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The right to repair is not the ability to repair

By Jesse Hirsh | July 8, 2021 | 0 Comments
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Living out in the country, the repair ethos flourishes. I suspect it is partly a consequence of extra space. Seemingly everyone has a project vehicle or two, in addition to some broken heavy equipment, and extra machines kept on hand for spare parts.

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#AxisOfEasy 203: Another Supply Chain Attack Infects Thousands Of Businesses With Ransomware

By Mark E. Jeftovic | July 6, 2021 | 5 Comments
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Canada’s new “Guiding Principles” for Internet are “Creepily Totalitarian,”
Another SolarWinds type supply chain hack as Kaseya discloses breach,
Microsoft researchers find Netgear router vulnerability… this and more in this week’s Axis of Easy #203

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For Canada Day 2021: new Guiding Principles for the Internet, all of it

By AxisOfEasy | July 6, 2021 | 0 Comments
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The new Broadcasting Act, Bill C10, may be stymied in the Senate of Canada, but the actual content of its policy objectives has just been released. Heritage Canada has published “Guiding Principles on Diversity of Content online.”

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A Few Things About Reinforced Concrete High-Rise Condos

By Charles Hugh Smith | July 6, 2021 | 0 Comments
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There is a downside to steel reinforcing bars: they rust. The second most remarkable thing about the sudden collapse of the Florida condo building was the rush to assure everyone that this was a one-off catastrophe: all the factors fingered as causes were unique to this building, the implication being all other high-rise reinforced concrete condos without the exact same mix of causal factors were not in danger.

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July 4th: Sorry, America, You Lost Me

By Charles Hugh Smith | July 4, 2021 | 0 Comments
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Star Wars 24 plus the novelized version, amusement park ride, podcast, action figure and OnlyFans pages, anyone? I happened to be in a Big Box Emporium, buying two bags of whole wheat flour, when a strange revelation struck me: almost nothing in this giant emporium was made in the USA.

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Virus Z: A Thought Experiment

By Charles Hugh Smith | July 1, 2021 | 0 Comments
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What’s striking about our thought experiment is how little reliable data we have about the transmissibility of our hypothetical and the long-term consequences of its mutations. Let’s run a thought experiment on a hypothetical virus we’ll call Virus Z, a run-of-the-mill respiratory variety not much different from other viruses which are 1) very small; 2) mutate rapidly and 3) infect human cells and modify the cellular machinery to produce more viral particles.

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The Systemic Risk No One Sees

By Charles Hugh Smith | June 30, 2021 | 0 Comments
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The unraveling of social cohesion has consequences. Once social cohesion unravels, the nation unravels. My recent posts have focused on the systemic financial risks created by Federal Reserve policies that have elevated moral hazard (risks can be taken without consequence) and speculation to levels so extreme that they threaten the stability of the entire financial system.

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#AxisOfEasy 202: Stop What You’re Doing: Unplug Your WD My Book Live Storage Device

By Mark E. Jeftovic | June 29, 2021 | 9 Comments
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Unplug your Western Digital MyBook Storage Drive Immediately,
WHO stealth edits recommendation to not vaccinate children,
MailChimp suspends Babylon Bee… this and more in Axis of Easy # 202

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Terminated by an algorithm

By Jesse Hirsh | June 29, 2021 | 0 Comments
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Yesterday we talked about how AI can act unethically, as well as encourage and enable humans to engage in unethical behaviour.
The idea that technology enables us to do things is self-evident, yet the inverse is also true, that technology enables us to not do things.

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When Expedient "Saves" Become Permanent, Ruin Is Assured

By Charles Hugh Smith | June 28, 2021 | 0 Comments
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The Fed’s “choice” is as illusory as the “wealth” the Fed has created with its perfection of moral hazard. The belief that the Federal Reserve possesses god-like powers and wisdom would be comical if it wasn’t so deeply tragic, for the Fed doesn’t even have a plan, much less wisdom.

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Does AI subvert our humanity?

By Jesse Hirsh | June 28, 2021 | 0 Comments
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When Gary Kasparov lost to a chess playing computer in 1997 I recall the paranoia people felt as they assumed this marked the moment where machines became smarter than humans. Of course it wasn’t, but it was a reminder that humans can be as dumb as machines.

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America’s Social Order is Unraveling

By Charles Hugh Smith | June 25, 2021 | 0 Comments
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The unraveling of America’s social order is accelerating, and denial will not save us from the consequences of the plundering of the social contract. What kind of nation boasts a record-high stock market and an unraveling social order?

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It Always Ends The Same Way: Crisis, Crash, Collapse

By Charles Hugh Smith | June 23, 2021 | 0 Comments
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Risk has not been extinguished, it is expanding geometrically beneath the false stability of a monstrously manipulated market. One of the most under-appreciated investment insights is courtesy of Mike Tyson: “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” At this moment in history, the plan of most market participants is to place their full faith and trust in the status quo’s ability to keep asset prices lofting ever higher, essentially forever.

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#AxisOfEasy 201: Bill C-10 Rammed Through Parliament In Midnight session

By Mark E. Jeftovic | June 22, 2021 | 20 Comments
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Bill C-10 rammed through parlliament in midnight session,
IoT devices could be weaponized for DDoS attacks at record levels,
Peloton software bug allows complete remote takeover… this and more in Axis of Easy # 201

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Our perception of time has changed

By Jesse Hirsh | June 21, 2021 | 0 Comments
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As we progress through what we hope is the latter stages of this pandemic, it’s worth revisiting something that was self-evident this time last year, but since then we may have subconsciously adjusted. We’re talking about our perception of time.

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Front-Running the Crash

By Charles Hugh Smith | June 20, 2021 | 0 Comments
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What if everyone in the market realizes it’s now the moment to front-run the crash? We have a fine-sounding word for running with the herd: momentum. When the herd is running, those who buy what the herd is buying and sell what the herd is selling are trading momentum, which sounds so much more professional and high-brow than the noisy, dusty image of large mammals (and their trading machines) mindlessly running with the herd.

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USA 2021: Capitalism for the Powerless, Crony-Socialism for the Powerful

By Charles Hugh Smith | June 18, 2021 | 0 Comments
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The only dynamic that’s even faintly “capitalist” about America’s Crony-Socialism is the price of political corruption is still a “market.” The supposed “choice” between “capitalism” and “socialism” is a useful fabrication masking the worst of all possible worlds we inhabit: Capitalism for the powerless and Crony-Socialism for the powerful.

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Can Lina Khan save us from Big Tech?

By Jesse Hirsh | June 18, 2021 | 0 Comments
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There’s usually a point, early on, in any administration, when peak hope is reached. This is the moment when supporters of said regime reach the highest point of optimism, euphoria, and hope. It’s usually not appreciated in the moment, but tragically recognized afterwards, when hopes are dashed, and expectations plummet.

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Is Inflation "Transitory"? Here’s Your Simple Test

By Charles Hugh Smith | June 16, 2021 | 0 Comments
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Is inflation “transitory” in your household budget? Really? Where? The Federal Reserve has been bleating that inflation is “transitory”–but what about the real world that we live in, as opposed to the abstract funhouse of rigged statistics? Here’s a simple test to help you decide if inflation is “transitory” in the real world.

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#AxisOfEasy 200: Chat App Of Choice For Cyber-Criminals Turns Out To Be Run By FBI

By Mark E. Jeftovic | June 15, 2021 | 1 Comment
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Google’s FLOC already being gamed by adtech companies
Bill C-10 hits rock bottom for Canadian democracy
Vaccine passports come to Manitoba, “no jab = no phone“ in Pakistan… this and more in Axis of Easy # 200

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Seven Things Nobody Talks About that Will Eventually Matter–A Lot

By Charles Hugh Smith | June 14, 2021 | 0 Comments
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Nobody seems to notice the ‘diminishing returns’ on Fed manipulation, oops, I mean ‘intervention’. Perhaps it shouldn’t surprise us that everything that will eventually matter is ignored until it does matter–but by then it’s too late.

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The Fed Is Wrong: Inflation Is Sticky

By Charles Hugh Smith | June 11, 2021 | 0 Comments
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The Fed’s god-like powers will be revealed for what they really are: artifice and illusion. The Fed will be proven catastrophically wrong about inflation for the simple reason that inflation isn’t transitory, it’s sticky: when prices rise due to real-world scarcities and higher costs, they stay high and then move higher as expectations catch up with reality.

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The Sources of Rip-Your-Face-Off Inflation Few Dare Discuss

By Charles Hugh Smith | June 8, 2021 | 0 Comments
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We’re getting a real-world economics lesson in rip-your-face-off increases in prices, and the tuition is about to go up–way up. Inflation will be transitory, blah-blah-blah–I beg to differ, for these reasons. There are numerous structural sources of inflation, which I define as prices rise while the quality and quantity of goods and services remain the same or diminish.

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#AxisOfEasy 199: Welcome to Canada: Where Debate On Freedom Of Speech Is Officially Banned

By Mark E. Jeftovic | June 8, 2021 | 3 Comments
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Canadian government blocks discussion on internet censorship bill,
Docs show Google shares location data with other apps,
Brave browser adding support for ENS and Handshake domains… this and more in Axis of Easy # 199.

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Post-Pandemic Metamorphosis: Never Going Back

By Charles Hugh Smith | June 6, 2021 | 0 Comments
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People caught on that the returns on the frenzied hamster wheel of “normal” have been diminishing for decades, but everyone was too busy to notice. The superficial “return to normal” narrative focuses solely on first order effects now that people can dispense with masks and social distancing, they are resuming their pre-pandemic spending orgy with a vengeance, which augurs great profits for Corporate America and higher tax revenues.

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Contributors

Mark E. Jeftovic

Mark E. Jeftovic

Mark is the co-founder of easyDNS and the editor-in-chief of #AxisOfEasy. He is the author of Managing Mission Critical Domains & DNS (Packt UK, 2018) and Unassailable: Protect Yourself from Deplatform Attacks & Cancel Culture. 

The Canadian Bitcoiners

The Canadian Bitcoiners

Joey Tweets and Len the Lengend are the hosts of The Canadian Bitcoiners Podcast, and you may recognize them as the voices (and faces) behing the AxisOfEasy Podcast. CanadianBitcoiners.com

Charles Hugh Smith

Charles Hugh Smith

Charles Hugh Smith is the author of numerous books and writes from OfTwoMinds.com.