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

Least bad Texas candidate drops out, admits affair

Incumbent Representative Van Taylor (R-Plano, 3rd CD) was in a three-way primary race until news of an affair got out.

Taylor, a former Marine and Iraq war combat veteran, was considered one of the Texas delegation’s most conservative members when he was elected in 2018. But he has been sharply criticized by the party’s right-wing for voting to certify the 2020 election results and supporting a commission to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.

One of Taylor’s opponents was Keith Self.

Self is an Army veteran and graduate of the U.S. Military Academy. He has claimed Taylor drifted from his conservative roots in the GOP-dominant district. He was among those who heavily criticized Taylor’s votes on the election result and insurrection investigation and Taylor’s vote to remove Confederate statues from the Capitol.

The third candidate was Suzanne Harp. She is the Vice President of Strategic Accounts in a middle-market M&A firm in Richardson, Texas. She is the sole female among the thirty-one executives in her department.

When Suzanne Harp learned of Taylor’s affair, she informed two right-wing websites, which publicized the affair. Harp said that the revelations, which she engineered, were “deeply concerning, and I’m praying for all involved. . . . Politics should build up our families, our communities, and our political parties. This story breaks my heart, both as a wife and as an American. Politics should never tear these sacred institutions apart.”

Update:  In the March, 2022, five-way Republican primary, Taylor got only 48.7% of the vote and Self got 26.5%. When Taylor withdrew, the runoff was cancelled. Self will face the Democratic candidate in the heavily-Republican district in November.

Source: Republican Congressman From Texas Drops Reelection Bid After Admitting He Had Affair | HuffPost Latest News

Testicular volume is inversely correlated with nurturing-related brain activity in human fathers

On the one hand, this sounds like it supports the notion that stay-at-home dads are less “manly.”

On the other hand, in a earlier age, men had to do the hunting and heavy lifting, as well as producing the maximum number of babies (given the incredibly high infant mortality rate).

But time moves on, and the Big Balls types no longer have such an evolutionary advantage. Nowadays, families with fewer children — at least in the First World — have a survival advantage. And co-parenting also helps prepare the offspring for a world where success at social interaction is more important than throwing hands.

Source: Testicular volume is inversely correlated with nurturing-related brain activity in human fathers | PNAS

Trump and Jared Kusher rejected Roger Stone’s craziest plan

[Roger Stone, the G. Gordon Liddy of the Trump era] was pardoned by Trump before he left office but not for activities linked to the Jan. 6 attack on Congress. Trump granted clemency to Stone and eventually pardoned him in late 2020 after he was convicted of seven felonies, including lying in congressional testimony and witness tampering in the investigation into the Trump campaign’s possible collusion with Russia in the 2016 election.

Stone worked in vain after the Jan. 6 insurrection to convince Trump to enact his “Stone plan” to grant a blanket preemptive pardon to him, Trump’s congressional supporters and all members of “the America First movement” for any prosecution over their roles in trying to overturn the election, according to footage viewed by the [Washington] Post, whose reporters examined about 20 hours of film’s footage. He also lobbied Trump to pardon others — for money — including convicted mobsters.

After Trump refused, Stone blasted him in an Inauguration Day phone call as a “disgrace” who “betrayed everybody,” the Post noted.

Stone also blamed Trump’s son-in-law and former White House senior adviser, Jared Kushner, for the failure of his pardon plan. “He’s going to get a beating. He needs to have a beating,” Stone was recorded saying to an aide, referring to Kushner, the Post reported.

It’s kind of odd, but here Trump and Stone’s actions benefited our constitutional democracy.

Source: Roger Stone Reportedly Trash-Talked Trump For Denying Him Jan. 6 Pardon | HuffPost Latest News

“We remind you that Russia, throughout all of its history, has never attacked anyone.” — Dmitry Peskov, Russian Presidential spokesperson

Peskov went on to explain:

The capitalist running dogs of the Fake News Media continue to slander Fearless Leader by asserting we have bellicose motives whatsoever. Russian people only want peace for themselves and their neighbors. Sometimes our neighbors request help maintain tranquility, so we help. Is same spirit as Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance.

Source: About Those Kremlin Claims of ‘Never Attacking’ Ukraine

To learn more about the Russian plans for global harmony, read Основы геополитики (геополитическое будущее России) by Алекса́ндр Ге́льевич Ду́гин. The only English edition was machine translated and is available on GitBook.

Twitter Critics Mock Trump’s Ex-Accounting Firm For Taking A Decade To Finally Get A Clue

[Accounting firm Mazars USA, on Monday February 14,] informed the Trump Organization in a letter that it was cutting ties, noting that the financial statements it had prepared with information provided by the company between mid-2011 and June 2020 “should no longer be relied upon.”[Source: Huffington Post]

The mockery is well deserved. But, first, a bit of history:

BITEME.ME, RawStory, and ABC News were all over this nearly five freaking years ago, yet it took Mazars until February of 2022 to get the memo. Could this scandal precipitate the death of Mazars like the Enron scandal did to Arthur Andersen two decades ago? Only time will tell.

Donald Trump said his presidency was a ‘glamorous’ and ‘romantic period’ while promoting his photo memoir

Trump has reportedly earned $20 million from the book, which sells for $74.99 for an unsigned copy or $229.99 for a signed copy.

The book [Our Journey Together], which features photographs from Trump’s presidency and campaign along with tweet-like captions written by him, has been largely panned by critics.

A review by book critic Ron Charles in The Washington Post said the book “captures Trump’s wandering mind and self-sabotaging bitterness.”

Remember when Madonna published her $50 pornish book Sex back in 1992? At the time, I thought “Why would I pay good money to see what nearly everyone in the Western world has already seen?” But I’d much rather see Madonna naked than view Trump’s ersatz Louis Quatorze fantasies.

Source: Donald Trump said his presidency was a ‘glamorous’ and ‘romantic period’ while promoting his photo memoir

AirTags Are A Growing Headache For Apple Amid Disturbing Reports Of Tracking

The police are tracking you. The CIA is tracking you. But thanks to Apple’s latest technology, your local stalker can do it too.

Apple’s network, however, is particularly powerful. AirTags are able to use the Find My network, which uses Bluetooth technology and other people’s iPhones, MacBooks and iPads ― hundreds of millions of devices, according to Apple ― to ping location signals back to the person who owns it. The process is so efficient it barely touches a device’s battery power. And because the world is already blanketed in Apple products, the location data is generally very precise.

If we understand correctly, you might get a notification that you’re being tracked if you use an Apple device. But what if you’re on an Android device instead? You can download a handy Android app that will tell you if you’re being tracked by an Apple AirTag. Sounds like a win-win since presumably Apple and Google will now know your whereabouts 24/7.

Apple says:

If users ever feel their safety is at risk, they are encouraged to contact local law enforcement who can work with Apple to provide any available information about the unknown AirTag.

So what happens if you contact the police?

“They were just very dismissive,” Sam from Brooklyn said. The officers she spoke with refused to write anything down. “They were like, ‘There’s nothing to report. Nothing happened. We can’t just write a report. This isn’t like TV shows.’”

Source: AirTags Are A Growing Headache For Apple Amid Disturbing Reports Of Tracking | HuffPost Impact

Former ‘Hercules’ Star Kevin Sorbo’s Vaccine-Trolling Tweet Backfires Badly

Sorbo tweeted on Feb 7, 2022:

If the shots were given away for free because they’re life-saving, why isn’t insulin free? Chemotherapy? Epipens?

Nice try, Sorbo. Candace Owens tried ‘owning the libs’ the same pathetic way on Jul 21, 2021. With much the same result.

Here are some of the replies to Sorbo:

Endorsing universal healthcare to own the libs.

He’s so fucking close to a breakthrough here, don’t anyone move

The government should pay for those too, yes.

And replies to Owens last year included:

My favorite genre of tweets is conservatives accidentally becoming progressive. You’re so right @RealCandaceO insulin and inhalers SHOULD be free!!!

The one where Candace Owens accidentally argues for universal healthcare

Source: Former ‘Hercules’ Star Kevin Sorbo’s Vaccine-Trolling Tweet Backfires Badly | HuffPost Entertainment

Karl Rove, a GOP stalwart in Texas and nationally, delivers blunt Jan. 6 message to his party

Rove, the Machiavellian mastermind of Republican victories for the past 40 years, has blasted Republican defenders of the traitors who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

“My criticisms are often aimed at Democrats;” Rove wrote in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal published one year after the insurrection. “(O)n the anniversary of Jan. 6, I’m addressing squarely those Republicans who for a year have excused the actions of the rioters who stormed the Capitol, disrupted Congress as it received the Electoral College’s results, and violently attempted to overturn the election.

“There can be no soft-pedaling what happened and no absolution for those who planned, encouraged and aided the attempt to overthrow our democracy. Love of country demands nothing less,” the piece continues. “That’s true patriotism.”

When Karl Rove says you’ve gone too far, you have definitely gone too far.

Read the Yahoo summary here: Karl Rove, a GOP stalwart in Texas and nationally, delivers blunt Jan. 6 message to his party

The full text of Rove’s Op Ed is at the Wall Street Journal (paywall).