Relationships and Friends

SEASONED NUTS: QUOTABLE
 

“The truth is, relationships are the most valuable and value-creating resource of any society. They are our lifelines to survive, grow and thrive.

There’s a mountain of evidence suggesting that the quality of our relationships has been in steady decline for decades. In the 1980s, 20 percent of Americans said they were often lonely. Now it’s 40 percent. Suicide rates are now at a 30-year high. Depression rates have increased tenfold since 1960, which is not only a result of greater reporting. Most children born to mothers under 30 are born outside of marriage. There’s been a steady 30-year decline in Americans’ satisfaction with the peer-to-peer relationships at work.” – David Brooks

 
 
 
IN A NUTSHELL: MUST READ
 

Are We Doomed to Repeat the Past?: There are leaders among us who are pleading that history be remembered. Those who didn’t experience, or study, the world’s lessons from the 1930s and 1940s, must educate themselves. The stage appears set for a repetition of history. French president Emmanuel Macron is one leader who is sounding that warning.

In an impassioned speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, Macron urged listeners not to “belong to a generation of sleepwalkers that has forgotten its own past.”  Europe is divided in ways that emulate “civil war,” he said, and the “increasing fascination with illiberalism” pits democracy against a threatening wave of anti-immigrant nationalism and rising authoritarianism. Unless there is renewed commitment to strengthen the EU, and those democratic norms and ideals, Macron cautioned, it and they could be lost. “I want to belong to a generation that will defend European sovereignty because we fought to obtain it.”

Madeleine Albright, the first woman to serve as US Secretary of State (1997-2001), is another leader voicing her concern. In “Fascism: A Warning,” she reminds us that “the twentieth century was defined by the clash between democracy and Fascism, a struggle that created uncertainty about the survival of human freedom and left millions dead. Given the horrors of that experience, one might expect the world to reject the spiritual successors to Hitler and Mussolini should they arise in our era.” She now questions that assumption.

 
 
 
MIXED NUTS: QUICK TAKES ON WORLD NEWS
 

– The 70th anniversary of Israel’s founding is rapidly approaching, and the Book of Celebratory Plans is huge. Unfortunately, nobody’s on the same page. As a popular Israeli philosopher of Jewish thought mused: “It’s supposed to be about Israel and our story and not who takes credit for it.” (NYT)

– Hurricane Maria hit the US territory of Puerto Rico September 20, 2017, seven months ago tomorrow. Power restoration has been exceedingly slow. Yesterday, every single customer on the island lost power again – a complete blackout. And 2018’s hurricane season starts June1. (NPR and Greentech Media)

– Fox News host and conservative commentator Sean Hannity was revealed in court Monday to have been a previously unidentified client of Trump’s attorney, Michael Cohen. Now The Atlantic reports Hannity has been a client of two other Trump lawyers, Jay Sekulow and Victoria Toensing (who is married to Joseph E. diGenova). Hannity has had Sekulow, diGenova, and Toensing on his show many times, without disclosing his connection to them. (NPR)

– House flipping is back and at an all time high, not a Wizard of Oz-type high, but a Pick-Up-A-Run-Down-House-Redo-It-Flip-It-Make-A-Lot-Of-Money-type high. (NPR)

– When US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said on CBS television last Sunday that the US was preparing new sanctions against Russian firms, in response to their involvement in Syria’s chemical attack on Douma, she was following policy decisions made days before. But when the White House said Monday no such action had previously been decided, and economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Tuesday the Ambassador had suffered “momentary confusion,” Haley’d had enough. “With all due respect, I don’t get confused,” she told Fox News. Mic drop. (BBC)

– The UK and India have laid the foundation for a possible post-Brexit bilateral free trade deal and signed off on a series of commercial agreements worth up to 1 billion pounds (The Guardian)

– At a news conference in Florida, President Trump, standing alongside Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, talked about his planned meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un: “If I think that it’s a meeting that is not going to be fruitful, we’re not going to go. If the meeting, when I’m there, is not fruitful, I will respectfully leave the meeting.” (NYT)

– President Trump’s nomination for Secretary of State, CIA Director Mike Pompeo, is getting stuck in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The current number of votes for Pompeo amongst committee members is not enough to deliver him a positive recommendation, which could force Republicans to take the unusual step of sending his nomination to the Senate without a favorable recommendation. (The Guardian)

– It appears difficult to stay in President Trump’s good graces for a long time, but Mike Pompeo may be different. “With Mike, we’ve had a very good chemistry from the beginning,” Trump said last month. (NPR)

More Reads:

-Neither Precise Nor Proportionate: Trump’s attack on Syria was unserious but intended to relieve emotional pressure—and in many ways, worse than doing nothing at all (The Atlantic)

Americans waste 150,000 tons of food each day – equal to a pound per person(The Guardian)

Great Barrier Reef: 30% of coral died in ‘catastrophic’ 2016 heatwave (The Guardian)

The Tragedy of Paul Ryan: He began as a Jack Kemp conservative. He ended as Donald Trump’s man on Capitol Hill (Politico)  

-NPR Newscaster Carl Kasell Dies At 84, After A Lifelong Career On-Air (NPR)

 
 
 
NUTS AND BOLTS: SHOULD READ
 

Turkish Tyrant’s Timeline: Recep Tayyip Erdogan has run Turkey since 2002, first as prime minister and, since 2014, as president. In a 2017 referendum, voters narrowly approved changing the country’s government from a parliamentary system to a presidential republic. The move eliminated the position of prime minister and transferred those powers to the president. Now Erdogan is calling for snap presidential and parliamentary elections in June (moved up from November 2019), saying in a televised speech: “Developments in Syria and elsewhere have made it urgent to switch to the new executive system in order to take steps for our country’s future in a stronger way.”

Some say Erdogan’s change of heart (he had previously opposed early elections) is an attempt to ride the wave of nationalism after the recent military offensive against Kurdish fighters in Syria, and catch his main rival, Meral Aksener, off guard. A few months ago, Aksener formed a new right-wing party, the Iyi (Good) Party, and announced she would stand for the presidency by collecting 100,000 signatures. Others say in light of Turkey’s stagnant economy and continuing high inflation, Erdogan wants to pre-empt any potential economic crash. Either way, the new extended powers will only take effect after the presidential election.

The End of the Castro Era in Cuba, and the Beginning of Countless Possibilities: As autocrats in other countries extend their time in power, the era of Cuba’s ruling dynasty has ended. The National Assembly of People’s Power, Cuba’s legislative parliament, has selected Miguel Díaz-Canel to replace 86-year-old Raul Castro. It will be the first time since 1959 a “Castro” will not control the government in Cuba. 57-year-old Diaz-Canel is the sole candidate nominated to assume the presidency; Thursday’s parliamentary confirmation vote isn’t in doubt.

Raul Castro stepped in 12 years ago, when brother Fidel became too ill to continue as the head of Cuba’s Communist government. In 2011, then president Obama eased decades-old policies restricting US engagement with Cuba, allowing many Americans to travel there for the first time and increasing the amounts they could invest in the island.

Raul’s willingness to resume diplomatic relations with America, and open his country to a small but vital private business sector, allowed energized young Cubans to imagine business opportunities not possible under Fidel’s rule. President Trump reversed that trend, and Cuba’s growing economy was prematurely stalled. Diaz-Canel will need to figure out how to deal with his country’s own stagnating economy, problems caused by the economic collapse of close ally, Venezuela, and a population impatient for continued change. He will also have to find out what kind of relationship is possible with President Trump.

 
 
 
E-NUTS
 

Hackers once stole a casino’s high-roller database through a thermometer in the lobby fish tank (Business Insider)

Inside Cambridge Analytica’s Virtual Currency Plans (NYT)

A Beginner’s Guide to Taking Great Video on Your Phone (NYT)

I was one of Facebook’s first users. I shouldn’t have trusted Mark Zuckerberg (The Guardian)

How to save your privacy from the Internet’s clutches: Practical tips to fight surveillance capitalism (TechCrunch)

Even if you clear your history, Google has a record of all of your search activity — here’s how to delete it (Business Insider)

 
 
 
CA$H NUTS
 

How to get rich quick in Silicon Valley. Corey Pein took his half-baked startup idea to America’s hottest billionaire factory – and found a wasteland of techie hustlers and con men (The Guardian)

Is Netflix On Its Way To World Domination Of Streaming? (NPR)

Amazon reveals it has more than 100 million Prime members (CNN)

What Adult Learners Really Need (Hint: It’s Not Just Job Skills) (NPR)

Tennessee Strips $250,000 From Memphis As Payback For Removing Confederate Statues (NPR)

 
 
 
LOOSE NUTS
 

A Nottingham, England mom did some online grocery shopping at Asda recently. You know, just some pasta, baked beans, biscuits, veggies, toilet paper…and a $1,320 banana. She was surprised to see the bill and thought it was just some silly monkey business. “But then we got a text from my credit card company saying they detected fraud and that (Asda) had tried to charge me for it.”

Taking it all in stride, the mom told her seven-year-old: “You must really enjoy this banana, you must cherish every mouthful.”

Asda’s spokesperson apologized for the computer slip-up and explained that their bananas, while excellent, weren’t worth that much green, and thanked the mom for keeping her eyes peeled and exposing the error.

Please consider making a one-time donation to Daily Pnut, an independently operated and bootstrapped publication, via PayPal. Many thanks to everyone who already supports us!

Yes, I want to sound marginally more intelligent: