Notes and Noted 2

Notes and Noted 2

The Gospel today is disturbing, with Christ contemplating man and his failures.

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The Obama administration in 2016 paid some $1.7 billion to Iran in a combination of foreign currencies – most of which was the settlement of a decades-old financial dispute – to secure the release of four detained Americans with no restrictions on how the money would be spent. Photographs of the first installment of $400 million in cash, packed on a wooden palette for transport, were famously leaked and fueled the outrage of GOP critics.

The nuclear deal is believed to have resulted in a roughly $50 billion influx of cash for Iran from its implementation in 2016 to 2018, when President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the agreement – a significant amount but a far cry from the $150 billion that Trump estimated had reached Iran.

While the Biden administration renewed talks with Iran to reenter the pact, the discussions have led nowhere and U.S. negotiators publicly walked away. Though not believed to be directly connected, some analysts have speculated that the Biden administration's move to free up the $6 billion could have been an incentive to continue talking even as Tehran slowed the pace of development of a nuclear weapon.

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The Atlantic article, "Democracy Dies Behind Paywalls
The case for making journalism free—at least during the 2024 election"
by Richard Stengel, is behind a paywall

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More from the unreal mendacity universe. Soaking the rich, while appealing in its simplicity, misses the scale of the problem. Brian Riedl, a Manhattan Institute senior fellow, noted that if we were to confiscate 100 percent of the income of everyone making over $500,000 per year, it would fund the government for less than a year. This puts into perspective the enormity of the $34 trillion national debt versus the income of the rich.

Taxing the rich is a convenient distraction hiding the reality that if spending isn’t cut, taxes will have to be raised on everyone, a lot. 

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The ‘whistleblower’ who sparked Donald Trump’s first impeachment was deeply involved in the political maneuverings behind Biden-family business schemes in Ukraine that Trump wanted probed, newly obtained emails from former Vice President Joe Biden’s office reveal.

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Alphabet Inc.’s Google has fired 28 employees after they were involved in protests against Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion joint contract with Amazon.com Inc. to provide the Israeli government with AI and cloud services.