TODAY IS 24 OCTOBER 2021

Can't complain much about today.  Humanity and Planet Earth seem safe from any kind of world war or imminent disaster.  Only 68 days left in 2021.  Back in history, October 24 in 1929 was a Black Thursday, when the American stock market crashed.  By 1932 the market had dropped by 73%.  The equivalent would be the Dow Jones, currently at 35,677, falling to 9,833.

My fantasy baseball season is over, for I primarily had players from the Los Angeles Dodgers playing the Boston Red Sox in the World Series.  Instead, the Atlanta Braves will go to the Houston Astros for Game 1 on Tuesday.  My fantasy regular teams did okay in 8-team leagues:  first, two seconds and a third.  Fantasy NFL not doing well.  Not playing fantasy NBA.  NCAA basketball begins on November 9.  Remember, Saturday night of November 6 is when daylight savings time ends.

When I lived in DC, the Sunday Washington Post was an event.  Now and then, I added the Sunday New York Times.  Here is what the NYT said this morning:

• The U.S. has suffered through five coronavirus pandemic waves.  Experts are not predicting much of a next wave this winter.  Here is the article you can read.  Great graphics!
• President Joe Biden's $3.5 trillion 10-year spending bill with all the wishes of liberal Democrats for social welfare and the environment will be pared down to $1.9 trillion.  Forget about free community college, free dental, free vision/hearing coverage and high penalties for environmental polluters.  This is the one supposedly being snuck through using reconciliation, where only a Democratic majority is needed.  While Arizona Senator Krysten Sinema has been a hindrance, it is Senator Joe Manchin who has been effective in whittling down this package.

• 
  There is still that other $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework that has passed the Senate.  The House is holding back to insure that the larger wish list bill passes first.  Both will get through sometime this month or next, but not at the original $4.7 trillion total level.

• 
  Around 80,000 Afghan refugees were evacuated.  23,000 or so are being housed at seven military bases in the U.S.  The rest are being processed at 14 staging bases throughout the Middle East and Europe, with Kosovo handling the most.

Here are a few more items I can now delete from my desktop.  I'll start with why there is a bite on the Apple logo.  Has to do with byte and Adam&Eve.

Next, the future of Amazon.  You think, maybe, workers will be eliminated?  There are no unions in their U.S. facilities.

Did you know?

Some entertainment from Britain's Got Talent:

Click on this to learn who won the competition this year.  They apparently allow more cleavage in the UK.  Whoops, that was five years ago, for Simon looked a lot younger, and it was one hour and 42 minutes long.  The winner in 2020 was a comedic pianist, John Courtenay, and here is his journey.  Only 16 minutes.  The pandemic cancelled this series in 2021.  Will return next year.

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