Happy Valentine’s Day! Now delete that dating app

Follow Us This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a heart-shaped box of Bloomberg Opinion's opinions. Sign up here. Today's Agenda Your dating app may not protect your data, or you, from predators. An unleashed Trump may overstep his bounds. China must crack down on wild-animal sales to prevent future epidemics. The states stand in the way of Trump's anything-goes merger policy. Photographer: Sean Gallup/Getty Images Europe Photographer: Sean Gallup/Getty Images Europe Careful What You Tender Unto Tinder Today is Valentine's Day, a time for thinking only of love and romance and purchasing tokens of affection for your significant others, which you honestly should be doing all year, but this newsletter does not want to tell you how to live your life.  It is definitely not a time for thinking about how many of the online dating sites people use to find romance these days are very, very  bad at protecting their private data or their personages from sexual predators. So you should definitely wait at least a day, then, to read Kara Alaimo's alarming piece about this — unless, that is, you plan on Tindering or GoFishing or whatever to find a Valentine's date. Because in that case you may want to check your privacy settings. And you should definitely know right away that a spokesperson for Match Group — parent of Match, OkCupid, Tinder, Plenty of Fish and many, many other sites in this vein — tells Kara "there are definitely registered sex offenders on our free products." Uh, Happy Valentine's Day? Read the whole thing. Trump Now Free to Step on More Rakes People feared President Donald Trump's escape from conviction in his impeachment trial would embolden him to grab more power and do more crimes. He has not exactly disappointed yet, expelling perceived enemies from the government and bending the Justice Department further to his will. And yet there has been some pushback. Attorney General William Barr's complaint about the president's tweets may have been kabuki theater, but then again the DOJ today also closed its case on former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, somebody Trump definitely wanted to see prosecuted. And some of the same congressional Republicans who voted for Trump's acquittal have tried to clip his wings in other areas this week, notes Jonathan Bernstein, from war powers to his shaky Fed pick Judy Shelton. And Trump's purging of everyone around him who is not either a sycophant or a family member will only weaken him further, writes Jonathan. At some point firing all the experts will leave him even less able to wield power effectively. It will not be for lack of trying, though; Trump has made clear from the start that he will throw the rule of law right out the window if it benefits him, writes Francis Wilkinson. Re-election would give him four more years to do much more damage. There are many different flavors of Democrat fighting to run against him, from Democratic socialist Bernie Sanders to billionaire centrist (and founder of Bloomberg LP, parent of Bloomberg Opinion) Mike Bloomberg. But no matter who ends up being the nominee on the other side, Frank writes, we know a Trump victory would mean a further descent into a Putin-style thugocracy. Wet Markets, Nasty Viruses Scientists keep coming back to the theory that the coronavirus still spreading in China and around the globe originated in a "wet market." These are places in China where wild animals are sold and butchered to make some very weird snacks, medicines and accessories. They are notorious for introducing humans to all sorts of exotic diseases. They're slowly fading into obsolescence, fortunately, and China's government can help by cracking down on legal wild-animal sales, writes Adam Minter. But that won't be enough: It also must fight the black-market sales surge that will inevitably follow. Further Virus Reading: How do you feel about jumping on a cross-border flight these days? Your answer may explain the trouble the aerospace industry faces. — Brooke Sutherland (sign up for her newsletter here) Oh, and here's a picture of the thing that has now killed 1,380 people. The virus is the orange stuff: Source: NIAID-RML Source: NIAID-RML Telltale Charts They didn't manage to stop the T-Mobile US Inc.-Sprint Corp. deal, but states attorneys general have shown they're willing to throw up costly hurdles to megamergers they consider anti-competitive, writes Tara Lachapelle. That should at least make dealmakers think twice. Ditching right-to-work laws is a good start, but not enough to stop the decline of unions, writes Noah Smith. What it will really take is letting workers bargain across entire sectors.  Further Reading U.S. stocks have been overpriced for basically forever, but it's possible they could just keep getting more overpriced. — John Authers  While the market showers Tesla Inc. with love, old-school automakers such as Renault SA can't buy a thrill as they struggle to electrify. — Chris Bryant  A small financial transactions tax will raise needed revenue without hurting markets or the middle class. It may curb high-speed trading, but is that so terrible? — Antonio Weiss  Latin America's anti-corruption fight is backsliding, and the Trump administration isn't helping. — Mac Margolis  Pizza-making robots in trucks did not change the world, somehow. — Matt Levine ICYMI Michael Avenatti was found guilty of trying to extort money from Nike Inc. Larry Ellison is fully on Team Trump. How it feels to catch coronavirus. Kickers Early humans in Africa may have interbred with an unknown extinct species. A tiny area of the brain may enable consciousness. The gory origins of Valentine's Day. The 50 greatest breakup songs of all time. Note: Please send breakup songs and complaints to Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.net. Sign up here and follow us on Twitter and Facebook.   Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can't find anywhere else. Learn more.   You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Bloomberg Opinion Today newsletter. Unsubscribe | Bloomberg.com | Contact Us Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022