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By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Fowl Music of the Day
David C. Evers, Schoolcraft, Michigan, United States. It’s been awhile since I performed loon songs.
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Politics
“So lots of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are in truth a rational administration of symbolic capital.” –Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles
Capitol Seizure
“Extra Lacking J6 Committee Proof: The place are Secret Service Information?” [Declassified with Julie Kelly]. “Testimony by White Home aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who accused Trump of trying to take management of the presidential SUV and assault his lead Secret Service agent after they refused to take him to the Capitol after his speech, created the committee’s most dramatic second. However almost a 12 months after the committee launched their ultimate report, transcribed interviews of a number of Secret Service officers stay lacking from the general public file. Additional, in violation of Home guidelines, these transcripts haven’t been furnished to a GOP-led committee now conducting a separate investigation into January 6 and the conduct of the now defunct choose committee…. The committee’s web archive accommodates no transcribed interviews of Secret Service officers that the media reported had met with committee investigators. Notably lacking is that of Robert Engel, the top of Trump’s safety element who was interviewed by the committee in November 2022. Engel is the agent allegedly attacked by Trump on January 6, in response to Hutchinson. However following Hutchinson’s explosive account, a number of Secret Service officers, together with Engel, advised the media the confrontation by no means occurred. It’s protected to imagine his interview would offer a direct contradiction to her account of what occurred. Even Hutchinson has since backpedaled on her story; Loudermilk obtained a 15-page doc often called an “errata” that made main corrections to her sworn testimony.”
2024
Lower than a 12 months to go!
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“Trump says he received’t testify once more at his New York fraud trial. He says he has nothing extra to say” [Associated Press]. “Donald Trump mentioned Sunday he has determined towards testifying for a second time at his New York civil fraud trial, posting on social media that he “VERY SUCCESSFULLY & CONCLUSIVELY” testified final month and noticed no want to look once more…. Had Trump returned to the stand Monday, it might’ve been his protection legal professionals main the questioning, however state legal professionals may have cross-examined him…. The lawyer, Alina Habba, mentioned she had discouraged Trump from taking the stand due to the gag order that’s in place. The identical gag order was additionally in impact when he testified in November.” •
IA: “Iowa Ballot: Donald Trump holds overwhelming lead; Ron DeSantis edges forward of Nikki Haley” [Des Moines Register]. “‘The sphere might have shrunk, however it could have made Donald Trump even stronger than he was,’ mentioned pollster J. Ann Selzer, president of Selzer & Co., which carried out the Iowa Ballot. ‘I might name his lead commanding at this level. There’s not a lot advantage of fewer candidates for both Ron DeSantis or Nikki Haley.’ … With 5 weeks till Caucus Day, there’s nonetheless room for motion, at the same time as doubtless Republican caucusgoers start cementing their choices. Forty-nine % of ballot respondents say their minds are made up, whereas one other 46% say they might nonetheless be persuaded to assist one other candidate.”
IA: “Iowa ballot: Trump surpasses 50% assist forward of first GOP contest” [NBC News]. “Former President Donald Trump has expanded his lead over his GOP rivals with 5 weeks till the primary Republican presidential nominating contest, now incomes 51% first-choice assist from doubtless Iowa caucusgoers, in response to the newest NBC Information/Des Moines Register/Mediacom ballot. Trump’s lead — the most important recorded so near a aggressive Republican caucus on this Iowa ballot’s historical past — is fueled by majorities of evangelical and first-time doubtless caucusgoers, in addition to by almost three-quarters of Republicans who consider Trump can defeat President Joe Biden subsequent 12 months regardless of the authorized challenges the previous president faces. What’s extra, the ballot finds the previous president having fun with extra enthusiasm and dedication from his supporters than his rivals do forward of the Jan. 15 contest in Iowa.”
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“The Nikki Haley bump is actual. However can she actually threaten Trump?” [Post and Courier]. “To her credit score, there are indicators that Haley’s slow-and-steady technique is lastly bearing fruit. Her once-stagnant ballot numbers have almost tripled for the reason that summer season. She lately earned the endorsement from the most-influential conservative community within the nation. Her marketing campaign is getting a re-evaluation from main donors, together with those that beforehand supported her rivals. And she or he largely prevented any main gaffes or stumbles whereas largely taking centerstage within the first 4 presidential debates, all prevented by Trump. Haley’s supporters don’t simply suppose she has an opportunity. They are saying she will do what different Republicans have by no means carried out: Beat Trump. In South Carolina, the listing of Haley believers is rising. The Publish and Courier has realized that Anita Zucker, the richest particular person in South Carolina, will be counted amongst Haley’s donors after beforehand backing U.S. Sen. Tim Scott’s GOP presidential bid.” • After all, this can be a South Carolina paper.
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“5 Methods Biden Can Win in 2024” [The New Republic]. (1) “We’re within the test-kitchen part of the Biden reelection marketing campaign—and analysis on efficient messaging will in all probability proceed via the spring.” (2) Dobbs. (3) “[T]he electoral penalties of the Trump trials.” (4) “As soon as Trump returns to heart stage, swing voters hopefully will discover that his speeches have turn into darker and his social media posts extra venomous and deranged.” (5) “But when Biden remains to be trailing Trump within the swing-state polls in late October, perhaps the president can pull off a Reverse Hillary. In a mirror picture of the 2016 outcomes when Clinton fell simply brief nearly in all places, Biden this time round would win just about each swing state by hair’s-breadth margins.” • Not implausible, in case your paradigm is stability not volatilty. To me, one and even two brokered conventions are, like, mainstream potentialities. I’ve tried to know the The Constitution & the Bylaws of the Democratic Celebration earlier than. From the Bylaws:
I take this to imply that the Democratic Nationwide Conference — and, subsequently, whoever really operates it — has plenary powers. If the Conference needs undertake a everlasting rule that no candidate whose identify begins with “B” could also be nominated, they will do it. So the fruits level of a unstable main would possibly nicely be the mom of all guidelines fights. How, for instance, if Biden throws a cog, are his already-voted delegates to be allotted? One thing to sit up for!
“Are the Democrats Sleepwalking to Catastrophe?” [Harold Mayerson, The American Prospect]. “It’s already too late, to make sure, for Democrats to file for a variety of states’ primaries. But when Biden’s numbers don’t enhance, if, say, Dean Phillips does unexpectedly nicely in New Hampshire (if he does, that might be completely about Biden, not the virtually fully unknown Phillips), Democrats may nonetheless enter the late primaries and, ought to they greatest Biden, come to the conference asking Biden to launch his delegates. Beneath this or an analogous situation, Biden, who’s carried out the nation nice providers in the midst of his profession and his presidency, would possibly decide to do another and drop out.”
“Troubling ballot numbers? Biden has a plan for that” [E.J. Dionne, WaPo]. “The center of Biden’s problem: Regardless of how good the financial information is, voters stay disgruntled. A ballot carried out final month by the Monetary Instances and the College of Michigan’s Ross Faculty of Enterprise is consultant: It discovered that solely 26 % of voters thought Biden’s insurance policies had helped the economic system. Thus, the important thing elements of their rising plan: Acknowledge that costs are an issue and spotlight what Biden is doing to convey them down. Focus much less on the variety of jobs created since he took workplace (even when this stays a supply of pleasure) and extra on the great wages these jobs are paying, a rise that’s particularly massive for these in lower-paid positions. Sure, the ‘wage premium’ for school grads is falling. Which means a Democrat can argue that his insurance policies are lifting the residing requirements of working-class voters who had been key to Trump’s rise. Relatedly, Biden will draw a category line between the events, a lot as Barack Obama did in his 2012 reelection marketing campaign towards Mitt Romney. Biden will juxtapose his ‘bottom-up and middle-out’ method to financial progress with the GOP’s eagerness to chop taxes on the wealthy. He’ll distinction the GOP’s need to take care of low tax charges for the rich along with his personal dedication to proceed pushing for expanded baby care, elder care and enhanced household depart.” • A “class line” is difficult to attract with BandAids.
“Let’s not ignore the true cause Democrats battle with white working class voters” [MSNBC]. “The altering demographics of the Democratic Celebration, then, isn’t a narrative about economics; it’s a narrative about race.” • That is, after all, MSNBC. The one shock is that sentence isn’t the lead.
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“The Biden household’s banking shell recreation” [Washington Times]. “The president has constantly denied consciousness of Hunter’s monetary dealings… New paperwork additionally reveal Mr. Biden despatched no less than 54 emails to Hunter’s enterprise accomplice Eric Schwerin. The then-vice president’s messages had been hid beneath aliases together with “Robin Ware” and “Robert L. Peters.” That’s a curious factor for somebody not concerned within the enterprise to do…. With Mr. Comer having recognized $24 million in money pouring into 20 completely different shell corporations linked with the Bidens and their associates, the massive man has some explaining to do. Imaginations run wild within the absence of a reputable response, which is why the very last thing the president and his son ought to do is proceed stonewalling. Recall that the FBI opened a full inquiry into then-candidate Trump — utilizing foreign-agent surveillance authority — primarily based on a secondhand report of the sozzled ramblings of a low-level marketing campaign aide speaking to a diplomat in a London bar. As Mr. Biden’s present defenders cheered the latter investigation, certainly they’ll urge the president and his household to cooperate absolutely on this inquiry.” • “Sozzled” is rhetorical extra. The purpose stays.
“Joe Biden was omitted from Hunter’s new indictment by design” [Miranda Devine, New York Post]. “The rationale the president has gone unmentioned after a five-year investigation into Hunter’s function within the household influence-peddling racket is that the DOJ, like many of the media, corruptly protected him. As IRS whistleblowers Joseph Ziegler and Gary Shapley preserve telling Congress, each investigative avenue that led to Joe Biden was blocked. That is why these IRS investigators had been pressured to blow the whistle.” • Many, many bullet factors. Hints of FBI moles. However bullet factors don’t a story make. I favor Comer’s affected person timelines….
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“She’s with him: Hillary Clinton steps out as a key participant in Biden’s re-election effort” [NBC]. “[T]he 2016 Democratic presidential nominee is entering into a job as probably the most distinguished and influential surrogates in Biden’s re-election effort…. Clinton is widespread with ladies and key elements of the Democratic base and stays a fundraising draw who can assist guarantee Biden has the cash to get his message out. There may be nonetheless a two-for-the-price-of-one theme in terms of her household: Husband Invoice Clinton made a cameo on the fundraising occasion at their Washington residence. Clinton’s function is barely anticipated to develop within the new 12 months, however for now, she is filling an area that at a later level within the marketing campaign season former President Barack Obama will be part of. Obama’s behavior is to plunge in nearer to Election Day — a actuality that rankles some Democratic strategists who say the get together sorely wants him proper now.” • It’s going to be fairly a 12 months.
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Asking for my vote:
At this time’s minimal wage remains to be $7.25.
A 3rd of American staff work for lower than $15/hr., and half of these can’t discover a place to dwell. A residing wage in most main cities is over $20/hr.
That is how America creates, maintains and ignores a everlasting underclass. It ought to…
— Marianne Williamson (@marwilliamson) December 10, 2023
On Florida’s putative Democrats:
Thanks to the Florida progressive neighborhood for standing up for democracy at a time when the Florida Democratic Celebration is intent on suppressing it. pic.twitter.com/ay6tY6Cy4t
— Marianne Williamson (@marwilliamson) December 9, 2023
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* * *MI: “Michigan Dems acknowledge Muslim American frustration with Biden, however query Trump as various” [Politico]. “Michigan Democrats are acknowledging political harm for President Joe Biden’s reelection prospects with Muslim People of their state. However they’re additionally questioning whether or not these voters would abandon the president in favor of Donald Trump.” Sure, you morons. That’s the one approach to get their consideration. Extra: “Biden carried the state by somewhat greater than 150,000 votes in 2020, out of a 5.54 million votes forged. There have been 206,000 registered Muslim voters within the state throughout the 2020 elections, in response to Emgage, a nationwide nonprofit that works to have interaction Muslims politically. Trump carried the state by roughly 10,000 votes throughout the 2016 election.”
NY: “GOP lawmaker: Ousted aides focused my daughter for OnlyFans account” [Politico]. “Rep. Brandon Williams (R-N.Y.) advised POLITICO that his former chief of employees and former legislative director tried to retaliate towards him utilizing his 27-year outdated daughter’s account on OnlyFans, a well-liked discussion board for individuals to cost for entry to sexually specific content material. In line with Williams, the 2 former staffers, Michael Gordon and Ryan Sweeney, threatened to reveal his daughter after Williams fired them. Williams’ exceptional resolution to go public concerning the feud is a guess that his political future might be improved by laying out its extremely private particulars… Williams, a first-term member in a battleground seat, received his race 12 months by one proportion level. He’s certainly one of Home Democrats’ high targets to unseat in 2024.” • Bidenomics = OnlyFans.
Democrats en Déshabillé
Affected person readers, plainly persons are really studying the back-dated submit! However I’ve not up to date it, and there are a lot of updates. So I should try this. –lambert
I’ve moved my standing remarks on the Democrat Celebration (“the Democrat Celebration is a rotting corpse that may’t bury itself”) to a separate, back-dated submit, to which I’ll periodically add materials, summarizing the addition right here in a “dwell” Water Cooler. (Hopefully, some Bourdieu.) It seems that defining the Democrat Celebration is, in truth, a tough drawback. I do suppose the paragraph that follows is on level all the way in which again to 2016, if not earlier than:
The Democrat Celebration is the political expression of the category energy of PMC, their base (lucidly defined by Thomas Frank in Pay attention, Liberal!). It follows that the Democrat Celebration is as “unreformable” because the PMC is unreformable; if the Democrat Celebration didn’t exist, the PMC must invent it. If the Democrat Celebration fails to manipulate, that’s as a result of the PMC lacks the aptitude to manipulate. (“PMC” modulo “class expatriates,” after all.) Second, all of the working elements of the Celebration reinforce one another. Depart apart characterizing the relationships between parts of the Celebration (ka-ching, however not completely) these parts comprise a community — a Flex Internet? An iron octagon? — of funders, distributors, apparatchiks, electeds, NGOs, and miscellaneous mercenaries, with belongings within the press and the intelligence neighborhood.
Observe, after all, that the category energy of the PMC each expresses and is restricted by different courses; oligarchs and American gentry (see ‘industrial mannequin’ of Ferguson, Jorgensen, and Jie) and the working class spring to thoughts. Suck up, kick down.
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Realignment and Legitimacy
“The Authentic Authoritarian” [Foreign Policy]. “The most effective attribute of Huge Caesars and Little Caesars is that greater than half of the ebook focuses on Caesars’ downfalls. Mount posits {that a} mixture of regulation enforcement, intelligence, eloquence, legality, and diligence by public officers will lead wannabe Caesars to their inevitable spoil. It’s exactly due to the ability of propaganda that an examination of Caesars’ decline and fall is critical—in any other case, extraordinary residents would possibly exaggerate these leaders’ political efficiency.” • A pleasant ethical to the story….
#COVID19
“I’m in earnest — I can’t equivocate — I can’t excuse — I can’t retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD.” –William Lloyd Garrison
Assets, 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!
Assets, United States (Native): AK (dashboard); AL (dashboard); AR (dashboard); AZ (dashboard); CA (dashboard; Marin, dashboard; Stanford, wastewater; Oakland, wastewater); CO (dashboard; wastewater); CT (dashboard); DE (dashboard); FL (wastewater); GA (wastewater); HI (dashboard); IA (wastewater stories); ID (dashboard, Boise; dashboard, wastewater, Central Idaho; wastewater, Coeur d’Alene; dashboard, Spokane County); IL (wastewater); IN (dashboard); KS (dashboard; wastewater, Lawrence); KY (dashboard, Louisville); LA (dashboard); MA (wastewater); MD (dashboard); ME (dashboard); MI (wastewater; wastewater); MN (dashboard); MO (wastewater); MS (dashboard); MT (dashboard); NC (dashboard); ND (dashboard; wastewater); NE (dashboard); NH (wastewater); NJ (dashboard); NM (dashboard); NV (dashboard; wastewater, Southern NV); NY (dashboard); OH (dashboard); OK (dashboard); OR (dashboard); PA (dashboard); RI (dashboard); SC (dashboard); SD (dashboard); TN (dashboard); TX (dashboard); UT (wastewater); VA (dashboard); VT (dashboard); WA (dashboard; dashboard); WI (wastewater); WV (wastewater); WY (wastewater).
Assets, Canada (Nationwide): Wastewater (Authorities of Canada).
Assets, Canada (Provincial): ON (wastewater); QC (les eaux usées); BC, Vancouver (wastewater).
Hat tricks to useful readers: 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, Utah, Bob White (3).
Keep protected on the market!
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Immune Dysregulation
“What’s The Deal With That Cough Everybody Appears To Have Proper Now?” [HuffPo]. “There’s additionally been an uptick in anecdotal stories of a brutal, long-lasting cough going round. As one TikTok consumer put it: everybody appears to have ‘a hacking cough that’s been happening for weeks.’ Medical doctors across the nation have seen it, too. ‘… It doesn’t seem like the flu or COVID, however one other pathogen that’s attacking and worsening our respiratory techniques, in response to consultants.’” • In order that’s alright then. If all of us infect ourselves with it, we received’t ever catch it once more.
“One thing Terrible”
Lambert right here: I’m getting the sensation that the “One thing Terrible” could be a sawtooth sample — variant after variant — that averages out to a completely excessive plateau. A number of exceptionally nasty sequelae, most probably deriving from immune dysregulation (says this layperson). To which we would add mind harm, together with persona adjustments therefrom.
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Elite Maleficence
Sociopath of the Day Monica Ghandi on a Parisian junket:
I can’t discover a quote the place Ghandi mocks Lengthy Covid. Readers? As a subsitute, I provide this:
Even cautious amongst CA consultants are feeling okay with no masks indoors lately. I’m completely satisfied my Division Chair @Bob_Wachter went to a restaurant!! @LATimes discusses why vaccinated need not put on masks (I am quoted & additionally focus on lengthy COVID)https://t.co/MXV9fVnBIh.
— Monica Gandhi MD, MPH (@MonicaGandhi9) Could 27, 2021
Readers will recall that Wachter chivvied his spouse into going to a author’s convention, the place she caught Covid, which changed into Lengthy Covid.
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Case Information
From BioBot wastewater information, December 11:
Lambert right here: Ultimately Biden’s overwhelmed each certainly one of Trump’s earlier spikes, so a spherical of applause for The Huge Man. The slight plateauing within the nationwide numbers doesn’t make sense to me as a result of I can’t see an natural cause for it (until the unfold from Thanksgiving is someway being damped out, which appears implausible). I’m guessing backward revision will make the plateau go away. Solely 14 superspreading days till Christmas!
Regional information:
Exhausting to see why the regional cut up (and it positive can be good to have extra granular information). Climate forcing Northerners indoors? Appears facile. There’s snow within the Rockies (inexperienced coloration, West), for instance.
Variants
NOT UPDATED From CDC, December 9:
Lambert right here: JN.1, proven on the NowCast for the primary time, developing quick on the surface, whereas BA.2.86 fades.
From CDC, November25:
Lambert right here: I positive hope the volunteers doing Pangolin, on which this chart relies upon, don’t all transfer on the inexperienced fields and pastures new (or have their entry to services reduce by directors of unwell intent).
CDC: “As of Could 11, genomic surveillance information might be reported biweekly, primarily based on the provision of optimistic 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.
Covid Emergency Room Visits
NOT UPDATED From CDC NCIRD Surveillance, December 2:
Lambert right here: Slight will increase in some age teams, conforming to wastewater information. Solely per week’s lag, so this can be our greatest present nationwide, present indicator.
NOTE “Charts and information offered by CDC, updates Wednesday by 8am. For the previous 12 months, utilizing a rolling 52-week interval.” So not the complete pandemic, FFS (the implicit message right here being that Covid is “identical to the flu,” which is why the seasonal “rolling 52-week interval” is suitable for bothMR SUBLIMINAL I hate these individuals a lot. Discover additionally that this chart reveals, no less than for its time interval, that Covid will not be seasonal, regardless that CDC is attempting to get us to consider that it’s, presumably to allow them to piggyback on the present institutional equipment for injections. And naturally, we’re not even entering into the standard of the wastewater websites that now we have as a proxy for Covid an infection general.
Hospitalization
Bellwether New York Metropolis, information as of December 11:
Steadily up. New York state as a complete appears to be like extra like a spike. (I hate this metric as a result of the lag makes it misleading, though the hospital-centric public well being institution loves it, hospitalization and deaths being the one metrics that matter [snort]).
Right here’s a unique CDC visualization on hospitalization, nationwide, not by state, however with a date, no less than. December 2:
Up, up, up!
Lambert right here: “Maps, charts, and information offered 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†”. So the place the heck is the replace, CDC?
Positivity
NOT UPDATED From Walgreens, December 4:
0.2%. Up. (It could be fascinating to survey this inhabitants typically; these are individuals who, regardless of a tsunami of official propaganda and massive peer strain, went and acquired examined anyhow.)
NOT UPDATED From Cleveland Clinic, December 2:
Lambert right here: Enhance (with backward revision; guess they thought it was over). I do know that is simply Ohio, however the Cleveland Clinic is sweet*, and we’re starved for information, so…. NOTE * Even when hospital an infection management is attempting to kill sufferers by eliminating common masking with N95s.
From CDC, traveler’s information, November 20:
Turning upward.
Down, albeit within the rear view mirror. And listed here are the variants for vacationers, November 20:
BA.2.86 zipping proper alongside. If this information had been delivered in something like a well timed style, it might be a fairly good predictor.
Deaths
Whole: 1,188,661- 1,184,559 = 4102 (4102 * 365 = 1,497,230 deaths per 12 months, right this moment’s YouGenicist™ quantity for “residing with” Covid (fairly a bit larger than the minimizers would really like, although they will speak themselves into something. If the YouGenicist™ metric retains chugging alongside like this, I could need to resolve that is what the powers-that-be think about “mission achieved” for this specific tranche of loss of life and illness).
Lambert right here: This quantity is simply too massive it doesn’t matter what. This quantity is simply too small it doesn’t matter what. Iowa Covid19 Tracker hasn’t been up to date since September 27, 2023. I could need to revert to CDC information. Yech.
Tomorrow, I’ll dump Worldometer, with remorse, as a result of it’s one of many only a few non-CDC trackers left. Right here is the New York Instances, primarily based on CDC information, December 2:
That absolutely the numbers of deaths are down, however the proportion of deaths is up, is fascinating.
For grins, re is the horrid CDC presentatation. They’ve gone all pastel, too; and there’s no graph, i.e. no historic comparisons are doable, which I’m positive fits CDC simply wonderful:
Stats Watch
There aren’t any official statistics of curiosity right this moment.
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Commodities: “Tighter provides to create tailwind for copper costs” [Reuters]. “Mine closures and disruptions have quickly modified the panorama for copper provides and prompted analysts to decrease their forecasts for surpluses in a optimistic sign for costs of the commercial metallic…. Copper costs on the London Metallic Change on Friday headed in direction of the four-month highs of $8,640 a metric ton seen on December 1, partly as a consequence of Anglo American reducing its manufacturing steering.” • Physician Copper? Dunno if that is provide disruption not demand.
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At this time’s Worry & Greed Index: 68 Greed (earlier shut: 67 Greed) [CNN]. One week in the past: 67 (Greed). (0 is Excessive Worry; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Dec 11 at 1:08:05 PM ET.
Rapture Index: Closes down one on Monetary Unrest. “The shortage of unfavourable exercise has downgraded this class” [Rapture Ready]. Document Excessive, October 10, 2016: 189. Present: 187. (Keep in mind that bringing on the Rapture is sweet.) NOTE on #42 Plagues: “The coronavirus pandemic has maxed out this class.” Extra trustworthy than most! • WTF.
Guillotine Watch
Invoice Ackman, ethical arbiter:
The final electronic mail Invoice Ackman wrote to MIT was advising them to please attempt to obscure his spouse’s relationship to Jeffrey Epstein https://t.co/3gs7mo1Z44 pic.twitter.com/fBkuNVNBQa
— TrueAnon (@TrueAnonPod) December 11, 2023
Class Warfare
Implausible although it could appear, the powers-that-be should have determined that COP was getting someplace. So that they determined to nobble it:
COP28 is now on the verge of full failure. The world desperately must part out fossil fuels as rapidly as doable, however this obsequious draft reads as if OPEC dictated it phrase for phrase. It’s even worse than many had feared. It’s “Of the Petrostates, By the Petrostates…
— Al Gore (@algore) December 11, 2023
“Company America Is Testing the Limits of Its Pricing Energy” [New York Times]. “Huge corporations that had beforehand pushed via one commonplace worth enhance per 12 months are actually elevating costs extra incessantly. Retailers more and more use digital worth shows, which they will change with the contact of a button. Throughout the economic system, executives attempting to maximise earnings are successfully working exams to see what costs customers will bear earlier than they cease shopping for. Enormous disruptions to produce chains pushed up company prices throughout the pandemic and compelled many corporations to suppose extra creatively about their pricing methods, Mr. MacKay mentioned. That supercharged a pattern towards extra rigorous pricing, and confirmed many corporations that they might extra boldly play with costs with out chasing customers away. The experimentation continues at the same time as prices ease.” • Costs rise as a result of corporations increase them. Someone inform Biden.
Information of the Wired
“Why scientists are making clear wooden” [Ars Technica]. “Clear wooden may quickly discover makes use of in super-strong screens for smartphones; in mushy, glowing lighting fixtures; and at the same time as structural options, equivalent to color-changing home windows…. Wooden is made up of numerous little vertical channels, like a decent bundle of straws certain along with glue. These tube-shaped cells transport water and vitamins all through a tree, and when the tree is harvested and the moisture evaporates, pockets of air are left behind. To create see-through wooden, scientists first want to switch or do away with the glue, known as lignin, that holds the cell bundles collectively and offers trunks and branches with most of their earthy brown hues. After bleaching lignin’s coloration away or in any other case eradicating it, a milky-white skeleton of hole cells stays. This skeleton remains to be opaque, as a result of the cell partitions bend mild to a unique diploma than the air within the cell pockets does—a worth known as a refractive index. Filling the air pockets with a substance like epoxy resin that bends mild to an analogous diploma to the cell partitions renders the wooden clear. The fabric the scientists labored with is skinny—sometimes lower than a millimeter to round a centimeter thick. However the cells create a sturdy honeycomb construction, and the tiny wooden fibers are stronger than one of the best carbon fibers, says supplies scientist Liangbing Hu, who leads the analysis group engaged on clear wooden on the College of Maryland in School Park. And with the resin added, clear wooden outperforms plastic and glass: In exams measuring how simply supplies fracture or break beneath strain, clear wooden got here out round 3 times stronger than clear plastics like Plexiglass and about 10 instances more durable than glass. ‘The outcomes are superb, {that a} piece of wooden will be as sturdy as glass,’ says Hu, who highlighted the options of clear wooden within the 2023 Annual Overview of Supplies Analysis.” • Nicely, let’s hope we don’t deal with timber like hydrocarbons….
“Earliest Carpenters” [Archeology]. “Not often has a single discover modified students’ views of the capabilities of individuals of the previous as radically as the invention of the world’s earliest recognized wood structure, which dates to just about half one million years in the past. The pair of interlocking logs joined by an deliberately reduce notch was unearthed beneath a financial institution of Zambia’s Kalambo River by a staff led by College of Liverpool archaeologist Larry Barham. Researchers consider the logs might have shaped a part of a walkway or the muse of a platform constructed over wetlands. Previous to this discovery, the oldest recognized surviving wood constructions had been constructed by individuals residing in northern England round 11,000 years in the past. The 476,000-year-old log construction predates the looks of the primary fashionable people by some 150,000 years and was doubtless the handiwork of the archaic human species Homo heidelbergensis. Paleoanthropologists consider H. heidelbergensis was extremely cellular. Thus, it’s shocking that the hominins would have invested labor in constructing a semipermanent construction. ‘We haven’t seen archaic people manipulating their atmosphere on such a big scale earlier than,’ says Barham. ‘It suggests an attachment to a single level on the panorama.’ On the identical website, the staff unearthed stone axes in addition to 4 wood instruments relationship to between 390,000 and 324,000 years in the past. These included a digging stick, a wedge-shaped object, a notched department, and a flattened log. Marks on the log, notes Barham, resemble nothing a lot as software nicks on a piece bench, inviting hypothesis as to what different constructions an imaginative H. heidelbergensis woodworker might need customary.” • Astonishing!
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Contact data for vegetation: Readers, be happy to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) learn how to ship me a examine in case you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to learn how to ship me photographs of vegetation. Greens are wonderful! Fungi and coral are deemed to be honorary vegetation! If you need your deal with to look as a credit score, please place it firstly 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 REI:
REI writes: “Yellow buckwheat within the excessive desert of Oregon.” Doesn’t look very like a desert to me!
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Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not coated by the annual NC fundraiser. So when you see a hyperlink you particularly like, or an merchandise you wouldn’t see anyplace else, please don’t hesitate to specific your appreciation in tangible kind. Keep in mind, a tip jar is for tipping! Common optimistic suggestions each makes me really feel good and lets me know I’m heading in the right direction with protection. Once I get no donations for 5 or ten days I get anxious. Extra tangibly, a relentless trickle of donations helps me with bills, and I consider that trickle when setting fundraising objectives:
Right here is the display that may seem, which I’ve helpfully annotated:
For those who hate PayPal, you possibly can electronic mail me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, and I offers you instructions on ship a examine. Thanks!
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