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34 minutes ago, Immaculate Vibes said:

 

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ARTICLEJustin Trudeau may be the best thing to happen to crypto since Satoshi Nakamoto.

With a considerable share of U.S.–Canada trade on pause and much of daily life disrupted across Canada’s cities, Prime Minister Trudeau has invoked, for the first time in his country’s history, Emergency Measures Act powers to shut down a domestic political protest, the so-called Freedom Convoy movement that began with complaints about the imposition of vaccine mandates on Canadian truckers reentering Canadian territory from the United States, and that has since become associated with, as these things now do, a long litany of complaints concerning everything from ordinary political business to QAnon nonsense and other exotic imports from south of the border.
 

In this so-called emergency, Trudeau is not sending in the troops. He is cutting off the money.

Trudeau, sounding a little like the old southern segregationists who complained about “outside agitators,” insists that the protests have been driven by “social media and illicit funding” rather than by genuine disapproval of his government’s policies. And so he is using the Emergency Measures Act to invest himself with the unilateral power to freeze bank accounts and cancel insurance policies, without so much as a court order and with essentially no recourse for those he targets. Canadian banks and financial-services companies will be ordered to disable clients suspected of being involved in the protests.

Trudeau says the protests are illegal. That is not quite right. The protests are not illegal per se, though some of the protesters certainly are breaking the law, for instance by blocking public roads and the like. The obvious parallel is the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in Canada, which also included some law-breaking. Trudeau did not invoke Emergency Measures Act powers to suppress those protests, even though they brought together large crowds during a particularly dangerous phase of the Covid-19 epidemic contrary to the advice of Trudeau’s government — and the advice out of his own mouth, for that matter. Far from shutting down those protests, Trudeau actually participated in them, making a pious spectacle out of himself.

 

 

 

In leaning on the sensitive pressure point of financial services, Trudeau is following the example of Democrats in the United States, who have used strategies ranging from securities investigations to insurance regulation to punish political enemies ranging from the National Rifle Association to oil companies. Using financial regulation to crush freedom of speech isn’t financial regulation — it is crushing freedom of speech by abusing the powers of a government office.
 

This kind of thing is not exactly new — in 1933, Franklin Roosevelt used emergency powers to seize all gold in private hands in the United States in order to fortify the Federal Reserve — but technological changes have made such schemes more insidious. Paper money can be stuffed into mattresses, and coins can be buried in coffee cans. But when money is electronic and the information architecture enabling most financial transactions is heavily regulated and easily subjected to invasive surveillance, then financial regulators enjoy powers that no FDR — or Napoleon, or Lenin — ever dreamt of possessing. The opportunities for mischief are serious and worrisome — and so are the opportunities for tyranny.

Activists who have tried to use politicized financial regulation to undermine the Second Amendment, to take one example, never seem to think about how the same tactics could be used against the First Amendment: The New York Times may enjoy the protection of the Bill of Rights, but without access to banking and commerce, that constitutional right cannot be effectively acted upon, and, hence, may as well not exist as a practical matter. Try running a newspaper or a political party with no bank account.

 

 

 

I myself do not particularly sympathize with the aims or the tactics of the protesters in Canada. I don’t care much for unruly mobs of any persuasion. But even so, it is impossible not to see the plain fact that these protesters are being targeted not for their practical effect or their tactics but for their beliefs and for the sort of people they are, that an obvious double standard is at play, and that this is deeply illiberal. A politically neutral police effort to open the roads and protect the rights of property and travel would be one thing, but this is the opposite: far from politically neutral, and intended to narrow social life and political discourse rather than to keep them open. When the laws are enforced exclusively (or with extra vigor) against political enemies, that is not law enforcement — that is political repression.

And it is political repression even in instances in which the content of the law itself is unobjectionable — for example, there is a difference between reviewing the paperwork of tax-exempt groups and reviewing the paperwork of tax-exempt groups that you consider political enemies and hope to harm. Permitting protests you endorse and shutting down those that are critical of your government — and that is precisely what Trudeau is trying to do — is illegitimate.

 

 

 

In our time, we don’t burn forbidden books — Amazon just makes politically nonconformist works disappear. We don’t lock people up for having the wrong political beliefs — but we do make sure they cannot earn a living, go to school, or raise their children in peace. And we don’t have to send men with jackboots and billy clubs to break up protests — we have very polite Canadian bankers to do that for us.

It can be no surprise, then, that people are looking for digital platforms that protect their anonymity and keep their communications slightly beyond the reach of the long arm of the state. People who do not expect to be treated fairly and who have no confidence that their rights (or even their interests) will be taken into consideration are forced to improvise. And it’s even less surprising that cryptocurrencies and other escape routes from the banking system increasingly appeal to people who are neither cartel bosses nor international men of mystery. In a world in which unpopular political views can cut an individual or an organization off from the financial main stream, such innovations are necessities.

When people cannot trust their governments to protect their liberties, they will seek protection elsewhere. That imposes real costs on a society. Canadians should think twice about whether they wish to pay those costs for the sake of Mr. Trudeau’s prejudice and ease.
 

It's okay to paste things in plain text. I would be able to read it next time.

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14 minutes ago, workswithseed said:
49 minutes ago, Immaculate Vibes said:

 

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ARTICLEJustin Trudeau may be the best thing to happen to crypto since Satoshi Nakamoto.

With a considerable share of U.S.–Canada trade on pause and much of daily life disrupted across Canada’s cities, Prime Minister Trudeau has invoked, for the first time in his country’s history, Emergency Measures Act powers to shut down a domestic political protest, the so-called Freedom Convoy movement that began with complaints about the imposition of vaccine mandates on Canadian truckers reentering Canadian territory from the United States, and that has since become associated with, as these things now do, a long litany of complaints concerning everything from ordinary political business to QAnon nonsense and other exotic imports from south of the border.
 

In this so-called emergency, Trudeau is not sending in the troops. He is cutting off the money.

Trudeau, sounding a little like the old southern segregationists who complained about “outside agitators,” insists that the protests have been driven by “social media and illicit funding” rather than by genuine disapproval of his government’s policies. And so he is using the Emergency Measures Act to invest himself with the unilateral power to freeze bank accounts and cancel insurance policies, without so much as a court order and with essentially no recourse for those he targets. Canadian banks and financial-services companies will be ordered to disable clients suspected of being involved in the protests.

Trudeau says the protests are illegal. That is not quite right. The protests are not illegal per se, though some of the protesters certainly are breaking the law, for instance by blocking public roads and the like. The obvious parallel is the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in Canada, which also included some law-breaking. Trudeau did not invoke Emergency Measures Act powers to suppress those protests, even though they brought together large crowds during a particularly dangerous phase of the Covid-19 epidemic contrary to the advice of Trudeau’s government — and the advice out of his own mouth, for that matter. Far from shutting down those protests, Trudeau actually participated in them, making a pious spectacle out of himself.

 

 

 

In leaning on the sensitive pressure point of financial services, Trudeau is following the example of Democrats in the United States, who have used strategies ranging from securities investigations to insurance regulation to punish political enemies ranging from the National Rifle Association to oil companies. Using financial regulation to crush freedom of speech isn’t financial regulation — it is crushing freedom of speech by abusing the powers of a government office.
 

This kind of thing is not exactly new — in 1933, Franklin Roosevelt used emergency powers to seize all gold in private hands in the United States in order to fortify the Federal Reserve — but technological changes have made such schemes more insidious. Paper money can be stuffed into mattresses, and coins can be buried in coffee cans. But when money is electronic and the information architecture enabling most financial transactions is heavily regulated and easily subjected to invasive surveillance, then financial regulators enjoy powers that no FDR — or Napoleon, or Lenin — ever dreamt of possessing. The opportunities for mischief are serious and worrisome — and so are the opportunities for tyranny.

Activists who have tried to use politicized financial regulation to undermine the Second Amendment, to take one example, never seem to think about how the same tactics could be used against the First Amendment: The New York Times may enjoy the protection of the Bill of Rights, but without access to banking and commerce, that constitutional right cannot be effectively acted upon, and, hence, may as well not exist as a practical matter. Try running a newspaper or a political party with no bank account.

 

 

 

I myself do not particularly sympathize with the aims or the tactics of the protesters in Canada. I don’t care much for unruly mobs of any persuasion. But even so, it is impossible not to see the plain fact that these protesters are being targeted not for their practical effect or their tactics but for their beliefs and for the sort of people they are, that an obvious double standard is at play, and that this is deeply illiberal. A politically neutral police effort to open the roads and protect the rights of property and travel would be one thing, but this is the opposite: far from politically neutral, and intended to narrow social life and political discourse rather than to keep them open. When the laws are enforced exclusively (or with extra vigor) against political enemies, that is not law enforcement — that is political repression.

And it is political repression even in instances in which the content of the law itself is unobjectionable — for example, there is a difference between reviewing the paperwork of tax-exempt groups and reviewing the paperwork of tax-exempt groups that you consider political enemies and hope to harm. Permitting protests you endorse and shutting down those that are critical of your government — and that is precisely what Trudeau is trying to do — is illegitimate.

 

 

 

In our time, we don’t burn forbidden books — Amazon just makes politically nonconformist works disappear. We don’t lock people up for having the wrong political beliefs — but we do make sure they cannot earn a living, go to school, or raise their children in peace. And we don’t have to send men with jackboots and billy clubs to break up protests — we have very polite Canadian bankers to do that for us.

It can be no surprise, then, that people are looking for digital platforms that protect their anonymity and keep their communications slightly beyond the reach of the long arm of the state. People who do not expect to be treated fairly and who have no confidence that their rights (or even their interests) will be taken into consideration are forced to improvise. And it’s even less surprising that cryptocurrencies and other escape routes from the banking system increasingly appeal to people who are neither cartel bosses nor international men of mystery. In a world in which unpopular political views can cut an individual or an organization off from the financial main stream, such innovations are necessities.

When people cannot trust their governments to protect their liberties, they will seek protection elsewhere. That imposes real costs on a society. Canadians should think twice about whether they wish to pay those costs for the sake of Mr. Trudeau’s prejudice and ease.
 

It's okay to paste things in plain text. I would be able to read it next time.

It's probably for the best that you don't read it. You're already asking the shag for money. You don't want to put whatever you have in a bitcoin scam. 

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32 minutes ago, Dahobbs said:

It's probably for the best that you don't read it. You're already asking the shag for money. You don't want to put whatever you have in a bitcoin scam. 

That's why I didn't get much from y'all. Next time I'll ask the people on Surly. They're kind liberal types there.

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26 minutes ago, workswithseed said:

That's why I didn't get much from y'all. Next time I'll ask the people on Surly. They're kind liberal types there.

Ha, my brain still thinks of this as shaggybevo. Regardless, I was serious. You shouldn't get your money mixed up in speculative investments. Some people have enough that they can afford to gamble with their assets. It just doesn't seem like you're in that position. Put your investments in broad bases etf indexed funds with low costs, like the various vanguard funds. That's what I do for the vast majority of my long term investments. Don't go chasing easy money. It's a good way to be parted with everything you have. 

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Wasn’t sure where to put this, but it touches on authoritarianism vs decentralization so it goes here. Well written. If you’re a fan of the establishment you probably won’t like it. 
 

“Concerning substance, however, what comes next will either be an increasingly-chaotic decentralization, or an increasingly-violent centralization of power. One trend will dominate — because only one can dominate — and that trend will shape the next century. Centralization, and its inevitable authoritarianism, is presently dominating (sorry).”

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2 hours ago, scottsins said:

I just got my feet wet recently in crypto. I remembered that there is a thread about it. Figured I could come here for some solid info.

Apparently, my internets are borked because apparently this is the Canadian trucker protest political thread?

Are you looking to learn and discuss the underlying tech and protocols, or just want to sunshine pump and make the line go up?

Last few pages had some good discussion and I'm happy to recommend some good intro videos that nicely breakdown the tech and some others that have a good discussion of the actual reality of implementation with that tech

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Yeah, Captain Ant will recommend you a good video from early 2017.

I'm having a little trouble understanding the broadcasting/listening concept. Also, I vaguely remember the term hash tables from Comp Sci, but that has nothing to do with this Hash. And some how the miner makes enough computational guesses to come up with a hash number beginning in an arbitrary number of zeroes? But again, I've probably spent less than an hour on understanding cryptocurrencies.

 

But even besides all that, I'm confused by people who are holding up what happened in Canada as beacon of obvious adoption. It seems the opposite. With the wave of hand Trudeau was able to seize bank accounts, scare businesses, and make demands on digital exchanges. Yes anonymous decentralized cryptocurrencies have inherent value of accessibility and avoiding sanctions but you can't spend it anywhere without cashing it out. Are exchanges pretty much how one cashes out? Are they necessary? Can you easily spend the two largest cryptos? Are businesses now disincentivized from adopting alternative payment modalities.

Who gives a shit what imaginary shit you own unless you can convert it into supplies, natural resources or local currency...ok maybe hookers and the Metaverse.

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9 hours ago, JohnnyRage said:

 

 

But even besides all that, I'm confused by people who are holding up what happened in Canada as beacon of obvious adoption. It seems the opposite. With the wave of hand Trudeau was able to seize bank accounts, scare businesses, and make demands on digital exchanges. Yes anonymous decentralized cryptocurrencies have inherent value of accessibility and avoiding sanctions but you can't spend it anywhere without cashing it out. Are exchanges pretty much how one cashes out? Are they necessary? Can you easily spend the two largest cryptos? Are businesses now disincentivized from adopting alternative payment modalities.

Who gives a shit what imaginary shit you own unless you can convert it into supplies, natural resources or local currency...ok maybe hookers and the Metaverse.

Let’s say you’re in Canada and donated to the truckers. You could argue it’s better to hold some value in Bitcoin rather than a fiat bank account that could be frozen.
 

How do you cash out if locked out of exchanges?  First of all, not all holders had their wallets blacklisted. There are some limited methods of mixing coins etc that can improve your forward privacy. They need a lot of work though. I think this is where the Canadian experience will accelerate innovation. People talked about needing more privacy tools but now it’s taken on an urgency that it didn’t have before. 
 

If you really are stuck holding Bitcoin there are ways to sell Bitcoin for cash. Also, as more people get excluded from various aspects of the financial system and hold Bitcoin you will have more people trading Bitcoin for goods and services. That will take time, but will be a natural consequence of these actions in Canada and as other countries follow suit. 
 

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Are you looking to learn and discuss the underlying tech and protocols, or just want to sunshine pump and make the line go up?
Last few pages had some good discussion and I'm happy to recommend some good intro videos that nicely breakdown the tech and some others that have a good discussion of the actual reality of implementation with that tech

I have problems reading and just got here from the search function. I’ll see myself out!
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On 2/18/2022 at 9:49 PM, Immaculate Vibes said:

Austin resident Marty Bent on Tucker tonight talking about pulling your coins off exchanges. Going more mainstream by the day thanks to Trudeau and Canada. 
 

 

I know the answer to this, it will solve all your problems:  Crypo Gold.

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23 hours ago, longhornmatt said:

If the Bitcoin pushers never made sense, in addition to the Ponzi scheme aspect, also keep in mind Russia has been prepping for crippling sanctions for years now.  They stockpiled currency in preparation for being cut off, which it turned out didn’t work, but hey guess what would be even better for Russia or other bad actor states to get around SWIFT and other financial sanctions?  If there were some unregulated cryptocurrency that was widely accepted and operated outside the banking system.    

I hope you all get your bonus in dollars instead of rubles, esteemed Russian troll farm dudes.  

It’s regulated, boss. 
 

But yes, as I’ve been hammering, seizing all foreign FX reserves of a country of Russia’s size will probably be seen in hindsight as the beginning of the end for the USD pre-eminence. 
 

Countries will be forced to move some reserves from “inside money” that is ultimately another bank’s liability to “outside money” which is money that is nobody’s liability. Gold first, then Bitcoin as nations realize its superiority. 

Edited by Immaculate Vibes
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43 minutes ago, Immaculate Vibes said:

It’s regulated, boss. 
 

But yes, as I’ve been hammering, seizing all foreign FX reserves of a country of Russia’s size will probably be seen in hindsight as the beginning of the end for the USD pre-eminence. 
 

Countries will be forced to move some reserves from “inside money” that is ultimately another bank’s liability to “outside money” which is money that is nobody’s liability. Gold first, then Bitcoin as nation’s realize its superiority. 

 

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16 hours ago, Immaculate Vibes said:

I’d love to know what “a number of crypto networks” even means to Wray. 

He's probably referencing this

You know, the whole getting your money back out part that's the weak link the crypto messiah narrative. If crypto was so useful and desirable, wouldn't these ivans just use it directly? If it's so full of utility, why are they choosing to go back to fiat currency?

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20 hours ago, Captainant said:

He's probably referencing this

You know, the whole getting your money back out part that's the weak link the crypto messiah narrative. If crypto was so useful and desirable, wouldn't these ivans just use it directly? If it's so full of utility, why are they choosing to go back to fiat currency?

First that story smells funny, just from a numbers standpoint. 
 

In any case, it’s hard to move billions in bitcoin. Smaller amounts would be possible. As more people get excluded from financial system or perceive that it is a threat to them, then more people will be holding bitcoin. Eventually in the future (not near term)  many more people will accept bitcoin for goods and services. 
 

For now, I’m sure your average oligarch would rather have $500M In bitcoin than a yacht that’s gone forever. 


In other news, some pretty big news out of Korea, one of our main allies vs China.

 

 

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Just catching up on this thread.

Re: Canada confiscating crypto account.

Keeping coins on a centralized exchange is no different than keeping USD or CAD in a bank. The govt reserves the right to confiscate account balances based on the laws. Depending on your need, I don't think it hurts to leave some coins on a centralized exchange but I wouldn't put a large percentage of your holdings there.  

Re: CBDC

As a replacement for cash, I don't necessarily see a problem with this since a country has a right to create their own fiat currency. But the backing of it will just be the faith in the country and not actual reserves like with USDC, Dai or Tether (in theory.)

btw, I was curious about USDC reserves so I checked. A year ago it was just under 10B USD. Today's it's 52B. It's absorbing a lot of wealth.

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7 minutes ago, wildcat09 said:

Oh cool, blatantly white supremacist propaganda. Good shit, dude.

 

3 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Jesus.

Fucking.

Christ.

Seriously, what the actual fuck?

yeah, so i gave him three days off for that. next one is a permaban.

i also left it up so people could see what a racist shitbag of a poster that is.

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13 minutes ago, wildcat09 said:

Oh cool, blatantly white supremacist propaganda. Good shit, dude.

 

8 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Jesus.

Fucking.

Christ.

Seriously, what the actual fuck?

 

4 minutes ago, hayden_horn said:

yeah, so i gave him three days off for that. next one is a permaban.

i also left it up so people could see what a racist shitbag of a poster that is.

I scrolled through that article, and while I disagree with its argument, I didn't see any overtly racist stuff. Was there a section about the """globalist banker cabal""" or something? IMO, just the pepe iconography isn't racist if that's what y'all are reacting to

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4 minutes ago, wildcat09 said:

Pepe + "worship lord KEK" is racist as fuck. 

It's definitely coincidental to the same cringey meme 4chan culture that is common to the modern internet racist. Idk if my calibration is off but kek and pepe is just 4chan shitposting. There's usually a swastika or lighting bolts on the racist pepes

 

2 minutes ago, Judge Roybeanbag said:

So what’s up with bitcoin and the Fox News crowd?  It seems all the rage along with horse paste now.

You know all the people who get super into buying gold and silver? Yeah. 

Edit: genuinely curious to the group consensus on what's overtly racist, I don't follow with pepe. That said, the Bitcoin CR thread seems like as good a place as any to discuss lmao

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3 minutes ago, Judge Roybeanbag said:

So what’s up with bitcoin and the Fox News crowd?  It seems all the rage along with horse paste now.

Some wealthy Republicans who bought up too much bitcoin need a bunch of marks to buy in to the market so they can cash out.

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27 minutes ago, Captainant said:

 

 

I scrolled through that article, and while I disagree with its argument, I didn't see any overtly racist stuff. Was there a section about the """globalist banker cabal""" or something? IMO, just the pepe iconography isn't racist if that's what y'all are reacting to

See below.

22 minutes ago, wildcat09 said:

Pepe + "worship lord KEK" is racist as fuck. 

Sorry, those are openly white supremacist/alt-right symbols.

https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017/05/08/what-kek-explaining-alt-right-deity-behind-their-meme-magic

Quote

Kek, in the alt-right’s telling, is the “deity” of the semi-ironic “religion” the white nationalist movement has created for itself online – partly for amusement, as a way to troll liberals and self-righteous conservatives both, and to make a kind of political point. He is a god of chaos and darkness, with the head of a frog, the source of their memetic “magic,” to whom the alt-right and Donald Trump owe their success, according to their own explanations.

In many ways, Kek is the apotheosis of the bizarre alternative reality of the alt-right: at once absurdly juvenile, transgressive, and racist, as well as reflecting a deeper, pseudo-intellectual purpose that lends it an appeal to young ideologues who fancy themselves deep thinkers. It dwells in that murky area they often occupy, between satire, irony, mockery, and serious ideology; Kek can be both a big joke to pull on liberals and a reflection of the alt-right’s own self-image as serious agents of chaos in modern society.

A 'Kekistan' banner was part of the scene at the alt-right "free speech" rally April 15 in Berkeley, CA.

Most of all, Kek has become a kind of tribal marker of the alt-right: Its meaning obscure and unavailable to ordinary people – “normies,” in their lingo – referencing Kek is most often just a way of signaling to fellow conversants online that the writer embraces the principles of chaos and destruction that are central to alt-right thinking, as it were.

16 minutes ago, elfenix said:

if gold is such a great investment then why are all these guys trying to sell theirs to me

So, back to the thread topic.....exactly.  Just drove down Guadalupe, saw a billboard that just said "Crypto is real."

Pretty good rule of thumb: things that are real don't need to TELL YOU they are real.

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12 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

See below.

Sorry, those are openly white supremacist/alt-right symbols.

https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017/05/08/what-kek-explaining-alt-right-deity-behind-their-meme-magic

So, back to the thread topic.....exactly.  Just drove down Guadalupe, saw a billboard that just said "Crypto is real."

Pretty good rule of thumb: things that are real don't need to TELL YOU they are real.

Was it the clown bear?  I saw one on Anderson (I think) today as well.

 

And yeah GRU has the racist just hidden under his crypto wizard cloak.

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14 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

See below.

Sorry, those are openly white supremacist/alt-right symbols.

https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017/05/08/what-kek-explaining-alt-right-deity-behind-their-meme-magic

So, back to the thread topic.....exactly.  Just drove down Guadalupe, saw a billboard that just said "Crypto is real."

Pretty good rule of thumb: things that are real don't need to TELL YOU they are real.

These people are such fucking dorks. 

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