Odds and Ends — 20 December 2024

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

Coinbase Revenue Outpaces Nasdaq

Bitcoin whale support includes mid-$60K zone in new BTC price warning

Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:

Avian Flu Has Hit Dairies So Hard That They’re Calling It ‘Covid for Cows’

DenyDefendDepose:

https://twitter.com/NathanJRobinson/status/1869866452054093986
- NathanJRobinson

Luigi Mangione Prosecutors Have a Jury Problem: 'So Much Sympathy'

https://twitter.com/ElizWorthNews/status/1869796253443477960
- ElizWorthNews

Politics:

https://twitter.com/samstein/status/1869904879289876949
- samstein

The Chaos Monkeys Have Already Taken Over the Zoo

We’ll have to see how much damage this does, but it’s already clear that assuming the worst happens — and it’s hard to see how it won’t — this will be the dumbest shutdown ever. I’d say that the incoming Musk administration (so far Musk, not Trump, appears to be calling the shots) is trying to hold itself up for ransom, but it doesn’t even rise to that level. This isn’t like 1995, when Newt Gingrich shut down the government in an attempt to extract cuts in Medicare and Medicaid — a move that seemed (and was) a foolish act of petulance, but at least had a ghost of motivation.
No, Musk is demanding — apparently successfully — that Republicans in Congress renege on a deal they had already agreed to, a continuing resolution that would keep the federal government going for the next few months. Why? Because, Musk says, of the outrageous provisions in that CR.
Except none of the items Musk is complaining about are actually in the bill.

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1869787495694778538
- RonFilipkowski

The Next Two Years Are All About the House

The 2026 midterm-election prospects for the two major political parties in the House and Senate are as different as night and day. The Republican majority in the House today is as precarious as either party has seen in that chamber in at least a century.
Conversely, the GOP’s majority in the Senate is about as solid as can be, regardless of what President-elect Trump’s standing will be in November 2026.

https://twitter.com/Strandjunker/status/1869854794514608532
- Strandjunker

Inside The Plot To Write Birthright Citizenship Out Of The Constitution

Elon Musk gives nod to German far-right party as election looms

U.S. billionaire Elon Musk, set to join President-elect Donald Trump’s administration as an outside adviser, waded into Germany’s election campaign on Friday, calling the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) the country’s savior.

The NRA Is Selling Off Assets