By Lambert Strether of Corrente
Patient readers, I feel I’ve been neglecting Covid in favor of electoral politics (“the tyranny of the urgent”). I will add more political news in short order. –lambert
Bird Song of the Day
Blue Mockingbird, Calle Lirios Bosque, Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico. “Lifer!”
In Case You Might Miss…
(1) Democrat idipol.
(2) Amazon a distributor, now responsible for recalls.
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 one hundred days to go!
Friday’s RCP Poll Averages:
First poll with Harris at the top of the Democrat ticket; Trump’s position deteriorates (and any advantage he gained from the assassination attempt has been wiped away. Nevertheless, he still leads, albeit within the margin of error. NOTE RCP used to have two pages of swing states; I always used the first one. Now there is only one, which I take as an indicator that Harris v. Trump polling is not all that widespread.
Vibe shift:
Unbelievable vibe shift in the US with Kamala Harris https://t.co/LAZoglUMHW pic.twitter.com/rrMisGHLbu
— Albert Pinto (@70sBachchan) July 26, 2024
* * * * * * Kamala (D): “Identity Groups Are Mobilizing for Kamala Harris. That Shows Progress” [Time]. “This enthusiasm is significant as Harris heads into the final months of the campaign, but given that American culture discourages this kind of “identity politics,” many people will see this list of identity-specific calls and think, “If you want to support Harris, do it, but why all this separation?” Why gather in specific groups?… However, it is equally encouraging to see white women and white men organize as white women and white men. Despite all the ways American culture teaches them that whiteness hasn’t determined their life chances, and in stark contrast to the way white women, primarily, congregated in a “secret” Facebook group before the 2016 election, these Harris supporters are insisting upon publicly acknowledging the specificity of experience. Doing so doesn’t automatically erect barriers between them and people of color. Instead, it facilitates an honoring of differences that makes those differences strengths.” • Of course, plenty of “Not that way!” when identity groups do it wrong; the Azovs, for example. The pecking order as expressed in the rollout timing is interesting: First, Black Women. Second, White Women. Third, White Men. Fourth, Latino Men:
— Julie Chavez Rodriguez (@JulieR2022) July 30, 2024
On the bright said, the organizers didn’t use “Latinx.” I suppose the Asian verticals are yet come. NOTE “[As activist author Audre Lorde explained decades ago] urged Americans to become more practiced in ‘relating across our human differences as equals’ so that what distinguishes us from each other would cease to be ‘misnamed and misused in the service of separation and confusion.'” When 90% of humanity has to sell their labor power to survive, 1% buys it, and 10% helps the 1% get that done, “relating across our human differences as equals” isn’t possible; the material differences cannot be erased by wishful thinking. Ya know, it’s almost like the identity verticals were like…. were like a…. were like a bundle of sticks, only strong when bound together….
Kamala (D): “Kamala Harris says she has ‘not yet’ chosen her running mate – live” [Guardian]. • This is the stupidest timeline, so I imagine if Raimondo were male they’d be the pick. Ditto Buttigieg modulo gender. Shapiro is also stupid, because winning PA to lose the Muslims in the Upper Midwest is stupid. Walz would not be stupid, so it won’t be Walz. Maybe surprises are in store! How about John Podesta?
Kamala (D): “Commentary: Kamala Harris is being called ‘brat’. What the sigma?” [Channel News Asia]. “[“Brat” song author] Charli said that ‘brat’ means ‘that girl who is a little messy and likes to party … maybe says dumb things sometimes … who feels herself but maybe also has a breakdown but parties through it … is very honest, very blunt, a little bit volatile.’ The Guardian provides an explainer: ‘Brat is not just a name, but a lifestyle, one inspired by noughties excess and rave culture.’… As far as I know, Harris has not used the word “brat” in any of her speeches, because that would have been “cringey”. Instead, she has let Gen Z do its thing, while she has focused on using plain English to promote her policies and to take down Trump.” • Interesting stuff on slang, though probably obsolete, the youth move so fast: “Rizz” for “charisma.”
Kamala (D): “‘Fearless’ or ‘failed?’ Kamala Harris launches TV ad to define her record and so does Trump” [USA Today]. “A 60-second ad from the Harris campaign introduces Harris to a broader electorate by saying, “The one thing Kamala Harris has always been: fearless.” The ad traces her career as a prosecutor “putting murders and abusers behind bars,” as California attorney general going after “the big banks” and as vice president going after “the big drug companies.'” • Here it is:
BREAKING: Kamala Harris just released her first ad as the presumptive Democratic nominee for President. Retweet so all Americans see who Kamala Harris is and what she stands for. pic.twitter.com/SnAdi5STDz
— Kamala’s Wins (@harris_wins) July 30, 2024
Very much in tune with Democrat loyalist @drvox’s call for “dominance play,” described at NC here.
Kamala (D): “Why the Kamala Harris of Four Years Ago Could Haunt Her in 2024” [New York Times]. Oh noes! “‘The archive is deep,’ said Brad Todd, a Republican strategist and ad maker who is working with David McCormick, the G.O.P. Senate candidate in Pennsylvania, among other campaigns. ‘We will run out of time before we run out of video clips of Kamala Harris saying wacky California liberal things. I’m just not sure that the rest of this campaign includes much besides that.’ But wait! There’s hope! More: “Matt Bennett, a co-founder of Third Way, a moderate Democratic think tank, said he was not worried that Ms. Harris had once espoused left-wing ideas. She has evolved, he said, into a Biden-style Democrat with more centrist views.” • Let’s do a little oppo of our own. It’s not hard–
Kamala (D): “Kamala Harris Didn’t Just Flip-Flop on Medicare for All” [Eric Levitz, New York Magazine]. Kamala was a co-sponsor of Sanders’ single payer bill. “[O]n Monday night, Harris went on national television and called for the abolition of the private insurance industry…. ‘Who of us has not had that situation, where you’ve got to wait for approval (for medical care) and the doctor says, well, I don’t know if your insurance company is going to cover this?’ she asked. ‘Let’s eliminate all of that. Let’s move on.'” You’ll never guess what happened next! More: “One day — and much billionaire hand-wringing later — CNN published a story titled, ‘Kamala Harris is open to multiple paths to ‘Medicare-for-all.’‘ This headline briefly put the universe back in order. Harris’s equivocation was belated but inevitable. She wasn’t going to run as an unusually forthright and unapologetic advocate of single-payer. After all, the elimination of private insurance isn’t merely opposed by powerful corporate lobbies, but by a large majority of Americans in the Kaiser Family Foundation’s polling. This is not a position a savvy operator like Harris would wish to champion. From here on out, the senator would say the three magic words (Medicare for All) but avoid defining them whenever possible.” • “Fearless,” my sweet Aunt Fanny. (The normal level-headed Levitz urges that Kamala’s “multiple paths” language is not a flip-flop. As a long, long-time single payer advocate, I’m here to tell you that’s exactly what it is. When language like “I’m for cake” turns into “I’m for cake, but also for cookies. Anything sweet, really” that’s a flip-flop.
* * * Trump (R): “Inside JD Vance’s Short-Lived Career as a Venture Capitalist” [Wall Street Journal]. “In 2016, [Vance] left the biotech firm to join [Peter Thiel’s] Mithril as a junior investor. Vance’s memoir was published that summer and became a bestseller with its unrelenting portrayal of poverty in working-class America. In the year Vance worked at Mithril, a former colleague said he never once saw him in the office. Another colleague said he remembers seeing Vance at the office, although he did travel a lot to promote his memoir. Neither remembered significant deals that Vance drove during his time at Mithril. In March 2017, Vance left Mithril to join Revolution, an investment firm founded by Steve Case, a co-founder of AOL. Vance was hired to focus on the Rise of the Rest initiative, a seed fund within Revolution that looked for investing opportunities outside the typical tech ecosystems of Silicon Valley, New York and Boston. He joined Case for several stops on a bus tour through cities like Chattanooga, Tenn., and Louisville, Ky. During Vance’s time at Revolution, he was the lead partner or co-lead on 14 deals, according to a person familiar with the deals. They included California-based defense tech startup Anduril Industries, North Carolina-based artificial-intelligence startup Pryon, as well as AppHarvest. Vance joined Pryon’s board in June 2019. Pryon’s chief executive, Igor Jablokov, said Vance was an engaged investor who helped the company forge connections with venture capitalist Jim Breyer and Chase Koch, the son of billionaire libertarian tycoon Charles Koch.” • Hmm. Quite the networker.
Trump (R): Stoller comments on Trump’s recent lack of mojo:
A lot of right-wingers are upset by this statement from Trump. Quietly he's screwing up all over the place, showing how aligned he is with certain parts of the establishment.
Bannon's absence is getting louder and louder. https://t.co/ugVpJJkK4b
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) July 29, 2024
In a way, Trump 2016 vs. Trump 2024 reminds me of Sanders 2016 vs. Sanders 2020. In each case, the populist and very popular message in the first campaign, was diluted by the ideological commitments of staff (whether idpol for Sanders, or a barnacle-like encrustration of right-wing tropes for Trump). Stoller points to Bannon’s disappearance — the Democrats jailed him, a successful example of lawfare — but I’m not so sure; it’s no surprise that Trump jetting round the country in his own airplane doing A/B testing with the crowds was more in touch with voters than Trump subjected to the wiles of Susie Wiles (a professional, in the good and the bad senses of the word).
Trump (R): “Behind the Curtain: The battle for Trump power” [Axios]. “The two biggest changes in staffing since the first term are the increased power of populists compared to Trump’s original West Wing, which included such establishment powers as former Goldman Sachs exec Gary Cohn. You could see this dynamic in the sway Don Jr. and Tucker Carlson had in pushing Vance over the finish line for V.P. It’s not a coincidence that Don Jr. wants to screen top officials for loyalty. Second, Trump realizes he has to staff further down in the agencies and departments if he’s going to work his full will. This is all contingent on actually winning a second term, and some Republicans think the Trump team is acting too over-confident. But Trump insiders realize that the more prepared they are for a transition, the more power can stay concentrated with Trump loyalists — and the less would go to outsiders.”
* * * “Marianne Williamson Ends Longshot 2024 Presidential Bid” [Bloomberg]. “Marianne Williamson said she failed to meet the deadline to challenge Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democratic nomination, effectively ending her longshot bid. ‘We did everything possible to stand for a blitz primary, an open convention and so forth. Yet the way things worked there truly was no way, and all we could have done is create noise,’ Williamson said Monday in a post on X. Williamson did not register her intention to run with the Democratic National Committee by Saturday evening, which would have pitted her against Harris. The vice president last week became the party’s likely nominee after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and the party quickly coalesced around her. Williamson did not endorse Harris, but said she believes it is an “urgent task” to make sure Republican nominee Donald Trump does not return to power.” • Too bad.
* * *
Spook Country
“U.S. intelligence official: Russia and Iran likely seeking to influence election outcome” [NBC]. “The U.S. intelligence community believes the Kremlin will direct its propaganda efforts to support former President Donald Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential election, an intelligence official indicated on a media call Monday. Iran is likely to continue to try to denigrate Trump, the official said, and China doesn’t appear to have a preference in the presidential race but may try to interfere in congressional races. The call, held by the Foreign Malign Influence Center, one of the few arms of the U.S. government devoted to countering foreign propaganda campaigns, elaborated on an agency alert about foreign propaganda campaigns released Monday afternoon.” • Oh, an “intelligence official.” I confess I’ve never heard of the “Foreign Malign Influence Center” (great name). Spun up in 2022. The leadership: “Before leading FMIC, Jessica [Brandt] was policy director for the Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technology Initiative at the Brookings Institution and a fellow in the Foreign Policy program’s Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology. Her research interests and publications focused on foreign interference, digital authoritarianism, and the implications of emerging technologies for liberal democracies, according to the FMIC site, which has some interesting omissions: “Jessica Brandt was head of policy and research for the Alliance for Securing Democracy [ASD] and a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund [GMF] of the United States…. Jessica is a member of the Advisory Council of the American Ditchley Foundation and a David Rockefeller Fellow of the Trilateral Commission. She was a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Next Generation Fellow at the Center for a New American Security.” • I haven’t heard the Trilateral Commission mentioned in a dog’s age! The ASD and the GMF were responsible for the ridiculous Hamilton68 dashboard (an early part of the Censorship Industrial Complex, demolished by Taibbi). So both FMIC and Brandt are perfect, and I think we can expect to hear more from them.
Republican Funhouse
“How the crypto industry is buying political support with 202 million U.S. dollars” [Judd Legum, Popular Information]. “15 years after Bitcoin was created, there are still few legitimate use cases. Today, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are primarily used for financial speculation and to facilitate organized crime. The broader crypto industry, meanwhile, has been rocked by scandals, including the spectacular implosion of FTX and criminal charges against Binance. But crypto lobbyists still have one ace up their sleeves: lots of money. The industry’s primary Super PAC, Fairshake, has raised over $202 million in the 2024 election cycle. Most of this money was collected in the form of 8-figure contributions. …. Coinbase alone has donated $70 million so far, and crypto investors like Ben Horowitz, Marc Andreessen, and the Winklevoss twins have written multi-million dollar checks. The largest individual donors are also supporting Trump’s candidacy. This money dwarfs the spending by Sam Bankman-Fried in the 2022 election cycle. Of the approximately $45 million Fairshake and its subsidiaries have expended thus far, two-thirds was used to attack Democrats or support Republicans. The cash stockpile positions the industry to be one of the most powerful forces in politics over the next 100 days.” • Oh, good.
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, KF, 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
Progress can be made:
Airborne Transmission
Somebody should ask Kamala and Trump if they support this bill (given that it’s bipartisan):
WASHINGTON, DC — Congressman Paul D. Tonko (D-NY) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) announced the introduction of their Indoor Air Quality and Healthy Schools Act, bipartisan legislation that would protect the public from poor indoor air quality (IAQ).
Learn More:… pic.twitter.com/tJ6cCTdLay
— Adam Van Bavel (@AdamVanBavel) July 28, 2024
Transmission: Covid
How it started, how it’s going:
Tale of two stories.
July 24th: Comic-Con is finally back to normal.
July 28th: Comic-Con creators come down with COVID.
“San Diego sustains significant rise in COVID. Attendees, including creators, isolate in hotels after testing positive for COVID.”https://t.co/KABvRvHQNk pic.twitter.com/2awMCDimTW
— Jammer (@AcrossTheMersey) July 28, 2024
Maskstravaganza
“Personal protective effect of wearing surgical face masks in public spaces on self-reported respiratory symptoms in adults: pragmatic randomised superiority trial” [BMJ]. “The most reported adverse effects were unpleasant comments from other people.” • Here is Avian Flu Diary on this article.
“Do N95 Face Masks Expire?” [SmartAir]. “The answer is yes if you’re talking about disposable masks. Disposable face masks will have a best-by date on the packaging, just like food. While this period is likely to be several years away, it is important to use the masks before then to get the best protection. Reusable face masks are washable and safe to reuse, making them an excellent choice to stock up on. For the best results, wash the masks according to the instructions on the package and hang them to dry. Researchers at the University of North Carolina and the EPA tested brand new and 10-year-old expired 3M N95 face masks. The oldest masks had expired 11 years before the study. And if the expiration lifespan is 5 years, that means the oldest masks were 16 years old. Importantly, the researchers tested the masks on real people’s faces, rather than manikins. These fit tests are important because they take into account the part that people most suspect would degrade–the straps and other pieces that influence fit. Surprisingly, the expired N95 masks were within one percent as effective as the brand-new masks–essentially indistinguishable.” • Good news!
This is good, I hope, because I’ve thought of ACT-UP as a touchstone for what Covid Cautious might be:
2/6 pic.twitter.com/vmea64xAWC
— ACT UP NY (@actupny) July 30, 2024
Is it too much to ask that DSA straighten itself out, too? Or are they too brunch-adjacent by now?
Vaccines
“COVID-19 in Pediatric Populations” (excerpt) [Clinics in Chest Medicine]. Summary:
• SARS-CoV-2 will continue to circulate through communities with novel variants emerging over time.
• While most children experience mild illness, some can develop severe acute COVID-19 or post-COVID complications.
• Vaccination against COVID-19 is recommended for all children 6 months and older.
• If infected, efforts should be made, in accordance with local and national guidance, to avoid spreading infections to others.
Love that last bullet point (that we even have to say it). I’m not a vax maven, so I’m not aware of pediatric studies for Covid vaccines (mRNA and otherwise). Perhaps readers will chime in.
Infection
“SARS-CoV-2 correlates of protection from infection against variants of concern” (excerpt only) [Nature]. From the Abstract: “We find that, in the Delta wave, D614G nAbs mediate 37% (95% confidence interval: 34–40%) of the total protection against infection conferred by prior exposure to SARS-CoV-2, and that protection decreases with waning immunity. In contrast, Omicron BA.1 nAbs mediate 11% (95% confidence interval: 9–12%) of the total protection against Omicron BA.1 or BA.2 infections, due to Omicron’s neutralization escape. These findings underscore that correlates of protection mediated through nAbs are variant specific, and that boosting of nAbs against circulating variants might restore or confer immune protection lost due to nAb waning and/or immune escape. However, the majority of immune protection against SARS-CoV-2 conferred by natural infection cannot be fully explained by serum nAbs alone.” • If any readers have a subscription to Nature, I’d be interested in what you have to say. Here is a thread devoted to it–
“Big picture, these findings are bad for EVERYBODY, but ESPECIALLY for those still clinging to the fantasy of ‘natural immunity'” [@NickAnderegg, ThreadReader]. “The takeaway? It’s unclear if ANYONE has strong immunity to COVID infection!…. You know what the virus CAN’T evade? Electrostatically charged fibers.”
Morbidity and Mortality
“How COVID-19 has Affected Mortality in 2020 to 2023” [Actuaries Institute]. Australia. “There were 8,400 more deaths in Australia in 2023 than predicted had the pandemic not occurred – less than half of the almost 20,000 excess deaths estimated for 2022…. The steep decline in excess deaths in 2023 was primarily due to the number of people dying from COVID-19 falling to 4,600 in 2023 from 10,300 in 2022. While Australia’s excess mortality rate had dropped substantially, it remains significantly higher than the 1-2% excess observed in years of high flu deaths prior to the pandemic. When analysing the excess mortality of 40 countries from 2020 to 2023, Australia’s excess mortality over the four-year period (5%) was low by global standards (11%).” • Despite Gladys’s best efforts!
Celebrity Watch
“Covid hits British Olympic swimming star who had close contact with U.S. athlete” [NPR]. “British sports officials say one of their star swimmers, three-time Olympic gold medalist Adam Peaty, has tested positive for COVID. The announcement comes a day after Peaty competed in the 100-meter breaststroke final, mingling closely with other athletes in Paris, including American Nic Fink. ‘In the hours after the final, (Peaty’s) symptoms became worse and he was tested for COVID early on Monday morning,’ Team Great Britain said in a statement issued Monday afternoon Paris time. ‘He tested positive at that point.’ The statement confirmed Peaty was experiencing symptoms of illness on Sunday prior to competing and interacting with other athletes. ‘Adam Peaty was feeling unwell on Sunday ahead of his men’s 100 meter breaststroke final,’ the statement said. NPR has attempted to contact Team GB to ask why Peaty wasn’t tested sooner, or isolated, with no response….. There are no COVID-specific health rules for the Paris Summer Olympics. That’s a break from strict restrictions implemented at the Tokyo Games in 2021 and the Beijing Winter Games in 2022. On the medal podium Sunday night, Peaty hugged Italian gold medalist Martinenghi and Fink, who won silver in the event.” • Oh. From WaPo, a caption: “Britain’s Princess Anne, left, congratulates Adam Peaty, of Britain, after winning the silver medal in the men’s 100-meter breaststroke final at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, July 28, 2024, in Nanterre, France.” Presumably Princess Anne will get tested.
“Olympics volunteers resign over lack of Covid-19 precautions” [The Sick Times]. “Earlier this month, a group of Olympic volunteers demanded Covid-19 precautions at the 2024 Paris Olympics, stating they would resign if precautions weren’t implemented. ‘Covid-19 pandemic threat denial is not an antidote to contamination,’ the volunteers wrote in a press release. ‘If no steps are taken, we will collectively resign from our assignments, and will not show up on the Olympic and Paralympic sites we have been staffed.’ Since their statement was issued on July 15, the group has not received a response from the 2024 Olympic organizers, a member of the group told The Sick Times in a phone interview. The volunteer, Thomas, who wished to omit his last name, said the group had around one hundred members, some of whom have already resigned. More than 10,000 athletes arrived this month in Paris and a handful had already tested positive for Covid-19 prior to the games’ start on July 26, including five members of the women’s Australian water polo team. Around 15 million people are predicted to travel to Paris, including 2 million international travelers, at a time when the country is seeing an increase in Covid-19 cases, according to World Health Organization spokesperson Margaret Harris. Still, organizers and teams continue to downplay the spread of the disease. Australian team chief Anna Meares told Reuters: ‘I need to emphasize that we are treating Covid no differently to other bugs like the flu.'”
Elite Maleficence
“The CDC’s test for bird flu works, but it has issues” [News Medical]. “The agency has quietly worked since April to resolve a nagging issue with the test it developed, even as the virus swept through dairy farms and chicken houses across the country and infected at least 13 farmworkers this year. At a congressional hearing July 23, Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) asked about the issue. “Boy, that rings of 2020,” he said, referring to when the nation was caught off guard by the covid-19 pandemic, in part because of dysfunctional tests made by the CDC. Demetre Daskalakis, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, responded that the agency rapidly developed a workaround that makes its bird flu test reliable. ‘The tests are 100% usable,’ he later told KFF Health News, adding that the FDA studied the tests and came to the same conclusion. The imperfect tests, which have a faulty element that sometimes requires testing a sample again, will be replaced soon. He added, ‘We have made sure that we’re offering a high-quality product.'” That just needs to be used twice instead of once. More: “Still, some researchers were unnerved by the news coming four months after the government declared a worrisome bird flu outbreak among cattle. The CDC’s test is the only one available for clinical use.” • We learn nothing….
Thanks, Jeff:
An example of how Google is killing independent sites like ourshttps://t.co/3TxALxDCKG
— HouseFresh (@ThisHouseFresh) July 29, 2024
Lambert here: New York hospitalization leveling out, and now WalGreens positivity down for two weeks, are the first positive signs I’ve seen in a long time. Wastewater still going strong, though!
TABLE 1: Daily Covid Charts
| Wastewater | ||
| This week[1] CDC July 22: | Last Week[2] CDC July 8 (until next week): | |
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| |
| Variants [3] CDC July 20 | Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC July 20 | |
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| Hospitalization | ||
| New York[5] New York State, data July 26: | National [6] CDC July 6: | |
|
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|
|
| Positivity | ||
| ★ National[7] Walgreens July 29: | Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic July 20: | |
|
 |
|
| Travelers Data | ||
| Positivity[9] CDC July 8: | Variants[10] CDC July 8: | |
|
 |
|
| Deaths | ||
| Weekly Deaths vs. % Positivity [11]CDC July 13: | Weekly Deaths vs. ED Visits [12]CDC July 13: | |
|
 |
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. Keeps spreading.
[2] (CDC) Last week’s wastewater map.
[3] (CDC Variants) KP.* very popular.
[4] (ER) Worth noting Emergency Department use is now on a par with the first wave, in 2020.
[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Leveling off. Doesn’t need to be a permanent thing, of course. (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). The visualization suppresses what is, in percentage terms, a significant increase.
[7] (Walgreens) An optimist would see a peak.
[8] (Cleveland) Slowing. Comment on the Cleveland Clinic:
Why is the Cleveland Clinic building a new facility for a professional basketball team? These hospitals are not 'nonprofits' they are ridiculously profitable monopolies with an endless cash gusher to point at whatever they want. https://t.co/1REM2LMLjd
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) July 29, 2024
Ka-ching.
[9] (Travelers: Positivity) Up. Those sh*theads at CDC have changed the chart so that it doesn’t even run back to 1/21/23, as it used to, but now starts 1/1/24. There’s also no way to adjust the time rasnge. CDC really doesn’t want you to be able to take a historical view of the pandemic, or compare one surge to another. In an any case, that’s why the shape of the curve has changed.
[10] (Travelers: Variants) Same deal. Those sh*theads.
[11] Deaths low, but positivity up.
[12] Deaths low, ED up.
Stats Watch
Employment Situation: “United States Job Quits” [Trading Economics]. “The number of job quits in the US decreased to 3.282 million in June 2024 from a downwardly revised 3.403 million in May, reaching the lowest level since November 2020.”
Retail: “Federal regulator says Amazon can be held responsible for faulty goods sold on its marketplace” [CNBC]. “In a landmark order, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said the agency unanimously agreed Amazon ‘fits squarely’ within the definition of a distributor of goods and bears responsibility for the recall of faulty products. The decision addresses a thorny issue faced by Amazon for years, with the company arguing it’s merely a conduit between third-party sellers and shoppers. A judge said Amazon’s fulfillment program for sellers give it “far-reaching control” over the products sold on its platform.” • I assume this will end up in the Courts… Still, good for the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission!
Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 41 Fear (previous close: 45 Fear) [CNN]. One week ago: 54 (Neutral). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Jul 30 at 12:48:21 PM ET
The Gallery
Time to break out my boat shoes:
Sailing, 1911 https://t.co/tOQyuhwku7 pic.twitter.com/7ufO8AQFjH
— Edward Hopper (@artisthopper) July 27, 2024
Zeitgeist Watch
“Why doesn’t advice work?” [Dynomight]. “My theory of procrastination is that a guy named Jim lives in your head. Before you try to do something, Jim calculates how hard it will be and what benefits it’s likely to bring. If he doesn’t like the ratio, he adds a ‘tax’ that makes it very hard to do the thing. Jim is stubborn and not very bright. But Jim Theory, if correct, explains more than just procrastination. A childhood friend of mine always wanted to be a programmer. He did it for fun as a teenager and was good at it, but in college he had to major in something else for financial reasons. Afterwards, he felt stuck in a career he didn’t like very much. I was sure he could still transition into programming. I begged him to try taking a night class, or get a low-level tech support job, or get some kind of online certification, or start an open-source project. I promised him that he could surely find someone who would pay him a below-market salary to do something programming-related. As I said these things, he would nod his head, but in his heart I think he never felt it could work. So he never did anything. It’s incredibly hard to do things when Jim isn’t on board.” • I think I know this Jim guy.
News of the Wired
“Was the Internet Designed To Survive a Nuclear Attack?” [Silicon Folklore]. • No, and in reality, not just according to Betteridge’s Law.
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 AM:
AM writes: “The state of the backyard on June 24, 2024. Roses out, rhododendrons coming on strong, climbing hydrangeas at or near peak. Not sure what the yellow ones are. Doesn’t take much space to create an oasis.” Lovely!
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Trending on Twitter is a bombing in Beirut. I won’t speculate, but not good news IMO.
I was watching a Richard Medhurst podcast on YT a little while ago, and he showed a three lane Israeli traffic jam moving south for what looked like miles. He was, understandably, pretty chuffed about it.
From the reporting I have watched on Al Jazeera and Press TV, this was a limited, targeted strike in an attempt to assassinate a (if not the) top commander in Hezbollah. So far two deaths are being reported; for now it appears that the presumed target was not one of them. There were other strikes in southern Lebanon as well — not sure of the extent of the damage since the coverage I watched focused on Beirut.
A related news item I have not seen reported elsewhere – according to Larry Johnson:
“In the wake of the blast in Majdal Shams, the Zionist Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, issued a call to assassinate Hezbollah’s Secretary-General, Hassan Nasrallah.”
This rather hinges on the precise verbiage of this “call”. Did he say so explicitly, imply it, suggest it would “be a good thing”, etc. That’s a fairly significant statement if true, and would expect condemnation from some quarters but haven’t seen any, therefore I am somewhat skeptical.
Hezbollah announced earlier that it will respond in kind, so an attack on Tel Aviv is likely forthcoming.
Lebanese FM hoped it would be “reasonable”, but one begins to doubt there’s much reason left in Levant.
USA already stated it will defend Israel in case of a Hezbollah attack, while the other team at the moment is Hezbollah, Iran and Turkey. It’s beginning to look like another war coming soon as the escalation ladders are running out soon-ish.
He was pretty explicit:
“Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich tweeted, “Nasrallah must pay with his life for the deaths of small children,” adding that “all of Lebanon” should bear the consequences.”
I don’t think I would hold my breath waiting for anyone in the MSM to condemn him, though. That is just not one of the things that they do.
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-07-27/ty-article/netanyahu-hezbollah-will-pay-unprecedented-price-top-minister-calls-to-kill-nasrallah/00000190-f5ca-d8b8-a59a-fdde66be0000
Thanks for that. And yeah, not much equivocation there — not quite at the level of statement of intent (“we will” as opposed to “we must”) though.
Great to see the Israelis suddenly discover concern for the lives of small children. Where has that been?
Small Arab children. Ironic. No telling how many lives Smotrich haa to pay for his crimes.
So it begins
https://sputnikglobe.com/20240730/attempt-to-kill-hezbollah-commander-shukr-failed—source-in-movement-1119569065.html
If you are going to try to kill the King, you had better succeed…
Meanwhile, in Germany, the oldest mosque (Hamburg) has been blown up: “Germany Begin Destroying Islamic Mosques Spreading Extremism: How Germany Tackled Immigration Crisis”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkcNAWfKTIE
While in the UK, after the stabbing in Southport, a group went after a nearby mosque (despite the attacker not being Muslim). When the police came, they attacked the police.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cv2gyv882nvo
Need a laugh? One of the Southport rioting “protestors” gets a double-tap of instant karma (CW: kinda comedic mild violence)
I really try to be better than laughing at this, but today I am not. It’s the traditional way the British deal with despair.
Now the LA Times is reporting that Israel is claiming the target (Fuad Shukr) was killed in the attack:
Israel says it killed Hezbollah commander in Beirut strike – Los Angeles Times
However, the article does not appear to substantiate the headline’s assertion that Israel made any such claim.
Hezbollah continues to deny that the assassination attempt was successful.
A second assassination :
“Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has been killed in Tehran, the Palestinian militant group Hamas has said.”
Yesterday there were all these Israeli prison rape stories causing civil riots. Doing a spectacular assassination attempt might be a way to make that story go away.
Spreading pain, suffering, and death is usually a very good distraction isn’t?
“were like a…. were like a bundle of sticks, only strong when bound together…. ”
Ha Ha I see what you did there!
Dang. And I thought I was being subtle!
Yeah. Next make the trains run on time.
Scratch an identitarian…
With an axe to grind included?
I like what you did there …
Ha! And the lictors, too?
“like a bundle of sticks, only strong when bound together…. ”
…. but then easily thrown all together into the fire.
RE: Ya know, it’s almost like the identity verticals were like…. were like a…. were like a bundle of sticks, only strong when bound together….
So dry, it’s positively dessicated, Lambert. Kudos!
What I want to know is, would “white men” organizing for any other candidate been seen as a positive like this apparently is? I think we all know the answer to that.
I see Trump responded to Harris’ latest insults (“fraud,” “predator”) by calling her a “low IQ individual.” I think he’s starting to get there–being both dismissive and including a kernel of truth in the zinger. After all whatever her IQ Kamala’s known verbal stumbles are a point of weakness. Meanwhile her retaliatory brickbats have so far gotten the Dems nowhere. Trump is a very known quantity and she isn’t–to her peril. Trying to out bully Trump may turn a lot of people off while pleasing others. She’d do better to let Jon Stewart do it.
The Trump campaign, just as much as Kamala’s campaign, needs to focus on the fact that there are only one hundred days. I know I have often said that “a week is a long time in politics,” and that’s true, but the candidate also needs to be in top form, and that takes some runway. I think, as you do (“starting to get there”) that Trump isn’t yet in top form.
So much ado about a “choice” of bad or worse.
A lot of us have come to the same realization as Steve Martin’s character in “The Jerk,” working a weight-guessing scam in a traveling carnival: “Oh, I get it! It’s one of those profit deals!” The game is rigged, we can’t win, so don’t even play.
Hand-marked paper ballots, hand-counted in public, don’t mean squat when the “choices” on the ballots are determined by a tiny elite that’s inimical to the interests of the vast majority. Bad or Other Bad is not a democracy or any sort of participatory government.
The rulers do spend a lot of effort on keeping the fiction of electoral legitimacy alive. Why confer any scintilla of “legitimacy” on the scam? “You voted for us, or let us win by not voting, so you have to eat the slop we feed you and keep working to make us even richer!” is pure bullshit.
> Hand-marked paper ballots, hand-counted in public
Necessary. I agree not sufficient.
A number of people are understandably pissed that Kamala Harris of all people is the Democratic candidate without a single vote being cast by the actual voters. No primaries, no debate, and they’re suddenly being asked to back this heir apparent like it’s the last best hope of democracy itself. I see reporting like this out of the AP and the skeptic in me starts wondering who this pageantry is really for. “We actually care now!” is not inspiring rhetoric from a party who is trying really hard not to win.
> So dry, it’s positively dessicated
[lambert blushes modestly]
I mean it, too. If you think about it, you see that the identity verticals are all dominated by what Adolph Reed called “voices.” PMC, basically. There isn’t a process of sortition ha ha. Not — and I know this will surprise you — small-d democratic to the slightest degree.
How 44,000 Black Women Galvanized Support for Kamala Harris on Sunday Night!
She has one half Caribe Indian, half black grandmother, Miss Iris. See picture in link below. Rest of ancestor’s on father’s side are white Irish slave owning Jamaicans, at least according to her father.
https://www.jamaicaglobalonline.com/kamala-harris-jamaican-heritage/
That means Kamala is ~1/12 th black.
Contrast that with this 50% preponderance:
“Kamala Harris grew up visiting her grandparents in India “every two years, at least,” she said at another Impact summit over the summer, detailing the walks she would take with her grandfather and his friends, who had been active in India’s independence movement.
“There I would be, this young girl holding my grandfather’s hand, walking with them as they would debate and discuss with incredible passion the importance of a democracy,” she said.
“As I reflect on these moments,” she continued, “I know those were the earliest moments that I formed my perspective and philosophy about what a democracy should and can be.”
https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/election/campaigns/article223272545.html
Kamala does seem to be pleasingly flexible in her ontological commitment to that fictive but useful concept, race. You know that thing where you say to yourself “I don’t need to bookmark or download this, because it will be so easy to find again when I want it’? That’s what I did with an extremely early Kamala campaign poster, where she identified as Indian. Certainly not Black, let alone “America’s first Black and Asian” blah blah blah. Wish I could find it again.
If Kamala Harris inherited 1/4 of her grandmother’s genes, then she is 1/4 * 1/2 (half black grandmother) = 1/8 not 1/12 black.
Am I misinterpreting this statement?
LOL. What are the odds she even wrote this? Harris got taken out in 2020 because Gabbard exposed her as a phony and she is a phony so she had no reply. A persistent complaint around here–at least by yours truly–is that the Dems and particular people like Obama have an authenticity problem. All this shape shifting doesn’t inspire trust in the public nor should it. Obama was also a phony who said he was going to change America and instead made sure it stayed the same. Trump may be a crude bag of wind but he is authentically that. His unflappable egotism is why people hate him but also the secret of his appeal.
Yes we have bad choices this year but we always have bad choices lately. The real question is which candidate and party are going to do the least damage. I don’t think it’s the lyin’ Dems.
RE: plantidote
I believe the yellow ones are coreopsis.
I agree. Threadleaf coreopsis:
https://gardengoodsdirect.com/products/coreopsis-zagreb?variant=22667096064064&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=pmax+perennials&utm_content=&utm_term=&device=c&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwnqK1BhBvEiwAi7o0X10hlPWuT6IeoTFKJMQrTbVGS7S-91kgpf7zGUDutnwlTylyDvmj_xoCYM0QAvD_BwE
Coreopsis, ‘Zagreb’, a tough, willing, and cheerful plant in the garden. Love the ferny foliage.
I haven’t been keeping a precise record, but the Trump v Harris polls are looking about the same to me as the Trump v Biden polls did. And that’s after a week of honeymoon for Harris. She’s unlikely to ever have it any better than she did last week. Maybe another week or 2 will show us her full honeymoon “bump” if we’re not seeing it already.
Nate Silver has a very updated set of projections and commentary. Unfortunately I can’t tell you what’s in the paywall section, but at least he provides a glimpse of the national polls.
Seems like RFK is sliding a little.
https://www.natesilver.net/p/harris-trump-electoral-college
We have to remember that US elections for POTUS have become purely tribal so much depends on those in-between the major tribes–and that depends on the degree people believe the mainstream media which is now almost totally for the DNC as well as the security/intel services. If you believe Hollywood and Washington/NYC are the fount of wisdom, then you will vote Kamala no matter how stupid she is or sounds.
Who knows whether these polls legitimately reflect the will of the american people? Just like with the stock market, there’s always some sort of self-serving justification for the “results” that “makes sense” if you don’t look too closely.
Currently there’s a lot of dem jubilation and cheering crowd tracks on video suggesting that everyone loves kamala, a candidate who still has never “earned” a single vote outside the state of california, and was a miserable failure the one time she tried.
A link at The Automatic Earth today from Paul Craig Roberts puts it this way:
I agree.
Maybe. I don’t think PCR is a very reliable seer.
And at any rate what can the Trump people do right now other than what they are doing? The time to go after her is later. There are also event overseas looming that may change everything.
So much for staying silent.
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/trump-spends-12-million-on-battleground-state-ads/
>>>>Forbes says that the best air purifier overall is a $89.99 Levoit device with a CADR of 40 cfm that took 1 hour and 38 minutes to complete
(IMO) If you are shopping on price, don’t forget to include the cost of new filters.
(IMO) For sheer value, the Corsi box probably has the lowest lifetime cost as the box fan is a commodity item and the 20×20 HEPA filters is a commodity item.
(IMO) If you are looking for dedicated HEPA machines, look to companies in East Asia (see Korean machines at Costco)—consumers over there take indoor air quality and ambient noise from machines really seriously, but it isn’t cheap.
And if you’re going to throw a HEPA-grade filter into your furnace slot, double check the specs of your blower to ensure that you are not straining your motors. HEPA machines/Corsi boxes are the best solution for indoor air.
At least with my homemade single filter one with a scrounged box fan, Corsi boxes are intolerably noisy for me to use at home. The storebought HEPA purifier that I use now is a lot quieter.
> Corsi boxes are intolerably noisy
Second generation Corsi-Rosenthal boxes use computer fans. Much quieter.
HouseFresh, the site from the tweet Lambert posted, has thorough and well documented tests of dozens of filters. The Lavoit model that they recommend was on sale for 80€ so I bought one for the bedroom. The Philips models with triple HEPA filtration are also excellent. All are quiet, compact, easy on the eyes, and you don’t have to make them yourself. Some will even ping your phone when you need to clean the pre-filter or change the carbon or HEPA ones.
Yes, Lambert, I’ll be having a chat about “Jim ” with my therapist tomorrow. Thanks for that!
Trump Again Says That Christians ‘Won’t Have to Vote Anymore’ if They Vote for Him
Tune: Cat Stevens, “Moon Shadow” (aka If I ever lose my mouth)
If I ever vote for Trump, give him that election bump,
Well if I ever vote for Trump, la da da da da, la dee dee dee,
I won’t have to vote no more.
(Anyone help?)
Yeah, that’s one more thing for me to look into. I’ll try to do that tomorrow. One thought that crossed my mind is that there’s some, er, weird piece of Christianist theology to which he is appealing.
I’d chalk it up to his ongoing bull$4itting myself until I see evidence of something more nefarious. It is getting people talking about him again after the recent Biden/Harris shenanigans diverted attention away from a very curious assassination attempt that much of our elite media seems to want to flush down the memory hole.
Thinking charitably, it might be DJT’s way of saying “this is the most important election ever.” (So, even if you never vote again, vote this year).
Less charitably, it occurs to me to suspect that it might be that in DJT’s thinking, if he isn’t on the ballot (which he probably won’t be ever again after this year), there is no reason for anyone to vote at all.
Republican version perhaps of “Our Democracy”? Idk for sure but the sound of this is just… unsettling to a mostly conservative but really smaller “r” single voter. I’d probably be classified as a RINO if I vouched for lower defense and MIC directed Federal budget expenses. Spending more and more just seems like the never ending “rice bowl” often referenced here.
That and the immunity claim linked above. Nope not a good thought, my very initial reaction.
I dunno. I’ve kinda felt like I didn’t have to vote anymore after the SCOTUS showed they could determine the out come in 2000’s election.
Yep, that was the REAL stolen election. I’ve never forgotten or forgiven it, but so many seem to have.
Always seems bizarre to me that Dems are so angry Trump TRIED to steal an election, but not angry that Bush SUCCEEDED.
A conservative’s perspective on what Trump said and what he meant by it, suggesting the liberal panic is an out of context interpretation. Offered with no values attached: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuSAgpOnoxY
The yellow flowers are probably coreopsis. Lovely!
I added orts and scraps — lots more election stuff.
The Smartair website linked also reports that N95 and baggy blue surgical masks are equally resistant to Covid, contrary to what is often expressed at NC. Only 3 studies noted however.
That’s from 2020 and only was for flu. I think we’ve seen updated data since. In my understanding, these high tech masks don’t work just by filtering particles but by repelling them with negatively charged static electricity before they enter a (usually patented) filtering matrix. That’s the innovation that makes them so effective. And also why the polymer material in a surgical mask is still going to be much more effective than a cloth one.
I think that the mechanism is that the particles stick to the charged fibers, and so do not pass through the filter.
It like the dust you will pick up on the tines of a comb after combing some sparks out of a cat’s fur.
The static charge on the filter fibers induces an electric polarization in small particles, which are then attracted to the charge, which has an electric field that declines with distance. I think that “monopole/induced dipole” interaction would be an accurate term for the effect.
The point charge field declines as 1/r^2 and the induced dipole is proportional to the field strength so, I think, the interaction strength varies 1/r^4 which is relatively short range but quite strong at short distances.
Thank you for the better explanation. I read an article in Nature about how they worked but this is technical detail that is above my pay grade. The best comments are here at NC 😊
That’s unfortunate, but the link is from 2020, when the literature had hardly been developed (except of course by engineers in places like NIOSH)
Will there be anything on NC about German RKI-Files and revelations thereof?
As far as I understood an early item was “pulled”…
Are you still waiting for more to come up?
It’s coming, don’t worry.
👍
A worrying observation is that in a well-gardened New York suburb this summer, there are virtually no butterflies, very few moths and no dragonflies to be seen. Friends have noticed, but we have no idea why.
Hmm. . . we have some butterflies around where I live. Not a lot, but some. And also some moths and a few dragonflies. I have seen 2 different dragonflies of two different kinds using one or another high-point in my tiny yard as a sally-forth-and-return perch.
I think I may see a clue to the problem in your first sentence; “a well gardened New York suburb”. Both moths and butterflies need host plants, and a lot of their host plants are both weedy looking and don’t play well with others. They are much better suited to meadows, which many HOA’s frown upon. I also have to wonder if water sources are not being treated for mosquitoes, because any such treatments would also interfere with dragon fly populations.
Nature wants a mess, and that is something that suburbs are not known for.
I wonder if an “orderly mess” might be possible. Would the HOA tolerate it if the homedweller laid out a very tasteful stones-and-rocks-enclosed border zone in the front yard closest to the house and planted an insect-friendly weedy mess inside it?
Or.. what if a tasteful rigidly square-trimmed boxwood hedge of shoulder-height boxwood were planted around that front-of-house weedy-mess bed instead of rocks? That way, nasty neighbors looking to rat you out to the HOA might not even see the weedy mess behind the tasteful wall of rigidly square boxwood. Or privet. Or whatever makes the best opaque privacy hedge.
“The U.S. intelligence community believes the Kremlin will direct its propaganda efforts to support former President Donald Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris”
Same “intelligence community” that declared the Hunter Biden Laptop to be Russian disinformation?
A heretical thought entered my fevered brain.
What if Harris nominates H Clinton as her Vice President candidate? Then we can go all Ancient Rome we want. A Co-dominion government? How would America adapt to a Tetrarchy?
Harris will be told the name of her nominee and she’ll like it.
I guess the Russians are getting in early in influencing the US presidential election by spreading the brat (Russian for brother) theme. /s
“Britain’s Princess Anne, left, congratulates Adam Peaty, of Britain, after winning the silver medal in the men’s 100-meter breaststroke final at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, July 28, 2024, in Nanterre, France.”
This sentence clearly states that Princess Anne won the silver medal, and doesn’t make clear who this Adam Peaty fellow is or why he’s being congratulated. Maybe the WaPo editors (if any) are exhibiting post-Covid brain fog.
Maybe they were taught to read and write badly. Maybe they are just some more victims of America’s War On Reading and War On Education.
” “relating across our human differences as equals” is indeed possible withIN the same economic class.
Fred Hampton of the Black Panthers and various leaders of an equally working-class White Identity Culture Group worked on “relating across their human differences as equals” in order to co-achieve some shared common-same class-membership goals. It was fear of that “relating across our human differences as equals” within the Lower-and-Working Class which terrified the government establishment enough that the FBI carefully engineered the Fred Hampton Assassination, using a local police department as its “throwaway weapon”.
https://theconversation.com/chicago-1969-when-black-panthers-aligned-with-confederate-flag-wielding-working-class-whites-68961
Culture and Language and Religious and Ethnic and Etc. Identity is just as much a real thing as Social Class Position Identity. The Black Panthers and the Young Patriots were not just ” a bundle of two sticks bound together”.
Republican Funhouse–crypto industry buying influence . . .
This might be a good time to restate the No Crypto pledge of honor and make it more widely known.
I pledge, on my honor,
That I will never use crypto and never invest in crypto,
And that I will not tolerate those who do.
https://kitco.com/news/article/2024-07-30/sec-backtracks-crypto-securities-claims-binance-lawsuit
“… SEC is no longer asking the courts to decide on whether the tokens named in a lawsuit against the Binance cryptocurrency exchange are deemed securities.
The tokens in question, which the SEC labeled as securities in its original filing, include BNB, Binance USD (BUSD), Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), Polygon (MATIC), Cosmos (ATOM), The Sandbox (SAND), Decentraland (MANA), Axie Infinity (AXS), and Coti (COTI).
While these tokens were specifically mentioned in the lawsuit against Binance, the regulator has, through various rulings and lawsuits, identified a total of 68 cryptocurrencies they consider to be securities.
Some of the other notable names on the list include XRP, Algorand (ALGO), Telegram’s Gram (TON), Tron (TRX), BitTorrent (BTT), Chiliz (CHZ), Flow (FLOW) Internet Computer (ICP), and Near (NEAR).
It’s unclear why the SEC has sought to amend the filings, but the move comes as political pressure on the regulator regarding cryptocurrencies is on the rise amid a pro-crypto pivot by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
On Saturday, Trump vowed to end the “Democrats war on crypto” during his speech at the Bitcoin 2024 conference, and said he wants the U.S. to become the “crypto capital of the planet.”
Trump also promised to fire SEC Chair Gary Gensler on his first day in office…”
Tulips french-fried in snake oil. A trick to lure all the sheep into the Last Corral for the Last Roundup.
That could plant the seeds of a financial crash-burndown all on its own. The only ” money” keepable immune and holdable harmless from such a crash-burndown would be actual currency and coin cash money.
If crypto takes off the way the all the grooviest hippest coolest politicians want to torture the SEC into greenlighting the takeoff of, then people who never considered survivalism will have to consider it. People with enough money to be able to pre-pay all debts to zero, prepay their mortgage to zero, turn their homes and yards into fortresses of peasant survival in place, accumulate several years worth of storable-till-eaten food, etc. should go ahead and do it.
If crypto takes off as intended, the only wealth which will be sure to survive a Bonfire of the Cryptos will be real physical non-security assets . . . house/yard/food/land/tools/etc. . . . and cash money.
After that happens, the people who took the No Crypto pledge will still be able to say: Don’t blame me. I took the No Crypto pledge.
For the benefit of money hiding
There will be a bubbly time on financial trampoline
The Winklevoss will be there
Late of being an olympic rowing pair-what a scene!
Over reason and value, hype and doubters
Lastly through in lieu of real F.I.R.E.!
In this way cryptocurrency will challenge the world!
The celebrated money charade.
Performs the feat online at this date
The investors will dance and sing
As 0’s & 1’s fly through the cloud don’t be late
Cryptocaves assure the public
Their mining production is second to none
And of course Satoshi Nakomoto dances the waltz!
The price began at a few bucks-5 or 6
When Mr. Nakomoto performed his tricks without a sound
And then the market will demonstrate
Ten martingales it’ll undertake to confound & astound!
Having been some years in preparation
A bubble time is guaranteed for all
And now Bitcoin has politicians enthralled
And money hiding is topping the bill!
Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite. by the Beatles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJVWZy4QOy0
Good heavens. Now we have a kited Czech!
…I met my wife on a post dating app
Isn’t the fact that politicians are endorsing BTC the ultimate “bell ringing at the top” moment?
a COVID anecdatum:
an old friend who just turned 80 called me today to tell me she’s been diagnosed with late stage cancer–she won’t be around much longer. she says she is peaceful, hoping she will be able to hold in her hands her new novel, which is due out in september. she spoke of feeling very much in the middle of life and projects–and now suddenly not.
she was feeling completely fine at her 80th birthday party earlier in july.
she’s walked 4 and 1/2 miles daily for many years, and has taken excellent care of her health.
but she wanted to see her grandchildren, had to travel to do so, and spent time with them, knowing the risks.
she told me that her homeopathic treatment person has told her that “they are seeing a lot of this, in the last 2 years, cancers that move really fast, mostly among older people, and we don’t know what to do about them, they’re like nothing we’ve seen before,”–this would be staff talking outside their jobs at the dartmouth hitchcock medical center in lebanon, NH, where of course they do not to say such things to patients–“and that it seems clearly to be following on COVID”.
here at NC we’re aware of this phenomenon. this is the first instance of it in my very small field of connections. i am glad i was able to share some useful info with her about how to arrange for a quiet death at home at the time you choose. she was grateful.
And yet staff at DH cancer center are still not wearing masks.
Very sorry about your friend’s diagnosis.
They’re not masking at Brigham and Women’s in Boston as well.
petal, thank you.
at this point one wants to ask at exactly what hospitals in USA are staff (and of course patients) masking? i think i’ve only heard of 2 or 3.
somehow my friend’s cancer has made all this more immediate for me–thinking of all the staff at all the hospitals getting sick all the time with COVID. what dreadful scene is unfolding, will unfold, as so many will succumb to the destruction of their bodies’ systems in the coming years.
i’ve been aware of what’s going down since 2020, thanks to NC, but as i am rather isolated, and the insane, appalling silence continues to reign regarding the truth, this is the first person close to me whom i’ve known to be dying as a result of the virus.
it’s dawning on me that she won’t be the last.
i know who my friends are who’ve had COVID at least once. and the silence has persisted, as they’ve trusted the reassuring lies of omission and decided not to take full precautions prior to their infection; and the silence persists, post-infection. if/when a terminal condition emerges, one still cannot break the criminal silence but can only say “i’m so sorry this has happened to you.”
Last year a family friend who never smoked died at age 77 of lung cancer. When he got the diagnosis, his big extended family started planning for his prolonged demise, since they have lots of experience with helping relatives to their end and they knew how it would go. But it didn’t. He was dead in a month. He had been getting perfectly good medical care and had nothing known wrong with him and then in a month he was gone. He’d spent plenty of time with the grandkids, of course, since covid “just keeps getting milder” (that family’s view of covid).
I’m sorry about your friend. She should have had another six years at least, probably.
thank you kareninca.
‘Australian team chief Anna Meares told Reuters: ‘I need to emphasize that we are treating Covid no differently to other bugs like the flu.’”
So the question arises of whether she actually believes this or whether sports team management has told her to downplay the issue of Covid. If more and more Olympians had to quit their career because of long Covid, would we hear of it much? She is a retired track cyclist so would know the importance of durability in health. Saying ‘It’s just the flu, mate.’ is not going to cut it. What happens if in a few years some international athletes start suing for the loss of their careers because Covid was not taken seriously by team managers leading them to get long Covid?
So just a field report from overhead on a fire camp on the west coast.
No COVID precautions beings taken when I show up. No masks. Just a warning that COVID is high locally. And all of us confined to a building with poor air circulation. Oddly enough, now on day everyone is coughing, sneezing, and sometimes missing shifts. I’m now on my 3rd shift working with fever, chills, and ache.
I’m fairly certain this is the approach taken across all teams at the moment. Meanwhile every IMT team is in the field or on mandatory R&R and multiple requests for staffing and resources go unfilled on almost every fire everyday. It’s not even August (yet) and it feels like we already burned out our fire resources.
Fire conditions are only set to worsen for the next two months. Prepare accordingly.
Sorry to hear this. This a is very ‘Jackpot’ comment
I’m sorry that you’ve come down with it, and sorry that it is spreading.
MT_Wild, i am sorry for your illness.
i hope you recover soon.
thank you for this update, it is very helpful.
sounds like here in the northeast the smoke will be settling in before very long.
take care of yourself as best as you can.
“I haven’t heard the Trilateral Commission mentioned in a dog’s age!”
I hadn’t until the last couple of months when it came out that while he was a member of Corbyn’s shadow cabinet in 2018, Keir Starmer joined the trilateral commission. He joined in secret, as he (correctly) thought Corbyn would have blocked it.
https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmer-joined-secretive-cia-linked-group-while-serving-in-corbyns-shadow-cabinet/
Isn’t goat the slag? Like, Kamala dunking on Trump is the goat. Or maybe we’ve moved past that now. I can’t keep up.
No. This is a terrible example.
Just hop on LinkedIn and see the number, they might have stopped showing it, of applications for software development jobs. Any given role will have 200+ or more applications, within minutes of it opening. This is not an exaggeration.
And tech hiring has been in a technical recession for the past 2.5 years.
However difficult it might have been to break into tech before, good luck with that today. Seriously. Your best bet is to hire someone in the Philippines or India to mass apply on your behalf, with a spreadsheet or tracking board to monitor their progress, or pay for an automated service that sprays applications automatically. Unless you’re some kind of flaming networking extrovert with loads of interpersonal connections, yeah, good luck.
Yeah, you can try to swing it by volunteering for some Open Source project for a year, or doing group programming projects with a volunteer organization like Chingu — which is great, by the way, and free — but that’s a difficult slog.
This isn’t, maybe I should build flexibility by stretching before bedtime procrastination. Trying to break into paid software development is an all consuming, singular focus gig.
Liberal Democrat admonitions to “learn to code” were always vacuous sophistry.
I’ve been more or less tech adjacent or in the field since the 90s and I concur with your assessment.
Your idea of outsourcing your own job search is a good one.
Then there are the moral and ethical issues of working for big tech. Small shop IT still exists, but you need to look outside the box, like non-profits, startups, etc.
Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh killed at his residence in Tehran, says Iran.
https://twitter.com/IndiaTodayNE/status/1818492766697193496
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/california-covid-cases-rising-19605270.php
You just gotta love the headline: California is still getting crushed by COVID. When will it end?
The answer is it will never end. But then again as someone who is still masking with an N95 when going out, admittedly there’s some silver linings to our current situation. Remember the VA study that said that people who are infected with Covid 19 for a second time are at a higher risk of death? Well given that so many people are already in their 4th, 5th, 6th infections, and the risk has moved to getting Long Covid after a 3rd infection, it’s safe to say that study should not have gotten through the peer review process, let alone made it to the Nature Medicine journal.
So the Democrats and all their cheerleaders have a new idea. It’s to endlessly and very repetitively call Trump, MAGA, Vance etc “weird”.
It is already incredibly annoying.
Yeah, Lambert looked at this in his recent post on “snark”, I.e., it’s another form of it, passing judgment without any explanation, depth, criteria, or offer of any policy alternatives, etc.
There’s something a bit Scooby-Doo-esque about calling everything you don’t like “weird”. Interesting to see whether it really gets any traction, as this has been a perfectly serviceable word already in circulation for a long time.
And while we’re on the subject, my impression has been that the conservatives have been more capable (and funnier) when it comes to meme warfare.
I agree with all you say Acacia.
There does seem to have been a change over the last 5 years – my memory is of a past where the left, even the center, was much funnier than the right. These days the online left is harpy and predictable and the centrists have no humour that translates to normal people. The right, finally, have some good jokes.
I don’t think the weird thing will get traction beyond the khive echo chamber
Interesting, the latest RCP map flipped MI to the Dems, on the strength of a new Bloomberg poll that has Harris up by 11 percent. There have been other polls like this, of course (eg recent Rasmusen poll that had Trump up by 7%). But stuff like these make you wonder, wth have these pollsters been talking to and, if they stratified the sample, what the raw numbers were like…
“Brat” is definitely not obsolete yet. But if the K-Hive keeps on like this, maybe it will be soon
What I remember about N95 expiry is the part that fails is nose foams disintegrating. CDC report from 2021:
https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npptl/respirators/testing/ExpiredN95results.html
It wouldn’t surprise me if the elastic straps get old and crumbly too, but since those straps snap off of new masks all the time, most of us mask users are by now proficient at fixing them with hot glue. I haven’t had issues with nose foam but I expect that can be fixed by similar methods.
old compression fractures in my back woke me at 2am…so i went awanderin:
https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/07/30/cia-assassination-putin-russia-kgb-fsb/
just imagine if some person in the russian version of think tank land had said this regarding anyone in the West of any import….
I can’t access that but it’s good to know that you can cope with the old compression fractures. Mine are about four years old but am resigned to living with them. Don’t need any 20 Y. O. docs putting legos in my spine.
20 years of vicodin…with a drug holiday every 3 or 4 years to reset the receptors so’s i dont have to move up the ladder to oxy….and a lot of weed.
plus bruxist tenacity and learning how to pace myself.
mine are likely from carrying feedsacks and hay bales.
(“they broke their backs lifting Moloch to heaven…”)
Regarding COVID and the Olympic swim team: oh well, after all that effort to avoid it. From https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/35830851/ncaa-swimming-championships-virginia-women-dominance :
When I see photos of the team, the coaches are often wearing masks. The swimmers aren’t because I guess masks aren’t great underwater, especially when racing.
Perhaps Olympians whose careers are damaged by COVID sequelae will become spokespersons for the value of NPIs.
People are just commodities, from the perspective of “the system” (including, I suspect, “the Olympic system”). But individuals still have agency, and some individuals are public spirited. Perhaps some of these public-spirited career-ended Olympians will leverage their loss for the good of their fellow humans.
I have a question that doesn’t really pertain to any thread or article. A week or two ago, I remember seeing a post about a scandal at the German version of CDC and how they were tailoring information based on the political whims of the ruling party. I’ve searched all the posts for the past two weeks and can’t find it. Am I crazy? Did I dream it? Does anyone else remember seeing it?
There’s an interaction further up this page between AG and Lambert about the RKI which I’m pretty sure is what you’re referring to. In Lambert’s words “it’s coming”
It was in the RSS feed but when I went to read it it had gone. I assume it was posted prematurely. I think it is the one Lambert up-thread says is coming.
Foreign Malign Influence Center. Sounds like a broad, not redundant at all thinking tank to think how things should be, or even must be, conveyed to the sheeple. I can’t even…
Hypothetical headlines include…
“Trump years awful with lower inflation”
“Biden years tremendous and consequential, higher inflation a fever dream of Republicans”
“COVID solved and pandemic ended under Biden, Wallensky and Cohen”
I can spin yarns around too. The ministry of truthiness will endure, it must ! \sarc
Re: N95 expiration,
It is very encouraging that the filtration efficiency is basically unimpaired after prolonged storage.
I think that a more significant problem in old masks might be the elasticity of the straps. I recall an old story from 2020 that part of the serious problem of the then PPE shortages (which led to the “noble lie” that the general public had little to gain by using respirators, masks or “face coverings”, which may have contributed to the present unfolding disaster) was that the national pandemic emergency stockpile of N95s was old and the straps had dry-rotted or otherwise become ineffective at maintaining an adequate seal. (It suggests a systems failure that this inventory was not maintained by periodic assessment of device efficacy and rotation/replenishment of “expired” stock).
I’ve noticed that some models of the excellent 3M Aura series of N95 respirators tend to fail at the strap long before the filter material is likely to have become ineffective due to repeated use. The 9205+, in particular, uses rubber bands as the straps and, in my experience, this snaps after a few donnings. The 9210+ uses an elastic cloth strap which does relax with prolonged or repeated use, but has never yet failed completely in my experience (even after dozens of donnings of old masks that I use for dust protection during yard-work; the nose bridge seal foam delaminates first due to perspiration, but even that takes hours and hours of use, at which point the device is so wet that it probably is ineffective at filtering anyway).
(As an aside, it may be that this tendency of the 9205+ strap to fail, limiting its repeated use, is behind the deep discount, ~80+%, of this mask from some Amazon sellers. I suspect that DIYers could hack the tri-fold filter part of the device using hook-and-loop type closures to extend the life of this device under repeated use.)
“Strap failure” on 9205 is not a new issue; here’s a “citizen science” discussion of how much protection one loses if a strap breaks in use — TL;DL, the filtration efficacy falls to “baggy blue” level) .
Poking around further the same guy does an experiment on 9205+ filtration quality with the head-straps hacked into ear loops. He advises not to try this at home without fit-testing gear to confirm that you are not endangering yourself.
He notes that face shape matters a great deal to how well respirators fit.
He suggests that with good quality fit-testing, earloop-hacked Auras can greatly outperform KF94.
His channel might be worth exploring