Mpls Goes Global for all the Wrong Reasons

If you didn't know, I'm from Minnesota. I grew up in the suburbs and lived in Minneapolis for years. I think Mpls. is great, but I didn't want it to get recognized in this way. Josh and I discussed the horrendous incident and how police in the US are different than the police in the UK.

While crime in the US continues to go down every decade, police killings have about doubled since 2000. This doesn't make any sense.

One noticeable thing people from all over the political spectrum have noticed is the militarization of the police. Why do the police need tanks and armored vehicles?

Josh brought up that the only people killed by police last year in the UK were terrorists. Josh gets the sense that US cops are fairly heavy-handed, especially when he compares them to Korean cops. He thinks that Korean cops don't do nearly enough to combat crime.

Personally, I've had mixed interactions with US police officers. One thing I've seen several soldiers mention online is that the rules of engagement for US soldiers are much more strict than the ones police have when dealing with US civilians. That's fairly messed up in my opinion. Here are two examples of US police killing US veterans under very questionable circumstances. US police also have a bad track record when it comes to shooting docile dogs. Lastly, there is a very high bar when it comes to prosecuting a police officer because they have qualified immunity.

Context is Key.

-Josh Igoe

One thing that has gotten lost in the shuffle is George Floyd and Derek Chauvin's relationship. Beyond cop kills civilian, beyond white man kills black man, there is much more to this story. They were former co-workers. And they apparently hated each other. How did this become a footnote in the story? Most people don't even know this.

We also discuss the riots. It does appear there was at least one officer who was caught infiltrating the demonstration and instigating it. I personally feel bad for business owners, especially small business owners, who have had their businesses destroyed and may never recover.

Lastly, we get into the politics of it, because the media has to make everything into a left-right paradigm these days. Well, let's dig into this:

• Governor: Democrat

• Senators: Democrats

• Mpls Mayor: Democrat

• Mpls City Council 12/13 Democrats (1 Green)

• Attorney General: Democrat

Don't worry, I'm sure somehow this is OrangeManBad's fault. I'm more of a fan of looking at politics on 2 axes like this. Want to find political solutions? Look up. HODL.

Crypto Art NFT Sells

We talk about a George Floyd related piece selling for lots of ETH. We haven't talked much about NFTs (non-fungible tokens) since CryptoKitties was discussed on the show. It'll be interesting to see where they go in the coming years.

US Currency Collapse?

We examine the possibility of a Venezuelan-style USD currency collapse in the next 3-5 years. Is it possible? Sure. However, what other fiat currency would take its place? Unless the BRIC nations put something together, I just don't see it happening. That being said, your USD will continue to inflate, year after year. So you'll have to put it into something (precious metals, crypto, etc) if you don't want your savings eaten away.

BTC Financed US Zbellion?

The Pentagon created a war game in 2018 where a US insurrection was funded by BTC. They were rewarded for targeting banks, political organizations, and corporations. Although the Pentagon does lots of exercises, I don't like the look of this one.

The MSM, and many with their hands on political power, have been trying to demonize Crypto since it became a threat. Sorry, it's too late. Crypto is here to stay. I asked Josh if he was interested in being a Crypto-Mercenary in a V-for-Vendetta-style takeover of the UK. He didn't seem too keen.

Satoshi? Can you hear me?

A researcher may have found which coins were Satoshi's. He apparently found a stack of 1.1 million bitcoins that were mined using a "slightly different mining algorithm."

There is another person who's been added to the WhoIsSatoshi mix: Yasutaka Nakamoto . Some also claim he's the brother of Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, who many thought was Satoshi for a brief period. HODL.

Crypto Taxes

I hate this subject. The US needs a Deminimus Exemption so people can purchase things with Crypto. That's just a start. I'd be happy with zero crypto taxes. However, if you're American, you can donate your Crypto taxes and receive some financial benefits. You'd be surprised how many countries have a Crypto tax rate of zero. Sorry Americans.

Venezuela: Socialist Utopia?

Nope, still not a Utopia. Surprising.

Zelle, which allows for free transactions between bank accounts using email, was just banned by Wells Fargo. You can easily get around this by using Crypto, but this will still create cross-border payment friction. Why ban Zelle? The Venezuelan Govt. is doing a great job destroying the country as it is. They really don't need any help.

Venezuela: Land of Free/Cheap Gasoline?

Nope, not quite. Although Bernie's Paradise has some of the biggest reserves of crude in the world, they are having chronic fuel shortages. Although it's heavily subsidized, the black market price is currently $11.34/gallon.

The solution: many cars are now being retrofitted to run on cooking fuel cylinders. This is dangerous and the results can be...explosive. This is maybe the last nail in the coffin. Let's be real: Look at their medical system, food shortages, worthless money, and now the fuel shortage. This is Socialism at its finest. HODL.

Cardano and Charles Hoskinson

First off, Charles Hoskinson doesn't want to be referred to as a co-founder of ETH. Which is understandable. It'd kind of be like constantly referring to Elon Musk as a PayPal founder and nothing more. Or like referring to me as the starting forward on my U-16 soccer team...even though I've done so much more. HODL.

Charles does seem perplexed by Vitalik's refusal to acknowledge Cardano. This is somewhat strange since he's discussed other projects like EOS and BCH, among others. Is this just two former co-workers who have issues? Perhaps. Charles is also surprised that ETH hasn't used some of Cardano's tech since it's open-source and free to use.

Crypto is as political as it gets. We’re going to reinvent the concept of money and take it out of the government’s hands and control it ourselves. 

-Charles Hoskinson

Charles also thinks that Crypto is political, and that laws and regulations need to change. I'm fully on board with this and I hope that more Crypto luminaries speak up and echo that sentiment.

Crypto is political, and wrestling away control of the money is just the start of the Decentralization. HODL.