Daily Discussion - April 17, 2024

Trump falls $75million Behind Joe Biden In Money Race As Donor Base Shrinks

Donald Trump has raised $75mn less for his presidential bid than Joe Biden and has 270,000 fewer unique donors now than at the same stage of his run for the White House four years ago.

The findings, from a Financial Times analysis of federal campaign data, raise new questions about how the former president’s shrunken base will sustain him through costly court cases and what is expected to be the most expensive presidential race ever.

The Trump campaign and affiliated political action committees have attracted roughly 900,000 donors from July 2023 through the first quarter of 2024, compare…  Read mored with 1.17mn donors in the equivalent period of the 2020 race, according to the FT’s analysis of federal data.

Google employees arrested while protesting the company's $1.2B contract with Israel

Google employees who occupied the California office of Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian for more than eight hours to demand the company stop doing business with Israel were arrested late Tuesday.

The employees broadcast their protest on a “notech4apartheid’ Twitch livestream. The video showed they given the opportunity to leave voluntarily, and then arrested by police after refusing to do so.

In the stream, a man is seen approaching the protesters to notify them that they were put on administrative leave and asking them to leave.

“It’s getting kinda late,” the man…  Read more says. “I wanted to ask you, you know, to cooperate, you’ve been placed on admin leave and we’d like to see if you’d just voluntarily [leave] it’s been a while. Can you do that for us?”

Republican Arizona Senate Candidate Tells Voters To Strap On A Gun

Arizona GOP Senate hopeful Kari Lake told supporters they can "strap on a Glock" to be prepared for the intensity of the 2024 campaign and urged military and law enforcement veterans to be "ready," as her race heats up in a key battleground state.

“We need to send people to Washington, D.C., that the swamp does not want there,” Lake said toward the end of a Sunday speech to a crowd of Arizonans in Mohave County. “And I can think of a couple people they don’t want there. First on that list is Donald J. Trump; second is Kari Lake.”

She describe…  Read mored standing up to the “swamp” in Washington, saying: “They can’t bribe me, they can blackmail me. That’s what they don’t want me in Washington, D.C. And that’s exactly what President Trump wants me they’re fighting with him.”

Asian ACLU employee complains to black boss about abusive work environment. Is fired for being "racist."

During her five years as a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, she was an unsparing critic of her superiors, known for sending long, blistering emails to human resources complaining about what she described as a hostile workplace.

She considered herself a whistle blower and advocate for other women in the office, drawing unflattering attention to an environment she said was rife with sexism, burdened by unmanageable workloads and stymied by a fear-based culture.

Then the tables turned, and Ms. Oh was the one slapped with an accusation of serious misconduct. The A.C.L.U. said her comp…  Read morelaints about several superiors — all of whom were Black — used “racist stereotypes.” She was fired in May 2022.

50,000 Russian Soldiers Confirmed Dead In Ukraine War

Russia's military death toll in Ukraine has now passed the 50,000 mark, the BBC can confirm.

In the second 12 months on the front line - as Moscow pushed its so-called meat grinder strategy - we found the body count was nearly 25% higher than in the first year.

BBC Russian, independent media group Mediazona and volunteers have been counting deaths since February 2022.

New graves in cemeteries helped provide the names of many soldiers.

Our teams also combed through open-source information from official reports, newspapers and social media.

More than 27,300 Russian soldiers died in the second…  Read more year of combat - according to our findings - a reflection of how territorial gains have come at a huge human cost.

4 Children Killed In Israel Bombing Of Maghazi refugee camp

Eleven people, including children, have been killed in an Israeli air attack on the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza as Israel continues its bombardment of the Palestinian territory.

Seven people were reported killed, including four children, in an Israeli jet attack on a house in the Yabna refugee camp in Rafah.

The United Nations, United States and Palestinian rights groups join growing condemnation of Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

The Republican Party is schizophrenic.

It contains an Establishment/Neocon wing that loves war even more than Biden and a MAGA wing that wants to put America First.

The VP pick will tell us which of these wings the future of the party really belongs to.

Philippines and US Strengthen Military Ties with Largest Joint Drills Amid Rising Tensions

In a significant demonstration of military cooperation and strategic alignment, the Philippines and the United States are set to conduct their largest joint military exercises to date, amid growing concerns over regional security and the assertiveness of China in the South China Sea. The exercises, known as Balikatan, which translates to 'shoulder-to-shoulder' in Filipino, are drawing attention for their scale and the clear message they send regarding the two nations' readiness to jointly address security challenges in the Asia-Pacific region.

This year's Balikatan exercise…  Read mores are unprecedented in scope, involving simulations of retaking enemy-occupied islands and sinking a target ship, among other operations. These drills are strategically located in areas facing Taiwan and the contested waters of the South China Sea, highlighting the geostrategic importance of these exercises amidst maritime tensions with Beijing. The inclusion of a joint sail with the French Navy and the coast guards of both countries further underscores the international dimension of these efforts to ensure freedom of navigation and uphold international law in the region.