Top Texas Republicans Call For More Guns, Fortified Schools, Armed Teachers After Attack

On May 24, 2022, a gunman opened fire inside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, killing at least 19 children and two teachers.

[Afterwards,] GOP lawmakers refused to support the possibility of any gun control measures as the nation reels in the wake of the worst school shooting since the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012. Instead, the elected officials called for more armed teachers and even fortified schools meant to keep bad actors away from children, saying laws to limit access to firearms don’t work.

. . .

Police said the 18-year-old who attacked the school, identified as Salvador Ramos, was wearing body armor that made him more difficult to stop after he crashed his car through a barricade near Robb Elementary School. At least two law enforcement officers tried to engage him and were injured in the shooting, The New York Times reported.

As usual, Texas Republicans are just not up to the task. They always propose these halfway solutions, when the most effective way to stop these school shootings is to arm the students — preferably with armor-piercing bullets. A couple instances of 8-year olds turning an attempted shooter into swiss cheese and this will stop for good!

Source: Top Texas Republicans Call For More Guns, Fortified Schools, Armed Teachers After Attack | HuffPost Latest News

Crypto Crash Contagion Could Go Beyond Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether – Bloomberg

Fascinating article on the risks in crypto currencies. But this is what caught my attention:

Tether has refused to disclose details on its $40bn hoard of US government bonds for fear of revealing its “secret sauce”, even as one of the world’s most important crypto assets comes under strain from heavy selling pressure.

To me, that sounds like a Madoff-type scam. So I checked Wikipedia, where I found the following four statements:

“Tether’s claims that its virtual currency was fully backed by U.S. dollars at all times was a lie”

Tether Limited as of 2017 stated that owners of tethers have no contractual right, other legal claims, or guarantee that tethers will or can be redeemed or exchanged for dollars.

On 30 April 2019, Tether Limited’s lawyer claimed that each tether was backed by $0.74 in cash and cash equivalents

In May 2021, Tether published a report showing that only 2.9% of Tether was backed by cash, with over 49.6% backed by commercial paper.

I admit to being biased against them new-fangled financial instruments, but this one has all earmarks of a scam.

Source: Crypto Crash Contagion Could Go Beyond Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether – Bloomberg

One hallmark of a “real” company is a quality executive team. Sure Bill Gates was a college dropout, but he surrounded himself with first rate people. Whereas Madoff’s executives were mostly friends and relatives. As for Tether, a web search doesn’t seem to turn up a list of executives. There’s even questions about the real name of the CEO.

Who is J. L. van der Velde? (CEO of largest bitcoin exchange) from ethereum

I did find a leadership list for Bitfinex, Tether’s parent company, and some info on Phil Potter, who is or was the Chief Strategy Officer,

Source: Crypto Crash Contagion Could Go Beyond Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether – Bloomberg