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2:00PM Water Cooler 10/24/2024

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By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Bird Song of the Day

Common Nightingale, Vía sin nombre, Villafranca, Navarra, Comunidad Foral de, Spain. “Foraging or eating.”

* * *

In Case You Might Miss…

  1. Anti-Trump oppo barrage begins.
  2. Kamala’s town hall.
  3. Ohio pension funds sue Boeing, strike continues.

* * *

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

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2024

Less tjhwo weeks to go!

Friday’s RCP Poll Averages:

Lambert here: Big Mo shifts toward Trump, this week, even in WI (that is, if you ignore the entire concept of margin of error). Of course, we on the outside might as well be examining the entrails of birds when we try to predict what will happen to the subset of voters (undecided; irregular) in a subset of states (swing), and the irregulars, especially, who will determine the outcome of the election but might as well be quantum foam, but presumably the campaign professionals have better data, and have the situation as under control as it can be MR SUBLIMINAL Fooled ya. Kidding!.

“Where are the voters who could decide the presidential election?” [Associated Press].

* * *

Town Hall:

Kamala (D): Watch with the sound down first (1):

I was wrong. Kamala’s closing argument isn’t genocide + war machine; it’s genocide + groceries. Fifty slaps with a wet noodle for Lambert.

Kamala (D): Watch with the sound down first (2):

Lots of Democrats saying “This is normal, what’s the issue?” but what I notice is that she doesn’t actually answer the question.

Kamala (D): “Axelrod: Kamala Harris Goes To “Word Salad City” When She Doesn’t Want To Answer A Question, ‘Didn’t Concede Much’ [RealClearPolitics]. Axelrod: “Look, I think it was a mixed night, okay? I think she was very strong coming out of the gate, and she obviously came with a purpose, which she wanted to, they want to shine a focus on, you know, this latest chapter with the Hitler story of John Kelly, but generally anti-democratic behavior and the threat that represents.” A topic which The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg (see below), entirely by coincidence, had teed up. More: “[But] when she doesn’t want to answer a question, her habit is to kind of go to word salad city. And she did that on a couple of answers…. One was on Israel. Anderson asked a direct question, would you be stronger on Israel than Trump? And there was a seven minute answer, but none of it related to the question he was asking. And so, you know, on certain questions like that, on immigration, I thought she missed an opportunity because she would acknowledge no concerns about any of the administration’s policies.” The second: “No one’s going to be Bill Clinton, but you do want to relate to the people in front of you. She didn’t do a lot of that. She didn’t ask them questions. She didn’t address them particularly. So she was giving set pieces too much, but she said something at the end that I thought should be actually a frame. If they want to go down this road, this is a great frame. She said, he’ll have an enemies list. I’ll have a to-do list. And the to-do list is going to be the concerns you mentioned tonight.” • As if the Democrats didn’t have an enemies list. Just ask Thomas Frank what happened after he wrote Listen, Liberal! Adding: I think I can discount Trump’s puffery and bullshit reasonably well at this point; but I don’t know how to discount Kamala’s word salad at all.

* * *

Kamala (D): “Harris and Trump need Gen Z. Is TikTok the answer?” [Financial Times]. “To increase Harris’s reach when she became the Democratic candidate in July, her camp hired what deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty described as a pack of “feral 25-year-olds” to latch on to trending music and popular editing styles in real time. They have generated their own viral videos on issues including abortion and climate change, alongside Trump bloopers. At the same time, the campaign openly courted creators on the platform, inviting them to glitzy White House events and to the Democratic National Convention, in the hope their messaging would spread organically to their own sizeable TikTok followings.  Trump’s TikTok has presented a more sombre offering — videos set to menacing music, with dark predictions about the economy and soaring immigration under a Harris presidency, and pieces-to-camera by the former president warning of a ‘nation in decline’. These are interspersed with clips of light-hearted meetups with young male creators, such as prankster Logan Paul and video game streamer Adin Ross, who are closely affiliated with the so-called manosphere, or online spaces focused on masculinity. Harris’s TikTok strategy is ‘aspirational for any brand, let alone a politician’, where Trump’s feels ‘less native’ to TikTok and closer to traditional campaign material, according to Cohen.” • Dunno how “traditional” Logal Paul, who I loathe, is.

* * *

Trump (R): “Donald Trump takes lead over Kamala Harris on US economy in final FT poll” [Financial Times]. “The final monthly poll for the FT and the University of Michigan Ross School of Business found 44 per cent of registered voters said they trusted Trump more to handle the economy versus 43 per cent for Harris. The findings, which come less than two weeks before the election, mark the first time Trump has led Harris on the issue in the FT-Michigan Ross poll. The poll also found Trump with a wider lead among voters on the question of which candidate would leave them better off financially. Forty-five per cent picked the Republican former president — a five-point improvement from the previous month — compared with 37 per cent for Harris, the Democratic vice-president.” • Hmm.

* * *

Here we go:

Trump (R): “Trump accused of groping former model as Jeffrey Epstein watched the ‘twisted game'” [WION]. • Now? In 2024? Really?

Trump (R): “Trump: ‘I Need the Kind of Generals That Hitler Had'” [Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic]. The kind that win wars? (To be fair, except with Russia MR SUBLIMINAL Ouch!.) No, but seriously. IDF prison guard and Amalek stan Jeffrey Goldberg, writing on the eve of an election in Democrat contributor slash Kamala BFF Laurene Powell Jobs’ glossy magazine would not be my goto on this story, even if I believe war pig Milley, which I don’t, because his rice bowl trough is at stake. (Sadly, the provenance of this picture including the Atlantic’s publisher seems sketchy (image search)). Honestly, when Kamala makes her closing argument on the National Mall Tuesday, I’m picturing a big screen behind her, multi-story, with images of Nuremberg mixed in with J6. (I hope she includes the dude with his feet on Pelosi’s desk. The aghastitude!)

Trump (R): “A short list of things and people Democrats have told you are Nazis and/or Hitler” [@sunnyright, ThreadReaderApp]. • Rather a lot, and for a long time. In any case, their treatment of Nazis, even leaving Azov aside, seems a bit… situational:

Part of the Goldberg piece–

Trump (R): “Sister of slain army private and others speak out after alleged 2020 Trump remark” [Guardian]. “A row has broken out in the aftermath of a report from the Atlantic that claims Donald Trump refused to cover the funeral costs of a soldier who was murdered at a Texas military base in 2020. The deceased woman’s sister came to the defense of the former US president amid a wave of backlash against Trump…. ‘I don’t appreciate how you are exploiting my sister’s death for politics – hurtful & disrespectful to the important changes she made for service members,’ she wrote, referring to a bipartisan federal law named after Vanessa, which requires, among other things, that sexual harassment complaints involving service members be sent to an independent investigator, which was signed into law in 2021 by the Biden administration. In her statement, Mayra added: ‘President Donald Trump did nothing but show respect to my family & Vanessa. In fact, I voted for President Trump today.'” • So, not only is Goldberg a goon, he insulted a Latino family. Good job! The family lawyer speaks:

Trump (R): Musical interlude:

Worth a clickthrough. I disagree with the account’s institutional model, but the outcome is the same.

Trump (R): “‘They’re Just Over It’: How Trump Has Converted Male Frustration Into a Movement” [Politico]. The deck: “In the crucial swing state of North Carolina, a quixotic concert unveiled how Trump and his allies have shrewdly maneuvered to capture young men in 2024.” NC, but the implications are general: “Now, as Vice President Kamala Harris fights to win back the young-male cohort that helped propel President Joe Biden to victory over Trump in 2020, Democrats are frantically wondering what caused an erosion of support in polls compared to four years ago.” And: “‘The feeling I get from young men is, they’re just over it. They’re just over the lecturing, being told their issues don’t count as much,’ Richard Reeves, a senior fellow at Brookings and the president of the American Institute for Boys and Men, told me. In recent weeks, Reeves has emerged as something of a guru on the erosion of young male support for Democrats. Culturally, ‘We’ve replaced the idea of ‘original sin’ with the post-modern idea of toxic masculinity,’ said Reeves. Some may see justice in this after centuries of male domination. But while politics is often about justice, it’s also about feelings, and being heard, and sending messages.” And: “Trump, by contrast, has catered to right-leaning influencers with legions of young male fans. He’s made campaign stops with Nelk’s Kyle Forgeard, and done media hits with comedian podcasters Theo Von and Andrew Schulz, video game streamer Adin Ross, and technology investor David Sacks’ All In podcast. His RNC was headlined by the likes of UFC founder Dana White, Kid Rock and Hulk Hogan. Arrange those faces on a Pinterest board and here’s what you’ll see: a coalition of multigenerational Bro-dom, older versions of the young men streaming into the Flagstock gates.” • I loathe the term “bro,” which I associated with drunken boorishness. Perhaps it’s a generational thing.

* * *

* * *

GA: “My insanely premature analysis of Georgia’s first week of early voting” [Trouble in God’s Country]. “So far, voter turnout in the 10 storm-ravaged 75% Trump counties has actually been just a hair higher than in the other 28 counties. The 10 “individual assistance” counties have turned out at a 19.19% rate versus 18.98% for the other 28 counties. In other words, voters in the strongest pro-Trump counties haven’t let wind and rain of Biblical proportions keep them away from the polls so far. Here’s another thing that ought to worry Democrats. In the 2020 presidential election, Biden and the Democrats won the mail vote battle. Trump famously decried the use of mail-in votes, and many of his supporters apparently bought into his complaints. Biden wound up with nearly twice as many mail votes as Trump – 848,726 to 450,522. The split between Democratic and Republican counties was remarkably similar: 823,757 mail votes were cast in the 30 Democratic counties versus 491,537 in the 129 GOP counties. So far this year, the 129 Republican counties are casting more mail ballots than the 30 Democratic counties. Through Sunday’s voting, 47,626 mail votes had been cast in the GOP counties versus 32,476 in the Democratic counties. Interestingly, substantially more mail ballots had been applied for in the Democratic counties – 164,902 to 121,085 in the Republican counties – but the Democratic return rate is obviously much lower, only about half what the Republican counties are doing.” And concluding: “It’s time for Team Harris to get its vaunted ground game in gear.” • A bit late.

Democrats en Déshabillé

“How Did the Democrats Get Here?” (interview) [Tim Shenk, The Nation]. Shenk: “Setting priorities is especially difficult today because of a change that’s taken place in the Democratic coalition: the loss of working-class voters and the influx of educated professionals. This hasn’t stopped Democrats from moving left pretty much across the board over the last decade, but it’s a serious obstacle to building a durable majority that could pass structural reforms, and it raises hard questions about why so many people the left wants to speak for are moving toward Republicans.” • Sheesh, first answer and the dude makes the fundamental cateogory error of confusing liberals and the left (a party that wants working class ownership of the means of production is not liberal).

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

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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 (wastewater); 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, KidDoc, LL, Michael King, KF, LaRuse, mrsyk, MT, MT_Wild, otisyves, Petal (6), RK (2), RL, RM, Rod, square coats (11), tennesseewaltzer, Tom B., Utah, Bob White (3).

Stay safe out there!

Look for the Helpers

I think Ed Yong is so great I will give him this honored place instead of trying to categorize the content:

Posters:

Vaccines: Covid

“Repeated COVID-19 mRNA-based vaccination contributes to SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody responses in the mucosa” [Science]. But from the Editor’s Summary: “mRNA vaccines for SARS-CoV-2 elicit robust antibody responses in the circulation, which aid in protection from severe disease. However, the extent to which mRNA vaccines, which are delivered intramuscularly, can elicit mucosal immune responses is unclear. In a pair of papers, Declercq et al. and Lasrado et al. come to distinct conclusions. Using human nasal swab samples in both studies, Declercq et al. show that repeated vaccination for SARS-CoV-2 promotes neutralizing antibodies in the nose, whereas Lasrado et al. observed no obvious increase in neutralizing antibody titers after booster vaccination. These differing results may be due to the number of SARS-CoV-2 vaccinations or exposures, time since last exposure, and experimental approaches, but this pair of papers underscores the need to better understand the mucosal immune response in humans.” • Oh.

Elite Maleficence

Bonnie Henry tells:

And:

If getting infected is good because you won’t get infected, why not just get infected in the first place?

* * *

TABLE 1: Daily Covid Charts

Wastewater
This week[1] CDC October 14 Last Week[2] CDC (until next week):

Variants [3] CDC October 12 Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC October 12

Hospitalization
★ New York[5] New York State, data October 23: National [6] CDC September 28:

Positivity
National[7] Walgreens October 21: Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic October 19:

Travelers Data
Positivity[9] CDC September 30: Variants[10] CDC September 30:

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

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) Good news!

[2] (CDC) Last week’s wastewater map.

[3] (CDC Variants) KP.* very popular. XEC has entered the chat.

[4] (ED) Down.

[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Steadily down.

[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). I see the “everything in greenish pastels” crowd has gotten to this chart.

[7] (Walgreens) A pause.

[8] (Cleveland) Dropping.

[9] (Travelers: Positivity) Down.

[10] (Travelers: Variants). No XEC.

[11] Deaths low, positivity down.

[12] Deaths low, ED down.

Stats Watch

Employment Situation: “United States Initial Jobless Claims” [Trading Economics]. “The number of individuals filing for unemployment benefits in the US fell by 15,000 from the previous week to 227,000 on the period ending October 19th, the lowest since the start of the month, and well below market expectations that they would have remained at 242,000. The drop extended the view that the US labor market remains relatively resilient to restrictive interest rates by the Federal Reserve, strengthening bets that the central bank will refrain from delivering more aggressive rate cuts in upcoming decisions.”

Manufacturing: “United States Kansas Fed Manufacturing Index” [Trading Economics]. “The Kansas City Fed’s Manufacturing Production index was at 0 in October of 2024, holding the decline in the tenth district’s factory activity reflected by the -18 in the previous month, loosely aligned with the poor momentum for manufacturing in other key regions of the United States.”

Housing: “United States Building Permits” [Trading Economics]. “Building permits in the United States fell by 3.1% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.425 million in September 2024, revised down from a preliminary estimate of 1.428 million.”

The Economy: “United States Chicago Fed National Activity Index” [Trading Economics]. “The Chicago Fed National Activity Index decreased to -0.28 in September 2024 from a revised -0.01 in August.”

* * *

Manufacturing: “Ohio Pension Funds Sue Boeing and Former Chairman Over Plane Failures” (press release) [AccessWire]. “Now two pension funds for the State of Ohio are demanding answers from Boeing and its board members (both current and former) about the devaluation of their investment. Attorney General Dave Yost announced Tuesday that he is suing the board of directors for the Washington, DC-based jet manufacturer, ‘seeking accountability for a pattern of safety and compliance failures that have harmed the company and its investors.’ Yost is representing the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System and the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio in the litigation, and accuses Boeing board members of breaching their fiduciary duties by failing to properly oversee the company. The lawsuit alleges the members knew ‘about the ongoing unsafe practices but even today fail to address them, choosing instead to prioritize profits over safety and regulatory compliance.’ Among the defendants singled out by Yost is former Boeing chairman Kellner, who departed from the company under a cloud earlier this year, following the Alaska Airlines incident and other safety failures, in what CNN described as ‘a complete decapitation” of leadership.” • Hardly complete.

Manufacturing: “Boeing strike continues as union rejects contract, scuttling CEO’s recovery plan” [The Register]. “The new contract was rejected by 64 percent of union members the same day Boeing announced a dreadful quarter capped off by $6.1 billion in losses… ‘Workers across America know what it’s like for a company to take and take – and Boeing workers are saying they are fully and strongly committed to balancing that out by winning back more of what was taken from them by the company for more than a decade,’ IAM District 751 president Jon Holden and IAM District W24 president Brandon Bryant said of the failed vote. The ‘take and take’ Holden and Bryant refer to is likely to do with one of the biggest sticking points in the negotiations – workers’ pensions. Boeing phased out fixed-benefit pensions in 2014 in favor of 401(k) portfolios for employees, and union members have made clear since negotiations began that they wanted those fixed benefits back, something the company hasn’t budged on.” • If Boeing doesn’t turn around on the shop floor, it doesn’t turn around. So why is Boeing working to screw everybody on the shop floor as hard as they can?

Manufacturing: “Boeing Workers Resoundingly Reject New Contract and Extend Strike” [New York Times]. “‘”There’s much more work to do. We will push to get back to the table, we will push for the members’ demands as quickly as we can,’ said Jon Holden, president of District 751 of the union, which represents the vast majority of the workers and has led in the talks. He delivered that message at the union’s Seattle headquarters to a room of members chanting, ‘Fight, fight.’” • Hmm. Reminds me of something….

Manufacturing: “American Airlines CEO wishes Boeing wasn’t ‘just a distraction'” [Chicago Business] “American Airlines Group Inc.’s CEO said he looks forward to the day when Boeing Co. is not just a distraction,’ highlighting the growing frustration among the planemaker’s biggest customers. ‘We’ve been struggling with them over the last five years,’ Robert Isom told CNBC Thursday, noting that American can deliver the capacity it has planned for the remainder of this year but that he worries about promised Boeing plane deliveries in the future…. ‘We need them to deliver quality aircraft on time,’ he said. ‘I look forward to the phone call when Boeing says we’re able to do so.'” • Ouch!

Manufacturing: “Boeing Workers Spurn Latest Offer as Bid to End Strike Fails” [New York Times]. “‘I’m in favor of a fair contract,’ said Charles Fromong, 59, a machine tool repair mechanic working for Boeing’s military aircraft division. ‘The strike is just a byproduct of Boeing not paying people what they are worth.'”

* * *

Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 65 Greed (previous close: 63 Greed) [CNN]. One week ago: 70 (Greed). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Oct 24 at 1:11:05 PM ET.

Gallery

“Behold the Messy Creative Process of Fifty Celebrated Painters in ‘The Artist’s Palette'” [This Is Colossal]. “One could argue that every great painting produces two works of art: the canvas and the surface where the pigments are mixed…. [Alexandra Loske, in The Artist’s Palette,] presents the physical palettes—dried paint, worn edges, well-exercised hinges, stained wood, and all—alongside one or more of each artist’s paintings. She also analyzes the mixture of pigments, highlighting color relationships that illuminate both the methods used and the choices that led to a finished work.” • Edward Hopper’s:

Guillotine Watch

“Things to Do in the Hamptons This Week, October 25-31, 2024” [Dan’s Papers]. • “The Hamptons are not a defensible position.” –Mark Blythe

I know I shouldn’t be such a Debbie Downer, but there’s something about that photo that just gets me.

Class Warfare

A tradcath I coud have discussion with:

Worth a clickthrough.

News of the Wired

“This simple balance test may be best way to track how well you’re aging” [Study FInds]. “The research, published in PLOS ONE, finds that among healthy adults over 50, the time someone could maintain balance on one leg — particularly their non-dominant leg — showed the fastest rate of decline with age compared to other physical measures. This simple test proved to be equally effective for both men and women…. Surprisingly, while walking patterns remained relatively stable across age groups, other measures showed significant age-related declines. The ability to stand on one leg decreased most dramatically — about 2.2 seconds per decade for the non-dominant leg and 1.7 seconds for the dominant leg. This was followed by increased body sway during two-legged standing and declining grip and knee strength.” • News you can use!

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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.

Subscribe to Post Comments
96 comments

  1. Carolinian

    FWIW SC election authorities reporting record early voting.

    Meanwhile Taibbi follow up on Starmer’s guru’s foreign interference gate

    https://www.racket.news/p/trump-camp-british-censorship-group

    And Patrick Lawrence on Kamala’s hypocrisy on Gaza gate

    https://scheerpost.com/2024/10/24/patrick-lawrence-harris-comes-out-of-the-closet-on-israel/

    The takeaway from the latter is that nothing will fundamentally change from the admin that was already doing that.

    1. John k

      Problem is that trump/harris share the same ME policies because their donors are united here. The argument shouldn’t be vote trump instead of Harris, imo it should be vote stein. Only if that vote gets high enough might policy change.

    2. hk

      I really wish we finish the job thstbwe began in 1776 and destroy UK for good this time now that we have a good reason.

  2. ChrisFromGA

    Re: Ohio Pension Funds Sue Boeing and Former Chairman Over Plane Failures

    Looks like a shareholder derivative suit! The significance of that is that the complaint, if successful, seeks damages that would go not to the nominal plaintiffs directly, but rather to the Boeing corporation itself. The damages would be paid from court-ordered damages disgorging ill-gotten gains by Boeing’s management, including Calhoun, Pope, and other senior leaders and board members.

    Excerpt from “Relief sought”:

    Awarding the Company restitution from Defendants and requiring Defendants to
    disgorge all profits, compensation, and other benefits they unjustly received, including all
    wrongfully received incentive compensation (whether in the form of cash bonuses, stock awards,
    stock option grants, or otherwise) and stock sale proceeds;

    Presumably, Boeings stock price would benefit from having monetary damages clawed back from Calhoun and others stock options, salaries, bonuses, and other compensation that they were paid under allegedly fraudulent or negligent circumstances. That would be in the interest of the pension funds who own Boeing shares and are therefore legally able to file this complaint.

    This complaint made my day. I will dig into it (it’s long – 205 pages.) At first glance, it looks devastating. I look forward to the day when the sheriff shows up at Calhoun’s house to seize his property for a judgment.

    Nikki Haley was on Boeing’s BoD. She should also be sued because she failed to do her job and exercise regulatory oversight. I don’t see her name in the list of defendants, unfortunately.

    (It’s never too late to file another suit, though.)

    1. Lambert Strether Post author

      > This complaint made my day. I will dig into it (it’s long – 205 pages.) At first glance, it looks devastating.

      Please share the results of your investigations!

      1. ChrisFromGA

        Will do. It is going to take some time as this complaint is huge, there are literally hundreds of points, including this gem that looks like it could have been written by the NC braintrust:

        The Birth of Boeing’s Toxic Culture: The Boeing’s C-Suite Changes from Engineers to Financiers

        I will chew through it over the weekend and email you direct.

  3. Louis Fyne

    >>>“Harris and Trump need Gen Z. Is TikTok the answer?”

    If one’s candidate has a vision and charisma, a decentralized “meme army” self-organizes and doesn’t need to be on a campaign payroll. See 2008 Obama-fever.

    (IMO) After going down the TikTok rabbit hole, Harris’s official Tiktok is cringe and feels like it’s run by bubble-ensconced public policy grad students.

    Whereas for Team Trump, the heavy-lifting is done by a multitude of unofficial Trump fans who probably would just be ecstatic to get a free hat and tickets to a dedicated “Meme Army Ball” at the inauguration.

    Go try the TikTok experiment yourself (you don’t need an account, just the app)…linger on one candidate’s Tiktoks (quickly reject the other side)….then the algorithm will send you that that party’s rabbit hole.

    Then uninstall the app and reinstall….then do it again for the other party.

    1. t

      prankster Logan Paul

      ???!!!
      That’s one way to put it.

      Logan Paul was excellent in a horror movie with a planned sequel, that I wanted to watch, which was scrapped because the lawsuits, rape accusations, and platform bannings had piled up to the point where he was uninsurable (and unlike Robert Downey Jr, he did not have a buch of Hollywood heavyweights willing to carry the freight. )

    2. Randall Flagg

      I get a little confused on this Tic-Tok thing. Wasn’t the US Government all up in arms recently that Tic-Tok wis a threat to our national security, yet here we are with Harris and Trump using it to reach voters. Must actually be okay then? Sarc off now.

      1. Nikkikat

        Nothing about Chinese policy makes any sense, seems like they are trying to have their cake and eat it too. Numb skulls

  4. Swamp Yankee

    Re: the model Stacey Williams’ allegation against Trump.

    I guess I’m not clear on the meaning of your comment, Lambert (“Now? In 2024? Really?”). Beyond statute of limitations issues, I don’t see that the year of the allegation by Ms. Williams (2024) is dispositive one way or the other; am I missing something? Or are you saying it’s purely political given the election year? Genuinely not sure what you mean. Thanks.

    1. Lambert Strether Post author

      > am I missing something

      Presumably, the Democrats have had competent oppo researchers working on Trump since at least 2016, maybe longer. And we’ve had lawsuits and book deals and enormous media coverage. My thinking is that if this story comes out now, it didn’t make the cut earlier, and so there’s something wrong with it. We’ll see!

      1. amfortas the hippie

        i think the same, with all such recent ‘bombshells’ regarding trump or vance.
        things from a long time ago, suddenly becoming important right before the election…when you know the dems knew about them for years.(to your list, add all that Discovery in all those prosecutions and other suits)
        “keeping the powder dry”, just another version,lol.
        i mean, this woman’s accusation of rape should have been deemed important when it was made(remember “believe the woman”, etc?)…but they sat on it, until they needed something…anything!…

        and for me…and i’m guessing many of us here…the dems have lost all legitimacy…and well before biden.
        i dont see who’s votes they hope to sway with this sort of thing, either…like the sudden resurgence of hitler memes.

    2. Pat

      In my case, it is doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome. Let’s see we have had the Access Hollywood tape, the Stormy Daniels affair, Ivana’s book, the Marla Maples bit, and the ridiculous E. Jean Carroll accusation and suit. (Full disclosure, from personal knowledge Carroll’s story doesn’t hold water, and that result was almost as egregious as the Bragg anything I can throw at the wall 34 felony convictions.)

      As Lambert and Amfortas have pointed out this was all about getting Trump and thus was kept in the closet. It has nothing to do with either right or wrong or justice for the woman. To make this particularly offensive, all of the material regarding Epstein’s actions and his records were buried to protect people who from, yes, hearsay did a hell of a lot worse. She is a tool for them.

      Trump is a pig. A fact that has been well known for the almost forty years I have heard about him, and something I got to see about him in person a quarter of a century ago. It is a weak Hail Mary pass at the last minute because nothing they have done has worked.

      1. Lambert Strether Post author

        > Trump is a pig.

        That’s priced in. I suppose this fires up the base, because I don’t see how anyone could possibly have missed eight years of a constant media drumbeat (Irregular voter: “I never knew Trump was a pig!” Really?!)

      2. amfortas the hippie

        yes, Pat, a hail mary…but perhaps a less than fullthroated hailmary.
        i think the dems might want to throw this election.
        give trump the tarbaby of the disaster that is usa foreign and domestic policy, and the objective state that the entire american empire(that we cant even talk about, even out here) is in.
        i mean, its all based on Belief, no?
        no one believes in USA Empire anymores.
        its literally all over but the shouting…and the Burning Times, of course…which i’d like to get over with as soon as frelling possible, and settle into some kind of warlord stability.
        hopefully with me as the Cool Warlord, of course.
        out here, only…i have no designs on the surrounding counties…..or even this whole county.
        just enough to be left alone and take care of my peeps.

  5. sardonia

    Not just Trump ahead in polling on the economy, but (oh the loving irony) on Kamala’s signature issue, “He’ll end democracy!”, WAPO just put out a poll on “which candidate do you think would be the best at preserving democracy?”

    Trump – 44%
    Harris – 40%

    Can’t find the link, just read it this morning…

  6. Karen P

    A few months back, someone conducted an experiment of sorts on Wong’s Air Fanta 4 Lite. I would like to look at their test again before purchasing one and I would like to hear from anyone who has found the device helpful or not-so-helpful. I am a high school teacher and am thinking of purchasing one to use on my podium when I am lecturing.

    3. rePiet

      Are you able to purify the room instead? A couple corsi-rosenthals in the room could do the trick. If you live where covid is over, just add an essential oil and call em boxes that make air smell well to help kids read good. I am sure someone has done research that shoes scents can impact learning.
      My concern with a laminar flow device is that if you step out of that flow you will not get the protection from it.

      1. Lambert Strether Post author

        The Airfanta is light and portable, so you can carry it about. Ideal for podium.

        I’ve seen good posts about it on the Twitter, but the question was about personal experience.

  7. ChrisFromGA

    Random election thoughts – RCPs poll average (national) is down to a 0.2 advantage for Harris, which is the lowest I’ve seen yet.

    RCP homepage: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/

    I think we’re now inside the window (12 days) where no one event or big surprise can influence the outcome. Rather, the election will take its deadly course, and influence events.

    I suppose that Israel attacking Iran might be an exception, if it goes pear-shaped. Given the reality of the generally hidebound support for Israel across all groups except progressives and Muslims, who are not likely going to be happy about more slaughter, I’d say even a headline like “Iran shoots down a bunch of Israeli F-15s” is not going to matter. Most of the Republican base would be happy to see Iran bombed into submission (just like it worked out so well in Vietnam.)

    Short of a full-scale nuclear exchange, it is looking like we are going to get a very close election and we won’t know who won for days.

    Meanwhile, I suspect some actor like Netanyahu will take advantage of the post-election chaos and lame duck-ified Biden to go rogue. Seems also like a good time for the neocons to do a “turn over the chessboard and stomp out of the room” move in Ukraine, as they’re losing badly.

    Stock up on water, beans, and popcorn.

      1. Big River Bandido

        I agree. All the pundits talk about how the pollsters have fixed their biases from ‘16 and ‘20. We are told that they have learned their lessons.

        My sweet aunt Fanny. These people have learned nothing. If media polls only give Harris a 0.2% lead, in reality that’s probably a 5-point deficit.

        The Democrat misleaders have known this from their internals for a few weeks already and that’s why their hair has been on fire. (Obama’s scolding of “brothers”, Harris’ “real tragedy” in Detroit, the cringeworthy masculinity ads, Walz’ hunting disaster, all kinds of desperate, unforced errors and “own goals”…). They can tell it’s not working for them.

        This is all standard drain-circling behavior.

        1. John k

          Yes. Imo Bloomberg is among the worst, over-predicting Harris maybe 5%+.
          Amazingly to me, it’s not just looking trump gets about 300 ev, but likely wins pop vote.
          Imo it was Hillary that jumped up for Harris, spiking Obama’s plan for open convention where somebody electable might have been found. Imo it wasn’t that Harris had a w week honeymoon after convention, it was relief it wasn’t Biden. But then America actually looked – and listened – to her.

    2. Lunker Walleye

      Today, this from Matt Taibbi.: “Something’s up. Suspiciously similar editorials about possible post-election emergency measures coming out in multiple publications” He mentioned WaPo and NYT.

        1. Ben Panga

          Many other articles too

          See e.g. https://thefulcrum.us/election-2024/trump-is-a-threat-to-democracy

          [Added emphasis mine]

          The fourth option is by far the riskiest and most controversial. While the first three can be pursued within well-established constitutional norms, the fourth would, at first glance, seem to transgress those norms.

          Faced with the prospect of a Trump presidency, some, out of desperation, might urge Biden to turn the tables on Trump and refuse to transfer power to him. In this scenario, Biden would resign, and Harris would be sworn in as president. There would be no constitutional problem if he were to take this step.

          Harris would then face the horrible possibility that her oath of office and promise to defend the Constitution against “all enemies, foreign and domestic” might require her not to transfer power to someone who has already said he might terminate the Constitution. Doing so is the kind of nuclear option that Walzer says good politicians must consider when circumstances warrant it.

          BP: Seems a lot like destroying the village in order to save it to me, but then again I’m a foreigner without a good grasp of the subtleties here.

  8. Cervantes

    > Boeing workers want traditional pensions

    I think they need to start talking about what they’d take as an alternative because I don’t think single-employer DB pensions are coming back.

    Traditional DB pensions violate time value of money principles. The vast majority of the cost is backloaded to the last few years of the worker’s career. It is precisely the genesis of age discrimination. Hence traditional DB pensions also show an accentuated sensitivity to demographic imbalance in company funding costs -> unit costs.

    It would be nice if AFL-CIO and others could build a workable non-employer pension fund and then make defined contributions part of their contacts, or design some kind of participating deferred annuity that can hold equities in the portfolio to create some kind of minimum for workers vs. clear funding obligations from employers.

    1. albrt

      Defined benefit pensions also have the distinct disadvantage that the sponsors tend to go bankrupt and you do not get what you were promised. Pie in the sky by and by, as it were.

      If only there were an entity that could fund decent retirements without going bankrupt – an entity that could print money if necessary. Too bad all such entities are preoccupied with paying for genocide.

      2. Verifyfirst

        Actually there are lots of retires getting their full pensions from plans that were sponsored by now bankrupt or defunct companies, and there is also the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC) a federal fund that guarantees defined benefit pensions.

        Defined benefit pensions are not what bankrupted companies, but sounds like the companies fake tears about that have been effective……. GM has probably spent more on stock buybacks and other corporate enriching shenanigans than it would have on a DB pension since 2008.

    2. Ed S.

      In my career, I’ve worked for private companies for about 30 years. All Fortune 500 size. Three long-term employment and two shorter. Of those, only one had a DB pension (and was a major factor in accepting the job). 5 years in, that employer discontinued the plan. All others had a 401(k) with a mediocre to good match.

      A defined contribution plan shifts the risk from the company to the employee (a shift like many other aspects of the employment relationship over my career including health care and training). Further, it’s the employee’s “fault” if the employee doesn’t (can’t) fund their retirement. An ancillary benefit to the employer is that the employer 401(k) contribution/match can remain unchanged for many years. At my current employer (approaching 15 years tenure), the match is the same as when I started. This issue was raised at a recent company-wide meeting and the issue was shot down with a blunt “NO” on increasing the benefit.

      Shift risk to employee, reduce cost to employer over time – what’s not to like? /s

      1. Cervantes

        Hence I clearly suggested that unions devise multi-employer pensions or deferred participating annuities that can simulate the funding advantages of the 401(k) for the employer while giving the stability of a pension to the worker. There are retirement arrangements possible other than the single-employer traditional DB plan and the 401(k).

  10. Mark Hessel

    Re: Balance Test

    I’m +65. I’ve found that hopping on one foot up to 100 times for each leg helps my balance.
    I need to do it more consistently. It’s quite a workout for my age.

    1. CanCyn

      I am part of a long term aging study here in Canada https://www.clsa-elcv.ca/. They check my one foot balance as part of the physical that they do whenever I go in. I’ve been in the study since I was 55, at 62, I can still balance on each foot without swaying for the full 30 seconds. Having seen this article, I’ll be interested to see a5 what age that starts to change.
      As for eyes closed on one foot, that’s tough at any age!

    2. jhallc

      At 67, I’ve always figured as long as I could put my socks on standing up I was doing OK. I will say the hand to foot distance seems to be getting farther each year.

    3. begob

      One-leg balancing improves with simple piriformis exercises. I do them whenever I find myself standing in line.

  11. Jason Boxman

    Stuck in archive.ph queue for 3 hours now, but NY Times version: As Harris Courts Republicans, the Left Grows Wary and Alienated

    A great LOL to liberal Democrats. I wish this election was over already.

    Oh, what set me off was, as usual, Sanders:

    Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, for many Americans the avatar of the progressive movement, has campaigned aggressively for Ms. Harris across several battleground states. But he said in an interview that he had been alarmed by the number of working-class voters who were asking what Ms. Harris would do for them on issues like raising wages or allowing Medicare to cover dental care.

    “They want to hear her to be more aggressive in making it clear that she’s going to stand up for the working class of this country,” Mr. Sanders said. “You lose the working class, I don’t know how you win an election.”

    My dude, go home. This guy is truly a disgrace. AOC I get, she’s manipulative and narcissistic. But Sanders, how sad. Just retire already. If he hadn’t sunset his movement, perhaps we’d have some of these things. Image if he hadn’t stood down in 2016? Imagine dedicated supporters calling and writing Congress every week on this or that issue, showing up at townhalls, getting more people elected in 2018. Blah.

    And he has the audacity to mention a $15 minimum wage these days, when Harris could have overridden the Senate parliamentarian, and unlike Republicans refused.

    I mean, this dude was In. The. Senate. When this happened. What a clown.

    1. Randall Flagg

      Interestingly enough, I emailed Sanders at his Senate website to ask about his support of Harris. There are numerous categories that you can check the box on, agricultural, government agencies,etc. I checked the box about ethics ( maybe that was strike one).
      I asked that I was baffled about it as all that he has been ” fighting ” for all these years is best summed up by the Green Party platform and Jill Stein. Could you please explain it?
      The reply is that he cannot answer that on this particular email address due to rules separating campaigning and Senate work.
      Fair enough so the follow up will be, could you kindly provide the email address that we may communicate on adhering to the proper guidelines.
      We’ll see.

    2. ForFawkesSakes

      I had to remove him from my socials last week. It’s become shameful to see his posts and most of the other comment are expressing how tiresome he’s become, from his support of the genocide to Harris.

      What a way to destroy his legacy.

    3. Alan Sutton

      It has become obvious, to me anyway, that the Dem’s strategy is to attract “liberal” Republicans who hate Trump. They must think there are enough of those Cheney lovers to get her over the line.
      This must look, to them, as the only really viable option. They know they can’t fight on any Left issues because, well, they hate the Left. So do their donors which is basically the same thing.
      Do the Republicans liberals outnumber the disaffected working class or the disaffected Lefties?
      That seems to be what the election will hinge on.
      I think they have made a big mistake. The time when there were significant numbers of Republican liberals is over, it seems to me.

      2. Lefty Godot

        Yes, this seems to sum up their strategy perfectly. They think there are enough covert Trump-hating (or Trump-disdaining) Republicans that will vote Democrat to make up for the working class stiffs that are going over to Trump. I wouldn’t even call the sought-after voters “liberal” Republicans, more like Republicans of Bush-Cheney vintage who recognize the Democrats as another anti-left party rather than as the “liberal Communists” that Trump nonsensically rails against. It seems kind of crazy, but, who knows, maybe it will work. I think Schumer actually came out and said something to this effect. So they are almost looking at this as one of those historic party realignment elections.

        A lot depends on who is motivated enough to vote, in an election where both candidates are disliked by large numbers of people. And I wonder what the “youth vote” is going to do. Will many of them stay home in disgust?

      3. Acacia

        They’re enlisting the sage strategy advice of Liz Cheney, who had a landslide victory in Wyoming. Oh, wait.

    4. The Rev Kev

      This election he has become irrelevant. He has nothing to say but give money to the Democrats and vote for Harris. That is no different than any of the other Democrat Senators. The guy has taken his legacy, burned it to the ground and now in the history book he will merely become a footnote.

  12. Sub-Boreal

    Good to see that Dr. Henry got recognized for her latest, uh, contribution to public awareness.

    She’d been pretty quiet of late, probably because BC was in a provincial election campaign, and non-elected public officials generally keep their heads down at such times. Plus, the leader of the main opposition party had promised to fire her (although for the wrong reasons) if he won.

  13. Lee

    Nice to hear from Ed Yong again. Thanks for the video, which I’ll be passing on to friends and family who have become Covid lax.

    1. Lee

      Speaking of the Covid lax, I’m now several days into what is either flu or a cold. I’ve twice tested negative for Covid. Evidently, my 22 month old granddaughter got exposed on what was a primarily outdoor outing with relatives. She was asymptomatic upon her return and although our time together was also outdoors we definitely shared breath. She, her dad, and three month old brother became ill, thankfully not deathly so. Mom appears to have been unaffected. Given my age and comorbidities it may hit me harder. We shall see. Like Ed Yong I never go unmasked when indoors with others. Stay safe out there.

    2. Jason Boxman

      I’m finally seeing this show up more and more; At work people clear their throats on calls. This was unheard of before 2020, as I recall. Some of these people having been doing this for months now. That’s mild! I’m seeing this with a course I’m taking online where the instructor has been “sick” for a few months now. People at work out sick occasionally. I don’t recall anyone being out sick before 2020.

      It’s all finally starting to hit home. This is the year of FAFO. I’m curious how many more years of this we’ve got left before stuff implodes from COVID disability.

      I hope you feel better soon!

      1. NYMutza

        Clearing one’s throat may have nothing to do with Covid. At my workplace pre-Covid a co-worker cleared his throat all day, for multiple years. Coughing is a different matter.

        1. Jason Boxman

          Each of these people was “sick” recently, in the past 30-90 days. Sure, maybe it is unrelated. I don’t know. None of these people ever behaved this way before, either. This is new behavior.

  14. amfortas the hippie

    to whomever provided this link to a recent Wendy Brown interview, thank you:
    https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/the-violent-exhaustion-of-liberal-democracy

    i opened a bunch of stuff from 2 or 3 days, on the fly, and am just now getting to it….bing now done with all but the passive endeavors(running sprinklers).
    Wendy is welcome around my fire at any time.
    “Undoing the Demos’ was mighty, and one of the last weighty and dense physical books i read ere my real glasses stopped being effective(i read mostly online, now, because i can make the text 1/4” high.)

    1. Cassandra

      Amfortas, I must respectfully disagree. Here is Brown’s opening premise:

      First, even if Harris wins, nearly half of American voters will have voted for fascism.

      As I see it, regardless of whether Harris or Trump is the next president, it is likely that over 90% of American voters will have voted for fascism. That is a significant difference.

      1. anahuna

        Thanks, Cassandra. I started reading that interview with high hopes, only to find myself wading in a morass of paragraphs on the danger of that fascist Trump.

        I gave up.

      2. amfortas the hippie

        agree.
        its a flaw.
        but main thrust remains.
        i think both parties are fascist by now(bertram gross, 1980)(sheldon wolin, et al)
        operation paper clip had, perhaps, unintended consequences… in the best version.

        in the worst version, we are…and have been…the Fourth Reich.
        gels with much of both history and neocon rhetoric and esoterica.

    2. amfortas the hippie

      fta:”As Bakker writes, with digital bioacoustics “we can listen not only to turtles but also like turtles.” This technology “reveals subtleties that might escape human listeners.” Becoming such listeners facilitates enfranchising “nature” as part of us—a far better strategy than allocating nature human rights to obtain political protection.”

      i mean…damn.

      altho,listening like a turtle might be out of my realm, at this point…tinnitus,and all.

      and this sort of embeddedness and awareness she talks about throughout…is exactly how ive taught myself(with literary help) to interact with the environs of my part and more of the Farm.
      notably, perhaps, it took Tamster almost 30 years and a terminal cancer diagnosis to finally see and hear and feel something like what i feel, out among the 10000 things.

  15. Josh

    I’ve been looking for something–anything–about the BRICS summit in Kazan. It’s arguably the most portentous meeting of the 21st century, but Naked Capitalism has nothing. Any explanation for this?

    1. Lambert Strether Post author

      > Naked Capitalism has nothing

      Then you’re not reading Links. I covered BRICS twice in Links, yesterday and today. I don’t put geopolitical material in Water Cooler, unless it has electoral impact.

  16. B24S

    Thank you for The Atrist’s Palette. It speaks to me from my earliest days, and I am also of the belief that process is as important as result. It is through the doing, the process, that comes understanding. Sort of Zen Juddist.

    Visiting a 50+ years friend from art school (Philadelphia College of Art, closed just this year), and discussing his current work and how it has evolved, The Work (that is, all it takes to produce your compelled vision), shows, dealers, critics, etc., I commented that should he go before I, that, much as I love his paintings, what I would want, what I would most value, was his “palette”, a table covered in paint inches thick, laid down over the decades, containing all his palette, in layer after layer.

    The true colors of the man, as it were.

    1. Lee

      The image reminds me of one of my favorite surface features: rust. I have a nicely proportioned rectangle of rusted sheet metal left over from a long ago job that I’m going to frame and hang on the wall.

      Lol. Zen Juddhists is a self descriptor, and an accurate one, of a local Sangha. I would imagine this to be true of many such groups in the U.S.

    1. The Rev Kev

      Years ago I was friends with a bunch of English guys and if a debate got too involved, somebody would reply to a statement ‘But what has that got to do with the price of eggs?’ There is even a Wikipedia entry for this meme and it goes back over a century-

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What%27s_that_got_to_do_with_the…%3F

      So imagine my surprise when Harris does precisely this in her answer, ergo

      ‘What about all those massacres and the slaughter?’

      ‘But what has that got to do with the price of groceries?’

      1. NYMutza

        Not the same. Harris was simply evading answering the genocide question. The question regarding the price of eggs is more about describing a non sequitur.

      3. CA

        I was friends with a bunch of English guys and if a debate got too involved, somebody would reply to a statement ‘But what has that got to do with the price of eggs?’

        [ Brilliant comment. ]

        1. MFB

          Apocryphal remark at a British food service company shareholders’ meeting in the 1930s:

          “When the nation is menaced by a ruthless aggressive enemy, ‘oo better to call on than Major-General Sir Herbert Frobisher? When we wish to preserve the freedom of the seas, ‘oo better to call on than Rear-Admiral Percy Harrington? But what the bloody ‘ell do they know about the price of turnips?”

    2. Daryl

      Expensive groceries… another thing that the D party doesn’t give a rat’s [family blog] about.

    3. flora

      Sorry to harsh the mellow comedy here, but her comment
      “Harris: “I don’t know anyone who has seen the images who would not have strong feelings…”
      does stir up a very strong feeling in me about some life long friends who suddenly, after taking the jab, died very unexpectantly. Price of groceries? Yes, of course. Americans vote their pocketbooks. Easier that talking about unexpected deaths in healthy people from 30-70 years of age. I got it. Too much? ok, GOT IT.

    5. Judith

      Here is Caitlin Johnstone’s column on Harris’s answer about genocide:

      https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2024/10/25/the-only-good-thing-about-this-nightmare-is-that-its-exposing-the-monsters-for-who-they-are/

      “ Which is just wild. I mean, technically she’s not saying anything different from what liberals have been shouting for months at Americans who oppose the Gaza genocide, but she’s not supposed to say that! She’s not supposed to come right out and admit that she’s a genocidal monster and tough shit if you don’t like it because the other candidate is the greater evil. That’s normally the sort of disgusting manipulation you let other people do for you while pretending to be a good person.”

  18. ChrisRUEcon

    #AllThingsHarris

    > Harris and Trump need Gen Z

    Thanks for this! I commented on the youth vote yesterday, so this is a fortuitous follow-on of sorts!

    I don’t think Trump will do better than Harris with Gen Z, but he doesn’t need to. He just needs Gen Z to withhold their vote from Dems, as many are likely to do because of Gaza, and a totally uninspiring economic campaign.

    1. ChrisRUEcon

      #GenocideAndGroceries

      LOL

      Spare yourself the wet noodle, Lambert!

      I’ve been laughing even more because it strikes me that Kamala’s “genocide” response bears a slight resemblance to the late, great Phil Hartman’s “Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer” skit!

      Anyone else remember that?!

      The punchline always began with, “But I do know …”

      She might have well said (Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer style):

      “I’m just a cavewoman … your feelings on genocide in Gaza frighten and confuse me … BUT I DO KNOW Y’ALL CARE ABOUT GROCERY PRICES!”

      1. Acacia

        Yep, can’t help but wonder if this #GenocideAndGroceries line is based on all the polling that shows “cost of living” as one of THE top Gen Z concerns, and this is Harris lamely trying to redirect from failing to deliver anything on Gaza/Israel to “fighting for” cheaper groceries.

    2. ChrisRUEcon

      #TrackbackTo2PMWCOctober17th

      That Marcotte article … (via Salon)

      … it really irritated me. Her language and sanctimonious tone had me fuming so much I couldn’t even comment on the day, despite starting to.

      A week later, I’m finally calm enough to simply say that Democrats are modern day Pharisees – see Luke 18:9-14 (via biblegateway.com)

      Their entire message is founded in TDS, with layer after layer of media manufactured bricks – Hitler, Hoes & “Oh, The Horror”. There is no joy – only fear and sanctimony. Vote for us because … well, just look at him! And that message rightfully rings hollow with many.

      And disclaimer: no, I do not like Trump. But I’ve said since day one, Trump is not the disease. He is the symptom. The disease is a pluto-kleptocrat duopoly that peddles division and unleashes death and economic despair as its architects plunder with impunity.

  19. chris

    Average night time temperatures in Ukraine are below 40 F now. I expect we’ll start to see a lot of suffering from the lack of power soon. It probably won’t cause a collapse before the election is over. But it means we’ll be treated to a memory holed problem that is going to slap whoever wins in the face when they’re inaugurated. It also means a lot more Ukrainians are going to suffer.

    The Russians might be kind of enough to provide nice accommodations for POWs and those who surrender. I wonder how it would look if we get footage of an entire battalion of cold, starving, injured men and women begging to be captured.

  20. Jeremy_Grimm

    Today’s and yesterday’s common nightingale give me hope in the grand scheme. So much beauty of sound and the unseen beauty of the birds voices and the birds themselves … I can only marvel and hold them in awe. So much beauty overwhelms me.

  21. Jason Boxman

    I gotta tell ya, so it really is extraordinary to consider, that liberal Democrats over the past 8 years have rehabilitated neoconservatives that literally destroyed an entire region of the world, sent millions into a desperate migration abroad, killed hundreds of thousands, to say nothing of fabricating a cause for war.

    A cause that liberal Democrats were and are complicit in; Pelosi was, as I recall, part of the Gang of Idiots or whatever, that had privileged access to the cartoonish intelligence that justified annihilating an entire country and miring us in endless wars abroad for twenty years. (And you’ll recall impeached Trump, not once, but twice! over nonsensical idiot stuff, but impeachment was off the table for W. Bush.)

    Anyway, I digress, so our current president is literally senile, unfit to serve, kicked off the ticket, and his idiot VP, who cannot for the life of her string two sentences together, or apparently have any convictions of any kind except accruing power, is the Democrat nominee, without any process of any kind, to complete the unification of the Democrat Party and the aforementioned neoconservative wing of the Republican party, in a great big orgy of war, mass killing, and the surveillance state.

    And Biden is still somehow president, being unfit to serve, because that makes sense, and his senility being covered up by the VP, the Democrat Party generally, and its enablers in the press and the intelligence services that want/have a veto on political candidates in our politics.

    Holy s**t, is that actually the state of affairs?

    Oh, and Sanders, the Democratic Socialist, is all in for this, because hehe, why not?

    All in the midst of an ongoing SARS2 Pandemic, where due to cumulative risk, everyone could conceivably have some kind of disability in the next 10 years, without a functional healthcare “system” to care for the increasingly disabled population, so busy is it extorting money from the government by way of “upcoding”, which is literally just straight up fraud. (“The purpose of a system is what it does” Lambert quoted recently, and therefore the purpose of EHR systems is billing fraud.)

    And today is only Thursday.

    I’m not even sure if this is what I intended to rant about; you just kind of jump right into hell somewhere, and then there you are, eh?

  23. caucus99percenter

    From Norway (machine translation):

    Trump support surprises: “Many young people are angry with the system”

    Almost half of young Norwegian men say they would vote for Donald Trump if they were allowed to vote in the US election.

    … [Polling organization] Ipsos asked Norwegians the following question:

    “If you could vote in the presidential election in the United States today, whom would you vote for?”

    The responses show that Trump sympathy is by far greatest among men aged 18 to 29.

    47 percent answer that they would vote Trump.

    Among the women, we find a quite different picture: In the same age group, only 9 percent answer that they would vote for the former president.

    … Looking at everyone who participated in the survey, 71 percent said they would vote for Harris, while only 15 percent say they would vote for Trump.

    https://www.nrk.no/norge/47-prosent-av-unge-norske-menn-ville-stemt-pa-trump-1.17097282

  24. Jason Boxman

    Fun times.

    Because our population was limited to active-duty US Marines, the population is a unique young and healthy subset of the general population with little to no comorbid conditions. As such, the initial acute SARS-CoV-2 infections were predominately asymptomatic or pauci-symptomatic. Regardless, even in this population, approximately a quarter developed PASC which was associated with higher rates of somatic symptoms, depression, and anxiety.

    Clinical and functional assessment of SARS-CoV-2 sequelae among young marines – a panel study

    https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanam/article/PIIS2667-193X(24)00236-9/fulltext

  25. ambrit

    Caught this from the local ‘Nextdoor’ feed. Is this happening elsewhere?
    See:
    “Should we be concerned? I voted at the circuit clerk’s office for early voting. It is a computer you vote on with a narrow printout to record your vote. I marked my presidential vote and went on with voting for other things. I happened to look back at the beginning and my vote had changed from my choice to the other person! I noticed and changed my vote to my choice and checked through the process of voting for other positions. My print out showed my presidential choice but how many people don’t catch this??”

    1. Brian Beijer

      Coincedently, I spoke with my mom last night, and she mentioned that something similar happened to her when she voted. She lives in TN. She said that she voted for Trump and saw that the light turned green. Then, she went through and voted for everyone else. When she scrolled through the list again, her vote for Trump was no longer “green”, as though it hadn’t been registered. She said she had to repeatedly press for Trump with her stylus until it finally turned green again. She also wondered how many people wouldn’t catch this and not have their vote for president registered. My mom’s a rabid MAGA supporter, so I chalked it up to her being paranoid. But after reading your comment, maybe she has a reason to be suspicious…

  26. bloodnok

    >Bonnie Henry tells
    a chum, resident in beautiful british columbia, says that a class action suit against dr b and her overlords has been approved by the courts and is proceeding.

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