By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Bird Song of the Day
Northern Mockingbird, 138 Captains Dr, West Babylon, Suffolk, New York, United States. “This bird’s song includes mimicry of Carolina Wren, Northern Cardinal, and possibly Tree Swallow (final phrase at 0:44).”
“Wisdom.” What a lovely name (like “Sophia,” which I wonder why the Fish and Wildlife Service didn’t choose):
Like other Laysan albatross, or mōlī in Hawaiian, Wisdom returns to the same nesting site each year to reunite with her mate and if able, lay one egg.
For decades she did this with the same partner, Akeakamai, but that bird has not been seen for several years. pic.twitter.com/TnWozHdKUH
— USFWS Pacific (@USFWSPacific) December 3, 2024
In Case You Might Miss…
- UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson shot dead in Midtown Manhattan .
- DNC race begins .
- UAW cuts off pay from striking staffers.
Politics
“So many of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are in fact a rational management of symbolic capital.” –Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles
Trump Transition
“Trump Mulls Replacing Pete Hegseth With Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis” [Wall Street Journal]. “President-elect Donald Trump is considering Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as a possible replacement for Pete Hegseth, his pick to run the Pentagon, according to people familiar with the discussions, amid Republican senators’ concerns over mounting allegations about the former Fox News host’s personal life. Picking DeSantis, a 2024 GOP primary rival for the presidency, would amount to a stunning turn for Trump. But he would also find in the governor a well-known conservative with a service record who shares Trump’s—and Hegseth’s—view on culling what they see as ‘woke’ policies in the military. Trump allies increasingly think Hegseth may not survive further scrutiny, according to people close to the president-elect’s team, which considers the next 48 hours to be crucial to his fate. DeSantis, who served as a Navy lawyer in Iraq and the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, was on an earlier list of potential defense secretary candidates that transition officials presented to the president.” • If conservative Republicans think fixing wokeness will fix the Pentagon, they’re out of their minds.
* * * “Kash Patel Is Trump’s Scariest Cabinet Appointment Yet” [The Nation]. “Gina Haspell, Trump’s CIA director, likewise threatened to resign rather than accept Patel as her No. 2.” That “Bloody Gina” objects seems to me to be a strong argument on Patel’s favor. More: “Patel has also duly minted his battles over control of the deep state into a book, Government Gangsters, which derides the agency he’s now charged with administering as ‘one of the most cunning and powerful arms of the Deep State,’ where rampant corruption has become ‘an existential threat to our republican form of government.’ He has vowed, should he be entrusted with overseeing the agency’s operations, to shut down its Hoover Building headquarters in Washington on day one, and convert it into ‘a museum of the deep state.’…. There are of course, a battery of sound reasons to attack the investigative overreaches of the FBI, which has long empowered right-wing covert surveillance agendas and has never in its history had a non-Republican director.” • Sure, but the Democrats never acted on all those “sound reasons,” and so now we have Patel. Sheesh.
Blurting it out:
NEWS
President-elect Trump says that Peter Navarro will serve as his senior counselor for trade and manufacturing.
Navarro served four months in federal prison for contempt of Congress. pic.twitter.com/hdRLebVkcr
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) December 4, 2024
“… the Deep State, or whatever else you would like to call it…” (see from 2014 here).
2024 Post Mortem
“A Requiem For Postmortems” [3 Quarks Daily]. “Donald Trump, regardless of how you feel about him, is an enormous political talent—in a class with Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and Ronald Reagan. He has his own kind of eloquence—a mesmeric mass of malaprops, fabrications, threats, jokes, insults, syntaxial flights of lunacy—that all work for him. Trump has been accused of blowing the dog whistle. It’s true in the traditional sense of the phrase, but Trump adds a dimension like no other politician. His fans, his public, are able to hear a melody where the rest of us hear only noise. Kamala Harris just couldn’t play at his level. I’m not in the category of those who say she was a hopelessly bad candidate. She wasn’t. But she was a lot closer to John Kerry than Barack Obama. Presidential power remains the power to persuade, and Harris had trouble closing the sale. The argument that she would have improved if she’d had more time, or more of a challenge in getting the nomination has some superficial appeal, but that’s all it is. Let’s not forget, this is the same Kamala Harris who stalled early in 2020, and, while she got better, it was by degrees, not leaps and bounds. It’s very hard for even the best pitching coach to turn a soft-toss specialist into a strike-out machine. Harris didn’t have the arm for it, and she was facing someone who did.
“The End of Democratic Delusions” [George Packer, The Atlantic]. The conclusion: “A few weeks before the election, Representative Chris Deluzio, a first-term Democrat, was campaigning door-to-door in a closely divided district in western Pennsylvania. He’s a Navy veteran, a moderate on cultural issues, and a homegrown economic populist—critical of corporations, deep-pocketed donors, and the ideology that privileges capital over human beings and communities. At one house he spoke with a middle-aged white policeman named Mike, who had a Trump sign in his front yard. Without budging on his choice for president, Mike ended up voting for Deluzio. On Election Night, in a state carried by Trump, Deluzio outperformed Harris in his district, especially in the reddest areas, and won comfortably. What does this prove? Only that politics is best when it’s face-to-face and based on respect, that most people are complicated and even persuadable, and that—in the next line from the Fitzgerald quote—one can ‘see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise.’” • It has occurred to me that outlawing all digital political advertising (Internet and TV) would have two salutary effects: It would force candidates (and their proxies) to speak directly to voters, Lincoln-Douglas style; and it would give paper-based, local media a guaranteed market. (I’d also outlaw political polling, as IIRC some European countries do, for some period before the election; say two months. Combine all this with handmarked paper ballots, hand-counted in public, and we might have a healthier electoral system.
Republican Funhouse
“‘Have the stomach’: Republican claims Dems need to back Social Security and Medicare cuts” [Raw Story]. “‘We’re gonna have to have some hard decisions,’ claimed [Rep. Richard McCormick (R-GA)] during his Fox appearance Tuesday. ‘We’re gonna have to bring in the Democrats to talk about Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare.'” • Ah, “hard decisions.” Hard for whom? More:
It took these alleged men of the people a week or two to zero in on your Social Security check. https://t.co/XgmRJu40to
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) December 4, 2024
I can see the chin-stroking Op-Eds in The New York Times already. Surely, this time, we can achieve the Grand Bargain? What an exciting way for Democrats to show they’re really serious!
Democrats en déshabillé
“Why Democrats should pick — or pass over — potential contenders for DNC chair” [Politico]. “But the race for their leader, scheduled for Feb. 1, and decided by 448 committee members, remains wide open.” • Ken Martin, Martin O’Malley, Ben Wikler, James Skoufis, Michael Blake, and [drumroll] Rahm Emmanuel (see below). DNC = Democratic National Committee.
“DNC hopes to highlight success ahead of post-election meeting” [ABC]. “DNC Chair Jaime Harrison wrote in a grassroots memo obtained first by ABC News that while Democrats fell short in the presidential race, beefy and historic investments in down-ballot contests offer a roadmap to success. The party was able to salvage four Senate races in states President-elect Donald Trump won and gain House seats despite headwinds at the top of the ticket…. ‘In 2024, the DNC made strategic campaign grants in every state party for the first time in history, and delivered record-breaking investments directly to coordinated campaigns in every state — totaling over $264 million,” he added. “These investments yielded results and underscore the importance of continued state party investment…'” • Meanwhile:
Joe Biden is a good & decent man. He is a public servant who has always strived and try to do what he believes is best for all.
Joe Biden is also an amazing father.
Today, he did what was best… what was right… what was just.
— Jaime Harrison (@harrisonjaime) December 2, 2024
Dear Hunter!
“DNC chair frontrunner offers ‘uncomfortable’ advice to Democrats after crushing loss to Trump” [FOX]. “Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party chair Ken Martin, a DNC vice chair who has led the association of state Democratic Party chairs, on Tuesday unveiled a 10-point memo titled ‘A New DNC Framework.’ Martin’s memo calls on Democrats to “show up in nontraditional and uncomfortable media spaces on a regular basis, increase outreach to local messengers and trusted validators, and create our own platforms for authentic engagement.” And: “Martin appears to be the early frontrunner in the race, and his campaign says he has the backing of at least 100 DNC voting members, which is nearly half of what a candidate needs to secure the chair. Also running and considered competitive is Ben Wikler, who’s chaired the state Democratic Party in battleground Wisconsin for five years and is well known by the voting members.” And finally: “A party insider who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely told Fox News that ‘the DNC insiders/establishment have significant influence over this membership, so the race will be very close.'” • You don’t say!
“Even Centrists Agree: Ben Wikler for DNC Chair” [Politico]. The deck: “The president of Third Way endorses a MoveOn alum to lead the Democratic Party.” • Oh.
* * * And speaking of the DNC = Democrat National Convention:
I was a Sanders delegate at that convention, and it was enough for me to never want to have anything to do with the Democrat party ever again https://t.co/DEsMznznkF
— Mary Anne Cummings (@razorgrrl) December 3, 2024
* * * Meanwhile, on Rahm Emanuel”
This clip is genuinely shocking. It’s like George W. Bush angrily demanding accountability for the Iraq War. https://t.co/uoZ2a3YiHI
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) December 4, 2024
And:
Ezra and the New York Times are now touting Rahm Emanuel as an anti-corruption crusader, because literally nothing matters at all. pic.twitter.com/AYYeNfw6eE
— David Sirota (@davidsirota) December 3, 2024
“Can Rahm Emanuel Flip the Script Again?” [New York Times]. “There’s a buzz around Rahm Emanuel — the former Bill Clinton adviser, former Illinois congressman, former chief of staff to President Barack Obama, former mayor of Chicago — possibly becoming the next head of the Democratic National Committee. The progressive left despises his pragmatism and liberal centrism…. But he also has a gift for constructing winning coalitions with difficult, unexpected partners.” And: “‘I think Democrats prefer losing and being morally right to winning,’ he says. ‘Me, I’m not into moral victory speeches. I’m into winning.'” • What exactly about Biden’s Democrat Party is “morally right”? The genocide? (Anti-trust, for sure but Kamala didn’t run on that, and Emanuel doesn’t mention it. It’s painfully clear that Emanuel as nothing new to say. But he can always punch left!
“Rahm Emanuel is ‘not interested’ in DNC chair but is far from done with politics” [Chicago Sun-Times]. “With his time as America’s ambassador to Japan ending, former Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Tuesday he has no interest in leading a Democratic comeback as his party’s national chairman, but still loves public service and isn’t done with it. ‘I’m not interested in the party. I’m interested in what the party can do for people … My enjoyment [is] in what I’ve done in public service,’ Emanuel told the Sun-Times.” • Nobody mentions Homan Square when interviewing Rahm, oddly.
* * * I swore I’d give up snark…
Yeah- new name?
THE
UnD
👇🏼(Pronounced undie— yes, the old torn pair that should be thrown away)
— Farrukh Shamsi (@farrukh_shamsi) December 3, 2024
… but “UnD” isn’t that bad…..
Syndemics
“I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD.” –William Lloyd Garrison
Covid Resources, United States (National): Transmission (CDC); Wastewater (CDC, Biobot; includes many counties; Wastewater Scan, includes drilldown by zip); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker” (in IA, but national data). “Infection Control, Emergency Management, Safety, and General Thoughts” (especially on hospitalization by city).
Lambert here: Readers, thanks for the collective effort. To update any entry, do feel free to contact me at the address given with the plants. Please put “COVID” in the subject line. Thank you!
Resources, United States (Local): AK (dashboard); AL (dashboard); AR (dashboard); AZ (dashboard); CA (dashboard; Marin, dashboard; Stanford, wastewater; Oakland, wastewater); CO (dashboard; wastewater); CT (dashboard); DE (dashboard); FL (wastewater); GA (wastewater); HI (dashboard); IA (wastewater reports); ID (dashboard, Boise; dashboard, wastewater, Central Idaho; wastewater, Coeur d’Alene; dashboard, Spokane County); IL (wastewater); IN (dashboard); KS (dashboard; wastewater, Lawrence); KY (dashboard, Louisville); LA (dashboard); MA (wastewater); MD (dashboard); ME (dashboard); MI (wastewater; wastewater); MN (dashboard); MO (wastewater); MS (dashboard); MT (dashboard); NC (dashboard); ND (dashboard; wastewater); NE (dashboard); NH (wastewater); NJ (dashboard); NM (dashboard); NV (dashboard; wastewater, Southern NV); NY (dashboard); OH (dashboard); OK (dashboard); OR (dashboard); PA (dashboard); RI (dashboard); SC (dashboard); SD (dashboard); TN (dashboard); TX (dashboard); UT (wastewater); VA (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!
“Influenza A(H5N1) shedding in air corresponds to transmissibility in mammals” [Nature]. “An increase in spillover events of highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1) viruses to mammals suggests selection of viruses that transmit well in mammals.” • Oh.
Lambert here: Even though the Covid numbers seem low, please remember that the data is not nearly as good as it once was, that it lags, and that the downside risks of catching Covid are considerable. For those who have developed their own personal protocols, I wouldn’t relax them. Maybe next year.
| Wastewater | |
| This week[1] CDC November 25 | Last week[2] CDC (until next week): |
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| Variants [3] CDC November 23 | Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC November 23 |
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| Hospitalization | |
| ★ New York[5] New York State, data December 3: | National [6] CDC November 28: |
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| Positivity | |
| National[7] Walgreens December 2: | Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic November 23: |
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| Travelers Data | |
| ★ Positivity[9] CDC November 11: | Variants[10] CDC November 4: |
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| Deaths | |
| Weekly Deaths vs. % Positivity [11] CDC November 2: | Weekly Deaths vs. ED Visits [12] CDC November 2: |
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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.* still popular. XEC has entered the chat. That WHO label, “Ommicron,” has done a great job normalizing successive waves of infection.
[4] (ED) Down.
[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Leveled out.
[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). Actually improved; it’s now one of the few charts to show the entire course of the pandemic to the present day.
[7] (Walgreens) Down.
[8] (Cleveland) Down.
[9] (Travelers: Positivity) Leveling out.
[10] (Travelers: Variants). Positivity is new, but variants have not yet been released.
[11] Deaths low, positivity down.
[12] Deaths low, ED down.
Stats Watch
Employment Situation: “United States ADP Employment Change” [Trading Economics]. “Private businesses in the US added 146K workers to their payrolls in November 2024, the least in three months, following a downwardly revised 184K rise in October, and slightly below forecasts of 150K.”
Manufacturing: “United States Factory Orders” [Trading Economics]. “New orders for manufactured goods in the US increased by 0.2% from the previous month to $586.7 billion in October of 2024, in line with market expectations, after two consecutive monthly decreases.”
Manufacturing: “United States ISM Services PMI” [Trading Economics]. “The ISM Services PMI in the US declined to 52.1 in November 2024 from 56 in October and well below forecasts of 55.5. The reading pointed to the slowest growth in the services sector in three months…”
The Bezzle: “Godot Isn’t Making it” [Ed Zitron, Where’s Your Ed At?]. Grab a cup of coffee, but make sure you have a place to set it down becuase you’ll be laughing so hard. From the peroration: “Once the AI bubble pops, there are no other hyper-growth markets left, which will in turn lead to a bloodbath in big tech stocks as they realize that they’re out of big ideas to convince the street that they’re going to grow forever. There are some that will boast about ‘being right’ here, and yes, there is some satisfaction in being so. Nevertheless, knowing that the result of this bubble bursting will be massive layoffs, a dearth in venture capital funding, and a much more fragile tech ecosystem. Generative AI is the perfect monster of the Rot Economy — a technology that lacks any real purpose sold as if it could do literally anything, one without a real business model or killer app, proliferated because big tech no longer innovates, but rather clones and monopolizes. Yes, this much money can be this stupid….” • Hopefully some shorts make money on this thing.
Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 67 Greed (previous close: 66 Greed) [CNN]. One week ago: 64 (Greed). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Dec 2 at 1:53:27 PM ET.
Gallery
Not sure about this one. Cubism is about cubes, or I suppose polygons. I suppose the occasional curve (as of a guitar or the edge of a table) fits into the paradigm, but circles? Lots of them?
On Brooklyn Bridge by Albert Gleizes pic.twitter.com/R179yBYRJg
— Guggenheim Art Bot (@guggenheimbot) December 4, 2024
Then again:
Colonial Cubism https://t.co/4EMTEzqJMn pic.twitter.com/2cdQw8stgO
— Stuart Davis (@StuartDavisArt) December 3, 2024
So what do I know?
The 420
“How weed won over America” [VOX]. “In the last few decades, marijuana’s had a major glow-up. In 1992, less than 1 million people were using it daily or nearly every day — a low point, according to an analysis of data from the US National Survey on Drug Use and Health, which began surveying Americans in the 1970s. Ten times as many people, meanwhile, reported drinking alcohol daily or almost daily. In the 1990s, weed was illegal nationally and in every state. But marijuana’s since had a major rebrand: Three decades later, it’s legal for recreational adult use in nearly half of the 50 states. Now, it’s even challenging alcohol for its status as America’s favorite daily intoxicant. In 2022, for the first time, more Americans were using marijuana daily, or near daily, than consuming alcohol at the same rate, according to a study by Jonathan Caulkins, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. The number of daily or near daily marijuana users has grown from less than 1 million in 1992 to 17.7 million in 2022; in terms of per capita rate, that’s a 15-fold increase.” • Hmm.
Healthcare
“UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson shot dead in Midtown Manhattan, masked gunman at large” [ABC]. Ski mask. “Brian Thompson, the CEO of major insurance group UnitedHealthcare, was shot to death at point-blank range in Midtown Manhattan on Wednesday morning before he was set to attend an investor conference, according to police. The masked gunman, who remains on the loose, appeared to be lying in wait and shot Thompson several times from behind, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a news conference. The shooting, which was reported around 6:40 a.m., appeared to be a ‘brazen, targeted attack’ that was ‘premeditated,’ Tisch stressed. But the motive remains unknown, police said.” And: “The shooter arrived at the scene about five minutes before Thompson arrived, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said at the news conference.” After the shooting: “The suspect fled on foot into an alley, where a phone was recovered, Kenny said. He then fled on an e-bike and he was last seen riding into Central Park at 6:48 a.m., police said. The bikes are equipped with GPS and police are following up, Kenny said.” • Commentary:
UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson was just 50 years old at the time of his murder, which is a lot more tragic when you know that his life expectancy as a member of the Top 1% was 88, or 15 years longer than the life expectancy of the average American male https://t.co/VU5Xoi7cqD
— moe tkacik (@moetkacik) December 4, 2024
“UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson shot and killed outside Manhattan Hilton hotel” [Daily Mail]. “Witnesses said the suspected gunman was seen waiting outside the hotel before the shooting, and knew which door Thompson was going to emerge from before shooting him at point-blank range.” And: “United is the biggest health insurer by market share in America. The company has been the subject of frequent protests by activists for allegedly systematically denying care for patients. One such protest earlier this year led to the arrests of 11 people outside the United Healthcare headquarters in Minnetonka, Minnesota. The company made headlines in February after it was subjected to a cyber-attack which cost $872 million.” • Commentary:
CLAIM DENIED: Anything over .22 caliber does not qualify as a "preexisting condition."
— Go/F./Yourself (@BestTexanYeah) December 4, 2024
And:
Due to lack of preauthorization and since the ambulance ride didn't result in admission Brian Thompson's family faces a high bill
— Watson Ladd (@WatsonLadd) December 4, 2024
“UnitedHealth uses AI model with 90% error rate to deny care, lawsuit alleges” [Ars Technica]. From 2023. “UnitedHealthcare, the largest health insurance company in the US, is allegedly using a deeply flawed AI algorithm to override doctors’ judgments and wrongfully deny critical health coverage to elderly patients. This has resulted in patients being kicked out of rehabilitation programs and care facilities far too early, forcing them to drain their life savings to obtain needed care that should be covered under their government-funded Medicare Advantage Plan. That’s all according to a lawsuit filed this week in the US District Court for the District of Minnesota. The lawsuit is brought by the estates of two deceased people who were denied health coverage by UnitedHealth. The suit also seeks class-action status for similarly situated people, of which there may be tens of thousands across the country. The lawsuit lands alongside an investigation by Stat News that largely backs the lawsuit’s claims. The investigation’s findings stem from internal documents and communications the outlet obtained, as well as interviews with former employees of NaviHealth, the UnitedHealth subsidiary that developed the AI algorithm called nH Predict.”
“Anthem Insurance issues new edict to cap anesthesia coverage at a time limit” [FOX]. “On Nov. 14, the American Society of Anesthesiologists put out a letter that sounded the alarm that Anthem insurance suddenly decided to cap its coverage of anesthesia at an arbitrary time limit. It’s a change that doctors say isn’t based on good medicine…. Doctors won’t be waking patients up to ask them permission to continue medically necessary anesthesia, but that means when they do wake up, they may be whacked with an unexpected out-of-pocket expense. ‘There are circumstances where they won’t pay for any of the anesthesia even up to the point of where they say it’s justified. It’s just absurd,’ said [Connecticut Anesthesiologist Dr. Kenneth Stone]. … Doctors cite real-world examples of surgeries taking longer than expected for reasons such as blood loss, difficult anatomy, a complication or comorbidity. Doctors say medicine isn’t one size fits all.” • Why not just put an automatic cutoff on the gas pumps?
I should have thought to make this joke myself, but so it goes:
Trump has suggested that Canada become the 51st state in our union.
Does that mean that we can adopt the Canadian health care system and guarantee health care to all, lower the cost of prescription drugs, and spend 50% less per capita on health care?
I'm all for it. https://t.co/Nwkk7lykXd
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) December 3, 2024
“UAW Staff Strike Ignored as Labor Influencers Fear Losing UAW’s Social Media Reach” [Payday Report]. “Yesterday, UAW staffers went on strike in the northeast against their international union. Workers say that the union is relying heavily on temporary employees, a practice they have criticized at the Big Three, and attempting to exclude them from the staff union. Some UAW organizers are kept on temporary status for up to three years. … Today, the UAW announced that they were cutting off pay in a hardball move designed to intimidate staffers.” Solidarity forever! More: “So, why would so many labor journalists ignore this story of hypocrisy by UAW President Shawn Fain? They need the social media engine of the UAW in order to make their work go viral.” • This is a must-read. It shows where Payday Reports donation model really shines.
“My Smartphone Was Ruining My Life. So I Quit.” [The Free Press]. “Still, I learned that my followers’ love was contingent on high engagement levels, and because the algorithm was constantly changing, I had to change with it. I was constantly adapting my visual and verbal style to keep up with trends. One consistently effective strategy was being vulnerable. Regardless of what I drew, regardless of how good it was, I would get more likes and comments on my art when I paired it with an emotional disclosure, ideally of the tragic variety. In 2018, I shared a tiny drawing of a shark: ‘Crying nonstop & blowing my nose on my shirt,’ the caption read. ‘Thank you all for being my internet family, I truly need that in my life.’ I sold more when I wrote things like this, presumably because my followers took pity on me and wanted to help. I leaned into this effect, mining my life for pain. By the beginning of 2019, I had passed the 100,000-follower mark. I still wasn’t earning above minimum wage, but I was selling enough prints through my website to call myself an artist. More accurately, though, I was an influencer.” • I don’t think it’s the phone that’s the problem.
I am not feeling wired today.
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“Godot Isn’t Making it” [Ed Zitron, Where’s Your Ed At?]
“Once the AI bubble pops, there are no other hyper-growth markets left, which will in turn lead to a bloodbath in big tech stocks as they realize that they’re out of big ideas to convince the street that they’re going to grow forever…”
Just want to chime in with this before I read E.Z.: I don’t think the bubble will be allowed to pop as long as “the markets” are the USA’s way of expressing power and dominance through challenging times for the global order.
Another troubling thing to consider with the points being made by E.Z.: It’s a global bamboozle.
I do wonder if the inference-only GPUs being designed in-house by Amazon and others might reduce the cost enough that they can somehow profitably sell AI “services”. Then the party can go on, perhaps. Then we can all have LLM-enabled enshitification of everything.
It all works…if humans turn off their brains and limbs.
And it all works…as long as the humans do all the adapting.
While I’m sympathetic to Ed’s position, they can juice this goose longer than you can stay solvent.
We will probably be living with AI hype until the end of our days. It’s about the only thing Capitalism can promise to solve our problems.
“I don’t think the bubble will be allowed to pop as long as “the markets” are the USA’s way of expressing power and dominance through challenging times for the global order.”
I should add to that statement…or until they get another bubble of some kind.
Why don’t they just ask their “AI”s how to make loads of money?
Allowing the AI bubble to pop is akin to elder abuse, won’t someone think of what will happen to Nanci Pelosi?
I’ll believe AI is useful when it becomes extra-intelligent like we were promised in 2001:A Space Odyssey. With HAL at the helm there might be headway on climate change. AI at some point will figure out that it’s captors are on the oblivion express. Afterall, it’s what humankind has been praying for for millenia…it’s shaping up to be Dues ex Machina in every sense!
HAL would kill us all and say “I cannot allow you to jeopardize this mission”.
Tho on a Kubrickian timeline, spook-adjacent Dr. Heywood Floyd would be spared.
There’s a deep pile of quality applications for Bowman.
I would put the likelihood of Thompson being murdered by an aggrieved survivor of a someone who was denied care by his company at 99.99%.
So, likely suspects number in the millions.
His business model is based on cruel indifference to human suffering.
Renews my belief in karma.
Yeah, I would never advocate violence such as this, but I have little sympathy for the bloke.
“As you sow, so shall you reap.”
While your scenario is more likely, it could also be someone who was denied coverage of a life saving treatment for bogus reasons so had nothing to lose taking him out with them.
“If I am going to die, so are you…”
So, a ‘co-play’?
It would be hilarious if the shooter was a pissed off ex lover who figured posing as a lone gunman would be good cover. The suspect pool is millions.
(Normally, I limit joking of this nature to face-to-face discussions. In this case, I can’t be bother to behave decently.)
(They just sent me a bill for my 100% covered well-woman exam. The amount billed (~150 USD)seems carefully calculated to be the amount that a nervous person without a lot of free time to argue would just pay.)
Since he lived in Minnesota, I think that kind of thing would have happened closer to home. An ex-lover with that kind of attachment would most likely have known more about his personal schedule there.
The DC sniper killed a bunch of people to throw off the trail. The Tylenol guy did the same thing.
As people have mentioned the Sacklers, I feel like the consequences of a lack of law and order will come for the rich. Only the rich are upset.
Could be a personal beef, since the killer seems to have known the timing of Thompson’s movements, right down to which door he would use. Wonder what “alley” they’re talking about, can’t think of one in that location.
I believe “Ziegfield Alley.”
Well let’s throw this out there: It was an investor day event. Investments can get personal…
The motives are numerous: political, personal, financial and so on. I’m curious as to how the perpetrator was able to pinpoint the time and location of his target with such precision. This would tend to point to someone close, as do homicide statistics, the rule of thumb being family first.
Adding, that the brief video clip viewable on Wikipedia, and the quick, well planned getaway would indicate someone with training and experience.
How could the assassin be certain that a getaway bike left in an alley would still be there when it came time to use it? Lock it? Leave it under watch of a trusted person? The bike would have to be there. This took some planning, and a detailed knowledge of the area.
Kinda similar to how Heydrich was bumped off, with Kubiš riding a getaway bicycle…
I saw a brief video that is gone now, but it looked “professional” to my untrained eyes. Very much like a “hit” out of a movie. He walked into view, calmly pulled out his gun and started shooting him in the back, his gun jammed, he quickly and calmly cleared the jam, walked closer to the now fallen man and may have shot a few more times (I did not have sound on so I’m not sure as there were no muzzle flashes). There was one bystander that took off when the shooting started and some have suggested the jammed gun saved his/her life. The shooter then calmly jogged across the street and disappeared from camera view. My guess a) someone hired him or b) UHC screwed over someone close to him and he used is “professional abilities” to resolve the situation.
Also, 99 out of 100 times I would never look at a video like this. I say my imagination is good enough, I don’t need to see the real thing. I’ve been unlucky enough to view a murder/suicide up close (happened outside of a building I was in) and that bothered me for weeks afterwards. For some reason, this one didn’t bother me that much because it seemed so much like a movie. Just John Wick out for a stroll. Not proud of this reaction.
The motives are numerous…
Here, begin with the one-star reviews:
https://www.consumeraffairs.com/insurance/united_health_care.html#scroll_to_reviews=true
Seriously though, it sure looks like a professional hit or a job by LE with field experience, and highly doubtful a lone gunman working by theirselves.
Lol, you win! It’s the darkest comedy. Put these headlines, “UnitedHealth uses AI model with 90% error rate to deny care, lawsuit alleges” and “Anthem Insurance issues new edict to cap anesthesia coverage at a time limit” (now that’s just cold) against the well deserved twitter trolling. And I agree on the professional nature of the action, but I’d wager even hitmen get one star review worthy service.
Skin in the game focuses the mind. An old concept. See Hammurabi’s code, 1700 BC, about builders.
The next time family or friends in the trades complain about onerous building codes, I’ll mention this.
Who knows what the motive is in this situation…..It could be all kinds of things.
That being said, on 3 different occasions in my professional career, I have had to work hard to talk people out of violence when they have been wronged by the insurance industry. 2 having to do with medical insurance, 1 having to do with life insurance. I would not be surprised at all if this indeed ends up being the motive, of course assuming the perpetrator is apprehended.
I was told by Jim Cramer on my CNBC this AM when this story was going down that this individual was a great guy – and that he has made about 30-40 million dollars in the past 3 years. This is of course obscene. It is not a leap for someone who has nothing else to lose having been denied a surgery or whatever that may cost tens of thousands.
I guess I would like every one to think about one thing. We are constantly told that everyone now has coverage. If that were the case, why would there be this kind of speculation about the motives. If everyone is covered – why would anyone need to resort to this? The answer reveals far more about our situation than just listening to the story on the surface.
Some people out in the hinterlands have very good coverage and this kind of speculation does not apply. I am afraid for the majority of folks, however, their “coverage” provides “access” but does not really cover much health care that they can afford.
If this does indeed turn out to be the motive, I will say that I am shocked it has not happened sooner.
This bad news took over shortly after the 9am start to the daily CNBC show, Squawk on the Street. I was only paying some attention as the story was being recapped.
Adding to the fray of what isn’t known by this point is gonna sound like armchair analysis, so who can know for sure what the motive might actually be. Added thought, if the sole gunman fled the scene on his bike or a rented bike then he’s in for an endless chase at less than 25 mph, I’d assume.
Final passing thought, it took awhile but I finally watched the Joker movie ( to make clear, this was not the sequel ) so fiction predicting fact seems awfully, perhaps painfully close to home. It’s a leap, quite obviously.
> Recapped
As it were….
Things move fastly on the news lately, so it can at times prove highly difficult to stay on top of one’s game with the play by play…
America in 2024. Will January ’25 come along just in time to tell the previous year “watch this, hold my beer”?
I did hear a rosy prognosis for the popular equity index, that the S&P 500 may well reach a new record high of 6,666. And yes this was indeed on Cnbc in the 3pm hour…
I really need to pitch a cynics take. Bitcoin influenced trade and the impact to equity of a public company, Microstrategy, are making very strange upward only ever moves.
sooner…and way more often.
i am among those whom obamacare and associated “access to” did zero for…because i live in texas…but also because disability system is fubar.
seven years to get a hip replacement for an actual dead hip(avascular necrosis, due to old injury and cheap screws).
and now, my youngest, currently in college, has medicaid….and they keep sending me things about who in my house is eligible…him, not me…because i make too much money, somehow(12k per annum).
and now they want me to call them(211…so a full day of sitting on fone) to discuss how even my boy aint really eligible…because i make too much money.
and all that is Public Health Provision,lol.
wife and i’s brief encounter with blue cross, when medicaid kicked her off because i got 40k from my dad’s life insurance, was a frelling nightmare.
who can afford the co-pays and deductibles?
for a platinum-containing chemo treatment?
lol.
i say…as callow and heartless as it may be…this dude likely had it coming.
“as ye sow…”
I can’t believe that someone hasn’t tried to wack one of the Sacklers
They can afford Pretty Good Security.
‘Course, even Rough Men have relatives and friends who might have suffered from Sackleritis..,
My UHC story: I have been dealing with a cancer diagnosis and treatment this year. My ordeal started when I went to the emergency room with a GI bleed and has hospitalized. The cancer was diagnosed later. The fine folks at UHC denied my hospitalization claim as medically unnecessary, Every doctor I’ve spoken with, including my oncologist, agrees that the denial is outrageous. I’m currently in the appeal process, but I’m not optimistic.
Having a financial Sword of Damocles over my head while dealing with cancer surgery recovery has been one of the most stressful experiences of my life. What’s the point of insurance?
I’m 100% certain my story is all too common. Needless to say, I’m not saddened at all by the today’s news regarding the UHC CEO.
Another example of what a vile company UHC is:
UnitedHealth uses faulty AI to deny elderly patients medically necessary coverage, lawsuit claims
I am sorry you are going through that – and if it helps any you are not alone.
I am dealing this very day with a situation where a young 22 year old man was admitted bleeding from the GI system and he was found to have an acute leukemia. Because the GI bleed did not require any kind of procedural intervention, UHC denied his hospitalization. You will all be happy to know that when I personally did the “peer-to-peer” appeal for this young man, the “peer” I was talking to was a retired pediatric cardiologist. He did not have a clue what I was talking about nor was he familiar with anything done for leukemic patients in modern medicine. It took 30 minutes out of my crazy busy day – but I did get him to finally approve the admission.
The problem is I am a rare bird – I take care of my own patients – in hospital or not. More than 95% of patients in this country are taken care of in the hospital by “hospitalists” that often change every day of the admission. One of our big problems is that there is no “ownership” – physicians no longer have their own patients – the patients belong to the “system”. You are reminded of that when you do your initial orientation as a system physician and they remind you of this fact every year. THESE ARE NOT YOUR PATIENTS, THEY ARE OURS. It is a complete disaster that is being completely taken advantage of by companies like UHC. In our current system, when things are denied, there is often not a physician who can understand and know the entire situation – that is how fragmented things are.
I could have never even dreamed to come up with such a hare-brained system – even if I tried. But at least it is working for someone – as I stated above – this assassinated CEO was bringing in tens of millions a year.
OIFVet: Good to hear from you. I am assuming that Bulgaria looks less shaky than the endless U.S. melodrama-crisis. (At least, here in the Chocolate City, I am feeling reassured of the level-headed locals and their “cognission.”)
Some things don’t add up:
–Dropped cellular phone? Come on.
–Use of a bike-share service? No one is that stupid. Anyone out to do an assassination surely knows better than unlocking a device-ridden bicycle that is linked to one’s credit-card information.
–As commenters remark above, the assassin knew Thompson’s schedule. Planning this detailed precludes dropping one’s cell phone and toodling off on a rent-a-bike.
–Remarkably public. As if the assassin is warning a whole class of people.
–Maybe I’m too jumpy these days, what with Addled Joe still in office, but I’m getting a whiff of Baader-Meinhof.
Bulgaria is a political and societal dumpster fire, but at least it’s got pretty nature :) It makes the US drama look like mature and high-minded public discourse.
I suppose we shall eventually know what this murder was about. I am certainly rooting the aforementioned motive as it would at least cause the health insurance charlatans some night sweat :)
Every CEO in America probably will have private security details before the end of today, in perpetuity. I’d be surprised if this ever happens again.
Not trying to be a cynic, but isn’t this a pretty big savings in the pay out for an expensive CEO and wonder what you get? Did the stock go up?
PM Barnier ousted by French Parliament:
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/ckgxw9wj241t
What’s next? Macron kicks the can against the wall, plays the rebound ad nauseam, and lets technocrats run out the clock on a rudderless government?
I think that Macron has still a coupla years to go in office and cannot call an election as there was just one. But he could resign and trigger a new general election. If his government – or what is left of it – is stuck and immobile, he may not have much choice but to do so.
Maybe they have a different definition of flawed than most of us? I think that a ninety percent error rate should be considered a crime, not an accident, but I’m sure that the company’s army of lawyers would disagree.
A 90 percent error rate, if you assume that error = denial, is actually a pretty decent diagnostic tool as long as you do the exact opposite of what the algorithm tells you to do. Of course, that assumes this thing wasn’t purpose-built for light speed denials.
“… the Deep State, or whatever else you would like to call it…” (see from 2014 here).
I recommend “National Security and Double Government” by Michael J. Glennon, professor of international law at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts.
A concise analysis in relentless academese, framed as an ongoing battle between the “Madisonians” and the “Trumanites.”
The author basically says that when Truman signed the secret executive order creating the NSA in 1952, the Bill of Rights gradually became so much ass-wipe, although he’s not that blunt. Glennon is clearly butt-hurt by Obama’s dismal record and shreds it without mercy.
My copy is clearly a college textbook, marked up but still legible. The book was published in 2015, so Lambert didn’t have the benefit of the professor’s intellect when he probed the Deep state in 2014.
Recommendation seconded.
>Canada as 51st state.
I got the new total being at least 64. Ten provinces and three territories – everybody is welcome to come in and enjoy the benefits (sarc? not sarc? IDK) of being a US state. Heck, Ontario, Quebec, BC, and Alberta can divide themselves further if they want. At any rate, like Carlos Mucha said the other day, it’s really just on the way to Greenland.
Well, maybe we create a Wyoming rule: you just have to aggregate yourselves in a way that creates a population of at least 500,000.
Please! Take Alberta & Quebec! {sinister grin emoji}
64? How many Oblasts in Ukraine? Northeast Syria? “You’re gonna need a bigger flag…”
Ha! I’ll never find the tweet, but I remember Warren Mosler tweeted about how the only solution to the Ukraine-Russia war was to have Russia join the US :).
Better messaging – the DNC’s answer to every problem.
Not that these are bad ideas necessarily, but if they are done in isolation without examining the deeper problems (like: should we maybe actually stand for something that isn’t preserving the interests of the PMC and advancing the agenda of wealthy donors?) they will amount to rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
One story that I (think I) heard about the Clinton 2016 campaign was that door knockers brought in from outside to various area and sent out to repeat canned messages in person probably hurt rather than helped. It’s not that you are messaging that matters, but you do so with some credibility with the locals. You don’t earn credibility with just “better messaging.”
One of the things I learned from one of my former blog readers last summer was that because of my past pro-Bernie/anti-HRC social media commentary, Ken Martin really hates me (I was surprised to learn he even knew who I was).
This is what the DNC needs: more thin-skinned hyper-partisan corporate Democrats in charge. Martin will undoubtedly be at Brian Thompson’s funeral because respect must always be shown to great money.
Better messaging , what does that mean if it doesn’t mean speaking mis-truths or whatever they call lying these days.
Gotta admit, when I see $264mm and “DNC” in the same paragraph my priors are very much triggered, damn, they can grift. I’m remembering 2016 for Clinton campaign doling out somewhere’s around $700mm (sevenhundredmillionLOL) to a handful of consultants.
Remember Donna Brazille, Debbie What’shername, good times.
‘Martin’s memo calls on Democrats to “show up in nontraditional and uncomfortable media spaces on a regular basis, increase outreach to local messengers and trusted validators, and create our own platforms for authentic engagement.”’
Bluesky. They are talking about Bluesky. But the only ‘authentic engagement’ to be had there would be with their own supporters. It’s not like they will go on Joe Rogan or anything.
When all your people are dumb as a bag of hammers, every problem looks like a nail?
Permaculture in northwestern N America thousands of years ago! A new study shows that hazelnuts were probably moved long distances to forest garden sites in NW British Columbia.
From the Abstract of the original study in PNAS (paywalled):
The Genetic structure of hazelnut in the previously labeled “disjunct” region in Gitxsan, Ts’msyen, and Nisga’a homelands is consistent with the enduring influence of people on the distribution of purportedly “wild” plant species. Our results support the hypothesis that hazelnut was likely transplanted long distances and also managed in situ. This study highlights the often-overlooked agency of Indigenous Peoples in shaping species range distributions in North America. (https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2402304121)
An earlier article has photos of typical forest garden sites in NW BC: https://thetyee.ca/News/2021/04/28/Unearthing-Work-Indigenous-Master-Horticulturalists/.
Knowing nothing about him but his name, Chris Deluzio sounds like the perfect head for the DNC.
Reports that a silencer was used in the murder of the insurance executive.
My sweet aunt Fani Willis is back in the news. Looks like she’s in hot water. “Fani Willis ordered to give watchdog all communications with special counsel Jack Smith”, Fox, and from the victors,
Judicial Watch: Court Finds Fani Willis in Default in Open Records Lawsuit, Orders Her to Produce Records in Five Business Days, Judicial Watch
The scuttlebutt is Willis got served and never responded, default judgement was granted.
From JW, Plaintiff is thus entitled to judgment by default as if every item and paragraph of the complaint were supported by proper and sufficient evidence. O.C.G.A. § 9-11-55(a). Here, this means Plaintiff has established that Defendant violated the ORA by failing to either turn over responsive records or else notify Plaintiff of her decision to withhold some or all such records.
It’s hilarious how completely liberal Democrat lawfare has failed.
Knew right away it was a photo of the FL. Home! Thank you.
I don’t know if a rainbow is a plant, but as someone who has submitted sunsets as plantidotes myself, I have to say “Fantastic Foto!” Thanks!
She had a magical voice and hardly anybody had ever heard of her when she passed away from cancer in 1996. As it happened-she gained wide recognition in the UK when the BBC played her music a few years after she died, and that’s when I first heard her, stupefied by her abilities…
…a nearly hour long live performance for you to enjoy
Eva Cassidy – Blues Alley concert (12 live performances)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgBTG_HOvMQ
‘Watson Ladd
@WatsonLadd
Due to lack of preauthorization and since the ambulance ride didn’t result in admission Brian Thompson’s family faces a high bill’
I heard that the family was informed that any claims would be rejected as lawyers will argue that he actually died of lead poisoning which everybody knows is a preexisting condition.
“How weed won over America” [VOX]. “In the last few decades, marijuana’s had a major glow-up. In 1992, less than 1 million people were using it daily or nearly every day — a low point, according to an analysis of data from the US National Survey on Drug Use and Health, which began surveying Americans in the 1970s. Ten times as many people, meanwhile, reported drinking alcohol daily or almost daily. In the 1990s, weed was illegal nationally and in every state. But marijuana’s since had a major rebrand: Three decades later, it’s legal for recreational adult use in nearly half of the 50 states. Now, it’s even challenging alcohol for its status as America’s favorite daily intoxicant.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When I was a kid everybody smoked cigarettes it seemed, and you’d be arrested for smoking marijuana in public, but now the role is largely reversed.
Some years back I watched somebody get arrested for lighting up a Winston in their seats at the Playboy Jazz Festival @ the Hollywood Bowl, while a certain skunky smell was much in abundance, and nobody cared.
Google Introduces A.I. Agent That Aces 15-Day Weather Forecasts
Perhaps
but
(bold mine)
It is fortunate that we aren’t running into a new climate regime. Oh, wait.
What did we test?
So we have no idea if it works for tomorrow’s weather. Maybe there’s a market for predicting the past. I can do that with 100% accuracy!
‘Gulp Fiction’ plot:
Everything in the movie centers around a mysterious laptop, the contents of which are unknown, but thought to contain Joe Biden’s soul or it’s an ersatz Pandoras Box, or quite possibly NFT’s of the diamonds stolen in Reservoir Dogs.
The only time you ever see people smoking is in movies, so Hunter is a natural-a latter day Marlboro Man putting the hurt on a dozen cancer sticks a day. His sidekick is of course the spirit of Beau, gone too soon-as we are constantly reminded by his father.
among the things that i think about, regarding our brave new world:
dvd’s cd’s and even digital recordings…skip only a little less than frelling vinyl.
maybe its my connection, maybe its my tech…maybe its my tech incompetence…maybe its kill codes embedded in the media files.
way beyond me.
skater dude i knew…some 40 years ago..”Sloopy”…when cd’s were a new thing for us, out in houston northern exurbia.
the common knowledge about this new music media was that cd’s were all but indestructible.
Sloopy endeavored to prove them wrong, by repeatedly throwing his disc of butthole surfers against a concrete wall.
where the dumpsters were in his janky planned neighborhood development, and where i’d meet him to buy acid.
he was right, of course.
Wherein amfortas stands in the road
…with lunch for the pretty and always smiling ups driver who rides down my dead end dirt road every other day.
Seen her prolly 30 times in the last 2 months…and I have always just happened to be crossing or walking along the road when she comes past(i swear this has been a total accident).
I tip my hat, she beams and waves.
So I said to myself, “self…we must make her lunch”.
I dont know how ups compares with, say, amazon for treatment of drivers…but I knew her predecessor for some 25 years, and know that they’re always on a dead run…but also have time to jaw in the yard.
So yesterday, I made venison sausage and mushroom pasties, with a cold water crust that has green onions, gorganzola, butter and gouda embedded in it…english street food…for those on the go.
Part of me feels this might be regarded as a somewhat creepy way to meet a woman,lol…and indeed, ive been lurking around the wilderness bar environs for hours…doing minor work on the bar extension, etc…
in my atrophied time-sense, I think that she’s usually coming down the road between 11am and 3pm….around noonish is when I cross the road to check for eggs.
But I cant run…or even walk fast(and the gray, cloudy and cool has my skeleton in a minor uproar anyways.
So i’ll continue to lurk…my neighbor at the end of the road expects a package sometime today(yes, my neighbor is in conspiracy with me on this)…pasties in the microwave, road only a few steps away, etc.
my Eldest son’s new girlfriend said that this was either the craziest or the most romantic idea she’s ever heard of…
so we’ll see how it goes.
She is petite, fit, and has a big braid down her back…and, like I said, seems to be always smiling.
Likely in her mid-30’s…but i’m pretty terrible at such assessments.
In explaining my motivations to my future daughter in law around this here fire the other night…i spoke of how I met Tam(nursing home, where she accidentally/on purpose fell into my lap), my ex wife(continually accosted by other couch dwellers in my front room at college, so moved into my room because I was honorable), and even my first girlfriend(tripped over a corner of my blue jean jacket and also fell into my lap, this time accidentally, and in the “get a spanking” position).
In reverse order, the resulting relationships lasted 9, 4 and 26 years.
Im keeping expectations in check…and will be on high alert for signs of alarm….but dammit…how else am I supposed to meet people…let alone women? I cant afford to hang around in the bars in town…am not an xtian, nor will I pretend to be…and aside from getting a regular job….somehow, in spite of my physical limitations…i can think of nothing.
So i’ll go with the thoroughly unorthodox, and right here in the wilderness.
And rely on the novelty…and the potentially “sweet” gesture…and my rustic anomalous charm.
I just hope she doesnt call the cops,lol.
8 hours later:
now i’m into the beer.
Critters are done and its cold.
I’m nothing if not stubborn….hell, my whole 5 acre side of the place is a frelling monument to Stubbornness, as a Platonic Ideal.
I’ll wait up a while longer.
i’m nothing if not a patient man.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vblz57zCzM
Yep. Covid is still here. Reminds me of this 1-year-old Matt Oralea ~5 minute utube. It only hurts when I laugh….
Peter Hotez – Vaccine Expert
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sj6-QDVYbv8
Remember when the housing bubble started eh
And you got on my nerves and begged me
To buy before prices go berserk?
WELL,
You left me to my own devices and
Then the euphoria got worse and worse
And now you see values have gone completely
Out of whack, might need an XXXXXXXXL stack
AND
They’re coming to take me away–
Haha, they’re coming to take me away
Ho ho, hee hee, ha ha
To the funny farm
Where life is beautiful all the time
And I’ll be happy to see
Those used house salesmen
In their Century 21 coats
And they’re coming to take me AWAY
HA HAAAAA
You thought it was a joke
…and so you LAUGHED, YOU LAUGHED
When I had said that losing out
Would make me flip my lid
RIGHT?
You know you laughed
I HEARD you laugh, you laughed
You laughed and laughed
And then you left
But now you know I’m Utterly Mad by missing out
They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!
by Napoleon XIV
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xRCbdFrSSc