One Big FTX

Regimeology is not just the art of interpreting the official pronouncements from the managerial elite, but it is also for interpreting their actions. Nothing they say can ever be accepted at face value, so nothing they do is on the level either. It is all signaling back and forth to communicate between nodes of the collective. If the regime happens to do something useful for the people, it is a happy accident. Most of what they do is about the internal dynamics of the regime.

The Sam Bankman-Fried story is a good example. At this point everyone understands that this is not a corporate financial scandal. There is little chance that the sophisticated people involved with this guy and his partners were unaware of the nature of his business. The entertainment people hired to shill for the company had no idea, as hey are stupid people, but the sharps putting important people in touch with this weird looking goblin of a man were not fooled.

The one thing we know is it was a money laundering operation to move cash into the pockets of politicians and connected people in the regime. To no one’s surprise, there is a Ukraine angle here. Apparently, Ukraine was taking money handed over by Washington and putting some of it into crypto accounts on the FTX exchange, allegedly to pay their own people. The absurdity of that claim is obvious. Most likely it was quietly shifted to other accounts and ended up in other pockets.

They say you cannot teach an old dog new tricks, but there is nothing that says you cannot teach a new dog old tricks. The heart of the issue is one of the oldest tricks in democratic politics. The politician makes a deal with a favored vendor, who then hires friends and relatives of the politician. Some portion of their salary ends up as expensive gifts to the politician. Alternatively, the vendor rewards the politicians with gobs of campaign cash.

In this case, that old political grift was updated to the digital age. Ukraine put funds into the FTX exchange, which Sam Bankman-Fried then used to buy friends in Washington, making sure those friends were friends of Ukraine. Those friends then made sure Ukraine was getting as much cash as possible. Given that so much was happening in crypto, no one was going to try and follow the money. As long as FTX stayed solvent, his scam could go on forever. Whoopsie!

Of course, we will never know where the money went as the regime sent in one of their best fixers to handle the liquidation of FTX. John J. Ray III is no doubt a competent and honest man, but he is being paid one thousand dollars an hour to clean up the mess, so he is not going to be biting the hand that feeds him. You read that right. He is billing one thousand dollars per hour for his services. The one guy who is assured of getting rich off FTX will be the man liquidating its remaining assets.

They can scrub the books and make sure the content creators in the media tell the right story, but that still leaves the main players. The “polycule” that was running this scam is too colorful to ignore. If these people looked like a Chuck Schumer family photo, they could possibly get a pass, but this group is simply too absurd. The two principles, Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison, the woman who looks like a turtle, are household names now, so the regime has to deal with them.

That is where regimeology comes into play. The Clinton crime family sent Jamie Gorelick into work with Turtle Girl. Gorelick, for those too young or depressed to remember the 1990’s, was the Vice Chairman of Fannie Mae, which she ran into bankruptcy, while creating the mortgage crisis. She walked away from the disaster with close to $30 million. Now she is the lawyer for Turtle Girl, who did to FTX what Gorelick did to the mortgage industry.

The reason they sent in Gorelick is to make sure their interests are protected, which probably means they helped her get a deal with the Feds. She keeps her mouth shut about the family business and she avoids a long prison sentence. That helps the Feds shape the charges against Bankman-Fried in such a way that leaves the Clinton family business out of the courtroom. Maybe it helps Mr. Bankman-Fried recall specific shenanigans with enemies of the family.

The fact that they let him out on bond, rather than send him to Epstein’s old holding cell, suggests he is playing ball. Most likely he had to agree to not do anymore media events until his case is resolved. The one thing everyone in the regime can agree upon is they do not want this guy running his mouth in public. On the other hand, if he suddenly commits suicide or decides to get his fifth Covid booster, then we can assume the regime did not want to roll the dice with him.

Of course, like all of the Ukraine grifting, we will never get an honest accounting of what happened with this caper. The only thing we can know is the regime is getting reckless, because they simply do not care enough to be careful. Now that we are fortified for democracy, they can do as they please. As long as the economy keeps chugging along and there is no major crisis, they can steal as much as they can carry. America is one big FTX now. What could go wrong?


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1 year ago

[…] Posted on December 23, 2022 […]

Lawrence
1 year ago

It appears to me humans rely on their perception,then run it through their emotions- reason and logic go straight out the window. All humans are predators. They are born with a predatory gene. We share the same DNA makeup as the people 5,000 years ago who we are derived from. Only our technology makes us feel superior. When one predator advances, they must push the other predator down. The struggle for resources, land, power leading to the massacre of millions right to the present day easily portrays this. Each new generation believes they are more enlightened. Take twenty diverse people,… Read more »

trackback
1 year ago

[…] One Big FTX […]

Dennis Roe
Dennis Roe
1 year ago

Sam will end up in Isreal, having a drink with Epstein, toasting to the gullability and stupidity of the Goyim. Merry Christmas, may God help us. The evil is overwhelming.

james wilson
james wilson
Member
1 year ago

Jamie Gorelick deserves a special place of honor in the art of failing up in government work. This signals the hive that they can create no disaster too great but that they will be rewarded.

The real Bill
The real Bill
1 year ago

LineInTheSand, This is in response to your post of 12/24 at 12:53 pm. For some reason, there isn’t a reply button, so I’m replying here. Here’s what you said: “Compsci writes, ‘The problem with morality “independent” of reference to a religion or external source is how to decide whose morality is “correct” or prevails when two competing moralities meet.’ I address this issue, as well as it can be addressed without an unquestionable lawgiver, in my post below at December 23, 2022 at 11:39 am. Response?” * And for everyone’s convenience, cut-and-pasted here is the post of yours which you… Read more »

The real Bill
The real Bill
Reply to  The real Bill
1 year ago

And to address Compsci’s observation that: “The problem with morality “independent” of reference to a religion or external source is how to decide whose morality is “correct” or prevails when two competing moralities meet. Heck, we even have this conflict now between some major religions. Imagine billions of atheists—each with his own moral “take”.” • I agree that attempting to derive a morality independent of divine revelation is not easy. It would be a lot simpler and more convenient if there were a divine revelation that we could all agree on, and then base our traditions, laws, and mores on… Read more »

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  The real Bill
1 year ago

The above post, is a specific case of the so-called “No true Scotsman fallacy.” In this case, the issue is “What does it mean to be ‘Christian’?” The term resists easy definition. There are diverse and often incompatible versions. In part, this explains why there are 25,000 denominations of Christianity (so I was once told by a Monsignor of the Roman Catholic Church, ca. 2004). I’d argue this is an instance of the problem of claiming one universal morality vs. the case, in my opinion, that every individual effectively has his own morality. None of the above is to deny… Read more »

TomA
TomA
Reply to  The real Bill
1 year ago

As a compliment to this analysis, I would offer the following. Where Anton gets it wrong. The antecedent of “natural right” is the belief that there is one correct (read accurate) justification for societal morality (good/bad, right/wrong). And most importantly, that this immutable standard applies across the board to all humans on the planet for all of time. And the derivative of this belief is that all non-conforming members of the species are therefore dysfunctional and anti-societal, which opens the door to the imposition of a solution to this dysfunction. Once you believe that “natural right” is the equivalent of… Read more »

LineInTheSand
LineInTheSand
Reply to  TomA
1 year ago

Thanks TomA

“ERROR: Your comment was too short. Please go back and try your comment again.”

WCiv911
WCiv911
Reply to  LineInTheSand
1 year ago

I make my comment short n sweet, Sandy.

As Johnathan Haidt said, religion blinds n binds.

I contend that any moral civilization requires a religion.

Secular humanism has no moral bottom. W/O a core of moral absolutes, anything can be rationalized. W/O some divine origin for those absolutes, they cannot be absolutes. Subluna systems including secular humanism rests on sand.

The real Bill
The real Bill
Reply to  WCiv911
1 year ago

Except that Jonathan Haidt— who I knew personally, and drank the occasional beer with, back when he was a professor of the University of Virginia— is not religious.

Yet he strikes me as one of the most moral human beings I’ve ever met.

He’s a perfect example of how morality does not necessarily depend on religion.

LineInTheSand
LineInTheSand
Reply to  WCiv911
1 year ago

WCiv911, you may be right, which puts me in quite a bind: I can’t make myself believe, even when you list the benefits of believing.

This is why my long term strategy is two-fold: First, that whites must bind together as whites because even if we have deep divisions, the non-whites don’t care much about these divisions. Second, whites must adopt federalism, so that Christians and non-Christians can live separately and not irritate each other.

WCiv911
WCiv911
Reply to  WCiv911
1 year ago

Fair point Bill, but I would say that Jon was exceptional, smart, rations. However, a civilization populated by Haidt’s? I don’t think so.

The real Bill
The real Bill
Reply to  TomA
1 year ago

TomA, Great synopsis! I think you’re absolutely correct in tying a proper understanding of the present, to our evolutionary past. That’s where to go to find the real ‘human backstory’; seeing where we came from, and how we got to be the way we are. As interested as you are in nature, nurture, and human development, I’ll bet you’d enjoy reading about J. P. Rushton’s ‘Life History Theory’, in which he links different mating and parenting strategies to different life environments: https://radixjournal.substack.com/p/living-fast-dying-young * There do seem to be a few human traditions, or mores, or rules, which, like gravity, appear… Read more »

cg2
cg2
Reply to  The real Bill
1 year ago

My dog has self awareness and I ‘m pretty sure Dolphins have language.

The real Bill
The real Bill
Reply to  cg2
1 year ago

Yes, animals like dogs and horses are clearly aware. The question is, are they self-aware; that is, are they aware that they are aware?

miforest
Member
Reply to  cg2
1 year ago

you just think they do , but they don’t

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
1 year ago

Memphis under mandatory rolling blackouts as the TVA lets the NFL power the Titan’s stadium for this week’s sportsball match:

https://twitter.com/Mighty990KWAM/status/1606692869548703744

Remember the Third World shitholes Trump mentioned?

All of us are now living in one. Or maybe we have been and I’m finally noticing the truth.

wendy forward
wendy forward
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
1 year ago

And they lost to maybe the worst team in the NFL.

Bilejones
Member
1 year ago

One of things forgotten about Gorelick is that she was so trusted by the Regime that she was on the 9/11 commission.

krustykurmudgeon
krustykurmudgeon
1 year ago

I’ve been doing my own sleuthing the last week or so – and it’s interesting all the stuff I’ve uncovered. People talk about how the Clintons were a crime family of sorts – but I never realized Lyndon Johnson had his own crew. Mac Wallace, Billy Sol Estes and Cliff Carter were behind a lot of shenanigans in the 50s and 60s.

The difference is that you had a nice country at the end of the day and you could avoid dealing with said mafia if you wanted to and pretend it didn’t exist.

WCiv911
WCiv911
Reply to  krustykurmudgeon
1 year ago

Just some Christmas time musings. The advice passed on to us by our Founders, that our future depended upon our virtues, was ignored. Our leaders have lost any sense of righteousness or virtue and replaced it with a secular amoral relativism, and a selfish “nice guys finish last” mentality. Without a transcendent religion to guide us, there is no moral bottom, which means that we become a species no different than the simian, maybe worse, as our intellect allows us to be more creative in the evils we can concoct. Christians are not perfect but I’d sooner buy a used… Read more »

LineInTheSand
LineInTheSand
Reply to  WCiv911
1 year ago

“I’d sooner buy a used car from a Christian than a heathen Wokester.” Me too, and I’m a non-believer. Yet, maybe I’m not so unusual. Many of our Founders were “deists,” which I guess was a way to say “non-believer” back in those days. Jefferson, Washington, and Franklin, for example, never mentioned their commitment to Jesus, to the best of my knowledge. I’m happy to be educated on this point. Many of our Founders were also Freemasons, which looks to me like a means of networking for non-Christians. To be a Freemason, you had to believe is a grand designer… Read more »

The real Bill
The real Bill
Reply to  LineInTheSand
1 year ago

I believe you’re correct in your conclusion that many of the Founders were not in fact Christians. Matthew Stewart in his book ‘Nature’s God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic’ points out that at the time, renouncing Christianity was seen by the general public as a heretical act, likely to get you in a lot of trouble; sort of like what publicly announcing your race-realism would do today. So the Founders who rejected Christianity had to fake it: by every now and then making a statement which sounded as if they were affirming the Christian faith. Then, if and… Read more »

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  The real Bill
1 year ago

Ah, but the rejection of Christianity is not a rejection of God, nor His morality. Deist is not “atheist” from which a different take on the world stems.

Eloi
Eloi
Reply to  LineInTheSand
1 year ago

Not necessarily. Though deism certainly characterized some, most were simply Enlightenment Protestants. Even the Jefferson Bible glorifies Christ’s teachings, just not the miracles. The most deist of the founding fathers was Thomas Paine – his tract The Age of Reason is the book of deism, such as it may be – but most others were simply protestant. Deism, for the record, is not a belief system with concrete rules of worship. Instead, it emphasized the ability to understand divinity through a universe of laws. Basically, you could work back to divinity not through revelation but through science.

The real Bill
The real Bill
Reply to  WCiv911
1 year ago

WvCiv911, I used to think the same thing about buying a car from a Christian; until a friend who was a Christian told me about his experience about using the local ‘Christian Yellow Pages’. He said he had never encountered so many crooks and frauds. My guess is that these people figured out that posing as a Christian among a trusting and gullible Christian community made for a good scam. And I simply can’t agree with your statement that: “Without a transcendent religion to guide us, there is no moral bottom, which means that we become a species no different… Read more »

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  The real Bill
1 year ago

The problem with morality “independent” of reference to a religion or external source is how to decide whose morality is “correct” or prevails when two competing moralities meet. Heck, we even have this conflict now between some major religions. Imagine billions of atheists—each with his own moral “take”.

To say that I’ve met bad Christians and good atheists is a very narrow take on the problem.

LineInTheSand
LineInTheSand
Reply to  Compsci
1 year ago

Compsci writes, ‘The problem with morality “independent” of reference to a religion or external source is how to decide whose morality is “correct” or prevails when two competing moralities meet.’

I address this issue, as well as it can be addressed without an unquestionable lawgiver, in my post below at December 23, 2022 at 11:39 am. Response?

Dinodoxy
Dinodoxy
Reply to  Compsci
1 year ago

Christianity is a confessional faith. And it has been long settled in the theology that doxie belief is much more important than praxis ie practice or action. A person the hold heretical beliefs but follows righteous practices is still a heretic that can be sanctioned up to an including being killed for their bad beliefs. But a person that holds orthodox beliefs and falls short in practice – in action – is merely a sinner – who must be given the opportunity for repentance and forgiven. People have always intuitively recoiled from that dynamic with some sort of True belief… Read more »

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Compsci
1 year ago

LineInThe Sand. Yes, I read your reply after I posted my reply. If I could retract/delete my response above, I would. Th issue is obviously more complex than my initial poor thinking on the matter.

Well said, and worth consideration.

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  The real Bill
1 year ago

“Christian” is just a label. It’s a word. What I mean is that, as with a great many words, people hear it and it short-circuits the mind’s critical thinking skills. A deceitful person will call himself, his business, etc. “Christian.” Super-respectable, above board, no need to inquire any deeper, no Sir! Ah, if only it were that easy.

Although I’m no church-goer, I seem to recall many teachings by the Nazarene along the lines of: You could tell a tree by its fruits. And to beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing.

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
Reply to  WCiv911
1 year ago

“I’d sooner buy a used car from a Christian than a heathen Wokester”. like mitt romney, or jim bakker?

Drew
Drew
Reply to  karl von hungus
1 year ago

Well, it’s likely to be an ICE, which makes it much more reliable than the electric cars the woke are selling.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  karl von hungus
1 year ago

Again, we are not addressing the problem. Here you simply assume Mitt and Jim are really Christians and represent all Christians.

Dinodoxy
Dinodoxy
Reply to  Compsci
1 year ago

No True Christian …?

May well be true, but how does one identify a true Christian then?

The only real answer is that you do so because the person in question is known to you and other that you trust, ie a member of your community. At which point the label is superfluous – as you know the person with or without the label.

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
Reply to  Compsci
1 year ago

wherever you have sheep, you’re going to find wolves, too.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
1 year ago

“the regime is getting reckless” There it is. The USA has long been a garbage tier police state, and now has the corruption typical of the Third World, which it is despite appearances. As you point out, it can afford to be reckless because the thugs no longer even have to appear to be competent. The idiocy at the highest levels is astonishing, too. Again, the totalitarianism has long been in place but until a generation or less ago the humps and muscle were far smarter. In time, the currency will be worthless in large part due to other countries… Read more »

Coalclinker
Coalclinker
1 year ago

America today with its crypto money laundering and monetary system straight out of a Babylonian Temple from 6000 years ago is not unlike a maze full of well fed rats. The charade will go on until no more money (rat food) enters or transfers within the system, at which point the rats will devour each other to the smallest bone. I could say witnessing their total destruction is awesome, except we’re all baby rats in a litter and we know who gets eaten first. At least we have guns, so perhaps there is a chance for “justus” some day when… Read more »

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
1 year ago

Late thought: would any of this byzantine financialization be possible without an income tax code?

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Alzaebo
1 year ago

Yes, it would be the same. Income taxes at this point are punitive control mechanisms rather than sources of revenue. In the near future all hard assets will be seized outright. We are within a decade of central banks refusing to use the dollar as a reserve currency. The charade is about to run its course.

Drew
Drew
Reply to  Alzaebo
1 year ago

It depends. The specific aspect of the income tax that enables the grift is paycheck withholding. If people took home their entire paycheck and had to pay a lump sum each year, the government would have gone bankrupt or austere years ago. A good part of the reason that the various levels of government are so in bed with businesses is not so much bribery, but rather the reality that businesses are a de facto IRS agent, and are the main entities that collect taxes. Imagine how large the IRS would have to be if had to deal directly with… Read more »

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  Drew
1 year ago

Cogent. IRS Code also is a de-facto tool of welfare and subsidy to further various policy goals. Of course the super rich individuals and corporations have the most to win, but even us peons get a few crumbs. For example, like millions, I get “free” Obamacare. The funding is technically via the tax code, called an advance premium tax credit. Of course there are plenty more examples to be found. In fact, I would be very surprised if you have not taken advantage of some of them.

Pozymandias
Reply to  Ben the Layabout
1 year ago

The real system here seems to be a kind of dual-tier socialism through the “welfare-warfare” state. The stupid people make do with the bottom tier, welfare. The smarter people get to partake in the warfare state through the fact that some rather large percentage of the good paying jobs, since the end of WWII really, have been directly or indirectly concerned with “defense” (really empire) work. Most of my jobs were in the “defense” sector years ago and I reluctantly give that system credit for getting my career going. You can think of these two aspects of the system as… Read more »

Abelard Lindsey
Abelard Lindsey
1 year ago

Corruption has always existed in politics and some of the corruption during the Gilded Age (late 19th, early 20th century) was legendary. But I think the current wave of corruption got underway during Clinton and has snowballed ever since. What we long suspected about the links between the tech giants and the spy agencies is now coming to light. None of it actually surprises me, although it seems as though many others are surprised. This process started with Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter. But I think the FTX debacle has brought a lot more to light.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Abelard Lindsey
1 year ago

Musk seems to have been genuinely surprised. It is astonishing how the uber wealthy are so detached from reality now. The propaganda works as long as the electricity stays on.

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Jack Dobson
1 year ago

Jack: Agree. I’m not particularly pro or anti Musk, and only know what I read about him, but at least per the media reports he comes off as genuinely surprised by the degree of collusion and corruption. I never pictured him as naif, but he certainly seems as though he previously considered Twitter a legitimate independent business, other than some inflated numbers and bots and extra diversity hires.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  3g4me
1 year ago

Outside of him being the biggest welfare queen in history, I know little about Bezos, either. His cluelessness should be a lesson for us. Some powerful and seemingly intelligent people are as blissfully ignorant as conservatards.

LineInTheSand
LineInTheSand
Reply to  3g4me
1 year ago

Ramzpaul’s explanation for why Musk bought twitter is that he was mad that the Babylon Bee was banned from twitter. The Bee is hilarious!

Dinodoxy
Dinodoxy
Reply to  Jack Dobson
1 year ago

Bullshit.

Musk is connected.

His takeover of twitter is one branch of the deep state fighting another branch.

Best case is that Musk’s branch still feels some connection / loyalty to the US as opposed to the globalist crew that doesn’t.

Bilejones
Member
Reply to  Dinodoxy
1 year ago

I put this on Sailer’s place yesterday.

Two people who I would not want to get on my case have had a look at the new Elon Musk and his even newer Twitter.
James Corbett and Whitney Webb here:

https://www.corbettreport.com/interview-1776-behind-the-twitter-files-hype-on-unlimited-hangout/

As always, extensively sourced and footnoted up the wazoo.

TonierSoaprano
TonierSoaprano
1 year ago

Private colleges/universities with massive landscaping budgets are the domestic FTX without any of the sand, surf, steel drums, cricket matches, but probably similar level of Rx drug abuse. These venerable institutions teach nothing, advance no civilizational or free-market objectives, and depend intrinsically on wealth transfers from the public fisc along with their facilities’ immunity from property tax and the endowment racket. Any politician claiming now to be a Republican who does not avow the seizure and shutdown of Big Mortarboard is, to use the technical term from the 2016 primary TV debates, a joke artist

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  TonierSoaprano
1 year ago

You are definitely on to something. The big one is the tax exemption, but that’s another story. Higher Ed is long overdue for a haircut. Where in the world can any “business” sell a product which in essence is a piece of paper with your name on it for 5+ years of your time and $50k+? Only to the young and naive who tolerate such while partying those 5 years away in other pursuits of greater meaning (sex, drugs, and rock and roll?). Heck, I’ve got a few of those pieces of paper. That was then, this is now. As… Read more »

Bilejones
Member
1 year ago

So I’m expecting a Zman piece on peace.

Baltimore gotta be full of peace in these 24 hours of nut freezing cold.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Bilejones
1 year ago

The spearchuckers tend to hunker down with their 40’s and hos when it gets cold. Baltimore may be more peaceful than normal.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
1 year ago

Okay, folks, how long before Bankman, dressed in a dirty t-shirt, makes a televised speech before Congress?

Pozymandias
Reply to  Alzaebo
1 year ago

People will be scrutinizing that video carefully. What is the meaning of the oddly shaped Cheeto stain over the left manboob? Is that hot sauce or blood near the waistline?

Actually, this essay today reminded me of Johnny Carson’s old bit where he donned a preposterous “Eastern soothsayer” hat (surely a hate crime today) and pretended to know the contents of envelopes he’d pull out of a bin. Is this what we’ve been reduced to now?

PeriheliusLux
PeriheliusLux
Reply to  Pozymandias
1 year ago

Btw, who in their right mind would be involved in sexual hedonism with SBF and that girl of his.

Talk about deranged. Let’s hope those sex tapes never leak.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Alzaebo
1 year ago

That would be awesome.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
1 year ago

Ah, shoot! Since we’re talking about entrenched corruption and financial collapse, Merry Christmas, everybody!

trackback
1 year ago

[…] ZMan looks behind the curtain. (He has a stronger stomach than I do.) […]

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
1 year ago

No. Say it ain’t so. It can’t be.
You mean Woodsy the Drug Owl is the spawn of Hatchetwoman Gorelick?

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Alzaebo
1 year ago

Oops my bad

Poor eyes missed the period and the word “lawyer”

Hey we’re waking up early here
This is me springing into action

Firewire7
Firewire7
1 year ago

TomA, it was Thoreau who said, “There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.”

In this amazing age we live in, EVERYONE has a knowable name and address.

TomA
TomA
Reply to  Firewire7
1 year ago

Yes, and that’s a two-way street. And if you’re on a beach, it pretty hard to find a specific grain of sand.

Tars Tarkas
Tars Tarkas
1 year ago

This whole SBF thing stinks to the high heavens. His co-conspirators all plead guilty already. WHAT?! WHY?! You can’t plea guilty to shoplifting in such a short time frame. It takes longer to go to traffic court for a speeding ticket. They don’t even know yet to the extent they would possibly need any cooperation. Does anyone believe they have fully went over the books and transactions and unwound all this in the time frame since the bankruptcy? ALL OF THEM should be getting life in prison without parole. No deals, at least not yet. Why all of them? People… Read more »

The real Bill
The real Bill
Reply to  Tars Tarkas
1 year ago

So true!

If you had put classified information on your private server— like Hillary Clinton did— you’d be in jail.

If you had lied to congress— like James Clapper did— you’d be in jail.

If you had released classified information to your Columbia professor buddy— like James Comey did— you’d be in jail.

If you had set foot in the US Capitol on January 6, you’d be in jail.

JerseyJeffersonian
JerseyJeffersonian
Reply to  The real Bill
1 year ago

Yes, one of these things is not like the others.

Who, whom, as clear as can be.

Bourbon
Bourbon
Reply to  Tars Tarkas
1 year ago

Z: “The one thing we know is it was a money laundering operation to move cash into the pockets of politicians and connected people in the regime. To no one’s surprise, there is a Ukraine angle here. Apparently, Ukraine was taking money handed over by Washington and putting some of it into crypto accounts on the FTX exchange, allegedly to pay their own people…” The other day, I was throwing around the idea that the purpose of having TWO MILLION new illegal aliens each year was to create enough welfare payments to keep BlackRock from going tits up [with 12… Read more »

Vajynabush
Vajynabush
Reply to  Bourbon
1 year ago

Jeff Bezos is not Jewish

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Bourbon
1 year ago

Bourbon, I think your economic scenario is spot on, it’s the very structure of the C40 smart cities plan: a bifurcated Cloud economy of trading real assets, underneath it a prole economy of CBDC consumer chits. The old coal mine Company Store model. As to the Jesuits, look at the board of directors. All these NGO charities have a modern legal structure; for example, the major “Christian” immigrant relocation services have gutted and hollowed out with HIAS “early life” boards of directors. It’s another version of what today’s references, of backwashing government service payments into campaign donations, like the unions… Read more »

Bourbon
Bourbon
Reply to  Alzaebo
1 year ago

Alzaebo, it took me about two days to try to grok what you’re talking about there; in particular, are you saying that there was a strong correlation between having been a Grand Wizard and having owned a Company Store?

If so, is there any literature about the phenomenon?

Thanks.

Pozymandias
Reply to  Bourbon
1 year ago

I think this is the new pattern of crime today. If I wanted to “go rogue”, and believe me the futility of honest work is ever more apparent, I would have a huge problem. I wouldn’t know where or with whom to start. Real prosperity in this century is going to come from knowing the people who can help you determine which laws it’s safe to break, and what to do with the ill gotten gains. Maybe eventually there will be a VR headset AR (augmented reality) app. You see a Jesuit priest. I see the guy who can send… Read more »

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Tars Tarkas
1 year ago

So true.

Win election, go bust.
Cools heels in Caribbean data haven

Signature bond, (no money, just a promise to pay)
Released to family mansion

Plea deal
No clawback
And it all goes away faster than a retraction by the CDC

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Tars Tarkas
1 year ago

SBF likely will get a sweet deal as well. The police state apparatus will claim is was necessary to do for “national security.” Just another day in the Banana Empire.

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  Tars Tarkas
1 year ago

$250 million cash bond too is apparently a bit of a mystery. The family is affluent, but not THAT affluent.

The real Bill
The real Bill
1 year ago

Hey, SBF was part of the ‘Effective Altruism movement’! He may have been a grifter; but he was only doing it in order to be able to help others! It turns out, though, that his altruism virtue-signaling was merely a smokescreen: like the egalitarian anti-racists, who talk like MLK, but live like KKK; SBF was living anything but a simple, thrifty lifestyle: “The story commonly told about Bankman-Fried was that he drove a beat-up Toyota Corolla, slept on a beanbag, and had nine roommates. MacAskill repeated this fable to me, characterizing it as evidence of Bankman-Fried’s profound commitment to the… Read more »

The real Bill
The real Bill
Reply to  The real Bill
1 year ago

And that should be ‘gassing’,
not ‘guessing’

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  The real Bill
1 year ago

“…it was a charity!
Kind of like the Clinton Foundation.”

LOL
Whenever a bell rings
Another angel has got her wings

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  The real Bill
1 year ago

The real Bill: Both words work. Excellent comment, by the way.

The real Bill
The real Bill
Reply to  3g4me
1 year ago

Thanks. I appreciate your kind words.

Tars Tarkas
Tars Tarkas
Reply to  The real Bill
1 year ago

It’s all “Antisemitism”

Every! Single! Time!

Stop noticing, bigot.

Jack Boniface
Jack Boniface
Member
1 year ago

From that wiki of Gorelick you linked to, her other jobs: Amazon board of directors. Lawyer for BP after the 2010 oil spill. Lawyer for Jared Kushner. Member of 9/11 Commission. Lawyer for Duke U after the 2006 Lacrosse Scandal. MacArthur Foundation. Carnegie Endowment.

The real Bill
The real Bill
Reply to  Jack Boniface
1 year ago

And what do you know! She is Jewish as well. Who could’ve guessed?

Xin Loi
Xin Loi
Reply to  The real Bill
1 year ago

Every…single…time

Tempazpan
Tempazpan
Reply to  The real Bill
1 year ago

SHUT IT DOWN!!!

If I were a rich man, yabba-dabba-dabba-dabba-dabba-DABBA-dabba-dum…

Cruciform
Cruciform
Reply to  Jack Boniface
1 year ago

Oh she’s a real looker that one. Ever think people that homely make better crooks? They may steal all the money, but they still are stuck looking at themselves in the mirror every day.. Then again, maybe there is nothing IN the mirror when they look. Oh, hold on, someone is knocking at my door. It’s Hillary and Sam, should I invite them in. Tough weather today up in Maine, Salem’s Lot is really nicely decorated for Festivus this year. Wait, uh Hillary and Sam are not knocking on my door … they are … gulp… knocking on my window.… Read more »

Bartleby the Scrivner
Bartleby the Scrivner
Reply to  Cruciform
1 year ago

As Austin Powers would say,

“That’s a man, baby”.

Bourbon
Bourbon
Reply to  Jack Boniface
1 year ago

During the Clinton Administration, Jamie Gorelick was responsible for erecting the “Wall of Separation”, which forbade the intelligence agencies from sharing information with law enforcement agencies. In retrospect, Jamie Gorelick must have been working at the behest of the Mossad, which would have already been deep into the planning stages of The Great 9-11 Grift. That towel-headed fellow, Ramzi Yousef, must have planted the idea into their heads [when he attempted to destroy the World Trade Center in 1993], and then it dawned on the Sanhedrin that ackshually successfully bringing down the World Trade Center could be the Mother of… Read more »

Vajynabush
Vajynabush
Reply to  Bourbon
1 year ago

Jeff Bezos is not Jewish

OldCurmudgeon
OldCurmudgeon
Reply to  Jack Boniface
1 year ago

She’s also drafted the so-called ‘wall of separation’ policy widely credited with allowing 9/11…failed upward from that disaster into perhaps the most coveted position in DC, CEO of Fannie Mae, where she oversaw the housing meltdown.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2008/09/mistress_of_disaster_jamie_gor.html

PatS
Member
1 year ago

100 years ago we would’ve seen people with tar and pitchforks chasing these guys and others.
Today it’s ignored or people grab popcorn and start watching the show.
We are a fully coward society.
Look up the word “nice” and trace back its original meaning.
We are cursed nice peoples. We have stopped forming our lives to meet the Biblical teachings, instead we interpret it to meet out bulgar and shallow lives.

Larval
Larval
Reply to  PatS
1 year ago

We had a kid, looked similar to Bagman Freed, named Cohen. I shit you not. No worries about doxing them, around here there’s thousands of Cohens. Summer camp way back when. He got mad, swiped out and scratched another kids face. He had long nails. Then he started to cry. We were 12, so that, plus the rest, did not go over well and he got no sympathy. Just the opposite. We took up a vote and asked to have him transferred to another bunkhouse. Plus he threw like a fucking girl and we had a good bunch, except him.… Read more »

Vizzini
Member
Reply to  Larval
1 year ago

I bet the bunkhouse that got saddled with him was very happy.

Bourbon
Bourbon
Reply to  Larval
1 year ago

Larval: “He got mad, swiped out and scratched another kids face. He had long nails. Then he started to cry.”

It cries out as it strikes you.

I Forgot my Pen
I Forgot my Pen
1 year ago

Paul Gottfried just wrote a piece at American Greatness re the natural rights argument made by Anton.

https://amgreatness.com/2022/12/22/contra-michael-anton-and-americas-natural-right-underpinnings/

LineInTheSand
LineInTheSand
Reply to  I Forgot my Pen
1 year ago

Anton’s challenge is strong: if you don’t commit to a universalist ethics, or a religious one, then what is left but the war of all against all? Few people but Nietzsche find such a state of affairs appealing. The answer lies in history and anthropology. This answer is philosophically unsatisfying but it is all that we can have, outside of religion. What actually happened before states? Yes, there were warlords but there was also a sense of ethics that arose among peoples. For Europeans, some of these ethics were beliefs like innocent people should not be killed, theft is wrong,… Read more »

Chet Rollins
Chet Rollins
Reply to  LineInTheSand
1 year ago

> Outside of religion, that’s probably the best that we can do. Europe was universal in religion for centuries, but the ethics of the people was vastly different, with a myriad of different virtues and vices based on their genetic makeup and cultural history. You could see this even in the art. You can have an overarching religious framework and still have different ways of structuring society, including how stringently a society regulates its vices. Gottfried makes a solid point that Natural Law is a more cohesive framework to work off of, even if the sands even here are a… Read more »

LineInTheSand
LineInTheSand
Reply to  Chet Rollins
1 year ago

Chet writes about “a myriad of different virtues and vices based on their genetic makeup and cultural history.”

Help me out with a few examples of ancient northern whites with these differences, please.

“Natural Law is a more cohesive framework to work off of.” The problems that I have with Natural Law are the same that I have with universalist religions: I don’t believe that they are true and they almost inevitably lead to Somalis in Idaho, for example.

The real Bill
The real Bill
Reply to  LineInTheSand
1 year ago

LineInTheSand, So many good points! Philosophers are frustrated because their word-games demand a foundation on which to construct moral certainties; but unfortunately for them, Reality doesn’t supply one. Religious myths purport to supply a foundation, but that foundation crumbles as well when those myths are recognized as being man-made. Anthropology reveals that there are universal intuitions, which virtually all people-groups seem to have affirmed: don’t lie to your fellow tribesman; don’t seduce your fellow tribesman’s wife; don’t steal from your fellow tribesman; when your tribesman does you a favor, you owe him one in return. So these appear to be… Read more »

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  The real Bill
1 year ago

The real Bill: Aside from the bit about religion, where you and I disagree, a truly stellar comment sir. Rigorously and logically argued and extrapolated. Much more satisfying – and rational – than the trope of “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

The real Bill
The real Bill
Reply to  3g4me
1 year ago

Thanks!

It’s precisely because not all Americans agree about religion, that religious verities can’t supply the foundation we need for constructing a common morality.

In contrast, our evolutionary backstory is something we all have in common. That’s what I look to when I want to understand what we humans are like, and how we got here.

Pozymandias
Reply to  LineInTheSand
1 year ago

As I understand anthropology political power began as small cells which eventually merged into great empires and states. This is an interesting parallel with natural evolution in fact. Power is the primal thing, “natural law”, religion, “rights”, all arise later as people try to explain and justify things. Some powerful men must even have felt embarrassed by it all. It can’t be just naked force. Even though I’m king I don’t want to rule by whim and caprice. There must be some higher law. So you get the philosopher-king. Now in practice I’m a believer in the US’s 10 amendments,… Read more »

Pozymandias
Reply to  Pozymandias
1 year ago

Oops, that last dangling sentence was something I was editing out and forgot to delete, just some textual debris if you will. There used to be an edit button…

The real Bill
The real Bill
Reply to  Pozymandias
1 year ago

Pozymandias, As I expect you’re aware, for most of our human pre-history, we all lived in roving hunter-gatherer bands, made up of our extended family and their spouses. Because we had to carry everything we owned with us, there was very little disparity in wealth. It wasn’t until humans started settling down into cities, that hierarchies of wealth and power emerged. The first anatomically-modern human skeletons show up about 300,000 years ago; but it wasn’t until around 10,000 or 15,000 years ago that humans started settling down into cities. Taking modern hunter-gatherer groups and Indian tribes as our model, the… Read more »

TomA
TomA
1 year ago

Now connect the dots. What cannot go on forever, will not go on forever. Like all Ponzi schemes, the bubble will eventually burst, and not even the Fed can print enough fake money to keep the plates spinning and the government solvent. There will be a collapse. But then what? The last remain cohort of the productive has been building anger at the Crazy for at least a decade now, and the hidden internal pressure is quite extreme. Because the managerial elite is insulated from this pressure, they do not sense how extreme it is. And this is a formula… Read more »

Outdoorspro
Outdoorspro
Reply to  TomA
1 year ago

Tom, I while I appreciate the “back the blue” sentiment, I think you may be a bit off the mark. That dutiful cop on the riot line has been shown time and time again to be an unquestioning enforcer of the State. They will protect the state’s goons (BLM, Antifa) and let them riot freely, while busting the skulls of the rest of us. I suspect your sentiment may hold a little truer in small towns, where the cops are our neighbors and friends, but most of the mindless drones who are taking over the ranks of the large PDs… Read more »

The real Bill
The real Bill
Reply to  Outdoorspro
1 year ago

I agree: there are cops, and there are cops. Certainly in George Floyd America, no sensible White person is joining the police force; and many are retiring as soon as they can. Police forces across the nation are understaffed, and unable to fill those positions. Aside from lowering standards further and further, until they can recruit the desired numbers; what we’re probably going to see— if the Democrats succeed in giving citizenship to those “however many there are” millions of illegal aliens— as many of them are joining the police force. Likewise in the military: I think it’s likely that… Read more »

Hemid
Hemid
Reply to  The real Bill
1 year ago

A number came out earlier this week. Of “active personnel” subject to covid vaccine mandates, ~8000 refused for any reason. That’s the maximum number who’ll disobey an order to slaughter the deplorables. It’s half of one percent. The regime’s purge of the services is superfluous. There are statistically zero “patriots” anywhere in the ranks. Of course that’s no reason not to purge away. Our rulers viscerally enjoy seeing a stereotypical soldier boy stripped of all but his bad haircut and shuffled out under the guard of his Netflix adaptation—and they want us to see it, too. Similarly, they *will* use… Read more »

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Hemid
1 year ago

I suspect that none of this really matters. If the time comes, the police will be outnumbered. Here in my city, any big happening—such as accident, weather event, protest and the like draws enough police such that the rest of the city is unsupervised or minimally supervised. Image a riot of BLM protest size, occurring simultaneously with another protest/riot or civil disobedience demonstration or attack. Not enough resources to cover both. If the times get as dangerous as one imagines, the police won’t be seen. Perhaps the National Guard, but even they take time to assemble…and why should they assemble… Read more »

Outdoorspro
Outdoorspro
Reply to  Hemid
1 year ago

“The regime’s purge of the services is superfluous. There are statistically zero “patriots” anywhere in the ranks.”

That’s not entirely true. There are plenty left, they’ve just learned to stay quiet and fly under the radar. I’m not sure if there’s enough to make a difference if/when it hits the fan, but they are still there.

To be fair though, The military is reflective of their civilian counterparts. Most people are content to obey the rules, whatever they are, just to avoid trouble. The vast, vast majority of humans will do anything to avoid in-person conflict.

TonierSoaprano
TonierSoaprano
Reply to  Hemid
1 year ago

Some years ago gadfly web columnist Fred Reed remarked on the inevitability of separate, racially segregated police departments in major U.S. metros, since the only alternative was to transfer the troublesome contingent to the modern equivalent of Indian-reservation non-concentration-camps, and there’s certainly no political coalition for that latter option. I think he wrote that after that woman in Louisville who was employed conveying paper bags of cash for one of her drug-merchant boyfriends was ventilated during a no-knock SWAT raid where they actually knocked (supposedly). At the time I thought this unlikely to happen within the next decade, what with… Read more »

Mike
Mike
Reply to  TomA
1 year ago

In a case like you are talking about, we’ll see how long the blue line stands and holds. I’m thinking by that point, they’ll be in the every man for himself mode. They know they aren’t safe and especially their families aren’t safe. The elite won’t be safe at all in this hypothetical scenario.

Outdoorspro
Outdoorspro
Reply to  Mike
1 year ago

In the type of place where I live, when that line disolves I can imagine many of the cops just fading away to rejoin their friends and families. We all have our own skill sets which can be combined to form a community that looks after each other. In the big cities…erm…not so much. I expect the vibrants who make up much of their police departments to essentially become thier own gang. They are the ones I’d be most worried about. “Back the Blue” only makes sense when The Blue is an integral part of the community. Otherwise, they are… Read more »

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Outdoorspro
1 year ago

New Orleans after Katrina proves Outdoor’s model. As far as I know, the white cops disappeared, the black cops grabbed guns and started robbing people.

The same thing goes on at the border towns with Mexico cops, they jump in on the side of Cartel or take off their uniforms and fade.

I.M. Brute
I.M. Brute
Reply to  Outdoorspro
1 year ago

As I recall, Dr. William Pierce warned about a future nonwhite military and police basically persecuting the white minority in The Turner Diaries.

Steve
Steve
Reply to  Mike
1 year ago
Bartleby the Scrivner
Bartleby the Scrivner
Reply to  Steve
1 year ago

Steve

Thank you for posting the link to Brakens piece.

I’ve been beating the drum about it on here for a while.

A good quick read.

Let’s hope it’s prescient.

TomA
TomA
Reply to  TomA
1 year ago

I should have been more clear with my messaging. The elites want a war between patriots and LEOs because that kills off the maximum number of good guys. Don’t play that game. You can have a much bigger impact on the real problem by staying out of harms way during the collapse and then being available when the time is right, not locked up like the Jan 6th protestors. They will soon begin implementing false flag OPs with the explicit purpose of luring good men into bad traps, simply to justify locking up large numbers of potentials. Get out of… Read more »

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  TomA
1 year ago

To extrapolate a bit. The King’s hired men ARE the enemy of the common folk if for no other reason than they are hired mercenaries. Otherwise their crossbow, pike and musket would not be pointed at us. Big changes will not occur until if and when the hired men decide it’s time to turn on their paymasters.

Yes, the disease cells are the ultimate target. The real issue is how do we get the immune system on our side.

RedBeard
RedBeard
1 year ago

This level of corruption may only be possible with digital systems. In the past, I imagine physical wealth had to be procured or at least services and privileges rendered to bribe people. Once our wealth became ones and zeros on computers the flood gates opened and many natural restraints were lifted. Someday we’ll probably look back and wonder how childish we were. I wonder if cavemen ever started forrest fires and wondered “Oh shit, we better be careful with this new technology!”

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
1 year ago

As usual, a good essay. I’m not denying his use of the old saying “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” Yet I offer readers a novelty: a personal comment actually informed by my own first-hand experience. In one of my volunteer “jobs” I’m a dog walker, and it is indeed possible to teach them new tricks.

The real Bill
The real Bill
Reply to  Ben the Layabout
1 year ago

Yep: in human beings, “neural plasticity”— unexpected the ability of our brains to continue to grow and adapt, to rewire themselves when we have new experiences— was probably the most striking finding in neuroscience in the past 10 years.

joeyjünger
joeyjünger
1 year ago

I had to look up “polycule.” To me it sounded like some invasive, microscopic organism, or like the “animalcules” Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek observed in raindrops. The actual definition isn’t much better, and since Bankman Fried and Caroline Ellison are hideous to look upon, there isn’t even salacious element to distract people this time out. Bankman Fried’s wartime laundering is right up there (or down there) with Madoff’s stealing money from pediatric oncology clinics. Making money off mass murder or kids is with cancer is sort of a six of one, half a dozen of the other situation. His… Read more »

Redpill Boomer
Redpill Boomer
Reply to  joeyjünger
1 year ago

Being a dirty old man, I’m familiar with polyamory, but even so, I mistakenly thought the term was “polycube.” This would require at least 6 people, IMHO. I used to think the concept was hot but seeing pics of Sam and his main squeeze kind of ruined it for me.

Maus
Maus
Reply to  joeyjünger
1 year ago

I suspect Hollywood has attempted to program expectation of rich grifter sexual relations along the DiCaprio/Robbie in Wolf of Wall Street lines. Hence the deflating experience of reality presented by SBF and Woodsy Owl. Charlie Sheen must be thoroughly mystified, unless he figures SBF just didn’t have access to sufficient tiger blood.

usNthem
usNthem
1 year ago

First off Merry Christmas to Z and all who participate here. Secondly, that Ellison babe is some kind of ugly – even worse than coyote ugly. She’s the poster girl for “put a bag over her head”. Thirdly, Zelensky is now slobberingly being compared to the greatest statesman of all time (lol), Winnie Churchill – and Lindy Graham is saying the only way the war ends is with Russia’s total defeat and Putin’s elimination. Fourthly, I sincerely hope if/when the nukes start flying that DC is the first to go and I get to see it before my area goes… Read more »

Chet Rollins
Chet Rollins
Reply to  usNthem
1 year ago

Well, old Winston did destroy Britain with his actions, so it might not be that bad of a comparison.

Marko
Marko
Reply to  Chet Rollins
1 year ago

Though Winston did have a long history in fighting and politics, and writing besides. I don’t like him, but he was a statesman of another age.

Zelensky was on TV and played a piano with his penis.

Barnard
Barnard
Reply to  Marko
1 year ago

Right, Churchill was born into the English aristocracy near its apex. He wanted Great Britain to continue to be the most powerful nation in the world, which he saw as his duty. He royally screwed it up, but he was an intelligent man who had actual combat experience for the British Empire. What an insult to be compared to the clown prince of Ukraine, a totally insignificant nation we have no interest in defending. In our age where elite morons think Churchill singlehandly won WWII the comparison shouldn’t be that surprising though.

Groid
Groid
Reply to  Chet Rollins
1 year ago

Somewhat hyperbolic

Vizzini
Member
Reply to  usNthem
1 year ago

Oh, baby!

comment image

I Forgot my Pen
I Forgot my Pen
Reply to  usNthem
1 year ago

Merry Christmas to Z Man and all this blog’s readership. Thank you all for making this the most thought-provoking space on the internet. Not sure how he does it, but Z Man seems to ensure the nuts stay away, so thanks for that. I’ve learned and had my mind open to new avenues just as much from the readership here as to the essays themselves. Even when I don’t agree, the discussions truly help one critically think, and that is rare on the right with conservative inc sites. Would be awesome to get this group together for a “Zevolution” conference.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  usNthem
1 year ago

The inevitable sex tape of those grotesque Jews bumping nasty will need a trigger warning.

LineInTheSand
LineInTheSand
Reply to  usNthem
1 year ago

In my life, Churchill and Lincoln have undergone similar transformations in my mind. I was raised to admire them both almost as gods and now I see them as misguided at best and deliberate traitors to my people at worst.

Marko
Marko
1 year ago

There’s a Chewish stereotype that they are always stirring up trouble, always playing brinksmanship, and then relying on fortune, serendipity, and connections, to win in the end. (Or at least, not collapse entirely in the end.) There have been a number of TV shows with this character. Washington watches this kind of TV, and I’m afraid they may have internalized the soap operatics and think they live in a Netflix show. 10 or so years ago, the talk was that House of Cards was popular with the regime. (And, curiously, the Chinese regime watched it to learn about American or… Read more »

TonierSoaprano
TonierSoaprano
Reply to  Marko
1 year ago

Well, they are also proud fans of goody two-shoes Potomac stories — e.g. The West Thing, and its tackier children like the various Viacom dramas about crusading lawyers or the one that had Tea Leoni as a stand-in for the Witch of Arkansas — as well as the Tom Clancy/Don Bellisario aspie-gun-nut fairy tales. Even though the torture portion was maybe a bit uncomfortable I assume the decisive civil-servant heroism depicted in “Zero Dark Thirty” was congenial to most striped-pants functionaries at various GAE outposts. Hell, they even lauded the various Armando Iannucci comedies which portray the Atlanticist overclass as… Read more »

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  TonierSoaprano
1 year ago

The pathetic and repulsive political sleaze in D.C. can barely read and write, so the teevee functions as search engine for them. If you ever interface with them the utter idiocy is the first thing you notice. Of course they believe what is on the tube. Basically the only people who still believe anything printed in the Washington Post, to the degree they even can understand it, are Republican senators and congressmen. The open sleaze on K Street tend to be smarter but in recent years even they have dumbed down. I suspect most of them still have enough sense… Read more »

LineInTheSand
LineInTheSand
Reply to  Jack Dobson
1 year ago

“The pathetic and repulsive political sleaze in D.C. can barely read and write”

Yet their boot is on our throat.

Chet Rollins
Chet Rollins
1 year ago

Some day fifty years from now it will be common knowledge that over half of tech investments were money laundering operations to pay cronies. In one of the interviews Bankman explained his “revolutionary” the business model, arbitrage, which every crypto guy with even a modicum of competence did as a matter of habit. Even the dumbest guy in the room in the investment rounds knew when the guy was playing Fortnite this was a clown and a fall guy. Another 20-30% probably used the investment philosophy of “throw so much money it’s impossible to fail”. For some companies with competence,… Read more »

Pozymandias
Reply to  thezman
1 year ago

So SBF was trying to become the American government in miniature? Oh shit, we can’t find XXX billion that we thought we had – better print up some more notes/coins.

Maxda
Maxda
1 year ago

The open corruption in DC is reaching some kind of peak. Obviously Bankman-Fried and Zelensky’s scams are related. FTX was one (of probably many) money-laundering mechanisms they’ve been using for the vast sums of U.S. taxpayer funds being routed through the Ukraine. Printing up that much cash and skimming it out of the U.S. economy is going to cause a lot of inflation – maybe ay an unsustainable level.

These two clowns remind me of Jugurtha showing up in Rome and speaking to the Senate after bribing enough Senators to ensure he got what he wanted.

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
Reply to  thezman
1 year ago

mitt romney’s kid has a ukraine connection, too.

Good ol' Rebel
Good ol' Rebel
Reply to  karl von hungus
1 year ago

You mean Mitt Romney’s wife’s kid has a connection….
With a “man” like that, assuming paternity is iffy at best.

Range Front Fault
Range Front Fault
Reply to  karl von hungus
1 year ago

In October 2011, Romney announced that Joseph Cofer Black, who had served in the CIA since 1974, had been selected as a special adviser to Romney election team. Cofer Black also had a no show job on the board of Burisma at the same time as Hunter Biden. Black trained for covert operations and eventually became the director of the National Counterterrorism Center from 1999 until 2002. After September 11, 2001, Black was appointed ambassador at large and coordinator for counterterrorism in December 2002 by President George W. Bush. John Brennan succeeded Black in his job as director of the National Counterterrorism… Read more »

Bilejones
Member
Reply to  karl von hungus
1 year ago

And Pelosi’s Spawn.

What are the odds a kid
Biden
Romney
Peloso
Kerry

All at the same gas company half way around the world. None of them smart enough to read the meter.

Mr C
Mr C
Reply to  Bilejones
1 year ago

What a great idea for a sitcom.

libdis
libdis
Reply to  thezman
1 year ago

And nothing, absolutely nothing, will be done……….

Reply to  thezman
1 year ago

Zelensky’s demand for more funds is a shakedown. He kept quiet when Trump was investigating Ruling Class corruption, and probably has the receipts going back all the way to the Obama Senatorial term. He has played ball and followed the terms laid out by his NATO handlers, to and past the point where Russia had to retaliate. He protected his handlers when Giuliani came sniffing around. And now he’s demanding more. Quite certain there is a deadman’s switch holding back all the communications, routing numbers, and tracking of every dollar going through that country and into the hands of politicians… Read more »

The real Bill
The real Bill
Reply to  A. Livingstone
1 year ago

Or it could be that SBF will cop a plea deal, like Wang and Ellison have no doubt already done. Once Wang and Ellison have testified under oath to SBF’s part in it all, he won’t be able to feign ignorance.

They had to get rid of Epstein— too many important people were implicated in various sorts of tawdry sexual practices— but SBF’s crimes merely involved money.

He’ll cop a plea— perhaps including a nondisclosure agreement, to prevent the public learning exactly where all that money went— and will quickly be memory-holed.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  The real Bill
1 year ago

Heck, Ellison is getting a $20 million award as a “whistle-blower.”

Zip it! No dirty jokes, you.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  thezman
1 year ago

The most astonishing piece is that everyone knows it and no one cares. That trashy aspect is straight up Third World behavior.

Pozymandias
Reply to  thezman
1 year ago

This Uke corruption isn’t all bad. Eventually, the real roll-on-the-floor punchline will be when they find out some of the arms shipments went to the actual Russians. The KGB, er excuse me FSB, knows a thing or two about shady arms deals. We had to arm the Russians to defeat the Russians…

Dinodoxy
Dinodoxy
Reply to  thezman
1 year ago

“Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.”

mikey
mikey
Reply to  Maxda
1 year ago

Printing up that much cash and skimming it out of the U.S. economy is going to cause a lot of inflation – maybe ay an unsustainable level.
Taking cash out of the US economy would be the only way to stem inflation, since the problem is too much cash. You must be an employee of the Federal Reserve.