ObamaCare Repair -- July 13, 2017

What sanctions? U.S. Boost to Oil Drilling Will Barely Dent Russia’s Energy Monolith. From The WSJ --

But some industry observers say the U.S. shale boom—which reshaped world markets for crude oil and natural gas before Mr. Trump took office—has only limited impact on Russia’s standing as a major energy provider to Europe and Asia.

Sounds like a Euro-centered article. I'm not exactly sure why The WSJ would even publish this story. The tone almost sounds like something I would expect to see in the most liberal "national" newspaper, The LA Times. Maybe I'm missing something.

ObamaCare: On June 30, 2017,  I said that it was Medicaid that was THE sticking point for the US Senate regarding ObamaCare. Today on CNBC the talking head said the very same thing. ObamaCare is now all about Medicaid for the US Senators. I think it's a most interesting spectacle.

Feds caved to CAVE: that was easy -- Federal Agency Drops Rail Plan in Connecticut and Rhode Island. From The WSJ:

The Federal Railroad Administration released Wednesday its final version of a $153 billion plan to speed up service and improve reliability on Amtrak’s busy Northeast Corridor, dropping a controversial plan to build a new rail segment through Connecticut and Rhode Island.

The federal agency said its plan will shave off 45 minutes of travel time for Amtrak riders between New York and Boston and 35 minutes from Washington, D.C., to New York. The project for the nation’s busiest passenger rail segment—which stretches 457 miles from Washington to Boston—still needs funding from Congress.

Travel, Scotland. A Keats-Inspired Tour of Scotland, From Pubs to Peaks From The WSJ -- 

An hour's drive from Glasgow, on the banks of Scotland’s misty Loch Fyne, the Cairndow Stagecoach Inn makes an unlikely home for poets.

At the tartan-carpeted bar, locals gather for themed dances, complete with fog machines and pulsing laser lights. It’s easy to miss a small frame on the wall, which carries a quote from the poet John Keats, who spent a weary night at the roadside stop-off in 1818.

In a letter to his younger brother Tom, Keats wrote of the stay: “We were up at 4 this morning and have walked to breakfast 15 miles through two tremendous Glens.” He described taking a bath in the saltwater lake, opposite the Inn’s windows.

“Quite pat and fresh but for the cursed Gad flies,” he wrote. One thing or another had dogged the 22-year-old Keats since leaving London that summer on an epic walking-tour which would stretch over 600 miles.

From June through August, he and his friend Charles Brown wound their way through the Lake District up to Scotland, where they trekked the muddy Isle of Mull and climbed the U.K.’s highest peak, Ben Nevis. They began in Lancaster, England, and parted at Scotland’s tip, Inverness, where Keats felt too sick to go on.

If I had all the money in the world, I would have a home in Scotland. A friend I met some years ago offered me the use of his summer home on a southwestern Scottish peninsula but I was never able to take advantage of that invitation.