Second quarter revised up
Second-quarter GDP was up a seasonally adjusted, annualized 2%, the Commerce Department said—a solid pace and on par from the previous second-quarter estimate of 2.1%. Weakness in inventory investment and trade were bigger drags than previously thought.
A broad measure of corporate earnings that had dropped for two consecutive quarters rebounded, rising 4.8% from the prior quarter and a more muted 1.7% from a year earlier.
Nation’s poorest only recently recovered from Obama recession
The decade long economic expansion that has showered the U.S. with wealth passed many by until recently. Households in the bottom half, as measured by wealth, have only recently regained what they lost in the Obama recession of 2008-2010. Compared to the Bush economy of 2003 they are down 32%, adjusted for inflation. The lower middle class and poor have only made up ground from the previous decade during the first three years of the Trump administration with rising incomes and an increase in take home pay under the most recent Republican-led tax cuts. The numbers may be one reason Trump’s popularity remains high in this income group, which makes up a majority of U.S. voters.
No “gay” gene found
An international team of researchers found five genetic markers linked to whether someone has ever had sex with a person of the same sex, but not markers that cause them to be ‘gay,” according to a paper in the journal Science on a broad study of more than 470,000 people. The primary startling discovery is that there is no “gay gene” as promoted by members of the LGBTQ community and the media for over two decades. The markers, found across a range of genes, can’t be used to predict sexual behavior or orientation, since like most human traits they are influenced by an array of environmental factors according to the study. The exhaustive research also found that only 1% of the public at large could be classified as “gay or lesbian”, contradicting decades of activism which insisted that 10% of the public was homosexual. The data could lead to a reassessment of LGBTQ “rights” and the controversy over gender dysphoria which activists had previously attempted to link to DNA as race is a genetic marker.
Comey leaked classified information
Contrary to his tweets of innocence, former FBI Director James Comey leaked classified information to his attorneys and violated Department of Justice policies guiding the retention, handling, and dissemination of government documents. That according to a report released on Aug. 29 by Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz.
At one point during the two-year investigation, Horowitz determined that Comey leaked classified information and referred the matter to the Department of Justice (DOJ), which declined prosecution. The DOJ declined to say when the decision was made.
Elon Musk warns of AI
Elon Musk said Thursday that artificial-intelligence will eventually create robots that aren’t merely as smart as humans, but much smarter.
At a Shanghai event with Alibaba’s billionaire founder Jack Ma, Tesla’s eccentric CEO compared the intelligence gap between humans and the AI-powered robots of the future to the gap between humans and chimpanzees.
“Can a chimpanzee really understand humans? Not really,” Musk said.
“We just seem like strange aliens. They mostly just care about other chimpanzees. And this will be how it is, more or less.”
Indeed, the South Africa-born Musk added that the intelligence gap will probably be “much, much greater,” and said it could easily get to the point where things get out of humans’ control.
–Metro Voice and wire services