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☆ Biden to Name Air Force Chief to Top Military Post, Officials Say
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Helene Cooper | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON — President Biden is expected to announce soon that he has chosen Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., the Air Force chief of staff, to become the country’s most senior military officer, according to two U.S. officials. General Brown would be only the second Black man to become chairman, following Colin L. Powell, who served in that position during the presidencies of George H.W. General Brown’s appointment and confirmation would also mean that along with Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, the top two Pentagon leadership positions would be inhabited by African American men for the first time in American history. It would be a singular step for minorities in a military whose leadership has long been dominated by white men.

☆ ‘Progressives’ Want to Go Back to the 1950s
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Walter Russell Mead | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Journal Editorial Report: The week's best and worst from Kim Strassel, Kyle Peterson and Dan Henninger. Images: AFP/Getty Images/CNP/Zuma Press Composite: Mark KellyThe Biden administration plans a fundamental transformation of American economic policy at home and abroad. That’s the takeaway from national security adviser Jake Sullivan ’s speech at the Brookings Institution last week. This was a big speech about major policy changes, and those who want to understand the direction of American policy in a second Biden term would be unwise to overlook it. The break with post-Cold War Democratic trade and economic policy is radical.

☆ Deposition of JPMorgan CEO Dimon in Jeffrey Epstein lawsuit set for late May, sources say
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Dan Mangan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon will be deposed in late May over two days for civil lawsuits accusing the giant bank of benefitting from sex trafficking by the late money manager Jeffrey Epstein, a source told CNBC's Eamon Javers on Wednesday. The government of the U.S. Virgin Islands and one of Epstein's accusers are suing JPMorgan in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. The bank has said Dimon did not have knowledge about Epstein that was relevant to the lawsuit. JPMorgan argues that Staley, not the bank, is legally responsible for any civil liability related to its dealings with Epstein. Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019, a month after being arrested on federal child sex trafficking charges.

If Congress fails to act, some legal experts say Democratic President Joe Biden has another option to avert a crisis: Invoke the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to ensure the United States can continue to pay its bills. Section Four of 14th Amendment, adopted after the 1861-1865 Civil War, states that the "validity of the public debt of the United States ... shall not be questioned." HOW WOULD MARKETS REACT IF BIDEN USES THE 14TH AMENDMENT? Administration officials and economists have warned that a default triggered by a debt-ceiling breach would roil the world financial system and plunge the United States into recession. That immediate catastrophe might be avoided if Biden invoked the 14th Amendment.

☆ A downed US jet, a bombed embassy, and 25 years of rumors about how China built its first stealth fighter
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Michael Peck | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

China continues to expand its fleet of J-20 stealth jets and to operate them farther from home. On March 24, 1999, NATO began airstrikes against Serbian military targets in response to Serbian atrocities in Kosovo. On May 7, 1999, US B-2 stealth bombers hit the Chinese embassy in the Serbian capital of Belgrade, killing three Chinese citizens. ReutersUnder the circumstances, there would seem to be little connection between the destruction of an American warplane and the bombing of the Chinese embassy. The US detected signals from the debris and bombed the embassy but failed to destroy the F-117 wreckage there, the articles claimed.

NEW YORK, May 1 (Reuters) - E. Jean Carroll returned to the witness stand in her rape and defamation civil case against Donald Trump, after the judge denied a defense request for a mistrial. Trump's lawyer Joe Tacopina began cross-examining Carroll for a second day, hoping to show jurors inconsistencies or holes in her claims against the former U.S. president. In seeking a mistrial, Tacopina wrote an 18-page letter early on Monday accusing U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan of bias against Trump. Trump's lawyer also challenged Kaplan's statement that Trump might be "sailing in harm's way" after his son Eric Trump discussed on Twitter how LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman was helping fund Carroll's case. TRUMP NOT ATTENDING TRIALA businessman-turned-politician, Trump has not attended Carroll's trial, and on Monday was in Scotland for a short trip to visit his golf courses there and eventually in Ireland.

☆ Ron DeSantis is polling at RFK Jr.'s level
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Harry Enten | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Ron DeSantis has spent the past few months running to the right ahead of his expected entry into the 2024 Republican presidential primary campaign. So far at least, those efforts have not paid off in Republican primary polling, with DeSantis falling further behind the current front-runner, former President Donald Trump. Early polling problemsThe Fox poll is not alone in showing DeSantis floundering. Candidates polling the way DeSantis is now have gone on to win about 20% of the time. Moderates and liberals made up about 30% of potential Republican primary voters in the Quinnipiac poll.

☆ Biden set to address White House Correspondents Dinner
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Maegan Vazquez | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

But undoubtedly, a White House official told CNN, his speech will address the issue of wrongfully detained Americans abroad. US President George W. Bush, left, waves with impressionist Steve Bridges at the White House Correspondents' Dinner in 2006. Roger L. Wollenberg/Pool/Getty Images The White House Correspondents' Dinner is held in 1923. It was started two years earlier by the White House Correspondents' Association, the organization of journalists who cover the president. Roosevelt was congratulating Brandt for winning the first Raymond Clapper Memorial Award, which was given by the White House Correspondents' Association for distinguished reporting.

☆ Opinion | Will the Economy Make or Break Biden in 2024?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Peter Coy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

I asked Fair if it was fair to say that polarization of voters has weakened the predictive value of economic indicators. He acknowledged that Trump, an especially polarizing figure, had underperformed in both 2016 and 2020 given economic conditions that the Fair model considered favorable to him. But he said he’s not convinced that his economic model has lost its predictive power. A good example of why it’s dangerous to over-rely on economic models is what happened in the spring of 2020, when Covid hit. Fair is sticking to forecasting the popular vote because he thinks it’s of academic interest.

☆ Inside the Wild World of Celebrity Keynote Speakers: Drugs, Alcohol
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( David Kushner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +31 min

"I never saw myself as a speaker, let alone a motivational speaker," Leonard tells me while his assistant irons his jeans. 'When I ramble," Hunter told me, "hit me in the leg!" Every plane had been grounded, including the one stuck on the tarmac with an increasingly inebriated Hunter Thompson trapped inside. But by far the most all-consuming task was booking gigs for Hunter Thompson. Just before a debate with G. Gordon Liddy at Brown University, Hunter demanded that Betsy Berg, whom I now worked alongside at GTN, score him some crystal meth.

☆ British, Irish PMs open to Good Friday Agreement reforms when time right
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Amanda Ferguson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Clodagh KilcoyneBELFAST, April 19 (Reuters) - The Irish and British prime ministers said on Wednesday that they were open to considering reforming Northern Ireland's Good Friday peace accord, but that any debate could only happen when the powersharing government underpinning it was restored. That, coupled with the rise of the Alliance party, which identifies as neither nationalist or unionist, has sparked calls for an overhaul of a political architecture that the largest unionist party, the DUP, has boycotted for more than a year. "I think it's the shared view of the British and Irish government that there is a conversation that needs to happen about reforming the Good Friday Agreement. No agreement should be set in stone forever," Varadkar told reporters after an event to mark 25 years of the peace accord. "I urge you to work with us to get Stormont (Northern Ireland's assembly) up and running again," Sunak told unionist politicians.

☆ Opinion | How the Oklahoma City Bombing Case (and the O.J. Simpson Case) Shaped Merrick Garland
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Jeffrey Toobin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

A few days after he arrived in Oklahoma, Mr. Garland served as prosecutor in Mr. McVeigh’s bail hearing. The Justice Department was embarrassed by its failure to catch the mysterious perpetrator, and Ms. Gorelick told Mr. Garland to take over, which he did. For the trials of Mr. McVeigh and Terry Nichols in the Oklahoma City bombing, Mr. Garland helped select a prosecution team led by Joseph Hartzler and Larry Mackey, who never became as famous as the O.J. A fair verdict on Mr. Garland should await the outcome of Mr. Smith’s work. (In my interview with him, Mr. Garland not only refused to draw any comparisons between Mr. McVeigh and the Capitol rioters but also refused even to utter the words “January 6.”)

☆ Biden lags recent Democratic presidents in declaring re-election campaign
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Trevor Hunnicutt | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Biden trails recent Democratic incumbent presidents on the issue: Barack Obama announced he would run for a second term in 2012 on April 4, 2011, and Bill Clinton's 1996 re-election announcement was April 14, 1995. Jimmy Carter, however, waited until Dec. 4, 1979, to announce his 1980 re-election run. He would be 86 at the end of a prospective second term. But the trip here just reinforced my sense of optimism about what can be done," Biden told reporters at the tail-end of an emotional trip to Ireland last week. This week, Biden plans remarks on childcare and environmental justice, along with a visit to a labor union training facility in Maryland to talk about the economy.

☆ Northern Ireland recognises women who helped bring peace
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Amanda Ferguson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

"There wouldn't be a Good Friday agreement to celebrate today if it were not for the women of Northern Ireland," Clinton said, to applause from the audience. The peace accord largely ended 30 years of violence between mainly Catholic nationalist opponents and mainly Protestant unionist supporters of British rule. Other recipients included Ireland's first female president, Mary Robinson, Northern Ireland's first female first minister, Arlene Foster and Lyra McKee, a journalist who was killed in 2019 during an outbreak of the sporadic violence that still exists. "I was amazed that my name was among such an illustrious group of women," Avila Killmurray, a co-founder of the Women's Coalition, said at the ceremony. "However it's really nice because I worked mainly with women in local communities and I think very often their contribution over the years doesn't go recognised enough."

☆ Biden Irish tour moves to Dublin for parliamentary address, castle banquet
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] U.S. President Joe Biden holds a toy Air Force One as he meets with U.S. embassy staff families in Dublin, Ireland April 12, 2023. REUTERS/Kevin LamarqueDUBLIN, April 13 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden, a proud Irish-American, took his three-day tour of Ireland to Dublin on Thursday for an address to parliament and a banquet at Dublin Castle as his focus shifted from Northern Irish peace to celebrating his heritage. It feels like I'm coming home," Biden told journalists on Wednesday afternoon as he toured Carlingford Castle, near the home of one of the Irish branches of his family. Biden will be guest of honour at a banquet at St Patrick's Hall in Dublin Castle on Thursday evening, an honour previously given to Queen Elizabeth II and U.S. President John F. Kennedy. Biden will be accompanied for some of his Dublin engagements by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is visiting Ireland before travelling to Vietnam and Japan.

☆ Abortion pill ruling puts 'judge shopping' concerns back in spotlight
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Kevin Breuninger | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

The Alliance For Hippocratic Medicine wants Judge Kacsmaryk to nullify the FDA's medical approval of mifepristone, which would effectively ban the abortion pill across the US. They argue plaintiffs are skirting the usual process of assigning cases randomly — which is mainly intended to "avoid judge shopping," as one federal court explains. Medication abortion is the most common form of the procedure in the U.S.An attorney for the ADF has rebuffed accusations of judge shopping. Trump was accused of judge shopping for Florida federal Judge Aileen Cannon, whom he appointed, when he filed a sweeping lawsuit in 2022 against his former political rival Hillary Clinton in Cannon's division in Florida. Ziegler echoed the view that even the appearance of judge shopping can erode trust in the courts.

☆ Theranos' Elizabeth Holmes loses bid to stay out of prison
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Disgraced Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes has been rebuffed in her attempt to stay out of federal prison while she appeals her conviction for the fraud she committed while overseeing a blood-testing scam that exposed Silicon Valley's dark side. The judge's decision means Holmes, 39, will have to surrender to authorities April 27 to start the more than 11-year prison sentence that Davila imposed in November. Holmes could still file another appeal of the ruling Davila's latest ruling, a maneuver that her co-conspirator at Theranos – Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani – successfully used to delay his scheduled March 16 date to begin a nearly 13-year prison sentence. Davila has recommended that Holmes serve her sentence in a Byron, Texas, prison. Although they had separate trials, Holmes and Balwani were accused of essentially the same crimes centered on a ruse touting Theranos' blood-testing system as a breakthrough in health care.

☆ Democrats choose Chicago as the site of the 2024 convention
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Natasha Korecki | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

The Democratic Party has chosen Chicago as the site of its 2024 convention. "Chicago is a great choice to host the 2024 Democratic National Convention," Biden said in a statement. "The last Chicago convention was a huge success. It makes sense to put the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 2024. Republicans are holding their 2024 convention in Milwaukee.

☆ 'Unfinished business': Biden visits Northern Ireland as political tensions persist
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Elliot Smith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

He will give a speech in Northern Ireland on Wednesday, before traveling south of the border to the Republic of Ireland, where he will remain until Friday. Northern Ireland is part of the U.K. while the Republic of Ireland is a separate nation state that remains part of the EU. "Whilst it's positive in many ways — particularly on movement of food and medicines between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, it really removes a lot of the frictions — it doesn't deal with all the problems of the Northern Ireland protocol, so I'm afraid it's unfinished business," Villiers told CNBC's Tania Bryer. Clinton became the first sitting U.S. President to visit Northern Ireland and the first to appoint a U.S. special regional envoy. Though Biden is expected to use the trip to promote a return to functioning government in Stormont, his previous support for the Northern Ireland Protocol has drawn criticism from DUP politicians.

☆ Trump keeps claiming his legal troubles will mobilize Republican voters. Those votes haven't materialized yet.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-07 | by ( Madison Hall | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

And each time, experts and those close to Trump have predicted the proceedings could energize his supporters and the Republican base. Following the proceedings, former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale predicted the impeachment would lead to a high Republican turnout in the 2020 presidential election. "Any time people try to lessen this legitimate president, in any way, his voters fight back," Parscale said in December 2019. Prior to the 2022 election, Republicans and pollsters repeatedly predicted the election would result in a "Red Wave," or a GOP landslide victory. Despite repeated predictions and warnings that prosecuting the former president would invigorate his base in upcoming elections, investigations against Trump simply haven't energized his base as expected.

☆ U.S. President Biden to visit Ireland, Northern Ireland next week
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Padraic Halpin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Summary Political stalemate awaits president in Northern IrelandBiden to underscore U.S. support for N.Ireland economyWill visit ancestral homes on both coasts of IrelandDUBLIN, April 5 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden will visit Ireland and Northern Ireland on April 11-14 to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday peace accord on one side of the Irish border and visit his ancestral home on the other, the White House said on Wednesday. However the anniversary has been overshadowed by a year-long boycott by Northern Ireland's largest pro-British unionist party of the power-sharing devolved government central to the 1998 deal. The British government and the European Union reached a deal in February to ease post-Brexit trade rules between Northern Ireland and the rest of the U.K. There is still some sporadic violence in Northern Ireland by small groups opposed to peace. The 1998 deal was partially brokered by the U.S. government of then-President Bill Clinton, who will travel to Belfast a week later with his wife Hillary for an event marking the anniversary.

☆ Bill Clinton says he feels 'terrible' for pushing a 1994 agreement with Russia that resulted in Ukraine giving up its nuclear weapons
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Azmi Haroun | Erin Snodgrass | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Bill Clinton expressed regret for his role in a 1994 agreement between Russia, Ukraine and the US. The agreement saw Ukraine give up nuclear weapons left over from the fall of the Soviet Union. Clinton said that if Ukraine still had the weapons, Russia would not have invaded. "I feel a personal stake because I got them [Ukraine] to agree to give up their nuclear weapons," Clinton said. "A great deal had to do with the risks of proliferation and the challenges of keeping nuclear weapons secure," Miles said.

☆ Starbucks' Howard Schultz was the gold standard for good bosses everywhere. Then Gen Z worked for him.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Alex Bitter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks at the time, then appeared with Clinton on a panel to discuss corporate responsibility. Schultz discussed his 1987 decision to offer Starbucks employees stock options and what he said was better healthcare than rivals, among other benefits. Starbucks workers participate in November's Red Cup Rebellion, a nationwide strike. Starbucks's health insurance option for part-time workers originates in a 1986 contract for unionized Seattle Starbucks workers that Schultz fought against at the time. Markey said that by unionizing, Starbucks workers are "just looking to be someone who can protect themselves in the way your father could not."

☆ The long road to Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

REUTERS/Jason Cairnduff/File PhotoApril 3 (Reuters) - On April 10, Northern Ireland marks the 25th anniversary since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, which largely ended three decades of conflict in the British-ruled province. The new Northern Ireland parliament, at Stormont outside Belfast, is dominated by pro-British Protestant "unionists", who will control it for the next 50 years. Nov. 30, 1995 - U.S. President Bill Clinton visits Northern Ireland. May 30, 1996 - Elections held for a Northern Ireland forum ahead of all-party talks. April 10, 1998 - After negotiations continue through the night, the Good Friday Agreement, also known as the Belfast Agreement, is signed.

☆ You can run for president from prison. Here's what happened when 2 candidates campaigned from behind bars.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Chris Panella | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Two previous candidates, Eugene V. Debs in 1920, and Lyndon LaRouche in 1992, both ran from prison. If Trump is convicted, it's possible he could run for president from behind bars. Socialist Eugene V. Debs ran from behind bars over 100 years agoThe socialist party 1904 Eugene V. Debs and Ben Hanford. HUM Images/Universal Images Group via Getty ImagesIn 1920, Socialist Eugene V. Debs ran for the Oval Office from the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, where he was known as "prisoner 9653," according to Smithsonian Magazine. Alex Brandon/File/APWhile Debs and LaRouche were both unsuccessful in their campaigns, they both were still able to run for president while behind bars.

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