I have had Telegram for a few years , I was hoping my boomer friends would move there too so we could exit the Zuck Fuck messenger but unfortunately everybody is stuck in their old habits and don't even recognise what F'book really is. I got banned there so many time I have ceased to use the website for a couple of years now but as all my friends and relatives are still there I have to use F'book messenger to stay in touch. Not to mention that Telegram is RUSSIAN , shock horror we cant' support Putler you know! So sad how dumb the majority are. Let's hope U can get this Stripe , never heard of it , sorted out and we can continue on the sub stack. Buck up , Ihope your foot is improving but no sympathy as I believe you were driving sober when you crashed.
More boomer-hate! (I deal with it) - my "old habits" were BOOKS - nothing Zuck, zero social media - never! - until substack emerged as the anti-covid + platform. I was one who shrank from bit coin (just before FTX) - but came in as a payer with substack.
If Rolo moves to Telegram I will go there and pay - no objections to that. (Substack for content and Telegram for business?). Good luck. I have long feared substack was highly vulnerable to take-down - Rolo may be the leading edge.
thats true. but then all fiat money has that quality. only this fiat money can be sent directly from computer to computer without a bank intermediary, which is the main benefit.
Nice post. Yes it was Kaczynski who wrote, “The conservatives are fools: They whine about the decay of traditional values, yet they enthusiastically support technological progress and economic growth. Apparently it never occurs to them that you can’t make rapid, drastic changes in the technology and the economy of a society without causing rapid changes in all other aspects of the society as well, and that such rapid changes inevitably break down traditional values.”
That being said, I think the discussion around whether technology is evil or not is an irrelevant one, because technology confers power advantages over others and therefore it will always be pursued. As you posted in that nice Last Samurai clip, those that refuse to adopt technology will always lose out to those who do. So it's a good question on a personal level ("Should I reject technology and go live on a farm and try to be self sufficient?") but irrelevant on a societal or group level...I do think a relevant question, though, is "what technologies should be pursued, and on what basis? Should technologies be pursued that enhance human life or merely pursue technology blindly for its own sake?"
I question your statement that those who refuse to adopt technology will always lose out to those who do. Tell that to the Amish (with their healthy hearts and non-clotted blood).
The Amish live in a protected (or somewhat protected) society that kind of values property rights and individual rights. In fact, the Amish farmers who sell unadulterated, unvaccinated meats are under severe pressure from the US Dept of Agriculture. The Amish are targeted because they are viewed as soft touches who don't hire sharp lawyers to defend themselves.
Also, technology trumps individual courage in conflicts. Russia is able to pull its chestnuts out of the fire with NATO fully arming Ukraine because Russia is ahead of NATO in air defense and electronic warfare. If your country rejects technological advancement, prepare to be bullied.
You can manage technology but you can't reject it.
Sorry to hear that you are again in financial trouble. Where is the bitcoin address on the substack page ? Could you get an ethereum address as well ? I have ETH and USDT and could pay you with them.
Crypto-currencies require you to keep your own subscriber accounts. A time-consuming tedium. You should stay in the realm of normal payments.
If you officially reside in a country in the European Union, you have the right to a current account. It is a human right, a useful one and a rare one that is such. They can only deny it to you for money laundering or financing terrorism. Unlikely given that you are small fry. Being Ukrainian, you should be able to obtain residency in the UE.
Otherwise you can open bank accounts in Czechia, Hong Kong, or Kazakhstan. As for payment processors, there are many : Adyen, Worldpay, Mollie, etc. Wise primarily offers currency exchange but it can be used to store money. You have a world of choice in terms of normal financial options.
Losing Substack is more serious. I would follow you on Telegram but I do not like the format. Would Telegram be better than Musk's Twitter ? What about Discord ?
problem with crypto is we don't trust it. 'we' = us unknowing wonderers.
couple of months ago had a friend kinda mocked me for being old fashioned or something and they 'invested' in 'crypto onyx', whatever that was. 'Was'. Because it's gone now, without a trace, taking her few hundreds of dollars with it. So that's pretty extreme.
I have a vague idea that perhaps the one called 'bitcoin' -is that right? - is the biggest and oldest and most reliable but even it has undergone numerous wild swings has it not?
And then we don't have much money. Generally we live, most of us, kinda from payday to payday. Most of our working lives are spent paying out all month and top up one day and then all month paying out. So what are the payouts? mortgage, local rates, power, water, comms, insurances, petrol, food, school fees. Something like that. How many of them will accept crypto currencies? None.
Then lastly the doubt, fear: fud; born of ignorance. We don't understand how this stuff works. All the bitchain talk just confuses us.
So you want us to put our money into something we don't understand that has a bad rep and a bad track record with nothing for us to gain - end of the day/the month we still reach payday with bugger all left either way. Easier to stick with what works. If it ain't broke don't fix it.
p.s.
BUT Telegram: more and more it becomes my only source for Ukraine info. It has links out into the wider world so one gets there. It's not like being in Telegram is 'only' in Telegram. Not at all. But more and more 'only' in Telegram do you hear the voices of real people and find real facts and find links to more real people, real facts. Making the outside world look like some ephemeral ludicrous fantasy land. Well, not the world itself, it is more a chaotic clashing crashing medley. But the 'info' world, the 'media' world, even the 'alt media' or whatever it is suppose to be that tells a slightly different story to the MSM. But still a very flawed one.
Yep. Telegram. Good one. More and more it comes out all things Russian: good. Though you're the last person we should say that to I guess. :)
Whatever happens, keep sending out mails. I don't open substack, just read mails I get in my mailbox , and many others like me. Need to find something that can not be shut down. Pigeons🐦🤔😁
To elude tech control, we need to get back to the middle ages. Letters and courriers. As the emails in some way connected to substack, you better save a mailing list just in case you get shut down completely
Damn there's a lot of boomers on here. Sorry about your financial troubles, sounds like the slave masters from the global plantation are yanking your chain, they'll let you get out there, but not too far. It's hard to get out from under them, especially if your money is digitalized. I think this whole shit show that the world has been going through is all about implementing CBDCs, there might be stackable functions along the way, the pandemic served several purposes just like the "not war" , the transfer of wealth, thin the herd, maybe reposition some of the oligarchs, but the CBDCs is the end game, it's about control, total control. It would be naive to think that the NSA or whatever spook agency isn't monitoring every bit of info that goes across the web, if they can watch it they can snatch it and please spare me the lecture on block chain. It's hard to get off the plantation, I ran off in '99, that was the last year I filed, I'm kind of a feral ass field negro, I live on a farm and live by cash, barter and favors, but I do keep a small debit account that I pay you out of. I grow most of what I eat and sell the excess, I don't accept bitcoin or any digital currency. I will be one of the last hold outs as they shorten everybody's chains.
I hope you're able to to stay on substack, I downloaded Telegram sometime ago but haven't been able to log onto it, every time I try they ask me to scan a code or to send me a code, to which I can't scan because I chose to use a flip phone instead of a smart phone and when I ask to be sent a code to my phone I don't receive it, maybe someone on here can tell me what my old boomer luddite ass is doing wrong
Alrighty, just downloaded the Coinbase app (you’re welcome, thanks for mentioning apps for those of us new to crypto), and already use Telegram, but I don’t find a Telegram account for you. Have you not set one up yet? Searches for you lead only to Substack account links.
That was great. But what the hell, man, the shit just starts pouring down all at once, as if perhaps Zuckerberg hired some compartmentalized bot (real or unreal unconscious non-person) to start fucking with you. If it’s not him, after today’s post, I’m sure he’s not helping. It’s a good idea to set up alt methods with Telegram, just in case. But unless they actually shut you down, I’d hope you’d keep your Substack page, too. I can’t imaging Substack would ban you. Me, perhaps, just for posting the Zionist Protocols of Zuckerberg’s inbred hive-queen Rothschild—which every politician, banker and intelligence agency director on Earth reacts to as if I spit holy water directly in their master’s face—which I do. I swear, If Substack does ban you, I’m only writing about how I hate Substack every day until they ban me, too, and I’m a share-owner. As far as payment options, figure out how to post a link at the top of your homepage for crypto-pay, or PayPal—like I’ve done—who I believe also uses/manages cryptocurrencies. Now that you’ve mentioned it, I’m going to look into adding a method of payment for those using Bitcoin, too. I’m one of those sorry souls in that crowd of two-thirds or more following your work who’s never used cryptocurrencies or Telegram, but I’d have to if you left Substack, being that you’re only one of three individuals on the entire planet I desperately rely on for competent, realistic input concerning everything Russia.
well you purchase crypto on an exchange like binance or coinbase using your credit card. from there, you simply send it to my crypto wallet. me being in russia or wherever has no bearing because its a computer to computer transaction.
Every Bitcoin bought on Coinbase and Binance is KYC(know your customer) coin and is connected with buyer through your ID(you must give it when buying) and IP address. People should know how to buy NotKYC Bitcoin and how to have their own wallet.
I just tried to set up an account on Coinbase. It's exactly what I expected: they want my social security number, birthdate, complete street address, source of funds, and proposed use of funds. It's like I'm signing up to put my name right into a federal database of usual suspects.
I can't figure out any way of getting Bitcoin anonymously. Other than doing it the honest way, by setting up a Substack blog and writing insanely great stuff so that the readers are begging to send me money. And that is way too much work.
you buy crypto non-anonymously if you use coinbase or binance. but what you then do with the crypto is concealable. but again, i dont think privacy is a concern for anybody here. you all paid with a credit card to be here already.
if you wanted to learn how to be anonymous with crypto, you'd read up on mixers, Monero, that sort of thing.
im not saying that you ought to learn to be anonymous to support my blog though. clearly, people don't care.
Aug 7, 2023·edited Aug 7, 2023Liked by Rurik Skywalker
If there's one thing that's going to make the feds nervous, it's any activity that looks like money laundering, especially at scale. If I deposit a bunch of money at Coinbase, and it gradually disappears into untraceable monero, it wouldn't surprise me if I got called in for questioning.
But, Pravoslani diktator's comment above is very helpful. I had never heard of these "NotKYC" exchanges before. Most of them have reasonable limits on daily transactions, but plenty big enough for many purposes.
It seems to me that supporting this blog by debit card is a pretty reasonable risk. I've said worse stuff on Facebook, not to mention my old blog that I mostly gave up on a few years ago.
I confess to freeloading at Anglin's site, and ignoring his continual pleas for monero. I probably wouldn't send him money even if he could accept plastic. He's certainly entertaining, but more often than not, he's obnoxious and pisses me off, so I only feel a little guilty for reading and not paying.
Southfront can only accept crypto, and their stuff is generally pretty good. But I feel that if they aren't getting money from the MOD, they probably should be. So again I can manage my guilt level.
Rolo: if you wind up getting de-banked, I guess that's my signal that it's time to get some crypto.
I recall someone sending you a btc donation a few months ago, so it wasn't nobody.
I also don't understand why you haven't casually been advocating more for btc over the past few months. You should conclude every blog post with your btc and lightning address so rando's can donate. Even if not at least your readers will SEE a btc/lightning address and eventually get normalized to it.
Basically, you are being (i say this respectfully) a bit hypocritical. You build up resiliency BEFORE you need it, and you never put in any serious effort to encourage or even casually remind people about bitcoin as an option. Now of course you ar every interested in doing so....
Agree wholeheartedly (again) Welcome to the renaissance! First your Bitcoin address please. Next, Russia is pro west because they are all pro- globalist, it’s a game there are no sides just us& them.
Coin base sucks folks screw them, started by “ex-CIA”agent ( no such thing)
Happy to cancel my monthly subscription by bank ( shows up on statement) & donate Btc more if the price improves.
Also blogging by email is fine, but of course you want to increase your readership. Get well soon Mastet Rolo. Never forget who you are
I have had Telegram for a few years , I was hoping my boomer friends would move there too so we could exit the Zuck Fuck messenger but unfortunately everybody is stuck in their old habits and don't even recognise what F'book really is. I got banned there so many time I have ceased to use the website for a couple of years now but as all my friends and relatives are still there I have to use F'book messenger to stay in touch. Not to mention that Telegram is RUSSIAN , shock horror we cant' support Putler you know! So sad how dumb the majority are. Let's hope U can get this Stripe , never heard of it , sorted out and we can continue on the sub stack. Buck up , Ihope your foot is improving but no sympathy as I believe you were driving sober when you crashed.
>but no sympathy as I believe you were driving sober when you crashed
i know, i know. im ashamed too.
More boomer-hate! (I deal with it) - my "old habits" were BOOKS - nothing Zuck, zero social media - never! - until substack emerged as the anti-covid + platform. I was one who shrank from bit coin (just before FTX) - but came in as a payer with substack.
If Rolo moves to Telegram I will go there and pay - no objections to that. (Substack for content and Telegram for business?). Good luck. I have long feared substack was highly vulnerable to take-down - Rolo may be the leading edge.
Boomer here. Have Telegram but seldom use it. Have put off learning crypto just as you observed. Will be rethinking both. Best of the Fates to you.
did my mad ramblings about demons in my computer chips convince you?
awesome!
To us old timers I think Crypto has the look of a House of Cards and/or the Emperor's new clothes.
thats true. but then all fiat money has that quality. only this fiat money can be sent directly from computer to computer without a bank intermediary, which is the main benefit.
How is bitcoin "fiat"?
Indeed.
Nice post. Yes it was Kaczynski who wrote, “The conservatives are fools: They whine about the decay of traditional values, yet they enthusiastically support technological progress and economic growth. Apparently it never occurs to them that you can’t make rapid, drastic changes in the technology and the economy of a society without causing rapid changes in all other aspects of the society as well, and that such rapid changes inevitably break down traditional values.”
That being said, I think the discussion around whether technology is evil or not is an irrelevant one, because technology confers power advantages over others and therefore it will always be pursued. As you posted in that nice Last Samurai clip, those that refuse to adopt technology will always lose out to those who do. So it's a good question on a personal level ("Should I reject technology and go live on a farm and try to be self sufficient?") but irrelevant on a societal or group level...I do think a relevant question, though, is "what technologies should be pursued, and on what basis? Should technologies be pursued that enhance human life or merely pursue technology blindly for its own sake?"
I question your statement that those who refuse to adopt technology will always lose out to those who do. Tell that to the Amish (with their healthy hearts and non-clotted blood).
The Amish live in a protected (or somewhat protected) society that kind of values property rights and individual rights. In fact, the Amish farmers who sell unadulterated, unvaccinated meats are under severe pressure from the US Dept of Agriculture. The Amish are targeted because they are viewed as soft touches who don't hire sharp lawyers to defend themselves.
Also, technology trumps individual courage in conflicts. Russia is able to pull its chestnuts out of the fire with NATO fully arming Ukraine because Russia is ahead of NATO in air defense and electronic warfare. If your country rejects technological advancement, prepare to be bullied.
You can manage technology but you can't reject it.
"Now, I believe that the point I was driving at here was that you should get Telegram and learn how to use crypto, but then I got a bit distracted."
Love you Rolo. Very interesting insights as always.
I stopped using bitcoin because of the volatility. And most exchanges on the net don't even give your real crypto but derivatives.
Hi Rolo,
Sorry to hear that you are again in financial trouble. Where is the bitcoin address on the substack page ? Could you get an ethereum address as well ? I have ETH and USDT and could pay you with them.
Crypto-currencies require you to keep your own subscriber accounts. A time-consuming tedium. You should stay in the realm of normal payments.
If you officially reside in a country in the European Union, you have the right to a current account. It is a human right, a useful one and a rare one that is such. They can only deny it to you for money laundering or financing terrorism. Unlikely given that you are small fry. Being Ukrainian, you should be able to obtain residency in the UE.
Otherwise you can open bank accounts in Czechia, Hong Kong, or Kazakhstan. As for payment processors, there are many : Adyen, Worldpay, Mollie, etc. Wise primarily offers currency exchange but it can be used to store money. You have a world of choice in terms of normal financial options.
Losing Substack is more serious. I would follow you on Telegram but I do not like the format. Would Telegram be better than Musk's Twitter ? What about Discord ?
problem with crypto is we don't trust it. 'we' = us unknowing wonderers.
couple of months ago had a friend kinda mocked me for being old fashioned or something and they 'invested' in 'crypto onyx', whatever that was. 'Was'. Because it's gone now, without a trace, taking her few hundreds of dollars with it. So that's pretty extreme.
I have a vague idea that perhaps the one called 'bitcoin' -is that right? - is the biggest and oldest and most reliable but even it has undergone numerous wild swings has it not?
And then we don't have much money. Generally we live, most of us, kinda from payday to payday. Most of our working lives are spent paying out all month and top up one day and then all month paying out. So what are the payouts? mortgage, local rates, power, water, comms, insurances, petrol, food, school fees. Something like that. How many of them will accept crypto currencies? None.
Then lastly the doubt, fear: fud; born of ignorance. We don't understand how this stuff works. All the bitchain talk just confuses us.
So you want us to put our money into something we don't understand that has a bad rep and a bad track record with nothing for us to gain - end of the day/the month we still reach payday with bugger all left either way. Easier to stick with what works. If it ain't broke don't fix it.
p.s.
BUT Telegram: more and more it becomes my only source for Ukraine info. It has links out into the wider world so one gets there. It's not like being in Telegram is 'only' in Telegram. Not at all. But more and more 'only' in Telegram do you hear the voices of real people and find real facts and find links to more real people, real facts. Making the outside world look like some ephemeral ludicrous fantasy land. Well, not the world itself, it is more a chaotic clashing crashing medley. But the 'info' world, the 'media' world, even the 'alt media' or whatever it is suppose to be that tells a slightly different story to the MSM. But still a very flawed one.
Yep. Telegram. Good one. More and more it comes out all things Russian: good. Though you're the last person we should say that to I guess. :)
I have both crypto and telegram. If you do accept crypto payments consider supporting Montero as it's anonymous and not only pseudonymus like btc
Whatever happens, keep sending out mails. I don't open substack, just read mails I get in my mailbox , and many others like me. Need to find something that can not be shut down. Pigeons🐦🤔😁
i wonder if the emails show my edits. my first published drafts have errors that i only catch after i hit publish for some reason.
I
Don't worry about the edits , we luv it all.
I don't know that. The articles I get via mail are perfect though😁
Argentine Boomer here. Tell us about who to follow on Telegramm.
To elude tech control, we need to get back to the middle ages. Letters and courriers. As the emails in some way connected to substack, you better save a mailing list just in case you get shut down completely
Damn there's a lot of boomers on here. Sorry about your financial troubles, sounds like the slave masters from the global plantation are yanking your chain, they'll let you get out there, but not too far. It's hard to get out from under them, especially if your money is digitalized. I think this whole shit show that the world has been going through is all about implementing CBDCs, there might be stackable functions along the way, the pandemic served several purposes just like the "not war" , the transfer of wealth, thin the herd, maybe reposition some of the oligarchs, but the CBDCs is the end game, it's about control, total control. It would be naive to think that the NSA or whatever spook agency isn't monitoring every bit of info that goes across the web, if they can watch it they can snatch it and please spare me the lecture on block chain. It's hard to get off the plantation, I ran off in '99, that was the last year I filed, I'm kind of a feral ass field negro, I live on a farm and live by cash, barter and favors, but I do keep a small debit account that I pay you out of. I grow most of what I eat and sell the excess, I don't accept bitcoin or any digital currency. I will be one of the last hold outs as they shorten everybody's chains.
I hope you're able to to stay on substack, I downloaded Telegram sometime ago but haven't been able to log onto it, every time I try they ask me to scan a code or to send me a code, to which I can't scan because I chose to use a flip phone instead of a smart phone and when I ask to be sent a code to my phone I don't receive it, maybe someone on here can tell me what my old boomer luddite ass is doing wrong
sounds like youre trying to link your desktop to your phone, which wont work because you have a flip phone.
I'll be damned, thank you, that might be what's happening, I'll check it out today.
Alrighty, just downloaded the Coinbase app (you’re welcome, thanks for mentioning apps for those of us new to crypto), and already use Telegram, but I don’t find a Telegram account for you. Have you not set one up yet? Searches for you lead only to Substack account links.
yeah not yet.
Ok, just direct your minions if you need to switch platforms. We shall follow! You are an important (and entertaining) voice.
That was great. But what the hell, man, the shit just starts pouring down all at once, as if perhaps Zuckerberg hired some compartmentalized bot (real or unreal unconscious non-person) to start fucking with you. If it’s not him, after today’s post, I’m sure he’s not helping. It’s a good idea to set up alt methods with Telegram, just in case. But unless they actually shut you down, I’d hope you’d keep your Substack page, too. I can’t imaging Substack would ban you. Me, perhaps, just for posting the Zionist Protocols of Zuckerberg’s inbred hive-queen Rothschild—which every politician, banker and intelligence agency director on Earth reacts to as if I spit holy water directly in their master’s face—which I do. I swear, If Substack does ban you, I’m only writing about how I hate Substack every day until they ban me, too, and I’m a share-owner. As far as payment options, figure out how to post a link at the top of your homepage for crypto-pay, or PayPal—like I’ve done—who I believe also uses/manages cryptocurrencies. Now that you’ve mentioned it, I’m going to look into adding a method of payment for those using Bitcoin, too. I’m one of those sorry souls in that crowd of two-thirds or more following your work who’s never used cryptocurrencies or Telegram, but I’d have to if you left Substack, being that you’re only one of three individuals on the entire planet I desperately rely on for competent, realistic input concerning everything Russia.
Rolo, this might be asking too much if you, but could you walk us through a viable means of getting Crytpo through to Russia?
Ah, I should say Russia, but anywhere, such as you.
well you purchase crypto on an exchange like binance or coinbase using your credit card. from there, you simply send it to my crypto wallet. me being in russia or wherever has no bearing because its a computer to computer transaction.
Every Bitcoin bought on Coinbase and Binance is KYC(know your customer) coin and is connected with buyer through your ID(you must give it when buying) and IP address. People should know how to buy NotKYC Bitcoin and how to have their own wallet.
I just tried to set up an account on Coinbase. It's exactly what I expected: they want my social security number, birthdate, complete street address, source of funds, and proposed use of funds. It's like I'm signing up to put my name right into a federal database of usual suspects.
I can't figure out any way of getting Bitcoin anonymously. Other than doing it the honest way, by setting up a Substack blog and writing insanely great stuff so that the readers are begging to send me money. And that is way too much work.
you buy crypto non-anonymously if you use coinbase or binance. but what you then do with the crypto is concealable. but again, i dont think privacy is a concern for anybody here. you all paid with a credit card to be here already.
if you wanted to learn how to be anonymous with crypto, you'd read up on mixers, Monero, that sort of thing.
im not saying that you ought to learn to be anonymous to support my blog though. clearly, people don't care.
If there's one thing that's going to make the feds nervous, it's any activity that looks like money laundering, especially at scale. If I deposit a bunch of money at Coinbase, and it gradually disappears into untraceable monero, it wouldn't surprise me if I got called in for questioning.
But, Pravoslani diktator's comment above is very helpful. I had never heard of these "NotKYC" exchanges before. Most of them have reasonable limits on daily transactions, but plenty big enough for many purposes.
It seems to me that supporting this blog by debit card is a pretty reasonable risk. I've said worse stuff on Facebook, not to mention my old blog that I mostly gave up on a few years ago.
I confess to freeloading at Anglin's site, and ignoring his continual pleas for monero. I probably wouldn't send him money even if he could accept plastic. He's certainly entertaining, but more often than not, he's obnoxious and pisses me off, so I only feel a little guilty for reading and not paying.
Southfront can only accept crypto, and their stuff is generally pretty good. But I feel that if they aren't getting money from the MOD, they probably should be. So again I can manage my guilt level.
Rolo: if you wind up getting de-banked, I guess that's my signal that it's time to get some crypto.
I recall someone sending you a btc donation a few months ago, so it wasn't nobody.
I also don't understand why you haven't casually been advocating more for btc over the past few months. You should conclude every blog post with your btc and lightning address so rando's can donate. Even if not at least your readers will SEE a btc/lightning address and eventually get normalized to it.
Basically, you are being (i say this respectfully) a bit hypocritical. You build up resiliency BEFORE you need it, and you never put in any serious effort to encourage or even casually remind people about bitcoin as an option. Now of course you ar every interested in doing so....
oh thanks, i didnt notice it but ill take a look again.
like i said i dont think ppl will learn crypto no matter what i say.
Agree wholeheartedly (again) Welcome to the renaissance! First your Bitcoin address please. Next, Russia is pro west because they are all pro- globalist, it’s a game there are no sides just us& them.
Coin base sucks folks screw them, started by “ex-CIA”agent ( no such thing)
Happy to cancel my monthly subscription by bank ( shows up on statement) & donate Btc more if the price improves.
Also blogging by email is fine, but of course you want to increase your readership. Get well soon Mastet Rolo. Never forget who you are