Odds and Ends — 28 November 2023

6 months ago

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

EU Lawmakers Call to Reduce Tech Dependency on Other Countries With Metaverse Strategy

Coinbase shares hit 18-month high after Binance charges

The price high comes after rival exchange Binance pleaded guilty and traders seemingly priced in Coinbase’s custodian agreements for a slate of spot crypto ETFs.

Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:

COVID variant BA.2.86 triples in new CDC estimates, now 8.8% of cases

Florida Man:

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1729098621360935391?s=20

Politics:

“Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?”

A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace…
Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman.

Idaho Asks Supreme Court To Let It Fully Impose Punitive Abortion Ban During Appeal

How China is tearing down Islam

Thousands of mosques have been altered or destroyed as Beijing’s suppression of Islamic culture spreads

Netanyahu and Hamas depended on each other. Both may be on the way out.

Red State Politicians Abandon Local Control

Despite long advocating small government and local control, Republican governors and legislators across a significant swath of the country are increasingly overriding the actions of Democratic cities — removing elected district attorneys or threatening to strip them of power, taking over election offices and otherwise limiting local independence.
State lawmakers proposed nearly 700 bills this year to circumscribe what cities and counties can do … As of mid-October, at least 92 had passed.

https://twitter.com/theliamnissan/status/1729146554731356358?s=20

Trump hints at expanded role for the military within the US. A legacy law gives him few guardrails

https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/1729245219323867649?s=20

Was the Trump White House selling pardons?

‘Stop the price-gouging’: Biden hits corporations over high consumer costs

https://twitter.com/MuellerSheWrote/status/1729288419032072363?s=20

Understanding Steve Bannon

Is Bannon truly someone forever playing the game several levels above and ahead of the rest of us, his every ambiguous zig and zag calculated to further a majestic master plan? Or is he actually just one more big-talking huckster, brazenly improvising whatever he can with whichever tools he can muster, making it all up as he goes?
Or—maybe the most chastening possibility of all—might it be that in our modern-day runaway world of increasingly fractured and divided truths, there’s no longer a meaningful difference between the two?

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1729103454717767975?s=20

China wielding ‘bargaining power’ with Russia over Power of Siberia 2 natural gas pipeline

Turkey’s exports of military-linked goods to Russia soar

The Washington Post is very worried that American women don't want to marry Trump supporters