New York’s Commercial Rents Are ‘Too Damn High’ NYT

How a suicide in Calcutta in 1800s sparked a debate on applying English laws in India Scroll

Apple’s T2 security chip has an unfixable flaw Ars Technica. Yet another reason to be wary of Apple devices.

When Black Lives Matter, Athletes Say “No More Games” Capital & Main

Shorebirds More Likely to Divorce After Successful Mating Treehugger

Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences Is Awarded to U.S. Academics WSJ

Philosophy in the Shadow of Nazism New Yorker

Peru opens Machu Picchu for single tourist stranded by Covid BBC

#COVID-19

What the Pandemic Has in Store for the World Der Spiegel

Post-COVID Capitalism Project Syndicate

Desperate Americans hit by pandemic beg Congress, Trump to pass economic relief bill Reuters

The dogs trained to sniff out Covid-19 BBC

Tempers flare over new Covid rules as PM warns: ‘We must act now’ Guardian

First confirmed US coronavirus reinfection worries health experts FT

Hospitalizations increase in New York amid second COVID-19 spike NYPost

We’ve been saying this since March. No one should be surprised by this https://t.co/TWodZrFURL

— david chang (@davidchang) October 10, 2020

Science/Medicine

Remdesivir study finally published – an expert in critical care medicine gives us his verdict Conversation

COVID-19 Crisis and WTO: Why India and South Africa’s Proposal on Intellectual Property is Important The Wire

Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine study paused due to unexplained illness in participant Stat

Grim new analyses spotlight just how hard US is failing in pandemic Ars Technica

COVID-19 and Excess All-Cause Mortality in the US and 18 Comparison Countries JAMA

Excess Deaths From COVID-19 and Other Causes, March-July 2020 JAMA

West Coast Wildfires

Is wildfire preparedness reporting a waste of time? Columbia Journalism Review

Police State Watch

The City Where Someone Was Bitten by a Police Dog Every 5 Days Marshall Project A childhood dog bite – thankfully, a minor  one – has left me still somewhat leery of strange dogs. This tendency has been exacerbated by spending lots of time in countries that have endemic rabies. If one gets bitten, it’s obvious one should do rabies shots. But what if one just gets licked? Rabies IIRC can enter broken skin, and once one starts displaying symptoms, there is no cure. Hence I get quite annoyed when clueless tourists feed or otherwise encourage the local Fidos to come close.

Big Brother IS Watching You Watch

COMSEC Lessons From The Underworld American Conservative

Five Eyes group demands ‘backdoor’ access to WhatsApp and other encrypted apps SCMP

Class Warfare

Everything I Know About Elite America I Learned From ‘Fresh Prince’ and ‘West Wing’ NYT

The Working-Class Cinematic Legacy of Film Noir  Jacobin

Regulators Reportedly Mull Forced Google Chrome Sale Adweek. Incredible if true.

2020

How Did Lindsey Graham End Up In Such A Close Race? FiveThirtyEight

Lindsey Graham’s Desperation Is Getting Deadly TheNation

Election result delays mean “the system is working,” says cybersecurity chief MIT Technology Review

Americans lose their appetite to travel during presidential elections. Here’s why The Print

Republicans have been accused of setting up fake ‘official’ ballot drop-off boxes in California which state officials say are illegal Daily Mail

More than 10 million early votes in U.S. presidential election: study Reuters

McConnell warns Democrats are ‘on fire’ as GOP falls behind on fundraising and polling CNN

Trump, Biden Campaign Travels Show Expanded Battleground Map WSJ

India

Kerala Covid surge not linked to ‘errors’, can’t stop spread — ‘rockstar’ minister Shailaja The Print

Mumbai Power Outage: CM Orders Probe as Train Services Start Resuming The Wire

Can sweeping changes in H-1B and green card programme guarantee a win for Trump? Economic Times

Will Durga Puja Send West Bengal To Overburdened Hospitals With COVID-19? The Wire. When travel begins again, you should visit Calcutta during Durga Puja. An extraordinary, unique, annual celebration. (Readers, please forgive my optimistic bias; the pandemic is otherwise soul-destroying.).

This year’s Nobel Prize in economics celebrates an idea that has failed India Economic Times

China?

Breaking | China’s imports post biggest surge since before coronavirus pandemic, as trade recovery gathers head of steam SCMP

Chinese shoppers spend big during the Golden Week holidays — a sign consumption is on the mend CNBC

China’s Version Of ‘Recession Fashion’ Could Change Global Styles Jing Daily

White House moving forward on arms sales to Taiwan: Report Al Jazeera

Nagorno-Karabakh

Russia seeks Nagorno-Karabakh truce return as deaths rise: Live Al Jazeera

Our Famously Free Press

Not News But A Juicy Collection Of Narratives – How The New York Times Failed Its Readers Moon of Alabama

LEE CAMP: Two Massive New Leaks Show Dirty Underbelly of Empire Consortim News

The Caliphate hoax only scratches the surface of a much wider scandal that will never be probed:

NY Times Syria coverage relied heavily on shady opposition sources and their US/UK/Turkish/Qatari sponsors, spinning out a pre-packaged regime change narrative full of deceptions. https://t.co/OQxJ2dy3Fq

— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) October 12, 2020

I think people would be surprised to know how many journalists come from rich families, went to private prep schools, etc., because for all the talk about the need for “diversity” in media, class background is rarely mentioned, for good reason: because there’s so little of it. https://t.co/EHnIAPjPn5

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 12, 2020

Julian Assange

Julian Assange faces the ‘trial of the century’: 10 reasons why it threatens freedom of speech Grayzone

Trump Transition

Amy Coney Barrett papers over rift between Trump and GOP Politico

Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett has seven kids. And don’t you dare forget it. WaPo. As the eldest of five, I’ve long resented the use of the size of one’s family as a messaging device. Or as an excuse for someone to act on pre-conceived, inaccurate assumptions. I can’t tell you how often we showed up to find our hotel reservations cancelled when it became clear we were a family of seven. Even though we were an extremely well-behaved brood. I think that was one reason my parents started camping.

Barrett vows fair approach as justice, Democrats skeptical AP

Two Parties Offer Dueling Views of Barrett as Confirmation Fight Begins NYT

We’ve been reporting on Amy Barrett’s rulings that have helped corporations crush workers: https://t.co/6bOx9VHTaW@DavidSirota was on @peacockTV tonight to discuss that reporting – and how dark money groups want another corporate crony on the Supreme Court. pic.twitter.com/HlBQdKVBt4

— The Daily Poster (@dailyposter) October 13, 2020

Millions of dollars are boosting Barrett’s nomination – that money is flooding in because she has consistently been a corporate rubber stamp. The GOP doesnt want anyone talking about this record, because it shows that Barrett’s nomination is a betrayal of America’s working class. https://t.co/jcOcDvqCwR

— David Sirota (@davidsirota) October 13, 2020

Lots of excitement by conservatives to own the liberals by confirming Barrett. You guys should recognize ACB will likely make it much harder for Trump to address big tech’s monopoly power. https://t.co/3lAuM7dtRJ

— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) October 12, 2020

Antidote du Jour (via). One of my favorites, which I wrote about recently in my post about the still-raging Pantanal wildfires:

See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here