THE SHOW NOTES: Football Legends Gone, Debating For Second Place, & Why Are Young People Getting Cancer?
Welcome! Nick Saban and Bill Belichick are GONE.
BUT: Is Belichick headed to the Falcons? - SI
HEADLINE: Biden warned to stop bringing big donors to Oval Office - Axios
MUST READ: I’m Done Being Disrespected - Medium
CANADA: Canadian police warn that posting videos of alleged package thieves could be ‘violation' of their privacy - Fox News
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Inflation
Inflation jumped more than expected in December as the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge reported a 0.3% increase last month and a 3.4% bump from a year ago.
Why this matters: While the numbers are only slightly ahead of expectations, the majority of the price increases were in essential goods and services like rent, gas, and auto insurance. Nonessential services like furniture, toys, and sporting goods fell which inarguably paints a more dire picture than the topline number projects.
2024
Chris Christie has dropped out of the presidential race significantly reshaping the calculus for the primary in the state of New Hampshire.
Why this matters: Before Christie dropped out on Tuesday, a CNN poll reported that Haley and Trump were neck and neck in New Hampshire with Christie in a distant third place. However, the same poll reports that 2 out of 3 Christie supporters claim that Haley is their second choice.
Trump prosecutor Nathan Wade splurged on lavish trips with Fani Willis while ex-wife struggled ‘without any means of financial support’
A top prosecutor leading the election interference case against Donald Trump in Georgia has allegedly left his estranged wife “without any means of financial support” while splurging on “lavish trips” for himself and his boss, Fani Willis.
Nathan Wade, who has been married for 26 years and shares two adult children with his wife, Joycelyn, filed for divorce in Cobb County, outside Atlanta, in November 2021, according to court records.
Full story at The New York Post.
Iran Captures Oil Tanker Off Oman as Mideast Turmoil Deepens
A tanker previously seized by the US for carrying illicit Iranian oil was captured by Tehran off the coast of Oman, heightening tensions in the world’s most important trade lane for global crude supply.
While the tanker was last year at the center of a sanctions bust-up between the US and Iran, the latest incident nevertheless brings Iran more directly into the shipping turmoil that’s gripped the Middle East. There have been a number of attacks on ships in the Red Sea over the past two months, primarily by Iran-backed Houthi militants. The US and its allies are weighing options for retaliation.
Iran seized the St Nikolas “in retaliation for the theft of oil by the US,” Iran’s semi-official Mehr reported. Four to five people in military-style uniforms and black masks boarded the ship, the UK Maritime Trade Operations said. The vessel had loaded about a million barrels of crude at the Iraqi port of Basrah for Turkish oil company Tupras and was heading to the country via the Suez Canal.
Full story at Bloomberg (paywall) free version at CNBC.
US Is Weaponizing New Economic Tools to Slow China’s War Machine
First came tariffs on Chinese imports, then several rounds of sanctions and an outright embargo on exports of state-of-the-art computer chips. Now, America’s multiyear campaign to deter, counter and stymie Xi Jinping’s China—an effort that started with President Donald Trump and has escalated under the current administration—is shifting to a new battleground where the stakes are even higher than in trade or technology: finance.
Last August, in Executive Order 14105, President Joe Biden directed the Department of the Treasury to draw up rules barring US investments in entities suspected of helping to develop next-generation weaponry for China’s war machine. Soon, probably in the next few months, that ban will go into effect.
Full story at Bloomberg (paywall)
Cancer Is Striking More Young People, and Doctors Are Alarmed and Baffled
Cancer is hitting more young people in the U.S. and around the globe, baffling doctors. Diagnosis rates in the U.S. rose in 2019 to 107.8 cases per 100,000 people under 50, up 12.8% from 95.6 in 2000, federal data show. A study in BMJ Oncology last year reported a sharp global rise in cancers in people under 50, with the highest rates in North America, Australia and Western Europe.
Doctors are racing to figure out what is making them sick, and how to identify young people who are at high risk. They suspect that changes in the way we live—less physical activity, more ultra-processed foods, new toxins—have raised the risk for younger generations.
“The patients are getting younger,” said Dr. Andrea Cercek, who co-directs a program for early-onset gastrointestinal cancer patients at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, where Keen was treated. “It’s likely some environmental change, whether it’s something in our food, our medications or something we have not yet identified.”
Full story from The Wall Street Journal (paywall)
More Teens Who Use Marijuana Are Suffering From Psychosis
Even one psychotic episode following cannabis use was associated with a 47% chance of a person developing schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, a 2017 study in the American Journal of Psychiatry showed. The risk was highest for people 16-to-25-years-old and higher than for substances including amphetamines, hallucinogens, opioids and alcohol.
Full story from The Wall Street Journal (paywall)
Trending news:
Takeaways from CNN’s Iowa debate with DeSantis and Haley - CNN
Red Sea crisis could jeopardize inflation fight as shipping costs spike globally - NBC
Bitcoin rallies to $49,000 after SEC greenlights launch of U.S. bitcoin ETFs - CNBC
Pat McAfee Has Cut Aaron Rodgers From His Show For Remainder of The Season - Barstool
Army Sees Sharp Decline in White Recruits - Military
Ecuador ‘at war’ with drug gangs, says president as violence continues - The Guardian
Don’t Be So Certain Trump Has the Nomination Locked Up - Politico
Penny Black: ‘First’ piece of mail sent using a stamp could fetch up to $2.5 million at auction - CNN
Michael Strahan and his daughter Isabella, 19, reveal her brain cancer diagnosis in emotional ‘GMA’ interview - NY Post
Deja vu storm will blast same parts of US still reeling from a winter storm with another round of extreme weather - Yahoo
Pete Carroll out as Seahawks head coach - Fox News
The Progressive Youth Chimera - The Liberal Patriot
Market snapshot:
I can't help but think the higher rate of cancer in younger people correlates with high intake of the Covid vaccine.
I think we really need to consider a predetermined plan by the Democrats that Biden will withdraw from the Presidency or as a candidate for reelection in the Spring. I suspect this will happen shortly after the big primary day in early March where Trump virtually has enough votes to assure his vote at the GOP convention. If Biden withdraws, the whole political landscape changes. And with the majority of the States having had their primaries by this time, the door is open for the Democrats to choose their candidate at their convention. This places the selection of their candidate solely with the "elites" of the Party, not the Democrat voters at large.