https://www.wsj.com/us-news/how-to-chronic-homelessness-crisis-0ea33dad?mod=djemwhatsnews
… Donald Trump solidified the educational divide that has defined his era. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/11/15/educational-divide-american-politics-trump/?utm_campaign=wp_news_alert_revere_trending_now&utm_medium=email&utm_source=alert&location=alert
2024nov16. Jeffries (Pelosi) House briefing v Trump ‘mandate’
2024nov13 Dark Matter
Since we can't see dark matter, how can we study it? There are two main approaches. Astronomers analyze its distribution by observing material clustering and object motion in the universe. Meanwhile, particle physicists aim to detect the fundamental particles that compose dark matter. Back on Earth, beneath a mountain in Italy, the LNGS's XENON1Tis hunting for signs of interactions after WIMPs collide with xenon atoms. "A new phase in the race to detect dark matter with ultra-low background massive detectors on Earth has just begun with XENON1T," project spokesperson Elena Aprile, a professor at Columbia University, said in a statement. "We are proud to be at the forefront of the race with this amazing detector, the first of its kind." The Large Underground Xenon dark-matter experiment (LUX), seated in a gold mine in South Dakota, has also been hunting for signs of WIMP and xenon interactions. But so far, the instrument hasn't revealed the mysterious matter. https://www.space.com/20930-dark-matter.html
2024dec16= Trump 2.0 storm clouds
America has seen this movie before. In the 2017 version, at the start of Trump’s first term as president, the GOP similarly controlled Congress and had difficulty making progress. https://thehill.com/opinion/columnists/juan-williams/5039884-trump-agenda-first-100-days/
Trump moves his entire $4 billion stake in Truth Social into his trust ahead of White House move. Trump has also nominated several Truth Social board chairs to his administration, including professional wrestling mogul Linda McMahon as Secretary of Education, and conspiracy theorist Kash Patel as the next director of the FBI. Trump Media CEO Devin Nunes has also been selected to chair the incoming president’s intelligence advisory board. https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-truth-social-trust-ethics-plan-b2667959.html
Trump's shutdown gamble exposes limits of his power. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3e3p3nx3kno
2024nov13 Trump 2.0
Both Rubio and Waltz are hawkish lawmakers who, on paper, aren’t wholly aligned with Trump’s “America First” brand. Their anticipated ascension spurred disquiet in some corners of Trumpworld, where many want to turn the page on an era of Republican foreign policy dominated by trigger-happy neoconservatives. Within Republican circles, there are pronounced disagreements over a range of issues. Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance have been bluntly skeptical about the need to support Ukraine’s ongoing war effort, while many Republicans in Congress are more aligned with the Biden administration’s project in buttressing NATO and Western efforts to back Kyiv. There are divisions over how and where to prioritize U.S. power, whether to view the challenge of China in principally economic or military terms, and over Trump’s protectionist zeal, which flies in the face of decades of pro-free trade Republican orthodoxy. https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/5061034831056916264/3504945360753274345
2024nov07 one Trump paragraph by New York Times
The New York Times’ Shane Goldmacher, Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan describe its arc: “He overcame seemingly fatal political vulnerabilities—four criminal indictments, three expensive lawsuits, conviction on 34 felony counts, endless reckless tangents in his speeches—and transformed at least some of them into distinct advantages. How he won in 2024 came down to one essential bet: that his grievances could meld with those of the MAGA movement, and then with the Republican Party, and then with more than half the country. His mug shot became a best-selling shirt. His criminal conviction inspired $100 million in donations in one day. The images of him bleeding after a failed assassination attempt became the symbol of what supporters saw as a campaign of destiny. ... Voters unhappy with the nation’s direction turned him into a vessel for their rage.” https://view.newsletters.cnn.com/messages/1731013505958cac470b7e2f1/raw?utm_source=cnn_Fareed%27s+Global+Briefing%2C+Nov.+7%2C+2024&utm_medium=email&bt_ee=GXVl92XZz5wyypBnuP%2BeTQ6XJyfT3djdDO%2BGryIwXqvswkqP7m3SEFBIILKALe3s&bt_ts=1731013505961
2024nov07 personality trumped policy
2024nov04 Democrats can’t nix Trump
The Democrats’ challenge appears to be part of a broader trend of political struggles for ruling parties across the developed world. Voters appear eager for change when they get the chance. The ruling parties in Britain, Germany, Italy, Australia and most recently Japan all faced electoral setbacks or lost power. Mr. Trump himself lost four years ago. France and Canada might well join the list. Nearly everywhere, high prices and the fallout from the pandemic left voters angry and resentful. It discredited ruling parties — and many of them weren’t especially popular at the outset. In the United States, post-pandemic disillusionment and frustration took a toll on Democrats. The party championed a tough response to the virus, including mask and vaccine mandates, school closures and lockdowns. It had backed the Black Lives Matter movement, argued for a more liberal border policy, sought to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and spent trillions on stimulus. As the pandemic ended, all of this quickly became a liability. More than at any time over the last 16 years, Democrats are playing defense on the issues. They’ve moved to the right on immigration, energy and crime. They de-emphasized the traditional liberal push to expand the society safety net, which was eclipsed by the urgency to reduce prices. Whatever the outcome, a long period of liberal ascendancy in American politics might be waning. Democrats won the popular vote in four straight presidential elections. When they held full control of government, they enacted the Affordable Care Act, Dodd-Frank and the CHIPS Act; they saved the auto industry and spent billions on renewable energy, infrastructure and more. Over just the last few years, all of this liberal energy suddenly seemed to vanish. The backlash against pandemic restrictions and the woke left gradually went mainstream, and even divided liberal institutions. Trust in the media, “experts” and scientists plunged. Younger Americans took to social media — perhaps with the help of algorithmic changes — to vent their frustrations with an aging president, high prices, lost opportunity and anger at a system that wasn’t working for them. At the same time, the events that followed the pandemic took a serious toll on the case for liberalism, whatever the precise merits of the arguments. Inflation and high interest rates could be blamed on high government spending stimulating excessive demand. High gas prices could be blamed on suspending drilling permits and the termination of the Keystone pipeline project. A surge of migrants could be blamed on the administration’s looser border policy, which became politically untenable; homelessness, crime and disorder made the case for “law and order.” On issue after issue, Democrats have responded by moving to the right. Most obviously, Ms. Harris had to back away from positions she took when the progressive cultural ascendancy was near its peak in 2019 — a ban on fracking, Medicare for all and so on. But the Democratic shift isn’t simply about backing away from positions taken during a Democratic primary. Across the board, Democrats have de-emphasized policies they preached with confidence to a general electorate only a few years ago. This rightward shift is evident in party identification as well. This year, high-quality polls found that the nearly two-decade-long Democratic advantage in party identification evaporated or even reversed. This year, the biggest names in political polling — Pew Research, Gallup, NBC/WSJ, Times/Siena, and so on — have all found the Republicans edging ahead of the Democrats for the first time since 2004, if ever. If it weren’t for Mr. Trump’s liabilities, it’s easy to imagine how Republicans could have won decisively in the manner of a “change” election, like in 1980 or 2008, when American politics lurched left or right with lasting consequences. Mr. Trump might still do so, but clearly his challenges will make it harder in important ways. If Mr. Trump wins, this will be the likeliest explanation, rather than his own political popularity. After a period of Democratic predominance, the upheaval during and after the pandemic, along with the response, left too many voters disillusioned with Democrats, and unwilling to give the party another chance — despite their serious reservations about Mr. Trump. If he loses, the explanation will be equally simple: It was his own conduct on Jan. 6 and the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe that cost him a winnable election. In that event, a Harris victory still might not augur well for the hopes of progressives. Oddly, it is easiest to imagine a reinvigorated liberalism if Mr. Trump wins the presidency, and refuels the tank of anti-Trump fervor once more. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/02/upshot/democrats-trump-election.html
Trump works to control the media — Musk, Bezos, …
Mr. Musk bought X, then known as Twitter, for $44 billion in 2022, vowing to make it a public town square. He swiftly became the most powerful super-user on the site. Mr. Musk overtook former President Barack Obama in March 2023 to become the most-followed person on the platform, with 133 million followers. Since then, his count has risen 52 percent. Mr. Obama’s following, in contrast, has decreased slightly, by about two million, to just over 131 million followers. (Bot accounts exist on X and may be a factor in some of the tallies.) https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/03/technology/elon-musk-x-election.html
2024nov01 I-SELF IS ALONE — plan on it
Voyager 1, which launched in 1977, ventured into interstellar space in 2012, becoming the first spacecraft to cross the boundary of our solar system. Its time in deep space has taken a toll on its instruments and caused an increasing number of technical issues. Earlier this year, the team had to fix a separate communications glitch that was causing the spacecraft to transmit gibberish. While spacecraft's advanced age and distance from Earth [After sending instructions to Voyager 1 on Oct. 16, the team expected to receive data back from the spacecraft within a couple of days; it normally takes about 23 hours for a command to travel more than 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) to reach the spacecraft in interstellar space, and then another 23 hours for the flight team on Earth to receive a signal back.] can make maintenance challenging, Voyager 1 continues to return vital data from beyond the solar system. https://www.space.com/space-exploration/missions/voyager-1-spacecraft-phones-home-with-transmitter-that-hasnt-been-used-since-1981?utm_term=2A6CF76F-CCFC-4561-9190-9AEC1F8B1CF4&lrh=9a18118e64ac886183a1f61de74720d43b1343700b8a12e015ddf73957378e06&utm_campaign=58E4DE65-C57F-4CD3-9A5A-609994E2C5A9&utm_medium=email&utm_content=B0D4DAD1-DAA3-4E5C-8A86-71545CA77862&utm_source=SmartBrief