Wednesday, July 31, 2019
Winners And Losers
Washington Post: Winners and losers from Night 1 of the second Democratic debate By Aaron Blake
Winners - Elizabeth Warren, John Delaney, Pete Buttigieg, Marianne Williamson
The Market On Wednesday
Good morning. At 9:00 a.m. ET DOW futures are +69 and the price of oil per barrel is up. The market is poised to open moderately higher.
CNN: GE burns through another $1 billion. But its outlook is improving By Matt Egan
CNN: GE burns through another $1 billion. But its outlook is improving By Matt Egan
Tuesday, July 30, 2019
Califronia
Yahoo: California governor signs bill requiring tax returns, including Trump's, (in order) to appear on ballot
Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill Tuesday morning that will require presidential candidates to provide five years of tax returns in order to appear on California primary ballots in March.
Every Time
Racists - "Give them an inch, they’ll take a yard. Give them a yard, they’ll burn a cross on it every time."
Stuck
NY Times: A Racist Stuck in the Past - In Trump’s mind, it’s still 1989. By Paul Krugman
On the other hand, the social state of rural America — white rural America — is deteriorating. To the extent that there really is such a thing as American carnage — and we are in fact seeing rising age-adjusted mortality and declining life expectancy — it’s concentrated among less-educated whites, especially in rural areas, who are suffering from a surge in “deaths of despair” from opioids, suicide and alcohol that has pushed their mortality rates above those of African-Americans.
The Market On Tuesday
Good morning. At 8:40 a.m. ET DOW futures are -84 and the price of oil per barrel is up. The market is poised to open significantly lower.
CNN: Pound hits a fresh two-year low as Brexit fears spook investors By Julia Horowitz
CNN: Pound hits a fresh two-year low as Brexit fears spook investors By Julia Horowitz
Monday, July 29, 2019
The Market On Monday
Good morning. At 8:20 a.m. ET DOW futures are +20 and the price of oil per barrel is up. The market is poised to open modestly higher.
CNN: Stocks could get interesting again after the Fed cuts rates By Anneken Tappe
CNN: Stocks could get interesting again after the Fed cuts rates By Anneken Tappe
Friday, July 26, 2019
Iran
Washington Post: It’s not just the Russians anymore as Iranians and others turn up disinformation efforts ahead of 2020 vote By Craig Timberg and Tony Romm
But it was Iranians, not Russians, who created @AliciaHernan3, complete with a picture of a blonde woman with large, round-framed glasses and a turtleneck sweater. It was one of more than 7,000 phony accounts from Iran that Twitter has shut down this year alone.
Mitch McConnell - America's Other Disease
NY Times: Russia Targeted Election Systems in All 50 States, Report Finds By David E. Sanger and Catie Edmondson
“It’s just a highly partisan bill from the same folks who spent two years hyping up a conspiracy theory about President Trump and Russia and who continue to ignore this administration’s progress at correcting the Obama administration’s failure on this subject,” Mr. McConnell said of the Democratic bill.
The Market On Friday
Good morning. At 9:15 a.m. ET DOW futures are +75 and the price of oil per barrel is up. The market is poised to open moderately higher.
CNN: Amazon streak ends; Google rebounds; Vision Fund 2 By Charles Riley
CNN: Amazon streak ends; Google rebounds; Vision Fund 2 By Charles Riley
Thursday, July 25, 2019
Ditch Mitch
Ditch Mitch - How we plan to Ditch Mitch
For too long, Mitch McConnell has not been held accountable for his obstruction and hyper-partisanship in the Senate. That is why we started Ditch Mitch. We’re a completely grassroots-funded organization solely dedicated to holding Mitch McConnell accountable, supporting his future Democratic opponent, and defeating Mitch once and for all in 2020.
McConnell Shows Coal Miners The Boot
Recall Trump's promise to bring back coal. Also recall the GOP's reliance on red states like Kentucky in general. Now watch McConnell give miners with black lung disease two minutes of his time and then the door, he gave them the boot. Here's the real kicker, these miners will vote for Trump in 2020 and re-elect McConnell.
Reuters: U.S. coal miners discouraged by black lung meeting with McConnell
Reuters: U.S. coal miners discouraged by black lung meeting with McConnell
'House Insanity Caucus'
Salon: Robert Mueller vs. the House Insanity Caucus: There were no survivors - It was long stretches of boredom interrupted by patches of madness — and you needed a Fox News decoder ring by Andrew O'Hehir
...the most important Republican commandment of the Trump era: Never ask questions that might actually have answers.
Faltering
I fear Mueller might be suffering in the early stages of dementia.
Washington Post: On Mueller’s final day on the national stage, a halting, faltering performance
Washington Post: On Mueller’s final day on the national stage, a halting, faltering performance
This
The Russians severely interfered in the 2016 election. Trump has been advised of this, and yet has done nothing, virtually nothing to counter this attack on American democracy. In fact he has stood there and acquiesced to Putin, parroting Putin's own words that Russia had nothing to do with it at all. Trump did this in the face of American intelligence agencies ringing the alarm bell and warning us. Regardless of what one thinks about Trump, Trump is responsible for protecting the USA from attacks and we were attacked. As he has not risen to the responsibility of his job in protecting American democracy, he must be impeached. Beyond that, and in this light, Trump is a disgrace to his office, he has failed to honor his responsibilities.
The Market On Thursday
Good morning. At 8:20 a.m. ET DOW futures are +111 and the price of oil per barrel is up. The market is poised to open significantly higher.
CNN: Netflix is about to snap its worst losing streak in 5 years By Paul R. La Monica
CNN: Netflix is about to snap its worst losing streak in 5 years By Paul R. La Monica
Wednesday, July 24, 2019
Violent
Salon: Bandy Lee to Robert Mueller: Time to stop "enabling Trump's disease" - Yale psychiatrist hopes Mueller can tell us more about a damaged president driven by "insecurity and emptiness" by Chauncey DeVega
"Donald Trump has a great attraction to violence. Trump also has a desire for and takes pleasure in violence. Part of this is that Trump wants to destroy signs of health and life because he is lacking in them. In fact, when a person who feels empty inside sees vitality and signs of life among other people, it is very common for such people to feel envious. As such they want to destroy the signs of life and health they see around them."
Have An Excellent Wednesday
I will be watching and carefully listening to Mueller, please do the same. This is an historic event in American political history.
The Market On Wednesday
Good morning. At 8:40 a.m. ET DOW futures are -94 and the price of oil per barrel is up. The market is poised to open significantly lower.
CNN: Aston Martin is selling way fewer cars in Europe than last year By Laura He
CNN: Aston Martin is selling way fewer cars in Europe than last year By Laura He
Tuesday, July 23, 2019
Except
NY Times: Everyone’s an Idiot, Except Donald Trump - Calculation and impulse collide to produce one of the ugliest stretches of the president’s first term. By Gail Collins and Bret Stephens
But I basically think he’s just impulsively spewing from his awful soul.
The Market On Tuesday
Good morning. At 8:25 a.m. ET DOW futures are +106 and the price of oil per barrel is down. The market is poised to open significantly higher.
CNN: Could the pound crash to $1? A 'Boris Brexit' might make it happen By Julia Horowitz
CNN: Could the pound crash to $1? A 'Boris Brexit' might make it happen By Julia Horowitz
Monday, July 22, 2019
Inner
The Atlantic: The Running Conversation in Your Head - What a close study of “inner speech” reveals about why humans talk to themselves.
One researcher the book cites clocks inner speech at an average pace of 4,000 words per minute—10 times faster than verbal speech. And it’s often more condensed...
The Market On Monday
Good morning. At 9:20 a.m. ET DOW futures are +53 and the price of oil per barrel is up. The market is poised to open moderately higher.
CNN: How to avoid a recession: End the trade war By Paul R. La Monica
CNN: How to avoid a recession: End the trade war By Paul R. La Monica
Friday, July 19, 2019
Weekend!
Have an excellent weekend! See you bright and early Monday morning.
work by Arshile Gorky 1904 - 1948
work by Arshile Gorky 1904 - 1948
Feeding America Opiods
NY Times: 3,271 Pill Bottles, a Town of 2,831: Court Filings Say Corporations Fed Opioid Epidemic - Cities and counties are suing major drugstore chains and Walmart, contending they distributed billions of painkillers that devastated communities.
The devastation was so extreme that one Ohio county resorted to a mobile morgue to handle all the corpses of people who died from overdoses.
Sugar Sugar
Elemental: There Is No Such Thing as a Sugar Rush - Scientists are debunking the link to hyperactivity by Adam Popescu
...the new research suggests eating sweet foods actually causes people to experience the opposite: fatigue and a lack of alertness.
The Lies
Here we have Trump repeating the far right-wing conspiracy theory that Ilhan Omar is married to her brother. It's beyond belief that an American president would stoop to such a low, and then even consider saying something like this. Yet it's Trump, with Trump we do not expect anything better than this. It's an American tragedy. Trump's 'base' hears this and are filled with glee, all while knowing full well that he is lying. The right-wing despises democracy.
“Well, there’s a lot of talk about the fact that she was married to her brother. I know nothing about it. I hear she was married to her brother. You’re asking me a question about it. I don’t know, but I’m sure that somebody would be looking at that.”
Nothing
The Atlantic: By Republican Standards, Almost Nothing Is Racist - When Democrats are accused of anti-Semitism, Republicans understand that coded language can be hurtful. But Trump’s racist comments get a pass. by Peter Beinart - Professor of journalism at the City University of New York
Trump’s own Equal Employment Opportunity Commission uses the phrase Go back to where you came from as one of its examples of discrimination based on national origin.
Yeah, Right
NY Times: Trump Disavows ‘Send Her Back’ Chant as G.O.P. Frets Over Ugly Phrase By Julie Hirschfeld Davis, Maggie Haberman and Michael Crowley
Nervous Republicans, from senior members of Congress to his own daughter Ivanka, urged President Trump on Thursday to repudiate the “send her back” chant directed at a Somali-born congresswoman during his speech the night before at a rally in North Carolina, amid widespread fears that the rally had veered into territory that could hurt their party in 2020.
The Market On Friday
Good morning. At 9:15 a.m. ET DOW futures are +108 and the price of oil per barrel is up. The market is poised to open significantly higher.
CNN: Boeing's 737 hit; Iran tensions and oil; Microsoft soars By Julia Horowitz
CNN: Boeing's 737 hit; Iran tensions and oil; Microsoft soars By Julia Horowitz
Thursday, July 18, 2019
Pure Bullshite From Trump
What a disgusting person Trump is. Disgusting.
Yahoo: Trump says not happy with backers' 'send her back' chant
Yahoo: Trump says not happy with backers' 'send her back' chant
He said he "would certainly try" to stop the chant should it return at a subsequent rally.
The Market On Thursday
Good morning. At 9:30 a.m. ET DOW futures are -91 and the price of oil per barrel is down. The market has opened significantly lower.
CNN: Dow futures point at third day of losses By Anneken Tappe
CNN: Dow futures point at third day of losses By Anneken Tappe
Wednesday, July 17, 2019
Randal L Meek
Randal L Meek is a singer/songwriter and finger-style guitarist hailing from Colorado USA who is making outstanding waves in the indie music world. By outstanding we are talking about hundreds of thousands of plays over a relatively short period of time with no one doubting that number will soon be reaching and passing the million listen mark. So how does this happen especially in a time when you could go into almost any community in the world and shake any tree with the probability that a really great singer/guitarist will fall out of it? For clarity and simplicity’s sake I believe there are two fundamental reasons why Randal makes this happen.
First comes the music. Randal is writing, playing, and producing a fine catalogue of music in the finger-style acoustic guitar and singer/songwriter genre. How does someone do that? I’ve been thinking about this in relation to Randal’s music and it goes beyond a bottom-line ability to sing and play an instrument. When someone touches a very basic honest emotional core in themselves and then honestly translates that with song, people will resonate with it, and people will like it. The keyword is honesty, honest music. The torch gets passed from something within to anyone willing to listen, and Randal to his credit has done this. We can’t say it’s a formula because that's incomplete, not warm enough, and you need that personal honest warm touch.
Second, Randal is also a very prolific promoter of his work. Hello all artists, this is what it takes! You have to be active, once is not enough, one email or post is not enough. Randal blows me away with his activity in letting people know what he has to offer and guess what? It really helps and works! Many people in the indie world see Randal as a model for how to take good solid music work into the next step which is building an audience. This is where good things happen beyond knowing that you yourself are a fine artist. This is when other people will come to recognize that as well. In addition by creating popular playlists like Acoustic Guitar Magic, Randal is able to promote dozens of other artists in their quest for more listeners. For the novice, a playlist is about a specific grouping of similar genre music.
Let’s look at a few details in Randal’s music. As a vocalist and to my ear, Randal is a singer more in the Bob Croce, James Taylor vein with a clear, welcoming, and warm voice. This is a style of singing that will lull you into a very satisfied relaxed place. Regarding his guitar work, Randal has kindly disclosed that he likes to use drop D tuning, open G tuning, and CGDGAD tuning. Guitarists will know that the CGDGAD in particular gets some extra low bass notes on the guitar and helps to create a beautiful all round resonance on the steel string acoustic. Randal plays “with all fingernails or fingernails and thumb pick.” Also Randal likes to play mostly Breedlove guitars, but also plays a Dana Bourgeois ‘Martin Simpson Model’, and he is soon to be adding a ‘Franklin’ by Nick Kukich to his guitar family. Check out the two embedded clips below.
On Spotify - Randal L Meek, on Youtube - Randal L Meek, and Randal’s personal website - Randal L Meek
On social media - @randallmeekmus1, and on Facebook - Randal Meek
‘Dave’s Song’
Took Me By Surprise’
Randal L Meek is a solo finger-style guitar artist and singer/songwriter living in Boulder and Nederland, CO.
Randal's songs, and his instrumentals, are gentle and authentic with a warm and sincere delivery that is both relaxing and emotional and the perfect accompaniment for relaxing to your own "Life On The Deck”!
76 Billion
Washington Post: 76 billion opioid pills: Newly released federal data unmasks the epidemicvBy Scott Higham, Sari Horwitz and Steven Rich
America’s largest drug companies saturated the country with 76 billion oxycodone and hydrocodone pain pills from 2006 through 2012 as the nation’s deadliest drug epidemic spun out of control...
Used
Washington Post: Trump’s racist comments can be used against him in court as judges cite them to block policies By Fred Barbash
President Trump’s latest racist remarks, like many of his comments before them, can and will be used against him in court.
Crackpot Dystopia
NY Times: ‘Trump’s Going to Get Re-elected, Isn’t He?’ Voters have reason to worry. By Thomas L. Friedman
Four years of Trump feeling validated in all the crazy stuff he’s done and said. Four years of Trump unburdened by the need to run for re-election and able to amplify his racism, make Ivanka secretary of state, appoint even more crackpots to his cabinet and likely get to name two right-wing Supreme Court justices under the age of 40.
Strategic Racism
NY Times: Trump Sets the 2020 Tone: Like 2016, Only This Time ‘the Squad’ Is Here By Jeremy W. Peters, Annie Karni and Maggie Haberman
With three days of attacks on four liberal, minority freshman congresswomen, President Trump and the Republicans have sent the clearest signal yet that their approach to 2020 will be a racially divisive reprise of the strategy that helped Mr. Trump narrowly capture the White House in 2016.
Four! Only Four, How Pathetic
NY Times: The Republicans Who Voted to Condemn Trump’s Remarks (and Other Things to Know) By Sheryl Gay Stolberg
Only four Republicans — Representatives Will Hurd of Texas, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Fred Upton of Michigan, Susan W. Brooks of Indiana — broke with their party to vote against Mr. Trump.
The Market On Wednesday
Good morning. At 9:20 a.m. ET DOW futures are -6 and the price of oil per barrel is up. The market is poised to open slightly lower.
CNN: 3 reasons to fear America's massive $70 trillion debt pile By Anneken Tappe
CNN: 3 reasons to fear America's massive $70 trillion debt pile By Anneken Tappe
Tuesday, July 16, 2019
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