By Lambert Strether of Corrente
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Hen Tune of the Day
Grey Catbird, Heckscher SP, East Islip, Suffolk, New York, United States. “Singing from a small wooded space close to a marsh.”
In Case You Would possibly Miss…
- Kamala’s Democrat prep.
- Collard greens and code switching..
- Clear air within the faculties? Lol no..
- H5N1 reassortment in Cambodia.
Politics
“So most of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are actually a rational administration of symbolic capital.” –Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles
2024
Lower than 100 days to go!
Friday’s RCP Ballot Averages:
The excellent news for Trump is that Kamala’s post-convention “bounce” appears to have been slight. The excellent news for Kamala is Trump’s continued deterioration in North Carolina, plus taking a slight lead in Pennsylvania. Keep in mind, nonetheless, that each one the fluctuations — actually, all of the leads, prime to backside — are inside the margin of error.
* * * The Debate (September 10)
Kamala (D): “Kamala Harris goes to ‘debate camp’: Insiders reveal the place VP’s preparation is already going ‘sideways’ as she will get prepared for primetime Trump showdown” [Daily Mail]. “Sources near the Harris workforce inform NOTUS that Harris is a bit of rusty on the talk stage as ‘technique classes have careened sideways’ when Harris ‘centered too narrowly on minute particulars, successfully trailing the classes.’… Regardless of her willingness to debate, Harris and her workforce are nonetheless attempting to barter the principles of the talk with ABC Information, based on a Harris marketing campaign supply chatting with NBC Information.” Nonetheless?! Extra: “Trump and his workforce anticipate that Harris is getting ready to interrupt him to try to ‘truth verify’ his statements. The previous president, nonetheless, is conscious of Harris and her propensity to get misplaced into so-called ‘phrase salads’ whereas talking publicly. ‘She has unhealthy moments. The best way she talks,’ Trump advised broadcaster Tucker Carlson in a current interview, imitating feedback the vp made about faculty buses. ‘It’s bizarre. The entire thing is bizarre.’” • Harris: “Who doesn’t love a yellow faculty bus, proper? Are you able to increase your hand should you love a yellow faculty bus? Many people went to high school on the yellow faculty bus, proper? It’s a part of our expertise rising up. It’s a part of a nostalgia, a reminiscence of the joy and pleasure of going to high school to be together with your favourite instructor, to be together with your finest buddies and to be taught. The varsity bus takes us there.” It’s true that “It’s a part of a nostalgia” isn’t one thing a local English speaker would say, but it surely’s the condescension of “Increase your fingers” that will get me. Right here’s the video:
The viewers, presumably, is grownup. Additionally, the hand gestures.
Kamala (D): “How Kamala Harris Plans to Lock In for Debate Prep in Pennsylvania” [NOTUS]. “In conversations with practically a dozen individuals concerned with or conscious of the preparations, a set of objectives emerged for the subsequent week. The marketing campaign is planning to tune out as a lot of the skin noise as potential to lock her in, conscious of Harris’ relative rust as a debater and her tendency to overprepare and fixate on the main points.” And: “[S]he’s as soon as once more utilizing notecards as a part of her prep, a second particular person acquainted with the preparations advised NOTUS, a behavior they imagine she picked up throughout her regulation faculty days.” I’d say the behavior got here from school debate, wherein Harris participated. Extra: “Allies say Harris has needed to defend her concepts contained in the White Home during the last three years, getting ready her in some methods for this second. However Harris is, for all intents and functions, an out-of-practice debater with individuals who aren’t her colleagues. Subsequent week’s debate will come only a month shy of 4 years since she debated Vice President Mike Pence in Utah. For that, aides holed up in a resort in Salt Lake Metropolis days earlier than the talk, as she used index playing cards to work by means of speaking factors — together with the now-famous “I’m talking” line, which one particular person concerned within the session mentioned was a crowdsourced suggestion.” • Hmm. She recycled “I’m talking,” then. That didn’t go so properly. Curiously, in neither of those two articles to we see any suggestion that Kamala would play the prosecutor (“Why am I debating a felon?”). Which appears a really apparent factor for her to do. Why go to all the difficulty of doing the lawfare should you’re not going to make use of it in debate?
* * * Kamala (D): “The White Home needs you to know that Harris was on the decision” [Politico]. “Identify-checking Harris — or any vp, for that matter — is uncommon and suggests an try to buttress her credentials as she faces questions on her capability to handle worldwide affairs and confronts an skilled opponent in former President Donald Trump. POLITICO’s overview of pool studies, readouts, transcripts of administration briefings and feedback by the nation’s prime diplomats and navy officers discovered that the administration elevated its mentions of Harris in public statements about overseas engagements since July, when Biden introduced he would drop out of the presidential election and endorsed his vp.” • The earlier NOTUS article consists of this sentence: “[T]he Biden administration is in what they hope to be the final stretch of a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas that may require Harris’ presence within the Scenario Room.” Her mere presence…. I do know that Harris doing debate prep whereas a ceasefire deal was being consummated would look unhealthy, however avoiding a foul look appears to be the one purpose for her presence.
* * * Kamala (D): And code switching:
One among my favourite accounts, on Twitter since 2011. Basically, very level-headed.
* * * Trump (R): “Donald Trump Interview” (video) [Lex Fridman, YouTube (outside observer)]. • Sensible transfer by Trump marketing campaign employees:
Trump (R): “Questions surrounding Trump’s psychological acuity are an actual 2024 story” [MSNBC]. “The phrases under have been taken verbatim from a marketing campaign speech” [and they’re an especially dense example of free-form riffing]. “Trump’s asides stack atop one another with such density that it’s dizzying for even skilled political observers to discern what he’s attempting to get at…. Trump’s speeches appear to be rising extra discursive and troublesome to grasp by the day. These speeches are making it onerous, if not not possible, for individuals listening to them to know what he needs to do along with his energy in workplace, they usually’re reportedly turning off voters. They’re additionally elevating questions over whether or not the chaos he would sow in workplace could be even much less intentional than it was final time. Trump’s deteriorating [asserted, not shown] capability to obviously talk is a consequential characteristic of his 2024 candidacy. That deterioration could not have been as salient when Trump, 78, had 81-year-old President Joe Biden as an opponent. However it’s all of the extra clear as he now faces off in opposition to 59-year-old Vice President Kamala Harris. Questions on Biden’s psychological acuity have been rightly raised on this election cycle. Questions on Trump’s psychological acuity needs to be raised, too.” • I doubt this can stick, although in fact the Democrats are attempting it. Trump did positive in debate when he knocked Biden out of the race. Is there any signal of “deterioration” within the hour-long interview with Fridman? I don’t have time to hearken to it, however I’m guessing no, as a result of in any other case the memes would already be out.
* * * MI: “CAIR 2024 Election Survey 0f Muslim Voters” [CAIR]. “Because the 2024 nationwide basic election approaches, America’s estimated 2.5 million Muslim voters are positioned to as soon as once more play a vital function in shaping the political panorama. With their vital presence in key swing states, Muslim voters have the potential to affect the outcomes of not solely the presidential race but in addition quite a few congressional, state, and native elections.” • Useful chart:
PA: “Taking the heartbeat of Pennsylvania’s Trump nation, from Amish area to Gettysburg” [USA Today]. “Whereas the election could also be determined within the suburbs of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, the place the vast majority of the state’s residents dwell, central Pennsylvania performs a job. It’s historically purple, with small pockets of blue within the cities, however the votes that come from the small businesspeople and churchgoers of the center of the state – typically referred to derisively as [deplorable] ‘Pennsyltucky’ – might make a distinction in a state the place the ultimate outcomes could possibly be determined by a number of thousand votes.” • Value a learn. And from the York Day by day Document, so kudos to USA At this time. (Pennsylvania nonetheless has loads of smallish newspapers, as we noticed with the reporting from Butler.)
* * *
* * *
* * *
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 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 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 studies); 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).
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Keep protected on the market!
Airborne Transmission: Covid
Transmission: H5N1
Maskstravaganza
Vaccines: Covid
“Making an attempt to time your vaccines excellent? There are not any simple solutions, however listed here are some components to think about” [Helen Branswell, STAT]. “The usual recommendation — get your photographs, get them on the similar time, don’t wait too lengthy to roll up your sleeves — is designed to maximise comfort and compliance, in a manner that’s manageable for the supply enterprise, say specialists acquainted with the big effort it takes to show vaccines into vaccinations. However is it the proper strategy for you? Probably not, although sadly, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all reply right here. As a result of whereas we discuss chilly and flu season, in actuality these viruses strike at totally different occasions in several years, and they don’t give us advance discover of their plans. The immunity we develop from the out there vaccines — no less than these for Covid and flu — erodes within the months after we get them. If flu season takes off in January, a shot administered in August received’t have the affect of a shot acquired in late October.” • That is CDC’s recommendation, and the idea is that Covid is seasonal, when actually it’s pushed by individuals sharing air: Social Relations. Trivially, this implies not “Summer time” however “Trip Journey” season, not “Fall,” however “Again to Faculty” season, and never “Winter,” however “Vacation” season. Much less trivial, “Mobility” (particularly air journey) is fixed and year-round, and that’s what obtained us the primary time, as Taleb et al. presciently confirmed in January 2020.
Denial and Cope
“As COVID Surges, the Excessive Value of Viral Denial” [The Tyee]. Canada. “The topic of how to reply to a sluggish burn pandemic stays taboo as a result of most public well being officers have already declared the emergency over. They’ve additionally stopped gathering important knowledge. COVID-19 deaths in Canada usually are not reported in a readily publicly accessible vogue. And a lot of the media pretends that an immune-destabilizing virus that may hurt the functioning of your organs together with your mind has little extra import than a benign chilly. As a consequence, authorities can’t now flip round and admit to the breadth of their mistake, not to mention acknowledge the rising dysfunction in public well being. Nor do they dare gather important knowledge documenting the dimensions of their errors together with the relentless march of lengthy COVID…. Right here, then, is the place we’ve arrived. We’ve entered a vicious cycle the place extra infections generate extra COVID variants. The brand new variants have grow to be extra immune evasive. On the similar time society has typically deserted masks, testing and primary public well being messages. We might sluggish and suppress the cycle by dealing with the problem squarely. For instance, by cleansing soiled air the way in which we as soon as tackled the disease-ridden spectre of cholera-infested water. However public well being officers are afraid to speak about clear air not to mention the apparent: avoiding an infection. Beating again COVID requires onerous work, communal knowledge and clear insurance policies that markedly cut back the extent of an infection in society. Up to now we’ve chosen viral denial, soiled air and a triumphant reign for lengthy COVID.” • Wonderful article, price studying in full.
Prevention
“Newly Found Antibody Protects In opposition to All COVID-19 Variants” (press launch) [University of Texas at Austin]. “As a part of a brand new research on hybrid immunity to the virus, the massive, multi-institution analysis workforce led by The College of Texas at Austin found and remoted a broadly neutralizing plasma antibody, referred to as SC27, from a single affected person. Utilizing know-how developed over a number of years of analysis into antibody response, the workforce led by UT engineers and scientists obtained the precise molecular sequence of the antibody, opening the opportunity of manufacturing it on a bigger scale for future therapies… Through the greater than 4 years for the reason that discovery of COVID-19, the virus that causes it has quickly advanced. Every new variant has displayed totally different traits, a lot of which made them extra proof against vaccines and different therapies. Protecting antibodies bind to part of the virus referred to as the spike protein that acts as an anchor level for the virus to connect to and infect the cells within the physique. By blocking the spike protein, the antibodies forestall this interplay and, due to this fact, additionally forestall an infection. SC27 acknowledged the totally different traits of the spike proteins within the many COVID variants. Fellow UT researchers, who have been the primary to decode the construction of the unique spike protein and paved the way in which for vaccines and different therapies, verified SC27’s capabilities.” • Funded by the NIH and the Gates Basis, amongst others. Right here is the article from which the press launch is derived–
“Hybrid immunity to SARS-CoV-2 arises from serological recall of IgG antibodies distinctly imprinted by an infection or vaccination” [Cell]. “Our findings present an in depth molecular definition of immunological imprinting and present that vaccination can produce class 1/4 (SC27-like) IgG antibodies circulating within the blood.” • That’s the most effective I can do, sorry; the remainder of the article may as properly be written in Martian, for me. Maybe some variety reader will translate. I do word, nonetheless, that the article is predicated on knowledge from 6 (six) donors; the Ns appear to be for lineages, not donors.
Elite Maleficence
“Easy measures reduce hospital-acquired COVID-19 infections” [Burnet]. Australia. “In a brand new research revealed within the Journal of Hospital Infections, Burnet researchers discovered easy an infection management measures might save lives and cut back prices for hospitals. These measures embody testing sufferers for COVID-19 on admission, and utilizing Fast Antigen Checks (RAT) or Polymerase Chain Response (PCR) checks to stop transmissions. One of many paper’s lead authors, Burnet Affiliate Professor Nick Scott, mentioned on common, .” • However HICPAC would like that hospitals be dying traps so, no N95s. Saggy blues solely, if that!
TABLE 1: Day by day Covid Charts
| Wastewater | |
| This week[1] CDC August 26: | Final Week[2] CDC (till subsequent week): |
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| Variants [3] CDC August 31 | Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC August 24 |
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|
|
| Hospitalization | |
| New York[5] New York State, knowledge August 30: | Nationwide [6] CDC August 10: |
|
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|
| Positivity | |
| Nationwide[7] Walgreens September 3: | Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic August 24: |
|
|
|
| Vacationers Knowledge | |
| Positivity[9] CDC August 12: | Variants[10] CDC August 12: |
|
|
|
| Deaths | |
| Weekly Deaths vs. % Positivity [11]CDC August 24: | Weekly Deaths vs. ED Visits [12]CDC August 24: |
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LEGEND
1) ★ for charts new right this moment; all others usually are 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) This week’s wastewater map, with scorching spots annotated. Retains spreading.
[2] (CDC) Final week’s wastewater map.
[3] (CDC Variants) KP.* extremely popular. XDV.1 flat.
[4] (ED) Down, however price noting that Emergency Division use is now on a par with the primary wave, in 2020.
[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Flat, that’s, now not down.
[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). The visualization suppresses what’s, in share phrases, a big enhance.
[7] (Walgreens) Massive drop, however all these white states displaying no change: Labor Day weekend reporting points?
[8] (Cleveland) Dropping.
[9] (Vacationers: Positivity) Down. These sh*theads at CDC have modified the chart in order that it doesn’t even run again to 1/21/23, because it used to, however now begins 1/1/24. There’s additionally no method to modify the time vary. CDC actually doesn’t need you to have the ability to take a historic view of the pandemic, or evaluate one surge to a different. In an any case, that’s why the form of the curve has modified.
[10] (Vacationers: Variants) What the heck is LB.1?
[11] Deaths low, however positivity up. If the USA is like Canada, deaths are a number of undercounted:
Tara Motarity has confirmed our fears.Most provinces are solely reporting about 20% of covid deaths.Perhaps even much less.Which suggests the deaths are shut to five occasions to six+ occasions the reported figures.Nova Scotia has reported 270 to date this 12 months. It is really 1,325-1,700 to date. pic.twitter.com/6xF6SREyKB
— Dr.Robert Strang (@DSlayer520) September 2, 2024
[12] Deaths low, ED up.
Stats Watch
“United States Manufacturing unit Orders” [Trading Economics]. “New orders for US manufactured items rose by 5% from the earlier month to $592.1 billion in July of 2024, rebounding from the three.3% drop within the earlier month, and above market expectations of a 4.7% enhance, signaling the resilience of the US economic system.”
Tech: Uh oh:
Hachette v. Web Archive is out: 2nd Circuit rejects managed digital lending idea; IA’s use shouldn’t be transformative; all 4 truthful use components favor the publishers; the general public advantages from shutting down IA’s infringement. #copyright https://t.co/m5mDdezoJJ
— Devlin Hartline (@devlinhartline) September 4, 2024
Tech: “Canva says its new AI options justify elevating subscription costs by 300%” [Fortune]. “Within the U.S., some Canva customers will see their Groups subscription value leap in early December from $119.99 per 12 months to $500 per 12 months. The primary 12 months might be discounted to $300, but it surely’s nonetheless greater than double what customers at the moment pay. Canva Groups will replace from $10 per 30 days per particular person, with a minimal of three individuals required for that subscription, a Canva spokesperson confirmed. Canva says its value hike is attributable to new options—significantly these which might be AI-powered.” • So, tons extra AI slop to justify the funding….
At this time’s Worry & Greed Index: 54 Impartial (earlier shut: 65 Greed) [CNN]. One week in the past: 56 (Greed). (0 is Excessive Worry; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Sep 4 at 1:27:54 PM ET.
Again when Intel was scorching:
Navajo weaving of an Intel Pentium, 1994 pic.twitter.com/gQwNnoCcP9
— Daniel Feldman (@d_feldman) September 2, 2024
Class Warfare
“Our Animals, Ourselves” [Lux Magazine]. “Conservatives are terrified by the prospect of a society that really values and decommodifies (non-fetal) life, which is why they promote a picture of flesh-consuming masculinity. Sadly, it appears many socialists usually are not so totally different. Leftists hardly ever have interaction with the myriad issues of animal agriculture, and are sometimes dismissive or contemptuous of those that do. On this, their views are completely mainstream. A current episode of the favored lefty podcast Citations Wanted started with an evaluation of representations of vegetarian characters in widespread tradition, and the outcome was hardly flattering — routinely performed by girls, they are usually unbearable. Such gendered stereotyping will come as no shock to readers of Carol Adam’s 1990 e book The Sexual Politics of Meat, which weaves accounts of nineteenth century radicalism and examinations of twentieth century advertising strategies right into a pathbreaking work of ‘feminist vegetarian important idea’ (after studying Adams, you’ll by no means hear a lady say she felt handled as a ‘piece of meat’ in the identical manner). At this time we are sometimes advised that the animal rights motion got here into being within the Seventies, birthed by the white male thinker Peter Singer…. Within the English-speaking world, many ladies abolitionists, suffragettes, and pacifists advocated for vegetarianism and made connections throughout actions and causes lengthy earlier than Singer… got here on the scene, together with the brave abolitionist sisters Sarah and Angelina Grimké, who rejected meat partly as a result of they thought it could hasten the ’emancipation of lady from the toil of the kitchen.’ Singer rode roughshod over these mental antecedents by distinguishing his supposedly rational arguments from all of the emotional — that’s, female — advocacy that got here earlier than it. Within the 1800s, there was even a prognosis, zoophilpsychosis, for the affliction of being overly involved for animals, from which girls have been believed to disproportionately endure.” • Zoophilpsychosis…
Information of the Wired
Contact data for vegetation: Readers, be at liberty to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) learn the way to ship me a verify in case you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to learn the way to ship me photographs of vegetation. Greens are positive! Fungi, lichen, and coral are deemed to be honorary vegetation! If you’d like 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 by utilizing your initials. See the earlier Water Cooler (with plant) right here. From artinnature:
Artinnature writes: “Bumblebees on Oxydendrum arboreum (Sourwood).”
