“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”
— Alice Walker
Bluesky does not suppress outbound links. X and Meta absolutely do suppress links and have for 8 years now. This suppresses news and accurate information in favor of disinformation and ‘vibes.’
SCIENCE, UNSETTLED: Oceans cool the planet more than we thought, study finds.
Here is the standout fiction and nonfiction of the year, selected by the staff of The New York Times Book Review. As you browse, you can keep track of how many you’ve read or want to read.
By the time you reach No. 100, you’ll have a personalized reading list to share.” [and please visit your local independent books stores to buy new and used books and paperbacks – and then share them when you are have finished reading.]
The intensifying threat of Donald Trump’s emolument
CREW: Donald Trump will violate the Foreign and Domestic Emoluments Clauses if he serves as president and fails to divest from his businesses. Likely sources of his illegal emoluments would include, but not be limited to:
- Truth Social parent company, Trump Media and Technology Group
- Trump World Tower
- Saudi-funded LIV Golf league and
- Real estate developments in Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Congress should pass legislation to make it simpler to enforce the Emoluments Clauses. Until then, executive branch employees must obey the law and may not use their authority to enable illegal emoluments to flow to a sitting president. Inspectors General and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States must also investigate Trump’s potential emoluments as they occur
See also CRS in Focus – Updated January 27, 2021. The Emoluments Clauses of the U.S. Constitution – “…Black’s Law Dictionary defines an “emolument” as an “advantage, profit, or gain received as a result of one’s employment or one’s holding of office.” There is significant debate as to precisely what constitutes an emolument within the meaning of the Foreign and Domestic Emoluments Clauses, particularly as to whether it includes private, arm’s-length market transactions.
The only two district courts to decide this issue (in District of Columbia v. Trump and Blumenthal v. Trump) adopted a broad definition of “emolument” as reaching any benefit, gain, or advantage, including profits from private market transactions not arising from an office or employment, although higher courts have not weighed in on the issue…”
- Fuck — a timely history of the word
- “The ability to write a genome from scratch would unlock greater creativity in designing a desired genome… and producing new kinds of organisms that do things that nature cannot” — an interview about artificial life with synthetic biologist Yizhi “Patrick” Cai (Manchester)
- “People end up thinking, ‘Well, I’m afraid… I want to throw myself into the arms of some all powerful source of support… or I can be the autocrat myself’” — Martha Nussbaum (Chicago) interviewed about “The Monarchy of Fear”
- When he was 12, Stuart Rachels was crowned Alabama Chess Champion for the third time; after a couple of more wins, he quit competing — until this year
- The protagonist “must debate her way through great political thinkers from Confucius to Nozick who have shaped society through centuries of galaxy brain ideas. Along the way she has to find an answer to the ideal form of government” — a review of the game “Pro Philosopher 2”
- “Only a philosopher would distinguish ‘hoping I’m right to believe there is no God’, and ‘hoping there is no God’. But a real distinction does exist here” — Brad Skow (MIT) on Nagel and fear of religion
- “A 68-year-old… after being knocked out in a hit-and-run accident in 2019, re-emerged from unconsciousness an hour later in the mind of his 23-year-old self” — raising questions about personal identity