Monday Night, Martin Luther King, Jr -- Notes From All Over, Part 1 -- January 20, 2020

Time for some music. Something tells me we're going to need some music to get through this next week.

I linked this video to a post the other day. This evening -- after removing all the videos Sophia had lined up on YouTube -- this one popped up -- YouTube can read my mind.

Reflections On My Life, Dean Ford
Sophia's dad is teaching Sophia to "code" -- as in software coding. Tonight, Sophia -- age 5 --  showed me what she could do on her own on the iPad that she uses to learn / practice coding. No letters, no words, no reading. All done with emojis and graphics.Very, very interesting.

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Clearing Off The Desktop

Natural gas. US natural gas prices drop to lowest level in four years.

Boeing. Boeing 737 Max -- it simply gets worse and worse. Software fails; company seeking $10 billion load (twice what analysts originally told); won't fly until June, 2020, at the earliest. I will be surprised to see the 737 Max fly this year.

Canada. Canadian municipalities left holding the bag. To make things worse, the Alberta Court of Appeal ruled that municipalities are unsecured creditors when it comes to bankruptcy -- this means that are are the last to get paid in the event of default -- and less likely to any money ... ever.

Delta Airlines: employees to get two extra months' pay via profit-sharing plan. If this has happened before, I am unaware.

India: economy unraveling. Assuming it was ever raveled in the first place. To quote Chris Stein of Blondie.

Schlumberger. Schlumberger posts $10 billion loss in 2019.

McDermott. McDermott hits Freeport LNG milestone.

Farmers. Farmer approval of Trump hits record.

Approval of President Trump among farmers in the Corn Belt is on the rise following the signing of the long-awaited U.S.-China trade deal last week.

According to a monthly poll from agricultural trade publication Farm Journal released Sunday, 83% of farmers and ranchers approve of the president’s job performance. It is the highest level of support for Mr. Trump among farmers since he took office, Farm Journal said.

The poll collected 1,286 responses among roughly 5,000 ranchers and farmers asked via text to give their opinion. Respondents were nationwide, but concentrated mostly in Midwest states like Illinois, Iowa, Indiana and Nebraska.

“We have heard repeatedly from farmers that they believe in the end of the trade fight with China,” said John Herath, news director at Farm Journal.

The uptick in farmer support comes following the signing of the so-called phase-one trade agreement in Washington on Wednesday. The deal stipulates that China will purchase roughly $36 billion worth of U.S. agricultural exports in 2020, and over $43 billion in 2021.

Also playing a role in boosting farmer sentiment is the U.S. Senate passing the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on Thursday, the free-trade deal replacing the 26-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement.