Odds and Ends — 2 December 2023

6 months ago

I made Asopao de Pollo, but probably not a version that any Puerto Rican grandmother would recognize as such since mine was an amalgam of three different recipes.

Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, Business, and Debt:

The SEC is facing another defeat in its recycled lawsuit against Kraken

Soccer Star Cristiano Ronaldo Faces $1B Class Action Suit Over Binance Endorsement

More than a bit self-serving, but yeah:

https://twitter.com/coinbase/status/1730633199087161813?s=20

Thank Media And Social Networks For Mass Economic Despair

Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:

COVID activity picks up pace alongside other respiratory viruses

Florida Man:

DeSantis finally got to debate someone on covid. It didn’t go well.

Politics:

https://twitter.com/AWeissmann_/status/1730617490172953005?s=20

Judge Chutkan: “Defendant’s four-year service as Commander in Chief did not bestow on him the divine right of kings to evade the criminal accountability that governs his fellow citizens … Whatever immunities a sitting President may enjoy, the United States has only one Chief Executive at a time, and that position does not confer a lifelong ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ pass.” (Full opinion here.)

https://twitter.com/RadioFreeTom/status/1730729156000776461?s=20

George Santos Becomes Sixth House Member Ever To Be Expelled From Congress

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1730626321749876801?s=20
https://twitter.com/Roshan_Rinaldi/status/1730679073536373031?s=20

Uh-Oh. Here We Go Again.

I was one of a handful of pundits who thought in early 2016 that Trump not only could, but probably would, win the election. I could feel his appeal in my lizard brain, and had long studied the fragility of liberal democracy in my frontal cortex. But the moment I knew his presidency was almost certain was when the Brexit result was announced in June, when everyone still assumed Hillary was a shoo-in. Something was stirring. And that’s why, after my annual trip back to Britain last week, I’m feeling the nausea again.
The mood is just ugly — a deep pessimism suffused with barely stifled fury. It’s not quite right or left, as we used to understand those things. It’s more irrational than that, and less predictable.

https://twitter.com/MuellerSheWrote/status/1730785567124963813?s=20

A First Amendment battle looms in Georgia, where the state is framing opposition to a police training complex as a criminal conspiracy

https://twitter.com/dcpetterson/status/1730630804970279134?s=20

Bannon Furious at House GOP: “They Want a Civil War? They Got One!”

Dems are sitting on 400 pages of evidence on Ivanka and Jared Kushner's financial deals

https://twitter.com/TomJChicago/status/1730332171255075122?s=20
https://twitter.com/itsJeffTiedrich/status/1730331193806139663?s=20

Speaker Johnson wrote foreword for book filled with conspiracy theories and homophobic insults

GOP Melts Down As Dick Durbin Uses Its Tactics For Advancing Biden Judges

https://twitter.com/GlasnostGone/status/1730617708222296385?s=20

Georgia Republicans Defy Judge in Drawing New Map

Georgia Republican legislators refused to create an additional congressional district with a majority of Black voters and people of color, unveiling a map Friday that could defy a judge’s ruling that the state illegally weakened Black voting power.
The Republican-drawn map fails to provide additional opportunities for Black representation in the U.S. House, leaving in place the GOP’s 9-5 advantage among Georgia’s congressional delegation.

Texas must remove Rio Grande migrant barrier, US appeals court rules

There’s a storm coming. We all know it. And yet Americans are pretending that everything is normal.