But Seriously...

Accchhknowledged

 

One of my favorite games every.

 

It isn’t just banks and governments hitting them with sanctions. Their international celebrities are now losing their endorsements. CCM just dropped all Russian players including Ovechkin.

Sports is something they and Putin cherish. That’s why they cheat so much. Sports truly are the proverbial balls you can kick him in. Out of the Olympics, out the world juniors, out of FIFA, out of any world league hockey. You can keep Steven Segal, I have Marked For Death on Blueray.

I wonder if the Putin’s Oligarchs still have their American and British-educated children still currently in school right now. In a digital age, how long before they get exposed? Those people are about to lose a lot more around the world than a couple of vacation castles.

 

Now you see the fundamental flaw in crypto.

 

that's a very good point. Not that I had considered it or even looked into it, but is anyone actually advocating for crypto in retail spaces?

 

This headline made me laugh. Even in war the tax man is on the job.

No need to declare captured Russian tanks, other equipment of invaders as income – NAPC

 

i wonder if missile damage is considered loss in property value

 

People holding alt-coins want retailers accepting those coins to drive up the price and bring them gains. Right now, that's the only reason anyone is pushing for retail acceptance. Like @Nettdata said, it's a it's a strange, grey area that crypto is in.

 

But, but, Matt Damon has been doing all those Crypto commercials, and he told me that fortune favors the brave and they have a cool logo.

 

And he was paid for his time in which currency, exactly?

 

I imagine the Russian folks trying to convert their currenct to crypto or using it to bypass sanctions will force regulation in a big way....despite this being the ostensible purpose of a "decentralized" digital currency all along.

Couple of observations:
1. Putin's "blitzkrieg" style raid, coupled with an assassination and a coup to install a puppet leader has failed at this point. The longer this drags on, the worse the options look for Russia, and Putin. I can't imagine this is the last assassination attempt on the Ukrainian president, but as long as he's alive...vive le resitance, I guess.
2. The social media aspect of this war is really game-changing. I'm kind of surprised Russia didn't incorporate that into their strategies, but I guess they never expected it to last more than a 72 hours. This is going to shape military doctrine for a while, because...there are a whole lot more eyes and ears than ever before. The propaganda failed completely, and with the entire internet seemingly galvanized and focused on this conflict, it's really shocking. It's leveled the playing field in a big way for intel/cointel.
3. The notorious Russian supply chain is now choking this force to death. Their failure to seize/set up supply depots means that they are stranded, isolated and demoralized. My concern is that once the massive supply chain is activated and set up, the massive war machine comes with it. The establishment of a major supply chain could ensure this drags on for quite a while.
4. This has been relatively light on aircraft, and I have to wonder if the optics of that as well as the supply chain issues and threat of foreign-donated SAM's or anti-aircraft are potential reasons. Either way, it's kind of surprising the Russian air superiority hasn't been more...superior. Maybe it's just cheaper for them to throw bodies at the front than planes?
5. I think Putin is confronted with terrible options at this point. If he can get some prime territory and pay some concessions, maybe it'll be worth it. But I think the damage done will take decades to smooth over. Also, I think a lot of the prep/planning for this started years ago, and from what I can recall, the intelligence on this was ignored. It wouldn't surprise me if there was a little internal investigation or three as to why it was ignored, and I'd imagine some heads rollling as a result of that.

 

The Swiss involved in some shady banking practices? This is my shocked face.

My understanding is Russian folks are pumping whatever currency they have into crypto as a means to bypass sanctions and store value in Bitcoin, knowing the ruble will tank and likely stay tanked for a while. So, they could keep a crypto wallet and it wouldn't get seized, and would hold value with more stability (hardee har har) than the ruble. Am I misunderstanding how this works? Ie, Bitcoin is essentially able to slip through the sanctions? Not for bills, no. But if you wanted to skip out to another country, you could convert that coin to whatever's local, no fuss no muss.

Also, I remember seeing some asinine provision that some financial instruments in London give you 30 DAYS to access before anything clamps down. What the fuck?