Thursday, September 30, 2021
Miscalculations
Washington Post: U.S. lost war in Afghanistan through miscalculations spanning multiple administrations, Milley tells lawmakers By Karoun Demirjian and Alex Horton
“It wasn’t lost in the last 20 days or even 20 months. There’s a cumulative effect to a series of strategic decisions that go way back..."
Britney
The conservatorship was established in 2008, after Mr. Spears sought control over his pop-star daughter’s life and business, citing her mental health struggles and substance abuse.
The Market On Thursday
Good morning. At 6:25 a.m. ET DOW futures are +165; the market is poised to open significantly higher.
CNBC: Senate reaches a deal to avoid a government shutdown by Jacob Pramuk
Wednesday, September 29, 2021
Fire
Washington Post: Opinion: Republicans are feeling liberated ― to set the country on fire Opinion by Paul Waldman
Their entire party seems determined to make sure that a pandemic that has killed nearly 700,000 Americans will go on as long as possible.
Liz Again
“General Milley you found yourself in your constitutionally prescribed role, standing in the breach. And for any member of this committee for any American to question your loyalty to our nation to question your understanding of our Constitution, your loyalty to our Constitution, your recognition and understanding of the civilian chain of command is despicable...I want to apologize for those members of this committee."
Takeaways
Washington Post: 4 takeaways from the Mark Milley hearing By Aaron Blake
As the withdrawal from Afghanistan devolved, criticism built not just for the Biden administration, but with regard to the deal Trump struck with the Taliban in early 2020 in Doha, Qatar, that paved the way for it. That criticism included some from Trump allies.
Apparently Not
NY Times: Do Democrats Have the Courage of Liz Cheney? by Thomas Friedman
While we disagreed on many policy issues, I could not have been more impressed with her unflinching argument that Donald Trump represented an unprecedented threat to American democracy.
Rebound
NY Times: U.S. stock futures signal a rebound as bond yields fall back.
The S&P 500 is expected to open 0.7 percent stronger after dropping 2 percent on Tuesday, the most since May. An increase in bond yields sparked a sell-off in technology stocks, which dragged markets down.
The Market On Wednesday
Good morning. At 6:45 a.m. ET DOW futures are +205; the market is poised to open significantly higher.
Tuesday, September 28, 2021
Insecure
Washington Post: Trump played tough with Putin when cameras were around, but a new book details his insecurities By Jada Yuan and Josh Dawsey
Her 352-page book — obtained by The Washington Post — alleges a litany of misdeeds by the 45th president: from ogling a young female staffer, to orchestrating lies for the public, to attempting to ban the news media from the White House compound.
Perhaps
Washington Post: Opinion: Future political violence feels inevitable. Meeting it with violence won’t be the answer. Opinion by Michael Gerson
The baseless claim of electoral fraud, in particular, has acted as an accelerant to anger. Trump consistently claims that something — power, respect or social dominance — has been stolen from his supporters and that only “strength” will reclaim it....“If you don’t fight like hell,” he said before the events of Jan. 6, “you’re not going to have a country anymore.” This is the cultivation of desperation.
The Market On Tuesday
Good morning. At 6:50 a.m. ET DOW futures are -132; the market is poised to open significantly lower.
Monday, September 27, 2021
Concern
And a range of risks, including the hard-to-predict dynamics of Covid variants, could throw this transition to a healthy post-pandemic economy off course.
The Market On Monday
Good morning. At 6:50 a.m. ET DOW futures are +98; the market is poised to open significantly higher.
CNBC: ‘I’ll be darned’: Biden reacts to pivotal German election result by Silvia Amaro
Friday, September 24, 2021
Weekend!
Mozart - Köchel 314 - François Leleux
Lawn
These days, bloggers and influencers in the gardening world are loudly eschewing the water-wasteful green lawn, while showing off their decidedly less tidy landscapes. Rather than a picture-perfect garden, it’s all about planting native species, storing rainwater and finding natural alternatives for when pests and diseases strike.
The Market On Friday
Good morning. At 7:05 a.m. ET DOW futures are -100; the market is poised to open significantly lower.
Thursday, September 23, 2021
Work
...an important effort, one every one of us will have to make sooner or later: an effort to prove, to herself and others, that we exist to do more than just work.
Texas Again
Washington Post: Opinion: A win for white power at a school board meeting in Grapevine, Tex. Opinion by Karen Attiah
This was a Black man being punished for speaking in his own defense, and Whitfield saw it the same way. “Oh, 100 percent,” he told me. “But I had to speak out — no one was defending me.”
Hallelujah
NY Times: The UnTrump Presidency Slams Into Trumpness By Frank Bruni
All in all, Biden is a far cry from Trump. Hallelujah. But that doesn’t mean that he’s untouched by Trump. And it doesn’t mean that he won’t find himself in similar places, because he’s navigating some of the same dynamics.
The Market On Thursday
Good morning. At 7:00 a.m. ET DOW futures are +153; the market is poised to open significantly higher.
Wednesday, September 22, 2021
Depths Of Dishonesty
Washington Post: Somehow, we’re still learning the depths of Trump’s dishonesty By Philip Bump
We’ve learned the extent to which Trump’s insistences about the election having been stolen were predicated on information that his team and his allies knew were unfounded. We’ve learned from the aforementioned memo that Trump seized upon a fringe opinion about constitutionality as a rationale to pressure his vice president into doing something that he couldn’t do and shouldn’t have done even if he could.
Crisis
Washington Post: Opinion: Uma Thurman: The Texas abortion law is a human rights crisis for American women
In my late teens, I was accidentally impregnated by a much older man. I was living out of a suitcase in Europe, far from my family, and about to start a job. I struggled to figure out what to do. I wanted to keep the baby, but how?
Boys
"Across all family structures, we observe that boys’ likelihood to act out is sharply reduced when faced with larger and better parental inputs. For girls, the relationship between parental inputs and behavioral outcomes appear to be much weaker. As these parental inputs are typically higher and of better quality in intact families, this largely contributes to why boys with single mothers are so much more disruptive and eventually face school suspension."
The Market On Wednesday
Good morning. At 6:45 a.m. ET DOW futures are +196; the market is poised to open significantly higher.
Tuesday, September 21, 2021
Despicable
Medical billing experts who reviewed the case described it as a dispute between a large hospital and a large insurer, with the patient stuck in the middle. The experts say such cases are not frequent but speak to the wider lack of predictability in American medical billing, with patients often having little idea what their care will cost until a bill turns up in the mail months later.
The Market On Tuesday
Good morning. At 6:45 a.m. ET DOW futures are +313; the market is poised to open significantly higher.
CNBC: Dow futures rebound more than 300 points following Monday’s big sell-off by Maggie Fitzgerald
Monday, September 20, 2021
Rogue
Axios: Robert Costa: Gen. Mark Milley "was not going rogue" with China calls by Oriana Gonzalez
"He was not going rogue. He was reading people in throughout the national security and military community trying to contain a situation and a president he believed was in serious mental decline."
Shun
NY Times: White Evangelicals Shun Morality for Power by Charles M. Blow
The Supreme Court represents a more lasting power than the presidency, a way to lock in an ideology beyond the reach of election cycles and changing demographics at least for a generation.
Fizzled
"I can’t say I’m surprised that the rally fizzled: Donald Trump wasn’t there to light a fire and Mike Pence wasn’t there to get burned by it. Plus, all of the arrests and guilty pleas from Jan. 6 are probably having a deterrent effect."
