2:00PM Water Cooler 1/20/2025

Bird Song of the Day

Patient readers, this Water Cooler is a bit abbreviated, because I need to hustle along and post on Trump’s memecoin (! (and Melania’s (!!))). –lambert

Brown Thrasher, Rondeau PP–South Point Trail East, Chatham-Kent, Ontario, Canada. Sounds like a highway in the background, or a waterfall, but the bird is quite virtuousic. (This is the old-fashioned kind where the birder puts the metadata at the end of the tape, verbally.)

It occurred to me that dead birds falling from the sky would be one good leading indicator of bird flu, and then that such data could and should be crowd-sourced, so I went to look for it, and found dbird.com, fit for purpose, but oriented toward collisions (as with airplanes or glass buildings), not dead birds as such. There were 6480 reports in 2024.

* * *

In Case You Might Miss…

  1. Democrats take their farewells.
  2. DOGE commissars.
  3. A web beyond the platforms.

* * *

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

Democrat gavage means my timeline is stuffed with horrid, self-congratulatory material like this:

That’s Kamala’s #1 accomplishment? Sitting a new record for casting the most tie-breaking votes?

Meanwhile, a Democrat with some actual accomplishments, even if Biden never ran on them (in a populist year, yet):

X Community Notes for the win:

By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

It occurs to me to wonder if what was done with Google bombs could be done with Grok, given that Grok incorporates real time data algorithmically.

“Biden pardons Fauci, Milley and the Jan. 6 committee in effort to guard against ‘revenge’ by Trump” [Associated Press]. ” President Joe Biden on Monday pardoned Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley and members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, in an extraordinary use of the powers of the presidency in his final hours to guard against potential “revenge” by the incoming Trump administration…. Biden, a Democrat, has used the power in the broadest and most untested way possible: to pardon those who have not even been investigated. His decision lays the groundwork for an even more expansive use of pardons by Trump, a Republican, and future presidents. While the Supreme Court last year ruled that presidents enjoy broad immunity from prosecution for what could be considered official acts, the president’s aides and allies enjoy no such shield. There is concern that future presidents could use the promise of a blanket pardon to encourage allies to take actions they might otherwise resist for fear of running afoul of the law.”

Trump Transition

“The Key Questions Trump Must Answer Before His Inauguration” [Ed Kilgore, New York Magazine]. “[T]he unofficial but potentially very powerful Department of Government Efficiency initiative Trump delegated to First Buddy Elon Musk and his tech-bro sidekick Vivek Ramaswamy could very quickly interfere with a smooth transition to Trump 2.0. Already DOGE is deploying staff to be ’embedded’ in every federal agency to root out inefficiency and massively cut costs, which will be an unwelcome distraction for the Trump appointees taking over these entities. The new president needs to make it clear immediately what if any official status these self-appointed commissars will enjoy and how (if at all) their recommendations will be meshed with the budgetary and policy work of the new administration. Otherwise, a truly nasty intra-MAGA civil war could break out across the entire landscape of the federal government.” • “Commissar” is the right word, implying as it does a party structure parallel to the government.

* * *

“Gabbard deserves to be confirmed ASAP” [Douglas MacKinnon, The Hill]. From last week: “On Ukraine and other controversial issues, Gabbard is in lockstep with Trump and unafraid to take on the conventional wisdom of the entrenched elites or their insatiable desire to drain the Treasury — and American taxpayers — by continually putting America last as they seek to engage in armed conflict around the world. As for Gabbard’s ‘propaganda’ about Ukraine, let us also remember it is the same ‘propaganda’ being offered up by the likes of President-elect Trump, Vice President-elect JD Vance and HHS nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Is a message ‘propaganda’ just because it seeks to end the bloodshed in Ukraine and bring peace to the region. [sic]” The period should be a question mark, a typo that indicates to me that MacKinnon was writing from a place of genuine belief. More: “A strategy which, as Trump has continually and rightfully pointed out, has led us to the edge of World War III. Gabbard is an exceptional nominee who does not deserve to be ‘slow-rolled’ by Democrats on the path to her confirmation. The people have spoken, and Trump deserves his nominees to be put in place as soon as possible.”

“For fear of finding something worse: Trump and the end of the global rules-based order” [The Hill]. “If these [Rules-Based Order] institutions are simply cast aside, the U.S. will, for now, retain its hegemonic position. It is the world’s largest economy — bigger than China, Japan and Germany, its closest competitors, put together — and spends more on defense than the next four countries combined. Where might is right, the U.S. is mightiest of all. That may not always be so. If the American economy falters, or its military power is matched or eclipsed, Trump may have placed the country for which he espouses such love in a world where there are no longer rules or safeguards for anyone. The president-elect is not a known fan of writer and politician Hilaire Belloc, but he should remember the fate of the eponymous boy in the poem, ‘Jim’ — he ran away from his nurse’s care, and was eaten by a lion. Jim’s father warned the other children to ‘attend / To James’s miserable end / And always keep a-hold of Nurse / For fear of finding something worse.'” • Indeed.

* * *

“My Decade with Donald Trump” [Salena Zito, The Free Press]. This is well worth a read for the detail. This caught my eye: “[T[here was a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, which led to a devastating leak of toxic waste. I raced to the scene to talk to the people who lived there. And guess who else was there? Donald J. Trump. He had arrived with two 18-wheelers filled with water bottles, and bought everybody around him McDonald’s. He wandered through the town in galoshes, stepping in puddles. You could see the slime and scum in the water. His appearance that day sent a message that was, essentially, I see you. I’m here for you. I’m not leaving you…. I remember scribbling in my notebook that this might be a turning point.”

* * *

“WATCH: Village People performs ‘YMCA’ at Trump rally on eve of Inauguration Day” (video) [PBS Newshour, YouTube]. • Personally, I regard this as a very healthy sign.

DOGE

2024 Post Mortem

Democrats en déshabillé

“‘Lady McBiden’: Alexandra Pelosi Blasts the First Lady” [Politico]. “Since breaking her hip in Europe last month, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been deluged with messages, flowers and calls of concern from heads of state, colleagues in both parties and even royalty, most notably Luxembourg’s Grand Duke Henri, who was hosting her when she fell and has been solicitous through her recovery. Yet it’s who she has not heard from that’s most remarkable, and that has infuriated Pelosi’s friends and family: Joe and Jill Biden…. ‘If I was Lady McBiden, I’d put on my big girl pants, play the long game and think about my husband’s legacy,’ Alexandra Pelosi, the former speaker’s daughter, told me Saturday. ;There aren’t that many people left in America who have something nice to say about Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi is one of them.’ The younger Pelosi made clear she was speaking only for herself. The deafening silence from the White House in response to a request for comment marks the culmination of the bitter feud between the president and onetime speaker, two of the age’s most prominent Democrats and the bookends of the party’s Obama-era high and Trump restoration low.”

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!

Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions

“Coffee as a dietary strategy to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection” [Cell & Bioscience]. “Here, we identified that coffee can inhibit multiple variants of the SARS-CoV-2 infection by restraining the binding of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), and reducing transmembrane serine protease 2 (TMPRSS2) and cathepsin L (CTSL) activity…. in a human trial of 64 subjects, we identified that coffee consumption (approximately 1–2 cups/day) is sufficient to inhibit infection of multiple variants of SARS-CoV-2 entry, suggesting coffee could be a dietary strategy to prevent SARS-CoV2 infection…. Based on the results, we also suggest a coffee-drinking plan for people to prevent infection in the post-COVID-19 era.” • Big if true. Perhaps a reader more expert in evaluating science — junk science? — can take a look. That said, it won’t take a “plan” to get me to drink more coffee.

Elite Maleficence

Mission accomplished:

Out of mind, out of sight. So far as I can tell, there’s no justification for this at all; a new variant could still emerge, destroying the assumption of so-called “endemicity.”

* * *

TABLE 1: Daily Covid Charts

Lambert here: I don’t like a lot of this week’s charts. In wastewater, too many red dots concentrated in the Midwest and the Atlantic coast, so I started circling areas in red, again. New York’s weirdly persistent higher hospitalization rate continues. Traveler positivity is up, and worse, the dominant traveler variants are JN* and KP*, which, while present in the national variants, are very low. And in the two death charts, the projected deaths seem to have leveled out, when in the past they decreased. Nothing earth-shattering, but it does make me queasy, and it’s well after the holiday bump.

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

Variants [3] CDC January 18 Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC January 11

Hospitalization
New York[5] New York State, data January 16: National [6] CDC Janurary 16:

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

Travelers Data
Positivity[9] CDC December 30: Variants[10] CDC December 30

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

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

* * *

Manufacturing: “Boeing Under Pressure: Activists And Warren Buffett Circle” [Forbes]. “Recent events have complicated the story; activist investors show a strong interest in the business, and reports of Warren Buffett may be looking at a position. With major ramifications for Boeing’s own future as well as for its shareholders and the larger aerospace sector, this confluence of high-profile attention will demand a turning point for the company. The rumor is that activist investors and the great Warren Buffet are circling the company.” And: “Warren Buffett is well known for stressing buying stocks of businesses at prices less than their inherent value, and Boeing is one of those names. Buffett emphasizes businesses with reasonable business concepts, good long-term prospects, consistent earnings power, and capable management. Often driving Buffett to invest in businesses whose stocks are momentarily undervalued by the market, this rigorous approach stresses long-term growth and stability over short-term rewards, but should this be adjusted in the current environment? Buffett’s passion for reputable industrial businesses with a strong competitive advantage, that is, what he describes as ‘moat,’ is well known. Major names in sectors including insurance, energy, and consumer goods abound in his portfolio, where steady returns are usual. Given this backdrop, Boeing might fit Buffett’s investing standards.”

* * *

Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 38 Fear (previous close: 28 Fear) [CNN]. One week ago: 26 (Fear). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Jan 17 at 1:37:47 PM ET.

Photo Book

“‘Abandoned Theatres’ Spotlights the Remains of Small-Town Midwestern Cinemas” [This is Colossal]. • Ruin porn, but none the worse for that:

Guillotine Watch

“Marc Andreessen Seems to Think Hillary Clinton Was Actually President” [Gizmodo].

[P]eople who read the Times transcript saw this when reading the investor’s words:

Andreessen: So you’re in this sandwich from all of your constituents, and then you’ve got the press coming at you. You’ve got the activists coming at you, and then you’ve got the [federal] government coming at you.

Douthat: But wait, the federal government is run by Donald Trump in this period, right?

Andreessen: Not really.

But if you actually listened to the audio, this is what you heard:

Andreessen: So you’re in this sandwich from all of your constituents, and then you’ve got the press coming at you. You’ve got the activists coming at you. And then you’ve got the government coming at you. And of course, the federal government radicalized hard under Hillary and then even, sorry… the federal government… we’ll talk about that more.

Douthat: But wait, the federal government is run by Donald Trump…

Andreessen: Not really.

Douthat: …in this period, right? So this is, I mean, this is the peculiar thing about the narrative, right?

It’s completely normal to clean up a transcript to delete repeated words or “um” and “ah” just to make things easier to read. But deleting an entire line that claims “the federal government radicalized hard under Hillary,” is just ridiculous.

News of the Wired

“Fighting for our web” [Molly White, [citation needed]. White runs “Web3 is Going Just Great” (Web3 was the scam the tech bros were running after they started running crypto but before AI. Anyhow: “We can build the web that we want to see, and we can return to that place where the web is a place of wonder, where all of us feel that same burning feeling of excitement as we push the web back towards the wonderful, beautiful, joyful place it ought to be.” • I agree! Worth reading in full.

“Enshittification isn’t caused by venture capital” [Cory Doctorow, Pluralistic]. “It’s lazy and easy to think that our friends who are stuck on legacy platforms run by Zuckerberg and Musk lack the self-discipline to wean themselves off of these services, or lack the perspective to understand why it’s so urgent to get away from them, or that their ‘hacked dopamine loops’ have addicted them to the zuckermusk algorithms. But if you actually listen to the people who’ve stayed behind, you’ll learn that the main reason our friends stay on legacy platforms is that they care about the other people there more than they hate Zuck or Musk. They rely on them because they’re in a rare-disease support group; or they all coordinate their kids’ little league carpools there; or that’s where they stay in touch with family and friends they left behind when they emigrated; or they’re customers or the audience for creative labor. All those people might want to leave, too, but it’s really hard to agree on where to go, when to go, and how to re-establish your groups when you get somewhere else. Economists call this the ‘collective action problem.’ This problem creates ‘switching costs’ – a lot of stuff you’ll have to live without if you switch from legacy platforms to new ones. The collective action problem is hard to solve and the switching costs are very high.” • Hence the need for data interchange, which challengers like Mastodon allow with ActivityPub, and front-runners like X and Facebook mightily resist,

* * *

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 dogwood:

Dogwood writes: “A Puffball Mushroom in our back yard.” Looks like an alien sphere.

* * *

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

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

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

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

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

About Lambert Strether

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

37 comments

  1. Mikel

    More than just the winds causing trouble during the LA fires:
    https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-01-19/oregon-man-arrested-palisades-fire-impersonating-firefighter/
    “…But a firefighter at the checkpoint noticed something off about the decals on the truck, which had markings from the “Roaring River Fire Department,” the official said. He told Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies to check the man’s ID.

    According to the law enforcement official, the man presented an Oregon driver’s license with the name of Dustin Nehl. A search of Nehl’s criminal history revealed he had served five years in prison for arson, the official said.

    In 2017, KATU, a Portland TV station, reported that Nehl pleaded guilty to setting a series of fires at a golf course, a park and a water facility in Woodburn, Ore., a city about 30 miles south of Portland.

    Nehl, 31, and his wife, 44-year-old Jennifer Nehl — who was with him — were arrested on suspicion of impersonating firefighters and unauthorized entry of an evacuation zone, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department officials said Sunday. Sheriff’s officials said they planned to ask the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office to charge the couple on Tuesday…”

    Reply
  2. steppenwolf fetchit

    The plantidote photo which is described as being a puffball is in fact a reposting of the abandoned Majestic Theater. I assume the puffball will appear in due course.

    Reply
  3. Hector

    I am sorry to report that the image for contact information for plants appears to be an abandoned theater rather than a puffball mushroom. Perhaps Dogwood can confirm my assertion.

    Reply
  4. Screwball

    I think it has finally sunk in to the PMC class Trump will be president for the next 4 years – and they are not happy. Especially because of the pardons for their hero’s who did nothing wrong and now team T is going to pick on them.

    It’s going to be a long 4 years.

    Reply
    1. Katniss Everdeen

      It’s going to be a long 4 years.

      For some, I’m sure that’s true. There are others, I’m equally sure, for whom 4 years will not be nearly long enough.

      PS. Quite the repudiative “inaugural address” biden and harris were forced to endure. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving duo, although harris was probably the only one who got the gist. Oh well, dr. jill was undoubtedly doing all the smoldering for the biden contingent.

      Reply
      1. Screwball

        I sure won’t miss these people, but I’m not looking forward to the unhappy left who’s hair is on fire who will be screaming about every little thing for the next 4 years. They have already started and seem more unhinged than last time, if that is at all possible.

        Reply
    2. Randall Flagg

      Hell, today on the NPR program,1A, a guest said it was very important to check out the New York Times ” fact check”, of Trump’s speech last night. All the lies and falsehoods, oh my God!
      Of course Trump tells whoppers, and Biden, and Obama, and Clinton. That’s called politics.
      I’m sure all these news organizations are resurrecting the fact check desk asap.

      Reply
    3. Louis Fyne

      Kamala may have been incompetent, but she was clean…. as she’s the only one without a pardon!

      We did it, Betty Friedman!

      Reply
  5. marym

    DOGE

    “In the moments after Trump’s swearing-in, three lawsuits were filed in D.C.’s federal district court alleging DOGE doesn’t comply with the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA).

    The cases were led by progressive consumer watchdog Public Citizen, the American Public Health Association and National Security Counselors, a public interest law firm.

    In a fourth lawsuit, the Center for Biological Diversity has asked a federal judge for access to public records showing how members of DOGE have interacted with the White House since the transition began.”

    https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5095750-doge-sued-trump-administration-elon-musk-ramaswamy/

    Reply
    1. Carolinian

      Taibbi/Kirn are raking Biden over the coals for the pardons and Kirn says that legally if you accept a pardon it is an admission of guilt for crime even if it is one that can’t now be prosecuted. Happening now since 3pm.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2yLZxYJIs4

      Orwell take a bow for Joe and his defenders. You can’t prate about the sacredness of the law and then preempt it. Kirn with his CT tendency is a bit over the top but he’s right in this instance.

      Reply
    2. Pat

      Well it really wasn’t fair, or prudent, to protect Hunter while letting the rest of the junior pirates of the Biden crime family swing in the wind.

      Reply
      1. Carolinian

        I wasn’t able to catch the end of the Racket Livestream but presumably if Biden had to defend himself it would be that his entire peer group are busy grifting so why single him and his family out? But that doesn’t solve the hypocrisy problem if anyone still cares about that. It’s as if right and wrong no longer mean anything except the right or wrong calculation of whether you can get away with it. Kirn thinks the blanket pardon is a way to get away with everything from the last four years, or in Fauci’s case, much longer than that.

        The truth is that All the President’s Men was always a fairy tale and the powerful and sociopathic always have the attitude of getting away with it. Maybe they do have consciences though. None of that group of ex presidents were looking too sprightly.

        Reply
    3. Louis Fyne

      makes it sound like seemingly every one of the allegations that floated through the Daily Mail are true……(eg, #1 someone paying Biden mortgages, #2 then the family refinances the mortgage with cash-back, go back to #1)

      Reply
  6. Rory

    For a leading indicator of bird flu, at least in the northern states, perhaps look to activity at bird feeders. I am very surprised and discouraged by the almost complete absence of birds at my feeder in Minneapolis, notwithstanding snow cover and current bitter cold temperatures. Very unusual.

    Reply
  7. FreeMarketApologist

    As of last Friday, poultry social gatherings in Georgia are now restricted:
    https://www.agr.georgia.gov/pr/highly-pathogenic-avian-influenza-confirmed-commercial-poultry-flock-georgia-all-poultry.
    “… in-state poultry exhibitions, shows, swaps, meets, and sales”, but also this:

    “All commercial poultry operations within a 10 Kilometer (6.2 mile) radius [of the facility in Elbert County] have been placed under quarantine and will undergo surveillance testing for a period of at least two weeks.”

    Reply
  8. Pat

    Obviously keeping the plebes in the dark is more important to our shadow owners than embarrassing Trump. Otherwise the CDC would be taking out many of the previous “improvements” rather than changing the wastewater methodology.
    I admit I am shocked.
    Of course, there is the grossly mishandled bird flu ready to run him down like a speeding train so perhaps they didn’t need it.

    Reply
  9. Mark Gisleson

    “My Decade with Donald Trump”

    Made me look and boy howdy I now more than ever appreciate the time the NC crew has put into deciphering spreadsheets because The State of Ohio has a website that really makes you work for your data. Who would have guessed the lead links would be to turnout data that didn’t show actual election results?!

    I kept digging and Columbiana County which is home to East Palestine went for Trump 35,607 to Harris’s 12,064 votes.

    Strange that wasn’t a news story anywhere on earth, at least not that I could find.

    Reply
    1. ChrisFromGA

      Heckuva ceasefire, Blinken:

      The Palestinian news agency Wafa is reporting that Israeli forces have shot and killed a young child in central Rafah in southern Gaza.

      A video filmed by Palestinian journalist Hassan Aslih and verified by Al Jazeera shows the moments after the child was shot.

      A man is seen crawling up to the child to remove the body from the scene but is shot at by Israeli troops, forcing him to retreat from the area.

      Source

      Reply
  10. Pat

    I know I am not supposed to take it that way, but it tells me how unimportant women’s healthcare especially maternity care is to the Democrats when Harris was named to lead “the White House Blueprint for Addressing the Maternal Health Crisis”

    Earlier today some voiced the opinion that George W was the worst President. I cannot go there, without Biden much of his worst actions as President wouldn’t have happened. Biden was instrumental in both the Patriot Act and the formation of Homeland. He greased the path for many of the worst judges we have including Thomas. His work for banks and the financial industry cleared the way for both the 2008 crash and many of the current atrocities. And he continued his hideous Senate legacy as President. He and or his team put a massive number of children into poverty, gleefully enabled the deaths of thousands not just in Gaza, but in the Ukraine. They put the final nail in the coffin of public health. They willfully ignored devastating conditions in East Palestine, which he ignored for over a year.
    He was a hateful, lying and corrupt public official before his cognitive difficulties, he was a bigger and nastier piece of **** after. And his team, close associates and the people he put in place that he trusted most weren’t any better. And the best that could be said of Harris is that they didn’t trust her for the first three years and threw her to the wolves to screw the Democrats in the fourth.

    Goodbye, please let the door kick you in the ass repeatedly on the way out.

    Reply
    1. Wukchumni

      The Dartful Codgers are typical liberals all-in on whatever the Donkey Show is peddling, and when I made mention of what an abomination Biden and his administration were, they about disowned me, and then I lowered the boom on Blinken, one accused me of being a Trumper!

      They’re all convinced Putin is going to go Soviet Union and claim all of Europe as his baliwick, ye gods

      Reply
  11. Tom Stone

    Gotta love the CDC’s zero Covid policy, “NANANA I can’t Hear you” should please Dr Jay and Dr Oz.
    And yes, there will, at some point, be a really nasty variant of Covid showing up.
    Its evolution is both random and fast, so it is only a matter of time.
    In the meantime the growing number of people with long Covid should prove very profitable for big Med.

    Reply
  12. outside observer

    Regarding coffee and covid – I have nothing scientific to say but I recall the Italians, renowned espresso enthusiasts, as having been hit pretty hard.

    Reply
  13. Swamp Yankee

    Bird flu report — there’s a lot among wild fowl populations in my region. A mass die-off of 60 birds was reported over the weekend at Billington Sea (a pond, in New England English; a lake elsewhere in the country, it’s sizable) in Plymouth, Mass. Similar symptoms of a bird struggling on the ice was also seen recently on Monponsett Pond in Halifax, Mass.

    https://www.mass.gov/news/state-officials-suspect-hpai-outbreak-impacting-geese-and-other-wildlife

    Reply

Leave a Reply

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