Author Archives: Hue White

I had a day off.

Yeah, the garden is out of control.

Mike Davis is a Fox News commentator, who, upon hearing of Fani Wilson’s prosecution of the former President in Atlanta as a state prosecution, where the governor has no pardon power, had this to say:

Davis: I think the legislature in Georgia needs to amend that statute and give Governor Kemp the ability to pardon in this situation pic.twitter.com/exoJZIyeSQ

— Acyn (@Acyn) August 15, 2023

Davis: I think the legislature in Georgia needs to amend that statute and give Governor Kemp the ability to pardon in this situation

Which is interesting in that Davis admits he sees a conviction in Trump’s future. Oh, he hides behind the old canard that it’s a rigged trial, but that loincloth is becoming quite ragged. After all, a grand jury brought the charges, and a jury will hear the evidence and render a verdict.

In other words, it’s a lot harder to rig a trial in the United States than it is in Trump’s favorite country, Russia. I feel quite comfortable in believing that the jury, if it sees fabricated evidence, will find Trump innocent and scream bloody murder, as will the mainstream media.

No, Davis has just basically admitted that Trump’s behavior is unacceptable in an American citizen, and only his lust for lucre keeps him working for Fox News, blathering out this crap about rigged elections.

Although, I must say giving Kemp pardon power and watching Trump beg for a pardon would be quite the highlight.

She wants to know,

If you’re working with diagnostics, does that mean you’re working with two agnostics?

Yep, I have to deal with this everyday.

Again and again, Erick Erickson wants to make the two political parties morally equivalent. Indeed, here he’s both explicit and ridiculous:

I can think of only one kill switch.

The old man on the right must stop trying to get back into the office. And the old man on the left must pardon the old man on the right and bring all pressure to bear on the two state prosecutors, both of whom are Democrats, to stop their prosecutions too.

Both sides must leave these two self-absorbed, petty, and thin-skinned octagenarians on the ash heap of history and move on.

But that is not going to happen. Joe Biden will not pardon Trump. Trump will not disappear into the good night.

It’s odd to see President Biden characterized as petty when I cannot say I’ve seen any actions I’d characterize as petty from him, although his obvious chuckling over the contretemps of Speaker McCarthy (R-CA) could be argued to be close to that.

But for Biden to pardon Trump is a spicy bit of madness, for, by doing so, Biden would be condoning all attempted coups. That is the result, in a nutshell. Additionally, it’d lay waste too All are equal before the law.

And it’s a pity, as he made some good – and bad – points concerning American society these days. And some of them are simply unbelievable: insurrectionists chanting Hang Mike Pence! is not shocking to conservatives? What’s wrong with them?

But, in the end, this was another attempt to make the two parties seem equivalent, rather than one being a pack of fourth-raters, while the Democrats are really more like second-raters.

Hey, is that the Pillsbury doughboy? We must be on the wrong movie set!

One of the staples of current Western drama and comedy is the unexpected, and American Ultra (2015) kicks off with it. Mike is a druggy with an odd problem: Any time he comes close to leaving town, even for vacation, or to ask his girlfriend to marry him, he breaks down with anxiety.

Why she sticks with him is part of the fun.

Stuck in a dead-end job at a convenience store, things heat up when a couple of guys decide to kill him in the parking lot. Mike, shockingly, fights back, killing both of them.

One of them he kills with a spoon. From its looks, I’d say it was a blunt spoon, too.

And that’s not all. A secret organization is out to eliminate Mike because he’s the only survivor of a drug experiment gone wrong. Sound bad? It’s worse. The decision to eliminate Mike doesn’t come from the top, but from a guy with his own organization of killers. A rogue supervisor.

Who wouldn’t mind getting rid of the agent who’s responsible for Mike.

Oh, Mike’s girlfriend? Try to guess. Go ahead. Yes! His handler, as it were.

While not predictable like some really bad movies, it goes more for laughs than thoughts. Some of the most intriguing characters, such as Rose the drug dealer, or Big Harold, hardly last any time at all, while others, like the newly ascendant group of killers, tend to die in groups, unable to make their mark.

So, despite the laughter, it’s more than a little disappointing. Still, if you value the unexpected response, it might be worth your time.

This remark by Freddie deBoer left me completely at sea:

Poor Jill Sobule catches a stray here, but she has to – because she wasn’t ever as purely poppy an artist as Katy Perry, she is the pig who must be casually, offhandedly slaughtered in the commission of proving that dad/music critic Tom Breihan is down with the youth and, you know, feminism or whatever. This stuff wallpapers the internet. Nobody wants to appear to be a “rockist,” a category that literally no one self-identifies with and a term that describes a theoretical figure who could not possibly be more culturally marginal. (The only accusatory identifier that’s thrown around more casually than rockist is fascist, and I think there are some fringe dweebs who actually embrace the latter mantle.) White-haired hifi guys you meet at Record Store Day are careful not to appear to be rockists, now. Poptimists, I promise, the day is yours. Stereogum is a poptimist publication. So is Pitchfork, and so is The Fader, and so are rockist temples like Rolling Stone and Spin, and so is everywhere else. I will countenance any and all arguments against what I’m saying here, but for this: poptimism has hegemonic control of music criticism. There are no challengers.

Yeah, I don’t even know if this is the Med or the Aral in which I’m lost.

Beguine:

The Beguines (/beɪˈɡiːnz,ˈbɛɡiːnz/) and the Beghards (/ˈbɛɡərdz,bəˈɡɑːrdz/) were Christian lay religious orders that were active in Western Europe, particularly in the Low Countries, in the 13th–16th centuries. Their members lived in semi-monastic communities but did not take formal religious vows; although they promised not to marry “as long as they lived as Beguines,” to quote one of the early Rules, they were free to leave at any time. Beguines were part of a larger spiritual revival movement of the 13th century that stressed imitation of Jesus‘ life through voluntary poverty, care of the poor and sick, and religious devotion. [Wikipedia]

Noted in “Fans waited 31 years for his next novel. It’s finally here.,” John Williams, WaPo:

Our star coleus of 2023:

Bonus points for identifying its guardian.

Oh, so monstrous!

Source: Archaeology

I showed my Arts Editor this lovely picture of a mosaic and suggested the mosaic could be a model for our next porch.

She said, “It’d make a great frieze!”

And I said, “We’d have to put a coat on the lion.”

Voir dire:

Voir dire is the process by which potential jurors are chosen from a pre-selected jury pool. During this phase of jury selection, the attorneys for each party, as well as the judge, ask questions of each potential juror to determine whether he or she has any bias regarding the case, or other reason he or she should not be chosen. This French term literally means “to speak the truth,” and is used in the U.S. to determine the truth of whether jurors are able to fairly judge a legal case. [Legal Dictionary]

Noted in “Trump insults D.C. to get his trial moved. The city rolls its eyes.”, Tom Jackman and Peter Hermann, WaPo:

At least a dozen Jan. 6, 2021, defendants requested that their trials be moved out of D.C., citing the prejudicial impact on jurors of both media coverage of the Capitol riot and the investigation of the House Select Committee, which held televised hearings on the insurrection. All such motions were rejected. The practice in federal court has been to try to pick a jury first, and only if the voir dire process fails to produce a fair jury does the judge then consider the change of venue motion.

Loyalty is often cited as the key to a successful organization. It keeps the hierarchy viable and effective, minimizes disruptions and the depredations of the ambitious, and emphasizes the negative aspects, neutral or actively negative, of walking away from a loyalty.

But what happens when a subgroup’s loyalty ends in subgroup decisions at odds with the encompassing group?

Only fifteen years later, the expectation that a president would not be prosecuted came into play again when members of President Ronald Reagan’s National Security Council ignored Congress’s 1985 prohibition on aid to the Nicaraguan Contras who were fighting against the socialist Nicaraguan government. The administration illegally sold arms to Iran and funneled the profits to the Contras.

When the story of the Iran-Contra affair broke in November 1986, government officials continued to break the law, shredding documents that Congress had subpoenaed. After fourteen administration officials were indicted and eleven convicted, the next president, George H. W. Bush, who had been Reagan’s vice president, pardoned them on the advice of his attorney general William Barr. (Yes, that William Barr.)

The independent prosecutor in the case, Lawrence Walsh, worried that the pardons weakened American democracy. They “undermine…the principle…that no man is above the law,” he said. Pardoning high-ranking officials “demonstrates that powerful people with powerful allies can commit serious crimes in high office, deliberately abusing the public trust without consequences.”  [Prof. Richardson, Letters From An American]

It’s important to note that both AG Barr, now of such poor reputation, and President Bush (R, 41) were exhibiting loyalty to a subgroup, roughly defined as the Republican Party, although historians might narrow it down further. Their overriding loyalty to the United States, in the face of the flagrant violations of law cited, would have required leaving their fellow Republicans in prison. The subgroup loyalty illicitly rose over their overriding loyalty to country; Bush’s use of his pardon power, ostensibly exercising a judgment better than that of judges, juries, and possibly even Congress, simply acted as cover for his poor selection of loyalties.

One has to wonder if the American public perceived the pardons as a form of corruption on Bush’s part, and an implicit rebuke to democracy, and their part in democracy. And then kicked him out of office for it.

Loyalty has an implicit component of the suppression of one’s own judgment in preference to that of whoever controls the group. This can range from classic democracy, one person one vote, to the classic autocracy, one person at the top of the pyramid, whose word controls, to a greater or lesser extent, the actions of each person in an inferior position. Clearly, an argument can be made that the people pardoned by President Bush at AG Barr’s urging were simply exercising their independent judgment when they moved against Congress’ dictates, and it’s an interesting argument. I think, though, such an argument can be countered by, as ever, examining the context. Those pardoned were not free agents within the scope of employment, but rather members of the Executive Branch, unauthorized to make policy and law. By discarding their loyalty to the United States’ collective decision-making process, they subvert the will and expertise of people who’ve, in many cases, studied foreign affairs for decades, all in favor of their own collection of prejudices and preconceptions.

And, yet, history is replete with groups, most often, but not exclusively, autocracies committing atrocities.

It’s worth keeping all this in mind when considering the delicate question of loyalties, and it’s always worth asking if you’re relying on good judgment, superstition, or arrogance, when subverting your loyalty to the greater entity in favor of an embedded group.

Another night of Fringing at the Minnesota Fringe Festival yielded

• Uncle Walt involves the second coming of Walt Disney, and the guys who might provide him a body. Unfortunately, two of the actors weren’t up to the task, leaving Uncle Walt to carry the load.
• Monster Science, in which each performance by the Rev Matt is a reprise of a different show from previous years. The Rev Matt might have practiced a bit more, but this show, on Millicent Patrick and her role as designer of The Creature from Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954), along with other tidbits and general notes on the monster movies of the ’50s, makes it all worthwhile.
• Too Many Notes is the Fringiest of the Fringe shows we’ve seen this year. A storytelling, it is an original horror/fable. The language is quite stylized, but the storyteller exhibited good stamina, as I did not detect a glitch. Unfortunately, I am unaccustomed to this sort of performance and didn’t gain the immediate focus necessary to fully appreciate such a story; as it was, when I did manage to attain proper focus, the story was quite mysterious, and sometimes the motivations of the characters not always clear, but there’s nothing wrong with that. If you go, make sure to concentrate right from the start.

Enjoy!

Jabroni:

1. Slang. a stupid, foolish, or contemptible person; loser:
   She always has a comeback to own the trolls and jabronis on Twitter.
   Shut your mouth, you dumb jabroni!
2. Also called en·hance·ment tal·ent [en-hans-muhnt tal–uhnt], job·ber [job-er] . Professional Wrestling. a wrestler whose purpose is to lose matches against headlining wrestlers in order to build up the status and fame of the headliners:
   The man is a legend in the ring—he eats jabronis for breakfast. [Dictionary.com]

Additionally,

There’s something exciting about new words being added to the dictionary, and this week we have a brilliant new entry ripped straight from the world of professional wrestling. Yes, “jabroni” is now a recognized word, and I hope you will use it in all your future Scrabble games. …

If you watched wrestling during the late 1990s you heard The Rock call people “jabronis” on a regular basis, but its origin dates back further than that. The first person to use the word as part [sic?] was The Iron Sheik, wrestling legend and one of the weirdest follows on Twitter you can possible [sic] have.

Sheik used the term first, and was part of his lexicon. To him a “jabroni” was a “jobber,” or “enhancement talent.” Essentially another wrestler whose job it was to be booked for a match and lose, in order to make a more popular wrestler look better. He used the word in [the] fiercely private wrestling locker, and never introduced it to the world. This was part of maintaining “kayfabe,” or the artifice of reality that exists inside pro wrestling. [SBNation]

Wow, I remember watching the Iron Sheik when I was a kid. And SBNation needs to [f|h]ire copy editors.

Noted in “Biden has fully embraced the ‘Dark Brandon’ meme, and media MAGAs are big mad,” Aldous J Pennyfarthing, Daily Kos:

Okay, then. Of course, you may be shocked to learn that these fools couldn’t be more wrong. As Axios reported Friday—contrary to the bleating of these right-wing jabronis—the whole Dark Brandon thing has been a real boon to Biden’s reelection campaign.

While reading about Donald Trump’s latest missteps, it occurred to me that his toolbox has become empty:

In a statement early Saturday, a Trump spokesperson said, “The Truth post cited is the definition of political speech,” and that it “was in response to the RINO, China-loving, dishonest special interest groups and Super PACs.” [NBC News]

For those readers who don’t follow politics too much, this isn’t a new attack. Same adjectives, even the same targets, really. Call GOP primary competitors RINOs (Republicans In Name Only), scream they’re traitors, mumble a bit about Lock her up!, and … that’s all he has.

Legendary politicians, such as Humphrey and FDR and O’Neil and Pelosi, have (or had) a real collection of responses, but here’s the key: Most of them are related to policies and issues.

The Republican Party no longer deals with real policies and issues. The closest it gets are to closed issues such as the Establishment Clause. As much as a segment of the electorate hates the Establishment Clause, that segment’s small and, generally, ignorant. I think many, even most, could be persuaded to drop it as an issue after a sober discussion.

Which is why sober discussion isn’t permitted.

But this limitation means candidates must exhibit fidelity to a small set of positions on abortion, gun control, etc, or face losing races and de facto expulsion. Competency, as previously discussed, doesn’t matter either.

So when it right down to it, Trump’s very ladder to success, which was to reinforce the narrowing of the path to victory for GOP candidates to required positions on a selection of issues, a tolerance for vulgarity, and a pushing of the general envelope of political windage, is also his chute to failure. The electorate, entranced as it might be by his frantic antics, has been tiring of it for years; thus, his failures in 2018, 2020,. and 2022. Even the Republican success in 2021 has been partially credited with Republican candidates keeping Trump at arm’s length.

Trump is exhausting his effective weapons, and repeated use of RINO, etc, renders them more and more ineffective. In a case of mistaking tactical weapons for strategic weapons, he’s rendering himself impotent.

And an imminent failure.

That does raise an important question: Will the exhaustion of the Trump tactics prompt a return to the more traditional political discourse on the Republican side? Or will they continue their skid to the right until they’re nothing more than a dilapidated set of power-mongers and fools, disregarded by the vast majority of Americans?

Evershed Effect:

British astronomer John Evershed discovered the phenomenon in 1909 while he was working at the Kodaikanal Solar Observatory in India. (The government of India made a postage stamp to celebrate his work — the first-ever stamp to highlight sunspot dynamics.) More than 100 years later researchers still aren’t certain what causes the flows. A leading theory holds that material is being siphoned out of the sunspot through magnetic flux tubes much like a milkshake sucked out of a straw. [Spaceweather.com]

There’s a movie at the link, above.

Amidst the flurry of indictments, perhaps the former President should simply plead insanity, especially in view of this old observation by Chad Bauman:

With diffuse roots but emerging most forcefully midway through the twentieth century in Pentecostal and charismatic circles, prosperity theology draws selectively on biblical passages (chief among them John 10:10, in which Jesus says, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly”) to insist that God desires our physical and financial prosperity. Our task, in a phrase popularized by the movement (and its detractors), is to “name it and claim it.”

The most virtuous and effective act in prosperity theology is positive confession, in which one claims and expresses gratitude to God for the health and wealth one expects to enjoy—even if it seems implausible one’s expectations will be realized. The most sinful act, accordingly, is sometimes called “negative confession”; that is, admitting failure, ill health, poverty, or disappointment. In prosperity theology, words matter; “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Proverbs 18:21). Those who lay claim to victory actualize it, while those who admit defeat find themselves hopelessly entrenched in it.

Of course, religious freedom claims would arise and have to be dealt with, particularly by a SCOTUS who, at least in some citizens’ minds, has shown an undue consideration for religious privileges. But, in the end, if Trump really is motivated to act against the best interests of society by some bizarre understanding of God’s wishes, it may be necessary to just toss him in an insane asylum.

The 2023 Minnesota Fringe Festival started yesterday, and tonight we attended. We saw Breakneck Midsummer Night’s Dream, which we thought was average, and Climbing my family tree, which we thought was much better, and gave a nice glimpse of history as well.

Go and enjoy!

Except, maybe, far-right pundit and immensely frustrated guy Erick Erickson, who expresses a bit of it:

Meanwhile, boys are taking over girls’ sports; our national credit rating is down; our cost of living is soaring; China is emboldened; the Iranians are belligerent; the economy sucks; and the envirowackos are coming for our stoves, water heaters, and cars. But sure, let’s all get aboard the U.S.S. Trump for another ride. That’s the ticket. There are so many movies where, as tragedy arrives, only then does the soon-to-be dead person realize they made a tragic mistake that has just gotten them killed. At this point, I think that will be the GOP with Trump as nominee. “But Erickson,” you yell. “You got 2016 wrong.” And I’ve gotten every one of them right since. Trump, twice, lost the popular vote. Who on earth will come to him now not already there?

He’s already frustrated with the MAGA-heads continued loyalty to the President, and has delivered a probably-accurate diagnosis that

“They’d do this to anyone else” is the unfalsifiable inner monologue you tell yourself when you know you’re wrong but want to console and justify your poor choice.

But getting pathologies correct for his own side doesn’t justify the first statement, now does it? At least, not the apocalypsism he so frantically employs. Let’s take a look at them:

• … boys are taking over girls’ sports: I think this, too, shall pass, as the pushback from the girls, girls’ parents, and the thinkers who’ve not swallowed the transgender propaganda concerning the foundations of humanity make themselves heard. It’s a question of the stubbornness of the transgender activists vs the persuasiveness of opposing forces. By opposing forces, I’m not speaking of liberals who scream transgenderism is evil, of which there might be five total in the United States. Rather, as I’ve discussed before, the management of the transgenderism issue has been entirely botched by the Democrats. I fear they haven’t the time to remedy this error, and, being human, they’ll try to ignore it or even cover it up. But that’s another discussion, of which most is here, with an addition discussing some Democratic progress here.
• … national credit rating is down: Yes, it is. Don’t blame that on the Democrats, who have a long history of responsible spending behind them. My reader will permit me to address Erickson: A tax-and-spend liberal is better understood as a spend-and-tax liberal, because it clarifies an important point: liberals will tax in order to cover the cost of their programs, while Republicans have, in recent history, cut taxes and not spending. See Kansas and Governor Brownback’s (R-KA) program, which blew up so badly in Brownback’s face that the moderates were able to take over from the far-right believers in the Laffer Curve. And then there’s the chaos of the current House GOP, which is simply the result of populating Republican seats with fourth-raters. With a slim majority, do they work diligently on crafting reasonable budget and defense packages? No. They chase absurd fantasies concerning abortion, taking the Trump impeachments out of the Congressional Record, the Biden crime syndicate, and Rep Greene’s (R-GA) Jewish Space Lasers, which are a real favorite of mine. While liberals are outraged at the Fitch Agency’s rating downgrade, I see it as simply an acknowledgment that Republican financial acumen is currently a joke. In my opinion, the joke extends back to the Reagan days, but that’s a matter for historians to discuss. The Republicans are responsible, and don’t know how to take their responsibilities seriously.
• … our cost of living is soaring … the economy sucks: Not any longer. Inflation has dropped to roughly 3%. Unemployment is absurdly low. The predicted recession never happened. We’re humming right along.
• … China is emboldened: No doubt, but China is driven primarily by internal forces. Trump abandoned Pacific Rim treaties and embraced North Korea and Russia, while alienating our allies in the region. China is a long term project, truth be told, that is best managed by our best, not by our worst – and the latter adjective best describes most or all active Republican candidates. Maybe Sununu and Hogan are not in that category, but both have declined to enter the race for the Republican nomination, haven’t they?
• … the Iranians are belligerent: And since when have the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran not been belligerent? Again, a country driven by internal forces, requiring careful management.
• … envirowackos are coming for our stoves, water heaters, and cars: Possibly the saddest part of this statement, I’ve noticed Erickson frantically denying that our disastrous weather pattern could possibly ever repeat itself of late – Erickson is a lawyer, not a climate scientist.  Calling folks who earnestly believe they’ve recognized an existential problem and are trying to save us do not merit denigrative epithets, of course, especially when they’re working from objective evidence; the spiritual saving advocated by the religious do not meet the same standard. In any case, old equipment, rightly or wrongly, is grandfathered.

Looking at the above, I have to say that Erickson has forgotten a key fact: Americans are problem solvers, not the sort to sit around and wail helplessly. Trump, and, more importantly, his ilk, such as Greene, Boebert, Gaetz, etc etc, are really just a pack of poseurs. All they know how to do is chant the magic spells – abortion is bad, taxes are bad, guns are good, astute readers will know the drill – and sit back and hope their chant is better than everyone else’s.

Their accomplishments, beyond winning elections, prove my point. Reducing taxes on the wealthy while not reducing spending; a crap medical assistance bill that ended up not replacing the ACA; and that’s about it. Mexican salls? Infrastructure? Oh, they, from Trump on down, may lie about how much they accomplished, but oh they did not, and Erickson knows it.

But Americans solve problems. For Erickson, Trump being nominated is a catastrophe because Americans might then go with the Democrats, who’ve restored the economy. We still have problems, true, but sticking with problem solvers, and kicking out those who run around and lie a lot, on both sides of the spectrum, is itself a problem solving strategy.

And that’s what we need right now. Not Trump, DeSantis, Greene, etc. There’s too much smoke on the horizon, no matter how much Erickson sits around denying it.

He’s just a wailer.

Our hibiscus is blooming.

This lily is nice, too.

They were just told there’ll be a sequel.

If you’re looking for a second-rate, cheesy, 1980s movie to put a shameless grin on your face, Vibes (1988) might be destined for your meal plate. Featuring some glorious-for-the-era shots of South America, mediocre special effects, and a story featuring folks to who speak to the dead, clairvoyancy, and other powers that are not worth looking up for their proper names, perhaps the most frightening thing about this movie is not the goofy power hidden in the golden treasure, but that it features Peter Falk and Jeff Goldblum, and they’re both shown up by, beat the drums, singer Cindy Lauper.

Painfully conventional and yet not silly enough to redeem itself, I’d give this one a skip.

Remand:

To remand something is to send it back. Remand implies a return. The usual contexts in which this word are encountered are reversal of an appellate decision, and the custody of a prisoner.

When an appellate court reverses the decision of a lower court, the written decision often contains an instruction to remand the case to the lower court to be reconsidered in light of the appellate court’s ruling. Cases are also remanded to Federal agencies for reconsideration in disputes over regulation or administrative decisions. See INS v. Ventura.

A prisoner is said to be remanded when she is sent back into custody to await trial. [Legal Information Institute]

Noted in “Judge Rejects Trump Attempt to Move NY Case to Federal Court,” Gia Kokotakis, Lawfare:

A Southern District of New York judge granted the remand of a case against former President Donald Trump over hush money paid to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in October 2016. Trump had invoked 28 U.S.C. § 1442(a) to try and move the case to federal court.

Contrary to the motion to remand submitted by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, in which Bragg argued that Trump was an elected official, rather than an appointed officer of the United States who holds the right to invoke 28 U.S.C. § 1442(a), the judge found that Trump was an officer of the United States during his presidency. However, the judge also found that Trump failed to sufficiently support that his payment to Stormy Daniels was “relating to any act under color of office,” and instead was “purely a personal item of the President—a cover-up of an embarrassing event.” Based on these findings, Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein remanded the case.

Some countries welcome cryptocurrencies, some are of two minds, and some ban it. Into that last group falls Kuwait:

DUBAI — Kuwait has banned all virtual asset transactions, investments and mining, according to an online statement released on Tuesday by the country’s Capital Markets Authority (CMA). [AL-Monitor]

It’s a little puzzling:

Based on these definition, this means that Kuwaiti residents are also banned from selling or buying non-fungible tokens, gaming tokens and other similar assets that are digital, decentralized and hold financial value. However, digital representations of paper currencies, securities and other financial assets are excluded from the ban, according to the CMA statement.

I’m not sure about the implications of the exception for digital representations of paper currencies. Perhaps that’s just so banks can continue to function.

Ruth Marcus of WaPo writes about Justice Alito’s recent predilection for writing op-eds in the Wall Street Journal, and his allergy to legislation requiring ethics regulation of SCOTUS: