4.12 Jim VandeHei in Axios: The explosion of technology in every facet of life is a big reason that the rich are getting richer, and the big are getting bigger. Scary thought: The situation is on track to get worse, because artificial intelligence will make the internet look like the Apple II. Why it matters: The result could be more income inequality, and the creation of vast amounts of wealth, but without corresponding broad prosperity. This, in turn, causes political and social instability.
4.11 Fareed Zakaria in the Post: The danger for liberals is that they underestimate the power of [nationalism]. For centuries, liberals have assumed that nationalism was a kind of irrational attachment that would grow weaker as people became more rational, connected and worldly. In fact, Isaiah Berlin wrote, like a twig that is bent in one direction and has to snap back, as globalization grew in its reach, nationalism would be the predictable backlash.Populist nationalists understand the core appeal of their ideology. I recently asked a Bolsonaro supporter whether the Brazilian president’s economic policies (which are free-market-oriented and reformist) or his cultural nationalism was the key to his appeal. The supporter’s answer: Nationalism is the party’s core; the economics is simply about efficiency and growth. Meanwhile, liberals in the United States still don’t seem to get it. The Democratic Party continues to think the solution to its woes is to keep moving leftward economically. This week, Sen. Bernie Sanders revealed his new Medicare-for-all plan, which was immediately co-sponsored by four other presidential candidates. The plan will probably require an additional $2 trillion to $3 trillion in annual tax revenue.At the same time, Trump tweets about the Democrats’ love of “open borders” and insists he will protect the country and enforce its laws. What if Trump understands the mood of our times better than Sanders?
4.11 Julian Assange arrested
4.11 An estimated 75,000 stores that sell clothing, electronics and furniture will close by 2026, when online shopping is expected to make up 25 percent of retail sales, according to UBS. Roughly 16 percent of overall sales are made online. Analysts said the closures would affect a broad variety of retailers, affecting an estimated 21,000 apparel stores, 10,000 consumer electronics stores and 8,000 home furnishing stores.
4.10 Texas lawmakers listened to hundreds of Texans testify in support of a bill that would criminalize abortion and threaten the death penalty for any woman who undergoes the procedure
4.10 Max Boot on Jerry Brown in the Post: “To counter Trump, he said, “Even a scent of wimpiness would be fatal. . . . You have to not only be strong but exude strength.” Don’t trade insults — “If you insult back, then you violate a very important principle, and that is that voters don’t like squabbling at City Hall.” But at the same time, “you’ve got to go toe to toe . . . just do it with charm,” like John F. Kennedy did. And then, when the moment is right, “You’ve got to hit him between the eyes, rhetorically.” His big advice is to think big — but not get too specific. Recalling Gary Hart’s primary loss in 1984, he said, “You need just enough beef, but not too much to choke on it.” He says that the Democrats should promise better health care, infrastructure and education, cleaner energy and even space exploration. “You need the romance, you need the dream.” That’s why, as governor, he championed a costly high-speed train between San Francisco and Los Angeles. (His successor, Gov. Gavin Newsom, downsized the dream.) But he argues it’s a mistake to lay out specific programs “that have trillion-dollar budget implications when you’re not in a position to make those kind of decisions. That’s jacking everybody up for a big letdown.”
4.10 Alyssa Rosenberg in the Post: If “Game of Thrones” ends with Jon Snow ruling Westeros, the series might as well go back in time and reattach Ned Stark’s head for all it will have done to undo its efforts to unsettle our expectations for how this sort of story goes. If Daenerys Targaryen, Sansa Stark, or Cersei Lannister takes the throne, the show will be one step above that, a dark feminist retelling of a canonical story, perhaps with an antiheroine rather than a true heroine, but it would still be something we’ve seen before.
4.10 In the Philippines, scientists have find evidence of a new human species that lived 50,000 years ago
4.10 Domingo Garcia, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens: “He was politically grandstanding for his base, for his reelection, and not thinking through a plan. He has no plan except to talk about immigration as a political piñata to score points with the far right. But illegal immigration has increased in the two years he has been president.”
4.10 A doctor in Taiwan removed four bees that hd been living in the eye of a 27 year old woman and feeding on her tears
4.10 Using a Event Horizon telescope, scientists on four continents collaborated to create the first known photograph of a black hole, this one located at the center of Messier 87, the largest galaxy we know of, about 55 million light-years away
4.9 Scientists who examined a skeleton that is believed to have been that of Casimir Pulaski believe it is possible that Pulaski was intersex, possessing both male and female characteristics.
4.9 James Holzhauer, a 34-year-old professional gambler, won $110,914 on Jeopardy, shattering the record for a single game winnings set at $77,000 in 2010. After four appearances, Holzhauer had won $244,365
4.9 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won a record fifth term in office
4.9 Lil Nas‘s “Old Town Road”, featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, crowned No. 1 on Billboard’s Top 100 on Tuesday.
4.9 Lunch at Docks with Russell Shorto
4.8 Chris Davis of the Orioles, author of 283 lifetime home runs, set a major league record for futility by going hitless for 47 consecutive st bats. With two more hitless plate appearances, he will break the all-time record for hitless plate appearances, set at 57 by Tony Bernazard of the Indians in 1984. Currently in the fourth year of a seven years deal, he is owed $23 million this year, and still has $92 million headed his way.
4.8 Nancy Pelosi in the Washington Post: “I’m going to have our races won by this November. “[I’m going to say to the Republicans,] we fully intend to win this election, and some of you are vulnerable. It’s going to cost you millions of dollars, to win or lose. And if you win — say you win — you’re in the minority, probably want to teach at the university. So we get the A-team, and they get the retirements. That’s my plan.”
4.7 “Frustrated by the lack of headway,” Trump fires Homeland Defense Secretary Kristjen Nielsen because he wants a “tougher” approach to the migrant crisis. The number of migrants coming to the border could reach 1 million this year.. . . The president called Ms. Nielsen at home early in the mornings to demand that she take action to stop migrants from entering the country, including doing things that were clearly illegal, such as blocking all migrants from seeking asylum. She repeatedly noted the limitations imposed on her department by federal laws, court settlements and international obligations. Those responses only infuriated Mr. Trump further.
More apprehensions (captures)
at the Southern Border than in many years. Border Patrol amazing! Country is FULL! System has been broken for many years. Democrats in Congress must agree to fix loopholes – No Open Borders (Crimes & Drugs). Will Close Southern Border If necessary…— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2019
4.7 Axios: The modern version of America capitalism seems destined to change — perhaps profoundly — for the first time in our lifetimes. What’s new is that Capitalism is being squeezed from both sides, by a debate over socialism vs. strongman nationalism: President Trump bullying the Fed, publicly pressuring CEOs and juicing short-term markets at all cost. Why it matters … It’s no longer debatable: The system makes the big, bigger and the rich, richer. The rest of America stagnates or suffers. Ray Dalio, the billionaire capitalist, argues that the rich vs. everyone else divide is an existential threat. “I believe that all good things taken to an extreme can be self-destructive and that everything must evolve or die,” he writes on LinkedIn. “This is now true for capitalism.” A lot of CEOs and rich people are coming to the same conclusion — many reluctantly and privately. But the change in tone is noteworthy. The flashing signals are everywhere: The data — the unambiguous reality — is sobering and startling: Since 1980, the incomes of the top 1% tripled, the top 10% doubled, and the bottom 60% of prime-age workers were flat. History — and the past half-decade here and abroad — shows this is a key ingredient of populism. All of this also makes socialism attractive — to the young, especially, but also to Democrats broadly. The Democratic debate is less about Trump and more about redistribution, government intervention and huge safety nets. While it gets insufficient coverage, the 2020 policy debate among Democrats is fascinating and foretelling. There’s also a healthy debate about how we judge whether something is a monopoly. Right now, antitrust law focus on whether concentrated power results in higher prices for consumers. As Axios Future Editor Steve LeVine has written, the debate is shifting to whether too big and too powerful is simply too big, too powerful and too dangerous. What’s next: This may manifest on the campaign trail as referendum not only on reversing the tax cuts and implementing a New Green Deal, but then moving in the exact opposite direction — Trump as the last gasp of trickle-down economics.”
4.6 Quartz: A cotton bag must be reused 7,000 times for its environmental performance to equal that of a plastic bag that is used only once, according to a 2018 assessment by Denmark’s government.
4.5 Pete Buttigieg: “When I think about where most of Scripture points me, it is toward defending the poor, and the immigrant, and the stranger, and the prisoner, and the outcast, and those who are left behind by the way society works. And what we have now is this exaltation of wealth and power, almost for its own sake, that in my reading of Scripture couldn’t be more contrary to the message of Christianity. So I think it’s really important to carry a message (to the public), knitting together a lot of groups that have already been on this path for some time, but giving them more visibility in the public sphere.”
4.4 Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Bezos split after 25 years of marriage. Jeff will walk away with 75 percent of the couple’s stock in the company, including all voting control that ownership of the shares confers. Prior to their separation, Jeff owned 16 percent of the company, an amount worth upwards of $130 billion.
4.4 157 Republicans and one democrat voted against the Violence Against Women Act, which passed anyway
4.4 Patrick J. Sauer in New York magazine: “Rocky Swoboda is the better writer, funnier and more concise, an erudite jock, which means you get references to Monet, Shakespeare, and Neil Sheehan along with an anecdote about soiling himself after a long night of Carstairs whiskey. Rocky’s story of himself — how a single game-four-saving catch gave a generally middling ballplayer a life us mortals could only dream of (he probably didn’t pay for a night out in 40 years, before he quit drinking) — is . . . .interesting”
4.3 Elizabeth Warren in the Washington Post: Opening unauthorized bank accounts. Cheating customers on mortgages and car loans. Mistreating service members. If you can dream up a financial scam, there’s a good chance that Wells Fargo ran it on its customers in recent years. Last week, after years of pressure, the company finally parted ways with its second chief executive in three years. But that’s not nearly enough accountability. It’s time to reform our laws to make sure that corporate executives face jail time for overseeing massive scams.
4.3 Ron Klain in the Washington Post: “A collection of policy proposals is not the same thing as a vision that voters find compelling. . . . Policy pointillism [doesn’t] create a persuasive overall portrait.”
4.2 Albany
4.2 Trump: “We’re going into the war with some socialist. It looks like the only non, sort of, heavy socialist is being taken care of pretty well by the socialists, they got to him, our former vice president. I was going to call him, I don’t know him well, I was going to say ‘Welcome to the world Joe, you having a good time?’”
4.2 Trump says his father, a Bronx native, was born in Germany
4.2 Trump repeatedly has trouble saying `origins’, says `oranges’ instead