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By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Hen Music of the Day
Monotonous Lark, Omaruru; at railroad crossing simply earlier than Paula’s Cave, Namibia. “Species Sound: Fixed… These birds sing day and night time for six weeks when the rains come. In flat arid space calling from music perch on prime of small tree.” Heaps occurring!
Politics
“So most of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are in reality a rational administration of symbolic capital.” –Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles
Capitol Seizure
“Arkansas man sentenced to 4.5 years in jail for position in US Capitol riot” [Anadolu Agency]. • That is the dude who put his toes up on Pelosi’s desk. I do assume giving him a medal would have been a bridge too far. Perhaps he can run for the Senate or one thing from jail?
Biden Administration
“Lawmakers are leaving Washington and not using a debt restrict deal as threat of default grows” [CNN]. “A debt restrict deal continues to be not but shut at hand for Home Republicans and the White Home as lawmakers go away the nation’s capital and the danger of a first-ever default grows. With no invoice to vote on, Home lawmakers are leaving for the Memorial Day weekend, although they are going to be given 24 hours’ discover to return if and when a deal is reached.”
2024
I assume it’s time for the Countdown Clock!
* * * “Elon Musk’s Twitter Occasion With Ron DeSantis Hits Technical Points” [Wall Street Journal]. “Twitter suffered technical issues at a high-profile second Wednesday, throughout an occasion the place proprietor Elon Musk deliberate to host Republican Ron DeSantis’s presidential marketing campaign announcement on the platform. The announcement was scheduled to happen utilizing Twitter Areas, a dwell audio characteristic. However the occasion shortly faltered, with many customers saying the expertise wasn’t working for them and that the audio was going out and in. After a number of minutes, with greater than 600,000 viewers tuned in in response to the platform, the occasion was transferred to the Twitter account of David Sacks, a expertise investor and affiliate of Musk’s… As soon as the net dialog received underneath means, the dialogue with DeSantis lasted about an hour. The platform confirmed roughly 300,000 listeners tuning in close to the shut of the occasion.” • I don’t assume that’s such a nasty quantity. Readers, did any of you attend?
“Florida Man runs for president” [Politico]. “Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis filed his paperwork to run for president as we speak and kicked off his marketing campaign tonight on Twitter’s audio platform, Twitter Areas (after some technical difficulties), alongside proprietor Elon Musk. It’s an indication his 2024 marketing campaign might be waged as a lot on-line as within the city halls of Iowa or on cable TV. However the odds are stacked in opposition to him. No Florida politician has ever been elected president. A half-dozen have run within the final 50 years — primarily the interval by which the state advanced from political backwater to electoral powerhouse — however all have ended up in the identical place, useless within the water lengthy earlier than the nominating conference. Most by no means even made it previous New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation main. The curse of Florida Man — and to this point, each Florida presidential candidate has been male — lingers although the state is a perfect proving floor for a White Home bid. Profitable statewide workplace requires campaigning in two time zones, 10 TV markets, and throughout 66,000 sq. miles. It’s house to greater than 22 million individuals — lots of them arrivals from different states, which provides Florida politicians publicity to a variety of political customs and kinds. It’s a curious predicament for the nation’s third-largest state. Florida does have some White Home connections, after all. Presidents have retired there. They’ve owned trip houses there. Trump himself moved there halfway by way of his first time period as president, altering his official residence from Manhattan to Palm Seashore. However within the almost 180 years since Florida was admitted to the Union, it has neither produced a president nor had one born inside its borders. (No, Andrew Jackson’s pre-statehood stint doesn’t depend.) It’s the lone state among the many nation’s 10 most populous that has by no means despatched anybody to the White Home.
“Trump-DeSantis rivalry heats up after Florida governor’s marketing campaign launch” [Axios]. “[T]he new Trump marketing campaign video advert options a picture of DeSantis seated subsequent to President Biden as commentary performs about ‘Washington-established politicians’ and says ‘Why would we ever accept Trump imposters?’ It additionally includes a clip of DeSantis from his 2018 advert studying aloud the Trump marketing campaign signal ‘Make America Nice Once more’ to a toddler.” • Ouch! I do not forget that the late, nice New York Spy journal had one “Angela Crackstaff” on the masthead. Maybe she’s joined the Trump marketing campaign? It will be a welcome change.
Democrats en Déshabillé
Affected person readers, it appears that evidently persons are truly studying the back-dated submit! However I’ve not up to date it, and there are lots of updates. So I must try this. –lambert
I’ve moved my standing remarks on the Democrat Get together (“the Democrat Get together 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 “dwell” Water Cooler. (Hopefully, some Bourdieu.) It seems that defining the Democrat Get together is, in reality, a tough drawback. I do assume the paragraph that follows is on level all the best way again to 2016, if not earlier than:
The Democrat Get together is the political expression of the category energy of PMC, their base (lucidly defined by Thomas Frank in Hear, Liberal!). ; if the Democrat Get together didn’t exist, the PMC must invent it. . (“PMC” modulo “class expatriates,” after all.) Second, all of the working elements of the Get together reinforce one another. Go away apart characterizing the relationships between components of the Get together (ka-ching, however not solely) these components 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 group.
Notice, after all, that the category energy of the PMC each expresses and is proscribed 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.
* * * Collapse of the putative left, half a million and one:
With a number of exceptions, socialist actions don’t appear to care a rattling about the truth that in the event that they collect in stuffy rooms with out face masks throughout a pandemic, they exclude lots of their comrades.
I am not going to level fingers, however examples abound. We have to be taught. 🧵1/13 pic.twitter.com/kBAQ2o5VnN
— Maarten Steenhagen (@msteenhagen) May 24, 2023
Not on flimsy “social justice” grounds, however as a result of the stochastic eugenicism of Biden’s marketing campaign of mass an infection with out mitigation hits the working class — supposedly socialism’s base — particularly onerous. And DSA has the identical drawback.
Obama Legacy
At the very least he didn’t hop a freight prepare through the rail strike that by no means was:
mister president (@BarackObama) i perceive you’re selling a documentary and supporting your individual exemplary crew, however should you actually do promotion for a corporation topic to a major labor motion? for a documentary concerning the worth of labor? https://t.co/qEXZqSLBgN
— javier grillo-marxuach (@OKBJGM) May 24, 2023
#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; contains many counties); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker” (in IA, however nationwide knowledge).
Lambert right here: Readers, thanks for the collective effort. We are actually 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 individuals with “private threat assessments” acceptable to their state. For instance, pondering pessimistically, we would keep 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 slightly sketchy; it feels slightly 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 must 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 positive there are others. FL additionally springs to thoughts as a particular case, as a result of DeSantis will most 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!
Covid Is Airborne
“Covid may do for air flow what cholera did for cleaner water techniques” [Quartz]. “The metrics of air flow—circulation charges, 09uop, filtration—could also be difficult. However within the easiest of phrases, mentioned Joey Fox, a heating, air flow and air con techniques (HVAC) engineer primarily based in Canada, ‘the answer to all the pieces is making the indoors extra like the outside.’ Recent air disperses viruses and different particulate matter, making them much less dangerous to people. Three years into the pandemic, we all know that the majority covid transmission happens indoors, notably in poorly ventilated areas. Bettering indoor air will cut back the unfold of covid, with main implications for public well being in all places.”
Vocabulary time:
That is an attention-grabbing thought.
Does the time period ‘airborne’ have a stigma?
We see descriptions of transmission corresponding to ‘born by droplets suspended in air’ which to us imply airborne, however to the individuals who use them don’t.
Are you able to enhance on this concept?
Tell us what you assume. https://t.co/SbSJZsA8rw— The Corsi-Rosenthal Basis (@CRBoxFoundation) May 23, 2023
That is an attention-grabbing thought and really dangerous (and I come from a running a blog custom that regarded le mot juste as essential tactically. The resistance to “Covid is Airborne” in, say Hospital An infection Management, comes as a result of they don’t settle for the paradigm and are partaking in large resistance to it out {of professional} and sophistication curiosity. Their establishments should be nuked from orbit, not catered to. Notice Curran’s bio: IPC (An infection prevention and management). The place the heck had been these individuals within the notorious second the place Mike Ryan received Tedros to retract and erase the phrase “airborne”? Nowhere, that’s the place, and really joyful to be so. Notice additionally the reversal of valance: Usually, it’s good to share, not dangerous. So Curran’s proposal requires one other layer of clarification — no no, this sharing is dangerous — and weakens the urgency.
Maskstravaganza
Individuals can change:
Came upon as we speak that 2 individuals who gave me shit & made enjoyable of me up to now for masking now put on KN95s/n95s. I requested “Why?” as a result of they had been so die onerous anti masks. One mentioned it’s as a result of they received covid and it was “truly actually dangerous” they usually had been “scared”. Nicely, issues change.
— ✨ (@bumblebuzz6) May 25, 2023
If one should admit being “scared” — as opposed having a totally rational apprehension — that takes some braveness, in as we speak’s ambiance.
The masks you may smile with:
NEW N95 RESPIRATOR MASK WITH ANTI-FOG CLEAR VISION WINDOW – STEALTH CLARITY
Hey everyone, we now have simply added this to our merchandise. TGA authorised. Now in use by WA Well being. Comfy. Wonderful for individuals whose mouth must be seen.
Purchase it right here👇https://t.co/9ELG0jldns pic.twitter.com/tcAwJP9kzV
— CO2 Radical (@CO2RadicalAus) May 24, 2023
Perhaps this masks works to convey empathy and for lip studying, I don’t know. (For myself, I discover the clear plastic slightly creepy). If it does, I’m positive we’ll discover the anti-maskers lining up to verify each hospital makes use of them!
If sneaker artwork, why not masks artwork (as I suggested here):
The Stan Smith, the best-selling sneaker from Adidas. (You would make masks collectible, too! Signed and numbered….)
A protracted thread of fit-testing:
THREAD: 19 Suggestions for a DIY masks match check to cut back your threat of #COVID19.
H/t @amandalhu & @__philipn__
What did I miss? pic.twitter.com/Pp1bM8zMur
— Mike Hoerger, PhD MSCR MBA (@michael_hoerger) December 17, 2022
(After all, if we had standard sizes, match testing could be rather a lot simpler.) Sadly, I couldn’t discover the tweet I actually wished: The account mentioned their tip for fit-testing was to stroll down a grocery store aisle the place the odor of artificial fragrances could be sturdy; I believe the detergent aisle. If she didn’t scent something, the match was good. Readers?
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, probably deriving from immune dysregulation (says this layperson).
Case Knowledge
NOT UPDATED From BioBot wastewater data from Might 22:
Lambert right here: Until the US 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 international 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 medical case knowledge portion of this chart, which in my opinion “goes dangerous” after March 2022, for causes as but unexplained). At the very least we will spot developments, and evaluate present ranges to equal previous ranges.
Variants
NOT UPDATED From CDC, Might 13, 2023:
CDC: “As of Might 11, genomic surveillance knowledge might be reported biweekly, primarily based on the supply of optimistic check specimens.” “Biweeekly: 1. occurring each two weeks. 2. occurring twice every week; semiweekly.” Appears to be like like CDC has chosen sense #1. In essence, they’re telling us variants are nothing to fret about. Time will inform. Appears to be like like the Walgreens variants web page isn’t updating.
Covid Emergency Room Visits
NOT UPDATED From CDC NCIRD Surveillance, from Might 20:
NOTE “Charts and knowledge offered by CDC, updates Wednesday by 8am. For the previous yr, utilizing a rolling 52-week interval.” So not your entire pandemic, FFS (the implicit message right here being that Covid is “similar to the flu,” which is why the seasonal “rolling 52-week interval” is suitable for eachMR SUBLIMINAL I hate these individuals a lot. Discover additionally that this chart exhibits, at the least for its time interval, that Covid is not seasonal, although CDC is attempting to get us to imagine that it’s, presumably to allow them to piggyback on the present institutional equipment for injections.
Positivity
NOT UPDATED From Walgreens, Might 22:
-1.1%. Frequency right down to as soon as every week? UPDATE Apparently so!
Deaths
Demise price (Our World in Data), from Might 22:
Lambert right here: One other fall to zero, nearly actually an information artifact. Thanks, Johns Hopkins of the $9.32 endowment, for abandoning this knowledge feed and passing accountability on to WHO.
Total: 1,164,718 – 1,164,564 = 154 (154 * 365 = 56,210 deaths per yr, as we speak’s YouGenicist™ quantity for “residing with” Covid (fairly a bit increased than the minimizers would love, although they’ll speak themselves into something. If the YouGenicist™ metric retains chugging alongside like this, I may should determine that is what the powers-that-be take into account “mission completed” for this explicit tranche of dying and illness).
Extra Deaths
NOT UPDATED Extra deaths (The Economist), revealed Might 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 person was actually it, so I received rid it. )
Stats Watch
Employment Scenario: “United States Preliminary Jobless Claims” [Trading Economics]. “The variety of Individuals submitting for unemployment advantages rose to 229 thousand within the week ending Might twentieth, barely up from an over two-month low of 225 thousand the week earlier than however nicely beneath market expectations of 245 thousand. The newest knowledge prompt that the labor market in the US stays comparatively sturdy and constrained, which may doubtlessly lead to upward strain on wages and current for the Federal Reserve to think about extra rate of interest hikes as a part of its measures to handle inflation.” • The beatings will proceed…
Banking: “Banking Disaster Is Over, Prime Executives Say” [Wall Street Journal]. “‘I believe as a systemic threat, it’s over,’ UBS Chairman Colm Kelleher mentioned at The Wall Road Journal CEO Council Summit in London. ‘What’s not been solved but is what’s the funding mannequin that can work going ahead.’ Barclays Chief Government Officer C.S. Venkatakrishnan added that the acute disaster has handed however that many banks might be pressured to vary their enterprise fashions—together with presumably by curbing lending. ‘I believe the section of preliminary discovery is over and I believe there’s going to be slightly little bit of a longer-term discovery and adjustment,’ he mentioned.” • Banks don’t have a funding mannequin? Actually?
Tech: “How U.S. adults on Twitter use the positioning within the Elon Musk period” [Pew Research Center].
Right now’s Worry & Greed Index: 62 Greed (earlier shut: 60 Impartial) [CNN]. One week in the past: 67 (Greed). (0 is Excessive Worry; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Might 25 at 1:42 PM ET.
The 420
“State to fund medical trials on “entire mushroom” psilocybin analysis” [Axios Phoenix]. “Arizona will quickly award $5 million in grants for researchers to conduct medical research on hallucinogenic psilocybin mushrooms. The lately authorised price range for fiscal yr 2024 includes a competitive grant program overseen by the Arizona Division of Well being Providers (ADHS). Grant recipients will conduct medical trials to review the consequences of “entire mushroom psilocybin” on post-traumatic stress dysfunction, lengthy COVID signs, melancholy, anxiousness, persistent ache and different maladies.
Trials should prioritize veterans, first responders, frontline well being care staff and other people from underserved communities. An rising physique of analysis signifies that psilocybin is an efficient remedy for a wide range of medical issues.” • On the one hand, I believe thiis is sweet. On the opposite, Soma for the traumatized means it’s OK for the trauma to proceed.
Class Warfare
Misconstruing the Bearded One (1). Click on “Present Extra”:
i went to dozens of lesbian events and occasions whereas they had been nonetheless a factor.
what occurred:
consuming beer
taking pictures
dancing
k-y jelly wrestling
drama
toplessness and nudity
taking part in playing cards/pool
hooking upwhat by no means occurred:
all ages drag exhibits
individuals asking “what are…— Heidi (@HeidiBriones) May 24, 2023
No matter Marx was about, it wasn’t id politics.
Misconstruing the Bearded One (2)
Regardless of the Bolsheviks had been about, they had been Marxists. Putin’s thesis (given on the all the time attention-grabbing Valdai Dialogue Membership) is both vacuous (“Revolutions result in main social adjustments”) or incorrect (like he’s been studying an excessive amount of James Lindsay on “cultural Marxism” — the bucket Lindsay invented to throw id politics in — which isn’t a factor, or relatively is a factor solely within the minds of conservative fever swamp dwellers, although I suppose you possibly can barely make a case for the Frankfurt Faculty). In any case, it’s amusing to see Briones and Putin find yourself roughly in the identical place.
Information of the Wired
A genuinely scary film (in my opinion, too strongly-premised as science fiction, therefore real looking, to be horror):
ALIEN was launched 44 years in the past as we speak. One of many definitive science fiction/horror films, its affect continues to be seen to this present day. The behind-the-scenes story of how the movie was made is an enchanting one…
A THREAD
1/38 pic.twitter.com/nZT8xWVK6T
— All The Proper Films (@ATRightMovies) May 25, 2023
I do know that is from one other film within the Alien franchise, but it surely applies in so, so many circumstances:
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