Odds and Ends — 7 March 2023
Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, Business, and Debt:
Voyager Bankruptcy Judge Expresses Skepticism Over U.S. SEC Objection to Binance US Deal
Recycling dead solar panels isn’t easy. These Australian scientists might have found a solution
It’s almost as if they’ve never heard of HBD: Frax’s shift to a fully backed stablecoin signals the end of DeFi’s algorithmic experiment
Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:
Russian COVID Vaccine Creator Found Strangled to Death With Belt
He didn’t fall out a window?
Politics:
Trump’s CPAC Speech Was ‘Wildly Dishonest’
Trump’s lengthy address to the right-wing gathering in Maryland was filled with wildly inaccurate claims about his own presidency, Joe Biden’s presidency, foreign affairs, crime, elections and other subjects.
Trump’s dark ‘I am your retribution’ pledge — and how GOP enabled it
The line validates long-held suspicions that Trump’s 2024 campaign amounts to something of a ‘revenge tour.’ Trump has disputed that his goal is to stick it to his enemies; now he’s admitting that it is a revenge tour of sorts — if not for him personally, then for his supporters.
“>But as much as anything, it reflects just how much the Republican Party, despite its apparent interest in turning the page in 2024, has enabled Trump to rise again. There is no ‘revenge tour’ or ‘retribution’ without the GOP playing into speculative and often-fanciful ideas about the wrongs supposedly visited on its base — and which accordingly demand such vengeance. And there is no 2024 hopeful better situated to capitalize on that sense of persecution and injustice.
In that regard, the party and its allies made a series of fateful decisions in the three months after the 2020 election.
The DHS has a program gathering domestic intelligence – and virtually no one knows about it
”This is our fight for dignity”: The struggle to confront caste privilege in America
Caste-based discrimination happens in the U.S. too. A new Seattle ordinance galvanizes the South Asian community
As Trump Inquiry Continues, Republicans Seek Oversight of Georgia Prosecutors
Two of the measures under consideration would create a new state oversight board that could punish or remove prosecutors for loosely defined reasons, including ‘willful misconduct.’ A third would sharply reduce the number of signatures required to seek a recall of a district attorney.
The proposals are part of a broader push by conservative lawmakers around the country to rein in prosecutors whom they consider too liberal, and who in some cases are refusing to prosecute low-level drug crimes or enforce strict new anti-abortion laws.
California to not do business with Walgreens over abortion pills issue, Governor says
Memo Lays the Groundwork for Trump Indictments
When the Department of Justice took the position this week that former President Donald Trump acted improperly by urging his followers to attack Congress in 2021, prosecutors did more than open the door to a potential flood of civil lawsuits from police officers who were injured on Jan. 6.
What they actually did, according to legal scholars, is lay the groundwork for a potential criminal indictment against Trump for inciting the insurrection.
Pro-Trump Bots Are Attacking DeSantis
As Republican voters size up their candidates for 2024, whoever created the bot network is seeking to put a thumb on the scale, using online manipulation techniques pioneered by the Kremlin to sway the digital platform conversation about candidates while exploiting Twitter’s algorithms to maximize their reach.
Inside the GOP’s Search for a ‘Deep State’ Whistleblower
The results have left Democrats gleeful and even some Republicans deeply unimpressed. A ‘dumpster fire,’ is how one Democrat with knowledge of the at-times combative interactions terms the proceedings.
Immigration Issues Threaten Biden’s Climate Program
President Joe Biden’s plan for greening the economy relies on a simple pitch: It will create good-paying jobs for Americans.
The problem is there might not be enough Americans to fill them. That reality is pressuring the Biden administration to wrestle with the nation’s immigration system to avoid squandering its biggest legislative achievements.
Did the South assassinate this president to preserve slavery? Forensic scientists say it's possible
Zachary Taylor died in 1850 of food poisoning. Some experts think the culprit was arsenic — here's why
Serendipity:
They Called 911 for Help. Police and Prosecutors Used a New Junk Science to Decide They Were Liars.
Seychelles: The island paradise held prisoner by heroin
A demographic tragedy is unfolding in Russia. Over the past three years the country has lost around 2m more people than it would ordinarily have done, as a result of war, disease and exodus.
The life expectancy of Russian males aged 15 fell by almost five years, to the same level as in Haiti. The number of Russians born in April 2022 was no higher than it had been in the months of Hitler’s occupation. And because so many men of fighting age are dead or in exile, women outnumber men by at least 10m.
Say what you will about Elon Musk, but you’ve got to admit that he has a weird man-child sense of humor:
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 6, 2023
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They know about hbd, they also know the billionaires financing them get mad when they mention it.
Word of mouth is the advertise we are gonna get.
Too bad most of the mouths out there talking about us are saying negative things.
We need a better welcome wagon, imo.