By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Bird Song of the Day
Northern Mockingbird, Ensenachos, Sancti Spíritus, Cuba. “One singing in trees out back of 3400 building.”
In Case You Might Miss…
- Krugman hangs up his keyboard.
- UnitedHealthcare shooting: Details continue to emerge.
- Inequity aversion solely in humans?
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
Biden Administration
“Biden is considering preemptive pardons for officials and allies before Trump takes office” [Associated Press]. “President Joe Biden is weighing whether to issue sweeping pardons for officials and allies who the White House fears could be unjustly targeted by President-elect Donald Trump’s administration, a preemptive move that would be a novel and risky use of the president’s extraordinary constitutional power. The deliberations so far are largely at the level of White House lawyers. But Biden himself has discussed the topic with some senior aides, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity Thursday to discuss the sensitive subject…. While the president’s pardon power is absolute, Biden’s use in this fashion would mark a significant expansion of how they are deployed, and some Biden aides fear it could lay the groundwork for an even more drastic usage by Trump. They also worry that issuing pardons would feed into claims by Trump and his allies that the individuals committed acts that necessitated immunity.”
Trump Transition
“Hegseth says he won’t withdraw as he struggles as Trump’s Defense pick” [Politico]. “Pete Hegseth spent this week attempting to woo senators — and others — as he fought to remain Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of Defense. He met with wary and supportive lawmakers, his lawyer tried to shoot down misconduct allegations and even his mother went on Fox to defend her son…. But without [Jodi] Ernst, who serves on the Armed Services Committee and is a veteran and sexual assault survivor, along with other skeptical Republicans like Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, Hegseth’s confirmation appears in jeopardy.” And: “‘I’m a different man than I was years ago, and that’s a redemption story that I think a lot of Americans appreciate, and I know from fellow vets that I’ve spent time with, they resonate with that as well,’ Hegseth said in response to the allegations. ‘You fight, you go do tough things in tough places on behalf of your country, and sometimes that changes you a little bit.'” • Honey, I’ve changed!
“Trump aides say Pete Hegseth still has a chance to be confirmed as defense head” [Guardian]. “Trump himself has not expended any real political capital by calling holdouts on Hegseth’s behalf, the Trump aides working on his nomination have, both with senators and inside Trumpworld to ensure he has the president-elect’s backing. Hegseth’s team, which includes aides who are close to the vice-president-elect JD Vance and Trump’s eldest son Don Jr, represent a particularly powerful group that has the ability to reach Republican senators and the Trump inner circle. The trickiest hurdle for Hegseth, the people said, appears for now at least to be convincing Republican senator Joni Ernst to back his nomination or ensuring her resistance does not embolden her close colleagues in the Senate to vote against him. Ernst, an Iowa Republican and combat veteran who has spoken about being sexually assaulted herself, had a closed-door meeting with Hegseth on Wednesday but did not offer her endorsement when she emerged, as well as in an interview on Fox News the following morning. For a number of our senators, they want to make sure that any allegations are cleared, and that’s why we have to have a very thorough vetting process,” Ernst told Fox News, agreeing with the host Bill Hemmer that she had not reached a ‘yes’ on Hegseth. The continued resistance from Ernst sparked complaints from Trump’s team at Mar-a-Lago, where the transition operation is headquartered, that Ernst was content to sink Hegseth’s nomination because she was interested in the job herself.”
“Project 2025 pressuring US Republican senators to confirm Pete Hegseth as defence chief” [Associated Press]. “The think-tank behind Project 2025, the conservative blueprint linked to US president-elect Donald Trump, is launching an effort to back Trump’s imperilled selection for secretary of defence in its latest attempt to wield influence in the incoming Republican administration. Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said on Thursday that his group will spend US$1 million to pressure senators unwilling to back Pete Hegseth, whose nomination to lead the Pentagon has come into question over his views on women serving in combat and reports about his personal behaviour.” • South China Morning Post rips an AP story from the wire….
* * * “Trump Names David Sacks as White House AI and Crypto Czar” [Bloomberg]. “Donald Trump says he is selecting venture capitalist David Sacks of Craft Ventures LLC to serve as his artificial intelligence and crypto czar, a newly created position that underscores the president-elect’s intent to boost two rapidly developing industries. ‘David will guide policy for the Administration in Artificial Intelligence and Cryptocurrency, two areas critical to the future of American competitiveness. David will focus on making America the clear global leader in both areas,’ Trump said Thursday in a post on his Truth Social network. Trump said that Sacks would also lead the Presidential Council of Advisors for Science and Technology.” • The United States is already a world leader in fraud, so what exactly is Sacks going to do that’s different?
“Trump names ICE chief and makes another round of immigration announcements” [Politico]. “Trump said he was nominating Rodney Scott as commissioner of Customs and Border Protection. Scott served for almost three decades in the Border Patrol, and as the chief of the agency during the last year of the Trump administration and beginning of the Biden administration. He helped implement Trump’s Remain in Mexico Policy, Title 42 and Safe Third Country agreements. Trump also announced he was tapping Caleb Vitello, who’s currently the assistant director of the Office of Firearms and Tactical Programs in Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to serve as acting director of ICE.”
2024 Post Mortem
“5 Takeaways From the 2024 Elections Now That They’re Finally Over” [Ed Kilgore, New York Magazine]. “[T]otal GOP control of the federal government probably won’t last more than two years, and there are no particular signs of an electoral realignment down ballot. Republican triumphalism and Democratic despair are equally unmerited from the perspective of the election itself.” And concluding: “So the smart expectation going forward is continued partisan polarization and highly contested elections, not some red apocalypse.” The ever-level-headed Kilgore is always worth a read. This, however, caught my eye: ” The GOP gains among Democratic “base” constituencies (especially Latinos and young voters) that received so much attention this year are most easily explained by short-term reaction to deeply negative economic perceptions rather than some fundamental alienation from the Democratic Party that we can take for granted going forward.” • I’m not so sure. I keep going back to that extraordinary map of counties showing shifts to blue, or red. And almost the entire country was red. That universality argues to me that there’s something deeper going on than “short term reaction,” and I’d speculate it’s a reaction to PMC governance as such. This codes as wokeness, of course, but the PMC is more than our national HR department. The also extraordinary outpouring of reactions to the Thompson shooting fit into this speculation (which probably won’t be leveraged by Republicans, and can’t be by Democrats (“I can’t cut my throat two ways,” as Toby Esterhase remarks somewhere in Tinker, Tailor)). But by somebody?
Campaign Finance
“Elon Musk donated more than $250mn to Donald Trump’s campaign, electoral filings show” [Financial Times]. “Elon Musk donated more than $250mn to Donald Trump’s election campaign, including at least $75mn in the final weeks before the vote, US electoral filings have revealed.” • At some point, Musk’s gonna forget that Trump is the President, not him…
Our Famously Free Press
“Paul Krugman retires as Times columnist” (press release) [The New York Times Company]. “Paul is an important figure in the recent history of Times Opinion. Time and again, he took on the big fights, grappled with policy deeply and seriously, held the powerful to account and spoke hard truths — sometimes as a lonely voice arguing unfashionable positions. He was a strong, clear, early opponent of the American invasion of Iraq and spent years shining a light on the lies and consequences involved with that war. He was a principled critic of George W. Bush’s leadership and many of his policy priorities and, with lucid prose, helped readers understand the implications of the Bush tax cuts and his proposed privatization of Social Security. And Paul was plenty tough on Bush’s successor, too: Barack Obama hadn’t even taken office in 2009 when Paul memorably took apart the president-elect’s prescription for the Great Recession: ‘The economic plan he’s offering isn’t as strong as his language about the economic threat,’ Paul wrote. “In fact, it falls well short of what’s needed.'” • After election 2000, Krugman was one of the very few major figures, on either side of the aisle, willing to call out Bush (Al Franken, amazingly, being the only other I can recall. The Democrats were absolutely supine). I was living in Philly at the time, and when I would go into Barnes and Noble, I would be confronted with a stacks upon stacks and shelf after shelf of pro-Bush books; I performed a small act of resistance by turning the visible books over to hide the covers. Krugman (and Franken) are the only voices from that time I remember, and Krugman deserves credit for that (no matter his subsequent evolution and the problems with mainstream economics generally).
“Putin’s Pals Say Tucker Carlson Is Acting as a Secret Back-Channel to Trump” [The Daily Beast]. • And this is bad why? Who do we want for the job? Vicky Nuland?
The Wizard of Kalorama™
“Obama calls political ‘divisiveness’ one of the ‘greatest challenges of our time'” [Politico]. “Former President Barack Obama called out divisiveness and polarization as ‘one of the greatest challenges of our time,’ as he avoided any specific political references in his first public remarks since the election….. ‘It’s about recognizing that in a democracy, power comes from forging alliances and building coalitions… not only for the woke, but also for the waking,’ Obama told the crowd of about 650 participants at the Obama Foundation event on Chicago’s South Side, just a few miles from where Obama’s presidential center is under construction.” • I wonder how many of the 650 “participants” were from the neighborhood. Anyhow, as far as “divisiveness and polarization” and polarization, I have not forgotten or forgiven how, 2024 – 2008 = 16 years ago, at Daily Kos, “You’re a racist” was literally the second move in the Obot script. Like calling somebody a fascist, calling somebody a racist is a bell you can’t unring. They didn’t learn a thing, did they?
Realignment and Legitimacy
Like baseball card collection, but of oligarchs:
Besides Donald Trump, Elon Musk and his fellow DOGE head Vivek Ramaswamy, at least 11 billionaires will be serving key roles in the administration.
Whether it acts as a government for billionaires could test and potentially tarnish his populist legacy. https://t.co/29dm9mSJ3s pic.twitter.com/x4pm6Dc0Sn
— Axios (@axios) December 6, 2024
Mix ’em! Match ’em! Share ’em with your friends! There are, says UBS, about 2700 billionaires in the world, and we have 11 of them in the Trump administration, a not negligible absolute numbers. It’s interesting to have oligarchs working directly in government, rather like the boss firing the managers and coming onto the shop floor because of course they can do it better. The press coverage will naturally be sycophantic….
“A Bipartisan Slippage in Standards” [Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal]. “It is embarrassing as a citizen to see the president of the United States pardon his son, and in such an all-encompassing way, for any legal transgression going back nearly 11 years, which feels like a concession to the assumption that his more interesting law-stretching or -breaking may be yet unknown. The president had promised frequently and explicitly that he wouldn’t pardon his son, that he’d play it straight and let the course of justice play out. Which means he knew it was important to people, to how they viewed him, and so he lied to reassure them. All this did what others have said: lowered trust in political leaders, made the cynical more cynical…. The pardon struck me as a bitter action, too. A president who cared about public opinion, or even that of his own party, wouldn’t have done it, or quite this way. It’s the president flipping the bird to an ungrateful (and also rather decadent!) nation that coldly turned on him after a single debate, and then elected that tramp Donald Trump—they deserve what they get… As to the Politico report that the White House is considering pre-emptive pardons for officials not yet even accused or convicted of breaking the law, wow. If that is true it makes you wonder. What have our leaders been up to the past four years that they require such unprecedented forgiveness? Even with fears of a vengeful Trump Justice Department, pre-emptive pardons are an excessive move. Now to the incoming administration’s slippage of standards, the exotic cabinet picks that veer from ‘that’s a stretch’ to ‘that’s insane.’ The more exotic nominees—Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at Health and Human Services, Pete Hegseth at Defense, Kash Patel at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Mehmet Oz at Medicare and Medicaid Services—don’t have backgrounds that fit the jobs. Taken together they look like people who want to blow things up.” You say “blow things up” like that’s a bad thing. And finally: “Too many of the Trump nominees have said, one way or another, that they intend to take out the deep state, but they should start explaining exactly what they mean. The deep state isn’t really a conservative insight, and it isn’t a new one.” • It’s an earworm, not to be explained.
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!
Origins Debate
“Wuhan lab samples hold no close relatives to virus behind COVID” [Nature]. “After years of rumours that the virus that causes COVID-19 escaped from a laboratory in China, the virologist at the centre of the claims has presented data on dozens of new coronaviruses collected from bats in southern China. At a conference in Japan this week, Shi Zhengli, a specialist on bat coronaviruses, reported that none of the viruses stored in her freezers are the most recent ancestors of the virus SARS-CoV-2. Shi was leading coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), a high-level biosafety laboratory, when the first cases of COVID-19 were reported in that city. Soon afterwards, theories emerged that the virus had leaked — either by accident or deliberately — from the WIV. Shi has consistently said that SARS-CoV-2 was never seen or studied in her lab. But some commentators have continued to ask whether one of the many bat coronaviruses her team collected in southern China over decades was closely related to it. Shi promised to sequence the genomes of the coronaviruses and release the data. The latest analysis, which has not been peer reviewed, includes data from the whole genomes of 56 new betacoronaviruses, the broad group to which SARS-CoV-2 belongs, as well as some partial sequences. All the viruses were collected between 2004 and 2021.” • Big if true. Seems a little late.
Lambert: Sadly, I cannot get CDC’s wastewater page to load. Hopefully Monday.
| Wastewater | |
| This week[1] CDC November 25 | Last week[2] CDC (until next week): |
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| ★ Variants [3] CDC December 7 | ★Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC November 30 |
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| Hospitalization | |
| ★ New York[5] New York State, data December 5: | ★ National [6] CDC December 5: |
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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 19: | ★ Variants[10] CDC November 4: |
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| Deaths | |
| ★ Weekly Deaths vs. % Positivity [11] CDC November 20: | ★ Weekly Deaths vs. ED Visits [12] CDC November 20: |
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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) XEC takes over. 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 leveling out.
[12] Deaths low, ED leveling out.
Stats Watch
Employment Situation: “United States Unemployment Rate” [Trading Economics]. “The unemployment rate in the United States went up to 4.2% in November of 2024 from 4.1% in the prior month, in line with market expectations.”
Manufacturing: “FAA administrator says Boeing still not producing MAX planes after strike” [Reuters]. [FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker] said Boeing’s plan is to slowly restart production later this month and he plans another meeting in January as the company ramps up…. He declined to say when he thought the FAA would restore Boeing’s ability to produce more than 38 planes per month, but said he would be surprised if it was less than multiple months before they get close to the 38 maximum…. Whitaker, who announced another audit of Boeing in October, has said it could take five years for Boeing to reform its safety culture, but noted the planemaker has deployed a new parts management system and improved training, adding, ‘What I saw this week was really what I expected to see.’ He wants Boeing to adopt an effective Safety Management System, which are a set of policies and procedures to proactively identify and address potential operational hazards. ‘We haven’t seen evidence of it working the way it’s supposed to work, where your risk assessment is driving your behavior,’ Whitaker said. The National Transportation Safety Board has also said Boeing’s SMS failed to catch problems years earlier.” And: “Whitaker said he has had some preliminary conversations with the Trump transition team and plans more, adding it was too early in the conversation to say if he expects to remain in the job.” • Nice little litmus test.
Manufacturing: “Boeing pauses surveillance plan to track employees at the office” [Seattle Times (PI)]. “Hours after The Seattle Times asked Boeing about a program to install digital surveillance sensors in its Everett offices, the company said it has ‘paused our pilot program at all locations and will keep employees updated.’ Boeing began Monday installing ‘workplace occupancy sensors’ in the main Everett office towers that use motion detectors and cameras mounted in ceiling tiles above workstations, conference rooms and common areas. The sensors are intended to gather information that’s then analyzed using artificial intelligence to feed data to Boeing real estate and facilities managers about how many people are coming to the office and using specific spaces, and for how long. For people already concerned about how their internet and cellphone use can be tracked outside work, this new form of workplace surveillance proved unwelcome, despite Boeing’s insistence that it doesn’t invade anyone’s personal privacy. The plan was outlined to employees last week and one was creeped out enough at the prospect to share the PowerPoint presentation with The Seattle Times. ‘It scared me to my core,’ said the employee, who declined to provide their name. ‘What you can see is, to say the least, evil.’ Whether from such reactions or from the press inquiry on Thursday, Boeing has backed off for now.’ And: “Boeing’s presentation gave employees fulsome assurances that the ‘sensors do not capture any identifiable information.'” • Of course, of course. Is it possibly that Ortberg is evem worse than Calhoun?
Tech: “Why is printer ink so expensive?” [Digital Rights Bytes]. “Printer companies have several methods to make it hard for you, and for competitors, to replace their expensive first-party cartridges… Competition: The printer companies have a very concentrated market—an oligopoly. After gobbling one another up, only five major companies are left standing. Legal: Printer companies rely on a mix of “intellectual property” (IP) laws to block third parties from reverse engineering their printers …. Technical: Ink cartridges from the big companies often now include microchips designed to stop you from using third-party ink. It’s possible to make a program that lies to your printer on your behalf, so that a $5 third-party ink cartridge tells your printer, “Yup, I’m an HP ink cartridge.” But printer companies also exploit their devices’ always-on network connections to push “updates” to your printer that cause them to reject third-party ink cartridges from companies that have braved the legal risks to provide you with cheaper ink.” And; “So why do printer companies charge so much for ink? Because they can.”
Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 54 Greed (previous close: 55 Neutral) [CNN]. One week ago: 67 (Greed). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Dec 6 at 1:41:43 PM ET.
Healthcare
More on the UnitedHealth shooting. I tried to cut out as much duplication as possible:
“Hunt for the gunman who killed UnitedHealthcare’s CEO reveals new clues about movements in New York” [Associated Press]. “Investigators believe the suspect may have traveled to New York last month on a bus that originated in Atlanta, one of the law enforcement officials said…. Investigators have learned the man lowered his mask at the front desk of the hostel because he was flirting with the woman who checked him in, one of the law enforcement officials told the AP, leading to a photo of his face. The woman told investigators that during that encounter she asked to see his smile and he pulled down his mask [amateur], the official said. Investigators believe the suspect used a fake New Jersey identification card when he checked in at the hostel, the official said.” • I would like to know what kind of mask; I’ve seen “ski mask” specified, but it’s hard for me to imagine checking in wearing a ski mask, even in a very rough hostel.
“Search continues for gunman who killed UnitedHealthcare CEO in New York” [WaPo]. “Police reiterated on Thursday that they believe the attack was premeditated, which raised questions about how and why the shooter was able to locate Thompson — who was staying in a different hotel — at that specific time and place. While Wednesday’s investor conference had been announced last month, the location was not specifically included in that information.” Oh. Oligarchs settling their differences, then? But: “New York is teeming with surveillance cameras, and footage from one obtained by The Washington Post appeared to show that about a half-hour before the shooting, the individual later identified as a person of interest exited the 57th Street station for the F Train and headed down Sixth Avenue toward the Hilton. Images released by police also seemed to show that person had used cash to buy something at a Starbucks before the shooting.” And: “Investigators are waiting for DNA test results on items they think may have belonged to the shooter — a water bottle and a cellphone abandoned near the crime scene, according to the official.” So, amateur?
“Was Brian Thompson’s Killer a Hit Man? Unlikely, Experts Say” [New York Times]. “[David Shapiro, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, and a former F.B.I. special agent] added: ‘In terms of a professional hit man, that seems unlikely. It would be very hard to get somebody to do something like this. It’s very high risk.'” And: “the shooter left a trail of clues.” Besides the Starbucks and the hostel: “After the shooting, the police found not only the shell casings but also a cellphone that they are examining. None of this looks like the work of a professional, the experts said.” And: “‘I think he planned this as meticulously as his abilities allow,’ said [Michael C. Farkas, a defense attorney who has worked as a New York City homicide prosecutor]. ‘And he’s probably intelligent enough to know the odds of evading capture indefinitely are not in his favor,’ he said. ‘He clearly wanted to send a message, and he is trying to get away.'” •
“Hit Men Aren’t What You Think” [Slate]. “The thing that struck me was the fact that he knew where [Thompson] was going to be and when he was going to be there. Generally, you get that information by observing the individual. You find their schedule and their routine, and then you intercept them somewhere along the line on their routine. This was obviously not a routine setting. So he had to have some reason to believe that Thompson was going to be coming out of that door at an approximate time to be able to lay in wait. Because it’s Manhattan, standing around waiting risks the likelihood of being challenged by a cop or security guard coming by, which suggests that he had reason to know when the guy was going to be coming out. It suggests some sort of inside information.”
“Online sleuths are racing to catch the UnitedHealthcare CEO’s killer” [WaPo]. “The early evidence shared by police has largely been composed of images from New York’s vast infrastructure of surveillance cameras, a mix of public and private recording devices that investigators routinely access to identify and track criminal suspects throughout the city. In 2021, as part of a crowdsourcing project, volunteers with the human-rights group Amnesty International counted more than 25,000 cameras on buildings, poles and streetlights across New York City. Stanford University researchers that year estimated that New York’s camera density was nearly four times higher than Los Angeles. The murder scene’s location in one of Manhattan’s busiest districts probably ensured the man was recorded from many angles, said Ralph Cilento, a former commander of detectives with the New York police who retired in 2021 and now teaches police science at John Jay College. ‘Midtown is like the Iron Dome of cameras,’ Cilento said, referencing the rocket-repelling air-defense system that blankets the Israeli skies. ‘You cannot get into Manhattan at all now without being caught on camera.’ But finding and gathering all that visual evidence can require considerable effort — and take more time than some sleuths on social media are prepared to give. ‘They will track the guy all the way through the city,’ he said, but “it’s extraordinarily tedious work.'”
“The spotlight is on health insurance companies. Patients are telling their stories of denied claims, bankruptcy and delayed care” [Yahoo News]. “For many, the cost of life-saving care is too high, and medical debt is the No. 1 cause of bankruptcy in America. That is to say nothing of the emotional labor of navigating the complex system. With Thompson’s killing and the Anthem policy, there’s been widespread response with a similar through line: a pervasive contempt for the state of health insurance in the United States. The most illustrative reactions, though are the personal ones, the tales of denied claims, battles with insurance agents, delayed care, filing for bankruptcy and more.” • Interesting to see “emotional labor” sneak in there; I would say it’s labor, first and foremost.
“No evidence for inequity aversion in non-human animals: a meta-analysis of accept/reject paradigms” [Proceedings B]. The Abstract: “Disadvantageous inequity aversion (IA), a negative response to receiving less than others, is a key building block of the human sense of fairness. While some theorize that IA is shared by species across the animal kingdom, others argue that it is an exclusively human evolutionary adaptation to the selective pressures of cooperation among non-kin. Essential to this debate is the empirical question of whether non-human animals are averse towards unequal resource distributions. Over the past two decades, researchers have reported that individuals from a wide range of taxa exhibit IA; tasks where participants can reject or accept a given distribution of rewards delivered the bulk of this evidence. Yet these results have been questioned on both conceptual and empirical grounds. In the largest empirical investigation of non-human IA to date, we synthesize the primary data from 23 studies using accept/reject tasks, covering 60 430 observations of 18 species. We find no evidence for IA in non-human animals in these tasks. This finding held across all species in the dataset and pre-registered subsets (all species reported to exhibit IA, primates reported to exhibit IA, chimpanzees and capuchin monkeys). Alternative interpretations of the data and implications for the evolution of fairness are discussed.” • Hmm. People with pets, do you agree?
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Clue:
The perp was Colonel Mustard in the library with a candlestick that now doubles as a hospice, on account of him being denied coverage.
Why couldn’t the perpetrator have worn a plastic Bernie Sanders mask (ala the old Halloween Nixon mask)? Such a wasted opportunity. Speaking of, has anyone confirmed Bernie’s whereabouts on that particular morning?
I doubt that the Man who shot Thompson was a pro both because his weapon did not work properly ( He had to work the slide between shots) and because he only made two hits at close range, one to the calf.
As to the “Silencer” or suppressor, they reduce the sound signature with a 9MM self loader, they don’t eliminate it.
With standard loads and a screw on suppressor it is going to be about as loud as a .22.
Something like a Welrod with subsonic ammo is about as loud as a loud cough.
When talking about suppressor effectiveness “It depends” is a phrase used a lot.
So, an amateur who did some homework and spent some $..
And no sympathy for Thompson, “Murder Inc” only killed a dozen or so, United Healthcare is responsible for the death of Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, through denying care arbttrarily.
No sympathy here either. Some thoughts. I agree with which suggests that he had reason to know when the guy was going to be coming out. It suggests some sort of inside information.” from the Slate article. I believe there is surveillance video of him on the phone between Starbucks and the action.
Some preexisting conditions:
Separated from wife.
Scheduled to testify before congress (about the data breaches, this needs confirmation)
and there’s this, Change Healthcare Data Breach Settlement Talks Due to Commence, hipaa journal
These details aren’t nothing.
On whether the gunman was a hire or not, not sure it matters big picture. A national awareness has been achieved.
The lack of an id as time goes by is causing me to believe the gunman is not a US citizen.
Here’s some more fat to chew. NG
Slain UnitedHealthcare CEO Was Accused Of Insider Trading Amid DOJ Probe, HuffPo
If he appeared to be a hotel guest to the staff, and said he was waiting for someone to pick him up, no one would be surprised he’s hanging around at the front door, talking on the phone.
If he called the CEO to meet him at that door, using AI voice impersonation of someone the CEO knew, he would know the CEO was coming.
None of this is hard. Just requires some planning and research. It takes surprisingly little data to clone a voice (4 seconds IIRC…).
Wouldnt knowing the CEO’s personal phone number require inside information?
Not necessarily…
“Hi, I’m Matt, (child’s name)’s sports teacher from her school (school name). I need to get in contact with (father’s name). She’s been bitten by a bee and she’s reacting badly. We need to get hold of him right away because the ambulance is on his way. Sorry I don’t have his contact information, but (child name) said he worked for your company. Could you put me through? Oh, he’s in New York is he? Do you have any contact information? It’s really urgent!”.
Fake the caller ID too. Or whatever. Most people drop security protocols when confronted by something that seems urgent and believable, with voices that sound right. That’s why social engineering is the easiest way to hack into a “secure” system.
The target will only realize something is off when his front desk person asks him whether his kid Maddie was ok. And only then, if he pays any attention.
Future assassins take note: Actually, hotels are extremely savvy about this kind of thing. Protecting the privacy of their guests is apparently drummed into their employees from day one.
I spent an afternoon legitimately trying to reach my wife at a hotel in Boston and kept running up against this brick wall. I knew her name, of course, but I didn’t know her room number so that was apparently enough for the various employees to fob me off. I finally talked to the hotel manager and even she wouldn’t give me any information. I was suggesting things like she look in my wife’s room, see if she was there, and have her call her husband, but even that didn’t get me anywhere. (It actually ended up being scary for me because I had been called by some fellow conference attendees who said my wife didn’t show up at the conference that morning.)
It’s easy enough to imagine scenarios like an abused spouse hiding in the hotel from an abusive husband or wife, or hiding out from a process server (or an assassin!), so I can kind of understand the mindset. But trying to reach someone in a hotel, celebrity or not, just on the basis of their name is going to be a dead end, I suspect.
Of course, it’s illegal to make or otherwise obtain a suppressor without first buying a $200 tax stamp from the BATFE.
I trust that a decent proportion of the “online sleuths” will be putting out erroneous and misdirecting clues so as to provide the United Health, uh, freelance HR specialist with a few more hours of freedom.
That’s the kind oof coverage UH can provide.
Krugman lost what credibility he retained this fall carrying water for the Harris campaign. If I saw him insisting that everyone was doing fine economically one more time. . . I was on the verge of cancelling our Times sub repeatedly. I grew up reading the paper with my dad in New Jersey, and still remember my shock at how they accommodated the Reagan 80s, suddenly adopting a Metro section full of wealthy people’s weddings and Cartier ads. (They’ve thrown in a little too fully with the neoliberal Democrats to dig out completely this time.) Only The Athletic and the recipes, my partner’s WORDLE–the chance to find out what the CIA wants me to think today–keep me going there now.
> Krugman lost what credibility he retained this fall carrying water for the Harris campaign.
He carried lots of water for #HRC against Bernie too in 2016.
Yeah, but in 2003 -2006? Krugman was great, an absolute lifeline. I seem to recall he went to a dinner with Obama, after which he lost his mind.
Time and frustration with his devotion to the Dems had dimmed memories of Krugman regularly speaking out in opposition to the Iraq War during that time period (if that’s what you’re referring to). Pity he didn’t stay home and order takeout Chinese rather than dining with Obama.
It was as if he was admitted to the inner circle and never wanted to leave, even if it meant lying his head off and leaving his integrity behind.
I remember times early during the Obama administration when he still tried to do a one hand or the other thing, but that ended pretty quickly. So he got the message. He eventually ignored reality with the best of them. By the end of Obama’s second term, I didn’t bother unless I needed to refute him when people used him as reference. That’s been the case ever since.
He left his integrity behind when he became a Free Trade Hasbarist. Did he do it for Clinton? Or was he a Free Trade Hasbarist as soon as Reagan and Senior Bush began negotiating their NAFTA?
I’ve had too many people in my life who haven’t realized that “free trade” isn’t about reducing trade barriers but is really about eliminating internal national controls of industry so a small coterie globalist investor/owners can manipulate and monopolize industries. Worldwide. That it is a misnomer as free trade isn’t about trade at all. So I get not understanding at the beginnings of NAFTA, it is when Perot’s supposedly paranoid predictions start and keep coming true, that I don’t get it.
Yes, the younger Krugman was refreshing in the early 2000’s, and I adored him too, but I believe it was Water Cooler itself where I saw Krugman’s blog post about how he didn’t want to venture into criticizing Israel since October 7th, even though he had deep criticisms, because he knew he would be savaged by readers. I have not been able to find it again, but I will never forget it. It was actually shocking to read so cavalier and open admission of such extraordinary journalistic cowardice. And about a current issue of much more meaning than excoriating non-Democrats for their cognitive failure to appreciate they they’re really not so poor and desperate. And I will NEVER forgive him for his full-throated trashing of Bernie’s Medicare For All plans in both of his campaigns. That had real impact–from his elevated post as an ‘acclaimed’ economist.
Yep. And now he is 71. Well past normal retirement age. I’ll give him a pass on retiring now. / ;)
Paulie is a comparative advantage guy, an idea that worked in the Wests favor 30 years ago.
I remember a leftist writer advising that you never meet or socialize with the people you criticize in your work. Even if there’s no explicit quid pro quo, just the act of meeting them and socializing with them, however briefly, causes you to ease up on them in various ways thanks to your normal humanistic tendencies.
I will give Krugman credit on Bush, and for a number of other worthwhile criticisms of right wing policies back in the old days. Heck, even Rachel Maddow made sense back then. And who can forget Stephen Colbert speaking truth to power in the very faces of Bush and his stenographers at the White House Correspondents dinner? One wonders where they all are now?
Oh yeah…
Krugman was a principal advocate of a cheery, aka “sober” view of occupational adjustment in response to offshoring of domestic industry. I found this 1995 paper, “Growing World Trade: Causes and Consequences,” via Google scholar that proposes the sort of “balanced” view that helped to support the assumption that displaced workers would escape calamity through retraining or migration and so we needed to calm down. I won’t try to do justice the underlying argument, which is outside of my education, but this can serve as a punch line:
I wonder whether PK considers that apocalyptic retrodictions are justified by the actual history of the last 30 years.
That’s the sort of Krugmanite Free Trade Hasbara I was thinking of in my comment above.
The five stories on the United Health CEO Thompson, who ran up his deductible, that Lambert Strether posted contain a lot of speculation and loose ends. Too much unfounded public speculation — as Sub-Boreal notes above, there’s a whiff of misdirection.
I am reminded that the assassin is not stupid. First, he supposedly got on a bike-share, which would have been remarkably dumb. That factoid has been retracted. Now the speculators wonder if a bike was planted for his use: Well, whaddaya think? Manhattan has heavy traffic, and this guy didn’t want to descend into the Broadway Line for a trip downtown, eh?
The Starbucks stop doesn’t check out. Pure speculation. The stuff about flirting at the hostel is unlikely to check out. Sheesh. The abandoned burner phone, if that is what it is, is also not likely to lead too far. And the bus ride from Atlanta — are the cops floating a trial balloon to see who might snitch?
The most important fact: He had inside information.
And there’s this from the AP article: “UnitedHealthcare provides coverage for more than 49 million Americans and brought in more than $281 billion in revenue last year. It is the largest provider of Medicare Advantage plans in the U.S. and manages health insurance coverage for employers and state and federally funded Medicaid programs.”
Wowsers: 281 billion quatloos. Imagine if Unitedhealthcare was in the business of making something useful, like aspirin or toilet brushes.
I am also reminded of how certain murders in the U S of A seem to be curiously unsolved. What about Boeing whistleblowers John Barnett and Joshua Dean?
What does it mean when people have valuable inside information? I’m don’t have an answer, but it is key in all of these cases.
If the WaPo viewed images of the killer in the subway they sure didn’t share them with their readers. We have seen the hostel images, but are not shown the Starbucks images. Is his coat the same color in all of them? Was he masked or unmasked? We’re not getting to see very much, just getting it reported to us.
During my time as a downtown droog, I was a part of the army of temps, messengers, and service workers that kept it all running. There is a social network in that group that relays information, and it is possible to imagine that someone knew about Thompson’s presence at his hotel and across the street in the Hilton. People like him often require on-time assistance, so their movements can be known to staff, particularly if they are demanding. If you want somebody that knows the territory, a messenger would have been perfect.
My mistake — the subway image was published.
> there’s a whiff of misdirection.
From Terry Pratchett’s Jingo (the Klatchians are desert-dwelling adversaries of Ankh-Morpork), the two policement Nobby Nobbs and Sergeant Colon:
A lot of the evidence cited in the press so far appears to me to be circumstantial, and refutable in court. And then there’s the likelihood of jury nullification to consider should a suspect ever be apprehended. I agree that the knowledge of time and place is one element of the act that is most striking as are the inscriptions on the casings. The first tends to indicate a personal motive, while the latter would be political. Or could it be both? It is not unheard of for some of the most militant radicals to have come from elite backgrounds.
He was 5-6 blocks from Central Park. No need for a bike.
He is reported to have gone to an alley to the west first, perhaps changing attire?
The current theory is he exited the park on the Upper West Side (a not at all hard walk), got a cab, and went to the way uptown Port Authority terminal.
‘The economic plan he’s offering isn’t as strong as his language about the economic threat,’ Paul wrote. “In fact, it falls well short of what’s needed.’”
Wow, I hope Obama was okay after Krugman was tough on him.
Well, we can’t be calling Obama a “snowflake” now, can we. [Plain old “flake” will do fine.]
the photo of a tree is a photo of an oak tree (likely Quercus lobata) and not an Olive tree
I was struck by that image. You could be right as it is pretty big for any kind of olive tree. It reminds me of a beautiful picture of a tree that I took about twenty years ago. It is a print of a big oak in the side yard that was about 120 or more years old. I have the print in a box somewhere and never scanned it. The tree had a cavity about fifteen feet up where a limb had been cut off years before. A raccoon had moved in and would emerge at nightfall to do his rounds. The firewood from it lasted for three years.
New United Health CEO Matt Witty is reported to be “displeased” with media coverage: “People are writing things we simply don’t recognize” (after UnitedHealth is reported to have told its employees who say they do see problems to shut up).
The CEO/corporate boards in the US are full of cold-blooded killers. The banality of evil surrounds American families and pray on us. The list of examples are very easy to list.
I haven’t been able to forget the Uvalde school killings….I regularly wonder why those poor parents haven’t gone for blood… All those officials that stood around and allowed the murder of those children.
God help us all….
“There’s room at the top, they’re telling you still,
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill,
If you want to be like the folks on the hill.
A working class hero is something to be.
A working class hero is something to be.
“Working Class Hero” John Lennon
Excuse me, that’s Sir Matthew Witty to the likes of us!
No need for the sarc tag. I’m telling you true.
You say “blow things up” like that’s a bad thing.
That’s kind of where I’m at with our neoliberal/neoconservative dystopia
Also, the idea that Biden might pardon a whole host of people that were intimately involved with Russia-gate has my spider sense tingling
I watched the video of the shooting of United Health CEO Thompson outside the Hilton
It seemed odd to me that
1) He wasn’t carrying a briefcase or any other type of bag. I suppose he could have tucked his speech notes inside his pocket, but don’t these guys typically carry some kind of briefcase?
2) He walked alone from his hotel across the street. Wouldn’t there be other executives attending this investor conference? Where was the CFO? I thought these guys traveled with an entourage.
About 10 years ago, I was walking to my job in the early morning in the Kendall Square neighborhood of Cambridge MA (the MIT neighborhood where there is a MS research center). I passed Bill Gates on the sidewalk going in the opposite direction. He was in a loose group of about five men, all dressed in suits. They weren’t smiling or interacting with each other. Just intently walking together. I assumed then the other men were bodyguards. And no, Bill Gates wasn’t carrying anything.
I have added orts and scraps (like the entire Politics section) but have forgotten to say so, as usual.
>“Biden is considering preemptive pardons for officials and allies before Trump takes office” [Associated Press]. “President Joe Biden is weighing whether to issue sweeping pardons for officials and allies who the
From the Associated Press article,
While the Supreme Court this year ruled that the president enjoys broad immunity from prosecution for what could be considered official acts, his aides and allies enjoy no such shield. Some fear that Trump could use the promise of a blanket pardon to encourage his allies to take actions they might otherwise resist for fear of running afoul of the law.
Two things, all I hear on PMC media discussing Trump is the constant , may, might, could, probably, perhaps stokeing of fear, divisiveness, take your pick. In this case, possibly pardoning people in his upcoming administration for crimes and misdeeds committed. None of these dumbasses has the courage to say they hope Biden doesn’t do it, so precedent is not set for Trump.
Secondly, if Biden does this then as far as I’m concerned it is just in your face, ironclad confirmation we are just another third world banana republic bunch of bulls**t artists.
I wonder how much those blanket pardons are going to cost. Is Hunter painting again?
“…we are just another third world banana republic bunch of bulls**t artists.”
I dunno, I’m beginning to warm to the idea of locking up former presidents, cabinet members and so forth. We can emulate South Korea, which is so often described in the MSM as a “vibrant democracy”.
As to “banana republics” one might consider just who it is that made them thus.
Streisand effect? Even if people didn’t necessarily think these people were crooks, they should be wondering what these guys are trying to hide now.
I’m looking forward to President Biden’s generous act of pardoning all these guilty people:
See Ari Melber tell sheriff Joe Arpaio his Trump pardon was an admission of guilt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiNY231MfEQ
And I’m looking forward to the interviews by MSNBC where they are asked about their crimes.
Please no.
Cuomo advisor states he will win NYC primary if he runs for mayor, thanks to ranked choice voting
This is from the NY Post reporting on an appearance made by Melissa DeRosa where she said she had seen the data showing him the favorite. Mind you if their account is correct I think they are making some assumptions the election earlier this month showed Democrats shouldn’t make anymore, like where Hispanics and Blacks are going to vote. (She said he was clearly going to be the second choice for those groups if the candidates she thought would be their first choice didn’t make the cut.)
I clearly hope that NY will reject any and all attempts by Andrew Cuomo to return to political relevancy. But I don’t always get what I want. I mean, ranked choice voting gave us Eric Adams.
In re: the Thompson “deposition”:
Democrats propose deal to GOP extending Affordable Care Act subsidies by a year
I am sure the timing is coincidental.
U.S. Milk to Be Tested for Bird Flu Virus
We must finally be in the realm of panic.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/06/health/usda-bird-flu-milk-testing.html
A good many of the CAFO dairies in Godzone already have Bessies infected with H5N1, and it isn’t as if they could leave the barn, but figuratively they have.
“Obama calls political ‘divisiveness’ one of the ‘greatest challenges of our time’”
Obama doesn’t understand a lot of things – or pretends he doesn’t. That is why when he was campaigning for Harris he ended up sending a lot of voters to Trump, especially black voters. He would talk about the brothers and you would have black voters say that he isn’t their brother. Too much finger-wagging on his part-
https://x.com/DoctorFishbones/status/1848846126427869210
I don’t know, there seems considerable unity about health insurance.
To be fair, that’s not a subject you’d expect Obama to know much about. Perhaps he can study the issue and get back to us with a unifying, dare I say united, plan.
I remember frequently having the sensation during Obama’s term of being thankful that I wasn’t his kid. He seems to enjoy nothing more than lecturing people about what they should be doing and how they should be acting.
Looks like he’s still doing it 8 years later.
I have a friend who just realized that he has accidentally been feeding his beloved elderly cat the wrong food for months. The cat has some sort of urinary/kidney problem, and by mistake he bought dog urinary food instead of cat urinary food. He’s now terrified that the cat will die due to lack of taurine. I think presently the cat appears okay. Does anyone have any thoughts?
The poor guy. He is absolutely besotted by the cat and it is what remains of his life with his parents, who have passed away. He is in his early 70s and both of them ended up with dementia; I hope he isn’t getting confused.
If the cat looks good I wouldn’t be too worried as long as it’s eating well now.
Thank you. I will try to reassure him.
Depending on the brand, they can look very similar. And yes taurine is necessary, but cats lived for a longtime without it in their food before its beneficial effect was known and it was added to the food. A few months is not going to kill the cat.
I wish that he has as much time as possible with his beloved cat. Goodbye is never easy but it is unavoidable.
Thank you. I just have no sense of how fast this could be a problem, and of course he is freaking out. The cat gets nothing but this food (of course now he has the right food).
> He’s now terrified that the cat will die due to lack of taurine.
If your friend did a Google search like I did, this would be the top hit, from The Vets: “Is It Okay to Feed Dog Food to Your Cat?”
And:
Although:
I assume it’s an indoor cat, though.
I would check out the cat at the vet.
Thank you. Yes, the worry is the taurine. I did look around and see articles, but didn’t see the thing that you found above (“the symptoms of Taurine deficiency come on very slowly”). Ugh. The cat is an indoor cat and got nothing but this dog food for months; no rodents, no birds, so there was no taurine back-up. I will suggest a vet trip.
> I will suggest a vet trip.
And if there is an issue, perhaps anything bad going on can be arrested.
Good luck both to the cat and to your friend.
Sports desk entry, cue up the old alma mater for the beloved Tar Heels of UNC-CH. And to add, a h/t for a former site Links curator and once upon a time poster here, JLS. Wherever you are Jeri-Lynn, hope it beats the heck out of the US in 2024.
College football program interviews…Bill Belichick? UNC fans are not having it not so far. Reeking of a desperate change after the previous coach was dismissed , Mack Brown who was also already in his 70s.
It’s still early days in December yet, so the stupid timeline of America in 2024 still can etch a few more entries. And sorry to say a likely football coaching all timer. UNC has a ram on the sideline named Rameses, not sure there is a room to include a proverbial “goat”.
https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/bill-belichicks-interest-in-unc-job-a-clear-sign-that-legendary-coach-is-yearning-a-return-to-sideline/
Adding it’s not the alma mater for myself but dear ol Dad attended, graduating in 1953 I think.
Taibbi and Kirn, ATW public excerpt, 30 minutes.
America This Week, December 06, 2024: “The Immaculate Pardon”
A trial balloon floats presidential pardons no one asked for, no one knows anything about, and no one needs, but will be done anyway.
https://www.racket.news/p/america-this-week-december-06-2024
Pardons don’t get issued until the last day of a Presidency if I recall. So what if this talk of pardons is Biden’s way of saying that pardons for crimes committed are now up for sale. Just feed the appropriate amount of money into the Biden family’s coffers and you too can be absolved of all the crimes that you committed, even if they were done not in my name. Offer good until January 20th of next year.
Enjoyable show. Just got done watching Yves talk with Larry Johnson for an hour on Youtube. Friday’s are slowly winning me over to podcasts.
Lovely Spytalks-Substack – I really don´t know why I am doing this to myself – with a new piece:
Rise of the Unqualified
The woes of Trump’s national security nominees and a disturbing report on an alleged Havana Syndrome coverup lead this week’s roundup.
(It´s not on the page yet)
This excerpt:
Still, something is brewing behind the scenes about Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s pick for DNI. The Associated Press reported that nearly 100 former senior U.S. diplomats and intelligence and national security officials urged Senate leaders to schedule closed-door hearings on Gabbard, focusing on “the protection of our intelligence sources and methods.” That could be related to an ABC report that Gabbard regularly read and shared articles from the Russian state-owned news outlet RT “long after” she was advised that the outlet was not a credible source of information. In fact, it’s a Kremlin-controlled media organ that regularly spews disinformation.
> Gabbard regularly read and shared articles from the Russian state-owned news outlet RT
Sun Tzu, three cases:
If you read RT, you know your enemy, so case [1] is ruled out. If we know ourselvess, case [2] follows. I don’t think we know ourselves. so case [3] follows.
And of course The headings would be closed-door.
The Twitter stuff on UHC is just brutal. People venturing off into other targets. It’s meme land as well. Never before has something so united Americans. Since 9/11.
What this brings will be police state expansion.
Patriot Act refreshed and revitalized, for your benefit and granting peace of mind for all consumers, citizens and comrades alike. Don’t give the new administration more ideas!
The current administration had run the gamut of course, going back to the vaccine mandates and that was basically a coding to “take the damn shot or take a walk, valued employee / citizen / military”…
> What this brings will be police state expansion.
I’m sure McKinsey, Palantir, etc., are working on the PowerPoints right now.
It’s pretty shocking I can’t find here any comments about the coup in Romania, where the election results were canceled.
It will be in Links which are firing soon.
Water Cooler is largely about domestic US matters. And it goes live in the mid-evening EU time.
It will be in Links, which are firing soon.
Remember Water Cooler is mainly about domestic US matters. And it goes live in the evening for the EU.
If you want to get the conversation going, the normal process is to provide a link.
Late, but wasn’t there a study or at least a video around Occupy Wall Street that showed primates getting angry that their neighbor primate was getting a more desirable treat?
If anyone has had cats or dogs, they will know that complaints or a cat’s death glare will be issued if the other one gets the more desirable treat. There’s also redirected aggression in which the cat that gets the less desirable ,or no, reward will slap and bully the one that did.
I guess comparing NYC to Isreal’s Iron dDome is a good one. Not what teh professor means since in Isreal its not doing the best job just like the cameras in NYC
It’s amazing that users are so supine in the face of these kinds of intrusions. Imagine if your car required you to use Ford gasoline or Mazda crankcase oil. Or if your kitchen mixer required you to buy your flour from KitchenAid. Everyone would avoid these products in droves. But for some reason, certain high-tech manufacturers get away with it.
Strange that some printer manufacturer doesn’t prominently push the fact that their printer can use any ink or toner cartridges on the market.
> But for some reason, certain high-tech manufacturers get away with it.
The printer manufacturers are extremely ingenious. For example, ink is cheapest in the US. But you must buy the printer in the US; they shape the cartridges differently for different regions of the world. (I don’t think they actually have a chip that uses GPS to detect where you are, but I wouldn’t put it past them.)
They make their money on the blades, not the razor. It’s an old business model.