UnstoppableBroMan XRPatriot

XRP enthusiast and True Patriot

[Ethan Brooks @alt_w_v_g]

You used to sell stuff on eBay.

Maybe an old camera. Maybe Beanie Babies. Maybe a coat that didn't fit.

You paid a small fee. The buyer got the thing. Everyone went home.

That eBay is gone.

The website looks the same. The logo is the same. The 135 million buyers are still there.

But the company isn't really a marketplace anymore.

It is an advertising business with a marketplace attached for distribution.

Last year, sellers paid eBay $2 billion just to make sure their own listings showed up.

Read that again.

The board calls this growth.

A Canadian who runs a video game store called it something else.

Here is what actually happened.

In 2020 the board hired a new CEO. His name is Jamie Iannone. He arrived with a strategy called focused categories.

In plain English, that means leaning into the stuff people pay extra for. Sneakers. Watches. Trading cards. Auto parts.

The everyday seller, the person with the camera and the coat, was no longer the customer.

The customer was now the seller who would pay to be seen.

In 2025 eBay did $80 billion in transactions. They kept $11 billion of that as revenue. Of that $11 billion, $2 billion came from advertising.

Sellers paid them $2 billion to promote listings on a website those sellers already pay fees to use.

That is the growth story.

In the same year, the number of enthusiast buyers, eBay's own term for their best customers, was 16 million.

It was also 16 million the year before.

And the year before that.

And the year before that.

Four years. Zero growth. They mention this on every earnings call without mentioning it.

So what does a company do when growth stops?

It buys back its own stock.

In 2025, eBay returned over $3 billion to shareholders. Most of that was buybacks. In February the board authorized another $2 billion on top.

Buybacks shrink the share count. Earnings per share goes up even when earnings stay flat. The stock price follows.

The stock was $68 a year ago. It is $108 today.

The company did not improve. The denominator got smaller.

Then a man from Canada noticed.

His name is Ryan Cohen. He runs GameStop. He started his career selling pet food online and sold it to PetSmart for $3.35 billion.

He looked at eBay. 135 million buyers. $80 billion in transactions. Real margins. Real cash flow. A board harvesting the business instead of running it.

He bought 5% of the company through derivatives and stock.

Then on May 4, he offered to buy the rest. $125 per share. $56 billion total.

On May 12, the eBay board rejected the bid. They called it not credible.

The math is credible.

What the board means by not credible is we would have to explain why we sold.

Then Cohen went on Piers Morgan.

He said eBay is run by a bunch of losers with perverse financial incentives.

He pointed out that eBay's CEO has been paid $144 million over six years.

He pointed out that he personally takes no salary and has put $128 million of his own money into the company he runs.

You do not have to like Ryan Cohen to notice he is making a point that is hard to argue with.

eBay used to be a place where regular people sold things to other regular people.

Now it is a $48 billion company whose largest growth driver is charging its own sellers to advertise to a buyer base that stopped growing four years ago, while spending billions a year buying its own stock to make the chart go up.

The board calls this strategy.

A video game CEO from Canada called it what it is.

The market is now waiting to see who else agrees.

Plz fix. Thx.

Sent from my iPhone

[UnstoppableBroMan XRPatriot @UnstopbleBroMan]

https://t.co/U25gvWlLr0

[Ethan Brooks @alt_w_v_g]

Let me get this straight

Yesterday Anthropic announced a new AI model that autonomously found a 27-year-old vulnerability in OpenBSD

In under a day

For under $20,000

It also found a 16-year-old bug in video software that had survived 5 million automated tests and every human reviewer who ever looked at the code

It chained together 4 vulnerabilities to escape a web browser sandbox

It solved a corporate network attack simulation that would have taken a human expert over 10 hours

By itself

With no human involvement after the initial prompt

Meanwhile

I have to fill out a form on a government website that doesn't fit my browser window

The submit button is cut off

The error message says "please try again later"

It's been saying that since Tuesday

The federal government spends over $100 billion a year on IT

80% of that goes to maintaining legacy systems

That's $80 billion a year

To keep systems running that were built when Nixon was president

The IRS still uses a system written in COBOL from the 1960s

It won't be fully replaced until 2030

At which point it will be 60 years old

The Treasury's taxpayer system is 51 years old

HHS runs a patient system that is 50 years old

The Department of Education runs student information on a 46-year-old platform

These aren't obscure backroom tools

These process the money, the healthcare, and the education of 330 million people

On code written before the internet existed

Let me run the math

$80 billion a year

For 10 years

That's $800 billion

Spent maintaining technology from an era when the most advanced computer in America had less processing power than a modern thermostat

For the same price

Anthropic's new AI model could run 40 million individual security assessments

Each one capable of finding decades-old vulnerabilities in a day

40 million

And the government can't build a webpage that fits on a laptop screen

In private equity we have a term for this

It's called "capex misallocation"

When you spend enormous sums maintaining obsolete infrastructure instead of replacing it

It shows up on the balance sheet as an asset

But it functions as a liability

It drags down productivity

It creates security risk

It compounds every year

And eventually it becomes so expensive to replace that you just keep paying to maintain it

Forever

Which is exactly where the federal government is

A $100 billion annual IT budget

80% allocated to keeping the lights on

20% for everything new

No private company would survive running its infrastructure this way

But the government doesn't have to survive

It just has to keep collecting taxes

And those taxes are processed on a 60-year-old COBOL system

That still can't handle a form that fits in my browser window

Make common sense common again

Plz fix. Thx.

Sent from my iPhone

[G-MA & G-PA @GPAIndiana]

The Whole World Needs to Hear This Story!! 🫵

[Santa Trump.. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 @lovetocook12345]

Cramer on Saudi Governmental meeting. Joining US to destroy Iran!

[Danny Jones @JonesDanny]

Here is Islam in a nutshell:

Bek Lover (@BekLoverNYC) explains the history of Islam and why the faith believes the Quran is the most important religious text of all.

[Tim Cramer @CramerSez]

-
That’s why…
-

[Just Jen ℞ 🫡🇺🇸 @JustJenRX]

Bro! She just DESTROYED Jimmy Kimmel

[Ichigo Niggasake @SomaKazima2]

Writing this down lol

[Xaviaer DuRousseau @XAVIAERD]

I can’t believe it’s been two years since I went on Dr. Phil’s show for the first time.

Two years later and I stand on everything I said 😌

[Crews Control @crwscntrl]

🚨 OAHU IS UNDERWATER AND PEOPLE ARE ON THEIR OWN 🚨

Lives flipped overnight. And if you’re waiting on the system to save them… you haven’t been paying attention.

This is where WE step in.

I’ve got links in my bio for Compassionate Alliance and Inside Outreach. Donate. Send supplies. Share this.

No more scrolling past real problems like they’re just content.

Either you help or you admit you won’t.

🚨 DO SOMETHING 🚨

[DAWN IVEY💐😊 @noregretvet_]

Who owned the Swiss Banks back then? Is it the same people that owns the Banks now?

[Loud Outside @LoudOutside]

Thoughts?

[Ethan Brooks @alt_w_v_g]

Let me make sure I understand this correctly

To buy a beer: ID

To board a plane: ID

To pick up my kid from school: ID

To get a fishing license: ID

To enter my own office building: ID

To buy cold medicine: ID

To open a bank account: ID

To rent a car: ID

To check into a hotel: ID

To prove to my bank that I'm human: 14 minutes and a CAPTCHA

To vote for the leader of the free world: nothing

If A = B and B = C then A = C

That's the transitive property

I learned it in 7th grade

Apparently not everyone did

My analyst could build a better system in an afternoon

And he's not even that good

Make common sense common again

Plz fix. Thx.

Sent from my iPhone

[Sadie @Sadie_NC]

CNN just fact-checked Chuck Schumer live on air and wrecked him. Schumer claimed the SAVE Act “appeals to only the most fringe element of the MAGA base.” CNN instantly put up the numbers:

White Americans: 85% support voter ID
Latino Americans: 82%
Black Americans: 76%

The anchor straight-up said:
“Voter ID is NOT controversial in this country. Not by party. Not by race. The vast majority of Americans support it.”

Schumer just called 76% of Black Americans, 82% of Latinos, and 85% of Whites “fringe MAGA.”

They don’t oppose voter ID because it’s unpopular. They oppose it because it works.

Time to nuke the filibuster and pass the SAVE Act.

[Mor Edge Insight @MorEdge_Insight]

Tik Tokker goes after Ilhan Omar, and it’s bloody brilliant

[Kevin Sorbo @ksorbs]

The *BEST* 3 minutes of preaching I have EVER seen

[Eric Daugherty @EricLDaugh]

🚨 BREAKING: In a STUNNING moment, CNN was just forced to report that Donald Trump has 100% MAGA APPROVAL

100%. WOW 🔥

The kicker? The share of voters who call themselves "MAGA" is the *SAME* as when he won in 2024!

"You don't have to be a GENIUS to know you can't go higher than 100%!"

"Some Republicans disapprove...but they are NOT members of the MAGA movement."

Q: But are people leaving MAGA?

CNN: "In November 2024, 28% were MAGA. It's basically the SAME, 30%!"

"The MAGA base is NOT SHRINKING — it's the SAME SIZE! If anything, it's slightly larger!"

"That 100% that Trump has among MAGA GOP, is NOT an artifact of MAGA shrinking. It's just how strong Trump's grip is on the MAGA base!"

[Eric Daugherty @EricLDaugh]

🚨 HOLY CRAP. Sen. Ted Cruz just MIC DROPPED every Democrat in the Senate who calls SAVE America Act voter ID "JIM CROW 2.0"

"I will ADMIT, our Democrat colleagues should be EXPERTS in Jim Crow, because it was Democrat politicians who passed the Jim Crow laws!" 🔥

"It was Democrat politicians who founded the Ku Klux Klan. It was Democrat politicians for decade after decade who enforced discrimination, separate but equal, poll taxes, and a host of other laws designed to prevent African Americans from voting."

"But do you know who has rejected their disingenuous claim that photo ID to vote is Jim Crow? The Supreme Court of the United States!"

THIS is why we need a talking filibuster for the SAVE America. DEMS HAVE NO ARGUMENT. 🇺🇸

[Wall Street Apes @WallStreetApes]

Texas resident speaks out against his town being taken over by Indians on Visas

“I'm a 27 year resident of Plano, Texas. Married my wife here 25 years ago, raised my kids through the Plano school system — I'm deeply concerned about the — rapid demographic shifts being fueled by what appears to be a systemic H-1B visa program fraud right here in North Texas”

“Sham companies registering single-family homes in residential neighborhoods, or listing unfinished empty businesses as corporate headquarters to sponsor hundreds of H-1B visas. This isn't just a federal immigration issue, it's a Plano issue”

“When independent journalists uncover fraud rings operating out of suburban living rooms, it compromises our safety, our property values, and the transparency of our business communities. These fraudulent staffing firms aren't bringing in the brightest and the best. They're running labor trafficking schemes that undercut the wages of hardworking Plano residents and displace qualified American professionals who call this city home.”