2:00PM Water Cooler 6/12/2023 | bare capitalism

By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

My E[pastes]f[pastes]fing “[pastes]f” key continues to be [[pastes]household blogged] and will probably be or the orseeable uture… The worst o it’s that I can’t ind something I any reader has a intelligent answer or my 2021 M1 MacBook Professional, so I don’t must take it to the store, I’d admire it. Shake it the other way up? Microwave it? Care[pastes]absolutely detach the… no no no no no. –lambert

Chicken Music of the Day

Sage Thrasher, Twelve Mile Cr., Criminal, Oregon, United States. “Music.” Voluble little chap!

Politics

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

Biden Administration

“Biden world restructures itself round promoting Bidenomics” [Politico]. “Contained in the White Home, a group of senior officers led by deputy chief of workers Natalie Quillian has been charged with main the acceleration of 1000’s extra investments within the bridge repairs, railroad upgrades and clear power initiatives that the White Home believes will drive job development and, in the end, present an antidote to Biden’s stagnant approval rankings. That’s only one element of the push. Cupboard departments are additionally underneath orders to hurry implementation of key social and financial insurance policies handed underneath final yr’s big local weather, well being care and tax regulation. And the White Home plans to deploy prime officers throughout the U.S. to focus on building enhancements and new manufacturing initiatives in purple and blue states alike, punctuated by a two-week blitz on the finish of June that the administration has dubbed its ‘Investing in America’ tour.” • Obama did infrastructure throughout his miserably insufficient and needlessly extended “restoration,” however by no means publicized it, so that is good. However will Biden additionally tout the “acceleration” of lashing the poor with work necessities?

2024

I suppose it’s time for the Countdown Clock!

* * *

On the Trump matter, I feel this Greenwald video is dispositive:

Double customary. And the Espionage Act is unhealthy. Case closed. 23:15, however nicely value listening to in full. Seize a cup of espresso. (I do attempt to pay attention whereas writing, and sometimes I can multitask like that efficiently. Greenwald’s voice, which could be described as grating, can also be very compelling. On this case it’s value it.)

Maddow lets the cat out of the bag:

MSNBC’s Maddow suggests DOJ might do quid professional quo with Trump, dropping expenses if he leaves 2024 race pic.twitter.com/ELjpvDx4J7

— TV Information Now (@TVNewsNow) June 10, 2023

Of course [slaps forehead]! Why didn’t I consider that?

* * *

RFK on Jordan Peterson:

RFK jr aka Bobby Kennedy lays it out to Jordan Peterson about why we see a lot sexual/gender dysphoria. It’s within the water. #leavethekidsalone pic.twitter.com/RpAV1uwUKE

— Erin Elizabeth Well being Nut Information 🙌 (@unhealthytruth) June 10, 2023

I’m superb with more-than-worrying about poisonous chemical compounds in our water provide. However I feel RFK might be going too far with Atrazine and the frogs (a topic of controversy that RFK presents as settled science and quantitatively to an viewers actually primed for this factoid). Extra information welcome — research, please, and no YouTubes or rants.

“Is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. antivaccine? Decide him by his personal phrases!” [Science-Based Medicine]. “Alongside the way in which, his claims to be “fiercely pro-vaccine” however, RFK Jr. demonstrated himself to be, in actuality, fiercely antivaccine, whether or not he was likening vaccination to the Holocaust, making an attempt to persuade Samoan officials that the MMR vaccine was harmful (in the midst of a deadly measles outbreak!), claiming that immediately’s technology of kids is the “sickest generation” (as a consequence of vaccines, after all!), or toadying up to President-Elect Donald Trump in the course of the transition interval to be chair of a “vaccine safety commission.” Certainly, a number of years in the past his family even called him out for his antivaccine activism….” • For the avoidance of doubt, I’m not a fan of mRNA and don’t suppose there ought to have ever have been a mandate for them. However measles?

“Cornel West for President” ‘[Cornel West]. • His marketing campaign web site. Somewhat spare, I have to say. And, naturally, not utilizing Act Blue for fundraising.

“Democratic fears develop over third-party candidates” [The Hill]. “The bipartisan group ‘No Labels’ has been working towards constructing the inspiration to launch a ‘unity ticket’ to run as an possibility separate from Democrats or Republicans as polls present a rematch between Biden and former President Trump is probably going. And Cornel West, a progressive activist, grew to become the primary comparatively well-known third-party candidate to enter the race. The developments come as polling reveals People souring on the prospect of a Biden-Trump rematch. A NewsNation/DDHQ ballot launched this week discovered 49 % of respondents mentioned it was considerably or very seemingly they’d take into account voting for a third-party candidate in 2024 if Trump and Biden have been the nominees. In the meantime, an NBC Information ballot launched final month discovered 70 % of People mentioned they didn’t need Biden to run for president subsequent yr, whereas 60 % say they don’t want Trump to run for president in 2024. ‘It’s nearly common,’ mentioned former Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), who’s concerned with No Labels. ‘Individuals are simply saying ‘350 million People, can’t we’ve got a special match?’” • I hate that phrase “unity” as a result of it implies that there’s no such factor as a faction, which is traditionally false. Additional, battle is constructed into our republican system; it’s referred to as [genuflects] the separation of powers. While you hear anyone preaching unity, depend the spoons once they depart.

“Lawsuits in opposition to state could be filed in solely two counties underneath measure signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker” [Chicago Tribune]. “Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Tuesday signed into regulation a measure that requires lawsuits difficult the constitutionality of govt orders or state legal guidelines to be filed in both Cook dinner or Sangamon county…. State Rep. Dan Caulkins of Decatur, who has sued the state over the sweeping gun ban signed into regulation in January, voiced objections in the course of the flooring debate on the invoice final month. ‘They cross unconstitutional legal guidelines to make law-abiding residents criminals, after which they make those self same residents journey lots of of miles to a kangaroo court docket that they management,’ Caulkins mentioned of Democrats. ‘Tyrants are at all times the identical, whether or not kings or lawless Chicago politicians.’”

“IDPH to supply air purifiers to Head Begin school rooms” [Shaw Local News Network]. “Gov. JB Pritzker and the Illinois Division of Public Well being have introduced that the state will probably be offering greater than 1,000 HEPA purifiers to Illinois Head Begin and Early Head Begin packages across the state to assist cut back the transmission of respiratory viruses, together with COVID-19…. The hassle builds on a beforehand introduced IDPH program to supply HEPA air purifiers to Okay-12 faculties all through Illinois and is funded via the CDC’s Epidemiology and Laboratory Capability for Prevention and Management Reopening Colleges funding.” • Good. Extra like this, please.

* * *

“George Soros Arms Management to His 37-12 months-Outdated Son: ‘I’m Extra Political’” [Wall Street Journal]. “Alex [Soros] mentioned he was involved in regards to the prospect of Donald Trump’s return to the White Home, suggesting a major monetary position for the Soros group within the 2024 presidential race. ‘As a lot as I’d like to get cash out of politics, so long as the opposite aspect is doing it, we must do it, too,” he mentioned in an interview on the fund supervisor’s New York workplaces.’”

Democrats en Déshabillé

Affected person readers, plainly persons are really studying the back-dated publish! 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 Occasion (“the Democrat Occasion 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 Occasion 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 Occasion is the political expression of the category energy of PMC, their base (lucidly defined by Thomas Frank in Pay attention, Liberal!). ; if the Democrat Occasion didn’t exist, the PMC must invent it. . (“PMC” modulo “class expatriates,” after all.) Second, all of the working components of the Occasion reinforce one another. Go away apart characterizing the relationships between components of the Occasion (ka-ching, however not fully) these components 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.

* * *

Phrase-making!

Toxicoplasmosis economicus

— Official_Parody_Anabasis (@Anabasi74801802) June 10, 2023

Realignment and Legitimacy

#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); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker” (in IA, however nationwide information).

Lambert right here: Readers, thanks for the collective effort.

Assets, 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).

Assets, Canada (Nationwide): Wastewater (Government of Canada).

Assets, 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

If you understand of kids going to summer time camp:

Bus journey sadly a blind spot for the @VicGovDE cv secure plans – these readings are extremely excessive.

Makes statements like this come as no shock (3 June Courier Mail) https://t.co/VKUaEBSFz9 pic.twitter.com/UvzJMdnkSu

— MsAmyLewis (@MsAmyLewis) June 12, 2023

(From Australia, however a bus is a bus.) And:

Replace: 9 youngsters away immediately. What number of extra will there be after the weekend? And what number of weak relations can pay the worth? 😳

Legislate faculty air high quality in – and out of – the classroom! @pruecar @ChrisMinnsMP @RyanPark_Keira

— We Put The Libs Final! (@Mimlet2) May 26, 2023

Maskstravaganza

The CDC lastly “helps” masks. I feel that is the lamest advert I’ve ever seen (or listened to):

First, the opener means that masks are solely for the disabled. Second, the protagonist is just sporting a Saggy Blue. Why not a respirator? Has CDC realized nothing? (Wait, don’t reply that). Leaving apart the cloying alternative of a disabled American Indian woman having what to do defined to her by her father, the ultimate message: “Some individuals put on masks. Some don’t. That’s okay!” No, it’s not. Infecting different individuals with your personal bio-effluent isn’t the most immoral act on the earth, however morally impartial? Innocuous? No, it’s very not. Should you simply can’t do it, for pity’s sake decrease the probabilities of tranmission to others in each approach doable.

Censorship

“Social media, duct tape are serving to individuals make DIY air purifiers to filter out wildfire smoke” [Associated Press]. Despite the fact that the Corsi-Rosenthal Field emerged as a response to the Covid pandemic, there isn’t any point out of Covid within the article. All the historical past has been erased. With deadly impact, after all, since when what you’ll be able to see — smoke — goes away, it is going to appear OK to show of the field, at which level what you can not see — the virus — can infect you. A surprising dereliction by AP.

Sequelae

“Gentle SARS-CoV-2 an infection ends in long-lasting microbiota instability” [American Association for Microbiology]. “Viruses focusing on mammalian cells can not directly alter the intestine microbiota, probably compounding their phenotypic results. A number of research have noticed a disrupted intestine microbiota in extreme instances of extreme acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) an infection that require hospitalization. … Taken collectively, our outcomes display that even gentle instances of SARS-CoV-2 can disrupt intestine microbial ecology. Our findings in non-hospitalized people are according to research of hospitalized sufferers, in that reproducible shifts in intestine microbial taxonomic abundance in response to SARS-CoV-2 have been tough to establish. As a substitute, we report a long-lasting instability within the intestine microbiota. Surprisingly, our mouse experiments revealed an affect of the Omicron variant, regardless of producing the least extreme signs in genetically prone mice, suggesting that regardless of the continued evolution of SARS-CoV-2, it has retained its potential to perturb the intestinal mucosa.” • Hmm. Mucosa once more, as within the nostril.

Therapy

“Dicoumarol is an efficient post-exposure prophylactic for SARS-CoV-2 Omicron an infection in human airway epithelium” [Nature]. From the Summary: “Repurposing present medication to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 an infection in airway epithelial cells (AECs) is a fast approach to discover novel remedies for COVID-19. Computational screening has discovered dicoumarol (DCM), a pure anticoagulant, to be a possible SARS-CoV-2 inhibitor, however its inhibitory results and doable working mechanisms stay unknown…. Collectively, we demonstrated that DCM is an efficient post-exposure prophylactic for SARS-CoV-2 an infection within the human AECs, and these findings might assist physicians formulate novel remedy methods for COVID-19.” • The mechanism, apparently, operates on the cilia of nasal tissues. Extra on DCM–

“A pharmacological evaluate of dicoumarol: An outdated pure anticoagulant agent” [Pharmacological Research]. From 2020: “Dicoumarol is an oral anticoagulant agent prescribed in medical for many years… On account of its structural similarity to that of vitamin Okay, it considerably inhibits vitamin Okay epoxide reductase and acts as a vitamin Okay antagonist. … The unwanted effects of dicoumarol elevate security considerations for medical software.” • Children, don’t do that at residence!!! (This 1948 article on “Dicumarol Poisoning” contains the phrase “bloody stool.”)

“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, almost certainly deriving from immune dysregulation (says this layperson). To which we would add mind injury, together with character modifications therefrom.

* * *

“SARS-CoV-2 Infectivity and Neurological Targets within the Mind” [Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology] (via). From 2020, nonetheless germane. From the Abtract: “The gateway for invasion by the novel extreme acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) into human host cells is through the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) transmembrane receptor expressed in a number of immune and nonimmune cell varieties. SARS-CoV-2, that causes coronavirus illness 2019 (COVID-19; CoV-19) has the bizarre capability to assault many various kinds of human host cells concurrently…. The very best ACE2 expression degree was discovered within the pons and medulla oblongata within the human brainstem, containing , and should partly clarify the susceptibility of many CoV-19 sufferers to extreme respiratory misery.” • Useful chart:

Heaven is aware of I don’t play a neurologist, not even on TV, and [hand on heart] I like mechanisms however dislike mechanistic explanations, as a result of the physique is extraordinarily complicated, however: The second-highest bars is the amygdala. Let’s assume injury there. From PNAS, “Going through the position of the amygdala in emotional data processing”: “The amygdala is usually thought to kind the core of a neural system for processing fearful and threatening stimuli.” Therefore, one would possibly speculate, the anecdata on refusal to guard oneself or others, aggressive individualism, unhealthy driving, normal rudeness, and so forth., post-covid? Intriguingly: “[H]umans with amygdala injury are typically impaired in recognizing emotional facial expressions, particularly fearful ones.” Speculating much more wildly, the oft-heard demand for eradicating one’s masks could also be an unconscious response to/rationalization of impaired facial recognition capability, as a consequence of covid. (And to spherical out the woo woo, each these speculations could be a case of SARS-CoV-2 optimizing its personal surroundings for unfold. Maybe we’ve got some neurologists within the readership?

Elite Maleficence

The Surgeon General’s website on Covid is ghastly. However then there’s this:

The three elements of social connection—construction, operate, & high quality—are important to our well being and well-being. My Advisory on the Therapeutic Results of Social Connection & Neighborhood explains this idea and the numerous advantages of connecting with others. https://t.co/gEmfPehfKp pic.twitter.com/h1fq2bFKg6

— Dr. Vivek Murthy, U.S. Surgeon Common (@Surgeon_General) June 10, 2023

Additionally, on the “Three Important Elements of Social Connection,” shouldn’t there be 4? Apart from Construction, Operate, and High quality, shouldn’t there be — placing this in neoliberal phrases — Danger? Just like the Danger on infecting or being contaminated? Extroverts are gonna kill us all. Breathing is a social relation, in spite of everything:

Second verse, identical as the primary:

I had one reply. A doc from the @UHN recommended I do rounds there. He reached out to the upper ups… and was refused.

The place are we in science once we will not even take into account vital, life-saving ideas? If nothing else, have me (or one other) there to debate the idea? 2/2

— 𝙹𝚘𝚎 𝚅𝚒𝚙𝚘𝚗𝚍 (@jvipondmd) June 12, 2023

Case Knowledge

UPDATED WITH NOTE From BioBot wastewater data from June 5:

Lambert: Oh no….

For now, I’m going to make use of this nationwide wastewater information as the most effective proxy for case information (ignoring the medical case information 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 tendencies, and evaluate present ranges to equal previous ranges.

Variants

NOT UPDATED From CDC, June 10:

Lambert right here: Appears to love XBB.1.16 and now XBB.1.16 are outcompeting XBB.1.9, however XBB.1.5 has actually endurance. I certain hope the volunteers doing Pangolin, on which this chart depends, don’t all transfer on the inexperienced fields and pastures new (or have their entry to services minimize by directors of unwell intent).

CDC: “As of Might 11, genomic surveillance information will probably be reported biweekly, primarily based on the provision of constructive check specimens.” “Biweeekly: 1. occurring each two weeks. 2. occurring twice per week; semiweekly.” Appears like CDC has chosen sense #1. In essence, they’re telling us variants are nothing to fret about. Time will inform. Appears like the Walgreens variants web page isn’t updating.

Covid Emergency Room Visits

NOT UPDATED From CDC NCIRD Surveillance, from June 3:

NOTE “Charts and information offered by CDC, updates Wednesday by 8am. For the previous yr, utilizing a rolling 52-week interval.” So not all the 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 each_{MR SUBLIMINAL I hate these individuals a lot}. Discover additionally that this chart reveals, at the very least for its time interval, that Covid is not seasonal, despite the fact that CDC is making an attempt to get us to consider that it’s, presumably to allow them to piggyback on the present institutional equipment for injections.

Positivity

NOT UDPATED From Walgreens, June 5:

0.4%. Frequency right down to as soon as per week.

Deaths

NOT UPDATED Loss of life fee (Our World in Data), from June 7:

Lambert right here: Theatre of the absurd. I can consider that deaths are low; I can’t consider they’re zero, and I can’t even consider that every one medical doctors signing loss of life certificates have agreed to make it so. Appears to me like some administrative minimizer at WHO put the worst intern answerable for the mission. And thanks, Johns Hopkins of the $9.32 billion endowment, for abandoning this information feed and passing duty on to the clown automotive at WHO.

Total: 1,166,663 – 1,166,408 = 255 (255 * 365 = 93,075 deaths per yr, immediately’s YouGenicist™ quantity for “dwelling with” Covid (fairly a bit larger than the minimizers would love, although they will speak themselves into something. If the YouGenicist™ metric retains chugging alongside like this, I could must resolve that is what the powers-that-be take into account “mission completed” for this explicit tranche of loss of life and illness).

Extra Deaths

NOT UPDATED Extra deaths (The Economist), printed June 4:

Lambert right here: Truly some encouragement!

Lambert right here: Based on a machine-learning model. (The CDC has an extra estimate too, however because it ran ceaselessly with a large typo within the Legend, I figured no person was actually it, so I bought rid it. )

Stats Watch

There are not any official statistics of notice immediately.

Tech: “Tesla is about to drag the plug on its predominant EV charging rival” [The Verge]. “Quick-forward to immediately’s electrical car charging requirements warfare, and it looks like déjà vu. Final month, Ford introduced it’s adopting Tesla’s beforehand proprietary North American Charging Normal (NACS) port for its future automobiles. And Common Motors, the most important automaker in North America, simply introduced yesterday that it’s following swimsuit. Collectively, Ford, Tesla, and GM signify practically three-quarters of the EV market within the US — or 72 %.” •

Right this moment’s Concern & Greed Index: 78 Excessive Greed (earlier shut: 77 Excessive Greed) [CNN]. One week in the past: 73 (Greed). (0 is Excessive Concern; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Jun 12 at 1:29 PM ET.

Rapture Index: Closes unchanged [Rapture Ready]. Report Excessive, October 10, 2016: 189. Present: 184. (Do not forget that bringing on the Rapture is good.) NOTE on #42 Plagues: “The coronavirus pandemic has maxed out this class.” Extra sincere than most!

The Gallery

“Syntax in Santa Barbara” [nonsite]. That is very cool; nonsite is likely one of the few websites to have actually rigorous artwork criticism, which I like. This can be a nice story:

Within the late Nineteen Forties, William Carlos Williams’s understanding of contemporary artwork all of a sudden grew to become inseparable from an origin story about it. Commonly that includes the anecdote in his lectures of the interval, he would simply as commonly point out how fond he was of telling it. “I’ve instructed this story typically earlier than,” he says in a 1952 speech printed as “The American Spirit in Artwork,” “nevertheless it bears repeating”:

Alanson Hartpence, who was once with the Daniel Gallery, as soon as, throughout his boss’s absence, had one of many gallery’s greatest patrons there an image. The estimable woman admired one of many work and appeared about to purchase it—or at the very least she was leaning that approach.

However Mr. Hartpence, she mentioned, what’s all this down right here on this left-hand decrease nook? […]

That, mentioned Hartpence, leaning nearer to examine the place, that, Madame, he mentioned, straightening and her, that’s paint.

He misplaced the sale.

However that’s the actual place the place for us the virus first bit in. That’s the actual place the place for us fashionable artwork started.

Now, I’m unsure I agree with this…

Zeitgeist Watch

“Drowning in Dupes Buyers will purchase something — besides the true factor” [The Cut]. ” Influencers have constructed huge followings shilling dupe suggestions in each product class, from make-up to electronics to meals, and when a dupe goes viral, each it and the unique product typically promote out. However as dupes have taken on a lifetime of their very own, all sense of what makes an excellent one appears to have been misplaced. Right this moment, the dupe itself is extra worthwhile than the unique, and the standard alternate options have been eclipsed by a tsunami of trash. That is Peak Dupe, when the fundamental guidelines of spending and high quality not apply.” • Price studying in full.

Guillotine Watch

“JPMorgan to pay as much as $290mn to settle Epstein accusers’ lawsuit” [Financial Times]. “PMorgan Chase has agreed to pay as much as $290mn to settle considered one of two bombshell lawsuits over its 15-year relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, which accused the financial institution of taking advantage of human trafficking by ignoring a number of inner warnings about their former consumer’s intercourse crimes. The settlement got here simply hours after a federal choose dominated that the case, initially introduced by a single Epstein accuser underneath the pseudonym Jane Doe, could be widened to incorporate dozens of girls who declare to even have been abused by the disgraced financier. The overall dimension of the group who will share the payout exceeds 150 victims, a lawyer for Doe mentioned.” • 150? That’s loads, as Dima would say. I ponder when Epstein’s “black e book” will probably be printed? I don’t suppose the world is run by literal lizard individuals, Epstein moved in rarefied circles — “There should not very most of the Shing” — and I can nicely consider that his milieu, broadly, has tastes which might be extra numerous, let’s consider, than these of lifeless normals.

Class Warfare

“An enormous UPS strike might devastate the economic system. It might be simply eight weeks away” [CNN]. • So give the employees what they need and deserve. Is that so very arduous?

Information of the Wired

“SmolNet” [Community Wiki]. “Sadly, capitalism has been working ever diligently in the other way in direction of hooking individuals into unhealthy computing practices. It will possibly really feel hopeless listening to my family members actively complain about how Fb and Twitter make them really feel unhealthy but proceed checking their timeline all through the day. … By reconsidering the utility of time-tested protocols and hobbling collectively a number of new ones, a rising neighborhood of persons are leaving the proprietary world of flashy social-media web sites to decelerate and luxuriate in life accented by computer systems, not managed by them. … On the Small Net, communities host themselves which suggests cross-domain looking may be very a lot inspired and an vital characteristic of the community at giant. Actual individuals, not firms, host the Small Net.” • Fascinating…

Contact data for crops: 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 if you’re allergic to PayPal and (b) to learn how to ship me photos of crops. Greens are superb! Fungi and coral are deemed to be honorary crops! If you need your deal with to seem as a credit score, please place it firstly of your mail in parentheses: (thus). In any other case, I’ll anonymize through the use of your initials. See the earlier Water Cooler (with plant) here. From GC:

GC writes: “In Tucson environs immediately whereas climbing to suppress this angle.”

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