[ExI] bitcoin and shutdowns: was RE: My review of Eliezer Yudkowsky's new book (UBI)

[spike at rainier66.com]

-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of Adrian Tymes via extropy-chat
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>>... Adrian is the current government shutdown causing you any heartburn?

>...I am literally dealing with one such bit between these emails (replying as quick breaks while things print/process).  ...

Owwww damn, sorry to hear.

Aside on that.  This is a different kind of shutdown.  Before, when the team in power wanted to reopen and POTUS was in place to say what stayed open and what was closed, they chose to shut down the most voter-facing and public-facing functions.  This led to absurdities, such as not just closing National Memorials such as Mount Rushmore, but also closing the shoulder of the road along South Dakota state road 244.  

Tourists were told the memorial was closed, so they drove up along 244 and pulled over so they could at least see it.  The Feds tried to stop that by lining the road with cones, at which time civil disobedient tourists hurled those big heavy orange cones over the guard rail.  Since that is a state road belonging to South Dakota, the highway patrol would fail to notice anything amiss, perhaps wondering why all those orange cones were down there.  The feds were deploying federal employees to stop tourists from seeing Rushmore, even from the road out there.  They were spending more money to keep tourists away from Rushmore than it woulda cost to just open the damn place.

Now however... the current POTUS and his team want to reopen, but apparently feel they are bargaining from a position of strength.  So... the most public-facing functions are granted essential service status, which means their back pay is guaranteed, which means their banks will cover them.

In the meantime... the stuff that is shut down runs the risk of being equated with Bob from the office, the guy who went on a three-month vacation but no one noticed.  When he returned, no one could figure out what Bob did there.  He was on the top of the list for layoff when Musk bought the place.  

>...Fortunately, we have savings to ride through ...in case this shutdown does drag out for multiple months...

Best wishes with that sir.  We are always hoping for the best for you.


>>... I will struggle to not think about the other 27 bucks I could have made had I had I grown a spine and held my shares.

>...I recall that Bitcoin went on a roughly week-long rally after Trump got reelected - predictably, given the pro-crypto promises he had made.  Had I been in a position to invest at the time, I might have gotten in on that.  Alas, what held me back was harder to quickly overcome than a mere lack of spine.

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Have you seen what BitCoin has done since then?  If Jeff Davis drops back in, keep in mind he might be a billionaire by now.  We can give him a bunch of trash for that: Hey Jeff, are you now a billioneh or just a millioneh?  

Jeff has a sensa huma.  Adrian remember when you and I first met him, up at Berkeley in about 1998?  He stayed at my house that time.  That lad scarcely had enough money to pay attention.  He bet long on BitCoin in about 2011.  Now if he isn't already a billioneh, he probably will be soon, and is already a several hundred times over millioneh.

spike