By Lambert Strether of Corrente
Bird Song of the Day
Eastern Meadowlark (Eastern), Lake Wales; Lake Kissimmee State Park, Polk, Florida, United States. “Odd song type from conspicuous perch in wet meadow.”
In Case You Might Miss…
(1) Supreme Court decisions (not immunity).
(2) The Debates, pre-game analysis.
(3) Climate anecdotes and tips
Politics
“So many of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are in fact a rational management of symbolic capital.” –Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles
The Supremes
“Supreme Court rejects challenge to Biden admin’s talk with social media companies” [The Hill]. “The 6-3 decision does not address the First Amendment issues at the center of the cases and instead denies the challenge filed by two Republican attorneys general and private parties by finding they didn’t have legal standing to bring it. ‘The plaintiffs, without any concrete link between their injuries and the defendants’ conduct, ask us to conduct a review of the years-long communications between dozens of federal officials, across different agencies, with different social-media platforms, about different conduct,’ Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote for the majority. ‘This Court’s standing doctrine prevents us from ‘exercising such general legal oversight’ of other branches of Government.'” • The headline is a bit deceptive, since the Court remanded the case to the Fifth Circuit. But I don’t know if the standing issue can be cured.
“Supreme Court sides with Biden administration in social media censorship case” [Washington Examiner]. “But Barrett’s majority flagged a major error by the parties who brought the case, saying that ‘the plaintiffs’ theories of standing depend on the platforms’ actions—yet the plaintiffs do not seek to enjoin the platforms from restricting any posts or accounts.’… ‘The Fifth Circuit also erred by treating the defendants, plaintiffs, and platforms each as a unified whole. Because ‘standing is not dispensed in gross,’ Barrett said…. Justice Samuel Alito penned a dissent that was joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch that completely rejected the majority’s findings. Notably, Alito wrote that Facebook’s response to the officials’ ‘persistent inquiries, criticisms, and threats show that the platform perceived the statements as something more than mere recommendations.’ ‘Time and time again, Facebook responded to an angry White House with a promise to do better in the future. In March, Facebook attempted to assuage the White House by acknowledging ‘[w]e obviously have work to do to gain your trust,” Alito added.”
* * * When is a bribe not a bribe? When it’s a gratuity!
The Supreme Court's second AND FINAL decision of the day is Snyder v. U.S. By a 6–3 vote, the conservative supermajority further weakens a federal statute guarding against corruption in government. All three liberals dissent. https://t.co/90GL1SlWUH pic.twitter.com/m5ydrH8ufM
— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) June 26, 2024
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): “Judge Cannon is skeptical that evidence from Mar-a-Lago should be thrown out” [Politico]. “Judge Aileen Cannon appeared highly skeptical on Tuesday of Donald Trump’s bid to throw out evidence seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate. Trump’s lawyers argued at a court hearing that the 2022 search warrant in the classified documents investigation was overly broad and violated Trump’s rights. They said FBI agents took medical records and improperly entered the bedroom of his son Barron and the quarters of his wife, Melania. Cannon indicated that she was unpersuaded by the defense’s arguments, saying that the main issue at hand was whether the warrant had been ‘particular enough.’ ‘I think it is,’ she said.”
* * * Trump (R): “Trump courts rappers as surrogates for his campaign to win more voters of color” [NBC]. “At Donald Trump’s Black voter outreach event at a Detroit church last weekend, the church’s pastor and several prominent Black Republicans joined the former president onstage. So did another unlikelier figure: rapper Casada Sorrell, better known as Sada Baby. Most Republican voters may not be familiar with Sada Baby, but there’s a good chance their kids are. In 2020, he went viral with his single ‘Whole Lotta Choppas,’ a pandemic mainstay on TikTok that was among the first viral records on the app. Years later, he sat onstage inches from Trump and said, ‘He might be the first person to make me vote,’ fueled in part by the mere fact that Trump’s team reached out to him. ‘Him reaching out showed me, like, some type of effort that another candidate hadn’t shown ever,’ Sorrell said, noting that Trump could have pursued a bigger Detroit name like rapper Eminem (a notorious critic of him)…. And it’s not a one-off move. As Trump works to court young voters of color, one strategy his campaign has pursued is to turn rap stars into surrogates, pursuing not only nationally renowned names but also smaller acts prominent in their local communities.”
Trump (R): “Trump praises Louisiana displaying Ten Commandments in public schools” [Axios]. “‘I love the Ten Commandments in public schools, private schools, and many other places,’ Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Friday. ‘This may be, in fact, the first major step in the revival of religion, which is desperately needed, in our country,’ he added.” • “Our country.” Trump’s pandering. I have to say, I prefer the Trump 2016 campaign, a bunch of randos flying in Trump’s plane, and Trump doing A/B testing on the fly with the crowds.
* * * Trump (R): “Trump’s Ground Game Is No Longer In Our Hearts” [The Bulwark]. “For months, Trump was criticized over his small staff and the Republican National Committee’s layoffs and shuttered field offices. But since May, his campaign has quietly been in talks with more than three dozen conservative groups to outsource parts of its voter turnout operation. This would be a first-of-its-kind effort…. It can all be financed with unlimited corporate dollars and untraceable dark money from political nonprofits that are otherwise off-limits to a federal campaign…. This type of arrangement between federal campaigns and outside groups used to be forbidden, but the rules changed under a March 20 Federal Election Commission advisory opinion, sought by the Democratic group Texas Majority PAC and the Elias Law Group. That opinion may turn out to fundamentally change the way federal political campaigns mobilize voters for years to come. It was also a lifeline to the Trump campaign, which was hurting for cash and facing President Biden’s mammoth operation, which has 150 field offices, 400 staffers, and a massive volunteer army across the battleground states.’… ‘After the Trump coup at the RNC, the question is whether the Trump campaign got caught flat-footed and were lucky to get bailed out by the FEC, or was this their plan all along to roll the dice and work with these groups like Turning Point on the ground?’ the Republican consultant asked, cautioning that ‘experience matters. Technology matters. Organization matters. And staff matters. You have to hire the right people and not a bunch of what we call ‘carnies’ who you just can’t rely on.’ In 2022, for instance, paid canvassers in Las Vegas were supposed to be knocking on doors but instead were discovered gambling eight miles away at Caesar’s Palace casino, according to an NBC News report that detailed multiple Republican ground-game problems in Nevada and Georgia.” • Elias Law Group, eh? Hard to believe they’d bring a suit that would benefit Republicans more than Democrats. Three days later–
Trump (R): “Donald Trump’s Get-Out-The-Vote Plan is Bonkers” [Washington Monthly]. “The get-out-the-vote operations, the so-called ‘ground game,’ may determine the outcome in November. This is why it’s bonkers that the Trump campaign has outsourced its ground game to far-right operators with no track record of success…. Turning Point’s reputation as a grifting operation seems deserved. A 2020 investigation by ProPublica found that ‘three Turning Point insiders … won lucrative deals from the group to handle its printing, payroll processing and fundraising. The non-profit has also made misleading assertions about its finances to state and federal regulators.’ An October 2023 Associated Press investigation found: ‘The organization also enriched [Turning Point CEO Charlie] Kirk and his allies … top Turning Point officials collected pricey salaries, enjoyed lavish perks and steered at least $15.2 million to companies they, their friends and associates are affiliated with.’ … According to Politico, Turning Point has filled ‘a few dozen seats on the RNC with allies.’ And Turning Point is now the central player in the Trump ground game.” • Must be more to it than that, since Lara Trump is now head of the RNC.
* * * Trump (R): “Here’s why shy Trump voters feel safe going public” [FOX]. “Almost from the moment he descended the golden escalator nearly a decade ago, we have heard tell about the infamous ‘shy Donald Trump voter‘ lurking below the surface of public opinion…. From the beginning, part of the magic of Trump’s raucous rallies was that so many of his supporters who couldn’t tell their friends and family were suddenly surrounded by a sea of like-minded Americans ready not just to vote but to party…. But something has changed, from individuals to institutions, the stain of publicly standing up for Trump is all but gone, and in its place stands, not so much defiance, as the simple realization that Donald Trump was a competent president, not a cartoon super villain…. Trump has recently enjoyed high-profile fundraisers from high rollers in big oil and big tech who even four years ago might have shied away from such a MAGA spotlight. But no more.”
* * * Biden (D): “Patrick Lawrence: Hunter Biden’s Charge of Lying Under Oath” [Patrick Lawrence, ScheerPost]. “More than two-thirds of Americans, according to a poll conducted earlier this year, think the House hearings should continue; half of these respondents — 34 percent of those surveyed — ‘think Joe Biden is guilty of corruption and should be impeached.’ These figures cannot land as a surprise to anyone who has paid careful attention to the House hearings. Among much else, they have already produced substantive evidence establishing in considerable outline the operations of what is called, with justification, the Biden crime family: — Payments of $5 million each to Joe and Hunter Biden by Mykola Zlochevsky, the founding chairman of Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian gas company. Zlochevsky sought (and enjoyed) Vice–President Biden’s protection from Ukraine’s chief prosecutor, who was investigating Burisma on charges on suspicion of extensive corruption. — Gross payments to the Biden family, chiefly Hunter and Joe’s brother James, of more than $20 million during the years (2009–2017) when Joe was vice-president. — A dense network of 20–odd shell companies the Biden family set up to disguise payments received from influence-peddling schemes Hunter conducted in Ukraine, Russia, China and elsewhere. — The detailed testimony, so far not credibly refuted, of government investigators — from the F.B.I. and the IRS — providing granular evidence of the Biden family’s illegal financial operations.” • Those are the first four items. There are more.
* * * Biden (D): “Black Voters in This City Could Determine 2024. And It’s Not Looking Good for Biden” [Politico]. Milwaukee. “Polls suggest the president is trailing his 2020 performance in the city and surrounding county. In Wisconsin’s April Democratic primary, his performance within the city limits lagged well behind the rest of the state…. In traditionally Democratic redoubts, polls suggest alarmingly low levels of support among Black and Latino voters. In 2016, Hillary Clinton’s underperformance in Milwaukee, Philadelphia and Detroit’s Wayne County — the urban centers that power Democratic fortunes in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan — enabled Trump’s surprise Rust Belt victories. This year, signs of a lack of enthusiasm for Biden in those places among Black voters is giving rise to fears of a repeat. In Wisconsin, there isn’t much margin of error: The last two presidential elections here have been decided by less than 25,000 votes each. A low turnout among Black voters in Milwaukee — or a diminished winning margin for Biden — would deal a significant blow to his chances of carrying the state and its 10 electoral votes.”
* * * The Debates: “Hillary Clinton: I’ve Debated Trump and Biden. Here’s What I’m Watching For.” [New York Times]. Clinton shills for her Broadway show right in the lead. I suppose that was only to be expected. More: “I am the only person to have debated both men (Mr. Trump in 2016 and, in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary race, Senator Biden)…. It is a waste of time to try to refute Mr. Trump’s arguments like in a normal debate. It’s nearly impossible to identify what his arguments even are. He starts with nonsense and then digresses into blather…. These ploys will fall flat if President Biden is as direct and forceful as he was when engaging Republican hecklers at the State of the Union address in March. The president also has facts and truth on his side.” Here’s the one item that isn’t boilerplate: “Unfortunately, Mr. Biden starts from a disadvantage because there’s no way he can spend as much time preparing as I did eight years ago. Being president isn’t just a day job; it’s an everything-everywhere-all-at-once job. Historically, that has led to weaker first debate performances for the incumbent.”
The Debates: “Biden’s high-stakes gamble risks everything – including his nomination – as he prepares for Trump debate” [New York Post]. “With his job and legacy on the line, Biden seized the moment to take a week off to prepare for his debate with Donald Trump.”
The Debates: “Use our presidential debate bingo card to play during the Biden-Trump showdown” [USA Today]. • These don’t look like much fun.
* * * MO: “Will Cori Bush be ousted like Bowman? New poll shows her opponent leading by one point” [USA Today]. “The poll, conducted by The Mellman Group between June 18 and June 22, found that St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell overcame a double-digit deficit in January to lead Bush 43% to 42%. Four percent of the survey respondents supported other candidates on the ballot while 11% were undecided. He has picked up support across various groups, the poll found, including among whites and Blacks, men and women and those under and over the age of 50. Bell also leads Bush in job performance and favorability ratings. Sixty-one percent of survey respondents gave Bell a positive rating on his job performance while only 49% gave Bush a positive rating. 60% of respondents are favorable towards Bush while 64% are favorable towards Bell.” • MOE: 4.9%. That’s a lot.
MO: “Cori Bush claimed her faith healing helped a sick toddler walk, healed woman’s tumors” [FOX]. “In her 2022 autobiography ‘The Forerunner: A Story of Pain and Perseverance in America,’ Bush wrote about her time working as a faith healer. During that time, the New York Post first reported she claimed that she had an almost supernatural ability within her to heal others. One instance included helping a disabled toddler to walk.” • Better than the Brownstone Institute, I suppose…. Or mainstream macro.
* * * Litmus test:
Honestly, if Jill Stein doesn't say something about the mask ban, I'm not voting for her either. As it is she never wears a mask, never mentions covid, and she's a DOCTOR. I'm sick of it, literally. The same goes for Cornel and Claudia (who is a vax and relax person, btw).
— Zatara the Magician (@zatara2010) June 25, 2024
Campaign Finance
“Bloomberg shells out millions to help Biden battle Trump in 2024 presidential election rematch” [FOX]. “Bloomberg, a one-time Republican turned independent turned Democrat, wrote a massive $19 million check to the Future Forward PAC, known as the FF PAC, which is the leading super PAC supporting Biden’s bid for a second term in the White House. And Bloomberg, who briefly ran unsuccessfully against Biden for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, also gave the maximum donation of $929,600 to the Biden Victory Fund, a fundraising committee that benefits the president’s re-election campaign and various Democratic Party committees.”
Republican Funhouse
“Recent State Legislative Primaries Reveal a GOP at War with Itself” [Center for Media and Democracy]. “In Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, and South Carolina, obstructionists who are part of the State Freedom Caucus Network (SFCN) have fielded Republican primary candidates to oppose not just state legislative leaders, but also the candidates they backed. Three of the Republican governors in these states threw their weight behind moderates in contested legislative primaries, but in three states, GOP establishment leaders — a majority whip, a president pro tem, and an assistant majority leader — lost to these right-wing insurgents. Freedom caucuses in these and the seven other states SFCN lists among its members represent an extreme Right faction of the largely MAGA-dominated Republican Party that uses procedural measures in state legislatures to advance their culture war agenda, as the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) recently reported. These caucuses vary somewhat state by state, but in terms of policy they usually oppose gender-affirming care, Medicaid expansion, most taxation, and allowing public schools to teach about the history of racism in the U.S. Most favor increasing voting restrictions. They oppose Republicans working with Democrats on any issue, and label any legislators who do as ‘RINOs’… ‘In every state where they appear, Freedom caucuses cause headaches for the so-called establishment Republicans in charge,” according to a recent piece in Governing.” • Nothing like this on the so-called left, how odd.
Democrats en Déshabillé
“After Bernie” [Ross Barkan, Political Currents]. Concluding paragraph: “[I]t’s unlikely anyone on the left is currently capable of assembling a national coalition on the scale of what Sanders managed in 2016 or 2020. The political conditions have changed. More importantly, though, few leftist politicians have internalized the lessons Sanders taught, especially when he rose so rapidly in 2016. A winning coalition is a broad coalition. It is knit together around the issues that matter to the greatest number of people. It accounts for those who might fail some of the stricter ideological litmus tests. It is professional, serious, and not held prisoner by online culture. And it is devised, somehow, to seize the Democratic nomination in the manner Sanders, even at his strongest, never could. Sanders, in the Bronx last week, tried his best, hollering about the billionaire class, his voice cutting through the heat. He could only do so much, though, not running for president again—and sans a genuine protégé.” • Sad, and I mean this without irony. On the Bowman rally with Sanders and AOC:
Ok besides what everyone else is saying already, this needs to be said by me. It has nothing to do with politics. It’s about being decent human beings.
If YOU organize an outdoor event in record breaking dangerous heat. YOU supply the water. You don’t say “lol, bring water” https://t.co/0npo8CRAfT
— thomas 🛠 (@t_NYC) June 22, 2024
Realignment and Legitimacy
“Monbiot has a change of heart on sortition” [Equality by Lot]. With quotes. “Having an advocate for sortition with the prominence of George Monbiot could be an important development. But it would be so only if Monbiot does not limit himself to a one-off article but rather makes sortition advocacy a central theme of his activism.”
“Reading List: Vincent Bevins” [Africa Is a Country]. “To form the core narrative of my second book, I rely primarily on hundreds of interviews, carried out in twelve countries, with militants, revolutionaries, politicians, and regular people who lived through explosive uprisings that sought to transform the global system. But to get a sense of what happened from 2010 to 2020, the decade with the most numerous protests in human history, I also read as much as I could over four years, seeking out the work of scholars and participants who had reflected on what went wrong.” Reading from which the list was derived. “Numerous” doesn’t seem to be equivalent to “effective,” sadly. Or am I too cynical?
“What an Actual Kid Thinks About the ’10-Year-Olds at Sephora’ Outrage on TikTok” [Teen Vogue]. “The latest TikTok drama centers on “10-year-olds at Sephora.” Search the #sephora hashtag and you’ll see videos, viewed millions of times, that ask the same questions Ellie did: What are 10-year-olds doing in Sephora? Why are they so obsessed with skin-care routines when they’re literally children (and many of us older viewers didn’t even start using moisturizer until our mid-twenties)?… Enter Emma*, who loves Sephora, and was saddened by the number of videos she saw on her TikTok For You Page that disparage kids just like her…. It’s annoying to hear adults talk about how when they were 10, they only cared about Barbies and unicorns. “I’m just saying, we’re a new generation and more people have shown us all this stuff,” Emma points out…. ‘It’s just a thing we do,’ she says with a shrug. ‘I get it, Bratz dolls were probably popular when you were 10 years old. But I’m a kid [now], and this is what’s popular. This is the new toy that we have. This is a new generation, we’re Generation Alpha. And I’m proud of that.'” • Ah, so generational analysis is driven by consumer goods. I mean, it was always clear the driver was the marketing department, but now that’s right out there. Clarifying!
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
Hopefully this will continue to be legal:
Will be moving my mask distribution efforts to the University of Utah and Salt Lake City :) Hoping to continue as a COVID Safe Campus ambassador 🤞🏼😷
— Vanessa (graduation era)😷 (@vanessainstem) June 21, 2024
Transmission: Covid
“COVID cases on the rise in 39 states, marking the start of an anticipated summer surge” [Scripps]. “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates infections are growing or likely growing in 39 states. While the agency no longer keeps track of the number of coronavirus cases [Mandy, good job], its latest data is based on emergency department visits and wastewater testing in each state. Most of the states where infections are believed to be [not known to be?] growing are along the coasts, including California, Oregon, Washington, Florida, Maryland, Virginia and the Carolinas. Some states in the Northeast, Deep South and Great Lakes region have also been labeled as ‘growing.’ Based on the data, California, Arizona and Florida are experiencing the highest percentage of probability for [but not actual?] an increase in infections. The CDC said there are no states that are showing a decline in cases, however, there are some that have a stable number including Alaska, Nevada, Utah, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Iowa, Tennessee, Ohio and Connecticut.” • The framing of Covid as seasonal is relentless. It’s not. And as you can see the data is horrible, and the coverage is horrible. I wish “Table 1” were as good as it used to be, but so many data sources have died (or been killed). Nevertheless, an NC reader who follows it got the appropriate heads-up way before this story,.
Transmission: H5N1
“Bird flu leads to cancellation of 2024 Shiawassee County Fair dairy show” [WWMT]. “Due to the ‘highly pathogenic avian influenza,’ or bird flu, organizers with the Shiawassee County Fair have canceled their 2024 dairy show. This comes after ‘much’ deliberation and consultation with Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, or MDARD, State Veterinarian Dr. Nora Wineland, according to organizers on Facebook.” • Sensible.
“USDA finds unusual twist: Bird flu moved from dairy cows to poultry in Michigan” [The Blade]. ” A team of epidemiologists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture have traced the H5N1 viral spread in Michigan to a single herd of dairy cattle that had been unknowingly introduced in the spring to infected cows imported from a Texas dairy operation. From there, poultry farmers in the state took the viral hit…. Michigan dairy operators were not totally prepared for the first-ever jump of the H5N1 avian flu virus to dairy cattle. And poultry operators were surprised by this never-before-seen vector for transmission. ‘This is a disease in dairies that we have not had in the past,’ [Tim] Boring [head of the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development] said.”
Maskstravaganza
Variants: Covid
Sequelae: Covid
“Antibodies from Long Covid patients prompt symptoms in mice” [Science]. “In the quest to explain the symptoms of Long Covid, one suspect—antibodies in the blood that target a patient’s own tissues—is getting extra scrutiny from two teams of scientists an ocean apart. Both groups injected mice with antibodies from the blood of people with Long Covid, the constellation of symptoms that sometimes persist for months or years after a SARS-CoV-2 infection. And in certain cases, they say, the rodents developed symptoms seemingly mirroring those of their human donors, in particular a heightened sensitivity to pain. Some scientists say these studies, one posted earlier this week, bolster the case for a dysfunctional immune system, triggered by a coronavirus infection, directly fueling Long Covid symptoms—and open the door to potential new treatment trials…. But although other researchers said the studies were elegantly done, and may offer novel mouse models of Long Covid, they are less certain about the bottom line. ‘There’s no uniform autoantibodies’ in these groups of patients, says Avindra Nath, clinical director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.” • Nevertheless, this suggests the existence of biomarkers. Maybe NIH should be looking for them—
“How to Fix $1.6 Billion Long COVID Program: Experts Weigh In” [MedScape]. “When the National Institutes of Health (NIH) launched a $1 billion dollar research effort in 2021 focused on long COVID, hopes were high that it would lead to some answers for the mysterious riddle of the complex condition. Now, more than 3 years later and with total funding of about $1.6 billion, critics contend the federal government has little to show for its efforts. Disappointment runs high among long COVID specialists and patients, who cite poor scientific coordination, few treatments that go beyond symptom management, and a lack of clinical trials focused on pharmaceutical interventions.” More: “[Grace McComsey, MD, who leads one of the 15 nationwide long COVID centers funded by RECOVER] admitted things aren’t perfect but said that RECOVER has enrolled and retained nearly 20,000 people from an extremely diverse group of patients with nearly 18 papers that have been published or will be published soon. Clinical trials don’t happen overnight, said McComsey, because you have to design the studies, enroll patients, and ensure their safety. ‘No one else in the world is doing anything like this,’ she said.” • So papers are the metric?
Elite Maleficence
At least the mask isn’t a “Baggy Blue” so some progress is being made. But CDC’s advice is still wrong and lethal
Why in the name of all that is holy is handwashing a “core” prevention strategy, and masking “additional”? A respiratory virus — follow me closely, here, Mandy — is a virus you breathe in (and breathe out). How does handwashing protect against the primary mode of transmission?
And the notes:
[1] It’s 2024, and the CDC seems not to have heard of asymptomatic transmission (which is why your prevention strategy should be consistent regardless of symptoms;
[2] Which added “precautions”? Are “precautions” the same as “prevention strategies”, whether “core” or “additional”?
[3] Five days should, of course, be at least 14.
CDC is so bad, so stupid, so lethal, so persistent in badness, so implacable in stupidity, so effective in lethality….
Personal risk assessment:
CDC Immunology Webinar pic.twitter.com/zyjycrtwYq
— Outbreak Updates (@outbreakupdates) June 23, 2024
| 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 15 | |
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| Hospitalization | ||
| ★ New York[5] New York State, data June 25: | National [6] CDC June 1: | |
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| Positivity | ||
| National[7] Walgreens June 17: | ★ Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic June 22: | |
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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.
[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
There are no official statistics of interest today.
Tech: Go big or go home:
Reminder that Aaron Swartz was facing 35 years in prison and financial devastation for trying to programmatically download and open the contents of JSTOR, which led to him taking his own life.
But OpenAI is going to scrape all of academia and make billions by plagiarizing it.
— UAE Exotic Falconry & Finance𓅃 (@FalconryFinance) June 23, 2024
Tech: So now I suppose the insurgents will try to game the training sets:
2. McDonald's – Chat GPT
Principle: The Obvious Choice
McDonald's asking AI which is the most iconic burger.
It was a Big Mac. pic.twitter.com/A3y7nvbC4X
— The Ad Professor (@The_AdProfessor) June 26, 2024
Tech: I don’t know who asked for AI either:
— Patrick Vicious (@alleywaykrew) June 23, 2024
Tech: “OpenAI says it’s building a tool to let content creators ‘opt out’ of AI training” [TechCrunch]. • “Opt out” is a dark pattern; the default should be that users must opt in.
Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 41 Fear (previous close: 39 Fear) [CNN]. One week ago: 42 (Fear). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Jun 26 at 1:24:11 PM ET.
Zeitgeist Watch
“People need this ‘essential’ cognitive ability—and fewer have it than ever before, says psychologist: ‘It’s a major concern'” [CNBC]. “‘We are at risk of losing this essential capability that I call receptivity,’ says Davis, the managing director of Toronto-based leadership consulting firm Russell Reynolds Associates. ‘It’s the ability to have good judgment, to have insight about people, and it’s a major concern.’ Technology, social media and artificial intelligence are to blame, Davis adds: People rely so much on their their phones that they’re increasingly unable to make judgment calls on their own. ‘It’s a cognitive ability that you need to actually exercise in order to not lose it,’ he says. Davis uses GPS as an example. People once used physical maps, or memory, to get to where they needed to go. Now, if your phone dies, you might find yourself lost more easily. ‘What happens when Waze fails? When you don’t have a cell signal? When we don’t have ChatGPT?’ says Davis. People’s ability to talk to and connect with each other is similarly at risk, he says. ‘If your head’s in your phone, you’re meeting people through Tinder profiles or you’re basing your business decisions based purely on a resume and not really seeing or spending time with a person, you’re losing your core human capability to have insight into other people,’ says Davis.” • That “leadership consulting” rubric gives me pause. But anyhow, what’s the problem? “Insight into other people” is for sales and marketing, and that seems to be going OK!
Climate
The bubble wrap sticks via static whatever and creates extremely effective insulation between you and the outside world – not as good as new fancy double pane insulated glass, but pretty damn good for not much money. Plus it still allows light in and even gives you privacy.
— Josh Ellis (@jzellis) June 25, 2024
Other parallel suggestions in the thread.
Ka-ching:
We're under contract to buy an $8m Louisiana RV park.
The owner spent $9,500 each to add these covers to shade some pad sites.
Covered sites are $1,150/month.
Without a cover it's $670/month.Payback period is 19 months. You better believe we'll be adding more of these! pic.twitter.com/Uj7ZQIdhgO
— Chris Koerner (@mhp_guy) June 22, 2024
Class Warfare
“Colonel Sanders” [Wikipedia]. • The jobs Colonel Sanders had! Nothing like this today.
News of the Wired
“Things You Didn’t Know About GNU Readline” [TwoBit History]. ” Lots of software depends on the GNU Readline library to implement functionality that users expect, but the functionality is so auxiliary and unobtrusive that I imagine few people stop to wonder where it comes from. GNU Readline was originally created in the 1980s by the Free Software Foundation. Today, it is an important if invisible part of everyone’s computing infrastructure, maintained by a single volunteer.” • Like so much else!
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 Clyde:
Clyde writes: “An old apple tree in east central NH. Looking at the trunk it’s amazing that it’s not only still alive but standing and producing apples. Plants and trees’ efforts to keep surviving never cease to amaze me.”
Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not covered by the annual NC fundraiser. So if you see a link you especially like, or an item you wouldn’t see anywhere else, please do not hesitate to express your appreciation in tangible form. Remember, a tip jar is for tipping! Regular positive feedback both makes me feel good and lets me know I’m on the right track with coverage. When I get no donations for three or four days I get worried. More tangibly, a constant trickle of donations helps me with expenses, and I factor in that trickle when setting fundraising goals:
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RE: “It’s nearly impossible to identify what his arguments even are. He starts with nonsense and then digresses into blather….” from sHillary
Sounds like most polititicians if you ask me, including HERself.
I’m so old, I remember when they told us that Shrub, who has fewer brains in his head than a TX roadkill armadillo, had never lost a debate before he took the stage with Gore. I had to assume that up to that point he had only debated babies who had not yet leaned verbal skills.
She is coming out with a new book. I would ask her to write one called “why won’t you go away.”
Reminds me the the great Dan Hicks tune…
https://youtu.be/PUiFYWd6xNs?si=PmjTk2mthtS-C60V
Back in high school days of mine, Motley Crue had a rather poignant song title on that theme.
Don’t go away mad…just go away…I said girl don’t go away mad…
A favorite of mine, too. Is Joe is going to see “Dr. Feelgood” today in preparation for tomorrow’s throwdown in A-town?
“Kickstart My Heart….”. A great tune and it maybe my favorite of any song of theirs.
A song whose lyrics are based on a true story no less! Talk about a very troubled upbringing…Nikki Sixx has that
1. Debates are stupid anachronisms.
2. Shrub beat Ann Richards in an election. Ann is who Hillary pretends to be. That Shrub crew was slick.
altho i have never personally met Herself, i can affirm that hillory is no Anne Richards.
Anne had a soul, etc.
reminded me of my crazy aunt.
Personal favorite of a zinger, particularly about lil George. “Born on 3rd base, thinks he hit a triple.” I thought it was Richards but my recall might be off.
might have been Molly Ivins.
i met her only once, on the corner of Congress and 8th in austin for an antihomeless ordinance protest.
she bought the beer…sent my first wife running for it…and steve fromholtz was with her that night.
wearing a mumu, of all things.
i gave her my chair, of course.
>wearing a mumu, of all things.
Not really into being language police; but here I make exception: it’s “muʻumuʻu”, though you can get away with omitting the ʻokina IMHO.
The name is longer than the garment.
i’m from frelling texas, dammit,lol
not hawaii
i reserve the right to talk funny.
aloha, anyways and all
“Poor George, he can’t help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth.”
-Ann Richards-
Didn’t read. I hope she addressed the difficulty of debate when you are limited to allotted time and the value of receiving topics in advance.
And exactly when did she align with “Suffs”? Around the time of the name change, I suppose. (Trump is a low-class TV guy. She is of the theatre!)
HRC and Malala were added as producers when it transferred to Broadway.
“She is of the theatre!”
Like this ‘person’?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRkZYdWCe7w&ab_channel=SaturdayNightLive
From one of the later good skits on Saturday Night Live.
GOP former Rep. Adam Kinzinger endorses Biden, whose campaign wants to flip anti-Trump Republicans
I got a kick out of this for some reason. Maybe because my GOP hating friends now love this guy (along with Liz Cheney) because he endorsed Biden. He also got the talking points memo apparently. FTA linked above;
All along the same lines the dems are pushing from the White House down. Biden sent out a Tweet today that said “democracy is on the ballot.” Yea, their fighting to save democracy, these lovely people.
democracy definition;
I hate to break it to these people, but this democracy horse left the barn long ago. But keep gaslighting us because if you didn’t have a barn full of bullshit you wouldn’t have anything.
Well, for the past few years, I have been reading that the old guard, slightly less bats*** insane faction of the Republican Party has unofficially joined the Democratic Party. This is more evidence.
I really should be reading more on the various factions in our political system, but between the PMC-Security State, Democratic-Regime Republican faction and the Police State, Trumpian-Freedom Republican faction, it is going to be brutal, increasingly lawless and dangerous. I see that the local police, the Air Force, and some departments of Homeland Security like the Border Patrol are pro-Trump. The CIA is pro-Biden and I think, but really don’t know, that the FBI is split. I should find out.
When a country becomes a Banana Republic, this is the insanity that you see. It becomes not about governing a country. Instead it becomes an insanely partisan fight over power and wealth with protection and revenge right along. If you don’t believe me, there are countries all over the world to look with many of them being deliberately reformed by the United States into often hellish political warfare. Maybe, it is a form of justice by it doing so to itself. A form of punishment by whomever or whatever you choose.
I am predicting death squads within four years as they start appearing after they start going after the families of opponents. I would have said six-eight years, but so far all my predictions have been too slow. Aside from union members and social reformers especially in the South and in Appalachia, death squads are not really a thing in the United States. People might be ruined and there were the occasional assassination, but still. Of course, beatings, false arrests and false convictions have been used everywhere, all the time. Violence also runs in cycles, which is why many don’t realize that murder has been a thing in American politics.
However, our country literally has competing armed factions within the government and politically motivated legal cases against politicians (Since one party started it, it is now okay for the other party to do so.) Then there is the common practice of FBI, CIA, and local police (in that order) to manufacture incidents of violence. All of which will increasingly be likely to go out of their control as the political climate becomes more volatile. They will attempt to suppress organizations using manufactured crime, then arrest or kill the patsies, which will cause a response they did not plan for.
This is bleak, and who wants to believe any of it? But it matches what I see. It would be nice if our leaders would be able to see beyond the next election cycle, but they can’t, and here we are.
It was interesting to learn the murder was a big thing in the late Roman republic.
Yes. First, it was just the politician. Then it became their friends and associates. Finally, it was the families of all of them. Really, anyone tangentially connected to them.
At the end of the Proscriptions, people were bribing the writer of the hit list to have personal enemies and wealthy individuals listed. That meant that some people were surprised to murdered as they had stayed away from politics. But if you had a business, farm, or wife, that someone wanted and who could bribe the official list maker…
“People need this ‘essential’ cognitive ability—and fewer have it than ever before, says psychologist: ‘It’s a major concern’” [CNBC].
Receptivity
People’s ability to talk to and connect with each other
And anybody want to guess what the elephant in the room is?
Yes please, tell us, what pachyderm do you see in the room?
Those traits are specific to certain conditions. Not necessarily always caused by tech, but clustered enough within an industry….
It’s called, I think, the “herd instinct”. IOW, the press. Formerly, the clergy. First estate or fourth, received opinion, nowadays tech. Always, according to some (A. Hamilton, I believe), “the mob”. It’s a flickering, fickle resonance in the collective unconscious, a will o’ the wisp, the public mind, now voting R, now voting D, looking for a standing wave.
The whole shy Trump voter thing is happening in slightly different form here in UK.
mixed race guy will rant about immigrants (but then clearly didn’t sign disclosure form so they had to blur his face). Commenters picked up on this quickly.
I only say this to point out the utter lunacy of democracy in places like UK/USA etc.
I added orts and scraps. Still too much happening!
Here is another interesting ort or scrap for you.
The Guardian has just come out with a story about an Israeli program (or eighty of them) called “concert” which is devoted to propagandizing the United States. Kind of like the purported RussiaGate, only real.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/24/israel-fund-us-university-protest-gaza-antisemitism
Apparently they have been behind everything from the McCarthyite Congressional hearings of university presidents and legalization of the Holocaust Museum definiton of anti-semitism to passing anti-BDS laws in the states.
wanna place bets on whether linking that article will get you banned from various social media and/or comments sections?
ive found that a “legitimate source” depends entirely upon utility for/of the more powerful/loud party in the conversation.
nice to see such stuff “out there”, though,lol.
nothing we didnt know, of course…Hasbara, Hillary’s Troll Farms, etc.
I wish I had taken a screen shot of the notice FaceBook gave me when I got shadow banned. Something like “We will give you your posting privileges back when you take down your posts on Russia on Congressman Drew Ferguson’s page.” They were pretty open about it.
But this is just the type of article that I used to post there, and I suspect that there are a lot of people that will get messages just like that for posting this. That the SC says there is no appreciable damage to social media users for getting banned for posting such I would tell them that was the only way you could contact our Congressman, which to my mind is a direct violation of the ability to be seen and heard by our representatives.
I am in hopes that case will have legs. If for no other reason than that I can go back to trolling my Congressman.
i gave up trolling my congresscritters some time ago(i guess im still on a nofly list?)
tedfuckingcruz, the whore cornyn…in the us senate…and i dont really know who my rep(sic) is in the us house is anymore…nor my state “reps”,lol.
because it doesnt matter.
we’re going down the drain….better to prepare for that, as best one can.
so i give lots of farm products to my neighbors.
Remember when Drew had town hall telephone call ins? Seems quaint nowadays.
Seems like I remember people saying that he rigged those calls so that only the questions he wanted to answer were ever asked. I know he tried very hard to ban people from his page, but he was faced with calls to the ACLU and the Congressional ethics office whenever he tried it.
Truly a scuzzy specimen of humanity.
As Hunter Thompson observed, the US is a nation of used car salesmen. I can understand the frustration of current congresscritters that the members before them had already sold the family silverware. What’s left to pawn, as a politician?
An Israeli official, when asked about these programs, replied ‘It’s OK when we do it.’
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/24/israel-fund-us-university-protest-gaza-antisemitism?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
June 24, 2024
Israeli documents show expansive government effort to shape US discourse around Gaza war
As the Gaza war rages, Israeli funds target US college campuses and push to redefine antisemitism in US law
By Lee Fang and Jack Poulson – Guardian
Last November, just weeks into the war in Gaza, Amichai Chikli, a brash, 42-year-old Likud minister in the Israeli government, was called into the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, to brief lawmakers on what could be done about rising anti-war protests from young people across the United States, especially at elite universities.
“I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again now, that I think we should, especially in the United States, be on the offensive,” argued Chikli.
Chikli has since led a targeted push to counter critics of Israel. The Guardian has uncovered evidence showing how Israel has relaunched a controversial entity as part of a broader public relations campaign to target US college campuses and redefine antisemitism in US law….
FIVE breasts? OK I’m not the target audience but even I thought they were approaching the limit in that scene in the original Total Recall movie!
Who wants that? On second thoughts don’t tell me.
Stupidest timeline alert yet again…
at this point, i’d settle for one.
hard to meet womyn if you have no $ and pretty much never leave the farm, and all.
Well, then get a dating app or leave the farm and get laid, Comrade!
I’ll Venmo you for gas to the city!
You deserve everything you want. My sex drive (which is for guys) is totally AWOL.
I’m still hoping the latest bunch of issues are “just” (ha!) another one of the weird auto immune conditions that have flared up since I clocked up enough COVID doses to get me diagnosed as having long COVID.
Alternative would be “problematic”.
‘My sex drive is totally AWOL’
Sure you haven’t been eating a lot of wedding cake recently? For women, that is suppose to reduce their sex drive by 50%.
Haha! At the moment if I eat I have 90% chance of needing morphine for the resulting abdominal excruciating pain. So I’m rationing the morphine…. Which means rationing food.
But hey. I’m losing my middle aged weight massively! The classic male beer belly is being burnt off at a furious rate.
The thing about going through a dry stretch is that you appreciate the oasis more when you come to it. :)
Not being one to pry, being on the internet and such, but is the condition a GI issue or is it possibly a separate condition?
Feel welcome to skip or ignore. A friend of a friend but someone I knew sorta well developed a condition causing him extreme discomfort from typical meals; lost a lot of weight rather quickly only to be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Hope it’s not the case of course.
Pancreatic cancer is the possible elephant in the room.
When sonographer has previously scanned your urinary system, told you there and then that “it’s all great”, then does NOT do so having been told to scan gallbladder but spends 60% of the time scanning what I think is pancreas, I start using my non-clinical but PhD Med Stats and 20 year HSR career to join dots.
Clinicians either need to say everything or nothing. The moment they only “tell you if it’s OK” then the peeps like me join the dots. I’ve called out the NHS about this entire episode. Fingers crossed it is just another sequelae of my Long COVID. *shrug*
Took me a while to grok the reference. What are the odds she was thinking of the Rubens painting with a statue of Diana of Ephesus in it?
https://www.peterpaulrubens.net/the-discovery-of-the-child-erichthonius.jsp
Maybe we are lucky that AI doesn’t have a more classical bent.
Hail Hydra of the Breasts. Or maybe from a distant alien race…I mean to add as well, aren’t cows as a species unique with their four stomachs?
lots of critters are ruminants…have many stomachs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruminant
Ask it for a dice pic and you’ll get a bunch of dice all with the same number of pips showing on every side. Genius technology.
regarding the hollow apple tree:
the living part of the trunk in that one in prolly the outer 2 inches.
in trees, the xylem, phloem and vascular cambium are the parts of the trunk that are actually alive at any given time…ie. the outer rings as viewed from above.
we’ve got centuries old post oaks around here(now dying out, it seems, due to prolly extended drought followed by excessive rain, more 100+ days and some rather extreme cold snaps of late)…that are hollow on the regular…such that thats where one looks for wild bees.
ive seen mesquites in even worse shape than that apple tree…with just a small finger of xylem, etc running up hard, dead wood.
(mesquite wood gets like iron when left to the elements)
You’re very close to correct, good sir. The vast bulk of a healthy tree is functional, but not precisely living. There are only the xylem and phloem, each only two cells thick (together termed the cambium), where the life of the tree resides. The two tissues are the transport system for water, nutrients, products of photosynthesis. As the tree grows, the phloem becomes wood and the xylem becomes bark (when they’re not being leaves and emerging shoots). The capacity of the cambium to heal from traumatic injury is amazing. If you want to decisively kill a tree by girdling, you have to remove the cambium in a strip some 1-2″ wide around the entire circumference, depending on species and size.
The apple tree in the Plantidote has a water sprout – the fresh stem emerging close to the wound – which is a symptom of stress.
aye.
not an expert on anything, just a broad and deep generalist,lol.
ive cut dead trees that have square nails and old timey weird barbed wire embedded deep in the pith.
always a surprise when the chain hits it.
> phloem becomes wood and the xylem becomes bark
’Tis the other way around. Xylem –> wood and phloem –> bark.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bark_(botany)
More precisely, the adoption of a strong generational component of individual identity goes hand in hand with rapid consumer product cycles. This is to be expected when everything in western culture has been turned into a product, including the young people themselves. Very few young people are prepared to build an identity on existential emptiness, which seems to me to be the only real alternative because our culture contains nothing else.
They oppose Republicans working with Democrats on any issue, and label any legislators who do as ‘RINOs’… ‘In every state where they appear, Freedom caucuses cause headaches for the so-called establishment Republicans in charge,” according to a recent piece in Governing.” • Nothing like this on the so-called left, how odd.
Not odd at all. A real challenge to the economic status quo faces assassins and lynchings.
Ask Trotsky about how to counter that problem.
Left wing assassins and show trials.
No power gives up power without a hardcore struggle.
The communist example is a pretty interesting one. They put on an extremely hardcore struggle against largely inferior and hopeless opponents (the show trials, for instance, were against people who no longer had any kind of power) for the first few decades of their existence (of course, if they hadn’t, they might’ve had some real internal dangers to deal with), then got soft and eventually went quietly (“power giving up power without a hardcore struggle”).
Saw this linked on kottke a day or two ago: https://calculatingempires.net/; they bill it as “A Genealogy of Technology and Power Since 1500”
And a brief update on the CDK hack that took out all those car dealerships, as well as the Snowflake one, and some odds and ends. https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/24/snowflake_breach_accelerating_into_snowball/
your first link is a dern rabbithole,lol.
cool.
Haha, it is! I’m both glad and sad that the sections don’t have links for deeper dives into whatever the topic is. That would be a real challenge, and a valuable resource, I’d reckon.
Some sensible ideas for providing better care to those with Long COVID: Making visible the invisible: Supporting long COVID patients and the people caring for them.
Some of the details are specific to British Columbia, but there is a lot in this that would be generally applicable.
Link to full report.
Colonel Sanders Wiki–great stuff. I knew somebody from Kentucky who said his family knew the man. I believe it has been claimed that a packet of Good Seasons Italian Dressing mix approximates the secret herbs and spices. And yes the crispy version is an adulteration of the original and I haven’t been to a KFC in years.
Via the link this is fun. The chicken patent.
https://patents.google.com/patent/US3245800
It’s really wild that the chickens only weigh 2 to 2-1/2 pounds.
I’ve heard that modern birds are about 8#.
New Construction Physics
https://www.construction-physics.com/p/will-we-ever-get-fusion-power
Just to add this is a very good explanation of fusion power for those (like me) who know little about it.
There is an SC angle since our Savannah River Site (been there, got the radiation badge) was built to create Tritium for Hydrogen bombs.
Rick Beato:
Why Music is getting worse
Money quote:
“Creative AI tools can be seen as sophisticated plagiarism software, as they do not produce genuinely original content but rather emulate and modify existing works by artists, subtly enough to circumvent copyright laws.”
Worth noting that quote was from ChatGPT itself.
He also makes note of the reason the big three record companies are suing the AI makers. They have their own AI singers they want to own and control and don’t want the competition.
As I was saying to Flora, it was his description of convenience and experience that is also telling.
There’s a difference between a real experience with a product or service and the sell your data to the highest bidder “experiences” on offer from platforms.
The Ross Barkin article on the disappearing left oppo among Dems right after the one on the Freedom Caucuses’ success in ousting RINOs is quite a study in cognitive dissonance. Despite the ongoing evidence of a successful, no-compromise hardline GOP faction, Barkin argues that progressive Dems should do the OPPOSITE by watering down their message to the blandest possible center. Exactly what Bernie and AOC have done with the result that no one is interested in their Profiles in Failure.
“Colonel Sanders” [Wikipedia]. The jobs Colonel Sanders had! Nothing like this today.
Many over 45 have a work ladder that doesn’t exist any more for others.
In a way, the BLS worker participation rate trends since 1950 tells the story.
Reading through that article, he was his own worse enemy and really only succeeded late in age when life had knocked some of the edges off his character. Mind you, there is a great biop to be made about his life.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=cZ7M
January 4, 2018
United States Employment-Population Ratio, * 1948-2024
* Employment age 25-54
I don’t know if I saved it from a year or so ago. New computer…but not the way I remember it looking.
Being for real…
Speaking of Wikipedia
https://consortiumnews.com/2024/06/26/wikipedia-calls-key-zionist-lobby-unreliable/
Maybe Bibi can get it banned by Congress like Tiktok
“GNU Readline was originally created in the 1980s by the Free Software Foundation. Today, it is an important if invisible part of everyone’s computing infrastructure, maintained by a single volunteer.”
Sorry to be morbid, but is there a succession plan to train a replacement for that volunteer? I mean, no one lives forever.
I think it’s Stallman himself. Met him once. Heck of a character.
‘Josh Ellis
@jzellis
The bubble wrap sticks via static whatever and creates extremely effective insulation between you and the outside world – not as good as new fancy double pane insulated glass, but pretty damn good for not much money. Plus it still allows light in and even gives you privacy.’
Nothing like reading about a good life hack-
https://www.familyhandyman.com/list/life-hacks-youll-wish-you-knew-sooner/
That didn’t take long:
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/04/could-lithium-rich-bolivia-be-next-to-join-brics-alliance-russia-seems-to-think-so.html#comment-4033946
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/26/luis-arce-bolivia-coup
It’s far too simplistic to ascribe the uniform inadequacy of policy to the power of the “denialist” demographic. Neither the underwhelming Paris conference nor the pathetic pretense of an effort in Glasgow (described accurately by Thunberg as “the same old blah blah blah blah). We’re troubled by the presence of denialists. Why, even the fossil fuel companies vied with one another in making “commitments” of a rather vague and unverifiable nature.
In terms of practical results, there’s little difference between denying the problem and admitting it but countenanceing only measures which promise to be compatible with the endless further accumulation of capital and exponential growth. A circle which can only be squared in the realm of sophistry, not in the material world.
The folks at the Bezos Post who gifted us with that spittle-flecked diatribe against the very idea of degrowth the other day are not denialists, but what Mills would have called crackpot realists.
An engineer’s nit regarding Josh Ellis’s clever suggestion for using bubble wrap as insulation: he says it sticks because of “static,” but it’s really because of water’s surface tension. You’re welcome.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/26/luis-arce-bolivia-coup
June 26, 2024
Bolivia’s president urges citizens to take to streets to defend against apparent coup
Luis Arce says country’s democracy at stake after army troops seize control of La Paz’s political heart and military police storm palace
By Tom Phillips – Guardian
Bolivia’s President Luis Arce has urged citizens to take to the streets to defend the country’s democracy from an apparent coup attempt after heavily armed army troops seized control of La Paz’s political heart and military police were filmed trying to force their way into the former government palace.
“We need the Bolivian people to mobilize and organize themselves against this coup d’état and in favour of democracy,” Arce said in a video message filmed at the Great House of the People, the official presidential residence in Bolivia’s de facto capital of La Paz.
Flanked by members of his cabinet, Arce declared: “We cannot allow, once again, attempted coups to claim Bolivian lives.”
“Long live the people of Bolivia! Long live democracy!” the ministers shouted, thrusting their left fists into the air. “Long live our president, Luis Arce!”
The comments came after other members of Arce’s leftwing administration and Latin American leaders claimed an army-led putsch was under way.
“We denounce to the international community that a coup attempt against our democratically elected government,” the vice-president, David Choquehuanca, tweeted on Wednesday afternoon.
In a video message, the foreign minister, Celinda Sosa Lunda, claimed some army units had launched an attack on “democracy, peace and national security”.
Former president Evo Morales also sounded the alarm as troubling images of the disturbances spread on social media. Morales urged supporters to take to the streets and block roads to oppose the alleged coup attempt, which he blamed on the recently sacked army commander, Gen Juan José Zúñiga, who was reportedly removed from his post on the eve of Wednesday’s turmoil.
“We will not allow the armed forces to violate democracy and intimidate the people,” wrote Morales, who was Bolivia’s first president of Indigenous descent but had to flee the country in 2019 after what supporters call a US-backed coup. Morales returned from exile after Arce’s election the following year.
On the eve of his 2020 inauguration, Arce, who is a UK-educated economist, told the Guardian: “We have reclaimed democracy for Bolivia, and our message is that we will not tolerate any kind of de facto dictatorial regime or coup in Latin America.” …
Again, huh. Good for them that it went no further this time.
Is it really fair to imbibe ourselves with alcohol tomorrow on account of what a couple of teetotalers tirades net us in key words to set ’em up, bartender.
I wonder why Black Voters aren’t happy with Grampa Joe?
It couldn’t possibly be the difference in his attitude toward the people of Ukraine and the people of Palestine, could it?
Joe is no more a Racist than his Buddy Strom Thurmond was, they both have always wanted what was best for both Races, the Human Race and THOSE PEOPLE.
Jeez, just look at how well the economy is doing!
He’s the NEW FDR and no President has ever done as much for Childhood Poverty as Joe has…
What’s wrong with THOSE PEOPLE, anyway?
How could Uncle Joe possibly be racist, when he worked so hard to put Clarence Thomas on the Court?
WikiLeaks cache of 45,000 DNC emails deleted after founder Julian Assange reaches plea deal with US
https://thepostmillennial.com/wikileaks-cache-of-45000-dnc-emails-deleted-after-founder-julian-assange-reaches-plea-deal-with-us
Down the memory hole they go. Just in time for HRC’s book release?
https://consortiumnews.com/2024/06/26/assange-walks-out-of-court-a-free-man/
So if he is destroying something that is publicly available it means nothing?
Fortunately, many of the aforementioned leaked emails were printed. (The book’s title was “What Happened to Bernie Sanders”.)
I only know of one person whose work was ordered destroyed by a court, psychologist Wilhelm Reich. More recently, George W. Bush biographer Jim Hatfield has his work recalled by St. Martin’s after a reporter brought up his criminal record. (His work was not questioned, it should be noted.) Finally, the DoJ ordered the DCLeaks website and the Fancy Bears leaks taken down, despite both of those revealing actual crimes (Respectively General Phillip Breedlove’s attempts to undermine presidential authority, and several cases of doping.)
Interesting that the US MSM didn’t report this bit. Maybe they still believe the DNC emails are all just Russian disinfo?
Per the PM article, above, the pages have now been yanked from WikiLeaks’ site. Of course, as Belle notes, there will be other sources. Archive DOT org, for now, though I wonder how long they will function as a historical record (which BTW is fairly astonishing when you consider how much is on the Net).
is there going to be some kind of Debate Coverage here at NC ?
Yes, I will lut up a post.
thanks, I’m looking forward to it. -regards, a.v.
Re: Louisiana RV park, “… add[ed] these covers to shade some pad sites.”
In 2019 my landlord added sizeable awning canopies to all the windows on his buildings. He made them himself from scrap metal (chosen for color) and stock lumber (nicely painted of course).
The difference was immediate and remarkable, my air conditioning use dropped by at least 20 percent. Even now with several +100°F (+38°C) days already under our belts in Albuquerque NM, a single 8,000 Btu AC unit on the upper floor comfortable cools my entire 900²ft two storey apartment. Once the lower storey is cool I pull a curtain on the stairway to cool the upper floor for sleeping. Of course the stucco over wood framed construction was already heat tolerant and insulating to begin with.
Constant shade areas like the RV park canopies work in great part because the ground or structure beneath doesn’t heat up from direct sunlight. The surest way to stay cool is to avoid getting hot in the first place.
Late to this because my life has been chaotic and my NC time is catch as catch can these days, but re: bubble wrap on windows.
I can vouch for the effectiveness as bubble wrap as insulation. Several years ago, we had a deep freeze coming and I wanted to protect my hose bibs from freezing. It was around Christmas or soon there after and the house had a bunch of bubble wrap on hand from all the holiday shipping. I remembered that air is one of nature’s best insulators and I wrapped the bibs in bubble wrap and used duct tape to secure it. Works like a charm and I have used recycled bubble wrap ever since. The big bubble packs that AMZ favors these days can work, too in a pinch as I learned last winter, but not nearly as well as just old school bubble wrap.