Odds and Ends — 21 March 2023

Crypto Fear and Greed Index hits highest level since Bitcoin’s all-time high

Indonesia sets aside $455 million to subsidise electric motorcycle sales

Signature Bank Threw a Fundraiser for the Congressman Now Probing How It Failed

Ten days before Signature Bank collapsed, the House Republican overseeing an inquiry into the bank’s failure was inside its boardroom on New York’s Fifth Avenue. Patrick McHenry was there to raise thousands of dollars from bank executives.

Long COVID Comes Into the Light

We’re finally starting to see the truth about the vexing condition. It’s not what we thought.

How Politics Shaped the Battle Over Covid’s Origin

The story of the hunt for Covid’s origin is partly about the stonewalling by China that has left scientists with incomplete evidence, all of it about a virus that is constantly changing. … But the story is also about politics and how both Democrats and Republicans have filtered the available evidence through their partisan lenses. The intense political debate, now in its fourth year, has at times turned scientists into lobbyists, competing for policymakers’ time and favor.

Yeah, good luck with that: Trump Moves to Quash Georgia Grand Jury Report

Lawyers for former President Donald Trump on Monday moved to quash the final report of the special purpose grand jury that is recommending indictments for those who meddled with Georgia’s 2020 presidential election.

We Are All Fetuses Now

The tactic deployed to “protect” the unborn has now been deployed to deprive actual living, breathing, ambulating humans of agency, too.

Biden Issues Veto to Protect Socially Conscious Investing

President Biden issued the first veto of his presidency on Monday, turning back a Republican effort to bar investment managers from incorporating climate and social considerations into their decisions. The rule that the president vowed to protect is an obscure investing principle known as E.S.G. — shorthand for prioritizing environmental, social and governance factors. It had been a widely accepted norm in financial circles for almost 20 years until Republicans recently started assailing it as “woke capitalism” that injected Democratic and liberal values into financial decisions. More than $18 trillion is held in investment funds that follow E.S.G. principles.

Protesters set rubbish on fire as French govt barely survives no-confidence vote

Washington prepares for war with Amazon

A multi-pronged investigation of the online giant is approaching the action phase — on mergers, antitrust, privacy and more.

Four Oath Keeper associates convicted of felonies for roles in US Capitol attack

Trump Did It Again

Donald Trump threatened to summon a mob—for the second time in two years—to his defense…. The last time he rallied his faithful supporters this way, they stormed the U.S. Capitol, which resulted in death and destruction and many, many prison sentences. Trump himself upped the ante by saying, in effect, that it doesn’t matter what’s in the indictment. Instead, he is warning all of us, point-blank, that he will violate the law if he wants to, and if you don’t like it, you can take it up with the mob that he can summon at will. This is pure authoritarianism, the flex of a would-be American caudillo who is betting that our fear of his goons is greater than our commitment to the rule of law. Once someone like Trump issues that kind of challenge, it doesn’t matter if the indictment is for murder, campaign-finance violations, or mopery with intent to gawk: The issue is whether our legal institutions can be bullied into paralysis.

Secession is here: States, cities and the wealthy are already withdrawing from America

Georgia Prosecutors Want to Talk to Trump Attorney

Fulton County prosecutors leading the criminal investigation into efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia are now looking to question one of Trump’s attorneys as part of the probe.

Your ‘Recycled’ Grocery Bag Might Not Have Been Recycled

Recent laws encourage recycling old plastic into new products. But verifying recycled content relies on tricky math.

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