Odds and Ends — 15 September 2024

My wife and I rented a tiny cabin near Nisswa, Minnesota for the weekend and one of the things we did was go to a vintage boat show. Maybe two-thirds of them were Chris Craft, but plenty of other wooden boat manufacturers were represented.

Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, Business, and Debt:

For Leo Power Up Day, I staked 383.782 LEO.

Boeing factory workers strike for first time since 2008 after overwhelmingly rejecting contract

Bitcoin 'ticking time bomb' setup targets $150K by 2025

Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:

Only half of Americans plan to get Covid or flu vaccinations this year – study

Politics:

‘Something Far Worse Than MAGA’

Most Americans haven’t heard of the post-liberal right, the small but influential group of conservative, mostly Catholic men who have declared that liberal democracy, the animating principle of America’s founding, has failed and want to bring about a new social order where there is no separation of church and state and men and a hyperconservative Catholicism reign supreme. They are disdainful of secularism and individual liberty. Just like Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump illustrated during Tuesday night’s debate against Vice President Kamala Harris, these men idolize the authoritarian Viktor Orbán, the prime minister of Hungary.
They’re also nostalgic for Spain as it was run by the dictator Franco and see Orbán’s government and Franco’s as potential models for the kind of regime they wish to install in the United States. The group’s political priorities — which include restricting access to contraception and divorce and banning marriage equality and pornography — are wildly unpopular. And yet the Republican nominee for vice president, my former friend JD Vance, is a prominent voice of this fringe movement, as so many of his regrettable podcast interviews have demonstrated.

Trump’s Lie Is Another Test for Christian America

The accusation that Haitian immigrants in a small Ohio city are abducting and eating their neighbors’ cats and dogs relies not on one falsehood but on a web of them. The rhetoric evokes racist tropes about ‘savages’ who do not conform to our civilized Western world. There’s also a religious angle: the idea that Haitian refugees are voodoo occultists who might be worshipping the devil.
As an evangelical Christian who actually believes in the existence of Satan, I agree that we can indeed see the work of the devil at play here, only it’s not on the menu of the Haitian families but rather in the cruelty of those willing to lie about them.

JD Vance now says Haitian immigrants are spreading HIV after bizarre pet-eating claim flops

Election Results Could Take a While

For the second straight presidential election, it is becoming increasingly likely that there will be no clear and immediate winner on election night and that early returns could give a false impression of who will ultimately prevail.
Large swaths of Americans have changed their voting habits in recent years, relying increasingly on mail-in ballots, which take more time to count than those cast in person on Election Day. States with prolonged vote-counting processes, such as Arizona, have become suddenly competitive. And the race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald J. Trump appears extremely close.
If a winner is not declared on election night, it will not necessarily point to failures in the process. More likely, it will be a result of the intense security measures required for counting mail-in ballots.

Misinformation Leads to Threats of Violence in Springfield

Bomb threats on Friday forced the evacuation and closure of public schools and municipal buildings for a second consecutive day, as the city continues to deal with sudden national attention due to false claims involving its Haitian population.
Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, have pushed those false claims as part of a broader effort to use Springfield as an example for what they say are the harmful consequences of immigration.

Bomb Threats Continue in Springfield

Bomb threats continued for a third straight day in Springfield, Ohio, closing medical buildings in the area on Saturday.
In the days since Donald Trump baselessly claimed in the debate on Tuesday that immigrants were eating Springfield residents’ pets, bomb threats have caused closures of the City Hall and local schools.

Trump ally Laura Loomer called herself ‘white advocate’, audio reveals

Former Canadian politicians blast Trump for spreading Trudeau-Castro conspiracy

Don Jr. Piles On With Racist Comments About Haitians

Amid fallout from Donald Trump’s debunked claim about immigrants from Haiti stealing and eating people’s pets in a small Ohio city, the former president’s oldest son weighed in with his own aspersions on Haitians.
Donald Trump Jr. suggested on Thursday that Haitian immigrants were less intelligent than people from other countries, and claimed that there was demographic evidence to back this up. He provided none.

Pigs Fly; George Will Endorses Harris

Serendipity:

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