Month: July 2020

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Everything Everywhere Daily - Ancient Rome and the Ancient Chinese

2,000 years ago the Han Empire in China and the Roman Empire in Europe were the two greatest empires in the world. Between them, they covered an enormous amount of the Earth’s land and a large percentage of the world’s population. But were these two great empires even aware of each other? If so, was there any contact between them?

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SCOTUScast - Seila Law, LLC v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) – Post-Decision SCOTUScast

On June 29, 2020, the Supreme Court decided Seila Law, LLC v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a case that raises separation of power questions regarding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Specifically the Court ruled on whether Congress’s law that created the CFPB can stipulate that the President could not remove the Bureau’s director “at will”.
Seila Law, a law firm based in CA specializing in debt relief services, was being investigated by CFPB after being alleged of violating telemarketing sales rules. Seila Law challenged the CFPB’s authority to investigate their firm, maintaining the CFPB’s structure, namely its director’s immunity from “at will” removal by the President, was unconstitutional.
The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of Seila Law, finding Congress’s insulation of the Bureau’s director from at will removal did indeed violate the separation of powers.
Chief Justice Roberts delivered the majority’s opinion, in which Justices Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh joined. Justice Kagan filed an opinion concurring in the judgement with regard to severability and dissenting in part in which Justices Breyer, Ginsburg, and Sotomayor joined.
Joining us to discuss this case and its implications are John Eastman, Henry Salvatori Profesor of Law and Community Service and Director of the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence at Chapman University’s school of Law, and Brian Johnson, partner at Alston & Bird.
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CBS News Roundup - World News Roundup: 07/09

A coronavirus flare-up in "red zone" states. Transcripts of George Floyd's final moments go public. A Supreme Court finale with President Trump's finances in the spotlight. Correspondent Steve Kathan has the CBS World News Roundup for Thursday, July 9, 2020.

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The Intelligence from The Economist - Centrifugal force: attacks on Iran

Another strike, evidently on a nuclear-fuel centrifuge facility, is being blamed on Israel—and, by extension, America. It is just the kind of tactic that the abandoned nuclear deal would have obviated. Eastern Europe’s treatment of its drug users runs counter to the “harm-reduction” policies that Europe pioneered decades ago. And faith-based streaming services get a big slice of the pious.

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Bay Curious - Why Does The Bay Area Have So Many Microclimates?

Bay Curious listener Scott has lived in the Bay Area his whole life. He's always wondered why the weather can be so different just a few miles apart. This week, we dig into Bay Area microclimates -- what are they, why do they exist, and do heat islands affect our weather.

*This episode has been updated to fix an error in Andrew Oliphant's title.

Additional Reading:


Reported by Daniel Potter. Bay Curious is made by Olivia Allen-Price, Katrina Schwartz, and Rob Speight. Additional support from Erika Aguilar, Jessica Placzek, Kyana Moghadam, Paul Lancour, Suzie Racho, Carly Severn, Bianca Hernandez, Ethan Lindsey, Vinnee Tong and Don Clyde.

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Tech Won't Save Us - Smart Tech Is Designed For Control w/ Jathan Sadowski

Paris Marx is joined by Jathan Sadowski to discuss the politics of smart technology, how it enables powerful actors to further control the population, and why we should be more comfortable dismantling technologies that don’t serve the public good.

Jathan Sadowski is the author of “Too Smart: How Digital Capitalism is Extracting Data, Controlling Our Lives, and Taking Over the World” and a Research Fellow in the Emerging Technologies Research Lab at Monash University. He recently wrote about how smart tech is a means for corporate control and the need to dismantle urban surveillance systems. Follow Jathan on Twitter as @jathansadowski.

Tech Won't Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter.

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The Best One Yet - “I can’t believe it’s not Chunky Monkey” — Perfect Day’s animal-free ice cream, Twitter’s subscription plan. Walmart finally zucks Amazon Prime

Some sneaky sleuthing on a Twitter job posting indicates that Twitter may be whipping up paid subscription… for something. Walmart whips up an anti-Amazon version of Prime called Walmart+, coming this month. And our “Almost Unicorn of the Day” is Perfect Day, which snagged $300M to make milk that’s neither plant-based, nor animal-based. But tastes exactly like milk. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.