Music: Emil Brandqvist Trio — ‘Unbreakable’
Deceive, defy, and defer: Netanyahu’s time-tested strategy to outmaneuver Biden
Lev Grinberg writes: Watching President Joe Biden clumsily debate Donald Trump on June 27, many Israelis could instantly recognize how their own prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been able to exploit the weaknesses of the aging commander-in-chief for so long. Netanyahu has had a close relationship with his “friend Joe” for decades, going back to Biden’s days in the U.S. Senate and especially during the early years of the Barack Obama administration. According to Biden’s biographer Evan Osnos, the then-vice…
Biden set to announce support for major Supreme Court changes
The Washington Post reports: President Biden is finalizing plans to endorse major changes to the Supreme Court in the coming weeks, including proposals for legislation to establish term limits for the justices and an enforceable ethics code, according to two people briefed on the plans. He is also weighing whether to call for a constitutional amendment to eliminate broad immunity for presidents and other constitutional officeholders, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations. The…
Schiff warned donors of wipeout for Democrats if Biden remains in race. Biden remains in denial
The New York Times reports: Representative Adam B. Schiff, the California Democrat who is running for Senate, warned during a private meeting with donors on Saturday that his party was likely to suffer overwhelming losses in November if President Biden remained at the top of the ticket, according to two people with direct knowledge of Mr. Schiff’s remarks at the meeting. If Mr. Biden remained, not only would he lose to former President Donald J. Trump, he could be enough…
Democratic pollster, Stanley Greenberg, warns the party may ‘lose everything’ if Biden stays in the race
CNN reports: The public calls from Democrats asking President Joe Biden to bow out of the presidential race have quieted in recent days, but private efforts to nudge the president and his top aides continue, several Democratic sources told CNN. Among the efforts, these sources say, are repeated memos from a seasoned and respected Democratic pollster, Stanley Greenberg, sharing his take that Biden is on track to lose the election – and in a way that does deep damage to…
How the DNC plans to run out the clock for Biden
Axios reports: The Democratic National Committee is quietly steaming ahead with plans to technically nominate President Biden weeks before the party’s convention next month, Axios has learned. Why it matters: It’s the latest effort by Biden’s team to stamp out the Democratic rebellion that’s been pushing for the president to step aside since his bad performance in the June 27 debate. Once Biden receives votes from a majority of the nearly 4,000 delegates, it will become exceedingly difficult to remove him from atop the Democratic presidential…
Elon Musk and tech elite back a pro-Trump super PAC
The Verge reports: Several close friends of Elon Musk, including Palantir cofounder Joe Lonsdale, venture capitalist Doug Leone, and investor and podcast host David Sacks, have donated lavishly to a super PAC backing former President Donald Trump — and The Wall Street Journal reports that Musk plans on donating as much as $45 million a month to America PAC. In a post on X, Musk replied to the Journal’s article with a meme claiming it was “fake gnus” (fake news),…
The new science of animal minds
Brandon Keim writes: Back when I first started writing about scientific research on animal minds, I had internalized a straightforward historical narrative: The western intellectual tradition held animals to be unintelligent, but thanks to recent advances in the science, we were learning otherwise. The actual history is so much more complicated. The denial of animal intelligence does have deep roots, of course. You can trace a direct line from Aristotle, who considered animals capable of feeling only pain and hunger,…
Music: Emil Brandqvist Trio — ‘Metropol Round’
Why researchers fear the Gaza death toll could reach 186,000
Mona Chalabi writes: Even if Israel’s bombing campaign were to stop, the death toll in Gaza is expected to soar. A letter published in the medical journal the Lancet claims that the final figure could eventually be about 186,000. Written by scientists who model how war affects health, the letter lays out the importance of an accurate count – and the difficulty of achieving one. For the past nine months, Israeli forces have waged an intense military campaign that has…
J.D. Vance believes in ‘regime change’
Zack Beauchamp writes: I met Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), Donald Trump’s new choice for vice president, in the summer of 2022. I was covering a conservative conference in Israel, and Vance was the surprise VIP attraction. We chatted for a bit about the connections between right-wing movements across the world, and what American conservatives could learn from foreign peers. He was friendly, thoughtful, and smart — much smarter than the average politician I’ve interviewed. Yet his worldview is fundamentally incompatible with…
Did Biden’s nomination just get saved as his chances of re-election remain doomed?
NBC News reports: One Democratic strategist who has worked on multiple presidential campaigns and on Capitol Hill said that the physical targeting of Trump robs Biden of his main argument against the former president. Biden, the strategist pointed out, has tried to convince voters that Trump is so extreme that he presents a threat to democracy. “That message is dead,” the strategist said, after a gunman tried to kill the presumptive nominee of one of the two major parties. The…
Senior House Democrat suggests, ‘We’ve all resigned ourselves to a second Trump presidency’
Axios reports: Congressional Democrats’ all-consuming angst over President Biden’s candidacy has taken an abrupt backseat in lawmakers’ minds in the wake of an assassination attempt against former President Trump. Why it matters: Democratic lawmakers say their immediate focus is on their personal security and that of their staffs, not on their party’s political woes, helping to allow a crucial cooldown period for the embattled president. “We’re all just focused on expressing condolences … and keeping our teams safe,” said one House Democrat who has been fiercely critical of Biden….
Aileen Cannon follows Clarence Thomas’ lead by dismissing classified documents case
Slate reports: In a nearly 100-page order issued Monday morning, [Judge Aileen] Cannon states that special counsel Jack Smith’s appointment by the attorney general violates the appointments clause of the Constitution, which she says mandates that “officers of the United States—whether inferior or principal—must be appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.” Cannon concluded that there isn’t any statute in the United States Code that authorizes Smith’s appointment, so he therefore cannot legally conduct his classified documents prosecution….
Shooter described as ‘very nice’ lonely Star Wars fan who didn’t discuss politics and lacked shooting skills
ABC News reports: Former classmates of the suspected shooter described him to ABC News as a student who was “quiet” and did not have many friends. “He was somebody who came across as lonely a lot,” said Jameson Myers, who said he attended both elementary and high school with the suspect. Myers said that Crooks “tended to be more of an interesting one” and described him as “more socially reserved” and someone who “didn’t have a ton of friends.” But…
What hunter-gatherer societies can teach us about group decision-making
Vivek V Venkataraman writes: The Dilemma of the Deserted Husband unfolded in the late 1950s amid a band of G/wi hunter-gatherers, a subgroup of Ju/’hoansi (often known as !Kung San), dwelling in the Kalahari Desert of Southern Africa. According to the South African-born anthropologist and Bushman Survey Officer George Silberbauer, a woman named N!onag//ei had left her husband, /wikhwema, for his best friend. Few were surprised. After all, /wikhwema was a temperamental and pompous man, and a bit of a…