Odds and Ends — 2 April 2025

@preparedwombat 77

29 days ago

oddsandends

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

Bitcoin sales at $109K all-time high 'significantly below' cycle tops — Glassnode

Target suffers eighth week of foot-traffic losses since caving on DEI

Costco, which resisted demands to end DEI, extends its streak of foot-traffic gains to 13.

Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:

Long COVID Showed Me the Bottom of American Health Care

Politics:

The Top Goal of Project 2025 is Still to Come

The now-famous white paper has proved to be a good road map for what the administration has done so far, and what may yet be on the way.

Susan Crawford wins Wisconsin Supreme Court race, defying Elon Musk

Liberals will maintain their narrow majority on the court after Crawford’s victory in the first battleground state election of Trump’s second term.

https://twitter.com/AuronMacintyre/status/1906889036439973975

Prosecutors to Seek Death Penalty for Luigi Mangione

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on Tuesday that she would seek the death penalty of Luigi Mangione, who was charged with murdering the UnitedHealthcare executive Brian Thompson in front of a hotel in midtown Manhattan last December.

There’s a decent chance that they won’t be able to convince a jury to return a guilty verdict, let alone a death sentence.

Donald Trump Is Getting Really Bad Advice on Luigi Mangione

https://twitter.com/preparedwombat/status/1906848533392794099

Cory Booker Breaks Record for Longest Senate Speech

———— Autocracy R Us ————

Want to know how Trump gets in? Just look at the coverage of Le Pen

The press takes a leading role destroying the rule of law…
We should all take a good hard look at what’s happening in the US. Not the noise or the clamour, but the bleak constitutional reality of it. This is what happens when you give up on the rule of law. A president who talks openly about going for a third term, who signs executive orders which contradict his country’s constitution, who got a rigged supreme court to grant him immunity, who ignores court orders, who has his underlings hand out massive million dollar cheques to people to induce them to vote, even though it is explicitly against state law. To watch the United States is to watch the law dissolve into authoritarian government.

https://twitter.com/billybinion/status/1907099827030147526

Trump Announces Deal With Doug Emhoff’s Law Firm

Why are so many of these law firms caving? Trump’s a bully and the only thing that works against a bully is a punch in the face. Emhoff should resign. This is how it’s done:

https://twitter.com/AnnaBower/status/1907104293959901634

https://twitter.com/TristanSnell/status/1907271068701651359

State Dept. Spox Bungles Questions On New Deportations To Salvadoran Jail

https://twitter.com/WalshFreedom/status/1907229867759858097

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered diplomats overseas to scrutinize the social media content of some applicants for student and other types of visas, in an effort to ban those suspected of criticizing the United States and Israel from entering the country.

Costa Rican former President Oscar Arias says US revoked his visa

DeSantis Charity Not Complying with State Laws

One of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ key programs reshaping how the state handles welfare for Floridians has not been complying with state laws governing its oversight, ethics and fundraising.
The charity arm of Hope Florida, launched by first lady Casey DeSantis, hasn’t told state lawmakers or auditors about its activities or structure as required in state statutes.
It also appears not to have filed its federal tax returns.

https://twitter.com/SpencerHakimian/status/1907142770986279415

Senate rules for thee but not for me:

Senate GOP to Bypass Parliamentarian

Senate Republicans are fully embracing the strategy of plowing ahead on President Trump’s ‘one, big beautiful bill’ by bypassing the parliamentarian on a crucial accounting matter.
Senate leadership and Trump want to make the 2017 tax cuts permanent without having to account for how much it would add to the deficit. Now, they’re saying all they need is for Budget Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to decide that’s what they’re going to do.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) backed the the argument, laid out by Graham, that Republicans don’t need the Senate parliamentarian to bless the current policy approach during Tuesday’s Senate GOP lunch.