bitcoin cryptO currency

see two 11 24

11 24 dark $ took out sherrod brown, katie porter

SEE 1.5 MUSK CRAFT COAL

see FTX

CV = corps, dark money, outside funder

mandy g

see sil vly edgelords ~ FTC regs

oddly supports and erodes transparency? money laundering corruption

is bitcoin an odd/extreme version of loss of faith in institutions? sovereignty for tech bro's?

BTB thiel paypal x.com proto origin libtard

odd secular apocalypse the End/Crash is near, eg endless Ron Paul web ads for "newsletter" on how to prophet from the coming crash

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trump 180 when why?

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gil bk

a16 all purpose mkt framing PR narrative, unicorn bc software, 8th partner, bitcoin mining co; pt winkelvoi sacks, sage buffet " rat poison squared"

PT rnc 2016 speech jet no fly rain

milo 2016 PT rnc speech; sri head fda jim o'neill met djt to discuss

coinbase y comb 21 mine co fail

-=-=

2x?

https://www.alternet.org/2021/10/white-nationalists/

Historically, one of the ways in which opponents of White supremacists, neo-Nazis and other domestic terrorists have attacked them was by going after them monetarily. But extremists, according to the Associated Press and PBS' "Frontline," are finding a way around that: cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Monero.

In an article that is part of an AP/"Frontline" collaboration, reporters Erika Kinetz and Lori Hinnant explain, "Radical right provocateurs are raising significant amounts of money from around the world through cryptocurrencies. Banned by traditional financial institutions, they have taken refuge in digital currencies — which they are using in ever-more-secretive ways to avoid the oversight of banks, regulators and courts, finds an AP analysis of legal documents, Telegram channels and blockchain data from Chainalysis, a cryptocurrency analytics firm."

Kinetz and Hinnant point to the Daily Stormer, founded by White supremacist/neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin in 2013, as an example of an extremist website that has profited from cryptocurrencies in a major way.

"The Daily Stormer website advocates for the purity of the White race, posts hate-filled, conspiratorial screeds against Blacks, Jews and women and has helped inspire at least three racially motivated murders," Kinetz and Hinnant note. "It has also made its founder, Andrew Anglin, a millionaire. Anglin has tapped a worldwide network of supporters to take in at least 112 Bitcoin since January 2017 — worth $4.8 million at today's exchange rate — according to data shared with The Associated Press. He's likely raised even more."

The reporters add that when Anglin was "cut off by credit card processors and banned by PayPal," Bitcoin became "his main source of funding." When Anglin's "Retard's Guide to Using Bitcoin" was published in April 2020, he said that he had been funding the Daily Stormer through Bitcoin exclusively for four years. But Anglin, according to Kinetz and Hinnant, abandoned Bitcoin in favor of another cryptocurrency, Monero, because "the transactions are all hidden."

According to Beth Littrell, an attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center, cryptocurrencies are making it harder to sue violent extremists than it was in the past.

Littrell told "Frontline" and the AP, "We were able to sue the Ku Klux Klan, a terrorist organization, in essence out of existence…. The law is evolving but lagging behind the harm."

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pop info judd ymail 12 24

chinese Crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun paid $6.2 million for a banana — sold by Sotheby's as conceptual art — and then ate it last Friday.

The banana is not Sun's most notable recent purchase.

On November 25, Sun purchased $30 million in crypto tokens from World Liberty Financial, a new crypto venture backed by President-elect Donald Trump. Sun said his company, TRON, was committed to "making America great again."

World Liberty Financial planned to sell $300 million worth of crypto tokens, known as WLF, which would value the new company at $1.5 billion. But, before Sun's $30 million purchase, it appeared to be a bust, with only $22 million in tokens sold. Sun now owns more than 55% of purchased tokens.

Sun's decision to buy $30 million in WLF tokens has direct and immediate financial benefits for Trump. A filing by the company in October revealed that "$30 million of initial net protocol revenues" will be "held in a reserve… to cover operating expenses, indemnities, and obligations." After the reserve is met, a company owned by Donald Trump, DT Marks DEFI LLC, will receive "75% of the net protocol revenues."

So before Sun's purchase, Trump was entitled to nothing because the reserve had not been met. But Sun's purchase covered the entire reserve, so now Trump is entitled to 75% of the revenues from all other tokens purchased. As of December 1, there have been $24 million WLF tokens sold, netting Trump $18 million.

Sun is also joining World Liberty Financial as an advisor, making Sun and the incoming president business partners.

While Trump has the cash, Sun's tokens are effectively worthless. To comply with U.S. securities law, WLF tokens are "non-transferable and locked indefinitely in a wallet or smart contract until such time, if ever, [WLF tokens] are unlocked through protocol governance procedures in a fashion that does not contravene applicable law." The only thing that Sun can do with his tokens is participate in the "governance" of World Liberty Financial. Right now, the only thing World Liberty Financial does is sell tokens.

Any foreign national paying an incoming president $18 million weeks before entering the White House should raise red flags. Sun's purchase is even more alarming because the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is currently prosecuting him for fraud.

The SEC's ongoing prosecution of Sun

On March 22, 2023, the SEC charged Sun and three companies he owns. The SEC accused Sun of marketing unregistered securities and "fraudulently manipulating the secondary market" for a crypto token "through extensive wash trading." Wash trading involves "the simultaneous or near-simultaneous purchase and sale of a security to make it appear actively traded without an actual change in beneficial ownership." In other words, according to the SEC, Sun made it seem like there was a lot of interest in crypto tokens he issued when much of the trading was fraudulent and manufactured by Sun.

The SEC also charged Sun with "orchestrating a scheme to pay celebrities to tout" his crypto tokens "without disclosing their compensation." Federal law requires people who endorse securities to "disclose whether they received compensation for the promotion, and to specify the amount." The celebrities involved included Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul, and Soulja Boy.

Lohan paid $40,000, and Paul paid about $100,000 to settle the charges against them without admitting liability. Soulja Boy did not respond to the lawsuit, and a default judgment was issued against him.

Sun posted on X that he believes the SEC "complaint lacks merit" and complained that "the SEC's regulatory framework for digital assets is still in its infancy and is in need of further development."

The litigation against Sun is ongoing, with a federal judge considering a motion by Sun's attorneys to dismiss the charges. The current SEC Chairman, Gary Gensler, who announced the charges against Sun, will step down when Trump takes office in January. A new SEC commissioner appointed by Trump could settle or dismiss the charges against Sun.

How Trump can use the power of the presidency to unlock hundreds of millions in profits for himself

Through World Liberty Financial, Trump can reap massive personal profits from creating a more permissive regulatory environment for crypto ventures.

In addition to his 75% share of revenues over $30 million, Trump's company was also awarded 22.5 billion WLF tokens. At the current sale price, these tokens are worth more than $300 million. That is more than 20 billion tokens being offered for sale publicly. (This makes the "governance" value of WLF tokens, which was already questionable, effectively worthless. No matter how many tokens you own, Trump will always be able to outvote other token holders.)

Right now, Trump's tokens — like those purchased by Sun — are worthless because they cannot be transferred. But Trump could appoint a new SEC chairman who is friendly to the crypto industry and who would create new rules allowing the WLF tokens and similar crypto assets to be legally traded. If the price of the tokens increases when they hit the open market, which is a possibility for a crypto token backed by the President of the United States, the value of Trump's tokens could be in the billions.

That appears to be exactly the path Trump is taking. WIRED reports that Trump is "asking the crypto industry to weigh in on potential picks." Among the leading contenders is Paul Atkins, a former SEC Commissioner, who, since leaving the agency in 2008, has run a consulting firm that works with crypto companies. Atkins is also co-chair of the Token Alliance, an initiative of the Chamber of Digital Commerce, the lobbying group for the crypto industry. He is also a member of the Chamber of Digital Commerce's Board of Directors.

Another top contender, former SEC General Counsel Robert Stebbins, has said that the SEC should "pause most of its crypto lawsuits while clearing a path for the firms to do business without the overhang of litigation." But Stebbins' candidacy underscores the need for Sun to forge a favorable relationship with Trump. Stebbins acknowledged that, even if it takes a more permissive view toward the crypto industry, it may want to consider continuing to pursue litigation involving fraud.

Major media outlets obsessed with banana, ignore Sun's payment to Trump

A foreign national under federal fraud prosecution making a purchase that results in $18 million cash payment to the president-elect has all the makings of a major scandal. But it has been virtually ignored by several major media outlets.

The New York Times, for example, has published five articles about Sun's purchase of the banana but none about Sun's $30 million purchase of WLF tokens and his business partnership with Trump. The Washington Post has published three articles about the banana, but its coverage of Sun's purchase of WLF tokens was limited to one short paragraph in a larger editorial about the crypto industry. (The paragraph does not explain how Trump personally profits from Sun's token purchase.) The Wall Street Journal did publish a short piece about Sun's token purchase on its "Live Update" blog, but the piece was not viewed as significant enough to be included in the print edition. The paper published two articles, plus a video, focused on the banana. One of the Wall Street Journal articles about the banana was published on the front page of the paper.

an 11 24

Consumer advocacy group Public Citizen feigned surprise on Wednesday over President-elect Donald Trump's nomination of Wall Street CEO Howard Lutnick to lead the U.S. Department of Commerce.

"Oh look, another billionaire has made his way into Trump's Cabinet," said the group, noting Lutnick is also a promoter of cryptocurrency and a Trump megadonor. "The conflicts of interest are almost too many to count."

Among the conflicts are Lutnick's involvement in the crypto industry and federal and state cases against Cantor Fitzgerald.

In addition to running the Wall Street firm, Lutnick is a banker for the "stablecoin" company Tether; purchasers receive a Tether token for $1, with the proceeds invested in reserves and Treasury bonds managed by Lutnick's Cantor Fitzgerald.

As Public Citizennoted, New York Attorney General Letitia James found in 2021 that Tether and another crypto firm "recklessly and unlawfully covered up massive financial losses to keep their scheme going and protect their bottom lines."

The company is also reportedly under federal investigation over alleged criminal violations of anti-money laundering rules and sanctions.

Public Citizen also said that while co-chairing Trump's transition team, Lutnick "may also have helped arrange a meeting between Trump and Coinbase chief Brian Armstrong," who "helped steer a record amount of political spending from the crypto industry into the 2024 election."

Crypto firms poured over $119 million into directly influencing the 2024 federal elections, Public Citizenfound in August, making the industry's spending second only to that of fossil fuel companies.

As Politico reported in October, even other members of Trump's inner circle have accused Lutnick of using his transition team co-chair position to take meetings on Capitol Hill and "talk about matters impacting his investment firm, Cantor Fitzgerald—including high-stakes regulatory matters involving its cryptocurrency business."

Lutnick's nomination, said former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, serves as a reminder that "Trump serves the oligarchy, not the people."

"Debris from crypto's political spending tsunami will jam up more halls in Washington than ever before if Lutnick is confirmed as secretary of commerce," said Bartlett Naylor, a financial policy advocate for Public Citizen. "The president-elect, who once correctly called bitcoin a scam, now surrounds himself with even more crypto enablers. Cryptocurrency won't return good jobs to the heartland or reduce food prices; it will only thin the wallets of those vulnerable to a now government-legitimized con."

Government watchdog Accountable.US pointed to more than $19 million in political donations Lutnick has made since 2009, nearly all of which went to GOP candidates and political action committees. He contributed $6 million to Trump's super PAC, Make America Great Again, Inc., in 2024 alone.

"Howard Lutnick's questionable qualifications to lead the Department of Commerce begin and end with his loyalty to the president-elect," said Accountable.US executive director Tony Carrk.

Tether isn't the only Lutnick-linked company that's been investigated for wrongdoing. The Securities and Exchange Commission fined Cantor Fitzgerald $1.4 million in 2023, saying the company repeatedly failed "to identify and report customers who qualified as large traders." The company also agreed to pay $16 million in fines to the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in 2022 for using unauthorized communication channels.

Should Lutnick be confirmed as commerce secretary, Accountable.US said a "major regulatory conflict" could arise due to a dispute between the BGC Group, a spin-off brokerage of Cantor Fitzegerald, and futures and commodities exchange CME Group, over a competing trading platform BGC Group is launching.

"Lutnick's company's violations resulting in financial regulator fines and millions in right-wing political donations shows that political devotion takes precedence over actual experience to do the job in Trump's Cabinet," said Carrk.

Trump campaigned as a champion of working people as he railed against high grocery prices. As The New Republicreportedon Tuesday, Lutnick has showered Trump's plan for across-the-board tariffs with effusive praise—even as leading economists warn the plan to impose tariffs on foreign imports will pass higher costs onto consumers, not foreign countries.

"In September, Lutnick told CNBC that 'tariffs are an amazing tool for the president to use—we need to protect the American worker,'" wrote Edith Olmsted. "Lutnick also gushed about tariffs at Trump's fascistic rally in Madison Square Garden last month, claiming that America was better off 100 years ago, when it had 'no income tax and all we had was tariffs.' His high praise for tariffs came even as he admitted Americans would face higher prices as a direct result."

Lutnick's nomination, said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), "is a win for the billionaire class at the expense of working people."

"The across-the-board tariff plan," she said, "is a distraction from the MAGA scam to extend tax giveaways for giant corporations and billionaires like Howard Lutnick."

===

politico

the TV ads seem wildly different from each other.

In Ohio, a woman shares how GOP Senate candidate Bernie Moreno invested in her business making uniforms for female police officers. In Iowa, a spot highlights Rep. Zach Nunn’s military credentials and work to lower child care costs. And in Colorado, a Spanish-language ad touts first-term Democratic Rep. Yadira Caraveo’s support for more border patrol agents.

The ads have one major trait in common: They are all part of a massive effort from the cryptocurrency industry to elect its preferred House and Senate candidates across a dozen states this fall. But not a single one mentions crypto.

The nascent industry has quietly become the single biggest outside spender in congressional elections this cycle other than traditional party groups, spending more than environmental PACs, pro-Israel advocates or abortion-rights groups. About 1 in 12 independent expenditure dollars in House and Senate races this year have come from cryptocurrency-linked super PACs.

“The crypto industry is pretty amazing in that 10 years ago, it was the laughing stock of the tech world,” said Moreno, the GOP Senate candidate from Ohio who is challenging Sen. Sherrod Brown and has attracted the most cryptocurrency backing of any candidate. “And in reality, here you are 10 years later, and they’re going to be decisive in helping Republicans win the United States Senate.”

The industry’s ads are about trying to help their preferred candidates win elections — not making cryptocurrency a campaign issue. That reflects a reality acknowledged by several candidates: Cryptocurrency is hardly top-of-mind for most voters. The ads from the various industry-linked super PACs are instead universally positive spots about their candidates, often biographical or hitting on hot-button issues such as the border, the economy and access to IVF.

And cryptocurrency groups are quick to note that they are not innately partisan, instead backing candidates of both parties, including Democratic Senate candidates in Michigan and Arizona.

Many candidates backed by cryptocurrency are vulnerable members who serve on key committees and supported the industry’s legislative priorities this year. And in Ohio, they are looking to oust Brown, a past skeptic of the industry, even if they are not talking about him or cryptocurrency while they do it.

The spending surge has flowed through three distinct super PACs: Defend American Jobs, which has boosted Republican Senate candidates; Protect Progress, which has boosted Democratic Senate candidates; and Fairshake, which has backed House candidates on both sides of the aisle. Fairshake has also sent money to the other two groups while receiving more than $170 million this cycle from a variety of cryptocurrency-backed interests, including the firms Coinbase and Ripple Labs and the partners behind Andreessen Horowitz, the venture capital firm with substantial crypto investments.

The three super PACs have collectively spent $125 million on independent expenditures this cycle, accounting for 8 percent of all outside spending in congressional races, according to data from the Federal Election Commission. That includes more than $80 million spent on the general election.

In response to questions about the candidates backed by Fairshake and the content of the ads, a PAC spokesperson referred to an earlier statement expressing support for “leaders on both sides of the aisle and in both houses who are committed to getting things done and working with the industry to pass responsible regulation that drives innovation, creates jobs, and sustains America’s global leadership.”

IFrame Content

Many of the crypto-backed candidates supported one of the industry’s key legislative priorities this year, a bill that would establish regulatory authority for different classes of digital assets that passed the House earlier this year but has not been taken up in the Senate.

But the biggest investment by far this cycle has been to oust Brown, the only race where they have spent against an incumbent. Brown, who chairs the Senate Banking Committee, emerged as a key skeptic of cryptocurrency and warned of the risks it could pose for consumers.

Defend American Jobs has spent more than $40 million on the race. The top two most-run ads in Ohio this year both come from the group, according to data from the ad tracking firm AdImpact. But neither mentions crypto — nor attacks Brown.

One highlights Moreno as a small business owner who raised a family in the state, another touts his support for energy independence and “stopping illegal immigrants from taking Ohio’s tax dollars.”

The cryptocurrency-linked super PACs also support Democrats — even using some of the same issues, like immigration. An ad from Protect Progress backing Rep. Ruben Gallego praised the Arizona Senate candidate for “standing up to his own party to fund 22,000 border patrol agents,” while a Michigan ad boosting Rep. Elissa Slotkin’s Senate candidacy features a clip of her saying “we need to invest in border security.”

In House races, the messaging is even more varied. Most of the nearly two dozen ads that have run in congressional races for the general election have some biographical component. Five ads defending incumbent Democrats tout their credentials on immigration and the border, while two spots backing vulnerable Republicans highlight their support for access to IVF.

It’s not unusual for an interest group to avoid talking about its own issues in advertising: Earlier this year, the pro-Israel super PAC United Democracy Project ran ads in Democratic primaries that focused on issues ranging from public safety to one candidate’s DUI arrest, though the group ran ads on antisemitism in one New York congressional race.

But cryptocurrency may simply not be front-of-mind for most voters. Estimates for the number of Americans who own cryptocurrency vary widely, in part depending on the specifics of how the question is asked. A Federal Reserve survey in 2023 pegged the share at 7 percent while a Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia survey this summer found 14.7 percent; cryptocurrency firms and advocates argue the number is even higher.

With cryptocurrency not a key issue in frontline House and Senate races, most candidates are reluctant to talk about the money. The majority of candidates getting backing from cryptocurrency PACs — and their opponents — declined to comment about the industry’s role in their elections.

A few candidates whose opponents were beneficiaries of crypto super PACs also spoke in favor of cryptocurrency. Former Rep. Mike Rogers, running against Slotkin in Michigan, said in a statement the industry is “important for our national security” while accusing outside groups of “trying to put Crypto in the hands of Democrats.” A spokesperson for Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake, facing Gallego in Arizona, said she was a “strong supporter” of crypto.

In Alaska, Nick Begich, the Republican challenging Mary Peltola, said he was surprised to see Fairshake backing the incumbent Democrat, citing his own pro-cryptocurrency stances. (Begich said he was an early adopter of Bitcoin.) For voters, though, questions about digital assets and crypto policy tend to be lower down the list.

“We’ll get an occasional question about cryptocurrency from the public,” Begich said. “But it is not in the top 10 issues that I hear.”

When the industry does message on crypto, those efforts are far smaller in scale than their work to help specific candidates.

Stand With Crypto, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, has been conducting outreach aiming to encourage crypto users and supporters to vote this year. The organization also grades candidates based on statements and support for legislation related to cryptocurrency, but does not endorse. And its efforts are far smaller: The group said it has received $2.8 million in donations, about 1.5 percent of the money that has flown through Fairshake.

---

YIKES 2024

COMMON DR

Crypto Industry's $40 Million Defeat of Pro-Worker Sherrod Brown Called 'Obscene'

The Ohio Democrat lost his seat because "the billionaire-backed crypto industry donated $40 million to his right-wing opponent," lamented one labor journalist.

Jake Johnson

Nov 07, 2024

The Republican Party's capture of the U.S. Senate this week was made possible in part by massive spending from the nascent but increasingly influential cryptocurrency industry, which pumped more than $40 million into a successful effort to topple pro-worker progressive Sen. Sherrod Brown in favor of luxury car dealer Bernie Moreno.

Crypto industry spending helped make Ohio's closely watched Senate race the most expensive in the state's history, with Moreno's campaign boosted by around $40.1 million from the super PAC Defend American Jobs—part of what OpenSecrets described as the "triad" of allied pro-crypto groups pouring cash into the 2024 election.

The Washington Postnoted that Moreno "founded a blockchain firm called Ownum in 2018" and "has long immersed himself in blockchain technology, a registry of ownership that essentially underpins all cryptocurrency."

A spokesman for Fairshake, another member of the crypto PAC triad, took credit for Moreno's victory in a statement after the election was called in the Republican's favor and condemned Brown's support for regulating the industry. Fairshake received tens of millions of dollars in donations from the cryptocurrency exchange giant Coinbase—some of which may have been illegal spending, according to the watchdog group Public Citizen, given that the company is a federal contractor.

"Sherrod Brown was a top opponent of cryptocurrency and thanks to our efforts, he will be leaving the Senate," said Fairshake's Josh Vlasto. "Senator-elect Moreno's come-from-behind win shows that Ohio voters want a leader who prioritizes innovation."

Crypto executive Tyler Winklevoss boasted in a social media post, "The crypto army is striking!"

"Sherrod Brown—crypto public enemy, Elizabeth Warren co-conspirator, and Gary Gensler crony—was just ousted by Bernie Moreno for Ohio Senate," wrote Winklevoss, the co-founder of Gemini.

Labor reporter Steven Greenhouse wrote Wednesday that it is "obscene" that Brown lost his seat because "the billionaire-backed crypto industry donated $40 million to his right-wing opponent."

"Sherrod Brown is one of the most pro-worker, pro-middle-class members of the U.S. Senate," Greenhouse added. "He truly fights for workers."

"The strategy was a brazen attempt to buy influence while keeping the public unaware of what they were supporting."

While the Ohio Senate contest was "the biggest single target of crypto money this cycle," as CNBCput it, the industry spread its money widely, backing both Republicans and Democrats in races across the country—underscoring its attempt to gain influence over future regulatory fights in Congress.

Overall, crypto groups spent more than $130 million in support of candidates for federal office this cycle. A tracker created by the Stand With Crypto Alliance estimates that 263 "pro-crypto candidates" were elected to the House and 18 to the Senate in Tuesday's contest.

Former President Donald Trump's victory over Vice President Kamala Harris was also seen as a win for the industry, with Bitcoin's price spiking to a new all-time high on Wednesday. During his campaign, Trump vowed to make the U.S. "the crypto capital of the planet."

"Tonight the crypto voter has spoken decisively—across party lines and in key races across the country," gushed Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase. "Americans disproportionately care about crypto and want clear rules of the road for digital assets. We look forward to working with the new Congress to deliver it."

But one critic, Better Markets president Dennis Kelleher, cast doubt on the industry's self-serving narrative that the 2024 results amounted to a ringing endorsement of cryptocurrency.

In an op-ed for the San Francisco Chronicle on Thursday, Kelleher pointed out that pro-crypto PACs adopted "generic anodyne names" and bankrolled.

"It's as if Ford ran an ad campaign and never mentioned its cars," Kelleher wrote. "The strategy was a brazen attempt to buy influence while keeping the public unaware of what they were supporting. This way, the industry can claim the now-elected officials they backed have a mandate from the public to support crypto interests—even though they don't."

---

the end of 2023 was not a great time for the crypto industry. In November, Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, learned that no amount of Michael Lewis gymnastics could save him from being convicted on seven charges of fraud and conspiracy. He was eventually sentenced to 25 years in prison after disappearing $11 billion of other people’s money. The following month, Sen. Elizabeth Warren sent letters to three crypto industry giants, the Blockchain Association, Coin Center, and Coinbase, criticizing them for undermining efforts to rein in crypto’s use in terrorist financing.

Around the same time, crypto groups began making noises about spending money in 2024 to defeat Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, the current chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. Brown is a profound skeptic of the industry and signed off on Warren holding hearings on crypto’s possible links to terrorism. Asked about the threats, Brown, a mop-topped Democrat with a raspy voice and wry sense of humor, said he was unconcerned.

“Bring ’em on,” he told reporters, according to Politico. “They’ve had a bad six months. They clearly have betrayed the public interest. If they think that’s the way to attack someone politically? Pretty amazing.”

Brown had no idea.

Rolling Stone has learned that crypto interests are set to spend $32 million on TV ads promoting Bernie Moreno, Brown’s Republican opponent, by the end of September, according to Democratic media buyers. The spending began on August 22 — meaning the crypto interests are spending more than $800,000 per day to flip the Ohio Senate seat, and potentially control of the Senate.

“Outside groups are spending record amounts to try to defeat Sherrod because they know he will always fight for Ohio, not special interests,” said Reeves Oyster, a Brown campaign spokesperson.

So far, the ads have been primarily fluffy positive spots boosting Moreno; some of the spots fearmonger about immigrants and China.

Tracing the roots of Defend American Jobs can be as convoluted as tracing crypto currency itself. The group is effectively a subsidiary of Fairshake — the second-largest fundraiser among Super PACs this season according to OpenSecrets, with over $200 million in its coffers. The bulk of Fairshake’s money has been donated by three crypto monoliths: Coinbase, Andreessen Horowitz, and Ripple.

Coinbase and its affiliates have donated $86 million. The founders of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz have together given $44 million. Ripple has contributed $25 million. (The Winklevoss Twins, who donated nearly $5 million to Fairshake, previously tried to donate $1 million in bitcoin to Donald Trump — well beyond what is legal.)

Most of the money raised by Defend American Jobs has come through Fairshake. Coinbase, Ripple Labs, and the founders of Andreessen Horowitz have donated separately, too.

Coinbase’s CEO Brian Armstrong has led the latest charge to bring crypto into the political mainstream, hosting a Super Tuesday rally with Nas in Los Angeles where he proclaimed, “More Americans own crypto than own electric vehicles or are in a union — yet some people in D.C. are still underestimating how much and how many people care about crypto. In 2024, it will become clear that being anti-crypto is bad politics.”

Rep. Katie Porter found that out the hard way. During the California Democratic Senate primary, Fairshake spent over $10 million against her campaign, apparently because she had the temerity to question the energy uses of the industry. Porter didn’t make the runoff, losing to Adam Schiff, a longtime collaborator with crypto who received an ‘A’ rating from Stand With Crypto, a self-described grassroots advocacy hub nonprofit led by Coinbase and fronted by Armstrong. Porter got an ‘F.’

“I think in 2024, some people need to win an election or lose an election because of their crypto stance,” said Armstrong.

Brown’s skepticism about crypto has been long-standing and largely correct. Shortly after the 2022 Super Bowl featured a raft of celebrity ads promoting the industry, Brown spoke before the Senate Banking Committee.

“If you watched the Super Bowl on Sunday, you saw ad after ad for a product that most Americans have heard of, but almost nobody knows what it really Is,” Brown said. “Big crypto companies are looking to make big profits. They are desperate to reach as many Americans as they can. They brought in celebrities and gimmicks to make crypto sound exciting and daring and profitable, but the ads left a few things out. They didn’t mention the fraud, the scams, and the outright theft. The ads didn’t point out that you can lose big and crypto’s huge price swings. They didn’t tell you about the high fees pocketed by the crypto companies. They sure didn’t explain that the crypto markets lack basic investor protections and oversight. Watching those ads remind a lot of us of some asset bubbles we’ve seen before… We need to look beyond the unproven promises to protect Americans and our entire financial system.”

By the next Super Bowl, Bankman-Fried had been indicted and there were exactly zero crypto ads. Brown wasn’t done ringing the warning bell. On October 23, Brown sent the following tweet regarding alleged ties between crypto and foreign terrorists, including Hamas: “@SenateBanking is examining the financing behind terrorism & working to cut it off at the source. We’re looking at all options including sanctioning state sponsors of terrorism & their proxies & cracking down on cryptocurrency. We must do whatever we can to deny Hamas funding.”

Stand With Crypto gave the statement a ‘Very Anti-Crypto’ rating with a large thumbs down emoji on their website.

So maybe it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Fairshake’s affiliate has gone all in against Brown, especially since his opponent Moreno is a crypto evangelist who founded a property title blockchain startup in 2016. Still, the sheer amount of their expenditure is breath-taking.

From Sept. 4-9, Defend American Jobs spent $6.7 million on television in support of Moreno, more than the Brown campaign and other pro-Brown groups spent combined, and more than the Moreno campaign and other affiliated groups as well.

Not all Fairshake donors think taking out Brown is a great idea.

According to Politico, Crypto advocate and billionaire investor Ron Conway, a Democrat, exploded when he found out Big Crypto was going after Brown, especially since he was meeting with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer about the possibility of crypto-friendly legislation being taken up in the lame duck session after the election. At that point, Conway was into Fairshake’s network for $500,000.

“How short sighted and stupid can you possibly be,” wrote Conway in a group email that included Armstrong, Andreessen Horowitz founders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, and Ripple head Brad Garlinghouse.

Conway’s complaint did not dissuade them. So far, most of the ads have been Moreno bio commercials with shots of Ohio farmhouses and back roads. But things are getting darker.

One of the ads says Moreno will stop “illegal immigrants from taking Ohio’s tax dollars.” A new ad features a shadowy outline of Brown and scare words about China, and reiterates that Moreno will “stop illegal immigrants from taking our hard earned tax dollars.”

Where they go in the last 50 days — immigrants eating cats propaganda? — is unknown.

A spokesperson for Fairshake declined to comment.

If crypto succeeds in unseating Brown, you may wonder who would replace him as chair of the Senate Banking Committee. That would be Republican Tim Scott.

Stand With Crypto gives him an ‘A.’

---

GGL 11 24

[### Crypto Industry's $40 Million Defeat of Pro-Worker Sherrod ...

Common Dreams

https://www.commondreams.org › ... › cryptocurrency](https://www.commondreams.org/news/sherrod-brown-crypto)

4 hours ago — The Ohio Democrat lost his seat because "the billionaire-backed crypto industry donated $40 million to his right-wing opponent," lamented ...

Missing: FUNDER ‎DONOR

[### Bitcoiners celebrate as Bernie Moreno ousts Sherrod ...

CNBC

https://www.cnbc.com › 2024/11/05 › bitcoiners-celebr...](https://www.cnbc.com/2024/11/05/bitcoiners-celebrate-as-bernie-moreno-ousts-sherrod-brown-ohio-upset.html)

2 days ago — Republican Bernie Moreno, a blockchain entrepreneur, won the Ohio Senate race, knocking off Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown. · The crypto ...

[### Crypto Comes For Sherrod Brown: $32 Million in Ads ...

Rolling Stone

https://www.rollingstone.com › politics › politics-features](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/sherrod-brown-crypto-bernie-moreno-millions-1235102478/)

Sep 15, 2024 — Crypto companies are spending $800000 a day to take out Sherrod Brown, one of their chief critics in Congress, and replace him with an ally.

[### Why Crypto Billionaires Want to Flip Sherrod Brown's ...

The Intercept

https://theintercept.com › 2024/10/13 › sherrod-brown-...](https://theintercept.com/2024/10/13/sherrod-brown-race-crypto-regulation/)

Oct 13, 2024 — Millions of dollars are pouring into the race to unseat Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, who has resisted loosening cryptocurrency regulations.

[### Crypto industry pours tens of millions into Ohio Senate race

Spectrum News

https://spectrumnews1.com › news › 2024/10/17 › cryp...](https://spectrumnews1.com/oh/columbus/news/2024/10/17/crypto-brown-moreno-senate)

Oct 17, 2024 — WASHINGTON, D.C. — The battle between Sen. Sherrod Brown and Bernie Moreno in Ohio is on track to be the most expensive Senate race in ...

[### Crypto PACs Dominate Ohio Senate Race, Spending $40 ...

CoinDesk

https://www.coindesk.com › policy › 2024/09/26 › cry...](https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/09/26/crypto-pacs-dominate-ohio-senate-race-spending-40m-on-sherrod-browns-foe/)

Sep 26, 2024 — Crypto-fan candidate Bernie Moreno has caught up in Ohio polls as the industry's cash outpaces other PACs in one of the key US Senate races that may decide the ...

[### Crypto's $245 million campaign finance operation funded ...

CNBC

https://www.cnbc.com › 2024/11/05 › cryptos-245-mill...](https://www.cnbc.com/2024/11/05/cryptos-245-million-campaign-finance-operation-funded-non-crypto-ads.html)

2 days ago — The crypto sector emerged as a top donor this election cycle, but the ads it funded weren't about digital currencies.

Missing: DONOR ‎| Show results with: DONOR

[### The Crypto Industry's Spending on the Election Pays Off

The New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com › 2024/11/06 › technology](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/06/technology/crypto-industry-spending-election.html)

4 hours ago — The spending spree fueled a string of victories on Tuesday for congressional candidates who had expressed support for cryptocurrencies.

[### Sen. Sherrod Brown - Campaign Finance Summary

OpenSecrets

https://www.opensecrets.org › members-of-congress › s...](https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/sherrod-brown/summary?cid=N00003535)

NOTE: All the numbers on this page are for the 2019 - 2024 election cycle and based on Federal Election Commission data released electronically on 11/06/24 for ...

[### Brown, Colleagues Call on Administration to Address ...

Senator Sherrod Brown (.gov)

https://www.brown.senate.gov › press › release › sherro...](https://www.brown.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/sherrod-brown-colleagues-call-administration-address-crypto-financed-terrorism-after-reports-hamas-raising-millions-crypto-fund-operations)

Oct 18, 2023 — ... Crypto-Financed Terrorism After Reports of Hamas Raising Millions in Crypto to Fund Operations ... WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Sherrod ...

---

11 24

Over the weekend, HEATED reported on one of the stranger bedfellowships of the 2024 election: Elon Musk, clean tech billionaire, and Joe Craft, coal billionaire.

ICYMI: Craft is one of the largest donors to Elon Musk’s America PAC. The coal baron made a one-time $1 million donation in June, marking his single-largest-ever campaign contribution.

That Craft would fork over $1 million to a pro-Trump effort is not surprising. What’s surprising is that the money would go to Musk, who once helped South Australia quit coal, and whose business plan for Tesla literally proposes to “eliminate fossil fuels.”

So why would Craft throw his weight behind Musk, of all people? My theory is that it has less to do with Musk’s vision for the future of energy, and more so his vision for the future of cryptocurrency.

Because Craft, like Musk, is a certified crypto bro.And if cryptocurrency soars in the near-term future, then Craft is betting that coal will, too.

The coal company mining Bitcoin

Cryptocurrency mining requires an enormous amount of electricity—so much that in 2020, a coal plant slated for retirement was revived because of Bitcoin mining. This has been great news for Craft’s coal company, Alliance Resource Partners.

In an April earnings call, Craft said that cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence is “driving significant growth in anticipated electricity demand over the next several years.” This increase in demand has “given us some more optimism that our coal operations will continue longer than when we started looking at some of this diversification,” Craft said.

And Craft isn’t just waiting for Bitcoin miners to create demand for coal. He’s creating the demand himself. Over the last four years, Alliance Resource Partners has mined a whopping $30 million worth of Bitcoin, Alliance CFO Cary Marshall said on the April earnings call. “We're not actually out there buying Bitcoin or anything of that nature,” Marshall said. “We're mining the Bitcoin associated with these miners that we have.

Craft went on to explain that Alliance has "effectively built” a data center for Bitcoin mining, and is using the excess electricity from its coal facilities to power the energy-intensive Bitcoin mining process.

In addition, Craft said Alliance is renting its excess data processing capacity to other Bitcoin miners, “to take advantage of the low energy costs we have.”

The extra income from Alliance’s Bitcoin mining operations are helping the coal company remain financially stable, Marshall added. “We're mining the Bitcoin, and we're selling generally on a monthly basis to cover our operating costs,” he said. He added that the company currently owns about 425 Bitcoin and expects to mine between 175 to 190 more this year.

Meanwhile, Forbes has called Musk “one of the biggest Bitcoin and crypto price influencers”—which could extend to the government level if Trump is re-elected. If re-elected, Trump has promised to appoint Musk the head of a new department to oversee and mitigate government spending: The Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE—a reference to Musk’s favorite cryptocurrency, Dogecoin. (Trump has also pledged to create a bitcoin strategic reserve if elected, as well as form a crypto advisory council).

Musk, for what it’s worth, used to be concerned about the potential negative impacts of cryptocurrency on climate change, particularly with regard to coal. In 2021, just weeks after Tesla announced it hadinvested $1.5 billion in Bitcoin, Musk announced that Tesla would no longer accept car purchases via Bitcoin. "We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel," he said. "Cryptocurrency is a good idea... but this cannot come at great cost to the environment."

But like all things related to climate change, Musk seems to have abandoned that concern. Today, Tesla is the third-largest Bitcoin holder among public companies, Yahoo reported, and SpaceX “is said to be holding around 8,285 coins.”

Anyway, just thought that was interesting. What do y’all think?

---

ny CNN 7 24

The Bay Area has long been, and remains, a hippie-dippie bastion of Democrats who voted overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020. But there’s a small, powerful sect of Silicon Valley billionaires who are carving a path for the maybe-Trumpers and the MAGA-curious in the tech world.

Elon Musk explicitly endorsed Trump over the weekend and, according to The Wall Street Journal, inked a nine-figure donation promise to a new pro-Trump political action committee called America PAC. David Sacks, the billionaire tech investor, co-hosted a fundraiser last month at his San Francisco home and spoke at the Republican National Convention on Monday. Other contributors to America PAC include the Winklevoss twins, Doug Leone of Sequoia Capital and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

In the last election cycle, the few Trump backers who existed in the Valley largely kept their support under the radar. Their numbers are still small, but they’re no longer hiding, and their wallets are open.

So, what’s gotten into these guys?

For one, there might not be as many Trump supporters in the tech world as you might think.

“A mythology has been marketed by partisans suggesting a non-existent surge of tech titans abandoning the Democratic party support in a rush to support the Trump/Vance campaign. The truth is that most leading tech figures do not support Trump/Vance and those prominent ones who do, were there years ago as well,” Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, dean for leadership studies at the Yale School of Management, told CNN.

And for the ones you might have heard of, most likely, it’s not a sudden fervor for the far right’s Christian extremism or a predilection for red baseball caps. Instead, they’re looking out for the bottom line.

The two biggest pain points for people in tech have been the Biden administration’s record on antitrust enforcement and its attitude toward crypto, Adam Kovacevich, CEO of Chamber of Progress, a center-left tech policy group, told me.

“I don’t think it has as much to do with Trump per se,” he said. “I think they would have probably stayed with Biden if they felt more care and attention was being paid to the innovation economy.”

In other words: It’s not that the billionaires love Trump, it’s that they really don’t like Lina Khan, President Joe Biden’s top antitrust crusader; or Gary Gensler, the Wall Street cop who’s made no secret of his hostility toward digital assets.

Lina Khan, the FTC chair, has led an aggressive antitrust campaign, specifically targeting Big Tech.

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

In recent years, Khan has spearheaded lawsuits against Amazon, Microsoft and Meta. In an interview with CNN last year, Khan described those efforts as part of a broader campaign to bring more of the government’s resources to bear on the daily economic problems of ordinary Americans.

But government regulation, however well intentioned, rarely sits well with the people who are getting rich off the status quo.

Two of the most famous venture capitalists in the Valley, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, have committed to donating to America PAC, according to several news outlets.

The pair haven’t exactly been hiding their frustration with the Biden administration, either.

“The American government is now far more hostile to new startups than it used to be,” they wrote in a recent blog post, which cited regulatory agencies using “brute force investigations, prosecutions, intimidation, and threats to hobble new industries.” They also lamented the Biden administration’s proposed tax on unrealized capital gains, which they said would “absolutely kill” startups and the venture capital industry.

One person familiar with their plans told the Financial Times that their pivot to Trump was because “there is so much at stake on the crypto side” and the growth of artificial intelligence. “It doesn’t mean support for (Trump’s) views on immigration,” the person told the paper.

Historically, Trump hasn’t shown a lot of love for tech bros, whose social media companies he long accused of having anti-conservative bias, especially after several of them suspended his accounts in response to the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. But the recent influx of tech money — facilitated in part by his 39-year-old venture-capitalist VP pick — appears to have softened some of Trump’s Luddite-ish views.

As recently as 2021, he called bitcoin a “scam against the dollar.” Lately, though, he’s positioning himself as the crypto-friendly candidate. While his campaign hasn’t laid out specific policy proposals around digital assets, it began accepting crypto donations this spring, and Trump is scheduled to speak at a national bitcoin conference next week.

The Biden administration, meanwhile, is working to mend ties with industry leaders who say they’ve been stymied by the SEC and Gensler, generally agreed to be the crypto community’s Voldemort.

To be sure, plenty of Big Tech dollars are still flowing to Biden and down-ballot Democrats from tech-world donors, including LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and Google co-founder Eric Schmidt. But Trump’s gains from Silicon Valley have come just as some major Democratic donors have hit pause amid conversations about replacing the president on the ballot.

And, as Kovacevich notes, just because there are a few big names turning toward Trump, “they’re not speaking for everybody.”

“In fact, most of the big company CEOs aren’t terribly involved in partisan politics,” Kovacevich says. “They’re going to have to work with whoever wins the election.”

Deepfake Warren Buffett is selling bitcoin scams to TikTok users | Media Matters for America

---

an 5 23 no lnx

Five more Republican lawmakers surrender FTX money to U.S. Marshals Service

Alexandria Jacobson and Raw Story May 18, 2023

This article was paid for by AlterNet subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here.

Money keeps pouring into the U.S. Marshals Service from federal political campaigns and committees who received funds from FTX, the now-defunct cryptocurrency company, according to a Raw Story analysis of federal campaign records.

Another five political campaigns sent $15,500 in campaign cash to the government agency best known for hunting down suspected criminals, adding to at least $160,000 collected from 30 federal political candidates and party committees, as Raw Story first reported.

The five new campaigns that gave up the money are fundraising entities for Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-NY), Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-OR), Rep. Bob Latta (R-OH) and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA).

Stefanik is chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, the GOP’s fourth most powerful position in the U.S. House of Representatives.

These mass “disgorgements” to the U.S. Marshals — an extraordinary development with almost no precedent in politics — stem from the Department of Justice urging politicians to return contributions made by FTX executives, including Sam Bankman-Fried, the company’s former CEO. Bankman-Fried faces 13 charges in federal court, including fraud, breaking campaign finance laws and violating the Foreign Corrupt Business Practices Act with analleged $40 million bribe to Chinese authorities.

“Based on our office's investigation, we have cause to believe these donations represent the proceeds of Bankman-Fried's crimes and accordingly are forfeitable under applicable provisions of the federal asset forfeiture statutes,” said a letter sent by the Department of Justice to a member of Congress’ campaign committee, which in turn shared its contents with Raw Story.

The letter continued, “It is the intent of this office to request any funds forfeited be made available to compensate the victims of Bankman-Fried's crimes pursuant to the Department of Justice's restoration and/or remission regulations."

These letters seem to indicate the DOJ taking a harder stance on campaigns taking money from suspected criminals — and could be considered an “aggressive practice,” said Kevin O’Brien, a partner at Ford O’Brien Landy LLP and former assistant U.S. Attorney for the Department of Justice.

“Forced forfeiture is a very onerous process. It's not fun, and I think that might have something to do with why they're so eager to send the money back,” O’Brien said. “Investors pretty much lost their shirt, and so the government has an obligation to collect what it can from other sources, including people who are required under the law to forfeit the proceeds of a crime.”

As for sending the money to the U.S. Marshals, O’Brien called it “unusual” and “weird.” He wasn’t sure why the funds were directed to the U.S. Marshals but theorized it could be a bureaucratic decision. The Marshals could be taking the funds as a part of its Asset Forfeiture Program, which allows the USMS to manage and sell assets seized and forfeited by the DOJ, according to the U.S. Marshals website.

“The Molinaro campaign sent the contribution it received from an FTX Executive to a U.S. Marshals recovery fund. It will benefit those defrauded by FTX,” said Dave Catalfamo, an adviser to the Molinaro campaign.

Four of the five new disgorgements came from FTX executive, Ryan Salame, a frequent political donor, according to Raw Story’s analysis of FEC records.

Salame’s house was searched by the FBI on April 27, but he has not been charged with a crime.

“Since news broke, I have waited on guidance from the bankruptcy court on what to do with the funds I received connected to FTX. Having received said guidance, I have tendered the funds to the court. It is up to the court to decide what to do with the money,” Rep. Morgan Griffiths (R-VA), who previously returned $2,900 in FTX-related contributions, said in a statement.

Among the political contributions that federal political committees have sent the U.S. Marshals to date, according to federal records:

Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee — $36,500

Republican National Committee — $25,000

Former Republican Sen. Ben Sasse — $5,800

Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID) — $5,800

Former Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) Campaign Fund — $5,800

Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) — $5,800

Sen. John Boozman (R-AR) — $5,800

Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) — $5,800

Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-NY) — $2,900

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) — $2,900

Rep. Bob Latta (R-OH) — $2,900

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) — $2,900

Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ) — $2,900

Rep. Larry Bucshon (R-IN) — $2,900

Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC) — $2,900

Rep. Alex Mooney (R-WV) — $2,900

Rep. Julia Letlow (R-LA) — $2,900

Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX) — $2,900

Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-CA) — $2,900

Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) — $2,900

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) — $2,900

Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA) — $2,900

Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-FL) — $2,900

Rep. Bill Johnson (R-OH) — $2,900

Rep. John Moolenaar (R-MI) — $2,900

Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH) — $2,900

Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX) — $2,900

Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) Presidential Exploratory Committee — $2,900

Rep. Gary Palmer (R-AL) — $2,900

Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA) — $2,900

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) — $2,900

Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL) — $2,900

Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) — $2,700

Athena PAC (Democratic Rep. Kathy Castor of Florida) — $2,500

Axne PAC (Democratic Rep. Cynthia Axne of Iowa) — $1,618

Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-OR) — $1,000

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Bitcoin Scam Took Buyers for a $722 Million Ride

KELLY WEILL

1219 bloomberg

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp is set to pick financial executive Kelly Loeffler to fill the U.S. Senate seat held by retiring GOP Senator Johnny Isakson, the Associated Press and Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. The choice is a rebuff of President Donald Trump’s lobbying for appointment of one of his biggest supporters in the House.

Loeffler is chief executive officer of Atlanta-based Bitcoin trading platform Bakkt LLC. Bakkt is affiliated with Intercontinental Exchange, where she has worked as an executive and where her husband, Jeff Sprecher, is chief executive officer.

She has donated millions to Republican candidates and super PACs. Recipients have included the Georgia Republican Party, former Senator Saxby Chambliss, current Senator David Perdue, and a super PAC that helped boost the candidacy of 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

The AP cited an unidentified Republican consultant. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which reported last week that Kemp would appoint Loeffler, said the governor has been calling state officials to inform them of his decision, which will be announced within days. Kemp’s spokeswoman, Candice Broce, declined to confirm the reports.

Trump had been pressing Kemp to appoint Representative Doug Collins, who has been a vocal defender of the president during the House impeachment inquiry. The Wall Street Journal reported that Kemp and Trump had a tense meeting at the White House Nov. 24 where the president outlined his objections to Loeffler, mainly that she was politically untested.

Warning of Primary

Another Trump supporter in the House, Florida Representative Matt Gaetz, warned Kemp last week that he might face a primary challenger if he defied Trump by not selecting Collins.

“You are ignoring his request because you THINK you know better than @POTUS,” Gaetz tweeted, referring to the president. “If you substitute your judgment for the president’s, maybe you need a primary in 2022. Let’s see if you can win one w/o Trump.”

Loeffler will have the support of the National Republican Senatorial Committee if she faces a GOP challenge in 2020, said a person familiar with the party committee’s decision.

Kemp is governor of a once-reliably Republican-leaning state that has seen shifts toward Democrats as a result of demographic changes fueled by the growth in Atlanta’s suburbs. Trump won the state by 5 percentage points in 2016, but that’s a smaller margin than that of the GOP presidential candidates in the four prior elections. In 2018, Kemp narrowly defeated Democrat Stacey Abrams in the governor’s race as women and suburban voters increasingly turned away from Republicans.

Loeffler would be the second woman from Georgia to ever serve in the U.S. Senate. The first, Rebecca Latimer Felton, served for a single day in 1922, following an appointment due to the death of Senator Thomas Watson one day before his term in the chamber ended.

Isakson, 74, said in late August he would retire at the end of this year, citing a four-year struggle with Parkinson’s disease, a fall in July and surgery in August to remove a growth from his kidney. Loeffler would hold the seat until a special election is held next year to fill the remaining two years of Isakson’s term.

Isakson’s decision to leave at the end of 2019 sets up an unusual situation in which both of Georgia’s Senate seats, now in GOP control, would be on the ballot in 2020, a presidential election year. Perdue also is up for re-election next year.

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https://onezero.medium.com/the-libra-masterplan-dc9560e41c87

libra facebook

---

https://www.democracynow.org/2019/6/19/big_techs_war_for_your_wallet

In a move that could reshape the world’s financial system, Facebook has unveiled plans to launch a new global digital currency called Libra. Facebook announced its plans on Tuesday after secretly working on the cryptocurrency for more than a year. It will launch Libra next year in partnership with other large companies including Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and Uber. Facebook said it wants to create “a simple global currency and infrastructure that empowers billions of people.” The plan has already come under fierce criticism from financial regulators and lawmakers. Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown tweeted, “Facebook is already too big and too powerful, and it has used that power to exploit users’ data without protecting their privacy. We cannot allow Facebook to run a risky new cryptocurrency out of a Swiss bank account without oversight.” We speak with David Dayen, the executive editor of The American Prospect. He recently wrote a piece for The New Republic headlined “The Final Battle in Big Tech’s War to Dominate Your World.”

:{:{}:

GONZÁLEZ: In a move that could reshape the world’s financial system, Facebook has unveiled plans to launch a new global digital currency called Libra. Facebook announced its plans Tuesday after secretly working on the cryptocurrency for more than a year. It plans to launch Libra next year in partnership with other large companies—among them, Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and Uber. Facebook said it wants to create, quote, “a simple global currency and infrastructure that empowers billions of people.” David Marcus, Facebook’s cryptocurrency chief, appeared on CNBC on Tuesday.

DAVID MARCUS: If you want to compare Libra with traditional cryptocurrencies, the first thing and the first big difference is that typically cryptocurrencies are investment vehicles or, you know, investment assets rather than being great medium of exchange. And this is really designed, from the ground up, to be a great medium of exchange, a very high-quality form of digital money that you can use for everyday payments and cross-border payments, microtransactions and all kinds of different things.

AMY GOODMAN: Facebook’s plan has already come under fierce criticism from financial regulators and lawmakers. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Libra must not become a sovereign currency. In Washington, the chair of the House Financial Services Committee, Congressmember Maxine Waters, called on Facebook to pause its development of Libra until lawmakers and regulators have an opportunity to examine these issues and take action. Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown tweeted, quote, “Facebook is already too big and too powerful, and it has used that power to exploit users’ data without protecting their privacy. We cannot allow Facebook to run a risky new cryptocurrency out of a Swiss bank account without oversight,” Brown said.

To talk more about Facebook’s plans for a new digital currency, we’re joined by David Dayen. He is executive editor of The American Prospect, recently wrote a piece for The New Republic headlined “The Final Battle in Big Tech’s War to Dominate Your World.”

Welcome to Democracy Now! Talk about these major developments, David Dayen. Explain exactly what Libra is and what Facebook is trying to do.

DAVID DAYEN: So, Libra, as Facebook describes it, is a currency, a cryptocurrency. When you talk about that, you kind of think of something like bitcoin. But this would actually have reserves, so they call it sort of a stable coin. It is backed by actual money that is various international currencies and also government securities. And so, that should prevent volatility from the unit of exchange, Libra, going up or down very much. It will fluctuate a little, but not in the ways that, you know, we think of when we think of bitcoin. So, according to Facebook, that is the way that this can be used to purchase goods on the Facebook app or on any other app or website that offers payment in Libra. It’s a way to transfer money to other people on the Facebook app. Obviously, you know, we have, what, over 2 billion people that use Facebook. It’s a way to transfer something of value between those users. And because it’s backed by international currencies and can be used across borders, it’s really supplanting the need to exchange money. You don’t have to go from dollars to euros, necessarily; you can just pay in Libra. So, that’s sort of the pitch that Facebook would make.

The other side of this is that there’s no real regulatory setup. It’s displacing global currencies in some ways. There are serious monetary policy concerns, serious regulatory concerns. Could this be used to facilitate money laundering or tax evasion? There are a whole host of unanswered questions around this.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, David Dayen, this whole issue of a bunch of private companies, because we’re not talking just about Facebook. They initiated it, but they’ve gotten a buy-in from credit card companies, from PayPal, from Uber, from a variety of very powerful companies, mostly American companies. And you’re, in essence, creating a private organization to run a money system that would stretch across borders. I spent a couple of hours going on their website yesterday, trying to understand even the governance situation of this, and it’s very detailed. They’ve been working on this, obviously, for quite some time in secret. And they talk about creating a Libra Association Council, where if you were going to be a founding member, you have to invest at least $10 million, and supposedly no one company could control this council, because you’d be limited to a 1% voting share, no matter how much money you invested. But if you invest a lot of money, you can designate universities or nonprofits to vote for you on this council. So, in effect, the more money you invest, even though you may not have direct power over how the association functions, you can still have enormous influence on the voting blocs of what would in essence be a new international currency. I’m wondering what—

DAVID DAYEN: Yeah, I mean—

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: What are regulators going to say about this?

DAVID DAYEN: Yeah, there are serious governance questions around it. There are also, you know, financial questions. I mean, the way that this works, as I understand it, is there’s this investment of $10 million from up to a hundred companies, so you’re talking about a billion dollars. And also, all the money—so, if somebody buys Libra, they’re paying that money into this reserve, and they get Libra back. That money can be used to be invested, these reserves, Facebook says, in very low-risk securities, but that money is not returned to the individual. So, if you think about a bank, you get interest on your money that you deposit with the bank, that the bank can use for any purpose that they wish. In this case, the interest stays with these companies. So, you know, there’s a financial incentive for these companies to get involved in this.

And if you think about the scale, the potential scale of something like this, where you’re talking about 2 billion users, any—this is almost an operating system for money. Any other organization can build something to create payment services in this fashion. The possibilities are really endless, and so, you know, the financial possibilities are also endless. And as you correctly cite, Juan, I mean, the governance questions of how this currency will be managed, how capital flows will be understood and facilitated, if you have a country that is experiencing an economic downturn and—Libra is an excellent way for capital flight, which is something we don’t really want when a country is in financial trouble. How is that going to be mitigated or managed? There are just, as I said, just way too many unanswered questions with this.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And what about the issue, for instance, of countries that may be in conflict with each other—the United States and Iran right now or the United States and Venezuela? The impact of this kind of a currency on the geopolitical conflicts and the ability of nations to control their own currencies?

DAVID DAYEN: Yeah, I mean, it’s hard to know how sanctions would work under this setup. It’s hard to know how any kind of anti-money-laundering—usually a bank would have to create some suspicious activity report. Will Libra be able to do that? You know, you could use this for ways to harm other countries through removing that currency into Libra. I mean, that would obviously be done at the individual level. But, you know, usually, as you say, countries are in control of their own fiat currency. And if they have this sort of safety valve, this global currency that would displace them in some ways, which an individual could use to make all the purchases that it needs to make, and not use the currency denominated in that particular country, it’s almost unknown. I mean, we’d have no precedent for this. So, it’s hard to say what some of the implications would be. And I think that’s why regulators and politicians are asking to really slow down, so this can sort of be studied.

AMY GOODMAN: On Tuesday, Facebook released a promotional video highlighting what the company sees as possible benefits of the new currency.

>> What if everyone was invited to the global economy with access to the same financial opportunities? Introducing Libra, a new global currency, designed for the digital world, backed by the belief that money should be fast for Ope in Lagos, simple for Saul’s family business in Manila, and secure for Betsabé when sending money home to Mexico City. It’s powered by blockchain, making it safe and accessible, no matter who you are or where you’re from.

AMY GOODMAN: So, David Dayen, executive editor of The American Prospect, if you can respond to this, and also why Libra will be based in Switzerland? Does it have to do with it being a banking center, a tax haven?

DAVID DAYEN: Yeah. So, I mean, the truth is, is that if you were able to create some sort of digital wallet that could be used in any country and purchase and make microtransfers and things like that, it would be convenient. I mean, that’s really what Facebook is banking on, right? I mean, right now the U.S. payment system is pretty clunky, particularly with international transfers, that take several days to clear. There would be a convenience angle here.

And, of course, Facebook believes that if they can get you on their website and using their digital wallet, which they control directly—I mean, there’s this Libra Association that’s based in Switzerland, as you say, probably for tax purposes, that is controlling the governance of the currency. But Calibra, which is what David Marcus, who we heard from at the top, is running, is a digital wallet that’s run by a subsidiary that’s wholly owned by Facebook. So, if Calibra becomes ubiquitous, if it becomes this thing that you really need to make purchases, then you have something like WeChat. And WeChat is the app in China that has become so much a part of people’s lives that it’s very hard to use paper money in China. I mean, this is a social media app, it’s a chat tool, and also it’s a purchase app. It’s something that you can use in that fashion.

And that’s Facebook’s, I think, end goal. If you add payments onto this social media application that is incredibly dominant, you’ve basically locked people into Facebook. And if you’ve done that, then, you know, whether you’re taking a little bit out of every transaction that 2 billion people make on a daily basis, or whether you are just locking people onto the site, knowing what purchases they’ve made and then selling very data-rich ads based on that, you have a prospect of real domination. And, you know, I really think that either this thing is going to not get off the ground, because too many regulators and politicians will have uneasiness about it, or we’ll look back in 20 years, and this will be the week where this thing was announced that created this dominant global company that is, you know, an indispensable digital partner kind of walking you through life.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, David Dayen, the whole issue of security. Facebook is currently a poster child for the violations of privacy data rights of individuals. They’re insisting that they’re going to build a—this Calibra will be a separate subsidiary, that it won’t share the user information of Facebook itself with this payment system that they set up. Could you talk about this issue? Because it almost seems like—or, it does seem like Facebook is basically transferring its monopoly position in social media to then enter the financial transactions world.

DAVID DAYEN: Yeah. I mean, first of all, do you trust Mark Zuckerberg with anything around privacy at this point, after years and years of these revelations? And second of all, it’s a bit of a red herring. So, it’s entirely possible—let’s take Facebook at their word—that the financial data and the social data will be separate. Well, in order to access purchases on Libra, you’re still going to have to make a click within the Facebook app or within WhatsApp or wherever, to find your purchase or to search for a business that you want to solicit or things like that. And that information is certainly going to be available to Facebook. So, the idea that there’s no, you know, extra data that you’d be grabbing here, if you’re Facebook, is really not true. I mean, if you’re spending more time on the app, if you’re clicking around to find things to buy on the app, which is not typically at this point what people do on Facebook, then that’s just much more data that Facebook is going to be able to use to target ads at you and do whatever else it wants.

AMY GOODMAN: So, finally, again, the title of your piece, “The Final Battle in Big Tech’s War to Dominate Your World,” fill that out.

DAVID DAYEN: Sure. So, we’ve been seeing, over the last several months, the big tech companies—Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook—try to figure out how to become that sort of one partner. I mean, you have Apple, that put out this thing that’s a credit card, called the Apple Card. You have Amazon partnering with other global payment systems on what they call World Pay—or, what they call Amazon Pay, I should say. Google has its own digital wallet. And now you have Facebook with this thing that is—who knows what it is? Is it a bank? Is it a prepaid card? Is it a digital wallet? Is it a global currency? So you have all these companies, that were kind of competing separately, are now all moving into the payment space and also moving into other spaces that are overlapping, like entertainment, to become that thing that is sort of the only kind of digital tool that you will need. So you can make all of your purchases, you can talk to all your friends, you can access all your entertainment, you can do everything that you wish inside this world, whether it’s Facebook, Google, Amazon or Apple.

And that’s really their intention. And that’s why I call it sort of the war of all against all. This is like the final battle for global domination here. And, you know, how that shakes out is sort of indeterminate at this point, but what we know is that if you’re creating this—we already have these companies that are monopolies in their own sort of personal spaces—if they combine sort of together a lot of different options for you as an individual, then you have just this absolute dominant behemoth. And, you know, there are serious concerns around giving that much power to one company.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, of course, we’ll continue to follow this, David Dayen, executive editor of The American Prospect. We’ll link to your piece in The New Republic, “The Final Battle in Big Tech’s War to Dominate Your World.”

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https://kpfa.org/episode/project-censored-november-16-2018/

civil constutution citizen partic stanford fishkin? white list news sites civil.co

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https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/18/blockchain-media-startup-civil-doing-what.html

hmmn

tart-up called Civil Media has an ambitious plan to save journalism using blockchain technology and cryptoeconomics.

After assembling 13 start-up newsrooms to kick things off, Civil announcedlast week it will launch its cryptocurrency on Aug. 13, followed by its blockchain-based publishing protocol about a week later.

The company used a lot of buzzwords in its announcement, like calling itself a “protocol” for journalism and saying it valued “decentralization.”

But between the buzzwords, what is the company actually trying to do?

We talked to the company and think we figured it out.

The problem with journalism, according to Civil, is that reporters are compromised by working for companies that value returns to shareholders over the relentless pursuit of truth. Ad-based business models drive reporters to generate shallow content to generate page views, while threats from advertisers or wealthy people threatening lawsuits can cause publishers to alter or remove controversial stories.

Civil believes that one way to restore alignment between reporters and readers is to let readers buy the right to “vote” on whether a newsroom represents fair, quality journalism or not. The only way newsrooms can be challenged is if a majority of involved readers agree.

The currency used in this process: Civil’s cryptocurrency, CVL, which will be based on the Ethereum blockchain.

“The single most significant aspect of why we are applying blockchain and the cryptoeconomic model to what we are trying to do is because we think it has the potential trying to flip the system on its head and create an environment in which journalists can truly be beholden to their readers above all else, not to a company with shareholders and ... a fiduciary responsibility to maximize profits,” co-founder Matt Coolidge said.

Challenging the news

Civil is a platform, not a publisher, Coolidge emphasized. In that respect, it’s more like Facebook or Twitter than The Washington Post.

Right now, 13 fledgling newsrooms have signed up to be on the platform, including the Colorado Sun, a local investigative newsroom staffed by former Denver Post reporters, and Documented, which covers immigrants and immigration policy in New York City....

https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/dana-rohrabacher-matt-gaetz-chuck-johnson

Reps. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) and Matt Gaetz (R-FL) previously drew scrutiny for hanging out with Chuck C. Johnson, a far-right Internet troll and Holocaust denier, and both have tried to explain away the occurence.

But according to Mother Jones, both congressmen somehow ended up fraternizing with him a second time this summer.Specifically, Johnson was on board a yacht fundraiser in Newport Beach, California, on behalf of Gaetz's re-election campaign, at which Rohrabacher gave a speech in support of his colleague. The fundraiser was hosted by public relations executives Alfred Balitzer and Rod Wilson, the former of whom Johnson has referred to as a "mentor."

In January, Gaetz, one of President Donald Trump's closest kindred spirits in Congress, faced controversy and a letter of condemnation from the Anti-Defamation League for providing Johnson a ticket to attend Trump's State of the Union Address as his guest. Gaetz argued that Johnson had simply "showed up at my office" and the invite was not an endorsement of his views, but bizarrely, added in an interview on Fox Business that Johnson is "not a Holocaust denier, he’s not a white supremacist."

Rohrabacher, another Trump ally and Congress' most notorious apologist for Russian President Vladimir Putin, allowed Johnson to sit in on a meeting between himself and Sen. Rand Paul, after Johnson had helped him secure a meeting with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in August anddonated $5,400 in Bitcoin to his campaign. Rohrabacher maintains that Johnson was not invited to the meeting with Paul, but admits that he was not asked to leave it either.

Johnson, a former Breitbart reporter who has spent years promoting fake news through his GotNews web site, and who was banned for life from Twitter for inviting people to raise money to help him "take out" Black Lives Matter activist DeRay McKesson, came out as a Holocaust denier in early 2017.

"I do not and never have believed the six million figure," he told a commenter on an alt-right Reddit thread. "I think the Red Cross numbers of 250,000 dead in the camps from typhus are more realistic. I think the Allied bombing of Germany was a ware [sic] crime. I agree … about Auschwitz and the gas chambers not being real."

He has since tried to claim that he does not actually deny the Holocaust, and only said this to see what a reaction it would get.

https://www.alternet.org/heres-short-history-bitcoin-told-through-five-different-groups-who-bought-it

https://www.alternet.org/economy/why-public-must-understand-how-our-monetary-systems-work

podcast

Pettifor

Topics discussed:

Money - what it is and how it is produced;
How our banking and monetary systems work;
Why mainstream economists leave out the activity of Banks, Money, and Private Debt in their thinking and modeling;
Solutions for fixing and democratizing the global financial system;
What the general public can do once they understand how our banking and monetary systems work;
How people can effectively challenge and reverse the influence of extremely powerful financial interests;
Bitcoin; Job Guarantee vs. UBI; Brexit; Jeremy Corbyn and the state of the Labour Party; European politics and the rise of the Far Right

oligarch moving to cryptocurrency to hide assests, PR rico goof place to convert/launder

https://www.democracynow.org/2018/3/21/the_battle_for_paradise_naomi_klein

bitcoin uses as much energy as IsraEl, uses block chain?

NAOMI KLEIN: So, just last week there was a major conference in San Juan in one of the luxury hotels, the Vanderbilt Hotel, which is actually owned by one of these high-net-worth individuals who moved to Puerto Rico because of these favorable tax rates. And so they had this conference, which originally was called “Puerto Crypto,” and then, because of concerns about crypto-colonialism, they renamed themselves “Blockchain Unbound.” Essentially, what it was is a trade show for people who see the future of finance in currencies like Bitcoin.

And they are attracted to Puerto Rico because it holds out the promise that they can convert their cryptocurrencies into harder currencies while paying no taxes whatsoever. And so, that’s—so it was a combination of a trade show for cryptocurrencies and a kind of an advertisement for Puerto Rico put on by the Department of Economic Development and Commerce, pitching the island as this never-ending vacation where you can have this incredible tax holiday.

And part of the irony of this is that cryptocurrencies are one of the fastest-growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the world. It is an incredibly wasteful way to create money. It’s the sort of gamification of money. So, right now, Bitcoin uses as much energy in the creation of this currency as the state of Israel uses to—consumes energy. So this is a huge source of greenhouse gas emissions. And here you have Puerto Rico, battered by climate change and also unable to provide power to its own people, being—pitching itself as a hub for the cryptocurrency market.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re speaking to Naomi Klein, senior correspondent for The Intercept. Her piece for The Intercept—she’s just back from Puerto Rico—”The Battle for Paradise: Puerto Ricans and Ultrarich 'Puertopians' Are Locked in a Pitched Struggle over How to Remake the Island.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/02/technology/cryptocurrency-puerto-rico.html

...

“Compassion, respect, financial transparency,” Mr. Pierce said when asked what was guiding them here.

Mr. Pierce, the director of the Bitcoin Foundation, is a major figure in the crypto boom. He co-founded a blockchain-for-business start-up, Block.One, which has sold around $200 million of a custom virtual currency, EOS, in a so-called initial coin offering. The value of all the outstanding EOS tokens is around $6.5 billion.

A former child actor, Mr. Pierce got into digital money early as a professional gamer, mining and trading gold in the video game World of Warcraft, an effort funded partly byStephen K. Bannon, the former Trump adviser. Mr. Pierce is a controversial figure — he has previously been sued for fraud, among other matters.

Downstairs, in the Monastery penthouse, a dozen or so other expats were hanging out. The water was out that night, so the toilets and faucets were dry. Mr. Minor lounged on an alcove chaise.

“The U.S. doesn’t want us. It’s trying to choke off this economy,” Mr. Minor said, referring to the difficulties that crypto investors have with American banks. “There needs to be a place where people are free to invent.”

Mr. Pierce paced the room with his hands in fists. A few times a day, he played a video for the group on his phone and a portable speaker: Charlie Chaplin’s 1940 “The Great Dictator,” in which Chaplin parodies Hitler rallying his forces. He finds inspiration in lines like “More than machinery, we need humanity.”

...

ppl power ~ big data?

How Blockchain Technology Could Transform the Food Industry

By Sylvain Charlebois

There has been a lot of noise on cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin of late. While some suggest cryptocurrencies are a fraud, others believe them to be the next biggest economic revolution the world has seen since the internet. Bitcoin has brought to light blockchain technology, which offers great potential for food safety and verification in the agrifood sector. Yet it is far from being the panacea for a range of issues affecting the industry—at least for now.

Simply put, blockchain technology is a way of storing and sharing information across a network of users in an open virtual space. Blockchain technology allows for users to look at all transactions simultaneously and in real-time. In food, for example, a retailer would know with whom his supplier has had dealings. Additionally, since transactions are not stored in any single location, it is almost impossible to hack the information.

For consumers, blockchain technology can make a difference. By reading a simple QR code with a smartphone, data such as an animal's date of birth, use of antibiotics, vaccinations and location where the livestock was harvested can easily be conveyed to the consumer.

https://www.ecowatch.com/blockchain-technology-2519373206.html

huge electricity, china coal

12.21.17 - 12:00PM

Behind the News – December 21, 2017

BEHIND THE NEWS

Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.

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http://www.businessinsider.com/trumps-budget-chief-mark-mulvaney-loves-gold-and-bitcoin-2016-12

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8/17/15 kpfa 10 am ltr and pol

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