But first some good news.   Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump met this morning in Busan and came to a workable understanding .  Said Trump: “I guess, on the scale from zero to 10, with 10 being the best, I would say the meeting was a 12,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One after the meeting. “You know, just the whole relationship is very, very important. I think it was very good.” No details were released, but you can read that  article  for more. An hour before his meeting with Xi, Trump fired off the following social media missive: After Russia Conducts Nuclear Weapons Tests, Trump Announces U.S. Will Restart Its Own A tariff is one thing, but to re-enter a state of cold war where one incident can cause Armageddon, or the end of Humanity, is just another in a string of Trump's intentions regarding dictatorship and retrogression in dealing with global warming that have never before been voiced by past U.S. presidents.  Of course, he was in his ...

But first, looks like the Federal government will be shut down just after midnight tonight.   How terrible is that? To begin, there have been 14 of these since 1980, including three during Trump's first term.   In 2018, for 34 days, from December 22 to January 25. This broke the 21-day record on one under President Bill Clinton. How will the stock market react?  Many times, goes up.   In anticipation  of what could happen tomorrow: The Dow Jones Industrial Average ( ^DJI ) rose 0.2%. The S&P 500 ( ^GSPC ) rose 0.4%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite ( ^IXIC ) gained 0.3%, coming off modest   closing gains   on Wall Street.  Both the Nasdaq and S&P 500 notched their best third quarter since 2020. Want more details on what to expect?   Read this. About that other matter of importance,  Time  magazine had some details:   Trump and Netanyahu Announce Major Gaza Deal, Threaten Dire Outcome if ...

Kiko remains a hurricane , but should by tomorrow weaken into a tropical storm.  If the eye went over Hawaii, there would still be some devastation and a lot of flooding.  However, the track has been predicted to pass sufficiently north of the state such that high surf and associated damage might well be the only problem. In the West Pacific is  Typhoon Tapah,  which just attained typhoon strength today and made landfall over China well away from Macao. The Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of America are eerily quiet as high season begins.  No serious ocean storms are predicted for at least the next week. In the East Pacific is  Post-Tropical Cyclone Lorene  so inconsequential that it is not even shown on the map. She was a hurricane on September 3, strengthened to 85 MPH on the 4th, but later that day lost hurricane status. Almost all ocean storms in the East Pacific threaten Mexico, especially the Baha Peninsula, but only very rarely extend into California....