Virtual Money

When talking to my financial advisor recently, I mentioned that my usual habit of holding some cash reserves as a ‘rainy day fund’ might be a bad idea this year given the current levels of inflation.

After all, cash will lose its value over time when prices are rising rapidly, as they are at present.

He agreed and so we reduced my cash reserves.

Then I brought up the opportunities presented by blockchains, NFTs, bitcoin, and web.3. (Definitions below). 

Should I be looking for investments in crypto currencies? I’d read that bitcoin might double in value over the coming year and there is plenty of chatter on various lists I follow.

“Direct investments in those are a bad idea,” he said. “Those stocks are going to be too volatile for a retiree like you. Leave them for younger people.”

He was right of course. Directly investing in bitcoin, which is a decentralized digital currency, and similar products might be a smart long-term investment for an adventurous 30-year-old, but not for me.

This conversation was a reminder how much one’s opportunity to improve one’s finances reflects not only current trends and your future expectations but your stage of life. I may well live long enough — say 25 more years — to make high-risk gambles on crypto sensible but very few actuaries would advise me to make them.

Actuaries, in case you don’t know one, specialize in analyzing statistics in order to calculate insurance risks and premiums. My parents wanted me to become an actuary when I went away to college, which is one of the reasons I initially majored in math.

But I soon discovered in Ann Arbor that I wasn’t suited to be a true math major, let alone an actuary. As for calculating risks, as a muckraker by trade I turned out to be a lot better at taking absurd risks than calculating or avoiding them.

I’m sure the actuary I could have become would have turned purple in the face by the risk/benefit equation that was my actual career. When it came to love, money and exposes, I didn’t exactly play any of it safe.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed enough success eventually (mainly by NOT spending money) that now I can have conversations about investment strategies that are not strictly theoretical. And while I should certainly not pour any money directly into crypto, there’s nothing wrong with indirect investments in, say, a company like Square.

Get it?

DEFINITIONS:

Web3 is an idea since 2014 for a new iteration of the Internet that implements decentralization, is currently celebrated by cryptocurrency enthusiasts, big tech companies, and venture capital firms.

A blockchain is a sequential list of records, called blocks, that are linked together using cryptography. Each block contains a record of the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data. The blocks form a chain, with each additional block reinforcing the ones before it. Therefore, blockchains cannot be altered retroactively.

An NFT, or non-fungible token, is a unique digital representation of a good like a work of art. It's basically a certificate of authenticity or a deed and it is probably recorded on a blockchain.

Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency, without a central bank or single administrator, that can be sent from user to user on the peer-to-peer bitcoin network without the need for intermediaries.

TODAY’s HEADLINES:

• How Crypto Became the New Subprime — Once again, risky financial products are being sold to the vulnerable. (Paul Krugman/NYT)

• Patriotism — We are a nation of storytellers, and right now we desperately need a good story. (Atlantic)

• Pentagon defends its preparation for possible Russian invasion of Ukraine

  The U.S. military is preparing to potentially send thousands of troops from the United States to Europe. (WP)

• Ukraine crisis: Don't create panic, Zelensky tells West (BBC)

• Russia sent its strongest signal so far that it is willing to engage with U.S. security proposals and reiterated that it does not want war over Ukraine. Meanwhile, Britain warned big business to bolster defenses against possible Russian cyber attacks. (Reuters)

• Putin faces plenty of obstacles as he tries to impose his will — (Fareed Zakaria/WP)

• China warns of risk of military conflict with US over Taiwan (Financial Times)

• Biden admin blocks military aid to Egypt over human rights concerns (Politico)

• VIDEO: Cardona Urges Schools to Invest in Extra Tutoring — Miguel Cardona, the education secretary, said reopening the nation’s schools without addressing the time lost from learning during the pandemic would be insufficient, and called on schools to use federal stimulus funds to invest in mental health counseling and tutoring. (NYT)

• India Schools Stay Closed, and Hopes Fade for a Lost Generation — A large proportion of working-age people, once seen as a demographic advantage, could turn into a burden if many of them are undereducated and underemployed. (NYT)

• School Board in Tennessee Bans Teaching of Holocaust Novel ‘Maus’ — The board voted unanimously to remove the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel from classrooms because it contained swear words, according to minutes from the meeting. (NYT)

• Republicans are hoping two wrest control of both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections this year, largely on dissatisfaction with President Joe Biden — and not much else. Asked what the GOP would do with the control, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said it was a “very good question.” Evidence points to the power of staying mum and saying no to Democrats' agenda, however, and the party’s policy avoidance could actually help them, explain HuffPost’s Kevin Robillard and Igor Bobic. [HuffPost]

• Republicans Are Trying to Suppress More Than Votes — The proliferation of restrictive laws—from school curriculum to the ballot box—continues. (Atlantic)

• Federal agents arrested a Nevada man for threatening a state election worker last year and telling her that she was “going to f------ die” for stealing the 2020 presidential election from Donald Trump, the Justice Department said, the second arrest in a week by its election threats task force. (Reuters)

• A second version of omicron is spreading. Here's why scientists are on alert (NPR)

• Biden is right to help the Afghan people — and not the Taliban (Edit Bd/WP)

• As Hunger Spreads in Afghanistan, Hospitals Fill With Premature, Dying Babies (WSJ)

• Western nations issue statement on Afghanistan (NHK)

• Winter's grip on Kabul (WP)

• Who has more influence on supreme court: Clarence Thomas or his activist wife? (Guardian)

• Chinese travel for Lunar New Year despite plea to stay put (AP)

• Suicide hotline shares data with for-profit spinoff, raising ethical questions (Politico)

• U.S. Labor Costs Grew at Fastest Pace in Two Decades (WSJ)

• Apple Takes Smartphone Lead in China, Helping Drive Record Profit (WSJ)

• Toyota is working with Japan's space agency on a vehicle to explore the lunar surface, with ambitions to help people live on the moon by 2040 and then go live on Mars, company officials said Friday. (AP)

• 6 Wordle-esque Games That Are Just As Good (or Better) Than the Original (Lifehacker)

• NASA Gently Lowers Hot Dog On Fishing Line Into Black Hole (The Onion)

What's That Story?

 First off, I was to recommend a piece by Tony Rettman called “The Warriors of a Failed Revolution.” And here is why.

Many people know that I co-authored three long articles on Patty Hearst and the SLA in Rolling Stone magazine in the mid 1970s.

One of the reasons those articles, which have been identified as the biggest scoop in the magazine’s history, succeeded is they were written in a narrative style, much like a mystery novel.

The pace was at times breathless and the revelations helped to resolve major questions people had at the time. Why did the group kidnap Hearst and how did they evade the national manhunt led by the FBI to catch them for so long?

Did Hearst voluntarily convert to the SLA’s revolutionary cause or was she a victim of Stockholm syndrome-type brainwashing?

Who were the people helping them avoid being caught and what motivated them to do so?

There are only so many answers to such questions that an article written in narrative style can supply — even three articles, which is how many Howard Kohn and I wrote. Of the three, the final one, which didn't appear until 1976, the year following the capture of Hearst and her colleagues, was by far the best — and in it we attempted to provide more of the context for the drama captured in the first two parts of our trilogy.

The reason I am recommending Rettman’s article is that he explores some of the additional people and groups swirling around in the Bay Area left of that era, especially those aroundStanford professor H. Bruce Franklin, the Revolutionary Union and Venceremos.

As Rettman notes in his well-written piece, there was a great deal of crossover between the SLA and these characters, including their shared commitment to fringe ideologies advanced by conmen, law-enforcement informants, and career criminals masquerading as revolutionaries.

The whole thing resonates today because we are living through a similar period but this time a mixture of misguided characters have emerged from the right-wing corners of our society to wage their “revolution” via acts like the January 6th riot at the U.S. Capitol.

It doesn’t matter from which end of the political spectrum these people originate, they have always been wrong and they always will be wrong.

Our society is deeply flawed and needs major reforms, but not the types envisioned by the SLA, the RU, the Proud Boys or the Oath Keepers. 

Rettman’s piece is a reminder of that just when we need it.

TODAY’s NEWS:

• Biden Expected to Nominate a Black Woman to the Supreme Court (NYT)

• Biden: 1st Black woman justice on high court ‘long overdue’ (AP)

• With Breyer’s retirement, the fight in a 50-50 deadlocked Senate begins (WP)

• With Breyer retiring, Biden has his first opportunity to appoint a Supreme Court justice and fulfill his campaign pledge to tap the first Black woman to serve on the nation’s highest bench. Among the names floated so far are Ketanji Brown Jackson, a U.S. appeals court judge in Washington; Leondra Kruger, a justice on California’s Supreme Court; Michelle Childs, a U.S. district judge in South Carolina; Leslie Abrams Gardner, a U.S. district judge in Georgia; civil rights attorney Sherrilyn Ifill; and even Vice President Kamala Harris. Jackson is considered the most likely choice. [HuffPost]

• U.S. and NATO Respond to Putin’s Demands as Ukraine Tensions Mount (NYT)

• China backs Russia’s ‘security concerns’ in crisis with west over Ukraine (Financial Times)

• Ukraine crisis: Nord Stream 2 pipeline could be axed, US warns (BBC)

• Russia said the United States had shown it was not willing to address Moscow's main security concerns, set out during their standoff over Ukraine, but that both sides had an interest in continuing dialogue. So what are NATO's next steps if Russia invades Ukraine? (Reuters)

• As it weighs action in Ukraine, Russia showcases its new military prowess (WP)

• Russia remains open but ‘not optimistic’ over Ukraine talks (Guardian)

• Yes, Omicron Is Loosening Its Hold. But the Pandemic Has Not Ended. — With spotty immunity in the population and a churn of new variants, the coronavirus is likely to become a persistent but hopefully manageable threat. (NYT)

• U.S. coronavirus hospitalizations slow, with the Northeast showing a steep decline (WP)

• Delta’s Not Dead Yet — Omicron may seem unstoppable, but its predecessor might still make a comeback. That could be bad news. (Atlantic)

• Virus-ravaged Iran finds brief respite with mass vaccination (AP)

• The BA.2 subvariant of the Omicron coronavirus variant, which is dominant in Denmark, appears more contagious than the more common BA.1 sub-lineage but there is no evidence that it causes more disease, Danish Health Minister Magnus Heunicke said in a national address. The BA.1 lineage currently accounts for 98% of all cases globally but in Denmark has been pushed aside by BA.2. (Reuters)

• Even as U.S. cases drop, global vaccine inequity could prolong pandemic, experts warn (WP)

• Study: Antivirals effective against Omicron (NHK)

• America Is Desperate for Substitute Teachers — Omicron is making a bad shortage even worse. (Atlantic)

• Senator Mitt Romney, a leading Republican critic of former President Donald Trump, will help raise money for Representative Liz Cheney, who is fighting for political survival after voting to impeach Trump and contesting his false stolen-election claims. (Reuters)

• Dozens of local and state Republican leaders who showed their loyalty to Trump by casting fake electoral votes for him a year ago may now face prison time in return for that devotion. As investigators probe origins of the scheme to send “alternate” ballots to Congress from states narrowly won by Biden, the 59 ersatz Trump electors who claimed to be “duly elected and qualified” could face federal and state charges. [HuffPost]

• Tesla's most important products this year and next will not be cars, CEO Elon Musk said, but software that drives them autonomously and a humanoid robot the company expects to help out in the factory. (Reuters)

• Fed Signals Rate Increase in March, Citing Inflation and Strong Job Market (NYT)

• Stocks swing to losses as markets react to the Fed’s interest rate plans. (NYT)

• Study: Gas stoves worse for climate than previously thought (AP)

• Afghanistan is "hanging by a thread," United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council, calling for countries to authorize all transactions needed to carry out humanitarian activities in the Taliban-ruled state. (Reuters)

• In freezing Afghanistan, aid workers rush to save millions (AP)

• Australia scientists find 'spooky' spinning object in Milky Way (BBC)

• California’s monarch butterfly population has made a significant rebound, The Associated Press reports. (AP)

• New focus in one of S.F.’s most notorious serial killer cold cases — Could San Francisco police be getting closer to the identity of the Doodler? (SFC)

• Sorry, Right-wing Pundits, ‘Wag the Dog’ Is Just Nonsense. (Politico)

• The road to Cooperstown is paved in nostalgia. Barry Bonds never stood a chance. (WP)

• Learned Coworker Always Has Heard Good Things About Whatever Piece Of Media Being Discussed (The Onion)

Virtual Reality?

From “Wag the Dog” to “Don’t Look Up,” Hollywood has long been exploring the potential for mass confusion between what is now called the Metaverse and what we have traditionally assumed to be our physical reality — especially when it comes to wars and other disasters.

In that context, what is war anyway? Is it bullets and bombs exploding somewhere out there or is that all just for show?

The dramatic conflict in Ukraine might be simply the latest offering on Channel 36 while “Emily in Paris” might qualify as a deduction on your tax return. It’s all a matter of how you frame things. There can be a seamless interface between the virtual and the physically palpable in our fragmented lives if that’s what we want — but then again, quantum physics suggests that it’s okay if those lines seem blurred.

It is fundamentally unknown (to us) what place Homo Sapiens occupies in the natural order; we may be cells in some much larger organism that we are only starting to be able to perceive. That would be an outer reality we don’t understand yet. We’re much better at looking inward and seeing how much is going on at the molecular level.

In fact, our technologies, those items we are so proud of, may be the mere beginnings of what we need to develop to become a truly “intelligent species. After all, how smart can we pretend to be when we still threaten to blow each other up over middling issues like the cost of fossil fuels?

There’s no future in that one, only the distant, decomposed past.

All of these thoughts come tumbling through my brain as I try to juggle the give-and-take between the various parties posturing for one another along the Ukraine border, real or imagined.

The whole thing just doesn’t make sense.

It makes me hope they all just back down soon so I can move on to another channel.

TODAY’s HEADLINES:

• Justice Breyer to retire; Biden to fill vacancy (AP)

• A shortlist of potential nominees to replace Breyer on the Supreme Court (CNN)

• Supreme Court confirmation fight to make history in 50-50 Senate (Politico)

• What would a 2024 Trump coup look like? A new paper offers a worrying answer. (WP)

• Record Levels of Gun Violence and the Democrats’ Dilemma — Amid continued calls for police reform and a surge in firearm deaths, the Biden Administration and Mayor Eric Adams are trying to balance public safety and politics. (New Yorker)

• With Some Voters ‘Ready to Move On,’ Democrats Search for New Message on Virus — Democrats were cheered for strict lockdowns and pandemic precautions. Now many weary voters want to hear the party’s plan for living with the coronavirus. (NYT)

• House moderates inch toward extinction (Politico)

• California appears to have passed the peak of the Omicron wave, The Associated Press reports. (AP)

• How to Make Sense of Our Covid Losses, Big and Small (NYT)

• The Omicron variant appears to result in less severe COVID-19 than seen during previous periods of high coronavirus transmission including the Delta wave, with shorter hospital stays, less need for intensive care and fewer deaths, according to a new U.S. study. However, the variant has led to record numbers of infections and hospitalizations, straining the U.S. healthcare system. (Reuters)

• The Case Against Masks at School — Districts should rethink imposing on millions of children an intervention that provides little discernible benefit. (Atlantic)

• Families have been ripped apart. Educational and employment opportunities have been denied, maybe forever. People have missed milestones like birthdays, funerals and weddings. Some gave up on coming to the U.S. and instead relocated to another country, while others have been trapped in war zones. Rowaida Abdelaziz's yearlong investigation found hundreds of examples of people whose lives have been inexorably altered by Donald Trump's 2017 ban on travel from Muslim-majority countries, and the stories will break your heart. [HuffPost]

• COVID-19 vaccine booster drive is faltering in the US (AP)

• I want to educate Afghan freedom fighters. Will the world support us? (WP)

• As Islamic State Resurges, U.S. Is Drawn Back Into the Fray — “ISIS is not over”: Attacks in Syria and Iraq make clear that the militants have lost neither their will to fight nor their ability to do so. (NYT)

• Talks in Paris aim to resolve the crisis over Ukraine, as U.S. steps up arms shipments to Kyiv (WP)

• Ukraine’s front line: Where lives turn on distant decisions (AP)

• Russia warned that imposing sanctions on President Vladimir Putin personally would not hurt him but would be "politically destructive", after U.S. President Joe Biden said he would consider such a move if Russia invaded Ukraine. Russia held military drills and deployed more forces and fighter jets to Belarus for exercises next month as officials prepared to sit down for four-way talks in Paris on the conflict in east Ukraine. (Reuters)

• U.S. to Bolster Europe’s Fuel Supply to Blunt Threat of Russian Cutoff — Many European officials suspect President Vladimir V. Putin instigated the crisis in the winter in part to leverage his threat to turn off Russian fuel sales to Europe. (NYT)

• LNG tanker near Russia’s Baltic territory draws scrutiny amid Ukraine crisis (Financial Times)

• President Joe Biden is trying to pull off the kind of alliance on the international front that has eluded him on his domestic agenda — only this one is more complicated and globally dangerous: keeping the West unified as it faces what White House officials say is an increasing likelihood that Vladimir Putin will order further invasion of Ukrainian territory. [AP]

• ‘She was Zoom’d out:’ Veep mulls escape from D.C. bubble — Kamala Harris never liked the insider game, or played it particularly well. Now, allies concede it's hurting her. (Politico)

• As Biden campaigned for president pushing gun control, the United States was passing a grim milestone: the most firearm deaths recorded in a single year since systematic tracking began. But gun deaths keep climbing and Biden’s reform efforts have sputtered, leaving some wondering whether he’ll miss the best window for significant changes. [HuffPost]

• San Jose approves 1st US insurance law for gun owners (AP)

• Crypto collapse forces reckoning for everyday investors — Cryptocurrencies have lost roughly half their total value in a matter of weeks, wiping out an astonishing $1.35 trillion in value globally and hiking pressure on regulators to develop a coordinated approach toward overseeing the industry. (WP)

• How to Survive When Stocks Behave Badly — The stock market’s swings have been startling. Unfortunately, it’s wise to prepare for much worse (NYT)

• Apple achieved its highest-ever market share in China in the fourth quarter, when it was the top-selling vendor there for the first time in six years, research firm Counterpoint Research reported. (Reuters)

• With 192 lasers and temperatures more than three times hotter than the center of the sun, scientists hit — at least for a fraction of a second — a key milestone on the long road toward nearly pollution-free fusion energy. (AP)

• Indonesia's capital is rapidly sinking into the sea — Now the government is leaving, and moving the country's capital to the island of Borneo. (NPR)

• More than 500 acres along California’s Lost Coast are being returned to Native American tribes that have inhabited the area for thousands of years, the nonprofit Save the Redwoods League announced on Tuesday. (Cal Today)

• Astronomers discover mysterious pulsing object that may be new class of star (Guardian)

• Ghostly monkey and crocodile newts among new Mekong area species (BBC)

• "Language is always in flux, always changing, morphing, moving. Words are added; words drop away. Words shift in meaning to mirror the world: digitize used to mean to manipulate with the fingers" (Hudson Review)

• ‘Don’t You Know Who I Am?’ Screams Protected Bird Species After Hunter Shoots At It (The Onion)

Friendship in the Plague

 Most of us have probably learned a hell of a lot more about how easily viral diseases spread over the past two years than we ever wanted to know. So choosing to lower your mask with somebody not in your immediate household requires new levels of trust when you realize that Covid-laced particles could be lurking to hitchhike on their words or even just on their breath.

Sharing the same airspace, therefore, isn’t merely a hazard for airplanes during a pandemic; it’s pretty crowded down here on the ground as well. You never know when you might collide with a random bits of SARS-CoV-2 that have just been “shedded” by another member of the human herd.

And when I think back about the people I’ve been privileged to hang out with during the pandemic it’s a testament to our collective willingness to assume that risk in order to enjoy the benefits of each other’s company.

Because the isolation imposed by the plague has truly been excruciating, at least for those of us who truly get tired of keeping our own company.

Indeed, friendship has never mattered more.

Relatively early on in this extended ordeal, it was remarkable how many old-time friends showed up courtesy of social media and reunion-style zoom calls. Some of that was due to my propensity to post daily musings on what was then known as Facebook. But as the coronavirus continued to evade the best tools our Big Pharma-led army can devise to corner it, our collective energy to connect seems to have started to wane.

The novelty of connection may simply be wearing off. Or maybe everyone is just as exhausted as I am. Or maybe isolation is becoming endemic — if so, Covid will truly have defeated us a a species.

But in fact for most of us, I suspect, having friends we can see in person matters as much if not more than it ever did in our careless past. Wordle, Scrabble, Netflix and YouTube TV can only take you so far into the day or night. Besides, I don’t know of any Netflix hits featuring one person finding love with that guy in the mirror, you know the one who just gets older and grayer every day.

Nope, people need people, as the old cliche goes and like many cliches this one is true. You can trust me on that. Journalists, as you know, specialize in truth.

TODAY’s HEADLINES:

• War May Loom, but Are There Offramps? — Fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine are growing, but diplomatic options remain. (NYT)

• U.S., NATO allies intensify diplomacy in bid to deter Russia (WP)

• Rising costs of Ukraine gamble could force Russia’s hand (Guardian)

• Russia says U.S. ‘escalating tensions’ by putting troops on alert (Politico)

• Ukrainian leaders: Stay calm, Russian invasion not imminent (AP)

• Ukraine: How will we know if war has started? (BBC)

• Pentagon Puts 8,500 Troops on ‘High Alert’ Amid Ukraine Tensions — The move signals a shift for the Biden administration as the United States and NATO allies brace for possible Russian military action. (NYT)

• Russia said it was watching with great concern after the United States put 8,500 troops on alert to be ready to deploy to Europe in case of an escalation in the Ukraine crisis. Here's where NATO forces are deployed. (Reuters)

• Russia conducts new military exercises as Biden, Europeans intensify diplomacy on Ukraine (WP)

• German caution on arms to Ukraine rooted in history, energy (AP)

• Ukraine crisis revives Nato debate in Finland and Sweden (Financial Times)

• UN data reveals ‘nearly insurmountable’ scale of lost schooling due to Covid (Guardian)

• Wild swings in stocks are testing the resolve of investors employing one of Wall Street’s most popular strategies: buying the dip. The S&P 500 reversed a deep selloff yesterday to finish up 0.3%, after the benchmark index crossed into correction territory, while the Nasdaq flirted with a bear market before also finishing higher, suggesting that dip buyers have not gone extinct despite big declines in stocks in the first weeks of 2022. (Reuters)

• Asian shares decline amid omicron, Fed, Ukraine jitters (AP)

• Everyone’s panicking about the stock market. Except the Fed. (Politico)

• Since the pandemic began, the number of blood donors nationwide has dropped 10 percent, according to the Red Cross. Blood transfusions are essential for operations as well as treatments for cancers, chronic illnesses and traumatic injuries. (Cal Today)

• A U.S. court rejected the Alabama legislature's redrawn congressional district map for November elections, saying it likely violated the Voting Rights Act and stood to deny Black voters an additional representative. (Reuters)

• Georgia prosecutor granted special grand jury in probe of Trump’s efforts to overturn state’s vote results (WP)

• A prosecutor in Atlanta investigating former President Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election result in Georgia will be allowed to convene a special grand jury, which can issue subpoenas and compel testimony. District Attorney Fani Willis said earlier this month she expects to decide if she’ll bring charges against the former president in the first half of this year. [HuffPost]

• Prosecutors in multiple states are investigating false Electoral College submissions (NPR)

• There’s a new version of omicron but so far it doesn’t appear to be more dangerous (WP)

• Eco-Leftists and the Far Right: Vaccine Mandate Forges Unlikely Coalition of Protesters in Germany — The prospect of a vaccine mandate has galvanized a nationwide protest movement attracting naturalists, neo-Nazis and ordinary citizens alike. (NYT)

• The unusual origins behind the splashiest, newest political news site — The website Grid has several ties to the United Arab Emirates. (Politico)

• Serial murders, beatings and beheadings: Violence against the homeless is increasing, advocates say (WP)

• Threatened and Beaten, Afghan Women Defy Taliban With Protests — The Taliban have begun cracking down harder as women insist on their rights and as Western governments call for reforms. (NYT)

• U.S. Troops Join Assault on Prison Where ISIS Holds Hostage Hundreds of Boys — The Islamic State seized a prison in Syria to try to free thousands of fellow jihadists and is using hundreds of imprisoned boys as human shields. (NYT)

• Mexican Journalist Who Told Country’s President She Feared for Her Life Is Killed (WSJ)

• Journalist murdered in Pakistan (NHK)

• The SAT is going digital and getting much shorter. Say goodbye to No. 2 pencils on testing day. (WP)

• Bob Dylan sells his entire catalog of recorded music to Sony Music (CNN)

• Archaeologists Find Rare 4,000-Year-Old Board Game (The Onion)

Do You Like War?

...or is that a curser in your pocket?

With the world now seemingly teetering on the edge of war in Ukraine, historians would no doubt recall the beginnings of World War I over a century ago. But one major difference between then and now is the speed at which information travels back and forth between the potential adversaries.

Biden and Putin, the major players, talk now and again by phone but punctuate their conversations with threats and clarifications, some more like de-escalation messages than furthering the odds of war.

The intelligence services in the U.S. and the U.K. keep leaking potential scenarios — Russia will launch an all-out invasion, Russia will undermine the Ukrainian government from within, Russia will conduct a lightning strike, Russia will install a puppet regime.

Russia denies them all.

Anyway, these have the feel of video game options, as opposed to the real-world variety, so maybe what both sides need to do is open Battlefield 2042 instead of fighting over contested ground, some of which is already off-limits since it is the fiendishly contaminated zone from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

Meanwhile, the casualties are already mounting in one realm and that is the stock markets. Shares have broadly gone into free fall, with massive losses normally reserved for major economic downturns.

Investors don’t like uncertainty, so this volatility will persist until the major actors get their story together, and the other great uncertainty of the moment — Covid — resolves itself as well.

Honestly, all this global posturing and geopolitical psychodrama is so Henry Kissinger-esque. The man himself is nearing 99, which means he arrived not long after the end of first world war and has lasted long enough to be around for a third, if that is what is to happen here.

Let’s hope not, of course. The last thing anyone needs is another war. I’d vastly prefer to invest in GameStop instead. BTW, they’re down another 10 percent or so as of this morning.

TODAY’s HEADLINES:

• NATO said it was putting forces on standby and reinforcing eastern Europe with more ships and fighter jets in response to Russia's military build-up at Ukraine's borders. Former Ukrainian lawmaker Yevhen Murayev derided British allegations that he could be installed as leader of a Kremlin puppet government in Kyiv, and told Reuters in an interview that he was considering legal action. (Reuters)

• Russia plans to target Ukrainian capital in ‘lightning war’, UK warns (Financial Times)

• On the Brink of War With Russia, Ukrainians Are Resigned and Prepared (WSJ)

• U.S. orders diplomats’ families to leave embassy in Ukraine amid ‘threat of Russian military action’ (WP)

• NATO outlines ‘deterrence’ plan as tensions with Russia soar (AP)

• Biden Weighs Deploying Thousands of Troops to Eastern Europe and Baltics

  — The president is also considering deploying warships and aircraft to NATO allies, in what would be a major shift from its restrained stance on Ukraine. (NYT)

• Nato reinforces eastern borders as Ukraine tensions mount (Guardian)

• U.S. threatens use of novel export control against Russia (WP)

• Is the Plunge in the Nasdaq and Bitcoin the End of a “Superbubble”? (New Yorker)

• Dow drops 1,000 points as markets extend slide in 2022 (AP)

• Crypto stocks sink as Bitcoin tumbles to new six-month low (Financial Times)

• S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory as Stocks Extend Slide (WSJ)

• Two U.S. aircraft carrier groups have entered the disputed South China Sea for training, the Department of Defense said as Taiwan reported a new Chinese air force incursion at the top of the waterway including a fearsome new electronic warfare jet. (Reuters)

• Seniors are at high risk of COVID, but Medicare doesn't pay for rapid tests (NPR)

• Lab study shows omicron-blocking antibodies persist four months after a Pfizer-BioNTech booster (WP)

• Omicron Slows the Global Economy, Hitting U.S. Hard (WSJ)

• It's getting uglier in stock markets as fears about inflation spark a brutal drop (NPR)

• France bars unvaccinated from restaurants, sports venues (AP)

• Rich Countries Lure Health Workers From Low-Income Nations to Fight Shortages — Huge pay incentives and immigration fast-tracks are leading many to leave countries whose health systems urgently need their expertise. (NYT)

• Google deceived consumers about how it profits from their location data, attorneys general allege in lawsuits (WP)

• Sarah Palin and the New York Times are set to face off in a New York courtroom at a trial in which the 2008 Republican U.S. vice presidential candidate and former Alaska governor seeks to hold the newspaper liable for defamation. (Reuters)

• Sarah Palin Case Against New York Times Delayed by Positive Her Positive Covid-19 Test (WSJ)

• Taliban hold first talks in Europe since Afghan takeover (AP)

• Afghanistan faces widespread hunger amid worsening humanitarian crisis (WP)

• Why effort to help Afghanistan is falling short (AP)

• Third Mexican journalist killed this year as press corps faces murder crisis (Guardian)

• Can Works Like ‘Don’t Look Up’ Get Us Out of Our Heads? (NYT)

• Webb telescope arrives at outpost 1 million miles from Earth to begin study of distant galaxies (WP)

• The Humane Society of the United States is petitioning to stop bear hunting as wildlife populations dwindle. (Sacramento Bee)

• The futuristic jetpack never quite took off — but one man did, over and over

  — Bill Suitor, an early guinea pig for the futuristic mode of transport, made more flights than any other human. By one count, he has logged 1,000 flights. (WP)

• Biden Vows That If Russia Invades Ukraine, U.S. Will Invade One Country Of Equivalent Value (The Onion)

 

Monday, Monday

 TODAY’s HEADLINES:

• NATO said it was putting forces on standby and reinforcing eastern Europe with more ships and fighter jets in response to Russia's military build-up at Ukraine's borders. Former Ukrainian lawmaker Yevhen Murayev derided British allegations that he could be installed as leader of a Kremlin puppet government in Kyiv, and told Reuters in an interview that he was considering legal action. (Reuters)

• State Department reduces staff at US embassy in Ukraine, orders some family members to leave (CNN)

• Russia-Ukraine crisis: Why Brussels fears Europe is 'closest to war' in decades (BBC)

• Stressed hospitals are increasingly asking staff with covid to work while potentially infectious (WP)

• Omicron Cases Appear to Peak in U.S., but Deaths Continue to Rise (NYT)

• Low-wage workers prop up the nursing home industry. They’re quitting in droves. (WP)

• For Small Towns With Small Work Forces, Omicron Means Small Margins for Error (NYT)

• Water cannon, tear gas at COVID-19 protests in Brussels (AP)

• For Many Who Marched, Jan. 6 Was Only the Beginning — To many of those who attended the Trump rally but who never breached the Capitol, that date wasn’t a dark day for the nation. It was a new start. (NYT)

• How Trump’s flirtation with an anti-insurrection law inspired Jan. 6 attack (WP)

• Christian nationalism is still thriving — and is a force for returning Trump to power (NPR)

• Rolls-Royce seeks bids for site to make small nuclear power plants (Financial Times)

• Bitcoin price falls sharply amid Wall Street sell-off, with value cut in half since November (WP)

• Prices are rising all over the world, and leaders see no quick fix (WP)

• Islamic State claims responsibility for attack in Herat, Afghanistan (Reuters)

• ‘I’ve already sold my daughters; now, my kidney’: winter in Afghanistan’s slums (Guardian)

• Taliban begin talks in Norway as hunger stalks Afghanistan (AP)

• ‘Why Was I Born a Girl?’ An Afghan Poem Inspires U.S. Students — A Zoom connection between high schoolers in Afghanistan and San Diego opens a window for mutual support. (NYT)

• World Bank under pressure to release Afghan funds (Financial Times)

• Change to aid rules needed to prevent famine in Afghanistan, say UK experts (Guardian)

• VIDEO: Wildfire Forces Hundreds to Evacuate in Big Sur (Storyful)

• If local journalism manages to survive, give Evan Smith some credit for it (WP)

• ‘It’s Just Not Fun’: How Political Journalism Changed in 15 Years (Politico)

• In Kashmir, India batters press freedom — and journalists (AP)

• Sedef Kabas: Turkish journalist jailed for reciting proverb (BBC)

• In a game from another century, 49ers delivered a lesson to the new NFL (WP)

• ‘Casablanca’ had a rocky start. Its stars never expected it to become a classic. (WP)

• How Can Something So Small Live So Long? — Ant queens break the rules of aging. (Atlantic)

• Saving the manatees — rescue by rescue, rehab by rehab — Florida is scrambling to prevent another horrific year of starvation deaths among the beloved mammals. (WP)

• Boss Encourages Employees To Take Short Mental Breakdowns For Every Hour Of Work (The Onion)

Self

 

Sunday's News

 

• As Omicron Crests, Booster Shots Are Keeping Americans Out of Hospitals (NYT)

• Anti-vaccine activists, basking in pandemic successes, set to rally in D.C. (WP)

• Two years since China placed lockdown on Wuhan (NHK)

• Stock market suffers its worst week since the pandemic started (WP)

• Big Tech Headlines Key Earnings Week Amid Nasdaq Slide (WSJ)

• Covid Hospitalizations Plateau in Some Parts of the U.S., While a Crisis Remains in Others (NYT)

• Blast hits western Afghan city of Herat, killing at least six (Reuters)

• Hillary Clinton speaks with Afghan girl hiding from Taliban (BBC)

• A Journey Along Afghanistan’s Main Highway Leads Through a Country in Transition — While the Taliban limit personal freedoms and persecute critics, the end of fighting has also brought relief to many Afghans. (WSJ)

• Afghan women taken from their homes after speaking out (BBC)

• The 'weakest link in the supply chain': Thieves looting LA trains like the wild west (USA Today)

• US, Russia to try more diplomacy amid tensions over Ukraine (AP)

• A single word sparks a crossfire between the Supreme Court, NPR and its star reporter Nina Totenberg (WP)

• Architect behind Googleplex now says it's 'dangerous' to work at such a posh office — Clive Wilkinson says it's really not a good thing for employees to work at a place that has catered meals, private parks, massage tables and a laundromat ... because why would you ever leave? (NPR)

• Jan. 6 Panel and State Officials Seek Answers on Fake Trump Electors (NYT)

• ‘That raise meant nothing’: Inflation is wiping out pay increases for most Americans (WP)

• Massive California wildfire triggers evacuations, closes highway at Big Sur (Reuters)

• FDA approves use of antiviral drug remdesivir as an outpatient therapy for people with covid-19 (WP)

• Drop in college enrollment threatens to cause long-term economic, social consequences (WP)

• San Francisco 49ers' divisional playoff win against Green Bay Packers causes social media eruption (ESPN)

• Recently Divorced Man Understands Working Through Emotions Might Take 2 To 3 Days (The Onion)