Odds and Ends — 21 February 2023
Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, Business, and Debt:
Ray Dalio Demanded Billions to Retire from Hedge Fund
In the end, Mr. Dalio, with an estimated net worth of $19 billion, agreed to surrender his control over all key decisions at Bridgewater only if the firm agreed to give him what could amount to billions of dollars in regular payouts over the coming years through a special class of stock.
These secret arrangements were described by a half dozen current and former Bridgewater employees who said they risked angering Mr. Dalio and could be sued by the firm if they spoke publicly. At an internal meeting last year during the heat of the exit negotiations, Mr. Dalio described the hedge fund as his ‘property rights,’ according to one employee, and indicated that he expected to be compensated accordingly.
Crypto Hedge Fund Galois Capital Shuts Down After Losing $40M to FTX
Bitcoin single-day price surge linked to billions in USDC inflows
Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:
Is Bell’s palsy a side effect of COVID-19?
As the Pandemic Swept America, Deaths in Prisons Rose Nearly 50 Percent
Politics:
Biden Just Destroyed Putin’s Last Hope
While the president clearly intended to bolster the confidence of Ukraine, and the commitment of ambivalent Europeans and neo-isolationist Americans, his real audiences lay elsewhere, as his remarks about Western strength indicated. Russia has cycled through a series of theories of victory in Ukraine—that Kyiv’s leaders would flee, that Ukraine’s population would not fight, that its army would be crumpled up by a sudden blitz or by grinding assaults. It has been reduced to one last hope: that Vladimir Putin’s will is stronger than Joe Biden’s. And Biden just said, by deed as well as word, “Oh no it’s not.”
This is a gut punch to Russia’s leader. The Russians received word of the trip, we are informed—and presumably the threat, stated or implied, that they would get a violent and overwhelming response if they attempted to interfere with it. For a leader obsessed with strength, like Putin, that is a blow. His own people will quietly or openly ask, “Why could we not prevent this?” And the answer, unstated, will have to be, “Because we were afraid.”
Russia targets Netherlands’ North Sea infrastructure, says Dutch intelligence agency
Oh, this will end well: McCarthy gives Fox News’s Tucker Carlson access to Jan. 6 Capitol surveillance footage
Let’s review some of the governing principles of America, @mtgreenee:
— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) February 20, 2023
Our country is governed by the Constitution. You swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution.
Secession is unconstitutional. No member of Congress should advocate secession, Marjorie. https://t.co/XE3cQXYrnl
Russia Apparently Plans to Take Over Belarus
A leaked internal strategy document from Vladimir Putin’s executive office and obtained by Yahoo News lays out a detailed plan on how Russia plans to take full control over neighboring Belarus in the next decade under the pretext of a merger between the two countries.
The document outlines in granular detail a creeping annexation by political, economic and military means of an independent but illiberal European nation by Russia, which is an active state of war in its bid to conquer Ukraine through overwhelming force.
Nashville Councilwoman Faces Down GOP Lawmakers Who Want To Rename John Lewis Way After Trump
Putin Defends Ukraine Invasion in Major Speech
Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Western countries Tuesday of igniting and sustaining the war in Ukraine, dismissing any blame for Moscow almost a year after the Kremlin’s unprovoked invasion of its neighbor that has killed tens of thousands of people.
In his long-delayed state-of-the-nation address, Putin cast Russia — and Ukraine — as victims of Western double-dealing and said Russia, not Ukraine, was the one fighting for its very existence.
Roald Dahl was no angel but this is absurd censorship. Puffin Books and the Dahl estate should be ashamed. https://t.co/sdjMfBr7WW
— Salman Rushdie (@SalmanRushdie) February 18, 2023
James O’Keefe Forced Out of Project Veritas
Serendipity:
107,622 died of drug overdoses in the U.S. in 2021. Fentanyl was responsible for two-thirds of those deaths. The number of Americans killed by the drug has jumped 94 percent since 2019. On average, one person dies of a fentanyl overdose in the United States every seven minutes. Fentanyl kills more people than automobile accidents. Gunshots. Suicides.
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