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2:00PM Water Cooler 4/7/2023

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By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Patient readers, this has been quite a week for me, and Mercury isn’t even in retrograde. First, my time-slip on Monday. Then, my taxi driver raised the power window up while my fingers were still on the glass (no damage, fortunately). The counterpoint to all this was Twitter fighting every inch of the way not to give me a new count. Thursday I had to buy a new charger for my phone. Then today I had a domestic debacle — happily resolved! — with the result that this Water Cooler is thin. All during a fundraiser (for which the Tip Jar is here). My apologies. I will first walk the numbers, assuming PayPal lets me in, and then add some orts and scraps. Pressing onward… –lambert UPDATE Finished!

While you wait, here are some comments from kind readers:

JA: “Thanks for insight and laughs.”

MC: “Thanks for all the hard work, interesting ideas, and plants!” You’re welcome, but readers bring the plants!

SV: “A day late but hopefully not a dollar short.”

JBB: “I’ll try to donate more next time.” Perhaps a reader who got lucky can pick up the slack?

Patient and generous readers, 🌡️ We are at 371 donors. 371 donors / goal of 375 = 98.93%. Thank you! Thank you! I would say we hit the mark, though nothing prevents the hard-core procrastinator from clicking the Tip Jar now. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

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Bird Song of the Day

Eastern Bluebird, Spotsylvania, Virginia, United States. “Female scold chatter with newly fledged young.”

* * *

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

Biden Administration

“Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is calling once again for the impeachment of Clarence Thomas — and suggesting she’ll introduce articles herself if no one else will” [Politico]. “Despite the latest round of outrage about Thomas, it’s unlikely Ocasio-Cortez, who’s also embracing a leadership role on the House Oversight Committee, will be able to push other Democrats further given the lack of appetite in the party to impeach. Democratic leaders have been harshly critical of Thomas and have continued to push for more stringent court ethics.” • So “push for” is like “fighting for”? But not so much?

2024

“Democrats are gaming out how to run against an indicted Trump” [NBC]. “When news broke earlier this month that Donald Trump would be indicted in New York, leaders of a pro-Joe Biden group met privately to decide what to do. Should they fire off tweets broadcasting what had happened, or maybe send an email blast opining on Trump’s fate? In the end, they did nothing [shocker]. ‘Why get your hands dirty if you don’t have to?’ a person familiar with the group’s thinking said, speaking on condition of anonymity to talk freely. ‘When you get into the ring with him [Trump] in this capacity, you’re no better than he is.’ Wait, what? How are you “fighting for” when you don’t even get in the ring? More: “Lacking any precedent, an ecosystem of Democratic strategists, Biden loyalists and outside groups is gaming out how to wring advantage from Trump’s mushrooming legal woes. They’ve reached no consensus and, for now, are feeling their way through a fraught moment that presents both opportunity and peril for all sides, interviews with more than a dozen political operatives suggest.” • So no planning was done before the indictment?

Wow, it sure is a coincidence that AI’s first assault on a political figure is Trump:

“A once reluctant Harris embraces her biracial identity in Africa” [Los Angeles Times]. • I sense a shift in the conventional wisdom. First, Harris was Indian. Next, Harris was Black. Now, she’s Black-Indian. My head is spinning! As for the mandatory initialism, I guess BI is out. Perhaps IB, surprisingly open for appropriation (“International Baccalaureate,” like no, although “Inspired By” is what the kids on social media are meaning. Not, oddly, “Irritable Bowel.” And when IB+?)

“These Airlines Charge Families Extra To Sit Together” [Forbes]. “‘Parents traveling with young kids should be able to sit together without an airline forcing them to pay junk fees,’ said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in a statement. ‘We have been pressing airlines to guarantee family seating without tacking on extra charges, and now we’re seeing some airlines start to make this common-sense change. All airlines should do this promptly, even as we move forward to develop a rule establishing this as a requirement across the board.'” • Attaboy, Pete! Paste ’em one for me!

“Opinion: If Gavin Newsom really wanted to go after Big Oil, here’s what he would do” [Los Angeles Times]. “[A]fter the fossil fuel industry used the state’s referendum process to stall a critical law banning new or reworked oil and gas wells within 3,200 feet of homes, schools, parks and healthcare facilities, the governor decried the move. He said in a statement that he was proud to have signed the setback measure, Senate Bill 1137, “to stop new oil drilling in our neighborhoods and protect California families.’ Since Newsom’s statement, however, his administration’s oil agency, the California Geologic Energy Management Division, or CalGEM, has approved hundreds of permits to rework existing oil and gas wells and continue dangerous operations within setback zones. CalGEM has approved a total of 897 permits since the beginning of the year, 62% of which are within the zones that would be protected by SB 1137.”

Republican Funhouse

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.

* * *

Realignment and Legitimacy

“What is Bohemian Grove? The secretive camp linked to Clarence Thomas.” [WaPo]. “Bohemian Grove has all the hallmarks of an eyebrow-raiser: The men’s-only retreat in Sonoma County has a massive owl statue, a reported history of public urination, mysterious ceremonies and a top-secret guest list that has included presidents, wealthy businessmen, international power players and other newsmakers. That list also includes Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who has reportedly attended the retreat with billionaire friend and Republican donor Harlan Crow…. Today, there are roughly 2,600 active members and a ‘sizeable waiting list for admission,’ according to the club’s website.” • There are not very many of the Shing.

#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). (Readers, if you leave your link in comments, I credit you by your handle. If you send it to me via email, I use your initials (in the absence of a handle. I am not putting your handle next to your contribution because I hope and expect the list will be long, and I want it to be easy for readers to scan.)

• More like this, please! Total: 1 6 11 18 20 22 26 27 28 38 39 43 47 50/50 (94% of US states).

* * *

Look for the Helpers

“Introducing: The Covid Underground” [Covid Underground]. The deck: “Welcome to The Covid Underground, a newsletter for the Covid-free movement and all of those who continue to avoid infection.” More: “True health is the ability to change. About 10-30% of the U.S. population has changed their lives in the light of the freeing revelations of 2020, and we keep changing. We are dynamically, creatively faithful to what was— briefly— plain to all: normal is a dangerous illusion.” • Worth a read.

“Covid Meetups” [COVID MEETUPS (JM)]. “A free service to find individuals, families and local businesses/services who take COVID precautions in your area.” • I played around with it some. It seems to be Facebook-driven, sadly, but you can use the Directory without logging in. I get rational hits from the U.S., but not from London, UK, FWIW.

Finding like-minded people on (sorry) Facebook:

Maskstravaganza

“Several Vermont hospitals loosen masking restrictions for patients and staff” [VT Digger]. “Patients and employees at University of Vermont Health Network’s three Vermont hospitals will no longer be required to wear masks in public spaces beginning April 12, the organization announced Thursday. The change will affect the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington, Central Vermont Medical Center in Berlin and Porter Medical Center in Middlebury. Dartmouth Health also announced a rollback of its masking requirements for patients, visitors and staff at all of its affiliated offices effective April 10. That includes Mt. Ascutney Hospital in Windsor and the network’s flagship hospital, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire. Southwestern Vermont Medical Center in Bennington, which is joining Dartmouth Health, is also doing away with mask requirements as of April 10, except for people with cold or flu-like symptoms.” BRAIN GENIUS: “[UVM Health Network President Dr. Stephen Leffler] said that people who might be uncomfortable in waiting rooms without masking could wait in their car.” • Either lawsuits, or occupations.

Good public relations copy in Gallant’s tweet, and I mean that as a compliment:

More good public relations copy:

Good nurses gone bad:

I can’t verify the quote. However:

NURSE: We had lots of smiles all around!

NARRATOR: And that nurse’s smiling face was the last thing your grandmother saw.

Scientific Communication

The road to a pandemic is paved with good intentions:

What nimrod got surgical masks into all the Clip-Art books (or whatever graphic artists use these days), instead of N95s?

Earloops cannot provide a tight seal!

Here is another example:

Why does airborne transmission always get erased?

The poster is about #1 fomites (no cases), and #2, #3, #4 droplet dogma (#CovidIsAirborne, and floats in the air like smoke; the three-foot distance is useless). #5 is correct, although CDC helpfully reduced the recommended time at home such that infected people went back to work.

Sequelae

“Defense Department mistakenly detains Delta pilot in Boston hotel after team goes to wrong room in training exercise” [NBC]. “A guest at a Boston hotel was mistakenly detained during a federal training exercise Tuesday after participants went to the wrong room, the FBI said. The incident unfolded about 10 p.m. during a Defense Department training exercise, the FBI said. The agency did not name the person who was accidentally detained. The detained guest was a Delta pilot, a law enforcement source said.” • Brain fog!

Elite Malfeasance

* * *

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!

Case Data

BioBot wastewater data from April 6:

Lambert here: The decline did not bottom out; my pessism was happily unwarranted. However, note that if we look at “the area under the curve,” more people have died after Biden declared that “Covid is over” than before. And this will continue.

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.

Covid Emergency Room Visits

NOT UPDATED From CDC NCIRD Surveillance, from April 1:

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

From the Walgreen’s test positivity tracker, published April 7:

-0.7%. At the low point of the last valley, but the first increases in awhile.

Deaths

Death rate (Our World in Data):

Total: 1,156,850 – 1,156,300 = 550 (550 * 365 = 200,750 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).

Excess Deaths

NOT UPDATED Excess deaths (The Economist), published March 28:

Lambert here: Based on a machine-learning model. Looks like a data issue, to me. 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

Employment Situation: “United States Unemployment Rate” [Trading Economics]. “The unemployment rate in the United States edged down to 3.5 percent in March 2023, against expectations that it would hold at 3.6 percent.” • Jay Powell applies more torque to his rubber thumbscrew. Nothing happens, so he redoubles his efforts.

Employment Situation: “United States Labor Force Participation Rate” [Trading Economics]. “The labor force participation rate in the United States edged up to 62.6 percent in March 2023, up from 62.5 in the previous month.”

* * *

Banking: “JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon says looser rules did not cause recent bank failures” [MarketWatch]. • Oh, hell no.

Tech: “As streamers cut costs, TV shows — and residuals — vanish” [Associated Press]. “[‘Gordita Chronicles’ will be removed from HBO Max’s vast streaming library — one of dozens of shows that HBO last year effectively wiped from existence for U.S. viewers. Among others: ‘Westworld,’ ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife,’ ‘Minx,’ ‘Mrs. Fletcher’ and numerous animated and reality series…. As streamers face mounting pressure to save money, several have followed HBO’s lead. Erasing original shows from their libraries can help streamers get tax write-downs and, to a smaller extent, save on residual payments. But it brings criticism that they are sidelining already marginalized voices and shortchanging creatives out of already slimmer residual paychecks. These issues have increased tension between executives and writers amid union contract negotiations that started late last month and could lead to a significant work stoppage this spring. Streaming companies offer this defense: They never promised that shows would live forever. In a hyper-competitive, changing market, they say, each streamer is trying to balance ample offerings with sheer survival.” • Well, so much for our heritage. OTOH, people are probably working right now on an AI that will recreate erased movies from plot synopses and reviews on IMDB alone, using CGI. So there’s a bright side! Why keep anything at all?

Tech: “In A.I. Race, Microsoft and Google Choose Speed Over Caution” [New York Times]. “In March, two Google employees, whose jobs are to review the company’s artificial intelligence products, tried to stop Google from launching an A.I. chatbot. They believed it generated inaccurate and dangerous statements. Ten months earlier, similar concerns were raised at Microsoft by ethicists and other employees. They wrote in several documents that the A.I. technology behind a planned chatbot could flood Facebook groups with disinformation, degrade critical thinking and erode the factual foundation of modern society. The companies released their chatbots anyway. Microsoft was first, with a splashy event in February to reveal an A.I. chatbot woven into its Bing search engine. Google followed about six weeks later with its own chatbot, Bard. The aggressive moves by the normally risk-averse companies were driven by a race to control what could be the tech industry’s next big thing — generative A.I., the powerful new technology that fuels those chatbots. That competition took on a frantic tone in November when OpenAI, a San Francisco start-up working with Microsoft, released ChatGPT, a chatbot that has captured the public imagination and now has an estimated 100 million monthly users.” • The OpenAI team released a Bullshit Generator that made up its own citations (and who knows what else?) How did an engineering and quality assurance debacle like that happen? Weren’t citations a pretty easy use case to develop a test suite for? Or is the tech bro view of citations “Who needs ’em?”

Mr. Market: “The Seven Virtues of Great Investors” [Jason Sweig]. Since I don’t play the ponies, this article isn’t much use to me (though you’ll like it, if it’s the sort of thing you like). But what a great quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Temperament is the iron wire on which the beads are strung.”

Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 57 Greed (previous close: 56 Greed) [CNN]. One week ago: 60 (Greed). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Apr 6 at 8:59 PM ET.

Sports Desk

“Magnus Carlsen’s Reign Over Chess Ends With a Slip of the Mouse” [Wall Street Journal]. “Carlsen seemingly intended to take the pawn as he moved the queen across the row toward it. But then he dropped the queen too early on a different square where Nakamura’s king could simply take it. Carlsen realized the gravity of his mistake instantly. He shoved his chair back away from his computer, spun around in disgust and appeared to slam something. Nakamura clapped his hands and pumped his fists. The commentators were in utter shock. ‘What’s happened there?’ British grandmaster David Howell shouted on the stream. ‘Magnus has mouse-slipped!’ ‘Unbelievable!” the American grandmaster Robert Hess added. But it was actually quite believable. Carlsen had done it before. At the Oslo Esports Cup last year, Carlsen gifted opponent Quang Liem Le of Vietnam his queen in similar fashion. ‘It’s going to take a miracle for Liem to win this game,’ Howell said then, moments before the miracle arrived. And then: ‘Magnus has mouse-slipped!’ It was the first time in Howell’s life that he had uttered such a strange and unlikely sentence. He couldn’t have guessed that he would utter the same words a second time in less than a year.” • I love that there’s a word, “mouse-slipped.” But why use a mouse at all? What’s wrong with old-fashioned chess pieces?

Annals of Religion

“Filipinos nailed to crosses on Good Friday despite objection by Catholic Church” [Los Angeles Times]. “The real-life crucifixions in the farming village of San Pedro Cutud in Pampanga province north of Manila resumed after a three-year pause due to the pandemic. About a dozen villagers registered but only eight men participated, including 62-year-old sign painter Ruben Enaje, who was nailed to a wooden cross for the 34th time. In a news conference shortly after his brief crucifixion, Enaje said he prayed for the eradication of the COVID-19 virus and the end of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has contributed to gas and food prices soaring worldwide. ‘It’s just these two countries involved in that war, Russia and Ukraine, but all of us are being affected,’ said Enaje, who appeared to be well and showed his two bandaged hands to journalists.”

The Conservatory

Since this week turned into Grateful Dead week at Naked Capitalism, here are two versions of “Peggy-O,” a tragedy of love, war, and money. Rockin’ the oldies:

One pictures the mercenary company trotting, marching, strutting. “Tin soldiers” in the drumming.

And another version:

Garcia, a magnificent wreck. Weir slashing. Lesh and the drummers holding it all together. (The comments are totally weird. They have nothing to do with the song!)

Zeitgeist Watch

“Maine mom files lawsuit against school staffers who counseled daughter on transition: ‘This was no accident'” [FOX]. “In December, Lavigne found a chest binder, an undergarment used to flatten breasts, in her daughter’s belongings. She started to investigate where it came from and found out that a school social worker had been seeing her [13-year-old] daughter since October during which time she secretly gave her the undergarment to wear without her parents knowing. In addition, school personnel had already been referring to the student using a different name and pronouns, which is known as ‘socially transitioning.'” • This is not, of course, major surgery; perhaps the courts will draw a distinction on those grounds. I also wonder how to distinguish a 13-year-old getting an abortion from a 13-year-old getting — sheesh, I need another word for that vilely tendentious phrase, “gender-affirming care.” Bodily autonomy applies in both cases, or does it?

Class Warfare

“What Happened When Uber’s CEO Started Driving for Uber” [Wall Street Journal]. “Using the alias ‘Dave K’ and a gray Tesla Model Y that he purchased secondhand, the chief executive made dozens of trips as a ride-share driver in the following months ferrying people around the hills of San Francisco. While taking a customer to the airport one evening, he had to ignore frantic phone calls from his chief legal officer who was trying to alert him that a hacker had breached Uber’s network. Another trip took him across the Bay Bridge to Oakland—and he swore never to do it again after getting stuck in rush-hour traffic back to the city. It was the latest experiment in the CEO’s yearslong journey to reinvent driving on Uber. Along the way, he struggled to sign up as a driver, saw firsthand something called tip baiting and was punished by the app for rejecting trips. Surprisingly hard to take was the rudeness of some Uber riders. Mr. Khosrowshahi’s moonlighting was part of a campaign by him and his lieutenants to better understand and improve Uber’s experience for drivers, whose scarcity had become a critical challenge for the company after the U.S. reopened from Covid-19 lockdowns. It marked a sharp turn for a company that wasn’t typically seen as being driver-friendly.” • Whoa, labor market!

News of the Wired

“Detailed Illustrations of Japanese Maintenance Trains” [Kottke.org]. “My pal Craig Mod recently spotted a ‘rare and majestic’ inspection Shinkansen called Doctor Yellow. ‘The inspection vehicle is popular among train enthusiasts as a sighting of the train is said to bring good luck since it is so rarely glimpsed.'” • Not this yellow vehicle, however:

More here.

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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 MT:

Spring is coming!

* * *

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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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75 comments

  1. Laughingsong

    “OTOH, people are probably working right now on an AI that will recreate erased movies from plot synopses and reviews on IMDB alone. . . .”

    SWEDED!

    2. digi_owl

      Or just take a peek at those coves of rascals, where i am sure one can find every last episode in whatever resolution one desires.

    4. The Rev Kev

      How do we know how many reviews are already AI generated anyway? Doesn’t make a real difference as reviews are getting less and less relevant anyway as audience scores are more accurate as Hollywood can’t buy those.

    5. Mo's Bike Shop

      That’s like ‘Star Wars Uncut’. The movie recreated from fan made clips. I watched the entirety of their version of ‘A New Hope’ once. Now I guess they have done ‘Empire Strikes Back’ as well.

      1. Mark Gisleson

        I am a huge fan of taking days off and not sweating the mishaps but am I wrong to note that this week — and I’m not complaining! — had both more ‘incidents’ and more Grateful Dead than usual?

        Not saying there’s a correlation but statistically it’s interesting. As to causation I couldn’t begin to guess if the Dead drove the bad week or the bad week drove the Dead (either way chauffeuring the Dead around would be a sweet gig ; )

        Hope all your bunnies are chocolate and that you and Yves and all the other Naked Capitalists have an appropriate holiday-for-some weekend.

      2. Amfortas the hippie

        Bruxist Tenacity is my preferred term of art.

        and, dude….i got a spare room,lol.
        even a couch or 4.
        and, weather permitting, 2 different spots in the woods where the hammock fits.
        sounds like you need a break.

  3. Jason Boxman

    Well, to be fair to Dimon, the Fed’s complete regulatory capture and unwillingness to engage in any proactive regulation played a hand in the current debacle, regardless of the regulatory rollback as well. We should nationalize the entire banking industry. Credit creation should be a public function only.

    1. Harold

      I actually attended a wedding at Bohemian Grove with my whole family, saw the owl and everything. A relative of ours was a trumpeter there. It was a great wedding, with a Mariachi band.

      1. JustAnotherVolunteer

        I had a friend who played piano for the plays several years running (paid gig). He had some wild stories to tell. That said, Monte Rio is a beautiful place so I can see why they’d camp out there.

      1. Henry Moon Pie

        It’s amazing that Bernie did as well as he did in 2020 with guys like that on his staff.

    2. Bugs

      Blue MAGA on Twitter just won’t leave Taibbi alone. It’s like they can’t forgive him and Greenwald for not buying the Steele dossier bs.

  6. curlydan

    What’s Mayo Pete going to do about families on Southwest Airlines? If you don’t pay the $15 extra per ticket for early boarding, you’re almost guaranteed C group if your child is over 3. When I go on a Southwest flight with my kids, I pretty much say goodbye to them and hope they like sitting between two large people they don’t know. No one’s giving up a window or aisle seat.

    1. CloverBee

      Having any kid 6 and under gets the whole family early boarding on SouthWest. Most people will move so you can sit next to the 7-10 year olds, as they don’t want to sit next to an unsupervised needy kid.

      1. The Rev Kev

        Was wondering the same myself. If a family gets split up and cannot afford to get seats next to each other, you might have a little kid alone that starts crying and screaming. Tough on the passengers as well as the stewardesses but the airline won’t care.

        1. Wukchumni

          It was Easter school break on the slopes, lots of 5 year olds to slalom around on tilted elysierran Fields affording all ages fun, and while I did hear the odd cry every now and then-if a kid screams you can scram, harder to do on a 737.

  7. Wukchumni

    The President took his vow,
    And then he turned to go,
    The Xi Prince of Peace embraced the gloom,
    And walked the night alone.
    Oooh dance with the dark of might,
    Sing to Macron from the city of light.
    The Dark Lord Putin rides in force tonight,
    And time will tell us all.
    Ohhh throw down to your Leopard 2 crew,
    Rest not to lock your holes unless you need to eschew
    As side by side we wait the might,
    Of the darkest of them all.
    Ohhh

    I hear the howitzers thunder,
    Down in the valley below.
    I’m waitin’ for the shelling of Zaporozhye,
    Waitin’ for the eastern glow.

    The half-lives of the valley hold,
    The end of happiness.
    The ground can be radiated without tender care,
    Repent, do not forget.
    Ohhh No, no! Dalliance in the dark of night,
    HIMARS bestow the morning light.
    The corpses turn to brown and black,
    The liar’s face is red.
    Oooh Hohh now! War is the common cry,
    Pick up your drones and fly.
    The sky is filled with good and bad,
    That mortals never know.
    Ohhh. Now.

    Oh well, the rule of might is long,
    The beads of time pass slow.
    Tired eyes of the Breton Woods reprise,
    Waitin’ for the eastern glow.

    The pain of war cannot exceed,
    The woe of aftermath.
    The hits will shake the containment wall,
    The Challenger 2’s ride in black. Ride on.
    Ohhh Sing as you raise your turrets, Ride on.
    Shoot straighter than before,
    No comfort has the fire that night,
    That lights the face so cold.
    Ohhh dance in the dark of night,
    Sing to the morning light.
    The magic runes are writ in cold war mode,
    To bring the balance back. Bring it back.

    At last the sun is shinin’,
    The clouds of radiation roll by.
    A-with invisible flames from the dragon of darkness,
    The propaganda blinds our eyes. Eyes.

    Ah-ah-oh. Oooh-ooh-ooh.
    Ahhh. Oooh.

    Bring it back. Bring it back.
    A-bring it back. Bring it back.
    Bring it back. Bring it back.
    Bring it back. Bring it back.

    Oh now, oh now, oh now ahh.
    Oh now, oh now, oh now.
    Bring it back. Bring it back.
    Bring it back. A-bring it back.

    Whoah now, oh now, oh now ohh.
    Whoah now, oh now, oh now.
    Bring it, bring it, bring it, bring it,
    Bring it, bring it, bring it,
    Bring it, bring it, bring it,
    Bring it, bring – ahhh.

    Battle of Evermore-symphonic performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf7pVoe95mU

    1. griffen

      That is a strong effort! I first came to know this excellent tune from the soundtrack to that early 1990’s film, Singles. As performed by the Lovemongers, some famous set of rock act sisters I believe.

      Say what one will, Ann Wilson has an incredible range and powerful voice. In subsequent years, she performed their (Heart) version of Stairway to Heaven in front of the Led Zeppelin living members. With Jason Bonham on the drums too!

  8. John9

    Just sent my modest contribution. Take more time slip days.
    Oh, and DOD has had brain fog since at least 1969. I was the quasi legit object of one of those hotel visits by a DOD team during a training exercise. They got me out of the hotel with a bag over my head without getting noticed, but I heard they got the cops called a couple times that year when they weren’t so slick.
    Been going on for a long time.

  10. Carolinian

    Re HBO last year effectively wiped from existence for U.S. viewers

    Guess the mighty AP never heard about that thing called DVDs. For example the Westworld shows are all avaliable at my library. Indeed the library is pretty good about getting the HBO shows–not so much those from Netflix. Warner Home Video has always been a strong distribution channel. It’s streaming itself that is the Johnny come lately.

    1. Randy

      The problem with library DVD’s is the borrowers abuse them and the libraries aren’t willing to hold
      DVD abusers accountable for the damage they cause.

      Two years ago I started watching Game Of Thrones sourced from my local library. Impossible, the discs were all scratched beyond play-ability. The only way to watch it was to buy it.

      There should be a way to check discs for damage after EVERY loan and make these abusing, damage causing assholes pay for what they deprive their fellow library members of.

  11. hamstak

    Not apropos of anything posted in today’s WC, here is my candidate for laugher of the day. In this morning’s edition of The World Today news program on CGTN (China Global Television Network) — interestingly, this edition of the program based in London — the British anchor cited Lavrov, stating that he said something to the effect of Russia “seeking to establish a new world order based on Russian interests”. I just about guarantee you that Lavrov said nothing of the sort, but that this is a typical western, propagandist deliberate mis-translation. Likely, the Russian FM’s statement was something more consistent with other recent statements, along the lines of “seeking a new, multi-polar world which takes other countries, including Russia’s, interests into account”.

    Incidentally, the coverage of Ukraine/Russian SMO on this program over the past year has been decisively biased towards Kiev; however, debate programs have been far more balanced, and even perhaps slightly biased towards the Russian perspective in some cases.

  12. Henry Moon Pie

    Filipinos nailed to crosses–

    This practice was developed independently by a group known as the Penitentes in the remote villages of northern New Mexico in the early 19th century before the gringos took over. Self-flagellation was one of the practices, and each Holy Week, a Cristo was chosen to play the role of Jesus in a re-enactment of Good Friday. The Roman Catholic church sought to suppress the Penitentes, and the group began to meet in moradas scattered through the high mountain valleys overlooked by the Sangre de Cristos. I once lived across the road from an abandoned adobe morada in a tiny village called Golondrinas. This blog entry from a traveler to the area captures the atmosphere well.

    The Penitentes feature prominently in Frank Waters’s People of the Valley, a book about the cultural clash between traditional people living around Mora, New Mexico and the government in the form of a New Deal dam building effort. Somewhat similar from the same time period but very different geographical area is “Wild River,” a 1960 Elia Kazan film starring Montgomery Clift and Lee Remick about local resistance to the Tennessee Valley Project. The Penitentes also appear in Brave New World. All three artistic efforts explore the very mixed blessings of technology and progress.

    Much of the core area of the Penitentes was burned in the massive northern New Mexico fires of last summer.

  13. Wukchumni

    They’re two,
    they’re four,
    they’re six,
    they’re eight,
    they’re nine.

    Wearing black frocks and hauling legal doctrine

    Black and white and brown and kosher, too
    They’re the Really Useful crew.
    All with different roles to play
    ’round the minority opinion far away,
    Drown out the deliberations and round the Justices bend,
    Thomas and his friends.

  15. Pat

    I shouldn’t feel so much shadenfreud over streaming networks shortchanging creatives, but that has been a long ongoing process. Back before they were producers, several decades ago, the DGA whose membership is filled with people who produce more than they direct, undermined the Writers Guild strike by negotiating their deal out of order and got a better deal from than the studios had been offering regarding residuals on streamers, but one that used a system that specifically eliminated the bulk of the profit that the studios got from say Netflix from counting towards residuals. Something which, if they had bothered to ask, the writers could have told them. See the writers had done some massive studies and research on both the effects of streaming and how studios were compensated. At that time the other guilds were happy with the proceeds from tapes and dvds, they didn’t see the writing on the wall so to speak. This was especially bad for their health and welfare funds. Many of them took the lions share, or in the case of IATSE all of it, for those funds. Streaming was first seen by the more traditional studios as a means to break some of the compensation sharing guilds had built up, but then as streamers sought to be production companies, the producers saw a means to lower labor costs. The streamers negotiated sweetheart starter contracts with all the guilds in order to promote production. All the better for the production companies the streamers contracted with for product, they did really well. And those starter contracts well there hasn’t been much movement on them.
    I do feel bad for all the not producer level writers, directors and the day players plus everyone else whose even small residuals keep them housed and fed. And maybe being able to keep their employer connected health insurance for another quarter. But this was a bezel for awhile, lots of money for those at the top, less money for those on the bottom of the change and stupid level money thrown around because other than under paying the below the line workers, much of the time no one was doing the hard work of on time and on budget. And nobody at the top of the streamers were capable of making their producers do it.
    I will also say that unless and until we see all the figures and they show otherwise that Amazon’s money loss on Alexa, was as much or more about their production costs on the originals and the purchasers they made for Prime exclusives. It was the same division. (And there isn’t as many ego boosting accolades from a digital assistant program and hardware as you get from attending awards shows like the Emmys and Oscars as a nominee, right Jeff!?!)

    1. Carolinian

      Well the real gist of the Cooler article may be that streaming networks aren’t doing so well. So the joke is on them long term? I just saw a story where WB is laying off lots of people and some Congress people are suggesting the administration revisit the WB/Discovery merger.

      Me, I don’t stream at all. But then I have soooo many movies on my shelf.

  16. Wukchumni

    My bloom cycles on fruit trees are way off, as is everybody else’s i’m reading, in this the first year of the aftermath of the Tongan volcano blowing up real good, a very inopportune name in that Hunga games come with the terra story.

    According to a March 2022 paper in the journal Earthquake Research Advances, Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai’s plume reached a peak height of 58 kilometres (36 mi) into the atmosphere and sustained heights greater than 30 kilometres (19 mi).The initial explosive event was possibly more powerful than the Hatepe eruption, even though Hatepe ejected over ten times the volume of material in a longer eruption

    Holy shit Batman, the Hatepe (Taupo) eruption was no shrinking violet, nor was Krakatoa.

    The eruption was the largest explosion recorded in the atmosphere by modern instrumentation, far larger than any 20th century volcanic event or nuclear bomb test. It is thought that in recent centuries, only the Krakatoa eruption of 1883 rivaled the atmospheric disturbance produced.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021%E2%80%9322_Hunga_Tonga%E2%80%93Hunga_Ha%CA%BBapai_eruption_and_tsunami

    …the Hunga Games element?

    Hunga kind of resembles Huaynaputina in strength, and this is what happened in the aftermath of that blowing its top in 1600.

    The Russian famine of 1601–1603, Russia’s worst famine in terms of proportional effect on the population, killed perhaps two million people: about 30% of the Russian people. The famine compounded the Time of Troubles (1598–1613), when the Tsardom of Russia was unsettled politically and later invaded (1605–1618) by the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The many deaths contributed to social disruption. The famine resulted from a volcanic winter, a series of worldwide record cold winters and crop disruption, which geologists in 2008 linked to the 1600 volcanic eruption of Huaynaputina in Peru.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_famine_of_1601%E2%80%931603

  17. kriptid

    RE: “What is Bohemian Grove? The secretive camp linked to Clarence Thomas.”

    A skinnier, younger, and substantially less red-faced Alex Jones infiltrated the Bohemian Grove nearly 20 years ago and made a full length documentary about it which can be found on YouTube:

    Dark Secrets in the Bohemian Grove

    From about 1:01:00 onward, Jones showcases the footage he was able to get from the inside of the secretive camp itself via hidden camera.

    The ritual that was captured looks like something out of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

    3. JBird4049

      >>>There are not very many of the Shing.

      The Grove is not that big, especially the area in front of the stage, which would limit the participants if you wanted enough space for all of the Select. Why have more people than can strut in front of?

  18. Kyle

    The Uber CEO thing had me rolling around laughing – they could improve the driver experience by not spending millions of dollars fighting legislation that would entitle drivers to more rights in their jobs

    Good of him to take on that experience, more CEOs should know what its like for all employees throughout the company, but call me shocked if any meaningful change (i.e. higher driver pay or benefits) comes from it.

    At the end of the day – Uber doesn’t make money, they made a long bet on autonomous vehicles that didn’t pan out, and they are trying to keep investor optimism up as they continue burning cash

    1. JBird4049

      >>>Another trip took him across the Bay Bridge to Oakland

      Yes, and what about us poor slobs who have had to drive everyday across it and/or through the Maze? Nerves of steel, a blunt, or a stiff drink. Meditation. Maybe some prayers.

      Seriously, kudos to anyone who would do something like this.

    2. some guy

      Mr. Kowsroshahi is clearly trying to run Uber as a legitimate business, which will be hard to do given that its inventer/designer/founding engineer built it to be a criminal racket.

  19. NorD94

    study during “alpha and pre-alpha waves” not later current/waves (plateau). Also state “cannot rule out airborne transmission”

    Spread of COVID-19 in households is linked to virus on hands and surfaces, say researchers
    https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-04-covid-households-linked-virus-surfaces.html

    The study of 279 households in London, published in The Lancet Microbe, was conducted at the height of the pandemic during the alpha and pre-alpha waves. The research was carried out at the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) Health Protection Research Unit (HPRU) in Respiratory Infections, a research partnership between Imperial College London and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).

    Professor Ajit Lalvani, lead author of the study, and Director of NIHR HPRU in Respiratory Infections, said, “There’s no doubt that if you have COVID-19, you’re emitting the virus into the air as micro-aerosols as well as large droplets that land on your hands and the surfaces around you. What hasn’t been shown, until now, is that the presence of the virus on people’s hands or household surfaces predicts transmission to contacts.

    “Our real-life study in London households provides the first empirical evidence to show that the presence of SARS-CoV-2 on people’s hands and surfaces contributes significantly to spread of COVID-19. Since we didn’t systematically sample household air, we cannot rule out airborne transmission occurring in parallel.”

    *** skipping a bit ***

    After accounting for other potentially influential factors such as sex, vaccination status, underlying illnesses, and contacts’ relationship to the primary case, the researchers found that if the virus was detected on primary cases’ hands, then contacts in their household were 1.7 times more likely to get infected than those in households where primary cases did not have the virus on their hands.

    Similarly, the presence of virus on primary cases’ hands was associated with a three times greater risk of contacts in the household having a positive hand-swab, and in turn, contacts with the virus on their hands were twice as likely to become infected with COVID-19.

    If virus was present on frequently touched surfaces in the household, contacts were 3.8 times more likely to have detectable virus on their hands and 1.7 times more likely to be infected, i.e. to have a PCR-positive URT-swab.

    Despite the important findings, the researchers note that this is an observational study and as such cannot prove causation. Moreover, since household air was not systematically sampled, airborne transmission cannot be ruled out.

    *** Lancet Link ***

    Risk factors and vectors for SARS-CoV-2 household transmission: a prospective, longitudinal cohort study https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanmic/article/PIIS2666-5247(23)00069-1/fulltext

  20. petal

    Lambert, there are negative effects associated with chest binding, including a significant impact on lung function; potential for cracked ribs, back pain, and skin and tissue problems. If girls are scared or freaked out by their boobs growing, they really need to talk to someone and get sorted out about what puberty is and any traumas and fear associated with it and coping skills instead of negatively impacting their health like this. I was scared at 13, too, and regularly wore a sports bra hoping they wouldn’t get big-because of all of the negative attention you might get and how it might impact (my) athletic performance. The being scared of it is normal. I hope the mother wins her case. This stuff is out of control.

    The 3/28 Hanover, NH wastewater results were posted. Went from 397 viral copies/100ml on 3/21 to 983 viral copies/100ml on 3/28. Quite a lag between sample collection and data posting, sadly, but it will have to do.

    1. Phenix

      I also might add that this is another example of the state treating school students as wards of the state. The state has no right to keep information away from parents especially something that associated with increased suicide risks.

    2. caucus99percenter

      Fear and aversion to one’s own mammary development, as attested by the Dutch children’s song Het Tietenlied (“The Boobs Song”), from the Kinderen voor Kinderen chorus’s 1996 TV special. (With English subtitles, which do, however, first need to be switched on.)

      https://youtu.be/P-_zrwjsVpU

      The girl performing the song went on to become a Dutch pop star, Elize.

    2. notabanker

      Feel bad for Taibbi. He got Greenwald by Elon, which is a great journalistic event, but a not so great personal one. No one is refuting what is in the documents though. It’s Snowden level event, difference being they can’t go after Elon, but the damage is the same. So smear the messenger. IRS has already shown up, if the DOJ makes an appearance it’s game over.

      Don’t understand why Twitter is forcing a whole ecosystem to an alternative platform rather than let it lie in the shadows, or even better, buying it. Doesn’t seem wise to me.

  22. IM Doc

    A Good Friday message from two Favorite Sons of the Heartland from different generations.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDS00Pnhkqk

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0f78MDOUJw

    I love the inscription on Woody Guthrie’s guitar. “THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS”. Unlike today where that word is thrown around as a moronic cudgel by people who have no idea what they are talking about – Mr Guthrie actually did know – and knew that his music was speaking truth to power.

    I admitted two young fathers this week to the hospital, both with Type I diabetes, both in DKA, both who ran out of insulin in the past week and could not afford to get more until the next payday. Both too proud to ask for help. Unfortunately, I do not think there is a single politician in DC who gives a single thought to these people. After all, We have OBAMACARE now – everyone is covered. Fascinating that this kind of thing was so much less common before OBAMACARE. I now have three extended family members with various severe medical problems all having to post gofundme notices for help. All “covered”. I really do not remember “covered” patients having to do anything like this until the past several years.

    Ahhhh, the days when Woody’s Oklahoma and all the other “red states” in the entire midsection of the country were as blue as blue could be. That was of course in a time when the Democratic Party actually stood up for the working people of this country. The Democratic Party does not even know who those people are anymore nor do they want to. And the people know this in their hearts. A generational betrayal. It is why my entire family of New Deal Democrats would not even dream of voting for a Dem now. Every last one of them. Repeated in every family over and over again all over flyover country. If just one Dem would say a word about helping the working class, they may listen. But alas, just crickets.

    Am I increasingly angry – you bet. It is not hard at all for me to understand why Jesus had a temper tantrum and let the “money changers” have it in the Temple.

    God help us.

    ________________________

    Jesus Christ was a man that traveled through the land
    A carpenter true and brave
    He said to the rich give your goods to the poor
    And they laid Jesus Christ in the grave

    He went to the sick and he went to the poor
    And he went to the hungry and the lame
    And he said that the meek would inherit the whole world
    And they laid Jesus Christ in the grave

    One day Jesus stopped at a rich man?s door
    What must I do to be saved
    Take all you own and give it to the poor
    And they laid Jesus Christ in the grave

    When the love of the poor shall one day turn to hate
    When the patience of the workers give away
    Would be better for the rich if they never been born
    So they laid Jesus Christ in the grave

    When Jesus came to town all the working folks around
    Believed what he did say
    But bankers and preachers nailed him to the cross
    And they laid Jesus Christ in the grave

    Well the people held their breath when they heard about his death
    And everybody wondered why
    Was the landlord and soldiers lawmen there had hired
    That nailed Jesus Christ in the sky

    We would lay Jesus Christ in the grave Lord Lord
    We would lay Jesus Christ in the grave
    And if Jesus preached today like he preached in Galilee
    We would lay Jesus Christ in his grave

    _________________________________

    2. earthling

      It is truly sickening, the cruelty of the greedy elite, disregard for real human suffering.

      You see what is going on, and so do people ruined by medical bankruptcy. Everyone else who has not been thru horrible medical/financial problems doesn’t see it, and doesn’t get it. All they know is they got their ducks in a row, and they don’t want to pay for any free-riders. Morally bankrupt, ignorant, and selfish. Blue, red, all the same. Now they all run down to church and pat themselves on the back for Supporting the Troops and Being Chrischuns.

      When they get to the pearly gates, they are going to be surprised to find Jesus is a bleeding heart liberal, and they got it all wrong. Trouble is, how many people did they kill with their blind attitudes while they were alive?

  23. Mikel

    “As streamers cut costs, TV shows — and residuals — vanish” [Associated Press].

    Housing prices in LA could be coming waayyy down…

    1. digi_owl

      Nah, the survivors will just buy out their destitute neighbors so they can get an even bigger garden.

  24. The Rev Kev

    “A once reluctant Harris embraces her biracial identity in Africa”

    Whether Indian or black or whatever, perhaps what those real Africans see is a descendant of a slave owning family. Years ago people were starting to call her Kamala the Chameleon and I think this remains true.

  25. JBird4049

    Lambert, I sent an email requesting how to mail you a check. PayPal keeps blocking me even when it says I am me. The captcha has also decided not function either.

  26. upstater

    Oopsie, somebody’s done it again (NYT)

    New Batch of Classified Documents Appears on Social Media Sites

    Secret documents that appear to detail American national security secrets on Ukraine, the Middle East and China have surfaced online.

    The scale of the leak — analysts say more than 100 documents may have been obtained — along with the sensitivity of the documents themselves, could be hugely damaging, U.S. officials said. A senior intelligence official called the leak “a nightmare for the Five Eyes,” in a reference to the United States, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, the so-called Five Eyes nations that broadly share intelligence.
    The latest documents were found on Twitter and other sites on Friday, a day after senior Biden administration officials said they were investigating a potential leak of classified Ukrainian war plans, include an assessment of Ukraine’s air defense capabilities. One slide, dated Feb. 23, is labeled “Secret/NoForn,” meaning it was not meant to be shared with foreign countries.
    Mick Mulroy, a former senior Pentagon official, said the leak of the classified documents represents “a significant breach in security” that could hinder Ukrainian military planning. “As many of these were pictures of documents, it appears that it was a deliberate leak done by someone that wished to damage the Ukraine, U.S., and NATO efforts,” he said.
    One analyst described what has emerged so far as the “tip of the iceberg.”

    Leakers are good. We need many more!

  27. some guy

    Wouldn’t it be neat if someone(s) is(are) somehow able to trick the DemLibs into changing the locution ” push” into ” push for”. As in . . . ” push for ” the Impeachment of Justice Thomas.

    ” Push for” this . . . “push for” that . . . Pushing for you.

    ” We will never stop Pushing For a higher-ish Minimum Wage . . . some day. Pushing the Good Push. “

      1. marym

        I haven’t seen comments about precedent. I saw one saying it means the issue will need to go to the SC. (I’m a twitter browser with no legal knowledge).

  29. some guy

    . . . ” sheesh, I need another word for that vilely tendentious phrase, “gender-affirming care.” . . .

    How about . . . ” gender-affirming mutilation “. That would be like an electric thumb-tack in the chairs of the gender-affirming mutilators. You would know who they are by how fast and high they suddenly jump if they hear that phrase.

  30. earthling

    re: the law about
    “banning new or reworked oil and gas wells within 3,200 feet of homes, schools, parks and healthcare facilities”

    Well, if you want to ban any new wells within half a mile of things like that, that’s one thing. To not allow the reworking of an existing wells, well that’s just stupid. They’ve already drilled it, it can’t move, why not get whatever secondary or tertiary recovery they can, so we get max value out of having drilled it?

    Did the humanities majors who drafted this law feel like they could get the laws of physics suspended and miles-deep holes in the ground move to where they are more convenient? Maybe they could divert their legal talents to rein in excessive flaring, release of free gas, or some other actual useful regulation.

  31. G Kramer

    I’ve heard the Mayo Clinic is also dropping most masking requirements as of Monday. Still need to be masked in rooms with high risk patients but not in most common areas. This just feels too early – especially in a medical environment.

    1. Daryl

      Rather than early, it feels weird that it isn’t permanent in medical settings. Covid or no covid, we learned a lot about the transmission of viral illnesses and the cost of them jumping around in hospitals is pretty high.

  32. Wukchumni

    My bank makes me proud
    Lord, don’t it make me proud
    Ir never makes a scene online
    By hangin’ all over me in a crowd
    ‘Cause people like to talk
    Lord, don’t they love to talk
    But when they turn out the lights
    I know the FDIC will insure me

    And when we get behind closed doors
    Then they let the depositors down
    And it makes me glad that I’m not an Illionaire
    Oh, no one knows what goes on behind closed doors

    My Federal Deposit Insurance makes me smile
    Lord, don’t Mutual of Owe Manna make me smile

    Repayment is never far away
    Or too tired to say, “I can’t pay you”
    Luck is always a laden by risk
    Just like a nest egg should be

    But when they turn out the lights
    Anything under $250k is aces to me

    ‘Cause when we get behind closed doors
    Then they let the depositors down
    And it makes me glad that I’m not an Illionaire
    Oh, no one knows what goes on behind closed doors

    Behind closed doors

    Behind Closed Doors, by Charlie Rich

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xV6f9mHt4A

  33. gf

    “Magnus Carlsen’s Reign Over Chess Ends With a Slip of the Mouse”

    Who ever wrote this article does not know much about the chess world.

    Magnus gave up his status as world “Classic” champion last year.

    There are many different formats now both in person and on line.
    Most now use short time periods to complete games for your own moves.

    15 minutes, 10, 5, 3, 1 minutes.
    When clock runs out you lose unless there is an increment rule in place.

    I can not keep track of all the different rules and formats.

    1. digi_owl

      At this point i suspect he is very close to resigning fully, as he has seemed fed up and worn out about the whole circus.

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