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2:00PM Water Cooler 9/23/2024

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Bird Song of the Day

Back to Thrashers, which are mimics too, like mockingbirds and characters. So the first clip I tested is 35 minutes of thrasherdom…. Enjpy!

Sage Thrasher, Sublette, Wyoming, United States. “Gradually moves further and further away from the microphone in the first segment.”

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In Case You Might Miss…

  1. Latest on Trump assassinations; there’s now a price on Trump’s head.
  2. Latest on MI, MT, NC, PA.
  3. Spooks move toward authenticating election outcomes, albeit slowly.
  4. Boeing $30 billion share issue to solve its $10 billion cash crunch?

* * *

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

* * *

Trump Assassination Attempts (Plural)

“Man suspected of assassination attempt against Trump left a letter detailing his plans, prosecutors say” [CNN]. “The man who authorities say sat with a rifle in the trees where Donald Trump was golfing earlier this month in West Palm Beach, Florida, previously wrote a letter stating ‘this was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump,’ according to a new filing by federal prosecutors. A witness told investigators that Ryan Wesley Routh had dropped off a box at his home months before, which “contained ammunition, a metal pipe, miscellaneous building materials, tools, four phones, and various letters.” After learning of the apparent assassination attempt, the witness opened the box, according to the filing…. Prosecutors say Routh was in the area of Trump’s golf course and the former president’s Mar-a-Lago residence across multiple days in the month before he was arrested and had a Google search of how to travel from Florida to Mexico in one of his phones.” • So Routh was a planner, not just a child-like goo goo, and had some amount of funding (making the role of at least the girlfriend more salient. Here is the letter:

So Merrick Garland’s Justice Department decides to release a letter putting a price on Trump’s head? Never mind that Routh (probably) can’t pay it; now the price is anchored — and affordable, too, at least for some –so perhaps others will make and claim the offer. What on earth were they thinking?

“Would-be Trump assassin Ryan Routh stalked ex-president for a month, prosecutors say” [CNBC]. “[W]hen he was arrested after fleeing his hiding spot just outside the golf course, Routh had in his possession a ‘handwritten list of dates in August, September, and October 2024 and venues where the former President had appeared or was expected to be present’ the filing said.” • So Routh anticipated being able to finance further travel. How?

“The Roots of the Trump Assassination Attempts” [The American Conservative]. The deck: “It is only by luck that the former president is still alive.” Indeed. “In many Third-World countries, falling out of power means being declared an enemy of the people who needs to be done away. In some situations that means trumped-up charges and made-up evidence—lawfare—to mislabel the fallen leader as evil and justify the life sentence he receives. In other situations, jail is not secure enough, such as when the fallen leader still has many supporters. That means he must be killed…. Donald Trump is an enemy of democracy itself, says the left in writing and from the debate stage. It is then not surprising when people, often mentally ill enough to accept the base argument that someone who served four years as president, who defeated multiple impeachment attempts without resorting to tanks on the Capitol lawn, and who has run via the electoral system for president three times, is not a believer in democracy. Would-be killers have seen lawfare fail… With lawfare essentially failing off the table, it is time to demonize Trump to create a manifesto for the mentally ill American who will carry out the grim final round…. It’s OK, they seem to say, because Trump asked for it. “He’s worth killing” is the broader message… Unlike in the Third World, there will be no hand-picked assassin here. There is also no conspiracy per se to assassinate Trump. Instead, the left bets that if they send out enough signals, someone mentally ill enough in armed America will do what they want in their hearts. It is the patriotic thing to do, like time-travelers smiting baby Hitler. A jihad. The left is too coordinated in its words and actions not to know what it is doing. Trump knows it; during his debate with Harris he remarked that he took a bullet to the head for some of her remarks that he is anti-democratic. Trump’s would-be assassin knows it, claiming that ‘democracy is on the ballot.'” • Stochastic terrorism (but holy Lord, these are liberals, not “the left”).

Biden Administration

“Joe Biden’s foreign policy legacy goes through Ukraine” [Trudy Rubin, Philadelphia Inquirer]. “Moscow and Beijing (along with Tehran and Pyongyang) are watching closely to see whether the president finally gives Kyiv the key weapons systems it needs to win — and a green light to use them wherever needed. That would include permission to use U.S.-made long-range ATACMS missiles to destroy military bases inside Russia from which planes fire glide bombs that have decimated Ukraine’s cities. If Biden gives Ukraine this critical help, it will hedge against a possible Trump victory, since the former president has pledged to cut off aid if Kyiv doesn’t bow to Vladimir Putin’s version of ‘peace talks.’ If Biden holds back, however, it will signal to Putin and Xi Jinping that Washington doesn’t have the will to stop territorial aggression and is intimidated by Putin’s nuclear bluster. It will also put Harris on a foreign policy backfoot if she takes over the White House.” • Yes, Kamala will have to prove she’s tough. Maybe the Democrats will find a whole new war for her!

2024

Less than fifty days to go!

Friday’s RCP Poll Averages:

If there was a debate bounce, it was very small. If I were the Trump campaign, I’d be very worried about Pennsylvania. Maybe a reader from Pennsylvania can clarify. Are we looking at something like a North Philly Democrat/Bucks County Never Trumper Alliance? Once again, the Democrats must be very puzzled to have virtual unanimity across the political spectrum that “Harris is the one” — no doubt there will be another liberalgasm after Oprah — and yet the election is a virtual tie. How can this be? Perhaps a few more Republicans, generals, or celebrities will turn the tide.

* * *

“Trump Shows Signs of Strength in Sun Belt Battlegrounds, Polls Find” [New York Times]. “Voters across the Sun Belt say that Donald J. Trump improved their lives when he was president — and worry that a Kamala Harris White House would not — setting the stage for an extraordinarily competitive contest in three key states, according to the latest polls from The New York Times and Siena College. The polls found that Mr. Trump has gained a lead in Arizona and remains ahead in Georgia, two states that he lost to President Biden in 2020. But in North Carolina, which has not voted for a Democrat since 2008, Ms. Harris trails Mr. Trump by just a narrow margin. The polls of these three states, taken from Sept. 17 to 21, presented further evidence that in a sharply divided nation, the presidential contest is shaping up to be one of the tightest in history.

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Kamala (D): “DNC calls Trump ‘chicken’ for not accepting second debate in billboard campaign” [The HIll]. • The guy’s been targeted by assassins twice and he’s still out on the trail. And the Democrats thinking calling him a coward is a political winner [shaking my head].

* * *

Trump (R): “Republicans in swing states say they see scant signs of groups door-knocking for Trump” [Associated Press]. “Republican activists in swing states say they have seen little sign of the teams tasked with knocking on doors and turning out infrequent voters on behalf of Donald Trump, raising concerns about the party’s presidential nominee relying on outside groups for an important part of his campaign operations. Trump and the Republican National Committee he controls opted to share get-out-the-vote duties in key parts of the most competitive states this year with groups such as America PAC, the organization supported by billionaire Elon Musk. It is difficult to demonstrate that something is not happening. But with fewer than 50 days until the Nov. 5 election, dozens of Republican officials, activists and operatives in Michigan, North Carolina and other battleground states say they have rarely or never witnessed the group’s canvassers. In Arizona and Nevada, the Musk-backed political action committee replaced its door-knocking company just this past week. ‘I haven’t seen anybody,’ said Nate Wilkowski, field director for the Republican Party in vote-rich Oakland County, Michigan, which includes crucial Detroit suburbs. He was speaking specifically of America PAC. ‘Nobody’s given me a heads-up that they’re around in Oakland County areas.'” • Have any readers experienced Trump door-knocking?

Trump (R): Rally count down:

No offense to Susie Wiles, but I think Trump was a better candidate in 2016, when he was flying an airplane full of randos round the country and doing the A/B testing with crowds that led him to deliver and refine a populist message.

Trump (R): “The ‘scared majority’ could deliver a landslide victory for Trump” [Douglas MacKinnon, The Hill]. Rhetoric and anecdotes. Nevertheless: “I grew up in abject poverty as a child, and most of my contacts to this day are those in the working class or lower…. Those I speak with on a regular basis tell me they have never been so frightened about circumstances out of their control. Circumstances they believe were deliberately and politically exacerbated by the Democrats and most especially by the Biden-Harris administration. There is something going on. These times do not feel like the others for the working class. They feel much more foreboding. There are now so many ‘canaries in the coal mine’ on this issue that they need to take a number to chirp out the first warning. The first is that the Democratic Party used to be the party of the poor and disenfranchised. Now it is the party of uber-wealthy tech and big-pharma barons and power-hungry special interests… The next ‘canary in the coal mine’ is the International Brotherhood of Teamsters non-endorsement endorsement of Donald Trump. For the first time in over 20 years, the Teamsters did not endorse the Democratic candidate. Instead, their leadership chose to endorse no one. Why? Because that leadership was shocked to find that almost 60 percent of its rank-and-file membership — those would be fearful working-class Americans — have indicated they are going to vote for Trump over Harris. What is noteworthy here is that when Biden was still in the race, Trump was actually trailing him, 44 percent to 36 percent. As with the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, the more Americans see of Harris, the less they like her or trust her…. Next, we come to the ‘canary’ reported by CBS News. Correspondent Adriana Diaz admitted that, while in swing-state Nevada, she could only find ‘one person’ in each restaurant she visited who planned to vote for Harris, while the rest were ‘really excited’ about Trump. This, she said, after ‘leaving no stone unturned’ to find any Harris supporters…. Fear is real. Fear does motivate. Working-class Americans do fear that elite-enabling liberal policies beyond their control are robbing them of their quality of life now and well into their futures.” • Hmm.

* * *

MI: “Muslim mayor of Hamtramck endorses Trump, wants Gaza cease-fire” [Detroit News]. “Hamtramck Mayor Amer Ghalib has endorsed former President Donald Trump in the presidential race, a move the Republican nominee quickly touted on social media. Ghalib, who is Muslim and a Yemeni immigrant, announced his endorsement on social media Sunday evening and it came less than a week after the two met in Flint at a Trump campaign event. Ghalib said he and Trump met at the Dort Financial Center before Trump addressed the crowd and the former president asked for Ghalib’s endorsement. Among the things the two discussed was a cease-fire in the Middle East and on the domestic front, ways of ‘breaking the wall between the Republican Party and the minorities,’ Ghalib said in a video he posted on social media last week. The video is a separate post from the mayor’s endorsement that he posted Sunday on Facebook. ‘President Trump and I may not agree on everything, but I know he is a man of principles,’ Ghalib said in the endorsement post. ‘Though it is looking good, he may or may not win the election and be the 47th president of the United States, but I believe he is the right choice for this critical time.’ Ghalib confirmed the endorsement on Monday to The Detroit News but didn’t comment further, referring to the video he posted last week. In that video, Ghalib shares what he and Trump discussed in Flint. ‘He assured that his goal is to end the chaos in the Middle East and elsewhere. He doesn’t want wars,’ Ghalib said in the video.” • There’s a reason for this:

I don’t love Trump, and he’s no pacifist. That said, these people, all 700 of them, have their wars all lined up, and they know Kamala will back them.

MT: “Ballot error shuts down Montana online absentee voting system” [Daily Inter Lake]. “When Max Himsl opened his electronic ballot on Friday, he was dismayed to see a candidate missing from the list of options. Voting absentee electronically while living abroad, Himsl saw that under the options for president, only Republican Donald Trump and Independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. were listed. Missing was Democrat Kamala Harris. ‘I’m upset my democratic process was interrupted,’ he said. Election officials were notified of the error shortly after the Electronic Absentee System that allows certain voters to cast their ballot electronically went live on Friday at 8 a.m., according to the Montana Secretary of State’s Office which reported that the error was isolated to the online system. ‘Our team and the vendor quickly investigated and found that only a few voters may have been impacted,’ the Secretary of State’s Office said through email. ‘As a precaution, the Electronic Absentee System has been taken offline until troubleshooting is completed.'”

NC: “Nearly all of Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson’s campaign staff quits after CNN report” [WUNC]. “Days after a CNN report about racist and sexual comments posted on a pornography forum, all but a few of Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson’s campaign team quit their jobs on Sunday. A campaign news release said that four top staffers have left the campaign: Conrad Pogorzelski, general consultant and senior advisor who’s worked for Robinson since his initial 2020 lieutenant governor campaign; Chris Rodriguez, campaign manager; Heather Whillier, finance director; and Jason Rizk, deputy campaign manager. But WUNC has confirmed that other staffers have quit as well, leaving Robinson with just three people working on his campaign — two campaign spokesmen and a bodyguard. The list of departures also include longtime director of operations Patrick Riley and political directors John Kontoulas and Jackson Lohrer. Sunday’s news release says that new staff hires will be announced “in the coming days.” But hiring a new campaign team less than two months from Election Day will be tough for a campaign rocked by scandal.” • NC Democrats:

Could Clayton have had the Robinson oppo all along? (And if she’s “fighting for” rural North Carolina, what does that mean? Readers?)

NC: “Democrats see path to N.C. victory following Robinson bombshell” [Axios]. “Team Trump is working to distance the former president from Robinson, whom Trump once described as ‘Martin Luther King on steroids,’ after CNN reported the gubernatorial candidate referred to himself as a ‘black NAZI!’ and a ‘perv’ on a porn site’s messaging board and expressed support for reinstating slavery.” • Roid rage indeed….

PA: “The Pittsburgh Paradox Could Hand Pennsylvania to Trump” [RealClearPennslvania]. “[H]ubris might just hand the Keystone State to the GOP in 2024. As Allegheny County limps toward another election cycle, Republicans are eyeing an opportunity born not of their own strength, but of Democratic complacency and voter disillusionment. The numbers paint a grim picture. Allegheny County hemorrhaged nearly 7,800 residents last year alone, placing it in the top 10 for population loss nationwide. Even more alarming, the county has shed 50,000 jobs in the past five years – five times more than any other Pennsylvania county. The county’s most impoverished suburbs, home to many recent immigrants and other non-white minorities, are facing another round of white flight.” And: “To understand where Allegheny County might be headed, one need only look south to Washington County. Once a union-labor stronghold for the Democrats, Washington County has rapidly become a petri dish for MAGA politics. In 2020, Trump won 61% of the vote there. But it’s not just about presidential politics. MAGA true believers have capitalized on low turnouts to seize control of local government, turning once-staid county commission meetings into wild shouting matches.” And yikes: “The Pennsylvania Department of State reports that Democrats now hold their slimmest voter registration advantage in decades. Republicans, meanwhile, have added nearly 40,000 voters since 2020. In Washington County, this wild shift has greatly increased the temperature and radicalized the tone of local politics. Allegheny County isn’t there yet, but the currents are detectable.” • Hmm. Philadelphia’s suburbs + North Philly might need to do a heavier lift than anticipated.

PA: “Tim Walz tests the limits of his working-class appeal in Pennsylvania’s ultimate swing county” [Politico]. “On Saturday, the campaign dispatched Walz to a campaign rally in their Northampton County stronghold of Bethlehem, a city of 80,000 in the Lehigh Valley, where voters are known for backing centrists. President Joe Biden won this county by less than one percentage point in 2020, after it went for Donald Trump once and Barack Obama twice. Democratic Rep. Susan Wild, who flipped the longtime GOP congressional seat blue in 2018, is one of the most endangered House Democrats this November. But while hundreds of Democrats and local residents waited in line to pack into the Freedom High School gym to hear Walz speak Saturday morning, the challenges facing the Democratic ticket in the region were clear around other parts of the county — notably, with younger working-class men.” But: “It’s likely Walz will have more luck turning out the base in the blue-trending suburbs here than trying to sway working-class men in the county that is a mix of historically Democratic cities and small towns, suburbs and deep red rural stretches. But Walz has another purpose as well — driving Democratic turnout in the adjacent, redder rural counties in the region.” • This last put Fetterman over the top: “Every country, every vote.” Walz is not Fetterman, for good or ill. But the strategy is valid.

* * *

“The Case For 2024 Indecision Is Feeble Trump-wary conservatives have run out of rational reasons to be undecided” [Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine]. • That stupid Sophie! Why won’t she make up her mind?

Realignment and Legitimacy

Spook and torture advocate Michael Hayden writes a letter to political candidates, thrown over the transom by an alert reader:

I’ve been muttering for some years that the so-called intelligence community would seek to make themselves the “the guarantors of ‘the institutional order of the Republic,'” as Pinochet’s post-coup Constitution phrased it. Here it is: ” That is why I [Hayden] have teamed with other major National Security leaders to endorse [i.e, define and, later, enforce] the Principles for Trusted Elections.” Here’s the website, with the principles, so-called. In particular:

Note the lack of operational detail. In particular, hand-marked paper ballots, hand-counted in public, meet all the principles. Electronic ballots do not and cannot (and the principles, so-called, are especially insidious in that they obscure this, by implying that the process of poll-watching is the same in all jurisdictions).

I have also muttered for some years that the essential characteristic, the distinctive competence, of the modern political party is control over the ballot. Here we see my thesis illustrated at a new and higher level, as the intelligence community — in my view an extra-constitutional entity allied with the Democrats at least since Obama gave them impunity for for torture in Iraq (“we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards”) — slowly moves to authenticate (or not authenticate) election outcomes.

In any case, anything written by Michael Hayden should be treated with a hermenetic of suspicion, and certainly not signed. (Hayden was one of the 51 spooks who signed the infamous October 2020 letter saying that the Hunter Biden laptop “ha[d] all the earmarks of a classic Russian information operation” (entirely “baseless,” as we say. Hayden, in other words, has form: He’s committed election interference before the votes were cast; it is, therefore, worth giving consideration to the idea that he could commit election interference after the votes are cast.)

* * *

Scratch a liberal, a fascist bleeds:

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!

* * *

Vaccines

“FDA Approves First Self-Administered Nasal Spray Flu Vaccine” [The American Journal of Managed Care]. • For flu, but not for Covid [bangs head on desk].

* * *

TABLE 1: Daily Covid Charts

Wastewater

This week[1] CDC September 16

 Last Week[2] CDC (until next week):

Variants [3] CDC September 14

Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC September 14

Hospitalization
★ New York[5] New York State, data September 20:

National [6] CDC August 31:

Positivity
★ National[7] Walgreens September 23: Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic September 7:

Travelers Data

Positivity[9] CDC September 2:

Variants[10] CDC September 2:

Deaths

Weekly Deaths vs. % Positivity [11]CDC September 14:

Weekly Deaths vs. ED Visits [12]CDC September 14:

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. NOTE Statewide, there is an uptick. Not in New York City, Long Island, or Mid-Hudson.

[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

There are no official statistics of interest today.

* * *

Manufacturing: “How Long Do You Think The Boeing Strike Will Last?” [Simple Flying]. “Despite furloughing thousands of employees, Boeing faces an imminent cash crunch. The company needs $10 billion in cash to maintain operations, and, as of its Q2 report on June 30, it had $12 billion in cash. That doesn’t leave much room for a strike to stretch, though the company is reported to be planning a new share issue to help raise capital, possibly as much as $30 billion. Initial talks broke down last week with no resolution, and there’s no set date for more talks. Neither side seems willing to budge. ”

Manufacturing: “Boeing machinists on picket lines prepare for lengthy strike: ‘I can last as long as it takes” [NBC]. “The financial cost of the strike on Boeing depends on how long it lasts, though ratings agencies have warned that the company could face a downgrade if it drags on too long. That would add to the borrowing costs of the company, already $60 billion in debt. Boeing has burned through about $8 billion so far this year in the wake of a near-catastrophic door plug blowout from one of its 737 Max planes in January.”

Manufacturing: “Boeing’s shareholders: which do you prefer? Dilution or bankruptcy?” [Leeham News and Analysis]. ” Wells Fargo analyst calculated The Boeing Co. might have to issue 190 million shares of stock to get itself out of the financial mess it’s in. At the $155 range Boeing’s stock has been recently trading, which would be just shy of $30bn…. Wall Street types wring their hands over the dilution of a possible stock offering. This begs the question: would they prefer dilution or bankruptcy, which typically wipes out shareholders? Or would they prefer at least a decade of stagnation while Boeing tries to operationally repair its balance sheet? LNA welcomes the idea of a $30bn equity offering. Boeing won’t fully recover without drastic action. And a massive equity offering best fits this need.” And on September 12: “Internally, Boeing prepared for a 2-12 week strike.”

Manufacturing: “Boeing’s Defense Head Leaves. Starliner Wasn’t the Only Reason” [Barron’s]. “In addition to changes at Boeing Defense, [new CEO Kelly Ortberg] has bought a house in the Seattle region and is directly involved in union negotiations.” • Hmm.

Manufacturing: “State President, Party leader To Lam seeks Boeing investment in Vietnam component plant” [VN Express]. “Vietnam’s Party General Secretary and President To Lam has called on American aircraft company Boeing to build a component manufacturing factory and equipment and machinery maintenance center in Vietnam. At a meeting in New York, the U.S., on Sunday with Brendan Nelson, senior vice president of Boeing and chairman of Boeing Global, he said Vietnam is committed to enabling American investors, including Boeing, to invest in its market. Referring to Boeing’s commitment to helping Vietnam in develop its aviation and aerospace industries, he sought human resource training, technology transfer and research and development from the company and exhorted it to get Vietnamese partners more involved in its supply chain.”

* * *

Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 64 Greed (previous close: 62 Greed) [CNN]. One week ago: 54 (Neutral). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). LLast updated Sep 23 at 3:25:11 PM ET.

Musical Interlude

John Coltrane’s birthday:

Gallery

Not Klee. Hilma af Klint, Buddha’s Standpoint in the Earthly Life, No. 3a, Series XI, 1920:

For some things, Twitter remains undefeated.

This, however, is Klee (and not Cezanne):

But this is not:

Class Warfare

“Public-Health Officials Should Have Been Talking About Their Sex Parties the Whole Time” [The Atlantic]. And not The Onion. “In conversations caught on hidden camera, New York City’s former COVID czar [Jay Varma] said that he’d organized a pair of sex parties in the second half of 2020, as New Yorkers coped with peak pandemic social isolation…. It’s not clear whether Varma personally violated any COVID rules. The sex parties involved, by the account he gave to the podcaster Steven Crowder in a companion video, ‘like, 10 people.’ At the time, New York’s guidelines—which Varma was promoting far and wide—limited gatherings to 10 people or fewer in an effort to curb the spread of the virus. Separate city guidance on ‘Safer Sex and COVID-19’ discouraged—but did not forbid—group sex. (‘Limit the size of your guest list. Keep it intimate,’ the guidance said.) Varma explained that he’d sex-partied responsibly, noting, ‘Everybody got tests and things like that.’… Perhaps it would have helped if he’d shared his own struggles with that tension at the time. Social-science research tells us that public-health messaging wins trust most effectively when it leads with empathy—when leaders show that they understand how people feel and what they want, rather than barraging them with rules and facts. Clearly Varma struggled in the way that many others did as he tried to navigate the crushing isolation of the pandemic.” Extroverts are gonna kill us all. More: ” In preparation for the holidays, his family was faced with tough, familiar choices, which resulted in his being separated from his loved ones. The end result may seem hypocritical, but it’s also relatable. ” • Putting this in the context of pantygate, Diddy, Epstein… Has anyone checked in on the elites lately? Are they OK? (Meanwhile, a sex party is surely the epitome of a “crowded, closed, close-contact” event, so one might wonder whether Varma masked, or whether at least masks were available to know. Also, Varma should really have been aware that “tests and things like that” do not necessarily reveal Covid in its early stages, another reason to mask.

News of the Wired

Latest on the kitten:

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Watt4Bob: “Was total mystery what this bloom would look like. Happy surprise!”

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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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130 comments

  1. IM Doc

    Ahh, the infamous castor bean plant.
    Amazingly beautiful foliage – tons of the most unique-colored blooms ever – and the seeds/beans are literally zebra-striped.
    Please allow them no where near kids or small animals. They are fairly significantly poison if heavily overdosed- and they are indeed what Saran nerve gas is made from. Smaller concentrations have been an herbal medical staple for millenia.
    The beans are wonderful to put down mole hills etc if you need to get them out of your garden – and there are many kinds of animals who absolutely stay away from them because they exude smells that we humans do not seem to smell. When I was growing up there were rows of them placed all around the other garden plants – and it was fairly effective to keep out undesirable animals. It has the benefit of not being a toxic chemical.

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    2. Lambert Strether Post author

      > I was growing up there were rows of them placed all around the other garden plants

      Good tip!

      Modulo keeping childen and small aneimals way — netting?

      It is the entire plant that’s “poison if heavily overdosed” or just the beans?

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      1. Randall Flagg

        >Vax-only hasn’t worked, so I say do it again, harder.

        I think Einstein chimed in on that too, something about doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results

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    1. Lee

      And if I may pet a nitpicky peeve re:

      AOC advocates for more censorship

      “We’re going to have to figure out how we reign in the media”

      The correct verb in this instance would be “rein”, not “reign”. One reins in a horse or an action; sovereigns reign over lesser mortals, which could include reining them in.

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      1. Carla

        Oh, I noticed that right away — an appropriate touch for the queen of the, ahem, “Left”, don’t you think? THANKS for commenting on it!

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  5. Dr. John Carpenter

    When Ocasio-Cortez wants to reign in the media, she’s obviously not talking big corporate media, right? When organizations like The NY Times admit they’re letting the government vet their stories already, what’s left to reign in there? I suppose she feels the same about independent media as she does independent political candidates. (Bernie Sanders, the Democrat in all but name, excepted.)

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    1. tegnost

      reign
      /rān/
      verb
      hold royal office; rule as king or queen.
      “Queen Elizabeth reigns over the UK”
      Similar:
      be king/queen
      be monarch
      be sovereign
      sit on the throne
      occupy the throne
      wear the crown
      wield the scepter
      hold sway
      rule
      govern
      be in power
      ruling
      regnant
      on the throne
      noun
      the period during which a sovereign rules.
      “the original chapel was built in the reign of Charles I”
      Similar:
      rule
      sovereignty
      (sorry for the spacing…)
      I’d say the dems do indeed reign in the media, and I think someone should rein them in…

      Nice homophonic double entendre there…
      to hold your horses, you rein them in…of course what more can one expect from the smart people…

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      2. hk

        Something tells me that she really did mean reign, although she should have said “how we (the Dems) keep reigning in the mexia (world).” Presumably by suppressing the riffraff who don’t shpw proper deference.

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  6. Screwball

    US is sending more troops to the Middle East as violence rises between Israel and Hezbollah – AP

    FTA:

    WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is sending a small number of additional troops to the Middle East in response to a sharp spike in violence between Israel and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon that has raised the risk of a greater regional war, the Pentagon said Monday.

    Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder would provide no details on how many additional forces or what they would be tasked to do. The U.S. currently has about 40,000 troops in the region.

    Later in the article:

    The State Department is warning Americans to leave Lebanon as the risk of a regional war increases.

    risk of a regional war increases – you think!!!!

    These people are nuts.

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    1. Yves Smith

      I have heard earlier estimates that the most the US could send would be ~2,000. That’s symbolism as opposed to actual support. In this case, that’s arguably the worst of all possible worlds.

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      1. Aurelien

        It sounds very much like they are sending people out to support an evacuation of US nationals if it becomes necessary. All countries have contingency plans for this kind of thing, and the need may arise very quickly without warning. This is what happened in 2006, when the US, UK, France and others evacuated their nationals, with the military providing transport and security to the Port. Here is an official report describing what happened.

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        2. Yves Smith

          Right, I forgot that angle and in fact the forces for that were on that order.

          However, I believe that there is also a comparatively small # of Special Forces types we could also send in. Again under 2000, might even be under 1000.

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      2. JTMcPhee

        Large enough group of GIs to constitute a nice “trip wire,” since hardly an effective kinetic-combat “force.” Logistics and hybrid war troops?

        In ‘67-‘68, several hundred thousand misbegotten, poorly led GIs acted as a self-licking trip wire. I see the Dear Leader of Vietnam is for some reason begging Boeing to build an aerospace infrastructure there, starting with “human resources.” The last pants I bought at Target were “made in Vietnam,” which prompted some sad memories and a head-scratching “what the hell was that all about, again?” puzzlement.

        Mr. Ton, as leader of the People’s Republic of Vietnam, I suggest you consider very carefully what you wish for. Realistically, given the conditions there, and the corruption that exists, and your likely motivation to screw the mopes and enrich yourself, maybe that invitation to Boeing and the ghosts and spooks that will come along with, it’s just more of the same on the race to the bottom. Cui bono, sir, and who pays you? China not likely to be happy…

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    2. Theresa

      So we fight and pay for Israel’s war, turn America into the arsenal of ‘Democracy’ and bring on nuclear anihilation? Here’s Josh Shapiro and Zelensky signing their names on 155 MM shells made on Scranton Joe’s hometown.
      Are these the jobs they praised?

      https://6abc.com/post/ukrainian-president-volodymyr-zelenskyy-visits-ammunition-plant-scranton-pennsylvania/15342771/

      Lots of activity around refugee resettlement plans to fill up those counties losing population. Pennsylvania Dutch may soon become Pennsylvania Dakar.

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    3. Lefty Godot

      So now I’m waiting to read the simultaneous headlines in all MSM venues that “Biden Says Ceasefire Between Israel and Hezbollah Is ‘Imminent'”…like once every week or two until the election. The Great Peacemaker Blinken will reaffirm this after talking to random people who are not Netanyahu, his cabinet members, or anyone in Hezbollah. And the media will prove what excellent stenographers to power they all are.

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  7. Screwball

    So Merrick Garland’s Justice Department decides to release a letter putting a price on Trump’s head? Never mind that Routh (probably) can’t pay it; now the price is anchored — and affordable, too, at least for some –so perhaps others will make and claim the offer. What on earth were they thinking?

    They probably wanted to kick in some more money just to make sure.

    Trump will not take office no matter what.

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    1. Carolinian

      Oh I think Trump is going to win. There’s an air of desperation about all the Hitler stuff. It’s as though the Dems are saying “why would you vote for us unless we are literally running against Hitler?” Of course that assumes Trump doesn’t get shot first.

      If the Dems had a better candidate he would lose. But thinking they could finesse the Biden problem by picking the person chosen by Biden (Obama: “Never underestimate Joe’s ability etc) is not, by my seat of the pants reckoning, working out. Just look at the Teamsters…..

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    2. Googoogajoob

      I think this is being read into a bit too hard. It’s a bit of a no win situation whether the letter is posted, not posted or redacted.

      You’re likely to get the call outs of ‘cover up’ with the latter two and the letter for all it’s contents is about as clear as youre going to get about establishing the would be assassin’s motives.

      This is why I think pisting it is still the lesser of the three – I’d probably go as far to say that the primary reason they went ahead here is that it reads as being unserious. Sure, he offers it but there’s no sense of if he could pay, or how he was supposed to pay post-capture, or post death.

      On the lighter end, isn’t $150k for this a bit….cheap? Short of some wild Georgi Markov type maneuver not a whole lot of ways I see a person taking a monumental risk to enjoy whats like 5 years of median-ish income

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      1. Amfortas the Hippie

        i dont know.
        that amount is really like a whole lotta money to many of us lesser beings out here.
        good thing i’m not that kinda guy, huh?
        there are others who definitely are, however.
        competence will be an issue, of course.
        both of these attempts smell of CIA, to me…through cutouts and proxies.
        whole of social media reaction is mostly “Meh”.
        which is, in and of itself, quite remarkable.

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      2. Lambert Strether Post author

        >On the lighter end, isn’t $150k for this a bit….cheap?

        What I don’t like is that the idea and the price are “out there.”

        I think $150,000 was Routh’s idea of “a lot of money.” Which tells you that, out there in the lumpenproletariat, there are plenty of other people who think $150,000 is just fine.

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        1. Pat

          Take a look at that embarrassing and/or degrading things people are willing to do for mere thousands. Of course there are people out there who would take it and make the attempt. And at some point it will be successful if there are multiple attempts.

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    3. Randall Flagg

      >They probably wanted to kick in some more money just to make sure.

      Trump will not take office no matter what.

      Screwball, That’s just seed money for a GoFund Me…

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    4. Yves Smith

      Sorry, I differ with Lambert on this one.

      1. $150,000 was Routh’s bid and no one hit it. So $150,000 is not the price. No trade happened. Routh is Ukro-nasty adjacent so he’d be better positioned than most dull normals not connected with gangs or mobs to find a taker.

      2. Routh also does not realize what a professional hit requires. You need to pay for 3 people. #1 is to do the deed and is usually not a big payoff. #2 is the person who set up #1 and is usually pretty pricey. #3 is to kill #2.

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  8. wol

    Excellent Gallery. Ms wol cried walking up the first ramp at the Gugg’s Hilma af Klint exhibition and she wasn’t alone. A notable essay in response to anyone who wonders what happened to art’s ability to move us intangibly:

    ‘…The correct operation of taste begins with detecting artistic quality, in both senses—degree and kind. From there the viewer might inform his taste by investigating the background behind the work, including the artist’s biography. The identitarian exhibition would have you work the other way, from biography to object. I have known people who trained themselves accordingly. One of them is a white woman who once told me that she couldn’t enjoy the permanent collection of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston because it was too white….’

    https://news.fairforall.org/p/art-under-quiet-siege

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  9. lyman alpha blob

    Some anecdata on Trump’s popularity, county fair edition –

    When we went to the fair several years ago, (can’t remember if it was 2016 or 2020), the two major political parties had tables set up in the exhibition hall. There were several volunteers at the Trump table, handing out yard signs and other schwag, and you could get your picture taken by a life-sized cardboard Trump. Seemed like fun if you were a Trump fan. The Democrat table was not occupied when we walked by and all they had was a big white posterboard with a number of issues listed and some colored dot stickers, with directions to put a sticker by your most pressing issue. Whoop de doo. Democrats barely put in any effort, while lots of people were walking around the fairgrounds with Trump schwag, including some non-white people despite Trump’s alleged racism.

    Went again yesterday and it’s the same thing. The Republicans had people at their table handing out Trump/Vance paraphernalia with lots of people walking around the fairgrounds holding it, and if the Democrats were even there, I didn’t see them. I will admit to only seeing about 90% of the exhibition hall, so they could have been hiding in a back corner, but there was no Harris schwag in evidence anywhere.

    This county went 67% for Biden in 2020 and your average county fair goer does probably lean conservative. In fact we ran into a liberal friend who was accusing all the other fair goers of being “racist” for whatever reason – probably just got the willies being in an area with no Harris signs around. Maybe the Democrats figured they had this part of the state in the bag and didn’t want to expend resources. Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve seen those tactics either. Several years ago the coordinator of one environmental issue campaign was using the Democrat database to contact likely supporters and counseled completely ignoring those who had voted Republican, as if pollution only affected one party. When my better half ran for office, she got the same advice – don’t bother knocking on conservatives’ doors. Thankfully she ignored it, and knocked on every door she could, including those who already had her conservative opponent’s signs in their yard. I remember one telling her she had his vote because no candidate had ever asked him what he thought personally before. He only had the other guy’s sign in the yard because he had gone to high school with him.

    This attitude has been a huge problem for the Democrats. Don’t they realize that taking people for granted is not a winning strategy??!? I mean FFS, it’s been three elections in a row and they can’t do better than running basically a dead heat with a mountebank who would be a better fit working the midway at the fair we just attended.

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    1. Screwball

      RE: Racist

      It is apparently a narrative that gets a lot of play in PMC land. My PMC friends think most, if not all, people who vote for Trump are racist, and by electing him, they can be overtly racist in public. Of course they believe all Trump supporters are, along with being racist, dumber than a brick, have bad breath, drag their knuckles on the ground, and breath only through their mouths. Just a few names they are called. They are hated with the heat of 1000 suns.

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      1. Acacia

        Yep. This.

        This is the #1 point I have heard from all PMC friends, the basis upon which he is declared evil. I was later “unfriended” by one member of the PMC, because I wouldn’t join him in denouncing and hating Trump with 1000 suns for being an “obvious” racist.

        But if you ask for evidence that Trump is indeed a racist — and even questioning the PMC orthodoxy is now a bridge too far —, then it’s all “well, you gotta read between the lines…”, etc.

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    2. hk

      There’s a funny thing: talking heads say, not wrongly, that “policy doesn’t matter.” If they believe it, though, that’s because they don’t know what really does matter: trust and credibility. Policy does not matter by itself because, on many matters, voters don’t know what to make of them–especially when they are abstract and/or concern things seemingly far away from them. They don’t know how the moving parts of the policy work, what their consequences are, and, even if they did, they also know that the promises are just words and they don’t know what the tomorrow holds (that may make today’s policy concerns irrelevant) anyways. However, policy does matter through the back door, by inspiring trust and credibility, that the candidates know what the voters’ concerns are, that they know what they are talking about, etc. But policy is not the only way to gain trust and build credibility. Having gone to the same HS with the voters (with the implication that the candidate is a member of the local tribe) is one way. Actually going around talking to them and asking sincerely what matters to them is another. Instead, too many talking heads think that trust grows on magic trees and credibility simply exists because they say so.

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    3. ambrit

      Your analogy to a carney “…working the midway at the fair …” and the American governing class is too exact a fit for comfort.
      Expanding on the conceit, carneys usually view the ‘average’ people wandering along the midway as marks and victims in waiting. American politicos view the electorate similarly. Such smug self-assurance often evolves into bullying behaviour. As history, both large and small has demonstrated, the best way to shut down a bully is to smack him or her across the kisser. Individually, that takes courage and a certain willingness to suffer adverse reactions. Societally, that requires political organization along with courage and that willingness to suffer for the cause.
      There is no easy way out. We are already living in “Interesting Times.” What is looming on our horizon doesn’t bear close scrutiny.
      Be prepared and stay safe.

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    4. Megan

      Racist? “What do you mean by that?” Always a discussion starter. Gets people talking.

      Do not let people get away with throwing a one word adjective like Racist or Communist at you in lieu of an argument they may not have.

      The other day I saw a woman wearing a Trump hat verbally spat upon by another woman wearing a HarrisWalz Sweatshirt who said “RACIST” to her.

      Trump hat said “So?”
      HarrisWalz was dumbfounded.

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    5. Lambert Strether Post author

      > This attitude has been a huge problem for the Democrats. Don’t they realize that taking people for granted is not a winning strategy??!? I

      No, they don’t. The irritable mental gestures of Republicans don’t thrill me, but there’s no denying that the Republican base hated their leadership, worked to get rid of them, and did (whereupon that “leadership” joined the Democrats, which goes to show). The Democrats haven’t done anything remotely similar.

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  11. hamstak

    In re: Lambert’s comment on the TAC article:

    these are liberals, not “the left”

    From the perspective of “establishment types” — not necessarily of “the establishment”, but willfully contained by it — the two following equations apply:

    left = liberal = Democrat
    right = conservative = Republican

    In this formulation, the two sides form a perfect binary/polar complement where no other disposition is possible, or at least permissible. Anything outside of this formulation is an inconvenience treated in the same manner that an “externality” is in the field/religion of orthodox economics: an inconvenience which is swept under the rug and ignored.

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      1. Lambert Strether Post author

        > This Michael Hayden?

        Yes, that Michael Hayden. I’m imagining a scenario sometning like this:

        1. In the evening of Tuesday, 11/5, it becomes evident that Trump has eked out a victory by taking Swing States A, B, C all by narrow margins.

        2. In the morning of Thursday, 11/7 — Wednesday is devoted to hysteria — “anonymous sources in the intelligence community” leak to the Times and the Post that there are “grave irregularities” in the balloting for A, B, and/or C (maybe throw in another state for chaff, don’t do all three, etc. Just make the numbers to undo Trump’s victory).

        3. The press naturally turns to a trustworthy, objective source to vet the question of irregularities, which turns out to be Hayden’s front group NGO “Team Democracy,” to whose “principles” a large number of candidates have signed up, authenticating it (and him). Notice that at this point the intelligence community is in the happy position of being able to give thumbs up/thumbs down not only to this election, but all future elections (absent hand-marked paper ballots, hand-counted in public).

        4. I’m not sure where things go after that, given that the Democrats can’t possibly allow the Supreme Court, and hence the courts, to enter in. Somewhere on the spectrum of browbeating faithless electors to a “temporary” government of national unity until the matter can be straightened out (see the exceptionally nasty disputed election of 1876 and the Compromise of 1877). But somebody, somewhere in Washington is gaming all this out right now.

        Of course, the simplest solution is for the next Trump assassin to get the job done. Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best!

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    2. ChrisPacific

      ‘Principles for Trusted Elections’ looks pretty stinky to me, for all the reasons you mentioned. It’s essentially just a list of all the questionable things Trump did in 2020, either with a “do not” attached or flipped around to their opposite, so it will certainly read as partisan to Trump voters. I don’t see any discussion of Democrat shenanigans, like faithless electors.

      To the extent that that there is any attempt at all to qualify what is meant by ‘election security’, it comes down to security by authority rather than security by inherent process:

      Publicly affirm the security and integrity of elections across the U.S. and avoid actively fueling doubt about elections in other jurisdictions. Support transparency and public outreach to reassure voters of election integrity.

      The problem is that while the latter can be independently examined and verified, the former relies on your trust in the authority in question – which we know is lacking in most of the electorate in general and Trump supporters in particular. And if the authority is really that trustworthy, why doesn’t it lay out the process?

      Reply ↓
      1. Amfortas the Hippie

        aye.
        “They” dont seem to realise that they’re the focus of a giant crises of confidence…of legitimacy…
        can they not smell the smoke from the burning bed of laurels they sit upon?
        Toynbee is still my favorite historian.
        and all those former righties…now wandering in the Wilderness…yelling about Decadence…are spot on.
        see: Barzun

        Reply ↓
  14. Screwball

    From Governor Josh Shapiro on Twitter;

    Shapiro Tweet

    What it says; There is a picture of him signing a bomb to be used against Russia. Zelenskyy is behind him with a bunch of others watching the proceeding. Shapiro’s Tweet says;

    We must all do our part in the fight for freedom — from the workers in Scranton who make Pennsylvania the arsenal of democracy to the brave Ukrainian soldiers protecting their country.

    We stand with Ukraine in their just defense of their homeland in the face of Russian aggression.

    I can’t find it now, but I also read Z was flown to PA on a military jet, and at some point ripped into Trump & Vance. It sounded like he was campaigning for Harris/Walz.

    Some seem to think that isn’t right, a foreign dignitary campaigning for them. I don’t know if it is or not, but I’m not surprised one bit. They are the war party after all, it seems.

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    2. IM Doc

      I distinctly remember during the run up to the 2nd Iraq war/invasion in 2003, the nightly news on the major networks ending their show with the jubilant celebration of our service people dancing to “Rock the Casbah” while writing taunting things and profanities all over the bombs.

      I found this highly concerning…….but I will never forget the war hawk neighbor who dared to engage my elderly family member about this issue. The neighbor was celebratory that AMERICA ROCKS etc and the service people had every right to behave that way. My family member – a veteran of hard combat in WWII set him straight in a way I have never seen him do before……..then I got the lecture later that night all alone with him – “Only people who have never been to war even remotely act that way.”

      I have remembered that all my life. And I believe this is very true. I also believe people like Shapiro above and so many of our fellow citizens act like this because they have never seen hard combat and people being blown to bits all around them.

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      1. JTMcPhee

        But they understand the principles and physics and gross physiology of it, know what tribe they belong to, are mostly protected against having their own tender flesh and that of loved ones turned to dead meat, smoke and mist, and so are just fine with it. LeMay and MacArthur and Westmoreland knee war is hell, GIs and wogs die, and like Yahoo and Gvir and Zel they are just fine with that.

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      2. CA

        IM Doc

        I will never forget the war hawk neighbor who dared to engage my elderly family member about this issue. The neighbor was celebratory that AMERICA ROCKS etc and the service people had every right to behave that way. My family member – a veteran of hard combat in WWII set him straight in a way I have never seen him do before……..then I got the lecture later that night all alone with him – “Only people who have never been to war even remotely act that way.”

        [ Precisely what my grandfather taught me. ]

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        1. Ben Panga

          As Kurt Vonnegut put it in Slaughterhouse 5:

          “I have told my sons that they are not under any circumstances to take part in massacres, and that the news of massacres of enemies is not to fill them with satisfaction or glee. I have also told them not to work for companies which make massacre machinery, and to express contempt for people who think we need machinery like that”

          My grandfather taught me the same as you CA

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          2. You're soaking in it!

            “It is only those who have not heard a shot, nor heard the shrills & groans of the wounded & lacerated (friend or foe) that cry aloud for more blood & more vengeance, more desolation . . .” said Sherman, and he would know.

            I will only vote for a peace candidate, and usually end up having to write in for higher office. This year, however, Cornel West is on the ballot, that works for me.

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          3. aleph_0

            Still the best war book I’ve ever read.

            Since you quoted one of the best parts, I can’t help but quote another at length, war in reverse:

            American planes, full of holes and wounded men and corpses took off backwards from an airfield in England. Over France a few German fighter plans flew at them backwards, sucked bullets and shell fragments from some of the planes and crewmen. They did the same for wrecked American bombers on the ground, and those planes flew up backwards to join the formation.

            The formation flew backwards over a German city that was in flames. The bombers opened their bomb bay doors, exerted a miraculous magnetism which shrunk the fires, gathered them into cylindrical steel containers, and lifted the containers into the bellies of the planes. The containers were stored neatly in racks. The Germans below had miraculous devices of their own, which were long steel tubes. They used them to suck more fragments from the crewmen and planes. But there were still a few wounded Americans, though, and some of the bombers were in bad repair. Over France, though, German fighters came up again, made everything and everybody good as new.

            When the bombers got back to their base, the steel cylinders were taken from the racks and shipped back to the United States of America, where factories were operating night and day, dismantling the cylinders, separating the dangerous contents into minerals. Touchingly, it was mainly women who did this work. The minerals were then shipped to specialists in remote areas. It was their business to put them into the ground, to hide them cleverly so they would never hurt anybody ever again.

            The American fliers turned in their uniforms, became high school kids. And Hitler turned into a baby, Billy Pilgrim supposed. That wasn’t in the movie. Billy was extrapolating. Everybody turned into a baby, and all humanity, without exception, conspired biologically to produce two perfect people named Adam and Eve, he supposed.

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          4. CA

            https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/06/books/review/kevin-powers-kurt-vonnegut-slaughterhouse-five.html

            March 6, 2019

            The Moral Clarity of ‘Slaughterhouse-Five’ at 50 *
            By Kevin Powers

            In the singularly brilliant introductory chapter, Vonnegut tells us in his own voice how he came to write this book. It was born from his experiences as a young Army private taken prisoner in World War II, witness to both the brutality of the German war machine and the catastrophic Allied firebombing of Dresden. Near the end of the chapter he writes the following: “I have told my sons that they are not under any circumstances to take part in massacres, and that the news of massacres of enemies is not to fill them with satisfaction or glee. I have also told them not to work for companies which make massacre machinery, and to express contempt for people who think we need machinery like that.”

            This is merely one example of Vonnegut’s unmatched moral clarity…

            * http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/09/28/lifetimes/vonnegut-slaughterhouse.html

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      3. Screwball

        Great comments above, but this is Naked Capitalism after all – thank you!

        To quote IM Doc “Only people who have never been to war even remotely act that way.”

        I had the opportunity to play golf for many years in small town Ohio with two guys who went to Nam. One was a college professor at a high dollar small liberal arts college, and the other a truck driver. Both good golfers – and great guys.

        They never talked about Nam except in passing every once in a while, and I never asked, or wanted to. I missed the draft by a year. Some of my best buddies were drafted and served. Some didn’t come back, and more didn’t come home the same.

        Every once in a while they would talk about what went on over there. I would just listen. Awful stuff. They used to say “is there anything worse they could do to us than send us to Nam?” The one buddy has”spells” to this day. War isn’t a video game, and it seems too many people rooting for war right now.

        I don’t get it.

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      4. Ana

        This and thank you for saying it. My grandfather managed to serve in WW1 and WW2. His son, my uncle, served in WW2. My mother and grandmother were improvised nurses in Pearl Harbor. My father served in Korea and cousins my age in Viet Nam.

        They all physically survived. These men each had a box hidden away in which they kept their medals. None of them ever spoke of the medals nor would they talk about anything that happened. Neither would my mother or grandmother.

        All of them struggled to function the rest of their lives even though they went on to have successful careers as engineers and teachers. War destroyed generations of my family. It destroys everything it touches.

        Ana in Sacramento

        Reply ↓
  15. DJG, Reality Czar

    Scratch a liberal, a fascist bleeds

    Brethren and sistren, I’m not sure if I should leave the Chocolate City of the Undisclosed Region. For various reasons, one of which has been quite successful, I am in Chicago. I am VRBOing a place in my former neighborhood, Edgewater.

    A brief report.

    There is a considerable amount of Kamala + scratch-a-liberal swag in windows on Clark Street. This includes t-shirts and mugs with “I’m Speaking.” I even saw a white chick in an “I’m Speaking” t-shirt, obviously feeling empowered.

    A detail. Who did Kamala “scratch a liberal” Harris snark “I’m Speaking” at? Why, all one has to do is look at the footage, readily available on Ytube. The demonstrators to be silenced were people against the war on Palestinians. Some of the demonstrators had family members murdered by the IDF.

    The problem with decline is that there are endless numbers of bottoms to fall through. There is no bottom to degradation. It’s all bottomless creepiness all the way down. Bleeding into fascism.

    Che mi manca la città di cioccolato.

    End of report.

    Reply ↓
  17. Jason Boxman

    On voter registration advantage, that was the case in central Florida for the longest time; Look how that turned out. Democrats couldn’t seem to get out the vote. That was as I left it in 2016. Maybe that’s changed now.

    Reply ↓
    1. JTMcPhee

      Given the dreck that the Closed Corporation Party serves up on the part of the ballot it “Controls,” and the slimy residue that makes up the Dem Board of Misdirectors’ personal profit as the other half of the Uniparty,?The “Florida Democrats” not surprisingly have near to zero interest in encouraging vote turnout. The “leaders” like Debbie Wasserman Schultz have their “rotten boroughs,” thanks to connived gerrymandering, so no desire to upset the existing order. Upstart populists get squashed.

      Reply ↓
  18. Ben Panga

    Reality of Labour’s plans for the NHS shows up in party conference session (Skwawkbox)

    “This morning, Labour held a conference seminar revealingly titled “How to Save 25 million GP Appointments: The role of self-care in delivering an NHS fit for the future“…..Haleon, the session sponsor, is Glaxo Smithcline’s ‘consumer healthcare company’”

    “Meanwhile, Labour is continuing and fully supports the Tories’ project to replace fully-trained (and therefore expensive for businesses and harmful to profit margins) doctors with ‘physician associates’ and ‘anaesthetist associates’ so that if you survive ‘self-care’ and ever get an appointment, you might think you’re seeing a doctor but are not. People have already died as a result.”

    This is a Tory government in everything but name.

    Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev

      Another new term to remember – ‘associates’ actually means ‘unqualified’ or maybe even ‘amateur’. Noted.

      Reply ↓
  19. spud

    remember Lambert. todays american liberals are not the founders american liberalism that was born out of the american enlightenment.

    todays american liberals are bill clinton liberals, whom are more like european liberals, who embraced fascism.

    http://buddyhell.wordpress.com/2010/12/08/from-hayek-to-rand-a-short-stroll-through-neoliberal-thinking/

    “He ignores the methods by which the British idea of freedom was
    exported throughout the world: by the barrel of a gun. The Road to
    Serfdom was published in 1944. Hayek, an Austrian economist had taken
    a position at the London School of Economics. In Vienna he had been
    influenced by Ludwig von Mises, the founder of the Austrian School of
    Economics whose name has gone on to grace the title of a US right wing
    libertarian think tank.

    Interstingly enough for a self-confessed
    ‘liberal’, von Mises gave his support to Englebert Dollfuss’s
    Austrofascist regime. Von Mises served as economic advisor to Dollfuss
    until the latter was assassinated by the Nazis. The Jewish von Mises
    would have found it difficult to live under a Nazi regime because of
    its racial purity laws.

    The von Mises Institute ‘scholar’, Lew Rockwell has a selective take
    on fascism here. He completely rewrites history by airbrushing out von
    Mises involvement in Dollfuss’s regime. Indeed apologists for von
    Mises will brush aside any suggestion of his collaboration with the
    “it was a lesser evil [than communism]” defence. We can see the start
    of a pattern here: those who would describe themselves as classical
    liberals would go on to offer their support for authoritarian regimes.

    Hayek and Friedman both lent their support to Pinochet’s Chile; Hayek
    visited there in 1984. The libertarian rhetoric obscures the
    reactionary and authoritarian tendencies that are present within their
    strain of classical liberalism. He left Austria for the United States
    and together with Hayek and Friedman they created the Société du Mont-
    Pèlerin, which became a sort of anti-Kenynesian think-tank; a hothouse
    for neoliberal thinkers. You can read their Statement of Aims here.”
    —————
    american liberalism,

    https://buddyhell.wordpress.com/2010/12/08/from-hayek-to-rand-a-short-stroll-through-neoliberal-thinking/

    “What Ben Franklin Created

    When Benjamin Franklin (1705-1790) had orchestrated his life-long project of establishing a new nation on this earth founded upon the principle of the sanctity of the individual (enunciated in the 1776 Declaration of Independence) and the sanctity of the General Welfare (as outlined in the Constitution’s 1787 pre-amble), he and his leading co-thinkers demonstrated a profoundly philosophical understanding of the political economy and also nature of true freedom which citizens must re-learn – quickly.

    In order to give practical meaning to the ideals of individual (bottom up) freedom and national (top down) collective well-being enshrined in America’s founding documents, a new system of political economy was created by Franklin and his closest followers among the founding fathers.

    This new system did not arise ex nihilo but was itself based upon the greatest traditions of French dirigisme of Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619-1683), and earlier Cameralist schools of economic planning which grew out of the creation of the first modern nation states of France’s Louis XI and England’s Henry VII. For the first time in history (at least since the short-lived effort by Charlemagne in the 8th century), the idea of “money”, “value”, “profit” were tied not to the passive capital off which feudal landlords fed parasitically, or bounty to be looted, but rather the improvement of the lives of people from whom the legitimacy of government was recognized to originate.

    Throughout the 18th century, Benjamin Franklin became a leading American force for this school of thought which was outlined in his 1729 On the Necessity for a Paper Currency. In this influential essay, the young scientist argued for a system of finance, colonial scrip, and value governed by the growth of manufacturing and full spectrum economics. In his essay Franklin battled the British establishment who argued that the colonies should forever remain agrarian, backward and cash cropping, saying:

    “As Providence has so ordered it, that not only different Countries, but even different Parts of the same Country, have their peculiar most suitable Productions; and like wise that different Men have Genius’s adapted to Variety of different Arts and Manufactures, Therefore Commerce, or the Exchange of one Commodity or Manufacture for another, is highly convenient and beneficial to Mankind.”

    Some of Franklin’s leading protégé’s who carried this tradition into the 19th century included the first U.S. Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804), John Jay (1745-1829), Gouverneur Morris (1752-1816), Robert Morris (1734-1806), Isaac Roosevelt (1726-1794) (great-great grandfather to Franklin Roosevelt) and later Henry Clay (1777-1852), John Quincy Adams (1767-1848), Matthew Carey (1760-1839). Matthew Carey’s son Henry C. Carey (1793-1879) became a leading economic advisor to Abraham Lincoln.

    All of these figures defended the right of the young republic to develop “full spectrum economics” in order to gain true independence from the City of London.

    Henry C. Carey’s Seminal works that rallied the nation’s patriots to the cause of the American System included The Principles of Political Economy (1840), How to Outdo England Without Fighting Her (1865), Unity of Law (1872) and more. It was in The Harmony of Interests (1856) that Carey famously foretold of the emerging global fight between open vs closed systems that would define the post Civil War decades:

    “Two systems are before the world; the one looks to increasing the proportion of persons and of capital engaged in trade and transportation, and therefore to diminishing the proportion engaged in producing commodities with which to trade, with necessarily diminished return to the labor of all; while the other looks to increasing the proportion engaged in the work of production, and diminishing that engaged in trade and transportation, with increased return to all, giving to the laborer good wages, and to the owner of capital good profits… One looks to pauperism, ignorance, depopulation, and barbarism; the other in increasing wealth, comfort, intelligence, combination of action, and civilization. One looks towards universal war; the other towards universal peace. One is the English system; the other we may be proud to call the American system, for it is the only one ever devised the tendency of which was that of elevating while equalizing the condition of man throughout the world.” “

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    1. Amfortas the Hippie

      libertarians are odious.
      took me a long while(ron paul was my 1st vote for preznit)…finally figgered out what they were.
      i still, if im honest, consider myself more or less “Left Libertarian”.
      because i’m apparently congenitally antiauthoritarian.
      authority is an allergen to me…and i, to it.
      i call that “Anarch” as a weeding tool.

      dont try to evangelise real libertarians.
      its exhausting, and bears no fruit.

      Reply ↓
    2. Keith Howard

      Thank you, Spud, for a most interesting comment, and links. It is this kind of submission that makes me send money to NakedCapitalism, whenever it is asked for. Best regards.

      Reply ↓
  20. doug

    NC dem leader: She fought off the old guard to bring in new energy. She is now the old guard with new energy. Tribal member first, last, and always.
    Independent voters in NC who outnumber D’s and R’s have little agency in this state.

    Reply ↓
  21. flora

    Re: Trump’s rally comparisons.

    “August 2016: 26 rallies
    August 2024: 7 rallies

    September 2016: 21 rallies
    September 2024: 6 rallies”

    Well, sure. 2024 has been the summer and year of lawfare and demanded, time consuming, legal prep and court appearances. That’s gotta cut into time for rallies, don’t’cha know. He was supposed to be in court last week for sentencing for something or other, until Merchan postponed until after the election. / ;)

    Reply ↓
    2. Megan

      Kamala Harris, 4 rallies, one with tv monitors set up on bleachers showing zoom participants with several rows repeated. The there’s the Oprah interview where Harris has a teleprompter for extemporaneous speaking covered this morning in N.C.

      Reply ↓
  22. Jeff H

    re: RCP polls and the Pittsburgh paradox
    As someone born and raised in Western Pa, Allegheny Co adjacent, I am compelled to to add my perspective from the cheap seats. This was always solid working class Democrat territory. But I lived through the Democrats for Nixon and Reagan Democrats. I stayed out of politics from the time I was 13
    (years before the18 y/o was given the opportunity to vote) I saw it was a waste of effort to be involved in an inherently corrupt system that I had no chance of changing. That changed in 2002 when the rolled out the promotional campaign for a war in Iraq and I moved back home. That sets the context, now to the meat.
    The Democratic party on this end of the state is a ghost except for that bright blue spot in Pgh proper. They are only visible a couple of months before an election. Efforts to get involved in the local party are met with cold indifference and rigid resistance to do anything to improve outcomes or performance in elections unless you can raise the funds. Many elections go uncontested by anything even posing as a Democrat. The last major election results I bothered to check was 2016. The county vote for president was more than 2:1 for Trump.
    To bring things up to date, my impression from looking at those RCP polls and the articles about the polling is that they are basing their perception on everything east of Harrisburg except for Pgh proper and Erie.
    The limited degree to which I’m out and about and local social media shows me almost no support for Democrats. I wouldn’t be surprised if those Pgh adjacent counties were close to or exceeded the 2016 results.

    Reply ↓
  23. JBird4049

    >>>Varma explained that he’d sex-partied responsibly…

    That is such a neoliberal statement. “I am being responsibly stupid.”

    Reply ↓
      1. IM Doc

        I had 2 of my office staff listen to this with the video off – and I ran it through the Nuance Dragon Program – and I ran it through the closed caption iPad app we use for deaf people here in the office –

        In all 4 cases – they all said “we know Donald Trump can’t even die with dignity” – Just as the Ben Panga comment states.

        She either really said this – or this is some kind of AI thing, which I feel is becoming more scary by the minute. The problem is her mouth movements seem to be really saying those words – the AI is mostly not that good yet.

        Unfortunately C-Span and other MSM transcripts/videos are also no longer a reliable source of information. Too many times they have been scrubbed or sanitized.

        It is rapidly becoming obvious that we are living in a communication free-for-all.

        Reply ↓
        1. Ben Panga

          IM Doc: viewed side-by-side it’s clear that the link I posted is doctored. Original version from 9.28 in cspan link as Marym suggested. The video in the doctored link also looks a little glitchy during the doctored section.

          I agree with your thoughts on living in a communication free-for-all.

          Reply ↓
        2. tegnost

          pbs which I hear with great reluctance has a we’re all in this together thing with woodruff tonight so things must be looking bad in demland tonight, and colbert and his wife where colbert said he stays away from interviewing politicians because they lie, then justified palestinian protestors heckling nancy pelosi as ok he said he’d let them heckle and you know, fought for their right to heckle by pressing nancy immediately after he said he didn’t interview polititians? nancy is not a politician? ok ok ok she’s fund raiser, and boy does she raise the funds…

          Reply ↓
      2. Ben Panga

        Thank you Marym. I checked with your link and the link I posted from Chad Boyes was definitely doctored. The words “has a different plan” were replaced with “can’t even die with dignity”.

        Off-topic she sounds curiously Southern while speaking in Georgia.

        Reply ↓
  27. Mirjonray

    ‘I haven’t seen anybody,’ said Nate Wilkowski, field director for the Republican Party in vote-rich Oakland County, Michigan, which includes crucial Detroit suburbs. He was speaking specifically of America PAC. ‘Nobody’s given me a heads-up that they’re around in Oakland County areas.’” • Have any readers experienced Trump door-knocking? [asks Lambert Strether]

    I live in Oakland County and we had our first Trump campaigner stop by our house this past weekend. (We were out and he/she/they dropped off literature at our door.) Before then I’ve only had to shoosh away a few anti-abortion door-knockers.

    Reply ↓
  28. Ben Panga

    Telegram’s Pavel Durov announces new crackdown on illegal content after arrest

    Telegram founder and chief executive Pavel Durov said Monday that the messaging platform had removed more “problematic content” and would take a more proactive approach to complying with government requests. The announcement comes weeks after his arrest in France on charges of failing to act against criminals using the app.

    Telegram’s search feature “has been abused by people who violated our terms of service to sell illegal goods”, Durov told the 13 million subscribers of his personal messaging channel.

    “Over the past few weeks” staff had combed through Telegram using artificial intelligence to ensure “all the problematic content we identified in Search is no longer accessible”, he said.

    Durov added that the platform had updated its terms of service and privacy policy to make clear that it would share infringers’ details with authorities – including internet IP addresses and phone numbers – “in response to valid legal requests”.

    “We won’t let bad actors jeopardise the integrity of our platform for almost a billion users,” he said.

    Mission accomplished. He caved it seems. Or he’s just putting in a show to appease the overlords.

    Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev

      Is he going to be banning RT? That would get him in good with the West as they are trying to ban RT worldwide right now. It’s his own fault that he is under detention. He trusted Macron.

      Reply ↓
      1. Daniil Adamov

        I wonder if it’s going to apply equally in Russia. It does seem to be moving in that direction. Although some early stories reported that the illegal content complaint bot was not available here, this seems to have been rectified quickly.

        Reply ↓
  29. Lunker Walleye

    Hilma af Klint from Wikipedia
    “. . .A considerable body of her work predates the first purely abstract compositions by Kandinsky, Malevich and Mondrian. . . .” Thanks for that. Never had heard of her.

    Reply ↓
  31. Tom Stone

    Putting a price on Trump’s head is something quite a few Americans approve of, he is, after all, EVIL incarnate, a Monster.
    He must be stopped AT ALL COSTS!
    I’ve heard this in the MSM and in person, people who are not overtly insane genuinely believe he is Orange Hitler, and they are vocal.
    So I expect more attempts, if Routh hadn’t gotten buck fever he would have waited until Trump was closer than 200 meters and Trump would be dead.
    And Crooks missed by inches, giving Trump his first Howard Flitcraft moment.
    I wish Trump well because of the potential consequences of his murder are effing messy, something too many are ignoring.

    Reply ↓
    1. Chet

      What happened to Crooks’ parents? Why no word of any of that?

      The measure of a candidate is extending their “reign” for four more years. With Trump, it was frankly boring, except for a Middle East bombing or two in a stale war, then Floyd riots, beyond his control and the Pandemic, the effects of which mostly brought on by governors and local authorities.

      The last four years of BidenHarris, no matter how desperate her handlers are to distance her from it, economically, culturally, war wise, extend them for another four years and the middle class is gone, as is the lower upper class, and maybe the biosphere.

      Reply ↓
    2. Screwball

      I’m no gun or ballistics expert but from what I read and watched; if Trump wouldn’t have moved his head at the exact right time while giving that speech we would have Nikki right now.

      Reply ↓
  33. flora

    Matt Taibbi and Walter Kirn just wrapped up tonight’s America This Week episode.
    It’s on utube available for replay.

    ATW Live: The Deep State Endorses Harris, Ryan Routh’s Letter, and More

    https://www.youtube.com/live/bNZNsGJFhwQ

    As Matt and Walter remark, the movies “Doctor Strangelove” and “Network” are being to seem like current, near documentaries instead of old, over-the-top satires, and in a very worrisome and fearful way.

    Reply ↓
    1. NeverStop

      One field commander’s mistake on either side, one badly targetted missile and the nukes fly. Civilization has two hours to live. First the military targets, then the terror before the cities turned to their constituent atoms, then the starvation begins. weeks later the maggots hatch in what’s left of humanity, with a few exceptions that will die more slowly.
      Is Kamala worth that at only 1% odds?
      Too big a risk. Don’t care about personalities, nor nor even the environment, which Trump will trash. There is no environment with nuclear war and there will be no you to miss it.

      Reply ↓
    1. Yves Smith

      My cat would hide in the back of the sock drawer. Also in the back of a sort of long closet where he had to shove himself through my nice corporate jackets, getting his fur all over them and necessitating a lot of dry cleaning.

      Reply ↓
  36. tegnost

    pbs which I hear with great reluctance has a we’re all in this together thing with woodruff tonight so things must be looking bad in demland tonight, and colbert and his wife where colbert said he stays away from interviewing politicians because they lie, then justified palestinian protestors heckling nancy pelosi as ok he said he’d let them heckle and you know, fought for their right to heckle by pressing nancy immediately after he said he didn’t interview polititians? nancy is not a politician? ok ok ok she’s fund raiser, and boy does she raise the funds…

    Reply ↓
  37. Ben Panga

    This photo should become emblematic of Starmer’s Labour. A young man stands up to protest arms sales to Israel in a fairly polite heckle. Security guards grab him by the throat immediately to stop his words.

    From the Middle East Eye report

    Video footage shows one guard grabbing him repeatedly around the throat and then knocking him over.

    “One of the guards said, ‘You little weasel’, as he knocked him down,” Jack said. The pair were hauled out by several security personnel.

    “I was knocked against the wall, pushed around, put in cuffs and held for an hour,” Jack added…..

    ….As the protesters were hauled out of the conference hall, Chancellor Reeves hit back at them, declaring: “This is a changed Labour Party.

    “A Labour Party that represents working people, not a party of protests.”

    The crowd of sycophants cheered the removal and Reeves’ response however “despite the audience reaction, a recent poll showed that three-quarters of Labour members back a full ban on arms sales to Israel.”

    (The ‘party of protest’ line is a jab at Corbyn, ignoring that his Labour party gaining many more votes than the current one).

    Reply ↓

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