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December 02, 2024 12:45 AM UTC

Monday Open Thread

  • 20 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

“Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.”

–Albert Einstein

Comments

20 thoughts on “Monday Open Thread

  1. Hunter Biden and the price of eggs aside, this piece touches on one of like a million things I'm a little more worried about:

    Look at Elon Musk's growing empire. Tesla, Starlink, X, and Neuralink all stand to benefit substantially from this new alignment. They won't be alone. Peter Thiel's Palantir and Palmer Luckey's Anduril are perfectly positioned to collect expanded defense contracts, while major venture capital cryptocurrency investments are likely to see favorable regulatory treatment. The concentration of power in these companies' hands isn't just about market dominance, it's about shaping the very rules of our digital future.

  2. Somebody that understands cryptocurrency, please explain:

    How can they make people use? Crypto that don't want to use it if my employer wants to keep paying me in USD how can that be changed?

      1. Umm. Crypto is EXACTLY fiat currency. There's nothing else.

        Currency, let's say the dollar, is guaranteed by the institutions surrounding it… Well to the extent that the US is a democracy, with laws and a functioning economy. 

        A check is nothing more than an agreement (contract) between me, you and a bank willing to make the transfer from my account to yours. In the US, contracts have institutional protections. Again to the extent that the rule of law continues.

      2. Yeah no, that’s not at all cryptic. ( Pun intended)

        And I noticed that nobody actually answered my question: how can cryptocurrency “take over” if employers don’t want to use it?

        Let’s say that Musty decrees that crypto is the new currency of the land. How does he enforce that? Is there a gradual change period? Do all the surviving government employees now get paid in crypto?
        I think it’s a recipe for a general strike.

        1. You would still be paid in dollars the reserve currency would be a mix of coin. For example Bitcoin is limited to 21 million Bitcoins it operates like gold. There is a reason we left the gold standard it stagnates economic growth for the goal of lower predictable inflation

    1. Cash, Checks and Bank tranfers are obviously useful. I hate credit card fees (but I digress)

      Crypto has a number of reasons to exist.

      (1) Hidden transfer of large financial assets from one place to another. (Maybe not always as hidden as they'd like!)
      (2) Speculative gambling on crypto appreciation. It's just another Meme-stock.
      (3) Purchase of illegal physical things like drugs or blackmail payoffs.
      (4) Moving stolen public assets or to a safer location in the US, let's say from Moscow to a condo in a Manhattan skinny skyscraper. (How many units of asset stashing would you like today?)

      If you get sucked into a conversation with a crypto-bro (it's almost always a bro), the conversation immediately turns from "What is it good for", to a deep discussion about why Dogecoin or Ethereum is better than Bitcoin, and then you're on the slippery slope into technical mathematical details about how Doge works.

      Money is very interesting. Read how Venice invented banks, banking, bank transfers, trusted "bancerros". Yes, they actually sat on benches. 

       

  3. Hunter Biden pardon not really a surprise. Even Stevie Wonder could see it coming.

    It was a foregone conclusion the fix was in when Hunter plead guilty on September 5 to all nine felony counts of failing to file returns and failing to pay at least $1.4 million in federal taxes. As an added bonus he also gets a pardon on his felony gun conviction. Gee thanks Dad, I’ll get you an extra special gift on Father’s Day.

    The consensus was he would have almost  certainly been convicted on the tax charges after a public trial in which more would have been revealed about the machinations of the Biden Crime family two months before the presidential election.

    A guilty plea or a conviction makes no difference – Pops would take care of it after the election. And he did with the announcement made on a Sunday while Biden was in Africa.

     

    1. We’re certainly living in through-the-looking-glass America, Alice Allyn.  And it is indeed curiouser how now in an unintended twist Hunter owes this odious pardon as much to the result of a Tchump plurality as anything?

      America: Home of the free (felon).  Crime families? The fix was in? Get used to it, huh?  You ain’t seen nuthin’ yet (except for all before).

    2. Here's the list of Tr*mp pardons for comparison. You'll see the typical ones: Stone, Manafort, Papadopoulos, Bannon, D'Souza, Flynn. The father of his daughter's husband Charles Kushner got a pardon and is now his choice for Ambassador to France. Somehow Susan B. Anthony got a very late pardon. Oddly, lots of people with fraud offenses on this list. But I'll quote BenFolds5 who was quoting the mighty BTO in conclusion – "You ain't seen nothing yet."

      https://www.justice.gov/pardon/pardons-granted-president-donald-j-trump-2017-2021

      1. So what does everyone think? Will violent 1/6 terrorists in jail on federal charges get their pardons right on Inauguration Day, 01/20/25, or will they have to wait until 01/26?

        1. Trump promised pardons for patriots on "Day One" — but I think paperwork and Sharpie signing may be delayed by a few days. NPR's on-going tracking list as of last Friday had

          • Number of people charged, federal: 1,556
          • Number of people who have pleaded guilty: 1,010
          • Number of individuals who have completed jury, bench, or stipulated bench trials: 253
          • Number with mixed verdicts: 74
          • Number convicted on all charges: 176
          • Number acquitted of all charges: 3
          • Number of people sentenced: 1,060
          • Percentage of people sentenced who have received prison time: 64
          • Median sentence for those who received prison time, in days: 210
          • Number of cases dismissed, federal: 12

          I expect pardons — but if I remember a right, there is clause that amounted to "no backsies" on the money for "damages to the Capitol."

      2. Biden's pardon of Hunter stinks, mostly because he unequivocally stated he was not going to do it. Is it more odious than Trump's pardons, Clinton's pardons (Marc Rich, Roger), or George H.W. Bush (Iran Contra)? Probably not. Lots of guilty people (mostly rich and well-connected) get away with crime every day. I think a more interesting question is whether Trump and his minions will follow through with his threats to prosecute his perceived political enemies. Will they go after Democratic politicians? Will they seek an investigation of the shooting of Ashli Babbitt? Its all fun and games until you have to produce evidence and follow court rules and procedures. For now, with the exception of a few Trump judges and maybe the majority of the Supreme Court, we do not have too many kangaroo courts (yet). 

        1. I remember watching with teenage delight the Nixon resignation. BTW, on the subject of dubious pardons, thanks bigly for that “nation healing,” Gerald (as well as the historic bullseye shot straight through the heart of that indecently exposed Justice trollop).

          And, because the unimaginable has now become the inevitable:  perhaps someone should start that lottery/wagering as to the exact time and date within the next fifty months when we finally get to witness an American president pardoning himself?

          Big Line, what say you?

          1. Trump will likely wait to pardon himself after he shoots someone on 5th Avenue.  Of course, if he consults with his AG beforehand, then it becomes an "official act" and won't require a pardon, right?

            Trump will be one for the history books — a toxic combination of Al Capone and Banana Republic Dictator (but with the nuclear codes).

    3. “Biden crime family….” Poor Allyn. You’ve been drinking MAGA kool-aid. If there was anything of substance to the “crime family” saga, don’t you think that Reps. James Comer (House Oversight) and “Gym” Jordan (House Judiciary) would have initiated impeachment proceedings against Joe Biden? Unfortunately, none of their witnesses agreed with them (Jonathan Turley) or were on the run from US law (Gal Luft). Instead, the two Jims wasted time on meaningless “investigations” that they already knew would go nowhere. But they knew “the base” would love the b.s. talk about crime and “10% for the Big Guy.” 

  4. Part of me wants Pete Hegseth to be confirmed as Secretary of Defense – His history of drunkenness and sex parties at work would suit my inner antiwar hippie self. I’d like to have a dissolute lecher in charge of the Pentagon. Make love not war! and all that. 

    My more sober adult self, cognizant of the ambitions of Putin and the treachery of Trump, wants to have a functioning Deprtment of Defense. 

    Which side will Republican senators come down on?

  5. We were all hippies at one point, even me. Give Pete a chance. 

    Your adult self surely can not be pleased with the Biden administration's conduct of national defense. Larry Fink is the primary beneficiary of the Ukraine war.

    1. Blackwater under Cheney was mostly war profiteering. Blackrock under Fink appears to be mostly finance, banking, and real estate investing. So Fink and Blackrock are not directly profiting off the Ukraine war.

      At any rate, the Ukraine people seem to believe that their own self interest lies in preserving their own territorial boundaries and democratic freedoms, and in not becoming a mere colony or appendage of Russia under Putin. I think that their interests align with ours. We also do not want to become a mere colony or appendage of Russia under Putin. Yours and Trump's mileage may differ.

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