Odds and Ends — 13 July 2024

preparedwombat(78)

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

Minnesota is ranked 6th in the nation for business, a new study finds

Hackers steal call records of 'nearly all' AT&T customers

Mexico will build passenger train lines to US border in an expansion of its debt-laden rail projects

Politics:

The Supreme Court Is Gaslighting Us All

At the close of one of the most consequential and least constitutional terms in the Supreme Court’s history, it’s hard to ignore one particularly offensive trend: the right-wing justices’ repeated and patronizing attempts to minimize the importance of their unprecedented decisions.

GOP Rep Delivers a House Floor Speech Straight Out of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’

Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-WI) on Thursday accused “the angry feminist movement” of emasculating men and said the U.S. should “work our way back” to 1960 if former President Donald Trump wins in November.

Even if nothing else convinces Biden to bow out, piles of cash might do it: Big Democratic Donors Freeze $90 Million

Some major Democratic donors have told the largest pro-Biden super PAC, Future Forward, that roughly $90 million in pledged donations is now on hold if President Biden remains atop the ticket.

Biden’s Call With Hispanic Lawmakers Goes Off the Rails

As President Joe Biden tries to talk with Democratic lawmakers and relieve their concerns, a virtual meeting with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus on Friday appears to have caused more problems than it solved.
For starters, Biden showed up an hour late to the Zoom call, according to a source familiar with the meeting, and it didn’t get much better from there.

https://twitter.com/acnewsitics/status/1811531620026859776
- acnewsitics

GOPers Spin Up Fresh Conspiracy Theories About New Law To Block Baseless Election Challenges

Conservative group behind Project 2025 floats conspiracy idea that Biden could retain power by force

https://twitter.com/Strandjunker/status/1811774495536943193
- Strandjunker

Biden’s Heartbreaking Press Conference

Three-quarters of an hour of detailed, sophisticated answers. Mastery of detail. Knowledge of world personalities. Courtesy to the reporters before him. Accurate recall of facts and figures. Justified pride in a record of accomplishment. A spark of sharp humor at the very end.
Also: Verbal stumbles. Thoughts half-finished. Strangled vocal intonations. Flares of unprompted anger. Glimpses of the politician’s inner monologue—resentment at how underappreciated he is—spoken aloud, as it never should be, in all its narcissism and vulnerability.

https://twitter.com/drdave1999/status/1811818703731790048
- drdave1999

How Trump Monetized a Persecution Narrative

As he seeks to reclaim the presidency, Mr. Trump has reprised the pitchman role from his reality TV days, with a crucial difference: He has intertwined the marketing of his private business affairs with the messaging of his campaign, leveraging his political stature for profit.
All of it could be described as Martyr Inc., a machinery that makes Mr. Trump money and promotes his re-election by characterizing him as unjustly persecuted and selflessly saving his supporters from a similar fate.

Rudy Giuliani’s Bankruptcy Dismissed

The decision by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane in the Southern District of New York comes nearly seven months after Giuliani sought bankruptcy protection after he was ordered to immediately pay millions in damages to Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, two Georgia women he falsely accused of helping to steal the 2020 presidential election.

Inside the Senate Democrats’ Lunch on Biden

But by the end of the lunch, Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania had enough.
‘You have legacies, too,’ Fetterman said, according to the people, asking what those legacies would become ‘if you fuck over a great president over a bad debate.’
Then, the first-term senator called the question: Who was with him — committed to sticking with Biden as the party’s nominee?
No more than four people signaled that they were… The paltry show of support for Biden behind closed doors revealed that for all the indecision about whether and how to confront Biden, elected Democrats’ confidence in the president had plunged to a ruinous low.