why millions of people really really really didn’t like it.
You definitely cannot see everything there is to see in 2 hours. I found some amazingly cool planets, but not until about 50 hours in. With mods, which there are a few now, but nothing great, it could be really epic. But yeah, over hyped to the extreme.
even if the procedural-generation eventually produces some locations that make you go, “huh that’s cool”….
…What are you DOING THERE?
Shooting rocks. Talking to fish-face. Leave.
The extreme hype was ridiculous when you realize this thing was designed by a company with less than a dozen employees. I stayed away because I knew it was likely going to end up a glorified tech demo of a specific mechanic (in this case, their procedural generation).
I have never enjoyed a ‘procedurally generated’ game. Not my bag. Mostly I was just curious why the reviews are so bad. I usually trust the user reviews on Steam but if they’re undeservedly slagging this game I may have to reconsider. I would hate to see Steam turn into Yelp.
There’s plenty of bad reviews when it comes to Steam. Anything with a stupid amount of DLC tends to get a lot of bad reviews that consist of “Too much DLC, game’s fine but too much DLC.” Dark Souls 2 has a ton of bad reviews that basically just say “it isn’t the original Dark Souls.” The game’s actually great and the multiplayer is better than the original, but the hype is too strong.
Ugh the bitching about multi-player on every single game is my biggest pet peeve. Single-player and multi-player are entirely different beasts and you can’t shoehorn that crap into every game.
I didn’t, but I have a friend who put a couple dozen hours into it. He hates it, says it just drags on and turns into a endless grind of walking tours of boring planets coupled with a bad inventory system.
Hitman’s on sale too, which I’ve been playing as it came out, and it’s basically the closest thing to a James Bond simulator I’ll ever get, and I’m ok with that.
“Oklahoma tribe sues to halt oil and gas drilling”
[…]
“The Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma has filed a lawsuit against the federal government to void drilling permits for oil and natural gas wells on tribal land that the tribe alleges cause earthquakes in northern Oklahoma.”
http://www.sfgate.com/nation/a…..625421.php
Bullshit on the earthquake claim, but unlike the bleevers trying to stop the pipeline for religious purposes, it looks like this is their land.
I presume they’ll forego any compensation, too.
I live in OKC and both the earthquakes and the cause are real.
Fun little distraction showed up on my Youtube. New CIA Director Pompeo when he was grilling Hillary on lack of security at Benghazi. 10 minutes.
https://youtu.be/VzR3Jir7ZoE
Interesting look at tge demographics of the election.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/av…..8e83243b8b
“Hispanics have a very favorable view of Barack Obama?Hillary Clinton didn’t connect with them in the same way,” despite record Hispanic turnout.
—-Emily Elkins
Hillary Clinton is just like their abuela.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12…..s-say.html
Michelle “School Choice” Rhee–probably Secretary of Education.
Gotta like that.
If Romney ends up as Secretary of State, I guess Giuliani gets to spend more time with his family.
I think that’s the way it goes in a power play. That’s the way it works in business, too.
The guy who loses in a power struggle doesn’t get a consolation prize. He gets good wishes in all of his future endeavors.
Giuliani losing out as Attorney General to Sessions may not mean he’s going to be Secretary of State after all. Not when the boss is out there interviewing other candidates on TV.
If Giuliani doesn’t land the plum job of his dreams it is only because he didn’t want it.
If Giuliani says he didn’t want to be Attorney General, he’s lying.
That’s SIV; you can presume imbecility.
“In the game of thrones, you win or you die.”
In more “Facebook is a left-wing monopoly that needs to be broken up to save the Republic” news:
‘Misinformation’ On Facebook: Zuckerberg Lists Ways Of Fighting Fake News
I’m still struggling with the idea that people turn to Facebook for news.
For a lot of people facebook IS the internet.
For a lot of people facebook IS the internet universe.
Someone once said that Facebook is basically AOL (the old online service) for the Internet.
I think that’s exactly right.
We used to joke about grad students coming up in the late 2000s who assumed that if they couldn’t find previously done research using Google, then it didn’t exist… and wound up spending a year or two researching a topic for their thesis only to find that it had already been done.
The kids coming up now have the same worldview about Facebook and Twitter. If it’s not on Facebook, it’s not true or at least not relevant. That’s why it’s extremely dangerous to be quoting dogma about their censorship.
And of course the dogmatic libertarians will recite “Facebook is a private company, so they can do what they want” in between their Hail Murrays.
Screw the dogma! FB and Twitter are destroying our democracy and are immune to any market-based controls at this point. The industry they are in naturally lends itself to consolidation. Uncle Bob’s Messaging Service with 20 users is not going to be able compete with Twitter for ad revenue, so it will die in its crib. We need to apply antitrust to them immediately.
If we’re going to abandon the Constitution and/or libertarian principles I’d prefer we begin erecting a huge gallows just outside the State Department.
We just have a different view of libertarian principles.
My view has the paramount principle as “protect liberty at all costs”. That trumps any rights of corporations, which are just creatures of the state anyway.
I just don’t trust government to do anything right. Government is good at killing people though. I could be easily persuaded to support them so long as they only kill their own.
Wait… you’re serious?
What made you think I wasn’t?
Would you stand idly by while our civil society is destroyed and authoritarianism sweeps in? A propaganda machine is the first step and FB and TWTR are girding themselves for that duty.
Maybe you value your adherence to abstract principle, but what difference will that make when every trace of liberty is extirpated and nobody in their right mind would touch those principles with a 20 foot pole out of fear of the secret police.
“Maybe you value your adherence to abstract principle, but what difference will that make when every trace of liberty is extirpated and nobody in their right mind would touch those principles with a 20 foot pole out of fear of the secret police.”
Seig Heil!
They aren’t there yet, but the groundwork is being laid.
Half of propaganda is what you don’t allow people to hear.
A lot of folks here aren’t paying attention to what this really means.
Whose rights of free speech matter more when there is a conflict of interest? The rights of people or the rights of companies? Facebook going down the route of censorship will affect a billion people. That’s a mind-bogglingly huge number. We would balk at a telephone company saying who we can or cannot talk to, even though some people who we talk to on the phone are lying.
And you’re absolutely right. It will end up cutting off half the conversation. If the MSM doesn’t like “unverified” stories around Wikileaks that they refuse to report on because it hurts their golden candidate, they can use their “fact checking” apparatus to kill speech they don’t like.
People said the same thing about the news industry, then Fox News came along and ate everybody’s lunch.
Not analogous.
If everybody else I know watches MSNBC, my watching Fox News instead does not put me at any disadvantage.
If everybody else I know uses Twitter for messaging, my using Uncle Bob’s Messaging Service does put me at a disadvantage because I can’t message the people I know. (Also applies to businesses trying to advertise)
Except Twitter is already driving away users. If they get even worse, they’re going to start hemorrhaging like a hemophiliac with Ebola, which will create room for a competitor to move in and start snagging up users.
Eventually, their competitors will probably do to them what Facebook did to MySpace. Arguably, it’s already happening.
Wishful thinking.
Clicking through to the actual data reveals that it is a decline in the growth rate of the user base — not a decline in users. The US Twitter user base still grew by 2% over the past year.
MySpace was only dominant when social networking was in its infancy. Now that the industry has matured, FB’s dominance is well-nigh unchallengable.
Uh, sure.
Fox News might get better ratings than CNN, but they get clobbered by the big 3 broadcast networks.
One of Fox’s big failures (IMHO) was to not expand their news outside cable
Graham knocks Paul: ‘He is my friend, but he’s a libertarian, he’s an outlier’
…and you can fit Lindsey Graham’s voters from the GOP primary on a unicycle.
I’ve been hiding in my safe room, is America great again yet? I’m not leaving until she is.
Turns out they mispelled “grate”.
Also, it is a cookbook.
How ’bout a little alt-right music: Federal Aid
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WHAT IS THIS INTERNEET AND HOW DO I SIGN UP?
You have to send a Nigerian prince your bank account information.
A prog confirms that he is on of the good ones:
The Other White People
As a mouth-breather from the old heartland I should feel insulted by that, and yet the sheer magnitude of smug is too impressive, I can only marvel at this man’s self-righteousness. It truly is a wondrous thing.
Please re-focus on us! We’re hip, trendy, more educated, and smarter than you. We’re white people that like all those people you heartlanders are racist towards. Please, be more like us! Our votes should matter more than yours!
Of course the people on the coasts are all for trade liberalization. That’s where the freighters from China are going to land and their economies are enriched by that. The landlocked states where manufacturing used to be huge are at a major disadvantage.
I’m not saying that trade is a bad thing. On the other hand, there are growing pains felt throughout an economy and displaced workers still need to be able to make a living. Voting in their own interest should be expected because those high-minded sneering liberals on the coasts don’t seem interested in them at all, in fact it’s the opposite; they’re outright hostile towards them.
Stop talking about white people
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Given the IRS is ‘demanding’ the entire transaction history and database for all Coinbase users as of last week, the winning open-market platform will probably need a (updated hardened BTC variation) currency to go with it.
One can always ignore these ‘demands.’
One can always ignore these ‘demands.’
You poor idealistic bastard. I mean I believe in you and all, Brian, so I’ll be sure to drop some funds in your prison commissary account after they find some way to bust you for this.
I get Paid over ?80 per hour working from home with 2 kids at house. I Never thought I would be able to do it but my best friend earns over ?9185 a month doing this and she convinced me to try. The potential with this is endless.
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