"One doesn’t have to operate with great malice to do great harm. The absence of empathy and understanding are sufficient." - Charles M. Blow
Wednesday, January 31, 2024
Alex Wagner - GOP Invents Taylor Swift Conspiracy Theory Instead Of Facing Reality About Unpopular Policies
Can the GOP get any more asinine.
Comment
Trump's lawyer, Alina Habba, citing the NY Post as a source article for critical information on the NYC judicial system, is like an animal biology researcher and scholar citing the children's books 'The Berenstain Bears' in a research paper.
Zeus
Washington Post from 2022 - "Guinness World Records has declared 2½-year-old Zeus the tallest dog in the world at 3 feet, 5.18 inches. On his hind legs, he stands more than 7 feet tall, said Davis. He weighs about 200 pounds."
Have An Excellent Wednesday
"The first instance of the platform shoe was Salvatore Ferragamo's fashion-forward cork sandal launched in 1938. The rainbow-colored heel is considered modern, even today!"
Sentenced
The guy was all of 20 years old and he's been sentenced to 18 years in prison. What a way to start out in one's life. These people are so hopped up and it's all about their own escalating paranoia.
Washington Post: Man sentenced to 18 years for bombing church that was hosting drag event By Jonathan Edwards
Once there, investigators said, he hurled two molotov cocktails, hoping to burn “the entire church to the ground.”
Embid
Washington Post: Joel Embiid suffers apparent knee injury, threatening MVP eligibility By Ben Golliver
"It’s kind of unrelated to what’s been bothering him. We just wait on that. You guys saw the play. He was laying there and he got landed on."
Abnormality
Gift article available to everyone.
NY Times: Taylor Swift, Donald Trump and the Right’s Abnormality Problem By Ross Douthat
...various online influencers portraying the romance as some kind of carefully crafted political propaganda, whose true purpose is to make a Swift or Swift-Kelce endorsement of Biden’s re-election bid as meaningful as possible to Swifties and football fans alike.
Recover
Gift article available to everyone.
The answer was always the same: Figure it out. Stimulus checks and small-business loans did help. But while other countries built trust and solidarity, America — both during and after 2020 — left millions to fend for themselves.
The Market On Wednesday
Good morning. At 7:40 a.m. ET DOW futures are +39, S&P futures are -24.25, and NASDAQ futures are -193. The market is poised to open mixed.
Tuesday, January 30, 2024
West Coast
Heavy flooding rain, landslides, significant mountain snow and strong winds are all in the offing, coming in multiple waves during both the workweek and the weekend.
Expenses
Donald J. Trump piled up legal expenses in 2023 as he was indicted four times, spending approximately $50 million in donor money on legal bills and investigation-related expenses last year, according to two people briefed on the figure.
Insurrection
NY Times: If It Walks Like an Insurrection and Talks Like an Insurrection … By Jamelle Bouie
...the framers of the 14th Amendment, as well as other lawmakers of the time, clearly believed that the president was, in fact, an officer of the United States.
'Telepathy'
Washington Post: Musk’s Neuralink implants brain chip in its first human subject By Kelsey Ables
Placed in the part of the brain that plans movements, the device is designed to interpret a person’s neural activity, so they can control external devices such as a smartphone or computer with their thoughts...initially used by people who have lost the ability to use their limbs...
Interest Rate
“Inflation looks pretty damn good,” said Skanda Amarnath...“I’m not saying it’s perfect … but if we’re getting there sooner, it’s probably reason to move a little bit sooner. That’s contingent on the inflation data.”
Based
Gift article available to everyone.
NY Times: MAGA Is Based on Fear, Not Grounded in Reality By Paul Krugman
War
Gift article available to everyone.
NY Times: Widening Mideast Crisis - Qatar Is Expected to Present Hamas With Proposal for Pause in Fighting
The Market On Tuesday
Good morning. At 6 a.m. ET DOW futures are -58, S&P futures are 14.75, and NASDAQ futures are -5.75, The market is poised to open moderately lower.
Monday, January 29, 2024
War
Washington Post: U.S. mixed up enemy, friendly drones in attack that killed 3 troops By Missy Ryan and Alex Horton
American air defenses failed to intercept an attack drone that killed three U.S. troops in Jordan because the incoming aircraft was mistaken for a friendly drone returning to the base...
AI
The company (Replika) has come under scrutiny for the resulting influence over users’ intimate details and mental health, particularly when updates alter the bots’ personalities. Some users have been left feeling abandoned.
Ignores
Gift article, available to everyone.
NY Times: Opinion - When the Right Ignores Its Sex Scandals By David French
Dogs
If the dog seems pretty comfortable and doesn’t recoil from your hand, the best place to pet a dog is under the chin.
Trees
The work is focused in neighborhoods that — like many poor urban areas — have fewer trees compared with more affluent parts of the city.
Penalty
Washington Post: After Trump’s $88 million judgments, new penalty could come soon By Devlin Barrett and Perry Stein
...the New York attorney general, who has asked that Trump and his companies be ordered to pay $370 million for allegedly misstating the values of his business assets.
E. Jean
Gift article available to everyone.
NY Times: The Audacity of E. Jean Carroll By Jessica Bennett
The Market On Monday
Good morning. At 7:05 a.m. ET DOW futures are -15, S&P futures are +2.75, and NASDAQ futures are +38.75. The market is poised to open mixed.
Friday, January 26, 2024
Ordered
Washington Post: Trump ordered to pay E. Jean Carroll $83.3M in defamation damages trial
A federal court jury awarded a total of $83.3 million in damages to E. Jean Carroll for defamatory comments Donald Trump made about her as president in 2019, remarks attacking her character that kicked off years of threats and harassment from the former president’s supporters.
Home Sales
The stronger buying activity was driven by gains in the Midwest, South and West, while the Northeast declined compared to the prior year.
Resilience
Instead, the economy grew 3.1 percent last year, up from less than 1 percent in 2022 and faster than the average for the five years leading up to the pandemic. Inflation has retreated substantially. Unemployment remains at historic lows and consumers continue to spend even with Federal Reserve interest rates at a 22-year high.
Vote
Washington Post: Opinion - Vote for destruction in November By Eugene Robinson
Anyone who genuinely cares about the future of the Republican Party — and you should if you care about strengthening democracy — has only one option in November: Vote to destroy the party to save it.
War
Washington Post: U.N. court to deliver interim ruling in genocide case against Israel By Emily Rauhala and Steve Hendrix
Friday’s decision will not determine whether Israel has committed genocide — that could take years. But the court may order provisional measures aimed at preventing the situation from getting worse while the case proceeds.
Shut Up
NY Times: A Judge Figured Out How to Shut Up Trump By Jesse Wegman
Trump was not to say a word about his view of the truth of the accusation. When Trump did so anyway (“She said something I considered a false accusation.”), the judge immediately struck the statement from the record.
Tiny
When the renovation was finished, the couple were so pleased with their new compact living space, its proximity to the beach and its friendly neighborhood that they arrived at an unexpected conclusion: They wanted to live there all the time.
The Market On Friday
Good morning. At 7:00 a.m. ET DOW futures are -64, S&P futures are -8.5, and NASDAQ futures are -98.5. The market is poised to open moderately lower.
Thursday, January 25, 2024
LOL
Washington Post: Trump briefly testifies in E. Jean Carroll defamation trial
When U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan said the jury would be told that the fact of the sexual assault was accepted, Trump muttered “unbelievable” and shook his head.
Record
Gift article available to everyone
Washington Post: Abnormal warmth swarms planet as 2024 launches with record heat By Dan Stillman
The exceptional warmth — 20 to 30 degrees above normal in some places — stretches as far south as Australia and South Africa, and as far north as northern Asia. It’s being driven by a combination of weather and climate factors, including El Niño.
GDP
...the economy has soundly returned to stable footing following a period of dramatic pandemic-fueled swings that marked 2020 through early 2022.
Anonymous
In a pretrial ruling, he explained his rationale, citing the potential for influence attempts, harassment or worse by Mr. Trump’s supporters — or the former president himself.
Narcissism - Not Vanity
The body has been centered in American political life ever since Mr. Trump, now 77, first tossed his hat in the ring back in 2015. Most often the body was that of a woman: dissected, derided, skewered by Mr. Trump with unvarnished glee.
The Market On Thursday
Good morning. At 6:45 a.m. ET DOW futures are +59, S&P futures are +1.5, and NASDAQ futures are -5.25. The market is poised to open mixed.
Wednesday, January 24, 2024
Jon Stewart
...will take up hosting duties on Monday nights beginning Feb. 12 — the Monday after the Super Bowl.
Good News
"When I have people come up to me who voted for Reagan in ’76 and have been conservative their whole life say that they don’t want to vote for Trump again, that’s a problem..."
How Often
They estimate in a research letter published Wednesday in JAMA Internal Medicine that 64,565 pregnancies have been caused by rape in the 14 states where abortion is banned.
Non
“I think it’s possible these people don’t believe in anything [supernatural], we just don’t have the language yet to describe what they do believe..."
Illusion
NY Times: Nikki Haley Was an Illusion. It Just Shattered. By Frank Bruni
The results on Tuesday night, when Trump followed his commanding victory in the Iowa caucuses with a compelling one in the New Hampshire primary, leave Haley with no plausible path to the Republican nomination, not unless something extraordinary happens.
Have An Excellent Wednesday
Photography By Gabriele Münter 1877 - 1962 - 'Women in their Sunday best. Marshall, Texas. 1899'
Gabriele Münter, known as a German expressionist painter, was also a photographer who spent a period of time in the U.S.
Survivors
Washington Post: 245,000 Jewish Holocaust survivors are alive today. Where are they now? By Annabelle Timsit
Six million Jews were murdered by Germany’s Nazi government, in power between 1933 and 1945 — equivalent to two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population before 1933. The Nazis also persecuted and massacred Roma people and other minority groups and political enemies on a smaller scale during this time.
New Hampshire
The total of more than 300,000 votes as of early Wednesday surpassed the previous high-water mark for a Republican primary, when more than 287,000 voters turned out in 2016.
New Hampshire
Trump demonstrated his command of the G.O.P. in a purple state.
Haley has an incredibly rocky road ahead.
The Market On Wednesday
Good morning. At 7:10 a.m. ET DOW futures are +70, S&P futures are +20.25, and NASDAQ futures are +117. The market is poised to open significantly higher.
Tuesday, January 23, 2024
Stinky
It's being suggested that Trump's new nickname should be "Stinky Don".
I'd like to see Biden use it on him.
Flubs
Calling dementia, flubs, is wrong.
Washington Post: Trump’s increasing flubs risk blunting big polling edge on mental sharpness Analysis By Aaron Blake
Political Violence
The frequency and visibility of these incidents suggest that swatting and political violence require prosecutors to prioritize their efforts to stop it.
Wire
“Rather than helping to reduce irregular migration, the State of Texas has only made it harder for frontline personnel to do their jobs and to apply consequences under the law.”
Check The Record
Washington Post: The gamble Republicans are about to take on Trump Analysis By Aaron Blake
He lost the popular vote in both the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.
His party lost the popular vote in the 2018 midterm elections by the largest margin since the 1980s.
War
NY Times: Widening Mideast Crisis Israel Says 24 Soldiers Are Killed as Pressure Grows on Netanyahu
The Israeli military suffered its deadliest day of the Gaza ground invasion on Monday, announcing that 24 soldiers had been killed, 21 of them in a single explosion inside the territory near the Israeli border.
New Hampshire
NY Times: How Did New Hampshire Shift to Blue-ish? By Jane Coaston
A typical New Hampshire Republican, I would say, wishes that the abortion issue would just go away. ‘Do we really have to talk about it so much?’
The Market On Tuesday
Good morning. At 7:15 a.m. ET DOW futures are -57, S&P futures are +1, and NASDAQ futures are +11.25. The market is poised to open mixed.
Monday, January 22, 2024
Cough
But some physicians say they are seeing more lingering cough than usual. Many of these patients have tested negative for the coronavirus, and the cough may be the aftermath of other circulating respiratory viruses.
Debt
The record high was under Trump in 2020.
Axios: U.S. debt hits record high as rich economies pile on IOUs By Deena Zaidi
Colossus
Gift article available to everyone
Washington Post: Opinion - Trump is not a colossus. And his party is a mess. By E.J. Dionne Jr.
Meanwhile, Senate and House Republicans are at odds on the most important foreign policy question of the moment: whether the United States will continue to stand up against Vladimir Putin’s aggression in Ukraine.
Protections
Washington Post: Biden expands abortion, contraception protections on Roe anniversary By Dan Diamond
“On this day and every day, Vice President Harris and I are fighting to protect women’s reproductive freedom against Republicans’ dangerous, extreme, and out-of-touch agenda,” Biden said in a statement.
Lord Help Us
NY Times: The Trump Train Is Getting Very Crowded By Gail Collins and Bret Stephens
New Hampshire’s tomorrow, and even if Nikki Haley wins, it isn’t very likely she’ll be going any further. Which means Trump will, for all practical purposes, be the nominee by the middle of this week.
New Hampshire
He (Trump) leads Ms. Haley by at least 30 points in all of the states after New Hampshire until Super Tuesday.
The Market On Monday
Good morning. At 6:45 a.m. ET DOW futures are +59, S&P futures are +16, and NASDAQ futures are +107.5. The market is poised to open significantly higher.
Friday, January 19, 2024
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