A Little Bit of This and That

Drugs Kill

https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/18/health/fentanyl-fatal-overdoses-middle-schoolers/index.html

Drugs have been around for what, thousands of years? Do any parents, law enforcement, or government REALLY think that they can actually win the “War on Drugs”? Believe me when I say that if there was a way to actually “win”, I’d be all for it. It breaks my heart each and every time to hear about another kid who died while experimenting with drugs.

It can be this kid, who was a Boy Scout, 14 years old, played with Lego’s, and still slept with a stuffed animal, who looks as innocent as anything, and could be your kid. But it can also be the down and out kid, same age, runaway and now homeless, or homeless for another reason, who is just trying to make the pain of life go away.

I am super glad that this boy DID reach out to his parents for help. That was a major stepping stone for anyone who knows they have an addiction problem. I’m also super glad that his parents tried to take action. I’m just extremely sorry that the action wasn’t involved enough, or fast enough. With this fentenal game going on, you have to be fast and hard or what happened to Alex could happen to your kid.

I don’t have any kids, but I do have a 14 year old brother. He is coming over tomorrow to help start putting his room together in the new house now that the bedroom set arrived. Thank God the delivery guys were pretty burly men, those boxes were Heavy! But at some point I’m going to have a sit down with him to ask if he has had any drug use, or been asked to. We all say that we have good kids, and they would never do that, but we really don’t know either.

It doesn’t sound like Alex’s parents had any clue that they’re innocent looking boy was toying with drugs until he told them. I think even if you pay attention to your kids, looking for those changes in mood, friends, schoolwork, sports, most can be missed. Look at Alex again, though the story is short, it doesn’t sound like he had any changes like that. Yet he was involved. To a tragic end.

So how do you stop the drug use? I don’t know, I wish I did. Really, I guess, is to find out why they want to take the drugs in the first place, and then do what ever we can to get them there naturally. Are they feeling down because their parents are fighting? Are they down because they just lost someone important in their lives? Are they struggling with classes at school? Are they being bullied at school? We need to find a way to keep an eye on these answers without them feeling like we are intruding on their lives. The standard answer is not going to go over well with them.

For now, from me, in my opinion, do what you can to be an integral part of their lives. Let them know that they can come to you for anything. At least Alex’s parents taught him well on that part. Give your kids a hug and a kiss, don’t just dismiss them. It’s not much, but hopefully will be enough.

Death Would be a Little Harsh

Indonesian teacher Herry Wirawan (center) at a court in Bandung, West Java on February 15, 2022

https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/15/asia/indonesia-school-teacher-rape-intl-hnk/index.html

Prison for life: Probably yes. Death for the crimes, probably a bit excessive, though I know the parents are probably saying “kill him”.

The fact that he raped girls from 11 to 16 is bad enough. The next fact that he was their teacher makes it at least four times as bad. I think that the punishment for rape in a position of power needs to have an additional severeity level attachment, like when prosecuters add a Hate Crime attachment. It should be like “Rape with the Position of Power attachment”.

Teachers, clergy, Boy Scout leaders, supervisors or management at work, landlords. Any of those types of people should have the attachment.

Fortunately for me none of the men that I was involved with were in any of those positions. I’ve never considered myself raped because I was old enough to know what was going on and believe that I was old enough to make my own decisions, which is why I’m an advocate of changing the age of consent laws.

But no matter your age or sex, if you are forced into sex it is a bad thing. And if you are forced into sex by a person in a position of power, that is even worse. I hope this guy enjoys jail.

Don’t Get Burned Investing

https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/16/investing/ponzi-scheme-explained-zachary-horwitz/index.html

I am NOT an investment advisior! Don’t ever do anything I say or talk about without doing your own due diligence and talking to your own financial advisior.

That said: People get taken for a ride all the time because their friend or somone in their family said that something was a good investment and they should give them their money to make exhorbanite returns as well. Have you ever heard of the saying “If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is?”

Well, it probably is!! I know I’ve heard my fair share. Some of the ones that I’ve heard of I just can’t believe that people would fall for it. Anything that says it can return more than 6% annually is something that I’d question. When I set up my investment funds for monthly income I was shooting for an 8% return year over year, and even that is hard to find.

Ponzi schemes steal so much, get you nowhere, and leave you lost with unrecoverable money. Just look at Bernie Madoff. His last name is perfect because he “Made Off” with all the money.

If you can’t verify the investment through legitimate sources, then it’s probably not an investment. Don’t buy into something just because your spouses friend told you about this great deal. Talk to another (or two) investment advisors to find out what they think about it.

And NEVER invest more than you can afford to lose. If you’re thinking of investing your retirement account into someones “this is a great thing! It will get you back 40-50% returns! I’d be running in the other direction.

Be careful out there. After two years of Covid19, lost jobs and lost savings, I know that people want to get back into a good position. Just please do your due diligence and don’t get scammed.

He Got Lucky

Edward McAlanis at the Capitol, 01/06/2021

https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/15/politics/mcalanis-capitol-riot/index.html

From high flying insurance salesman to part-time pizza driver. That’s the consequence of being ultamately stupid on that day. He is lucky that he only got a short probation, small fine, and small community service. If I was a judge for these idiots, I’d be throwing the book at them!

What I can’t believe in all of this is how brazen these people were in posting their insurrection on social media! WTF!!! I don’t know to many other criminals who blatently post their actions all over the internet. Here I am! Come and get me!! OK, we will, thank you.

I hope he has a good savings account, or he better start investing in bitcoin, because I hope that the real punishment is that nobody is going to hire him. “Insurrection Participant” is not going to look good on any resume. And when they ask “have you EVER been charged or convicted of a felony?” Now you have to answer: Yes.

So, good luck dude! The rest of your life in Hell is just beginning.

Buffett Invests in BTC Tech

https://www.tweaktown.com/news/84609/warren-buffet-sells-visa-invests-1-billion-into-bitcoin-friendly-bank/index.html

In what I would call a pretty stunning move, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway sold billlions of dollars worth of Visa and Mastercard to invest in Nubank. This is stunning to me because if you watch any YouTube video of Buffett talking about bitcoin he is always against it, even at one point saying it will go to zero.

So is he buying Nubank just to make money on the upswing of bitcoin (right now at $44,096.70), or does he really believe that bitcoin is going to be as prominant as Visa and Mastercard? I guess only time will tell.

But since Birkshire is in the business of making money for it’s investors, even if he himself doesn’t believe in bitcoin, how could you NOT invest in it for the sake of your shareholders?

Imagine what could be done with the economy if Treasury were allowed to invest in bitcoin? Imagine if they were allowed to buy 22,727 bitcoin at today’s price with $1B, if the price of BTC gets to $100,000, the Treasury would have made a $1,272,700 profit. Put that towards the debt! What if they had been allowed to buy, like I did, when BTC was $1.00? Today they would be at a value of $44,096,000,000,000! That’s 44 TRILLION! That would have wiped out the debt completely!! Come on Congress, let the Treasury buy bitcoin to help us out!!

Here is a pretty good article that I found explaining why the Treasury has yet to invest in BTC: http://bit.ly/3GP0OQI

As each day passes though, BTC becomes more mainstream.

A Win for Sandy Hook

https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/15/us/sandy-hook-shooting-settlement-with-remington/index.html

One of the things that you’ll get to know about me is that I am for gun control and changing the laws around gun ownership. But I am not against gun ownership, I’m against ownership of guns that have no business being owned by everyday citizens.

This means that I’m against ownership of assualt type, military type, weapons. I’m not against the 2nd Amendment, but nowhere in it does it say a “right to bear guns”. It says “a right to bear arms”. “Arms” could mean anything from pitchforks to handguns.

It says that the “right to bear arms shall not be infringed”, but it doens’t say that it can’t be regulated. And that’s where I think a lot of the argument comes in. That, and the Militia part. I’ll have to do a post just on the 2nd Amendment itself.

If a person wants to defend their home with the use of a handgun, by all means I am OK with that. But an assualt style rifle, like an AR15 or M16, that’s over the line. And marketing those types of guns as anything but weapons of war is indeed deceptive.

I know the $73 Million will never bring those killed in the Sandy Hook attack back to life, but I hope that it punishes the gun manufacturers enough for them to know that we need to end these kind of attacks, and the only way to do that is to not make them availible to the general public.

Tanking the Team

https://thespun.com/nfl/afc-east/miami-dolphins/a-storm-cloud-is-reportedly-gathering-for-nfl-owner

This sounds a lot like the plot to the movie “Major League” where the owner of the Cleveland Indians wants to finish dead last in the league so she can move the team to Miami.

This is very unethical for sure, and like they said, illegal as well. And I do think that if it’s proven to be the case that the owner SHOULD be forced to sell the team. But at the same time the owner shouldn’t be rewarded with profit from selling the team. There should be a way to force the sale AND give up the profits from the sale as punishment. Otherwise it’s not that great of a punishment.

Of course, since bribing your team to intentionally lose in order to better your draft position is illegal, maybe he should also be arrested and do some jail time. Just because you’re a sport team owner, and rich, doesn’t mean you should be let off scott free with just the sale of the team.

Nobody wants to see their team intentionally lose. We want them to win! We want them to fight until the last second! We want to see that Hail Mary attempt. Lose your team, lose your profits, and go to jail. That’s what I say.

Exploring the Sun

When you really think about it, humans don’t know much about anything. We don’t know much about physics. We hardly know anything about space. We don’t even know about the bottom of the ocean! So it shouldn’t come as any surprise that a missioin like this one is going to ask more questions than answer them.

But if you are like me you’ll enjoy watching future videos and TV shows about new discoveries like this, and what the James Webb Telescope is going to find.

Are we going to be able to answer some of these questions before we destroy ourselves? Let’s hope so, because I’m interested.

Is Bitcoin the Future of Money?

Short answer from me: Yes! I know I do a lot of posts, and even have a dedicated page, about bitcoin. This is mainly for two reasons. #1) I’ve been involved with bitcoin since 2011, though only more involved since March of 2019. #2) Everything evolves! Money has gone from coins, to paper, to credit cards, and now to online.

This video actually does a great job at going over the history of money, something that my high school failed miserably at.

Do I think bitcoin or other cryptos are going to end money as we know it in the near future? Nope! Money as we know it is going to be around for a long time to come, but we have to pay attention to where money is going, how it’s made, and who controls it. The top 1% of the population controls 97% of the money. That is so unacceptable.

Though bitcoin is becoming more common to see at online retailers: Microsoft, Overstock, Home Depot, and Starbucks, just to name a few. Big banks are not going to want crypto to go mainstream because it will cut them out as the money middlemen. The news of major companies like these accepting bitcoin (and Microsoft since 2014) is if they didn’t see the legitimacy of cryptocurrency, they wouldn’t accept it as payment.

Big banks are going to lose billions of dollars as more people buy cryptos, and then in turn pay for things with those cryptos. They won’t be able to charge you for just “having” your checking account, they wont be able to charge you any “maintenace” fees. They won’t be able to regulate how much you put in or take out in a single transaction.

This, I think, is what scares banks and governments the most. Since most bad people don’t like leaving paper trails, this is why old sites like “The Silk Road” were popular. You could pretty much buy whatever you wanted there in complete anonymity. I’m all for anonymous transactions, but drugs, guns, hitmen, OK, that was bit much! But nowadays, governments are thinking about more than just drugs or guns. What about anonymously funding organizations that do bad things? I know you can name a few. And it’s a legitimate question. If we give bad organizations a way to shift money around without anyone knowing about it, how are we supposed to stop them?

I think one MAJOR hurdle for bitcoin is what happens when the last one in mined around the year 2040, which is just 18 years away. Unlike our current greenbacks, bitcoin can’t just go and create more. It is an absolute fix at 21,000,000. At that point it is going to be that you’ll have to buy them from someone willing to sell to get your hands on any.

There is an estimate that 90% of the total bitcoin possible has already been mined, and that 20% of that is lost forever. When I say lost, I mean GONE! Since there is no “Lost Your Password?” links on wallets, if you can’t remember your’s, you’re toast. If you lost the hard drive that your wallet was stored on, toast again. Or if someone died and didn’t tell anyone their password, toast yet again! Just playing estimates, that means that there are about 3,780,000 lost bitcoin, or $156,760,000,000 worth. That is quite a hunk of change to just be toast.

There is also no FDIC or charge back credits if your bitcoin is stolen, or you get scammed into sending your bitcoin to someone. My suggestion is keeping your bitcoin password as far away from your normal passwords as possible, but DONT EVER lose it or forget it. And only buy from reputable companies.

I think, right now, it would be correct to say that bitcoin is a speculative investment. Most people I know, myself included, are just holding on to the bitcoin we have and watching the price go up. Never in my wildest dreams did I think when I bought my initial bunch back in 2011 would I have been able to watch my investment soar.

I’ve always been taught, and teach to others today, only invest what you can afford to lose. I was prepared to lose since I did my first investment on a teenage whim. I thought it was going to be like trying to win a carnival game. You know it’s impossible, but it looks like fun, so you do it anyhow, and when you lose you still walk away smiling because you had fun. This time though, the luck of the game was on my side.

So is bitcoin going to be able to end the world of money as we know it? We’ll find out in about 18 years. Right now I think it’s a great investment because even though today one bitcoin $43,000, you don’t have to invest that much to get in. You can buy as much bitcoin as you want, be it $5, $500, or $5,000. Just don’t overdo it. Then just play the “buy low, sell high” game.

I am NOT a financial advisor, and make sure you speak to one before investing. But I think that bitcoin is in one of it’s low end holds. If you go online to read predictions they are wildly all over the place for 2022, from dropping to $10,000, to rising to over $100,000. You just have to keep a watch.

So don’t go rushing to trade in all of your currency for crypto quite yet. Cold hard cash has a long way to go yet. But now is the time to get familier with crypto if you haven’t already. A time will soon come when your cashier asks you “Card or Crypto” instead of “Cash or Credit?”

Unruley Passengers

https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/13/us/american-airlines-flight-diverted-kansas-city/index.html

Well, another unruley passenger causes another plane to divert. This time a Los Angeles to D.C. flight had to be diverted to Kansas City because a passenger was trying to get into the cabin. Good job to the fight attendant for hitting him on the head with a coffee pot!

I think it’s hard to say that you can control this kind of behavior since nobody knows what is going to set the next person off, and when. But I do know what the end result should be. That should be the unruley passenger get slapped on the no-fly list, is fined heavyly, and maybe even does a few days in jail.

This kind of action is endangering the lives of hundreds of people, not just on board but those on the ground as well. We may just have to put more Sky Marshalls on the planes since they are becoming increasingly necessary.