Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Geoffrey Aronson
“Americans like plans, even though their own plans for the conduct of recent wars and their aftermath – from Vietnam to Libya, Iraq, and Afghanistan – are nothing to be proud of. Yet this has not stopped the Biden administration from offering aspirational advice to the government of Benjamin Netanyahu – on issues ranging from the necessary levels of humanitarian aid to the deployment of the warfighting plan for Rafah, the need to empower a reformed PLO, and the tactics of the IDF in Gaza. The Netanyahu government, with minor exceptions, has either rejected or ignored this American advice.” (05/16/24)
“The Supreme Court preserved the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on Thursday by upholding the agency’s funding mechanism as constitutional in a 7-2 vote. The justices’ decision caps a battle that marked the biggest legal threat to the CFPB since it was established in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to crack down on predatory lending and enforce consumer protection laws. Two lender trade associations, backed by business groups and all the nation’s Republican state attorneys general, contended the agency’s funding from the Federal Reserve violates Congress’s power of the purse. Writing for the majority, Justice Clarence Thomas rejected that argument and sided with the Biden administration.” (05/16/24)
“If you find yourself longing to simply be left alone to live your life in peace, you’ll appreciate this article. Eric Hussey makes the case that the mundane, or ordinary, can protect us.” (05/16/24)
“Leave it to the Democrats to turn Mr. Trump into a sympathetic figure … with [Fareed] Zakaria then agreeing that these prosecutions are politically motivated. … And Fareed is not alone, even at CNN, where Elie Honig also acknowledged that, had the prosecution been brought in a less rabidly Democrat area than New York City, ‘there’s no chance of a conviction.'” (05/16/24)
“President Joe Biden’s decision to take Donald Trump up on his ‘anytime and anywhere’ debate offer and propose June and September debates is a clear sign of worry among his reelection campaign team. Two months ago, Biden cracked the door open to not having any debates, which hadn’t happened in a presidential race since 1972. Asked by a reporter if he would ‘commit to a debate with former President Trump,’ Biden responded, ‘It depends on his behavior.’ Nothing has changed about Trump’s behavior since then. What also hasn’t changed is who is leading the polls.” (05/16/24)
“Spanish police said Thursday they had [stolen] 1.8 tons of crystal meth that Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel was trying to sell in Europe, the country’s ‘biggest-ever seizure’ of the narcotic. Police arrested five people during the raid in the eastern Alicante province, one of them a Mexican running the cartel’s Spanish operation, a statement said. ‘This is the biggest-ever seizure of crystal meth in Spain and the second largest in Europe,’ Antonio Martinez Duarte, head of the police’s drug trafficking and organized crime unit, told reporters. ‘Among those arrested is a Mexican citizen linked to the Sinaloa Cartel,’ he added.” (05/16/24)
“Many of the claims of failed deterrence reflect the belief that victory or at least steadfastness in other, usually modest fights of modest importance, will prevent major powers from acting to advance important if not vital objectives. The assumption seems to be that America must be constantly at war to prevent constant war. Yet this contention makes little sense.” (05/16/24)
“Rare but deadly blood clots tied to Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca Plc’s Covid-19 shots were caused by an autoimmune reaction that some people are predisposed to, researchers found, a discovery that they say will shape development of future vaccines. Adenovirus-based vaccines, like the J&J and AstraZeneca shots that were later pulled from the market, contain a component that, in genetically susceptible people, can trigger the production of unusually structured antibodies against a protein involved in blood clotting, scientists said Wednesday in a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers plan to identify the culprit and then try to remove it using genetic engineering.” (05/16/24)
