2:00PM Water Cooler 6/3/2024 | bare capitalism

By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Fowl Tune of the Day

Killdeer, Parc Michel-Chartrand, Longueuil, Quebec, Canada. I like the title “Charadrius vociferus.” As a result of it’s!

In Case You Would possibly Miss…

(1) Trump’s conviction continues to reverberate.

(2) Unions can defeat the fitting (in Europe).

(3) Completely satisfied Birthday Charlie Watts.

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 12 months to go!

RCP Ballot Averages, Could 24:

A combined bag for Workforce Trump, this week with some Swing States (extra right here) Brownian-motioning themselves again towards him, together with Pennsylvania. Not, nonetheless, Michigan, to which Trump paid a go to. In fact, it goes with out saying that these are all state polls, subsequently dangerous, and a lot of the outcomes are inside the margin of error. If will probably be attention-grabbing to see whether or not the decision in Choose Merchan’s court docket impacts the polling, and in that case, how.

* * *

Trump (R): “Ballot: 49% of Independents suppose Trump ought to drop out post-guilty verdict” [Axios]. Headline is a bit much less nuanced than actuality: “54% of registered voters “strongly” or “considerably” approve of the responsible verdict in comparison with 34% who “strongly or “considerably” disapprove. 49% of Independents and 15% of Republicans stated Trump ought to finish his marketing campaign due to the conviction. The polls discovered the race successfully tied nationally in a 1-on-1 with Biden at 45% and Trump at 44%. Whereas they might agree with the responsible verdict, the ballot discovered that extra voters suppose Trump ought to get probation (49%) fairly than go to jail (44%). 68% of registered voters stated the punishment needs to be a positive. The ballot additionally revealed some deep mistrust of the felony justice system. Three in 4 Republican voters stated the decision made them really feel much less assured within the system. And 77% of GOP voters, in addition to 43% of independents, stated they believed the conviction was pushed by motivation to break Trump’s political profession.”

* * *

Trump (R) (Individuals v. Trump): “We Are Speaking Concerning the Manhattan Case In opposition to Trump All Unsuitable” [New York Times]. “the case is about stopping rich folks from utilizing their companies to commit crimes and conceal from accountability. Manhattan prosecutors have lengthy thought-about it their province to make sure the integrity of the monetary markets. As Robert Morgenthau, a former Manhattan district legal professional, favored to say, ‘You can’t prosecute crime within the streets with out prosecuting crime within the suites.’ Lawmakers in New York, the monetary capital of the world, take into account entry to markets and trade in New York a privilege for businesspeople. It’s a felony to abuse that privilege by doctoring information to commit or conceal crimes, even when the businessman by no means accomplishes the aim and even when the false information by no means see the sunshine of day.” Isn’t it fairly to suppose so. What number of financiers had been prosecuted for accounting management fraud after the Nice Monetary Crash? Extra: “, however they’ll nonetheless conclude past an inexpensive doubt that this was his intent.” • If Choose Merchan had needed us to know, that’s how he would have contructed the decision sheet; with checkboxes for the article offenses. He didn’t. But when “our democracy” had been his first precedence, he would have. Trump is operating for workplace. Wouldn’t it make a distinction to voters if his object offense was a Federal marketing campaign finance violation, or a tax offense the place the federal government made cash?

Trump (R): “James Comey says a Trump incarceration is ‘clearly doable’” [The Hill]. “Former FBI Director James Comey stated Sunday he thinks imprisoning former President Trump is ‘clearly doable,’ regardless of some logistic hurdles. In an interview on ‘Inside with Jen Psaki’ on Sunday, Comey was requested about a few of the public’s considerations concerning the logistical challenges which will come up if regulation enforcement establishments attempt to imprison Trump — who was convicted this previous week on 34 felony counts of falsifying false enterprise information to cowl up a scheme to hide probably damaging data earlier than the ‘They might simply put him in a double large, someplace out close to the fence, out within the grass. And he would eat there. He’d bathe there, he’d train there, he’d be away, as Danya Perry stated, from basic inhabitants,’ Comey continued, citing the legal professional of Trump’s former fixer, Michael Cohen, who served time for associated crimes. ‘However it’s clearly doable,’ Comey added. Trump will probably be sentenced on July 11 and isn’t detained till that point. After that time, Comey stated he wasn’t certain whether or not Trump must put on an ankle bracelet or go to jail.”• Lovingly going over the element; it’s virtually like pr0n….

Trump (R) (Individuals v. Trump): “Alvin Bragg Was Proper, His Critics Have been Unsuitable” [The American Prospect]. “At New York, Jonathan Chait argued the case shouldn’t have been introduced as a result of solely a politician might have dedicated it (which is true of all marketing campaign finance legal guidelines, however I digress), saying it ‘is like getting Al Capone for paying off his mistress.’ At The Atlantic, David Frum made an incredulous-stare argument that it couldn’t presumably be a large enough crime to benefit the first-ever prosecution of a president. At Slate, regulation professor Richard Hasen argued the case didn’t have authorized benefit. But it turned out that the Bragg case was stable. After only a couple days of deliberation, the jury delivered whole victory: responsible on each one in every of 34 felony counts.” I believe the lesson is that the Flex Web behind Bragg is excellent at lawfare, and a mix the technique of denying Trump his Sixth Modification rights to defend himself by delaying revelation of the article crimes — the purpose of the 2 layer structure that appeared so unusual on the time — Merchan’s rulings, and (to be truthful) wonderful enterprise information monitoring by Bragg’s workplace enabled the prosecution to string the needle to a conviction (and due to Merchan’s obfuscatory verdict sheet, we’ll by no means know what Trump was really convicted of, or why). Extra: “And I believe politics did play a job right here. As authorized analyst Michael Liroff identified on my Left Anchor podcast just lately, it absolutely can’t be a coincidence that so many instances relationship from such a large span of dates all got here to court docket on the identical time.” • Oh.

Trump (R) (Individuals v. Trump): Michael Tracey has been studying the transcripts, fortunate man:

Lack of self-discipline, Trump’s tragic flaw….

* * *

Biden (D): “Some Democrats attempt to Biden-proof their 2024 campaigns” [Axios]. “To some Democrats operating in key congressional races, the 2024 election is about abortion rights, MAGA extremism, inflation, the border, native points — something besides President Biden…. Democratic incumbents, candidates and operatives described to Axios a dynamic by which many in tight congressional races are sustaining their independence from Biden with out publicly rejecting him…. The prospect of Biden visiting their districts is a delicate matter for a lot of Democratic candidates.” Then once more: “Some Democrats are wanting on the glass as half full — welcoming Biden to their districts and expressing hope his ballot numbers enhance.”

* * *

Kennedy (I): Asking for my vote:

The Ukrainian army — with President Biden’s approval— is now firing US, British and German missiles onto civilian targets inside Russia together with Beograd and different cities in an try and convey NATO into all-out conflict towards Russia. The Washington Submit is reporting that…

— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) June 1, 2024

Kennedy (I): “RFK Jr. Is Even Crazier Than You Would possibly Assume” [Mother Jones]. A protracted and unexcerptable disquisition about Kennedy’s views on Occasion 201. “Throughout his chat with Von, Kennedy remarked, “Any of your listeners who don’t consider what I’m saying can go and lookup Occasion 201. It’s nonetheless on YouTube.” He was proper about that. The video of Occasion 201 stays on YouTube—as does a complete web site dedicated to the train—and it under no circumstances matches Kennedy’s description. Not even shut.” The ultimate paragraph: “Donald Trump has lengthy pitched assorted conspiracy theories—most notably, the Huge Lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him. But he does in order a carnival barker who will say no matter he must say each time he must say it. Kennedy comes throughout as a real believer within the lunacy he peddles. And the depth of his battiness has not obtained the eye it warrants. Kennedy isn’t just a attainable spoiler candidate; he’s a crackpot candidate. The much less that’s coated, the larger his alternative to spoil.” • I talked about Kennedy with a long-term fellow follower of politics, they usually stated (paraphrasing): “At the least Kennedy is asking good questions.” He’s. However the solutions matter to (as do the strategies Kennedy by implication recommends to reach at these solutions).

Republican Funhouse

TX: “Texas GOP divisions develop after fraught primaries” [The Hill]. “In elections that noticed unprecedented ranges of outdoor spending, the social gathering’s so-called enterprise faction was left battered however nonetheless standing as some incumbents held on, most notably Texas Home Speaker Dade Phelan (R) and Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas). Their positions, nonetheless, are precarious. In Tuesday’s vote, conservative hard-liners within the state government largely wiped the board of holdout members — largely those that had fought the rise of privatization within the state’s huge public faculty system, in addition to a smaller group that had backed the impeachment of Legal professional Common Ken Paxton (R). Tuesday’s outcomes ‘had been really essentially the most chaotic final result,’ stated Joshua Clean of the Texas Politics Mission on the College of Texas at Austin. ‘You had a lot of the focused Republicans shedding, and but the Speaker eking out a victory.’ Because of this, the primaries have widened divisions inside the state GOP as an entire — a physique that has been broadly criticized, Clean famous, for ‘prioritizing going after Republicans greater than constructing out the state social gathering.’ Now, he stated, ‘it seems to be just like the social gathering is continuous in that route.’”

TX: “Proposed Texas GOP platform requires the Bible in faculties, electoral modifications that will lock Democrats out of statewide workplace” [Texas Tribune]. “Handed by delegates on the social gathering’s biennial conference, the platform has historically been seen not as a definitive checklist of Republican stances, however a compromise doc that represents the pursuits of the social gathering’s varied enterprise, activist and social conservative factions. However lately — and amid a celebration civil conflict that’s pushed it additional proper — the platform has been more and more used as a foundation for censuring Republican officeholders who the social gathering’s far proper has attacked as insufficiently conservative, together with Texas Home Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, and U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzalez, R-San Antonio. … Maybe essentially the most consequential plank requires a constitutional modification to require that candidates for statewide workplace carry a majority of Texas’ 254 counties to win an election, a mannequin just like the U.S. electoral school. Beneath present voting patterns, by which Republicans routinely win within the state’s rural counties, such a requirement would successfully finish Democrats’ probabilities of successful statewide workplace. In 2022, Gov. Greg Abbott carried 235 counties, whereas Democrat Beto O’Rourke carried a lot of the city, extra populous counties and South Texas counties. Statewide, Abbott gained 55% of the favored vote whereas O’Rourke carried 44%. Nevertheless, some attorneys query whether or not such a proposal could be constitutional and conform with the Voting Rights Act as a result of it could most certainly restrict the voting energy of racial minorities, who’re concentrated in a comparatively small variety of counties. (The social gathering’s platform additionally reiterates its earlier requires the repeal of the Voting Rights Act).”

Democrats en Déshabillé

TX: “Houston Underdogs Beat Established Democrats in Home, Senate Runoffs” [Texas Observer]. “Each Lauren Ashley Simmons, who trounced four-term incumbent Shawn Thierry to win the Home District 146 race by 29 share factors, and Molly Prepare dinner, who narrowly beat Home Consultant Jarvis Johnson within the Senate District 15 race by 74 votes, drew upon the group they helped arrange to prove votes main as much as yesterday’s runoff election. It paid off. Each Simmons and Prepare dinner see their wins as blueprints for not solely how progressive upstarts can beat established Democrats, however how Democrats can energize a broader and torpid base to flip seats throughout the state…. Each seats are securely Democratic, guaranteeing Simmons and Prepare dinner a possible win within the basic election.”

Realignment and Legitimacy

“Of Males and Myths” [James Howard Kunstler]. “The mysterious cabal in energy is aware of that they need to ditch the outdated stumblebum pretending to run for president, and time is operating out to get the dastardly deed executed. They’re staring down a month of dread days that result in the proposed nice debate between the foremost social gathering candidates, which is doomed to play like a combo of the traditional horror film endings — the unmasking of the phantom with a picket stake pushed via his coronary heart, with Donald Trump forged as Prof Van Helsing. Can our resourceful intel blob as an alternative possibly discover a means earlier than that to make it appear to be the “president” handed away peacefully in his slumber? Or maybe it could suffice to only leak the voice recording of his interview with Particular Counsel Robert Hur and permit folks to check what’s in it with the already-released printed transcript.” • Or maybe New York’s penal system will determine that one specific felon is a pre-sentencing flight threat….

Syndemics

“I’m in earnest — I can’t equivocate — I can’t excuse — I can’t retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD.” –William Lloyd Garrison

Covid Sources, United States (Nationwide): Transmission (CDC); Wastewater (CDC, Biobot; contains many counties; Wastewater Scan, contains drilldown by zip); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker” (in IA, however nationwide knowledge). “An infection Management, Emergency Administration, Security, and Common 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!

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 reviews); 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!

Airborne Transmission

One more wonderful purpose to get a CO2 monitor:

Al Haddrell is superior. ❤️👇
Watch this *sensible* explainer of how greater CO2 ranges aren’t simply an indicator that there’s extra exhaled air in a room, however a lift to viral airborne longevity.
🔥🔥🧯🧯👇👇 https://t.co/owNVgaeEcb pic.twitter.com/n5srLbjtA5

— tern (@1goodtern) June 3, 2024

475 if anybody’s asking.

Airborne Transmission: Covid

Hmm:

Have by no means seen this earlier than: Flight from BKK to SFO on Philippine Airways providing upgrades by buying empty seats adjoining to yours. pic.twitter.com/ngfSG2KUuw

— Justin Dunne (@justindunne) June 2, 2024

Dunno if that is Covid-consciousness or simply an try and make cattle class much less painful (for a value). However….

Maskstravaganza

“Aerosol pandemic/Adjusters” [Appropdedia]. • Tricks to make saggy blues extra protecting.

Immune Dysregulation

“Syracuse College scholar identified with tuberculosis” [Syracuse.com]. “The scholar lives off-campus and has not been on-campus since their prognosis, SU officers stated Friday.” • In order that’s alright then.

“United Airways Compelled to Take away Aircraft For Deep Cleansing After As much as 30 Passengers From Cruise Journey Fall Sick With Nausea and Vomiting” [Paddle Your Own Kanoe]. “United Airways has confirmed that it was compelled to take away a aircraft from service for deep cleansing after as much as 30 passengers fell sick throughout a four-hour flight from Vancouver, Canada [Hi, Bonnie!], to Houston on Friday afternoon. The sickened passengers had been half of a bigger group of 75 cruise line passengers who had simply completed a visit in British Colombia and had been returning to Texas. The reason for the illness hasn’t but been decided, though the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) is monitoring , together with the Celeb Summit which is crusing round Alaska and British Colombia.” • On the intense facet, at the very least United is cleansing the aircraft, as an alternative of forcing the passengers to try this.

Censorship and Propaganda

Transmission: H5N1

“Huge outbreak of Influenza A H5N1 in elephant seals at Peninsula Valdes, Argentina: elevated proof for mammal-to-mammal transmission” (preprint) [bioRxiv]. From the Summary: “In October 2023, following outbreaks in sea lions in Argentina, we recorded unprecedented mass mortality (~17,000 people) in southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) at Peninsula Valdes. …. [High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza (HPAI)] H5N1 was confirmed in seals and terns. Furthermore, genomic characterization confirmed viruses from pinnipeds and terns in Argentina kind a definite clade with marine mammal viruses from Peru, Chile and Brazil. These mammal-clade viruses share an an identical set of mammalian adaptation mutations that are notably additionally discovered within the terns. . To our data, that is the primary multinational transmission of H5N1 viruses in mammals ever noticed globally. The implication that might have world penalties for wildlife, people, and/or livestock.” • Oh good.

Extra mammal-to-mammal transmission:

Them: however why is there such a excessive CFR amongst cats on dairy farms with H5N1 instances?
The cats: pic.twitter.com/grGTQ37aM7

— Laurel Bristow, MSc (@Laurel_Bristow) June 1, 2024

Origins Debate

“Why the Pandemic In all probability Began in a Lab, in 5 Key Factors” [Alina Chan, New York Times]. This can be a horrid mobile-friendly web page, and the highest half gained’t load for me, so if the 5 key factors are there, they’re invisible to me. From the textual content: “[A] laboratory accident is essentially the most parsimonious clarification of how the pandemic started.” That could be. It’s nonetheless the Watchmaker’s Speculation, beloved of anti-Evolution religionists (“Like a watch, the universe is so stunning, advanced, and practical that solely a consciousness might have created it”). In every other scientific context, the Watchmaker’s Speculation could be rejected out of hand. So far as coverage: “Given what we now know, investigators ought to comply with their strongest leads and subpoena all exchanges between the Wuhan scientists and their worldwide companions, together with unpublished analysis proposals, manuscripts, knowledge and business orders. Particularly, exchanges from 2018 and 2019 — the vital two years earlier than the emergence of Covid-19 — are very prone to be illuminating (and require no cooperation from the Chinese language authorities to accumulate), but they continue to be past the general public’s view greater than 4 years after the pandemic started.” • I couldn’t agree with these coverage suggestion extra.

Coverage

“We aren’t ready for the subsequent pandemic” [Understanding the Unseen]. “It is going to most likely begin with a cluster of bizarre signs. Among the folks with the illness will know one another, however gained’t have been uncovered to animals, suggesting the an infection can unfold between folks. Then extra instances will begin showing in different areas, possibly even in different international locations. The subsequent pandemic might take many kinds, however a respiratory an infection stays excessive on the checklist of chances. It might be a brand new flu virus, or a brand new coronavirus, or maybe one thing else. It would emerge from a market, or a mink farm, or from one other supply. It could be years away, or months away – or it might be spreading now, but to be detected. Individuals typically speak about ‘pandemic preparedness’, however more and more I believe that is an unhelpful time period. Solely in hindsight can we type occasions into ‘pandemics’ or ‘outbreaks’ or ‘remoted instances’. In real-time, all these paths start with a cluster of infections. So if we wish to curb pandemics, we want to consider what the response to a small new outbreak will appear to be.” • Hopefully not like H5N1 seems to be now….

“World Well being Meeting settlement reached on wide-ranging, decisive package deal of amendments to enhance the Worldwide Well being Laws” [WHO]. • It appears clear to me that there’s no different approach to management pandemics than by governing governments, modifying what Mearsheimer calls anarchy between states; however, if the one possibility for implementation is WHO, it’s exhausting to think about they’ll accomplish something good, after their depressing efficiency on Covid. Not a perfect set of decisions, right here.

Celeb Watch

Cognitive dysfunction on the tennis circuit:

Most individuals suppose cognitive dysfunction simply means slowness, forgetfulness, and basic considering issues. However SARS-CoV-2 🧠injury can result in lack of self-control and even violence. I have been ⚠️apprehensive about this because the pandemic started, and if you happen to look intently, you will see it…

— Dr. Sean Mullen (@drseanmullen) June 1, 2024

Elite Maleficence

Cochrane trashing its down model:

They cannot even do hand sanitizer research correctly with out having to retract them 😂😂

Cochrane has turn out to be such a joke pic.twitter.com/WMAv1mDxHl

— Jonathan Mesiano-Crookston’s translucent kind (@jmcrookston) June 2, 2024

Once more.

“Within the pandemic, we had been advised to maintain 6 ft aside. There’s no science to assist that” [WaPo]. “‘It kind of simply appeared, that six ft goes to be the space,’ Fauci testified to Congress in a January closed-door listening to, in accordance with a transcribed interview launched Friday. Fauci characterised the advice as ‘an empiric determination that wasn’t primarily based on knowledge.’” • Fauci is mendacity in a very odd means. As readers know, social distancing as a non-pharmaceutical intervention, traditionally, is a consequence of droplet dogma (because the droplets had been stated to be pushed by ballistics, the space they might journey earlier than falling might be calculated). Social distancing didn’t simply “seem” as an “an empiric determination”; it was a consequence of sixty years of dangerous idea, deeply embedded within the public well being institution, as the remainder of the article uncrisply reveals (for some purpose, the reporter pulled air flow professional Joseph Allen out of his Rolodex, as an alternative of aerosol scientists like Linsey Marr or Jose-Luis Jimenez).

Lambert right here: Affected person readers, I’m going to need to rethink this fantastically formatted desk. Biobot knowledge is gone, CDC variant knowledge features, ER visits are useless, CDC stopped obligatory hospital knowledge assortment, New York Occasions dying knowledge has stopped. (Be aware that the 2 metrics the hospital-centric CDC cared about, hospitalization and deaths, have each gone darkish). Ideally I’d substitute hospitalization and dying knowledge, however I’m undecided how. I may also develop the wastewater part to incorporate (yech) Verily knowledge, H5N1 if I can get it. Ideas and sources welcome. UPDATE I changed the Occasions dying knowledge with CDC knowledge. Amusingly, the URL doesn’t embody 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 at the moment; 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, on condition that the mannequin fully missed KP.2.

[4] (ER) That is the very best I can do for now. At the least knowledge for the whole pandemic is introduced.

[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Nonetheless going up, although luckily no signal of geometric enhance. The NY city space has kind; in 2020, as the house of two worldwide airports (JFK and EWR) it was an essential 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 via air journey)

[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). That is the very best I can do for now. Be aware the idea that Covid is seasonal is constructed into the presentation. At the least knowledge for the whole pandemic is introduced.

[7] (Walgreens) Going up.

[8] (Cleveland) Going up.

[9] (Vacationers: Positivity) Flattening.

[10] (Vacationers: Variants) KP.2 enters the chat, as does B.1.1.529.

[11] Deaths low, however positivity up.

[12] Deaths low, ED not up.

Stats Watch

Manufacturing: “United States ISM Manufacturing PMI” [Trading Economics]. “The ISM Manufacturing PMI unexpectedly edged decrease to 48.7 in Could 2024 from 49.2 in April, under forecasts of 49.6. The studying confirmed one other contraction for the manufacturing exercise as demand was gentle once more, output was steady, and inputs stayed accommodative.”

The Bezzle: Nicely executed!

At this time’s Worry & Greed Index: 48 Impartial (earlier shut: 48 Impartial) [CNN]. One week in the past: 51 (Impartial). (0 is Excessive Worry; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Jun 3 at 1:43:17 PM ET.

Rapture Index: Closes down one on Earthquakes. “The dearth of exercise has downgraded this class” [Rapture Ready]. File Excessive, October 10, 2016: 189. Present: 188. (Keep in mind that bringing on the Rapture is sweet.) • Fowl flu not a priority, apparently. Nonetheless flirting with the 189 ceiling….

The Conservatory

After I develop up, I wish to be as cool as Charlie Watts:

“Music as a Magical Language” [Ecosophia]. This caught my eye: “The purpose to this train in unfamiliar music is to get previous a sure pervasive dangerous behavior in fashionable books on the occult dimensions of music: the notion that music—which means our form of music, post-eighteenth century Western music utilizing an equally tempered scale—is a “common language.” It’s not. When it was first launched to folks exterior the Western international locations, most of them thought it was as weird as you most likely discover gagaku. Lots of them are used to it now, for a similar purpose that you will discover somebody who speaks English in a very exceptional vary of nations all around the world, however there’s nothing inherently common about our idiosyncratic Western music. Western music itself has gone via an entire sequence of convulsions in its historical past, driving and pushed by sharp modifications in what counted as music. The medieval church insisted that the one good music was theirs, and adopted strict guidelines that forbade sure scales from being performed—at the moment’s main scale, the one which most individuals who aren’t musicians consider because the musical scale, was condemned because the modus lascivius or “lustful mode.” Come the Renaissance, the medieval modes bought chopped up and changed by seven planetary modes, by which the Ionian mode (our main scale) was fairly sensibly assigned to Venus, and the Aeolian mode (our pure minor scale) was given to the Moon. The odd unhappy taste of Appalachian folks music? That’s as a result of the mountain folks preserved one of many others, the Mixolydian mode, which belongs to Saturn.” • Nicely value a learn. Only for grins, I went again to this Keith Richards interview to see if he stated music is a common language. He didn’t. He stated: “Give me a tribe’s music, and I’ll let you know how they dwell, what they scent like, virtually.” And: “There’s no mendacity if you’re taking part in music.” Fascinating to juxtapose the 2 (and Richards, amazingly sufficient, is a scholar in his personal means).

The Gallery

Silicon Valley has misplaced its thoughts over AI:

Can’t anyone see how damaging to worth — each senses — fakes like which can be?

Zeitgeist Watch

“Scents and reminiscences on the hospital” [Scope, Stanford Medicine]. “For me [like Marcel Proust], involuntary reminiscences are most triggered by scent. Olfaction may be thought-about an historical sense — traced again to the chemoreceptors discovered on rudimentary micro organism. Nevertheless, regardless of (or maybe due to ) its antiquity, I discover scent to be essentially the most tough sense to seize with phrases. Nonetheless, all of us can keep in mind a second by which a whiff transported us away to a different time and place. In drugs, attention-grabbing smells are in no brief provide. Each day, the very first thing that I encounter when the hospital doorways open is the omnipresent scent of antiseptic. To most individuals, this scent possible triggers involuntary reminiscences of unfavorable occasions — the sickness of a beloved one, for instance. For me, the primary wave of antiseptic jogs my memory of my earlier hospital rotations and prompts me to be able to work for my sufferers and for my group.” • I’m leaving out the “attention-grabbing” components. I believe there’s extra right here than the creator realizes, however I’m undecided what….

Class Warfare

“Commerce Unions Can Defeat Europe’s Far Proper” [Project Syndicate]. “Throughout Europe, from Eire to Germany, commerce unions act as a bulwark of democracy. They counter misinformation via digital-skills trainings, present instructional supplies concerning the anti-social voting file of far-right events, mobilize their members to vote, and arrange demonstrations to rally most of the people. The 2023 elections in Spain are a working example. When Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez known as early elections after his Spanish Socialist Staff’ Get together suffered heavy losses in native polls, the right-wing nationalist Vox social gathering was polling at 15-16% – excessive sufficient to kind a majority with the conservative Partido Fashionable. However Vox obtained solely 12.4% of the vote, and Sánchez stayed in energy, partly owing to a nationwide marketing campaign launched by the foremost Spanish commerce union federations Unión Common de Trabajadores and Comisiones Obreras. They organized office assemblies and highly effective digital campaigns to tell their members about Vox’s anti-worker insurance policies and spotlight the progressive authorities’s achievements: a major enhance within the minimal wage, a brand new labor code, and higher protections for gig employees. If European leaders wish to beat the far proper, they should abandon the failed neoliberal consensus that has disempowered employees.” • Apparently, one of the best ways to defend nuestra democracia will not be with fixed ritual incantations, however with efficiency.