2:00PM Water Cooler 2/28/2023 | bare capitalism

By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Hen Track of the Day

I consider I had a request for the Potoo?

Rufous Potoo, Aspect street at KM63 of BR-174, Amazonas, Brazil. The extraordinary spectogram is because of all the things occurring the Amazon jungle. It’s not a quiet place!

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 suppose; however Ahab by no means thinks; he solely feels, feels, feels.” –Herman Melville, Moby Dick

“So lots 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’s new deficit hawk persona has some progressives feeling some dangerous deja vu” [Politico]. “Joe Biden spent the final two years pursuing and enacting huge home applications meant to remake the U.S. economic system. However as he prepares a run for reelection, Biden is making an attempt out a brand new financial persona: deficit hawk. The president has made a recent effort to promote his administration as a mannequin of fiscal restraint in latest weeks, casting falling deficits as an more and more central focus of his agenda. Biden now routinely touts a $1.7 trillion drop within the deficit on his watch as a high accomplishment. When the president releases his new proposed price range subsequent week, he’s anticipated to name for an additional $2 trillion in cuts over a decade. ‘My financial plan is working,’ Biden stated in a speech final week, peppering his remarks with greater than a dozen references to the deficit. ‘It’s decreasing the deficit. It’s fiscally accountable.’” • Why not attempt bleeding and purging?

“A bipartisan group of Senators is speaking about elevating the retirement age on Social Safety” [Semafor]. “A bipartisan group led by Sens. Angus King, I-Maine, and Invoice Cassidy, R-La. is contemplating steadily elevating the retirement age to about 70 as a part of their laws to overtake Social Safety, Semafor has discovered from two individuals briefed on their efforts. Different choices on the desk embrace altering the prevailing system that calculates month-to-month advantages from one primarily based on a employee’s common earnings over 35 years to a unique system that’s primarily based as a substitute on the variety of years spent working and paying into Social Safety. The plan additionally features a proposed sovereign wealth fund (as beforehand reported by Semafor) that could possibly be seeded with $1.5 trillion or extra in borrowed cash to jumpstart inventory investments, the individuals stated. If it fails to generate an 8% return, each the utmost taxable revenue and the payroll tax fee can be elevated to make sure Social Safety stays on monitor to be solvent one other 75 years.

‘That is an instance of two leaders looking for an answer to a transparent and foreseeable hazard,’ Cassidy and King spokespeople instructed Semafor in an announcement. ‘Though the ultimate framework continues to be taking form, there aren’t any cuts for Individuals at present receiving Social Safety advantages in our plan. Certainly, many will obtain extra advantages.’” • “At present recieving.” So it’s two-tier? Inviting dad and mom and grandparents to throw their youngsters below the bus is bipartisan? Wait, don’t reply that.

2024

“Democrat needs extra Biden challengers within the primaries: ‘This isn’t a dictatorship’” [FOX]. “CNN panelist and former Democratic state senator Nina Turner known as on different Democrats to leap within the race on Sunday as President Biden has nonetheless not formally introduced his re-election bid. ‘I believe the issue that Democrats are going to face is that Biden is just not with out danger,’ CNN political commentator Kristen Soltis Anderson stated. ‘He can be the oldest man elected president. There are moments when he appears feisty and able to combat Republicans, and there are moments that do go away doubts within the minds of voters who’re watching.’ She added that Democrats ‘should be a bit of nervous’ about if it isn’t Biden. ‘There’s no should be nervous, I imply, individuals ought to simply soar in. Let’s soar in,’ Turner stated.” • Hmm. Burning just a few bridges, right here?

“Yr three of Warren’s well being care plan appears to be like utterly ridiculous now” [Carl Beijer]. “Recall that whereas Sanders insisted on passing your complete program in a single invoice, Warren determined that it will be intelligent to separate her agenda in two. First she would start go a public choice, ‘after which observe up with laws to finish current employer plans by her third 12 months in workplace, as soon as the brand new system has a foothold.’ So if Sanders had gained, we the combat for Medicare for All would have already been gained or misplaced. It might have performed out in early 2021 when he was nonetheless within the honeymoon section of his presidency, with America nonetheless laser-focused on surviving the pandemic, with Democrats in charge of each chambers of Congress, and a 12 months earlier than the US began throwing billions of {dollars} into the battle in Ukraine. Now think about the place we’d be at with Warren. Finest case situation: in the identical state of affairs as Bernie, she would have gained an equally ferocious combat, although with only a public choice to indicate for it. Then Russia invades Ukraine and Republicans begin complaining about how that, together with the general public choice, are breaking the price range. Then Republicans win again the Home. Then, having spent two years tarring Warren as a big-government communist, the GOP places ahead a decision denouncing ‘socialism in all of its varieties’ and opposing ‘the implementation of socialist insurance policies in the USA of America.’ Over 75% of the Home votes for it, together with a majority of Home Democrats. Do even individuals who help Warren truly suppose, on this political setting, that she’s be selecting a combat over abolishing the non-public medical health insurance business?” • Not that I’m bitter over that 🐍 Warren sinking her fangs into Bernie’s again in 2020, no, after all not. I’m submitting this right here as a result of Warren could be nutty sufficient to suppose she will run once more.

And talking of 🐍s:

Within the Nineteen Nineties, America had 51 main contractors bidding for protection work. Immediately, there are solely 5 huge corporations remaining. Protection contracting ought to be reworked to interrupt up the large contracts awarded to the large guys and create alternatives for companies of all sizes.

— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) February 24, 2023

So the idea here’s what? To increase the Empire’s life by breaking apart protection monopolies?

“The GOP’s Dependancy to Tradition Struggle Could Value It in 2024” [Eric Levitz, New York Magazine]. “The city, liberal faculty graduates who dominate the Democratic political class have distinct cultural sensibilities and social-policy preferences when in comparison with the middle-age, working-class rust belters who usually play kingmaker within the Electoral Faculty. Progressive ambition plus right-wing demagoguery has been a system for electoral backlash greater than as soon as in fashionable historical past. And but if hyper-political Democrats don’t at all times see eye to eye with the U.S.’s ‘low-information‘ normies, the identical is at the least as true of their counterparts within the GOP. For each Ivy League–educated nonprofit government who believes in open borders and police abolition, there are two car-dealership homeowners who suppose the 2020 election was rigged by a cabal of pedophiles…. In the meantime, with the intention to maintain the eye of their ideologically self-selecting audiences amid competitors from different journalistic retailers, cat photographs, video video games, porn, and just about each film and TV present ever made, information purveyors have a powerful incentive to maintain shoppers in a continuing state of agitation…. Because of this, sturdy partisans can discover themselves locked in seemingly epochal political struggles that don’t even register on swing voters’ radar. This state of affairs creates issues for each events. When your base lives in a definite informational universe out of your persuasion targets, discovering messages that animate the previous whereas placating the latter could be troublesome. Nonetheless, that balancing act is way more difficult for Republicans than it’s for Democrats…. Final week, a gaggle of Democratic strategists launched a report on public opinion in working-class, postindustrial counties of Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — areas the place Biden will possible want to carry down Republican margins with the intention to win reelection. The researchers discovered that whereas ‘working-class of us discover city and mental ‘wokeism’ annoying,’ they’re much more involved with Democrats’ alleged failures in financial administration.” • The strategist is Mike Lux.

“Let’s All Do the DeSantis Shimmy!” [David Brooks, New York Times]. “There are two dominant views on Ukraine throughout the Republican Social gathering. The primary one, embraced by, say, Nikki Haley and Tim Scott, holds that Russia’s assault on Ukraine threatens the liberal world order. Serving to the Ukrainians push again is in America’s important nationwide curiosity. The second view, embraced by the populist wing, is that the USA has no important nationwide pursuits in Ukraine…. DeSantis has magically solid himself in between these two positions. Previously, DeSantis was harder on Russia than Trump was. In 2017, he famous that Putin ‘needs to reconstitute the Russian Empire,’ and chided Trump for being too comfortable on Putin, saying that ‘you’re higher off coping with Putin by being sturdy.’ If Putin thinks he can acquire an inch, DeSantis argued, ‘he’s apt to take a mile.’ However this week DeSantis went on ‘Fox & Buddies,’ the place nice statesmen have at all times gone to unfurl their overseas coverage doctrines, and he feinted in a Trump-like path. He stated the battle wouldn’t have occurred if Joe Biden weren’t so weak. He stated he didn’t need to give the Ukrainians a ‘clean test’ (as if anybody does). He stated Biden ought to be extra involved with securing the border at house and fewer involved with borders far-off. He minimized the risk Putin poses to the West, including, ‘I don’t suppose it’s in our pursuits to be getting right into a proxy battle with China, getting concerned over issues just like the borderlands or over Crimea.’” • Asking for my vote once more. I want they’d cease doing that.

“Trump simply beats DeSantis in GOP main: ballot” [The Hill]. “Former President Donald Trump continues to be the heavy favourite to win the GOP’s 2024 nomination, in keeping with a brand new Emerson Faculty ballot. In a hypothetical 10-way Republican presidential main, Trump scores 55 p.c of the vote, the ballot discovered, placing him 30 factors forward of his closest rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who stands at 25 p.c help. No different candidate breaks double-digits. Former Vice President Mike Pence takes third place with simply 8 p.c of the vote, whereas former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, who turned the primary main Republican candidate to problem Trump for the GOP nod earlier this month, finishes with simply 5 p.c help.” • 30 factors?!

“Simply how huge is the At all times Trump part of the Republican Social gathering?” [Politico]. “Vivek Ramaswamy, the anti-woke entrepreneur and most up-to-date entrant into the race, went as far as to say he’s ‘not working in opposition to President Trump’ in any respect. He’s, after all. Each candidate within the rising GOP subject will likely be. That they will’t fairly acknowledge as a lot underscores one of many defining options of this very early main and, extra usually, GOP politics over the past six years: Trump’s base stays inflexible, and even his critics consider it might be deadly to harass them. Regardless of his difficulties since he left workplace, a couple of third of Republicans and Republican-leaning voters nonetheless think about themselves supporters extra of Trump than the Republican Social gathering, in keeping with a latest NBC Information ballot. Lots of them aren’t going anyplace. Absolutely 28 p.c of Republican main voters are so dedicated to the previous president that they stated they’d help him even when he ran as an unbiased, in keeping with a nationwide survey final month from The Bulwark and longtime Republican pollster Whit Ayres. Certainly, the ‘At all times Trump’ part of the occasion is so pronounced that it’s affecting how Trump’s opponents function round him. ‘,’ stated Fergus Cullen, a former New Hampshire Republican Social gathering chair. ‘Not a lot of a technique.’” • Trump’s not dumb. He owns a huge airplane. He doesn’t go up in small ones.

“With Trump working, almost all Republican senators say no to a presidential bid” [NBC]. “There’s an outdated joke that senators look within the mirror and see a president. As of late, a complete lot of mirrors within the chamber appear to be damaged. Republicans have an open presidential main in 2024, and the Senate is full of hyper-ambitious and self-confident politicians, many with nationwide followings and barely hid presidential aspirations. But almost all of them are taking a go at a White Home bid subsequent 12 months after former President Donald Trump launched his tried comeback marketing campaign in November… a more moderen group of Republican senators rumored to have increased aspirations — Rick Scott of Florida, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Joni Ernst of Iowa — are additionally bowing out or sitting on the sidelines. ‘Each senator has a unique cause,’ Conant stated. ‘Lots of them are younger and have the posh to attend. In 2024, you’re working in opposition to an incumbent president and a former president, so traditionally it’s an enormous hill to climb. This isn’t like 2016 when there was an open White Home and wide-open GOP race.’ Cruz, Hawley and Rick Scott, whose seats are up in 2024, have chosen to hunt re-election reasonably than roll the cube on a White Home run.”

“Trump must make loyalty pledge to hitch RNC debate stage, Ronna McDaniel says” [FOX]. “Republican Presidential candidates must pledge help for the eventual nominee with the intention to be included on the Republican Nationwide Committee’s debate stage, RNC chair Ronna McDaniel stated Sunday. McDaniel says candidates must signal the pledge previous to the primary main debate, which will likely be held in Milwaukee. Former President Trump has expressed opposition to the pledge, nevertheless, echoing his hesitancy to make the identical pledge in 2016. ‘We’re saying you’re not going to get on the controversy stage until you make this pledge,’ McDaniel stated on CNN’s ‘State of the Union’ on Sunday. ;Anybody getting on the Republican nationwide committee debate stage ought to be capable to say, ‘I’ll help the desire of the voters and the eventual nominee of our occasion.’ ‘I believe they’re all going to signal it. I actually do,’ McDaniel added. ‘I believe President Trump wish to be on the controversy stage.’”

Republican Funhouse

“Failing at polls, election deniers deal with state GOP posts” [Associated Press]. “Embracing election conspiracy theories was a political albatross for Republicans in states that weren’t utterly purple final 12 months, with deniers dropping each statewide bid within the swing states of Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. However the motion has centered on GOP state occasion chairs — positions that normally are chosen by solely devoted activists and have the ability to affect the occasion’s presidential nominating contest and a few facets of election operations, equivalent to recruiting ballot watchers.”

Democrats en Déshabillé

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

I’ve moved my standing remarks on the Democrat Social gathering (“the Democrat Social gathering 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 Social gathering is, the truth is, a tough downside. I do suppose the paragraph that follows is on level all the way in which again to 2016, if not earlier than:

The Democrat Social gathering is the political expression of the category energy of PMC, their base (lucidly defined by Thomas Frank in Hear, Liberal!). ; if the Democrat Social gathering didn’t exist, the PMC must invent it. . (“PMC” modulo “class expatriates,” after all.) Second, all of the working components of the Social gathering reinforce one another. Go away apart characterizing the relationships between components of the Social gathering (ka-ching, however not fully) these components comprise a community — a Flex Web? An iron octagon? — of funders, distributors, apparatchiks, electeds, NGOs, and miscellaneous mercenaries, with property within the press and the intelligence neighborhood.

Notice, after all, 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.

* * *

“The Democrats Are Dangerous, However We Can’t Go away the Working Class to the GOP” [Freddie deBoer]. “[A]s the Democratic coalition is more and more outlined by the school educated, and in a context the place the phrase “white working class” is now usually handled as a racist dogwhistle, we can not permit the fortunes of the working class to be dictated by Republicans. The symbols and rhetoric of elite liberals could also be more and more hostile to those that aren’t college-educated urbanites with vocabularies fastidiously calibrated to sign that standing. However Republicans aren’t another; the GOP stays the occasion of plutocrats, and its populist rhetoric is employed in pursuit of decrease taxes and fewer regulation for the wealthy and firms. My argument in the present day takes place in opposition to a backdrop of some of the consequential developments in latest American politics: the rise of academic polarization.” • Paywalled, so leaving us hanging….

Realignment and Legitimacy

“Why Has the Left Deprioritized COVID?” [Midnight Sun]. From 2022, nonetheless germane. “Within the context of this social murder – a type of heightened class battle waged by the wealthy, who’re growing their income by forcing poor individuals to proceed working, with insufficient safety, by way of waves of an infection – the organized left has failed to indicate that one other pandemic response is feasible, and that our lives depend upon preventing for it…. Within the US, Democrats who’re vital of the occasion’s centrist mainstream, equivalent to Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have been almost silent on COVID-19 since Biden took workplace, permitting the administration and Congress to supervise mass loss of life with out severe strain from the occasion’s left flank…. Confronted with the crises of the pandemic, maybe the commonest intervention by leftist teams throughout North America has been to begin grassroots mutual help tasks, offering meals, cash, and different necessities to individuals in want. Kristen Smith, Vice-Chair for Packages of the Democratic Socialists of America Incapacity Working Group (DWG), has noticed this phenomenon proliferating within the DSA…. The left must unite in opposition to pandemic ableism, not out of goodwill or charity in direction of disabled leftists, however for our motion’s survival. Organizations restrict their potential membership once they romanticize pre-pandemic organizing practices, the place all the things occurred in individual and people who couldn’t attend as a result of incapacity or sickness, lack of transportation, a piece battle, or household caregiving duties merely couldn’t take part. When unions fail to know – or act on the understanding – that scarce, poverty-level incapacity advantages and the tip of pandemic unemployment helps are political assaults on all staff, whose exploitation occurs in relation to the parallel distress of unemployment, they miss an vital alternative to assist construct energy for the working class as a complete…. The left’s job is to not settle for the narrative of occasions that company media and authorities officers give us – “the pandemic’s over” – however to craft our personal.” • Effectively price a learn. I’m undecided it solutions the query within the headline, although.

“Every thing Is Hyperpolitical” [The Point]. “All of the critiques of post-politics acknowledged the separation between “politics” and “coverage.” On the one hand, politics named the formation of a collective will that determines what society would do with its surplus supplies. Coverage, in flip, relied on the execution of that can. Within the Eighties and Nineteen Nineties, when the politics of disaster steadily was a disaster of politics, these two moments underwent a mutual estrangement. The willpower of the collective will was relegated to a mediasphere hooked on novelty and run by public-relations consultants, whereas the execution of coverage was handed over to unelected technocrats. Within the widening of this separation lay the seeds of a transition from post-politics to hyperpolitics…. [T]he temper of latest politics is one in all incessant but diffuse excitation. Emotionally, it’s associated to the disaster of consideration attribute of the age of the web and smartphone. “Hyper,” in flip, signifies each a state of supersession and intensification: the elongation of a vowel that has already been vocalized however doesn’t but spell out a brand new phrase…. Hyperpolitics comes and goes, like a neutron bomb that shakes the individuals within the body however leaves all of the infrastructure intact—a clumsy synonym reasonably than an antonym to post-politics.” • An attention-grabbing essay, structured round photographer Wolfgang Tillmans’s physique of labor.

“How huge Christian nationalism has come courting in North Idaho” [Religion News Service]. “North Idaho has lengthy been recognized for its hyperlibertarians, apocalyptic ‘preppers’ and white supremacist teams who’ve retreated to the area’s sweeping frozen lakes and wild forests to await the collapse of American society, once they’ll assert management over what stays. However in recent times, the state’s current separatists have been joined by conservatives fleeing bluer Western states, opportunistic religion leaders, real-estate builders and, most not too long ago, these against COVID-19 restrictions and vaccines. Although few arrived carrying Christian nationalist banners, many have rapidly adopted facets of the ideology to advance conservative causes and search power in unity. The origin of North Idaho’s relationship with up to date Christian nationalism could be traced to a 2011 weblog put up revealed by survivalist creator James Wesley, Rawles (the comma is his addition). Titled ‘The American Redoubt — Transfer to the Mountain States,’ Rawles’ 4,000-word treatise known as on conservative followers to pursue ‘exit methods’ from liberal states and transfer to ‘protected havens’ within the American Northwest — particularly Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and jap sections of Oregon and Washington. He dubbed the imagined area the ‘American Redoubt’ and listed Christianity as a pillar of his society-to-be.” • I don’t suppose any state within the American Redoubt has nuclear weapons. Thankfully.

“WA lawmakers work to maintain public information from the general public — once more” [CrossCut (PI)]. “That is the untold story about how the Washington Legislature has spent greater than 15 years making an attempt to consolidate its energy in an effort to verify it could actually hold secrets and techniques from the general public. The way in which Washington lawmakers are refusing to share the content material of their very own emails, texts and memos – regardless of a state regulation requiring their disclosure – is just not a brand new idea. When questioned about their use of a legislative privilege – which has not but been granted to them by the courts or in state regulation – Home and Senate leaders return in historical past to a centuries-old follow from England. Legislative privilege is an idea in at the least 43 different states, they are saying, and it’s grounded within the Washington Structure’s Freedom of Debate clause.” • “Legislative privilege? Huh? An extended and detailed account.

#COVID19

Seems to be like “leveling off to a excessive plateau” throughout the board. (I nonetheless suppose “One thing Terrible” is coming, nevertheless. I imply, apart from what we already learn about.) Keep protected on the market!

• Readers, because the nationwide knowledge techniques in the USA are being vandalized, let’s begin gathering hyperlinks to state knowledge, too. If readers would ship me hyperlinks (see Plant under) to their favourite State and native dashboards/wastewater websites, that will 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 knowledge).

Sources, United States (Native): CA (dashboard), Marin; CO (dashboard; wastewater); CT (dashboard); DE (dashboard); IL (wastewater); IN (dashboard); LA (dashboard); MA (wastewater); MD (dashboard); ME (dashboard); MI (wastewater; wastewater); MT (dashboard); NC (dashboard); NH (wastewater); NM (dashboard); NY (dashboard); OH (dashboard); OR (dashboard); RI (dashboard); SC (dashboard); TN (dashboard); TX (dashboard); UT (wastewater); VA (dashboard); VT (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, B24S, CanCyn, ChiGal, Festoonic, FM, Gumbo, hop2it, JB, JF, Joe, John, JM (2), JW, LL, Michael King, KF, LaRuse, mrsyk, MT, otisyves, Petal (5), RK, RL, RM, Rod, tennesseewaltzer, Utah, Bob White. (Readers, if you happen to go away your hyperlink in feedback, I credit score you by your deal with. For those who ship it to me through electronic mail, I take advantage of your initials (within the absence of a deal with. I’m not placing your deal with subsequent to your contribution as a result of I hope and anticipate the checklist will likely be lengthy, and I would like it to be simple for readers to scan.)

• Extra like this, please! Complete: 1 6 11 18 20 22 26 27/50 (54% of US states). We should always checklist states that should not have Covid assets, or have stopped updating their websites, so others don’t look fruitlessly. Thanks!

Search for the Helpers

If a hospital or clinic tries to drive you to take off your N95 and change it with one in all their crap surgical masks, here’s a thread that explains what you are able to do:

That is from the highest, the CDC.

Present this to the individual.
“permit the usage of a clear masks or respirator with increased degree safety by individuals”

Supply for the article is right here:https://t.co/fIBRuAPLK2

The hyperlink to the CDC supply is in there.

Expensive hospital worker, if not pic.twitter.com/0tCxKOZb4V

— Lazarus Lengthy (@LazarusLong13) September 13, 2022

I don’t regard the CDC as a dependable authority, however the HCWs may, so for tactical functions…

Covid Is Airborne

“Because of saliva, infectious coronavirus particles linger twice as lengthy in drier air” (press launch) [EurekAlert]. “[A]irborne particles carrying a mammalian coronavirus intently associated to the virus which causes COVID-19 stay infectious for twice as lengthy in drier air, partially as a result of the saliva emitted with them serves as a protecting barrier across the virus, particularly at low humidity ranges. The research carries main implications for not solely the present COVID-19 pandemic, however probably for all infectious ailments transmitted by saliva-coated viruses. The analysis additionally additional emphasizes the significance of managing indoor air filtration and air flow to mitigate airborne illness unfold, particularly for buildings in arid states equivalent to Colorado, dry enclosed environments like airplane cabins and through dry winter months in temperate climates worldwide.” • Hmm. I’m undecided how you can mitigate this. Humidifiers? Do any readers use them? (Wooden stoves and steam warmth make the indoor air fairly dry too, at the least in New England, which is why I go away a number of water on high of them…).

“Air modifications per hour, Circulation per individual, Circulation per space. What’s the proper metric for clear air?” [Joey Fox, It’s Airborne]. “Measuring the quantity of fresh air begins with figuring out a clear air supply fee (CADR) or non-infectious air supply fee (NADR). … The hazard of any airborne pollutant is expounded to the inhaled dose, which is immediately correlated with the focus of the pollutant within the air and the size of time spent inhaling it. The focus of pollution is influenced by the speed at which they’re generated and eliminated. By growing the speed at which pollution are eliminated, both by way of air flow, filtration or UV mild, the focus within the air is diminished, and the inhaled dose is decreased. If the pollutant is an infectious illness, decreasing the inhaled dose will decrease the chance of an infection. The query then turns into, what CADR is required to cut back the focus of airborne contaminants to acceptable ranges? Sadly, there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all reply to this query as completely different contaminants and areas require completely different ranges of fresh air.” • Effectively price a learn.

Angst amongst college dad and mom; see the feedback on the thread:

Similar angst, however with extra angst:

Welcome to the Third World, the place you may’t talk about clear air within the faculties with out being hit by an influence failure.

Maskstravaganza

If the poster weren’t Dutch, I might say this was another example of American-style tinkering:

Once more, I believe replaceable filter shapes ought to be standardized, like security razor blades. That can actually assist make a marketplace for higher masks. Producers can compete on masks design and filter composition, with out making an attempt for “lock-in” — it by no means will get outdated, does it? — with proprietary filter shapes. In any case, if customary filters make switching prices between replaceable masks low, which means you may take enterprise away out of your opponents, too!

“LG PuriCare Wearable Air Air purifier (2nd Gen) Reviewed.” [The Technovore]. A powered masks with H13 HEPA graded filters. “I’m going proper out and saying that the LG PuriCare Wearable Air Air purifier (2nd Gen) is arms down the very best masks I’ve used previously few years. I’ve tried masks with valves, I’ve tried common material masks, I’ve worn N94-rated masks…Hell, I’ve even work CBRN (Chemical Organic Radiological Nuclear) masks throughout my NS coaching. Don’t overlook, I additionally reviewed the Phillips Recent Air Masks… .The masks is just in a league of its personal. The Face Guard secures your face very well and there’s a LOT of room inside that you simply’re by no means left feeling suffocated. Taking in deep breaths is not any difficulty in any respect as there’s lot of room and the sensors within the masks routinely (extra on this later) attract as a lot air as you require.” • This (on no account a product endorsement) appears to be like like very attention-grabbing know-how. The battery works for eight hours, so that you’d want three for a extremely long-haul flight.

Elite Malfeasance

All of the elites finally did this, globally. China too:

When the degrees of cholera an infection in London turned dangerously excessive, we did all the things—and I imply all the things—we might to make them low by altering the edge for what’s thought of “excessive.”

— Neoliberal John Snow (@NeoliberalSnow) February 27, 2023

Case Information

BioBot wastewater data from February 27:

For now, I’m going to make use of this nationwide wastewater knowledge as the very best proxy for case knowledge (ignoring the medical case knowledge portion of this chart, which for my part “goes dangerous” after March 2022, for causes as but unexplained). At the least we are able to spot developments, and examine present ranges to equal previous ranges.

• What number of infections are reinfections:

Positivity

From the Walgreen’s test positivity tracker, revealed February 28:

-1.0%. Nonetheless excessive, however finally a definite downturn.

Deaths

Dying fee (Our World in Data):

Total: 1,145,415 – 1,144,368 = 1047 (1047 * 365 = 382,155 deaths per 12 months, in the present day’s YouGenicist™ quantity for “residing with” Covid (fairly a bit increased than the minimizers would really like, although they will speak themselves into something. If the YouGenicist™ metric retains chugging alongside like this, I could should determine that is what the powers-that-be think about “mission completed” for this specific tranche of loss of life and illness). Large soar as a result of I missed yesterday.

It’s good that for deaths I’ve a easy, every day chart that simply retains chugging alongside, not like all the things 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.)

Stats Watch

Manufacturing: “United States Chicago PMI” [Trading Economics]. “The Chicago PMI in the USA fell for a second consecutive month to 43.6 in February of 2023 from 44.3 in January. Figures got here decrease than market forecasts of 45, pointing to a different contraction in financial exercise within the Chicago area, which prolonged for a sixth straight month.”

Manufacturing: “United States Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index” [Trading Economics].

Transport: “Union Pacific CEO to depart after push from activist shareholder” [CNN]. “Union Pacific shares jumped 10% in premarket buying and selling Monday after the railroad firm introduced CEO Lance Fritz, 60, will go away the corporate by year-end, following a name by an activist hedge fund for his ouster. Union Pacific simply reported a document revenue for the second straight 12 months. However the hedge fund, Soroban Capital Companions, put out an announcement saying that Fritz had misplaced the boldness of ‘shareholders, staff, prospects, and regulators.’ UNP’s complete shareholder return has been the worst within the business,’ stated Soroban’s letter to the board. ‘Amongst all S&P 500 corporations, UNP is rated by staff because the worst place to work and has the bottom worker CEO approval ranking (ranked five hundredth out of 500 in each),’ stated the letter. And it stated that the Floor Transportation Board, one of many regulators of freight railroads, ranked Union Pacific as offering the worst service among the many main railroads.” • So the activists just like the income of Precision Scheduled Railroading, simply not the inevitable penalties: Dangerous labor relations and buyer dissatisfaction. I assume we are going to see if the brand new CEO can sq. that circle.

Immediately’s Concern & Greed Index: 62 Greed (earlier shut: 61 Greed) [CNN]. One week in the past: 59 (Greed). (0 is Excessive Concern; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Feb 28 at 12:21 PM ET.

Rapture Index: Closes unchanged [Rapture Ready]. Report Excessive, October 10, 2016: 189. Present: 186. (Do not forget that bringing on the Rapture is good.) NOTE on #42 Plagues: “The coronavirus pandemic has maxed out this class.” Extra sincere than most!

The Gallery

Musical interlude:

Jogs my memory of this, for some cause:

Totally different kinds, although!

Groves of Academe

“The Finish of the English Main” [The New Yorker]. “‘Younger individuals are very, very involved concerning the ethics of illustration, of cultural interplay—all these sorts of issues that, truly, we take into consideration quite a bit!’ Amanda Claybaugh, Harvard’s dean of undergraduate training and an English professor, instructed me final fall. She was one in all a number of academics who described an orientation towards the current, to the extent that many college students misplaced their bearings previously. ‘The final time I taught ‘The Scarlet Letter,’ I found that ,’ she stated. ‘Their capacities are completely different, and the nineteenth century is a very long time in the past.’” • Why not simply say they will’t learn?

Class Warfare

“Hamstrung by ‘golden handcuffs’: Variety roles disappear 3 years after George Floyd’s homicide impressed them” [NBC]. • That didn’t take lengthy.

Class and cultural markers:

Information of the Wired

“iPad dispute on prepare: Man blasts ‘Buddies’ sitcom in quiet part, disturbing girl at work” [FOX]. The lady’s tactic: “The lady on Reddit wrote that it ‘was so weird and annoying, however my buddy simply gestured for me to remain calm and go away it. So I closed my laptop computer and began watching with him. And commenting…. The lady stated that as she now watched together with the person, she stated to him, ‘Omg, I really like this bit!’ She additionally stated to him, ‘Watch the following half, it’s soooooo humorous.’ She stated she continued her working commentary, additionally saying to him, ‘Oh, is that this the one the place X occurs?’” • Which labored; the dude flounced off. He received off simple, in my e-book. The quiet automobile is the quiet automobile.

“A Go to to Third Man Data Reveals the Remarkably Analog Means of Chopping Vinyl Data” (video) [Colossal]. “From including the finicky lacquer coating to etching the matrix quantity by hand, the endeavor requires at the least 14 steps earlier than the album is packed and shipped, and every document passes by way of quite a few units of arms on the manufacturing flooring. Because the music business turns into more and more digital, the chopping course of stays remarkably analog. ‘Vinyl is in the actual world. It’s not one thing that exists solely in your laptop or your telephone. It’s three-dimensional,’ says one of many urgent plant’s engineers.”

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 test if you’re allergic to PayPal and (b) to learn the way to ship me photographs of vegetation. Greens are nice! Fungi and coral are deemed to be honorary vegetation! If you would like your deal with to look as a credit score, please place it at first 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 CanCyn:

CanCyn writes: “Our snow lined vegetable plot. The rain barrel to the left is just not a mistake, I included on function. Now we have a bit of system that pumps water from the rain barrels on the home to this one. On the again you may see my half completed pseudo wattle fence. Iron posts and saplings (from clearing woods for paths) as a substitute of willow.”

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