By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Bird Song of the Day
Sedge Warbler, Sinker’s Fields, Whixall, Shropshire, England, United Kingdom. “2 canal towpath 1 main drain near hide.” Short but sweet!
In Case You Might Miss…
(1) Trump riffing.
(2) Dear Hunter’s conviction.
(3) Ceiling fans and aerosol transmission.
(4) Origin of the tinfoil hat (as a signfier).
Look for the Helpers
Won’t you be my neighbor:
My email address is down by the plant; please send examples of “Helpers” there. In our increasingly desperate and fragile neoliberal society, everyday normal incidents and stories of “the communism of everyday life” are what I am looking for (and not, say, the Red Cross in Hawaii, or even the UNWRA in Gaza).
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
2024
Less than a half a year to go!
No discernible effect from Trump’s conviction yet (though Democrats have only just begun to exploit it). Swing States (more here) still Brownian-motioning around. Of course, it goes without saying that these are all state polls, therefore bad, and most of the results are within the margin of error. If will be interesting to see whether the verdict in Judge Merchan’s court affects the polling, and if so, how.
* * * Trump (R) (People v. Trump): “NJ reviewing Trump golf courses’ liquor licenses after felony conviction” [FOX]. “The New Jersey Attorney General’s Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control is reviewing the liquor licenses at properties owned by former President Donald Trump. The Alcoholic Beverage Control division (ABC) is considering whether Trump’s recent felony conviction violates a clause in the state law that restricts licenses based on criminal history…. According to New Jersey state law, ‘No license of any class shall be issued to any person under the age of 18 years or to any person who has been convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude.'” • Since we don’t know which of the three object offenses converted Trump’s business records misdemeanor into a felony, I don’t see how we can know whether turpitude was involved or not. This illusrates the larger point that Trump is now a felon, and imbricated within the criminal justice system, and that will have continuing and unexpected results (especially in Blue states).
* * * Trump (R): “With no teleprompter, Trump riffs with crowd at Las Vegas rally, vows to end taxes on tips” [USA Today]. “‘So this is the first time I’ve said this, and for those hotel workers and people that get tips you’re going to be very happy because when I get to office, we are going to not charge taxes on tips people (are) making,” Trump told a crowd of several thousand people.'” • Readers, if any of you spot a transcript for this speech, please send it along to me; I would like very much to compare the Trump of today to the Trump I reported on in 2016, where I described Trump as “riffing jazzily.”
Trump (R): “Why Plutocrats Are Rallying to Trump” [Jeet Heer, The Nation]. The deck: “Civic lessons won’t sway America’s oligarchs. Instead, we need forthright economic populism to bring them to heel.” Oh well. More: “The fact that so many rich people are willing to abandon democracy for the sake of money they don’t even need is a great argument for economic populism. In the past, Democrats have tried to undermine Trump’s popularity by claiming that his wealth is phony. In 2016, Hillary Clinton boasted, “I love having the support of real billionaires.” Clinton touted her support from Warren Buffett and Michael Bloomberg (who was given pride of place at the Democratic National Convention in both 2016 and 2020). But the sad truth is that Trump himself has the support of many real billionaires—and for good reason: He upholds their class interests. If the Democrats really want to rally popular support, they’d do well to mothball Bloomberg and run on good old-fashioned economic populism. Trump-loving plutocrats are a threat to democracy, and there is political capital to be reaped by highlighting that fact and promising to rein in their outsize economic power.” • Leading credence to my theory that Biden put Lina Khan at the FTC for future extortion, because otherwise, he’d be running on her record.
* * * Biden (D): “Team Biden bets an unfiltered Trump at the debate can shake up the race” [NBC]. “Team Biden sees the chance for him to go up against [Trump] as a probable catalyzing moment. That is particularly true if Biden shows up with the same kind of energy he brought to his State of the Union address in March, many Democrats say. Finally, Democrats and Biden officials hope, the public will be able to put aside the caricatures of the candidates and instead view them side by side…. Inside the campaign, aides believe Biden walks on the stage with the upper hand. Mostly, his mandate will be to let ‘Trump be Trump,’ which they believe will reveal extreme leanings and a less stable Trump than four years ago…. ‘We all get a chance to see whether Joe Biden is as feeble as Trump says he is. We all get a chance to see whether Donald Trump is as unhinged as Joe Biden says he is,’ Luntz said. ‘This is our chance to test the worst accusations of the candidates against each other.'” • Yep.
* * * Biden (D): “The Hunter fallout” [Politico]. “As we reported today, the president’s ‘team held a series of conversations at their campaign headquarters to discuss the potential aftershocks from the verdict, according to three Biden officials familiar with internal meetings who were granted anonymity to relay details of them. The general belief among aides is that it would not change the trajectory of the race but would likely become a focal point for the upcoming debate.’ The president has not yet done a formal debate prep session. That could begin at Camp David, where Biden is considering holing up for days later this month, according to two of the officials, though they cautioned that plans were not finalized. Aides to the president are of the mindset that Trump could use the debate to badger Biden as an inadequate father. And privately, there is a faction of advisers who feel the president would be wise to let out his famous temper in response — the logic being that an authentic, forceful rejoinder to an attack on a son who suffered from addiction would resonate with voters. But there is also another question with regards to how the debate will go: Will the Hunter verdict change how Biden himself addresses Trump’s own status as a convicted felon? On that front, the answer is no. Biden is still, on occasion, expected to bring up Trump’s hush money conviction — including during the upcoming debate. ‘Hunter Biden is a private citizen and not on the ballot. Donald Trump was president and is running to be again,’ said one of the officials who, like the others, was granted anonymity to discuss internal conversations. ‘These are apples and oranges. We are not going to shy away from it.’ Ultimately, Biden’s top advisors believe that Hunter Biden’s issues are already baked into the 2024 election, with polls consistently showing attacks on Hunter Biden and a recent impeachment inquiry into the president having little impact.” • As of now, Hunter Biden’s conviction will have as much impact on the polls as Trump’s did. But how the candidates handle their respective convictions? That could make a difference.
Two examples of triumphalism taking the same line:
Biden (D): “Hunter Biden verdict throws ‘sand in the gears’ of GOP’s attacks on legal system” [Politico]. “‘It throws a bit of sand in the gears of people suggesting the Biden Department of Justice has been engineered to go after Trump,’ said Jason Roe, a GOP strategist and former chair of the Michigan Republican Party.”
Biden (D): “Hunter Biden Conviction Undercuts a Trump Narrative, and a Fund-Raising Pitch” [New York Times]. “Many Trump allies had been secretly rooting for an acquittal. The talking points wrote themselves: It would have been yet more evidence that the United States justice system was rigged in favor of the Bidens and against the Trumps. Tuesday’s guilty verdict was inconvenient to that narrative.”
Lambert here: The counter-example would be that Hunter — Dear Hunter! — is a sacrificial victim, as he has been all his life. A conviction on gun charges would be a small price to pay to close the books on the Biden family business, in which Hunter played such a central role.
* * * Kennedy (I): “The Quiet Voice in R.F.K. Jr.’s Ear: A Former Aide to the Clintons” [New York Times]. “Jay Carson may be the most unexpected. Now a Hollywood screenwriter, Mr. Carson, 47, has the résumé of a Democratic insider. He was the press secretary for Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. He worked for Bill Clinton, Chuck Schumer, Tom Daschle, Howard Dean and Michael Bloomberg. He describes Anita Dunn, a senior adviser to President Biden, as his political godmother and ‘one of my favorite people in the world.’ He left politics more than a decade ago for show business, becoming a producer on ‘House of Cards’ and the creator of ‘The Morning Show.”‘He got divorced, got sober — he met Mr. Kennedy at one of his first 12-step meetings — remarried and settled into a new life in Topanga Canyon, Calif., with no plans to return to a campaign. But over the past year, he has become a quiet, steadying force behind a candidate who is at war with the Democratic Party. As an informal adviser, Mr. Carson has offered Mr. Kennedy encouragement and guidance on campaign staffing, communications and field operations. He produced and appeared in a 30-minute advertisement about Mr. Kennedy, paid for by a super PAC backing him. He was involved in running-mate discussions. Mr. Kennedy often texts him, ‘Please call Bobby,’ and he does.” • Hmm.
* * * “New poll goes deep on Kamala Harris’ liabilities and strengths as a potential president” [Politico]. “Harris faces pessimism about her future role in the party from a bloc of Democrats and a far larger share of independents. The poll found that a majority of voters don’t view Harris as a strong leader (48 percent to 42 percent). Nor do they see her as trustworthy (46 percent to 43 percent).” • Accurate.
“Notes on the State of Politics: June 12, 2024” [Sabato’s Crystal Ball]. A round-up of state primary races. Here’s Maine: “The biggest development last night from Maine was that national Republicans got their preferred challenger against three-term Rep. Jared Golden (D, ME-2). While Golden had no opposition in his primary, state Rep. Austin Theriault defeated fellow state Rep. Michael Soboleski 2-to-1 in the GOP primary. Theriault, a first-term legislator who is a retired NASCAR driver, had the backing of House Speaker Mike Johnson (R). While Golden has consistently been able to earn crossover support, the trend of this demographically Trumpy district is not working in his favor: in 2020, for example, most of Biden’s statewide improvement over Hillary Clinton came in the Portland-area ME-1. We are holding the contest, which will almost certainly be one of the most expensive House races, in the Toss-up column.”
Realignment and Legitimacy
“Hidden UFO civilization could be on Earth: Harvard researchers” [The Hill]. “An unidentified, technologically advanced population could be living secretly on Earth. That startling claim was made in a new paper by researchers at Harvard and Montana Technological University. They speculate that ‘unidentified anomalous phenomena’ (UAP), another term for UFOs, could be living underground, on the moon or even walking among humans…. The paper posits the possibility of “cryptoterrestrials” as an explanation for unidentified and unexplainable observations made worldwide each year…. The researchers propose the influx of sightings in similar areas is due to entry/exit points for hidden societies deep in the Earth. Other possibilities for cryptoterrestrial settlements lie nearby, like on the moon.” • Hmm. Presumably the aliens can take on human form, are smarter than we are, and have super powers. So why would the Lizard People be hiding? Why wouldn’t they be getting rich, or seeking high office?
Syndemics
“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
I’m glad at least one media figure is hammering away at this:
Thank you @ChrisCuomo for having me on to discuss #LongCOVID this week. It means so much to millions that you have been using your platform to relentlessly cover this issue when so many others have turned away. As this latest NASEM report shows, we need action now more than ever https://t.co/kKv8EODTZS
— Putrino Lab (@PutrinoLab) June 9, 2024
Though the irony that it’s Ratface Andy’s brother is a little heavy….
Airborne Transmission: Covid
Educational video:
If you can get infected in 5 second, surely you’d protect yourself and others.
Our Japanese neighbours show us the new 5 second rule:https://t.co/PURI1rJ76l
— Melissa Challenor (@urbanmel) June 10, 2024
“Indoor air targets must account for overdispersion and mixing” (e-letter) [Science]. “Adequate mixing is also needed to dilute transient accumulations near high-emitting infectors [superspreaders] (9), which per CDC, requires >6 air changes per hour (ACH), surpassing 14 lps for many rooms (10). Some scenarios (5) (e.g., exercise, singing, prolonged exposure in homes, workplaces (12) (13)), may need greater total airflow or ACH (11), feasible with portable cleaners (14) (15) (imagine how close-contact emissions might be quickly disbursed by ceiling fans).” • And the follow-through:
And:
I’ve always loved ceiling fans, but now I really love them (and if you can, consider installing yours before any holiday gatherings. This is from a 2023 paper, “Transient transmission of droplets and aerosols in a ventilation system with ceiling fans“, which sadly I missed. Fifty lashes with a wet noodle for lambert!) Note that WHO butchered its technical report on “Pathogens that Transmit Through the Air” for the same reason: They didn’t model the dynamics of aerosols (in their case, they didn’t take into account the fact that hot air rises). The estimable Naomi Wu comments on a related topic but to the same effect:
After seeing @eddericu and @Engineer_Wong's work, I've been playing with laminar flow, and I gotta say- air is some bullshit. It's like wood versus aluminum. Take a random piece of 6061- look up your cutting speed and feed on the chart or let the CAM app do it, walk away.
Wood?… https://t.co/yQhRrkmS1H
— Nukit (@NukitToBeSure) June 12, 2024
“I demand that air that just stays there and doesn’t go all over the place and do weird shit😡” Winning this one for her fans!
Transmission (Covid)
“COVID is coming for Calif., and it’s already hitting the Bay Area the hardest” [SFGATE]. “In an email to SFGATE, Amanda Bidwell, a wastewater researcher and data analyst at Stanford, said that over the past 21 days ‘consistently high concentrations’ of SARS-CoV-2 have been detected in wastewater samples collected across San Francisco. ‘Currently we are seeing some of the highest concentrations we’ve ever measured’ at these locations, Bidwell continued. And across San Francisco, the levels are approaching those last seen in December and January. Because individuals shed the virus before getting tested, this method of monitoring wastewater helps predict upcoming surges while including data from those who are asymptomatic.” • Woo hoo!
“Vertical transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from mother to fetus” (letter) [Pathology]. “We present a case of intrauterine fetal death from a mother infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The main goal of this work was to scientifically demonstrate the existence of vertical transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus from the infected pregnant woman to the fetus.” • “Why didn’t the mother mask up?” said no pro-lifer, ever.
Transmission (H5N1)
“Iowa asks USDA for help after 2nd case of bird flu detected in another dairy herd” [KHOA]. “Bird flu has been confirmed in a second herd of dairy cattle in Iowa, this time in Sioux County… According to a news release from IDALS, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig is asking the USDA to aid affected dairy and poultry farmers and to assist in disease research and response to combat the threat to Iowa poultry and dairy farms.” Here’s how:
- Providing compensation for cull dairy cattle at fair market value.
Providing compensation for lost milk production at a minimum of 90 percent of fair market value.
Revise poultry indemnity tables to better reflect the fair market value of the impacted birds and/or eggs.
Present a streamlined and timely process for farmers to be compensated for lost production and to receive indemnity.
All snark about free market ideologues aside, this seems reasonable (at least in the sense that it’s always reasonable to compensate capitalists for losses, but better than than a pandemic). I don’t think Texas would even imagine taking such steps, and that’s probably why the CAFO owners are so reluctant to allow testing.
Maskstravaganza
You’d think scientists could follow the science:
Compliance with biosafety measures in a lab or animal facility of containment levels 2 & 3.
Result of survey (🇧🇪 2007-2012):
👉 31% answered that wearing a mouth mask or respiratory mask is often NOT respected or put in practice.
(*Inhalation is main route of exposure for LAI) https://t.co/uIPDAmVOoW pic.twitter.com/4lE3I5nANO
— Maarten De Cock (@mdc_martinus) June 10, 2024
“Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.” Which is fine when you are the only one
afinfected.“North Carolina House Passes Revised Mask Ban” [Mother Jones]. “On Tuesday, the North Carolina GOP Representatives passed a mask ban on private property in a crackdown on protesters, even as a new subvariant of coronavirus spreads across the United States. The vote was 69 for the measure and 43 against It now goes to the governor’s desk. Last week, the House of Representatives modified the bill to allow ‘a medical or surgical grade mask for the purpose of preventing the spread of contagious disease,’ keeping some aspects of the health exemption for mask-wearing. But, on public or private properties, like at grocery stores or at a workplace, people can be required to remove masks if requested. The bill, which was drafted in response to people wearing masks at Pro-Palestinian protests and encampments, can be passed by the General Assembly even if Democratic Governor Roy Cooper vetoes it through an override.” • Of course, if the putative left had normalized mask-wearing during a pandemic, then the connection between masking and protests wouldn’t have been made in the first place. But brunch was more important!
Testing and Tracking
“Evaluating survey techniques in wastewater-based epidemiology for accurate COVID-19 incidence estimation” (preprint) [medRxiv]. I tried to study up on wastewater testing for a post at one point, but couldn’t master it in the time available. Perhaps we have a knowledgeable reader who can do better? Two bullet points caught me eye: (1) “The sampling frequency required is at least three samples per week, preferably five samples per week” (so it would be nice to know if that’s what CDC does) and (2) “Surveys need to be conducted for a period of time that includes at least 50 weeks or longer (surely that does not mean we have to wait a year to get a baseline). Readers?
Sequelae: Covid
“COVID can seriously damage your vision, even if you didn’t have symptoms, new study says. Experts say to watch for these signs” [Fortune] (mouse study). “Pawan Kumar Singh, PhD, an assistant professor of ophthalmology at the University of Missouri School of Medicine, led a team of researchers who found that inhaled viruses can reach highly protected organs such as the eyes, potentially causing long-term damage. SARS-CoV-2 does so by breaching the blood-retinal barrier, layers of cells that shield the retina, the part of your eye that senses light, from microbial pathogens. ‘Earlier, researchers were primarily focused on the ocular surface exposure of the virus,’ Singh said in a news release. ‘However, our findings reveal that SARS-CoV-2 not only reaches the eye during systemic infection but induces a hyperinflammatory response in the retina and causes cell death in the blood-retinal barrier. The longer viral remnants remain in the eye, the risk of damage to the retina and visual function increases.'” • Yikes!
Celebrity Watch
“Tucson icon Linda Ronstadt regains ability to speak after bout with COVID” [Tucson.com]. “Tucson icon Linda Ronstadt lost her capacity to speak and hear after a second bout of COVID earlier this year. With the help of therapy and attentive, around-the-clock care, the legendary songstress has regained her speech, she recently told a high school classmate who checked in with her ahead of their 60th reunion at Catalina High School. Though Ronstadt has regained her speech, she said her hearing loss may be permanent.” • I don’t know whether Taylor Swift has a hearing loss. She certainly has a listening loss.
Elite Maleficence
Who would have thought:
Interesting 🧐
The Infection Control community suffers from "Imposter Syndrome"
Huh 🤨
https://t.co/dTd7B9aOar— Barry Hunt – #DavosSafe #WHOknew (@BarryHunt008) June 8, 2024
Lambert here: Patient readers, I finally gave up the unequal struggle and went with CDC’s wastewater maps; they will at least give us some at-a-glance sense of how cases are changing in time and space.
TABLE 1: Daily Covid Charts
| Wastewater | |
| This week[1] CDC June 3: | Last Week[2] CDC June 3 (until next week): |
 |
 |
| Variants[3] CDC June 8 | Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC June 1 |
 |
 |
| Hospitalization | |
| ★ New York[5] New York State, data June 7: | National [6] CDC May 18: |
|
|
| Positivity | |
| National[7] Walgreens June 10: | Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic June 1: |
 |
 |
| Travelers Data | |
| Positivity[9] CDC May 20: | Variants[10] CDC May 20: |
|
|
| Deaths | |
| Weekly Deaths vs. % Positivity [11]CDC June 1: | Weekly Deaths vs. ED Visits [12]CDC June 1: |
 |
|
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] (CDC) This week’s wastewater map, with hot spots annotated.
[2] (CDC) This week’s wastewater map, not annotated. Next week I will move the map at [1] to [2], and update [1].
[3] (CDC Variants) FWIW, given that last week KP.2 was all over everything like kudzu, and now it’s KP.3. If the “Nowcast” can’t even forecast two weeks out, why are we doing it at all?
[4] (ER) This is the best I can do for now. At least data for the entire pandemic is presented.
[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Slight leveling out? (The New York city area has form; in 2020, as the home of two international airports (JFK and EWR) it was an important entry point for the virus into the country (and from thence up the Hudson River valley, as the rich sought to escape, and then around the country through air travel.)
[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). This is the best I can do for now. Note the assumption that Covid is seasonal is built into the presentation. At least data for the entire pandemic is presented.
[7] (Walgreens) 4.3%; big jump. (Because there is data in “current view” tab, I think white states here have experienced “no change,” as opposed to have no data.)
[8] (Cleveland) Going up.
[9] (Travelers: Positivity) Up. Those sh*theads at CDC have changed the chart so that it doesn’t even run back to 1/21/23, as it used to, but now starts 1/1/24. There’s also no way to adjust the time rasnge. CDC really doesn’t want you to be able to take a historical view of the pandemic, or compare one surge to another. In an any case, that’s why the shape of the curve has changed.
[10] (Travelers: Variants) Same deal. Those sh*theads:
[11] Deaths low, but positivity up.
[12] Deaths low, ED up.
Stats Watch
Inflation: “United States Inflation Rate” [Trading Economics]. “The annual inflation rate in the US unexpectedly slowed to 3.3% in May 2024, the lowest in three months, compared to 3.4% in April and forecasts of 3.4%.”
Inflation: “United States Consumer Price Index (CPI)” [Trading Economics]. “The consumer price index in the United States rose by 3.3% year-over-year to 314.07 points in May 2024, following a 3.6% increase in April and below the market consensus of a 3.5% advance.”
Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 46 Neutral (previous close: 46 Neutral) [CNN]. One week ago: 45 (Neutral). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Jun 12 at 1:44:05 PM ET.
Book Nook
“Ursula K. Le Guin’s home will become a writers residency” [Associated Press]. “Literary Arts, a community nonprofit based in Portland, Oregon, announced Monday that Le Guin’s family had donated their three-story house for what will become the Ursula K. Le Guin Writers Residency…. The Le Guins lived in a 19th century house designed out of a Sears & Roebuck catalog, and the author’s former studio looks out on a garden, a towering redwood tree planted decades ago by the family, and, in the distance, Mount St. Helens. [Her son, Theo] Downes-Le Guin does not want the house to seem like a museum, or a time capsule, but expects that reminders of his mother, from her books to her rock collection, will remain.” • Those Sears and Roebuck house were great; shipped disassembled, they were built on site, the same business model as Ikea. We could do that today! Anyhow, I hope some great writers make the most of this.
The Gallery
Only 48?
5. It took 10 years for the Italian astrophotographer Marcella Julia Pace to capture these 48 colors of the Moon. pic.twitter.com/lNn6Didqxr
— James Lucas (@JamesLucasIT) June 9, 2024
Zeitgeist Watch
“The Fawn Response: How Trauma Can Lead to People-Pleasing” [PsychCentral]. From 2022: “Have you ever been overly concerned with the needs and emotions of others instead of your own? This may be a trauma response known as fawning… The fawn response is ‘a response to a threat by becoming more appealing to the threat,’ wrote licensed psychotherapist Pete Walker, MA, a marriage family therapist who is credited with coining the term fawning, in his book ‘Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving.'” • One more piece of armchair psychology as I actively pursue a state of non-bafflement at social norming under Covid….
“The Mythical Promise of Tin Foil Hats” [Gizmodo]. “The tin-foil hat can be traced back to 1927, first spotted by Business Insider roughly a decade ago, in a short story titled ‘The Tissue-Culture King.’ It’s a strange short story written by Julian Huxley, whose brother Alduous was a prolific writer and author of Brave New World. It was Julian, however, who was possibly the first to mention wrapping your cranium in foil…. In the story, a scientist called Hascombe gets lost in a jungle and is captured by a local tribe. He ultimately starts practicing mass mind control, eventually using it on the tribe’s king to coordinate his escape. But how does Hascombe avoid having his mind controlled? ‘Well, we had discovered that metal was relatively impervious to the telepathic effect, and had prepared for ourselves a sort of tin pulpit, behind which we could stand while conducting experiments. This, combined with caps of metal foil, enormously reduced the effects on ourselves… We with our metal coverings were immune.'” • Wowsers.
Guillotine Watch
“Billionaire-backed plan to erect a model California city qualifies for the ballot” [Los Angeles Times]. “The group backing the measure, called California Forever, must now convince voters to get behind the audacious idea of erecting a walkable and environmentally friendly community with tens of thousands of homes, along with a sports center, parks, bike lanes, open space and a giant solar farm on what is now pastureland.” That’s what they say. It sounds like a ginormous HOA to me. More: “Led by entrepreneur Jan Sramek, a former Goldman Sachs trader, the venture is backed by a sparkling roster of tech titans, including LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman; venture capitalist Marc Andreessen; and Patrick and John Collison, who founded the payment processing company Stripe.” Ruling elite doesn’t like the results of what they’ve done, so decide to clean slate everything; I can’t imagine a group more qualified to create a hellhole (and then abandon it, moving along to their bunkers. Or Mars). As Brecht didn’t quite write: “would it not be be simpler, if the government ruling class simply dissolved the people And selected another?'” • I say “selected” because I can’t imagine these tech bros would allow just anyone to move in. No poors, I assume.
News of the Wired
“jank’s new persistent string is fast” [jank blog]. • Fun. I wish I completely understood it!
“The Lens of Desire: Eye Miniatures (ca. 1790–1810)” [Public Domain Review]. “Miniatures are a subset of portrait paintings, and within miniatures is yet another, more obscure, subset: paintings of a left eye, or a right eye, amid little else…. They were set in rings, lockets, brooches, toothpick cases, and the like, and gifted between lovers. Luminous, exquisite, and fragile (a drop of water might wash away the tiny brushstrokes), lovers’ eyes did not mean, as it might seem, ‘I have my eye on you’, but rather, ‘You have my heart, and here’s my eye to prove it’. By the 1770s, miniature portraits were ubiquitous, and easily commissioned. One scholar suggests that it was artists’ boredom that led to the fad for isolated eyes, but the more compelling explanation is their clients’ erotic whimsy. A disembodied eye is only identifiable to an intimate, making it an unusually private kind of token, the exchange of which would have been amenable to couples whose understandings were necessarily secret, and also, perhaps, to couples whose understandings weren’t secret, but who appreciated the sexual frisson of code talk. The fad for eye miniatures in England began when the future King George IV fell in love with Maria Fitzherbert, a woman unsuitable to his rank (widowed, Catholic, a commoner). He covertly sent her a painting of his eye with a proposal to marry. The overture was welcome, and after a long and tumultuous relationship, he was buried with a painting of her eye.” • To me, fair friend, you never can be old, For as you were when first your eye I eyed, Such seems your beauty still….”
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Re Team Biden bets–cunning strategy or Hail Mary Pass? There’s an alternate theory going around that Biden has been pressed to accept this early debate in order to prove himself or get off the, er, pot (am trying to suppress poop references). In other words some not on his team are hoping he falls on his face in time for a new Dem savior to make the scene.
Also of course it’s completely deceptive to suggest that one heavily prepped and perhaps medicated debate willl be the “real Biden.” We’ve had four years of the real Biden (and of the real Trump too) so surely the fence sitters among voters are few–unlikely to be swayed by a debate.
And BTW Kennedy has been pressing CNN on the legal front to let him in the debate too.
I don’t usually watch the debates because they are usually awful – from the moderators to the candidates. But this one I might. My PMC friends say Trump can’t put a sentence together, has dementia, and can’t walk right. Biden is old but in great shape and sharp as a tack. Biden will clean his clock.
OK, this I want to see. I can hear it now. Joe’s on his SOTU cocktail and Trump asks him if they used the same drugs, and as much, on him as they did Secretariat?
I don’t think the debates will change many minds, and the partisans will grade it accordingly, but it might be entertaining in a convoluted sort of way. We can only watch the $hit show they give us.
The telltale signs of amphetamine abuse are rapid speech, shouting, and unusually active body language.
One has to wonder if one of these times the “cocktail” results in a hangover from which Joe never recovers. Everything has a cost.
I’m sure that if they gave Joey a drug test he would come up clean. The newest and best drugs probably don’t register with any tests. The way he has fallen apart lately makes me wonder if the boosts he has had in the recent past are starting to sap his awareness or cognitive ability. He seems to be lost at times. . .
Stop smearing Secretariat. You can’t use drugs to overcome the normal genetic limits, observed in humans as well as horses, of it being impossible to run at sprint speeds beyond certain not very long distances. Both horses in middle distance races and humans in middle distances have to run part of the race at a less than full on speed and then “kick” at the end. If they tried running full out the entire race, they’d collapse either literally or in terms of speed at the end. No amount of stimulants or magic potions can overcome that.
Secretariat was a genetic freak. When he died, they autopsied him and found his heart was 3x the size of a normal horse heart, yet was healthy.
Racing experts who followed Secretariat before the Belmont (such as Bill Nack in Secretariat: The Making of a Champion) said they had never seen a horse as fit as Secretariat was. Unlike most race horses, he’d be put through very hard training (in terms of speeds) and would seem to want more, as in have no sign of fatigue.
Much Thanks to Yves here. I love thoroughbred horses and Secretariat was the reason. As stated above by Yves, Secretariat was aided by an usually large heart
In a healthy horse, he was incredibly fit. His daughters may have carried a gene
For this unusual trait. Three of his daughters also produced incredibly good race horses. Although they were not secretariat, they were very good horses. His records set during the triple crown have yet to be broken. The book by Bill Nack
Mentioned in her post is the definitive book available on Secretariat to this day.
Highly enjoyable read, I highly recommend it to anyone interested in this the
Greatest of Thoroughbred racehorses.
Or they could finally think they have the AI trained animatronic Biden ready for a less scripted more open situation.
But I agree with you that most people know already and those that watch will be watching to see their least liked candidate fall on their face.
If I though most would watch and realize neither of these flaming jerks should be in the WhiteHouse I would be chanting, visualizing, meditating, saying novenas and wishing on every star.
Horrid fascination. Like the intentional collision of steam locomotives for the delectation of slack jawed ‘Murricans at state fairs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUc3wd4It8g
The FEC has reportedly told CNN that excluding Kennedy would be a violation of federal law.
No mention of Jill Stein, I presume — though in her own right and as the presumptive Green nominee (since she already has a majority of delegates for the nominating convention), she has qualified for enough ballots to win an Electoral College majority.
https://www.scrippsnews.com/politics/america-votes/jill-stein-tells-scripps-news-shes-filed-an-fec-complaint-over-exclusion-from-presidential-debate
I don’t think there’s a rejuvenation cocktail that would let Biden count backwards from 100 by sevens, not even if Trump did it first. An earbud or specially set up prompter would help with that or other senility tests but I honestly don’t think we’re ever going to see Joe Biden on a debate stage ever again.
It’s one thing to deliver a speech and shake some hands, quite another to take questions on the fly or deal with Trump’s antics. Overclocking your brain with one of Dr Jill’s cocktails just lets Joe think faster but does nothing to improve the quality of his thoughts.
Can’t wait to see on whose behalf they’re running out the convention clock. Maybe they could build excitement by throwing a gender reveal party in advance of the big announcement?
Why does the mental image of “Creepy” Joe imbibing one of ‘Doctor’ Jills potent potions remind me of the late Fuhrer and his daily consumption of Dr. Morell’s “Vitamin Cocktails?” Will the Biden Administration end as badly as did the Third Reich?
Hitler badly wanted Ukraine, Crimea, and the Caucuses too.
Biden’s clique wants them for the same reasons; the natural resources.
I believe that, history shows that if one tries to hold impossible beliefs for too long, psychosis results. Imagine the possibilities; psychotic sociopaths in positions of power.
RE: Team Biden bets an unfiltered Trump at the debate can shake up the race
To use a Caddyshack comparison for our current state of politics once again, with Trump in the role of Al Czervik, GenocideJoe as Judge Smails, Jill as Mrs. Smails, and Dear Hunter as Spalding, I predict it goes something like this followed by this, except this time Trump winds up leaving with Biden’s wife.
Or to use another comparison with circa 1980 comedies, Biden’s bet will turn out something like the poker n00b betting against John Candy here.
Does that mean Blinken is Carl the assistant greenskeeper?
Blinken is more of a Dr. Beeper, who says about a patient in need of urgent care (Ukraine) that is interrupting his round of golf – “Just snake a tube down her nose and I’ll be there in four or five hours.”
Carl is too likable. More of the Everyman. Us. We who have to witness this debacle from the sidelines. So apparently the only way to fix things is to blow up the whole damn golf course ;)
I guess this means that in the end “we’re all gonna get laid”?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RqkNV-A_NgA
I’m alright, don’t nobody worry bout me… 🎶
More probably “laid to rest.”
Amen
Flower in the plantidote appears to be a Protea, of which there are many species.
The often useful Seek app IDs a cropped version of the photo as Limestone Sugarbush, fwiw.
RE: The Hunter Fallout
If Biden’s entourage is really going to try to keep flogging the convicted felon notion in light of Dear Hunter’s conviction and the evidence on the laptop, now proven to be authentic, of other crimes, they are even dumber than I thought. Trump just needs to note the massive and frankly patently obvious Biden influence peddling schemes indicated on said laptop and how he was impeached for attempting to look into them. If he does that, at worst he breaks even, and he’s already leading in most polls.
Still hard to believe what an utter clown show this all is though.
The fallout discussion for Hunter et al has avoided acknowledgement of that infamous laptop with all the scuzzy stuff, in addition to purported evidence of scores of crimes. That is an implication of Catherine Herridge’s commentary on the Weiss talking points yesterday.
Biden and his flaks looking to spin commutation will be the least of their worries if the evidence pans out.
Powell presser in progress … so far he’s doing a good job shooting down stupid reporters who are mongering hard for a new line of rate cut crack to sniff off a toilet seat over at CNBC.
Four score and a year ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, new national banking regs, conceived in desperation on account of the Great Depression, and dedicated to the proposition that all banks are created equal, and trust but verify.
Now we are engaged in great overseas wars, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated to Zionism, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of those wars by Volodymyr & Bibi. We have come to dedicate a portion of the moneys fronted them, as a final resting place for those who here gave into their lies that that nations might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
The Confetti-splurge address?
With respect to Covid, if everyone in a person’s social circle ignores the risks, a person could interpret this situation as personal neglect or harm. The fawn response makes sense if the person doesn’t want to destroy all relationships because pretty much everyone has already made up their mind on the matter.
Transcript
cspan has transcripts from generated closed captions. Not clear what the first entry in this list is. The speech seems contained in the second one.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?536150-1/president-trump-holds-rally-las-vegas
Awesome. Thanks so much!
Re: Reynolds Wrap Toques
I know when donning one that it could easily end up being reused for say a tray of frozen french fries or a lightweight toy boat if turned upside down, just to name a few possibilities. I prefer wearing one to preface something utterly silly i’m about to utter, so as to flash my bona fides ahead of time..
It is a little bit startling to peer into the mirror with said headgear and have the bright & shiny glare back at it, don’t try that with a Fedora.
forgive the brief threadjack.
6-12-2024
2 years ago, at 13:12 Lima….and there I was down by the graveyard in the Falcon, balling my eyes out.
I can remember every minute of that day…except the part where I was alone with her, saying goodbye….i dont remember that, not what I said, anything.
Last few months, ive been reliving her last few months…they were rather eventful, after all.
I, as a rule, dont pay attention to what day it is, date it is, time it is….yet I have for 34 years always been drunk on the date of my big wreck….and now, all these little milestones marking her decline and death.
And then further back, to precancer Matagorda trip, and our antihoneymoon(as in going backwards, as it turned out…a last hurrah…a drink before the war…)
and all that came after….i remember the 4am 9-11-2018 looking over the er doctors shoulder as the mri rendered…saw the giant tumor, and said…”well, there it is…”
(he said “oh, shit”, notably)
and then all the chaos and hanging around waiting for the damned doctors to materialise and tell us something…and walking all over for lunch, dinner, breakfast, coffee….and all the xtians and especially muslims I met doing this including her in their prayers…and sleeping in that damned kind of hospital recliner thing that serves as a sort of bed….i hurt all the time.
(they finally took pity on this broken and devoted husband, once, after 2 weeks, it was apparent that they would not be free of me…and brought in another, smaller hospital bed for me)
and me racing home on friday evenings….to get smashed under the Big Oak and yell at the sky…and then to inform the aunts and moms and our boys and the rest of the Familia of whatever I had learned…and then back on monday morning, early…to learn more.
And all th scans and proddings and chemo…and the marshmallow hotel beds and pillows…and me sitting in the car, nowhere to go…endlessly….
and then finally, the sepsis…and the last 5 months of my time with her….and the me not sleeping for almost that whole time.
Being a nurse, and her legs….
and then the six weeks of hospice, in frelling moms front rooms…managing her death…morphine sublingual drops…medicine log, so scrupulously kept that I neglected to remember to take my own pain pills….]
and the crows the morning of her death…not being followed by scissortails…
and then the painted buntings, in numbers ive never seen them, before or since….mobbing our place for a month after she went….
and elijah splitting wood at the woodshed, not 15 minutes fter they carried her away….
and ben standing under a big oak, staring…mouth agape….
and me going straight to the Wilderness Bar to drink beer and do my own staring into space….and all the Familia, and then many others, following me to the bar…most for the first and only time…to toast Tam, and yell the grita…and listen to Freddy Fender and Vincente Fernandez….
this was the first of 4 Wakes…and none of them were planned, at all…
and I remember it all…and all in such detail…
and I relive it…almost daily…but especially on days like today.
Except there are no other days like today,lol….
Y’all were with me through all of this…and I still thank y’all for it.
-Josef.
In spite of being speechless, I have to tell you how much. I appreciate you. And, I hate that Tam and you and your family went through this. And that you still ARE going through it. (but how could you stop?) Thank you for sharing your life and world and the Wilderness Bar with us.
it was apparent that they would not be free of me…and brought in another, smaller hospital bed for me)
Nor do we, if I may speak for the groundlings here, wish to be free of you.
and then the painted buntings, in numbers ive never seen them, before or since….mobbing our place for a month after she went….
A moment of divinity, defying what is our destiny.
I have begun to think that the meaning of being an adult is to be acquainted with sorrow.
All the best to you. Rye whisky is recommended. DJG.
Amfortas, my deepest sympathies for what Tam endured, for what you continue to endure. And yet… what a lucky woman she was to have been so loved.
> Y’all were with me through all of this…and I still thank y’all for it.
Thank you!
Time for Painted Buntings in the water cooler “song of the day”. The males sing, not the females… The song of the male Painted Bunting is amazing. DJG was close to the mark ..”a moment of divinity…”
dude!
i wouldnt ave made it without this collectives bias for rationality,lol.
and the checks thereof….embedded in the ethos and whatnot you instill.
so, well done!
all you folks(excluding the lurkers, of course) are welcome around my fire.
talk to lambert,lol…..assigning work….
putting up w my moroseness and otherwise emotional outbursts.
I’m in awe of your posts and your pure enduring love. I’m so, so, sorry for your great loss.
You did everything someone could ever hope for. True devotion.
Sending warm thoughts your way, sir.
Peace friend, may we all find peace.
Ahh! Amfortas! Die Wunde! Die Wunde!
Thank you. We are beyond lucky to have you here.
Rage against the darkness, my friend, and cherish the light as well.
Amfortas, I wish you many good memories of Tam to bring some sunshine to your days also. The deep sadness never goes totally away, but knowing what a love you had and have with her gives a beautiful tone woven among the deeply sad tones. Buntings visiting you are a message that all is well. I personally know a guy whose mother passed away. She had always loved butterflies. One day he was outside on his driveway and wondered how she was. A shower of butterflies tumbled down just on him from out of the blue. Hugs to you, dear Amfortas.
Margaret Thatcher claimed that there is no society only individuals but Naked Capitalism has managed to prove her wrong
Love you guys!
Reading your words reminds me of the one thing that really unites us as people and that is human pain. We all have it in one form or another and I can read the pain in your words. But she will not be forgotten. Never that.
i hope you don’t take it wrong, but James Crumley would envy that.
Here in California, the number one dairy state, there are no reports of H5N1 as of yet. No moos is good moos. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-4-gLlF0uw
Udderly true news:
An awful lot of the finished product of Bessie et al @ the CAFO is turned into milk powder and primarily shipped to China.
One of the cabin owners in our community is a intrastate long haul driver and laughed when he told me his commonest route was from the dairies to San Pedro, en route to the Middle Kingdom.
A real honest to goodness Milk Run, he chortled.
Not knowing a lick about the subject, is milk powder pasteurized?
Interesting discussion here – I thought about commenting with this in the Turkey discussion, but ended up putting it here. Short synopsis is American foreign policy has been a bit of a train wreck for too long, and it’s all starting to catch up with the West:
The Worst Mistake the US Had Made and It is Destroying Everything | Col. Larry Wilkerson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhlOGczi49Q
I’d also point out that American “policy” (or complete lack of anything like Industrial policy other than “greed is good”) at home has essentially wrecked America internally too.
So yes, it’s a perfectly logical time to directly confront Russia and China, something which was NEVER done during the height of the Cold War because it was considered a rather insane thing to do.
To me, it looks like an extension of disaster capitalism–destroy things so the vultures can swoop in an gather assets on the cheap. One could argue that’s how the white people conquered the USA from the natives (in fairness, old world diseases did most of the work, but the whites were still willing to pick up the pieces).
As for “catching up”… With 5% of the world’s population, the US has 25% of its prisoners. We’re thugs, even to our own people.
I forgot to say that I added orts and scraps. Please read the ceiling fan material, it’s important!
>So this is the first time I’ve said this, and for those hotel workers and people that get tips you’re going to be very happy because when I get to office, we are going to not charge taxes on tips people (are) making,” Trump told a crowd of several thousand people.’”
I can see it now at the shareholder’s annual meeting and in the reports. The board of directors issue a statement that, ” Our CEO has done such a bang up job for the company in recent years, we are going to reward him/her with a ten million dollar “tip” as a bonus.
Luckily for them this is now tax free”. Don’t blame us, it’s what our President suggested and implemented.”
Wouldn’t this be along the lines of back in Clinton’s day, IIRC, Corporations were not allowed to deduct as an expense CEO’s pay over a million bucks so that was when the awarding of stock options as part of a compensation package took off? Too pressed at the moment to research for real so please correct me if wrong.
I’ve reached about my tipping point, in that damn near every credit card terminal asks, no pleads that I give gratuities for everyday stuff, I mean it hasn’t gotten to the point where Sally Struthers plead/cries for manna from plastic, but getting there.
Exactly! When did tipping jars at the convenience store check out become a thing? They want a tip? Here’s one, Don’t bet on the RedSox this season….
Re: LeGuin house: “…19th century house designed out of a Sears & Roebuck catalog…”
Well, Sears only made the houses starting in 1908, so wouldn’t it be a ’20th century house’?
And yes, why don’t we have this ability now? (There are some pre-fab house companies shipping modular parts, and maybe ‘mobile homes’ sort of counts?)
https://therealdeal.com/new-york/2021/05/18/warren-buffett-bets-on-modular-construction/
FWIW, b has updated his status at MoA
Appears to be mending, hit harder than he’s been led to expect by the surgery which was successful.
Not surprised that he is feeling badly about now. Aorto-bifemoral bypass surgery is extremely invasive. The artery involved is back behind your viscera, so they have to make a huge incision in the lower belly and push them all aside (in videos of the procedure that I have seen, it looks like they are just dumping them out) just to get at the aorta. Then the hard part begins, where they have to splice in synthetic tubing down into the femoral arteries of the affected legs for however far they need to go. They have to go through a lot of muscle to do this to get at the femoral arteries as well.
This is all very painful stuff, a very traumatic experience, and it can take up to a year to recover from it. In a large percentage of the cases, the patient dies of a heart attack either during or after the procedure. It is just that bad.
I wish B all the best in his recovery process.
You forgot one very important part.
They have to cross clamp the aorta for the few minutes they are splicing the femoral arteries. This is the likely cause of all the heart attacks. It shoots the BP sky high.
They can only do it for a few minutes. But during that time, the legs have zero blood coming in. This renders the poor patient with the feeling of having your “legs put to sleep” for hours or days. Severe cramping. It is literally medieval.
This used to be done all the time. Even in the best hospitals back in the day, the mortality was around 10-15% in the perioperative period.
Thank God we do not have to do this very often at all anymore. His arteries must have been in horrible shape.
In his post he says that they had to open up his chest, so it sounds like it was much worse than even the usual procedure. I suspect that he balked at the stents when he had the chance to get them, which as they only last a couple of years and cannot be repeated makes perfect sense. Or, perhaps he got the stents but they have now failed. One cannot tell from his stoic posts.
But, really, that is just an awful thing to have to do. So what are these new treatments that have rendered the procedure nearly obsolete?
This is interactive
Understanding Cumulative Risk
From the article, which does have an easy to understand explanation.
Life in a pale imitation of art? Who remembers the movie “Speed” w/ Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock?
Bus hijacking in heavy Atlanta traffic
btw the shooting that started the whole thing happened at a food court I used to walk through on my way to night school recently …
“Hunter Biden verdict throws ‘sand in the gears’ of GOP’s attacks on legal system”
Depends. The gun charges and the drug use has been emphasized but they completely ignore the shady dealings as revealed on that laptop which Trump should go over if he was smart. He only has a few months to do so and I would expect Biden to give Hunter a pardon after the elections are over on the grounds that he is still a dad. in truth, Hunter is being a good soldier in taking the rap right now but if he is not rescued by a pardon, then he would really talk and loud.
That would indeed be smart, though even Trump might be shocked at the laptop contents.
I looked at the Marco Polo report, and it is one of the single most sordid, sickening things I have ever seen. Couldn’t get through more than a third of the report, as all the content was just so utterly depraved.
Pretty much confirms the old saying: “power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
What would happen if Hunter went to jail but Joe stroked out before the time came to write the pardon?
I suppose a “signed document” would miraculously surface, to keep Hunter happy and… quiet.
Letitia James’ cute $470,000,000 fine might have something to do with why Oligarchs are backing Trump.
And I think Kathy Hochul’s “If you aren’t Donald Trump you don’t have anything to worry about” can be translated as “it Doesn’t matter how rich you are, get in line or get hurt”.
I am reminded of Brazilian President Lula da Silva’s fun with the Brazilian legal system. From the very little that I understand, it was used to destroy him politically, and not because he was corrupt. It was not whether he was or not, but that he is a leftist and the right wing wants him gone. As with Trump, it’s his politics, not whether he is guilty of any crime.
It is obvious that once you use the legal system as for political assassination, morally, it becomes an acceptable tactic for the other side. One of the reasons for Congress especially the Senate is so dysfunctional is not just the corruption, but the breaking of all the unwritten rules that everyone had followed. No rules, no work. IIRC, in the 90s, Newt Gingrich started the current process, but the Democrats were happy to follow along.
The reason why the United States has never had a military coup is because you just do not do so. It is almost unthinkable. I am guessing, but if President Kennedy was assassinated, it was done by the intelligence slash security state, which means that the psychological barrier was broken over sixty years ago. Add the various political assassinations of Americans in the 1960s and the many, many, many assassinations, coups, and support for extremely brutal and corrupt dictatorships and oligarchies for over a century, means that there are no reasons for the security state to not threaten, blackmail, ruin you, your family, or your friends, and even straight up murder troublesome Americans. They did knowingly drone American citizens overseas after all. We can look at Jeffrey Epstein, then there are the problematic Boeing suicides. Once the tools are in place, and the habits are formed, the moral rot strong and deep, known, but unacknowledged, well, the Empire always comes home doesn’t?
Yes, but there’s no need for a military coup. As your sketch of the Empire shows, parapolitics isn’t some anomalous event; rather, it’s become part of business as usual. See Peter Dale Scott, Michael J. Glennon, et al. The tools are indeed in place.
Interestingly, Fredric Jameson has arrived at the conclusion that the most promising way forward might well be “dual power” (yes, Lenin, Двоевластие), and the USian institution best poised to be the alternate power in competition with the now-corrupt, possible irredeemable state would be… the military. See his essay, “An American Utopia: Dual Power and the Universal Army” for the whole argument.
Presumably the aliens can take on human form, are smarter than we are, and have super powers. So why would the Lizard People be hiding? Why wouldn’t they be getting rich, or seeking high office?
Wouldn’t there be a few odd aliens, like in the novel Lord of Light (1967) by Roger Zelazny, that did something to help people?
And on this theme, why-come hackers never do any positive mischief like marking mortgages and loans as paid or making hospitals or insurance companies give large refunds while doing their funny hacking business? Surely the hackers must be in deep enough where they say, why not, throw some bones to the proles and screw the rich.
I am of the opinion that the meme of the “virtuous hacker” is a construct created to fool the public into a false sense of semi-security. From what I have read, seen, and experienced, the ‘average’ hacker wants to become one of the Rich Folks themself.
There was a film a few decades ago where Dick Van Dyke “hacked” the abandoned bank account system to ‘do good’ with predictable Hollywood plot twists and turns.
A real bank hacker of the early days managed to divert a weeks-worth of bank deposits at the bank he worked at. He planned on being caught and thus created a ‘legend’ that he was a compulsive gambler and thus, the money was gone. He served several years in a medium security state prison, Georgia I believe, and right after he was released he was last seen boarding a flight for South America. Never seen or heard from again. The moral, if it can be categorized as such, of the story: Doing good begins at home.
Do good and stay safe.
Another step up the escalation ladder:
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/merchant-ship-hit-by-small-vessel-red-sea-ukmto-says-2024-06-12/
Now Ansar Allah got naval drone game. Hey Joe, that was a nice global sea shipping business we had. Shame that it had to go to the bottom of Davey Jones locker.
I don’t understand computer/digital/etc. technology, so I don’t know if this newest move by Alphabet’s You Tube division is as bad as it seems to me like it could be. So I offer a link to the article for people who have the background to understand it to decide if it really is bad.
https://www.reddit.com/r/revancedapp/comments/1de82ts/theyve_officially_reached_the_bottom/
I’d say your reading is correct: it’s bad.
Rough translation: they are looking at making the ads part of the video stream. Right now, it’s happening using scripts running in your browser that play the ad videos as separate streams, which can of course be defeated. E.g., you can use the FreeTube app and get YT vids with NO adds.
If YT implements this at scale, FreeTube and other ad-blocking hacks won’t work any more. Also, all links to specific time stamps will need to go through the YT server and get translated somehow, to resolve to the correct time, because the time stamps of the actual content will all be offset randomly by the ad(s).
And also if they do this, the only way to defeat ads will be to use a VPN that goes through a country like Myanmar, that doesn’t allow ads (or at least not the same ones), though that won’t be foolproof either, and you will need to somehow block any ID or google
droppingscookies from being sent through.Since I would have trouble understanding how to apply the individual technology-based countermeasures you suggest, I can only fall back on the hope that there will be some kind of leaderless mass rebellion all through society against this way of sending ads.
The only such rebellion I could suggest is if people were to make note of all the ads coming through this new YT method, and get in touch with the companies involved and say something like . . . ” I was thinking of buying your product but now that I have seen your ad on You Tube, I will NOT buy your product. And I will NOT buy your product until I SEE a 6 month period go by without your ad showing up at all.”
If enough companies had their business attrited badly enough by a mass leaderless boycott against products advertised on You Tube, perhaps the You Tube management would feel tortured and terrorised into dropping this new method of sending ads.
( It would also create a business opportunity for people to create a new more honest and less user-hostile video platform without this method of sending ads. It could be called something like ” We Tube” or “People Tube” or “Clean Tube” or some such thing.)
The countermeasures won’t be so difficult to apply. Ad blockers are pretty straightforward now.
The issue will be figuring out the best one for your needs and then keeping it up to date.
It’s more of an annoyance than anything else.
Re: “jank’s new persistent string is fast”
Ooh, it’s “Yet Another Programming Language” (a.k.a. YAPL). Dood gets HIS own syntax and cool feature set. Yay, I guess.
How many programming languages does the world need? Is “jank” (as in “janky”) one of them? Redditors speak:
https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/x40z15/interesting_graph_showing_the_growth_in_the/
Noteworthy comment:
According to GitHub, there are total of 6 contributors to jank, with 99% of all commits coming from one guy.
You want a feature, an API library, or documentation? Read my code and write it yourself.
Why the dogs are vicious.
I think it would almost certainly go badly for him if it happened. Trump is famously good at getting under people’s skin (too many examples to list).
I do not currently have “Biden flies into a rage during the debate and suffers major medical episode” on my bingo card. Perhaps I need to add it.
Don’t forget to add ‘Biden calls Trump a felon during the debates’ onto that bingo card.
The UFO paper is amusing. I particularly like their habit of citing their own current or forthcoming works and referring to themselves in the third person. Some of the sections like the one on magical beings are almost exclusively supported by self-references like this. It looks much more superficially convincing and scientific than “Here’s what I reckon”.
I am unsure why this is important enough to rate a news story. The authors don’t offer any evidence for most of this or even assert that any of it is likely – they just argue it’s not impossible and shouldn’t be ruled out. That doesn’t seem like a significant contribution to the body of human knowledge.
The program the Harvard authors are under is supposedly devoted to ‘systematic approaches to the synthesis of knowledge across disciplines’. I think the hard sciences would probably have been worth including in this case.
Regarding “Hidden UFO civilization could be on Earth: Harvard researchers.”
They could be living underground, on the moon or even walking among humans…. Cool dude, pass that joint. . .
I have an old copy (I mean really old) of The Discovery of a World in the Moone by John Wilkins that is a reprint with his book A Discourse Concerning a New Planet. The author highlights the similarities between the Earth and the Moon. Based on these similarities, he proposes the idea that the Moon would house living beings, the Selenites. The introduction is humorous. Summarized as “Come on, man, stop laughing. It could really be true. You know?” Maybe if this stuff keeps up I could sell it. His Mathematical Magick is more entertaining with spiffy illustrations of catapults and Boreas uprooting trees through the use of gearing. Not a new idea, though. “Give me whereon to stand”, said Archimedes, “and I will move the earth.”
‘James Lucas
@JamesLucasIT
5. It took 10 years for the Italian astrophotographer Marcella Julia Pace to capture these 48 colors of the Moon.’
In the same way that the Eskimos have about 50 different words for snow, you wonder from this if some older civilizations had a coupla dozen words to describe the Moon going by it’s colour alone.