By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Fowl Tune of the Day
Jap Phoebe, Berkeley, West Virginia, United States.”Temperature 8C. Habitat: combined deciduous woods. Distance to sound supply: 12-16 meters. Habits and different notes: Male Jap Phoebe singing from excessive perch close to the home at daybreak. Elevation 156 meters. ID’d by sight and sound; ID confidence 100%.”
In Case You Would possibly Miss…
(1) Choose Merchan instructs the jury and deliberations start.
(2) The worst jobs at Disney.
(3) Covid and immune dysregulation.
(4) The world’s oldest dwelling being is a tree.
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
2024
Lower than a half a yr to go!
RCP Ballot Averages, Might 24:
* * * Trump (R) (Bragg/Merchan): “Trump hush-money-trial jury will get its fees from choose and begins deliberations” [Associated Press]. ” Jury deliberations in Donald Trump ‘s prison hush cash trial started Wednesday after the panel obtained directions from the choose on the legislation governing the case and what they’ll keep in mind in evaluating the previous president’s guilt or innocence…. After jurors left the courtroom to start deliberations, Choose Juan M. Merchan instructed Donald Trump and his legal professionals that they had been required to stay within the courthouse. ‘You can not depart the constructing. We’d like you to have the ability to get right here rapidly if we do obtain a notice,’ Merchan stated.”
Lambert right here: There’s a lot an excessive amount of to cowl intimately so, very unfairly, I received’t be capable of have a look at the Prosecutions 4 hour summation in any respect. In a doomed effort at taking management, I’ll lookd at Choose Merchan’s directions to the jury (they ran from 10:16am to 11:28am) on the next points: Enterprise data falsification, and FECA, election interference, with reporting taken from 4 reside blogs: Related Press, Lawfare, Jonathan Turley, and Internal Metropolis Press; my thought was to choose 4 sources to create a form of quatro-nocular imaginative and prescient of info and interpretation, however they’re multi function method or one other radically truncated! (There are many extra points — like Cohen as an confederate, accessorial legal responsibility, and “limiting directions” — however these are the problems that appear salient to me. Authorized practitioners are free to counsel totally different matters and approaches!)
Election interference
Related Press
Merchan went over New York’s legislation towards “conspiracy to advertise or stop election,” a statute that’s necessary to the case. That’s as a result of prosecutors declare that Trump falsified enterprise data as a way to cowl up alleged violations of the election conspiracy legislation. The alleged violations, prosecutors say, had been hush cash funds that actually amounted to unlawful marketing campaign contributions.
Underneath New York legislation, it’s a misdemeanor for 2 or extra folks to conspire to advertise or stop a candidate’s election “by illegal means” if at the very least one of many conspirators takes motion to hold out the plot.
The legislation additionally requires {that a} defendant have the intent unlawfully to forestall or promote the candidate’s election — not simply {that a} defendant is aware of concerning the conspiracy or be current when it’s mentioned.
Within the protection’s closing argument Tuesday, Trump lawyer Todd Blanche urged jurors to reject prosecutors’ election conspiracy assertions, insisting that “each marketing campaign on this nation is a conspiracy to advertise a candidate.”
That is the one side of Merchan’s directions that AP covers intimately (!).
Jonathan Turley
Concept of the case
Lawfare
Jonathan Turley
Internal Metropolis Press
Nothing from Internal Metropolis Press on the opposite matters.
FECA
Lawfare
Justice Merchan reads directions on the Federal Election Marketing campaign Act. Notably, he *consists of* the “wilfully” language requested by the protection. (He omits the sentence requested by the protection concerning limits on a candidate utilizing private funds in 2015 and 2016.) pic.twitter.com/i4srW7HgFH
— Anna Bower (@AnnaBower) Might 29, 2024
Notice [1]. Learn footnote 9, within the purple field, rigorously. Certainly the Biden Administration/Marketing campaign’s suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop computer story proper earlier than election 2020 would qualify. So would the 2016 Clinton marketing campaign’s funding, IIRC by means of Democrat election integrity lawyer Marc Elias, the Steele Report (subsequently used to assist the false submitting to the FISA courtroom that enabled the organs of state safety to ingest the Trump marketing campaign. But these offenses had been by no means charged. Odd.
Lambert right here: Holy moley, the artwork of reside running a blog is useless. Everybody current within the courtroom picks out a number of points of the case (although Lawfare has gotten a duplicate of the proposed directions; little doubt their flex-net was analyzing them rigorously). I think, nevertheless, that this can be a end result not of technical incompetence however the scope, complexity, and deviousness of the prosecutions case (which, once more, took 4 hours to clarify). Presumably, in some unspecified time in the future within the close to future, I can pull on my yellow waders and make extra sense of all this [lambert hangs head in shame].
* * * Trump (R) (Bragg/Merchan): “The Cat Is Out of the Bragg” [Andrew McCarthy, National Review]. On Bragg’s FECA materials: “It’s unimaginable to attract any conclusion aside from that Manhattan district lawyer Alvin Bragg knew that, as a state prosecutor, his enforcement of federal legislation can be extremely controversial since he has no such authority; the federal companies that do have such authority investigated Trump and opted to not prosecute; and to get this prosecution completed, Bragg is just making up his personal model of federal legislation. Bragg had the collusion of Choose Merchan, who allowed the state to get away with not placing the “different crime” within the indictment, and rejected protection makes an attempt to power him to supply express disclosure pretrial. Prosecutors hid within the tall grass till summation and are actually emphatically describing Trump as having blatantly violated federal marketing campaign legislation.” • Fairly proper. Prosecution sandbagging the protection has been one factor that has made this case so complicated (and by design, I’m positive. I don’t suppose it’s a coincidence that clarification comes from the bench, not the prosecution; it’s virtually as in the event that they’re working collectively).
Trump (R) (Bragg/Merchan): “Was D.A. Bragg Proper to Carry the New York Costs In opposition to Trump?” [Lawfare]. “Weighing this proof within the context of the various civil frauds Trump has been adjudicated to have dedicated, and the various crimes of which his intently held company and most important enterprise colleagues, Weisselberg and Michael Cohen, have been convicted, I’ve been persuaded. District Lawyer Bragg was proper to deliver this case.” • “A” case, maybe. However this case? Bragg has opened the door to deliver prison fees for fraud towards practitioners of extraordinary marketing campaign ways!
Trump (R) (Bragg/Merchan: “Elise Stefanik Calls for Investigation into Project of Choose Merchan to Trump Case” [National Review]. In addition to the moral violation of Merchan’s household probably making the most of the case, provided that his daughter is a Democrat consulant, Stefanik makes this level: “‘If justices had been certainly being randomly assigned within the Legal Time period, the likelihood of two particular prison circumstances being assigned to the identical justice is sort of low, and the likelihood of three particular prison circumstances being assigned to the identical justice is infinitesimally small. And but, we see Performing Justice Merchan on all three circumstances,’ the grievance reads. ‘The easy reply to why Performing Justice Merchan has been assigned to those circumstances would appear to be that whoever made the task deliberately chosen Performing Justice Merchan to deal with them to extend the prospect that Donald Trump, the Trump Group, and Steven Bannon would finally be convicted,’ the grievance provides.” • Hmm.
Syndemics
“I’m in earnest — I cannot equivocate — I cannot excuse — I cannot retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD.” –William Lloyd Garrison
Covid 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 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 happy to contact me on the tackle given with the vegetation. 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 (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!
Airborne Transmission
“Sure, however China can’t innovate”:
A video of AirFanta 4Lite filtrating smokes. 😎 pic.twitter.com/oEeHhig6w5
— Adam Wong (@Engineer_Wong) March 21, 2024
The use case:
To unmask and eat on airplane just isn’t that protected even there may be robust air flow system. But when the filght is actually lengthy, we do not have a lot alternative.
AirFanta 4Lite will make the fast snack quite a bit safer. It blows filtrated air on to the face for breath. And it’s laminar stream,… https://t.co/HUsbDwnzVq— Adam Wong (@Engineer_Wong) Might 28, 2024
Maskstravaganza
“The Threat of Plane-Acquired SARS-CoV-2 Transmission throughout Business Flights: A Systematic Evaluate” [International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health]. PRISMA-based systematic evaluate. N = 50. From the Dialogue: “flight period strongly predicts case incidence. We additionally discovered that when masking is unenforced, every further hour of flight period is related to 1.53-fold enhance within the transmission incidence fee ratio. We speculate that quick flights could also be safer because of a shorter whole period of publicity to aerosol particles. Additionally, quick flights typically don’t serve meals, so fewer aerosol particles and droplets are expelled. Apparently, our findings additionally counsel that aircraft-acquired transmission just isn’t inevitable if masking is strictly enforced. On lengthy haul-type flights the place enforced masking occurred and meals had been served, there have been no reported aircraft-acquired circumstances throughout contact tracing and follow-up. Enforced masking could have inspired passengers to eat as rapidly as doable on these lengthy flights. Moreover, airline employees can truly implement masking, much like how employees are capable of implement security checks resembling appropriate table-up and seat up-and-back positions by strolling down the aisles, checking every seat, and correcting behaviors throughout take-off and touchdown…. Past our formal evaluation, we noticed as a focal point that the proximity to the index case(s) was not the very best predictor of aircraft-acquired transmission [i.e., droplet dogma is a crock, if further evidence were needed]. For instance, on a 2 h flight, one passenger seated 5 rows away acquired COVID; on a 5 h flight, a passenger seated six rows away acquired COVID; and on a 7.5 h flight and a ten h flight, 4 passengers and one passenger who sat better than 2 m (6 ft) away acquired COVID, respectively…. Flight insurance policies concerning masking primarily based on journey period could turn into necessary for air journey security in future epidemics or pandemics, significantly earlier than efficient vaccines or drugs are made obtainable.” • However what about my freedom to contaminate innocents by respiratory a pathogen into shared air?
Immune Dysregulation
Numerous immunological dysregulation, power irritation, and impaired erythropoiesis in lengthy COVID sufferers with power fatigue syndrome” [Journal of Autoimmunity]. From the Summary: “A considerable variety of sufferers recovering from acute SARS-CoV-2 an infection current critical lingering signs, also known as lengthy COVID (LC). Nevertheless, a subset of those sufferers reveals probably the most debilitating signs characterised by ongoing myalgic encephalomyelitis or power fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). We particularly recognized and studied ME/CFS sufferers from two impartial LC cohorts, at the very least 12 months put up the onset of acute illness, and in contrast them to the recovered group (R). ME/CFS sufferers had comparatively elevated neutrophils and monocytes however lowered lymphocytes. Selective T cell exhaustion with lowered naïve however elevated terminal effector T cells was noticed in these sufferers…. Intriguingly, we discovered that the frequency of 2B4+CD160+ and TIM3+CD160+ CD8+ T cells fully separated LC sufferers from the [Recovered (R)] group.” • Hat tip, Anthony J. Leonardi?
“Gene Regulatory Community Evaluation of Put up-Mortem Lungs Unveils Novel Insights into COVID-19 Pathogenesis” [Viruses]. From the Dialogue: “Taken collectively, our findings spotlight the essential position of immune dysregulation within the pathogenesis of extreme COVID-19 an infection in lungs and supply precious insights into potential therapeutic targets for mitigating the deleterious results of COVID-19.” • Hat tip, Anthony J. Leonardi!
Variants: H5N1
“Technical Replace: Abstract Evaluation of the Genetic Sequence of a Extremely Pathogenic Avian Influenza A(H5N1) Virus Recognized in a Human in Michigan” [CDC]. From Might 24: “The genome of the human virus from Michigan didn’t have the PB2 E627K change detected within the virus from the Texas case, however , and which has been detected in 99% of dairy cow sequences however solely sporadically in birds. This transformation has been recognized as leading to enhancement of virus replication and illness severity in mice throughout research with avian influenza A(H10N7) viruses. The rest of the genome of A/Michigan/90/2024 was intently associated to sequences detected in contaminated dairy cows and strongly suggests direct cow-to-human transmission. Additional, there are not any markers identified to be related to influenza antiviral resistance discovered within the virus sequences from the Michigan specimen and the virus could be very intently associated to 2 present HPAI A(H5N1) candidate vaccine viruses which can be already obtainable to producers, and which could possibly be used to make vaccine if wanted. General, the genetic evaluation of the HPAI A(H5N1) virus detected in a human in Michigan helps CDC’s conclusion that the human well being threat presently stays low.” • Commentary:
An infection
“Extreme Avian Influenza A H5N1 Clade 2.3.4.4b Virus An infection in a Human with Continuation of SARS-CoV-2 Viral RNAs” [Transboundary and Emerging Diseases]. Case report from China. From the Dialogue: “We report a human case an infection with the clade 2.3.4.4b avian influenza A H5N1 virus. This affected person was an outdated feminine farmer with a number of comorbidities. The affected person was additionally SARS-CoV-2 constructive after having COVID-19 on December 20, 2022. Our examine offers insights into the importance of surveillance for elevated threat of H5N1 viruses an infection amongst folks with post-COVID-19 situation…. Prior an infection with SARS-CoV-2 would possibly result in the affected person in a non-full competent immune state, which could play a job in growing her susceptibility to avian influenza virus…. Within the post-COVID-19 pandemic period, sporadic human circumstances with avian influenza A H5N1 virus are doable to happen, particularly among the many inhabitants who skilled or occasional contact with birds or poultry. Lively surveillance of people following a high-risk publicity to the virus with none PPE safety is strongly really useful.” • Sounds the dairy farms needs to be doing a little testing…..
Sequelae: Covid
“Neurodevelopmental delay in kids uncovered to maternal SARS-CoV-2 in-utero” [Nature]. From the Summary: “Kids uncovered to antenatal COVID-19 have a tenfold larger frequency of [Developmental delay (DD)] as in comparison with controls and needs to be provided neurodevelopmental follow-up.” • I’m positive the pro-natalists will get proper on this.
Elite Maleficence
Who stated prevention is best than remedy?
Was this the plan?
Let COVID rip around the globe after which privatize each main nationwide healthcare system (UK, Australia, Canada)?
— Valerie Jay (@ValerieJay16) Might 29, 2024
I don’t know if this was “the” “plan.” It actually was a cheerful end result, and a ripe alternative for rental extraction (see Moderna transferring in on medicine for Lengthy Covid).
Lambert right here: Affected person readers, I’m going to need to rethink this fantastically formatted desk. Biobot knowledge is gone, CDC variant knowledge capabilities, ER visits are useless, CDC stopped obligatory hospital knowledge assortment, New York Occasions dying knowledge has stopped. (Notice that the 2 metrics the hospital-centric CDC cared about, hospitalization and deaths, have each gone darkish). Ideally I might change hospitalization and dying knowledge, however I’m undecided how. I may also broaden the wastewater part to incorporate (yech) Verily knowledge, H5N1 if I can get it. Options and sources welcome. UPDATE I changed the Occasions dying knowledge with CDC knowledge. Amusingly, the URL doesn’t embrace parameters to assemble the tables; one should reconstruct then manually every time. Caltrops abound.
TABLE 1: Every day Covid Charts
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] (Biobot) Lifeless.
[2] (Biobot) Lifeless.
[3] (CDC Variants) FWIW, provided that the mannequin fully missed KP.2.
[4] (ER) CDC appears to have killed this off, because the hyperlink is damaged, I believe in favor of this factor. I’ll attempt to verify. UPDATE Sure, depart it to CDC to kill a web page, after which announce it was archived a day later. And heaven forfend CDC ought to clarify the place to go to get equal knowledge, if any. I appreciated the ER knowledge, as a result of it appeared actually laborious to sport.
[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Nonetheless going up, although luckily no signal of geometric enhance. he NY city space has kind; in 2020, as the house of two worldwide airports (JFK and EWR) it was an necessary entry level for the virus into the nation (and from thence up the Hudson River valley, because the wealthy sought to flee, and across the nation by means of air journey)
[6] (Hospitalization: CDC).
[7] (Walgreens) Going up.
[8] (Cleveland) Going up.
[9] (Vacationers: Positivity) Up and down.
[10] (Vacationers: Variants) KP.2 enters the chat, as does B.1.1.529 (with backward revision).
[11] Deaths low, however positivity up.
[12] Deaths low, ED not up.
Stats Watch
Manufacturing: “United States Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index” [Trading Economics]. “The composite manufacturing index within the US Fifth District elevated to 0 in Might 2024, the best in seven months, from -7 in April, and in comparison with forecasts of -2.”
Tech: “Ex-OpenAI board member reveals what led to Sam Altman’s temporary ousting” [Business Insider]. “In an interview with Bilawal Sidhu on ‘The TED AI Present‘ that aired Tuesday, Toner stated Altman lied to the board ‘a number of’ occasions. One instance Toner cited was that OpenAI’s board discovered concerning the launch of ChatGPT on Twitter. She stated Altman was ‘withholding info’ and ‘misrepresenting issues that had been taking place within the firm’ for years. Toner — one of many board members who voted to kick Altman out — alleged that Altman additionally lied to the board by retaining them in the dead of night concerning the firm’s possession construction. ‘Sam didn’t inform the board that he owned the OpenAI startup fund, regardless that he consistently was claiming to be an impartial board member with no monetary curiosity within the firm,’ she stated.” • You say “lied” like that’s a nasty factor.
At this time’s Worry & Greed Index: 54 Impartial (earlier shut: 53 Impartial) [CNN]. One week in the past: 60 (Greed). (0 is Excessive Worry; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Might 28 at 12:33:39 PM ET.
Class Warfare
Information of the Wired
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