A salutary reminder that, like most fascists, Donald Trump is an utter, bumbling catastrophe when he tries to do, well, pretty much anything.
"
So... What you are saying is you are left with catastrophe. Unless successful, then fascism.
Fuck.
"this latest wrinkle in the drama could be the real hacker getting a second bite at the apple."
That would be fairly fascinating, almost to the point of entertaining, if so. Can you imagine someone who, rather than go after another target, is so single mindedly focused on this biggest heist of their career, has the audacity to try to steal it again from the authorities after it was recaptured? The risk/reward being so out of whack, except for the personal gratification of the thief's ego. I guarantee there's a heist movie where this happens and the thief is far more attractive than whomever this would be in real life. If I ever have time for fiction again, that would make for a great plot and a great antagonist, maybe even anti-hero in a dystopian setting.
"As the heads of Tether rightly point out, this is a bit odd, since they have been blocking and suspending accounts at the request of U.S. and other governments for years."
Not odd in the least. Tether is being let off too lightly here. They and aforementioned Bitfinnex are thick as... Well you know... Hmm, dystopian anti-hero... Naw...
You got black boxes all around the world you can put questionable assets, including offshore commercial paper, in and get something that supposedly is worth a dollar. No one gets to see what's going in.
These black boxes also connect to a really big black box (all essentially controlled by the same people) that throws in all kinds of crypto and out comes (occasionally) other crypto. And no one knows if it's all there, because no one can see inside if it is, and none of the conversions are on chain. And no one can really know if this big black box, say, uses this obfuscation to manipulate the price of a certain orange coin that is then used for lending by the aforementioned boxes.
And all these black boxes are connected to other black boxes that connect to somewhat blackish boxes masquerading as banks that spit out real US Dollars, thus directly connecting them to our banking system (Signatures and their absolutely ridiculous list of black box transfer partners). These banks get regularly bailed out and have FDIC protection because they are /supposed/ to be very regulated, transparent, and risk averse, and tax payers pay for it all.
Every time some offshore commercial paper, and easily manipulated crypto assets, leads to banks spitting out real US Dollars, average people get screwed. No, anyone this close to on and off ramps should not get off so lightly just because they give largesse to the few morsels someone else discovers regarding yet someone else's malfeasance.
But, yay, impending catastrophes. So, yay, probably nothing will happen regarding this probe as our country will be burning down faster than Nero can fiddle.
"
But the real dingbats here were clearly the cops: According to a 2022 writeup from the New York Times, Coogler’s driver and passenger both told the police who he was before they entered the bank and then cuffed Coogler.
"
Huh, yeah, that is weirdly inept of... Oh, wait, director of "Black Panther" per the caption... Can't really tell by the picture, what does Google images say of this person... Oh. Yeah. That's why. Sad to see black boxes matter more than black lives.
"
A salutary reminder that, like most fascists, Donald Trump is an utter, bumbling catastrophe when he tries to do, well, pretty much anything.
"
So... What you are saying is you are left with catastrophe. Unless successful, then fascism.
Fuck.
"this latest wrinkle in the drama could be the real hacker getting a second bite at the apple."
That would be fairly fascinating, almost to the point of entertaining, if so. Can you imagine someone who, rather than go after another target, is so single mindedly focused on this biggest heist of their career, has the audacity to try to steal it again from the authorities after it was recaptured? The risk/reward being so out of whack, except for the personal gratification of the thief's ego. I guarantee there's a heist movie where this happens and the thief is far more attractive than whomever this would be in real life. If I ever have time for fiction again, that would make for a great plot and a great antagonist, maybe even anti-hero in a dystopian setting.
"As the heads of Tether rightly point out, this is a bit odd, since they have been blocking and suspending accounts at the request of U.S. and other governments for years."
Not odd in the least. Tether is being let off too lightly here. They and aforementioned Bitfinnex are thick as... Well you know... Hmm, dystopian anti-hero... Naw...
You got black boxes all around the world you can put questionable assets, including offshore commercial paper, in and get something that supposedly is worth a dollar. No one gets to see what's going in.
These black boxes also connect to a really big black box (all essentially controlled by the same people) that throws in all kinds of crypto and out comes (occasionally) other crypto. And no one knows if it's all there, because no one can see inside if it is, and none of the conversions are on chain. And no one can really know if this big black box, say, uses this obfuscation to manipulate the price of a certain orange coin that is then used for lending by the aforementioned boxes.
And all these black boxes are connected to other black boxes that connect to somewhat blackish boxes masquerading as banks that spit out real US Dollars, thus directly connecting them to our banking system (Signatures and their absolutely ridiculous list of black box transfer partners). These banks get regularly bailed out and have FDIC protection because they are /supposed/ to be very regulated, transparent, and risk averse, and tax payers pay for it all.
Every time some offshore commercial paper, and easily manipulated crypto assets, leads to banks spitting out real US Dollars, average people get screwed. No, anyone this close to on and off ramps should not get off so lightly just because they give largesse to the few morsels someone else discovers regarding yet someone else's malfeasance.
But, yay, impending catastrophes. So, yay, probably nothing will happen regarding this probe as our country will be burning down faster than Nero can fiddle.
"
But the real dingbats here were clearly the cops: According to a 2022 writeup from the New York Times, Coogler’s driver and passenger both told the police who he was before they entered the bank and then cuffed Coogler.
"
Huh, yeah, that is weirdly inept of... Oh, wait, director of "Black Panther" per the caption... Can't really tell by the picture, what does Google images say of this person... Oh. Yeah. That's why. Sad to see black boxes matter more than black lives.