Happy Wednesday, Gnusies!
It’s been an eventful week so far and it promises to be busy right through to the weekend.
Buckle up and dive in!
👻🎶🎃 Opening Music to Wake you Up 🎃🎶👻
Dem Crime Fighters!
Most of us here in Gnuville have discussed cyber threats and the concern that the USA was not ready for it (possibly kept deliberately vulnerable during TFG’s term). Joe Biden’s State Department is on it:
State Department to Form New Cyber Office to Face Proliferating Global Challenges, Dustin Volz, Wall Street Journal, October 25, 2021.
The restructuring will include the creation of a new bureau of cyberspace and digital policy to be led by a Senate-confirmed ambassador-at-large and a new, separate special envoy for critical and emerging technology, officials said. Both positions will report directly to Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman for at least the first year, the officials said. The administration hasn’t decided who will fill either role. ✂️
The moves are the latest by the Biden administration seeking to emphasize cybersecurity as a distinct issue that poses vital risks to the future of U.S. national and economic security. Shortly after taking office in January, President Biden named Anne Neuberger, a senior National Security Agency official, to the newly formed role of deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology. The administration also appointed Chris Inglis, the former deputy director of the National Security Agency, to another new position of national cyber director, a post mandated by Congress with a staff up to 75 housed within the executive office of the president.
More recently, the Justice Department formed a ransomware task force and a cryptocurrency enforcement team to more aggressively pursue hackers who target U.S. businesses and critical infrastructure with the often debilitating form of cyberattack.
Coordinated Bust of Dark-Web Dealers Yields 150 Arrests in U.S., Europe, Catherine Stupp and Sadie Gurman, Wall Street Journal, October 26, 2021.
The Justice Department and European police authorities said they arrested 150 people who sold and bought drugs and weapons on darknet forums, using evidence drawn from the world’s largest illegal online marketplace after it was taken down in January. ✂️
Most of the arrests announced Tuesday took place in the U.S. and Germany, authorities said, noting that a number of investigations were still under way. The Justice Department is working with authorities in other countries to extradite people to the U.S., Ms. Monaco said.
“With such operations based on information sharing, trust between partners and international coordination, we are sending a strong message to these criminals on the dark web,” said Jean-Philippe Lecouffe, the deputy executive director of Europol, the European Union’s law-enforcement agency. “No one is beyond the reach of law, even on the dark web.”
Epstein-related investigations quietly continue
For all the people who have been worried that no news means nothing being done, here is good news from NYC — D.A. Cyrus Vance is proceeding with investigations of associates of Jeffrey Epstein:
BILLIONAIRE LEON BLACK IS BEING INVESTIGATED BY THE MANHATTAN D.A., SOURCES SAY, Gabe Sherman, Vanity Fair, October 25, 2021.
Black’s personal and professional lives have been in a tailspin since January 2021, when the billionaire announced he was stepping down as CEO of private-equity giant Apollo following the emergence of his ties to Epstein. An investigation commissioned by Apollo’s board disclosed that Black had paid Epstein $158 million in fees between 2012 and 2017—after Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from a teenage girl. Black’s massive payments to Epstein for purported “tax advice” and “estate planning” struck many on Wall Street as amounting to a preposterously inflated sum for such services.
Black insisted all along that his relationship with Epstein was strictly professional. “I was completely unaware of Mr. Epstein’s abhorrent misconduct that came to light in late 2018,” Black said in January 2021, adding: “I did not engage in any wrongdoing or inappropriate conduct.” But in late March, Black abruptly left Apollo months earlier than expected and then announced he would resign as board chairman of New York City’s Museum of Modern Art.
Discovery in Nunes defamation case could reveal things about Devin
And even a surprise R in the mix!
It’s good news for the country to know that some Republicans did not fall under the MAGA spell.
First on CNN: Biden administration expected to name GOP official who challenged Trump's lies to key election security role, Sean Lyngaas, CNN, October 25, 2021.
Federal officials have for weeks been in talks with Wyman, who is Washington state's secretary of state, to serve as the election security lead for DHS' Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The sources said Wyman's selection would not be official until all administrative paperwork is cleared with the White House and the administration announces her appointment.
As a Republican secretary of state, Wyman repeatedly refuted Trump's false assertions that mail-in ballots invite fraud. Trump's proclamations, she said, were undermining US democracy. And in a May interview with CNN's "New Day," Wyman sharply criticized the sham "audit" of 2020 election results commissioned by Arizona Republicans. ✂️
Wyman would be a federal liaison to state and local officials as they look for resources and support to protect election infrastructure from hacking and voters from disinformation campaigns. She has experience to draw on: She spent nearly a decade as the elections director for Thurston County, Washington, before being elected secretary of state.
"Kim doesn't see R or D, red or blue," (Chris) Krebs said. "She's committed to delivering democracy for the nation. Everyone wins here."
👻🎶🎃 Music for Creeps 🎃🎶👻
Election News
Tim Ryan (D-OH) posts strong fund-raising number, again
Tim Ryan is raising lots of money from many small donors, while Rs have to prop up their campaigns using their own money — at least until the voters coalesce around a single candidate after the May 2022 primary. Most of the R candidates are financed by a few wealthy donors or their own deep pockets, whereas Tim Ryan has actual voters supporting him. This is ruthlessly R-controlled Ohio, though, so even wide grassroots support cannot guarantee a Dem win. Still, Ryan’s strong fund-raising means his candidacy is alive and kicking!
It’s boom time for Tim Ryan fundraising, David Skolnick, the Vindicator (OH), October 25, 2021.
When I asked about his impressive $2,511,219 haul in the third quarter, Ryan, D-Howland, said: “We’re going to be able to compete (with Republicans). We get less money per donor, but we have a lot more donors than they do. To be in this position, quite frankly, no one thought we’d be here. There’s been critics of my fundraising in the past.” ✂️
He raised $2,258,303 in the second quarter with only Moreno, at $2,249,069, near Ryan. Moreno fell off a cliff in the third quarter compared with what he raised from donors. That resulted in him putting $3 million of his personal wealth into his campaign.✂️
It’s apparent that Republican donors aren’t rallying around a particular Senate candidate in Ohio before the May 2022 primary. That is leaving the candidates to either fend for themselves — and the top ones are all wealthy — and / or rely on rich benefactors.✂️
In the third quarter, four of the Republican candidates put a total of $6.35 million into their Senate accounts.
And the Ohio Republicans are in Disarray
Yes, their voters will get in line behind whoever wins the primary in May, but this is a bruising, ugly fight, which may influence some Independents:
👻🎶🎃 Music for Rs in Disarray 🎃🎶👻
$💪 Economic News 💪$
I continue to be happily fascinated by the unexpected big silver lining to this awful pandemic: the long overdue improvement in the job market, with workers finally gaining a bit more of the upper hand. One interesting data point which suggests it really is the pandemic that has spurred people to resign and take stock of their lives: the highest rates of resignations in August occurred in the ten states with the highest rates of new covid infections:
The geography of the Great Resignation: First-time data shows where Americans are quitting the most, Alyssa Fowers and Eli Rosenberg, Washington Post, October 26, 2021.
The report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics builds out a portrait of August’s labor market, with historic levels of people leaving jobs and a near-record number of job openings showing the leverage workers have in the new economy. It offers the first detailed insight into the state-by-state geography of this year’s Great Resignation. ✂️
Just a few weeks after (an east coast woman with a 90 minute each way commute to her job) quit, a recruiter reached out to her on LinkedIn about a position at Robert Half, a San Ramon, Calif.-based consulting company. The job allowed her to work remotely, and she said she felt that the company had a very employee-centric culture that made the switch easy from afar. She started the new position in August.
“Everything that I had read about the jobs market being hot and opportunities being out there was absolutely 100 percent correct,” she said. ✂️
“I knew I had an advantage,” (another worker who recently quit and took a new, better-paying and flexible job) said. “People are realizing their worth. Many of the jobs you look at now, especially in Jersey — people can’t afford the cost of living working 40 hours. So you have people working two jobs, possibly three. But the pandemic actually flipped the coin, and employees have more power when it comes it to their pay now.”
It isn’t a total cakewalk — you do still have to look around, apply, interview and sell yourself — but employers want great workers who will stay with the company, so more and more companies are offering much better pay, more flexible working arrangements (much more work from home is being offered) and in many cases allowing new hires to stay where they live and work remotely — even cross-country! The benefits for working people are too numerous to list here (but if you read the article linked above, they mention a lot of them there — this era is proving to be life-changing for a lot of people!), but something that occurs to me is that there may be a way to work something out with this new flexibility to help working mothers (particularly hard hit by the pandemic recession).
Economic benefits of health provisions in BBB
Putting this in here because these provisions would have an immense economic impact on working Americans:
And there is widespread support, even from constituencies that cw says are not usually D supporters:
And speaking of the Build Back Better bill:
Democrats race to reach deal on economic initiatives as Biden prepares to depart on foreign tour, Tony Romm, Washington Post, October 26, 2021.
Ahead of his foreign trips, Biden has intensified his outreach to Capitol Hill, hoping to secure new spending as part of a broader push to tout Washington’s commitment to combating global warming on an international stage. He met with some Democrats at his private residence in Delaware this weekend and huddled with others at the White House on Tuesday, and Biden administration officials then met late into the evening with two moderate holdouts, Sens. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Sinema.
The efforts helped close some of the divide over his “Build Back Better” tax-and-spending proposal, a sweeping effort to overhaul federal health care, education, climate and tax laws that shares the name of his 2020 presidential campaign slogan. But Biden and his Democratic allies still have considerable work on the horizon to finalize the initiative.
“We all know we need to do something promptly,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said, adding there are still issues to be addressed. “We want President Biden to be able to go to the [Group of 20 summit] and the climate summit with deliverables that are reflective of his values and ours, too.”
Here’s the text and as Jake Sherman says in the tweet above- it’s brief and easy to read.
Tax the Rich, Help America’s Children, Paul Krugman, New York Times, October 25, 2021.
About the economics: Although the modern Republican Party is utterly committed to the proposition that low taxes on corporations and the rich are the key to economic success, there is no evidence that this is true. If anything, the historical correlation runs the other way. The U.S. economy grew faster during periods when taxes at the top were relatively high than it did when they were low.
On the other hand, there is overwhelming evidence that helping children, in addition to being the right thing to do, has big economic payoffs. Children who benefited from safety-net programs like food stamps became healthier, more productive adults. Children who were enrolled in pre-K education were more likely to graduate from high school and go to college than those who weren’t. As I’ve argued in the past, the economic case for investing in children is even stronger than the case for investing in physical infrastructure.
When it comes to public opinion, what’s striking is how little impact more than 40 years of anti-tax, anti-government propaganda has had on voters’ views. Polls consistently show large majorities, including many Republicans, supporting higher taxes on corporations and the rich. Large majorities also supportsubsidizing child care and aiding families with children.
The public has been bamboozled into thinking taxing the rich is somehow “unfair”- but most megawealth is accrued by money “earning” money through investments — not by the labor of the rich. And the money they got to invest was earned through the labor of workers, using taxpayer-funded infrastructure.
Coming up with a good idea for something people want to buy and starting a company are laudable achievements, but as far as they go, it probably shouldn’t mean carte blanche forever for the wealthy to evade paying proportional taxes on their “earnings” unlike regular people who cannot evade paying their proportional share. So, let’s put the idea that the ultra-wealthy should not be taxed progressively to rest once and for all, please!
Then, there’s the kind of successful CEO boss we all wish we had!
Spanx CEO surprises employees with 2 first-class plane tickets and $10,000, Tien Le, NPR, October 26, 2021.
Before Spanx founder Sara Blakely became the youngest self-made woman, she sold fax machines door to door because she needed the money and health insurance.
Now, two decades after Blakely launched the pioneering womenswear company, global investment firm Blackstone is buying a majority stake in Spanx, which is valued at an estimated $1.2 billion in the deal.
In a video posted on Instagram last week, Blakely celebrated the sale with her employees. A globe sat on a nearby table, and eventually, she asked: "Why am I spinning a globe?"
Then, before the quiet crowd, she announced the reason: because she has bought two first-class tickets — to anywhere in the world — for each employee.
But that wasn't all.
"You know, if you have a trip, you might want to go out to a really nice dinner, you might want to go out to a really nice hotel," Blakely said. "So with everybody's two first-class tickets to anywhere in the world, you are each getting $10,000."
Cheers erupted and tears flowed — and a dance party filled the room.
Biden’s plan to make your internet cheaper and better is one step closer, Sara Morrison, Vox, October 26, 2021.
+
Biden nominates acting FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel for permanent post, Taylor Telford, Tony Room and Cat Zakrzewsky, Washington Post, October 26, 2021.
The White House on Tuesday named Jessica Rosenworcel and Gigi Sohn to top Federal Communications Commission positions in a late bid to stave off a Republican majority over the regulator. If confirmed, Rosenworcel, the FCC’s acting chairwoman, would become the first woman to lead the agency. Sohn, a former FCC official, is a net neutrality advocate. ✂️
Now, in a moment that has emphasized how indispensable Internet access is for all Americans, Democrats are aiming to resurrect one of their signature tech policy priorities. In June, Biden signed an executive order promoting competition in the economy, setting the table for the FCC to readopt net neutrality provisions and pursue a “broadband nutrition label” that allows consumers to examine the details associated with their broadband packages, from data allowances to prices. ✂️
“Chair Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Gigi Sohn will create an FCC ‘dream team’ that can implement a progressive telecommunications policy agenda for the coming decades,” Schwartzman, senior counselor at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, said in a statement.
👻🎶 🎃 Here, have some TERR🎃Rmasu! 🎃 🎶👻
💉 Health News 💉
FDA panel backs Pfizer’s low-dose COVID-19 vaccine for kids, Lauran Neergaard and Matthew Perrone, AP, October 26, 2021.
A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted unanimously, with one abstention, that the vaccine’s benefits in preventing COVID-19 in that age group outweigh any potential risks. That includes questions about a heart-related side effect that’s been very rare in teens and young adults despite their use of a much higher vaccine dose. ✂️
Pfizer studied 2,268 elementary schoolchildren given two shots three weeks apart of either a placebo or the kid dose. Vaccinated youngsters developed levels of virus-fighting antibodies just as strong as teens and young adults who got the full-strength shots. More important, the vaccine proved nearly 91% effective at preventing symptomatic infection — based on 16 cases of COVID-19 among kids given dummy shots compared to just three who got vaccinated.
The kid dosage also proved safe, with similar or fewer temporary side effects — such as sore arms, fever or achiness — that teens experience. At FDA’s request, Pfizer more recently enrolled another 2,300 youngsters into the study, and preliminary safety data has shown no red flags. ✂️
Moderna also is studying its vaccine in young children, and Pfizer has additional studies underway in those younger than 5.
Moderna to supply Africa with up to 110 million COVID doses, Cara Anna, AP, October 25, 2021.
The announcement said Moderna is prepared to deliver the first 15 million doses by the end of this year, with 35 million in the first quarter of 2022 and up to 60 million in the second quarter. It says “all doses are offered at Moderna’s lowest tiered price.” ✂️
He (African Union special envoy on COVID-19, Strive Masiyiwa) thanked the United States for essentially allowing African nations to go to the head of the line to buy the Moderna doses. A White House official said the U.S. will defer delivery of about 33 million Moderna doses between December and February that were originally intended for the U.S. so that the AU can buy them instead. ✂️
Moderna said this agreement is separate from its deal with the global COVAX project to supply up to 500 million doses from late this year through 2022. COVAX aims to supply doses to low- and middle-income countries.
Is it Booster time for you yet?
I got mine last Sunday! I’m under 65 BUT immunocompromised, so I was in like Flynn! 😁
To be honest, I found myself getting irritated about having to rehash the disaster that was TFGs criminally neglectful pandemic response — but then again, it is good news that our Dems are holding people accountable. We can’t fix what we don’t examine and we can’t prevent future problems if we don’t acknowledge what happened and figure out how it all broke down so badly, so...
Now for something completely different
Here’s a different approach to encouraging people to get vaccinated. Salt Lake Health remarked downthread (when criticized for trivializing vaccination with woo), “What we're really doing is finding new and different ways to keep our community talking about vaccination when there is significant message fatigue around the topic.”
Can’t say I disagree! Anything that might get people engaged is worth a try! And this one can maybe elicit a few smiles and playful ‘competition’. If it inspires more people to get vaccinated, I’m all for it!
Psychological Health of the Nation
The tweet thread linked below is an interesting analysis of the psychology of the current polarization. I don’t agree with Troy that it will take generations to recover/fix it (the truth is, we have had these problems with people who want to destroy everything pretty much constantly throughout our history, and society’s vulnerability to their influence waxes and wanes), but I think he hits the nail right on the head about how powerful identity, in-group loyalty and belief are in human beings. As grim as things have seemed, the good news is that we are finally beginning to acknowledge the crucial importance of understanding human psychology. (For another interesting analysis check in the Lightning RoundUp for “Bad News”)
And here is the kind of thing needed to begin “shutting down the infrastructure fueling the fire”:
Facebook facing long overdue comeuppance
The Facebook Papers may be the biggest crisis in the company's history, Clare Duffy, CNNBusiness, October 25, 2021
On Friday, a consortium of 17 US news organizations began publishing a series of stories — collectively called "The Facebook Papers" — based on a trove of hundreds of internal company documents which were included in disclosures made to the Securities and Exchange Commission and provided to Congress in redacted form by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen's legal counsel. The consortium, which includes CNN, reviewed the redacted versions received by Congress. ✂️
There's currently no end in sight for Facebook's troubles. Members of the subcommittee
have called for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify. And on Friday,
another former Facebook employee anonymously filed a complaint against the company to the SEC, with allegations similar to Haugen's.
👻🎶🎃 Spooky Music 🎃🎶👻
🐩🐾 CG’s Picks 🐾🐩
Hello Everybody! It’s me, Curlygirl! I have some fun picks for you today! The first one I showed to Mama like 2 weeks ago because I wanted to get that costume for Hallowe’en (that dog is definitely a standard poodle and although I am blue and not white, I think Mama could have dyed my coat white in places for the same effect!) — but Mama said, “No, I don’t want you to have all that dye on your coat and besides you have a clean-shaven face so we couldn’t grow out enough face scruff in time” — so phooey on that! But, you can see this other lucky dog with the coolest, poodliest costume EVER!
This video just makes me feel good. That man is so gentle with the mama dog and her puppies.
Last, I have a special Hallowe’en video for you. I like it because the dogs are so clever. I hope you have a happy Hallowe’en week! Luv, Curlygirl. 🐾
⚡️ Lightning RoundUp ⚡️
⚡️ Hallowe’en Family Fun! Need some new Halloween movies and books for your kids? Do come in (mwah-ha-ha), Elizabeth Blair, October 26, 2021.
⚡️ Sense that oughta be more common: How employers can win workers back (and keep them) after the 'Great Resignation', Jonaki Mehta, NPR, October 26, 2021.
⚡️ Come on, Man: JOE BIDEN REMINDS TRUMP HE’S A HAS-BEEN WHO LOST THE ELECTION, Bess Levin, Vanity Fair, October 26, 2021.
⚡️ LOL: Texas Republican offers $1 million voter fraud bounty; Democrat who caught a Republican collects, Jon Skolnik, Salon, October 26, 2021.
⚡️ Key Jan. 6 witnesses are singing like canaries for House investigators as Trump stonewalls: report, John Wright, Raw Story, October 26, 2021.
⚡️Dems are doing many things: 4 takeaways from the Senate child safety hearing with YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok, Bobby Allyn, NPR, October 26, 2021.
⚡️ Bad News; Selling the story of disinformation, Joseph Bernstein, Harpers, October 2021.
⚡️ Yep, it’s about fascism: Why is the idea of ‘gender’ provoking backlash the world over? Judith Butler, the Guardian, October 23, 2021.
⚡️ Stark but true: Why isn’t the covid pandemic over? White supremacy, John Stoehr, Editorial Board (blog), October 25, 2021.
💗 How Can You Help Build Our Democracy Back Better? 💗
Put your beautiful bleeding liberal heart into it! 🥰
Democratic litigation hero, Marc Elias was the legal eagle behind the 60 Big Lie losses after the election. Here’s his website, Democracy Docket. You can find information about current cases he is fighting to defend voting rights around the country, as well as actions you can take to help fight voter suppression at the link!
Write to voters around the country with Postcards to Voters. Progressive Muse usually posts an update on current campaigns in the comments and you can also check out the website. It’s easy, fun and it really works to GOTV!
🎩 Also, Goody posted a great list of links and I am going to borrow it because it’s great! 🎩
The only way they can win is by keeping people from voting. They are working like heck to make that happen and we need to do all we can to keep 2022 from being a year when they grab the Senate and House back from us.
How do we do that? Fight voter suppression!
What can you do?
HERE’S HOW TO CONTACT CONGRESS:
U.S. House of Representatives:* Telephone: 202-225-3121
* Website: http://www.house.gov/
U.S. Senate:* Telephone: 202-224-3121
* Website: http://www.senate.gov/
Find your member of Congress and contact him or her:
Contact your Representative
Contact your Senator
And remember, all politics is local and personal! Let’s work to flip state and local elected positions Democratic!
Sister District Project — organization that is working to help Dems win state legislature races.
Finally, whenever you feel your hope fading, read this again:
The 3.5% rule: How a small minority can change the world — and recall that we are a majority.
Also check this out:
The Albert Einstein Institution’s 198 Methods of Non-Violent Action
There’s a multitude of people all over this country — in both so-called “red” states and “blue” — who feel just as strongly as you do about this world and its future. We can do this!
👻🎶🎃 Grand Finale: The Best Hallowe’en Music EVER! 🎃🎶👻
🎃 Happy Wednesday, Everyone! 🎃