Citation needed is fascist.

No need to worry: this phenomenon is confined to Philly.

I am not making that part up.

Do the bots have a Philly accent?

The only reason to send official government communications to a foreign power in a document format that you know they can't read is: Fuck You.

That's the real reason.
Is it not obvious?
I'm sure the receiver "got the message".

Whenever I hear about electric cars, especially sports cars, that make "engine noise" (other than proximity safety noises), it tells me that the whole point of the car is to compensate for a tiny dick. Because just going faster is decidedly NOT THE POINT. The point is to make a big scary noise. The noise is for the driver, so they can pretend they are powerful, and for everyone outside who can hear it, so the driver gets attention.

If I owned one of those cars, I would be very embarrassed that it made those noises; I hope there is an option to silence all of it. Going fast in a performance car is fun (in my limited experience), but it's my fun, and I don't care what anyone else thinks. And I don't need an artificial noise to tell me how fast I am going -- especially one that is totally ficticious, imitating old machinery which is not in reality present. I can see the device readouts in front of my face. (And for noise, I would like my tunes. And better if they don't leak outside even if I crank them. Finally, lest you think I "don't get it" about high-performance vehicles: the hobby where I dump my money at hundreds of dollars per hour is piloting airplanes and helicopters. (Which I wish didn't make noise.) And sometimes sailing, where I don't mind wind noise... I share my go-fast fun with people by bringing them along and letting them play, too. As opposed to being an insecure obnoxious noisy ass.

That is all.

You say the money was not all from taxpayers, because some of it was from investments ("not just sitting around in a vault"). But was it not 100% taxpayer money that was invested? And if the taxpayer still had that cash, are you saying it would be sitting under their mattress? Or is it more likely that the taxpayer would have invested in, and the taxpayer would be reaping the benefit of investing it?

Of course it is taxpayer money.
All of it
It always was, until the Government took itl
At the point of a gun.

(However, there's no point in the research paper spelling out that it was "taxpayer money". The paper says exactly which funds were used. If you are too dumb to know that those funds are, indeed, taxpayer money, then you are too dumb to read the research paper.)

Sounds like money well-spent, to me.
(Disclaimer: none of it was mine.)

But let's not try to obfuscate that it was taxpayer money.

Translation:

Momentary big drop in crypto prices (directly due to S&P panic over Trump's 100% China tariff on this day).
So, BUY NOW.

It's not "Bye, now".
Not yet.

BTC just tracks the dollar via the proxy of the Stock Exchange. This event directly corresponded with a big one-day drop on the S&P, caused by Trump announcing 100% tarries on everything from China. (Caused in turn by China's announcement the day before on restricting their export of rare-earths.)

Nothing to see here.
The stock market will be back in a day or two (if it hasn't already rebounded) and the fake pretend money will follow it back up. This month has also been a bellweather of "AI Bubble About To Burst" stories, and the US economy is being held up by the AI spending. So there's trouble on the near horizon. None of it has to do with the scam that is crypto, though. That game is still in full play.

Historically, all brick-and-mortor stores did this. It's right up there with the perpetual "Going Out Of Business" and "Fire" sales. I have always assumed that Amazon did this, too.

I did however buy some BIG DAY DEAL items this week, which actually were considerably cheaper than normal. One was my regular order of laundry detergent, and the other was cheap headphones. I threw in some USB sticks, which may or may not have been much cheaper, but were not overpriced.

Not counting that Amazon threw in an offering from a selection of fresh grocery items: I got my favorite fancy butter (which I happened to be about to out of) for FREE. I don't buy groceries from Amazon.

It is definitely the case that when you see BIG DEALS on things you are interested in, but it's not exactly the item you want, you wind up browsing lots of not-on-sale items and consider buying them. That might even be the main point. And I am not surprised some of those things get marked up to compensate.

I Can't Believe It's Not Better.

Yeah that really sucks!

This will continue until people stop responding to the advertisements by clicking and buying. At that point, advertisers will be confused. The marketing analysts will suppose there are 2 possibilities to explain the behavior of the consumers:
(1) They are unable to respond.
(2) They are unwilling to respond.

If I were you, I would raise up my ad-blocker shields. Hours seem like days when you're stopped from accessing content by incessant advertisements.

Just wait until every restaurant is Taco Bell.

Meanwhile, I feel the urge for a cokie-mokie.

I would not be so sure.
I heard there is already a Gravity Shortage.
Jimminy Cricket, old boy, if it were to get worse, that practically invited Putin to mount an attack. What with the UK tanks being unattached to the ground and all.