By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Readers, Christmas will be Monday, so I wish you Merry Christmas in advance! –lambert
Bird Song of the Day
Crimson-headed Partridge, Mount Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. “In most of the recorded songs the first one to five notes are missing. Second bird was singing at a distance. After playback the bird was seen twice, crossing the trail. Alarm calls were made in response to playback.”
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
“SCOTUS should rule unanimously that Constitution matters more than defeating Trump at any cost” [Jonathan Turley, New York Post]. “What these four justices did was a direct assault on our democratic process in seeking to bar the most popular candidate in the upcoming election… Roberts once observed that ‘the most successful chief justices help their colleagues speak with one voice.’ Past chief justices from John Marshall to Earl Warren struggled to secure unanimous votes on fundamental cases to reaffirm such defining values. The court could help unify this country in a way that may be unparalleled in its history. It can show that justices who hold vastly different ideological views can be unified on core principles. It can remind us that, as citizens, the Constitution is ultimately not a covenant with the government but with each other. It is a leap of faith that, as a free people, we can decide our shared destiny and protect our shared identity. The moment has come for nine justices to speak in one voice.” • Worth noting that the Colorado court was not unified. As you read here, the Ivy Leaguers voted to disqualify. The locals did not (even though all were Democrats).
“John Roberts, Donald Trump and the ghosts of Bush v. Gore” [Politico]. “It’s a sign of the court’s polarizing politics how quickly the received wisdom on what the justices will do has congealed. Most legal scholars believe the 6-3 conservative majority will not let the Colorado ruling stand, much less say that its logic should apply to the other 49 states and throw Trump off the ballot everywhere…. In the looming Colorado case, the high court has about a dozen different off-ramps, some of them highly technical, by which it could avoid the pandemonium of disqualifying a leading presidential candidate. Some of those off-ramps may even garner support from the court’s three liberal justices — they, too, will be sensitive to the optics here. But however the court navigates the thicket it’s been thrust into, the Trump cases seem sure to strain Roberts’ effort to revive the court’s standing with the public. The plain political implications of whatever the court decides will further debunk his old argument (from his 2005 confirmation hearing) that justices are like umpires calling balls and strikes — not players on the field.”
“Colorado Supreme Court justices face a flood of threats after disqualifying Trump from the ballot” [NBC]. “Advance Democracy, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that conducts public interest research, identified “significant violent rhetoric” against the justices and Democrats, often in direct response to Trump’s posts about the ruling on his platform Truth Social. They found that some social media users posted justices’ email addresses, phone numbers and office building addresses.” • I think this is likely to be correct. However, I went to the Advance Democracy site. There’s no About page; no board, no personnel, no funding. The “Program Areas” page is filled with mentions of “disinformation.” It stinks for the Censorship Industrial Complex, which NBC just signal-boosted.
“Dems’ claims that Trump is ‘disqualified’ by 14th Amendment not ‘going to fly’: ex-Clinton scandal prosecutor” [FOX]. “Sol Wisenberg, the former prosector in the Clinton scandals, said the federal courts ruled as far back as 1869 that the insurrection clause is not ‘self-executing’ – meaning it would take congressional action to enforce against Trump. He cited Supreme Court Justice Salmon Chase’s declaration of that year, adding that Congress later passed a law mirroring the amendment’s language, which suggests Trump would need to be charged with violating it to even begin any disqualification process. ‘The punishment, in addition to the criminal fine is that you cannot ever hold office again. So it’s been done,’ he said. ‘The idea that you would have some state official, a partisanly-elected state official, disqualify Trump without any kind of due process at all, I think is not going to fly,’ Wisenberg said…. Wisenberg said, however, if Trump is ultimately charged with violating the 14th Amendment’s duplicative law [??], the Supreme Court would likely intercede in his favor.”
“Law must ignore the political hand-wringing around Trump” [Financial Times]. “Tuesday’s ruling puts his Republican rivals for the nomination in a particularly difficult spot, especially Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor, who was just gaining momentum in Iowa and New Hampshire polling. Instead of focusing her fire on the frontrunner with just weeks to go before Republican voters cast their first ballots, Haley now has to fall in line behind Trump in his legal battle. She was already there on Tuesday night: ‘I will beat him fair and square. We don’t need to have judges making these decisions, we need voters to make these decisions.'”
“Donald Trump blocked from appearing on presidential primary ballot by Colorado Supreme Court” [Colorado Sun]. This story includes the dissents. Chief Justice Boatright: “The framework that (Colorado’s election law) offers for identifying qualified candidates is not commensurate with the extraordinary determination to disqualify a candidate because they engaged in insurrection against the Constitution.” [Boatright] said the plaintiffs relied on the ‘breakneck pace’ required in Colorado’s election laws to pursue Trump’s disqualification and that they ‘overwhelmed the process.’ ‘This speed comes with consequences, namely, the absence of procedures that courts, litigants, and the public would expect for complex constitutional litigation,’ Boatright added.” Justice Samour called the challenge ‘a square constitutional peg that could not be jammed into our election code’s round hole’ and labeled the district court proceedings a ‘procedural Frankenstein’ for not following the strict deadlines in state election law.” Berkenkotter: “Three days to appeal a district court’s order regarding a challenge to a candidate’s age? Sure. But a challenge to whether a former President engaged in insurrection by inciting a mob to breach the Capitol and prevent the peaceful transfer of power? I am not convinced this is what the General Assembly had in mind.”
“Are Democrats hoping to start a second Civil War?” [Jesse Waters, FOX]. Operation Paperclip for Confederates? ” Five years after the Civil War, pro-slavery Democrats filled the halls of Congress, and 15 years later, pro-slavery Confederates actually flipped the House – 51 former Confederate soldiers or officials were elected into office. Even the vice president of the Confederacy, Alexander Stephens, an arch secessionist, landed a seat in Congress. Another Confederate rebel, Lucius Lamar – great name – who literally drafted the Missouri secession plan, went on to serve as interior secretary and was later appointed to the Supreme Court. But how is that possible? Because all week we’ve been hearing how the Constitution bans insurrectionists from office. The 14th Amendment. How would Confederate soldiers be allowed to serve in government, but not Donald Trump?” • Well, so much for the “What about Jefferson Davis?” argument. (And it’s actually “Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar I.”)
Capitol Seizure
“”A Red Flag: Is SCOTUS Poised to Overturn Key J6 Felony Count?” [Declassified with Julie Kelly]. “In a nutshell, after more than two years of litigation before federal judges in Washington, SCOTUS will review the Department of Justice’s use of 1512(c)(2), obstruction of an official proceeding, in January 6 cases. A ‘splintered’ 2-1 appellate court ruling issued in April just barely endorsed the DOJ’s unprecedented interpretation of the statute, passed in 2002 as part of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the aftermath of the Enron/Arthur Anderson accounting scandal. Justices will review the appellate court’s muddy decision during oral arguments expected to take place in March or April. A final opinion should be announced before the court’s term ends in June.” • I’d have to do a little research, but has an actual banker ever been charged under 1512(c)(2)?
2024
Less than a year to go!
* * * “Trump recorded pressuring Wayne County canvassers not to certify 2020 vote” [Detroit News]. “Then-President Donald Trump personally pressured two Republican members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers not to sign the certification of the 2020 presidential election, according to recordings reviewed by The Detroit News and revealed publicly for the first time. On a Nov. 17, 2020, phone call, which also involved Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, Trump told Monica Palmer and William Hartmann, the two GOP Wayne County canvassers, they’d look ‘terrible’ if they signed the documents after they first voted in opposition and then later in the same meeting voted to approve certification of the county’s election results, according to the recordings. ‘We’ve got to fight for our country,’ said Trump on the recordings, made by a person who was present for the call with Palmer and Hartmann. ‘We can’t let these people take our country away from us.’ McDaniel, a Michigan native and the leader of the Republican Party nationally, said at another point in the call, ‘If you can go home tonight, do not sign it. … We will get you attorneys.'” • Wayne County, of course, being famous for its clean elections. That said, Trump getting on this call is unseemly, to say the very least.
* * * “Hunter Biden Text Cited in Impeachment Inquiry Is Not What G.O.P. Suggests” [New York Times]. Re dear Hunter. quote: “But don’t worry unlike Pop I won’t make you give me half your salary.” “Hunter’s oft-told story about giving half of his salary to his father appeared to originate during his freshman year at Georgetown. His roommate at the time recalled Hunter telling him and his twin brother ‘a million times’ that then-Senator Biden encouraged him to work, saying, ‘You can keep half of the paycheck, but you have to hand over the other half for ‘room and board.”… Hunter told close friends that he was worried that his daughters had become spoiled. According to family members, he would frequently tell them the story about how he had to work in college and pay half of his salary to his father, in hopes of encouraging them to be more self-sufficient…. [Hunter’s daughter, Naomi Biden,] continued: ‘He was repeating a story from his university days that I grew up hearing. Do people really think he was texting me things like, ‘I give pop half of the Burisma money’? No. That’s crazy.'” • Well, the whole story is sourced from Biden family and friends; something documentary, like a letter, would be nice. Notice also that Naomi, in classic Biden fashion, distorts the argument: “Half your salary” sounds like a regular commission; what the Big Guy always got; the default setting. It’s entirely plausible that the drug-crazed and depressed Biden would blurt out the truth, especially since half the family were dipping their beaks anyhow. Naomi says “half of the Burisma money,” which does sound crazy, because surely anybody with Biden blood knows to keep schtum about individual deals? But what Naomi says Hunter said is not what Hunter said.
* * * “DeSantis’s Super-PAC Is Imploding, Much Like His Campaign” [Ed Kilgore, New York Magazine]. “The problem in DeSantis-land that’s getting the most attention is the conspicuous collapse of his once-vaunted organization, which depended to an unusual degree on offloading core campaign functions to a super-PAC (named “Never Back Down”) that could receive unlimited contributions in exchange for keeping some distance from the candidate himself. This structure did indeed make it possible for Team DeSantis writ large to bank an awful lot of money (including tens of millions left over from his 2022 gubernatorial campaign) and plan a very labor-intensive early-state field operation. But Never Back Down also excessively depended on past Republican super-PAC-based campaign models. The results from that approach have ranged from mixed, like Ted Cruz’s 2016 campaign (in which Never Back Down CEO Jeff Roe and many of his associates were prominent), to disastrous (the 2016 Jeb Bush campaign).” • Ted Cruz? What?
* * * “Cook Political Report shifts Michigan, Nevada toward GOP amid Biden’s weak polling” [The Hill]. “A new report from the nonpartisan election handicapper notes Biden’s approval rating is at just 39 percent according to the latest FiveThirtyEight polling averages, arguing those ‘unimpressive’ figures make it ‘hard to justify keeping two battleground states — Nevada and Michigan — in the Lean Democrat column.;… Nevada and Michigan now shift to join Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as ‘toss up’ states for next year’s presidential race.”
* * * “Manchin launches new political organization, listening tour” [The Hill]. N-o-o-o-o-o!!!! “Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is set to kick off his new organization’s listening tour next month, with a speaking engagement at the New England Council and the New Hampshire Institute of Politics event on Jan. 12. The two groups announced on Thursday that Manchin would participate in the ‘Politics & Eggs’ series – typically reserved for candidates running for public office…. Manchin earlier this month said that he planned on launching a two-month winter tour to determine whether there is a national ‘movement’ for a third-party ticket.”
Republican Funhouse
“Rudy Giuliani files for bankruptcy days after being ordered to pay $148 million in defamation case” [Associated Press]. “Giuliani had been teetering on the brink of financial ruin for several years, but the eye-popping damages award to former election workers Ruby Freeman and Wandrea ‘Shaye’ Moss pushed him over the edge. The women said Giuliani’s targeting of them after Republican Trump narrowly lost Georgia to Democrat Joe Biden led to death threats that made them fear for their lives.”
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:
d>. (“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.
NY: “Blue state effort to uproot election law could forever change local races: expert” [FOX]. “Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is expected to sign or veto an election bill that would make “monumental” changes to the state’s election procedures and effectively silence local political candidates during campaign cycles, according to a New York-based election lawyer. Just days before Christmas and the new year, dozens of bills sit before Hochul’s desk, including a Democrat-backed bill that would move town, village and county elections to even-numbered years, alongside higher-profile gubernatorial and even presidential elections. Hochul is anticipated to make a decision on the bill by Friday. ‘She has until Friday to sign or veto, and it seems the conventional wisdom… The bill would move county and town elections, but would not affect elections such as city, district attorney or sheriff, as those are governed by the state’s constitution. The bill, if signed, would upend the local elections as they would be drowned out by massive campaigns for state and federal offices, [Republican election attorney Joseph Burns] said.” • Also making Democrats move even more in lockstep.
PA: “His Shock Win Flipped a Pennsylvania County. Now He Vows to Raise Hell over Its Lethal Jail.” [Bolts]. “By any standard measure, [Justin Douglas’s] campaign seemed doomed from the start: He had no paid staff or office. His team of volunteers, a few friends of his with zero combined campaign experience, met in the corner of a Starbucks in Hershey. He ran without institutional backing or money; while his opponents combined to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, Douglas reports spending only about $12,000. And he centered his campaign around denouncing the fact that so many people have died in Dauphin County’s jail—an unusual focus, to say the least, for a political candidate. He spent roughly a fifth of the little campaign money he raised on a single, highway-side billboard highlighting the lethal lock-up, which sits between Harrisburg and the Douglas family home near the southeast edge of the county. Dauphin County has admitted at least two jail deaths in each of the last four years, a pace that stands out even by terrible national standards. ‘Eighteen prisoners dead since 2019,’ Douglas’ billboard read. ‘Vote for change on Nov. 7.'” • Sparked by “Run for Something,” which makes me lppk askance. Still, interesting!
#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 (wastewater); BC, Vancouver (wastewater).
Hat tips to helpful readers: Alexis, 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, Tom B., Utah, Bob White (3).
Stay safe out there!
Maskstravaganza
GBD goons in favor of government handouts:
I'm going to be laughing about this for days.
Guess who recommends using N95 masks during times of high transmission.
This is brilliant. pic.twitter.com/iCvs3yrCgZ
— tern (@1goodtern) December 22, 2023
Nice to see Bharratacha and Kilduff still agitating so hard for this. Oh, wait…
Transmission
The odds:
7/
A small Christmas gathering of 7-10 people means a 25% chance someone has infectious COVID20 people = 50% chance
Flight or restaurant with 100 people = 97% chance someone has infectious COVID pic.twitter.com/T3BCLLyX9q
— Mike Hoerger, PhD MSCR MBA (@michael_hoerger) December 18, 2023
“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
How your friends at CDC want you to stay safe over the holidays:
Spread cheer this holiday season — not germs! Check out our tips for staying healthy. pic.twitter.com/WhEdP8UoR1
— Mandy K. Cohen, MD, MPH (@CDCDirector) December 22, 2023
Mandy has advice for respiratory illnesses only. If you’re feeling sick, stay home. (Covid is asymptomatic, yet another reason not to lump it in with RSV and the Flu. Don’t spread germs. Get tested and treated. And — this is the best — if you’re at higher risk, see your doctor if you get sick (no mention that there are measures you can take to prevent others from getting sick: ventilation, filtration, or masking, which apply to RSV, the Flu, and Covid, because, as I show here, RSV and the Flu, as well as Covid, spread as airborne aerosols. The massive resistance to airborne transmission in the hegemonic factions of the public health establishment falls somewhere on the spectrum between sociopathic (if unconsciously motivated) and eugenicist (if conscious). And whatever the motivation, they’re killing people. Institutionally, not to mention morally and ethically, it’s absolutely extraordinary.
There’s so much wrong with this from NPR:
I’ve helpfully annotated the graphic:
[1] “When necessary.” How do we know “when necessary”? Most of the data is bad, and what’s good is lagged; wastewater data, for example, lags a week, plenty of time for an outbreak. I urge that a system of layered protection is always necessary, at least until Covid is eradicated — or the air is clean. The PMC do love their homework, so they love the idea of studying the data and then adjusting their behavior, like Wachter. No.
[2] Naturally, a Baggy Blue, instead of the far more effecting N95 respirator.
[3] Sure, take off your mask in the midst of the gym. What a great idea!
[4] “Try not do judge.” But not too hard! And in any case, you tried! Also, “others” “who choose to stay masked” implies that you, yourself, do not. Great messaging,
CDCNPR.[5] “Close contact” isnt a mode of transmission. How about “sharing air”?
And this is the same crowd that prattles on about disinformation!
Case Data
NOT UPDATED From BioBot wastewater data, December 18:
Lambert here: As a totally “gut feel” tapewatcher, I would expect this peak to meet or exceed the two previous Biden peaks; after all, we haven’t really begun the next bout of holiday travel, or the next rounds of superspreading events celebrations. Plus students haven’t come from from school, and then returned. So a higher peak seems pretty much “baked in.” And that’s before we get to new variants, like JN.1. The real thing to watch is the slope of the curve. If it starts to go vertical, and if it keeps on doing so, then hold onto your hats. (Next week’s reading, however, is Christmas Day; there may well be a data-driven drop.) Stay safe out there! Only 14 superspreading days until Christmas!
Regional data:
Hard to see why the regional split (and it sure would be nice to have more granular data). Weather forcing Northerners indoors? Seems facile. There’s snow in the Rockies (green color, West), for example.
Variants
From CDC, December 9:
Lambert here: JN.1 now dominates. That was fast.
From CDC, December 9::
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, December 16:
Lambert: Return to upward movement. Only a week’s lag, so this may be our best current nationwide, current indicator.
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. And of course, we’re not even getting into the quality of the wastewater sites that we have as a proxy for Covid infection overall.
Hospitalization
Bellwether New York City, data as of December 21:
Lambert here: Upward spike confirmed, and concerning. That’s a very ugly upward slope, steeper, if my eyes do not decieve, than any previous. Will be interesting to see holidays, and post-holidays
NOT UPDATED Here’s a different CDC visualization on hospitalization, nationwide, not by state, but with a date, at least. December 9:
Moving ahead briskly!
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, December 18:
-0.3%. Down. (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, December 16:
Lambert here: Plateauing. 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, November 27:
Turning upward.
Down, albeit in the rear view mirror. And here are the variants for travelers, November 27:
BA.2.86 blasting upward. This would be a great early warning system, if the warning were in fact early instead of weeks late, good job, CDC.
Deaths
Here is the New York Times, based on CDC data, December 18:
Stats Watch
Manufacturing: “United States Durable Goods Orders” [Trading Economics]. “New orders for manufactured durable goods in the United States surged by 5.4 percent month-over-month in November 2023, reversing a 5.1 percent decline seen in October and significantly surpassing market expectations of a 2.2 percent increase.”
Personal Income: “United States Personal Income” [Trading Economics]. “Personal income in the United States went up by 0.4% month-over-month in November 2023, following an upwardly revised 0.3% rise in October and matching market forecasts. Compensation for employees increased by 0.6% (vs. 0.2% in the previous month), attributed to higher wages and salaries (0.5% vs. 0.3%) and other associated costs (0.4% vs. 0.3%).”
Antitrust: “GSK, Amneal and Kaleo pull patents from FDA database after FTC challenge” [Fierce Pharma]. “Following the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s recent crackdown on “improper” patents in the FDA’s Orange Book, at least three drugmakers have made the requested changes. GSK has removed four patents related to inhaler products Advair, Arnuity, Flovent and Ventolin from the Orange Book after the FTC questioned their legitimacy last month. The U.S. antitrust watchdog challenged more than 100 patents in the FDA Orange Book, arguing that improper listings can delay generic challengers. The patents targeted by the agency are mainly for drug products that require special delivery devices, such as an inhaler or an injector.” • I don’t know what Biden thought he was doing when he appointed Khan, because she’s doing a great job. Not that Biden, or the Democrats, bring it to anybody’s attention.
Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 72 Extreme Greed (previous close: 71 Extreme Greed) [CNN]. One week ago: 70 (Greed). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Dec 21 at 1:17:07 PM ET.
Healthcare
“Texas A&M Team Develops Polymers That Can Kill Bacteria” (press release) [Texas A & M]. “Antibiotic-resistant bacteria have become a rapidly growing threat to public health. Each year, they account for more than 2.8 million infections, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Without new antibiotics, even common injuries and infections harbor the potential to become lethal. Scientists are now one step closer to eliminating that threat, thanks to a Texas A&M University-led collaboration that has developed a new family of polymers capable of killing bacteria without inducing antibiotic resistance by disrupting the membrane of these microorganisms. ‘The new polymers we synthesized could help fight antibiotic resistance in the future by providing antibacterial molecules that operate through a mechanism against which bacteria do not seem to develop resistance,’ said Dr. Quentin Michaudel, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and lead investigator in the researcg.”
News of the Wired
“Leonardo Da Vinci’s Self-Powered Cart” [Southeast London Meccano Club]. • I’ve read a lot of British model railroading magazines, and the last sentence of this piece is utterly typical: “A HS Walsh and Sons 11mm x 0.3mm x 30mm spring has been earmarked for further experimentation.” Anyhow, here is a picture of the working model of Leonardo’s cart:
So if you get a Meccano set for Christmas, enjoy!
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Israel is dreaming of a white phosphorus Christmas
Just like the ones we used in Fallujah to glow
Where the Gazans glisten and children go missing
To be ushered out of the show
Israel is dreaming of a white phosphorus Christmas
With every Christmas calling card invite
May your days be hairy and bright
And may all your phosphorus be white
Israel is dreaming of a white phosphorus Christmas
Just like the ones we used in Fallujah to glow
Where the Gazans glisten and children go missing
To be ushered out of the show
Israel is dreaming of a white phosphorus Christmas
With every Christmas calling card invite
May your days be hairy and bright
And may all your phosphorus be white
The Last Noel that ever was said,
Was to poor Palestinians although they were dead.
Although they were dead, and were slaughtered like sheep,
In a cold winter’s night that was so deep.
Oh well? Oh well? Oh well? Oh well
Just dead Palestinians in Israel.
And by the light of some ISTAR,
Three aeroplanes came from a country not far.
To seek for Hamas was their intent,
Spreading death and destruction wherever they went.
Oh well? Oh well? Oh well? Oh well?
Just dead Palestinians in Israel.
Re; “The spirit of 21st century Innovation“.
Is Gaza City being used as a prototype, for the proposed roll out, of “15 minute, smart cities”? Are they “War Gaming” different possible scenarios, by applying advanced analytical tools (AI) to the Holodomor in Gaza?
“The 15-minute city (FMC or 15mC) is an urban planning concept in which most daily necessities and services, such as work, shopping, education, healthcare, and leisure can be easily reached by a 15-minute walk or bike ride from any point in the city. This approach aims to reduce car dependency, promote healthy and sustainable living….”
A bit more on Advance Democracy
https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/advance-democracy/
Based in Vienna, VA
Totally objective and reliable, clearly. Of course the thing about anonymous death threats is that you don’t who is doing them as it could just as easily be an ‘operation’ by those seeking to make Trump look bad.
Just Another Volunteer: And Daniel Jones worked for Fusion GPS, a widely discredited group of hacks.
Here’s what I found at Advance Democracy’s page:
https://dashboard.advancedemocracy.org/147/
So this is a Democratic Party shop.
Hamilton68 v2.0?
> Vienna, VA
Wait. You’re saying that “Advance Democracy” may not be a totally organic organization of concerned citizens?
This is interesting:
And:
(
“A Place Called Mom’s”“Democracy Integrity Project”[1]) Jones is clearly a spook. Whether he’s the more honorable sort of spook depends on his work on torture, though given his subsquent career trajectory (oppo?!) I’d guess it was window-dressing.Thanks for the link.
NOTE Given the thin nature of the site, one does wonder how NBC came to cite them as a source. Perhaps they were told to (or, more subtly, something on the order of “career advancement awaits” or “the next scoop is yours!”).
UPDATE His career:
Career Trajectory:
Gawd, this is vile. Every time you lift up a rock, a creature like this one crawls out. Makes you wonder if screwing over the teacher’s unions and wrecking public education wiht Teach for AmericaMR SUBLIMINAL DeRay! Hi!! was the price of admission to a career with the spooks.
NOTES
[1] Wonder how the name was workshopped. It’s really great! Screams liberal Democrat NGO (especially the “Project” part; it’s dismantled when the need/funding disappears, and the
perpsparticipants slither on to the next opportunity, Flexian style. (A parallel Republican projecet would have the word “Freedom” in it. Both “Democracy” and “Freedom” — nouns, if you recall — imply, in this context, lies. On the grand scale.The name is resonant with the infamous ‘Election Integrity Project’ Stanford’s lucrative censorship beard for the government. It is related to the Transition Integrity Project, as well as the new Congressional Integrity Project, which will pass digital judgement on members of congress from a certain party.
Just changing the first word of the project name makes the details of rebranding websites and letterheads when it’s time to skip town a quick search&replace job
Lambert, just emailed you photos of my first NH Nimarata Haley campaign mailer.
Hope she doesn’t talk about her shoes. An article suggested that it was sexist for Vivek to snark at Haley about her high heels but she started it quite awhile back when she threatened to spear opponents with her stilletos. Think this was at an AIPAC talk.
Now her pitch is what she is planning to do with the 2000 pounders. They won’t be laughing at her then.
Thank you!
Leonardo pic reminded me of those happy hours of youth making similar projects. Those led to learning about electricity, magnetism, gears, tools and many other gloriously practical and satisfying endeavors.
Trawling shipping news, as you do these days, came across this fascinating point.
https://twitter.com/mhmiranusa/status/1423731701310701568
The “Iranian surveillance vessel in the strait” that is helping Yemen target (probably) was originally put there back when Israel/US started pirating Iranian tankers (funny how that doesn’t get mentioned much lately). It has Iranian specops on board who watch over Iranian tankers to get them safely past Djibouti.
Almost like it’s presence is pure blowback.
Thanks for that link. Blowback indeed. And interesting that there are special forces troops aboard in case the US gets any funny idea.
I have added orts and scraps. Merry Christmas, and stay safe out there!
Merry Christmas, Lambert!
Merry Christmas to all. Or, if the spirit of Festivus moves the needle then it is a Festivus for the Rest of Us !
Merry Christmas too! The clock is ticking and the wife is cooking today.
Merry Christmas!
#StaySafeEveryone
There’s a photo of Hunter wearing an old glory lapel pin in the WaPo, does that fatally cheapen the usage of such patriotic trinkets?
Bred, White and family Glue
All of them being made in China did not make a dent, I am not sure it is possible.
> does that fatally cheapen the usage of such patriotic trinkets
I very rarely laugh out loud (not “lol,” but fully spelled out). Good one, wuk
Doing a search I saw a link to Wikipedia on the 1/6 Cmte and wow. Just wow:
I’m at a loss for words. Even the crudest Nazi propaganda was grammatical and skillfully worded. This reads like a human doing a very poor job of editing A.I. text. A.I. did not put that comma outside the quotes. Also pretty sure A.I. would object to “which it had never before done to any….”
We’re drowning in agitprop but I still keep expecting better from Wikipedia. Wikipedia agitprop used to be better than this ‘pig fell in the mud which was made from pee’ stuff from Blob whisperers.
In British English, the comma does belong outside the quotes.
https://www.languagehumanities.org/when-do-commas-or-periods-go-inside-quotation-marks-and-when-do-they-go-outside.htm
Far more civilized.
RE: Positivity Rate by Pooled Sample
Good news! The updated graph shows the rate turning downward.
#TYVM … ’tis a pity it’s still two-week-old data … #Sigh
I’m glad people are watching this. However, I wonder if the readings “the week of December 4” is being affected by fewer flights. For JFK:
Do prove me wrong; I’m so tired of being Debbie Downer.
Mandy Cohen,
Favorite of the Dark Gods
Keep in mind that anyone spreading the news that Covid Etc are airborne is guilty of spreading Malinformation.
Which is something that’s true, but which might embarass or inconvenience the Powerful.
I suspect that spreading bad thoughts might be formally illegal soon, it’s being actively discouraged already but some people are stubborn and foolish and will need a bite of the Knout before they will behave.
“Hunter Biden Text Cited in Impeachment Inquiry Is Not What G.O.P. Suggests”
Can’t help thinking that Hunter is part victim here. That old Joe made his son dependent on him and his money so that he would be part of this crime family. I know a full grown women that never left home and I am not sure that she ever held a job as the mother and father use her to do stuff for them and to run errands. She would have done far better for herself by moving out at 18 and standing on her own two feet but she never did. Hunter may be in a similar position.
Just stumbling onto this one on a search, it is a quite interesting read. Do they want to be the Kennedy family, and therefore aspired to have the second generation be greater at something than dad Joe and Uncle James would eventually become? Inquiring minds.
I’ve a hunch this ongoing inquiry is going to end up with the GOP and Comer, tilting at windmills. That said, years of tax evasion aren’t a trifling concern for most people. The entirety of this business with Burisma should not sit well with Americans, but opinions can vary.
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/hunter-biden-and-the-things-left-unsaid
So long as Speaker Johnson has Comer’s back, I think the Bidens are in very deep doo-doo. We’re way past the original yet-to-be-paid-for crimes and are well into Watergate covering up the crimes territory.
2024 is going to the a the Super 8 slo-mo trainwreck of a year for Team D.
You know what seems to be missing from the usual xmas news fare?
The media was always only too happy to tell us how we were performing in terms of spending on shopping compared to other years, and i’ve not heard bupkis this holiday…
Earnings report this week from Nike…the consumer is being more “selective” about their shopping and consumption and perhaps there is a trending idea that trading down is a thing. Anecdotally, I forget who said but I heard the description about consumers and inflation, that broadly speaking many Americans are “beleaguered” after the aggregated inflation trends since early 2021. Inflation trending down is a net positive yes, but you still have higher prices in place than where they stood before.
Just to cite a few examples. Insurance rates on automobiles, rents on residential apartments and mortgage rates on residential housing are not going back to 2019 levels in the near future. Lower inflation and low unemployment, 2019 seems like a kind of “ideal” benchmark in comparison.
> 14th Amendment’s duplicative law
18 U.S. Code § 2383 – Rebellion or insurrection
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2383
“The modern criminal insurrection statute originated as the Second Confiscation Act, which President Lincoln signed into law during the Civil War.”
https://fordhamdemocracyproject.com/2023/07/19/january-6th-criminal-insurrection-and-the-constitutions-disqualification-clause/
Fordham Democracy Project = CREW, you know. Not that ad hom is dispositive, but it is a useful heuristic, says Taleb. From that source:
I had to stop reading at this shameless piece of special pleading; not gonna stroke out just before Xmas.
So, Justice is meeting some sort of quota for sentencing, as opposed to pursuing the blindingly obvious public interest of charging and convicting Trump of a crime everybody “knows” he committed, through what the majority of dull normals would recognize as due process?
Again, it’s simple. Justice — whose personnel have a clear personal, party, and career-based animus against Trump; it’s not like they want to go easy on him — failed to charge Trump with insurrection. By Occam’s Razor, they didn’t charge him because they didn’t think they could convict him. QED.
NOTE The very first sentence had me reaching for the nitroglycerin tablets I keep my desk at all times:
What on earth does “have called” mean? Is this our standard for due process now? How do branches of government “call” things? A Congressional hearing + a Colorado State court decision + a Biden press release is due process now? As long as there’s a dogpile in the press? Have these people lost their minds?
P.S. Thank you for these links. I, and certainly the readers, deeply appreciate them. I am extremely pressed temporally, and cannot dig as deeply into every topic as I would like, so thank your for filling these lacunae.
For what it is worth I also thought about 18 U.S. Code § 2383 and I had read a similar take to the quote without visiting Fordham Democracy Project.
To quote:
Notice that this legislation does not contain a condition about having been an officer of the US, and has being unelectable as punishment for an actual crime. All in all much more thought through than the dominant current interpretations of the amendment.
I provided the first link to answer the question about the law, and the second because on a quick search it gave a bit of history of the law. I thought about mentioning that I wasn’t evaluating the content of the second. For the record I don’t think and have never said the riot in itself was an insurrection. I do think there was a sustained and multi-faceted attempt to nullify the election, some actions of which were arguably illegal and are being prosecuted. I usually try to be careful in choosing links and at least mentioning what I think may be a bias for sources that may not be familiar.
> a sustained and multi-faceted attempt to nullify the election
Yes, we’re in full tit for tat mode now…. “Nullify” is a good word, like the Nullification Crisis.
Re. Hochul any NY state…
“Just days before Christmas and the new year, dozens of bills sit before Hochul’s desk, including a Democrat-backed bill that would move town, village and county elections to even-numbered years, alongside higher-profile gubernatorial and even presidential elections.”
I live in Central NY… the county governments above NYC are generally republican with a few exceptions. The turnout in odd years is seldom above 30%, while a presidential year it can be 60%+. Obviously political machines of either stripe prefer low turnouts. Locally our county legislature is overwhelmingly republican and it is dominated by nachine politics cronyism. Yet the county generally votes democratic in even years.
Let it suffice to say NY state is hardly a bastion of democracy. Hacks like Andy Cuomo routinely collaborated with Republicans to insure cronyism. Hochul hardly inspires hope. The outcome will be interesting.
They’ve always had an incumbent running and winning for County Executive. They’d have to make it illegal to get elected, then retire into SUNY the next day with the help of King Andy.
Republican Ben Walsh is OK, it doesn’t apply to Cities.
…to serve man
Saw a picture of Fetterman on Drudge and he is a dead ringer for a Kanamit, damn it!
Ouch!
I’ve been considering it, and I think the healthcare system in the United States has collapsed already. The people running these institutions are committed to allowing airborne transmission of a level 3 biohazard. This disables and kills hcw, patients, and visitors. This is antithetical to heath care. We’ve got severe, multi year drug shortages. We’re got staff shortages. And we already had the insurance parasite.
This isn’t functional anyway.
All that’s left is to recognize this fact.
How long it might take for COVID disability to break other parts of the country I cannot say.
#Concur
The uber-wealthy will fork off their own higher end health care destinations where everyone is masked but services cost five times as much – don’t want the unwashed masses sharing their air there.
I keep thinking all of this would be so easy to disrupt for someone with access to capital who has a conscience. We need a class-traitor class … desperately.
> We need a class-traitor class
Mike Duncan argues, I believe correctly, that in a revolution the class splits go all the way to the top (think the Duke d’Orleans in the French revolution*). I think he is right. That is what to watch for. Not sure what venue this would be recognized; perhaps family offices would be the contact points. I think what any sensible billionaire would recognize that the liberal NGO project, to the extent it was ever concieved in good faith, has failed (which is why their funding has beem slashed). But what next?
* It also occurs to me that much of the “energy” in 1789 came from provincial lawyers. Lenin (1917) was a lawyer. (Stalin, IIRC, was at one point a theology student. Perhaps that was the difficulty.)
Thank you for this comment, Lambert. I am sadly, thanks to my post British colonial, global south education, remarkably weak on things like the French Revolution. So I had to Google the duke in question in order to get clarity from your parenthetical suggestion. And yes, Duncan’s argument makes sense. There are probably some insights from Smith’s “Theory Of Moral Sentiments” that might illuminate the “why” here – as in why Lenin and lawyer and Stalin the theology student get it, but others don’t. The billionaire’s “what next?” depends on how d’Orleans they feel inside.
I hope to expand of this line of thought in the coming year. It’s really the path I need to explore for a PhD.Thanks as always for your insights and engagement on the Water Cooler!
#LookForTheHelpers
Caught Spanish language news at a local taco joint the other day – people were protesting for mandatory masking in hospitals (via tumblr.com).
What a scumbag
Hochul Plans to Veto Ban on Noncompete Agreements in New York
She wouldn’t have been in position to become governor if she wasn’t a reliable corporate toady. Andy Cuomo wouldn’t have allowed a reformer as Lt. Governor . But as long as she does stupid things like moving everything to electric powered in X years the PMC NYers will miss how hideously awful she is. (The sweetheart stadium deal that gave her husband’s company a huge contract also got very little notice and that one was obvious.)
‘An Israeli soldier blew up a house in Gaza to celebrate daughter’s birthday’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxHTMyRibzE (21 secs)
And yesterday he got killed-
https://nitter.net/jakeshieldsajj/status/1737938921919524985#m
The wheels of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small …
Deuteronomy 32:35 … or Romans 12:19, if you’re more New Testament than Old.
Here is a bunch of footage of nautical hazards and hardship and other nautical stuff, with an amazing sea song as background soundtrack. Titled ” Let’s get nightmare together . . . ”
https://www.reddit.com/r/thalassophobia/comments/18oxxvc/lets_get_nightmare_together/
Here’s something from the “atheism” subreddit, titled ” Trump threatens he will create a new federal taskforce to fight “anti-Christian bias”. It quotes Trump explaining how he will task a reformed DOJ to lead a new federal taskforce on fighting anti-Christian bias etc. etc.
Here is the link.
https://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/comments/18owsvh/trump_threatens_he_will_create_a_new_federal/
This would be part of the trade-off for defeating Genocide Joe. It might be worth it. It should be thought about.
> a new federal taskforce to fight “anti-Christian bias”
Liberal Democrats deeply believe that Trump is crazy and stupid. He’s not. In fact, he’s a brilliant, though unorthodox, politician (and it’s easy to set his policy record against Biden’s and see that it’s not different in kind, and in matters of war and peace, better). Trump’s issue, besides being, personally, a ginormous [glass bowl], is that he is, shall l we say, less than disciplined mentally. Combine that the rancid and ill-thought-through political and moral views of his class with an inability to hire good help because he’s crass (depreciates national-level PMC symbolic capital*, putting their social capital, hence their economic capital, at risk), and you get a rash of tactically bad decisions (e.g., hanging 2020 election legitimacy on election fraud, as opposed to the Hunter Biden laptop). His main personal strength is that he’s a genius at spotting weakness (hence the nicknames). Perhaps that strength is enough in New York real estate and the media, but it doesn’t help at the level of government, at least not on the Federal scale.** For example, the Blob is a self-reproducing network of Flexians; knocking out one weak person doesn’t stop The Blob as an Eniity at all. Hence, Project 2025, etc. It’s easy to see all this if Trump hasn’t invaded your dream life (as he in fact has, for many PMC).
Oh, and the beauty part is that a “task force” — I mean, not a Federal Department? Some kinda temporary thing that will issue a report and fade away? — doesn’t really commit Trump to anything. He has promised the Christianists theatre….
NOTES * Easy test: Who’s willing to be photographed with him?
** You can see Trump trying to personalize systemic issues — a la New York real estate — when he called electors, election officials, and so forth in 2020. Madness. If Trump had good help, they would have told him to STFU and have a fixer like Marc Elias handle the matter. Instead, all he had was that drunken ghoul Rudy Giuliani and the kraken lady.
If Trump has a tragic flaw (hamartia that will lead to nemesis, the tendency to personalize is it, IMNSHO, and not the Capitol riots and the putative “insurrection,” which is pure liberal Democrat cope; they cannot and will not believe that Trump was legitimately elected in “our democracy”; see the faithless elector scam they bruited about in 2016.
Re Meccano contraption;
As a child I was given a hand-me-down Meccano set which included clock-work to power my contraptions. My father (ref. Philip Larkin’s famous lines) threw it out for no particular reason. Some wounds never heal!
Pip-pip!
Merry Christmas from Science. This is super interesting–
Cross-regulation of antibody responses against the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein and commensal microbiota via molecular mimicry Cell Host & Microbe. Granted, a mouse study (“monkeys exaggerate, and mice lie”). Nevertheless, the Abstract:
And:
And:
And:
Intriguing! As I keep saying, we don’t really know very much…
Here is a long thread on the article, suggesting regulating (?) commensal bacteria with probiotics:
Thanks so much for this! Will definitely order some. Not showing sold out any more.
I wholeheartedly approve the election law change in New York State.
I would note that my opinion is from one specific story, the systematic destruction of East Ramapo Public Schools by the Orthodox Jewish community. (Full disclosure, my wife graduated high school there many years ago)
Short version, the various orthodox synagogues in the area, whose children almost exclusively go to private Yeshivas, organized for the (very) low-turnout school board elections, (held in the spring of odd-numbered years) and took over the school board, and proceeded to sell school buildings to Yeshivas at under market value, divert funds illegally to yeshivas, and make savage budget cuts that literally made it impossible for some students to graduate because required classes are never offered.
The situation was so bad that the Anti-Defamation League came out against the East Ramapo School board.
Full disclosure, I am a Jew, and I consider the behavior of the board a Shande Fur da Goyim.
I should note that there was some resolution to all of this when a federal court mandated moving from at large to district elections, but that is not enough.