JimNE_Krickets

[The Editorial Board @johnastoehr]

Krugman: "there is no legitimate use case for crypto. They’ve had 18 years to come up with one. ... Every one of them has turned out to be baseless. The only real use for crypto is tax evasion, money laundering, and crime."

https://t.co/pkJlTjs8dW

[Dream for America @DreamAmerica_]

THOMAS MASSIE: “It’s ironic that we control the House, Senate, Supreme Court, & the White House -- and we're yelling 'election fraud'? We won all the damn elections.

What are we doing with that? We’re bankrupting the country. We’re starting new wars. We’re violating the Constitution. We’re not cracking down on the fraud. The problem is not the elections. We won the damn elections. The problem is that we’re wasting the opportunity voters gave us."

[Richard Hanania @RichardHanania]

As I tell Coleman Hughes: "I think if an alien were coming to earth, and they were studying America and Europe, the last 20-30 years, they would say these are the best run societies in human history."

This is what populists don't understand.

Stop listening to grifters.

[Barbarian Herodotus @BBHerodotus]

The studies of the Presidents.
31-35:🧵

31. Herbert Hoover

[Sam Stein @samstein]

Taking over the Strait and charging a 20% fee is just a remarkable end result of an administration that pledged to stop Middle East interventionism and also said this Iran war was a short term excursion.

[Aidan McLaughlin @aidnmclaughlin]

How Lindsey Graham worked Trump, via Mark Leibovich https://t.co/l2rdmo8f1y

[Luke Burgis @lukeburgis]

This is really good and sobering reporting by @ryanburge about the Archdiocese of Detroit. I have long believed the American Catholic Church to be in serious decline—part of this is based on anecdotal evidence, partly on my 5 years in seminary and experience observing from the inside over many years, but I've never seen data as good as Ryan's.

One of the biggest warning signs and red flags for me has always been the narrative that everything is great—very isolated stories about a diocese where vocations are strong, are single parishes that are thriving (there are many of those, like two particular parishes in lower Manhattan—this is actually more concerning than it is comforting, for all kinds of reasons), and stories of "record Easter confirmations" at specific places. All of that feels to me very much like a university trying to mask its decline by cherry-picking some enrollment numbers which it has already manipulated, or a company leader on an earnings call telling a story that doesn't address the underlying reality.

The most alarming part of Ryan's report here is the age distribution of priests, imo. I have absolutely on idea what the Archdiocese is going to do in 10-20 years, when many of those priests are retired or deceased. The go-to answer is normally to bring in missionary priests from other countries, like Africa, but that clashes with a new immigration policy where it is harder and harder to get VISAs.

[Tim Miller @Timodc]

From no more forever wars to US military personnel controlling a dangerous waterway in the Persian Gulf indefinitely.

[Aaron Rupar @atrupar]

beyond parody -- Fox & Friends hosts are trying to get Trump to pay tribute to Lindsey Graham, but they can't get a word in as Trump rants and raves about the SAVE America Act and the purportedly rigged elections in California

[Jonathan Lemire @JonLemire]

“Graham’s motivations remain a mystery. Perhaps he craved proximity to power. Perhaps he feared losing his Senate seat, and with it any claim to relevance. Deep down, though, he must have known he was betraying the ideals of his younger self” https://t.co/So9J7XFky6

[S Sebag Montefiore @simonmontefiore]

This is grippingly surreal. Heart of Darkness de nos jours.
Wagner’s Remnants Are Running an Opioid Empire in the Center of Africa https://t.co/Fb7aF3jLrj

[Dan Pfeiffer @danpfeiffer]

An idiotic tweet from a complete idiot that will give rocket fuel to the conspiracy theories circulating online

[Alec MacGillis @AlecMacGillis]

"Convenience has saved us time. The hidden price is that it has also saved us from one another." Good column:

[Philip Bunn @PhilipDBunn]

Beginning my summer course on the political thought of the American founding tomorrow. Before we can get to the 1760s, we have to start with background: Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus and Montesquieu on the English constitution. Why have multiple “parts” of gov’t anyway? Fun stuff.

[Barbarian Herodotus @BBHerodotus]

The studies of the Presidents.
26-30:🧵

26. Theodore Roosevelt

[Luke Burgis @lukeburgis]

A biohacker and a novelist walk into @VICE.

One wants to defeat death with data. The other thinks death was already defeated, and that the more urgent question is how many of us are dead while still alive.

They agree on more than you'd think: life is primary, death is the enemy. They disagree on what a life is.

The conversation continues live at ZOE, July 26–28 in Napa, where @bryan_johnson gives a keynote at @ClunyInstitute's annual event.

We are sold out, pending cancellations, but you can read the full piece here: https://t.co/0LyERGgVAP

[CultivatedSoul @SoulCultivated]

We blame the phone, but Seneca blamed the wandering mind.

“One who is everywhere is nowhere.”

Though the medium changes, human nature doesn’t.

Great article👇

[Fareed Zakaria @FareedZakaria]

For more than 75 years, America’s dominance within NATO has given Washington enormous advantages. But as Europeans start to pay more for their defense, that will change.

And over time, Americans will come to miss the old NATO.

My take: