Tuesday, February 28, 2023
Drones
Yahoo News: Drones fly deep inside Russia; Putin orders border tightened By Susie Blann
Drones that the Kremlin said were launched by Ukraine flew deep inside Russian territory, including one that got within 100 kilometers (60 miles) of Moscow...
Slotkin
Washington Post: Opinion - Democrats would be smart to follow Elissa Slotkin’s example By Jennifer Rubin
Noting that she served under both a Republican and Democratic president, she makes clear her enemies are America’s enemies, stressing her CIA service in Iraq. Her objective is not pummeling Republicans, but solving problem...
Missouri
“Our state is at war with our family,” Bogard said. “It’s not an exaggeration that we are up at night talking about when and how far we might have to flee.”
War
At a different site, about an hour away, are 170 sheep, goats and llamas that Domivka volunteers are caring for on a plot of donated land. The animals belonged to a petting zoo in Zaporizhzhia that had to be abandoned.
Origin
Scientists who have studied the genetics of the virus, and the patterns by which it spread, say the most likely cause is that the virus jumped from live mammals to humans — a scientific phenomenon known as “zoonotic spillover”
The Market On Tuesday
Good morning. At 7:05 a.m. ET DOW futures are +76, S&P futures are +10.5, and NASDAQ futures are +36.5. The market is poised to open moderately higher.
CNN: Yellen says ‘so far, so good’ in US inflation battle By Alicia Wallace
Monday, February 27, 2023
Perry
Washington Post: Opinion - If courts reject Perry’s defense, Trump and MAGA lawmakers should panic By Jennifer Rubin
A sitting congressman may have conspired with other members of Congress and with the White House to stage a coup.
Unlike
I am convinced that the challenges facing the United States are serious, and its citizens need to become better aware of them.
Over the past two decades, China has built a formidable cyberwarfare capability designed to penetrate, manipulate and disrupt the United States and allied governments, media organizations, businesses and civil society.
Music
"Music can take you back in time, as well as act like a jolt of electricity that can fire up your brain and get it going..."
Confidence
Washington Post: Opinion 5 easy ways to increase public confidence that every vote counts By the Editorial Board
1. Publicly test machines before Election Day.
Governor Book Banner
While his first book was weird and esoteric enough to have obviously been written by a human, this one reads like a politician’s memoir churned out by ChatGPT.
Alive
Ms. May suggests asking yourself a different question: What soothes you?
It might be going on a walk. Or visiting an art museum. Maybe you enjoy watching the shifting clouds.
The Market On Monday
Good morning. At 6:35 a.m. ET DOW futures are +138, S&P futures are +18, and NASDAQ futures are +65.25. The market is poised to open significantly higher.
CNN: Inflation is doing a crab walk and Fed officials fear its pinch By Nicole Goodkind
Friday, February 24, 2023
Records
Washington Post: Hundreds of Eastern warm records and Western cold records set this week By Ian Livingston
In Texas, a daily record of 98 degrees in McAllen wasn’t even the highest temperature of the heat wave. It reached 102 degrees in Falcon Lake. That’s one of the hottest temperatures on record in the Lower 48 so early in the year and the hottest reading for the country so far in 2023.
Heading
Yet if neither side makes significant gains in coming months, the conflict could well be heading for a cease-fire. The Ukrainians, though perhaps not fully recovering their territories, will have fended off an aggressive foe. The Russians, for their part, can disguise their strategic defeat as a tactical victory.
Santos
Washington Post: George Santos speaks the truth! By Dana Milbank
Santos claims he is the victim. His lies are everybody else’s fault — honest!
This politics of victimhood, of course, is the essence of Donald Trump...
DeSantis
Washington Post: Opinion - Ron DeSantis, potential GOP standard-bearer, sounds out of his depth By Eugene Robinson
But that’s where DeSantis went, claiming that “while he’s over there,” Biden has “not done anything to secure our own border here at home.”
History
Boris Johnson
I was disgusted by Putin. I was disgusted by what he was doing. I was nauseated by his language, by his lies, by his aggression, by his condescension toward Ukraine. I thought the whole thing was repellent, arrogant, chauvinistic, wrong.
Dream
NY Times: Marjorie Taylor Greene Has a Dream By Jamelle Bouie
You can probably tell, from the substance of Greene’s comments, that this “national divorce” is more paranoid fantasy than serious proposal. Even so, it rests on a set of ideas and tropes that are in wide circulation with the public at large.
Teens
NY Times: Don’t Let Politics Cloud Your View of What’s Going on With Teens and Depression By Michelle Goldberg
In 2021, it found, nearly 60 percent of high school girls experienced persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness. Almost a quarter made a suicide plan.
The Market On Friday
Good morning. At 6:55 a.m. ET DOW futures are -174, S&P futures are -25.75, and NASDAQ futures are -117. The market is poised to open significantly lower.
CNN: China is helping to prop up the Russian economy. Here’s how By Laura He
Thursday, February 23, 2023
Slipping
“I and a lot of other Republicans who were supportive of President Trump are becoming less and less supportive,” Jaster said. “Not because I’m a ‘Never Trumper.’ I just don’t believe Trump is the best person to move this party forward.”
Russia
New exhibits put on by the state have titles like “NATOzism” — a play on “Nazism” that seeks to cast the Western military alliance as posing a threat as existential as the Nazis of World War II.
Comment
I've been holding out hope for a long time that there is some type of common bond that would eventually reconcile the severe political divide in the US. But now I believe that divide is beyond repair. The culture of the GOP is self supporting and it exists independently within its own boundaries. They have their own media, their own 'facts', cultural references, established ideas, established education, established religion. And all of this is protected, it's insulated from attacks. The NY Times could do the most revealing honest expose and it would not filter into GOP thinking. Look at this billion dollar lawsuit against FOX, has it changed FOX, no. This impervious GOP culture is not something that is debatable or fluid within itself. The culture is etched in stone. The only thing that will help democrats, the one thing, is simply overwhelming numbers. It's a war of attrition, not a war of ideas.
National Gun Of America
This is real. Why not sponsor a bill to make the '100 Megaton A-Bomb' the 'National Bomb of the United States'. How f-ing tone deaf are these people?
R Moore, Barry [R-AL2] Primary Sponsor
R Boebert, Lauren [R-CO3] Original Cosponsor Oversight and Accountability
R Clyde, Andrew [R-GA9] Original Cosponsor
R Santos, George [R-NY3] Original Cosponsor
Censors
NY Times: America, Right-Wing Censors, and the ‘Battle for the Next Century’ By Charles M. Blow
“Conservatives must move the fight from ideology to bureaucracy,” he tweeted. “We’ve won the debate against CRT; now it’s time to dismantle DEI.”
D.E.I. stands for diversity, equity and inclusion....
Seditious Conspiracy
Did it ever once occur to these 'boys' that they were being fed lies?
As anxiety spread throughout the group after the Supreme Court declined to overturn Mr. Biden’s victory in Pennsylvania in December 2020, Mr. Bertino said that he and the group’s top leaders came to believe that “time was running out to save the country.”
The Market On Thursday
Good morning. At 6:50 a.m. ET DOW futures are +80, S&P futures are +18.25, and NASDAQ futures are +101.5. The market is poised to open significantly higher.
CNN: One of Europe’s top banks is being sued for financing fossil fuels By Reuters
Wednesday, February 22, 2023
Questions
Washington Post: Opinion - Consider these 4 inconvenient questions as the Ukraine war moves forward By Graham Allison
If what is at stake is not just Ukraine’s survival but the future of Europe and even the global order, why are there no American troops fighting on the battlefield alongside brave Ukrainians?
Rabbi Simon Jacobson - Use This To Never Get Angry Or Bothered By People
Contrast
Washington Post: Opinion - Biden’s address projected resolve. Putin’s speech twisted reality. By the Editorial Board
Mr. Putin’s speech twisted the reality of his unwarranted imperial aggression against a smaller neighbor into a self-righteous litany of lies claiming Russia was the aggrieved victim of a predatory West.
War
In eastern Ukraine, Russian forces are waging attritional battles as part of a new offensive that may last through the spring or early summer. In the face of Ukraine’s strong will to fight and continued Western support, the gains have been minimal and the losses steep. But the attacks are relentless.
Apart
A toxic combination of racial resentment and the sharp regional disparity in economic growth between urban and rural America is driving the class upheaval in American partisanship...
The Market On Wednesday
Good morning. At 6:45 a.m. ET DOW futures are -49, S&P futures are -7.5, and NASDAQ futures are -22.75. The market is poised to open moderately lower.
Tuesday, February 21, 2023
War
Washington Post: Opinion - What a year of war has revealed of three leaders By David Ignatius
If you wonder why so many Russians still seem to support Putin, despite his catastrophic mistakes, it’s partly because they share his sense of grievance.
Credit
Washington Post: Why does the South have such ugly credit scores? Analysis By Andrew Van Dam
The region’s poor credit means Southerners are paying more to borrow money, assuming they can qualify for loans at all. That sets them back in everything from car and home purchases to credit card rewards. Yes, even credit card rewards.
Multiple
Asked whether the jurors had recommended indicting Mr. Trump, Ms. Kohrs gave a cryptic answer: “You’re not going to be shocked. It’s not rocket science,” adding “you won’t be too surprised.”
Past
Washington Post: Opinion - Getting past the MAGA mentality isn’t for the faint-hearted By Jennifer Rubin
...Republicans battling Trump and his mini-me imitators can and should make an affirmative case that the MAGA crowd makes life worse for Americans.
War
NY Times: Some of the Best Weapons in the World Are Now in Ukraine. They May Change the War. By David Axe
“Despite the prominence of anti-tank guided weapons in the public narrative, Ukraine blunted Russia’s attempt to seize Kyiv using massed fires from two artillery brigades..."
Alan Shoesmith
Alan Shoesmith is a very fine musician with an impressive and extensive body of work. In his own word - "I am a musician, composer and songwriter from Canada who is focused primarily on creating original instrumental acoustic guitar music. Some of the pieces are played solo but many of them include several layers of parts. My music tends to fall into the genres of neo-classical, chill guitar or new age. If you dive deeper into my back catalogue you’ll actually hear quite an eclectic blend of styles. These days I am focused mainly on acoustic guitar compositions."
A Bridge To Wonder
Opaque Horizon
Find more of Alan's music on Spotify
Biden
Washington Post: Opinion - Biden’s Kyiv visit shows Putin seriously misjudged his courage By Eugene Robinson
He came out of retirement and ran for the White House only because he believed he had the unique ability, and thus the obligation, to save the nation from another four years of Donald Trump. And he has faced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with the same burden of duty imposed by history.
Mayors
“We have to be bold in looking at long entrenched problems, particularly on poverty and systemic inequality,” Ms. Lightfoot said.
The Market On Tuesday
Good morning. At 6:55 a.m. ET DOW futures are -233, S&P futures are -28.25, and NASDAQ futures are -108.5. The market is poised to open significantly lower.
CNN: Men did a lot more childcare while trialing a four-day work week By Anna Cooban
Monday, February 20, 2023
Montana
Montana is introducing a bill to make it illegal to donate blood if you have been vaccinated for Covid. I shit you not.
2023 Montana Legislature - House bill NO. 645 INTRODUCED BY G. Kmetz
(2) A person may not knowingly use, receive, accept, ship, transfer, or administer whole blood, plasma, blood products, blood derivatives, human tissue, organs, or bones containing gene-altering proteins, nanoparticles, high-count spike proteins from long covid-19, or other isolates introduced by mRNA or DNA vaccines, mRNA or DNA chemotherapies, or other novel mRNA or DNA pharmaceutical biotechnologies.
Visit
The war in Ukraine is about power and the principle of territorial sovereignty, and whether the Western-designed global order that Americans thought would prevail for decades will, in fact, survive new challenges from Moscow and Beijing.
Loser
NY Times: Here’s What the Other Republican Candidates Should Say to Trump By Gail Collins and Bret Stephens
If, heaven forbid, you’re the Republican nominee next year, you’ll only be guaranteeing Joe Biden and Kamala Harris a second term. You’re a loser, Donald: a sore loser, a serial loser, a selfish loser.
Have An Excellent Presidents' Day
"Ukrainian artist Diana Yevtukh often displays her embroidered textile art within nature, such as placing her pieces on trees"
Debt
I had about 15 grand in student loans when I left grad school and at the same time I became a single parent. Let me tell you, that was a rough period.
Washington Post: 40 years of debt: Student loan borrowers’ struggles expose flaws in system By Danielle Douglas-Gabriel
...Hamilton, a 72-year-old Army veteran in Reno, Nev. “I live on peanuts. ... I can never get from underneath this debt.”
Unannounced
Pro-Putin talking heads on Russian state TV struggled to spin Biden’s visit to Kyiv in their favor. Sergei A. Markov, a pro-government analyst, said that Moscow had shown magnanimity in not carrying out an attack while Mr. Biden was there, explaining that his death would have bad consequences for Russia.
The Market Is Closed On Monday
Wall street is closed for Presidents Day.
CNN: Here’s what’s open and closed on Presidents Day 2023 By Ramishah Maruf
Friday, February 17, 2023
Learn
Mark Twain - “A man who carries a cat by the tail learns a lesson he can learn in no other way."
No Comment
govtrack.US: H.R. 899: To terminate the Department of Education.
R Massie, Thomas [R-KY4] Primary Sponsor
R Burlison, Eric [R-MO7] Original Cosponsor
Education and the Workforce
R Miller, Mary [R-IL15] Original Cosponsor
Education and the Workforce
R Biggs, Andy [R-AZ5] Original Cosponsor
R Bishop, Dan [R-NC8] Original Cosponsor
R Boebert, Lauren [R-CO3] Original Cosponsor
R Hageman, Harriet [R-WY] Original Cosponsor
R McCormick, Rich [R-GA6] Original Cosponsor
R Roy, Chip [R-TX21] Original Cosponsor
FOX
NY Times: What Fox News Says When You’re Not Listening By Michelle Goldberg
On Jan. 26, Carlson hosted MyPillow founder Mike Lindell on his show and let him sound off about Dominion without resistance. In fairness, Carlson may have had a motive for indulging Lindell besides grubbing for ratings. As Media Matters for America pointed out, MyPillow at the time was Carlson’s single biggest advertiser.
Impunity
When billionaires evade taxes, oil companies misrepresent the severity of the climate crisis, elected politicians subvert the judiciary and human rights are rolled back, you see impunity in action. Impunity is the mind-set that laws and norms are for suckers.
Have An Excellent Friday
Longer
And studies show that even if you don’t start until middle age or later to make improvements to your diet, you still can add a decade or more to your life expectancy.
Possible
If she does indict Mr. Trump, the two likely paths that she might take focus on the fake electoral slates and Mr. Trump’s call to Mr. Raffensperger. One is a narrower case that would likely take weeks to try; the other is a broader case that would likely take months.
The Market On Friday
Good morning. At 7:00 a.m. ET DOW futures are -186, S&P futures are -30, and NASDAQ futures are -116. The market is poised to open significantly lower.
CNN: This number shows that high inflation is sticking around By Julia Horowitz
