Trump to Withdraw Troops from Syria [???]
December 20th, 2018A few days ago, it was: U.S. Troops to Occupy Third of Syria, “Perhaps Indefinitely.”
So, is it good news that the Trump actually wants to get U.S. troops out of Syria?
Yes.
But it’s more complicated than that.
He also has to stop the CIA from running/training/supplying ISIS.
Via: Reuters:
U.S. President Donald Trump overrode his top national security aides, blindsided U.S. ground commanders, and stunned lawmakers and allies with his order for U.S. troops to leave Syria, a decision that upends American policy in the Middle East.
The result, said current and former officials and people briefed on the decision, will empower Russia and Iran and leave unfinished the goal of erasing the risk that Islamic State, or ISIS, which has lost all but a sliver territory, could rebuild.
Trump was moving toward his dramatic decision in recent weeks even as top aides tried to talk him out of it, determined to fulfill a campaign promise of limiting U.S. involvement militarily abroad, two senior officials said.
The move, which carries echoes of Trump’s repudiation of the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate change accord, is in keeping with his America First philosophy and the pledge he made to end U.S. military involvement.
A former senior Trump administration official said the president’s decision basically was made two years ago, and that Trump finally stared down what he considered unpersuasive advice to stay in.
“The president won. His inclination was always not to be there,” said the former official who is close to the White House, saying a variety of senior advisers had all argued against pulling out.
Bitcoin Break Out
December 19th, 2018Anyone watching it?
Via: Bloomberg:
Just as the euphoria surrounding Bitcoin was peaking last December, Mark Dow decided to short the leading digital currency. Almost a year to the day, and after a more than 80 percent decline from its record high price, Dow has closed out the trade.
“I’m done. I don’t want to try to ride this thing to zero,” Dow said in a phone interview Tuesday. “I don’t want to try to squeeze more out of the lemon. I don’t want to think about it. It seemed like the right time.”
Dow, a former International Monetary Fund economist who manages a family office in Southern California, bet that Bitcoin would decline in value right after Bitcoin futures began trading, pushing the price to a high of $19,511 exactly one year ago. Dow, who announced Tuesday on Twitter that he’s “saying goodbye” to the short, took profits twice already this year, he said.
Oil Crashes to 1-Year Low
December 18th, 2018Via: Bloomberg:
Economic jitters and surging supplies from the U.S. to Moscow dragged oil prices to the lowest level in 15 months.
Futures fell as much as 5.8 percent in New York on Tuesday. Anxieties about economic growth swirled after Chinese President Xi Jinping appeared to push back against U.S. President Donald Trump in a key Beijing speech. Meanwhile, American investors braced for an interest-rate hike.
QRL Presentation at CryptoBlockCon 2018
December 17th, 2018Disclosure: I am long QRL (Quantum Resistant Ledger).
Via: QRL YouTube Channel:
Signal App to Australia: Good Luck with That Crypto Ban
December 17th, 2018Via: Ars Technica:
Signal, one of the most secure messaging apps, essentially told Australia this week that its attempts to thwart strong crypto are rather cute.
“By design, Signal does not have a record of your contacts, social graph, conversation list, location, user avatar, user profile name, group memberships, group titles, or group avatars,” Joshua Lund, a Signal developer wrote. “The end-to-end encrypted contents of every message and voice/video call are protected by keys that are entirely inaccessible to us. In most cases now we don’t even have access to who is messaging whom.”
A Texas Elementary School Speech Pathologist Fired After She Refused to Sign a Pro-Israel Oath
December 17th, 2018Via: The Intercept:
A children’s speech pathologist who has worked for the last nine years with developmentally disabled, autistic, and speech-impaired elementary school students in Austin, Texas, has been told she can no longer work with the public school district after she refused to sign an oath vowing that she “does not” and “will not” engage in a boycott of Israel or “otherwise tak[e] any action that is intended to inflict economic harm” on that foreign nation. A lawsuit on her behalf was filed early Monday morning in a federal court in the Western District of Texas alleging a violation of her First Amendment right of free speech.
…
In order to obtain contracts in Texas, then, a citizen is free to denounce and work against the United States, to advocate for causes that directly harm American children, and even to support a boycott of particular U.S. states, such as was done in 2017 to North Carolina in protest of its anti-LGBT law. In order to continue to work, Amawi would be perfectly free to engage in any political activism against her own country, participate in an economic boycott of any state or city within the U.S., or work against the policies of any other government in the world — except Israel.
Drs. Wolfson: Wide Awake Seminar Free to View for Limited Time
December 17th, 2018Via: Drs. Wolfson:
They told us vaccines were safe. They lied. They told us vaccines were effective. They lied. They told us vaccines were necessary. They lied. It’s time to learn the truth and see the information they don’t want you to see. Join The Drs. Wolfson for a rare full-length cinema seminar presentation regarding the danger of vaccination, why the viruses and bacteria are beneficial, and ways to boost your immune system naturally.
Something Very Weird with Google’s Autocomplete, Searching on Google vs. Duckduckgo
December 16th, 2018Yep. I tried it.
Via: Reddit:
U.S. Troops to Occupy Third of Syria, “Perhaps Indefinitely”
December 16th, 2018Via: Stars and Stripes:
RAQQA, Syria — This ruined, fearful city was once the Islamic State’s capital, the showcase of its caliphate and a magnet for foreign fighters from around the globe.
Now it lies at the heart of the United States’ newest commitment to a Middle East war.
The commitment is small, a few thousand troops who were first sent to Syria three years ago to help the Syrian Kurds fight the Islamic State. President Donald Trump indicated in March that the troops would be brought home once the battle is won, and the latest military push to eject the group from its final pocket of territory recently got underway.
In September, however, the administration switched course, saying the troops will stay in Syria pending an overall settlement to the Syrian war and with a new mission: to act as a bulwark against Iran’s expanding influence.
That decision puts U.S. troops in overall control, perhaps indefinitely, of an area comprising nearly a third of Syria, a vast expanse of mostly desert terrain roughly the size of Louisiana.
EVs, Oil, And ICE: Impact By 2023 And Beyond
December 16th, 2018Via: Ross Tessien – SeekingAlpha:
Legacy auto companies are planning on the EV disruption taking several decades. But disruptions never take that long once the new technology can match the old.
