Odds and Ends — 12 January 2022
Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, and Debt:
The Mnuchin Files: New Documents Shed Light on Trump-Era Crypto Policy
Jared Kushner advocated behind the scenes for a U.S. digital currency, among other revelations in a 250-page trove from Steven Mnuchin’s tenure at Treasury.
…Mnuchin was far from solicitous toward the industry near the end of his tenure, when he tried to rush through the proposed rule requiring crypto businesses to verify the identity of counterparties with self-hosted wallets.
“I don’t think he ever did anything that was especially good or especially bad for crypto, until that moment when he did something terrible,” said Jerry Brito, executive director of Washington-based think tank Coin Center.
Reddit ‘antiwork’ forum booms as millions of Americans quit jobs
Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:
CDC Weighs Recommending Better Masks
The CDC is considering updating its mask guidance to recommend that people opt for the highly protective N95 or KN95 masks worn by health-care personnel, if they can do so consistently.
Fauci Says Rand Paul’s Attacks ‘Kindles the Crazies’
“What happens when he gets out and accuses me of things that are completely untrue, is that all of a sudden that kindles the crazies out there, and I have threats upon my life, harassment of my family, and my children, with obscene phone calls because people are lying about me.”
“You’re so misinformed, it’s extraordinary… What are you talking about?” — Dr. Anthony Fauci, speaking to Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) at a Senate hearing.
Activist Dies of Covid After Attending Anti-Vax Conference
Quebec to impose health tax on the unvaccinated
Politics:
A long time coming but, Biden finally states the obvious:
“That’s why we’re here today: to stand against the forces in America that value power over principle, forces that attempted a coup, a coup against the legally expressed will of the American people by sowing doubt, inventing charges of fraud and seeking to steal the 2020 election from the people.”
An Opening for Hillary Clinton?
A perfect storm in the Democratic Party is making a once-unfathomable scenario plausible: a political comeback for Hillary Clinton in 2024.
Several circumstances—President Biden’s low approval rating, doubts over his capacity to run for re-election at 82, Vice President Kamala Harris’s unpopularity, and the absence of another strong Democrat to lead the ticket in 2024—have created a leadership vacuum in the party, which Mrs. Clinton viably could fill.
Clinton versus Trump again? A choice between the dullest person to have ever lived in Arkansas and a sociopath. Surely, we can do better than that.
House Looks at ‘Insider Threat’ Prevention
A sobering assessment: House Sergeant-at-Arms William Walker says he intends to train “insider threat specialists” to monitor for security officials whose “allegiance has changed.”
California Has Had 9 Consecutive Budget Surpluses
Built on projections of a ninth consecutive year of surplus tax revenue — a streak that has made California’s deficit-ridden past a distant memory — the $286.4-billion spending plan Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) unveiled Monday builds on the state’s recent efforts to address the COVID-19 pandemic, homelessness and a worsening drought while surpassing K-12 school funding records set just last year.
Missouri Governor Targets State’s Sunshine Law
Amending Missouri’s open records law to permit government agencies to withhold more information from the public — and charge more for any records that are turned over — is among Gov. Mike Parson’s (R) priorities for the 2022 legislative session.
NEWS: Attorneys for Donald Trump have met in person with the Fulton County District Attorney's Office in Georgia. pic.twitter.com/FK8Zy1LHLw
— Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) January 11, 2022
Iowa Senate President Jake Chapman says press, teachers have 'sinister agenda'
Neo-Nazi leader sentenced to 7 years for plot to intimidate Jews, journalists
Ex-Israeli Prime Ministers Face Off In Defamation Suit
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday repeated his assertion that his successor and former rival, Benjamin Netanyahu, exhibited ‘crazy behavior’ as a high-profile defamation lawsuit between the two political heavyweights got underway.
Justice Department Forms Domestic Terrorism Unit
The Justice Department is forming a new domestic terrorism unit to help combat a threat that has intensified dramatically in recent years.
Matthew Olsen, the head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, announced the unit in his opening remarks before the Senate Judiciary Committee, noting that the number of FBI investigations of suspected domestic violent extremists — accused of planning or committing crimes in the name of domestic political goals — had more than doubled since the spring of 2020.
Democrats Likely Have Just Months Left for Agenda
The last four times a president went into midterm elections holding unified control of the White House, Senate and House of Representatives, as Joe Biden and Democrats do now, voters have revoked it.
It happened to Donald Trump in 2018, Barack Obama in 2010, George W. Bush in 2006 and Bill Clinton in 1994: All lost control of at least one congressional chamber, crippling their ability to advance their legislative agendas. In fact, no president who went into midterms with unified control of government has successfully defended it since Jimmy Carter in 1978, when Democrats were still cushioned by the enormous margins they amassed in the backlash against Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal.
Serendipity:
The forgotten medieval habit of ‘two sleeps’
Flights Briefly Grounded at West Coast Airports Over Suspected North Korean Missile Test
Magawa, the ‘hero rat’ who sniffed out landmines, has died
The image at the start of this post is a Deep Dream Generator version of our goldfish. Here’s the original image of Fishy in all her glory:
