Thanks for explaining that.

Would this traffic be encrypted just because a website is https or do you have to do something else to encrypt it?

Not sure what to think about Benz. He seems to go against the grain but almost everything he says or writes or summaries of his arguments can be read as coded support for US imperialism. It’s unclear who his messages are for. While they might lend support to anti-imperialists, there is enough in there for just a different kind of imperialist.

The US and its CIA-controlled “soft power” arm utilized the encrypted social media app Telegram to foment riots and protest movements against foreign governments it deems undesirable …

And:

… “26 US-government-funded NGOs” condemned Russia for attempting to ban Telegram in 2018 [because] “the US State Department was …” utilizing its encryption and local popularity “to foment protests and riots within Russia – just as they did in Belarus, Iran, Hong Kong, and attempted to do in China,” …

Is this an exposé on the US/CIA? Maybe. What critic doesn’t already suspect such behaviour? The claim can be read as an attempt to persuade users and potential users that TG is so secure even the CIA uses it.

Combine this with the following:

The US has championed free speech globally for decades …. Durov’s end-to-end encrypted social media app Telegram has been instrumental in this effort …

Is this a double-bluff attempt to get anti-imperialists to reject TG because it has been used to undermine their governments? The claims appear to say something but the intent is unclear.

Finally:

The app’s encryption is a powerful means of evading state control over media and allowing “US-funded political groups or dissidents to garner tens of thousands of supporters with relative impunity,” …

Another not-so-subtle hint that TG is secure enough to use for all of your anti-imperialist organising.

The alternative is that RT is picking this story up in this way to settle US nerves. Maybe Russia already has access to encrypted TG messages/metadata and has used it to root out US spies/saboteurs.

It’s a strange one but I don’t think Benz can be read as just stating ‘facts’. The other irony is that he is a free speech activist. Does he agree with the US pushing free speech, despite the CIA angle? Or does he think speech should be censored where it is used to undermine other/any government(s)?

That could be a big factor.

Statista suggests 22.7million people, or 9% are millionaires: https://www.statista.com/topics/3467/millionaires-in-the-united-states/#topicOverview

I wonder how this accounts for family wealth, as well.

I doubt it’s acurate. I find it hard to believe only 1% of the rest of the population are millionaires.

It’s working if you want your shares back at a discount. But that assumes an expectation that the price will rise again.

Thanks. That’s helpful.

Would you elaborate on that?

R. Edward Terence. Ed for short and the R stands for Rupert but I don’t really use that name except on government forms. Hence redtea, a play on R. Ed T.

It’s on the other side.

I’m also impressed that it can fry a tiny square egg.

TBF if they want to move their wealth to a tax haven in the Caribbean and pay to relocate me as a customer, I wouldn’t object too much.

Me too and I’m kinda looking forward to it.

Let them go. They’ll struggle to leave with their telecommunication lines and their football clubs and their factories and their farmlands. Rich people leaving doesn’t have to mean wealth leaving.

*At least 55%.

45% know and are resigned to the fact that ChatGPT would do a better job.

Somebody who puts on their favourite scuba diving gear and then hides in the septic tank at music festivals.

Wise choice. Too many arguments as to whether it’s pronounced h, h, or h. It’s obviously the first one but will anybody listen?

What about, like, humanoid robot trams with an electrified ceiling?

Is that Engels without a beard?

So the west is perpetually at low tide and can never launch another ship. It’s genius, really.