Today’s links Stinkpump Linkdump: With a bonus jarring shift in tone. This day in history: 2003, 2008, 2013, 2018, 2022 Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading Stinkpump Linkdump (permalink) Once again, I greet the weekend with more assorted links than I can fit into my nearly-daily newsletter, so it’s time for another linkdump. This is my eleventh such assortment; here are the previous volumes: https://pluralistic.net/tag/linkdump/ I’ve written a lot about Biden’s excellent appointees, from his National Labor Relations Board general counsel Jennifer Abruzzo to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau chair Rohit Chopra to FTC Chair Lina Khan to DoJ antitrust boss Jonathan Kanter: https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/14/prop-22-never-again/#norms-code-laws-markets But I’ve also written a bunch about how Biden’s appointment strategy is an incoherent mess, with excellent appointees picked by progressives on the #UnityTaskForce being cancelled out by appointees given to the party’s reactionary finance wing, producing a muddle that often cancels itself out: https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/08/fiduciaries/#but-muh-freedumbs It’s not just that the finance wing of the Democrats chooses assholes (though they do!), it’s that they choose comedic bunglers. The Dems haven’t put anyone in government who’s as much of an embarrassment as George Santos, but they keep trying. The latest self-inflicted Democratic Party injury is Prashant Bhardjwan, a serial liar and con-artist who is, incredibly, the Biden Administration’s pick to oversee fintech for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC): https://www.americanbanker.com/news/did-the-occ-hire-a-con-artist-to-oversee-fintech When the 42 year old Bhardjwan was named Deputy Comptroller and Chief Financial Technology Officer for OCC, the announcement touted his “nearly…Pluralistic: Stinkpump Linkdump (02 Dec 2023)