Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, Business, and Debt:
BlackRock wants to buy spot Bitcoin ETFs for global allocation fund
https://twitter.com/100trillionUSD/status/1765683709229846738
Shapeshifting Justice: The SEC’s Weakest Case Yet
Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:
COVID’s Long Haul: Virus Lingers in Blood Years After Infection
Politics:
The Truth About the Border Security Deal
One of the more interesting moments at last night’s State of the Union address was when President Biden touted the bipartisan border deal as the “toughest set of border security reforms we’ve ever seen.”
Republicans heckled his remarks, but Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), the lead Republican negotiator, can be seen mouthing, “That’s true.”
Trump Can’t Delay E. Jean Carroll Penalties
A New York judge on Thursday denied Donald Trump’s request for a temporary delay of the penalties in E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case, leaving the former president three days to pay or post a bond for the entire $83.3 million judgment…
Wrote Judge Lewis Kaplan in an order: “Mr. Trump’s current situation is a result of his own dilatory actions. He has had since January 26 to organize his finances with the knowledge that he might need to bond this judgment, yet he waited until 25 days after the jury verdict … to file his prior motion for an unsecured or partially secured stay pending resolution of post-trial motions.”
https://twitter.com/marlene4719/status/1765845211186442669
The Much Vaunted Guardrails Are Failing
The guardrails are failing. They are failing not only to hold Trump accountable directly, but also, absent any serious legal and political consequences, to at least tell the people how exceptionally dangerous Trump and those who are fueling, enabling, and supporting him are. If someone assumes that this is still a country with functioning institutions, then it’s only logical for them to conclude that Trump walking free means his transgressions can’t be that bad.
At some point, it becomes really hard to expect people to break through their routines and actively defend democracy, as is necessary in a situation of crisis, if the institutions we ask them to trust shy away from doing their part – if they instead continue to signal ‘normalcy,’ that politics as usual is still an option or, at the very least, that exceptional, unprecedented measures would be ‘too extreme.’
https://twitter.com/MuellerSheWrote/status/1765775477246243089
https://twitter.com/Kasparov63/status/1765770828493344853
Trump to Seize Control of GOP Machine
Donald Trump will tighten his grip on the GOP on Friday when his allies are poised to take control of the Republican National Committee at a meeting in Houston, Texas.
After sweeping the Super Tuesday primaries and virtually guaranteeing he’s the nominee, Trump has handpicked his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, and Michael Whatley for top jobs in the party. They’re expected to receive enough votes from delegates to glide into the posts with no opposition, and their term will last past the election through January 2025.
The effective merging of the Trump campaign and the RNC is another step on the ex-president’s march toward total dominance over the party.
https://twitter.com/DRBoguslaw/status/1765808541200257072
Americans Want Immigration Bill Congress Won’t Pass
Americans support both tougher border security and a pathway to citizenship for longtime immigrants living in the country illegally, a new Wall Street Journal poll finds—suggesting that voters crave a blueprint for compromise that Congress has all but abandoned.
Katie Britt, With Smiles and Menace, Delivers GOP Response
The performance was so bad that some Republicans watched the high-profile speech with a grimace. A GOP strategist told The Daily Beast that Britt’s delivery quickly became a gossip item Thursday night among operatives connected to Donald Trump—something that could have potential implications for her consideration as a vice presidential pick for the former president.
Said this Republican: “Everyone’s fucking losing it. It’s one of our biggest disasters ever.”
https://twitter.com/MarkJacob16/status/1765517819565752774
Ronny Jackson, the former White House physician turned GOP congressman, regularly touts his military bona fides.
But Jackson is no longer a retired admiral. The Navy demoted him in July 2022 following a damaging Pentagon inspector general’s report that substantiated allegations about his inappropriate behavior as a White House physician.
Jackson is now a retired Navy captain, those people said — a demotion that carries significant financial burden in addition to the social stigma of stripped rank in military circles.
https://twitter.com/ZaleskiLuke/status/1765433006536180202
Mock News Sites With Russian Ties Pop Up in U.S.
Into the depleted field of journalism in America, a handful of websites have appeared in recent weeks with names suggesting a focus on news close to home: D.C. Weekly, the New York News Daily, the Chicago Chronicle and a newer sister publication, the Miami Chronicle,” the New York Times reports.
In fact, they are not local news organizations at all. They are Russian creations, researchers and government officials say, meant to mimic actual news organizations to push Kremlin propaganda by interspersing it among an at-times odd mix of stories about crime, politics and culture.
While Russia has long sought ways to influence public discourse in the United States, the fake news organizations — at least five, so far — represent a technological leap in its efforts to find new platforms to dupe unsuspecting American readers. The sites, the researchers and officials said, could well be the foundations of an online network primed to surface disinformation ahead of the American presidential election in November.
https://twitter.com/acnewsitics/status/1765725502873227735
Ukraine war: Eastern residents brace for Russian advance
https://twitter.com/MuellerSheWrote/status/1765442160063873225
Trump Boosts Christian Nationalism
The concept of Christian nationalism — technically, the belief that the secular government should favor Christianity or even be replaced by it — existed long before Trump’s rise to power. But experts said the former president’s embrace of the movement and his increasing use of Christian nationalist language is something altogether new.
The fervor for Christian nationalist ideology has catalyzed an active political movement… So while they have long been alarmed about Christian nationalist ideas, they see the new movement as an army of sorts, ready for a mission, with Trump as its general. They’re worried about what action the most extreme members could be directed to take if he wins – or loses – in November.
https://twitter.com/secretsandlaws/status/1765507859033301321
Why Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Meeting With Viktor Orbán Should Terrify Us All (podcast)
https://twitter.com/MarkJacob16/status/1765818088010772944
The Golden Age of American Jews is Ending
Anti-Semitism on the right and the left threatens to bring to a close an unprecedented period of safety and prosperity for Jewish Americans—and demolish the liberal order they helped establish.
https://twitter.com/acnewsitics/status/1765857866710421612
Serendipity:
How Florida’s home insurance market became so dysfunctional, so fast
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