March 2023 - cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

Great Revolution Reloaded
by professor rat 22 Mar '23

22 Mar '23

France, has been brought to its knees by days of violent protests that have been described as the “Revolution 2.0”. VIVA LA REVOLUTION Cypherpunks collapse governments. Subject: Everyone a remailer: Everyone a Mint: Everyone an assassin https://marc.info/?l=cypherpunks&m=100872510706876&w=2 Strong-crypto, digital money, anonymous networks, pseudonyms, zero- knowledge proofs, reputations, information-markets, netwar, collapse-of-governments.

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Crypto Exchange OKCoin Suspends Trading of Miami and NYC CityCoins
by Gunnar Larson 21 Mar '23

21 Mar '23

Wow, sounds like STX and POX have some disclosures ahead of them. You know, POX is a jehadist attack on the Bitcoin Blockchain, according to Ken Griffin. "I wish all this passion and energy that went to crypto was directed towards making the United States stronger," he said. https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/03/21/crypto-exchange-okcoin-suspend… Crypto exchange OKCoin has suspended the trading of two citycoins, MiamiCoin and NYCCoin, as of March 16, citing limited liquidity as the reason for the decision. “Limited liquidity for these coins on our platform has created the possibility of price manipulation and fraudulent activity,” OKCoin wrote in a blog post. “While none of these risks have occurred, we wanted to get ahead of any possible misconduct.” The exchange will resume the trading of those coins once the “unexpected” low liquidity is solved. Until then, holders can continue to keep their coins on the exchange or move them to a decentralized platform. OKCoin, a globally licensed exchange headquartered in San Francisco, was the only centralized exchange that offered citycoins, according to the blog post. Both MiamiCoin and NYCCoin are developed by CityCoins, which enables citizens a way to generate crypto-based revenue for themselves and the cities where they live. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez was a particularly strong proponent of MiamiCoin in its early days, touting the possibility to generate a “bitcoin yield” for its citizens from its staking. OKCoin didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from CoinDesk. Bloomberg previously reported on the news.

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[ot][spam][crazy] karl has stopped eating food
by Karl Semich 21 Mar '23

21 Mar '23

some time ago i posted to this list i was having trouble eating. i think it was during the crazy posts around my interaction with cecilia. after that post, i began eating again. i was using eating this past couple months to help me with other tasks. i didn't want to eat quite as much as i was, but i found a way to make it so incredibly helpful. i have now stopped eating again, and the other tasks these were basic tasks, like making a todo list, or taking a shower. thank you for your aid these past months and years. i have had nothing but 1 meal in the last three or four days. i know humans are fine for a week without food. due to my dissociation and historic experience with fasting, this isn't very uncomfortable for me. hunger is a small feeling compared to other things. i'll try to write here when i eat until i resume.

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You Might Survive a Nuclear Blast—if You Have the Right Shelter The escalating risks of Russia’s war in Ukraine have led scientists to study the unthinkable and model the aftermath of nuclear detonation.
by Gunnar Larson 21 Mar '23

21 Mar '23

My University of Nicosia in Cyprus is at it again, "Even people at a bank would have to get into the vault to be in the safest place..." https://www.wired.com/story/you-might-survive-a-nuclear-blast-if-you-have-t… WIRED JAN 25, 2023 8:00 AM You Might Survive a Nuclear Blast—if You Have the Right Shelter The escalating risks of Russia’s war in Ukraine have led scientists to study the unthinkable and model the aftermath of nuclear detonation. Nuclear test PHOTOGRAPH: GETTY IMAGES IN A FLASH, a nuclear warhead unleashes the destructive power of hundreds of kilotons of TNT. The resulting inferno, and the blast wave that follows, instantly kill people directly in their path. But a new study finds that some people two to seven miles away could survive—if they’re lucky enough to find just the right kind of shelter. Dimitris Drikakis, a fluid dynamics researcher at the University of Nicosia in Cyprus, led the study both to illuminate the ongoing risks of nuclear escalation and to examine how one might have a chance at survival if the unthinkable should come to pass. “People have forgotten the devastating impacts nuclear war can have. But now we’re seeing the discussion starting again, and there’s a debate about the potential for nuclear war in Ukraine,” says Drikakis. “I think this kind of study raises awareness within the wider population that nuclear explosions are not a joke.” His grim research comes just as the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced that it has ticked the Doomsday Clock forward, to 90 seconds until an apocalyptic midnight, citing the increasing nuclear tensions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Scientists and artists developed the metaphorical clock to communicate risks posed by global, human-caused problems including climate change, but the dangers of nuclear war have been a major focus since its inception. Drikakis combed through scientific research on what the aftermath of nuclear weapon use would look like, and he spotted a gap: There’s little knowledge of the effects on humans indoors in the “moderate damage zone” a few miles from the epicenter, far enough away that buildings might not get blown to bits. He and his colleague Ioannis Kokkinakis focused on this area and published their work in the Physics of Fluids journal last week. Since no one’s going around testing nukes on buildings these days, this kind of research employs computer simulations. Drikakis and Kokkinakis simulated the blast effects of a 750-kiloton warhead—like the hundreds of larger bombs in Russia’s arsenal—delivered by an intercontinental ballistic missile, which would detonate about 3 kilometers above a metropolis. They studied how the supersonic shock waves would propagate through a three-room concrete structure situated in the moderate damage zone and assumed that the concrete was strong enough to withstand the 3 to 5 pounds per square inch of pressure from the blast wave. This is a 3D illustration of the simulated air blast and generated blast wave 10 seconds after the detonation of a 750 kiloton nuclear warhead above a typical metropolitan city; the radius of the shock bubble at ground level is 4.6 kilometers. COURTESY OF I. KOKKINAKIS AND D. DRIKAKIS/UNIVERSITY OF NICOSIA Their research shows that, if a nuke were ever detonated in a modern city, some people in the surrounding areas would make it. They might have about five to 10 seconds after the initial flash to get to safety. If they happened to be in a thick concrete structure with few openings, like in a bank or a subway, they might survive if they used that limited time to run into the corner of a back room with few openings. Being in an enclosed space matters because, the researchers find, the blast winds following the initial fireball can be even more dangerous and deadly than the blast itself. These winds push outward behind the shock wave, and anyone facing the brunt of them could be slammed against a wall at high speed. The winds are especially dangerous if a person is near a door or window or in a corridor or an opening to a room. Winds quickly funnel through such areas, throwing people and furniture around—it’s like a storm let loose in a building. (If you are wondering whether you could copy the Indiana Jones move in The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, surviving a nuclear blast by jumping inside a fridge, Drikakis says that might be possible. But it’s also possible the strong wind would hurl the fridge with Indy inside.) Ferenc Dalnoki-Veress, a scientist-in-residence and nuclear physicist at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, points out that if multiple buildings happen to lie between the structure you’re in and the incoming blast wave, that shadowing effect can lessen the airspeed and forces involved. Those in a basement might avoid the worst blast effects too. “A lot of people have a nihilistic point of view that there’s nothing we can do about it,” but that’s not the case, he says. Shown are the contours of the maximum airspeed attained during the first 10 seconds after the blast wave enters the window; overpressure equals 5 pounds per square inch. COURTESY OF I. KOKKINAKIS AND D. DRIKAKIS/UNIVERSITY OF NICOSIA But let’s be honest: Most people, even in the moderate damage zone, won’t survive. Hardly anyone lives or works in nearly windowless reinforced-concrete buildings, nor in the vicinity of a concrete bunker. (Even people at a bank would have to get into the vault to be in the safest place; people in a subway would get the most benefit in a station that’s very deep underground.) Most people live in timber-frame or other less-armored buildings. This shouldn’t be construed as a way to be safe in a nuclear explosion, says Dylan Spaulding, an earth scientist and nuclear expert at the Union of Concerned Scientists. Strong structures made of concrete with metal reinforcement and designed for seismic safety would survive the pressures the team modeled, he says, but those pressures would be enough to destroy most traditional, wood-framed houses and brick structures without reinforcement. And he points out that the blast wave is only part of the story. While it is the main source of danger in a non-nuclear explosion—like the one that rocked Beirut in 2020, which was caused by a large quantity of flammable ammonium nitrate stored at the city’s port—nuclear weapons also throw out ionizing radiation and heat, followed by radioactive fallout. Radiation exposure through the skin or inhalation can have many health effects, including skin burns, organ damage, and cancer. The range of radiation exposure could extend tens of miles from the epicenter, so people who survive the blast could later be felled by the radiation. Drikakis’ example focused on what’s called a “strategic” nuke deployed on an ICBM, but there are also “tactical” nukes, which are dropped by a plane onto a battlefield and which can blow up on the ground. Such explosions play out differently but can be as deadly and destructive, potentially exposing more people to lethal radiation doses, Spaulding says. Russia and the US also possess so-called low-yield nukes, which have 5 to 10 kilotons of yield and are a little smaller than the 15-kiloton bomb dropped on Hiroshima. These would still inflict massive devastation and cross a dangerous red line, possibly escalating a conflict to the use of larger weapons. Humanity’s most destructive weapons have been used in war only once, when the US demolished Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, with two atomic bombs at the end of the Second World War in 1945. Together they killed more than 100,000 Japanese civilians and injured many more. And Spaulding points out that along with experiments conducted at the Nevada Test Site, they offer some of the only real-world evidence about the kinds of structures that can survive an atomic blast, and how well. But last year Russian president Vladimir Putin insinuated that nukes are not off the table in his attack on Ukraine. While NATO leaders have not used such threatening rhetoric, the international organization conducted nuclear exercises in October, simulating dropping B61 nuclear bombs. US president Joe Biden’s Nuclear Posture Review the same month abandoned a “no first use” policy he previously supported. One could imagine nuclear risks in other conflicts too, like the possibility of North Korea using a nuke against South Korea, or Pakistan and India using them against each other. The world’s arsenals add up to about 12,700 warheads, according to an inventory by the Federation of American Scientists. That’s fewer than their peak of around 70,000 near the end of the Cold War, thanks to arms reduction treaties. But some of those pacts have since been dissolved, and the dangers never went away, as the Doomsday Clock’s metaphor illustrates. This is not a game, Drikakis says. The risks of a devastating nuclear strike are all too real, he says: “We have to maintain peace by understanding the risks of not maintaining the peace.”

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Wikileaks, Glen Beck and Matt Taibbi axis of evil
by professor rat 21 Mar '23

21 Mar '23

>>> The tweet's thrust was echoed by WikiLeaks, Glenn Beck and the Freedom of the Press Foundation, <<< https://www.npr.org/2023/03/21/1164360143/rolling-stone-fbi-raid-journalist… Reposts not rapist Nazbols convention

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Walt Disney's Wife, Lillian Disney (AKA Lillian Marie Bounds) grew up nearby Lapwai, Idaho on the Nez Perce Indian Reservation
by Gunnar Larson 21 Mar '23

21 Mar '23

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillian_Disney# Lillian Marie Disney (née Bounds; February 15, 1899 – December 16, 1997) was an American ink artist at the Disney Studios and the wife of Walt Disney from 1925 until his death in 1966. Born in Spalding, Idaho, Disney graduated from high school in Lapwai before moving to Lewiston to attend college. She left Idaho in 1923 to move to southern California, where she would meet future husband Walt while working as a secretary at Walt Disney Animation Studios. Lillian Disney Disney in 1951 Born Lillian Marie Bounds February 15, 1899 Spalding, Idaho, U.S. Died December 16, 1997 (aged 98) West Los Angeles, California, U.S. Resting place Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California, U.S. Occupation(s) Ink and paint artist Years active 1924–1997 Spouse(s) Walt Disney (m. 1925; died 1966) John L. Truyens (m. 1969; died 1981) Children 2, including Diane Disney Miller Relatives See Disney family Lillian and Walt married on July 13, 1925, and had two daughters, Diane Marie Disney (1933–2013), their only biological child, and Sharon Mae Disney (1936–1993), who was adopted. Lillian and Walt had ten grandchildren, including seven by Diane and three by Sharon. During a train ride in 1928, Walt revealed to his wife a new animated character, whom he called "Mortimer Mouse". Lillian suggested that he rename his character "Mickey Mouse", a name which has since become synonymous with the Disney brand. Walt Disney died from lung cancer on December 15, 1966, after which Lillian remarried John L. Truyens (a Southern California real estate developer) from 1969 until his death in 1981. On December 15, 1997, Lillian Disney suffered a stroke and died the following morning in Los Angeles at age 98. Early years Edit Born Lillian Marie Bounds in Spalding, Idaho, she grew up in nearby Lapwai on the Nez Perce Indian Reservation, where her father Willard worked as a blacksmith and federal marshal.[1] She was the youngest of ten children, and the family struggled financially; her father died when she was seventeen. After graduation from Lapwai High School, Bounds and her mother moved down to Lewiston; she attended a year of business college then moved to southern California in 1923 to live with her sister Hazel's family.[2][3][4] She was working at the Disney Studio in "ink and paint" as a secretary when she met Walt.[5] Marriage to Walt Disney Edit Lillian Bounds and Walt Disney married on July 13, 1925,[6][7] in Idaho at her brother's home. The wedding was officiated by the rector of Lewiston's Episcopal Church of the Nativity.[8] Walt Disney's parents did not attend. As Bounds's father was deceased, her uncle, who was chief of the Lewiston Fire Department, gave the bride away. She wore a dress that she had made herself. The couple had two daughters, Diane Marie Disney (1933–2013) and Sharon Mae Disney (1936–1993), the latter of whom was adopted. Disney had ten grandchildren: seven by Diane and her husband (Ron W. Miller), and three by Sharon and her two husbands, Robert Brown and William Lund. Recognition Edit Interior of the Lilly Belle train car at Disneyland Her film career includes work as an ink artist on the film Plane Crazy. Disney is credited with having named her husband's most famous character, Mickey Mouse, during a train trip from New York to California in 1928. Walt showed a drawing of the cartoon mouse to his wife and told her that he was going to name it "Mortimer Mouse". Lillian replied that the name sounded "too depressing" and she was very proud to have suggested the name "Mickey Mouse" instead of Mortimer.[9] At the Carolwood Pacific Railroad, Walt Disney named his 1:8-scale live steam locomotive the "Lilly Belle" in his wife's honor. Additionally, Walt named one of the Disneyland Railroad cars the "Lilly Belle" in her honor, and the Walt Disney World Railroad has a locomotive named "Lilly Belle", where each locomotive is named for someone who greatly contributed to the Walt Disney Company.[10] Walt Disney Imagineering created "The Empress Lilly", a paddle steamer replica, at Walt Disney World in Disney Springs and Disney christened it on May 1, 1977. Disney was inducted into the Disney Legends in 2003.[1] Later years and death Edit Walt Disney died of lung cancer on December 15, 1966, aged 65, and Lillian was married to John L. Truyens from May 1969 until his death on February 24, 1981, aged 73.[11] In 1987, she pledged a $50 million gift towards the construction of a new concert hall in Los Angeles.[12] After several delays, the Walt Disney Concert Hall opened in 2003, six years after her death. She also helped fund the founding of The California Institute of the Arts.[13] In the 1990s, reflecting on her 41-year marriage to Walt Disney, she said, "We shared a wonderful, exciting life, and we loved every minute of it. He was a wonderful husband to me, and wonderful and joyful father and grandfather."[citation needed] Disney suffered a stroke on December 15, 1997, which was exactly 31 years after the death of her first husband, Walt. She died the following morning at her home in West Los Angeles at the age of 98. She was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.[13][14] References Edit ^ Jump up to:a b Lillian Disney profile, legends.disney.go.com; accessed February 9, 2015. ^ "Walt Disney dies of cancer at 65". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). Associated Press. December 16, 1966. p. 1. ^ "Lillian Disney dies". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). December 18, 1997. Retrieved December 11, 2017. ^ Litzinger, Brenda (March 13, 2012). "Important women in Disney history: Hazel Sewell". Walt Disney Family Museum. Retrieved December 11, 2017. ^ Taylor, George (February 14, 2012). "Walt and Lilly". Walt Disney Family Museum. Retrieved December 11, 2017. ^ Miller, Diane Disney (July 12, 2011). "Remembering Walt & Lillian's Anniversary". Walt Disney Family Museum. Retrieved December 11, 2017. ^ Idaho, County Marriages, 1864–1950 ^ Episcopal Church of the Nativity (Lewiston, Idaho) website, nativitylewiston.com; accessed February 9, 2015. ^ Jackson, Kathy (2006). Walt Disney: Conversations (First ed.). University Press of Mississippi. p. 120. ISBN 1-57806-713-8. ^ Broggie, Michael (Winter 2018). "View from the Cupola" (PDF). Carolwood Chronicle. The Carolwood Society. p. 7. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 17, 2019. Retrieved March 17, 2019. ^ Profile, Social Security Death Index website; accessed February 9, 2015. ^ About Walt Disney Concert Hall Archived November 26, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, laphil.com; accessed February 9, 2015. ^ Jump up to:a b Weinraub, Bernard (December 18, 1997). "Walt Disney's Widow, Lillian, Dies at 98". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved September 6, 2016. ^ "LILLIAN DISNEY DIES AT 98". Washington Post. December 18, 1997. Retrieved January 27, 2021. External links Last edited 8 days ago by 38.49.65.99 RELATED ARTICLES Diane Disney Miller Elder child of Walt Disney and his wife Lillian Bounds Disney Lapwai High School Public school in Lapwai, Idaho, U.S. Hazel Sewell American animator (1898–1975) Content is available under CC BY-SA 3.0 unless otherwise noted. Privacy policy Terms of UseDesktop" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillian_Disney#:~:text=Open%20main%20menu,Des…

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Tired of Semich and Gramps dissociation, censorship, psyop posts here
by professor rat 21 Mar '23

21 Mar '23

Popgun Larceny is actually providing more signal and less noise here recently. As compared to say the relentless stream of crap from griefers G and S. Hopefully the strong AI will help get APster up and running soon so we can take out this trash. One down - two to go! Anarchist haters go fuck yourself

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First Republic: Meet the Bank at the Center of the Michael Cohen Scandal
by Gunnar Larson 21 Mar '23

21 Mar '23

https://wallstreetonparade.com/2018/05/first-republic-meet-the-bank-at-the-… It’s about a six-minute drive from Donald Trump’s luxurious Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida to the palm-lined street where First Republic Bank has a branch to service the super wealthy. It is not known if Donald Trump has an account at this branch, but according to Trump’s Federal financial disclosure report, he maintains a checking account at First Republic Bank. Unfortunately for Trump, Michael Cohen, his personal attorney, also maintains an account with First Republic Bank. Cohen had his home, office, hotel room and safety deposit box raided by the FBI on April 9 and has been the subject of titillating news reporting every evening since over his wire of $130,000 as hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels, who alleges an affair with Trump. The wire was sent from Cohen’s Essential Consultants LLC account at First Republic Bank. It would not be surprising this morning if everyone from the CEO on down at First Republic Bank wanted to erase the names Cohen and Trump from their memory banks. The stock of First Republic Bank is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The bank caters, almost exclusively, to the super wealthy. The Wall Street Journal reported in 2016 that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, worth $72.5 billion today according to Forbes, is a client at First Republic Bank. The bank’s business model of opening branches in tony towns on the East and West Coasts has proven a winning strategy. According to company reports, its deposits have grown from $18 billion in mid 2010 to $68.9 billion as of December 31, 2017. The FDIC reports that 100 percent of its deposits are domestic – meaning it has no foreign money. That is now being called into question as a result of the nightly media appearances by Stormy Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti. According to Avenatti, $500,000 that came into Cohen’s First Republic Bank account is tied to the Russian oligarch, Viktor Vekselberg, now on a U.S. sanctions list and closely tied to Russian president Vladimir Putin. The $500,000 came from a U.S.-based company, Columbus Nova, which has denied any corporate ties to Vekselberg. However, those clever folks at Think Progress, used the Wayback machine to access the Columbus Nova website as of January of 2017 where Columbus Nova is listed as a subsidiary of Renova Group, Vekselberg’s Russian company. The people and businesses who have direct or indirect connections to Cohen’s account at First Republic are starting to mount up. They include AT&T, which has confirmed paying Cohen $600,000 for advice, and the giant Swiss pharmaceutical company, Novartis, which has admitted to transmitting $1.2 million to the Cohen account in order to seek “insights” on Trump. Both AT&T and Novartis confirmed to the New York Times that they had been contacted last November “by investigators for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III….” According to a report by CNN yesterday, also questioned by Mueller’s team was Vekselberg – the Russian oligarch tied to the $500,000 that found itself in Michael Cohen’s Essential Consultants LLC account at First Republic Bank. Another connecting dot is Trump’s longtime personal friend, Tom Barrack, who served as Chair of Trump’s Inaugural Committee. According to the Associated Press, Barrack has also been interviewed by Mueller’s investigators. Barrack is the Founder of Colony Capital, LLC, now known as ColonyNorthstar, where he continues to serve as Executive Chairman. Barrack served on the Board of Directors of First Republic Bank from 2001 through 2007 and from 2010 to the present. The bank was previously owned by Merrill Lynch, which was absorbed into Bank of America during the financial crash in 2008. In 2010, Barrack’s Colony Capital was part of a buyout team that included General Atlantic LLC which put up “$1.86 billion in new equity capital” to purchase the bank according to a press release issued by First Republic Bank. On November 29, 2010, the bank sold shares to the public in an Initial Public Offering. According to First Republic Bank’s 2018 annual proxy statement, Barrack owns 12,335 shares in the company. At this morning’s opening price of $97.06, that’s about $1.2 million – not a particularly large amount of money for a man that Forbes estimated to be worth $1 billion in 2013. According to the Washington Post, “It was Barrack who persuaded Trump to hire political operative Paul Manafort — whom Barrack first met in Beirut 40 years ago — for the presidential campaign.” Manafort has been indicted by a grand jury convened in the Mueller probe. Yesterday, it was widely reported that the U.S. Treasury’s Inspector General has opened an investigation into the leak of financial documents from First Republic Bank. Stormy Daniels’ attorney, Avenatti, has released information that would seem to have only come from Customer Account Cards inside the bank or documents seized in the raid on Cohen by the FBI in the Southern District of New York or from the Mueller investigation. In a document released by Avenatti on his Twitter page, precise details from the Customer Account Card for Essential Consultants LLC at First Republic Bank appears to have been provided to him. Avenatti writes: “In connection with the establishment of that account, Mr. Cohen was required to make certain representations to First Republic regarding Essential’s business as part of First Republic’s Know Your Customer (‘KYC’) anti-money laundering protocol. “In order to establish the account, Mr. Cohen subsequently submitted information claiming, among other things, the following: (a) Essential is a real estate consulting company that collects fees for investment consulting work; (b) The company’s typical clients are U.S.-based high net worth individuals; (c) The company’s primary source of funds will be derived from within the U.S. or a U.S.-based company; (d) The company expected one (1) to twenty (20) incoming domestic only wires totaling $1,000 to $10,000 each month for consulting fees, and one (1) to twenty (20) ACH credits and electronic transfers totaling $1,000 to $10,000 each month; (e) No outgoing wire transfers and debits related to ACH or electronic transfers were expected; and (f) Receipts of the business would be internally transferred to Mr. Cohen’s personal account at First Republic Bank. According to the Wall Street Journal, First Republic Bank filed a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) with the U.S. Treasury’s FinCen unit on the Cohen account. Avenatti has said at least three SARs have been filed with FinCen related to this matter. In early April, Avenatti wrote to U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin requesting that the SARs information be released to the public, citing numerous legal case precedents for doing so. Thus far, Mnuchin has not supplied the information.

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At Year End, JPMorgan Chase Held Over $1 Trillion in Uninsured Deposits Versus $119 Billion at First Republic
by Gunnar Larson 21 Mar '23

21 Mar '23

https://wallstreetonparade.com/2023/03/at-year-end-jpmorgan-chase-held-over… Jamie Dimon is the Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the U.S., which is also ranked the riskiest global bank by its regulators. But instead of getting his own house in order in the midst of a banking crisis, Dimon has been peculiarly focused elsewhere. Over the past five days, Jamie Dimon’s legions of publicists have been burning up the phone lines with reporters, pushing the narrative that Jamie Dimon is some kind of financial wizard who needs to have a seat at the table to save the regional bank, First Republic Bank. (Scroll down here to see the exhaustive public relations effort that has gone into this narrative.) Last Thursday, news hit the wire services that Dimon had lined up 11 banks willing to place $30 billion in uninsured deposits into First Republic Bank. JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo each ponied up $5 billion – or two-thirds of the $30 billion. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) caps federal deposit insurance at $250,000 per depositor, per bank. Taking $5 billion of your bank’s shareholders’ money and throwing it at a regional bank whose stock price is collapsing, was not viewed as the brightest of ideas by the stock market. Last Friday, the day after the deal was announced, shares of First Republic Bank dropped 32 percent. Yesterday, First Republic’s share price collapsed by another 47 percent. Over the weekend, S&P Global downgraded First Republic’s credit rating for a second time in a week to deeper junk status. Year-to-date, First Republic Bank has lost 90 percent of its market value. What exactly is there left to save? We should also note that First Republic Bank’s Palm Beach, Florida branch is where Donald Trump’s hush money was wired to porn star Stormy Daniels by his attorney, Michael Cohen. (See our reporting here and the Wall Street Journal’s here.) Today, a headline appears at Bloomberg News that provides a big clue as to what Jamie Dimon’s frantic obsession with First Republic Bank is really about, that is, use a collapsing regional bank to get Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on board to push for a government guarantee on all deposits, insured and uninsured, at all FDIC banks. By framing this as coming to the rescue of regional banks, rather than another crony bailout of the unaccountable mega banks on Wall Street, Jamie Dimon doesn’t have to explain to his compromised Board of Directors why 69 percent of the bank’s deposits were uninsured at year end. (See: If You’re Baffled as to Why JPMorgan Chase’s Board Hasn’t Sacked Jamie Dimon as the Bank Racked Up 5 Felony Counts – Here’s Your Answer.) Our scenario is supported by the following hard facts: First Republic Bank’s regulatory filing for December 31, 2022 shows that it held $176.25 billion in deposits, of which $119.47 billion were uninsured, or 68 percent of all deposits. JPMorgan Chase’s same regulatory filing (FFIEC Call Report) for December 31, 2022 shows that at year-end it held $1.527 trillion in deposits of which an estimated $1.058 trillion were uninsured – or 69 percent. JPMorgan Chase's Uninsured Deposits Yellen’s upcoming actions on this matter would have a lot more credibility had she not decided to line her pockets with millions of dollars in speaking fees from the mega banks on Wall Street after being replaced as Chair of the Fed in 2018. (See Janet Yellen’s Cash Haul of $7 Million Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg; She Failed to Report Her Wall Street Speaking Fees from JPMorgan and Others in 2018.)

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Unclear crypto policy is bad policy
by professor rat 21 Mar '23

21 Mar '23

>> glennbeck . @VivekGRamaswamy challenges EVERY Republican presidential candidate to "make a simple commitment that they will stand opposed to the adoption of CBDCs in the United States." << Central Bank part of CBDC's ( Digital Currencies ) means one per country. As this statement stands it means sanctions of every CBDC - like China's and India's reported pilot-programs already circulating in global markets. But if it was meant in the singular why the opposition? Nearly every form of electronic money exchange furthers cryptoanarchy. And the adoption of yet another govt program need not be a liability either is there is an offset somewhere. Such as winding down the war on drugs by an amount double the cost of any US CBDC. BTW a US state DC is less likely than a city one at the moment - Miami's city coin for example. Could be wrong - but then neither of these would be a CBDC either way. Just another crypto. Yes?

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