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The Washington Post editorial says there is much to admire in Sotomayor's life and achievements in the law. She would make awelcome fresh perspective to the bench says the WPOst, considering the variety and diversity of experience she brings that does not exist on the Supreme Court. But says the WPOst Senators should ask her questions relating to impartiality and making policy while on the bench.

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Choices for Treasury Secretary, the thoughtful and quiet listener Geithner, and the controversy surrounded former Treasury secretary Summers who left the president position at Harvard after remarks about women. A 1991 memo by Summers suggesting poor countries as good dumping places for toxic waste, when he was economist at the World Bank. Blog in the Washington Post on this issue which aroused irate readers against Summers appointment.

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This report in the Washington Post looks at the events leading to the firing of Stephen Bannon, the controversial advisor to the U.S. president. Bannon, a right wing populist, joined the Trump campaign in the late stages. Bannon is seen as one reason for the chaotic situation at the White House that White House chief of staff Kelly is trying to correct. Reasons for Bannon falling out of favor are his interference in the affairs of other departments, his opposition to Gen. McMaster, national security advisor, and an interview he gave to liberal magazine American Prospect, in which he openly derided Gary Cohn, economic advisor. In that interview Bannon contradicted the policy of the administration towards North Korea. 

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Buyers and sellers are living in two different worlds. Sellers living in the past hoping to get a solid deal on their home, and buyers looking into the future and seeing prices declining further, making it difficult to bring them together. This only worsens the difficulties in the housing market. This reporter looks at housing sales and prices in the Washington D.C. area, and sees very cautious buyers.

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China GDP growth forecast at 5% in 2025 and first half actuals at 5.3% with frontloading. The frontloading is because of surge in exporting before tariffs hit by May.  China is waiting to put fiscal stimulus as it fears tariffs will lower growth and increase unemployment. The housing sector is in deep slump. At this point fiscal stimulus is determined in Washington DC. The actual growth in 2025 may turn out to be much lower than 5% considering the weakness in the economy and the issues of tariffs and tough trade negotiations with the US and a changed environment for trade with the European Union.

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Michael Kinsley of Washington Post points out that the $469 million of bonuses to AIG FInancial Products employees was first seen in SEC filings in November 2009, then on Rep Cummings blob on the Huffington Post November 27 entry. It was reported in the Washington Post in an article headlined "AIG Spa Trip Fuels Fury on Hill", and in the New York TImes on October 17, titled " AIG lets New York Review the Propriety of its Pay Packages", so where was everybody then? Its as if noone knew about till last week when all hell broke loose. Kinsley refutes the argument that as AIG CEO Liddy suggested that the employees only take half of the bonuses, by asking the question: bonuses for what? For creating a black hole in which government rescue funds have to be poured of $170 billion, the largest rescue in history, and then these skills to create black holes needed so badly in the midst of a near Depression that they be kept from leaving with retention payments. Or as Republican Senator Snowe put it "Bonuses for what?", the same question the whole country is asking. ...

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Catalan leader Puigdemont moves from Girona to Marseille and onto Belgium, as he and other Catalan separatist leaders flee Spain. The Washington Post points to the many missteps in the efforts of separatist leaders. The leader of the Catalan Socialist Party which is pro-union says it was a mistake to declare independence. The process of declaring independence is now seen as undertaken hastily without considering the economic consequences, as companies headquartered in Barcelona are moving outside Catalonia, and economic uncertainty is likely to hurt Spain and Catalonia.

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Indian foreign minister Jaishankar describes the highly eccentric situation of lack of US India close economic and defense cooperation for over 50 years, when the natural flow of cooperation one would expect between the land of Washington and Lincoln and the land of Vivekananda and Gandhi was interrupted. The current form of cooperation has existed for about 14 years and accelerated after prime minister Modi was elected in 2016. This was a turning point in the US India relationship and in India US economic partnership. After president Trump was elected Mr. Modi and Mr. Trump held a huge public gathering in stadiums at Houston and Ahmedabad, in a way that was never seen before between an Asian country and America. What changed? For one thing India had a great weight lifted from its shoulders with the removal of the erratic Nehru policies of post independence India of forming a non aligned bloc with countries like Egypt and Yugoslavia. These were policies that had no connection to India and its history as the civilization where the East has its roots in Vedanta and Buddhism. It also resulted in alienating the Dwight Eisenhower administration and administrations that followed after John F. Kennedy, as the Cold War intensified and most of Eastern Europe came under Soviet domination. India never gauged the effect this had on America after the Berlin crisis in 1948, the Hungarian revolution of 1956 and similar uprisings in East Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic. Britain was no help even with the British Commonwealth, as the British perpetuated the idea that India was too divided to make up one country, having failed to grasp India's ancient civilization and  culture, and having built the Empire in India by using the division in the country. Mohandas Gandhi described this in Hind Swaraj in 1910 and told Indians that it was they who had invited the British into India, with rulers using military garrisons of the British commercial East India Company for help in their internal wars. Americans still unfamiliar with India till after 2000 simply accepted British colonial ideas about India. The new administrations in the US, the Trump and Biden administration, and the Modi administration in India have shaken this up and changed perceptions all around. Biden recently during the Modi visit to Washington DC said India US relations as he sees it would be "the closest on earth." So that today we have an ancient civilization roused to its depths in its youth for modernization, that extends from India to Indonesia all the way to Japan rooted in India's ancient civilization of Vedanta and Buddhism, with a population of about 2 billion people. That faces the US on its Pacific coast, united in its determination to build a new and common future with ideas of parliamentary democracy, participation of the people, and of modernization with science and technology, contributing to the betterment of all peoples. ...

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This piece by Jonathan Martin in the NYT says some Republican party establishment donors and leaders now agree with Ted Cruz's assessment of the 2016 U.S. presidential election- the critical element will be rallying the Republican base to win in 2016. As Tom Hamburger points out in the Washington Post, Cruz is using technology to advantage in the campaign effort to rally evangelical base support, and working to build support from the ground up.

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The sixth Republican presidential debate in Jan. 2016 showed the main exchanges between Trump and Cruz, with some points made by Christie. The rest of the candidates Rubio, Kasich, Bush, Carson, made little headway. As Dan Balz points out in the Washington Post the Republican primaries look like a contest between Cruz and Trump, both anti-establishment candidates, both tapping into grass roots anger at the Obama administration and at establishment Republicans.

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Akasaki of Meijo University, Amano of Nagoya University, Japan, and Nakamura of UC Santa Barbara, produced blue light beams from semiconductors in the 1990's. Nakamura, working for Nichia Chemicals developed his own version of the LED in 1988 following the earlier efforts of Akasaki and Amano, leading to the development of a cheaper easier method of creating LED. The technology is also behind the blue ray disc by using blue lights much shorter wavelength to store 4X more information. Today it is the technology used in smartphone screens.

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The FDA has handled the importation of masks from China badly says this report in WSJ. During the shortage FDA let 3500 Chinese manufacturers selling products of wide variations in quality to send masks to the U.S. Millions of these N95 masks are now available imported from China but their reliability is uncertain. The FDA even has the same manufacturers on approved and revoked approval lists creating more confusion. The FDA gave then revoked approval for products that failed quality standards.  The WSJ found that some of the companies given approval early were just weeks old and had not completed quality review by FDA. The WSJ reports that more than 60% of foreign made masks nearly all Chinese made failed basic U.S. government quality tests that reviewed 22 brands according to regulatory data. About one fifths of the makers were just weeks old and others made claims that were simply not correct. The FDA acted in a crisis situation so bad actors could take advantage of the situation say experts.  What happens now. The states of California,Washington and Texas are now checking their supplies of N95 masks to see if all the makers are on authorized lists and not revoked. Many doctors and hospitals are going through much anxiety because of the safety of their N95 masks in close contact situations in eyecare, dental care and other care, is now uncertain. ...

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Lyrarc Retrospect shows here RFK Robert Kennedy visiting homes sometimes mere shacks in the mountains where disease was rampant, education negligible, and income $60 for large families, shown here in this Washington Post report by  Paul Schwartzman, Feb 21, 2018  After J.D. Vance selection for VP and his book on growing up in Ohio's Appalachian mountain region which covers states of New York, Pennsyslvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, stretching from southern New York to northern Mississippi down the entire eastern part of the US, the question arises did the poverty in this region exist before? The answer is yes and two presidents JFK and LBJ, both Democrats setup the Appalachian Regional Commission to tackle rural poverty in the mountainous regions in 1960's. Its success- increased income by 4% faster than other neighboring counties in retrospect does not look like much. Rural poverty increased since 2000 as the national attention was taken up by the Bush wars and by a general neglect of rural areas under Bush and Obama. Iowa governor, now Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is given the task of addressing rural poverty and a top position in the Biden Administration. Fast internet, housing, income assistance, highway development, child education support, on multiple fronts Biden is fighting the poverty that RFK once saw with his won eyes in 1968 in eastern Kentucky and which stretches across 7 states.  ...