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By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Chook Tune of the Day
Golden-crowned Kingle, Forêt boréale de la Haute-Côte-Nord, Sept-Rivières, Quebec, Canada.
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Politics
“So lots of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are in actual fact a rational administration of symbolic capital.” –Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles
The Constitutional Order (Eighth Modification)
Engoron’s penalty appears so clearly extreme it may very well be grounds for enchantment below the Eighth Modification, however IANAL and no enchantment has truly been filed. If in actual fact no Constitutional points are concerned, I’ll transfer this story to the Trump part below marketing campaign 2024, with the remainder of the lawfare stuff.
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Trump quotes the Eighth Modification:
DJT reads the Eighth Modification pic.twitter.com/n4w4tHUstt
— QuickWitNitWit 🔍 (@Quickwitnitwit) February 21, 2024
Not seeing any legal professionals leaping on the bandwagon (although see the Federalist Society’s Calabresi beneath).
“Dissolving Trump’s enterprise empire would stand aside in historical past of NY fraud regulation” [Associated Press]. From January 29. ” An Related Press evaluation of practically 70 years of civil circumstances below the regulation confirmed that such a penalty has solely been imposed a dozen earlier occasions, and Trump’s case stands aside in a big approach: It’s the one huge enterprise discovered that was threatened with a shutdown with no displaying of apparent victims and main losses…. AP’s evaluate of practically 150 reported circumstances since New York’s ‘repeated fraud’ statute was handed in 1956 confirmed that just about each earlier time an organization was taken away, victims and losses have been key components. Clients had misplaced cash or purchased faulty merchandise or by no means obtained providers ordered, leaving them cheated and indignant. What’s extra, companies have been taken over nearly all the time as a final resort to cease a fraud in progress and defend potential victims. They included a phony psychologist who bought doubtful remedies, a pretend lawyer who bought false claims he may get college students into regulation college, and businessmen who marketed monetary recommendation however as a substitute swindled individuals out of their house deeds. In Trump’s case, his firm stopped sending exaggerated monetary figures about his web price to Deutsche Financial institution and others at the least two years in the past, however a court-appointed monitor famous that was solely after he was sued and that different monetary paperwork continued to include errors and misrepresentations.” • This text was written earlier than the decision; in actual fact, Trump’s companies weren’t shut down, however put below the administration of unbiased monitor Barbara Jones. That stated, the absence of victims and losses continues to be anomalous.
“Donald Trump Faces Potential ‘Hearth Sale’ of His Prized Enterprise Property” [Newsweek]. “Former President Donald Trump may face lots of his properties being bought by the federal government at ‘hearth sale costs’ if he refuses to pay the positive issued to him following his civil fraud trial in New York, a former White Home counsel stated. ‘Can he stiff them? No,’ John Dean, who served below Richard Nixon [nice!] in the course of the Watergate scandal, informed CNN on Saturday. ‘What’s going to occur is the legal professional common will are available, they’ll seize the properties and they’re going to liquidate them at hearth sale costs—and that may take extra buildings than he may most likely negotiate.’ ‘This isn’t one thing that he can simply sit on. Even when he appeals, the speed apparently goes on and on. So that is rising debt.’”
“Pay to Play: Trump Faces a Staggering Price for Enchantment” [Jonathan Turley]. “The expectation is that Trump could make the deposit or safe a bond to keep away from what some gleefully referred to as a “hearth sale” on this properties. The deposit is now being celebrated as an added indignity and penalty. Nonetheless, as New Yorkers cheer this second, many enterprise are probably questioning ‘however for the grace of God go I.’ Undervaluing or overvaluing property is a typical follow, significantly in actual property. That’s the reason representations, just like the one made by the Trump Company, include a warning that estimates are their very own and that the banks must make their assessments. Confronted with excessive crime and excessive taxes, the spectacle in Manhattan is simply more likely to speed up the exodus of companies and high-earners from town. That prospect has already alarmed Gov. Kathy Hochul who declared ‘enterprise individuals don’t have anything to fret about, as a result of they’re very completely different than Donald Trump and his habits.’ That sounds rather a lot like ‘you’re positive as long as you aren’t Trump.’ But, that isn’t reassuring to companies who need a authorized system that’s primarily based on one thing aside from selective and arbitrary enforcement…. That isn’t the kind of assurance that the majority companies would settle for in risking billions in funding. Regardless of the excessive taxes and falling providers in New York, town remained a draw for enterprise as a business and authorized heart. The expertise and objectivity of courts in coping with enterprise disputes was a promoting level for firms. That has been shattered by the James marketing campaign and the Engoron ruling. Telling enterprise to only ‘don’t be like Trump’ is extra menacing than consoling. Letitia James is now the face of New York company regulation — it’s the ‘face that launched a thousand ships’ towards Florida.” • Possibly. We haven’t seen that, although. Anyhow, why Florida versus Texas?[Trump
“Donald Trump Able to Post $400M Bond to Appeal Engoron Ruling: Alina Habba” [Newsweek]. “[Trump lawyer Alina] Habba went on to elucidate that the bond, which must be posted inside 30 days after the decision, will find yourself totaling near $400 million. In response to a report by NBC Information, the enchantment bond equals Trump’s $355 million verdict plus a 9 % post-judgment curiosity, which might be collected by the state of New York within the case that Trump loses his enchantment. ‘What they’re attempting to do between this case between my final case is put [Trump] out of enterprise,’ Habba continued. ‘It’s not gonna work, primary. Quantity two, what they’re doing is a scare tactic. Sadly, they picked the improper man to choose on, in my view, as a result of he’s robust, he’s resilient and he occurs to have loads of money.’”
“President Trump’s Kafkaesque Civil Trial in New York State” [Steven Calabresi, Reason]. Ugh, libertarians [let me take a moment to start running a bath]. That stated, Calabresi’s acquired maintain of the appropriate finish of the stick: “The underside line is {that a} by no means earlier than used New York State penalty has been twisted right into a software for a grossly extreme positive and extra severely the fully inappropriate appointment of Choose Jones as an ‘unbiased monitor’ who can micromanage the Trump enterprise, which she will not be competent to do, and to even order the dissolution of the Trump Enterprise in New York State…. Ms. James and Choose Engeron have basically turned a vaguely worded New York State regulation right into a modern-day Invoice of Attainder focused at Donald Trump each for political achieve and since they despise his political opinions and desperately need to name his truthfulness into query as he runs for President of the USA inn 2024. In doing this, the have violated Trump’s First Modification proper to freedom of speech and of the press; his Fifth Modification proper to not be disadvantaged of liberty or property with out due strategy of regulation; his Fifth Modification proper to not have property taken away from him apart from a pubic use with simply compensation being paid; his Eighth Modification proper to not be made to pay an extreme positive; his Article IV, Part 2 proper as a citizen of Florida to do make and implement contracts in New York on the identical phrases as are different New Yorkers; and his Fourteenth Modification proper to be free to pursue an occupation with out pointless and burdensome regulation…. If the New York State appellate courts don’t reverse this judgment, the U.S. Supreme Courtroom MUST grant cert on this case and reverse Choose Engeron’s outrageous choices.” As far as I do know, that’s not an choice to this point. This, nonetheless, is slightly excessive: “The civil fraud judgment in opposition to Donald Trump is a travesty and an unjust political act rivaled solely in American politics by the killing of former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton by Vice President Aaron Burr.” • It is just of taking individuals’s cash is identical as killing them [how’s that bath coming].
2024
Lower than a yr to go!
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Haley (R): Nonetheless in there punching:
that is actually fairly sensible from Nikki Haley — she hyped a significant speech, getting Fox Information and firm to take it stay considering she may drop out, and as a substitute she’s utilizing it to make a marketing campaign speech pic.twitter.com/cw8oHl0OjI
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 20, 2024
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Biden (D): “It’s time for the White Home to place up or shut up” [Nate Silver, Silver Bulletin]. This from Silver is, in actual fact, effectively price a learn. “A variety of commentators that I respect have identified that Biden must do extra public occasions that will assist to allay public doubts about his psychological sharpness. The issue is, one can infer the explanation that Biden will not be doing them — particularly that the White Home comms group is rational and has inferred that the price of doing them outweighs the advantages as a result of Biden is just too more likely to come throughout poorly…. Say that, in any given time period — possibly over the course of a pair months — Biden has 20 alternatives to do what you may name Improvisational Public Appearances (IPAs). We are able to outline these as occasions the place Biden will not be merely making pre-scripted remarks and as a substitute faces sustained questioning from the media, voters or different public figures…. The White Home has labored with Biden for a very long time and so they know his efficiency varies primarily based on the setting, who he’s taking questions from, and his fatigue stage. So what do they do? Properly, they do their finest to… [make] excuses for Biden to keep away from these IPAs or by no means scheduling them within the first place….. The analogy is to an NBA participant who’s ageing and shedding his shot. If he solely takes wide-open jumpers, his taking pictures proportion could stay tolerable — however you possibly can observe the decline in his abilities from the shortage of taking pictures quantity… Biden’s doing rather a lot fewer interviews than even the media-hostile Trump. And when he does them, his efficiency continues to be simply mediocre. That’s why one thing like turning down a Tremendous Bowl interview must be extremely regarding…. It’s additionally why the press convention from two weeks in the past was worrying. This was an IPA that Biden principally couldn’t keep away from. You possibly can’t reply to your personal Justice Division’s declare that your reminiscence is failing by not saying something in any respect. And but when pressured to make this look, Biden’s efficiency was poor.” And Silver’s ask: “Over the course of the following a number of weeks, Biden ought to do 4 prolonged sitdown interviews with … nonpartisan reporters with a monitor file of asking powerful questions would work nice. A whole recording of the interviews must be made public. The interviews ought to incorporate a mixture of completely different media (e.g. tv and print) and journalistic views…. This actually isn’t an excessive amount of to ask. These are the types of interviews that each different current president has achieved…. If Biden was keen to take 5 hours to talk with Hur, he must to take 5 hours for this. And if he can’t, it’s awfully audacious to ask Individuals to make him president for one more 4 years.” • Yep.
Biden (D): “Biden’s reset second” [Axios]. “Biden officers see subsequent month’s State of the Union handle as a giant, public reset second — an opportunity to beat or at the least neutralize issues about President Biden’s age and vitality.” • The SOTU is hardly improvised. I feel Silver’s IPA litmus check is an effective one.
Biden (D): “Inside Kamala Harris’ quiet effort to interrupt by way of the Biden marketing campaign’s info bubble” [CNN]. “Greater than two dozen sources inform CNN that Harris has been gathering info to assist her penetrate what she generally refers to because the “bubble” of Biden marketing campaign considering, telling individuals she’s aiming to make use of that intelligence to push for adjustments in technique and techniques that she hopes will put the ticket in higher form to win. A number of main Democrats, anxious a couple of marketing campaign they concern may be stumbling previous some extent of no return, say their conversations with Harris have been a shocking and welcome change, after months of feeling sloughed off by the White Home and Biden marketing campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware. ‘The ‘bedwetting’ complaints are working skinny with individuals,’ stated an individual who attended one of many conferences, describing the overall state of tension circulating in high Democratic circles. ‘The West Wing and the marketing campaign have to be higher.’ Harris did a superb job fielding these responses, the individual added, ‘and deserves credit score for it.’ A lot of these individuals additionally say that the conversations have shifted their opinions of the vp, seeing her now as a extra integral and complementary a part of the reelection effort.” • They’re determined.
Biden (D): “How Biden Can Win” [John Nichols, The Nation]. “On the threat of deflating Joe Biden’s ego, let’s be trustworthy: The precedence in 2024 will not be his reelection. It’s Donald Trump’s defeat. To forge a coalition that may beat Trump and the Trump-aligned congressional Republicans, Biden should current his bid for a second time period because the important car for derailing a self-proclaimed dictator-in-waiting who’s uniquely unfit to occupy the Oval Workplace…. The voters are ripe for this argument. The NBC survey discovered that 61 % of voters have main issues about Trump’s ‘alleged wrongdoing, together with a number of felony prices associated to makes an attempt to overturn the 2020 election.’ And loads of them are Republicans or Republican-leaning independents…. The prospect that Biden may broaden his reelection coalition primarily based on a democracy and rule-of-law enchantment gives the president an avenue to make the race about greater than himself. Sure, in fact he ought to speak about a sturdy financial system. However the important thing play for the Democrats is to spotlight the overwhelming proof that Trump, along with his legal prices and ‘I’m your retribution’ rhetoric, is completely at odds with core values of the American experiment.” • Double down on “our democracy,” in different phrases. My issue with that is that after Bush nuked the Fourth Modification, Democrats rationalized and institutionalized the destruction. And now their Censorship Industrial Complicated is coming for the First. Anyhow, any Sanders supporter is aware of that the Democrat dedication to democracy is hooey at finest extremely conditional. I might wager youthful voters watching Biden play arms service provider to the genocidaires would have an identical sense of Democrat chutzpah.
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“Who Will Be the Subsequent President?” (PDF) [Moody’s Analytics]. “The financial system is probably not on the high of voters’ minds in each election, however it’s not often lower than an in depth
second. That is the precept underpinning the Moody’s Analytics presidential election mannequin. The mannequin predicts whether or not the incumbent presidential candidate will win the favored vote in every state and the District of Columbia, and thus the mandatory Electoral Faculty votes to win the election. Any such presidential election evaluation will not be new. The primary was within the late Nineteen Seventies by Yale economist Ray Truthful. Nonetheless, his seminal work was primarily based on relating nationwide financial circumstances with presidential election outcomes. What units aside our work from comparable efforts is a concentrate on regional financial circumstances which might be the idea for state-by-state projections of the Electoral Faculty. This state-level method has a formidable, although not excellent, monitor file. It incorrectly predicted that former President Donald Trump would win re-election in 2020. He didn’t. The political fallout from the pandemic and extraordinary turnout by Democrat voters upended his re-election bid. Our mannequin couldn’t choose up the affect of the pandemic black swan, and whereas we managed for turnout, we had assumed turnout could be traditionally typical. Given the outcomes of current occasion primaries, the more than likely situation is that this election will likely be a rematch between present President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. Whereas the election will nearly actually be a nail-biter, we really feel assured within the mannequin’s 2024 prediction for who would be the subsequent president. That’s, President Biden will win re-election.” • Hmm.
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Kennedy (I): “Kennedy: ‘If President Biden Needs To Run’ He Should Have ‘Unscripted” Debate With Me And Trump’” [RealClearPolitics]. Kennedy: ” We’d like a president who’s on the ball, any individual all of us belief to reply that telephone name at three within the morning and to deal with these complexities and the nuance of the crises that face our nation at a really vital level in his story. I feel he wants to indicate individuals he can do this, and one of the simplest ways to do this is an open debate.” • Kennedy asking for considered one of Silver’s IPAs.
Kennedy (I): “RFK Jr. is courting Black voters, a bunch he as soon as focused with vaccine disinformation” [NBC News]. “In 2021, [Kennedy] produced a movie referred to as ‘Medical Racism: The New Apartheid‘ which used the actual historical past of medical racism in the USA to hawk conspiracy theories that Covid vaccines have been an effort to hurt Black communities. The documentary-style movie options Kennedy, in addition to Tony Muhammad, a minister of the Nation of Islam who has claimed that vaccines are ‘genetically modified’ to hurt Black youngsters. Kevin Jenkins, CEO of the City World Well being Alliance, a New Jersey nonprofit group, who claimed that vaccine campaigns have been a plot to ‘wipe out’ Black individuals, can be within the movie. The movie was launched within the spring of 2021, simply as Covid vaccines have been turning into generally obtainable within the U.S. The pandemic took a staggering toll on human life, disproportionately impacting Black communities. Requested by NBC Information on Sunday if he regretted spreading vaccine skepticism to the African American group whereas the Covid photographs have been first being rolled out, after the difficulty didn’t come up at his marketing campaign occasion, Kennedy responded ‘No.’ As soon as a vocal anti-vaccine activist, Kennedy has been extra subdued on the subject throughout his 2024 marketing campaign. Pressed if he believes that vaccinating youngsters results in autism, Kennedy responded tersely, ‘What I imagine is irrelevant.’” • Hmm.
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Republican Funhouse
“Many imagine the founders needed a Christian America. Some need the federal government to declare one now” [Associated Press]. “The U.S. Structure doesn’t point out Christianity or any particular faith. The Declaration of Independence famously proclaims that folks’s rights come from a “Creator” and “Nature’s God” — however doesn’t specify who that’s. But massive numbers of Individuals imagine the founders meant the U.S. to be a Christian nation, and plenty of imagine it must be one. Such views are particularly robust amongst Republicans and their white evangelical base. Already such views are being voiced by supporters of Donald Trump amid his bid to recapture the presidency. The thought of a Christian America means various things to completely different individuals. Pollsters have discovered a large circle of Individuals who maintain common God-and-country sentiments. However inside that could be a smaller, hardcore group who additionally test different containers in surveys — comparable to that the U.S. Structure was impressed by God and that the federal authorities ought to declare the U.S. a Christian nation, advocate Christian values or cease implementing the separation of church and state.” • A pile of rubbish persistently constructed over many a long time. Loads of gamers below Bush the Youthful believed these pernicious falsehoods, however there weren’t sufficient of them to run a reliable administration (for all Harvard’s flaws, it actually does have a greater regulation college than Liberty College, and never simply due to social (networking) and symbolic (credentials) capital. Maybe, although, issues have modified.
“The Founders’ antidote to demagoguery is a lesson for right this moment” [
Democrats en Déshabillé
“The Breakup” [Matthew Karp, The Nation]. Extra on Teixeira’s idpol apostasy. “Do political events make coalitions, or do coalitions make political events? In American electoral commentary, the commonsense view is that events stand for sure rules or insurance policies—on gun management, say, or taxes, or abortion—after which peculiar voters line up with the occasion that’s closest to their very own beliefs. However for Karl Marx and his acolytes, this view of events was nonsense. Political events have been outlined not by their said platforms however by the character of their social base.” Madison, who wrote the Federalist Papers earlier than the arrival of events, believed this of factions. ‘This reality didn’t have to be diminished to mere ‘egoistic class curiosity,’ Marx contended in The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte; nor did it require a inflexible view of social class itself. The occasion representing the petty bourgeoisie in Nineteenth-century France, for instance, was not composed solely of ‘shopkeepers or the enthusiastic champions of shopkeepers.’ Its members got here from 100 completely different locations and had a thousand completely different concepts; in addition they sincerely believed within the common emancipation of society. However, their politics have been pushed, like water flowing downhill, ‘to the identical issues and options’ that ‘the fabric curiosity and social place’ of their class instructed….. its broadest historic sense, the Marxist view is tough to refute. In political warfare, our consideration is drawn to the loud artillery blasts of candidates and campaigns, however a celebration’s final affect usually is determined by the a lot bigger, slower infantry actions of its social base.” Concluding: “The Democratic coalition right this moment is constructed to battle, and maybe to win, [the culture war] wrestle. It’s not constructed to turn into a ‘occasion of the individuals,’ a car to oppose elite rule, or a drive for main financial reform. Insofar because the upper-middle-class Democratic base finds itself pinched or bruised by the reckless march of capital, it might contemplate delicate changes to the fiscal or regulatory order; insofar because it needs to reward the less-advantaged voters contained in the coalition, it might assist delicate will increase in welfare spending. However a celebration that wins 60 % assist from the wealthiest 10 % of the nation and 75 % assist from high earners in enterprise and finance and that claims enthusiastic allegiance from a lot of the billionaire class won’t manage a brand new New Deal. Its ‘materials curiosity and social place’ merely doesn’t favor a metamorphosis of sophistication energy in the USA—or, to say the identical factor in several phrases, a authorities that may ship good jobs, healthcare, housing, and training to all its individuals. To alter the world, the Democrats will first have to alter themselves.” • Which can by no means, ever occur. So right here we’re! (One remark: Karp constantly identifies id politics/tradition warfare insurance policies as “left” positions. They’re not. There is just one left place: Placing capital below democratic management. There, I stated it 🙂
Realignment and Legitimacy
“Lab-Grown Testicles Created In Male Fertility Breakthrough” [Study Finds]. • Make up your personal jokes!
#COVID19
“I’m in earnest — I cannot equivocate — I cannot excuse — I cannot retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD.” –William Lloyd Garrison
Assets, United States (Nationwide): Transmission (CDC); Wastewater (CDC, Biobot; contains many counties; Wastewater Scan, contains drilldown by zip); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker” (in IA, however nationwide knowledge). “An infection Management, Emergency Administration, Security, and Normal Ideas” (particularly on hospitalization by metropolis).
Lambert right here: Readers, thanks for the collective effort. To replace any entry, do be at liberty to contact me on the handle given with the vegetation. Please put “COVID” within the topic line. Thanks!
Assets, United States (Native): AK (dashboard); AL (dashboard); AR (dashboard); AZ (dashboard); CA (dashboard; Marin, dashboard; Stanford, wastewater; Oakland, wastewater); CO (dashboard; wastewater); CT (dashboard); DE (dashboard); FL (wastewater); GA (wastewater); HI (dashboard); IA (wastewater studies); ID (dashboard, Boise; dashboard, wastewater, Central Idaho; wastewater, Coeur d’Alene; dashboard, Spokane County); IL (wastewater); IN (dashboard); KS (dashboard; wastewater, Lawrence); KY (dashboard, Louisville); LA (dashboard); MA (wastewater); MD (dashboard); ME (dashboard); MI (wastewater; wastewater); MN (dashboard); MO (wastewater); MS (dashboard); MT (dashboard); NC (dashboard); ND (dashboard; wastewater); NE (dashboard); NH (wastewater); NJ (dashboard); NM (dashboard); NV (dashboard; wastewater, Southern NV); NY (dashboard); OH (dashboard); OK (dashboard); OR (dashboard); PA (dashboard); RI (dashboard); SC (dashboard); SD (dashboard); TN (dashboard); TX (dashboard); UT (wastewater); VA (dashboard); VT (dashboard); WA (dashboard; dashboard); WI (wastewater); WV (wastewater); WY (wastewater).
Assets, Canada (Nationwide): Wastewater (Authorities of Canada).
Assets, Canada (Provincial): ON (wastewater); QC (les eaux usées); BC (wastewater); BC, Vancouver (wastewater).
Hat tricks to useful readers: Alexis, 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, Tom B., Utah, Bob White (3).
Keep secure on the market!
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Search for the Helpers
“A literature hub for monitoring up-to-date scientific details about the 2019 novel Coronavirus.” [LitCovid, National Institutes of Health]. “LitCovid is probably the most complete useful resource on the topic, offering a central entry to 400,114 (and rising ) related articles in PubMed. The articles are up to date day by day and are additional categorized by completely different analysis subjects (e.g. transmission) and geographic areas.” • That is good, however the topic checklist displays their ontological commitments (i.e., what’s actual or not actual):
Discover something lacking? That’s proper: Non-pharmaceutical interventions (masking, air flow). These guys are purported to be the Nationwide Institutes of Well being, not the Nationwide lnstitutes of Issues Hospitals and Massive Pharma Imagine Are Necessary As a result of Causes.
Maskstravaganza
“Supreme Courtroom turns away Home GOP lawmakers’ enchantment over masks rule violations” [The Hill]. “The Supreme Courtroom on Tuesday refused to revive a lawsuit from three Home Republicans after their pay was docked for not complying with a pandemic-era masks requirement on the chamber ground. In a short order with none famous dissents, the court docket let stand a decrease ruling that tossed the constitutional problem filed by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Ralph Norman (R-S.C.). The three conservative lawmakers have been fined $500 in Might 2021 after flouting the Home ground masks mandate that was put in place amid the COVID-19 pandemic, kicking off a years-long try by the trio of lawmakers to get the penalties lifted…. The lawmakers have been protesting the Home ground masks mandate, highlighting the very fact the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) had lately stated people who’re absolutely vaccinated didn’t must put on masks in most public settings.” • CDC, good job. In any case, aysymptomatic tranmission will not be a factor (nor presymptomatic).
Sequelae
“Mother, 33, nearly dies of coronary heart failure attributable to COVID after dismissing these indicators: ‘Actually confused’” [Today]. • NC readers have lengthy recognized of that Covid creates vascular harm. However now it’s on The Right now Present (a “mother,” in fact).
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That charlatan Campbell’s white, fibrous clots:
These clots have been faraway from a completely boosted male. They aren’t regular. Why is MSM not speaking about this? pic.twitter.com/41WyxjAKDO
— Trisha Greenhalgh (@trishgreenhalgh) February 20, 2024
White, fibrous clots (2):
Take a look at all of those clots publish vaccination. Think about the harm to even smaller vessels. The spiral form is a transparent giveaway that it is from vaccine due to the way it reprograms the clot response. pic.twitter.com/y2XTVV0fpW
— Michael Olesen 💉😷🇺🇸🇺🇦 (@maolesen) February 21, 2024
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TABLE 1: Every day Covid Charts
LEGEND
1) ★ for charts new right this moment; all others should not up to date.
2) For a full-size/full-resolution picture, Command-click (MacOS) or right-click (Home windows) on the chart thumbnail and “open picture in new tab.”
NOTES
[1] (Biobot) Once more, no backward revisions. The uptick is actual (at the least to Biobot). Word this anomaly:
Seems like Covid won’t be seasonal? Who knew? Hoerger feedback:
Dangerous Information: Biobot #wastewater ranges are nonetheless rising.
Traditionally, February is marked by a speedy decline in transmission. 929 copies/mL corresponds to 1.35 million infections per day within the U.S. pic.twitter.com/tRvRhU9xA9
— Mike Hoerger, PhD MSCR MBA (@michael_hoerger) February 20, 2024
[2] (Biobot) Right here, FWIW, is Verily regional knowledge as of February 20. CDC Area 1:
And Area 2:
Verily knowledge, then, exhibits no anomaly. Presumably, Biobot sewersheds and Verily sewersheds don’t overlap.
[3] (CDC Variants) “As of Might 11, genomic surveillance knowledge will likely be reported biweekly, primarily based on the provision of constructive check specimens.” “Biweeekly: 1. occurring each two weeks. 2. occurring twice per week; semiweekly.” Seems like CDC has chosen sense #1. In essence, they’re telling us variants are nothing to fret about. Time will inform.
[4] (ER) Doesn’t assist Biobot knowledge. “Charts and knowledge offered by CDC, updates Wednesday by 8am. For the previous yr, utilizing a rolling 52-week interval.”
[5] (Hospitalization: NY) A little bit extra lower, in line with Biobot knowledge, however not a lot. Let’s wait and see.
[6] (Hospitalization: CDC) Nonetheless down. “Maps, charts, and knowledge offered by CDC, updates weekly for the earlier MMWR week (Sunday-Saturday) on Thursdays (Deaths, Emergency Division Visits, Check Positivity) and weekly the next Mondays (Hospitalizations) by 8 pm ET†”.
[7] (Walgreens) It could be fascinating to survey this inhabitants usually; these are individuals who, regardless of a tsunami of official propaganda and large peer strain, went and acquired examined anyhow.
[8] (Cleveland) Flattening, in line with Biobot knowledge.
[9] (Vacationers: Posivitity) Down, albeit within the rear view mirror.
[10] (Vacationers: Variants) JN.1 completely dominant.
Stats Watch
There aren’t any official statistics of curiosity right this moment.
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Provide Chain: “Development of a brand new electric-vehicle provide chain is stalling on faltering shopper gross sales and tumbling costs for the sector’s bedrock minerals” [Paul Page, Wall Street Journal]. Lithium big Albemarle is deferring spending on a high-profile venture to construct a processing plant and Swiss mining and buying and selling big Glencore suspended work on a nickel mine and processing plant and is now searching for a purchaser for a stake within the venture. The WSJ’s Rhiannon Hoyle and Julie Steinberg report that producers of nickel and lithium, that are utilized in lithium-ion batteries for EVs, have been pulling again and seeking to save money after a painfully fast fall in commodity costs. The world is out of the blue awash with the metals after producers ramped up tasks to feed the worldwide EV trade and gross sales of the autos have been shedding momentum. Some policymakers concern the curtailed plans will derail current efforts to diversify vital provide chains away from China.”
The Bezzle: “Google reneged on the monopolistic cut price” [Cory Doctorow, Pluralistic]. “A humorous factor occurred on the way in which to the enshittocene: Google – which astonished the world when it reinvented search, blowing Altavista and Yahoo out of the water with a search software that appeared magic – out of the blue became a pile of shit. Google’s search outcomes are horrible. The highest of the web page is dominated by spam, scams, and advertisements. A shocking variety of these advertisements are scams. Typically, these are high-stakes scams performed out by well-resourced adversaries who stand to make a fortune by tricking Google. However usually these scams are perpetrated by petty grifters who’re making a pair bucks at this. These aren’t hyper-resourced, subtle attackers. They’re the search engine optimisation equal of script kiddies, and so they’re working circles round Google…. The deal we made with Google was, “You monopolize search and use your monopoly rents to make sure that we by no means, ever strive one other search engine. In return, you’ll by some means distinguish between low-effort, ineffective nonsense and good info. You promised us that for those who acquired to be the unelected, everlasting overlord of all info entry, you’d ‘manage the world’s info and make it universally accessible and helpful.’” They broke the deal.” • This can be a must-read. Doctorow does a deepish dive into the enshittification of product critiques, together with air purifiers [see next link]. Not nice throughout an airborne pandemic!
The Bezzle: “How Google is killing unbiased websites like ours” [HouseFresh]. • A must-read, that clearly demonstrates how each Higher Houses and Gardens and Actual easy faked product critiques of air purifiers. Faux labs, pretend photographs, pretend consultants, pretend all the pieces, doing nice in search engine optimisation and infesting all the pieces, together with Reddit threads. Hat tip, personal fairness.
The Bezzle: “Contained in the Funding Frenzy at Anthropic, Considered one of A.I.’s Hottest Begin-Up” [New York Times]. “For all of A.I.’s promise of reworking each side of society, it has began by upending Silicon Valley’s start-up deal-making. Younger firms usually elevate cash each 15 months or so, after displaying that their companies have grown. However since generative A.I. — which may generate textual content, photos, sounds and video — burst onto the scene in late 2022, the rule guide has been thrown out as traders have fought for a chunk of the most popular builders…. Buyers can not afford to lose out on the motion as a result of “for those who miss the winner within the house, you’re form of out of the sport,” stated Ilya Strebulaev, a finance professor at Stanford…. Some investments in A.I. start-ups by the tech giants have lately attracted regulatory consideration. Final month, the Federal Commerce Fee stated it had opened an inquiry into Amazon’s and Google’s investments in Anthropic for potential antitrust violations.” However: “As a part of the pact, Anthropic agreed to construct its A.I. utilizing specialised pc chips designed by Amazon. If Anthropic is a hit, Amazon’s shares within the start-up may repay handsomely. Within the meantime, the cloud computing deal will elevate Amazon’s backside line. The deal was structured as convertible notes, or debt that turns into fairness when Anthropic hits sure milestones, two individuals accustomed to the construction stated. Some traders have questioned such offers as a result of firms like Google and Amazon are investing cash that finally ends up bolstering their very own revenues. The businesses stated the preparations have been kosher.” • Little doubt. I don’t play the ponies, so all it is a little past me. Do any readers bear in mind whether or not comparable offers have been made in the course of the Dot Com period?
The Bezzle: “Air Canada Has to Honor a Refund Coverage Its Chatbot Made Up” [Wired]. • I scent enterprise mannequin. Folks really want to start out designing prompts that yield company refunds. Or, higher, have AI do it.
Labor Market: “Google Lays Off Hundreds Extra Staff Regardless of Report Earnings One 12 months After Shedding 12,000 Staff As Employees Start Worrying AI is Slowly Changing Them” [Yahoo News]. “The layoffs have sparked widespread concern amongst Google staff, not nearly job safety but in addition in regards to the moral implications of their work, particularly as the corporate continues to take a position closely in advancing AI expertise. There’s a rising apprehension that the push in the direction of automation and AI may ultimately result in additional job replacements, including to the prevailing anxiousness over layoffs… [Google’s senior vice president, Philipp Schindler] stated, ‘I need to be clear, after we restructure, there’s all the time a chance to be extra environment friendly and smarter in how we service and develop our clients.’ He went on to say, ‘We’re not restructuring as a result of AI is taking away roles that’s essential right here. However we see vital alternatives right here with our AI-powered resolution to really ship unimaginable ROI at scale, and that’s why we’re doing a few of these changes.’” • I might anticipate ginormous theft of mental property adopted by bullshit technology to have equally ginormous ROI. Who wouldn’t?
Labor Market: “A protracted-running labor battle over the primary huge new container terminal within the U.S. in a number of years reached the authorized finish of the street” [Paul Page, Wall Street Journal]. “The U.S. Supreme Courtroom gained’t hear a case introduced by South Carolina’s ports authority in a dispute with the dockworkers’ union over staffing on the new Leatherman Terminal. The WSJ Logistics Report’s Paul Berger writes the rejection lets stand a lower-court ruling that successfully pushes the Port of Charleston to make use of an all-union labor drive on the web site. The South Carolina Ports Authority says it can now work with the Worldwide Longshoremen’s Affiliation to resolve the standoff that has hamstrung operations on the facility. Leatherman is a linchpin for efforts to broaden dealing with capability on the East Coast’s No. 4 port. The choice provides the ILA a victory because the union prepares to barter a brand new contract this yr with East and Gulf coast ports.” • A union win from the Trump Courtroom? Mirabile dictu!
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Right now’s Concern & Greed Index: 68 Greed (earlier shut: 69 Greed) [CNN]. One week in the past: 76 (Excessive Greed). (0 is Excessive Concern; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Feb 21 at 1:16:17 PM ET.
Neoliberal Epidemics
“Rise in measles circumstances at Broward elementary college may simply be the start, physician says” [CBS]. “‘Measles is unfold identical to an higher respiratory an infection. So, it’s the droplets,’ [Dr. Pallavi Aneja, the program director of Internal Medicine Residency at HCA FL Northwest and Westside Hospitals] stated. “If a baby is sick — simply getting sick with a runny nostril, with conjunctivitis, which is pink eyes, low-grade fever — that may very well be simply starting phases of measles.’” • Possibly the actual pandemic was the droplet dogmatists we met alongside the way in which. In the meantime, in Florida:
FL surgeon gen says unvaccinated children can proceed to go to high school.
That is *unprecedented* Unvaccinated children want to remain house for 21 days throughout an outbreak. Why? A really actual probability of an infection, hospitalization, demise or severe harm to the immune system.
WHAT IS GOING ON pic.twitter.com/w3iStqjjH8
— Katelyn Jetelina (@dr_kkjetelina) February 21, 2024
Class Warfare
Good to see Folks’s CDC on CBS:
When the anchors truly linked the dots to hey, this one-day factor is not science, that is simply company America saying “hey get again to work” 👏🏻
CBS Information Interviews Folks’s CDC Physician @larazjmd on CDC’s Proposed Isolation Guid… https://t.co/q2aSkAK5Aq by way of @YouTube
— Dr Rebecca Richardson (@mavisclare) February 20, 2024
Labor is the supply of all worth. That’s why corporations must drive you again to work.
Information of the Wired
“Cease suspending issues by embracing the mess” [Deprocrastination]. “You may have solely what you’ve gotten proper now. In the event you really feel okay-ish, and you’ve got half-hour of largely uninterrupted time, now’s the time to do one thing. Anticipate issues to not go 100% in line with plan. Get up late? Reset Assembly canceled? Reset. Morning routine interrupted? Reset. If that these imperfections are extraordinarily probably, you possibly can react with extra presence of thoughts and make the very best of the scenario. For instance, I write this on the practice, late to my dentist appointment as a result of it snowed in a single day. Hardly a great scenario, and but I write. I may simply justify to myself that I ought to do nothing and fret over how dangerous this case is (and I certainly did for about 10 minutes), however I nonetheless have half-hour of the practice journey and so why not do a bit of labor? If I hadn’t written something on that practice, I wouldn’t have had a spot to proceed. I wouldn’t have something to edit, to enhance, and to share. Due to my perspective to make the very best out of the scenario, nonetheless messy it was, I used to be considerably productive, and felt higher about how I spent my time because of this.”
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Contact info for vegetation: Readers, be at liberty to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) learn how to ship me a test if you’re allergic to PayPal and (b) to learn how to ship me photos of vegetation. Greens are positive! Fungi, lichen, and coral are deemed to be honorary vegetation! If you’d like 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 by utilizing your initials. See the earlier Water Cooler (with plant) right here. From SC:
SC writes: “Here’s a very plain-appearing plant-start venture picture that could be a bit uncommon due to thespecies – Camellia sinensis, aka ‘Tea.’ I’ve included some verbiage that will curiosity readers who wish to propagate perennials.” I’m so pleased to see one other venture from SC. Right here is the “verbiage”:
For numerous years I’ve been attempting to determine a cold-hardy number of Camellia sinensis, aka “Tea”, in my yard from bought year-old vegetation, however I’ve tended to bungle the primary Winter and the vegetation have died inside a yr or so. This Winter, I’m attempting to start out the issues from seed in hope of getting vegetation into the bottom months sooner than I’ve in prior years. The vegetation vendor, “Camellia Forest Nursery”, sells seeds in addition to vegetation and this yr the chilly hardy selection, “Korea”, that I’ve been attempting to determine was obtainable as seed, at a worth that was very favorable in contrast with vegetation. If these vegetation don’t survive, I’ll drop the thought, or simply maintain a number of in containers as indoor vegetation. The connected picture exhibits three trays of begins from these seeds, began 5 to six weeks sooner than the year-end date of the picture. The 5 largest vegetation within the right-most tray had a “head begin” in that they already had emergent radicles once I opened the seed packet (my dangerous for not opening the package deal instantly). The third tray at left has a few small shoots poking up (at this writing, 5 days later, most pots in that tray have emergent seedlings). The germination fee to this point is above 50%. Tea is a bit of labor to course of after the harvest of latest progress; one can’t merely clip off a number of leaves at any time of the yr and steep them. If these survive, they could find yourself merely functioning as a low hedge. I like the thought of “edible/drinkable landscaping” however until the worldwide tea commerce collapses, these could find yourself merely as decorations.
Readers, do any of you’ve gotten your “begins” going?
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Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not lined by the annual NC fundraiser. So for those who see a hyperlink you particularly like, or an merchandise you wouldn’t see anyplace else, please don’t hesitate to precise your appreciation in tangible kind. Keep in mind, a tip jar is for tipping! Common constructive suggestions each makes me really feel good and lets me know I’m heading in the right direction with protection. Once I get no donations for 5 or ten days I get anxious. Extra tangibly, a continuing trickle of donations helps me with bills, and I consider that trickle when setting fundraising objectives:
Right here is the display that may seem, which I’ve helpfully annotated:
In the event you hate PayPal, you possibly can e-mail me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, and I offers you instructions on how you can ship a test. Thanks!
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