PLATT - CURATED News

GENERAL INTEREST
Courthouse Closes After Lawyer Walks in Swarming with Bed Bugs: 'I Don't Even Think He Cared' 
https://start.att.net/news/read/category/lifestyle/article/people-courthouse_closes_after_lawyer_walks_in_swarming_w-rtime

19 Insanely Cool Gadgets That Are Going To Sell Out Soon
https://prime8.com/finds/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI2v6J0rex4AIVChgBCh0vlwCtEAEYASAAEgJ-0PD_BwE

PHYSICAL HEALTH
These Are The Fingers of a Professional Yo-Yo Performer After Years of Repetitive Use 
https://www.sciencealert.com/this-photo-of-a-yoyo-ers-blood-vessels-after-years-of-repetitive-use-is-so-cool

A Cat Has Been Revived After Being Frozen, Covered in Ice 
https://www.sciencealert.com/vets-rally-to-thaw-a-frozen-cat-covered-in-ice

MENTAL HEALTH
Spiritual Beliefs Are Linked to a 'Protective' Effect Against Depression in The Brain 
https://www.sciencealert.com/spiritual-or-religious-beliefs-may-act-like-a-buffer-against-depression-in-the-brain

A diffusion tensor imaging study of brain microstructural changes related to religion and spirituality in families at high risk for depression
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/brb3.1209

HUMOR


PARENTING
Let Children Get Bored Again
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/02/opinion/sunday/children-bored.html

Cub Scout sparks controversy, takes a knee during Pledge of Allegiance at city council meeting
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/cub-scout-sparks-controversy-takes-knee-pledge-allegiance-city-council-meeting-172737220.html

SPORTS
Big win for AAF, as new football league posts better ratings than Rockets-Thunder (I watched a couple of the AAF games this weekend.  They are not too much different from the NFL except that they are much faster paced with the elimination of station breaks and, most commercials.)
https://www.yahoo.com/sports/big-win-aaf-new-football-league-posts-better-ratings-rockets-thunder-174503810.html

FINANCIAL
'Worst tax return in a decade! He's lost my vote': Taxpayers lash out at Trump for Tax Cuts and Job Act 'scam' as IRS data shows refunds are smaller than last year
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6687467/Taxpayers-lash-Donald-Trump-Tax-Cuts-Job-Act-scam-data-shows-lower-IRS-refunds.html

BUSINESS
'Heaven has a wall, a gate and a strict immigration policy': Grocery store riles up shoppers with ad
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/heaven-gate-wall-strict-immigration-policy-grocery-store-riles-shoppers-ad-220825421.html

thanks, TM ...


CLIMATE CHANGE
The Green New Deal Is Everything That’s Wrong with Progressive Environmentalism
https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/02/green-new-deal-is-everything-thats-wrong-with-progressive-environmentalism/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=WIR%20-%20Sunday%202019-02-10&utm_term=WIR-Smart

ORNITHOLOGY
The Hummingbird as Warrior: Evolution of a Fierce and Furious Beak
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/05/science/hummingbirds-science-take.html

BEZOS
Former National Enquirer editor says ex-boss David Pecker 'may end up doing time' for 'trying to please Trump' by going after Jeff Bezos after Amazon CEO outed the tabloid's publisher for 'blackmailing him over sexts with his lover'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6687083/Ex-Enquirer-editor-says-David-Pecker-end-doing-time-Bezos-blackmail-accusation.html

MIDDLE EAST
U.S.’s Syria Ally Supplies Oil to Assad’s Brokers 
See the Wall Street Journal article, below.

POLITICS
Sandy’s War
https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/02/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-green-new-deal/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=WIR%20-%20Sunday%202019-02-10&utm_term=WIR-Smart

-- 

"You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end – 
which you can never afford to Lose – with the discipline to confront
the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be."
        - VAdm James Stockdale, USN (1923-2005)

FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (without permission)  See link for full article

https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-s-syria-ally-supplies-oil-to-assads-brokers-11549645073?emailToken=07c7def769af68b9df260e58852443dfF56BFbBQU+7Ewk86MPaKZeYnpz4eKxAjvthnnVCdQifFZcdl//bgtzUEkyDRAqpWdwljcpYVKHRfys6l2VoDRy+TR86CRSCZXpUFkuGufLo%3D&reflink=article_email_share

U.S.’s Syria Ally Supplies Oil to Assad’s Brokers

Kurdish-led force makes deals with middleman targeted by Western sanctions for aiding regime

Members of the Syrian Democratic Forces gathered at an oil field in Deir Ezzour province in eastern Syria as they prepared to fight Islamic State in May. Photo: delil souleiman/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

46 Comments

By

Benoit Faucon in London and

Nazih Osseiran in Beirut

Updated Feb. 8, 2019 3:02 p.m. ET

America’s military ally in Syria has become an important supplier of crude oil to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, showing the gaps in efforts by Washington to put economic pressure on a government it opposes.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, is delivering oil to Qatirji Group, a Syrian broker targeted by U.S. and European sanctions for supplying fuel to Mr. Assad’s government, said a person familiar with U.S. intelligence and a tanker-truck driver transporting the crude.
The oil comes from desert territory in eastern Syria under the control of the SDF, a group of militias working with U.S. troops still stationed in the country. The SDF, with American help, routed Islamic State and controls most of the country’s northeast. It has held most of the region’s oil and gas fields since late 2017.