Comradeship // Freechat pinkeston • Now • 6%

What by far the most intense trip of my life taught me

Disclaimer: I'm not a troll, I used to be very (too) active on GZD here and on reddit. Feel free to search through my history here or [on reddit over 1 month ago](https://www.reddit.com/user/pinkeston/comments/). [There's also this using Pushshift](https://camas.unddit.com/#{%22author%22:%22pinkeston%22,%22subreddit%22:%22genzedong%22,%22resultSize%22:100}). Regarding my name "Pinkeston" because the trueanon people kept pointing that out. It's a play on words from the 1996 Weezer album "Pinkerton" (which I used to love but can't listen to anymore because it's incelly) but it's "pinkest" so it's more "pink" than "pinker". I never knew of the "American private security guard and detective agency" when I chose this username 4 years ago About 3-4 weeks ago I double steeped about 6g of shrooms to make a ridiculously strong tea, and while there's so much about that trip that I could write about, I just want to talk about the title. I wanted to post this earlier but waited this long because there's always an afterglow where you're still affected by the drugs but that completely went away after only 2 days for me and I still feel the same or possibly even stronger as I did immediately after the trip During the trip, I thought about the Russia Ukraine war since that's kind of always on my mind and I imagined all the suffering that was occurring on the land. For a very slight bit I was dropped in the middle of the war field on the ground and experienced all the destruction and death around me and I cried and wept for all the victims that are experiencing Hell RIGHT NOW I realized that resisting and escalating tensions can only lead to more harm and suffering. The fighting will never end. The total amount of deaths and pain caused worldwide in 100 years of resistance will be mountains higher than no resistance at all Violence only breeds more violence. No matter what the politics are (NATO expansion, Azov massacres in Donbas, etc.), you can't solve those issues with just more war The only way to create a peaceful just world is to change it through companionship and love. Forcefully submitting others to your will only creates more suffering and oppression that will result in never ending cycles Revolutionaries who have overthrown kings and dictators, workers that have forced their company's hand by going on strikes, and even people who have gone against their employer/state by leaking secrets like Snowden, Manning, and Assange I can respect their well-meaning intentions but all of these only contribute or create new problems that are the exact same ones they were trying to solve I'm asking all of you to please consider and realize all the harm you'd be doing by even just unionizing at work. It's a slippery slope to mass destruction and suffering. No more resisting for the sake of EVERYBODY Make love not war

GenZedong pinkeston • Now • 16%

Violence and resistance can only lead to more endless suffering

Disclaimer: I'm not a troll, I used to be very (too) active on GZD here and on reddit. Feel free to search through my history here or [on reddit over 1 month ago](https://www.reddit.com/user/pinkeston/comments/). [There's also this using Pushshift](https://camas.unddit.com/#{%22author%22:%22pinkeston%22,%22subreddit%22:%22genzedong%22,%22resultSize%22:100}). Regarding my name "Pinkeston" because the trueanon people kept pointing that out. It's a play on words from the 1996 Weezer album "Pinkerton" (which I used to love but can't listen to anymore because it's incelly) but it's "pinkest" so it's more "pink" than "pinker". I never knew of the "American private security guard and detective agency" when I chose this username 4 years ago About 3-4 weeks ago I double steeped about 6g of shrooms to make a ridiculously strong tea, and while there's so much about that trip that I could write about, I just want to talk about the title. I wanted to post this earlier but waited this long because there's always an afterglow where you're still affected by the drugs but that completely went away after only 2 days for me and I still feel the same or possibly even stronger as I did immediately after the trip During the trip, I thought about the Russia Ukraine war since that's kind of always on my mind and I imagined all the suffering that was occurring on the land. For a very slight bit I was dropped in the middle of the war field on the ground and experienced all the destruction and death around me and I cried and wept for all the victims that are experiencing Hell RIGHT NOW I realized that resisting and escalating tensions can only lead to more harm and suffering. The fighting will never end. The total amount of deaths and pain caused worldwide in 100 years of resistance will be mountains higher than no resistance at all Violence only breeds more violence. No matter what the politics are (NATO expansion, Azov massacres in Donbas, etc.), you can't solve those issues with just more war The only way to create a peaceful just world is to change it through companionship and love. Forcefully submitting others to your will only creates more suffering and oppression that will result in never ending cycles Revolutionaries who have overthrown kings and dictators, workers that have forced their company's hand by going on strikes, and even people who have gone against their employer/state by leaking secrets like Snowden, Manning, and Assange I can respect their well-meaning intentions but all of these only contribute or create new problems that are the exact same ones they were trying to solve I'm asking all of you to please consider and realize all the harm you'd be doing by even just unionizing at work. It's a slippery slope to mass destruction and suffering. No more resisting for the sake of EVERYBODY Make love not war

GenZedong pinkeston • Now • 100%

No Israel Gaza thread here yet. Any analysis on why Israel is now stepping up attacks?

Are they simply just taking advantage of media's eyes on the Pelosi visit?

GenZedong pinkeston • Now • 100%

War and interest rates - Zoltan Pozsar (Global Head of Short-Term Interest Rate Strategy at Credit Suisse)

Long but decent read. Original PDF at Credit Suisse got removed but snippets of this have been posted by Bloomberg

GenZedong pinkeston • Now • 100%

This is Russia. Beautiful women *shows children*. Traditional Values. No cancel culture. Economy that can withstand thousands of sanctions. Winter is coming

www.youtube.com

https://twitter.com/fatimatlis/status/1552750007408885760 I researched a bit and can't find an original source from any Russian company or state department so probably just from nationalists or a meme video? Who knows

[ARCHIVED] Shit Liberals Say pinkeston • Now • 96%

"Tiktok is Chinese spyware"

"But they put in a very addictive AI that pushes behavior modifying content at you. Look at the difference between the Chinese feeds (all self improvement, inspirational, science and tech focused stuff) vs US feeds (degeneracy)" So who's gonna tell them why Tiktok's/Douyin's recommendation engine recommends this stuff to Chinese people and "degeneracy" to Americans, lol

GenZedong pinkeston • Now • 96%

Shanghai includes blockchain, Web3, and NFTs in 5-year plan. WAGMI! HODL TO BTC 100K. TO THE MOON 🚀 💰 🤑

techcrunch.com

"Blockchain should be “deeply merged” with AI, big data and other new technologies to “empower” fintech applications, for instance" - the document says Holy shit, blockchain merged with AI AND BIG DATA. Somebody get Softbank and Sequoia on the phone, Shanghai is going to be the first city with a quadrillion dollar market cap. How the fuck do I buy calls on Shanghai with margin

GenZedong pinkeston • Now • 100%

Trump hits Elon with a roast hotter than his self immolating Teslas. Sorry Chen Weihua but this tops anything you've ever put out

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/108636743295734643

GenZedong pinkeston • Now • 100%

Mass Shooting in Chicago July 4th Parade Leaves 6+ Dead, 24+ Injured

www.wsj.com

Apparently, the suburb where this took place in is a fairly wealth one, and not South Side Chi like some may have expected. Also apparently filled with a bunch of Jewish people ::: spoiler Click to read article if you can't remove paywall _________________________ By Douglas Belkin , Joe Barrett and Alison Sider Updated July 4, 2022 3:20 pm ET At least six people were killed and more than two dozen wounded in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park Monday morning after a gunman opened fire from a rooftop at a Fourth of July parade, according to local authorities. Police are searching for the suspect, who is considered armed and dangerous, Chris Covelli, deputy chief of the sheriff’s department in surrounding Lake County, said at a press conference. He said a rifle had been recovered from the scene. Chris O’Neill, the Highland Park Police incident commander, described the suspect as a white man between the ages of 18 and 20 with long black hair and a small build. Officers are going door-to-door in the neighborhood to try to find the suspect, Mr. Covelli said. NorthShore Highland Park Hospital is treating 26 people as a result of the mass shooting, spokesman Jim Anthony said. Five more people were transported to NorthShore Evanston Hospital, part of the same health system, Mr. Anthony said. “A vast majority suffered gunshot wounds and the remaining sustained injuries as a result of the ensuing chaos at the parade,” Mr. Anthony said. Witnesses said when they initially heard the sound of gunshots, they assumed that they were fireworks. Among them was Illinois State Sen. Julie Morrison, whose district includes Highland Park. She was just setting out on the parade route in a convertible with her adult children, grandchildren and staff members when she heard the noise. Then two women came running backward along the route, screaming, “‘There’s a shooter, there’s a shooter,’” Ms. Morrison said. “I just couldn’t even register that that was a possibility,” she recalled. “We were kind of frozen in place and then there was this wave of people, this whole rush of moms and dads, they’re screaming and carrying their kids and running. And we knew it was a real thing.” Ms. Morrison at first got down on the floor of the car and then, after everyone was accounted for, she and her group left the area. “I will never subject my family or my friends or my volunteers to anything like that again,” the Democrat said. “Unfortunately, that’s just the way our world is now. And we need to step up and take action to change it.” First responders at the scene of a shooting at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Ill.Photo: Jim Vondruska/Getty Images By Douglas Belkin , Joe Barrett and Alison Sider Updated July 4, 2022 3:20 pm ET At least six people were killed and more than two dozen wounded in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park Monday morning after a gunman opened fire from a rooftop at a Fourth of July parade, according to local authorities. Police are searching for the suspect, who is considered armed and dangerous, Chris Covelli, deputy chief of the sheriff’s department in surrounding Lake County, said at a press conference. He said a rifle had been recovered from the scene. Chris O’Neill, the Highland Park Police incident commander, described the suspect as a white man between the ages of 18 and 20 with long black hair and a small build. Officers are going door-to-door in the neighborhood to try to find the suspect, Mr. Covelli said. Newsletter Sign-up The 10-Point. A personal, guided tour to the best scoops and stories every day in The Wall Street Journal. SUBSCRIBE NorthShore Highland Park Hospital is treating 26 people as a result of the mass shooting, spokesman Jim Anthony said. Five more people were transported to NorthShore Evanston Hospital, part of the same health system, Mr. Anthony said. Police deployed after gunfire erupted at the parade in Highland Park, an affluent city of 30,000 near Chicago.Photo: WLS-TV/ABC7/via REUTERS “A vast majority suffered gunshot wounds and the remaining sustained injuries as a result of the ensuing chaos at the parade,” Mr. Anthony said. Witnesses said when they initially heard the sound of gunshots, they assumed that they were fireworks. Among them was Illinois State Sen. Julie Morrison, whose district includes Highland Park. She was just setting out on the parade route in a convertible with her adult children, grandchildren and staff members when she heard the noise. Then two women came running backward along the route, screaming, “‘There’s a shooter, there’s a shooter,’” Ms. Morrison said. “I just couldn’t even register that that was a possibility,” she recalled. “We were kind of frozen in place and then there was this wave of people, this whole rush of moms and dads, they’re screaming and carrying their kids and running. And we knew it was a real thing.” Ms. Morrison at first got down on the floor of the car and then, after everyone was accounted for, she and her group left the area. “I will never subject my family or my friends or my volunteers to anything like that again,” the Democrat said. “Unfortunately, that’s just the way our world is now. And we need to step up and take action to change it.” People abandoned their belongings when they fled the shooting at the parade in Highland Park.Photo: Jim Vondruska/Getty Images Videos shared on social media appeared to show bloodied parade-goers fleeing the parade in Highland Park’s downtown area, leaving behind chairs, blankets and strollers. Hilary Stevens, who was at the parade with her husband and two children, recalled hearing 20 to 30 “pops” five to 10 minutes after the parade started. Suddenly, people started screaming and running. She and her family grabbed what they could and ran. “People were trying to run into any buildings they could, and of course everything is locked,” she said. Ms. Stevens and her family hid behind some bushes, while her six-year-old cried. Highland Park, an affluent city of 30,000 about 20 miles north of Chicago along Lake Michigan, canceled the Fourth of July event and asked people to avoid the area. Nearby towns including Evanston and Deerfield also canceled their Independence Day festivities. “I ask all Illinoisans to pray for the families who have been devastated by the evil unleashed this morning in Highland Park,” said Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker. “There are no words for the kind of monster who lies in wait and fires into a crowd of families with children celebrating a holiday with their community.” Jan Wolfe contributed to this article. ___ :::

GenZedong pinkeston • Now • 100%

Sanctions Push Russia to First Foreign Default Since Bolshevik Revolution

www.wsj.com

::: spoiler Click to read article if you don't know how to remove the paywall ________________________________________________________ A debt default has been long in coming since Western sanctions created payment obstacles Moscow couldn’t overcome Russia defaulted on its foreign debt for the first time since 1918, pushed into delinquency not for lack of money but because of punishing Western sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine. Russia missed payments on two foreign-currency bonds as of late Sunday, according to holders of the bonds. The day marks the expiration of a 30-day grace period since the country was due to pay the equivalent of $100 million in dollars and euros to bondholders. The default has been long in coming since the West all but unplugged Russia from the global financial system, creating payment obstacles Moscow couldn’t overcome. It wasn’t expected to cause any immediate ripple effects in markets or Russia’s economy. Russian bonds have traded for pennies on the dollar since days after the invasion, a sign that investors believed default was probable. Russia last failed to pay its foreign borrowing during the Bolshevik Revolution when Vladimir Lenin, the newly installed communist leader, repudiated the debt of the Russian Empire. Russia defaulted on its ruble-denominated bonds during a financial crisis in 1998, but it was able to stay current with its overseas debt at the time. Litigation over the lack of payment could span years. Russia has accused the West of manufacturing an artificial default, and has gone to great lengths in recent months to route money in roundabout ways to get the required payments into the hands of bondholders. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov on Thursday said Western nations created barriers in order to “hang the label ‘default’” on Russia and called the situation a farce. Russia has plenty of money from oil and gas sales to pay its foreign debts, which are relatively small compared with the size of its economy. But allied Western governments have blocked the Kremlin’s ability to tap foreign bank accounts or use cross-border payment networks to move money. The Treasury Department last month let a prior sanctions exemption expire that had allowed U.S. banks and investors to process and receive payments on existing Russian bonds. Because Russia has the money and intent to pay, its default is expected to pose unique legal challenges. Once the grace period is breached, bond investors can declare a default. Russia will claim its obligations were fulfilled. Unusual for most sovereign bonds, Russia’s don’t specify a jurisdiction to decide disputes. Lawyers say English or U.S. courts are likely venues to decide who is right. The first step is for holders of 25% of the bonds to agree to invoke the so-called acceleration clause, which allows them to demand immediate repayment on the bonds’ outstanding amount. Bondholders have three years to bring claims against Russia to court. “This is the messiest and most legally uncertain case of sovereign default that I can think of,” said Mark Weidemaier, a sovereign-debt specialist and law professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “That’s got to be one of many things that makes investors nervous when they think about the prospect of suing the Russian government.” One investor said clearinghouse Euroclear received funds for the May interest payments just before the Treasury’s exemption expiration. But the funds were frozen there because of sanctions, unable to be forwarded to his account. Lawyers say the bond documents are unclear over whether payments that reached the clearinghouse, but not the bondholder account, would constitute a formal default. A Euroclear spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Russia last week codified plans to pay bondholders in rubles under a decree signed by President Vladimir Putin. Russia will send ruble payments to accounts for foreign bondholders at unsanctioned Russian banks. Foreign investors could then convert the rubles into foreign currencies. The Russian Finance Ministry said it made roughly $400 million in payments on Thursday and Friday to bondholders under the new mechanism. Bondholders will struggle to move the money out of Russia without breaching Western sanctions. The payments pass through Russia’s National Settlement Depository, which has been sanctioned by the European Union. And the U.S. has barred American banks from processing Russian debt payments since late May, meaning many investors won’t be able to easily repatriate the funds. In theory, creditors could try to seize Russian assets abroad, though it is unclear what they might go after. Some investors have suggested they might claim frozen central-bank reserves or oligarchs’ assets. Bondholders of Venezuelan debt sought assets of a state-owned oil refiner after the country’s default. In 2013, Argentina hired a private jet for the then-president’s trip to Asia and the Middle East because of the risk of creditors seizing the official aircraft. “I suspect, remembering what happened with Argentina, that the Americans would be keen to have creditors chasing Russian assets all over the world,” said Paul McNamara, an emerging-market fund manager at GAM. “It’s basically contracting out the job of going after Russian assets.” The default isn’t expected to have a widespread impact on Russia’s economy. Russia reduced foreign borrowing in recent years, making itself less reliant on foreign capital. In the longer term, the default will make it harder for Russia to re-enter international financial markets. “Hydrocarbon prices are sky high, so at the moment they don’t need to borrow,” said Tatiana Orlova, lead emerging markets economist at Oxford Economics. But Russia’s energy-focused economy is vulnerable. Russia “would need to have an ability to borrow if oil prices were to come down,” said Ms. Orlova. Investors who hold the bonds say they are planning to take a more patient approach, expecting that Russia will eventually resume payments if sanctions ease. “The market approach will be laying low. You might have creditors committees just to discuss and know who holds what,” said Kaan Nazli, a bond portfolio manager at Neuberger Berman Group. Moscow missed $1.9 million in interest payments on a bond in April, triggering a credit-default swap insurance payout connected to those bonds. But the payment miss was too small to allow creditors to declare a wider default on most of Russia’s outstanding foreign currency debt. ___ :::