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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 14, 2022

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Can anyone explain Duncan Hunter to me? American greed running an episode on him right now. Seems like he spent $60k of campaign money on personal expenses but was an early maga supporter. I know McConnel has made a ton of money off connections. Pelosi’s husbands trading. Obama had Rezko. Hunter got 630k a year from some Ukranian oligarch for a no show job. How can I not see this as a deep state job? He probably violated an actual law. But seems like a lot of people break laws but if your a Maga supporter a small technical violation makes you an episode of American greed but SBF gets glowing articles in the NYT.

Edit: I like Pelosi and McConnell. Realize their is going to be some corruption. And I’ve had a rum or two while watching this but really $60k gets you a labeled as a monster.

GOP launched their congressional investigation into Joe Biden today. Nail him to the fucking cross. Treat them how they have treated us.

I know McConnel has made a ton of money off connections. Pelosi’s husbands trading. Obama had Rezko. Hunter got 630k a year from some Ukranian oligarch for a no show job.

I am guessing because the other examples are grey areas or hard to prove. Taking money from 'x' under the pretense of 'y' and doing 'z', is strait-cut fraud.

makes you an episode of American greed but SBF gets glowing articles in the NYT.

Little too soon to say he got off.

One could say “hard to prove”. One could also assume the full weight of the justice system never went after these things.

Funny I was talking to a friend on how a simple audit by any government org could have caught SBF. And his reply was busy finding small cases. Sbf is definitely not “hard to prove”.

Well, the one thing in favour of the regulators I will say is that there seems to be evidence Bankman-Fried was moving the legal headquarters of FTX around to be one jump ahead of the posse.

Started off in Chicago, moved to Miami, then settled on the Bahamas. The 'trading for US citizens' arm, FTX-US, was legally incorporated in Delaware, hence the filing for bankruptcy there and why he passed that weird remark in his Twitter conversation with Kelsey Piper about being able to fix it all if 'we' (sic) won versus the Delaware court, and seems to have been headquartered in San Francisco. Ironically, it seems that the restrictions on trading cryptocurrency in place for US citizens/residents meant they had to set up FTX US for Americans to use their services, and the limits probably protected people more than the 'regulations, what regulations?' for the Bahamas mother-company.

Given all that has come out in the wash, I had to laugh at this bit in the piece; seems like the indications that his charity talk was fake were there to be seen all along:

Bahamas-based crypto exchange FTX is moving its U.S. headquarters to Miami, only four short months after cutting the ribbon on its headquarters in Chicago.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot had attended the opening ceremony on FTX.US’s glitzy, 9,000 square foot office space in downtown Chicago, and touted the benefits of FTX’s presence in the Windy City – especially a pilot program sponsored by FTX that would provide supplemental income and financial education for underbanked Chicago residents.

When speaking with Bloomberg about the move on Tuesday, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried said that establishing offices all over the world was key to the company’s mission of getting licensure for its various businesses. FTX moved its global headquarters from Hong Kong to the Bahamas in September.

Too bad for the "underbanked Chicago residents" as soon as it became more advantageous to up sticks! And he definitely was using the charity angle to represent what FTX was doing, so it was riding the coat tails of or intimately connected with EA from the beginning, including using the EA logo and GiveWell logo as well as two other bodies on the FTX US page:

FTX US was founded with the goal of donating to the world’s most effective charities. FTX US, its affiliates, and its employees have donated over $10m to help save lives, prevent suffering, and ensure a brighter future.

Funny I was talking to a friend on how a simple audit by any government org could have caught SBF

The SEC allegedly investigated FTX about 6 months ago and not only didn't make a finding but they were in negotiations to issue a no-action letter to FTX.

That is how hilariously incompetent/corrupt US government institutions are.