SAYING GOODBYE TO THE CRYPTO NERD UTOPIA: “Really, I shouldn’t joke about this crypto craziness. A lot of people have lost a lot of money. People will lose businesses, homes, and families. Some might even commit suicide. Plus, I didn’t know that this would happen. In fact, I had only a vague idea of what FTX was. But I, and many others, knew that something would happen. We never trusted the utopian claims people made about crypto-currencies. As much as we envied those who bought Bitcoin for small change and sold them for fortunes, it was clear that a limited number could get rich working in markets disconnected from physical goods and services. I am no economist but I feel that value ultimately has to be attached to something we can use — or, at least, to something we want.”

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): My New York Post column on FTX’s finances — and Uncle Sam’s.

GENTLEMEN, YOU CAN’T COMMIT JOURNALISM HERE — THIS IS A NEWS SHOW! NBC suspends correspondent after network was forced to retract exclusive report on how Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul, 82, calmly opened door to cops — and then walked towards ‘hammer intruder’ who bludgeoned him.

NBC on Paul Pelosi:

“The front door was opened by Mr. Pelosi. He did not declare an emergency or try to leave his home, instead began walking several feet back towards the assailant and away from police." pic.twitter.com/PArqbcPAWB

— TheBlaze (@theblaze) November 4, 2022

ONE TO GO: Two more House races called for the GOP (Update: 3 more races called, GOP at 217).

UPDATE NEWSPEAK DICTIONARIES ACCORDINGLY: Christopher Rufo on The “Stochastic Terror” Lie. The Left’s latest gambit for suppressing speech is built on preposterous grounds.

The scheme works like this: left-wing media, activists, and officials designate a subject of discourse, such as Drag Queen Story Hour, off-limits; they treat any reporting on that subject as an expression of “hate speech”; and finally, if an incident of violence emerges that is related, even tangentially, to that subject, they assign guilt to their political opponents and call for the suppression of speech. The statistical concept of “stochasticity,” which means “randomly determined,” functions as a catch-all: the activists don’t have to prove causality—they simply assert it with a sophisticated turn of phrase and a vague appeal to probability.

Though framed in scientific terms, this gambit is a crude political weapon. In practice, left-wing media, activists, and officials apply the “stochastic terrorism” designation only in one direction: rightward. They never attribute fire-bombings against pro-life pregnancy centers, arson attacks against Christian churches, or the attempted assassination of a Supreme Court justice to mere argumentation of left-wing activists, such as, say, opposition to the Court’s decision in Dobbs. In those cases, the Left correctly adopts the principle that it is incitement, rather than opinion, that constitutes a crime—but conveniently forgets that standard as soon as the debate shifts to the movement’s conservative opponents.

Read the whole thing.

BIOLOGICAL MALE WINS WOMEN’S ELITE DIVISION OF CYCLING RACE:

A biological male won the women’s elite division of a cycling race in Massachusetts on Saturday.

Austin Killips, who identifies as a transgender woman, won the Verge Northampton International Cyclocross held in Northampton.

* * * * * * * *

The wins were not the first by Killips this year. The cyclocross competitor has also kept biological women off the podium in other women’s races, including a third-place finish at the Women’s Elite Cyclocross in Rochester, New York, in September, along with two wins in other events in Massachusetts.

Killips made headlines in 2019 as a cyclocross racer, later becoming the first biological male to race in the sport’s World Cup in the women’s field. In an interview on the topic, Killips called the achievement significant.

“I haven’t pored over records, but I think I’m the first trans woman to race a World Cup in the Women’s field. I know Molly [Cameron] has raced, but she’s always raced the Men’s category,” Killips said. “I do think it’s significant and notable. You know, when I’m at bike races and have other queer and trans folks come up to me, it’s super meaningful, and I guess I’m very aware you can’t just separate the two out. When I’m training and racing, I’m just a bike racer. I’m out here competing with these people.”

America’s Newspaper of Record produced a video last year exploring this topic:

QUESTIONS ASKED: What Is Behind Trump’s Attack on DeSantis? Has He Lost His Marbles or Does He See Things the Rest of Us Do Not — Such as the Florida Governor Being Set Up as a Stool?

MULTIPLE WEBSITES ARE CALLING THE ARIZONA GOVERNOR’S RACE FOR KATIE HOBBS: Democrat Katie Hobbs Defeats Republican Kari Lake in Arizona Governor Race.

Lake might have made it over the top if it wasn’t for this moment:

“We don’t have any McCain Republicans here do we? Well, get the the hell out!” – Kari Lake before she called McCain a loser and white nationalist Wendy Rogers a hero.
https://t.co/CSKSmVNwsU https://t.co/9CpgicLxny pic.twitter.com/T7PtGnOXUS

— Tony Cani (@tcani) November 5, 2022

NO ONE IS TALKING ABOUT THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF DAVE CHAPPELLE’S SNL MONOLOGUE:

In the early 1960s, comedian Lenny Bruce was arrested on obscenity charges for merely telling jokes some found offensive. After being handcuffed and led out of an Illinois comedy club, Bruce was later vindicated when that state’s supreme court ruled that the comedian’s routine was social commentary and thus was protected by the First Amendment.

I grew up thinking all good American liberals of a certain age aware of Bruce and his legacy probably thought the state were the bad guys in that situation and he was the hero.

I thought wrong.

Far too many people watched anti-blacklist films such as Woody Allen’s The Front as how-to guides for censoring your enemies.

ROGER KIMBALL: The Changing Narrative Regarding Donald Trump.

DeSantis is flavor of the month. We know he has tremendous appeal in Florida.

How he might play on the national stage is unknown.

Trump has promised a “big announcement” on Tuesday, Nov. 15.

Most observers don’t believe he will be advertising Joe Biden’s favorite flavor of ice cream at Trump Tower.

Most people think he will announce his candidacy for president in 2024.

How will that come over?

There are many people who assure us that Trump’s day in the sun is over, that he’s yesterday’s news.

I don’t know if they’re right.

I do remember, though, that many people in 2016 told us that Trump was impossible, that he could never win, that when he did win he could never survive.

For four years, we were told that “bombshells” had been dropped, that “walls were closing in” to hasten Trump’s eclipse.

Maybe this time it’s true.

Maybe.

I’m going to wait and see.

Exit question (and not just related to King Kong versus Godzilla fight for the top of the ticket): So, Where to Now?

WAIT, I THOUGHT CULTURAL APPROPRIATION WAS A MORTAL SIN IN THE LEFTIST RELIGION: Biden and Trudeau Beclown Themselves by Parading Around Asia in Commie Mao Jackets.

THE ONION: Man Who Lost Everything In Crypto Just Wishes Several Thousand More People Had Warned Him.

REPORT: JAY LENO SERIOUSLY BURNED IN CAR FIRE. Leno “was in the L.A. garage where he stores his cars on Sunday when one of the cars erupted into flames without warning. Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ … the flames burned the left side of Jay’s face, but thankfully did not penetrate his eye or his ear. He was taken to the burn ward at Grossman Burn Center where he remains. We do not specifically know his condition but it is serious enough that he’s been admitted to the hospital.”

HOW IT STARTED: Diplomats Say They Were Definitely Laughing At Trump At The UN.

When Trump focused part of his Tuesday address on Germany and warned that “Germany will become totally dependent on Russian energy if it does not immediately change course,” the German delegation was caught smirking on camera.

—BuzzFeed, September 26th, 2018.

How it’s going: Germans Attend ‘Blackout Courses’ as Energy Crisis Worsens Ahead of Christmas.

I’ll take headlines from 1944 for $500, Alex.

NO PASARÁN: Déjà Vu All Over Again in the Banana Republic of Biden: No, the Democrats did not run better campaigns; they cheated, as usual.

As Hugh Hewitt says, if it’s not close, they can’t cheat.

“OOPS:” Oops. Sam Bankman-Fried’s implosion took down Democrats’ second-biggest donor with it as the party gears up to regulate crypto. The CEO of struggling crypto exchange FTX was the party’s second-biggest individual donor in the 2021–2022 election cycle.

Related: The Crypto-Ignorant Person’s Guide To What’s Going On With FTX And Founder Sam Bankman-Fried.

OUT ON A LIMB: Former Bernie Sanders Press Secretary Accuses Biden of Using ‘Faulty’ Student-Loan Forgiveness Order for Votes.

Flashback to the New York Sun in August: If It Sounds Like an Election Year Handout, That’s Because It Is.

DEMOCRACY DIES IN POOR HEADLINE CHOICES: Suspected U-Va. gunman had troubled childhood, but then flourished.

—The Washington Post, today.

Might want to rethink this one, fellas:

HOW IT STARTED: These experts don’t think we are in a recession and neither do I.

—Headline at the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post, July 27^th, 2022.

How it’s going: Amazon plans to lay off 10,000 people starting this week — NYT.

—Reuters, today.

NBC NEWS PROJECTS HOUSE MAJORITY CONTROL: “With only a handful of races left to call, NBC News has run the numbers, calculated the odds, and has predicted the final outcome of the battle for the majority in the House of Representatives with 99.5% confidence. ‘Though NBC News cannot project control of the House at this time, the Decision Desk has released its estimate for the U.S. House of Representatives as a whole, which reflects the most probable outcome for partisan control,’ the network reports.”

Exit quote: “219 seats may not be much, but I’ll take it.”

UPDATE: Especially when it brings headlines such as this: Biden Kisses Codifying Roe v. Wade Goodbye.

(Updated and bumped.)

THE FAT LADY WARMS UP FOR KARI LAKE IN ARIZONA, KATIE HOBBS APPEARS TO DECLARE VICTORY.

AT LEAST $1 BILLION OF CLIENT FUNDS MISSING AT FAILED CRYPTO FIRM FTX:

Customer withdrawals had surged last Sunday after Changpeng Zhao, CEO of giant crypto exchange Binance, said Binance would sell its entire stake in FTX’s digital token, worth at least $580 million, “due to recent revelations.” Four days before, news outlet CoinDesk reported that much of Alameda’s $14.6 billion in assets were held in the token.

That Sunday, [Sam] Bankman-Fried held a meeting with several executives in the Bahamas capital Nassau to calculate how much outside funding he needed to cover FTX’s shortfall, the two people with knowledge of FTX’s finances said.

Bankman-Fried confirmed to Reuters that the meeting took place.

Bankman-Fried showed several spreadsheets to the heads of the company’s regulatory and legal teams that revealed FTX had moved around $10 billion in client funds from FTX to Alameda, the two people said. The spreadsheets displayed how much money FTX loaned to Alameda and what it was used for, they said.

The documents showed that between $1 billion and $2 billion of these funds were not accounted for among Alameda’s assets, the sources said. The spreadsheets did not indicate where this money was moved, and the sources said they don’t know what became of it.

And as a result: FTX Customers Face a Long Road to Try to Get Their Money Back. The exchange paused customer withdrawals at its international unit this week; ‘If you can’t trust exchanges, the whole premise of cryptocurrency doesn’t work:’

Gianluca Giuffra, a 25-year-old investor from Lima, Peru, used FTX to trade digital assets and picked the exchange because he thought it was a safe bet.

“Sam looks like a very honest person,” he said, “He doesn’t look like the type of guy that would do crazy stuff behind users’ backs.”

Errr:

This creepy crook became a hero to the ESG grifters & those genuinely dumb enough to believe his BS. @SBF_FTX belongs in jail. pic.twitter.com/ZJ6NDn7H7I

— Rita Panahi (@RitaPanahi) November 13, 2022

“‘Earning to give’ is thinking about which causes, which charities save the most lives per dollar:” Collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX had ties to Ukrainian government, WEF, and top Biden adviser.

UPDATE: FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Lists Bahamas Penthouse For $40 Million.

IN 2022, SHARK JUMPS YOU! Watch: Hooked Mako Shark Jumps into Boat in New Zealand (Video).

BIDEN’S ILLEGAL STUDENT-LOAN BAILOUT BOUGHT OFF GEN Z — AND STAVED OFF A RED WAVE.

GETTING CLOSER: Here’s Where the House Race Stands With Yet Another GOP Flip.

FTX FACES CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION IN BAHAMAS AFTER CRYPTO EXCHANGE COLLAPSES, POLICE SAY.

UPDATE:

https://twitter.com/TomBrady/status/1543965253523881986?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1543965253523881986%7Ctwgr%5E8cc124ced12dc81c86d66d8d30c8fba148cdae19%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ffortune.com%2Fcrypto%2F2022%2F07%2F06%2Ftom-brady-ftx-crypto-exchange-advertisement-crypto-winter-flamethrower-bitcoin%2F