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Open thread Sept. 3, 2021

Dan Crawford | September 3, 2021 7:34 am

Comments (30) | Digg Facebook Twitter |
30 Comments
  • Michael Smith says:
    September 3, 2021 at 8:31 am

    Dear USA, you are missing the point on Texas.

     

    Run put something out that is spot on. The Supremes decided to effectively suspend constitutional jurisprudence. This was all by design.

    Texas Republicans knew that if they threw enough illegal, unconstitutional lines in the abortion bill that it would take years to unravel by the Supreme Court and that the court when asked to halt it would be unable.  Each illegal or unconstitutional piece now needs to be heard, checked against precedent, and litigated in public. It will take years. That is the point.

    Throwing up a bullshit website for people to attack and giving the general public this notion of moral superiority allows the media to focus on the whistle-blower and not the legislation condemning our women for being women. 

    Where was the national media when this was being crafted? Where was the media when people were yelling at the capital as it was being passed? 

    Too little, too late America. And now 21 other states are getting busy about to pile on. SCOTUS now has a decade worth of unraveling to do.

    • EMichael says:
      September 3, 2021 at 8:46 am

      SCOTUS has no desire to unravel. Unless Dems pack the courts, this is the future.

      • Michael Smith says:
        September 3, 2021 at 9:18 am

        Either way, that was a the point. The Kock Brothers finally got their payout. Took 20 years, but they got the taxes shaved and women’s rights abolished.

      • Fred C. Dobbs says:
        September 3, 2021 at 9:26 am

        At the moment, it looks like it’s Chief Justice Roberts and a tiny band

        of liberals against the gang of 5. Time to pack the court? So it would appear.

        Supreme Court, Breaking Silence, Won’t Block Texas Abortion Law

        The Supreme Court refused just before midnight on Wednesday to block a Texas law prohibiting most abortions, less than a day after it took effect and became the most restrictive abortion measure in the nation.

        The vote was 5 to 4, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. joining the court’s three liberal members in dissent.

        The majority opinion was unsigned and consisted of a single long paragraph. It said the abortion providers who had challenged the law in an emergency application to the court had not made their case in the face of “complex and novel” procedural questions. The majority stressed that it was not ruling on the constitutionality of the Texas law and did not mean to limit “procedurally proper challenges” to it. …

    • Fred C. Dobbs says:
      September 3, 2021 at 9:32 am

      It’s about time to pack the court. The gang of 5 is now in open revolt.

      The Supreme Court refused just before midnight on Wednesday to block a Texas law prohibiting most abortions, less than a day after it took effect and became the most restrictive abortion measure in the nation.

      The vote was 5 to 4, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. joining the court’s three liberal members in dissent.

      The majority opinion was unsigned and consisted of a single long paragraph. It said the abortion providers who had challenged the law in an emergency application to the court had not made their case in the face of “complex and novel” procedural questions. The majority stressed that it was not ruling on the constitutionality of the Texas law and did not mean to limit “procedurally proper challenges” to it. …

      Supreme Court, Breaking Silence, Won’t Block Texas Abortion Law

      • Fred C. Dobbs says:
        September 3, 2021 at 4:07 pm

        What is ‘novel’ perhaps is that Texas authorities (their Rangers?)

        won’t enforce the new law. That will be left up to concerned citizens.

        Texas legislators, with an assist from the US Supreme Court, open a Pandora’s box

        … The peculiar enforcement built into the law seemed to baffle the judges, as it was intended to do. Instead of the state enforcing the law — the normal way these things work — the state’s anti-abortion measure leaves that to private citizens, who are empowered to sue anyone who “aids or abets” someone seeking an abortion — from the doctors who perform abortions to someone who drives a woman to a clinic. It includes a “bounty hunter” provision that allows someone who successfully files a suit to collect $10,000 on top of legal fees.

        In its 5-4 ruling, the court didn’t rule on the law itself. The unsigned majority opinion wrestled with the enforcement scheme, saying “it is unclear whether the named defendants in this lawsuit can or will seek to enforce the Texas law against the applicants in a manner that might permit our intervention.” …

      • Fred C. Dobbs says:
        September 3, 2021 at 4:20 pm

        ‘complex procedural questions’?

        Does this mean that if an argument had been made that
        the novel ‘enforcement by private citizens’ provision
        of the law had been challenged, the gang might have
        voted to overturn it?

        • JackD says:
          September 3, 2021 at 4:52 pm

          No, they had no interest in overturning it and were trying to dazzle us with bull shit like the con artist who appointed them.

  • Fred C. Dobbs says:
    September 3, 2021 at 9:17 am

    Bitcoin Uses More Electricity Than Many Countries. How Is That Possible?

    … in the process of simply existing, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, one of the most popular, use astonishing amounts of electricity.

    We’ll explain how that works in a minute. But first, consider this: The process of creating Bitcoin to spend or trade consumes around 91 terawatt-hours of electricity annually, more than is used by Finland, a nation of about 5.5 million.  …

    For a long time, money has been thought of as something you can hold in your hand — say, a dollar bill.

    Currencies like these seem like such a simple, brilliant idea. A government prints some paper and guarantees its value. Then we swap it amongst ourselves for cars, candy bars and tube socks. We can give it to whomever we want, or even destroy it.

    On the internet, things can get more complicated.

    Traditional kinds of money, such as those created by the United States or other governments, aren’t entirely free to be used any way you wish. Banks, credit-card networks and other middlemen can exercise control over who can use their financial networks and what they can be used for — often for good reason, to prevent money laundering and other nefarious activities. But that could also mean that if you transfer a big amount of money to someone, your bank will report it to the government even if the transfer is completely on the up-and-up.

    So a group of free thinkers — or anarchists, depending on whom you ask — started to wonder: What if there was a way to remove controls like these?

    In 2008, an unknown person or persons using the name Satoshi Nakamoto published a proposal to create a cash-like electronic payment system that would do exactly that: Cut out the middlemen. That’s the origin of Bitcoin. …

    In the early days of Bitcoin, when it was less popular and worth little, anyone with a computer could easily mine at home. Not so much anymore. …

    Today you need highly specialized machines, a lot of money, a big space and enough cooling power to keep the constantly running hardware from overheating. That’s why mining now happens in giant data centers owned by companies or groups of people.

    In fact, operations have consolidated so much that now, only seven mining groups own nearly 80 percent of all computing power on the network. (The aim behind “pooling” computing power like this is to distribute income more evenly so participants get $10 per day rather than $50,000 every 10 years, for example.)

    Mining happens all over the world, often wherever there’s an abundance of cheap energy. For years, much of the Bitcoin mining has been in China, although recently, the country has started cracking down. Researchers at the University of Cambridge who have been tracking Bitcoin mining said recently that China’s share of global Bitcoin mining had fallen to 46 percent in April from 75 percent in late 2019. Meanwhile, the United States’ share of mining grew to 16 percent from 4 percent during the same period. …

     

    • rjs says:
      September 3, 2021 at 8:39 pm

      Bitcoin miners are also taking over old coal and gas plants in several states that would otherwise be shut down and building banks of mainframes to go with them…locals are pleased with the jobs and money injection, and officials are happy to keep the old plants on the property tax rolls…

    • Fred C. Dobbs says:
      September 5, 2021 at 9:36 am

      Crypto Banking and Decentralized Finance, Explained

      The revolution in digital money is now moving into banking, as cryptocurrency starts to reshape the way people borrow and save. 

      The development of Bitcoin and thousands of other cryptocurrencies in a little over a decade has changed the definition of money — and spawned a parallel universe of alternative financial services, allowing crypto businesses to move into traditional banking territory.

      Here’s what is happening in the fast-growing crypto finance industry, a sector that has officials in Washington sounding alarm bells.

      What alternative banking services do crypto businesses offer?

      Most notably, lending and borrowing. Investors can earn interest on their holdings of digital currencies — often a lot more than they could on cash deposits in a bank — or borrow with crypto as collateral to back a loan. Crypto loans generally involve no credit checks as transactions are backed by digital assets. …

      How do crypto offerings differ from bank services?

      Superficially, some look similar. Take the BlockFi interest account, where consumers deposit cash or crypto and earn monthly interest, as if at a bank. But one big difference is the interest rate — depositors can earn a yield more than 100 times higher on BlockFi than on average bank accounts.

      Those rewards come with risks. Deposits are not guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. “Cyberattacks, extreme market conditions, or other operational or technical difficulties” could lead to a temporary or permanent halt on withdrawals or transfers, the company cautions in fine print. Some regulators and lawmakers worry that those warnings are not prominent enough and that consumers need stronger protections. …

      • Fred C. Dobbs says:
        September 5, 2021 at 9:41 am

        States object to BlockFi’s interest-bearing account

        The fintech BlockFi has been told by four states to stop offering a product that looks like a high-yield savings account.

        The acting attorney general of New Jersey, Andrew Bruck, ordered the Jersey City company on July 20 to stop providing the BlockFi Interest Account, in which customers have placed $14.7 billion of bitcoin, ether and other cryptocurrencies in exchange for promises of healthy returns — including a 7.5% annual percentage yield as of Wednesday. Within three days of the New Jersey action, regulators in Alabama, Texas and Vermont raised concerns about the account. …

    • Fred C. Dobbs says:
      September 5, 2021 at 9:46 am

      Crypto’s Rapid Move Into Banking Elicits Alarm in Washington

      The boom in companies offering cryptocurrency loans and high-yield deposit accounts is disrupting the banking industry and leaving regulators scrambling to catch up. 

      BlockFi, a fast-growing financial start-up whose headquarters in Jersey City are across the Hudson River from Wall Street, aspires to be the JPMorgan Chase of cryptocurrency.

      It offers credit cards, loans and interest-generating accounts. But rather than dealing primarily in dollars, BlockFi operates in the rapidly expanding world of digital currencies, one of a new generation of institutions effectively creating an alternative banking system on the frontiers of technology.

      “We are just at the beginning of this story,” said Flori Marquez, 30, a founder of BlockFi, which was created in 2017 and claims to have more than $10 billion in assets, 850 employees and more than 450,000 retail clients who can obtain loans in minutes, without credit checks.

      But to state and federal regulators and some members of Congress, the entry of crypto into banking is cause for alarm. The technology is disrupting the world of financial services so quickly and unpredictably that regulators are far behind, potentially leaving consumers and financial markets vulnerable. …

    • Fred C. Dobbs says:
      September 5, 2021 at 6:23 pm

      Alas…

      Bitcoin’s Green Haven Is Running Out of Surplus Electricity

      The Nordic region is losing its edge in green Bitcoin mining, just as the industry faces growing scrutiny for its carbon emissions and everyone from Elon Musk to mom-and-pop investors pile in.

      Iceland, Sweden and Norway have been popular mining locations because of an abundance of geothermal, hydro and wind power. That Nordic power surplus is set to dwindle as aluminum smelters, oil rigs and steelmakers thirst for renewable energy. …

      Hordur Arnarson, the chief executive officer of Icelandic power company Landsvirkjun.

      Photographer: Asta Kristjansdottir/Landsvirkjun

      “There could be very little excess energy in 2021 and 2022,” said Hordur Arnarson, chief executive officer at Landsvirkjun, Iceland’s national utility.

  • Fred C. Dobbs says:
    September 3, 2021 at 9:45 am

    The Atlantic: All of Those ‘Hysterical’ Women Were Right

    … Senator Susan Collins of Maine, for example, tried to convince everyone that she genuinely believed Brett Kavanaugh would let Roe stand, despite all evidence to the contrary. “Protecting [the right to an abortion] is important to me,” Collins told The New York Times after a two-hour, face-to-face session with Kavanaugh during which, she said, he convinced her that he would not overturn Roe. “His views on honoring precedent would preclude attempts to do by stealth that which one has committed not to do overtly.” Collins said that Kavanaugh assured her Roe was “settled law,” and that his answer on Roe was “very strong,” though he had openly criticized the decision in a speech, used the anti-abortion lingo “abortion on demand,” and voted more than once as a federal judge against reproductive rights.

    Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, an outspoken abortion opponent, also said on Fox News before Kavanaugh’s confirmation that the justice “will give great deference to Roe v. Wade.” Women, in particular, protested loudly about Kavanaugh’s nomination—less than a third of them supported it—not only because he clearly threatened Roe, but also because he had been credibly accused of attempted rape. Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska, a Republican, in turn called women hysterical for sounding the alarm about Roe.

    • The only good thing says:
      September 3, 2021 at 4:57 pm

      The only good thing (potentially) to come out of this ugliness is that the Republicans now own the overruling of Roe v. Wade and can no longer pretend to support a woman’s right to choose as Susan Collins tried to do. Maybe this will mobilize women and liberal voters for the midterms.

  • Fred C. Dobbs says:
    September 3, 2021 at 9:47 am

    It would appear that, at the moment, these
    ‘Open Comments’ are no longer open at all.

  • Fred C. Dobbs says:
    September 3, 2021 at 9:53 am

    Biden Vows to Protect Abortion Rights in Face of ‘Extreme’ Texas Law

    It is time to pack the Supreme Court with progressives, and to do so,

    it is absolutely necessary to end the filibuster in the Senate.

  • Joel says:
    September 3, 2021 at 4:03 pm

    @Dobbs,

    It will happen co-terminus with the first verified report of porcine aviation.

    • Fred C. Dobbs says:
      September 4, 2021 at 9:32 am

      It is time for people to recognize that the GOP has gone seriously off the rails.

  • coberly says:
    September 3, 2021 at 11:24 pm

    re bitcoin

    no soverign nation can tolerate a rival currency under its jurisdiction.  money is more than a medium of transfer.  controlling the money supply is critical to national prosperity.

    i’m waiting for Congress to figure this out.

    • Fred C. Dobbs says:
      September 4, 2021 at 9:38 am

      Indeed. It is tolerable for government to

      create currency. It is not tolerable for

      private entities to do so. But you will

      not persuade libertarians or anarchists

      that this is the way it has to be.

      We have allowed banks and ‘financial

      institutions’ generally to hold great sway

      over currency, but the government does

      attempt to regulate them. Not so much

      with cryptocurrencies apparently.

  • coberly says:
    September 5, 2021 at 10:40 am

    Dobbs

    it is not only consumers who need protection. Control of the money supply is the chief way nations manage their economies to moderate recessions and inflations.

    • Fred C. Dobbs says:
      September 5, 2021 at 3:57 pm

      I made no mention of ‘who needs protection’, or how to ‘control the money supply’.

      Obviously, we don’t want cryptocurrency schemers taking this on.

  • coberly says:
    September 5, 2021 at 4:57 pm

    Dobbs at 9:46 am today

     

    “The technology is disrupting the world of financial services so quickly and unpredictably that regulators are far behind, potentially leaving consumers and financial markets vulnerable. …”

    Reads to me like “protecting consumers.”

    • Fred C. Dobbs says:
      September 5, 2021 at 6:14 pm

      Ok, you got me.

  • coberly says:
    September 5, 2021 at 6:09 pm

    Dobbs

     

    as to “how to control the money supply”: that’s how you protect the consumers and the investors, and the financial markets.

    • Fred C. Dobbs says:
      September 6, 2021 at 10:23 am

      I don’t usually consider the text I’ve quoted (most of what I post) as ‘my own’.

  • coberly says:
    September 5, 2021 at 8:25 pm

    Dobbs,

    thanks.  that’s the most gracious thing anyone has said to me this long time.

  • Fred C. Dobbs says:
    September 6, 2021 at 10:20 am

    The Strange Tale of the Freedom Phone, a Smartphone for Conservatives

    A 22-year-old Bitcoin millionaire wants Republicans to ditch their iPhones for a low-end handset that he hopes to turn into a political tool. 

    It was a pitch tuned for a politically polarized audience. Erik Finman, a 22-year-old who called himself the world’s youngest Bitcoin millionaire, posted a video on Twitter for a new kind of smartphone that he said would liberate Americans from their “Big Tech overlords.”

    His splashy video, posted in July, had stirring music, American flags and references to former Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Donald J. Trump. Conservative pundits hawked Mr. Finman’s Freedom Phone, and his video amassed 1.8 million views. Mr. Finman soon had thousands of orders for the $500 device.

    Then came the hard part: Building and delivering the phones. First, he received bad early reviews for a plan to simply put his software on a cheap Chinese phone. And then there was the unglamorous work of shipping phones, hiring customer-service agents, collecting sales taxes and dealing with regulators. …

    For even the most lavishly funded start-ups, it is hard to compete with tech industry giants that have a death grip on their markets and are valued in the trillions of dollars. Mr. Finman was part of a growing right-wing tech industry taking on the challenge nonetheless, relying more on their conservative customers’ distaste for Silicon Valley than expertise or experience.

    There are cloud providers hosting right-wing websites, a so-called free-speech video site competing with YouTube and at least seven conservative social networks trying to compete with Facebook. …

    In 2014, New York magazine profiled Mr. Finman as a 16-year-old from outside Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, who had struck it rich when, a few years earlier, he spent a $1,000 gift from his grandmother on Bitcoin.

    By 2017, his riches had topped $1 million and he was posting photos online of him posing with YouTube celebrities, getting on and off private jets, and lighting $100 bills on fire. But he tired of the cryptocurrency scene. …

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