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2:00PM Water Cooler 4/25/2023

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By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Bird Song of the Day

House Sparrow, Stewart Park, Tompkins, New York, United States. “Calls from a group going to roost in a cedar next to the boathouse.” Chatty!

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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

“Biden dives back in, announces reelection bid” [Politico]. “President Joe Biden on Tuesday formally launched his campaign for a second term in 2024, asking voters to keep him in office and ‘finish the job’ of a historic American recovery that started after he vanquished Donald Trump in 2020. Biden’s long-awaited announcement allows him to begin fundraising 18 months out from the November general election. In a video, the president echoed several familiar themes he outlined when he first took charge of the country during the spiraling Covid-19 pandemic and resulting economic turmoil, taking office days after insurrectionists seized the U.S. Capitol. ‘When I ran for president four years ago, I said we are in a battle for the soul of America. And we still are,’ he said in the video, titled ‘Freedom’ and filled with images from his visits across the country touting his legislative accomplishments. ‘The question we are facing is whether in the years ahead we have more freedom or less freedom. More rights or fewer. I know what I want the answer to be and I think you do, too,’ he said. ‘This is not a time to be complacent. That’s why I’m running for re-election.'” • Based on his record, Biden believes people are most free when they’re dead.

“How Democrats Learned to Cast Aside Reservations and Embrace Biden 2024” [New York Times]. “Mr. Biden has all but cleared the field despite concerns about his age — at 80, he is already the oldest American president in history — and the persistent misgivings about the president held by a large number of the party’s voters. Democrats yearn for a fresh face in 2024, according to repeated polls, they just don’t know who that would be. After Democrats won more races than expected in the 2022 midterm elections, any energy to challenge Mr. Biden quickly dissipated. The left has stayed in line even as Mr. Biden has lately made more explicit appeals toward the center. And would-be rivals have stayed on the sidelines. The early entry of Donald J. Trump into the race immediately clarified that the stakes in 2024 would be just as high for Democrats as they were in 2020. The former president has proved to be the greatest unifying force in Democratic politics in the last decade, and the same factors that caused the party to rally behind Mr. Biden then are still present today. Add to that the advantages of holding the White House and any challenge seemed more destined to bruise Mr. Biden than to best him.” • Weak bench. Reminds me of the Red Sox sending out Yastrzemski, bad knees and all, when he was all they had.

“Biden’s 2024 campaign has been hiding in plain sight” [Associated Press]. “Leaks and private reassurances last year about Biden’s intention to run, aides said, were designed to reinforce to the political class that the president was all-in for a second term and to ward off any serious rivals for the nomination. That effort largely succeeded, with only self-help author Marianne Williamson and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. mounting largely symbolic challenges to Biden.” Biden better not slip a cog, is all I can say. More: “Biden’s decision to the launch the campaign now is largely driven by a desire to start fundraising: His last campaign raised more than $1 billion, and he’ll need to marshal even more this time arounHe’s expected to jumpstart that effort with a gathering for top donors in Washington on Friday. The president also needs to begin building the digital and field organizing operation for what aides expect to be a close general election owing to the country’s polarization, no matter who emerges as the GOP standard-bearer. More: “Biden’s clear path to the 2024 nomination will be a markedly different experience from four years ago, when he was written off by much of the political establishment until he consolidated support as the candidate best positioned to defeat Trump.” • Completely erasing Obama’s role in the Night of The Long Knives. Amazing! They don’t even use the passive voice!

“More obstacles for DeSantis’ still-unannounced 2024 campaign” [Politico]. “No. 1 — First off came the news out of New York that Republican Lee Zeldin — who unsuccessfully ran for governor in the Empire State — was endorsing former President Donald Trump. This was a bit stunning given that DeSantis campaigned for Zeldin, and Zeldin introduced the governor at a law enforcement event held on Staten Island in February where he effusively praised DeSantis. No. 2 — The New York Times is out this morning with a story suggesting that hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin — who was one of DeSantis’ big donors during his reelection — may not be as locked in on backing the governor as he sounded just a few months ago. The story also says Griffin and DeSantis met in Florida in the last two weeks. No. 3 — The Trump campaign keeps unloading on DeSantis. They dropped a minute-long ad on social media Monday evening that contends DeSantis was destined for political irrelevancy until Trump endorsed him in 2018.”

“Biden-Trump rematch is coming closer to reality” [The Hill]. “A Trump-Biden rematch would carry echoes of a particularly brutal 2020 presidential campaign that was set against the backdrop of the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and nationwide protests sparked by the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. It featured vitriolic personal attacks, particularly from Trump’s team against Hunter Biden, and was marred by Trump’s refusal to accept the results and the subsequent attack on the Capitol.” • You’d never know that the Democrats, the intelligence community, and the press — assuming these three putative institutions are not a single ginormous Flexnet — suppressed the story of Hunter Biden’s laptop. “Vitriolic,” my Sweet Aunt Fanny. Can’t The Hill leave historical revisionism to the real pros at the Times and WaPo?

“NBC News poll: Nearly 70% of GOP voters stand behind Trump amid indictment and investigations” [NBC News]. “Yet what also stands out in the poll are the nearly 70% of Republican primary voters who say they stand behind Trump despite the various investigations he’s facing. Sixty-eight percent of GOP primary voters agree with the statement that the investigations into Trump are politically motivated and are designed to stop him from being president again, and that they must support him now to stop his opponents from winning.” • Yeah, what happened to that Bragg thing? It seems to have dropped right out of the news flow….

“Transcript: Former Vice President Mike Pence on “Face the Nation,” April 23, 2023″ [CBS]. Hmm:

ROBERT COSTA: But for a lay person who’s not a lawyer, what are the constraints, in your view, on your upcoming testimony? Will you, for example, be able to testify, in your view, about the private conversations you’ve had with President Trump. Is that within the range of what you could do before the grand jury?

PENCE: I think I’m limited about what I can say about the proceedings of the grand jury or the decision of the judge, but people can be confident that we’ll- we’ll obey the law, we’ll comply with the law. But I gotta tell you, Robert, nobody’s talking to me about this.

Does Pence want somebody to talk to him about it?

Democrats en Déshabillé

Patient readers, it seems that people are actually reading the back-dated post! But I have not updated it, and there are many updates. So I will have to do that. –lambert

I have moved my standing remarks on the Democrat Party (“the Democrat Party is a rotting corpse that can’t bury itself”) to a separate, back-dated post, to which I will periodically add material, summarizing the addition here in a “live” Water Cooler. (Hopefully, some Bourdieu.) It turns out that defining the Democrat Party is, in fact, a hard problem. I do think the paragraph that follows is on point all the way back to 2016, if not before:

The Democrat Party is the political expression of the class power of PMC, their base (lucidly explained by Thomas Frank in Listen, Liberal!). It follows that the Democrat Party is as “unreformable” as the PMC is unreformable; if the Democrat Party did not exist, the PMC would have to invent it. If the Democrat Party fails to govern, that’s because the PMC lacks the capability to govern. (“PMC” modulo “class expatriates,” of course.) Second, all the working parts of the Party reinforce each other. Leave aside characterizing the relationships between elements of the Party (ka-ching, but not entirely) those elements comprise a network — a Flex Net? An iron octagon? — of funders, vendors, apparatchiks, electeds, NGOs, and miscellaneous mercenaries, with assets in the press and the intelligence community.

Note, of course, that the class power of the PMC both expresses and is limited by other classes; oligarchs and American gentry (see ‘industrial model’ of Ferguson, Jorgensen, and Jie) and the working class spring to mind. Suck up, kick down.

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The Democrats left me:

“NYC Libraries Reportedly Lose Weekend Service in Mayor’s Latest Budget Cut Proposal” [NBC New York]. • Robot cops, but closed libraries. That’s our Democrats!

Clinton Legacy

“Hillary Clinton: Republicans Are Playing Into the Hands of Putin and Xi” [New York Times]. She’s b-a-a-a-c-k! “I vividly remember walking into a Hong Kong ballroom that July for a conference organized by the local American Chamber of Commerce. Congressional Republicans were refusing to raise the debt ceiling, and the prospect of a default was getting closer by the day. I was swarmed by nervous businessmen from across Asia. They peppered me with questions about the fight back home over the debt ceiling and what it would mean for the international economy. The regional and global stability that America had guaranteed for decades was the foundation on which they had built companies and fortunes. But could they still trust the United States? Were we really going to spark another worldwide financial crisis? And the question that no one wanted to say out loud: If America faltered, would China swoop in to fill the vacuum?” • Does anybody believe this really happened?

Our Famously Free Press

“Tucker Carlson Was Blindsided by Fox News Firing” [Vanity Fair]. “On Monday morning, Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott called Carlson and informed him he was being taken off the air, and his Fox News email account was shut off. According to a source briefed on the conversation, Carlson was stunned by his sudden ouster from his 8 p.m. show, the most watched program in cable news last month. Carlson was in the midst of negotiating the renewal of his Fox News contract through 2029, the source said. As of last week, Carlson had told people he expected the contract to be renewed. Carlson has told people he doesn’t know why he was terminated. According to the source, Scott refused to tell him how the decision was made; she only said that it was made “from above.” Carlson has told people he believes his controversial show is being taken off the air because the Murdoch children intend to sell Fox News at some point.” • Ah. A succession issue in one of our oligarch clans. • Commentary:

“The keys to a hypothetical Tucker Carlson 2024 campaign” [Politico]. • It would be great if Carlson ran as a Democrat. Think of the collective intracranial splatterfest!

Realignment and Legitimacy

“Sun Prairie school district: some accounts of locker room incident are ‘inaccurate and incomplete'” [WKOW] (one such account). • So far as I can tell, everybody admits the “incident” occurred, but the school administrators say they addressed it, and leaving that part out makes reporting “inaccurate and incomplete.” I’m not sure that, if I were a parent, I would take that view (see my “bumping uglies” standard).

“Violent extremists are increasingly sharing tactics for attacking power stations, DHS warns” [CNN]. “Following multiple high-profile attacks on US power substations last year, extremists have stepped up sharing of “online messaging and operational guidance promoting attacks against this sector,” says the DHS bulletin, which was distributed to US critical infrastructure operators on Monday. The information and tactics shared by extremists online include ‘detailed diagrams, simplified tips for enhancing operational security, and procedures for disabling key components of substations and transformers,’ DHS warned. The last year saw a flurry of physical attacks and vandalism on US electric infrastructure. Tens of thousands of people lost power in Moore County, North Carolina, in December after Duke Energy substations were damaged by gunfire. On Christmas, thousands of people lost power in a Washington county after someone vandalized multiple substations there. A DHS spokesperson told CNN in a statement: ‘The Department of Homeland Security regularly shares information regarding the heightened threat environment with federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial officials to ensure the safety and security of all communities across the country.’ Some of the threats to electric infrastructure have come from people espousing racially or ethnically motivated extremist ideology ‘to create civil disorder and inspire further violence,’ the FBI previously said in a November bulletin sent to private industry.” • Nothing on data centers, then?

#COVID19

“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

Resources, United States (National): Transmission (CDC); Wastewater (CDC, Biobot; includes many counties); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker” (in IA, but national data).

Lambert here: Readers, thanks for the collective effort. We are now up to 50/50 states (100%). This is really great! (It occurs to me that there are uses to which this data might be put, beyond helping people with “personal risk assessments” appropriate to their state. For example, thinking pessimistically, we might maintain the list and see which states go dark and when. We might also tabulate the properties of each site and look for differences and commonalities, for example the use of GIS (an exercise in Federalism). I do not that CA remains a little sketchy; it feels a little odd that there’s no statewide site, but I’ve never been able to find one. Also, my working assumption was that each state would have one site. That’s turned out not to be true; see e.g. ID. Trivially, it means I need to punctuate this list properly. Less trivially, there may be more local sites that should be added. NY city in NY state springs to mind, but I’m sure there are others. FL also springs to mind as a special case, because DeSantis will most probably be a Presidental candidate, and IIRC there was some foofra about their state dashboard. Thanks again!

Resources, United States (Local): AK (dashboard); AL (dashboard); AR (dashboard); AZ (dashboard); CA (dashboard; Marin); 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, Vancouver (wastewater).

Hat tips to helpful readers: Art_DogCT, B24S, CanCyn, ChiGal, Chuck L, Festoonic, FM, FreeMarketApologist (4), Gumbo, hop2it, JB, JEHR, JF, JL Joe, John, JM (9), JW, KatieBird, LL, Michael King, KF, LaRuse, mrsyk, MT, otisyves, Petal (5), RK (2), RL, RM, Rod, square coats (11), tennesseewaltzer, Utah, Bob White (3).

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Look for the Helpers

Class project:

And:

The Corsi-Rosenthal Foundation:

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“COVID Advocacy Groups State and Local Groups in the United States and Canada” [GoogleDocs]. “List maintained by Mandate Masks US. Please email MandateMasksUS@gmail.com if you have any changes or additions.”

Vaccines

“Effectiveness of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Bivalent Vaccine” (preprint) [medRxiv]. “: Among 51017 working-aged Cleveland Clinic employees, the bivalent COVID-19 vaccine was 29% effective in preventing infection while the BA.4/5 lineages were dominant, and 20% effective while the BQ lineages were. Effectiveness was not demonstrated when the XBB lineages were dominant.” • Oh. (Authors are all from the Cleveland Clinic.)

Covid Is Airborne

How a dentist can make their office safe:

Maskstravaganza

Moving beyond that medical appliance look, at least for FloMask:

More on FloMask:

Fashion forward:

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“Carolyn Hax: Spouse is not okay with husband’s disregard for risk” [WaPo]. “Dear Carolyn: I don’t accept my spouse’s risky behavior. He puts himself — and by extension, me and our marriage — in positions where terrible harm could occur. Wouldn’t get vaccinated against the coronavirus, wouldn’t wear a mask…. How do I stop letting his behavior hurt and threaten me? Selfishness and stubborn, self-absorbed foolishness are as good a basis as any for leaving someone when it persistently compromises your peace of mind and quality of life. If leaving seems extreme, then please scroll back to the opening words of your letter: ‘I don’t accept.’ If he doesn’t change, then that’s what not accepting means. Plus, if you stay with him, and if reckless disregard for himself and others is indeed a lifestyle for him, then you need to think about protecting more than your peace of mind. That means long-term care insurance, umbrella liability insurance and steps to protect your assets independently of his. And a therapist, whom I expect you’ll be seeing without him, to help you detach emotionally from the risks he assumes. It’s really hard to do this. But it’s still not as hard as living and dying with him every time he goes out to return a book.” • Hax is, in my view, admirably tough-minded. I’m a fan! Correspondence date: “January 30, 2023.”

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The PMC just l-o-o-o-v-e-s them their complexity. They’ll choose a complex rule over a simple one, every time:

(Although I notice that the left-hand, simple signage has a mask with earloops, not N95-style headband. I wish commercial artists, clip-art suppliers, and stock photo companies would fix this.)

So determining what a hospitals masking rules actually are may not be so easy. But it must be done:

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One more snappy comeback (and I think they’re needed because I’m tired of being nice):

“Masking in Healthcare (04/20/23)” (podcast) [Death Panel]. “Bea, Artie, and Abby discuss the end of mask mandates in healthcare settings, why masking in places like hospitals was a good idea even pre-pandemic, and the one US agency that could put the brakes on this development——but isn’t.” • Always worth a listen.

Treatment

“Shielding the vulnerable did little to reduce COVID-19 among the at-risk, study finds” [Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy]. “Shielding, a public health strategy used across the United Kingdom in the early months of the pandemic, aimed to keep the most vulnerable citizens protected from the novel coronavirus at home and away from public-facing jobs and schools. But a new study of Welsh citizens published in the May issue of Public Health shows the strategy did little to prevent infection in this group. ‘Our study found no evidence of reduced COVID-19 infections one year after shielding was introduced. This raises questions about the benefits of shielding for vulnerable people as a policy,’ said lead author Helen Snooks, PhD, of Swansea University Medical School in a press release. The study compared outcomes, including infection, deaths, and admissions to hospitals and intensive care units among a cohort of 117,415 shielded people, with 3,086,385 citizens who were not shielded during the first year of the pandemic in Wales. The shielded population included cancer patients (18.6%), those on immunosuppressive therapy (25.9%), and those with severe respiratory conditions (35.5%). All information came from anonymous electronic health records. People who were shielded were more likely to be residents in long-term care facilities, women, and those ages 50 and older. Shielded people had a slightly higher known infection rate—5.9% versus 5.7%—compared with controls. All outcomes of infection were worse among shielded people. They were more likely to die (odds ratio [OR], 3.68), have a critical care admission (OR, 3.34), hospital emergency admission (OR, 2.88), and visit the emergency department (OR, 1.89) compared with unshielded Welsh citizens. ‘Shielding was an untested public health policy that was introduced in the United Kingdom early in the pandemic, in contrast to other countries where there was more focus on closing borders, lockdown, test and trace systems,’ the authors concluded. ‘The shielding policy was based on assumptions rather than evidence of effectiveness.'”

Sequelae

“Sex-Specific Neurodevelopmental Outcomes Among Offspring of Mothers With SARS-CoV-2 Infection During Pregnancy” [JAMA]. • I ran this previously in Links (NPR summarizes: “COVID during pregnancy may alter brain development in boys“) but I need to run it again to have a hook for this chaser:

Elite Malfeasance

I’ll take eugenics for $500, Alex:

Well, it’s not like SARS-CoV-2 is a BSL-3 biohazard or anything. Oh, wait:

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Looks like “leveling off to a high plateau” across the board. (I still think “Something Awful” is coming, however. I mean, besides what we already know about.) Stay safe out there!

Lambert here: I’m getting the feeling that the “something awful” might be a sawtooth pattern — variant after variant — that averages out to a permanently high plateau (with, of course, deeper knowledge of the sequelae “we” have already decided to accept or, rather, to profit from). That will be the operational definition of “living with Covid.” More as I think on this. In addition, I recurated my Twitter feed for my new account, and it may be I’m creating a echo chamber. That said, it seems to me that the knobs on Covid had gone up to 13, partly because science is popping, which demands more gaslighting, and partly because that “Covid is over” bubble maintenance is, I believe, more pundit-intensive than our betters believed it would be.

Lambert here: More on the sawtooth pattern: “Expert warns UK is facing 5 waves of Covid a year as Arcturus spreads” [Mirror]. “The UK is facing five waves of Covid a year, with the latest Arcturus strain set to impact the country in three ways, an expert has warned. Virologist Dr Lennard Lee spoke as Arcturus was blamed for a major hike in Covid cases in India, while as of April 11, 66 cases of the new variant had been detected here. Dr Lee warned the UK would continue to face multiple waves of Covid in coming years, The Express reports. He said: ‘We’re starting to see patterns now. So the virus doesn’t appear to be dying out. It seems to be hitting our shores, a new variant anywhere in the world, every two months at the moment. I think last year, we had five waves of virus hitting coming to us and again, it looks like we’re going have another five waves – this is another wave which will probably come start to ramp up again.” • Musical interlude.

Case Data

BioBot wastewater data from April 24:

Lambert here: Unless the United States is completely unlike the rest of the world, we should be seeing an increase here soon.

For now, I’m going to use this national wastewater data as the best proxy for case data (ignoring the clinical case data portion of this chart, which in my view “goes bad” after March 2022, for reasons as yet unexplained). At least we can spot trends, and compare current levels to equivalent past levels.

• Mystery cancellations: Jackson Browne, Sam Smith, Justin Bieber

Variants

NOT UPDATED From CDC, April 22, 2023. Here we go again:

Lambert here: Looks like XBB.1.16 is rolling right along. Though XBB 1.9.1 is in the race as well.

Lambert here: CDC has redesigned its chart to combine actual data with NowCast model projections (which readers will recall I refused to use, because CDC’s models have a wretched track record. Worse, the press always quoted the projections, not the model). Because the new chart design makes it clear what’s data and what’s projection (though that “weighted estimate” gives me pause) I’m using it.

Covid Emergency Room Visits

NOT UPDATED From CDC NCIRD Surveillance, from April 15:

NOTE “Charts and data provided by CDC, updates Wednesday by 8am. For the past year, using a rolling 52-week period.” So not the entire pandemic, FFS (the implicit message here being that Covid is “just like the flu,” which is why the seasonal “rolling 52-week period” is appropriate for bothMR SUBLIMINAL I hate these people so much. Anyhow, I added a grey “Fauci line” just to show that Covid wasn’t “over” when they started saying it was, and it’s not over now. Notice also that this chart shows, at least for its time period, that Covid is not seasonal, even though CDC is trying to get us to believe that it is, presumably so they can piggyback on the existing institutional apparatus for injections.

Positivity

A kind reader discovered that Walgreens had reduced its frequency to once a week. No updates in more than a week, however.

Deaths

NOT UPDATED Death rate (Our World in Data):

Total: 1,159,313 – 1,158,842 = 471 (471 * 365 = 171,915 deaths per year, today’s YouGenicist™ number for “living with” Covid (quite a bit higher than the minimizers would like, though they can talk themselves into anything. If the YouGenicist™ metric keeps chugging along like this, I may just have to decide this is what the powers-that-be consider “mission accomplished” for this particular tranche of death and disease).

Lambert here: WHO turned off the feed? Odd that Walgreen’s positivity shut down on April 11, and the WHO death count on April 12. Was there a memo I didn’t get?

Excess Deaths

Excess deaths (The Economist), published April 23:

Lambert here: Based on a machine-learning model. I”m not sure how often this updates, and if it doesn’t, I’ll remove it. (The CDC has an excess estimate too, but since it ran forever with a massive typo in the Legend, I figured nobody was really looking at it, so I got rid it. )

Stats Watch

Housing: ‘United States Building Permits” [Trading Economics]. “Building permits in the United States were revised higher to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 1.43 million in March of 2023, compared to initial estimates of 1.413 million, but continued to point to subdued housing demand amid higher interest rates and rising consumer prices.”

Manufacturing: “United States Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index” [Trading Economics]. “The Manufacturing Activity Index in the Richmond area sank to -10 in April of 2023, deteriorating from the -5 in the previous month as higher interest rates continue to pressure business activity for manufacturers.”

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Tech: “Airlines must get new altimeters to ensure no interference from 5G: Telcos” [Business Standard]. “Telcos are pushing the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to impose a sunset clause within which airlines have to mandatorily replace their old altimeters with the latest one so that 5G spectrum airwave radiation in airports does not interfere with an aircraft’s instruments.” • Can somebody explain to me like I’m five what 5G is for? Other than driving replacement not only of altimeters, but millions of existing, functional phones?

Tech: If you care:

I’ve gotta say, from my tiny corner of the Twitterverse — even if those weasels banned me for overly ponderour irony — Musk’s Twitter is no worse than Democrat Twitter. And the “For You” (algorithmic) timeline is improved. Granted, it should not be the default, but I have found some useful stuff there.

Tech: “If You Come at the King” [Daring Fireball]. “Back in February when LeBron James broke the all-time NBA scoring title, [ex-Apple vets Imran Chaudhri] retweeted someone comparing a photo of James’s record-breaking shot (with a seeming majority of the fans in the background holding their phones to capture the moment — almost all of them iPhones, natch) with Michael Jordan’s iconic 1998 championship-winning shot against the Utah Jazz (with, of course, not a single fan with a phone in hand).1 Chaudhri’s comment on the comparison: ‘we all deserve better.’… The thought being, I surmise, that Chaudhri thinks something is wrong that so many of us turn to our phones to photograph or film major moments in our lives, rather than just enjoying them through our own senses…. People take their own photos at major events not because they think those will be great photos, but because they’re proof that they were there. Selfies are the new autographs, and a shaky iPhone photo from the perspective of your own seat at the event is the new certificate of attendance…. The fundamental flaw in [Chaudhri’s company’s] entire premise, as I see it, is that people don’t feel burdened by their phones. People love them — especially iPhone owners. And those who are ambivalent or even downright antipathetic toward their phones surely aren’t the sort of people who are interested in a newfangled laser-projecting AI-driven chest-badge computer.” • Nor am I, if that’s a good description of the product.

Tech: “Inside the Struggle to Make Lab-Grown Meat” [Wall Street Journal]. “While Upside and others have long been able to grow small amounts of meat from cells, making larger volumes at low cost is proving much harder, according to interviews with current and former Upside employees, industry officials, investors and outside scientists. Many are skeptical that cultivated-meat companies—which rely on expensive technology to make a low-price commodity—will be able to produce meat affordable enough to make a meaningful dent soon in the more than $1 trillion global meat market. They expect hybrid products, often made with animal cells and other ingredients such as plant-based protein, to have a quicker, less costly path to market. ‘We can make it on small scales successfully,’ said Josh Tetrick, chief executive officer of a rival food-technology company, Eat Just Inc., of Alameda, Calif., which in March received the second FDA nod that its cultivated chicken is safe to eat. ‘What is uncertain is whether we and other companies will be able to produce this at the largest of scales, at the lowest of costs within the next decade.'”

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Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 57 Greed (previous close: 63 Greed) [CNN]. One week ago: 68 (Greed). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Apr 25 at 2:46 PM ET.

Rapture Index: Closes up one on Satanism. “There has been a sharp rise in paganism” [Rapture Ready]. Record High, October 10, 2016: 189. Current: 184. (Remember that bringing on the Rapture is good.) NOTE on #42 Plagues: “The coronavirus pandemic has maxed out this category.” More honest than most! I wonder where that’s coming from?

The Gallery

Sitting in the shade, but it wouldn’t it be lovely to walk out from under the arch of the trees and look at the flowers:

Zeitgeist Watch

Yes, but why not a flamethrower?

Brainworms that produce ideological anamorphosis:

Class Warfare

“A critical look at Afrocentrism” [MR Online]. “Garveyism and Afrocentrism, while different, are grounded in their shared nature of being expressions of a call for National conscience. Both call upon their adherents to recognize an ‘acknowledgment and need to return to origins’ (Asa G. Hilliard III). The phrase suggests an understanding that black people across the globe represent a unified (at least in terms of shared struggle) though displaced people. Followers of these ideological trends argue that alongside shared struggle, there is a general ‘Afrikan worldview’ and cultural logic that, due to slavery, has largely been forgotten. This gap in our memory has been caused by the forceful removal of Afrikans from their homeland and filled in by the decadent and fatalistic values & behaviors of the Europeans. The path to overcoming this ‘cultural amnesia’ is via a total reorientation towards and (in some cases) overall destruction of the European’s contribution to human history and thought. In practice, this reorientation movement often takes the character of (1) outlining the values of ‘traditional’ Afrikan people and counterposing them to the values of the Europeans. (2) From these values, the political-economic formation that Afrikan people need to combat and crush white supremacist domination is deduced. (3) When all is said and done, there is a call for us to spread these cultural maxims out to the diaspora (through different modes of education) and call for unity around those values. What is the economic solution that is deduced from these so-called ‘traditional Afrikan values’? It can be either social democracy or some stripe of ‘collectivist capitalism’ where our money is circulated between our people own to ‘build our strength’ and ‘demand our recognition.’ One thing is clear, there is a general refusal to accept the socialist option because it is reportedly a ‘white’ thing. Ironically, when you ask these people from what country did capitalism originate, it is either met with quick dismissal or pointing out that ‘socialism in Afrika failed,’ followed by being told to look at Thomas Sowell or that Brother from Kenya. The main point is that while the Afrocentrist/Neo-Garveyist is correct to critique the decadence of bourgeois society, their inability to move past culturalism leaves them in a position where they maintain the real system of Afrikan exploitation.”

News of the Wired

This is not a yarn diagram (and that’s not a Magritte reference):

Why not? The relationships are labeled.

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Contact information for plants: Readers, feel free to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) find out how to send me a check if you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi and coral are deemed to be honorary plants! If you want your handle to appear as a credit, please place it at the start of your mail in parentheses: (thus). Otherwise, I will anonymize by using your initials. See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. From NM:

NM writes: “Attached is a photo submission for a future water cooler. These are both cacti of the genus astrophytum. I suspect they are both hybrids of different species (astrophytum asterias, Capricorne and coahuilense all have red throated flowers). Bonus photobomb of the apartment’s other resident. Good sign spring is here!”

Readers, I am still in need of plant photos. Any of you out digging in the garden yet? The cupboard is no longer bare, but I’d like it to be jammed to overflowing. Thank you! (Also thanks to the many readers who sent in photos of the horrid Admiral popup. It was helpful to be able to see what you saw.)

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About Lambert Strether

Readers, I have had a correspondent characterize my views as realistic cynical. Let me briefly explain them. I believe in universal programs that provide concrete material benefits, especially to the working class. Medicare for All is the prime example, but tuition-free college and a Post Office Bank also fall under this heading. So do a Jobs Guarantee and a Debt Jubilee. Clearly, neither liberal Democrats nor conservative Republicans can deliver on such programs, because the two are different flavors of neoliberalism (“Because markets”). I don’t much care about the “ism” that delivers the benefits, although whichever one does have to put common humanity first, as opposed to markets. Could be a second FDR saving capitalism, democratic socialism leashing and collaring it, or communism razing it. I don’t much care, as long as the benefits are delivered. To me, the key issue — and this is why Medicare for All is always first with me — is the tens of thousands of excess “deaths from despair,” as described by the Case-Deaton study, and other recent studies. That enormous body count makes Medicare for All, at the very least, a moral and strategic imperative. And that level of suffering and organic damage makes the concerns of identity politics — even the worthy fight to help the refugees Bush, Obama, and Clinton’s wars created — bright shiny objects by comparison. Hence my frustration with the news flow — currently in my view the swirling intersection of two, separate Shock Doctrine campaigns, one by the Administration, and the other by out-of-power liberals and their allies in the State and in the press — a news flow that constantly forces me to focus on matters that I regard as of secondary importance to the excess deaths. What kind of political economy is it that halts or even reverses the increases in life expectancy that civilized societies have achieved? I am also very hopeful that the continuing destruction of both party establishments will open the space for voices supporting programs similar to those I have listed; let’s call such voices “the left.” Volatility creates opportunity, especially if the Democrat establishment, which puts markets first and opposes all such programs, isn’t allowed to get back into the saddle. Eyes on the prize! I love the tactical level, and secretly love even the horse race, since I’ve been blogging about it daily for fourteen years, but everything I write has this perspective at the back of it.

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80 comments

  1. chukjones

    Was late to the party this AM.
    Fact checking Dr Fauci
    Dr. Fauci Looks Back: ‘Something Clearly Went Wrong’ NYT Magazine 4/24/23

    “If you look at what worked for us, it was on the science side: the extraordinary investments that were made for decades before the emergence of SARS-CoV-2. First, the work in platform technology that led to essentially a revolution in how we make vaccines. No.2 is structure-based immunogen design. That helped with antiviral design, too — that has been the most underrated part of our response. I mean, show me a person who’s vaccinated, got infected, took Paxlovid and died. I can’t find anybody.”

    It took me about 2 minutes to come up with this study showing 29 died that met Fauci’s criteria.

    Per the CDC: Paxlovid Associated with Decreased Hospitalization Rate Among Adults with COVID-19 — United States, April–September 2022
    Weekly / December 2, 2022 / 71(48);1531–1537

    https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7148e2.htm

    “Among the 5,229 persons with a COVID-19 hospitalization, 930 (17.8%) received Paxlovid during the 5 days after diagnosis. Overall, 211 deaths were reported during a COVID-19 hospitalization. Among those who received Paxlovid, 0.01% (29 of 198,927) died compared with 0.04% (182 of 500,921) of persons who did not receive Paxlovid.”

    I hate to be the one to show him.

    Full disclosure: I am fully vaccinated, but unfortunatly got covid last November dispite all my precautions. BTW it was far form mild. Live in a rual area of the Appalachian Moutains and was unable to find Paxlovid in time.

    2. IM Doc

      An open letter to Dr. Fauci –

      Dear Dr. Fauci,

      I have a widow in my practice who I will be happy to set you up with for discussion.
      Her husband was a very ill man for many years with multiple co-morbid medical issues.
      He received every one of the COVID vaccines including his fifth – the Bivalent Booster.
      He became very ill last fall, and was found to be COVID positive. Because of his age and severe medical risk factors, he was started on Paxlovid. He did much better for a few days and then about a week later took a severe turn for the worse. He was again found to be COVID positive and was admitted to the hospital and died a few days later of a severe pneumonia.

      Fortunately, this type of very ill patient just does not appear to be happening anymore. At least for now.

      But I will be happy to have his widow discuss this situation with you so you can be a bit better informed. It is always a good thing to hear this straight from the patient and their family rather than relying on CNN and MSNBC to tell you how things are going, as Dr. Walensky has admitted is her preferred choice.

      One other thing to consider – this is just me and my practice. This exact same sequence on another very ill patient happened in my practice this last winter for a total of 2 in my practice alone. Just taking the number of internists in the land – about 25,000 or so practicing in outpatient practice, a rough envelope sketch number for this same thing across the USA would be about 25K-50K patients. And we have not even begun to take into consideration any of the family practice doctors.

      Again, my patient’s widow will be happy to discuss this with you at any time. Americans out here in the Heartland are becoming increasingly disturbed when they hear officials like you stating things like this they know are not the case. This would include not just the widow, but all of her friends, and social circles and church, basically the entire community. They all know exactly what happened.

      Again, thankfully, for the last several months, there has been a decline unto zero of any and all patients of this severity – at least in my world. We can all be grateful for this.

      Sincerely,

      IM Doc

      1. Fiery Hunt

        Ohhh, Doc…these bastards really need some ol’ fashioned Greek hubris lessons.

        Matt Taibbi wrote last week, paraphrasing an old NY Jets fan lament, “I have enough hate in my heart to start a car…”.

        Sounds like you and I could start an airliner.

        With deep, deep respect,
        Fiery

  2. ambrit

    Crypto Bellicose Mini-Zeitgeist report.
    I have been seeing multiples of military logistics aircraft flying over this weekend, more than usual. Today I saw a quite ‘unique’ aircraft fly over town. It looked to this untrained eye like a WW-2 era medium bomber. So, I called the local public airfield up. Wonder of wonders, an actual person answered the call!
    When I voiced my question about the “odd” plane, the man replied that it was probably a C-2 Greyhound naval logistics plane. “We are in the middle of Southern Strike 2023 and that plane is ferrying items and people offshore to the aircraft carrier. Because of the exercise, you are seeing much heavier than usual military air traffic .”
    This beastie is a flying curiosity to those used to standard commercial air traffic.
    See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grumman_C-2_Greyhound
    The “Official” narrative: https://www.dvidshub.net/feature/SouthernStrike2023
    So, stay safe. As ‘petal’s’ sighting of RFK Jr. demonstrates, the real dangers come from within our own socio-political hierarchies.

  3. Kyle

    Your Tucker coverage does leave out his pushing of replacement theory, platforming some COIVD information that even this column would call outlandish, and his downplaying of some serious issues on the right for “the ratings”

    He is part of the problem with polarization in American politics (along with CNN/MSNBC/etc etc) as they all profit from the division.

    2. Lambert Strether Post author

      > his pushing of replacement theory

      I view “replacement theory,” so-called, as a Republican funhouse mirror reflection of Democrat strategist Ruy Teixeira’s theory of a “coalition of the ascendant,” which essentially told Democrats all they had to do was sit back and let population growth among (variously listed) quondam minorities bring them to power, the idea being that minorities would naturally become Democrats. Sadly for Teixeira’s grift, Trump’s two campaigns put paid to that idea, as Trump increased the Republican vote among minorities.

      It should come as no surprise that the attempted assembly of a “coalition of the ascendant” would meet with a reaction from a “coalition of the descended,” and that’s what happened. Rancid politics from both parties, and here we are.

      Yeah, there’s stuff I don’t like about Carlson. OTOH, he doesn’t want us to get into a war with a nuclear power, a mark in his favor. And he didn’t implement a policy of mass infection without mitigation that slaughtered 700,000 people, disproportionately those minorities liberal Democrats get all weepy and performative about.

      1. Michael Fiorillo

        Yes to Replacement Theory as an opportunistic refraction of the Coalition of the Ascendant, just as Pizzagate was a fever dream refraction of Epstein and freres…

      2. NoFreeWill

        Except replacement theory is just rehashed white supremacist bullshit that was invented a long time ago… it’s the other way around if anything, the ascendant being a neoliberal version of replacement theory. Just because the neoliberals hate someone doesn’t mean he’s not a shithead fascist… it seems like some people on this site are drifting rightward because they don’t understand the distinction between liberal and left. Obviously the utter destruction of the US left means there isn’t much hope or visibility of our side. We hate the media and neoliberals too, if anything more than the right wing does… but we’d never give Carlson compliments he doesn’t deserve.

        1. Lambert Strether Post author

          > Except replacement theory is just rehashed white supremacist bullshit that was invented a long time ago

          Imvented “a long time ago” (whatever that means), and repurposed by Rey Teixeira, just with new colorways. And we’re going to moralize about this? After Biden slaughtered 700,000+ people disproportionately “of color”?

          Skipping the handwaving about “some people,” are you really saying Carlson doesn’t deserve kudos for calling Ukraine the crock that it is? Very much unlike putative leftists like AOC and (sadly) Sanders, I might add.

    3. pjay

      What?? Tucker Carlson was right-wing? Why, I had no idea! I will stop listening to anything he says immediately!

      I commented earlier in Links that we need an acronym or abbreviation so we wouldn’t keep having to say “I have been critical of Tucker Carlson [or whoever] my entire life, BUT…” every time we have to respond to such comments. It is the “BUT” that is important in this discussion. BUT… I’m kind of tired of repeating it.

    4. ChrisPacific

      He can be very disturbing sometimes. I watched him practically froth at the mouth over the BLM protests, demanding that the military be deployed to shoot them (he didn’t explicitly call for that, but it was clear that he wanted the option on the table as an available response). There are plenty of other examples.

      He is most definitely part of the problem, but as Greenwald says, he has also been the only mainstream journalist who has been willing to call out some of the untouchable positions like forever war. A lot of what he says is CT stuff, but he also says a lot of true things that nobody else will say. If people don’t want him using it as a Trojan horse for the CT material, perhaps they should give the propaganda a rest for a bit and provide alternatives.

    5. chris

      Replacement theory… You mean the theory that white people, and any one else who “clings to guns and religion”, along with those who don’t agree with financial capitalist agenda, should go and die and not be allowed to vote? The theory that people in rural areas deserve to suffer from COVID? The concept that anyone who values place and family should sacrifice both so that they can learn to code, and if they choose not to, should suffer greatly and not vote? The theory that Blue Anon weirdos will pack the court, make DC a state, and do anything else other than listen to the legitimate claims of US Citizens? Are you referring to the disgust that’s been broadcast over the media for decades which treats middle class and lower class people of all backgrounds as disposable? Are you suggesting that the comments from our politicians that we want the dynamic folks who are attempting to illegally cross the southern border more than our current loser citizenry might be perceived negatively?

      I can’t imagine why anyone would think something like replacement theory was a valid concept. There’s clearly no evidence for it…

      2. Wyatt Powell

        This. 100% This.

        They’ll handwave this away like so much else. You can only be told your eyes and ears adnt working so much. What your seeing? nope isnt happening, what your hearing? Your ears are lying to you! The words coming out of my mouth? They aren’t real. My actions? Your misinterpreting them.

        Your reality? Doesnt matter.

    6. The Rev Kev

      Society has come a long way from ‘I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it’ to just deplatforming not only individuals but whole groups of people.

  4. ThirtyOne

    An amusing item I saw yesterday.
    Whatever Victoria Nuland touches withers and dies
    SUDAN CLIFF-NOTES
    AUG _24, 2022 – US Ambassador appointed to Sudan (Following a 25 year lapse)
    SEPT 28, 2022 – US Ambassador warns Sudan against finalizing Russian naval base deal
    NOV 11, 2022 – Blinken urges Sudan to consider “US support for the rapid formation of a civilian-led transitional government”
    DEC 5, 2022 – UN brokers Framework Agreement between Sudan’s military leaders and leading pro-democracy parties
    DEC 7, 2022 – Blinken threatens travel ban for Sudanese who endanger Framework Agreement deal
    FEB 12, 2023 – Sudan confirms deal for Russian naval base, key players Lavrov and Burhan
    FEB 2023 – Biden Admin sends $288 million in humanitarian aid to Sudan
    MAR 9, 2023 Victoria Nuland visits Sudan to “discuss democracy”
    APRIL 8, 2023 – Conflict escalates between Sudanese Armed Forces (under General Burhan) and paramilitary group RSF (under Dagalo)
    APRIL 22, 2023 – US evacuates Sudan

    1. The Rev Kev

      That may have been a bit of an own goal that last one. The number of people in Sudan’s US Embassy was just as large as that for Kiev so obviously most of them must have been spooks monitoring the Horn of Africa. They made sure to get them out OK but that must mean that a large part of US intelligence has just gone dark. Seems to that people like Blinken and Nuland have the reverse Midas touch – everything that they touch turns to crap.

      1. JohnA

        It would be very gratifying one day to discover that Nuland was now a hunk of crap at the bottom of the sea

  5. ambrit

    About 5G telephony: If the CTs concerning 5G are anywhere near the ‘truth’ of the matter, the 5G system itself will increase the incidence of cancers in the urban population. [It’s all about wavelengths.] Thus, 5G can be considered another ‘tool’ in the Jackpot arsenal. {Reducing the numbers of the “deplorables” is like the Rapture, a ‘good’ thing.}
    Stay safe. With the roll out of 5G, those tin foil hats now have practical applications.

      1. Watt4Bob

        I tell people that prior to 5G, “They” could only pin-point your location to within a quarter mile or so, with 5G, “They” can pin-point your location to within a couple feet.

        5G is how the drones are going to find you.

        1. Watt4Bob

          In the future, you’ll pay many hundreds of dollars a year to be surveilled 24/7/365 day a year, right down to your exact location.

          And, did we mention, you won’t own anything, and you’ll like it!

    2. Alex V

      You may want to read about automotive radars. Even higher frequencies and power outputs, pointed straight at pedestrians, on purpose.

  6. nippersdad

    Apparently we are about to have Neera Tanden back to kick around again, this time as Biden’s domestic policy chief.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvZ53YFRTDM

    The political instincts of the Democratic party never fail to disappoint. They have a unique talent for scraping holes in the bottom of the barrel.

  7. Wukchumni

    Tech: “If You Come at the King” [Daring Fireball]. “Back in February when LeBron James broke the all-time NBA scoring title, [ex-Apple vets Imran Chaudhri] retweeted someone comparing a photo of James’s record-breaking shot (with a seeming majority of the fans in the background holding their phones to capture the moment — almost all of them iPhones, natch) with Michael Jordan’s iconic 1998 championship-winning shot against the Utah Jazz (with, of course, not a single fan with a phone in hand).1 Chaudhri’s comment on the comparison: ‘we all deserve better.’…
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    I pretty much rely on friends i’m with to take photos in the wilderness as I want to be in the moment with no distractions, and besides anybody can take a photo, but not so many can describe what they saw in words.

  8. antidlc

    https://www.smh.com.au/national/it-can-t-be-ignored-the-illness-costing-australia-at-least-5-7b-a-year-20230404-p5cy3z.html

    ‘It can’t be ignored’: The illness costing Australia at least $5.7b a year

    Long COVID is costing the Australian economy at least $5.7 billion a year as tens of thousands are left unable to work by the debilitating disease.

    While the exact level of absenteeism caused by long COVID is not known, new analysis by Impact Economics and Policy, using a “lower range” estimate that an average of 40,000 people are unable to work due to the illness, puts the weekly cost to gross domestic product at $110 million, or $5.7 billion annually. If the highest estimates for long COVID absenteeism is used the cost to GDP rises to $880 million a week, or $46 billion a year.

    So “let it rip” really isn’t good for the economy? Well, golly gee.

    1. notabanker

      Well, that just depends on whose economy you are referring to. Corporate profits are outta sight.

    2. Will

      While I’m glad that the issue may finally be starting to get the attention it deserves, it is still very sad that it is framed as an economic issue, and that this is the only frame within which people’s health is important enough for our “leaders” to do anything about it.

      1. The Rev Kev

        To them, if you can’t put it in an Excel spreadsheet, it does not matter. But both political parties have signed up for herd immunity, even though we knew way back in 2020 that this was not possible with a Coronavirus.

  9. antidlc

    https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/3970220-gorsuch-sold-colorado-property-to-major-law-firm-head-after-confirmation-report/

    Gorsuch sold Colorado property to major law firm head after confirmation: report

    Greenberg Traurig, which employs more than 2,000 attorneys, is regularly involved in cases before the high court.

    Grand County, Colo., real estate records show that Brian and Kari Duffy, which match the names of the firm’s CEO and his wife, closed on a property sold by Walden Group, LLC, the name of Gorsuch’s company, on May 19, 2017. The sale was for $1.825 million, the records indicate.

    Gorsuch reportedly owned a 20 percent stake in the company, and his two partners each owned 40 percent. Gorsuch in his annual financial disclosure that year noted he received between $250,001-$500,000 for a sale stemming from the company, but a box for the identity of the buyer is left blank.

    Supreme Court justices are required to file the annual disclosures under federal law, although they are not required to follow any binding ethics code. The justices have indicated they generally consult their colleagues when deciding ethical dilemmas.

    So they consult their colleagues…and if their colleagues are doing it, it must be OK.

    How many other shoes to drop?

    Who’s next?

  10. Carolinian

    Biden has to run again to keep Hunter out of jail and possibly himself–or perhaps his entire family. I suspect it’s the reason he ran the first time.

    Of course Trump’s motives are just as suspect and seem to mostly have to do with his ego. Ultimately we’re in this mess because the parties themselves are played out whereas they once had defined and at least somewhat different goals.

    Lesser evil is all we’ve got and if the Dems run Biden then they are worse.

      1. Carolinian

        I didn’t vote last time but I would if a repeat just for the personal satisfaction of voting against one of the worst presidents in history. Outcome wise SC would almost certainly go for Trump regardless.

    3. Will

      Does he though? Couldn’t he just grant everyone a pardon on his way out the door? Plus, he could credibly claim he doesn’t remember doing it if he were ever called on it.

        1. nippersdad

          I seem to recall that was an issue with Bush….Apparently you can.

          “In 1866, the Supreme Court ruled in Ex parte Garland that the pardon power “extends to every offence known to the law, and may be exercised at any time after its commission, either before legal proceedings are taken, or during their pendency, or after conviction and judgment.”

          https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2008/07/can-president-bush-pardon-people-who-haven-t-even-been-charged-with-a-crime.html

          1. Carolinian

            If he granted a pardon he’d have to at least admit that there is something to be pardoned. Biden always claims he and his family are pure as the driven snow.

            Honestly does anyone really believe that Garland isn’t being pressured to avoid going after Hunter and all the rest of it? As long as he is president Biden has that power over his cabinet. Of course the Repubs may now have something to say about this in the House. I hope they do.

            There is the theory that Hunter will be given a slap on the wrist charge to make the more serious charges go away before the election. But even that hasn’t happened.

        2. Jeff V

          I had an idea that Nixon was pardoned by Ford for anything and everything he might have done, and Wikipedia seems to pretty much back this up.

          One (unintended?) consequence of this was apparently that Nixon could no longer plead the 5th Amendment if required to testify, since he’d been pardoned anyway. I’m not sure Joe Biden wants Hunter Biden in that position …

    4. Pat

      Biden ran the first time because he has always wanted to be President. He didn’t do it to protect Hunter because he never thought Hunter, or he himself, were in trouble. This influence peddling was and is SOP.

      The only way Hunter’s laptop was a problem was it might shake off enough unhappy Biden voters who just couldn’t condone this clear corruption. But you have to remember that in DC corruption has to come with a neon flashing sign with ten foot high letters saying “This is Corruption” with arrows pointing out each instance otherwise it isn’t just Congress who doesn’t see it, the Supreme Court can’t either.

      Sure it can fuel investigations but like Benghazi nothing will come of it but name calling.it can’t, too many are eager participants regardless of party.

      1. Carolinian

        As I recall Biden did a great deal of dithering about running and Sanders was already out campaigning before Biden finally joined in. It didn’t seem eager to me. In fact the suspicion was that he had been convinced to do it to make sure Sanders failed.

        And it may be SOP but not out in the open. When Trump tried to turn over the Bidens in Ukraine rock he got impeached.

    1. ambrit

      Since we are talking about a ‘Hive Mind’ here, it would more properly be termed a “multi cranial splatterfest.”

  12. Henry Moon Pie

    So have we hit a major but unanticipated climate tipping point? Following on this morning’s article on the alarming quick rise in ocean temperature from Yale Climate Connections, the BBC has published an article based on that same study. Ocean warming, like permafrost melting, is a tipping point that accelerates the process of warming even further. Look at these adverse effects on climate and the biosphere generally that are listed in the article:

    – Loss of species: more frequent and intense marine heatwaves lead to mass mortality of sea life. This is particularly damaging for coral reefs
    .
    – More extreme weather: increased heat in the upper ocean surface means hurricanes and cyclones can pick up more energy. This means they become more intense and longer-lasting.

    – Sea-level rise: warmer waters take up more space – known as thermal expansion – and can greatly accelerate the melting of glaciers from Greenland and Antarctica that flow into the oceans. This raises global sea levels, increasing risks of coastal flooding.

    – Less ability to absorb CO2: the oceans currently take up about a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions. Warmer waters have less ability to absorb CO2. If the oceans take up less CO2 in future, more would accumulate in the atmosphere – further warming the air and oceans.

    The last is an example of a tipping point.

    Problems that we were told were decades away may be coming much faster.

    1. antidlc

      https://sirota.substack.com/p/jen-psaki-shows-dont-look-up-was

      Jen Psaki Shows ‘Don’t Look Up’ Was A Documentary
      The climate emergency can’t compete with a discussion about ice cream.

      As Kerry was outlining the worsening ecological crisis, Psaki abruptly shifted the conversation into a discussion about…ice cream.

      You really have to watch this clip to believe it.

      This wasn’t a brief digression in the larger discussion. The interview soon became a travelogue of Psaki and Kerry’s visit to a D.C. ice cream stand, where they enjoyed Dove bars.

      Video:https://twitter.com/bern_identity/status/1650259737047601152

      1. c_heale

        Kerry is a guy who has a massive mansion, and takes airplanes everywhere. A total hypocrite (like the new King Charles) when it comes to green issues and climate change.

    2. notabanker

      Anyone that thinks we are decades away from problems doesn’t spend much time looking out their windows. We have had four hail storms this year so far. I am struggling to recall four hail storms in my previous five decades of existence. Trees are dying at a rapid pace in our part of the world. Tree guys are a constant fixture in my neighborhood, whether it is damage from storms, invasive insects or disease, I can tell they are more stressed than ever, and I have only been on this property for 5 years. Driving down the interstate and looking at them is haunting.

      If there is a jackpot, then climate change is it. I don’t think we are going to wake up one morning and say, gee, this is it, the tipping point. We are already there and things will just continue to ratchet up until enough infrastructure is irreplaceably destroyed to start to reverse the need for fossil fuel burning. Because humans are not going to stop until they are forced to. And they will be forced to. Nature will see to that.

  13. Henry Moon Pie

    Tucker was blindsided–

    Give me a break. Tucker has gotten off* way easier than Howard Beale when he went off-script, sort of.

    “Network” still makes a pretty good primer on the workings behind corporate media.

    * so far

    1. The Rev Kev

      If Tucker has still negotiating his contract, then that must mean that any non-disclosure clauses would no longer be valid as they had not finalized his new contract. Or you would think so. Interesting.

      1. ambrit

        It also means that the old non-compete clause was considered good enough to shut him up.
        Right now, my money is on the Murdoch clan preparing for the sale of the family empire. Carlson is just the first of many “high priced” newsreaders to go, all for ‘budgetary reasons.’ Don’t forget that fame is fleeting. The advisors to the owners know that well and are advising their patrons accordingly.
        Of course now, I would seriously advise ‘Papa’ Murdoch not to go sailing any more.

  14. Roger Blakely

    Effectiveness (of vaccines) was not demonstrated when the XBB lineages were dominant.

    This sentence corresponds with my experience. I had the initial infection in March of 2020. I caught XBB.1.5 in January of 2023 while in the supermarket with my respirator. During the three years between the initial infection and the infection with XBB.1.5 I got hit with every variant that came down the pike (14). XBB.1.5 was the first variant that hit me so hard that it generated my first positive rapid antigen test.

  15. notabanker

    The AOC clip sure feels like a canary in a coal mine. And not a just in case kinda thing, but because the next shoe that drops will require it. I think we are moving from interesting to dangerous times.

    1. pjay

      Hey, “Deplatforming works!”

      More reaction to Tucker’s firing, courtesy of the Babylon Bee:

      “Progressives are reportedly overjoyed by the move, although many are saying Fox didn’t go far enough by not killing Carlson in addition to firing him. “You mean he’s still alive?” said Congresswoman AOC. “Tucker being alive is fascism!””

      It’s getting harder and harder to satirize our political reality.

      https://babylonbee.com/news/fox-news-fires-the-only-reason-people-watch-fox-news

  16. LY

    5G is an evolution of 4G, and is many enhancements to decrease latency, to increase bandwidth and data rates, and to enable many low power devices connecting at low bandwidth.

    The easiest way to increase bandwidth is to allocate more frequency bands. The frequencies that 5G can be deployed were increased from 3G/4G at around 2.5 GHz to frequencies adjacent to the airplane altimeter, around 4.2 and 4.4 GHz. Those new bands include frequencies just below and just above, up to around 6 GHz.

    The frequency bands that are a significant technological leap are from 24.25 GHz to 71.0 GHz, referred to as millimeter waves. These frequency bands require multiple antennas everywhere, as many things will block the signal. For example, a hand wrapped around a smartphone will significantly block a mm-wave signal, so the workaround is put more antennas all over the phone.

  17. Tom Stone

    I believe our elites are huffing each other’s farts and genuinely believe their own propaganda.
    It’s a shared delusion based on self interest and arrogance, insert Upton Sinclair quote…

  18. Sub-Boreal

    My COVID data point for today:

    My union asked me if I wanted to attend a regional meeting of the British Columbia Federation of Labour, but I had to turn them down after reading the safety notices on the event’s homepage:

    Reminder:

    BCFED events are fragrance-free.

    We are committed to keeping every BCFED event free from sexual harassment or harassment based on religion, race, sexual orientation, gender identity or other grounds.

    That’s all. So not only will I risk an infection that could take away my sense of smell, I wouldn’t even have the consolation of one final whiff of Chanel No. 5!

  20. VT Digger

    5G comes in 2 flavors, one is basically rebranded 4G, slightly less range per tower, slightly more bandwidth. No reason to adopt really except selling more phones (I say bring back 2G)

    The other flavor is called millimeter wave 5G and it is a different beast. Extremely high bandwidth and extremely short range, think hundreds of feet max with very poor penetration power meaning there will need to be a forest of antennas to get good coverage. Very high frequency and very high energy output relative to the long range 5G flavor.
    Maybe not safe for humans but who would pay for such a study?

  21. ChrisRUEcon

    #ClintonLegacy

    Javier Francisco Cortez! Can’t she just familyblog go away?!!

    > If America faltered, would China swoop in to fill the vacuum?

    It’s happening already … LOL

  24. herman_sampson

    Re: Sun Prairie incident. Another factor seems to be involved : age. I guess ordinarily 18 year old females (mostly seniors) would be in the same lockerroom as as underclassmen, but it seems odd to me that a senior would be taking the same class as freshmen. If an after school sports program, I would expect either one program’s participant’s at time (and all near the same age) or many females of all classes in the locker room at the same time.
    I have never figured out how a school could act in loco parentis for an 18 year old student, but the school should have for the 14 year olds.

  25. upstater

    Railroad Safety…

    Canadian National CEO Tracy Robinson urges data-driven approach to safety regulations

    She warns of unintended operational and service consequences from regulations that won’t improve safety

    “Our regulators can and they should be positive partners and will be — as long as there is a fact-based, data-driven approach that connects potential solutions with root causes,” she says. “And if we apply all the wrong solutions, we’ll not only fail to make the necessary gains in safety outcomes, we run the risk of unintended consequences that impair the performance of our supply chain.”

    No mention that maybe – just maybe – running 3 mile long trains with 2 people might not be a good idea. Or her concern that safer operations, more people and shorter trains might affect the obscene profits and buybacks in the railroad industry. Lobbyists and legal are working overtime on this one.

  28. JBird4049

    >>>1,159,313 – 1,158,842 = 471 (471 * 365 = 171,915 deaths per year, today’s YouGenicist™ number

    Eyeballing today’s links, water cooler, and commentariat’s pastiche of gloom, doom, insanity, death, and dash of good humor, it looks like maybe a third of a million “excess” Americans will just croak, plus another 4-5 million will become lazy slackers claiming to be disabled for an indefinite future period of time. Does this sound reasonable?

    I just want to be sure that expecting excess deaths of three percent of the population of these United States every decade, plus tens of millions getting Long Covid is a reasonable thing to plan for. Is this too optimistic?

  29. fred

    re: “If You Come at the King”

    Go read “Dahlgren”. I’d like to say “re-read” but I know better.

    If you did read it, what’s your opinion of the reels of chains and projectors The Kid & George find in the warehouse?

  30. DGL

    “Developed market telecom companies think of 5G mobile broadband as a consumer technology and worry that their market is close to saturation. China’s flagship digital infrastructure company, Huawei, thinks of 5G as an industrial technology and believes that the new digital economy is soon set to launch.”
    https://asiatimes.com/2023/03/digital-worlds-diverge-at-world-mobile-congress/

    This is a recent David P. Goldman article in Asia Times about 5G. He says the power of 5G is not the handheld phone but in AI and machines talking to each other. 5G is so fast that machines can adjust quickly.

    I know how much you love AI. I personally find the trend, described by Wiener as Cybernetics in 1948, disturbing. It really is a long term trend of industrial capitalism – eliminating people.

    The dream with 5G as described by Goldman is autonomous machine society. During the 1970’s this was sold freeing time for people to live the good life. We now know it is the road to hell as the people in charge are revealed to be equivalent to the Shang Dynasty or Aztec. A little human sacrific goes a long way.

    1. JBird4049

      The Aztecs believed that they had to propitiate the actual gods with human sacrifices because Bad Things could happen to humanity if they did not. The Mayans while not that big on human sacrifice were believers in their royalty personally bleeding themselves in really painful ways as a way to please the gods. Either way, it could be considered a kind of really messed up community service especially with the Mayans or early in Aztec history when there was two factions fighting over what kind of religion and political economy that they were going to have; the side wanting a conquering ultra violent empire won. I do not think that the losing side was against human sacrifice as much as wanting to keep as small as possible requirement in their religion while the winning faction used it as an excuse for and tool of empire.

      I mention all this because the Shang seems to have been a very different kind of society from the ones in the Americas. The Mayans used very little human sacrifice, but kept the focus on personal, very painful sacrifices of blood by the elites; the Aztecs took human sacrifice to a more common, central part of their religion, but still limited in numbers to another level of mass sacrifice probably to help with getting an empire. The requirement of some sacrifice for keeping the world whole remained constant. From what I can understand of the Shang, it was only about getting power, often used for mundane activities like building a house, and they were very happy to torture their vast number of victims to death with the reasons, numbers, and methods that would be considered awful even by the late Aztecs.

      Blast me if our modern elites and the Shang do not seem alike. The evil of destroying entire societies for wealth. Death on a massive scale, and for at least a generation, has been a constant for the United States. At least with the Maya and the Aztec, the elites either offered personal suffering or sent themselves into conflict with the religious belief that some of this was absolutely vital, although the Aztecs didn’t want to sacrifice themselves.

      Our current ruling elites and their sycophantic Professional Managerial Class as a group do not seem to mind sacrificing an ever greater part of the planet, its civilization, or humanity in general. It is all about getting enough of the wealth to maintain their being players in whatever hellish game they are playing.

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