By Lambert Strether of Corrente
Patient readers, what you see is what you get today; I must hustle along and finish a post on Project 2025. –lambert
Bird Song of the Day
Eastern Meadowlark, County Roads SE of Thrall, Williamson, Texas, United States.
In Case You Might Miss…
(1) Many new Covid charts; New York and New England wastewater down; positivity up; New York hospitaliztation continues its weirdly steady rise.
(2) Trump lawfare status.
(3) Supreme Court decisions and Thursday’s debate.
Politics
“So many of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are in fact a rational management of symbolic capital.” –Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles
2024
Less than a half a year to go!
At this point, we should entertain the hypothesis that the Bragg verdict is a damp squib, unless Biden can somehow leverage it in the debate. Swing States (more here) still Brownian-motioning around. Of course, it goes without saying that these are all state polls, therefore bad, and most of the results are within the margin of error. If will be interesting to see whether the verdict in Judge Merchan’s court affects the polling, and if so, how. NOTE Sorry for the excess red dots; I can’t seem to make them go away!
* * * Trump (People vs. Trump): “Andrew Cuomo: If His Name Was Not Donald Trump The New York Case Would Have Never Been Brought” [RealClearPolitics]. On Bill Maher: “[CUOMO:] That case, the Attorney General’s case in New York, frankly should have never been brought. And if his name was not Donald Trump, and if he wasn’t running for president from the former AG in New York, I’m telling you that case would have never been brought. And that’s what is offensive to people. And it should be. Because if there’s anything left, it’s belief in the justice system.” • I suppose it would be too cheeky for the Trump campaign to make an ad out of that clip; or for Trump to mention it in debate….
Trump (Smith/Cannon): “As Trump’s Documents Case Crawls Along, Questions About Judge Abound” [Wall Street Journal]. “Trump’s legal team has filed a stream of long-shot arguments, and the number of unresolved issues is piling up, with no trial date in sight. ‘She could be overwhelmed and at sea, or super insecure, or it’s just about delay. You could interpret it several different ways. But whatever the reasons, it certainly has the effect of bogging things down,’ said Randall Eliason, a George Washington University law professor and former public-corruption prosecutor.” • I read the article twice, and for all I can tell, it’s just vibes. Worth noting that Jack Smith over-reached, badly, once before; his conviction of Terry McAuliffe was reversed.
* * * Trump (R): “Trump is on a fundraising blitz. But there are other warning signs for Republicans” [Politico]. “But outside of the money race, a series of other developments in recent days have left even Republicans with the impression that November may not be quite as good for the GOP as it once seemed…. Now, new polling from Fox News shows an 11-point swing in President Joe Biden’s favorability among independents: They prefer Biden by 9 points, a reversal from May, when they favored Trump by 2 points.” That’s a lot! And: “Financially, the conviction was a boon to Trump’s small-dollar donor operation. But electorally, the reality of Trump’s conviction has begun to set in, they said…. [A]s Tom McCabe, the GOP chair of swingy Mahoning County, Ohio, put it: ‘This election is going to be decided on the margins, and short-term, his conviction is hurting him in the polling.’ …. In a special election in Ohio’s 6th Congressional District this month, massively outspent Democrat Michael Kripchak erased 19 points from Trump’s 2020 margin of victory — still losing, but becoming the first Democratic candidate to carry the blue-collar Mahoning County since Trump painted it red in 2020. Incumbent Democratic senators in battleground states like Wisconsin, Nevada and Pennsylvania are polling ahead of their Republican challengers. In Arizona’s open Senate race, Republican Kari Lake, a star of the MAGA movement, is underperforming in the polls.”
Trump (R): “Former first lady Melania Trump stays out of the public eye as Donald Trump runs for president” [Associated Press]. “The former first lady noticeably did not accompany the presumptive Republican presidential nominee on any of the days of his more than monthlong hush money trial in New York. She was not there last month for the guilty verdict or the following day for his remarks at Trump Tower. She also did not appear June 14 at a 78th birthday party organized for Trump by his fan club, or at any of the campaign rallies he has held in recent months. Her absence during the trial and for other important moments is unusual, said Katherine Jellison, a professor of history at Ohio University who studies first ladies. But Jellison said maybe it should not come as a surprise as Melania Trump seems reluctant to follow the traditional public role of a politician’s wife. As first lady, she also kept a low profile and she was not a regular presence on her husband’s losing 2020 presidential campaign…. ‘But everything the Trumps do seems to be against the standard playbook of how candidates and spouses behave,’ Jellison said.” • A non-story, then….
Trump (R): “Former Obama fundraiser says she’s divorcing the Democratic Party, voting for Trump for the first time” [FOX]. “An ex-Obama fundraiser who helped raise millions in donations for his campaign announced that she is ‘divorcing’ the Democratic Party and plans to vote for Trump in the upcoming election. ‘Like any divorce, there’s not just one thing, there’s a series of things that led up to it,’ Allison Huynh said on ‘Jesse Watters Primetime’ Wednesday…. Huynh, who created Willow Garage, a company that created robotics and AI systems, which were later sold to Google, along with her then-husband Google programmer Scott Hassan, helped raise millions of dollars for the Obama campaign in 2008 by hosting elaborate ‘$50,000- and $100,000-per-plate dinners, for Silicon Valley giants, the New York Post reported. In the years since, Huynh said she has grown disenchanted with the Democratic Party, telling Fox News host Jesse Watters that she is increasingly fed up as crime, looting and homelessness continue to run rampant under their leadership.” • Hmm.
* * * Biden (D): “As Biden lags in key states, big questions for Democrats” [Axios]. “In the five battleground states where there are also Senate races, Biden and the Democratic candidate are up in both only in Wisconsin, according to Real Clear Politics averages of polls released since May 1. In the other four — Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, and Pennsylvania — Trump leads, while the Republican Senate candidates have clear deficits.” • Does either candidate have coat-tails?
Biden (D): “Sorry, James Carville, but Joe Biden is the best bet to beat Trump” [The Hill]. “The Electoral College math is admittedly a challenge for Biden. But there is no evidence any other Democrat could do better. There are 25 states that Trump won in both 2016 and 2020. He will likely win them all again in 2024 — including North Carolina and Florida, which he won narrowly both times — combining for 235 electoral votes. We will assume that any other Democratic candidate would very likely lose all of these states as well. Trump thus needs to add 35 additional electoral votes to that total to regain the White House. This brings us to Georgia, with its 16 electoral votes, and Arizona with its 11. Trump barely lost both states in 2020, despite winning them four years earlier. These are the two states Trump must win back from Biden this November. And there is little evidence that any other Democrat would have a better chance than Biden in keeping them out of the Trump column. Trump leads (albeit narrowly) in all recent polls of those two states. So adding Georgia and Arizona to Trump’s column for the sake of argument gives him 262 electoral votes. Trump then needs only to win either Pennsylvania, Michigan or Wisconsin — three states he carried in 2016 — to be the next president of the United States.”
Biden (D): “What Obama Is Whispering to Biden” [Gabriel Debenedetti, New York Magazine]. “Often these days, those who speak with Obama walk away with the clear impression that his fundamental view of politics, and of his ultimate political role, has only shifted so much even amid all of the past decade’s upheaval. He is as forceful as anyone in declaring this moment’s peril, but after years of seeming to question the deeper meaning of Trump’s rise and possible return, Obama now comes across as having concluded that no radical rethink is necessary for his own conception of political progress or mass movements.” • Oh.
* * * The Debate: “Will the Supreme Court blow up the presidential debate?” [New Criterion]. Well worth a read: “Whatever the reasons, the two camps settled on a day and a week when the Supreme Court will be handing down a series of explosive decisions, several of them bearing upon the presidential campaign. Some of those decisions may be handed down on the morning of the debate and could upend settled strategies not only for Biden and Trump, but the debate moderators as well. The Supreme Court is still sitting on a dozen pending cases that were argued during the course of the 2023–24 term, and it’s scheduled to issue opinions on all (or most) of them on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of this week—that is, over the three-day period sandwiching the presidential debate. The granddaddy of them all is the Trump immunity case that may circumscribe Jack Smith’s prosecution of the former president over his alleged role in the January 6 riot at the Capitol.” But also: “In Murthy v. Missouri, the court will rule on claims by multiple plaintiffs who contend that the federal government engaged in improper censorship by leaning on social-media companies to suppress conservative views in regard to the origins of COVID-19, the 2020 presidential election, the efficacy masks and vaccines, and other issues.” • The court could say “Let the people decide!” and release everything on Thursday morning. Or it could tease us on Wednesday, and hold the most impactful cases until Friday. However it goes, it will be hard to see the timing as anything other than political.
The Debate: “Exasperated Democrats try to stamp out talk of replacing Biden” [The Hill]. “One Democratic senator feigned putting a make-believe pistol to their temple when asked about the prospect of yanking Biden off the ticket before the Democratic National Convention in August or the general election in November. The senator, who requested anonymity, said stories about replacing Biden on the ticket sound ‘juicy’ but are nothing more than a sign that political pundits have ‘too much time on their hands.’ ‘There’s no way in hell that’s true. Not a chance in hell that’s true,’ the lawmaker insisted. ‘I don’t know what to say.’ … Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) also poured cold water on the speculation. ‘I’ve heard no credible plan B, and I’m not counting on a plan B,’ he said. The Democratic senator said Thursday’s debate between Biden and Trump ‘will be a really critical point’ in the campaign and would set the trajectory of the race. ‘All of the questions that people are asking right now will have different answers after this debate,’ he said. ‘At the end of the day, it’s going to be a choice between the two of them. I think Biden is so much sharper, quicker, knowledgeable than even Democrats give him credit for.’ ‘We all have moments when we can’t remember a name, but that’s not what’s important about being president of the United States,’ he said. ‘I don’t have a plan B; I’m not looking for a plan B.'” • The thing is, the talk is coming from Democratic strategists… talking their books?
The Debate: “Is this going to be the most performative presidential debate ever?” [Jackie Calmes, Los Angeles Times]. “Nonetheless, as my colleague Stephen Battaglio recently wrote, presidential debates are “one of the last mass audience experiences left in a highly fragmented TV landscape.” Six of 10 U.S. adults said they would watch all or most of Thursday’s showdown, and nearly a quarter said they would closely follow the news coverage about it, according to a PBS News/NPR/Marist poll this month. Good for them. In our polarized nation, a presidential debate is a rare communal experience, if far less enjoyable than a Super Bowl.” And: “[T]here’s nothing in Trump’s sorry rhetorical record to suggest he will rise to the occasion. Yet that, too, would be informative. Stay tuned.”
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Democrats en Déshabillé
“Democrats prepare for more lawfare ahead of Trump 2.0” [Unherd]. “So welcome to the doom spiral. As outlets such as the Times continue treating the Right’s lawfare as a dark conspiracy and the Left’s as a campaign to save democracy, political use of the courts will only escalate. This doesn’t absolve partisans of their responsibility to constituents and the Constitution. It does, however, mean they’ll increasingly feel forced to turn to the logic of ‘desperate times, desperate measures’, perhaps rightfully assuming that the only way out is through. If the placid Times story is any indication, it’s not clear America’s political elite is prepared for what that unleashes.” • Third World stuff.
Realignment and Legitimacy
Nobody credits Joe Biden for doing his most important job really well:
4 years ago Bernie Sanders held a rally with AOC in Queens that drew over 25,000 people. Today, both showed up to rally for Jamaal Bowman and the place was empty. This is what happens when you make people believe you will fight for them and then you don't.https://t.co/l0ccuZ7W19
— Prof Zenkus (@anthonyzenkus) June 23, 2024
Syndemics
“I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD.” –William Lloyd Garrison
Covid Resources, United States (National): Transmission (CDC); Wastewater (CDC, Biobot; includes many counties; Wastewater Scan, includes drilldown by zip); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker” (in IA, but national data). “Infection Control, Emergency Management, Safety, and General Thoughts” (especially on hospitalization by city).
Lambert here: Readers, thanks for the collective effort. To update any entry, do feel free to contact me at the address given with the plants. Please put “COVID” in the subject line. Thank you!
Resources, United States (Local): AK (dashboard); AL (dashboard); AR (dashboard); AZ (dashboard); CA (dashboard; Marin, dashboard; Stanford, wastewater; Oakland, wastewater); CO (dashboard; wastewater); CT (dashboard); DE (dashboard); FL (wastewater); GA (wastewater); HI (dashboard); IA (wastewater reports); ID (dashboard, Boise; dashboard, wastewater, Central Idaho; wastewater, Coeur d’Alene; dashboard, Spokane County); IL (wastewater); IN (dashboard); KS (dashboard; wastewater, Lawrence); KY (dashboard, Louisville); LA (dashboard); MA (wastewater); MD (dashboard); ME (dashboard); MI (wastewater; wastewater); MN (dashboard); MO (wastewater); MS (dashboard); MT (dashboard); NC (dashboard); ND (dashboard; wastewater); NE (dashboard); NH (wastewater); NJ (dashboard); NM (dashboard); NV (dashboard; wastewater, Southern NV); 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).
Resources, Canada (National): Wastewater (Government of Canada).
Resources, Canada (Provincial): ON (wastewater); QC (les eaux usées); BC (wastewater); BC, Vancouver (wastewater).
Hat tips to helpful readers: Alexis, anon (2), Art_DogCT, B24S, CanCyn, ChiGal, Chuck L, Festoonic, FM, FreeMarketApologist (4), Gumbo, hop2it, JB, JEHR, JF, JL Joe, John, JM (10), JustAnotherVolunteer, JW, KatieBird, LL, Michael King, KF, LaRuse, mrsyk, MT, MT_Wild, otisyves, Petal (6), RK (2), RL, RM, Rod, square coats (11), tennesseewaltzer, Tom B., Utah, Bob White (3).
Stay safe out there!
| Wastewater | ||
| ★This week[1] CDC June 17: | Last Week[2] CDC June 10 (until next week): | |
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| Variants [3] CDC June 22 | ★ Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC June 8 | |
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| Hospitalization | ||
| ★ New York[5] New York State, data June 21: | National [6] CDC June 1: | |
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| Positivity | ||
| ★ National[7] Walgreens June 17: | Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic June 15: | |
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| Travelers Data | ||
| ★ Positivity[9] CDC June 3: | ★ Variants[10] CDC JUne 3: | |
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| Deaths | ||
| ★ Weekly Deaths vs. % Positivity [11]CDC June 15: | ★ Weekly Deaths vs. ED Visits [12]CDC June 15: | |
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LEGEND
1) ★ for charts new today; all others are not updated.
2) For a full-size/full-resolution image, Command-click (MacOS) or right-click (Windows) on the chart thumbnail and “open image in new tab.”
NOTES
[1] (CDC) This week’s wastewater map, with hot spots annotated. The numbers in the right hand column are identical. The dots on the map are not.
[2] (CDC) Last week’s wastewater map.
[3] (CDC Variants) KP.3 dominating.
[4] (ER) This is the best I can do for now. At least data for the entire pandemic is presented.
[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Though the level is not high, I find the seemingly inexorable rise concerning. (The New York city area has form; in 2020, as the home of two international airports (JFK and EWR) it was an important entry point for the virus into the country (and from thence up the Hudson River valley, as the rich sought to escape, and then around the country through air travel.)
[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). This is the best I can do for now. Note the assumption that Covid is seasonal is built into the presentation. At least data for the entire pandemic is presented.
[7] (Walgreens) 4.3%; big jump. (Because there is data in “current view” tab, I think white states here have experienced “no change,” as opposed to have no data.)
[8] (Cleveland) Still going up!
[9] (Travelers: Positivity) Up. Those sh*theads at CDC have changed the chart so that it doesn’t even run back to 1/21/23, as it used to, but now starts 1/1/24. There’s also no way to adjust the time rasnge. CDC really doesn’t want you to be able to take a historical view of the pandemic, or compare one surge to another. In an any case, that’s why the shape of the curve has changed.
[10] (Travelers: Variants) Same deal. Those sh*theads. I’m leaving this here for another week because I loathe them so much:
[11] Deaths low, but positivity up.
[12] Deaths low, ED up.
Stats Watch
Manufacturing: “United States Dallas Fed Manufacturing Index” [Trading Economics]. “The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas’ general business activity index for manufacturing in Texas came in at -15.1 in June 2024, up from a four-month low of -19.4 in May. The production index, a key measure of state manufacturing conditions, inched up to 0.7 from -2.8 in May.”
Tech: “Why astronauts ‘need space sex robots’ – and it’s not just because they’re randy” [Daily Star]. And the deck: “Researchers say mechanical robots are preferred than virtual assistants in space when it comes to solving problem and providing emotional support to astronauts on long mission.” • Plus, robots won’t get kidney dysfunction in space. Idea: Forget about the astronauts. Just send robots!
Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 43 Fear (previous close: 40 Fear) [CNN]. One week ago: 41 (Fear). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Jun 24 at 12:45:44 PM ET.
Rapture Index: Closes down one on food supply. “The lack of activity has downgraded this category” [Rapture Ready]. Record High, October 10, 2016: 189. Current: 186. (Remember that bringing on the Rapture is good.) • Not what the climate coverage implies.
The Gallery
Class Warfare
“Bring Back Capitalism” (excerpt) [Matt Taibbi, Racket News]. “Seeing Chase CEO Jamie Dimon issue a smiling clarion call in Fortune for higher taxes and massive government intervention via a ‘Marshall Plan for America’ was a major tell that something even worse than what he called ‘free-for-all capitalism” was being contemplated. Dimon’s pledge was in line with outgoing World Economic Forum chief Klaus Schwab’s ‘stakeholder capitalism,’ which purports to end the idea of corporations existing to ‘maximize their profits,’ and make business leaders ‘trustees of society,’ leading efforts to address ‘social and environmental challenges.’ For those who aren’t fluent in rich-person bullshit, what Schwab and Dimon (and a long list of others, like Apple CEO Tim Cook and BlackRock’s Larry Fink) were proposing was that we take the same people who spent the last twenty years devouring Fed rescues and converting the savings of the middle class into Jackson Hole villas, and instead of hurling them off cliffs, put them in charge of society. They would additionally like taxpayers to fund a big enough safety net to guarantee the next generation of customers for, say, a depository bank. As in: ‘We screwed things up so badly, you need to give us even more leeway to make things right.’ It’s enough to make the most mild-mannered person reach for something sharp.” • That’s the stuff to give the troops! (However, I don’t think much of Substack’s “Claim my free post” button; in fact, it’s just a gimmick to get me to download their app, i.e. not free. Why not just open up the post?)
News of the Wired
“Microfeatures I Love in Blogs and Personal Websites” [Daniel’s Blog]. This one: “RSS is a feed standard that allows sites to publish updates. Blogs in particular can make use of RSS to notify readers of updates. RSS feeds are processed by a feed reader, which is a program that polls a website’s index.xml file (or other similar files) and reads it to detect new content. If you opt in to full-text RSS feeds, users can read the entire post entirely from their reader. RSS makes it easier to keep up with your site. Rather than having to check in on every author whose content I enjoy on the internet, I can add their feed URL to my list, and have my feed reader automatically aggregate all updates for me to read. It’s kind of like a social media or news feed, except that I control what’s shown to me, and authors of the blogs I follow don’t need to create accounts and explicitly share their work on social media!” • I upgrade my RSS workflow when it looked like the Twitter might go belly-up; I’ve never regretted it. That said, most of the other features are or were do-able in the blogoshere, but the platforms — looking at you, Substack — don’t support them, greatly limiting the expressive power of the author.
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About the “Bee Man”. Now that’s a helper too. Helping the pollinators, helping the gardens and helping us.
> crime, looting and homelessness continue to run rampant
??? Is she saying that homelessness is getting worse among corporate executives?
Well, corporate executives have already cut loose from home nations. So, being a “citizen of the world” can be a sort of ‘homelessness.’ As an executive in today’s Neo-liberal Paradise, crime and looting are part of the job description.
Does she live in or near San Francisco? Does she not like the crime and homelessness which her Silicon Valley Plate Buyers have helped bring into her area?
Bold mine.
The justice system? Really? The justice system that sent all the bankers to jail after the financial crisis of 2008? The justice system that hid dear Hunters laptop and didn’t do squat? The justice system that let Queen Hills off the hook while kangaroo courts and the system went after political opponents? I could go on.
No, bite me Cuomo, and speak for yourself. I don’t trust them any further than I could could throw the Supreme Court building.
Years into a Pandemic, We’re Stuck in Long Denial OK Doomer
COVID summer wave grows, especially in West, with new variant LB.1 on the rise CBS News
Summer COVID bump intensifies in L.A. and California, fueled by FLiRT variants — Los Angeles Times$ — 6/24/24
I don’t like to look like a freak. I don’t like to wear my respirator and goggles into the grocery store. But what if I’ve been lulled into a false sense of security?
What if, unlike other consumer products, SARS-CoV-2 is actually new and improved? There is a general sense that protection against SARS-CoV-2 is less necessary than it was before. Almost no one wears a mask these days. However, the new subvariants are more transmissible than all previous subvariants. The new subvariants are more than just new. The new subvariants exist because they are better at infecting people than were the previous subvariants.
JN.1 was better at infecting people than was XBB. KP.2 was better at infecting people than was JN.1. It stands to reason that I am going to need to put more effort into wearing personal protective equipment as time goes on.
During the first year of the pandemic you could have a family member sick with COVID-19 in the house with getting everybody sick. After the arrival of Omicron at the end of the second year, everybody in the house would get sick no matter what you did.
I keep thinking that I can run into the grocery store to buy one thing without putting on my goggles. Of course I am going into the grocery store wearing an N95 respirator with a baggy blue mask on top (to hide the fact that it is a respirator). No, I cannot get away with it. I get hit in the eyes with SARS-CoV-2 every time.
I didn’t wear my goggles to church yesterday. I thought that the group would be small. The group ended up being large, and we needed to turn on the air conditioner. The centralized air conditioning system was connected to the bathroom. A wave of bathroom smell would pass by me every fifteen minutes. The cool air passed by me from left to right. If you look at me today, you will see that my left eye looks more raccoon-eye than my right eye.
I need to get over it and start wearing my goggles everywhere all of the time. SARS-CoV-2 is more transmissible than ever.
So here’s the thing about substack, what happens to the content if they go belly up? So for an author, what’s wrong with WordPress? Prof. Jonathan Turley uses a Word Press site. So does the New York Post. As for monetizing, it’s a plugin away.
Beautiful thing is, then *nobody* controls your site and/or your content, and you can host it wherever, or even yourself, if you’re so inclined.
> I upgrade my RSS workflow when it looked like the Twitter might go belly-up; I’ve never regretted it.
Can you give a brief overview of your workflow? I still miss Google’s RSS Reader, but hadn’t pursued a replacement. Reconsidering that choice now.
> Can you give a brief overview of your workflow?
Varies by the time available but in general (1) email, since I subscribe to every newsletter in the world, plus suggestions (Yves; readers); (2) Twitter, essential for Covid and breaking news in depth; (3) RSS for the general, global news flow (and some oddball blogs I also follow).
Email on the Mac, Twitter and RSS on my iPad. My RSS reader on the iPad is NetNewsWire, which also has a Mac version. I’m very happy with it. It has a search function, which makes it easy to sort for breaking stories (search on “Houthi” or whatever).
RSS is not as prevalent as it was before social media, but there’s still plenty of it out there, and I think the smarter news organizations may figure out that RSS frees them from platforms.
I use the vivaldi web browser. it stores rss items as individual emails, which you can then search as you would email.
The problem with rss is you have to leave your rss reader permanently on, otherwise on sites that have a lots of posts you will miss some.
I’ve been using RSSGuard for some time and it fits my needs and seems quite robust / adjustable, so you might find it worth a look. You can download it on its Github page. There are online alternatives but I tend to avoid those, and at least one extension for Firefox that looked good.
I use Inoreader, which syncs across all devices and has apps for iOS, Android and runs in the browser too. There is actually some Google RSS api still active that I run on my moribund blog and the search string I wrote still produces a pretty good list of articles lol. I forgot about it for the longest time, but there’s so much antitrust news lately that it’s actually become useful again.
Just curious, is anti-trust just a hobby? I’m always on the lookout for good anti-monopoly info….
I’m a commercial and compliance generalist, so antitrust is part of the gig. The blog is empir (dot) is
I haven’t posted in a looong time.
The denials about replacing Biden remind me of the classic line from Yes Minister/Yes prime Minister:
“Never believe anything until it has been officially denied”
They should be out of session. Or at least, they have been doing local Team Blue breakfasts.
My guess local Dems are the voice. They know there are no young people participating and they know what happened 4 years ago.
There is no evidence because the Clinton-Obama apparatchiks will not allow any other Democrat with any substance to be in the discussion for the Presidency. They have a stable full of unlovable nonentities like Buttigieg, Newsome, and Harris and have thoroughly emasculated former rivals like Sanders politically. So which “any other Democrat” are they thinking of?
I still think that if they could’ve gotten Biden to retire gracefully at the end of his current term, a ticket of Sherrod Brown and Ron Wyden would have been way more competitive against Trump. But I’m afraid it’s going to take a big, big defeat before the Democrats change course. And it may even be too late for that to work.
The current Leadership of the DemParty is not interested in changing course so long as their present course can delete people like Sanders or Brown or Wyden or other non-nonentities from running. They accept big, big defeats as the price of keeping New Deal Revivalists out of leadership in the Party, running for President, etc.
The only big,big defeat which would be bigger than they want would be a defeat like the Fremont defeat of 18-whenever, and even then only if it actually exterminated the current anti-New Deal leadership from political existence.
There is no alternative…as long as you insist on sticking with the status quo. (Practically by definition, really)
At first I thought this was a joke.
https://www.allaboutfeed.net/market/market-trends/chicken-litter-in-livestock-feed-comes-under-scrutiny-in-us/
Chicken litter in livestock feed comes under scrutiny in US
Referred to as the NO SHT Act.
Re Why astronauts ‘need space sex robots–Wait, there are sex robots?
and re the debate you left off this one.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ex-white-house-doctor-ronny-jackson-calls-biden-take-drug-test-before-trump-debate
“He then accused Biden of using performance-enhancing drugs during the State of the Union, describing the president as having been “profusely sweating, yelling at the camera, not blinking, and frequently moving and gesturing with his hands at a rapid rate.”
or alternately the NBC version which assures us this can’t possibly be true.
“Baseless accusations that Biden has used performance-enhancing drugs have dovetailed with attacks on the president’s age and mental fitness as he seeks another term at 81”
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/rep-ronny-jackson-says-biden-submit-drug-tests-debate-rcna158492
I’d say NBC’s “baseless” is as much in the realm of speculation as Ronny Jackson’s letter.
Debbie does Andromeda?
Apparently the Chinese are doing good work installing a form of AI in a series of models with ChatGPT so there are those. Sex can be messy at the best of times but in zero g stuff tends to float around. Still, sex in zero g? Heinlein in one novel mentioned such a setup in zero g in a brothel where all the sides of that small room were mirrors which the old hands liked but which caused more than one young guy to vomit in that zero g space. Eeeww.
i realise that ive been somewhat out of the loop these past 3 months as far as newsgathering and hanging out with yall…but what, pray tell, drugs are we possibly talking about, here?
what could take the man i see doddering around, almost insensate, and most definitely shitting his depends on occasion(*)…and turn him into SOTU Joe?
i certainly am not aware of any such drug.
(*-ive worked in nursing homes, as a cook…including one specifically for the demented/crazy(Fun Times!**)…as well as being the secondary caregiver for my great grandma in her last ten years…and my wife in her last months….ive seen that kind of doddering/insensating an pooping behaviour up close, repeatedly….in fact, im sometimes surprised, when seeing another biden video, that he hasnt reached in and threw poop at someone he was yelling at**…that last mentioned nursing home was just full up with poor souls who behave just like the leader of the free world does.)
This could be like those old Readers Digest articles.
“Hi! I’m Joe’s Meds!”
Personally, I’m leading towards Adderall and micro-dose LSD-25. With a shot of Thorazine afterwards to “take the edge off.”
What is very ‘sad funny’ is that Reagan’s “People” managed to hide his dementia for over six years, while Biden has been sort of thrown to the wolves. Either the Democrat Donor Department has become much less efficient than in days of yore, or they want Biden to crash and burn.
The rest follows.
Less political talent around him. Reagan was a major union boss and governor of California. Biden was peddling on nostalgia and allowed to lie with impunity when he should have been hammered.
The GOP should be a rump regional party. Team Blue incompetence keeps them in the game.
Democrats look incompetent, but the reality is they can’t do anything because they don’t actually agree with each other about anything (well, except they agree on continuing to cash checks from bankers and other moneyed interests in exchange for doing what comes natural, which is not doing anything).
I didn’t watch the SOTU and doubt if I’ll watch the debate either. I just think it’s funny that the NBC Ministry of Information took the bait.
And the same spinners are the ones suggesting that if Biden “knocks it out of the park” it will put doubts about his competence to rest. Which if your approach to the election is completely superficial might be true. The prob for the MSM is their assumption that the public at large are gullible rubes (like themselves) and couldn’t possibly have legitimate grievances that can’t be dismissed with a wave of the hand “baseless.”
and we’re still not s’posed to remember his exceedingly long record in high affairs, nor the numerous vids of him saying crazy shit on the senate floor, nor the numerous republican in everything but name policies he’s boasted repeatedly about in those same vids as being his babies.
even worse than hillory…altho she, to my knowledge, doesnt sniff hair(!?!) as often.
remember, i was banned from kos for bringing up her record, as per wapo.
neither of these people are democrats, in my opinion(but who is, by now?)
Joe and Hillary are traditional Democrats. much like the Democrats of the 1860’s and 1870’s.
They both are fans of slavery and both are servile and corrupt tools of the Oligarchy.
If the results of the 1994 “Crime Bill” aren’t Slavery, what are they?
Private, for profit Prisons FFS.
I await Matt Taibbi’s debate drinking game with anticipation and dread.
Sad to say, I cannot now remember a time when electoral politics did not look like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO1Hikljy08
I am with you, so much easier to get the reviews the next day after all of the feces throwing dies down.
Dartmouth is hosting a debate watch party. I’m not going. However I wish us NCers could be in the same room together to watch it. It would be so much fun.
not a room, dear…the Wilderness Bar.
i wont watch it any other way.
its too…embarrassing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6l6vqPUM_FE
(ive had a bunch of big band music on all day as ive been toiling…woody herman is prolly my current fave, but the old ww2 glen miller radio programs are pretty cool, too.)
Personal favorite, probably because we used to have the album in the junior high band room and I used to be able to play the drums like Gene Krupa does on this one – Sing, Sing, Sing.
Note to the whippersnapper contingent if there is one at NC – nobody actually sings, but it’s a straight up banger!
It was fun to ‘live blog’ a bit of Biden’s SOTU at NC.
“Big Farmer! Wrong! Ended! Millions of seniors on drugs! Saved!”
“Chicken Science Act! Passed! Jobs! Being created jobs!”
Loss of the ACP has left me with nearly zero internet access so I won’t be here for the debate. I’ll look forward to reading debate commentary from NCers when I can get online.
‘but what, pray tell, drugs are we possibly talking about, here?’
In old Joe’s case, I would suggest formaldehyde.
if he was one of the crazy nursing home people i cooked for, long ago…i’d say haldol…or at least some milder antipsychotic.
but this is, again, the Leader of the Free World(tm)…who is apparently rather zonked in his natural state.
are there such drugs to boost him?
make him appear coherent?
what are the side effects? after effects?
time to recover from them?
was a time…in my adult lifetime, no less…when the actual health of the preznit was the bidness of the american people…excepting jfk’s addison’s and fdr’s polio…that i can recall offhand.
i remember reading such reports.
and, nearer to now, arguing about them on socmed.
i’m serious in my initial inquiry.
dude looks suited only to being propped up in a rocking chair on a porch in delaware, to me, and waiting around for him to just stop breathing.
been there, done that,lol.
so…4 more years!…?!?
lol.
aint gonna happen.
debate?…i cannot watch.
like Lambert says, Elder Abuse.
A number of years back, writer Robert Richardson (AKA Phillip Latham) came up with the suggestion of sending prostitutes to space to satisfy the needs of astronauts. Several writers wrote critiques of the essay mentioning it, including Poul Anderson, Miriam De Ford, Joanna Russ, and C.S. Lewis (whose short story, “Ministering Angels”, was a kind of answer to it).
As for drugs, on the one hand, I do question Biden’s competence. On the other hand, Jackson wrote a number of prescriptions himself for high-powered stimulants, depressants, and others during the Trump years as White House Physician…
describing the president as having been “profusely sweating
————-
all fake news. The elite don’t sweat. just ask Prince Andrew!
Hmmm…
A longer comment about a DNC fundraising letter I got on Saturday has gone missing. It showed up for a bit and now it’s gone. (It did suddenly have the note at the bottom that “You can no longer edit the comment.”)
Internet Dragons have an eclectic diet.
[When will I ever learn to cache comments until they are up and running? Stupid me.]
Good Taibbi if only an excerpt. We can wish that it was more than an excerpt but perhaps we should blame Rolling Stone for that.
Lambert views some of these Supreme Court decisions as political *but* the candidates decided to have their debate during the week the court releases results, so of course things can be viewed through a political lends. Personally, I hope whatever is decided in both Jack Smith’s Mar-A-Lago documents case as well as Fisher are ruled upon unanimously. This, expressly to defang the beast baying for the hides of the Court members.
Anyway, I have a personal interest in Relentless, Inc. v. Department of Commerce because of the overbearing role the FAA plays in my ownership in an antique aircraft. One actually created before the FAA existed! So they impact my ownerhship of private property in a way adverse to my interests.
Basically, they dictate what I, the owner, can do in the way of maintenance and modifications. Some of which has repercussions with regard to safety.
For example, the autopilot in my aircraft is primitive by today’s standards. However to replace it with a new one, due to arcane regulations, means I’m forced to either use an autopilot more suited for a $1M private jet than one for a $50k homebuilt, or do without.
This, simply because my aircraft was built in a now defunct factory +60 years ago. Yes, believe it or not, how/where it was built impacts what I can do. And this despite my rather old aircraft and the brand new home – both – being built using essentially the exact same techniques (riveted sheet metal) with the same engine and prop, carrying the same number of passengers, to the same altitude, at the same speed, and for the same distance, e.g. being nearly the same in looks and function!
My aircraft for the curious, we call her Sweet-E.
So she’s valued similarly to a homebuilt, but can’t use the same autopilot despite virtually identical construction and performance merely because of how the FAA classify the autopilot vendors. Meanwhile the homebuilt owner may elect to install an autopilot costing $4000, or the $30-50,000 unit but *I* am forced to spend for one costing $30-50,000 (even though both perform about the exact same).
Bottom line? It is demonstrably bureaucratic rules run amok over common sense. So my choice, effectively, is take a mortgage to update, or do without a modern autopilot. Said autopilot costing about as much as the aircraft is worth. Think anybody does this?
So in the real world, as a consequence of their rules and regulations, people do without a lifesaving device, especially critical when they get into weather or conditions where an autopilot could save them. So these citizens pay the price of regulatory overreach.
Don’t believe me? Think back to JFK Jr. crashing that night after became disoriented while flying through thick fog over the coast of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts . . . he didn’t have a functioning autopilot in his Saratoga, an aircraft with virtually the same performance and value as my own. I know because I test flew one like it before buying my Bonanza.
And while we’ll never know the truth, I betcha the reason is he didn’t have a new autopilot is the same reason I don’t to this day despite Jones-ing for an update for closing on 20 years. Basically, I don’t want to fork over $40K to update it because I’ll never recoup my investment. And lots and lots and lots of aircraft owners are in my same boat. It’s 100% because of the FAA applying rules for bigger heavier aircraft to ones like mine. To put this in context, an owner of a $1.5M King Air would use the same $30-50k autopilot. But for on like that, the investment is far easier to justify because it is much more aircraft, e.g. a replacement engine alone costs more than my aircraft, it weighs twice as much, flies twice as high, and is nearly twice as fast, and carrying 2-3X the number of souls onboard than for an aircraft like mine, capisci? It makes perfect sense in one of those.
Circling back to JFK Jr., had he had a mere $4000 autopilot instead of nothing at all, then he could have pushed one button and they would be alive today . . . maybe even with running for president – age 62 y/o – as the Democrat’s nominee this cycle! me? I blame the FAA for their death.
The FAA is overrun with rules, they amount to over 1000 pages every year – it’s nuts.
i dont recall now where i snatched this from, today…but dern tootin, Warwick!
saved and bookmarked, so i can fling it.
https://warwickpowell.substack.com/p/dire-straits?r=1p62fw&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true
and as an anecdote…sometime in the late 80’s i was driving my grandpa…the sheet metal small industrialist…on 105, between conroe, texas and montgomery, texas(toddlin town…)…and he pointed to a hill on the south side of the highway, with a great big, ostentatious gate. said, “that’s Madam Chang Kai Check’s Bunker”…and then related that his company had done a bunch of ductwork on said bunker.
said she was a raging fascist(his words)…and a lunatic bible thumper(also his words).
implying to me that he had encountered her.(i didnt know who she was until i got home and looked it up in the deluxe britannica set)
That is an excellent article! Thank you for posting it.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/jun/23/nhs-faces-ticking-time-bomb-with-heart-failure-patients-as-numbers-soar
June 23, 2024
NHS faces ‘ticking bomb’ with number of heart failure patients set to soar
Cases are predicted to nearly double by 2040 as charity warns of 400,000 people with undiagnosed heart failure
By Jon Ungoed-Thomas – Guardian
The health service faces a “ticking time bomb” over people suffering from heart failure, with diagnosed cases predicted to nearly double by 2040, medical experts have warned.
The British Society for Heart Failure (BSH) warns there are an estimated 400,000 people with undiagnosed heart failure in the UK. It warns there is an urgent need for a national initiative to detect these cases or NHS services face being overwhelmed in future years.
Heart failure happens when the heart is unable to properly pump blood around the body. It is a long-term condition that cannot be cured, but early diagnosis and treatment can reduce the risk of hospitalisation and death. Treatments include medication to improve heart function and surgery, implanting a pacemaker to control heart rate or heart surgery to improve blood flow.
About 80% of patients with heart failure are diagnosed after emergency admission to hospital. About one in 10 die in hospital and about a third who are discharged will die within the year. Doctors say patients are not being effectively diagnosed in the community.
Lynn Mackay-Thomas, chief executive of the BSH, said: “We are facing a tsunami of hospital admissions if we do not systematically find those with heart failure early or at highest risk of developing heart failure.
“It’s a ticking time bomb. A national, sustainable and centrally commissioned programme to find people before they become acutely unwell can help change this trajectory. We have the knowledge and treatments to transform people’s lives and prevent many avoidable deaths.”
A report by the Health Foundation published in July 2023 on projected patterns of illness in England reported that the number of cases of heart failure in England was forecast to increase by 92% between 2019 and 2040. This compares to a 31% projected increase for cancer and a 45% increase for dementia…
‘Tis a mystery!
“‘Tis a mystery!”
Precisely, the Guardian leaves no hint of why an epidemic of heart disease should be expected in the United Kingdom. At least the Guardian could report that reasons for the expected surge in heart disease are unknown. But, explain to readers.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1oTvI
January 15, 2018
Life Expectancy at Birth for United States, United Kingdom and Ireland, 2007-2022
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1oTvV
January 30, 2018
Infant Mortality Rate for United States, United Kingdom and Ireland, 2007-2022
Walgreens rocketing up, this week we’re at 34.1%! Up 4.1%! The eugenics train always leaves on time?
Resort towns in my area are looking pretty grim. Away from that, not too bad, so far. But I just got an “out sick” auto reply from a co-worker so…
‘Prof Zenkus
@anthonyzenkus
4 years ago Bernie Sanders held a rally with AOC in Queens that drew over 25,000 people. Today, both showed up to rally for Jamaal Bowman and the place was empty. This is what happens when you make people believe you will fight for them and then you don’t.’
You wonder what sort of crowd Bernie Sanders would draw these days if he held a rally. His near total absence in this electoral year has been noted.
It sounds like he woke up one morning and found a red heifer’s head in the bed next to him.
Touché! :-)
Reports say Julian Assange has agreed to a plea bargain — guilty of violating the Espionage Act, in exchange for sentence of 62 months = time already served in U.K. Belmarsh prison).
https://www.npr.org/2024/06/24/nx-s1-5017953/julian-assange-plea-deal
A more just result would have been: no necessity to admit wrongdoing, with the Espionage Act, along with its use as a tool for silencing journalists and publishers, ending in the ash can of history where it belongs.
NYT:
Assange Agrees to Plead Guilty in Exchange for Release, Ending Standoff With U.S.
if above won´t work
NYT
https://archive.is/eYe4G
“Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, agreed to plead guilty on Monday to a single felony count of illegally disseminating national security material in exchange for his release from a British prison, ending his long and bitter standoff with the United States.
Barring last-minute snags, the deal would bring to an end a prolonged battle that began after Mr. Assange became alternately celebrated and reviled for revealing state secrets in the 2010s.”
Last I heard at Craig Murray’s blog, the Brits were starting to chafe a bit at the US’s creative legal justification for extradition:
But since there were rumors in the wind even before that, I suppose the UK, US, and Australia have been inclining toward “””leniency””” for some time.
Please let him still be able to say that there are four lights.
Here’s hoping that as soon as he’s free, he goes home and releases every secret he has on every [family blog]er in every government responsible for his unjust imprisonment.
Some photos here and more details. He’s looking better but has dramatically aged.
https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/julian-assange-expected-to-plead-guilty-to-us-espionage-charge-document-says-20240625-p5joh5.html
Thank you!
It’s an outrage that Assange is being coerced to plead guilty to anything, but the end of the torturous solitary confinement that would continue pending a trial on the merits is worthy of compromising the free-speech principles we hold dear.
Of course, it’s quite evident that the British courts were finally balking at the outrageous legal over-reach that was initiated by Kenyan Jesus and his AG Eric Holder, and rubber-stamped by the gormless Trump and Sessions. This “deal” is nothing more than political face-saving by the collapsing Biden cabal.
May Trump and Biden both rot in the 4th ring of Hell for what they did to this man.
Yes, but he’s finally free!.
All it means is that fewer people will trust the US legal system which may follow the letter of the law but has lost the spirit of the law, and is therefore used by the powerful for lawfare. In other words, it has been corrupted.
An interesting Pew foundation poll shows that people worldwide have lost trust in the US being a good example for democracy.
It should also mean that fewer people will make the mistake Assange did, of stepping foot in the UK.
La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la, la, la
La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la, la, la
La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la, la, la-la, Kamala
Soon Joe will have lost everything to you
You say you wanna start something new
And it’s breaking my heart you’re leaving Veep
Baby, I’m grieving
But if you want to leave, take good care
Hope you have a lot of nice things to wear
But then a lot of nice things turn bad out there
Ooh baby baby, it’s a word salad world
It’s hard to get by just upon a smile
Ooh baby baby, it’s a word salad world
I’ll always remember you like a child, girl
You know I’ve seen a lot of what of what your vocabulary can do
And it’s breaking my heart in two
Because I never want to see you sad girl
Don’t be a bad girl
But if you want to leave, take good care
Hope you make a lot of nice speeches out there
But just remember there’s a lot of bad syntax and beware
Beware
Ooh baby baby, it’s a word salad world
It’s hard to get by just upon a smile
Ooh baby baby, it’s a word salad world
And I’ll always remember you like a child, girl
Ooh baby baby, it’s a word salad world
It’s hard to get by just upon a smile
Ooh baby baby, it’s a word salad world
And I’ll always remember you like a child, girl
Wild World, by Cat Stevens
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtX5xDzaMro
This might be my favorite of all your lyrical adaptations.
Thanks for the kudos, didn’t have to change the lyrics all that much.
unconfirmed by myself:
https://x.com/Kanthan2030/status/1805380420999299138
One thing that bugs me: when I vote “for President”, aren’t I voting in fact for a slate of Electors?
Regarding Jamaal Bowman and the NY16 Dem primary, Josh Marshall has written a fairly pragmatic view of the contest, and contrasts Bowman, as candidate and as legislator, to AOC.
A Different Take On Jamaal Bowman, Israel & NY-16 (shared link, some dismissable popups)
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/a-different-take-on-jamaal-bowman-israel-ny-16/sharetoken/e4ce6c97-6828-4b91-a3c6-3d9b31966223
…
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/20/nyregion/aipac-bowman-latimer.html
June 20, 2024
AIPAC Unleashes a Record $14.5 Million Bid to Defeat a Critic of Israel
The deluge in outside spending, which also includes another $1 million from another pro-Israel group, threatens to sink Representative Jamaal Bowman.
By Nicholas Fandos
Pro-Israel political groups have transformed a Democratic primary on the outskirts of New York City, overwhelming the race with record-shattering outside spending to take down one of Israel’s most outspoken detractors, Representative Jamaal Bowman.
The onslaught by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and allied groups has made good on a warning delivered to lawmakers like Mr. Bowman after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack: Moderate your views or face a deluge of political attacks.
Now, in barely a month, an AIPAC-affiliated super PAC has spent $14.5 million — up to $17,000 an hour — on the race, filling television screens, stuffing mailboxes and clogging phone lines with caustic attacks. With days to go, the expenditures have already eclipsed what any interest group has ever spent on a single House race….
Yes that’s really bad. I’d say they’re sending a message, since Bowman is, as Marshall accurately describes, fairly vulnerable despite his own fundraising clout. I even contributed myself, out of anti-AIPAC sympathy.
AIPAC, like all donors I’ve ever encountered, likes to present themselves as the candidate’s friend, the staunch supporter and good buddy with the quiet word. They’d rather not look like the heavy-handed influence machine that they are, and preserve some illusion for their purchased elected. Their money has turned a lot of heads for a long time, look no further than Biden; look further and see almost the entire delegation of both houses of Congress.
It’s naked foreign influence that’s been going on and ignored for decades. Dems wailed about 2016-Russia-thingy and didn’t say peep about AIPAC or USIPAC or a host of other foreign money contributions laundered in. Citizens United wrecked US the democratic aspects of US politics very thoroughly.
“Josh Marshall has written a fairly pragmatic view…”
Forgive me, but I find the writing extreme deceptive and morally threatening of a member of Congress.
> I find the writing extreme deceptive
Not unknown for Marshall, but why?
Morally threatening? Because Rep. Bowman should get to say whatever he wants in any way he wants to, no matter how the people who elect him feel about it?
Marshall rambles and gestures freely* and buries his very occasionally relevant observations in froth, it’s a trademark or something. I’m not defending that, have at him for it. I guess I should have dug around and found a more serious commenter making the point about Bowman’s situation. But the contrast to AOC, who also has a large Jewish constituency, is on point, she sometimes walks a fine line at home. What is a democratic representative system when representatives speak and act counter to the sentiments — or the needs — of their own voters? It’s not supposed to be a free-for-all, wangle a seat and go off snipe hunting. Compare to Lauren Bobert who seems to have a clear shot at taking Chip Roy’s vacated seat: many GOP primary voters there like the MAGA flavor, as is their right, and it’s their district.
Again, Citizens United has completely skewed our politics and perceptions of it, and people struggle to distinguish district constituencies from donor lobbies; truly muddied waters.
*Mea culpa. I do attempt to edit before posting. Marshall’s closing paragraph in the piece is a train wreck, I did and do feel bad about posting it. And I hope my word salad can be forgiven, at least a bit, as well. If not, then that’s on me.
Oh Canada!
Your trophy’s native land!
True patriot love in all of us in the USA command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The Florida teams strong as can be!
From far and wide,
Oh Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
Gotta keep the cup down under you see!
Oh Canada, we stand on guard for thee
Woe, Canada.
Just FYI, Tte NYS wastewatcher link moved to here:
https://nywastewatcher.shinyapps.io/SARS2EWSPDash/
from the link in your ever-helpful, by-state grouping here:
https://mbcolli.shinyapps.io/SARS2EWSP/