You've probably been hearing a lot about Bitcoin recently and are wondering what's the big deal? Most of your questions should be answered by the resources below but if you have additional questions feel free to ask them in the comments. It all started with the release of Satoshi Nakamoto's whitepaper however that will probably go over the head of most readers so we recommend the following articles/books/videos as a good starting point for understanding how bitcoin works and a little about its long term potential:
Limited Supply - There will only ever be 21,000,000 bitcoin created and they are issued in a predictable fashion per the inflation schedule. Once they are all issued Bitcoin will be truly deflationary. The halving countdown tells you how much time until the next drop in block rewards.
Open source - Bitcoin code is fully auditable. You can read and contribute to the source code yourself.
Accountable - The public ledger is transparent, all transactions are seen by everyone.
Decentralized - Bitcoin is globally distributed across thousands of nodes with no single point of failure and as such can't be shut down similar to how Bittorrent works. You can even run a node on a Raspberry Pi.
Censorship resistant - No one can prevent you from interacting with the bitcoin network and no one can censor, alter or block transactions that they disagree with, see Operation Chokepoint.
Push system - There are no chargebacks in bitcoin because only the person who owns the address where the bitcoin resides has the authority to move them.
Low fee scaling - Most wallets calculate on chain fees automatically but you can view fee estimates and mempool activity if you want to set your fee manually. On chain fees may rise occasionally due to network demand, however instant micropayments that do not require confirmations are happening via the Lightning Network, a second layer scaling solution currently rolling out on the Bitcoin mainnet.
Borderless - No country can stop it from going in/out, even in areas currently unserved by traditional banking as the ledger is globally distributed.
Trustless - Bitcoin solved the Byzantine's Generals Problem which means nobody needs to trust anybody for it to work.
Secure - Blocks and transactions are cryptographically secured (using hashes and signatures) and can’t be brute forced or confiscated with proper key management such as hardware wallets.
Programmable - Individual units of bitcoin can be programmed to transfer based on certain criteria being met
Nearly instant - From a few seconds on the lightning network to a few minutes on-chain depending on need for confirmations. Transactions are irreversible by normal users after one confirmation and irreversible by anyone (including miners) after 6 confirmations.
Portable - Bitcoin are digital so they are easier to move than cash or gold. They can be transported by simply carrying a seed (a string of 12 to 24 words) on a device or by memorizing it for wallet recovery (while cool, memorizing is generally not recommended due to potential for forgetting the seed and the potential for insecure key generation by inexperienced users. Hardware wallets are the preferred method for most users for their ease of use and additional security).
Scalable - While the protocol is still being optimized for increased transaction capacity, blockchains do not scale very well, so most transaction volume is expected to occur on Layer 2 networks built on top of Bitcoin.
Divisible - Each bitcoin can be divided down to 8 decimals, which means you don't have to worry about buying an entire bitcoin.
Bitcoin.org and BuyBitcoinWorldwide.com are helpful sites for beginners. You can buy or sell any amount of bitcoin (even just a few dollars worth) and there are several easy methods to purchase bitcoin with cash, credit card or bank transfer. Some of the more popular resources are below, also check out the bitcoinity exchange resources for a larger list of options for purchases.
You can also purchase in cash with local ATMs. If you would like your paycheck automatically converted to bitcoin use Bitwage. Note: Bitcoin are valued at whatever market price people are willing to pay for them in balancing act of supply vs demand. Unlike traditional markets, bitcoin markets operate 24 hours per day, 365 days per year.
Securing your bitcoin
With bitcoin you can "Be your own bank" and personally secure your bitcoin OR you can use third party companies aka "Bitcoin banks" which will hold the bitcoin for you.
If you prefer to "Be your own bank" and have direct control over your coins without having to use a trusted third party, then you will need to create your own wallet and keep it secure. If you want easy and secure storage without having to learn computer security best practices, then a hardware wallet such as the Trezor, Ledger or ColdCard is recommended.
If you cannot afford a hardware wallet there are many software wallet options to choose from depending on your use case. Mobile wallets like BlueWallet are generally more secure than desktop wallets. Beware of fake mobile wallets and check reviews from reputable Bitcoin websites. Avoid paper wallets or brain wallets.
If you prefer to let third party "Bitcoin banks" manage your coins, try Gemini or Unchained Capital but be aware you may not be in control of your private keys in which case you would have to ask permission to access your funds and be exposed to third party risk. There is a saying in the community, "Not your keys, not your coins" meaning if you don't store your coins in a wallet that you control the keys to then you do not really own your bitcoin as you have to ask permission from the third party in order to move them.
Note: For increased security, use Two Factor Authentication (2FA) everywhere it is offered, including email! 2FA requires a second confirmation code or a physical security key to access your account making it much harder for thieves to gain access. Google Authenticator and Authy are the two most popular 2FA services, download links are below. Make sure you create backups of your 2FA codes. Avoid using your cell number for 2FA. Hackers have been using a technique called "SIM swapping" to impersonate users and steal bitcoin off exchanges.
Physical security keys (FIDO U2F) offer stronger security than Google Auth / Authy and other TOTP-based apps, because the secret code never leaves the device and it uses bi-directional authentication so it prevents phishing. If you lose the device though, you could lose access to your account, so always use 2 or more security keys with a given account so you have backups. See Yubikey or Titan to purchase security keys. Both Coinbase and Gemini support physical security keys.
Watch out for scams
As mentioned above, Bitcoin is decentralized, which by definition means there is no official website or Twitter handle or spokesperson or CEO. However, all money attracts thieves. This combination unfortunately results in scammers running official sounding names or pretending to be an authority on YouTube or social media. Many scammers throughout the years have claimed to be the inventor of Bitcoin. Websites like bitcoin(dot)com and the r / btc subreddit are active scams. Almost all altcoins (shitcoins) are marketed heavily with big promises but are really just designed to separate you from your bitcoin. So be careful: any resource, including all linked in this document, may in the future turn evil. As they say in our community, "Don't trust, verify".
Avoid using ad-based search engines like Google or Yahoo: ads are shown based on how much the advertiser bids, and scammers can easily outbid legitimate providers for ad space, since immoral ways of earning money are far more lucrative than moral ways. Use DuckDuckGo instead, which has no ads, and never tracks you as well.
Ignore private messages offering services.
Never enter your seed words in a website of any kind. Hardware wallets will recover by displaying possible seed words on their own interface, never on a website.
Always check addresses on your hardware wallet before sending or receiving. Some malware has been known to replace addresses in your web browser or that you copy-and-paste.
Avoid clicking on links like that look like links, such as https://www.google.com/, without first hovering over it and actually checking where they go to. Just because a link is labelled with an HTTPS address does not mean it actually sends you to that address. It is trivial for someone to comment a link on Reddit that looks like it will send you to one website when it actually sends you to another, and you might not notice the difference until a scammer has gotten all your money, or you have downloaded and installed software that steals your money.
Common Bitcoin Myths
Often the same concerns arise about Bitcoin from newcomers. Questions such as:
Is Bitcoin a Ponzi scheme?
Will governments ban Bitcoin?
Will quantum computers break Bitcoin?
All of these questions have been answered many times by a variety of people. Here are some resources where you can see if your concern has been answered:
Check out spendabit or bitcoin directory for millions of merchant options. Also you can spend bitcoin anywhere visa is accepted with bitcoin debit cards such as the CashApp card or Fold card. Some other useful site are listed below.
Gift cards for thousands of retailers worldwide including Amazon, Target, Walmart, Starbucks, Whole Foods, CVS, Lowes, Home Depot, iTunes, Best Buy, Sears, Kohls, eBay, GameStop, etc.
There are several benefits to accepting bitcoin as a payment option if you are a merchant;
1-3% savings over credit cards or PayPal.
No chargebacks (final settlement in 10 minutes as opposed to 3+ months).
Accept business from a global customer base.
Increased privacy.
Convert 100% of the sale to the currency of your choice for deposit to your account, or choose to keep a percentage of the sale in bitcoin if you wish to begin accumulating it.
If you are interested in accepting bitcoin as a payment method, there are several options available;
Mining bitcoin can be a fun learning experience, but be aware that you will most likely operate at a loss. Newcomers are often advised to stay away from mining unless they are only interested in it as a hobby similar to folding at home. If you want to learn more about mining you can read the mining FAQ. Still have mining questions? The crew at /BitcoinMining would be happy to help you out. If you want to contribute to the bitcoin network by hosting the blockchain and propagating transactions you can run a full node. You can view the global node distribution for a visual representation of the node network.
Earning bitcoin
Just like any other form of money, you can also earn bitcoin by being paid to do a job.
You can also earn bitcoin by participating as a market maker on JoinMarket by allowing users to perform CoinJoin transactions with your bitcoin for a small fee (requires you to already have some bitcoin).
Bitcoin-Related Projects
The following is a short list of ongoing projects that might be worth taking a look at if you are interested in current development in the bitcoin space.
One Bitcoin is quite large (hundreds of £/$/€) so people often deal in smaller units. The most common subunits are listed below:
Unit
Symbol
Value
Info
bitcoin
BTC
1 bitcoin
one bitcoin is equal to 100 million satoshis
millibitcoin
mBTC
1,000 per bitcoin
used as default unit in recent Electrum wallet releases
bit
bit
1,000,000 per bitcoin
colloquial "slang" term for microbitcoin (μBTC)
satoshi
sat
100,000,000 per bitcoin
smallest unit in bitcoin, named after the inventor
For example, assuming an arbitrary exchange rate of $10000 for one Bitcoin, a $10 meal would equal:
0.001 BTC
1 mBTC
1,000 bits
100k sats
For more information check out the Bitcoin units wiki. Still have questions? Feel free to ask in the comments below or stick around for our weekly Mentor Monday thread. If you decide to post a question in /Bitcoin, please use the search bar to see if it has been answered before, and remember to follow the community rules outlined on the sidebar to receive a better response. The mods are busy helping manage our community so please do not message them unless you notice problems with the functionality of the subreddit. Note: This is a community created FAQ. If you notice anything missing from the FAQ or that requires clarification you can edit it here and it will be included in the next revision pending approval. Welcome to the Bitcoin community and the new decentralized economy!
India going to create a national cryptocurrency - how this makes no sense whatsoever
India might ban private cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and develop a national digital coin Makes no sense whatsoever. We already have a national digital coin. The Rupee combined with online transfers mechanisms like UPI, NEFT, PayTM etc is the national digital coin. To understand this, one needs to first understand what is a blockchain and what problem it solves? The problem solved by blockchains/cryptocurrencies is the problem of double spending? What is the double spending problem? Let's take the example of a movie DVD or a song CD to understand the problem. Let's say you have a song CD or a movie DVD. You gift/sell it to someone. Then he has the CD or DVD & you don't have it. This is because it's a physical item. Compare this with a MP3/MP4 file of a song or a movie which is not actually a physical item. If you give it to your friend, then you still continue to have it with you. Because when you send it to your friend via WhatsApp or email, all you have sent to him is a copy of the file. The same thing happens with money also. Let's say there is a something called as a digital 100Rs coin. Now compare an actual physical Mahatma Gandhi 100 Rs paper note & the digital coin. Let's say you go to a shop & buy something with your 100 Rs note, the shopkeeper gets the note. You no longer have the note with you. You cannot spend the same note two times because the moment you spend the note, it's gone. This is not the same with a digital 100 Rs coin (if one existed without a blockchain like technology). You have a 100 Rs digital coin. You want to buy cheese & it costs Rs. 100. So you send the 100 Rs coin to the vendor by email or whatever. He sends you the pack of cheese. But you still have the 100 Rs digital coin with you. You can go & spend it once more. This is the double spending problem with digital currency. What is the traditional solution to the double spending problem? The traditional solution is a Trusted Third Party (TTP). Your bank or NPCI or PayTM is the TTP. People at both ends of the transaction trust the Bank or NPCI or PayTM as a TTP. The TTP guarantees that they will debit the money from one account before transferring it to the other account thereby solving the double spending problem. The solution is a centralized solution. So the INR is already a centralized digital currency when used in combination with NEFT, UPI, PayTM etc. What is blockchain technology? In 2008, an anonymous person (or group of people) under the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakomoto published a paper detailing decentralized online currency. The decentralized technology was called as Blockchain. He/They also published their proof of concept implementation of blockchains with a currency they named bitcoin. Today there a lots of different kinds of blockchains (with some differences but all based on the same underlying blockchain concept) & different cryptocurrency. Blockchains use cryptographic techniques to solve the double spending problem. Blockchains use a combination of cryptographic primitives to ensure that adding a transaction to a ledger of transactions is relatively easy but undoing the transaction (deleting/changing it) is very, very hard (impossible for all practical purposes). This is how the blockchain solves the double spending problem in a decentralized way. When you try to spend a bitcoin, the blockchain can tell if you have already spent it before, thereby preventing the double spending NPCI/NEFT/SWIFT also uses cryptographic techniques to protect the authenticity & integrity of a digital transaction but they require a Central Authority, a TTP. Blockchain is the first technology to do the same in a dencentralized way. And Blockchains use cryptographic primitives to achieve this & hence it's called cryptocurrencty (note - http://www.cryptoisnotcryptocurrency.com/) India isn't the only country trying to do this This is an article written in the London School of Economics blog by Martin C. W. Walker, the director of banking and finance at the Center for Evidence-Based Management https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessreview/2020/12/15/central-bank-digital-currency-nine-key-questions-answered/ He also writes about how several central banks are trying to come up with a Govt blockchain based blockchain & why it makes no sense. One of the main points from his article - a national digital currency doesn't need a blockchain & blockchain isn't the best solution for it.
Q. Does a CBDC (Central bank digital currency) need a Blockchain? A. The simple answer to this question is “No”. Neither Avant nor Dinero Electrónico used blockchain. Bakong used a form of blockchain called Hyperledger Iroha. The sole role of blockchain in Bakong according to the white paper is to record processed transactions on a centralised permissioned ledger. A role that could be performed by many other technologies.
The point being Blockchains do not solve an unsolved problem. They solve an already solved problem in a different way. The existing ways were centralized. Blockchains solves the same problem in a decentralized way. But if the blockchain is run by the Govt then it makes no sense because it defeat the purpose of decentralization. Blockchain aren't more secure or more efficient than traditional methods. They are used only because they are decentralized. What this post is about & what it's not about? Around 3-4 years back, Chandrababu Naidu & several other CMs in India proposed setting up govt blockchains to store land records, logistics solutions & lots of other things. Back then, I have had fierce arguments in india about why this makes no sense. The main reason is that a Govt blockchain by definition is a contradiction of terms. The other reason is that since then I have believed that the blockchain has very few uses except as a currency. Blockchain is fantastic technology created from existing cryptographic primitives, but it's use is limited except as a currency - this is not a criticism - a technology which creates a decentralized currency is a great feat by itself. In this post & the comment thread, I am not going to be discussing other uses of Blockchains - logistics, land records, smart contracts, whatever. Because even if Blockchains can be effective for those things, you can solve those issues in centralized way - the bottom line is that a Blockchain created by the Govt is a contradiction - so it doesn't matter what it is used for. I don't want to detract from that topic. This post isn't also about the banning of bitcoin & other cryptocurrencies - that's a different topic. It's rather about the meaninglessness of creating a govt cryptocurrency & govt blockchain. Banning of cryptocurrency is of course inevitable & I never expected otherwise, so this post is not about that. TL;DR Govt Digital Coin is meaningless. There already exists a Govt Digital Coin. It's the rupee in combination with NPCI etc.
Playboy going public: Porn, Gambling, and Cannabis
NEW INFO 5 Results from share redemption are posted. Less than .2% redeemed. Very bullish as investors are showing extreme confidence in the future of PLBY. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/playboy-mountain-crest-acquisition-corp-120000721.html NEW INFO 4 Definitive Agreement to purchase 100% of Lovers brand stores announced 2/1. https://www.streetinsider.com/Corporate+News/Playboy+%28MCAC%29+Confirms+Deal+to+Acquire+Lovers/17892359.html NEW INFO 3 I bought more on the dip today. 5081 total. Price rose AH to $12.38 (2.15%) NEW INFO 2 Here is the full webinar. https://icrinc.zoom.us/rec/play/9GWKdmOYumjWfZuufW3QXpe_FW_g--qeNbg6PnTjTMbnNTgLmCbWjeRFpQga1iPc-elpGap8dnDv8Zww.yD7DjUwuPmapeEdP?continueMode=true&tk=lEYc4F_FkKlgsmCIs6w0gtGHT2kbgVGbUju3cIRBSjk.DQIAAAAV8NK49xZWdldRM2xNSFNQcTBmcE00UzM3bXh3AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA&uuid=WN_GKWqbHkeSyuWetJmLFkj4g&_x_zm_rtaid=kR45-uuqRE-L65AxLjpbQw.1611967079119.2c054e3d3f8d8e63339273d9175939ed&_x_zm_rhtaid=866 NEW INFO 1 Live merger webinar with PLBY and MCAC on Friday January 29, 2021 at 12:00 NOON EST link below https://mcacquisition.com/investor-relations/press-release-details/2021/Playboy-Enterprises-Inc.-and-Mountain-Crest-Acquisition-Corp-Participate-in-SPACInsider-ICR-Webinar-on-January-29th-at-12pm-ET/default.aspx Playboy going public: Porn, Gambling, and Cannabis !!!WARNING READING AHEAD!!! TL;DR at the end. It will take some time to sort through all the links and read/watch everything, but you should. In the next couple weeks, Mountain Crest Acquisition Corp is taking Playboy public. The existing ticker MCAC will become PLBY. Special purpose acquisition companies have taken private companies public in recent months with great success. I believe this will be no exception. Notably, Playboy is profitable and has skyrocketing revenue going into a transformational growth phase. Porn - First and foremost, let's talk about porn. I know what you guys are thinking. “Porno mags are dead. Why would I want to invest in something like that? I can get porn for free online.” Guess what? You are absolutely right. And that’s exactly why Playboy doesn’t do that anymore. That’s right, they eliminated their print division. And yet they somehow STILL make money from porn that people (see: boomers) pay for on their website through PlayboyTV, Playboy Plus, and iPlayboy. Here’s the thing: Playboy has international, multi-generational name recognition from porn. They have content available in 180 countries. It will be the only publicly traded adult entertainment (porn) company. But that is not where this company is going. It will help support them along the way. You can see every Playboy magazine through iPlayboy if you’re interested. NSFW links below: https://www.playboy.com/ https://www.playboytv.com/ https://www.playboyplus.com/ https://www.iplayboy.com/ Gambling - Some of you might recognize the Playboy brand from gambling trips to places like Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Cancun, London or Macau. They’ve been in the gambling biz for decades through their casinos, clubs, and licensed gaming products. They see the writing on the wall. COVID is accelerating the transition to digital, application based GAMBLING. That’s right. What we are doing on Robinhood with risky options is gambling, and the only reason regulators might give a shit anymore is because we are making too much money. There may be some restrictions put in place, but gambling from your phone on your couch is not going anywhere. More and more states are allowing things like Draftkings, poker, state ‘lottery” apps, hell - even political betting. Michigan and Virginia just ok’d gambling apps. They won’t be the last. This is all from your couch and any 18 year old with a cracked iphone can access it. Wouldn’t it be cool if Playboy was going to do something like that? They’re already working on it. As per CEO Ben Kohn who we will get to later, “...the company’s casino-style digital gaming products with Scientific Games and Microgaming continue to see significant global growth.” Honestly, I stopped researching Scientific Games' sports betting segment when I saw the word ‘omni-channel’. That told me all I needed to know about it’s success. “Our SG Sports™ platform is an enhanced, omni-channel solution for online, self-service and retail fixed odds sports betting – from soccer to tennis, basketball, football, baseball, hockey, motor sports, racing and more.” https://www.scientificgames.com/ https://www.microgaming.co.uk/ “This latter segment has become increasingly enticing for Playboy, and it said last week that it is considering new tie-ups that could include gaming operators like PointsBet and 888Holdings.” https://calvinayre.com/2020/10/05/business/playboys-gaming-ops-could-get-a-boost-from-spac-purchase/ As per their SEC filing: “Significant consumer engagement and spend with Playboy-branded gaming properties around the world, including with leading partners such as Microgaming, Scientific Games, and Caesar’s Entertainment, steers our investment in digital gaming, sports betting and other digital offerings to further support our commercial strategy to expand consumer spend with minimal marginal cost, and gain consumer data to inform go-to-market plans across categories.” https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921005986/tm2034213-12_defm14a.htm#tMDAA1 They are expanding into more areas of gaming/gambling, working with international players in the digital gaming/gambling arena, and a Playboy sportsbook is on the horizon. https://www.playboy.com/read/the-pleasure-of-playing-with-yourself-mobile-gaming-in-the-covid-era Cannabis - If you’ve ever read through a Playboy magazine, you know they’ve had a positive relationship with cannabis for many years. As of September 2020, Playboy has made a major shift into the cannabis space. Too good to be true you say? Check their website. Playboy currently sells a range of CBD products. This is a good sign. Federal hemp products, which these most likely are, can be mailed across state lines and most importantly for a company like Playboy, can operate through a traditional banking institution. CBD products are usually the first step towards the cannabis space for large companies. Playboy didn’t make these products themselves meaning they are working with a processor in the cannabis industry. Another good sign for future expansion. What else do they have for sale? Pipes, grinders, ashtrays, rolling trays, joint holders. Hmm. Ok. So it looks like they want to sell some shit. They probably don’t have an active interest in cannabis right? Think again: https://www.forbes.com/sites/javierhasse/2020/09/24/playboy-gets-serious-about-cannabis-law-reform-advocacy-with-new-partnership-grants/?sh=62f044a65cea “Taking yet another step into the cannabis space, Playboy will be announcing later on Thursday (September, 2020) that it is launching a cannabis law reform and advocacy campaign in partnership with National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), Last Prisoner Project, Marijuana Policy Project, the Veterans Cannabis Project, and the Eaze Momentum Program.” “According to information procured exclusively, the three-pronged campaign will focus on calling for federal legalization. The program also includes the creation of a mentorship plan, through which the Playboy Foundation will support entrepreneurs from groups that are underrepresented in the industry.” Remember that CEO Kohn from earlier? He wrote this recently: https://medium.com/naked-open-letters-from-playboy/congress-must-pass-the-more-act-c867c35239ae Seems like he really wants weed to be legal? Hmm wonder why? The writing's on the wall my friends. Playboy wants into the cannabis industry, they are making steps towards this end, and we have favorable conditions for legislative progress. Don’t think branding your own cannabis line is profitable or worthwhile? Tell me why these 41 celebrity millionaires and billionaires are dummies. I’ll wait. https://www.celebstoner.com/news/celebstoner-news/2019/07/12/top-celebrity-cannabis-brands/ Confirmation: I hear you. “This all seems pretty speculative. It would be wildly profitable if they pull this shift off. But how do we really know?” Watch this whole video: https://finance.yahoo.com/video/playboy-ceo-telling-story-female-154907068.html Man - this interview just gets my juices flowing. And highlights one of my favorite reasons for this play. They have so many different business avenues from which a catalyst could appear. I think paying attention, holding shares, and options on these staggered announcements over the next year is the way I am going to go about it. "There's definitely been a shift to direct-to-consumer," he (Kohn) said. "About 50 percent of our revenue today is direct-to-consumer, and that will continue to grow going forward.” “Kohn touted Playboy's portfolio of both digital and consumer products, with casino-style gaming, in particular, serving a crucial role under the company's new business model. Playboy also has its sights on the emerging cannabis market, from CBD products to marijuana products geared toward sexual health and pleasure.” "If THC does become legal in the United States, we have developed certain strains to enhance your sex life that we will launch," Kohn said. https://cheddar.com/media/playboy-goes-public-health-gaming-lifestyle-focus Oh? The CEO actually said it? Ok then. “We have developed certain strains…” They’re already working with growers on strains and genetics? Ok. There are several legal cannabis markets for those products right now, international and stateside. I expect Playboy licensed hemp and THC pre-rolls by EOY. Something like this: https://www.etsy.com/listing/842996758/10-playboy-pre-roll-tubes-limited?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=pre+roll+playboy&ref=sr_gallery-1-2&organic_search_click=1 Maintaining cannabis operations can be costly and a regulatory headache. Playboy’s licensing strategy allows them to pick successful, established partners and sidestep traditional barriers to entry. You know what I like about these new markets? They’re expanding. Worldwide. And they are going to be a bigger deal than they already are with or without Playboy. Who thinks weed and gambling are going away? Too many people like that stuff. These are easy markets. And Playboy is early enough to carve out their spot in each. Fuck it, read this too: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimosman/2020/10/20/playboy-could-be-the-king-of-spacs-here-are-three-picks/?sh=2e13dcaa3e05 Numbers: You want numbers? I got numbers. As per the company’s most recent SEC filing: “For the year ended December 31, 2019, and the nine months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s historical consolidated revenue was $78.1 million and $101.3 million, respectively, historical consolidated net income (loss) was $(23.6) million and $(4.8) million, respectively, and Adjusted EBITDA was $13.1 million and $21.8 million, respectively.” “In the nine months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s Licensing segment contributed $44.2 million in revenue and $31.1 million in net income.” “In the ninth months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s Direct-to-Consumer segment contributed $40.2 million in revenue and net income of $0.1 million.” “In the nine months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s Digital Subscriptions and Content segment contributed $15.4 million in revenue and net income of $7.4 million.” They are profitable across all three of their current business segments. “Playboy’s return to the public markets presents a transformed, streamlined and high-growth business. The Company has over $400 million in cash flows contracted through 2029, sexual wellness products available for sale online and in over 10,000 major retail stores in the US, and a growing variety of clothing and branded lifestyle and digital gaming products.” https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921005986/tm2034213-12_defm14a.htm#tSHCF Growth: Playboy has massive growth in China and massive growth potential in India. “In China, where Playboy has spent more than 25 years building its business, our licensees have an enormous footprint of nearly 2,500 brick and mortar stores and 1,000 ecommerce stores selling high quality, Playboy-branded men’s casual wear, shoes/footwear, sleepwear, swimwear, formal suits, leather & non-leather goods, sweaters, active wear, and accessories. We have achieved significant growth in China licensing revenues over the past several years in partnership with strong licensees and high-quality manufacturers, and we are planning for increased growth through updates to our men’s fashion lines and expansion into adjacent categories in men’s skincare and grooming, sexual wellness, and women’s fashion, a category where recent launches have been well received.” The men’s market in China is about the same size as the entire population of the United States and European Union combined. Playboy is a leading brand in this market. They are expanding into the women’s market too. Did you know CBD toothpaste is huge in China? China loves CBD products and has hemp fields that dwarf those in the US. If Playboy expands their CBD line China it will be huge. Did you know the gambling money in Macau absolutely puts Las Vegas to shame? Technically, it's illegal on the mainland, but in reality, there is a lot of gambling going on in China. https://www.forbes.com/sites/javierhasse/2020/10/19/magic-johnson-and-uncle-buds-cbd-brand-enter-china-via-tmall-partnership/?sh=271776ca411e “In India, Playboy today has a presence through select apparel licensees and hospitality establishments. Consumer research suggests significant growth opportunities in the territory with Playboy’s brand and categories of focus.” “Playboy Enterprises has announced the expansion of its global consumer products business into India as part of a partnership with Jay Jay Iconic Brands, a leading fashion and lifestyle Company in India.” “The Indian market today is dominated by consumers under the age of 35, who represent more than 65 percent of the country’s total population and are driving India’s significant online shopping growth. The Playboy brand’s core values of playfulness and exploration resonate strongly with the expressed desires of today’s younger millennial consumers. For us, Playboy was the perfect fit.” “The Playboy international portfolio has been flourishing for more than 25 years in several South Asian markets such as China and Japan. In particular, it has strategically targeted the millennial and gen-Z audiences across categories such as apparel, footwear, home textiles, eyewear and watches.” https://www.licenseglobal.com/industry-news/playboy-expands-global-footprint-india It looks like they gave COVID the heisman in terms of net damage sustained: “Although Playboy has not suffered any material adverse consequences to date from the COVID-19 pandemic, the business has been impacted both negatively and positively. The remote working and stay-at-home orders resulted in the closure of the London Playboy Club and retail stores of Playboy’s licensees, decreasing licensing revenues in the second quarter, as well as causing supply chain disruption and less efficient product development thereby slowing the launch of new products. However, these negative impacts were offset by an increase in Yandy’s direct-to-consumer sales, which have benefited in part from overall increases in online retail sales so far during the pandemic.” Looks like the positives are long term (Yandy acquisition) and the negatives are temporary (stay-at-home orders). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921006093/tm213766-1_defa14a.htm This speaks to their ability to maintain a financially solvent company throughout the transition phase to the aforementioned areas. They’d say some fancy shit like “expanded business model to encompass four key revenue streams: Sexual Wellness, Style & Apparel, Gaming & Lifestyle, and Beauty & Grooming.” I hear “we’re just biding our time with these trinkets until those dollar dollar bill y’all markets are fully up and running.” But the truth is these existing revenue streams are profitable, scalable, and rapidly expanding Playboy’s e-commerce segment around the world. "Even in the face of COVID this year, we've been able to grow EBITDA over 100 percent and revenue over 68 percent, and I expect that to accelerate going into 2021," he said. “Playboy is accelerating its growth in company-owned and branded consumer products in attractive and expanding markets in which it has a proven history of brand affinity and consumer spend.” Also in the SEC filing, the Time Frame: “As we detailed in the definitive proxy statement, the SPAC stockholder meeting to vote on the transaction has been set for February 9th, and, subject to stockholder approval and satisfaction of the other closing conditions, we expect to complete the merger and begin trading on NASDAQ under ticker PLBY shortly thereafter,” concluded Kohn. The Players: Suhail “The Whale” Rizvi (HMFIC), Ben “The Bridge” Kohn (CEO), “lil” Suying Liu & “Big” Dong Liu (Young-gun China gang). I encourage you to look these folks up. The real OG here is Suhail Rizvi. He’s from India originally and Chairman of the Board for the new PLBY company. He was an early investor in Twitter, Square, Facebook and others. His firm, Rizvi Traverse, currently invests in Instacart, Pinterest, Snapchat, Playboy, and SpaceX. Maybe you’ve heard of them. “Rizvi, who owns a sprawling three-home compound in Greenwich, Connecticut, and a 1.65-acre estate in Palm Beach, Florida, near Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg, moved to Iowa Falls when he was five. His father was a professor of psychology at Iowa. Along with his older brother Ashraf, a hedge fund manager, Rizvi graduated from Wharton business school.” “Suhail Rizvi: the 47-year-old 'unsocial' social media baron: When Twitter goes public in the coming weeks (2013), one of the biggest winners will be a 47-year-old financier who guards his secrecy so zealously that he employs a person to take down his Wikipedia entry and scrub his photos from the internet. In IPO, Twitter seeks to be 'anti-FB'” “Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia looks like a big Twitter winner. So do the moneyed clients of Jamie Dimon. But as you’ve-got-to-be-joking wealth washed over Twitter on Thursday — a company that didn’t exist eight years ago was worth $31.7 billion after its first day on the stock market — the non-boldface name of the moment is Suhail R. Rizvi. Mr. Rizvi, 47, runs a private investment company that is the largest outside investor in Twitter with a 15.6 percent stake worth $3.8 billion at the end of trading on Thursday (November, 2013). Using a web of connections in the tech industry and in finance, as well as a hearty dose of good timing, he brought many prominent names in at the ground floor, including the Saudi prince and some of JPMorgan’s wealthiest clients.” https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/08/technology/at-twitter-working-behind-the-scenes-toward-a-billion-dollar-payday.html Y’all like that Arab money? How about a dude that can call up Saudi Princes and convince them to spend? Funniest shit about I read about him: “Rizvi was able to buy only $100 million in Facebook shortly before its IPO, thus limiting his returns, according to people with knowledge of the matter.” Poor guy :( He should be fine with the 16 million PLBY shares he's going to have though :) Shuhail also has experience in the entertainment industry. He’s invested in companies like SESAC, ICM, and Summit Entertainment. He’s got Hollywood connections to blast this stuff post-merger. And he’s at least partially responsible for that whole Twilight thing. I’m team Edward btw. I really like what Suhail has done so far. He’s lurked in the shadows while Kohn is consolidating the company, trimming the fat, making Playboy profitable, and aiming the ship at modern growing markets. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-twitter-ipo-rizvi-insight/insight-little-known-hollywood-investor-poised-to-score-with-twitter-ipo-idUSBRE9920VW20131003 Ben “The Bridge” Kohn is an interesting guy. He’s the connection between Rizvi Traverse and Playboy. He’s both CEO of Playboy and was previously Managing Partner at Rizvi Traverse. Ben seems to be the voice of the Playboy-Rizvi partnership, which makes sense with Suhail’s privacy concerns. Kohn said this: “Today is a very big day for all of us at Playboy and for all our partners globally. I stepped into the CEO role at Playboy in 2017 because I saw the biggest opportunity of my career. Playboy is a brand and platform that could not be replicated today. It has massive global reach, with more than $3B of global consumer spend and products sold in over 180 countries. Our mission – to create a culture where all people can pursue pleasure – is rooted in our 67-year history and creates a clear focus for our business and role we play in people’s lives, providing them with the products, services and experiences that create a lifestyle of pleasure. We are taking this step into the public markets because the committed capital will enable us to accelerate our product development and go-to-market strategies and to more rapidly build our direct to consumer capabilities,” said Ben Kohn, CEO of Playboy. “Playboy today is a highly profitable commerce business with a total addressable market projected in the trillions of dollars,” Mr. Kohn continued, “We are actively selling into the Sexual Wellness consumer category, projected to be approximately $400 billion in size by 2024, where our recently launched intimacy products have rolled out to more than 10,000 stores at major US retailers in the United States. Combined with our owned & operated ecommerce Sexual Wellness initiatives, the category will contribute more than 40% of our revenue this year. In our Apparel and Beauty categories, our collaborations with high-end fashion brands including Missguided and PacSun are projected to achieve over $50M in retail sales across the US and UK this year, our leading men’s apparel lines in China expanded to nearly 2500 brick and mortar stores and almost 1000 digital stores, and our new men’s and women’s fragrance line recently launched in Europe. In Gaming, our casino-style digital gaming products with Scientific Games and Microgaming continue to see significant global growth. Our product strategy is informed by years of consumer data as we actively expand from a purely licensing model into owning and operating key high-growth product lines focused on driving profitability and consumer lifetime value. We are thrilled about the future of Playboy. Our foundation has been set to drive further growth and margin, and with the committed capital from this transaction and our more than $180M in NOLs, we will take advantage of the opportunity in front of us, building to our goal of $100M of adjusted EBITDA in 2025.” https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201001005404/en/Playboy-to-Become-a-Public-Company Also, according to their Form 4s, “Big” Dong Liu and “lil” Suying Liu just loaded up with shares last week. These guys are brothers and seem like the Chinese market connection. They are only 32 & 35 years old. I don’t even know what that means, but it's provocative. https://www.secform4.com/insider-trading/1832415.htm https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mountain-crest-acquisition-corp-ii-002600994.html Y’all like that China money? “Mr. Liu has been the Chief Financial Officer of Dongguan Zhishang Photoelectric Technology Co., Ltd., a regional designer, manufacturer and distributor of LED lights serving commercial customers throughout Southern China since November 2016, at which time he led a syndicate of investments into the firm. Mr. Liu has since overseen the financials of Dongguan Zhishang as well as provided strategic guidance to its board of directors, advising on operational efficiency and cash flow performance. From March 2010 to October 2016, Mr. Liu was the Head of Finance at Feidiao Electrical Group Co., Ltd., a leading Chinese manufacturer of electrical outlets headquartered in Shanghai and with businesses in the greater China region as well as Europe.” Dr. Suying Liu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Mountain Crest Acquisition Corp., commented, “Playboy is a unique and compelling investment opportunity, with one of the world’s largest and most recognized brands, its proven consumer affinity and spend, and its enormous future growth potential in its four product segments and new and existing geographic regions. I am thrilled to be partnering with Ben and his exceptional team to bring his vision to fruition.” https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201001005404/en/Playboy-to-Become-a-Public-Company These guys are good. They have a proven track record of success across multiple industries. Connections and money run deep with all of these guys. I don’t think they’re in the game to lose. I was going to write a couple more paragraphs about why you should have a look at this but really the best thing you can do is read this SEC filing from a couple days ago. It explains the situation in far better detail. Specifically, look to page 137 and read through their strategy. Also, look at their ownership percentages and compensation plans including the stock options and their prices. The financials look great, revenue is up 90% Q3, and it looks like a bright future. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921005986/tm2034213-12_defm14a.htm#tSHCF I’m hesitant to attach this because his position seems short term, but I’m going to with a warning because he does hit on some good points (two are below his link) and he’s got a sizable position in this thing (500k+ on margin, I think). I don’t know this guy but he did look at the same publicly available info and make roughly the same prediction, albeit without the in depth gambling or cannabis mention. You can also search reddit for ‘MCAC’ and very few relevant results come up and none of them even come close to really looking at this thing. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gOvAd6lebs452hFlWWbxVjQ3VMsjGBkbJeXRwDwIJfM/edit?usp=sharing “Also, before you people start making claims that Playboy is a “boomer” company, STOP RIGHT THERE. This is not a good argument. Simply put. The only thing that matters is Playboy’s name recognition, not their archaic business model which doesn’t even exist anymore as they have completely repurposed their business.” “Imagine not buying $MCAC at a 400M valuation lol. Streetwear department is worth 1B alone imo.” Considering the ridiculous Chinese growth as a lifestyle brand, he’s not wrong. Current Cultural Significance and Meme Value: A year ago I wouldn’t have included this section but the events from the last several weeks (even going back to tsla) have proven that a company’s ability to meme and/or gain social network popularity can have an effect. Tik-tok, Snapchat, Twitch, Reddit, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter. They all have Playboy stuff on them. Kids in middle and highschool know what Playboy is but will likely never see or touch one of the magazines in person. They’ll have a Playboy hoodie though. Crazy huh? A lot like GME, PLBY would hugely benefit from meme-value stock interest to drive engagement towards their new business model while also building strategic coffers. This interest may not directly and/or significantly move the stock price but can generate significant interest from larger players who will. Bull Case: The year is 2025. Playboy is now the world leader pleasure brand. They began by offering Playboy licensed gaming products, including gambling products, direct to consumers through existing names. By 2022, demand has skyrocketed and Playboy has designed and released their own gambling platforms. In 2025, they are also a leading cannabis brand in the United States and Canada with proprietary strains and products geared towards sexual wellness. Cannabis was legalized in the US in 2023 when President Biden got glaucoma but had success with cannabis treatment. He personally pushes for cannabis legalization as he steps out of office after his first term. Playboy has also grown their brand in China and India to multi-billion per year markets. The stock goes up from 11ish to 100ish and everyone makes big gains buying somewhere along the way. Bear Case: The United States does a complete 180 on marijuana and gambling. President Biden overdoses on marijuana in the Lincoln bedroom when his FDs go tits up and he loses a ton of money in his sports book app after the Fighting Blue Hens narrowly lose the National Championship to Bama. Playboy is unable to expand their cannabis and gambling brands but still does well with their worldwide lifestyle brand. They gain and lose some interest in China and India but the markets are too large to ignore them completely. The stock goes up from 11ish to 13ish and everyone makes 15-20% gains. TL;DR: Successful technology/e-commerce investment firm took over Playboy to turn it into a porn, online gambling/gaming, sports book, cannabis company, worldwide lifestyle brand that promotes sexual wellness, vetern access, women-ownership, minority-ownership, and “pleasure for all”. Does a successful online team reinventing an antiquated physical copy giant sound familiar? No options yet, shares only for now. $11.38 per share at time of writing. My guess? $20 by the end of February. $50 by EOY. This is not financial advice. I am not qualified to give financial advice. I’m just sayin’ I would personally use a Playboy sports book app while smoking a Playboy strain specific joint and it would be cool if they did that. Do your own research. You’d probably want to start here: WARNING - POTENTIALLY NSFW - SEXY MODELS AHEAD - no actual nudity though https://s26.q4cdn.com/895475556/files/doc_presentations/Playboy-Craig-Hallum-Conference-Investor-Presentation-11_17_20-compressed.pdf Or here: https://www.mcacquisition.com/investor-relations/default.aspx Jimmy Chill: “Get into any SPAC at $10 or $11 and you are going to make money.” STL;DR: Buy MCAC. MCAC > PLBY couple weeks. Rocketship. Moon. Position: 5000 shares. I will buy short, medium, and long-dated calls once available.
Final update on getting spiked in Krakow and spending £4000
These are the original posts that I made the day after it happened and then a few days later after that. There was a lot of good discussion on both threads and I received a lot of PMs from helpful people - some advising me on the chargeback process, others who have had similar things happen to them and a lot of people just generally trying to cheer me up! Even in the 3 months since this has happened I've had two people PM me who had the exact same thing happen to them in Krakow over the summer. So I feel like a lot of people will find it interesting/useful at some stage to see how this all worked out in the end for me. Here's what has happened since the last post. Basically where it was left was that Starling was going to start a MasterCard chargeback and the club would have a chance to dispute this. This process was started in mid July and I didn't hear a single thing until the end of October. At this stage I had managed to more or less get over losing the money and had actually managed to save up pretty much the same amount all over again due to lockdown/WFH. Then I get an email from Starling saying that they have decided in my favour and that it was fraud! The transactions were reversed and £4k appeared back in my account again which was a fantastic feeling. The snag was that the club still had 45 days to dispute this so the wait wasn't over yet. I pretty much immediately transferred the money into a separate space within Starling and just pretended I had never gotten it back. Then began a pretty nervy 45 days where I was dreading another email from Starling saying that the club had disputed things... but it never came. My guess is that these clubs don't want to draw too much attention to themselves and make their money off the x% of people that are too embarrassed/unlucky with their bank to actually get a chargeback initiated. Anyway, the 45 days has passed and the money is officially mine! For anyone else that might have something like this happen to them, my advice would be
Make sure you get a police report of some sort before leaving the country. All he did was write down what I said happened and give me a signed piece of paper with a case number on it but I'm pretty sure this went a long way into improving my credibility with the bank. It was 100% worth sitting in a polish police station for 7 hours. They were supposed to update me on the investigation via post but of course that has never happened.
Get your story straight before talking to the bank. I don't mean lying but write down everything you remember happening as best as you can because they'll give you quite an interrogation and I got called out for contradicting myself (which is easy when you really aren't sure what went on in the first place)
I can only speculate but I think what worked for me was that I said the transactions weren't authorised and must have been made under duress. Another guy who I was PMing had his transactions reversed and he seemed to think this was the magic phrase for a chargeback. So if this happened to me again I'd stress that from the very start with the bank.
Now moving onto the more preventative part of things which a lot of people were discussing at the time:
I really wish I had left the UK with only a travel debit card like Revolut. I actually used to do this but got complacent.
Even more than this, keeping pretty much all my money in a single account was a bad move. If I had kept 75% of that in a Marcus account I still wouldn't have got totally rinsed even if I didn't use a travel card.
I should have been more wary of places like this in foreign countries. In hindsight me and my mate were quite naive. I can't remember why we went in but I guarantee we thought it was just going to be a laugh and nothing bad could happen. I'm always a little annoyed by one of my parents who refuses to use online banking because they're scared of somehow immediately getting scammed over the internet... yet me and my mate fell for something they would see coming from a mile away.
I have since disabled android pay. I know its handy but I just don't like the idea of someone being able to spend £800+ in a single transaction with only my fingeface.
Of course a lot of people did say that getting spiked isn't really something you can plan for and not to blame myself too much, but realistically all of the above are just a good idea and would likely have prevented me losing very much if anything at all. Lastly I would have to say that I was really impressed with Starling bank during the whole thing. I never called them, every discussion was with the messages in the app and they kept me relatively well informed on what was happening. It doesn't help that I've read a lot of accounts of other UK banks just rejecting people at the first hurdle. Of course this might be biased by the positive outcome but I really couldn't complain about the process even if I had not got the money back. Thanks to everyone that replied before and PM'd me and I hope this might be useful to others that are unlucky enough to have this happen to them.
U.K. Anarchist Collective Explains its Position on COVID-19
From the South Essex Heckler: We’ve come in for a bit of criticism over the last couple of days for our views on the government response to the COVID-19 crisis. Firstly, we’d like to start off by saying that our position on the response to the crisis has changed since it started to emerge at the end of February. At that point, it felt like a massive unknown and that starting to develop our own response in terms of physical distancing and withdrawing from events we were due to participate in seemed to be the sensible thing to do. Anarchists played a part in this process, working out other ways we could interact with each other while avoiding being physically close as a precaution. They also did and are still doing seriously good work with grassroots mutual aid projects. There was a feeling that this was something that anarchism could own. For us, that sense of ownership was taken away once the government stepped in to impose their own measures which ended up placing all of us under restrictions that most of us have never experienced in our lives. The legislation the government brought into to implement and enforce these restrictions turned what we were voluntarily undertaking for what we thought would only last a month or so into something that is being done to us with no end in sight. While we get that those anarchists who initiated ways of dealing what they perceived to be the threat in the early stages of the crisis want to retain ownership of that, with top down legislation and enforcement, the dynamic changed. As the lockdown went on, the negative impact it was having on peoples lives started to become more apparent. We’re talking about the social and mental health impacts ranging from disrupted relationships and isolation through to an increase in the number of suicides. Also, the long term economic impact which we’ll be paying for with mass unemployment and austerity will have a devastating impact on our lives. As we went into May, routes out of the lockdown that involved surveillance, tracking and further losses of personal autonomy and freedom were being discussed. It was also becoming clear that in order to free up as much bed space in hospitals as possible, elderly patients with the COVID-19 virus were effectively being dumped into care homes. The ensuing tragedy in care homes staffed by low paid workers without the resources to deal with the subsequent wave of infections and deaths has been described by a fair few people as little more than a thinly disguised cull. All of this prompted us to start asking some serious questions about the narrative we were being fed. That involved a fair bit of reading around and keeping an open mind. Yes, that process did take us into some weird areas that were veering towards what some would term as conspiracy theory. It also led us to take a look at some of the alt right takes on the issue so we could understand how they were exploiting people’s concerns about the lockdown for their own ends. All of this was a necessary research process that helped with our building the list of COVID-19 crisis readings on this blog. A list that we’re prepared to defend as not, in our opinion, going anywhere near conspiracy theory. Mind you, what is and isn’t conspiracy theory is a grey area and one influenced by subjective understanding and opinion. What has made us more than a bit annoyed is the instant, reflexive dismissal by a number of anarchists of some of the readings we have listed as being ‘conspiracy theory’. Given the restrictions we’re already under plus what will be coming down the line at us if we don’t start showing some signs of resistance, it’s a bit alarming that what we consider as reasonable warnings are getting dismissed out of hand. As we’ve noted before, we’re in an unprecedented situation. In a 24/7 news and social media landscape, trying to tease out the signal from the noise is a difficult task. One thing is abundantly clear, the massive number of powers the government has conferred upon itself will not be given up without the fight of our lives. That’s not conspiracy theory – it’s just paying attention to the lessons of history. Before long, it’s highly likely that powers that were ostensibly brought in to deal with the COVID-19 crisis will be deployed against us in another ‘crisis’. All we’ve been trying to do is alert people in order that the right strategies and tactics to resist what’s very likely coming our way can be developed. The range of grassroots mutual aid initiatives that have emerged to deal with the impact of the COVID-19 crisis certainly offer some hope. As well as dealing with the COVID-19 crisis, they will have a role in dealing with the dire consequences of an inevitable economic depression and the crushing austerity that will be inflicted upon us. We hope these mutual aid groups will also take on the task of resisting an increasingly intrusive and oppressive state, aided and abetted by the large corporations they’ve outsourced many of their functions to. The point is that it shouldn’t be an eitheor situation in being involved with a mutual aid group dealing with the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the one hand and on the other, developing a strategy of resistance to deal with and defeat the dystopia to come. It’s just that from where we are, it feels like some groups are focusing on mutual aid as a way of not having to face up to the totalitarian dystopia the government and the corporations will likely be inflicting upon us. That is why we’ve probably come over as a bit stroppy at times because to us, it feels like there’s not the sense of urgency there should be about what’s coming. We’re not saying this to score intellectual points or to look clever. It’s because we’d like a future where we can lead a full, meaningful life as opposed to one where we merely exist as a cog for as long as the machine will tolerate us. That’s not just for us as individuals or family, it’s also for our community and all of our comrades. Basically, it’s an existential threat that we take personally. As this is intended to be a statement, we’ve tried to keep it as brief as we can. The aim is to explain how we’ve come to our position in the hope that this can help in the discussion about where we go from here. We look forward to a constructive discussion… These two pieces broadly set out our position… The Emerging Political Divide We’ve been activists in one guise or another for more decades than we care to remember. The ongoing and still evolving COVID-19 crisis is shaping up to be the most significant and seismic event we’ve experienced. In a situation like this, it can be all too easy to allow yourself to be sucked into the day to day passage of events and in trying to deal with and process them as best as you can, to not take a few steps back and try to see the bigger picture. A 24/7 bombardment of news (or what passes for news), opinion, speculation, rumours and a fair few outright lies from a range of news, comment and social media platforms makes the job of trying to isolate some signal from the cacophony of noise a difficult task. We’ve done our level best to analyse the COVID-19 crisis with an open mind. If you take a look back at the posts we’ve written about the crisis since it started to hit in early March, it’s pretty clear that our thinking has evolved since that early point. In a dynamic, fast moving situation, having a rigid mindset and refusing to alter that will undermine any serious attempt to understand what’s happening, let alone devise the strategy and tactics needed to deal with what you’re facing. In the early part of March, we took the attitude that in light of what we knew at the time about COVID-19, a sensible response was some form of lockdown and a degree of self isolation. This was seen as a reasonable precaution to take while we took stock of the situation, with the intention of allowing our analysis, strategy and tactics to evolve as our understanding improved. We actually withdrew from participating in an event in March because we were concerned about the possibility of contracting the virus in what was a confined and busy environment. Knowing what we know now, would we have made the same decision? No, we most likely would have concluded that attending didn’t carry any significant risk and would have participated in the event. However, based on what we knew at that point in early March, withdrawing from the event seemed to be the right decision to make. The major factor that made us change our thinking about the crisis has been the response of not just the UK government, but pretty much all governments across the globe, in dealing with the coronavirus. Speaking from our personal experience, we’re over two months into an unprecedented level of restrictions on who we can associate with, how and where we shop, where we can go to get some fresh air and for us as non-drivers, on (not) using public transport. We’re now at the launch of the app for our phones that will alert us if we’ve been in contact with anyone who has COVID-19 and then, we’ll be pretty much told to self isolate for fourteen days. As an aside, from what is admittedly the social and political bubble we inhabit, the demand for cheap and cheerful burner phones will be soaring over the next few weeks from people who rightly don’t want to be tracked and monitored 24/7. On top of the restrictions on movement and association plus the roll out of an alert app which is basically a means of monitoring our every move, the economy has taken a massive hit. The kind of hit that will wipe out many small, independent shops, cafes, pubs, restaurants, music venues…the list goes on. The kind of hit that allows the large corporations to suck up more assets for themselves. The kind of hit that the hedge funds and their like are making obscene amounts of money from. The kind of hit that will lead to more wealth being concentrated in fewer hands while the rest of us face an increasingly restricted and impoverished future. Faced with all of this, it would be negligent of us to not do our level best to draw attention to what’s going on and to prompt people to start asking the questions that need to be asked about why we are where we are. The problem is that as soon as you start to do this, the accusations of ‘conspiracy theory’ start flying around. Some of those accusations have come from so called ‘anarchists’ who we hoped would have know better. That is most likely down to many of them having been taken in by the relentless barrage of what we would term as ‘fear porn’ we’ve been subjected to for the last few months. A barrage that is a form of psychological warfare, also known more colloquially as psyops. Fear is an amazing tool for securing compliance from the populace for whatever nefarious aims the government of the day and their corporate backers may have in mind. After two months of ‘stay two metres away’ from any other human, the constant pavement dancing needed to adhere to this, interacting with masked up retail staff through plastic screens, seeing plans for school re-openings that will see kids physically kept apart from their peers, it should be all too clear we’re being conditioned to fear each other. As we’ve written before, what makes us truly human with the need for face to face and physical contact is being torn away from us as we’re reduced to atomised, fearful and increasingly easier to control individuals ever more reliant on authority to guide us through the ‘crisis’. The problem is the number of political activists we know who we thought would have known better, yet have been taken in by this climate of fear. Once you succumb to this fear, it’s harder to take a few steps back and try to form an objective assessment of what’s going on. As well as what we’ve touched upon above, what is also going on is what seems to be a profound reformulation of political and social divides. The labels left and right are starting to become less relevant. What is starting to emerge in the ongoing confusion and chaos is a divide between those of us who value personal and collective autonomy at the grassroots on the one hand and on the other, those who look to the state to provide ‘solutions’ to problems, regardless of how totalitarian those ‘solutions’ may turn out to be. The point is that those who are willing to trade their freedoms for what is an illusion of safety will end up with neither. After more decades in political activism than we care to remember, we’ve learnt that nothing is ever clear cut. The divide that’s emerging between those who value autonomy and those who look to the state for their security is far from clear cut! What has struck us are the ‘anarchists’ who appear to be quite happy with the lockdown and all of the restrictions that come with it. ‘Anarchists’ who have succumbed to the fear porn to the extent that they are accusing the UK government of ‘incompetence’ in suppressing the spread of COVID-19. Sadly, this is what happens when you buy into the fear porn and render yourself unable to take a step back to ask the critical questions that need to be asked about what’s being done to us. Suffice to say that there are a number of ‘anarchists’ we once regarded as comrades who we no longer feel we can work with. As old political definitions and divides become redundant while new ones emerge, we’ll find ourselves with some strange bedfellows. Some may end up as firm allies, some may eventually end up as opponents or enemies. The point is that we have to remain open minded and flexible during this ever evolving and often confusing situation. We’re not always going to get it right and yes, if we get through this, in a few years time we may well look back and ask ourselves why the heck did we align ourselves with these particular people?! To come to some kind of conclusion, given that our personal and collective autonomy is on the line, it’s better to remain open minded and willing to experiment with new alliances. A rigid adherence to a particular line, a refusal to countenance new alliances and condemnation of those of us who are open minded and willing to experiment will inadvertently usher in a techno totalitarian future where we’ll merely exist as opposed to living a full life. A caveat… Pieces like this are a snapshot in a dynamic, constantly evolving and often, confusing situation. Some of these may survive the test of time, some most definitely won’t. As ever, constructive criticism and comradely debate are welcome. Abuse and accusations of ‘conspiracy theory’ will be neither welcomed or tolerated so basically, if that’s all you can manage, don’t bother! A Sort of Warning: We’ve had week after week of wall to wall coverage of the COVID-19 crisis in the media. The question is, how many people are still paying attention to it and how many, for the sake of their sanity, are choosing to switch off from it? If this ever ends, it would be an interesting exercise to conduct research on what effect this barrage of coverage has had on people’s mental health. It would also be interesting to see how much this relentless coverage has further undermined people’s already shrinking faith in the media. We’ve been doing what we can to try and keep up with developments but to be honest, we have days when the stress of trying to discern any meaningful signal from the cacophony of noise is so overwhelming, we simply switch off and try to re-focus the following day. Having said this, a still somewhat scratchy picture is starting to emerge of what we face in the coming months and years as the COVID-19 crisis evolves and morphs into something that will quite possibly be sinister and dystopian. Fault lines are emerging. On the one hand, there are those who by and large accept the lockdown and the need for it to go on for some considerable time and also, are largely supportive of whatever tracking and monitoring measures have been mooted to ostensibly limit and eventually eliminate the spread of the COVID-19 virus. On the other hand, there are those who have taken a look at the relentless coverage of the crisis, smelt a rat and are starting to question the narrative we’re being fed, particularly when that is being used to justify measures which will restrict our freedom and subject us to more surveillance. As regular readers of the Heckler may have gathered, we tend towards the latter. We’re anarchists and as we’re supposed to accept no higher authority than ourselves and those we collectively organise with, it would be downright negligent of us to not question the narrative we’re being fed! Coming right in over the top of this is the threat of more austerity to ‘pay’ for the money the government has spent in ‘dealing’ with the COVID-19 crisis. The impact of the last round of austerity is still being felt and has decimated the lives of millions of working class people. Another round of austerity will leave millions with nothing left to lose. That will have consequences as Dr Lisa Mckenzie clearly sets out in this piece: If the UK government brings in a new round of austerity to pay for Covid-19, it’ll spark civil unrest that will see cities burn. So, all of the extra powers the government has conferred upon itself and all of the surveillance and tracking that’s coming our way, ostensibly to deal with COVID-19, will certainly come in handy when the shit hits the fan as the next wave of austerity is sent to crush us. Just one example are the powers that could see restrictions or bans on large gatherings for the rest of the year and quite possibly, into 2021. As we’ve mentioned previously, large gatherings will take in demonstrations and radical/anarchist bookfairs. Which leaves us with mutual aid work and online propagandising. If you keep your mutual aid work away from digital networks as far as possible, avoid any hierarchy, keep it grassroots and face to face, you’ll get by. Those of us who are basically propagandists and because of the dearth of opportunities to physically distribute our material, pretty much have to rely on being online, will be facing a very uncertain future as we slide towards more authoritarianism. On the subject of restrictions, there are strong rumours that many cafes, pubs and restaurants will not open again until close to Christmas. Bear in mind, many of these establishments face the prospect of going to the wall: Pubs in the UK Might be Closed Until Christmas – If They Survive at All. As we’ve written before, that’s a massive loss of opportunities to meet up with friends for company, drink and/or food. While those of us whose jobs have survived this massive economic shock will be gradually returning to work, there will be little or no socialising because there won’t be anywhere to go. Life will be reduced to work, commute, eat, sleep, commute, work…repeat on loop, ad infinitum. Entertainment will not be the company of friends but whatever is being piped down to our TVs. A diet of fear-mongering so called ‘news’ designed to keep us frightened and reliant on the authorities to look after us. Sprinkled with a toxic dose of divide and rule to keep us divided, atomised and easier to manipulate and control. That’s for those ‘lucky’ enough to still be in ‘steady’ work. For the millions more who’ll be on precarious zero hours contracts or unemployed, struggling to find work in an economy that’s been gutted and reliant on Universal Credit, life will be grim. For those who are disabled and rely on Universal Credit and a gutted public sector for the support they need, life is already horrendous as they find themselves increasingly thrown to the margins. As it is for the elderly in care homes pretty much unable to access hospital treatment and finding that they’re subject to ‘Do Not Resuscitate’ notices. We’re in a society where some lives are seen as worth considerably less than others – based on how much people can or can’t contribute to the ‘bottom line’. When that narrative starts to become widely accepted, what is essentially a cull by a combination of neglect and malice starts to become normalised. The lockdown is tearing us apart from each other. If a loved one has been diagnosed as having COVID-19 before they passed away, not only were you not allowed to be with them in their final hours if they were in hospital, you’re not allowed to see their body before cremation. Numbers are strictly limited at the funeral with physical distancing enforced and no wake afterwards. At a point in life where you need to emotional and physical support of family and friends, it’s denied to you. People are going to be mentally scarred by experiencing the passing of a loved one in this way for the rest of their lives. We live opposite a park with play equipment, now taped off. It’s been silent since March when the lockdown was brought in. Along with the closure of nurseries and schools, kids have been denied the opportunity to play with each other. Play is not a frivolous activity. From toddlers onwards, play is how kids learn to interact with each other. It’s how they learn to negotiate, compromise and co-operate with each other. It’s how they learn from mistakes and go on to become fully rounded human beings. Denying kids the opportunity to play for any significant length of time is going to cause long term developmental and mental health issues down the line. Adolescence is when kids really start to work out who they are. It’s when kids quite rightly want to assert their independence and get out into the world. It’s when long term friendships are formed. It’s when they develop a support network of their peers. Can you imagine what an adolescent will be feeling when all of this is denied to them as they face what is to all intents and purposes, indefinite house arrest? A ‘normal’ adolescent will find this hard enough. Anyone with mental health issues will find this agonising. Tragically, this has already led to adolescents feeling they have no option but to take their lives. Lockdown with an abusive partner or parent is a nightmare that doesn’t even bear thinking about. It’s a potential death sentence. Anyone advocating the continuation of the lockdown really needs to have some thought as to what urgently has to happen to prevent any more tragedies where an individual has been killed by an abusive partner or parent. As we’ve written previously, it really does feel like we’re being subjected to a massive psychological experiment: A few readings and thoughts on the psychological impact of COVID-19 anxiety and the lockdown. One in which we’re simultaneously being subjected to an unprecedented level of fear-mongering and being torn apart from each other. One in which we’re being made to feel that the only option of being able to move forwards is to subject ourselves to a loss of autonomy through increased tracking and surveillance, ostensibly for our own good. One in which our hopes and plans for the future have been trashed. One in which we’re being atomised and made ever more dependent on the whims of our rulers for our survival. One which has already turned into a fucking nightmare for a lot of people and will do for many more of us. It seems that when a commentator uses the word ‘reset’ to describe the social and economic turmoil that’s coming our way, the accusations of ‘conspiracy theory’ start flying around. The last few weeks have been quite revealing in terms of where those accusations have been coming from because a fair number of them have come from people who consider themselves to be ‘radical’ and a few from so called ‘anarchists’. The point is that the global lockdown has caused an economic shock of historic proportions that like previous shocks, will end up seeing more wealth concentrated in fewer hands. As has already been seen in the years since the banking crash of 2008. So, people who may think they’re doing the right thing by supporting restrictions on movement and gatherings, as well as increased tracking and surveillance are actually supporting the creation and enhancement of an apparatus that will completely screw our lives and freedoms. All we ask is that you take a deep breath, take a few steps back, do your best to get some perspective and start to ask some hard questions about what’s being done to us. If those questions aren’t asked and we continue on the trajectory we’re on, for many of us, life will become mere existence as we’re effectively plugged into a dystopian matrix. Many may not even survive to experience this. You may find this hard to believe but we’d really love it if we were wrong on everything we’ve written above and ended up with a copious amount of egg on our faces. Trust us, we want to wake up and find this has all been a bad dream. The thing is, we wake up every morning, check our news feed, see the deserted playground opposite us, feel that tightening, sickening feeling in our guts and realise this is reality. We’ve got an all too narrow window of opportunity to act and start to resist what’s happening to us. If we don’t, not only are we screwed, generations to come will be as well…
FREE €15 on Bitwala +Free DE IBAN & MasterCard [Requires a small withdrawable deposit]
Bitwala is a great cryptocurrency app, which cooperates with Solaris Bank. It provides you with a free German IBAN account and a free MasterCard. You can use it everywhere in the world. You also get unlimited free ATM withdrawals. I've been using it for quite a while myself and can highly recommend it for the efficiency of spending your crypto in any shop by using their MasterCard. The best part about Bitwala is that you can get FREE 15€just for signing up and doing a trade. It works all around the Europe & UK. Here are all the steps:
Open the link ON YOUR COMPUTER and Verify your identity - it’s a short video call in English, which doesn’t take more than 5 minutes. It requires a Passport or an ID. *If no one picks up, just keep trying - close the IDNow screen and try again instead of waiting. Don't wait more than 10 minutes in one try.
Download Bitwala app and create a BTC/ETH walletin your app.
Transfer €35 to your account on Bitwala. Do a regular free SEPA transfer. If you have BTC/ETH somewhere, you can transfer an equivalent of €35 in BTC/ETH to your Bitwala wallet.
Buy or Sell BTC/ETH for €35 (the minimum amount to activate the bonus is €30, but I suggest adding €35 just to be safe).
Bitwala will credit the bonus to your account within 15 banking days after you have successfully opened a Bitwala Account, set up a BTC/ETH wallet and did a trade.
!!! Don't forget to enter all the tax information they ask for \your tax payer number] within the first 3 months of opening your Bitwala account, otherwise it will be closed after this time !!!) Full terms of this program can be found here.
With Black Friday sales ramping up, here is a fresh sale megathread as the cyber weekend nears. A HUGE thank you to Octoember for getting the BF festivities started with the Black Fri-Yay 2020 Sales Masterlist. Octoember opted for the mod team to post and maintain BF megathread pt 2, but a huge portion of the info here is taken from their post and collated by them - thank you! This will be the dedicated thread for all Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales happening from now until next Tuesday. Please share any sale deals that you come across (including sale dates if possible) and let us know what you’re buying! This post will be regularly updated to add deals shared within the comments. But please sort by “new” as well to see all the latest comments. :) Thank you to everyone who has shared sale info with us so far! Other deals were also found on /MUAontheCheap, Temptalia, 9Honey, and OzBargain! Apologies in advance for any errors - please be sure to check sites for exclusions, T&Cs etc., and do your research before purchasing. Again, please comment if you notice anything wrong and we'll fix it! Multi-brand Stores
Adore Beauty (AU): Up to 40% off selected brands. 40% off Essie, L'Oreal Paris, Maybelline, Mirenesse, and theBalm. 30% off Iconic London, Cremorlab, Blinc, and Barry M. 25% off Cinch Skin, Face Halo, Heir Atelier, Garbo & Kelly, Nioxin, OPI, Pai Skincare, Real Techniques, Sebastian, and Wella SP. 20% off Alterna Haircare, Anitpodes, Avene, Biolage, Burt's Bees, Christophe Robin, Circa Home, Dermalist, Elizabeth Arden, Intraceuticals, Jane Iredale, Jurlique, Klorane, La Roche Posay, Lancome, MUFE, Nude by Nature, Redken, SALT by Hendrix, Sand & Sky, & more. 15% off Alpha-H, Benefit, Bioderma, Eye of Horus, Giorgio Armani, IT Cosmetics, Sachajuan, SkinCeuticals, YSL, & more. 10% off asap skin, Clarins, Dr Bronner's, innisfree, Kerastase, Medik8, ORIBE, & more. Full details here. Starts 27/11 12am AEDT and ends 30/11 11:59pm AEDT. Thanks to u/Kimmyonepilots for this info! See Coles "The Her Card" gift card deal at the bottom of this thread for extra savings. Also, CommBank is offering $10 cashback when you spend $50 at Adore Beauty (must activate via CommBank app), ends 02/12. Thank wherestherice!
Amuse Beauty (AU): Up to 50% off selected products. Buy 2 get 1 free on full-priced items with code B2G1F. End date unknown. Thanks u/Bargain-shoppee!
BeautyBay (UK): Up to 30% off. Discounts include: 30% off all Sample Beauty, By Beauty Bay, Revolution, Zoeva, bPerfect, BH Cosmetics, Melt Cosmetics, Ofra, Yes To, and Dose of Colours, and 20% off NYX. End date unknown.
Beautylish (US): Up to 50% off, free GWP, and some limited edition new releases from 50+ brands incl. Charlotte Tilbury, Wayne Goss, Natasha Denona, Oribe, and Good Molecules. Full details & info on GWP here. Starts 26/11 at 12pm PST (27/11 7am AEDT) and ends 30/11 11:59pm PST (1/12 6:59pm AEDT). Free shipping to Aus on $35+ orders. Up to 40% off Jeffree Star Cosmetics, starts 25/11 6pm PST.
Beserk (AU): 15-70% off everything. Ends midnight 30/11. Incl. brands such as Lethal Cosmetics, Lime Crime, Sugarpill, Lunatick, & Glamlite. Thanks u/thajane!
Black Swallow (AU): 50% off Jeffree Star, up to 40% off Revolution, up to 30% off PLouise, 20% off Olaplex and hair colour products, 10% off electricals, and up to 50% off fragrance. End date unknown. Thanks u/kel-w76!
Chemist Warehouse (AU/NZ): Extra 10% off storewide, valid online and in-store. Starts 27/11 and ends 29/11.
Coles (AU): 50% off cosmetics. Excludes Mode, Every Day, and clearance. Starts 25/11 and ends 1/12. See also Coles "The Her Card" gift card deal at the bottom of this thread.
David Jones (AU): BEAUTY: 20% off Estée Lauder (ends 29/11), Lancôme, Clinique (27/11 only), Kiehl's (27/11 only), Tom Ford (27/11 only), M·A·C (excludes 'Viva Glam' Lipsticks, ends 28/11), Elizabeth Arden, Bobbi Brown (ends 29/11), Napoleon Perdis (excludes holiday gift sets), Makeup Forever. 40% off theBalm. 30% off Blinc. 30% off selected Givenchy. 20% off Giorgio Armani and YSL gift sets. 15% off beauty & fragrance from Giorgio Armani and YSL. 10% off Clarins (excludes gift sets). SKINCARE: 30-50% off on limited selection of L'Occitane products. Free gift with $90+ spend on full-priced L'Occitane. 30% off Natio, Philosophy, & Foreo (excludes UFO 2, Bear, and Bear Mini). 25% off Lano. 20% off Weleda (excludes packs and oral care), Vita Liberata, & Dr Bronner's. Buy 1 save 10%, buy 2 save 15% or buy 3 save 20% on Dermalogica. HAIR: 20% off Christophe Robin, Rock & Ruddle, and Aveda. 15% off Sachajuan, R+Co, and Louvelle. NAILS: 20% off OPI (excludes gift packs). FRAGRANCE: 40% off Kenzo (27/11 only), CK, & Davidoff. 30% off MOR, Givenchy, Jimmy Choo, Mont Blanc, & Coach (all 27/11 only). 30% off selected fragrances & sets from Versace, Dunhill, Missoni, Moschino, Salvatore Ferragamo, & Roberto Cavalli. 20% off Creed, Penhaligons, Amouage, & Clive Christian (all 27/11 only). 20% off DKNY, Zegna, Aramis, Michael Kors. 20% off selected Marc Jacobs, Guerlain, Narciso Rodriguez, Bvlgari, Issey Miyake, Balenciaga, Ralph Lauren, Hugo Boss, Dolce & Gabbana, Paco Rabanne, Jean Paul Gaultier & more. Use code BEAUTYEVENT, all offers valid on full-priced product only, exclusions apply. $150 off the Supersonic Hair dryer. Unless otherwise stated, offers should end midnight 30/11 AEDT. Full details & GWP info here. Thanks u/TheDefectiveAgency & u/da-n!
Discount Beauty Boutique (AU): Up to 30% off storewide: spend $50+ get 15% off with code BLK15, spend $199+ get 30% off with code BLK30. End date unknown.
FeelUnique (UK): Up to 33% off Black Friday Preview. Also 3 for 2 offers, daily deals and free gifts. End date unknown.
Flora & Fauna (AU): 20% off Ere Perez and Viva La Body. Up to 40% off Elate. Ends 30/11.
Glam Raider (AU): Up to 30% off selected products (incl. 30% off Made by Mitchell). Ends 30/11 midnight AEDT. Thanks u/coldfrz!
Hikoco (NZ): Up to 50% off. Ends 30/11. Free NZ shipping for orders over $50. Free AU shipping for orders over $150. Thanks u/HalfJapaneseDoll!
iHerb (Int): 12% off with code BFSALE12. Exclusions apply. Cannot be combined with other offers. Ends 1/12 at 10am PT.
Life Pharmacy (NZ): At least 15% off beauty & fragrance. 20% off Shiseido, Clinique, Benefit, Elizabeth Arden, Estée Lauder, Versace, Azzaro, Mugler, Paco Rabanne and Jean Paul Gaultier. 40% off Maybelline & L’Oréal. Free shipping and sample bag with every order. Ends 30/11. Thanks u/HalfJapaneseDoll!
Look Fantastic (AU): Up to 50% off. Offers include 40% off asap & Skinstitut, 30% off Dermalogica & Christophe Robin, 25% off Foreo, up to 25% off selected Olaplex, and up to $60 off ghd. End date unknown. Thanks u/Visual_Responsibleo!
Mecca (AU): 6 x exclusive Mecca sets curated for Black Friday. Mystery boxes launching on 27/11: AU$76/NZ$85 for AU$152/$170 value. more info/discussion here. Thanks to u/kel-w76 for this info! Mecca may also be offering a free lipgloss GWP with purchases over a certain value (please check with store staff for details!) - thanks u/Veterinarian-Worried! Cyber Monday offer: 3 deluxe samples with every order, and free express shipping on $25+ orders. Ends 30/11 11:59pm AEDT. Thanks u/Makeuplife179!
Myer (AU): 20% off Estee Lauder, Clinique, Tom Ford, Benefit, MAC, Lancome, Elizabeth Arden and more, including gift sets.
Nourished Life (AU): Up to 40% off. 50% off selected Black Chick Remedies. 25% off Pai Skincare. 20% off Ethique, Eco Minerals, and Foreo. 15% off Weleda and Acure. 10% off Dr Bronner's. List of all offers here. Ends 1/12 9am AEDT.
Oz Hair & Beauty (AU): Further 10% off with code BFCM. Excludes hair appliances. 15% off skincare with code 15BFCM. 25% off Kerastase with code KERA25. 20% off Kevin Murphy with code KEV20. Codes do not stack. Ends 1/12. Thanks u/aromatic_writing !
Priceline (AU): 50% off most makeup including Maybelline, L'Oreal, NYX, Rimmel, Revlon, Models Prefer, and Thin Lizzy. Excludes Essence, Luma and Opallac starter kit. 30% off Revolution, Milani, TheBalm, The Quick Flick, Barry M, ELF and Shea Moisture. 40% off Real Techniques, Freezeframe, and John Frieda. 50% off selected skincare, haircare and fragrance. Starts 26/11 and ends 30/11. Thanks u/kel-w76!
RY (AU): Extra 10% off with code CYBER10. Free Black Friday gift set with $115 spends (contents unknown). End date unknown. Thanks to u/aromatic_writing & u/Kimmyonepilotso!
Selfridges (UK): Up to 20% off with code SELFCCE. Ends 29/11. Thanks u/coldfrz!
Sephora (AU/NZ): 15% off purchases <$120. 20% off purchases $120+. Excludes Dyson and sale items. Ends 27/11 instore and 28/11 12pm AEDT online. Thanks to u/Makeuplife179 and u/ravenled for this info! Online end date extended due to technical issues at launch. See also: Woolworths $100 Swap Celebration card tip at the bottom of this post. Cyber Monday sale: Up to 50% off selected items, incl. Pat McGrath , Natasha Denona and ABH. 15% off Dyson Corrale. Online only. Starts 29/11 and ends 30/11. Thanks u/Makeuplife179!
Space NK (UK): Spend £100 get £25 off, £200 get £50, and so on. Starts 27/11 and ends 30/11. Free shipping to Aus on orders over £40. Early access from 11:59pm GMT 24/11 for Space NK’s N.dulge loyalty programme members. Receive up to three complimentary Charlotte Tilbury products when you spend £80+ on CT. Spend £80+: free CT Darling Easy Eye Palette. Spend £110+ free CT Darling Easy Eye Palette and CT Collagen Lip Bath in Peachy Plump. Spend £150+: free CT Darling Easy Eye Palette, CT Collagen Lip Bath in Peachy Plump, & Brightening Youth Glow. While stocks last. May be more worthwhile than purchasing direct from CT website. Note: Space NK removes 15% VAT at checkout, but shipping time is ~4 weeks. Thanks u/Makeuplife179, u/Margot_10enbaum & u/elpippi!
StyleVana (HK): 15% off $49+ orders or 18% off $140+ orders with code SVBF2020. Also doing % off brand offers, incl. 30% off Iunik & Sulwhasoo. Free shipping on $55+ orders. Thanks u/elpippi!
Anastasia Beverly Hills (US): 30% off brow, palettes, blush & bronzer. 50% off lip, glow, contour, stick foundation & eyeshadow singles. Free glitter vault with purchase of any two 30% off palettes. Free shipping over US$50. Ends 6:59pm AEST on 30/11. Cyber Monday: 40% off Norvina collection, 24 hours only (exact end time unknown).
Armani Beauty (AU): 15% off sitewide, 20% off sitewide for members. Use code CYBER. Minimum spend $80 and excludes Prive purchases. Members who spend $250+ will receive a free full-size lipstick. Ends 11:59pm 1/12 AEDT. Thanks u/secondpea!
Australis (AU): 40% off everything. Excludes sale items and gift cards. Ends midnight 30/11.
Beauty Bakerie (US): 40% off sitewide. End date unknown.
Becca (US): 50% off holiday glow, up to 50% off selected items, free best-sellers kit with $65+ orders. End date unknown. Also, 25% off most items with code BECCAXOCTOLY25. Please note this is not a specifically BF sale, and Octoly may earn a commission on sales made using this code. Thanks u/anna_vee!
BH Cosmetics (US): Up to 75% off sitewide, some exclusions apply. End date unknown. Black Friday GWP: free beauty sponge with all purchases, & a free mini Stellar Lash mascara with $50+ orders.
Black Moon Cosmetics (US): Up to 40% off all single items and up to 25% off bundles and gift sets. No code is required. Ends 11.59pm 30/11 PST (6:59pm 1/12 AEDT). Thanks u/TheRealDrKak!
Bobbi Brown (AU): 20% off sitewide. On Cyber Monday all orders $80+ receive a free 3-piece ‘Prep Your Pretty Set’. Starts 27/11 and ends 29/11.
Charlotte Tilbury (UK): 40% off selected items and 2 of the same 12-shade eye palette for the price of one. 3 Black Friday mystery boxes available. Cyber Monday mystery item for $40. Full details here. Ends 30/11 11:59pm GMT. Free Pillow Talk Palette of Pops Palette when you spend over $180. Ends 28/11 6:59am GMT. Thanks u/emimillie, u/coldfrz & u/ThatFireAlchemist!
Clinique (AU): 20% off sitewide and a free 4-piece gift set with orders $100+. Starts 27/11 and ends 29/11.
Coloured Raine (US): 30-90% off sitewide. Free shipping on $100+. Ends 30/11. Thanks u/coldfrz!
Colourpop (US): 30% off sitewide + holiday vaults launch. Starts 5am AEST 24/11. Thanks to u/Octoember for this info! Offer changes to spend $30+, get 25% off your next order on 30/11.
Devinah (US): 35% off with code BLACKFRIDAY20. Excludes empty palettes/Aurorae Flare products. Starts 26/11 12pm PST and ends 30/11. New Star Chaser collection releasing on BF. It will be 50% off. Thanks u/CHarroJ23!
Dose of Colours (US): Daily offers -- 24/11 PST (25/11 Aus): BOGO Free single beauty sponges, foundations, concealers, highlighters, and face brushes. 25/11 PST (26/11 Aus): BOGO Free single eyeshadows, 5-pan eyeshadow palettes, Eyedeal Duos, eye brushes, eyeliners, and lashes. 26/11 PST (27/11 Aus): BOGO Free single liquid matte lipsticks, lip glosses, lip liners, and satin lipsticks. 27/11 to 30/11: 50% off sitewide including sale items, free Sunset Eyedeal Duo with $40+ USD purchase. Discount excludes bundles, sets & skincare. Full details here. Free international shipping for orders $60+. No promo codes required. Thanks u/kindrex89!
Elcie Cosmetics (US): 25% off $30+ orders, starts 25/11 and ends 30/11.
Em Cosmetics (US): Black Friday (27/11) - one-day only 20% off your purchase with code BLACKFRIDAY. Excludes new Faded Clementine products. Cyber Monday (30/11) - 15% off your purchase with the same exclusions - but exclusive lip bundles will be available. Thanks u/thiccbaobei!
Fenty Beauty (US): 30% off Fenty Beauty, excludes CLF. Get a free Fenty Skin bag with any $75+ Fenty Skin order. Ends 30/11 11:59pm PT.
Give Me Glow Cosmetics (US): Juicy Olive Palette $24, Vintage Rose Palette: $26.80, Christmas Morning Palette: $26.80, Extra Spicy Palette: $30, Grunge Palette: $30, 9X Glow: $60, Summer Vibes Palette: $43.20 (all other palettes will be full price), all singles $5, loose highlighters $6, pressed highlighters/setting powders $12, 50% off magnetic palettes, lip products $5, Foil Primer $5, makeup bags $3 and 4pc brush set $1. Starts 28/11 at 8am EST. End date unknown. Thanks u/Octoember!
Glamvice (US): 40% off everything with code BFCM. Exclusions apply. Ends 30/11 11:59pm EST.
Haus Labs (US): Up to 50% off sitewide through 1/12. Free Glam Attack Liquid Shimmer Powder in Biker with any purchase, Black Friday weekend only. Free shipping to Aus with AU$100+ orders (pre GST). Thanks u/Samtown_!
Huda Beauty (UAE): Up to 50% off storewide. Deals include: 50% off eyeshadow palettes, highlighter palettes & more. 40% off liquid foundation, lips, lashes, KAYALI & more. 30% off melted shadows, complexion, brushes & more. 20% off wishful skincare. Four BF bundles will also be available. Full details here. Starts 24/11 PST (25/11 AEDT) and ends 27/11 (28/11 7am AEDT). Thanks u/thatderncoreytyler!
Illamasqua (UK): Up to 50% off deals + select a free mini on $50+ orders, starts 24/11 and ends 2/12. Flash daily deals on their Instagram also.
Inglot (AU): 30% off storewide with code BW30. Ends 29/11. Thanks to u/aromatic_writing, who also notes that Ingot often does 30% off sales!
Innisfree (AU): (Instore Only) - Up to 50% off selected products. Member early access 25/11 to 26/11. All customers 27/11 to 2/12. Full details here.
Innoxa (AU): 40% off sitewide, starts 24/11 and ends 30/11
JD Glow (US): 40% off storewide (excludes multichromes & palettes) with code PINKFRIDAY40. 20% off multichromes & palettes with code SPECIALEDITION. Start 26/11 12am CST (26/11 7pm AEDT) and ends 27/11 11:59pm CST. Thanks u/CHarroJ23 and u/Octoember!
Juvia's Place (US): 45% off all lip products, up to 50% off everything. Ships within 24 hours. Discount codes may also stack on top of this. End date unknown. Thanks u/coldfrz!
Juno & Co (US): Buy one, get one for US$1. Free international shipping on orders US$50+. Spend $40, get a $5 gift card. Ends 30/11. Thanks u/Sleepisbetter!
Kaleidos Makeup (CN): 25% off everything (except bundles). 40% off Cyber Broze palette and Kaleidos Lippies. All orders over $70 get a free hair bow. All orders over $180 get a free Fresh Fantasy Suitcase and Hair Bow, the Original Mars Melter, and a Kaleidos Sport Towel. Ends 30/11. Thanks u/Octoember!
Kevyn Aucoin (US): 35% off sitewide with code CYBER35. Ends 30/11 US time.
KKW Beauty (US): 30% off sitewide, some exclusions apply. Ends 30/11 11:59pm PT. Thanks u/Riiseandshine!
Kylie Cosmetics (US): 40% off lips, 30% off eyes & face. 30% off Kylie Skin. Starts 25/11 12pm PST and ends 29/11 9:59am PST. Exclusions apply. Free international shipping on orders over $60. Thanks u/Riiseandshine!
Lethal Cosmetics (EU): Up to 40% off selected items. €20 shipping to Aus, free for orders over €150. Ends 30/11 midnight CET. Thanks u/thajane!
Lime Crime (US): 30% off sitewide, 50% off holiday collection. Free shipping with orders US$50+. Free Remix Mini Lip Set with orders US$50+ (limited time only). End date unknown.
MAC (AU): 20% off sitewide. Free bronzer with orders over $100, offer ends midnight 27/11. Cyber Monday offer: 20% off sitewide, online orders $65+ will receive a free five-piece gift set with code PINK20 or RED20 (for the lipstick shade option). Starts 29/11 and ends 30/11. See Coles "The Her Card" gift card deal at the bottom of this thread for extra savings.
Makeup by Mario (US): 25% off sitewide (includes limited edition sets), with code 25OFF. Exclude Master Eye Collection & gift cards. Free shipping to Aus with spends $129+. Ends date unknown. Thanks u/coldfrz!
MCo Beauty (AU): Up to 50% off selected products, starts 20/11 and ends 27/11.
Melt Cosmetics (US): Up to 70% off selected items, excludes new collections. End date unknown.
Model Rock Lashes (AU): Various offers on selected products, up to 90% off. Ends 30/11.
Morphe (AU): 40% off Morphe with code FAB40. Excludes third-party products & bundles, sale items, and Lisa Frank. Online at morphe.com and at Morphe stores. Starts 26/11 and ends 29/11. On 30/11 Cyber Monday, 30% off almost everything. Free shipping on orders over $30. Thanks u/da-n!
Muse Beauty Pro (US): 20% off sitewide (some exclusions apply), starts 26/11, ends 30/11.
Natasha Denona (US): Buy one get one free on selected base products & accessories. Up to 50% off selected eye & cheek products. Up to 30% off selected lip products. Free shipping on orders over $150. Starts 26/11 8am EST (27/11 12am AEDT). End date unknown.
Natio (AU): 30% off sitewide. Starts 27/11 00:01am AEST and ends 30/11 11:59pm AEST. Thanks u/Tokatoya!
Nikkia Joy Cosmetics (AU): 30% off storewide with code BF30. Excludes brushes and pigments. End date unknown. Thanks u/coldfrz!
Nomad Cosmetics (US): 4/11 to 23/11: 60% off Around the World Palette. 24/11 to 26/11: Pre-BF Sale Buy More Get More off ($30/30% off - $90/50% off). 27/11: Black Friday 50% off Orient Express Palette. 28/11: Small Biz Saturday - 70% off 4 pack of highlighters. 30/11: Cyber Monday 40% off site wide. Thanks u/CHarroJ23!
Nude by Nature (AU): 50% off with code BEAUTYDAY. Excludes sale and kids. Receive a free LED mirror with purchases $100+. Ends midnight 30/11.
Nudestix (US): 40% off sitewide with code CYBER40, excludes hand sanitiser, kits & sale items. End date unknown. Thanks u/ofavonlea
Oden's Eye (HK/SG): 40% off all products from 27/11 to 29/11 (European time). Also believed to have free shipping for spending over €50. Thanks u/coldfrz!
OFRA (US): $15 international shipping, 40% off sitewide, starts 11/26 and ends 11/26, $15 highlighters/blushes/bronzers, starts 11/27 and ends 11/27, $5 skincare, starts 11/28 and ends 11/28, 50% off palettes, starts 11/29 and ends 11/29, Super beauty busters, starts 11/30 and ends 11/30. Cyber Monday: 40% off everything with code BFCM20.
Sample Beauty (UK): 40% off everything, check brand Instagram for codes for extra 5% off. End date unknown.
Scott Barnes (US): 30% off sitewide "all week long". Flat rate US$15 shipping. Thanks u/coldfrz!
Scotty's Makeup (AU): 20% off storewide with code BFCM20. Valid instore & online. Ends 30/11 11:59pm AEDT.
Skindinavia (AU): 30% off sitewide with code CYBER30. Free shipping in Aus on orders over $49. Ends 30/11.
Sigma Beauty (US): 40% off sitewide + up to 60% off selected items with code HOLIDAY2020. Free worldwide shipping no minimum ends 29/11 11:59pm AEDT. Spend $30+ and choose a free gift. More you spend, more free gifts you get in multiples of $30. 50% off Black Friday sets. Ends 1/12 at 11:59PM CST. Thanks u/Mostly-Relevant & u/iolanth!
Sportsgirl (AU): 20% off all beauty. Valid instore & online. Ends midnight 30/11.
Sydney Grace (US): 25% off starts 27/11 and ends 30/11. Free international shipping over US$150. Thanks to u/CHarroJ23 for this info!
Tarte (US): 30% off sitewide and 50% off holiday steals with code CYBER. End date unknown. Cyber Monday: 40% off selected items (incl. Shape Tape range) with code OMG. Ends at approx 7pm AEDT 1/12. Free shipping on orders $80+. Free mascara & blush duo with purchase of 3+ items automatically applied at checkout. Thanks u/wherestherice & u/neuphss!
The Quick Flick (AU): Up to 70% off sitewide. End date unknown.
Thin Lizzy (AU): 50% off sitewide. Excludes bundles. Ends 30/11.
Touch of Glam Beauty (US): 40% off foiled eyeshadows, highlighters, multidimensional eyeshadows. 20% off selected items incl. new iridescent shapeshifters, pastel & jewelled multichromes, and shifting glitters. Use code: TOGB. 20% off bundles (already marked down). Starts 25/11 and ends 1/12. Thanks coldfrz!
WeMakeup (IT): Up to 40% off everything. End date unknown. Thanks u/coldfrz!
YSL (AU): 20% off for members with code MEMBER20, and bonus Rouge Volupte Shine Lipstick in shade 80 when you spend $200+. 15% off for non-members with code CYBER15. Only valid on $50+ spends. Ends 2/12.
Skincare
Alkira Skincare (AU): 30% off sitewide, starts 23/11 and ends 30/11.
Boracay Skin (AU): 30% off sitewide, starts 26/11 and ends 30/11.
BreezeBalm (AU): Up to 80% off sitewide. Ends 3/12.
Deciem (AU): 23% off Deciem brands (incl. The Ordinary, NIOD, Hylamide). Ends 30/11.
Everyday Humans (AU): 30% off sitewide, starts 23/11 and ends 29/11.
Frank Body (AU): 20% off everything. Free shipping on orders $25+. Ends 1/12 9am AEDT.
Kiehl's (AU): 3 products for the price of 2. Spend $200 to receive a bonus 8-piece gift with code 8PIECE. Daily flash offer with every $60 spent. Full details [here](https://www.kiehls.com.au/offers. Ends 11.59pm AEDT 30/11/20. Note: 25% cashback via ShopBack -- thanks u/dog-coffee!
La Mer (AU): Select 3 samples with any $300 purchase. Your choice of sustainably crafted spa accessory and luxury sample with any $450 purchase. Ends 30/11 midnight AEDT.
Paula's Choice (AU): 20% off sitewide with code BESTSKIN. Free 4-piece gift on $125+ spends, bonus full-size gift on $150+. End date unknown. 27/11 only: 30% off Black Friday Kit.
Skin Republic (AU): 40% off sitewide (excluding value bundles), starts 24/11 and ends 30/11.
Stratia (US): 20% off sitewide. Free shipping over $150. End date unknown. Thanks u/yendingo!
Sukin (AU): 50% off sitewide with code BLACKFRIDAY50. Ends 30/11.
Tatcha (US): 20% off storewide, starts 26/11 and ends 28/11.
The Body Shop (AU): Up to 60% off on selected products. Offers include $5 shower gels and sheet masks, $2 bath lilies, $20 EDTs, $9 liquid lips, 3 for $40 jumbo haircare. Ends midnight 29/11. Black Friday offers extended, and free shipping on all orders until midnight 30/11. Thanks u/aromatic_writing!
Tribe Skincare (AU): 20% off site-wide and free express shipping, 27/11 only.
Aveda (AU): Pre-Black Friday offer: Free full sized bottle of either Damage remedy daily hair repair, colour corrective daily colour protect, be curly style prep or smooth infusion style prep, with any purchase of $65+. Ends 26/11. Thanks to u/-GailTheSnail- for this info! Black Friday offer: 20% off and free shipping with any order over $50. Starts 27/11 and ends 29/11. See Coles "The Her Card" gift card deal at the bottom of this thread for extra savings.
Christophe Robin (US): Up to 40% off, secret flash sales, starts 24/11 and ends 2/12. Shipping to AU and NZ is $15.
Cloud Nine (AU): $40 off all electricals. End date unknown.
Dyson (AU): 2 free gifts with selected hair styler purchases. Excludes Airwrap Long. Ends 2/12. Thanks to u/bobot_ for this info! See also: David Jones offer under Multi-brand Stores.
GHD (AU): Up to $50 off stylers, dryers and curlers. Starts 21/11 and ends 4/12.
Hairhouse Warehouse (AU): Up to 20% off haircare and up to $50 off electrical. Get a free $15 voucher with any purchase between now and Cyber Monday. Thanks u/flora_dora!
Nature Lab Tokyo (US): 30% off shampoos and conditioners, starts 27/11 and ends 30/11.
Tools & Accessories
Beauty Fridge (AU): Up to 50% off sitewide. End date unknown.
Current Body (Int): Up to 55% off devices. End date unknown.
Etoile Collective (AU): Up to 30% off select styles. Complimentary monogramming throughout BF sale. Free pink handheld mirror with all orders $300+. End date unknown.
Face Halo (AU): 30% off sitewide with code CYBER30. Starts 23/11 and ends 30/11. Thanks u/cats_i_like!
Happy Skin Co (AU): 35-45% off sitewide. Starts 24/11 and ends 30/11.
Hot Tools (AU): 20% off everything. Free shipping in Aus. Ends 30/11.
Rephr Brushes (US): 20% off individual brushes. Core eye trio $39. Core face duo $56. Core collection $88. $100 off Holiday collection. End date unknown. Thanks u/samanthamoonshine!
Shaver Shop (AU): Up to 80% off. End date unknown.
Libertine Parfumerie (AU): 20% off storewide with code FRIDAY20. Includes Amouage, Cire Trudon, Costume National, Creed, Frapin, Goldfield & Banks, Juliette Has A Gun, L'Artisan, Lubin, Memo, Penhaligons, etc. Excudes Fragonard, Nasomatto, Santa Maria Novella & masterclasses. Ends 30/11 midnight AEDT. Thanks u/da-n!
Please leave a comment with any other deals you come across and we’ll get this post updated asap! Beside each brand/store name you'll notice a location (in brackets). u/aromatic_writing suggested below that we include where each store is located and shipping from so that users can better judge where to shop from, and how long shipping might take. If a brand is marked (Int)ernational it may be because the company has distribution centres in a number of countries, or we know it's not Aus, but aren't sure exactly which country it is! If this info is important to you please double-check or contact the brand before purchasing as it may not be totally correct! OTHER MONEY-SAVING TIPS & OFFERS
You may be able to access discounted e-gift cards ranging from 3-10% for Myer, Sephora, DJs, Priceline and more through your union, insurance, or bank rewards platforms. Please see this table at Ozbargain for more info. Thanks to u/da-n for this tip!
Woolworths is offering 2000 Points (equivalent to $10) with $100 Swap Celebration/Entertainment Card spend that is redeemable on Sephora. More info here. Thanks to u/da-n for this info!
Consider using a browser extension like Honey to find coupon codes. Thanks to u/da-n for this tip!
Coles is doing 15% off certain gift cards (starts 25/11 and ends 1/12, or while stocks last). The Her Card ($50/$100) can be used at Adore Beauty (online), ASOS (online), Aveda (in store) and MAC (in store) beauty-wise. At Adore Beauty you can't use it in conjunction with any other gift card or promo code. Full details here. Thanks u/Margot_10enbaum for this info!
Check CashRewards and ShopBack for cash back offers and other deals while you do your Black Friday/Cyber Monday shopping. Thanks coldfrz for this info!
My In-Laws' Wi-Fi is Being Spoofed by their Neighbours?!
I have a very weird problem I've never stumbled on before and struggled to find any discussions about similar situations when searching online. I have a Computer Science degree and a professional background in Cyber Security Consultancy but have been in a different industry for the last few years, and my role was never particularly technical. Approaching a professional contact about this feels a bit weird so I thought I'd come here first. I am currently living with my spouse's parents in the UK. They use Virgin as their ISP. They have a Hub 3 and their WiFi SSID and password are the factory defaults - the SSID is `VM` followed by several digits, and the WPA2 password is a random series of characters, and the details can be found on a sticker on the bottom of the router. We now have so many people living in this house that the Hub3 was really struggling with the number of connections, so I bought a high-end router with the intention of putting the Hub3 in modem mode and connecting up the new device to handle all the WiFi routing. I began to do all this, but then noticed that my phone still had a weak connection to the Virgin router, which was powered off. I used a WiFi analyser app to determine where in the house got the best signal with this mystery access point, and found that the back of the house, and most specifically my in-laws' bedroom has a very strong signal. The signal is also much stronger on one side of their bedroom than the other. My in-laws are adamant that there is no secondary access point in their house. Moreover, the main socket into the house is all hooked up to the Hub 3 router. Moreover, their bedroom was recently redecorated and so nothing has lived in there for very long and been long-forgotten. Also, no such device is visible. The conclusion is clear - the internet connection is coming from the OTHER SIDE OF THE WALL, in the neighbouring house. Moreover, the access point is a Talk Talk router - NOT Virgin!!! It should not have an SSID that begins with VM, but an SSID that begins with TalkTalk. I did a WHOIS lookup on my public IP address while connected and found that it was indeed a Talk Talk internet connection. This access point has working internet, but is secured with our SSID and WPA2 password. What gives?!?! The house next door is a rented multiple occupancy house, so it constantly has new people moving in and out. I have no idea how long this spoofing has been going on for, but my in-laws reckon they've had this Hub 3, and therefore these credentials, for somewhere around 2.5 years. Here's an imgur album with some (redacted for privacy) screenshots of my investigations: https://imgur.com/a/oxgpZ3j Here are my sky-high theories so far. Step 1: Some time ago, someone in that house with no money for their own Internet connection obtained my in-laws' WiFi credentials. Either brute force, or some sophisticated packet sniffing, or more likely, they somehow overheard the details or saw the sticker through the living room window. INNOCENT EXPLANATION: Step 2: They begin to piggyback off the Internet. They also give the credentials to other residents, who may or may not realise this is their neighbour's internet and therefore illegal. Step 3: The original thief moves out. The credentials continue to be shared throughout the house. Step 4: Eventually the landlord or someone establishes a legitimate Talk Talk internet connection. The person setting it up asks what the name and password should be. It is concluded that to ensure that everyone's devices remain connected, they should use these existing credentials that have been passed around for a while. Step 5: The two houses continue on obliviously alongside each other not realising they share network credentials. MALICIOUS EXPLANATION: Step 2: Someone is trying to perform man-in-the-middle attacks on us? and/or LAN attacks on our devices?! In order to steal bank details or something even more nefarious like a comprehensive identity fraud campaign?! Eek! So my questions are:
What do you think is happening here?!?!?!
What should I do next? Continue to investigate? How? Or report it? To who? The police? My in-laws don't want hostile relationships with their neighbours and especially not because of some simple misunderstanding. They are rather friendly with one of the occupants, so perhaps they should talk to him? But if there is something nefarious going on in that house, I don't want to tip them off that I've caught them before the authorities can gather the evidence they need to prosecute.
Flatten the Curve. Part 84. Who are the What If Men. What is the People Machine? They Have Been Manipulating Society Using Simulations for a Long Time. The Worst is Yet to Come.
Previous Post Here Rock the vote! Power to the people! Get out and vote. Every vote counts. And the beat goes on. And on. And on. And on. And we buy it. Hook. Line. And sinker. Don't we? But, we live in a democracy! Yep. Sure do. We vote and then they do whatever they have planned. Seriously. Guantanamo Bay? Still there. Rich getting richer? Still happening. Gain of function testing on viruses? Still happening. Nafta? Who actually voted? No. One. Big bank bailouts? No choice. Get it? The illusion of choice is all it takes to pacify the masses. That's it. Our votes are the placebo effect. Do some of us notice? Yes. A few. For all the good that does us. So why are they able to get away with it? Surely at some point we would have noticed. Well we did notice, and they adjusted, and we're still living with the consequences. When did we notice? The Vietnam War. All the pictures of body bags and all the reports of the horrors of war were too much. We questioned why? The answer wasn't good enough. An economic system. Sure they tried to convince us back then that it was because human rights and liberty. Ok. Then we fast forward to present day and we trade with Vietnam. But nobody says, HEY! AREN'T THEY EVIL COMMUNISTS! No. One. Why? Because those in charge learned. All the images of war changed. Now we only see video game targets on screen. Now we only hear of all the amazing technology making war so advanced! War has become a Walt Disney production. Sanitized for the masses. How did they do it? How? Simple. They know in advance what stimulus will have the greatest effect on us, and what effect that stimulus will be. How? Simulations. And it's been going on for a very long time.
Simulations and Scenarios
In this scenario, we don’t want to marginalize the more extreme candidates, but make them more ‘Pied Piper’ candidates who actually represent the mainstream of the Republican Party,” read the memo. “Pied Piper candidates include, but aren’t limited to: • Ted Cruz. • Donald Trump. • Ben Carson. We need to be elevating the Pied Piper candidates so that they are leaders of the pack and tell the press to [take] them seriously."
Oh. Ok. So Crooked Hillary's team wanted to pump up Trump. Let me say that again, Pump Up Trump (sounds like a new sex toy, doesn't it? I'll get my people to call your people and lets make this happen. It'll be huge and people will love getting screwed by it!). And then it gets worse.
“Just like everybody, I thought this was a Bush against a Clinton, that’s all it was going to be,” said former Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle. “When I saw the first set of debates, I would turn them on in an entertainment mode to see what Donald’s going to say today. It was funny." Source Here
Trump is funny. Ha. Ha. Ha. Let's get in some of that new Reality TV show called The Political Apprentice. Right. So is Trump a part of something nefarious? Or is he fighting the Deep State? But what if the answer is more complicated than that? What if all the peices are moved, including President's, on purpose, and with a plan? Crazy? Surely that's just plain nonsense and there's no way that could happen, right? Well, let me show you some additional things before the Internet of Things is in everything and we can't do anything.
They Pick, You Vote, Don't Matter. They Already Know.
What? Preposterous you say? Let's travel back to JFK and the People Machine.
Consider the strange trajectory of the Simulmatics Corporation, founded in New York City in 1959. (Simulmatics, a mash-up of ‘simulation’ and ‘automatic’, meant then what ‘artificial intelligence (AI)’ means now.) Its controversial work included simulating elections — just like that allegedly ‘pioneered’ by the now-defunct UK firm Cambridge Analytica on behalf of UK Brexit campaigners in 2015 and during Donald Trump’s US presidential election campaign in 2016. Journalists accused Trump’s fixers of using a “weaponized AI propaganda machine” capable of “nearly impenetrable voter manipulation”. New? Hardly. Simulmatics invented that in 1959. They called it the People Machine. As an American historian with an interest in politics, law and technology, I came across the story of the Simulmatics Corporation five years ago when researching an article about the polling industry. Polling was, and remains, in disarray. Now, it’s being supplanted by data science: why bother telephoning someone to ask her opinion when you can find out by tracking her online? Wondering where this began took me to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, to the unpublished papers of political scientist Ithiel de Sola Pool. Simulmatics, hired first by the US Democratic Party’s National Committee in 1959 and then by the John F. Kennedy campaign in 1960, pioneered the use of computer simulation, pattern detection and prediction in American political campaigning. The company gathered opinion-poll data from the archives of pollsters George Gallup and Elmo Roper to create a model of the US electorate.
Lasswell, whose research on communication purported to explain how ideas get into people’s heads: in short, who says what, in which channel, to whom, with what effect? During the Second World War, Lasswell studied the Nazis’ use of propaganda and psychological warfare. When those terms became unpalatable after the war ended, the field got a new name — mass-communications research. Same wine, new bottle. Like Silicon Valley itself, Simulmatics was an artefact of the cold war. It was an age obsessed with prediction, as historian Jenny Andersson showed in her brilliant 2018 book, The Future of the World. At MIT, Pool also proposed and headed Project ComCom (short for Communist Communications), funded by the US Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). Its aim, in modern terms, was to try to detect Russian hacking — “to know how leaks, rumors, and intentional disclosures spread” as Pool described it.
Isn't that odd? Computers making predictions back in 1960. Computers analyzing human behavior in order to predict human behaviours and control the election outcome. And the scientist who it all started with came from MIT. And we wonder how all that Jeffrey Epstein money was spent.
The press called Simulmatics scientists the “What-If Men”, because their work — programming an IBM 704 — was based on endless what-if simulations. The IBM 704 was billed as the first mass-produced computer capable of doing complex mathematics. Today, this kind of work is much vaunted and lavishly funded. The 2018 Encyclopedia of Database Systems describes ‘what-if analysis’ as “a data-intensive simulation”. It refers to it as “a relatively recent discipline”. Not so. Buoyed by the buzz of Kennedy’s election, Simulmatics began an advertising blitz. Its 1961 initial stock offering set out how the company would turn prediction into profit — by gathering massive data, constructing mathematical models of behavioural processes, and using them to simulate “probable group behaviour”.
Do you really think these What-If Men are done and gone, set out to pasture like the cattle they manipulate? Really? Seriously. No. Obviously not. Or there wouldn't be such a fuss about Facebook and Cambridge Analytica. Same Crap. Different Flies. Only know there are more flies and the crap pile is bigger.
In 1963, on behalf of the Kennedy administration, Simulmatics simulated the entire economy of Venezuela, with an eye to halting the advance of socialism and communism. A larger project to undertake such work throughout Latin America, mostly designed by Pool and known as Project Camelot (Project Camelot, where have I heard that before?), became so controversial that the next president, Lyndon B. Johnson, dismantled it (sure he did). After 1965, Simulmatics conducted psychological research in Vietnam as part of a bigger project to use computers to predict revolutions. Much of this work built on earlier research by Lasswell and Pool, identifying and counting keywords, such as ‘nationalism’, in foreign-language newspapers that might indicate the likelihood of coups. Such topic-spotting is the precursor to Google Trends. Before his early death in 1984, Pool was also a key force behind the founding of the most direct descendant of Simulmatics, the MIT Media Lab. Pool’s work underlies the rules — or lack of them — that prevail on the Internet. Pool also founded the study of “social networks” (a term he coined); without it, there would be no Facebook. Pool’s experiences with student unrest at MIT — and especially with the protests against Simulmatics — informed his views on technological change and ethics. Look forward. Never look back. Source Here
Unrest and protest at MIT against Simulmatics. I guess you could call it Rage Against the Machine. Maybe we should ask Jeffery Epstein if that's a good name? He did invest a lot of money into the MIT Media lab, after all. Surely he has an opinion on it. Too bad he killed himself. Snicker. Look forward. Never back. That sounds suspiciously like a No Regrets policy, doesn't it? The ends justify the means. Let's hurry up and get those vaccines out. We can test for them along the way. It's all good.
Decades before Facebook and Google and Cambridge Analytica and every app on your phone, Simulmatics’ founders thought of it all: they had the idea that, if they could collect enough data about enough people and write enough good code, everything, one day, might be predicted—every human mind simulated and then directed by targeted messages as unerring as missiles. For its first mission, Simulmatics aimed to win the White House back for the Democratic Party. The University of California political theorist Eugene Burdick had worked for Greenfield in 1956, but decided not to join Simulmatics. Instead, he wrote a novel about it. In “The 480,” a political thriller published in 1964, a barely disguised “Simulations Enterprises” meddles with a U.S. Presidential election. “This may or may not result in evil,” Burdick warned. “Certainly it will result in the end of politics as Americans have known it.” That same year, in “Simulacron-3,” a science-fiction novel set in the year 2034, specialists in the field of “simulectronics” build a People Machine—“a total environment simulator”—only to discover that they themselves don’t exist and are, instead, merely the ethereal, Escherian inventions of yet another People Machine. After that, Simulmatics lived on in fiction and film, an anonymous avatar. In 1973, the German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder adapted “Simulacron-3” into “World on a Wire,” a forerunner of the 1999 film “The Matrix,” in which all of humanity lives in a simulation, trapped, deluded, and dehumanized.
The Matrix? A people machine. A Total Environment Simulator. Yikes. That sounds extremely far fetched, doesn't it. Trapped. Deluded. And. Drumroll please. Dehumanized.
In 1967 and 1968, at home, Simulmatics attempted to build a race-riot-prediction machine. In 1969, after antiwar demonstrators called Pool a war criminal, the People Machine crashed; in 1970, the company filed for bankruptcy. (Most of its records were destroyed; I stumbled across what remains, in Pool’s papers, at M.I.T.) Source Here
A race riot machine that apparently failed? And look what happened nine months ago? Coincidence? Foreign power information warfare? AI training wheels? Kinda scary, ain't it? And guess what? We're not done yet.
Ithiel de Sola Pool
So the Simulmatics Corporation was responsible for this;
Sept 17, 2020 • In 1960, media reports of dark forces behind John F Kennedy’s winning presidential campaign caused what Jill Lepore calls a “national hullabaloo”. America’s new leader, it was widely reported, had clinched the victory with the help of a “secret weapon”: a super computer that crunched troves of data to profile voters, allowing Kennedy to better target his political messaging before the polls opened.
And now let's look deeper at somebody who worked at the Simulmatics Corporation, Ithiel de Sola Pool.
For all of Simulmatics’ efforts at automating prediction, it is company executive Ithiel de Sola Pool, an MIT academic with a focus on social networks, who in Lepore’s telling proves to be the most accurate prediction machine — foreseeing the “data-mad and near-totalitarian twenty-first century” that he was instrumental in helping to create. “In the coming atomised society, the information the citizen gets will arise from his own specific concerns,” he wrote in 1968, predicting a communications revolution, “customised news feeds” and the dismantling of party politics for a “politics of self, every citizen a party of one”. Source Here
That's extremely prescient. Did he predict the future or make it? What came first, the chicken or the egg? Don't matter. Don't care. Not at all. Because the end result is the same, So what more can we find out about de Sola Pool? How about the fact that he studied Nazis and Communists? Heck, he studied totalitarianist speeches to figure out how words could carry power and influence. Over us. Overload us. But how unethical was Pool? Well, the guy who risked everything to bring us the Pentagon Papers (the papers that proved the Gulf of Tomkins incident was a false flag) thought this: Daniel Ellsberg would later say of Pool, “I thought of him as the most corrupt social scientist I had ever met, without question.” Not cool. Definitely. Not. Cool. Because if you naively believe that Pool’s research isn't being used by the Technocrats today, then more power to you. Believe what you want. Or should I say, believe what they want. And who are "they"? They are the Rockefeller's and Rothschilds, the Technocrats, the World Economic Forum, the Bilderberg Group, CIA, NSA, and the Council on Foreign Relations. Speaking of which.
At that point in his (Pool’s) career, he was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, advising several countries around the world. Pool felt that the world was underestimating the importance of communications and technical change. Source Here
Oops. Pool was a member of the CFR advising several countries around the world. Ok. Next step.
2004 • The transformation of the United States into a power able and willing to take a leading role in world affairs was not achieved solely through policy changes in Washington, DC, let alone simply by changes in the structure of world power. This chapter examines the vital role of the CFR in transforming American public opinion from ‘isolationist’ to ‘globalist’ as an important aspect of America’s rise to globalism. In this regard, the Council focused its energies to undermine and marginalise isolationism while promoting its own internationalist views as the best means to achieve the American national interest. Source Here
So if a bunch of unelected officials are officially changing policy, why do you vote? Rock the vote? Don't make me laugh. More like Don't Rock the Boat. They started running simulations back in the sixties. Remember, Nixon was the odds on favorite to win. Kennedy was a long shot. And then, Kennedy was the President. Nixon probably wasn't happy. After all, he was part of the power structure. He went to Bohemian Grove. And then he had the rug pulled out from underneath him. And what did he end of calling Bohemian Grove attendees? A bunch of fags. Oops. Who pissed in his cornflakes? They run simulations. Then they have different scenarios that dictate policy. Then they use the CFR, the WEF, the Rockefeller Group, and other NGO'S to adapt and shape future policy decisions to steer society. Heck. They probably even use the Mickey Mouse Club at this point.
November 21, 1971 • Of the first 82 names on a list prepared to help President Kennedy staff his State Department, 63 were Council members. Kennedy once com plained, “I'd like to have some new faces here, but all I get is the same old names.” Source Here
So a "People Machine" helped get JFK "elected" and his State Department list was mostly comprised of Council members. It's starting to look more and more like our heads of state are manipulated just like us, doesn't it? Let's jump back into the Pool one more time.
In 1965, he wrote "The Kaiser, the Tsar, and the Computer," an essay about a computer-simulated international crisis. Later, his interest in quantitative analysis and communications would contribute to computer models to study human behavior.
Computer Models aren't Playboy Centerfolds
It doesn't matter who gets voted in. They may think they're in charge. They may go along. Or they may think they're making changes. But, I guarantee you the changes they make are the changes those behind the scenes want. Even if our leaders know it or not. No way! Thats crazy! Insane! Ok. Sure. But remember this, in a world of insanity, a sane man is always perceived as being insane. So let's dive into the DEEP END OF THE POOL and see what we can find.
October 2, 2019 • With AI, the models suddenly become more realistic. “One of the things that has changed is an acceptance that you really can model humans,” says F. LeRon Shults, director of the Center for Modeling Social Systems at the University of Agder in Norway. “Our agents are cognitively complex. They are simulated people with genders, ages and personalities. They can get married, have children, get divorced. They can get a job or get fired, they can join groups, they can die. They can have religious beliefs. They’re social in the way humans are. They interact with each other in social networks. They learn from each other, react to each other and to the environment as a whole.”
Hold on. Agent's are cognitively complex? That's scary, isn't it? And this is a very strange situation we find ourselves in, isn't it? Agents. Simulations. Viruses. Sentinels. Didn't they try and block out the sun? Ahem. Bill Gates. And I've read that originally the script didn't have humanity as batteries, but instead used humans as their RAM. In other words, we we're used for our brains ability to think. More on this in an upcoming post. Just think about it for now.
Final Thoughts
The what if men and the people machine. They model society and we see what they want us to see. Kind of like the model in the Matrix wearing the red dress. We're too busy looking for danger everywhere but where we should look. And that's a mistake. This is why we can't dismiss anything. We have to question everything. In the previous post I said that it was called the Sentinel World Simulation. I found the article. I made a mistake. It's called the Sentient World Simulation. Words matter. Always. But I still don't think my mistake alters what's going on. We are being steered by an unseen group. And this is why China + Russia + USA are heading towards a cliff. He who controls AI controls humanity. But who controls who? More soon.
How we picked our top 10 best banking apps. Did we choose according to who we liked best or who used the brightest colours? Not really. We developed a methodology that comes with a huge spreadsheet you don’t really want to have to look at, assigned points to each banking app available on the UK market (yes, all of them!) and then ranked them accordingly. NatWest business banking account customers can use their award-winning Mobile Banking app which received “Best Banking App” at the 2018 British Banking Awards. NatWest offers a business support programme to help businesses grow called Boost. This includes their Business Growth Enablers which gives their customers access to workshops and events. Pitch is another programme used through an app to help customers to hone their pitches. The latest banking investigation from Which? reveals the best and worst banks for online security, exposing those lagging behind the rest of the industry. Our tests were performed by independent security experts at Falanx Cyber, who rated the customer-facing security systems of the largest current account providers. Internet banking isn’t a new phenomenon. In fact, commercial online banking has been available since the late 90s. However, a new range of Internet-only banks have started to spring up. These online or app-only providers give customers a new degree of freedom and convenience when it comes to handling their money. But, if you don’t know what Best bank in the UK February 2021 by customer satisfaction. In 2021, we published our customer satisfaction survey on current accounts in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Here’s the full list of providers we’ve considered and how many of their customers said they would recommend them to a friend. Banking > The best app-only bank in the UK. The best app-only bank in the UK. By Lauren Burrows. 11 min Read Published: 12 Jan 2021. With the world of Fintech on the rise, app-only banks are increasing in popularity and more people are making the switch than ever before. In fact, figures from the Current Account Switching Service (CASS) covering April - June 2020 showed that app-only banks App-based banking. App based banking, or digital banking, is a recent and growing trend where the bank has no physical branches that you can visit. Instead, the bank exists as an app on your smartphone, which you can use to conduct most of your usual banking, making them solely online banks. These banks also offer several unique features such as: If you 'do' digital banking, it means that you do all your banking through an app. And with 26.8 million people using a mobile banking app in 2019 (according to UK Finance), it's one of the more popular ways to bank. Our focus in this guide is on app-only banks. These have great tech and features that help you know where you're spending, and According to Finder, one in ten people in the UK have switched to a digital only bank like Monzo, Revolut or Starling for their personal banking. That said, nearly half (47pc) of those who use them keep less than £1,000 in a digital bank. There is hope for these challengers – two-thirds of respondents said they plan to convert fully to a digital bank in the future. Santander Banking App. The list of best mobile banking apps in UK is incomplete without respectable inclusion of Santander Banking app. The app has registers a million downloads and has received ratings of 4.1 on the app store. It can be downloaded for free from the Apple App Store and Google Play store.
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