Bankman-crickets / Musk-endlessly fascinating

[temporal1]

Bankman-crickets / Musk-endlessly fascinating

The vastly different public response to Sam Bankman-Fried (FTX) versus Elon Musk (Twitter) has been jarring.
Including on this forum. Pages+pages of emotional outpouring on evil Musk.

Could it be? - - blatant+routine partisan hypocrisy? uhhh.

NYT may be tip-toeing in:


Why the Crypto Collapse Matters
The failure of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX put the entire industry under scrutiny.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/17/brie ... e-ftx.html

How could a $32 billion company vaporize overnight?
That’s what anyone watching the sudden collapse of FTX, a hot cryptocurrency start-up that plunged into bankruptcy last week, might be puzzling over.

It will take time — and multiple federal investigations — to fully understand what happened behind the scenes at FTX, a Bahamas-based crypto exchange. But the impact is already becoming clear. Lawmakers are calling for more oversight. Crypto die-hards are trying to distance themselves. Critics of this sector of finance are crowing. And for those of you who had, until now, managed to ignore the rise and rise and rise of crypto as a phenomenon? First of all, good for you. And second, you may want to watch this one play out. I’ll explain why shortly.

But first, here is the simplest explanation of what happened that I can manage:
FTX let people and companies buy and sell digital currencies, holding billions of dollars’ worth of customer deposits.
FTX’s founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, also created an investment fund that trades cryptocurrencies called Alameda Research.
The businesses were supposed to be separate, but this year, Alameda needed cash and apparently dipped into FTX’s customer deposits. Then, this month, FTX customers became worried about their deposits and rushed to withdraw them, setting off a bank run and pushing FTX into bankruptcy.

The apparent commingling of funds between Alameda and FTX is highly suspicious and could lead to criminal fraud charges and lawsuits. The Securities and Exchange Commission and Justice Department are investigating. I want to explain today why the disintegration of FTX matters — it’s more than simply one man’s financial catastrophe. .. ..

[temporal1]

Winning political strategies: BILLIONS IN MONEY LAUNDERING?

Watters: “Democrats are in the middle of the 'biggest financial fraud case in US history'” / -9min


i thought BERNIE MADOFF looked creepy. SAM BANKMAN-FRIED at age 29, is a contender.
His “young billionaire’s T-shirt” isn’t a good look for him, either.

i suspect most would be horrified to learn what-all goes on behind the scenes in D.C. and on Wall Street.
Blood-curdling stuff.

It has to be big to motivate the old cats (like hillary, pelosi, etc) to keep showing up everyday. They aren’t present out of the goodness of their hearts, or love of country. (i believe) there’s plenty of “sinister” to go around.

[Josh]

t1,

Good find, and whilst Democrats were busy holding January 6 hearings and prosecuting Trump about a gift of a coffee mug, a major Democratic campaign donor stole $10 billion (and counting) from his bank’s depositors.

[Bootstrap]

You started both of the threads on Musk, Temp. You didn't start any threads on Bankman. I think that explains it. I'm not sure that signals hypocrisy among those who did not start threads on either topic.

It's also interesting to see who starts the threads that mention Trump in the first post. MN has a search function for that:

http://forum.mennonet.com/search.php?ke ... mit=Search

[Ken]

t1,

Good find, and whilst Democrats were busy holding January 6 hearings and prosecuting Trump about a gift of a coffee mug, a major Democratic campaign donor stole $10 billion (and counting) from his bank’s depositors.

I was curious about this so did some digging. According to open secrets, nearly all of Bankman's campaign donations were to the "Protect Our Future" PAC which is a Cryto-funded PAC apparently controlled by Bankman: https://www.opensecrets.org/outside-spe ... ied%2C+Sam

If you look at where this PAC spent its money, it as mostly in 5 different Democratic primaries in which he seemed to be funding Crypto-friendly candidates: https://www.axios.com/2022/11/15/ftz-cr ... -campaigns

The biggest recipient of his contributions BY FAR was a Carrick Flynn who was a tech engineer running for a new open seat in OR where he lost in the primary to a popular Latina state legislator. Apparently Bankman dropped over $11 million into that race and still lost: https://www.wweek.com/news/business/202 ... ypto-firm/

So why was he trying to achieve? Pretty much all of his contributions were in the Democratic primaries and not general election. And his biggest candidate lost overwhelmingly. It wasn't close. No one seems to actually know.

My guess? He saw increased regulation of Crypto coming down the pike and was looking to buy a friendly face in Congress to block unfriendly crypto regulation. But since he is a 20-something tech-bro with more money than sense he didn't know what he was actually doing and botched the job. But who knows.

What it certainly is is one more piece of evidence that big money is polluting American politics and that the Supreme Court was wrong to equate money with speech when it is really about influence peddling not speech. Since a lot of these billionaires don't actually want to even talk about their donations and want to keep them secret. "Secret speech?". Right. Give me a break.

[temporal1]

You started both of the threads on Musk, Temp. You didn't start any threads on Bankman. I think that explains it. I'm not sure that signals hypocrisy among those who did not start threads on either topic.

It's also interesting to see who starts the threads that mention Trump in the first post. MN has a search function for that:
http://forum.mennonet.com/search.php?ke ... mit=Search

correct, i started threads on Musk, well, Musk was included - with hope to unravel (lib) gov collusion with social media, and plenty of evidence is available in those threads. at least one member decided to attack Musk, which was off-topic, but he regularly perseveres as he chooses in every thread. i knew/know little of Musk/Twitter, any of his ventures. i was interested in learning.

recall, i often said i don’t Twitter, and i don’t recommend it. no change here.

my post above following the OP is a Bankman cut+paste from (my) WINNING STRATEGIES thread - no responses there to Bankman.
Which is ok. Bankman/Dems, is deserving of a dedicated thread. This one’s ok for that.

Bankman makes Musk look like a choir boy.
Bankman reveals the dark underbelly of .. ?? .. ?? let me think.
i’m also of the mind that elections/vote counts are secondary to underhanded shenanigans that lead up to votes - add Bankman to that disgraceful pile.

i may not be QUITE as jaded as Franklin about the state of U.S. politics. i may be edging closer.
any suggestion that DJT is “worse-than” is lost on me. it’s not a remote possibility.

i hope Grace reads this.
you’re again trying to suggest anyone, or the entire forum together, is more preoccupied with DJT than you?
it’s not a competition. (but, you win.)

i’m not sure why you added his name here. but, ok. DJT is like ketchup. some add him to everything.

[temporal1]

Back to the topic.

fwiw. Dr Grande doesn’t seem to exaggerate about this. he doesn’t seem partisan.
i would guess, if he leans, it’s left. not sure.

Dr Todd Grande / “Young Visionary Genius Bankrupts $32B Cryptocurrency Exchange” | Samuel Bankman-Fried Case Analysis / -13min

[ohio jones]

Back to the topic.

Not so fast.

I'm still unsuccessfully parsing the title of the thread. Who or what is a Bankman-crickets? Some guy named Sam Bankman-Fried has been in the news lately; does he have a cousin, perhaps his father's nephew, who also has a hyphenated surname, maybe even a descendant of Jiminy on his mother's side? Fried crickets come to mind, but that doesn't sound very appetizing, and I'm trying to eat turkey and dressing and sweet potatoes just now. Supposedly they (the Bankman-Fried crickets) taste like chicken and have lots of protein and are less expensive than they used to be, but I think I'll pass.

I suppose Musk-endlessly is a new invention from Elon. A perpetual-motion Tesla, maybe? That would indeed be fascinating.

[temporal1]

.. and I'm trying to eat turkey and dressing and sweet potatoes just now. ..

just checked my calendar .. no fair!

[temporal1]

Comparisons are being made to two separate former major scandals: BERNIE MADOFF, and, ENRON.

At some point, B Madoff was found to be connected to S American drug cartels, why wouldn’t this happen?
Can S American cartels be expected to “respect” U.S. borders?! i believe: No way would they.


“Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff dies in prison at 82”
https://apnews.com/article/bernie-madof ... 40bd1ae711

“Ponzi Schemes: Definition, Examples, and Origins”
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/bernard-madoff.asp

“In Ponzi We Trust”
Borrowing from Peter to pay Paul is a scheme made famous by Charles Ponzi. Who was this crook whose name graces this scam?
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ ... -64016168/

“Ponzi & Pyramid Schemes”
https://constantinecannon.com/practice/ ... i-schemes/

“Exec who cleaned up Enron calls FTX mess ‘unprecedented’ “
https://apnews.com/article/ftx-trading- ... 674f446b52