By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Bird Song of the Day
Southern Scrub-Robin, Gluepot Reserve–track 8, Unincorporated SA, South Australia, Australia. “Songs from a bird near the ground in an area of fairly short, dense mallee.” I thought this would be Southern scrub in America. But no, Australia!
In Case You Might Miss…
(1) Trump faces jail, an opportunity for fundraising.
(2) Hope Hicks testifies (and cries).
(3) Texas dairies refuse to allow Federal epidemiological field studies.
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
Oddly, this West Wing maneuver got no play:
RESIGN https://t.co/5ki6Vfw5qP
— worms cited (@christapeterso) May 3, 2024
“Biden’s Incomplete Industrial Policy” [Foreign Affairs]. “But notwithstanding the statistics, many Americans continue to feel that the economy is not working for them. Abiding structural weaknesses, including weak labor laws, underinvestment in accessible education and health care, high rates of indebtedness, and rising income and wealth inequality, mean that most Americans are not experiencing the gains of the current recovery. Citing abstract numbers to persuade a public that is still pinching pennies will do little to win over skeptical voters who do not trust that the system is working for them. To convince Americans that a second term will allow them to reap the full benefits of Biden’s new industrial policy, the administration must make progress on implementing the structural reforms needed to truly expand the U.S. economy from the “middle out and bottom up,” as the White House described its economic ambition in June 2023. This will require a much broader and bolder approach—one that doesn’t shy away from arresting the heavy financialization of the country’s corporate sector.” • The time to do that would have been last year,
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): “Trump Found in Contempt, Threatened With Jail for Violating Gag Order (Again)” [Rolling Stone]. “‘I find you in criminal contempt for the 10th time.’ The fourth week of Trump’s hush-money trial kicked off on Monday with Judge Juan Merchan once again ruling that the former president violated his court-imposed gag order, fining him $1,000 and warning him that continued violations could result in jail time. Merchan first found Trump in contempt of court last week, fining him $9,000 for nine gag-order violations flagged by prosecutors, ‘It appears that the $1,000 fines are not serving as a deterrent,’ Merchan told Trump on Monday. ‘The last thing I want to do is to put you in jail. You are the former president of the United States, and possibly the next president as well. There are many reasons why incarceration is truly a last resort for you.’ ‘So as much as I do not want to propose a jail sanction,” Merchan warned. ‘That I will, if necessary.'” • Throwing Trump in the briar patch….
Trump (R) (Bragg/Merchan): “Donald Trump Is Actually For Real Close to Going to Jail This Time” [New York Magazine]. “The threat of jail time will determine whether Trump — who repeatedly violated a gag order in last year’s civil business-fraud case — is all that concerned about staying out of jail. (He did delete offending social-media posts before a Judge Merchan-imposed deadline last week, so he or his team is capable of some restraint.) Either way, there’s a good chance he will use the prospect of incarceration to make some money for his campaign.” • Yep. From last week–
Trump (R) (Bragg/Merchan): “Trump quickly fundraises off judge’s contempt ruling in hush money case” [Politico]. “”A Democrat judge JUST HELD ME IN CONTEMPT OF COURT!” read a Tuesday morning email soliciting donations for Trump National Committee, a joint fundraising committee that includes Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee…. Trump is already a fairly prolific fundraiser, but moments of legal jeopardy have driven some of his best fundraising in the past In March, his campaign got a big spike in donations after New York Attorney General Tish James took a step toward seizing the former president’s assets if he couldn’t make bail in a civil case. Last fall, the campaign raked in more than $4 million in a day after Trump got his mug shot taken in Georgia, where he faces charges related to attempts to overturn the 2020 election. Later Tuesday afternoon, Trump’s team took out ads on X (formerly known as Twitter), pointing out that a contempt violation isn’t something former presidents typically have to deal with. ‘This has never happened before in HISTORY!’ the ad said. Trump is ‘maximizing the opportunity cost’ [huh] of the situation, energizing his base by ‘continuing to spin the narrative that he is a victim of everything that he has done’ and potentially reactivating small-dollar donors, said Matthew Bartlett, a Republican consultant and former Trump administration appointee. ‘It might be $9,000 in additional court fees,’ Bartlett said. ‘But it will probably nicely pad the campaign coffers.'”
Trump (R): “Trump, RNC raise over $76 million in April, half from small donors” [Reuters]. “Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s election campaign and the Republican National Committee said on Saturday that they raised more than $76 million in April, over half of it from small donors. The monthly fundraising haul exceeded the $65.6 million raised in March by Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, and the RNC.”
* * * Trump (R) (Bragg/Merchan): “Alvin Bragg’s entire case against Trump hinges on a disbarred serial perjurer” [Jonathan Turley, The Hill]. • Turley pounding the table on Cohen. Also this: “It is not clear what crime Trump was supposedly trying to conceal by making “hush-money” payments to former porn actress Stormy Daniels.” • No, it’s clear; New York’s 17-152 (see here). Now, you may find Bragg’s theory of the case more than a little odd, but at least Bragg has put something forward. (Two conspiracies seem to be required required, one for 17-152 and the other (?) for the business records violation. I don’t suppose Trump can be charged twice for the same conspiracy.)
* * * Trump (R): “What Is Hope Hicks Crying About?” [The New Yorker]. “At the end of the day, I walked out of the courthouse with another journalist who’s been attending the trial. He didn’t buy Hicks’s tears. ‘Come on,’ he said. ‘She’s a crisis-communications professional.’ She’d been terse at crucial moments for the prosecution, and generous with her praise of Trump. (‘A very good multitasker and a very hard worker,’ she called him.) Though she’d confirmed that Trump and his circle were worried that sex scandals would hurt him in the 2016 election, she’d also testified that Trump had asked his staff to hide newspapers from Melania when the Wall Street Journal published an article about McDougal. (‘I don’t think he wanted anyone in his family to be hurt or embarrassed by anything that was happening on the campaign,’ she said. ‘He wanted them to be proud of him.’) It wasn’t clear if her testimony had helped either side. Maybe it had helped Hope Hicks.” • It’s clear that Trump’s staff was upset on behalf of the campaign; it’s not clear to me from the reporting who upset Trump (the person being charged) was. After all, how many other storms had he already weathered?
* * * Trump (R): “Trump Campaign Talks Up His Prospects of Flipping Two States” [Bloomberg]. “Trump’s team said its polling shows he has a chance to win Minnesota and Virginia, according to two donors who heard the presentation at a retreat in Palm Beach, Florida…. Casting his prospects as potentially expanding the electoral map for Republicans is part of a strategy to persuade donors that they’d be placing a winning bet on the former president. Trump eyed Minnesota as a potential flip in 2020 before losing the state to Biden, in part because his campaign hit a cash crunch during the crucial closing stretch of the cycle.”
* * * Kennedy (I): “RFK Jr. reads attacks from pundits in new video from super PAC: ‘He is nuts'” [The Hill]. “The video begins with Kennedy, reading: “‘He is nuts and clearly disturbed,’ The Standard; ‘He’s angry,’ Vanity Fair; ‘His own family hates him,’ The New York Post; ‘He sounds like he is transmitting from another galaxy he is so crazy,’ The New York Post; ‘Kennedy is a humorless bully living in a paranoid fantasy,’ Vanity Fair; ‘What the f— is wrong with Bobby Kennedy?’… Kennedy then laughs to himself, and the camera switches to a low, profile shot, giving the appearance of a behind-the-scenes view of the production team. Kennedy leans over his shoulder, looks into the camera directly and says, “I wouldn’t vote for that guy either.’The title of the video — “Who is Bobby Kennedy?” with the subhead, “‘What if he’s not crazy?'” — then flashes across the screen. The remainder of the video introduces the audience to the candidate’s biography…. Following the video’s release on Friday, Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram initially blocked the video on both platforms. A spokesperson for Meta said the video was incorrectly flagged as spam and the issue was addressed soon after it was discovered.” • A mistake by Meta. Of course. Here’s the video:
Kennedy (I): On the Pandemic Treaty:
49 Republican Senators wrote to President Biden demanding he withdraw U.S. support for the WHO Pandemic “Agreement" and major amendments to the International Health Regulations.
The Senators point out that these 2 documents would:
1. Give the WHO Director-General the authority… pic.twitter.com/4AniXvwkrZ
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) May 4, 2024
* * * “A Tale of Two Elections” [National Populist Newsletter]. “While national polling remains tight, there’s a significant divide in the electoral college polling separated between the South and the Midwest. This election comes down to The Sun Belt vs. The Rust Belt…. For the casual political observer who doesn’t know, the Sun Belt is the strip of 14 states south of the 36th parallel. It is highly diverse, heavily Hispanic, fast-growing, and worth 234 electoral college votes. This region has the critical swing states of North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Texas, Arizona, and Nevada – all of which were decided by less than five points.” I don’t think either Texas or Florida are Swing States, though Democrats wish they were. More: “The Rust Belt is the region of the Midwest that once represented the industrial base of the United States after WWII. It went from the Steel Belt to the Rust Belt as jobs moved overseas during globalization, and mining and energy jobs started disappearing. The Rust Belt includes Western New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin are the three most important states that have a chance of flipping.” And: “From 2020, whites without a college degree will make up more than a quarter of Biden’s base, and in the Rust Belt, it’s close to a majority. Trump will need to keep these voters because he cannot rely on his growing support from Latinos and Asians to make up the difference in these states.” • Hmm.
Democrats en Déshabillé
“Jeffries: Democrats ‘effectively’ in majority due to GOP ‘chaos, dysfunction'” [The Hill]. “Jeffries said Sunday in a CBS “60 Minutes” interview with Norah O’Donnell that Democrats hold outright influence over the House because of how fractured the GOP majority is. ‘Even though we’re in the minority, we effectively have been governing as if we were in the majority because we continue to provide a majority of the votes necessary to get things done,’ Jeffries said. ‘Those are just the facts.’ ‘It’s a difficult situation on the other side of the aisle, because many of my Republican colleagues are more interested in creating chaos, dysfunction, and extremism,’ he continued. The Republican majority in the House stands at just five seats, with all in attendance, meaning Johnson has no room for error on controversial bills to ensure passage without working with Democrats. Johnson also faces an ouster threat from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who has blasted the Speaker for working with Democrats and creating a ‘uniparty.’ Jeffries and Democrats have said they will protect Johnson against Greene’s motion to vacate. He said that Johnson has not asked him for help, but that backing the Speaker is what needs to be done.” • Great. So codify Roe, or something.
2020 Post Mortem
“Sen. Tom Cotton: The 2020 Election ‘Was Not Fair’ And ‘Was Rigged In Many Ways'” [RealClearPolitics]. “Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that he agrees with Donald Trump that the 2020 election ‘was rigged in many ways.’ For example, Cotton cites ‘Democratic states and cities changing election laws and election practices up to the last minute,’ ‘the media… and 51 Democratic intelligence operatives saying the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation,’ and ‘social media then censoring all those things.’ ‘Those were all deeply unfair,’ Cotton said. ‘I never, and Donald Trump has never, said… crazy conspiracies about Venezuela rigging the voting machines.'” • All that may be true — on the Hunter Biden laptop debacle, Cotton is undoubtedly right — but that is not the case Trump made at the time. Trump — because, I think, he’s sloppy and undisciplined, and in this case had extremely bad advice — went for the balloting process (and did so without involving any of the experts who could have shown him where the vulnerabilities in the system actually are. As a result, hand-marked paper ballots, hand-counted in public have become MAGA-adjacent, instead of being percieved as the global standard they in fact are [pounds head on desk]).
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!
Maskstravaganza
Our neoliberal world:
we have arrived at the extortion part of pandemic capitalism. good god https://t.co/VEIw6MYaFu
— Raani Begum (@raanibegum) May 3, 2024
Testing and Tracking: H5N1
“From sewage to safety: Hospital wastewater surveillance as a beacon for defense against H5N1 bird flu” [STAT]. “If the H5N1 virus gains the ability for sustained human-to-human transmission, we could have another deadly pandemic on our hands. These developments are of great concern to scientists like us who work on pandemic preparedness and response. We believe there is an urgent need to develop the capacity to rapidly detect and monitor the potential spillover of H5N1 into humans, including sustained human-to-human transmission. This will be challenging — if not impossible — by relying primarily on traditional public health surveillance approaches. A relatively novel tool, wastewater surveillance, demonstrated great potential during the Covid-19 pandemic for early detection and monitoring of that threat on a large scale, yet it remains vastly under-leveraged for H5N1 at this precarious moment…. Given that the most likely source of future pandemics will be from microbes circulating in the animal kingdom, the settings considered for wastewater surveillance for zoonotic pathogens like H5N1 should expand to include waste directly collected from facilities such as hospitals, large-scale emergency departments and outpatient health care providers, schools and universities, and nursing homes to enable more rapid and definitive detection and differentiation of animal outbreaks from human spillover activity leading to sustained community transmission.”
Sequelae: Covid
Alert reader LawnDart throws the following handy graphic over the transom:
“Sometimes I wonder if I’m in my right mind. Then it passes off and I’m as intelligent as ever.” –Samuel Beckett, Endgame.
Treatment: Covid
“Oral antivirals for acute symptoms and post-acute sequelae in SARS-CoV-2 infection” (comment) [The Lancet]. “Current data, including the results from Wang and colleagues’ study,1 support a mechanistic view in which reducing viral replication might be important for improving mid-term to long-term clinical outcomes…. In summary, oral antiviral agents given promptly could help mitigate hospitalisation burden, facilitate post-exposure prophylaxis, reduce post-COVID-19 sequelae, and potentially minimise household transmission of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Thus, clinical development of antivirals against SARS-CoV-2 should remain a priority. Antivirals are a powerful complement to vaccines and will help to further ameliorate the global clinical burden of COVID-19 in the coming years.”
Celebrity Watch
Now my favorite Beatle:
Paul McCartney wearing a mask today in Manhattan. (Mega-celebrities can use them to also deflect attention. But obviously that didn’t completely work in this case.) pic.twitter.com/ttlXLHoxfD
— #9 Dream (@GayFabFourFan) May 3, 2024
Elite Maleficence
“Closing Soon! Sign and Share Our Expert Letter to Mandy Cohen Urging Science-Based COVID Isolation Guidance” [People’s CDC]. “May 11 is the 1 year anniversary of the premature end of the federal public health emergency (PHE). The end of the PHE brought the end to many crucial resources, and continued rollbacks in resources and public health guidance put our communities at even greater risk. Our expert letter asking for a minimum of 7-10 days isolation for COVID has already received over 300 signatures from experts and over 700 signatures from members of the public. In recognition of the anniversary of the end of the PHE, we will continue taking signatures through May 11 and will deliver the letter to CDC Director Mandy Cohen shortly thereafter.” Note the restriction: “This letter is for public health professionals, scientists, healthcare workers, disability advocates, and others who consider themselves experts in public health.”
“‘They need to back off’: Farm states push back on Biden’s bird flu response” [Politico]. “Many farmers don’t want federal health officials on their property…. Texas, the first state where the bird flu virus was detected, has not invited the CDC to conduct epidemiological field studies there, even though its health department is open to the research, because, “We haven’t found a dairy farm that is interested in participating,” said Lara Anton, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of State Health Services…. CDC officials are acutely aware of the gaps in the agency’s early response to Covid-19 during the Trump administration, a misstep Biden officials are intent on averting just months before the 2024 election. The White House’s new Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy has taken charge of coordinating work across the various federal agencies, meeting regularly with top officials and consulting outside experts in an effort to manage the risks facing livestock and humans alike. Senior pandemic preparedness officials recognize that bird flu represents the first true test for the fledgling office, aides said, especially amid skepticism from Trump and others who have questioned whether it needs to exist. White House chief of staff Jeff Zients has taken a personal interest in the bird flu response.” • God help us. Anyhow, it’s either “freedumb” or the H5N1 situation in Texas is far worse than we’re being told.
Somebody needs to sue UConn for the obvious ADA violation:
Banning masks when disabled students, faculty members and family want to attend graduation?
Not cool UConn. pic.twitter.com/hOlGUFyKLW
— Dr. Mary Donegan (@Dr_Donegan) May 3, 2024
* * * “American Association of Immunologists (AAI) Introduces New Brand Identity” (press release) [American Association of Immunologists (AAI)]. “”This new logo reflects AAI’s forward-leaning approach and symbolizes progress and unity within the immunology and scientific communities. Its dynamic and vibrant design showcases AAI’s diverse expertise and inclusivity, illuminating its unique role in advancing immunology,” said President Akiko Iwasaki, Ph.D.” • Akiko Iwasaki is sound on nasal vaccines, but I keep seeing pictures of AAI members unmasked at conferences and parties, so I’m of two minds, here. Anyhow, here’s the new logo:
Do we have any professional graphic artists in the audience who can comment?
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 3: | ★ National [6] CDC April 27: |
 |
 |
| Positivity | |
| National[7] Walgreens May 6: | 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. Commentary:
What CDC projected last week was completely incorrect, not even close to what came to fruition, their forecasting ability is nonexistent, this entire narrative is #broken pic.twitter.com/E1p8yEIa3p
— Justin Lee (@DailyJLee) May 3, 2024
As I commented: “Surprise!” (Now I can’t find it, but I recall tracking a CDC model of infection at the national level because I knew it would fail, and it did, spectacularly, missing IIRC Omicron.)
[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) Slight uptick.
[8] (Cleveland) Leveling out.
[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
There are no official statistics of interest today.
Manufacturing: “Boeing faces 10 more whistleblowers after two die: ‘People’s lives are at stake'” [New York Post]. “[Barnett and Dean lawyer Brian] Knowles pointed out that the Charleston, SC, police are still wrapping up their investigation of Barnett’s death — and that it may take some weeks for tests to reveal more about Dean’s passing.” • The Charleston police are certainbly taking their own sweet time, aren’t they? And the “tests” for Dean are his mother demanding an autopsy.
Manufacturing: “Commercial jet maker Airbus is staying humble even as Boeing flounders. There’s a reason for that” [Associated Press]. “Airbus has outpaced Boeing for five straight years in plane orders and deliveries, and just reported a 28% quarterly increase in net profit. It was already winning market share by beating Boeing to develop a line of fuel-efficient, mid-sized aircraft that are cheaper for airlines to fly…. Yet the European company is unlikely to extend its advantage in the Airbus-Boeing duopoly much further despite having customers clamoring for more commercial aircraft, according to aviation analysts. The reason: Airbus already is making planes as fast as it can and has a backlog of more than 8,600 orders to fill.” • That’s a lot. Maybe COMAC can pick up the slack.
Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 40 Fear (previous close: 39 Fear) [CNN]. One week ago: 43 (Fear). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated May 6 at 1:35:49 PM ET.
Rapture Index: Closes unchanged [Rapture Ready]. Record High, October 10, 2016: 189. Current: 187. (Remember that bringing on the Rapture is good.) • Bird flu not a concern, apparently. And I hate even to go here, but the “Tribulation Temple” category is a mere 3. If Tribulation Temple = Third Temple = whatever temple it is that the Red Heifer loons want to build, then the Rapture Index is making a call, and it’s saying “Don’t worry about the Red Heifers.”
The Gallery
Monet’s Garden:
Guillotine Watch
These people have too much money:
Nachos are $180 at F1 Miami
We need a dozen more rate hikes pic.twitter.com/LXcC8LT6pj
— Inverse Cramer (Not Jim Cramer) (@CramerTracker) May 5, 2024
News of the Wired
“Ancient-ish Woolen Dutch Hats” [Kottke.org]. “Nothing more exciting than knitted items!” •Here they are:
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: “I’ve sent photos of pink flowers on our Silk Floss Tree, but I don’t think I’ve sent any of the pods. This is the first year that we’ve seen these “fruit” pods behave like other Silk Floss trees we’ve seen. Given how much rain we have seen in the past few months, I’ve concluded that I’d not been watering the poor dear enough. It used to develop these pods and seemingly get no farther. They’d not get this large, would stay green, and cling to the tree for MONTHS. But now they are maturing to the point of the outer pod going brown, splitting and falling to the ground, leaving the “Silk Floss” to patiently await a nice breeze. On windy days we’ve seen the fibers all over the back yard, and even in the front (tree is in back) and wondered if the neighbors were getting it also, doubtless wondering what the heck it is.” Pod people, please feel free to comment!
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F.Y.I.
Note to all smug liberals who thought that the FBI and DoJ over prosecuting only applied to January 6th MAGA types:
Surprise! You’re invited to a jail cell nearby for exercising your freedom of expression, too. Bring your own bail.
The thought occurs that between H5N1 and TB, we may finally see widespread acceptance of personalized respiratory protection.
The CV seems to have not been dangerous enough for most people to bother protecting themselves beyond the non-sterilizing-immunity-conferring vaccinations, but I imagine that multi-drug-resistant TB will start to concentrate minds.
—
I confess to experiencing a brief frisson of dread when I hear a hacking cough, which I do a great deal these days.
And with a global war on the horizon that would disrupt medicine and medical supplies.
Brief?
There is such a thing as tuberculosis vaccination. And has been for years. I have heard that it is fairly common in some other countries. The link below is to “cdc” but it might be legacy information from older better times at CDC before it got zombicated by the introduction of trojan horseloads of political commissars.
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/tb/index.html
Certainly common in former Soviet Bloc countries.
Watched “Finding the Money” the other night.
https://findingmoneyfilm.com/
The other day there was a clip from the documentary that made Jared Bernstein look like a fool.
Without giving anything away, Jared Bernstein wasn’t the only fool interviewed.
“First, they Ignore You, Then they laugh at you, Then they fight you, Then you win.”
Thank you. It’s also available in optical disc format, shipping in mid-June. This might be a useful disc to have on the shelf to share out to friends who don’t blow you off at the first hint of MMT-oriented thinking.
Bernstein’s (literally) pitiful performance made me think first of clinical cognitive decline rather than PMC cluelessness… which leads me to wonder which is worse: a high level policy-making official continuing to work while in a state of serious mental confusion/deterioration or a high level policy-making official who is clueless as a matter of professional obligation?
F1 racing and that menu board…a commercial cue for a new Visa advertising campaign? It’s everywhere you want to go and drop $500 on finger foods…
Holy crap on a store label cracker who on earth can afford it…no nevermind I think we know that all too well… meanwhile Ken Griffin of Citadel notoriety was just being interviewed by CNBC while attending the aptly named Milliken Investment Conference.
Caviar Emptor!
I remember seeing a menu from Davos and a hot dog was around $45, but that now seems reasonable compared to the numbers bandied about for finger food @ F1.
If — as many are saying — the dollar is currently overvalued by a third, those are only $120 nachos.
However, if your understanding of the dollar is still rooted in 1971 prices (the year I graduated high school) then those are only $24 nachos altho it doesn’t hurt to keep in mind that a NY strip steak dinner was going for about $20 in swanky places.
But nacho technology is so much better now, and restaurant portions are much larger, so like car prices there can be no conclusions about inflation here.
Right, it’s a bargain once you make the hedonic adjustments.
I can believe a 50 dollar wiener. NonGMO grain fed and house smoked.
Bur is this signage for real!? Those prices are consciously ostentatious. Macho nachos for a holes
I once saw a pizzeria in St. Moritz with pizzas over 40 CHF
I didn’t click through to search for pricing ranges or anything further, seems very likely that the below site information on hand would not be too reliable as it is. The race weekend has come and gone.
The only live sport event comparison I can immediately think up is for any of the four men’s golf major championships. Except for the Masters which seems to keep a short leash on vendor offerings, the US Open and the PGA championship are a veritable “corporation utopia” for all manner of endorsements and corporate entertainment options. A $20 cold beer is not that unusual.
https://f1miamigp.com/food/
I was at the Belgian Grand Prix in SPA last year. 3 day ticket for a “silver” covered grand stand seat was about €650 each. Standard sporting event lunch/snack fare cost about €30/ day each. Not a lot of celebrity sightings there in the rain and mud out in the Belgian countryside.
I think those prices are more a Miami thing than an F1 thing.
Re The New Yorker–Patrick Lawrence
Reportedly Seinfeld’s wife as been helping fund the group that went after the student protestors in Los Angeles. So assuming he agrees with his wife Mr..”about nothing” may be about something after all. It starts with a G.
As for Remnick, make it stop.
I left off the link for Lawrence
https://scheerpost.com/2024/05/02/patrick-lawrence-of-journalists-students-and-power/
superb piece, thx!
Madame Seinfeld funding the violent counter-protesters at UCLA is the chef’s kiss —
I remember several years back when Seinfeld was photographed at some IDF fantasy camp in Israel where tourist-soldiers get to fire automatic rifles at “terrorist” targets. What fun! Seems he is as shallow as the characters on his hit TV show.
As for the New Yorker… Where to start.
IMHO it started with Tina Brown.
RE: Bragg case against Trump
NY Section 17-152 isn’t really clearing it up for me. He has to use “unlawful means” to get elected, and hush money isn’t unlawful. Is the idea that calling it a legal expense instead of “hush miney payment” is where the “crime” comes in? But even then, 17-152 says one would be guilty of a misdemeanor, not a felony.
Clearly I’m missing something here. But what I’m not missing is that whatever is going on in Bragg’s head, who is trying this case after initially refusing due to lack of evidence, any “crime” was only concocted after taking the desired page of penal code, getting out the scissors and making a Xmas snowflake out of it, then folding that into an origami Rube Goldberg machine, and then tying it into a pretzel.
Trump of course has called out the coordinated effort between the White House and the various prosecutors currently after him. I was listening to some talking head or other today say that these claims were “completely baseless” once again, despite there being ample evidence that they are not.
This is an excellent example of what happens when the decision makers are never held accountable. Bragg’s ‘strategy’ is being driven by the same people who failed to honestly beat Trump in 2020 and lost to him outright in 2016, failures for which they should have been replaced. Internal party politics traditionally make the steak knives scene in Glengarry Glen Ross look like a Victorian tea party in comparison but since the neoliberal takeover no guilty party is ever hung out to dry (just bystanders and Bernie Bros).
Old school was hard knocks but when you hired a campaign manager with a string of victories, it meant you were going with a proven winner. Nowadays nothing means anything, being in charge is practically synonymous with ‘unqualified but well connected.’
I’m still of the unpopular opinion that Speaker Jordan is rope-a-doping us, stalling everything while using gross incompetence as his cover. Bragg is grossly incompetent but we’re all but being ordered by the media to nod at his sagacity.
Not really seeing it yet, but I believe we are about to enter into a Golden Age for satire.
If you read Turley’s columns he says there’s no valid argument for lawbreaking except state law misdemeanors that have passed the statute of limitations.
‘Even though we’re in the minority, we effectively have been governing as if we were in the majority because we continue to provide a majority of the votes necessary to get things done,’ Jeffries said.
Funny, I would have guessed it was because most of the Democrat caucus were de facto Republicans anyway. Isn’t that what Chucky Schumer told us a few years ago?
They are all members of the TINA party–at least on some or most topics.
We the members of the public are members of the WT* party. But then Ralph Nader said that decades ago. He was then called a traitor and shunned.
The idea of the Democrats being “effective” at anything of value is pretty much an AI type hallucination. The lockstep vote on the “any criticism of Israel is criminal antisemitism” bill shows how little separation there is between the parties. My cowardly current rep voted for it. Say what you want about MTG, but at least she votes No on stupid authoritarian bills like that.
The only time the Democratic party has been effective since the late 60’s is when they are kneecapping anyone to their left. The examples are endless, Bernie Sanders, Nina Turner, Jessica Cisneros are just a few recent examples. We could go all the way back to Henry Wallace.
For me the Democratic party is just the Washington Generals of electoral politics. Their job isn’t to win and do anything, it’s just to put on a good show.
The immunologist logo is clever, it’s an antibody on a membrane.
Maybe.
The “Y” is clearly a diagram for an antibody, which only those of us accustomed to this shorthand will get.
It reminds me of the logo of a failed biotech startup in my past that used an Erlenmeyer flask as the primary graphic. I knew the Erlenmeyer was old, but only today bothered to look it up: Invented in 1860 by Emil Erlenmeyer. Made perfect sense for that particular failure spawned by the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980. The erstwhile artist son of one of the “founders” was responsible for the design. No telling how much the consultants made on this antibody thingy.
Hey, maybe those Biden/Harris staffers oh so concerned about the treatment of the protesters could take a lesson or two from them and do a little something more than a strongly worded social media post. But, well, that would all but guarantee no future in that line of work. Hmm…something about trying to have one’s cake and eat it too?
This just came in:
Boeing 787 employees falsified inspection records; FAA opens probe
The Federal Aviation Administration said Monday it has opened a new investigation into a potential manufacturing quality lapse on Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner after Boeing admitted that inspection records on work at the wing-to-body join were falsified…
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/faa-opens-new-investigation-into-boeing-787-wing-to-body-join-work/
What’s that old saying?
Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun was paid $32.8 million in 2023
https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/05/business/boeing-ceo-pay/index.html
Crime pays.
A lot of people make a good living off of it– judges, prison guards, etc… I do wonder what precentage crime/criminal justice industry is of our economy?
Is it safe to characterize Boeing as a criminal enterprise?
Well, they do put out a product… but I guess you can say the same thing about bootleggers and drug-dealers.
I had an overly cynical thought occur later in the day, Monday afternoon watching this story break; if Boeing were regulated like a financial institution with the “SIFI” designation attached appropriately, how many Federal Reserve regulators and OCC regulators would be firmly attached to that corporate HQ? It’s merely a hypothetical notion of course. I guess the FAA has some “authoritah” so to speak. Respect our authoritah (!)
We’d have all manner of regulator commands on what Boeing is, or is not, permitted to pursue. Maybe a distant pipe dream but there are usually markers for when a very large bank is going downstream to swim with the fishes. Then again… Citigroup was cut an awful lot of slack and more recently so too was Wells Fargo.
What a damn joke, and Calhoun ought to get shoved out and no more speeches by him on TV as a Boeing leader.
Is it safe to characterize CIA as a criminal enterprise?
From sewage to safety: Hospital wastewater surveillance as a beacon for defense against H5N1 bird flu
I continue to note the dearth of NY Times headlines in regards to the elite race to get wastewater monitoring for H5N1 online, because, of course, there is no such race of incompetence. When the American elite are not practicing their incompetence, they’re displaying their blissful or willful ignorance. I maintain we’ll know when we’ve an H5N1 human Pandemic on our hands when several hospitals in a region collapse, and not before.
“‘They need to back off’: Farm states push back on Biden’s bird flu response”
And on this note, were America a serious country, at this point we’d have already nationalized the entire diary industry to get this thing under control. Profits over people is going to be on full display throughout this H5N1 crisis, which may one day morph into a human Pandemic for which we’ve shown no appetite for controlling in any way in the form of the SARS2 Pandemic.
If the world gets a taste of the mortality rate for H5N1, there will be an over-reaction and even healthy farm animals will be killed.
Calls on freezers.
US domestic carrier airline Jet Blue uses Airbus jets. You can check their website.
. . . ” • The Charleston police are certainbly taking their own sweet time, aren’t they?”
What if the Charleston police have been warned and advised that they risk being assassinated if they find out anything the assassins don’t want found out?
I added orts and scraps but forgot to say, as I rushed on to the next thing….
Here’s an interesting item . . . ” look who’s back on Elon’s Twitter” . . .
https://www.reddit.com/r/facepalm/comments/1clfu6s/looks_whos_back_on_elons_twitter/
Heh. Ryan Long comedy sketch from 3 years ago. utube, ~2 minutes.
When Wokes and Racists Actually Agree on Everything
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev373c7wSRg
More seriously, authoritarians hate free speech for some reason.
Due Dissidence guys on utube, ~7 minutes.
Israel BANS Al Jazeera, RAIDS Their Office
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyKED5c2PeY
Latest from AlJazeera
Israel’s war on Gaza live: Israel hits Rafah after Hamas accepts truce deal
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/5/6/israels-war-on-gaza-live-israel-pounds-rafah-as-truce-talks-stall
Palestinians report tanks have entered East Rafah after War Cabinet gives operation go-ahead
IDF ground forces enter East Rafah after intense shelling; War Cabinet unanimously decides to continue Gaza operation and also send negotiating team to Gaza; US official: ‘War Cabinet did not negotiate with Hamas in good faith’
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/b1xb11n8za#autoplay
Good think the US House passed a bill making it illegal to criticize Isr. In the nick of time… / sheesh
And here’s an interesting explainer for us layfolk on just how Jeff Bezos can legally avoid paying any federal taxes to IRS ( on behalf of all the rest of us).
https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/1cljifp/how_jeff_bezoe_avoids_paying_taxes_credit_goes_to/
It only takes a minute . . . . and its animated! ( if only crudely).
It misses the last step – step up depreciation! Everything in that video would would be somewhat tolerable if taxes were eventually paid upon Bezos death. But, of course they arent. Bezos dies and his heirs get all of his assets free and clear without ever being taxed
RE: SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater
http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/media/Coronavirus/data/index.htm#waterwater
In Los Angeles County the population weighted average wastewater concentrations of SARS-CoV-2 formed a bottom on 4/6/24 and is heading up again.
Wonder if AOC will have another tacky eat the rich dress at the Met?
This seems important
https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2024/05/06/here-we-go-further-down-the-slippery-slope-to-wwiii/
He’s talking about the official announcement of French troops in Ukraine.
I didn’t get the tactical nuclear arms part. If the numbers are to be believed, the French will have a total of 1500 combatants in Ukraine, presumably a big enough regular missile can blow that many people to bits, and if they are going to be split up and deployed to multiple regions, does that mean Russia is supposed to use n number of tactical nuclear weapons with n corresponding to the number of regions?
The problem basically boils down to: why are Starbucks, McDonald’s etc still operating in Kiev? Just take out all the electric grid already, not sure what Russia is waiting for? Is that guy Shoigu still using his Playstation 5 to scan the horizons for signs of Western trustworthiness?
The Russians have shown incredible bravery and discipline in this conflict. I figure if they haven’t nailed the coffin yet, when it is so obvious to us commoners to do so, there’s probably a good reason. Or maybe I’ve read too many Andrei Martyanov posts.
I’ve been assuming it’s the Colin Powell a.k.a. Pottery Barn rule: “you break it, you own it”.
Because once the smoke clears and the war winds down, a lot of this territory is going to have a very different status.
Are the French troops actually French soldiers, or Légion étrangère, so that Macron can say “troops” but not “NATO troops”?
Supposedly drawn from the 3rd Infantry Regiment of the French Foreign Legion and are stationed in Slavyansk. The officers would be French citizens and I would hazard a guess that more than a few of the troops would have been originally from the Ukraine-
https://sputnikglobe.com/20240506/french-foreign-legion-possibly-racked-up-first-losses-in-ukraine—report-1118283980.html
Modena admits:
https://x.com/moderna_tx/status/1787535578378248542?s=46
With liberals kneeling before the altar of mRNA, I wonder if this gets legitimacy? Or maybe it has to come from Team Pfizer.
Modena obviously peddling their shots.
https://www.modernatx.com/media-center/all-media/blogs/long-covid-awareness-day-2024
Ya know, I saw that too, but when I clicked through and scanned their source:
Experiences of Canadians with long-term symptoms following COVID-19
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/75-006-x/2023001/article/00015-eng.htm
…the only 40% claim in the article is:
You have to dig a bit, but Modena is glossing chart #2 in the study and the actual number is 37.9%, i.e. 2.6x more likely. Close enough, anyway.
There’s plenty of other bad news in this report that will hopefully jolt a few more people into consciousness of the consequences of “let ‘er rip” policies. Good on Statistics Canada for assembling this.
https://twitter.com/nicksortor/status/1787631653239529751?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw/
Protestors in NYC trying to get to the MET gala and clashing with police.
Apologies if this mega-thread on COVID transmission was already posted but:
https://twitter.com/glbabbington/status/1787368894208102541
Lots of good materials in this one, including on germicidal ultraviolet (GUV) tech.
The RFK Jr infomercial is well done, I wound up watching the whole thing. Opening with his version of Mean Tweets is quite effective. While I suspect he’d be more-of-same on some of my particular hobby horse issues, he’s asking for my vote and he may get it.