"Hurricane Delta rapidly intensified into a powerful Category 2 storm Tuesday and is expected to reach Category 4 status as it rips across the Gulf of Mexico then treks north toward the U.S. southeast." You know, the same region already hit by 3 major hurricanes this year.
"Meanwhile, NASA personnel are getting a sense of how the new suit will perform on the moon by testing the design underwater in the massive Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory pool at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA uses the lab to simulate spacewalks, since engineers can mimic different levels of gravity underwater, like low Earth orbit's microgravity and the moon's one-sixth gravity."
"The final possible legal challenge to Led Zeppelin's ownership of Stairway To Heaven has been defeated." The bustle in the hedgerow is over. (Grokked from Dan)
"20th Century Studios has dropped a new trailer for Free Guy, the sci-fi comedy starring Ryan Reynolds, currently slated for a December 11 release. But in these pandemic times, all release dates are basically pencilled in until further notice—which is why Reynolds and company also released an amusing teaser in which they debate potential alternate dates for the film's release." Please don't let Ryan have been a dick in a previous life. And I so want a new Deadpool (like DP1, not so much like DP2) that this is close enough make me part with cash. And for an actor being typecast is usually not a Good Thing™, but I am so here for it. Oh, and Disney, if you're listening, give us another goddamn great Deadpool movie, more like DP1 and less shake weighty, okay? And movie studios, stop mining my childhood for songs for your marketing purposes. (Grokked from Dan)
"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revised its coronavirus guidance Monday, acknowledging that it can sometimes spread through airborne particles that can 'linger in the air for minutes to hours' and among people who are more than 6 feet apart… The CDC cited published reports that demonstrated 'limited, uncommon circumstances where people with COVID-19 infected others who were more than 6 feet away or shortly after the COVID-19-positive person left an area.'" Ta-da! Note, that just because your circumstance of being infected could be explained by droplet, that aerosol contamination might contribute to the viral load necessary to become sick.
"Neurological symptoms are extremely common among Covid-19 patients sick enough to be hospitalized, a study published Monday finds… The symptoms range from mild to severe, and can include headaches, dizziness and altered brain function, according to the study in the journal Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology."
The Planet Money podcast with something I've been thinking about… "The Black Death was one of the worst pandemics in human history, tearing apart the social fabric of medieval Europe and inflicting a gruesome death on up to half the population… But there's another side to it that we don't usually talk about--a sort of silver lining. As the continent was being destroyed, it was also being remade. From the ashes of the Black Death rose a new world that shook up feudal hierarchies, improved the lives of medieval Europeans, and completely transformed the economy." I don't think SARS-CoV2 is deadly enough to force the changes the Plague did, but it will change us in subtle ways.
"President Donald Trump on Tuesday continued to downplay the coronavirus and suggested the United States should learn to live with the pandemic, posting to Twitter hours after returning to the White House from being hospitalized with Covid-19… In his morning tweet, the president likened the highly contagious disease that has killed nearly 210,000 Americans to the seasonal flu, reprising a misleading comparison he repeatedly invoked in the early stages of the U.S. outbreak." Covid is not like the flu (although it may become a regular disease if we keep fucking up the response to it). But the president knows (or has been told) this election is shaping up to be a referendum on his government's response to the disease.
"A strongly medicated President Donald Trump bolted from his VIP hospital bubble Monday, staging a bizarre White House comeback that included an irresponsible mask removal and a reckless pronouncement there is nothing to fear from Covid-19, which has already killed 210,000 Americans." The president is still contagious. And he may think his stunt of taking off his mask was bold and brave, but his grimacing and labored breathing show just how sick he is. This whole incident of the WH outbreak has been mishandled and screwed up that their only way out is to try and spin harder. "Trump's press aides are busily boosting his personality cult of a conquering strongman who beat the virus in order to show Americans there is nothing to be afraid of."
"Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who is currently awaiting coronavirus test results, coughed through a Fox News interview on Monday night in which he attacked Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden for consistently wearing a mask, claiming it was a 'political statement' meant to 'scare' people."
"(The president is) being treated with dexamethasone, a powerful steroid recommended for use in severe cases of COVID-19. The drug can carry serious psychological side effects, but Conley said the president hasn't exhibited any of them. He repeatedly declined to provide specifics about the president's lung condition or the last time Mr. Trump tested negative for the virus, citing federal privacy laws."
"A white police officer has been charged with murder in connection with the shooting of a black man following a reported disturbance at a convenience store in a small east Texas town over the weekend, authorities said."
"Weaker-than-expected job growth in September sent a signal that the sharp economic recovery off the coronavirus shutdown may be hitting a wall… The Labor Department reported Friday that nonfarm payrolls increased by 661,000 in September, held back by declines in government employment and an exodus of workers from the labor force."
From Frontline, Growing up poor in America. "Their families were already struggling to make ends meet. Then came the coronavirus… Director Jezza Neumann, who made 2012’s Poor Kids, once again delves into how poverty impacts children. With the 2020 election approaching, Growing Up Poor in America follows three children and their families in the battleground state of Ohio as the COVID-19 pandemic amplifies their struggle to stay afloat. As the country also reckons with issues of race and racism, the children share their worries and hopes about their futures."
"How badly is COVID-19 hurting Americans on the cusp of retirement? Maybe worse than we thought… In an interview, economist Teresa Ghilarducci, a professor at The New School in New York City and one of the nation’s leading experts on retirement, told me that half—that’s right, half—of Americans aged 55 and up will retire in poverty or near poverty." And that's if Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid are still intact.
"Teen spending hit its lowest levels in two decades, according to a new survey, as teens spent less money on food, concerts and events during the coronavirus pandemic, and worry about the economy getting worse." Well, at least they're no longer calling them millennials.
"British Prime Minister Boris Johnson insisted Tuesday that his bout of Covid-19 has not robbed him of his mojo, while outlining new spending pledges aimed at restoring the economy to a stronger position than prior to the pandemic." Oh brother.
"The European Union's top court said on Tuesday that Hungary's reform of higher education rules, which forced a university founded by George Soros to move most of its activities out of the country, was in breach of EU law."
"Eric Trump, the president's son, was deposed Monday about the Trump Organization, for which he serves as an executive… Investigators with the New York attorney general's office deposed Trump as part of an investigation into whether President Donald Trump's namesake company improperly inflated the value of certain assets to get tax benefits, according to a source familiar with the probe."
"US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is meeting his counterparts from Australia, India and Japan in Tokyo to discuss how to counter China… The 'Quad meeting' comes as all four countries seek to form a front against an increasingly assertive China." If only we hadn't fucked up our international relationships under Trump we would be in a better position.
"Protesters in Kyrgyzstan, angered by weekend elections they say were rigged, seized and ransacked the country's parliament building, briefly setting part of it on fire early Tuesday, according to local news reports."
"President Trump has once more tried to cast himself as an ally of the Christian right — this time, by nominating Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. This week, On the Media explains how the religious right goes beyond white evangelicals and the persistent allure of persecution narratives in Christianity. Plus, we examine the overlooked religious left. And, we explore how the image of Jesus as a white man was popularized in the 20th century, and why it matters."
"Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito issued a broadside against the high court's 2015 same-sex marriage decision on Monday when the court declined to hear a case brought by a former Kentucky county clerk who refused to issue a marriage license for such couples."
"The Supreme Court has handed a victory to the Republican Party by reinstating the witness requirement for South Carolina mail-in ballots. Previously, the state’s lower courts ruled that witnesses shouldn’t be needed to complete a ballot this year because they could create an unnecessary contact risk during the still-raging pandemic. However, in an order issued Monday, the high court tossed aside that ruling and largely reinstated the requirement for witnesses—though the Supreme Court did make an exception for ballots cast before it acted."
"The Supreme Court announced on Friday that it will hear two consolidated cases that could eviscerate the right to be free from racial discrimination in voting. And the Court agreed to hear these cases just weeks before the Senate is likely to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat on the Supreme Court, giving a Republican Party that is often hostile to voting rights a 6-3 majority on the nation’s highest court."
"However, as with seemingly every other aspect of election administration this year, drop boxes have become a controversial proposal. To proponents, drop boxes are simply a more reliable delivery method given recent cutbacks at the U.S. Postal Service that have slowed down mail service. Consider states that require ballots to be received by a certain date. Voters who put their ballots in the mail within a week of that deadline are really leaving it up to chance whether the ballot will arrive in time. By contrast, any ballot deposited in a drop box by the deadline is considered to have arrived on time, providing the voter with both peace of mind and an extra few days to fill out her ballot."
"President Trump's campaign is waging a behind-the-scenes effort to threaten low-profile county officials into ignoring election rules and sowing doubt in the mail voting process… Trump's campaign launched an 'unusually aggressive' push on the local level, sending 100 county election officials in North Carolina 'threatening letters' and 'misinformation' to urge them to disregard a new rule that makes it easier for voters to fix mistakes on their mail ballots, according to the Associated Press. The warnings came after the state Board of Elections settled a lawsuit after ballots cast by Black voters in the state were disproportionately rejected."
"In the midst of the historic coronavirus pandemic, economic hardship and a reckoning over racism, this November Americans will decide who leads the nation for the next four years: President Donald Trump or former Vice President Joe Biden. Ahead of the 2020 election, FRONTLINE’s critically acclaimed series 'The Choice' returns with interwoven investigative biographies of both men, focusing on how they have responded in moments of crisis." It's two hours, but worth it.
"A video of former Vice President Joe Biden talking about a Black woman stacking shelves went viral on Monday as the Democratic candidate's critics accused him of racism on social media." With an examination of the full statement.
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