2:00PM Water Cooler 3/6/2023 | bare capitalism

By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Fowl Music of the Day

American Robin, Tetlin Nationwide Wildlife Refuge; Deadman Lake, Alaska, United States. “Music.” Spring approaches.

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 lots of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are actually a rational administration of symbolic capital.” –Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles

Abortion

“Disaster Being pregnant Facilities Like Downside Being pregnant Disguise Anti-Abortion Stance With Professional-Selection Messaging” [Teen Vogue]. “Google ‘being pregnant providers Worcester MA’ and on the primary web page you’ll discover a hyperlink to the web site for a spot known as Downside Being pregnant. It may even be the primary consequence. On its homepage, you’ll discover a seemingly inviting message: ‘Unplanned being pregnant? The selection is yours. We may help you navigate your being pregnant resolution.’ However this messaging is vastly completely different from the group’s roots. Even in Massachusetts, the place abortion is a protected proper, entry prior to now was removed from the settled enterprise we understand it to be as we speak. Downside Being pregnant is a crisis pregnancy center — the anti-abortion motion’s reply to Deliberate Parenthood clinics and different abortion-providers. Disaster being pregnant facilities, which at the moment outnumber abortion clinics greater than three to one, are places that may be perceived as medical clinics. Whereas some do provide medical-seeming care, they’re closely centered on discouraging abortion, and will not give sufferers medically-accepted details about their sexual and reproductive well being. In keeping with Planned Parenthood, many of those facilities are usually not reputable medical clinics. Downside Being pregnant is not listed as a licensed medical clinic in Massachusetts.”

Biden Administration

“DHS has a program gathering home intelligence — and just about nobody is aware of about it” [Politico]. “For years, the Division of Homeland Safety has run a just about unknown program gathering home intelligence, one among many revelations in a wide-ranging tranche of inner paperwork reviewed by POLITICO. These paperwork additionally reveal {that a} important variety of staff in DHS’s intelligence workplace have raised considerations that the work they’re doing may very well be unlawful. Below the domestic-intelligence program, officers are allowed to hunt interviews with nearly anybody in the USA. …. The internal workings of this system — known as the ‘Overt Human Intelligence Assortment Program’ — are described within the giant tranche of inner paperwork POLITICO reviewed from the Workplace of Intelligence and Evaluation. These paperwork and extra interviews revealed widespread inner considerations about legally questionable ways and political strain. The paperwork additionally present that folks working there worry punishment in the event that they converse out about mismanagement and abuses. One unnamed worker — quoted in an April 2021 doc — mentioned management of I&A’s Workplace of Regional Intelligence “is ‘shady’ and ‘runs like a corrupt authorities.’” • Do inform. How a lot you wanna wager that the Democrat response will likely be to level to 1/6 and increase this system?

2024

“Biden reelection bid faces resistance from some Democrats” [Associated Press]. “Steve Shurtleff was at Joe Biden’s aspect in 2019 when he filed papers within the New Hampshire State Home to run for president. He repeatedly trekked throughout the state with Biden to courtroom main voters. And when Biden finally received the presidency, it was Shurtleff, then the Democratic state Home speaker, who proudly sealed the envelope that carried New Hampshire’s 4 electoral votes — together with his personal identify — to the U.S. Senate. However on the eve of a brand new election season, Shurtleff, like a majority of Democrats throughout the nation, feels that one time period is sufficient. ‘In my coronary heart of hearts, no,’ Shurtleff mentioned when requested if he needs Biden to run once more. ‘I believe lots of people simply don’t need to say it.’ Democrats throughout New Hampshire are upset with the Democratic president for making an attempt to finish the state’s standing as residence to the first-in-the-nation presidential main. However their considerations about Biden run a lot deeper, in keeping with a majority of Democratic voters nationwide, who query the 80-year-old president’s plans to quickly launch his reelection marketing campaign. Simply 37% of Democrats nationwide need the president to hunt a second time period, in keeping with a ballot launched final month by The Related Press-NORC Heart for Public Affairs Analysis. That was down from 52% within the weeks earlier than final 12 months’s midterm elections.”

Marianne Williamson asks for my vote:

“Why do you need to be president?” pic.twitter.com/GGPOSSD1im

— Marianne Williamson (@marwilliamson) March 5, 2023

“Newsom shouldn’t run for president, California voters say” [Politico]. “Seven out of 10 mentioned they might not prefer to see him make a bid for the White Home within the subsequent election, per a brand new Quinnipiac College ballot of registered California voters. Even a majority of Democrats (54 p.c) nonetheless say he shouldn’t run subsequent 12 months. ‘A powerful thumbs down from the house staff as California voters inform the governor: you probably have designs on the massive job past Sacramento, we’re not on board,’ mentioned Quinnipiac College Polling Analyst Tim Malloy. The ballot didn’t ask voters to provide a motive for his or her resolution, however now we have a number of concepts as 2024 begins to return into focus. First, President Joe Biden’s inventory is up…. Moreover, a 2024 bid for Newsom would imply he’d must abandon his job midway by a second time period. After all, there’s all the time the possibility that some voters simply don’t like Newsom, and don’t see him as presidential materials. The polling on that entrance, nonetheless, isn’t conclusive. The identical Quinnipiac ballot gave the governor a 44 p.c approval ranking amongst California voters. A separate ballot, from the U.C. Berkeley Institute of Governmental Research, reported 54 p.c approval for the gov — the best amongst six of the highest California politicians.”

“The Democrats’ SOS Candidate Retains His Choices Open” [New York Times]. “Gov. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois sat comfortably in an workplace board room excessive above the Loop on Monday and halfheartedly batted away the notion that he was making ready a run for the White Home. The billionaire inheritor to the Hyatt Resorts fortune could also be seen by some Democrats because the “in case of emergency break glass” candidate, one of many few outstanding politicians who may arise a White Home run at a second’s discover. …. Politicians hate hypotheticals, or say they do to dodge questions, but when Mr. Biden can not or won’t run, the Democratic Social gathering would have 3.6 billion causes — Forbes’s most recent estimate of Mr. Pritzker’s net worth — to show to the Illinois governor…. And whereas Mr. DeSantis has created a conservative bastion in Florida over the desires of hundreds of thousands in his numerous state, Mr. Pritzker’s insurance policies have rankled a lot of Illinois past Chicagoland. Below his management, the legislature has authorised a $15 minimal wage, legalized leisure hashish, ended money bail, assured entry to abortions and gender-affirming care and banned assault weapons and high-capacity magazines…. [Pritzker] is open about his political ambitions. He isn’t the Illinois Democratic Social gathering’s chairman, however he sees himself as its head and his political group as its muscle. His cash travels nicely past the state strains, however with strings hooked up. He intends to form the get together in his picture.”

“The Billionaire Household Pushing Artificial Intercourse Identities (SSI)” [The Tablet]. From 2022, nonetheless germane: “One of the highly effective but unremarked-upon drivers of our present wars over definitions of gender is a concerted push by members of one of many richest households in the USA to transition People from a dimorphic definition of intercourse to the broad acceptance and propagation of artificial intercourse identities (SSI). Over the previous decade, the Pritzkers of Illinois, who helped put Barack Obama within the White Home and embody amongst their quantity former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, present Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, and philanthropist Jennifer Pritzker, seem to have used a household philanthropic equipment to drive an ideology and observe of disembodiment into our medical, authorized, cultural, and academic establishments…. The creation and normalization of SSI speaks way more straight to what’s occurring in American tradition, and elsewhere, below an umbrella of human rights. With the introduction of SSI, the present incarnation of the LGBTQ+ community—as distinct from the prior motion that fought for equal rights for homosexual and lesbian People, and which resulted in 2020 with Bostock v. Clayton County, discovering that LGBTQ+ is a protected class for discrimination functions—is working intently with the techno-medical advanced, large banks, worldwide legislation corporations, pharma giants, and company energy to solidify the concept people are usually not a sexually dimorphic species—which contradicts actuality and the basic premises not solely of “conventional” religions however of the homosexual and lesbian civil rights actions and far of the feminist motion, for which sexual dimorphism and ensuing gender variations are foundational premises. By investments within the techno-medical advanced, the place new extremely medicalized intercourse identities are being conjured, Pritzkers and different elite donors are trying to normalize the concept human reproductive intercourse exists on a spectrum.” • Like I’ve been saying, 2024 goes to be ugly.

Trump asks for my vote (1):

Trump: “I’ll completely obliterate the deep state.”

Crowd goes wild. Many People now perceive the enemy isn’t Russia or China. The enemy is the US deep state oligarchy that weaponizes intelligence providers, bribes politicians and controls the media.pic.twitter.com/t8UluiBi2t

— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) March 5, 2023

I don’t know if he’ll, or is ready to… however this can be a bell — a firebell within the evening, if you’ll — that, as soon as rung, can’t be unrung. I do know Trump has his personal aircraft, not a small one, and I hope he is aware of his mechanics and pilots personally (and none of them have instantly acquired any costly toys from unknown sources).

Trump asks for my vote (2):

Trump: “The Republican Social gathering was dominated by freaks, neocons, open border zealots and fools. We’re by no means going again to the get together of Paul Ryan, Karl Rove, and Jeb Bush.” pic.twitter.com/tA4h6lgExj

— Greg Value (@greg_price11) March 4, 2023

“Trump will keep in 2024 presidential race even when indicted, tells CPAC crowd: ‘I’m your retribution’” [ABC]. • I’d like to see Trump working from jail. I believe he’d win.

“Trump wins CPAC straw ballot as Republican 2024 frontrunner in a landslide” [New York Post]. “Trump was the popular candidate of 62% of attendees who voted within the right-wing confab’s annual ballot. As he has in previous years, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis got here in second place with 20% p.c help. Two different declared GOP candidates, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, garnered 3 and 1 p.c of the vote respectively — and Michigan businessman Perry Johnson, who ran a Tremendous Bowl advert for his long-shot marketing campaign for the GOP nomination got here in third with 5% of the vote.” • CPAC shouldn’t be the CPAC is was throughout its glory days; OTOH, possibly those that stayed away did so as a result of they knew Trump would thrash them?

Trump doing what he does finest:

NEW: Trump is spending days at Mar-a-Lago {golfing}, bemoaning 2020 elex, his lack of cable information protection + workshopping nicknames for DeSantis (‘Tiny D’ has come up).

However w/GOP discipline probably giant + DeSantis untested, he may very well be nominee once more: https://t.co/gc7WSzOiFB

— Nancy Cook dinner (@nancook) March 4, 2023

“Tiny D” works for me!

Republican Funhouse

“CPAC 2023: Conservative convention suffers from low attendance and lack of sponsors” [Washington Examiner]. “The Conservative Political Motion Convention’s return to the nation’s capital has proved to be lower than triumphant, with the mainstay political convention affected by decrease attendance and fewer high-profile sponsors. The convention, as soon as a compulsory cease for aspiring Republican presidential candidates, noticed a number of notable Republicans comparable to former Vice President Mike Pence, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), and quite a few different governors skip the high-profile conference. In the meantime, longtime attendees famous a sea-change within the variety of attendees and sponsors. Vickie Froehlich, an attendee who mentioned she had attended the convention a number of occasions, famous the decrease attendance and mentioned the absence of Fox Information within the media hub and the exhibit corridor doubtless contributed to the occasion’s lack of ability to attract presidential aspirants. ‘It’s been an enormous distinction that Fox shouldn’t be right here,’ Froehlich mentioned. ‘Fox helped get the candidates out right here to be interviewed, so it’s noticeable to me that they’re not right here.’ A number of different attendees the Washington Examiner spoke to equally famous the smaller crowd. The absence of high-profile attendees was exacerbated by the Membership for Progress’s donor retreat, which is drawing lots of the notable figures who skipped out on CPAC. And additional complicating the convention’s picture are sexual assault accusations leveled in opposition to its Chairman Matt Schlapp by a former male staffer of Herschel Walker’s Georgia senate marketing campaign. Schlapp has denied the allegation.” • Hmm. FOX. What’s up with FOX?

Democrats en Déshabillé

Affected person readers, plainly persons are really studying the back-dated submit! 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 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, actually, a tough drawback. I do assume the paragraph that follows is on level all the best way 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 Pay attention, 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 elements of the Social gathering reinforce one another. Go away apart characterizing the relationships between components of the Social gathering (ka-ching, however not solely) these components comprise a community — a Flex Internet? An iron octagon? — of funders, distributors, apparatchiks, electeds, NGOs, and miscellaneous mercenaries, with property within the press and the intelligence neighborhood.

Observe, after all, that the category energy of the PMC each expresses and is proscribed 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 trope of liberal timidity or “spinelessness” has been round since I began running a blog in [sighs wearily] 2003:

Liberal timidity is without doubt one of the greatest, most constant issues I’ve seen in American politics for almost three a long time of non-public statement, and the historic report is even longer. The appropriate is keen to battle and battle soiled. We haven’t stepped up.

— Oliver Willis (@owillis) March 6, 2023

However I don’t assume Willis, a Democrat partisan, is being truthful to his Social gathering. Simply take a look at the achievements! Obama normalized torture, home surveillance, and stored Gitmo open. He additionally introduced again the FIRE sector, identical to it was earlier than, after the Nice Crash. And Biden has not solely destroyed public well being as an concept, he’s slaughtered 700,000+ individuals along with his coverage of mass an infection with out mitigation, with out inflicting any riots or, certainly, any political response in any respect. And that’s earlier than we get to Biden fomenting battle with two nuclear powers on the identical time! These are usually not the achievements of timid individuals!

Realignment and Legitimacy

“Political and Social Drivers of COVID-19 Prevention and Local weather Change Behaviors and Attitudes” [Climate]. “The measures of COVID-19 skepticism, antipathy towards political correctness, the assumption that COVID-19 vaccination needs to be a private selection, vaccine hesitancy, COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs, the proportion of Republicans in a single’s social community, and antipathy to Democrats had been all strongly positively correlated with one another, and all had been negatively correlated with considerations about local weather change. Though the associations had been attenuated when controlling for political orientation, all correlations remained statistically important, which means that these associations are usually not merely a results of political ideological orientation. These correlated elements will be seen as reflections of a hegemony that facilities on individualism and reinforces mistrust of governmental establishments [19]. These elements are usually not solely elements of individuals’s political ideologies; additionally they affect concepts about how society ought to perform (i.e., individualistic or communitarian), the sources of data to which persons are uncovered, and the kind of individuals with whom they work together. Aligning with Gramsci’s work, these findings recommend that acceptance of specific concepts round skepticism, conspiracy beliefs, individualism, and political conservativism might replicate hegemonic ideologies in the USA that influences each COVID-19 and local weather change attitudes and conduct.” • Which all sounds nice, till you take a look at what liberal Democrats really did; Biden’s coverage of mass an infection with out mitigation is totally suitable with the Great Barrington Declaration, the worst of the worst, and relentlessly platformed by the so-called liberal media.

“The New Anarchy” [The Atlantic]. “What occurred in Portland, like what occurred in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021, was a concentrated manifestation of the political violence that’s throughout us now. By political violence, I imply acts of violence supposed to realize political targets, whether or not pushed by ideological imaginative and prescient or by delusions and hatred. Extra People are bringing weapons to political protests. Brazenly white-supremacist exercise rose greater than twelvefold from 2017 to 2021. Political aggression as we speak is commonly expressed within the violent rhetoric of battle. Individuals construct their political identities not round shared values however round a hatred for his or her foes, a phenomenon often known as “unfavorable partisanship.” A rising variety of elected officers face harassment and dying threats, inflicting many to depart politics. By almost each measure, political violence is seen as extra acceptable as we speak than it was 5 years in the past. A 2022 UC Davis ballot discovered that one in 5 People believes political violence could be “a minimum of typically” justified, and one in 10 believes it will be justified if it meant returning Trump to the presidency. Officers on the highest ranges of the navy and within the White Home imagine that the USA will see a rise in violent assaults because the 2024 presidential election attracts nearer.” • Hmm. See on DHS below “Biden Administration”; I can see this text circulating there. I’m curious about what readers consider this. What I discover is that “social homicide” is, apparently, not a class of “political violence.”

“A Random Group of Individuals Might Resolve Seattle’s Issues Higher Than Its Politicians” [The Stranger]. “Seattle voters are staring down the barrel of a giant shake-up on the Metropolis Council. However does anybody imagine {that a} new group of inevitably self-promoting people, every scheming in opposition to the others to attempt to win the empty seats, can ship the options town wants? As a former journalist and Congressional staffer who’s had a detailed view of the electoral equipment, I’d prefer to suggest a novel resolution: Take Seattle’s political class out of the equation. And, as a corollary, no extra hand-wringing from residents about whoever they voted for not fixing every little thing for them. What do I imply by this? Whereas ranked-choice voting is likely to be a modest enchancment on the prevailing system, there’s a deeper, more true type of democracy that we must always think about, one that’s quickly gaining traction in Europe and elsewhere. Whereas some would possibly attempt to forged this proposal as a radical change, it’s actually a return to democracy’s roots. Amongst its biggest strengths is that this can be very straightforward for anybody to know. It ensures curiosity teams can not secretly affect outcomes; it accommodates no bickering politicians or events; it doesn’t favor the telegenic, wealthy, well-connected, or highly-educated. Votes can’t be purchased or offered, and large piles of marketing campaign money don’t have any place in it. The potential for corruption is massively diminished. If this sounds too good to be true… nicely, it isn’t. The thought is named a Residents’ Meeting—additionally identified in political principle as sortition, democracy by lottery, or deliberative democracy. Residents are chosen by stratified random choice, making a miniature consultant pattern of our society with out bias or favor, to rotate into lawmaking our bodies, in a lot the identical approach as they’re chosen for juries in our courtroom system. We’re given the possibility to symbolize others, and to be represented in flip. It’s democracy by your friends—and if chosen by probability—by you. In actual fact, that is what ‘democracy’ really is.” • Intriguing, however I’d have to be proven it scales. Vermont city conferences are fairly nice, however Vermont cities are small cities in a small state.

#COVID19

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

• Readers, thanks for the push. We at the moment are as much as 38/50 states (76%). Might these of you in states not listed assist out by both with dashboard/wastewater hyperlinks, or ruling your state out definitively? Thanks! (I believe I’ve caught up with all people I missed.)

Sources, United States (Native): AK (dashboard); AL (dashboard); AR (dashboard); AZ (dashboard); 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); MN (dashboard); MT (dashboard); NC (dashboard); NH (wastewater); NJ (dashboard); NM (dashboard); NY (dashboard); OH (dashboard); OK (dashboard); OR (dashboard); PA (dashboard); RI (dashboard); SC (dashboard); SD (dashboard); TN (dashboard); TX (dashboard); UT (wastewater); VA (dashboard); VT (dashboard); WA (dashboard; dashboard); WI (wastewater); WV (wastewater); WY (wastewater).

Sources, Canada (Nationwide): Wastewater (Government of Canada).

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

Hat tricks to useful readers: Art_DogCT, B24S, CanCyn, ChiGal, Chuck L, Festoonic, FM, Gumbo, hop2it, JB, JEHR, JF, Joe, John, JM (6), JW, LL, Michael King, KF, LaRuse, mrsyk, MT, otisyves, Petal (5), RK (2), RL, RM, Rod, sq. coats (4), tennesseewaltzer, Utah, Bob White (3). (Readers, should you go away your hyperlink in feedback, I credit score you by your deal with. If you happen to ship it to me by way of electronic mail, I exploit 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 count on the record will likely be lengthy, and I would like it to be straightforward for readers to scan.)

• Extra like this, please! Whole: 1 6 11 18 20 22 26 27 28 38/50 (76% of US states). We should always record states that do not need Covid sources, or have stopped updating their websites, so others don’t look fruitlessly. Thanks!

Search for the Helpers

Lambert right here: Everyone is aware of the phrase Schadenfreude; pleasure in one other’s misfortune (for which neoliberalism supplies many events). However why don’t now we have the phrase Freudefreude? Pleasure in one other’s pleasure? Assuming that’s correct German, after all.

“Do You Have Coronaphobiaphobia? Ask Your Physician if Notmybizumab is Proper for You.” [Science-based Medicine]:

Are you a health care provider who has written a number of articles saying “now’s the time to cease residing in worry?” Did you say cautious individuals weren’t “truly not actually living right now“, months earlier than anybody had been vaccinated? Are you engulfed with white scorching rage by the handful of people that nonetheless put on masks in crowds? Have you ever relentlessly mocked them in your podcasts and Twitter feed? Have you ever known as them “idiots“, “STUPID“, a “bunch of fools” “total morons” “delusional” and “off their rocker“? Did you mercilessly shame anybody who wished a booster simply weeks earlier than the Omicron variant ripped through the inhabitants? Do you actively encourage strangers, whose lives nothing about, to repeatedly expose themselves to a brand new, mutating virus with unknown long-term consequences? Do people who find themselves nonetheless making an attempt to keep away from SARS-CoV-2 remind you the pandemic didn’t finish in 2021 as you said it would? Have you ever coined new terms to stigmatize anybody who doesn’t need to repeatedly get sick with COVID for the remainder of their lives?

If that’s the case, you could have coronaphobiaphobia, an inexplicable worry of and inappropriate obsession with whole strangers who need to keep away from COVID.

And:

Notmybizumab™ may help you modify to a painful, difficult world the place individuals you’ll by no means meet don’t need to get COVID over and over. Docs who take notmybizumab™ are 75% much less prone to meltdown after seeing a stranger with a masks, and they’re 87% much less prone to berate them on social media. Though society has adopted 100% of your most popular COVID insurance policies, listening to about somebody who remains to be making an attempt to keep away from the virus might make you’re feeling as if all of your podcasts and YouTube movies had been for naught. Notmybizumab™ will let you lastly calm down! You’re free to get COVID as many occasions as you need, and unvaccinated youngsters are nonetheless getting actually sick with COVID precisely as you supposed.

* * *

Discovering like-minded individuals on (sorry) Fb:

Thought I might add this right here in case anybody is . Locations to seek out individuals who “Nonetheless Covid” in your space & on-line: https://t.co/T4ND4XbrpF & https://t.co/sP5wq4fAw5 You may also search on FB “Nonetheless Coviding ____” & see if there is a particular group in your space.

— Adriel Rose (@adriel_rose) March 1, 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 utilize the Directory with out logging in. I get rational hits from the U.S., however not from London, UK, FWIW.

Covid Is Airborne

This advert is from Australia. Has anybody seen the equal in the USA?

Double web page advert in as we speak’s newspaper for air purifiers. All about eradicating pollens, pet hairs, odours and different gases, smoke, mud. No point out of removing of viruses, not to mention COVID #DiseaseThatMustNotBeNamed pic.twitter.com/6XWvJAXfW6

— Prof Deborah Lupton MPH PhD (@DALupton) March 4, 2023

Maskstravaganza

“Opinion In a crowded place, a face masks or respirator retains the virus away” [Editorial Board (!), WaPo]. Amazingly, WaPo assaults the piece-of-garbage Cochrane examine: “However the Cochrane examine has been criticized for a number of large flaws. A commentary revealed by the Heart for Infectious Illness Analysis and Coverage on the College of Minnesota famous that it used the standard definition of virus transmission by symptomatic coughing or sneezing that spreads bigger droplets, and suggests it didn’t focus sufficiently on the important thing dangers of small-particle, airborne transmission. The Cochrane authors additionally “incorrectly mixed research the place individuals wore masks or respirators occasionally with these the place they had been worn on a regular basis,” the commentary factors out. There has additionally been separate criticism [wrong] of a Bangladesh examine on masks that includes greater than half the inhabitants information within the new trials examined by the Cochrane overview. Right here is the underside line: Free-fitting face masks and surgical masks have a goal, however on the subject of covid transmission, they’re like sporting goggles with holes. Respirators are far superior in a viral pandemic, given what’s now clear about airborne particles and the function that asymptomatic an infection has performed in transmission. Carrying face masks — however particularly respirators — in crowded public enclosed areas with poor air flow is undoubtedly higher than nothing. A examine by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded that ‘constantly sporting a face masks or respirator in indoor public settings reduces the chance of buying SARS-CoV-2 an infection.’ .” • And WaPo accepts aerosols and airborne transmission! Positive, they settle for CDC as an authority, however child steps.

Greenhalgh’s nuanced place on masks:

Yesterday somebody informed me what I imagine ought to occur with masks. Apparently I imagine that everybody, together with babies, ought to put on them on a regular basis. I DO NOT BELIEVE THIS!!! 1/

— Trisha Greenhalgh (@trishgreenhalgh) March 4, 2023

Key paragraph:

I’ve repeatedly argued for a FLEXIBLE strategy to public well being measures. We should always Jack them up when dangers are excessive and wind them again when dangers recede. 12/

— Trisha Greenhalgh (@trishgreenhalgh) March 4, 2023

Greenhalgh is preventing the nice battle, however I disagree together with her on this level. (1), the thought of public well being directors turning the masks knob right down to zero after which as much as eleven when wanted simply isn’t going to work, definitely not in the USA, even assuming CDC is appearing in good religion (the notorious “Inexperienced Map” exhibits its not). There’ll all the time be time lags between the unfold of the virus and turning the knobs, and folks will endure and die in these lags. And since a pandemic when it’s getting going reveals doubling conduct, lags are one thing you actually don’t need. (2) the objective needs to be a cultural norm: Common masking, as in most of Asia. A system with public well being adminsitrators twiddling knobs received’t do this; actually, it’s the very reverse of that. A objective of common masking could appear quixotic now, but it surely’s going to look lots much less quixotic when the following respiratory virus rolls alongside (pandemics every seven years or so). Simply make masks the default in 3Cs settings. Easy and straightforward.

From the The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, some maslk information, stopping in July 2022, sadly:

Think about any individual this chart in January 2021 and considering there’s an issue….

Good metaphor:

Mosquitos maintain coming in my home!
Possibly put screens in your open home windows.
However, freedom!!!

— cmacs (@Leafer1) March 4, 2023

Everyone is aware of some mosquitos get previous the screens. So why do them in any respect? And talking of display doorways:

Subsequent up on Cochrane Opinions, do submarine doorways actually work? We compiled research evaluating the usage of display doorways to hermetic doorways used for 3 hours after which openned while underwater. Outcomes had been inconclusive! #ControversyGeneratesClicks

— A Lone Masks (@CdrHBiscuitIII) March 4, 2023

Someone name a wh-a-a-a-m-bulance:

Once more, techs & engineers working in semiconductor cleanrooms put on masks for extra hours in a day than anybody on the planet. I used to work 12 hour days 7 days every week on some tasks that obtained behind sched. So the masks factor all the time will get an excellent snigger from me.

— Name Me J.R. (@WisdomOfGonzo) March 6, 2023

Scientific Communication

A lot for “herd immunity” (1):

“Herd Immunity”

109,480 deaths in Wave 1
104,942 in Wave 2
390,407 in Wave 3
400,996 in Waves 4 and 5

118,072 deaths up to now within the ceaselessly endemic part

12,000 new deaths each month going ahead pic.twitter.com/VcguNONHoR

— Gregory Travis. Make faculties #DavosSafe (@greg_travis) March 4, 2023

“Herd immunity” being, in its personal approach, one other type of “scientific communication.” Sorta like “primarily based on a real story,” besides not.

A lot for “herd immunity” (2):

There are people who see this and assume “Yay! Lowering amplitude! On the best way to endemic!”.

There are others who assume “Yikes! That is a helluva excessive equilibrium degree it is heading to, with a complete lot of space below that curve”. pic.twitter.com/dymMtdzhQr

— T. Ryan Gregory (@TRyanGregory) March 4, 2023

As readers know, I’m very a lot “a helluva excessive equilibrium degree” man. I see it in case counts, positivity, deaths, and within the ER. I may not see it in hospitalization, however there are such a lot of confounders there (like hospitals being bankruptcy-risking dying traps, for instance).

Sequelae

The injury is cumulative:

“Why it’s so exhausting to get solutions on lengthy Covid” [Vox]. “In the previous couple of months, the primary in a collection of research from the Inspire group (Modern Help for Sufferers with SARS-CoV-2 Infections Registry) have been revealed, and provide painstakingly collected information aimed toward answering large questions on lengthy Covid…. Encourage — a CDC-funded collaboration amongst eight US tutorial medical facilities — is in some ways higher designed than many different lengthy Covid research…. The Encourage examine originated in 2020 as an effort to know the lived expertise and broader impression of Covid-19…. reasonably than utilizing information gathered from digital medical data, the examine makes use of information gathered from surveys administered on to individuals. “Digital well being report information is commonly comparatively restricted,” mentioned Michael Gottlieb, an emergency drugs physician at Rush College who co-led the examine. Details about key signs is commonly lacking, relying on what questions clinicians requested every affected person and what every affected person reported to their supplier.” Sure, as a result of digital well being report information tracks revenue, not well being. So it goes. Extra: “Results the group published in January confirmed that whereas extra individuals with Covid developed persistent signs in the event that they had been contaminated earlier than the delta variant emerged, it wasn’t due to variations between variants. Quite, it was due to social or demographic elements, like preexisting circumstances, hospitalization for Covid, and race and ethnicity. Moreover, they discovered vaccination was protecting in opposition to creating lengthy Covid after an infection. Researchers had suspected that preexisting circumstances and vaccination performed into lengthy Covid danger. So this all made sense…. Within the January examine, individuals who examined unfavorable for Covid really had larger charges of extreme fatigue three months after testing than individuals who had Covid. Additionally they skilled many different signs — like fever, headache, runny nostril, and sore throat — at charges corresponding to or larger than Covid-positives. Additionally complicated had been findings detailed in an earlier publication by the examine group, which reported poor well-being extra typically amongst Covid-negative sufferers than amongst individuals who examined optimistic — 54 p.c in contrast with 40 p.c. What to make of this?”

Elite Malfeasance

One other victory for Hospital An infection Management:

Aren’t there sufficient Hospital-Acquired infections already? For instance:

I don’t perceive why there haven’t been lawsuits in opposition to hospitals who power individuals to discard protecting masks, and change them with much less protecting ones:

When you’ve got appointment at Mass Normal Brigham, it’s important to, in your on-line check-in, consent to put on the blue baggie. So I put it over an N95 but it surely diminishes efficacy & then speak to MD/supplier so I can take it off. Whereas ready , I typically take off surgical however dicey.

— Patty Tobin (@[email protected];https://submit.information/ (@PRPAREXCEL) March 4, 2023

Ah, the ol’ argument from authority:

pic.twitter.com/1SBIfyWXFW

— I Brake 4 Ants (@ibrake4ants) March 4, 2023

To not trash the distinctive physicians that we all know, however the reply to “What are you aware that tons of of medical doctors don’t?” is “Easy methods to shield myself from Covid.”

* * *

Such tender look after the “robust”, “recovering” market; one would possibly nearly assume it’s a residing factor:

Could be nice if economists clarified that occupational danger at many low-wage jobs elevated significantly. Lots of of hundreds of employees died, hundreds of thousands had been disabled, many stop working to keep away from danger. This undoubtedly performed a task, and is among the many worst methods to lift pay. https://t.co/GVIlB72Q95

— wsbgnl (@wsbgnl) March 5, 2023

Seems to be like “leveling off to a excessive plateau” throughout the board. (I nonetheless assume “One thing Terrible” is coming, nonetheless. I imply, in addition to what we already find out about.) Keep protected on the market!

Case Information

NOT UPDATED BioBot wastewater data from March 2:

For now, I’m going to make use of this nationwide wastewater information as the very best 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). At the least we are able to spot developments, and examine present ranges to equal previous ranges.

• “COVID name facilities and testing websites shut in additional signal US is shifting previous the pandemic” [ABC]. The deck: “A number of COVID information trackers have additionally just lately shut down.” Extra; “Hospitalizations and deaths, each of that are historically lagging indicators, have additionally been trending downward. Over the identical interval, weekly deaths have fallen from 4,448 to 2,407, in keeping with CDC information.” • 2,407 * 52 = 125,164, not price monitoring, so the eugenicists have added one other tranche of normalized lethality on high of deaths of despair, and so on. Mission completed, and solely good ol’ Scranton Joe may have carried out it. I’m wondering the place the following tranche will come from?

☆ NW ☆ Covid Emergency Room Visits

NOT UPDATED From CDC NCIRD Surveillance, from February 25:

NOTE “Charts and information supplied by CDC, updates Wednesday by 8am. For the previous 12 months, utilizing a rolling 52-week interval.” So not your complete pandemic, FFS (the implicit message right here being that Covid is “identical to the flu,” which is why the seasonal “rolling 52-week interval” is suitable for each_{MR SUBLIMINAL I hate these individuals a lot}. Anyhow, I added a gray “Fauci line” simply to indicate that Covid wasn’t “over” once they began saying it was, and it’s not over now.

Positivity

From the Walgreen’s test positivity tracker, revealed March 6:

-2.2%. Nonetheless excessive, however finally a definite downturn.

Deaths

Demise price (Our World in Data):

Total: 1,146,740 – 1,146,630 = 110 (110 * 365 = 40, 150 deaths per 12 months, as we speak’s YouGenicist™ quantity for “residing with” Covid (fairly a bit larger than the minimizers would really like, although they’ll speak themselves into something. If the YouGenicist™ metric retains chugging alongside like this, I could must determine that is what the powers-that-be think about “mission completed” for this specific tranche of dying and illness).

Stats Watch

Mr. Market: “This Division-Retailer Inventory Has Trounced Apple, Amazon and Tesla” [Wall Street Journal].

Right now’s Concern & Greed Index: 55 Impartial (earlier shut: 54 Impartial) [CNN]. One week in the past: 60 (Greed). (0 is Excessive Concern; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Mar 6 at 1:47 PM ET.

Rapture Index: Closes up one on Floods. “It has been very moist within the US” [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!

Zeitgeist Watch

“Scientists discover that folks use emojis to cover, in addition to present, their emotions” (press launch) [NewsWise]. “Liu recruited 1,289 individuals, all customers of the most-downloaded emoji keyboard in Japan, Simeji, to research how emojis had been used to specific or masks feelings. Earlier analysis had established that folks use emojis as useful equivalents of facial expressions, however not the relationships between feelings expressed and skilled. That is when show guidelines can show problematic: if the dissonance between the feelings that you just expertise and the feelings you can specific is just too nice, emotional exhaustion can develop, though members of various cultures expertise this in a different way…. Liu discovered that folks selected to specific extra feelings with emojis in non-public contexts or with shut mates. Respondents expressed least emotion in direction of higher-status people. Intense expressions of emotion got here with matching emojis, until individuals felt the necessity to masks their true feelings: for example, utilizing smiling emojis to masks unfavorable feelings. Damaging emojis had been used solely the place unfavorable emotions had been very strongly felt. Expressing feelings with emojis was related to larger subjective wellbeing in comparison with masking feelings. ‘With on-line socializing changing into ever extra prevalent, it is very important think about whether or not it’s inflicting us to develop into extra indifferent from our true feelings,’ mentioned Liu. ‘Do individuals require a ‘shelter’ to specific their real feelings, and is it potential to interrupt free from pretense and share our true selves in on-line settings?’” • Hmm. Lot of assumptions there.

The Gallery

Here’s a Van Gogh I’ve by no means seen:

And one other:

I actually like the primary one, the best way the patchwork fields appear to be making an attempt to align themselves with one another, however not fairly succeeding. It’s good to have a look at a Van Gogh as a portray, versus “a Van Gogh.”

Class Warfare

“Of Innocence and of Expertise” [TANK Magazine]. “I’m now a author publicly related to ‘household abolition,’ a centuries-old anti-capitalist concept that goals to create a grass- roots-led deprivatisation of care, childcare and schooling.” • There are some particulars to handle, nonetheless.

Bourdieu sighting within the wild:

Information of the Wired

Moar play:

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