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Post by mhbruin on Nov 11, 2022 7:10:05 GMT -8
The best pine tree is a matter of a pinyon.
Will Anyone Ever Be Led Away In Handcuffs?
The Next Warren Buffet? He Isn't Even the Next Jimmy Buffet.
Until a few days ago, Sam Bankman-Fried was the king of crypto.
A 30-year-old MIT graduate with a net worth of $16 billion, according to Forbes, Bankman-Fried ran a top crypto exchange called FTX, counted NFL legend Tom Brady and NBA superstar Stephen Curry as company ambassadors, emblazoned FTX’s name on the Miami Heat arena and donated millions of dollars to lawmakers, mostly Democrats. He regularly wowed much of the financial press. “The Next Warren Buffett?” Fortune Magazine asked on a recent cover.
Now, his Bahamas-based empire is scorched, investors are shellshocked and the entire crypto ecosystem is on edge. FTX and an array of related entities filed for bankruptcy protection on Friday morning, Bankman-Fried resigned and a new CEO has been installed to oversee a process to “maximize recoveries for stakeholders.”
The meltdown began last weekend and accelerated Tuesday when FTX International halted customers’ redemptions. A major investor threatened to sell because the company’s financial soundness had come under scrutiny and the ensuing market mayhem took the price of bitcoin to a fresh low this week.
“I’m sorry I didn’t do better,” Bankman-Fried said Tuesday in a message to investors reviewed by NBC News.
$16 Billion To Zero in Days
The entire $16 billion fortune of FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried has now been wiped out, one of history’s greatest-ever destructions of wealth.
Most Read from Bloomberg
Sam Bankman-Fried’s $16 Billion Fortune Is Eviscerated in Days
The downfall of his crypto exchange and its trading house, Alameda Research, means assets owned by the mogul once likened to John Pierpont Morgan have become worthless. At the peak, the 30-year-old was worth $26 billion, and he was still worth almost $16 billion at the start of the week.
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index now values FTX’s US business -- of which Bankman-Fried owns about 70% -- at $1 because of a potential trading halt, from $8 billion in a January fundraising round. Bankman-Fried’s stake in Robinhood Markets Inc. valued at more than $500 million was also removed from his wealth calculation after Reuters reported it was held through Alameda and may have been used as collateral for loans.
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 11, 2022 9:06:51 GMT -8
QOP On QOP Violence. Let the Games Begin!
Ex-US President Donald Trump has lashed out at Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, as the simmering rivalry between the two top Republicans boiled over.
Mr Trump belittled his former political apprentice as an "average" governor, lacking in "loyalty".
Mr DeSantis, 44, won re-election in a landslide in Tuesday's midterms, sealing his status as the Republican party's brightest rising star.
He is widely expected to run for the party's 2024 White House nomination.
But Mr Trump, 76, looks increasingly likely to stand in his way.
The former president - who has a massive campaign war chest and remains hugely popular with the party's base - would be a formidable opponent for Mr DeSantis, or any other Republican who dares challenge him.
In a lengthy statement on Thursday night, Mr Trump dismissed the Florida governor as a political lightweight who had come to him "in desperate shape" when running for his first term in office in 2017.
"Ron had low approval, bad polls, and no money, but he said that if I would Endorse [sic] him, he could win," Mr Trump said. "I also fixed his campaign, which had completely fallen apart."
May the Odds Be Never In Their Favor
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 11, 2022 9:13:12 GMT -8
The Liberations of KhersonWhy Kherson MattersKherson region borders Crimea and establishes a land bridge between Russia and the peninsula on the Black Sea. If Ukraine can take back control, Russia would be deprived of that land bridge and it would bring Crimea within the reach of long-range Ukrainian artillery. The region is also significant because it has access to fresh water that supplies the arid Crimea. Ukraine had cut off freshwater supply along a canal from the Dnieper River that had supplied 85 percent of the peninsula’s needs following the annexation of Crimea. After Russia captured swaths of Kherson and Zaporizhia, it sought to unblock the canal. Retaking Kherson city, which had a pre-war population of some 280,000 people, would mean that Ukraine will be able to get back the largest urban centre that fell to Russian hands. Meanwhile, retaking the entire region would allow it to gain control of some of the coastline along the Black Sea, enabling the exportation of food to foreign markets, which has been severely disrupted during the conflict. 
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 11, 2022 9:15:59 GMT -8
I'll See Your North Korean Artillery Shells, and I'll Raise you 100,000 South Korean Artillery Shells
Washington plans to buy 100,000 South Korean-made artillery shells for use in the Ukraine war, a United States official has said, though South Korea has insisted its policy against providing lethal aid to Ukraine remained unchanged and it expects the end user of the ammunition to be US forces.
Citing US officials familiar with the deal, the Wall Street Journal reported that the US and South Korea were nearing an agreement to buy 100,000 rounds of 155mm artillery shells that would be delivered to Ukraine.
Can't Read My, Can't Read My, Can't Read My Poker Face
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 11, 2022 9:20:54 GMT -8
McCarthy Could be a Weak Speaker of the House. Duh! He's a Weak Man.
In 2015, bomb-throwers in the House Freedom Caucus derailed Kevin McCarthy’s quest to become speaker.
Seven years later, members of the ultraconservative, Trump-aligned group are once again causing major headaches for McCarthy as the California Republican makes another run for the top job.
NBC News has not yet projected which party will control the House, but an estimate modeling the outcome finds Republicans with a slightly better chance. Republicans would have a razor-thin majority should they win.
Even though no major news network has made the call, House Republicans have begun jockeying for leadership roles under the assumption that they will be able to seize power.
McCarthy has spent years trying to position himself to be the next Republican House speaker. The job holds tremendous power, including the ability to control legislation on the floor and influence the makeup of committees.
Some House Freedom Caucus members are outright opposed to McCarthy, while others are demanding concessions from him that would greatly water down his power as speaker.
Because the majority could be so thin, McCarthy will need the support of nearly every Republican. That has given the Freedom Caucus enormous leverage.
So far, no one has stepped forward to challenge McCarthy. He shouldn't have a problem winning a simple majority of Republicans at a closed-door meeting of his members on Tuesday. Former President Donald Trump has endorsed McCarthy for speaker, as have other potential rivals and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a Freedom Caucus leader.
But a small handful of Republicans could keep McCarthy from winning the speaker’s gavel during the public vote on Jan. 3, the first day of the new Congress. He needs 218 Republican votes on the House floor — Democrats won't help — meaning it’s possible fewer than a dozen conservatives could derail McCarthy’s chances and throw the process into certain chaos.
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 11, 2022 9:24:50 GMT -8
Molasses Merrick is Studying It
A charging decision may be looming as the Mar-a-Lago investigation enters what appears to be a decisive phase.
People familiar with the deliberations of Attorney General Merrick Garland and his top aides say the AG does not believe it’s his job to consider the political or social ramifications of indicting a former president, including the potential for violent backlash. The main factors in his decision, these people say, are whether the facts and the law support a successful prosecution — and whether anyone else who had done what Trump is accused of doing would have been prosecuted. The sources say Justice Department officials are looking carefully at a cross section of past cases involving the mishandling of classified material.
Garland himself previewed his approach in a July interview with "NBC Nightly News" anchor Lester Holt. Though his comments were about the separate Jan. 6 investigation, Justice Department officials said they apply broadly.
Holt prefaced a question by saying that “the indictment of a former president, of a perhaps candidate for president, would arguably tear the country apart. Is that your concern, as you make your decision down the road here, do you have to think about things like that?”
Garland answered, “We pursue justice without fear or favor.”
He Should Have Said, "We Pursue Justice VERY, VERY, SLOWLY"
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 11, 2022 9:27:57 GMT -8
Runnin' Down the Road, Trying to Loosen Their Load. Got a World of Trouble on Their Mind
Three of Twitter's top security, safety and privacy executives have resigned, moves that add to what had already been a chaotic two-week run since Elon Musk took control of the company.
Twitter’s chief information security officer and chief compliance officer resigned late Wednesday as the company started implementing changes that would allow users to more easily impersonate major brands and government officials.
The departures came just hours before Musk sent his first email to Twitter employees, titled “difficult times ahead” and implementing a mandatory return-to-work policy.
Later Thursday, Twitter's head of trust and safety, Yoel Roth, also resigned, according to a person familiar with the situation who requested to remain nameless as they were not authorized to speak about internal company matters.
A spokesperson for the Federal Trade Commission said in an emailed statement that it is keeping watch on the situation.
“We are tracking recent developments at Twitter with deep concern,” the spokesperson wrote. “No CEO or company is above the law, and companies must follow our consent decrees. Our revised consent order gives us new tools to ensure compliance, and we are prepared to use them.”
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 11, 2022 9:28:51 GMT -8
Keep It Up, America!
More than 5.6 million Covid vaccine and booster shots were administered in the past week, the highest seven-day total in the U.S. since January, a Biden administration official said.
The new numbers, first shared with NBC News, outpace the previous weekly sums by about 1 million.
About 5.1 million of the past week's shots were bivalent boosters, designed to combat the most virulent strains of the omicron variant of the coronavirus. That is the peak since the start of the government's fall vaccination program for updated doses, the official said.
Keep It Up, World!
The head of the World Health Organization said Wednesday that there has been a 90% drop in global COVID-19 deaths since February, which he called a "cause for optimism" but still urged "caution" amid the ongoing pandemic.
"Just over 9,400 COVID-19 deaths were reported to WHO last week -- almost 90% less than in February of this year, when weekly deaths topped 75,000," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a virtual press briefing from the U.N. agency's Geneva headquarters.
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 11, 2022 9:36:01 GMT -8
He's Seen EnoughDave Wasserman, U.S. House editor of the nonpartisan Cook Political ReportProspects are brightening for Democrats to retain control of the Senate without relying on the outcome of the Georgia runoff. In Arizona, Sen, Mark Kelly extended his statewide lead to about 114,000 votes after the latest release of votes from Maricopa (Phoenix-area) and Pima (Tucson-area) counties. With 75% of the vote counted, Kelly had 1,058,928 votes (51.7%) to 944,034 votes (46.1%) for Republican Blake Masters. Maricopa County officials said there are about 290,000 mail ballots that were dropped off at vote centers on Election Day that have not yet been counted. . But Masters would have to get an overwhelming majority of these votes to have any chance of catching Kelly. In Nevada, Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto now trails Republican Adam Laxalt by about 9,000 votes after more results were released from Clark (Las Vegas-area) and Washoe (Reno area) counties. With 90% of the vote counted, Republican Adam Laxalt had 450,534 votes (49%), while Cortez Masto had 441,546 votes (48%). There are still tens of thousands of uncounted mail ballots in Clark and Washoe counties. Clark and Washoe Are Blue Counties
Clark 9.1% 62,000
Washoe 11% 21,000
Douglas 21% 5,000
Carson City 15% 3,000
Elko 9.7% 1,000
Lyon 5.0% 1,000
Nye 5.0% 1,000
Churchill 6.3% 501 - 1,000
Humboldt 10% 501 - 1,000
Pershing 9.4% 101 - 500
Cortez Masto Needs Just Over 60% of the remaining votes.
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 11, 2022 9:40:39 GMT -8
Delusional QOP Pols
Sarah Palin, who has lost her bid for Congress, declared that she presumes her victory and announced Jerry Ward as her acting chief of staff. She said she was already working with the Congressional Freedom Caucus in Washington, D.C. to deliver opportunities for Alaska and would be meeting with the Freedom Caucus on Thursday.
“It is my privilege to appoint Jerry Ward as acting chief of staff! Please see below contact info for Jerry Ward, COS,” she wrote on Facebook, where she also taped a soliloquy thanking her supporters, calling Republican Nick Begich a Democrat plant, dumping on the Republican establishment, but never mentioning the actual Democrat in the race, her friend Mary Peltola, who appears to be winning and now has over 47% of the vote.
The current standings for the candidates in the general election are:
– Mary Peltola – 101,236, or 47.22%
– Sarah Palin – 57,005, or 26.59%
– Nick Begich – 51,896, or 24.21%
– Chris Bye – 3,716, or 1.73%
Palin would have to be awarded nearly every Nick Begich second round vote in order to get to 50%+1. Leading pollsters don’t see that happening, although it is statistically possible.
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 11, 2022 9:43:47 GMT -8
Is There a Bigger Loser Than Previous Guy
Biggest loser of the midterm elections? The media.
The headlines coming into Tuesday’s elections almost uniformly predicted a Democratic wipeout. Here’s just a small sampling:
The bottom is dropping out of the 2022 election for Democrats
Democrats, on Defense in Blue States, Brace for a Red Wave in the House
Red tsunami watch
The Republican wave is building fast
Democrats fear midterm drubbing as party leaders rush to defend blue seats
Why the midterms are going to be great for Donald Trump
Breaking down the GOP’s midterm momentum
Democrats confront their nightmare scenario on election eve as economic concerns overshadow abortion and democracy worries
I pulled those from The Post, the New York Times, CNN, Axios and Politico — but the rest of the news media called it much the same.
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 11, 2022 9:46:06 GMT -8
It's So Easy to Con a Con Man
The Democrats planted early stories about past criticism of Trump by former North Carolina governor Pat McCrory (R), aiming to push Trump to endorse someone less electable in the state’s Senate primary. (The successful nominee, Ted Budd, went on to win Tuesday.) They built up the idea in the press that Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) might run for Senate, prompting Trump to lash out and make clear his opposition; Ducey passed on running.
They handed out other hit pieces against Ohio GOP chairwoman Jane Timken and Pennsylvania Senate contender Dave McCormick, mining their old public comments for any criticism that might raise Trump’s ire. The committee even subscribed to a service that allowed for constant monitoring of right-wing radio, so divisions could be picked up early and amplified.
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 11, 2022 9:47:38 GMT -8
It's a Great Idea, ... But Joe Manchin
While Democrats have already signaled the end-of-the-year session will be busy, one priority shines above everything else: the need to prevent a debt limit hostage situation before it develops by extinguishing this unnecessary anachronism entirely. And Democrats can do this, in contrast to many of their other priorities, by using the last unused tool for a majority vote in the Senate: the fiscal year 2023 reconciliation bill.
That reconciliation process (which can’t be filibustered) will take just a few weeks in the lame duck, and include either raising the debt limit to some astronomically high amount, or eliminating it entirely. It must be done before Republicans take the House and fulfill their stated plan to use the debt limit as a mechanism to force deep spending cuts they couldn’t get otherwise.
Every budget includes the opportunity for reconciliation. The two most consequential bills in the first Biden term—the American Rescue Plan in 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022—were a product of reconciliation. But today we are in fiscal year 2023, which started on October 1. Congress has the ability to use the 2023 reconciliation bill right now. And reconciliation can be a vehicle to increase the debt limit; it was done four times in the 1980s and ’90s. [...]
Failing to do so would be irresponsible. Republicans are vowing to force cuts to earned benefit programs that are a bedrock of the Democratic Party. The party campaigned on rejecting any such cuts, and the president has given an ultimatum. This would push them into an impossible choice: go back on their word, or risk a default of U.S. debt. Neither is advisable or necessary. There’s a third option that is available, has been used before, and would permanently end the toxic politics that corrodes faith in government. That can be avoided. It’s up to the leadership, and they need to figure it out quickly.
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 11, 2022 9:49:03 GMT -8
Con Descending
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