July 6, 2023

Trump Begins to Sour on 'Spotlight Hound' Kari Lake for VP

Trump advisers say Kari Lake has been losing her footing with the former president because, in his eyes, she always wants attention.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-begins-to-sour-on-spotlight-hound-kari-lake-for-vp



When the annual Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll was taken this year, Kari Lake handily came in first to be Donald Trump’s vice presidential pick. It hasn’t gone so well for Lake since. The failed Arizona governor candidate has stumbled repeatedly, both with MAGA diehards and with the one person who matters most in the decision: Trump himself. And it’s with Trump aides that Lake has particularly lost her footing. “She’s a shameless, ruthless demagogue who wants power and will do whatever she has to do to get it,” a Trump adviser told The Daily Beast.

This adviser added that, in recent months, Trump has been less enthusiastic about Lake himself. Two Trump advisers who spoke to The Daily Beast said the heart of Trump’s frustration with Lake is that, in his eyes, she always wants attention. As one of the advisers put it, she’s a “spotlight hound.” While Lake does check off the running-mate box of being an extremely “loyal” backer of Trump, her ability to outshine the ex-president might just be her downfall. One of the two Trump advisers, who has spoken with Trump about the matter, said the former president doesn’t appreciate Lake “running around saying she should be VP.” “Tells you all you need to know that he did not make her his national spokeswoman,” the same adviser added. “She was an obvious choice.”

A third Trump adviser, who has likewise spoken to Trump about the matter, said they believe Trump “sees through her gambit for the vice presidency.” “You don’t have to be a wizard to figure that out,” this source continued. “She is a woman that knows what she wants and knows how to get it.” A Trumpworld operative agreed. “I think she is an effective surrogate, but I’m not sure she will be a VP pick,” this operative close to the Trump campaign said, suggesting instead that Lake could be a press secretary in a future administration. “But who knows?” they added. A spokesperson for Lake chalked up the drama to “pathetic attempts from Team DeSantis” to divide Trump from his biggest supporters. “MAGA world is more United [sic] than ever and ready to win big in 2024,” this spokesperson said.

But it’s not DeSantis operatives who say Lake is starting to overstay her welcome—it’s Trump’s own people. One Trump adviser pointed to a recent headline from People magazine that alleged the MAGA firebrand spends more time at Mar-a-Lago than Trump’s wife, Melania. “Kari Lake is there all the time,” a source told the publication. “There’s a suite there that she practically lives in.” A Trump spokesperson did not return The Daily Beast’s requests for comment on this story. Publicly, Lake has sidestepped questions on the possibility of being Trump’s running mate. “I don't think President Trump needs a vice president,” she said. “He is that powerful as a leader, he doesn’t really need anyone.” Her over-the-top adoration aside, Trump has continued to publicly support Lake. Trump apparently doesn’t ding her too much for her loss in the Arizona governor race, with one adviser saying Trump views Lake’s defeat as “similar” to his—with election fraud to blame.

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July 6, 2023

DeSantis, Furries, and Trump Merch: I Went to the Moms for Liberty Summit

Conservative parents, Bible-thumpers, and atheist moles all gathered in Philly over the weekend to court GOP candidates and thunder against the woke.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-the-moms-for-liberty-summit-in-philly-we-saw-ron-desantis-furry-panic-and-lots-of-trump-merch



Last Thursday night, I stepped off a bus in Philadelphia and was faced with colorful signs condemning my presence and spirited shouts of “Go home!” “You should be ashamed!” “See you tomorrow!” another protester promised. They believed I was a member of Moms for Liberty (M4L), a far-right faction that in just two years has skyrocketed to the national spotlight through its “parental rights” platform and push to ban school books and curricula that delve into race, gender, and LGBTQ rights.



Demonstrators turned out in full force for M4L’s second annual summit, which drew hundreds of people to a Marriott hotel downtown and served as an important stop for Republican presidential candidates including former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. During his own stump speech that weekend, multimillionaire GOP hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy would joke that M4L was his “favorite hate group in history.”

In recent weeks, the Southern Poverty Law Center classified M4L as an “anti-government extremist” group, and one Indiana chapter caught heat for quoting Adolf Hitler on the front page of its newsletter. “He alone, who OWNS the youth, GAINS the future,” read the text, which M4L defenders argued was taken out of context. The chapter later clarified that the Führer’s words were meant to “put parents on alert” to government overreach.

The Momfest backlash had police and private security swarming every corner of the convention, including this particular reception at the Museum of the American Revolution, which was vandalized after resisting pressure to cancel the event. I followed the herd of M4L disciples—who market themselves as “Joyful Warriors” who “do not co-parent with the government”—past cops and the clamor of protesters, who bore colorful signs that read “Transphobes are not welcome here,” “No quarter 4 the Klanned Karenhood,” and “Moms for Liberty members don’t season their food.”

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July 6, 2023

We tried Threads, Meta's new Twitter rival. Here's what happened

Kari Paul tested the social network minutes after its launch – did it fail to impress, or should Elon Musk be shuddering?

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jul/06/we-tried-threads-metas-new-twitter-rival-heres-what-happened



Meta has launched Threads, a new text-based app to rival Twitter. The move is a bold attempt to lure users away from its floundering competitor with a near-clone of the platform. The Guardian tested out the new social network on Wednesday, minutes after its widely hyped launch. Would it fail to impress, or does it spell real trouble for Elon Musk?

Getting started

The debut revealed an easy-to-use, intuitive user experience that easily integrates with Instagram. I started by searching “Threads” in the app store, scrolled through some small apps unfortunately also named Threads (RIP to those, inevitably), and clicked on Threads by Meta. The app asked me to connect my Instagram account to sign up, and I switched over from my personal to my professional page – sorry, readers, I will not be revealing my finsta here. Et voilà, I became a Threads user. Threads can only be accessed by integrating an existing Instagram username to sign up – meaning if you don’t have an account, you have get one to enter the new Threads platform. I was left wondering if I should make a separate Threads account based on my personal Instagram page, but that’s a question for another time. For now, you can follow me at @karipaul__.

How it works

Threads offers an eerily Twitter-like microblogging experience. Opening the app reveals buttons to like, repost, reply to or quote a “thread”, and counters showing the number of likes and replies that a post has received. Posts are limited to 500 characters, which is more than Twitter’s 280-character threshold, and can include links, photos and videos up to five minutes long. Using Threads felt like a fever dream in which Twitter and Instagram had a more usable brain child. The feed was slick and easy to read, though for now it was populated largely with accounts I did not yet follow or care about – perhaps an issue that will resolve itself as more people sign up.



Unlike Twitter, Threads does not seem to use hashtags and does not have a feature that allows users to search for specific text or phrases. It also allows users to share up to 10 photos in a single post – the same limit that exists on Instagram – as opposed to Twitter’s limit of four images. We tested the app from the US, but it’s now live in Apple and Google Android app stores in more than 100 countries including Britain, Australia, Canada and Japan. Some have raised the question of a potential culture clash between Instagram and a Twitter-like service. How will our curated, photo-based lives clash with the freewheeling, meme-heavy, and often unhinged world of Twitter? So far, it’s strange, unfamiliar – and kind of fun.

So, is it better than Twitter? .....................

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July 6, 2023

'The Tao of Deception': Read the full summer spy thriller: A Four-Part Thriller By David Ignatius

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/interactive/2023/tao-of-deception-david-ignatius/

https://archive.fo/CXMXc



PART I







The week after Yu Qiangsheng defected from China, he was closeted in a safe house in Repulse Bay, facing the sea. Guards from the CIA’s Office of Security kept watch from a nearby flat and from across the street. Britain controlled Hong Kong back then, and the apartment was safe from the Chinese agents who would have killed Yu if they knew where he was hiding.

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July 6, 2023

'Like a very pungent office fridge': rare corpse flower blooms in San Francisco

Scarlet, as the flower is named, last bloomed in the conservatory in 2019 and its imminent blossoming is drawing throngs of people

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/05/corpse-flower-san-francisco-bloom-pungent-smell


A corpse flower in bloom at the Indiana University greenhouse in June 2023. Photograph: Jeremy Hogan/SOPA Images/Shutterstock

A rare flower with a smell that has been compared to rotting flesh and described as “worse than one thousand pukes” is bringing hundreds of spectators to San Francisco’s Golden Gate park. The city’s Conservatory of Flowers announced on Tuesday that the plant, known as a corpse flower, was on the verge of blooming, a special event that is expected to last only a few days
.
https://twitter.com/SFConservatory/status/1675998106666651653
The flower is known for its pungent smell, large height (it can reach 12ft) and the fleeting nature of of its bloom. It can take between a few years or more than a decade for corpse flowers to drum up enough energy to unfurl a burgundy petal-like leaf to reveal a phallic center called a spathe.

The flower in San Francisco, named Scarlet, is one of five corpse flowers at San Francisco’s conservatory and the last time she bloomed was in 2019, according to the news outlet KQED. On Monday and Tuesday, hundreds of patrons lined up to get a glimpse and whiff of Scarlet, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. One visitor told the paper that Scarlet smelled “like a very pungent office fridge that hadn’t been cleaned out in a few months in a very warm room”. For those who didn’t have the good fortune of witnessing Scarlet’s bloom in person, San Francisco’s Conservatory of Flowers set up a live stream so people can behold Scarlet’s glory remotely, before she closes shop for an indeterminable amount of time.

Corpse flowers are native to the rainforests of the island of Sumatra in Indonesia, and are currently listed as endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. The organization points to logging as one of the reasons for the decline. Scarlet was one of several corpse flowers to bloom in recent weeks. On 21 July, Wolfgang, the youngest corpse flower at the JC Raulston Arboretum at North Carolina State University, bloomed. At Washington State University, Vancouver, a flower named Titan VanCoug briefly bloomed during the final days of June. And on Sunday in San Diego, another corpse flower bloomed, drawing scores of plant lovers to the city’s botanic garden.

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July 5, 2023

Old School Deep House Mix (1993-2005)

Inner Chords is a tried and true deep house mix with songs from 1993 to 2005. Tracks that contain but aren't exclusive to ethereal vocals, deep chords, groovy basslines, jazzy improvisation, and soulfulness beyond measure permeate the whole mix and will have you headbobbing into the wee hours of the morning. The mix is intended for a night in solo or with friends accompanied by something to wind down the night with: a bowl (or two) and/or a glass of wine.

After discovering that some of my favorite house records came from the 90s and early 2000s, I spent the last few months searching the depths of the internet for the best tracks I could find that pertained to distinct sounds I had always wanted to play. Something about these tracks' rawness, swing, and overall lack of polish that I couldn't get enough of.

The result of that labor of love includes this mix. Many people inspired these mixes but few pushed me to newer bounds of music more than Chaos in the CBD, Ian Pooley, The Groove Boys Project, and of course, my brother Kevin.

Made with love. Hope you enjoy.

If you wish to download the mix, check out my Ko-fi page: https://ko-fi.com/chrissedayao

I also have a few other mixes: https://soundcloud.com/user-676900262

Tracklist:

flim flam - yellow sox
Get down - to-ka
Vuelva a casa - halo, dj chus & david
Golem - alone (the last one)
Meditate on this - jump cutz
Sync you (remix) - kino-moderno
My love (solar remix) - physics
True to yourself (big moses remix) - dihann moore
Atmosfear’s vibe - playin’ 4 the city
Vermeille - pepe bradock
Sessions one - toka project
Coming back - turbulent
I know i can make it (mix 2) - montana heights
Remember me - boobjazz
no time - toka project
time changes - little green men
summer now - inland knights
got to go there - trevor loveys
after the rain (reel dub) - rosie gaines
latino bump - house of 909
tall stories (ian pooley’s lars from mars mix)
don’t cry - toka project
I got it - doug willis
back to me - 6th borough project
you are we - crazy p

July 5, 2023

Financiers bought up anesthesia practices, then raised prices

Private-equity firms are merging doctor groups to create firms that critics say are big enough to wield excessive power over prices

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/06/29/private-equity-medical-practices-raise-prices/

https://archive.fo/BkUeg



The multibillion-dollar private equity firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe took less than a year to create, from scratch, Colorado’s biggest and most prominent anesthesiology practice. The financiers created a company, U.S. Anesthesia Partners, which in 2015 bought the largest anesthesiology group in the Denver region. Then it bought the next largest. Then it bought a few more. The company employed 330 anesthesiologists in Colorado at one point, according to its website, making it the state’s largest practice by far. It obtained contracts at 10 of the region’s 15 largest hospitals, according to the hospitals.

The Federal Trade Commission, which is supposed to prevent unfair business practices, questioned the company’s growth but did not stop it. The company raised prices for its services — one by nearly 30 percent in its first year in Colorado — and continued raising them for several years, according to interviews and confidential company documents obtained by The Washington Post. The price hikes boosted patient bills and pushed up insurance rates, former company physicians and managers said. Eventually, some of the company’s own doctors became disillusioned, physicians said, with about 1 in 3 leaving the company over a three-year period.

“The company became big enough to influence pricing and raised prices because it could,” said Matt Bigalk, who worked as director of operations at USAP’s Colorado branch from 2015 to 2017 and who previously handled negotiations with insurers for one of the merged firms. He now works at another Denver anesthesia practice. A spokesman for U.S. Anesthesia Partners denied that it wielded monopoly power. The company said the firm faces plenty of competition and pressure from insurance companies.

As the United States struggles to control medical costs, however, private-equity firms like Welsh Carson have become critical players in health-care economics, with private-equity funds acquiring hundreds of physician practices across America and, according to multiple academic studies, raising prices while returning billions to investors. A 2022 study published in JAMA Internal Medicine based on six years of data, for example, found that when anesthesia companies backed by private-equity investors took over at a hospital outpatient or surgery center, they raised prices by an average of 26 percent more than facilities served by independent anesthesia practices.

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July 5, 2023

Biden faces renewed pressure to embrace Supreme Court overhaul

Bombshell decisions have intensified liberal calls for Biden to urge a revamp of the court as he heads toward 2024. So far, he’s resisting.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/07/04/biden-pressure-supreme-court-overhaul/

https://archive.fo/195Bu



As Democrats reel from another painful set of defeats at the Supreme Court in recent weeks, President Biden is facing renewed pressure from a range of elements in his party, from liberal lawmakers to abortion rights activists, to more forcefully embrace far-reaching changes to the high court.

Biden has harshly criticized the Supreme Court’s sharp pivot to the right, but he has stayed away from endorsing any of the broad array of reforms — including court expansion, term limits and mandatory retirements — that are being pushed by the left flank of his party and increasingly backed by core parts of his base.

Over the last week, the Supreme Court rejected the use of affirmative action in college admissions, struck down Biden’s plan to forgive student loan debt and sided with a graphic artist who does not want to create wedding websites for gay couples. Those blows to the liberal agenda come almost exactly a year after the court overturned a half-century of precedent by rejecting the constitutional right to abortion.

After the court last Friday blocked Biden’s plan to forgive student loan debt, Reps. Don Beyer (D-Va.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) reintroduced legislation to institute 18-year term limits for Supreme Court justices. The long-shot legislation would only apply to future justices and would allow them to continue serving on lower courts after their term was up. Supreme Court justices, like other federal judges, are currently appointed for life.

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July 3, 2023

Far RW group Moms for Liberty poised to clash w/ teachers unions over school board races nationwide

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/moms-for-liberty-poised-to-clash-with-teachers-unions-over-school-board-races-nationwide



PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Moms for Liberty, a “parental rights” group that has sought to take over school boards in multiple states, is looking to expand those efforts across the country and to other education posts in 2024 and beyond. The effort is setting up a clash with teachers unions and others on the left who view the group as a toxic presence in public schools.

The group’s co-founder, Tiffany Justice, said during its annual summit over the weekend in Philadelphia that Moms for Liberty will use its political action committee next year to engage in school board races nationwide. It also will “start endorsing at the state board level and elected superintendents.” Her comments confirm that Moms for Liberty, which has spent its first two years inflaming school board meetings with aggressive complaints about instruction on systemic racism and gender identity in the classroom, is developing a larger strategy to overhaul education infrastructure across the country.



As the group has amassed widespread conservative support and donor funding, its focus on education ensures that even as voters turn their attention to the 2024 presidential race, school board elections will remain some of the most contentious political fights next year. Moms for Liberty started with three Florida moms fighting COVID-19 restrictions in 2021. It has quickly ascended as a national player in Republican politics, helped along the way by the board’s political training and close relationships with high-profile GOP groups and lawmakers.

The group’s support for school choice and the “fundamental rights of parents” to direct their children’s education has drawn allies such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a leading GOP presidential contender, and the conservative Heritage Foundation. The group has been labeled an “extremist” organization by the Southern Poverty Law Center for allegedly harassing community members, advancing anti-LGBTQ+ misinformation and fighting to scrub diverse and inclusive material from lesson plans. Justice said in an interview that she and her co-founder, Tina Descovich, were two moms who “had faith in American parents to take back the public education system in America” and that they “fully intend on reclaiming and reforming” that system.

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July 3, 2023

Remember Richard Price!

Demonised by the political establishment for his radical, dissenting views, this 18th-century Welsh polymath deserves better

https://aeon.co/essays/remembering-the-18th-century-radical-dissenter-richard-price





Price may be familiar to those with an interest in the 18th century and English Dissent in particular, and perhaps to those with an interest in the history of moral philosophy of that period, but beyond these circles little is known of someone who, in his lifetime, was held in equal standing with Edmund Burke. Indeed, the fact that Burke felt compelled to respond forcefully to Price’s sermon ‘A Discourse on the Love of Our Country’ (1789) is indicative of his reputation. Contrary to the oft-recited history, it was Price’s text and not Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) that began the Revolution Controversy, a seminal debate in modern political thought.



In terms of his ethics, Price was notable as a figure who challenged the prevailing moral sentimentalism (the view that our emotions ground our ethical judgments) of those such as Francis Hutcheson and David Hume. Together with his political ideals, which captured much of the radical worldview in the late 18th century, Price’s body of work is representative of a richness in our intellectual heritage that is often overlooked in Britain and beyond – by a mainstream narrative that cleaves to the predominance of empiricism and liberal utilitarianism.



Price, and his remarkable contributions across a range of areas, can be fully appreciated only in light of the religious and social milieu that he occupied, one that is embodied by the term ‘English Dissent’. It reflects both the standing of the Protestant denominations that stood outside the Anglican Church, and their positioning in terms of the reformist agenda that issued from their peripherality, and of which Price would become a leading exponent as a Unitarian minister at Newington Green in north London, where he took up residence in his mid-30s.

Born in 1723, Price was brought up in his native Wales in a dissenting community of a very different kind, at Tynton farm in the Garw Valley (the village of Llangeinor stands there today). His family had close ties with Samuel Jones, who was part of an emerging Puritan movement in Wales during the English Civil War, but who was forced to sequester with the Restoration. With the support of Price’s grandfather and others, Jones was able to establish a meeting house in the Garw Valley that would continue the tradition in the spirit of an orthodox Calvinism that Price himself would come to thoroughly reject. Indeed, this became a familial theological conflict, captured most symbolically in the story of the father, Rhys Price, happening upon his son Richard reading the work of the Anglican cleric Bishop Samuel Clarke, and throwing the offending book into the fire.

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