By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Patient readers, I had a liquid lunch and, quite frankly, I’m plotzed. I will make it up to you tomorrow, I swear! –lambert
Bird Song of the Day
Spectacled Finch, Seri Paya, North-West Frontier, Pakistan.
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
The Blob speaks:
Israel has survived & even thrived since 1948 in the face of external threats. Hamas is but the latest. To argue it must be eliminated-requiring regime change in Gaza-lacks precedent. Degrading Hamas & reconstituting defense ought to be the priority. https://t.co/R6Va7vqIiM
— Richard N. Haass (@RichardHaass) October 29, 2023
I like the red background; art director editorializing a little bit, there.
2024
Time for the Countdown Clock!
Only five more days until a full year to election day!
* * * “Liberals, Start Giving Biden Some Damn Credit” [Michael Tomasky (of course), The New Republic (of course)]. “Biden’s timely show of support was just about the only one I can think of where a sitting president so openly sided with labor in such a dispute.” • Yes, the railroad workers should make sure their contract negotiations happen in an election year, so Democrats have no incentive to betray them. Is Tomasky a little child?
“Step aside Hillary, Joe Biden may become king of email scandals as new stash alarms investigators” [Just the News]. “Under legal pressure, the National Archives has confirmed to a court that it has located 82,000 pages of emails that Biden sent or received during his vice presidential tenure on three private pseudonym accounts. … [I]n May 2016, Biden’s vice presidential staff sent an email to Joe Biden’s private account and copied Hunter Biden alerting the future first son that his father was having a phone briefing with Petro Poroshenko, the president of Ukraine, where Hunter Biden had substantial business with the energy firm Burisma Holdings. ‘Boss–8:45am prep for 9am phone call with Pres Poroshenko. Then we’re off to Rhode Island for infrastructure event and then Wilmington for UDel commencement,’ the staffer wrote the then-vice president. ‘Nate will have your draft remarks delivered later tonight or with your press clips in the morning.'” • Oh. That’s nice.
Republican Funhouse
“Mike Johnson is a pro-gun Christian nationalist. Yes, be afraid” [WaPo]. “Indeed, Johnson got right to work mixing church and state in his first speech after he won the speakership. ‘I believe that scripture, the Bible is very clear: that God is the one that raises up those in authority,’ he said from the pulpit — er, the House rostrum. ‘And I believe that God has ordained and allowed each one of us to be brought here for this specific moment.'” • Awesome. Somebody should ask Johnson why God raised up FDR or, for that matter, Lenin. The rest of this article is a completely unserious listicle of liberal Democrat reactance.
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
No:
The time for Sanders to have pivoted to labor was immediately after the Night of the Long Knives, when the labor pot was not only boiling, but labor faced the onset of Covid, as I urged contemporaneously (but can’t find because [family blogging] Google is 100% crapified. Now it’s way too late. Don’t give him a dime.
#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; Wastewater Scan, includes drilldown by zip); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker” (in IA, but national data). “Infection Control, Emergency Management, Safety, and General Thoughts” (especially on hospitalization by city).
Lambert here: Readers, thanks for the collective effort. To update any entry, do feel free to contact me at the address given with the plants. Please put “COVID” in the subject line. Thank you!
Resources, United States (Local): AK (dashboard); AL (dashboard); AR (dashboard); AZ (dashboard); CA (dashboard; Marin, dashboard; Stanford, wastewater; Oakland, wastewater); CO (dashboard; wastewater); CT (dashboard); DE (dashboard); FL (wastewater); GA (wastewater); HI (dashboard); IA (wastewater reports); ID (dashboard, Boise; dashboard, wastewater, Central Idaho; wastewater, Coeur d’Alene; dashboard, Spokane County); IL (wastewater); IN (dashboard); KS (dashboard; wastewater, Lawrence); KY (dashboard, Louisville); LA (dashboard); MA (wastewater); MD (dashboard); ME (dashboard); MI (wastewater; wastewater); MN (dashboard); MO (wastewater); MS (dashboard); MT (dashboard); NC (dashboard); ND (dashboard; wastewater); NE (dashboard); NH (wastewater); NJ (dashboard); NM (dashboard); NV (dashboard; wastewater, Southern NV); NY (dashboard); OH (dashboard); OK (dashboard); OR (dashboard); PA (dashboard); RI (dashboard); SC (dashboard); SD (dashboard); TN (dashboard); TX (dashboard); UT (wastewater); VA (dashboard); VT (dashboard); WA (dashboard; dashboard); WI (wastewater); WV (wastewater); WY (wastewater).
Resources, Canada (National): Wastewater (Government of Canada).
Resources, Canada (Provincial): ON (wastewater); QC (les eaux usées); BC, Vancouver (wastewater).
Hat tips to helpful readers: anon (2), Art_DogCT, B24S, CanCyn, ChiGal, Chuck L, Festoonic, FM, FreeMarketApologist (4), Gumbo, hop2it, JB, JEHR, JF, JL Joe, John, JM (10), JustAnotherVolunteer, JW, KatieBird, LL, Michael King, KF, LaRuse, mrsyk, MT, MT_Wild, otisyves, Petal (6), RK (2), RL, RM, Rod, square coats (11), tennesseewaltzer, Utah, Bob White (3).
Stay safe out there!
Maskstravaganza
“Masks During Pandemics Caused by Respiratory Pathogens—Evidence and Implications for Action” [JAMA]. From the Abstract: “Robust available data support the use of face masks in community settings to reduce transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and should inform future responses to epidemics and pandemics caused by respiratory viruses.” • IOW, HICPAC’s “evidence review” on masking is full of sh*t, as I argued at the time. What a surprise!
“Something Awful”
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. Lots of exceptionally nasty sequelae, most likely deriving from immune dysregulation (says this layperson). To which we might add brain damage, including personality changes therefrom.
* * *
Elite Maleficence
I linked to this yesterday, but it’s important that Jimenez picked it up:
An important development concerning possible gross misconduct by the @CDCgov #HICPAC committee, that is trying to WEAKEN (really! Can't make this stuff up) the airborne disease transmission protection in health care https://t.co/nKyRpPd1C0
— Prof. Jose-Luis Jimenez (@jljcolorado) November 1, 2023
Case Data
NOT UPDATED From BioBot wastewater data, October 30:
Lambert here: Cases leveling out to a high plateau wasn’t on my Bingo card. And Thanksgiving is coming up.
Regional data:
Variants
NOT UPDATED From CDC, October 28:
Lambert here: Top of the leaderboard: HV.1, EG.5 a strong second, with FL.1.15.1 and XBB.1.1.16.6 trailing. No BA.2.86 (although that has showed up in CDC’s airport testing). Still a Bouillabaisse…
From CDC, October 14:
Lambert here: I sure hope the volunteers doing Pangolin, on which this chart depends, don’t all move on the green fields and pastures new (or have their access to facilities cut by administrators of ill intent).
CDC: “As of May 11, genomic surveillance data will be reported biweekly, based on the availability of positive test specimens.” “Biweeekly: 1. occurring every two weeks. 2. occurring twice a week; semiweekly.” Looks like CDC has chosen sense #1. In essence, they’re telling us variants are nothing to worry about. Time will tell.
Covid Emergency Room Visits
From CDC NCIRD Surveillance, October 28:
Lambert here: Flattening. Only a week’s lag, so this may be our best current nationwide, current indicator until Verily gets its house in order (and working class-centric, since I would doubt the upper crust goes to the ER).
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. 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.
Hospitalization
Bellwether New York City, data as of October 31:
Flattened, (I hate this metric because the lag makes it deceptive, although the hospital-centric public health establishment loves it, hospitalization and deaths being the only metrics that matter [snort]).
NOT UPDATED Here’s a different CDC visualization on hospitalization, nationwide, not by state, but with a date, at least. October 21:
Lambert here: “Maps, charts, and data provided by CDC, updates weekly for the previous MMWR week (Sunday-Saturday) on Thursdays (Deaths, Emergency Department Visits, Test Positivity) and weekly the following Mondays (Hospitalizations) by 8 pm ET†”. So where the heck is the update, CDC?
Positivity
NOT UPDATED From Walgreens, October 30:
1.3%. Increase. (It would be interesting to survey this population generally; these are people who, despite a tsunami of official propaganda and enormous peer pressure, went and got tested anyhow.)
NOT UPDATED From Cleveland Clinic, October 28:
Lambert here: Slight increase. I know this is just Ohio, but the Cleveland Clinic is good*, and we’re starved for data, so…. NOTE * Even if hospital infection control is trying to kill patients by eliminating universal masking with N95s.
NOT UPDATED From CDC, traveler’s data, October 9:
Down, albeit in the rear view mirror. And here are the variants for travelers:
Sudden big BA.2.86 appearance.
Deaths
NOT UPDATED Iowa COVID-19 Tracker, September 27:
Lambert here: The WHO data is worthless, so I replaced it with the Iowa Covid Data Tracker. Their method: “These data have been sourced, via the API from the CDC: https://data.cdc.gov/NCHS/Conditions-Contributing-to-COVID-19-Deaths-by-Stat/hk9y-quqm. This visualization updates on Wednesday evenings. Data are provisional and are adjusted weekly by the CDC.” I can’t seem to get a pop-up that shows a total of the three causes (top right). Readers?
Total: 1,180,669 – 1,180,405 = 264 (264 * 365 = 96,360 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
The Economist, October 27:
Lambert here: Based on a machine-learning model.
Stats Watch
Employment Situation: “United States ADP Employment Change” [Trading Economics]. “Private businesses in the United States added 113,000 workers to their payrolls in October 2023, slightly below market expectations of a 150,000 increase and following a previous gain of 89,000. However, job gains continued to exceed the 70,000-100,000 range required each month to accommodate the growing working-age population, suggesting that the labor market is indeed showing signs of gradual relaxation but remains robust, even in the face of the Federal Reserve’s tightening measures.” Powell’s rubber thumbscrews….
Employment Situation: “United States Job Openings” [Trading Economics]. “The number of job openings increased by 56,000 from the previous month to 9.55 million in September 2023, reaching the highest level in four months and exceeding the market consensus of 9.25 million.”
Manufacturing: “United States ISM Purchasing Managers Index (PMI)” [Trading Economics]. “The ISM Manufacturing PMI slipped to 46.7 in October of 2023 from the 10-month high of 49 in the previous month, well below expectations of 49, pointing to the eleventh consecutive contraction in the US manufacturing sector. The data underscored the impact of higher borrowing costs from the Federal Reserve in the sector, further challenging the resilience of US goods producers from other reports.”
Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 32 Fear (previous close: 30 Fear) [CNN]. One week ago: 27 (Fear). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Nov 1 at 1:42:06 PM ET.
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 PR:
PR writes: “Creepy AI-generated vegetable zombie pic, in case Lambert wants a plant pic for halloween. Grainnnzzz!” Happy post-Halloween!
And parallel to the “humorous vegetables” in Terry Pratchett’s The Truth, this from Desert Dog:
Desert Dog comments: “Getting married…. Family blog.”
Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not covered by the annual NC fundraiser. So if you see a link you especially like, or an item you wouldn’t see anywhere else, please do not hesitate to express your appreciation in tangible form. Remember, a tip jar is for tipping! Regular positive feedback both makes me feel good and lets me know I’m on the right track with coverage. When I get no donations for five or ten days I get worried. More tangibly, a constant trickle of donations helps me with expenses, and I factor in that trickle when setting fundraising goals:
Here is the screen that will appear, which I have helpfully annotated:
If you hate PayPal, you can email me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, and I will give you directions on how to send a check. Thank you!
61 comments
Comments are closed.
So, I see that AOCIA is having a little flame war with AIPAC. Interesting insofar as it was only a couple of weeks ago that she was denouncing protests in support of Palestinians. She must have belatedly found a parade to get in front of.
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4287448-ocasio-cortez-rips-pro-israel-group-extremist-organization/
But this was interesting:
“Got to admit, this sums up how many feel about what @AIPAC really is about. Insurrectionists, WTF. No friend of democracy,” Pocan wrote on X in response to Ocasio-Cortez’s post. “Got to admit, @MarkPocan is a hypocrite,” the organization responded. “Singling AIPAC out for doing the exact same thing PACs supporting him do. Surely, for the sake of consistency, he will condemn them too and return the six-figures he took from those PACs last cycle, right?
I am having a hard time remembering what that ancient Jewish trope about Benjamins buying power was all about, but it is nice that AIPAC is there to remind me. Pity they are such anti-semites that they would employ such tropes, but it is what it is. They should be apologizing to Ihlan Omar any minute now…..
Surreal covid-related anecdata from yesterday: pharmacist looking around outside an officially closed for the day pharmacy in a strip mall in southern BC, said pharmacy had run a flu and covid shot clinic that day. It seemed like the pharmacist was looking around for a person who had the last appointment and was running late. Nope. After a few more minutes the pharmacist began calling plaintively:
“Anybody want a covid shot? There are a few left! Covid shot? Anybody? Anybody?”
Just then a very depressed-looking gentleman walked by and said, “Um, yeah. I guess. Okay.”
Pharmacist said, “When was your last Covid shot?”
Man said, “Oh, Covid shot. Sorry, I thought you said Novichok.”
Can’t verify this without a deep dive into the net but I heard that the uptake for boosters for the US is about 3% now. Damn.
Next week a friend will receive the North Carolina Award, the state’s highest honor, along with Mandy Cohen. I turned down the $130 ‘invitation’ to the reception, dinner and ceremony, and instead donated it to charity.
Maybe I’m just a little bizarre but those carrots make me think of Yosemite Sam’s mustache. Or maybe I’m just old.
What came to my mind is an episode from Season 2 of Blackadder, something to do with turnips and Blackadder’s parents’ wedding night.
ts quite normal for ones such as those to end up being ‘baby carrots’.
Don’t anthropomorphize vegetables. They hate that.
https://soranews24.com/2013/01/15/the-life-and-times-of-a-japanese-radish/
Really? I heard that if you call them they will respond to you:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkMvvy8Uc5E
Re: Biden email scandal – of course Joe Biden discussed Young Hunter’s Ukrainian “business activities” with various Ukrainian officials. Of course he’s lying about it. Of course the reason that Biden used fake accounts was to evade pesky FOIA requests. Everyone already knows all of this.
For that matter, everyone knows that the real reason that Shokin was fired was because he interfered with Burisma’s “krisha” in the form of Vice President Biden. Of course the only reason that Young Hunter had his lucrative no-show job in the first place was because of his connections with his father. Of course Shokin was fabulously corrupt. So was his successor, but Biden had no problem with him. Everyone already knows all of that as well.
The question is whether anyone will do anything about it, especially if it may cast doubt on the Empire’s narrative regarding Ukraine.
My guess is that they will not. I’ll do one more and speculate that Team R either will not or cannot go there, just as, during the Benghazi hearings, everyone involved danced around the real reason that Ambassador Stevens was in Benghazi in the first place.
So nothing will come of this, and Biden’s defenders will pretend that there’s nothing to see.
I eagerly await the appearance of T-shirts from the Biden campaign screaming “But His E-Mails!” and “He is just a nasty guy!”.
https://www.amazon.com/Emails-Hillary-Clinton-Shirt-Tshirt/dp/B09SZQT83P
https://www.amazon.com/Hillary-Clinton-Nasty-Woman-T-Shirt/dp/B07PCS1HD3
I wonder if that will work twice.
I find it quite amusing that the best the MSM can do is write article asking for ‘people’ to give Biden more credit. Their weapon is guilt, and they project it, fascinating.
If Bernie wants to plant a flag on the UAW victory hill, it will need to be an Israeli one.
> Liberals, Start Giving Biden Some Damn Credit
“Fiscal responsibility” types may be encouraged that the decline in life-expectancy (though, I think, JRB has to share credit with prior administrations) is, ceteris paribus, improving the solvency of the Social Security OASI Trust Fund.
Of course, “all else” may not be “equal”.
I wonder what the implications of Long Covid are for the SS Disability Insurance Trust Fund.
Given the article’s author (and that it is New Republic), I am choosing to sit this one out. If I base my key assumption on what he’s been writing recently on anything Biden related, it’s rose colored glasses and unhinged notion the economy is strongly humming and the Biden administration deserves their victory lap and Biden is positioned well for a dominant performance in the US election 2024. Like I said, rose colored glasses. The author cheers often and loudly for all things Joe Biden.
Lot of market talk today on CNBC from a few folks banging the drum on fiscal policy and the risk the increasing deficits pose when combined with the increase in UST yields / interest rates. Be it the shorter terms or the longer maturities, someone with extensive experience ala Stan Druckenmiller it not quite sanguine about the future for the US by circa 2030. I might root around for a video clip when the daily TPS reports are properly finished.
Added, instead of goats we should go long a drinking game this afternoon. I want to get plotzed myself.
What a country.
https://t.me/bye_biden/19239
What a country part 2.
https://twitter.com/sentdefender/status/1719734648169808294
I give Biden credit for supporting ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza.
What if the millions of once-upon-a-time $27-a-month Bernie donors were to reconstitute themselves back together as a monthly funding movement or movement-support movement, or something . . . . only not for Bernie anymore? What if they were to give their contributions directly to labor movement groups one way or another? To an ever-flowing strike-fund?
Or to a fund devoted to paying an “Amazon wage” level-stipend to Amazon workers if they will quit working at Amazon and stay quitted from working at Amazon, for every month that they stay quitted from working for Amazon? The lofty goal would be to exterminate Amazon from existence by being more ready to pay people to not work at Amazon than Amazon will ever pay to work at Amazon. The lesser goal might be to strangle Amazon’s ability to have a work force till Amazon pays a high thriving wage and establishes safe conditions. ( Though the grand beautiful goal would be exterminating Amazon from existence, in my opinion).
Or some other beneficial goal and target? Like, say, if the railroaders were to go on strike again? All the former Bernie donors could support them in staying on strike until either the railroads settle, or go extinct, or are overtly and violently fascised by the pro-business government . . . . which would at least be a clarifying event which makes things plain.
#Endorsed
This is giving me some ideas about ways to crowdsource an Alt-Economy … thank you!
If any of those ideas take enough conceptual shape that they could be written about, I hope you will write about them here,( if they are not going to be proprietary).
If the Mainstream Economy is Digital, one wonders if an Alt-Economy would be analog . . . analog people making analog things by analog methods to achieve analog tasks with. Sometimes I think . . .
in a Digital World, what could be more Alt- than Analog?
But that’s just a thought.
I’ve something to add about the Railroad workers v. The Auto workers regarding what The New Republic said of Biden’s so-called labor support.
The Railroad workers union comes under the Railway Labor Act (RLA), enacted in 1926, which deemed transportation crucial to the economy, and which goes to great lengths to avoid strikes; the airlines were included in the RLA in the mid-1930s.
Under the RLA contracts do not expire, they become amendable. The RLA is administered by the National Mediation Board (NMB) with significant power to force a settlement, including binding arbitration if both parties agree and recommending a Presidential Emergency Board (PEB) for the president and/or Congress to weigh in on the negotiations and pressure the parties to agree to a settlement.
All other unions, such as the UAW, come under the National Labor Relations Act, enacted in 1935, administered and under which disputes are resolved by the National Labor Relations Board. The NLRB does not have the same mechanisms, like a PEB, to pressure or force a settlement and avoid a strike.
My guess is that, had Biden the same power to influence the outcome of the Auto workers as he had with the Railroad workers, he would have used it against the UAW.
Without a doubt.
Thanks for this comment. I agree.
I think you’re correct. If Biden could have relied on another route he would have crushed the UAW strike and still told people he was the most pro-Union president evar!
Sadly, Biden had more leverage and choose not to use it. The rail carriers argued during the pandemic that they were federal contractors in order to access more government support. They received support as federal contractors. Federal contractors must provide sick leave, and not in the piss poor way that they kinda sorta gave it to union after the strike was squashed.
The Biden administration did not have to do anything other than hold the rail carriers accountable for the arguments they had made to receive federal funding two years prior. There were journalists who told the administration this. It was covered on popular podcasts like Breaking Points too. And there were other approaches that could have been used too. There was no need to involve congress. Biden choose to handicap himself.
Well, except for the feds who have the FLRA enacted by Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 Title VII.
Lambert, you looking for this?
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2020/03/bills-are-due-and-payable-workplace-strikes-and-rent-strikes.html
I thought there was another one, but that will do. For those who came in late, skip to the Conclusion.
I was thinking about all those Palestinians who woke up one recent day to find out they were no longer Semites and recalling the response I finally came up with in after being told I was not a “Real American”, something that has happened on several occasions.
“If I’m not real, why are you pretending I’m here?”
Thank you, Tom.
As has been noted by at least one other this week, the NC commentariat is the best commentariat.
Here’s some history of antisemitism used as reference to Jewish people.
Anti-Semitism:
“The earliest known use of the noun anti-Semitism is in the 1880s. OED’s earliest evidence for anti-Semitism is from 1880, in Jewish Chronicle.”
https://www.oed.com/dictionary/anti-semitism_n
Anti-Semitism:
“In 1879, German journalist Wilhelm Marr published a pamphlet…in which he used the word Semitismus interchangeably with the word Judentum to denote both “Jewry” (the Jews as a collective) and “Jewishness” (the quality of being Jewish, or the Jewish spirit).[31][32][33]
This use of Semitismus was followed by a coining of “Antisemitismus” which was used to indicate opposition to the Jews as a people[34] and opposition to the Jewish spirit, which Marr interpreted as infiltrating German culture. His next [1880] pamphlet…may present the first published use of the German word Antisemitismus, “antisemitism”.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism
Sample of discussion of spelling with or without a hyphen:
“Like the word “Aryan,” the term “Semitism” is based on a mythical conglomeration of languages and race, as opposed to science. “Semites” were people who spoke one of several related languages, all of whom traced their roots to the Bible’s Shem, Noah’s son.
The term “antisemitism,” coined in 1879, was not a reference to groups of people who spoke similar Levant-based languages. Rather, as “invented” by German journalist Wilhelm Marr, “antisemitism” was intended to give an air of modernity and science to old-fashioned Jew-hatred.”
https://www.timesofisrael.com/whats-in-a-hyphen-why-writing-anti-semitism-with-a-dash-distorts-its-meaning/
“immediately after the Night of the Long Knives”
Got a date for that? Might have it in our files.
Here’s debate transcript for a fun look back;
https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/march-democratic-debate-transcript-joe-biden-bernie-sanders
“. . . Don’t give him a dime.” I could use the money invested in Bernie’s flippin’ campaigns (mutters lots of swear words to self). The Iowa Poll still exists and never missed a beat before Bernie nor after him, so why on that one occasion couldn’t they publish the outcome of the pre-caucus presidential poll? From Vanity Fair, Feb. 2, 2020, Iowa Poll Suddenly Spiked After Butttigieg Campaign Issues Complaint.
Subtitle: The Des Moines Register pre-caucus misses its deadline for first time in 76 years.
I’ve had heartburn ever since.
That’s why I call Bernie “Ol” Canvas Back”. I learned my lesson in 2016 and donated to him through PayPal last time so when he caved (TM) I went to PayPal and got my donations back. He certainly did not “fight for” us or his position on the NYS democratic primary when ex-Prince Andrew tried to cancel it. Took Andrew Yang with three per cent of the vote to sue Cuomo and win and have presidental primary reinstated.
Never saw him donate any of his donations to support nurses or airline attendant strikes. In solidarity, ____ him.
I won’t ever support him in anything but I will always appreciate Andrew Yang for doing that.
I don’t, and freely I admit I have me tally foreshortened that horrid episode.
Two medical anecdotes.
:
Monday I saw my Primary Care person, the appointment was for 9:45 AM, saw them at 11:45 AM for 15 minutes.
No explanation for the delay.
Dr and one receptionist wore baggy blues, there were two cheesy little UV “Air purifiers” in the waiting room and that was it.
I visited an old friend at Memorial Hospital this AM, saw @ 60 people.
One unmasked, one chin diaper, the rest a mix of N95, KN95 and baggy blues, mostly baggy blues.
Hospitals are P100 territory for Me.
I am currently sitting in my wife’s recovery room a few hours after her hip replacement… although I’m sure they wear them in surgery, not a single nurse on the surgical floor is wearing a mask of any kind… unreal.
It’s insane …
Lately, every (every single!) discussion of the Israeli-Palestine War begins with a reference to the October 7th Massacre….
As if everybody in Palestine/Israel were getting along… living their lives….. working….. visiting friends… raising kids… worshipping (or not) their God….. sleeping… celebrating…. loving… respecting….
And then, suddenly, out of the blue, with no warning, with no provocation… The Unimaginable Horror. October 7th…..
But possibly, consider January 3, 2023 and the visit of Israel’s new far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to the Al Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem ….
“Why Al-Aqsa is key to understanding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lb3v8M8dzic
With all information (stories, charts, graphs…) the point in time chosen as “the beginning” of the data-set, sets the scene for the ensuing narrative, the synopsis and the conclusion……
Ritter–new survey rates Russian military higher than the American. America still tops Grenada.
https://consortiumnews.com/2023/10/31/scott-ritter-john-kirby-versus-russian-military/
Maybe we should support Biden because, as Alex Cockburn once said on C-Span, if you lived under the Roman Empire would you want a competent person running it?
Still if you were a Roman citizen rather than a subject you might worry about your bread, circuses not to mention being sacked.
I definitely remember that sentiment, but not the particular post in which it was expressed.
In any case, Sanders has been dead to me since he endorsed Biden. I forget he was even still around, doing whatever it is he does. He wasn’t kidding when he said “not me, us”; He built a movement that he didn’t want and had no intention of using for any particular purpose. It’s not possible to square the circle of needing a political revolution with whatever Sanders has done lately since conceding to Biden. I guess we didn’t actually need a political revolution after all? He finally had access to actual power in the form of a huge number of committed supporters, to affect real change, and he folded. So did he never actually believe what he’s been saying for decades?
Granted he might have lived a much shorter life if it had tried to capitalize on this, so perhaps he opted to stand down. Who knows.
This Pandemic is without a doubt one of the gravest threats to the working class, so to be inactive on this challenge of our era, well. As I said, Sanders is still around?
Yep, the Biden endorsement was the final nail in the coffin for me. He was always retrograde on foreign policy, but getting thrown under the bus and then telling his followers to pivot to Hillary and Joe just made it clear how much a creature of the DNC machine he was all along.
But apparently ole Bernie is still around, or maybe we could say that he slid back the granite slab to try and draw a little blood from his supporters yet again.
Agree with Lambert: don’t give him a dime.
Re Covid, I’ve noticed a lot more people in the street in my rural Norman villages wearing masks. I take it as anecdotal evidence that there’s transmission in schools and workplaces. I was in Paris all last week where it was a free for all except in our union meetings where windows were open and people masked in groups where air was not circulating. Also the Paris Metro and the trains were sort of a free for all which is not a good sign. Odd how the countryside is more conscious of the risk than the city. Perhaps something psychological at work. Votre kilométrage may vary.
Start spreadin’ the news
Don Junior is testifying today
I didn’t want him to be a part of it
New York, New York
Ivanka’s stylish shoes
Are longing to stray
Right away from the very heart of it
New York, New York
I want to wake up
To a beautiful gigantic 2024 sweep
And find I’m king of the hill
Top of the heap
These lawsuit blues
Are melting away
I’ll make a brand new start of it
In old New York
If I can get off on my own recognizance there
I’ll get off
Anywhere
It’s up to you
New York, New York
New York, New York
I want to wake up next November
To an across the board sweep
And find I’m A number one again
Top of the list
King of the hill
A number one
These lawsuit blues
Are melting away
I’m gonna make a brand new start of it
In old New York
And if I can get off there
I’m gonna get off anywhere
It’s up to you
New York, New York
New York
New York, New York, by Frank Sinatra
Seldom mentioned in the dispute about territory in Israel” Leviticus 25:23 (NIV, 1984) made clear: “the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants.” So no, Jahweh didn’t sign the deed. He was just the landlord.
RE: HICPAC
https://www.forbes.com/sites/judystone/2023/11/01/a-storm-is-gathering-around-a-cdc-committee/?sh=7575af9060b2
A Storm Is Gathering Around A CDC Committee
What if Jesus was an assault rifle
Always on full auto, this here disciple
Winding through the Temple of God
Knocking over seats of dove sellers with the butt plate
Tables of money changers overturned while you wait
Forbes has also picked up on HICPAC’s interesting practices.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/judystone/2023/11/01/a-storm-is-gathering-around-a-cdc-committee/
Thanks. That’s pretty damning. They just outright refuse to talk to anybody outside of their clique.
Drop the hammer on them, I say. Both barrels at point blank range.
Biden appointed the new HHS Inspector General in 2022. Draw your own conclusions.
Jerusalem was destroyed because people loved money and hated people (Jewschool · Aryeh Bernstein)
re: “Liberals, Start Giving Biden Some Damn Credit” [Michael Tomasky (of course),
Is this B’s (handlers) equivalent of Jeb!’s 2016 “Please clap” moment? / ;)
Underrated comment.
So Mike Johnson says ‘I believe that scripture, the Bible is very clear: that God is the one that raises up those in authority.’ So let’s unpack that a little. For him then, there is no separation between Church and State. Push that far enough then and you could have mandatory prayers legislated across the country. So he would also think that every legislator would have a mandate from God and thus any person that opposed a legislator or investigated them would be doing a religious transgression. Of course Capital Hill would be sacred space and we heard that after the January 6th tourist invasion. As well, that would also mean that he would be fine with breaking his oath of office if he thought that it might possibly clash with his religious principles. Just like that woman several years ago that worked for a county but refused to marry a gay couple. She might get her job back – with back-pay owning. I am not saying that he will but this could blow up one day in ways you would not expect. There are enough God botherers in Congress as it is.
Another way of looking at it. It used to be said, One man, one vote. Now, that’s changed: One God, zillions of votes.
As a Christian I disagree with that characterization, as Church has a specific meaning. I think it should be obvious that not everyone in authority is doing God’s will, as a Christian would understand it. If the US, as we proclaim, is “under God” then that sort of implies we should seek to understand God’s will [on earth as it is in heaven].
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/johnson-asked-if-hair-dryer-could-kill-covid-aide/ar-AA1jeqqg
Johnson asked if hair dryer could kill Covid – aide
I feel like we’re in a season where there will be enough bad stuff and foul weather to keep everyone upset. And rightfully so! There’s awful events happening everyday. But perhaps those in the commentariat can help ease all of our individual doom loops some what?
This website has a reasonable approximation of a recipe I’ve used for a long time. When the weather turns cold it is time for Mexican hot chocolate. With or without liquor, it warms you up. The fact that it isn’t too sweet always seems right for the season. I’ve spent so much time in the southwest and Northern Mexico that tamales, menudo, hot cocoa, pozole, mole, huevos rancheros, machaca (con huevo!), fresh corn tortilla, dulces…they just feel right. Every Thanksgiving and Christmas making that food for family and friends feels good.
I hope everyone will be able to find some peace and comfort and warmth this season.
A Quaker organization, the American Friends Service Committee, re Gaza and Israel:
https://afsc.org/topics/gaza-israel
The name may ring a bell with people who were politically active in the 1960s and -70s. “Since 1917, AFSC has been on the forefront of some the most important social movements in working for a more just, peaceful world.”
https://afsc.org/history
Dan Cohen on Twitter / 𝕏:
“Zionist forces brutally assault Orthodox Jews in the streets of Jerusalem for opposing genocide in Gaza. Haven’t seen this kind of state violence against Jews since Nazi Germany. Images like this destroy the myth that the State of Israel is Jewish.” [with video]
https://nitter.net/dancohen3000/status/1719752311684071469