Pulling...

Some think that the strategy is simple. That goes in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, etc.

Is it?  Did we achieve something?

What is it that we achieved? What was our price? And what was the price of the locals?

Just a thought.

Pain...

Kyle Wilhelm, 40, pleaded guilty to two counts of obtaining controlled substances by fraud before United States District Judge Mark A. Goldsmith.

Between February 2015 and February 2018, Wilhelm utilized his position as a hospital pharmacy manager to fill prescriptions for fictitious patients using false birth dates, false addresses and by the unauthorized use of a medical doctor’s Drug Enforcement Administration registration number, according to the United States Attorney's Office of the Eastern District of Michigan.

In total, he obtained more than 200,000 dosage units of controlled substances such as oxycodone, hydromorphone, and hydrocodone acetaminophen, according to officials.

Wilhelm was indicted on 12 charges. The remaining charges will be dismissed during sentencing, according to the plea agreement.

Heat Wave...

A heat wave forecast for New York City to push temperatures near the 100 degree mark on Friday, Saturday and Sunday could put New Yorkers in the dark again, a Con Ed spokesman warned.

“We expect that there could be service outages  those things happen during heat waves,” Con Ed spokesman Michael Clendenin told PIX11 on Monday. “We know it’s going to be intense. This heat wave coming up is something else and we’ve got to get ready for it.”

Clendenin said Con Edison invests $2 billion every year to prepare for electricity demand when the temperature soars.

The outage that darkened a big swath of Midtown and the Upper West Side on Saturday wasn’t caused by heat or high demand, Clendenin said.

Heavy air conditioning use pushes up electricity demand on Con Ed’s system. Con Ed’s all-time record electricity usage can lead to blackouts at certain areas.

Ikea...

Ikea is shutting down its only furniture factory in the United States.

The Swedish company will end production this December at its plant in Danville, Virginia. Operations will move to Europe, where the company says it can cut costs.

Ikea pointed to raw material prices, which it said are higher in the United States than Europe. 

A recent shift in Ikea's retail strategy to adapt to the growth of online shopping has led to job cuts in other parts of the business.

The company has been investing in online pickup services and digital fulfillment centers, and in 2017 bought TaskRabbit, an online marketplace for finding gig workers. It's also been opening smaller stores in big cities to attract younger shoppers.

Nuts...

Eating nuts on a regular basis may improve your health in many ways, such as by reducing diabetes and heart disease risk, as well as cholesterol and triglyceride levels. This nutritious high-fiber treat may even aid weight loss — despite its high calorie count.

However, nuts are very calorie dense (high in fat, low in water), so eating unlimited amounts can easily add an extra several hundred calories a day to your diet, which could lead to weight gain and increased cholesterol levels.

Nuts are antioxidant powerhouses. Antioxidants, including the polyphenols in nuts, can combat oxidative stress by neutralizing free radicals — unstable molecules that may cause cell damage and increase disease risk. 

One study found that walnuts have a greater capacity to fight free radicals than fish.

Rx...

With all the talks among the Democratic presidential hopefuls, plan for this, and that, tax the rich, nothing for the poor, here is one to be added to the agenda.

Reducing the price of medication is a great help to all. Just a thought.

Leave...

The lights went out on Broadway Saturday night, and Bill de Blasio was a thousand miles away in Iowa. It was the moment that perfectly captured his distracted, ego-driven failure of a mayoralty.

Bill de Blasio does not care about New York City. He does not care about its people. He does not care about how it’s run. He does not care about you or your taxes, creating jobs or improving lives. All Bill de Blasio cares about is Bill de Blasio.

He must know he has no chance of winning the Democratic nomination, polling as he does below 1 percent, but still spends much of his time in South Carolina, Nevada and Iowa.

We sit here, in the dark, wondering about the infrastructure not being worked on, the disorder not being addressed, the city he’s too indifferent to run.

How much more money will he waste? How many more bad decisions must we endure? We cannot live with an absentee mayor  and we cannot live with him here, either.

And so, for the good of the city, Gov. Andrew Cuomo needs to remove the mayor from office.

Them Aliens...

As more than a million people on Facebook say they're attending a joke event to "storm Area 51," the U.S. military has responded to the plans — just in case they actually do.

Air Force spokeswoman Laura McAndrews told the Washington Post that military officials were aware of the event that aims to uncover the alleged conspiratorial secrets of the military installation in Nevada.

McAndrews didn't specify to the newspaper any security plans at the base, but did issue a warning.

The military's response comes after about 1.2 million people responded to the satirical event as "going." The Facebook event, which is scheduled for September 20 from 3 to 6 a.m., says that it aims to "see them aliens."

Blackout...

Utility company Con Edison said in a statement the final impacted customers from the outage – which affected more than 72,000 customers along 30 blocks from Times Square to the Upper West Side – had their power restored just before midnight after blackouts that began around 7 p.m. Saturday.  

Saturday's blackout crippled the subway system, knocked out traffic lights on Manhattan's west side and caused the cancellations of numerous concerts and events, including several Broadway plays and a performance at Madison Square Garden.  

De Blasio was asked several times if he had any regrets about being out of the city during the emergency. He said once he learned the power outage and its root cause was not going to be solved immediately, he made arrangements to return to New York,...… blah blah blah. 

De Blasio didn't do any improvement in NYSHA, the Subway System, Transportation and congestion in NYC, and now the blackout. 
Don't bother coming back. We can do without.

Sulfur...

New rules coming into force from 2020 to curb pollution produced by the world’s ships are worrying everyone from OPEC oil producers to bunker fuel sellers and shipping companies. 
The regulations will slash emissions of sulfur, which is blamed for causing respiratory diseases and is a component of acid rain that damages vegetation and wildlife. 

The global shipping fleet now consumes about 4 million barrels per day (bpd) of high sulfur fuel oil, but about 3 million bpd of that demand will “disappear overnight”, according to the average market forecast calculated by Norway’s SEB Bank.  Most demand is expected to shift to marine gasoil, a lower sulfur distillate fuel.

Morgan Stanley predicts this will generate at least 1.5 million bpd in extra demand for distillate in the next three years, pushing up total distillate demand growth.

That, in turn, will drive up prices.  Safer Fuel yet higher cost. Just a thought.