2:00PM Water Cooler 3/12/2024 | bare capitalism

By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Form readers, we are actually at 177 donors, or 44% of our purpose of 400 donors (25 greater than final yr). When you take pleasure in beginning Water Cooler with a birdsong, and ending Water Cooler with a stunning {photograph} of a plant (or honorary plant (or reader mission)), please help Water Cooler. I hope you benefit from the birds and vegetation as a lot as I do. –lambert

Chook Music of the Day

Pygmy Nuthatch, Mt. Lemmon, Arizona, United States. “About eight.” Busy busy busy!

In Case You Would possibly Miss…

(1) The multi-threaded epic debacle at Boeing.

(2) Spooks and gaming.

(3) What the TikTok invoice actually says.

(3) WHO downgrades SARS-CoV-2 to BSL2 (however there’s a catch).

Search for the Helpers

Lambert right here: I hope readers will ship in additional examples like this (“brighten the nook the place you might be“). The helper(s) don’t must be heroic, not to mention dramatic, or ego-driven, and positively not institutional. To quote, of all individuals, the American Enterprise Institute, writing on Occupy, and citing to David Graeber:

Along with trucking, bartering, and knocking one another over the pinnacle, Graeber argues that human beings additionally have interaction in a completely totally different sort of financial exercise: We regularly share issues now we have with others. When Graeber says that we’re already communists, he’s referring to these fairly acquainted conditions through which we actually do function by the maxim “From every based on his capability, to every based on his want.”

Folks of all cultures, together with our personal, invariably follow the communism of on a regular basis life when coping with their household and shut associates. A mom doesn’t anticipate her baby to pay her for her baby-sitting companies. A brother doesn’t hire out his baseball glove to his brother on an hourly foundation. If a pal is sick and desires one thing from the shop, we decide it up for her and would by no means consider asking for fuel cash in return.

As Graeber factors out, this sort of conduct comes out most conspicuously throughout a disaster, akin to a pure catastrophe. At such occasions, individuals will voluntarily, even cheerfully, prolong a serving to hand to those that are most in want of 1. Much less dramatically, the identical precept is at work every time we’re at a retailer that has a field on the counter that claims “Go away a penny, take a penny,” meant to assist out those that don’t have the precise change. In all these instances we’re witnessing the spontaneous software of the communist maxim, “From every based on his capability, to every based on his want.”

In our more and more determined, atomized, and fragile neoliberal society, regular incidents and tales of “the communism of on a regular basis life” are what I’m in search of (and never, say, the Purple Cross in Hawaii, and even the UNWRA in Gaza). For instance–

“NYC’s unlikely hero: A subway ‘ninja’ who shares vibes and canned items” [New York Post (NL)]. “Three days per week, Ray Tarvin, 35, fits up in all black — like an ‘Outdated West’ ninja — and patrols the Fifth Avenue/53rd Road subway station, spreading constructive vibes and handing out water and canned items to these in want. ‘I’d see individuals undergo trash cans in search of meals — there’s plenty of them in New York Metropolis — and my coronary heart advised me to stack up on, like, canned items and water and simply, you understand, move it out.’ Tarvin, a slight and soft-spoken temp worker who works safety shifts in banks by day, begins his shift within the subway round 3 p.m. most Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. He grooves to oldies on an outdated flip telephone and provides thumbs-ups and fist bumps to straphangers.” • Flip telephones are one of the best!

My e-mail deal with is down by the plant; please ship examples of “Helpers” there.

Politics

Lambert right here: Form readers: I’ve been writing each day on the American political scene since 2003 or so; I minimize my enamel running a blog on the Bush WMD story. And “I’m not drained,” as Arlo Guthrie sings in Alice’s Restaurant. After so a few years, I don’t really feel I’ve something to show, and I’m not that involved in making “calls” (although readers will recall my Trump protection in 2016). What I am involved in: Providing you with the instruments to interpret the information of politics, as it’s introduced to us. I attempt to be as concrete as attainable, about personalities, localities (“all politics is native”), strategies, historical past, all so as which you could come to the absolute best political choices (voting, not voting, no matter). to me, politics by no means will get outdated! “However what’s authorities itself, however the best of all reflections on human nature?”, as Madison places it in Federalist 51. There may be at all times one thing dynamic, at all times one thing to be taught! When you each take pleasure in Water Cooler’s political protection and discover it helpful, now and through the years, please hit the Tip Jar now, as a result of though this protection is difficult work, I’d wish to hold doing it. Thanks!

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

The Constitutional Order (Revolt)

“Democrats’ Meltdown Over Trump Immunity Case Proves SCOTUS Is Proper To Hear It” [The Federalist]. “Members of Congress and federal judges are immune from civil and legal prosecution for his or her official acts. At present, presidents are solely immune from civil prosecution for his or her official acts. That’s as a result of the Supreme Court docket has by no means needed to resolve whether or not that extends to legal prosecutions, as no president has ever confronted a legal prosecution till the Democrats’ 4 legal indictments towards Trump…. Obama-nominated Decide Tanya Chutkan of the U.S. District Court docket for the District of Columbia is operating the proceedings fairly speedily; certainly, the case was paused solely due to the immunity enchantment. It’s cheap to ask whether or not she would have adopted the identical schedule had Trump not been a candidate for the presidency, particularly after the Biden Justice Division waited 30 months to convey these novel prices…. Tribe doesn’t need voters to have data; fairly, he needs voters to have incomplete data. Tribe is aware of that, have been there a conviction, the appellate course of wouldn’t come near being completed by the point of the election.” • Desk-pounding, I believe — meltdowns show nothing however the reality of a meltdown — however not dangerous table-pounding in any respect!

Biden Administration

. Someone learn the invoice:

When you suppose this isn’t a Malicious program and can solely apply to TikTok and foreign-adversary social media firms, then ponder why somebody thought it was necessary to get a really particular exclusion for his or her web based mostly enterprise written into the invoice: pic.twitter.com/LnHsmEgtt9

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) March 12, 2024

Massey’s query within the second tweet is an effective one (particularly provided that assessment websites are cesspits of Search engine optimization-driven enshittification). What I need to know: What does “operated not directly… (together with by way of an affiliate)” imply? Just about any web site the spooks suppose is dangerous? (To me, that parenthetical means “together with” however not restricted to.”

* * *

“Highly effective White Home official — and Jill Biden’s ‘work husband’ — is a #MeToo nightmare with claims of bullying, sexual harassment” [New York Post]. ” A prime Biden White Home official has bullied and verbally sexually harassed colleagues over greater than a decade, The Submit has realized — however is taken into account ‘untouchable’ as a result of first girl Jill Biden regards him as her ‘work husband.’ Anthony Bernal, whose standing as the primary girl’s prime aide grants him monumental clout in each White Home operations and Democratic politics, has repeatedly speculated within the office concerning the penis dimension of colleagues, based on three sources with firsthand information. Two sources mentioned Bernal, 50, shared with them a idea that the scale of an individual’s thumb corresponds to that of their genitalia — citing the speculation each on the White Home and in prior roles throughout President Biden’s marketing campaign and vice presidency below President Barack Obama. ‘It’s to make individuals uncomfortable and to have energy over them,’ mentioned one supply who advised The Submit they heard Bernal make the crude remarks over a number of years whereas they labored collectively. ‘It’s Me Too — basic Me Too,’ the supply added. A second supply recounted listening to Bernal speculate ‘usually’ contained in the White Home concerning the endowments of fellow political aides and even Secret Service brokers.” • First shot at “Physician” Biden, subsequently attention-grabbing. As a result of how may she not discover it? Did no one complain to her? If not, why not?

2024

Lower than a yr to go!

* * *

Trump (R): “Trump’s Georgia case hangs on key resolution of a comparatively new choose” [WaPo]. “Fulton County Superior Court docket Decide Scott McAfee was randomly assigned to supervise the racketeering case towards former president Donald Trump and a solid of shut advisers and allies who’re accused of plotting to overthrow a legit election to maintain Trump in energy…. McAfee’s ruling is more likely to be a career-defining second for the 34-year-old rookie choose…. Disqualifying Willis and her workforce of prosecutors would nearly actually delay, if not outright finish the legal case towards Trump, certainly one of 4 he faces. Permitting Willis to remain on the case is bound to spark protection requests for enchantment — which McAfee must approve — and anger Trump’s supporters. Prosecutors have argued ‘mere look’ [of conflict of interest] shouldn’t be the usual for Willis’s removing, whereas protection attorneys have argued that’s greater than sufficient.” • An attention-grabbing, not-quite-puff piece. What strikes me is how, properly, incestuous the Georgia political world is (and people relationships are, I’d speculate, a giant, although unseen, driver behind the case(s)).

* * *

Trump (R): “Trump’s Marketing campaign Is So Poor He Would possibly Not Be In a position to Maintain His Beloved Rallies, Says MSNBC Reporter” [Mediaite]. “After making word of the de facto merger between the Republican Nationwide Committee with the Trump marketing campaign, [MSNBC’s Vaughn Hillyard] additionally fielded a query concerning the whether or not the Trump marketing campaign thinks they should elevate and spend some huge cash within the months earlier than November, or whether it is relying on earned media to assist mitigate its monetary drawback. ‘They completely imagine that earned media goes to supply them quite a bit. However right here’s additionally a actuality at play. It takes manpower,’ replied Hillyard. ‘Cash can even assist in direction of — that is my my large shtick right here — cash may also help in direction of truly placing people on the bottom in these states. Within the areas the place they’ll depend on to drag off victories are in rural components of Georgia, rural components of Wisconsin, rural components of Michigan, rural components of Arizona. And to get people that usually don’t vote, you bought to go and inform them, ‘We’d like you to return vote.”

‘And you’ll go and have a rally in these locations, however these rallies value $400,000,’ he continued. ‘I imply that is the place — don’t anticipate to see Donald Trump to be parading across the nation, as a result of these occasions value lots of of hundreds of {dollars} to placed on. They’re in a predicament now, whether or not they wish to admit it or not.’” • I don’t know if Republicans really feel concerning the RNC the best way that I really feel concerning the DNC (which is quite a bit like I really feel concerning the CDC); but when they do, then forcing Trump to intestine the RNC to economize is likely to be addition by subtraction.

* * *

Biden (D): “Biden had repeated psychological lapses throughout particular counsel interview: transcript” [Axios]. “In his five-hour interview with particular counsel Robert Hur, President Biden repeatedly combined up dates, international locations and the timeline of great occasions, together with the years his son Beau died and Donald Trump was elected, based on a transcript of the interview reviewed by Axios. The transcript helps Hur’s account that Biden had a number of psychological lapses, regardless of latest pushback from the president and the White Home.” Hur testifies at the moment. Extra: “Over the course of the two-day interview, which came about within the rapid aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas assault on Israel, Biden repeatedly requested for assist remembering sure necessary dates — and his attorneys incessantly stepped in.”

Biden (D): “The Divided President” [The Nation]. The deck: “Who’s in cost within the Biden White Home?” Extra: “After the White Home introduced in April that Biden could be reneging on his promise and leaving Trump’s cap in place for at the least the yr forward, staffers together with chief of employees Ron Klain and Home Coverage Council director Susan Rice launched into a plan to softly nudge the president again to his authentic place, an effort that concerned managing Biden’s mood. ‘It was completely clear that Biden would hold elevating the topic himself, often in conferences concerning the border disaster, often with an fringe of aggression,’ [Franklin] Foer tells us [in his book, The Last Politician]. ‘He moaned, ‘Are you able to imagine that they need me to return to these excessive numbers?’ At a second like that Susan Rice would shoot a look throughout the room, which advised aides, ‘Don’t take the bait.’” • That is why Biden’s canine chunk individuals.

Biden (D): “Democrats use clips of Trump to counter Biden reminiscence claims” [The Hill]. “Democrats on Tuesday sought to show the tables on Republicans who zeroed in on particular counsel Robert Hur’s commentary on President Biden’s reminiscence, turning repeatedly to video clips of former President Trump mangling phrases, mixing up people or forgetting particulars. Home Judiciary Committee rating member Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) opened the listening to with a video montage of previous Trump statements through which he appeared to confuse Biden with former President Obama, combined up former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) with GOP rival Nikki Haley and mistakenly known as Hungarian chief Viktor Orbán the president of Turkey.” Extra: “And Rep. Mary Homosexual Scanlon (D-Pa.), looking for to rebut claims about Biden’s reminiscence, used video clips for instance Trump’s ‘lapse in reminiscence throughout a deposition.’ One clip featured Trump being requested what years he was married to Marla Maples, to which Trump mentioned he’d ‘must get the precise dates.’ Requested if it was right he married his present spouse in January 2005, Trump mentioned he didn’t know ‘related to that day.” • On the final instance, the marriages, Trump would possibly properly say “that makes me good!” Plus: “Toby had by no means as soon as volunteered the reality, that data was cash to him; even when he counted it worthless, he by no means threw it away.” –John LeCarré, Smiley’s Folks. (Truly, I kinda just like the parallel between the “creep” Toby and Trump: “Shouldn’t this be numbered if it’s a Degas, Toby?” “‘Degas, that’s a really gray space, George.” Good factor Toby wasn’t in actual property!)

* * *

Kennedy (I): “How RFK may smash the two-party system” [Unherd]. “[T]he frictionless progress of each candidates by way of their get together’s inner processes is concealing a hidden fact about this yr’s election. Many People don’t need Joe Biden or Donald Trump. They see the race as a horror-reality present that includes two geriatrics who appear doddery, unwell, and offended at being advised so. It’s more and more attainable that they help unbiased candidates who may deprive each Trump and Biden of the votes wanted to win the presidency. America may find yourself with a hung presidential election. How would this come about? The Structure requires {that a} victorious president wins at the least 270 Electoral School votes, which they have to collect from some mixture of the 50 states. It now seems attainable that neither mainstream candidate will handle that…. If neither Biden nor Trump reaches the required 270 Electoral School votes, the Structure dictates that the voting shifts right into a “contingent election”. Because of this the incoming Home of Representatives will resolve the winner based mostly on whoever can type a coalition of pink and blue states and win 26 of them first. The Senate would choose the vp. Given that the majority Republican or Democrat politicians are hardly ready to have a look at one another, not to mention agree any offers, it appears unlikely Biden or Trump may forge that coalition. However Kennedy or the as-yet-unnamed No Labels candidate, who actively domesticate the thought of returning to centrist bipartisan options, doubtlessly may, ought to the presidency slip into the arcana of America’s 18th-century constitutional schematics.” • This subject is admittedly one thing to look at, in the identical method that Part Three was a subject to look at. We appear to have a dynamic the place each edge case is being examined — by get together operatives looking for “an edge,” in addition to “the sting.”

Kennedy (I): “Massive Tech’s Election Interference: Why Google and Meta Went Purchasing for Former US Intelligence Officers” [The Kennedy Beacon]. “The variety of former Intelligence Neighborhood employees employed by Google and Meta since 2018 is important. Earlier than then, there have been just a few, however now the numbers are a lot increased: CIA – 36, FBI – 68, NSA – 44, DHS/CISA – 68, State Division – 86, DOD – 121.” No cites for these numbers, although. Extra: “The presence of Jacqueline Lopour as Google’s Head of Belief & Security and Aaron Berman as Meta’s Head of Elections Content material/Misinformation Coverage, each with backgrounds within the CIA, highlights the numerous affect exerted by the company over on-line censorship.” • Ick. That mentioned, I’ve skimmed the earlier publish, and this Twitter thread, and I nonetheless don’t see cites to the numbers. A desk with hyperlinks and names could be good. Readers, can you notice one?

* * *

“Battle for the Home: 9 races that may decide the bulk” [The House]. CA-13: Republican Rep. John Duarte and Democrat Adam Grey are advancing to a rematch. CA-22CA-47: In Orange County, Democrat Rep. Katie Porter left her Home seat to lodge an unsuccessful bid for the state’s uncommon open Senate seat. Porter and fellow progressive Rep. Barbara Lee have been boxed out of the highest two in Tremendous Tuesday’s Senate major, with Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff [RussiaGate pays] and Republican Steve Garvey advancing for a partisan showdown. MI-7: Republican Tom Barrett, who misplaced to Slotkin by round 5 factors again in 2022, is operating once more for the seat, whereas the Democratic Congressional Marketing campaign Committee (DCCC) has backed former Democratic state Sen. Curtis Hertel. The midterms race was the most costly Home contest within the nation, based on reporting from The Detroit Information — and the 2024 race is about to be one other aggressive battle as each events set their sights on the opening. NY-4: Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-N.Y.) is operating in one of the crucial unpredictable toss-up races within the nation this yr…. [Laura] Gillen is operating once more and may very well be poised for a rematch with D’Esposito. With Biden more likely to simply carry New York in November, D’Esposito should depend on a comparatively excessive quantity of split-ticket voters as he did two years in the past to win a second time period. NY-17: Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) received a significant shock victory in 2022 when he defeated Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, the then-chair of Home Democrats’ marketing campaign arm, by simply over half a share level. Lawler has sought to construct up a fame as a reasonable member of the GOP convention and led the cost to expel Santos for the false claims he made about himself and the legal prices he faces. The win was symbolic and key to Republicans profitable the Home majority by just some seats. He appears more likely to face former Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.), who beforehand represented the district however misplaced a major in a unique district after the maps have been redrawn. NY-22: Of all the possibly weak New York Home Republicans this fall, Rep. Brandon Williams (R-N.Y.) could have essentially the most important uphill battle. OH-9: Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) has represented her state’s ninth Congressional District for 4 a long time and had a dependable Democratic-leaning constituency all through a lot of her profession. However Ohio’s redistricting course of after 2020 made her district a battleground…. Kaptur will possible face an opponent with much less baggage this time, which may make it her most troublesome marketing campaign but.” OR-5: Additionally on the West Coast, Democrats need to take again a seat that flipped into Republican palms for the primary time in a long time when Republican Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer received Oregon’s fifth Congressional District within the midterms. Chavez-DeRemer received by 2 factors towards Democrat Jamie McLeod-Skinner final cycle, changing into the primary Republican lady to symbolize Oregon in Congress. McLeod-Skinner is operating once more.” • The first course of will not be full, so some opponents aren’t recognized. CA and NY are nearly battleground states!

* * *

“Column: Biden says America is ‘coming again.’ Trump says we’re ‘in hell.’ Are they speaking about the identical nation?” [Doyle McManus, Los Angeles Times]. “Political professionals say a profitable marketing campaign affords voters a compelling narrative, a narrative concerning the state of the nation: What’s gone fallacious, what’s going proper, and what does the candidate suggest to do about it?… Hardly ever have two main candidates introduced narratives so wildly at odds. They appear to be describing wholly totally different realities.” Maybe — hear me out — there are class variations between the bases, or desired bases, of every get together, they usually actually do expertise America in a different way, and never simply from partisan or ideological bias, however materials circumstances. Extra: “If Biden’s sounds over-optimistic, Trump’s sounds cartoonishly dystopian.”

Democrats en Déshabillé

“Biden’s State of the Union acquired one large factor proper” [Zack Beauchamp, Vox]. “Certainly one of democracy’s core premises is that elections aren’t like armed battle, the place both you win otherwise you die. Since all events settle for the fundamental guidelines of the sport, like aggressive elections and free speech, the stakes of elections aren’t existential. Political opponents are much less enemies than rivals; disagreement isn’t catastrophe. Authoritarian populists like Donald Trump win by attacking this foundational democratic norm. They demonize their opponents, arguing repeatedly that their opponents aren’t rivals however fairly monsters bent on the nation’s destruction.” • Holy Lord. From the get together of RussiaGate?! The get together that’s checking below your mattress, proper now, for Vladimir Putin? Why, that may make Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden authoritarian populists! Oh, wait… No however severely, if fascism is a smorgasbord, each events appear to be loading up their plates.

#COVID19

Lambert right here: Form readers: I’ve been writing posting each weekday on Covid because the pandemic started. I don’t suppose I’ve to let you know how aggravating that’s, or how arduous to analysis is (not simply to search out the fabric, however to get it proper). When you really feel that Water Cooler has been helpful to you in understanding the pandemic, or, better of all, has helped forestall you or your loved ones associates, and group from getting sick with Covid, please hit the Tip Jar now!

“I’m in earnest — I cannot equivocate — I cannot excuse — I cannot 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 information). “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 happy 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 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 secure on the market!

Sequelae

Crafters and knitters, any feedback?

What I’m seeing in craft circles is incapability/unwillingness to be taught. Doesn’t appear to be a problem when persons are going by no means thoughts, it’s silly anyway” once they can’t be taught to crochet, however what about when that impacts job security & high quality? (We’re undoubtedly seeing each)

— Fake There’s One thing Attention-grabbing Right here (@Sleepyweezul) March 11, 2024

Proxies for cognitive impairment at a inhabitants could be: Plane (manufacturing and piloting); driving; now knitting and crafts. One would anticipate to see markets regulate to the lack to deal with complexity… Less complicated knitting patterns, for instance. How about video games?

Elite Maleficence

WHO downgrading SARS-CoV-2 to BSL2 on the exact same day WHO declared declared Covid19 to be a pandemic is a really good contact:

Not even 24 hours after you despatched this heartfelt publish into the world, @mvankerkhove, it got here to gentle that the WHO has made SARS-COV-2, BSL2.

BSL2. That which has reasonable danger to laboratorians AND the atmosphere.

PPE? 👇 IF wanted. https://t.co/c1yn7xgInN pic.twitter.com/nOyUUlyQ0B

— Lazarus Lengthy (@LazarusLong13) March 12, 2024

However not so quick:

The doc says this truly (BSL-2 for non propagative diagnostic laboratory work): “Dealing with excessive concentrations of stay SARS-CoV-2 virus variants which might be variants of curiosity (VOI) or variants of concern (VOC) or rising strains and not using a recognized organic profile,
1/ pic.twitter.com/vqLZtviLBM

— Themis (@Themislv_vls) March 12, 2024

So, BSL2 for propadanda, BSL3 within the lab? Readers?

* * *

“Wrestling with my husband’s worry of getting COVID once more” [NPR]. “So whereas the remainder of the world appears to have moved on from the pandemic, in our home, it’s nonetheless 2020. We put on masks once we go into public indoor areas. We don’t eat inside eating places. We don’t go to motion pictures. We’ve got individuals take COVID checks earlier than they enter our home. All this leaves me feeling torn between two feelings. I need to hold my husband secure and wholesome. However I additionally need our outdated life again.” • So, on the one hand, brunch. And on the opposite, my husband’s coronary heart and mind! It’s too dangerous NPR didn’t write a narrative like this one:

Just lately, I used to be having a dialog with a detailed pal. I mentioned I would take into account an unmasked go to in my properly ventilated area with air purifiers, and she or he mentioned “completely not. My job is just too public. I will not put you in danger.” Now THAT is an effective pal.

— Zoe Martell (@ZoeMartell1) March 12, 2024

However that NPR revealed the story it did… Properly, that tells us quite a bit concerning the totebag set, doesn’t it? No marvel the PMC’s Covid failure was so full and catastrophic (“The Collapse of the Public Well being Institution is the Collapse of the Skilled-Managerial Class“).

“Disabled individuals’s exclusion from indoor areas is a civil rights violation, not an annoyance” [The Guantlet]. “I’m going to attract the lens again and away from this specific lady who wrote this specific article. Her perspective is way from uncommon and is the results of years of minimizing, pathologizing propaganda. The main target right here must be about why this perspective is so frequent, what this perspective implies, and for what motive main media shops select to platform individuals complaining about their disabled spouses fairly than our ableist society…. NPR’s resolution to platform a bit concerning the issue of navigating life with a partner who can’t dine indoors, as a substitute of a bit concerning the issue of navigating a society that has made eating indoors unsafe for weak teams, is simply that- a choice, and a political one. It’s a part of an ongoing effort to solid those that can’t play together with the ‘again to regular’ fantasy- those that are being harmed and killed by it- as bizarre, paranoid, loopy, annoying, and ‘the issue.;…. Lengthy COVID is the defective, load-bearing beam within the rickety pandemic denial superstructure. Have been the general public to understand how frequent and the way extreme it’s, the whole post-pandemic facade would come crumbling down. Due to this fact, as Lengthy COVID sufferers turn out to be louder, as their presence turns into extra plain, as their numbers develop, the COVID normalization mission should pivot from trying to vanish these victims to steadily stigmatizing them.” • Yep.

I additionally thought this thread was perceptive and smart:

TABLE 1: Day by day Covid Charts

LEGEND

1) ★ for charts new at the moment; 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) Biobot drops, conformant to Walgreen positivity information (if that’s certainly not a knowledge artifact). Notice, nevertheless, the realm “below the curve,” apart from peaks. That space is bigger below Biden than below Trump, and it appears to be rising steadily if inconsistently.

[2] (Biobot) Regional separation re-emerges.

[3] (CDC Variants) As of Could 11, genomic surveillance information can be reported biweekly, based mostly on the provision 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) Doesn’t help Biobot information. “Charts and information supplied by CDC, updates Wednesday by 8am. For the previous yr, utilizing a rolling 52-week interval.”

[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Not flattening. (Date for information corrected; it was a glitch.)

[6] (Hospitalization: CDC) Nonetheless down. “Maps, charts, and information 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, according to Biobot information.

[9] (Vacationers: Posivitity) Now up, albeit within the rear view mirror.

[10] (Vacationers: Variants) Backward revisions take away NV.1 information. JN.1 dominates completely.

Stats Watch

Inflation: “United States Shopper Worth Index (CPI)” [Trading Economics]. “The buyer worth index in america rose by 3.2% year-over-year to 310.326 factors in February 2024, following a 3.1% improve in January and barely exceeding the market consensus of a 3.1% advance.”

Manufacturing: “Boeing whistleblower who warned of plane security flaws discovered lifeless” [NBC]. After the BBC, oddly. “The assertion from Barnett’s household mentioned he had suffered from post-traumatic stress dysfunction and nervousness assaults and that the ‘hostile work atmosphere at Boeing’ led to his dying.” However: “His [lawsuit against Boeing] was up for trial this June, the household assertion mentioned, including: ‘He was trying ahead to having his day in court docket and hoped that it could drive Boeing to vary its tradition.’” • So, if he was “trying ahead”… Commentary:

Manufacturing: “50 individuals injured after a ‘robust motion’ on Boeing flight to New Zealand” [NBC]. “It’s unclear precisely what brought on the midflight accidents. The South American airline LATAM mentioned in an announcement that there was a ‘technical occasion through the flight which brought on a powerful motion,’ with out elaborating additional.” • A technical occasion? Like somenbody making an attempt to re-attach a wheel?

Manufacturing: “737 Max anti-ice system repair is gradual going” [The Air Current]. “As we speak, Boeing has but to nail down a conclusive repair for the anti-ice system. A number of choices stay into consideration and its ultimate resolution could find yourself a mix of design modifications. The corporate has activated a multidisciplinary workforce to focus completely on the issue. This so-called ‘Tiger Crew’ is getting elevated sources to design the modification for the Max 7 and 10. Neither plane may be licensed by the FAA with out this modification.” In the meantime: “Pilots utilizing customized reminders for all kinds of duties within the cockpit is extraordinarily frequent, however underscores the shortage of detailed alerting within the grasp warning system aboard all generations of the 737, counting on pilot reminiscence to modify off the possibly hazardous anti-ice system. ‘Simple to get distracted with different duties and miss turning off,’ mentioned [Dennis Tajer, an American Airlines captain and spokesperson for the Allied Pilots Association], who has been sharply essential of Boeing. “That’s why I take advantage of a decades-old approach.’” • “Simple to get distracted.” So, Tajer is assuming to common diminishment in govt operate attributable to Covid?

Manufacturing: “Boeing Response in Alaska Airways 737 MAX Probe Is Blasted by Feds” [Wall Street Journal]. “The corporate mentioned the door plug’s removing was undocumented, so there have been no paperwork to share.” • That’s astonishingly dangerous.

Manufacturing: “Airplanes and engineering: The best way we have been” [Star-Tribune]. When it modified: “Working for Honeywell in Minneapolis, I used to be concerned in product developments for a number of Boeing plane: new platforms B-757, B-767, B-777 and B-787, and revisions on older designs, together with the B-737. Every of those developments concerned an intimate relationship between Boeing and Honeywell throughout a number of ranges of group. On the coronary heart of the work have been the shoppers’ necessities. Assembly these drove each day choices within the mission planning…. One afternoon, we began calling our contacts in Boeing Engineering. Engineering had prioritized the bidders and guaranteed us Honeywell was their first alternative. Nevertheless, they might not affirm that Boeing administration had signed off on the choice. We nonetheless believed we’d win this system. Prior to now, Boeing at all times chosen the very best technical bidder then renegotiated the value as this system phased into quantity manufacturing. It was one of the best course of to satisfy Boeing’s and the passengers’ high quality calls for… we have been notified we weren’t chosen for this system. By a number of discussions with the Boeing engineering managers, we later came upon that Boeing’s procurement course of had modified. Boeing provide administration downgraded the engineering evaluation from prioritized functionality to both assembly or not assembly the necessities. Then, procurement would choose the bottom bidder from this pool of suppliers assembly the necessities. . (We heard that Boeing engineers wore a black armband for a month protesting the choice for this program.) with no account for the uncertainty that engineering usually anticipated and hoped to have some insurance coverage towards. This could turn out to be a elementary change within the plane business.” • Value studying in full. (The Boeing 777 was launched in 1990, so presumbly this modified occurred in 1985 or so. There’s plenty of spoil in an plane manufacturing firm.”

As we speak’s Worry & Greed Index: 67 Greed (earlier shut: 74 Greed) [CNN]. One week in the past: 78 (Excessive Greed). (0 is Excessive Worry; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Mar 11 at 2:22:53 PM ET.

The Conservatory

“Smells Like Teen Spirit Cowl In Classical Latin (75 BC to third Century AD) Bardcore/Medieval fashion” (video) [YouTube].

Video games

“FBI, DHS Accomplice with Gaming Firms to Battle ‘Extremist Players’” [Value Entertainment]. “The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) are coordinating with gaming firms to root out “home extremist content material” amongst their participant bases, a brand new authorities report suggests. In line with the Authorities Accountability Workplace (GAO), a nonpartisan company that audits different authorities departments on behalf of Congress, the FBI and DHS ought to use the identical methods that permit them to police extremism on social media to control the gaming business. The GAO report, entitled Countering Violent Extremism: FBI and DHS Want Methods and Targets for Sharing Menace Info with Social Media and Gaming Firms, was compiled between September 2022 and January 2024. It was first revealed internally on January thirty first after which launched publicly on February twenty eighth….. Within the report, the GAO cites interviews with 5 entities throughout the gaming and social media industries: Roblox, a well-liked multiplayer recreation creation platform, Discord, a social app in style with avid gamers, Reddit, a web-based discussion board social community, and two gaming firms that requested the GAO to maintain them nameless.” • Hmm.

Software program-defined radio:

Hearken to FM radio, freenet, highway visitors data…. (That is Mastodon, so maybe the whole thread can be accessible and not using a login.)

Contact data for vegetation: Readers, be happy 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 photos of vegetation. Greens are positive! Fungi, lichen, and coral are deemed to be honorary vegetation! If you would like your deal with to seem as a credit score, please place it at the beginning 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 TH:

TH writes: “In entrance of the Frank Lloyd Wright Hollyhock Home in Hollywood, California, is that this landscaping of vegetation I can’t actually determine, however I at all times discover it curious when butterflies are drawn to greenery fairly than the same old blossoms.” In regards to the Hollyhock Home: “[A]n ode to California–its freedom and pure magnificence…. Hollyhock Home is a harbinger of California Modernism, inscribed to the UNESCO World Heritage Record.” Neat!

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Right here is the display screen that may seem, which I’ve helpfully annotated:

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