By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Chicken Tune of the Day
American Robin, Suffolk, New York, United States. “American Robin singing from the highest of a constructing earlier than daybreak.”
In Case You Would possibly Miss…
(1) Trump can’t put up the surety bond for his $450 million+ high quality.
(2) How that bogus Lengthy Covid paper from John Gerrard made it into the Guardian.
(3) Keef!
Politics
“So lots of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are actually a rational administration of symbolic capital.” –Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles
Biden Administration
About that TikTok Trojan Horse:
Some CIA-backed paramilitary group funded by USAID grants instructed to make use of Twitter by State Dept handlers could be paying 𝕏 $8 a month they usually’re goin after Elon for it pic.twitter.com/4NTqAGT9FU
— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) March 16, 2024
$8 a month is even lower than the cash the Web Analysis Company paid Fb!
2024
Lower than a 12 months to go!
* * * Trump (R): “Trump Authorized Charges Threaten to Trigger Money Crunch by July” [Bloomberg]. From February, nonetheless germane. “Donald Trump will doubtless drain his battle chest for authorized charges this summer time, leaving the GOP frontrunner crunched for money simply as his presidential marketing campaign ramps up spending for an anticipated rematch with President Joe Biden.”
* * * Trump (R): “The Republican Veepstakes, Half One: Choosing an Apprentice, Donald Trump’s Approach” [Sabato’s Crystal Ball]. “Vice presidential choice in fashionable occasions activates three variables—the presidential candidate who orchestrates the method and makes the choice; the pool of accessible selectees; and the political context. In every determination, a selector considers a particular set of choices in a novel setting and makes strategic decisions. Continuities form vice presidential selection however each choice has idiosyncratic elements due to the variation in decision-makers, pool, and historic setting in addition to the interplay of these variables. It’s helpful analyzing acquainted patterns, as is finished under and in Half Two, however with Trump dictating this 12 months’s Republican choice course of, it’s sure to be distinctive. It already is…. Standard knowledge sees Trump as insistent on abject loyalty and accordingly doubtless to decide on somebody who has demonstrated uncritical assist. Sone marketing campaign surrogates/VP wannabes behave constantly with this expectation. Maybe that’s an accurate learn, however Trump’s 2016 course of would possibly counsel some warning in forecasting that Trump will choose the most important sycophant. Earlier than Trump selected Pence from a comparatively shallow pool, Trump’s camp apparently approached then-Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a rival and critic, to hitch his ticket. Kasich reportedly declined these overtures however that knowledge level would possibly recommend some willingness to achieve out looking for electoral benefit. Trump’s success in changing former critics into subordinated supporters (assume Vance, Rubio, and Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, amongst others.) would possibly encourage him to anticipate comparable success with one other politically formidable critic.” • Nicely price a learn.
* * * Trump (R): “How Trump’s Allies Are Successful the Battle Over Disinformation” [New York Times]. From the index propagandists for RussiaGate and Iraqi WMDs. “The arguments strike on the coronary heart of an unsettled query in fashionable American political life: In a world of limitless on-line communications, wherein anybody can attain enormous numbers of individuals with unverified and false info, the place is the road between defending democracy and trampling on the appropriate to free speech?” • Let’s not be foolish. The road is “electing my man.” Subsequent, please. Commentary:
The New York Occasions talked about me 24 occasions as the highest story on the entrance web page of the Sunday Version.
They tried a success piece. All I noticed have been two phrases:
“Successful Efficiently.” pic.twitter.com/nl3sIdeCAI
— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) March 18, 2024
Seems just like the Occasions hates Mike Benz as a lot because the Wall Avenue Journal hates Lina Khan…
* * * Biden (R): “Behind the scenes, Biden has grown indignant and anxious about re-election effort” [NBC]. “Surrounded by protecting aides who need to decrease the possibilities of a flub, the 81-year-old president has chafed at restraints that he sees as counter to his pure instincts as a retail politician, a 3rd particular person aware of inside discussions mentioned…. ‘Biden stood up in entrance of the entire world and mentioned, ‘I’m prepared. I’m the man who can take down Donald Trump,” mentioned Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash. ‘So, he goddamn nicely higher do it. We don’t have time for him to be nervous about whether or not or not individuals are saying issues proper or the ballot numbers are the place they need to be. I would like targeted vitality and never defensive anger.’… Biden has once in a while directed his ire at his tightknit senior employees. Given the successes he has had in passing consequential payments and enhancing the economic system, Biden was irritated that his message wasn’t sinking in with the broader citizens, the sources mentioned…. At occasions, Biden will get ideas that battle with each other. Some advisers have instructed him he ought to stroll sooner out of concern that his gait feeds impressions that he’s too previous. And but the White Home is sufficiently nervous about him tripping that he has taken to boarding Air Pressure One through a shorter staircase by the stomach of the airplane, forgoing the enduring picture of the president waving from the primary doorway excessive above the tarmac. ‘He’s in all probability just a little mad at himself for not being extra forceful with the employees,’ an individual aware of inside discussions mentioned. Privately, Biden questions whether or not he ought to belief his intestine instincts over the steering coming from the array of advisers tending to his political pursuits, this particular person added.” • Nicely, at the very least Biden hasn’t bitten anybody. So there’s that.
* * * Kennedy (I): “Who’s Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and why is he operating for president?” [Associated Press]. The employees: “Kennedy is seeking to his household and his allies within the anti-vaccine world to employees his marketing campaign, constructing a management group that’s gentle on expertise working in politics. His marketing campaign supervisor is Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, his daughter-in-law who served as a CIA officer and has not labored in politics earlier than. His communications director, Del Bigtree, is founding father of the Knowledgeable Consent Motion Community, an anti-vaccine group…. Press secretary Stefanie Spear was an editor for the Kids’s Well being Protection information web site. Charles Eisenstein, a New Age creator, is an adviser. Kennedy additionally has employees and volunteers unfold all through states and targeted on gathering signatures to get him on the poll.” • I want Kennedy had caught with Waterkeeper Alliance….
Kennedy (I): “RFK Jr. to call rich legal professional Nicole Shanahan as operating mate in prez run: report” [New York Post]. Who? “Shanahan, a Democratic donor who was as soon as married to Google cofounder Sergey Brin, funded Kennedy’s expensive Tremendous Bowl marketing campaign industrial, Mediaite reported Saturday.” • Nominating Shanahan might seem to be a sensible transfer to RFK (cash) however will probably be seen for the genuinely silly thought that it’s the first time she opens her mouth on the path, or the primary smidge of oppo is launched. RFK is sort of a ship with no keel, blown hither and yon by the wind.
Democrats en Déshabillé
Oh, for what as soon as was:
FDR campaigning for his second time period which he gained in a landslide. “The forces of organized cash are unanimous of their hatred for me – and I welcome their hatred.” Virtually hate speech in in the present day’s political phrases pic.twitter.com/qYIJ9dakh2
— Nate Bear (@NateB_Panic) March 18, 2024
That’s a cheerful warrior!
“Will Bernie Sanders’ proposed 32-hour workweek move Congress?” [ABC News]. • Provided that Biden needs a shot at profitable a second time period.
#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
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 Normal 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!
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 experiences); 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).
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, 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 protected on the market!
Media
I questioned how John Gerrard’s wretched Australian piece on Lengthy Covid received platformed on the Guardian, parallel to being immediately amplified by Murdoch and his merry males. Right here’s why:
The creator of that article within the Guardian is @natasha__may, who’s a well being reporter for Guardian Australia. Her solely supply is Dr. John Gerrard, the chief medical officer of Queensland. How did one thing this at odds with peer reviewed science make the worldwide version? 🤔 https://t.co/2GoPTwfIem
— Chris Richards 🐬🖖🏻 eclecticradical .bsky.social (@EclecticRadical) March 15, 2024
Elite Maleficence
“Well being employees concern it’s earnings earlier than safety as CDC revisits airborne transmission” [NBC News]. #HICPAC. “Now, [Peg Seminario, an occupational health expert, and a former director at the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations] and lots of others fear that the CDC is repeating previous errors because it develops an important set of tips that hospitals, nursing houses, prisons, and different services that present well being care will apply to regulate the unfold of infectious ailments. The rules replace these established practically twenty years in the past. They are going to be used to determine protocols and procedures for years to come back… ‘If we utilized these draft tips initially of this pandemic, there would have been even much less safety than there may be now — and it’s fairly dangerous now,’ Seminario mentioned.” The place the hell was the AFL-CIO then, and the place is it now? Extra: “Though critics are glad to see final 12 months’s draft reconsidered, they continue to be involved. “The CDC must be sure that this steering doesn’t give employers leeway to prioritize earnings over safety,” mentioned Jane Thomason, the lead industrial hygienist on the union Nationwide Nurses United. She’s a part of a rising coalition of specialists from unions, the American Public Well being Affiliation, and different organizations placing collectively an out of doors assertion on parts that should be included within the CDC’s tips, such because the significance of air filtration and N95 masks.” And the final line: “However that enter might not be considered.” • If the present #HICPAC membership has their manner, the reply to the “outdoors assertion” won’t be “No.” It will likely be “Hell, no.”
Why didn’t we simply make Vanness Hudgens head of the CDC?
this being the official cdc tips now 😭 https://t.co/CRRGq4JQfQ
— ✧ (@northstardoll) March 18, 2024
If solely any person would write the identical guide for the USA!
So excited to announce that my chapter analyzing the politics of “letting COVID rip” in Australia has been revealed within the Analysis Handbook on Public Administration and COVID-19!
In case you appreciated my #COVIDHegemony items within the Canberra Occasions/Croakey, you then’ll love this! 👇 pic.twitter.com/Mycuzij2ZP
— Dr Blair Williams🏳️🌈♀️ (@BlairWilliams26) March 18, 2024
Want I had a PDF… I’d overview it!
TABLE 1: Day by day Covid Charts
LEGEND
1) ★ for charts new in the present day; all others aren’t 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] (Biobot) Our curve has now flattened out on the degree of earlier Trump peaks. Not a fantastic victory. Word additionally the world “below the curve,” moreover taking a look at peaks. That space is bigger below Biden than below Trump, and it appears to be rising steadily if erratically.
[2] (Biobot) Midwest ticks up.
[3] (CDC Variants) As of Might 11, genomic surveillance knowledge might be reported biweekly, based mostly on the supply of constructive check specimens.” “Biweeekly: 1. occurring each two weeks. 2. occurring twice per week; semiweekly.” Seems like CDC has chosen sense #1. In essence, they’re telling us variants are nothing to fret about. Time will inform.
[4] (ER) “Charts and knowledge supplied by CDC, updates Wednesday by 8am. For the previous 12 months, utilizing a rolling 52-week interval.”
[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Not flattening.
[6] (Hospitalization: CDC) Nonetheless down. “Maps, charts, and knowledge supplied by CDC, updates weekly for the earlier MMWR week (Sunday-Saturday) on Thursdays (Deaths, Emergency Division Visits, Check Positivity) and weekly the next Mondays (Hospitalizations) by 8 pm ET†”.
[7] (Walgreens) Leveling out.
[8] (Cleveland) Flattening.
[9] (Vacationers: Posivitity) Now up, albeit within the rear view mirror.
[10] (Vacationers: Variants) JN.1 dominates completely.
Stats Watch
There aren’t any official statistics of curiosity in the present day.
Manufacturing: “Inside Boeing’s stunning personnel scandals: Drug dealing, love triangle and murder-suicide” [New York Post]. “[S]ources beforehand instructed The Put up police had dusted [Barnett’s] automobile for fingerprints in and out, a extremely uncommon transfer in suicide instances.” • First place I’ve seen this declare sourced.
Manufacturing: “The final days of the Boeing whistleblower” [Fortune]. “The day gone by, Barnett had been on a roll as a video digicam recorded the occasion. “John testified for 4 hours in questioning by my co-counsel Brian,” says Turkewitz. ‘This was following seven hours of cross examination by Boeing’s legal professionals on Thursday. He was actually joyful to be telling his aspect of the story, excited to be fielding our questions, doing a fantastic job. It was explosive stuff. As I’m sitting there, I’m considering, ‘That is one of the best witness I’ve ever seen.” At one level, says Turkewitz, the Boeing lawyer protested that Barnett was reciting the small print of incidents from a decade in the past, and particular dates, with out taking a look at paperwork. As Turkevitz remembers the trade, Barnett fired again, ‘. I’ve needed to reside it.’ That Friday, Barnett’s testimony ended at round 5 PM, and the events reconvened an hour later. ‘John was actually drained and didn’t need to testify any extra that day,’ says Turkewitz. ‘. He’d instructed his mother that he’d be residence on Sunday, and it took him two days to drive residence. I recommended that we break for per week or two. .” • Once more, the place’s Barnett’s laptop? (And the place are his backups, if any?)
Manufacturing: NC will get a shout-out (“Swampy” is Barnett):
Swampy was discovered together with his finger on the set off of a silver pistol. A doctor who’s an everyday contributor to the indespensable website #NakedCapitalism says this can be a main purple flag pic.twitter.com/371RrAfIoH
— moe tkacik (@moetkacik) March 15, 2024
Manufacturing: “Boeing’s Ache Spreads to Vacationers as Airways Minimize Again on Plans” [Bloomberg]. “Boeing Co.’s disastrous begin to 2024 is spilling over to airways and their passengers as manufacturing delays on the US planemaker exacerbate an already nascent scarcity of single-aisle jets that kind the spine of economic air journey.
United Airways Holdings Inc., Southwest Airways Co. and Ryanair Holdings Plc are among the many corporations scrambling to answer lowered deliveries from Boeing because the planemaker focuses on fixing high quality lapses uncovered by the Jan. 5 accident on an Alaska Airways flight. With the busy summer time journey season in view, carriers say they’re trimming schedules and on the lookout for options to 737s they’ve already ordered, whereas additionally contending with points afflicting narrowbodies from Airbus SE. Even Boeing appears unsure when the planes might be prepared as a military of US inspectors sift by its factories, that means the corporate can’t make any agency predictions when issues would possibly return to regular.” • Crowded planes and airports this summer time, greater than normal, oh pleasure.
Manufacturing: “Boeing Legal Probe Widens With Seattle Grand Jury Subpoena” [Bloomberg]. “The division seems to be working on two tracks. It’s wanting into whether or not the door plug blowout falls below and violates the federal government’s 2021 deferred-prosecution settlement with the corporate over two earlier deadly crashes of its 737 Max jetliner. The division additionally might decide there’s sufficient proof to contemplate the Jan. 5 incident as a standalone legal investigation.”
As we speak’s Concern & Greed Index: 73 Greed (earlier shut: 70 Greed) [CNN]. One week in the past: 70 (Greed). (0 is Excessive Concern; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Mar 18 at 1:04:02 PM ET.
Rapture Index: Closes unchanged [Rapture Ready]. Report Excessive, October 10, 2016: 189. Present: 186. (Keep in mind that bringing on the Rapture is good.) NOTE on #42 Plagues: “The coronavirus pandemic has maxed out this class.” Extra trustworthy than most! • Goat sacrificers irrelevant? Atlantic meridional overturning circulation irrelevant?
The Conservatory
“5 strings, three notes, two fingers and one a**gap – that’s all it takes to play guitar!” Keith Richards: The whole 1992 interview” [GuitarPlayer]. Nice enjoyable. ” I at all times discovered the islands like Jamaica and reggae so fascinating. To me, it was simply one other manifestation of the motion of rhythm and concord and melody over the face of the planet. That’s what counts to me. I look upon issues in a bizarre gentle. I can provide the historical past of the world – simply give me their music. Give me a tribe’s music, and I’ll inform you how they reside, what they odor like, nearly. That will give me extra info than speaking to them or taking a look at ’em. I can get extra info out of their music first-off than anything. There’s no mendacity whenever you’re enjoying music.Precisely. For this reason the Iron Curtain went down. It was denims and rock and roll that took that wall down in the long term. It wasn’t all these atomic weapons and that dealing with down and massive bullshit. What lastly crumbled it was the fuckin’ music, man. You can not cease it. It’s probably the most subversive factor.” • Unsure. Possibly Keith ought to say in his lane, which is a reasonably wonderful lane. Or perhaps not!
Information of the Wired
I’m not feeling wired in the present day.
Contact info for crops: Readers, be at liberty to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) learn how to ship me a verify in case you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to learn how to ship me pictures of crops. Greens are high quality! Fungi, lichen, and coral are deemed to be honorary crops! In order for you your deal with to seem as a credit score, please place it initially 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 Late Introvert:
Late Intovert’s file identify: “FrontYardFromAtticWindow_05.jpg.” Seems attractive (and good digicam angle). Wouldn’t be good to stroll on these paths in naked ft!
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