The news that gets out stores and crypto and bring out of bite-sized pieces today. Just as the thumbnail suggests Question has to be asked as a new story comes out. Can you convert your bitcoin into a salary? Well, and nydig or nydig is coming to the rescue and saying yes, you can and then the question becomes Is bitcoin potentially the new 401k and we'll talk all about that We'll also talk about how micro strategy just bought up yet again more bitcoins surprise surprise We're going to take a look at a story with xrp, which we haven't talked about quite some time on this on this channel xrp ripple modular and visa Lastly, we'll take a look at sunday swap rewards and what is going on with the cardano stake pool So to begin let me just get do a little housekeeping We'll do a little market cap recap But just so you know that if you're here for the live show, thanks for stopping by appreciate it But if you're not there's going to be timestamps right below so you can skip ahead and do what you want to The news segment usually takes around 10 to 15 minutes very fast try to convince everything But the q&a at the end. Who knows could take 10 20 30 minutes. I have no idea So check the timestamps if you're watching the replay, but the news part goes pretty quick So let's jump right in to see what we're talking about first of all I'm going to do an entire video tomorrow about this question. I asked Today on twitter, which was I heard the belgium has a 33 tax rate on profits from crypto And france has 30 percent. Is that correct? And how about the other countries? I was shocked at the rate at all the other countries for capital gains tax I thought it was it was a joke, but it's all been verified. So I'll talk about that tomorrow So stay tuned for that one. Let's take a look at the market today. It's pretty good day I mean, we're almost I mean shoot. We were we are flirting with 1.6 1.5 1 trillion 1.5 trillion market cap and then You know, this was all the different problems that were coming out with the fed With the different problems with the gdp, which is actually pretty good this quarter And just the uncertainty of the market and because of that a tanked our market because we are correlated now, unfortunately But things are looking up pretty good And the reason for that is of course the s&p's for some reason has a renewed Strength and confidence and it's rising up like crazy. Also the nasdaq, which I think is even more correlated to our crypto market Is up as well. This is the one day for nasdaq five days looking pretty good a month Not so good six months a lot better than this huge drop off when drone pal said they're going to raise rates And everybody was scared And now here we are when he says and we'll push it to to march. Let's see what happens in march So that's what's going on. But for crypto markets. I mean looking good Look the theorem is almost back to 2,800. It was for a while and then dropped below tether's tether Binance coin three to five bitcoin 30 at seven. Let's see in the last 24 hours Who is the big winner avalanche at 3.9 15 percent for seven days. It's pretty good Let's see. Uh, so lana has flipped cardano yet again. I believe that cardano will probably flip them again We'll see what james has to say uh this friday. I'm sure he's happy 1% 20 in seven days for cardano, but 21% per slot. That's pretty pretty amazing crypto.com 16.6 Causes up 3.8. I mean everything's up big glee Lido staked ether. I don't know sure 10.2 Axi infinity. There was just a new listing on voyager So that might have helped a little bit leotoken anything big big big eight percent for the graph 13 19 percent for helium boy I wish I would have got one of those helium miners if you haven't taken a look at helium I definitely would but uh to get a miner is like your weight in like nine to 10 months And that's what we have for the market recap. So let's take a look At the top story and when I'm reading this and we're talking about this the story I want you just to just to kind of think about how you get paid and How you could potentially be paid and what you do with your paycheck as time moves on because I have my own My own ideas and on this show it's not uh, not investments advice just investment opinion So to get into it. This was an article from block works And it states uh workers can get paid in bitcoin via new nidig offering and just so you know We've been following nidig for quite some time since june 2021 nidig has had partnerships with uh with local credit unions Banks over 450 small and medium-sized banks and what they're trying to do is offer crypto and digital assets to these banks customers And it wasn't like nidig went to the banks They were pretty much coming to them because they had heard The not the complaints but the requests from the customers the customers like hey, you know what? We'd like to invest in the crypto because all of our customers are asking us for it. Can you help us? You know nidig sure and also and nidig was tapped by anthony scarab mushi's skybridge to custody. It's pending bitcoin etf Hmm. I have to ask him about that. It's interesting. So anyhow to get back to this article This is what's going on today. So that was in june That's a pretty fast movement because now we've got them offering After-tax earnings to be paid on this bitcoin for your salary. Here's what we've got so bitcoin focused financial services firm Has partnered with a number of companies that will for the first time give their employees the option To receive a percentage of their post-tax earnings in bitcoin. So not the entire salary But however much they want to More than one third of workers between the ages of 18 and 29 express an interest in getting some of their salary in bitcoin According to a recent survey, which I don't know exactly how big it is. I know actually I know I took a look at it's not in like tens of thousands of people. It's a very small survey So take that with a grain of salt, but it doesn't make sense Younger people are more into technology As far as like the digitization of everything that they have And money and value is no different. So I could see that why they'd say, yeah, I'll take a little bit of bitcoin Now there's a sharp drop off when it comes to older employees Which with just 11 of workers over 60 saying they've considered doing so But I gotta tell you 10 of people over 60 going. Yeah, I'll take a little bit of bitcoin To trade on my salary. That's pretty darn good. I mean shoot. I'll take it But when I was thinking about this when I read this article and it says right here again, just to reiterate something To receive a percentage of their post tax earnings at bitcoin So I want you to think about that for a second When you got your first job, I don't know where you worked that but My first job was a ups matter of fact way back the day and There wasn't much of offerings, but the next job I had They would offer me a 401k and like what's that they go? Well, you know after after taxes you can put this away and invest into the stock market And they'll you know, they'll do an index funds and things like that depending on your risk tolerance I was like, yeah, sure whatever and of course I didn't do anything with that and Because I didn't really realize what it was But I would think that this like the thing with with IRAs here in America I don't know where you're at But you have to wait quite a long time until you're age 59 and a half years old Or if you choose early retirement or if there's some kind of disability or if you want to take a loan out against for a new business That's what IRAs can do for you, but you have to wait, but it is You have to pay for that effort taxes So I thought about that and I thought about this option What would you want to do right now if you're a younger person or if it doesn't matter if you're 30 40 50 60 If you could be offered say, hey, you know what? You could put that money in a in a 401k, right? Or you can cash that out IRAs, whatever else you want to do and then As time goes on if you Want to do something with it. Well, just depends on what you want to do So what about with bitcoin if you could just put it in a bitcoin and I'm not saying like 20 30 40 percent What if you could do something like this with like you could just sit on it for like I always talk about a five-year plan You take out of bitcoin Five percent every month every uh Part of your salary and then you just kind of sit on it. What could you do? Well, you could do a lot of things with that as time moves on now with the 401k It's a little bit more study depending on the different stocks and options that you get into But if you wanted to because you know, that's just how it is but the returns on as much But what if you could do like I said three percent four percent five percent And a large amount of people could do that and they get into bitcoin and they can cash out whenever they want to Oh and also if you really wanted to do some things you could take a loan against that like what I was done With celsia. So I think it's like one of those things where you're like, well, could I do that instead of a 401k? I think you could now again Just investment opinion not investment advice. Let me know what you think about that in the comment section Let's uh, let's move on here. So Fifty four percent of bitcoin holders overall won a portion of their salary Paid in the digital asset the survey found companies offering the service include coin based bit wage and bit pay And pie payments processor strike Strike small strike. Yeah lightning payments nydig delivers technology and financial services or nydig to business throughout a full stack bitcoin platform They completed a one billion growth equity funds. There are no slouches Uh, and then they said, uh, They're offering their employees the same thing. There are no transaction or storage fees in the bitcoin traded Other companies using the plan include, uh, q2 mvb bank vantage bank crypto companies like bitcoin minor iris energy And data company the tie. I know josh frank and those guys Companies owned by former nfl quarterback drew breeze are also into this and uh for tita for tita entertainment We'll share the benefit with workers of the houston rockets.  Well, they're the guys that are I guess the founders tilman for tita There's the guys that they include landry's houston rockets the golden nugget casinos Those are all over the place in in los vegas. So That's what we have As far as like offering there. So I think it's a I mean, it's interesting concept to do I don't think a lot of people were like, yeah, I give it all to me in bitcoin, especially with the volatility I don't think that would actually be a smart move quite honestly Especially if you took your salary and then over like for month to month and that's a hundred percentary salary You're down 50% like we went from november to like january Probably not a great move, but uh as far as like an investment. Sure. Why not? So that's what we have there Interesting piece. Let's move on to the next part Micro strategy. This will go pretty fast.  I mean and I want to just make mention of this You'll never it's very not never but you'll it's very hard to time the bottom even michael sailor here who You know has a plethora of resources at his disposal They can you know try to time as much as he possibly can for the lowest possible price he Are they Micro strategy first additional six hundred and sixty bitcoins for 25 million in cash not too bad at an average price of 37,865 per bitcoin now correct me if I'm wrong. I think we hit around 32 33 000 So maybe the average was around that but again pretty tough to catch those falling knives so they Have states here 125 000 bitcoins acquired for almost man four billion at an average price of 30 000 200 per bitcoin that's like a dollar cost average bravo So yeah, if you're looking for like how to get dca Well, that's just a great idea right there just wait for dips buy them all up and then just wait pretty simple And then also I want to take a look at the treasury if you don't I put this link in the description buy bitcoin worldwide Dot com forward slash treasuries and you can see where all the bitcoin is is being gobbled up by institutions not hedge funds hedge funds are here to make a huge amount of profit We're talking about institutions public private companies Countries I guess ETFs So if you look right here who has the most as far as public companies We've got a micro strategy leading the pack Almost 0.6 percent. This is a little bit old because it says here 124 000. Remember this is you said 125 but uh, you know who's Couple thousand among bitcoin among friends no big deal teslas Up there 0.2 never I mean they did sell a little bit, but they still Heck of a lot we give you on muska a lot of guff, but hey they they held on to uh, bitcoin Which always helps galaxy digital voyager digital marathon square hud eight core scientific right blah blah blah blah So all these companies equal to just over 1 percent. It's not a lot if you think about it Here's countries and governments. This one says bulgaria and I've looked at this many a time I can't verify that bulgaria owns 1 percent of bitcoin, but hey prove me wrong Tell me in the comments because I cannot verify that but a couple of different articles says it is But a couple different articles says that's already been sold off. So sure uh, the ukraine 0.2 percent and they're doing a big push for uh, bitcoin mining as The world takes a watch of uh, if they're going to be invaded or not or what's going on Not a political channel just saying it's a concern El Salvador Yeah, pretty good 0.04 finland point 0.09 georgia. I don't even know why they're here 0.0 Oh because they have 66 bitcoin So again, that's like 1.3 and then you got private companies block stone ridge mass mutual mass mutual. Oh wow That's right lisk They got around almost a percentage Then etfs you're gonna look at the the grayscale the coin shares and so on and so forth So if you add them all out, you got 3.8 I don't know 4.8 5.8 9 6 7 Roughly 7. Yeah, man roughly 7 you got about 7 percent For these companies and that's I think is one of the bedrock because they're not gonna go too far From what I've seen as far as like moving and selling and that's good now again hedge funds and wall street They don't care. They will sell those You know They will sell them their It's their mom. They're like, I don't we got to get rid of these So these institutions versus wall street a little bit different. So that's a good thing I think it's great to uh dca and you can see the example here. So That part is looking good. And also here's a story that here's a Project we haven't covered a lot in this channel not for a while not since the sec Ah crack down on ripple, which is a shame, but uh, hey ripple and xrp modular and ripple Announce a strategic partnership To enable seamless payments into the uk and europe And I thought this was great because I mean ripples just I will say one thing If it wasn't for the xrp army and the people that are behind it Xrp would have been toast after the sec came along and the different uh things that gary gintzler are doing But they've kept it strong. So it's one of the reasons why I still hold on to My xrp that I have even though I sold it For tax reasons, but of course there's no There's no washing rules. So I just bought right back So anyhow, here's what we got. This is interesting london First of february leading payments platform modular announced a partnership with ripple leader in enterprise blockchain to enable seamless payments into the uk and europe Trust payments global unified payments group Is the first customer to go live and begin benefiting the two leading fintechs We'll make it easier never for businesses like trust to run real-time payments internationally powered by ripples financial tech ripple net global business have an alternative legacy correspondent banking and can now make payments into the uk and europe faster more reliable and cost effective which we'd like to see because we know that uh, you know the old way for the for the wires and western union and the legacy system is pretty expensive even though they've been around since the 60s Haven't really upgraded too much. I don't understand why it works, but sure Modular is one of the few non banks. This is interesting modular is one of the few non banks to be directly connected to the bank of england Allowing the payments platform to settle funds at the central bank So first of all I had to take a look and i'm like, who are these guys? Who is modular? Well, I did a quick search. I found out that modular is a official visa partner And they work with visa and it seems like visa has their hands in everything as far as payment processing even blockchain technology And I will tell you this Visa is one of those companies are like, hey, we're not going to get blockbuster If this thing becomes a big thing we will partner with every one of these companies And we'll shake it out and see which one's the winner. We don't care But we're not going to be blockbuster. We're going to come along for the ride and what we will uh, Hopefully be netflix on top of the whole payment system. So that's That part and the thing we just talked about with the central bank, which is easy But the question that I had Was this when I see where was it? Ripple net The lead they're they're working with ripple Nets right here ripple central technology ripple net I remember it being that there was two. It was a dichotomy between ripple net X rapid x payments and those types of things which you could have you could use xrp or not But I had to take a look at the website itself and I stand corrected because I guess it's all inclusive now So ripple net Customers can use xrp can use xrp for sourcing liquidity In cross border transaction instead of pre funding ensuring instant settlements Lower exchange fees and more efficient use of working capital So you don't know how it works as far as like moving funds across from bank to bank Well, if you want to transfer like us dollar To uh, some other place, you know, like with the euro or pounds or whatever else you have to have that Currency into your bank and then pre funded all the way over With actual bills to actually make that work, but with ripple net now working. I guess with xrp You can source you can be pre liquid and just kind of source that way. You don't have all those different fees. So I guess things have changed since I was Really into xrp and ripple. So sounds good. So xrp army. Congratulations. You got a win today So let me just think about that and then let's finish up with a little sunday swap action. So Found out where Sunday swap is the centralized exchange that is moving forward built on cardano And this this came out just uh yesterday it says the rewards calculators updated with the new estimates of this epics rewards Users who were unable to view the rewards previously will able to see an estimate now and there's a link Sunday swap dot finance. I put that link in the description so you can find it looks just like this Just so you know and blow this up these Initial stake pool offerings. So if you if you let me back up if you don't know these stake pool offerings that we have here um You can take your cardano not if it's on an exchange, but it has to be on a private wallet either a deadless yoroi ate a light or Nami Or nomi whatever. Actually, I don't think nomi can actually stay correct me if i'm wrong I think you can stay to the berry pool that is it So if you have it if you have your your cardano your eta in one of those wallets You can stake to a preferred stake pool operator And you can get during those epics, which is every five days You can get two things you can get aida, which is great And you can get sunday swap token, which is awesome. So they give you two and guess who is a scooper in this Initial stake pool offering that's right dnews digital asset news Cardano stake pool So again, I'm super biased when I talk about things just so you know let's just be honest but The great thing here is that look there was five different rounds and time is going by so fast We're already through round two you've only got three more rounds to go And it ends be so if you want to delegate somewhere and delegate to dnews I there's a link in the description It says delegate aida to dnews stake pool I have a deep dive video shows you exactly how to do it very simple or to any of the other stake pools that is fine And do what you want to do, but you got until february 4th to delegate to one so you can get aida rewards and also Sunday swap rewards as well And then also if you want to see your actual awards themselves to see how much it is This is uh one of my addresses for my stake pool and whatever Wallet that you use You just put that address the wallet and then you click on estimate rewards And uh wow look at that I delegated 23,000 aida and i'm gonna get uh almost 100 sunday tokens. It's not bad Not a bad day's work for like 25 days So that's all we have again. There's a link in the description. You can find that out and that is all we have since 15 25 35 For today So that is it for the news and uh, that's what we got. Let me uh refresh this So we can get out of here And go from there All right, so let's take so this right now ends with the news You're uh, welcome to take off. What are you going to do now? We'll do a q&a and that's it So let's see what we got. You know what I need to do honestly I need to get somebody in here to uh to pick out the really good questions Because sometimes when I get to this point, there's like a thousand different uh comments and I I don't have everything. I should have one mullet do it Hey man one mullet I know So when mullet so the question is why are you doing two streams in a day? Here's the thing if you've noticed that I've done a lot more live streams um, it's because it's it's It's way easier to do live streams than it is to Uh record a video then do all the edits And then do the uploads and then wait for the upload and then put all the data in and then Put it out. So there really is no difference The only the only thing that that makes these videos longer is the q&a part So the news like when I would do the other Like pre-recorded ones, I would just do them all in one one shot. There was usually I wouldn't make any any Massive errors. So uh, it will work out. Okay But uh, now that I have all this time like well, I will do a second one because uh, I wasn't doing too much and uh, I look I look through all my my feeds and I'm like, that's a good one. So who wants to go and so like, yeah, might as well do something all right Smart money is a hundred percent in usd right now. Sure. I mean look if you want to be safe remember Inflation is a killer. So I They say it's seven percent might be higher So whatever you're investing in to make sure it's more than seven percent investment depending on investment advice It's a good question Can you please share your current set amount on spi? Since now down 95 percent. I think it's not 95 percent. Let's take a look everything's down pretty Marvelously especially as we go to lower in the market cap so Now here I'm going to share my my screen again. So spi I mean it's down like as much as like everything else just about so like Let's see seven days 1186 991 let's see 14 Took a big tumble like everything 16 bucks to 10 bucks 30 days Yeah, 21 dollars even farther down. So 50 percent Yeah, same thing just like I mean look salana went from 220 down to like 80 Everything's taking a 37 dollars 11 dollars. So yeah, 33 percent. Yeah, I remember I remember three months ago We had cardano was around three dollars now. We're down to a buck 10. So I think I have a thing What can I say about this one? You know, look at the rank it could do something great. Uh, how long would it take? I don't know but uh these types of like like lower Uh cryptos, you know, watch out because the lower they are the more the less That's uh, market cap or circling supply and the easier it is just to just to go up massively or go down even even quicker So that's what I got Love listening critters. Yeah, you know, if you're in Puerto Rico, you'll love listening to these frogs all night long It's uh, quite annoying actually Puerto Ricans love them though. They love the the kokis Or I'll pal nose Uh Yeah, visa is on top of everything like the story that we just talked about with It was ripple modular and visa. It seems like I'm like visa has her hands and everything especially us dc made a nice little uh Partnership out there This is a good point.  It could be flipped at some point. I'm not saying when but I'm just saying that You know at some point You know everything Everything will catch up and but we'll see if you're a bitcoin maxi Uh, you'll believe that that everything underneath bitcoin is irrelevant and can't do anything and is worthless And then of course, that's what we got Question from shoeless joe. What percentage salon are you rob? I don't know Depends like it's all with my other layer ones. I'm super heavy into bitcoin and ethereum because Just was added and I I bought a lot of those in the early days when I first got in Cardano Pretty heavy because I was buying it at remember six cents seven cents eight cents since all the way in 2018 1920 and you name it and then Then I got into a bunch of layer ones. Uh, the avalanches and the uh, solanas Solana first and an avalanche Tezos I still have believe it or not. Uh, I would say I couldn't even tell you maybe five to seven percent Uh, solana because I know one layer one's going to be just enormous And so another one's going to be a couple just pretty good But uh, I like those and if you if you look at the ecosystems on like again The avalanches the solanas the phantom the near We'll drop off for a second. I'm having a great day Not bragging so On on nami. This is the wall for going. You can stake anywhere. I am in the Cryptoverse pool over bends You just have to do it via a website to set the wallet to that validator. So now Sounds fun Sniff says bitcoin be like Berkshire hathaway. Sure Hey, Rob, do you know an easy way to get all the staking rewards from theta to an excel sheet? To do the taxes or is going to be done one moment manually? I think that crypto trader tax has an integration with them Correct me if i'm wrong, but I don't know how much like I don't get much for staking rewards anyhow for them. So that might just be like Talk with your financial advisor and your cpa and all that stuff But uh, I just kind of give them one big bulk, but I could have sworn there was an integration and and now crypto trader They're actually they have a bunch of difference A bunch of different options. So we'll see All right. So that's it. So look Everybody I want to say, uh, thanks for coming by. That's all for the uh for the questions Yeah, that's all we got. So look, thanks so much for stopping by. I appreciate it if you first of all Let me get this out of here If you like today's video, uh, give it a thumbs up and give it a uh, also consider subscribing I always talk about our time sensitive and now after all this I'm going to put two videos right here You can check those out and uh, we'll be a follow-up video is the ones that we're talking about That's it for today. So thanks much for watching. I appreciate it. See you on the next one


Welcome. And Aloha. Thanks for joining us at Think Tech Hawaii, one of our last episodes of the 2022 year. Hope everybody is moving into what turns out to be a happy and fulfilling holiday season. And we're nearing the end of the Think Tech donation and fundraising period. For all of you who are willing to please click Think Tech Hawaii, go to the donate button and whatever you're willing to help support with would be most welcome. Today we have with us Professor Vernalia Randall, Professor Emerita of the University of Dayton School of Law and the creator and generator of probably the most comprehensive compilation online of articles on race, racism and the law called racism.org commend that lots of really worthwhile reading material on that site and Jeff Courtney, one of our leading First Amendment lawyers, civil litigators, partner at Cades, one of the largest and strongest supporters of nonprofits among the law firms in Hawaii, and that's certainly something to be proud of. And as we hear in Hawaii, you know, Jeff's also been a noteworthy commentator on University of Hawaii sports among his many attributes and a board member and longtime supporter of the Manoa Valley Theater, one of the leading exponents of local theater here in Hawaii. So thank you, folks, for joining us in the thought of maybe ending this year on a little bit higher note than some of the occasions we've had to deal with. What for you folks have been some of the highlights that give us a little bit of light and hope for the coming year and years? Professor Randall? The most pessimistic first. I actually, I tend not to be a best case scenario person. I tend to want to look at the worst case scenario and be pleasantly surprised when it doesn't happen. But I have to admit, I've been thinking a lot about Judge Jackson, Supreme Court Judge Jackson, who just, you know, she was just seated this summer, and she's done some stuff to surprise me. And I'm looking forward to her jurisprudence with hope that she will take the same surprise on quality immunity. But a couple of the things that she's done that surprised me, that is outside the normal mode for justices, is her questioning and oral arguments has been, as far as racial issues concerned, to the point on several, in pushing people to think about the impact of a rule that they want to impose, how it would impact minorities. And she's asked questions about, she just recently asked questions about the election law that is going before the Supreme Court, and that tends to want, if the Supreme Court accepts Texas argument, it would allow them to overlook the plain meeting of their Constitution on the idea that legislators have the power to pass laws, and consequently could have passed election laws that are inconsistent with the state's Constitution. Okay. And she asked them, well, then what would prevent them from passing, is it that, well, that I'm thinking of mixing up another instance. She asked them, she said, if the Constitution is supposed to be the Supreme Law of a state, of a country, and the Constitution is what puts in force the legislature, how can the legislature then pass the law that would override the Constitution, state Constitution. On another occasion, she asked them about whether or not the, in a different case, and I'm going blank right now, about how the, whether or not race would be covered, whether or not it was in the case where the people were wanting to discriminate, it was wanting to discriminate against LBGTQ on state law. And she was asking whether that interpretation would allow them to discriminate based on race, which historically the Christian race, the Christians have used race discrimination historically, and it's only been in the last 50 years that Christianity in America overtly steered away from racial discrimination. It was seen as justified by the Bible and taught that way. And then the third thing that she's doing, and this is not particularly overtly related to race, but it's important, and I hope the other liberal justices adopt her, what she's doing. On, on a couple of emergency orders where they deny, deny to stay on an execution, a lot of times the justices just agree or disagree, but she actually wrote out an order. She wrote out a, not an order, an opinion. It was in a minority opinion, but it was an opinion on why she disagreed. That's essential for legal arguments to be, you can argue that the justices disagree with the outcome, but if they don't write an opinion as to why they disagree, then it becomes hard, more difficult to argue the basis of their disagreement. And so I, I'm hoping that she does more of that and that other justices, particularly the progressive branch, the so-called liberal branch, they're not liberals. I just have to put that in. The so-called liberal branch, I hope they would write more opinions. So I'm pleasantly surprised by her. So yes, those are great insights, and we noticed that Judge Shaxson right in her very first week came out strong and took the time in trouble to correct Justice Alito and some of his teammates on the real meaning and intent of the 14th and 15th amendments. Yeah, the original argument that the, that the conservatives like to go to accept when it doesn't support their view of the world. No, that's right. She did do that. So she's been a great surprise for me. Right. And over on the other side of the fence, we've still seen Justice Alito go back to, yeah, but what was happening back 250 years ago in the late 18th century, and that's where we're going to get our meaning, were people really worried about gerrymandering? Well, probably there have been no elections.  And Jeff, some of your thoughts? Well, I think the results of the November elections were more promising than many expected and completed by what happened this week in Georgia. I think the Democrats no longer are beholden to mansion and have enough votes now to do what they need to do without selling out to him. I think the demise of Trump clearly now being acknowledged publicly, and I'm sure privately by the Republican Party. Even though, of course, he was still command 30% of the Republican primary vote. I think his legal troubles have expanded. Dig lead now with the tax conviction of his organization and the finding of additional documents in other locations. So I think there's some reason for optimism. You guys were talking about the court. I think if you're looking for something there, I think it's becoming a little more evident that Barrett and Cavanaugh are in crazies. They may be conservatives, but they're nowhere near where the other two loonies are, and that holds some hope, particularly now in the last argument yesterday on election law, where I think it's pretty clear that those two conservatives are not going to go anywhere near where their two colleagues are willing to go. I think they'll still side probably with a five, four, six, three majority, but I don't think it's going to be what North Carolina legislature in Texas thought, and I think on religious issues, Barrett and Cavanaugh are not going to be helpful, but they're at least willing to listen, and I think holds some hope that maybe some five, four majorities can be cobbled together by John Roberts. You're looking for potential optimism. I'm not saying it's going to happen. But when you look at the other two on the court, there's no hope. So, you know, I think there's some reason for a little optimism. I heard last night that I'm sure this will make the professor very happy that Biden, right after the holidays, is going to announce his attempt to run again. So I mean, that will deflate any possible primary battles, I'm sure, in the Democratic Party. So, you know, are things good? No, but I do think there's a beginning. Emergence, if I can put those two words together, maybe not. Of a kind of willingness on the part of the majority of the public. The fine common ground. That the extremes, both on the right and the left, have lost their luster. There's still, I think, you know, 30 percent on each side, but that 40 percent in the middle is beginning to exercise its will. I think George is a perfect example. So we'll see.  But Jeff, I was stuck with two. Jeff, you said that the last time, and I thought about it the whole last two weeks, because I think that's a wrong statement. The fact is, is people are not given a progressive voice in the in the elections and the primaries are controlled by the by the parties in such a way that they can direct, that they can affect the ability of non-typical candidates to be even able to run. And I mean, so I don't think, and if you use Georgia as an example, 70 percent of white people voted for four of white men and 68 percent of white women voted for Warren. What's his name? I can't walk. Walker. And and to me, on in various levels, that is the issue. When progressive, that the majority, even in in so-called liberal states, the liberal white people, the white people who vote for a conservative candidate is a significant portion. And if it wasn't for and this is probably what scares me, but wasn't for the the percentage of non-white people in those states, then it would be even worse. I don't think this is a sign people, the middle, not wanting progressive ideas. It's just a sign of people not giving progressive choices. So how can they want it if they if the only choices they have is a far right wing conservative and a moderate Democrat? Yeah, they're choosing the moderate Democrat when they can when when they consistently have a choice. Look at Seattle. Would look at of a real progressive. They they hear the ideas that progressive put forth and they want those ideas. They are not wanting the middle. They're just given no other choice. Yeah, I think, you know, you and I don't agree on that. And I appreciate your your thoughts. I think the so-called progressive movement is relatively small. And I think it has shown that it does not engender a significant even minority of votes. And I did a lot of traveling this year in the Midwest, and I've also been to San Francisco, L.A., Portland, Seattle.  And I can understand from spending time in those cities and talking to people why people are upset with certain progressive views, which have, in large part, decimated those cities. They are decimated. I was important last week. It's a war zone downtown Portland. The homeless are everywhere. L.A. has eight blocks of continual homeless. San Francisco, if you've been, you can't go to Union Square. Anymore. And then you go to the Midwest and you see what's happening in in smaller cities. Well, wait, wait, let me finish. Let me finish. Let me finish. I just think. You know, I hear what you're saying, but progressives have run in primaries. And some of them don't run that off them. And they don't. I agree. And they don't. They don't. They get set up to move. And having lived in a Midwest civility for 30 years, I tell you how we control homelessness. We criminalize it. We put the people in jail. We did. We say you can't do this. You can't be here. You can't sit here. We we make the sitting things where they can't even sit down outdoors. We make it illegal to give food to people who are hungry. We we we we send the camps as far out from the view of any person's whose eyes would get upset. It's not that all these Midwest cities don't have problems with homelessness. They just have choose to criminalize it and and put people in jail. I mean, it's a choice. No, I was only for me. For me, I would I would I would like to see them be able to do something with homelessness. And I think our part of the problem with homelessness is our views about helping people. They are not high. I want people to get off of drugs. We want people to stop drinking alcohol. We want people to do all these things to prove they deserve help. Instead of saying we want the people in home.   We want to take you off the street and put you in a home. And then we will provide whatever services you need. But. The Midwest haven't dealt with homelessness in a way that and when we talk about criminalizing homeless, that means it's going to disproportionately affect Black and brown people. Yeah, and I was only using that as a single example of why people may not share.  You know, of views. But, you know, look, it's not like the country hasn't had. Historically. So called progressive candidate, Henry Wallace ran for president. How did he do? I mean, he was he was about as progressive, quote unquote, he was a socialist. And and, you know, I mean, all I'm saying and I know your view, you have two parties and one tries to get more electoral votes than the other. So you have to pander. And I use that word advisedly to the middle. I don't disagree with that. And I think, you know, you have a shot in some congressional districts for more extreme candidates on both sides. But that's the system. And I don't see it changing.  But maybe you do. I mean, maybe you see an opportunity for. You know, I mean, Trump could run. He's not going to get the Republican nomination. We may have three choices. But I, you know, I don't see the system changing anytime soon, but I do know how to get as the best we can have. And then encouraging people not to think critically of how come the system acts so poorly. I mean, the thing is, is the middle. Who is that? Who is that? People who don't want to be people, people who don't want to educate people. People who don't want to house people. Does the middle really say that's who they are? People who are only concerned about how much taxes they pay. Maybe that is the middle, but. It's a wrong-headed view of how our country should go. I guess it depends where you live of who's in the middle, because I think the middle in Idaho is not the same as the middle in Massachusetts. So I hear you, we've had an engaging conversation throughout the year, which I've really appreciated.  If Donald Trump gets in, we won't have a constitution. So there you go. You won't have to worry about the Constitution anymore. And what the meaning of the 14th and 15th Amendments are. And maybe, and I'm saying this, not telling you to Donald Trump, but maybe if there was a direct overt thing, we would have more people who would turn out in the streets violently and say, this is unacceptable. You can't do away with our Constitution. You can't do away with our rights. This. The system. The way the system is set up, the political system is set up. Now it is been moving everybody to the right. So, yeah, when you talk about the middle, the middle has been moved to the right because the Democrats have moved to the right and the Republicans have moved to the right. And there's been no counterbalancing here. I would like to have us. I would put out a suggestion for anybody. I would say one suggestion to to help kind of equalize thing in this system is to have everyone participate in an elect in a excuse me, everyone participate in debates. Publicized national debates. If you want to be a candidate, you can you will be able to participate and you can't be ruled out until the debates happen. And how and and and then how people kind of I don't think you can get an honest opinion of what people want. If people never hear the voices and maybe the voices of people who are really different, people like me, people who say we can have a country that when we were passing people at 90 percent. The the excess tax at 90 percent in the eight seventies and eighties. The we sixty seventies. The economy was better. Maybe we've got to tax people. Maybe the problem we have and this is the. This is the the the left problem is they don't want to tax either. They they and and I I such it's probably as you say is about getting elected and they think nobody. Everybody thinks they're going to be a millionaire or a billionaire. And so when you start talking about taxing even high rich people, they don't keep people don't want that. I I understand that. But it's doable. The and then in our last minute. Oh, it happened really quick. Thanks for bringing up Justice Jackson, Jeff. Any heroes or unsung heroes of twenty twenty two that. Oh, I'm sure there's lots of them, but they're not in the political arena.  You know, we could spend hours on all of the people who have involved in issues that are important, I think, to me and to many others. I can't think of any political heroes on either side this year.  And most don't even get recognized. So yeah, there's lots of heroes. And, you know, I mean, if you're looking for one political quote on quote hero. Just look at the Ukraine and Times Man of the Year. That's certainly the singular hero politically. But there are thousands of real heroes that you never hear of that are not in politics. Now, and that's a great point to end on. Certainly first responders in health care. Professor Randall, you've spent years in nursing and you know what it is to go through that first responders in education are teachers dealing with the conditions of the pandemic. All of those first responders to the incredible disconnections and marginalization of people from each other. And all of the people who I mean, you are the first responders. But all of the people who were not considered. People who worked in service industry, but not at that kind of level, you know, people who collect at our garbage and all of those people people who continue to work in restaurants and stuff. And you still do. Yeah. On health people. And that's a great way to wind it up to all of those who helped enable us to get through our daily lives as intact as possible. Our thanks for twenty twenty two blessings. Thank you from think tech Hawaii. Thanks, Professor Randall Jeff. Thank you. Insights and aloha. It's been fun. Aloha. Yes. Thank you so much for watching think tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn and donate to us at think tech Hawaii.com Mahalo.


Hey, this is Brett and this 2019 Ram ProMaster 2500, 136 inch wheelbase is stock number 13601Z. I'm here at Summit Automotive in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, near New and used Ram and ProMaster headquarters. This 2019 Ram 2500 ProMaster has the 3.6 liter V6 gas engine. It's paired up with the 6-speed automatic transmission and puts out 280 horsepower. This van has been fully safety and inspected by our service shop, has a fresh oil and filter change. All the fluids have been checked and topped off and it is 100% ready to go. I'm going to go all the way around in this video inside, start it up, look underneath and give you the most accurate representation possible. Bright white is the color and I shoot all my videos in 4K so if you have HD capabilities turn them on now because it is your best way to check out the quality. Condition options and cleanliness of the van before seen in person. If you like the video, you can subscribe to my YouTube channel which is youtube.com slash summit auto. Click the bell notifications so you get updates on the videos I do each and every day here at Summit Automotive. This one comes with Nexon Rodeon HTX tires. These are LT 225 75R 16s and it comes with the painted steel wheels. These tires are very new on here. I would say 80 to 90% of the tread left. Maybe even a little bit more, you can still see it has the wear knobs on the inside from being new so maybe 90% of the tread left on those tires. Under body looks pretty good. Didn't see any corrosion or anything. Coming around the front, bumper is in nice shape. No cracks or scuffs on that front bumper. Looks pretty good. Grille is in okay shape. Didn't see any cracks on there. And the hood is in nice condition. I didn't see any major dents on that. Headlight lenses are nice and clear. The windshield is in great shape. I didn't see any cracks or chips on there. Passenger side front fender looks good and the passenger side wheel is in about the same condition as the driver's side. As you go down this side of this 2019 Ram 2500 ProMaster, take note of how clean the body is. How reflective and mirror-like that paint is. I take these HD videos so if you are far away or even if you're close by and just not able to make trip down but you're still interested in purchasing the van, you can see the van here, the van, and have confidence in the vehicle that you're looking at before you even get here. So when you do get here there's no surprises and you can make a smart and informed buying decision from wherever you're at because you're probably a business owner looking to buy this for your business. Want to make sure it's not a big pile, which some of these vans can be. But this one's in really nice shape. Back wheel is in excellent shape. And if the video helps you make a decision, let your salesmen know that you saw the video was helpful in that bright century. Back tires are like new as well. You can still see those wear knobs on there from being new. So like I said, 90-95% of the tread left on those tires. And the underbody is in really nice condition. I didn't see any major corrosion or anything like that. So really a nice clean van. Plus it's got lots of area for signage for your business and everything, which is really nice. Take a look at the sliding door here. And of course it's locked. So let me... I can't unlock it here. Maybe I can unlock it. All right. There we go. That slides nicely. What's really cool is it's got these tracks in here that for tie downs and everything as well as some plywood and everything. So those are nice to have. But for the main majority here, it's really clean. Has a nice partition. Keeps everything away from what's in the cab. And this sliding door slides nicely. Only thing I saw on the passenger side here is just a couple little tiny dings on the side there, but nothing too bad. Coming around the back, the rear doors are in fantastic condition as well. Once again, lots of area for signage. These doors open up like so. And what's cool about these doors is they open up pretty much all the way. So if you got to put a pallet in there or something, you can open up both doors. And the pallet loader can get right up to the back of the van. So it makes it easy for loading and unloading. Plus, I think the Pro Masters have one of the lowest load floors that you can get on the vans. Now that passenger or the driver's side door opens up just like this door does here. You can see they shut nicely. Coming around to the driver's side, even nicer than the passenger side, this back wheel. Same condition and that tire just as new. But yeah, lots of area for signage. And the whole side of this van is in really nice condition. Only thing I saw, one tiny little ding. I don't even know if you can see it. There's a little ding right there. Nothing too bad. Really a nice van. You get the power mirrors, directional signals on them. Inside, you get the black and gray cloth interior. You get the bucket seats in the front here. They are in fantastic condition. It smells very clean inside this van. I don't think it's ever been smoked in and the headliner is in nice shape. We'll hop inside, check out the miles, the radio and everything that this van has to offer on the interior. And then we'll start it. You can see that this one has 47,222 miles on it. Instrument cluster is very nice and clean. You do get audio and Bluetooth controls on the steering wheel. Steering wheel is in excellent shape. And you get the UConnect 5 touchscreen radio, AM, FM radio capabilities as well as Bluetooth.  This is also where your backup camera shows up. And you can see that that is working nicely. And we'll start it up and take a look under the hood. Starts right up. No check engine lights or anything like that. I would personally like to thank you for checking out the video today. And hopefully from this HD video you've been able to verify the quality, condition options and of course the cleanliness of this van all the way around inside. Now under the hood we have the 3.6 liter V6 engine, 280 horsepower engine base. Very clean runs, very smooth. Once again this vehicle has been fully safety den inspected by our service shop. Has a fresh oil and filter change. All the fluids have been checked and tapped off. And it is 100% ready to go. There's the emission sticker. It's got four like new tires. And this one is really nice. I would highly recommend it from a quality and condition standpoint. You're going to get everything that you just saw in the video and whoever's going to get it's going to love it. I'd ship this one to California, Texas, New York, Florida, wherever. And to see more pictures of this van or one of our 550 new used cars, trucks, SUVs, minivans, Wranglers, Pro Masters, Pro Masters cities, you name it, we got to go to our website which is summitauto.com. Full pictures and descriptions of every single vehicle all at summitauto.com. And if you'd like to check out more HD videos you can go to youtube.com. So I have Summit Auto, click the bell notifications to get updates on the videos I do each and every day as well as access to one of the largest vehicle catalogs, largest catalogs of vehicle walkarounds on YouTube. Back in a second you will see a link to subscribe to my YouTube channel the upper left. Link to more of Pro Masters 2500 vans in the upper right. A link to this vehicle on our website in the lower left. And a link to one of our latest YouTube videos in the lower right. Click those, check this out. We're super excited to help you with this Ultra Clean 2019 Ram Pro Master 2500 in bright white clear coat with a 136 inch wheel base and the high roof. Thanks again for checking out the video. Remember to like, subscribe, and share on the YouTube channel. I really appreciate it. Thanks again.