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By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Chicken Track of the Day
In honor of the tool-using Cockatoo:
Gang-gang Cockatoo, Rail Path, Launching Place Swamp, Yarra Ranges, Victoria, Australia. The cockatoo is the one which appears like a creaking door.
Politics
“However what’s authorities itself, however the biggest of all reflections on human nature?” –James Madison, Federalist 51
“Right here’s meals for thought, had Ahab time to assume; however Ahab by no means thinks; he solely feels, feels, feels.” –Herman Melville, Moby Dick
“So most of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are the truth is a rational administration of symbolic capital.” –Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles
Biden Administration
“Biden faces a key financial resolution forward of reelection” [Politico]. “President Joe Biden’s choice of Lael Brainard as his high financial adviser fills one huge policymaking hole for the White Home — and creates one other opening for him on the Federal Reserve to form one in every of his largest threats: a risky financial system. Brainard, named by Biden as director of his Nationwide Financial Council, has been an influential drive on the central financial institution for the previous decade in setting rate of interest coverage, together with almost a yr as Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s No. 2. The president’s resolution on her successor affords him an opportunity to pick out somebody who could be gentler on the financial system — Brainard, like all of the Fed’s voting members, has backed Powell on price hikes — hoping to keep away from a recession earlier than the 2024 election. Gender and racial range are additionally elements, on condition that Powell and Michael Barr, vice chair overseeing regulatory coverage, are each white males.”
“President Biden Indicators Govt Order to Strengthen Racial Fairness and Help for Underserved Communities Throughout the Federal Authorities” [The White House]. “By way of the implementation of landmark laws and historic government motion, the Biden-Harris Administration is working to make actual the promise of America for everybody—together with rural communities, communities of shade, Tribal communities, LGBTQI+ people, folks with disabilities, ladies and women, and communities impacted by persistent poverty.” • @wsbgnl: “Please look away from the extraordinary avoidable covid-related lack of life and deepening public well being abandonment of rural communities, communities of shade, Tribal communities, folks with disabilities, and communities impacted by persistent poverty…”
2024
“Senior Democrats’ Personal Tackle Biden: He’s Too Outdated” [Politico]. “gh-level Democrats are rallying to President Biden’s reelection, not as a result of they assume it’s in the most effective curiosity of the nation to have an 82-year-old begin a second time period however as a result of they worry the potential different: the nomination of Kamala Harris and election of Donald Trump…. ‘No person needs to be the one to do one thing that will undermine the possibilities of a Democratic victory in 2024,’ Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) defined to me. ‘But in quiet rooms the dialog is simply the alternative — we could possibly be at a better danger if this path is cleared.’” • “Quiet rooms.” Love that.
“Trump assaults Haley on Medicare, Social Safety cuts” [The Hill]. “Former President Trump on Wednesday attacked new Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, his former United Nations ambassador, for her earlier assist of chopping Medicare and Social Safety. In an e-mail titled ‘The Actual Nikki Haley’ despatched minutes after her official marketing campaign launch occasion, the Trump marketing campaign famous Haley supported former Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) plan to eradicate Medicare and switch it right into a voucher system. He additionally highlighted a 2010 Fox Information interview the place Haley indicated Congress must be trying to minimize Medicare, Medicaid and Social Safety. Trump has leaned into attacking his present and potential 2024 rivals on entitlements, trying to exploit divisions within the Republican Occasion over the problem — simply as President Biden and the Democrats are doing. Biden used his State of the Union tackle final week to accuse Republicans of wanting to chop Social Safety and Medicare, baiting them into loudly booing his remarks. Trump is pushing an analogous assault on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has not formally declared his candidacy however is seen as Trump’s essential rival for the 2024 GOP nomination.” • So Trump is to the left [sic] of Obama in his “Grand Cut price” days….
“Jack Smith, Particular Counsel for Trump Inquiries, Steps Up the Tempo” [New York Times]. “Did former President Donald J. Trump eat detailed details about international international locations whereas in workplace? How extensively did he search details about whether or not voting machines had been tampered with? Did he point out he knew he was leaving when his time period ended? These are among the many questions that Justice Division investigators have been directing at witnesses because the particular counsel, Jack Smith, takes management of the federal investigations into Mr. Trump’s efforts to reverse his 2020 election loss and his dealing with of labeled paperwork present in his possession after he left workplace.” I don’t know why it is sensible to mix these two investigations underneath one hat. I suppose Whitewater units a precedent, although. Extra: “Present and former officers say Mr. Smith seems to see the assorted strands of his investigations as being of a single piece, with interconnected parts, gamers and themes — even when they produce divergent outcomes.” Which is okay, however the article doesn’t clarify why that’s. Extra: “The intensified tempo of exercise speaks to his objective of ending up earlier than the 2024 marketing campaign will get entering into earnest, in all probability by summer time.” Extra: “His group is sifting by mountains of testimony supplied by the Home Jan. 6 committee, together with specializing in the so-called pretend electors scheme by which a few of Mr. Trump’s advisers and a few marketing campaign officers assembled alternate slates of Trump electors from contested states that he had misplaced.” Concluding: “However many authorized observers see the present state of affairs — with two doubtless 2024 presidential rivals, Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden, dealing with separate particular counsel investigations — as proof that the particular counsel mechanism is getting used far past its supposed, restricted function.” • Wanting ahead to voting for Trump when he runs from a jail cell.
Republican Funhouse
IA: “GOP Structuring E book Hearings So Solely Dad and mom In Favor Of Bans Are Heard” [Iowa Starting Line]. “Home Republicans are designing their particular authorities oversight public hearings on college e book banning in order that they solely get enter from mother and father who agree with them. Final week, the Home Authorities Oversight Committee met to listen to from 5 ladies who need books eliminated or restricted from their college libraries and curricula. Legislative Republicans determined this yr to carry particular listening classes on the Statehouse to look into e book issues pushed by right-wing activists—these are separate from common committee hearings on proposed payments. Opponents to the book-ban push have been annoyed that just one facet obtained to talk on the subject, however Republicans famous they’d have a follow-up listening to. Nonetheless, State Rep. Brooke Boden (R-Indianola) advised a guardian group that the opposite listening to received’t enable enter from mother and father against the censorship push, however as a substitute concentrate on college directors.” • These are state-level hearings. I ponder if the Republican handbook for nationwide hearings across the nation recommends that they be embubbled, or not?
“Trump’s Supreme Courtroom Picks Are Not Fairly What You Assume” [New York Times]. “Opponents of abortion obtained what they wished when the Supreme Courtroom overturned Roe v. Wade, and the ramifications of that call can’t be overstated. However did Mr. Trump get the remainder of what he wished from the justices he appointed? Nearly six years after the primary appointment, we will start to kind a solution: not fully. Whereas conservative, none of his three appointments are almost as conservative — nor as persistently conservative — as Justices Thomas and Alito. The Trump appointees are additionally not as unified as they may initially seem…. [They] can’t be simply characterised as both hard-core originalists or blanket partisans…. The numerous ideological hole between Justices Thomas and Alito, on the one hand, and the Trump nominees, on the opposite, might be seen of their Martin-Quinn scores, a measure of judicial ideology developed by political scientists. Based mostly on their rulings in the course of the court docket’s final time period, Justices Thomas and Alito earn scores of two.949 and a couple of.458, the upper quantity signifying larger conservatism. Justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett earn scores of 1.019, 0.791 and 1.318, respectively — pretty shut to at least one one other, however markedly totally different from the 2 scores of the staunch conservatives anchoring the appropriate wing of the court docket.” • Attention-grabbing, and reveals the vacuity of the nomination fights.
Democrats en Déshabillé
Affected person readers, it appears that evidently persons are really studying the back-dated put up! However I’ve not up to date it, and there are numerous updates. So I must do this. –lambert
I’ve moved my standing remarks on the Democrat Occasion (“the Democrat Occasion is a rotting corpse that may’t bury itself”) to a separate, back-dated post, to which I’ll periodically add materials, summarizing the addition right here in a “reside” Water Cooler. (Hopefully, some Bourdieu.) It seems that defining the Democrat Occasion is, the truth is, a tough downside. I do assume the paragraph that follows is on level all the way in which again to 2016, if not earlier than:
The Democrat Occasion is the political expression of the category energy of PMC, their base (lucidly defined by Thomas Frank in Hear, Liberal!). ; if the Democrat Occasion didn’t exist, the PMC must invent it. . (“PMC” modulo “class expatriates,” after all.) Second, all of the working elements of the Occasion reinforce one another. Depart apart characterizing the relationships between parts of the Occasion (ka-ching, however not fully) these parts comprise a community — a Flex Internet? An iron octagon? — of funders, distributors, apparatchiks, electeds, NGOs, and miscellaneous mercenaries, with belongings within the press and the intelligence neighborhood.
Be aware, after all, that the category energy of the PMC each expresses and is proscribed by different courses; oligarchs and American gentry (see ‘industrial mannequin’ of Ferguson, Jorgensen, and Jie) and the working class spring to thoughts. Suck up, kick down.
* * * PA: “Sen. John Fetterman has checked into Walter Reed hospital for scientific melancholy” [The Inquirer]. “Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) checked himself into Walter Reed Nationwide Navy Medical Middle on Wednesday night time to obtain remedy for scientific melancholy, his workplace stated Thursday, including that his longtime wrestle with that situation grew to become ‘extreme’ in current weeks… ‘Whereas John has skilled melancholy on and off all through his life, it solely grew to become extreme in current weeks,” his chief of workers, Adam Jentleson, stated in an announcement Thursday…. U.S. Rep. Susan Wild, a Lehigh Valley Democrat whose accomplice died by suicide in 2019, issued an impassioned assertion hailing Fetterman’s public announcement. She pointed to the pressure he confronted this previous yr, together with the stroke, a fraught political marketing campaign with nationwide stakes, and adjusting to a demanding new job. ‘There are those that will say dwelling with melancholy is a barrier to serving your constituents, however they’re flawed,’ Wild wrote. ‘Relatively, the Pennsylvanians who additionally reside with melancholy see of their Senator somebody who understands their struggles, bravely sought assist, and can combat to make sure that they will obtain the identical high quality care he does.’” • “Residing with.” Now I do know the place that phrase got here from….
PA: “Fetterman attracts reward for getting assist for melancholy” [Associated Press]. And so he ought to. “Fetterman’s public wrestle is extraordinary in a constructing the place few speak about their very own psychological well being, even whereas members of each events have laws to increase assist for it. Kennedy and a handful of others who’ve been open about their very own issues, or these of their household, say they hope Fetterman’s honesty — and his decisive motion to get assist — will foster extra openness amongst lawmakers and their constituents within the wake of a world pandemic that has had far-reaching results.” • Perhaps. I don’t have quite a lot of sympathy for partisan sniping on Fetterman; in the identical method I didn’t have a variety of sympathy for partisan sniping on, say, Matt Gaetz. Warren? Oz? Dunk away, they earned it. However not everyone does.
PA: “Melancholy and Stroke” [American Stroke Association]. “Melancholy is a standard expertise for stroke survivors. It’s typically attributable to biochemical modifications within the mind. When the mind is injured, the survivor might not be capable to really feel optimistic feelings. Melancholy can be a traditional psychological response to the losses from stroke.” • It’s as much as Pennsylvania voters, in my thoughts.
PA: “Fetterman marketing campaign might have violated finance guidelines by promoting donor record” [New York Post]. “On Nov. 3, 2022, 5 days earlier than voters have been scheduled to go to the polls in the important thing senate race that pitted Pensylvania Democrat Fetterman towards Republican tv character Mehmet Oz, Fetterman for PA raked in $2.2 million from two progressive Washington strategists for the sale of the record. Center Seat Consulting, which labored on Fetterman’s marketing campaign, paid $1 million in a ‘record acquisition buy,’ in keeping with marketing campaign finance information. Aisle 518 Consulting LLC, which has labored on Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential bid, amongst different progressive campaigns, paid $1.2 million for Fetterman’s record, in keeping with public information. A day later, on Nov. 4, the Fetterman marketing campaign took in $250,000 from fellow Pennsylvania Democrat Bob Casey for Senate Inc, Federal Election Fee filings present. Whereas it’s neither unusual nor unlawful for political candidates to promote or lease out their donor lists, the Federal Election Fee requires that they be bought at comparable costs: ‘On the ‘regular and regular’ price with out the purchaser making a contribution,’ stated a spokesman for the FEC. In Fetterman’s case, his record commanded wildly divergent charges and was bought once more within the weeks after the midterm elections to one of many Washington-based strategists.” • Looks as if a venial sin, not a mortal one.
WI: “Democrats Meddle Once more in a G.O.P. Major, This Time Down-Poll” [New York Times]. “The Democrats are serving to a far-right election denier who has develop into a pariah inside her get together in her race towards a much less excessive, however nonetheless election-denying, conservative. They hope that with a extra weak opponent, Democrats can win a seat held for many years by Republicans and deny the G.O.P. a veto-proof majority within the gerrymandered chamber.” • You’d assume “Democrat-endorsed” could be the kiss of loss of life in a Republican main. Why don’t the Republicans ever push again on this?
Realignment and Legitimacy
Not flawed:
Trump satisfied his base, that it’s a hoax, Biden satisfied his base, that Covid is nothing to fret about anymore. Totally different methods, identical end result. It’s infuriating. We deserve higher than that.
— Tina (@Tina2Tired) February 12, 2023
Mind worms wherever you look. The horrible factor is that you just don’t know you’ve got them. No person does, together with me. I ponder what De Tocqueville would assume…
The identical phenomenon–
“The Closed Creativeness of the On-line Liberal” [Ross Barkan]. “In case you disagree with one tribe, you might be coded as belonging to the opposite, even when you declare no membership in it. Conservatives will forged out those that criticize Donald Trump or don’t imagine that essential race concept is the one biggest menace to American civilization. Liberals will censure anybody who affords sustained critiques of Democrats or the pathologies of the college-educated set…. that is the sort of sentiment I see on a regular basis, particularly in political circles. It’s, funnily sufficient, not so totally different than the slapdash evaluation employed by the folks Stancil despises—the right-wing, the fascist-friendly, the ardent Trump supporters. The evaluation takes a deeply complicated, multifarious world and furiously flattens it; it makes existence match for consumption. People are like comfortable drinks that have to be instantly sorted. Are you Coke or Pepsi? Mountain Dew or Fanta? Are you good or unhealthy? Please inform me, as a result of I need to know what to assume.” • Classification struggles…
“Being Radical is a Talent” [Joshua P. Hill, New Means]. “The necessity for a widespread understanding and adoption of true radicality, of reaching for and greedy issues on the root, is all over the place we glance. I can’t rely the instances I’ve encountered dialogue of the essential points we face and seen folks reply solely be participating with the data instantly offered, relatively than taking a look at what may need motivated the state of affairs, what dominoes might have lined up and toppled over within the buildup to the ultimate occasion that we’re discussing. The dialogue of crime, broadly, is perhaps the clearest instance. Individuals see somebody hopping a turnstile, for instance, to keep away from paying the subway fare, and some reactions sometimes comply with. The conservative response is to arrest them and tremendous them closely, accompanied by a name for extra police involvement in public transit. And that response seems to information coverage in most cities throughout the U.S. However, there are different methods to reply. A reasonable response could also be that they shouldn’t be arrested, however ought to face some form of tremendous, and most significantly they actually ought to pay for the subway subsequent time as a result of we’d like folks to pay for public transit to ensure that it to perform. Now what I’d ask of you, when you’re discussing a state of affairs like this, is to start out first by going to the foundation, greedy on the root causes and points earlier than passing judgment. First, that entails realizing that on this nation public transit is used way more by the working class than the ruling class. Second, it entails taking a look at why fare evasion is taken into account an issue. It’s thought-about an issue as a result of we fund public transit precariously, which means we underfund it and drive the system to depend on thousands and thousands of small purchases. But different very important public providers should not funded this identical method. We don’t drive of us to offer small or massive charges for police and fireplace and public schooling, regardless of some conservative efforts to alter that. So why ought to the trains or busses which are the first, typically solely, technique of transportation for thousands and thousands of working class folks be reliant upon countless small expenditures from those that usually have far much less to offer? They shouldn’t. On the root of this situation of fare evasion is the truth that there must be no fare to be evaded. That radical concept, the thought we arrive at once we go to the foundation of the issue, is what ought to information us.”
“How elite psychological biases can clarify a civilisation in free fall” [¡Do Not Panic!]. “To these of us with little company over the course of the system however with a eager curiosity in not going up in a ball of flames, the proof that we’d like large change is clear. However in case you are deeply invested within the system as it’s, when you helped develop and outline it, if its functioning continues to be advantageousness for you personally, the necessity for change received’t be apparent. A lot of our elites are many years into this factor, their fingerprints throughout how the system works and why it really works the way in which it does…. So with issues beginning to go very clearly flawed, relatively than look rationally on the proof and alter course, the elites are turning to unusual schemes and weird concepts, unable and unwilling to imagine that the entire edifice they helped construct and run is crumbling…. We can not hope to interrupt the cognitive biases of political and enterprise elites. They’re too deep in to business-as-usual and too well-rewarded by it. The elite have sunk the whole lot into this ideological undertaking for the final 40 years, and can proceed to escalate their dedication, in denial of their failings, till all of it falls aside. Any change must come from the skin. From folks and forward-thinking actions with no funding within the programs and establishments that govern us. From these with no pores and skin within the sport. With circumstances worsening, the subsequent pandemic inevitable and the planet getting much less liveable by the yr, this transformation wants to come back quickly.”
#COVID19
Seems to be like “leveling off to a excessive plateau” throughout the board. (I nonetheless assume “One thing Terrible” is coming, nonetheless. I imply, apart from what we already learn about.) Keep protected on the market!
• Readers, for the reason that nationwide information programs in the US are being vandalized, let’s begin accumulating hyperlinks to state information, too. If readers would ship me hyperlinks (see Plant beneath) to their favourite State and native dashboards/wastewater websites, that will be nice. Canadians, too! Or go away a hyperlink in Feedback.
Assets, United States (Nationwide): Transmission (CDC); Wastewater (CDC, Biobot); Variants (CDC; Walgreens).
Assets, United States (Native): CA (dashboard); ME (dashboard); IN (dashboard); NC (dashboard); NH (wastewater); NY (dashboard); IL (wastewater); SC (dashboard); TX (dashboard); VA (dashboard); WI (dashboard).
Assets, Canada (Provincial): ON (wastewater).
Hat tricks to useful readers: CanCyn, ChiGal, hop2it, JB, Joe, John, LaRuse, Petal (2), RL, Rod. (Readers, I’m not placing your deal with subsequent to your contribution as a result of I hope and anticipate the record will likely be lengthy, and I need it to be straightforward to scan. (In case you go away your hyperlink in feedback, I exploit your deal with. In case you ship it to me by way of e-mail, I exploit your initials (within the absence of a deal with.)
• Extra like this, please! Complete: 1 6 11/50 (22%).
Search for the Helpers
A hospital chaplain tells a narrative. Act 1:
I obtained up as near this affected person as attainable—now my affected person—an arm’s size. Simply out of hanging distance. I requested, “What do you want proper now?”
No kidding, his mouth hung open. He stared at my hair. Again to me.
“Hungry,” he stated. “I’m hungry. However I imply, I want actual meals.”
— J.S. Park 박준 (@jsparkblog) February 15, 2023
Act 2:
“Okay,” I stated. “Are you NPO? Sorry. I meant, do you’ve got any dietary restrictions?”
“No sir, I don’t,” he stated. “I’m the alternative of dietary restrictions. I’m dietarily open-minded.”
“How a few hamburger and fries?”
“For actual? You for actual? Can I get two of every?”
— J.S. Park 박준 (@jsparkblog) February 15, 2023
Act 3:
And he advised me between bites:
“Chaplain, imagine it or not, however I’ve stayed on the Ritz. And this proper right here is the most effective burger I’ve ever had in my life.”“I imagine you,” I advised him.
“Thanks, chap. That’s all I wished.”#hospital #chaplain [Some details altered for privacy.]
— J.S. Park 박준 (@jsparkblog) February 15, 2023
* * * “Covid Meetups” [COVID MEETUPS (JM)]. “A free service to seek out people, households and native companies/providers who take COVID precautions in your space.” • I performed round with it some. It appears to be Fb-driven, sadly, however you should use the Directory with out logging in. I get rational hits from the U.S., however not from London, UK, FWIW.
Maskstravaganza
Airplane journey returning to sanity?
My mother is at the moment on a airplane, and she or he experiences there are “a number of folks sporting heavy obligation respirators” on her flight. She additionally observed much more persons are masked on the airport, an apparent enhance over final month.
Is the tide quietly turning?
— Laura Miers (@LauraMiers) February 16, 2023
Readers, are you seeing something comparable?
Trend ahead:
@armbrust_usa
It is right here it is right here! My breathe99 elastomeric from armbrust!Beforehand I’ve tried @envomaskusa & @flo_mask and they’re each too massive for my petite face and tiny bose bridge.
Feeling hopeful about breathe99! pic.twitter.com/PLSu3TjwHc— @Dr.Bailey😷 (@BaileyDevine20) February 16, 2023
I just like the breathe99 masks. I don’t just like the enterprise mannequin of all the brand new wave maskers, where the replacement items are obviously the place the cash is made; the masks is the razor; the filters are the blades. I believe that’s a barrier to uptake, and admittedly, I’d relatively purchase N95s than filters at one buck a pop. I believe what the trade ought to do is undertake a regular measurement of filter that each one producers use. That may minimize prices. It must also be attainable to purchase, say, a field of N95s and allow customers to minimize their very own filters out of the material. What do readers assume?
Sequelae
“The haunting mind science of lengthy Covid” [STAT]. “There are not any accredited therapies for the bodily or cognitive disabilities that now plague 65 million folks all over the world, a conservative estimate given the diploma of undocumented circumstances. It’s now clear from U.S. and U.Ok. investigations of roughly 2,000 beforehand hospitalized Covid sufferers that six months later greater than half have issues managing funds and paying payments in addition to finishing on a regular basis actions like getting ready meals, bathing, getting dressed, or strolling throughout a room…. Post-mortem research present that the virus can persist in some folks for a lot of months despite the fact that they haven’t any signs and take a look at destructive for the virus. Brains donated by individuals who died of Covid-19 additionally present widespread issues within the cells lining the blood vessels and exaggerated clotting, supporting the thought of Covid-19 as a blood circulate dysfunction that brings on mind illness…. A research from the Nationwide Institutes of Well being of 44 full autopsies mapped and quantified the distribution of SARS-CoV-2 and confirmed it was extensively distributed all through the physique, together with within the hypothalamus and cerebellum within the mind and neurons within the spinal wire. Particularly related to lengthy Covid, viral fragments have been detected in among the brains of people that died many months after symptom onset.” • Value studying in full.
Elite Malfeasance
“New Scientist Group Calling For Pandemic Solutions Is Tied to Rightwing Darkish Cash” [OptOut]. “A brand new medical group behind an 80-page ‘blueprint’ for a possible congressional fee to analyze the harms of the U.S. authorities’s COVID-19 response has ties to the political proper and darkish cash. The Norfolk Group purports to be eight independent scientists [Bhattacharya; Hoeg; all smiling, so watch out!] from totally different political backgrounds who should not working ‘on behalf of any establishment, public or personal’ however are relatively in search of solutions to clarify how the U.S. has fared so poorly all through the pandemic…. On the third web page of the Norfolk Group white paper is an acknowledgment that the authors got here collectively by a gathering organized by the Brownstone Institute, a shadowy COVID misinformation nonprofit. Essential Context and the OptOut Media Basis previously reported that Brownstone obtained most of its funding from simply 9 nameless massive donations in 2021.” • Moar Flexians! All these funders — liberal and conservative — are nearly as good at inventing names for his or her entities as Enron was, again within the day. “Brown
nostrilstone, Norfolk: So strong and reliable-sounding!* * * Case Information
BioBot wastewater data from February 16:
For now, I’m going to make use of this nationwide wastewater information as the most effective proxy for case information (ignoring the scientific case information portion of this chart, which for my part “goes unhealthy” after March 2022, for causes as but unexplained). At the very least we will spot developments, and examine present ranges to equal previous ranges.
Positivity
From the Walgreen’s test positivity tracker, revealed February 17:
-0.8%. Nonetheless on the excessive plateau, equal to earlier peaks.
Deaths
Loss of life price (Our World in Data):
Total: 1,141,862 –
1,141,220= 642 (642 * 365 = 234,330 deaths per yr, at present’s YouGenicist™ quantity for “dwelling with” Covid (fairly a bit larger than the minimizers would love, although they will speak themselves into something. If the YouGenicist™ metric retains chugging alongside like this, I could must resolve that is what the powers-that-be contemplate “mission completed” for this explicit tranche of loss of life and illness). Nicely, the overall wasn’t 192 once more. Not that I really feel higher about it.It’s good that for deaths I’ve a easy, every day chart that simply retains chugging alongside, not like the whole lot else CDC and the White Home are screwing up or letting go darkish, good job. (Although CDC could also be jiggering the numbers quickly. Decrease, naturally.)
Lambert right here: Lowest stage in awhile. Though we’ve seen this earlier than.
Stats Watch
There are not any official statistics of curiosity at present.
* * * Delivery: “BIMCO: Chinese language Shipyards Obtain Market Share Report in 2022” [Maritime Executive]. “After many years after China started its concerted efforts to construct its competitiveness within the international transport trade, its shipyards hit a file 47 % market share in 2022 in keeping with a brand new evaluation from the transport commerce group BIMCO. In keeping with their report, final yr was the primary time that Chinese language shipbuilders exceeded the mixed market share of Japanese and South Korean shipyards. China initially attracted orders by providing decrease prices specializing in probably the most fundamental of ships similar to bulk carriers. They contributed to the shift away from Europe’s conventional shipbuilders to the decrease prices present in Japan, South Korea, and in the end China. Extra not too long ago they’ve invested in new programs and processes to reinforce productiveness and now are starting to make entries into the high-value, extra complicated segments together with their first substantive orders for LNG gasoline carriers and utilizing their first home cruise ship building to develop expertise within the section. China appears to leverage these competencies to compete in these segments nonetheless dominated by the South Koreans and European shipyards.”
The Bezzle:
The final decade was characterised by platforms enabling the environment friendly, laser-guided, unregulated distribution of (generally harmful) nonsense to people.
The subsequent decade could be characterised by unregulated AI programs turbo-charging the technology of that nonsense. https://t.co/pMFfrtVfOM
— Craig Hamilton (@craigfots) February 16, 2023
AI = BS. Or worse.
* * * At present’s Concern & Greed Index: 66 Greed (earlier shut: 69 Greed) [CNN]. One week in the past: 69 (Greed). (0 is Excessive Concern; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Feb 17 at 12:40 PM ET.
Groves of Academe
“The Good Marxist” [Year Zero]. I’m going to pick the brilliant spot from this horrid story of how academia works now; you need to learn it in full as a result of it’s excellent. So: “Rapidly I found simply how a lot Kathy dedicated to her instructing. The syllabus, lent to me on the primary day by one in every of her college students, was a half-inch thick, crammed with a rigorously tailor-made studying record of some hundred poems, e book excerpts, and essays. It included a 3,000 phrase assertion on her pedagogical philosophy, and detailed, to the hour, expectations for each class and task. This will likely appear a bit overbearing for an undergraduate inventive writing elective. . They’d all, to an individual, stayed updated on their work and studying. Kathy had written paragraphs of rigorous suggestions for each submitted task. ” • College students reply to good instructing. They actually, actually do. No surprise directors try to destroy it.
Our Famously Free Press
“The Sy Hersh impact: killing the messenger, ignoring the message” [Responsible Statecraft]. “Absolute crickets. That’s the sound within the main mainstream media — each international and home — following the fees by veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh that the US led a covert operation to explode the Nord Stream pipelines in September 2022…. Second, they level to what seems to be “single sourcing” in Hersh’s Substack report (although he’s way more ambiguous about this in his interview with Radio Struggle Nerd this week). Moreover, Twitter and Substack sleuths, utilizing OSINT (open supply intelligence,) say they’ve discovered holes within the particulars (like the category of minesweeper ship concerned and the place it was positioned the day Hersh claims the explosives have been planted) that forged doubt on his whole story. However the questions raised about Hersh and his reporting (acceptable or not) don’t clarify the shortage of mainstream protection of his extraordinarily detailed, 5300-word article, which underneath another circumstances ought to have opened the floodgates of journalistic inquiry. … Media critic, writer, and podcaster Robert Wright suggests the media blackout is a part of an ongoing development of one-sided and incurious Ukraine Struggle protection. He pointed to explosive, yet little-reported claims by former Israeli prime minister Neftali Bennett earlier this month that the West had killed a tentative peace deal between Russia and Ukraine final March. ‘In some methods I believe MSM’s roughly ignoring Naftali Bennett’s feedback on aborted early-March Ukraine negotiations is even much less excusable than ignoring the Hersh story,’ Wright stated in an e-mail alternate with RS. ‘MSM can all the time say Hersh is now only a freelancer and was relying principally on a single nameless supply, and many others — however Bennett is an eyewitness to what he’s describing, and he’s the previous prime minister of Israel!’” • NC readers learn about each, after all. As for “ongoing development,” that’s simply one other instance of the State of Exception that the PMC declared after coming to class consciousness as their response to Trump’s 2016 victory. Seems liberals aren’t so liberal in spite of everything (and it’s figuring out very properly for them).
Zeitgeist Watch
“Rising penis sizes are worrying medical doctors. Right here’s why greater may not be higher” [Miami Herald]. “The research, revealed Feb. 15 in The World Journal of Males’s Well being, examined information from 75 totally different research between 1942 and 2021 that recorded the penis measurement of their research contributors. They discovered slight variations amongst geographic area, age and different inhabitants indicators, however general the common erect penis size has elevated .” That’s lots!Extra: “‘The rise occurred over a comparatively quick time period,’ [Michael Eisenberg, a urology professor at Stanford Medicine] stated within the launch. ‘If we’re seeing this quick of a change, it signifies that one thing highly effective is occurring to our our bodies.’ … Eisenberg thinks environmental elements could also be altering when puberty begins, and it could possibly be chemical compounds and even simply a rise in sedentary way of life selections. ‘There could possibly be a lot of elements at play, similar to chemical publicity, like pesticides or hygiene merchandise, interacting with our hormonal programs,’ Eisenberg stated.” • So am I proper that the “soy boys” are the beneficiaries right here, if that’s the phrase I need? Hilarious, if true.
Class Warfare
I’m submitting some East Palestine practice bomb materials right here, as a result of class warefare is what Precision Scheduled Railroading is.
“East Palestine resident refuses to signal ‘maintain innocent’ kind” [NewsNation]. “Simply weeks after a practice carrying poisonous chemical compounds derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, some residents say they’re being requested to signal contracts they worry may forestall them from suing in a while. Katlyn Schwarzwaelder and her boyfriend Chris Wells reside simply down the tracks from the place the Norfolk Southern practice derailed and launched hazardous materials. Final week, Schwarzwaelder says, Norfolk Southern got here by to check for toxins in her dwelling. However earlier than doing so, she was requested to signal a doc. ‘We have been advised they have been an impartial testing company, they have been escorted by the EPA,’ Schwarzwaelder defined. ‘Earlier than they might enter the premises, they handed us a contract. The contract was basically to have the ability to get onto the property, but in addition on the backside was a maintain innocent settlement.’ The doc states that the landowner agrees to ‘maintain innocent Unified Command’ from ‘any and all authorized claims, private harm or property injury.’ Schwarzwaelder says she refused to signal it.” And: “In an announcement to NewsNation, Norfolk Southern stated the kinds have been ‘entry agreements’ so air high quality testing groups could possibly be allowed on the property. The corporate acknowledged {that a} batch of agreements contained improper language referencing indemnification. ‘These incorrect kinds have been instantly pulled when the issue was found,’ Norfolk Southern stated. ‘Nobody locally has waived their authorized rights towards Norfolk Southern by this program or any interplay with us so far.’” • Lol. Positive. For realz. Presumably they’re going to be doublechecking that no person really signed them? And giving them the right kinds in the event that they did? As a result of all of the errors solely go a technique. And: WTF is “Unified Command”?
Water (1):
I used to be going to ask Norfolk Southern executives to drink the water in East Palestine highschool, however the executives didn’t present up (as a result of they didn’t really feel protected) and the water fountains in #EastPalestine highschool appear like this. pic.twitter.com/nUwdto0mi8
— The Holler Ohio Valley (@heyjohnrussell) February 16, 2023
Water (2):
Visited a neighborhood creek in East Palestine at present. These waterways are nonetheless very polluted. It’s time for Norfolk Southern to complete the cleanup. Test this video out: pic.twitter.com/4lsHBmrMJj
— J.D. Vance (@JDVance1) February 16, 2023
That J.D. Vance will get to play populist and leverage this makes me wanna hurl. The place the [family blog] is Sherrod Brown, as soon as spoken of as Presidential timber?
“Progressive group calls on Buttigieg so as to add laws after East Palestine practice derailment” [The Hill]. “A petition that the PCCC launched calls on Buttigieg to right away use his current energy to ‘make security guidelines a lot stronger, in order that rail staff and communities throughout America are protected.’ Rouda stated the Obama administration had guidelines in place to stop such a state of affairs, however the Trump administration eliminated them following ‘corrupt company lobbying’ and Buttigieg has not restored them. The discharge cites an article from The Lever that states that Buttigieg particularly has not introduced again a rule that was designed to increase using superior brake know-how.” • Unsurprising that Precision Scheduled Railroading (and the recent field it induced) isn’t talked about; liberals hate unions and dealing folks. What I’m having a tough time with is that Lever Information was main the way in which on this. In a method, the conservative critique of the liberal tendency to control has some benefit: Since regulation invariably entails credentialed gatekeepers, it reinforce PMC class energy. The place conservatives go flawed is trying to the pursuits of householders, not staff, by in search of to dismantle regulation the place discovered.
Assembly (1): Raucous:
“Why are folks getting sick? There is not any reply! For this reason we’re getting annoyed. We maintain getting blown smoke, and advised to name one other quantity, and it circles again.”
“We’re advised there’s nothing within the water and the air is okay. Why are folks getting sick?”#EastPalestine pic.twitter.com/jxP8BF9pUS
— World Socialist Internet Web site (@WSWS_Updates) February 17, 2023
“We’ll elevate that situation for you.”
I’m unsure that this meetingis the identical as the subsequent one–
Assembly (2): The EPA:
⚠️ONE TIME WATER💦 TESTING NOT ENOUGH—@EPAMichaelRegan says he’d enable his youngsters to drink or bathe within the water in #EastPalestine OH if dwelling examined. ➡️Nonetheless, soil contamination means EVERY TIME IN RAINS—new/extra chemical compounds might be flushed into the water!pic.twitter.com/buXIcdoV90
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) February 17, 2023
Nearly a parody of DEI: Left to proper: The college professor, the Black Man, the lady within the rainbow vest. Doesn’t imply they’re malevolent, and even incompetent, however the distinction between them and the viewers above, if the assembly is certainly the identical, is fairly nice.
* * * “Union tells hanging Warrior Met Coal miners to return to work” [AL.com]. “The United Mine Staff of America is telling its members that they might return to work at Warrior Met Coal subsequent month, 23 months and someday after the union’s strike started. UMWA Worldwide President Cecil Roberts despatched a letter at present to Warrior Met Coal CEO Walt Scheller saying that union members would return to work on the firm’s 4 areas on March 2. The letter, often called an ‘unconditional provide to return to work,’ follows federal labor regulation, in keeping with the union. It might enable union members to return to work, whereas giving the union and Warrior Met time to work out a brand new settlement. A Warrior Met Coal consultant stated the corporate has obtained the letter and has no remark.” • Commentary:
Now, the corporate has been requested to permit the UMWA members to return to work. As we now have been on an unfair labor practices strike, in the event that they agree, the scabs will likely be terminated. If the corporate doesn’t agree, the strike turns into a lockout. Which then begins the clock for backpay. 5/7
— Haeden Wright (@HaedenWright) February 17, 2023
“Put up-Gazette asks court docket’s assist in enforcement of trespassing regulation” [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (!)]. “The Pittsburgh Put up-Gazette is suing Mayor Ed Gainey and two public security officers for failing to maintain union supporters out of the corporate’s distribution heart on the South Aspect. Mr. Gainey, performing police Chief Thomas Stangrecki and Lee Schmidt, director of public security, have been sued within the Courtroom of Frequent Pleas of Allegheny County after police did not maintain mass pickets from damaging property, blocking entry and threatening impartial drivers on personal property at Gateway View Plaza after a strike started in October, in keeping with the lawsuit.”
Information of the Wired
“Wooden range – Memorable and primitive magnificence” [Peakd]. “The wood range is my memorable childhood. I used to be born and grew up in Dak Lak, a mountainous province on highlands of Vietnam. At the moment, the climate is de facto chilly at night time in my place. I nonetheless keep in mind all members in my household gathered across the fireplace and had some sizzling candy potato earlier than going to mattress. The life at the moment was tough however a lot comfortable. We didn’t have electrical mild. Within the night, youngsters like me used to make use of burning charcoal to attract on the darkish air.” • Like this:
* * * Contact data for crops: Readers, be happy to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) learn how to ship me a examine in case you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to learn how to ship me photographs of crops. Greens are tremendous! Fungi and coral are deemed to be honorary crops! In order for you your deal with to look as a credit score, please place it at the beginning of your mail in parentheses: (thus). In any other case, I’ll anonymize through the use of your initials. See the earlier Water Cooler (with plant) here. From CC:
CC writes: “It’s not likely a plant picture however I discovered it attention-grabbing to see once I got here into work that morning after the storm. Positioned in New Hampshire close to the Connectictu River.” I believe it’s completely a plant picture!
* * * Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not coated by the annual NC fundraiser. So when you see a hyperlink you particularly like, or an merchandise you wouldn’t see wherever else, please don’t hesitate to specific your appreciation in tangible kind. Bear in mind, a tip jar is for tipping! Common optimistic suggestions each makes me really feel good and lets me know I’m heading in the right direction with protection. Once I get no donations for 5 or ten days I get anxious. Extra tangibly, a relentless trickle of donations helps me with bills, and I think about that trickle when setting fundraising objectives:
Right here is the display screen that may seem, which I’ve helpfully annotated:
In case you hate PayPal, you possibly can e-mail me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, and I offers you instructions on how you can ship a examine. Thanks!
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