By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Bird Song of the Day
In honor of Tax Day, here is an American Bald Eagle (not mellifluous, but more mellifluous than I would have thought).
#COVID19
At reader request, I’ve added this daily chart from 91-DIVOC. The data is the Johns Hopkins CSSE data. Here is the site.
I feel I’m engaging in a macabre form of tape-watching. All the charts are becoming dull — approaching nominal, if you accept the “new normal” of cases, for example.
Still whoops, except in the Northeast. I guess we’ll see if Biden abandoning masks provides sufficient incentive.
Case count by United States regions:
Continued good news. I have added an anti-triumphalist black line; as far as cases go, we are at the same level of the first wave. Since this is a weekly average, the Biden/CDC masking kerfuffle will not show up for awhile, if indeed it does show up.
The Midwest in detail:
Continued good news. Looks like I can abandon this chart when Michigan is no longer an outlier. I think I’ll do a case chart for the world instead.
Big states (New York, Florida, Texas, California):
Continued good news.
The West is flat. The South is rising.
DIVOC-91 no longer updates hospitalization and death so I went and found some substitutes; neither provide regional data.
Hospitalization (CDC):
More good news.
Deaths (Our World in Data):
More good news.
Politics
“But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?” –James Madison, Federalist 51
“They had one weapon left and both knew it: treachery.” –Frank Herbert, Dune
“They had learned nothing, and forgotten nothing.” –Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord
Biden Administration
UPDATE “Biden to Send U.S.-Authorized Vaccines Abroad for First Time” [Bloomberg]. “President Joe Biden plans to send an additional 20 million doses of U.S. coronavirus vaccines abroad by the end of June — including, for the first time, shots authorized for domestic use, where supply is beginning to outstrip demand. Biden will announce Monday that he’ll export 20 million doses of vaccines from Pfizer Inc., Moderna Inc. or Johnson & Johnson, on top of 60 million AstraZeneca Plc doses he had already planned to give to other countries, according to a senior administration official familiar with the plan. The official, who asked not to be identified ahead of planned remarks from the president, stressed that the measures are only a first step as the U.S. pivots its attention to quelling the pandemic abroad. Biden has previously pledged that the U.S. would soon become an ‘arsenal’ of global vaccine supply. Biden will also announce that he is putting Jeff Zients, who has served as the White House coronavirus response coordinator, in charge of his effort to beat back the pandemic globally, the official said. Zients will work with the National Security Council and other agencies to steer doses abroad.” • Zients, not Kamala? I guess Biden actually wants something done….
“Child cash benefit will show up in parents’ bank accounts soon” [The Hill]. “Close to 39 million U.S. families will begin to receive child benefit payments in July from the Biden administration’s new benefit under the coronavirus relief bill. On July 15, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will begin dispensing monthly payments of $300 per child under 6 and $250 per child older than 6 to families who qualify. These benefits will be dispersed to families through direct deposit, paper check or debit card, every month on the 15th, or, if it is a weekend or a holiday, the closest available day to the 15th. The benefit stems from the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package Democrats passed in March, which expanded on a $2,000-per-child benefit to make it $3,600 per child under the age of 6 and $3,000 per child older than 6. The expansion also provides benefit coverage to additional families who previously didn’t qualify due to low incomes. Families or parents who earn a high income will receive lower benefits or no benefits, determined by their income. Individual parents with a gross income of more than $75,000 and couples with a combined income of more than $150,000 will receive smaller benefits. The Biden administration believes the benefits will affect more than 65 million children, or 88 percent of all U.S. children.” • It’s good that the Biden administration is provisioning the working class beyond the wage relation, even if the program does only last one year. Of course it’s means-tested with a “for the children!” eligibility requirement, so and as usual, no concrete universal material benefits.
“Space Force commander removed after comments on podcast” [The Hill]. “On the podcast, Lohmeier said he has witnessed ‘fundamentally incompatible and competing narratives of what America was, is and should be.’ ‘Since taking command as a commander about 10 months ago, I saw what I consider fundamentally incompatible and competing narratives of what America was, is and should be,’ Lohmeier said, according to CNN. ‘That wasn’t just prolific in social media or throughout the country during this past year, but it was spreading throughout the United States military. And I had recognized those narratives as being Marxist in nature,’ he added. When pushed on what he meant by these comments, Lohmeier said The New York Times’s 1619 Project, a historical look at how slavery shaped the country’s institutions, was ‘anti-American.’ ‘It teaches intensive teaching that I heard at my base — that at the time the country ratified the United States Constitution, it codified white supremacy as the law of the land,’ Lohmeier said. If you want to disagree with that, then you start [being] labeled all manner of things, including racist,’ he continued.” • If the 1619 Project is “Marxist,” then it’s certainly odd that the WSWS got some actual scholars to take an axe to it, so that’s “precious bodily fluids”-level woo. On the other hand, criticizing the 1619 Project is grounds for dismissal? Really?
Realignment and Legitimacy
“I’ll Take ‘White Supremacist Hand Gestures’ for $1,000” [New York Times]. “So the moderators of the group waited until 11 p.m. sharp on April 27 to reassure the roughly 2,800 fellow members that they had the crisis in hand. They had seen a contestant on that night’s show, a big white guy with a red tie, Kelly Donohue, make an odd gesture with three fingers of his right hand. ‘Based on the evidence we’ve seen being bandied about elsewhere, there is a real possibility he was giving either a white power or a Three Percenter hand gesture,’ wrote one moderator, a middle-school teacher who was on the show about five years ago, according to screenshots provided by another group member. And though ‘we can’t know his intent,’ he continued, ‘we’re not here to provide safe harbor for white supremacists.’… But the ‘Jeopardy!’ story is a remarkable case study for a couple of reasons. First, the participants represent a particular kind of American achievement — the mastery of facts and trivia, celebrated by one of America’s few universally beloved institutions. A turn on “Jeopardy!” is the best credential there is in America. (When my brother, Emlen, lost valiantly in 2017, it generated more familial excitement than his Ph.D.) And I would say, after talking to a couple of dozen former contestants last week, that they are not just smart people but basically nice and sincere ones, too, from diverse backgrounds all over the country, united only by their ability to recall Madonna lyrics and capital cities. And second, … Mr. Donohue’s case is unusually clear-cut, and the allegation is obviously false…. Mr. Donohue’s three fingers, Snopes pointed out, symbolize the number ‘three.’ After his first victory, he waved one finger. After his second victory, he raised two. And after his third, he showed three fingers. He awkwardly folded his index and forefingers into something that looks as if it could be some kind of sign, but doesn’t resemble the ‘OK’; signal that white supremacists have sought to appropriate.” • Symbol manipulotors gotta symbol manipulate. And obviously a class that easy to gaslight is a tremendous asset to whoever controls the gas.
Stats Watch
“May 2021 Empire State Manufacturing Index Declines” [Econintersect]. “The Empire State Manufacturing Survey index marginally declined but remained in expansion…. Key elements are in positive territory and all improved. This report is considered about the same as last month.”
The Bezzle: “‘Champions League of tax avoidance:’ Uber used 50 Dutch shell companies to dodge taxes on nearly $6 billion in revenue, report says” [Business Insider]. Uber has been using a complex tax shelter involving around 50 Dutch shell companies to reduce its global tax bill, according to recent research from the Center for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research. In 2019, Uber claimed $4.5 billion in global operating losses (excluding the US and China) for tax purposes — in reality, it brought in $5.8 billion in operating revenue, according to CICTAR, an Australia-based research group. Uber transfered its intellectual property through a $16 billion “loan” from one of its subsidiaries in Singapore that in turn owns one of Uber’s Dutch shell companies, a manuever that grants the company a $1 billion tax break every year for the next 20 years, the researchers found.”
Tech: “Apple AirTag Review: Works Well, Maybe Too Well” [Forbes]. “The idea of the AirTag is that it can be attached to items like keys or luggage or laptop bags, so that if those items are misplaced or stolen, we can track their whereabouts. … When that lost AirTag is within the proximity of another opted-in Apple device, that AirTag will ping its location to that device, allowing you to see its latest location. Let’s say someone has stolen your bag containing an AirTag. Even if he’s halfway across town, another stranger’s iPhone could help you locate the thieve [sic].This is where the AirTag has a leg up on all the competition. The basic tracking stuff for lost items within your home is easy to recreate with a competing product like Tile or Samsung’s SmartTags. But neither Tile nor Samsung will ever have an item as ubiquitous as an iPhone to help build a tracking network like Apple’s Find My Network. Heck, no other company has such a product, period.” • So far, so good. But: ” because the Find My Network is so vast and work so well—think about how many iPhones you encounter in a day—it makes the AirTag a potential stalking device. For example, someone could in theory slip an AirTag into my bag without me knowing, and track my whereabouts throughout the day.”
Tech: OK, even if it is night sky-destroyer Elon Musk, this is pretty neat:
CHECK THIS OUT! 😲
SpaceX just landed B1058 for the 8th time, and just check out this uninterrupted landing footage. Can you believe what we are able to watch live these days. This is possibly the BEST landing footage I've seen live on a drone ship. 🚀😍 pic.twitter.com/H16Q0uPBxe— Marcus House (@MarcusHouse) May 16, 2021
Manufacturing: “China wants to boost disruptive semiconductor technologies as Moore’s Law moves towards its limit” [South China Morning Post]. Chiang Shang-yi, executive director of China’s top chip foundry Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), said earlier this year that the global semiconductor industry has been facing bottlenecks in its push for advanced nanometre nodes given the huge investments required. The industry veteran, who was recruited by SMIC last year from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) – the world’s largest co\ntract chip maker – said future breakthroughs for China’s IC manufacturing industry would come from advanced packaging techniques that can cram more circuits into smaller bundles. SMIC, which stands as China’s best hope at boosting its chip-making capability amid a protracted tech war with the US, is currently only able to produce chips using the 14-nanometre process. TSMC, in contrast, moved to the more advanced 5-nm production last year.”
Intellectual Property: “Who owns the covid vaccines?” [Cory Doctorow]. ““Behind every great fortune lies a great crime.” The true mRNA vaccines theft isn’t entrepreneur-inventors who face robbery by the public sector — rather, those “entrepreneurs” have enjoyed billions in public subsidies, and now insist they owe nothing in return….. Pharma’s claim that it doesn’t owe us anything in return makes no sense, even by the companies’ own logic. They say that markets produce wonders because they reward canny risk-taking with vast fortunes. By that logic, the public — who assumed the majority of the risk in developing vaccines — are the angel investors in this high-tech unicorn, and the pharma companies are the VCs who came in with some late capital to help scale up a sure thing.”
Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 39 Fear (previous close: 40 Fear) [CNN]. One week ago: 51 (Neutral). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated May 17 at 12:49pm.
Rapture Index: Closes up one on Israel. “Violence in Israel has maxed out this category” [Rapture Ready]. Record High, October 10, 2016: 189. Current: 188 (Remember that bringing on the rapture is a good thing, so high is better.)
Health Care
“Ivermectin and the odds of hospitalization due to COVID-19: evidence from a quasi-experimental analysis based on a public intervention in Mexico City” (preprint) [SocArXiv]. This one is above my paygrade. Mexico City sends out kits that contain Ivermection to mild-to-moderately symptomatic patients, creating the opportunity for a natural experiment. From the Research Design section. “To assess the effect of ivermectin on hospitalizations in Mexico City, we used a quasi-experimental research design. We make use of statistical methods that match cases based on observable co-variants, reducing the possible imbalance on those variables, and allowing us to estimate systematic differences in the dependent variable (i.e. hospitalization); between those who received the medical kit and those who did not. This method recreates the randomization of treatment by statistically making those treated and untreated indistinguishable on all relevant co-variants except the existence of the treatment (i.e.; got the medical kit with ivermectin or did not). We used the Coarsened Exact Matching method to match observations. This method belongs to the class of Monotonic Imbalance Bounding methods, in which balance between the control and treatment groups is chosen by the user and not by the continuous re- estimation process (Blackwell, M., 2009).” And the Results: “We found a significant reduction in hospitalizations among patients who received the ivermectin-based medical kit; the range of the effect is 52%- 76% depending on model specification.”
“Don’t mention Ivermectin; it’ll upset the vaccine rollout” [Andrew Bannister, Biz News]. The venue is South African. The author does indeed seem to have written for the Lancet, as his bio states (here, here). Salt having been taken, this is clearly put: “What if there was a cheap drug, so old its patent had expired, so safe that it’s on the WHO’s lists of Essential and Children’s Medicines, and used in mass drug administration rollouts? What if it can be taken at home with the first signs COVID symptoms, given to those in close contact, and significantly reduce COVID disease progression and cases, and far fewer few people would need hospitalisation? The international vaccine rollout under Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) would legally have to be halted. For an EUA to be legal, ‘there must be no adequate, approved and available alternative to the candidate product for diagnosing, preventing or treating the disease or condition.’ The vaccines would only become legal once they passed level 4 trials and that certainly won’t happen in 2021. This would present a major headache for the big public health agencies led by the WHO. The vaccine rollout, outside of trials, would become illegal. The vaccine manufactures, having spent hundreds of million dollars developing and testing vaccines during a pandemic, would not see the $100bn they were expecting in 2021. In a pandemic, and for the next one, we need big pharma to react quickly, and the best way to that, is to reward them financially. Allowing any existing drug, at this time, well into stage 3 trials, to challenge the legality of the EUA of vaccines, is not going to happen easily. On the 31st of March 2021, the WHO recommended against the use of Ivermectin for COVID treatment, citing safety and lack of large RCT proof.”
Masking:
The mask mandate in the US was so badly bungled that this useful norm (making mask use an uncontroversial option in cold and flu season) is probably out of reach.
— Pinboard (@Pinboard) May 13, 2021
Bungled the mask mandate may have been, but whatever Biden/Walensky thought they were doing, getting rid of them was not greeted with universal applause. And masks will come in handy during the fire season in California.
“How to Improve Our Response to COVID’s Mental Tolls” [MedScape]. “Four interdependent factors drive the magnitude of the traumatic impact of a disaster: (1) the degree of exposure to the life-threatening event; (2) the duration and threat of recurrence; (3) an individual’s preexisting (natural and human-made) trauma and mental and addictive disorders; and (4) the adequacy of family and fundamental resources such as housing, food, safety, and access to healthcare (the social dimensions of health and mental health). These factors underline the ‘who,’ ‘what,’ ‘where,’ and ‘how’ of what should have been (and continue to be) an effective public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet existing categories that we have used to predict risk for trauma no longer hold. The gravity, prevalence, and persistence of COVID-19’s horrors erase any differences among victims, witnesses, and bystanders. Dr Sayres Van Niel asserts that we have a ‘collective, national trauma.’ In April, the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Vaccine Monitor reported that 24% of US adults had a close friend or family member who died of COVID-19. That’s 82 million Americans! Our country has eclipsed individual victimization and trauma, because we are all in its maw.”
“Depression is linked to inflammation in the body, study reveals in breakthrough that could boost treatment hopes for people with the mental health condition” [Daily Mail]. “Professor Carmine Pariante, from the National Institute for Health Research Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre, said: ‘Our large-scale analysis of data removed socio-economic background, ill health, unhealthy habits as well as genetic predisposition to immune dysfunction as the only explanations for the relationship between depression and inflammation. ‘By this process of elimination, we show that there may be a core biological process that is behind the association between depression and increased inflammation.’ ‘If we can identify this process and uncover more detail about its role in the development of depression, we can pave the way for trialling new treatments for this widespread mental health disorder.’ sInflammation is a biological response – summoning the immune system into action to help the body fight against things that harm it, such as infections, injuries and toxins. But it can also play a key role in regulating behaviour and switch the brain into ‘sickness mode’. For the study, the scientists looked at the data of 86,000 people from the UK Biobank, which has health and genetic information on around half a million people. These included blood samples, genetic data as well as physical and mental health questionnaires. Nearly a third (31 per cent) of participants included in the study were classified as having major depressive disorder.” • Interesting. Reminds of the discovery that (many) peptic ulcers are caused by a bacteria, H. Pylori, and not by “stress,” etc. If would be fascinating to find out that the “core biological process” behind depression involves a micro-organism.
Water
“There are no clear winners in the West’s water wars” [High Country News]. “As a longtime observer of interstate water negotiations, I see a basic problem: In some cases, more water rights exist on paper than as wet water – even before factoring in shortages caused by climate change and other stresses. In my view, states should put at least as much effort into reducing water use as they do into litigation, because there are no guaranteed winners in water lawsuits.” • Uh-oh…
Our Famously Free Press
“Spanish politician temporarily suspended by Twitter after saying ‘a man cannot get pregnant'” [Yahoo News]. “Francisco José Contreras, deputy to Spain’s far-right Vox Party, was locked out of his Twitter account for 12 hours last week after saying ‘a man cannot get pregnant’ because they have ‘no uterus or eggs.’…. According to Twitter, Contreras violated its policy against material that threatens, harasses, or fosters violence against other people on the basis of their race, ethnic origin, nationality, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religion, age, disability or disease.” • Background here and here (best English-language sourcing I could find).
Black Injustice Tipping Point
“Black Lives Matter protesters file charges against NC judge they say tried to hit them” [News & Observer]. Hit them with a car. “A Fayetteville activist has pressed assault charges against an N.C. Court of Appeals judge, alleging he tried to hit protesters with his car outside the downtown Market House this month. Myah Warren filed charges of assault with a deadly weapon against Judge John Tyson in Cumberland County on Friday. Warren said she was holding a Black Lives Matter sign at a downtown Fayetteville demonstration last week. She said she saw a car circle twice, nearly striking her on the second pass. ‘It caused me to literally have to jump out of the way to avoid being hit,” she said. “He was going so fast he jumped up on the curb.’ Protesters who had gathered for a weekly memorial for residents killed in police shootings approached the car and shot video, later recognizing the driver, they said, as Tyson.”
In a just world, this entomologist wouldn’t have had to worry about getting whacked. Thread:
Still processing my first run in with the police…
I've been doing a lot of cicada interviews & with national news outlets contacting me, I thought I should have some live ones onhand. So I was delighted when my cousin called panicking about the "swarm" on the side of her home. pic.twitter.com/lB0jTTcKlB
— drsammytweets (@drsammytweets) May 14, 2021
Protests and Riots
OK, grant that property destruction is not violence. What about the effects on electoral politics?
Almost identical result as the Omar Wasow study showing riots shifting the 1968 election pro-Nixon, which provoked an outcry because Twitter extremists are certain without any evidence that riots do not shape public opinion https://t.co/uo1G9Z1YPC
— Lee Fang (@lhfang) May 13, 2021
Imperial Collapse Watch
Until Daddy takes the T-Bird away:
america is gonna be fun for young people in 20 years like russia is today pic.twitter.com/f4VN8GSZA7
— cool man 𓀡 (@dickpillcyborg7) May 15, 2021
Guillotine Watch
“Microsoft board members thought Bill Gates should resign over relationship with staffer: report” [The Hill]. “The Journal reported that multiple members of the board came to believe that Gates should not hold a leadership role at the company after a woman wrote to the company in 2019 alleging a years-long affair with Gates, who founded the company in 1975.” • Just like Cuomo. Slaughter a few tens of thousands of oldsters in nursing homes and try to conceal the evidence, no problemo. And Gates: Destroy public education in the United States and deprive a few billion of the world’s poor of vaccines, that’s OK. The only elite malfeasance, apparently, is sexual.
“Rich Guy Asks Around To Find Out Who The New Jeffrey Epstein Is” [The Onion]. ” I asked around the board room, but it turns out everyone there was hoping I knew someone.” • And you know there is one.
Class Warfare
“Long working hours are killing 745,000 people a year, research finds” [CNBC]. “In joint research by the global public health and employment bodies, the WHO and ILO estimated there were 745,000 deaths from stroke and ischemic heart disease in 2016, marking a 29% increase since 2000. The study, published in the Environment International journal Monday, was a first global analysis of the loss of life and health associated with working long hours. The WHO and ILO estimated that 398,000 people died from stroke and 347,000 from heart disease in 2016 as a result of having worked at least 55 hours a week. Between 2000 and 2016, the number of deaths from heart disease due to working long hours increased by 42%, and from stroke by 19%. The study concluded that working 55 or more hours per week is associated with an estimated 35% higher risk of a stroke and a 17% higher risk of dying from ischemic heart disease, compared with working 35-40 hours a week. In 2016, 488 million people worldwide were exposed to long working hours of more than 55 hours a week, the WHO and ILO estimated.” • Of course it’s WHO. Maybe the numbers are higher.
News of the Wired
This is lovely:
East Window, 2008 designed by Iranian artist Shirazeh Houshiary, St Martin-in-the-Field, London #womensart pic.twitter.com/bPxYMTUhUP
— #WOMENSART (@womensart1) May 16, 2021
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84 comments
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Re High Country News–one would think that golf courses in the middle of a parched desert would be a no no. And even before the current crisis just seeing one was a real eyebrow raiser. Perhaps amidst all this lawfare the law of common sense needs to take center stage. The days of water frivolity are over.
You haven’t been to Arizona during the summer. Midday tee times are a thing here.
Oh yes I have but Scottsdale gets its water from the Salt River system, no? Down in your Tuscon perhaps it’s the CAP and the Colorado.
My friend in Mesa says there have been no water restrictions so far.
No water restrictions in Tucson — yet. However, the mayor recently announced that she and her family are only going to do four loads of laundry a week. She also invited Tucsonans to join this challenge:
https://mywaterpledge.com/
I did, and for my trouble, I got a little gift bag. Most of the stuff went to a nearby free table for others to take.
However, I kept the 5-minute shower timer. It’s a little hourglass with 5 minutes of sand, and, yes, I do start it with the shower. So far, I’m well under 5 minutes in the showering efforts.
Every little bit helps!
Four minutes suggested here in Brisbane Qld for your shower when water gets tight. ‘Straya: 20% better than America!*
Pip pip!
*That’s enough barely literate & pointless trolling. ME Self, Editor.
And, almost all new golf courses need to be irrigated with recycled sewer water.
GF
Ahhhhgg, it was known at the signing of the Colorado River Compact that the river was overallocated, so I don’t know why anyone is surprised by this almost a century later. Some “experts” believe that senior ag water rights can be transferred to urban water brokers and everyone will be happy and wealthy… Today CO R water serves about 4 million people; combined with global heating the original sin of overallocation must eventually be addressed. Good times for lawyers that specialize in western water law.
Possession is 9/10’s of the gallon under aegis of it being nearby, and seeing as water is for lying over and whiskey is for lying under, downriver users such as LV & SD will find that there isn’t much there, there.
If only we could conjure water from computers, such as we do money!
Friends in SD were telling me about golf courses closing there, where they are trying to turn them into houses/condos, and frankly i’d rather have grown men whacking off repeatedly chasing the object of the desire in attempts to squeeze it into a hole only marginally bigger than their tiny balls.
For those that prefer their water on the caliente side…
An immodest proposal by Wonderhussy:
Too many of our natural hot springs are overcrowded and trashed –but I have a solution! Now seeking recruits for NOMA: the Naked Old Man Army! To join this elite force, you must be 50 years or older, preferably out of shape, preferably with a scraggly white beard and/or mustache, and be willing to deploy to a natural hot spring somewhere in the wilderness where you will be stationed fully naked for the foreseeable future as part of an effort to deter partiers and picnicking families from entering (and trashing) the pools.
Seriously, I think this would work! I personally have no problem hanging around/ soaking with people of any age or gender, but I know a lot of people are put off by the fact that hot springs are “full of naked old men” (a direct quote from an email I got from someone seeking hot spring info)…so I propose stocking all of our hot springs with said naked old men as a deterrent against those with a warped understanding of naturism –who, in my experience, tend to be the ones who do the most littering: partying kids, families, and tourists. A hot tub full of naked old men will keep out all but the most dedicated soakers – who (again, in my experience) tend to be respectful of the springs and surroundings.
So, I am calling upon all men of a certain age: ASK NOT WHAT YOUR HOT SPRINGS CAN DO FOR YOU –ASK WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR YOUR HOT SPRINGS!! ENLIST TODAY
Sign me up
Maybe if there was a rapture it would help solve the housing crunch? Come on, rapture!
I guess I don’t understand the big deal about cicadas? When I was a kid we had them on our pine trees and would collect the shells. It was the sound of summer. Still is, even here in northern NH.
Drove through downtown of our little college town Saturday and a lot of people had their masks down on their chins(or not on at all) even though our town still has a mask ordinance. Big difference from earlier in the week, pre-CDC mask announcement.
And I cannot stand that window-hurts my brain to look at it. It drives me nuts. I want to fix the bars so they’re straight.
The cicadas in the news right now are “periodical” cicadas that emerge en masse from underground every 13 or 17 years, making for huge apocalyptic feeling swarms. Not the same as the annual “sound of summer” critters.
Seeing the same thing re masks here in Austin, where masks are still required.
Prime number periodicity:
“Mario Markus, a physicist from the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Physiology in Germany has come up with a new theory. It’s related to periodic predators. Suppose there are some predators (like birds, and the Cicada Killer Wasp) that attack cicadas, and that the cicadas emerge every 12 years. Then the predators that come out every two years will attack them, and so will the predators that come out every 3 years, 4 years and 6 years. But according Mario Markus, “if the cicadas mutate to 13-year cycles, they will survive.”
So Markus and his colleagues created a mathematical model. In this mathematical model, if a prey happens to be met by a predator, then it loses. According to this mathematical model, as the years roll by, the length of the cycle increases until the cicadas hit a prime number, and then it stays there.”
That’s fascinating. I’ll read it. Thanks.
You may be interested in Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying’s discussion of the Brood X emergence and the prime number cycles on their podcast last Saturday at 1:21:24
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxTODvTNHlw&t=2916s
Thanks. I watched it live and that’s what sent me in search of the article.
Ah! Like minds…Cheers!
I wonder if that observation also applies to Asset Stripping healthy companies.
Yeah, the ones in the news are interesting but some places, like in ABQ NM the cicadas come out every year, but not in big swarms. Their buzzing in the cottonwoods is a marker of summer and I kinda miss that.
I can’t find that window ‘lovely’, either. At best it’s a reflection that what happens beneath it is a tortured distortion of ‘the Christian message’, but to me it’s just an Emperor’s new clothes example of modern art whereunder if you don’t ‘get’ its message you’re not up with the play.
> And I cannot stand that window-hurts my brain to look at it. It drives me nuts. I want to fix the bars so they’re straight.
So it’s a powerful image :-)
See my comment below.
“Microsoft board members thought Bill Gates should resign over relationship with staffer: report” [The Hill]. “The Journal reported that multiple members of the board came to believe that Gates should not hold a leadership role at the company after a woman wrote to the company in 2019 alleging a years-long affair with Gates, who founded the company in 1975.” • Just like Cuomo. Slaughter a few tens of thousands of oldsters in nursing homes and try to conceal the evidence, no problemo. And Gates: Destroy public education in the United States and deprive a few billion of the world’s poor of vaccines, that’s OK. The only elite malfeasance, apparently, is sexual.
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The below article is behind a paywall – but the question pertains
And with regard to the only malfeasance being sexual, well with Weinstein and Epstein, and now Gates, it seems it takes decades before it comes to light… AND all the bad stuff was known for a long, long time – but when you have money, it is hard for people to know something when getting money from billionaires depends on so many people not knowing what billionaires are doing…
The Rise and Fall of Bill Gates
By JIM GERAGHTY
With ugly post-divorce accusations about Bill Gates multiplying, it’s fair to ask why the billionaire accumulated social stature with his fortune.
Uh, EVERY billionaire gets good press until is is Absolutely impossible to ignore their transgressions? Even Epstein only was vilified after an single journalist’s investigation forced the government AND the press to look critically at him.
… it seems it takes decades before it comes to light… AND all the bad stuff was known for a long, long time
This is absolutely true. I first heard the Cosby rumors on the Stern show in `89/`90. They did all but say it out loud. Weinstein was so openly known that anyone reading the AVClub comment section during the 00s could have found out.
Hell, *I* knew, *even* I knew about Epstein’s proclivities, and I don’t exactly run in his circles or collect “Lifestyles of the Rich and Sleazy” type celebrity gossip.
yeah… that the odd thing.
I was at a party in the late 90’s, had to be `99 maybe even 2000, and some complete drunk guy was telling me how Clinton had a secret island where he “would go be a pedo”.
I chalked this up to him being a drunk crazy person. I really feel the need to find that guy and apologize.
He’s dead. He “committed suicide” in NYC under the eye of 50 guards and a bank of television cameras but no one saw anything. He’s currently living on a kibutz in an unnamed country in the Middle East.
I can’t remember where I heard about Cosby but yeah, I knew it before it “broke” too. Same with Weinstein. It seems there are a lot of open secrets like this out and about and always have been. The casting couch is a cliche for a reason.
I’ve found it more interesting to try to figure out what pushed them from tolerated to a step too far. Cosby seemed to get a little too moralistic towards the entertainment industry and I think that got him. Harvey on the other hand, I think his friends did all they could to keep a lid on things but people like Rose McGowan weren’t going along with the plan.
I used to hang out one weekend a year with Cosby for about a decade @ the Playboy Jazz festival @ the Hollywood Bowl, and he was such a dick as the MC, you got the idea the musicians on stage really were glad when he wasn’t around…
…and that was my take from hundreds of feet away, ha ha!
Want to hear something mindblowing that Rose McGowan said recently? You know that anybody that comes in contact with the President or his family undergoes investigation by the US Secret Service first for security threats, right? And that also applies to ex-Presidents and their families too as they remain under Secret Service protection. So how did the following become a story? They must have known but still it went ahead-
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/01/malia-obama-harvey-weinstein-internship
Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols says that he was banned by the BBC in fricken’ 1978 for outing Jimmy Saville and that was over thirty years before he died-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4OzI9GYag0 (2:48 mins)
Norm MacDonald made Barbara Walters and Co. squirm by talking about Cosby on The View in 2000. I bet he didn’t get invited back.
https://youtu.be/Z3PP_SWHUQQ
Pretty hilarious in retrospect.
Everyone’s familiar with the “divine right of kings” (cf. David Graeber, et.al. On Kings)…which apparently is a common expectation of those ruled by kings. Kings get a divine dispensation, and a transcendent source for their policies.
Unfortunately, this include a kind of morality that transcends our more mundane, earthly brand. So it’s common for kings to commit murder, incest, even pussy grabbing–the most despicable acts–and be tolerated in doing so. Graeber is talking about “primitive” Sudanese (Shilluk or Chello) kings, but this obviously applies to even democratic royalty (cf. U.K. princes, Clinton and Trump).
In England anyway “the Divine Right of Kings” was brought to an end by the headsman’s axe on Tuesday, 30 January 1649.
One could argue that, in fact, it was merely opened to the courtiers to self-determine, in the great Burkean tradition yet to come.
Anyone else reading that Jeopardy article think the author is trying a little too hard to remind us what nice and smart people these former show winners are who are conducting a witch hunt against this guy over what imaginary sign they thought they saw? Also it seems the author brushes past the black members of this group’s criticism that the white ones are shouting them down with their definitions of what is racism> I did enjoy the irony of these accusers “asked not to be named because they feared harassment on social media” when they are setting this guy up for exactly this.
Re depression. As someone with major depressive disorder (I’m open about this….it hasn’t been a big impediment to me since going on an “ancient awful” MAOI) I find this article interesting – it doesn’t convince me either way but certainly makes me think “there could well be something in this”.
Hahaha. Whilst my intense hatred of SSRIs and SNRIs has been reduced somewhat with more recent research showing how they, in fact, may work (hint – it is NOT how their designers originally claimed and IIRC I saw the link on NC but someone correct me if I’m wrong), I still am grossly uneasy with them. The propensity for the “different elements of mood” to be corrected at different times, resulting in potential suicidal tendencies still worries the familyblog outta me. I speak from both reading the literature and from experience. No I most certainly didn’t try but it’s scary how you can “plan”.
i find ibuprofen mood elevating after a week or so
When I read about the “association” between depression and inflammation I didn’t see any reference to the arrow of causality — did I miss it, or was it absent?
I ask because there are hormonal associations with inflammation (for instance cortisol) and wondered whether or not the depression might be causing the inflammation rather than the other way around.
You raise a good point. The link between depression and the gut (MAO stuff – not same as inflammation but illustrates my point) was identified over 50 years ago. In that case it’s neither depression causing nor being caused by the gut stuff but that they have common underlying issue. “Solve” depression and you inevitably cause gut issues (which have turned out to be massively overblown but 2 generations of doctors will look at you as if you have asked for leech therapy if you mention MAOIs).
That’s why I keep an open mind. As do (in my experience in 3 countries) psychiatrists who are above a certain age when it comes to these sorts of associations.
Those are some seriously risky automobile ‘adjacent’ stunts. Some of them had me involuntarily flinch or pull back from the screen.
I may have a ‘death wish,’ but I’m not quite so overt about it.
As to the “America in twenty years” idea, I’ll just say that Americans seem to like intoxicants of various sorts as their “escape from hum drum reality” fix.
If I remember correctly, I remember reading that life expectancy in the “former Soviet Union” dropped after that state fell apart, (with some serious ‘help’ from American neo-liberals like the ‘Chicago School of Economics’ crowd.) America is going through a similar process now, if the life expectancy trends are any indication.
I really, really hope that K Harris doesn’t think of herself as an American Putin. That would be scary. At least Putin is competent. Harris???
You can find plenty of roughly equivalent stuff online originating in the US right now.
I can see where the Russians are coming from, I can see where the Russians are coming from…
By crashing a 1984 Lada into a building, the values of both go up in esteem, online.
Seen videos like that out of Russia before which led me to conclude that Russian guys are nuts. Someone in that twitter stream said that this was just the midwest in the 90s too.
Look up the Russian couple with pet fishing cat. Though not at work. Or if you don’t like pics of animal death (a clearly fresh killed chicken or something). The “woman in bath with it” pic is disturbing but not because of her lack of clothes (she covers all her parts anyway but this is part of the mildly NSFW warning).
This couple are insane to have one of those as a pet in an apartment…. And their little domestic kitty clearly knows it. The “please please get me out of here” look on its face as the monster is “friendly” and licks it is both funny and horrific.
>Long working hours are killing 745,000 people a year, research finds
Didn’t Biden say during the “debates” that anyone presiding over 200,000 deaths didn’t deserve to be president?
Waaaay back when, I remember reading several magazine articles in the high school library. They said we would all be working 15-20 at week making more than enough to live on what with productivity and wage increases with in a few decades; according to some economists now by adding up inflation and productivity increases, the minimum wage should be ˜25-30$ an hour. Working full time today at $15 will not get you enough to rent a room.
Hi, Complaints Department? This is me calling. Can I have my future back please?
If would be fascinating to find out that the “core biological process” behind depression involves a micro-organism.
Instead of
“Here try this pill. That doesn’t work? Here, try this one.”
Ulcers, previously considered to be generated by chronic stress related psychological states and thus amenable to volitional internal moderation or life-style changes, are now often successfully treated by antibiotics. If depression is an inflammatory response, pills, other than those now being prescribed, might be the best treatment. Or maybe turmeric with do the trick.
My related anecdote:
I was diagnosed with chronic depression and generalized anxiety disorder when I was in my early 30s (early 1990s). I declined to take meds because I was afraid of them and so cycled through brutal, sometimes debilitating stress and lows for many years.
In 2014 I began to get physically ill with all sorts of bizarre, seemingly random symptoms ranging from frequent migraines to numbness and tingling in my extremities to insomnia and gastrointestinal problems. I was finally diagnosed with an auto-immune disorder in 2017.
I was able to put it into remission with diet and lifestyle changes that were largely designed to eliminate systemic inflammation (fresh turmeric juice was part of the daily routine). My adult life-long depression and anxiety disappeared along with the physical symptoms. They’ve never returned.
I’ve had a couple of somatic illnesses (auto-immune thyroiditis and ME/CFS) initially misdiagnosed as psychiatric disorders, for which I am taking medications and supplements that are helpful. Alas, the latter condition reduces my capacity to exercise without becoming deathly ill. I do manage to walk the dog every day. We are a well suited pair as she’s an old dog that snuffles and shuffles at a leisurely pace.
Exercise is always over emphasized! Exercise is cortisol-producing at any level above the mild, walk-swim-garden degree of exertion. If you haven’t tried an elimination diet, I recommend giving it a 30-day try. It can’t hurt. Happy to answer questions…
I am so sorry to hear this but glad that you escaped the claws of this dark devouring weighty monster.
I just had a friend recommend turmeric (not as a cure for depression, thank heavens, but as part of a bedtime drink). Must be a sign
roz chast
https://condenaststore.com/featured/big-turmeric-roz-chast.html?product=art-print
Best part of turmeric is that you can grow it in a container very easily. It’s related to ginger and is as easy to grow.
Stress, Ulcers and H. pylori, It’s an interesting story of how the Medical Industrial Complex resisted any notion that Dr Barry Marshal might be right when he discovered H. pylori as the culprit responsible for peptic ulcers. Indeed they resisted any suggestion of a bacterial cause going back to 1940. Their 5-micron, or Russia! Russia! was stuff can’t live in the stomach-TOO acid. Oh well, I’m sure ulcer treatment and surgeries beefed up a lot of portfolios.
I remember reading a Suzanne Chazin article about Dr Marshal and the push back he got in Reader’s Digest long ago but my Googl-foo is lacking. There is this book, The Great Ulcer War, but I have not read it https://www.amazon.com/Great-Ulcer-William-Hughes-M-D/dp/1941142176
Also there was a BBC documentary, Ulcer Wars. I can’t find it anywhere but here (note the domain): https://ok.ru/video/281905597157
“He said: ‘As well as having no proven effect on depression, these medications have dangerous side effects whereas anti-depressants are safe and effective.”
Oh, really? Don’t anti-depressants typically carry a suicide warning?
One prominent anti-depressant causes my hormones to go haywire, or is an early trigger for me to develop a pituitary tumor. Went through it twice, don’t ask.
There are numerous side effects possible.
On the other hand, criticizing the 1619 Project is grounds for dismissal? Really?
Military officers should not be criticizing or lauding anybody in public. They should not speak at garden clubs, the Elks, the Rotary Club, Fox News, CNN, the NYT or any where else. They should remain in the barracks and keep their mouths shut until congress wants to hear from them. Then, without public comment, they head right back to the barracks. Military officers have no business commenting on public policy.
Being a CIA talking head on MSM would seem to fall under a similar prohibition, but apparently not.
CIA is different – psy-ops against the American people are now the core of the CIAs mission.
Fortunately it is easy to tell when they are lying – they are always lying. Literally always. Because whatever the CIA believes to be the truth about anything is classified. Therefore whenever they speak they must always tell you something other than what they believe to be the truth.
> CIA is different – psy-ops against the American people are now the core of the CIAs mission.
Yeah, but they used to do it clandestinely. Now they go on TV.
His comments about the 1619 Project aren’t what got him relieved of command – it’s what he said about the military. He’s certainly no whistleblowing hero – he had to have known what he did would get him in some serious trouble. He’s about five years out from retirement – my guess is that he’s setting up himself up for some wingnut welfare for his post-military career.
Someone like that cannot be reasonably expected to command a large number of people without prejudice.
Wingnut welfare. A gold star for you. Fabulous coinage.
> Wingnut welfare
“Wingnut welfare” is a brilliant coinage, but it’s been around a long time, since the days of the blogosphere. It encapsulated the critique that Democrats had nothing like the think tanks and media operations (AEI, Heritage, the Koch Brothers, the Scaifes, and many more) that the Republicans had built up over decades.
Now, of course, we have the NGO Industrial Complex (see, e.g., Neera Tanden), of which the 1619 Project itself is a fine example, so the implied comparison really isn’t valid anymore.
(Another characteristic of “wingnut welfare” is that once you’re in, you’re in. It’s like being a made man in the mafia. This is also true in the NGO Industrial Complex, module #MeToo kerfuffles.)
Having long observed, and from time to time participated in, the liberal NGO world – including some time tracking Koch world – I see lots of similarities but two big differences between Koch world and the liberal NGO’s.
1. It is much easier to get hired as a young person in Koch world than in the liberal NGOs. The competition for jobs is much less severe and the funders understand that anyone who might possibly contribute to the movement in the future is worth bestowing a small salary on. This might look like “wing nut welfare” from the outside, and probably much of it is, but it is also a good “big tent” strategy, even if entry to that tent requires fealty to the Koch viewpoint.
The competition for entry-level jobs in the liberal NGO world is intense, all of them abuse “internships,” there is tons of nepotism, many young people are forced to enter the world through the fundraising aspect, etc. Much of this is of course down to asymmetrical funding – the coherent, experienced Koch network vs the incoherent, vanity-driven Democracy Alliance – but it really reinforces the group think.
2. The Koch network is relentlessly outcome-driven – they know what they want – but extremely flexible in terms of strategy. They are very willing to try a bunch of different strategies to see what works, including funding different people/groups that differ with each other, even at the risk of appearing contradictory or incoherent… another reason why a “hire everyone” strategy when it comes to young people is useful. New ideas occasionally come in handy! Whereas the liberal NGO’s are relentlessly process-driven. They may share a worldview with a clearly understood view of the world they want to create, but there is no road map for getting there or even belief that reality will ever get anywhere close. Winning is typically defined as successful fundraising, with the occasional small legislative victory, not actually changing reality.
I was reading about AirTags last week to see how viable they are for stolen-bike tracking, particularly if concealed in a seat post/top post rather than, say, under the saddle. Apparently they have an anti-stalking defense built in, though I can’t recall the technical details. But apparently a built-in speaker on the AirTags will beep after a certain amount of time when remote from the originally paired phone, so it’s not contingent on the stalkee having an iPhone as well and being notified on that (though I think that happens, too, if you have an iphone that stays in close proximity to a foreign AirTag for a certain period of time). However it seems like committed stalkers can disassemble the tags and disconnect the speaker. ymmv.
Halper and Taibbi on Useful Idiots interview Abby Martin. Very timely. 50 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubq3Y-aQ0_s
Good stuff. Thanks.
I’ve been apparently labeled and identified as a troll in this milieu (the little red “at” shows up in minutes) though I never wore any white hoods as a youth, have never desecrated any buildings (or people), and regularly send funds to centrist charities. But I gather from the above that companies, instead of ping pong tables and other games, might have offered their executives a private on-campus apartment for dalliances, and that the intake of extracts of cannabinoids might be an acceptable way to handle both depression and inflammation. The presence of bongs and executive spaces might attract talent willing to work longer hours. It might also reduce the use of harder drugs, lessen white collar corruption, and make psychopathic leadership more acceptable.
“Midwest Chart – Continued good news. Looks like I can abandon this chart when Michigan is no longer an outlier. I think I’ll do a case chart for the world instead.”
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I’d like to see the world by cases/100k, and if possible include data with excess deaths. Maybe the top 25 countries?
You can certainly do the first part of what you describe on 91 DIVOC. Just gotta scroll down a bit.
I don’t know a source for global excess deaths. The top 25 might be hard to read. I’ll play around.
Rapture Index: Closes up one on Israel. “Violence in Israel has maxed out this category” [Rapture Ready]. Record High, October 10, 2016: 189. Current: 188 (Remember that bringing on the rapture is a good thing, so high is better.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Try as hard as they might, this century’s up & coming fascists will never be able to rid themselves of every Palestinian, despite military rapturing.
p.s.
Didn’t last year’s ‘retail rapture’ move the index somewhat?
I’m sorry but nothing Elon does is “neat”.
Elon has never did anything, save, buy majority share and then litigate to take control. He hires people with brains to do stuff and then takes the credit … aside from tweets about his next financial move that has the half life of a fruit fly ….
“I’ll Take ‘White Supremacist Hand Gestures’ for $1,000”
Who’s to say that he was not making the three finger gesture from Hunger Games?
https://thehungergames.fandom.com/wiki/Three_Finger_Salute
This is like that time 4chan trolled people to say that the OK gesture was racist or something and the media went into a frenzy. And then some guy put together a collection of all the public figures that used this like Obama, Hillary, etc. The guy should sue for libel.
oops
https://www.heraldnet.com/news/tesla-on-autopilot-crashes-into-sheriff-deputys-parked-suv/
I love the window…it looks like a time warp.
As a lapsed Espicopalian, I find the gravity and proportion of the architecture — the classical orders? — familiar and deeply comforting. As a one-time Christian, I can see how the introduction of the window could be meaningful — Christ on the cross warps the space and time of our ordinary existence; the “origin” of the axes of the cross is compelling (and not, interestingly, the tips of the cross, where the hands, feet, and nails go, and the suffering head). Perhaps it’s the depersonalization that some find unnerving.
Raised Roman Catholic. From childhood I found it a religion of goodness, of primary colors backlit through stained glass windows (which, like illuminated books, are primitive iterations of modern video screens). Vaulted ceilings built on classical principals, pillars and domes. Liturgy based on Grand Platonic ideals such as charity, goodness, values transcending money. Classical Ethos, Logos and Pathos re-packaged by Augustine as the Christ myth. The Classical world has been slowly dying since the Reformation and I’m afraid it’s about to give up the ghost in our lifetimes.
Why do we still have a Space Force? Does no one have any sense? Can I remind Rachel Maddow that this thing was invented by Trump just so they can come out against it? Parents get a couple hundred a month per kid. Why is this step-child get anything?
America has a Space Force so as to shelter and succor the ‘Space Cadets’ amongst us. [When your humble correspondent was a Space Cadet, he wished mightily for a Space Force with which to conjure. Alas, the Starres were Not Right.]
As for the ‘Maddow Claque’ and their ‘tender ministrations’ to the ‘fallen away’ Deplorables, hah is what I say. They have not erased much if anything of the Trumpian Political Machinations so far. Why should the Space Force be any different?
Musk et. al. are busy establishing LEO/NGOs. It’s a new “Oklahoma Space Rush” in the offing.
If only the myth of ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ were true.
> Why do we still have a Space Force?
I wish we had a Time Force.
RK, I agree with your comment a few days back that Kunstler has been in a quixotic rut lately, relitigating 2020. But this rant is a little more back on form:
[In 1929] the greater US economy was fully outfitted for industrial production when its finance sector blew up. There was something solid underneath all that financial abstraction. We were all set up to manufacture products of value, many of them based on inventions developed here: cars, movies, airplanes, radios, you-name-it, new and exciting things that people wanted to buy. Our factories were all pretty much up-to-date and state-of-the-art then, too. Our oil supply, including the industry that pumped it out of the ground and moved it from points A to B, was the envy of the world. We had raw materials up the ying-yang….
That whole kit of industrial production is long gone, and we’re left in an economic slum of Chinese product “welfare” (stuff for treasury bonds) juiced on computer-driven hyper-complexity, decorated with junk enterprise like social media, streaming p%%%aphy, crypto-currency mining, and chicken nuggets.