move along, nothing to ? here

Parity-Smarity and All That Diplomatic Reprisal Stuff: The US has given Russia two days to shut down its consulate and annexes in San Francisco, New York, and Washington DC after Russia told the US to slash its embassy staff in Moscow last July. To pour salt into this diplomatic wound, the closures were announced on the day the new Russian ambassador, the former deputy foreign minister Anatoly Antonov, arrived in DC. Vlad the Bad, have a taste of your own medicine since you claimed you wanted parity between each country’s embassy staff! How you like them apples?

Here We Go Again, Same Ole … Again: The first official move since President Trump addressed the nation to vaguely outline his “grand strategery” for Afghanistan took place when Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis signed an order to deploy 4000troops. This will bring the current US commitment to about 15,000 troops, far below the peak of 100,000 back in 2011.

Pushback Against Opioid Abuse: America’s opioid crisis is real. It claims about 50,000 lives a year. The drugs can be made right here – they don’t have to come across the Mexican border. And many wonder if the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is contributing to the epidemic by putting the financial interests of pharmaceutical companies ahead of public health. In a clever tactic to try and find that out, concerned citizens, families of victims, doctors, and health organizations led by an activist group, Fed Up! are supporting a ‘citizen petition’ to the FDA, which calls for the removal of the most powerful painkillers, like high strength OxyContin.

New Jersey governor Chris Christie, whom Trump had appointed his “opioid advisor”, is taking the approach recommended by professionals. Christie has opened his state’s first rehab facility for prisoners, and cut insurance red tape. Emphasizing treatment over punishment, New Jersey has increased Medicaid payments to methadone treatment facilities. Such “medication-assisted treatment” combined with counseling is considered the gold standard for treating drug use disorders.

Seriously People, This Happens All The Time: In response to North Korea launching another missile over Japan in its rapidly accelerated nuclear delivery test program, the US and South Korea conducted their own show of force executing simulated bombing runs by two B-1B bombers escorted by four South Korean KF-15 fighters and four US F-35B fighters. This ten-plane exercise is significant as it shows to Baby Kim that not only can the US integrate militarily with the South Korean armed forces, but it can hold at risk any target on the planet at any time. As Mattis commented a few days ago, the US traditionally has two powers: inspire or intimidate. Looks like intimidation might be the name of the game here.

What is interesting to the Pnut is that this is so strongly reported despite this happening all the time. Annually there is a two-week military exercise on the Korean peninsula that integrates Korean and US land, naval, and air forces for daily large force exercises and maneuvers. Typically, these exercises will use 60+ warplanes at any given time. So, although this was no big whoop for the military, it seems like a less than subtle reminder that the US would like to keep the peace by showing it’s prepared to drop a people’s elbow if need be. Supplemental read: How a bunch of hermits developed nuclear weapons.

French Workers, Welcome to Capitalism: One of the forces that helped sweep French President Manny Macron to power was his promise of labor reform. He’s now delivered. Having consulted with business leaders and labor unions for months, Manny’s prime minister and labor minister revealed landmark decrees to bring France out of decades-long high unemployment (about twice that of other major European economies). As an example, small business owners (20 employees or less) will be able to negotiate directly with employees for terms and conditions of employment, bypassing the national labor unions. There will be more flexibility to hire and fire workers, the idea being that productivity will therefore increase, and the young and less qualified will have more opportunity to find work. Bravo, Manny. Supplemental read: How Manny spends his cheddar.

Will He Or Won’t He? What To Do With DACA:  President Trump has a decision to make – satisfy his hard-line base, or allow some 800,000 young undocumented migrants (aka Dreamers) to remain in the only country most of them have ever known. The decision could come today. The controversy is over the  2012 Obama executive action, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) that lifted the threat of deportation for immigrants who were brought to the US before they were 16.

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Weekend Reads

• Are you over 35? Okay, then you probably hate your job. (Bloomberg)
• Don’t tase me bro. Seriously, on how tasers can kill. (Reuters)
• Your net worth or income isn’t the same as your personal worth (Video, School of Life)
• Speaking of income, Alabama’s linebackers coach makes more than the university president ($950,000 vs. $692,600). Their head coach makes $11.1 million. (WaPo)
• Speaking of football, even football broadcasters are quitting because it’s a sport that damages the brain. (NYT)
• Speaking of injuries, some college players blame wearing dress shoes all day as the reason they lost their rivalry game last year. (WaPo)
• Why are there so many people who live in India & China? (Video, Minute Earth)
• If you want more great videos emailed to you, then sign up for our new newsletter (GetWebVideos)
• Growing a network won’t make you great, being great will help grow your network. (NYT)
• But 10,000 hours of practice also won’t predict that you’ll be the best. Success = find your niche x perseverance. (1843)

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Your Daily Pnut Team: CEO–Tim Hsia. Editor in Chief–Vanessa Wu. Political Junkie at Large–Penelope Lary. Ninth Inning Reliever-Writer: Mike Briggs. Occasional Contributors: April O’Neil, Tintin, Clark Kent, & Peter Parker.