Kevin Chang

Today, stupid was rewarded.

[Kevin Chang @silverfire]

Before+After (Nikon Z9 + 800/6.3, plus Baader film for non-eclipsed shot)

[Kevin Chang @silverfire]

@NASASpaceflight @waywardboatFL

[Kevin Chang @silverfire]

Probably not gonna be able to get a better shot of the comet without going out of my way to avoid all this light pollution

[Kevin Chang @silverfire]

@itsjustatank where a major workflow component was "do the downselect while you still actually remember the fucking event" lmao

[Kevin Chang @silverfire]

@rookisaacman @salmon95950 @HoundLyfe a modern domestically produced clone with new composites, avionics, engines, etc would be pretty nice; extra bonus being the original designers dont have a lot of avenues to complain with

[Kevin Chang @silverfire]

@flyjsx being able to fly out of PAO or NUQ would be pretty cool tbh

[Kevin Chang @silverfire]

oh no

[Hacker News 20 @betterhn20]

https://t.co/59AQQo0aOQ added 192.168.1.1 to their DNS record https://t.co/bYl9I7k8Fu

[Kevin Chang @silverfire]

@bdsams @Stardock interesting... i wonder how StartAllBack accomplishes this. i would have paid for that, but the developer is in Russia so that's kind of a non-starter at the moment

[Kevin Chang @silverfire]

@itsjustatank actual cheat code lmao

[Kevin Chang @silverfire]

I have 5 invites for @bluesky and if anyone wants one, first 5 people to DM me a screenshot of a donation (any amount) to @crpanews @EFF or @signalapp will get em

[Tropical Cowboy of Danger @FlynonymousWX]

Nice lighting show in the eye of #HurricaneLee this morning

[Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 @bayraktar_1love]

Unsuccessful attempt to attack a Russian Ka-52 helicopter using kamikaze FPV. The helicopter was faster, this time.
https://t.co/uJ9mIRfyIQ

[SwiftOnSecurity @SwiftOnSecurity]

You ever wonder how many security products allow all 10* traffic like 101.25.26.94 because the admin/programmer didn't realize 10.* is a RegEx

[Quiver Quantitative @QuiverQuant]

CONGRESSIONAL TRADING LOOPHOLES

I've been writing code to analyze and track data on congressional trading for the past few years.

Here's a list of tricks I've seen politicians use to make financial moves without bringing attention to them:

1. HAVE SOMEONE ELSE MAKE A TRADE FOR THEM.

We obviously don’t know how much this happens, but we know that it has happened.

In 2017, Representative Chris Collins received confidential information about a company that had failed a clinical trial.

Moments later, he called up his son from the White House lawn so that he could trade stock in the company ahead of the public announcement.

This trade allowed his son to avoid over $768K in losses.

In 2020, Senator Richard Burr dumped more than $1.6M in stock a week before the coronavirus crash.

After doing so, he called his brother-in-law.

Within the next minute, his brother-in-law called his broker and also sold off stock.

2. MAKE LOTS OF SMALL TRADES

By making many small trades, politicians can build up a position in an asset without reporting any moves.

Ted Cruz announced earlier this year that he has been buying Bitcoin on a weekly basis.

He hadn’t disclosed any weekly purchases.

This is likely because Congressmen are only required to disclose transactions of more than $1K.

Even if Cruz made many purchases, if each individual purchase was less than $1K he would not have to disclose them.

While I doubt there was underhanded intent in Cruz’s case (his $BTC position was still under $50K at the end of the year), you can see how a politician could theoretically build up a large position in an asset without disclosing a single trade.

3. TRADE ETFs.

Politicians do not need to disclose ETF trades in transaction reports.

A member of Congress could make a killing buying call options on a leveraged ETF, and we could never know as long as they close their position before they need to file their annual financial disclosure.

4. JUST BREAK THE RULES.

The penalties for STOCK Act violations are so light, that politicians can also just wait until an opportune time to disclose their trades.

Senator Rand Paul’s wife bought stock in the biopharmaceutical company Gilead after Congress was briefed on the threat of the virus.

This trade was not disclosed until almost a year later, which meant that it wasn’t included in most of the media coverage around politicians’ stock trading around the COVID pandemic.

He likely received a fine of just $200 for the late disclosure.

HOW THESE LOOPHOLES COULD BE FIXED:

1. Require politicians to disclose all stock transactions, with no minimum reporting threshold.

2. Require politicians to disclose ETF trades in periodic transaction reports.

3. Increase penalties for STOCK Act violations.

I don’t think there’s any easy way to prevent politicians from directing others to trade for them, but at least it makes it easier for insider trading to be proven in criminal investigations.

When Representative Chris Collins got charged with insider trading, it was because he had to call someone else to trade for him.

---

Even with these loopholes, we still spot plenty of suspicious trades and conflicts of interest through public disclosures.

Insider trading is a hard enough crime to prosecute on that many politicians may feel no need to hide their trading activity.

Let me know below if you can think of anything that I've missed.

[Tyler Rogoway @Aviation_Intel]

AP gave us no credit on this. Now everyone is crediting them.

https://t.co/EuySzoermm

[Kevin Chang @silverfire]

Finally bought my second Z-mount lens

[Kevin Chang @silverfire]

@Soembie hopefully eVTOL aircraft help with the "fuck this traffic i just wanna get home immediately" cases :X

[Chris Hadfield @Cmdr_Hadfield]

For those who feel @SpaceX's Starship test flight didn't go well, here are the very first flights of the F-14 and F-16. The test pilots survived.