Odds and Ends — 27 April 2024
Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, Business, and Debt:
Consensys, a Target for the SEC’s Assault on ETH, Is Fighting Back
Taiwan prosecutors target 20-year sentences for ACE exchange suspects
Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:
Study suggests lingering coronavirus in tissues may contribute to long COVID symptoms
Politics:
We have a radical democracy. Will Trump voters destroy it?
Americans are going down this route today because too many no longer care enough whether the system the Founders created survives and are ceding the ground to those, led by Trump, who actively seek to overthrow what so many of them call “the regime.” This “regime” they are referring to is the unique political system established by the Founders based on the principles of universal equality and natural rights. That, plain and simple, is what this election is about. “A republic if you can keep it,” Benjamin Franklin allegedly said of the government created by the Constitutional Convention in 1787. This is the year we may choose not to keep it.
https://twitter.com/mehdirhasan/status/1783529170561069220
https://twitter.com/SenWhitehouse/status/1783903111561552137
Samuel Alito’s Resentment Goes Full Tilt on a Black Day for the Court
The associate justice’s logic on display at the Trump immunity hearing was beyond belief. He’s at the center of one of the darkest days in Supreme Court history.
https://twitter.com/DavidPepper/status/1783811335978975288
The Trumpification of the Supreme Court
Trump’s legal argument is a path to dictatorship. That is not an exaggeration: His legal theory is that presidents are entitled to absolute immunity for official acts. Under this theory, a sitting president could violate the law with impunity, whether that is serving unlimited terms or assassinating any potential political opponents, unless the Senate impeaches and convicts the president. Yet a legislature would be strongly disinclined to impeach, much less convict, a president who could murder all of them with total immunity because he did so as an official act. The same scenario applies to the Supreme Court, which would probably not rule against a chief executive who could assassinate them and get away with it.
The conservative justices have, over the years, seen harbingers of tyranny in union organizing, environmental regulations, civil-rights laws, and universal-health-care plans. When confronted with a legal theory that establishes actual tyranny, they were simply intrigued. As long as Donald Trump is the standard-bearer for the Republicans, every institution they control will contort itself in his image in an effort to protect him.
https://twitter.com/ElieNYC/status/1783898466961281429
https://twitter.com/TheRickWilson/status/1783839315727888679
https://twitter.com/MuellerSheWrote/status/1784012922299293846
Charges Dropped Against All Arrested at Texas Protest
All charges have been declined against the 57 people arrested in connection to the Wednesday pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Texas.
A Prominent Free-Speech Group Is Fighting for Its Life
PEN America has now canceled its annual World Voices festival, after calling off its literary-awards ceremony last week. Can it survive?
https://twitter.com/Strandjunker/status/1783862413227376653
Serendipity:
Harlan Ellison’s Last Words: The Ambitious Plan for Sci-Fi Writer’s Posthumous Comeback
Longtime friend and ‘Babylon 5’ creator J. Michael Straczynski endeavors to reshape the legacy of the late sci-fi writer
Dozens of deaths reveal risks of injecting sedatives into people restrained by police
The practice of giving sedatives to people detained by police has spread quietly across the nation over the last 15 years, built on questionable science and backed by police-aligned experts.
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