Wanna-be oligarchs. Silicon Valley and Crypto bros are major players in this election.

[jmbar2]

Under the average voter radar is extreme influence peddling, lobbying of of the Silicon Valley and Crypto bros, one of which is Rep. Jim Himes, who told Biden to step down.

Citizens need to keep an eye on this!

They are part of the big money donors trying to turn Dems away from Biden in order to get Crypto deregulated. If they succeed, the consequences are completely unpredictable. They stand to take over banking, and replace the dollar as an international currency. Could also usher in collapse of currencies, and a wave of untraceable financial crime.

With their extreme wealth, they seek oligarchical powers, as much as the christian nationalists do.

THE DYSTOPIANS
The Tech Baron Seeking to Purge San Francisco of “Blues”
If Balaji Srinivasan is any guide, then the Silicon Valley plutocrats are definitely not OK.
https://newrepublic.com/article/180487/balaji-srinivasan-network-state-plutocrat

To fully grasp the current situation in San Francisco, where venture capitalists are trying to take control of City Hall, you must listen to Balaji Srinivasan. Before you do, steel yourself for what’s to come: A normal person could easily mistake his rambling train wrecks of thought for a crackpot’s ravings, but influential Silicon Valley billionaires regard him as a genius.

“Balaji has the highest rate of output per minute of good new ideas of anybody I’ve ever met,” wrote Marc Andreessen, co-founder of the V.C. firm Andreessen-Horowitz, in a blurb for Balaji’s 2022 book, The Network State: How to Start a New Country. The book outlines a plan for tech plutocrats to exit democracy and establish new sovereign territories. I mentioned Balaji’s ideas in two previous stories about Network State–related efforts in California—a proposed tech colony called California Forever and the tech-funded campaign to capture San Francisco’s government.

Congressman Jim Himes (CT-04) today released a proposal for the issuance of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) by the Federal Reserve.

In January of 2022, the Federal Reserve issued a paper that described similar benefits of a CBDC. The paper noted that the Fed would not proceed with the issuance of a CBDC “without clear support from the executive branch and from Congress, ideally in the form of a specific authorizing law.”

https://himes.house.gov/2022/6/himes-proposes-central-bank-digital-currency

Crypto Needs 'More Enforcement': Former White House Official Carole House on CoinDesk TV https://www.coindesk.com/video/rep-jim-himes-reacts-to-ftx-fallout/ via @coindesk

[DBoon]

1. Tech Fascism

from the New Republic article:

“What I’m really calling for is something like tech Zionism,” he said, after comparing his movement to those started by the biblical Abraham, Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith (founder of Mormonism), Theodor Herzl (“spiritual father” of the state of Israel), and Lee Kuan Yew (former authoritarian ruler of Singapore). Balaji then revealed his shocking ideas for a tech-governed city where citizens loyal to tech companies would form a new political tribe clad in gray t-shirts. “And if you see another Gray on the street … you do the nod,” he said, during a four-hour talk on the Moment of Zen podcast. “You’re a fellow Gray.”

The Grays’ shirts would feature “Bitcoin or Elon or other kinds of logos … Y Combinator is a good one for the city of San Francisco in particular.” Grays would also receive special ID cards providing access to exclusive, Gray-controlled sectors of the city. In addition, the Grays would make an alliance with the police department, funding weekly “policeman’s banquets” to win them over.

“Grays should embrace the police, okay? All-in on the police,” said Srinivasan. “What does that mean? That’s, as I said, banquets. That means every policeman’s son, daughter, wife, cousin, you know, sibling, whatever, should get a job at a tech company in security.”

They make Steve Bannon look sane and reasonable.

[Marcus IM]

2. I wonder how many DUers trade/use crypto?

Before I go on a rant about it.

[jmbar2]

3. Probably not many

The benefits are potentially great for some, but the liabilities will be borne by ordinary people. We need to understand those potential liabilities better.

[Marcus IM]

4. Same applies to most capitalist investing.

The impact of the concentration of the displaced value of other people's labor is almost always borne by the laboring poor.

Capitalism.

[jmbar2]

5. Certainly agree with you on that!