Thursday, November 30, 2017

Bitcoin Russian?

BTC is back over $10,000 again after some predictable profit taking.

Since my son first turned me on to Bitcoin a year, year and a half ago, I  have spent hundreds of hours being educated by him and others. Writing just as one semi-literate dude, I concluded today that Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies have no fundamental value.

What did it?  The last few conversations with my son: the disincentive that the price has to its use as a medium of exchange, the price volatility which also militates against it as a "coin;" the insufficiency of the block chain technology explanation for its fundamental value; we even talked, just last night, of it being a collectible and quickly shot that down. Today, Mark Cuban said he thinks Bitcoin is a collectible. That such an investment guy as Cuban would reach for something that a semi-literate guy and his son rejected the night before showed me that investment guys like Cuban do not understand what Bitcoin is and is not.

Anyway, my mind is open but I moved on and started thinking in whose interest it would be perpetrate such a brilliant con game. Thus the post title.

The Russian Project to destabilize America (and the West) began as early as 1988-89 when they first identified a Buffoon Clown named Donald Trump as a fool useful to the Project. Trump the Clown began toying with the idea of running for president in 1988 and every four years thereafter. Bush41 toyed with the idea of selecting Trump as his vice presidential running mate in 1992 but decided against a clown and chose Dan Quayle instead.

In 2002 at the beginning of Bush43's first term the Koch brothers Citizens for a Sound Economy started a website called "USTeaParty." The website never got off the ground, a casualty of CSE infighting, but the then heavyweight congressman Dick Armey was an enthusiastic supporter and the Tea Party idea continued to percolate inside Armey's head unopposed by other ideas.(1)

During the percolating phase Armey co-authored a proposed newspaper op-d which stated:

“[Samuel] Adams was the first American to recognize that ‘it does not require a majority to prevail, but rather, an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds,’ ”(2)

The proposed op-ed, like the USTeaParty website was stillborn and never published.

Bitcoin was introduced on January 3, 2009(3). Barack Obama was elected president in November, 2008 and inaugurated on January 20, 2009. As Obama's inaugural ball was going on Republican strategists met at a steak house and decided to obstruct anything the first Black president proposed. One month after Obama's inauguration the anti-government, anti-democratic, paranoid, racist, nationalist, obstructionist Tea Party brush fire was ignited.(4)

It was from the Tea Party and its southern fundamentalist precursors that Vladimir Putin "plagiarized" his authoritarian, anti-democratic, paranoid, racist, nationalist programme for Russia(5) which, once it proved successful in 2012 Putin replanted in its native soil. Trump sprouted.


Putin thus had seeded the fields long before an "irate tireless minority" shoosted the mutant Trump through the soil. Disinformation, fake websites, illogical argumentation and flat out lying were both native to Tea Party America and Putin's fertilizer. Trump was laughed at and not taken seriously, just as Dick Armey's 2007 op-ed piece was ignored by editors, just as the Tea Party was until February 2009. It all took America by surprise until it was too late in 2016 and it is a confusion that America is just now sorting out. Chaos and a substantial diminution in America's standing in the world has been the result, exactly Putin's intended result.

The financial markets have all been taken by surprise by Bitcoin, it is very confusing, and shares a mysterious origin, a basis in hokum, fake promotional websites, as well as a birth date with Barack Obama's inauguration and the Tea Party. Consider:
-It's nominally a "coin." Which you cannot hold. Cannot "collect." Does not exist in reality. And which you dare not spend.

-Its programme was laid out in a White Paper by "Satoshi Nakamoto." Who does not exist by that name. Nobody knows who Satoshi Nakamoto "really" is. Like the American sounding names given by Russia to its recent female spies, for all we know, Satoshi Nakamoto is the Japanese sounding name (because Japanese people are known to be smart) given by Russia to whom Trump referred to "explain" Russia's hacking as "a 400 pound guy sitting on his bed" (in Russia). Like its creator Bitcoin is virtually real.

-It is nominally a virtual currency. But is not used as a currency. At the beginning of this post Bitcoin was worth $10,001.56. Right now, a couple of hours later, it is worth $9708. You dare not spend a currency whose value fluctuates like that. Bitcoin is used by practically nobody. Only criminals on the dark web. Criminals, like Wikileaks' Julian Assange, so helpful to the Russian Project.

-Its appeal has been to a suspicious, libertarian, anti-government cohort that overlaps with that of the Tea Party and Trump derelicts.

-It is promoted by websites having neutral, serious sounding names but which are, my son tells me, propaganda arms of Bitcoin. Just like Putin's fake twitter accounts.

-It is grounded in nothing: no facts, no technology, no raison d'etre, just like Trump's candidacy. Except to Russia.

-It has suddenly been seen by the vigilant, opportunistic Putin as another Western "asset" to be manipulated, like the Tea Party, like Breitbart, Michael Flynn, Donald Trump, and "controlled':

Vladimir Putin’s Russia is ready to embrace cryptocurrency—if only to control it.

The real push started in July, when a Putin aide unveiled his cryptocurrency mine: an industrial-scale server farm called Russian Miner Coin. In September, the company held an initial coin offering (ICO), raising over $43 million in Bitcoin and Ethereum.
(6)

It would not be correct to say that Bitcoin is doing to American financial markets what Putin/the Tea Party/Trump did to America's democracy, it has not created financial Chaos, nor do I think (since I think Bitcoin will inevitably go the way of Tulip Bulbs) it has that potential. Neither did any patriotic American about Trump's candidacy. But it's a start! Bitcoin's market capitalization is already the equal, or in excess of, the capitalization of  major credit cards. It's a damned good start. And it started at the same time as did the Tea Party brush fire from which Putin's seed for the hideous orange tulip Trump sprouted.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Party_movement
2. http://www.washingtonian.com/2013/06/26/armey-in-exile/
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin
4. Washingtonian, ibid.
5. http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/vladimir-putin-tired-171125121152173.html
6. http://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-world-leaders-embracing-for-fear-of-losing-control-2017-11

#LolVols

1. Gruden. X
2. Cutcliffe. X
3. Frost. X
4. Schiano. X'ed
5. Gundy. X
6. Brown. X
7. Doeren. X (this afternoon)
8. Sumlin. X (tonight)
9. "Ace". X (tonight):
@PascoSheriff
Sorry, @Vol_Football, Ace called this press conference to announce he would not be the new head coach at Tennessee and he will be staying with our K9 Unit.
6:54 PM - Nov 30, 2017




Still available:
-Kim Jong un. (up and coming young coach of the "Chollima" with a potent aerial game).

Newly available today:
-Rex Tillerson.

Trump to Force Out Tillerson; Pompeo to Replace (NYT)


You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately. Depart, I say and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!

Jimbo Fisher is doing it again at Florida State. Seriously flirting with another school, Texas A&M again, to extort FSU. FSU is getting irritated and wants Fisher to make a decision before the last game, a meaningless contest against Louisiana-Monroe ending a meaningless season. Fisher wants to coach it and then make a decision.

Wednesday, November 29, 2017

#LolVols

Lane Kiffin...


...I say, Lane Kiffin...







...You sir, are a genius.







#LolTrump

Special counsel delays grand jury testimony amid signs of Flynn deal talks

(CNN)

"I hope you can let this go."
     (Trump to Comey on Flynn)


#LolVols

Vols' coaching focus shifts again, to NC State's Dave Doeren

(ESPN)

Oh! my goodness gracious, City 2-1 over Southampton on British Sterling's exquisite curling strike into the upper left corner of the net at the death!, sixth minute of stoppage time. That is Raheem's sixth goal in the 84th minute or later for City. Nineteen wins in a row for the Angels, twelve in a row in the Premier League. CITY FOREVER!!!!!!!!!
Half-time 0-0. *mad face*
🎶💙COME ON CITY!💙🎶 🎶💙COME ON CITY!💙🎶 🎶💙COME ON CITY!💙🎶 🎶💙COME ON CITY!💙🎶 #MCISOU #sharkteam

Man City Indonesia is awesome. Still scoreless 38'.
Hahahaha still 0-0 in the Man City game! Can't score against Southampton yet there fans believe they've won EPL already! Reminder that this plastic club lost 8-1 to Middlesbrough!!! 😂😂 #MCISOU


? Sandra comes by her twitter name naturally.


Bit worried Moyesy is going to get sacked too quickly. Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal next and he's got 1 point from 3 as it stands.

Weird tweets.


The Guardian is not even live blogging this but apparently Southie is doing something different. Still scoreless in the 24'.
Southampton's formation and personnel are either a rotation we've not seen before or a specific #MCFC related tactic from Pelligrino.

Manchester City 0 Southampton 0, 14'

CITY FOREVER!
Pelini played a convicted rapist.

Read that sentence again.

Here, let me help: Pelini played a convicted rapist.
Oh.

I. Did. Not. Know. That. "Vols," disregard.

#LolVols

Tennessee coaching search shifts attention to Purdue's Jeff Brohm

Mike Gundy said no. Mike Gundy said "I'm a Cowboy." No, Mike Gundy is a "Man!" lol.

So, Gruden, Cutcliffe, Frost, Schiano, Gundy and you're at Brohm now. ONE YEAR of head coaching experience, Brohm, ONE YEAR. 

"Vols," I have a serious suggestion for you, go to "Recuperating Coffee" or whatever it is and sober up and just listen: Bo Pelini. 

"Trump's behavior raises questions of competency"-CNN

?

Noodles, where ya been? How is that today's news? I thought maybe you meant competency in the forensic sense, mental competency, but I scanned the first coupla paragraphs and no, you just mean "Is he up to the job." After almost a year in that job, you're asking that? C'mon, man. If a bird had Trump's brains it'd fly backwards.

"Five Things to Do Before Art Basel Miami Beach Begins"-Miami New Times

1. Get out of town.
2.-5. See 1.

Another thing I used to do regularly. Every year for 12-13 years. It used to be "Art Basel Miami Beach" and was staged at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Then it expanded to include the Art District in the city. It got so big it just took over everything. Art sprawl. Now, it's Art Basel Miami. Truth in advertising there. The traffic, the lines, the prices. Just out of control. It is a nightmare especially for people who live on Miami Beach. You're a shut-in. December 7-10. Enjoy.

Garrison Keillor, A Prairie Home Companion, Fired for "Inappropriate Behavior"

What are we up to, 15? 20? Matt Lauer today also. I have heard of Lauer but did not "know" him as I did Keillor. A Prairie Home Companion was my companion every Saturday night (Yes, Saturday night.) for years. No details from Minnesota Public Radio.

Crazy Little Trump

Trump posted some anti-immigrant videos taken from a racist British site.

Prime Minister Theresa May said simply:

“It is wrong for the president to have done this.”

David Lammy, a Labour MP tweeted:

“Trump sharing Britain First. Let that sink in. The President of the United States is promoting a fascist, racist, extremist hate group whose leaders have been arrested and convicted. He is no ally or friend of ours.”

Very hard to read those. The Conservative British Prime Minister: "It is wrong." No Mr. Lammy he is not a friend of Britain's. Trump is neither a friend of American, David. Britain First calls itself "patriotic" but is not. Trump neither is an American patriot, he is a tool of Russia.

Another Labour MP, Chuka Umunna, tweeted that an invitation for Trump to come to Britain for a state visit should be immediately withdrawn:

"The US President is normalising hatred. If we don’t call this out, we are going down a very dangerous road. His invite should be withdrawn."

Yes, it should, Chuka. Britain's mentally unbalanced left and founded the U.S. You are the better for it and you don't want such an exemplar even visiting.

James Clapper former Director of National Intelligence called it:

"It...causes, I think, our friends and allies around the world to wonder about the judgment of the president of the United States."

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

"I will get Putin on this program and we will get Donald elected."

Odds Are, Russia Owns Trump

(Michelle Goldberg, NYT)

A plea to read this article. That is all I can do. Odds_Are_Russia_Owns_Trump Except excerpt heavily from it (with apologies to Ms. Goldberg)

Three months ago, The Washington Post reported that even as Donald Trump ran for president, he pursued plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. The next day, The New York Times published excerpts from emails between Felix Sater, a felon with ties to Russian organized crime, and Michael Cohen, one of Donald Trump’s lawyers and Sater’s childhood friend...Sater was apparently an intermediary between Trump and Russia, and in a Nov. 3, 2015, email to Cohen, [Sater] made the strange argument that a successful deal would lead to Trump’s becoming president. Boasting that he was close enough to Vladimir Putin to let Ivanka Trump sit in the Russian president’s desk chair, Sater wrote, “I will get Putin on the program [to build a Trump Tower in Moscow] and we will get Donald elected.”

These stories...[a]t a minimum, they showed that Trump was lying..., that he had “nothing to do with Russia.” Further, Sater’s logic — that Putin’s buy-in on a real estate deal would result in Trump’s election — was bizarre, suggesting that some part of the proposed collaboration was left unsaid.
...
...One uncanny aspect of the investigations into Trump’s Russia connections is that instead of too little evidence there’s too much.

[I have written the same thing. The Mueller investigation seems to be going so fast because there is so much readily available evidence.]

Luke Harding’s new book, “Collusion: Secret Meetings, Dirty Money, and How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win”is so essential...I wish everyone who is skeptical that Russia has leverage over Trump would read it. This country — at least the parts not wholly under the sway of right-wing propaganda — needs to come to terms with substantial evidence that the president is in thrall to a foreign power.

[Ah, but that's the rub, Ms. Goldberg. The Russian project goes back, as you quote Luke Harding saying to 1987-88. The parts of the country "under the swary of right-wing propaganda" are really under the sway of Russian propaganda. They will not read "Collusion," they will not read your column, they have been conditioned, by Russian propaganda, to believe the Big Lie and to ignore and denounce when they are not ignoring, anything to the contrary. Thus the attacks on the media. The Big Lie, the semi-truth and half-truth, the media attacks, and fallacious arguments such as "whataboutism" have been adopted wholesale by the American right, from whom, according to an Al Jeezera article I excerpted and cited in an earlier post, Putin "plagiarized" his authoritarian, nationalist, pseudo-Christian, White Man's ideology--and then loosed it back on a primed America in the 2016. It is too late. Thirty-five to forty percent of America is under the thrall, as you describe Trump of Putin, of Trump and therefore Putin. Original America is gone. We now have America 2.0]

Harding, the former Moscow bureau chief of The Guardian...describes the conspiracy between the American president and the Russians as “massive — absolutely massive.”
...
There’s no longer any serious question that there was cooperation between Trump’s campaign and Russia,..
...
...Harding’s book is invaluable in collating the overwhelming evidence of a web of relationships between the Kremlin, Trump and members of Trump’s circle. He suggests, convincingly, that Russia may have been cultivating Trump since the 1980s. At that time, Harding writes, the K.G.B. was working to draw “prominent figures in the West” — as the K.G.B. described them — into collaboration. According to Harding, a form for evaluating targets asked, “Are pride, arrogance, egoism, ambition or vanity among subject’s natural characteristics?”
...
...Ivan Kurilla, a Russian historian and America expert: “American liberals are so upset about Trump that they cannot believe he is a real product of American life. They try to portray him as something created by Russia.”

...Trump... is a quintessentially American figure. His campaign of racial and religious grievance drew on the darkest currents of American history. At most, Putin appears to have recognized an opportunity that American political dysfunction created.

[That is precisely correct.]

America, stunned and divided, appears incapable of metabolizing all we’re learning about the man in the White House....the substantial evidence that the president is not a patriot...

It wasn’t Putin who fashioned a Republican Party willing to tolerate something close to treason...

[It was the Republican Party, both willfully blind and blindsided, and at base, it was Trump's base base. The sign carried by a Trump supporter in St. Paul, Minnesota on March 4: 

Taunting the media.

Taunting anti-Trump protesters, the sign in background.

Closeup

It is typical of Russian/Trumpian rhetorical strategy. Mixed with ignorance, "Not the Russians," a lie, "Not the Electoral Collage,", and the truth: "It was me! I'm responsible for Donald Trump Getting Elected."

It was him, it was them. Russia put out the fake news, flummoxed the rest of us at least initially with their "dog whistle" rhetoric, but more than 2.8 million more of us than than there were of them, saw glimpses of the manipulation, recognized the rhetoric as foreign, tinny, realized the horror of Russia's project, and voted for Hillary Clinton. They could have too.They did not. They willfully bought the whole thing, it seemed so American to them. And it was. It was from here, America, according to Al Jezeera, that Putin "plagiarized" his ideology of White Christian Nationalism. Russia's seeds took deep, eager root, in receptive soil here. The day that Trump captured the GOP, we can say but only with useless hindsight, that that was the day America died. Even if a few hundred thousand of Hillary Clinton's plurality were sprinkled more strategically and she had won the Electoral College on November 8, she would never have become president. They would have assassinated her. That too, is quintessentially Russian politics. 

DPRK Launches Ballistic Missile That May Be Able to Hit Washington


Bitcoin is an Economic Miracle: Cambridge Professor

"Many economists dismissed it as a flawed form of money, something that could never achieve the level of adoption that it has. Today we estimate 5 to 10 million unique active users of cryptocurrencies, and in my opinion that's nothing short of a minor economic miracle."-Dr. Garrick Hileman, an economic historian at the University of Cambridge and the London School of Economics, in an interview with CNN

Bitcoin is the world’s first form of decentralized money; a store of value that is censorship-resistant and that is immutable against manipulation by central entities, authorities and governments.

The decentralized structure and peer-to-peer protocol of Bitcoin are unique in that they allow the Bitcoin network to operate as its own economy, without intermediaries and third party service providers. While some central banks and financial institutions have begun to fear such aspects of Bitcoin, the Bank of Finland encouraged economists to study the “marvelous structure” of Bitcoin.

In a paper entitled “Monopoly without a monopolist: An economic analysis of the Bitcoin payment system,” Bank of Finland researchers wrote:

“Bitcoin is not regulated. It cannot be regulated. There is no need to regulate it because as a system it is committed to the protocol as is and the transaction fees it charges the users are determined by the users independently of the miners’ efforts. Bitcoin’s design as an economic system is revolutionary and therefore would merit an economist’s attention and scrutiny even if it had not been functional. Its apparent functionality and usefulness should further encourage economists to study this marvelous structure.”
https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-is-an-economic-miracle-cambridge-professor

Bitcoin at $10,000


The official time for this phenomenal milestone pass was 1:26 pm (ET).
BITCOIN HITS $10,000
Oh, I forgot. Sun blocked out by the Greg Schiano fallout dust. Sun DEVIL. Another major college head coach got fired Sunday, Todd Graham by Arizona State, after six years. Not unexpected but a little weird. Graham finished 7-5, won his rivalry game against 'Zona, 46-31 overall at ASU. His two seasons before that though he was 6-7 and 5-7. Well, like I said, it's a little weird. Graham's first three years he went 8-5, 10-4 and 10-3. So three up, three down. But he did finish 7-5 this year, a little up.

I read one account from the San Jose Mercury News that the ASU administration had grown "weary" of Graham. That rings more true as the reason than just his W/L record. Graham reminds me of Bobby Petrino. Both are intense coaches who both talk and coach a good game. But they cheat and they lie. Both have more than a bit of the snake oil salesman in them. Graham says "God bless" a lot but gets caught stealing signals. He pledges undying loyalty to the school he's coaching...and then beats it out of town when a better job is offered. He did at Rice. After going 7-6 (a minor miracle at Rice) in 2006 it was all Rice, Rice, Rice. Rice is where I want to be. Broke his contract after one year when Tulsa came calling. Loved Tulsa. Not going anywhere. Love it, love it, love it. He did stay at Tulsa four years but then...outta there... for...Pitt. Hated Pittsburgh. Cold, gray. Texas boy, Graham. Why'd you come? Next step up! Never been to Pittsburgh before, he said. My mistake was taking the Pitt job in the first place, he said. Both Graham and his wife hated Pittsburgh. Pulled a Rice at Pitt. Broke his contract after one year. Not even. Left before their bowl game in fact. Wouldn't even return the Pitt A.D.'s calls. Steve Pederson showed up on his front porch. Wouldn't open the door! Text messaged the players that he was leaving as he was on the plane to Arizona State. "God bless," Graham texted. Lolol.

Graham took major shit for his insulting treatment of Pitt, nationwide. Even Arizona State asked him about it. His reputation as a lyin', cheatin', God blessin', snake oil salesman was set. Hard to respect a guy like that. Or trust him. So yeah, I can see how you'd grow "weary" of Todd Graham. He was NOT going to leave Arizona State for nothin'. Now he's been forced to peddle his wares elsewhere.
With Duke coach David Cutcliffe and Iowa State’s Matt Campbell out of the picture, Tennessee has turned its coaching search focus to Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy.

Three sources told me UT has interviewed Gundy, perhaps in Dallas.
https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/tennessee-football/report-tennessee-now-pursuing-oklahoma-state-coach-mike-gundy/

If that happens that is a damn good hire. That would be a grand slam home run by Tennessee.

Heavenly Occurrences

About an hour ago I was in court. As I was reading to my client, who doesn't read too well, the rights waiver form for a change of plea, I distinctly felt my parents, long gone, looking down on me, watching. Maybe I mispronounced something? I have felt their presence before but when I am doing nothing, like walking to the courthouse. Never when I was involved in something and here I was reading aloud to my client. It was weird. I miss you, mum and dad.

Monday, November 27, 2017

Manchester City's schedule starting yesterday:

November 26 at Huddersfield.
November 29, three days later, home to Southampton.
December 3, four later, home to West Ham.
December 6, three days later, at Shakhtar Donesk. (UCL).
December 10, four days later, at Manchester United.
December 13, three days later, at Swansea.
December 16, three days later, home to Spurs.
December 19, three days later, at Leicester in the Carabao Cup.
December 23, four days later, home to Bournemouth.
December 27, four days later, at Newcastle.
December 31, four days later at Crystal Palace.
January 2, two days later, home to Watford.

Then, finally, they get a two week break to rest and to heal, which probably coincides with the next "International Break" where the players will travel to their home countries, get into automobile accidents, get hurt on the pitch and contract gastrointestinal illnesses. The International Break will eventually turn me into a terrorist.

That is not a soccer schedule, that is a basic training regimen, that is boot camp, that is inhuman, that is soccer in Britain. 

Tales From the Crypto

I have mentioned that my son is the Gargoyle of Wall Street.  He bought pieces of Bitcoin for an average of $190; he bought his initial piece of Monero as a gift for his father at $7.50 and the various bits he has bought since average a total investment of, maybe $14.

The value of his BTC investment is now worth, at this moment, $9,649, a 5,078% return on investment. The value of Monero at this writing is $175 equal to a 2,093% increase in investment on his gift to me. That is "not bad" as an investment decision-maker. No, not bad at all. In fact, my son is a cryptocurrency savant.

Nonetheless, there remains a recurrent nightmare about the cryptocurrencies, especially the Big Enchilada BTC. They are called "currencies" after all and Bitcoin a "coin." Currencies and coins are mediums of exchange. I'll give you a bunch of these green pieces of paper if you give me that car. The cryptos are at the same time, a "store of value," the function gold performed for hundreds of years and still used as such by some. Those two functions are distinct and, as is often the case in economics matters, at odds one with the other. Bitcoin has proven to be a tremendous machine at creating ever increasing value. But Bitcoin's proven incredible success as a store of value is a disincentive to its use as a medium of exchange, which, in economics terminology, is the basis for its "fundamental" value.

To briefly exemplify this on-the-one-hand-on-the-other-handless: Who in God's name would have taken her one Bitcoin, valued in February at around $3000 and bought herself and two friends at that time a nice four or five day vacation in the Bahamas when she had every reason to expect that the worth of her one Bitcoin was going to continue to accelerate, and quickly. If our hypo vacationer had used her Bitcoin as a medium of exchange for that February vacation, by November 27, the value of the Bitcoin she used to make her reservations on Expedia (which you can do) in February was worth more than triple its value in dollars. It would sicken our vacationer--She paid, in effect, $9,649 for her vacation vacation. So why use Bitcoin, if you have good reason to believe that it is going to continue to increase? And good reason you have. Thus, Bitcoin's peerless role as a store of value is a disincentive to that which establishes its "fundamental" value, its use as a medium of exchange, and an increase in such usage would drive its price down, hurting its role as a store of value.

In Harry Truman's lament and to his frustration he could never find a one-handed economist. He would find no one-handed economists to give him advice on Bitcoin.