Odds and Ends — 9 September 2024

in #oddsandends2 months ago


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

Tether's $100M Investment in LatAm Agriculture Firm May Be a Tokenization Play

The ‘Vibecession’ Is Ending

For months, economists have wrestled with the disconnect between how well the economy is doing and how badly people feel about their financial standing.
Now, evidence suggests that the so-called ‘vibecession,’ or that prolonged period of negative sentiment about the economy, appears to be ending.
As inflation cools and the Federal Reserve prepares to lower interest rates, Americans’ assessments of the future are improving, which is bringing the country’s economic standing more in line with consumer sentiment.

Crypto Super PAC pours $660K into Senate race as US election closes in

I hate to break it to these guys, but nowadays $660K is chump change in American politics.

Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:

COVID-19 lockdowns prematurely aged teenage brains, study finds

Politics:

Up Close and Personal With Donald Trump’s Ear

Pink. An ovular rose. Big and smooth. A complex commonplace instrument. And, as far as these things go, a rather nice one. Isolated from the head and all that roils therein, and to which it is, famously and miraculously, still attached, you have to admit, if you can: It is beautiful. In Palm Beach, sunlight streamed through the window to find its blood vessels, setting the whole device aglow. Auris Divina, Divine Ear, protector of The Donald, immaculate cartilage shield, almighty piece of flesh…
He can never fully see his own ear. He can never fully see himself as others do. I inched closer and narrowed my eyes. The particular spot that he identified with his tap was pristine. I scanned carefully the rest of the terrain. It looked normal and incredible and fine. Ears do not often become famous, and when they do, it is because they have suffered some sort of misfortune. Van Gogh’s self-mutilation. Mike Tyson’s cannibalistic injury to Evander Holyfield. J. Paul Getty III, whose kidnappers cut the whole thing off and put it in the mail. And now this, the luckiest and most famous ear in the world. If you were the kind of person inclined to make such declarations, which Donald Trump is, you might call it the greatest ear of all time.

How Russian Money Helped Save Trump’s Business

After his financial disasters two decades ago, no U.S. bank would touch him. Then foreign money began flowing in.

Trump Sought Revenge for Those Who Mocked Him

As president, Trump briefly attempted to get Justice officials to twist campaign finance laws and the federal equal-time rule to declare that anti-Trump material broadcast by Saturday Night Live, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, and others was somehow illegal.

Republicans Worry Trump’s Turnout Operation Is Too Small

Republican officials are raising the alarm that Donald Trump’s campaign has invested far fewer resources for its voter turnout operation in battleground states than previous presidential election races, and attempts to bridge the gap with political action committees have come too late.

A Troubling Reality of the Trump Era

Donald Trump says something crazy or vicious almost every time he speaks. It’s his nature, but it’s also a political strategy. The flow of half-demented, half-depraved talk energizes those who enjoy it—and exhausts those who are horrified by it.
The mainstream media cannot report every outrageous remark, or they would do nothing else. Even those shocking comments that do get reported tend to make just a blip. The next day, if not the next minute, Trump is telling another lie or vilifying another public servant or issuing another threat. Yesterday’s shocker is soon crushed beneath today’s, and then tomorrow’s, until it’s ancient history.

Floridians unnerved by police visits about abortion petition signatures

The officer’s visit appears to be part of a broad — and unusual — effort by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration to inspect thousands of already verified and validated petitions for Amendment 4 in the final two months before Election Day. The amendment would overturn Florida’s six-week abortion ban by proposing to protect abortion access in Florida until viability.


Serendipity:

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