By Lambert Strether of Corrente
Bird Song of the Day
Eastern Meadowlark, Illinois Prairie Path–DuPage Airport, DuPage, Illinois, United States.
In Case You Might Miss…
(1) The Debates, pre-game analysis.
(2) Hillary Clinton has a book forthcoming.
(3) Counting and scripting in the caring professions.
(4) Model legislation to outlaw masks
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!
At this point, we should entertain the hypothesis that the Bragg verdict is a damp squib, unless Biden can somehow leverage it in the debate. 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. NOTE Sorry for the excess red dots; I can’t seem to make them go away!
* * * Trump (R): “Campaign walks back Trump’s green card promise” [FOX]. “Former President Trump’s campaign walked back a promise that the former president would ‘automatically’ award green cards to migrants after they graduate from college. ‘President Trump has made it clear that on day one of his new administration, he’s going to shut down the border and launch the largest mass deportation effort of illegal aliens in history,’ Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement last week, according to a New York Post report, noting that the former president would include an ‘aggressive vetting process’ and ‘exclude all communists, radical Islamists, Hamas supporters, America haters and public charges.’ The comments come after Trump’s appearance on the “All-in Podcast” last week, where the former president outlined an idea to give all foreign college graduates a green card with their diploma.” • Let Trump be Trump!
* * * Biden (D): “Greenwashing Kamala Harris: How the Veep Casts Herself as an Environmental Justice Crusader” [RealClearInvestigations]. “Vice President Kamala Harris has long cast herself as a fearless pioneer of efforts to fight for social and environmental justice. ‘When I was elected DA of San Francisco,’ Harris told a gathering at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta last year, ‘I started the first environmental justice unit of any DA’s office in the country.’ In her telling, the San Francisco District Attorney formed the special environmental justice unit in the early 2000s especially to protect the long-neglected community of Bayview Hunters Point, a predominantly African American and impoverished part of the city, which had become ‘a dumping ground for people from other places.’ … But records from the San Francisco District Attorney’s office and interviews with local environmental advocates point to a different, far less ambitious record. ‘We’re unaware of any major or semi-major environmental justice work done by Harris in Bayview Hunters Point, including on the Hunters Point Shipyard Superfund site,’ said Bradley Angel, executive director of Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice, a progressive watchdog group that seeks to ‘to promote environmental, social, economic and climate justice.’ Steve Castleman, an attorney with UC Berkeley’s Environmental Law Clinic, who has worked on urban pollution issues in the Bay Area, also noted that he did not know of any significant Harris environmental justice action as DA. Far from targeting powerful corporate interests, Harris’ environmental justice unit appears to have filed only a few lawsuits, all against small-time defendants. The targets included a young man who conducted illegal smog checks at a small auto body shop in the city and a left-leaning community newspaper accused of illegally dumping leftover ink in an abandoned lot. Another defendant charged by the unit was a small construction company accused of using adulterated concrete. The major industrial polluters of San Francisco were left untouched under Harris’ watch during her two terms that ended in 2010.” • Oh.
* * * Kennedy (I): On Assange:
Julian Assange struck a plea deal and will go free! I am overjoyed. He's a generational hero.
The bad news is that he had to plea guilty to conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense info. Which means the US security state succeeded in criminalizing journalism and…
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) June 24, 2024
Kennedy (I): “‘Epic Waste of $500 Million’: Scientists Slam HHS Funding for ‘Next-Gen’ COVID Oral and Nasal Vaccine Trials” [Children’s Health Defense]. Since they’ve got a picture of Kennedy on a fundraising pop-up, I file it here. “[Brian Hooker, Ph.D., Children’s Health Defense chief scientific officer] told the Defender that because COVID-19 mutates rapidly, ‘immunity will still wane precipitously’ for the new vaccine candidates, just as it did with the existing mRNA vaccines.” • The hope for nasal vaccines, which is why there are trials, is that they will provide sterilizing immunity that will not wane, since they activate the nasal immune system, which existing intramuscular injection vaccines do not do.
* * * The Debates: “The Little Secret I’ve Learned From 30 Years of Watching Debates With Voters” [Frank Luntz, New York Times]. “Nothing draws the ire of the average voter more than candidates speaking beyond their allotted time, my focus groups have shown. While most professional debate observers ignore candidates who run long, voters punish them mercilessly. It was a major reason many undecided voters turned so strongly against Mr. Trump after his undisciplined performance in the first debate in 2020. That debate, the most consequential one in memory, was one in which many voters and political experts drew roughly the same conclusions. Mr. Trump entered the debate trailing Mr. Biden by just a couple of percentage points, but his questionable strategy to insult, badger and bully Mr. Biden was received so badly by the women in my focus group that they were as harsh about Mr. Trump as he was to Mr. Biden. In contrast, there was one moment in the Trump-Clinton debates when voter opinion really struck me. It was Mr. Trump’s offhand comment that Mrs. Clinton belonged in jail. Many pundits and political experts hated it. My focus group loved it. For them, it was accountability in action for someone as important as her, a former secretary of state. To be sure, many political experts zeroed in on the moment as a striking instance of a presidential nominee threatening to weaponize the justice system against his opponent. But I think what they missed was a yearning among some voters to see a senior official held to account and not let off the hook by a system seen as protecting insiders.” • I’m sure that Trump’s campaign team was happy with the microphone muting, for the reason Luntz gives.
The Debates: “Debates Are Lost, Not Won” [RealClearPolitics]. “Trump’s risk is less what he says and more how he acts. Will he seem unhinged, overbearing, or out of control? Biden’s risk is also less what he says, and more how he looks saying it. Will he seem frail, disoriented, or too old?” • One again, the muted microphones are a plus for Trump.
The Debates: “You Don’t Need a Shrink to Tell You Why You Feel This Way” [Harold Mayerson, The American Prospect]. “So Biden and his campaign have no need to lower expectations going into the debate, though that’s common practice for presidential candidates. Trump and his ilk have already done that for him, day in and day out for the past couple of years. If Biden actually can stand up [let’s not talk about his gait, eh?] and remember things, he will have undercut the one perception most damaging to his prospects: that he’s too old to be president—at least, when compared to Trump. For which reason, ironically, Biden goes into the debate having to surmount the same hurdle as novice candidates (a category in which Biden certainly does not belong): demonstrating that he’s simply up to the job.” • Strikes me as a debater’s point (though yes, I think diagnosis from digital evidence is both over-the-top and not needed).
The Debates: “How Trump Wins the Debate – and the Election” [RealClearPolitics]. “[O]n June 27, when Trump joins President Joe Biden on CNN for the earliest general election presidential debate in U.S. history, it’s not going to matter what the former president says so much as how he says it. Think of it as the equivalent of a medieval knight running the gauntlet. Every question from pro-Democrat moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash and every taunting response from President Biden about threats to democracy will be an opportunity for Trump to lose his temper or to alienate moderate voters with intemperate replies. But if Trump keeps his cool in hostile territory – and CNN is definitely hostile – he will pick up invaluable points in the ‘seems more presidential’ surveys that will certainly follow. The demeanor issue could cement Trump as the winner not just of the debate, but of the 2024 election itself.” • This is the conventional wisdom, I see. Perhaps I should check myself, since I buy it…
The Debates: “First debate a chance for Biden to finish the Trump smackdown he started during State of the Union” [Salon]. A collection of “zingers.” More: “‘A convicted criminal who’s only out for himself.’ President Biden’s campaign last week launched a $50 million TV ad buy whose key line shows how to capture two central truths about Trump. The first — that the former president is a ‘convicted criminal’ — speaks for itself and is hard for Trump to escape. The second part of the ad – ‘he’s in it only for himself’ is equally important. Biden can quote Bill Barr, Trump’s own attorney general, who said about Trump, ‘He will always put his own interests . . . ahead of everything else.'” • Quoting people who have worked for Trump (there are other examples in the article) is an interesting tactic and might get The Donald riled up.
The Debates: “Trump’s flip-flops on Biden’s debate skills” [WaPo]. “According to Trump and his surrogates, Biden is suddenly an accomplished debater who ‘destroyed’ Ryan in that 2012 debate — and whose State of the Union signaled an ability to rise to the occasion when the bright lights are upon him. It’s normal for politicians and their campaigns to raise expectations for their opponents ahead of a debate. But Trump’s reversals have been as breathtaking and rapid as they have been transparent.” • Par for the course.
* * * “Is Joe Biden’s bizarre behavior a GOP ‘cheap fake’? It’s up to him to prove that he’s OK.” [USA Today]. “Cheap fake essentially means a real video is edited in a way to become misleading. I’ve seen various versions of all the videos, however, and regardless of how they were edited or framed, Biden does not come out looking good. I encourage you to watch them for yourselves. Calling them cheap fakes is bad enough, but Jean-Pierre went further and outright lied about these clips being ‘deepfakes,’ which implies false content created through artificial intelligence or other technology.” The full Jean-Pierre quote: “Instead of talking about the president’s performance in office — and what I mean by that is his legislative wins, what he’s been able to do for people across this country — we’re seeing these deepfakes, these manipulated videos.” • From this wording, it’s also possible that Jean-Pierre is simply ignorant, and thinks that “deepfake” and “manipulated video” are synonyms.
* * * PA: “The Trump Running Mate Who Threatens the Blue Wall” [New York Times]. “There is one person on Donald Trump’s reported shortlist of running mates who has the ability to carve a Pennsylvania-shaped slice out of the so-called blue wall of rust belt states that Democratic presidential candidates typically need to win: Senator Marco Rubio of Florida…. Mr. Rubio could help the ticket in Nevada, where he spent a formative chunk of his adolescence and where his parents worked as a maid and a bartender in Las Vegas, or another marginal Biden state with a large Latino population, such as Arizona…. Pennsylvania has the largest Latino population in the three critical states of the so-called blue wall — Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, which have favored Democrats in every election since 1992 except 2016 — and Mr. Rubio is the kind of public figure whose values, rooted in a scrappy upbringing and Catholicism, could appeal to its voters. While Pennsylvania may not be the first state that comes to mind as having a sizable population of Hispanics and Latinos (and both campaigns are targeting them), they are the fastest growing ethnic group in the commonwealth, which is often seen as an older and whiter state. According to the last census, its total population grew only 2.4 percent from 2010 to 2020, while the Hispanic and Latino population grew by a whopping 45.8 percent. Hispanics and Latinos in Pennsylvania are highly concentrated in the media markets where elections are often won or lost, Philadelphia and the agglomeration of Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. These pockets of Latino voters experienced a spike in population growth in five politically potent counties that run along the eastern side of the state: Berks, Lehigh, Luzerne, Monroe, Philadelphia.” • Interesting argument. I can’t see Trump picking Little Marco, and I do consider the source, but it is an interesting argument. Has Rubio actually accomplished anything? Floridians?
Clinton Legacy
“Hillary Clinton to warn voters in book coming 7 weeks before election” [Axios] “Just seven weeks before the election, Hillary Rodham Clinton will release a book called “Something Lost, Something Gained: Reflections on Life, Love, and Liberty,” which is billed as ‘Hillary like you haven’t seen her before.'” I hope not. More: “The book includes ‘new personal insights about her old adversary Vladimir Putin.'” • Geopolitics is always personal with these people; I don’t think it’s a grift, I think it’s how they genuinely think, if either of those two words is the word I want. Everything is like high school. And speaking of making it personal, I wonder if Mother’s book will include this:
Never forget…
When Julian Assange was releasing US Government war crimes back in 2010, Hillary Clinton proposed drone striking him. pic.twitter.com/oObqv6iT91
— Geiger Capital (@Geiger_Capital) June 25, 2024
Republican Funhouse
They just can’t help themselves:
House GOP is trying to cut the Antitrust Division by 20% and gut the legislation that passed in 2022 to increase funding when there’s more mergers. Populism!
(And to be clear this is the budget for next year, so it could be Trump’s antitrust division…) pic.twitter.com/RJah1myYNw
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) June 25, 2024
Democrats en Déshabillé
Realignment and Legitimacy
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!
Maskstravaganza
“Silence from prominent left outlets continues as mask bans spread” [The Gauntlet]. “Rest during and after COVID infection helps prevent Long COVID, and professional class people have much greater access to rest than workers in frontline positions. This is perhaps why, when left/liberal figures who continually avoid discussing the equity impacts of COVID make a lighthearted post about how they’re lying around sick with COVID watching TV, they’re often confused to be met with ire. For many people, being COVID positive means losing income for days, week or months, or working straight through it. And for those who do work through it, the risk of never recovering is higher. All of these realities put the ongoing pandemic squarely in the center of myriad left priorities; allowing COVID to spread unmitigated is worsening racial inequalities, worsening health inequality, harming workers, worsening homelessness, overloading our already struggling healthcare systems, and disproportionately disabling and killing people who are oppressed along other intersecting identities; people of color, queer people, trans people, women and disabled people. Yet prominent news outlets that bill themselves as leftist or socialist, like Jacobin, Current Affairs, The Lever and The Intercept remain strangely quiet about unmitigated COVID spread, the crisis of Long COVID, the importance of masking, the need for new clean air standards to bring down transmission, the urgency of airborne infection control in hospitals, and the state’s intensifying targeting of disabled people and those with Long COVID…. As masks are increasingly stigmatized and criminalized, the arena in which disabled people, people with Long COVID, and people who do not wish to contract and spread COVID can safely appear continues to shrink…. Watching these bans go into place while left-leaning outlets say nothing (or even appear to signal their support by failing to recommend masking or mitigation of any sort) is akin to feeling the walls closing in. Left public figures who fail to speak do not see that they are slashing a gaping hole in our wall of solidarity for fascists to drive right through. At this point, it is inarguable that the state is coming for disabled people. Speak now, because the state that is empowered to dispose of anyone harmed by COVID is surely a state empowered to dispose of you.” • Of all the many betrayals of the putative left, Covid policy is perhaps the worst, the real kick in the ribs. Commentary:
Banning masks in a pandemic is one of the most batshit things I've ever heard. Only in America.
— Peter Daou (@peterdaou) June 25, 2024
And:
This model mask ban law states that no person wearing a mask for health reasons should be congregating in large groups of people.
That’s ableist. People have a right to participate in social activities and protest while protecting their health. https://t.co/ztbBHD0JRU pic.twitter.com/EynrG3r7jl
— Dr. Lucky Tran (@luckytran) June 25, 2024
And:
They’re really trying to write “if you’re hi-risk stay home” into law and y’all are silent?
You’re taking it with a smile?
Do you realize that your unwillingness to mask in public is a surefire ticket to ending up disabled, dead or HI-RISK?
Do you realize THIS AFFECTS YOU TOO?
— potatum🥔 (@pot8um) June 25, 2024
Yes, good to see the putative left all over this…..
“Here’s Why COVID Measures Like Masking And New Ones Like Safety Goggles Could Return If A Bird Flu Pandemic Is Declared” [Forbes]. “An ongoing bird flu outbreak among U.S. dairy cows has led to three confirmed human cases in dairy workers, and although there aren’t any confirmed cases of human-to-human transmission, experts warn safety measures like masks, vaccines and safety goggles will be needed if a pandemic is declared due to the virus’s deadly nature…. . Dr. Donal Bisanzio, a senior epidemiologist with the nonprofit research institute RTI International, told Forbes methods like masking and social distancing should be the first implemented. “Those are all the kinds of interventions we need to put in place to buy time for the vaccine,” Bisanzio said. Justman told Forbes new methods like protective eyewear may be effective safety measures, especially among farm workers who have daily contact with potentially infectious animals. This is because all three U.S. dairy farmers infected with bird flu had eye-related symptoms like pink eye and irritation, indicating the virus may spread when humans touch or rub their eyes with infected hands. She also pointed to a recent CDC bird flu study that found ferrets—that as mammals have similar respiratory tracts to humans—became infected after eye exposure. Dr. Maciej Boni, an epidemiologist and professor at Temple University, told Forbes he doesn’t think safety measures for a bird flu pandemic will be similar to those put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic because experts don’t know yet how the virus will behave if it mutates and begins transmitting between humans. “H5N1 is not 10 or 20 times more deadly [than COVID-19], it’s 1,000 times more deadly,” Boni said.” • Bird Flu is Disease X, and we’ve been planning for it for twenty years. Just imagine how bad it would be if we hadn’t been planning!
Censorship and Propaganda
“A resource for COVID-19 research and information [“You Have To Live Your Life”] • Maps minimizing, eugenicist cliché to counter-evidence using dropdowns:
There should really be a word for “minimizing, eugenicist cliché.” Perhaps in German?
Variants: Covid
“KP.3 COVID variant is dominant in the US: What are the symptoms?” [USA Today]. “In April, KP.2 quickly overtook JN.1, the omicron subvariant that drove a surge in COVID cases this past winter. In a matter of weeks, KP.3 surpassed KP.2 to become the most prevalent strain…. Although COVID-19 numbers are still relatively low compared to the winter, CDC data shows a small increase in test positivity and emergency room visits in recent weeks.” As NC readers have known for weeks. More: “The emergence of KP.3 and other FLiRT variants is the “same old story,” Andrew Pekosz, Ph.D., virologist at Johns Hopkins University, tells TODAY.com. The SARS-CoV-2 virus mutates and gives rise to a new, highly contagious variant, which becomes the dominant strain. “The timeline that it happens in, three to six months, is much faster than we see with other viruses like influenza,” says Pekosz.” Too fast, therefore, for vaccines to react. One would therefore expect an emphasis on non-pharmaceutical interventions like masking and ventilation which work on any variant, but instead we have a lengthy discussion of plans for next fall’s vaccines. Of course the metrics are hospitalization and death, not infection (which in and of itself, even in asymptomatic cases, can cause vascular and neurological damage, and Long Covid). Not a bad article once you accept its limitations [lambert bangs head on desk].
Testing and Tracking: Covid
“Detection of COVID-19 by quantitative analysis of carbonyl compounds in exhaled breath” [Nature]. N = 321. From the Abstract: “Breath analysis has shown great potential as a non-invasive and rapid means for COVID-19 detection. The objective of this study is to detect patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 and even the possibility to screen between different SARS-CoV-2 variants by analysis of carbonyl compounds in breath. Carbonyl compounds in exhaled breath are metabolites related to inflammation and oxidative stress induced by diseases… Carbonyl compounds in exhaled breath were captured using a microfabricated silicon microreactor and analyzed by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS)…. . The technology for analysis of carbonyl compounds in exhaled breath has great potential for rapid screening and detection of COVID-19 and for other infectious respiratory diseases in future pandemics.” • Now put it in cell phones.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-61735-7#author-information
Sequelae: Covid
Is anyone else experiencing this?
I bought 3 appliances in early 2023 – a dishwasher, washer/dryer & range. All failed w/i a month of each other ~15 mos after purchase (out of warranty). Here's the crazy part: each of the 3 brands admitted it was due to a flaw introduced during Covid & covered the repairs.
— Ann Bauer (@annbauerwriter) June 25, 2024
Sounds like loss of executive function upstream in the supply chain, to me. How long until this is normalized, and the repairs aren’t covered?
Prevention
“And Now Xylitol” [Derek Lowe, Science]. “The authors studies two large and separate cohorts of patients across several years, and fasting xylitol concentration in the blood certainly seems to be correlated with major adverse coronary events, along with stroke… The evidence looks pretty solid, although the mechanism (as with erythritol) is still something of a mystery. … At any rate, I would regard these studies as reason enough to avoid both of these compounds as sweeteners, and I would extend the caution to the other sugar alcohols as well (maltitol, mannitol, sorbitol, etc.) We really need to understand more about these things, and ditching the sugar-free gummy candies and the like seems like a prudent move.” • So I guess Xylitol chewing gum as a Covid preventative is out?
| Wastewater | ||
| This week[1] CDC June 17: | Last Week[2] CDC June 10 (until next week): | |
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| Variants [3] CDC June 22 | Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC June 8 | |
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| Hospitalization | ||
| ★ New York[5] New York State, data June 22: | National [6] CDC June 1: | |
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| Positivity | ||
| National[7] Walgreens June 17: | Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic June 15: | |
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| Travelers Data | ||
| Positivity[9] CDC June 3: | Variants[10] CDC JUne 3: | |
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| Deaths | ||
| Weekly Deaths vs. % Positivity [11]CDC June 15: | Weekly Deaths vs. ED Visits [12]CDC June 15: | |
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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. The numbers in the right hand column are identical. The dots on the map are not.
[2] (CDC) Last week’s wastewater map.
[3] (CDC Variants) KP.3 dominating.
[4] (ER) This is the best I can do for now. At least data for the entire pandemic is presented.
[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Now a jump, which is be compatible with a wastewater decrease, but still not a good feeling .(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) Still 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. I’m leaving this here for another week because I loathe them so much:
[11] Deaths low, but positivity up.
[12] Deaths low, ED up.
Stats Watch
“The Economy”: “United States Chicago Fed National Activity Index” [Trading Economics]. “The Chicago Fed National Activity Index increased to +0.18 in May 2024, the highest in three months, up from a revised -0.26 in April.”
Manufacturing: “United States Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index” [Trading Economics]. “The composite manufacturing index in the US Fifth District slumped to -10 in June of 2024 from the neutral reading of 0 in the earlier period, a sharp contrast to market expectations of a 2.”
Retail: “Hooters has abruptly shuttered 40 locations – as restaurant crisis deepens” [Daily Mail]. “[B]osses said the 41-year-old brand ‘remains highly resilient and relevant,’ and highlighted a new range of Hooters frozen food which is being sold in supermarkets across America.” • Hooters frozen food? Really?
Tech: “US Record Labels Sue AI Music Generators Suno and Udio for Copyright Infringement” [Wired]. “The music industry has officially declared war on Suno and Udio, two of the most prominent AI music generators. A group of music labels including Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, and Sony Music Group has filed lawsuits in US federal court on Monday morning alleging copyright infringement on a ‘massive scale.’ The plaintiffs seek damages up to $150,000 per work infringed. The lawsuit against Suno is filed in Massachusetts, while the case against Udio’s parent company Uncharted Inc. was filed in New York. Suno and Udio did not immediately respond to a request to comment. ‘Unlicensed services like Suno and Udio that claim it’s ‘fair’ to copy an artist’s life’s work and exploit it for their own profit without consent or pay set back the promise of genuinely innovative AI for us all,’ Recording Industry Association of America chair and CEO Mitch Glazier said in a press release.” • RIAA aren’t exactly angels, but they have the right of it here.
Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 39 Fear (previous close: 39 Fear) [CNN]. One week ago: 44 (Fear). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Jun 25 at 1:47:21 PM ET.
Class Warfare
“The Triumph of Counting and Scripting” [Salon]. “Erin Nash was a hospital chaplain whose job was to be with people in some of their worst moments, praying, holding hands, even singing with them. Shadowing her on her rounds, I watched as she managed to create brief peaceful moments with suffering patients and their families again and again, making temporary sanctuary between the thin blue medical curtains despite the buzzing alarms, fluorescent lighting, and constant stream of footsteps on the linoleum floors nearby. I was surprised to learn that in addition to consoling the bereaved and calming the anxious, Erin (the names in this piece have been changed) had to fill out three separate charts—including the standard electronic health records system that many clinicians use—for every person she visited. She even carried around a cheat sheet to help her remember the codes, murmuring, under her breath, ‘Asking for a prayer is a resource, family together is a resource,” while she hunted and pecked at the keyboard. Nobody was being billed for Erin’s work, so why was she charting in triplicate? To find the answer, I spent five years talking to workers like Erin, as well as the managers and engineers who are trying to design and impose the systems that control her work. Ultimately, the spread of data analytics into feeling labor is more than just the latest frontier in an inexorable drive toward increasing efficiency everywhere. It has implications for A.I., the future of work, and the stratification of human contact.” • Reminds me of this from The Onion…
“First we shape our social graph; then it shapes us” [Henrik Karlsson, Escaping Flatland]. “I’ve been using the word culture so far, but that is not the exact word for what I am gesturing at. It is not the wider culture we internalize; it is the particular set of influences that surround us, what Tim Urban has called ‘our unique cultural intersection’. Is there a word for this? I don’t know. But discussing the terminology with GPT-3, a large language model, it suggests I use the word milieu, which sounds sophisticated in a distinctly French way. This I can live with. A milieu, says GPT-3, is the culture contained in your unique set of connections. (Merriam Webster’s dictionary says ‘the physical or social setting in which something occurs or develops.’) Unlike the word culture, as anthropologists invoke it when they talk about ‘French culture’ or ‘Balinese culture,’ a milieu is not a monolithic thing. Your milieu is not the same as your sister’s. It is an ever-shifting, individual configuration of information flows. The Twitter feed you have curated is a milieu. Your friend group (which is not the same as the friend groups of the other people in that group!) is a milieu. It is by changing your milieu that you change yourself. Curating our milieu is something we all do these days, if not always consciously.” •
News of the Wired
Dad. Via:
A duck walks into a pub and orders a pint of beer and a ham sandwich.
The barman looks at him and says,
“Hang on! You’re a duck.”
“I see your eyes are working,” replies the duck.
“And you can talk” !!
Exclaims the barman.
“I see your ears are working, too,”
Says the duck.
“Now if you don’t mind, can I have my beer and my sandwich please?”
“Certainly, sorry about that,”
Says the barman as he pulls the duck’s pint.
“It’s just we don’t get many ducks in this pub. What are you doing around this way?”
“I’m working on the building site across the road,” Explains the duck.
“I’m a plasterer.”
The flabbergasted barman cannot believe the duck and wants to learn more, but takes the hint when the duck pulls out a newspaper from his bag and proceeds to read it.
So, the duck reads his paper, drinks his beer, eats his sandwich, bids the barman good day and leaves.
The same thing happens for two weeks.
Then one day the circus comes to town.
The ringmaster comes into the pub for a pint and the barman says to him
“You’re with the circus, aren’t you? Well, I know this duck that could be just brilliant in your circus. He talks, drinks beer, eats sandwiches, reads the newspaper and everything!”
“Sounds marvellous,” says the ringmaster, handing over his business card.
“Get him to give me a call.”
So the next day when the duck comes into the pub the barman says,
“Hey Mr Duck, I reckon I can line you up with a top job, paying really good money.”
“I’m always looking for the next job,”
Says the duck.
“Where is it?”
“At the circus,”
Says the barman.
“The circus?”
Repeats the duck.
“That’s right,”
Replies the barman.
“The circus?”
The duck asks again.
with the big tent?”
“Yeah,” the barman replies.
“With all the animals who live in cages, and performers who live in caravans?” says the duck.
“Of course,” the barman replies.
“And the tent has canvas sides and a big canvas roof with a hole in the middle?” persists the duck.
“That’s right!” says the barman.
The duck shakes his head in amazement, and says;
“What the hell would they want with a plasterer” ???
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: “We’ve been lucky in that the prior owners of our property never used chemicals. Neither do we and as a result, the amphibians love to hang out in our yard. The perennial geranium just started to bloom and will come on strong this week after the rain.” “Skink” is, IIRC, the name of a dealer in Spook Country. But this ampihibian seems quite nice!
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Looks like Skink lost his, or her, tail to a predator. Some critters can regrow their tails. Science is still trying to figure that out. Now if only we could figure out a way to regrow ‘our’ civil society.
True confession, the skink lost its tail due to inept Photoshop cropping. As for civil society, perhaps we could crop out the “uncivil.” (is that term too deplorables adjacent?)
“Uncivil” is concise enough a word to be all inclusive. Both Highborn and Lowborn, (to use the Elite preferred terms,) can be included in that category. As for ‘cropping’ them out, well, there are many proposed methods for achieving that task. Not all of which are “civil” in and of themselves.
The other day in links there was a story about Kenya sending troops to Haiti.
Then today this news is breaking:
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/06/25/world/kenya-protests/
Live Updates: Police Fire Arms Amid Tax Protests in Kenya; 5 Reported Killed
https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/protest-kenya-nairobi-06-25-24/index.html
Chaos in Kenya as protesters storm parliament
The protests are more to do with economic austerity program. Not a surprise from any country under the influence of neoliberal economics.
Maybe some Haitian gangs should be sent to Kenya to end the violence?
Target Stock Slips After Company Lowers Prices
https://www.marketwatch.com/articles/target-stock-price-cuts-walmart-06ba00f1?mod=mw_latestnews/
Mr. Market says how it really feels about taking the boot off the consumers neck.
Speculators want inflation AND cheap, easy money.
Since the US duopoly abandoned public health on Covid, and we are supposed to “manage personal risk”, any chance of there being a Q&A/Callin type podcast/show run by a professional in a relevant occupation (epidemiologist, physician, etc) that is synthesizing the latest research and advising how we Muricans should “manage personal risk”?
Some questions I have off hand, I am surely missing many other good questions
1 Such as recommendation on PPE vendors for N95 mask, home air filter, CO2 reader, etc?
2 Are OTC vitamins prophylactically like Vit D still advisable? Is it possible that OTC vitamins were advisable for a few months of the pandemic, but for any of such vitamins there is a risk of taking them indefinitely for years that could be worse than the anti-Covid risk reduction?
3 Same question for the I Vitamin?
4 Should we get the Novavax 2024-25 protein vaccine scheduled to be released in late July? If yes, is 1 dose sufficient, or if it somehow possible should we get the 2-dose?
5 Is it safe to assume that outdoor transmission is very unlikely?
6 Any updated/2024 empirical data on risk differential by occupation? Are there some occupations that are inherently very risky, even if always wearing an N95 mask?
7 Any forecast for upcoming years? Is Covid likely to continue indefinitely?
8 Is there any hope that we are in a Long Covid Denial Bubble that the general public and the power elite might finally wake up from, like using seatbelts and quitting smoking? With Covid presumably this would be normalizing N95 mask usage, mass indoor filtration equipment, and better funding for Covid research like Long Covid researcher Dr. Al-Aly.
9 Any chance that China (given their mitigation measures in 2020-22) could “pop” the Long Covid Denail first & teach or embarass some of the other world nations into following their lead?
So many questions.
Some replies to your questions.
[Boilerplate CYA advisory. I am not a medical doctor. Do due diligence on all ‘suggestions’ you get.]
1) Look up the Corsi-Rosenthal Box DIY air filter. It has excellent reviews. One in the living room makes our home a lot safer.
2) OTC vitamins are always advisable. Vit D, zinc, Vit C and more boost one’s immune response. Always a good thing, no matter what one is battling.
3) Vit I has an excellent track record. Several billion prescriptions over the last fifty years show it to be very safe, and effective for several ‘problems.’ The discoverers of the substance were awarded the Nobel Prize in 2015 for the discovery. The best theory as to why it is demonized in America is that, if it had been shown to be an effective treatment for the coronavirus, the Big Pharmas could have lost their Emergency Use Authorization for their big profit driving mRNA “vaccines.” {Follow the money.}
4) No recommendation either way on the Novavax. I don’t know enough about it ‘for sure.’
5) No, it is not safe to assume that outdoor transmission is very unlikely. There have been confirmed cases of transmission between casual passers by outdoors on public streets.
6) This one is above my pay grade. There is a medical statistician in the regular commentariat here at NC. He or she would be better prepped to answer that question.
7) So far, the Coronavirus has been chugging merrily along throughout the year for four years now. Since it is a quickly mutating pathogen, it’s eventual trajectory is difficult to predict.
8) Your examples of risk mitigation done “the right way” were both pushed by the Government. Coronavirus responses have been, it can be argued, actively sabotaged by today’s Government. “Everybody back in the pool! This polio scare is all in your heads!”
9) China truly is the “Middle Kingdom.” Insofar as the Chinese Elites are integrated with the Neo-liberal West, they have somewhat abandoned their earlier caution. See a sudden rise in mortality linked to the Pandemic and we could see serious public discord. That is exactly what the Chinese Elites fear the most.
These questions are like the Hydra. Answer one and two more pop up to replace the original.
Stay safe.
“Nothing draws the ire of the average voter more than candidates speaking beyond their allotted time, my focus groups have shown.”
Well I’m guess I’m not average, because nothing draws my ire more than limiting presidential candidates to a minute or two to answer questions, even if these days they are often ridiculous ones posed by political hacks and newsreaders who’ve never had an original thought pass through their tiny little minds.
The Lincoln-Douglas debates, these are not. Not even Gore-Buckley, which arguably started the downward spiral of the quality of our national discourse. I would not be surprised though if SlowJoe’s viciousness causes him to take a cue from Buckley and he threatens to sock the Donald in the jaw.
“I am paying for this microphone”
— The Gipper
Yeah, pull the other one. Although I suspect that what we are actually seeing is that he has been conditioning his focus groups.
Maybe the Hillary drone strike on Assange is still an active idea. Maybe they showed that quote to him upon exit from prison, and said, nice family you got there back in Oz. Shame something could happen to them. Let’s not do something stupid again and stay off the internet, ok? Capisce?
Remember when John Bolton threatened the family of a Brazilian diplomat saying ‘You have 24 hours to leave the organization, and if you don’t comply with this decision by Washington, we have ways to retaliate against you. We know where your kids live. You have two sons in New York.’
https://www.businessinsider.com/john-bolton-threatened-family-of-brazilian-diplomat-iraq-war-2002-2018-3
Welp, he’s barely home and they’re already going to ding Assange with a $520K for the airplane trip.
https://twitter.com/Stella_Assange/status/1805573781303308326
RE: debates
Don’t overlook the undercard of Kamala v. [this space for rent|Vivek?]
While we all wait to see what the chemists have cooked up to keep Joe from slumbering off, we can look forward to two younger candidates who know how to really turn a phrase.
Debates, cont.
The Smith and Merchan gag orders present unprecedented First Amendment issues, and presentation or reaction thereto could cut both ways.
As noted by so many in various media. the mere presence of such orders highlights politicization of jurisprudence. When you’ve lost Andrew Cuomo, for example.
There is a likely wait-and-see attitude among potential debate viewers, especially after the CNN censoring of its own reporter quotes.
The voters deserve better than a bastardized production that isn’t even kabuki or kayfabe. Doddering jacked-up fool vs. volatile nutter. Bad theater.
…who knows what the masters debaters will do to keep up?
I have dozens of Skinks living under my front steps. They are reptiles. Sometimes one gets in the house and my cat goes after it. Their tail breaks off very easily and keeps wiggling as to distract a predator as the lizard runs away. Their tails grow back pretty quickly.
I got confused by the term fasting xylitol concentration. I assumed for some reason people were told not to eat anything but xylitol.
Turns out it just means a glucose blood test after fasting.
My recent experience with xylitol suggests it has a similar effect as sugar on blood pressure and weight gain – I didn’t measure blood glucose, but I’ve seen an n=2 experiment on youtube showing a rise in concentration. I still use it for oral health, without ingesting.
‘We’re unaware of any major or semi-major environmental justice work done by Harris in Bayview Hunters Point, including on the Hunters Point Shipyard Superfund site,’ said Bradley Angel, executive director of Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice, a progressive watchdog group that seeks to ‘to promote environmental, social, economic and climate justice.’
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Is it possible that ‘Hunters Point’ was slang for a crack pipe?
Nah. “Hunter’s Point” is standard business terminology for Biden fils ‘cut’ of the crime family deals he fronts for. Also known as a “skim.” Some observers have searched for a connection between the terms “skim” and “scam,” to no avail. Sometimes it really is “honest” graft.
Sounds like a handling charge.
Twitter (and half the internet it seems) blowing up the same day Julian Assange is freed?
What is happening? Please enlighten. I’m not on the Twitter and have limited access to the internet.
Not for me. What does “blowing up” mean?
I’m getting lots of “Hmm we’re having trouble finding that site” including when I click on all the Twitter links above. Is It Down For Everybody Or Just Me showed lots of folks having trouble accessing Twitter today.
Checking again just now I got that message for the NYTimes homepage, some music sites but not Flora’s Citizen’s Free Press or Revolver.
This could be a legacy OS issue, but if so it’s a very odd one. I get the same results in Firefox and Chrome. ESPN yes, archive.ph no. Twitter has tried to load a few times but then it’s back to “trouble finding that site.”
And yes, Consortium News was available everytime I tried it.
I had some weird stuff like that yesterday. I think it has something to do with updating the registries to change twitter.com to x.com.
THIS IS EMBARRASSING. I tried tweaking my ethernet connection yesterday and I thought it was working great but somehow it had a very strange impact on my ability to load most websites.
Everything now working fine including your links.
Crap. I was just getting used to the idea of more yardwork and less news.
In this extreme heat, let the yardwork slide. The uncut grass will thank you for the rest from being Israeled.
NTSB staff makes 20 recommendations in wake of East Palestine wreck
NTSB makes recommendations and does not issue regulations, that is Mayo Pete’s department under the guidance of Amtrak Joe. Of course the “Rail Safety Act of 2023” is dead in the water. The Association of American Railroads lobbyists and lawyers did an excellent job!
> wheel bearing failures
As I said (here and here).
An update, typical corporate person behavior!
NTSB chair rips Norfolk Southern’s ‘unprecedented and reprehensible’ response to derailment probe Trains magazine
When will corporate persons be subject to capital punishment? Last time I recall was Arthur Andersen and that’s a long time ago!
I added orts and scraps. Too much going on!
That’s a shaggy dad tale if I ever read one.
I wonder if any in congress and government generally (say, the State Department) resent the hold AIPAC and Israel have on US policy? Recognizing how strong the hold is, one of those people might view self destructive Israeli actions as a benefit for the United States in the long run. It weakens the source of the stranglehold. They may be thinking: time to let it all fall. Better than letting it drag you down too.
Ooh maybe it’s time
To let it go
Ooh maybe it’s time
For taking it slow
Ooh maybe it’s time, time, time
For anything at all
Time, time, time, to let it all fall
Where it may
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3mkdQKVrcQ
Hillary on Putin–hilarious. Of course what we really want to hear is Hillary on her philandering husband.
At any rate tis a mystery how this Arkansas lawyer became a foreign policy expert. Judging from Libya, Syria, the Russian “reset” she didn’t. Didn’t Aurelian just do a piece on government by amateurs?
There is that brief adventure in the poultry or ag futures market…maybe long forgotten but it never bothers me to think about it, or bring that to the front. Blech. Please go away already, dear Madame Secretary.
Such a ludicrous instance of ill gotten gains and not even in the pits of the exchange. Maybe the Duke brothers got back in the game after all!
So, Hillary is really, *gasp!* Daisy Duke!
Bill is definitely Boss Hogg.
Jimmy Carville is… Roscoe P Coltrane. Mouth of the south and the Raging Cajun!
All due applause to actor James Best for that portrayal. Can’t remember for sure, maybe I carried a metal lunch box to school from that show. Yee haw!
Hillary is p.u.larious.
That’s as elevated as my discourse gets today.
The non-Trump RICO cases in Georgia are now blowing up too. Aww.
Judicial misconduct, Young Thug/YSL: https://www.thefader.com/2024/06/12/young-thug-ysl-rico-trial-glanville-brian-steel-contempt
Prosecutorial misconduct, Cop City: https://archive.is/QFVsH
That Lever News demand for a Boeing criminal prosecution seems more than a bit overheated. Since several of the links track back to a personal injury outfit one turns to DDG.
https://www.cliffordlaw.com/attorneys/robert-a-clifford/
Those two 737 crashes were some time ago. Air crash lawsuits are forever? In any case it seems to be that the Garland DOJ and its predecessors are guilty of some much greater derelictions of duty.
I think that the modern American legal system sees Charles Dickens’ novel Bleak House as something to emulate. It would be job security if they ignored doing justice, wouldn’t?
Whew. Someone had to go to chat something or other to discover the use of “milieu”?… That phrase has been used by marxists and anarchists for over 150 years.
That was my thought. And had this dude never heard of the thesaurus?
He probably thinks that “thesaurus” went extinct 65 million years ago.
“..Masking And New Ones Like Safety Goggles Could Return If A Bird Flu Pandemic Is Declared”
And about bird flu, a personal observation, wife came down with Pink eye and the doctor said he had just seen 5 cases in the last few days. Atlanta. ’tis a mystery? pink eye is the symptom dairy workers testing positive for H5N1 are reporting, hmmm…
At this point we recall that dust from CAFOs can travel 15 kilometers in the air….
Only problem for Biden, is that I can see him getting a quote out of his mouth without tripping over his words.
Anyone have recommendations for safety goggles for airborne disease for someone with glasses?
Basic chemical splash goggles fit over glasses. It doesn’t have to be a perfect fit.
I just had a disturbing image of American einsatzgruppen being used on Covidian Americans who are lebensunwertes leben<. All my reading on the history of eugenics, Covid policy, and Gaza, is getting to me. It is all interrelated links on an historical chain.
My palliative care doctor’s care plan for me is “Go home and die”. His suggested method to speed things up: Discontinue all nutrition and water. I am not kidding.
Please keep fighting, since you have always been a fighter.
Tell him to “Doctor heal thyself.”
And how, pray tell is his recommendation in any sense palliative?
It’s your life. You make the decisions. If you are a tough case for the doctor, tough t—–s. He didn’t sign up for all easy all the time.
Do go in your own way. We’re rooting for you.
What ambrit said. f-ck him(the MD, not ambrit).
Something like that happened with my late mother-in-law where they put her in a hospital bed, sedated her and then discontinued all nutrition and water. So much for the Hippocratic Oath’s ‘First, do no harm.’ Ask your doctor if that is going to be his plan when he gets too old to take care of himself. To hell with them. It’s your life-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORLeih2mUKE (3:44 mins)
So, they sedated her, and only then cut off food and water, when she was unable to communicate? I think that is called murder.
Or modern palliative care. Take your pick. It was a long week for my wife as she was by her bedside giving her water in her drug-induced state.
“Do no harm” is often impossible in a medical situation. Is amputation ‘doing no harm’ even if it prevents the spread of gangrene? Ask a cancer patient if their kemo is ‘doing no harm’.
A physician’s choice is often between the lesser of two harms, as is a pet owner’s when faced with the choice between watching their pet suffer for perhaps weeks and a trip to the vet.
Agreed the choice shouldn’t be made by the physician where the patient still has the capacity to choose, but I think he/she betrays that Oath if they deny the patient the choice.
How the hell do you do this? Your breadth and depth is astounding! How many of you are there?
Lena,
An issue where words are inadequate. Please keep trying! I wish there was a way one could help.
Unbelievable. Best wishes for the kind of life you want, however long you want.
no need to speed things up lena, take care…
I was wondering how you were just a couple days ago as I hadn’t seen anything from you recently. I was a bit worried but that knew that could be my fault as I am not on here constantly. This is terrible news for me to hear. I hope you decide to stick it out just as long as the reward is worth it. Many here value your opinion, insight, and help. I know now that I am over 70 the thought of dying is not as frightening as it once was but it is only an idea for now, not an immediate outcome. My father told me it’s all well and good to have a do not resuscitate order on file but if you have trouble breathing you will say “Where the hell is the G D oxygen tank!”
This is the way in which Representative Bowman is being attacked by AIPAC and a number of prominent Democrats, simply for being “insensitive” enough to call for a cease-fire in Gaza:
https://x.com/asadabukhalil/status/1805679222872064448?
asad abukhalil أسعد أبو خليل
We need yet another new definition of antisemitism to include calls for ceasefires:
“Many of them, including Latimer, * said his immediate call for a cease-fire was insensitive to his Jewish constituents.”
* Latimer is the chosen primary opponent of Bowman.
Hmmm… The AIPAC stooges are conflating being Jewish with being a Zionist. I wonder what ‘they’ accuse the true liberal Jews who are demonstrating against the Gaza Aktion of?
If they keep this up, they are going to make antisemitism acceptable again which would be spectacularly stupid. You just need enough people losing their livelihoods by saying that perhaps that Israeli is not the only democracy in the Middle East or that perhaps the IDF is not the most moral army in the world to trigger a reaction through social media.
I wonder where AIPAC and their masters will be next year. Babylon is long gone. How will DC cope without their guidance?
“Oh Babylon, that mighty city, rich in treasure, wide in fame.
Oh God, pride of man, broken in the dust again.”
@ambrit: they call Jews demonstrating against the genocide in Gaza “self-hating Jews.” In fact, any Jew who ever questions anything Zionists say, plan or do is labeled a self-hating Jew.
https://x.com/aaronjmate/status/1805775354474193387
Aaron Maté @aaronjmate
In trying to unseat Jamaal Bowman, AIPAC has spent $14.5 million to impart the lesson that to be a democratically elected politician in the US, you can’t criticize the mass murdering, apartheid and military occupation regime in Israel.
The Democratic Party establishment and their media allies have done their best to spread the message.
9:29 PM · Jun 25, 2024
Absolutely true and clarifying:
“Everything is like high school.”
“Geopolitics is always personal with these people; I don’t think it’s a grift, I think it’s how they genuinely think, if either of those two words is the word I want. Everything is like high school.”
Re: There should really be a word for “minimizing, eugenicist cliché.” …
Meiosis is a rhetorical figure of minimizing.
E.g., “The scratch my client gave to the plaintiff…” (when referring to a sizable wound).
The eugenics part is going to be tough, so, yeah, maybe German speakers can help us out with a “suitcase word”.
I was thinking “manifest destiny” is at least an example of such a “minimizing, eugenicist cliche.”
So yeah, probably some very technical terms for that kind of thing have been derived in German.
Rivian so big it gets commercial weighted license plate in NC. This ain’t gonna end well
Tech: “US Record Labels Sue AI Music Generators Suno and Udio for Copyright Infringement”
‘Unlicensed services like Suno and Udio that claim it’s ‘fair’ to copy an artist’s life’s work and exploit it for their own profit without consent or pay set back the promise of genuinely innovative AI for us all’
Wait a minute. That is the actual definition of copyright theft and in a court of law would count as a direct confession of what they did.
Copyright infringement. Theft is something else. Unless these AIs are distributing copies of what they’ve heard the RIAA hasn’t a legal leg to stand on, which is not to say it won’t win in court.
This is the same issue as sampling and we all know how that went. There’s no fair use when the portion of the copyrighted work used is substantial and for commercial purposes. See 17 USC §107.
My own admittedly arm-chair understanding of this is that Russia’s attacks on the Ukrainian grid have been more of a screw-turning execise rather ever intending a knock-out blow.
Dunno how this found its way here. It was intended to be a response to Upstater’s comment in the Lebanon Ledge thread. Apologies.
Man, I could feel the burn through my computer monitor. So a Ukrainian journalist was interviewing Russia’s rep to the UN and see how it ended-
https://www.bitchute.com/video/PJpMAB3xlhRh/ (1:14 mins)
That will drive Israel’s Gilad Erdan crazy.
Thank you for that, Rev. Kev, that was delicious.
A New York Times reporter thinks a Florida Cuban will of course be accepted by, say, Mexicans all over the Upper Midwest because “identity”. Watch hilarity ensue.
The “you have to live your life” website is fantastic. Thanks for sharing.
It is primary day in NY. I never thought I would feel sorry for Jamaal Bowman, but I do. There has been a full court press against him. Poor guy has no turnout for a rally with AOC and Bernie. And my weather news watch has shown probably five or six anti Bowman ads an hour (with implications of antisemitism). Being stupid and incompetent isn’t enough for this, I figure this is largely the Israel lobby.
Meanwhile my reliably Israel first congressman Dan Goldman is the only one advertising (flyers and an odd ad or two) for his district. Could be because his opponents have about 50 cents between them. Funny how that works.
I hope I am wrong but I fully expect Bowman to lose and Dan to win. May I be wrong.(Bowman is no prize but not supporting genocide shouldn’t be why he gets kicked out.)
My ex’s revenge tour culminates tonight, with Kev funding foes of standing Freedom Caucus members in the primary.
He got Mace’d bad a few weeks ago in SC, when Nancy crushed his henchman in the primary.
Its sad in a lot of ways, he didn’t do diddly for his constituency over 17 years of being my Congressman, but now he’s worked like the dickens to get payback for the Caucus wrecking his career.
C’est la (ke)V
We just cannot get rid of those bad apples with grudges. Your Kevin and my ex Senator Hillary being prime examples. I’ve grown somewhat fond of GWB, he tried to fade into the art studio and I appreciated that.
And for the record rarely if ever is the alternative to their choices much better imo.
A head divided against itself cannot stand…
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0xxjn07d6qo
Gotta feel for the drudge who got to clean up. If only because it was hot enough to melt all that wax.
Bo-eing… Bo-eing… China!
CATL electric plane to support 2,000 km flight
Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd, the world’s largest electric vehicle maker, disclosed on Tuesday that its electric commercial airplane, which is able to support a flight range of 2,000 to 3,000 kilometers, will “be ready by 2027 or 2028”.
It is the first time that the company disclosed the flight range of such a plane, after it has teamed up with the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, a China State-owned plane manufacturer, to explore electric passenger airplanes.
https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202406/25/WS667a5675a31095c51c50ab4d.html
Is CATL the “world’s largest electric vehicle maker,” or is it the largest maker of EV batteries?
They sneak into investment news (new chemistries and tech, new plants, awards to scientists, deals with EV manufacturers, etc.) from time to time, mostly under the radar. You’d have to expect that there could be publicity fireworks at some point. Maybe this is it.
The U.S. government will really need to squash them hard, and, of course, they are trying. Their batteries all have Uyghur slave labor cooties*, so you’ll have to cross your fingers while driving.
*OK—uh, Ford disagrees, and Tesla, I think. And many Westerners who have visited the XUAR.
Goldman has won. AOC has won. Bowman is losing with 50% of the vote in. He may only lead by 9% But NBC has already declared victory for Lattimer. It is likely and the spread may grow. It also might not be entirely about AIPAC, this is Bowman, but I cannot shake the feeling it is.
Couldn’t possibly be because this race now holds the record for the most ad spending ever in a House primary.
Bowman is simply a poor politician, and thus no help to the left or to sanity in government. Yes, he was morally correct to oppose the Israeli Genocide, and you’re probably right that’s what did him in. But I don’t feel sorry for him; he gets to keep his Congressional healthcare benefits (best in the world) for life while my local hospital group has announced they’re no longer accepting my insurance with UnitedHealthCare.
He’ll be just fine; probably will take a very well paying job with tasseled loafers. I say good riddance to phony “leftists” everywhere, even if AIPAC doesn’t like them. And as for AIPAC, case they wasted $14.5 million to defeat a Congressman who would never be able to threaten to them for being such a buffoon. Almost makes me think Bowman was set up to make the left look, well, even worse.
“Bowman is simply a poor politician, and thus no help to the left or to sanity in government…”
There are some people who would argue that trying to stop a Genocide makes for a poor politician who is no help to the left or to sanity in government. I however think this impossibly incorrect and saddening and could never ever identify with a left lacking in conscience and a government lacking in moral sanity. I think the nobility of dismissal from government sets Jamaal Bowman alongside a Martin Luther King or Nelson Mandela.
It is my understanding, others can correct me if I am wrong, but Bowman was only a recent convert to the Palestinian cause. The left factions that initially got him into Congress spent several years angry at him for ultimately opposing the positions he ran on; he voted for the Iron Dome, and many other issues unpopular with his base. That his rally with AOC and Bernie only garnered a few hundred people in a city where thousands are actively demonstrating against Israel tells the tale.
He is neither an MLK nor a Mandela, simply a pol that thought he had found a parade he could get out in front of after disappointing those who put him in office.
As ye sow, so shall ye reap.
Forgive me, please. For a person to witness the killing of children and want to stop the child killing and be compelled to try to stop the killing no matter the personal cost is precisely what it was the be a Martin Luther King or a Nelson Mandela or a Ghandi or those who followed the paths.
For a black lawmaker to find what following a Martin Luther King means, and try to follow, and King and be attacked and driven from office makes that person a hero for me to teach children about.
Imagine AIPAC spending $15 million to ruin a black lawmaker who would wish to walk in the steps of Martin Luther King to try to save children. Imagine those who would follow the teachings of AIPAC rather than King.
Now think of an MLK that gleefully worked with segregationists that then dumped him, and then he wanted to come back to preach at Ebenezer. A Ghandi that had a standing invitation to dinner from Buckingham palace until it got into the Bombay papers. A Nelson Mandela that attended birthday parties for De Klerk’s kids and then wondered why no one liked him.
This was the guy who publicly turned on the people who elected him to office and called them all the worst kinds of anti-semites for advocating for BDS at one of their rallies and voted for every war bill presented to him.
There are better people to teach children about than cynical politicians who sell out their base at the first opportunity and then think they can come home again.
Love the guy all you want, but understand that his base stayed home for a reason.
Bowman was no prize. But I do have to wonder why he was such a threat to AIPAC His biggest national moment was downright embarrassing, but they went all in. This race got the largest turnout of the contested districts in the city and Lattimer eventually won by just under 13,000 votes. If reports are accurate they, and their allies, spent well over $300 a vote to get this victory. Makes Bloomberg’s $110/vote in the general for his last term look like a downright bargain. Maybe they needed to get him before he was established, Nadler still isn’t vulnerable and sometimes even defies them.
Whatever the reason, that it happened and they could and did do this should bother people. This isn’t the BS Russia!Russia!Russia! Story. My sympathy for Bowman walking into a buzzsaw he never saw coming is minimal. My disgust at a foreign entity’s ability to openly “influence” an election is not minimal at all.
AIPAC had been prowling around since last summer looking for a kill against The Squad, with their widely advertised 120 million dollar war chest. I feel like the Crowley and Engel crowd must have been in search of scalps as well. Maybe he wasn’t so much a threat as an opportunity for both camps? An object lesson?
“The loss represents a devastating blow to progressives in New York, who rallied around Bowman up until the end. For more moderate Democrats, the result signaled that the organizing might of the Working Families Party and the Democratic Socialists of America can be overcome with the right blend of geography and candidate selection.”
From other articles I have read it sounds like the progressives they talk about only rallied after he crawled back to the DSA, which was pretty late in the game. It sounds a lot like if Bernie Sanders were to come to Naked Capitalism, tell us he wants a revolution and that he is going to run for the presidency to get it. How many in this commentariat would show up?
https://www.cityandstateny.com/politics/2024/06/latimer-easily-defeats-bowman-blow-progressives/397656/
Retail: “Hooters has abruptly shuttered 40 locations – as restaurant crisis deepens” [Daily Mail]. “[B]osses said the 41-year-old brand ‘remains highly resilient and relevant,’ and highlighted a new range of Hooters frozen food which is being sold in supermarkets across America.” • Hooters frozen food? Really?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Isn’t this officially the end of the pantyhose era, with Hooters going away?
That’s what I remember most about the young misses who worked there, the 3 or 4 times we dined.
Do I have to be the one to make this obvious as all get out “pun?”
Hooters is going t–s up?
I, for one, am glad that you got that off your chest. :)
Jamaal Bowman has lost a seat in Congress because urging that a Genocide be stopped was intolerable for Democratic Party leaders and an implacably ferocious foreign supported lobbying group is indifferent to or supports the Genocide. Ronald Reagan could stop an onslaught in Lebanon in a day with a demanding phone call, but the President and administration is different now and the moral imperative to stop a Genocide is now politically absent.
This is impossibly saddening.
Yeah. I have already seen the political style obituaries being written about how Bowman ran to the left of his constituency. Those pieces conveniently leave out the 14.5 million $ in spending AIPAC aimed at him.
So now I guess there are Democrats cheering about a black man being defeated by secretive foreign interests? I suddenly have no doubt that they will do anything to prevent Trump from assuming office if he wins. Their only allegiance is to money and power. They have no shame and no soul.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/25/nyregion/bowman-latimer-house-new-york.html
June 25, 2024
Bowman Falls to Latimer in a Loss for Progressive Democrats
Representative Jamaal Bowman of New York, a member of the House’s left-wing “squad,” was defeated by George Latimer in a race that exposed Democratic fissures.
By Nicholas Fandos
A super PAC affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobby, dumped $15 million into defeating him, more than any outside group has ever spent on a House race…
AIPAC and supporters have driven away a government representative who sought to follow in the steps of a Martin Luther King or Nelson Mandela to save Palestinian children. There is my understanding.
Mentioned previously on NC, is the analogy of the current proxy WW3 in Ukraine and Gaza with the strategy game Chess by Big Serge; “The Age of Zugzwang”. The USA is in a position that it has to move but each move places it in a worse position and it will be eventually be checkmated unless it decides to destroy the great game and the world. Ignored is the past and Suez in 1956 when Dwight D Eisenhower forced a ceasefire and Israeli, French and British forces were evacuated from Egypt. From that point on, the UK was no longer an Empire but a US lap poodle. The fact that the USA cannot end the Houthi Red Sea – Suez Canal blockade means the Western Empire has fallen. Either there are armistices, DMZs, acknowledging defeat, and a multi-polar world or the Sampson Option intentionally ignites Doomsday. Today the USA and Israel are simply too conjoined, inseparable, and unable to accept reality.
My favorite duck joke:
Duck walks into a bar and asks “got any bread?”
Barman replies “No. This is a bar. Go away”.
An hour later duck returns, asking “Got any bread?”
Barman says “told you before. No.”
Hour later duck returns and asks “Got any bread?”
Barman loses it and says “Eff off. If you come in here and ask that again I’ll nail your beak to the bar”.
Hour later and duck returns. Asks “got any nails?”.
Barman says “no”.
Duck says “Got any bread?”