22 Comments
User's avatar
Robert's avatar

Judd, Your reporting makes this subject so clear to anyone not familiar with this subject.

“ disgusting and contrary to the interests of civilization “ per

the late Charlie Munger.

Judd- keep letting the light in!

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Pamela Jolley's avatar

IMO Bitcoin is only for hucksters and criminals wanting to launder money. So of course Trump loves it.

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NubbyShober's avatar

It's almost exclusively used by Organized Crime. Kidnappers, drug kingpins, human sex traffickers...Crypto is the exclusive medium of exchange. Want to bribe Trump to exempt a certain imported good from 30% import tariffs (tax)? Just buy $30 million in untraceable $Trump memecoins, and presto! Your tariff rate drops to a mere 10%.

Trump loves Crypto for the same reason all Crime Families do: it's *untraceable*. But even more because, as President, he can use the power of the US government to triple, quadruple, quintuple his existing holdings, and make literally *billions* in profit while in office. The Swamp has never been...swampier. GOP rule has made a mockery of the Constitution.

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Susan B's avatar

House of cards. When will it fall? And who will it take with it?

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Adam's avatar

You already know who the who is. Me and you who.

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Charlie Cooper's avatar

Promotion of cryptocurrencies is part of the larger libertarian project to undermine government and leave us at the mercy of billionaires. Whereas management of the US Dollar is conducted by the public-private Federal Reserve system, crypto is entirely opaque and subject to fraud and outright thievery.

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Stephanie Anne's avatar

Thanks PI TEAM for sounding the alarm & trying to keep us from another GREAT RECESSION. How can so many forget, trust this person (the devil) in office & be so taken by any shiny object he waves in our faces…?? Wake up.

https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/great-recession-and-its-aftermath

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Jim Carmichael's avatar

Vital exposé! None of us has seen this much snake oil in their lifetimes. I dread the reckoning ahead.

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Adam's avatar
Jul 22Edited

He and his ilk are likely to be insulated by their money. However, a comeuppance is on the horizon and closing in.

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Adam's avatar

“not so substantial as to be deemed likely to affect the integrity of [his] services.”

Really? We now have crooks judging other crooks as being acceptably crooked? Not crooked enough to be dishonest? This is the new metric? "Yeah, he's a crook but if we pay him enough he probably won't steal. At least from US. Anyway he's our crook!"

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Katy Bolger's avatar

It must be difficult to write about a pyramid scheme as though it is a real thing. I read this article closely and slowly so I could understand what crypto is, and guess what? It seems like it is a pile of steaming horseh*t. Does anyone else notice that when the nominee, DT, needed cash, the crypto bros came in with CASH. Crypto is something you own that someone - not a real person - has put a value on and that value can fluctuate. But my question remains: what the f can you do with crypto except trade, buy and inflate the price? What? The only person who ever asked me to pay in crypto was a pot dealer. Nice guy. I paid with cash money.

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JOEL's avatar

I’m thinking that EVERY American - and I do mean EVERY American - should submit an FOIA request to the Department of Justice for a copy of the ENTIRE Epstein file. Unabridged. Unredacted. Every audio tape, every video tape, every photograph, every document.

To submit a FOIA request to the Department of Justice (DOJ), you can do so online through FOIA.gov, or by mail, email, or fax. For the most efficient processing, it is recommended to submit through FOIA.gov.

Link to submitting an FOIA request to the Criminal Division of the Department Of Justice:

https://www.foia.gov/agency-search.html?id=10bd62cb-aa01-4e3f-bf90-04a3af627789&type=component

Link to form to enter your FOIA request:

https://www.foia.gov/request/agency-component/10bd62cb-aa01-4e3f-bf90-04a3af627789/

TO ALL: Please post this same post on every Substack you read. It would be fantastic if DOJ received MILLIONS of FOIA requests for the Epstein files!

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BTAM Master's avatar

Yet another example of why I'm thrilled to have Elizabeth Warren as my Senator.

Excellent explanation for the financial layperson.

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David Shible's avatar

Ask any billionaire and they will tell you that bribery is legal in all the world and it is a crime that Americans, due to laws, can't participate. Trump et al wants to keep those laws on the books so that they can be used to selectively prosecute his enemies.

Many, including myself, believe that Trump is only putting out in the open what politicians have been doing behind closed doors for ages. This is why there will not be much fight on this, even from Democrats.

With that stated, Judd, I hope you keep the light on this because, well, karma is a b**ch.

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Fred Smith's avatar

We know what will happen. Just before his time is up he will divest himself from crypto and invest it in more stable assets like dollars or diamonds or U.S. Bonds.

Of course we all know how stupid he’s been in the past so he might go down with the ship!

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Patrick's avatar

Unlike their loudmouthed South African compatriot Elon Musk, Theil and Sacks do their dirty work under the radar.

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Marliss Desens's avatar

And that makes them much more dangerous, as I also noted when the spotlight was on Musk alone.

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J E Ross's avatar

This is so important. Holy crap. Thank you for finding and disclosing the un-or-under-reported stories that drive this oligarchic fascist takeover.

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Greg Kapphahn's avatar

So Trump's advisors have made him the point man in a huge insider trading/Ponzi scheme which utilizes bitcoins to defraud other investors and average Americans for the benefit of Trump and his advisors, I'm SHOCKED! SHOCKED I tell you!

Thank you for the excellent reporting, Judd! But I fear as long as Trump has the oligarch-owned media to cover for him, the general public will never comprehend how badly they're being ripped off. The rich get massively richer, the poor get massively poorer and the media cheers it all on and keeps the wool pulled down over MAGA eyes.

It's almost as if the villains from the new Superman movie are in charge of the Federal Government. If Superman were real, these a-holes would be gone.

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Carol's avatar

I don’t know much about crypto, but I can tell from what you have said here that this is really worrisome!

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