August 08 2024

Olympics Update
1 ELECTION 2024 DIGEST Trump Attacks Harris-Walz Ticket as "Radical Left" while Dems Double GOP Ad Spending
2 Supreme Court Approval Stays Near Record Low Driven by Dem Disapproval
3 Continuous Glucose Monitors to Be Sold Over the Counter
4 NASA Considers SpaceX for Astronauts' Return Amid Starliner Issues-in 2025
5 UKRAINE UPDATE Russian Forces Make Gains in East
8/8/1974 Nixon resigns

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Olympics Update

1 ELECTION 2024 DIGEST Trump Attacks Harris-Walz Ticket as "Radical Left" as Democrats Double GOP Ad Spending

·       Donald Trump criticizes Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, calling their campaign the most "radical left" in history.

·       With $325 million spent on ads compared to Republicans' $180 million, Democrats leverage digital platforms, maintaining a significant advertising edge.

TRUMP AUDITIONS ATTACK LINES — This morning, DONALD TRUMP took his first swing at defining the KAMALA HARRIS-TIM WALZ campaign — painting the duo as the most “radical left” ticket in history while mostly steering clear of policy contrasts to instead focus on the culture war fights to which he often returns. “He’s a very, very liberal man, and he’s a shocking pick. I could not be more thrilled,” Trump said during a phone interview with “Fox & Friends” this morning, per Fox News’ Bailee Hill. “This is a ticket that would want this country to go communist immediately, if not sooner. We want no security. We want no anything,” Trump said. “He’s very heavy into transgender. Anything transgender he thinks is great, and he’s not where the country is on anything.” He also took a swipe at Harris not selecting Pennsylvania Gov. JOSH SHAPIRO, furthering a baseless GOP attack line trying to characterize Harris as antisemitic: “I think it’s very insulting to Jewish people.”
POLITICO

Democrats have poured nearly twice as much cash into political ads this cycle ($325 million) compared to Republicans ($180 million). After donors balked at continuing to back President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris' momentum suggests her party could maintain its advertising edge heading into November. Democrats so far have spent the bulk of its advertising dollars on digital properties, including Facebook and Google. That's notable, since campaigns have historically poured most of their dollars into local broadcasts. TV ads, which tend to be longer and viewed on a big screen, are good for persuading voters. Digital ads, typically used for fundraising and list-building, help candidates target certain populations, such as younger or minority voters. Historically, campaigns were limited to advertising opportunities on heavily regulated mediums with limited inventory, such as television, radio and print. Today, the internet offers infinite inventory for campaigns to place ads with few regulations. That has contributed to soaring political ad spending.
Axios

Article Source: Politico, Axios

2 Supreme Court Approval Stays Near Record Low Driven by Dem Disapproval

Gallup poll reveals 43% approval for the Supreme Court, with a stark 51-point partisan gap between Republicans and Democrats.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s approval rating remains underwater, with a near-record low of 43% of Americans saying they approve of the way the court is handling its job and 52% disapproving. Current approval of the nation’s highest court is statistically similar to its ratings over the past three years since it declined to block a Texas abortion law in 2021 and later overturned Roe v. Wade in the landmark 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision.

Partisans’ ratings of the high court, which have been politically polarized in most years since 2000, continue to diverge, with 66% of Republicans, 15% of Democrats and 44% of independents approving. The current 51-percentage-point gap between Republicans and Democrats is among the largest in Gallup’s trend. The record is the 61-point gap after the Dobbs decision, when Republicans’ rating of the court jumped 29 points, to 74%, and Democrats’ rating dropped 23 points to the group’s record low of 13%. Independents’ positive evaluation remains steady from their post-Dobbs reading of 40%. Partisans’ ratings fluctuated somewhat in the fall of 2022 and in 2023, but Democrats’ latest approval rating is similar to the one measured immediately after Dobbs

Ed note: You often hear about widespread disapproval of the Supreme Court. But looking at the data, the fall in the Court’s approval is almost entirely from Democrats after Roe v Wade was overturned, who REALLY disapprove. Republicans rather like the Court.

Article Source: Gallup

3 Continuous Glucose Monitors to Be Sold Over the Counter

Firms will soon offer continuous glucose monitors without a prescription, expanding access to this health technology.

The device Sheree Clark taped to her upper arm was intended for diabetics, not relatively healthy patients like her, but it was a revelation nonetheless. A continuous glucose monitor, available only with a prescription, gave her a constant readout on foods that cause her blood sugar to spike — including things like organic crackers she thought were healthy. “It’s one thing to know it intellectually,” said Clark, a 67-year-old resident of Des Moines, who paid about $75 out of pocket for two sensors that lasted a month. “It’s another thing to see it, to watch in real time what you’re doing to yourself.” Soon, a prescription won’t be necessary. In a groundbreaking expansion of technology previously aimed at diabetics who need to carefully control their blood sugar, Abbott Laboratories and Dexcom are poised to begin selling continuous glucose monitors over the counter, meaning they can be purchased by adults without first seeing a doctor.

Article Source: WaPo

4 NASA Considers SpaceX for Astronauts' Return Amid Starliner Issues-in 2025

NASA explores backup return options for astronauts stranded on the ISS for 2mo due to performance issues with Boeing's Starliner, adding to Boeing's ongoing challenges.

For weeks, NASA has downplayed problems experienced by Starliner, a Boeing spacecraft that took two astronauts to the International Space Station in June. But on Wednesday, NASA officials admitted that the issues might be more serious than first thought and that the astronauts might not return on the Boeing vehicle, after all. The agency is exploring a backup option for the astronauts, Suni Wiliams and Butch Wilmore, to instead hitch a ride back to Earth on a spacecraft built by Boeing’s competitor SpaceX. The astronauts’ stay in orbit, which was to be as short as eight days, could be extended into next year.

The announcement adds more headaches and embarrassment for Boeing, an aerospace giant that has billions of dollars of aerospace contracts with the federal government and builds commercial jets that fly all around the world. In addition to the woes faced by the company’s civil aviation division after part of a 737 jet’s fuselage blew off during flight in January, Boeing announced on Aug. 1 that it was writing off $125 million of unplanned costs spent on the Starliner program, adding to $1.5 billion of earlier write-offs.

Article Source: NYT

5 UKRAINE UPDATE Russian Forces Make Gains in East

Russia achieves significant territorial advances in eastern Ukraine, while Ukraine launches surprise attack into Russia.

Russian forces have made swift and significant territorial gains in Ukraine, taking advantage of Kyiv’s military shortages and blunders as support grows among the Ukrainian public for a negotiated end to the war. The eastern Donetsk region is the central focus of Moscow’s renewed offensive, which began late last year but has significantly increased in recent weeks. President Vladimir Putin’s main battlefield goal this year is to grab as much land as possible, according to senior Ukrainian officials who spoke to the Financial Times. “Our defences are showing cracks,” said one senior Ukrainian official familiar with military operations. He warned Russian forces had achieved “tactical success” in Donetsk and more advances were likely unless the situation turns around. Taken together, Russia’s advances have more than reversed the hard-fought gains made by Ukraine’s army last year. According to research by Pasi Paroinen of the Black Bird Group, an open-source military research group based in Finland, the amount of territory captured by Russian troops since early May is nearly double that which Ukraine’s military won back at heavy cost in terms of lives and military materiel with its summer offensive a year ago.
FT

Recent gains by Russian forces have expanded an arc of destruction across eastern Ukraine that began at the outbreak of the full-scale war in February 2022 and has intensified in recent months. The loss of long-held Ukrainian defensive positions outside Toretsk and inside New York, a smaller town a few miles to the south, underscored the growing strains of unrelenting Russian attacks and devastating aerial bombardments are placing on Ukrainian forces. While Kyiv has stepped up efforts to mobilize soldiers to replace tens of thousands killed or wounded in battle, Moscow continues to exploit the lack of Ukrainian reserves and the time it takes to train new soldiers and deploy them to the front.
NYT

Ukraine has launched a surprise ground assault into Russia with troops and armored vehicles, Russian officials and independent military analysts said on Wednesday, in what could be one of the largest Ukrainian incursions onto Russian soil in more than two years of war.
NYT

Article Source: FT, NYT

8/8/1974 Nixon resigns

Sources

2. https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-am-71514ee0-54e6-11ef-940c-65df64bd2dc9?chunk=1&utm=axios_app#story1

3. https://news.gallup.com/poll/647834/approval-supreme-court-stalled-near-historical-low.aspx?utm_source=gallup_brand&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=front_page_august_1_08062024&utm_term=information&utm_content=new_data_textlink_2

4. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/08/05/glucose-monitors-wellness-prescription-diabetes-over-the-counter/

5. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/07/science/boeing-starliner-nasa-spacex.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb

6. https://on.ft.com/3AnIpg9; https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/06/world/europe/ukraine-war-donetsk-toretsk.html?campaign_id=7&emc=edit_mbae_20240806&instance_id=130947&nl=morning-briefing%3A-asia-pacific-edition&regi_id=61468173&segment_id=174366&te=1&user_id=02b32d846497687a8f0c061d7ffd16b1; https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/07/world/europe/ukraine-russia-cross-border-assault.html