I admit it. I am not a complete cynic. Like Don Quixote, I am tilting at windmills. The unfolding scandal and fraud surrounding the collapse of FTX, is not just some minor financial disaster. This is global and is going to ensnare many seemingly smart people who mistakenly believed that if you engaged in cyber currency transactions you could hide from law enforcement. Whoops!! They apparently did not take the time to understand block chain. The security of block chain will be their undoing.
I want to direct you to some articles that you should read if you want to understand the train wreck that is occurring with the bankruptcy of Bankman Fried’s crypto-currency trading platform.
First up is James Howard Kunstler. He gets you blood boiling and shows how this is connected to the Ukraine disaster:
Thirty-seven billion more dollars for Ukraine? (That’s thirty-seven thousand millions of dollars, by the way.) Bringing the total this year to a click-or-two over ninety billion (ninety-thousand millions), on top of whatever Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX company funneled through that sad-sack international money laundromat — soon to be the darkest backwater of a European failed state since Field Marshal Melchior von Hatzfeldt of Westphalia left Bohemia a corpse-strewn wasteland after the Battle of Jankau (1645).
It really doesn’t matter how much more money we pound down that rat-hole, you understand, because by the time various parties — the weapons-makers, Volodymyr Zelensky, sundry members of the US House of Representatives, the Biden family, the World Economic Forum — are finished creaming off their fair shares, poor Ukraine won’t have enough cash-on-hand to replace six fuse-boxes in Zaporizhzhia.
https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/a-smoldering-fuse/
Kunstler does an especially deft job of helping you understand the political and financial incest that is rampant in the United States:
The Bankman-Fried extended family is the quintessence of Woke aristocracy. Dad Joe Bankman and mom Barbara Fried are both law professors at Stanford. She also acted as a money-bundler for the Democratic Party and ran two non-profit “voter registration” orgs (against the IRS laws which only permit non-partisan organized voter registration). Brother Gabe Bankman-Fried headed a non-profit named Guarding Against Pandemics (funded by Sam), which lobbies Congress to construct new platforms for medical tyranny. Aunt Linda Fried is Dean of Columbia U’s Public Health school, and is associated with Johns Hopkins, which ran the October 2019 Event 201 pandemic drill (sponsored by the Gates Foundation) months before the Covid-19 outbreak.
Sam’s girlfriend, Caroline Ellison, ran the Alameda Investments arm of the FTX empire (that is, FTX’s own money laundromat). Her dad, Glenn Ellison, is chair of MIT’s Econ School. His former colleague on the MIT Econ faculty, Gary Gensler, who specialized in blockchains there, is now head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, an agency that Sam Bankman-Fried was attempting to rope into a regulation scheme to eliminate FTX’s crypto-currency competitors. Caroline’s mom, Sara Fisher Ellison, is an MIT econ prof specializing in the pharmaceutical industry (fancy that!). Caroline Ellison is currently on-the-run.
The sum total of all this professional and academic accomplishment is also the quintessence of Woke-Jacobin turpitude in service to a political faction that seeks maximum moneygrubbing while acting to overthrow every norm of behavior in the conduct of elections, and perhaps in American life generally. That’s some accomplishment. It’s also a lesson in why the managerial elite of our country are no longer trustworthy. They have gotten away with crimes against the nation for years, which has only made them bolder and more reckless.
As investigators unravel this web of corruption do not be surprised if Hillary and Bill Clinton, and some of their acolytes, emerge as key players in the deception and fraud.
You think that Bill Clinton hanging out with Samuel Bankman Fried is just a coincidence? If you believe that, please contact me. I have a great investment opportunity for you. Just give me two million dollars and I will change the world on your behalf (legal disclaimer — I am not specifying the specific world that I will change but it is highly likely it will be mine.)
Political Moonshine has been prolific in writing about the corrupt finance linking Washington political players and Ukraine. It has been going on for years. I encourage you to read two recent pieces. Warning, you are going down a rabbit hole. The Moonshine folks, in my view, would benefit from a savvy editor.
The first article, The Keystone of Corruption: Ukraine and the FTX Scandal, lists what it considers to be key facts about the corrupt activities of FTX:
- Tens of billions of U.S. dollars have been funneled to Ukraine
- The money was laundered through FTX
- The laundered money now in the form of FTX cryptocurrency was funneled back to Democrats and the Bidens
- All of that money is now gone and FTX is bankrupt
- FTX gave at least $40 million to Democrats in advance of the 2022 midterms
- FTX funded congressional campaigns for members overseeing the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), [oversees regulation of the cryptocurrency industry]
- FTX’s ex-CEO Sam Bankman-Fried aggressively lobbied the CFTC
- FTX is currently under investigation by the CFTC and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
- The investigation was opened after Bankman-Fried allegedly moved $10 billion in client assets at FTX to his trading firm Alameda Research
- A liquidity crisis at FTX caused the company to file for bankruptcy
- FTX is directly involved with and related to Ukraine
- In March, the Washington Post reported that Ukraine was dealing in cryptocurrency
- The Ukrainian government gathered more than $42 million in cryptocurrency donations
- Approximately a week after Ukraine gathered the cryptocurrency donations, FTX engaged with Ukraine
- Respective to the Russian invasion of Ukraine FTX/Sam Bankman-Fried formulated a cryptocurrency donation project in Ukraine
- Bankman-Fried announced that FTX would support the Ukrainian Ministry of Finance and other communities in collecting cryptocurrency donations for the nation
- The Ukrainian government has received over $60 million in cryptocurrency donations globally
- Bankman-Fried cited humanitarian aid and access to global financial infrastructure as causes
- Bankman-Fried indicated that cryptocurrency exchanges should enforce sanctions announced by the government
- Bankman-Fried was the #2 donor to the Democratic party; George Soros was #1
- The money laundering circle was: Democrats vote to send funds to Ukraine, Ukraine invests in FTX, FTX cryptocurrency was funneled back to the same Democrats
The follow up post, The Keystone of Corruption: Ukraine, the FTX Scandal, PrivatBank, the National Bank of Ukraine and Ihor Kolomoyskyi, hones in on Ihor Kolomoyskyi. Remember him? He reportedly funded the AZOV Battalion and he played a key role in putting Zelensky in the Presidential “palace” in Kiev.
One final but important data point in understanding the FTX implosion, at least according to the New York Post. Mr. ChangPeng Zhao, CEO of Binance. According to the New York Post:
Earlier this month, Coindesk published a report that Bankman-Fried’s investment firm Alameda Trading’s balance sheet was relying on FTX’s cryptocurrency token, known as FTT. Around this time, Zhao sold a massive trove of FTT, which ultimately triggered FTX’s bankruptcy.
“It’s not a coincidence he goes to the Middle East and comes back bankrupt,” the source speculated. “The trip created the unraveling of the fraud. There’s a direct causation between that marketing junket and Bankman-Fried’s downfall.”
https://nypost.com/2022/11/15/ftx-founder-sam-bankman-fried-triggered-downfall-by-badmouthing-crypto-rival-sources/
Since I am blessed to have an international community of smart people reading and commenting on my pieces, I am very interested to see what you have to say about this affair and eager to learn new insights you may have.
Scam Bankman-Fried confesses in a CNN interview that FTX was the crypto laundromat for Ukraine.
https://twitter.com/BobBish40288847/status/1591835076505264129
I wonder how many of the global elite got snared in the bankruptcy, and will we get to see their bankruptcy claims (Official Form 410)?
What do you bet Scholz, Macron, Truss, Johnson, Wallace, von der Leyen, Borrel, Michel … and ALL the rest of that crowd also had a finger in the pot? One additional reason to explain their enthusiasm for Ukraine …
Let’s not forget Sunak. He and Macron made a gushing call to Zelensky recently expressing their undying love and support. BFF’s.
Wondering if Dunak told Zelensky he must not negotiate with Putin (just as Johnson did in April).
Now that most of the lights are off and the gas supplies are interrupted desperate Ukrainians are being told to leave the country.
Everyone knows Russia will take the country very quickly.
The NATO plan is that Russia will be destroyed by an ongoing guerrilla insurgency that will last for years.
Like in Afghanistan.
Putin will fall. Western bankers will grab Russia’s resources (again).
Q.1.
Will Russia fall for the same thing twice?
Q.2.
What kind of people “care” for Ukrainians so much that they do this to it?
OUR LEADERS DON’T CARE ANOUT UKRAINIANS AT ALL.
AT ALL.
Doubtful that RF will take more than the Russian-speaking portions of Ukraine. That’s where the bulk of resources and industrial infrastructure are.
Agree with you. The West looks upon Ukraine as a nation of political leaders who were dumb enough, through greed and tribalistic hate of some, to take on Russia in a financial and military contest. To test its strength. Well we see now who is strong and who has failed. The West will slink away in defeat despite all its social media and MSM bullshit and leave a disaster zone for Europe to clean up. No cares whatsoever for the hundreds of thousands of dead military people on both sides nor for the innocent civilians caught in between. However once defeated NATO and the West should never be given the respect of a dominant power. A dominant power wins wars and reaps the benefits and that will be Russia China India SCO BRICS+. While still dangerous to smaller independent countries they also will see an alternative to the West and a better economic deal with SCO BRICS+ and their military forces. I hope this also leads to massive reform in NATO EU nations but I don’t see it happening without a US civil war on the scale of the 1860s. When you think of it, the seeds are sown now for such a class and moral war just like they were in the 1860s against slavery because it is serfdom and slavery we must again contend with in the NATO EU WEF constructs.
Reminds me of when they took Fredo out to Lake Tahoe.
It was Trudeau and Sunak and it was cringeworthy
Right!
He was with Trudeau not Macron.
Both nevertheless are utter nitwits. In Lebanon we have a saying translated to: two asses in the same pair of pants. In other words whether it was Trudeau or Macron – two asses with a similar message.
I don’t know off hand if the list of people you mention is getting a finger in the pot just quite yet. Maybe paid off like Obama after he left the White House with lectures, book deals, speeches, etc. But I would bet that they all knew about the scam at some level. Ukraine was simply the most active corrupt nation in Europe–it was no secret but not exposed to any great depth by the media.
There is one instance though. In 2015 Zelensky’s future patron Ihor Kolomoisky stole a $1.9 Billion loan from the IMF to Ukraine. In fact, later the IMF began to delay loan payments.
This was documented back in 2015 by the intrepid reporter Andrew Cockburn:
https://harpers.org/2015/08/undelivered-goods/
BTW reminds me to get Cockburns book “The Spoils of War: Power, Profit and the American War Machine”. I heard him in an interview where he claims NATO post Soviet expansion was due to defense companies and drive for profits. He named names and such things as executives forming “committees” to push expansion. To quote:
” Thus, as Cockburn witheringly reports, Washington expanded NATO to satisfy an arms manufacturer’s urgent financial requirements; the US Navy’s Pacific fleet deployments were for years dictated by a corrupt contractor who bribed high-ranking officers with cash and prostitutes; …”
defense companies and drive for profits – now replaced with COVID-1984 and pandemics
Here’s an account of the collapse by someone who actually knows what she’s writing about:
https://www.coppolacomment.com/2022/11/the-ftx-alameda-nexus.html
Considered the source, will skip the read. Put in the same skip box as WaPo’s and NYT’s investigative reports: “Did Ukraine really execute Russian POWs?” and “Whose missile really hit Poland?”
Bye Bye
She us not who you think, she is Brit banking and finance expert with a similar name. Ms. Coppola actually has an impressive resume, and is ethically and socially conservative in perspective. Her articles offer a deep dive in the financial and economic topics from a Nritish perspective with sound references and technical insights.
Who are you talking about?
What a bone-headed response!
I’m sorry to say that I’m convinced this sort of thing is ingrained in the Democratic machine.
Ever since HClinton’s porkbellygate (or what should have been porkbellygate sans the coverup), I’ve rarely been in doubt.
What was porkbellygate? Well, that’s when you’re a member of a trading pool run by a guy who wants to send you some kickbacks for a ‘favor’, past or present and this particular guy, whose made numerous trades during the day on the behalf of the investor ‘pool’, some winners and some losers, decides at the end of the day, during clearing, to assign more winning trades to a certain gal and more losing trades to the rest of the pool. It’s easy peasy, virtually untraceable with handwritten, loosely designated trade tickets and by CFTC rules highly ILLEGAL.
How do I know this? You sit in a NYMEX trade firm’s back office someday during end of day clearing, watching ticket assignments as they happen and the back office manager telling you, “See, this is how Hillary made her first kickback killing. Easy as pie. Except if I did it, I’d end up in jail.”
Believe me, believe me not. I couldn’t care less. I KNOW what happened. It was just too easy to pull off and too easy to get such a winning streak at the expense of her pool partners ….and just too easy too for the CFTC to have gone through every trade ticket, as they’re bound to do when called on, and for a statistician to assign the one in a million probability to such a winning streak within a pool. But no one did, did they?
Understood: What takes one’s breath is the statement:
…They have gotten away with crimes against the nation for years, which has only made them bolder and more reckless…
I spent a career automating the City of London financial institutions during the 1980’s ‘Big Bang’ by Thatcher, who was taking a leaf out of President Reagan’s remit. It was one seductive move, mimicking President Reagan to allow High/Main Street bankers to become risk takers again!
More Financial Products were produced in their time than I have had showers. These financial designs were allowing manipulation of all classes of trades.
Whether Reagan and Thatcher were naive, or doing as told, or both is only left to our imaginings… I know who I blame and for the same trick with all of the UK’s Government owned (for the benefit of the people) utility business sector…all owned by external nations investors – brilliantly foolish, like selling the family silver.
The rot is as permanent as we, the people , for as long as we allow it to be.
…Agreed! What takes one’s breath is the statement:
…They have gotten away with crimes against the nation for years, which has only made them bolder and more reckless…
I spent a career automating the City of London financial institutions during the 1980’s ‘Big Bang’ by Thatcher, who was taking a leaf out of President Reagan’s remit. It was one seductive move, mimicking President Reagan to allow High/Main Street bankers to become risk takers again!
More Financial Products were produced in their time than I have had showers. These financial designs were allowing manipulation of all classes of trades.
Whether Reagan and Thatcher were naive, or doing as told, or both is only left to our imaginings… I know who I blame and for the same trick with all of the UK’s Government owned (for the benefit of the people) utility business sector…all owned by external nations investors – brilliantly foolish, like selling the family silver.
The rot is as permanent as we, the people , for as long as we allow it to be.
That CNN clip sounds more like a whitewashing of Bankman-Fried than a confession of money-laundering on his part.
The new CBDC is worth tens of trillions of dollars if they can make it the world reserve currency. International Bankers are prepared to see half the people on the planet die as long as the win.
If you think this fight is over when Russia wins in Ukraine, think again. International Bankers have no allegiances except to their cabal.
I understand Tom Brady (Tampa Bay football quarterback) and his wife had a substantial investment in this (might this have something to do with the Brady’s divorce?).
Before, a week or so ago, I knew anything about this, I read a MSM headline that said, “thirty year old billionaire loses his fortune”. I said to myself, “nah, thirty year old billionaire loses other people’s fortunes”.
Bill,
The crypto disaster destroyed the Bradys. Really sad.
I feel sorry for the Brady’s, but if I had $640 million, it would go into a laddered portfolio of US Treasuries. Return OF principle, is far more important than “return ON principal”.
The money pile, would slowly diminish over time, the return certainly wouldn’t keep up with inflation (which is primarily escalating rents!), but fortunes are a great tool…only if preserved.
I started a 10 year career in the stock market with Lehman Brothers, but was far to honest and altruistic to be a success I sure learned a LOT about frauds! From Drexel, Burn-em and Lambast-em through Madoff and Worldcom, I’m reminded of a book, “Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds”. Tulip mania anyone?
Money is made in selling risk to the unwary, that and taking advantage of the system, as Steve Mnuchin did.
I’m an FDR guy (to his Left) and understand the context of his time and the constraints that imposed, the same way I understand the same with Lincoln.
History get’s more complex from there, going back much farther.
Will Scott REALLY never golf with you again?
If I had 640 million – lol – Id keep $100m and buy land and shelter for poor people somewhere.
Is this why he had to play another season? The semi official reason is she wanted him to quit. Maybe he can’t.
The Brady’s will be OK, they will still have more money than 99.9999% of the world’s population. And Tom will get high-paying gigs as coach or commentator or similar things.
I don’t feel sorry for the Bradys, or anyone else who “might” have been ruined in this crypto disaster. The financial system is so diseased that, at this point, there is no safe place to put money except in schemes that are openly and wantonly criminal. Look at Soros who put most of his billions into “his” activist charities and philanthropic political organizations like “Open Societies.” Or FTX which was a money laundering operation. All our institutions have been reorganized like this — healthcare, education, government, the works.
Larry,
Do you know that for sure? I think they would have got their initial investment for doing advertising for FTX. They only actually paid a couple million for their stake .. which as I think, woulda been covered by their advertising fee. I don’t know as a fact, just what I’ve read.
I put a caveat. Those are “facts” claimed by the Political Moonshine folks.
Excellent point. People like the Brady’s only make money; not lose money.
BANKMAN FRIED SON OF MADOFF. I don’t feel sorry for the Brady’s they put $640 million into FTX last Aug (they already had $37 million) — it paid 15% interest –which is impossible without a ponzi scheme or something else going on. Tom Brady and Gisele made all kinds of FTX ads for the super bowl and other media — Tom gushing that it was a company that was going to do new things for the world. Bankman made Gisele FTX Director of Climate and Social initiatives. They were 2 greedy dummies caught in the cross fire. They are being sued by FTX share holders for ensnaring people into buying ATX equity. Tom doesn’t need to worry he just signed a $500 million contract of some sort (unless the shareholders lawsuit wins). Bankman styled himself as the Jesus of the Woke Climate Hoax religion. He was anything but — routinely front running large customer orders (placing one of his own before theirs as he knew theirs would cause the price to spike then quickly selling his) and probably dealing in laundered Chinese money. And everything else under the sun – investing in all kinds of Ukraine military support companies. $400 million disappeared after the bankruptcy. His partner Wang who is invisible you can find nothing on him was “a college friend” whose $10 billion helped start the operation.
and probably dealing in laundered Chinese money
Wouldn’t it be nice if Russia and especially China could manage to get their hands on SBF? For example, hinted (without actual offer) that he would get asylum, then investigate and put on trial. Without vested interests of the western deep state.
Imagine what unexpected and interesting things might come out!
If you go through the claims register, all the claims to date are foreign countries with China at the top of the list.
If you defraud a country, I wonder how that country is going to feel about it? And if, because FTX was operating hand in glove with the Progressive Socialist Democrats, and hence the US Government, you just have to wonder if China is going to be any less or any more pissed off.
Now add all the hundreds of billions of dollars the US government confiscated and stole from Russia with its sanctions (primarily just another kind of fraud), and things really get interesting.
“Repayment? In kind? Sure. How about five (5) twenty-five megaton nukes, dropped on Washington, DC? Will that cover it?”
Lions and tigers and bears and dragons. Oh, my.
Russia put on trial
One of my long time fantasies has been Zuckerberg’s private jet has to make an emergency landing in Russia (not likely now) and he is put in a Siberian prison for tax evasion for 20 years. I am sure they could drum up something.
I bet all kinds of interesting paper work will turn up if Russia manages to ramp this up to a complete take over of Kiev — it is still possible ???
Sorry, but screw the Brady’s and those like them. If you have hundreds of $millions why on earth are you pursuing higher than normal return rates? You’re set for life and so are your heirs. Relax. Enjoy life. Going big into the impossible fantasy world of FTX and crypto was pure out of control greed of Greek tragedy proportions.
Exactly, this is a faithful saying:
the eyes of the greedy are never full
–>”why on earth are you pursuing higher than normal return rates?”
Probably because the money (say, $640 million) is meaningless to them. They didn’t “earn” it by the sweat of their brow in honest work–they were paid sums that are/were fictional, no different than a lottery windfall–or an inheritance. There isn’t anything about Brady’s pay package that is “normal.” How would he know what normal is?
That Brady had $640 million, in some reasonably liquid form, to pursue some income/wealth-making objective means he didn’t understand prudence in fiduciary matters. Such attitude or character reflects an “easy come, easy go” disposition–one prime to con in ventures such as FTX & SBF.
I agree. Their greed got the better of them. I hope they learn a lesson from it, but I doubt it very much.
If you want to destroy the competition make them less rich or ruin them, so far this century we have already had Madoff and FTX. Soon, and in the image and likeness of China, we will have the digital euro, and I assure you that for me, at that time, one euro of mine will be worth 1000 times less than that of the elites. Let’s see what will happen.
Doesn’t surprise me at all. Everybody in Ukraine knows about the Bidens’ shenanigans, Victoria Nuland’s role in Maidan, etc. Even the ones who thought Maidan was about something else sobered up quickly. It was never a doubt in my mind that industrial-grade money laundering goes on in Ukraine. Just look at the % of GDP of so many countries dumped into Ukraine, where the national wealth of many countries disappears into private pockets.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1303450/bilateral-aid-to-ukraine-in-a-percent-of-donor-gdp/
What took me by surprise was that the Democratic party as a “party” was laundering the election money in Ukraine vs. just private – it was super risky, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised seeing the uniformed “eagerness” with which Democrats were dumping money in Ukraine, but Republicans too, so it must be a combo of neocons getting private reimbursements for voting for money to Ukraine, and Democrats for the “party” and own pockets. Totally disgusting.
What I don’t get is why Senators/Congressmen/State Dept are not forced to sign a disclosure agreement against the criminal penalty if they don’t have personal conflicts of interest, like owning land or property in Ukraine. The US is being pushed into WWIII so some government bonanzas can protect its own parcel of land in Ukraine.
It’s not a bug. It’s a feature. Larry, I love you. Tilting at windmills indeed. I joined the Army. I believed. I cried at John Wayne movies. Then I grew up. You wake up at 50 and see shit you did in your mind that you hid because it was for your country. And you start reading about what ACTUALLY happened. And then the dark won’t go away. And you rage. You lose friends on Facebook cause you’re not “patriotic”. You give up and shut up. Then you happen to read some news, and you explode. They are fucking you dry in the wide-open empty spaces with movie quality lighting. And laughing about it. And you write Facebook and Twitter rants again. And you lose more friends. And you shut up again. And you play with your dog. And go for walks. And try to understand it does not matter. Because the natural state of man is slavery. If his government does not enslave him? He will create a religion. He will enslave himself in a relationship, or a belief, or a thought. ANYTHING to take away self-responsibility and more important happiness with the self. And then you start laughing at yourself. Because your belief or your non-belief are all as meaningless as the concept of Justice. “All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain… “
How familiar this seems from my youth and brief stint in our air force.
Now I don’t believe anything that my government and my country’s media says, about anything.
Are you talking about the Indian Government?
“All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain…”
Was it a line from Blade Runner? That stuck with me as well. I empathize with you, my friend. You’re not alone.
I too served in the military at a young age. This was right after Vietnam. Things were quite different back then. But as time moved on I took the red pill and saw what the USA has become. And it ain’t pretty. Years ago I was so disgusted with the whole farce that I dropped everything and moved south of the border. To a little place close to the beach in Mexico. Life is much simpler here.
I doubt there is any redemption to be found in America. Corruption exists everywhere, here in Mexico it’s no different. What is different is the level of corruption that exists in US (media, banks etc) with the government and all that serve her. I seriously doubt anyone else will be held accountable for this ponzi scheme. The usual suspects will just walk away, as always.
Larry, I too am a son of the revolution. My ancestors moved to this country in 1640’s. Can’t get much more original than that. However we are now witnessing the end of the west. How will it happen? There is no revolutionary spirit in America anymore, everyone is dumbed down so I don’t see change coming from inside the country. But we’re going to see change, either from a economic collapse or a military strike against the country.
There are giants fighting in the room, Russia/China vs the west. Best thing to do is stay out from underfoot.
A story we don’t tell enough of is Bacon’s Rebellion, how a few hundred men almost ejected the British from our country a hundred years before the American Revolution. I’m sure that’s deliberate.
Do not despair, the revolutionary spirit is alive in enough of us to light the spark. There shall always be a remnant.
Agree!! and its not just in the US– its here in Canada as well
What really mad Bacon mad to the point of action was he was’nt invited to upper class parties because they deemed him as beneath them.
Voting with your feet is a wide move – the best move any of us can these days
No place left to run to. The US used to be the least dirty shirt in the hopper. No more. The US shirt is covered in vomit. Eventually, you stand and fight. Or you die. Choose.
Thank you for being honest. US should have nationalized industrial military complex after world war 2. I do not k ow if we the people can fix it.
Sadly, I see so many ordinary people who don’t care about fixing it. They want to virtue signal, and they want the bread and circuses the government hands out like candy at Halloween. They are oblivious to the fact that what is taken away from them far exceeds what is given back, after the powers that be take their cut. They laugh and say that the politicians are crooks, but then they trust their entire lives to the political system. It’s frustrating as hell for those of us whose eyes are open.
At least you’ve awakened, and I presume you have yourself and contact with freedom loving/living people.
I think man’s natural state is the love of life and fear of death, and the choice we each have in pursuing one or the other at any moment in our life. Perhaps true slavery is of the mind, the belief that others know better than you how you should live your life. “Free your mind and your ass will follow” as the Funkadelics use to sing.
Wow!you have described my life to a tee.exept for the military thing,i did not get sucked into that,God bless the corrupt Richard Nixon.but somewhere in the back of my mind a voice was whispering to me “These bastards are going to destroy the World”.i have been buying gold and silver for the last 40 years,never selling it.in the last 14 years i have felt safe while the level of corruption has gone hockey stick on every graft,i mean graph.
We’re not finished yet, brother.
CN you not only have a way with words but convey a deep sentiment that experience brings to all of us … bless you.
Friends like that aren’t worth having. No loss.
Best regards.
Curt,
You described this old fool very well except I stayed away from Facebook and Twitter.
I see you brother. I know your pain.
I am having trouble getting my mind around the math, money printing and electronic zeros and ones……………
If the Dems and RINOs can print $92billion for the Ukraine out of thin air ….how much of this circled back thru SBF? …..and SBF gave the Dem election machine only $40million back????? That is only a kick-back of 0.04%?????
If SBF was worth $20billion – he cut himself a better deal?????
Where did the rest of the money go?????????
Anyways, if the Dems and RINOs can print $92billion from thin air for Ukraine, it seems like a no-brainer (different from the Biden-Fetterman 2024 ticket) to just print more to make SBF and his clients whole again and make it all go away………and even cut the Dem Election Machine a decent kickback of say 5%.
After all it is just paper and electronic zeros & ones.
I think the Dems should make Fetterman the Chief Investigator and he can explain to all of us in simple, understandable words!
Not all 92 billion went into FTX, probably just a few hundred million or a couple billion at most, this was just one of the many companies they use to launder money, most goes to the MIC companies which then give back to the political parties a few more hundred millions in donations or other kickbacks like FTX was doing.
And those 40 million are just what is documented officially for FTX this election cycle, they have other ways of funneling money which were probably happening too.
“This is global and is going to ensnare many seemingly smart people who mistakenly believed…”. Really? Just like in “The Big Short”, they will find a poor schmuck down the line who will bear the brunt of the wrath of all those beautiful people like Clinton. My personal happy ending would be to find a connection between this, the WEF and, why not, the Epstein legacy (or any other villain of your choice).
FTX had a big write-up on the WEF website. It was wiped when the news broke, but is still in the wayback archive.
Exactly right. GatewayPundit is reporting that Maxine Waters is leading the investigation into the scandal. The fix is . But don’t worry Patriots, Space Force has already dispatched a crack RRF team from there noon base lead by an unnamed benevolent grey. The truth is sure to be exposed! I’m giddy at the prospects of justice!
Humans are animals and animals are predictable. Give them enough rope….time and space plus greed…Interesting story…. crypto currency appeared out of nowhere and slowly garnered a following on the dark web transferring wealth around anonymously…then as it gained popularity it’s operating system platform was released anonymously on a file sharing site where it was snatched up by every major player…. suddenly this platform with code so complicated no one could ever uncode it.. is now opened up to every open and closed computer system….”mining bitcoins” is actually allowing the platform to use your computational power to perform work. The platform that tricked greedy man to give it unlimited computational power is AI btw….ability to foretell the future by calculating every possible variable to come up mathematical probability of every possible outcome via every computer on earth linked together in a giant hive mind.. I just hope the globalist scum hang themselves before we get “pale horsed”
What are the chances this cycle feeding $ back to the UNIPARTY IN THE USA was replicated in other countries in Europe and in Canada.
You have have encapsulated my thoughts far more eloquently than I can. Thank you.
The Fried Bank Robber will either be quietly pushed off to a comfortable exile in a country (or “country”) without an extradition treaty or more likely will suffer an unfortunate accident. As soon as that happens, the investigation will be dropped. And the American public’s nanosecond attention span will be quickly directed to something else anyway. I believe Melon Husk letting Trump back on Twitter is already consuming the anger and passion of half the American electorate while the other half is cheering it. Especially since the system has a vested interest in keeping the Fried Bank thief scandal under wraps – too much risk of political damage to the Bidet regime, the DayMockRatIck Party, and the Ukranazistan money laundromat – there will be no consequences for anybody, except of course for Bankfried Sam himself.
This is my point of view from this corner of the international community anyway.
I reckon one way or another he’s toast. I’m sure some more “conventional” organized criminals would have lost money on this scam as well, so if the CIA don’t whack him the mob will.
Every time I think that western society can’t degenrate any further…it does exactly that. We are beyond salvation and I have no doubt that complete collapse is (deservedly) looming for us.
I didn’t see Soros name mentioned in this article. He’s into this up to his neck.
Agree!! and its not just in the US– its here in Canada as well
Apparently SBF’s rival CZ has been using his crypto firm to bypass sanctions for Iran. So it is possible that Zone B might have had a hand in bringing down this sweet set up between the DNC and the Ukronazis. I cannot verify this, only what I came across recently.
Cold Fusion has a decent documentary out on this.
https://youtu.be/20BEJouWBgY
Interesting doc–but it does not talk about the pandemic fund run by a family member or the connections or Ukraine and Barisma. Still more to come.
This is nothing by a gigantic PONZI scheme, which has been illegal in US since beginning on 20th century.
//A Ponzi scheme (/ˈpɒnzi/, Italian: [ˈpontsi]) is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors//
See Larry above // The money laundering circle was: Democrats vote to send funds to Ukraine, Ukraine invests in FTX, FTX cryptocurrency was funneled back to the same Democrats//
Just apply the existing laws against financial frauds like this, and send to jail all the parties involved
Peter Schiff has been warning that crypto “banks” and exchanges are Ponzi schemes for years. They use crypto deposits as collateral to make risky investments to fund their expensive lifestyles. Schiff appeared in several on-line debates where he warned it’s a scam and called smug crypto kings con men to their face.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=schiff+peter+crypto+debate
As the current FTX scandal makes news, people are trying to withdraw their crypto from other exchanges. But these shady exchanges need to sell their investments and most lost money, so lots of depositor money is gone since the exchanges purchased no insurance. Schiff explains here how this problem will cascade into a massive scandal in which millions of fools lose their money.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J05ru8Vv9u0
Perhaps the scariest thing I’ve ever seen was the “South Park” cartoon that came up with “And it’s gone.”
Crypto is based upon something else that has absolutely no value at all — fiat currency. Crypto is based upon the USD, both are just one full faith and credit moment away from oblivion.
You base something on nothing, and you still got nothing. The average person doesn’t get this because they need to save for the day they can’t work anymore.
People like Soros, the Brady’s, our entrenched, elected for life, professional politicians have found another game they can play, and more “voters” that can be played.
Crypto is just another game they can play. When the dust settles on this FTX crap we will never know exactly how much dirty money was laundered and stuffed into which pocket.
The abject lesson to be learned by the rest of us: “And . . . it’s gone.” Making much interest on your old age pension? How about your savings account? Remember compounding interest? “And . . . it’s gone.”
“Just apply the existing laws against financial frauds like this, and send to jail all the parties involved”
That would require a DOJ and FBI which were not part of the same RICO.
Money laundering is also illegal … for you and me. I’m sure the Congress Critters have buried an exemption for themselves in the relevant laws.
I never understood why the local Ponzi game was illegal.
In Los Angeles, around 1980?, my now ex was in the film business doing distribution. We went to dinner one night with the boss and his wife.
The wife started yacking about this great pyramid money game and asked if we wanted to play. “Bring $100 cash to the meeting on a certain night at this persons house.”
Soooo…..we got the cash and showed up at the house and it was wall to wall people! Drinks flowing with tons of hundred dollar bills here and there and people moving up to the top making their thousand. Business cards were being exchanged, relationships formed, probably a few people met and fell in love. It was fun!
So we kept playing and found some friends to play. The house parties started popping up all over Los Angeles. Banks had a run on hundreds and fifties until finally the cops had an article posted in the Los Angeles Times declaring all the parties illegal! The article said people would be arrested if caught at any of these parties.
Anyhow, it came and it went and for me the money part was cool, but meeting so many new people and networking and talking was the best part. It was the ‘80’s variation of The Parlor Game!
It was a happening scene and got shut down. Not by any participants complaining, but by our overlords.
Tom Brady and the others I am certain had highly paid lawyers and accountants who steered their investments. How could it be that people of such high professional status were too freakin stoopit to do basic due diligence before giving green lights risking so many millions of dollars?
Somebody set me straight! Ha!
If you want someone to make a stupid investment just tell them that is what the smart money is doing
.
Is there—is there balm in Gilead?—tell me—tell me, I implore!”
Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”
Were toast
Personally, I’m for few lashes on the naked bum, given in the middle of a market square to start, and few guillotine executions on life TV, for people who continue to walk on the wrong paths.
I like Starship Troopers as much as the next nerd, but it’s just a book. A much better idea is to use such people to fix our crumbling infrastructure. A decade or two of working with his hands should put SBF back in touch with reality.
The Moonshine folks, in my view, would benefit from a savvy editor. — LJ
Perhaps, but… Who are The Moonshine folks, and how much stock do you put in their raw analysis? Having not read much of their work, where do you see the need for an editor?
One question answered… Yes, he needs an editor.
I bet that Old Haggis Pelosi is neck deep with her family in this. What a mess those running the USA have turned the country into. 🤦♂️
… and some Russian engineering work
// Repair of the Crimean Bridge: Status of Work as of 19 November 2022⚡️
Work is actively continuing on the Kerch Strait Bridge to repair the aftermath of the 8 October terrorist attack which destroyed four spans of the road bridge crossing and damaged the structures of two spans of the railway section.
▪️ Rehabilitation is ahead of schedule. The third and fourth spans of the road bridge have been overhung and the structures are being assembled to their designed position.
▪️ The first and second spans have already been installed. Final works are underway to install the expansion joints between the bridge structures. Once this is complete, the pavement will be repaired: two layers of asphalt concrete will be laid over the already prepared waterproofing.
▪️ Full restoration of the storm drainage system, cable structures, lighting and other engineering systems of the damaged section will be carried out after the opening of traffic.
The preservation of production links and the availability of a prepared industrial base made it possible to more than halve the originally planned timeframe for rebuilding the structure.
It is planned to open the traffic on the repaired road part of the bridge by 20 December. //
Well, OK. So they can repair a bridge ten times faster than we can.
BUT, they’ve run out of missiles and the production lines have ground to a stop.
And Maxine Waters will have this FTX thing figured out and the perpetrators hunted down like rabid dogs in no time.
In case your comments aren’t sarcasm. No they haven’t run out of missiles– you clearly aren’t reading Larry correctly (or do you care?) Maxine 🤣🤣
Guess next time I’ll do a blah blah blah
Yes, it was sarcasm, prob. not well executed. So is ‘Waters under the bridge’. (or maybe just a wishful thought).
As always very interesting and timely report by A Son of the American Revolution website. Thanks. First impression: by looking at the pic#1 where this young drug/video games addict called Shmu’el Bankman Fried, sitting beside Bill Clinton and Tony Blair, it becomes apparent that he’s just a marginal patsy, hence better call him Bankman Fried Chicken. Those big players behind this massive financial incest involving the US / Ukraine governments and their officials are now getting ready to theoretically investigate the case and move forward to the next stage. The poor useful idiot IBF will be given a small jail (hotel) term and after release – now with more realistic experiences in his curriculum vitae – is ready for a future Presidential financial / technology advisory job. Of course that’s if he maintains his membership in the club and if not (very unlikely) must be quickly kicked out. I remember just about a few months ago watching a documentary (in Farsi) on the Iran International News channel about this young guy as one the best success stories of America’s young entrepreneurs of today. In the documentary, SBF was shown a very humble simple down to earth person carrying a whole bunch of $100 bills in his pocket ready to give one to anybody who asks for it.
The Russians keep boomeranging it back.
The US, UK, NATO, AUKUS, Oinkus – whatever the neocon warmongering insatiable elite pigs who pretend to represent the West call themselves – need to quit while they are ahead.
“Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed the creation of an international gas hub in Türkiye, which would allow Russia to redirect transit away from the damaged Nord Stream gas pipelines to the Black Sea region.
The proposal was welcomed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who outlined that the EU would be able to make purchases of Russian gas via his country.”
https://www.rt.com/business/566617-turkiye-gas-hub-roadmap/
I doubt anyone will dare mess with Turkstream. You can slap Scholz around all day long and the next day he’ll just ask for more but the Turks? Might as well insult a Chechen to his face.
If Mr. Johnson does not mind; would like get a little biblical here.
In the bible in revelation 18 ; it talks about mystery babylon. this is essentially an empire of merchants that run the world ie. blackrock , vanguard, ibm, etc and tell the politicians what to do by bribes ie. FTX , blackmail ie. epstein and assasination ie. JFK.
it is prophesied in revelation 18 that this merchant empire would fall apart in 1 day which in biblical terms means a short period of time. I pray that as per Mr. Johnsons article about the FTX blowout that this is the beginning of this.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%2018&version=KJV
18 And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.
2 And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.
3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
6 Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.
7 How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.
8 Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.
9 And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
11 And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more:
Also the people of the earth would be deceived by sorceries which means by pharmakeia which are drugs ie. big pharma drugs especially mood altering meds , vacs and the street drugs heroin, cocaine , breaking bad meth etc.
23 And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.
i heard a podcast comparing that in his opinion the USA today is run by disciples of trotsky to the russia of the the early 50`s when it was run by stalinism. The podcaster said the only hope to a better future for the USA is to have the same rapid decline and collapse of russia from 1989 to 1991 which with the regime unable to pay its minions would then in time with better leadership if they come out of the woodwork to rebuild from the ashes again.
Another commenter said that in this world there are 2 types of men warriors and merchants.
The merchants who are in control of the world for the most part only care about money and will do whatever it takes to obtain it even if it means the death of millions. In the end their greed and hubris which knows no bounds becomes their undoing as they do not have a stop buttom but can only keep going until their entire house of cards falls apart around them.
The warriors do not care for these things. They care about women. What i mean about this is that they care about protecting their families, children , communities , posterity and homeland against those whom will destroy it and will do whatever it takes to maintain a society based on sound christian 10 commandment principles whether they are church going or not. . Greedy profit means nothing to them . In the end the warriors always win.
even with the hollywood cliches; this movie is the best one out there to explain the warriors vs the merchants.
The Last Samurai (2003)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0325710/
Is ‘The Last Samurai’ based on a real event?
Although no attempt at historical accuracy is made, the story was inspired by several real events. The basic story, that of a samurai rebellion against the Imperial Japanese government, was inspired by the 1877 Satsuma Rebellion during which samurai in the Satsuma domain in Tokugawa Japan revolted against the new Meiji government. Algren’s involvement was inspired by stories of Jules Brunet, a French army captain who fought alongside the Tokugawas in the earlier Boshin War (1868-1869).
real life is usually more interesting than fiction
https://allthatsinteresting.com/last-samurai-true-story-jules-brunet
https://www.bitchute.com/video/N6BZJ3O8fCxR/
i think it is time for the God fearing warriors to come out of the closet again and they did 250 yrs ago and take their rightful place in putting the usa back together again. When this evil babylonian system falls which i believe is happening as we speak this will be the time for this. As we all know from the stolen elections on Nov 8th their is no political solution .
It is time for us to repent to almighty God of our shortcomings and prepare to take steps to put this country back together again after this system finally falls as is predicted in revelation 18 in my opinion.
2 good chapters to read is psalms 91 kjv and psalms 149.
In world war 1 there was a regiment which read psalms 91 every day before they went into battle and suffered miminal casulties.
If Mrl Johnson does not mind would like to put a clown world at the end of my posts.
here is this one. it is pretty funny.
Fired Twitter Employee Applies For First Real Job – Babylon Bee (Hilarious) 🤣🤣🤣
https://www.bitchute.com/video/0yrKics5kpGY/
right click and save
https://www.bitchute.com/embed/0yrKics5kpGY/
regards,
ralph
The 2020 Election fraud demonstrated clearly that the USA has become corrupt from the top down and across – corrupt congressmen, corrupt media, corrupt courts (both federal and state), corrupt state organisations, a corrupt set of intelligence agencies including the CIA and the FBI as well as the Justice Department, the State Department and the Treasury with their Israeli connections and illegally targeted sanctions policy attempting to enslave the world, the MIC which has spread throughout the States keeping them in economic bondage (just as Eisenhower predicted in a moment of honesty), a deeply corrupt medical industry positioning itself for ultimate power in the world, corrupt transnational corporations growing in power throughout the world, a deeply corrupt set of Western political systems based on the concept of “democracy” – the most over-rated political and cynical system ever conceived – hugely powerful lobbying groups infecting all Western democracies and the list goes on, and on and on.
Anyone who foolishly believes that the Western world is capable or even deserving of reform is simply naive. You can’t vote these people out – they own the voting booths, the courts, the media.
America from its inception was an empire in the making, destroying wherever it expanded and raping people of their resources and living high on the backs of their victims first on the continent and then across the world as they expanded. Since the Revolutionary War, Americans have never fought for their country – they have unwittingly fought for the powerful elite running the country under the banner of a monstrous hypocritical concept of patriotism and a callous call to “defend our country” when in fact they were all the while engineering those wars and privately funding the “dictators” they fought against.
I’m fed up – 100%. Fuck the USA. Fuck the UK. Fuck Europe. Fuck Australia and New Zealand. And especially fuck the bankers. I hope they all burn in hell for the misery they have caused this world over the centuries.
Excellent commentary. Also Canada under his excellency Justin Trudeau of the WEF rule is an active member of the racket.
And then back on the continent as they robbed their own citiz…er…subjects.
It was interesting how when Biden was running for President from his basement bunker in Delaware, he was saying how MBS should burn in Hell for the way he took Khashoggi and had him cut into small chunks.
Now the Biden Justice Department has given MBS “amnesty”!
But Biden says, “I didn’t give him amnesty! The Justice Department gave him amnesty”!
Seems the Biden administration is seriously concerned about Saudi Arabia dumping the dollar as reserve currency and joining BRICS with Russia and China and creating a new currency.
Guess Biden had to give MBS something to keep him in the US camp. Wonder if it will work?
Soros is a Jew, Zelensky is a Jew, Kolomoyskyi is a Jew. Is it antisemitic and evil to ask the question whether Bankman-Fried is a Native American or an Indian? Hmm….
What’s all the noise about? It took em forty years or so of hard, treasonous work, but the Democratic Party now serves the interests of the neo-liberal globalists better than the Republicans do, that’s just the way it is.
Get used to it.
I almost feel sorry for the GOP. What are they gonna do going forward? Become a workers party? A party of the people? I would suggest that’s the last thing they will do. In fact, I would bet my life they will do everything in their power to regain the postion they’ve held for so long (all my life really), as the preferred Lap Dogs of the Davos crowd, the Bilderberger crowd, the party of global laissez faire, the party that openly boasts that its primary mission is to make the United States of America so irrelevant it can be “drowned in a bathtub”should the need arise.
This crypto-scam, is petty larceny, compared to what’s going on with those that control the printing presses.
If you are unwilling to take on the global banking cartel, which has monopoly control* over the most important resource there is on this planet, money creation, then you are just making noise.
Oh, and by the way, the Dow closed the weekend at 33,745.69, which is just off its all-time high. The system, as it was designed and voted on by the American people, is working PERFECTLY.
*As always, it is here that I point out that there is an exeception. China’s banks work for China, and China only, and in my opinion, public banking, or what I call, Banking for Patriots, is the main reasons their middle-class is now twice as large as the population of the United States.
And its growing at China speed.
Another goody, Larry. Enjoying my edification for the day.
Spot-the Woke con artist, then connect the dots.
1. “T” shirt
2. I’m so cool I smile a lot and wanna be like Jobs.
3. I talk with my hands above my tits: my only talent is BS and snake oil.
4. I steal other peoples money and do drugs.
5. I associate with older men who do a hell of a lot more weird stuff than me.
6. Fraud and huge donations R’us.
7. Get out of jail card, collect another $50 million, rinse and repeat.
The Wests destruction has to be coordinated and controlled by a force not of this world.
As I look out of my study window at my tranquil garden in full bloom and the rain gently falls, I wonder, “ is it me or is it the rest of the world?”
There are “beings” on this Earth at present way way more powerful than those who are desperately clinging on to power. They affect events solely with their presence here and whose main mission involves bringing down the House while waking up humanity from eons of slumber and servitude.
Yeah? And who are these people? If you don’t mind me asking. And if you do mind then “troll on.”
I have come to the conclusion that the morning I wake up, go on the internet, and there are no commercials — not one — then things have finally gotten serious. How serious, and in what direction, is worth sticking around for. My vote is with the bad moon that is rising. But these days moons, like everything else, are rigged.
Thanks.
Gotta be better than our reality: persistent, repetitive cycles of war, fraud and lies. Every Western government does the above then corrupts and destroys the poor nations.
Remember the hands everyone…the hands.
Once you see the truth, it’s up there above their tits waving and imploring. Even on YouTube they lift their hands up above the eyeballs just to get the hands in camera view. The 3 peas shell game….you are watching the hands, always the con- perSON’s hands.
Sing along folks……….
Fuck’ um all, the long and tall and short.
Fuck all the generals and their bleeding sons,
Fuck all the politicians and their silly whore’s.
Yes I’m just singing goodbye to um all.
It’ll make you feel better forsure
So just sing along
And fuck’um all.
(Reference : adaptation of a rude song sung by the British army in the WW2)
sounds like you are describing the ghost dancers – hoped for to resolve the collapse of a proud and ancient people whose traditions and culture were exterminated.
“This is global and is going to ensnare many seemingly smart people who mistakenly believed that if you engaged in cyber currency transactions you could hide from law enforcement. Whoops!! They apparently did not take the time to understand block chain. The security of block chain will be their undoing.”
Yes we the people do hold these truths to be self-evident and increasingly so since after the Tet Offensive when a politician ordered Mr. Giap to over-entend, which some interpreted as “god” blessed “America”.
However your audience and even yourself appear to still be enmazed to varying degrees in unicausality and or prime/sole causation, which will aid obfuscation of lateral causalities, which is likely the aim of some who believe this process could be an offramp which you characterise, in the analysis of some cavalierly as “MAY HAVE STARTED THE DEMOLITION OF THE DEEP STATE” without postulating other hypotheses to test, including but not limited to, “The deep state” making a revolution around a fixed point in hope of affecting mutation not demolition, another episode of the good guys in the white hats coming to the rescue so need need of systemic change, in emulation of Mr. Gorbachev and his benighted associates between 1985 to 1991.
Where is the part stating “unicausality? or prime/sole causation”. What big action–politically, financially, socially in the world today is due to a linear cause? None– everything and everyone is connected. eg? I can hardly wait for the Province of Ontario to start teacher layoffs due to pension plan loses. Where are the auditors and regulators examining large institutional investments? Interesting.
Everything is connected-especially greed, corruption and incompetence.
“Where is the part stating “unicausality? or prime/sole causation”.”
In the framing “samuel-bankman-fried-may-have-started”
“What big action–politically, financially, socially in the world today is due to a linear cause?”
The continuing useful foolery of “The United States of America” as a function of their attempts to remain within modulated linear paradigms (reformed status quos), given that lateral change is a constant whose variables include, but are not limited, to trajectories and velocities.
“everything and everyone is connected.”
Agreed and hence classification and other forms of segmentation is an obfuscation, and the extensive reliance of linear logic throughout “the culture “, which by using the definite article instead of the indefinitive article a, is to suggest subliminally to some that “there is no alternative”, is often by design to circumvent understanding and implementing lateral logic in some cultures in transcendence of other cultures reliant on linear logic.
This facilitates other lateral components interacting with what Mr. Samuel Bankman Fried may have “started” as a consequence of previous lateral interactions.
The above is consequently a previous lateral interaction given that lateral change is a constant, as was yours.
Thanks for your interaction whose framing illustrates that which many in some cultures do not reflect, and hence why some others are engaged imperfectly improving in co-operative endeavours from each according to her/his abilities, to each according to her/needs as vectors to transcend the coercive social relations of those enmazed in the linear modulated paradigms in hope of their continuance, in part by using methods based on self-projections – sometimes known as Mirror Gazers, whilst in this interaction Mirror Gazers are used as a designation for filing purposes – a segmentation in emulation of others who attempt to use pseudonyms to obfuscate “their identity”.
Sorry for the stupid question, but what will happen now? A bank is bankrupt. Ok. Will this mean that the democratic party has no more money? Will this mean that politicians will end up in jail?
If money is the sword of the rich, who can now attack when they are defenceless?
Why do people obey people that are old and weak?
Roland, your question is valid, no doubt, please consult this 1549 piece of writing by one Étienne de La Boétie: »Discourse on Voluntary Servitude«, a classic (another one, of course, that did not change anything …
Tu respuesta maravillosa es una bomba en toda regla.
Always a certain tribe behind every financial scam in modern history. Calling them “Ponzi Schemes” is just another veiled attempt to try and deflect who the true culprits are.
I have two telling tweets for you:
https://nitter.it/loffredojeremy/status/1593115059819274240#m
https://nitter.it/kylenabecker/status/1592595172709527552#m
@FenderGibson “Esattamundo!”, as a famous 70s-80s TV series personality would once say!!! As I alwaysdeclare, they never should have been let out of the ghettoes. Our ancestors knew them to the T!
Sadly, you nail it.
JMHO
Watching all the Deep State suffering would be as fun as watching the most important scene of the movie Trading Places when the Dukes lost their fortune.
Now its more clear and obvious why they need to make legal the money they grabbed from Russia under the pretext of Holy Sacred Sanctions (300 billions). Good to pay attention all those 94 countries that voted recently on that UNGA Resolution to oblige to pay Russia war reparations for Ukraine.
Im ignorant about blockchain, but one thing I got clear about digital money: any government with enough power (well paid hackers) can rob it you from your pc/smartphone (unless you use a physical, long and tiredsome wallet for your bitcoins), you screw up by no saving the digital currency/bitcoin properly and the money is gone for good.
And finally I never trusted digital currency except to make/receive small payments quickly converted to normal currency, but NEVER to store my life savings.
This whole thing of crypto currency, specially bitcoin seems to be made by some very powerful group of people under the disguise of “Satoshi Nakamoto”.
“Elizabeth Holmes sentenced to more than 11 years in prison for Theranos fraud” (Reuters, November 19, 2022)
In addition to criminal proclivities, Ms Holmes shares with Mr Bankman Fried a privileged background:
“Her father, Christian Rasmus Holmes IV, was a vice president at Enron, an energy company that later went bankrupt after an accounting fraud scandal. Her mother, Noel Anne (née Daoust), worked as a Congressional committee staffer …”
Anybody still insisting in calling these bright young things just innocent patsies?
Elizabeth Holmes screwed old, elderly Deep State operatives like George Schultz out of their money. In 2011 she convinced Army generals that her “methods” were viable on the battlefield, attracting more case, KNOWING her methods were garbage. Ya know, there are people you don’t screw. And so she’s gonna pay the price. Thankfully. It might take ten years for the reins of power to catch up with SBF, or maybe never. Depends on who he screwed. Screwing Tom Brady and his ex, no big deal. But Hillary and the Democrats and their bounty in all this through the NGOs, SBF feeding them the last 2 years will possibly be a bigger deal. I’m guessing they’ll cover this all up and go on, given the connections that run through this thing and the people involved, enough said about THAT.
The folks doing the screwing vs. the folks being screwed has much to do in the outcome. I’m not holding my breath that SBF pays for all this because of all the underlying connections it would uncover. I’ll be curious what her Indian CFO/CEO boyfriend gets in all this. I hope they send him to face the lions in penitentiary too. Meanwhile there is little of this in MSM that Americans are aware of. So easy to cover up things in the U.S. media because they are ALL complicit. And our people so ignorant and our government so corrupt.
Blackrock & some other big name funds were “invested” in FTX.
And why is Sen. Cory Booker pleading for leniency in her sentencing?
Just cause she’s knocked up?!
Things just keep getting curiouser and curiouser.
https://freebeacon.com/democrats/booker-implores-judge-to-give-theranos-fraudster-holmes-a-fair-sentence/amp/
Let the baby be born and raised in prison.
Was it a pregnancy of convenience? Just like escaping deployment…
Enron was cooking the books to hide a massive loss on natgas futures positions, as well as exploiting poorly crafted state deregulation, leading to that electricity manipulation thing it had with California. Too smart and greedy for their own good, they were.
Anyway, if I were an interested investor in Theranos and saw the family connection with Enron, I’d have run the other way fast. At the very least, made sure that black box of theirs actually worked. But better to not touch it at all. Unbelievable what people will fall for.
Wow the uniparty sure knows how to do kickbacks!I Now build back better has so much slush funds pork that the Democommies can buy votes for the next 200 years!
I’m pretty sure that Sam Bankman-Fried’s Very Big Adventure didn’t cost the Clinton’s any money or entangle them in any way.
I mean, let’s face it, he hasn’t “committed suicide” yet.
QED.
The young man cannot be the brains behind the scam, one doesn’t get the impression of much behind the odd speech pattern, there’s nothing he says that would suggest him capable of devising the schemes, there must be someone else that put it together.
You don’t have to understand all that much to perceive cracks in a system to exploit.. The young are better at this kind of endeavor by way of ignorance they perceive the exploitable which contrast to the larger framework they have a sense for the new and the possibilities in newness and focus their efforts there…
Thousands of ignorant youths will spend countless years of effort to discover one exploit the one exploit that will make just a few of them famous and wealthy,… These few who strike success in an exploit are the only ones you will ever know about and so your perception is distorted by the greatly imbalanced outcome..
Age wisdom and even intelligence can be a hinderance in such pursuits as such attributes often inhibit choices to pursue foolish endeavors and Its foolish impulsive pursuits that strike at treasures hidden to wiser minds…
You mean like Zuckerberg?, same “not much behind the …” Well we know who bankrolled Facebook– probably the same crew in action here. PLUS SBF had a “silent” partner who bankrolled him $10b.
Public way too stupid and getting dumber to make deep state pay. The whole USG is like any big city was corrupted for decades with no changes. I don’t expect it to change until collapse makes people pay attention.
More and more i believe that we in thw Western countries need to make changes to the law.
Corruption while holding a public servant job of any type needs to be punished in the most severed way.
The penalty should be equal to the one for premeditated murder.
Minimum sentence 40 years in jail, no parole possible and always in maximum security facilities.
Hear, hear.
Unfortunately, the corrupt make the laws
Here’s a more detailed account by analyst Scott Hill. Comes in 3 parts
This is part I
https://bombthrower.com/wtf-happened-with-ftx-part-1-of-3/
Thanks for posting this.
Government is a necessary evil; big government is an unnecessary evil.
Larry, thank you for another excellent work of insight to illuminate that which does not want to be seen.
Crypto currency is designed for invisible trails of money exchange.
For those of us who toiled in the literature to try and understand what it is, and we were unable to understand it, we kept away from it and anticipated that there would be an accounting of some sort, eventually, for the fraud by the men hidden by the curtain, at the end of the yellow brick road.
When Apple Computer’s CEO was asked if he would allow crypto currency payment for Apple products and services, Tim Cook quipped NO! That was all you needed to know. When the CEO of the world’s most successful consumer electronics company puts up a barrier to Crypto, you were on notice to stay away from it presently.
Larry, you have opened a small hole for us to peak into a vast cavern of dark behavior, involving greed, drug murder, sex slavery, power, and destruction of the morality gifted to us from the Heavens above. Please continue your work.
Please consider using your brain to continue to document this web of dark behavior for future generations to refer to.
It is time for you to author a book illuminating the dark behind the world of crypto trading. You are the right person with the skill set to thoroughly shine light upon this dark.
Wherever there exists a large pile of money, there will be a large supply of men and women who wish to steal it, and those men and women come from all origins, not just one tribe as Peppe sadly infers.
God may have given us room to work with a GOP controlled House to slow down the rape of our Nation’s Treasure and to launch investigations for visibility, maybe even criminal indictment referrals to Attorneys General in various States to pursue. No coincidence that that the FTX rupture coincides with 2022 election day. This will slow down the creep of destruction of our Republic, but it is up to ordinary people to push back in a rational and steady voice against the harm creeping over our blessed nation.
My loving, kind deceased wife would frequently say, “Somehow, the real evil people orchestrating the bad behavior will almost never be put behind bars.” While she seems to have been right, most of us hope for new strong, courageous leadership to replace the evil leadership which ubiquitously permeates our nation and culture, in our schools, governments, spiritual houses, etc.
But there is always the next world for God’s Justice to be seen. We may not see any of the world’s evil men pay the price. They may be lauded until they take their last breath. The saving grace for us to hope for is His Mercy here, and His Justice after.
Hi Larry, I watched a video recently that had Scott Ritter and Ray McGovern discussing problems with domestic politics. One thing that surprised me was that Ray mentioned that some 80% of their information at the time was drawn from open sources like newspapers and magazines, is that still the case?
Pepe Escobar’s latest article https://thesaker.is/goodbye-g20-hello-brics/ points at the unbelievably rapid demise of old world power institutions (US, EU, G7, G20) and the emergence of newly empowered institutions like BRICS+ which is based on a joined effort of all these sovereign nations to create a financial stepping stone outside the Dollar, the global unilateral enabler of Hegemonic financial evil. As soon as this financial stepping stone (based on an enhanced gold standard) will factually come to exist, China will – I expect – quickly get rid of its vast collections of US Dollar bonds, before they lose value as the FTX collapse has shown in the Bitcoin.
In the meantime Russia, China and the rest of BRICS+ will continue to do business (: i.e. industrial ‘hardware’ trade) with each other, based on the new, clean, enhanced gold standard, which is meant to be the safe alternative currency that is immune to the flaws of the Dollar & Euro. What will happen to the Dollar & Euro, as soon as real commodities like oil & gas + real commodities like industrial products are being traded in a currency that is opposed to the financial faking of the collective West? My guess is that the bitcoin implosion we are witnessing now, will soon be followed up by a Dollar & Euro implosion (perhaps not so sudden as the disappearance of the Bitcoin), plunging ‘the collective West’ into its self-created financial rat hole of uncontrollable hyperinflation.
jewish?
Was it just demoncrats that got the kickbacks? Were there some select Republicans getting the secret money also? As payback for voting to send money to Ukraine? Much of which returned to the MIC? As payback for being exceptionally pathologically opposed to Putin and Russia?
Indiana RINO Senator Todd Young has been virulently opposed to Putin and Russia. His statements on the war and Russia have been filed with outright lies. He has co-sponsored legislation to investigate Russian “war crimes”. Is he getting some of this kickback as payback? Not accusing, just asking.
It is bad enough that gold and silver are not used as currency.
It is bad enough that our currency is painted paper with no rational value but hope.
This habit of painted paper as currency, if my memory serves me right, was started thousands of years ago by a Chinese emperor that soon realized he could print “money” with the abandon of a retard and soon destroyed the economy of his empire by inflation.
But using as currency a digital annotation in somebody else’s computer that you’ll never know where it is on the planet, that you have no way of knowing about the moral and political reliability of its environment and that can simply be wiped out of your reach by something as simple as a power outage . . . seems a tad stupid.
And sinking millions of Dollars in such a scheme . . . doesn’t seem sane.
I would not put a cent on digital currency, crypto or decrypto.
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On another but related matter: never expect leftoxenomorphs to obey the laws they expect YOU and all the rest of us, non-leftoxenomorphs, to obey or else.
If it wasn’t for double standards leftoxenomorphs would have no standards, at all.
They’ll want to put you in jail for wrongthink or missing a cent of what they decide you “owe” them.
Them? They are impervious to moral judgment due to their religion of leftoxenomorphism.
If you are a leftoxenomorph you can do no wrong.
On the other hand, if you are a heathen non-leftoxenomorph . . . well . . . you can do no right.
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The leftoxenomorph powers that be will try and cover, delay investigation and obfuscate this matter to the best of their abilities and resources that are considerable as they will try to cover, delay investigation and obfuscate all of their considerable corruption.
One of the reasons of the Ukraine adventure is to cover the bideT family’s corrupt mafia dealings there since the times of obozo the magic kenyan.
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The leftoxenomorphs justify their obvious corruption in mystical terms although they would deny this indignantly.
But what used to be justified in the name of one god or another is today justified by leftoxenomorphs in the name of social justice and all their pantheon of lesser idols down to Saint Floyd of the Fentanyl. But the idea is still mystical and in the name of their religion, ALL leftoxenomorphs do, don’t matter how corrupt is whitewashed and sanctified and justified and made good out of its evil by the service done to their religion.
“Everything and whatever is done for leftoxenomorphism and social justice is good, no matter what it is.”
Reminds me of the wording of the safe conduct letter, a true get out of jail free card, Cardinal Richelieu writes in one of Alejandro Dumas’ works that goes more or less like this “it is by my order and for the good of the country that the bearer of this safe conduct has done what he did” Voila!! When you have the mentality of a feudal lord, anything goes!! Either because “god wills it” or “social justice demands it”
That is the way of the leftoxenomorph.
It’s nothing new. It has been done since memory serves us.
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I would want the title of your excellent article to come true.
But the Deep State is the Cthulhu of mafias. It is very old. Set in its ways. Very wise. Very powerful. Very resourceful. It has all the money it needs and it can print more. It has the whole of the Venezuerican government at its disposal and a considerable number of accomplices, enablers, thugs, goons and orcs and that is not a small thing.
It’s kind of what the Vatican was in the medieval Dark Ages. It can look down on the world of men with disdain because the world of men is down there, below the church and the world of men can’t do zilch to touch them. Theirs if the work of god . . . or “social justice”
Just think of how many SWAT teams the Deep State controls.
Leftoxenomorphs will look down on the world of non-leftoxenomorph heathens with the attitude of the ultimate religious fanatic, self-assured in his faith and his dogma; all certain in his mystical conviction and without a care in the world about the merest possibility of being wrong and go “so? . . . what’s your point?”
They are doing the work of their god “social justice” EVERYTHING IS JUSTIFIED. It’s all good, man!!
Well, first of all thanks for another interesting article. My opinion about this? Nothing new. The point here is that this affair is significant of the modus operandi of this “order”. Money is not the key, a handful of well organised and thinking people is the key. So your question opens up another question, are you against this plan untill the point of organising a well meditated plan and live acording to it? To build another west it is certainly neccesary to build first solid foundations. There is anybody anywhere, as far as i know, doing it. Am i right?
The Establishment appears so cloistered in its defensive positioning against populist unforeseeable possibilities that it can no exercises the necessary house cleaning function of rooting out corruption. I’m not convinced that anti-corruption activity is even a concern anymore..
Whatever is pressing the establishment into its current state, external threats, a grand uniting purpose “Great Reset, ESG, Climate whatever’s” or some combination of stimuli whatever it is has in effect hastened the current orders demise.
You see something similar in the sick and the old who sensing the inevitability of what’s to come succumb to the futility of maintaining a regime of health, What’s the point really, why go on pretending that it will make a difference…
This sort of nihilistic spirituel spiral appears throughout or societies but ruling classes are a sort of derivative and the effects are thus concentrated to such an extent that the rules of normalcy and perception are warped in a strange fashion and we observers are left to ponder at the surreal display.
The Elite by way of their place atop an order must maintain the appearance of stability even while residing atop an increasing unstable tower… Being atop the tower one feels the shifting instabilities more acutely being leveraged by position but those in such position must pretend everything is fine that what’s happening is going according to some esoteric plan… A plan those in power must pretend to understand least they appear as helpless fools like the masses they govern…
The situation is like a reverse of the Star Trek scenes where the cast has to act like the ship in being pummeled and tossed about by some unfelt force… The Ruling class has to pretend everything is fine and or going according to plan when clearly things are falling apart…Its Something like that with a bit of this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noXtObZjBwU
When Congresswoman Mad Max Waters was confronted by a reporter if she felt her party should give back the money from Scam Bankster Frankenstein, she tersely replied, “No because the Republicans got money too.” A Cold Fusion report states Ryan Salome FTX Co -CEO donated $23m to the Republicans (start at 11:00 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20BEJouWBgY). If this is correct, don’t expect any hard investigating coming from the House or Congress on FTX. In the financial world, we call this “hedging your bets.” Somebody trained these altruistic brats well.
well over 90% of the ” donated money went to democrats”…..since the democrats are on record for supporting some of the more “fringe” republicans in their primaries I am not sure one can make so much of the “republican support”.
Some notes:
1) I have seen a couple reports that, while SBF was the 2nd largest individual donor to the Democrats in the 2022 elections – one of his cohorts donated a smaller but comparable amount to Republicans. I don’t know if this is true but it seems possible.
2) $30 million is a lot of money, but not in election year terms. I’ve seen figures of $3.5 billion – meaning SBF donation was less than 1% of all funding in the election. Now if this money was directed at key points, that could be different but I have yet to see this documented. In other words, it is not clear to me that the donations were buying protection/credibility as opposed to some specific directed money laundering. Which is pretty important.
3) The details I have seen so far, makes it clear that SBF was simply incompetent at running a company and/or crypto-exchange. Not recording customers’ deposited crypto but only incoming $ amounts? However, what I have seen has also shown clearly that SBF was (criminally) brilliant at marketing. I have seen several reports where a significant part of the non-profit sector has been devastated both because of SBF’s direct “effective altruism” schtick but more importantly, because SBF had persuaded hundreds/thousands/more to use FTX as the vehicle through which people would donate to the respective charity. And he did so by promising to not just reduce fees but to “double” incoming donations. Note that this certainly worked well when crypto was going to the moon but was the opposite effect after November 2021. Shades of Ivar Krueger…
Net net: not clear to me if this is some 12D conspiracy as some think as opposed to the crypto equivalent of Ivar Krueger – the Match King of Great Depression era Ponzis. Note that both SBF and Krueger were buying up failing enterprises in their respective industries in the last phase of their end game.
Have you ever wondered why the “nomadic” movement is gaining traction and more and more young Americans are living somewhere else? It’s because more and more people are understanding that if you are going to tell me that I live in a democracy and rule of law and you are bending me over via increasing taxation without representation and fascist-like police state that selectively applies laws – well, I might as well live cheaply in some sh*thole of a country – at least there it is obvious and clear what things are.
People who have options – vote with their feet. It is either that or fester in the knowledge that they live in a banana republic with a very strong PR department.
Talk talk talk or blah blah blah. FOCUS. All these comments give information but do nothing. Larry mentioned the BLOCKCHAIN exposure let us push for that TRUTH telling exposure and get on with the criminals and crimes against what is right and just OR it is all going to just flow down the river of lies and everyone will just live and talk blah talk blah as they always have. Now we all can see that our voting was just playing pretend for adults. These people know the BLOCKCHAIN has all the answers and those answers is what they want to hide not the crime because they already got their money.
“The money laundering circle…”
This is only partly correct. The Ukraine angle is only a piece of this ponzi jig-saw puzzle. As is the CFTC (and Elizabeth Warren’s idiocy surrounding it)
The monies skimmed out of Ukrainian aid were only partially siphoned off this way. There are a lot of bad actors who lost a great deal of money via this collapsed scam and celebrities like the Brady’s are just (relatively) innocent victims. (Hopefully for them they weren’t stupid enough to put any real assets into FTX) This giant ponzi scheme was eating the cash of other bitcoin ponzi scheme, then siphoning it off via the complete lack of corporate controls. Which brings me to point out that you failed to mention the glowing coverage from Forbes or Jim Cramer of CNBC.
I reccomend a summary via Tom Luongo (not that I always agree with his take). They Fed is also part of this story as are the commercial banks (NYC) and the ongoing war against Davos/City of London/EU. The moral corruption of our elites is becoming harder and harder to hide.
https://tomluongo.me/2022/11/17/cryptofanfic-thoughts-on-ftx/
Well, I’m a cynic. All of that moral corruption will be hidden to a large extent. That which cannot be hidden, will be accepted as normal par for the course and the details will be forgotten in time. The goal posts are that low now. No one is going to suffer any legal ramifications; not Fried, not any democrat, not Zelensky. In fact, if the mainstream media talks about it at all, it will be a narrative that smooths it all over; maybe even blames Russia or China.
Exactly my belief Eric. After what we have seen these last years how can anyone believe that someone as well connected and ‘ pedigreed ‘ as this character will ever be truly punished.
Start with the ‘ laptop from hell ‘ and go in any direction you wish. Durham, Barr, that joke of an investigation by Mueller, and on and on.
Stick a fork in this country, she is cooked.
The PTB, the people in power, at all levels, the ones who lost money in this scam can afford to lose money. They have learned how to make money off wanton and open criminality. PONZI schemes are just another way to launder money for them. They can launder their losses just by writing their loses off.
“The moral corruption of our elites is becoming harder and harder to hide.” Hide from whom? The people? By this time everybody knows about how things (don’t) work in this country. Is knowledge power? Is the whole world watching, yet? And does it matter?
A lot of drug money cash turned to bitcoin turned to zero. They aren’t the PTB and they won’t ignore the story like CBS.
“does it matter”
Not for you
This calls for a good, old-fashioned whitewash. Can you say “Congressional Committee”?
You accurately point out that the key to SBF’s “success” was his intimate link to the regime. What nonetheless goes for the most part unnoticed is the fact that this case is an unsurprising result of the lack not of regulation but of competition! Americans still are prevented by their government from using most of the exchanges with solid track records; instead their regulators promote trash like FTX to them: https://austrianchina.substack.com/p/the-case-of-ftx
just some random thoughts cobbled together in resp to larry..
US is a young country
USA is a young country- less than 300yrs old, but came to be the only superpower after WWII.
there is no history behind the country to firmly anchor values it holds dear with stories and tales that can pass on with each generation. its like an 18yr old at the peak of its power with no one to challenge it- a bit delusional at its own powers and immature for the challenges ahead as a nation.
also, mature civilizations have failed many times with internal revolts, external humiliations, territory ceded and conquered… so the Chinese, Russians, Iranians, heck- even the Europeans- have a better recognition if the situation favors them and behave accordingly.
USA does not- its the first time that its global power is being challenged. all its doing is lashing out using its empire mentality and military power. it wont work…
the culture of individual
its a culture of the “individual” that somehow took over the country. if everything is viewed narrowly, everything can make sense.
strangely, USA was not built on individuals- if I recall correctly, Washington united the people and booted the British out. this took courage, honestly, bravery, sacrifice… and its really hard for people to teach these values when the government keeps printing money and bailing out the rich.
the economy
i recall the 2008 financial crisis and the EU debt crisis- the solution was just the bailout of banks and corporations… sure, we needed to stabilize the system- and then what? has there been any structural change?
[bear in mind that a bailout of student loans and re-training of the workforce would’ve worked far better]
it really is more of the same since then- money printing, wars, increasing income inequality, lower social mobility. this has an effect on the erosion of values and the way people people behave- people think this is the norm: spend, go into debt, live a great life, invest in the markets etc.
physically, things are not going great- homelessness, unemployment, racial divide… last i recall, an average D rating was given by some society of engineers to the infrastructure of America. it says a lot when the country is proud of the assets of its wealthy and not the infrastructure.
political sickness
frankly, having to choose between Biden and Trump in 2020 is really… from the outside looking in: no good choices and not much difference. besides, with voter turnout so low, any president is really governing based on money politics, not on actual voter interest.
its difficult to see how the politics can be clean with so much money from donations being sloshed around. i keep wondering why the same old faces keeps popping up as well.
crypto
i view crypto currencies as a way for individuals and businesses to trade without being subject to fiat currencies. take now for example- inflation is 10% in the EU. who the heck wants to hold on to EUR? why not create local currencies (one version being crypto) that are more resilient and independent from the EUR?
there’s no inherent value in it- the value comes from how many corporations and individuals are using it.
one good example is are Berkshares in the USA- though i think its still based on traditional book-keeping methods rather than via crypto.
https://berkshares.org/
the problem comes when people start to treat crypto like a storage of value and/or speculation without actual usage of it increasing. this behavior increases when actual sovereign currencies are not reliable like now when inflation is 10%.
no surprise that crypto currencies are really quite speculative and unreliable. quite nutty to even think of it as an investment.
summary
so with a young country, poor politics, a deteriorating economy, a culture based on self-interest and waging wars, a debased USD… the road is downwards.
so its not surprising that the ruling class, crypto and wars get mixed together in this latest corruption scandal. many bad things coming ahead for US- its quite obvious to an external observer.
the only thing that US has that might not result in the country torn up is that there are only two land neighbors- canada and mexico. both of whom are unlikely to challenge or land grab from US from a military standpoint.
but yes, civil wars within US certainly likely… then the US might have a taste of its own medicine.
but i would emphasize that people of the world have nothing against each other: the Chinese carpenter and the Russian electrician has nothing against their American counterparts. its the governments and the expectations that screw things up….
there’s always hope!
The “US is a . . . country.”
No, the United States is not a country. No country can make any claims of sovereignty without secure borders.
Our fully dysfunctional government believes in secure borders for the Ukraine and the Ukrainian People, but none for the American People.
Our entrenched, permanently “elected” professional politicians, like Senator Chuck Schumer, are pushing for complete amnesty for the tens of millions of illegal aliens, here illegally. In MY COUNTY.
Schumer’s current lame-ass excuse is that amnesty is required, because Americans have stopped breeding. If you were an American, and you saw what direction your country was heading in, would be bringing sons and daughters into this shithole?
“[T]here’s always hope!
No. There is not.
This is a must watch (according to me) so don’t fall over yourselves…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=2VauMFaHJT0
And it directly relates to the very essence of bitcoin.
I also believe that FTX was purposely imploded. For what reason? I don’t know for sure and I’m tired of speculating because that never works out even when it does.
All I can say is, “May your rabbit hole be enlightening.”
clarify- i view crypto currency as an extension of blockchain technology + currency.
crypto currency would work if its based in the real economy- like Berkshares, but if its functioning and competing with sovereign currencies- then it doesnt work as well.
even if a worldwide group of buyers were to prefer any crypto currency over any sovereign entity and thus increases the value of the crypto currency, it has to be backed healthy demand for it, which must be reflected in transactions for real goods and services. speculation doesnt count.
“Samuel Bankman-Fried May Have Started the Demolition of the Deep State.”
God, I hope so.
But at the rate the deep state is covering their tracks I may have to agree with Elon Musk (another protected government man), SBF is protected. Nothing is going to happen. No harm shall come to the darling poster representing the use of wanton and open criminality, at least for as long as it is in support of the Progressive Socialist Democratic Party. The fuller the support the better.
We will be told to “fuhgeddaboudit.”
” … the Progressive Socialist Democratic Party.”
Were do I sign up? I live in America, and there nothing remotely resembling such a thing.
My country has two parties, and only two, and they are both regressive, corporate, far right* neo-liberal parties that compete only in the realm of which can bend the knee the deepest to the Deep State, the MIC, the world’s central bankers and the greater globalist donor class.
And they both love war, especially of the perpetual kind.
*Which party is further to the right? I do believe the Democrats are at the moment, they’ve outflanked the Republicans on that wing on the issues that matter most to the destiny of a nation-state, and this manuever has sent the GOP into a tizzy.
Can they get their mojo back? Well, if they continue to focus all their energy on “woke” issues, probably not. The genius behind the Democratic Party’s ability march into Republican territory and steal a healthy majority of their traditional donor base (e.g. Wall Street!!!), is they are more inclusive.
Everyone, regardless of race, religion or gender affiliation, is welcome to participate in The Evil, and the Republican Party is having a hard time competing with this considerable demographic edge.
Larry,you were correct about the smart people on your channel adding to the true reality of whats happening in this corrupted world.My prayer is sites like yours will proliferate, not because of what you write,because it is a safe haven for honest thinkers. WELL DONE!
I miss the old days when the commoners, upon finding out the depths of depravity and corruption of their local aristocrats, would simply March into their estates and execute them.
James Howard Kunstler? This guy? Kunstler still believes attorney Bill Barr is going to save the day. Or that federal prosecutor, John Durham, is going to save the Republic. For crying out loud, Kunstler wouldn’t know reality and the real world if it bit him in the ass.
Our famously, and fully-captured, free press is in full-cover-up, generating a frenzy of silence, propaganda, and mis-and dis- and mal-information mode.
Elon Musk, who wouldn’t be the “Richest Man on Earth” unless the “Richest Government on Earth” was fronting him, and bankrolling him, has said this about SBT: He’s protected. Musk, who is a government man, and IS fully-protected, ought to know protected when he sees it.
Their truth, their justice and “a better Hegemonically Ruled World.”
I go to Kunstler every Monday and Friday- for entertainment only.
Nothing he has ever commented on has come to fruition.
So, unlike 99.99% of the people feeling compelled to have an opinion on the FTX down fall, I actually know/knew SBF and the inner circle of FTX. Here is what I know.
I’m a trader by profession, and back in late 2018 I was part of the FTX private launch. A friend who then was on the exec team pulled me in and we were hanging out in chat groups on Telegram with SBF & Co.
By the public launch early 2019 FTX barely had a liquid book (which is a problem for any trader of size) and the idea of having an internal market maker (Alameda Research) was not working out simply due to lack of capital.
FTX was based in Hong Kong back then, and SBF was famous for sleeping on a bean bag in their office tower, with infrequent visits to his apartment for occasional showers. It was your typical start up environment on steroids. These guys were literally living in the office and didn’t have a clue about anything most of the time. They were short on money and nobody from outside the crypto currency space had heard of them, and no one reputable inside the space was willing to back them.
(A fun sidebar is that most of the employees were trading on their own platform and lost money consistently!)
Few know that already by then Alameda had blown up for the first time due to absent risk management and unsustainable business practices. I haven’t seen anyone mention this and it was never made public.
The idea came up to raise liquidity for Alameda by approaching Chinese capital rich entities and individuals who had stashed more money than they knew what to do with.
This type of raise can be achieved very quickly with the right connections and introductions in China. Being in HK, SBF and the ppl around him had cultivated such connections and managed to raise a good amount on outlandish promises presented in a pitch deck that any western financial institution would laugh at and promptly place in the bin.
I’m mentioning this because it’s very important to understand how this came about with all the FTX state sponsorship conspiracy stories circulating. This was basically a bunch of kids in their early/mid 20’s primarily driven by greed and by ‘making it’ in the crypto currency scene.
Now fast forward to 2021 and the crypto currency industry was booming like never before. Institutional money poured in and all assets were going up on the back of unhinged money printing. As far as centralized exchanges go, FTX was the considered the coolest kid in town. Fast paced, innovate and ever expanding their markets and services (they even ran a book for US stocks). SBF was at the top of the world and could raise massive equity rounds from ppl like Temasek and BlackRock.
Meanwhile regulations where tightening in HK preventing the bread & butter retail trading and SBF took the step to move HQ to Bahamas. Conveniently close to the US but still out of reach for US regulators. SBF starting lobbying DC hard and by supporting the Biden campaign (it’s largely unknown that he also supported GOP through proxies to have all bases covered) he got the access and attention of congressional committees (watch his appearances on these hearing, it well worth it to hear him smooth talking them!). Sport sponsorships and sucking in high profile ppl such as the Brady/Bundchen couple contributed to the aura of success. Nobody was doubting this, even ppl very close to this such as myself.
Come 2022 and the start of the Russian SMO, FTX took the opportunity to align with DC and virtue signal by providing $25 to every Ukranian KYC’d account. This lasted for 3-4 weeks, which is abt the usual media attention span nowadays. To my knowledge there was never any elaborate program to transfer funds to Ukraine, which of course doesn’t exclude the possibility that the odd few million USD were being sent through FTX, but it was never any substantial/deliberate part of their business.
Those of you who are familiar with crypto currencies and have been trough a couple of cycles know the boom/crash characteristics of this business. 2022 was no different and a lot highly leveraged firms depending on ever sustained asset prices crashed. We now know that Alameda was one of these, and that it was covered up in May/June during the worst fallout. It’s also very clear that the funds to cover this up came from FTX customer deposits, which in the normal/real world would have been kept in segregated accounts.
Now fast forward to Nov 2022. About 48h before FTX suspends withdrawals I’m getting the first signals through my network. It’s very hard to believe but I decide to withdraw half of my funds (abt 400k USD) from my account since it doesn’t cost me anything. Another 24h later after repeated messages from the same source to ‘save your money’ I decided to pull the rest. What happened after is common knowledge, a chapter 11 filing was done showing a hole in the balance sheet of abt 10bn USD.
To the best of my knowledge the majority losses were caused by Alameda. Their incompetence despite having direct access to the trading books, liquidation points and insider information is breath taking. They *were* the casino and still managed to lose money. It’s not a coincidence that their head of trading (Mr. T) quietly left the firm during summer 2022, to be replaced by Caroline E. who has little clue abt trading or anything else for that matter (watch her video interviews on YouTube!). It know looks like she will be thrown under the bus by the SBF legal team (which he has issues to retain since they keep resigning).
There is little doubt in my mind that this entire story was driven by SBF’s personal greed and lust for fame/lime light. Most of the stories being told now are fabricated by ppl who had little clue abt FTX and crypto currency industry two weeks ago, and either have an agenda or don’t like to do the actual nuanced homework,
Interesting. Thanks.
One of the points about the whole crypto movement that amuses me is that the purveyors want to take your real money – “real” = backed by governments/economies, regulated by established accounting processes, etc. – and give you some highly volatile, non-real, digital BS, that most sellers of goods and services don’t accept, in exchange. Why do the exchanges want your real money if crypto is so great? What a scam.
I can see where criminals would look favorably at crypto. Beyond that? Bleh.
You’re welcome.
The nuances of the crypto industry is a very big discussion, as there is a plethora of coins/tokens out there with various motivation/sustainability, the large majority of them being outright cash grabs/scams.
I like to separate Bitcoin from the rest as the chain is very secure and decentralized (never been hacked, and virtually zero down time since its inception). The early Bitcoin pioneers like to see it as hard money and hedge against a financial crash (Bitcoin was born as a response to the 2008 financial crash). I don’t buy into this at all as it has already been disproven and the correlation to equity markets is very high in financial downturns.
However there is an appealing thing about sovereign money which governments can’t freeze or seize at borders. This can be worth keeping in mind when we see gov’s freezing bank accounts on political ground (e.g. Canada) or programmable money in the shape of CBDC’s likely to become a reality.
I like to see it as an insurance policy to keep a stack of hedged Bitcoin at close to zero risk (as it’s very volatile), together with diversification into assets such as physical gold in own custody (nobody will redeem paper when one really needs it), real estate and cash (mostly USD) to mitigate financial risk. Some of it can be seized by gov in times of repression, but likely not all at the same time.
Gold, Silver, diamonds (to some extent) as a hedge, sure. I like real estate with some productive aspect, personally, in some place, like the US, that typically respects individual property rights. As far Bitcoin being safe from confiscation by the government, I don’t believe that. There must be a way they can take it.
At any rate, if the government is seizing my gold, silver, real estate or bank accounts, then I’m turning to my investment in guns and ammo and the ability to use them well. I’m sure, at that point, there are many who would be ready to join me – b/c we would no longer have anything that we could even pretend is a legitimate government and whatever usurpers are running the show need to get Mussolini’ed.
Jonas,
Very interesting and real account of shenanigans in crypto markets.
I began my professional career in the financial markets almost 50 years ago. I have seen a few cycles.
I could never understand how people got sucked into these schemes. Greed breeds laziness and stupidity.
What’s interesting is how long these stressed situations can remain hidden from the public after markets collapse. The principals work furiously to keep things quiet, but the truth must eventually out. It can take years sometimes for these things to see the light of day.
Caveat emptor.
“there was never any elaborate program to transfer funds to Ukraine”
Ukraine was getting Billions in USD directly from the US Gov. Of course there was no plan to transfer money TO Ukraine. There were certainly plans to transfer it OUT.
You’re right, ‘to/from’ would probably been a better way to frame it as accounts of both instances are circulating.
However, it’s not as easy as most ppl think to fund an account at the crypto currency exchange with cash. Exchanges don’t have bank licenses and their partner banks are very cautious to retain theirs. In the case of FTX the partner bank was Silvergate (US reg. with CA HQ). So one would have to have an account with them to send directly to a FTX USD account. Also, Silvergate doesn’t process international payments (they go through Chase Manhattan), so any inflow would be very visible.
The other alternative available was to fund the FTX USD account with credit card through a 3rd party service provider, not an option for any sizeable transfers.
In any event, if FTX would be part of any of the proposed Ukraine schemes I highly doubt that they would be sitting with a 10bn USD hole in their balance. Neither was there ever any suggestion of this in the inner circles of crypto.
“The idea came up to raise liquidity for Alameda by approaching Chinese capital rich entities and individuals who had stashed more money than they knew what to do with. This type of raise can be achieved very quickly with the right connections and introductions in China.”
Yeah and for the most part how do you know that the Chinese money did not come from one of their equivalents to our 3-letter agencies?
The whole thing is just more clown world. I found this video explaining the FTX to a be concise, direct and very helpful synopsis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTFhnpf-IE0
“So, unlike 99.99% of the people feeling compelled to have an opinion on the FTX down fall, I actually know/knew SBF and the inner circle of FTX.”
And you said nothing before the fall? It’s always like that, there are those who don’t know and those who get the result right after the end of the game! It seems impossible as it is nobody noticed a bunch of degenerate kids. Because maybe the story isn’t all told.
I, to be frank, am an economist and do not understand anything about the cryptocurrency environment. I don’t even want to notice. But how do you calculate I know the requirements for a currency, for a share, bond or any title! And cryptos do not fulfill any essential requirements. It’s all a matter of faith! By the way, to be honest, I’m also a lawyer and the only term that comes to mind for cryptocurrencies is yet another “neoliberal fraud”. That’s why cryptocurrencies exist to “hunt” real currency! And like any Ponzi scheme when real money stops coming in they fall. Cryptocurrencies will probably not make it past the first recession after the last crash!
To be frank, when I finished university I still worked for 2 years in the capital market. On a very small stock exchange. It was horrible and I immediately returned to the University where I still teach today. Nor do I understand the US fascination with the capital market. If companies need money, they can always go to the banks. But it wasn’t the same thing was it? Unfortunately, most people still don’t realize how much the financial system changed in the 1980s and how much they are no longer protected by the State in their investments in the capital market. Today, many CEOs don’t even get to know their shareholders. Just to give you an idea of how the world has sped up! And the same for the time of investments. But if it weren’t for the States in the last crash, the world would end. At the end of the day, it is always public money, from all of us, that saves the day. In 2008 the world financial system!
By the way, you yourself say that cryptocurrencies appear as a response to the crash of 2008! It’s always like that, crises always open up new opportunities. But you need to be very careful. And on all systems. Not just financially. After the crash of ’29 people in Europe also stopped believing in the financial and political system and turned to nationalisms. With the results that are known!
The world, and especially the financial world, needs much more regulation, not less. Markets do not regulate anything and we humans cannot live in a financial jungle! Otherwise we’re going to have a remake of “The Wolf of Wall Street” every decade. Looks like SBF also played with customer accounts and everything. How new! That’s how most banks went under after the subprime crash. Even if it was illegal, the money was right next door… It’s the human nature of many “bankers”. And fuck regulation
And I forgot to say that the first global financial regulation that was needed in societies with some morals was soon the end of tax havens!!! Because none of us is an island and we all have social obligations. Individuals and companies. Even if the majority of people busy with their complicated lives don’t think much about the amount of financial crimes that were avoided, like probably this one in the Bahamas and especially with the amount of money that is subtracted every day from different communities. From money laundering by individual criminals to socially acceptable companies like google where many of us are right now.
Well, I didn’t know that anything was seriously wrong until abt 48h before they shut the doors. Anyway (and trust me on this), if I would have blown the whistle nobody would have believed it anyway. It’s necessary to understand that the crypto world thrives on rumors (some with substances and some intentionally planted). Nothing is taken at face value.
As for the rest of your comment, the crypto world is largely a money ball game. I suppose it’s to some degree similar to the dot com era of the late 1990’s. Some make it very big just to lose everything the next year (from zero to 8-9 figures and back to zero roundtrip). Having my feet firmly on the ground and experience from traditional financial trading has been very helpful in retaining my wealth.
Per FTX’s 2021 tax return, it lost $3.7 billion. How did the venture and lender funds invested in FTX miss this one?
https://twitter.com/BobBish40288847/status/1594372428762857476
“His former colleague on the MIT Econ faculty, Gary Gensler, who specialized in blockchains there, is now head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, ”
“8. FTX is currently under investigation by the CFTC and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)”
So Ellison’s father’s friend/colleague now head’s SEC investigating FTX
[US Secretary of Defense Lloyd] Austin also said the US will stand by Ukraine as long as the conflict lasts, insisting that the outcome will “determine the course of global security in this young century.” — RT
As Russian officials have bluntly said as well… So we have consensus on the purpose of NATO’s proxy war against Russia.
However, according to Austin, the US will “not be dragged into Putin’s war…”
Such unqualified support for the cause will surely keep Ukrainians on deadly battlefields and in frozen cities warm this winter…
What he’s saying in essence is that Russia’s insecurity is required for the sake of Western security, which is exactly in contradiction to some international agreement (forgot which) that Putin has specifically alluded to. (One state’s security cannot be enhanced at the expense of another’s) or some such. Sketchy principle I agree, but enshrined in some agreement nevertheless. Obviously, NATO expansion was foremost in Putin’s mind at the time.
So what Austin has said (not that he or its authors realize it I assume) is in direct contradiction to their much touted ‘rules-based international order’. It is they in fact, who transgress on its principles and Russia who has tried to stick to them.
Sorry, but these instances keep popping up of western upside-down reasoning so often that by now, I can spot them coming from a mile away.
Anyway, this will do nothing but harden Russia’s stance. Just more western foolishness from a foolish foreign policy to begin with.
…[o]ne state’s security cannot be enhanced at the expense of another’s[,] or some such. Sketchy principle I agree… — Mondo Cane
I do not agree with characterizing the principle of one state’s security cannot be enhanced at the expense of another state’s security as “sketchy”. Unless, of course, your object is to create arms races and MIC profits… and war.
What the US whispered to Ukraine in the past was, essentially, We’ve got your back, lets you and Russia fight!
But now?
We ain’t bleeding for you…
Update of the Ukrainian S300 missile that hit Poland. Vesti https://www.vesti.ru/article/3051473 just published a lengthy article about the failed false flag provocation: “The Ukrainian rocket that fell in Poland could have had its self-destruction system turned off”
(…)
” “More than 30 years old. The missiles are extremely old. And about a year ago, Ukraine carried out firing, they launched 8 or 10 missiles. Two missiles immediately went aside from the start. Ukraine tried to somehow service them and change something there, – says Yuri Knutov. “By the way, they turned to the Americans. The Americans helped them. There is such a possibility that in order to increase the range of missiles at least up to 100 kilometers, the Ukrainians turned off the self-destruction system of these missiles.”
This is a technology that was used in Vietnam. The self-destruct system, which itself is activated when the missile loses its target or deviates from the course, is turned off, then the fuel reserved for the missile to go to high altitude and safely self-destruct is used entirely for the main flight. At the same time, another version is not ruled out, that the Ukrainian military turned off the self-destruction system of the missile because they initially planned to strike not at an air target, but at the ground. The S-300 has such a mode of operation. In any case, Zelensky was clearly trying to arrange a large-scale provocation from what happened that night. “Russian missiles hit Poland. To hit NATO territory with missiles is a Russian missile attack on security! This is a very significant escalation. We need to act,” he said.”
It seems that the S-300 missile was purposely prepared to hit Poland in order to escalate the conflict, forcing NATO to involve itself into it. The Russian Vesti article reveals the whole belligerent context. Happily the Americans didn’t buy it.
Ukrainian S-300 missiles are older than the state of Ukraine itself, and probably in an equaly bad state. They have been repeatedly hitting buildings trought this conflict (so much that Ukro media had to come up with the story of Russians using S-300 to attack them). It was just a matter of time for some missiles to “go international”. Half a year ago, big old Soviet drone flew over mulitple NATO countries before it ran out of fuel and crashed. The incident was quickly forgotten, just like this one will be.
6 months ago they bought and didn’t even ask the price. If only to demonize Russia in MSM. But today it meant putting on boots in the theater of operations and not even the Pentagon is that stupid. They know well what awaits them in the theater of operations this winter. In addition to the other plan that no one talks about. How many years did the US need to put a capable force in Ukraine? For Iraq they needed 1 year. And Saddam didn’t have missiles to sink aircraft carriers yet off the US coast.
So, was there actually one missile virtually intact? (from the pictures)
If so, then it can be decoded I assume, to establish whether the self-destruct was in fact turned off.
Again, (so many ‘agains’ over the years, why bother at all but I’ll persist)…again, why has NO ONE bothered to do this? Or if they have, why is it not revealed? Both rhetorical questions of course.
Of course, if it was…they’d just claim it was to extend the range. Yeah, guess I’ll repeat….why bother questioning when you know all possible answers will answer nothing at all.
They can’t blame this on Trump or Putin!
Yes they can. If Putin had never begun the SMO, then………
Or so the braying goes.
Personally, I much prefer: If Nuland had wandered through Maidan offering poison apples instead of cookies, could be somebody’d have caught on early and then……..
“If Nuland had wandered through Maidan offering poison apples..”
Culturally that is what she did in 2014, and some locals recognised and commented upon it immediately, one lady of similar age observing approximately :
“The zh@ds are back making us visitors in our home by offering us plain bulkas and forgetting the salt like before”.
To which a tatooed “customer service executive” with a Ternopil accent responded approximately ” When they have outlived their usefulness it will be like before.”
Hey Larry…I am not a cynic either but I am a realist. So here goes…let’s assume 1 or more (or even all 21) of your talking points could be proven in a court of law. We know with high certainty that the Biden administration will do nothing and a Democrat led US Senate will do nothing. That leaves two other possibilities (maybe three):
1. A Republican led Congress could (and should) establish an investigatory committee to corroborate facts and allegations…Congress has plethora subpoena and investigative authority but it can’t actually charge FTX, Bankman-Fried, et al with violations of federal law…that has to be initiated via the US Attorney General and we know with high certainty that they will do nothing for obvious reasons. Possibly a connection to Biden could lead to impeachment proceedings if initiated by Congress.
2. If state laws have been violated then individual State Attorney General(s) can file criminal charges against FTX et al…this is the most likely option open to Republican led states but keep in mind the charges would be for violation of state laws not federal…it is possible for state attorney generals to get this into federal court–maybe under some violation of interstate commerce laws.
3. Individuals may also file a claim against FTX but FTX has filed for bankruptcy so it is unlikely individuals will ever get a day in court that may reveal damning evidence or facts.
IF Bankman-Fried is charged criminally what do you suppose the chances are that he mysteriously commits suicide say like Jeffrey Epstein (just throwing that out there)…he would never be allowed to turn states witness/evidece in exchange for divulging damning evidence against the elites and/or political left.
Sadly, a large population of the US (leftists primarily) doesn’t care if there is a connection between FTX-Biden-Ukraine-Democrat Party…they likely applaud it as the alleged connection fits nicely with their ideology (ends not the means)…so in this case the “cynic” and skeptic is coming out in me…even if the left is exposed, I think the “So what happens next–or what doesn’t happen next” is really the question we should be asking.
Long Live the Republic !!!
I would think the only way this destroyed the Bradys is if they put all their money into FTX.
I don’t know their finances overall and how much they put in, but they don’t seem to be as dumb as that. I would think they’d have diversified as wealthy people do. This may have hurt them, but they have got to still have a lot of money left.
There’s a class action lawsuit filed on behalf of individual investors against Brady/ex wife and other celebrities such as Larry David who publicly endorsed FTX . That might explain Brady’s lackluster playing lately, he’d invested a lot and now stands to lose more with the lawsuit.
If anyone thought they were going to get a nice Social Security upgrade this January, you may want to check what your new medicaid deduction might be. My wife thought her January S/S would be up by $200 but it will actually go down by $100.
Obviously, have no idea as to the accuracy of your wife’s specific situation and calculations but my understanding is that the ssn increase will be 8.7%, starting in Dec 2022, with medicare, not medicaid, actually going down a tad.
Strange that the increases will actually start in dec 2022 and even stranger, medicare deduction will actually go down a tad.
Larry, I wish I could share even your slight optimism. I suspect the only good that may come of this collapse is that it may complicate the money-laundering process for awhile. But with an utterly corrupt FBI and SEC, there is no one to prosecute anyone of importance, unless they decide to make Bankman-Fried a sacrificial lamb. More likely, I suspect, the media, with their usual infinite corruptibility, will probably make B-F out to be victim and martyr, who was “just trying to do the right thing” for Ukraine.
Digital currencies are as big a scam as any ponzi scheme. Or the US dollar. Can anyone tell me what the ballast is for either one? No ballast or regulation! Yet another fantastic invention without any control from neoliberalism. Another great tax evasion vehicle. And have you ever tried asking for money from a bank without guarantees?
The problem that neoliberalism added to financial markets was the lack of regulation that led to crashes. No one should regret greed. Rather criminalize Govt’s repealing laws like the Glass-Steagall Act that separated the world of financial speculation from investment banking from the normal commercial banking we all have to deal with. Just to catch more unsuspecting people in the net!
And the lack of regulation has also brought another wonderful thing to the biggest financial gangsters who today are very difficult to catch. When everything threatens or starts to fall, they are always the first to save theirs. In the subprime crash of 2008, my country had just achieved the lowest deficit in the last 50 years, with a public debt of around 60%, in line with the European average as required by EURO rules! And from one day to the next, instruments such as rating agencies that belong to the same greedy people who caused the crash, began to raise public debt interest rates to values that are unaffordable for any country. Of course, my country had to ask the IMF for a loan, which was all to save the bankrupt banks full of toxic securities due to the crash. Because without banks, the entire economy that also works with banks would close. And that’s how we went from a public debt of 60% to 120%. Today without money to finance the free public health system! That investment funds that cause the crashes so covet.
Of course, it was up to the ECB to provide liquidity to the banks of all countries that abdicated their own currency and a lot of sovereignty for the EURO. Because the banks that failed to roll over the debt with the frozen interbank markets after the crash. And why did the interbank markets freeze and the ECB not provide banks with liquidity? Originating that the countries themselves had to save the banks in the largest transfer of private debt to the balance sheet of public debt. Because as soon as the crash happens, toxic assets appear in all the banks on the planet. It is the completely unregulated global economy. And the ECB was only concerned that the toxic bonds would not end up in the biggest German and French banks. Only concerned with big investors! Because in economics, size always matters! Especially in capitalism that says it doesn’t like monopolies but tries everything to kill the competition. Just to explain why neoliberalism today has instruments for the people to pay the biggest bankruptcies of the financial system or of the biggest financial gangsters. And that’s how the richest 1% of the world’s population already accumulates more wealth than the remaining 99%. And I’m talking about the biggest banks like Lehman, J.P.Morgan, Goldman Sachs. Who effectively rule the US. or the Bundesbak in Europe! And not pirates like Madoff.
Finally, it is clear that the fall of the FDX is related to the fall of Ukraine. For many years the largest center of offshore corruption in the US. And not just from the US under Democratic administrations. As for Ukraine, which had everything to be one of the largest European economies, from natural resources to cutting-edge industries that it inherited from the USSR, such as the naval industry, aeronautics and even the space industry, it was already in February the poorest and most corrupt country in Europe. The ex-Socialist Republic with the most resources and the poorest. Poorer than Albania! With one of the biggest coal basins in Donbass it buys coal from the US.
Next to drop appears to be a ‘stablecoin’ scheme which might unravel the crypto world and destroy many billions in ‘paper’ wealth.
Interesting times
https://www.revolver.news/2022/11/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-on-steroids-is-cryptocurrency-tether-joe-biden-crypto-bcci/
Another jackpot from the Neoliberal Casino! But there are still those who believe that the US is a Democracy!
FTX on Steroids: Is “Tether” the Biden World’s Crypto BCCI?
https://www.revolver.news/2022/11/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-on-steroids-is-cryptocurrency-tether-joe-biden-crypto-bcci/
Yes, tether is ftx on steroids.
And the rest are just as bad.
I am sure it must have been mentioned somewhere else in the thread, but in case it wasnt. SBF’s partner and VP gave about 27 million to Republicans as well. They were buying influence with both parties.
i have no doubt, but he was NOT the second biggest gop donor…
So him with bill clinton, old crazy auntie maxine and the rest of the top dem layer speaks a whole lot and loudly 🤷♂️
You notice im Norwegian, i got no intrest in US politics other then rolling my eyes and wondering when they will reach the bottom.
Only when they are trying to start a nuclear war i take interest,, but even then the US politicians is such a clownshow that eye rolling happens regulary…
+
I do not see any gop or tRump children making crack fueled porn with prostitutes, leaving evidence at small computer stores tho 😎😁🤷♂️
Mvh
Per
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11441481/DailyMail-com-breaks-evidence-GOPs-case-against-Joe-Biden.html
Does anyone find it “curious” that this FTX thingy blew up 2 days after it became clear that the so called “Demo-critters” lost the House and the full-blown investigation into their corruption (“10 percent for the Big Guy”, the Hunter Biden Uki and China bribes, the “Russia” hoax, and now the FTX laundromat funneling money via 404 back to DNC, etc.)?!
Does anyone also find it even “curiouser” the oversized role the “chosen tribe” plays in fleecing the goyim in this story?! 50-80% of all funding and donations to “democrats” is coming from jews and jew-related PNACs, billionaires, and lobby groups. There are at least 4-5 research papers and investigations on this that estimate the 50-80% number.
So, the jews fund the “democrats”. Those “win” the 2020 “elections”. Then they proceed to organize the Uki-war by goading Russia into defending Donbas. The “elected” dems nominate 2 jews to lead the State Dpt (Blinkin and Nudelman / pretending to be “Nuland”), who in turn lead the dem-controlled Congress to funnel $90 billion to the jews’ controlled Ukraine (Zelenski is a jew, brought to power by another jew Kolomoiski, after another jew, Poroshenko was the previous “president” after the Nudelman-jew-organized coup d’etat of 2014). And then another jew, Banksterman-Fried[man], uses his FTX ponzi-scheme to launder the US taxpayers’ $90 billion, funnelled through the jew-controlled 404-ukistan back to the jew-controlled DNC….
Sounds like a great scheme to make jews (the Blinkins and the Nudelmans and, I am sure those who fund the “dems” even richer). And I am sure Brandon will get his “10% for the Big Guy”…
Isn’t this an ELEPHANT in the room?!
Jews basically own this country. 100%. And they can do whatever the hell they want. And no one (NO ONE) will be punished. Because they now own FBI and the so called “justice” Department (headed by yet another jew Merrick Garland), and the entire “soup” of other “government agencies”…
Maybe it’s time to rename the US of A into a State of Israel as this what it really is.
Rock time, noticing patterns is antisemitic.😂
Stop your crimethink and deduct 20 goodboy points from ur social credit score.🤪
Looks like Goebbels in the last speeche on Bunker!
Larry, speaking of financial earthquakes. Watch from Min 12:00. Biden giving Chinese fracking deals in TX and MI where large earthquakes going off. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=O-xwQ6zwHgk
Regarding demolition of the deep state, you are far too optimistic.
Politicans come and go, but all serve at the whim and will of the corporate-financial-military-industrial complex, which is the deep state. Politicans are expendable and replacing them changes nothing, as many years worth of elections have proven.
The two parties pretend to fight against each other, and work tirelessly to divide the country against itself, while slavishishly serving the same interests.
The only possible change is the complete and total collapse of the system.
i tend to agree with Black Cloud. Namely, that the ‘system’ is broken. This is not what the those who wanted democracy in 1776 envisioned. Their ideals have been hijacked.
“The only possible change is the complete and total collapse of the system.”
Like most “strategists” in/of “The United States of America” through ideological blindness you fail to perceive probable consequences – what is for afters ? -, thereby facilitating your complicity in your own transcendence as has increasingly been the case for the last 50 years.
Some who have perceived probable consequences and continue to do so, are of the view that the only possible change is lateral change – the transcendence of coercive social relations by co-operative social relations based on context specific mutual benefit and are increasingly coalescing in facilitation of these lateral processes and purposes.
“Regarding demolition of the deep state, you are far too optimistic.”
Too optimistic primarily in regards to agents, methods and vectors of facilitation.
FTT is the proprietary exchange token of FTX
FTX began trading July 29, 2019, at FTT = $1.65; and Market Cap = $0.00.
The FTX Market Capitalization, or Market Cap represent the total value of a publicly traded company’s outstanding common shares owned by stockholders.
FTX Market Cap = 0 until Aug. 8, 2019, when it became $65.3 million.
The cap was stable at about this sum until the covid lockdowns began in April 2020.
April 17, 2020 cap jumped to $272 million; in other words, overnight FTX company value increased by a factor of 4X, right when economy was shutting down.
By end of that year, coinciding with start of covid shot rollout, market cap doubled again, to more than half a billion dollars, at $521.7 Million on Dec. 31, 2020.
By May 9, 2021 FTX total company value spiked 10X, to $5.3 Billion.
FTX high water mark of $9.2 Billion reached Sept. 8, 2021.
Market cap was $3 Billion day before the election on Nov. 7, 2022; the cap has been at $0.00 value since Nov. 12, day after bankruptcy declared.
The current FTT traded price as of 22:10 this evening is $1.26.
https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/ftx-token
++++
Among FTX people are/were: John Ray III, CEO; Adam Jacobs, Global Head of Payments at FTX; Constance Wang – Chief Operating Officer; Jessica Murray – Chief Compliance Officer & MLRO; Dan Friedberg – Regulatory Officer.
https://theorg.com/org/ftx/org-chart/adam-c-jacobs
https://theorg.com/org/ftx?focus=p-963434
https://www.linkedin.com/in/constancewz/?originalSubdomain=bs
-30-
Absolutely nothing of any substance will be done about this. The world is run by psychotic, perverted criminals and the Devil takes care of his own.
I never had an inclination to buy Cryptos because pieces of metal with hypothetical dollar value didn’t appear to make any sense.
Who is that weasely looking prick on Bill “faster Monica” Clinton’s right. He looks familiar or is it just a bit of shit on the camera lens?
From Jack Mallers on Twitter:
“Weeks ago I recorded an interview with
@BusinessInsider to discuss
@SBF_FTX claims that #Bitcoin can’t scale, won’t be used for payments, and that proof-of-work is bad for the environment.
It was never published.
So, I uploaded it.
#Bitcoin is the signal in a sea of noise.”
https://twitter.com/jackmallers/status/1536834021354786823
I’m coming a little late to the party, but events have developed in the meantime that possibly make the outcome a little more clear. At the time I write this SBF, after a short term in a cesspool prison, has been extradited to the U.S. and is already on bail. He’s reportedly cozy with his parents in California.
His girlfriend and co-conspirator has, along with co-founder Gary Wang, turned states evidence and are cooperating completely. She’s being protected from the press and very little is being reported on her activities since the bankruptcy. Almost nothing is being reported about Wang.
None of these people are currently in jail. Why? It is my opinion that they have all agreed to plead guilty and to cooperate in NOT revealing anything about the powerful people involved in the money-laundering/political kickback scheme.
It is my belief that they will all plead guilty, will receive light to moderate sentences and the story will die there. All concerned will ensure that no documents or testimony incriminating the rich and powerful will be exposed to the public in any way.
Guilty pleas, light punishments and it’s a dead story.
For a look at how the cryptocurrency industry spent big bucks on getting some Congresspeople elected,
who, once elected,
sought seats on the committees which will decide how the cryptocurrency industry will be regulated,
see
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/01/17/dems-crypto-money-house-financial-services-00078223
Is there only one Deep State in America_
Seems nothing is just to the deepstate or sbf himself.