2:00PM Water Cooler 1/21/2025 | bare capitalism

Hen Tune of the Day

Brown Thrasher, Might 2024 Rondeau PP–South Level Path East, Chatham-Kent, Ontario, Canada. Identical location as yesterday, however completely different birds and much more energetic.

In Case You May Miss…

1. January 6 pardons.
2. DOGE Government orders.
3. Bettering surgical masks (many strategies).

In Case You May Miss…

1. January 6 pardons.
2. DOGE Government orders.
3. Bettering surgical masks (many strategies).

Politics

“So most of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are actually a rational administration of symbolic capital.” –Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles

Capitol Seizure

“Trump pardons roughly 1,500 legal defendants charged within the Jan. 6 Capitol assault” [NBC News]. “President Donald Trump on Monday issued roughly 1,500 pardons and commuted the sentences of 14 of his supporters in reference to the assault on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when hundreds of them stormed the constructing amid his false claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged in opposition to him. Trump commuted the sentences of people related to the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, who have been convicted of seditious conspiracy [despite being riddled with informers]. He then issued ‘a full, full and unconditional pardon to all different people convicted of offenses associated to occasions that occurred at or close to the USA Capitol on January 6, 2021,’ a class that included individuals who assaulted legislation enforcement officers.” • This from Julie Kelly was one thing I didn’t know:

Right here is the raindrop concept–

“UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. JOHN DOUGLAS WRIGHT” (PDF) [Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, Criminal Action No. 21-341, United States District Court for the District of Columbia]. Kollar-Kotelly was “beforehand presiding choose of the Overseas Intelligence Surveillance Courtroom.” From web page 24:

It might have been fascinating to use the “raindrop” concept of the case to the banksters who “collectively” prompted the Nice Monetary Crash, inflicting “the pointless expenditure of considerable authorities assets.”

Lambert right here: Affected person readers, Trump simply signed 100 exective orders (EOs) [apparently only 26? Yes] and held a presser. I don’t have the capability to synthesize all that materials, which is likely creating “Shock and Awe” within the political class. The hyperlinks that comply with appear probably the most salient now, however that will change within the coming weeks. What I’ll say is that I’ve skimmed a number of of the orders, and this newest rollout is an incredible feat of staffwork (hat tip Susie Wiles) that the earlier Trump administration couldn’t even have thought of. (Some intelligent individuals can even have to put the Government Orders in opposition to Challenge 2025 and search for overlaps. My guess is that the Trump administration can have put its personal distinction twists on lots of it. Additionally, I’ll typically scatter the EOs below the standard class headings (“DOGE” below “DOGE”) as a result of consolidating 100 EOs in a single place could be unwieldy.

Affected person readers, I’ll return with an inventory of the chief orders — I’m pissed off as a result of I don’t know what number of have actually been signed — after I deal with some administrativia. –lambert

UPDATE Right here is the checklist. I took it from the Whitehouse.gov web page on “Presidential Actions.” There are 4 buckets: Government Orders, Proclamations, Memoranda, and Bulletins. (I did this as a result of all of the sources I might discover have been explainers, a stage of abstraction away from a easy checklist of the paperwork Trump signed, which appears to me to be the apparent base for any additional evaluation.)

Government Orders:

1. Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness (order)
2. Designating Cartels And Different Organizations As Overseas Terrorist Organizations And Specifically Designated World Terrorists (order)
3. Reforming The Federal Hiring Course of And Restoring Advantage To Authorities Service (order)
4. Ending Radical And Wasteful Authorities DEI Packages And Preferencing (order)
5. Defending Girls From Gender Ideology Extremism And Restoring Organic Reality To The Federal Authorities (order)
6. Establishing And Implementing The President’s “Division Of Authorities Effectivity” (order)
7. America First Coverage Directive To The Secretary Of State (order)
8. Defending The US From Overseas Terrorists And Different Nationwide Safety And Public Security Threats (order)
9. Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Useful resource Potential (order)
10. Defending The American Individuals In opposition to Invasion (order)
11. Reevaluating And Realigning United States Overseas Help (order)
12. Declaring a Nationwide Power Emergency (order)
13. Restoring The Demise Penalty And Defending Public Security (order)
14. Securing Our Borders (order)
15. Defending The Which means And Worth Of American Citizenship (order)
16. Realigning the USA Refugee Admissions Program (order)
17. Unleashing American Power (order)
18. Clarifying The Navy’s Function In Defending The Territorial Integrity Of The US (order)
19. Holding Former Authorities Officers Accountable For Election Interference And Improper Disclosure Of Delicate Governmental Info (order)
20. Restoring Accountability To Coverage-Influencing Positions Inside the Federal Workforce (order)
21. Withdrawing The US From The World Well being Group (order)
22. Software Of Defending People From Overseas Adversary Managed Purposes Act To TikTok (order)
23. Placing America First In Worldwide Environmental Agreements (order)
24. Ending The Weaponization Of The Federal Authorities (order)
25. Restoring Freedom Of Speech And Ending Federal Censorship (order)
26. Preliminary Rescissions Of Dangerous Government Orders And Actions (order)

Proclamations:

1. Guaranteeing The States Safety In opposition to Invasion (proclamation)
2. Declaring A Nationwide Emergency At The Southern Border Of The US (proclamation)
3. Granting Pardons And Commutation Of Sentences For Sure Offenses Relating To The Occasions At Or Close to The US Capitol On January 6, 2021 (proclamation)
4. Flying The Flag Of The US At Full-Employees On Inauguration Day (proclamation)

Memoranda:

1. The Group for Financial Co-operation and Improvement (OECD) World Tax Deal (World Tax Deal) (memorandum)
2. Group of the Nationwide Safety Council and Subcommittees (memorandum)
3. Short-term Withdrawal of All Areas on the Outer Continental Shelf from Offshore Wind Leasing and Evaluation of the Federal Authorities’s Leasing and Allowing Practices for Wind Tasks (memorandum)
4. Restoring Accountability for Profession Senior Executives (memorandum)
5. Selling Stunning Federal Civic Structure (memorandum)
6. Placing Individuals Over Fish: Stopping Radical Environmentalism to Present Water to Southern California (memorandum)
7. America First Commerce Coverage (memorandum)
8. Memorandum to Resolve the Backlog of Safety Clearances for Government Workplace of the President Personnel (memorandum)
9. Delivering Emergency Value Aid for American Households and Defeating the Value-of-Residing Disaster (memorandum)
10. Hiring Freeze (memorandum)
11. Regulatory Freeze Pending Evaluation (memorandum)
12. Return to In-Particular person Work (memorandum)

Bulletins:

1. President Trump Designates Chairmen and Performing Chairmen (announcement)
2. President Trump Broadcasts Performing Cupboard and Cupboard-Stage Positions (announcement)
3. President Trump Broadcasts Sub-Cupboard Appointments (announcement)
4. President Trump Broadcasts Cupboard and Cupboard Stage Appointments (announcement)

So that is the scope of the work for right this moment; Trump was busy. Maybe a connoisseuer of Federal doc varieties can clarify why an Government Order in a single case and a Memorandum in one other. I did skim a number of the EOs; they appear to be of various high quality, some fairly particular as to statute and regulation, others extra like “good issues are good” handwaving. For instance, in “Restoring Freedom Of Speech And Ending Federal Censorship”, this:

Sec. 2. Coverage. It’s the coverage of the USA to: (a) safe the suitable of the American individuals to interact in constitutionally protected speech;

and:

Sec. 3. Ending Censorship of Protected Speech. (a) No Federal division, company, entity, officer, worker, or agent could act or use any Federal assets in a fashion opposite to part 2 of this order.

Constitutional legal professionals within the readership please appropriate me, however am I proper that this can be a little skinny? Not even a quotation to a court docket case? And “constitutionally” is doing lots of work. Is there speech that’s not constitutionally protected?

* * *

“Trump indicators order to finish ‘authorities censorship’ of social media” [WaPo]. “President Donald Trump on Monday signed an government order meant to ‘instantly cease all authorities censorship,’ a sweeping motion that would chill years of efforts to fight the proliferation of false info on-line. The order bans federal officers from any conduct that ‘would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen.’ It additionally prohibits taxpayer assets from getting used to ‘unconstitutionally abridge the free speech’ of People…. Trump’s order might have a direct affect on years of efforts to bolster coordination between Silicon Valley and the federal government to fight misinformation about elections, pure disasters and public well being.” • However:

TikTok is useless, free Palestine pic.twitter.com/hQKK0trAlW

— Ozymandias (@martianmarxist) January 21, 2025

Nevertheless:

so my tiktok didn’t appear the identical when i received again on, so i went and muted all adverts and turned off personalised adverts, and now i can truly see issues about Palestine and fascism pic.twitter.com/mwLLfs7shl

— jess (@jesstechnician) January 21, 2025

Eight hours down not lengthy sufficient to implement the algo modifications correctly?

* * *

“Neo-Nazis Love the Nazi-Like Salutes Elon Musk Made at Trump’s Inauguration” [Wired]. “At this level, Musk put his proper hand on his chest earlier than extending it straight out together with his palm going through down and his fingers touching, a gesture widely known because the ‘Roman salute.’ Adopted by the fascist motion a century in the past, it was most famously utilized by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Get together in Germany, and is to at the present time related to the fascist proper, particularly in Italy. After he first made the gesture, Musk then circled to members of the group who have been seated behind him and, together with his again to the digicam, repeated the gesture. ‘My coronary heart goes out to you,’ Musk added… One in all many examples: “”WE ARE FUCKING BACK” the administrator of a Nazi meme channel on Telegram wrote below a clip of Musk giving the salute.’” • I have to confess that once I first noticed this take I filed below image manipulators on the lookout for symbols after which making leaps in reasoning primarily based on the symbols (which is a really dangerous behavior within the idpol area). I additionally felt that Musk has been awfully herky jerky these days (and there may be the preliminary hand-on-heart gesture, which types no a part of the Nazi salute. However now, apparently, it does:

“It was an accident!! He’s autistic!!” pic.twitter.com/eOCgJ4cPBr

— evan loves worf (@esjesjesj) January 21, 2025

File this, on the very minimal, below “Anyone must get this dude below management.”

* * *

DOGE

“ESTABLISHING AND IMPLEMENTING THE PRESIDENT’S ‘DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT’” [Whitehouse.gov]. I normalize all-caps to title caps however on this case I’m not, as a result of all of the EOs have this formatting. I hope readers may give this a detailed studying, however whereas the pre-inaugural DOGE set a horrid precedent, this model appears not so dangerous. The EO hijacks the USA Digital Service (USDS), which Obama put in place after Silicon Valley techies saved his bacon my making the ObamaCare web site work. That’s a intelligent concept! ” The US Digital Service is hereby publicly renamed as the USA DOGE Service (USDS) and shall be established within the Government Workplace of the President.” And: “In session with USDS, every Company Head shall set up inside their respective Companies a DOGE Workforce of at the least 4 workers, which can embrace Particular Authorities Staff, employed or assigned inside thirty days of the date of this Order. Company Heads shall choose the DOGE Workforce members in session with the USDS Administrator. Every DOGE Workforce will usually embrace one DOGE Workforce Lead, one engineer, one human assets specialist, and one legal professional. Company Heads shall be certain that DOGE Workforce Leads coordinate their work with USDS and advise their respective Company Heads on implementing the President ‘s DOGE Agenda.” • This exhibits, at the least, someone was eager about course of. (“Particular Authorities Staff” have been what the the pre-inaugural DOGE operatives — the dudes going round interviewing civil servants — ought to have been.

“‘Everybody desires him out’: How Musk helped boot Ramaswamy from DOGE” [Politico]. “Musk, the tech tycoon and Donald Trump confidant, made it recognized that he needed Ramaswamy out of DOGE in current days, in response to three individuals conversant in Musk’s preferences who, like others for this text, have been granted anonymity to debate them. An ill-received vacation rant on X by Ramaswamy about H-1B visas apparently hastened his demise…. Ramaswamy maintained to confidants as late as Saturday night that he was actively concerned in DOGE, saying he was at work writing government orders, in response to six individuals who had spoken with him. However an individual conversant in the association mentioned he had performed nearly no DOGE-related work since early December. As just lately as final week, Ramaswamy hoped to realize some early wins at DOGE earlier than leaving to pursue a gubernatorial bid. Now Ramaswamy and his allies are laboring to place a optimistic spin on his departure, coming simply as Trump takes workplace.” •

Maskstravaganza

If you are only permitted a surgical mask:

here is a non-exhaustive thread on the various modifications you can apply to surgical masks to increase their efficacy at preventing airborne illness (95% effective like N95 masks). combining these modifications will increase your mask’s efficacy 🧵

— a southern souliloquoy (@niggasippian) January 18, 2025

Here is one modification:

here is a non-exhaustive thread on the various modifications you can apply to surgical masks to increase their efficacy at preventing airborne illness (95% effective like N95 masks). combining these modifications will increase your mask’s efficacy 🧵

— a southern souliloquoy (@niggasippian) January 18, 2025

Here is another:

here is a non-exhaustive thread on the various modifications you can apply to surgical masks to increase their efficacy at preventing airborne illness (95% effective like N95 masks). combining these modifications will increase your mask’s efficacy 🧵

— a southern souliloquoy (@niggasippian) January 18, 2025

There are a lot more techniques; the thread is worth reading in full.

Vaccines

“Former surgeon general: Vaccine-preventable diseases are still a major threat” [Jerome Adams, STAT]. The Biden Administration vaccine rollout was fantastically harmful, as we see right here. “Whereas there’s a lot to have fun in regards to the present concentrate on bettering total well being — significantly the incoming administration’s emphasis on the MAHA agenda, which promotes higher meals security, diet, and bodily exercise — it’s essential that we bear in mind these have to be priorities along with addressing vaccine-preventable ailments, not instead of them. As I’ve mentioned earlier than, you possibly can’t die of early coronary heart illness at 50 in case you already died from polio at 5. The truth is that vaccine-preventable ailments are nonetheless a significant risk, even within the twenty first century, and we ignore that at our peril. I hear from pediatricians and well being officers throughout the nation on a near-daily foundation about their rising issues over declining vaccination charges. Mother and father who would have as soon as trusted their well being care suppliers’ suggestions are actually questioning vaccines that ought to be routine, like MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella). What’s much more troubling is that even the mother and father of long-term sufferers — kids who’ve obtained all their vaccines prior to now — are more and more opting to delay or forgo these important photographs attributable to new doubts, typically fueled by misinformation. What’s worse is that the default response to well being supplier suggestions has shifted. For a lot of mother and father, the concept of questioning, deferring, or outright rejecting vaccines has change into the norm, slightly the exception. This undermines the belief that has been constructed over generations between well being care suppliers and households, and presents a critical problem for these of us making an attempt to guard the well being of all People, particularly our kids. The affect of this rising vaccine hesitancy will, in fact, be felt most acutely by kids whose mother and father are attempting, in deeply misguided methods, to guard them. Whereas we’re unlikely to see a dramatic rise in deaths from vaccine-preventable ailments within the U.S. within the close to time period, the non-public prices are immense. A single case of measles can result in weeks of missed faculty, sporting occasions, household gatherings, and different milestones. These are prices many People felt have been insufferable and inexcusable in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, but we’re now placing our kids liable to struggling the identical disruptions — disruptions which can be each preventable and pointless.” • As I mentioned, it’s MMR that’s under-assault. After all, we have now already been induced to desert our kids to Covid — thanks, Nice Barrington dudes — so every little thing’s going in response to plan.

Elite Maleficence

Maybe the CDC’s normalization of wasterwater knowledge isn’t as dangerous as I assumed:

Publish by @jik@federate.social

View on Mastodon

Violet Blue’s correction right here:

New info that OP is misunderstanding the change. Additional information is right here: https://t.co/PXobBA9CAg That CDC has eroded public belief on C19 hasn’t helped in any respect. https://t.co/TVZhOVdLmA

— Violet Blue® (@violetblue) January 19, 2025

TABLE 1: Day by day Covid Charts

Lambert right here: I don’t like lots of this week’s charts. In wastewater, too many pink dots concentrated within the Midwest and the Atlantic coast, so I began circling areas in pink, once more. New York’s weirdly persistent increased hospitalization price continues. Traveler positivity is up, and worse, the dominant traveler variants are JN* and KP*, which, whereas current within the nationwide variants, are very low. And within the two demise charts, the projected deaths appear to have leveled out, when prior to now they decreased. Nothing earth-shattering, however it does make me queasy, and it’s nicely after the vacation bump.

Wastewater
This week[1] CDC January 10	Final week[2] CDC (till subsequent week):
Variants [3] CDC January 18		Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC January 11
Hospitalization
★ New York[5] New York State, knowledge January 16:	Nationwide [6] CDC Janurary 16:
Positivity
Nationwide[7] Walgreens January 13:	Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic January 4:
Vacationers Information
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 right this moment; all others will not be up to date.

2) For a full-size/full-resolution picture, Command-click (MacOS) or right-click (Home windows) on the chart thumbnail and “open picture in new tab.”

NOTES

[1] (CDC) Seeing extra pink and extra orange, however nothing new at main hubs.

[2] (CDC) Final week’s wastewater map.

[3] (CDC Variants) XEC takes over. That WHO label, “Ommicron,” has performed an excellent job normalizing successive waves of an infection.

[4] (ED) A little bit uptick.

[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Undoubtedly jumped.

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

[7] (Walgreens) Leveling out.

[8] (Cleveland) Continued upward pattern since, nicely, Thanksgiving.

[9] (Vacationers: Positivity) Leveling out.

[10] (Vacationers: Variants). Positivity is new, however variants haven’t but been launched.

[11] Deaths low, positivity leveling out.

[12] Deaths low, ED leveling out.

Stats Watch

There are not any official statistics of curiosity right this moment.

At this time’s Concern & Greed Index: 41 Concern (earlier shut: 37 Concern) [CNN]. One week in the past: 27 (Concern). (0 is Excessive Concern; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Jan 21 at 2:00:37 PM ET.

Structure

“The Misplaced Towers of the Guelph-Ghibelline Wars” [Ex Urbe]. “Appears to be like faux, doesn’t it? This implausible Medieval forest of towers, as dense as Manhattan skyscrapers, is our greatest reconstruction of the city of Bologna at its top, towards the tip of the Medieval Guelph-Ghibelline wars. Rich households constructed these as mini-fortresses throughout the metropolis, the place they might defend in opposition to riots, enemy households (suppose Montagues and Capulets) and invasion. Indicators of wealth and status, these all-stone buildings have been additionally fireproof, resulting in a horrible however efficient tactic: take your loved ones, treasures & items up into your tower then set fireplace to enemies’ properties and let town burn round you whilst you sit secure above. This was VERY BAD for cities.” Like this:

Caption: “Appears to be like faux, doesn’t it? This implausible Medieval forest of towers, as dense as Manhattan skyscrapers, is our greatest reconstruction of the city of Bologna at its top, towards the tip of the Medieval Guelph-Ghibelline wars. We don’t see many such towers right this moment… or suppose we don’t, however truly their remnants are throughout Italy.” • Neat weblog.

Zeitgeist Watch

“On what girls need” [Kat Rosenfeld, The Usual Palm Tree]. Reflections prompted by the Neil Gaiman case. “There’s a second within the Gaiman exposé the place the principle accuser, Scarlett Pavlovich, sends him a textual content message asking him how he’s doing. Gaiman says he’s struggling: he’s heard from individuals near him that Pavlovich plans to accuse him of rape. ‘I assumed that we have been factor and a really consensual factor certainly,’ he writes. ‘It was consensual (and fantastic)!” she replies. Besides: she doesn’t imply it.” However: “[I]n the article we’ve been instructed, explicitly and repeatedly, which you can’t assume a relationship was consensual simply because all events concerned gave consent.” And: “The factor is, if girls can’t be trusted to say their wishes or boundaries as a result of they’ll invariably lie about what they need as a way to please different individuals, it’s not simply intercourse they will’t fairly consent to. It’s medical therapies. Automotive loans. Nuclear non-proliferation agreements. Our whole social contract operates on the premise that adults are sturdy sufficient to decide on their decisions, regardless of the ambient strain from sexy males or sleazy used automobile salesmen or power-hungry ayatollahs. If half the world’s grownup inhabitants are literally simply smol beans — hapless, helpless, fickle, fragile, and far too tender to carry out even probably the most fundamental self-advocacy — every little thing begins to collapse, together with the complete feminist challenge. You may’t have real equality for girls whereas additionally letting them duck by the lure door of however I didn’t imply it, like kids, when their decisions have sad outcomes.”

“New ‘oligarchy’ below fireplace as elites descend on Davos” [Agence France Presse]. After all, the elite of the elite are on the Inaugural. “The World Financial Discussion board kicks off within the Swiss Alpine resort on the identical day because the presidential inauguration of Trump, who won’t be in Davos however will make an internet look later within the week…. Some 3,000 contributors are anticipated on the Swiss ski village for the discussion board ending Friday — together with 60 heads of state or authorities and greater than 900 CEOs — for days of schmoozing and behind-the-scenes dealmaking.” A dissenting voice: “‘I don’t need to stay in a rustic with a couple of wealthy individuals and many poor individuals,’ mentioned Morris Pearl, a former managing director at funding big BlackRock. He’s now a member of Patriotic Millionaires, a bunch that backs elevating taxes on the wealthy. ‘I’m afraid that we’re going to have civil unrest if we don’t change issues,’ Pearl advised AFP.” • So are they, Morris. So are they.

Information of the Wired

These states aren’t precisely arrange for blizzard circumstances.

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