Falsche...

A respected German mainstream magazine fired one of its award-winning contributors after discovering he included fake news in several stories.  

Der Spiegel admitted that reporter and editor Claas Relotius had "falsified his articles on a grand scale and even invented characters, deceiving both readers and his colleagues."

Some of the stories were set in the United States and played to unpleasant European prejudices about Americans, raising questions as to why Der Spiegel accepted them so trustingly.

Relotius had worked for Der Spiegel in various capacities since 2011. He contributed more than 50 articles, of which at least 14 contained fabrications.

Some of these tainted pieces were nominated for, or even won, awards, and the freelancer was hired by Der Spiegel as an editor. He remained in that job for a year and a half ... Relotius was honored in 2014 by CNN as its Journalist of the Year.

Satisfaction...

We think we want to be happy. Yet many of us are working toward some other end, according to Daniel Kahneman, winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in economics.

Kahneman contends that happiness and satisfaction are distinct.

Happiness is a momentary experience that arises spontaneously and is fleeting. Meanwhile, satisfaction is a long-term feeling, built over time and based on achieving goals. 

 Spending time with friends is highly effective. Yet those focused on long-term goals that yield satisfaction don’t necessarily prioritize socializing, as they’re busy with the bigger picture.

We’re not as interested in happiness as we may claim.  We're actually want to maximize our satisfactions.

 Life satisfaction is connected to social yardsticks–achieving goals, meeting expectations and accumulate wealth.   Money has a significant influence on life satisfaction, whereas happiness is affected by money only when funds are lacking. Poverty creates suffering, but above a certain level of income that satisfies our basic needs, wealth doesn’t increase happiness.  Just a thought.

Backfire...

The deal was done, and former national security adviser Michael Flynn was cruising toward a sentence of no prison time after admitting he lied to the FBI when interviewed about his contacts with the Russian ambassador to the United States.

But then, Flynn and his lawyers did something they came to regret: They made a filing to the court suggesting the FBI set him up.

U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan showed his deep displeasure with Flynn at one point asking a prosecutor whether the retired general could be charged with treason. 

The judge told the former national security advisor "arguably you sold your country out"  and warned the fallen Army lieutenant general that he might be sent to jail if he did not agree to delay the hearing.

Mueller's schedule suddenly upended by a defendant with cold feet and a judge with a hot temper.

Shut Down...

A partial shutdown of the government officially went into effect at midnight Saturday as the House and Senate adjourned late Friday with negotiations stalled between the White House and congressional leaders over border wall funding. 

The House and Senate are expected to reconvene at noon on Saturday to continue negotiations.

Many House and Senate lawmakers headed home after leaders promised to provide 24-hour notice ahead of any funding vote. Late Friday, President Donald Trump tweeted a video of himself speaking to the importance of border security.

The first United States federal government shutdown of 2018 began at midnight EST on Saturday, January 20, 2018, and ended on the evening of Monday, January 22. The shutdown began after a failure to pass legislation to fund government operations and agencies. This stemmed from disputes over the extension of status of persons affected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) immigration policy,

Underperform...

So much of the bull market in risk assets over the last nine years was linked to Federal Reserve stimulus put in place to save the economy during the financial crisis. 

Low rates and other easing measures fueled a boom in stocks by enabling companies to borrow and aggressively buy back their own shares. A lot of the easy money injected into the system found it’s way into stocks because there was no alternative, lifting equity valuations to high levels.

All assets have underperformed in 2018 simply because the Fed is hiking Interest rates and reducing the balance sheet.

That’s why the market fell to new lows  specifically when Fed chief Jerome Powell said the unwinding of the central bank’s balance sheet would continue at its current pace.

We’ve been in an economic expansion for the past seven to eight years, which is already very long. A recession is likely to come within the next two years.”

Cyber...

The United States and three allies chastised China for economic espionage.

Prosecutors charged Zhu Hua and Zhang Jianguo in hacking attacks against the U.S. Navy, the space agency NASA and the Energy Department and dozens of companies. The operation targeted intellectual property and corporate secrets to give Chinese companies an unfair competitive advantage, they said. 

Britain, Australia and New Zealand joined the United States in slamming China over what they called a global campaign of cyber-enabled commercial intellectual property theft, signaling growing global coordination against the practice. 

The hackers breached the networks of Hewlett Packard and IBM, then used the access to hack into their clients’ computers. 

Nothing is new here !... Just a thought. 

Empathy...

Promise...

President Donald Trump took to Twitter Thursday with an extensive defense of his decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria, framing it as a campaign promise kept amid growing bipartisan backlash from lawmakers.

"Does the USA want to be the Policeman of the Middle East, getting NOTHING but spending precious lives and trillions of dollars protecting others who, in almost all cases, do not appreciate what we are doing?" Trump tweeted. "Do we want to be there forever?" 

The president also claimed in a separate tweet that "Russia, Iran, Syria & many others are not happy about the U.S. leaving." 

As the American leaves, the area will calm down dramatically.   Just a thought.

Consuming...

 

Raising the kids is so consuming that it can occupy all the oxygen of a marriage. As a result, It’s easy to ignore, gloss over or not deal with the dysfunction of your marriage.

Parents are preoccupied by the everyday life of their kids, including grappling with grades and school, transporting them to soccer practice and possibly helping them gain acceptance into a good college.

Kids leaving home is a major milestone in life,  and forces couples to reevaluate their life and their marriage.   What have I done with my life? Am I happy in my marriage? 

Furthermore, resentments often foment over the many years of a long-lasting marriage. Your spouse “feels as if he’s holding you back. You’re trapped in this unsatisfied situation.  

Many couples strive to patch things up and reinvigorate the marriage. “Both people have to be committed to wanting it; it won’t work if one is ambivalent.

Peace...

The latest talks between the Taliban and a U.S. peace envoy on the war in Afghanistan focused on the withdrawal of NATO troops, the release of prisoners and halting attacks on civilians by pro-government forces.

U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, tweeted that talks held this week in the United Arab Emirates were "productive."   The UAE talks also involved Saudi, Pakistani and Emirati representatives.

The insurgent group controls nearly half of Afghanistan, and are more powerful than at any time since a 2001 U.S.-led invasion. They carry out near-daily attacks, mainly targeting security forces and government officials.

The Taliban have refused to meet directly with the Afghan government, viewing it as a puppet of the U.S.