Avert your eyes! My Sunday morning look at incompetency, corruption and policy failures:
• Trump’s Speeches, Increasingly Angry and Rambling, Reignite the Question of Age: With the passage of time, the 78-year-old former president’s speeches have grown darker, harsher, longer, angrier, less focused, more profane and increasingly fixated on the past, according to a review of his public appearances over the years. (New York Times)
• Who died and left the US $7 billion? It was the biggest estate-tax payment in modern history, but no one knew who made it. Then an anonymous phone call pointed to one man. (Sherwood)
• Silicon Valley, the New Lobbying Monster: From crypto to A.I., the tech sector is pouring millions into super PACS that intimidate politicians into supporting its agenda. (New Yorker)
• An undulating thrill: Once lauded as a wonder of the age, cocaine soon became the object of profound anxieties. What happened? (Aeon)
• Whistleblowers claim insurance companies shortchanged some Florida homeowners after Hurricane Ian: It is standard procedure for field adjusters to collaborate with those back in the office to make minor edits. But Jordan Lee says, that is not what happened with the Rapkin’s report. Did you put a dollar amount on how much you thought they were owed? “$231,368.57.” What did the insurance carrier come up with? “$15,469.48.” Quite a difference. (CBS News)
• Truth Social Users Are Losing Ridiculous Sums of Money to Scams: Read the complaints submitted to the FTC by users of Donald Trump’s social media platform. (Gizmodo)
• Where Americans Have Been Moving Into Disaster-Prone Areas: These U.S. counties regularly get hit by hurricanes, face major wildfires and floods and swelter under punishing heat. For two decades, they’ve also been some of the most popular places to move as Americans have flocked to the South and West. (New York Times)
• How Two Billionaire Preachers Remade Texas Politics: They control Republican politics in the state. Now they’re poised to take their theocratic agenda nationwide. (New York Times)
• We should call the Republican justices “Republicans” and not “conservatives.” Supreme Court journalists should tell the truth about what’s going on at the Court. (Vox)
• Milton Is the Hurricane That Scientists Were Dreading: Climate change set up the Gulf of Mexico to birth a storm this strong, this fast. (The Atlantic) see also Hurricane Milton Is Terrifying, and It Is Just the Start: Many Americans refuse to believe that a major hurricane could hit them. Flood insurance remains optional for many coastal residents. Homes continue to be built — and rebuilt — in low-lying flood zones. But if we are going to withstand this new era of extreme weather, we need to be honest about what has become the most expensive and deadly kind of natural disaster in the country. (New York Times) see also Florida Republican Demands Hurricane Aid She Tried to Block: Representative Anna Paulina Luna has waded into the fray between Kamala Harris and Ron DeSantis. (TNR)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend — Live from FutureProof in Huntington Beach, California! — with Joe Lonsdale of 8VC. He is a successful serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist, co-founded Palantir Technologies, founded Adapar, a wealth management platform, and Opto, a private market investment platform.
Obesity Market Review: We’re #1!
Source: Stifel
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