Pump And Dump

On the evening of January 17 president-elect Trump and his family started selling a block chain crypto meme token featuring an image of him lifted from the July assassination attempt.  

Disclosed mere days before his second inauguration this venture is the latest in a long line of hustles to monetize his followers and enrich his family.  It is yet another sign that the Trumps will take every opportunity in his second term to push the edge of the self-dealing envelope. 
The Trump meme coin is his latest and likely most successful yet.  

You're likely wondering why the President is laughing all the way to the bank.

photo credit - Al Jazeera

That's because if you borrowed against your 401K, mortgaged your home, cashed-in all your frumpy, dumpy, boring stocks, bonds and mutual funds and purchased as many Trump meme coins as you could get your hands-on there's a possibility you made a killing.  As well, there is a possibility your got your ass kicked.  Further evidence that PT Barnum was prescient.  

Only moments following the president-elect posting on his social media account that his family had issued a crypto currency named $Trump a trade was placed.  In the amount of $1,096,109, from a crypto wallet with a unique identification code beginning with 6QSc2Cx, someone acquired a boatload of the Trump tokens - 5,971,750 to be exact - at the opening price of 18 cents apiece.  This launched a run up in the price of $Trump that would swell to $75 a token.

With a balance of only 25 tokens remaining this anonymous trader pocketed as much a $109 million according to an analysis performed for The New York Times.

The front-end profits for the unidentified early traders, including possibly some from China, was at the expense of the much larger number of schmucks late to the game who lost more than $2 billion following the crash of the token's price. 

While trading in the meme coin space is relatively new - what is described in the preceding paragraph is as old as the hills.  In the vernacular of the stock-trading world this is known as Pump and Dump - with early traders pumping-up the price and them dumping their positions as less sophisticated individuals get in late to the game.  Illegal in a regulated market this scam is all to common in the unregulated crypto world. 

It is one thing for the Trump family to profit from crypto trading; it is also worth noting that the President holds executive sway over the relevant federal regulatory world.  Rolling-back victim protections and enforcement is one thing; leaving the fox to guard the hen house is altogether another.  

Coincidentally, only ten days ago The Lever reported that the Trump administration issued a blanket ethics waiver to venture capitalist David Sacks, now the president's special advisor for artificial intelligence and crypto, clearing him to work on regulatory issues directly related to his financial holdings.  The waiver comes a month after President Trump fired the Senate-confirmed director of the Office of Government Ethics - the independent agency responsible for enforcing federal ethics laws. 

'I am granting you a waiver...of any conflict of interest regarding particular matters of general applicability concerning the digital asset industry' - reads the March 5 memo from White House Counsel David Warrington.

The creation of a financial instrument facilitating the transfer of money to the president's family in connection with his office interests me.  The Trump meme coin is ideally suited as a mechanism for, hypothetically-speaking, special interests or a foreign government to influence the President and his family.  

The fact that his office's regulatory actions may now shield or insulate him from both scrutiny and consequences interests me even more.

How about you?

March Madness Stir Fry

Following breakfast with a buddy in Sturgeon Bay I ran into one of my neighbors at the big grocery. She was with her granddaughter (who I didn’t immediately recognize) but the opportunity for small talk ensued. 

Something about my cooking. Hmmm. I was unaware  people talked about my cooking.  Nevertheless, in the off season us few permanent peninsula denizens have to talk about something; and I suppose cooking is better than current affairs. Or gossip. 

Anyway, and more importantly, the conversation turned to my neighbor’s granddaughter and the impending great grandmotherness.  How cool is that?   That’s an achievement worthy of shouting from a rooftop.  I would be damn lucky to live long enough to become a great grandparent.

So for now I’ll stick to cooking. Namely, March Madness Stir Fry.  

If you have a Bluetooth device you can stream a game or two while chopping veggies, peeling shrimp, prepping stock and cooking rice.  Prep work is Zen-like. Sip a Guinness Harp before the new taxes set-in. 

And once you have sipped a martini and your mise en place is ready you can let the gas turn and burn and let’er rip. 

Figuratively-speaking. 

Everything comes together in a matter of moments.  Positively sublime. 

 

And pretty good chow if you can get it.

 

The Red Rocket

One more video for today.

Our Red Rocket rocketing on our daily walk.....

 

Southern Door Rocks

Sturgeon Bay Wisconsin is well known as a Great Lakes shipbuilding hub.  It’s also mistakenly known as the gateway to Door County.  But when you’re driving up the peninsula to Door County and you get to the steel bridge in Sturgeon Bay, you made it! You’ve found fish boils, light houses, orchards and tranquil scenery. 

You readers are smart enough to already know that if you've arrived in Sturgeon Bay you've left the VERY CONSIDERABLE entirety of Southern Door County behind you in your rear view mirror.

I live in Southern Door.  Pastoral farmland.  Flyover country.  East to ride a bike from the Lake Michigan coastline ti the coastline of Green Bay.  Anyway, this is a rather nice compilation of stuff worth doing; and you'll find it all about 20 minutes from The Platz.  

If you're in the neighborhood give us a heads-up.  You might just get a guided tour and if you're lucky there might be room at the inn. 

Ruby

Living in the country has all sorts of advantages and consequences.  On the consequence side of the ledger it goes beyond simply brown bats getting into your HVAC system.  There are external forces at work too.

Everything from deer, ring-neck pheasant, bunnies, possum and turkeys in the yard.

And if you're a red-golden retriever hunting dog it sometimes becomes a wee bit overwhelming....

Friday Music

I suppose you cannot get enough Beatles.

Composed by John Lennon and Paul McCartney this song was recorded in October of 1963 and released in the UK the following month.

It also launched the British Invasion in the states and rose to number one on the Hot 100 chart in February 1964  and stayed there for seven weeks before being replaced by She Loves You.

Selling more than 12 million copies this song went on to become the Beatles' best-selling single in the world.

I Want to Hold Your Hand......

Getting Away From It All

More action photos of our Red Rocket - Ruby the Golden Retriever.  

Red River K9 offers boarding, grooming, training and daycare.  And because our red bundle of energy is in her formative years an opportunity to be away from us, socialize with other dogs and run with her pack is good.  She burns-off some energy, learns to make new doggie friends, get along with others and we catch a break for a day to square-away a class, projects and chores.

 

Dropped her-off Saturday morning for an overnight; photos from the kennel's Face Book page.....