Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, Business, and Debt:
Top Brazilian judge orders suspension of X platform in Brazil amid feud with Musk
A Brazilian Supreme Court justice has ordered the suspension of Elon Musk’s social media giant X nationwide after the tech billionaire refused to name a legal representative in the country
Ukraine government stops payments to Minnetonka-based Cargill on $700M debt
Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:
Covid associated with increased risk for hearing loss in young adults
Politics:
Trump Dishonors Fallen Soldiers Again
Trump’s latest visit to Arlington National Cemetery is a reminder of how little he understands about service, sacrifice, and heroism.
I thought she was kidding. I was wrong.
Why Trump’s Arlington Debacle Is So Serious
For Trump, defiling what is sacred in our civic culture borders on a pastime. Peacefully transferring power to the next president, treating political adversaries with at least rudimentary grace, honoring those soldiers wounded and disfigured in service of our country—Trump long ago walked roughshod over all these norms. Before he tried to overturn a national election, he mocked his opponents in the crudest terms and demeaned dead soldiers as ‘suckers.’
But the former president outdid himself this week, when he attended a wreath-laying ceremony honoring 13 American soldiers killed in a suicide bombing in Kabul during the final havoc-marked hours of the American withdrawal. Trump laid three wreaths and put hand over heart; that is a time-honored privilege of presidents. Trump, as is his wont, went further. He walked to a burial site in Section 60 and posed with the family of a fallen soldier, grinning broadly and giving a thumbs-up for his campaign photographer and videographer.
Few spaces in the United States join the sacred and the secular to more moving effect than Arlington National Cemetery, 624 acres set on a bluff overlooking the Potomac River and our nation’s capital.
Trump’s disastrous visit to Arlington was too much for the press to handle
When a presidential candidate violates universal and established norms, it’s okay to come out and say it. But the coverage of former president Donald Trump’s visit to Arlington National Cemetery, on August 26, showed the difficulties newsrooms have in covering unprecedented events, especially when it involves the nation’s military, veterans, and Donald Trump…
Readers needed to know that, when you visit Arlington, you might not know exactly what you’re supposed to do when confronted by those rows of headstones, but you damn sure know what you’re not supposed to do. But the coverage this week left many readers with the impression that the whole thing might have been a bureaucratic mix-up, or some tedious violation of protocol. It focused on bland horse-race coverage so common during election season, rather than clearly stating what really took place: an egregious and willful violation of long-standing norms. What was missing from the coverage was a willingness to quickly and decisively state what a grievous insult the whole debacle was to the dignity of Arlington. The sacred had been profaned.
Israeli Leaders Fight Over Gaza Deal
An Israeli security cabinet meeting about the hostage-release and Gaza ceasefire deal erupted on Thursday night and turned into an unprecedented shouting match between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant.
Well, it could be worse. I vaguely recall some country’s President (or Prime Minister?) being killed three or four decades ago during a cabinet meeting when one of his Ministers drew a handgun and started shooting.
Harris to Kick Off Abortion Rights Bus Tour
Kamala Harris’ campaign is launching a bus tour in Palm Beach, Fla., with its surrogates to promote access to reproductive rights.
The ‘Fighting for Reproductive Freedom’ bus tour is set to start on Tuesday in former President Trump’s hometown. Surrogates from second gentleman Doug Emhoff, the first lady of Minnesota Gwen Walz, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), and Harris campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez, among others, will be on the tour.
The tour will make at least 50 stops in red, blue and battleground states in the next couple of months, the campaign announced.
Trump Running Scared on Abortion Rights
Two related things happened in the 2024 campaign yesterday. First, a bevy of new polls came out, which showed Vice President Harris taking the lead nationally and in the swing states.
Second, Trump swerved out of his way to rewrite his position on abortion. At a rally, Trump said that his administration would protect IVF treatments and mandate that government or insurance companies pay for such treatments. Notably, neither Trump nor his campaign offered a single detail on how this would be accomplished…
Later, in an interview with NBC, Trump implied that he would vote for an amendment in Florida guaranteeing access to abortion up until the point of fetal viability.
Now, this is a dramatic shift considering Trump is the person most responsible for overturning Roe v. Wade. At every opportunity, Trump brags about his role in stripping a constitutional right from more than half the country.
Trump’s vow to fire thousands of ‘crooked’ federal workers prompts alarm
If Trump and Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance were to succeed in remaking the federal workforce in the way they have described, it would be the most radical reconfiguration of the U.S. government in 140 years.
Critics, including nonpartisan analysts, fear Trump’s proposal to replace thousands of civil servants with his loyalists would resurrect something like the 19th century “spoils” system, which Congress scrapped in the late 1800s due to rampant incompetence and cronyism.
The U.S. operated for much of the 1800s on the understanding that individuals won jobs with the government not by proving their expertise, but by having connections to presidents and their parties.
Congress moved to eliminate the spoils system in 1883, about 18 months after a disgruntled job-seeker assassinated the man he believed owed him a government appointment — James A. Garfield, the 20th president of the United States.
Pelosi’s Car Passed Near Pipe Bomb
As Speaker Nancy Pelosi was evacuated from the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, while the complex was under attack, her motorcade passed by a pipe bomb at the Democratic National Committee headquarters that law enforcement had yet to render safe.
The revelation is the second known instance of a prominent Democrat coming close to the explosive device, and it underscores the threat that elected officials faced that day when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol.
Trump film 'The Apprentice' finds distributor and will open before the election
After struggling to drum up interest following its Cannes Film Festival premiere, “The Apprentice,” starring Sebastian Stan as a young Donald Trump, has found a distributor that plans to release the film shortly before the election in November
Attorney General Ken Paxton sues Dallas and State Fair of Texas over gun ban
Leaked Gaza Cable. US military in 74 countries. Election Hysteria.
A month later, polls show that the number of Americans who dislike Mr. Vance continues to grow — but Mr. Trump could not be happier.
The reason: Mr. Vance’s relentless pace of full-throttle performances as Mr. Trump’s well-trained attack dog has pleased the former president and instilled a sense of stability inside a campaign still shaken by President Biden’s sudden exit from the race.
Mr. Trump had instructed his young sidekick to fight forcefully through those initial attacks, and later said Mr. Vance’s execution exceeded his expectations.
More Voters Now Say Abortion Is Their Top Issue
Attitudes on abortion are deeply entrenched and have motivated voters across the American political landscape for decades. But in a post-Roe world, with abortion access sharply limited or at stake in several states, voters who want to protect abortion rights are increasingly energized.
