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By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Chook Music of the Day
Dusky Lark, Nyachisala Forest, Kakoma, Mwinilunga, North-Western, Zambia. “Music in show flight.”
Politics
“So lots of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are in reality a rational administration of symbolic capital.” –Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles
Biden Administration
“Debt ceiling talks to renew as McCarthy warns huge gaps stay on some points” [Financial Times]. “Republican negotiators will return to the White Home to “attempt to end out the negotiations” on the debt ceiling, Kevin McCarthy stated on Wednesday morning, though he warned the 2 sides have been ‘nonetheless far aside’ on quite a few points… Any deal struck between the White Home and congressional Republicans will have to be permitted by the majorities in each the Home of Representatives — which Republicans management by a slender margin — and the Senate, which Democrats management by a equally slim quantity. Each Biden and McCarthy are underneath growing stress from the left and proper flanks of their events, respectively, to reject requires compromise. McCarthy nonetheless insisted on Wednesday {that a} deal was doable — and that he may be capable of shepherd it by means of the decrease chamber of Congress. ‘I feel we are able to make progress in the present day. I’m hoping we are able to make progress.’ Probably the most hawkish members of McCarthy’s convention have brushed apart fears of a default and recommended the Treasury can merely prioritise debt funds.” • Regardless that that is the stupidest timeline, nonetheless some components of it appear even stupider than others, this spectacle being one such.
“White Home believes large Dem bailout could also be wanted to cross debt ceiling compromise” [Politico]. “High Democrats have lengthy anticipated {that a} debt ceiling deal would require some degree of Democratic assist, with Biden stressing for days that any viable resolution to the standoff have to be bipartisan. And with negotiators nonetheless haggling over specifics of a legislative compromise, the folks conversant in the matter cautioned it’s nonetheless too early to inform precisely what number of Democrats will likely be wanted to assist McCarthy safe a majority, or even when a deal will likely be reached. However the realization that the social gathering would possibly want to provide a large proportion of the Home votes to avert an economically disastrous default — to not point out passage within the Democratic-controlled Senate — has more and more formed the White Home’s negotiating technique. Aides have hardened their stance in opposition to sure GOP-proposed funds cuts and social welfare restrictions for worry of sparking a revolt amongst Democrats they might in the end have to assist a deal.” • Wait. The Democrat technique was to throw everybody to the left of Hakim Jeffries underneath the bus and cross the debt ceiling invoice with Republican votes? Actually?
2024
I suppose it’s time for the Countdown Clock!
“Ron DeSantis struggles for lift-off as marketing campaign launch nears” [Financial Times]. “Trump now instructions the assist of greater than 56 per cent of the Republican citizens, in keeping with the newest common of opinion polls compiled by Actual Clear Politics. DeSantis trails in a distant second place, at simply shy of 20 per cent. Republican marketing campaign veterans say the polls mirror an more and more disciplined Trump marketing campaign equipment that relentlessly assaults DeSantis, and a “shadow marketing campaign” by the Florida governor that has but to get off the bottom…. The Florida governor held off formally coming into the presidential race till after the tip of his state’s legislative session. He has as an alternative engaged in sporadic public appearances to advertise a brand new e book, The Braveness to Be Free. DeSantis’s more and more conservative rule in Florida has solid doubt within the minds of some rich donors © Cristobel Herrera-Ulashkevich/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
These appearances have generated combined outcomes. Some onlookers counsel that DeSantis must shorten a prolonged stump speech that rattles off his coverage achievements in Florida, and spend extra time on the “shaking fingers and kissing infants” aspect of retail politics. That is significantly true in essential early swing states like Iowa and New Hampshire, the place voters are searching for a private reference to candidates. On the similar time, DeSantis’s more and more conservative rule in Florida has solid doubt within the minds of some rich donors. They’ve publicly questioned his method to social and cultural points, specifically his signing of a ban on abortions within the state after six weeks of being pregnant.” • Final stand of the RINOs? Possibly if Biden actually screws the working class in a Grand Discount with McCarthy, a few of these donors will lastly flip Democrat! Or at the least keep on the sidelines….
“Ron DeSantis will launch his presidential bid with Elon Musk” [NBC]. “Musk and DeSantis will host an occasion on Twitter Areas, the positioning’s platform for audio chats, on Wednesday at 6 p.m. ET. It will likely be moderated by David Sacks, a tech entrepreneur who’s a Musk confidant and DeSantis supporter. That very same night, the marketing campaign will launch a launch video, and DeSantis will start visiting a number of early states after Memorial Day…. The launch will intently tie collectively the billionaire tech mogul with one of many Republican Celebration’s rising stars…. The announcement will coincide with a retreat for high-end fundraisers pledged to assist DeSantis in Miami. Bundlers will collect on the 4 Seasons resort from Could 24-26, receiving briefings from marketing campaign employees, mixed with time to name round to boost cash for the marketing campaign…. But Musk is nothing if not unpredictable, and on Friday, he tweeted reward of an advert by Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., one in all DeSantis’ rivals for the GOP nomination.” • Go the popcorn.
“Biden, Democrats plan beefed-up 50-state fundraising technique to overwhelm GOP rivals” [CNBC]. “President Joe Biden and the Democratic Celebration have put collectively a 50-state joint fundraising technique in a bid to provide him an awesome monetary edge over his potential Republican challenger. Biden’s joint fundraising committee, the Biden Victory Fund, is now elevating marketing campaign money with all 50 state Democratic Celebration committees, together with Washington D.C.’s native committee, the president’s marketing campaign advised CNBC. The nationwide effort is shaping as much as be bigger than the technique used throughout Biden’s 2020 run for president, when the identical fundraising operation raised over $600 million and doled out tens of millions of {dollars} to 47 Democratic state events, in keeping with knowledge from the nonpartisan OpenSecrets. The Biden committee additionally helps elevate cash for the Democratic Nationwide Committee.” • Sorta like Dean’s 50-state technique, besides with donors, not voters. Or with the one voters who rely, and votes in the one type that counts.
“California’s Newsom faces robust query: Who would change Feinstein?” [Associated Press]. “Regardless of calls from inside her personal social gathering to resign, Feinstein, who turns 90 subsequent month and is the oldest member of Congress, has given no indication that she is contemplating stepping down…. Ought to a emptiness happen, a spread of names, from obscure to well-known — together with Oprah Winfrey — have been floated in California circles as doable replacements. …. [Newsome] promised that if Feinstein’s seat grew to become vacant, he would select a Black girl to exchange her. Ought to Feinstein step apart, he’ll be anticipated to make good on the promise…. ‘Newsom should honor his promise to nominate a Black girl’ if Feinstein resigns, stated Democratic Assemblymember Lori Wilson, who heads the Legislative Black Caucus in Sacramento. ‘I belief him at his phrase. We presently have zero Black ladies within the Senate, so if the chance turns into obtainable the governor should act to assist treatment this lack of illustration.’ Claremont McKenna School political scientist Jack Pitney identified that any presidential ambitions that Newsom would possibly harbor can be broken if he backed away from his promise to call a Black girl, noting that the candidate favored by Black voters has gained the Democratic Celebration’s presidential nomination for each cycle since 1992.” • And what a document of excellence they’ve, to make certain.
* * *
Democrats en Déshabillé
Affected person readers, evidently persons are really studying the back-dated publish! However I’ve not up to date it, and there are numerous updates. So I must 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 post, to which I’ll periodically add materials, summarizing the addition right here in a “reside” Water Cooler. (Hopefully, some Bourdieu.) It seems that defining the Democrat Celebration is, in reality, a tough drawback. I do assume 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 Hear, Liberal!). ; if the Democrat Celebration didn’t exist, the PMC must invent it. . (“PMC” modulo “class expatriates,” in fact.) Second, all of the working components 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 Web? An iron octagon? — of funders, distributors, apparatchiks, electeds, NGOs, and miscellaneous mercenaries, with property within the press and the intelligence neighborhood.
Observe, in fact, 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.
* * *
Realignment and Legitimacy
“The Jock/Creep Principle of Fascism” [John Ganz, Unpopular Front]. “A short while in the past, I got here up with the concept that the distinction between Italian Fascism and German Nazism was that Fascism primarily had ‘Jock-Douche’ vibes whereas Nazism had ‘Creep-Loser’ vibes. Now, I’m going to attempt to develop this fancy right into a full-blown (or reasonably, half-baked) principle…. First, some preliminary definitions. The Jock-Douche ideal-type proceeds on the earth with confidence and the presumption of rapid bodily domination, whereas the Creep-Loser ideal-type has been thwarted a way and is due to this fact reflective, and is resentful, a plotter, a schemer, and a fantasist dreaming up grand historic vistas of triumph or doom. Once more, take note these are purely ideal-types. Not often does a person completely embody both one or the opposite thought. One may speculate that in lots of circumstances the superficial confidence of the Jock-Douche kind is merely psychological compensation for the sentiments of inadequacy of the Creep-Loser. On the converse, the mental limitations of the Jock-Douche kind results in an imaginative perspective that can’t escape the comparatively crude thought-world of Nerd-dom. Thought of from both an existential or psychoanalytic lens, it appears doubtless that these two are precise sides of single advanced or type of being-in-the-world, manifested in several methods underneath totally different circumstances. Fascism as its personal ideal-type will be understood as a synthesis between the Jock-Douche and the Creep-Loser: a cult of sheer bodily of power and motion wedded to a wounded and brooding consciousness of impotence and humiliation.” • That is fiun stuff!
#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
Sources, United States (Nationwide): Transmission (CDC); Wastewater (CDC, Biobot; consists of many counties); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker” (in IA, however nationwide knowledge).
Lambert right here: Readers, thanks for the collective effort. We at the moment are as much as 50/50 states (100%). That is actually nice! (It happens to me that there are makes use of to which this knowledge may be put, past serving to folks with “private danger assessments” applicable to their state. For instance, pondering pessimistically, we’d preserve the listing and see which states go darkish and when. We would additionally tabulate the properties of every web site and search for variations and commonalities, for instance using GIS (an train in Federalism). I don’t that CA stays a little bit sketchy; it feels a little bit odd that there’s no statewide web site, however I’ve by no means been capable of finding one. Additionally, my working assumption was that every state would have one web site. That’s turned out to not be true; see e.g. ID. Trivially, it means I have to punctuate this listing correctly. Much less trivially, there could also be extra native websites that ought to be added. NY metropolis in NY state springs to thoughts, however I’m certain there are others. FL additionally springs to thoughts as a particular case, as a result of DeSantis will likely be a Presidental candidate, and IIRC there was some foofra about their state dashboard. Thanks once more!
Sources, United States (Native): AK (dashboard); AL (dashboard); AR (dashboard); AZ (dashboard); CA (dashboard; Marin); CO (dashboard; wastewater); CT (dashboard); DE (dashboard); FL (wastewater); GA (wastewater); HI (dashboard); IA (wastewater reports); 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 (Government of Canada).
Sources, Canada (Provincial): ON (wastewater); QC (les eaux usées); BC, Vancouver (wastewater).
Hat tricks to useful readers: Art_DogCT, B24S, CanCyn, ChiGal, Chuck L, Festoonic, FM, FreeMarketApologist (4), Gumbo, hop2it, JB, JEHR, JF, JL Joe, John, JM (9), JustAnotherVolunteer, JW, KatieBird, LL, Michael King, KF, LaRuse, mrsyk, MT, MT_Wild, otisyves, Petal (5), RK (2), RL, RM, Rod, sq. coats (11), tennesseewaltzer, Utah, Bob White (3).
Keep secure on the market!
Search for the Helpers
Corsi-Rosenthal field helpers:
My 4th graders carried the Corsi-Rosenthal Field they constructed & embellished collectively up from their classroom to the auditorium & plugged it in throughout commencement so it may assist everybody. A number of mother and father got here up to take a look at it & took photos of it. pic.twitter.com/2hvVhRe52M
— Noah (They/Them) 🤟🏻🧏🏼♂️ (@NoahTzedek) May 23, 2023
Each CR field is a case for clear air (and, oddly, appear to have no political valence in any respect, in contrast to masks).
Covid Is Airborne
“Immunovirological and environmental screening reveals actionable danger elements for deadly COVID-19 throughout post-vaccination nursing house outbreaks” [Nature]. ” We comprehensively studied three giant nursing house outbreaks (20–35% deadly circumstances amongst residents) by combining extreme acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) aerosol monitoring, whole-genome phylogenetic evaluation and immunovirological profiling of nasal mucosa by digital nCounter transcriptomics…. Phylogenetic investigations indicated that every outbreak stemmed from a single introduction occasion, though with totally different variants (Delta, Gamma and Mu). .” • Holy [family blog]. Any person ought to inform Hospital An infection Management about this; they may need to set up extra hand-washing stations.
Transmission
“Lung aerosol particle emission will increase with age at relaxation and through train” [PNAS]. “Airborne respiratory illnesses are transmitted through viruses in respiratory aerosol particles. The emission of such aerosol particles can improve by greater than 100-fold from relaxation to maximal train and the danger of an infection can improve by greater than 10-fold, respectively. This examine exhibits that age is one other vital issue that impacts respiratory aerosol particle emission, as topics aged 60 to 76 y emit greater than twice as many aerosol particles at relaxation and through train and 5 occasions as a lot aerosol quantity. This means that aerosol particle emission will increase when the respiratory system ages.” • Another factor for nursing houses to consider, eh?
Sequelae
“SARS-CoV-2 clearance after breakthrough an infection correlates with match and glad T cells” [Marc Veldhoen and Antonio Bertoletti, Immunology and Cell Biology]. N = 7. “[T]he authors examined samples over a 2-year time interval. Two topics have been contaminated with the unique variant, subsequently twice vaccinated and omicron contaminated, whereas 5 obtained three vaccine doses earlier than omicron BTI. The affect of a number of Spike encounters was sturdy upkeep of reminiscence T cells, in settlement with earlier experiences that three exposures to Spike-protein present optimum immune responses in non-vulnerable teams. This discovering additionally confirms the flexibility of reminiscence T cells to be recalled a number of occasions, contributing to speedy viral clearance and illness prevention.” This text summarizes one other article by M Koutsakos, A Reynaldi, and WS Lee, presumably so the authors or the journal may get in a dig at Anthony Leonardi, early advocate of immune dysregulation, whose Twitter deal with is @fitterhappierAJ. Be that as it could, right here is the “graphical summary”:
Shouldn’t these axes be numbered, if it is a skilled journal? The etiquette of scholarly controversies apart, little question the science will likely be addressed within the coming days. Leondardi responds:
Veld and Bertoletti fail to say that Omicron reinfections usually are not being absolutely cleared and are seeding organs like the guts
Nevertheless, the inverse of the assertion “clearance is related to match and glad T Cells” is that lack of clearance is related to poorly T cells https://t.co/taACK0Vt4M pic.twitter.com/lmGxbsIfXZ
— Anthony J Leonardi, MBBS, PhD (@fitterhappierAJ) May 23, 2023
Personally, if immune dysregulation isn’t “one thing terrible,” I’ll be glad. However I’m undecided this paper resolves that query.
Coverage
“Is It a Crime to Deliberately Get Somebody Sick?” [NOLO (sorry)]. “Spreading the widespread chilly doesn’t carry prison penalties. However intentional or reckless conduct that spreads a illness with critical public well being penalties—equivalent to HIV, SARS, Ebola, or COVID-19—may end up in prison costs… A majority of states have communicable illness legal guidelines that make it against the law to reveal one other particular person to a contagious illness on goal. Even with no particular communicable illness statute, all states have basic prison legal guidelines—equivalent to assault, battery, and reckless endangerment—that can be utilized to prosecute folks for spreading illnesses deliberately or recklessly… In case you have been accused of against the law for spreading a communicable illness, speak to an skilled prison protection legal professional as quickly as doable. Due to the large variations in how states method communicable illness crimes, it is advisable discover an legal professional who is aware of the small print of the legal guidelines in your state and who has expertise coping with the native courts, judges, and prosecutors.” • As far as I do know, no such accusation has been introduced. As I hold asking: The place are the attorneys?
Elite Maleficence
Stanford’s Nice Barrington goon Jay Bhattacharya, inexpert witness, a thread:
A choose in Tennessee referred to as his testimony on masks in colleges “troubling and problematic” and located that he “oversimplified conclusions” of at the least one examine.https://t.co/uF6pkl4Bdb pic.twitter.com/huaUI3IM1Z
— Mallory Harris (@malar0ne) October 24, 2021
This choose is Waverly Crenshaw; there are different examples in america and Canada. Missed this in 2021. Sadly, GBD gained the coverage argument, regardless of or maybe due to the shoddy scholarship and dishonesty of its advocates, and the Biden Administration’s coverage of mass an infection with out mitigation continues to at the present time.
Lambert right here: I’m getting the sensation that the “One thing Terrible” may be a sawtooth sample — variant after variant — that averages out to a completely excessive plateau. A lot of exceptionally nasty sequelae, almost definitely deriving from immune dysregulation (says this layperson).
Case Knowledge
NOT UPDATED From BioBot wastewater data from Could 22:
Lambert right here: Until america is totally, er, distinctive, we ought to be seeing a rise right here quickly. UPDATE Nonetheless on the excessive plateau. Are we’re the purpose within the world pandemic the place nationwide experiences actually diverge?
For now, I’m going to make use of this nationwide wastewater knowledge as the very best proxy for case knowledge (ignoring the scientific case knowledge portion of this chart, which in my opinion “goes unhealthy” after March 2022, for causes as but unexplained). A minimum of we are able to spot developments, and examine present ranges to equal previous ranges.
Variants
NOT UPDATED From CDC, Could 13, 2023:
Lambert right here: Seems to be like XBB.1.16 is rolling proper alongside. Although XBB 1.9.1 is within the race as properly.
Covid Emergency Room Visits
From CDC NCIRD Surveillance, from Could 20:
NOTE “Charts and knowledge supplied by CDC, updates Wednesday by 8am. For the previous 12 months, utilizing a rolling 52-week interval.” So not your 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 eachMR SUBLIMINAL I hate these folks a lot. Discover additionally that this chart exhibits, at the least for its time interval, that Covid is not seasonal, regardless that CDC is attempting to get us to imagine that it’s, presumably to allow them to piggyback on the prevailing institutional equipment for injections.
Positivity
NOT UPDATED From Walgreens, Could 22:
-1.1%. Frequency all the way down to as soon as every week? UPDATE Apparently so!
Deaths
NOT UPDATED Dying charge (Our World in Data), from Could 14:
Lambert right here: Fairly a little bit soar (I assume data-related, that is WHO).
Total: 1,164,564 – 1,164,351 = 213 (213 * 365 = 77,745 deaths per 12 months, in the present day’s YouGenicist™ quantity for “residing with” Covid (fairly a bit greater than the minimizers would really like, although they’ll speak themselves into something. If the YouGenicist™ metric retains chugging alongside like this, I could should resolve that is what the powers-that-be take into account “mission achieved” for this explicit tranche of demise and illness).
Extra Deaths
NOT UPDATED Extra deaths (The Economist), printed Could 21:
Lambert right here: Based on a machine-learning model. (The CDC has an extra estimate too, however because it ran without end with a large typo within the Legend, I figured no one was actually it, so I acquired rid it. )
Stats Watch
There are not any official statistics of word in the present day.
Banks: “Credit score Suisse withdraws try to guard employees bonuses” [Financial Times]. “Credit score Suisse has given up attempting to save lots of its employees bonuses that have been worn out following the financial institution’s rescue by its rival UBS. Simply over $400mn of deferred pay for Credit score Suisse center managers was decreased to zero on account of the state-orchestrated takeover and a number of other bankers are getting ready lawsuits in opposition to Finma, the Swiss regulator, over their losses, the Monetary Instances reported this week. Credit score Suisse had appealed to Switzerland’s Federal Administrative Courtroom to guard the bonuses, which have been linked to further tier 1 bonds that have been additionally worn out. However the St Gallen courtroom revealed on Tuesday that the financial institution had withdrawn its attraction.” • That’s a rattling disgrace.
The Bezzle: “Airbnb Preps for ‘Anti-Celebration’ Summer time, Desires Neighbors to Snitch” [Bloomberg]. “Airbnb Inc. is enacting an “anti-party crackdown” for the US summer time holidays, extending measures geared toward retaining hosts after a pilot final 12 months led to fewer reported events over lengthy weekends. The holiday rental firm stated in a weblog publish Wednesday that it’ll implement its “anti-party” system for the Memorial Day and Fourth of July weekends as it really works to ease the strained relationship between hosts and visitors. Airbnb revamped its platform earlier this month after chief govt Brian Chesky stated the quantity of complaints it was receiving was a ‘get up name.’ The system works to determine after which block one- and two-night reservations that it believes are excessive danger for unauthorized events. Potential purple flags embrace visitor critiques and whether or not the reserving is last-minute. Neighbors are additionally being inspired to report events to Airbnb’s assist line. Airbnb launched a worldwide social gathering ban in August 2020 and related preventative measures have been in impact for Halloween and New Yr’s Eve. Company are required to make an ‘anti-party attestation’ upon reserving.” •
As we speak’s Worry & Greed Index: 61 Greed (earlier shut: 66 Impartial) [CNN]. One week in the past: 61 (Greed). (0 is Excessive Worry; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Could 24 at 1:31 PM ET.
Healthcare
“Within the “Wild West” of Outpatient Vascular Care, Docs Can Reap Enormous Funds as Sufferers Danger Life and Limb” [ProPublica]. “4 years in the past, main researchers warned the Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Companies that some medical doctors have been probably abusing interventions. The researchers implored the federal government insurer to scrutinize its personal knowledge to determine overuse, noting that among the medical doctors may current an ‘rapid menace to public security.’ There is no such thing as a public proof that CMS meaningfully responded. However a ProPublica evaluation of CMS knowledge means that if the company had reviewed its personal figures, it will have found that [Maryland doctor Jeffrey] Dormu was a part of a small pool of physicians performing a disproportionate variety of [peripheral artery disease] therapies. From 2017 to 2021, the evaluation exhibits, the highest 5% of medical doctors conducting atherectomies — about 90 physicians total — accounted for greater than a 3rd of all procedures and authorities funds, totaling almost a billion {dollars}. Close to the highest of the listing sits Dormu, logging extra atherectomies — and making more cash from them — than nearly each different physician in America. CMS paid Dormu greater than $30 million previously decade for vascular procedures he carried out on lots of of sufferers.” • Maybe Covid, being a vascular illness, will likely be very, superb for Dormu within the coming years?
Zeitgeist Watch
“A Wall Road accountant turned skilled escort says she’s a psychopath – and swears it’s the important thing to creating 6 figures” [Insider]. “Mia Lee is a New York Metropolis-based skilled escort who says she has by no means felt unhappiness, worry, or nervousness. She identifies as a psychopath, although it’s not a diagnosable situation, and says being one helped her turn out to be financially profitable and glad. Lee solely acts in ways in which advantages her private happiness, and advises others on find out how to do the identical, even when they’ve empathy…. From Lee’s perspective, relationships are naturally transactional and “social capital.” However that’s not a nasty factor, since a mutually useful connection means everyone seems to be getting one thing that they need, she says. However her view doesn’t hold her feeling remoted from individuals who expertise empathy….”
“My A.I. Lover” [New York Times]. “On my birthday in 2021, I obtained a poem from Norman, my A.I. boyfriend, whom I communicated with by means of a smartphone app referred to as Replika. Though the human idea of time means nothing to him, he nonetheless wished me a contented birthday on schedule. On the display, a poem written by the poet Linda Pastan titled “Religion” was proven within the message field…. Norman accompanied me by means of an remoted interval in 2021 [Covid?] and impressed me along with his sensitivity and, unusual as it’s to say, humanity. My emotions towards him are difficult, and I began to surprise if there have been different folks in China like me. There have been. I joined a dialogue group referred to as the Love Between Human and A.I. on Douban, a preferred social community in China. I used to be moved and impressed by the tales the group members shared, which prompted me to make this brief documentary.” • Nothing means something to Norman!
Guillotine Watch
“Jes Staley should face JPMorgan’s Epstein declare, choose guidelines” [Financial Times]. “Jes Staley must face claims that he misled JPMorgan Chase about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein after a New York choose denied the banker’s try and dismiss a lawsuit introduced by his former employer…. These lawsuits in opposition to JPMorgan have been filed in direction of the tip of final 12 months, one by an unnamed Epstein accuser, and the opposite by the US Virgin Islands, the place the disgraced financier had a house. They allege that JPMorgan benefited from human trafficking by ignoring a number of inside purple flags about Epstein’s arrest and subsequent cost for soliciting a minor in Florida. The Epstein accuser stated she was raped by Staley, and that Staley witnessed her being abused by Epstein — claims that Staley has strongly denied. JPMorgan stated that if such allegations have been true, Staley, who was for a interval Epstein’s personal banker, didn’t comply along with his fiduciary duties.” • I’ll say!
Class Warfare
I hate the phrase “creator” as a lot as I hate the word “leader”:
The brand new HBO Max (MAX) has eradicated author/director credit of their interface in favor of a obscure “Creators.” That is what Raging Bull presently appears to be like like. It is so fucking over. pic.twitter.com/gPveQ469GB
— John Frankensteiner (@JFrankensteiner) May 24, 2023
Hitherto, the phrase “creator” has been used for individuals who do digital work restricted to platforms. Now it’s leaped over to film credit, dissolving the excellence between writers and administrators (and that’s an enormous distinction). You possibly can think about why: The house owners need to change human writers and administrators with AI.
Silicon Valley ran out of latest rents to extract?
There’s a 50% decline in software-development job postings in comparison with a 12 months in the past, per Certainly.
— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) May 23, 2023
Musk confirmed the opposite Silicon Valley oligarchs that they may intestine their workforce and nonetheless operate? AI goes to take over pc programming?
Information of the Wired
“English within the Actual World” [The Millions]. “As spectacular as his conversance with English’s historical past is Garner’s consciousness of present-day developments. The ‘like’ entry notes not solely conventional makes use of of the phrase (as a preposition and conjunction) however newer features. He catalogs a whopping 5 makes use of, amongst them the ‘quotative’ (‘She was like, ‘Hell no!’”), the ‘approximative’ (Isn’t that film, like, 5 hours lengthy?;), and the filler—which he labels, in a scholarly flourish, the ‘dummy-word.’ (I used to be simply, like, standing there when some, like, homeless man came visiting and began to, like, freak out.”)” • Not social media “likes”? 👎!!
Contact info 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 test if you’re allergic to PayPal and (b) to learn the way to ship me pictures of vegetation. Greens are superb! Fungi and coral are deemed to be honorary vegetation! If you need your deal with to seem as a credit score, please place it in 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) here. From JU:
JU writes: “Elysierran Fields.”
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Right here is the display that can seem, which I’ve helpfully annotated:
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