Odds and Ends — 18 June 2024

11 months ago

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

https://twitter.com/edzitron/status/1802744435203326207

The US has nabbed almost one-third of all the investment that flowed across borders since Covid struck… The pre-pandemic US average share was just 18% … For all the angst over the dollar’s dominance, a run-up in US interest rates to the highest levels in decades proved a major draw for overseas investors.
The US has also pulled in a fresh wave of foreign direct investment (FDI) thanks to billions of dollars worth of incentives under President Joe Biden’s initiatives to spur renewable energy and semiconductor production.

https://twitter.com/Martina/status/1802394827943706685

Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:

Two Covid Theories

https://twitter.com/Logically_JC/status/1802756426047062198

Politics:

Pressure Grows on Giuliani Over Incomplete Filings

Rudy Giuliani’s creditors and the judge overseeing his bankruptcy case aired their frustrations with him in court on Monday after months in which he has provided incomplete information about his finances, missed filing deadlines or failed to have his lawyers respond at all.
Mr. Giuliani’s creditors have asked the bankruptcy judge to appoint an independent trustee to take over his personal and business finances, citing his failures to comply with routine filings and their growing suspicion that he is hiding money.

Sinclair Floods Local News Websites

This month, Sinclair Broadcast Group has flooded a vast network of local news websites with misleading articles suggesting that President Biden is mentally unfit for office. The articles are based on specious social media posts by the Republican National Committee, which are then repackaged to resemble news reports.
The thinly disguised political attacks are then syndicated to dozens of local news websites owned by Sinclair, where they are given the imprimatur of mainstream media brands, including NBC, ABC, and CBS.

The Motivated Ignorance of Trump Supporters

They can’t claim they didn’t know.

https://twitter.com/MarkJacob16/status/1802514953318064446

Trump Has Reportedly Been Voicing Concerns About What Kind of Prison He Could Be Sent To

https://twitter.com/aintscarylarry/status/1802706014153883942

Biden to Give Legal Status to Immigrant Spouses

President Biden is expected to announce a new immigration program Tuesday that would provide a path to citizenship for hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants married to U.S. citizens.
Biden is planning to make the announcement at the White House alongside members of Congress, immigration advocates and U.S. citizens who, because of arcane immigration rules, haven’t been able to sponsor their spouses for green cards.

Maryland Governor to Wipe Out Marijuana Convictions

The pardons will forgive low-level marijuana possession charges for an estimated 100,000 people in what the Democratic governor said is a step to heal decades of social and economic injustice that disproportionately harms Black and Brown people. Moore noted criminal records have been used to deny housing, employment and education, holding people and their families back long after their sentences have been served.

Trump's presidency was a huge mess

https://twitter.com/CREWcrew/status/1802325266816991296

Biden Deploys Record Number of Troops to Jordan in Quiet Buildup

Kathy Hochul’s Bet Against Congestion Pricing Backfires

Democrats and left-leaning activists are casting about for potential challengers to one of the nation’s most prominent governors.

https://twitter.com/EHunterChristie/status/1802817129118630229

Biden’s Secret Weapon Against Trump Is Older Voters

Senior citizens, long a reliable voting bloc for Republicans, are showing signs of turning into an election-year swing group, potentially giving President Biden an unlikely boost in his tough rematch against Donald Trump…
Biden’s standing among older voters has a few possible explanations: The president has been performing well among Americans who are closely monitoring the election, giving him an advantage with seniors who actively consume cable television and news coverage in their retirement. Some polling has shown seniors with more favorable views of Biden’s handling of the economy, possibly because they feel more insulated from the impacts of higher interest rates and inflation.

https://twitter.com/StrictlyChristo/status/1802512968334413971

Corporate Tax Rate Spurs Political Fight

The 21% U.S. corporate tax rate is the biggest single variable in the sprawling 2025 tax debate, and the two parties are trying to turn that dial in opposite directions with major consequences for companies’ profits and federal revenue.
The rate could climb as high as 28% if Democrats sweep November’s elections and move as low as 15% if Republicans gain full power.

https://twitter.com/PaulRudnickNY/status/1802810552961421448

Too bad, so sad: Bannon Won’t Spend Prison Term at ‘Club Fed’

When former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon goes to prison, he won’t be serving time at what’s known as a ‘Club Fed,’ the most comfortable type of facility in the federal system, as he had wanted.
Instead of a minimum-security prison camp, where many nonviolent offenders serve their time, Bannon – now a right-wing podcaster with a following of loyal Trump supporters – is set to report next month to the low-security federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut.
Bannon isn’t eligible for the lowest-level prison setup because he still has a pending criminal case against him in New York, where he is fighting the charges and set to go to trial in September.

Trump’s Tariff Is a Scheme to Shift the Tax Burden to the Non-Rich

Why do we keep calling this “populism”?
Since Donald Trump began his golden escalator voyage nine years ago, the word populist has enveloped him like a protective cloak. His dangerous rhetoric gave him enough of an air of menace to help expand his party’s appeal to working-class voters without having to follow it up with any substantive moves that would alienate its healthy funding base…
Trump has had nearly a decade to firm up his brand of economic populism, and he is farther away from anything coherent than he was when he started.

https://twitter.com/SwissWatchGuy/status/1802808872245006448

Serendipity:

https://twitter.com/donwinslow/status/1802787972242415638

What does the world's rarest album sound like?

Inside a delicately hand-carved silver box on display in an Australian museum lies the most exclusive, most valuable, and perhaps most infamous album in the world.
And this weekend, I became one of the lucky few on the planet to have heard it.
Recorded in secret over six years by trailblazing hip-hop group the Wu-Tang Clan, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin was designed to be a piece of fine art.
Only a single CD copy exists – and with it comes a legal stipulation that the owner cannot publicly release the 31 tracks until 2103.

https://twitter.com/whereishayley/status/1802773249568485696