Odds and Ends — 28 June 2023
Am I the only one here who hates the new Market layout at Splinterlands? It’s so bad that I’m already seriously thinking about giving up on the game.
Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, Business, and Debt:
Gary Gensler is hurting the little guys for Wall Street
Yen slide fuels speculation over government intervention
Grayscale Bitcoin Trust Shares Rally to a One-Year High, Discount Dips to 30%
Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:
$200+ Billion in Covid Aid May Have Been Stolen
More than $200 billion may have been stolen from two large Covid-19 relief initiatives, according to new estimates from a federal watchdog investigating federally funded programs that helped small businesses survive the worst public health crisis in more than a hundred years.
The numbers issued Tuesday by the U.S. Small Business Administration inspector general are much greater than the office’s previous projections and underscore how vulnerable the Paycheck Protection and Covid-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan programs were to fraudsters.
Florida Man:
DeSantis’s Pitch to New Hampshire Is All About Florida
At his first town-hall event in New Hampshire, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida talked on Tuesday about illegal immigration in Texas, crime in Chicago, disorder on the streets of San Francisco and the wonders of nearly every aspect of Florida — a state he mentioned about 80 times.
Roughly an hour into the event, Mr. DeSantis finally got around to saying ‘New Hampshire.’
Politics:
Trump’s Criming Is Right There On Tape!
You Have To Listen Yourself…
It’s everything you could have imagined, plus a little more.
The cavalier tone, the cheap and tawdry pettiness, the jocular atmosphere, the fawning supplicants eager to be used by Trump, Trump’s own disingenuousness.
Do listen though. The audio pops more than a transcript or isolated quotations.
Speaking as a Watergate historian, there’s nowhere on thousands of hours of Nixon tapes where Nixon makes any comment as clear, as clearly illegal, and as clearly self-aware as this Trump tape. https://t.co/JFqyfcQb8g
— Garrett M. Graff (@vermontgmg) June 27, 2023
“We haven’t seen anything yet”: Despite tape, experts say it “only gets worse for Trump from here”
Attorney Andrew Lieb suggested that Smith likely has more damning evidence.
"Make no mistake that he has the goods and we haven't seen anything yet," Lieb said. "This is going to be a multi-front war with federal indictments going on in different district courts simultaneously."
Trump Denies He Was Holding Classified Documents
Former President Donald Trump insisted on Tuesday that he was not showing off classified documents in an audio clip first published by CNN in which he referred to ‘highly confidential’ material and ‘secret information’ that he could no longer declassify.
Said Trump: “I would say it was bravado, if you want to know the truth, it was bravado. I was talking and just holding up papers and talking about them, but I had no documents. I didn’t have any documents.”
He might as well have said, “It was just locker room talk.” — Taegan Goddard
The Wagner Mutiny Hit Russia's Air Force Hard. Really Hard.
Two days after the Kremlin struck a deal to end Wagner’s armed uprising, the truce is teetering on the edge, with growing questions in Russia over whether the bargain will hold.
The Kremlin has seized billions of roubles in cash and gold bars from Prigozhin, squeezing Wagner’s finances. But some fervent loyalists of President Vladimir Putin are proposing even more unforgiving solutions.
Said Andrei Gurulyov, a prominent pro-war MP: “I am fiercely convinced that in wartime, traitors must be shot. Whatever fairy tales they tell you, the only way out for Prigozhin is a bullet in the head.”
Top Trump Adviser Pushed for Drone Strikes on Migrants, New Book Claims
Justices Reject Independent Legislature Doctrine
But make no mistake. This gives the U.S. Supreme Court the ultimate say over the meaning of state law in the midst of an election dispute. This is a bad, but not awful, result.
There’s a Time Bomb in Progressives’ Big Supreme Court Voting Case Win
It is indeed a cause for celebration that the United States Supreme Court, on a 6-3 vote in Moore v. Harper, rejected an extreme version of the ‘independent state legislature’ theory that could have upended the conduct of elections around the country and paved the way for state legislatures to engage in election subversion.
But after the celebration comes the inevitable hangover, and with all the hoopla it is easy to miss that the Supreme Court has now set itself up, with the assent of the liberal justices, to meddle in future elections, perhaps even deciding the outcome of future presidential elections (as it has done in the past). Chief Justice John Roberts drove a hard bargain.
Behind the Scenes of Justice Alito’s Unprecedented Wall Street Journal Prebuttal
The latest chapter in The Annals of Chutzpah: Trump Sues E. Jean Carroll for Defamation
Trump valet arraignment delayed after losing Florida lawyer over fees dispute
Donald Trump’s valet charged in the classified documents case had his arraignment on Tuesday delayed for a second time to July by a magistrate judge, after he was forced to abandon his top choice Florida lawyer over a dispute about legal fees…
…Nauta’s team has been seeking defense lawyers who have not previously worked as prosecutors, and anyone Nauta retains would also need the blessing of Trump and his own defense team, who see no need to make a decision quickly.
In fact, the people said, Trump’s preference has been for delay, a strategy that has come about from the belief that if the trial can be pushed back to after the 2024 election and should he win – Trump is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination – the case would be moot.
Is it just me, or do others see the potential for a conflict of interest for Trump to have a veto over Nauta’s legal team? After all, it might be in Nauta’s best interest to plea bargain, maybe even seek immunity in exchange for his testimony.
Trump Criminal Case Likely to Remain in State Court
A judge on Tuesday indicated that he was likely to deny a request from lawyers for Donald Trump to move a New York State criminal case against the former president to federal court.
Clearly Jack Smith’s Ace in the hole:
— Laurence Tribe 🇺🇦 ⚖️ (@tribelaw) June 27, 2023
Prospect of indictment in NJ for possession/dissemination of national defense material overhangs everything from now on — and Judge Aileen Cannon knows it. https://t.co/iHn3eFM4PT
Serendipity:
America’s Most Popular Drug Has a Puzzling Side Effect. We Finally Know Why.
The reason statins can make your muscles sore or weak was unclear—until scientists accidentally stumbled upon an answer.
South Korea has the lowest fertility rate in the world – and that doesn’t bode well for its economy
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