I spent the better part of a half-hour last night snickering. Not that I’m any kind of whiz on cryptos, mind you. It’s just that our outlooks are coming in just like the “fixed horse in the sixth” that wasn’t going to make its feed bill for the season. Coincidence or design, is it?
While Bitcoin has been clawing its way back from disaster ($37,451 when inspected earlier) the coinsters have been moving on.
Because Bitcoin – which had the undeniable advantage of a “hard cap” meaning only 16-million-odd could ever be found – had become a bit of an embarrassment to the shill and tout crowd.
Fact is, the amount of energy used mining is a terrible problem. Unlike investing in a farm, or building a home with capital – where there is residual value – in cryptos, when the lights and/or web go out, the whole game is down the shitter.
Thinking: Caps
One of our most knowledgeable posters as much as admitted it in a recent comment as he admitted the “hard capped BTC was losing favor”:
“Ethereum and other cryptos are moving away from Proof of Work, the original algorithm in blockchain technology, toward a newer concept called Proof of Stake. In short, the upgrade will mean that participants are incentivized with a reward, paid in ether, to remain online and keep the network in check. “
This may not seem HUGE to anyone (except a nutter-in-the-woods) but if you’re very precise in your thinking, you’ll read it as? Leaving the “hard crypto concept” (capped) and migrating to something that smells remarkably like government fiat/paper policy: Make it up on the fly.
When a former colleague tried to get me into BTC at under a nickel each, the one claim it made was the cap. That ALONE made it worth a double-take. Because it’s meaningful.
A crypto without a hard cap is just another swindle, as we figure it. Turns a table stake poker game into a back alley craps game. Allowing participants to make up rules on the fly, we’re reminded of TEGWAR. The Exciting Game Without Any Rules.
Don’t get me wrong: I make highly speculative investments all the time. Behind each move (even the losers) there is a logical process. Cryptos are now in process of leaving the solar system. Leaving caps in favor of a good “story” and showing us what a Ponzi-Scheme/TEGWAR hybrid looks like.
It’s being called “the Flippening,” elsewhere.
Ure’s Rules (2022 Edition): #3,631 (b) [2a]. “No caps? It’s Craps!”
Like flies drawn to what?
Or, it’s going to teach a lot of people in the longer-term that maybe a central bank – with however little accountability – is better than a mob of digital fools.
Tokyo Craps Out?
A year ago, one of my daughters wondered about whether she should plan on going to Japan this summer. “No, dear. That would be a bad bet.”
Again, father knows best. Of course, no one listens anyway, but that’s not the point.
The point is: Japanese Business Leaders Add to Chorus Against Holding Olympics – says the WSJ”. (Besides: Lunch at Benihana is quicker with no security lines or CV-sniffing dogs.)
There is a fine lesson in futuring to be learned: If there’s a chance of anything going wrong, it probably will. The Almighty (him/her/their/they/itself) might answer to another name besides God. I’m thinking Murphy.
Historical Replays
Let’s see, now: We have had a good kidnapping parallel to the Lindbergh kidnapping with the recent Colonial Pipeline kidnap for ransom.
For our next check mark, how about the Apple trial in the Epic Games case? You know, the one about Apple taking 30% off the top. If you’re not all over this like white on rice, read In Apple Antitrust Trial, Judge Signals Interest in Railroad, Credit-Card Monopoly Cases.
The rhyme here is similar to what was chronicled after the Crash of ’29:
“During the New Deal, likewise, attempts were made to stop cutthroat competition, attempts that appeared very similar to cartelization, which would be illegal under antitrust laws if attempted by someone other than government. The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) was a short-lived program in 1933–35 designed to strengthen trade associations, and raise prices, profits and wages at the same time. The Robinson-Patman Act of 1936 sought to protect local retailers against the onslaught of the more efficient chain stores, by making it illegal to discount prices. To control big business, the New Deal policymakers preferred federal and state regulation—controlling the rates and telephone services provided by American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T), for example—and by building up countervailing power in the form of labor unions.
The antitrust laws came to be seen by the Supreme Court as a “charter of freedom”, designed to protect free enterprise in America. One view of the statutory purpose, urged for example by Justice Douglas, was that the goal was not only to protect consumers, but at least as importantly to prohibit the use of power to control the marketplace.
If you don’t see the Biden-Harris team as New Dealer’s reincarnate, time to call your ophthalmologist.
This is a cyclical “news/human events” cycle: Companies that build a successful extension of their business (*like Microsoft as done with its store app, too) stand to be punished by the courts for their success.
There’s an important difference, though, between the break-up of a national monopoly like the AT&T breakup on the one hand, and the Apple case. In the former, regulations prevented competition. In the latter, open source, other computational ecosystems (MSFT, Linux, et al.) have an opportunity to “one-up Apple.”
Where we see the risk in Apple now is two-fold: The risk to their eco-system and the risk that with chip shortages (an extension of war) their introduction of new product could be slowed. Since they design here, but mainly make product in China.
A win both in court and in chip supplies versus two losses has us rereading the use of straddles and strangle option plays.
Short Takes
Free Lunch Politics is alive and well as we read in “California Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Proposes $0 Future Schools, Cancelling Student Debt.”
Not UFO’s: A sheriff’s office in the upper Midwest has been getting UFO calls about the Starlink satellite system: Outagamie County Sheriff’s Office – Posts | Facebook.
Real UFO reports: UFOs go mainstream, suspense builds ahead of major Pentagon report. We’re thinking excuses and delays, but let’s not plant negative energy…
Of course it’s a bioweapon. Ain’t no reason for “gain of function” for peace, now, is there? COVID origins whistleblower touts vindication as media, medical pros consider lab leak theory
Double Standard Dems. OK for them but not repugnants? Dems Urge Justice Breyer To Step Down Before Midterms To “Avoid Another ‘RBG’ Situation”. Do as we say….
Let’s make a movie deal : Amazon, MGM $9B Acquisition Could Be Announced By Tuesday.
Pressure Washer Woo-Woo
Here’s a weird one for you: Late last year I bought a pressure washer. There were a number of pressure-washing chores to be done. But, somehow I just never got to them.
Well, then the weather turned cold. And the pressure washer box in the middle of the shop kept getting in the way. Up onto a shelf it went.
It sat there, over the winter, waiting for the right combination of my time – and weather conditions to be right.
Thought about it half a dozen times – the project is still on my list of things to do. Since last November.
In fact, I was thinking about pressure washing the stairs and deck last week. You know: to make them safer going up and down stairs.
But somehow it (hard to put this into words) “just didn’t feel right at the moment.”
So you can imagine my surprise when the mail showed up Monday with a letter from a company I had never heard of before:
Well, I’ll be damned.
The recall note will be answered this morning.
Not sure when I will actually get the parts and update the sprayer to make it safe. 10-days, or so, from the company website.
But it’s a fine lesson in “listening to the little voice of guidance” in each of us. That will do some of the strangest (and frankly, neatest) things to keep us out of harms way.
If we just listen.
Whispers and hunches do mean something, now and then.
Write when you get rich,
George@Ure.net
Shocking G,
Not even in the ballpark this AM regards Bitcoinz – “the flippening” is a joke.
Eth is THE classic shitcoin – Non DeCentralized ! “Doomed”
That is all U need to know regards future of ETH, it like 95% of all the other shitcoins will go to Zero, eventually..
Ohhh nooo – an incoming shockwave via sunspot blow off activity yesterday – Does that mean the whole internet is going down ? Ohh noo! not Bitcoinz, what will the freedom seeking/loving humans do?
Without Theta and Theta Fuel – the internet will in fact be “going down”.
– what is Theta and Theta Fuel ? A Theta Edge Node ? Coot got one running (software) on this machine.
– IOT devices will ALL be running an Edge Node in near future..
Another early and profitable tip from Ure fav arsehole – coot.
Ate the SPY out the money index Calls yesterday..there goes another piece of my ass, reloading today for Crash-Up protection (apparently still have some ass cheeks left).
No Shortages ? Show me a Honda mini-moto product for Sale – new in US.
Same goes for Rolex Watches and according the editor of this sight, Brains seem to be in severe shortage around these parts as well..wonder how long it takes to make new ones?
4 it seems that Mr Editor has only 2 brain cells left – 1’s lost, and the other 1 is out looking it..
Hey Coot –
“Ohhh nooo – an incoming shockwave via sunspot blow off…”
Ben over at his S0 video today mentioned that a power station blew up in Australia – EVER so co-inkydinkally – at the same time the solar impact hit Earth on that side. Will anyone draw a line to that dot?
ether is the real deal. it’s not going anywhere. open sourced apps and NFTs.
Thinking about IoT – it’ll be cool.
Wyze sold an app controlled R/C car back in April, though some speculate it was an April Fool’s joke. I tried to buy but the website kept timing out. That said, this RC car “Connects to phone’s WiFi”. But in the future it’ll connect to one of the over-air networks.
Take a look.
https://wyze.com/wyze-car.html
I’m alive today because of the many, many times I’ve listened to (and acted on) that small voice.
One of the most memorable times was while traveled down a twisty 2 lane mountain road with frequent blind curves, a road I traveled at least 2x daily for over 10 years, I suddenly stopped, with no idea why.
A few seconds later a large (huge) truck came around the blind corned IN MY LANE doing about 50+, barely missing the front of my small car. If I had stopped even 10 feet later…..
This sort of thing happens to me so often that I didn’t even blink before continuing on my way. I ALWAYS listen to that voice and he always keeps me safe. (Thank you!)
I’ve had something nearly identical happen with me a few years ago. The little voice is real and should always be listened to.
You have it backwards. Trump worked a deal with Kennedy so dems can work a deal with Breyer. republicans still owe dems at least one stolen scotus seat and maybe two.
“Inside the White House, however, news of Kennedy’s retirement didn’t come as a shock. In fact, as The New York Times reports, the 81-year-old’s announcement was the culmination of a carefully orchestrated 17-month campaign by the Trump administration to remake the Supreme Court before the 2018 midterms, when there is an outside chance that Republicans could lose their majority.”
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/06/donald-trump-justice-anthony-kennedy-retirement
I thought the Lady Gaga dog-napping was the kidnapping rhyme. “Corporations are people…” and speaking of kidnapping corporations.
How did the Pressure Washer company know to contact you and how did the PW company know your physical? Did you fill out a warranty card or is someone keeping a Master Buy List on all of us and sharing it out/selling the info.
Bought from amazon. Vy good follow up
Apple … one of China’s large employers, via the subterfuge of subcontracting virtually of it’s production, employs 230,000 employees in China. It also works Hand In Hand with the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) supporting that party’s Political Goals, both in China and around the world.
Everybody really needs to read the New York Times article from last week about Apple in China
(OMG … the Liberal Rag NY Times taking on one of the poster child Liberal Companies in the US, Apple? … who wudda thunk?? When Trump was President such an action was verboten at the NY Times, in fact in any publication or media outlet based in NY or Atlanta since anything Trump said or pushed was reflexively rejected by those media outlets. Now that a Democrat is President I guess those mouthpieces of the liberal Democrats can open their eyes again and talk a little TRUTH for the first time in over 4 years … same thing is happening with the reporting on the origins of CV19 after calling everyone who said it may have leaked from the Wuhan Lab “Trump Conspiracy Nuters” right up through when Trump left office)
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/17/technology/apple-china-censorship-data.html
If you read that article you will NO LONGER be as favorably disposed towards Apple as you probably were before you read it. … and it’s from the NY Times too!!
Pressure washer woo? When I worked in an institution, the resident surgeon said “Always use a new drug when it first comes out and is most effective.” He was, of course referencing the placebo effect. But so many drugs are shown to have bad effects with long latency that were never considered in the FDA certification. For example, Flomax and “floppy iris” that complicates cataract surgery. Or Myrbetriq: I complained of dry eyes and my eye doc looked at my drug list and said, “Aha!”.
In my own long life I’ve developed some simple policies that have served me well. Never use software until it has been publicly released for at least six months. Never buy a car in the first year after a major model change. Try to avoid drugs that have not been out for at least 3 years. (I made an exception for the covid vaccine based on risk/reward ratios.)
For stuff like the pressure washer there’s no easy rule of thumb as they don’t put new taillights on them whenever they change the guts. But I suppose you could go to the web archive whenever contemplating a purchase and see whether a given model was available a year or two earlier.
In my time, I’ve met some few First Residents of Turtle Island.
(We did a film years & years ago on “American Indian Artists. We traveled and interviewed some practicing artists in several states.)
One said, “If you make your mind quiet, and really honestly listen, you’ll ‘hear’ voices. Not in the regular way — with your ears — but the Great Spirit and friends will speak in a soft voice, and you’ll gain a ‘knowing.’ Some wisdom comes from listening, and not arguing with that soft voice.” (Paraphrased from memory, but the gist of it is right.)
It has served me well many times.
Native American spirituality is greatly ‘in tune’ with the universe and Great Spirit. Learning that one is an immortal spirit, and learning to work with those ways, is the greatest accomplishment of a lifetime. “Be still… and know that ‘I am’ God”
Absolutely TRUE. Example: a few months after my near death experience, struggling through months of recovery, despairing if I would ever work again, bills to pay, etc., one morning, before waking, a still small voice told me that I would sell my house for Xxx,Xxx dollars and it even said who I would sell it to.
At the time, the house was barely worth half that. Fast forward almost 3 years to the day last month, a young woman walks into our humble small business asking questions and telling us that she and her boyfriend were having trouble locating a house to buy as they all sold before hitting the market, or were bid up so much, they couldn’t compete, or sold for cash and they needed to go through financing. My heart went out to her, and on the spot, I decided to sell my house to them. I had not even listed it but we had been discussing this for months. I just was not well enough to get the house ready for sale in the traditional way.
I took this as the sign from God that I had been waiting for. Although it did not sell to the person mentioned in the still small voice, and it sold for $50k higher than that amount told me, but it sold as is, no realtor fees, and no closing costs except my insistence on paying half the property taxes. I purposely sold it $100 – $150k under market to give a young couple a start, and a gift. This voice came at such a low defeated time in my life, but it shone in my heart like a beacon of promise, and I believed the message of Hope. I shared it with my husband and family members at the time I heard the voice, and again as this miraculous time unfolded.
We will pay all our debts and commitments, and have gifts to share, and know we are extremely blessed. Not remotely wealthy dollar wise, as the net proceeds are all that we will have for our retirement along with social security starting next year.
This is after dropping out of the work force to take care of elderly parents, and then getting sick.
I feel quite humbled that I can help provide for us as my husband has been such a hard worker, devoted spouse through thick and thin and in sickness and in health, etc., and helped me with my parents, and large family, not to mention caring for me patiently during my illness.
So I share this story of faith, that all peoples, and cultures upon the earth can testify to if we would believe, and listen for, and listen to that still small voice.
“This may not seem HUGE to anyone (except a nutter-in-the-woods)”
Well it seems huge to a nutter on the great plains to..
Time will tell.. the money game seemed like a no fail as well. Unregulated money flow has never sat well with the tax people.
is that a woo woo or a yada yada or a who gives a garbage on topic , content and economics?
George, I also listen to my inner voice. The first time I heard about the covid vaccine I heard “they will die “. The day I found out both of my daughters and all the women in my ladies group had taken the vaccine I heard, “they will all die” and I cried. You don’t need to print this, but thanks for making me feel less crazy. I just can’t take the vaccine.
I decided to print it (with no personally identifiable) because people need to “hear that voice”more nowadays
Has anyone but me, ever wondered — WHY one face out of hundreds of (unreasonable?) police brutality has hit the so-called jackpot in the MSM?
Perhaps certain editors should take a deep look inside themselves, perhaps? None can help his looks, IMHO!
How many of you remember “Hatlo’s They’ll Do It Every Time” – the urge to kill ? Maybe some of you are hearing that same little voice that inspired Jimmy.
N us for nuts.
So, how many years did it take you to work up the courage to make a post?