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We’re too busy to read/watch the news every day! So here, I will link to the single most relevant article I find for the day and give you a brief summary so we can STAY INFORMED. Feel free to add articles you find important too.

Stephen hawking just died! He just died in his home less than few hours ago! 

Wow........... and you thought losing entertainers mattered.

I majored in Physics at UT so it’s hard to colloquiallize the depth of his contribution to both our understanding as the academic community and the general public’s understanding of how extreme relativistic phenomena can manifest themselves in observable forms (among countless other series of equations describing all kinds of things, notably brane interactions and imcomplete particle annihilations).

Number of witty rejoinders you’ll get from me: 0. I already miss him... but I guess everybody has their time. 

Why couldn’t they take fuckin Neil Tyson instead? 

Ok, rejoinders: 1. 

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-43396008

A String of News: Your Daily Dose of Being in the Loop

I’m born in Tehran so this is definitely a topic of interest.

Item 2: (And a brief history lesson)

Despite opening his mouth to the contrary, of course, after all his complaining for the past year and longer about our negotiations with Iran, how it’s costing us a fortune and we get nothing back, how it makes us look like underfoot negotiators and belittles our position as a world authority. 

You remember all that? It was a big part of his platform to reimpose the sanctions on Iran lifted in 2015 and cease repayment of the settlement reached between Iran and the US.

Well today, we can breathe a huge sigh of relief, as Trump agreed to continue honoring the Nuclear Deal made with Iran through the United Nations, at least for a little while (4 months).

****

Here’s a layman’s background (meaning largely simplified) on the Nuclear deal with Iran, and why things could have escalated horribly if we reimposed the original sanctions. 

This whole debacle really started in 1979, with the Islamic Revolution that took Iran out from under Persian rule. The Persian dynasty was allied with the United States, but the new Islamic government was not, had hostile intentions, and began developing a military. It was at that time that the United States stepped in to halt the development of military technology in Iran, in particular, the development of nuclear weapons. 

Iran purported, justifiably, and independent of their US relations, that their enriched uranium program was intended for use in power plants, to expand their energy infrastructure (cause, you know, Iran is almost a complete desert with very few resources besides oil), but of course, that uranium is also easily lent to nuclear weapons, a huge fear then and now. 

So the US in ‘79 imposed the first set of sanctions, directly on government trade designed to make oil trading out of the new Islamic Iran expensive for them and price them out of the market, as well as restrict the flow of arms until they agreed to stop Uranium enrichment programs. Because the US wanted to balance incentivizing Iran to stop, without driving the civilian population into poverty (they were already struggling), the sanctions were light and ineffective at stopping the Iranian agenda.

Iranian power continued to expand, as well as their open ill-will towards with the United States (fueled in no small part by the original sanction), so in 1995 Bill Clinton’s administration worked to make the sanctions more severe, included any 3rd party firms doing business with Iran, and expanded to several other goods. 

This is where the Iranian government got in a bind. They had a very real need for nuclear power, not to mention uranium was making its way into the medical industry, and continued to lobby for their right to enrich. They refused to shut down their enrichment programs and continued to operate under heavy sanction, destroying the Iranian economy and leaving huge portions of Iran completely impoverished (to the tune of people dying of malnutrition), something neither the United States or the United Nations wanted to see. To fix this, in 2006, the UN stepped in and reformed the sanctions criteria so that if Iran met safeguard agreements with the IAEA (international atomic energy agency), and managed the scale of their nuclear operations, the UN would lift the sanctions. 

Iran got their affairs in order and in 2015, the UN was able to justify lifting the majority of the sanctions on Iran. 

Since then, the Iranian economy has been growing rapidly and become much much much more healthy. 

Here’s the kicker: part of the original sanction set in 1979 was a freeze on Iranian funds in US banks, a sum of $400 million in payment for US military equipment made for the Persians before the Islamic takeover. 
Part of the conditions of Iranian cooperation is repayment of the frozen funds from 1979, which, with inflation and interest, had become a very large amount of money. Obama negotiated the total amount down to $1.7 billion. 

So the US has been dutifully repaying Iran the money we initially froze in regular installments.

In Trump’s own words, it looks like we pay Iran for no reason, in exchange for peace, but what’s actually happening is we’re giving back money we took from them decades ago. 

To reimpose sanctions, and halt repayment, could cause Iran to declare war, which, unfortunately, they would certainly lose, costing American and Iranian lives in the process. It’s a testy situation over there.

But Iran is doing the right thing, and we need to continue doing the right thing as well, paying back the money we took that sent a Middle Eastern nation into extreme poverty. 

Reimposing the sanctions created by the US in 1995 would swiftly reverse the tremendous economic progress being made in the region over the past decade, and that’s a big mistake.

The extension of the sanction lift by the United States today is valid for only 120 days, so I’ll keep you posted on how the situation plays out. 

Thanks for reading, I feel deeply for the citizens of Iran and don’t want the earnest efforts of their government to be dismissed by a president who’s not informed of the history of our relationship. 

-Max

TL;DR: 

Trump agreed to extend the lift on sanctions on Iran for 120 days, pending an improvement to the Iranian Deal. Iran has made great economic progress complying with the UN, and for the good of the Iranian people, the sanctions need to continue to back off as they regain stable footing. The 1.7 billion being sent to Iran is repayment of their own money, and is being well-utilized by Iran to create infrastructure. Taking that away could lead to Iran initiating acts of war that would cost lives.

http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/12/politics/president-donald-trump-iran-deal-waiver/index.html

http://time.com/4441046/400-million-iran-hostage-history/

President Donald Trump on Friday avoided upending the nuclear deal with Iran that he has repeatedly disparaged, agreeing to waive key sanctions the US lifted as part of the deal.

Trump issues warning, but continues to honor Iran deal

The $400 million that arrived in Tehran by the pallet in January was part of a hostage deal, but not the one some might think

Why the U.S. Owed Iran That $400 Million

I think I’m actually late to this party, but the Jordan Peterson interview with Cathy Newman about the gender income gap is surely about to go viral. 

For the record, I don’t believe Newman is doing anything but playing a role, forcing Peterson to choose very specific verbiage so his talking points didn’t come across as biased opinions, and she did a stellar job.

Check it out:

https://youtu.be/aMcjxSThD54

Channel 4 News’ full, fiery interview with clinical psychologist and professor Jordan B Peterson, whose views on gender have amassed great controversy - and ...

Jordan Peterson debate on the gender pay gap, campus protests and postmodernism

This will be one of the first mass shootings in a long time that the suspect is in custody. Hopefully they can glean more from a living suspect than the forensic efforts.

In case you haven’t heard yet, there was another high school shooting yesterday afternoon, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Parkland, Florida. 

This is a pretty serious one, there’s already 17 confirmed deaths, and more than 14 injured in the hospital. Shooter was a 19 year old former student named Nikolaus Cruz, armed with an AR-15 (of course), who had been expelled from the school previously. He is currently in custody after being treated for injuries. 

If you didn’t know yet, you were going to soon. We’ll probably be talking about this one for years, and this guy Cruz will soon be a household name. 

https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/14/us/florida-high-school-shooting/index.html

At least 17 people were killed Wednesday in a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, the Broward County Sheriff's office said.

At least 17 dead in Florida school shooting, law enforcement says

I feel you. As a physics enthusiast and a computer science major this man was an inspiration on multiple levels.

The British scientist who explained the Universe to millions died peacefully at home aged 76.

Visionary physicist Stephen Hawking dies

Also:

Another humorous happening:

if you don’t know who Sadiq Khan is, he’s the current mayor of London. Not only is he London’s first Muslim mayor, he’s also London’s first ethnic/racial minority mayor, and the first Muslim mayor of a major western Capitol City (Like, ever).

Well, Saturday Khan was giving a speech in London, and a bunch of Pro-Trump alt-righters associated with a group called White Pendragon showed up to his speech and attempted to make a “nonviolent, peaceful citizen’s arrest” of the mayor. They were of course stopped and told to disperse. 


GUYS, how did you think that was gonna play out, though, seriously! What would it mean if civilians could just apprehend lawmakers at will? That’s not safe practice at all, especially considering (THIS IS TRUE) you guys hand-built a real operational wooden gallows. For what, to hang the mayor? Like, literal lynching? 

The mayor of course offered his usual poignant witticism on the subject, saying they must be a bunch of “very stable geniuses”. I can’t argue with that.

http://www.newsweek.com/far-right-trump-supporters-attempt-arrest-london-mayor-sadiq-khan-780733

Sadiq Khan has repeatedly clashed with President Trump.

Alt-right Trump fans just tried to arrest the Mayor of London

You heard it here first:

Well the federal government just shut down at midnight. You won’t notice right away, but, it’s not an exaggeration. All government agencies have lost 100% of their federal funding. Yes, they’re closing down the IRS, the pentagon is shutting down, this is for real. 

You can actually blame the democrats for this one, more specifically, democratic senators, for denying a bill that Paul Ryan fervently advocated, authorizing continued federal funding for 4 weeks while they work through financial inconsistencies. It passed the House (barely), but failed the Senate largely in protest of related immigration reforms generous defense allowances.

Two notes on this.
First:

Guys, it’s chill. 
....
Well, it’s not chill, our federal government is shut down, as are many many federal services people rely on heavily, but... 

it’s chill. It happened exactly the same way 5 years ago (that time GOPs fault, ironically in protest of related gun control measures), and did you die? Neither did I.

Note 2:
Hilariously enough, we are still initiating military activity, and NO, soldiers are NOT getting paid and are STILL required to follow military orders. I thought we abolished slavery?? And now we’re technically fighting a war the U.S. itself isn’t funding (though they have reserves for situations like this filled by US, but still.)

Thought I’d give you two viewpoints on this one so you can judge. 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/01/18/house-republicans-plan-vote-avert-shutdown-but-trump-may-have-made-harder/1043694001/

https://www.google.com/amp/www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/01/20/government-braces-for-shutdown-as-senate-fails-to-meet-deadline-for-spending-deal.amp.html



The House passed a short-term spending bill Thursday night to keep the government open, but Senate Democrats and a few Republicans may kill it.

House passes short-term spending bill, but legislation faces long odds in Senate

Redirect Notice

Https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/11/us/politics/fisa-surveillance-congress-trump.html

The House Passes the Continuation of Section 702 and other Spying Protocols!!

For those of you who don’t know, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) is a long-standing piece of warrantless surveillance legislation passed by Jimmy Carter in 1978 and utilized extensively by the NSA following the Patriot Act passed under George Bush. 

These warrantless surveillance programs are the very same ones exposed in detail by Edward Snowden, who then became wanted for treason by the U.S. government. 

Section 702 allows for the complete surveillance of any U.S. citizen in communication with a foreign national who is already under surveillance by American intelligence agencies. 

This is the section specifically used against Hillary Clinton in collection of emails exchanged with several foreign dignitaries, and also against Donald Trump’s staff (including him, Michael Flynn, Steve Bannon, etc.) in the ongoing investigation into Russia’s interference with the 2016 Presidential Election.

Why does this matter? 

Trump is fighting HARD to get this bill to fail, because it is currently being used against basically his ENTIRE staff, but most importantly against Paul Manafort, (a long conversation for another day), for alleged direct financial contribution to the Russian government to smear the DNC. Trump has been posting tweet after incendiary tweet condemning the surveillance program, but, understandably, when your tweets are only half-informed and don’t stand to create solutions, they don’t get taken seriously even by your own party buddy, sorry. 

If the bill failed to renew, the investigation into Russia would come to a near dead halt, and no convictions would ever arise (they still may not)

The House was the biggest obstacle to ending the tenure of this portion of the FISA bill. Senate’s a shoe-in, and even pending a veto, which is highly likely given President Trump’s long list of tweets against it, the Senate will still overwhelmingly ratify this extension, valid for the next 6 years.



TL;DR: 

The government will continue to watch everything you do! Trump fought hard to stop the investigation into his staff at the legislative level, but it will continue, with bipartisan support that supersedes him.

House lawmakers voted to preserve the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance program.

House Extends Surveillance Law, Rejecting New Privacy Safeguards

Happy MLK day! Here’s what you may have missed this weekend. 

First: 

Chelsea Manning for... U.S. Senate? The 30-year old Transgendered woman who was famously imprisoned for 7 years (sentenced to 35 years and granted clemency by Pres. Obama) following her release of several classified documents to the WikiLeaks network, announced her intention via Twitter to run in the Democratic Primary of the 2018 US Senate race in Maryland. 

Nothing qualifies you for our government quite like violating the Espionage Act and compromising our national security. 👍👍

Jokes aside, she has a long uphill battle to knock out incumbent Democrat Ben Cardin, who’s not only won the primaries but the actual Senate seat the past two elections. 

http://time.com/5102470/chelsea-manning-running-for-senate/


Two major stories from today involving the White House! And of course, they’re both, well, expected and disappointing at the same time.

Item 1: 
I’m not even sure how to start this story. Apparently, in an immigration meeting yesterday with Congress, President Trump reportedly referred to African nations as “shithole countries” and asked why we couldn’t take immigrants from “nations like Norway”. 

Now the US ambassador to Panama has resigned, the African Union is understandably furious, and Trump is taking criticism from all over the globe (as if he wasn’t already). This hasn’t blown up socially yet, but it got into late shows last night, hit the news this morning and I don’t think it’s going to get swept under the rug. 

As far as the NYTimes characterization of the “racially tinged language”, I see it both being and not being racially motivated. While it’s true that he was quite explicitly talking about economic states of affairs, it’s a heavy coincidence that most nations he listed by name were predominantly black. 

Sigh,
Anyone want some of my popcorn? 

- Max 

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/01/12/us/politics/trump-immigration-congress.html?referer=https://www.google.com/

P.S. I linked to the NYT article just because I wanted to quote it, for more broad information on the topic, WSJ, BBC, CNN, and many other news outlets have also covered this, and I recommend getting more than one view point, as this particular NYT article seemed biased in fact coverage. 

The president’s racially charged comments threaten an emerging agreement to project some undocumented immigrants, which risks bringing a government shutdown.

A Senior Republican Senator Admonishes Trump: ‘America Is an Idea, Not a Race’

No need for a long story on this one, but a creepy little medical practice: 

BBC just put out an article on a surgeon named Simon Bramhall, who was using an argon laser to etch his initials 4 centimeters high in his patients new transplanted livers. Scarring doesn’t affect the livers function at all really, except in cases of extreme cirrhosis, so it’s not a health risk to the patients, but a kind of unnerving way of “signing your artwork” so to speak. He’s been given two counts of assault, fined £10,000, and the General Medical Council is reviewing his right to continue practice (it was never a physically dangerous thing to do, and he is an excellent surgeon).

Wow!!! For followers of the cryptocurrency movement, we’ve known for a while that cryptos were appreciating far in excess of the currency markets fundamental levels. But today it finally happened! 

Bitcoin has always been the leader, but today dipped down to just over $10000, which, from over $19000, is almost half of its value. Damnnn! Other coins have been adversely affected as well.

The underlying cause was uncertainty related to tight regulations implemented in China recently that made large quantities of Asian traders pause movement and wait for stabilization. 

I have a lot of friends invested in the coins (in a life supporting manner), so I really hope to see it pick back up. 

Do I really have to cite this? Just look anywhere lol

Lol this story is crazy. Imagine getting that notification on your phone 😳

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/01/13/hawaiians-get-ballistic-missile-threat-messages/?utm_term=.4e08a6ff784e

Hawaiians with iOS devices just got this alert sent to their phones within the last hour. EMA was quick to issue an assurance that the text was a mistake, due to a missile strike warning system being put in place (which says a lot about where we are with NK right now).

I had to share this this is too funny:

Many Hawaii residents received emergency alerts advising them to “seek immediate shelter” Saturday morning.

‘BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII,’ the alert screamed. It was a false alarm.

Alright government shutdowns over go back to your lives (oh wait, nothing happened).

Lol

The XFL set to return in 2020? Really Vince?

In case you don’t know what the XFL is (I do, I love football), it was a weird attempt in 2001 by WWE (yes, that Vince!) to combine football and action entertainment (isn’t football already that? Lol). 

It didn’t fail necessarily for the fact that they hired hookers to sit in the end zone (no, like, real ones, for real), or for the fact that they only had 8 teams involved (that’s bad even for just a fantasy league), but mostly cause the football itself was poorly played. 

The league was kinda rushed into existence, it went from thought on paper to city stadium teams to kickoff game in about 10 months. players didn’t have a chance to practice together as teams and even though they had some real talent (many players went on to the NFL quite successfully after), it was worse than watching DIII, NAIA college ball or even highschool ball. 

McMahon has about about 17 months this time to try pulling off round 2......... and he’s gonna make it a “moral” league, meaning players with criminal histories can’t play. Dude, have you ever met a football player before?? Lol, that basically leaves you Colt McCoy and Tim Tebow. 

Actually Tim Tebow is on his radar. Really. And he’s not the only high profile player you can expect to see out there. 

McMahon, I sincerely wish you luck, but, dude, just push to 2022 and take your time and do things properly. You know the NFL is gonna be waiting to take you down, with a 100 million dollar budget going up against a 100 billion dollar giant, you can’t afford mistakes. Literally.

https://www.cbssports.com/wwe/news/this-is-the-xfl-again-controversial-football-league-set-to-return-in-2020/

P.S. I know this is off topic, but this is actually going to be a big thing. You’ll notice it slip into mainstream attention pretty soon. BUT YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST lol 

Nearly two decades after it flamed out, the XFL will be returning to a playing field near you