By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Bird Song of the Day
American Robin, Voice of America Game Land, Beaufort, North Carolina, United States.
In Case You Might Miss…
(1) Bragg’s theory of the case:: section 17-152.
(2) Sodium batteries.
(3) Google ranking big media sites using AI-generated content, destroying small sites.
Politics
“So many of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are in fact a rational management of symbolic capital.” –Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles
Biden Administration
“IRS says its number of audits is about to surge. Here’s who the agency is targeting” [CBS]. “The IRS has been bolstered by $80 billion in new funding directed by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which was signed into law in 2022 by President Joe Biden. The idea behind the new funding was to help revive an agency whose ranks have been depleted over the years, leading to customer service snarls, processing delays and a falloff in audit rates…. Werfel noted that the IRS’ strategic plan over the next three tax years include a sharp increase in audits, although the agency reiterated it won’t boost its enforcement for people who earn less than $400,000 annually — which covers the bulk of U.S. taxpayers. ‘There is no new wave of audits coming from middle- and low-income [individuals], coming from mom and pops. That’s not in our plans,’ Werfel said. But by focusing on big corporations, complicated partnerships and wealthy people who earn over $10 million year, the IRS wants to send a signal, he noted. ‘It sets an important tone and message for complex filers, high-wealth filers, that this is our focus area,’ he said.”
2024
Less than a year to go!
National results now moving Trump’s way. But some of the Swing States (more here) are now moving Biden’s way, including Michigan and Wisconsin, which is no doubt why Trump visited them on his day off. Pennsylvania, OTOH, just leaned to Trump. Of course, it goes without saying that these are all state polls, therefore bad. Now, if either candidate starts breaking in points, instead of tenths of a point….
* * * Trump (R): (Bragg/Merchan): “Old, unused, and ‘twisty’ — meet the obscure NY election-conspiracy law that just might get Trump convicted” [Business Insider]. Very important. “At Donald Trump’s hush money trial on Tuesday, a Manhattan prosecutor surprised law nerds in the audience by revealing that ‘the entire case’ rests on a single section of New York’s election law.” This is (allegedly) the “other law” Trump broke that converts the business records misdemeanors into felonies. Here it is:
More: “Business Insider asked two veteran New York election-law attorneys — one a Republican, the other a Democrat — about the law, also known as ‘Conspiracy to promote or prevent election.’ Neither one could recall a single time when it had been prosecuted. Two highly respected law professors specializing in New York election law said the same…. However, while the two attorneys were highly skeptical of the DA’s newly focused strategy, the two election law professors told BI they were confident it would lead to a conviction. Sure, 17-152 has never been used before, they said. But that doesn’t mean it won’t work now that the dust has been blown off…. [Jeffrey M. Wice, who teaches state election law at New York Law School] noted that two judges — Merchan and Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein, a Manhattan federal judge who rejected Trump’s attempt to move the hush-money case to federal court — upheld the use of 17-152 in this case.” But wait! There’s more! “[W]hat if that underlying crime is section 17-152 — conspiring to mess with an election through ‘unlawful means?’ Things will get “twisty,” [Brooklyn attorney and former Democratic NY state Sen. Martin Connor] said, when prosecutors try to show that Trump’s falsified business records are felonies because of an underlying crime — 17-152 — that itself needs proof of a conspiracy to do something ‘unlawful.’ ‘You’re having an underlying crime within an underlying crime to get to that felony,’ Connor told BI. ‘It’s novel,” he said with a laugh. ‘It’s novel,” he repeated. Section 17-152 needs its own underlying criminal conspiracy, he said. ‘Two or more conspiring to elect or defeat a candidate — that’s the definition of every political campaign,’ he joked. ‘It’s only when you conspire to do it by unlawful means that you violate this law.’ Having an election-conspiracy statute like 17-152 on the state election-law books makes little sense, he said. ‘It would appear to cover something like three people getting together and saying, ‘Let’s break into our opponent’s headquarters and destroy all his equipment,’ Connor said.” • Seems complicated. So, if the business records part of the case is a conspiracy, and section 17-152 requires a conspiracy — the same one? a different one? — why not just charge Trump with 17-152 alone? To convert misdemeanors into felonies, that’s why. No other reason. That’s pretty seamy, if you ask me, despite a gaggle of New York State Democrats nodding their heads vigorously in unison about how important it is to serve the interests of justice, etc.
Trump (R) (Bragg/Merchan): “How Hope Hicks went from Trump confidante to key prosecution witness” [Politico]. “While Trump cycled through a number of top advisers, who rose and fell in his favor, Hicks was a near constant. Her title was senior communications adviser, but that belied her importance. Her real job, those who worked with her say, was to manage Trump. Her office was right outside the Oval Office, a reflection of her importance to the former president.”
Trump (R) (Bragg/Merchan): “‘This was a crisis’: Hope Hicks testifies about Trump campaign response to Access Hollywood tape – live” [Guardian]. “Hope Hicks testifies that she reached out to Michael Cohen and National Enquirer publisher David Pecker after receiving the Wall Street Journal email requesting comment about a story it planned to publish about American Media buying the rights to a story of Karen McDougal of an affair she had with Donald Trump when he was married to Melania. Hicks says Cohen ‘feigned that he didn’t know what I was talking about’ and that ‘there was a reason why I called David [Pecker] next.’ She says Pecker explained that McDougal was paid for magazine articles and fitness columns and that it was all very legitimate and that was what the contract for.’ The prosecution asked Hope Hicks about the days following the Access Hollywood tape’s release. Hicks explained, on direct, that he was asked about the comments a few days later, during the second presidential debate. He reiterated that this was locked room talk – just talk – words, not actions. The words-not-actions mantra is incredibly important for prosecutors. If Trump thought his best chances for surviving the Access Hollywood scandal was to claim that it was just talk – and that he wasn’t an actual boor – then he had to cover up allegations of misconduct. And, after the debate, when reports of Trump’s alleged misconduct surface, the campaign was in panic-mode – providing a motive for Cohen’s purchase of Daniels’ story.” • To (a) win the election, (b) protect Melania, and/or (c) protect the Trump brand (important to Trump’s image). I guess we’ll have to see which motive predominated. CNN has a second play-by-play.
Trump (R) (Bragg/Merchan): “The Secret Tape That Will Roil the Trump Trial” [New York Magazine]. “[T}apes are the prosecutor’s best friend — usually. But when Michael Cohen secretly recorded a phone call with his own client Donald trump in September 2016, he created a piece of evidence that could become a key part of Trump’s defense in his ongoing criminal trial in Manhattan. It’s not all bad news for the prosecutors, of course. The tape confirms an important pillar of the district attorney’s case: Trump plainly knew about and approved of hush money payments to women with whom he had allegedly had sexual dalliances years before. But that was never seriously in dispute. Trump’s lawyer conceded as much during his opening statement. Remember that the crime here is not payment of hush money — it’s falsification of business records around those payments to evade campaign-finance laws. The crime, in other words, lies in the accounting behind the hush-money payments. And Cohen’s tape casts doubt on a central element that the prosecution must prove to the jury beyond a reasonable doubt: that Trump was involved in the fraudulent scheme to structure reimbursements to Cohen to make the hush-money payments look like legal expenses.” • Oh.
Trump (R) (Bragg/Merchan): “Week 3 of Trump’s Hush-Money Trial Reaches Its Explosive Finale’ [Daily Beast]. “Cohen’s voice was heard in court with the playing of a tape that Cohen himself secretly made. The September 2016 recording captured Cohen talking with Trump about a plan to buy McDougal’s story from the Enquirer in order to bury it for good. Cohen could be heard saying on the recording that he’d spoken to Allen Weisselberg, the then-CFO of the Trump Organization, about ‘how to set the whole thing up with funding,’ according to the Associated Press. ‘What do we got to pay for this?’ Trump said in response. ‘One-fifty?’ The tape was played after Douglas Daus, a forensic analyst in the Manhattan district attorney’s office, was called to the stand. Daus testified about data he helped to extract from Cohen’s phones that were handed to authorities during the investigation.” • But that doesn’t speak to the business records part (“set the whole thing up” is pretty vague).
* * * Trump (R): “SEC charges Trump Media auditor with ‘massive fraud’ on hundreds of companies, imposes lifetime ban” [CNBC]. “The auditing firm for Trump Media
and the auditor’s owner were charged Friday with ‘massive fraud’ by the Securities and Exchange Commission for accounting work that affected more than 1,500 SEC filings, the federal regulator announced. The auditor, BF Borgers CPA and its owner Benjamin Borgers have agreed to be permanently suspended from practicing as accountants before the SEC, and also agreed to pay a combined $14 million in civil penalties, without admitting or denying the allegations, the SEC said. The agency, calling BF Borgers a ‘sham audit mill,’ said the company and its owner ‘deliberately systematically failed to conduct’ in accordance with Public Company Accounting Oversight Board standards audits and quarterly reviews incorporated in more than 1,500 SEC filings from January 2021 through June 2023. The SEC said the Lakewood, Colorado-based auditor lied to clients by saying its work complied with PCAOB standards, fabricated audit documents to make it seem that the work did comply with those standards, and falsely claims in audit reports included in more than 500 public company SEC filings that the firm’s audits complied with such standards.”
* * * Biden (D): “Biden says ‘order must prevail’ during campus protests over the war in Gaza” [Associated Press]. “‘Dissent is essential for democracy,’ Biden said at the White House. ‘But dissent must never lead to disorder.’… Biden’s team has expressed confidence that his stance appeals to the widest array of voters. It also echoes his approach to nationwide unrest after the murder of George Floyd by a police officer four years ago, a politically volatile situation in the middle of his campaign against then-President Donald Trump. ‘I want to make it absolutely clear rioting is not protesting, looting is not protesting,’ Biden said then in remarks that his team turned into an advertisement. ‘It’s lawlessness, plain and simple, and those that do it should be prosecuted.'” • So maybe Biden can make a campaign ad out of this, too!
Biden (D): “Sanders: Protests ‘may be Biden’s Vietnam'” [The Hill]. “‘[Former President] Lyndon Johnson in many respects was a very, very good president. Domestically he brought forth some major pieces of legislation. He chose not to run in ’68 because of opposition to his views on Vietnam, and I worry very much that President Biden is putting himself in a position where he has alienated, not just young people, but a lot of the Democratic base, in terms of his views on Israel and this war,’ Sanders said.” • Biden is betting on “restoring law and order” better than Trump (or Kennedy) can do.
Biden (D): “Young Democrats warn Biden he must quickly change course” [The Hill]. “”He will lose the election if he decides to roll the dice and assumes that Gaza isn’t at the top of minds right now,” said Elise Joshi, the executive director of Gen-Z for Change —which was once run under the name TikTok for Biden. Joshi added that the last six months have seen ‘an increasing pace of concern’ about the president. The crisis in Gaza has been a tipping point for many young voters, and some polls have shown support dissolving for Biden. Last month, a Harvard Youth Poll showed Biden’s support from voters ages 18-29 had slipped from about 60 percent in 2020 down to 45 percent. A CNN poll last weekend also revealed that Biden was 11 percentage points behind Trump in a head-to-head match-up among young voters.” • I doubt very much the youth vote going to move from BIden to Trump over Gaza. Biden’s play here is “They’ve got no place to go” (“Oh, you love Trump?”).
* * * PA: “Biden’s natural gas pause could complicate Pennsylvania strategy” [The Hill]. “The Biden administration’s pause on natural gas exports is putting the president in a tricky political spot in Pennsylvania, one of the key swing states in November. Pennsylvania has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the last decade’s natural gas boom in the U.S. … The administration earlier this year halted new export permits for liquefied natural gas (LNG) while it analyzes their impact on climate change, something that Republicans are sure to pounce on in a state where Biden is not only running neck and neck with former President Trump, but also where Democrats are looking to hold onto a critical Senate seat…. ‘If I’m President Biden or his campaign team, I’m not terribly concerned — natural gas is important in Pennsylvania, but this issue — there have been political fights going back 15 years over this issue,’ [Mike Mikus, a Pittsburgh-based Democratic strategist] said. ‘I think people who feel strongly one way or another have already picked a side.'”
Realignment and Legitimacy
“More than 2,100 people have been arrested during pro-Palestinian protests on US college campuses” [Associated Press]. “Police have arrested more than 2,100 people during pro-Palestinian protests at college campuses across the United States in recent weeks, sometimes using riot gear, tactical vehicles and flash-bang devices to clear tent encampments and occupied buildings. One officer accidentally discharged his gun inside a Columbia University administration building while clearing out protesters camped inside, authorities disclosed Thursday.” And on UCLA: “The confrontations at UCLA also played out over several days this week. UCLA Chancellor Gene Block told alumni on a call Thursday afternoon that the trouble started after a permitted pro-Israel rally was held on campus Sunday and fights broke out and ‘live mice’ were tossed [by Zionists] into the pro-Palestinian encampment later that day. In the following days, administrators tried to find a peaceful solution with members of the encampment and expected things to remain stable, Block said. That changed late Tuesday, he said, when [Zionist] counterdemonstrators attacked the pro-Palestinian encampment. Campus administrators and police did not intervene or call for backup for hours. No one was arrested that night, but at least 15 protesters were injured. The delayed response drew criticism from political leaders, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and officials pledged an independent review. ‘We certainly weren’t thinking that we’d end up with a large number of violent people [i.e., the Zionists], that hadn’t happened before,’ Block said on the call. By Wednesday, the encampment had become ‘much more of a bunker’ and there was no other solution but to have police dismantle it, he said.” • I added some notes to clarifiy agency issues. The counter-demonstrators at UCLA strike me as uniquely nasty (fortunately).
Pandemics
“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
Covid 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!
Look for the Helpers
“SoCal’s COVID-cautious: Fighting isolation along with the virus” [KCRW]. “‘We’re going to make a big circle,’ Mahler explains. ‘We’re going to go up to the San Fernando Valley over to Eagle Rock, and then back down through Mid-City to where we are now.’… Mahler makes these Odyssian treks across Southern California every month. It’s part of her work with Mask Bloc LA, a volunteer group dedicated to getting COVID tests and masks into the hands of Angelenos — all free of charge….. The grassroots group is one of several that have popped up in LA and Southern California, united around one goal: to mitigate the spread of COVID. They’re extensions of a global community of cautious folks continuing to take proactive steps to prevent infection in a post-pandemic world where others seem to no longer care about the virus… Being COVID-cautious is different for everyone, from how much protective gear they wear to what risks they’re willing to take. Some folks remain vigilant because they’ve already caught the virus and know the damage it causes. Others, however, are among the nearly 1 in 4 U.S. adults and older teens who the CDC estimates have never had COVID — and they want or need to keep it that way.” • 1 in 4 is a pretty amazing statistic, when you think about all the obstacles (and when you consider that you can rule out brain damage and loss of executive function due to Covid for [allow me to break out my calculator] 333,000,000 * 25% = 83,250,000 people. That’s a lot).
Testing and Tracking
“Blood transcriptomic analyses reveal persistent SARS-CoV-2 RNA and candidate biomarkers in post-COVID-19 condition” [The Lancet]. N = 48. “With an estimated 65 million individuals affected by post-COVID-19 condition (also known as long COVID),1 non-invasive biomarkers are direly needed to guide clinical management. To address this pressing need, we used blood transcriptomics in a general practice-based case-control study. …. 212 genes were identified to be differentially expressed between individuals with long COVID and controls (figure A), of which 70 remained significant after adjustment for false discovery rate correction…. Upon summarising transcriptomic results into biological pathways, we found significantly decreased immunometabolism in individuals with long COVID, which was negatively correlated with the blood viral load… In conclusion, the associations among persistent viral RNA, immunometabolism, and patient-reported outcomes provide mechanistic insights for addressing the challenges posed by long COVID.” • If true, very good news. (Recall that NIH blew a billion dollars on Long Covid without looking for biomarkers at all.)
“Influenza and RSV Wastewater Monitoring in the U.S. | Week of April 29, 2024” [Biobot]. “We want to share the information that we have at the moment on the rapidly evolving H5N1 influenza virus situation. Biobot’s influenza A assay detects the H5N1 influenza subtype, which is an influenza A virus, but does not distinguish between the different subtypes of influenza A (e.g., H5N1 vs. H1N1). While we are not seeing a widespread increase across the country in influenza A virus in the recent week, we are seeing a slight uptick in influenza A concentrations in the South.” • So Verily is ahead. That’s depressing.
Sequelae: Covid
“What do we know about covid-19’s effects on the gut?” [BMJ]. “[Sheena Cruickshank, immunologist at the University of Manchester] says, ‘One of the reasons for the gut symptoms may be that the ACE2 receptors that the virus uses to enter and hijack cells are found on our gut epithelial cells. We know that viral RNA has been isolated from stool samples, although this may not be infectious.’ This evidence was gathered early in the pandemic from studies in China, which found SARS-CoV-2 RNA in stool samples from patients in hospital. More recent research5 has confirmed that faecal shedding of viral RNA happens in around half of covid patients and that this is associated with GI symptoms. Stephen Griffin, virologist at the University of Leeds, explains why we shouldn’t be surprised that so many people experience GI symptoms. He says, ‘The receptor for SARS-CoV-2, ACE2, is widely expressed within the blood vessels and lining of the gut, and we know that the virus can be detected, recovered from, and sequenced both in stool samples and in wastewater from the environment—which is an excellent, real time way to monitor infections and genetic variability.’ Once the virus is in the gut it interacts with ACE2, increasing the production of inflammatory cytokines and damaging the mucous membrane barrier. In severe cases this inflammation can result in ulceration of the oesophagus, stomach, and duodenum, but more commonly it causes nausea, vomiting, abdominal discomfort, and diarrhoea.” • The more you know….
“Persistence of SARS-CoV-2 in platelets and megakaryocyte in Post-acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (Long COVID)” (poster) [Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections]. “In Long COVID, SARS-CoV-2 persists and replicates in [megakaryocytes (MKs)] that in turn produce platelets containing virus. Circulating spike might be an additional sign of viral persistence that could serve as a Long COVID biomarker. The persistence of the virus could lead to abnormal platelet activation and formation of microclots, contributing to the various symptoms observed in Long COVID and to deregulation of serotonin uptake, favoring bneurocognitive symptoms found in long COVID.” • Over my paygrade. Perhaps readers will comment. (NOTE There seems to be a controversy over whether, in Long Covid, the virus persists, or whether only viral fragments persists.)
Treatment: Covid
“Favorable Antiviral Effect of Metformin on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Viral Load in a Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial of Coronavirus Disease” (abstract only) [Clinical Infectious Diseases]. “In this randomized, placebo-controlled trial of outpatient treatment of SARS-CoV-2, metformin significantly reduced SARS-CoV-2 viral load, which may explain the clinical benefits in this trial. Metformin is pleiotropic with other actions that are relevant to COVID-19 pathophysiology.” • Pleiotropic = producing more than one effect. Sadly, the article is paywalled, so I can’t track down a usage example.
Elite Maleficence
Maskless Mandy does a happy dance:
Honored to be featured by #TIME100HEALTH along with so many incredible leaders + innovators! @CDCGov is working every day to protect health & improve lives through stronger data, clear & fast communications, and breaking down silos to work as one team. https://t.co/klVxZJV2Z2
— Mandy K. Cohen, MD, MPH (@CDCDirector) May 2, 2024
It really takes chutzpah to pat yourself on the back for “stronger data” one day after you shut down mandatory reporting of Covid cases in hospitals.
“Covid lessons remain unlearned as avian flu infects cattle, hospitals say” [Politico]. “Still, hospital officials told POLITICO they’re dismayed that they don’t feel better prepared, just four years after Covid-19 caught them unawares. They’re not confident that the health care system — including the government agencies that have wound down Covid responses — can avoid the missteps around tests, bed space and communication that plagued the last public health emergency, should this strain of flu, H5N1, become more of a threat… Trust in health systems also remains battered from the Covid wars over lockdowns, masks and vaccines. ‘One big limiting factor’ in vaccinating the public, were it to become necessary, ‘would be whether or not people actually take it,’ [Dr. George Diaz, an infectious disease specialist at Providence health in Washington state] said. ‘The Covid pandemic taught us a lot of lessons, but also harmed us.’ And if a lockdown were needed again? ‘Society right now — It’s not a consideration,’ [Dr. Bruce Farber, chief public health and epidemiology officer at Northwell Health, New York’s largest hospital system,] said. ‘The politics are such that it will never happen.'” • Of course, one Covid lesson would be mandatory universal masking throughout healthcare facilities. That seems to be a lesson hospitals haven’t learned.
TABLE 1: Daily Covid Charts
| Cases | |
| ★ National[1] Biobot April 29: | Regional[2] Biobot April 29: |
|
 |
| Variants[3] CDC April 27 | Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC March 23 |
 |
 |
| Hospitalization | |
| ★ New York[5] New York State, data May 2: | National [6] CDC April 20: |
 |
 |
| Positivity | |
| National[7] Walgreens April 22: | Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic April 20: |
 |
 |
| Travelers Data | |
| ★ Positivity[9] CDC April 15: | ★ Variants[10] CDC April 15: |
 |
 |
| Deaths[11] | |
| Weekly deaths New York Times March 16: | Percent of deaths due to Covid-19 New York Times March 16: |
 |
|
LEGEND
1) ★ for charts new today; all others are not updated.
2) For a full-size/full-resolution image, Command-click (MacOS) or right-click (Windows) on the chart thumbnail and “open image in new tab.”
NOTES
[1] (Biobot) Our curve has now flattened out at a level far above valleys under Trump. Not a great victory. Note also the area “under the curve,” besides looking at peaks. That area is larger under Biden than under Trump, and it seems to be rising steadily if unevenly.
[2] (Biobot) No backward revisons….
[3] (CDC Variants) KP.2 has entered the chat, at least in the model. 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.
[4] (ER) CDC seems to have killed this off, since the link is broken, I think in favor of this thing. I will try to confirm. UPDATE Yes, leave it to CDC to kill a page, and then announce it was archived a day later. And heaven forfend CDC should explain where to go to get equivalent data, if any. I liked the ER data, because it seemed really hard to game.
[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Flattening out to a non-zero baseline. I suppose to a tame epidemiologist it looks like “endemicity,” but to me it looks like another tranche of lethality.
[6] (Hospitalization: CDC) Still down. “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†”.
[7] (Walgreens) Leveling out.
[8] (Cleveland) Slight uptrend.
[9] (Travelers: Posivitity) Flattens.
[10] (Travelers: Variants) JN.1 dominates utterly. Still no mention of KP.2
[11] Looks like the Times isn’t reporting death data any more? Maybe I need to go back to The Economist….
Stats Watch
Employment Situation: “United States Unemployment Rate” [Trading Economics]. “The unemployment rate in the United States edged up to 3.9% in April 2024 from 3.8% in the previous month and surprising market expectations, which had forecasted the rate to remain unchanged.”
Tech: “Lithium-free sodium batteries exit the lab and enter US production” [New Atlas]. “Two years ago, sodium-ion battery pioneer Natron Energy was busy preparing its specially formulated sodium batteries for mass production. The company slipped a little past its 2023 kickoff plans, but it didn’t fall too far behind as far as mass battery production goes. It officially commenced production of its rapid-charging, long-life lithium-free sodium batteries this week, bringing to market an intriguing new alternative in the energy storage game. Not only is sodium somewhere between 500 to 1,000 times more abundant than lithium on the planet we call Earth, sourcing it doesn’t necessitate the same type of earth-scarring extraction. Even moving beyond the sodium vs lithium surname comparison, Natron says its sodium-ion batteries are made entirely from abundantly available commodity materials that also include aluminum, iron and manganese. Furthermore, the materials for Natron’s sodium-ion chemistry can be procured through a reliable US-based domestic supply chain free from geopolitical disruption. The same cannot be said for common lithium-ion materials like cobalt and nickel.” • Hmm. Readers, thoughts?
Tech: “HouseFresh has virtually disappeared from Google Search results. Now what?” [HouseFresh]. • Too much detail for me to summarize, but it really frosts me that Google has competely crapified air purifier reviews with AI-generated bullshit, given that air purifiers play useful irole during airborne pandemics.
Tech: “Google, DOJ return for closing arguments” [The Hill]. “Google’s main defense is that its search engine is better.” • Lol. Dude, come on.
Manufacturing: “Whistleblower Joshua Dean, who raised concerns about Boeing jets, dies at 45” [NPR]. “”This was his first time ever in a hospital,” [his mother, Virginia Green] said. ‘He didn’t even have a doctor because he never was sick.’ But within days, Dean’s kidneys gave out and he was relying on anECMO life support machine to do the work of his heart and lungs. The night before Dean died, Green said, the medical staff in Oklahoma did a bronchoscopy on his lungs. ‘The doctor said he’d never seen anything like it before in his life. His lungs were just totally … gummed up, and like a mesh over them.’ Green says she has asked for an autopsy to determine exactly what killed her son. Results will likely take months, she said. ‘We’re not sure what he died of,’ she said. ‘We know that he had a bunch of viruses. But you know, we don’t know if somebody did something to him, or did he just get real sick.'” • So the autopy results. Something to watch for.
Manufacturing: “Boeing Promotes Mysterious Employee Known Only As ‘The Panther'” [The Onion]. “‘The entire Boeing family would like to extend a big congratulations to The Panther, who has recently proven that his loyalty to this company truly knows no bounds,’ said Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun, who described The Panther’s role as ‘a little bit operations, a little bit corporate security, a little bit human resources.'”
Taxes: As an indicator. Interesting:
Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 40 Fear (previous close: 36 Fear) [CNN]. One week ago: 42 (Fear). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated May 3 at 1:31:16 PM ET.
Class Warfare
“Beyond The Binary Of Race And Class” [Historical Materialism]. A really interesting review of this topic, well worth studying. “There have been many efforts to create ‘a new socialist mode of production’ by transforming or abolishing the ‘free market’, but it would be hard to argue that they put an end to racial discrimination. Neither the Social Democratic welfare states, which sought to restrain the free market, nor ‘revolutionary’ regimes in the USSR, China or Cuba which got rid of it, can claim to have abrogated discrimination based on race and gender. The history of the past 100 years indicates that there is no assurance that targeting the ills of a market economy based on private ownership of the means of production translates into overcoming racialised ways of seeing and relating to others – especially since those who imbibe the norms of a racist society often includes progressive whites.” I have to grab a cup of coffee and return to this. But note this amazing statement: “Marx restructured Capital on the basis of the impact of the events during in the U.S. during the Civil War” (and as readers know, Marx reported on the Civil War, I believe for the New York Herald.
News of the Wired
“Welcome to theunderground” [The Underground]. “theunderground.blog is an experimental blog that is only available to read through a feed reader.” • Interesting idea. A similar approach–
“Forget WhatsApp and Messenger, contact me via my website” [Dissociated]. “I’m a Blogger now. I stay on my website. That’s something that should be printed on t-shirts. When I catch up with friends, they ask me: ‘how’s disassociated going?’ Then a few minutes later, ‘oh, and are you on Whatsapp by any chance?’ Sometimes I’d like to respond by saying, ‘well, I don’t need a messaging app, because you know you can reach me through my website. You know, the same one that predates Facebook, most of the social networks, and messaging apps.’ But I don’t. I just shake my head. And it can’t be all that bad after all. Some of my friends live interstate and overseas, and we still manage to meet in person when in each other’s respective places of residence, hassle free. All without the need to involve messaging apps, aside from some texts. If you’re an avid user of messaging apps — go for it — don’t let me dissuade you.” • Two straws in the wind; I don’t know if this approaches zeitgeist status, though.
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, lichen, 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 TH:
TH writes: “Desert wildflower: Browneyes or brown-eyed primrose; Chylisma claviforms. This is one of the wildflowers in front of our house in the Mojave Desert.” Painterly!
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Sorry for posting off topic here but just checked my Twitter feed and mind blown. Still picking off gray matter from my keyboard. Jaw flopping around on my carpet.
https://twitter.com/SwordMercury/status/1786431607479456193
Note the original post from Sharmine Narwani, the publisher of The Cradle. So I assume this is a legit announcement.
Operation Prosperity Guardian has been a smashing success so far
That’s amazing news! I wonder how they are going to implement it. Word a few months ago was that Algeria was going to take up arms in this way, but nothing ever happened with that. A north African based no-go zone for any shipping companies dealing with Israel would be a game changer.
Iran definitely has rockets with that reach. I assume Ansarallah got a very interesting Eid gift basket after the Embassy bombing fiasco or possibly the terror attack on Solemani’s tomb.
Perhaps Hezbollah got one as well? You just know that they are itching to let off some of the larger ones in their inventory. A lot of their leadership has been targeted over the years, so if they did a house-by-house in Tel Aviv they would have the perfect excuse.
Hezbollah probably has more and better stuff than Ansarallah, but they’re trying to avoid getting Beirut flattened by the Israelis again.
The Yemenese are building a 100,000 man army specifically to fight for Gaza. I wonder if they’ll link up with Iraqi and possibly Jordanian and West Bank resistance fighters, and attack Med shipping from there.
FWIW – I live near a military installation and I don’t remember ever hearing anywhere near as many loud military planes overhead as today. Maybe it’s nothing or maybe it’s very very serious.
Serious, looks like: impending attack.
Blast! All I get when I try to click through is an “Error 404.”
Odd, it was there when I posted. It’s here now.
Ah, I accidentally double pasted. I should check before posting.
How are they going to reach the Mediterranean?
If they can reach Israel now, it’s just a matter of using lighter warhead and gaining an extra few hundred of kilometers range. Targeting is what makes it almost impossible for Houthis to hit anything in Mediterranean.
I see. So they will need spotters… or is there some way to geolocate a ship from its own telemetry?
Some cargo ships are giant — large targets.
Every commercial vessel is required to have an Automatic Identification System (AIS) which basically broadcasts the vessels unique id, location, heading and speed (among other things) in intervals depending on the vessel’s speed and course changes.
If a missile has a seeker and a mid range correction capability, AIS data could be good enough for a launch. Same, of course, goes for a spotter in a “spy boat” providing the same information. With the difference that a ships captain can shut down his AIS manually (“go dark”) but probably not the spotter.
What I’m thinking is that the Houthi don’t really need to hit any ship to make shipping companies and insurers sweating – just launching and reaching Med would probably be enough.
If a larger number of ships go dark on AIS, that would lead to chaos in those shipping lanes and may introduce other attack opportunities for the resistance.
If Erdogan is truly changing his tune, I wonder if unidentified saboteurs will suddenly be able to get to the Azeri pipes. After all there are some pretty pissed off Armenians right now.
Ted Postol in his analysis of the Iran attack on Israel argues that off-the-shelf image processing software and hardware can easily identify targets for final course corrections – the missile only needs to get close to hit target. If Iran has that technology (they do) then so does Ansarallah.
RE: The IRS audits
What the article neglected to mention was that all of the $80 billion will be spent auditing Donald J Trump.
theunderground.blog is an experimental blog that is only available to read through a feed reader.
I first thought this could be useful technique to thwart AI-crawlers vacuuming blogs for their training data, but nothing really prevents AI firms to automate the subscription to those sites via feeds/RSS — just the hassle of detecting that sort of configuration and then setting up the feed subscription.
I am afraid that protecting sites against AI-crawlers will require something additional — some kinds of non-standard captchas, explicit form-filling subscriptions, possibly paying a fee via paypal that is then returned as is and only acts as a gate?
> is working every day to protect health & improve lives through stronger data, clear & fast communications, and breaking down silos to work as one team.
“One team” — sounds like an idea for a Netflix live action adaptation of real life. The adventures of the maskless
piratespublic health professionals.Does a cover curse exist for Time magazine, like it famously does for prominent athletes to grace the SI covers of old or the NFL Madden games !?!
Good grief. Yeah one team ….one goal…one aim…with their hearts in unison…
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/same-job-16-less-per-hour-frustrated-job-hunters-cant-find-roles-that-pay-as-well-as-their-old-ones-8da958e9?mod=mw_latestnews/
Same job, $16 less per hour: Frustrated job hunters can’t find roles that pay as well as their old ones
he latest jobs report shows the labor market is still strong, but some workers say they’ve been forced to take jobs that pay almost half what they earned before.
——-
You have to burst out laughing at this – not at the people job hunting – but at a system doing this and still trying to have a housing bubble and wanting people to rah-rah for their BS grift and wars.
Please remember, the System currently known as Free Market Capitalism cannot fail, it can only be failed.
When suddenly prices in an area moves to the corporations advantage I have now come to suspect foul play in shape of price coordination through an app. So that would be my initial suspicion here too.
The job market is strong! We can’t find enough people! Also: we are paying half of what we used to.
Regarding Natron’s sodium-ion vs. lithium-ion batteries. Readers, thoughts?
My immediate question was the relative weight between them. The article states “sodium-ion batteries at 70 Wh/kg, around the very bottom of the sodium-ion energy density scale. That aligns well with the company’s stationary-only business plan, as sodium-ion batteries being pursued for potential mobility use have more than double that density.” This means they may be fine for
starting fires in the garagehome use, but cars equipped with them won’t be driving up to the charging station anytime soon. That is a pity considering their rapid charge time. . .Lithium-ion autos were a solution, especially in high-density urban areas…until work-from-home became a thing and [much of] that “obvious” problem went away. Sodium-ion might could solve an industrial problem–you know–one of those old problems that modern, deindustrializing economies have forgotten about.
China has batteries that give 370 miles range after a 10 minute charge and 600+ in 30 minutes
China’s Electric Cars Keep Improving, a Worry for Rivals Elsewhere NYT
Re Sodium Batteries,
See:
https://search.brave.com/search?q=sodium+battery+china&source=desktop
Somehow the article failed to mention how far behind China the US is in this field. Or even mention Chinese competition.
Starting manufacturing and having a successful product are worlds apart—lots can go wrong, even at the management level (and there are quality control issues, skilled worker issues, etc., etc.).
To me, it reads like copy for raising capital, which is probably why it did not mention the current state of the art in China. Nothing cools investors (absent DoD contracts) like stiff competition from China.
“ doubt very much the youth vote going to move from BIden to Trump over Gaza.”
They are unlikely to make that kind of move but under voting is a real possibility. I’m hearing even my oldster friends talk about protest votes.
Best way to protest the Gaza slaughter committed with our taxpayer funded arms is to not vote for Biden.
Another vote that can be withheld is spending on cars and other non essential items for the rest of Biden’s term.
Remember when W begged people to go shopping?
Those numbers reported are of great concern and interest to the system.
This oldster proudly cast his primary vote for Patrick L Paulsen.
I seem to remember hearing that the margin of victory in at least one of the swing states that Trump won in 2016 was less than the number of people who voted the full Democrat ticket down ballot but left their Presidential vote blank – presumably unable to grin and bear voting for Hilary.
Ned Ludd 2024
or easiest of all, just not showing up. It’s not that they’ll vote for Trump, but that they won’t vote for Biden…
Not to mention that Jill Stein and Cornel West await.
I’ve said this before, but… around 41 million Gen Z will be eligible to vote in November, and according to the US Census Bureau, over 50% of them voted in 2020. In addition, even before the campus protests and police crackdowns began, there were polls saying that 70% of Gen Z were strongly opposed to Biden’s support for Israel. Throw in the TikTok ban and things look even worse for Genocide Joe.
I can only conclude that by the time these campus protests wind down — and the students seem to be really digging in now — there’s going to be a lot of bad blood and Biden will have pretty much lost a majority of those 20 million Gen Z who will vote.
Henry Ford (genuflects) had a “Panther,” too: Harry Bennett. https://www.salon.com/2014/06/01/henry_fords_reign_of_terror_greed_and_murder_in_depression_era_detroit/
How many of us have even a nodding appreciation of imperial America’s industrial-labor history?
Turns out, Quelle surprise, that killing at all scales, as Baron Harkonnen infamously observed, has always been an arm of business. “These are not nice people.” Nosiree.
Wonder how many more whistleblowers there will ever be in our New Dying World Order… don’t fly in light aircraft, and ask Karen Silkwood why you shouldn’t drive alone in the dark, on your way to provide evidence to the NYT, https://www.whistleblowers.org/whistleblowers/karen-silkwood/
“Mysterious accidents” and unaccountable diseases. Hey, there was a plan to poison Castro (remember him?) just enough so his beard would fall out, which the CIA thought would destroy his credibility with Cubans… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_Assassination_attempts_on_Fidel_Castro
>>>‘We’re not sure what he died of,’ she said. ‘We know that he had a bunch of viruses. But you know, we don’t know if somebody did something to him, or did he just get real sick.’”
I usually disparage theories of assassinations either physically or reputationally, but damn, the next news story about a suicide, sudden illness, or of child porn found in a laptop, I am just going to triple check what the victim was doing and what the source of information was.
A really scary thing about all this is the apparent uptick in mysterious deaths that we know of, not of the ones that we don’t; let’s us look at the last several times of unfortunate deaths in the 1870s-1920s and 1950s-1970s when the Powers That Be usually private corporations using companies like the Pinkerton Detective Agency, terrorist organizations like the Ku Klux Klan, local governments, and only then the federal government were violent and used assassinations and frame ups in that order.
John Barnett’s probable murder by Boeing-Spirit after Jeffrey Epstein is just the start going by previous American history. It also signals a further decline in American law enforcement. After all, if the police are committing and/or covering up illegal activities by the wealthy and government, they will not be very interested in protecting the average person from murder, rape, assault, and theft, which is also a historical American pattern. And yes, McCarthyism and similar scares were also used in the service of corporations and were used against minorities and homosexuals more often than straight moderates and conservatives.
Best try not to need the police during the next twenty or thirty years.
Was the cause of death of that Italian model, Imane Fadil, who testified and was writing a book about Berlusconi’s bunga-bunga parties ever discovered?
https://www.euronews.com/2019/03/16/murder-enquiry-launched-into-death-of-italian-model-who-testified-against-silvio-berluscon
Sucks that The Shield and We Own This City are real, the latter actually being real. Or we have the faux prosecutions of Trump.
Off topic (kind of) but let’s talk inflation. A little bit ago I saw the press secretary for Biden had on stage with her some Hollywood actor telling everyone how great Biden is, how great the economy is, how many jobs, whipping inflation, yada, yada, yada. Whipping inflation? Where might that be was my first thought.
Example; my electric bills. I am on Ohio AEP. I have tracked my electric bill since January 22. There are 4 charges that make up the bill; electric usage by kWh, transmission charges, distribution charges, and customer charge (constant $10.00 per month). Those 4 charges make up the total bill.
Since Jan 22, if you break down the transmission and distribution charges by the kilowatts you use, transmission charges are up 49.62% and distribution charges are up 68.56%. Total costs per kilowatt are up 34.94% for the entire bill.
I have used several different suppliers over the two years to save a little on my actual cost of electric, but it only matters for that part of the bill. In Jan of 22 my electric costs were 44.85% of my total bill. Last month (April) it was only 27.77% of my bill.
So now, even managing only what I can control with better rates per kilowatt, I am only helping 27 percent of my bill instead of 45. I’m guessing I’m not the Lone Ranger, and I’m also guessing I my electric company loves this. Me, not so much.
I’m sure the PUCO will be right on this. /s
That’s nothing, our Pacific Gas and Electric bill has more than doubled in the last two years. And we’re using less power and gas. Governor Newsom controls that because the Public Utilities Commission is all appointed by him. They set the rates.
Yes, it is sometimes close to two hundred dollars per a month for my junior one bedroom apartment. I do cook all my food at home, and I am not as thrifty as I should be, but it is still a hefty amount to pay PG&E especially with its corruption and incompetence. It is yet another reason to avoid Gavin Newsom and the California Democratic Party
I really have to reread on it. However, it looks like many of the fairly new special power districts especially the “green power” ones being added to the local power districts are giving that additional funding stream straight to the California Democratic Party. Perfectly legal legerdemain.
If you do have PG&E, look at the breakdown of the charges, there is very likely a separate charge from another company in addition to PG&E masquerading as green or something like that. Each district’s voters do have to approve the additional power company and source. That is the grift. There might be some benefit for the environment somehow, like it being wind or solar, but the profit goes to the Democratic Party.
At first I thought it was the usual political hysteria about those Dastardly, Evil Democrats/Republicans, but it actually looks to be real and a partial explanation for why our bills in California are rising so fast.
It is true for NYC and Con Edison. My bill is up about twenty percent from last May. More really. And I did the calculations as well regarding my last bill, the electricity was cheap, the delivery charges were a little over sentry per cent, iirc the section of the delivery charge that was per kWh was about 2.5 times the electrical charges alone, there were four or more taxes and charges beyond that.
Oh and I am not sure if it is this month or next but we have another raise coming up.
Our local news rag ran a story about the unmistakeably outrageous increase in electric bills.. led off with the poor widow barely scraping by, not sure how she is going to pay rent in a private-equity-fueled thieves’ market and now the electric bill has gone up another 25 percent. Very little substance on the reality that utilities are supposed to be “regulated” and guaranteed a rate of return in exchange. Nothing on ow the public service (sic) commission and legislators are wholly owned by the utilities lobby. Nothing about executive “compensation” or the various games that lead to big dividends for “investors” who claim a risk premium even though there’s no real risk. Nothing about how Duke Energy gets paid a billion or so from rate payers for a nuclear plant that will never be built, or the maybe a billion that it is costing to take down a nuke plant that was broken by the asses who “engineer” the company, planning to save millions by doing some mandated ‘improvements and repairs” in-house, le3ading to the destruction of a containment structure and shutdown and closure order. Nothing about all the tricks used to push what should be operating expenses and charges to equity holders into the “rate base.” Nothing about the preferential rates given to large users. Lots of bullshitting about how “gas has gotten so expensive lately” (Nord Stream follow-on). And some BS about how Duke is going to lay out a tiny reduction in utility bills “next January,” so be grateful you ingrate peasants. Duke’s rates are about the highest in the nation, and Florida utilities together rank us fourth most expensive.
Amazingly, Florida is supposed to be the state with the highest rate of in-migration. Even though cost of living is right on up there, and old people are being evicted from their houses because on fixed incomes they can’t pay the ad valorem real estate taxes on the h=falsely inflated “value” of their homes.
And you don’t need a license any more to purchase guns, even to carry concealed. And the NRA bunch are working hard to turn us into a “constitutional carry” state where like quite a few others, it’s ok.to pack a pistol on your hip or tote a rifle or shotgun on a sling.
Horrible racist observation, but TikTok and YouTube thumbnails are full of videos of young black males (and white folk too of course) showing off weapons that they brag are “illegal in California” and their quick-draw skills and how they can shoot gangsta-style with full auto pistols with 35-round stick and 50 to 100 round drum magazines. And lots of videos of shoutouts and ambushes, on urban street corners and in quick-trip gas stations.
And i get gun dealer ads all day long, offering moar guns for less, buy on credit, no hassle, and be sure to add one of the tens of thousands of different knife and hatchet and machete and sword designs, to complete your urban combat outfit. Of course one wurst have body armor and “tactical” gear and clothing to polish the antisocial turd. And the manufacturers are pushing out moar weapons in designer colors and with all kinds of accessories to satiate the urge to anomie and facilitate running amok.
“We’re coming for you…” how many of the people who load up on this stuff out of fear of an oppressive government will actually play out their Rambo fantasies?
I have added orts and scraps.
RE: sodium-ion batteries — Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) don’t use cobalt or nickel either, the one relatively scarce material they use is lithium.
Sodium-ion batteries do have some promise in being safer, and working better at cold temperatures IIRC
Wasn’t Harvey Keitel’s role in Pulp Fiction as the Panther?
I think he was the Wolf…
Apparently Star Wars fans are largely not Joe Biden fans. Mark Hammill has been doing “May the…” posts on Twitter supporting Joe Biden and his reelection. I have only read a large portion of the comments on one of them but we’re talking about one supportive post for probably eight or nine derogatory posts, many of them cogent take downs and lots just insulting.
I do have to admit, I don’t think I would have expected that.
He was with the press secretary today at the presser. A cartoon character would be more fitting IMO. Pinocchio would be a good fit me thinks.
As I am sure he isn’t the only idiot actor around (despite knowing more than a few very smart actors, one of my favorite somewhat true jokes conflates low iq with acting) I didn’t immediately make the connection between his posts and being used at a presser.
Jeez, apparently he really does not read his feed. Besides my favorite response (You’ve just told the world you don’t do your own grocery shopping.), there were numerous counter posts with percentages of inflation listed for basic needs and services. You would think he might have been smart enough to eliminate that “whipping inflation” line…
Turns out Luke Skywalker now works for House Harkonnen.
ouch!
He voices The Joker in Batman cartoons. He has done readings both parodying and using Trump’s own remarks as The Joker. So he did have a super criminal midway spot between hero and evil genocidal oppressive dictator henchman.
> “whipping inflation”
having applied the “whip” to inflation, it responded by accelerating from a “trot” to a “canter.” I don’t think the macroeconomics portend a full “gallop,” but we shall see.
Whip Inflation Now. WIN . / ;)
Economy great! Inflation down! No questions today, you are a citizen of the greatest American economy in history since 1928…or some long ago time.
Taibbi’s latest, public excerpt:
Paul Krugman’s Magical Thinking
The standard-bearer for the “Voters are too dumb to understand the economy” movement takes an ironic stand against “magical thinking.”
https://www.racket.news/p/paul-krugmans-magical-thinking
I think it’s apparent that the speculators are wanting the cheap money back…to hell with people’s jobs. They’ve got gambling to do!
I keep saying, the old industrial supply and demand debates are out of place in an economy where rentierism, monopolies, and enshittification rule.
De-escalation is a thing. Brown University did it. Sure, the administration almost certainly lied, and the students were ridiculously naive to immediately pack it in. But the situation was rapidly de-escalated.
This is the same Joe Biden he has always been, so he is on the side of the jackboots, the belief is the other side must back down or be cowed. Same person as Netanyahu, and most Police.
I try not to be pessimistic, but “increasingly polarized” does seem to be a thing.
One more thing:
Can I beg everyone (LameStreamMedia, alternative media, we all) to call this ANTI WAR PROTESTS ?
Calling it “Pro-Palestinian” is factually incorrect, and opens arguments which are completely off-topic.
The protesters have specific ideas for Divestment, and cessation of money/arms, and the use of bombs. Same as 2003-2008, same as every other anti-war protest in history. Calling it anything else opens up the debate to distractions. The protesters, it seems to me, have been very disciplined and on-message. If ever there was a protest movement that has specific, achievable goals, this is it.
I think the current college protesters are doing a fantastic job, but they need rhetorical help. And are being sabotaged by superior Messaging.
I don’t call them anti-war, for the simple reason that many of them are focused on Gaza. How many are calling for an end to aid to Kiev? (Ukraine backs Israel, and vice versa.) How many are calling for Azerbaijan to leave Artsakh? (Azerbaijan gets most of their arms from Israel.)
Were I a protester, I would bring up the war crimes in Gaza, but also the crimes in the West Bank. Since many people don’t care unless bad things happen to Westerners, I would bring up the Freedom Flotillas, Rachel Corrie, Israel’s targeting UN Peacekeepers (and Lebanon and Syria), Israel’s trying to take land from the Armenians in Jerusalem, and the USS Liberty.
The protesters themselves say ‘anti-genocide’. They should center on their protest is specifically targeting US support of genocide. The other side is helping a foreign state subvert the US government and institutions to commit genocide.
Not only are the cops, school admins, and AIPAC congressmen abetting genocide but they’re literally committing sedition in the purest sense of the word for Israel. These people don’t just deserve to end up in front of The Hague but also for whatever happens to traitors. The same argument doesn’t apply to the anti-genocide protesters since they are just focused on preventing their own government from furthering a defined crime under international law that their own government signed and committed to.
I have been thinking the same, maybe even more to the point, anti-genocide. Much harder to argue with. Words are powerful weapons.
I was thinking about how the Biden regime sends in both cops and a militia to break up peaceful assemblies and attack Jewish students for peace, and others.
In the alleged antisemitism crisis on campus, who is actually attacking Jewish students?
Impunity for the so-called counterprotesters at UCLA: The article from AP is a fairly sketchy roundup that trails off at the end with some two-minded quote (okay, he’s a university student).
But this detail sent me into the article: ‘the trouble started after a permitted pro-Israel rally was held on campus Sunday and fights broke out and “live mice” were tossed into the pro-Palestinian encampment later that day.’
What can “live mice” mean here?
And I note the current dustup about Kristi Noem killing her dog. Cruelty to animals is telling indeed.
As I’ve been pointing out for some time, illegal settlers in the West Bank pulling up Palestinian farmers’ olive trees is cruelty–and because olive trees are sacred (even more so than red heifers!) a form of murder, I’d venture.
These things aren’t symptoms of moral rot. Rather, they are evidence of rotten people.
Meanwhile, Biden is maundering on about “disorder.” The other day, Naked Capitalism published a tweet in which Biden instructed us not to use the word “intifada.”
It’s Scoundrel Time, kiddos.
As a Christian, though probably not a very good one, one of the instructions I remember from Sunday School is that we punish or hate the sin, not the man. It’s a careful distinction. I suppose you either know what I mean or not. I do not despise B as B, I despise his actions. The man, a man is capable of redemption from prior failures of spirit and thought and action, though the sins will be punished in some form.
Again, a careful distinction.
Ah well, this is the Orthodox Easter week, Orthodox Easter is this Sunday. A Happy Easter to my Greek Orthodox friends.
My family and I are Orthodox. Today is Good Friday. Tomorrow is the Day of Holy Fire. The longest continuous tradition in all of Christendom. We will be watching online as this event is beamed to the entire world from Jerusalem and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. As the fire comes out of the tomb, there will be Greek, Palestinian, Russian, and Ukrainian and many other Orthodox clergy in attendance and in charge. We are hoping that all goes well and that there are no disruptions. If the Palm Sunday events are any indication, the attendance will be likely much lower than usual.
Speaking of redemption, I have recently watched the 1990s Robert Duvall movie, “The Apostle” with my family. It is a very instructive film. No matter the sin, there is always redemption. BUT the consequences of the sin are still there. There will be no escape from them. That is how I was taught and that has been Christian teaching from time immemorial. It has only been in the whacked out modern world where we have lost sight of that. There are so many who think there will never be consequences. As a physician who takes care of people from all walks of life, I can assure you that there are many of our elite who do indeed think they are teflon but get served the consequences eventually. Our society just has a real knack of glorifying the bad behavior but hiding the karma when it finally comes.
And that simple lesson of redemption and consequences is vividly displayed in that movie – even unto the end credits – the Robert Duvall character was redeemed – but he had to deal with the consequences – being on a chain gang in prison – and that is how the story ended.
That certainly kept me from straying too far from the law, and I can certainly only hope that will work with my own kids. Today is the day that we commemorate the great sacrifice given for the concept of redemption. And even that act was fraught with all kinds of consequences.
Christos Voskrese, IM Doc!
Christos anesti, doc!
I choose to despise B as B. I’m unable to know the dancer from the dance.
The desire to hate the man who has done evil is understandable. The pain of his betrayal makes it so easy. But never, ever forget both his humanity and of the cost to yourself of hating him.
He will face the consequences of his actions soon enough.
I don’t think that b will ever face the consequences that should be applied to his actions. I don’t think that he will ever face any legal liability for his support of genocide. He will never sit in a courtroom and be questioned as to how and why he pulled in the entire country into committing the premeditated destruction of an oppressed and weakened people. He will never have to answer to any one person why he enabled the zionists to kill their entire family, hundreds of people, several generations. No, he will not face any punishment for his behavior, and I suspect that he will not be bothered by any pangs of conscience; his entire public career, and his latest ungodly brutality reveal a man who long ago jettisoned his conscience in order to advance his career. I respect your comments here at NC and I’m more than certain that you know the history of the man.
I did not say that I hate the man. I said that I despise him. Maybe that’s a distinction without a difference. I don’t think that to be true, but okay. I have grown to hate the man, and not only him, but the entire system that he represents. I don’t think that causes me to somehow destroy my own life, I’m able to enjoy so much. But it gives me clarity to see, and understand, life as it is, and life as it might be.
I always am made aware how the Left has disappeared in american life, and I believe that to be true. But, absent of a hunger and thirst for justice, how can the Left exist? Hatred and bitterness are also human emotions. I recall my eighth-grade history teacher quoting Bernard De Voto saying, Bitter people create change. Enough of the smart people, the Clintons, the Obamas, the assorted and assembled elites. A little less smart, way more heart. Leftists will not overturn the barricades by thinking, I really don’t hate these people, I should try to understand them. They’ll hesitate, and the barricades will remain. The world will never change. It’s a fatal mistake for the left to surrender their passion, because that passion just might well represent a faith that might someday move that mountain.
I suppose, for the believers, there’s some comfort in believing that even if there’s no reckoning in this world, God will do justice in the Hereafter. Is this true? Well, probably not, but to believe otherwise is to be constantly frustrated and angry. Perhaps this is really what it means for religion to be the opiate for the masses, but it is also true that masses cannot act proactively by itself.
What I’d been taught growing up (but didn’t really understand until recently) is that to be a Christian is to recognize that we are sinners and that we keep sinning, but that we still strive to stop sinning in faith that God keeps the door to Salvation open to us. To think that we are righteous and that we should do injustice upon others thinking that we are justified because of our righteousness is inimical to the Christan idea. As the saying goes, Jesus called upon us sinners, after all. Yet, the world is full of evil being done in the name of self claimed righteousness…
To our Eastern Othodox brethren, Christos Anesti!
Could the counter-protesters have had access to or stolen infected mice from a research lab?
Curiously, a more recent science fiction writer has stories set on a deep space habitat/ship in the Kuyper Belt and in his “society,” the police who maintain order for the Oligarchs who run the ship are called White Mice, presumably for their white crash helmets.
Something similar here is my best bet.
vermin, to be exterminated, as if not Netanyahu then Smotrich has said.
Smotrich, what a name, evokes a minor and unsavory character in a Dostoevski novel.
re: “Too much detail for me to summarize, but it really frosts me that Google has competely crapified air purifier reviews with AI-generated bullshit, given that air purifiers play useful irole during airborne pandemics.”
One of the values of NC, at least for me, is learning important information the establishment ignores. The info about fairly easily homemade air purifiers is one example. Adding: I don’t know if my dentist reads NC, (probably not, but the word about air purifiers seems to have gotten around), but last time I was there each exam room or “chair room” had an air purifier running. It was easy to hear purifiers humming in the background. Probably commercial air purifiers. Good dentist. And if the dentists are talking amongst themselves about best patient and employee healthcare steps to take then the Goog can go familyblog itself. My 2 cents. / :)
The metformin affect has been noted for quite a while. Since I have begun taking care of long COVID patients in the area I live, I have used this on several patients. This is a diabetic drug that has been out for decades. Any internist should be well aware of the very minimal side effect profile. Basically, it can cause abdominal cramps and diarrhea in a few patients, you must be careful about giving IV contrast dye, and it can cause some muscle soreness. Otherwise, it has been a very safe and effective drug for DM-II as long as I have been a physician.
It also does seem to be somewhat effective in alleviating some of the problems of long COVID vaccine/long COVID. Noticeably improved often are the neuropathy patients.
Metformin has pleiomorphic action in diabetes – it causes the insulin resistance of the peripheral cells to decrease and also does some work at making innate insulin delivery more efficacious. It has also the enormous benefit of not screwing up a patient’s entire metabolic machinery after chronic use – unlike many other diabetic drugs like insulin – which once you have been on them for awhile – you are not getting back to normal ever.
Of course – it is very doubtful that any kind of large studies will ever be done – this drug is dirt cheap. It is just like I have been saying all along with ivermectin, the drug is very very safe and if it seems to be helping, it is against medical ethics not to use it in this time period when we really do not have much to go on or to use. Of course, Big Pharma and Big Medicine will likely not tolerate this. The difference between this drug and ivermectin is the sheer millions of people and families in the Western world who have experience with it and know how safe it is.
However, I am anticipating a message from Rachel Maddow at any time about the throngs of patients lined up in the ERs with metformin injury, causing the hospitals to freeze, etc.
When my husband got Covid recently I asked my PCP if he would consider giving me a prescription for Metformin that I could take if I got Covid too. I included a link to a study about it at the New England Journal of Medicine. He said he doesn’t practice medicine that way. (He’s part of a large hospital system that most likely would down rate him for doing that.) Fortunately I didn’t catch it and my husband was sick with it for about a week. Neither one of us can take Paxlovid and my husband is not open to alternative treatments.
Paxlovid is bad medicine. I took it and had minimal to no relief, with a bad rebound at the end. There’s discussion here at NC about the reality of this “remedy.” Like the “vaccines,” don’t work and cost a hell of a lot. Perfect pharma crap. Neith my private nor VA docs would prescribe ivermectin (“Horse Paste!”) or metformin.
I’m about the only person in my area who masks — not even in sites or doc offices. Wife flying home from Washington state Sunday, where she is among family and random persons and in the airports and on the airplanes with random unconcerned or actively antisocial people — the last trip (to Italy) she caught and brought home and gifted me with Covid. Wonder what this time will bring?
We have the rapid antigen tests, but as we know from reading here, they ar damn near totally worthless.
Maybe I’ll sleep in the truck and cook on the grill…
I asked my GP for metformin two months ago to have on hand in case I caught covid and he said yes and called in a two year prescription. He is a research doctor at a big university hospital. I never actually get to see him since he never has any openings but he was good for this. I used it last week when I had a viral infection that I thought could conceivably be covid. I’m sorry your doctor was not helpful.
Auditing firm pays fine and agrees to ban. Gotta wonder, is that former CPA office like the office that Christian Wolff was utilizing in the Illinois strip mall from the fictional movie ? Kinda looks similar come to think of it.
I would not trust any IRS statements on who they will, or who they won’t, be likely to pursue…
Sorry I didn’t get time to post this morning about the pictures and the protest.
I had been sitting on a bench on the far side of the green from the protest, and all of a sudden 15 cop cars pulled up behind me and parked all along that side of the green, and the cops got out and one yelled “Body and car cameras on, everybody!” Figured that was my cue to move back across the street. Figured ish was about to go down. So then I sat in front of Dartmouth Hall for a couple hours observing. More cops showed up. The guys sitting near me were told to go find some flood lights for the green. They didn’t want to be involved but had to go anyway. Janitorial staff also thought response was incredibly heavy-handed. A lot of people were watching, some brought their dogs. We don’t usually have this kind of excitement in town. Even the Leb K9 unit was there. The dog was still in car when I finally wandered home around 10 as I had gotten cold and it was late for me. As far as I could tell, the protest was peaceful all while I was watching. A few flags waving, lots of chanting. Then the cops started to move in and everything went downhill from there. People moved to the sidewalk, and split up into blobs, moving around. They’d boo and yell “shame!” when someone was arrested. They were handcuffing people and walking them to the cop cars parked where I had been sitting. After I got home, strings of 5 cop cars with lights and sirens on would blow by my house, and then after 11 they were blowing by in groups with lights on but no sirens. I didn’t witness the MRAP. Probably showed up after I went to bed.
The president(formerly of Barnard) may have saved face with her rich donors, the Biden Administration, and Congress, but is seeming to have lost the confidence of the faculty and students. She’s allll about PR, and takes constant selfies to post, etc.
One of the kids in my group asked what she does. She said “Mostly fundraising.”
I’ll leave it at that. If anyone has any questions, I’ll try to answer them. The Dartmouth is a good resource right now. The College is refusing to drop charges against the student journalists.
> Sorry I didn’t get time to post this morning about the pictures and the protest.
Thank you for your reporting!! Readers, ask away :-)
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/03/us/dartmouth-professor-police-protests.html
May 3, 2024
Police Treatment of a Dartmouth Professor Stirs Anger and Debate
A video showing Annelise Orleck, 65, being taken to the ground intensified criticism of the decision by the college’s president to call in officers.
By Vimal Patel
The video is jarring: A gray-haired woman tumbles, gets up to reach for her phone, held by police officers, and is yanked and taken to the ground. “Are you kidding me?” a bystander asks.
“What are they doing to her?” another adds.
Annelise Orleck, a labor historian who has taught at Dartmouth College for more than three decades, was at a protest for Palestinians in Gaza on Wednesday night, when she was knocked to the ground. Dr. Orleck, 65, was zip-tied and was one of 90 people who were arrested, according to the local police.
The professor walked away with a case of whiplash. But a short video clip of the episode flew around the internet, intensifying the debate over the relatively swift decision by Dartmouth’s president, Sian Leah Beilock, to call in police to arrest students and clear out an encampment.
Unlike other campuses where tents were tolerated for days, the police action at Dartmouth began a little more than two hours after the encampment first appeared, according to the college’s newspaper, The Dartmouth, and students who observed the events on Wednesday.
Dr. Beilock defended her decision.
“Last night, people felt so strongly about their beliefs that they were willing to face disciplinary action and arrest,” Dr. Beilock said in a message to campus on Thursday. “While there is bravery in that, part of choosing to engage in this way is not just acknowledging — but accepting — that actions have consequences.”
Dr. Beilock did not directly address the treatment of Dr. Orleck, who called the message “outrageous.” …
Annelise Orleck of Dartmouth, by the way, happens to be Jewish. Among the many Jewish protestors and demonstrators who have been terribly worried about the destruction of Palestinian life in Gaza.
I am fairly positive that most of the thugs beating up Jews on college campuses are the “agents” of Zionism. How do you justify real antisemitism in America? By justifying it in the name of combating antisemitism, apparently. (Borrowing the quip by Huey Long.)
https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1786529340265554412
Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald
The Jewish journal @tabletmag editorially denounces the multiple free speech assaults perpetrated in the name of protecting American Jews.
It condemns Ritchie Torres’ bill to appoint “antisemitism monitors” on campuses, among other recent erosions:
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/not-in-our-name
Jews Must Not Let Politicians Curtail Free Speech
6:52 PM · May 3, 2024
Young adults getting an education on American liberal Democrat democracy. Kind of authoritarian. Not much democracy.
I’m waiting for my #McResistance acquaintances to complain bitterly about how those student and faculty skulls got in the way of police clubs, and how Uncle Joe is the likely victim of all this,
Mandy’s Covid data is “stronger” when it does not include information Mandy does not want you to know.
Remember Trump’s initial Covid policy? “If you don’t do the testing, you won’t have the cases.” Biden has implemented that policy with great energy and focus.
That’s how I read it, “strong” referring not to the quality or reliability or relevance of the data, but the degree to which it appears to support the preferred policies.
All the big stock buybacks going on…”AI productivity” ;)
Apple announces a new/service product…first thing is the “socialism” with the shareholders to take care of.
And I’m thinking the whole time they’ve been raising rates there has been back door easing for the bankstas and their buddies. It’s always called “saving the economy.”
It was rate rasing with bailouts for speculators and just people stuck at a casino managing their retirement.
The f’ers must think 2008 was funny.
More actual reporting from Alexander Tin:
Lots of good links on this thread which sadly appeared on my timeline after I went to press.
During the early days of Covid, I was saying people better hope H5N1 stays contained.
I’m still trying to shake the feeling that Covid was a test run.
The entire capitulation of “The Public Good” to Private Gain is in that first fact: “..Investigators were unable to access farm.”
It is official; Private Profit is ‘more important’ than the Public Health.
Any civilized country would have sent in the National Guard to back up the Health Department investigators after the first example of the private sector stonewalling the inspectors.
i suppose that one ought to get a warrant from a court before showing up to search for pathogens among a citizen’s effects
I’m guessing that you are being sarcastic here. It was settled law and tradition that the public health trumped all private rights.
To enjoy the fruits of a functioning society, one first needs a society that works. A major pandemic creates the opposite.
Yes. There are so many ways one could slant snarky interpretation of these events to show the absurdity of the situation. Another is the idea that we don’t need consumer protection laws or product safety regulations, since we can rely on tort law to incentive producers to not produce hazardous products.
But I should probably include a “snark off” tag to indicate instances where the snark is a bit too close to something that someone might plausibly affirm in earnest.
I maintain in a functional country we’d immediately nationalize the entire industry. Then do the needful.
Probably better public relations wise to declare it all a “National Security Threat” and proceed from there.
Alexander Tin’s notes on Github:
https://tinalexander.github.io/notes/2024/
Wow, a gold mine for epidemiology nerds.
Thank you for putting this on the radar.
“Biden says ‘order must prevail’ during campus protests over the war in Gaza”
Anybody else struck by how that sounds like the German phrase ‘Ordnung muss sein’? But Biden being Biden, he ignores the fact that the wave of violence, outrage and fear is on the part of the Israel supporters and not the protesting students. Then again, as those student protestors are making him look bad in public, he may consider that an act of violence against himself hence the police crackdown. It’s what his old boss did against the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Sexually Transmitted Infections Have Surged, and Age Is No Barrier
Kunstler showing his Zionist colours in having a rant against those student protestors-
https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/nostalgia-for-the-mud/
Said before that though he makes many good observations, that on the subject of Israel or black people he shows his true colours.
Well, he is a Jewish person after all. Yes I realize not all Jewish people belong to the Zionist persuasion, but one does not need an AI or Machine Learning model to infer that older Jewishs would slant Zionist? Or perhaps I am wrong on that?
It would probably depend on the person and how they were raised. The information of what Israel is doing in Gaza is out there but Kunstler’s identity seems to be tied to a version of Zionist Israel where those that criticize them have to be smeared. And what he says about women just verges on the bizarre. He has done so much good work but he does have some severe blind spots.
Okay, that trash was about as wild as Joe Biden’s take about his uncle getting eaten by cannibals. When someone has such a large part of their humanity and integrity taken out by a blind loyalty to a genocidal state, then I think everything they say have to be reevaluated. They may still hit correctly from time to time, but it’s coming from a bag person with a bad moral center. This isn’t someone working from a 19th century ‘civilization’ framework, all the pieces are there and he just refuses to see.
He’s a nasty piece of work, regardless of his occasional insights. I stopped reading him years ago when his xenophobia was on proud, gratuitous display.
Avian flu outbreak raises a disturbing question is our food system built on poop.
Do we really still commonly feed poultry litter to cows? If so is anyone really surprised cows are showing up with H5N1? I’m sure inspectors can pick out a virus out of tons and tons of litter so there is no chance cows are being feed H5N1 infected meal. Did we not learn anything from Mad Cow disease or the Ecoli O157 outbreaks.
https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2024-04-18/avian-flu-outbreak-raises-a-disturbing-question-is-our-food-system-built-on-poop
Good article. Organic vegetables are often grown on composted broiler litter.
Leopard and Abrahms’s tanks on display in Moscow:
Russian exhibition includes Western military equipment captured in Ukraine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cor84PQDvxQ
Russia is making the comparison of this display with displays of captured German tanks from WW2:
Russia parades western-made tanks captured from Ukrainian army
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knRe1a1_VRw
I know there’s some talk about an upcoming peace conference in Switzerland to try and freeze the conflict so there is no collapse prior to the November election. I think this is Russia’s answer, and it’s a big NO.
Have you seen the video of about 40 military attachés from Global South visiting the exhibition and taking selfies in front of the colonial wrecks with huge grins of their faces.
What are the chances that in Switzerland the majority of delegations tell Ukraine to bend over, suffer the consequences and move on. Or, to put more bluntly: “what do you mean ‘we’, white man?”.
On the other hand, I’ve heard that the views at Bürgenberg are magnificent and the signature Peking Duck at Chef’s table is excellent.
Shouldn’t that be Freedom Duck, now?
Biden just awarded Pelosi (among others) the Presidential Medal of Freedom. I seriously can’t think of a person more deserving, heck I still remember her brief visit to Taiwan last year (was it really just last year???!!!). Honestly, Biden should just give one to Putin if he wants to defuse the Ukrainian crisis, I mean if threats and war don’t work, one can always resort to flattery.
https://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/biden-to-award-the-presidential-medal-of-freedom-19437057.php
Nancy had a really good day. There is a report out there that in just one day she made $2.6 million. That’s a lot more than her official annual salary for her public office-
https://finbold.com/nancy-pelosi-makes-2-6-million-with-stocks-in-a-day/
It’s good to have insider information.
Couldn’t Biden just get stock trading tips from Nancy rather than have to do retail grifting with Hunter? If he did he would have been a much wealthier man.
Cuellar and his wife have been indicted on charges of corruption by the DOJ for taking bribes from Azeris and Mexicans…..
https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2024/05/03/congress/cuellar-indicted-00155977
Pikers. Where are the Menendez style gold bars? And why has Israel not been added to the list?/s.
But this will be good news for Cisneros. Interesting how they managed to not mention this until after the primaries, but she would be a shoe-in for a special election. IIRC, she did pretty well last time she ran.
So, setting aside the actual crime.
Who’d he upset, and how?
Re: “Forget WhatsApp and Messenger, contact me via my website”
For years I found that I’d meet people casually and there would be the inevitable “are you on WhatsApp / Facebook / Fill-in-the-Blank-Platform ??” question. My answer has always been “well, no, but I have email…” and it has been remarkable to see the instant loss of interest. It’s really a solid pattern. Only rarely do the people who ask this proceed to then ask for an email address. It’s like “MY platform or nothing”.
When this first started happening, way back in the early 2010s, I felt slightly annoyed at this phenom, but later I came to appreciate it as a kind of litmus test. I.e., if somebody asked this “WhatsApp question,” I could pretty much write off further contact with them. I didn’t have to remember their name, etc.
I also came to sense that it’s very much about getting some kind of priority communication to others. The people who ask this want to be able to send you an immediate message and get some kind of fast response. They need priority. By contrast, email is slow, you can’t tell when a person has read your message, or not read it, it doesn’t show up as an alert on the home screen of a phone, etc.