Friday, September 27, 2019

[Daily Discussion] Saturday, September 28, 2019

Thread topics include, but are not limited to:

General discussion related to the day's events
Technical analysis, trading ideas & strategies
Quick questions that do not warrant a separate post

Thread guidelines:

Be excellent to each other.
Do not make posts outside of the daily thread for the topics mentioned above.

Other ways to interact:

Get an invite to live chat on our Slack group
Set your flair to trade pretend money in the Flair Game
Weekly threads: Newbie Mondays and Fundamentals Fridays
Altcoins Discussion: Altcoin Discussion

[Altcoin Discussion] Saturday, September 28, 2019

Thread topics include, but are not limited to:

Discussion related to recent events
Technical analysis, trading ideas & strategies
General questions about altcoins

Thread guidelines:

Be excellent to each other.
All regular rules for this subreddit apply, except for number 2. This, and only this, thread is exempt from the requirement that all discussion must relate to bitcoin trading.
This is for high quality discussion of altcoins. All shilling or obvious pumping/dumping behavior will result in an immediate one day ban. This is your only warning.
No discussion about specific ICOs. Established coins only.

If you're not sure what kind of discussion belongs in this thread, here are some example posts. News, TA, and sentiment analysis are great, too.

Other ways to interact:

Get an invite to live chat on our Slack group and check out the #altcoins channel
Daily Discussion for bitcoin only: Daily Discussion
Prior Altcoin Discussion: Altcoin Discussion

Premium IPTV - Focusing on Premium North American and International Channels - Firestick APPROVED - BITCOIN ACCEPTED

Welcome to Premium IPTV. We offer North American and International Channels.

Currently our USA feeds are pretty spot on. All other sections including Canadian are a hit or miss right now.

Please keep in mind even though our service is up and running, channels are and will be having issues until all the the dust settles.

We offer both M3u and MAC type connections.

We offer VOD and 3 day catchup service.

We will provide you will all the connection details, apps and guides to get you going.

Prices are quoted in Canadian dollars. (2 connections per subscription)

12 Hour Trials = $3 ($2.30usd roughly)
1 Week Full Pass = $10 ($8usd roughly)
1 Month Package = $19 ($14usd roughly)
3 Month Package = $53 ($40usd roughly)
6 Month Package = $93 ($70usd roughly)

Payment Options......

e Transfer
Bitcoin (btc)
PayPal (must use Friends and Family option).

PM me for more information on our service.

Ditto's bi-weekly update - September 27, 2019

Original post by Liz Bagot on Decred's Matrix Channel

It’s been a busy and exciting couple of weeks, so there’s a lot to share in Ditto’s bi-weekly update today

What we’ve been up to the past 2 weeks

Secured an interview for Luke Powell in The Daily Chain podcast, with the episode scheduled to release soon. You can see Luke’s tweet here — feel free to engage to drum up excitement! https://twitter.com/lukebp_/status/1177330930333245440?s=20
Secured an interview for Jake Yocom-Piatt in The Crypto Conversation podcast — a new podcast released by Brave New Coin. This episode is also set to go live in the near future; we’ll share it once it’s available. In the meantime, you can find the podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-crypto-conversation/id1471243424
Secured a follow-up interview for Jake Yocom-Piatt with Alessandra Solberger, who’s writing a book called Blockchain Mavericks
Secured a keynote speaking slot for Jake Yocom-Piatt at the SF Bitcoin Meetup earlier this week, where he gave a presentation on the privacy landscape. There were 50+ attendees from a variety of projects. Overall a big win to have Decred speak at a Bitcoin Meetup! Jake’s speech was live streamed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgLfMLFfOHQ
Worked with Max Bronstein to drum up attendance at the Decred Meetup at Coinbase earlier this week. Shout-out to Max for organizing!
Spent quality time with Angelo Dominguez and Jake Yocom-Piatt during their visit to San Francisco
I recorded on the Decred in Depth podcast with Angelo Dominguez — episode coming soon!
Moved the Educational Resources Repository closer to completion — coming soon!
Coordinated with the community to continue pushing Decred’s privacy narrative across Twitter

What we’re doing in the next 2 weeks

Completing the Educational Resources Repository and working with the community to prepare it for publication
Announcing the October Twitter topic for community engagement and continuing to coordinate with the community to educate audiences on Twitter
Drafting a piece of content on incentives alignment and governance, for potential publication in a third-party outlet
Coordinating with the community on potential plans for SF Blockchain Week, Web Summit, and other upcoming events
Talking to media reporters about Decred’s governance in comparison with other projects that have been in the news lately (e.g. EOS)
Helping prepare Jake Yocom-Piatt for his speaking engagement at Voice of Blockchain in Chicago

Premium IPTV - Focusing on Premium North American and International Channels - Firestick APPROVED - BITCOIN ACCEPTED

Welcome to Premium IPTV. We offer North American and International Channels.

Currently our USA feeds are pretty spot on. All other sections including Canadian are a hit or miss right now.

Please keep in mind even though our service is up and running, channels are and will be having issues until all the the dust settles.

We offer both M3u and MAC type connections.

We offer VOD and 3 day catchup service.

We will provide you will all the connection details, apps and guides to get you going.

Prices are quoted in Canadian dollars. (2 connections per subscription)

1 Week Full Pass = $10 ($8usd roughly)
1 Month Package = $19 ($14usd roughly)
3 Month Package = $53 ($40usd roughly)
6 Month Package = $93 ($70usd roughly)

Payment Options......

e Transfer
Bitcoin (btc)
PayPal (must use Friends and Family option).

Paid $3 trials are available for 12 hours.

PM me for more information on our service.

Best General RenVM Questions | September 2019

Best General RenVM Questions | September 2019 *These questions are sourced directly from Telegram

Q: Given the RenVM Mainnet Roll-out Plan, what are the differences between how Darknodes participate in the P2P Network, Consensus, and Execution within RenVM?
A: An outline of each component and its role in RenVM system is outlined below:P2P NetworkThe peer-to-peer network is used for two core purposes: peer discovery, and message saturation. Peer discovery allows Darknodes to learn about other active Darknodes in their shard, and in the network at large. Message saturation ensures that all messages sent around the network are seen by everyone.

ConsensusThe consensus engine is used to reach a strict ordering of transactions that go through RenVM. This ensures that the Darknodes powering RenVM are able to agree on what actions to take, and when.

ExecutionThe execution engine is used to run secure multiparty computations. This is how actions in RenVM are ultimately taken. These actions involve generating private keys, signing interoperability transactions, and, in the future, running general-purpose application logic. And all of this in secret.

Q: How do I shut down my current Darknode(s)?
A: Follow this instruction set explicitly and you won't have any issues: https://renproject.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360020365234-How-to-Fully-Deregister-a-Darknode

Q: Is running a Darknode on Chaosnet useful for the team?
A: Yes, by running a Chaosnet Darknode you are inherently helping us test. One of the core purposes of Chaosnet is to the real world incentives of RenVM. Running (and continuing to run) a Chaosnet Darknode says something about the incentives at play: they’re enough to get people running Darknodes. And this helps us! In fact, by not running a Chaosnet Darknode you’re also inherently helping us test. It’s telling us there’s something not quite right with the incentives.

Q: And what's the incentive for someone to collude and attack the network during Chaosnet?
A: The ability to steal real BTC/ZEC/BCH, the want to help us test the network, the want to betray their fellow colluders and take their REN bonds, and of course, some (wo)men just want to watch the world burn.

Q: All of this de-registering and re-registering for mainnet is a bit annoying, is it necessary?
A: We do certainly understand the point as it's been discussed at length but registration for the RenVM Mainnet is a necessary component (applying automatic updates for current Darknodes to run RenVM is not technically feasible). This announcement is very much an administrative piece to ensure our community has plenty of time and notice to proceed at the speed they prefer. Chasonet is designed for testing and those willing to actively experiment, but certainly not mandatory and there is no pressure on the general community to be active during this period.

In summary for those who prefer to be less active, should de-register their current Darknode(s) and wait patiently for activation at the release of Mainnet SubZero, no other action is needed.

Q: Is RenVM secure against quantum computing?
A: The core of RZL sMPC is theoretical secure. This means that no amount of compute power can break it (making it post-Q safe). There are some parts of it that are not (zkSNARKs and some hashes that aren’t known whether or not they’re post-Q safe) but these are easy to replace (with zkSTARKs and some post-Q safe hashes).

RZL sMPC provides ECDSA signatures because that’s what it is used by Ethereum, Bitcoin, etc. Whatever solution they come up with, will be the solution that RZL has to be upgraded to use (the whole point of RenVM is not to tell other chains how to do things, and still provide interop; this means waiting on them to define their solution and then working with that).

In short, if a QC can steal funds from RenVM, it’s because it can steal funds from any Ethereum/Bitcoin/etc. private key.

Q: If I don't deregister my Darknode by RenVM Mainnet, will I lose my 100K REN?
A: The REN bond is safe forever. You can deregister your Darknode from the legacy Mainnet whenever. We recommend doing it now, because it can take three days, and once Chaosnet rolls around that’s where our support focus will be.

Q: When shifting in funds, say a user doesn't have eth funds and this call fails const newSigResult = await ethSig.submitToEthereum (web3.currentProvider). what is the best way for that user to pick up where they left off if they leave the web page to get some ETH, and then come back? Should the app generates a new shift in the object, override the params and gateway address objects, re-submit to RenVM, and then make the above call again? Assume the transaction info such as original params and gateway address are stored in local storage so those will be available when the user comes back.

A: This is the approach we take. We store the RenVM tx in local storage and then when the user comes back we can construct the Ethereum tx and hand it to them for signing again. You can construct the RenVM tx locally and store it before asking the user to send their BTC to the gateway to protect against unexpected shutdowns. This way, you can recover from them leaving the app at any point in the process without loss of funds. (This also allows you to resend the RenVM tx in the event that the first send fails for any reason.)

Q 1: Could you elaborate on the proportionality of (a) Total value of bonded REN (b) Total value of assets under RenVM control? Does RenVM require (b) <= (a) at all times? RenVM would need an Oracle to determine the USD value of both (a) and (b).

A 1: The oraclisation is done by the Darknodes. Each of them assesses what they determine that value of (a) and (b) to be and if 2/3rds of them independently decide (b) can be increased then the network will be able to go ahead with the computation. We do require (b) < (a) but have not determined the exact ratio. Because Darknodes are randomly sampled (and constantly reshuffled) from the entire group, this value can consider the entire amount of REN bonded (not just the REN bonded by one shard).

Q 2: There's potentially an incentive-misalignment issue here: Darknodes would want to bypass the (b) < (a) limit in order to continue to process more tx's and collect fees.

A 2: True, but there’s also a natural incentive for Darknodes to want to keep the network secure. A hack would likely render their REN to drop dramatically in price and they’re REN will be locked for 2-3 months after deregistration. This is also true of users. They should be wary of keeping assets locked up when it nears the secure threshold. This can be encouraged by scaling down the burning fees/raising minting fees to encourage the movement of funds “in the right direction”

Q: Quick question: right now, a developer can choose to wait for 0 confirmations before minting zBTC on Ethereum when shifting in real BTC. Will the RenVM network require a minimum number of bitcoin confirmations, or is that always up to the application developer? If it's up to the developer, what if the developer chooses 0 confirmations, mints zBTC, and then double spends on the bitcoin network, invalidating that original bitcoin transaction? shouldn't that invalidate the zBTC that was already minted from the original 0 conf transaction?

A: The developer cannot choose. RenVM will wait for the appropriate number of confirmations. On Testnet, this number is currently set to zero because it makes testing easier. On Mainnet, there will be systems for people to take on the “confirmation risk” and provide float. Devs can also set it up so that people can deposit ahead-of-time. We are also exploring Lightning and similar concepts.

Q: I've noticed an increase of tx's made through RenVm, how tests are going on; have you met any unexpected obstacles?

A: We’ve encountered a few issues with nodes when they are rebooted/crash (we are constantly rebooting/crashing them to make sure the network continues to operate as expected under those circumstances). But, we have fixes in the work for all these issues and it hasn’t prevented us from being able to add new features (BCash and SegWit support has recently hit Devnet and will be arriving on Testnet soon).

Q1: If home chain = destination chain, then RenVM is effectively a mixing service?A: It can be used that way, definitely. But, it has to have a few more privacy features enabled, shifting alone won’t do.

Q2: RenVM mints Aztec notes for example?A: Yep, that’s the plan. But we need to wait until the Ignition ceremony before this can be done. It’s one of the next features in our pipeline though! BTC would “appear” on Ethereum with no known owner. And, if you wait an amount of time between getting the authorizing from RenVM and using the signature, then it would be impossible to trace it back to the request that went to RenVM.

Q: When I go to the Command Center, the page doesn't load?A: One has to be on the Kovan Testnet (on Metamask). To do this, select the top middle button on your Metamask tab and click Kovan Test Network (Purple circle). If you’d like to see it in action, submit a trade on our Testnet Dex Demo (https://renproject.github.io/renvm-demo/) and see it proceed through RenVM via the Hyperdrive tab: https://dcc-testnet.republicprotocol.com/hyperdrive

Q: Mixicles & RenVM: It seems like Mixicles could be used to preserve privacy features for on and off-chain settlements in a blockchain agnostic way. Wouldn’t this be seen as a threat as smart contracts could now replace a darkpool while maintaining the element of anonymity?

A: Mixicles (and all other ZK on-chain stuff I’ve seen) gives you privacy on the chain. So you can prove things have been done right (one of the things we like about public blockchains), without exposing any information about the thing (an issue with public blockchains). But, the prover still has access to the information. This rules it out for many kinds of private apps. RenVM gives you absolute privacy. You can do things with data, and prove things about data, without anyone anywhere ever knowing anything about the data. This is much more general.

Q: Can’t people just fork RenVM?

A: What ultimately prevents forks is the network effect. All projects that want to take decentralization seriously need to open-source their implementations. Almost by definition, a decentralized network is nothing but its community of people willing to work together; this is the very essence of “trust no-one except for the majority”. If you refuse to open-source you don’t have a community, you have hostages.

Building up momentum and creating a large network and community is incredibly valuable and not something that can be forked. Bitcoin is still Bitcoin, despite the large number of forks that have been created, and most of the time forks don’t overtake or outpace the original because there is too much inertia in the original community.

There are other, less philosophical, benefits too. Open-source code means you can get more feedback, people can help fix bugs, identify potential security issues, anyone can validate the implementation, people can build their own implementations (resulting in highly desirable “N versioning” which prevents a single bug compromising all nodes).

https://renproject.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001180915-General-RenVM-Questions-September-2019

[uncensored-r/BitcoinMarkets] [Daily Discussion] Friday, September 27, 2019

The following post by AutoModerator is being replicated because some comments within the post(but not the post itself) have been silently removed.

The original post can be found(in censored form) at this link:

np.reddit.com/r/ BitcoinMarkets/comments/d9v363

The original post's content was as follows:

Thread topics include, but are not limited to:

General discussion related to the day's events

Technical analysis, trading ideas & strategies

Quick questions that do not warrant a separate post

Thread guidelines:

Be excellent to each other.

Do not make posts outside of the daily thread for the topics mentioned above.

Other ways to interact:

Get an invite to live chat on our Slack group

Set your flair to trade pretend money in the Flair Game

Weekly threads: Newbie Mondays and Fundamentals Fridays

Altcoins Discussion: Altcoin Discussion

What Is Bitcoin: The Beginners Guide

Bitcoin has risen from obscurity to one of the biggest buzzes on the globe. By today Bitcoin has settled in people’s lives quite firmly. If you are looking for a guide about all of the basic, yet essential stuff related to Bitcoin — this article is just for you.

What is Bitcoin? Basically, it is a form of digital currency which is used and distributed electronically.

For a long time, experts in the field of cryptography have been working on the creation of a unique decentralized system of payment. But only in 2008 during a huge financial crisis, Satoshi Nakamoto created the world’s first cryptocurrency — Bitcoin.

https://i.redd.it/x1udnhwsv5p31.jpg

Nakamoto published a file with the Bitcoin protocol and briefly described the features of the new payment system. Actually, no one knows who Satoshi really is and it’s still a mystery whether it is one person or a group of developers. Anyway, the goal of the technology was to create a new electronic cash system that was completely decentralized with no server or central authority. As a result, the new currency should have increased the protection against scammy transactions, the independence from financial institutions and the ability to use currency anonymously.

In the spring of 2010, Laszlo Hanech made the first payment with Bitcoin for his pizza order. He paid 10,000 BTC for this delivery. We sincerely hope the pizza was good. Just imagine how much he could earn today if he hasn’t “eaten” these digital coins?

Bitcoin is fundamentally different from all the previously created electronic currencies and payment systems. It is not tied to any physical asset or “official” fiat currencies and the price of BTC is regulated exclusively by the market demand and supply. Bitcoin has a big similarity to gold — it is limited. Its number is restricted to 21,000,000 BTC, while in 2019 about 17,600,000 BTC was mined, so it’s more than 83% of the total amount.

Let’s go through the main characteristics and advantages of the first digital currency.

Decentralized. This means that Bitcoin is not regulated by any bank or government entity. It is designed so that every person, business, as well as every machine involved in mining and transaction verification, become part of a vast network. Moreover, even if some part of the network goes down, the currency will keep moving.
Anonymous. There is no need to share any personal information while making transactions with BTC.
Transparent. Every single BTC transaction that has ever happened is stored in the Blockchain. However, tracing a particular Bitcoin address to a person is still nearly impossible.
Speed. The Bitcoin network processes payments almost instantly, it normally takes just a few minutes for someone on the other side of the world to receive the coins, while usual bank transfers can take several days.
Ease of use. To open an account in a bank — it’s not a fast and easy process. And there is a chance that in the end, you can get a refusal without explanation. With Bitcoin, you can forget about this problem: you only need five minutes to create a Bitcoin wallet and immediately start using it. No questions, no fees.
Non-refundable. Once you send your Bitcoins to someone, there is no way of getting them back, unless the recipient would want to send them back to you. This ensures the reception of the payment, meaning that whoever you’re trading with can’t scam you by claiming that they never got the money.

However, Bitcoin has some weak points including the following:

Legal questions The legal status of Bitcoin varies drastically from country to country. In some countries, the use and trade of BTC are encouraged, while in others it is banned and outlawed.
Volatility. Unstable exchange rate reduces the potential of BTC as a payment option.
Continuous development. The future of Bitcoin is rather unclear. Currently, the governments and banks are not able to control BTC, it’s almost unregulated. However, the bigger and more popular it gets, the more world governments will try to take it under control. A regulated and governed Bitcoin would be an entirely different kind of currency.

To sum up, Bitcoin is the currency which marked the beginning of a revolutionary financial era. Whether you are looking for an anonymous way to pay, want freedom from high transaction fees, or are just curious about this digital currency, now is the perfect time to join the Bitcoin revolution. By the way, the StealthEX exchange service is here to help. You can exchange your coins to BTC and vice versa on StealthEX. The platform is anonymous, limitless and allows you to swap 250+ cryptocurrencies.

Want more interesting articles on the crypto world? Follow us on Medium, Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit to get StealthEX.io updates and the latest news about the crypto world.

For all requests message us at [support@stealthex.io](mailto:support@stealthex.io)

Premium IPTV - Focusing on Premium North American and International Channels - Firestick APPROVED - BITCOIN ACCEPTED

Welcome to Premium IPTV. We offer North American and International Channels.

Currently our USA feeds are pretty spot on. All other sections including Canadian are a hit or miss right now.

Please keep in mind even though our service is up and running, channels are and will be having issues until all the the dust settles.

We offer both M3u and MAC type connections.

We offer VOD and 3 day catchup service.

We will provide you will all the connection details, apps and guides to get you going.

Prices are quoted in Canadian dollars. (2 connections per subscription)

1 Week Full Pass = $10 ($8usd roughly)
1 Month Package = $19 ($14usd roughly)
3 Month Package = $53 ($40usd roughly)
6 Month Package = $93 ($70usd roughly)

Payment Options......

e Transfer
Bitcoin (btc)
PayPal (must use Friends and Family option).

Paid $3 trials are available for 12 hours.

PM me for more information on our service.

Online gambling among generations

https://i.redd.it/x9lg17p135p31.jpg

Those born before the invention and rapid spread of the Internet are unlikely to say anything positive about blockchain, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. For example, the famous economist Nuriel Roubini and world known investor Warren Buffett are vocal critics of new "financial revolution". Most cryptocurrency fans are among young people — millennials really like the idea of digital assets. It is expected that in the next decade it is this age category that will earn much more money than their predecessors in their younger years.

Almost every online casino has embraced all benefits of blockchain to this day. Cryptocurrencies are often used to place bets on gambling websites or buying virtual lottery tickets. There is a serious differences between generation cohorts when it comes to new trends. Let's examine them by analyzing every generation separately.

Baby boomers: Old and conservative

Baby boomers were born between 1944 and 1964. Their current age is between 55-75 years. The term "baby boomer" refers to Post World War II optimism, when americans were enjoying new-found prosperity. At that time the birth rate in US has skyrocketed, resulting in a "baby boom". For ease representatives of our older generation are often called Boomers.

The Boomers prefer traditional media, rarely use Internet and mostly not interested in newest technologies. Their habits are shaped long ago so they prefer do thing in the old-fashioned way. There may be a lot of gamblers among Boomers and almost all of them prefer to visit traditional casinos. In a research study conducted by casinos operating in New Jersey, only 8.5 percent of a millennial’s vacation budget is spent on gambling. Older generations spend almost three times more, but not in online casinos.

Generation X: Highest debt load and rise of personal computing

Those born between 1965 to 1979 are digitally savvy and spend roughly 7 hours a week on Facebook. This generation was the first in human history to experience rise of personal computing. People in age from 40 to 54 still read newspapers, but also use Internet pretty often.

https://i.redd.it/5va4iew335p31.jpg

It is safe to say that Generation X is more close to online gambling, than Boomers. They also have enough money to spend on casinos or lotteries like Powerball. However, the biggest share of online gambling sites visitors is held by younger generations.

Millenials: Explosion of the Internet

Millennials or the Generation Y is the segment of people who are born between the years 1980 and 1994. They are active users of the Internet and mobile devices. These people are old enough to have job with stable income, some of them also have big student debts. As of economy the main shaping event for Millenials is The Great Recession, occured in 2008. Because of it average young americans have less faith in traditional financial system than previous generations.

Analytics of popular trading platform eToro recently conducted a survey among 1000 americans from age 20 to 65. Respondents were represented by three generations: Generation X, Millenials and Generation Z. Unsurprisingly, almost 40 percents of millenials are betting on Bitcoin in the event of a global economic crisis. They also represent the largest client base of online casinos and blockchain lotteries.

https://i.redd.it/y3mxx1n635p31.jpg

Most casinos have realized that they can only attract the millennial group if they introduce new trends and technologies in the gambling industry. Young people are most likely to download the gambling app rather than use traditional slot machines.

Generation Z: Mobile devices for everything

Young people from Generation Z are learning about personal finance. Financial education is considered one of the hottest topics among those who still goes to college. In the coming years they will face massive debt for student loans and danger of another potential economic crisis. Also, much of the generation has no stable income or significant net worth.

https://i.redd.it/7kg9w3p735p31.jpg

As you can see, each generation has its own habits, formed during long period of time. Tendency for online gambling will definitely rise in future. If you want to make more money on your bets, join Ethex.bet and move with the times!

How to dive deep into political theory and philosophy: The Big List

This is a list of (largely) contemporary thinkers, books and video content aimed as a reference for questions like -

"What should I read next?", "Who should I follow?" or "What are the best resources for [certain political topic]?"

The core list comes from Chomsky, and the books and people he's cited or praised. But the list has significantly expanded since then. Feel free to comment about any good books or channels you think should be on this list.

Chomsky discord server: https://discord.gg/2kse6pQ (for resource sharing and discussion)

r/BreadTube(for video focussed content) discord here: https://discord.gg/bbbJnXg

Journalists

Start off with:

★ Adam H Johnson - Propaganda Model, Media Critique at FAIR

★ Nathan J Robinson - Journalist, Current Affairs

★ Glenn Greenwald- Journalist, Privacy, US imperialism. The Intercept

Also Great

Owen Jones- UK Journalist

Naomi Klein- Journalist, neoliberalism, globalization.

★ George Monbiot- Journalist, environmentalist.

Amy Goodman- Journalist Democracy Now

Alex Press - Journalist and Founder, Jacobin

Alexander Cockburn - Journalist

Chris Hedges- Journalist.

P Sainath- Journalist, India specialist

Whistleblowing:

Daniel Ellsberg- Vietnam, Released Pentagon Papers.

Edward Snowden

Chelsea Manning

Julian Assange

US History and Foreign Policy

Start off with:

★ Noam Chomsky - Everything

Howard Zinn- Historian

Laura Poitras - Documentary maker

Also Great

Eqbal Ahmad, - US imperialism

Michelle Alexander, US prison system

William Blum- Former State Dept. Agent, Historian, US imperialism

Jean Bricmont- “The Belgian Chomsky” – US imperialism, geopolitics,

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz - US History

Thomas Ferguson- US elections specialist.

Ian Haney Lopez- Racism, US politics.

Deepa Kumar- US imperialism, Islamophobia.

Andrew Bacevich - U.S. foreign policy, historian

Economics

Start off with:

Thomas Piketty - inequality

★Ha-Joon Chang - institutional economist, specialising in development economics:

Joseph Stiglitz - Former World Bank Chief Economist

Amartya Sen- Third world development and Inequality, Nobel Prize Winner

★Yanis Varoufakis

Richard Wolff- Marxism

Dean Baker

Also Great

Michael Albert

John Bellamy Foster

Richard Wilkinson- inequality

William Krehm - Labour

★ Stephanie Kelton - Modern Monetary Theory

Historians

Start off with:

★Thomas Frank - historian, American politics

Howard Zinn- "People's" Historian

★Raul Hilberg - The Leading Authority on the Holocaust

Phillip Mirowski - History of economics

Eric Hobsbawm - historian, Marxist

Also Great

Gar Aleprovitz, - world war 2, co-operatives.

Alex Carey - Laid the foundation for Manufacturing Consent

Nancy Maclean - US South, Labor, Race

Mark Curtis

Mike Davis- Globalization, Historian.

Gerald Horne- Historian, black liberation.

Gabriel Kolko- Historian. World War 2.

Morris Berman - historian, American social critic

Israel/Palestine

Start off with:

Norman Finkelstein- Israel specialist.

Avi Shlaim - Israel

Also Great

Amira Hass- Journalist, Israel specialist.

Illan Pappe- Israel specialist

James Petras- Israel and Latin America specialist.

Greg Philo- Media criticism, Israel.

Media Criticism

Start off with:

Edward Herman- Media criticism.

Robert McChesney- media criticism.

Edward Said- sociology, Islamophobia, Israel, media criticism

Also Great

Ben Bagdikian, - media criticism.

Keane Bhatt- Media Criticism, Latin America.

Oliver Boyd-Barrett- Media Criticism

Sut Jhally- sociology, film-maker

James Curran- Media Criticism

Alan MacLeod - Media Criticism, Venezuela

Anarchism/Socialism/Political Theory

Start off with:

David Graeber- historian, anarchism, Occupy Wall Street, anthropology.

Joel Bakan, - writer of “The Corporation”, seminal book on corporations.

★ Cornel West- sociology

Tariq Ali, “The British Chomsky”- everything from globalization to history to politics.

Murray Bookchin - Anarchism

Also Great

Angela Davis- Feminism, Marxism, black liberation.

Peter Gelderloos - anarchism

Uri Gordon - anarchism, Israel/Palestine

Harry Cleaver - Marxism, economics

Michel Bauwens - P2P, political economy

James C. Scott - anarchism, anthropology

Michael Heinrich - Marxism, political science

Specialists

Stephen Cohen- Russia specialist.

Bruce Cummings- Korea Specialist.

Aviva Chomsky – Immigration, Latin America.

Eduardo Galeano- Poet, Author, Latin American specialist.

Fawaz Gerges - Middle East specialist.

Andrej Grubacic- Yugoslavia specialist.

Flynt and Hillary Leverett- Iran specialists.

William I. Robinson- globalization, neoliberalism, Latin America specialist

Lars Schoultz- Latin America specialist

Sanho Tree- drugs, Colombia specialist

★ Nick Turse - Africa

Mark Weisbrot- economics, Latin America

Kevin Young- media criticism, Latin America

Raj Patel- Food

Vijay Prashad- globalization, third world development

Thomas Szasz- Criticism of psychiatry

Alfie Kohn- Education.

Daniel Kovalik - Human rights

Paulo Freire- Education.

Henry Giroux- Education

Greg Grandin - Historian, Latin America

Dave Zirin- sports

Gabor Maté- Education, drugs, psychiatry.

Kate Bronfenbrenner - Labour and Unions

Loic Wacquant - sociology, neoliberalism

Bernard Harcourt - surveillance, penal law

Eric Toussaint - political science, debt

The best arguments for major mainstream political positions:

Fascism and Neo-Conservatism

On Dictatorship and The Concept of The Political Carl Schmitt

Note:

Some have argued that neoconservativism has been influenced by Schmitt Most notably the legal opinions offered by Alberto Gonzales, John Yoo et al. by invoking the unitary executive theory to justify highly controversial policies in the war on terror—such as introducing unlawful combatant status which purportedly would eliminate protection by the Geneva Conventions torture, NSA electronic surveillance program—mimic his writings.Professor David Luban said in 2011 that "[a] Lexis search reveals five law review references to Schmitt between 1980 and 1990; 114 between 1990 and 2000; and 420 since 2000, with almost twice as many in the last five years as the previous five"

Realpolitik

World Order, by Henry Kissinger

Liberalism/Social Democracy

A Theory of Justice, by John Rawls

Right-Wing Libertarianism

Anarchy, State, Utopia by Robert Nozick

Technocracy

Zero to One, by Peter Thiel

Marxism-Leninism

Left-Wing Communism, and Infantile Disorder by Vladimir Lenin

Recommended books:

Israel/Palestine and the Middle East:

Start off with:

The Iron Wall by Avi Shlaim

★ Gaza: An Inquest Into Its Martyrdom by Norman Finkelstein

Also Great

★ Fateful Triangle by Noam Chomsky

Israel/Palestine: How to End the War of 1948 by Tanya Reinhart

The Birth of Israel: Myths and Realities by Simha Flapan

Between the Lines: Israel, the Palestinians, and the U.S. War on Terror by Tikva Honig-Parnass

The Holocaust Industry: Norman Finkelstein

Defending the Holy Land: A Critical Analysis of Israel's Security and Foreign Policy by Zeev Maoz

Gaza: An Inquest Into Its Martyrdom by Norman Finkelstein

The New Intifada: Resisting Israel’s Apartheid by Roane Carey, Alison Weir, and others

The Battle for Justice in Palestine by Ali Abunimah

American Foreign Policy:

Start off with:

★ ★ ★ Understanding Power by Noam Chomsky

Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II by William Blum

Also Great:

Defeat: Why America and Britain Lost Iraq by Jonathon Steele

A Different Kind of War: The Un Sanctions Regime in Iraq by Hans. C. Von Sponeck

Al-Qaeda: Casting a Shadow of Terror by Jason Burke

How America Gets Away with Murder: Illegal Wars, Collateral Damage and Crimes Against Humanity by Michael Mandel

The Deaths of Others: The Fate of Civilians in America's Wars by John Turnam

Talking to the Enemy: Faith, Brotherhood, and the (Un)Making of Terrorists by Scott Atran

The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade by Alfred W. McCoy

Ideal Illusions: How the U.S. Government Co-opted Human Rights by James Peck

War Stars: The Superweapon and the American Imagination by Howard Bruce Franklin

Next Time They’ll Come to Count the Dead: War and Survival in South Sudan by Nick Turse

Tomorrow's Battlefield : U.S. Proxy Wars and Secret Ops in Africa by Nick Turse

The Violent American Century: War and Terror Since World War II by John Dower

Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety by Eric Schlosser

The Hungry World: America's Cold War Battle Against Poverty in Asia by Nick Cullather

Voices From the Other Side: An Oral History of Terrorism Against Cuba by Keith Bolender

The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner by Daniel Ellsberg

Tinderbox: U.S. Foreign Policy and the Roots of Terrorism by Stephen Zunes

One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War by Michael Dobbs

Kill Chain: Drones and The Rise of the High-Tech Assassins by Andrew Cockburn

First Do No Harm: Humanitarian Intervention and the Destruction of Yugoslavia by David Gibbs

The Management of Savagery by Max Blumenthal

Media and Propaganda:

Start off with:

Manufacturing Consent by Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky

Propaganda by Edward Bernays

The Record of the Paper: How the New York Times Misreports US Foreign Policy by Richard A. Falk

Also Great:

The Real Terror Network: Terrorism in Fact and Propaganda by Edward Herman

The Politics of Genocide by Edward Herman

Taking the Risk Out of Democracy: Corporate Propaganda versus Freedom and Liberty by Alex Carey

American History and Culture:

Start off with:

★ A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn

Also Great:

Political Repression in Modern America: FROM 1870 TO 1976 by Robert Justin Goldstein

No is Not Enough: Resisting Trump's Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need by Naomi Klein

The Industrial Worker, 1840-1860: The Reaction of American Industrial Society to the Advance of the Industrial Revolution by Norman Ware

Voices of a People's History of the United States by Anthony Arnove and Howard Zinn

Violent Politics: A History of Insurgency, Terrorism, and Guerrilla War, from the American Revolution to Iraq by William R. Polk

★ With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful by Glenn Greenwald

Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right by Arlie Russell Hochschild

The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism by Edward Baptist

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon

Inferno: The World at War, 1939-1945 by Max Hastings

The Politics of War: Allied Diplomacy and the World Crisis of 1943-1945 by Gabriel Kolko Labor History:

The Fall of the House of Labor by David Montgomery

Selling Free Enterprise: The Business Assault on Labor and Liberalism, 1945-60 by Elizabeth A. Fones-Wolf

The Market Revolution: Jacksonian America, 1815-1846 by Charles Grier Sellers

Sociopathic Society: A People’s Sociology of the United States by Charles Derber

On the Rojava Experiment:

Revolution in Rojava

Struggles for Autonomy in Kurdistan

A Small Key Can Open a Large Door

Rojava: An Alternative to Imperialism, Nationalism, and Islamism in the Middle East

Coming Down the Mountains

To Dare Imagining: Rojava Revolution

★ Ocalan’s Prison Writings

Anarchism, Socialism, Philosophy, and Science:

Start off with:

★ Government In The Future(Talk) by Noam Chomsky

Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell

On Anarchism by Mikhail Bakunin

The Limits of State Action by Wilhelm von Humboldt

Also Great

Progress Without People: In Defense of Luddism by David F. Noble

Granny Made Me an Anarchist: General Franco, The Angry Brigade and Me by Stuart Christie

Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals' Abuse of Science by Alan Sokal

Beyond the Hoax: Science, Philosophy and Culture by Alan Sokal

A Theory of Power by Jeff Vail

Workers' Councils by Anton Pannekoek

The State: Its Origin and Function by William Paul

On Anarchism by Noam Chomsky

The Anarchist Collectives: Workers' Self-Management in the Spanish Revolution 1936-39 by Sam Dolgoff

Anarchism by Daniel Guerin

The Ancestors Tale by Richard Dawkins

Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan

Memory and the Computational Brain: Why Cognitive Science WIll Transform Neuroscience by Randy Gallistel and Adam Philip King

Vision: A Computational Investigation Into the Human Representation and Processing of Visual Information by David Marr

Economics:

Start off with:

★ ★ Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism by Ha-Joon Chang

★ Making Globalization Work by Joseph Stiglitz

Capital in the 21st Century by Thomas Piketty

Adam Smith and His Legacy for Modern Capitalism by Patricia H. Werhane

Also Great:

Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism by Richard Wolff

Das Kapital by Karl Marx

Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

Affluence and Influence: Economic Inequality and Political Power in America by Martin Gilens

America Beyond Capitalism by Gar Alperovitz

The ABCs of Political Economy: A Modern Approach by Robert Hahnel

★ ★ Golden Rule: The Investment Theory of Party Competition and the Logic of Money-Driven Political Systems by Thomas Ferguson

The Conservative Nanny State: How the Wealthy Use the Government to Stay Rich and Get Richer by Dean Baker

Rigged: How Globalization and the Rules of the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer by Dean Baker

Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age by Larry M. Bartels

Understanding Capitalism: Critical Analysis From Karl Marx to Amartya Sen by Douglas Down

Whose Crisis, Whose Future?: Towards a Greener, Fairer, Richer World by Susan George

Business as Usual: The Economic Crisis and the Failure of Capitalism by Paul Mattock Jr.

Greening the Global Economy by Robert Pollin

Capitalism: A Ghost Story by Arundhati Roy

Political Economy and Laissez Faire by Rajani Kannepalli Kanth

The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time by Karl Polanyi

Miscellaneous:

★ Discipline and Punish, by Michel Foucault

Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs by Johann Hari

Controlling the Dangerous Classes by Randall G. Shelden

Pedagogy of the Opressed by Paulo Freire

The Verso Book of Dissent: From Spartacus to the Shoe-Thrower of Baghdad by Andrew Hsiao

Don't Mourn, Balkanize!: Essays After Yugoslavia by Andrej Grubačić

★ Field Notes on Democracy: Listening to Grasshoppers by Arundhati Roy

Voices from the Plain of Jars: Life under an Air War by Fred Branfman

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

In Praise of Barbarians by Mike Davis

Damming the Flood by Peter Hallward

Hope and Folly: The United States and UNESCO, 1945-1985 by Edward Herman and Herbert Schiller

Fanshen: A Documentary of Revolution in a Chinese Village by William Hinton

The Egyptians: A Radical Story by Jack Shenker

Welcome to the Revolution: Universalizing Resistance for Social Justice and Democracy in Perilous Times by Charles Derber

Sociopathic Society: A People’s Sociology of the United States by Charles Derber

The Black Jacobins by C.L.R. James

Dark Money by Jane Meyers

King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild

Recommended YouTubers/Creators/Channels(with a linked video to get you started):

Political

Contrapoints | America: Still Racist

★ Philosophy Tube | The Philosophy of Antifa

Existential Comics

★ ★ Chomsky’s Philosophy | Bakunin's Predictions

HBomber Guy | Soy Boys: A Measured Response

Shaun | How Privatisation Fails: Railways

Badmouse Productions | Argument ad Venezuelum

Three Arrows | Who is actually at fault for the refugee crisis?

Gravesend Films (with Norman Finkelstein) | The Idea Of Utopia

The Intercept | Greenwald and Risen debate Russiagate

Non Political

Lindsay Ellis - Film Criticism | The Ideology of the First Order

The Great War - History | The Run For The Baku Oil Fields

History Civilis - History | The Constitution Of The Spartans

Numberphile - Mathematics | Perplexing Paperclips

Computerphile - Technology | The Bitcoin Power Problem

Vihart - Mathematics | Hexaflexagons

3Blue1Brown - Mathematics | How Cryptocurrencies Work

PBS SpaceTime - Astronomy, Physics | The Blackhole Information Paradox

Will Schoder - Video Essays | The Problem with Irony and Postmodernism

Assorted Documentaries to get you started:

★ Manufacturing Consent - The seminal work on how the population is controlled in democratic societies

★ ★ Citizenfour - Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras in a Hong Kong Room.

★ ★ Risk - A deep look at Wikileaks - from the inside the embassy.

The Murder of Fred Hampton - How the FBI brazenly assassinated an American citizen without any warrant or due process

Weiner - An incredible look at how political campaigns function from the inside.

The Corporation - What are corporations?

The Shock Doctrine - Lectures by Naomi Klein, news-reel footage and analysis to explain the connection between politics and economics.

★ Hypernormalization - Explains not only why chaotic events happen - but also why we, and politicians, cannot understand them.

Inside Job - A look at the cause for the financial crisis

Podcasts

Start off with:

★ ★ ★ Citations Needed

Also Great:

Intercepted

Current Affairs Podcast

Chapo Trap House

Moderate Rebels

Economic Update

Protect Yourself:

r/PrivacyToolsIO,

Electronic Frontier Foundation

How to dive deep into political theory and philosophy: The Bread List

This is a curated collection of (largely) contemporary thinkers, books and video content aimed as a reference for questions like -

"What should I read next?", "Who should I follow?" or "What are the best resources for [certain political topic]?"

The core list comes from Noam Chomsky, and the books and people he's cited or praised. But the list has significantly expanded since then. Feel free to comment about any good books or channels you think should be on this list.

r/BreadTube discord here: https://discord.gg/bbbJnXg