Donald and Melania Trump launch a pair of meme coins ahead of inauguration, raising serious ethics concerns

 https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/20/tech/meme-coins-donald-melania-trump-intl-hnk/index.html

Now, Trump will not only preside over how the federal government will regulate crypto, he can personally cash in on the outcome.

“I believe it is very dangerous to have the people who are supposed to oversee regulating financial instruments investing in them at the same time,” Richard Painter, a law professor at the University of Minnesota, told CNN. “There’s no precedent for a head of state to launch a personal cryptocurrency.”

Painter, the top ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush Administration, said the launch of the meme coins just hours before inauguration raises “serious ethical questions about conflicts of interest.”

“The coin’s value could be influenced by his actions or policies once in office, particularly as Trump has said he will be more crypto-friendly, which will likely further inflate the coin’s value at least temporarily,” Painter said.

Did Trump Raise Prescription Drug Prices?

 https://www.newsweek.com/fact-check-did-trump-raise-prescription-drug-prices-2018607

Geoffrey Joyce, the director of Health Policy at the University of Southern California's Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics, told Newsweek that the $2 Medicare drug list model that emerged due to Biden's order might have had a "modest impact" on costs, while it was "hard to assess the magnitude" of impacts for the other two CMS proposals.

However, Joyce suggested that Trump's decision to quickly reverse Biden's order and potentially block any associated lowering of prescription drug costs was at odds with the president promising to lower drug prices while campaigning for a second term.

"The irony of this is that Trump campaigned on lowering drug prices yet does this on day 1 or 2?" Joyce said in an email. "I'm afraid it's only the beginning of seemingly inconsistent and/or incoherent health policies."

Political analyst Craig Agranoff told Newsweek via text message on Tuesday that Trump's decision "could have significant implications for the average American."

"While the immediate impact depends on how pharmaceutical companies respond, this move potentially opens the door for drug prices to rise," Agranoff said. "Biden's order aimed to rein in costs by promoting price transparency and competition, which are critical for making life-saving medications affordable."

"Without those measures, companies could have more flexibility to set higher prices," he added. "For many Americans, particularly those on fixed incomes or without comprehensive insurance, this change may lead to increased financial strain and limit access to essential medications."

Review of COLLAPSE How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (2005) by Jared Diamond

 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/358786359_Diamond_2_a_ReviewEssay_on_COLLAPSE_How_Societies_Choose_to_Fail_or_Succeed_2005_by_Jared_Diamond_C_H_J_Spencer_22Feb2022_6000_words_10_pages

This is a big book (560-pages), not quite as famous, as the author's better-known Pulitzer prize-winning non-fiction book (Guns, Germs and Steel) that successfully answered the question why Eurasian peoples conquered or displaced Native Americans (North and South), Australians and Africans. Now, the author tries to understand why some civilizations collapsed while others persist through similar challenges. His sub-title implies that humans are sometimes responsible for the results. The author connects his stories to troubling scenes from today: in Rwanda, China, Australia and Montana. He analyzes the mistakes that devastated Easter Island building impressive monuments to themselves while ignoring deforestation. Diamond's impressive science reclaims from past disasters, the lessons urgently needed similar meltdowns of our own civilization. There is a strong hint here that shows how our whole earth is now treating our environment the same way that many failed societies treated their own contexts in the past. Here, for the first time in history, humanity is faced with global ecological collapse. Diamond takes us on fascinating tour of past regional civilizations similarly threatened. Now, Collapse provides us with insights into how to avoid the grim fate of those past societies that failed to meet their environmental challenges.

Influence of super rich on Donald Trump threatens democracy, say Patriotic Millionaires

 https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jan/22/influence-of-super-rich-on-donald-trump-threatens-democracy-say-patriotic-millionaires

“The super rich are buying themselves more wealth and more power while the rest of the world is living in economic fear,” said the activist and co-founder of taxmenow, Marlene Engelhorn, an heiress whose wealth comes from the medical technology company Boehringer Mannheim.

Clemency for Oath Keepers, Proud Boys fuels extremism threat, experts say

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/01/21/pardons-proud-boys-oath-keepers/

Two-thirds of Americans opposed pardons for people convicted of crimes in the riot, according to a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll conducted in early December, although strong majorities of Republicans (60 percent) and Trump voters (69 percent) approved of them.

The GOP’s stunning response to Trump pardoning those who assaulted police

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/01/21/republican-reaction-jan-6-violent-offenders-trump-pardon/

In sum, Republicans are all over the map on the pardons. But that so few seem eager to even express disapproval of pardoning so many people who assaulted police — and some are even aligning themselves with a decision that a poll recently showed three-quarters of Americans oppose — is a watershed moment in our politics.

Key GOP Senators Rebuke Trump Over His Jan. 6 Pardons

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/key-gop-senators-rebuke-president-trump-over-jan-6-pardons/

The small faction of dissenters included former Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who pointed to Vice President JD Vance’s remarks earlier this month that violent criminals “obviously” should not be pardoned.

“Well, I think I agree with the vice president,” McConnell told Semafor.

Hegseth Routinely Passed Out From Alcohol Abuse, Witness Says

 https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/pete-hegseth-affidavit-witness-drunk-passing-out-e216ca85?mod=trending_now_news_1

Pete Hegseth, President Trump’s pick to run the Pentagon, regularly abused alcohol to the point that he passed out at family gatherings, and once needed to be dragged out of a strip club while in uniform, according to an ex-relative’s account of his behavior that was given to U.S. lawmakers and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. 

Trump pardons Silk Road dark web market creator Ross Ulbricht

 https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz7e0jve875o

Sentencing Ulbricht - who has two college degrees - District Judge Katherine Forrest said he was "no better a person than any other drug dealer".

She said the site had been his "carefully planned life's work".

The judge noted the lengthy sentence also acted as a message to copycats that there would be "very serious consequences".

"I wanted to empower people to make choices in their lives and have privacy and anonymity," Ulbricht said at his sentencing in May 2015.

WHERE TYRANNY BEGINS THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT, THE FBI, AND THE WAR ON DEMOCRACY

 https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/david-rohde/where-tyranny-begins/

In a hard-hitting book characterized by careful research and documentation, two-time Pulitzer winner Rohde, author of In Deep and Endgame, delineates how the Trump White House violated well-established post-Watergate norms about judicial conduct, upending and devaluing the work of the DOJ. The trajectory of the successful attempts to sway judicial philosophy started in the first week of Trump’s presidency, as he instituted the Muslim travel ban, an executive decision that went straight to the courts. Subsequently, the new attorney general, Jeff Sessions, a Trump loyalist—caught lying about meeting a Russian ambassador when he was running Trump’s campaign—recused himself from running the investigation into Russian interference, a monumental decision that would lead to Trump turning against him. After Trump fired FBI director James Comey, deputy AG Rod Rosenstein felt compelled to choose the highly revered former FBI director Robert Mueller to run the special counsel on Russia. However, Trump’s repeated attacks on the department and its officials weakened the ability of the special counsel team to make its case to the public. Moreover, the new AG, William Barr, publicly misrepresented Mueller’s conclusion two years later as proving there was “no collusion” with the Russians, when Mueller’s report was actually more damning. The new scandals over the phone call with Volodymyr Zelensky, along with the investigation into Hunter Biden and the commuting of Roger Stone and Michael Flynn’s sentences, all resulted in “myriad Justice Department and post-Watergate norms…shredded by Trump and Barr with seemingly little political consequence.” The resulting situation, Rohde argues convincingly, cannot be rectified by the cautious proceedings of Biden’s AG, Merrick Garland.

John Bolton 'Disappointed' After Trump Removes His Secret Service Detail

 https://www.newsweek.com/john-bolton-disappointed-after-trump-removes-his-secret-service-detail-2018535

Former national security adviser John Bolton confirmed to Newsweek on Tuesday that President Donald Trump has ended the Secret Service protection assigned to him.

Bolton, national-security hawk who played a key role in shaping U.S. foreign policy during the first Trump administration, has continued to require Secret Service protection due to threats from Iran, even after leaving the White House in 2019.

After Bolton was fired by Trump, the president terminated his security detail. However, former President Joe Biden reinstated the protection upon taking office in 2021.

Trump Starts Purge With Midnight Truth Social Firing of Chef José Andrés and General Mark Milley President Baby

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-starts-purge-with-midnight-truth-social-firing-of-chef-jose-andres-and-general-mark-milley/

Former President Joe Biden greeted President Donald Trump at the White House in advance of Monday’s inauguration with a conciliatory gesture, telling him and first lady Melania Trump: “Welcome home.”

Trump ended his first day back in that home by posting a sneering message boasting of how his team was hunting down hundreds of Biden appointees to throw out of office.

“Our first day in the White House is not over yet!” Trump wrote, in a Truth Social post shortly after midnight. “My Presidential Personnel Office is actively in the process of identifying and removing over a thousand Presidential Appointees from the previous Administration, who are not aligned with our vision to Make America Great Again.”

Hamas Is Effectively Back in Control in Gaza

 https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/hamas-is-effectively-back-in-control-in-gaza-0b0e0a16?mod=hp_lead_pos1

After Israeli troops stood down when a cease-fire came into effect in the Gaza Strip, Hamas began sending thousands of its forces onto the streets to establish control.

Mixed seating or traveling on public transportation during rush hour when it is impossible to avoid contact with women.

Igros Moshe (E.H. 2:14): Question: Mixed-seating on a subway or other public transportation at a time of day that it is impossible not to come in contact with women because of the crowding of people going to work. Is it permitted to travel at that time. Answer: As regarding the forced contact with women there is absolutely no sin since it is not the result of lust  and passion. The basic prohibition of with contact with women is only when it is done in a lustful manner as he learns from the verse lo tikravu. So if not done in a lustful manner there is no prohibition even rabbinically as can be seen from the Shach regarding a Nidah taking the pulse of her husband. .It is standard practice for Jewish doctors to take the pulse of women who are Niddah even if they are married or not Jewish.  .  In sum there is no prohibition if not done in a lustful manner – even rabbinical;ly. Therefore there is nothing to be concerned about travelling on public transportation during rush hour when because of the crowding it is impossible to avoid contact with women. Similarly there is no prohibition to sit next to a woman if there is no other place since it is not done in a lustful manner. Even sitting next to one’a wife who is Nidah is permitted according to the majority of achronim  who agree with the Shach. However anyone who knows that any contact with women causes lustful thoughts should avoid it if possible.  If he must travel then to get to his work it is still permitted but he should try and distract himself from the women and prohibited thoughts and think about Torah. However if he knows he is basically evil and will be sexually aroused it is prohibited to travel even to his work. But G-d forbid! that a person should be that way since it typically is the result of idleness. Therefore he should increase his Torah and work to change this.