Has anything filled you with wonder this year?

Happy Saturday After Thanksgiving! Are you still feeling thankful?

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder. -G.K. Chesterton

I think that many people have been surprised by many things lately. Some have been happy about their surprises and some have been very sad about their surprises. But has anything moved you to a sense of wonder?

One thing that has filled me with wonder is that IT IS ASSORTED BILLIONAIRES who have been supporting our civil liberties, such as the right to free speech. Elon Musk went through a lot of pain and financial loss when he took over Twitter to protect the free speech rights of the Babylon Bee.

DOGE is a big deal, promising to free us from a lot of excess regulation. It is also led by billionaires. (Chris Rufo, a former leftist activist, has some cautions).

And then there is the push-back against the Biden Administration by several tech billionaires:

Tech Billionaire Tells Joe Rogan the Govt. Plan 'to Control AI' is Why He Left WH Meeting, Endorsed Trump

"They [Biden officials] said don't even start startups - there's just no way that they can succeed - there's no way that we're going to permit that to happen."

Perhaps one of the most welcome surprises of the 2024 election cycle was the large number of Democrats and/or progressives who threw their support behind President-elect Donald Trump. The cumulative damage to the U.S. after four years of progressive rule, the deceitful way it had been implemented, and the speed with which it occurred, left even some lifelong Democrats disaffected. Silicon Valley venture capitalist Marc Andreessen was among this group.

During a Tuesday interview with podcaster Joe Rogan, Andreessen described the moment he decided to leave the Democratic Party. In the spring, he had participated in a series of White House meetings about the future of AI. Over the course of their discussions, Biden officials fleshed out “their plan to control AI through government regulatory capture.” Horrified by the administration’s intentions, Andreesen walked out and endorsed Trump.

What had left the tech billionaire so spooked? Andreessen explained:

The AI thing was very alarming. We had meetings this spring that were the most alarming meetings I’ve ever been in. Where they were taking us through their plans, and it was – basically just full government – full government control – like this sort of thing, there will be a small number of large companies that will be completely regulated and controlled by the government, they told us. They said don’t even start startups – there’s just no way that they can succeed – there’s no way that we’re going to permit that to happen.

The details are very creepy. Like this:

Andreessen also claimed that the Biden administration has “debanked” more than 30 tech startups, including crypto companies. Debanking means that a bank will suddenly close an individual’s or an organization’s account, or refuse to open an account for a new customer. This typically occurs when a person or an entity is seen as a risk “legally, financially, or to the bank’s reputation.” Under the current administration, debanking was used as a means of control.

The use of debanking as a control mechanism began under the Obama Administration, Andreessen noted. It was called “Operation Choke Point.” The administration started to debank “marijuana businesses, escort businesses and gun shops.” . .

This administration [Biden] extended that concept to apply it to tech founders, crypto founders and just generally political opponents. That’s been like super pernicious.

Operation Choke Point 1.0 was 15 years ago against the pot and the guns. Choke Point 2.0 is primarily against their political enemies and then to their disfavored tech startups. … We’ve had like 30 tech founders debanked in the last four years. It’s been a big recurring pattern.

This is one of the reasons we ended up supporting Trump. We can’t live in this world. We can’t live in a world where somebody starts a company that’s a completely legal thing and they literally get sanctioned and embargoed through the United States government through a completely unaccountable [authority].

By the way, no due process. . .

How do you interpret the possible order for Google to sell Chrome, given the news above?

In contrast to billionaire push-back against the Biden Administration's plans to micro-manage tech, yesterday, I ran across an ad on social media by the ACLU. It was not a big thing, but it made me wonder how they could not see that they were abandoning their mission statement.

Introduction and call for donations:

The ACLU has a battle-tested playbook to fight back - and win - against a second Trump term.

We took legal action against the first Trump administration 434 times and we will do it again. Join us.

The quote coming from NPR (partly funded by government) is also interesting.

From my perspective, it looks like the ACLU wants to crack down on the Trump Administration's crack-down on excess government. But it may be worthwhile to look into some of Chris Rufo's cautions.

Surprise!

One of my social media acquaintances, a lefty, is actually getting dual citizenship in Italy and plans to move there to get away from Trump!

Why not just drive to Canada?

Music

Come, Ye Thankful People, Come

Last week's thread, November 23, O Canada, O Montreal

No Pasaran has more. The Canadian system of government is a sanctimocracy: rule by the holier-than-thou

Even The Economist is coming down hard on Trudeau.

Although a New York State Senator proposed that four states could leave the USA and join Canada, I haven't heard of many individuals planning to make the switch as an election to remove Trudeau looms.

The Biden Administration is not the only administration which had debanked people.

Comments are closed on last week's post so you won't ban yourself by trying to comment on a week-old thread. But don't try it anyway.

Hope you have something nice planned for this weekend.

This is the Thread before the Gardening Thread.

posted by K.T. at 11:04 AM

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