Quarantine Diaries: Day 338
Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:
Millions of counterfeit N95 masks distributed to health care workers in the U.S.
Canada's vaccine rollout stalls, confining seniors to their homes for months to come
Instagram bans Robert F Kennedy Jr over Covid vaccine posts
Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, and Debt:
Someone just transfered 19,600 #bitcoin in one transaction, that's a billion dollars.
— Documenting Bitcoin 📄 (@DocumentingBTC) February 11, 2021
Andrew Yang says he'll transform NYC into a Bitcoin hub if elected mayor
Gradually, Then Suddenly: Mastercard, BNY Mellon, Amazon, Twitter Poised to Join the Bitcoin Party (podcast)
Politics:
A fascinating story: How Close Did the Capitol Rioters Get to the Nuclear “Football”?
The video of Mike Pence shown during the impeachment revealed something startling about the nuclear chain of command.
Trump’s Tweet Attacking Pence Came Right After Learning His VP’s Life Was In Danger
Congresswoman and Jonestown survivor Jackie Speier
On 6 January, Jackie Speier was one of scores of members of Congress threatened by the mob of violent Trump supporters and white supremacists who stormed the US Capitol in an attempt to overthrow the results of the presidential election.
Along with her peers, she was told to wear a gas mask and ordered to lie prostrate on the marble floor as the baying crowd pounded on the chamber door and the sound of gunfire rent the air. The terror of that day induced in her a flashback, to the events that brought her into politics in the first place when she lay bleeding from five gunshot wounds in the Guyana jungle, not knowing whether she would live or die.
Peggy Noonan: A Vote to Acquit Trump Is a Vote for a Lie
As this is written a formal defense of the president’s actions is coming. It is hard to believe his lawyers will argue his innocence of the charge that he incited a crowd to move on Congress and thwart its certification of the 2020 election. Everyone knows he did that. More likely the defense will speak of extenuating circumstances—Democrats now speak violently too, and they didn’t care when cities exploded in violence last summer.
Beyond that I don’t understand the defense being mounted informally in conservative media. This is that everyone knows the storming of the Capitol was being planned before the president’s rally, and the government knew. This exonerates him? If the government Mr. Trump headed knew trouble was coming, it’s evidence of both imminent lawless action and Mr. Trump’s intent—the legal elements of incitement. It makes him more culpable, not less.
Impeachment Managers Brace For ‘Campaign Of Distraction’ As Trump Defense Begins
I remember the moment I saw Trump's tweet attacking Pence. We were in the chamber as aides were scrambling to bar the doors. Some were sobbing in fear. The mob was outside. Someone yelled out shots had been fired.
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) February 12, 2021
I turned to Tim Kaine and said, "Oh my god, he's egging them on."
The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election
Hillary Clinton says Donald Trump conviction unlikely because ‘jury includes his co-conspirators’
The Sicknick “Truth Movement” Takes Flight on the Right
…a new ‘truth movement’ has begun to crop up on the right suggesting Sicknick’s death was unrelated to the insurrection and may even be part of a cover-up to tarnish the reputation of Donald Trump and the MAGA movement. It’s ugly and utterly predictable.
Court Filing Details Bribes to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton
Dozens of former GOP officials reportedly met last week to discuss mounting a new anti-Trump party.
There Is No Defense — Only Complicity
A 'Scary' Survey Finding: 4 In 10 Republicans Say Political Violence May Be Necessary
Oh, to get paid to write headlines like this: Embattled QAnon congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene 'openly cheated' on her husband of 25 years with a polyamorous tantric sex guru…
China bans BBC after harrowing report on atrocities against Uighurs
Serendipity:
The Type of Love That Makes People Happiest
Meme credit: alyson_wunderland (source)