Budgets show our priorities

It’s Monday, and we’ve got a lot of news on our minds. We’ll talk about President Joe Biden’s comments about Taiwan and what Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, has to say about crypto. Then we’re diving into some recent writing about the scale at which the United States funds its military, even as we’ve withdrawn from active conflict in Afghanistan. How that money is spent, and isn’t spent, says a lot. Plus, Texas lawmakers may target business that help employees get abortions. Finally, we’ll consider some pointedly phrased communications for our make me smiles.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

“Lagarde Says Crypto Is ‘Worth Nothing’ and Should Be Regulated” from Bloomberg
“Biden: US would intervene with military to defend Taiwan” from the Associated Press
Taiwan Relations Act
“No Way Out but War” from the Chris Hedges Report
“Four Ways to Understand the $54 Billion in U.S. Spending on Ukraine” from The New York Times
“CBO Releases an Improved Interactive Tool for Analyzing the Military’s Forces and Resources” from the Congressional Budget Office
“Businesses that help employees get abortions could be next target of Texas lawmakers if Roe v. Wade is overturned” from The Texas Tribune
Bear spray is not like bug spray from the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation’s Twitter
A judge has this to say about a Jan. 6 defendant’s request to travel from BuzzFeed reporter Zoe Tillman on Twitter

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