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We had better start looking then... ;-)

This was my dad's favorite liquor. ;-)

This was my father's favorite beer.

For the past three years, a massive crime and cover-up in Washington D.C. has perpetuated the world's worst humanitarian crisis, engulfing the entire country of Yemen. The United States has been quietly participating in Saudi Arabia's brutal bombing campaign over Yemen, helping Saudi warplanes select targets and refueling those jets in midair as they carry out airstrikes. This U.S.-Saudi war has pushed 8 million Yemenis to the brink of famine.

Thankfully, Bernie Sanders has launched an unprecedented Senate effort to expose this illegal war and shut it down. By invoking the War Powers Resolution of 1973, Bernie is forcing the first Senate vote to end an unconstitutional war in U.S. history.

Can you tell your Senator to vote for Bernie's resolution to end the illegal war in Yemen?

Bernie has teamed up with constitutional conservative Senator Mike Lee of Utah on a bipartisan resolution. If their effort succeeds, not only can we save millions of Yemenis, we can deter Trump and all future presidents from launching unauthorized wars in the first place.

When I think about how we can win this fight, I draw on the real-life story behind the film Spotlight, in which I played a journalist who exposes abuse and injustice that could only persist for years under cover of darkness. I believe that when the American people are presented with the facts, we will act to make our Senators stop a U.S. bombing campaign against innocent Yemenis that only serves to advance the Saudi dictatorship’s military ambitions.

Nowhere else on earth today is there a catastrophe so profound, harming so many lives, that is so easy to resolve: we can end the bombing and let food and medicine into Yemen so that millions may live. Together, we have a historic shot to fundamentally reshape our politics to promote peace and reflect the better angels of our nature.

Please urge your Senator to vote for the Sanders-Lee resolution to end the illegal U.S. war in Yemen.

With hope,

Mark Ruffalo

via Demand Progress

He also might be paying to build out an Amazon “checking-account-like” product, partnering with big banks like JPMorgan. 

The details of the venture are still hazy, but it’s clear Amazon wants to reduce big bank transaction processing fees. It might have even considered its own bank—38% of surveyed customers would trust a Bank of Amazon—if regulation and capital requirement rules weren’t so stiff.

Here’s a metric Americans should start paying attention to: barrels per day.

The U.S. is expected to pass Russia as the world’s No. 1 oil producer by 2023, according to a report from the International Energy Agency (IEA). Total U.S. supply will increase by 3.7 million barrels per day, which is enough to account for almost 60% of global growth.

What is the U.S. doing right? It used the 2014 crash in oil prices as a call to action. Producers developed more efficient methods of extracting shale oil from deposits like the Permian Basin in West Texas and New Mexico (think Friday Night Lights territory).

What is everyone else doing wrong? The IEA says investment outside of the U.S. has mostly been embarrassing, specifically pointing a finger at OPEC for low output. And with demand for oil still on the rise (h/t China and India), a supply squeeze could be on the horizon.

“Boy, that escalated quickly. I mean, that really got out of hand fast!”—Ron Burgundy talking about the latest developments in the Broadcom/Qualcomm deal. 

And he’s not wrong. This epic Semiconductor Saga gave us another head fake, as the U.S. government ordered Qualcomm (-1.13%) to delay its shareholders meeting—originally set for today—for at least 30 days. 

Remember: Broadcom (-1.55%) nominated six directors to Qualcomm’s board. And if these directors were elected, the chances of Broadcom’s $117 billion hostile takeover bid would have increased. 

While thereÂ’s enough meat here to fill 10 newsletters, letÂ’s boil it down by focusing on this one (very important) question:

Why is the U.S. government getting involved?

Answer: Concerns over national security.

To understand why that’s a concern, meet an obscure but powerful government panel known as CFIUS (Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States). 

This committee makes sure all M&A activity coming from overseas to the U.S. is kosher. Basically, it prevents foreign companies from using a domestic subsidiary as a Trojan horse to steal tech and IP. And in this case, CFIUS is investigating whether Broadcom is trying to use Qualcomm as its Trojan horse.

What’s raising a red flag: Broadcom, a Singapore-based company, is notorious for its takeover & cost-cutting combo. Regulators worry that it will wind down Qualcomm’s leading 5G program, paving the way for Chinese companies (like Huawei) to flood the U.S. market.

What doesn’t add up: 1) Broadcom said it’ll be moving its HQ from Singapore to the U.S…so moving forward, should Broadcom even be considered a foreign company? And 2) there’s little to no precedent for CFIUS to investigate a deal before one was agreed upon.

Here’s what we do know: This is as exciting as the semiconductor world gets, so enjoy it.

http://morningbrew.cmail20.com/t/j-l-bjjeky-yhyuhjkhdk-k/

@James Thomas Rook Jr. ... your comment made me google this... and sure enough an article from yesterday is out there:

"...Smoot-Hawley, Reynolds points out, passed the House in May 1929, and stocks were battered every time the act moved through the legislative process. On Oct. 23 of that year, a Wednesday, it became clear the tariffs would be much broader than first believed.

The very next day, of course, was Black Thursday. Markets dropped 9% in a day and kicked off a yearslong stock meltdown.

As Reynolds sums up, “market participants do not wait for a major law to pass” before retrenching their positions. In 1929, they were right to sell. Smoot-Hawley ultimately raised tariffs on tens of thousands of products, and trade policy analyst Bill Krist points out that by the end of 1934, global trade had tanked by 66% from 1929 levels.

The parallels to the current moment are distressing. The Trump tariffs are not in effect yet, and so far they are officially limited to steel and aluminum. But in coming days, stock traders will be acting on their beliefs about what the future will bring. There are signals, just as there were in 1929, that tariffs could expand from their modest start — U.S. trade partners have already said they will retaliate if tariffs go into effect, while President Trump posits that “trade wars are good.”

Even if we accept arguments like Reynolds’, tariffs were just one factor in the Depression, and most of the others aren’t substantial now. But history has provided us with a strong cautionary lesson about the real impact of tariffs, and the stock market is "

http://fortune.com/2018/03/04/did-tariffs-cause-the-great-depression/

I deleted your account.

I was recently told that the rate of people who are successful at dropping opioid addiction is around 2%.  Scary!!

A local policeman told me that addicts have been known to go so far as to eat their own feces in jail in order to get that last bit of the substance back in their body.

This is serious stuff folks. 

Be careful.

Eric Bolling shares heartbreaking story about his son's overdose.

Lump a bunch of MIT researchers into an Uber and they’ll come out with a thesis. In this case, a new study titled The Economics of Ride-Hailing: Driver Revenue, Expenses and Taxes.

The sparknotes:

• Drivers for Uber and Lyft make a median hourly profit of $3.37
• 74% of drivers earn less than minimum wage 
• 30% of drivers lose money every mile

Who (or whatÂ’s) to blame? Gig economy business models that saddle employees with fixed costs (e.g. cars), while their income shrinks due to industry competition.

But Uber said we’ve got some numbers of our own: Two studies from 2015 and 2017 put average hourly earnings at $19.04 and $21.07, respectively. In a weekend post on Medium, it also convincingly pointed out how MIT’s methodology was flawed. 

Then there was thisÂ…

MIT’s lead author shouldered the criticism and agreed to take another look. So for now, we’re still left wondering: is it better to have a minimum wage job or “be your own boss” in the gig economy?

https://www.morningbrew.com/stories/controversial-mit-study-points-low-wages-ride-hailers/

Here’s a reminder from your Econ 101 textbooks: institute 25% tariffs on steel imports and 10% on aluminum and you can expect international backlash. Especially when the decision is based on a Cold War-era statute that can be invoked when foreign imports pose a risk to national security. 

Because threat or no, that type of declaration is bound to put the U.S.Â’ relationships with other countries on shaky ground.

And it didÂ…

Some context: The U.S. is the world’s largest steel importer (26.9 million metric tons in 2017). 

Here’s what some of our suppliers had to say: 

Canada: “It will take responsive measures to defend its trade interests and workers.” 

Brazil expressed “enormous concern” and might take “multilateral or bilateral” protective measures. 

European Union: “We will react swiftly, firmly and proportionally.”

ItÂ’s the classic Settlers of Catan conundrum: If you screw over Bethany when you trade for ore, you better believe sheÂ’s gonna lowball when you trade back for sheep.

But the administration is standing strong

President Trump (tweeting in response): “When a country (USA) is losing many billions of dollars on trade with virtually every country it does business with, trade wars are good, and easy to win.” 

His thought process? (1) The U.S. has been bleeding blue collar steel jobs, and these tariffs will bring them back. (2) China’s monopoly on steel production has led to unfair competition in the market. 

But many fear these tariffs could raise costs in other industries that rely on imported steel (i.e. car manufacturing). Not to mention, China is only the U.S.’ 11th biggest source of imported steel.

What it means for you: If a trade war breaks out, look out for higher consumer prices and a depressed stock market.

http://morningbrew.cmail19.com/t/j-l-bjyyult-yhyuhjkhdk-k/

The loss of a loved one. 

Washington D.C.?

Wouldn't taking out the head be the most effective long term "wound"?

But you wouldn't want to stop there. I'm sure they would attack commerce and military installations all over the place which in our case would be worldwide. Good luck with that by the way. LOL

Definitely Star Trek

I like the character development and tech ideas wrapped in.

VW.ORG

https://en.wikipedia.org

http://www.catholic.org

https://www.mormon.org

https://www.jw.org/

http://www.methodist.org

https://www.google.org

.....

Want to add another one to the list?

Passengers Terrified When Fireball Ignites After Planes Clip Each Other At Toronto Airport

researchers from Google’s Project Zero, UPenn, and the University of Maryland (among others), discovered hackable security vulnerabilities in computing chips that exist in nearly every mobile phone, computer, and cloud-connected server around the globe.

The bugs, coined “Meltdown” and “Spectre” (trap house mixtape dropping soon), allow malicious software to circumvent a memory chip’s security and steal encrypted information while the chip is in “speculative execution”—aka brainstorming what next steps it should take to execute a task.

The first of the two bugs, Meltdown, could affect every Intel (-1.83%) processor made since 1995. Sure, Google and Microsoft have already announced software updates that can fix the problem, but they’ll slow down devices.

As for the second bug, Spectre, virtually every modern chip (made by Intel, AMD, and ARM) could be vulnerable. And while it’s much more difficult to exploit, there’s no cure-all...unless you go full-Steve Wozniak on your computer and replace the processor. 

But we’re guessing you won’t

Instead, here are some practical steps to keep you from pulling every fire alarm in your building.

Step 1) On January 23rd, update to the latest version of Chrome or Firefox 57 if you use these browsers.

Step 2) If your computer runs on Windows 10, make sure the update KB4056892is installed.

Step 3) Check to see if your computer’s manufacturer has released any information or updates. 

Sorry, Apple lovers—we’re still waiting on any new developments, but make sure to keep your eyes peeled.

@Marra McDonald Johnson

Fireworks over Red Square.