Odds and Ends — 13 January 2025

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

Tether will relocate HQ to El Salvador after securing license

It’s Total Chaos Internally at Meta Right Now

Meta employees are furious with the company’s newly announced content moderation changes that will allow users to say that LGBTQ+ people have ‘mental illness.’
The changes were part of a larger shift Mark Zuckerberg announced Monday to do far less content moderation on Meta platforms.

North Dakota Considers Crypto Reserve as State Bitcoin Treasuries Gain Momentum

Quackery:

https://twitter.com/David_Leavitt/status/1878232912157425817
- David_Leavitt

https://twitter.com/nickmmark/status/1878221631640015340
- nickmmark

https://twitter.com/BlackLanterrn/status/1877873190732464310
- BlackLanterrn

Politics:

The Origins of Elected Strongmen

We’ve studied democratic erosion in countries around the world, and our research has found that the most important bulwark against an elected leader undermining democracy doesn’t come from opposition parties or pro-democracy activists. It comes from the ruling party — and particularly the powerful elites in that party — and their efforts to constrain their own leader.
The danger to democracy is particularly acute in political systems led by parties where leaders wield disproportionate influence relative to the political parties that back them — as is now the case in the Republican Party.

Military Debates Possible Deployment on U.S. Soil

According to nearly a dozen retired officers and current military lawyers, as well as scholars who teach at West Point and Annapolis, an intense if quiet debate is underway inside the U.S. military community about what orders it would be obliged to obey if President-elect Donald Trump decides to follow through on his previous warnings that he might deploy troops against what he deems domestic threats, including political enemies, dissenters and immigrants.

Lawless Cannon orders DOJ to tell her about Jack Smith's January 6 report

The order from the Florida federal judge who dismissed the special counsel's case against Donald Trump is lawless for at least three reasons.
The question now is what Garland; the Eleventh Circuit; and, if necessary, the Supreme Court or, if it comes to it, President Biden do about it.

https://twitter.com/A_SHEKH0VTS0V/status/1878426461993877754
- A_SHEKH0VTS0V

https://twitter.com/evgen1232007/status/1878475326163910701
- evgen1232007

Paul Manafort Is Back and Looking for Foreign Work

Four years after receiving a pardon from President Donald Trump for crimes related to foreign lobbying, Paul Manafort is again seeking business from political interests abroad.
Mr. Manafort, who led Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign for a few months, has assembled a team of consultants who helped run Mr. Trump’s 2024 effort and is looking to advise campaigns for opposition and far-right political factions in Latin America and Europe.
Mr. Manafort has discussed working for a French billionaire supporting anti-immigration politicians including Marine Le Pen, as well as an ultraconservative Peruvian mayor seen as a possible presidential candidate. Mr. Manafort has even engaged with interests in Ukraine, the country where his work for Russia-aligned interests led to his downfall.

https://twitter.com/thejackhopkins/status/1878236849228898692
- thejackhopkins

FBI Director Warns of Chinese Threat

Outgoing FBI Director Christopher Wray defended the bureau as it faces a barrage of attacks from President-elect Donald Trump and his allies.
And he offered a chilling warning about China, saying it posed a ‘unique and unprecedented’ threat that is taking aim at critical U.S. infrastructure.
Said Wray: “What I saw once I got into this job as FBI director, in terms of the breadth, the depth, the complexity, the pervasiveness of the threat from the Chinese government, blew me away. And I’m not the kind of guy that uses expressions like blow me away lightly.”

https://twitter.com/smalls2672/status/1878224178521813416
- smalls2672

https://twitter.com/acnewsitics/status/1878396679813988652
- acnewsitics

Liberal Preppers Are Gearing Up for Trump

Like their conservative counterparts, liberal preppers are worried about the stability of the economy and the power grid, but unlike the conservatives, they also worry about climate-change-induced disasters and the potential that Trump will weaken America’s security through foreign-policy snafus.

https://twitter.com/DcrInYYC/status/1878151993581076734
- DcrInYYC

Trump Team Question National Security Staff Over Loyalty

Incoming senior Trump administration officials have begun questioning career civil servants who work on the White House National Security Council about who they voted for in the 2024 election, their political contributions and whether they have made social media posts that could be considered incriminating by President-elect Donald Trump’s team.

It’s almost as Temp Trump doesn’t understand the concept of civil service.

https://twitter.com/WTHRcom/status/1878407832757813660
- WTHRcom

Bob Woodward Denies Statements in James Comer’s Book

The Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward forcefully denied making statements attributed to him by James Comer, the Republican chair of the powerful House oversight committee, in which Woodward supposedly said Joe Biden was financially corrupt.
Said Woodward: “The statements attributed to me in what is apparently his book are false. I made none of those statements he attributes to me. I repeat none, and not even in a paraphrased form.”