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JFK, Houston, Atlanta, Austin, Philadelphia, are some of the worst hit airports. There is a TSA App on App store but it maynot be updated enough. Try the Airport website for information on TSA and TSA precheck waiting times in the lines at your airport. Look up the TSA absences at your airport if possible because of the work slowdown as some TSA employees are calling in sick in orotest of the DHS funding lag in Congress and the paychecks not getting out in time.

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Impact of $100-$138 a barrel oil prices from Iran War on US economy is modest - stable unemployment inflation at 2.9% instead of 2.7% and decline by 4 tenths of a percentage point in GDP growth. This is the view of 50 economists at banks, companies and research consulting gorups surveyed by WSJ March 16-18 cited in both the WSJ and her inthe NYT. NYT says unless the prices reach $200 which is unlikely, there won't be a recession. The reason is that the US is self sufficient in oil needs and exports oil and gas to Europe, and now to India and Japan. In fact in the domestic economy oil producing states in the Permian Basin including Texas, Wyoming, New Mexico and state of Alaska will actually see more growth. US will also generate more revenue from oil exports. US will also be able to leverage the situation to bring Venezuelan production with additional investments in upgrading the Venezuelan oil fields from American oil companies. This will be more attractive at higher oil prices and revenue generated will be sent to benefit the Venezuelan people. What it does affect lis ow income people with long commutes to work in the US. ...

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Automobiles, aerospace, pharmaceuticals and energy helped France reduce its deficit. French exports increase in 2025 and deficit decreases- euros 614 billion in exports to 703 billion in imports in 2025. Deficit with Germany down to euros 5 billion. Yet there is aproblem with deficit with China- going from euros 100 billion in 2019 to 315 billion euros in 2025. This is a major problem for France as it has been for the US.

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The role of Merz and Leyen of the CDU is bigger than is grasped in the trade deal with India and the change that Germany has made in shifting the gaze and engagement of the European community towards the 1.4 billion people of India for a new start after the disappointment of the relationship with China from the Merkel years. Merkel completely failed to understand China its history, and Asia and its history. India as the homeland of Buddhism is the source of the spiritual culture of China and Japan, Korea and Vietnam. The intervening period of invasions from north in the 15th to 17th century and British rule and the European early shift to science and industry in the 18th to 20th century has acted as a hazy atmosphere that clouds many perceptions of how Indian, Chinese, and Japanese history has evolved.  For Merkel there was the additional layer of misperceptions from the period growing up the GDR, or Communist East Germany in Soviet influence. This is why Merz completely fit into the Kite festival mood and atmosphere on the banks of the Sabarmati in Ahmedabad and at the Sabarmati Ashram of Gandhi in January 2026. Leyen also of the Christian Democrats could grasp the fact that German philosopher Schlegel translated the Bhagavad Gita from Sanskrit into German soon after Charles Wilkins did this in 1724. People to people ties have great potential to develop between Europe and India now that the engagement is set for the next 20 years at every level by Leyen, Merz and Modi, so that the world is completely transformed in ways that can never be imagined today.  ...

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The facts about the EU- India Trade Agreement for 2 billion people Market on the European Commission Website. It will double EU exports to India by 2032 over 6 years, eliminate or cut tariffs on 90% of goods, and save EU exporters 4 billion euros in duties.

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Merz at ease at Gandhiji's Sabarmati Ashram with Modi in Ahmedabad, India. An historic opportunity for the European Union and India, two of the world's great civilizations and with 2 billion people taking the first step to modernize the German and Indian economy by 2037 and 2047. 

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Small airports that are popular- Wichita, Hagerstown, Orlando, Charlotteville, Albany. It is easier to get to these airports and hire a rental car, get your bags, and not have to fight traffic.

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Climate change study from Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany published in Nature magazine retracted in December 2025. The study is an example of how such research when not done right can misrepresent situations leading to policy errors. Policy error under such misrepresentation can lead to errors such as a policy that excludes adjustments and a dual response to climate change and cost of living crisis attacking both on two fronts necessary today so soon after a disastrous pandemic and people living in scarcity not able to meet heating bills. What happened is that the study made predictions for 2100- which is impossible to do. Studied 1600 regions in the world. Showed decline of economic output by 62% in 2100. Did not mention that excluding Uzbekistan would make the reduction in growth 23%. It shows how overzealous work in one direction or the other can actually hurt the fight to address climate change and also tackle everday concerns like cost of living crisis. Recent reports in WSJ show how the approach of single focus has hurt economic growth in Germany and hobbled its industries. Other reports show how deprived and less deprived areas in the UK (also in the US) sit by side showing how decades of neglect of manufacturing and outshoring of factories have destroyed jobs and destroyed communities across Europe and the US, making them open to scourge such as fentanyl in the Nation's neighborhoods, and creating a climate of despair that feeds into other fears. Such as the fears of the surge of illegal migration promoted by traffickers and the influx of drug trafficking gangs in the Nation's neighborhoods. Such reports are then used by the World Bank and the Congressional Budget Office and central banks of 90 counties in the coalition Network for Greening of the Financial System, leading to distortions in policy actions, destroying the social consensus needed among wide sectors of the population in democracies in the EU and US and worldwide to address climate change and cost of living crises.  Leonie Wenz, from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany says-“We broadly agree with the issues raised, and have made corrections to the underlying economic data and to our methodology to address them. These changes are too substantial for a correction of the original article in Nature.”   ...

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The top 20% of Americans own 87% of the stocks powering most of the spending in 2025. Upward trends in the stock market in the US with resilient markets overcoming the Liberation Day tariffs announcement, are powering the spending by higher income professionals and business people. WSJ looks at the people owning stocks ages 36 years to 77 years, and their spending on cars, furniture, home renovation and travel. The situation is not so good for middle class Americans living from paycheck to paycheck, students and young people.

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New Hampshire is known from poet Robert Frost's days to chart out its own path. It did so yesterday in typical Robert Frost ways- "Two roads diverged in a wood and I- I took the road less traveled by, And that has made all the difference." Fettterman of Pennsylvania Masto of Nevada, Shaheen of New Hampshire and King of Maine all Senators who helped get 8 Senators to vote with Republicans on ending shutdown Nov 10, 2025. Tim Kaine of Virginia was pulled in because of the 300,000 federal workers in Virginia that are his constituents for whom he felt a special responsibility and negotiated with Republicans to reverse layoffs, get back pay. This may be a key achievement of Time Kaine that is truly bipartisan. New Yorkers Schumer and Jeffries not having a federal workforce to worry about had no such responsibility and led the effort against a compromise. Masto says she saw long lines in northern Nevada for food pantry that she had not seen since Covid. Maggie Hassan joined King and Shaheen from their part of Maine-New Hampshire, and Masto was able to pull in Jacky Rosen of Nevada. All these senators are not up for reelection next year and Dick Durbin is retiring next year. As an experienced leader of Democrats Durbin might have felt that the Schumer-Jeffries demand on ACA subsidies was only going to hurt Americans who needed help, that 40 days of shutdown was accomplishing little. ...

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The US government shutdown ends with Republicans + 8 Democrats in Senate voting to end shutdown on November 10, 2025. This keeps the filibuster voting rule which requires 60 votes to pass. Support of some Democrats was essential to make this happen. After bipartisan negotiations 7 Democratic Senators and Angus King Independent from Maine split with their party leaders Schumer and Jeffries of New York who called for a 1 year extension of Obama ACA healthcare subsidies which the Republicans opposed.  Democrats ensured the funding for SNAP benefits continues to Sept 2026 and the 4000 federal layoffs would be reversed and prevent future layoffs in the federal workforce. Democratic Senators voting with Republicans were Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen of Nevada, Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire. Tim Kaine of Virginia and Dick Durbin of Illinois joined the Senators from New Hampshire and Nevada. John Fetterman who has voted independently of the Democrat party to meet views of Pennsylvania constituents supported the move. This splits New Hampshire, Maine, Nevada, Illinois and Pennsylvania from the Schumer-Jeffries leadership from New York. Tim Kaine voted with Republicans by getting them to agree to reverse federal workforce layoffs, get back pay and stop layoffs. King, Hassan and Shaheen formed the core of Democrats who believed there was no chance Obama ACA subsidies would be extended for another year as long as shutdown continued whereas there was some chance after it ended. Both Senators from Nevada Rosen and Masto were following the needs of their constituents, and so was Fetterman of Pennsylvania. ...

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With Democrats emboldened by winning governor races in NJ and Virginia government shutdown on issue of ACA subsidies continues on November 8 2025. Speaker Johnson refusal to commit to holding a vote in the Senate on ACA subsidies means negotiated compromise cannot be made on a future vote for ACA subsidies so that the government funding takes place.

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US is shutting down 10% of airport traffic because of government shutdown in November 2025. Democrats are holding up the passing of the new budget till Obama's Affordable Care Act healthcare subsidies for low income Americans are restored. Republicans who control both houses of Congress are unwilling to restore these subsidies saying it will cost $350 billion over 10 years. Editorials in the Washington Post in November see Obama's Affordable Care Act as a bandaid approach for a broken healthcare system in the US. Public opinion in the US supports this assessment. Trade unions and labor have called for an end to the government shutdown. Democrats are acting as though the party is for low income Americans and labor yet this is not the party of FDR who fought hard for labor over vested interests, Democrats today are the vested interests whether from Tech which is taking a disproportionate share of the Nation's wealth and resources and pouring it into projects that do not reduce the cost of living or rebuild crumbling obsolete infrastructure, or from Banks which were not sanctioned for their part in the 2009 financial crisis, or from healthcare interests that oppose restructuring the entire healthcare system for fairness in insurance, pharmaceutical pricing and wellness. Republicans are making an effort to displace Democrats in the role of FDR and Lincoln under newcomer DJT who rejects both the incompetent Bush (Republican) and Obama (Democrat) administrations that wasted money and resources in foreign wars while overlooking America's many challenges and strengthening foreign powers including China, while weakening the US. The US government is cutting airport traffic to relieve unpaid traffic controllers. Also at risk are SNAP benefits which are for the loew income Americans. The US president is asking the Senate to drop the filibuster rule which requires 60 votes in the Senate for the biudget to pass it and pass it by majority vote. The Senate Majority Leader Republican Thune wants to keep the filibuster because it acts as a brake for hasty legislation passed by whichever party is in government. ...