Odds and Ends — 18 July 2023
Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, Business, and Debt:
Canada Woos American H-1B Visa Holders
This month, Canada will start offering open work permits to any immigrants in America on an H-1B visa, in a clear bid to lure away highly-educated foreigners frustrated by the U.S. immigration process.
It is the latest effort by Canada to capitalize on a growing sense from international students and professionals that settling permanently in the U. S.—between evermore competitive visa lotteries and a growing backlog of green cards—is too slow and difficult.
America’s loss is Canada’s gain.
Goldman Sachs lowers recession forecast as 'Goldilocks' debate heats up
CNN EXCLUSIVE: Elon Musk's Twitter "ghosted" laid off employees in its only Africa office without severance or benefits.
— Larry Madowo (@LarryMadowo) July 17, 2023
The Ghana-based team have not been paid a cent, unlike former staff in North America & Europe https://t.co/swQuFn9uk3 pic.twitter.com/BXNKoPZdKx
Europeans are facing a new economic reality, one they haven’t experienced in decades. They are becoming poorer.
Life on a continent long envied by outsiders for its art de vivre is rapidly losing its shine as Europeans see their purchasing power melt away.
With consumption spending in free fall, Europe tipped into recession at the start of the year, reinforcing a sense of relative economic, political and military decline that kicked in at the start of the century.
Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:
The United States has reached a milestone in the long struggle against Covid: The total number of Americans dying each day — from any cause — is no longer historically abnormal.
Excess deaths, as this number is known, has been an important measure of Covid’s true toll because it does not depend on the murky attribution of deaths to a specific cause. Even if Covid is being underdiagnosed, the excess-deaths statistic can capture its effects. The statistic also captures Covid’s indirect effects, like the surge of vehicle crashes, gun deaths and deaths from missed medical treatments during the pandemic.
During Covid’s worst phases, the total number of Americans dying each day was more than 30 percent higher than normal, a shocking increase.
Florida Man:
Is DeSantis in a Death Spiral?
The bad DeSantis news doesn’t mean he’s dead. But he’s entered a familiar cycle that often ends in collapse: A candidate is hyped up as a top contender, struggles in the polls, and then scrambles to reset a flagging campaign as donors and voters alike parse every move for signs of weakness — or strength.
Donors are a key group for DeSantis, who is more reliant on big Republican money than Trump. And while the weekend shakeup placated some, it’s caused others to grow even more uneasy.
DeSantis Ad Uses AI Generated Voice of Trump
A pro-Ron DeSantis super PAC uses an Artificial Intelligence version of Donald Trump’s voice in a new television ad attacking the former president.
Its content appears to be based off of a post that Trump made on his social media site Truth Social last week…. It will run statewide in Iowa tomorrow and the ad buy was at least $1 million — a massive sum though one doable for the well-heeled super PAC.
Politics:
Top Georgia Court Denies Trump Bid to Quash Report
The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday unanimously rejected former President Donald Trump’s bid to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the 2020 presidential election probe and to quash a special purpose grand jury’s final report that recommends people be indicted.
Willis has signaled that in the coming weeks she will ask one of two recently seated grand juries to hand up an indictment in the election probe. She has not said who could be formally charged, but Trump is expected to be one of the defendants.
A thought experiment: Trump is convicted in Georgia and sentenced to prison. Then, against all odds, wins in November 2024. Trump can’t pardon himself from state charges, and Governor Brian Kemp (at the center of this case) declines to pardon him. Trump serves out his second term while confined in a Georgia prison.
May you live in interesting times.
Typo sends millions of US military emails to Russian ally Mali
Millions of US military emails have been mistakenly sent to Mali, a Russian ally, because of a minor typing error.
Emails intended for the US military's ".mil" domain have, for years, been sent to the west African country which ends with the ".ml" suffix.
Some of the emails reportedly contained sensitive information such as passwords, medical records and the itineraries of top officers.
Texas troopers told to push children into Rio Grande
Alabama Republicans Are Daring the Supreme Court to Uphold Its Own Voting Rights Ruling
Alabama Republicans took a major step toward openly defying the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, advancing a new congressional map that fails to comply with the court’s landmark Voting Rights Act decision in June. In Allen v. Milligan, Chief Justice John Roberts ordered the state to draw an additional congressional district that gives Black voters a meaningful opportunity to elect the representative of their choice; instead, Republican legislators have drawn a white-majority district that Donald Trump would have handily carried in 2020. Lawmakers passed this map out of committee on a party-line vote, and the GOP-controlled Legislature appears likely to adopt it by Friday.
How Harlan Crow Slashed his Tax Bill by Taking Clarence Thomas on Superyacht Cruises
The Presidential Records Act: "The United States shall reserve and retain complete ownership, possession, and control of Presidential records."
— Middle Age Riot (@middleageriot) July 17, 2023
Donald Trump: "According to the Presidential Records Act, Presidential records are MINE MINE MINE."
Cambodia’s Hun Sen Poised to Extend 38-Year Rule
Cambodia’s Hun Sen, one of the world’s longest-serving leaders, is heading for another unanimous victory via an electoral landslide later this month, after he banned the opposition and dismantled much of the free media.
But he will also contest the polls without his favored communication tool Facebook, after he quit the platform on which he had 14 million followers.
Belarus abducts thousands of Ukrainian children
Trump and Nixon Have the Lowest Retrospective Approval
John F. Kennedy remains the most highly rated former president when Gallup asks Americans whether, in retrospect, they approve or disapprove of the job each did as president. Ninety percent of U.S. adults now approve of the job Kennedy did, 21 percentage points higher than second-place Ronald Reagan’s rating.
Seven of the nine past presidents included in the poll receive majority retrospective approval ratings. The two exceptions are Donald Trump, with 46% of Americans approving of the job he did in his initial retrospective approval rating, and Richard Nixon, at 32%.
How Gretchen Whitmer Made Michigan a Democratic Stronghold
The Governor’s strategy for revitalizing her state has two parts: to grow, Michigan needs young people; to draw young people, it needs to have the social policies they want.
Serendipity:
Actors are demanding that Hollywood catch up with technological changes in a sequel to a 1960 strike
Everything You Need to Know About Proprioception, Your Body’s ‘Silent’ Sixth Sense
Wow that’s quite a haul you have there today. The prospect of having a president serve from behind bars may seem ludicrous but the fact it is being discussed is pretty scary.
Looks like you have found a nice go-to session ale! I will try snd hunt one out in my neck of the woods and give it a try.
I doubt that my thought experiment is a likely outcome. I have a hard time believing that he can win in the general election, his base of cultists just isn’t big enough.
It was big enough last time when I believed it couldn't happen...
Well, before he had his base and some others. I may of course be wrong, but I think most of the others now have buyer’s remorse.