Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, and Debt:

Facebook is researching AI systems that see, hear, and remember everything you do. What could possibly go wrong?

Global Supply-Chain Problems Escalate

The outlook for the global economy darkened as a stream of data from Europe and Asia suggested growth faltered in the third quarter, hobbled by world-wide supply-chain snarls, sharply accelerating inflation and the impact of the highly contagious Delta variant.

Fed’s Bostic Finally Admits It: Inflation Is Not Transitory, And It’s Getting Worse

Russia considers new energy tariffs as Chinese crypto miners relocate

Bitcoin Mining After the China Ban: US Dominance Is Set to Continue

Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:

White House Prepares for Vaccinating Kids

The White House told governors to start preparing to vaccinate children as young as 5 by early next month in anticipation of clearance of Pfizer’s Covid vaccine for the age group in the coming weeks.
The Biden administration has purchased 65 million pediatric doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, enough to vaccinate the estimated 28 million children who would be eligible should the Food and Drug Administration approve Pfizer’s request to vaccinate children ages 5 to 11.

The Only Conspiracy Theory Anti-Vaxxers Won’t Believe

PHOTO: Polio, Mumps, Measles, and Chickenpox wait eagerly to see if Republican governors are going to ban mandates for their vaccines too. pic.twitter.com/FUrIrDN1YQ

— Middle Age Riot (@middleageriot) October 13, 2021

For decades, for decades

We tend to think of pandemics and epidemics as episodic. But we are living in the Covid-19 era, not the Covid-19 crisis. There will be a lot of changes that are substantial and persistent. We won’t look back and say, ‘That was a terrible time, but it’s over.’ We will be dealing with many of the ramifications of Covid-19 for decades, for decades.

The Shorter Work Week Really Worked in Iceland

Even as the Covid-19 pandemic forced companies around the world to reimagine the workplace, researchers in Iceland were already conducting two trials of a shorter work week that involved about 2,500 workers – more than 1% of the country’s working population.
They found that the experiment was an ‘overwhelming success’ – workers were able to work less, get paid the same, while maintaining productivity and improving personal well-being.

Surprise, surprise: GOP Lawmaker Banned from Airline Has Covid-19

Greene Tries to Compare Covid-19 and HIV

…Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) stooped to a new low on Thursday, questioning why the “fascist NBA won’t let Kyrie Irving play for refusing a vaccine. But yet they still let Magic Johnson play with HIV.” The tweet entirely ignores the fact that COVID-19 is airborne and spread through respiratory droplets, while HIV is passed through direct contact with certain bodily fluids, including blood and semen.

Politics:

After white students displayed Confederate flag at school, Black students suspended for planning protest

Are We Ready for Trump’s Second Term?

Trump winning in 2016 was a serious wound to the American experiment. His clinging to power in 2020 poured salt in that wound. Trump losing in 2024 and trying to steal the election would be even more catastrophic. But a straightforward victory—a very real possibility—could be a mortal injury.

Georgia election official takes the fight to Trump: Trump’s election nemesis refuses to shut up and take the former president’s abuse.

Trump must give videotaped deposition in protest lawsuit, judge orders: The protest followed Trump's calling Mexican immigrants criminals and rapists.

Select Panel to Aggressively Enforce Subpoenas

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol is planning to ramp up its efforts to force Trump administration officials to comply with its subpoenas as the former president attempts to stymie the inquiry.
Lawmakers who sit on the panel said they are prepared to pursue criminal charges against witnesses like Stephen Bannon who have balked at cooperating. And the committee may issue a subpoena as early as Wednesday to Jeffrey Clark, a Trump Justice Department official who sought to deploy department resources to support former president Donald Trump’s false claims of massive voting fraud in the 2020 election.

Progressives Push Pelosi to Keep All Programs In Bill

House progressives urged Speaker Nancy Pelosi to keep all proposed policies in President Joe Biden’s economic plan, but keep them in place for fewer years to reduce costs.
Democrats are deciding whether to cut entire programs or reduce their timeframes — or some combination of both — to cut the proposal’s $3.5 trillion price tag and appease centrists.

Well, that’s one way of finding out if the centrists are really just opposed to the number and don’t instead have policy differences.

Republicans would “rather end democracy” than turn away from Trump, says Harvard professor

Andrew McCabe Gets Pension Back

Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, whom Donald Trump-era Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired hours before his retirement as the then-President’s political furor toward him grew, has settled a lawsuit with the Justice Department, allowing him to officially retire, recoup hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees and his pension.

’Hacker X’ Unmasks Himself

For two years, he ran websites and Facebook groups that spread bogus stories, conspiracy theories, and propaganda. Under him was a dedicated team of writers and editors paid to produce deceptive content—from outright hoaxes to political propaganda—with the supreme goal of tipping the 2016 election to Donald Trump.

Serendipity:

Rural Alaska has a bridge problem as permafrost thaws and crossing river ice gets riskier with climate change

Michigan tells Benton Harbor residents not to drink tap water after three years of dangerous lead contamination

The Recycling Industry: Planet-Friendly or Environmental Foe?

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