“So many books, so little time.” — Frank Zappa

Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, Business, and Debt:

Remembering ‘True Names’ Author Vernor Vinge

Known for popularizing the term “singularity,” the cypherpunk writer, who died this week, was prophetic about the age of artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency.

EU committees approve ban on anonymous crypto transactions via hosted wallets

Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:

The Real Reason America Is In a Funk

Experts have struggled to find a convincing explanation for this era of bad feelings. Maybe it’s the spate of inflation over the past couple of years, the immigration crisis at the border, or the brutal wars in Ukraine and Gaza. But even the people who claim to make sense of the political world acknowledge that these rational factors can’t fully account for America’s national malaise. We believe that’s because they’re overlooking a crucial factor.
Four years ago, the country was brought to its knees by a world-historic disaster. Covid-19 hospitalized nearly 7 million Americans and killed more than a million; it’s still killing hundreds each week. It shut down schools and forced people into social isolation. Almost overnight, most of the country was thrown into a state of high anxiety—then, soon enough, grief and mourning. But the country has not come together to sufficiently acknowledge the tragedy it endured.
As clinical psychiatrists, we see the effects of such emotional turmoil every day, and we know that when it’s not properly processed, it can result in a general sense of unhappiness and anger—exactly the negative emotional state that might lead a nation to misperceive its fortunes.

Politics:

Utah Lawmakers Shield Their Calendars

For the Republican-controlled Utah legislature, it’s ‘trust, but you can’t verify’ when it comes to lawmakers and their official calendars.
During the recently-ended 2024 legislative session, Utah lawmakers appear to have developed a severe allergy to public scrutiny. To soothe any hives that may result from the prying eyes of the public or media, lawmakers approved several pieces of legislation to hide their activities or exempt themselves from the state’s public records laws.

Republicans Livid as Chaos Threatens Majority

House Republicans have skipped town for Easter recess with their base enraged, their majority in tatters — and their speaker facing the prospect of a humiliating ouster at the hands of his own MAGA allies.
Dysfunction doesn’t even begin to cover it… Republicans were left fuming over the early resignations of Mike Gallagher and Ken Buck, with some suggesting it’s now within the realm of possibility for the House majority to flip to Democrats mid-Congress.

Leo-aligned groups attack DC attorney general who is investigating his network

Brian Schwalb’s probe followed a complaint that nonprofit groups associated with the judicial activist violated their tax status.

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Trump Creates Conditions for Post-Election Eruption

A bloodbath. The end of democracy. Riots in the streets. Bedlam in the country. Donald Trump has made apocalyptic imagery a defining feature of his presidential election campaign, warning supporters that if he does not win – and avoid criminal prosecution – America will enter its death throes.
The prophecies of doom, repeated ad nauseam at rallies and on social media, have raised fears that the former president is making an electoral tinderbox that could explode in November. While there has been much commentary assessing the implications of a Trump win, some experts warn that a Trump defeat could provide an equally severe stress test of American democracy.

The al Qaeda Plot to Kill Clinton That History Nearly Forgot

Air Force One with President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton aboard was on its final approach to Manila on Nov. 23, 1996, when their U.S. Secret Service detail received alarming intelligence: an explosive device had been planted on the motorcade route into the Philippines capital.

How Trump Could Exact Retribution If Elected

At the very least, a retribution campaign as Trump has described would require a significant reshaping of the modern-day Justice Department, which has a tradition of independence dating back to the post-Watergate era.
Internal policies enacted at the department after the Richard Nixon Watergate scandal sought to separate politics from law enforcement, and presidents of both parties have since abided by that construct — until Trump.
But those policies aren’t codified by law and if Trump were to appoint an attorney general who embraced his theory of sweeping presidential power and discretion, investigations could be launched into perceived enemies.

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Trump Escalates Solidarity with Capitol Rioters

Trump then kicked off the rally with a promise to help the defendants — a group that includes violent offenders he has glorified as ‘patriots’ and ‘hostages’ and pledged to pardon if he returns to power.
Said Trump: “We’re going to be working on that the first day we get into office.”
That vow is part of a broader renewed emphasis by Trump to align himself with Jan. 6 rioters, as he intensifies his use of dark, graphic and at times violent language as he has closed in on and secured the Republican nomination. Until November, he called the Jan. 6 defendants, some of whom have been detained by court order or are serving sentences, ‘political prisoners’ before introducing the term ‘hostages,’ according to a Washington Post analysis of his speeches this campaign cycle.
The analysis also showed an uptick in his references to Jan. 6 defendants, as well as the word “criminals,” which Trump has used to describe prosecutors, political opponents, the press and undocumented immigrants.

Why Trump Won’t Stop Suing the Media and Losing

His lawsuits against the press are expensive and futile—and a lot more rational than they appear.

Deadly Moscow Attack Shatters Putin’s Security Promise

The assault on Friday, which killed at least 133 people at a concert hall in suburban Moscow, was a blow to Mr. Putin’s aura as a leader for whom national security is paramount. That is especially true after two years of a war in Ukraine that he describes as key to Russia’s survival — and which he cast as his top priority after the election last Sunday.
Mr. Putin seemed blindsided by the assault. It took him more than 19 hours to address the nation about the attack, the deadliest in Russia since the 2004 school siege in Beslan, in the country’s south, which claimed 334 lives.

Serendipity:

The Real Issue With Netflix’s 3 Body Problem

In adapting a sweeping and cerebral trilogy for TV, the new show forgets one of the original story’s biggest themes.

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