Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:

‘Public Health 101 failure’: CDC mask decision may knock out Biden’s workplace Covid crackdown

World’s worst pandemic leaders: 5 presidents and prime ministers who badly mishandled COVID-19

Macron hosts Africa summit on post-COVID-19 economic recovery

Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, and Debt:

UK risks Italy-style decline as economic challenges mount

Bitcoin’s drop from $64K comparable to Black Thursday, but Coinbase outflows hint at accumulation

MicroStrategy: Another Dip, Another $10M Bitcoin Purchase

Politics:

New York state probe of Trump Organization is now criminal

The New York state attorney general’s office said on Tuesday it has told the Trump Organization its investigation of the company run by former President Donald Trump is now a criminal probe, not purely civil.

Just a ‘Normal Tourist Visit’

A newly-discovered photo shows Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) — who recently likened the deadly January 6 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol to a “normal tourist visit” — screaming behind someone with gun drawn as rioters pounded at the barricaded door to the House floor.

Lawmakers frustrated over White House's ‘total lack’ of urgency in helping Afghan interpreters

Arizona ‘Audit’ Has Spun Out of Control

Democrats Trash Biden’s Handling of Violence In Israel

With bonus-points quote of the year from one of their lawyers: Capitol Rioters’ ‘Trump Defense’ Comes Up Again And Again. Will It Make A Difference?

Watkins, the “Q Shaman” Jacob Chansley’s attorney, said his client had Asperger’s syndrome and indicated that Chansley’s mental state — and the impact of Trump’s “propaganda” efforts — would play a role in his case.
“A lot of these defendants — and I’m going to use this colloquial term, perhaps disrespectfully — but they’re all fucking short-bus people,” Watkins told TPM. >“These are people with brain damage, they’re fucking retarded, they’re on the goddamn spectrum.”
“But they’re our brothers, our sisters, our neighbors, our coworkers — they’re part of our country. These aren’t bad people, they don’t have prior criminal history. Fuck, they were subjected to four-plus years of goddamn propaganda the likes of which the world has not seen since fucking Hitler.”

Sri Lankan's death in spotlight as Japan debates immigration bill

The Reason Some Republicans Mistrust Science: Their Leaders Tell Them To

Trump Justice Department Tried to Use Grand Jury to Identify Nunes Critic on Twitter

The Justice Department under President Donald Trump secretly obtained a grand-jury subpoena last year in an attempt to identify the person behind a Twitter account dedicated to mocking Rep. Devin Nunes of California, according to a newly unsealed court document.
But Twitter fought the subpoena, as well as an associated gag order barring the company from talking about it publicly. Twitter executives raised skepticism about whether the Justice Department might be abusing federal criminal law-enforcement power to retaliate against a critic of Nunes, a Republican who is a close ally of Trump, in violation of the First Amendment.

Serendipity:

Engineers and economists prize efficiency, but nature favors resilience – lessons from Texas, COVID-19 and the 737 Max

How AI Is Infiltrating Higher Education

^{Badge thanks to @arcange}

^{Meme credit: cheeseofdoom (source)}