The Most Important Industry | Dictators Diss America | Israel’s Comey Moment

PNUT GALLERY
 

This year Pnut’s publisher has a personal, professional, and educational desire to learn more about the healthcare industry. The healthcare industry is one of the world’s largest and fastest growing industry. It also is now the US’s largest employer. If you’d like to join us in our exploration of healthcare, then the first book on our list is An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back. As always, we request and suggest you check the book out from the library as we have done. If you have thoughts about the healthcare or would like to recommend articles or books, then please email us at editor@dailypnut.com!

 
 
 
SEASONED NUTS: QUOTABLE
 

“There are more than 9,000 billing codes for individual procedures and units of care. But there is not a single billing code for patient adherence or improvement, or for helping patients stay well.” – Clayton M. Christensen

“Everyone should have health insurance? I say everyone should have health care. I’m not selling insurance.” – Dennis Kucinich

 
 
 
IN A NUTSHELL: MUST READ
 

I’ll Have My People Call Your People: Shortly before Christmas President Trump tweeted his intention to withdraw the 2,000 plus US troops deployed in Syria. “Our boys, our young women, our men, they’re all coming back, and they’re coming back now,” Trump said, simultaneously declaring victory over ISIS. The surprise announcement caught military leaders and cabinet officials flat-footed. Since then National Security Adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have been scrambling to walk back the president’s statement, to assure US troops and allies in northeastern Syria that the withdrawal would not occur immediately, and that Kurdish forces allied with the US would continue to be protected after American troops exit. The mixed messages have created both confusion and consternation, so Bolton and Pompeo traveled to Turkey to visit American troops in the region, and attempt to quiet concerns and ease speculation about US policies in the Middle East.

As part of the trip a meeting was planned Tuesday between Bolton and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss troop withdrawal and the fate of the US-allied Kurdish militia fighting ISIS in Syria. But minutes before the meeting was to start Erdogan canceled it, offering the “local election season and a speech to parliament” as reasons. In truth the cancellation was a snub, because Erdogan is furious over US insistence that Kurdish fighters and the territories they control must be protected after Americans leave. Unlike the US, Turkey “sees these Kurdish authorities as being aligned with militants it considers terrorists, and has threatened to attack the parts of Syria they control,”

Additional read: “Children ‘still being tortured to confess to Isis links’ by Kurdish security forces: Nearly two years after raising the alarm, Human Rights Watch report reveals continued allegations of electric shocks and beatings on boys aged 14 to 17” (Guardian)

 
 
 
MIXED NUTS: QUICK TAKES ON WORLD NEWS
 

At Least Some Meetings Go According To Plan: Chinese President Xi Jinping invited North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to visit him in Beijing, for the fourth time in a year. No agenda was announced but it could be a chance for the two leaders to coordinate ahead of a possible second summit between Kim and President Trump. Last year Kim visited China before and after his historic summit with the president. Trump has repeatedly claimed the meeting produced Kim’s commitment to denuclearize, but no details were ever forthcoming, and Pyongyang has not engaged in any working-level talks with Washington in the interim. NPR reports: “Analysts believe North Korea is betting everything on a second summit with Trump, where they will try to manipulate him into making more concessions.” US and Chinese officials are meeting in Beijing this week with the goal of negotiating an end to the trade war, in which hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs have been imposed over the past year. (NPR)

Just Be Upfront About Your Front: In an exclusive report, Reuters says it has found corporate filings and other documents in Iran and Syria that show China’s Huawei Technologies, the world’s largest supplier of telecommunications network equipment, is more closely linked to two obscure companies than previously known. One is telecom equipment seller Skycom Tech Co. Ltd. that operated in Tehran; the other is that firm’s owner, a holding company registered in Mauritius. The US case against Huawei’s chief financial officer, who was arrested in Canada last month, alleges Meng Wanzhou deceived international banks into clearing transactions with Iran by claiming the two companies were independent of Huawei, when in fact Huawei controlled them. (Reuters)

Additional read: “The Chinese government claims that it provides medical coverage for nearly all of its citizens. But the reality is that the country’s health care system is broken” (NYT)

– “US downgrades EU diplomatic status in Washington: The EU says the US government has changed the bloc’s diplomatic status in Washington, in practice downgrading it.” (BBC)

– “Afghan Taliban cancel peace talks with U.S. citing ‘agenda disagreement’” (Reuters)

 
 
 
NUTS AND BOLTS: SHOULD READ
 

Israeli Election Heats Up Whether They Like It Or Not: This spring elections are happening in Israel, and campaign drama is in full bloom. Current prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his conservative Likud party are leading the pack, but contenders in smaller parties are snapping at his heels. Netanyahu has a couple of reasons not to be celebrating just yet as his comfortable lead could actually encourage voters to get behind a smaller alternative. Even more worrisome for him are the three major corruption investigations into whether he’s guilty of criminal activity in the decade he’s been in office. Israel’s attorney general has said he’ll decide before April’s election whether to follow police recommendations and indict the PM on bribery and/or additional crimes.

This week Netanyahu tried to get ahead of rumblings about criminal investigations by going on live TV Monday night. For seven full minutes he commanded the airwaves as he railed against the investigations, calling them “biased”, “a joke”, “an absurdity”. At least one television channel cut away midspeech; for those that carried the entire performance, the commentary and analysis afterward wasn’t what Netanyahu had intended. One columnist wrote that the PM’s demand to defend himself via “a dramatic prime-time address to the nation is A. Disturbing B. a sign of his escalating hysteria.” A former prime minister tweeted the apparent consensus: “Bibi is a-f-r-a-i-d.” The sound from Netanyahu’s camp? Crickets.

Additional read: “Israeli attorney general’s Comey-like bind: Whether to go public in Netanyahu probe before the election.” (WaPo)

 
 
 
SPONSORED NUTS: GROVE.CO
 

As you know, our job here at Daily Pnut is to keep you updated everyday on everything happening in the world. So it should come as no surprise that we want to help protect the Earth and keep it spinning madly on. Did you know 94,000 trees are cut down in the US every day to make toilet paper and paper towels? This year you should make it your New Year’s resolution to go tree-free with a little help from our friends at Grove Collaborative. Grove is the B Corporation that is changing the world with its beautiful and sustainable natural products – like Seedling, Grove’s 100% tree-free paper towels, toilet paper and tissues that are made from bamboo and sugarcane. Spend $20, and they’ll throw in a 30-day supply of household products for free.

 
 
 
NUTS IN AMERICA
 

Shutdown The Shutdown: The government shutdown is now in its 19th day, and federal employees who aren’t receiving a paycheck are hurting. It’s the last straw in a tempestuous two years under the Trump administration for many government workers. They’ve seen budget cuts, hiring freezes, inept Cabinet secretaries and, for some, open hostility to their fundamental mission. (WaPo)

Additional read: “Trump Literally Did Not Understand What a Shutdown Would Do” (NY Mag)

Updates On The Madness: President Trump gave his first formal address to the nation from the Oval Office Tuesday night. The president said: “Americans are being hurt by uncontrolled migration,” and that more Americans will die from drugs coming across the border than died in the Vietnam war. He reiterated particular instances of an illegal immigrant attacking, raping or killing a citizen. The solution, he said, to the plethora of dangers Americans face from illegal immigrants is to build his signature wall all along the southern border. Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi rebutted Trump’s claims, as other fact checkers busily documented the inaccuracies, exaggerations, untruths and conflation throughout the president’s speech. (CNN)

– “Manafort shared polling data on 2016 election with elusive Russian – Mueller” (Guardian)

– “Russian Lawyer At Trump Tower Meeting Charged In Connection To Money Laundering Case” (NPR)

 
 
 
LOOSE NUTS: FASCINATING NEWS
 

– “The “skills gap” was a lie: New research shows it was the consequence of high unemployment rather than its cause.” (Vox)

– “Millions of Americans Are Wrong About Having a Food Allergy, Study Suggests: Drinking milk may make you feel sick and gassy, but that doesn’t mean you’re allergic.” (Gizmodo)

– “What’s behind the confidence of the incompetent? This suddenly popular psychological phenomenon.: The Dunning-Kruger effect explains why unskilled people think they know it all and tend to be overconfident.” (WaPo)

– “US retail giant Sears may get reprieve from liquidation: Sears, the US department store chain that once dominated US shopping malls, may be getting a reprieve.” (BBC) One day this will happen to Amazon. In the meantime, “Amazon becomes world’s most valuable public company:Amazon, formed 25 years ago, has eclipsed Microsoft to become the world’s most valuable listed company.” (BBC)

– “The History Of Blood: For centuries, curiosity about the mystical and biological functions of blood has fuelled both dangerous misunderstandings and revolutionary discoveries.” (New Yorker)

– “Psychology’s five revelations for finding your true calling” (Aeon)

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