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By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Chook Track of the Day
Bornean Wren-Babbler, Danum Valley Analysis Station, Sabah, Malaysia.
Search for the Helpers
“‘That Girl From New England Who Shamed Us All’” [Ralph Nader, The New Yorker (LL)]. “The mass media is reluctant to acknowledge civic heroes except they show bodily bravery resembling dashing right into a burning constructing to avoid wasting a baby. The media additionally lavishes huge protection on sports activities heroes and entertainers. Unnoticed by the mass media was the way it took place that the Illinois legislature, overcome by company lobbyists, handed laws permitting punitive damages for wrongful loss of life disasters, and despatched the invoice to Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker who signed it final Friday. Within the phrases of 1 state lawmaker, this effort began with ‘that girl from New England who drove down right here (to Springfield, Illinois) and shamed us all.’ That girl was my niece Nadia Milleron, who misplaced her daughter Samya Rose Stumo – an rising chief in international well being – to the faulty Boeing 737 Max that crashed in Ethiopia on March 10, 2019, killing all 156 individuals on board. (Earlier on October 29, 2018, an analogous additionally new Boeing 737 Max crashed off Indonesia’s coast, killing all 189 passengers and crew.)…. She spent months away from her Massachusetts residence in 2022 getting appointments with each Illinois Assemblyperson – 177 of them – to plead her case in individual. Not one of the naysayers she encountered within the lobbying circles across the legislature deterred her, not even some plaintiff trial legal professionals. By the sheer drive of her authorized and factual arguments, her ethical authority and some senior political advisors in Chicago, she laid the groundwork for motion earlier final yr. The Illinois Wrongful Dying Act was championed by a younger African-American state lawmaker, Rep. La Shawn Okay. Ford. As soon as it began shifting by means of the Meeting (with little media consideration) it gained momentum among the many new Meeting management that carried by means of to the brand new management of the State Senate. Each legislative Homes are managed by Democrats. Nadia got here to this problem in Illinois, the place the Stumo household civil tort litigation in opposition to Boeing is pending, with expertise in battling the enormous Boeing company’s energy to get its means in Washington, DC.” • Milleron is certainly a “civic hero” (and we’d like extra). I’m additionally glad to see that the pencil-necked MBAs and greedhead CEOs who destroyed an ideal American engineering firm are going to get theirs. And but I couldn’t assist however surprise why Hendrik Hertzberg, Democrat loyalist par excellence, allowed Ralph Nader, the traitorous Inexperienced Get together Presidential candidate who, in Democrat minds, value Al Gore election 2000, to grace the New Yorker’s pages. Maybe the reason comes with Nader’s plug for Democrats, and the graceful, certainly unnoticed, operations of Pritzker’s PR group?
Politics
“So most of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are in actual fact a rational administration of symbolic capital.” –Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles
The Constitutional Order
Two households, each alike in dignity,
In honest Verona, the place we lay our scene,
From historic grudge break to new mutiny,
The place civil blood makes civil fingers unclean. –William Shakespeare, Romeo and JulietShakespeare says the 2 households are “alike” in dignity, however he doesn’t say how a lot dignity they really have. If Verona’s households are like our events, the reply is “not a lot.”
* * * “The Sweep and Pressure of Part Three” [William Baude and Michael Stokes Paulsen, University of Pennsylvania Law Review]. I extremely suggest this piece (and the following dialogue at NC, beginning right here). As a former English main and a fan of shut studying, I’m not averse to “originalism,” of which Baude and Paulsen present a magisterial instance, within the sense that understanding the legislation as a textual content should start with understanding the plain, public which means of the phrases used when the textual content was written. That’s how I learn Shakespeare, or Joyce, so why not the Structure? Simply so long as understanding doesn’t finish there! In any case, I’m working by means of it. One factor I discover is that there do appear to have been quite a whole lot of rebellions and insurrections, not simply the Civil Battle. To me, that is parallel to at least one lesson I drew from Mike Duncan’s Revolutions podcast (episode 1): There are quite a whole lot of revolutions, too. Alert reader Pensions Man summarizes Baude and Paulsen as follows:]
The authors undergo an exhaustive textual and originalism evaluation of Part Three, and their Federalist Society leanings don’t deter them from reaching their conclusion that officers in each State who’re charged with figuring out candidate {qualifications} ought to conclude that Donald Trump is disqualified from being on ballots due to the oath he took on Inauguration Day 2017 and subsequently violated by means of his function within the revolt that occurred on January 6, 2021.
Taking “revolt” as learn (I have to do extra studying), extra on my persevering with protection of Part Three.
* * * “Appeasing Donald Trump Received’t Work” [David French, New York Times]. Solely a matter of time earlier than the Munich analogy entered home politics, I suppose. “As highly effective as Baude and Paulsen’s substantive argument is, the late date implies that by the point any problem to Trump’s eligibility would possibly attain the Supreme Courtroom, voters might have already began voting within the Republican primaries. Hundreds of thousands of votes might have been solid. The Supreme Courtroom is already reluctant to alter election procedures on the eve of an election. How keen would it not be to take away a candidate from the poll after he’s maybe even clinched a major?”
“Donald Trump Would possibly Have Lastly Stepped on the Final Authorized Landmine” [1945]. “It’s been clear from the outset that whereas there could be some authorized foundation to the argument by Maude and Paulsen, it’s in all probability not practical for such an argument to be enforced in a means that stops Trump from being a candidate.” • Making Baude and Paulsen’s article extra a matter of prophylatic delegitimation than a severe intervention? In spite of everything, Democrats immediately framed the January 6 riot as an revolt, and the article’s power comes not from its many footnotes, laudable although their quantity could also be, however from its sourcing from “inside the home’: The Federalist Society. That power might have been exercised at any level within the final 2023 – 2020 = 3 years. Making the delay a bit… odd.
Biden Administration
“Joe Biden Evaluating Maui Fires to Virtually Shedding His Corvette Sparks Fury” [Newsweek]. “President Joe Biden sparked outrage throughout his go to to Maui after making a joke that appeared to check the lethal wildfires on the Hawaii island with nearly dropping his ’67 Corvette… ‘I don’t wish to examine difficulties however we now have a bit sense, Jill and I, of what it’s wish to lose a house,’ [Biden] mentioned. ‘Years in the past now, 15 years in the past, I used to be in Washington doing Meet the Press. It was a sunny Sunday,’ he continued. ‘Lightning struck at residence, on a bit lake that’s exterior of our residence—not a lake, an enormous pond,—and hit a wire that got here up beneath our residence into the heating ducts and air-con ducts,’ he added. ‘To make a protracted story brief, I nearly misplaced my spouse, my ’67 Corvette, and my cat.’ Some—particularly these on the appropriate—failed to understand the comparability, accusing the president of being insensitive to the tragedy in Maui.” • The Corvette comment actually does communicate to character, exhibiting because it does Biden’s relentless triviality of thoughts and countless self-regard. Sure, I do know Biden certified his comment with “I don’t wish to examine difficulties,” however why not flog the lifeless son, Beau, but once more? A minimum of that wouldn’t undermine the Biden “model” of being empathetic, as this toad hopping out of his mouth did. There are solely so many issues an advance group can do.
“Biden is accused of ‘nodding off’ throughout Maui wild fireplace memorial service in center of his disastrous five-hour tour of island” [Daily Mail]. That well-known liberal home organ and avatar of all that “mainstream media” offers the timeline:
His look on the memorial gave additional ammunition to critics.
Biden sat listening whereas the speaker instructed of generosity amongst islanders.
‘Like many others who have been left with nothing, these two got garments, meals and shelter by somebody they might have by no means met earlier than,’ the speaker mentioned.
Biden then coughed, hand over his mouth, and regarded down.
‘We’re a group that depends on household, on ‘ohana’, whether or not by blood or by friendship,’ the speaker continued.
Biden then nodded, and regarded up.
‘And like many others, my son’s residence burnt down,’ the speaker mentioned, as Biden’s eyes reverted to the entrance.
‘My daughter’s residence burnt down. My residence burnt down.’
Critics mentioned that Biden was asleep for the 9 seconds he regarded down.
Holy Lord. Haven’t you ever bowed your head for 9 seconds at a memorial service? Mourners are supposed to do this! Right here’s a C-SPAN clip:
I wouldn’t say Biden appears to be like good, however he’s as awake throughout a service on a heat day as any of us outdated codgers might be. I do know the licit pleasures of dogpiling — dopamine loops — in addition to anybody, and that’s what’s occurring right here. (Personally, I believe the Corvette gaffe is lots worse, because it speaks to character, so when the RNC circulated this clip, they stepped on their very own ****s.)
Our Famously Free Press
“Tucker Carlson’s Trump Interview Showcases Potential of Tie-Up With Elon Musk’s X” [Wall Street Journal]. “Tucker Carlson’s interview with Donald Trump is shaping up as a well-timed branding train for the brand new firm the previous Fox Information host is launching. Carlson taped an interview with Trump a number of days in the past and plans to stream it on X, previously referred to as Twitter, with out adverts, individuals accustomed to the state of affairs mentioned. Its launch is predicted to coincide with Wednesday’s first Republican presidential debate on Fox Information…. Carlson and former White Home adviser Neil Patel are engaged on beginning a brand new, subscription-driven media firm, in partnership with Carlson’s former govt producer at Fox, Justin Wells, The Wall Avenue Journal reported final month. They’re within the means of elevating cash and have talked to X about utilizing the platform as its spine. The Trump interview offers Carlson a high-profile alternative to indicate Elon Musk’s group the potential for a deeper partnership.”
2024
Time for the Countdown Clock!
* * * Good work from the Trump marketing campaign employees:
Trump group, with DeSantis taunt in hand, already working perimeter of debate venue in Milwaukee. pic.twitter.com/AEvUV99dOW
— Alex Leary (@learyreports) August 22, 2023
They printed these indicators. None of that supposedly genuine hand-made stuff!
“Trump Says He Has Immunity. Will the Supreme Courtroom Beg to Differ?” [Politico]. “On August 4, 2023, in the future after pleading not responsible to 4 federal legal fees arising from particular counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into efforts to thwart the 2020 presidential election, former President Donald J. Trump introduced on his Reality Social platform that ‘the Supreme Courtroom should intercede.’ What he presumably means is that the Supreme Courtroom, on attraction from motions that his trial group will undoubtedly file in all 4 legal instances, ought to rule that his conduct is untouchable as a result of it concerned actions taken whereas he was nonetheless president of the USA. ‘Every little thing that President Trump did was whereas he was in workplace as president,’ considered one of Trump’s attorneys, John Lauro, argued on NBC’s Meet the Press. ‘He’s now immune from prosecution for acts that he takes in reference to these coverage selections.’ Trump has raised broad claims of presidential immunity in litigation earlier than, with principally poor outcomes. Nonetheless, the argument just isn’t totally frivolous, partly as a result of the Supreme Courtroom has solely weighed in on presidential immunity in a handful of instances, and none of these concerned indictments of a former president. Even when Trump loses his motions to toss out the indictments on immunity grounds on the trial court docket degree, which is probably going, the Supreme Courtroom would nearly actually vote to listen to the problem on attraction given the unprecedented nature of those instances and the stakes for the presidency and the nation.” • Hmm.
“John Eastman, legal professional with Colorado ties, surrenders to authorities on fees in Georgia 2020 election subversion case” [Colorado Sun]. “Eastman mentioned in an announcement supplied by his legal professionals that he was surrendering Tuesday “”to an indictment that ought to by no means have been introduced.”” He lambasted the indictment for concentrating on ‘attorneys for his or her zealous advocacy on behalf of their purchasers’ and mentioned every of the 19 defendants was entitled to depend on the recommendation of legal professionals and previous authorized precedent to problem the outcomes of the election. A former dean of Chapman College legislation college in Southern California, Eastman was an in depth adviser to Trump within the run-up to the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol by the Republican president’s supporters intent on halting the certification of Biden’s electoral victory. He wrote a memo laying out steps Vice President Mike Pence might take to intrude within the counting of electoral votes whereas presiding over Congress’ joint session on Jan. 6 with a view to maintain Trump in workplace.”
“Prosecutors: Trump Mar-a-Lago safety aide flipped after altering legal professionals” [Politico]. “A Trump worker who monitored safety cameras at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property abruptly retracted his earlier grand jury testimony and implicated Trump and others in obstruction of justice simply after switching from an legal professional paid for by a Trump political motion committee to a lawyer from the federal defender’s workplace in Washington, prosecutors mentioned in a court docket submitting Tuesday. The aide — described as ‘Trump Worker 4’ in public court docket filings however recognized elsewhere as Yuscil Taveras — held the title of director of data know-how at Mar-a-Lago. He initially testified to a grand jury in Washington, D.C., that he was unaware of any effort to erase the movies, however after getting the brand new legal professional ‘instantly … retracted his prior false testimony’ and detailed the alleged effort to tamper with proof associated to the investigation of the dealing with of labeled data saved at Trump’s Florida residence, the brand new submission mentioned.”
“One MAGA juror can break all of it” [Salon]. “Extra related is the discovering by Sarah Longwell, a Republican strategist who holds frequent focus teams, that GOP major voters in the primary simply don’t care about Trump’s indictments. Virtually no Republicans have mentioned the indictments have made them much less more likely to help him. He’s their chief they usually consider he’s telling the reality when he says he did none of it. I’m afraid that if any of those trials find yourself with a number of of those fun-loving Trump followers on the jury, it’s going to be very onerous to shake them out of their perception that he can actually do no incorrect…. As he mentioned earlier than, he might shoot somebody on fifth Avenue and never lose any votes. For as soon as he wasn’t mendacity.” • Clearly, we have to reform the jury system. Who’s taking level on that?
* * * “Ron DeSantis Calls Trump Supporters ‘Listless Vessels’ Forward of First Republican Debate” [People]. “On Friday, the Florida governor and 2024 presidential hopeful, 44, instructed The Florida Normal that Trump supporters have been ‘listless vessels.’ Making a reference to claims that he’s a RINO (Republican in Identify Solely), DeSantis added that there’s ‘a strand in our occasion that views supporting Trump as whether or not you’re a RINO or not.’ ‘You might be essentially the most conservative individual since sliced bread,’ he mentioned, however ‘except you’re kissing his rear finish, they’ll one way or the other name you a RINO. So except you’re completely indifferent from precept and what you really consider — and outcomes — it’s extra about, you recognize, what faction you occur to do.” • BItterness is rarely a beautiful high quality in a candidate, and blaming voters is rarely a superb technique. Trump supporters are gleefully evaluating DeSantis’s “listless vessels” gaffe to Clinton’s “deplorables,” however there’s multiple motive for that.
* * * “How Vivek Ramaswamy Grew to become A Billionaire” [Forbes]. “Ramawamy’s fortune stems from a drug-development firm named Roivant Sciences, which went public in 2021. Its inventory is up almost 40% this yr, boosting the worth of Ramaswamy’s 10% stake to roughly $600 million. Since founding the corporate 9 years in the past, he has sucked over $260 million out of Roivant within the type of wage, bonuses and capital positive aspects. He diversified these proceeds into a reasonably commonplace funding portfolio, roughly 60% shares and 40% bonds. However he additionally added some taste, with a touch of Bitcoin and Ethereum, some shares of YouTube competitor Rumble and a stake in crypto funds agency MoonPay.”
“The place Is All This Vivek-omentum Main?” [Slate]. “A clean-cut 38-year-old Indian American from the Midwest, a household man with oodles of interpersonal attraction, a spiritual son of high-caste Hindu immigrants, a biotech entrepreneur and anti–social justice warrior with no prior expertise in Washington—what could possibly be extra refreshing for the GOP than all this? … Whether or not they’re a results of circumstantial luck or precise political savvy, Ramaswamy’s heightened profile and attraction are actually plain, and political observers are catching on. Monday alone noticed some hefty new journalistic profiles of Ramaswamy: from the Atlantic, a campaign-trail saga; from ABC Information, a group of nameless anecdotes from erstwhile associates that accuse Ramaswamy of mere clout-chasing… With DeSantis in decline and Trump skipping the controversy altogether, the opposite GOP candidates are homing in on Ramaswamy, seemingly parsing all these biographical particulars for debate assault fodder. Because the Washington Submit reported, “”Advisers to a number of candidates … mentioned the [debate] stage is more likely to function a venue to litigate the inconsistencies in Ramaswamy’s coverage statements.’” • I assumed “Vivek the Pretend” confirmed the weak point of the DeSantis group. Nevertheless, I make a present of “Slick Vivek” to any marketing campaign that wishes it!
“Ramaswamy’s loans, DeSantis’ spending: GOP debate candidates by the cash” [Tampa Bay Times]. The deck: “A fast rundown of the marketing campaign finance panorama for every candidate anticipated to be on the debate in Milwaukee.” And: “Ramaswamy personally loaned his marketing campaign greater than $15 million, offering by far the biggest chunk of his marketing campaign’s money. His small-dollar donor share is excessive partly as a result of the full sum of donations from people is barely about $3 million. Nonetheless, the roughly $1.6 million his marketing campaign has acquired from these small-dollar donors is comparable or greater than another, extra established political veterans.”
“‘I Might Use a Little Extra Self-Flagellation’” [Politico]. “Christie’s present presidential bid is essentially the most attention-grabbing candidacy within the Republican major, and a very powerful. Not as a result of he’s polling close to the highest of the lot. He’s not. If the competition, although, at this level is Trump and all people else, and the nominee one way or the other finally comes from that batch of others, there’s no one else in that everyone else remotely like Christopher James Christie. The about-to-turn-61-year-old former governor of New Jersey was Trump earlier than Trump — charismatic, combative, politically incorrect — and he was, for that matter, Ron DeSantis earlier than Ron DeSantis — successful reelection in a landslide not simply in an erstwhile swing state however in an outright blue state. And now he’s an ex-prosecutor prosecuting a case, and it’s a case that makes a lot sense it typically can beggar perception that he’s the one one within the discipline who’s certified for the primary two debates who’s so vociferously making it. The case? Possibly it’s not an ideal concept to as soon as once more again a person who had 4 years already as president and failed at the very least as a lot as he didn’t and misplaced in 2020 and contributed to GOP losses in 2018 and 2022 and has been indicted 4 occasions within the final 4 months and due to this fact would possibly spend as a lot time subsequent yr in a courtroom as on the marketing campaign path. ‘We are able to do higher,’ Christie has mentioned, calling Trump ‘a liar,’ ‘a coward,’ ‘a con artist,’ ‘a spoiled child’ and ‘a lonely, self-consumed, self-serving mirror hog.’” • So Trump like Duke and the Dauphin in Mark Twain’s Huck Finn? A consummate American? Nonetheless, “self-serving mirror hog” is nice. I’m wondering if Christie writes his personal gags? I guess he does; he appears to take pleasure in this. It’s good to see a contented warrior on the path!
* * * “Joe Biden’s Ukraine protection falls aside” [Jonathan ]. “In a 2018 interview on the Council on International Relations, Biden bragged that he unilaterally withheld a billion {dollars} in US help from the Ukrainians to drive them to fireplace Prosecutor-Common Viktor Shokin. The Ukrainians balked, however Biden gave them an ultimatum: ‘I checked out them and mentioned, ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor just isn’t fired, you’re not getting the cash.’ Effectively, son of a bitch. He obtained fired.”…. The response from the Washington elite was rapturous, although the story was not solely impolitic however embarrassing for an ally. The Ukrainians have been Joe’s new Corn Pop, and he recounted how he stared them down in a ‘Excessive Midday’ diplomatic second. A State Division memo is shedding disturbing mild on that account and shredding elements of Biden’s justification for the motion.Certainly, the ultimatum might have been the quid in a quid professional quo settlement as a part of the Biden influence-peddling scandal. The premise of the story is that Biden took this extraordinary stand as a result of there was little hope for the anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine if Shokin remained prosecutor. That’s now questionable. The Oct. 1, 2015, memo summarizes the advice of the Interagency Coverage Committee that was dealing with the anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine: ‘Ukraine has made adequate progress on its reform agenda to justify a 3rd assure.’ One senior official even complimented Shokin on his progress in preventing corruption. So Biden was instructed to ship on the federal help however elected to unilaterally demand that Shokin be fired. When the firing occurred, Shokin’s workplace was investigating Burisma Holdings, an power agency that paid Hunter Biden an enormous sum of money….. Main diplomat George Kent wrote then-Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, ‘The actual difficulty to my thoughts was that somebody in Washington wanted to interact VP Biden quietly and say that his son Hunter’s presence on the Burisma board undercut the anti-corruption message the VP and we have been advancing in Ukraine [because] Ukrainians heard one message from us after which noticed one other set of conduct with the household affiliation with a identified corrupt determine whose firm was identified for not enjoying by the foundations.’” • Oh.
Republican Funhouse
“McCarthy says Home might launch Biden impeachment inquiry when Congress reconvenes” [Just the News]. “‘The factor that holds up whether or not we do impeachment inquiry, present us the paperwork we’re asking… If they supply us the paperwork, there wouldn’t be a necessity for impeachment inquiry,’ [House Speaker Kevin] McCarthy instructed Larry Kudlow on Fox Enterprise. ‘But when they withhold the paperwork and combat like they’ve now to not present to the American public what they need to know, we’ll transfer ahead with impeachment inquiry once we come again into session…. ‘The one tales that haven’t modified are the whistleblowers from the IRS. Their story has held up again and again,’ he went on. ‘If the Biden administration continues to combat to withhold data that might actually clear all this up… we must transfer to an impeachment inquiry.’ McCarthy went on to liken the Biden administration and its use of federal workplace for allegedly illicit means to the administration of Richard Nixon.” • Ouch!
Democrats en Déshabillé
Affected person readers, it appears that evidently persons are really studying the back-dated put up! However I’ve not up to date it, and there are a lot of updates. So I should try this. –lambert
I’ve moved my standing remarks on the Democrat Get together (“the Democrat Get together is a rotting corpse that may’t bury itself”) to a separate, back-dated put up, to which I’ll periodically add materials, summarizing the addition right here in a “dwell” Water Cooler. (Hopefully, some Bourdieu.) It seems that defining the Democrat Get together is, in actual fact, a tough downside. I do assume the paragraph that follows is on level all the way in which again to 2016, if not earlier than:
The Democrat Get together is the political expression of the category energy of PMC, their base (lucidly defined by Thomas Frank in Pay attention, Liberal!). ; if the Democrat Get together didn’t exist, the PMC must invent it. . (“PMC” modulo “class expatriates,” after all.) Second, all of the working components of the Get together reinforce one another. Depart apart characterizing the relationships between components of the Get together (ka-ching, however not totally) these components comprise a community — a Flex Internet? An iron octagon? — of funders, distributors, apparatchiks, electeds, NGOs, and miscellaneous mercenaries, with belongings within the press and the intelligence group.
Notice, after all, that the category energy of the PMC each expresses and is restricted by different lessons; oligarchs and American gentry (see ‘industrial mannequin’ of Ferguson, Jorgensen, and Jie) and the working class spring to thoughts. Suck up, kick down.
* * *
Realignment and Legitimacy
“Resentment makes the world go spherical” [Janan Ganesh, Financial Times]. “With due respect to the physicists engaged on nuclear fusion, essentially the most highly effective supply of power within the universe, if it might ever be harnessed, is human resentment. Nietzsche thought it made the world go spherical. (And he didn’t even dwell to see what it might drive his fellow Germans to do after their defeat within the Nice Battle.) There isn’t a understanding fashionable Russia with out a sense of its ressentiment as a shrunken empire. If we slim the lens from the geopolitical to the private, we see resentment at work much more. Discover what number of populist leaders are what could be referred to as relative outsiders. Privileged by nearly all requirements, these individuals really feel shut out of what they regard because the true in-crowd. Nigel Farage: a former stockbroker, but additionally a non-graduate and much-mocked seven-time loser of elections to parliament. Boris Johnson: Etonian and Oxonian however neither posh nor wealthy. Marine Le Pen: a dynast, however not one who handed by means of France’s high college for technocrats. After which the final word working example: Donald Trump, an outer-borough arriviste, ridiculed by the sensible set for his ghastly style and paprika tan. This sample goes at the very least way back to Richard Nixon, one other butt of hurtful jokes in a rustic with extra class sensitivities than it pretends. As a pupil, he so resented the social elite amongst his friends that he based his personal fraternity for outsiders and also-rans. (A form of Brics on campus.) What animates the populist proper just isn’t a lot an ideological programme. It’s what the British would name chippiness, directed at an actual or imagined beau monde.” And: “On the face of it, no two entities are much less alike than Trump and China.” • Oh noes! He went there!
#COVID19
“I’m in earnest — I can’t equivocate — I can’t excuse — I can’t retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD.” –William Lloyd Garrison
Assets, United States (Nationwide): Transmission (CDC); Wastewater (CDC, Biobot; consists of many counties; Wastewater Scan, consists of drilldown by zip); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker” (in IA, however nationwide information). “An infection Management, Emergency Administration, Security, and Common Ideas” (particularly on hospitalization by metropolis).
Lambert right here: Readers, thanks for the collective effort. To replace any entry, do be at liberty to contact me on the deal with given with the crops. Please put “COVID” within the topic line. Thanks!
Assets, United States (Native): 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 stories); 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 (dashboard); VT (dashboard); WA (dashboard; dashboard); WI (wastewater); WV (wastewater); WY (wastewater).
Assets, Canada (Nationwide): Wastewater (Authorities of Canada).
Assets, Canada (Provincial): ON (wastewater); QC (les eaux usées); BC, Vancouver (wastewater).
Hat tricks to useful readers: 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, LL, Michael King, KF, LaRuse, mrsyk, MT, MT_Wild, otisyves, Petal (6), RK (2), RL, RM, Rod, sq. coats (11), tennesseewaltzer, Utah, Bob White (3).
Keep protected on the market!
Maskstravaganza
The masks that accepts straws:
I’ve been utilizing @SIPmask for a couple of days now and I’ve discovered it tremendous handy in Vietnam the place a few iced coffees are a each day necessity for me!
The primary picture reveals the uncovered valve (it comes with a cap that can be utilized to dam it when not in use).
The second picture… pic.twitter.com/7gQVMiToWa
— Breathe Secure Air (@safe_breathe) August 22, 2023
“Insanity: American Satirist C.J. Hopkins Sentenced in German Speech Case” [Matt Taibbi, Racket News]. The German case in opposition to Hopkins is absurd and Taibbi is true to take up the cudgels on Hopkins behalf. However: “It’s concerning the tweet… It’s the duvet artwork from the e-book and it’s me going after the masks factor, just like the one tweet I believe, not precisely verbatim however fairly shut, says the .” • Hopkins is lifeless incorrect — and after I say “lifeless,” I imply it — on the science and engineering of masks sporting. Taibbi may need talked about that, simply so that individuals don’t take Hopkins significantly as a thinker.
Elite Maleficence
HICPAC assembly report:
Yeah, nicely they simply made your testimony personal.
— Lazarus Lengthy (@LazarusLong13) August 22, 2023
Here’s what is claimed to be the complete clip. 46 minutes?!
I’m pressed temporally and can’t hear (and in any case I don’t wish to stroke out). Readers? See NC on HICPAC right here, right here, right here, and right here.
“Mission NextGen Awards Over $1.4 Billion to Develop the Way forward for COVID-19 Vaccines and Therapeutics” [US Department of Health and Human Services]. “At the moment, the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Companies (HHS), by means of the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), awarded
a pitifully smallgreater than $1.4 billion for Mission NextGen to help the event of a brand new era of instruments and applied sciences to guard in opposition to COVID-19 for years to return.” Right here’s the vaccines half: “$1 billion to 4 BARDA Medical Trial companions to help vaccine Section IIb scientific trial research: ICON Authorities and Public Well being Options, Inc of Hinckley, Ohio; Pharm-Olam, LLC, of Houston, Texas; Technical Assets Intl (TRI), Inc, of Bethesda, Maryland; and Rho Federal Programs, Inc., Durham, North Carolina.” • A good remark:Right here’s an up to date listing of the sterilizing vaccines, efficient monoclonal antibodies, lengthy Covid remedies, up to date air flow lists in companies and colleges and the motion plan to combat this virus after nearly 4 years. pic.twitter.com/AGPxsOOKmU
— Jess (@MeetJess) August 23, 2023
Res ipsa loquitur….
“HHS awards $1.4 billion to drive growth of latest Covid-19 vaccines and therapies” [CNN]. “One other $1 billion in funding will go to 4 firms that can lead scientific trials of Covid-19 vaccines. HHS says the funding will help section 2b scientific trials of latest sorts of vaccines. HHS will choose the vaccines that will likely be examined this fall, and the research will start over the winter.” • In order that they’ve picked the contractors, however not that vaccines! A stately tempo, and enormously in distinction to the previous man. With solely 4 vaccines to be examined, what number of do you assume will likely be nasal vaccines (i.e., vaccines with at the very least the potential to be sterilizing)? My guess could be one. Now ask your self whether or not the (hypothetical) nasal vaccine chosen would be the one with the best chance of success, or the least? After all, I could possibly be too paranoid–
“Biden admin pumps cash into creating new COVID vaccines” [Axios]. “A few of the remaining funds will go in direction of higher vaccine manufacturing know-how, resembling a nasal spray that in concept might guard higher once more an infection.” • No cash quantity is listed. In any case, my impression is that the problem with nasal vaccines just isn’t manufacturing — Bharat does advantageous, sure? — however supply. And it’s not clear to me whether or not nasal spray bottles must be optimized for the chemical composition of the spray, or not; my guess is sure. Readers?
In case you’re woke, superspreading occasions are jake with the angels:
I used to be thrilled to attend the Workplace of Readiness and Response Summer season Competition immediately! 🌞 🎉 Loved seeing our @CDCgov teammates’ vibrant showcase of their cultures – what an effective way to rejoice pleasure at work! pic.twitter.com/cR0ZYRybSO
— Mandy Okay. Cohen, MD, MPH (@CDCDirector) August 21, 2023
Masks by no means pervasive. however current. Amazingly, a saggy blue. These are alleged to be public well being scientists! (Mandy’s really worse than Rochelle, who might colorably plead ignorance. However Mandy should know the science. And but she plows forward, leaving an infection in her wake.)
Case Knowledge
NOT UPDATED From BioBot wastewater information, August 22:
Lambert right here: Completely happy reminiscences of tape-watching days! Closing in on a Trump-era surge degree; Biden’s, after all, are greater. It is going to be attention-grabbing to see what occurs when colleges open up. I wish to congratulate the Biden administration and the general public well being institution, the CDC particularly, for this monumental and unprecedented achievement. And a tip of the ol’ Water Cooler hat to the Nice Barrington goons, whose insurance policies have been adopted so assiduously! A curious reality: All of Biden’s peaks are greater than Trump’s peaks. Reveals you what public well being can do when it’s firing on all eight cylinders! Musical interlude. NOTE I’m not pleased that Biobot can’t replace this information extra incessantly.
Regional information:
Backward revisions. The nationwide flattening is because of the Midwest downward swoop. I’d anticipate the backward revisions on that. Apparently, the upswing begins earlier than July 4, which neither accelerates nor retards it.
Regional variant information, August 19:
EG.5 (the orange pie slice) nonetheless appears evenly distributed. Sadly, the Midwest information just isn’t obtainable, so we are able to’t infer something concerning the Midwest surge and any variant(s), by hook or by crook.
Variants
NOT UPDATED From CDC, August 19:
Lambert right here: Prime of the leaderboard: EG.5 (“Eris“). I’m not highlighting the BA.2’s as a result of the interactive model reveals that these BA.2’s been hanging round at a low degree for months.
From CDC, August 5:
Lambert right here: Undecided what to make of this. I’m used to seeing a brand new variant take down the beforehand dominant variant. Right here it appears to be like like we now have a “tag group,” all working collectively to chop XBB.1.5 all the way down to dimension. I certain hope the volunteers doing Pangolin, on which this chart relies upon, don’t all transfer on the inexperienced fields and pastures new (or have their entry to services lower by directors of unwell intent).
CDC: “As of Could 11, genomic surveillance information will likely be reported biweekly, based mostly on the supply of optimistic check specimens.” “Biweeekly: 1. occurring each two weeks. 2. occurring twice per week; semiweekly.” Appears like CDC has chosen sense #1. In essence, they’re telling us variants are nothing to fret about. Time will inform.
Covid Emergency Room Visits
From CDC NCIRD Surveillance, August 19:
Lambert right here: Regular improve. (The black line is “mixed”, however it’s straightforward to see that Covid, the crimson line, is driving all the pieces.)
NOTE “Charts and information supplied by CDC, updates Wednesday by 8am. For the previous yr, utilizing a rolling 52-week interval.” So not the whole pandemic, FFS (the implicit message right here being that Covid is “identical to the flu,” which is why the seasonal “rolling 52-week interval” is suitable for eachMR SUBLIMINAL I hate these individuals a lot. Discover additionally that this chart reveals, at the very least for its time interval, that Covid is not seasonal, despite the fact that CDC is attempting to get us to consider that it’s, presumably to allow them to piggyback on the present institutional equipment for injections.
Hospitalization
I hate this metric as a result of the lag makes it misleading. However, right here’s bellwether New York Metropolis, information as of August 22:
Nonetheless getting worse. However how a lot worse?
Positivity
NOT UPDATED Walgreens, August 21:
So, Walgreens is again within the sport (and how on earth did that debacle occur? We breathlessly await the information protection). The share of positives is the very best ever, although absolute numbers are nonetheless small relative to previous surges.
NOT UPDATED From CDC, July 31:
Lambert right here: That is the CDC’s “Traveler-Based mostly Genomic Surveillance” information.
Deaths
NOT UPDATED Iowa COVID-19 Tracker, August 9:
Lambert right here: The WHO information is nugatory, so I changed it with the Iowa Covid Knowledge Tracker. Their methodology: “These information have been sourced, through the API from the CDC: https://information.cdc.gov/NCHS/Situations-Contributing-to-COVID-19-Deaths-by-Stat/hk9y-quqm. This visualization updates on Wednesday evenings. Knowledge are provisional and are adjusted weekly by the CDC.” I can’t appear to get a pop-up that reveals a complete of the three causes (high proper). Readers?
Whole: 1,172,960 – 1,172,801 = 159 (159 * 365 = 58,035 deaths per yr, immediately’s YouGenicist™ quantity for “dwelling with” Covid (fairly a bit greater than the minimizers would really like, although they will discuss themselves into something. If the YouGenicist™ metric retains chugging alongside like this, I may must resolve that is what the powers-that-be contemplate “mission completed” for this explicit tranche of loss of life and illness).
Extra Deaths
The Economist, August 23:
Lambert right here: Again to nearly dailiy. Odd when it’s, odd when it stops. Based mostly on a machine-learning mannequin. (The CDC has an extra estimate too, however because it ran without end with an enormous typo within the Legend, I figured no one was actually it, so I obtained rid it. )
Stats Watch
There aren’t any official statistics of curiosity immediately.
Tech: “Apple’s therapy of small video games developer makes a textbook antitrust case” [9to5Mac]. “Apple has voraciously denied accusations that the App Retailer has monopolistic management over iPhone apps, but the corporate’s skill to unilaterally shut developer accounts with out rationalization kinds a textbook antitrust case. One small video games developer had its Apple Developer Program (ADP) account terminated with out rationalization, was unable to attraction because it hadn’t been instructed what accusations it wanted to deal with, took Apple to court docket – after which had its account reinstated after 5 months of misplaced gross sales, nonetheless with out rationalization or apology…. Some 5 months after Digital Will had its apps pulled from the App Retailer, and two months after it despatched a lawyer’s letter to Apple, the Cupertino firm reinstated the account. No rationalization was supplied. The corporate estimates that its whole losses and prices exceed $765k, and is searching for damages from Apple.” • One for Stoller. Pocket change for Apple; life-changing for a small developer.
At the moment’s Worry & Greed Index: 47 Impartial (earlier shut: 46 Impartial) [CNN]. One week in the past: 50 (Impartial). (0 is Excessive Worry; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Aug 22 at 8:00 PM ET. C’mon, Mr. Market! In some way!
The Gallery
“An Deserted Cupboard Finds a Trove of Unseen Kodachrome Slides Documenting Sixties San Francisco” [This is Colossal]. “There’s a Vivian Maier-esque story out of San Francisco that’s drawing consideration to a newly found physique of labor from a largely unknown photographer.” Vivian Maier is terrific. Extra: “Again in 2020, David Gallagher, who runs the historic archive referred to as SF Reminiscence, acquired a hefty cupboard that was discovered deserted in San Francisco’s Mission District. Inside have been 920 Kodachrome slides capturing life within the California metropolis all through the Sixties, with no figuring out particulars concerning the photographer…. There are kids at play, an officer exhibiting off a chunky, white rabbit, and households swimming in Fleishhacker Pool earlier than the general public saltwater complicated closed in 1971. Collectively, the gathering creates a definite photographic tapestry of life within the metropolis throughout a time of huge change and development.” • I consider that immediately, of the rabbit, we’d say “chonky boi”:
“When logic and proportion….”
“Hundreds of thousands of outdated printed images are sitting in storage. Digitizing them can unlock numerous reminiscences” [Associated Press]. “After retiring in 2021 from a protracted profession as a U.S. diplomat who labored everywhere in the world, Lyne Paquette returned to her residence in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and retrieved from storage 12,000 pictures that she had taken from her movie digital camera throughout her wide-ranging travels. After spending months sorting by means of all of them, Paquette despatched about 3,500 to be digitized.. ‘It brings again a lot happiness, however typically unhappiness,’ Paquette, 67, says. ‘I can see now: I’ve had a really, very wealthy life.’” • Watch out of rights, and of storage, too. You don’t need your reminiscences to be a part of some AI’s coaching set.
Class Warfare
“Rubbing Shoulders: Class Segregation in Day by day Actions” (PDF) [Maxim Massenkoff, Nathan Wilmers]. The Summary: “We use location information to check exercise and encounters throughout class strains. Low-income and particularly high-income people are socially remoted: extra seemingly than different revenue teams to come across individuals from their very own social class. Utilizing easy counterfactual workout routines, we research the causes. Whereas some industries cater primarily to low or high-income teams (for instance, golf programs and wineries), trade alone explains solely a small share of isolation. Persons are most remoted when they’re near residence, and the tendency to go to close by areas explains about one-third of isolation. Manufacturers, mixed with distance, clarify about half the isolation of the wealthy. Informal restaurant chains, like Olive Backyard and Applebee’s, have the biggest optimistic affect on cross-class encounters by means of each scale and their variety of tourists. Greenback shops and native pharmacies like CVS deepen isolation. Amongst publicly-funded areas, libraries and parks are extra redistributive than museums and historic websites. And, regardless of distinguished restrictions on chain shops in some giant US cities, chains are extra various than unbiased shops. The combination of institutions in a neighborhood is strongly related to cross-class Fb friendships (Chetty et al., 2022). The outcomes uncover how insurance policies that help sure private and non-private areas would possibly affect the connections that type throughout class divides.”
“How Do the Wealthy Develop into and Keep Rich?” [Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis]. “Ozkan famous that, on common, the wealthiest people started their careers considerably richer than different households in the identical cohort. For instance, the richest 0.1% of households at ages 50 to 54 owned about 120 occasions the economywide common wealth, which was $437,000 in 2015. When these similar households have been of their late 20s, they already possessed, on common, 20 occasions the economywide common wealth, Ozkan identified. Ozkan additionally famous that the wealthiest households at ages 50 to 54 have been closely invested in fairness, notably personal companies, beginning at a younger age. As an illustration, he identified, the wealthiest people held 85% to 90% of their wealth in fairness, whereas below-median households held 90% of their whole belongings in housing. Consequently, the wealthiest earned markedly greater returns. ‘It follows, then, that fairness revenue, together with capital positive aspects, supplied the primary supply—83%—of whole lifetime revenue for the wealthiest 0.1%. In distinction, households within the backside 90% of the wealth distribution earned 80% to 90% of their lifetime revenue from labor companies,’ Ozkan wrote. ‘Apparently, inheritances (accrued between 1994 and 2014) constituted a negligible fraction of sources for all wealth teams, together with the highest wealth house owners.’ The richest households have been additionally vital savers. Ozkan famous that the wealthiest 0.1% of households had saved 70% of their gross revenue over the research interval.” • Hmm. If the wealthy started their careers “considerably richer,” and but “inheritances constituted a negligible fraction of sources for the highest wealth house owners,” then how was the “primitive accumulation” carried out? A “nice crime“?
Information of the Wired
“Visualizing the mysterious dance: Quantum entanglement of photons captured in real-time” [Phys.org]. “Researchers on the College of Ottawa, in collaboration with Danilo Zia and Fabio Sciarrino from the Sapienza College of Rome, not too long ago demonstrated a novel method that permits the visualization of the wave operate of two entangled photons, the elementary particles that represent mild, in real-time…. This experiment was made doable by a sophisticated digital camera that information occasions with nanosecond decision on every pixel…. The affect of this analysis goes past simply the tutorial group. It has the potential to speed up quantum know-how developments, resembling enhancing quantum state characterization, quantum communication, and creating new quantum imaging methods.” • Now do cats.
Contact data for crops: Readers, be at liberty to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) learn the way to ship me a examine in case you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to learn the way to ship me pictures of crops. Greens are advantageous! Fungi and coral are deemed to be honorary crops! In order for you your deal with to look as a credit score, please place it at the beginning of your mail in parentheses: (thus). In any other case, I’ll anonymize through the use of your initials. See the earlier Water Cooler (with plant) right here. From Upstater:
Upstater writes: “On our path by the creek, a Jack within the Pulpit. I marked it and can see if it produces seeds and try propagation.”
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