Author: nick

 Download Audio. Scott brings Dave DeCamp back on the show to run through some of the biggest foreign policy news. They start with Trump’s trip to meet with Xi in China which may have had some implications for US policy towards Taiwan. They then discuss whether Trump is really planning to bomb Iran again if talks continue to get nowhere. DeCamp then provides an update on the chaos and violence that has kicked off in Iraq, Lebanon and Gaza as a result of Trump and Netanyahu’s decision to launch their regional war. Discussed on the show: “Trump Says He…

Last year, Larry Bushart spent 37 days in a Tennessee jail because he had shared a widely circulated anti-Trump meme on Facebook. Today his attorneys announced that he had agreed to settle the resulting federal lawsuit in exchange for a payment of $835,000. “No one should be hauled off to jail in the dark of night over a harmless meme just because the authorities disagree with its message,” said Adam Steinbaugh, a senior attorney at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), which represented Bushart along with local attorney Katherine Phillips. “We’re pleased that Larry has been compensated for…

Block, Inc.’s Square has auto-enabled roughly 1 million U.S. merchants to accept Bitcoin payments via the Lightning Network, letting customers pay in BTC while merchants automatically receive USD settlements with near-instant conversion in the background. Block Inc.’s (XYZ) Square has crossed a threshold of roughly 1 million merchants now enabled to accept Bitcoin payments. The figure, cited by a member of Block’s team, reflects a wave of auto-enrollment that began March 30, when Square automatically switched on BTC payments by default for eligible U.S. sellers. At its peak pace, a new business was activating the feature every eight seconds. The rollout is powered by…

None of this proves that extreme views are always right, and moderate ones always misguided. The point is not that we should always adopt the most extreme possible positions, but that there is often little or no relationship between the validity of a position and its distance from mainstream opinion. Mainstream public opinion is heavily influenced by ignorance and irrational thinking, and therefore is at best a very weak barometer of truth. Extremism isn’t always a virtue, but neither is it necessarily a vice, either. I think extreme libertarian views are largely correct. Yglesias thinks otherwise. But such disagreements should…

Billionaire Tom Steyer used his money to attack a lone climate researcher. Roger Pielke Jr.’s research on climate and disaster policy wins awards and is cited by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). “My views are entirely mainstream,” says Pielke. “My work is cited by all three working groups of the IPCC. There’s nothing contrarian.” Both Steyer and Pielke agree that “greenhouse gases warm the climate,” but Pielke’s sin was saying, “it’s not the apocalypse.” Because of that, “the Center for American Progress decided to make me a target,” he says. The center is a lefty group…

As the 89th Banking Convention wraps up in Cancún today, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau share the stage with Visa, Mastercard, BlackRock, and the BIS—amid a focus on ending cash that ties perfectly into Mexico’s ongoing biometric ID rollout. On Wednesday, the 89th Banking Convention began in Cancún, Mexico, as representatives from the Mexican government and banking sector met to discuss the future of digital payments and the phasing out of cash in a country where more than three-fourths of the population depends on it. The annual meeting brought together leaders from Mexico’s financial…

Trump's Slush Fund Is No Better Than Obama's Source link

In a wide-ranging interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box on Wednesday, Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and the fourth-richest man in the world, disputed claims that solving America’s affordability crisis starts with increasing taxes on the wealthiest people in the country. “When you don’t know how to solve a problem, create a villain, blame them, but it won’t solve the problem,” Bezos said, referring to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax proposal. The idea would generate between $340 to $510 million in annual revenue, according to City Comptroller Mark Levine. Bezos also floated the idea of low-income earners paying…

A new report from Axios says that President Donald Trump held a difficult call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about ending the war against Iran.  Barak Revid wrote on Wednesday that he spoke with multiple officials who said Trump informed Netanyahu that he is considering signing a letter of intent with Iran to end the war. The letter would bring the conflict to a close and provide 30 days for Washington and Tehran to make a deal about the future of the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s nuclear program.  A source who described the discussion to Axios said, “Bibi’s hair…

Many are saying Stephen Colbert is getting canceled to appease Trump. But the truth is that there are numbers that justify his demise. Source link