You mentioned the great majority of Trump coin was bought by whales, I’m a bit surprised you didn’t mention the biggest whale.
Justin Sun, a Chinese businessman, invested $75 million into the coin. Why is this relevant? The SEC was pursuing a civil fraud case against him… which they just put on hold seemingly out of nowhere.
This level of brazen corruption is shocking, even for Donald Trump.
New Yorkers aren't shocked in the least. We've been watching him do precisely this sort of thing for decades. And he is, along with his underboss Skunk Musk, just getting started. The two of them are eyeballing trillions.
The Scammer in Chief was able - with large amounts of money from Melon Musk and Propaganda from Faux Snooze - to get back into the WH. For someone who is nothing but a low-IQ New York mob boss, this is the mother load. And we, the taxpayers and citizens will be left holding the bag amid the rubble of our once great republic.
When this administration crashes the economy with all the cuts and unsound removal of regulations, will the billionaire elites be able to buy back real assets at the reduced market value with phony cryptocurrency?
Sorry to jump in here at the top, but this needs to be passed onto all of our Congress Critters. I just sent it to my 3 - all Democrats, but the rethuglicans need to see it as well - even if only to force them to share the blame if it is allowed to happen. Also we need to get some independent witnesses into Ft. Knox to be able to say the gold reserves are there, because tRump+Musk are going to declare them missing - and soon they will be.
The plot of Moonraker (book): 1) UK can't afford a rocket program; 2) outsources to rich guy Hugo Drax; 3) Drax turns out to be a Nazi; 4) Drax aims rocket at London; 5) James Bond saves the day
The plot of Goldfinger (book): 1) SMERSH treasurer Auric Goldfinger is smuggling gold out of the UK; 2) Bond discovers Goldfinger plans to rob Ft. Knox; 3) Bond saves the day
tRump and his larcenous family no longer think in terms of *millions* in ill-gotten gains, but rather upped the window of opportunity by three orders of magnitude to *billions*, and many times over. Sky's the limit for these goniffs, and nothing or nobody will stop the looting and criming.
Please do keep writing about this. It is definitely underreported, and with this malignant clown show in charge, the consequences are likely to be dire. I would appreciate, too, learning any further thoughts you have on why this might be, given that it’s a total scam: “It’s true that cryptocurrencies have proved to be remarkably durable even though their only serious uses seem to be in enabling criminal activity.”
IMHO. Crypto is a reflection of the prevalent psych of a large chunk of the world's population. (To be fair, it is not just in the US). Most of the crypto enthusiasts are Libertarians (I prefer to call them anarchists). This is why they push for deregulation, de-banking and DeFI. There is a deep mistrust of the established institutions and the government. Is it Reagan who said that Government is the problem? Or is it Ayn Rand who said selfishness is a virtue? In theory, education should help but, at least in the US, many red states are trying to dismantle the education system. In addition, according to Yahoo Finance in 1023, "while high school dropout rates are decreasing, the United States experiences a daunting 32.9% college dropout rate every year. With only 62.3% of students graduating after four years without delay, ... ". Look at the Muskrats. How many of them has finished college/university? The ignorance is astounding. I am old school. So I do not think that is not healthy. I do not know how this all will end and how this can be fixed. I just keep hoping for the best.
An additional thought ... it's a "get rich quick" mentality which is not new, but the means are new and especially easy to chase by a constantly online populace.
Can't read about Trump anymore. With the acquiescence of the Congress and the Courts, and almost all Americans - are even 1% of you protesting? - it is now evolved into full-scale, in-your-face looting. It should come as a surprise to no one with eyes to see. The only recourse now is military intervention or full-scale rebellion. The time is now, while you still have the semblance of an economy and civil structure. Without that, Trump reads assent.
We just had a joint protest on Tuesday, March 4. Here in NYC, we did it right in front of Faux News headquarters.
The problem is that the protests are barely covered by lamestream media. While I was there, I noticed a video camera with the AP logo on it. I had to search AP's website to find the article. Surprise: It wasn't on the homepage.
I also wouldn't portray either the courts or congress as fully acquiescing. There are quite a few Senator's, Representative's and federal judges who are in fact fight tooth and nail. Again, no lamestream coverage.
I just watched a Ted Talk on a study about change and non violent protest. We need 3.3% of the population to actively protest to bring about regime change!
1% would be about 3 million. Haven't seen anything approaching 10000, but you might be right; it's not being covered. But wouldn't Bluesky or substacks mention protests of 100k?
It's just starting. Give it time. It's growing. I found out about it through substack, so don't discount it or Bluesky just yet. Just keep your eyes pealed for it.
Hello Winston. With the world falling apart, we are running out of time. Even this Krugman article is all about urgency! Yes, I know all the courts, for example, aren't in for Trump, but the trajectory is to more compliance, not less; every day there is erosion of public service and institutions, at a rate so fast that in a couple of weeks, there will be nothing functioning. And when the first US soldier crosses our border, we'll be at war; even that will be a line in the sand that Americans will step over. With apologies to Trump (not): 'Grab them by the pusillanimous. When you are a star, they let you do anything.'
Ah, I didn't realize you're in Canada. There's no way in hell we'll allow Trumpkopf to attack Canada - or any of our allies. That would instantly break the camels back and trigger a civil war.
Rachel Maddow is the only news person showing video of these individual protests happening all over the US. When taken together, there very well could be 10K people.
The vast majority of Americans by nature politically are lazy and complacent. A true tipping point will be if the social security checks stop, which the previous administrator says is quite possible in April due to incompetent firings. If the loss of those checks doesn't cause nationwide protests, nothing will. I still remember 2020 when the populace rightly protested cops murderous impunity, so its definitely possible. The government reaction will absolutely make it worse, and that's when the shit will hit the fan.
From observation, even huge gangs of older people peacefuly protesting don't get attention. When the ConDems started turning the austerity screws, 500K people from all over the UK protested in the streets of London. Who got coverage? The 30 or so people who invaded Fortnum and Mason and helped themselves to the food.
Yup, same thing as during the hundreds of thousands of peaceful protests during 2020. The main coverage was the odd burning down of stores by people who selectively used statistics when it comes to things like gun violence but not when it comes to mostly peaceful protests (Time evidence based article says 93% of the protests were peaceful). Then those right wing crazies started equating their failed January 6th insurrection to people protesting to not get murdered by cops when going about their daily business.
How many people were there? We had around 100 people in a GOP area protesting on Tuesday and I saw nothing about it. It wasn't 1% but considering the location it was impressive.
Yes we are! Last Saturday, on a cold, windy & drizzly day, there were protests in all 16 counties of Maine! Friends & I attended the Hancock County protest in front of the Ellsworth City Hall, our county seat, which was attended by over 300 people. Similar protests were held in the Hancock county towns of Bar Harbor & Bucksport.
There were good speakers, terrific homemade signs, music, and very good vibes.
I'm sure there will be many more of these events. Today I counted 16 Letters to the Editor in our weekly newspaper, the Ellsworth American, from people objecting to Trump's actions - probably a record. We are not surrendering in advance!
Crypto is now and has always been nothing more than a pyramid scheme. The scammer tells you you can buy a handful of nothing (I'm old enough to remember you had to buy equipment to "mine' it yourself), tells other people the same, sucker's start buying, small payouts are made by robbing Peter to pay Paul all while Peter and Paul convince their family members to buy too, then Peter gets a small payout from Paul's granny's money and on it goes until the day everyone tries to cash out ay once or the scammer just runs off with all the actual cash.
This is where Musk talks it up about social security veing a corrupt ponzi scheme, while an actual ponzi scheme gets executed by Trump and gis cronies.
That might be the case - unless he agrees to prostrate himself "properly" in accordance with Trumpkopf's definition of "properly". Not to mention agreeing to "properly" schmear His Orange MAGA Majesty.
Let's not forget the $100 million Trump made, in just 2 weeks, on transaction fees for $Trump. Easy money and he profits, regardless of where it goes for investors.
I think most people miss (do not see) one of the layers of Trump's actions: creating the exciting/mesmerizing events.
Here, all the crime/bribe/graft opportunities of "national crypto reserve" are undeniable, but for Trump the drama ITSELF, both during the hype period, AND during the inevitable crash period, is of great value.
Trump's voters vote not so much for policies/results, but for the SPECTACLE. And Trump delivers. As he has the skill to convince voters that the spectacle is mostly about them being better off (facts be damned), his actions are RATIONAL. Do not miss this.
It's debatable whether or not we can label the actions of a psychopath "rational", however the spectacle is the curtain, as in "pay no attention to that man behind the curtain". You can also think of it as a smokescreen to nask the theft.
I genuinely wonder whether Trump is not seeing himself like a pro-wrestling saga (along multiple arena events, over time) script writer and producer. For a pro-wrestling producer the most important thing is that people buy the tickets. Income from concession stands sure figures in the spreadsheet, but is not the central point.
So I think that the drama/performance could be central to Trump. OF COURSE the reason he is turning the whole USA into a WWE type entertainment business IS money, but there is more to it. Like movie business - yes, money is a part of it, but you need to have some feel and love for the poetry of the silver screen to be a good producer.
This fits into the narrative of the psychopath. Psychopaths >really< love attention. Not all narcissists are psychopaths, but all psychopaths are narcissists.
Are we forgetting that Trump is showing clear signs of dementia? I suspect shadowy grifters behind the scenes (and ketamine-fueled grifters in front of the curtain). Trump’s ability to mastermind or even implement such a scheme is diminishing. All he knows is that there are billions and billions of dollars to be made if he reads the teleprompter and Sharpie-signs the right orders. He’s still capable of doing that. So far.
This is complex. For example professional aviators are in a race between gradually decreasing cognitive abilities (mainly a slowdown) and continuously being accumulated experience, since the age 55-60. And some can keep up, net, into a quite advanced age. So I am cautious with "Trump is senile". Eventually, yes. Soon? Probably. Now? I am not sure.
Also, intelligence/cognition is multidimensional. I am inclined to think that Trump's intelligence is distributed a bit abnormally between observable dimensions. Maybe what we see as "senility" was his norm, give or take, and he always compensated by being sharp indeed in things not that easily demonstrated in casual observation.
Don't believe it. Those $ can be stolen even easier. When the inevitable crash happens, what's going to be sacrificed, the $ you earn? Or the stocks billionaires hold?
Cryptocurrency, in any form, is not an investment, it’s a speculative gamble. It produces nothing, has no intrinsic value, and relies solely on the hope that someone else will buy it for a higher price. The idea that the U.S. government should create a "Crypto Strategic Reserve" is reckless and absurd. Why would we back a reserve with digital tokens that are subject to wild price swings and manipulation? The real way to strengthen America’s economy is through productive assets, not digital snake oil.
He never will. Buffett invests in the real economy, in companies that generate ongoing economic value. He might invest in Coinbase, but never DogeCoin.
Trump has created many ways to launder bribes. The first used his “properties” to take fees for hotel rooms and events. Then came all the utterly ridiculous merch—$300 spray-painted sneakers, signed bibles, $100,000 watches bought from an NY street vendor. NFTs digitized his scam. Then Truth Social (for which he bought a SPAC to skirt financial regulation) enabled his grift through financial markets, and now, he’s got full on, crypto-enabled bribe schemes with no limits on the bribes that can be paid. The man is a walking con job. I’m completely at a loss for how we stop the corruption, of which laundered bribes are only a small part. The guy should be swinging from a lamppost in front of a gas station.
Also buying and selling properties at above and below market value is a great way to hide payments being made to you, or payments being made to others. There seems to be some evidence for that happening, as well.
The property transactions were/are money laundering business. That has been going on for decades in NY, by many actors. Taxes are paid on each transaction, so state and city are glad to help. The lender, say DB, has an investor, say Igor, buying the mortgage at its Cypress office. Igor deposits with DB in Cypress, DB's NY office wires money to seller, say Trump, through Fedwire, and it's clean.
As if living under our own version of a Putin would not be bad enough, and it would be miserable, he is also out to destroy our whole economy, as well, with these schemes and does not care at all.
It is all pay to play.
If you want to be spared, buy some protection, mafia style.
You would think him cutting 70,000 jobs from the Department of Veteran's affairs would move some (a few) of the GOP in congress ready to to flip to independent and caucus with the Dems to stop all of this, by flipping power in congress.
We only need a few brave souls in the House and Senate to stand up and do this so that congress can once again act as a separate branch of government.
They have nothing to lose, since as a swing vote, they would have a lot of power, but at least they could help stop the madness.
If Jefferies and Schumer are not approaching them with massive "pot sweeteners" to get them do this, I will be really pissed off !!!
We are in a massive crisis - this is no time for ideological purity or party identity issues.
We may have no country (or Phoenix left to rise form the ashes) if they think the GOP crashing and burning will help them win future elections - there may never be another real election at all and millions will suffer from what Trump may do.
They need to find a way to get a few from the other side on board or band together and create some sort of opposition coalition.
Great point. It may be our last chance to stop irreversible damage. I don’t want to think about options for stopping this madness beyond the legal and constitutional.
He’s already done it with the traditional stock market. Every time the tariffs are on, the indices plummet 2%. Then a last minute reprieve. Market climbs again, until everyone who shorted the market cashes in their options and futures. Repeat.
Keep an eye on whose portfolios are swelling the fattest, and how much they paid the inauguration party slush fund.
A strategic crypto reserve is like a strategic rock reserve. The government digs up a pile of rocks and stacks them somewhere. Precisely what good would this do? Buyers of risk assets disappear in a crisis. A few electrons won’t buy food, a missile or a gun when everything goes south. All this serves to do is transfer tax receipts to a handful of crypto bros. History will not look kindly on it.
Pod Save discussed the other day - looks like Congress must create. Krugman needs to talk about this. We are just inside another stupid annex Canada story ... this is not going to happen.
You mentioned the great majority of Trump coin was bought by whales, I’m a bit surprised you didn’t mention the biggest whale.
Justin Sun, a Chinese businessman, invested $75 million into the coin. Why is this relevant? The SEC was pursuing a civil fraud case against him… which they just put on hold seemingly out of nowhere.
This level of brazen corruption is shocking, even for Donald Trump.
New Yorkers aren't shocked in the least. We've been watching him do precisely this sort of thing for decades. And he is, along with his underboss Skunk Musk, just getting started. The two of them are eyeballing trillions.
The Scammer in Chief was able - with large amounts of money from Melon Musk and Propaganda from Faux Snooze - to get back into the WH. For someone who is nothing but a low-IQ New York mob boss, this is the mother load. And we, the taxpayers and citizens will be left holding the bag amid the rubble of our once great republic.
When this administration crashes the economy with all the cuts and unsound removal of regulations, will the billionaire elites be able to buy back real assets at the reduced market value with phony cryptocurrency?
Nah, they'll just steal it. Purloin, Plunder and Pillage is what they're all about.
Sorry to jump in here at the top, but this needs to be passed onto all of our Congress Critters. I just sent it to my 3 - all Democrats, but the rethuglicans need to see it as well - even if only to force them to share the blame if it is allowed to happen. Also we need to get some independent witnesses into Ft. Knox to be able to say the gold reserves are there, because tRump+Musk are going to declare them missing - and soon they will be.
Our scriptwriters are getting lazy.
The plot of Moonraker (book): 1) UK can't afford a rocket program; 2) outsources to rich guy Hugo Drax; 3) Drax turns out to be a Nazi; 4) Drax aims rocket at London; 5) James Bond saves the day
The plot of Goldfinger (book): 1) SMERSH treasurer Auric Goldfinger is smuggling gold out of the UK; 2) Bond discovers Goldfinger plans to rob Ft. Knox; 3) Bond saves the day
Where's our James Bond?
He died in the last picture- same as American democracy.
Its Rubin, Jennifer Rubin.
I'm trying to imagine her in a convertible sports car with sunglasses and scarves flapping in the wind.
Robert Reich's latest post discusses Sun.
Please look up "Giuilded Age" on, say, wikipedis.com. You can be unhappy, but please don't be surprised.
tRump and his larcenous family no longer think in terms of *millions* in ill-gotten gains, but rather upped the window of opportunity by three orders of magnitude to *billions*, and many times over. Sky's the limit for these goniffs, and nothing or nobody will stop the looting and criming.
Is it Crypto or a Cryptid?
“A cryptid is a creature that people believe exists but has not been proven to do so.”
It's both! Especially $KingMAGAcoin and $QueenMAGAcoin.
Please do keep writing about this. It is definitely underreported, and with this malignant clown show in charge, the consequences are likely to be dire. I would appreciate, too, learning any further thoughts you have on why this might be, given that it’s a total scam: “It’s true that cryptocurrencies have proved to be remarkably durable even though their only serious uses seem to be in enabling criminal activity.”
IMHO. Crypto is a reflection of the prevalent psych of a large chunk of the world's population. (To be fair, it is not just in the US). Most of the crypto enthusiasts are Libertarians (I prefer to call them anarchists). This is why they push for deregulation, de-banking and DeFI. There is a deep mistrust of the established institutions and the government. Is it Reagan who said that Government is the problem? Or is it Ayn Rand who said selfishness is a virtue? In theory, education should help but, at least in the US, many red states are trying to dismantle the education system. In addition, according to Yahoo Finance in 1023, "while high school dropout rates are decreasing, the United States experiences a daunting 32.9% college dropout rate every year. With only 62.3% of students graduating after four years without delay, ... ". Look at the Muskrats. How many of them has finished college/university? The ignorance is astounding. I am old school. So I do not think that is not healthy. I do not know how this all will end and how this can be fixed. I just keep hoping for the best.
Of course, another factor is greed.
An additional thought ... it's a "get rich quick" mentality which is not new, but the means are new and especially easy to chase by a constantly online populace.
I’m most interested in how we can stop it.
Yes, you are right, that is the most important of all
Can't read about Trump anymore. With the acquiescence of the Congress and the Courts, and almost all Americans - are even 1% of you protesting? - it is now evolved into full-scale, in-your-face looting. It should come as a surprise to no one with eyes to see. The only recourse now is military intervention or full-scale rebellion. The time is now, while you still have the semblance of an economy and civil structure. Without that, Trump reads assent.
"...are even 1% of you protesting?"
Yes, we are. Are >you< participating? Check out 50501 https://www.fiftyfifty.one/, Indivisible https://indivisible.org/, and many more.
We just had a joint protest on Tuesday, March 4. Here in NYC, we did it right in front of Faux News headquarters.
The problem is that the protests are barely covered by lamestream media. While I was there, I noticed a video camera with the AP logo on it. I had to search AP's website to find the article. Surprise: It wasn't on the homepage.
I also wouldn't portray either the courts or congress as fully acquiescing. There are quite a few Senator's, Representative's and federal judges who are in fact fight tooth and nail. Again, no lamestream coverage.
I just watched a Ted Talk on a study about change and non violent protest. We need 3.3% of the population to actively protest to bring about regime change!
It'll get there - and then some. It's growing, and the growth rate is quadratic. Just watch and see, or better yet, join in.
1% would be about 3 million. Haven't seen anything approaching 10000, but you might be right; it's not being covered. But wouldn't Bluesky or substacks mention protests of 100k?
It's just starting. Give it time. It's growing. I found out about it through substack, so don't discount it or Bluesky just yet. Just keep your eyes pealed for it.
Thank you! Headed to the state Capitol this afternoon for a rally organized by the county Dem party. It's a small thing, but not nothing.
Excellent! Every one of us counts.
Hello Winston. With the world falling apart, we are running out of time. Even this Krugman article is all about urgency! Yes, I know all the courts, for example, aren't in for Trump, but the trajectory is to more compliance, not less; every day there is erosion of public service and institutions, at a rate so fast that in a couple of weeks, there will be nothing functioning. And when the first US soldier crosses our border, we'll be at war; even that will be a line in the sand that Americans will step over. With apologies to Trump (not): 'Grab them by the pusillanimous. When you are a star, they let you do anything.'
Ah, I didn't realize you're in Canada. There's no way in hell we'll allow Trumpkopf to attack Canada - or any of our allies. That would instantly break the camels back and trigger a civil war.
But you've already betrayed Ukraine.
Rachel Maddow is the only news person showing video of these individual protests happening all over the US. When taken together, there very well could be 10K people.
The vast majority of Americans by nature politically are lazy and complacent. A true tipping point will be if the social security checks stop, which the previous administrator says is quite possible in April due to incompetent firings. If the loss of those checks doesn't cause nationwide protests, nothing will. I still remember 2020 when the populace rightly protested cops murderous impunity, so its definitely possible. The government reaction will absolutely make it worse, and that's when the shit will hit the fan.
From observation, even huge gangs of older people peacefuly protesting don't get attention. When the ConDems started turning the austerity screws, 500K people from all over the UK protested in the streets of London. Who got coverage? The 30 or so people who invaded Fortnum and Mason and helped themselves to the food.
Yup, same thing as during the hundreds of thousands of peaceful protests during 2020. The main coverage was the odd burning down of stores by people who selectively used statistics when it comes to things like gun violence but not when it comes to mostly peaceful protests (Time evidence based article says 93% of the protests were peaceful). Then those right wing crazies started equating their failed January 6th insurrection to people protesting to not get murdered by cops when going about their daily business.
How many people were there? We had around 100 people in a GOP area protesting on Tuesday and I saw nothing about it. It wasn't 1% but considering the location it was impressive.
Terence, military intervention?? Sorry that avenue has been shut down by the purge of top military leadership.
I'm not convinced of that. The military is probably split roughly 50/50 politically. Either way, we're in for a rough ride.
Yes we are! Last Saturday, on a cold, windy & drizzly day, there were protests in all 16 counties of Maine! Friends & I attended the Hancock County protest in front of the Ellsworth City Hall, our county seat, which was attended by over 300 people. Similar protests were held in the Hancock county towns of Bar Harbor & Bucksport.
There were good speakers, terrific homemade signs, music, and very good vibes.
I'm sure there will be many more of these events. Today I counted 16 Letters to the Editor in our weekly newspaper, the Ellsworth American, from people objecting to Trump's actions - probably a record. We are not surrendering in advance!
Crypto is now and has always been nothing more than a pyramid scheme. The scammer tells you you can buy a handful of nothing (I'm old enough to remember you had to buy equipment to "mine' it yourself), tells other people the same, sucker's start buying, small payouts are made by robbing Peter to pay Paul all while Peter and Paul convince their family members to buy too, then Peter gets a small payout from Paul's granny's money and on it goes until the day everyone tries to cash out ay once or the scammer just runs off with all the actual cash.
This is where Musk talks it up about social security veing a corrupt ponzi scheme, while an actual ponzi scheme gets executed by Trump and gis cronies.
Odds of a pardon for Sam Bankman Fried, who will then be put in charge of the "Reserve"??
No way. Fried committed the far more serious crime of donating to Democrats and liberal causes.
And like Bernie Madoff, he committed the most unforgivable sin...he cheated rich people...
Dotard: "If I pardon you, will you sing my praises?"
Fried: "Faster than you can slap a dollar sign on a new goofy-assed crypto name."
That might be the case - unless he agrees to prostrate himself "properly" in accordance with Trumpkopf's definition of "properly". Not to mention agreeing to "properly" schmear His Orange MAGA Majesty.
Publically. Privately he and his company donated as much or more to Republicans.
It was always a scam.
It depends on how much grease he agrees to spread on King MAGA's hand.
Let's not forget the $100 million Trump made, in just 2 weeks, on transaction fees for $Trump. Easy money and he profits, regardless of where it goes for investors.
And without having to resort to his usual leveraging. That's his specialty.
I think most people miss (do not see) one of the layers of Trump's actions: creating the exciting/mesmerizing events.
Here, all the crime/bribe/graft opportunities of "national crypto reserve" are undeniable, but for Trump the drama ITSELF, both during the hype period, AND during the inevitable crash period, is of great value.
Trump's voters vote not so much for policies/results, but for the SPECTACLE. And Trump delivers. As he has the skill to convince voters that the spectacle is mostly about them being better off (facts be damned), his actions are RATIONAL. Do not miss this.
It's debatable whether or not we can label the actions of a psychopath "rational", however the spectacle is the curtain, as in "pay no attention to that man behind the curtain". You can also think of it as a smokescreen to nask the theft.
I genuinely wonder whether Trump is not seeing himself like a pro-wrestling saga (along multiple arena events, over time) script writer and producer. For a pro-wrestling producer the most important thing is that people buy the tickets. Income from concession stands sure figures in the spreadsheet, but is not the central point.
So I think that the drama/performance could be central to Trump. OF COURSE the reason he is turning the whole USA into a WWE type entertainment business IS money, but there is more to it. Like movie business - yes, money is a part of it, but you need to have some feel and love for the poetry of the silver screen to be a good producer.
This fits into the narrative of the psychopath. Psychopaths >really< love attention. Not all narcissists are psychopaths, but all psychopaths are narcissists.
Are we forgetting that Trump is showing clear signs of dementia? I suspect shadowy grifters behind the scenes (and ketamine-fueled grifters in front of the curtain). Trump’s ability to mastermind or even implement such a scheme is diminishing. All he knows is that there are billions and billions of dollars to be made if he reads the teleprompter and Sharpie-signs the right orders. He’s still capable of doing that. So far.
for sure. "mastermind" does not apply to Trump, if it ever did. He has the attention span of a gnat. But those behind him are smart, and evil.
As somone said during his first term, when he was noticeably less demented, he's an idiot, but he's very good at it.
This is complex. For example professional aviators are in a race between gradually decreasing cognitive abilities (mainly a slowdown) and continuously being accumulated experience, since the age 55-60. And some can keep up, net, into a quite advanced age. So I am cautious with "Trump is senile". Eventually, yes. Soon? Probably. Now? I am not sure.
Also, intelligence/cognition is multidimensional. I am inclined to think that Trump's intelligence is distributed a bit abnormally between observable dimensions. Maybe what we see as "senility" was his norm, give or take, and he always compensated by being sharp indeed in things not that easily demonstrated in casual observation.
Shell games work the same way and Trump is an expert con man.
Using the Bank of Under the Mattress is looking ever more prudent.
Don't believe it. Those $ can be stolen even easier. When the inevitable crash happens, what's going to be sacrificed, the $ you earn? Or the stocks billionaires hold?
I’m still waiting to see if Warren Buffet buys crypto….. until then buyer beware
He thinks it’s digital snake oil.
FYI - Per Warren Buffett & Charlie Munger -
Cryptocurrency, in any form, is not an investment, it’s a speculative gamble. It produces nothing, has no intrinsic value, and relies solely on the hope that someone else will buy it for a higher price. The idea that the U.S. government should create a "Crypto Strategic Reserve" is reckless and absurd. Why would we back a reserve with digital tokens that are subject to wild price swings and manipulation? The real way to strengthen America’s economy is through productive assets, not digital snake oil.
Buffet is way too smart to do that. As Jeremiah R. put it "Buffet invests in the real economy, in companies that generate ongoing economic value".
He never will. Buffett invests in the real economy, in companies that generate ongoing economic value. He might invest in Coinbase, but never DogeCoin.
Trump has created many ways to launder bribes. The first used his “properties” to take fees for hotel rooms and events. Then came all the utterly ridiculous merch—$300 spray-painted sneakers, signed bibles, $100,000 watches bought from an NY street vendor. NFTs digitized his scam. Then Truth Social (for which he bought a SPAC to skirt financial regulation) enabled his grift through financial markets, and now, he’s got full on, crypto-enabled bribe schemes with no limits on the bribes that can be paid. The man is a walking con job. I’m completely at a loss for how we stop the corruption, of which laundered bribes are only a small part. The guy should be swinging from a lamppost in front of a gas station.
Also buying and selling properties at above and below market value is a great way to hide payments being made to you, or payments being made to others. There seems to be some evidence for that happening, as well.
Thank you! Great point. This was a big omission on my part and is probably the first real scam he used to launder bribes.
I assumed you meant that, as well, so I added it.
The property transactions were/are money laundering business. That has been going on for decades in NY, by many actors. Taxes are paid on each transaction, so state and city are glad to help. The lender, say DB, has an investor, say Igor, buying the mortgage at its Cypress office. Igor deposits with DB in Cypress, DB's NY office wires money to seller, say Trump, through Fedwire, and it's clean.
Just a Coin cidence
Yes, Trump seems to be about to destroy us all.
As if living under our own version of a Putin would not be bad enough, and it would be miserable, he is also out to destroy our whole economy, as well, with these schemes and does not care at all.
It is all pay to play.
If you want to be spared, buy some protection, mafia style.
You would think him cutting 70,000 jobs from the Department of Veteran's affairs would move some (a few) of the GOP in congress ready to to flip to independent and caucus with the Dems to stop all of this, by flipping power in congress.
We only need a few brave souls in the House and Senate to stand up and do this so that congress can once again act as a separate branch of government.
They have nothing to lose, since as a swing vote, they would have a lot of power, but at least they could help stop the madness.
If Jefferies and Schumer are not approaching them with massive "pot sweeteners" to get them do this, I will be really pissed off !!!
We are in a massive crisis - this is no time for ideological purity or party identity issues.
We may have no country (or Phoenix left to rise form the ashes) if they think the GOP crashing and burning will help them win future elections - there may never be another real election at all and millions will suffer from what Trump may do.
They need to find a way to get a few from the other side on board or band together and create some sort of opposition coalition.
There is no time to lose.
Great point. It may be our last chance to stop irreversible damage. I don’t want to think about options for stopping this madness beyond the legal and constitutional.
He’s already done it with the traditional stock market. Every time the tariffs are on, the indices plummet 2%. Then a last minute reprieve. Market climbs again, until everyone who shorted the market cashes in their options and futures. Repeat.
Keep an eye on whose portfolios are swelling the fattest, and how much they paid the inauguration party slush fund.
A strategic crypto reserve is like a strategic rock reserve. The government digs up a pile of rocks and stacks them somewhere. Precisely what good would this do? Buyers of risk assets disappear in a crisis. A few electrons won’t buy food, a missile or a gun when everything goes south. All this serves to do is transfer tax receipts to a handful of crypto bros. History will not look kindly on it.
A "somewhere" known as Fort Knox.
And what is needed to stop trump from following through on this "plan"?
Pod Save discussed the other day - looks like Congress must create. Krugman needs to talk about this. We are just inside another stupid annex Canada story ... this is not going to happen.
Someone tried once, but missed. Trump moved his head and it clipped his ear instead.
Good question!