I’m no Warren Buffett but I did spend a career in finance and, just like WB, I never understood what crypto was all about. Other than a way to facilitate illegal activities.
It’s a solution in search of a problem. To the extent that people have made money owning and selling it, I suspect it is almost entirely a matter of the Greater Fool strategy.
It’s all about obfuscating the transfer of funds and facilitating the introduction of dark money into our politics. It has worked spectacularly well for Shitler, his family, Putin and every stinking Republicon that marches in lockstep with him.
What? Dishonest Christians scamming congregants out of their money??? Hmph. Another day that ends in "Y."
Let's be real here: bible-thumpers have been separating marks from their money practically since religion was invented. Crypto is just the latest BS scheme pressed into service. The Regalados just followed the playbook.
Ah, Trump’s crypto isn’t an investment in currency though. It is a thinly veiled bribe. The “investors” are not expecting to use the currency or get their money back, they’re expecting legislation that benefits them, or favors, or pardons from the most powerful man on the planet.
No one is going to expect Trump to actually give them money, so there will be no legal complaints by the investors.
Although his MAGA movement is essentially a cult, he does not (usually) pretend to be a man of God. His followers largely come from an evangelical Christian background, but he does not promise them an easy trip to Heaven. Instead they will be better off economically, he claims, and they'll avenge themselves for oppression by the liberal society.
In my humble opinion, I don’t think religion was invented to part rubes from their money. But I suspect the realization that it was useful for that purpose wasn’t too far behind the invention.
Fools and their money. It's an age-old story. I have a hard time feeling sorry for people foolish enough to invest with a preacher, especially in crypto-currency. Warren Buffett became one of the wealthiest people on the planet by being able to identify value, and invest in it for the long term. Buffett said he simply could not see where the value was in crypto-currency. Especially since no government backs any of them. Listen to Warren. Ignore preachers.
Warren Buffet has my respect. Unlike the great majority of billionaires, he didn’t find it necessary to rip people off to obtain his wealth. So, it is possible…
Since I first heard of it, I can't help but think of cryptocurrency as being anything other than a baseless scam. How it's managed to fool so many people, I haven't the slightest.
Though it seems as though the whole get rich quick scheme just never runs out of gas, does it?
Stop and think for a moment about the INTRINSIC value of those pieces of paper you have in your wallet, or those little engraved pieces of metal in your coin purse. If they weren't backed by the full faith and credit of the US government, they'd barely be useful as fire starters or window shims. The Latin word for faith is "fiat", and what we've got in the US (even before electrons on wires and magnetism on little pieces of plastic) is justifiably called "fiat money".
Of course, the reason it's still going strong after all these centuries is because it's so incredibly USEFUL. We don't have to spend a whole lot of time figuring out that our 2 bushels of corn is worth only half of your pig, so who's going to get the other half and how long are they willing to wait for it?
This only convinces me more that religion is nothing other than the original multi level marketing scam. It’s not about the product, it is about the people (specifically their money) you can pull in to perpetuate the scam. You buy the product, you buy into the product, then you convince friends to buy into the product, then they invite friends to buy in and eventually everyone has bought in and the first folks have all kinds of cash while the newest have debt. Crypto is the same thing. Even with what little regulation there is on it, no one buying into it has ever gained wealth, only the folks who start it up win. And it fits so well with the religion culture.
You would certainly appreciate the book "Hoodwinked: How Marketers Use the Same Tactics as Cults", by investigative reporter Mara Einstein. It contains chapter-and-verse documentation in support of your hypothesis.
She makes the point that people who fall for MLMs aren't buying products, they're buying philosophies, attitudes, lifestyles, and images. And there's a heavy, heavy dose of the same kind of "us good, them bad" mentality which is a hallmark of overtly religious cults.
Just about every legal opinion I've seen on YouTube – some of whom were by actual lawyers 😇 – said that all these cases against media organisations and the like were eminently winnable by them. Which means they just paying large bribes to trump.
It's horrible that people got scammed in the name of something they believed in, sure. I'm glad to see these two will be dealing with the consequences of their actions, and hopefully won't get away with anything like this again. Well done to the government of Colorado for good work.
With that said, I notice that there don't seem to be a bunch of Christian organizations stepping up to help out the victims with their recent loss. No churches have said anything to my knowledge about helping restore some of the wealth lost in their own Jesus' name. In fairness, no, that's not unusual, but consider that carefully: why, exactly, is it not unusual for Christian churches to assist those who have been victimized by other Christian churches? If, for some strange reason, my brother were to commit a horrible crime, I would want to at least try and help the people he hurt even if there wasn't much I could do for them. By contrast, Christian churches simply shake their heads and go about their day as though stories like these couldn't possibly apply to them.
There are any number of Christian churches around with staggeringly large bank accounts. Stories like this reflect on those churches every bit as much as they do the con artists who enact the scams.
Obviously the scammers were not "true Christian's™". So equally obviously they feel no responsibility at all. Plus of course they are all pretty damn greedy let's face it. I'd love to see the books of various churches and how much of the money that they take in actually goes towards helping the poor and other Christian stuff rather than enriching the church hierarchy.
When Christians finally find True Christians (TM), let me know.
Meanwhile, I'm waiting for an epic battle royale among the 45000 different sects of Christianity to show us who is top dog. "Separating the wheat from the chaff," so to speak biblically.
Come to think of it, crypto and biblical deities are two of a kind. Both are imaginary and ordinary schmucks who invest in either wind up in ruins for their efforts.
There is a sucker born every minute... Christians have been known to be easy marks just about from the get go. 'Too good to be true' should be the motto of christianity. But when your targets are people who can be sold on believing in an undetectable and unprovable god... it is just too much temptation for these scoundrels to pass up. I'm just not sure why their all-everything god doesn't just stop these shenanigans.
Religion is also a useful tool for the powerful elite members of society to gain/keep power and control over the other lesser members of society. (Paraphrasing Karl Marx).
OT. I come before you, not for forgiveness but for confession. I have done the most vile, disgusting and abhorrent act ever done by a human. I can not forgive myself, so I can’t expect it of you.
My respect for Trump has actually doubled during the latest events. It used to be that I had 0 (zero) respect for Trump. Now my respect has grown so great that it is 00 (double zero). Is there anyone out there who can offer me a modicum of pity. Please.
Actually, cag, you are not off-topic at all. Trump and his boys are doing the same thing with crypto that these xtians did and his cultists line up every day to be victims!
I don't really care about those idiots, but as part of his scam, Trump is trying to replace the dollar with his crypto as the coin of the realm!! His destruction of the US/world economy will soon be complete!!
Crypto is such a scam. Let's assume someone has 1000 bitcoins. They bid $3000 over market so that becomes the market. What they've done is spend $3000 to get $2,997,000.
I got my Covid vaccine a few hours ago and am starting to feel draggy. Maryland didn’t take any chances with RFK Jr. and mandated that insurers cover the shot no matter what bullshit the CDC did.
Whenever I watch a You Tube I'm constantly bombarded by ads explaining that I should get immunised against the flu and Covid. It's annoying because I did it months ago. But even this conservative/semi-libertarian government doesn't dare interfere with vaccinations, even though vaccination deniers came out of the woodwork in the middle of the pandemic.
I’m no Warren Buffett but I did spend a career in finance and, just like WB, I never understood what crypto was all about. Other than a way to facilitate illegal activities.
It’s a solution in search of a problem. To the extent that people have made money owning and selling it, I suspect it is almost entirely a matter of the Greater Fool strategy.
It’s all about obfuscating the transfer of funds and facilitating the introduction of dark money into our politics. It has worked spectacularly well for Shitler, his family, Putin and every stinking Republicon that marches in lockstep with him.
You understand it just fine, it is a scam.
What? Dishonest Christians scamming congregants out of their money??? Hmph. Another day that ends in "Y."
Let's be real here: bible-thumpers have been separating marks from their money practically since religion was invented. Crypto is just the latest BS scheme pressed into service. The Regalados just followed the playbook.
And got caught. 😝
They will be pardoned, or paroled, or put on probation. One thing we can be completely sure of, though, is they will be welcomed back to the church!
THIS GUY COULD BE PREZIDUNT!
More like presi-DON'T!
There’s already a Prezi-Dunce in the White House.
True dat!
Both cryptocurrency and religion were invented to part rubes from their money.
Can we hope that the same thing will happen to Trump? As I understand it, he's got a considerable amount of his fortune tied up in cryptocurrency.
Ah, Trump’s crypto isn’t an investment in currency though. It is a thinly veiled bribe. The “investors” are not expecting to use the currency or get their money back, they’re expecting legislation that benefits them, or favors, or pardons from the most powerful man on the planet.
No one is going to expect Trump to actually give them money, so there will be no legal complaints by the investors.
Although his MAGA movement is essentially a cult, he does not (usually) pretend to be a man of God. His followers largely come from an evangelical Christian background, but he does not promise them an easy trip to Heaven. Instead they will be better off economically, he claims, and they'll avenge themselves for oppression by the liberal society.
🎯
Thinly veiled? Where’s the veil?
I hope hackers take it all. Given in the incompetence of trump and his minions, I'm surprised it hasn't already happened.
Maybe it has and they haven't realized yet.
how do you know it hasn't?
I don’t
I think it is safe to say he is converting his crypto into gold as fast as possible.
In my humble opinion, I don’t think religion was invented to part rubes from their money. But I suspect the realization that it was useful for that purpose wasn’t too far behind the invention.
You beat me to this thought.
I am not having a good morning,
👆🎯
Fools and their money. It's an age-old story. I have a hard time feeling sorry for people foolish enough to invest with a preacher, especially in crypto-currency. Warren Buffett became one of the wealthiest people on the planet by being able to identify value, and invest in it for the long term. Buffett said he simply could not see where the value was in crypto-currency. Especially since no government backs any of them. Listen to Warren. Ignore preachers.
First time DM and me heard about cryptocurrency, we were "What does any of that mean ?" and we decided to not trust it.
You would think that Christians would know about the parable of the house built on the rock, versus the one built on the sand.
Then again, maybe not.
Do you really expect them to read the words of that woke leftist, Jesus?
God damn hippy, helping the poor and the sick and not charging them...
You build your house on sand and then pray to Jesus to turn the sand into rock.
Rotsa ruck with that! 😝
I’ve found that many of them don’t know their own scripture too well. They only cherry pick what is useful, like hating on gay people.
Good decision.
Warren Buffet has my respect. Unlike the great majority of billionaires, he didn’t find it necessary to rip people off to obtain his wealth. So, it is possible…
His companies have huge investments here in the burbs of North Dallas.
"and for every legitimate cryptocurrency project out there"
The "legitimate" ones are still scams.
Since I first heard of it, I can't help but think of cryptocurrency as being anything other than a baseless scam. How it's managed to fool so many people, I haven't the slightest.
Though it seems as though the whole get rich quick scheme just never runs out of gas, does it?
It never will. Not just because 'sucker born every minute', but because there's a con artist born every minute too.
Stop and think for a moment about the INTRINSIC value of those pieces of paper you have in your wallet, or those little engraved pieces of metal in your coin purse. If they weren't backed by the full faith and credit of the US government, they'd barely be useful as fire starters or window shims. The Latin word for faith is "fiat", and what we've got in the US (even before electrons on wires and magnetism on little pieces of plastic) is justifiably called "fiat money".
Of course, the reason it's still going strong after all these centuries is because it's so incredibly USEFUL. We don't have to spend a whole lot of time figuring out that our 2 bushels of corn is worth only half of your pig, so who's going to get the other half and how long are they willing to wait for it?
Les regalado, c'est pas des cadeaux.
I hope whichever judge will sentence them for a potential jail time will not take their religion into account to give them a free pass.
Edit : I nearly posted before Oraxx, damn it ! One day, I will manage it 🤣
I'm elderly, I get up early because I can't sleep, and I don't have much to do. ;)
It's between early and the middle of the afternoon for me when Hemant post 🤣
A month into retirement I find I’m sleeping in a bit. I like it.
Practice practice practice! Retirement gets better and better, with practice.
I sleep great. It’s getting up that vexes this old guy.
I hear you. I have been up for 4+ hours when he posts.
This only convinces me more that religion is nothing other than the original multi level marketing scam. It’s not about the product, it is about the people (specifically their money) you can pull in to perpetuate the scam. You buy the product, you buy into the product, then you convince friends to buy into the product, then they invite friends to buy in and eventually everyone has bought in and the first folks have all kinds of cash while the newest have debt. Crypto is the same thing. Even with what little regulation there is on it, no one buying into it has ever gained wealth, only the folks who start it up win. And it fits so well with the religion culture.
You would certainly appreciate the book "Hoodwinked: How Marketers Use the Same Tactics as Cults", by investigative reporter Mara Einstein. It contains chapter-and-verse documentation in support of your hypothesis.
She makes the point that people who fall for MLMs aren't buying products, they're buying philosophies, attitudes, lifestyles, and images. And there's a heavy, heavy dose of the same kind of "us good, them bad" mentality which is a hallmark of overtly religious cults.
Thanks for the book recommendation, I am always looking for new material to read!
I also recommend “On Freedom” by Timothy Snyder.
Hmmm....the moneychanger was kicked out of the temple. And not by Jesus. Good.
This is what I get for being 20 minutes late to read this article. Yours was the very first thing I thought.
Sorry I beat you to it, but great minds think alike!
Mea culpa. All my fault. :)
Well, you did beat me to it.
OT - Breaking News
A Florida judge dismissed der kinderführer's lawsuit against the NYT.
https://www.meidasplus.com/p/breaking-judge-instantly-dismisses
Just about every legal opinion I've seen on YouTube – some of whom were by actual lawyers 😇 – said that all these cases against media organisations and the like were eminently winnable by them. Which means they just paying large bribes to trump.
Exactly. When a someone settles a frivolous lawsuit from Donald I have to wonder if it wasn't a way to get around bribery laws.
I believe that was Stephen Colbert's point as well.
Poow widdle donuhld. My heart bleeds purple monkey piss for the creepy FFOTUS.
You might want to have that looked at. Don't think it's supposed to do that.
This from my childhood (1950's) in a heavily kkkatlik town.
I'm detecting a Nelson Muntz laugh.
Farron spoke about the lawsuit against the NYT. This is the result he was hoping for.
God could not be reached for comment about this Christian scam.
Pretty hard to reach something that doesn't exist!
Don't tell that to The Media.
You could offend someone and hurt "their" feelings.
And that would be unconscionable.
Kindly tell "The Media" that they can suck a root! 😝
I wonder if he will testify at their sentencing.
Allow me a tangent once again.
It's horrible that people got scammed in the name of something they believed in, sure. I'm glad to see these two will be dealing with the consequences of their actions, and hopefully won't get away with anything like this again. Well done to the government of Colorado for good work.
With that said, I notice that there don't seem to be a bunch of Christian organizations stepping up to help out the victims with their recent loss. No churches have said anything to my knowledge about helping restore some of the wealth lost in their own Jesus' name. In fairness, no, that's not unusual, but consider that carefully: why, exactly, is it not unusual for Christian churches to assist those who have been victimized by other Christian churches? If, for some strange reason, my brother were to commit a horrible crime, I would want to at least try and help the people he hurt even if there wasn't much I could do for them. By contrast, Christian churches simply shake their heads and go about their day as though stories like these couldn't possibly apply to them.
There are any number of Christian churches around with staggeringly large bank accounts. Stories like this reflect on those churches every bit as much as they do the con artists who enact the scams.
You don't get that large bank account by sharing it.
Which is something of an indication of what's most valuable to these ultra wealthy Christian churches, isn't it? :)
The kkkatlik "church" did not become worth trillions by sharing or by paying taxes.
Obviously the scammers were not "true Christian's™". So equally obviously they feel no responsibility at all. Plus of course they are all pretty damn greedy let's face it. I'd love to see the books of various churches and how much of the money that they take in actually goes towards helping the poor and other Christian stuff rather than enriching the church hierarchy.
When Christians finally find True Christians (TM), let me know.
Meanwhile, I'm waiting for an epic battle royale among the 45000 different sects of Christianity to show us who is top dog. "Separating the wheat from the chaff," so to speak biblically.
There is no wheat in there.
Victims aren’t their problem. Increasing tithing is.
Come to think of it, crypto and biblical deities are two of a kind. Both are imaginary and ordinary schmucks who invest in either wind up in ruins for their efforts.
EDIT to fix my dumbass typos
There is a sucker born every minute... Christians have been known to be easy marks just about from the get go. 'Too good to be true' should be the motto of christianity. But when your targets are people who can be sold on believing in an undetectable and unprovable god... it is just too much temptation for these scoundrels to pass up. I'm just not sure why their all-everything god doesn't just stop these shenanigans.
https://tse1.explicit.bing.net/th/id/OIP.u-_x6ZLCUL0TzhrZ4_k4bAHaEt?r=0&rs=1&pid=ImgDetMain
P T Barnum?
"Showman and former Connecticut State Representative"
Yes.
They've been taught to believe in miracles. Getting them to buy into a bogus get-rich-quick scheme should be child's play.
Religion is also a useful tool for the powerful elite members of society to gain/keep power and control over the other lesser members of society. (Paraphrasing Karl Marx).
OT. I come before you, not for forgiveness but for confession. I have done the most vile, disgusting and abhorrent act ever done by a human. I can not forgive myself, so I can’t expect it of you.
My respect for Trump has actually doubled during the latest events. It used to be that I had 0 (zero) respect for Trump. Now my respect has grown so great that it is 00 (double zero). Is there anyone out there who can offer me a modicum of pity. Please.
Actually, cag, you are not off-topic at all. Trump and his boys are doing the same thing with crypto that these xtians did and his cultists line up every day to be victims!
I don't really care about those idiots, but as part of his scam, Trump is trying to replace the dollar with his crypto as the coin of the realm!! His destruction of the US/world economy will soon be complete!!
Crypto is such a scam. Let's assume someone has 1000 bitcoins. They bid $3000 over market so that becomes the market. What they've done is spend $3000 to get $2,997,000.
You must go forth and say 50 Heil tRumps.
Just tell me where to send it. I’ll put it in an envelope and get it to you ASAP.
So when the Regalados are in prison the judge should order that their prison commissary accounts can only be funded by INDXcoin.
I got my Covid vaccine a few hours ago and am starting to feel draggy. Maryland didn’t take any chances with RFK Jr. and mandated that insurers cover the shot no matter what bullshit the CDC did.
Schrödinger’s cat has more medical sense than RFK Jr. His family must be wondering where they (Kennedy family) went wrong.
I wouldn’t be surprised if some members of the Kennedy family felt betrayed by RFK Jr. going over to join the Trump regime!
Getting mine on Tuesday. NY Gov Hochul gave pharmacists the right to vaccinate without a doctor's prescription for vaccines.
Whenever I watch a You Tube I'm constantly bombarded by ads explaining that I should get immunised against the flu and Covid. It's annoying because I did it months ago. But even this conservative/semi-libertarian government doesn't dare interfere with vaccinations, even though vaccination deniers came out of the woodwork in the middle of the pandemic.