response 168 of 223:

Nov 16 17:23 UTC 2022

Saw that yesterday. Very alarming. 
There will be no scarcity with a Fed crypto when it comes to "minting"
or mining. Likely: The scarcity exists with the end user relative to
what their social credit score is.

The CBDC will be to cash what cash was to gold circa 1971.
Relative value of *everything* will change. $6/eggs will be a joke soon
but hey, promises of UBI are super attractive. 

response 170 of 223:

Nov 17 11:24 UTC 2022

#169 I'll have to add The Peripheral to my list. I tried Tulsa King the 
other day. Was quite immature and sexist but I may roll into the second 
episode and see what happens. May get good?

But Chlo  Moretz, the star of Peripheral was in Badass 2 and was great
in  it. She's a good actress and very good looking too; kind of looks
like a  young Kim Catrell to me. Good for her to score a lead part.

$1 Cadbury bars. Oh man. Did you see how big a snickers bar is now? It's
 the size of my thumb! I'm surprised they don't put a label on it that 
says, "2 net carbs". LOL (that net carb thing drives me crazy!)

response 172 of 223:

Nov 18 15:00 UTC 2022

"cursed the darkness and woke in a carb coma surrounded by wrappers."
I can relate if swap the 3 musketeers with pizza. 
Those true words are never admitted by any large woman. The words 
actually spoken are these, "You don't understand what it's like to be a 
woman. I try and try. I do everything but nothing works. I don't have 
testosterone or a male metabolism. It's not FAIR!" 
Behind ever scenario are hidden bags of shame candy and doritos. 

I digress. 
I also really loved 24 before it jumped the shark. Really great plots 
and great acting, even when all along I suspected that the show was 
sponsored by the CIA as propaganda. "Torturing brown people is necessary
 for national security."

Gasoline. Not sure if you saw this but the head of Saudi Aramco recently
 said this:' Today there is spare capacity that is extremely low. If
China opens up,  [the] economy starts improving or the aviation industry
starts asking  for more jet fuel, you will erode this spare capacity.
When you erode  that spare capacity the world should be worried. There
will be no space  for any hiccup   any interruption, any unforeseen
events anywhere around  the world.'

And finally, a talking head from Fox nails the FTX scenario. I'm 
wondering if FTX will get buried in the news cycle despite the fact that
 it's several magnitudes worse than Madoff because Democrats and Covid 
authoritarians benefited from SBF passing around other people's money. 
$32 billion is an insane amount of money and the damage is going to be 
epic. I know 'epic' is a word tossed around a lot these days but it 
really applies here. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9wMUhhYjGY&t=232s

response 174 of 223:

Nov 19 15:08 UTC 2022

In an age where freedom of speech is equated with Nazism and anti-
propaganda is equated with misinformation, we now can complete with 
circle with eugenics. 

Physician-assisted suicide could soon become legal in Massachusetts. 
What are the pros and cons?
https://www.wgbh.org/news/local-news/2022/05/06/physician-assisted-
suicide-could-soon-become-legal-in-massachusetts-what-are-the-pros-and-
cons

It's not a stretch to see the left arguing for forced sterilization and 
euthanasia for those deemed unfit for society (political opposition?). 
In Canada, there's no consent needed from parents for children to be 
killed by the government medicine. In the US, kids are gender confused 
by teachers for gender reassignment. Imagine how children could be 
easily coaxed into government-provided death.  

The left calls political opposition Nazis. Ironic, isn't it?

response 176 of 223:

Nov 19 15:18 UTC 2022

https://www.history.com/topics/germany/eugenics#section_2

Eugenics in America
In the late 19th century, Galton whose cousin was Charles Darwin hoped 
to better humankind through the propagation of the British elite. His 
plan never really took hold in his own country, but in America it was 
more widely embraced.

Eugenics made its first official appearance in American history through 
marriage laws. In 1896, Connecticut made it illegal for people with 
epilepsy or who were  feeble-minded  to marry. In 1903, the American 
Breeder s Association was created to study eugenics.

John Harvey Kellogg, of Kellogg cereal fame, organized the Race 
Betterment Foundation in 1911 and established a  pedigree registry.  The
 foundation hosted national conferences on eugenics in 1914, 1915 and 
1928.

As the concept of eugenics took hold, prominent citizens, scientists and
 socialists championed the cause and established the Eugenics Record 
Office. The office tracked families and their genetic traits, claiming 
most people considered unfit were immigrants, minorities or poor.

The Eugenics Record Office also maintained there was clear evidence that
 supposed negative family traits were caused by bad genes, not racism, 
economics or the social views of the time.

Forced Sterilizations
Eugenics in America took a dark turn in the early 20th century, led by 
California. From 1909 to 1979, around 20,000 sterilizations occurred in 
California state mental institutions under the guise of protecting 
society from the offspring of people with mental illness.

Many sterilizations were forced and performed on minorities. Thirty-
three states would eventually allow involuntary sterilization in 
whomever lawmakers deemed unworthy to procreate.

In 1927, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that forced sterilization of the 
handicapped does not violate the U.S. Constitution. In the words of 
Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendall Holmes,   three generations of 
imbeciles are enough.  In 1942, the ruling was overturned, but not 
before thousands of people underwent the procedure.

In the 1930s, the governor of Puerto Rico, Menendez Ramos, implemented 
sterilization programs for Puerto Rican women. Ramos claimed the action 
was needed to battle rampant poverty and economic strife; however, it 
may have also been a way to prevent the so-called superior Aryan gene 
pool from becoming tainted with Latino blood.

According to a 1976 Government Accountability Office investigation, 
between 25 and 50 percent of Native Americans were sterilized between 
1970 and 1976. It s thought some sterilizations happened without consent
 during other surgical procedures such as an appendectomy.

In some cases, health care for living children was denied unless their 
mothers agreed to sterilization.

response 178 of 223:

Nov 20 13:59 UTC 2022

Watching Elon Musk troll the establishment and then watching them come 
after him is peak 2022. Even though Trump said he won't go back to 
Twitter now that he's been reinstated, the meltdown that his old tweets 
are visible is priceless. We need more meltdowns and I'm 1000% sure 2023
 will not disappoint. 

This narrative that free speech is "the end of democracy" is eye-brow 
raising and it's almost as astounding that so few challenge it. FUCKING 
COWARDS. People who don't fight back against authoritarianism given past
 history *almost* deserve what they get in the end. I say 'almost'
because  I don't want to see it happen but I conceded that it's true.

response 180 of 223:

Nov 20 20:04 UTC 2022

Canadians euthanizing children
https://banned.video/watch?id=6374e07f0f75fc3deb6e5c70

In America: California law SB-107 allows access to destructive 
transgender surgeries for all American children without parental consent

The Death Cult needs more children. Bring one to Best Buy today for a 
Black Friday discount. 

response 182 of 223:

Nov 22 23:54 UTC 2022

resp:181 I can't tell whether that's real or a parody.

response 184 of 223:

Nov 23 14:38 UTC 2022

Here's my rant for this morning:
SBF = modern-day Epstein crisis for the establishment
He's not in jail because he's under the rug. No one wants to lift that 
rug!
1000x Madoff (30 billion versus millions) and we are playing patty-cake 
- opening asking if regulators are allowed to ask him questions??? 
WTF???
Roll out the guillotine!
"They can't touch him because crypto is unregulated." ~ Bloomberg 
talking heads
Uh...crypto wallets operated as banks and are NOT CRYPTO ITSELF. Banks 
are regulated... we are being lied to. SBF used FTX as a piggy bank for 
the left and the left's causes and the bagholders are being ignored. 
It's one thing to be a stock market bagholder - risk/reward means no one
 should feel sorry for you if you fucked up. But having a bank account 
aka crypto wallet - there's no reason to expect any losses. 

In the meantime, iPhone Foxconn slaves are rioting. Guards are being the
 slaves as they escape. Rail workers may strike. I hope you guys have at
 least a month of food and medicine on hand. The stock market just
defies  gravity and fundamentals. The average joe is in line for beer. A
 football stadium-sized meteorite could be heading for NYC and people 
would still get in line for beer and lottery tickets. And the Covid 
queen, Gretchen Whitmer is wearing her mask in public again, signaling 
to the Covidians that it's that time again to get in line, take a knee, 
roll up their sleeves. I see morbidly obese cat ladies in the grocery 
store with a double-mask up to their eyes side-eyeing me. I resist the 
urge to violently cough at them. Where would be be without cats, romance
 novels, wine and television?" I'll have a XL McFlurry with M&M's, 2 big
macs, 4 large fries and one  large diet coke." 

response 186 of 223:

Nov 23 21:37 UTC 2022

SBF did what business people do all day every day.  Investors got
ripped off because they're greedy and thought they were taking
shortcuts.  Now, media is pointing out that the DNC got most of their
singular donations from SBF (and Soros.)  They are blaming SBF for
their losses.  To me, it's a distraction from the entire Titanic of
a stock market about to capsize.  SBF is a boogie man but the real
villains are the ones killing off every strategic commodity the USA
has built upon.
The big stick in the eye are these videos of slave labor who
are "so skilled" at slicing food, counting and packaging, and
squirting sauces into containers.  These videos are out there to
dazzle Americans as if this is new and was never an American industry.

We have at least 3 months supply of food and water. We live in 
earthquake land so power outages would mean electricity outages 
then ATM outages, food shortages, etc.  Things will devolve quickly.
California is not built for civility beyond 72 hours w/o power.

Gretchen Whitmer is evil just like Newsom.  And then the news about
Jenny Granholm meeting for an hour with Bill Gates - nobody is blinking.
Grift in everyone's face.  Nobody is blinking.  Everyone wants to
stay in their shell and cross their fingers.

LGBT shootings are nothing new actually.  The most vicious murders
were typically higher in the gay community (if you look at 80's & 90's FBI
stats.) 
Let's be honest though, the perverts who prey on kids or look to
groom them have always tried to work in occupations where they
could get access alone with them.  It's always been that way.
It wasn't always talked about (like the Catholics or Assembly of G-d
baptists) but today it's still happening and even moreso.  Nobody
wants to insult the gay community by pointing out that pedos are
lining up for teaching jobs and feeling emboldened.  Where are
the adults in the room to kick their asses.  In any other part of
the animal kingdom, offspring are protected - in the DNC world 
offspring are thrown to the wolves so the parents can feel "woke."

I dont really talk about all the drivers for why I joined
the military but a bit of it may have been to have some
formality, routine, civility, and a bit of job training. It
was a known fact that job prospects would typically be better
if one had some time in service doing something technical.
It's not lost on me that student loan bailouts have no
prerequisites like successful graduation nor gainful employment
in a higher income bracket.  There's no ROI for America.
The ROI for a GI Bill school loan is obvious if not for
the person to serve 2+ years on active duty but also to graduate
and have a better income thus to pay higher income taxes.
With the student loan bailout they're literally doing the 
opposite by wanting to only offer it to those who make BELOW
a certain income.  What am I missing with this?

Senior citizens on the street - that reminds me of 1992 when
I got off active duty and saw Gov Engler close down all
the state mental hospitals - a good majority of the patients
being elderly.  A few years later I was working at Edison and
alot of those former patients would crawl under my Chrysler
in winter to feel the engine block heat while they sleep.
I'm anticipating this to happen again but it will be VA
hospitals.  Obama/Biden totally screwed the VA last time
and it's already happening now..the backlogs are getting
enormous once again.  Yes YES, feel your anger.

response 188 of 223:

Nov 24 03:12 UTC 2022

Starbucks union is the funniest thing I've seen in a long time.
The second funniest is the nonbinary bad actor who shot up the gay
club being paraded out to the judge after the media went nuts claiming
the shooter was a right wing homophobe.  Funny in a "you hypocrites
look very stupid"; not in a "ha ha people died" way.  The poor nonbinary
kid looks doped to the gills.  I can't fathom any of it and am guessing
the perp had a crap life and makes crap decisions and hormones
were the icing on the cake for psychosis.  BUT NO, WE WON'T TALK ABOUT
THAT - THAT'S ANTI QUEER.  SHAME SHAME!  Put on our vagina hats and
stick our head in the sand.

response 190 of 223:

Nov 26 02:24 UTC 2022

re #189
That's ghost in the machine - how can they dictate who does what with
a computer via what power source?  If the person plugs their miners
into a Tesla does that create a loophole?  It's like
POTUS saying "semi automatic assault weapons".  What do either of
those things actually mean.

response 192 of 223:

Nov 27 00:51 UTC 2022

DNC PACs used crypt currencies to transfer funds for ads to keep the
origins anonymous.  Is it possible FTX going under was part of the
burying secrets?

"Sam Bankman-Fried, the young billionaire CEO of crypto
exchange FTX, had been criticized for promising as much as $1 billion to
support Democrats in elections, and then slamming his wallet shut."

https://prospect.org/power/crypto-pac-questionnaire-claims-bitcoin-mining-
good 
-for-environment/

Crypto PAC Questionnaire Claims Bitcoin Mining is Good for Environment
by David Dayen Oct 27, 2022

Last Friday, Web3 Forward and Crypto Innovation, two PACs bankrolled by 
crypto industry leaders, announced that they would start running their 
first general-election ads starting in two weeks. Two weeks would take 
us to the Friday before the election, an inopportune time to begin a 
general-election campaign.

But the announcement may have been intended to cover up a political 
liability. Sam Bankman-Fried, the young billionaire CEO of crypto 
exchange FTX, had been criticized for promising as much as $1 billion to 
support Democrats in elections, and then slamming his wallet shut. 
Bankman-Fried, through his $2 million investment in GMI PAC, indirectly 
funds the Democratic-supporting Web3 Forward. (Crypto Innovation 
supports Republicans.) His PAC pushing out a last-second ad campaign of 
at least six figuresa pitiful sum these daysjust as the criticism was 
coming to a head seems conspicuous.

Interestingly, the PAC Bankman-Fried chose for this purpose is not 
focused on his stated priorities of pandemic preparedness and other 
long-term threats. Web3 Forward explicitly supports the business 
Bankman-Fried has grown rich in, seeking a clearer regulatory and legal 
framework to enable the broader open blockchain economy.

A rare glimpse at how these PACs actually talk to candidates is even 
more revealing. The Prospect has obtained a variety of questionnaires 
from Web3 Forward, as well as GMI PAC, the primary funding source for 
Web3 Forward. Questionnaires are a way that PACs and issue-based 
organizations test whether candidates are on board with their policy 
preferences; they are often used to decide endorsements. They are also a 
way for interest groups to get information in front of future 
policymakers.

The information these two PACs are giving candidates, as you might 
expect, aligns heavily with the desires of the cryptocurrency industry. 
But it goes even further than what the companies might be willing to say 
in public. A section in one questionnaire labeled Protecting the 
Environment claims that Bitcoin proof of work mining, which has been 
criticized for using extreme amounts of energy, is actually a boost to a 
clean-energy electric grid, while using 2.5 times less energy than the 
banking system per dollar of value.

The Prospect asked Web3 Forward and GMI PAC to provide sources for this, 
but they have not responded. As the questionnaire even concedes at one 
point, the arguments appear to be based on theories from proof-of-work 
mining participants themselves. Independent energy experts have scoffed 
at the claims.

The questionnaires have other areas of focus as well, like wanting to 
get the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) off the industrys back, 
and seeking special carve-outs and tax breaks for digital assets.

The aggressive and at times questionable information these PACs are 
spreading demonstrates how money in politics really works. Regardless of 
the veracity of the claims, candidates are forced into the position of 
agreeing with or advocating for them as a condition of obtaining the 
funding necessary to get elected. Its a benefit our system gives to the 
rich that no town hall questioner or constituent enjoys. And seeing it 
up close is bracing.

The information these two PACs are giving candidates aligns heavily with 
the desires of the cryptocurrency industry.

GMI PAC LAUNCHED WITH $5.3 million in contributions in January, aiming 
to raise and spend over $20 million on the midterms. FTX Digital Markets 
CEO Ryan Salame (himself a major Republican donor, showing how FTX works 
both sides of the aisle), Framework Ventures co-founder Vance Spencer, 
and CMS Holdings co-founder Dan Matuszewski made up the initial board of 
directors. SkyBridge Capital, the hedge fund led by former Trump 
communications director Anthony Scaramucci, was also a founding donor. 
(Scaramucci did not respond to a request for comment.)

Matuszewski called GMI PAC the crypto communitys campaign arm in a 
statement during the launch. Bankman-Fried had his own PAC, the pandemic 
preparednessfocused Protect Our Future, but he gave $2 million to GMI 
PAC in January. This was part of a blitz by crypto executives, 
investors, and venture capitalists, who staked PACs with at least $52 
million through the end of May.

GMI PAC never made a single ad on behalf of a candidate directly. It 
transferred $3.6 million of its funds to two other super PACs, Web3 
Forward (which got $3 million) and Crypto Innovation (which got 
$600,000). However, prior to that it did spend some money on polling 
(using the Democratic-linked Public Policy Polling), travel, and 
consulting and strategy. GMI PACs website, which remains live, looks 
almost identical to Web3 Forwards, with the same design, about the PAC 
language, and mission statement (although GMI PAC talks about supporting 
candidates, while Web3 Forward modifies that to say Democratic 
candidates).

The questionnaires from GMI PAC and Web3 Forward (they have version 
numbers attached to them, so there were several that changed throughout 
the election cycle) are also similar. Both ask candidates to support 
regulatory clarity for crypto, and a stable enough business climate that 
would keep blockchain and digital asset innovation here in the United 
States instead of pushing it overseas.

That last comment is reminiscent of national champion arguments that Big 
Tech lobbyists have made, warning that other countries will reap the 
benefits of superstar companies if regulatory burdens make it impossible 
to grow stateside. It definitely features in [crypto] industry talking 
points, and we hear it mirrored back from [congressional] offices, said 
Mark Hays, a senior policy analyst with Americans for Financial Reform. 
Hays, who is skeptical of crypto, said he often responds by asking, Do 
we want to make the U.S. a home for a risky and speculative asset class 
that could spread contagion throughout the financial system?

As is typical for questionnaires of this type, they also ask candidates 
to sign on to various bills and initiatives, which fall into a few 
different categories. The first is tax laws. The Virtual Currency 
Fairness Act would exempt cryptocurrency gains from taxation under a 
certain de minimis threshold (between $200 and $600), and the Keep 
Innovation in America Act would reverse reporting provisions for digital 
assets in the bipartisan infrastructure bill that the industry doesnt 
like.

The SEC is another preoccupation. Two bills supported in the 
questionnaires, the Securities Clarity Act and the Token Taxonomy Act, 
would exempt some digital tokens from SEC securities laws, and another 
supported proposal, from Republican SEC commissioner (nicknamed crypto 
mom) Hester Peirce, would give tokens a three-year safe harbor from 
securities rules. Candidates were also asked to overturn two SEC rules 
they say would give the agency jurisdiction over decentralized finance 
(DeFi), and to sign on to the Digital Commodity Exchange Act, the House 
version of a bill that would give oversight authority over much of the 
crypto market to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission rather than 
the SEC. (Bankman-Frieds FTX has hired former CFTC commissioner Mark 
Wetjen as its head of policy and regulation.)

One questionnaire also asked candidates to support a letter eight 
members of Congress sent to the SEC, seeking to back the agency off a 
federal investigation into the crypto industry.

BUT THE MOST SURPRISING PART of the questionnaires was the positioning 
of Bitcoin proof-of-work mining as an environmental success. A study 
from the Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index found that one Bitcoin 
transaction uses enough energy to power the average U.S. home for 50 
days, and mining overall uses as much electricity on an annual basis as 
Argentina.

The European Union and several other nations have called for banning 
proof-of-work mining. The White House Office of Science and Technology 
Policy has said that it could hamper the battle against climate change. 
And the fact that Ethereum, another popular blockchain, completely 
reimagined their network in a way that reduced energy consumption by 
more than 99 percent suggests that some in the industry recognize the 
vulnerability of such extravagantly large energy consumption.

But that sensitivity is reflected nowhere in the questionnaire, which 
seeks candidate support for proof-of-work mining. By some estimates, 
bitcoin validating and gold mining consume approximately the same amount 
of electricity per year, it states, with Bitcoin mining being cleaner 
because of the lack of physical pollutants. The stretch here is that 
[Bitcoin] offers the same kind of value, Hays said, given that Bitcoins 
inflation-hedging role as digital gold did not pan out when it crashed 
as inflation soared (while gold has a number of real-world industrial 
and medical uses).

The questionnaire also estimated that bitcoin uses 2.5 times less energy 
than the banking system per dollar of value, though it kind of gives the 
game away with the caveat that the estimates were created by 
participants in the proof of work validation. Its unclear whether this 
is an apples-to-apples comparison, or whether it just compares Bitcoin 
mining to everything the much larger global banking system does on its 
own and invests in. A Greenpeace report about the financial industrys 
climate-harming investments was used in exactly this fashion by the 
website Crypto Potato.

Hays also mentioned that the financial system can process thousands of 
transactions per second, while blockchain transactions are orders of 
magnitude slower. The best test of a currency is how fast you can 
exchange that currency, and the answer right now [for Bitcoin] is very 
slowly, Hays said.

Regardless of the arguments, many industry participants continue to 
prize their tokens over the health of the planet.

Proof-of-work was also described in the document as good for the energy 
grid. They provide baseload consumption for solar and wind power 
generators that otherwise are unable to sell significant amounts of 
their production capacity, the questionnaire states, and they stabilize 
electric grids by helping to balance production and demand.

Ben Hertz-Shargel, an analyst with energy consultant Wood Mackenzie who 
participated in a debate on this issue, doubted the claims. 
Proof-of-work blockchains dont stabilize the grid, Hertz-Shargel told 
the Prospect. As baseload resources, they keep demand higher around the 
clock, raising power prices, grid congestion, emissions, and the risk of 
supply shortages.

In the debate, he said that the idea that solar and wind couldnt reach 
other customers is a problem requiring investment in additional 
transmission, not proof-of-work mining operations that would siphon off 
energy to homes and businesses. We need transmission investments, not 
kind of essentially feeding sugar to the generators to keep them humming 
while we fail to deliver the energy, he argued.

Some Bitcoin supporters have raised the idea that, by being able to turn 
off in an emergency, mining provides a flexible safety valve to the 
grid, eating up excess generation and going away when the grid is 
stressed. Hertz-Shargel saw this as somewhat preposterous: Abstaining 
from cigarettes every once in a while doesnt make smoking good for your 
health.

Yet regardless of the arguments, many industry participants continue to 
prize their tokens over the health of the planet. Jack Dorsey, the 
co-founder of Twitter who now runs Block (formerly Square), briefed 
members of Congress about Bitcoin in March, telling them that the 
industry will always go toward where the energy is cheapest and most 
renewable, and was working on minimizing power consumption. However, he 
added, banning proof-of-work mining would give up security for Bitcoin 
users. To that, Dorsey said: We dont believe those trade-offs are worth 
it.

WEB3 FORWARD RAN ADS for 11 Democratic candidates during the primaries, 
with eight of them winning. Most were in uncompetitive races that 
Democrats were also sure to win in November, making their belated vow to 
spend on endorsed candidates in the general election a little hollow. 
Only three Web3 Forward candidates are in remotely close races: House 
candidates Val Hoyle (D-OR) and Seth Magaziner (D-RI), and Senate 
candidate John Fetterman (D-PA). None of the three responded to a 
request for comment about Web3 Forward and the questionnaires.

Web3 Forward has not said where their new round of advertisements would 
go.

Its not clear that Web3 Forwards money made much of a difference in the 
primaries. In no race did it spend more than the $540,000 it did in 
Hoyles race. The $212,000 spent for Fetterman in the primary pales in 
comparison to the $137 million spent by outside groups throughout the 
Pennsylvania Senate race.

But if crypto PACs were just piggybacking on candidates who were already 
likely to be successful, the information they disseminated could easily 
have a real-world impact. Candidates know that they could not only 
benefit from billionaire crypto titans spending in their races, but also 
be harmed by spending against them if they reject their wishes. That 
makes questionnaires important tools shifting policy at a critical time 
for crypto regulation. Its especially true with something as complex as 
Bitcoin, which also carries the promise of financial inclusion, as 
Dorsey mentioned in his briefing with members of Congress. We have an 
understanding that were reaching an underserved audience, he said.

Its an old game that Wall Street firms have played forever, to say 
nothing of other industries: Use simple, unchallenged messaging and the 
lure of big money to reel in policymakers to their way of thinking, 
regardless of what that means for their constituents.

I think its clear that the industry has learned the money-in-politics 
game well, even if its not crypto money but fiat money, said Hays. 
Financial regulation is difficult to grasp, even in the traditional 
sense. When you add crypto to that and the financial inclusion hype and 
a fat wallet behind it, candidates without understanding it are going to 
jump on the bandwagon first and ask questions later.