I'm sure the economic models are just as accurate as the climate models.

It does.

If you go to your Google account settings, find the section on "Data & Privacy", you will see an option to "Delete Your Google Account". If you select that, you will see a message that says that continuing will delete all your Google data.

I got out of bed this morning. I'm one step closer to running a marathon.

1. Why was it revealed? The balloon was spotted by civilians who posted video and there was a temporary closure of an airport. It's existence became public knowledge (though not the country of origin). This is apparently not the first time this has happened, just the first time it came to public attention.
2+3+4. Why let it continue to fly and gather intelligence? My guess is that we lack the capability to reliably shoot down a balloon at 85,000 feet. There is probably not enough heat signature or radar return for an air-to-air missile and it is probably above the service ceiling for an interceptor to engage it with guns. Rather than try and fail, we say we could but we don't want to.
5. Why would China float such a conspicuous object over our nation? Because they can. We used (and probably continue to use) aerial reconnaissance over the Soviet Union, China, North Korea, Cuba, etc. because they could not easily shoot down those planes and drones. The aircraft were conspicuous and the targets of the reconnaissance knew we were overflying them. Why wouldn't China do the same?

What benefit does a balloon have for reconnaissance over a satellite? It's closer, so imagery and electronic surveillance can be better. It is loitering over the area at 25 km (much closer than the 35,000 km of a geosynchronous satellite).

In case you are wondering how a balloon can loiter over an area, take a look at the work Google did for Project Loon. They determined that winds at different altitudes had dramatically different directions and speeds, and by ascending and descending they could control the area the balloon stayed in.

North Korea has solved the skyglow problem. https://i.natgeofe.com/n/7e04f... I understand that Europe will be adopting a similar solution this winter.

Yes, this is open participation in the war.
Yes, it can be seen as a declaration of war, but probably won't be. Other examples from history:
- Russian fighter pilots manned "Chinese" fighter aircraft in the Korean War. The US did not expand the Korean War to Russia.
- Russian fighter pilots manned "Egyptian" fighter aircraft in the October 1973 War. Israel did not expand the war to Russia.
- Chinese and Russian advisors manned North Vietnamese SAM missile sites. The US did not expand the war to either nation.
- Iranian Quds force operations in Iraq against US and Iraqi forces. The US did not expand the war to Iran.

Russia's response will depend on whether they think expanding the war to include the US will increase their chances of success. I suspect that they will take additional defensive measures. Russia has been conducting offensive cyber operations in the US for years through state-supported hackers. They may expand those operations.

What is most surprising to me is that the NSA director has openly acknowledged these operations, not that the US is conducting them. I would have expected that the US would try to maintain plausible deniability by not discussing the US hacking.

The proper way to secure your systems is:

1. Put all your systems into a room.
2. Line the room with lead.
3. Unplug the systems.

If Putin does not agree, Biden will send a strongly worded letter!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

President Biden made sure that Chinese malware won't be controlling the US power grid. We'll just buy the control systems from China and they will control it directly.

https://www.instituteforenergy...

From the article: “We will not sell facial-recognition technology to police departments in the United States until we have a national law in place, grounded in human rights, that will govern this technology".

If any other police departments (for example, in Russia or China) want to buy it, that's OK with Microsoft, because police abuse only exists in America.

27 Democratic senators have co-sponsored the bill, along with 43 Republicans. (https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/1693/cosponsors?pageSort=alphaByParty) It passed the House by a vote of 388-25. (14 Republican no votes and 11 Democratic no votes). Even if President Trump vetoes the bill, the margins in the House and Senate are sufficient to override his veto and pass the bill into law.

This seems like a bipartisan effort to me. Isn't that what we always say we want from our politicians?

I think you have misinterpreted the Quarterly profit chart. I believe that it is quarterly profit, before tax, at an annualized rate, rather than profit for just that quarter.

The chart you provide at https://fred.stlouisfed.org/se... shows the after tax annual profit for US corporations ($1.7T), which is similar to the after tax annual profit shown by https://www.statista.com/stati... for 2000-2016 ($1.6T in 2016).

Unless you think the effective tax rate on US corporations is already over 75% of profits, the explanation is that the quarterly profit chart is annualized. That would imply an effective tax rate of 15%, which seems much more like the expected numbers.

In any event, the amount of additional profit that can be confiscated is less than $2T per year, which works out to less than $6000/yr for every resident of the United States.