2:00PM Water Cooler 12/7/2022 | bare capitalism

By Lambert Strether of Corrente

Thanks, expensive readers, to your overwhelming response to my name for assistance on discovering a replica of Conspiracy Idea in America. I now have a PDF (another rattling guide to learn). I need to learn the guide now, and so I didn’t to attend for E-book Depository order or inter-library mortgage. –lambert

Hen Tune of the Day

Meadow Bunting, Ilistay River, Primorsky Krai, Russia. “A hen constantly calling.”

Politics

“However what’s authorities itself, however the best of all reflections on human nature?” –James Madison, Federalist 51

“Right here’s meals for thought, had Ahab time to assume; however Ahab by no means thinks; he solely feels, feels, feels” –Herman Melville, Moby Dick

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

Capitol Seizure

“Struggle over officer testimony roils Proud Boys sedition case” [Associated Press]. “A authorized struggle has erupted over a Washington D.C. police officer who was speaking with Proud Boys chief Enrique Tarrio within the run-up to the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol assault that would form the end result of the upcoming trial of Tarrio and different far-right extremists. Metropolitan Police Lt. Shane Lamond’s testimony is essential for the previous Proud Boys nationwide chairman’s protection in opposition to seditious conspiracy and different critical expenses stemming from the assault, Tarrio’s attorneys say. However Lamond plans to invoke his Fifth Modification privilege in opposition to self incrimination if known as to the witness stand after prosecutors warned the officer he could possibly be charged with obstructing the investigation into Tarrio, the Proud Boy’s attorneys say. They’ve accused the Justice Division of making an attempt to bully Lamond into holding quiet as a result of his testimony would harm their case. Prosecutors have vehemently denied that cost.” • The Proud Boys have been stuffed with informants and now we be taught infested by cops. And but…. your complete January 6 carnival got here out of the blue, an entire shock to the organs of state safety? Heck, if Pelosi’s daughter hadn’t been there to movie it, we would not know something!

Biden Administration

“Doug Emhoff emerges because the face of Biden’s struggle in opposition to antisemitism” [Politico]. “Emhoff isn’t terribly non secular — and admits as a lot. He grew up in Previous Bridge, N.J., a group with a good variety of Jews. He attended a temple there and was bar mitzvahed. However he was largely secular, exhibiting the kind of religion frequent amongst his technology: spiritually related however observant primarily on the Excessive Holidays. That modified when his spouse, Kamala Harris, assumed the vice presidency.” • I’ll wager it did.

“The Dominoes of Debt Restrict Default” [Third Way]. “America will hit the debt restrict in 2023. However unbelievable uncertainty exists across the willingness of Republicans within the 118th Congress to step up and assist keep away from the sure financial Armageddon that can occur if we don’t elevate it. Statements point out they may play a sport of rooster—one which can make sure that if the USA defaults, there can be financial turmoil.23 And even a quick default may throw a lot sand within the gears of our financial system that one other a lot worse state of affairs would possibly play out—together with a monetary disaster or recession.” • So abolish the debt restrict within the lame duck. It was “a nasty thought whose time has come” when handed in 1986.

2022

GA: “Democratic Sen. Warnock wins Georgia runoff in opposition to Walker” [Associated Press]. “Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock defeated Republican challenger Herschel Walker in a Georgia runoff election Tuesday, making certain Democrats an outright majority within the Senate for the remainder of President Joe Biden’s present time period and capping an underwhelming midterm cycle for the GOP within the final main vote of the yr. With Warnock’s second runoff victory in as a few years, Democrats can have a 51-49 Senate majority, gaining a seat from the present 50-50 cut up with John Fetterman’s victory in Pennsylvania. There can be divided authorities, nevertheless, with Republicans having narrowly flipped Home management…. ‘I typically say {that a} vote is a type of prayer for the world we need for ourselves and for our youngsters,’ declared Warnock, a Baptist pastor and his state’s first Black senator. ‘Georgia, you have got been praying along with your lips and your legs, your palms and your ft, your heads and your hearts. You will have put within the exhausting work, and right here we’re standing collectively.’” • A vote is of prayer [puts head in hands]. What sort of prayer was this, champ?

To be truthful, Warnock ought to do very nicely on South Carolina 2024 and 2028. For apparent causes.

GA: “What the Georgia Runoff Revealed” [Ronald Brownstein, The Atlantic]. “With Warnock’s victory over Republican Herschel Walker, Democrats have defeated each GOP Senate and gubernatorial candidate endorsed by Donald Trump this yr within the 5 states that flipped from supporting him in 2016 to backing Joe Biden in 2020—Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, and Arizona. Coming even amid widespread discontent over the financial system, this yr’s Democratic sweep in opposition to the Trump-backed candidates underscores the persevering with resistance to the previous president’s affect. Specifically, Warnock’s decisive margins in Atlanta and its suburbs yesterday prolonged the Democratic dominance of white-collar (and often racially various) metropolitan areas, as diversified because the suburbs of Detroit and Philadelphia and the booming sizzling spots of Phoenix and Madison. ‘The large query after the election of 2020 was whether or not the suburbs would snap again to the GOP column after Trump was not on the poll,’ Ben Wikler, the Democratic Social gathering chair in Wisconsin, informed me. ‘What we noticed in 2022 was suburbs persevering with to pattern towards Democrats.’” • The place the votes have been:

Warnock improved the margin in his favor in roughly two-thirds of Georgia’s 159 counties. #gapol #gasen https://t.co/DMdZLNMHV4 pic.twitter.com/H9qmxUuTf8

— Greg Bluestein (@bluestein) December 7, 2022

2024

“Trump particular counsel subpoenas officers in three states for communications” [The Hill]. “The Justice Division has issued a sequence of subpoenas to officers in three states, nodding to an enlargement of its inquiry into the false elector scheme pursued by the 2020 Trump marketing campaign…. The subpoenas have been among the many first signed by newly appointed particular counsel Jack Smith and are a sign the Justice Division is pushing forward in two probes centered on former President Trump: the Jan. 6 investigation and the case tied to the mishandling of White Home information at Mar-a-Lago. The subpoenas ask the county clerks — these for Dane County, Wis., Maricopa County, Ariz., and Wayne County, Mich. — to element any communications with ‘Donald J. Trump, or any worker or agent of, or lawyer for, the Trump Marketing campaign.’ The paperwork then record 19 key allies of the marketing campaign, a bunch that features Trump marketing campaign supervisor Invoice Stepien and attorneys Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis and John Eastman in addition to official marketing campaign attorneys and advisers equivalent to Boris Epshteyn.” • I’ve all the time thought this was the avenue to pursue (although I solely centered on Trump’s name to Georgia).

“Contained in the turmoil roiling No Labels’ unity ticket presidential marketing campaign” [Politico]. • What a disgrace.

Democrats en Déshabillé

Affected person readers, plainly individuals are truly studying the back-dated publish! However I’ve not up to date it, and there are numerous 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 publish, to which I’ll periodically add materials, summarizing the addition right here in a “dwell” Water Cooler. (Hopefully, some Bourdieu.) It seems that defining the Democrat Social gathering is, in truth, a tough drawback. I do assume the paragraph that follows is on level all the way in which 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 Pay attention, Liberal!). ; if the Democrat Social gathering didn’t exist, the PMC must invent it. . (“PMC” modulo “class expatriates,” after all.) Second, all of the working elements of the Social gathering reinforce one another. Go away apart characterizing the relationships between components of the Social gathering (ka-ching, however not solely) these components comprise a community — a Flex Web? An iron octagon? — of funders, distributors, apparatchiks, electeds, NGOs, and miscellaneous mercenaries, with property within the press and the intelligence group.

Observe, after all, that the category energy of the PMC each expresses and is restricted by different courses; oligarchs and American gentry (see ‘industrial mannequin’ of Ferguson, Jorgensen, and Jie) and the working class spring to thoughts. Suck up, kick down.

* * *

IA: “How Iowa Democrats may have saved the caucuses” [Bleeding Heartland]. “Iowa Democratic leaders might need prevented this end result if they’d addressed issues with the caucus system a very long time in the past…. Iowa Democratic leaders might need prevented this end result if they’d addressed issues with the caucus system a very long time in the past…. For a few years, when prime Iowa Democrats may have been working with the DNC to make the caucuses extra inclusive, their precedence was to keep up a united entrance with New Hampshire in opposition to all who would possibly upend the calendar. That alliance preserved our first-in-the-nation standing in 1984 and past, however is well past its sell-by date now.”

IA: “Don’t lose sight of what’s essential, Iowa Democrats” [Bleeding Heartland]. “f you poured fact serum down the throats of Iowa Democratic leaders, they might admit the caucuses are a unusual course of that’s extra time consuming for members than merely voting in a main election. That flaw with the caucus construction undermines the close to mythological standing accorded to Iowa. Those that work on caucus evening are ignored and couldn’t be counted. So have been individuals who couldn’t put aside two or three hours to face shoulder to shoulder in a college lunchroom or a church assembly room. Those that have been out of city couldn’t take part, both, as a result of there was no absentee poll possibility. After which there have been the issues for Democrats who couldn’t drive at evening, or who have been petrified of venturing out in nasty winter climate, or who have been ill. Brennan and different Iowa Democratic leaders ought to agree on some painful info, chief amongst them that the celebration’s most essential activity needs to be recruiting, coaching, equipping and supporting robust candidates to run for native and state places of work. The result of latest Iowa elections underscores that uncomfortable actuality for Democrats. A Democrat final occupied the governor’s workplace in 2010. That additionally was the final time the celebration held majorities in each the Iowa Home and Iowa Senate. And Democrats final had a majority in a single legislative chamber (the Senate) in 2016. Iowa Democratic leaders mustn’t permit their consideration to be diverted by a no-win struggle over which state will get to go first in 2024 in serving to to decide on the Democratic nominee for president.”

IA: “Iowa Democrats Ask: With out the First-in-the-Nation Caucuses, Who Are We, Actually?” [New York Times]. In the event that they don’t already know… “[Rob Sand, the Iowa state auditor] was the only real Democrat to outlive in statewide and federal elections in final month’s midterms. Democrats misplaced their final member of Congress from Iowa, Consultant Cindy Axne. Tom Miller, a Democrat who has served practically 40 years because the state lawyer basic and appeared invincible, was additionally defeated… As not too long ago as 2014, Iowa was represented by Senator Tom Harkin, a progressive stalwart who launched the Individuals With Disabilities Act. The state twice voted for Mr. Obama. But it lurched extra forcefully to the suitable than some other U.S. state. Thirty-one counties that voted for Mr. Obama in 2012 pivoted to Donald J. Trump in 2016. Mr. Biden did not win again any of them in 2020. Explanations for the partisan reversal run the gamut from the financial misery of misplaced industrial jobs, to latent biases Mr. Trump enabled, to a broad malaise in rural areas which were hollowed out by younger folks’s leaving. ‘The Democratic nationwide message actually isn’t resonating in these counties,’ stated Mr. Nilles, the celebration chairman of Linn County, which incorporates Cedar Rapids, the state’s second-largest metropolis.” • It might be that for the Iowa Democrat Social gathering, ditching the caucuses is an effective factor.

SC: “‘Emotional’ second: Inside Biden’s rollout of Democratic main lineup that strikes up South Carolina” [USA Today]. “Rep. Jim Clyburn was getting ready to attend a state dinner on the White Home for the visiting French president when he received a name from Joe Biden. The president needed to inform the South Carolina Democrat personally that he was recommending his house state transfer to the entrance of the presidential main calendar, making it the celebration’s premier contest. ‘That’s the primary I heard of it,’ Clyburn stated.” Oh, come on. I wager Clyburn makes use of that line rather a lot. Extra: “Clyburn stated he spoke to Biden earlier within the yr about holding South Carolina, which has a big Black inhabitants however isn’t a battleground state, within the early window. He emphasised the state’s monitor file of selecting presidents.” • Certainly. Obama (dangerous). Clinton (worse). Biden (even worse, in case your metric is the physique rely). Large hat tip to the South Carolina political institution and the Black Misleadership Class. Harris 2024!

Realignment and Legitimacy

The fish rots from the top:

Is there corruption in authorities with buying and selling shares? In all probability.

Did we construct a approach so that you can partake on this corruption? Positively.

Obtain Autopilot to repeat commerce Politicians 🫡https://t.co/45aUCd7d7C

— Nancy Pelosi Inventory Tracker ♟ (@PelosiTracker_) December 7, 2022

“What Makes Fascism Fascist?” [John Ganz, Unpopular Front]. “Whereas authoritarian conservatives can countenance a break with constitutional legality, they would favor this to originate throughout the current elite of the state, in aristocratic statesmen of long-standing or within the excessive ranks of the army, for instance. Fascists attempt for a putsch ‘from beneath,’ originating from their very own cadre. Usually, mass mobilization is a desideratum of fascists, whereas conservatives typically would favor to not fire up the general public and disturb the social order. Stanley Payne writes: ‘Most fascist actions didn’t obtain true mass mobilization, nevertheless it was nonetheless attribute that such was their objective, for they all the time sought to transcend the elitist parliamentary cliquishness of poorly mobilized liberal teams or the sectarian exclusiveness and reliance on elite manipulation typically discovered within the authoritarian proper.’ Michael Mann: ‘What primarily distinguishes fascists from the numerous army and monarchical dictatorships of the world is that this ’bottom-up’ and violent high quality of its paramilitarism.’ Whereas the paramilitaries do make use of actual violence, their political position is way extra advanced than mere thuggery. The paramilitaries themselves operate as a type of propaganda: they can’t hope to really struggle and defeat the state’s current safety forces. Mann, once more: ‘Paramilitarism thus provided them a particular strategy to electoral democracy and current elites, each of which they really despised. Paramilitarism should all the time be seen as entwined with the opposite two important fascist energy sources: in electoral battle and within the undermining of elites. It was paramilitarism – caging the fascists, coercing their opponents, profitable the assist or respect of bystanders – that enabled fascists to do excess of their mere numbers may. Thus paramilitarism was violence, nevertheless it was all the time an awesome deal greater than violence. It definitely didn’t confer sufficient efficient violence for fascists to stage coups if that meant taking up the state’s military. Paramilitary was not the equal of army energy.’” • The entire piece is value a cautious learn.

“What Democrats and Republicans Count on From U.S. Overseas Coverage” [Morning Consult]. Useful chart:

If there have been a 3rd chart, that thought of the views of those that have been neither Democrat nor Republican, I ponder what it might present?

“A Liberal Patriot Imaginative and prescient for Freedom within the twenty first Century” [The Liberal Patriot]. Ruy Teixeira, nonetheless in enterprise, after his “coaliton of the ascendant” disintegrated. “For all of the discuss of their demise in recent times, fundamental liberal values — such President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 4 Freedoms — stay broadly well-liked all over the world. However discuss of values in America’s political debates and overseas coverage discussions has tended to float away from these core freedoms and towards extra diffuse beliefs that rework nearly each problem underneath the solar right into a query of human rights. Nonetheless meritorious these points might be, the top result’s a lack of focus in relation to incorporating American values into overseas coverage. As an alternative, America ought to shift its focus again to the values of 4 Freedoms: freedom of speech and worship, freedom from need and concern.” • Perhaps, as they are saying in AA, clear our personal aspect of the road first?

#COVID19

Lambert right here: Eric Topol has known as a winter surge (or “wave”) of Covid. I’m however a humble tapewatcher, however I’m reluctant to take action. (Partly as a result of I do know my temperament, and I’ve robust priors. So “I gained’t as a result of all of me needs to,” as Sam Spade says.) Topol’s view is the institution view: Hospital-centric. Mine is infection-centric. I don’t see the acceleration or doubling in instances that I’d count on to see based mostly on previous surges. Granted, Boston (wastewater) is accelerating New York (hospitalization) is rising, they’re good knowledge, they usually could possibly be main indicators (which is why I selected them). They is also flashes within the pan. (Maybe I must take a rigorous take a look at wastewater, as for instance in San Francisco (charts take without end to load).) So we’ll see. Let’s wait and see what the rest of the vacation season brings. Reader dialogue on this essential level is welcome. However–

Keep secure on the market: Excessive transmission (CDC), the elevation of positivity (Walgreens), the regular takeover of BQ.1* (CDC; Walgreens), together with elevated hospitalization in BQ.1* hotbed New York, plus a wastewater surge in Boston are all greater than somewhat unsettling (as is the obvious proliferation of variants). As one would possibly count on at the start of a vacation surge, wastewater in Queens County, NY (JFK/LGA), Prepare dinner County, IL (ORD), and Los Angeles County (LAX) continues to be elevated. In case you are planning to journey on Xmas, do think about your plans fastidiously.

• I haven’t been following the tripledemic (RSV, flu, Covid) intently. Right here’s a protracted thread from a pediatric perspective:

(Right here is an unrolled model of the thread.) Readers, what are you seeing?

• Nice masks self-discipline on the Royal Australian School of Surgeons:

Oh, wait…

Transmission

Right here is CDC’s interactive map by county set to group transmission (the “crimson map”). (That is the map CDC needs solely hospitals to have a look at, not you.)

Lambert right here: The powers-that-be don’t even see transmission as an issue, clearly. However you would possibly!

Positivity

From the Walgreen’s check positivity tracker, printed December :

1.9%. Yesterday was 2.3% (4.1%). Distinct slackening (keep in mind, this knowledge is smoothed). Then once more, because the gray Fauci Line exhibits, we’re on the similar degree right now as we have been within the final peak (besides after all this time the pandemic is “over”).

Wastewater

Wastewater knowledge (CDC), December 3:

JFK/LGA, Queens County remains to be crimson; ORD, Prepare dinner County is orange; LAX, Los Angeles County now crimson. I’d wager that speckling of crimson in Utah is sky nation. Keep secure when travelling.

I’m not proud of the airports in any respect, this vacation season. JFK/LGA:

ORD:

LAX:

Seems to be like Los Angeles County received its testing fired up for the primary time. However.

December 1:

NOT UPDATED And MWRA knowledge, December 1:

Lambert right here: I hesitate to say “going vertical.” Seems to be vertical to me.

• “Santa Clara County COVID Ranges Rising in Wastewater Samples” [NBC Bay Area]. “Santa Clara County well being leaders in a Tuesday briefing stated there’s a clear signal that COVID charges are rising, including the county may even see much more folks contract coronavirus than what was reported through the omicron peak in January. The quantity of virus detected in wastewater exhibits Santa Clara County will seemingly quickly see much more instances and hospitalizations, officers stated. ‘Our wastewater numbers are completely skyrocketing,’ Santa Clara County Public Well being Officer Dr. Sara Cody stated. ‘There’s a ton of virus circulating. If you wish to be wholesome for the vacations, it’s good to take motion and the primary on the record is to get boosted.’ The county reviews 25% of eligible residents who’re eligible for a bivalent booster have acquired one.” • Sara Cody is nice; she made the right early name in 2020 on how critical Covid was. And even she gained’t point out non-pharmaceutical interventions.

Variants

Lambert right here: It’s past irritating how gradual the variant knowledge is. Does no one within the public well being institution get a promotion for monitoring variants? Are there no grants? Is there a single lab that does this work, and everyone will get the outcomes from them? [grinds teeth, bangs head on desk]. UPDATE Sure. See NC right here on Pango. Each Friday, a stately, tutorial tempo totally incompatible with defending your self in opposition to a variant exhibiting doubling habits.

NOT UPDATED Variant knowledge, nationwide (Walgreens), November 19:

Lambert right here: BQ.1* dominating. XBB developing on the skin.

NOT UPDATED Variant knowledge, nationwide (CDC), November 12 (Nowcast off):

BQ.1* shifting alongside fairly briskly. Observe the looks of XBB, and see the highlighted be aware: Like BQ.1*, XBB seems all of a sudden when CDC decides to disaggregate the info. Precisely as with CDC’s notorious “inexperienced map,” a lag is launched, this time by CDC’s decision-making course of; Walgreens had XBB final week, however CDC has it solely this week. I don’t see what objective the aggregation serves. If the problem is a jillion low-circulation variants would make the desk impossibly lengthy and complicated for customers, that’s a UI/UX problem; deal with it with software program. Have a slider/filter that aggregates variants underneath 1%, say. Enable scrolling the outcomes. No matter. However cease concealing knowledge!

New York/New Jersey (Area 2) numbers are larger. BQ.1.* is dominating:

• As a verify, since New York is a BQ.1* hotbed, New York hospitalization, up to date December 6:

Lambert right here: I see improve, however not acceleration.

Deaths

Loss of life charge (Our World in Knowledge):

Whole: 1,107,794 – 1,106,990 = 804 (804 * 365 = 293,460 deaths per yr, right now’s YouGenicist™ quantity for “residing with” Covid (fairly a bit larger than the minimizers would love, although they will discuss themselves into something. If the YouGenicist™ metric retains chugging alongside like this, I could must resolve that is what the powers-that-be think about “mission achieved” for this explicit tranche of loss of life and illness).

It’s good that for deaths I’ve a easy, day by day chart that simply retains chugging alongside, not like all the things else CDC and the White Home are screwing up or letting go darkish, good job.

Stats Watch

There aren’t any official statistics of curiosity right now.

The Bezzle: “Bankman-Fried, Ellison faucet attorneys as FTX probes ramp up” [Reuters]. “Bankman-Fried has retained Mark S. Cohen, of Cohen & Gresser, Bankman-Fried’s spokesperson Mark Botnick stated in an emailed assertion. Cohen couldn’t be reached for remark… David Mills, a professor at Stanford Legislation Faculty, is consulting on the matter for Bankman-Fried, Botnick stated. Mills didn’t reply to requests for remark…. Cohen, a former assistant United States lawyer for the Japanese District of New York, not too long ago defended Ghislaine Maxwell in her intercourse trafficking trial. Bankman-Fried had beforehand employed Martin Flumenbaum of legislation agency Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, however the legislation agency stated final month it was not representing him on account of conflicts.” • Seems to be like SBF discovered some change underneath the sofa cushions.

At present’s Concern & Greed Index: 60 Greed (earlier shut: 59 Greed) [CNN]. One week in the past: 69 (Greed). (0 is Excessive Concern; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Dec 7 at 1:37 PM EST.

Xmas Pregame Festivities

“Secrets and techniques of the Christmas Tree Commerce” [New York Magazine]. “Christmas bushes are massive enterprise in New York. Lots of people see the quaint plywood shacks that seem on sidewalks simply earlier than Thanksgiving, every with its personal tiny forest of evergreens, they usually think about that all is independently owned, perhaps by jolly households of lumberjacks trying to make a couple of vacation bucks. That’s what I believed, anyway. In actuality, a couple of eccentric, obsessed, generally ruthless tycoons management the sale of just about each single tree within the metropolis. They name themselves “tree males,” they usually spend 11 months a yr getting ready for Christmastime — which, to them, is a blistering 30-day dash to seize as a lot money as they will.”

Sports activities Desk

“Main League Baseball used no less than two forms of balls once more this yr, and proof factors to a 3rd” [Insider]. “Over the subsequent few months, [Meredith Wills, a Society for American Baseball Research award-winning astrophysicist] and Insider — with whom Wills completely shared her analysis — labored collectively to gather sport balls for her to painstakingly deconstruct, weigh, and analyze. What she discovered was putting: Along with that small variety of older juiced balls and the newer lifeless balls, Wills discovered proof {that a} third ball was getting used at stadiums throughout the majors…. In accordance with Wills’ knowledge, MLB deployed this third baseball alongside the lifeless ball in 2022, with manufacturing beginning as early as January – six months earlier than [Rob Manfred, the commissioner of MLB] promised a one-ball season…. [P]erhaps much more attention-grabbing than the obvious existence of the third ball itself is the place we tended to seek out it. Although the overwhelming majority of baseballs we obtained have been lifeless, 36 of them match the invoice for what Wills dubbed the “Goldilocks ball:” not too heavy, not too mild — however good. Of these, we discovered most in considered one of three conditions: Postseason video games, together with the World Collection; The All-Star Sport and Dwelling Run Derby; Common-season video games that used balls with particular commemorative stamps — equivalent to a Texas Rangers fiftieth anniversary ball — on the outer leather-based. The one Goldilocks balls we obtained from the common season that didn’t have commemorative stamps have been from Yankees video games.” • Hmm.

The Gallery

Fish (1864):

Fish (1921):

Our Famously Free Press

“Kanye, Elon, Trump: Why the Information Cycle Is Trapped in a Narcissist Vortex” [Molly Jong-Fast, Vanity Fair]. “[M]aybe we, within the media, grew too comfy giving oxygen to nefarious folks saying horrible issues—simple fodder for blaring chyrons and inst-scandals.” Ya thinik? Extra: “No matter the reason for this horrible churn, we must always collectively attempt to get out. We [who’s we?] deserve higher than close to fixed tales of wealthy males who appear to be careening towards catastrophe and taking us together with them. I’ll move on dinner with Trump and Ye at Mar-a-Lago, or a rocket journey with Musk to Mars.” • Each a part of this text is seamlessly nice, together with the creator and the title of the journal.

Zeitgeist Watch

Stoller is correct, I believe this notion is essential, and I haven’t seen it articulated on this approach:

“Very off.” I’d say the Jackpot is casting a shadow from the longer term into our current (though after all Covid will need to have rather a lot to do with it).

However did they provide again the home?

“Balenciaga says it’ll drop lawsuit in opposition to manufacturing firm in new assertion” [Independent]. “‘Our present course of for content material validation has failed, and we recognise the necessity to do higher,’ the corporate stated [in a statement]. ‘On the interior aspect, we nominate with rapid impact a picture board accountable for evaluating the character of our content material from idea to ultimate property, together with authorized, sustainability and variety experience.’” • Besides each picture is already meticulously reviewed; that is trend pictures within the trend business, in spite of everything. So what’s the actual value-add, right here? Anyhow, the story is dying, so all the things is nice. (In the meantime, are the merchandise nonetheless in the marketplace?)

Class Warfare

“TV Information Lined British Royal Go to 5,668% Extra Than Largest Tutorial Strike in U.S. Historical past” [Adam Johnson, The Column]. “ABC Information, CBS Information, NBC Information, and CNN all have a devoted ‘royal knowledgeable,’ ‘royal correspondent,’ or ‘royal commentator.’ … ABC, CBS, and CNN do not need a “labor knowledgeable” or a devoted labor reporter of any variety. NBC Information does, Eli M. Rosenberg, however he has not lined the College of California tutorial strike. … Not one of the Sunday morning discuss exhibits, NBC Information’s Meet the Press, CBS Information’s Face The Nation, ABC Information’s This Week, or CNN’s State of the Union—which set the agenda for what folks in Washington are speculated to care about that week—have lined the California labor strike because it started in November 14. CNN, which has over 500 hours of reports to fill within the three weeks for the reason that strike started, hasn’t executed a single phase on it. The most important tutorial strike in U.S. historical past is solely a non-story to TV information retailers.”

“Washington DC sues Amazon over withheld supply driver ideas” [Channel News Asia]. “The District of Columbia lawyer basic’s workplace on Wednesday sued Amazon.com Inc and its Amazon Logistics subsidiary alleging the largest on-line retailer had withheld ideas from supply drivers. Washington Legal professional Common Karl Racine stated the corporate ‘tricked shoppers into considering they have been rising drivers’ compensation when Amazon was truly diverting tricks to scale back its personal labor prices and improve income’ via its Amazon Flex service. Amazon Flex drivers use their very own automobiles to ship items and groceries ordered via packages like Prime Now and Amazon Recent. The FTC alleged the corporate stored drivers’ ideas over a 2-1/2 yr interval and stopped the apply after studying of the FTC investigation in 2019, the FTC stated in 2021. The lawsuit, filed within the Superior Court docket for the District of Columbia, seeks civil penalties for each violation and a court docket order to bar Amazon from re-engaging within the apply. Final yr underneath a settlement with the U.S. Federal Commerce Fee, Amazon paid $61.7 million to greater than 140,000 drivers.”

Information of the Wired

The Web is a knowledge destruction machine:

I’m happy Dylan and the Band’s Basement Tapes is lastly (legitimately) on YouTube:

Contact info for crops: Readers, be happy to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) learn how to ship me a verify if you’re allergic to PayPal and (b) to learn how to ship me pictures of crops. Greens are tremendous! Fungi and coral are deemed to be honorary crops! If you need your deal with to seem as a credit score, please place it at first 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 HH:

HH writes: “From Canyon of the Eagles, within the Texas Hill Nation about 60 miles northwest of Austin, the enduring cactus known as prickly pear or nopal (Opuntia).”

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