By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Fowl Music of the Day
Northern Mockingbird, Cape Island – Crewe Home, Cape Could, New Jersey, United States. “Evening-singing from a single perch within the neighbor’s hedge at evening; I walked proper up and recorded it from only a few meters away.” A lot of selection!
“Fowl mind from the age of dinosaurs reveals roots of avian intelligence” (press launch) [University of Cambridge]. “Researchers have recognized a remarkably well-preserved fossil hen, roughly the scale of a starling, from the Mesozoic Period. The entire cranium has been preserved nearly intact: a rarity for any fossil hen, however significantly for one so historic, making this one of the vital important finds of its sort. The extraordinary three-dimensional preservation of the cranium allowed the researchers, led by the College of Cambridge and the Pure Historical past Museum of Los Angeles County, to digitally reconstruct the mind of the hen… Navaornis had a bigger cerebrum than Archaeopteryx, suggesting it had extra superior cognitive capabilities than the earliest bird-like dinosaurs. Nevertheless, most areas of its mind, just like the cerebellum, had been much less developed, suggesting that it hadn’t but developed the advanced flight management mechanisms of recent birds… ‘Fashionable birds have a few of the most superior cognitive capabilities within the animal kingdom, comparable solely with mammals,’ stated Professor Daniel Subject from Cambridge’s Division of Earth Sciences, senior writer of the analysis. ‘However scientists have struggled to know how and when the distinctive brains and memorable intelligence of birds developed—the sector has been awaiting the invention of a fossil precisely like this one.’” • Neat! (The unique from Nature, which I can’t translate into English.)
In Case You Would possibly Miss…
- About these camps…
- Blame Cannons: Biden staffers, Axelrove, Fetterman unload.
- Boeing’s administration challenges., layoffs.
Politics
“So most of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are the truth is a rational administration of symbolic capital.” –Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles
Trump Transition
“Home Probe Into Matt Gaetz Depends On Witnesses DOJ Discovered Lacked Credibility” [Mollie Hemingway, The Federalist]. The deck: “A convicted felon stated he was paying the authorized charges of Matt Gaetz’s accuser and controlling her.” Extra: “Among the many many highly effective figures in Washington, D.C. against the Gaetz nomination are some who’re trying to thwart it by releasing a report from the Home Ethics Committee that may try to tie Gaetz to salacious allegations involving baby intercourse trafficking. The report comes years after DOJ dropped its investigation into the identical claims on the grounds that the 2 central witnesses had severe credibility points. But these are the identical two central witnesses the Home Ethics Committee has relied on for its vital report of Gaetz—the identical report it’s leaking to compliant reporters as a part of a coordinated effort to thwart his nomination as President-elect Donald Trump’s subsequent lawyer basic…. The politicized staff at DOJ have proven themselves prepared to discover novel authorized theories and bend federal guidelines to the breaking level in pursuit of their most reviled political opponents, most notably former and future President Trump. Gaetz has a status as one of the vital tenacious cross-examiners of DOJ officers from his perch on the Home Judiciary Committee. But even the DOJ was unwilling to take advantage of Greenberg’s unsubstantiated claims — aside from leaking them to the press to harm Gaetz’s status. They introduced their closure of the investigation in 2022.” • Value studying in full for element on the accuser.
* * *
2024 Put up Mortem
Deploy the Blame Cannons!
“EXCLUSIVE’It’s a blood tub’: Contained in the White Home blame sport as backstabbing staffers and score-settling pundits rock a Democratic Celebration in disaster” [Daily Mail]. Enjoyable stuff. This caught my eye: “As that very same former Biden staffer put it: ‘[Obama’s staffers were] signed up because the saviors of the marketing campaign solely to run outdated Obama-era playbooks for a candidate that wasn’t Obama.’” And: “Ultimately, irrespective of who finally ends up with the blame, the Democratic Celebration must transfer on to [hopefully not] survive. A brand new era of bold Democrats are already stated to be plotting their 2028 campaigns – governors similar to California’s Gavin Newsom, Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer and Maryland’s Wes Moore.” • That’s the bench for 2028? Actually? “Stature” just isn’t a phrase that involves thoughts.
“John Fetterman says Democrats must cease ‘freaking out’ over every little thing Trump does” (interview) [NBC]. “‘I’ve stated this earlier than, it’s like, clutch these pearls more durable and scold louder — that’s not going to win,’ Fetterman, D-Pa., stated. ‘And that’s been demonstrated on this cycle.’” Fascinating to see “clutch these pearls” make it into mainstream, idiomatic English; “clutch your pearls and head for the fainting sofa” was a trope I encountered as a blogger c. 2003 (on the Democrat aspect. I don’t assume Republicans clutch their pearls, however what do they do as an alternative? Seize their weapons?). Fetterman on the Democrat loss in PA: “[FETTERMAN:] I pointed on the market had been two very extremely distinctive conditions, and one in every of them was the assassination [attempt]. … [T]his by no means occurred when it’s the 12 months of an election and when the person survived. And he responded in a really distinctive method of ‘struggle, struggle, struggle,’ and it created very highly effective type of imagery. And I felt, ‘Hey, that’s positively going to make issues much more tough.’ After which [Elon] Musk. Surrogates are frequent in our enterprise, however somebody like that’s totally different, and I’ve maintained that he can transfer the needle, and I do consider he did … that’s why we’ve misplaced two of our colleagues within the Home, and we’ve misplaced each row workplace statewide, as nicely.” • I don’t like Fetterman a lot on coverage, however he’s value listening to for the marketing campaign he ran. (Fetterman tactfully doesn’t point out the Shapiro v. Walz controversy, however I believe Shapiro would have gone down within the face of ‘struggle, struggle, struggle’ additionally. There was completely no method the Pennsylvania Republicans had been going to lose that race.
* * * “From New Jersey to Hawaii, Trump made inroads in stunning locations in his path to the White Home” [Associated Press]. “Widespread themes emerged within the AP VoteCast knowledge. Voters had been most certainly to see the financial system and immigration as prime points going through the nation. Extra voters stated their household’s monetary state of affairs was ‘falling behind,’ in contrast with 2020. After they voted, Trump supporters had been enthusiastic about excessive costs for fuel, groceries and different items and the state of affairs on the U.S.-Mexico border.”
“The Democrats’ Defeat” [Adam Tooze, London Review of Books (AG)]. Let me pull out some salient paragraphs: “The defining characteristic of US politics within the present period is how small the margins are. This election noticed giant actions in particular teams: Latino males to Trump; faculty graduates to Harris; better-off voters to the Democrats; working-class Individuals to the Republicans. Nevertheless it stays a matter of some proportion factors, with the overwhelming majority of the voters entrenched in two camps and many of the nation barely contested. What strikes these voters who do change their minds from election to election stays obscure.” And: “However when it comes to defending present rights and energy positions, when it comes to retaining the potential for additional change, when it comes to stopping the worst, what was at stake on 5 November had been the 270 seats within the electoral faculty. And to have an honest probability of successful them, it was not essential to construct a historic progressive bloc. It was essential to run a reliable marketing campaign and to subject candidates able to presenting America’s actuality, each its guarantees and its challenges, in language that was compelling and reassuring on the identical time. Biden and Harris each failed to try this, and Biden’s outrageous refusal to step apart till the final second robbed the get together of any probability of discovering a stronger candidate.” • I all the time take pleasure in Tooze, however for some motive this text jogged my memory of no one a lot as David Brooks (and his Irish setter, “Ethical Hazard”). The trope that popped into my head was “‘You may’t buff a turd’ is fractal.” Is any type of problem-solving on this surroundings actually potential?
“Democratic turnout plummeted in 2024 — however solely in secure states” [Semafor]. “The overwhelming majority of votes from this election have been counted, with only a few million ballots excellent in western states. Complete turnout is on monitor to fall simply wanting 2020, nicely forward of some observers’ expectations on Election Evening, when conspiracy theories about greater than 10 million “lacking Biden voters” flourished amongst Democrats. Harris will win fewer votes than President Joe Biden did 4 years in the past — however the decline was considerably steeper in safely purple or blue states than in swing states. The place there was no nationwide marketing campaign spending on turnout, and the place voters knew that they had been unlikely to alter the result, Harris ran additional behind Biden.”
Marketing campaign Finance
“Political Adverts Can’t Purchase the Presidency” [Bloomberg]. The deck: “Democrats outspent Republicans by greater than $300 million within the run-up to the 2024 presidential election. But Harris received not one of the swing states the place the overwhelming majority of spending went.” Extra: “Cash doesn’t win US elections, nevertheless it typically helps. In bids for the Senate, the candidate who spends probably the most is often the victor. That sample held this 12 months: In 21 of 33 Senate races, the candidate who spent probably the most on promoting—usually the key expenditure for a marketing campaign—was the winner…. The hyperlink between spending and successful has all the time been weaker in presidential contests…. Provided that turnout had a big affect on election outcomes in 2024, [Adam Bonica, a professor of political science at Stanford University] means that, sooner or later, each events ought to contemplate rethinking their spending. ‘Perhaps it’s not promoting they should do,’ he says. ‘Perhaps they need to be placing extra of the assets into mobilization and registration and get together constructing.’” • Cash can’t win an election when you set it on hearth and throw it into the air!
“Oprah city corridor value Harris marketing campaign way over initially claimed: report” [FOX]. “A brand new report revealed Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential marketing campaign paid greater than double what was beforehand reported for the Oprah Winfrey city corridor occasion. FEC filings, first reported by the Washington Examiner, present the Harris marketing campaign made two $500,000 funds to Winfrey’s Harpo Productions on Oct. 15, a month after Winfrey’s city corridor with Harris and weeks earlier than the pair appeared at a Harris Philadelphia rally. Now, two sources have instructed The New York Occasions the total worth of the occasion with Winfrey was nearer to $2.5 million…. The majority of the extravagant spending reportedly went to celeb appearances and performances and influencer partnerships meant to spice up marketing campaign occasions.” And: “Winfrey, a billionaire, insisted she was ‘paid nothing’ when confronted by TMZ. A Harpo Productions spokesperson acknowledged to Selection that the corporate took cash from the marketing campaign however claimed it was for ‘manufacturing prices.’… ‘Oprah Winfrey was at no level throughout the marketing campaign paid a private payment, nor did she obtain a payment from Harpo,’ the spokesperson stated.” • I don’t know the way Hollywood accounting works, however that assertion appears rigorously engineered to me.
Republican Funhouse
“An Attraction to Democratic Voters” [Patria with Steve Cortes]. “[H]ere are the three most compelling causes to at the very least contemplate becoming a member of our America First trigger — and to vote Republican into the long run. (1) The Democrat Management Disrespects You…. (2) The GOP Is Now the Celebration of Employees; (3) The Democratic Celebration Obsesses with Social Radicalism.” • I believe “of staff” is telling. “Of,” versus “of, by, and for,” which might suggest fairly a special get together.
“League of American Employees President: ‘Arizonans notice that the American Dream has turn out to be out of attain’” [Grand Canyon Times]. “Steve Cortes, president and founding father of the League of American Employees (LAW), in the present day stated that ballot outcomes launched by his group present Arizona voters not really feel the American Dream is reachable. That ballot confirmed 84% of Arizona voters say households within the state can’t reside on a single earnings.” • Extra on the League of American Employees.
Spook Nation
“CISA Director Jen Easterly to depart on Inauguration Day” [NextGov]. “Jen Easterly, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Safety Company’s stalwart champion and a figurehead amongst cybersecurity and intelligence group practitioners, will depart her submit Jan. 20 subsequent 12 months when President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated again into the White Home, individuals accustomed to her plans stated… The way forward for CISA in an incoming Trump administration stays unsure, as GOP allegations of censorship stemming from CISA’s interactions with social media firms — claims that Easterly has adamantly refuted — performed a outstanding function in a latest Supreme Court docket case, which the Biden administration in the end received.” • Extra on Easterly right here.
Democrats en Déshabillé
“Axelrod: Democrats Can’t Strategy ‘Working Folks’ Like Missionaries And Say, ‘We’re Right here To Assist You Develop into Extra Like Us’” [RealClearPolitics]. “”I do have considerations about the best way the Democratic Celebration pertains to working-class voters on this nation. The one group that Democrats gained throughout the election on Tuesday was White faculty graduates, and amongst working-class voters, there was a big decline. The one group they received amongst– Democrats received had been individuals who make greater than 100 thousand {dollars} a 12 months. You may’t win nationwide elections that method, and it definitely shouldn’t be that method for a celebration that fashions itself because the get together of working individuals.” • Not “fashions itself.” “Fancies itself.”
Syndemics
“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
Covid Sources, United States (Nationwide): Transmission (CDC); Wastewater (CDC, Biobot; contains many counties; Wastewater Scan, contains drilldown by zip); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker” (in IA, however nationwide knowledge). “An infection Management, Emergency Administration, Security, and Basic 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 vegetation. Please put “COVID” within the topic line. Thanks!
Sources, 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 (wastewater); VT (dashboard); WA (dashboard; dashboard); WI (wastewater); WV (wastewater); WY (wastewater).
Sources, Canada (Nationwide): Wastewater (Authorities of Canada).
Sources, Canada (Provincial): ON (wastewater); QC (les eaux usées); BC (wastewater); BC, Vancouver (wastewater).
Hat tricks to useful 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, sq. coats (11), tennesseewaltzer, Tom B., Utah, Bob White (3).
Keep secure on the market!
TABLE 1: Every day Covid Charts
| Wastewater | |
| This week[1] CDC November 11 | Final Week[2] CDC (till subsequent week): |
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| Variants [3] CDC November 9 | Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC November 9 |
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| Hospitalization | |
| ★ New York[5] New York State, knowledge November 15: | Nationwide [6] CDC November 14: |
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| Positivity | |
| ★ Nationwide[7] Walgreens November 11: | ★ Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic November 16: |
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| Vacationers Knowledge | |
| Positivity[9] CDC October 28: | Variants[10] CDC October 28: |
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| Deaths | |
| Weekly Deaths vs. % Positivity [11] CDC November 2: | Weekly Deaths vs. ED Visits [12] CDC November 2: |
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LEGEND
1) ★ for charts new in the present day; all others are usually not 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) Excellent news!
[2] (CDC) Final week’s wastewater map.
[3] (CDC Variants) KP.* nonetheless standard. XEC has entered the chat. That WHO label, “Ommicron,” has carried out a terrific job normalizing successive waves of an infection.
[4] (ED) Down.
[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Steadily down.
[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). Really improved; it’s now one of many few charts to point out the complete course of the pandemic to the current day.
[7] (Walgreens) Down.
[8] (Cleveland) Down.
[9] (Vacationers: Positivity) Down.
[10] (Vacationers: Variants). Now XEC.
[11] Deaths low, positivity down.
[12] Deaths low, ED down.
Stats Watch
There aren’t any official statistics of curiosity in the present day.
Manufacturing: “Boeing’s Current High quality Points: 5 Key Developments” [Simple Flying]. (1) “Government resignation amid manufacturing restarts”; (2) “FAA mandates a complete high quality enchancment plan”; (3) “High quality defects found in undelivered 787 Dreamliners”; (4) “Whistleblowers expose systemic security violations”; (5) “Ongoing high quality points have an effect on the 737 MAX program.” • That’s so much.
Manufacturing: “Boeing strike submit mortem: Ortberg has work to do” (excerpt) [Leeham News and Analysis]. “Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg’s efficiency throughout the IAM strike is getting low marks from the women and men who will do the work that turns Boeing around-–the mechanics, techs, and engineers within the factories, in response to these LNA has spoken with. Ortberg got here in speaking a couple of “reset” within the firm’s relationship with its unionized workforce. He took a very good symbolic step by asserting he’d relocate to Seattle and work from there. However whereas Wall Avenue hailed the transfer, it didn’t land in addition to it may have. Ortberg spent in the future within the Renton manufacturing unit earlier than the strike. ” Ouch! Extra: “Likewise, it’s unclear how a lot Ortberg was concerned in one of many largest crises his new firm confronted when he took over: the Machinists Union negotiations.” • Sadly, the fabric about Ortberg is generally behind the paywall; nonetheless, it seems that he “went with Calhoun’s plan” (Calhoun being the earlier CEO who was compelled out).
Tech: “Perhaps Bluesky has ‘received’” [Gavin Anderegg]. “When writing about Bluesky, I’ve seen people point out that it’s both federated or decentralized. I’m right here to let you know that it’s at present neither. This one actually irks me as a result of the service is getting the credit score for work it hasn’t carried out….. All this to say: the Bluesky crew looks as if they’re earnestly working towards a decentralized platform, however they’ve a variety of work forward of them. Years of effort, in my estimation. Within the meantime, Bluesky is barely extra decentralized than, say, Fb — however not by a lot. Sure, you may host your individual knowledge. Sure, you may scrape the entire content material on the community. However you may’t do something with it until you’re connected to the Bluesky service. I consider it will change with time, however it will likely be prohibitively costly and we’re not there but.” • With dialogue of some great benefits of Mastodon’s easy ActivityPub protocol, vs. Bluesky’s difficult AT Protocol (“atproto”). I haven’t tried Bluesky, as a result of I’m not sympathetic to liberal Democrats making themselves much more embubbled than they already are. I’ve tried Mastodon, however in comparison with Twitter it appears like a provincial backwater. That stated, the PMC migrating to a Silicon Valley-centric, not open-source, and enshittifiable platform (yet one more platform) is reasonably telling. Perhaps it’s the “Blue” in “Bluesky” that triggers them.
At present’s Concern & Greed Index: 51 Impartial (earlier shut: 50 Impartial) [CNN]. One week in the past: 68 (Greed). (0 is Excessive Concern; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Nov 18 at 1:23:03 PM ET.
Rapture Index: Closes up one on Drought. “A really giant space of the nation is underneath basic drought circumstances” [Rapture Ready]. File Excessive, October 10, 2016: 189. Present: 183. (Do not forget that bringing on the Rapture is sweet.) • Exhausting to consider the Rapture Index goes down. Do these individuals know one thing we don’t?
Permaculture
“The Means of Mushrooms: Russula, the Trickster Mushroom” [The Meaning of Water]. “It was early October on a heat light day after I selected to stroll a special path within the Trent Nature Sanctuary forest. And there, within the cedar-birch-poplar forest, I found stunning fanned-shaped saprotrophic mushrooms organized like road timber on a boulevard and stitching a fascinating community of crisscrossing traces of creamy ‘flowers’ on the forest flooring. I observed that they had been organized in near what regarded like a fairy circle within the thick duff amid lifeless logs and branches of a number of fallen poplar and birch timber; little doubt acquiring their nourishment from the decaying wooden.” • However the right way to establish them?
Gallery
So few traces:
Fishing Boat close to an Island #artbots #rembrandt pic.twitter.com/HnL3YxvB4w
— Rembrandt (@artistrembrandt) November 11, 2024
Class Warfare
Information of the Wired
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