Category: Tech

• Several fake electors say they regret their actions in the aftermath of the 2020 election, per WaPo.
• “Hindsight provides a wealth of knowledge we don’t have at the time,” one fake elector said.
• In recent months, 25 of the 84 fake electors have been charged with felonies.

It was one of the most bizarre aspects of the 2020 presidential election’s aftermath: Fake electors in states won by Joe Biden convened in an attempt to award Electoral College votes to Donald Trump.

The plans failed, but several of the 84 GOP presidential electors who met to cast ballots for Trump told The Washington Post that they wouldn’t do it again. Some of the electors are now entangled in criminal probes and could face criminal charges, with mounting legal expenses also adding to their worries.

In December 2020, Republican activist James “Ken” Carroll cast an electoral vote for Trump at the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta as part of an “alternate” slate of delegates, despite Biden’s certified victory in the former Republican stronghold-turned-swing state. He was one of 16 GOP signatories to do so.

But Carroll told The Post that he wouldn’t take the same action if he could go back in time.

“Knowing what I know now? No,” Carroll said. “But hindsight provides a wealth of knowledge we don’t have at the time of an event.”

In recent months, 25 of the 84 electors involved in alternate elector schemes have been charged with a series of felonies, and 10 additional electors have agreed not to put their names forward as legitimate electors in any election featuring Trump on the ballot.

In Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, fake electors sought to overturn the election by filing paperwork stating that it was Trump — and not Biden — who had truly won the election.

Last week, the 10 bogus electors involved in the electoral scheme in Wisconsin had to accept Trump’s statewide loss in the 2020 race as part of a settlement, according to The New York Times. They are also prohibited from serving as electors in 2024 or for any race where Trump is listed as a candidate.

Andrew Hitt, an attorney and former chairman of the Wisconsin Republican Party in 2020 — and a fake elector — insisted that the GOP electors crafted their plan in the event that the courts ruled that Trump had won the state. (Biden won Wisconsin by roughly 20,000 votes out of nearly 3.3 million ballots cast, but in November 2020, the Trump campaign had challenged the victory in court.)

“The Wisconsin electors were tricked and misled into participating in what became the alternate elector scheme and would have never taken any actions had we known that there were ulterior reasons beyond preserving an ongoing legal strategy,” Hitt said in a statement last week.

Hitt, who told The Post that he won’t be backing Trump again in 2024, added that even if he could serve as an official elector next year, he’d take a pass.

“How do you convey laughter in a newspaper article?” he said. “No, I will not be serving as an elector again.”

• When AOC won her first House primary, she was a breakout star of the growing progressive movement.
• And there was an intense focus on the left-wing groups that had thrown their support behind her bid.
• But in the new book “The Squad,” AOC said she didn’t win solely on the efforts of those groups.

When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez first entered the national political discourse, she had just upset Rep. Joe Crowley of New York in a 2018 Democratic primary that had long been seen as a lock for the then-congressman, who at the time was the No. 4 House Democrat.

Ocasio-Cortez campaigned relentlessly in the 14th congressional district, anchored in the Bronx and Queens, arguing that many of its constituents — notably its burgeoning Latino and working-class immigrant communities — were underrepresented. And her rise to prominence was often accompanied by stories about the growing influence of progressive groups, which are often credited with helping her defeat Crowley.

But in the newly-released book, “The Squad,” Ocasio-Cortez told author Ryan Grim that she didn’t defeat Crowley in her first congressional primary because of left-wing groups like Justice Democrats and the Democratic Socialists of America.

“Like as much as I love them, I did not win my election because of DSA. Or even JD. Or any of these orgs,” she said. “They all either abandoned, ignored, or fought with me and then swooped in at the last moment when I busted my whole ass for a long time to become even remotely viable.”

“They all had important contributions but, to be honest, they were pretty much nowhere until the month before the primary,” Ocasio-Cortez continued. “Really it was [Alexandra] Rojas at JD that arguably helped the most. But we had built everything from scratch and did the hardest parts and then when it looked appealing enough they jumped in.”

The reflections from Ocasio-Cortez, who was elected to the House in the 2018 general election and reelected in 2020 and 2022, came as she remarked on the difficulties encountered in her second term when she began to receive increasingly pointed pushback from some progressives.

“That time really forced me to kind of sit with who my base was,” she told Grim. “Because for a while it did not feel like the left.”

Grim noted in the book that Waleed Shahid, the progressive strategist and former spokesperson for Justice Democrats, had aided Ocasio-Cortez in building her campaign operation early on. And, in the book, he detailed how Justice Democrats, at one point, had focused their email and donor list on bringing in fundraising dollars for Ocasio-Cortez.

But Grim also wrote in the book that Ocasio-Cortez felt as though the work performed by Justice Democrats, which had played a more robust role in various aspects of her campaign, had started to meld with that of the Democratic Socialists of America, whose assistance was helpful but came at a much later time.

And that presented more personal reflections for Ocasio-Cortez, who, amid the criticism she received in her second term, had to identify her actual base of supporters among a broader group of progressives.

“There is a certain faction of the left that thinks they own or are responsible for electing a candidate just because that candidate happens to be ideologically left on their own,” the congresswoman told Grim. “But in the actual work of getting elected, like it’s just these armchair people who talk shit but don’t do shit. And listening to people who don’t do shit is how you lose whatever you’ve built.”

Since taking office in 2019, Ocasio-Cortez has become one of the most high-profile progressive politicians in the country. And she has used that influence to push President Joe Biden to enact more progressive positions on issues like the environment and student-loan reform.

Our experts answer readers’ credit card questions and write unbiased product reviews (here’s how we assess credit cards). In some cases, we receive a commission from our partners; however, our opinions are our own. Terms apply to offers listed on this page.

The family of Chase Sapphire credit cards has helped catapult travel rewards into a mainstream obsession. The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is still one of the most popular rewards credit cards despite debuting more than a decade ago, and the Chase Sapphire Reserve® was so in-demand that Chase ran out of metal cards when it launched in 2016.

These cards both earn Chase Ultimate Rewards® points— some of the most valuable credit card rewards around, so having either the Sapphire Preferred Card or the Chase Sapphire Reserve is a smart move, especially if you want to use points for free travel. But there are plenty of differences, as well.

Let’s dig into the unique aspects of two of the best travel credit cards to help make your choice easier.

Chase Sapphire Preferred vs Chase Sapphire Reserve

Welcome Offers

The Sapphire Preferred Card currently offers new cardholders 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening. That’s worth around $1,080 in travel, based on Insider’s points and miles valuations which peg Chase points value at 1.8 cents each.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve comes with its standard bonus of 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening (worth an estimated $1,080 in travel).

Both of these bonuses are fantastic.

Redeeming Points

Chase offers cardholders great options for using Ultimate Rewards points, including several that don’t involve travel. You can exchange them for cash back at 1 cent per point, or use them to purchase travel through the Chase Ultimate Rewards Travel Portal — with a 25% bonus for Sapphire Preferred Card cardholders. Best of all, you can transfer points to Chase’s airline and hotel partners. 

With the Chase Sapphire Reserve, you can redeem points the same way, with one difference. When using them to purchase travel through Chase, you’ll get a 50% bonus, instead of 25% with the Sapphire Preferred Card.

Because of this final detail, the Chase Sapphire Reserve ekes out a victory.

Winner: Chase Sapphire Reserve

Chase Sapphire Preferred vs Reserve Ongoing Rewards Rates

For regular spending, the Sapphire Preferred Card earns:

• 5 points per dollar on Lyft rides through March 2025
• 5 points per dollar on all travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards
• 3 points per dollar on dining, including eligible delivery services, takeout, and dining out 
• 3 points per dollar on select streaming services
• 3 points per dollar on online grocery purchases (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs)
• 2 points per dollar on other travel 
• 1 point per dollar on everything else

That’s nothing to sneeze at; dining, streaming services, groceries, and travel account for most of the spending many of us do each month.

But the Chase Sapphire Reserve offers its own competitive categories:

• 10 points per dollar on Lyft rides through March 2025
• 10 points per dollar on Chase Dining purchases through Chase Ultimate Rewards
• 10 points per dollar on hotel stays and car rentals purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards
• 5 points per dollar on air travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards
• 3 points per dollar on other travel (after earning the $300 travel credit) and dining
• 1 point per dollar on everything else

You can tell that this card is more targeted toward travelers than the Sapphire Preferred Card, which offers a bonus for a variety of everyday non-travel purchases. Because of that, we’ll give the victory to the Sapphire Preferred Card.

Winner: Sapphire Preferred Card

Chase Sapphire Preferred vs Chase Sapphire Reserve Travel Insurance

Using a credit card with travel insurance to pay for your trip can really save the day if things go wrong. Chase Sapphire card travel insurance is among best coverage in the industry. But as you can see, the Chase Sapphire Reserve trounces the Sapphire Preferred Card in a few categories. It’s got better primary rental car insurance, a trip delay insurance that activates in half the time, emergency medical and dental insurance, and more.

Here’s a side-by-side comparison:

Winner: Chase Sapphire Reserve

Chase Sapphire Preferred vs Reserve General Benefits

The biggest difference between these cards are the ongoing benefits. These are the things that matter long after you’ve spent your massive welcome bonus.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve offers an up to $300 annual travel credit, access to more than 1,300 airport lounges through the Priority Pass network, elite benefits with a few car rental agencies, and unlimited free access to new Chase Sapphire airport lounges. you’ll also be able to use Reserved by Sapphire restaurant reservations.

Meanwhile, the Sapphire Preferred Card provides up to $50 per year in statement credits for hotels booked through the Chase Ultimate Rewards Travel Portal. Cardholders will also receive an anniversary bonus equal to 10% of all purchases made in the previous year (which isn’t that great).

Both the Chase Sapphire Reserve and Sapphire Preferred Card cardholders also get a complimentary DashPass membership, which waives delivery fees on orders of $12 or more (activation required, through December 31, 2024). The Chase Sapphire Reserve also offers a $5 monthly DoorDash in-app credit through December 2024.

Also, both Sapphire cards get Instacart and Instacart+ benefits. With the Chase Sapphire Reserve, you’ll get a complimentary year of Instacart+ membership (usually $99 annually) — including benefits like free delivery and up to a $15 statement credit towards Instacart purchases each month. And with the Sapphire Preferred Card, you’ll get six months of Instacart+ membership and benefits — including up to $15 statement credits per quarter (available through July 2024). 

Through March 2025, the Chase Sapphire Reserve offers 10x points on Lyft rides — a great return on spending — while the Sapphire Preferred Card offers 5x points. Both cards also offer $10 per month in Gopuff credits through December 2023. But only the Chase Sapphire Reserve offers a complimentary two-year Lyft Pink All Access membership, which comes with perks like ride discounts, unlimited bike rides, and priority pickup.

Winner: Chase Sapphire Reserve

Chase Sapphire Preferred and Sapphire Reserve Annual Fees

The Sapphire Preferred Card charges a $95 annual fee. The Chase Sapphire Reserve charges a $550 annual fee.

There appears to be an undisputed winner, but there’s not. When debating whether or not to pay an annual fee, there’s only one thing you should concern yourself with: Will the card’s benefits save you more than you’ll pay in annual fees?

The Sapphire Preferred Card’s lower annual fee is accompanied by far fewer valuable benefits. Someone who would regularly use perks like airport lounge access and the $300 annual travel credit may save many hundreds of dollars beyond the Chase Sapphire Reserve — making it the better deal.

However, because likely fewer people are willing to make the initial $550 investment in the Chase Sapphire Reserve, we’ll crown the Sapphire Preferred Card in this category.

Winner: Sapphire Preferred Card

 

How to Decide Which Chase Sapphire Card Is Best for You 

Ultimately, the two biggest things to consider when deciding between the cards are whether you’re willing to pay the higher annual fee for the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, and whether the card’s additional benefits and bonus categories make it worth that higher fee.

Beyond that, take a look at the difference in perks and see which lines up more closely with your travel and spending habits. 

• Donald Trump is back speaking to reporters in the hallway outside his New York City fraud trial.
• He raged against the judge and insulted the state’s attorney general.
• Here’s why pretty much everything he said Thursday morning was wrong.

Donald Trump is back, in person, at his $250 million civil fraud trial in New York, where state Attorney General Letitia James hopes a judge will fine him at least $250 million for what a judge has already found were a decade’s worth of bogus financial statements.

As usual when he visits the trial, Trump made a couple of speeches. And as usual, almost everything he said, beyond “Thank you very much, everybody,” does not stand up to even the most basic fact-checking.

Here is Business Insider’s point-by-point look at what he told reporters outside the trial on Thursday morning.

The case is a ‘witch hunt’

“Thank you very much everybody. We appreciate you being here. This is a witch hunt the likes of which probably nobody has ever seen.

“We’ve put on a case that is absolutely 100 percent – There’s not a judge in the country that wouldn’t have given us a total victory but there’s not a judge in the country that would have even taken this case. This is a witch hunt and it’s a very corrupt trial.”

Trump’s cries of “bias” and “witch hunt” stretch back to the start of James’ four-year pursuit of the former president. At one point, his lawyers compiled an 11-page spreadsheet of her anti-Trump statements. New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, the judge in the ongoing trial, has repeatedly slapped down Trump’s claims that James, a Democrat, is out to get the leader of the Republican Party. At one point he said the evidence against Trump could fill the courtroom.

We already “won” in the appellate courts

“We won this case. We won this case at the appellate division. Most of it. It covers about 90% of the case. We won this case at the appellate division. And this judge refuses to acknowledge the appellate division.

“He said very specifically, ‘We’re going forward.’ Because there’s something wrong here” [Trump motions to his head and spins his finger].

The June 27, 2023, appellate decision that Trump referred to actually denied Trump’s motion to dismiss, in its entirety, the attorney general’s massive lawsuit, which is the trial’s underlying case.

The only win for Trump’s side was that the appellate judges removed all alleged frauds committed prior to 2014 and, in some instances, prior to 2016, saying they were too old under the state’s statute of limitations.

Really, though, I “won”

“We won this case — remember this. Just put it in your heads — this case was won at the appellate division and the judge refuses to do what the appellate division demands he do. Nobody’s ever seen anything like this.

“When you win at the appellate division, that’s your high court. The judge has to be bound by what their decision is. But we won at the appellate division.”

Again, according to New York’s Appellate Division, First Department, no.

OK, I won about “90%’”

“Part of that victory was Ivanka not having to put herself through this. And they ruled that. But the bigger part of it was about 90% — because of statute of limitations — about 90% of the case disappears. So remember this: we won the case at the appellate division, the high court, and this judge refuses to acknowledge that victory or that demand. And that’s very serious.

“So we’re going in now, we have an expert witness, one of the great experts in the country and I hope you’ll all be able to listen to him. But it’ll just be another day.”

There is no 90% win for Trump’s side. The January appellate decision actually left the entirety of the state’s fraud claims in place with the sole exception of removing Ivanka Trump as a defendant, in a nod to her having left the Trump Organization after the 2016 election, to work for her father’s administration.

Timothy A Clary/Getty Images

The banks “love us” and there are “no victims”

“If you look at the case, we did nothing wrong, there were no victims, the bank loves us, the bank testified they love us. We did absolutely nothing wrong. We never even defaulted, we never had a default letter sent to us. The bank said we were a perfect customer. The bank didn’t even know why they were here.”

It is true that Trump never defaulted on the loans in question, and that he never missed a payment or even paid late, according to testimony by the state’s own witness.

But the attorney general and Engoron have said that this is beside the point because you can’t lie to banks in financial documents, period.

And there are still victims, the state alleges.

In relying on Trump’s exaggerations, Deutsche Bank lost out on $168 million in interest payments between 2014 and 2023, they allege.

“Trump’s crimes are not victimless,” James told reporters a year ago. “When the well-connected and powerful break the law to get more money than they are entitled to, it reduces resources available to working people, small businesses, and taxpayers.”

Letitia James lets people get murdered “all over the streets”

“And yet your people are being murdered outside — all over the streets, they’re being murdered. There’s violent crime — and yet this attorney general — who’s crazed. She’s a lunatic.”

“Lunatic” is one of Trump’s most frequent James insults, including during the trial’s third week, when he claimed “people” have recorded her “ranting and raving like a lunatic.”  Other favorite insults for James include “racist” and, strangely, “Peek-a-boo.”

As for letting people get murdered, overall crime, and especially violent crime, is actually down in New York City, according to NYPD statistics. Looking at the first half of 2023, shootings are down 24.7 percent over the first half of 2022, the NYPD said July.

The judge “ruled against me” before the case even started

“The attorney general sits here because she knows that she has a judge that no matter all the evidence that judge is going to rule in her favor. He ruled against me before the case even started. The case hadn’t started, he knew nothing, and he ruled against me.”

Trump is referring to Engoron’s pre-trial ruling, from late September, which was based on the record of more than two years of pretrial litigation that he personally presided over.

The ruling found Trump inflated his worth to banks and insurers by at least $2 billion a year in each of a decade’s worth of annual financial statements.   

The judge said Mar-a-Lago estate was only worth $18 million

“The other thing is this: He valued Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, because that was needed for her case, at a value of $18 million, when in fact it’s worth anywhere from 50 to 100 times that amount. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it.”

“But just remember what I said at the beginning: We won at the appellate division and this judge refuses to honor that victory or that decision or that demand.”

This has been one of Trump’s most frequently repeated misstatements concerning the judge and the fraud trial. In fact, the judge never valued Mar-a-Lago at $18 million. The judge has, though, referred to prior assessments of the property by Palm Beach officials that ranged from $18 million to $27.6 million between 2011 and 2021. 

The AG’s office says that Trump lied to banks by claiming Mar-a-Lago is worth anywhere from $347 million to as much as $739 million in a decade of personal net-worth statements. On Tuesday, a Trump expert testified that Mar-a-Lago is worth more than $1 billion – and he invited the AG and judge to visit in person and see for themselves.

• This year on TikTok gave us grim Grimace shake reactions, the Wes Anderson film aesthetic, Keith Lee’s restaurant reviews, and more.
• Together, the most popular clips on the social media app amassed billions of views this year.
• Here’s a look at the top 10 TikToks of 2023 in the US, according to the company itself.

It was the year of “girl dinner,” obsessions with the Roman empire, and learning what on earth a beige flag is — at least according to TikTok.

The social media company released a list Wednesday highlighting the biggest trends and clips on its platform in 2023.

Viral TikTok phenomena this year included sharing “canon events” and “things that altered my brain chemistry,” as well as the satirical ’90s Euro dance-esque “Planet of the Bass,” and a whole lot of girl-inspired trends.

Individual clips that became hits on TikTok, sometimes with less clear ties to such large trends, also racked up cumulative billions of views.

Here’s a look at the 10 most popular TikToks of the year in the US, according to the company:

10. A ceramicist’s compilation of pottery fails and bloopers accrued over a month.

9. A wholesome motivational message from an animated friend.

   8. One woman pranking her husband with a funny, if inventive, method to avoid tearing up when cutting onions.

      7. A talkative French bulldog puppy that refuses to sleep.

      6. An ASMR-style clip of cooking fried chicken.

         5. A man’s musical performance in a parking garage.

            4. Selena Gomez’s makeup routine before an early morning flight.

               3. A five-second clip of a huge kitten.

                  2. One man’s DIY Iron Man on his ceiling.

                     1. One woman’s makeup tutorial.

• A man living in his mother’s Airbnb home secretly filmed a guest naked and then tried to blackmail her, prosecutors allege.
• Kevin Strutz of Ceres, California, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to over 3 years in prison. 
• Prosecutors say Strutz admitted to hiding a cell phone camera in a basket on the bathroom counter. 

The son of an Airbnb host was sentenced to prison in connection to allegations that he secretly filmed a guest in the shower and tried to blackmail her into sending him an explicit video.

Kevin Strutz, a 51-year-old man from Ceres, California, pleaded guilty to two counts of cyberstalking earlier this year, according to the US Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of California.

Prosecutors alleged that in 2020, Strutz began cyberstalking a young woman after she rented out a room in Strutz’s mother’s Ceres home through Airbnb. Strutz and his mother were also living in the home at the time, the complaint says.

The woman, a traveling occupational therapist who isn’t named in the court filings, had been staying at the home for about a month when she discovered an unnerving message addressed to her.

She found the message — which talked about how “sexy” she was — on a cell phone in the shared bathroom, according to the criminal complaint.

She contacted Airbnb and immediately found another place to stay.

After she left, she got sexually explicit messages on Facebook from two accounts linked to Strutz, who she says she barely interacted with at the home, according to the complaint. The woman called local police and again told Airbnb what happened.

At the time, Airbnb said in a statement that it was working with the FBI over the allegations.

“We have no tolerance for the reported behavior and worked quickly to support the survivor once she brought it to our attention, including banning the associated host accounts from our platform at the time,” the company told CBS News.

The graphic messages continued for several months until Strutz sent her a nude image of herself from when she showered in the Airbnb bathroom, prosecutors allege. He threatened to send the photo to all of her contacts unless she sent a video of herself masturbating, Strutz admitted in his plea agreement.

She then blocked both of Strutz’s accounts and followed up again with the police, prosecutors said in the complaint, adding that she never responded to Strutz’s messages.

Strutz admitted he filmed the guest using a cell phone he had hidden in a basket on the bathroom counter, prosecutors allege in the complaint.

Strutz’s conviction on two counts of stalking also related to a 2018 incident in which he left 15 handwritten letters on a separate victim’s car — in addition to phone calls and Facebook messages from five different accounts — that included threats trying to coerce her into having sex with him, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California.

Last week, Strutz was sentenced to three years and four months in prison, along with three years of supervised release and a small fine.

Prior to the conviction, Strutz already had a lengthy rap sheet including stalking, burglary, robbery, and assault with a deadly weapon, among others, prosecutors said in the criminal complaint.