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By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Chook Tune of the Day
Snow Partridge, Chamoli, Uttarakhand, India.
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Politics
“So most of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are in reality a rational administration of symbolic capital.” –Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles
The Constitutional Order
All people into the pool:
Up to date letter from LG that corrects age requirement error in unique. pic.twitter.com/B3rYOVEdxv
— Christopher Cadelago (@ccadelago) December 20, 2023
This pair of tweets is very humorous as a result of proponents of the concept Part Three of the Fourteenth Modification is “self-executing” imagine that disqualifying a candidate due to their age is conceptually and operationally equal to disqualifying them as an insurrectionist. But right here we now have California’s Lieutenant Governor butchering the straightforward matter of age necessities. (Word additionally the significance of the top run around the discovering of truth within the Colorado case; that the occasions of January 6 had been an riot, and that Trump is an insurrectionist, is now handled as a given, regardless that there’s a Federal legislation on the books towards riot, and neither the Justice Division nor any Particular Prosecutor have charged or convicted Trump underneath it.)
“Texas chief needs Biden kicked off state’s 2024 poll over immigration” [Washington Times]. “Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick mentioned Tuesday that President Biden needs to be taken off the 2024 poll for inflicting an unlawful immigration disaster…. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, signed a legislation earlier this week that permits for the prosecution of migrants coming into the state illegally. Beneath the legislation, anybody who enters the nation illegally from Mexico could be arrested. As soon as arrested, they’ll both depart the U.S. or be charged with misdemeanors. Mr. Patrick mentioned the Texas Senate spent numerous time writing the invoice, and he believes it’s going to ‘survive any kind of Supreme Courtroom problem as a result of we’re being invaded.’” • Unsure I see the speculation of the case right here, however likely The Lege can provide you with one thing…
“Republicans float booting Biden off state ballots after Trump ruling” [New York Post]. “Whereas condemning the Colorado determination, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis contemplated aloud what the limiting precept can be for that coverage. ‘Might we simply say that Biden can’t be on the poll as a result of he let in 8 million illegals into the nation, and violated the Structure?’ he requested Wednesday at a marketing campaign occasion in Iowa. ‘If Colorado is taking Trump off the poll, Florida and Texas ought to take Biden off the poll,’ conservative influencer Rogan O’Handley mentioned. ‘Permitting 8M+ unlawful aliens into America is the best type of riot[.] See how slippery this slope will get?’” • Humorous to see phrases like “limiting precept” pop up within the New York Put up. However I believe (see “gingerly” instantly beneath) that the Republicans have managed to pay money for the appropriate finish of the stick on this. I’ve seen, for instance, that the broader the definition of “riot” is made — presumably to catch Trump — the extra different circumstances get caught up in it. Once more, had been the George Floyd riots actually an riot? Why not?
“The Mainstream Towards Democracy” [The American Conservative]. “Probably the most pertinent and intriguing query is that this: What would issues have regarded like if, as an alternative of selecting the trail of lawfare and #Resistance, mainstream events had sought to accommodate populist voters and/or provide them an much more attractive imaginative and prescient of what the longer term may seem like? That’s the query posed, most acutely, by progressive critics of the Colorado determination, together with Samuel Moyn, Sam Haselby, and Ben Burgis, amongst many others. Their level, addressing the left from the left, is that the Trump phenomenon is a political drawback. Should you don’t like him, you had higher provide a compelling various round which a permanent nationwide majority may coalesce. Preserving Trump off the poll in Colorado (and maybe elsewhere), writes Moyn, ‘transforms what must be a nationwide referendum on the way forward for the nation right into a nationwide spectacle of how judges will interpret a provision from its previous.’ Such a transfer may—emphasis on may—save Joe Biden, however it could come at nice price: an unprecedented nationwide explosion. And ultimately, it couldn’t save the Democrats—or institution Republicans, for that matter—’from their nonnegotiable duty to win energy by successful elections.’” • Not solely do I not love Trump, I’m not a conservative; democratizing capital allocation is hardly a conservative agenda merchandise. So I get close to them fairly gingerly. However right here we’re. Quoting from the article:
Look I am not a flowery political strategist however I’d suppose possibly the Democrats might attempt working somebody who is not 200 years previous and may possibly run on a platform that excites voters.
— Ben Burgis (@BenBurgis) December 20, 2023
And:
The courts are the least democratic department of presidency and the relentless efforts of the liberal Resistance to discover a juridical relatively than a political answer to Trump are ineffective and reckless.
— Sam Haselby (@samhaselby) December 20, 2023
It’s exhausting to think about something extra “reckless” than setting a precedent for Democrat electeds and appointees to take away Republican candidates from the poll on something apart from mechanical grounds (age, citizenship, and many others.). What occurs when Republicans begin doing the identical to Democrats? Solely a Federalist Society member from the College of Chicago would suppose nothing of opening a Pandora’s field like that.
Capitol Seizure
“You noticed all of it”:
Q: Is Trump an insurrectionist, sir?
President Biden: “It is self-evident. You noticed all of it. Now whether or not the 14th Modification applies, I am going to let the court docket make that call. However he actually supported an riot. There is not any query about it. None. Zero.” pic.twitter.com/kREbFSDbyV
— CSPAN (@cspan) December 20, 2023
“Self-evident,” if you’re a liberal Democrat:
“Self-evident,” if you’re not:
Biden Administration
The spooks ship a message:
I am calling on the Biden Administration to make use of all of our nation’s leverage to shift the Israeli navy’s technique in defending itself towards Hamas. The humanitarian disaster in Gaza is unacceptable and never in keeping with American pursuits. pic.twitter.com/w7niHo955F
— Chrissy Houlahan (@RepHoulahan) December 19, 2023
Slotkin, Spanberger, and Sherrill are additionally CIA Democrats. Moulton’s PAC backs them.
2024
Lower than a 12 months to go!
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“On Petition for a Writ of Certiorari Earlier than Judgment to the US Courtroom of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit” (PDF) [BRIEF OF FORMER ATTORNEY GENERAL EDWIN MEESE III AND LAW PROFESSORS STEVEN G. CALABRESI AND GARY S. LAWSON AS AMICI CURIAE SUPPORTING NEITHER PARTY, UNITED STATES, In the Supreme Court of the United States]. Ed Meese? What? Anyhow: “The illegality addressed on this temporary began on November 18, 2022, when Legal professional Basic Merrick Garland exceeded his statutory and constitutional authority by purporting to nominate Smith to function Particular First, the Appointments Clause requires that every one federal places of work “not in any other case supplied for” within the Structure have to be “established by Regulation,” U.S. Const. artwork. II, §2, cl. 2, and there’s no statute establishing the Workplace of Particular Counsel in DOJ.Counsel for the Division of Justice (DOJ). … First, the Appointments Clause requires that every one federal places of work ‘not in any other case supplied for’ within the Structure have to be ‘established by Regulation,’ U.S. Const.
artwork. II, §2, cl. 2, and there’s no statute establishing the Workplace of Particular Counsel in DOJ. The statutory provisions relied upon by DOJ and decrease courts for the appointment of particular counsels over the previous half century don’t authorize the creation and appointment of particular counsels on the stage of United States Attorneys. And United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683 (1974), doesn’t maintain on the contrary, as a result of no query was ever raised in that case concerning the validity of the unbiased counsel’s appointment…. Second, even when one overlooks the absence of statutory authority for the place, there is no such thing as a statute particularly authorizing the Legal professional Basic, relatively than the President by and with the recommendation and consent of the Senate, to nominate such a Particular Counsel…. Third, the Particular Counsel, if a sound officer, is a superior (or principal) relatively than inferior officer, and thus can’t be appointed by any means apart from presidential appointment and senatorial affirmation no matter what any statutes purport to say….. What federal statutes and the Structure don’t enable, nevertheless, is for the Legal professional Basic to nominate a personal citizen, who has by no means been confirmed by the Senate, as an alternative United States Legal professional underneath the title “Particular Counsel.” That’s what occurred on November 18, 2022. That appointment was illegal, as are all of the authorized actions which have flowed from it, together with citizen Smith’s present try to acquire a ruling from this Courtroom.” • Smith was certainly a “personal citizen” (chief prosecutor for the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague) on the time of his appointment. So there’s that.
“Jack Smith added a Supreme Courtroom specialist. Trump has the Missouri lawyer who sued Joe Biden” [Politico]. The deck: “A big expertise hole is rising because the particular counsel and the previous president assemble their Supreme Courtroom groups.” • Sure, attorneys, as a category, determined that Trump didn’t deserve illustration and closed ranks towards Trump way back (with the consequence that Trump can’t get good assist, and we get clowns like Guiliani or the kraken woman). One imagines the perplexity and distrust on the Courtroom, however maybe they’ll discover a method to overcome it. And one may also urge that the more severe your case, the higher your lawyer have to be….
“Jack Smith To SCOTUS: Sure, There Completely Is A Purpose To Rush Trump’s Case” [HuffPost]. “The Washington, D.C., prison case towards Trump is about for trial beginning on March 4. Nonetheless, Trump’s enchantment of Chutkan’s ruling denying him immunity has put a maintain on proceedings. Smith went on to the Supreme Courtroom final week to skip over the intermediate federal appeals court docket. Neither Smith nor Trump’s attorneys have put in writing one distinctive characteristic of the case: Trump, if he regains the presidency earlier than the trial is concluded, is sort of sure to order the Division of Justice to dismiss all federal prices towards him.”
“Jack Smith urges swift and ‘definitive’ motion from the Supreme Courtroom on Trump’s immunity declare” [Independent]. Principle of the case: “Prosecutors have argued that the previous president relied on knowingly false [to whom?} claims about the election to pressure state officials to approve fraudulent slates of electors to obstruct the certification of the results, then attempted to persuade then-Vice President Mike Pence to refuse the outcome, and, ultimately, failed to dissuade a mob of his supporters from rioting at the US Capitol on January 6.” • I have always thought that the “contingent electors” attack was the most dangerous one politically, simply because it looks very much like some innocent true believers got suckered into the process. Not good! But if you look at the verbs and adverbs in that sentence, none of the links in the chain — helpfully underlined — are especially strong. “Failed to persuade” is especially weak. The Capitol Riots were not the Finland Station, not even close.
* * *
“The grifter defense: The Bidens move to embrace influence peddling with a twist” [Jonathan Turley]. “The FBI tape is the newest instance of how the Bidens would market their identify and entry. The surveillance occurred within the bribery investigation into Mississippi trial legal professional Richard Scruggs. Like many Biden associates, Scruggs would ultimately go to jail whereas the Bidens remained untouched. Scruggs forked over $100,000 to James Biden when he was in search of to strengthen assist for the huge tobacco laws and Joe Biden was considered as skeptical on what some considered as a windfall for trial attorneys. Scruggs admitted to the Washington Put up that ‘I most likely wouldn’t have employed [James Biden] if he wasn’t the senator’s brother.’ Scruggs was simply one other shady determine whose enterprise affiliation with the Bidens would finally finish with a jail stint. As quickly because the tape got here out, so did the brand new protection. James Biden took the cash however allegedly did nothing to land his brother. If that sounds acquainted, it ought to. After Hunter Biden’s former enterprise affiliate Devon Archer admitted that they had been promoting the ‘Biden model,’ the Bidens’ defenders instantly insisted that it was merely ‘illusory.’ In different phrases, these corrupt figures wished to purchase affect and entry, however they had been simply chumps fleeced by the Bidens. The concept is to get the general public to suppose much less of coked up Henry Hill in ‘Goodfellas’ and extra of the lovable professor Harold Hill in ‘The Music Man,’ the charming rascal ripping off hayseeds by promoting marching bands. It’s a curious protection that we aren’t corrupt as a result of we simply ripped off dupes who had been corrupt folks. The issue, in fact, is that affect peddling is a type of corruption. Certainly, it’s a type of corruption that’s so damaging to good authorities that the US has pushed international agreements to ban affect peddling in different international locations. The query is whether or not Joe Biden knew concerning the affect peddling of his brothers and his son.” • Laborious to think about not; everyone did. I imply, there’s Hunter, swanning about, making “informal” calls to Dad from bizness conferences. Grant that Hunter is promoting “the phantasm of entry.” How does Dad not know the rating?
Democrats en Déshabillé
Affected person readers, plainly individuals are truly studying the back-dated submit! However I’ve not up to date it, and there are a lot of updates. So I should try this. –lambert
I’ve moved my standing remarks on the Democrat Social gathering (“the Democrat Social gathering 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 “reside” Water Cooler. (Hopefully, some Bourdieu.) It seems that defining the Democrat Social gathering is, in reality, a tough drawback. I do suppose the paragraph that follows is on level all the best way again to 2016, if not earlier than:
The Democrat Social gathering is the political expression of the category energy of PMC, their base (lucidly defined by Thomas Frank in Hear, Liberal!). It follows that the Democrat Social gathering is as “unreformable” because the PMC is unreformable; if the Democrat Social gathering didn’t exist, the PMC must invent it. If the Democrat Social gathering fails to manipulate, that’s as a result of the PMC lacks the aptitude to manipulate. (“PMC” modulo “class expatriates,” in fact.) Second, all of the working elements of the Social gathering reinforce one another. Depart apart characterizing the relationships between parts of the Social gathering (ka-ching, however not solely) these parts comprise a community — a Flex Web? An iron octagon? — of funders, distributors, apparatchiks, electeds, NGOs, and miscellaneous mercenaries, with belongings within the press and the intelligence neighborhood.
Word, in fact, that the category energy of the PMC each expresses and is restricted 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.
* * *
For one wonderful second underneath the Trump administration, we had one thing approaching a welfare state:
Pandemic help was the biggest social program of the final 60 years. The form of factor Dems promised voters for many years.
They dismantled it the primary likelihood they bought.
Individuals who didn’t profit from the help refuse to grasp how deeply alienating that was. It broke a spell. https://t.co/MQw4FN0TvI
— Decorum Disassembly – mas.to/@decorummanager (@DecorumManager) December 21, 2023
After which Biden was elected. (No matter how you are feeling about vax, the vax program was in reality single payer: Free on the level of care. Harmful!)
The Democrats should imagine, deeply imagine, that “maintain preventing for” is efficient rhetoric:
Well being care is a proper, not a privilege.
We will maintain preventing to decrease prescription drug prices for everybody, increase well being care protection, and maintain constructing an financial system from the center out and backside up.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) December 20, 2023
And possibly it’s, however not the best way that they suppose…
Realignment and Legitimacy
#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
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 knowledge). “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 vegetation. 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 (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 protected on the market!
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Scientific Communication
Or the communication that prospers within the absence of scientific communication:
#1 – Denial – Pretending an issue doesn’t exist to offer synthetic reduction from anxiousness.
Examples:
“Throughout COVID” or “Throughout the pandemic” (previous tense)
“The pandemic is over”
“Covid is gentle”
“It’s gotten milder”
“Covid is now like a chilly or the flu”
“Masks don’t work… pic.twitter.com/W2LbrMyrZC
— Mike Hoerger, PhD MSCR MBA (@michael_hoerger) December 20, 2023
I hate that “thoughts virus” time period however there’s no query it names an actual phenomenon, even when the mechanism is (?) off:
Syphilis debt ? https://t.co/iw2RHcZJNc
— Outbreak Updates (@outbreakupdates) December 21, 2023
Simply as wise as “immunity debt,” invented, IIRC, by bent pediatricians within the UK, simply as “gentle” emerged out of the media’s quantum foam in South Africa, and was instantly all over the place.
An infection
“Does COVID desire the intestine now? Surging virus detections in wastewater immediate scientific debate” [Bloomberg]. “Spiking COVID-19 circumstances detected in wastewater have prompted some scientists to ask whether or not JN.1, the pressure driving an explosive winter surge, is selectively concentrating on peoples’ intestinal tracts. The proof is extraordinarily restricted and theoretical, and there’s no knowledge suggesting that extra individuals are experiencing extreme digestive diseases from COVID. But there’s no query that the coronavirus has modified its necessities for getting into cells, mentioned Sydney virologist Stuart Turville. This can be per extra environment friendly an infection of specific tissues together with the intestine. It’s simply one of many many debates swirling round JN.1. The variant is so extremely infectious and immune evasive that some scientists imagine it wants its personal Greek identify to separate it from its extremely infectious progenitor, omicron…. JN.1 is the fastest-growing variant to emerge prior to now two years. The World Well being Group designated it a variant of curiosity Tuesday because of its fast progress and potential so as to add to the respiratory virus burden within the Northern Hemisphere. “Persons are detecting it in wastewater at as excessive a charge as they had been detecting omicron when it first emerged,” mentioned Kanta Subbarao, director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Analysis on Influenza in Melbourne, who chairs the company’s technical advisory group on COVID vaccine composition. ‘However to date, we’re not seeing a parallel or concomitant enhance in hospitalization. I believe we now have to observe that house.’” • No “concomitant enhance in hospitalization” could also be true in Australia. It’s actually not true within the exhausting hit UK, and I don’t suppose it’s true in New York, a minimum of (see beneath). We all know from the CDC’s traveler program that the JN.1 varaint has been growing and now dominates at airports; and since New York is main interational hub, it is sensible it could unfold from there. That was additionally the sample in 2020…
Sequelae
“Research helps clarify post-COVID train intolerance” (press launch) [Yale].
“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 number of exceptionally nasty sequelae, almost definitely deriving from immune dysregulation (says this layperson). To which we’d add mind harm, together with persona adjustments therefrom.
* * *
Elite Maleficence
WHO and CDC now not in lockstep to oblivion:
The CDC has not elevated the warning ranges of JN1 variant regardless of it inflicting hospitalization surges worldwide, however the WHO has.
The CDC has not advisable common masking in hospitals and for HCWs, however the WHO has.
The @CDCgov is failing us. Do higher @CDCDirector. https://t.co/wu6wWE44k0
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) December 21, 2023
“States are trashing troves of masks and pandemic gear as large, pricey stockpiles linger and expire” [Associated Press]. • Good timing! Those that don’t be taught from the previous….
* * *
Case Information
NOT UPDATED From BioBot wastewater knowledge, December 18:
Lambert right here: As a very “intestine really feel” tapewatcher, I’d anticipate this peak to fulfill or exceed the 2 earlier Biden peaks; in spite of everything, we haven’t actually begun the following bout of vacation journey, or the following rounds of superspreading occasions celebrations. Plus college students haven’t come from from faculty, after which returned. So a better peak appears just about “baked in.” And that’s earlier than we get to new variants, like JN.1. The actual factor to observe is the slope of the curve. If it begins to go vertical, and if it retains on doing so, then maintain onto your hats. (Subsequent week’s studying, nevertheless, is Christmas Day; there might be a data-driven drop.) Keep protected on the market! Solely 14 superspreading days till Christmas!
Regional knowledge:
Laborious to see why the regional cut up (and it positive can be good to have extra granular knowledge). Climate forcing Northerners indoors? Appears facile. There’s snow within the Rockies (inexperienced shade, West), for instance.
Variants
NOT UPDATED From CDC, December 9:
Lambert right here: JN.1, proven on the NowCast for the primary time, arising quick on the skin, whereas BA.2.86 fades.
From CDC, November25:
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 services reduce by directors of unwell intent).
CDC: “As of Could 11, genomic surveillance knowledge will likely be reported biweekly, based mostly on the supply of optimistic check specimens.” “Biweeekly: 1. occurring each two weeks. 2. occurring twice every week; semiweekly.” Seems 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, December 16:
Lambert: Return to upward motion. Solely every week’s lag, so this can be our greatest present nationwide, present indicator.
NOTE “Charts and knowledge supplied by CDC, updates Wednesday by 8am. For the previous 12 months, utilizing a rolling 52-week interval.” So not the whole 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 folks a lot. Discover additionally that this chart exhibits, a minimum of for its time interval, that Covid will not be seasonal, regardless that CDC is making an attempt to get us to imagine that it’s, presumably to allow them to piggyback on the present institutional equipment for injections. And naturally, we’re not even stepping into the standard of the wastewater websites that we now have as a proxy for Covid an infection general.
Hospitalization
Bellwether New York Metropolis, knowledge as of December 20:
Lambert right here: Upward spike confirmed, and regarding.
NOT UPDATED Right here’s a special CDC visualization on hospitalization, nationwide, not by state, however with a date, a minimum of. December 9:
Shifting forward briskly!
Lambert right here: “Maps, charts, and knowledge 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
NOT UPDATED From Walgreens, December 18:
-0.3%. Down. (It will be attention-grabbing to survey this inhabitants typically; these are individuals who, regardless of a tsunami of official propaganda and large peer strain, went and bought examined anyhow.)
NOT UPDATED From Cleveland Clinic, December 16:
Lambert right here: Plateauing. I do know that is simply Ohio, however the Cleveland Clinic is sweet*, and we’re starved for knowledge, so…. NOTE * Even when hospital an infection management is making an attempt to kill sufferers by eliminating common masking with N95s.
NOT UPDATED From CDC, traveler’s knowledge, November 27:
Turning upward.
Down, albeit within the rear view mirror. And listed here are the variants for vacationers, November 27:
BA.2.86 blasting upward. This is able to be a terrific early warning system, if the warning had been in reality early as an alternative of weeks late, good job, CDC.
Deaths
NOT UPDATED Right here is the New York Instances, based mostly on CDC knowledge, December 9:
Stats Watch
GDP: “United States GDP Development Fee” [Trading Economics]. “The American financial system expanded an annualized 4.9% within the third quarter of 2023, barely beneath 5.2% within the second estimate, however matching the 4.9% initially reported within the advance estimate. It nonetheless marks the strongest progress since This autumn 2021.”
Employment State of affairs: “United States Preliminary Jobless Claims” [Trading Economics]. “The variety of Individuals submitting for unemployment advantages edged greater by 2,000 to 205,000 on the week ending December sixteenth, holding near the two-month low of 203 hit within the earlier week and properly beneath market expectations of 215,000.”
Manufacturing: “United States Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index” [Trading Economics]. “The Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index within the US declined to -10.5 in December 2023 from -5.9 within the prior month and much worse than market estimates of -3. That is the index’s seventeenth damaging studying prior to now 19 months. ”
Manufacturing: “United States Kansas Fed Manufacturing Index” [Trading Economics]. “The Kansas Metropolis Fed’s Manufacturing Manufacturing index was at -4 in December of 2023, little modified from -3 within the earlier month. there was a rise in exercise for nondurable items, particularly meals & beverage and plastics manufacturing. Conversely, there was a slight decline in exercise for sturdy items, primarily because of major steel and furnishings manufacturing. The manufacturing, shipments, and new orders indexes all had barely damaging values, whereas employment exercise skilled a rebound. Furthermore, after a number of stagnant months, inventories for uncooked supplies and completed items witnessed a minor enhance.”
* * *
Mental Property: “2024’s public area is a banger” [Cory Doctorow, Pluralistic]. “They stole one thing from you. For many years, they stole it. That factor they stole? Your complete tradition. For all of human historical past, works created in dwelling reminiscence entered the general public area yearly. 40 years in the past, that stopped. First in 1976, after which once more in 1998, Congress retroactively prolonged copyright’s period by 20 years, for all works, together with works whose authors had been unknown and lengthy lifeless, whose correct successors couldn’t be positioned. Many of those authors had been completely erased from historical past as each recognized copy of their works disappeared earlier than they might be introduced again into our tradition by way of copy, adaptation and re-use (copyright is “strict legal responsibility,” which means that even when you pay to clear the rights to a piece from somebody who has good cause to imagine they management these rights, in the event that they’re incorrect, you’re on the hook as an infringer, and the statutory damages run to 6 figures). Works which are nonetheless in our cultural currents 50 or 70 or 90 years after their creation are an infinitesimal fraction of all of the works we create as a species. However these works are – by definition – terribly essential to our tradition. The creators who made these works had been capable of plunder a wealthy public area of still-current works as inputs to their very own enduring creations. The slow-motion arson assault on the general public area meant that two generations of creators had been denied the general public area that each different creator within the historical past of the human race had loved.” •
* * *
Right this moment’s Worry & Greed Index: 72 Excessive Greed (earlier shut: 71 Excessive Greed) [CNN]. One week in the past: 70 (Greed). (0 is Excessive Worry; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Dec 21 at 1:17:07 PM ET.
The Gallery
Wow:
Album Leaf of Flowers, Bugs and Fish https://t.co/tISYMmW4Jc pic.twitter.com/hovRBngZNL
— HAM: Work (Bot) (@harvard_artbot) December 21, 2023
The blur of the ink offers a way of movement to the fish.
Class Warfare
“$750 a month, no questions requested, improved the lives of homeless folks” [Los Angeles Times]. “If 100 homeless folks got $750 per thirty days for a 12 months, no questions requested, what would they spend it on? That query was on the core of a managed research carried out by a San Francisco-based nonprofit and the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck College of Social Work. The outcomes had been so promising that the researchers determined to publish outcomes after solely six months. The reply: meals, 36.6%; housing, 19.5%; transportation, 12.7%; clothes, 11.5%; and healthcare, 6.2%, leaving solely 13.6% uncategorized…. ‘I spent numerous the cash on meals on the go,’ one participant informed the researchers. ‘Easy, low-cost issues like bean and cheese burritos. I eat on the run whereas I bike/work for DoorDash. I additionally purchased a membership to REI, so I might get my bike fastened free of charge.’” • Homeless DoorDash employees….
Information of the Wired
“Geologists say plastic rocks are actually a factor” [ZME Science]. “In contrast to conventional sedimentary rocks like limestone or sandstone, plastistone is a hybrid of pure rock and artificial plastic. This mix happens when plastic waste turns into intertwined with pure rock parts, resulting in a novel geological formation. The method of lithification, which turns unfastened sediment into stable rock, is at play right here, incorporating plastic as a part of the rock matrix. Plastistones have been discovered on a world scale, each in coastal and inland areas, the 2 researchers say. They kind by way of the fusion of pure rock and plastic waste — a startling indicator of human influence on the planet…. ‘On this context, we suggest the adoption of an current time period ‘plastistone’ with a revised definition to collectively describe these novel plastic types,’ write Liuwei Wang and Deyi Hou from Tsinghua College.” • And talking of rocks–
“New nuclear deflection simulations advance planetary protection towards asteroid threats” [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]. “Researchers at Lawrence Livermore Nationwide Laboratory (LLNL) have developed a modeling device for assessing the potential use of a nuclear gadget to defend the planet towards catastrophic asteroid impacts…. Nuclear gadgets have the very best ratio of power density per unit of mass of any human know-how, making them a useful device in mitigating asteroid threats, mentioned LLNL physicist Mary Burkey, who led the analysis…. ‘If we now have sufficient warning time, we might probably launch a nuclear gadget, sending it hundreds of thousands of miles away to an asteroid that’s headed towards Earth,’ Burkey mentioned. ‘We’d then detonate the gadget and both deflect the asteroid, conserving it intact however offering a managed push away from Earth, or we might disrupt the asteroid, breaking it up into small, fast-moving fragments that may additionally miss the planet.’” • Glad we’ve bought that lined….
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Contact data 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 verify if you’re allergic to PayPal and (b) to learn how to ship me photos of vegetation. Greens are wonderful! Fungi and coral are deemed to be honorary vegetation! In order for you your deal with to look as a credit score, please place it initially 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 Desert Dawg:
Desert Dawg writes: “My daughter despatched this picture of the tree that she walks by on daily basis whereas strolling her canine. Its distinctive form is type of much like to mine. We each like non regular issues I assume.”
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