Odds and Ends — 22 August 2023

@preparedwombat 79

almost 3 years ago

oddsandends

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

Why Xi Jinping Is Letting China’s Economy Flail

U.S. Plans New Tariffs on Food-Can Metal From China, Germany and Canada

Um, there IS a great social network.https://t.co/LPliPyzDvP
— preparedwombat (@preparedwombat) August 21, 2023

Texas mandates new EV charging stations use the Tesla NACS plug

X Blue users will need to send selfie, data to Israeli software company

Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:

Long COVID. Shorter Life? New research reveals an arduous road to recovery

CDC, pharmacies try to speed up Covid vaccine program for the uninsured

Florida Man:

DeSantis Preps for ‘Dog-Pile on Ron’ at Debate

The debate is a crossroads for DeSantis. He’s far behind Trump in GOP polls, and Republican megadonors who want a Trump alternative tell Axios they’ll be watching to see whether DeSantis — or anyone else — has a hope of contending.
That’s why the Florida governor’s top advisers expect the theme of the night to be “dog-pile on Ron” for many of the eight other expected GOP candidates.

Politics:

Trump Floats Plan to Flee to Russia

Trump’s Quasi-Religious Mythology of Martyrdom

The trials are a continuous spectacle, featuring an all-star cast in far-flung locations. Political reporters are barely heard from, while legal analysts fill the airwaves. Every twist and turn, every motion, every argument is the breathless lead story. Everyone, from prosecutors to co-conspirators, named and unnamed, indicted and unindicted, are characters in Trump’s new reality show – part violent action movie (the insurrection), part sleazy porn flick (Stormy Daniels), part conspiracy thriller (Mar-a-Lago), and part mafia drama (the fake elector racket).
But the Trump trials are more than his means; they are his ends. The trials are not the sideshow, but the heart and soul of Trump’s campaign. They have become his essential fundraising tool to finance his defense, his platform for whipping up his followers into a constant state of excitement, and his instrument for dominating the media to make himself the center of attention and blot out coverage of anyone else.
The trials are the message. They are the drama around which Trump plays his role as the unjustly accused victim, whose rights are trampled and who is the martyr for his oppressed ‘deplorables.’ He is taking the slings and arrows for them. The narcissist is the self-sacrificing saint. The criminal is the angel. The liar is the truth-teller.

Judge Throws Out Confession of Bombing Suspect as Derived From Torture

Biden should say... I will debate Trump when he accepts that he lost the 2020 election. Otherwise, why would I debate that tool? pic.twitter.com/XdtMFVV5SU
— Alex Cole (@acnewsitics) August 21, 2023

The Resistance Was Right

Don’t let the moving Overton Window fool you.…
…six years ago I don’t think many people on either side would have believed that today’s reality was likely. Or even possible. Yet here we are, actually living in something close to the worst-case scenario.
And yet we are so habituated to this dark reality that we’ve come to see it as normal.

House Freedom Caucus Makes Shutdown More Likely

Let’s pour one out for Mike Lindell: MyPillow Guy wasn't important enough to get his own indictment

The yawning lack of law enforcement interest in Lindell has got to smart. It really underscores a suspicion many have had about Lindell's role in the coup: The plotters were keeping him around for his money but didn't actually take him seriously enough to involve him in the criminal conspiracy. Lindell is like one of those creepy adult men who hangs out with high school kids: They only tolerate him because he buys them beer. And like those men, he's pathetic on two levels: in the company he wanted to keep, and the fact that he was too lame even for them.

Fox is pushing back on Trump’s plan to stack the debate spin room with his surrogates to try and dominate the broadcast before and after the debate. https://t.co/aLVxBWRt6t
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) August 22, 2023

Rudy Giuliani: I Have “Scientific Evidence” the 2020 Election Was Stolen From Donald Trump

In the best of all possible worlds, he got it from Mike Lindell.

Ocasio-Cortez Seeks Info on U.S. Role in Chile’s 1973 Coup

Springtime for Europe’s fascists

You haven’t seen this movie before. This time Germany’s sharp lurch to the right is the phenomenon to watch.

Ukrainian drone destroys Russian supersonic bomber

Cohen knocks Trump for not paying alleged co-conspirators’ legal bills: ‘Donald is an idiot’

“Let me just be very clear when it comes to paying money, he is truly an idiot. He has not learned yet that … three people you don’t want to throw under the bus like that: your lawyer, your doctor and your mechanic. Because one way or the other, you’re going to go down the hill and there’ll be no brakes.”

Trials of Ukrainian Prisoners of War in Russia: Decay of the Combatant’s Immunity

This deserves much more attention and coverage.

Saudi Arabia: Mass Killings of Migrants at Yemen Border https://t.co/alskymCk79
— Don Winslow (@donwinslow) August 21, 2023