2:00PM Water Cooler 2/20/2023 | bare capitalism

By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Fowl Track of the Day

Eurasian Jackdaw, Heidebos, Moerbeke, Oost-Vlaanderen Vlaamse Gewest, Belgium.

Politics

“However what’s authorities itself, however the best 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

Theatre, and dangerous theatre at that:

Air Raid Sirens 🚨 being to sound whereas Biden and Zelensky are strolling outdoors in Kyiv 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/eDybNqeKfG

— Ukraine Battle Map (@ukraine_map) February 20, 2023

Does anyone assume that the Russian’s couldn’t have rained actual missiles on Kiev in the event that they wished to?

Squeeeeeeee!

Kyiv has captured part of my coronary heart.

I knew I’d be again. pic.twitter.com/5HYcoEL47Y

— President Biden (@POTUS) February 20, 2023

Most likely the a part of Scranton Joe’s coronary heart that’s questioning what Large Z has on Hunter.

* * *

“Preliminary Proposals for Revising the Federal Race and Ethnicity Requirements” [The White House]:

As we think about these suggestions, we need to hear straight from the American individuals. Enter from non-governmental stakeholders and the general public will assist information the Working Group because it continues to refine and finalize its suggestions. We encourage everybody to supply your private ideas and reactions on these proposals, together with the way you imagine they might have an effect on totally different communities, by April 12, 2023.

You’ll be able to go to the Working Group’s new website, learn the total Federal Register Notice, present suggestions on the Working Group’s preliminary proposals, and take part in one of many Working Group’s digital, bi-monthly listening periods or upcoming public digital city halls to share your particular person views straight. You’ll be able to present as little or as a lot suggestions as you’d like for the Federal Register Discover (e.g., simply addressing one query posed or responding to all features). To schedule a listening session to supply your perspective, please ship a quick e-mail expressing curiosity to [email protected]. Further particulars on the digital city halls might be shared on the Working Group’s web site. In all of our efforts to assemble your invaluable suggestions, we won’t be in search of consensus suggestions.

We’re dedicated to a full, clear revision course of, guided by enter from the American individuals. Your participation on this course of will play a important function in serving to us enhance the best way Federal businesses safely and precisely acquire and use data on the race and ethnicity of our numerous America. That is very important to make sure our applications and insurance policies are efficient throughout the Federal authorities—and we stay up for sharing further updates within the months forward. We’re on monitor to succeed in the purpose of finishing these necessary revisions by the Summer season of 2024.

Sounds nice, however all vitiated by the absurdly brief deadline. April 23? That’s solely 62 days! Has anybody seen protection of this? The very few links I can find over the last month are institutional, with one WaPo story, one Heritage Foundation screed, and something from the New Arab. Plus this Times mailer appears to be like like the beginning of a propaganda marketing campaign.

2024

Apophasis!

Good of him to make it clear he doesn’t name Desantis ‘Meatball Ron.’ pic.twitter.com/tgILtTth0m

— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) February 18, 2023

“Trump to go to East Palestine in wake of practice derailment” [The Hill]. “Former President Trump plans to go to the city of East Palestine, Ohio, the place a practice derailment led to the discharge of poisonous chemical substances, subsequent week. Trump posted on Reality Social in response to a report that he was planning to make the journey that the residents of East Palestine are “Nice individuals who need assistance, NOW!” He later posted that he’ll go to on Wednesday.” • C’mon, let’s be cheap. How may Biden probably go to East Palestine? He’s in Kiev!

“The DeSantis they know” [Washington Examiner]. Picture: DeSantis hugging a supporter. “DeSantis is chatting along with his constituents alongside a strolling path in his hometown when Kimberly Baldwin catches sight of him standing on a pathway in a neighborhood park and is moved to tears when DeSantis stops speaking midsentence to talk along with her. ‘Hello, Kimberly. How are you doing?’ ‘Wonderful, now that I’ve met you,’ Baldwin says. The 2 speak about her return to their mutual hometown of Dunedin after dwelling in Miami. Her father, she says, is the deputy sheriff in close by Land O’ Lakes, and she or he just lately determined to return to varsity. Then she timidly asks for a hug. DeSantis doesn’t hesitate, and Baldwin lists the 2 issues she admires most about his governing: his choice to ‘act with conviction’ when reopening the state throughout the pandemic and his decisiveness in response final September to Hurricane Ian, one of many deadliest and most harmful storms to hit Florida in almost 100 years. The encounter was one of many dozens with constituents and vacationers amused to start their Thursday morning randomly operating into the governor.” • Hmm.

Republican Funhouse

“Michigan G.O.P. Installs Kristina Karamo, an Election Denier, as Chief” [New York Times]. “Michigan Republicans on Saturday picked Kristina Karamo to steer the social gathering within the battleground state, totally embracing an election-denying Trump acolyte after her failed bid for statewide workplace, one wherein she unsuccessfully sued to throw out mail-in votes in Detroit and refused to concede. Ms. Karamo gained a majority of delegate votes on the state social gathering’s conference in Lansing, the state capital, after three rounds of voting that — — went on hours longer than the interval for which the social gathering had initially rented the conference area.” • Undecided why an unhackable balloting course of is an issue for the Occasions, however no matter.

Democrats en Déshabillé

Affected person readers, plainly individuals are truly studying the back-dated submit! However I’ve not up to date it, and there are various updates. So I must try this. –lambert

I’ve moved my standing remarks on the Democrat Get together (“the Democrat Get together 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 “stay” Water Cooler. (Hopefully, some Bourdieu.) It seems that defining the Democrat Get together is, the truth is, a tough downside. I do assume the paragraph that follows is on level all the best way again to 2016, if not earlier than:

The Democrat Get together is the political expression of the category energy of PMC, their base (lucidly defined by Thomas Frank in Hear, Liberal!). ; if the Democrat Get together didn’t exist, the PMC must invent it. . (“PMC” modulo “class expatriates,” in fact.) Second, all of the working elements of the Get together reinforce one another. Depart apart characterizing the relationships between components of the Get together (ka-ching, however not completely) these components 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 group.

Be aware, in fact, that the category energy of the PMC each expresses and is restricted by different lessons; oligarchs and American gentry (see ‘industrial mannequin’ of Ferguson, Jorgensen, and Jie) and the working class spring to thoughts. Suck up, kick down.

* * *

I dunno. What’s in it for me?

Possibly we have now some unsolicited mail professionals within the readership who can touch upon this. Presumably Mothership Methods retains pumping out this bilge as a result of it will get the outcomes they need; however why on earth does it work?

Fairly proper:

Think about if John Fetterman or another Democrat confirmed management by ever as soon as sporting a masks. Getting credit score for acknowledging psychological well being whereas ignoring COVID is kind of the swindle https://t.co/eWLFJXb3hH

— thomas 🛠 IATSE STRIKE! (@t_NYC) February 17, 2023

Our Famously Free Press

“The Nation Names New Columnists Spencer Ackerman, Adolph Reed Jr., and Jane McAlevey” [The Nation]. • Reed, wonderful.

Realignment and Legitimacy

No, it’s not age:

If she had solely retired 4 years in the past, although, moments like this might have been prevented 👀pic.twitter.com/1Q8FhmSD9P

— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) February 14, 2023

They’re all like this, in each events.

“Organizing and Covid-19 (Half 1) (02/16/23)” (podcast) [Death Panel]. “On this two-part sequence, we converse to some individuals engaged in organizing and political schooling initiatives about their experiences attempting to include covid protections into their current organizing work, wins and losses they’ve encountered, and why it’s so necessary for the left to take covid significantly, at the same time as the general public well being emergency involves an in depth.” • The general public well being emergency coming to an in depth is just not, in fact, the identical because the pandemic coming to an in depth. Completely beautiful that we have now a deadly airborne pathogen that disproportionately impacts these non-labor aristocrats who can not earn a living from home — particularly in service industries — and “the left” does nothing about it. It’s not even a problem. That goes for nationwide union management in addition to electeds, NGOs, and many others.

Alert reader Michael.j makes this attention-grabbing remark:

IMHO the corruption on the nationwide stage is so endemic that there isn’t a longer any hope at that stage.

In Minnesota we are typically very group oriented and that comes throughout with our leaders. What’s actually fascinating, nonetheless, is that the actually good ones left nationwide politics and returned to steer within the state with excellent outcomes.

Folks like Governor (former Senator) Dayton, Governor (former Consultant) Walz, and Lawyer Basic (former Consultant) Ellison all fled nationwide politics and are very efficient and appreciated again dwelling.

For some definition of “good outcomes.” Can readers consider examples of this phenomenon in different states? Or is that this some bizarre by-product of “Minnesota Good”?

These usually are not good numbers. In any respect:

That is an objectively good factor. It is an objectively good factor that so many individuals confirmed as much as protest US proxy warfare and nuclear brinkmanship. In the event you disagree, you’re merely mistaken.

— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) February 19, 2023

After all, the big numbers of individuals collaborating, world-wide, in anti-Iraq Struggle demonstrations had exactly zero impact on coverage, so it’s not clear what a march would do at this time. Commentary:

LEFT: Weak anti-war motion that could not get a turnout as a result of we excluded billions of LaRouchites and Oath Keepers

RIGHT: Large massive tent anti-war motion that is introduced the world collectively pic.twitter.com/fGulbJooUK

— Carl Beijer (@CarlBeijer) February 19, 2023

I perceive the purpose Beijer is making, but it surely appears a little bit… blinkered. So what if the march in 2003 was higher organized, large, “massive tent,” no matter?

#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, moreover what we already find out about.) Keep secure on the market!

• Readers, for the reason that nationwide information techniques in the USA 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 might be nice. Canadians, too! Or go away a hyperlink in Feedback.

Sources, United States (Nationwide): Transmission (CDC); Wastewater (CDC, Biobot); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker” (in IA, however nationwide information).

Sources, United States (Native): CA (dashboard); CO (wastewater); CT (dashboard); IL (wastewater); IN (dashboard); MA (wastewater); ME (dashboard); MI (wastewater; wastewater); MT (dashboard); NC (dashboard); NH (wastewater); NY (dashboard); OH (dashboard); SC (dashboard); TX (dashboard); VA (dashboard); WA (dashboard; dashboard); WI (wastewater).

Sources, Canada (Provincial): ON (wastewater); QC (les eaux usées); BC, Vancouver (wastewater).

Hat tricks to useful readers: Art_DogCT, CanCyn, ChiGal, Gumbo, hop2it, JB, Joe, John, JM (2), JW, Michael King, LaRuse, otisyves, Petal (5), RL, RM, Rod. (Readers, I’m not placing your deal with subsequent to your contribution as a result of I hope and count on the checklist might be lengthy, and I would like it to be simple to scan. (In the event you go away your hyperlink in feedback, I take advantage of your deal with. In the event you ship it to me through e-mail, I take advantage of your initials (within the absence of a deal with.)

• Extra like this, please! Whole: 1 6 11 18/50 (36%). Can anybody discover RI or VT? Maybe not all states have Covid sources….

Search for the Helpers

“Welcome to The John Snow Undertaking” [The John Snow Project]. “The world is getting into its fourth 12 months of dwelling with COVID-19, the illness attributable to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Practically everybody has had private expertise of catching the virus and many individuals reside with the lingering results of sickness. Governments all over the world have deserted nationwide insurance policies to curb transmission and have left the administration of dangers to the person. “Study to stay with it” and “you do you” particular person accountability are the dominant mantras. This individualistic strategy to an airborne virus depends on individuals being armed with information to know the dangers they face and the instruments that assist mitigate these dangers. Many governments initially responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by holding official briefings, speaking the dangers the illness poses and implementing emergency measures to reduce transmission. Three years on the pandemic continues to be with us however official communication and consequent media protection has been diminished in order that many individuals have resumed their 2019 life, largely oblivious to the continued dangers posed by COVID-19. This data hole comes simply because the scientific and medical group is studying increasingly in regards to the detrimental long-term results of SARS-CoV-2 infections. The John Snow Undertaking was began by people who grew involved by the dearth of consideration being given to a virus that has killed tens of hundreds of thousands, and even after the deployment of vaccines and widespread convalescence, continues to be killing tens of 1000’s of individuals all over the world each week and debilitating many extra. The target of the John Snow Undertaking is to supply simply digestible data for most of the people and policymakers to assist them perceive the dangers posed by the illness and learn how to finest handle these dangers.” • Little recognized reality: After the cholera epidemic died down, em>The authorities changed the pump deal with.

Pushback (1):

I spent a lot vitality final 12 months attempting to push for protections at work with studiously cited info and practicable, plain-language suggestions. The primary end result was angering and alienating administration.

It was not a waste of time. (1/6)

— Indehisce (@indehisce) February 18, 2023

Pushback (2):

If the cumulative advantages of the above have thwarted even one an infection, or purchased even one particular person down that thwarted transmission chain extra time with a beloved one, it’s been worthwhile. (4/6)

— Indehisce (@indehisce) February 18, 2023

I don’t perceive the mentality that claims: “All people will get Covid, so why not get it over with?” I say, “Why not postpone so long as attainable?” Why not break as many chains of transmission as you may?

* * *

“Covid Meetups” [COVID MEETUPS (JM)]. “A free service to seek out people, households and native companies/companies 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.

Covid Is Airborne

“Opinion: Treating youngsters as invulnerable is treating them as disposable” [Calgary Herald]. “The options for shielding youngsters will be gleaned from behaviours of rich elites, and so they contain layering protections to create clear indoor air. The current World Financial Discussion board in Davos used the next security techniques: necessary each day PCR testing with ID-badge entry linked to outcomes, new ‘state-of-the-art ventilation systems‘, HEPA purifiers in every single place, numerous ranges of masking and, it appeared, virus-killing UV lighting techniques. Our kids deserve these protections, of their colleges and elsewhere. These measures, together with boosters, are the truth is the one at the moment current methods of decreasing the general public well being want for common indoor masking. By treating youngsters as invulnerable we are literally treating them as disposable. However they’re every little thing — to our lives and to our future. Their long-term well being is in danger and we have to shield them.”

A historical past lesson:

Be aware to minimizer docs who hold saying that the human immune system advanced over hundreds of thousands of years of interplay with respiratory viruses.

Trendy Homo sapiens have existed for 300,000 years. Common respiratory viral infections are a post-agriculture phenomenon (<13,000 years).

— T. Ryan Gregory (@TRyanGregory) February 17, 2023

Another reason to treat agriculture as one massive mistake?

If you may get your Corsi-Rosenthal Field within the Dean’s Workplace (!!), you’ve received it made:

Big kudos to this co-worker. 13 months and over 3,000 hours of operation. Price = 4 cents per day per colleague in ⁦@UCDavisCOE⁩ dean’s suite for a signif’ profit wrt discount in inhalation dose of aerosol particles. Not rocket science, people. Simply do it! pic.twitter.com/oYayPrjM0Z

— Richard Corsi, PhD, PE (Texas) (@CorsIAQ) February 18, 2023

An efficient technique for these of you in academe….

Faculty meeting line for Corsi-Rosenthal bins with pc followers from kits:

California Elementary college students like it! pic.twitter.com/nofvO2dPCz

— Clear Air Kits @zeroes.ca (@cleanairkits) February 18, 2023

I by no means would have thought pc followers can be so highly effective. I assume we have now crypto, or gaming, to thank?

Maskstravaganza

Nuts:

Threat evaluation and danger administration has been turned on its head.
😕 pic.twitter.com/4vHxt5MteH

— tern (@1goodtern) February 17, 2023

Can readers affirm that certainly some airways have such a coverage? Policies seem to vary. To me, airline peanuts are not any nice loss, however the distinction in the best way we deal with allergens vs. pathogens is fairly beautiful.

Trend:

How I journey. pic.twitter.com/2TtW7rfNNX

— Well mannered proponent of Well being & Security 😷🍃🪟🌬💉 (@emmaandollie) February 17, 2023

Extra like this, please.

Sequelae

“Acute and postacute sequelae related to SARS-CoV-2 reinfection” [Nature]. We ran this when if first appeared. From the Summary: “Right here we used the US Division of Veterans Affairs’ nationwide healthcare database to construct a cohort of people with one SARS-CoV-2 an infection (n = 443,588), reinfection (two or extra infections, n = 40,947) and a noninfected management (n = 5,334,729)…. In comparison with noninfected controls, cumulative dangers and burdens of repeat an infection elevated in keeping with the variety of infections. Limitations included a cohort of largely white males. The proof exhibits that reinfection additional will increase dangers of dying, hospitalization and sequelae in a number of organ techniques within the acute and postacute part. Decreasing total burden of dying and illness as a consequence of SARS-CoV-2 would require methods for reinfection prevention.” • “Largely white males” appears to have led to some agita:

There’s a lengthy part within the manuscript outlining all of the covariates used. It’s extremely complete. Nature peer assessment is not any joke. In lay phrases, the outcomes of the examine account for the assorted demographic and well being traits of the individuals. pic.twitter.com/bqZDUAU3gt

— Blake Murdoch (@BlakeMMurdoch) February 17, 2023

The statistics within the paper are above my paygrade; maybe somebody professional will remark. That stated, Tufecki was nice on aerosols and air flow. Then she joined the New York Occasions, and adjusted her beat to immunology and infectious ailments, the place in my opinion she’s a bit out of her depth; or it’s simply that when she joined the Occasions, she went rancid, as so many do. A disgrace. As for instance (ignore intermediate vitriol):

“After all” reinfections are milder due to immunity… Dengue would love a phrase.https://t.co/XGQhredfkq https://t.co/ZbRl3b2wrd

— T. Ryan Gregory (@TRyanGregory) February 19, 2023

See “Dengue Fever: A repeat infection is more dangerous than the first.” There isn’t any “in fact” about it.

Science Is Popping

“”Frequent Names” for Notable SARS-CoV-2 Variants: Proposal for a Clear and Constant Nicknaming Course of to Help Communication” [World Health Network]. Doing WHO’s job: “Efforts to speak in regards to the evolution, range, and significance of SARS-CoV-2 variants has grow to be more and more difficult because the variety of variants has expanded dramatically, particularly since mid-2022. Formal naming techniques which are at the moment in place — particularly Greek letters assigned by the World Well being Group (WHO), technical Phylogenetic Project of Named International Outbreak (PANGO) labels, and Nextstrain clades — don’t present choices for communication that’s each sufficiently excessive decision simply accessible outdoors of technical discussions. Right here, we summarize the premise of current nomenclature techniques and suggest a complementary possibility based mostly on casual “frequent names” or “nicknames” that can be utilized basically scientific communication about variants…. For the revised system proposed right here, it’s steered that names be drawn from astronomy (constellations, stars, moons, asteroids, exoplanets). The checklist of attainable names needs to be filtered to be in step with the guiding rules and be compiled and sorted right into a usable sequence (e.g., alternating first letters).” • Commentary:

Little commentary:
XBB.1.9.1 (Hyperion) nonetheless on the lead however EG.1 (XBB.1.9.2+N:219F+S:Q613H) is there, doubtless a bit quicker than it.
Behind them the one XBB.1.5 that appears to catch up are EK.1 (S:N417S) XBB.1.5.10 (S:F456L) XBB.1.5.12 (S:T323I)
Then XBL.

These are the leaders

— Federico Gueli (@siamosolocani) February 20, 2023

That is the one instance I can discover. Naming conventions are extraordinarily laborious. It’s additionally laborious to be a naming authority (absent funding and/or licensing). This looks like a well-thought-out proposal. I hope it will get traction.

Elite Malfeasance

“Mommy, why was Kamala attempting to contaminate me?”

https://t.co/VXDwcM8rFh

— Help Unbiased Media (@BarrettWilson6) February 19, 2023

“Doesn’t she care about individuals like us?”

Media Protection

“Right here’s why you need to make a behavior of getting extra enjoyable” [National Public Radio]. “Numerous us are nonetheless recovering from delinquent habits fashioned within the pandemic.” • “Anti-social” like… selecting to not infect different individuals with an airborne pathogen whose neurological and vascular sequelae are cumulative? What’s mistaken with these individuals?

Case Knowledge

NOT UPDATED BioBot wastewater data from February 16:

For now, I’m going to make use of this nationwide wastewater information as the perfect proxy for case information (ignoring the scientific case information portion of this chart, which in my opinion “goes dangerous” after March 2022, for causes as but unexplained). No less than we will spot tendencies, and evaluate present ranges to equal previous ranges.

Positivity

From the Walgreen’s test positivity tracker, printed February 20:

-0.5%. Nonetheless on the excessive plateau, equal to earlier peaks.

Deaths

Dying price (Our World in Data):

Total: 1,142,595 – 1,141,862 = 733 (733 * 365 = 267,545 deaths per 12 months, at this time’s YouGenicist™ quantity for “dwelling with” Covid (fairly a bit larger than the minimizers would love, although they will discuss themselves into something. If the YouGenicist™ metric retains chugging alongside like this, I could must resolve that is what the powers-that-be think about “mission completed” for this explicit tranche of dying and illness). Nicely, the entire wasn’t 192 once more. Not that I really feel higher about it.

It’s good that for deaths I’ve a easy, each day chart that simply retains chugging alongside, not like every little thing 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 this time.

The Bezzle: “Meta to check month-to-month subscription service priced at $11.99” [Reuters]. “Meta Platforms on Sunday introduced that it’s testing a month-to-month subscription service, known as Meta Verified, which can let customers confirm their accounts utilizing a authorities ID and get a blue badge, because it appears to be like to assist content material creators develop and construct communities. The subscription bundle for Instagram and Fb, to be launched later this week, additionally contains further safety towards impersonation and might be priced beginning at $11.99 per thirty days on the net or $14.99 a month on Apple’s iOS system and Android.” • Giving your authorities ID to Faceborg feels like a fully nice concept (and I additionally thought that Fb was fairly robust on you utilizing your actual identification anyhow). Additionally, “creators.” How I hate that phrase. It’s like “leaders”: gormless mush.

The Bezzle: “1 massive factor: When a financial savings account may be very dangerous” [Felix Salmon, Axios]. “Compound Banc pays an eye-popping 7% on deposits — or at the very least issues that feel and look rather a lot like deposits. But it surely’s not a financial institution, and the deposits — technically, they’re dangerous bonds — usually are not insured by the FDIC or anyone else. The product is aimed toward very small traders: The minimal funding is simply $10. Folks in search of improbably excessive rates of interest on their cash have discovered the laborious strategy to keep away from crypto. That’s created a gap for dollar-denominated merchandise profiting from numerous regulatory loopholes — and of the truth that People are more and more comfy handing over their cash to digital establishments. Compound Banc’s product is marketed as a high-yield digital account. Financial savings begin compounding instantly at a 7% APY (annual proportion yield); savers can withdraw their cash at any time with none charges or penalties. ‘No if and or buts about it,’ says the homepage. Compound Banc is neither a financial institution nor a brokerage, and its financial savings bonds, in the event you learn its SEC filings, are characterised by “a excessive diploma of danger.” Accounts at Compound Banc usually are not insured by the FDIC, the SIPC, or another authorities regulator. ‘,’ notes Compound on web page 7 of its providing round.” Eesh. Preying on absolutely the weakest. And: “The truth that Compound Banc has managed to go stay with none actual regulatory oversight — they are saying they’ve already issued some $1.5 million in bonds — demonstrates the bounds of America’s current regulatory infrastructure.” • Dry. Very dry.

In the present day’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.

Rapture Index: Closes unchanged [Rapture Ready]. File Excessive, October 10, 2016: 189. Present: 187. (Keep in mind that bringing on the Rapture is good.) NOTE on #42 Plagues: “The coronavirus pandemic has maxed out this class.” Extra trustworthy than most!

Feral Hog Watch

“Inhabitants Explosion of Canadian “Tremendous Pigs” May Unfold Into the Northern U.S.” [Field and Stream (semper loquitur)]. “The U.S. might quickly have a brand new wild pig downside. Till now, the invasive species has largely proliferated in heat locations just like the southeast, Texas, and California. However lately, invasive pigs have began thriving in Canada and will unfold into North Dakota, Montana, Michigan, and Minnesota…. In keeping with [Dr. Ryan Brook, who leads the University of Saskatchewan’s Canadian Wild Pig Research Project], the hybridization resulted in greater ‘tremendous pigs’ that might survive in chilly climates. ‘For surviving in chilly winters, one of many guidelines of ecology is: the larger the higher,’ he says. ‘Bigger physique animals survive the chilly higher and have higher replica in these situations.’” • My gawd. Feral Hogs have a Canadian variant. What would WHO title it, I’m wondering?

Guide Nook

The stupidest timeline:

Be aware that in erasing Kipling — I’d by no means erase Kipling, though I would slap him round a little bit bit — these nitwit Bowdlerizers additionally erased the whole largely non-white and colonized subcontinent of India and changed it with 35% white California, a colonizer’s state inside a colonizer nation. How come no one within the cancel brigade is coming after these individuals? Oh, wait. California’s Blue. In order that’s alright then.

And as a palate cleanser, a protracted thread about learn how to learn Finnegan’s Wake:

That McHugh e book sounds attention-grabbing. I’m not sure I’d learn all of it — the account recommends one web page a day, taking two years to complete the work — however I like fantastically printed books with dense scholarly equipment. (If anyone desires to have a go at Ulyssess, I like to recommend Hugh Kenner‘s Ulysses for a advantageous shut studying.)

L’Affaire Joffrey Epstein

“Isn’t Anybody Curious” [Eschaton]. “Personally I can get a bit drawn to conspiracy theories not due to the solutions, which are sometimes bullshit, however due to the questions. Or extra particularly, that others who needs to be asking the questions aren’t. The questions will be bullshit, too, in that generally they’ve truly been requested and answered. However generally not! Like there’s a exceptional lack of curiosity about Epstein’s consumer checklist! Not that occurring cable TV and speculating about who could be a pedo can be productive, however doesn’t actually seem to be anybody tried very laborious to determine it out!” • The opposite checklist operating round is the checklist of individuals SBF gave cash to. There doesn’t appear to be a lot curiousity about that both. That is very Bourdeusian: Lists which which exist, however whose objects can solely be witnessed by a (self-)appointed few.

“Jeffrey Epstein’s lengthy shadow falls on JPMorgan and Barclays as soon as extra” [Financial Times]. “The lawsuit alleges that [former Barclays CEO Jes] Staley used his work e-mail to trade 1,200 emails with Epstein and obtained what the lawsuit describes as ‘images of younger girls in seductive poses’ from the financier. It additionally alleges Epstein used JPMorgan accounts to pay greater than $1mn to at the very least 20 victims of sexual crime. In 2009, Staley wrote to Epstein of their ‘profound’ friendship and ‘heartfelt hug.’ A 12 months later he emailed: ‘Say hello to Snow White.’ When Epstein responded: “[W]hat character would you want subsequent?’ Staley replied, ‘Magnificence and the Beast.’” • Good individuals. Once more, as Atrios asks, the place’s Epstein’s consumer checklist?

Class Warfare

Arduous-core stuff. 65 books in a month. Nonetheless:

Can’t say a lot for the pattern measurement. Nonetheless, the distribution throughout states is attention-grabbing.

No person stated you couldn’t have your personal algo:

Information of the Wired

“The Case for Hanging Out” [Slate]. “It was not as a result of I believed her e book was attention-grabbing that I had reached out to Liming. It was as a result of I passionately believed that her e book was proper. ‘I’ve grow to be an unintended witness to a rising disaster,’ she writes in Hanging Out: The Radical Power of Killing Time. ‘Folks struggling to hang around, or else voicing concern and anxiousness about how to hang around.’ I, too, see a disaster brewing, amongst not solely individuals my age however among the many friends of my teenage youngsters and the faculty college students I educate. Pushed additional into isolation by the pandemic, we’re all dropping the flexibility to interact in what I view as the head of human interplay: sitting round with pals and speaking shit. I agree with Liming that nobody is down to hang around anymore, and agree along with her that it’s a ‘quiet disaster.’” • Effective. Grow to be a air flow advocate and apply what you preach. In any other case, “killing time” is a little bit too on-the-nose.

Contact data for vegetation: Readers, be happy to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) learn the way to ship me a examine in case you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to learn the way to ship me photographs of vegetation. Greens are advantageous! Fungi and coral are deemed to be honorary vegetation! In order for you your deal with to seem as a credit score, please place it at the beginning of your mail in parentheses: (thus). In any other case, I’ll anonymize by utilizing your initials. See the earlier Water Cooler (with plant) here. From CM:

CM writes: “Taken on the east coast of Lake Superior.” Does it glow at the hours of darkness?

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