Odds and Ends — 2 July 2022
Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, and Debt:
Missing Cryptoqueen: FBI adds Ruja Ignatova to top ten most wanted
Bank for International Settlements to allow banks to keep 1% of reserves in Bitcoin
Stating the obvious: Atlanta Fed GDP tracker shows the U.S. economy is likely in a recession
Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:
Iran: Rights Defenders Sentenced for Questioning Covid Policies
North Korea suggests balloons flown from South to blame for Covid-19 outbreak
Meanwhile, in The Land of Splinters:
Peace through superior firepower:
Politics:
Nothing says “seditious conspiracy” quite like witness tampering: Mark Meadows’ associate threatened ex-White House aide
Where Things Stand: SCOTUS Could Be Poised To Make Future Coup Attempts Easier
The End of the Federal Government as We Know It
The Most Hopeless Day of the SCOTUS Term
No single day has better captured the current state of the Supreme Court than Thursday. At 10 a.m., the court issued a devastating assault on the Biden administration’s ability to regulate greenhouse gases in a 6–3 ruling joined by all of the court’s reactionary block. Ten minutes later, it issued a 5–4 opinion that just barely confirmed that the president, rather than a rogue judge in Texas, has authority over border policy, with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh lending the lone votes preventing an absolutely insane outcome. Shortly thereafter, the court issued a bombshell orders list that tees up, for next term, one of the most important and dangerous democracy cases in American history, which asks whether state legislatures have near-unlimited authority over election laws.
The court’s most immediately lethal decision remains Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade. But do not let Dobbs distract from the onslaught that followed it.
PHOTO FUN: Find the emotional woman. pic.twitter.com/22fFzlgpVh
— Middle Age Riot (@middleageriot) June 30, 2022
Texas Educators Propose Calling Slavery ‘Involuntary Relocation’
Sleeper ‘Wire Fraud’ Scheme That Could Nail Trumpworld
James Lee Bright, a lawyer for Rhodes, acknowledged that most people will be shocked to learn the Oath Keepers thought they’d become a federal militia. “They believe what?” Bright imagined people thinking. “These guys are fucking crazy.”
Liz “Showtime” Cheney Is Dropping Beguiling Hints About Another Potential Jan. 6 Bombshell
The joke about having apostate GOP Rep. Liz Cheney serve as vice-chair of the House’s Jan. 6 select committee was that putting a Republican in charge of something might end up being the most politically effective move that modern congressional Democrats have ever made. It wasn’t just any Republican, either; it was the daughter of one of the most ruthless GOP operators of his era, former vice president Dick Cheney, a man so skilled in the deft dance of the political rhumba that he once got away with shooting a guy in the face.
School’s out forever: Arizona moves “to kill public education” with new universal voucher law
A Withering Indictment of the Entire GOP
However this plays out, this needs to be said: For the past half-dozen years, the Republican Party and the American right—with a very few honorable exceptions— stood with Trump, defended him, and attacked his critics. Some went silent in the face of his indecency and lawlessness; many others gleefully promulgated his lies and conspiracy theories. Together they attempted to annihilate truth on his behalf, in his name, for their party, to seize and to hold power.
Some comfort themselves by saying that they went along for the ride so they could promote their policy agenda. Others were afraid to speak up. Still others did it for ratings and money. Some Trump supporters were true believers. Some rationalized their deal with the (figurative) devil; others were more transparent and more cynical…
No matter; the die is cast when it comes to the Trump presidency and those who made it possible. The events of January 6 were, in their own twisted way, a fitting denouement for the Trump presidency. It was so obvious, for so long, that this wouldn’t end well. Trump was the primary architect of the attack on the citadel of American democracy. But he had a lot of help along the way.
NATO vows to guard 'every inch of territory' as Russia fumes
Kind of weird that they didn’t use the metric system. 😏
Might the most likely targets for such operations be Chinese military bases in the Spratly Islands?
The Real Reason Washington Ignored Kavanaugh’s Would-Be Killer
Why Republicans Are Favored To Win The House, But Not The Senate
Serendipity:
California sets the nation’s toughest rules for the reduction of plastics
