Odds and Ends — 12 December 2023

12 months ago

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

World’s First Bitcoin Bonds Receive Regulatory Approval in El Salvador

https://twitter.com/JoeWarner81/status/1733909118279090208?s=20
https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1733938521084158090?s=20

Bitcoin inscriptions added to US National Vulnerability Database

Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:

Rishi Sunak Covid inquiry – live: PM reacts to Boris Johnson’s ‘pro-death squad’ description of Treasury

Florida Man:

Real Estate Titans Battle DeSantis Over China Property Crackdown

Politics:

Supreme Court Orders Trump to Respond to Jack Smith

The U.S. Supreme Court moved at lightning speed on Monday in response to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s request for the justices to get involved in its federal criminal case against Donald Trump.

https://twitter.com/BlackKnight10k/status/1734334418435608908?s=20
https://twitter.com/glennkirschner2/status/1734343354090172437?s=20

Special Counsel Has Trump’s Cell Phone Data

Special counsel Jack Smith has extracted data from the cell phone Donald Trump used while in the White House and plans to present evidence of his findings to a Washington, D.C. jury to demonstrate how Trump used the phone in the weeks during which he attempted to subvert the 2020 election.
In a court filing Monday, Smith indicated that he plans to call an expert witness who extracted and reviewed data copied from Trump’s phone, as well as a phone used by another unidentified individual in Trump’s orbit.

https://twitter.com/JayinKyiv/status/1733971306243104998?s=20

NBC News demands Trump campaign take down fake clip of reporter

https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1733892421895746022?s=20

Jack Smith reveals sweeping scope of bid to debunk Trump election machine claims

https://twitter.com/NoLieWithBTC/status/1733685200284946664?s=20

GOP’s Vance seeks investigation into op-ed that criticized Trump

After a journalist warned of a possible Republican dictatorship, Sen. J.D. Vance contacted law enforcement, requesting a possible criminal investigation.

https://twitter.com/PalmerReport/status/1733973672073806199?s=20

Talk of a Trump Dictatorship Charges the Campaign

When a historian wrote an essay the other day warning that the election of former President Donald Trump next year could lead to dictatorship, one of Mr. Trump’s allies quickly responded by calling for the historian to be sent to prison.
It almost sounds like a parody: The response to concerns about dictatorship is to prosecute the author. But Mr. Trump and his allies are not going out of their way to reassure those worried about what a new term would bring by firmly rejecting the dictatorship charge. If anything, they seem to be leaning into it.
If Mr. Trump is returned to office, people close to him have vowed to “come after” the news media, open criminal investigations into onetime aides who broke with the former president and purge the government of civil servants deemed disloyal. When critics said Mr. Trump’s language about ridding Washington of ‘vermin’ echoed that of Adolf Hitler, the former president’s spokesman said the critics’ ‘sad, miserable existence will be crushed’ under a new Trump administration.

https://twitter.com/MuellerSheWrote/status/1733739734764261861?s=20

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1733311502063456257?s=20

‘Save Sarasota, Deport the Zieglers’: Residents Want MAGA Florida Couple Gone

https://twitter.com/wrmead/status/1729214012045336984?s=20

Mead’s op-ed.

https://twitter.com/ruthbenghiat/status/1733881471058743409?s=20

‘Morally, this is obscene’: GOP divided over stripping compensation for radiation victims from NDAA

Trump Chickens Out of Testifying Monday in NY Civil Fraud Trial

https://twitter.com/ResisterSis20/status/1733476231528476998?s=20

Younger Americans fearing 2024 election could spark a civil war are preparing for disaster: 40% of Gen-Z have spent money on doomsday preparations, new survey finds

Meh. Prepping and “doomsday” prepping are two very different things. Yeah, I prep a bit, but not for a worst case scenario. In a worst case scenario, I’m somebody’s food.

https://twitter.com/john_sipher/status/1733529830669361606?s=20

Less Opportunity for Fake Electors in 2024

While the fake elector scheme was novel in 2020, with many pro-Trump electors claiming they didn’t fully understand how their votes would be used, those who engage in similar activities in the future could find it harder to claim they didn’t know they could be held criminally liable.
Another discouraging force: a new federal law that tightened the rules surrounding the counting of electoral college votes every four years.

https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1733947841200980404?s=20

Iowa Debate May Not Happen

The final GOP presidential debate before the Iowa caucuses may not happen, as former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley hasn’t committed to participating and Vivek Ramaswamy and former Gov. Chris Christie aren’t on pace to qualify.

https://twitter.com/FPWellman/status/1733994224209506345?s=20