Recent Items

2:00PM Water Cooler 10/7/2024

Posted on by

By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Readers, while photographing today, I was stepping back to get my subject properly framed when I felt my foot strike emptiness. Then I fell backwards onto a concrete walkway. While falling, I cradled the camera with my body, so that’s alright, but I sprained my lower back badly. Sitting at my desk is not on. So I am retiring to my bed with some actual painkillers from the drugstore. I should be back in form tomrrow. Meanwhile, this is an open thread. –lambert

* * *

Contact information for plants: Readers, feel free to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) find out how to send me a check if you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi, lichen, and coral are deemed to be honorary plants! If you want your handle to appear as a credit, please place it at the start of your mail in parentheses: (thus). Otherwise, I will anonymize by using your initials. See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. From CG:

This is bee balm. Bee balm is one of my favorite flowers. Hummingbirds love it, and it’s invasive, so plant a little, get a lot. Bee balm also enables me to show of one of my very few bits of actual botanical knwowledge: Bee balm has a square stem, so it is in the mint family.

* * *

Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not covered by the annual NC fundraiser. Material here is Lambert’s, and does not express the views of the Naked Capitalism site. If you see a link you especially like, or an item you wouldn’t see anywhere else, please do not hesitate to express your appreciation in tangible form. Remember, a tip jar is for tipping! Regular positive feedback both makes me feel good and lets me know I’m on the right track with coverage. When I get no donations for three or four days I get worried. More tangibly, a constant trickle of donations helps me with expenses, and I factor in that trickle when setting fundraising goals:

Here is the screen that will appear, which I have helpfully annotated:

If you hate PayPal, you can email me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, and I will give you directions on how to send a check. Thank you!

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

This entry was posted in Guest Post, Water Cooler on by .

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
32 comments

  4. midtownwageslave

    Damn, the alphabet boys got Lambert with their loss-of-situational-awareness raygun.

    Fare thee well.

    Reply ↓
  5. Screwball

    Less than 30 days to go (I think) until the most important election in HISTORY!!!!!!

    I found the below post on my Facebook page today. I know this lady very very well. She is a retired paralegal who used to ignore politics years ago. Then Trump happened, and that changed. She has stage 5 TDS and has had it for a long time. She watches MSNMC, CNN, NYT, WaPo and reads Amanda Morcotte from Salon religiously. The Obama’s are her heroes, but just about any democrat will do, even Hillary, who’s book she owns and read. She believe everything the Democrats say is the truth – because they would NEVER lie to her. IOW, a typical PMC democrat to the tee.

    If you have not yet registered to vote, today is the LAST DAY to do so in Ohio. You can get registered in person at the Board of Elections (be sure to take your drivers license or State ID), or, you can register online.

    It is IMPERATIVE that you vote this year because it is obvious that Republicans continue to believe the Trump/Vance/Maga lies about everything from “protecting women” to FEMA funds being used to support relocating illegal aliens, to Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, to the January 6 insurrection just being good people visiting the Capitol.

    Everything Trump, Vance and their Republican/Maga friends have said during this election cycle has been lies, including Trump saying he knows nothing about Project 2025. This person was NEVER a good businessman, so why people think he was is beyond me. And, by the way, he DID NOT personally send you checks when he was in the White House.

    How Americans can support someone that says there will be MASSIVE DEPORTATIONS of anyone he deems to be living here illegally. He says he will GO AFTER his enemies, including news personalities. How can you be sure you are not one of them? Who decides?

    They lie because they know they have supporters that will believe everything said and they will believe that electing Republicans is the only thing they can do to protect themselves, all the while knowing full well that these politicians have the end game to end our democracy and allow this country to become a dictatorship led by old white men, with women again having no rights. Most importantly, he needs to be elected so he can throw out any lawsuits/convictions against him.

    I just wish people would wake up and see the harm these people are planning to do to this country. PLEASE get out there, REGISTER TO VOTE and VOTE BLUE to save our Democracy. Thank you!!

    There you have it. This women is scared shitless. Just like so many others. They honestly believe it will be the end of the world if Trump is elected. That is the goal of the propaganda they watch. It works. I also notice, no mention of war, probably because she’s all in on war, because Putin…

    I’m confident there are people on the other side who are the same way. They believe it will be the end of the world as they know it too, but in different ways. What is left are those in the undecided category. How many? I have no clue.

    What I find truly sad in all this; this is where we are as a country. DC if full of people who don’t care about us, spend billions on war, write bills to benefit the donors and not the people, while ignoring our crumbling infrastructure, or medical system, inflation, well-being, and then lie about everything without shame.

    Yet, we have people like this that will walk on a sea of hot embers or broken glass to vote for these very same pieces of crap, and even beg people to do the same.

    Unbelievable. I don’t get it. How did we get here? I think the media has a lot to do with it.

    Reply ↓
    1. Ben Joseph

      So in summary,

      Everything they say are lies.

      Their supporters believe Everything.

      In therapy they call this all/none thinking. No yin in the yang. Pot/kettle.

      Reply ↓
    2. Dr. John Carpenter

      I want to know what people like this plan to do if the other team wins? They going to move? Start an armed revolution? Self immolation? I mean, what’s the plan? If you really believe the other side is the end of your democracy and a literal dictatorship, you owe it to those beliefs and the people you profess to care about to act! You have to more than whine on the Internet and vote harder next time around (because, there may not be a next time!)

      Reply ↓
      1. JBird4049

        >>>If you really believe the other side is the end of your democracy and a literal dictatorship, you owe it to those beliefs and the people you profess to care about to act!

        All they do is to verbally profess the righteousness of The Cause. Actually doing things like having medical care for everyone without exception or ensuring housing for everyone is somehow unpossible, but bombing terrorist babies is.

        At least when the Republicans inevitably betray you, they don’t insult you by pretending to feel your pain.

        Reply ↓
  6. doug

    I know that feeling when expecting a solid surface, only to experience air; baffling at first then gravity takes over. Rest up. Anti-inflammatory might help.

    Reply ↓
  7. ambrit

    We have an app for apt metaphors. The Henry James Exegesis Algorithm.
    Be down reclining and supine before the maladvertant forces assailing you of late. If you can, get one of your “Escape Club” brothers or sisters up in Frederickton to send you some of the Canadian over the counter painkillers. I guarantee superior pain alleviation upon application. (Unless you are physiologically unable to metabolize opiates.)
    Stay safe.

    Reply ↓
  8. Michael Fiorillo

    If you can, try lying down flat on the floor with your legs raised, making sure your knees are well-supported; it will help the lower back calm down.
    Best wishes.

    Reply ↓
  9. Verifyfirst

    Food aid to Gaza falls as Israel sets new aid rule – sources

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/food-aid-to-gaza-falls-as-israel-sets-new-aid-rule-sources/ar-AA1rAF4i

    Somewhere around 1 and 1/2 million imprisoned people being systematically starved to death in broad daylight seems to not be newsworthy anymore.

    You don’t hear about food drops, and the pathetic US attempt at a floating pier…..well, I’m certain the Army Corps of Engineers of WW2 vintage are turning in their graves after that fiasco.

    Reply ↓
  10. Samuel Conner

    Get well soon, Lambert.

    ——–

    The pictured bee balm may be Monarda didyma, aka “Oswego Tea”. M. fistulosa, aka “Wild Bergamot” is a less visually appealing plant (blossoms are pale lavender-ish), but has the helpful property that (at least in my experience) its leaves contain substances that de-inflame bug bites. A poultice of crushed leaf held in place with tape on a bite makes itch and swelling go away quickly, My Wild Bergamot has not spread over multiple seasons; they produce a lot of seed but it may be that the dryness of the locations in which they are planted makes it hard for volunteers to get established. Each plant sends up 1-2 dozen stalks each year but otherwise stays in place.

    Reply ↓
    1. Chet G

      I’ve a tag for Monarda didyma, so you’re spot on. I grow it in a pot, and the plant seldom lasts beyond one season.

      Reply ↓
  14. CA

    Just an idea from an orthopedist friend: An idea; no more. Walking is a fine way to strengthen stomach muscles, that in turn takes pressure off the lower back. Walking can be fine lower back therapy.

    Reply ↓
  15. Glen

    Oh, ouch! Get better.

    About a year ago. I was out weed wacking with our baby battery powered weed wacker (not the big gas powered, wear a harness to hold it one), came into the house to clean up, and collapsed in the living room with what ended up (after the ambulance ride, and an ER visit,) being a bad back. ER doc just gave me pain killers, and I ended up in bed for over a month. I’m up and around now, but my back is still quick to tell me when I’m over doing it.

    Reply ↓
  17. Yves Smith

    As others recommended, ice for the first 48 hours. I would see if you can order a back chill pack from Lazada. There are both EMT one use types where you crack them with your hands; the contents of the two chambers react and get very cold for 20 mins. The other type you put in a freezer and apply. There are ones that go with body parts. I got some big ones for my hips. There have to be ones for people after back surgery.

    After first 48 hours, alternate heat and cold.

    Reply ↓
  20. antidlc

    Note to Henry Moon Pie:

    I missed your post yesterday and just wanted you to know we are wishing you all the best. Hope the surgery is successful.

    Reply ↓
  23. Rick

    Best of luck to you, Lambert. I always find it disorienting when injured. I’ve followed your writing since the early years of Corrente.

    Reply ↓
  24. jax

    Lambert, best wishes that your back will align for you in record time. I’ve been in that place when out of nowhere the universe signals ‘Timber!’ We’re thinking about you.

    Reply ↓

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *