According to the NYT: “Ukraine on Thursday awarded a bid to mine a major state-owned lithium deposit to investors that include a billionaire friend of President Trump, as his administration has indicated it is looking for investment opportunities in the war-torn country.”
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According to the NYT: “President Trump has put a number on how much he wants the biggest U.S. and European oil giants to pour into Venezuela: at least $100 billion.
“During a meeting at the White House on Friday afternoon, oil executives made it clear that they were not yet prepared to follow through. …
“Mr. Trump said the U.S. government was prepared to provide security guarantees, but not money for oil projects.”
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The New York Times on DJT’s plans for Venezuela.
“On Sunday morning, Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to recast Mr. Trump’s assertion a day earlier that the United States would “run” Venezuela, saying instead that the administration would keep a military “quarantine” in place on the country’s oil exports to exert leverage on the new leadership there.
“When asked how the United States planned to govern Venezuela, Mr. Rubio did not lay out a plan for a U.S. occupation authority, like the one that the George W. Bush administration put in place in Baghdad during the Iraq War, but spoke of leverage over a Venezuelan government run by allies of Mr. Maduro, now jailed in Brooklyn, to force policy changes.
“U.S. forces will continue to prevent oil tankers on a U.S. sanctions list from entering and leaving the country until the government opens up the state-controlled oil industry to foreign investment — presumably giving priority to American companies — and makes other changes, he said on “Face the Nation” on CBS News.”
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Whispers of Immortality
by T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)
Webster was much possessed by death
And saw the skull beneath the skin;
And breastless creatures under ground
Leaned backward with a lipless grin.
Daffodil bulbs instead of balls
Stared from the sockets of the eyes!
He knew that thought clings round dead limbs
Tightening its lusts and luxuries.
Donne, I suppose, was such another
Who found no substitute for sense;
To seize and clutch and penetrate,
Expert beyond experience,
He knew the anguish of the marrow
The ague of the skeleton;
No contact possible to flesh
Allayed the fever of the bone.
·····
Grishkin is nice: her Russian eye
Is underlined for emphasis;
Uncorseted, her friendly bust
Gives promise of pneumatic bliss.
The couched Brazilian jaguar
Compels the scampering marmoset
With subtle effluence of cat;
Grishkin has a maisonette;
The sleek Brazilian jaguar
Does not in its arboreal gloom
Distil so rank a feline smell
As Grishkin in a drawing-room.
And even the Abstract Entities
Circumambulate her charm;
But our lot crawls between dry ribs
To keep our metaphysics warm.
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According to the NYT, maplewashing is “the practice (properly spelled the Canadian way, of course) of making something appear more Canadian than it actually is, especially in the context of marketing products for sale to Canadians.” The current Canadian government is accused of reverse-maplewashing.
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Auld Lang Syne
by Robert Burns (1759-1796)
The tradition of singing this song at midnight on New Year’s apparently died with Guy Lombardo
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to min’?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And days o’ lang syne?
CHORUS.
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.
We twa hae run about the braes,
And pu’d the gowans fine,
But we’ve wander’d mony a weary foot
Sin auld lang syne.
For auld, &c.
We twa hae paidl’t i’ the burn,
From mornin sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roar’d
Sin auld lang syne.
For auld, &c.
And here’s a hand, my trusty fiere,
And gie’s a hand o’ thine;
And we’ll tak a right guid willie-waught,
For auld lang syne.
For auld, &c.
And surely ye’ll be your pint-stowp,
And surely I’ll be mine;
And we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet
For auld lang syne.
For auld, &c.
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