…people not trying to kill each other today is

The hope is that the ceasefire will become permanent, and the deal will be monitored by a US-led supervisory mechanism that will act as a referee on infringements. A letter of assurance that is not formally part of the deal reportedly guarantees US support for Israeli freedom of action if Hezbollah attacks Israel again or moves its forces or weaponry south of the Litani.

…better than the alternative?

Israel appears to have come to the table after warnings from Washington that a failure to agree a ceasefire would prompt the US not to veto a UN security council resolution that would impose a ceasefire under disadvantageous conditions for Israel.
[…]
Importantly for the Israelis, Hezbollah has dropped its demand that a ceasefire in Lebanon is contingent on ending the fighting in Gaza.

Since a truce in the Gaza war collapsed after a week last November, ceasefire negotiations have repeatedly failed. Qatar, a major mediator between Israel and Hamas, announced earlier this month it was quitting its role until both parties showed “willingness and seriousness” in the talks.

Resettling or permanently reoccupying Gaza is not official Israeli policy, but senior defence officials recently told the Haaretz newspaper that the government was aiming to annex large parts of the territory rather than negotiate an end to the war.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/26/what-would-a-ceasefire-between-israel-and-hezbollah-entail-and-would-it-be-successful

…so…happy thanksgiving, folks…I dunno…might have to workshop the phrasing?

…hmm…it’s thanksgiving, hope you’re happy?

Climate denial a unifying theme of Trump’s cabinet picks, experts say [Guardian]

…no…the focus group is saying that sounds unhelpfully sarcastic

Backroom deals and betrayal: how Cop29’s late $300bn deal left nobody happy [Guardian]

…&…sure…takes one to know one…set a thief…yadda yadda

Plastics lobbyists make up biggest group at vital UN treaty talks [Guardian]

…say…if plastics are the sides…what’s the turkey they don’t come without…oh…never mind

Trump border chief threatens jail for Denver mayor amid deportation dispute [Guardian]

…the permian basin has no place at the table today

For two years, nations have worked to come up with a global agreement to tackle plastic pollution – a staggering problem with widespread implications for the planet and human health.

The agreement aims to “end plastic pollution” with measures that not only would improve how the world handles plastic waste but also could reduce how much of the ubiquitous material is made.
[…]
The vast majority of plastics are made from fossil fuels, a process that can spew toxic and planet-warming gases. Globally, producing primary plastics generated about 2.24 metric gigatons of emissions in 2019, equivalent to more than 500 million gas-powered cars being driven for a year, according to a paper published in April from researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Many of the plastics that become waste are single-use products that can end up polluting land, waterways and oceans, and some can take hundreds of years to break down. But as the material degrades in the environment, it creates microplastics – tiny particles smaller than five millimeters that have been found everywhere from Antarctic snow to human bodies.

The exact health effects of microplastics still aren’t known, but concerns are rising because plastics are known to contain a variety of toxic chemicals, and because a growing body of research suggests that humans are breathing, eating and drinking these small particles in much larger quantities than previously thought.
[…]
But for the treaty to effectively meet its goal of ending plastic pollution, environmentalists say, it’s critical that it include measures to reduce how much plastic is made. This could be achieved through caps on global production or a ban of single-use plastic. Environmental groups are also advocating for the agreement to address chemicals that are used to make many plastics, citing concerns about toxicity and calling for regulation of the substances.

…stands to reason…if you use less than everything in the kitchen to make the meal…you have less washing up to do at the end…who’d argue with that part…oh, wait…I remember now…turkeys do vote for thanksgiving

Industry groups and countries dependent on fossil fuel have pushed back against these kinds of provisions, arguing that the treaty should center more on dealing with plastic waste than on supply.

…sure…but…have they tried applying tariffs…that’d clear it right up…fixes anything, does a tariff

The new draft recommends more voluntary agreements from participating countries rather than binding obligations. The document is also missing specific suggested language for key provisions, including essential measures addressing plastic production, toxic chemicals used to make plastics and financing for the treaty and its commitments. Valdivieso noted in the document that the absence of suggested text indicates a lack of widespread agreement.

“It’s definitely still very unclear where we’re going to land because there is a very small but loud group of countries that are advocating very strongly for not including production at all and not including chemicals of concern at all in this treaty,” said Rachel Radvany, an environmental health campaigner for the Center for International Environmental Law.

…rachel must not have heard me say the magic word

But while U.S. negotiators have been criticized for not being ambitious enough and are facing pressure to support more-aggressive measures, some environmentalists say the country’s shift to broadly back reductions in plastic production is significant. Less than a week before the Busan negotiations, the Environmental Protection Agency released the final text of its national strategy to prevent plastic pollution, which includes actions such as reducing the production and consumption of single-use plastics and measuring the environmental and human health impacts throughout their life cycle.

…uh huh

The U.S. position on plastic production is opposed by industry groups, such as the International Council of Chemical Associations.

“We don’t support that U.S. shift in position — we do have concerns with it,” [Stewart] Harris [a spokesperson for the International Council of Chemical Associations] said. Instead, he said, the ICCA is in favor of demand-side measures, including those to improve plastics recycling.

“Plastic touches the majority of U.S. manufacturing, and so calling to restrict the availability of that material really sends a very chilling signal through the U.S. manufacturing industry,” he said.

‘A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity’: The world’s fight to curb plastic waste [WaPo]

…uh huh…sure…that’ll go better with the old lot getting a new go…did I mention the miracle tariffs?

US trade tariffs would pose risk to economic growth, top BoE official warns [FT]

…those must be some other tariffs…that are, like, communist or something because they hate america…not the miracle ones that have already sealed the border

Mexico’s President and Trump Describe a Positive Talk but Differ on Migration Details [NYT]

…what…you’re gonna believe a woman…over the pumpkin colored waxwork effigy most americans allegedly think would be good at a job he sucked at harder than just about anyone who ever tried…knew you were a communist

Trump said Sheinbaum “agreed to stop migration through Mexico.”

…what more is there to say?

“We reiterate that Mexico’s position is not to close borders but to build bridges between governments and between peoples,” Sheinbaum added.

…she also said you can shut up about the caravans…convoys…whatever…whoever drives those like they’re trains with a timetable that gets busiest around elections has them backed into a siding or whatever…what she didn’t say…& as the actual serving president of a country involved rather than a fox news viewer like the guy who’s going to be getting another shot at playing one of those on the telly…I’m thinking she might know if it had happened…was that for migration purposes mexico just became an air-gap for the US southern border

While the state of the proposed tariffs remained unclear, Trump said in a post on his Truth Social account that this was “effectively closing our southern border.” He called it a “very productive conversation.”

The exchange between the two leaders appeared to confirm for Trump the value of threatening to disrupt trade with import taxes. His initial social media post moved financial markets and gave him a response he was quick to describe as a win. Even if the proposed tariffs fail to materialise, Trump can tell supporters that the mere possibility of them is an effective policy tool and continue to rely on tariff threats.

…who deserves the thanks of a grateful nation?

Neither side clarified the status of the tariffs. But their implementation could fuel higher prices and slow economic growth, potentially blowing up the trade agreement among the US, Canada and Mexico that was finalized in 2020 during Trump’s previous time in the White House.

Trump on Monday said he would impose a 25% tax on all products entering the country from Canada and Mexico as one of his first executive orders upon taking office on 20 January. He also proposed an additional 10% tariff on China tied to its exporting of materials used in the production of fentanyl.

In announcing his plans, he railed against the flow of fentanyl and migrants crossing into the US illegally, even though southern border apprehensions have been hovering near four-year lows.

On Wednesday, Trump also posted that he plans a large scale ad campaign to explain “how bad fentanyl is for people to use,” predicting it would educate people on “how really bad the horror of this drug is.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/28/donald-trump-mexican-president-meeting-claudia-sheinbaum-tariffs-immigration

…fuck it…I dunno…in a world where they vote for that guy maybe there really are a statistically significant enough number of people out there buying & taking & maybe dying from fentanyl that just don’t know fentanyl’s bad for you…maybe that really would make a dent in an opioid crisis that’s been going on longer than the sacklers have been dodging having to part with any of the truly vast profit it made them…or…how did it go…we’ll give you a taste if you promise you’ll let us keep the rest & never ask again…so nothing for it…just have to do the ad thing…& maybe stick some tariff on there…that’ll help you walk it off

As the picture of Trump’s far-reaching agenda has become less and less hypothetical, an increasing array of polling on how Americans feel about it reveals contradictory emotions and priorities.

A new Scripps News/Ipsos poll is a case in point. It shows, as previous polling has, that Trump’s promise of mass deportations for undocumented immigrants is relatively popular. Americans support that broad concept by nine points, 52 percent to 43 percent.

…it’s going to take more than turkey & trimmings to help me walk that off…more than half of america hasn’t figured out how bad…let alone screamingly hypocritical…an idea the mass deportation debacle would be…I know polls have kind of a shitty track record at this point but even so…for real?

But then the poll did something interesting. It asked the same question again after floating a number of likely and presumable consequences:

…ok…that sounds…not “fun” fun…but…fun, I guess?

• If the operation resulted in fewer people paying into Medicare and Social Security, the margin of support dropped to two points (48-46).
• If it had a negative impact on the labor market, people were evenly split (47-47).
• If it raised the price of goods, opposition suddenly outpaced support by nine points (43 percent support to 52 percent opposition).
• And if it led to families being separated, the program was suddenly 19 points underwater (38-57).

…uh…did they swap out 52% of the US for drunk uncles & crypto bro teens when I wasn’t looking…don’t think “a negative impact on the labor market” comes with “raised the price of goods” as a dependent…& want to…what…deport the whole of any family that has a deportable component even if some of those were citizens from birth in a free & legal sense…who the actual fuck do they get to answer these things & why do they struggle so with the joined up thinking?

For example, as many as 4 in 10 farmworkers aren’t authorized to work in this country, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That means a mass deportation operation could have a huge impact on the supply chain.

…if they had to pick which two fingers from each hand to lose…do you think they’d notice an impact…I’m honestly not sure they’d see the correlation even then, to be honest with you…so I vote they lose their middle fingers first…& as an homage to bill hicks…their thumbs…IYKYK

And a huge proportion of undocumented people in this country have children who are citizens because those children were born here; as many as 4.4 million Americans under 18 lived with at least one undocumented parent as of 2022, according to a Pew study this year. Pew estimated the total number of undocumented immigrants at 11 million.

(Precisely how those families would be handled isn’t at all clear. Trump’s incoming “border czar,” Tom Homan, who has strongly defended the first Trump administration’s family separation policy, said last month that family separations could be avoided because, “Families can be deported together.” But he later seemed to walk that back. Trump has spoken about how “provisions” will be made for mixed-status families but hasn’t said what kind.)

…is it too early to think there’s a pattern?

The results echo a Marquette University Law School poll from earlier this year that showed support for deporting undocumented immigrants dropping by 16 points when it mentioned how it could deport people who “have lived here for a number of years, have jobs, and no criminal record” — a description that applies to a large number of would-be deportees.

This kind of contradiction also shows up in new polling from CBS News and YouGov.

The poll released Sunday showed Americans supported the idea of Trump finding and deporting “all immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally” by a wide margin, 57 percent to 43 percent. But when it asked whether people would support using the military to carry that out, Americans opposed it, 60-40.

Trump confirmed last week that he will indeed use the military. And it’s not even clear how such an operation could be run without that, given the scale of the roundup.

…it’s…like…people…don’t…you know…think?

The poll shows that Americans have no higher priority than lowering the costs of goods and services in the aftermath of the recent high inflation numbers. Fully 79 percent of Americans say this should be a “high priority,” far ahead of any other items including cutting taxes. And Americans think new tariffs — basically a tax on imports under which costs are generally passed on to consumers — would lead to higher prices, 59 percent to 18 percent.

And yet! Americans also say they favor new tariffs, 52-48.

…fuck whether or not they’re representative…only 21% of those specific respondents aren’t intellectually bankrupt out of that gate if they show up in the 52…& my guess is the 18% doesn’t overlap so much with that 21%…however I juggle the shit, though…it seems like you need to have some who pop for lowering prices as a high priority…get that tariffs raise those…& still say they’re in favor of those…& those people…think other people are dumber than them…& get to decide presidential elections

You might look at that and think, okay, well maybe people think tariffs would raise prices and really don’t like that, but they think it would be worth it, because it could revitalize American manufacturing and protect American workers. (This is usually the trade-off with tariffs, even as Trump has falsely pitched tariffs as being paid by foreign companies.)

Except other polling doesn’t really bear that out. The same Scripps/Ipsos poll mentioned above showed just 14 percent of Americans “strongly” supported new tariffs. Twice as many supported them only “somewhat.”

And that’s telling when it comes to that policy and others. Both tariffs and mass deportation were probably net positives to Trump in the 2024 election when voters considered them in the abstract. But support could be shallow. As with so many other large policies — like revamping Obamacare — the actual implementation will come with consequences that voters don’t necessarily love.

Americans’ many contradictions on Trump’s agenda [WaPo]

…& that’s not counting the contradictions *in* his agenda

House Republicans voted on Wednesday to block the release of an Ethics Committee report about sexual misconduct and illicit drug use allegations against former Representative Matt Gaetz, the Florida Republican who is President-elect Donald J. Trump’s choice for attorney general, setting up a possible constitutional clash between the House and the Senate.
[…]
In a statement on behalf of the five Democrats on the evenly divided panel, Ms. Wild said that “in order to affirmatively move something forward, somebody has to cross party lines and vote with the other side.” She noted that the panel often takes bipartisan votes. But, she said, “that did not happen in today’s vote.”

In fact, the five Republicans on the committee all voted together against releasing the report, and all Democrats voted to release it, according to a person familiar with the meeting who insisted on anonymity to discuss the confidential session.

Representative Michael Guest, the Mississippi Republican who chairs the committee, declined to comment on the session, saying only: “There was no agreement by the committee to release the report.”
[…]
On Wednesday evening, Representatives Sean Casten, Democrat of Illinois, and Steve Cohen, Democrat of Tennessee, each moved to compel a vote of the full House on the matter. House G.O.P. leadership will have two legislative days to conduct the vote — either on Thursday, before the Thanksgiving recess begins, or on Dec. 3, when lawmakers return.
[…]
In addition to his ethical and legal challenges, Mr. Gaetz has a long record of gleefully disparaging some Republican senators whose votes he now needs to be confirmed. For instance, he has referred to Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the minority leader, as “dangerous” and coined the nickname “McFailure” for him. But on Wednesday, he was working to shore up support with Republican skeptics, including Mr. Cornyn and Senator Susan Collins of Maine.
[…]
Since the spring of 2021, the ethics panel had been investigating Mr. Gaetz over an array of allegations, including that he had engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use and accepted gifts that violated House rules.
[…]
The panel interviewed more than a dozen witnesses, issued 25 subpoenas and reviewed thousands of pages of documents. The committee said in June that it was continuing to investigate the allegations that Mr. Gaetz may have engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts, dispensed special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct.

On Wednesday, Judiciary Committee Democrats wrote to Christopher A. Wray, the F.B.I. director, requesting “the complete evidentiary file” on Mr. Gaetz, including from a Justice Department investigation and the Ethics Committee inquiry, a letter reported earlier by Politico.

Mr. Gaetz has denounced the ethics inquiry as a “political payback exercise” and suggested it was arranged by former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, his bitter rival whose ouster he orchestrated last year.

In a public letter from September, Mr. Gaetz called the Ethics Committee’s work “uncomfortably nosy” and complained that it involved questions about details of his sexual activity.

“The lawful, consensual sexual activities of adults are not the business of Congress,” he wrote.

House Republicans blocked the release of a report into sexual misconduct allegations against Matt Gaetz. [NYT]

…fivehead said that shit…are we sure…because I didn’t hear the echo as literally every woman in the land laughed their fucking ass off about the “uncomfortably nosy” thing being for post-post-roe-v-wade real…& it feels like that would have happened…maybe it only showed up on seismometers…don’t worry, though…it gets dumber…that’s the actual stated goal, even

Republican senator introduces bill to abolish US Department of Education [Guardian]

…that’ll learn ’em good, I expect

Why is Donald Trump talking up crypto? [WaPo]

…how can I put this?

X owner Elon Musk seemed on Monday to confirm what sharp-eyed users have suspected for months: that putting a link in your post on his social network is a good way to ensure it won’t go viral.

…what’s the genius take this time?

Musk was replying to a post by the influential Silicon Valley investor Paul Graham, who opined on Sunday that “the deprioritization of tweets with links in them is Twitter’s biggest flaw.” X’s main draw, Graham said, is “to find out what’s going on, and you can’t do that without links.”

Musk’s response implied Graham was right that X’s algorithm downgrades link posts.

…by “implied” what WaPo means is “outlined a procedure that would only be relevant if the substance of the complaint is valid while claiming that was a feature not a bug“

“Just write a description in the main post and put the link in the reply,” Musk said, mentioning a strategy that some savvy X users were already employing. “This just stops lazy linking.”

…so you see the links are fine priovided you generate two posts for every one of them & it takes you more effort to get to remind people that almost everywhere online is better than his rancid home turf…& you’re wrong…& lazy…& he’s better than you…oh…& if it’s embedded or you don’t have a login for his platform you can’t see the tweet about the link & the reply at the same time…so it might be a little like a desperate attempt to keep feet in the door he can claim aren’t fleeing the shithole country he made himself shitlord of…just in terms of the underlying functionality of that statement…in context

Since buying the platform, Musk has touted it as a hub for “citizen journalists” who post directly on X rather than linking to their work elsewhere. He has also trumpeted his disdain for traditional media and even used X’s algorithm to throttle links to specific news outlets or rival online forums.

“You are the media now,” he told X users on Nov. 6, the day Donald Trump became president-elect.

For social media platforms, suppressing links is seen as good business.

Links are lifeblood for web publishers, and they can be handy for users who want to point each other to original sources, in-depth reporting or delightful content. Adding a link to a post also can be an indicator of credibility on social media – a sign that you aren’t just spouting off but have outside evidence to support your claims and are happy for your audience to check it out for themselves.

But tech giants have come to see links as a drain on the bottom line, because they pull users’ valuable eyeballs away from the platform. There’s also the reality that some links lead to malware, scams or misinformation, though Musk didn’t cite that as a reason for suppressing them. X didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The decline of the link has helped give rise to the “news influencer.”

As traditional media that report the news have lost audience and stature, social media influencers who talk about the news have thrived, according to a recent nationally representative survey by Pew Research. The survey found that 1 in 5 Americans – and 37 percent of adults under 30 – say they regularly get news from influencers on social media.

Some 85 percent of those influencers maintain a presence on X, while a little less than half have accounts on Instagram and YouTube. They’re more likely to be men than women, Pew found, and more likely to lean conservative than liberal. Three-quarters have never worked for a news organization.

…only three-quarters…that’s…lower than they make it seem

“We love links because we love the open web,” Bluesky CEO Jay Graber said on her site last week. After Musk’s post on Monday, Bluesky’s official X account shared Graber’s post with the caption, “Post your links on Bluesky.” News organizations are obliging, with some reporting they’re already seeing far more traffic from Bluesky than from Threads despite its smaller size.

Bluesky may have slightly miscalculated, however, by adding a link to download Bluesky in its X post. While the Bluesky account has 436,000 X followers, X’s algorithm only showed the post to 43,000 people.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/27/musk-x-throttle-links-threads-bluesky/

…speaking of miscalculations

Donald Trump adviser Brooke Rollins had a question for the crowd celebrating his reelection at his Mar-a-Lago estate earlier this month. “Where is the George Soros of the right?” she called from the stage, referring to the billionaire investor and prolific liberal donor.

…he needs the guy everyone still believes is the sort of rich he only claims to be for the cameras…but…how much do you think he can take of this

To loud cheers, a younger billionaire in the audience threw his right hand into the air: Elon Musk.
Musk is being likened to Soros in Republican circles — and embracing the comparison

…sure he loves when someone else picks up the check…& a good vehicle for lawfare

The tech mogul told advisers shortly before the election that America PAC should challenge “Soros DAs,” referring to a cohort of progressive district attorneys across the country who received support from Soros and affiliated organizations, according to two people familiar with Musk’s plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.

…but being the greasy éminence is a slippery sort of a spot to try to cling to behind his petulancy the twice annointed grifter-in-chief…& this house guest might be forgetting the rule about those & fish having something in common

Musk took an interest in Soros and his involvement in local political races even before he became a top Republican donor: “Soros figured out a clever arbitrage opportunity,” Musk wrote in a post on his social network X early last year. Campaign dollars go further in local races for district attorneys and judges, he wrote, “so it is far easier to sway the outcome.”

…anyone remember when there was a quiet part?

In some Republican circles the terms “Soros-backed,” “Soros-funded” or “Soros DA” are used as epithets for liberal prosecutors who favor reducing mass incarceration or improving equity in the criminal justice system. They are sometimes applied to candidates who only received minimal, indirect funding from the deep-pocketed investor.

Recently, a series of progressive prosecutors — including some who received support from Soros or associated groups — have suffered electoral backlash after critics blamed them for increases in homelessness, drug use and theft.

The traditionally liberal counties that are home to San Francisco, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon, all recently recalled or replaced progressive prosecutors as frustrations over quality of life issues boiled over.

…san fransisco, you say?

Jason Johnson, president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, said Musk’s greater resources and celebrity could make him even more impactful than the older billionaire. Soros, who is 94, is more than 40 years older than Musk, 53, and worth $6.5 billion to the tech mogul’s $348 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Musk “has more capacity and ability to transmit information and influence people than maybe anyone else,” Johnson said.

…I might need a while to get over my surprise

Musk intervened in a district attorney race in Texas earlier this year without success. A September Wall Street Journal report linked the Tesla CEO to an effort to unseat José Garza, a Soros-linked district attorney in Travis County, home to Austin, where Musk spends much of his time. Garza handily won, receiving 70 percent of the vote in a county that traditionally favors the Democratic Party.

Cristine Soto DeBerry, executive director of nonprofit organization Prosecutors Alliance Action, said she was encouraged by Garza’s win despite Musk’s involvement. Still, she said, America PAC’s involvement in DA races should be unwelcome.

“It will be much harder to win races where there are millions put into spread misinformation, and use fearmongering to try to get voters to move away from candidates who are more committed to their local communities than Musk would ever would be,” DeBerry said.

America PAC primarily focused on turning out low-propensity voters for Trump during the November campaign but also spent millions on competitive congressional races around the country, potentially providing a preview of how Musk could loom large in local contests.

In Michigan’s 7th District, Musk’s America PAC spent about $1 million to support Republican Tom Barrett, who defeated his Democratic challenger and flipped the seat.

…wonder if it’ll take me longer than it will for one of these assholes to piss the other off enough to start the dumpster fire of the vanities that seems inevitable?

Barrett’s campaign spokesman Jason Roe said while Musk’s support was a fraction of the total spent campaigning for the seat, he contributed an “eye popping” amount in a tight race ultimately won by about 17,000 votes.

“Soros can overwhelm a race so now it’s nice to have Musk,” Roe said. “When he (Musk) does stuff like this, it gets attention.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/11/26/elon-musk-george-soros-pac-republican-elections/

…& we know how much the daiper don loves to share that resource…it’s right up there with all the credit & none of the blame in the hit parade of things he likes other people’s names associated with

President-elect Donald Trump has said many negative things about cryptocurrencies. Their value is “based on thin air,” he remarked; they can “facilitate unlawful behavior.” Bitcoin “seems like a scam” he told Fox Business in 2021. “I don’t like it because it’s another currency competing against the dollar.” Things change. This year Mr. Trump proposed that “if bitcoin is going to the moon, I want America to be the nation that leads the way.”

…well his DoD pick doesn’t think it exists…like germs…because he can’t see it…presumably…so…let’s hope the space force guy is onboard for the defense of the moonshot…or whatever

One motivation for Mr. Trump’s crypto turn seems clear: During his campaign, he appealed to the burgeoning crypto lobby, a motley group of techy libertarians and opportunists seeking easy money to whom he promised a national crypto reserve (which would offer crypto speculators an opportunity to monetize their investment on the U.S. government’s dime). Another concerning possibility: Mr. Trump himself appears to be trying to cash in on cryptocurrency, raising a new set of questions about the conflicts of interest he will bring to the Oval Office.

…what rhymes with “sounds like a scam”?

In mid-September, weeks before the election, Mr. Trump announced his newest business project: World Liberty Financial, a somewhat nebulous venture that will provide a platform for people to borrow, lend and earn interest on crypto. Mr. Trump apparently won’t be a “director, founder, or employee of, or manager, owner or operator” of the thing, according to the “Gold Paper” that lays out plans for the enterprise. He will serve as “Chief Crypto Advocate.” His sons Donald Jr., Eric and Barron will serve as “Web3 Ambassadors.”

World Liberty Financial hoped to issue $300 million of “governance tokens” (which, its “Gold Paper” says, should not be confused with shares or other securities, as they grant holders only a limited say into how the entity will be run and, at least initially, can’t be traded). Seventy-five percent of net proceeds would go to a LLC owned by Mr. Trump, after setting aside some working capital.

…uhhh…hounds strike a lamb, maybe?

The plan didn’t quite pan out, initially. By Nov. 20 the venture had raised only about $20 million, so World Liberty Financial had to scale back its ambition.
[…]
But the opportunity to make money in the future remains, especially given the president-elect’s seeming intention to craft crypto-friendly rules and to pack the financial regulatory agencies with pro-crypto acolytes. (Word is he wants to create the position of White House crypto czar.)

…oh…what’s the point…clearly nobody cares…or this wouldn’t be a thing

In Mr. Trump’s first term, his hotel in Washington (which he has since sold) offered foreign governments and lobbyists an opportunity to curry favor with the country’s leader. His son-in-law Jared Kushner leveraged ties made in government to secure billions in deals after he left the White House. Elon Musk, a billionaire whose businesses have enormous contracts with the U.S. government, was a big campaign supporter and is going to be a key Trump adviser.

…yesterday’s news, brah

Now, Mr. Trump’s crypto venture could become a new avenue to curry favor with the incoming administration. On Nov. 25, Justin Sun, a controversial Chinese-born crypto billionaire, who has been sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission (and who bought a banana taped to a wall for more than $6 million), purchased $30 million of World Liberty Financial tokens.

…yeah…gonna need to hold up, there…just for a second

…that banana might be too perfect a metaphor even without the schitts creek thing

A 74-year-old immigrant who works outside Sotheby’s shares a basement in the Bronx and works 12-hour shifts. He was stunned to hear what his banana went for at auction.

…that part?

At the fruit stand where he works on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Shah Alam sells dozens of bananas a day at 35 cents a piece, or four for a dollar. He does a brisk business in cheap fruit outside Sotheby’s auction house; inside, art can sell for millions.

But last Wednesday, Mr. Alam sold a banana that a short time later would be auctioned as part of a work of absurdist art, won by a cryptocurrency entrepreneur for $5.2 million plus more than $1 million in auction-house fees.

A few days after the sale, as Mr. Alam stood in the rain on York Avenue and East 72nd Street, snapping bananas free of their bunches, he learned from a reporter what had become of the fruit: It had been duct-taped to a wall as part of a work by the Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, and sold to Justin Sun, the Chinese founder of a cryptocurrency platform.

And when he was told the sale price, he began to cry.

“I am a poor man,” Mr. Alam, 74, said, his voice breaking. “I have never had this kind of money; I have never seen this kind of money.”

…seen plenty of 12hr shifts, though

The banana’s journey from fruit stand to artwork began in 2019, when Mr. Cattelan first exhibited the work at Art Basel Miami Beach, the international art fair. The conceptual piece of three editions, titled “Comedian,” is an implicit sendup of the absurdity of the art world, in keeping with Mr. Cattelan’s puckish oeuvre. It came with a detailed owner’s manual on just how to affix the banana with the tape, and permission to refresh it when it rots. (Mr. Cattelan bought the original bananas at a Miami grocery store, he has said in interviews.)

Each edition sold in Miami for between $120,000 and $150,000 and spurred unruly crowds: A performance artist at the exhibition ripped one off the wall, peeled the banana and ate it. Mr. Cattelan was delighted by the ensuing debate over what exactly constitutes art, and how it is valued.

…about that “valued” part

The artist was not compensated for the Sotheby’s sale, which was on behalf of a collector who has not been named, but he said in an email that he was nonetheless thrilled by the price it commanded.

“Honestly, I feel fantastic,” Mr. Cattelan wrote. “The auction has turned what began as a statement in Basel into an even more absurd global spectacle.” He added: “In that way, the work becomes self-reflexive: The higher the price, the more it reinforces its original concept.”

…I’m not sure self-reinforcement of some concepts is necessarily a prospect I find appealing

A widower from Dhaka, Bangladesh, Mr. Alam was a civil servant before he moved to the United States in 2007 to be closer to one of his two children, a married daughter who lives on Long Island. He said his home is a basement apartment with five other men in Parkchester, in the Bronx. For his room he pays $500 a month in rent, he said, speaking in Bengali. His fruit stand shifts are 12 hours long, four days a week; for each hour on his feet, in all weather, the owner pays him $12. His English is limited mostly to the prices and names of his wares — apples, three for $2; small pears, $1 each.

Mr. Sun, reached today via email in China, said he was moved by Mr. Alam’s response and that “his role in this artwork is not taken lightly.” He added: “His reaction highlights…. It’s a poignant remind…..unnoticed.”

He has never stepped inside the auction house. He wouldn’t be able to see the art clearly anyway: His vision is deeply impaired, he said, because he needs cataract surgery, which he has scheduled for January.

To Mr. Alam, the joke of “Comedian” feels at his expense. As a blur of people rushed by his corner a few days after the sale, shock and distress washed over him as he considered who profited — and who did not.

“Those who bought it, what kind of people are they?” he asked. “Do they not know what a banana is?”

In his email, Mr. Cattelan said he was affected by Mr. Alam’s reaction to his artwork, but stopped short of joining in his criticism. “The reaction of the banana vendor moves me deeply, underscoring how art can resonate in unexpected and profound ways,” he wrote. “However, art, by its nature, does not solve problems — if it did, it would be politics.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/27/nyregion/banana-auction-sothebys.html

…&…financial acquisition is just the pursuit of art by other means…I get it…it’s not like there’s a war going on or anything

Mr. Trump largely had it right the first time. Perhaps someday a useful, legitimate use for crypto will emerge. But cryptocurrencies appear to be little more than an example of the greater fool theory. With no intrinsic value, their worth as an asset in which to store people’s savings depends entirely on whether there is a greater fool out there willing to pay more than the last one did for bitcoin, dogecoin or whatever cryptocurrency comes next.

Mr. Trump’s victory added to the ranks of fools. Bitcoin has appreciated by some 37 percent since Election Day, reaching nearly $95,000. This should inspire caution. The underlying asset is volatile, swinging in value in ways that could hurt unsophisticated investors. The latest surge also suggests the market expects the next president to be a crypto ally. He appears to have many reasons to be — just not good ones.

Why is Donald Trump talking up crypto? [WaPo]

…let me see now…no…it all looks perfectly innocent…practically exonerated in advance, really

Top cryptocurrency executives and investors are pushing President-elect Donald Trump to create a national stockpile of bitcoin, a move that could more closely tie the little-regulated, volatile industry to the future of the country’s finances.

Sudden Panic Sparks $200 Billion Bitcoin And Crypto Price Crash [Forbes][…like a couple of days ago, if anyone cares]

Economists and fiscal experts say the proposal carries significant risks: Crypto prices can fluctuate wildly, potentially putting taxpayer dollars at risk if the government acquires bitcoin at its current level — near record highs — and its value ultimately falls. They also say a strategic reserve would primarily benefit existing bitcoin owners, who could profit immensely if Trump’s actions send prices soaring and they opt to sell.

“There’s just no discernible logic to do it,” said Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. “I get why the crypto investor would love it. Other than the crypto investor, I don’t see the value, particularly if taxpayers have to ante up.”

…I’ll admit I’m grateful for not having to put up with someone who’ll believe this for the duration of an extended meal

“The case for it is, if it behaves as proponents say it will, and the purchasing power of the fiat U.S. dollar continues to decline relative to bitcoin over time, … [you can use it] to pay off a significant chunk of national debt,” said Andrew O’Neill, a managing director focused on digital assets at S&P Global. “You break that spiral of ever-increasing indebtedness.”

…because my family would get mad at me if I bounced their head off the table to see if they rebooted & I’d like to just eat until I can’t think instead, given the option

The U.S. government already possesses some bitcoin, part of a trove of cryptocurrencies largely acquired by federal law enforcement from past criminal probes and asset seizures. In total, these holdings are valued around $20 billion, according to Arkham Intelligence, a crypto tracking firm.

The tokens in federal possession include Tether, a cryptocurrency whose underlying financial assets are managed in part by Howard Lutnick, a top Trump adviser and chief executive of the investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald. A spokeswoman for Lutnick, who has been tapped as Trump’s secretary of commerce, did not respond to a request for comment.

…christ on a fucking crutch…that’s a pogo stick…how much louder can he scream the part about trying to rip you off while you do what he says & not as he does

“For too long, the government has violated the cardinal rule that every bitcoin owner knows by heart: Never sell your bitcoin,” Trump said, promising to “transform that vast wealth into a permanent national asset to benefit all Americans.”

…never sell *your* bitcoin…otherwise I can’t keep profit-taking off the inflated price that means people will pay for mine…but…I get it…if you believe he wants to transform vast wealth into a permanent national asset to benefit all americans…because it’s so like a man who pissed away what would have been vast wealth & an asset to benefit his family for generations…largely derived from embezzlement from generations of all americans…& is revelling in the opportunity to go double-or-quits with his hands on the national pocketbook

…well…you might still have some autonomic function but you’re effectively dead from the neck up & are basically just a burden on society in the ways they’re scared might be open to coercing old people to euthanize themselves if the UK says you can decide when you’ve had enough…& I feel sorry for your families

Many crypto executives oppose the federal sale of assets because it can drive down prices: In one example, bitcoin dipped earlier this year when Germany began to liquidate tokens it seized from a crackdown on online piracy. The prospect that Trump might reverse that policy — on top of other pro-crypto policy concessions — has helped to send the price of bitcoin soaring since the election, reaching $92,000 by Tuesday.

“There has been an effort in the Washington bureaucratic swamp to stifle innovation with more regulation and higher taxes, but President Trump will deliver on his promise to encourage American leadership in crypto and other emerging technologies,” Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the president’s transition team, said in a statement.

…the stupid is scaring me, though

But it is unclear how much, if at all, the incoming administration can actually adopt on its own, or if Trump must rely on Congress, where Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyoming) — a crypto supporter with major industry backing — has already introduced a bill for a bitcoin reserve.

“We’ve talked about the benefits of a reserve,” Lummis said in an interview, referring to her conversations with Trump’s team. “I’m sure that, within the weeks to come, that there will be an opportunity to sit down with someone in the Trump orbit who can help us do that deeper dive.”

Lummis has proposed a more ambitious effort: Her measure would commission a new process that would see the United States buy up to 1 million coins and hold them for the next two decades. To finance those purchases, federal officials would engage in a complicated set of accounting maneuvers, such as revaluing the gold the government already possesses — and, essentially, writing a check from the Federal Reserve to the Treasury for the difference.

Lummis said the effort would “cut the national debt in half,” adding: “Not a single U.S. taxpayer dollar would go into the bill I filed.”

Policy experts across the political spectrum have questioned the merits of such a plan, arguing that revaluing the country’s gold is highly inflationary — and diverting money into crypto still creates risk for taxpayers because the value of bitcoin is not guaranteed to continue rising. The currency has seen major slumps in recent years: In one five-day period in May 2022, for example, the price of bitcoin dropped by more than 20 percent.
[…]
Any plan that seeks to use taxpayer dollars to finance cryptocurrency purchases could also add to the country’s mounting debt, because the United States may need to borrow some of that money — and subsequently would owe interest on it. That could exacerbate the very problem that some policymakers say they are trying to solve.

But advocates insist the greatest benefit of a strategic reserve is not measured in dollars: It’s the credibility they would gain as the U.S. government opts to incorporate digital assets more fully into the financial system.

“It’s a positive catalyst for crypto,” said Marshall Beard, the chief operating officer at Gemini, the crypto trading platform founded by Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, two Trump donors. “The U.S. government is going to take it seriously as a piece of a portfolio and leverage that,” he said, adding that it would illustrate the “legitimacy of the asset class and bitcoin itself.”

Crypto leaders press Trump to create federal bitcoin reserve [WaPo]

…look…even without this bit

“Any loosening of regulations on crypto (or, frankly, the appearance of loosening) is likely to further increase extremists’ use of crypto,” says Jessica Davis, a former analyst at Canada’s spy agency and the president of Insight Threat Intelligence, a consultancy firm specializing in terrorist financing.

“While the integration of crypto into the traditional financial system is not a nefarious goal, steps to do so, without proper regulation and compliance with international counter-terrorist financing standards, will make it easier for terrorists to raise and move funds for their purposes.”

Already on election day, the Base, a designated neo-Nazi terrorist group under a years-long FBI investigation, was soliciting donations in cryptocurrency for its stateside paramilitary training.

“Supporters! We at the Base received some donations and we are quite happy as we are purchasing blanks and blank firing adapters for AR-15s so members can train in small unit tactics,” said the post on one of the group’s encrypted messaging accounts.

The post continued with a list of supplies fit for a military platoon: “We need further funding to help buy more 5.56 blanks, training courses, powerfilm USA foldable solar panels to charge batteries in the field, Carinthia Defence 4 sleeping bags, electronic earmuffs and mics, bump helmets, GoPros, thermal optics, and FPV drones in that order.

“We will be fully transparent with purchases so you all see we are buying the equipment so we can train,” it said.

The Base then advertised a Bitcoin wallet, which has yet to accrue any funds, and a Monero address – a privacy-focused cryptocurrency. Criminal organizations are also well known to change their wallets to avoid law enforcement and intelligence surveillance.

The group’s Russia-based leader had offered over the summer to pay a second-in-command up to $1,200 a month in crypto and other funds to train the group in the US in his stead, suggesting that an earlier round of fundraising succeeded.

But terrorists and extremists using crypto isn’t anything new: in recent years, everybody, from American neo-Nazis to Hamas, has tapped anonymous donations through crypto.

“We got a lot to pull off the next weeks, any and all support is massively helpful,” wrote the leader of the Blood Tribe in a 2023 post asking for money to finance an eventual march in Florida brandishing swastika flags. The same post also advertised Bitcoin and Monero wallets.

…&…that’s not the sort of shit I’d recommend ignoring in the hopes it’ll go away on its own

Davis noted that the accelerationist terrorists, the kind who believe acts of chaos will hasten the end of world governments, see something else: “[They] see cryptocurrency either as something that can help bring about the collapse of society, or something that will survive that collapse.”

…put a pin in that

Extremists already understand the appeal and usage of crypto exchanges and how best to maximize their value, even going so far as instructing followers how to exploit them.

“Do not send us Bitcoin from exchanges such as Coinbase,” wrote a publication affiliated with ex-leaders of Atomwaffen Division, a disbanded neo-Nazi group on several terror lists. “The only purpose for Coinbase and other exchanges is to easily buy Bitcoin for cheap then send it to your independent wallet for sending to us.”

On the far right, some have already begun using cryptocurrencies to specifically avoid identifying themselves in transactions between one another. On Telegram in August, a legal defense fund setup for the imprisoned white nationalist leader Robert Rundo called on followers to send money.

“If you are concerned about credit card donations under your name” said the post, “below are crypto addresses for Bitcoin, Ethereum and Monero donations”.

Besides legal funds, groups like the Base and others ask for myriad reasons to send crypto.

“Different entities have previously requested cryptocurrency donations to allegedly pay for equipment, the costs of making and spreading physical propaganda, web hosting, travel, legal, and prisoner support,” said Joshua Fisher-Birch, an analyst at the Counter Extremism Project. “Crypto is attractive to the extreme right because it is easy to create a wallet and solicit donations online.”

He said while the anonymity of crypto was an obvious plus, extremists who use it are interested in not being deplatformed by mainstream crowdfunding sites, which is why Monero, a Bitcoin alternative with a higher degree of untraceability, has become a darling of cybercriminals and terror groups alike.

“Monero has also become popular with pro-Islamic State and IS-linked propagandists, who have asked for Monero donations and have posted advice on how to purchase it,” he added.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/27/trump-crypto-extremism

…ok…we see how it is

Elon Musk wants to ‘delete’ federal financial watchdog as ‘DOGE’ begins work [WaPo]

…so…the fuck you is implied…but…about the pin I had in that…things that survive the apocalypse…remember that…if bitcoin does…gonna be a sweet apocalypse…because there’ll be a full suite of IT infrastructure…& if you aren’t sure how that works you can donate your water ration to ask an AI chatbot, I expect

Chatbots use an immense amount of power to respond to user questions, and simply keeping the bot’s servers cool enough to function in data centers takes a toll on the environment. While the exact burden is nearly impossible to quantify, The Washington Post worked with researchers at the University of California, Riverside to understand how much water and power OpenAI’s ChatGPT, using the GPT-4 language model released in March 2023, consumes to write the average 100-word email.

Let’s look first at water.

…you might not want to

Once requires 519 milliliters of water, a little more than 1 bottle

Once weekly for a year requires 27 liters, about 1.43 water cooler jugs

…so, what’s the big deal?

Once weekly for a year by 1 out of 10 working Americans (roughly 16 million people) requires 435,235,476 liters, equal to the water consumed by all Rhode Island households for 1.5 days

…well, there’ll be less of those after the apocalypse so I’m sure all the bitcoin servers will be just chilling…in their extremely well-lit apocalypse

Even in ideal conditions, data centers are often among the heaviest users of water in the towns where they are located, environmental advocates said. But data centers with electrical cooling systems also are raising concerns by driving up residents’ power bills and taxing the electric grid.

…incidentally…1.5 days of rhode islands water consumption needs to be added to “121,517 megawatt-hours (MWh), equal to the electricity consumed by all D.C. households for 20 days” for that 100-words worth of chatGPT doing it for 1 out of 10 of the workforce once a week for the full 52…so…some disaster-proof juice is required

In Northern Virginia, home to the world’s highest concentration of data centers, citizen groups have protested construction of these buildings, saying they are not only loud energy hogs that don’t bring in enough long-term jobs, but also eyesores that kill home values. In West Des Moines, Iowa, an emerging hotbed of data centers, water department records showed that facilities run by companies like Microsoft used around 6 percent of all the district’s water. After a lengthy court battle, the Oregonian newspaper forced Google to disclose how much its data centers were using in The Dalles, about 80 miles east of Portland; it turned out to be nearly a quarter of all the water available in the town, the documents revealed.
[…]
In July, Google released its most recent environmental report, showing its carbon emission footprint rose by 48 percent, largely due to AI and data centers. It also replenished only 18 percent of the water it consumed — a far cry from the 120 percent it has set as a goal by 2030. “Google has a long-standing commitment to sustainability, guided by our ambitious goals—which includes achieving net-zero emissions by 2030,” said Mara Harris, a spokesperson for Google.

A bottle of water per email: the hidden environmental costs of using AI chatbots

…dunno how much me typing this up & you reading the thing gets us both through…always assuming anyone’s a glutton enough for that punishment…but I know the arguable intelligence from whence it was derived used enough water for coffee…along with some orange juice…so I’m pretty sure I’m cheaper than the going rate…even my statistically higher-end training set reads like a discount if you want to get into it

…but…my time’s up & my money is on “nobody wants any of that, today…”

…so…at least I ended on a “…thank you very much” note?

…don’t hear from him as often as we used to…but…I’d give more thanks if there were more out there like my man chester p

…so…I hope he’s finding what he needs to wherever he’s at…if karma were a fungible token…dude might be richer than elon…just sayin’