Odds and Ends — 23 November 2022
I’ve been playing around with DeepDreamGenerator’s newish “text prompt” artificial intelligence image creator. This image was generated from a prompt from David Bowie’s lyric “I’m not a prophet or a stone age man / Just a mortal with potential of a superman.”
Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, Business, and Debt:
Harvard paper to central banks: Buy Bitcoin!
This Bot Is the Most Dangerous Thing Meta’s Made Yet
Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev to stay detained until next year’s hearing
Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:
New ‘Died Suddenly’ Film Pushes Unfounded Depopulation Claims About Covid-19 Vaccine
Anti-vax film ‘Died Suddenly’ is littered with fake claims, testing boundaries of Musk’s Twitter
Politics:
Justices Clear Way to Release Trump Tax Returns
The Supreme Court on Tuesday denied former president Donald Trump’s efforts to block the release of his tax records to a congressional committee that has sought the information for years. The court’s order means that the Treasury Department may quickly hand over six years of tax records from Trump and some of his companies to the House Ways and Means Committee. There were no recorded dissents in the court’s order.
Pass the popcorn!
Judge Blasts Trump Org Lawyers for Delay Tactics
Why the GOP's Biden probes could backfire
We’re already hearing from a host of moderate House Republicans who won in Biden districts who are dreading the prospect of overly aggressive probes. It’s not what they ran on this election cycle — and certainly not what they want to be talking about after spending their campaigns focused on the economy. Thanks to Trump’s stonewalling posture — remember him vowing to ignore “all the subpoenas” sent by House Democrats? — Biden now has a precedent for totally snubbing Congress. The Republicans who are now targeting Biden foresaw this complication. In “Unchecked — The Untold Story Behind Congress’s Botched Impeachments of Donald Trump” … Rachael and coauthor Karoun Demirjian scooped that McCarthy’s and Jordan’s teams tried to convince Trump to cooperate with House requests because they knew a future Democratic president might return the favor one day, crippling Congress’s oversight power. (Of course, they never said this out loud.) That day has now come.
Iran media blames humiliating World Cup loss on protests
January 6 Supporters Feted at Trump Campaign Launch
When Donald Trump plunged into the 2024 presidential race last week at his Mar-a-Lago club, he was surrounded by sidekicks, superfans and self-described sycophants. Among them was another subset of Trump world figures who look poised to help form the coalition behind his third presidential bid: those sympathetic to or even a part of the riot on the Capitol on January 6.
Peter Thiel Seeks Young People’s Blood
Bolsonaro challenges Brazil election he lost to Lula
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has challenged the election he lost last month to leftist rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, arguing votes from some machines should be “invalidated” in a complaint that election authorities met with initial skepticism. Bolsonaro’s claim seems unlikely to get far, as Lula’s victory has been ratified by the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) and acknowledged by Brazil’s leading politicians and international allies. Still, it could fuel a small but committed protest movement that has so far refused to accept the result.
Rebelling Against Trump Is Not the Same as Rebelling Against Trumpism
Former Vice President Mike Pence is building out his political staff, the latest indication that he’s prepping a White House bid that will pit him against his former boss, ex-President Donald Trump.
Does anyone other than Mike Pence think that this has any chance of succeeding? Okay, maybe Donald Trump is led off in chains and Ron DeSantis is exposed as a pedophile and the Republican base defaults to backing the dullest candidate left standing. Let’s give that parlay 100–1 odds. But he then would face a 0% chance of winning the general election. Americans just aren’t that stupid.
McCarthy Threatens to Impeach Mayorkas
Yeah, good luck with that.
Huge age gap shows up in AARP poll of Warnock-Walker runoff
Trump Attacks ‘Weak RINO’ Bill Barr
Is it just me, or does Trump’s writing style seem like something out of a Mark Trail comic, aimed at people with sixth-grade reading abilities?
Herschel Walker accuser details 6-year relationship with Senate hopeful, pregnancies, abortion
Herschel, I was shocked that you deny even knowing me. We were together for six years. You met my parents on a number of occasions. You met other members of my family. Surely you remember coming to my apartment in Dallas more times than I can count at 1131 Meadow Creek Circle and walking up three flights of stairs in order to be with me.
Who else thinks it’s hilarious that both Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham nod their heads in agreement when Herschel Walker says “this erection is about the people.”
— Jon Cooper (@joncoopertweets) November 23, 2022
pic.twitter.com/UwAUcE0CWA
Serendipity:
After COP27, all signs point to world blowing past the 1.5 degrees global warming limit
Badge thanks to @arcange
