FTX: Scandal And Crisis

Karl Denninger and Tom Luongo both have provocative posts up about the Midterms and the implications for the future. Let me start with KD, who first offers a compelling summary of the implications of the FTX scandal.

In the first place, KD sets out a political principle with regard to elections:

The Republicans Shot Themselves In The Head -- Twice

… if the results are close in an election you blew it whether you win or lose. Simply put while there will always be opposition your goal is to convince a strong majority, not 50%+1.

Obviously, what he's implying is that the GOP thought they could go for 50%+1, and then continue with business more or less as usual. Meaning, while the GOP would not simply allow the Dem agenda to go forward, the dynamics of the 50%+1 solution is that the "winners" will not have the mandate to implement (needed) systemic reforms. Even if they have the will. You can see in this the difference with the Dem mentality--they always aim for a strong majority and then, even if they fail to achieve it, act as if they have a mandate by alleging fraud, deceit, or intimidation on the part of the GOP. Thus, Obamacare--to take one example. The GOP, which rarely if ever even seeks a clean sweep, rarely if ever pretends to a mandate that it doesn't have. If a mandate in fact exists, they may push forward for a bit, but except for matters like SCOTUS nominations that rarely becomes an existential fight.

This is the context in which we approach a constitutional crisis in more or less plain sight--not a good position to be in. It's difficult to be optimistic for the future.

The constitutional crisis, as it appears to be shaping up, is the use of the crypto exchange FTX to launder US government funds through the Ukrainian government with a portion skimmed off to go to Dem party campaigns.

KD carefully distinguishes two possible illegalities. The first appears to be certain, based on statements from FTX insiders. It appears certain that FTX stole client/customer funds and passed portions of that on to Dem campaigns.

The second illegality is what lands us in a constitutional crisis—certainly in the broad sense. While we don't have confirmation at this point, it appears likely that FTX--or, Sam Blankman-Fried acting through FTX--served as the vehicle by which Ukrainian government officials skimmed money from the US government funds Ukraine had received and kicked that skimmed money back to Dem political campaigns. This was done using FTX as the vehicle or instrumentality for laundering the money that was kicked back. This is the shape of the scheme as it is being surmised. Here is how KD frames the implications of this--if true (I’ve edited or rearranged this for coherence):

Right now the Ukraine angle is an allegation, but it is a fact that FTX was Biden's second-largest donor in 2020 and was also the second largest Dem donor in the Midterm cycle. If this occurred, then we have a true Constitutional question as to whether the House and Senate are in fact legitimate at all or whether Ukraine effectively bought them, in which case neither body of Congress has any legitimacy as a US legislative fixture whatsoever. It might be the case that such extends back to the 2020 elections as well.

Of course, what has long been known, but has been suppressed by both the disgraceful US media as well as by disgraced former AG Bluto Barr, is that the Biden Crime Family had long been active in using US involvement in Ukraine to extract money and associated favors from Ukraine--influence peddling. A blind eye was turned to this before and after the 2016 election. Before the 2016 election it was the Obama administration that turned the blind eye. After the election both Congress and Barr's DoJ turned a blind eye to hard evidence of all this--and, in fact, a fake impeachment was ginned up to force President Trump to stop digging into this matter. But there was always the danger that, in a second term, Trump would expose all this and undermine Deep State commitment to the globalist use of Ukraine for a proxy war against Russia by the collective West. Which set the stage for the Biden candidacy and the setting up of FTX in 2019 (Blankman-Fried being the son of Dem mega fundraiser Barbara Fried) to funnel money to that candidacy. FTX's role in funneling money to Dem campaigns continued through the 2022 Midterms. Please note: Republicans were knowledgeable of all of this, at least as regards the essentials.

What KD doesn't mention is that, if true, this setup opened up the US political actors to blackmail by Ukraine. Ukraine would be in a position to demand further funding--the threat would be that Ukraine could reveal the money laundering scheme if it didn't receive further money or in kind (weapons) transfers. Obviously arrangements of this sort are somewhat elastic, on the principle of the goose laying the golden eggs. But the element of possible coercion is clearly present. And it works both ways, at least at the start--no funding to Ukraine unless Ukraine (the most corrupt country on earth) kicks back to the Dems laying the golden eggs.

All of this, as KD argues, amounts to a constitutional crisis that calls into question the entire legitimacy of the federal government of the United States. One could call this uncharted waters, since the Constitution doesn't offer any thoughts on how to deal with this situation. It doesn't appear to meet the constitutional definition of treason, but under any real world considerations it calls into question the legitimacy of the government that allows this to happen.

Moving on, KD "indicts" Trump and the Republicans regarding the Covid Regime (and more, if you follow the link, but I'll stick with the Covid Regime part). I'll simply quote KD in this regard as a reminder for how we got to where we are and where we're heading. In fairness to Trump, however, there is no certainty that Trump would have allowed the Deep State to get the US into this war on Russia. Still ...

... there are two other issues that the GOP refuses to face and these are of their own making. The GOP's "leaders" are all throwing shade at someone else with exactly nobody in the GOP taking ownership of their own head-shooting and yes, it was a literal gun-in-own-mouth circumstance across the board.

The first is the jabs and the catastrophic outcome on-balance, much of which is yet to be suffered. Trump pushed them hard along with the original lockdowns. While the latter were eventually dropped those who dropped them first are still lying in that they have not repudiated what they did nor done anything to prevent a second occurrence and the jab advocacy remains an unapologetic "feature" of every single Republican Governor, Senator and House Candidate. Exactly none have smacked Trump over the head with a 2x6 for pushing that crap and ignoring the protocols for safety that were put into US law for good cause after either close calls or outright disasters, Thalidomide being one of them.

...

... in many areas of the nation the vast majority of the population took the jabs -- while in others, such as this county, roughly half of all eligible have refused. Some took them willingly and enthusiastically despite knowing the risks were a black box but others were either coerced or conned with statements that were knowingly false and spread all over the media, both ordinary and social, including by "influencers". Whether they knew they were talking crap is unknown but that doesn't matter; the people who originated the falsehoods knew they were lying and deliberately spread it. Trump and the other GOP members, along with the Democrats all spread those lies and none have admitted they were full of crap despite every one of them claiming to be either an expert or informed by expert opinion.

Not one has owned up to any of it.

...

... the Republican attempt to pin [inflation] on Biden fails because in point of fact is Trump that initiated all of the programs that led to the problem and while Biden piled on in point of fact he never would have gotten anywhere without all of Trump's wild money-printing spree in 2020. You can ignore this if you like but the fiscal year ended September 30th 2020 so nearly all of 2021 was in fact running on Trump's budget and spending as Biden's first fiscal hadn't started yet. Since that's a 100% bipartisan-caused issue while both sides would love to throw it on the other its a dead-letter election wise, ...

Here's my final point. I believe that, as others have argued, the entire Covid Regime was a key element in forcing a "Great Reset" to the new Globalist World Order. Who in our political establishment has spoken up about this? Perhaps a few lonely voices, but to my knowledge they have framed it as a public health issue, rather than as a constitutional issue on the national security level. In other words, while some would dispute--as I certainly do--the legality (or possibly the constitutionality) of the various mandates under the Covid Regime, I'm not aware of any political figure who has raised the possibility that officials of the federal government colluded with foreign powers to institute the Covid Regime as part of an effort to bring the United States under the direction of a one world government directed by the WEF but institutionally centered in the UN and the IMF.

I'll close with a quote from Luongo's latest. We don’t know yet what will happen in the House, but …

The Mid-Terms: The Hunger Gaming of America

And this brings me to the mid-term elections.

This is our biannual Hunger Games and we all volunteer to be Tributes thinking our votes can change the system, rather than simply reinforce it by participating, even if only vicariously.

Now that the steal is in full swing and the Senate falling to the Democrats, they will run the table on their full agenda — end the filibuster, pack the court, UBI, Climate Change, on-demand abortions of 7-day old babies and gun control.

But the steal, which is real, is also equally supported by a broken and traumatized population so gaslit into believing things which are simply not true that it is easy to mask what’s happening.