I’ve been playing around with DeepDreamGenerator’s newish “text prompt” artificial intelligence image creator. This image was generated from the prompt “https://hive.io will dominate Web 3.0”

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

Call it a guess, but this is likely a lie: Venezuelan economy grew above 15% in 2022, president says

U.S. to lend ioneer $700 million for Nevada lithium mine

Grayscale files brief in ETF suit against SEC, oral arguments may come within months

Argentina sees prices almost doubling last year

Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:

J&J Slashes Production of Its Unpopular Covid-19 Shot

Why Rapid COVID-19 Test Results Are Getting More Confusing

Politics:

House GOP Tempts Fall Government Shutdown

House Republicans are vowing to put Don Quixote to shame by tilting at a huge windmill: slashing federal spending by at least $130 billion without cutting defense.
It’s a proposition that’s severely unlikely on its face, before factoring in a Democratic Senate and White House that would never accept such cuts. Even the GOP’s fallback plan for avoiding a shutdown later this year — passing a short-term funding patch that would trigger reductions as an incentive for lawmakers to finish comprehensive spending bills — is inconceivable this term.

The Confounding Double Standard Behind Robert Hur’s Appointment As Special Counsel

"Your guy did the thing we ignored when our guy did it a lot worse" is a weird flex.

— Middle Age Riot (@middleageriot) January 12, 2023

Trump’s Company Gets Maximum Penalty

Former president Donald Trump’s family real estate business was ordered on Friday to pay a $1.6 million criminal penalty for its conviction on felony tax fraud and other charges, a stinging rebuke and the maximum possible punishment.

There’s apparently a fine line between stinging rebuke and slap on the wrist.

Feds Probe Obstruction of Justice by Trump

Don’t Expect Ron DeSantis to Bring Sanity

Arguably no one, Trump included, understands better than Ron DeSantis that popularity within the Republican Party requires relentlessly confronting the right’s domestic enemies. As such, it’s unimaginable that he’d discourage House Republicans from a politically and economically ruinous fight over the debt ceiling just because having that fight would be politically and economically ruinous.
Especially since, more so than most Republican politicians, DeSantis is hypersensitive to populist opinion. This is a guy so intent on staying on the good side of MAGA voters that he’s repositioned himself as a vaccine skeptic to win their favor. He surely knows by now that a majority of Republican voters oppose raising the debt ceiling. He’s not going to side against them and with Democrats by backing a clean debt-ceiling hike, especially while Trump is hooting at the House GOP to fight, fight, fight.
There go the people. He must follow them, for he is their leader.

.@RubenGallego you know we have an air fryer? **Tells you who does the cooking https://t.co/GObTQQeZkl

— Sydney B Gallego (@Syd_Gallego) January 13, 2023

Trump loses bid to dismiss rape accuse’s second defamation lawsuit

Justice Department reveals it has Jan. 6 select committee files that the panel opted not to release to the public.

Prosecutors say the 30GB of unreleased documents include “voluminous” disclosures by committee witnesses.

House GOP to Prepare Emergency Debt Limit Plan

House Republicans are preparing a plan telling the Treasury Department what to do if Congress and the White House don’t agree to lift the nation’s debt limit later this year, underscoring the brinkmanship newly empowered conservatives will bring to the high-stakes negotiations over averting a U.S. default.

Um, that’s not how it works. One chamber of Congress cannot unilaterally issue orders to the Treasury. The Senate and the President are not going to tolerate it. I suppose whiny House Republicans could vote on a non-binding resolution, but that’s all.

Is the West Ready for a Long War in Ukraine?

With Russia announcing a mobilization of hundreds of thousands of soldiers in October and switching its economy to a war footing, time could be on Moscow’s side.
So far, neither the U.S. nor Europe has made the adjustments, especially in military production, that are necessary for sustaining Ukraine in a war that could potentially drag on for several years. Neither are they immune to pain from further energy shocks.

Biden’s Frenzied Final Days as Vice President

Russia Wants to Trade 36 Hijacked Satellites for Soyuz Rocket

A Sheriff in Louisiana Has Been Destroying Records of Deputies’ Alleged Misconduct for Years

A lawsuit brought by the family of an autistic teen who died while in custody found the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office destroyed the disciplinary records of a deputy involved in the case.

Serendipity:

Sitting all day is terrible for your health – now, a new study finds a relatively easy way to counteract it

Mass Climate Migration Is Coming

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