Weekend link dump for January 15

“As a result, a broader array of financial institutions now are in a potentially powerful position over the incoming president. If the Trump businesses were to default on their debts, the giant financial institutions that serve as so-called special servicers of these loan pools would have the power to foreclose on some of Mr. Trump’s marquee properties or seek the tens of millions of dollars that Mr. Trump personally guaranteed on the loans.”

“On the other hand — multiple tech leaders say they or their PR folks have adjusted their schedules to make sure someone is up at 3 a.m. local time to catch the the tweets out of fear that a Trump tweet could crash their stock and put their company into a frenzy.”

Lucasfilm and Disney have a big decision to make about Princess Leia in Star Wars moving IX.

The next Hall of Famer for each MLB team. Some of these are more speculative than others.

RIP, Jeremy Stone, mathematician whose ideas about minimizing the possibility of a nuclear catastrophe influenced arms-control negotiators in the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Now this is how you quit a job.

“Isn’t it time for a little bit of soul searching from the media – Trump-controlled, conservative and mainstream — about how to handle stolen material of shady origins?”

The doula wars are a thing I’m glad I don’t need to be involved in, since we’ve already had our kids.

“Let me review the Republican hypocrisy on Obamacare. Bear with me, this will take awhile.”

“Unless people believe Clayton Kershaw is the only pitcher active who should make the Hall of Fame, then the Hall of Fame needs to adjust their standards to recognize great pitchers.”

“Trump has ordered Under Secretary for Nuclear Security Frank Klotz and his deputy, Madelyn Creedon—both Obama appointees—to leave their posts, even if it means no one is in charge of maintaining the country’s nuclear weapons. According to our Energy Department source, Trump’s team has yet to nominate anyone to succeed them.”

RIP, Retired Archbishop Patrick Flores, who became the first Mexican-American bishop in the United States in 1970.

“Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, is a tough and wily operator. But he is opposed by an equally relentless and worthy adversary: Mitch McConnell. Nobody in recent memory has argued so frequently and so passionately against himself as the Kentucky Republican. Oyez, oyez, oyez: Let us hear the case of McConnell v. McConnell.”

There’s a plan in the works to expand the World Cup to 48 teams. I can get behind that.

“Just because something’s ranked #1 doesn’t mean it’s YOUR #1.”

“I believe Barack Obama was the greatest President of my lifetime, but as I heard him talk, I remembered he is about more than political office. At so many times—his amazing speech about race in the first campaign, his powerful words after Sandy Hook, his second inaugural when laid out the imperative of attacking climate change—he has moved us beyond politics to elevate our values. This is his great opportunity now; just as America faces a crisis of values, a great debate about who we really are at our core, he will be speaking not as just a politician, but as a moral leader. In many ways we need that even more today than great politicians.”

Is it just me, or does this make anyone else feel like they’ve stumbled into the plot of a rejected Tom Clancy novel?

“At every turn, when met with efforts to increase diverse representation or reverse the vast racial disparities in the criminal justice system, Jeff Sessions has stood in opposition.”

“The bully has his pulpit.”

You can’t blackmail someone that everyone already knows is a terrible person, I guess.

“Some critics seem to be saying that unless the information in an intelligence briefing or other leaked document can be independently verified by reporters, it shouldn’t be published. But did reporters independently verify all the allegations against Hillary Clinton and her allies contained in the emails released by WikiLeaks?”

Putting it another way, spare me your pearl clutching about this.

What Steve M says.

Repealing Obamacare would provide a tax cut averaging $7 million for each of the 400 highest-earning taxpayers. Hope that’s what you wanted, Trump voters.

“A coalition of university professors and scientists around the United States have taken on a new role in recent weeks: Defenders of facts and truth against the impending antiscience Trump administration.”

Please only ask Dear Leader simple questions. Preferably with short words.

RIP, William Peter Blatty, author and screenwriter of The Exorcist.

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