Big story yesterday: a rich guy, who engaged in a years-long scheme of fraud and international law breaking involving laundering money for drug running, child prostitution, terrorism, and Russian oligarchs, got off with a slap on the wrist. This rich guy is a crypto billionaire, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, the founder and former CEO of the Binance crypto exchange. You may recognize his name as the guy who, with a single tweet in November of 2022, brought down his fellow crypto zillionaire Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) and his crypto exchange, FTX.
Same here, Margo. I heard a big congressional Trump supporter on CNN tonight singing Trump's praises. He was actually very intelligent - was a lawyer (J.D. Vance?) and able to cleverly shift reality just enough to to convince himself (and any gullible listener) that Trump was an innocent victim, and was a good president. He said J6 was a riot and not Trump's fault as he told his supporters to protest peacefully (No mention that he also said for them to fight like hell or they wouldn't have a country anymore!) He said Mike Pence's life wasn't really in danger. The interviewer commented that is not what the Secret Service thought. She could have also mentioned the brave police literally sacrificed life and limb to protect Pence and everyone else there. We'll never know who would have died if they had failed.
I kinda regret the rioters didn't find and lynch a couple of (deserving?) congresspeople, it might have just maybe raised the awareness level among the new denialists as to what was really happening. But there weren't any high-profile casualties, unless you count the efforts to make Ashli Babbit the new Horst Wessel.
You nailed it, Kozmo. Not that anyone want's to see any more loss of life than there was, but that would have really brought home the seriousness of the whole thing. All they do right now is play it down. What a different story it would have been if a Dem president who claimed voter freaud tried to stay in power and got his supporters to rise up in revolt. Especially if they'd been mostly black.
Yes they tried to make a hero out of Ashli Babbit. But I saw a clip of her self taping her thoughts as she drove to the uprising. Evert word was pure venom. She was consummed with hate for Democrats. Well it got her killed and so many more jailed. All for Trump. He is to my mind completely resonsible for her death as well as many more. And that's not counting the hundreds of thousands of people who died of Covid because they wouldn't get the vaccinations - also the ones who were unaware of the danger because Trump for several months pl;ayed down the pandemic.
I don't understand Bitcoin at all, but its more comprehensible than Trump supporters. Everytime I see one of them interviewed I feel dumber. Faith is a dangerous drug.
Think "Crypto-Ponzi schemes" if you want to head straight for the worst kind of outcomes, that's a term John Reed Stark has used - and maybe scan this, for a dissenting defense of the potential benefits of some kind of crypto-currency access by the "unbanked," as soon as I saw the focus of this newsletter I figured it wouldn't hurt the discussion to inject this, despite by deep skepticism of having any "currencies" available with so little transparency and regulations:
The climate chaos cost of crypto disturbs me to no end. This energy intensive digital extension of the human enterprise, once perhaps symbiotic, has become parasitic and threatens to undermine the livability of Earth - the positive feedback for building ever more data centers and computing power and memory with the incentives of “making money” out of thin digital air is one of the latest chapters in the coevolution of humans and computers - Cold War paranoia, the surveillance state, pornography traffic, social media (dopamine hits for the masses), AI, microsecond stock trading, and crypto all demand more silicon-based computing which is draining the resources we need to address the global environmental crises. A few people get wildly rich, while the rest of us are distracted and numbed to the ecological and social decay all around us and we are suffering the accelerating consequences.
The only positive takeaway from this story is that it makes Trump look like the small time chiseler he is. He's not even smart enough to run with the big dogs.
So crypto and AI development are turning into new shells for international crime? Are they dealing in arms trafficking yet? This is like superhighways reserved for criminal use only. The new refuge of crony capitalism, always several steps ahead of law and the common good.
I can't decide if Bitcoin is just a old fashioned pyramid scheme dressed up in modern clothes or if there's really something there, but I'm inclined to the former. The punishment just shows again how the rich always skate by while poor blacks go to prison For Ever.
Un mother fucken believable! The world, and everything and everyone in it is fucked ,not a single thing is out of bounds ,if the cash is there have no fear ! Why even bother to teach the kids right from wrong ? The normality of the past is no more !fuck all the rules or presence of honesty ,just take ,take and take some more it doesn’t matter what you do or how you do it ! The whole concept of morality is up for bids to the one with the most dough ! No wonder we have an imbecile running for the Presidency AGAIN ! The whole concept of honor is a friggen joke ,the presence of the Jan 6 traitors sitting in Congress doesn’t cause an eyebrow to be raised,the Fucken Supreme Court is bought and sold ,no problem! We deserve whatever we have coming to us ! We have allowed it to happen for decades,the entire world has turned into a giant steaming pile of human shit !
“What makes for a thieving culture? An overabundance of pickpockets? Tsunamis of burglary and shoplifting?
Most definitely not. To truly gauge a society’s larcenous leanings, many of us would posit, we need to look beyond the nimble-fingered and focus more on the smooth-talkers, the power-suited flimflammers who thrive in any society where significant numbers of people feel a driving need to get rich quick.
The most recent example? Federal prosecutors last month charged the crypto currency CEO phenom Sam Bankman-Fried with committing “one of the biggest financial frauds in American history.” The 30-year-old billionaire, the Securities and Exchange Commission charges in a separate filing, built an immense financial empire on a “house of cards.”
The executive now trying to pick up those cards — the new CEO of Bankman-Fried’s FTX cryptocurrency exchange — says his predecessor simply engaged in “old-fashioned embezzlement,” not even stopping to bother with the “highly sophisticated” thieving of Enron’s fabled executive crooks a generation ago.
Right before Bankman-Fried’s brief appearance on America’s economic stage, the nation’s face of fraud belonged to Elizabeth Holmes, the founding CEO of the health-tech company Theranos.
Holmes raised some $900 million from a “star-studded” list of investors who ranged from media mogul Rupert Murdock to Henry Kissinger. Early in 2021, a federal jury convicted her of various frauds in what the Washington Post called “the most high-profile test of whether Silicon Valley’s ‘fake it until you make it’ ethos could withstand legal scrutiny.”
Keeping up with Crypto-larceny will require a whole new division in the Justice Dept . . . Fat chance any Repug adm. will do that to their donors.
There are two things I have no understanding of: anything Bitcoin, and Trump supporters.
(I sort of understand graft, so thanks for that.)
Same here, Margo. I heard a big congressional Trump supporter on CNN tonight singing Trump's praises. He was actually very intelligent - was a lawyer (J.D. Vance?) and able to cleverly shift reality just enough to to convince himself (and any gullible listener) that Trump was an innocent victim, and was a good president. He said J6 was a riot and not Trump's fault as he told his supporters to protest peacefully (No mention that he also said for them to fight like hell or they wouldn't have a country anymore!) He said Mike Pence's life wasn't really in danger. The interviewer commented that is not what the Secret Service thought. She could have also mentioned the brave police literally sacrificed life and limb to protect Pence and everyone else there. We'll never know who would have died if they had failed.
I kinda regret the rioters didn't find and lynch a couple of (deserving?) congresspeople, it might have just maybe raised the awareness level among the new denialists as to what was really happening. But there weren't any high-profile casualties, unless you count the efforts to make Ashli Babbit the new Horst Wessel.
You nailed it, Kozmo. Not that anyone want's to see any more loss of life than there was, but that would have really brought home the seriousness of the whole thing. All they do right now is play it down. What a different story it would have been if a Dem president who claimed voter freaud tried to stay in power and got his supporters to rise up in revolt. Especially if they'd been mostly black.
Yes they tried to make a hero out of Ashli Babbit. But I saw a clip of her self taping her thoughts as she drove to the uprising. Evert word was pure venom. She was consummed with hate for Democrats. Well it got her killed and so many more jailed. All for Trump. He is to my mind completely resonsible for her death as well as many more. And that's not counting the hundreds of thousands of people who died of Covid because they wouldn't get the vaccinations - also the ones who were unaware of the danger because Trump for several months pl;ayed down the pandemic.
And also contracted it.
Agree! I don't consider myself to be a stupid person, but I just can't wrap my head around this stuff. Have great respect for those who can
I don't understand Bitcoin at all, but its more comprehensible than Trump supporters. Everytime I see one of them interviewed I feel dumber. Faith is a dangerous drug.
It seems to be part Ponzi scheme, part old-fashioned scam promising free money and no taxes.
Think "Crypto-Ponzi schemes" if you want to head straight for the worst kind of outcomes, that's a term John Reed Stark has used - and maybe scan this, for a dissenting defense of the potential benefits of some kind of crypto-currency access by the "unbanked," as soon as I saw the focus of this newsletter I figured it wouldn't hurt the discussion to inject this, despite by deep skepticism of having any "currencies" available with so little transparency and regulations:
https://www.coindesk.com/consensus-magazine/2023/02/02/why-ex-sec-official-john-reed-stark-is-wrong-about-crypto/
I will also post the link above, as I mentioned Margo, you might want to just take a brief look at the outlines of the defender's "case"!
Fortunes buy privilege. One of which is immunity from justice. Did, does, will do.
The climate chaos cost of crypto disturbs me to no end. This energy intensive digital extension of the human enterprise, once perhaps symbiotic, has become parasitic and threatens to undermine the livability of Earth - the positive feedback for building ever more data centers and computing power and memory with the incentives of “making money” out of thin digital air is one of the latest chapters in the coevolution of humans and computers - Cold War paranoia, the surveillance state, pornography traffic, social media (dopamine hits for the masses), AI, microsecond stock trading, and crypto all demand more silicon-based computing which is draining the resources we need to address the global environmental crises. A few people get wildly rich, while the rest of us are distracted and numbed to the ecological and social decay all around us and we are suffering the accelerating consequences.
The only positive takeaway from this story is that it makes Trump look like the small time chiseler he is. He's not even smart enough to run with the big dogs.
Trump is way into this. Kushner’s, too. AXIOS is committed to crypto currency.
So crypto and AI development are turning into new shells for international crime? Are they dealing in arms trafficking yet? This is like superhighways reserved for criminal use only. The new refuge of crony capitalism, always several steps ahead of law and the common good.
Yes. https://financialcrimeacademy.org/cryptocurrency-money-laundering/
Follow. The. Money.
Always seems to lead to the same place.
Child trafficking. Gives me nightmares.
I can't decide if Bitcoin is just a old fashioned pyramid scheme dressed up in modern clothes or if there's really something there, but I'm inclined to the former. The punishment just shows again how the rich always skate by while poor blacks go to prison For Ever.
It's a money laundering enterprise.
Will it come clean?
Un mother fucken believable! The world, and everything and everyone in it is fucked ,not a single thing is out of bounds ,if the cash is there have no fear ! Why even bother to teach the kids right from wrong ? The normality of the past is no more !fuck all the rules or presence of honesty ,just take ,take and take some more it doesn’t matter what you do or how you do it ! The whole concept of morality is up for bids to the one with the most dough ! No wonder we have an imbecile running for the Presidency AGAIN ! The whole concept of honor is a friggen joke ,the presence of the Jan 6 traitors sitting in Congress doesn’t cause an eyebrow to be raised,the Fucken Supreme Court is bought and sold ,no problem! We deserve whatever we have coming to us ! We have allowed it to happen for decades,the entire world has turned into a giant steaming pile of human shit !
“The future ain’t what it used to be.” Y. Berra
Deja vu all over again. But remember, it aint over till it's over.
Somewhere, Bernie Madoff is thinking "why the fuck didn't I think of that?"
Perverted "capitalism" like this makes theoretical Marxism look pretty good by comparison.
https://ips-dc.org/must-larceny-always-overpower-honesty/
“What makes for a thieving culture? An overabundance of pickpockets? Tsunamis of burglary and shoplifting?
Most definitely not. To truly gauge a society’s larcenous leanings, many of us would posit, we need to look beyond the nimble-fingered and focus more on the smooth-talkers, the power-suited flimflammers who thrive in any society where significant numbers of people feel a driving need to get rich quick.
The most recent example? Federal prosecutors last month charged the crypto currency CEO phenom Sam Bankman-Fried with committing “one of the biggest financial frauds in American history.” The 30-year-old billionaire, the Securities and Exchange Commission charges in a separate filing, built an immense financial empire on a “house of cards.”
The executive now trying to pick up those cards — the new CEO of Bankman-Fried’s FTX cryptocurrency exchange — says his predecessor simply engaged in “old-fashioned embezzlement,” not even stopping to bother with the “highly sophisticated” thieving of Enron’s fabled executive crooks a generation ago.
Right before Bankman-Fried’s brief appearance on America’s economic stage, the nation’s face of fraud belonged to Elizabeth Holmes, the founding CEO of the health-tech company Theranos.
Holmes raised some $900 million from a “star-studded” list of investors who ranged from media mogul Rupert Murdock to Henry Kissinger. Early in 2021, a federal jury convicted her of various frauds in what the Washington Post called “the most high-profile test of whether Silicon Valley’s ‘fake it until you make it’ ethos could withstand legal scrutiny.”
Keeping up with Crypto-larceny will require a whole new division in the Justice Dept . . . Fat chance any Repug adm. will do that to their donors.
Humans can't quit attributing "super intelligent" with wealthy.😞🙄
A question: How is it that Lucian, and now we, know about all this? This is amazing.
Dammit. WTAF is DOJ doing about it? Rhetorical question...