Weekend link dump for July 17

“The highest Court in the most powerful nation in the world appears to have decided that it only needs to follow the law when it feels like it.”

“In one corner, there are laws and contracts and old-school conventions about the way negotiations work—most notably, the concept that when someone signs papers agreeing to do something, they have to do it or pay a penalty. In the other corner is complete and total bullshit, wielded by a bullshitter who is attempting to worm his way to a preferred outcome on the strength of being not just the richest person in the world, but also the most annoying. It is a heavyweight bout between how business is done by most people and how it is done by one person. We are all about to locate the outer limit of what hucksterism can achieve.”

“Guns account for most suicides and are almost entirely responsible for an overall rise in homicides across the country from 2018 to 2021, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”

“The Department of Defense, bound by the funding restrictions of the Hyde Amendment, can cover abortions only for people whose pregnancies were the result of rape or incest or endanger the life of the pregnant person. Emergency and convalescent leave policies and the process to request sick leave will also remain unchanged, according to the memo. But because the department does not cover other abortions, service members who do not report rape or incest, or whose lives are not immediate endangered by pregnancy, must find their own providers and pay out of pocket. This has huge implications for people who, though employed by the federal government and based on federal property, need to seek health care off base. When the Supreme Court overturned Roe on June 24, more than a dozen states immediately ended abortion or set in motion policies to severely limit access. Several hundred thousand service members are stationed on bases in these states by no choice of their own.”

“Has the Netflix Algorithm Finally Eaten Itself?”

The people who do the subtitles for Stranger Things had a lot of fun doing them.

“FDA will consider over-the-counter birth control pill“. Yes, please.

“A new bill could help protect the census after Trump-era interference”. Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.

This is some kind of bullshit: Family Research Council Is Now A Church In Eyes Of The IRS. You need to reverse this, IRS.

“Basically, it’s like the way you’d approach someone who wasn’t famous but just someone you wanted to get to know: Don’t come on too strong.”

So Twitter has sued Elon Musk for trying to weasel out of his agreement to buy them at an inflated price. By all rights, Musk should lose, but with the reality distortion field that surrounds him, anything can happen.

Lock him up.

“The rise and fall of 3AC, as their Singapore-based fund was known, parallels the transformation of crypto. What started with speculation on a few well-known coins such as Bitcoin and Ether became an interdependent industry of tokens linked to other tokens, crypto companies acting like banks offering depositors double-digit yields, and lots of borrowing by traders looking to juice their returns. The rapid growth of this infrastructure helped push up crypto prices and 3AC’s fortunes; when prices turned this year, 3AC unraveled and may have even accelerated the decline. For all the complexity of the new crypto ecosystem—the “smart contracts,” reams of online white papers, and heady talk of decentralized finance—it still proved to be a giant wager on the simple idea that there would always be more buyers for digital coins and prices would mostly keep going up.”

“The Jan. 6 committee hearings have been among the most dramatic and significant congressional investigations into the conduct of a White House in our nation’s history. They reflect months of research, painstaking work by investigators, and testimony from dozens of Trump officials, law enforcement officers and election experts. But a key component has been a small club of women who have provided critical testimony and created a support structure for one another to combat the intense backlash it’s produced.”

“These hearings show that Trump, through his lawyers, lied to Congress about the events of Jan. 6 in his second impeachment trial in denying that the then-president had meant to spark violence. In so doing, he undermined the constitutional process of impeachment—as well as the peaceful transition of power.”

“What this 10-year-old went through is a national shame and a personal tragedy. And all of that was before she became a viral news story and a political football. Who could possibly blame her, or her family, for wanting to maintain her privacy?”

“Celsius, the crypto trading platform that halted all withdrawals a month ago and filed for bankruptcy yesterday, has a $1.2 billion sized hole in its balance sheet, according to a bankruptcy filing and new report from the Financial Times. What does that mean for users? You’re probably not getting all your money back, if you see some at all.”

You can thank Brian Krebs for making the Internet a slightly better place, at least for a few days.

RIP, Adam Wade, singer, actor, and the first Black host of a network TV game show.

“IOC reinstates Jim Thorpe as sole winner of 1912 Olympic decathlon and pentathlon”.

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10 Responses to Weekend link dump for July 17

  1. Flypusher says:

    I had commented on that awful story on the 10-year old rape victim last week, and how at that time, there was some doubt. In light of it being confirmed, I am very disappointed that my source for that doubt, The Bulwark, has yet to print any “hey, story confirmed” follow ups, which is disappointing, as they are usually much better than that. Even more disturbing is a state AG making public and outright false accusations about the doctor involved. Once upon a time that sort of BS could cost you your office, but shameless is all the rage with the GOP.

  2. Bill Daniels says:

    The 800 lb. gorilla in the room regarding the 10 year old rape victim is, the rapist is an illegal from Guatemala.

    https://www.newsweek.com/gerson-fuentes-charged-raping-ohio-10-year-old-girl-illegal-immigrant-report-1724541

    Unsaid by anyone, but a distinct probability is, the girl’s mother was dating the rapist, so not a stranger rape. And that leads to uncomfortable questions…..is the girl’s mother here illegally, too? Did the Indiana abortion doctor report the obvious rape to the police in Indiana? Surely an abortion doctor is a mandatory reporter when it comes to child abuse.

  3. league city says:

    sorry, but the Brian Krebs link actually links to the Texans settlement story.

  4. Mainstream says:

    Flypusher, as recently as last night I got an email from a right wing group repeating the claim that there were doubts about the validity of the claim of rape, and claiming that the Washington Post was an early source of this doubt, without admitting the story has been proven false. Outrageous.

  5. League City – Fixed. Thanks for the heads up!

  6. C.L. says:

    “Unsaid by anyone, but a distinct probability is,…” is today’s catchphrase !

    It appears to be based on nothing, no factual or verifiable data, and comes with the possibility that anything is possible, goes down an endless rabbit hole of what-ifs, all while blowing a giant dog whistle !

    “Unsaid by anyone, but a distinct possibility is, that Bill Daniels of Houston but born in Senegal, repeatedly raped this little girl over a four year period while jacked up on Seagrams 7 and bathtub meth, in the rusting bed of his 1978 Ford F-150. in the old Astrodome parking lot.”

    See how that works !??!

    Brilliant, Bill !

  7. Bill Daniels says:

    C.L.:

    Here is Telemundo reporting that not only is the mother dating the man who impregnated her, at the time, 9 year old girl, but also that the girl’s mother is ALSO pregnant with the same guy’s baby. I didn’t have ‘knocked up mom’ on my bingo card, but here we are.

    https://twitter.com/bonillajl/status/1548154586669584389

    I assume you find Telemundo to be a trusted source of information?

  8. Manny says:

    So what are you stating, Bill, that all brown skin folks are rapists and have no problem with incest? Do you only think that way because that is what your family is like?

  9. Política comparada says:

    IT, THE LAW-ANNOUNCING “BODY”

    RE: “The highest Court in the most powerful nation in the world appears to have decided that it only needs to follow the law when it feels like it.”

    Inane argument. The court is an institution, not a person, and – as such – can’t have any feelings.

    Feelings can at best be attributed to individual members, and they are not in agreement. So, to the extent “feelings” matter to outcomes and new caselaw at all, it would be a matter of groupings of members whose feelings are in accord (“co-feel”?) and which group has majority status. But even that’s dubious because you can co-inciding votes for different reasons (including but not limited to those expressly articulated in concurring opinions) and for different “feelings” to the extent they matter at all. Justices routinely deny it.

    Second, and related to the denial, there is an important difference between feelings and normative positions and beliefs as to good vs. bad, desirable versus not (values). These distinct cognitive phenomena also involve different parts of the brain.

    Third, values (normative positions) are not subject to empirical validation as true or false.

    See –> fact-values distinction & empirical vs. normative (including legal scholarship)
    e.g., https://www.rit.edu/cla/philosophy/quine/fact_value.html#

  10. Manny says:

    PC

    Murder is bad

    Stealing is bad

    “Third, values (normative positions) are not subject to empirical validation as true or false. ”

    I think, therefore, I am.

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