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2:00PM Water Cooler 11/19/2024

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By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Bird Song of the Day

Northern Mockingbird, Granville Schools Land Lab, Licking, Ohio, United States

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Patient readers, matters occurrent have proved unexpectedly time-consuming, so this is an open thread. I will be back in full force tomorrow. Be kind to each other! –lambert

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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 CC:

CC writes: “Been hot and humid for a bit as of late here in the Green Mountain State but a photo from last winter looking back into some pine trees.”

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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:

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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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30 comments

      1. flora

        Ed Down has commented the US financial situation is such that there are only 2 choices: A deep recession starting in March or April next year, 2025, or war to obfuscate the financial situation. Open money printing is no longer on the table. Maybe, maybe not.

        And there was Gerald Celente’s comment/prediction in January this year that when the pres party pols are losing they take the country to war. Of course, that is supposed to happen before the election. But the B admin is still in charge. / ;)

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        1. ambrit

          Of course, the opposite would be, well, there are too many tempting targets in Europe for the Russian High Command to comfortably advocate any less than a round hundred to one retaliation figure. For every “Yeukranian” strike on a Russian deep strategic target, a hundred kinzhals strike NATO bases. Of course, the Russians are too rational to consider such a scheme. More probably, the Iraqui Resistance obliterates the American bases at Al-Tanf and in Syrian Kurdistan.
          I wonder if the Al Ansara in Yemen might launch attacks against American bases in Eritrea and Somalia? With over 800 targets to choose from world-wide, the Russians and their proxies must be pulling their hair out trying to decide on a targeting matrix.

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  3. Anon

    Happy Tuesday NC commentariat! I saw it on Politico earlier, but from what I gather on the Democrat side, Hakeem Jefferies will remain as House Minority Leader. In addition to that, there will be no changing of the guard, given the abject failure electorally (and financially). It took them about 3 years from 2016 to put out a lessons learned sheet about that election. I wonder if we’ll see something similar anytime soon?

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    2. Jonathan Holland Becnel

      HAPPY TUESDAY TO YOU AS WELL, ANON!

      I was thinking about what Michael Hudson said in a recent talk with Richard Wolff on Dialogue Works about giving the Working Class an alternative to the current economic system we have- charts and graphs and all.

      Do you think it’s possible for organizers to reach the working class through basic economics of that workers local budgets? Like give them the basic numbers on the Banks, Finance, Insurance, Real Estate, Inflation, et al?

      Do y’all think that’s doable and or worthwhile?

      If we could easily translate how the workers are getting exploited and by who, then we might get a critical mass?

      Back to your regularly scheduled programming!

      Reply ↓
  4. griffen

    One less nominee for a potential Treasury secretary. Feels likely that Trump is “making a list, and he’s checking it twice” for this prominent Cabinet post…

    For commerce he nominated Howard Lutnick earlier today. The longtime CEO for Cantor Fitzgerald is well known for his efforts after losing a significant count of employees on 9/11. I am not terribly certain about the fit here, all else equal it seemed too likely this prominent backer, and leader of a relatively smaller Wall St firm, would land in a role.

    https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/19/howard-lutnick-commerce-secretary-trump-pick-00189339

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    1. schmoe

      “Free speech is for forprofit corporations, not nonprofit corporations.”

      Free speech will still be for non-profits as long as they don’t oppose The Narrative(tm).

      Reply ↓
  6. IM Doc

    A follow up on a few things I have mentioned……

    The blue meltdown in the past few days has very significantly subsided. Hopefully things will be getting back to normal – we will see.

    Also – several in my circles on our twitter medical groups thought they would head off to Bluesky. It has hardly been two weeks and they are already back. Basically, too much censorship and squelching of free discussion about issues. One or two a day seem to be coming back and stating largely the same thing. It seems like going forward, it will likely be only the true blue MSNBC cult members there.

    Also, as an aside, a friend of one of my employees does OnlyFans. They also tried to make the move to Bluesky only to discover that there was no engagement, no customers, and most of the people there seemed to not be interested in becoming one. So, they too, are back on Twitter. Hilarious. I had not thought of that.

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  10. Pat Morrison

    I’m nearing the end of Robert Caro’s ‘The Power Broker’ (on audiobook, the paper glowers at me from the shelf.) I am reminded that Michael Lewis once said in an interview that he’d written ‘Liar’s Poker’ as a cautionary tale but it had been interpreted as a ‘How To’ manual by young MBAs wanting to get in on the Wall Street game. I am wondering the same thing about ‘The Power Broker’, whether it has been taken as a map rather than a warning sign.

    Anyone else have thoughts along these lines?

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  11. Terry Flynn

    Prince of Wales wants to make royal lower case.

    Try deeds not words (lookup wills in Cornwall and Lancaster). Plus don’t leave yourself open to us people to make jokes as to whether you’ve pegged your future reign to this. ;)

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  12. Terry Flynn

    Two random observations:

    (1) I’m getting a lot more bots/female sex workers requesting to follow my non public X account. Err what?

    (2) I’m getting a lot of requests on blue-sky who aren’t bots but whose whole ecosystem (who they follow and who follows them) suggest they’re part of the dreaded PMC.

    I am accepting the requests…. mainly for the lulz when I quote my publications that show the US and British liberal wings are demonstrably idiotic. Yeah I’m bored and just feel like trolling. I do not feel like Blue-sky is the solution so I may as well have fun.

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    1. Michaelmas

      That is hilarious. And as with missile attacks, Trump can keep on announcing nominations with a lot less time and energy spent than his enemies are going to have to spend trying to shoot each one down

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    2. Tom Stone

      I think Dr Oz is an entirely suitable man to head Medicare and Medicaid services,given the current state of affairs.
      This is even better than Wolensky or the Bonnie Henry appointment in Canada!
      You can’t make this stuff up…Trump might put “The Onion” out of business.

      Reply ↓

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