1/ Global stock markets fell sharply as worries about the U.S. economy sparked a world-wide sell-off. Japan’s Nikkei plunged 12.4% for its worst day since the Black Monday crash of 1987, while the S&P 500 dropped 3% – its worst day in nearly two years – the Dow fell 2.6%, and the Nasdaq slid 3.4%. The declines – the worst three-day slide since June 2022 – extended a sell-off that started last week after a jobs report showed slower hiring and rising unemployment. In July, the U.S. added 114,000 jobs and the unemployment rate rose to 4.3%. Economists had expected the U.S. to add 175,000 jobs and keep the jobless rate steady at 4.1%. Last week, Fed officials held interest rates at a two-decade high, where they have remained for a year. Analysts now expect the Fed to cut rates at its next three meetings in September, November, and December, with some demanding an emergency cut now. (Bloomberg / CNBC / Wall Street Journal / CNN / Associated Press / Washington Post / New York Times / NPR / Axios)
https://apnews.com/article/stocks-markets-nikkei-economy-c6240977e9482bf7207abc53b2a11e58
2/ After weeks of being noncommittal over the Sept. 10 ABC News debate he previously agreed to, Trump said he’ll instead debate Harris on Fox News – or not at all. “I’ll see her on September 4th or, I won’t see her at all,” Trump said, claiming the previously scheduled presidential debate was “terminated” once Biden dropped out of the race. Harris responded, saying it’s “interesting how ‘any time, any place’ becomes ‘one specific time, one specific safe space.’” The Harris campaign added that Trump was “running scared and trying to back out of the debate he already agreed to,” and was now expecting Fox News to “bail him out.” (NPR / CNN / Associated Press / CNBC / Washington Post / Politico / New York Times / ABC News)
https://apnews.com/article/trump-harris-debate-abc-fox-news-0d0be341bbe7877a71bfc4bed40610fa
3/ Justice Clarence Thomas failed to publicly disclose additional private travel provided by Republican megadonor Harlan Crow in 2010. According Customs and Border Protection records, Thomas and his wife, Ginni Thomas, flew from Hawaii to New Zealand on Crow’s jet on Nov. 19, 2010, and then returned on the jet a week later. The flight, however, was not listed on Thomas’ financial disclosure reports. Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden said that Crow has failed to address the “simple question” of whether he claimed tax deductions on Thomas’ use of his private jet, noting that passing off “trips involving personal hospitality as business expenses is a run of the mill tax scam.” (New York Times / CNN / Axios)
https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/05/politics/clarence-thomas-harlan-crow-hawaii-new-zealand/index.html
Day 807: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas accepted secret luxury vacations from a Republican megadonor for more than two decades without disclosing them. The trips were funded by Harlan Crow, a real-estate billionaire and Republican Party donor, who treated Thomas and his wife, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas to luxury vacations, stays at his properties and private resort, as well as free travel on his private jet and superyacht. Thomas didn’t disclose that travel on his annual financial disclosure forms, which appear to violate a federal law mandating top officials from the three branches of government, including the Supreme Court, file annual forms detailing their finances, outside income, and spouses’ sources of income. Judges are prohibited from accepting gifts from anyone with business before the court, and until a month ago the judicial branch had not defined an exemption for gifts considered “personal hospitality.” Sen. Dick Durbin, the second-highest ranking Democrat in the Senate and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said Thomas’ actions were “simply inconsistent with the ethical standards the American people expect of any public servant, let alone a Justice on the Supreme Court,” adding that “the highest court in the land shouldn’t have the lowest ethical standards.” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, meanwhile, called for Thomas to be impeached, saying “this is beyond party or partisanship. This degree of corruption is shocking - almost cartoonish.” (ProPublica / Washington Post / New York Times / CNBC / NBC News / CBS News / CNN / Wall Street Journal)
https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/06/politics/clarence-thomas-harlan-crow-supreme-court-pro-publica/
Day 933: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas accepted at least 38 vacations, 26 private jet flights, eight flights by helicopter, a dozen VIP passes to sporting events, two stays at luxury resorts in Florida and Jamaica, and a standing invitation to play at a high-end private golf club in Florida from several billionaire benefactors since 1991. The travel often went unreported on Thomas’ required annual financial disclosure filings, and the total value of the undisclosed trips is probably in the millions of dollars. While it was previously reported that Harlan Crow paid for Thomas’ luxury vacations, his mother’s house, and a nephew’s tuition payments, Thomas, however, has also received special treatment from three other billionaires: David Sokol, H. Wayne Huizenga, and Paul “Tony” Novelly. All four billionaires have been major Republican donors. (ProPublica / New York Times / NPR / Bloomberg / CNN / Washington Post)
https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/10/politics/clarence-thomas-gifts-hospitality-propublica-report/index.html
Day 1238: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas belatedly disclosed that a Republican billionaire paid for his two vacations in 2019. Thomas’ newly released financial disclosure report for 2023 said the trips – one to Bali and one to an all-male retreat in northern California – were “inadvertently omitted at the time of filing.” Harlan and Kathy Crow paid for Thomas’ food and lodging at a hotel and private club. (ProPublica / New York Times / Washington Post / Politico / CNN / Axios)
https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/07/politics/clarence-thomas-harlan-crow-bali/index.html
4/ Justice Neil Gorsuch warned Biden about his Supreme Court reform proposals: “Be careful.” When asked about Biden’s bid to impose mandatory ethics rules for the court and term limits on justices, Gorsuch replied that an independent judiciary “means that when you’re unpopular, you can get a fair hearing.” He added, however, “You’re not going to be surprised that I’m not going to get into what is now a political issue during a presidential election year. I don’t think that would be helpful […] And so I just say, be careful.” (Politico / NBC News / The Hill)
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/justice-neil-gorsuch-warns-biden-careful-supreme-court-reforms-rcna165085
5/ Former Trump campaign attorney Jenna Ellis agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in Arizona as part of the state’s “fake elector” case. Prosecutors will drop the nine felony counts against Ellis, who worked with Rudy Giuliani to overturn Trump’s 2020 loss in the state, in exchange for her cooperation against the remaining 17 defendants in the case. Ellis also agreed to “completely and truthfully” testify in any future trials. (Washington Post / CNBC / ABC News / NBC News)
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/former-trump-lawyer-jenna-ellis-cooperate-prosecutors-arizona-fake-ele-rcna165122
6/ A Los Angeles man, who launched an independent campaign for president after discovering a dead worm in his brain, confessed to Roseanne Barr that he left a dead bear cub in Central Park in 2014 because he thought it would be “amusing.” In a video he voluntarily posted to social media, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he did not kill the bear, but instead put it in his car with plans to skin it after it was killed by another driver. Kennedy, however, said he had a dinner that ran late and had to travel to the airport right afterward, so he put the dead cub in Central Park and staged it to look as if a bicyclist had run over the animal. Presumably, Kennedy posted the video in an attempt to preempt a New Yorker article, which mentions the incident. He captioned the post: “Looking forward to seeing how you spin this one.” The New York State Department of Environment Conservation, meanwhile, said the statute of limitations expired and that Kennedy will not face charges. (New York Times / Axios / USA Today / NPR / Politico)
https://www.axios.com/2024/08/05/rfk-jr-new-yorker-profile-dead-bear
