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CNN reporter Cassie Spodak provides this exceptional report into the minds of New Hampshire Democratic voters who gave Bernie Sanders a 22 percent lead in the New Hampshire Democratic primary over Hillary Clinton. In October 2016 Hillary Clinton has the support of Bernie Sanders against Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election. She described it as "100 percent support" in television debate. Sanders has appeared with Clinton twice, and campaigned 4 times in New Hampshire, and continually across the country. Younger New Hampshire voters still long for Sanders as their favored candidate. Older voters and some who have been motivated by Sanders to run for local office see the shaping of the Democratic Party platform as a victory for Sanders. Key planks of Sanders, taxes on the wealthy and higher incomes to pay for student tuition, infrastructure, and helping working class families, are now key parts of the Democratic platform. These voters see this as a pragmatic step and are enthusiastic in their support for Hillary Clinton. Overall Clinton now has 87 percent of Democratic voter support in New Hampshire according to a WMUR/UNH poll in mid October 2016, and she is doing well with millenials and independents nationally, a critical bloc of voters for Clinton to show nationwide support. One member of the steering committee for Sanders in New Hampshire named Dudley Dudley, reflects the opinion that has shifted the party to emerge united during and even more so in the final months of the presidential campaign of 2016- she tells the CNN reporter Spodak that she supports Hillary because "of the way she has grown, and stretched," and the way Clinton and Sanders are now campaigning together and working together. Both Clinton and Sanders deserve credit for their extraordinary ability to grow during their campaigns and during the party's way to shape the way forward. ...

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Ruth Bader Ginsburg offers some advice to young people- In a marraige she says it helps sometimes to be a bit tone deaf. To ignore that remark someone made or comment which if reacted to would only make one feel worse. Who knows it was not meant that way, and maybe did not reflect the whole way that person felt, or even was transitory, This advice she got from her mother in law. Another piece of advice was from her father in law, to stop worrying and find a way to manage, find a way to do it, for something you want to do but are not sure you can. Something she learned from her colleagues in the court including Justice Scalia, was to get over it, not to spend time thinking about comments that are made or some things that happen in the course of one's daily life that one thinks shouldn't have happened.

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Dropping wheat and corn prices will reduce the effect on increase in inflation for food prices. A recently signed agreement for UN and Turkey to supervise exports of Ukrainian grain to world markets is showing up in declining futures prices for corn and wheat that will show up in lower food prices. A large harvest for wheat and other foodgrains in Russia and Ukraine is also having an impact. Slower economic growth in China from frequent lockdowns and the ailing property sector, could bring oil prices down from the highs. The shift to renewable energy taking on a huge impetus from recently passed legislation in the US Congress for $369 billion investment and similar moves in Europe with a 15% required reduction under new EU rules could have the same effect of pushing down fossil fuel prices from their highs. This suggests Fed chairman Powell's sense that the economy would improve in the second half is consistent with international developments. The war in Ukraine could also have a possibility of coming to a close in coming months with Russian gains in the east and Ukraine recovering lost land around the Black Sea in the south. Decades of fighting in Ukraine may have obscured the fact that the eastern parts of Ukraine voted in pro Russian governments in the past and the western parts of Ukraine have voted in pro EU governments. The war could end with a settlement around these new boundaries. This would also enhance president Biden's foreign and domestic policy achievements and help the US focus on climate change actions, building new supply chains, rebuilding its manufacturing, its leadership in science and technology, its alliances with EU, and with Japan and India in the Indo-Pacific. ...

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Texas under new state law S.B. 4 can  impose criminal penalties of upto 6 months in jail on non citizens who illegally enter Texas from Mexico. It allows state judges to order deportations to Mexico- without Mexico's consent- and allows local law enforcement to carry out the orders. The US Supreme Court upheld the US Court of Appeals 5th Circuit decision that says the law S.B. 4 passed in Texas can be enforced temporarily till it is submitted to the Court for final decision. Both Biden and Trump have visited the Texas border with Mexico. This was after Biden and Schumer passed a immigration bill 70- 30 in the Senate which Jim Lankford  Republican of Oklahoma had negotiated with Democrats. Biden said he would sign it to close the border- it would also change parole and asylum law to stop large illegal migration entirely. The former president intervened to stop passage in the House to keep the issue alive for 2024.

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Opportunities for Indian farm exports in the middle of the Ukraine crisis.

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US president DJT meets with Rutte of the Netherlands Jan 21, 2026. He says he has come up with a framework for US acquisition of Greenland, rights title, and ownership of the island for US security and world security. He called for immediate negotiations with the goal of US acquisition of the island of Greenland.  The political situation is evolving in this way. Germany is key in the developments for the US to acquire Greenland. Britain is standing it out with the Nordic countries as Starmer has shifted to the side of Sweden and Denmark with little to gain for the Labor government which is facing local elections and popularity of Reform UK Party. In this situation Italy and Germany have taken a posture of not making any statements. Germany facing Russian intervention in Ukrain on the east needs the US for joint security at a critical juncture when Russia and the US have agreed to respect each others area of influence. Italy is run by a northern Italy party leaning to the anti-immigration stance taken by DJT in the US. It makes little difference to Netherlands, Germany/Austria/Switzerland and Italy who controls Greenland and in the context of Russian advances and nuclear weapons technology would prefer US move to acquire Greenland and rapidly build up defenses in Greenland with large investments. To not disturb the alliance's northern countries (Britain and Nordics) Germany has taken a back seat to the rhetoric yet will be in the deciding role because of its stable government, support from all parts of the political spectrum for US control of Greenland except for the coalition junior partner the SPD. The SPD Defense Minister Pistorius may form parts of the SPD that see US owning the island as positive in the bolstering of its defense capabilities with th $1 trillion outlay in the budgeted investments. Starmer may have misread DJT and US support as the US president can make a very good case for US owning Greenland and getting Denmark to accept the offer of Harry Truman of $100 million made in 1947, updated for what that sum is today which is $1.5 billion. As DJT pointed out Macron has no longevity for his government in France, and cannot speak for that country. As Treasury Secretary Bessent who along with Rubio is part of the team that will work with the president says, Denmark is irrelevant to the issues US faces for US and world security. It is a small country, Denmark, with a population of 6 million most of it in the area near Copenhagen. Houston or Dallas has a much larger population. For Denmark to decide on momentous issues of US security for the entire eastern seaboard or world security, with ownership essential for the US,  when climate has made the Arctic important, is something the US does not accept.   ...

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Ford is considering sale of it one third stake in Mazda. The Nikkei notes that Sumitomo Corporation or Tata Motors may bid for the stake.

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After UAE leaves OPEC and US increases oil production (Venezuela+), China reducing imports keeps oil prices low and keeps Hormuz closure from affecting oil prices. This has major impact on all countries that are affected by the shortage of oil as this puts more oil into the market (about 4 million barrels a day that China imported through Hormuz), and by lowering oil prices helps China as it pays less for oil it imports from other sources outside Hormuz. It also helps poor countries such as India and China, Pakistan, Philippines, Indonesia, rest of Asia, Africa and Latin America. By keeping oil prices low China also help climate change action by accelerating its renewable energy production. India and EU, US, also increase renewable energy production as a consequence of Hormuz, leading to strong climate change action. These are some of the positive side of Hormuz as the world with China leading the way learns that it is best to do without Hormuz. Though China does not say this publicly China does not want to see more nuclear weapons capable countries in volatile regions. This is true also of India, Indonesia, and EU. China  (And India) also consider it a high priority for its economy to maintain trade relations with the US. This is rarely stated in the Media today. What this means is that oil prices can be kept low as the largest nations together EU, US, China, India, Japan join together to keep oil prices low not repeating the situation during an earlier naval blockade April 13 to June 18 2026 of prices going to $125 a barrel. China has some of the largest coal reserves and oil strategic reserves in the world which make it possible for China to do this. ...

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Foreign Minister Wadephul of Germany in India for talks on a free trade agreement that would double trade volume to $64 billion- September 2025. It is notable that German Foreign Minister is in New Delhi to improve relations and shift to larger trade relationship with India at the very time US under pressure from Europe and Germany, France is pushing India to shift away from buying Russian oil to other sources. Each side is aware of the complexities in the relationships. In the long run Germany under Merz will after the experience of China's support of Russian invasion in Ukraine, make the changes that never happened under Merkel- making India its major trade partner in Asia. By 2030 Germany trade's with India could exceed $100 billion.

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Peggy Noonan asks why did she do it this way, and says Nikki Haley lacked authenticity in the manner she presented herself in her announcement to be a candidate for president from the Republican party. The words, the phrases, the action, she says were oddly stuck in the past, the way politics was done before 2023. Noonan calls the language used so tired, cliched and phony, when America looks for authenticity after the pandemic and a world struggling to find its bearings. 

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The fast food industry in US relies on the franchise model which has been deeply affected by depressed wages, poor working conditions and other worker abuses. Governor Gavin Newsom signs into law on Labor Day 2022, the FAST Recovery Act which established a state council tasked with setting wage standards for the entire franchise and food industry. Workers will now get a seat at the table to set standards for wages, and health and safety standards for the industry. Wages will be set at $22 per hour starting next year for about half a million workers in the franchise and fast food industry in California.

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The Food and Drug Administration approved Artificial Dye Red 3 in 1969. It banned it in cosmetics 20 years later in 1990 but did not ban it from food because of lobbying from the food industry, says this report in WSJ. This is simply outrageous.

Democrats and Republicans were both allowing lobbyists to damage the health of the American people. It took another 35 years after banning it in cosmetics to ban it's use in food this week. 

This is simply outrageous and shows politicians of three decades lacked the courage to even defend the Nation's food supply.

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In WSJ 2026 survey about 40% of Ameircans see themselves as middle class, 22% upper middle class and 31% working class. Census Bureau also provides insights into income of Americans and where they fall in income terms. Census Bureau .has five quintiles of 20% each with the following dollar incomes separating each quintile- $35,000, $65,000, $105,000, $175,000, over $175,000. Cost of living (education, automobiles, housing, food, gas) has risen to the point that $175,000 does not feel like middle class today and makes college education, housing, automobiles less affordable. This is the major issue of 2026.

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Wes Streeting says- for Tony Blair inequality is peripheral, rather than fundamental to the crisis we face. "But here is the striking weakness at the heart of Tony Blair's Essay intervention: across thousands of words about technology, geopolitics and political strategy, the defining issue of our age is barely confronted at all. Inequality – the economic, social and democratic fracture running through modern Britain – is treated as peripheral rather than fundamental. But inequality rather than being incidental to the crises reshaping western democracies, is actually their cause." "People are told Britain is succeeding while they cannot afford a home, and that opportunity exists even though their children face lower living standards than their parents enjoyed. They are told to work harder while wealth accumulates ever-more narrowly at the top. And they notice the unfairness." "A nurse paying back student debt sees a greater proportion of their income taxed than landlords collecting gains from rising property values. People in Britain’s poorest communities fall into ill health nearly two decades earlier than those in the wealthiest. Most private wealth is now inherited rather than earned." ...