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By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Fowl Music of the Day
Northern Screamer, Ciénaga la Coroza, Córdoba, Colombia. “Duet.”
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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
The Supremes
“Supreme Court docket to contemplate multi-pronged constitutional assault on SEC” [SCOTUSblog]. “The argument on Wednesday in Securities and Alternate Fee v. Jarkesy will current a outstanding spectacle of three totally distinct constitutional challenges to wholly disparate attributes of the SEC. Ordinarily, the power of the justices to regulate their docket would permit them to attend on every query for the event of a circuit battle and choose an acceptable case through which to resolve every challenge. However on this case a daring (I didn’t say “rogue”) panel of the U.S. Court docket of Appeals for the fifth Circuit accepted all three arguments and invalidated three points of the SEC’s operations. To depart the choice unreviewed would drive Congress to revise considerably the affected parts of the securities legal guidelines solely primarily based on the opinion of 1 divided decrease court docket panel – therefore, the Supreme Court docket’s buffet of constitutional regulation matters on Wednesday morning…. The primary query earlier than the justices is whether or not Congress constitutionally licensed the company to adjudicate administrative proceedings that impose financial penalties. That raises a query below the court docket’s deeply fraught doctrine of “public rights,” which provides an exception to the Seventh Modification jury trial requirement. …. The second query is whether or not Congress can delegate to the SEC the ability to determine whether or not a case needs to be pursued as an administrative continuing or as a civil enforcement motion – that’s, throughout the company or in a federal district court docket. … The third query within the case is whether or not the Structure permits Congress to present the SEC’s administrative regulation judges safety from removing.”
“Supreme Court docket to contemplate ‘quadrillion-dollar query’ in main tax case” [The Hill]. “At challenge in Moore v. United States is the query of whether or not the federal authorities can tax sure kinds of “unrealized” features, that are property like shares or bonds that folks personal however from which they haven’t straight recouped the worth, so that they don’t have direct entry to the cash that the property is price…. Even when the court docket limits the scope of its determination to the particular tax referenced within the case, often called the necessary repatriation tax, a ruling in favor of the plaintiffs might price $340 billion over the following decade, in response to the Justice Division…. Critics of a blanket constitutional requirement for realization say the concept is trumped up, and it’s actually simply in regards to the timing of when an asset is allowed to be taxed for accounting functions. They level to a 1940 determination in Helvering v. Horst discovering that ‘the rule that earnings just isn’t taxable till realized has by no means been taken to imply that the taxpayer … can escape taxation as a result of he has not himself acquired cost of it from his obligor.’ It is because the taxpayer ‘has totally loved the advantage of the financial achieve represented by his proper to obtain earnings,’ the court docket discovered. As such, the requirement was thought of to be ‘based on administrative comfort’ and ‘not one among exemption from taxation.’”
2024
Lower than a yr to go!
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“Tips on how to Watch the DeSantis-Newsom Debate” [New York Times]. Moderated by Hannity. “Fox Information will host a 90-minute debate between Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, beginning at 9 p.m. Jap time on Thursday…. Mr. DeSantis is going through an intensifying race as he pushes for a robust displaying in Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses in January….. He’s going through Mr. Newsom, who has been a key ally of President Biden’s and a number one voice of the nationwide Democratic Occasion. Mr. Newsom has gathered the type of nationwide assist and connections with donors that will place him in a robust place for a future presidential run…. [T]he uncommon spectacle displays the present state of the presidential marketing campaign: Mr. DeSantis has been slowly shedding momentum and desires a jolt. Mr. Newsom has additionally been wanting to additional increase his nationwide profile, and Mr. Biden wants highly effective surrogates who may help make the case for a second time period.” • “Spectacle.”
“The Memo: Newsom and DeSantis put together to sq. off for Fox debate” [The Hill]. “For DeSantis, it’s a uncommon alternative to command heart stage with out anybody else stealing his thunder…. Newsom, for his half, is clearly positioning himself as a nationwide determine throughout the Democratic Occasion. He has tamped down hypothesis that he would problem President Biden for the nomination this yr. However he would nonetheless be one of the apparent options if any severe mishap occurred for the 81-year-old Biden and, even when that doesn’t occur, he has established himself as a top-tier candidate for the longer term. Including an additional frisson to Thursday night’s conflict is the notion that the 2 males really don’t like one another.” • Properly, I really don’t like both of them, too. I assume Newsom has his speaking factors prepared, however it will likely be fascinating to see what DeSantis’s oppo staff comes up with. Additionally, “severe mishap”? Versus an unserious one?
“DeSantis v Newsom: the presidential match-up that isn’t” [The Economist]. “Image it: two of America’s strongest governors take the talk stage. One is sporting copious quantities of hair gel. The opposite could, or could not, be sporting lifted boots to seem taller…. In one other universe this might have been a prime-time debate through the 2024 presidential marketing campaign. As a substitute, Messrs DeSantis and Newsom will face off on Fox Information on November thirtieth for causes unclear even to the governors themselves. Throughout an interview final month in Los Angeles, your correspondent requested Mr Newsom why Individuals ought to watch a debate between one (floundering) presidential candidate, and a governor who just isn’t (at present) operating for something. ‘I don’t know they need to,’ he replied merrily.”
“Is Gov. Newsom shedding political momentum as debate with Gov. DeSantis nears?” [Orlando Sentinel]. “Gavin Newsom continues to be a rising political star, however his path to nationwide prominence has gotten rocky as he heads into his debate Thursday with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. His approval score has sunk. He faces questions on his journey to China and the collapse of a serious freeway in downtown Los Angeles. He angered longtime labor supporters by vetoing two payments they wished, together with one that will have supplied strike advantages to jobless staff. When the concept of a Newsom-DeSantis debate was floated earlier this yr, it promised an unfiltered take a look at two political up-and-comers who could sometime compete for the presidency. It nonetheless has that potential, however the stars will not be as vibrant.”
* * *
“Not Solely Can Trump Win, Proper Now He’s the Favourite To Win” [Sean Trende, RealClearPolitics]. “As of this writing, Trump leads Biden by 2.6 share factors nationally within the RealClearPolitics Common. That is Trump’s largest lead within the RCP common so far. Not for 2024, thoughts you. Ever. Let’s put this in perspective. In 2016, Trump led Hillary Clinton for all of 5 days within the nationwide RCP Common, every of these days within the fast aftermath of the Republican conference. He led in 29 polls taken over the course of all the marketing campaign, 10 of that are recorded within the RCP averages as Los Angeles Instances/USC monitoring polls. In 2020, Trump by no means led Biden within the nationwide RCP Common. He briefly closed to inside 4 factors in early January of 2020, however that’s it. He led in 5 polls all cycle. So, counting the L.A. Instances tracker as a single ballot, Trump led in a complete of 24 nationwide polls. This cycle? He’s led in that many since mid-September. He’s led in additional polls up to now three weeks than he did towards Biden in all of 2019-2020. You could be pondering that we don’t elect our president through the favored vote, however reasonably accomplish that by the Electoral Faculty. That is, after all, true. It additionally makes Trump’s present place within the polls all of the extra placing. In any case, Trump has persistently outperformed his polling, and his Electoral Faculty positioning has persistently been stronger than his nationwide positioning.” • Examine the submit for state information: MI, PA, WI, FL, AZ, GA, OH.
“The ultimate countdown: Trump holds commanding lead over DeSantis, Haley, with 50 days till Iowa caucuses” [FOX]. “Whereas Trump has held almost 20 occasions in Iowa this yr, the Florida governor has made roughly 130 stops, with lots of these hosted by the DeSantis-aligned tremendous PAC By no means Again Down. Moreover, the tremendous PAC has spent tens of millions to place collectively a formidable floor sport in Iowa. DeSantis additionally grabbed the high-profile endorsement earlier this month of Gov. Kim Reynolds, who stays very talked-about with Iowa Republicans. Final week, he received the backing of Bob Vander Plaats, the president and CEO of The Household Chief, an influential social conservative group in a state the place evangelical voters play an outsized function in Republican politics…. Nonetheless, what as soon as gave the impression to be a two-candidate battle for the GOP nomination is now a three-way battle.. Haley, who has loved momentum within the polls in latest months, thanks partly to well-received performances within the first three GOP presidential main debates, has leapfrogged DeSantis for second place in New Hampshire – which holds the primary main and votes second within the Republican nominating schedule – and her house state – which holds the primary southern contest. Now, she goals to make a battle of it in Iowa, the place she is pulling even with DeSantis in a few of the newest polls.” • Fifty purchasing days till Iowa….
IA: “Prime evangelical says ‘Iowa will stand up’ towards Trump” [The Hill]. • After Trump’s judges nuked Roe. Why, the ingratitude! One would, in any case, count on a very good Christian to remain purchased….
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“Buying and selling on the household identify: Don’t neglect about Frank Biden” [Washington Times]. “What’s in a reputation? That depends upon who you ask – some names are extra beneficial than others. Home Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer is asking President Biden whether or not his is price $200,000 (or was in 2018, earlier than inflation spiked). That was the quantity of a test the president’s brother James wrote to Joe ostensibly as a ‘mortgage reimbursement.’ Mr. Comer desires to know the main points as a result of there’s no document of such a mortgage elsewhere within the president’s paperwork. It looks like a worthy query, given the allegations of Hunter Biden repeatedly utilizing the household identify to land profitable sinecures at Ukrainian and Chinese language vitality firms – ‘10% for the Large Purchase’ and all that. There aren’t too many households with $200,000 checks circulating, not to mention life-long public servants able to make that type of mortgage. Whereas he’s at it, Chairman Comer shouldn’t neglect the opposite Biden brother. Frank Biden is a serial name-trader, going again no less than to when he was a Florida actual property developer, and Joe was U.S. vp. Since 2018, Frank has been a non-attorney senior adviser on the Berman Regulation Group, a Boca Raton, Florida regulation agency. On Jan. 20, 2021, the day of his brother’s presidential inauguration, Frank positioned an advert in Florida’s Day by day Enterprise Overview. As CNBC reported on the time, ‘The advert focuses on a lawsuit the agency is main towards a gaggle of Florida sugar cane firms. It incorporates a picture of Frank Biden, together with quotes relating to his relationship with the incoming president and the household identify.’” • Simply tacky. The sheer grime and pettiness of the grift.
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“Dean Phillips says ‘it’s delusional’ to suppose Biden can beat Trump” [The Hill]. “Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) on Saturday criticized President Biden for his latest ballot numbers, arguing it’s “delusional” to suppose he might overtake former President Trump in a rematch. ‘As a member of Home Democratic Management, I supported and promoted the Biden agenda, Phillips wrote Saturday on X, the platform previously often called Twitter. ‘I campaigned for him, voted for him, and respect him.’ ‘However how can anybody learn this and conclude he’s positioned to defeat Donald Trump?’ he added, sharing an article from Politico centered on Biden’s fall in approval scores. ‘It’s delusional.’ The Politico evaluation piece famous that in survey outcomes from 13 separate pollsters in November alone, the president’s place had fallen in all however two of them.” • Extra from Phillips:
I’ve an apology to make to @BernieSanders
I had lengthy dismissed his complaints in regards to the rigged Democratic Occasion main system. However you understand what? He was proper. And I apologize, Bernie.
Voter suppression (NH), candidate suppression (poll entry), and debate suppression…
— Dean Phillips (@deanbphillips) November 8, 2023
Oh, Dean. It’s gonna take greater than that:
#Election2024: Dean Phillips has seen $759K in complete advert assist: $427K from his marketing campaign and $332K from Go the Torch PAC.
Here is a take a look at their new advert⬇️ https://t.co/kWbOjyvhph pic.twitter.com/yeZUbN7g3G
— AdImpact Politics (@AdImpact_Pol) November 28, 2023
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“Manchin 2024 chatter places highlight on No Labels” [The Hill]. “The efforts of No Labels to prepare a third-party ticket in 2024 bought a possible increase with Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-W.Va.) flirtation with a possible presidential bid…. Manchin’s discuss of a doable White Home run has put the highlight on No Labels, a self-described “nationwide motion of commonsense Individuals” that’s considered as maybe the almost certainly outlet for a third-party candidate to get on the poll subsequent yr. The senator earlier this yr attended a No Labels city corridor occasion in New Hampshire together with former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman (R).” Now comes the necessary half: “Whereas Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West have individually launched unbiased presidential bids, it’s unclear whether or not they’ll get on the poll in sufficient states to considerably have an effect on the 2024 race. No Labels, in the meantime, has already gained poll entry in 12 states. Clancy stated the group is on observe to be on the poll or lively in 27 states by the top of the yr. The purpose is to be on the poll in 34 states by the spring, and Clancy famous the remaining 16 both require a named candidate to realize entry or require much less administrative work to get on the poll and could possibly be dealt with by an eventual ticket. No Labels expects to determine ‘someday after March 15’ about whether or not to supply its poll line to a ticket and who can be on a theoretical lineup.” • Manchin operating for President is the stupidest thought I’ve heard in a very long time, so I suppose the probabilities are good it’ll occur. (I do suppose that there are many individuals who seeing “No Labels” on the poll would vote for that social gathering on the identify alone, a intelligent tactic.
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“Charles Koch’s anti-Trump group endorses Nikki Haley in Republican main” [ABC]. “[Americans for Prosperity Action, the] Koch-backed group stayed out of the 2016 and 2020 presidential cycles however has important assets to attempt to increase Haley’s marketing campaign, although AFP Motion is up to now staying mum on how a lot it plans to spend. The group reported elevating greater than $70 million in its final public submitting, in June, with $25 million coming from Koch himself and one other $25 million from one among his nonprofit teams… AFP Motion thinks it will possibly make a distinction: ABC Information reviewed a number of inner memos, primarily based on the group’s polling and door-knocking operations in early states, suggesting that about 4 in 10 GOP voters in Iowa and New Hampshire say the first marketing campaign ‘hasn’t begun’ or has ‘simply began.’ AFP Motion additionally believes that three in 4 Republicans are open to a Trump different in the event that they suppose that particular person has a greater probability of successful.”
“How Haley’s Hawks Introduced Carnage to Ukraine” [The American Conservative]. “[T]he ‘accountable individuals’ are decided to take care of their perches of accountability—which is to say, their energy. On the appropriate, this implies a concerted push to fabricate enthusiasm for Nikki Haley’s problem to Donald Trump within the GOP main. A $1,000-per-ticket fundraiser for Haley on Nov. 13, beforehand unreported elsewhere, opened a revealing window onto this effort…. The host committee was a who’s who of the kinds of “accountable individuals” who plunged america into two fruitless wars within the 20 years after 9/11 and/or served as employed weapons for varied international regimes and firms.” • The checklist just isn’t really that spectacular, since a lot of the above-baseline hawks are within the Biden administration (Nuland et al.).
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“The Thoughts-Bending Politics of RFK Jr.’s Spoiler Marketing campaign” [Olivia Nuzzi, New York Magazine]. “At this level, all that’s clear is that nobody has any thought what is going to occur between now and November 2024 or how to answer the menace Kennedy poses to the Biden-Trump binary. As it’s, Kennedy is in some circumstances polling not far behind both seemingly major-party nominee and in all circumstances polling nicely sufficient that, have been the election held right now, his presence within the race would outline what the following chapter of American historical past seems to be like. As he put it, ‘My intention is to spoil it for each of them.’… His supporters are ‘average and considerate,’ ‘essential thinkers,’ ‘people who find themselves keen to query orthodoxy and people who find themselves fed up with ideological orthodoxy,; Kennedy instructed me. ;Now we have plenty of antiwar individuals who have been historically left-wing Democrats, however I’d say the foremost portion is admittedly within the center, they usually are typically individuals who hearken to podcasts, to longform interviews, which is a type that I feel is admittedly sympathetic to me.’ He added, ‘It’s like a giant model of the Milgram experiment,’ by which he implies that they signify the 35 p.c of members within the well-known examine who refused to press the button to zap others with deadly voltages of electrical shocks.” • Properly price a learn.
RFK on the spooks:
RFK Jr and Tucker Carlson talking about former CIA Director Mike Pompeo:
“He stated to me earlier than dinner… I didn’t do what I ought to have carried out to repair that company… Your complete higher echelon of that company is made up of people who don’t consider within the Democratic… pic.twitter.com/FIF36NnAgR
— Hambone (@ItsHambone) November 21, 2023
Discover that Carlson, very gently, pushes again.
“Robert Kennedy Jr. counts on youth in push to get on all 50 state ballots” [Washington Times]. “Mr. Kennedy’s subsequent occasion takes place in Utah [see below] on Thursday, and his selection of location is of observe. He’ll host his rally at Sky SLC — a spacious, open-air, three-level Salt Lake Metropolis nightclub and live performance venue with a retractable glass roof, VIP suites, high-tech lighting and cutting-edge sound. The location can accommodate 1,000 individuals…. ‘Now we have a strong ballot-access staff and RFK Jr.’s identify will likely be on the poll in all 50 states,’ stated Stefanie Spear, press secretary for the Kennedy marketing campaign. ‘Now we have begun signature assortment in open states and are assured Mr. Kennedy will get the 270 electoral votes he must win the White Home,’ she stated.”
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“The philosopher-in-chief” [Deseret News]. “There’s no presidential candidate fairly like Dr. Cornel West. He’s a public thinker, not a politician; he’s extra inclined to talk of America’s challenges as ethical conundrums than as coverage failures. As a substitute of citing Washington and Jefferson on the stump, he quotes Stevie Marvel and Duke Ellington. And as an alternative of strategically launching the primary in-person rally of his marketing campaign in Pennsylvania or Georgia or some other variety of 2024 swing states, West touched down in Salt Lake Metropolis Monday evening, on the eve of town’s mayoral election. The rationale, West instructed a crowd of of about 200 on the College of Utah’s pupil union, is straightforward: town is about to decide on its mayor by ranked selection voting for the primary time, a victory for democracy, per West’s view. He’d additionally come to endorse Michael Valentine, a 35-year-old activist going through off towards an incumbent, Erin Mendenhall, and one among her predecessors, Rocky Anderson — every vying to develop into the chief of Utah’s most progressive metropolis. It didn’t harm, both, that Utah’s comparatively lax guidelines to get on a presidential poll — you simply have to get the requisite signatures and pay a payment — bode nicely for West. ‘As you all know, we’re specializing in poll entry,’ West stated. ‘Utah goes to be the No. 1 state in my marketing campaign that can put me on the poll.’ The group cheered.” Additionally: “‘I feel there’s an excellent probability (Biden) could not even be the candidate,’ West instructed me. ‘I feel there’s a very good probability he’ll run out of gasoline, and there’s an opportunity Trump may find yourself in jail.’” • So, within the stability v. volatility dichotomy, West is a volatilist (as am I).
“Gabor Maté and Cornel West on Gaza and the Human Soul” (video) [Useful Idiots, YouTube].
“Cornel West hits Sanders for not calling for cease-fire in Gaza: ‘Fairly pathetic’” [The Hill]. • He’s not flawed.
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Republican Funhouse
“Donations to GOP drop as worries mount in regards to the social gathering’s funds” [WaPo]. “The Republican Occasion’s funds are more and more worrisome to social gathering members, advisers to former president Donald Trump, and different operatives concerned within the 2024 election effort, in response to 10 individuals acquainted with the matter. The Republican Nationwide Committee disclosed that it had $9.1 million in money available as of Oct. 30, the bottom quantity for the RNC in any Federal Election Fee report since February 2015. That compares with about $20 million on the identical level within the 2016 election cycle and about $61 million 4 years in the past, when Trump was within the White Home. The Democratic Nationwide Committee reported having $17.7 million as of Oct. 30, nearly twice as a lot because the Republican Occasion, with one yr earlier than the election…. Donors haven’t lower as many giant checks to the RNC lately, and the social gathering’s small-dollar program has additionally suffered, in response to individuals acquainted with the social gathering’s funds, who, like others, spoke on the situation of anonymity to debate inner social gathering particulars. Some donors aren’t giving to the RNC as a result of they suppose that can assist Trump, which they don’t need to do, these individuals stated, whereas others have stated they like to attend till 2024 to present. Some have grown pissed off with the social gathering’s management, individuals near main donors stated…. An RNC spokeswoman stated the social gathering has nonetheless deployed workers in 15 swing states to start out engaged on get-out-the-vote efforts and election monitoring. The social gathering can also be pursuing 70 lawsuits in 19 states difficult voting guidelines and is encouraging Republicans to make use of early voting and mail ballots — strategies Trump and his allies have disparaged, whilst RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel repeatedly touts the significance of the ‘Financial institution Your Vote’ initiative. All federal social gathering committees — Democratic and Republican — have seen downturns in income since 2021, a development that operatives often attribute to inflation and donor fatigue.” • “Donor fatigue” jogs my memory of one other catchphrase that occupies the area evaluation ought to: “immunity debt.”
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 must do 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 submit, to which I’ll periodically add materials, summarizing the addition right here in a “stay” 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!). It follows that the Democrat Occasion is as “unreformable” because the PMC is unreformable; if the Democrat Occasion didn’t exist, the PMC must invent it. If the Democrat Occasion fails to manipulate, that’s as a result of the PMC lacks the potential to manipulate. (“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 totally) 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.
Word, after all, that the category energy of the PMC each expresses and is proscribed by different lessons; oligarchs and American gentry (see ‘industrial mannequin’ of Ferguson, Jorgensen, and Jie) and the working class spring to thoughts. Suck up, kick down.
* * *
“A Revisionist Historical past Of Cuomogate” [Lever News (Bob)]. “Because the pandemic started, Cuomo handed a funds that included a little-noticed provision giving nursing house and hospital executives sweeping immunity from legal responsibility for ‘any hurt or damages alleged to have been sustained because of an act or omission in the midst of arranging for or offering well being care companies’ to handle the COVID-19 outbreak…. A report by New York Legal professional Basic Letitia James (D) discovered that the immunity provisions ‘can present monetary incentives to for-profit nursing house operators to place residents susceptible to hurt by refraining from investing public funds to acquire adequate staffing to fulfill residents’ care wants, to buy adequate [personal protective equipment] for workers, and to offer efficient coaching to workers to adjust to an infection management protocols throughout pandemics and different public well being emergencies.’…. Just a few days after Cuomo’s resignation, new Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) launched a report admitting that 12,000 extra New York state residents had died of COVID-19 than Cuomo’s administration had reported. A couple of quarter of these lifeless have been nursing house residents.” • Stochastic eugenicism.
Realignment and Legitimacy
“Why the ‘Ruling Class’ Want Not Rule: Nicos Poulantzas and the Marxist Concept of the State [Cosmonaut]. That is lengthy, and as Yves would say, meaty. However some severe pondering happening (although “Althusser” is a set off phrase for me). “Not like the feudal system, the place financial exploitation is explicitly political, the capitalist state uniquely has relative autonomy from the economic system and its dominant lessons. This relative separation between the financial and the political is conjoined with the state’s new impersonal type of legitimacy primarily based on ‘the desire of the individuals’ versus the divine proper, permitting it to current itself as consultant of the ‘nation’s normal pursuits’ and its legal guidelines take a seemingly ‘impartial’ character. This obscures the category relations of the depoliticized capitalist ‘economic system’ which reproduces a division between those that stay off handbook labor, ‘mental labor,’ and house owners of capital who revenue from it. From the very begin, this division of labor (for probably the most half) successfully excludes the overwhelming majority of powerless wage laborers from partaking within the ruling of the state, the creation of its legal guidelines, the enforcement of these legal guidelines, and the manufacturing of ideology and established ‘data’ that rationalizes this course of. These ‘goal constructions’ of the capitalist mode of manufacturing that represent what Poulantzas calls the ‘institutional materiality’ of the state will likely be additional elaborated upon with different parts of his concept all through this essay. Thus, an inherent class bias is constructed into the system that’s ideologically veiled by the state’s impartial standing as a guarantor of the nation’s ‘public curiosity’ and its authorized atomization of lessons into particular person ‘residents’ with formally equal rights.” And: “Poulantzas asserts that even when there’s a shift in school composition inside state apparatuses in favor of the favored lessons, ‘the state tends eventually to re-establish the connection of forces in favor of the bourgeoisie, generally in a brand new type.’” • See, e.g., the Powell Memo.
“Why America Deserted the Biggest Financial system in Historical past” [Rogé Karma, The Atlantic]. “Why did America abandon the New Deal so decisively? And why did so many citizens and politicians embrace the free-market consensus that changed it?…. Three essential theories have emerged, every with its personal account of how we bought right here and what it would take to alter course. One concept holds that the story is essentially in regards to the white backlash to civil-rights laws. One other pins extra blame on the Democratic Occasion’s cultural elitism. And the third focuses on the function of worldwide crises past any political social gathering’s management. Every concept is incomplete by itself.” Oddly, no point out of the neoliberal flip coincident with the Powell memo.” Quick ahead: “As we speak, we appear to be residing by one other inflection level in American politics—one which in some methods resembles the ’60s and ’70s. Then and now, beforehand sturdy coalitions collapsed, new points surged to the fore, and insurance policies as soon as thought of radical grew to become mainstream. Political leaders in each events now not really feel the identical have to bow on the altar of free markets and small authorities. However, additionally just like the ’70s, the present second is outlined by a way of unresolved contestation. Though many elderly concepts have misplaced their maintain, they’ve but to get replaced by a brand new financial consensus. The outdated order is crumbling, however a brand new one has but to be born.” Indirect Gramsci reference? Extra: “Since taking workplace, President Joe Biden has pursued an formidable coverage agenda designed to rework the U.S. economic system and brought overt photographs at Reagan’s legacy. ‘Milton Friedman isn’t operating the present anymore,’ Biden quipped in 2020. But an financial paradigm is just as robust because the political coalition that backs it. Not like Nixon, Biden has not discovered the way to cleave aside his opponents’ coalition. And in contrast to Reagan, he hasn’t come across the type of grand political narrative wanted to forge a brand new one. Present polling means that he could battle to win reelection. In the meantime, the Republican Occasion struggles to muster any coherent financial agenda. A handful of Republican senators, together with J. D. Vance, Marco Rubio, and Josh Hawley, have embraced financial populism to a point, however they continue to be a minority inside their social gathering.” • This subject does appear a bit extra dynamic than international coverage and nationwide safety. However these two fields set a low bar.
#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; Wastewater Scan, consists of drilldown by zip); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker” (in IA, however nationwide information). “An infection Management, Emergency Administration, Security, and Basic Ideas” (particularly on hospitalization by metropolis).
Lambert right here: Readers, thanks for the collective effort. To replace any entry, do be at liberty to contact me on the deal with given with the crops. Please put “COVID” within the topic line. Thanks!
Sources, United States (Native): AK (dashboard); AL (dashboard); AR (dashboard); AZ (dashboard); CA (dashboard; Marin, dashboard; Stanford, wastewater; Oakland, wastewater); CO (dashboard; wastewater); CT (dashboard); DE (dashboard); FL (wastewater); GA (wastewater); HI (dashboard); IA (wastewater reviews); ID (dashboard, Boise; dashboard, wastewater, Central Idaho; wastewater, Coeur d’Alene; dashboard, Spokane County); IL (wastewater); IN (dashboard); KS (dashboard; wastewater, Lawrence); KY (dashboard, Louisville); LA (dashboard); MA (wastewater); MD (dashboard); ME (dashboard); MI (wastewater; wastewater); MN (dashboard); MO (wastewater); MS (dashboard); MT (dashboard); NC (dashboard); ND (dashboard; wastewater); NE (dashboard); NH (wastewater); NJ (dashboard); NM (dashboard); NV (dashboard; wastewater, Southern NV); NY (dashboard); OH (dashboard); OK (dashboard); OR (dashboard); PA (dashboard); RI (dashboard); SC (dashboard); SD (dashboard); TN (dashboard); TX (dashboard); UT (wastewater); VA (dashboard); VT (dashboard); WA (dashboard; dashboard); WI (wastewater); WV (wastewater); WY (wastewater).
Sources, Canada (Nationwide): Wastewater (Authorities of Canada).
Sources, Canada (Provincial): ON (wastewater); QC (les eaux usées); BC, 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!
* * *
Maskstravaganza
Extra optimism:
As we speak, the physician who instructed me if I did not like how they ran their medical clinic (no masking) I might discover one other one, rang and apologised.
There have been just a few steps resulting in the apology, however I did not count on it when it got here and it has jiggled my earlier perspective.
— The Toilet Report Learn WSWS.org (@BathroomReports) November 27, 2023
A protracted thread describing the dialog between the account (Covid-conscious) and the physician (not particularly), culminating on this:
“He could not even prepare dinner a meal as a result of he nearly burnt the home down, forgetting he was cooking with one thing on the range…have you ever had Covid?”
She hadn’t. “It might destroy your life you if you happen to bought it.”
She replied: “You are proper, I feel all of us bought carried away.”
— The Toilet Report Learn WSWS.org (@BathroomReports) November 27, 2023
“I feel all of us bought carried away” could also be nearly as good an evidence as we’ll ever get. However I’d like to see some actual sociological investigation carried out on this. (Though HICPAC just isn’t “carried away” in any respect; they’re fairly clear on their mission.
Censorship and Propaganda
“What’s behind China’s mysterious wave of childhood pneumonia?” [Nature]. “Nationwide lockdowns and different measures applied to sluggish the unfold of COVID-19 prevented seasonal pathogens from circulating, giving individuals much less alternative to construct up immunity towards these microorganisms, a phenomenon often called ‘immunity debt’, stated Francois Balloux, a computational biologist at College Faculty London, in a press release to the UK Science Media Centre. “Since China skilled a far longer and harsher lockdown than basically some other nation on Earth, it was anticipated that these ‘lockdown exit’ waves could possibly be substantial in China,” stated Balloux.” • I don’t know why Nature is selling immunity debt (see, e.g.), whereas not selling immune dysregulation. Here’s a historical past of the time period, which appears to have been invented by bent pediatricians after which amplified by our famously free press–
“‘Immunity Debt’? Established 2021” [Counter-Disinformation]. A media critique tracing the time period to its origin. “That is how one unconvincing paper and the Wall Road Journal seeded the concept of immunity debt which was then repeated and amplified by different media sources. From being talked about in a single paper launched in Might, by mid July immunity debt was being handled as a nicely established and well-known a part of scientific literature. It’s astounding that the identical individuals who dismiss so many research as missing rigour or not being legitimate as a result of there isn’t a RCT have been so fast to undertake immunity debt when you think about the time it took for covid to be accepted as being airborne, how lengthy some have continued to debate masks, and the way air filtration continues to be not accepted as a way to lowering transmission. The excessive requirements required to justify measures in faculties dissipated like a puff of smoke when an idea to argue towards measures in faculties was encountered.” • One apparent literature search:
that will point out something like “immunity debt”, as a matter of reality what’s described is a rise in virus reactivation because of immune dysregulation from stressors like microgravity and radiation.https://t.co/k1yhlfMFW2
— 🔬🔭🧭👨💻🏞️👾🤖🌡️ (@DcrInYYC) November 27, 2023
Doubtless probably the most studied inhabitants on earth….
Science Is Popping
“Scientists uncover receptor that blocks COVID-19 an infection” [Phys.org]. “College of Sydney scientists have found a protein within the lung that blocks SARS-CoV-2 an infection and types a pure protecting barrier within the human physique. This protein, the leucine-rich repeat-containing protein 15 (LRRC15), is an inbuilt receptor that binds the SARS-CoV-2 virus with out passing on the an infection. The analysis opens up a completely new space of immunology analysis round LRRC15 and provides a promising pathway to develop new medicine to stop viral an infection from coronaviruses like COVID-19 or cope with fibrosis within the lungs….. The COVID-19 virus infects people through the use of a spike protein to connect to a particular receptor in our cells. It primarily makes use of a protein referred to as the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor to enter human cells. Lung cells have excessive ranges of ACE2 receptors, which is why the COVID-19 virus typically causes extreme issues on this organ of contaminated individuals. Like ACE2, LRRC15 is a receptor for coronavirus, which means the virus can bind to it. However in contrast to ACE2, LRRC15 doesn’t assist an infection. It might, nevertheless, keep on with the virus and immobilize it. Within the course of, it prevents different weak cells from turning into contaminated. ‘We expect it acts a bit like Velcro, molecular Velcro, in that it sticks to the spike of the virus after which pulls it away from the goal cell varieties,’ Dr. [Lipin] Bathroom stated.”
“One thing Terrible”
Lambert right here: I’m getting the sensation that the “One thing Terrible” is perhaps a sawtooth sample — variant after variant — that averages out to a completely excessive plateau. A lot of exceptionally nasty sequelae, almost certainly deriving from immune dysregulation (says this layperson). To which we’d add mind injury, together with character adjustments therefrom.
* * *
Elite Maleficence
Yeah, however who says it was a mistake?
Should you’re puzzled as to why governments and public well being departments nearly by no means point out even the potential for SARS-CoV-2 induced immune dysregulation it is as a result of to take action can be to confess the best mistake ever made within the historical past of well being coverage.
— Conor Browne (@brownecfm) November 28, 2023
(To be truthful, once I take into consideration these points critically, as an analyst, I take the highlight off the people and deal with “institutional materiality” (neat phrase). Nonetheless, to see these ensuited, embubbled, smiling individuals mouthing platitudes…. It actually frosts me.
A reader throws this over the transom:
This morning I used to be strolling by the check-in/ready space of the Most cancers Middle and overheard a (unmasked) check-in particular person informing an older girl that she’d should put on a masks throughout all of her appointments right now as a result of ‘it hasn’t been 10 days.’ That means she’d answered sure to having had covid within the final 10 days. The older girl was standing there unmasked-amongst an enormous ready room stuffed with most cancers sufferers. It was a type of “WTF?” moments. Nothing is sensible anymore and it makes my mind harm. It’s like Alice in Wonderland, I suppose. And naturally all they hand out are dishevelled blues as a result of our administrator solely spends cash on PR and superficial issues whereas the hospital is hemorrhaging staff because of poor pay and dealing situations. Wastewater numbers are so excessive, and there’s nonetheless no masks mandate on the hospital. The MDs ought to all lose their licenses. They’re the worst offenders. Rant over. And the Departmental Christmas social gathering is Friday evening on the essential cafeteria on campus. Needs to be fascinating.”
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Case Knowledge
NOT UPDATED From BioBot wastewater information, November 27:
Lambert right here: Case counts transferring neatly upward (and tinfoil hat time: That is the, er, inflection level CDC was attempting to hide after they gave the contract to Verily and didn’t guarantee a seamless transition).
Regional information:
That Midwest near-vertical curve is regarding, though as ever with Biobot you must look ahead to backward revisions.
Variants
From CDC, November25:
Lambert right here: Prime of the leaderboard: HV.1, EG.5 a robust second, however BA.2.86 arising quick on the skin.
From CDC, November 11:
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 amenities lower by directors of in poor health intent).
CDC: “As of Might 11, genomic surveillance information will likely be reported biweekly, primarily based on the supply of optimistic take a look at 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.
Covid Emergency Room Visits
NOT UPDATED From CDC NCIRD Surveillance, November 18:
Lambert right here: Slight will increase in some age teams, conforming to wastewater information. Solely every week’s lag, so this can be our greatest present nationwide, present indicator till Verily will get its home so as (and dealing class-centric, since I’d doubt the higher crust goes to the ER).
NOTE “Charts and information supplied 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 acceptable for bothMR SUBLIMINAL I hate these individuals a lot. Discover additionally that this chart exhibits, no less than for its time interval, that Covid just isn’t seasonal, although CDC is attempting to get us to consider that it’s, presumably to allow them to piggyback on the prevailing institutional equipment for injections.
Hospitalization
Bellwether New York Metropolis, information as of November 28:
Up. Degree-ish, however I wager hospitalization drops over the vacation weekend. Let’s wait and see. New York state as a complete seems to be 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 special CDC visualization on hospitalization, nationwide, not by state, however with a date, no less than. November 18:
Lambert right here: “Maps, charts, and information supplied by CDC, updates weekly for the earlier MMWR week (Sunday-Saturday) on Thursdays (Deaths, Emergency Division Visits, Take a look at Positivity) and weekly the next Mondays (Hospitalizations) by 8 pm ET†”. So the place the heck is the replace, CDC?
Positivity
From Walgreens, November 27:
0.4%. Up. (It could be fascinating to survey this inhabitants typically; these are individuals who, regardless of a tsunami of official propaganda and massive peer stress, went and bought examined anyhow.)
From Cleveland Clinic, November 25:
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 nice*, 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 6:
Down, albeit within the rear view mirror. And listed here are the variants for vacationers, November 6:
BA.2.86 coming alongside properly.
Deaths
Complete: 1,183,455 – 1,183,396 = 59 (59 * 365 = 21,535 deaths per yr, right now’s YouGenicist™ quantity for “residing with” Covid (fairly a bit increased than the minimizers would really like, although they’ll discuss themselves into something. If the YouGenicist™ metric retains chugging alongside like this, I may should determine that is what the powers-that-be contemplate “mission achieved” for this explicit tranche of dying and illness).
Lambert right here: 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’ll should revert to CDC information. Yech.
Extra Deaths
NOT UPDATED The Economist, November 18:
Lambert right here: Based mostly on a machine-learning mannequin.
Stats Watch
Manufacturing: “United States Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index” [Trading Economics]. “The Manufacturing Exercise Index within the Richmond space decreased to -5 in November 2023 from 3 in October, lacking market expectations of 1.”
* * *
Tech: “Instagram’s Algorithm Delivers Poisonous Video Combine to Adults Who Observe Kids” [Wall Street Journal]. “nstagram’s Reels video service is designed to indicate customers streams of brief movies on matters the system decides will curiosity them, corresponding to sports activities, trend or humor. The Meta Platforms social app does the identical factor for customers its algorithm decides may need a prurient curiosity in youngsters, testing by The Wall Road Journal confirmed. The Journal sought to find out what Instagram’s Reels algorithm would advocate to check accounts set as much as observe solely younger gymnasts, cheerleaders and different teen and preteen influencers lively on the platform. Instagram’s system served jarring doses of salacious content material to these take a look at accounts, together with risqué footage of youngsters in addition to overtly sexual grownup movies—and adverts for a few of the greatest U.S. manufacturers. The Journal arrange the take a look at accounts after observing that the hundreds of followers of such younger individuals’s accounts typically embrace giant numbers of grownup males, and that most of the accounts who adopted these youngsters additionally had demonstrated curiosity in intercourse content material associated to each youngsters and adults. The Journal additionally examined what the algorithm would advocate after its accounts adopted a few of these customers as nicely, which produced more-disturbing content material interspersed with adverts. In a stream of movies really useful by Instagram, an advert for the courting app Bumble appeared between a video of somebody stroking the face of a life-size latex doll and a video of a younger lady with a digitally obscured face lifting up her shirt to show her midriff. In one other, a Pizza Hut business adopted a video of a person mendacity on a mattress along with his arm round what the caption stated was a 10-year-old lady. The Canadian Centre for Baby Safety, a child-protection group, individually ran comparable checks by itself, with comparable outcomes.” • One can solely ponder whether there will likely be fast calls by liberal Democrats for Biden and Harris to desert Threads, an X competitor owned by Meta, or whether or not there will likely be a deafening silence. I’m betting on silence.
Transportation: “Failed wheel bearing prompted Kentucky derailment, CSX says” [Trains]. “CSX says a failed wheel bearing prompted the Nov. 22 derailment that led to an evacuation of residents in Livington, Ky., on Thanksgiving. In a Sunday assertion, the railroad stated it has accomplished the removing of all 16 railcars concerned within the incident that occurred about 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, and has accomplished removing of the spilled sulphur that caught hearth and led to the evacuation….” • Bearings once more, eh? This time, CSX, not Norfolk Southern. CSX makes use of precision scheduled railroading too, unsurprisingly.
* * *
As we speak’s Concern & Greed Index: 66 Greed (earlier shut: 65 Greed) [CNN]. One week in the past: 65 (Greed). (0 is Excessive Concern; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Nov 28 at 1:57:03 PM ET.
The Gallery
“Exhausting Instances” [The Nation]. “WPA work may be difficult to interact with as artwork, reasonably than as historical past or propaganda: Created for government-run amenities and topic to state-imposed constraints, it clashes with our beliefs of creative freedom. The WPA’s pointers forbade overt political content material (though it discovered its manner in nonetheless) and steered artists towards legibility, prioritizing illustration over abstraction and favoring the social realist aesthetic. Artists attempting to get by in an period of mass unemployment had little selection however to just accept these constraints. But this context makes the person visions that shine by all of the extra significant. By working inside such constraints, artists like Guston found new modes of illustration and irony.”
Class Warfare
“Why wealthy individuals are inclined to suppose they deserve their cash” [Marketplace]. From 2021, nonetheless germane. “One experiment by psychologists on the College of California, Irvine, invited pairs of strangers to play a rigged Monopoly sport the place a coin flip designated one participant wealthy and one poor. The wealthy gamers acquired twice as a lot cash as their opponent to start with; as they performed the sport, they bought to roll two cube as an alternative of 1 and transfer across the board twice as quick as their opponent; after they handed ‘Go,’ they collected $200 to their opponent’s $100…. In varied methods — by physique language and boasting about their wealth, by smacking their items loudly towards the taking part in board and making gentle of their opponents’ misfortune — the wealthy gamers started to behave as if they deserved the great fortune that was largely a results of their fortunate roll of the cube. On the finish of the sport, when researchers requested the wealthy gamers why they’d received the sport, not one particular person attributed it to luck. ‘They don’t discuss in regards to the flip of the coin. They discuss in regards to the issues that they did. They speak about their acumen, they speak about their competencies, they speak about this determination or that call,’ that contributed to their win, [psychologist Paul Piff] stated in an interview with host David Brancaccio. Piff stated the experiment reveals a basic bias that almost all people share. ‘When one thing good occurs to you, we take into consideration the issues that we did that contributed to that success,’ Piff stated.” • Hmm.
“Work and Office” [Gallup]. Useful desk:
“Pluralistic: The ethical damage of getting your work enshittified” [Cory Doctorow, Pluralistic]. “There’s a reputation for phenomenon through which you care a lot about your job that you simply endure poor situations and abuse: it’s referred to as ‘vocational awe,’ as coined by Fobazi Ettarh…. Ettarh makes use of the time period to use to historically low-waged staff like librarians, academics and nurses. In our guide Chokepoint Capitalism, Rebecca Giblin and I talked about the way it applies to artists and different inventive staff, too… However vocational awe can also be omnipresent in tech. The grandiose claims to be on a mission to make the world a greater place will not be simply puffery – they’re an important technique of motivating staff who can simply stop their jobs and discover a new one to place in 16-hour days…. As we speak, atomized tech staff who’re ordered to enshittify the merchandise they take satisfaction in are shedding the argument. … It’s a type of ethical damage, and it’s palpable within the first-person accounts of former staff who’ve exited these giant corporations or all the subject…. My rivalry right here just isn’t that Google’s enshittification was precipitated by a change in personnel through the promotion of managers who’ve shitty concepts. Google’s enshittification was precipitated by a change in self-discipline, because the damaging penalties of heeding these shitty concepts have been abolished because of monopoly. That is unhealthy information for individuals like me, who depend on companies like Google Maps as cognitive prostheses.” • A lot of good things right here, together with this aphorism: “An app is only a web-page wrapped in sufficient IP to make it against the law to put in an ad-blocker.” Additionally, the brand new Google map design is horrid.
Information of the Wired
“Periodic Desk of Instruments” • Useful chart:
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Contact data for crops: Readers, be at liberty to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) learn the way to ship me a test in case you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to learn the way to ship me photographs of crops. Greens are nice! Fungi and coral are deemed to be honorary crops! If you’d like your deal with to seem as a credit score, please place it at the beginning 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) right here. From notabanker:
notabanker writes: “Took this shot right now proper when the solar was setting.”
* * *
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