“So many books, so little time.” — Frank Zappa
Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, Business, and Debt:
SEC doesn’t want Ethereum to transform banking landscape, says Joseph Lubin
FTX Creditors Say Payout Deal Is 'an Insult'—and Plan to Revolt
Watch Apple Trash-Compact Human Culture
What was the company thinking?
Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:
Politics:
Judge Bashes Trump’s Defense Team
Justice Juan Merchan harshly criticized Donald Trump’s defense attorneys as he denied another motion for a mistrial over Stormy Daniels’ weighty testimony.
After the jury was excused this afternoon, the judge heard arguments from the defense and prosecutors on the mistrial request — the second one lodged by the defense this week. Merchan bluntly pointed out what he saw as numerous missteps by Trump’s attorneys. The defense lawyers’ overall strategy, and their failure to object at key moments during Daniels’ testimony, allowed much of Daniels’ testimony to stand, the judge said.
Either Trump’s lawyers are remarkably incompetent or their client is insisting on a strategy that his ego wrongly thinks is not counterproductive. Maybe a bit of both?
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Netanyahu Is Humiliating Biden
There is nothing new or unexpected about Benjamin Netanyahu’s arrogance. When President Bill Clinton first met him at the White House in 1996—mere weeks after Netanyahu first took office as Israel’s prime minister—he reportedly seethed to aides, ‘Who the fuck does he think he is? Who’s the fucking superpower here?’ That arrogance subsequently caused rifts with Republican and Democratic presidents alike. Netanyahu, now in his third stint as prime minister, has not changed at all over the last 30 years.
And yet, President Biden apparently thought he could influence how the Israeli leader responded to Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attacks. In the ensuing months, as the civilian death toll of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza climbed past 10,000 and then 20,000 and then 30,000, Americans were treated to stories in the press suggesting that although Biden publicly embraced Netanyahu at every opportunity, he was working hard in private to constrain him. This notion stretched credulity, given that Biden was no stranger to Netanyahu’s ways, having served as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and, as vice president, witnessed Barack Obama’s increasingly frosty relationship with him.
But now, given the events of the past few days, we can say with total certainty that this back channel pressure—to the extent it existed—has been a spectacular failure.
EU moves to give profits from Russian assets to Ukraine
Big Oil boomed under Biden. So why does it hate him?
The former president’s shakedown of oil executives may not have been illegal, but it is undeniably scandalous.
There's A GOP Plan For An Execution Spree If Trump Wins The White House
Buried on page 554 of the plan is a directive to execute every remaining person on federal death row — and dramatically expand the use of the death penalty.
Dobbs Was a Gift to Domestic Abusers
Homicide is a leading cause of death in the perinatal period. But just as troublingly, abusers can use abortion bans to prevent partners from leaving or retaliate against them if they do.
DOJ, civil rights groups sue to block controversial Iowa immigration bill
Top senators believe the US secretly recovered UFOs
Trump Throws Out GOP Plan in Favor of ‘Leaner’ Operation
The shift comes as President Biden’s campaign and its allies, buoyed by incumbency, have been moving in the opposite direction, building a more expansive operation sooner than in 2020. Strategists for both major parties expect Democrats to raise and spend more than Republicans over the coming months, a dynamic that has been magnified by the significant legal costs Trump’s fundraising apparatus has absorbed to defend him in state and federal courts.
The situation has alarmed GOP officials in key states like Arizona, Georgia and Michigan, who have yet to receive promised funding, staff or even briefings on the new plans since the Trump team took control of the Republican National Committee in March. An earlier party blueprint for a general election build-out has been discarded, party officials say. Plans to open new offices have been scuttled. Hiring has been slowed.
Serendipity:
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Climate change: World's oceans suffer from record-breaking year of heat
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Indeed man so many books so little time 🤧