I’ve been playing around with DeepDreamGenerator’s newish “text prompt” artificial intelligence image creator. This image was generated from the prompt “His diet has too many nachos and not enough coffee.”

Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, and Debt:

Fanatic sells 60% stake in Candy Digital amid ‘imploding NFT market’

The Economy Is Improving in Three Major Ways

Happy trends are easy to overlook.

Crypto Bank Juno Tells Customers to Self-Custody or Sell Amid Custodian Wyre’s Turmoil

Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:

Damar Hamlin: How anti-vaxxers exploited player’s collapse

Hackers find out that Lukashenko could deceive Putin with COVID-19 tests

Politics:

’Fearless’ Special Counsel Jack Smith arrives in Washington to lead Trump probes

Jack Smith, the U.S. special counsel named to investigate Republican former President Donald Trump, has a reputation for winning tough cases against war criminals, mobsters and crooked police officers.
Behind the scenes, however, Smith's former colleagues say he is just as tenacious in his pursuit to get criminal charges dropped for the innocent as he is to win convictions against the guilty.

The House GOP’s First Order Of Business Was Removing The Metal Detectors

.@AOC tells me a few mins ago that she wouldn’t outright rule out working w/ Rs to resolve the speaker battle, but McCarthy would not be a unity candidate + Ds would need more concessions than just things like committee ratios.

“But, I mean, hey, if we could get some chairs.”

— Ursula Perano (@UrsulaPerano) January 4, 2023

Hmmmm… hard to see Republicans agreeing to something like that at this point. But if they go a few dozen votes without electing a Speaker, I suppose they might start grasping at straws.

Trump Links House Speaker Chaos to His Election Lies

Why Republicans Probably Won’t Tank the Economy to Stick It to Biden

Don’t expect the new House majority to risk another debt-ceiling crisis.

McCarthy critic Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) said he wanted McCarthy to devise a debt-limit deal suitable to fiscal conservatives.

"Is he willing to shut the government down rather than raise the debt ceiling? That's a non-negotiable item."

— Chris Cioffi (@ReporterCioffi) January 4, 2023

“It’s worth noting that the debt ceiling and government shutdowns have nothing to do with each other.” — Taegan Goddard

It sure the fuck is. pic.twitter.com/UMs2Lz1tfb

— Middle Age Riot (@middleageriot) January 3, 2023

Pass the popcorn!

Historians should note that the party that lost control of the House brought popcorn to the ceremony. The party that ‘won,’ blew itself up. And then did it again. And again. And then left for a night of pizza, bitterness, and recriminations.
Meanwhile, the MAGA crackup accelerated as crackpots fought with nihilists, wingnuts pointed fingers at extremists, and grifters started slap-fights with one another.

Serendipity:

Why Are Energy Prices So High? Some Experts Blame Deregulation.

’Feels like summer’: Warm winter breaks temperature records in Europe

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