The future of artificial intelligence: WSJ: https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/artificial-intelligence-united-states-future-76c0082e .
Biden administration bypasses Congress to send emergency aid to Israel: https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/08/politics/state-department-congress-tank-munitions-sale/index.html . This is the right thing to do, because Israel has only a limited time to eradicate Hamas, and delay works severely against them. Politically, this is a can of worms. The administration has tries to package Ukraine and Israel aid as there is greater support for helping Israel. This deal complicates getting aid to Ukraine, in my view.
Israeli hostage killed during failed rescue attempt: https://www.aol.com/news/israeli-hostage-dies-failed-rescue-201048215.html . It appears there were significant military casualties on both sides in this action.
WSJ: Consumer prices drop in China: https://www.wsj.com/world/china/china-cant-shake-deflation-132c42a9 . As the article notes, deflation is a classic sign of a weakening economy.
Penn president resigns after firestorm over anti-Semitism remarks: https://www.politico.com/news/2023/12/09/penn-president-resigns-00130961 . Admittedly the answers from the 3 university presidents were weak. However, Stefanik’s motive appears to be publicity and trapping these women rather than having a thoughtful discussion about freedom of speech. Stefanik has become just another GOP nihilist in the Orange Julius mold. WSJ: More: https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/university-of-pennsylvania-president-resigns-amid-furor-over-comments-on-antisemitism-on-campus-658d74cd . Still more: https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/the-politics-of-campus-free-speech-draw-scrutiny-70a18ebe .
OJ’s kamikaze legal filing: https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-legal-move-spells-danger-dead-ahead-glenn-kirschner-warns-1850997 . At times, educated Americans feel nothing more can shock them about Orange Julius. However, his legal team demonstrates increasingly bizarre behavior. Here, his lawyers literally declare that they have the right to decide their client’s case. The legal term for this is “insanity by reason of incompetence”. I cannot imagine that anyone reading this filing would say, okay, the lawyers have a point. The question is how quickly and in what manner the courts will tell them to stuff it.
WSJ: OJ leads Biden in latest poll: https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/trump-takes-2024-lead-as-biden-approval-hits-new-low-wsj-poll-finds-fb4fca0c . It’s now 11 months before the election. As the graph in the article shows, the Journal’s polling results have been all over the map, and phone polls are notoriously unreliable. OJ may win delays in some of the legal matters he faces, but he is unlikely to have any good news on substance. Stay tuned.
Why Tuberville dropped military promotion blockade: https://www.politico.com/news/2023/12/09/republicans-tuberville-military-blockade-00130884 . This is excellent reporting from Politico.
Mrs. DeMentis advocates illegal participation in Iowa caucuses: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/that-s-illegal-internet-slams-casey-desantis-as-she-asks-non-residents-to-participate-in-iowa-caucus/ar-AA1leRsb?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=fb3c97fc27084a968adacdeefca42c1d&ei=35 . More: https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/09/politics/iowa-caucus-casey-desantis-moms/index.html . And she’s Ron’s “brain trust” … this boat is taking on water from all sides …
Squatter wins house in UK: https://www.foxnews.com/world/squatterwon-battle-dead-womans-home-sells-huge-profit . “Common law and common sense have nothing in common.” I love this phrase, but the Internet did not help me find an attribution. Here, a UK squatter, although committing criminal trespass, was awarded ownership of the home after over a decade passed with no action by the owner (“the law abhors a vacuum” – hah). In English law generally, law was administered by the king’s courts (of course) and was often very unfair to the general populace. Courts also sprung up under the Church, based on general moral reasoning.
So England had two parallel legal systems, “law” and “equity”. This may be the source of the quote above (common law is based on case law rather than legislation, and as such came from both the law and equity courts). When the two systems were eventually unified as courts of law in England (1873 and 1875), still the procedures under “law” and “equity” were different.
These differences persisted in the US for some time, since we had adopted the English system when it was still split. Indeed, when I took the bar exam in Virginia in 1974, there was an essay question on the exam asking us to describe the procedures in Virginia under law and equity for a specific case (tough question), and the procedures were indeed substantially different at that time. These procedures were mostly unified in Virginia in 2006.
As to the article, the calculation of the man’s profit is ridiculous. He sold the house for 540,000 pounds (roughly $682,000). His basis (under US rules) is his expenditures for renovation (likely under $20,000 as he is a construction worker). His legal expenses are generally not part of his basis, so not part of the profit calculation. The value of the home when he began squatting is irrelevant. So his profit is more like $655,000.
Holy cow, Batman! Dodgers sign Shohei Ohtani to 10-year, $700 million deal: https://www.aol.com/sports/mlb-free-agency-2023-shohei-201026109.html . Just for comparison, this is more than 1,000 times the profit on the house sale just described. With the health problems Ohtani has already had, it is very hard to see him completing 10 more full seasons. He’ll be almost 40 if the contract runs its full length. WSJ: More: https://www.wsj.com/sports/baseball/shohei-ohtani-los-angeles-dodgers-8dcb03e2 .
Oregon already in contention for next year’s Big Ten championship: https://www.si.com/college/2023/12/09/dillon-gabriel-oregon-transfer-portal-oklahoma-ucf . Dillon Gabriel is already a highly rated quarterback. Oregon made Bo Nix a lot better. They can do the same for Dillon Gabriel.