Bits n’ pieces from east, west and beyond

East, west or beyond, sooner or later events elsewhere may have a local impact. A recent sampling:

Last week a federal judge ruled that Google is a monopolist, in violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Act. Repercussions could include breaking up Google, The Lever wrote.

A year after the Maui wildfire that killed 102 people, burned homes and a town, with damages estimated at $12 billion, a rapid settlement of $4 billion was reached, The New York Times reported.

Sen. Chuck Schumer has introduced the No Kings Act, which would stop presidential immunity for criminal actions as president. If approved it would negate the recent Supreme Court’s conservative majority granting such immunity to Trump, The Guardian reported.

The vice presidential candidates’ finances: Slate says Democrat Tim Walz and his wife are worth $330,000. They have no stocks, personal real estate or cryptocurrency, etc. As governor Walz’s annual salary is $127,629. Estimates of J.D. Vance’s worth are $3 million to $10 million. The Guardian says that’s from the sale of his bestseller Hillbilly Elegy and investments in medical testing therapies, biotech startups, the Rumble video platform, a defense and security contractor, and a Catholic prayer app.

Vance has criticized Walz’s 2018 statement about “weapons of war that I carried in war” and should only be found in war zones. Walz was speaking about gun legislation that protected the Second Amendment. The New York Times wrote that Walz was deployed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attack, but not to a combat zone. The Harris-Walz campaign said Walz had misspoken and not intended to mislead about his 24-year military service. Vance served four years as a Marine, also in a non-combative role.

Walz’s six-year record as Minnesota’s governor, from various sources: he’s promoted clean energy and climate action, and used a $17.6 billion surplus from spending cuts and tax revenues for education, free meals for school children, for free tuition for public colleges (if annual family incomes are under $80,000) and for paid family and medical leave. 

Recently on CNN Walz was asked if he is vulnerable to being labeled a “big business liberal.” He admitted he is a “monster,” because in his state kids can eat and have “full bellies so they can go learn, and women are making their own healthcare decisions, and we’re a top five business state, and we also rank in the top three of happiness…The fact of the matter is,” where Democratic policies are implemented, “quality of life is higher, the economies are better…educational attainment is better…personal incomes are higher, and you’re going to have health insurance. So if that’s where they want to label me, I’m more than happy to take the label.”

Dawn’s Early Light, the now-controversial book previously slated for a public September release (with copies already reviewed by many news sources), has been delayed to after the election, Newsweek reported. Author Kevin Roberts, Heritage Foundation’s president, chose Trump’s now vice-presidential running mate, J.D. Vance, to write the book’s forward. 

Vance says the Heritage Foundation’s decades-long history has “the most influential engine of ideas for Republicans.” But The Guardian pointed out that none of their previous policies “proved remotely as controversial as Project 2025.” Roberts has been a key builder behind Project 2025, the 900+ page plan to dismantle democracy if Trump gains office.

Trump says he has “no idea who is behind it [Project 2025],” but in 2022 at a Heritage Foundation event he praised them as a “great group,” with detailed plans “for exactly what our movement will do...” The Guardian says Trump flew on a private jet with the Heritage Foundation’s president to attend the event; there’s a photo of them smiling together. The Heritage Foundation calculates that 64% of their policy recommendations were either implemented or proposed by Trump during his first year.

The non-profits ProPublica and Documented shared 23 never-before published videos from Project 2025’s Presidential Administration Academy. They said the videos were provided by “a person who had access to them.” Of the video speakers 29 of the 36 have worked for Trump “in some capacity.”

Those video contents include: outwitting bureaucrats; avoiding Freedom of Information Act disclosures; ensuring conservative policies are not struck down by judges; eradicating climate change references; eradicating equity plans and equal rights advances; warnings that Project 2025 trainees should expect a “hostile reception”; a possible need to expand key government agencies so they can slash federal regulations; making it clear to career staff that political appointees are in charge; how to scrub personal social media accounts of content that may be embarrassing; avoiding mainstream news outlets in favor of conservative media, and avoiding creation of paper trails.

Project 2025, regarding the Federal Emergency Management Agency, proposes an increase in the threshold for disaster declarations. American Progress says their plan would make it more difficult for states, localities, and thereby families and businesses to qualify for disaster help. The Project also calls for phasing out low-income school funding, and “revising” disability benefits for future veterans.

Blast from the past: “The most damaging phrase in the language is “It’s always been done that way.” Grace Hopper, 1906-1992, computer scientist.