Odds and Ends — 12 January 2023
More About Kurt Wallander:
Beware, spoilers ahead: Well, in yesterday’s post I mentioned that Wallander made a rookie mistake in the third story and said because of that the story “was a bit lame, not Mankell’s best effort” but that might have been a premature conclusion on my part. In the fourth story, Wallander makes the same mistake. Again, a well-written story overall. So it could well be that the author had quite intentionally introduced a character flaw, something essential in all fully-realized fictional characters. Mea culpa.
Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, Business, and Debt:
The U.S. May Finally Breach the Debt Ceiling. Here’s Why That Would Be Very Bad.
Coinbase Junk Bonds Further Downgraded by S&P on Weak Profitability, Regulatory Risks
Why China’s zero-Covid U-turn has cast a ‘long shadow’ over Beijing’s economic leadership
The conclusion is a bit of a stretch, but for what it’s worth: From Bernie Madoff to Bankman-Fried: Bitcoin maximalists have been validated
Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:
South Korea shares eye-opening Covid statistics to defend its new rules for travelers from China
Politics:
The Critical Difference in the Classified Document Cases
The Corruption Runs Deep In This Rolling Clown Show
The House GOP’s brazenness, its lack of shame, and its full-throated embrace of interfering with ongoing criminal investigations has the effect of almost normalizing what is an extraordinary level of systemic corruption and abuse of power.
Fighting rages over Ukraine’s Soledar despite mercenaries’ claim of control
Defense Cuts Will Send House Republicans into Turmoil
Most of this will play out, just like the Speaker’s battle, inside the Republican conference. It will pit traditional Republican hawks against MAGA Republicans who think, as the Hill Republican told me, that ‘support to non-Americans, the people who don’t have a little American flag next to their name, is a waste of tax-payer dollars,’ and it will all be adjudicated by a Speaker who believes in nothing but burnishing his own resumé.
Consider this: there’s a number being bandied about in Washington these days, $75 billion. That’s the number that McCarthy has promised to slash off the Pentagon budget this year because that’s the number by which the Pentagon budget increased last year. But guess what? The reason it increased by that much in 2022 was because of a concession Democrats made to Republicans, who wanted more defense spending, not less. As they say about our lovely Mid-Atlantic, if you don’t like the weather, wait half an hour.
"The right of the people to keep and cook with Gas Stoves, shall not be infringed." pic.twitter.com/AiY29gKS8d
— Middle Age Riot (@middleageriot) January 10, 2023
Never mind that his faux rage is based on nothing more than a trial balloon by a member of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and that Biden doesn’t agree.
House Republicans turn their attention to restricting abortion rights
Some red meat for their base. DOA in the Senate but just fine for fundraising I suppose.
Hunter Biden’s Tangled Tale Comes Front and Center
The real Hunter Biden story is complex and very different in important ways from the narrative promoted by Republicans — but troubling in its own way…
David C. Weiss, the U.S. attorney for Delaware, is closing in on a decision about whether to prosecute Hunter Biden on charges stemming from his behavior during his most troubled years…
…Mr. Weiss, people familiar with the investigation say, appears to be focused on a less politically explosive set of possible charges stemming from his failure to meet filing deadlines for his 2016 and 2017 tax returns, and questions about whether he falsely claimed at least $30,000 in deductions for business expenses…
Mr. Weiss is also said to be considering charging Hunter Biden, who has openly acknowledged his years of struggle with drugs and alcohol, with lying on a U.S. government form that he filled out to purchase a handgun in 2018. On the form, he answered that he was not using drugs — an assertion that prosecutors might be able to challenge based on his erratic behavior and possible witness accounts of his drug use around that period.
Brazil rioters plotted openly online, pitched huge ‘party’
Survey finds ‘classical fascist’ antisemitic views widespread in U.S.
Serendipity:
Is Dry January a little too dry for you? Why more people are opting for a “Damp January”
Ozempic shortage ongoing as prescriptions soar among global supply constraints
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