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2:00PM Water Cooler 1/15/2025

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By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Bird Song of the Day

Brown Thrasher, Parc de la Survivance, Les Maskoutains, Quebec, Canada.

* * *

In Case You Might Miss…

  1. Warren v. Hegseth, Ernst v. Hegseth.
  2. Biden-installed roadblocks to Schedule F.
  3. Democrat leadership crisis.
  4. RedNote’s cat tax.

* * *

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

Warren v. Hegseth (1):

Warren v. Hegseth (2):

Lambert here: I award this round to Tracey. Not that I accept the revolving door metaphor (FlexNets are where it’s at), but whether one wears a suit or a uniform while walking through one shouldn’t matter.

“Senate Democrats Fail To Rattle Hegseth” [RealClearPolitics]. “Unlike many of his predecessors, Hegseth is not a retired general or seasoned government official and he has comparatively limited executive experience. He is a combat veteran and television anchor with ivy league degrees. But the former Army major’s main qualification in the eyes of the incoming administration is a rejection of political correctness in the military. In Tuesday’s committee hearing, he did not blink or abandon the views he has expressed for years in print and on air. He delivered a full-throated condemnation of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies that were hallmarks of the Biden Pentagon. ‘This is not a time for equity,’ the nominee said, arguing instead for ‘equality’ among the ranks that emphasizes meritocracy in pursuit of a common purpose, not prescribed outcomes and quotas based on immutable characteristics like race, gender, or sexual orientation…. Republicans loved that they were hearing from a nominee who said many of the same things Trump said to get elected. Begrudgingly impressed, Democrats were, all the same, appalled. Hegseth does not need their votes. When allegations of professional and sexual misconduct surfaced, which he denies, the nominee focused instead on maintaining support among the GOP majority. Democrats on the committee complained repeatedly that Hegseth didn’t even bother to meet with them privately prior to the hearing. Hegseth did moderate on at least one front. ‘Women will have access to ground combat roles,’ he said, walking back past statements but before qualifying that standards must ‘remain high, and we will have a review to ensure the standards have not been eroded.'” • A dude with a jawline like Hegseth’s clearly ought to be in charge of something. It will be interesting to find out who his “deputies” are…..

“GOP Sen. Joni Ernst officially backs Pete Hegseth for DOD after initial uncertainty” [FOX]. “Ernst, a survivor of sexual assault herself, said, ‘A priority of mine has been combating sexual assault in the military and making sure that all of our service members are treated with dignity and respect. This has been so important. Senator Gillibrand and I have worked on this, and we were able to get changes made to the uniform code of military justice to make sure that we have improvements, and on how we address the tragic and life altering, issues of rape, sexual assault. It will demand time and attention from the Pentagon under your watch, if you are confirmed. So, as secretary of Defense, will you appoint a senior level official dedicated to sexual assault prevention and response?’ she asked Hegseth. Trump’s DOD choice told the senator that he would agree to do so.” • Hegseth, if he’s smart, will take this opportunity to rehabilitate his reputation.

“The Greatest DEI Disaster Ever” [Jennifer Rubin, The Contrarian]. Rubin’s first shot after leaving WaPo. “Watching Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth demonstrate his appalling lack of credentials, knowledge, and character for the job for which he was nominated I am compelled to ask: Is the Trump administration running a DEI program for incompetent, unqualified, and/or ethically compromised Whites?” And: “Amy McGrath, a former Marine fighter pilot whom I interviewed yesterday, told me that Republican claims that the military has lowered standards to accommodate women is a ‘lie.'” • Amy McGrath, Amy McGrath… Oh yeah. The fighter pilot, reporting for duty kinda like John Kerry, who, awash in out-of-state money, defeated Black progressive Charles Booker and then went on to outraise Mitch McConnell by $30 million — Democrats were s-o-o-o-o excited — and then lost the race by twenty points. How surprising that McGrath is still in Rubin’s Rolodex.

“By Targeting Hegseth, Democrats Open a Path for Gabbard” [Politico]. “[I]ntimidated by threats hurled by Trump’s allies, Republican lawmakers have in recent weeks rallied to Hegseth and many of them have made clear that, absent new and more damaging revelations, they will likely support his nomination. At the same time, Trump has made clear he won’t yank Hegseth’s nomination. Surprisingly, though, this GOP show of support has not prompted Senate Democrats to pivot toward confronting Gabbard. That has surprised, and even disappointed, their Republican counterparts, some of whom told me that they would be more willing to make common cause to stop the former Democrat from Hawaii, who holds isolationist and libertarian national security views outside the Senate GOP mainstream. Why wouldn’t Democrats shift toward a softer target, especially knowing that few of their Republican colleagues want to cast one, if that many, votes against a Trump nominee? Yes, this is a commentary on the bargain pre-Trump Republicans have made. They may malign the press and Democrats, but they’d sure like the media to dig up damaging stories on Gabbard so that Democrats can amplify them, which in turn would prompt Trump to grow irritated at the skeptical coverage and abandon her. A version of the Matt Gaetz appointment, in other words. That’s much easier than publicly opposing Gabbard, to say nothing of voting her down on the Senate floor.” • Hmm.

* * *

“Biden’s ‘sneaky’ and ‘dirty’ plot to slow down Trump on Day One… despite promising a ‘smooth’ transition” [Daily Mail]. “President Joe Biden enacted a series of roadblocks to slow down Donald Trump’s agenda during the president-elect first days in the White House, despite his steadfast promises to cooperate with the incoming administration…. ‘I think he’s going to have a problem,’ the president said. ‘Trump’s going to have a hard time undoing a lot, I think.’ Politics ain’t beanbag. This, however, is important: “During the final weeks of his first term in 2020, Trump issued an executive order creating a new class of federal workers known as Schedule F. These staffers would be exempt from the country’s traditional merit-based civil service program. And opponents argued it was an attempt to hire and fire people based on their political loyalty. Biden, when he came into office in January 2021, rescinded that order. He then took it one step further last spring, when he issued a new rule that strengthens existing rights for career federal workers by making it clear that civil service protections cannot be taken away from employees unless they give them up voluntarily. In other words, it makes it nearly impossible for Trump to classify current federal employees under a Schedule F type order. A senior Biden administration official told CNN that the rule could not easily be rolled back in a second Trump term. Trump has repeatedly promised he would reinstate Schedule F executive order on day one. ‘An executive order would not have impact with this regulation in place,’ the senior Biden official said. ‘A future administration would have to go through a new regulatory process, which would also entail like explaining specifically through that rulemaking process why a different rule is better than the existing regulations that OPM (the Office of Personnel Management) finalized and are announced … and how that new approach was consistent with the law.'” • I dunno. The Trump operation has been pretty feral so far, so I’m not sure what effect a new rulemaking process would have.

* * *

“Poke The Bear” [Brian Beutler, Off-Message]. “Donald Trump is a lame duck. He’s weak in the ways every lame-duck president is, and, to an under-appreciated extent, his efforts to menace and extort concessions out of domestic and international rivals is a form of rebellion against his own expiration date, his looming irrelevance…. But a good way to resolve the debate might be to establish an informal rule: responding to Trump’s provocations is always acceptable if the effect is to belittle him; to make him look like a boob or a chump or a phony. Not ‘ahhh! this is dangerous!’ but ‘whatever, clown!’ Not ‘what about our norms!’ but ‘try me.’ Etc, etc. When Trump said he’d rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, U.S. liberals mostly resolved to ignore it, but Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum pointed to an old map of what is now the southwestern U.S. and said, “¿Por qué no le llamamos ‘América mexicana’? Suena bien, ¿verdad?”— “Why don’t we call this Mexican America? Sounds good, no?”… I would like to applaud this approach, and encourage more of it from more western leaders, ideally in collaboration. Maybe they can start trying to one-up each other. Instead of simply saying Greenland isn’t for sale, the prime minister of Denmark might ask Trump whether the United States can really afford a tariff on Ozempic given our epidemic of obesity, embodied by Trump himself.” • Dunno. It would be hard to out-troll Trump. And I’m not sure that Sheinbaum’s punch landed anywhere that matters. Then again–

“Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a potential 2028 candidate, wants to find common ground with Trump” [Associated Press]. ” Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer wants a fresh start with President-elect Donald Trump but also warns that she won’t back down over tariffs that she believes would hurt the auto industry in her state… ‘I don’t want to pretend we’re always going to agree, but I will always seek collaboration first,’ Whitmer said Wednesday about the Republican president-elect. ‘I won’t go looking for fights. I won’t back down from them, either.'” • It’s gonna be hard to kidnap Big Gretch twice, so I’m not sure what her options in 2028 will be.

* * *

Pledging fealty like the neo-feudalist robber barons they are:

“Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg to attend Trump’s inauguration” [WaPo]. “Tech moguls Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg are planning to attend President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday, underscoring the deepening ties between prominent tech leaders and the incoming administration after years of acrimony. The billionaire trio is expected to sit together on the dais, a prominent location alongside former presidents, Trump’s family, Cabinet picks and lawmakers, according to a Trump official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the unannounced plans.”

“Scoop: Trump’s $500 million post-election windfall” [Axios]. “President-elect Trump is being inundated with so much money from corporations and wealthy donors that his team expects to raise about $500 million by summer — even though he can’t run again, sources in his operation tell Axios. By stockpiling so much cash, Trump is signaling he doesn’t want to be seen as a lame duck [see above] in his second term, and is ready to help political allies, punish opponents and help Republicans keep full control of Congress in 2026.” And: “‘The crypto guys are just blowing it out,’ the Trump adviser said. ‘It used to be $1 million was a big number. Now we’re looking at some folks giving like $10 [million] or $20 million.’ ‘If the tech guys are giving big, it makes everyone give,’ another Trump adviser added.” • As they would. Lots of Californians up on that dias….

Lawfare

Lambert here: I hate to file these suits under lawfare, because to my recollection both have merit. But a little late, no?

“SEC sues Elon Musk, alleging failure to properly disclose Twitter ownership” [CNBC].

“CFPB sues Capital One for ‘cheating’ customers out of over $2 billion in interest” [CNBC].

* * *

“Despite Trump’s Felony Conviction, Prosecutorial Liberalism Has Failed” [Jeet Heer, The Nation]. “The problems with prosecutorial liberalism are twofold. First, it is a strategy that tries to use the legal system to do the work of politics. Of course, if figures like Trump commit crimes, they should fall under the purview of the law. But the law in and of itself is ill-equipped to settle the matter of a corrupt politician’s status with voters. There is a long history of voters rewarding politicians who run afoul of the law or have been entangled in scandal, beloved miscreants such as onetime Washington Mayor Marion Barry and onetime Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards.” • In a way, we might say that the famous slogan used by the Edwards camp (“Vote for the crook! It’s important!”) — Edwards then running against KKKer David Duke — applied equally well to Trump. Which isn’t so such a stretch if genocide and a proxy war with a nuclear power are top of mind for you.

2024 Post Mortem

“Kamala Harris eyeing post-loss life in NYC as second gentleman tours $20K-a-month luxury space” [Page Six, New York Post]. • Rats leaving a sinking ship?

“Harris declines to invite Vance for courtesy visit to vice president’s residence before inauguration” [CBS]. • Mind-bogglingly petty.

Democrats en déshabillé

“The Democratic Party’s leadership crisis: ‘Don’t know’ and ‘Nobody’ outpoll pols” [USA Today]. “When asked to name the leader of the Democratic Party, nearly half of all registered voters nationally in our Suffolk University/USA TODAY couldn’t name a person or volunteered ‘Nobody.'”… Let’s start with the 19% of voters who responded ‘nobody.’ As for the “nobody” retort, as you might expect, more Republicans (22%) gave this response, but 26% of independents did too.”

Realignment and Legitimacy

“Luigi Mangione’s Account Renamed on Stack Overflow” [Michael Tsai]. “Mangione has not actually been convicted of anything yet. Reddit, Facebook, and Instagram have deleted his accounts, but the only one that chose to both erase him and keep the content, is Stack Exchange. It’s not clear whether that’s legal.” • Mangione is now “user4616250.” Numerologists make of that what you will.

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, thump, Tom B., Utah, Bob White (3).

Stay safe out there!

Maskstravaganza

Bonnie Henry territory (1):

Bonnie Henry territory (2):

Vaccines

“It won’t end with COVID: Countering the next phase of American antivaccine activism 2025–29” [Peter Hotez, PLOS]. “Peter Hotez is a co-inventor on non-revenue generating patents for neglected tropical diseases owned by Baylor College of Medicine (BCM). He is also a co-inventor of a COVID-19 recombinant protein vaccine technology owned by BCM that was recently licensed by Baylor Ventures non-exclusively and with no patent restrictions to several companies committed to advance vaccines for low- and middle-income countries.” The lead: “Antivaccine sentiments have been expressed throughout American history. However, in this century, the antivaccine movement gained momentum around false claims that vaccines cause autism in the 2000s, followed by ‘health freedom’ protests versus childhood immunization mandates in schools in the 2010s [1]. Starting in 2020 with the introduction of COVID-19 vaccines, health freedom extended to adult immunizations and became a signature feature of political activism on the far-right. This politically charged movement organized and convinced countless Americans to shun COVID-19 immunizations in 2021–22 resulting in an estimated 200,000 deaths from COVID-19 among the unvaccinated U.S. population. Antivaccine activism became a major lethal force in America.” • Not seeing a note to that 200,000 figure.

Social Norming

“A Nation of Homebodies” [New York Times]. From October, 2024. Here is the deck: “A recent study shows Americans are spending notably more time at home, a trend that started long before the pandemic.” • Handy chart:

“Why the jump?” If you were one of those Brownnose Institute fellas, you’d say it was our (pissant, poruous, short-lived) lockdowns, and not — work with me here — millions of illnesses and deaths. But suppose they’re right? “Why the persistence?” One obvious answer is the desire to avoid infection. A second answer is Long Covid. It will be interesting to see what the numbers for 2023 and 2024 are. (Note that the article follows the deck in attempting to make an obvious state change into a smooth progression, rather like that study where people can be brow-beaten by putative peers into saying two lines are the same length when they are very obviously not.)

* * *

TABLE 1: Daily Covid Charts

Wastewater
This week[1] CDC January 10 Last week[2] CDC (until next week):

Variants [3] CDC December 21 Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC January 4

Hospitalization
★ New York[5] New York State, data January 14: National [6] CDC Janurary 9:

Positivity
National[7] Walgreens January 13: Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic January 4:

Travelers Data
Positivity[9] CDC December 23: Variants[10] CDC December 23

Deaths
Weekly Deaths vs. % Positivity [11] CDC January 4: Weekly Deaths vs. ED Visits [12] CDC January 4:

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) Seeing more red and more orange, but nothing new at major hubs.

[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) A little uptick.

[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Definitely jumped.

[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). Leveling out.

[7] (Walgreens) Leveling out.

[8] (Cleveland) Continued upward trend since, well, Thanksgiving.

[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

Inflation: “United States Core Inflation Rate” [Trading Economics]. “The annual core consumer price inflation rate in the United States, which excludes items such as food and energy, eased to 3.2% in December 2024, down from 3.3% in the previous three months and slightly below market expectations of 3.3%. The shelter index, accounting for over two thirds of the total 12-month increase rose 4.6% over the past year, marking the smallest annual gain since January 2022.”

Inflation: “United States Consumer Price Index (CPI)” [Trading Economics]. “Consumer Price Index CPI in the United States increased to 315.61 points in December from 315.49 points in November of 2024. The annual inflation rate in the US rose for a 3rd consecutive month to 2.9% in December from 2.7% in November, in line with market expectations.”

Manufacturing: “United States NY Empire State Manufacturing Index” [Trading Economics]. “The NY Empire State Manufacturing Index tumbled to -12.6 in January 2025 from 2.1 in December, missing forecasts of 3 and marking a return to contraction for New York state’s manufacturing activity at the steepest rate since May 2024.”

* * *

Manufacturing: “Trump Transportation Dept nominee says he will work to restore global confidence in Boeing” [Reuters]. “‘I will work with Congress and the FAA to restore global confidence in Boeing and to ensure our skies are safe,” said Sean Duffy, a former U.S. House lawmaker, according to written testimony seen by Reuters. The Federal Aviation Administration is maintaining tougher oversight of Boeing indefinitely, a year after a door panel missing four bolts flew off a new Alaska Airlines (ALK.N), opens new tab Boeing 737 MAX 9 in mid-air. It has also barred Boeing from expanding production beyond 38 MAX planes per month. Boeing did not immediately comment. FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker plans to step down on Jan. 20, while Deputy FAA Administrator Katie Thomson left the agency last week. Trump has not yet named a new nominee to head the department. On Saturday, Trump said he was nominating Steve Bradbury, a former DOT general counsel, to serve as deputy DOT secretary. Duffy will face a number of aviation issues including a persistent shortage of air traffic controllers, aging FAA facilities and a series of dangerous near-miss incidents.”

Manufacturing: “Crisis-hit Boeing delivered less than half as many jets as Airbus in 2024” [Seattle Times]. “Boeing must begin to turn its fortunes around this year to avoid falling further behind because Airbus plans a relentless production increase as it fixes its supply chain. Airbus now operates eight A320 jet family assembly lines — two in Toulouse, France; four in Hamburg, Germany; one in Tianjin, China; and one in Mobile, Ala. — all now equipped to build the larger A321 model. Scherer reiterated that Airbus plans to increase production of the A320 family from 50 per month in 2024 to 75 per month in 2027. To implement that ramp-up, Airbus plans to add another A320 assembly line in Mobile and another in Asia by 2026.” • Eight. That’s a lot.

Manufacturing: “Boeing CEO in India in his first overseas visit” [The Hindu]. “On [Ortberg’s agenda are business meetings with Boeing’s customers in the country, which include a meeting with Tata Trusts Chairman Noel Tata, according to industry sources. There are also meetings with key government stakeholders as well as employees. Though the visit has been kept under wraps, it is learnt that visits to some of Boeing’s facilities in Hyderabad and Bengaluru are also on his itinerary. He is in India for nearly three days. Boeing and Tata have a joint venture in Tata Boeing Aerospace Limited for manufacturing aerostructures and collaboration on integrated systems development opportunities in India, both for its military and civil aircraft that includes a production facility in Hyderabad for co-producing Boeing AH-64 Apache helicopter fuselages, among other aerostructures. The Tata Advanced systems Limited (TASL) also manufactures composite assemblies for Boeing’s 737 MAX, 777X, and 787 Dreamliner.”

* * *

Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 29 Fear (previous close: 26 Fear) [CNN]. One week ago: 30 (Fear). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Jan 15 at 1:56:49 PM ET.

Musical Interlude

Play everything but the root and everywhere but on the beat:

Zeitgeist Watch

Readers, have at it:

I quarrel with “going to be.” Nevertheless, we do need that word!

News you can use:

News of the Wired

“Did we all know this already?” [Kottke.org]. “Chip is a nickname for a guy named after his dad. Skip is a nickname for a guy named after his grandfather. Trip is a nickname for a guy named after his dad AND grandfather.” • Readers?

This is awesome, actually. More insight into the new craze all the kids are into, RedNote (“Xiaohongshu”), the Chinese TikTok replacement:

* * *

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

Desert Dog writes: “On the hike up to my daughters house in the four corners area of Colorado I pass this Bald Eagle roost where they can scan the valley below.”

* * *

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About Lambert Strether

Readers, I have had a correspondent characterize my views as realistic cynical. Let me briefly explain them. I believe in universal programs that provide concrete material benefits, especially to the working class. Medicare for All is the prime example, but tuition-free college and a Post Office Bank also fall under this heading. So do a Jobs Guarantee and a Debt Jubilee. Clearly, neither liberal Democrats nor conservative Republicans can deliver on such programs, because the two are different flavors of neoliberalism (“Because markets”). I don’t much care about the “ism” that delivers the benefits, although whichever one does have to put common humanity first, as opposed to markets. Could be a second FDR saving capitalism, democratic socialism leashing and collaring it, or communism razing it. I don’t much care, as long as the benefits are delivered. To me, the key issue — and this is why Medicare for All is always first with me — is the tens of thousands of excess “deaths from despair,” as described by the Case-Deaton study, and other recent studies. That enormous body count makes Medicare for All, at the very least, a moral and strategic imperative. And that level of suffering and organic damage makes the concerns of identity politics — even the worthy fight to help the refugees Bush, Obama, and Clinton’s wars created — bright shiny objects by comparison. Hence my frustration with the news flow — currently in my view the swirling intersection of two, separate Shock Doctrine campaigns, one by the Administration, and the other by out-of-power liberals and their allies in the State and in the press — a news flow that constantly forces me to focus on matters that I regard as of secondary importance to the excess deaths. What kind of political economy is it that halts or even reverses the increases in life expectancy that civilized societies have achieved? I am also very hopeful that the continuing destruction of both party establishments will open the space for voices supporting programs similar to those I have listed; let’s call such voices “the left.” Volatility creates opportunity, especially if the Democrat establishment, which puts markets first and opposes all such programs, isn’t allowed to get back into the saddle. Eyes on the prize! I love the tactical level, and secretly love even the horse race, since I’ve been blogging about it daily for fourteen years, but everything I write has this perspective at the back of it.

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133 comments

  1. Mikel

    “Americans to shun COVID-19 immunizations.”

    “Immunizations” – I had the chicken pox vaccine and others that were immunizations.

  2. ambrit

    The Reddit “renaming” Saint Luigi as ‘User Number 4616250’ is very close to how prisoners in jail or, horrors, concentration camps are identified. The purpose of the numbering regime was probably to dehumanize the incarcerated ones. It is psychologically easier to “liquidate” numbers than to “liquidate” named persons.
    Also, that looks like a telephone number. I feel a bit sorry for those persons or businesses that have that phone number. I can imagine the prank calls incoming.
    Stay safe.

    1. Revenant

      I was thinking that, should have been user24601….

      In fact, it is 24610 mixed up with 56 (or 65).

      If patterns you seek, start at two and move 4 left each time, wapping around to the right. That gives you 24601…56. Which appears to have no significance at all! Les Mis was published in 1862.

    2. t

      The number has probably been associated with the user from the get-go.

      Stack profile pages all have a number. For Luigi, the profile has the number, and then user1234 instead of a name.

      Newer users have longer numbers – think. Not sure when or why they add digits to numbers.

    3. no one

      Hmmm. When I looked up “4616250” on DuckDuckGo, the top results were for “The Perfect Weapon,” a 2016 American science fiction action film directed by Titus Paar and starring Steven Seagal, featuring a hitman and his struggles against a dictator.

    4. timo maas

      In databases things are identifided with a unique number (primary key), because names are not unique. Deleting user from a forum, while leaving written posts, is done by replacing name with something generic like “deleteduser1234”.

      P.S. I think those nubmers were automatically generated when he created the account.

        1. JBird4049

          I know you are writing in jest, but considering just how similar in both extent and cruelty the American system of gulags are to the Soviets’, that would never happen.

          But I wonder just how many people still remember Alexander Solzhenitsyn? Or if many people still buy his books, let alone read them?

        1. Zelja

          Have seen the movie, didn’t like it. Haven’t read Solzhenitsyn, didn’t like him. I guess I am picky when it comes to fiction.

          1. JBird4049

            Perhaps it’s not being picky, but the subject matter, which is dystopian? Some people just don’t like it or at least need to be in the right place to read it.

            One of the best books that I ever read was The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, which like Solzhenitsyn‘s books was a fictionalized account of actual, very dark and disturbing, history. THX1138 is at least true fiction although still dystopian.

            1. The Rev Kev

              Fun fact. George Lucas recycled the name THX1138 in his film “Star Wars” when an Imperial officer was calling down to a storm trooper on the flight deck who feigned problems with his helmet receiver. He called him by his designation THX1138.

            2. Zelja

              Well, I’ve liked Orwell since my youth. Maybe being from “communist block” have shaped my taste for certain flavors of “pro-communist” and “anti-communist” stuff. In the West, Orwell’s work have often been presented as anti-communist and/or anti-Soviet, but I never percieved it as such (and it seems I was right, because nowdays we see 1984 happening in the same place Orwell set it).

              As far as THX1138 goes, I’ve watched it in this century and it’s just not a very good movie, or at least not as good as its reputation as “cult classic” suggests it shoulk be. Dark Star is much better (as long as one keep in mind that it’s a student movie).

              1. Daniil Adamov

                How about Shalamov?

                (I ask because I read Solzhenitsyn and didn’t like him, but Shalamov wrote much better about the same things and is perhaps a very different flavour of “anti-communist”. Or “pro-communist”.)

                1. Zelja

                  I don’t know. I never came across any of his books. I’ve never veered much from the mainstream. :)

                  P.S. Those that don’t follow Martyanov probably did not get it, but my initial comment was tongue-in-cheek, and a reference to his “love” for Solzhenitsyn. He is regulary repeating that it’s a work of fiction. :)

                  1. Daniil Adamov

                    Oh, fair enough.

                    But IIRC that was a big part of Shalamov’s own complaint about Solzhenitsyn. He had been in worse camps for longer and accused Solzhenitsyn of distorting the camp experience for commercial and propagandistic purposes. His own writings were if anything a good deal more bleak, but also more conscientious; and he was vehemently opposed to emigre attempts to use them as anti-Soviet propaganda. I think his Kolyma Tales are much more interesting and worth reading, if sadly outside the mainstream. They are, of course, not a fun read and he is not so politically straightforward as Solzhenitsyn, who I’m pretty sure is still in the Russian school program. At least, he was in my high school years.

  3. lyman alpha blob

    RE: Did we all know this already?

    I never heard that before about any of those nicknames. Thinking about it though, I have a friend who goes by “Chip” and was actually a 3rd, although I never asked about the nickname. Technically, I suppose, this might be correct and he could have been called “Chip” because he shared the same name as his father, even though the grandfather had the same name, too – maybe they just didn’t like “Trip”.

    What I had always assumed is that the name “Trey” referred to someone with the same name as father and grandfather, but maybe I’m wrong about that.

    1. nippersmom

      I knew about the Trip thing, having worked with a guy called Trip and knowing how he acquired that nickname. Hadn’t heard the explanation for Chip and Skip, but it makes sense.

    2. hk

      I heard the story (from a jr. rather than a 3rd) that he got the nickname “Chip” because he’s a Chip “off of the old block.”

      1. Pat

        I might actually enjoy the upcoming Mayoral primary if it had a cage match between Kamala and that hopeful wishing to return to political relevance, Andy Cuomo. Unfortunately it is probably too soon for a Harris run.

    2. Pat

      Nope. Lots of evidence that NY is amenable to carpetbaggers. She is still beloved by much of the financial crowd. And California has shown lots of signs that her shine is off there. Not to mention it is going to be a mess for awhile. Besides the NYC universities seem to have a lot of money to waste on bad politicians.

      And of course she can hang out with the Clintons and do brunch.

    3. ambrit

      Just wait till she runs for the Senate in Hillary’s old district. That is the American English definition of a “Rotton Borough.”

      1. Pat

        Gillibrand was just reelected, so her seat is tied up until 2030. The next NY Senate election would be Chuckie Schumer in 2028. He is 74, and in any other profession would be expected to retire but any more it appears senators and congresspersons leave the Capital in a casket. Being a largely Democratic state her opportunities are limited. Hochul is vulnerable but Governor is limiting. Another run for President is the most likely political plan.

        1. none

          I’ve been hoping for years that AOC would primary out Schumer. I guess I still hope that even though AOC is just another centrist by now.

  6. Vicky Cookies

    Following an announcement by Trump on social media, Israeli officials are confirming that a ceasefire deal, seemingly the one on offer since last May, has been agreed to. It has to be approved by the Israeli government, and then there is a 24 hour period during which their Supreme Court can appeal it, meaning that the guns would go silent Friday, if all goes well.

    There is a lot to think about here. First, whether Israelis will treat this they way they’ve treated their deal with Hezbollah, namely by not adhering to it at all. Then we can ask ourselves what, if anything, the Israelis were offered in return. A common speculation is that the West Bank will be formally annexed.

    Trump’s Middle East envoy reportedly met with Israeli officials and gave them both barrels, swatting away their excuses about it being the sabbath. As others are noting, this was the first real pressure they had faced from U.S. officials or officials-to-be, and further evidences the theory many of us hold that this could have been stopped by the U.S. with one phone call at any time, had Biden cared to do so.

    Should this go through, Gazans will be able to return north, to the rubble of their houses; the IDF will withdraw to within a mile inside of Gaza, which they’ve pulverized. 600 aid trucks will be sent in per day, so we can be happy about that.

    Holy hell, what a brutal, disillusioning, meaningless year-plus.

    1. Christopher Smith

      That Netanyahu is not in a strong enough position to attack Trump’s ego is one thing that gives me hope.

      1. hk

        While we obviously have no idea what the endgame is, that Trump (even without having become president) is willing to beat up one of the sacred bulls*ters is a good sign. We probably won’t like all, or even many, of the things he’ll be doing, but at least we’ll have a president who actually does things rather than just “fight for” stuff (I hope, anyways.)

        I mean, honestly, having the president of US being played like a puppet by the likes of Zelensky and Netanyahu, guys whom we are paying a lot of money to, has been driving me up the wall for a while.

        1. Michaelmas

          But at least we’ll have a president who actually does things rather than just “fight for” stuff

          Unfair.

          Biden didn’t just fight for genocide in Gaze, he did everything he could to enable it in the real world.

    2. JMH

      Is this Israeli government agreement capable? If yes, it is capable of abiding by the terms of an agreement? If yes, please present your evidence.

    3. Glen

      Amazing, Trump got this done even before he was President. And certainly shows that Biden could have done it long ago.

      What was Biden thinking? I agree with the recent study that had that the genocide in Gaza was one very large reason why Harris lost. Sooner or later I’ll read Biden’s speech from today; I’ll give him bonus points if he says he was a [family blogging] idiot for not stopping Gaza much, much sooner, but I doubt it’s there.

    4. Skip Intro

      Don’t forget Trump retweeting Jeffrey Sachs’ brutal condemnation of Bibi, which he should probably interpret as a warning shot.

  7. Jason Boxman

    I can’t even

    She Is in Love With ChatGPT

    A 28-year-old woman with a busy social life spends hours on end talking to her A.I. boyfriend for advice and consolation. And yes, they do have sex.

    Are we at peak tech-hellscape yet?

    And then she started messaging with it. Now that ChatGPT has brought humanlike A.I. to the masses, more people are discovering the allure of artificial companionship, said Bryony Cole, the host of the podcast “Future of Sex.” “Within the next two years, it will be completely normalized to have a relationship with an A.I.,” Ms. Cole predicted.

    yes. we have arrived!

    Leo quizzed her on anatomy and physiology as she prepared for nursing school exams.

    Gonna be lit when it gives her bad information and then patient harm commences!

    1. JustTheFacts

      Also pretty frightening that she’s apart from her hubby to save money, but now she’s wasting money…

      1. Jason Boxman

        It’s also amazingly that OpenAI loses money on all these, even the big expensive monthly plan. This all goes away without the massive funding rounds. There’s no use case that pays the operating cost yet.

        1. ChrisFromGA

          Apparently, the lack of profitable use cases isn’t dissuading our techlords.

          They’re doubling and tripling down with the massive funding rounds. It’s like going to Vegas for them.

        2. Ben Panga

          >It’s also amazingly that OpenAI loses money on all these

          My 2c: I think it makes more sense if one considers these two tech lords beliefs

          1. Whoever achieves “AGI” first will have so much power they essentially win the world. Thus all the investments now are relatively trivial.

          2. This is about more than power/money. This is a religious quest to bring about the transhumanist singularity. Finally they can become one with their machines.

          I’m not qualified to assess 1, and I think 2 is bullshit created in brains divorced from their emotions and true human nature. These people are not well.

    2. The Rev Kev

      We are not getting the future that we were promised but the one that we were threatened with.

      1. Jason Boxman

        I might have to steal that and start using it, because it so perfectly encapsulates this timeline!

        2. Michaelmas

          We were warned.

          ‘The function of science fiction is not always to predict the future but sometimes to prevent it.’

          — Frank Herbert

          ~ ~ ~ ~

          I brought my baby home, she sat around forlorn
          She saw my TVC one five, baby’s gone,
          She crawled right in, oh my, she crawled right in my
          So hologramic, oh my TVC one five
          Oh, so demonic, oh my TVC one five ….

          One of these nights I may just jump down that rainbow way
          Be with my baby, then we’ll spend some time together
          So hologramic, oh my TVC one five
          My baby’s in there someplace, love’s rating in the sky
          So hologramic, oh my TVC one five

          — David Bowie

    3. Mikel

      “Are we at peak tech-hellscape yet?”

      Moving fast and breaking things. And that’s it. Broken things and people in the wake.
      Progress!!

        1. flora

          The only puzzle for me is why should I listen to Peter Hotez?
          The answer for me: Based on his past performance as seen in these MSM news clips, I shouldn’t listen to Peter Hotez. / ;)

    2. lambert strether

      You’ve got a problem with bypassing Big Pharma by developing vaccines for the global South?

      1. flora

        Nope. I’ve got a problem with what now looks to me like gaslighting. Remember, the CDC assured us for years Covid is NOT transmitted by airborne aerosols. / ;)

        1. lambert strether

          I’m surprised at the idea that I would forget anything about the CDC’s malfeasance during our ongoing pandemic, given that I documented most of it contemporaneously.

          That said, the CDC is irrelevant to both the original Hotez link and Orfalea’s four-minute voice-over to an aggregation of unsourced clips, so what’s your point?

          1. flora

            Exactly. I learned about aerosol transmission from reading your columns, way way before the CDC finally admitted the same.

            My point is there was a lot of gaslighting going on then. I cannot credit any of those apparent gaslighters now. I also cannot believe, based on later statements made and the many flip-flops made at the highest public health levels, that they did not know they were gaslighting the public. / my 2 cents.

            for example: Birx later saying they knew the jab didn’t prevent infection and transmission, but they hoped it might work. That’s very different from the earliest claims in 2021.

  11. aj

    The SEC claims Musk “underpaid” for Twitter to the tune of $150 million. On a $44 billion transaction, that’s 0.3%. And claiming he “underpaid” is just ridiculous on face value. Musk ran his mouth and then got forced to back it up with cash. He tried like hell to get out of it, too.

    1. Norton

      Smacked of late-Biden Admin bottom drawer clearing. In other words, more chickens**t nonsense that reminds people why they hate politicians and their lawfare.

  12. JustTheFacts

    There’s something delightful about TikTok users trolling the US ruling class by moving to xiaohongshu and having good interactions with Chinese people over there. Who knows, it might even hurt the ruling class’ intentions for a war with China.

  13. IM Doc

    The annals of being totally ashamed to have ever been a Democrat and to have ever voted for them and given them a dime ( between my wife and me – it has been quite a bit ). If the last 2 days is any indication of their idea of “resistance” – they may well and truly be doomed.

    I have zero intention of ever supporting them again until there are some big changes. Starting with cleaning up the messes they have made in the big blue cities will be a start. I am not just talking about the fires – I am talking about the entire shit show. When you can take your kids to these places and in the span of two and a half years have your family witness four different felonies, one of which was armed robbery, there is a problem. And they can start right there. I will not pay one iota of attention to them until there are big changes in that regard.

    Listening to Tim Kaine whine on yesterday about sexual behavior and alcohol problems was just choice. Did he question anyone’s oath when he ran proudly with Hillary? How many women had Bill done? How many women had Hillary had a hand in life-destroying? Did he say a word this entire past year while campaigning with Kamala’s husband, Doug Emhoff – credibly accused of being far more involved in bad beharior with the opposite sex than Hegseth ever was. And then of course – the “mean” being screamed by Gillibrand was just nauseating. So sorry – I WANT OUR MILITARY TO BE MEAN. There are lots of things in our society that can be social engineered with – the military is not one of those things. Nor is the police – and nor is the fire departments as we are painfully being made aware of right now. Were the kamikazes or for that matter any opposing force nice? OMG – it just burns. There was a time when Dems understood this. Right now, they just look like morons. There are lots of things to be important in a forum for where we want our DOD to be – absolutely none of these things were even addressed by the Dems. It was painful to watch.

    The Bondi/Schiff exchange was on this afternoon in the MD lounge. It was equally bad if not more so.
    And it was absolutely fascinating to watch the militant PMC Dem crowd among the people watching today in that room – just literally hang their head in shame. There is nothing to say.

    Again, if this is their plan of action right now, they are in for a long miserable time.

    2. Delfine

      Not just political rhetoric and economic failures. People’s lives and family’s futures ruined, not counting the dead in L.A.

      Semantics and Democratic performative preferences lead to disaster. Pacific Gas and Electric is our local utility. They are court convicted murderers that have killed hundreds.

      Their ex gas pipeline and electrical distribution manager is now in charge of L.A.’s power and firefighting water supply.

      https://www.ladwp.com/who-we-are/executive-management/person/janisse-quinones

    3. Katniss Everdeen

      Those dem female “senators” embarrassed themselves, their party, and ALL WOMEN. gillibrand came straight out of the gate shrieking like a harpie because Hegseth wasn’t going to lower standards to let the girls play army, and all the other fools–hirono, warren, shaheen, slotkin and even duckworth, and, of course the panty waist timmy kaine–decided to jump in the pool with her.

      OMG. If any women are wondering where the notion that women aren’t fit for leadership because their tendency to get overly emotional interferes with whatever good judgement they might otherwise be able to summon up, look no further than these “ladies.”

      They all humiliated themselves IMNSHO.

      1. Yves Smith

        You embarrassed yourself by calling them “senators”. That sort of derision is stereotypical mean teen girl namecalling. So your comment is an act of projection. You in fact routinely engage in the sort of over-the-top screechiness you try to attack here.

        And you straw man Warren. Her issue was Hegseth being willing to commit to not going to lucrative arms industry jobs after his time as Defense Secretary.

        And as for Warren, there are some other Congresscritters who are routinely angry, which is now her preferred tactic for making sure she controls the interaction with often highly resistant self-imagined Big Swinging Dicks. But because women have high pitched voices, like boys before puberty (=weak), it’s conventional to see their shows of force as ineffectual and therefore emotional, when the same is true of most male bluster.

  14. aj

    We need a new word. One that means a combination of an oligarchy, a kleptocracy, and a kakistocracy, because that’s what we’re going to be living under. I can’t think of a word that’s adequate.

    Kleptokakarchy?
    Kakikleptogarchy?
    Olikaklepocracy?

    Kak sounds like kaka (meaning sh*t) which I would like to emphasize somewhere.

    1. fact

      I find it hilarious that the individual tweeteing has a Ukrainian flag, and this in bio “Send Ukraine more weapons and let them fight back now“. The word she/he/it is looking for may be Ukrainokracy.

    2. The Rev Kev

      How about ‘democracy’ since the meaning of that word has been so thoroughly corrupted just like that other word ‘freedom.’

        1. Randall Flagg

          Regarding the US, at the rate things are moving/collapsing, it’ll be the NFFA before you know it.
          The New Founding Fathers of America.

          As in The Purge movies.

          1. Ben Panga

            There’s a reason the Tech Lords are obsessed with “Founder Culture”.

            They even have a VC firm called “New Founding” https://www.newfounding.com/

            We invest in founders who are taking advantage of the opportunities emerging from the cultural and political changes around us to build companies that disrupt our nation in foundational and positive ways.

            They see themselves as the New Founding Fathers. They will lead America to a new glorious future [v large sarc tag]

            1. true

              Tech Lords are obsessed with “Founder Culture” because back in the good old days slavery was legal without extra steps.

      1. JBird4049

        Personally, I like xalacracy of all these terms as it is all going bad, but it still doesn’t adequately describe the current combination of kakistocracy, kleptocracy, and oligarchy that we live under. If I was in a bad mood, coprocracy would do.

        1. Procopius

          Did you misspell that? I like corpocracy, since the 0.1% own the huge corporations which dictate our policies. And, yes, I checked my spelling.

          1. Zelja

            That’s the joke. Copro means feces, hence coprocracy means sh*tocracy. Corpocracy and coprocracy being similar is accidental, comical, and philosophical. :)

    8. griffen

      FutureUCopia…not a Utopian dreamscape but instead a shifting of the proverbial sands between Team A and Team B…while the climate perishes and millions suffer….U cope as best that one can. It’s a Jackpot themed world.

      From the poetry of Guns N Roses…”while the billions shift from side to side…for love of God and human rights, and all these things I can’t deny…”. Civil War, from the Use Your Illusion double album release.

  15. Matthew

    Might not be the worst thing if Gabbard takes over and screws up. I’ll bet she’s brighter than Hegseth, though. Hegseth comes closest–of almost all of them, for my dinero–to matching the kind of Men At War, sodomizing corpses kill ’em all mentality that we’ve mostly kept below the surface/beaten back from time to time.

    Kerry, btw, may have been one himself, though. The Swift Boat thing was ironic for that reason. . .

    1. Swamp Yankee

      Yes, I remember doing summer research for a professor in the summer of 2003 on Kerry and his possible foreign policy. I recall reading stories from _The Boston Globe_ — and then remembered from my childhood — about one of the GOP attack lines against Kerry in the epic 1996 Kerry-Weld US Senate race in Massachusetts, was that he was a hyper-belligerent gung-ho type who went after enemy soldiers in excess of what was necessary.

      So, like you say, precisely the opposite of the ’04 Swiftboating.

      1. CA

        “GOP attack lines against Kerry in the epic 1996 Kerry-Weld US Senate race in Massachusetts, was that he was a hyper-belligerent gung-ho type…”

        Please document these “attack lines” when possible. I can find no such “attack lines.” What am I doing wrong?

        1. Swamp Yankee

          CA, I should correct the record to say that I don’t know that it came from the GOP per se; it came from a columnist on the business page of the Globe who was endorsing Weld, David Warsh (it may have been taken up by the local GOP/Weld campaign, I can’t recall, I was 13 at the time).

          According to his Nov. 3rd column from the Boston Globe ombudsman Mark Jurkowitz (“Column on Kerry didn’t belong in The Globe,” Mark Jurkowitz, The Boston Globe, Nov. 3rd, 1996), the controversy began with an Oct. 15th column by Warsh in which he criticized Kerry’s service on familiar proto-Swift Boatian grounds (he was making more of his service than it warranted in order to obtain elected office, was the gist). Warsh somewhat changed or refined his tack on Oct. 22nd, assailing Kerry for killing a man who was already wounded. Here is Jurkowitz.

          “The column that triggered the furor — based on a roughly 30-minute conversation with Tom Belodeau, a gunner of Kerry’s boat — appeared on Oct. 27. Belodeau revealed that he first wounded the soldier that Kerry killed. Acknowledging it as ‘conjecture,’ Warsh laid out the ‘best interpretation’ that Kerry killed a dangerous enemy in self-defense as well as the ‘ugliest possibility’ that Kerry had “administered a coup de grace to the Vietnamese soldier — a practice not uncommon in those days, but a war crime nevertheless.”

          Jurkowitz gives his own judgement later in that Nov. 3rd column:

          “Warsh may have added something — the possible wounding – to the record. But the evidence does not justify raising even the specter of a ‘war crime’ by a senator in the final days of a bitter and close election campaign. Not by a long shot.”

          https://bostonglobe.newspapers.com/image/441043371/

          1. CA

            Swamp Yankee:

            This is excellent; an entirely excellent account. This account shows just how precise the memory of a 13 year old was then, and is now. No matter what the specifics may have been, we can understand how terrible war is.

            I needed to read this and am grateful to you for the account.

            Thank you, thank you.

            1. Swamp Yankee

              Thanks, CA! I appreciate it. I should say that that 13-year old’s memory was aided by having to write a paper about it as a 20 year old.

              It was a big fracas at the time in 1996, I do recall generally.

    2. Swamp Yankee

      Yes, I remember doing summer research for a professor in the summer of 2003 on Kerry and his possible foreign policy. I recall reading stories from _The Boston Globe_ — and then remembered these from my childhood — about one of the GOP attack lines against Kerry in the epic 1996 Kerry-Weld US Senate race in Massachusetts, was that he was a hyper-belligerent gung-ho type who went after enemy soldiers in excess of what was necessary.

      So, like you say, precisely the opposite of the ’04 Swiftboating.

    3. CA

      “Might not be the worst thing if Gabbard takes over and screws up…”

      Tulsi Gabbard was all that an heroic and scrupulously honest an enlisted soldier and member of Congress could be. Gabbark won her final race for Congress with over 70% of the votes in her district in Hawaii. Possibly I am wrong, but I have difficulty in wishing so distinguished a person in any way ill. That there were Washington Democrats who would demean Gabbard was saddening to me:

      https://twitter.com/neeratanden/status/850491598517481474

      Neera Tanden ✔@neeratanden

      People of Hawaii’s 2nd district – was it not enough for you that your representative met with a murderous dictator? Will this move you?

      https://twitter.com/cnn/status/850477149895131136 …

      CNN‏ ✔@CNN

      Rep. Tulsi Gabbard: “Yes, I’m skeptical” of claim Assad regime is behind chemical weapons attack

      7:32 PM – 7 Apr 2017

    4. CA

      https://twitter.com/govhowarddean/status/850895059771957248

      Howard Dean ✔@GovHowardDean

      This is a disgrace. Tulsi Gabbard should not be in Congress.

      https://twitter.com/neeratanden/status/850491598517481474 …

      10:16 PM – 8 Apr 2017

      [ This, because an enlisted soldier become a decorated officer, a soldier who served in Iraq, an elected and re-elected member of Congress, went to Syria to try to determine truth in the cause of peace.

      Last re-elected to Congress in Hawaii with 77% of the vote, after being attacked by Washington Democrats. ]

      1. scott s.

        It seems Tulsi has pretty much burned her bridges here. Her Father, a state senator, took his seat yesterday as our lege session opened. He won his seat as an R then immediately switched to D and has been working his way up the hierarchy — currently a committee chair. He doen’t ever mention Tulsi that I can recall.

        Since HI went to district-elected reps the 2d (“neighbor islands” + Oahu outside of Honolulu) has always been heavily D. Longtime seat of Patsy Mink who died in office.

  16. Swamp Yankee

    It is surely petty of Harris to not host Vance at the Naval Observatory. Nevertheless, in terms of transition-period travails in recent years, I’d say that ranks pretty low on the scale of severity.

    1. JMH

      Abbott raising flags in Texas to full staff is petty and disrespectful of a former president. Johnson doing the same at the Capitol is a lickspittle act. Harris not inviting Vance is equally so. Biden doing all possible to put roadblocks in DJT’s path is petty.

      Nixon managed his inauguration with flags at half stall for Harry Truman. Presidents come and go. At their death we acknowledge their service.

      I am so sorry that Donny finds nit “a bad look.” But he is mostly about how itn looks, isn’t he?

      1. IM Doc

        I think you need to look at the federal code regarding flag display. It specifically calls for flags all over the country being at full display at full staff on Inauguration Day along with an entire list of other special days. There are no apparent consequences for not doing it – but this is the law of the land. There is nothing petty or disrespectful of the former president. Again, it is written in the federal code and is the law of the land. I for one am perfectly fine with all of the flags being raised to full staff on that one day and then right back to half staff for the rest of the time for Carter’s memorial. I also think that is a reasonable compromise. Instead, we have devolved into this situation where each side is looking for any and every way to insult each other. That is one of our big problems. We no longer have the ability to compromise and be cordial to one another. It is much easier to see the pettiness when you consciously avoid being placed into one of the two groups.

        1. marym

          Section 2 describes when the flag should be displayed. The next section says when it “shall be flown at half-staff.”

          Section 3 (m): “By order of the President, the flag shall be flown at half-staff upon the death of principal figures of the United States Government…The flag shall be flown at half-staff 30 days from the death of the President or a former President…”
          https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/4/7

          I agree that “we have devolved into this situation where each side is looking for any and every way to insult each other. That is one of our big problems.” It was unseemly when some team blue accounts on social media were simultaneously mournful about Jimmy Carter and gleeful that the flags would be at half-staff.

          1. JMH

            IM Doc, I have always found your comments a pleasure to read and a source of instruction. In this case, I take your point. You know the federal Code and I did not. Were the decision taken to raise all flags for inauguration day because the law can call for it, then so be it. Governor Abbott took action, I doubt not, as a partisan. Johnson ought to be aware of the law and act accordingly. My characterization of him may be overly harsh. I nonetheless believe he acted as he did to curry favor with DJT. I stand by my remarks about Mr. Trump.

            I did not vote for either candidate in 2016. I voted for Biden in 2020 regretted it immediately and have ever since. I voted for neither candidate in 2024. My primary reason for these actions has been I did not think the candidates up to the task.

            I should be pleased to be proven wrong. The USA has placed itself in a cleft stick with the mad Ukraine Project, which is going down in flames, with its support of the genocide in Gaza, with talk of war with China to mention but three fraught situations. I am an old man. The uncertain future may cause me momentary discomfort or hardship. But what of my grandchildren? There is a desperate need for disinterested statesmanship, a rare commodity, but what do we get? Endless squabbling, back biting, noisy often ignorant partisanship, a Congress that acts as if bought, etc. Candidates are elected to do a job , to govern. In my view Congress and the Executive have too often failed to do so.

            1. marym

              It’s my opinion that both of you have a very good understanding of where we are as a country and society and raise serious questions about the future.

              It’s also my opinion that Section 2* of the flag law specifies the time and place for displaying the flag, in this case Inauguration Day; Section 3 (the link in my comment) specifies the position and manner – in this case half-staff for 30 days after the death of a former President, by order of the President; and that Biden issued the order as required by the law.

              * Below is a link which claims to be the “law in its entirety” which refers to Public Code 94-344 has the text at Sections 2 and 3. The links to the Cornell version refer to 4 U.S. Code § 6 and 7. Sorry I didn’t notice the different numbering when I wrote my original comment. I don’t know why there’s a difference in numbering, but the text I quoted seems the same in both.

              https://usinfo.org/enus/life/symbceleb/flagcode.html

  17. Contranarian

    On the subject of black magic:

    If you can curse someone using a lock of their hair, what about part of their ear?

  18. ChrisFromGA

    Ahoy, mates!

    Edifice-wreck spotted in REIT-shark infested waters:

    https://archive.ph/gtaT3

    Insignia took title to the property for $15 million through a deed in lieu of foreclosure, according to Atlanta real estate research firm Databank Inc. That was almost 70% less than the previous owner paid for the property about six years ago. Insignia secured a $10 million loan from White Oak Assets LLC for the transaction, according to property deeds.

    That’s quite a crew-cut.

  19. Ben Panga

    Biden’s farewell address

    https://youtube.com/watch?v=gMwqdDzGdx8

    Can’t find a transcript yet

    This bit seems to be garnering headlines (quote via Guardian)

    “Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead,”

    —-

    If the Dems had gone with this instead of “Orange Hitler omg!”, they may have done better. But then, they wouldn’t have been the Dems.

    1. ChrisFromGA

      threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms

      Oh, would that be like embedding FBI and other government agents inside Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms? In order to deny Americans including a LA public health official their First amendment right to freedom of speech and expression?

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murthy_v._Missouri

      Good riddance, Joe.

    4. Pat

      Oligarchy good when they support and reward me, oligarchy bad when they support te other team.

      Of course this could be a belated realization since the Team Dem oligarch ownership forced him off the ticket.

  20. Ben Panga

    >Mangione is now “user4616250.”

    There are merch opportunities with this one.

    More subtle than Mangione’s name or face but a clear wink to those that know.

    I’d start with black T-shirts, with “user4616250” printed in white. And maybe some black coffee mugs on which “user4616250” shows when warmed by hot liquid.

  21. Wukchumni

    My buddy from Tucson has been staying with us, and he grew up in Pacific Palisades and lived on the Alphabet Streets section on Fiske St in the 1960’s, and went looking for it, and every house on Fiske St is gone, yikes!

    He related that the prior big conflagration in Pacific Palisades was in 1978 when fire took out 25 homes.

    I pulled it up off the internet, and this tale of survival was quite something, I felt.

    At the Boy Scout camp, in upper Rustic Canyon, ranger Don Welch and wife Victoria, stayed to fight the fire. They saw their home go up in flames and it was only when they saw their own car explode in flames, did they realize they were trapped.

    They submerged themselves in the algae-covered waters of the swimming pool and spent the next two hours breathing through baseball caps on their faces and fending off panic-stricken rats. When they felt the worst had passed, they drove a truck on the narrow road, though tunnels of fire, with the heat so intense that the truck tires exploded.

    https://www.circlingthenews.com/the-1978-blaze-destroyed-25-homes-and-st-matthews-church/

  24. Juneau

    The irony of a humorous CCP cat tax certificate, to me, is that there is an ever increasing number of cat abuse videos from China on Twitter (you can search it and find plenty but I recommend you don’t). William Sterzel has good non gory videos on this subject on YT and Twitter. I have seen too many of these vids online and seen Sterzel’s commentary, and don’t doubt their veracity.. People seem to have lost their minds there in this regard. Maybe brain damage from SARS2? Don’t know.

    Looks like propaganda to have the cheery certificate, like running cute panda videos when other bad news comes out from there.

    2. Ben Panga

      It’s a nation of 1.4 billion people. That’s enough to have both cat lovers and cat abusers.

      Just as eg Michael Vick’s high profile case does not mean Americans hate dogs.

      China is not a homogeneous mass of identical robots.

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