By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Patient readers, I am traveling. If you can read this, I have experienced a conntectivity debacle. –lambert
Bird Song of the Day
Nepal House-Martin, Trongsa, Trongsa, Bhutan. “Gave two types of calls; flight call & another as they are swarmed near the nests which were located on a rock face above the road; individuals were see.”
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
The Constitutional Order
“Appeal Pursuant to § 1-1-130(3) C.R.S. District Court, City and County of Denver, Case No. 2023CB032577, Honorable Sarah B. Wallace, Judge [The Supreme Court of the State of Colorado]. Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment Appeal. Key point, though said in several different ways throughout the brief:
The claim (summarizing) is that any person who holds an “office” is in fact an “officer of the United States,” since any other construction leads to absurd outcomes. (To me, this begs the question, since it assumes that an elected President is of like kind to an appointee. Here once again is the wording of Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment:
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
If Section Three applied to an elected President, why not just say so, and enumerate the title? If absurd results are to be sought, surely we would not want to prevent Lincoln from running for a second term because his intitial suspension of habeas corpus was deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court? Further, for another absurd result, suppose — the Section Three being “self-executing” — that Lincoln’s name was stripped from the ballot by one or more states, and that the election ended up being thrown into the House, even though Lincoln won the popular vote. Would the House (and the Senate) then determine the election winner by voting to “remove such disability” from Lincoln? Or not? To me, the entire mishegoss comes from trying to substitute the judgement of the Judicial and Legislative branches for the judgement of voters (who are surely the best judges of what an “insurrection” is in any case, even if putatively instigated by a President). Fiercely defending my priors here, I know!
Capitol Seizure
When he’s right, he’s right:
TUCKER: “The amount of lying around January 6th, and it was obvious in the tapes that I showed, is really distressing and anyone who’s covering for those lies should be ashamed of themself and that would include almost the entire American media, including Fox News”… pic.twitter.com/ZLEF2u9HFw
— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) November 18, 2023
They should let Buffalo Headress Dude off with a stern warning; after all, the videos show that he was let into the Senate Chamber by the Capitol Hill police. Vladimir Ilyich Ulanov he was not!
“In breakthrough, Congress obtains footage of undercover cops conducting surveillance on Jan. 6” [Just the News]. “The footage reviewed by Just the News ranges from the mundane — such as chronicling moments when Capitol Police officers are impacted by tear gas fired into the crowd – to more provocative scenes that appear to show plainclothes [Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD)] officers exhorting rioters to climb scaffolding near the Capitol or talking about being undercover with liberal fascist protesters in a crowd. ‘Well, we go undercover as Antifa in the crowd,’ one officer that congressional investigators believe is a member of the MPD electronic surveillance unit is captured on video saying.” • Liberal fascists? Anitfa? What kind of sense does it make to go “undercover” as antifa at a Trump afterparty?
“Time for Truth and Accountability J6 Committee” [Declassified with Julie Kelly]. “After months of promising to do so, House Republicans finally released the first tranche of surveillance footage captured by security cameras on January 6…. Millions of Americans will now see video of police officers standing by as protesters walked in the building, some exchanging handshakes and fist bumps…. But perhaps most important is hearing from the victims of this reckless, vengeful prosecution. In fact, Johnson might be well served to launch the committee with a public hearing featuring J6 defendants and their families—particularly those who lost a loved one to suicide—who can explain to the American people the torment they’ve endured at the hands of line prosecutors, FBI agents, and federal judges. House Republicans have America’s attention on January 6. The dam is breaking on the official narrative—time to bust it wide open.”
Biden Administration
“No Exit From Gaza” (free) [Foreign Affairs]. The deck: “Why Israel—and the United States—Has Only Bad Options for the Day After.” •Well worth a read. If one views Israel’s strategy as similar to the Tatmadaw’s “Four Cuts,” they’re seeking to asphyxiate the fish (Hamas) by draining the water (the Gazan population). Then they get to take the land and hand it over to another tranche of goat-sacrificing “settlers.” (The tunnels, etc., would then be a distraction; not strategic in the slightest). So how exactly do you tell a nuclear powier “no”? (Thinking like a state, it’s interesting to see nuclear weapons as a bid for immortality, because how to get rid of them?)
2024
Less than a year to go!
* * * “Trump poll lead expands with Biden losing black, Hispanic support” [New York Post]. “The latest poll by Emerson College, released Wednesday, finds Trump leading 47% to 43% — with Biden’s edge among historically Democrat-supporting minority groups dropping significantly in just one year. The 81-year-old incumbent’s lead among Hispanic voters narrowed to 3%, down from 14% in an Emerson poll last November — an 11 percentage-point shift. Biden’s lead among African Americans was a still-substantial 47%, but down 15 percentage points from this time last year…. It’s unclear what’s behind the dramatic swing in support among minorities, though polls have consistently shown that economic concerns — including inflation and high interest rates — are the leading issue for voters.” • The Trump Adminisration CARES Act “spur[ed] a record drop in poverty.” Then the Democrats got rid of it. Maybe that? Plus, Joe Biden owes me six hundred bucks.
“Univision CEO defends Trump interview after uproar, says network won’t be ‘deterred by partisan interests'” [FOX]. “Journalist Enrique Acevedo sat down with Trump for a wide-ranging interview from Mar-a-Lago earlier this month, and some liberals have expressed outrage that the Spanish-language network offered a platform to the former president. Others have insisted liberal anchor Jorge Ramos should have conducted the interview because he would have pushed back harder on Trump’s remarks.” • Well, they would, wouldn’t they? Trump’s running for office. Of course he should be interviewed. Liberal Democrats should stop the pearl-clutching about “platforming” and beat Trump on the merits. Surely that shouldn’t be hard? (And if it is, why is that?) Of course, to do that — as opposed to the current strategy of “SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP” and “LA LA LA I CAN’T HEAR YOU!” — they’d have to pop their embubblement, and who wants that?
* * * “Stormy Daniels’s conflict complaint against Trump hush money lawyer tossed” [The Hill]. “A New York attorney grievance committee on Tuesday dismissed a complaint filed by adult film performer Stormy Daniels alleging one of former President Trump’s lawyers in his hush money case has a conflict of interest…. Trump’s trial in the case is currently scheduled to begin March 25. It is one of four criminal cases the former president faces as he looks to return to the White House. He has mounted various pre-trial attempts to toss the charges, and the judge is set to consider those motions during a Feb. 15 hearing. The judge at that hearing could also change the trial schedule.”
“Donald Trump has worst day yet in NY civil fraud trial as underling’s scribbled note ties him to conspiracy” [Business Insider]. “The witness was Jeffrey McConney, who was the comptroller and spreadsheet czar at the Trump Org…. McConney was handed People’s Exhibit 3054, a draft of Trump’s net-worth statement for 2014. He was asked to look at a note scribbled in thin blue ink on the draft’s first page, ‘DJT TO GET FINAL REVIEW,’ which he said he’d written… Trump has denied involvement in preparing a decade’s worth of these annual net-worth statements, which New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, has alleged — and the trial judge has agreed — were each year riddled with billions of dollars of exaggerations…. McConney’s blue-ink handwriting is all over the net-worth statement drafts, showing he revised language and even added cautionary notes that were then passed along for Trump’s “final review,” as McConney said in his own description of the drafting process.”
* * * “Dana White storms training facility, eradicates Peloton inventory in response to RFK threat — ‘Pelo-gone’ (Video)” [MMA Mania]. “UFC CEO, Dana White, promised to rid the premises of all Peloton exercise equipment after the fitness company, which previously sponsored Theo Von’s “This Past Weekend” podcast, threatened the controversial comedian for hosting an episode with political guest, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The deed is done.” • Not my world at all; I don’t know what to make of this. Readers?
* * * “Senate hopeful Hill Harper says he was offered $20M to run against Rashida Tlaib instead” [Detroit News]. “U.S. Senate hopeful Hill Harper said Wednesday he was offered a sizeable campaign donation from a Metro Detroit businessman if he dropped out of Michigan’s Senate race and instead ran against Democratic U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Detroit… ‘I said no. I won’t be bossed, bullied, or bought,’ Harper said on X. ‘Yes, telling the truth here will put a target on my back. But if we ALL come together we can win.’: And: [Marshall Wittman, a spokesperson for AIPAC] stressed that AIPAC was ‘absolutely not involved in any way in this matter.” I guess that means they were? And the lot thickens: “Harper later said the offer was proof of a broken political system tilted toward the wealthy and evidence that ‘establishment donors’ don’t believe Harper’s Senate Democratic primary opponent, U.S. Rep Elissa Slotkin of Holly, can defeat him.” • Slotkin is, of course, a CIA Democrat. Two birds with one stone?
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.
* * * “Conservative Group Accidentally Reveals Its Secret Donors. Some of Them Are Liberal Orgs” [Daily Beast]. “A conservative nonprofit tied to a controversial ‘White House-in-waiting’ for a second Donald Trump presidency has apparently unintentionally revealed its top donors—and two of them are foundations famously associated with liberal causes. The nonprofit, called American Compass, included the names of five donor organizations on a schedule in its 2022 tax statement…. Of the five groups, two stand out for their prominent histories of supporting liberal causes—the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Omidyar Network Foundation…. According to the tax statement, the Omidyar Network has contributed a total of $400,000 to American Compass since 2020…. The Hewlett Foundation—a longtime supporter of National Public Radio—has accounted for more than one-third of American Compass’ total public support, giving a combined $1,486,000 over the same period, with an extra $475,000 dose this January.” And now the kicker: “The donations are striking because American Compass is a partner organization in Project 2025, a controversial right-wing think tank that has been building the policy and personnel firmament for a second Trump administration.” • Wait, what? I thought Project 2025 was something goodthinking liberal Democrats were supposed to be hysterical about?
“House Democrat apologizes after saying Trump ‘has to be eliminated'” [The Hill]. “Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-N.Y.) apologized Monday for his “poor choice of words” when he said former President Trump must be ‘eliminated’ to protect democracy…. ‘It is just unquestionable at this point that that man cannot see public office again. He is not only unfit, he is destructive to our democracy, and he has to be, he has to be eliminated,’ Goldman said Sunday on MSNBC’s ‘Inside with Jen Psaki.'” • Goldman is among the wealthiest members of Congress.
“Trump ‘more dangerous’ than Hitler, Mussolini: McCaskill” [The Hill]. “McCaskill said Trump is a unique type of authoritarian figure, noting he ‘is not trying to overcome a neighboring country like [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is in Ukraine. He is not going for a grandiose scheme of international dominance.’ ‘All he wants … is to look in the mirror and see a guy who’s president,’ she said. ‘All he cares about is selfish self-promotion. That’s the only philosophy he has. Which makes him even more dangerous.'” • “Every senator looks in the mirror and sees a president.” –Richard Cohen. So (former Senator) McCaskill is saying Trump is dangerous because he’s like a Senator?
Realignment and Legitimacy
“Brothels that serviced politicians and military officials raked in millions: ‘Record keeping was impeccable'” [New York Post]. The lead is at the end: “The US Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts said at the time of their arrests that the ‘commercial sex buyers allegedly included elected officials, high tech and pharmaceutical executives, doctors, military officers, government contractors that possess security clearances, professors, attorneys, scientists, and accountants, among others.’ ‘The investigation into the involvement of sex buyers is active and ongoing,’ the Massachusetts US Attorney’s Office noted at the time.” And I’m sure won’t be politicized in any way! More: “No information about the identities of the prostitution ring’s alleged clients has been made public.” • Weighing the firm and its service providers vs. the clients in the balance, which population, in the aggregate, has done more harm? I’d say the populatoin with the pharma executives and government contractors, for starters. Cf. Dan 5:26-27.
#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!
Covid is Airborne
“How to Ventilate Your Home For Thanksgiving to Help Reduce COVID Risks” [KQED]. Worth reading in full. Regarding opening windows, this seems useful: “Try to seat your guests as close as possible to the fresh air coming in — and don’t park them all by the window where airflow is going out. Because if COVID-19 particles are in that airflow, that “air out” area will be heavy. How do you know which is the ‘air in’ window and which is the ‘air out’ one?…. The simplest is to stand in front of the open window and hold up a small piece of string, ribbon, or anything similar in front of it, letting it hang down. This way, ‘you can kind of see which way the stream moves and then understand if the air is coming in or going out.’ You could also use a candle for this.” • Might be useful to have candles at table, too.
Sequelae
“How Has the COVID-19 Pandemic Affected Sleep Quality?” [MedScape]. “[A}n ICOSS substudy conducted in 2311 patients with COVID‑19 revealed that individuals with a history of insomnia before the pandemic were at greater risk for long COVID, compared with those without a history of insomnia. Also, patients with long COVID seem to be at greater risk of insomnia, compared with those who quickly recovered from COVID‑19. The data will be published soon in Sleep Medicine….. In the case of sleep disorders related to postacute sequelae of SARS‑CoV‑2 infection, ongoing research is analyzing the effects of behavioral therapy and strategies that modify the circadian rhythm. One group of participants is taking melatonin and the other is taking a placebo.”
“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.
* * *
Lambert here: Lots of new results yesterday, most up, starting with wastewater. (The one I worry about the most is ER visits, since I think that data is hard to game, and who wants to go to the ER, anyhow?) I think it’s time to send the relatives those clippings you saved on brain damage (also, of course, the 2022 clippings: here, here. And the 2020 one). And break out the Corsi-Rosenthal boxes at the family gathering!
Case Data
NOT UPDATED From BioBot wastewater data, November 20:
Lambert here: Cases up, just in time for Thanksgiving (and tinfoil hat time: This is the, er, inflection point CDC was trying to conceal when they gave the contract to Verily and didn’t ensure a seamless transition).
Regional data:
Everywhere!
Variants
NOT UPDATED From CDC, November 11:
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 28:
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
NOT UPDATED From CDC NCIRD Surveillance, November 18:
Lambert here: Slight increases in some age groups, conforming to wastewater data. 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 November 23:
Definitely up. New York state as a whole looks more like a spike. (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. November 11:
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, November 20:
0.5%. Decline arrested. (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, November 11:
Lambert here: Increase (with backward revision; guess they thought it was over). 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 30:
Down, albeit in the rear view mirror. And here are the variants for travelers, October 30:
Deaths
Total: 1,183,227 – 1,182,999 – 1,182,945 = 228 (228 * 365 = 83,220 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 The Economist, November 18:
Lambert here: Based on a machine-learning model.
Stats Watch
There are no officals statistics of interest today.
Tech: “Democrats can’t quit Elon Musk’s X” [Politico]. “Politicians are finding they just don’t have a competitor for X’s free, real-time ability to reach voters and journalists. X is still the closest thing to a virtual town square for the Washington conversation.” • Maybe just accept that every billionarire is a policy failure, not just Musk? (And heck, why not just nationalize Twitter? That’s what a Democrat’s Democrat would do.) Also: Twitter remains the number one source for Covid material, in fact pandemic material generally. Of course, given Biden’s record, I can see why Democrats would want such a source to go away.
Manufacturing: Tern is a bit of a doomer. Nevertheless:
I wonder how many other industries this is true for?
Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 67 Greed (previous close: 66 Greed) [CNN]. One week ago: 56 (Greed). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Nov 22 at 8:59:44 PM ET.
The Conservatory
“The Rolling Stones are hitting the road next year on a tour sponsored by AARP” [CNN]. • Ooof. From an earlier, less innocent time:
I say “less innocent” because, really, the Stones are pretty harmless at this point, no?
Feral Hog Watch
“A population of hard-to-eradicate ‘super pigs’ in Canada is threatening to invade the US” [Associated Press]. “In Canada, the wild pigs roaming Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba pose a new threat. They are often crossbreeds that combine the survival skills of wild Eurasian boar with the size and high fertility of domestic swine to create a ‘super pig’ that’s spreading out of control. Ryan Brook, a professor at the University of Saskatchewan and one of Canada’s leading authorities on the problem, calls feral swine, ‘the most invasive animal on the planet” and ‘an ecological train wreck.’ Pigs are not native to North America. While they’ve roamed parts of the continent for centuries, Canada’s problem dates back only to the 1980s when it encouraged farmers to raise wild boar, Brook said. The market collapsed after peaking in 2001 and some frustrated farmers simply cut their fences, setting the animals free.” • The Threat From The North! (And more invasive than humans? Really?)
The Gallery
Generally I don’t like constructs like this much. But I like this one:
"Heart" by Dimitri Tsykalov, made of wood, bark, and soil, 2002 pic.twitter.com/TGDAI8HqZQ
— Adrian Black (@MsAdrianBlack) November 22, 2023
News of the Wired
“The Secret Language of Ships” [Hakai]. “Tugboat crews routinely encounter what few of us will ever see. They easily read a vessel’s size, shape, function, and features, while deciphering at a glance the mysterious numbers, letters, and symbols on a ship’s hull. To non-mariners, the markings look like hieroglyphs. For those in the know, they speak volumes about a particular ship and also about the shipping industry…. To the left of the draft lines are different versions of the bulbous bow and bow thruster symbols. BT|FP tells you the position of the bow thruster: between the ballast tank (BT) and the forepeak (FP), the forwardmost part of the ship. It’s important for a tugboat operator to know the location of the bow thruster, as it creates turbulence that the tug would rather avoid.” • Neat stuff!
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 jsn:
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Fun Read
The Secret Language of Ships
Are you there yet? Please don’t eat too much;-)
A Water Cooler on Thanksgiving? Wow, much to be thankful for!
Indeed! Thank you, Lambert!
Likewise — thanks!
Yes, thanks Lambert. I have a nice Thanksgiving story. I’ve been looking for a stationary bike and found one on Claigsrist. After a few interactions messaging with the seller, I told him/her that I would take it. Price listed was 275. Originally 400. Afterwards I looked up the model on Amazon and several people were complaining about one aspect of the bike that soured me on it. I messaged the seller and told him after reading those reviews the bike wasn’t for me. He said, “I want to give it to you”! I told him I could afford to pay him something. He said to save my money for Christmas. We drove to an outlying community to pick up the beautiful bike that he said he only used four times. He was a kind gentleman.
ARMS AND ARMOR OF THE PILGRIMS 1620-1692
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/65335/65335-h/65335-h.htm
FATHER CORONA: By the way, domini domini domini you’re all Catholics now. God bless you . . . and good luck.
http://www.autodidactproject.org/other/FS1.html
Another train off its tracks and neighbors aren’t happy.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/kentucky-governor-issues-state-emergency-173613682.html
Here are a few good reads:
Michael Pollan’s “Changing Your Mind”
Paco Calvo’s “Planta Sapiens”
For mysteries:
Will Thomas’ Barker and LLewellyn series.
Laurie King’s “Mary Russel” series
Peter Bowen’s “Gabriel Dupree’s” series.
Sci Fi:
John Scalzi
Lois Bujold.
Steampunk:
SM Stirling’s “Peshawar Lancer’s”
Jim Butcher’s “Cinder Spires” series.
Fantasy:
Lois Bujold’s series set in the “Land of the five Gods” is the best I have run across in many years.
There’s a scene in the first book where the protagonist is touched by a Goddess that resonated with me and each of the first three are love stories, very well told.
Re: Peloton
My wife uses their bike and their service daily. 45 minutes. It has kept her heart in great shape and it is a very good workout with minimal joint wear for those of us over 30. Her hero is someone on their service named Cody.
As for me, I would be insane in 5 minutes if I had to listen to that claptrap music. They do have limited workouts to what I would consider my age appropriate music, but not many. If you are daily and hard core, you are going to have to get use to listening to talentless cringe music for 45 minutes every day. I just cannot stand the thought.
With regard to the article and Peloton making some kind of “political statement.” – I feel the same way about this as I do about so many others – Target, Disney, Bud Light, Hobby Lobby, Home Depot, Chick Fil-A, etc. I absolutely long for the day when our companies entertained us or provided us with services WITHOUT the sermon on the side. I will not write letters, etc, but to the big offenders as listed above, I avoid like the plague. And we have learned as a family that we are just as alive without them. My kids have never watched a Disney movie. I have no idea what crap their minds will be served if we do. And I truly believe they are better off for it.
It is part of my upbringing – my parents #1 rule when walking into someone else’s home when I was a kid – DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT BRINGING UP POLITICS OR RELIGION IN THIS HOME IN WHICH WE ARE GUESTS. YOU DO, AND YOUR MOUTH WILL HAVE AN APPOINTMENT WITH A BAR OF DIAL SOAP WHEN WE GET HOME.
I ran across this tweet this AM from the comedienne Ruth Buzzi –
https://twitter.com/Ruth_A_Buzzi/status/1727026330544595408
Could not have said it better myself.
Hoping everyone has a most satisfying holiday today.
You should see me at 61 and upping the game … consensus is 50 …
Re: So how exactly do you tell a nuclear powier “no”? [regarding Israel and its cleansing operation]
I’d start with throttling the four billion a year money hose.
Sailing half the US fleet near the Israeli coast away would also be a good start. Tell the Israelis that they aren’t much use as Hamas has no navy to fight and they need maintenance now. The quickest way would be to stop all that artillery being sent to them which is being used to demolish people’s homes.
Maybe the US and Israel should look up the word ‘Zugzwang’ because that is where they are at the moment-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zugzwang
Both reasonable suggestions from a realist perspective. However, I wonder whether a government of goat sacrificers and heifer awaiters can be accommodated in the realist framework.
Make the ultimate threat then. Tell them that unless they negotiate, then no more red heifers from Texas. That is where they are getting them from.
I lost the reference now but I think that the number of animal sacrifices per year may not be in single digits but may be in the thousands. Maybe they will put it on the tourist calendar or something.
One of the authors of the “Just the News” post got 44K hours of tapes from Congress in May. Tucker got them in March. They shared a few clips showing a protester who wasn’t rioting in that clip, and Nancy being filmed by her daughter.
Now that the tapes that Congress has are being selectively posted publicly by Congress, there have still been only a couple shared on twitter, subsequently disputed, and in some cases deleted.
Apparently now it’s time to look at other “footage from official sources.” If they can substantiate that cops go “as antifa” that would be useful information for activists on the left and the right.
Thanks for the holiday Water Cooler and other posts.
On social media there has been a lot of discussion in the last year about the political theory of a war between the two rival elite factions of the American establishment isince the 1960s known as “The Yankee and Cowboy War,” and its current version and relationship with the Trump movement
The following tells the details on the history of the Cowboy and Yankee War between the two main factions of American elites in the 1960s-70s, how it then changed and merged to become the Uniparty, and where we are today with their war against the neo-Cowboy Trump movement. See: The Uniparty and Cowboy War
Carl Oglesby wrote the book. Its thesis was that the JFK hit was the victory of Texas and SW oil money over ‘old’ east coast Rockefeller money. If the thesis is correct, CIA boss George HW Bush was the ‘fusion’ president, a yankee millionaire masquerading as a Texan, unifying both factions.
Maybe if the Democrat party really wanted to defeat Trump, they could, instead of bringing convoluted court cases arguing about the meaning of the word “official”, or how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, provide some concrete material benefits. Can’t (won’t) do a nationalized healthcare system? How about codifying Roe? Still too much? How about that 600 bucks we’re still due? Still too spendy? One-up the chicken in every pot and send out turkey vouchers. Something, anything, except this incessant courtroom whingeing.
If I were running in 2024, I know what I’d be putting on my campaign T-shirts.
“My country voted Democrat in 2020 and all I got was this lousy genocide.”
They gave up on concrete benefits at least two decades ago. Lots of faux fighting and crocodile tears for traditional Democratic voters, but all benefits are earmarked for the Investor class.
“The Rolling Stones are hitting the road next year on a tour sponsored by AARP”
You think that when they travel, that they would be entitled each to old-age pensioner discounts?
My Dan, since 2022, is not just one of the wealthiest members of Congress but has a resume that has “insider”written all over it. This won’t be the last time he will misspeak. Expect it to happen a lot. He is going to be all over the news until he gets whatever position they are grooming him for and he screws that up. (If senate seat was available I’d say that was it, but it could be cabinet slot at least, but likely it is VP or President.)
Oh and I would also bet that “eliminating Trump” is discussed often in Dan’s presence. This is going to be the same group that were upset they couldn’t get Assange assassinated.
The “Holy Land” article immediately made me think of that old classic: “Last Exit To Gaza.” Similar plot lines, cast of characters and final soul crushing ending.
“But it can’t be. No, it isn’t !@#$.”
Yes AIPAC clients, it is !@#$.
Things are not looking good for my church’s homeless shelter cooking for the month of December. Only ten dinners have been signed up for out of 31, and that is only because one saint (not me) has promised three and another saint has promised two. The number of people who attend worship each week has shrunk, and a lot of members are suddenly old and sick – people who weren’t old and sick last year.
It is really miserable (for me anyway) to cook for 20 adults and then transport the food (in the back of a Honda Civic, in my case) warm (since there are no relevant cooking facilities at the hosting church) at a certain time. I am overwhelmed every year. And this year I may be absolutely stuck doing it more than once.
I checked to see if Safeway could provide, to hell with the cost, but they are not doing holiday group meals for pick up in this area this year. And I don’t belong to and can’t deal with Costco. I am 5’4″ FFS; I feel dwarfed there and the parking lot is a zoo and I would have to rent a car to go there since it is out of dog-ambulance safety range. The cost for such prepared food at other stores in the area is staggering.
For the first round I am thinking of roasted sweet potatoes topped with black beans and tuna (salsa provided). Since that is what I would like. Another option would be Trader Joe’s Mandarin Chicken. Another option would be Stouffer’s meatloaves. All with relevant sides/salad/desserts, of course. Any ideas would be very welcome.
We like rice with some protein and topped with stir-fried frozen veggies. Chopped onions and three colors of bell peppers come in a bag together in the frozen section and don’t cost too much at Walmart. Right now pork is much cheaper than chicken or beef. Sear the pork in oil in a skillet, then add the veggies when the pork is done. Cook till veggies are hot and serve over hot rice. You can add soy sauce if you like. Not everyone eats pork, but for those that do it’s a fairly affordable and tasty meal with good nutrition. Cutting the pork into small pieces spreads the meaty flavor throughout the dish. I find it easier to cut after it’s cooked but it could be done before cooking and it would cook more quickly that way as well as get more flavor per piece.
Thank you; rice with a protein and veggies sounds good. It couldn’t be pork since I don’t eat it due to pig pity, and if I cooked it at home it would probably end my marriage since my husband is an ethical vegan. But maybe there is some sort of already cooked beef or chicken I could use that wouldn’t make the condo smell of flesh. I’m not used to cooking meat; it has been a long time. I remember that beef takes forever to cook, otherwise it is like a rock, and that would create a smell. Also I have no idea how to season something like that. When I make vegan versions of rice and veggies they lack flavor (I grew up in New England and my cooking and seasoning instincts are horrible), but maybe that is not a problem with a meat version.
I should have mentioned the meat constraint. It makes it so much harder every year, since guests really don’t want lasagne, that’s for sure. Last year I agonized all month and then did buy a (picked-up) ham for Christmas, and I’ve been upset about it ever since.
I nuke Stouffer’s meatloaves for my 99 year old father in law and for some reason they don’t fill the kitchen with any sort of aroma; that is why they seem like an option.
@kareninca
Would a curry rice be an option for those meals as a side dish?
https://simply-delicious-food.com/quick-and-easy-curry-rice/
I would love that. If I ever cook again for myself, that will be it!!!!
But I’m not going to put that much effort into a side dish; the side dishes will just be mashed potatoes or heated peas.
I am not a neurotic person at all but every year this turns me into one, since I am torn between wanting to make the guests happy and not upsetting my husband and gagging myself and also I am aware of my cooking weaknesses. And I go crazy trying to figure out how it is supposed to all be gotten there in a fifteen minute time frame, driven across town, warm. And it will weigh a ton. There are several “church ladies” in the church who are great at whipping up food for a horde; they are built like quarterbacks and they have SUVs and a Costco membership and an extra fridge at home and kids and grandkids they’ve fed for years and they do this with no problem at all – but they are getting old.
You would be amazed at how badly a native New Englander can screw up food. My grandmother was legendary for her inedible meals, and my mother learned at her apron, and I have certainly inherited the gene. I am oblivious to what I eat; I mostly live on PBJS and an ongoing pot of soup. I don’t want to torment the homeless with something that is gross to them.
I do a vegetarian chili that is fairly simple and will scale up. Beans (I do half black beans and kidneys), canned diced tomatoes, chili powder, salt, pepper, minced garlic, along with chopped onions, carrots, celery and mushrooms (I use a small electric chopper). I also usually add some green chili just because. Sweat the veggies in some oil, then put it all together and simmer until the veggies are done. It is longer if you used dried beans, but once it is all together it is probably a half hour to forty five minutes depending on how small the veggies are chopped. You can stretch it by serving it over rice. It is not necessary but nice to add some cheese and or sour cream on top. I use an instant pot, but you could also crock pot it (just give it more time to get to a simmer.
Just a thought.
This is very like it
I do use cumin, but haven’t done smoked paprika or oregano but they would be nice. Nor have I finished with vinegar. But the recipe would be a decent guideline. I also wouldn’t leave out the mushrooms. I’ve done it with and without and they add to both texture and depth of flavor.
Thank you; that sounds like a good prospect. I personally hate chili, but most people seem to like it and that is what matters.
I would have suggested a chunkier soup like a lentil or mushroom barley along with bread or rolls but you seem to be going in a different direction.
But it is no fun to make something you dislike, still the chili is warm and filling, and is almost as down and dirty to make as soup.
I don’t have a way to bring a soup, unless I want to sacrifice a cooking pot, since we can’t get containers back. Chili I could bring in a foil roasting container, if I doubled it.
You mentioned a crock pot and an instant pot, but I don’t have either, but also I don’t think one of those would be big enough to hold chili for twenty people; it would take three or four cooking sessions and I would go insane.
@ kareninca
Here is a possible idea. If you could get a metal container like you see that oil comes in that might help. As you talk about twenty people, you might be talking about something that holds, oh I don’t know, ten pints perhaps? (we use metric here) Then put the soup in that disposable container when hot, twist the lid shut and then put that container into a cardboard box with a towel wrapped around it. Then cram newspaper between the container and the sides of the box which should act as a layer of insulation and put on top as well. That should keep that soup fairly hot until you get where you are going. Note that I have never tried this myself but it should keep that soup hot enough and the box, container and newspapers would be all disposable at the other end.
I think I will skip the oil container and skip the soup, but the insulation idea is a great one. That had not occurred to me. If I turn the trunk of my Honda Civic into an insulation zone then the trip won’t involve the loss of as much heat. There aren’t newspapers around anymore but I have towels and clean old sheets.
I am so sorry, I didn’t understand that you would have to sacrifice your cooking pot or transport method to a situation that also doesn’t have reheating ability. That does mess up logistics for this.
Honestly, I can’t think of anything that isn’t going to take a somewhat long cooking session for a group meal. Even doing a pasta dish like baked ziti or mac and cheese in a couple of size manageable disposable roasting pans would take multiple rounds of pasta cooking despite possibly being able to do a big pot of sauce.
The only other thought I have, and it may be too wacky, is to check your local thrift store for used stockpots. One ten quart would probably be too heavy but even a couple of more manageable five quarts might not be much more than the disposable pans. You could then do a couple of batches of soup at once. Followed by using foil and tape or cling wrapping the lids to the pots. Transport using Rev Kev’s idea of box, towels and newspaper idea to insulate and keep them upright.
Good luck. And thanks for working so hard for your community.
Yes, we lose whatever containers we bring the food in, and there is no way to reheat once the food is there. It means the guests get lukewarm food at best.
After your suggestion of chili I found a “white chicken chili” recipe that seems promising. I can cook that in a giant pot (I do own giant pots) and then transfer it into two separate doubled foil roaster containers. My only worry is that it might be watery; carrying foil roaster containers with watery stuff in them can result in tipping (I’ve discovered the hard way). I even already have the cans of precooked chicken from prepping for my omnivore father in law!
Our local thrift store doesn’t have pots and pans this time of year; they have all sold out by now; it works that way every year I’ve found.
Maybe lidded disposable roasters Sorry for the Amazon link but that shows what I am thinking about.
If not, it may sound weird but perhaps top off the roasting pan with canned biscuits and finish in the oven (sort of a chicken pot pie rift). The biscuit topping would give you an additional more solid topping layer and absorb some excess liquid.
Wishing you lots of luck and sending many kudos.
I did buy disposable roasters on Amazon! That is what I did last year, and I just ordered a bunch more. Not the lidded ones, though, since the lids are not so good; they fall off easily. I use aluminum foil for the lid.
That is a great idea re using a topping! It could reduce the slop factor. The foil roasters bend and and the contents slop over the sides if you aren’t really careful and lucky. I set them in the bottom halves of giant cardboard boxes, but they still slop. But maybe with biscuits on top it wouldn’t be so perilous.
Hi –
Would your board of elders/deacons be willing to invest in a turkey roaster? They are huge and heavy, so not a great option for transporting, but if the shelter is able to store it safely then that opens up options both for cooking meat on site (if desired) and also for serving the food hot. The roasters I’ve seen online are basically giant crockpots, so I would assume good for heating anything that requires braising or is sauce-based, like a casserole or scalloped potatoes (which makes a fine main dish in my opinion).
I am curious about the health codes in your area and that you are able to serve hot food without kitchen facilities. Where I’m at transported food (like casseroles) needs to be reheated to safety temp before it can be served to the public. If your area is the same maybe you can take that information to the elders to promote some investment?
The guests are not staying at our church. For many years, my church both housed and fed the guests for a month each year, but we haven’t had the ability to do the housing since the pandemic; our building is very small). So they are staying at a thriving nearby evangelical church, which is very generously providing housing, and we are supposed to provide the meals. My church has loads of roasters and suchlike, but if we bring them we can’t get them back, since the church building is a little used outpost for the evangelical church and they aren’t staffing it for this (a nonprofit is). There is a kitchen in this outpost church, but the nonprofit running the monthly shelter doesn’t let the guests use the kitchens of the churches for whatever reason. I agree that the food temp is an issue but the nonprofit makes this decision; the churches don’t.
The NY Times continues the propaganda. Don’t believe what you see.
Johnson’s Release of Jan. 6 Video Feeds Right-Wing Conspiracy Theories
These people are functionally stupid. For real.
Smoke screen. Reading the story, there’s nothing to suggest claims this was an attack are credible. No coup here.
> ‘Putin blinked’ narrative
Drudge pushing this line plus Twitter posts: https://twitter.com/JeffFisch/status/1727622265909477502
Putin does the ‘ready to end war as fighting with Ukraine is tragedy’ just before Russia starts its next offensive. Its the play that gives the West an opportunity to parley which it will refuse and then Russia to say well you had the chance. A big Russian offensive is about to start.
Concerning the Chinese loans in dollars that have to be repaid in yuan…It seems the point of the loans is to collect the infrastructure that is put up as collateral. No?
‘Feral Hog Watch’
‘That means 65% or more of a wild pig population could be killed every year and it will still increase, Brook said. Hunting just makes the problem worse, he said. The success rate for hunters is only about 2% to 3% and several states have banned hunting because it makes the pigs more wary and nocturnal — tougher to track down and eradicate.’
On the one hand, destructive… and on the other, delicious. I’ve had wild boar, cooked in a pit at some gathering in a park in Northern California, and talked to the hunter who bagged the hog, who only hunted with bow and arrow. He would confirm that wild boar are smart dangerous animals to track down and kill, but somehow he managed to take one down every year… with a bow and arrow! So I dunno, I suppose if we get hungry enough, super wild boars roaming down from Canada sounds like good news. Just not for farmers, ranchers and vegetarians. BBQ-eaters are still plentiful and not too picky.
Stream the series ‘High on the Hog’ on Netflix.
That post by Tern reminds me of a conversation from about 5 years ago with an engineer consulting for the architects of a new office building in a coastal city. He mentioned that they were using maximum wind speeds from climate models for the next 50y and so he had to factor in loads from winds that could be much stronger than previously measured for that location. His simulations demonstrated that balconies were dangerous as winds that high would blow people off. The architects were convinced and removed the balconies from their design. Many other changes were made — another one that stuck in my mind was deciding against basement parking because of the flooding risk from storm surges. Of course, this doesn’t help the old buildings that have balconies and basements.