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2:00PM Water Cooler 9/11/2024

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* * *

Patient readers, plenty more on the debate shortly. –lambert

Bird Song of the Day

Gray Catbird, Sapsucker Woods, Tompkins, New York, United States.

* * *

In Case You Might Miss…

  1. Kamala’s earrings.
  2. About those cats… .
  3. Do Covid tests work for the latest variants? Not immediately.
  4. Boeing should be kicked out of the Dow.

* * *

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:

I would say the bloom is off the rose for Harris, except for an upward blip in Georgia. Looks like the enormous liberalgasm afte the Convention was confined to party loyalists. The Kamala campaign must be sore as boils Trump is within striking distance, let alone tied with them. What could account for it? Perhaps that’s why the pivot to RussiaGate. Remember, however, that all the fluctuations — in fact, all the leads, top to bottom — are within the margin of error.

* * *

The Debate

Lambert here: Thanks to the Naked Capitalism commentariat for their remarkably level-headed reactions during the debate live blog yesterday. –lambert

“Some undecided voters not convinced by Harris after debate with Trump” [Reuters]. “Reuters interviewed 10 people who were still unsure how they were going to vote in the Nov. 5 election before they watched the debate. Six said afterward they would now either vote for Trump or were leaning toward backing him. Three said they would now back Harris and one was still unsure how he would vote. Harris and Trump are in a tight race and the election will likely be decided by just tens of thousands of votes in a handful of battleground states, many of whom are swing voters like the undecided voters who spoke to Reuters.

Although the sample size was small, the responses suggested Harris might need to provide more detailed policy proposals to win over voters who have yet to make up their minds. Five said they found Harris vague during the more than 90-minute debate on how she would improve the U.S. economy and deal with the high cost of living, a top concern for voters.” • Recall yesterday that debate viewers felt that Trump did better on the economy. I’m betting that outweighs Kamala doing better on abortion.

OG Frank Luntz has some interesting things to say:

And:

Kamala’s on-screen reactions were smug, smirking, and contemptuous throughout. Reporter Jane O’Reilly once remarked that “George Bush reminds every woman of her first husband.” Perhaps Kamala Harris reminds every man of his first wife?

* * *

Kamala (D): “Did Kamala Harris wear earpiece during debate with Donald Trump? What we know” [India Today]. “Many social media users claimed that the pearl earrings Kamal Harris wore were actually an audio earpiece, and she was being fed answers during the debate [,] a set of Nova H1 Audio Earrings, created by German startup NOVA Products…. However, some users highlighted that Kamala Harris was wearing a pair of Double Pearl Hinged Earrings from Tiffany & Co, which she has worn frequently…. After the 2020 presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, a similar claim circulated on social media, alleging that Biden wore a hidden earpiece.” • I’m so old I remember the same claim being made online about George W. Bush, who was said to be wearing a receiving device + antenna under his jacket (based on photos of lumps under his jacket). Big if true, but also a hardy perennial.

Kamala (D): “Trump’s Improv Stood No Chance Against Harris’ Coached Attacks” [Politico]. “ice President Kamala Harris did exactly what the political professionals said she should do. In some cases, that was what operatives would tell any candidate to do in any election at any time: Don’t worry about the specific question you are asked, just use it as another opportunity to recite the lines we practiced.” Highlighted in blue, below. More: “She plainly used her long days of debate prep in a Pittsburgh hotel to compile a rich anthology of taunts, putdowns and derisive one-liners against former President Donald Trump. The rehearsal was enough to commit dozens of them to memory — not enough to avoid sometimes sounding a bit stagy in delivery. At times, one could almost see the candidate flipping through a stack of neatly organized 3-by-5 index cards in her mind.” • Such an improvemnt over Biden!

Kamala (D): “How Harris Roped a Dope” [David Frum, The Atlantic]. We don’t actually know the result of the bout until we have polling, and perhaps not even then (the polls not being granular enough). More: “Harris’s debate prep seemed to have concentrated on psychology as much as on policy. She drove Trump and trapped him and baited him—and it worked every time.” • As do all Democrats, it would seem, reading the rest of the piece. Honestly, it’s like high school.

* * *

Trump (R): “READ: Harris-Trump presidential debate transcript” [ABC]. Quite different from viewing. I wanted to see how often former prosecutor Kamala used the word “felon,” but only “felony” comes up. I’ve helpfully added color coding: Yellow in usual sense of highlighting, Blue for canned phrases strung together, Green for oddities:

In my view, Kamala doesn’t go into word salad mode, and Trump doesn’t riff jazzily; this is probably as sharp an exchange as there was. Notes:

[1] Huh?

[2] Trump educates his audience by defining and using “weaponization.”

[3] Lawfare, at least in this debate, seems to have yielded remarkably little campaign fodder; Harris is not using “felon” at every turn. Perhaps the real advantages of lawfare were indeed political: Sucking up the campaign’s resources, including the most important resource of all, the candidate’s time.

[4] Kamala educates her voters by mistating the decision (and I don’t say is a good decision, but let’s at least get it right). Trivially, Trump vs. United States applies to all Presidents, not just Trump “if he enters the White House again.” Second, the decision does not make a President “essentially … immunue from any misconduct” (rather, charges of any misconduct), unless “essentially” is doing far more work than a mere adverb should ever be called upon to do; see SCOTUSblog, “Justices rule Trump has some immunity from prosecution” (emphasis mine). Third, the case would never have reached the Court had it not been for the Democrats lawfare strategy, which forced the issue. FAFO.

[5] I haven’t had time to run down that “quote,” “terminate.” Very often, Trump is misquoted by his opponents, so a hermenetic of suspicion applies.

[6] “That he would” exhibits a strategy Democrats often use: Something that might happen in the future is given equal weight to something that has already happened in the past.

[7] “Probably took a bullet to the head” will no doubt be regarded by Trump voters as a zinger (and to my mind, Trump has been remarkably restrained in deploying it). Neither Kamala nor the moderators respond, interestingly.

[8] Trump is, in fact, correct here. Had RussiaGate been anything like real, he surely would have been prosecuted for it, given the Democrat lawfare strategy.

Trump (R): “Trump pushes baseless claim about immigrants ‘eating the pets'” [NBC]. “David Muir, the ABC News anchor co-moderating the debate, immediately fact-checked Trump’s claims, saying that the city manager in Springfield, Ohio, told the network there had been no credible reports of pets being harmed, injured or abused by people in the city’s immigrant community Baseless rumors have spread on social media for days claiming that Haitian immigrants in Ohio are abducting and eating pets. Most of the rumors involve Springfield, which has a large number of Haitian immigrants, but police there released a statement Monday knocking down the stories and saying they hadn’t seen any documented examples. ‘There have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community,’ the police said in a statement.” • Well… I’ve questioned what the local police had to say in Charleston, SC when they claimed a Boeing whistleblower committed suicide. So I’m not sure that NBC’s “we called the cops, and they said nah” is dispositive here. I also note that “no credible reports” means there have, in fact, been reports. Worth noting that Springfield-adjacent locals believe the stories (some of them because of missionary work in Haiti). For example:

Note that I regard claims from pastors and missionaries as being exactly as credible as claims from cops. Just because this looks like an overheated claim from the right-wing fever swamp doesn’t mean it actually is. What is needed is reporting on the ground; perhaps there will be some in the coming days.

“No Evidence Haitian Immigrants Are Eating Ducks, Geese or Pets in Springfield, Ohio” [Snopes]. The conclusion: “There is no evidence, outside of second- and third-hand social media gossip, to support the notion that Haitian residents of Springfield, Ohio, are eating people’s pet cats or their parks’ waterfowl. The only alleged evidence in support of the former actually depicts an American in a different city. The alleged evidence of the latter stems from a single picture apparently taken in a different city. For these reasons, and because Springfield officials deny the validity of such reports, the claim is ‘Unfounded.'” More interestingly: “Since 2020, Springfield, Ohio, has seen a dramatic rise in immigrants from Haiti. City officials estimate, according to The New York Times, that as many as 20,000 Haitians had arrived in the small town in 2024 since the onset of the pandemic. Thanks to the availability of jobs, Springfield became a hot spot for Haitian immigrants around that time, according to reporting in NPR. According to The New York Times, the arrival of several manufacturing plants or corporations between 2017 and 2020 created a surplus of jobs. A lack of local labor created a deficit of workers, and word spread among the Haitian community that work could be found in the town, per the Times…. Many young, working-age people [from Springfield] had descended into addiction.” As if “deaths of despair” were some sort of natural force. More: “Others shunned entry-level, rote work altogether, employers said. Haitians who heard that the Springfield area boasted well-paying, blue-collar jobs and a low cost of living poured in, and employers were eager to hire and train the new work force.” • I’ll bet they were! The Snopes story doesn’t mention Springfield’s population: Wikipedia says 58,662, and that “A 27% decrease in median income between 1999 and 2014 was the largest of any metropolitan area in the country.” A sudden influx of 20,000 people would be a lot under any circumstances, and it looks like Springfield isn’t getting any help at all dealing with the resulting friction. If I were a long-time Springfield resident who saw (deplorable) family members taken down by the Sackler’s Oxycontin because there was no work and no future, and then when the future appeared, they were in no position (like six feet under) to take advantage of it, you can bet I’d be ticked off, and that’s without race even entering the picture. Meanwhile, the area employers are pleased as punch with their new, imported docile workforce — a very familiar story in America — so you can see why the cops would follow their cue. So, and very unsurprisingly, class enters, neither candidate mentions it, and “cat-eating immigrants” becomes the trope under whose aegis the entire situation is placed. Well done, all. Oh, and on the employers:

“I wish I had 30 more.”

Trump (R): World class trolling:

For those who came in late, the Four Seasons Total Landscaping debacle in 2020.

* * *

The Trail

Kamala (D): Taylor Swift Endorses Kamala Harris: ‘I’ve Done My Research, and I’ve Made My Choice'” [Hollywood Reporter]. The deck: “The superspreading songwriting billionaire superstar took to Instagram following Tuesday night’s debate to give Vice President Kamala Harris her highly influential endorsement, signing off her lengthy post, ‘With love and hope, Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady.'”

Democrats en Déshabillé

“Texas Candidate Smokes Bong In Campaign Ad” [International Business Times]. • Good for her!

Realignment and Legitimacy

Double-think, but exponential:

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!

* * *

Airborne Transmission

Vaccines: Covid

Having fought its way through the FDA, non-mRNA Novavax now has to fight the PBMs?

Testing and Tracking: Covid

“Do Covid Tests Work for Latest Variants? Yes, With Some Big Caveats” [Bloomberg]. ” I started to wonder: Are home Covid tests bad at detecting the latest variants? The short answer is no, the doctors I spoke with told me. But that answer comes with a big caveat. It turns out the way the immune system interacts with the virus these days means home tests may not turn positive until several days after you get sick. ‘That first negative test doesn’t mean you don’t have Covid,’ says Elizabeth Hudson, regional chief of infectious diseases at Southern California Permanente Medical Group. ‘We really noticed it earlier this year.’ Now, it can take several days for people with symptoms like mine to get a positive result from a home test, she says.

Here’s why: While gold-standard PCR assays detect minute quantities of virus, home antigen tests require a larger amount to turn positive. Early in the pandemic, viral levels peaked when symptoms appeared, says Nira Pollock, co-director of the Infectious Diseases Diagnostic Laboratory at Boston Children’s Hospital. But now that most people have at least some immunity, viral load peaks later…. In a study of 348 people with Covid that Pollock and her colleagues published last year, median viral load didn’t crest until around the fourth day of symptoms. The study estimated that home antigen tests would only detect around 30% to 60% of cases on the first day of symptoms, rising to 80% to 93% of cases on day four. In other words, there are lots of false negative tests early in the illness.” • So by all means keep going to work or school at the first sign of symptoms!

Elite Maleficence

“Zero-covid advocacy during the COVID-19 pandemic: a case study of views on Twitter/X” [Monash Bioethics Review]. From the Abstract: “The advocacy, although timely and informative, often appealed to emotions and values using anecdotes and strong criticism of authorities and other scientists.” The idea! Here is a brutal takedown of this paper, which will probably get a lot of traction because this is the stupidest timeline. Here is an entertainingly brutal takedown:

And more. Much more.

Social Norming

Propaganda works:

“Stupid”:

Sobriety vs. normalization and denial:

Perceptive. I am sympathetic to this view. However, in my view sobriety also demands restraining judgment over one’s fellows (“There but for the grace of God go I”) and this view comes perilously close to creating a two-tier society of the elect and the damned; something I tend to do myself! One of the great things about A.A. is that it created a method for sobriety that at least many have been able to travel; it’s a big ask, but the Covid Conscious community has not done that.

* * *

TABLE 1: Daily Covid Charts

Wastewater
This week[1] CDC August 27 Last Week[2] CDC (until next week):

Variants [3] CDC August 31 Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC August 31

Hospitalization
★ New York[5] New York State, data September 10: National [6] CDC August 17:

Positivity
National[7] Walgreens September 9: Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic August 24:

Travelers Data
Positivity[9] CDC August 19: Variants[10] CDC August 19:

Deaths
Weekly Deaths vs. % Positivity [11]CDC August 31: Weekly Deaths vs. ED Visits [12]CDC August 31:

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. NOTE The date seems to be wrong, but the number of sites has changed so this is new.

[2] (CDC) Last week’s wastewater map.

[3] (CDC Variants) KP.* very popular. XDV.1 flat.

[4] (ED) Down, but worth noting that Emergency Department use is now on a par with the first wave, in 2020.

[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Definitely down.

[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). The visualization suppresses what is, in percentage terms, a significant increase.

[7] (Walgreens) Big drop continues!

[8] (Cleveland) Dropping.

[9] (Travelers: Positivity) Down. 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 range. 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) What the heck is LB.1?

[11] Deaths low, but positivity up.

[12] Deaths low, ED up.

Stats Watch

Inflation: “United States Consumer Price Index (CPI)” [Trading Economics]. “Consumer Price Index CPI in the United States increased to 314.80 points in August from 314.54 points in July of 2024. Consumer Price Index CPI in the United States averaged 124.59 points from 1950 until 2024, reaching an all time high of 314.80 points in August of 2024 and a record low of 23.50 points in February of 1950.”

* * *

Tech: “Google will now link to The Internet Archive to add more context to Search results” [9to5 Google]. “Google has partnered with The Internet Archive, a non-profit research library that, in part, stores and preserves massive portions of the web to be easily referenced later. This is done through the ‘Wayback Machine’ which can show a website or specific page as it existed on a previous date. Through this new partnership, Google will link directly to The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine for pages that you find in Search.”

Tech: Innovation:

Manufacturing: “Boeing should be kicked out of the Dow” [CNN]. “It’s a legitimate question if the aircraft maker still belongs in the blue-chip index. And it’s a question with only one correct answer: No. ‘If you want bellwether, strong balance sheet companies, they don’t check those boxes any longer,’ said Ron Epstein, aerospace analyst for Bank of America. ‘I don’t think Boeing has to be there.’… There are many problems at Boeing that make its continued presence in the index perplexing…. It hasn’t reported an annual profit since 2018… the company has become the subject of numerous federal investigations, as more than a dozen whistleblowers have come forward to warn of a company culture that put a failed attempt at profitability ahead of the quality and safety of its planes…. Its credit rating has fallen to the lowest rung of what is considered “investment grade” debt, and indications are that sometime relatively soon it will fall into junk bond status… ‘If not an albatross, it’s at least an anchor,’ said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist for CFRA Research.” • Ouch!

Manufacturing: “Starliner Suffers New Problems While Coming Back To Earth” [Futurism]. The deck: “We would not be surprised if Boeing were to divest the manned spaceflight business.” More: “On the one hand, according to NASA’s commercial crew program manager Steve Stich, it pulled off a ‘bullseye landing.’ On the other, the agency admitted that a new thruster had failed during its descent. The capsule also experienced a temporary blackout of Starliner’s guidance system during reentry. It’s an awkward situation for the space agency: would Starliner have been able to ferry NASA’s missing crew members in the end?”

* * *

Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 40 Fear (previous close: 39 Fear) [CNN]. One week ago: 49 (Neutral). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Sep 11 at 1:51:10 PM ET.

Food

To me, food is for buying, not cooking, but this does look easy and fun:

Gallery

Key word being “effect”:

I believe I saw this painting years ago at the Boston MFA. Putting my eye up close to the paint, I saw no white; the effect of white was created by the juxtapostion of other colors.

News of the Wired

Who among us….

* * *

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 SR:

SR writes: “Blooming atop the gigantic cinder cone at Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho: rabbit brush (a member of the aster family).”

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About Lambert Strether

Readers, I have had a correspondent characterize my views as realistic cynical. Let me briefly explain them. I believe in universal programs that provide concrete material benefits, especially to the working class. Medicare for All is the prime example, but tuition-free college and a Post Office Bank also fall under this heading. So do a Jobs Guarantee and a Debt Jubilee. Clearly, neither liberal Democrats nor conservative Republicans can deliver on such programs, because the two are different flavors of neoliberalism (“Because markets”). I don’t much care about the “ism” that delivers the benefits, although whichever one does have to put common humanity first, as opposed to markets. Could be a second FDR saving capitalism, democratic socialism leashing and collaring it, or communism razing it. I don’t much care, as long as the benefits are delivered. To me, the key issue — and this is why Medicare for All is always first with me — is the tens of thousands of excess “deaths from despair,” as described by the Case-Deaton study, and other recent studies. That enormous body count makes Medicare for All, at the very least, a moral and strategic imperative. And that level of suffering and organic damage makes the concerns of identity politics — even the worthy fight to help the refugees Bush, Obama, and Clinton’s wars created — bright shiny objects by comparison. Hence my frustration with the news flow — currently in my view the swirling intersection of two, separate Shock Doctrine campaigns, one by the Administration, and the other by out-of-power liberals and their allies in the State and in the press — a news flow that constantly forces me to focus on matters that I regard as of secondary importance to the excess deaths. What kind of political economy is it that halts or even reverses the increases in life expectancy that civilized societies have achieved? I am also very hopeful that the continuing destruction of both party establishments will open the space for voices supporting programs similar to those I have listed; let’s call such voices “the left.” Volatility creates opportunity, especially if the Democrat establishment, which puts markets first and opposes all such programs, isn’t allowed to get back into the saddle. Eyes on the prize! I love the tactical level, and secretly love even the horse race, since I’ve been blogging about it daily for fourteen years, but everything I write has this perspective at the back of it.

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42 comments

  2. Tertium Squid

    1. Trump’s makeup artist should have a statue in their honor. He looked younger than Walz.
    2. Trump is a consummate entertainer, but not a versatile one and it’s clear that he is predictable. ABC prep people guessed he would bring up “cat food,” of all things, and they were ready for it.
    3. Trump helped Harris by giving her such a low bar to get over. She just didn’t have to look like a stupid person.
    4. We already knew that Trump CAN speak in complete sentences, and now we know Harris can as well.
    5. Whining about the refs is something losers do. Democrats are ebullient and Republicans are coping hard. But none of them are undecided, so…

    Reply ↓
    1. pjay

      Re whining about the refs: I absolutely think Trump’s use of right-wing fear-mongering BS should be called out. But of course the “fact checking” was one-sided. The moderators’ actual interest in “objectivity” was demonstrated in asking Trump if he “wanted Russia to win” in Ukraine – twice. It was a pre-planned trap question. Though Trump did try to avoid the trap by answering that he wanted to end the fighting, he of course could not respond truthfully – that Ukraine could not “win,” that the US wanted the war to continue and sabotaged earlier peace efforts, that the US/NATO “provoked” the invasion, etc. Rather, he gave a “weak,” “pro-Putin” response which fit the narrative about Trump (I’ve seen this description of Trump’s answer in the media more than once).

      In terms of a lie with potentially disastrous global consequences, I’d say Harris’ suggestion that Putin wants a reverse Operation Barbarossa through Europe is infinitely worse that Trump’s pet-eating immigrants. I’d sure like to see the “moderators” call that one out. Maybe the Grayzone guys can host the next debate.

      Reply ↓
      2. Tertium Squid

        That the pet thing isn’t so bad just shows a certain amount of progress our society has made over the centuries. A rumor like that in 1550 could have resulted in a bunch of dead Jews, and in 1850 a bunch of dead slaves. Now it’s just “weird”.

        Reply ↓
        1. hk

          Certainly, (probably) fictitious dead pets are far more important than a milliion real dead Slavs and Semites in Ukraine and Palestine, right? Some progress. (apologies for the harsh language).

          Reply ↓
          1. Tertium Squid

            Interesting, but I don’t think that will make people feel bad that they’re avoiding pogroms in in their neighborhoods, or that the cats of America are actually okay.

            Reply ↓
    2. urdsama

      As to point 5, why give someone you hate (ABC’s attitude towards Trump) more ammo? It was such a blatant bad faith display that it goes beyond the trite “only losers whine about the refs” attitude.

      Reply ↓
      1. Carolinian

        I didn’t watch but endorse your point. There’s no excuse for our current MSM.

        There used to be something called The Fairness Doctrine that said companies that enjoy the limited franchise of the public airwaves have to be even handed–especially when it comes to our politics. It’s true that not many people still watch over the air TV, but being one of those broadcasters still gives ABC a lot more reach than some internet site. After all they just hosted the likely only debate.

        Reply ↓
      2. Tertium Squid

        If he knew he had a hostile moderator it would have benefited him to be more circumspect. No one made him bring up Haitians eating cats. That’s an own-goal, period, and to your point I agree ABC didn’t hurt him any worse by debunking it live.

        Reply ↓
    3. IM Doc

      Again, FWIW, interesting day in the doctor’s lounge today. Most everyone had seen at least parts of the debate or certainly the highlight reel this AM. Including myself, there are 3 MDs that I know of that are what would be called undecided. All 3 of us are Dems. All 3 of us no longer all that interested in the PMC neoliberal totalitarian approach. All 3 of us really not into Donald Trump. It became immediately apparent during lunch today that the other two have decided to or are leaning heavily in voting for Trump. I know that is certainly where I am as well.

      I do recall in 2016 how the media went on for days about how Hillary had just humiliated Trump after each of their debates. We all know how that ended. It is becoming increasingly apparent that these debates are becoming increasingly meaningless.

      And I think something very important is being overlooked. The undecideds seem to have not been assuaged too much with the Kamala performance last night. Of course, the neoliberal partisans are in heaven today – but that is not where the election will be won.

      Reply ↓
    1. .Tom

      And member the time Sarah Palin had notes written on the palm of her hand? Radio controlled debate puppetry is lame and cheating but I don’t have a problem with notes. Take a binder with you if it helps. I don’t care.

      Reply ↓
  6. Mark Gisleson

    I don’t use Google but it’s always been my understanding that Yandex is just Google plus more pages from non-English speaking countries. I’ve been pulling up Internet Archive links alongside Bandcamp and Deezer search results for at least a month.

    Reply ↓
  7. Cat Burglar

    It was difficult getting a Novavax shot last year, too.

    You had to call the pharmacy and talk to a staff member to check if they had a supply and then schedule — online scheduling was not possible. According to the pharmacist, they only order a limited supply (so it is key to check on availability), and they only thaw out enough doses for the scheduled vaccinations (which is why you can’t do a walk-in).

    When dealing with the pharmacy phone system, just go right to the “talk to a pharmacist” selection, or you will not get an appointment. I had luck at CVS (and a 260-mile round trip drive), but a friend got it at Costco.It was a crazy experience with a lot of false starts, just to get vaccinated — you can’t really call it a system, just a dysfuctional provision of services, and it is not made with you in mind.

    Reply ↓
    1. B Flat

      Last year, CVS website stated Novavax was available at my local CVS in NYC but that turned out not to be the case. They sent me to another CVS, but that also didn’t have Novavax. I finally succeeded in getting it at a small independent pharmacy, so when this year’s supply comes in I know where to go.

      Reply ↓
      1. Cat Burglar

        We had that problem, too. As the pharmacists explained it, they are just sent a batch, without regard to their requests. When it runs out, that’s it, until the next batch is sent to them. The decisions are being made somewhere higher up in the organization.

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    2. steppenwolf fetchit

      It almost seems designed to stop you from getting Novavax, and to herd you into getting an mRNA para-vaccinoid instead . . . doesn’t it?

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  8. Rick

    On Conor Browne’s analogy, I appreciate the point of non-judgement. Another aspect of AA/AlAnon is the idea that change has to come from within, not from external sources.

    Not sure how either of these ideas translate to our lived world, but I do think the ideas are worth thinking about. The denial and minimization runs deep in people’s souls, as does the urge to judge and change people.

    Problem is, our entire society is being harmed by the behavior, not just individual lives (as bad as that is). Unfortunately it really is our monkeys and our circus.

    I could sure use a new ‘timeline’ about now.

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  9. Dezert Dog

    its always nice to see the rabbitbrush but….. it is a reminder to get out the winter gear because it always snows on the rabbitbrush.

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  10. Carolinian

    So it’s Genocide Taylor now? Hope her cats get better treatment than the Gazans.

    Perhaps she can have the Cheneys over for brunch.

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  11. Samuel Conner

    > and this view comes perilously close to creating a two-tier society of the elect and the damned; something I tend to do myself!

    I am troubled by this thought. But the thought also occurs that, however I think about it, there really is a kind of “two-tiered” society. One “tier” really would like to not become debilitated and/or die prematurely and is willing to exert itself toward that end. Another “tier” really doesn’t want to be inconvenienced by the precautions required to significantly delay debilitation and/or premature death.

    I don’t like it, but I didn’t create it and I don’t want to join the other tier for the sake of whatever (perhaps temporary) benefits would accrue to me for joining it.

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  12. griffen

    Innovation and who would do such a thing…South Park had it covered. Hilarious, the high jinks of at the time Steve Jobs pointing the finest print on the consent and agreement information for each user. Best read every line, dear user of Apple products! \sarc

    It is a “funny” send up of an awful by all counts horror movie.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HumancentiPad

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  13. Lambert Strether Post author

    Patient readers, I have added a lot of debate material, much more orty and scrappy than usual. Some of it (Springfield especially) called for actual research, today is more like a series of short posts than usual. Enjoy.

    P.S. The portion of the transcript I marked up may have been early, but it seemed much more structured than the usual Trump presentation, making me wonder if a lot of the reaction about how chaotic and off-balance he was — due to Kamala’s clever jabs — was (also) canned.

    P.P.S. There’s a lot of material I couldn’t get to; Ukraine and election 2020 especially, and an examination of what Kamala’s policies really are (small ball at best, I would say). Perhaps tomorrow. I would want to understand her views, if any, on antitrust, because that’s one of the few good things the Biden administration has done.

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  15. steppenwolf fetchit

    . . . ” Perceptive. I am sympathetic to this view. However, in my view sobriety also demands restraining judgment over one’s fellows (“There but for the grace of God go I”) and this view comes perilously close to creating a two-tier society of the elect and the damned; something I tend to do myself! One of the great things about A.A. is that it created a method for sobriety that at least many have been able to travel; it’s a big ask, but the Covid Conscious community has not done that. ” . . .

    I am even closer to the vision of the elect versus the damned than you are, as you have probably gathered from past comments of mine. On the one hand, I agree with you that it isn’t very nice, and the Covid Conscious community should try to be prepared to do what you suggest.

    On the other hand, alchoholism is not contagious and/or infectious the way covid is. You can’t get alcoholism just by breathing the stale alcohol-filled air in a room full of drunken alcoholics. And there is no risk of a drunken rock concert being a superspreader event for alcoholism.

    But covid is contagious and infectious. That means that the Covid Conscious have to protect their own biological selves and their own biological survival against an Establishment still applying Weaponised Denial Management and against that Establishment’s active and passive personal covid-spreading supporters. If you want to be a helper, you have to stay healthy enough to actually be able to help. So the Covid Conscious will have to help eachother help eachother stay safe from covid infection long enough to even be able to solve the problem of how to reach out to the currently Covid Denialist and welcome them over to the ranks of the Covid Conscious.

    And to put it more harshly, I agree with Samuel Conner above. And I would put it even more harshly than that. I will not permit the Typhoid Mary Covid-Leper health-eating zombies who walk among us and rule over us to force their disease upon me.

    In that vein, I can think of an effective chantable slogan for Covid Conscious protest-demonstrations.

    “You! Will Not! in-FECT US!” ( exactly rhythm-scans with ” You! Will Not! re-PLACE US!” ).

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  16. Christopher Smith

    Re: the debate

    I say Harris won on the grounds that she did a better job of sticking to canned answers (which sometimes addressed the questions) and scripted attacks. I was amazed by Trump’s complete lack of discipline and inability to resist being goaded into saying stupid stuff. IMO he could have won if he had let the personal stuff go and stayed on the attack, especially with substantive material. I am actually suprised that his lack of discipline was so atrocious that it suprised me.

    Also, my understanding is that cats taste awful and that they are absolutely the last thing anyone is going to eat.

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    1. Lee

      My guess is that she gets infusions of the currently effective prophylactic monoclonal antibody Pemgarda (Pemivibart) that makes one essentially immune to Covid for a period of several months at a time.

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  18. JM

    Threadreader link for the Zero-Covid Advocacy study takedown, for those of us without a Twitter/X account: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1833520700898086977.html

    Same for the Pommes Anna thread, since that looks tasty: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1833601623211250090.html

    I’m roughly in line with steppenwolf fetchit and Samuel Conner, on the addiction analogy for COVID denial. Though I don’t know that it necessitates judgment on the person. I recognize the amount of social pressure that’s on people to conform, and how unpleasant they think having to consider COVID on an ongoing basis is. That’s a very difficult combination to overcome, especially when the organizations that are supposed to be looking out for you on this have instead thrown people into the meat grinder for more profits.

    I’m no marketer, but I feel like there are some threads to pull that could get us to a more broadly effective message for at least COVID Awareness for the average person, but I don’t know if we can get there from here.

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