Linkee-poo was born an original sinner

Katherine Johnson, and so it goes.

Edit for breaking news "Harvey Weinstein was convicted Monday of rape and sexual assault against two women and could be sent to prison for decades, sealing his dizzying fall from powerful Hollywood studio boss to archvillain of the #MeToo movement."

"Alexander Chee delivered this craft lecture, from “First Draft to Plot,” at the 2016 Tin House Summer Workshop. Chee is the author most recently of the essay collection How to Write an Autobiographical Novel." Haven't had a chance to listen to it yet, but it sounds interesting. (Grokked from DongWon Song)

"Chinese President Xi Jinping has warned the novel coronavirus is the worst public health crisis facing the country since its founding, as new outbreaks continued to expand in South Korea and Italy, raising fears of a global pandemic."

"South Korea reported 231 new cases of a coronavirus, taking total infections to 833, health authorities said on Monday, a day after raising its infectious disease alert to the highest level."

"Health experts sounded the alarm Friday over the worldwide threat of the coronavirus, with officials warning of its 'likely' community spread in the United States and the World Health Organization cautioning that 'the window of opportunity is narrowing' for containing the outbreak worldwide." Insert the theme to Jaws here.

"U.S. markets fell sharply Monday amid widening concern that the continuing spread of cases could lead to a global pandemic. The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled more than 900 points in the opening minutes of trading, before recovering some ground. All of the major market indexes were down more than 2.5%."

"Markets closed out last week on an anxious note. It's not difficult to see why: the coronavirus continues to spread, and there are signs that some of the world's top economies could slide into recession as the outbreak compounds pre-existing weaknesses."

"The doctors told them there were two nearly identical drug implants — each containing 50 mg of histrelin acetate — made by the same company, Endo Pharmaceuticals, an American drugmaker domiciled in Ireland. But one was considerably cheaper… Taksali wanted his daughter to get the less expensive option, but his insurer said it would cover only the more expensive option." There is a question asked here on how everybody can get the kind of response from their insurer like the Taksali's got and the obvious answer (to this and other questions) is get a reporter from a national news organization involved. Lots of information about inside baseball (like hospital markups, and exactly whom the Taksali's fight actually helped).

"The daredevil 'Mad' Mike Hughes was killed in a rocket launch gone wrong Saturday in Barstow, Calif., two witnesses to the accident confirmed. He was 64."

"Companies around the world are embracing what might seem like a radical idea: a four-day workweek." But not so much in the US.

"Haitian police officers exchanged gunfire for hours Sunday with soldiers of the newly reconstituted army outside the national palace, in a dangerous escalation of protests over police pay and working conditions."

"Historians and activists charge that the White House has failed to keep notes of the president's meetings with foreign leaders, including with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and that other papers, including records of alleged abuses of undocumented immigrants, could be destroyed."

"Johnny McEntee called in White House liaisons from cabinet agencies for an introductory meeting Thursday, in which he asked them to identify political appointees across the U.S. government who are believed to be anti-Trump, three sources familiar with the meeting tell Axios." The flogging will continue until moral improves. The problem with this, and the "Deep State" narrative is if Trump loses (or when his kind are tossed out), there will need to be a purging of the Trump Loyalists to right the ship of state, and the conservatives will bring out their "they do it too" narrative. (Grokked from Christopher Moore)

"Richard Grenell did not disclose payments for advocacy work on behalf of a Moldovan politician whom the U.S. later accused of corruption. His own office’s policy says that could leave him vulnerable to blackmail." Our new Director of National Intelligence, the top spy failed to register as a foreign asset, and the guy he worked for is now on the run. Our top spy wouldn't normally qualify for a security clearance. Yeah, that's about par for the course. (Grokked from Jim Wright)

"The US intelligence community has assessed that Russia is interfering in the 2020 election and has separately assessed that Russia views Trump as a leader they can work with. But the US does not have evidence that Russia's interference this cycle is aimed at reelecting Trump, the officials said." This reads more of backdating an excuse for Trump's ire at intelligence officials. Again, Russia is interested in weakening the West and destroying our confidence in our leadership and institutions (waves to our Russian friends and their Italian feed network).

"In a strongly worded order issued Sunday, Judge Amy Berman Jackson dismissed the Stone defense team's claims, arguing that the motion to have her recuse herself lacked 'any factual or legal support.'"

"This will be the first presidential election in decades in which the Republican National Committee will no longer be shackled by a federal consent decree that stopped many of the GOP’s 'ballot security' tactics, such as dispatching armed, off-duty police officers to minority voting precincts. A court lifted the order two years ago… Trump made reckless unsubstantiated accusations of voter fraud in the 2016 election. With the removal of the consent decree, his campaign and the party can engage in 'ballot security' efforts without court supervision." (Grokked from Jim Wright)