Wednesday, January 9, 2019

Trade...

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Trade negotiators are meeting in Beijing this week, and positive comments around those talks have been helping steady markets.
The BofAML economists said in a note. "... the US has tried to minimize the blowback from its tariffs by avoiding consumer products and either avoiding or giving exemptions for products without easy substitutes. 
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Monday that the tariffs are making it difficult for China to stave off social unrest.
"China is employing its full arsenal of stimulus tools — monetary and credit easing, a weaker currency, spending increases and tax cuts," the BofAML economists noted. 
Cesar Rojas, Citigroup global economist, said he sees an opportunity for a deal now, in part because of the dynamic of weaker Chinese growth, 
Rojas said the U.S. economy is still strong, giving it more leverage against China, where its stimulus has so far failed to stem weakening. 

Monday, January 7, 2019

Congress...


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If Congress wants to keep the forever war in the Middle East going, then there’s an easy solution: vote on it!
 But you can bet they won’t do it; they don’t want to be on the hook for when it inevitably turns into a quagmire costing the US billions in blood and treasure, just like every single other war we have been involved in has been for the last decade and a half.

And then there’s the pundit class, everyone considers Trump a know-nothing, unstable maniac,  yet are perfectly okay with him leading the US military into a longterm military engagement with countless complicated geopolitical factors at play.

He has markedly increased the number of drone strikes in the region from the Obama administration despite the rules of engagement have been loosened and more civilians are at risk of a fiery death than ever before.
He has backed an appalling war in Yemen leading to the world’s largest famine. And his military budget has exploded. 
It is mind boggling that we, as a nation, are unable to appreciate that thousands of Americans will now no longer be in harm’s way, fighting a war that Congress never debated and that much of American public never even knew was happening.

They are stationed in too many countries to count, fighting enemies that didn’t exist when the law was passed. 

The entire post-9/11 military strategy has been an abject failure. It has cost trillions of dollars, millions of lives, and there is no indication anyone is better off, whether it’s the American public or innocent civilians in the Middle East.
In the meantime, we’ve engendered hatred from multiple generations of Afghans, Iraqis, Yemenis, Syrians, and many others.   Just a thought.

Exit...

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Donald Trump  announced that the US would be pulling its troops out of Syria.

The entire national security establishment exploded in anger that one of our many wars may be ending.
Senators Bob Corker and Lindsey Graham – who have never met a war they didn’t like – are furious that Congress wasn’t consulted.

Members of the media have proclaimed that the “winners” here are Assad and Putin, despite the fact that the stated mission in Syria was never to fight them in the first place.

Pundit after pundit derided that this decision is a win for terrorists, with no thought to whether we are creating just as many terrorists by being there at all.
Lost was any question whether it’s in America’s interests to have thousands of troops fighting and dying in yet another Middle Eastern country.

Does anyone know what the long-term military strategy in Syria would be, or how we would ever exit?
Does anyone care that many legal experts
think sending troops into Syria was illegal, given that Congress never debated or approved sending troops there?
Under Obama, the US military quietly built up its on the ground presence in Syria and often under the veil of official secrecy.

The Washington Post reported that US troops would be stationed in Syria “indefinitely” and now occupy over one third of the country.

The Post referred to it as our “hidden war in Syria”. No one seemed to care about that at the time, but now that troops may be coming home, everyone is upset.
If Congress has not totally abdicate its constitutional responsibility to debate and approve of wars, and were actually up front to the American people about the extreme costs of fighting yet another war, they would have a leg to stand on.

But their stance seems to now be: we only get upset when troops get to come home, not when they are deployed in yet another war zone.

Sunday, January 6, 2019

Shut down...

PHOTO: Signs placed by volunteers at the Joshua Tree National Park after the federal governments partial shutdown caused park rangers to stay home and campgrounds to be shut, at the park in California, Jan. 3, 2019.

The Government shut down happened repeatedly and Both parties know they are being blamed for it.

This is sn opportunity to appear in front of the Microphone and the Camera and give the people non sense talk. Just a thought.

Difuse...

In this Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019 photo, police form a security cordon after a policeman was killed trying to defuse an explosive device near a church, in a residential district of Cairo, Egypt. The blast came just two days before the Orthodox Coptic Ch






Egypt's Interior Ministry said a policeman was killed as he was trying to defuse an explosive device near a church in a residential Cairo district.

The ministry said the blast late on Saturday also wounded the commander of the bomb squad and another policeman. The device was in a suitcase concealed on the rooftop of a building close to the church in the Nasr City suburb in eastern Cairo, added the ministry, which oversees the police.
Saturday's incident likely will force authorities to further tighten security around churches ahead of the Coptic Orthodox Christmas. Already, armed policemen guard churches, and security guards check the identity of visitors. Metal detectors have also been set up outside churches.  

This is what Egypt is facing on a daily basis. Just a thought.

Inagurated...


Egypt’s president on Sunday inaugurated both a new cathedral for the Coptic Orthodox Church and one of the region’s largest mosques, in a highly symbolic gesture at a time when Islamic militants are increasingly targeting the country’s minority Christians.
Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, a general-turned-president, has made sectarian harmony a cornerstone of his rule, fighting Islamic militancy, while advocating for equality between the overwhelming Muslim majority and Christians, who account for 10 percent of Egypt’s 100 million people. 
Copts, the largest Christian minority in the Middle East, were due hold a midnight mass in the Cathedral of the Nativity, billed by the government as the Middle East’s largest church, a few hours after the inauguration. 

Cooperate...

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Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi offered a rare acknowledgement of his close security cooperation with Israel in the Sinai peninsula during a U.S. television interview with CBS'.
Under Sisi, Egypt has quietly cooperated with Israel on security in Egypt's Sinai, a desert peninsula demilitarized as part of a U.S.-sponsored 1979 peace treaty between the two countries but where Cairo's forces now operate freely.
Asked whether the cooperation was the closest and deepest that he has had with Israel, Sisi responded: "That is correct."
"The Air Force sometimes needs to cross to the Israeli side. And that's why we have a wide range of coordination with the Israelis," Sisi said.
Defeating militants in the Sinai and restoring security after years of unrest has been a key promise of Sisi, who was re-elected in March last year in a landslide victory against no real opposition.
Islamist militants have been waging an insurgency for years in the north of the peninsula, which lacks basic infrastructure and job opportunities.  
Egyptian security forces have battled Islamist militants in the mainly desert region, stretching from the Suez Canal eastwards to the Gaza Strip and Israel, since 2013.
Asked why he had not managed to wipe the militants out, Sisi responded by pointing to the difficulties that the United States has faced in Afghanistan against the Taliban insurgency.
Sisi's critics accuse him of cracking down on all dissent, but supporters say tough measures are needed to stabilize Egypt,  and fight the militant who are hated by the world.

Saxenda...*

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A drug that treats type 2 diabetes has gotten FDA approval for another use: weight loss.
Saxenda is  already available in a lower dose as Victoza for type 2 diabetes.

Researchers began to study it as an obesitytreatment after people on Victoza reported weight loss.
Saxenda is injected daily. It's approved for people with a body mass index (BMI) of 30, considered obese, or a BMI of 27 with weight-related conditions such as high blood pressure.
It's meant to be used with exercise and a reduced-calorie diet.

"Clinical trials show that [more than] 60% of patients getting a daily 3-milligram injection lost at least 5% of their weight and 31% lost more than 10%,".
In comparison, 34% of those on placebo lost at least 5% of their body weight, according to the FDA.

Serious side effects can include pancreatitis, gallbladder disease, kidney problems, and suicidal thoughts. It can also raise heart rate. So good luck with it.

Contrave...*

Drug and Medical Conditions



Contrave helped patients lose more weight compared to a placebo.

With Diet and Exercise, the drug is approved for adults with a body mass index of 27 or greater, with high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes or high cholesterol and  with a BMI of 30 or above without compounding conditions.

In people with diabetes patients lost an average of 2 percent more weight compared to the placebo. 36% of people taking Contrave lost at least 5% of body weight compared to 18% of people taking a placebo.

The extended release of naltrexone and Bupropion are combined in Contrave.

The diet pill can cause seizures, raise blood pressure and heart rates.  The FDA warns risks of increased suicidal thoughts behaviors and reported neuro-psychiatric.

Defined minor exercise and selective eating will do miracle.    [W.P.-Abby Phillip]

Just a thought.

Saturday, January 5, 2019

Dirty...

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Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Charles Schumer,
ignored George Bernard Shaw’s wisdom: “Never wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.”

Schumer and Pelosi seemed triumphant after their meeting with President Trump in the Oval Office,  but every day that goes by with the government shuttered and shutdown clocks clicking is a distraction from Pelosi and Schumer’s ability to make a new and better impression on swing voters.  
President seems to relish the fight as a welcome distraction from his increasing political precariousness, and as a way of spoiling the Democrats’ fresh start.

Trump is betting that neither Pelosi nor Schumer can afford to appear weak after their midterm victories.

The wall is an anathema to progressives, and Pelosi and Schumer don't  want to sully their fresh start by caving into Trump’s demands.

But the longer the government stays closed, the less chance for Democrats to get off to a strong start as both sides in the dispute appear feckless and blameworthy.