2:00PM Water Cooler 1/26/2023 | bare capitalism

By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Affected person readers, I apologize that this Water Cooler is so mild; I’ve had a tiring couple of days. However you may discuss amongst yourselves! –lambert

Hen Tune of the Day

Alpine Thrush, Dhap Kharka, Nepal.

Politics

“However what’s authorities itself, however the biggest 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 actually a rational administration of symbolic capital.” –Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles

Abortion

“Anti-Abortion ‘Abolitionists’ Wish to Cost Abortion Sufferers Like Murderers Now” [Vice]. “Mainstream anti-abortion activists have lengthy insisted they don’t wish to punish individuals who get abortions. Now, that declare is being put to the check. Though many states are just a few weeks into their first state legislative classes since Roe v. Wade was overturned, legislators in Arkansas and Oklahoma have already launched payments that might punish abortion sufferers. In Alabama, the state’s lawyer basic initially stated he might use a state legislation to punish individuals for ending their pregnancies, then tried to stroll it again. These sorts of ways are forcing anti-abortion activists to confront a long-simmering rigidity inside their motion: What are they imagined to do with individuals who get abortions? Usually, abortion restrictions goal suppliers, not sufferers. Throughout the anti-abortion motion, sufferers are handled like victims who’ve been bamboozled into ending their pregnancies by the predatory ‘abortion business.’ However now that Roe is gone and states are proposing insurance policies to legally deal with fetuses like individuals, that will not maintain water for for much longer. ‘I feel there are some individuals, and possibly a reasonably large group of individuals, for whom girls’s innocence is conditional they usually may very well be persuaded that it’s not actual,’ stated Mary Ziegler, a professor on the College of California, Davis, legislation college who research the authorized historical past of copy.”

Biden Administration

“Veterans of the Obama-era debt ceiling standoff on the present one: We could also be doomed” [Politico]. “[An economic adviser in the Obama White House, David] Kamin isn’t the one one struck by a foreboding sense of déjà vu. From the White Home to Wall Avenue, a rising variety of veterans of the 2011 debt ceiling disaster are once more watching a narrative of bluster and brinkmanship play out — and are terrified this would be the time it ends with the nation in monetary wreck…. The parallels to the Obama-era stalemate are clear, as Home Republican leaders vow to position restraints on a Democratic administration, whereas additionally making an attempt to handle their troublesome conservative wing. However not like in 2011, Republicans are making ready to stare down the White Home with no clear consensus on what they need in change for holding the U.S. monetary system afloat. The prevailing precept, as a substitute, seems to be extracting a level of political ache for President Joe Biden. And maybe most worryingly — Democrats, economists and even some Republicans say — there’s little confidence that Home Speaker Kevin McCarthy has the affect to efficiently steer his convention away from the brink.” • Hmm. The entire article is bizarre, since though there’s loads fear emanating from Obama veterans, the scenario can be being gamed out, however the video games should not described. In the event you imagine that Obama’s handheld the dagger on the Biden doc flap, you may properly imagine that Obama’s pulling the strings of those “veterans.” Maybe to weaken Biden? To result in, in the end, the “Grand Cut price”?

Preventing like hell (1):

President Biden introduced in October that he was pardoning all individuals convicted of easy hashish possession on the federal stage.

111 days later, the Justice Division nonetheless hasn’t posted the appliance to acquire a pardon.

— Extra Excellent Union (@MorePerfectUS) January 26, 2023

Preventing like hell (2):

In the present day, fewer households are dealing with foreclosures and eviction than earlier than the pandemic.

Individuals are beginning to breathe just a bit bit simpler.

— President Biden (@POTUS) January 25, 2023

“Fewer.” “A bit bit simpler.” It’s just like the Biden White Home has settled on the “minimal viable bullet level” for all its communications to voters…

2024

“OMG. Trump Has Began Texting.” [New York Times]. “The previous president has lengthy been always on his cellphone, however solely to speak into it — or, earlier than he was kicked off Twitter, to ship streams of tweets. (The previous aide who helped arrange his Twitter account as soon as informed Politico that when Trump, who initially relied on aides to put in writing his posts, started to tweet on his personal, it was akin to the scene within the movie “Jurassic Park” when the velociraptors realized to open doorways.) For years, individuals corresponding with him despatched him textual content messages, which all the time went unanswered. He was unreachable by e-mail. He generally requested aides to ship digital messages to reporters, referring to the missives as ‘wires,’ like a telegram. Now his delayed embrace of what has lengthy been a default mode of communication spanning generations indicators not solely a willingness to affix on this planet of LOLs and BRBs but in addition a small shift from his aversion to leaving paper or digital trails. Individuals who have labored for Trump within the White Home and in his personal enterprise say he has prided himself on being “good” for leaving virtually no documentation of his communications and discussions in conferences. That included snatching notes being taken in actual time by a junior authorized affiliate in his workplaces within the Nineties, when Trump noticed the person scribbling, based on a marketing consultant working for him then. Those that have witnessed firsthand his visceral aversion to file holding stated they had been shocked to study his new digital behavior…. The truth that Trump is now sending texts has prompted alarm amongst a few of his associates, who’re involved about what he may say. Nonetheless, they’ve been relieved about one other shift: His cellphone now sends calls that aren’t from numbers in his contacts to voicemail, based on two individuals accustomed to the change. That shift occurred this month after an NBC reporter known as Trump immediately throughout Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s determined combat to be elected speaker of the Home. Trump picked up, giving a quick interview that created some political heartburn for Republicans. Nonetheless unclear is Trump’s place on emoji.” • I feel Trump will probably be right here for emoji, as he ought to be.

Democrats en Déshabillé

Affected person readers, plainly persons are really studying the back-dated submit! However I’ve not up to date it, and there are a lot of updates. So I should try this. –lambert

I’ve moved my standing remarks on the Democrat Occasion (“the Democrat Occasion is a rotting corpse that may’t bury itself”) to a separate, back-dated 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 Occasion is, actually, a tough downside. I do assume the paragraph that follows is on level all the best way again to 2016, if not earlier than:

The Democrat Occasion is the political expression of the category energy of PMC, their base (lucidly defined by Thomas Frank in Pay attention, Liberal!). ; if the Democrat Occasion didn’t exist, the PMC must invent it. . (“PMC” modulo “class expatriates,” after all.) Second, all of the working elements of the Occasion reinforce one another. Go away apart characterizing the relationships between components of the Occasion (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 belongings within the press and the intelligence neighborhood.

Notice, after all, that the category energy of the PMC each expresses and is proscribed 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.

* * *

Realignment and Legitimacy

“To reclaim Ohioans’ historic energy, First Power’s company constitution ought to be revoked” [Ohio Capital Journal (Carla)]. “The illegalities linked to FirstEnergy Company in its bribery scheme to cross Home Invoice 6 (HB 6) proceed to floor, most not too long ago its improper use of ratepayer cash to fund darkish cash efforts totaling $70.9 million. A number of people have already pleaded responsible for his or her position within the largest bribery scandal in Ohio historical past…. ndependent of additional federal motion and court docket instances towards accountable people, Ohio Legal professional Basic David Yost can and may begin constitution revocation (known as “quo warranto”) proceedings towards FirstEnergy, a authorized creation licensed within the state of Ohio as supplied by Ohio Revised Code § 2733.02 to § 2733.39. A number of Ohio teams are calling for this motion, a course of that might dissolve the corporate. Quo warranto is a authorized continuing difficult the continued proper of a person or company to own governmental privilege, be it an workplace within the case of a person or constitution within the case of an organization. Firms ought to serve the general public good. They obtain their constitution from the federal government, which grants them sure privileges and powers. Firms discovered to interrupt the legislation and accomplish that with intent mustn’t merely be fined, as FirstEnergy Company has been, however have their charters revoked or terminated. Day by day we see that financial fines don’t change prison company conduct. Revocation of company constitution was as soon as widespread in Ohio in response to companies appearing past their authority as outlined of their company charters. Quo warranto proceedings had been as soon as used routinely as a democratic device by Ohio legislatures and courts to affirm the sovereign energy of We the Individuals over companies, that are, in any case, creations of presidency. Essentially the most well-known quo warranto case in Ohio historical past concerned the efforts to revoke the constitution of the Commonplace Oil Firm, probably the most highly effective U.S. company of the time, for forming a belief… Constitution revocation is seen by some as a ‘radical’ act when in actuality it solely follows a powerful historic precedent already set in our state. The really ‘radical’ act is a rogue company blatantly trampling on our democratic course of.” • Very fascinating!

#COVID19

Lambert right here: I’m however a humble tapewatcher, however not like Eric Topol, I’m not calling a surge, as a result of the final peak was Biden’s Omicron debacle, and after an Everest like that, what’s left? Topol’s view is the institution view: Hospital-centric. Mine is infection-centric. I don’t see the common acceleration or doubling in instances that I’d count on to see based mostly on previous surges.

I’m calling a “One thing Terrible.” It’s gonna be unhealthy, in some new method, and we don’t know the way, but (however see right here for immune system dysregulation, which is wanting fairly terrible).

Keep secure on the market!

“WHO Director-Basic’s opening remarks on the media briefing – 24 January 2023” [WHO]. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s “Technical Lead” on Covid Response: “Too few individuals – particularly older individuals and well being employees – are adequately vaccinated. Too many individuals are behind on their boosters. For too many individuals, antivirals stay costly and out of attain. And too many individuals don’t obtain the correct care.” • Wonderful how Vax-only (plus, to be clear, remedy plus a handwave to healthcare right here) has labored like an odd attractor for world elite opinion. All of them converge on it. Even Xi. Learn Van Kerkhove in full: There’s not a touch of (1) stopping transmission, nothing about (2) airborne, nothing about (3) air flow, nothing about (4) a layered “Swiss Cheese” technique. In different phrases, though Van Kerkhove should know completely properly that Davos attendees understood and acted upon (1)-(4), she has nothing to say about that in public. Don’t wish to give the uninteresting normals concepts, I suppose.

“Tonsils Are Main Websites Of Extended Sars-Cov-2 An infection in Youngsters” [medRxiv]. n = 48. From the Summary: “Within the current examine, we present that SARS-CoV-2 can infect palatine tonsils and adenoids in youngsters with out signs of COVID-19, with no historical past of current higher airway an infection. …. SARS-CoV-2 antigen detection was not restricted to tonsils, however was additionally detected in nasal cells from the olfactory area. In conclusion, palatine tonsils and adenoids are websites of extended an infection by SARS-CoV-2 in youngsters, .” • I’m wondering if this “extended an infection” entails transmission….

Case Information

NOT UPDATED BioBot wastewater knowledge from January 23:

Lambert right here: For now, I’m going to make use of this wastewater knowledge as the perfect proxy for case knowledge (ignoring the medical case knowledge portion of this chart, which in my opinion “goes unhealthy” after March 2022, for causes as but unexplained). At the least we will spot traits, and evaluate present ranges to equal previous ranges.

Transmission

Right here is CDC’s interactive map by county set to neighborhood transmission (the “pink map,” which is the map CDC desires solely hospitals to take a look at, not you.) The map is alleged to replace Monday-Friday by 8 pm:

The earlier map:

NOTE: I shall most definitely not be utilizing the CDC’s new “Group Stage” metric. As a result of CDC has mixed a number one indicator (instances) with a lagging one (hospitalization) their new metric is a poor warning signal of a surge, and a poor approach to assess private danger. As well as, Covid is a illness you don’t wish to get. Even if you’re not hospitalized, you may endure from Lengthy Covid, vascular points, and neurological points. That the “inexperienced map” (which Topol calls a “capitulation” and a “deception”) remains to be up and being taken critically verges on the prison.

Positivity

From the Walgreen’s check positivity tracker, revealed January 26:

-1.3.%.

Wastewater

Wastewater knowledge (CDC), January 21:

Easing off, although you do should surprise what’s the purpose of a nationwide system the place half the nation has gone darkish.

January 21:

And MWRA knowledge, January 24:

Lambert right here: Nonetheless uptick within the north. Nevertheless, just some the scholars are again; BU courses start January 19; Harvard’s January 22.

Variants

Lambert right here: It’s past irritating how sluggish 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 all people will get the outcomes from them? [grinds teeth, bangs head on desk]. UPDATE Sure. See NC right here on Pango. Each Friday, a stately, educational tempo completely incompatible with defending your self towards a variant exhibiting doubling conduct.

Variant knowledge, nationwide (Walgreens), January 16:

Lambert right here: XBB overtakes BQ, however CH is developing on the skin. That’s just a little unsettling, as a result of a Tweet in Hyperlinks, January 11 from GM drew consideration to it (“shows such a excessive relative progress benefit”) and in Water Cooler, January 18, from Nature: “CH.1.1 and CA.3.1 variants had been extremely immune to each monovalent and bivalent mRNA vaccinations.” Now right here is CH.1.1 within the Walgreens variant knowledge. Let’s see what CDC does with it tomorrow, if something. The Covid variant prepare all the time leaves on time, and there’s all the time one other prepare coming!

Lambert right here: Wierdly, the display shot about has been changed immediately by knowledge from “10/7/2022.” (It’s clearly not present knowledge; BQ.1* and XBB don’t dominate.

NOT UPDATED Variant knowledge, nationwide (CDC), December 31 (Nowcast off):

BQ.1* takes first place. XBB developing quick. CH.1, not like the Walgreens chart, doesn’t seem. (For BQ.1/XBB and vaccine escape, see right here.) Right here is Area 2, the Northeast, the place each BQ.1* and XBB are stated to be increased, and are:

Makes clear that Area 2 (New England) varies enormously from the nationwide common. Wouldn’t or not it’s fascinating if we ended up with totally different variants dominating totally different elements of the nation.

• As a examine, since New York is a BQ.1* hotbed, New York hospitalization, up to date January 26:

• Hospitalization knowledge for Queens, up to date January 23:

Deaths

Loss of life charge (Our World in Information):

Complete: 1,130,962 – 1,129,618 = 472 * 1344 (1344 * 365 = 490,560 deaths per yr, immediately’s YouGenicist™ quantity for “dwelling with” Covid (fairly a bit increased than the minimizers would love, although they will discuss themselves into something. If the YouGenicist™ metric retains chugging alongside like this, I could should resolve that is what the powers-that-be think about “mission completed” for this explicit tranche of dying and illness).

Lambert right here: Deaths lag, and now now we have some affirmation that no matter we simply went by means of is reducing.

It’s good that for deaths I’ve a easy, every day chart that simply retains chugging alongside, not like every thing else CDC and the White Home are screwing up or letting go darkish, good job. (Although CDC could also be jiggering the numbers quickly. Decrease, naturally.)

Stats Watch

Employment State of affairs: “United States Preliminary Jobless Claims” [Trading Economics]. “The variety of Individuals submitting new claims for unemployment advantages fell by 6,000 from the earlier week’s downwardly revised worth to 186,000 on the week ending January twenty first, the bottom since April, and properly beneath expectations of 205,000. The end result additional consolidated proof of a good labor market regardless of elevated tech layoffs and the Federal Reserve’s aggressive tightening path final yr.”

Manufacturing: “United States Sturdy Items Orders” [Trading Economics]. “Sturdy items orders within the US, which measure the price of orders obtained by producers of products meant to final not less than three years, soared 5.6 % month-over-month in December of 2022. It was the sharpest acquire since July 2020 and properly above market forecasts of a 2.5 % improve. Transportation tools, up 4 of the final 5 months, drove the rise.”

Manufacturing: “United States Kansas Fed Manufacturing Index” [Trading Economics]. “The Kansas Metropolis Fed’s Manufacturing Manufacturing index rose to -4 in January of 2023 from an upwardly revised -6 within the earlier month, pointing to the bottom lower in manufacturing output in 4 months. Enhancements had been famous largely in sturdy items vegetation, primarily for wooden merchandise, equipment, and the manufacturing of transportation tools.”

Manufacturing: “Boeing to seem in federal court docket for crime associated to 737-Max airplane crashes” [WJLA (ChrisFromGA)]. “Airline big, Boeing, will seem in federal prison court docket in Texas on Thursday…. [V]ictims’ households are planning to testify in Texas this week on the arraignment. And in doing so, they hope to encourage the choose to rescind the immunity settlement between Boeing and the Division of Justice as a result of, beneath the federal Crime Victims’ Rights Act, households had been imagined to be consulted in that settlement and weren’t…. If the choose throws out the immunity provision, the lawyer for victims’ households, Paul Cassell informed 7News that it will be doable for extra expenses to be filed towards Boeing’s management on the time of the crashes. This could make the corporate criminally answerable for the deaths of 346 individuals. Cassell stated it’s time for Boeing to be handled like another prison defendant beneath United States legislation.” • Massive time!

“The Financial system”: “United States Chicago Fed Nationwide Exercise Index” [Trading Economics]. “The Chicago Fed Nationwide Exercise Index edged as much as -0.49 in December of 2022 from -0.51 in November, indicating a softer financial contraction within the US financial exercise.”

Retail: “Into the Sparkly Coronary heart of Zazzle’s Font Struggle” [Slate]. “Many people primarily affiliate Zazzle with the vacation playing cards on our fridge. However over the previous 17 years, the corporate has grown right into a market providing clothes, mugs, clocks disguised as bagels, and 1000’s of different customizable merchandise. Zazzle isn’t any Amazon, however final February Bloomberg reported that it was anticipated to quickly go public at a valuation of $1 to $2 billion. That is but to occur. And a few Zazzle sellers concern that the positioning’s greatest days are actually behind it attributable to a slowly advancing lawsuit, filed final summer time, involving “Blooming Elegant,” one of the crucial in style fonts on Zazzle. Nicky Laatz, who created the crazy, handwriting-style font, says that the corporate openly stole it from her, copying her typeface software program onto its servers and making it obtainable to thousands and thousands of consumers and not using a correct license. Due to this fact the corporate owes her a reduce of thousands and thousands in earnings, her legal professionals argue. Zazzle has pushed to dismiss the go well with, arguing, partly, that she’s misinterpreting copyright legislation. • I’m submitting this beneath Retail in case anyone is lengthy (or quick) Zazzle, however learn on for the problems of what’s and isn’t licensable on the Intertubes.

The Bezzle: “Certainly one of Wall Avenue’s most feared short-selling analysis companies simply accused Asia’s richest man of a multibillion-dollar fraud” [Fortune]. “In a report revealed on Tuesday, Hindenburg Analysis stated Adani Group and its founder, Gautam Adani—one of many richest individuals on this planet—had engaged in ‘a brazen inventory manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of many years.’… Hindenburg Analysis has a historical past of shining a light-weight on company malpractice, efficiently predicting the demise or exposing the shortcomings of a number of firms, together with Nikola, Riot Blockchain, and China Steel Assets Utilization…. Via its wide-reaching investigations, Hindenburg stated it had uncovered a “huge labyrinth of offshore shell entities” being managed by Adani’s older brother, Vinod. Thirty-eight of these shell firms had been in Mauritius, the report claimed, with others found in Cyprus, the UAE, Singapore, and the Caribbean. ‘The shells appear to serve a number of capabilities, together with inventory parking/inventory manipulation and laundering cash by means of Adani’s personal firms onto the listed firms’ steadiness sheets with the intention to keep the looks of economic well being and solvency,’ Hindenburg’s report stated. ‘This offshore shell community additionally appears to be used for earnings manipulation.’ One offshore fund had allotted round $3 billion virtually completely to shares of Adani Group firms, Hindenburg’s report additionally claimed. A former dealer on the fund reportedly stated it was apparent the Adanis managed these shares, however that the fund had been ‘deliberately structured to hide their final useful possession.’”

Labor Market: “What Is “Core PCE Providers Ex-Housing” Anyway?” [Employ America]. “The Fed is nervous that inflation will proceed till wage progress comes down or unemployment ticks up. As proof for this proposition, the Fed has been pointing to the continued power in “Core PCE Providers ex-Housing” as a very powerful metric for the financial coverage outlook. … Through the use of “Core PCE Providers ex-Housing”, the Fed is acknowledging that pandemic disruptions have led to inflation in a variety of sectors, and that inflation in core items and housing is analytically distinct from wage-driven cost-push inflation. However does this metric really seize cyclical inflation pushed by the labor market? And the way a lot of the inflation that it does seize is definitely proof of wage-driven cost-push inflation? … As we’ll see, there are ample side-channels by means of which the very dynamics the Fed is trying to display out can present up on this mixture. Even worse, roughly 1 / 4 of this newly most popular value mixture is immediately based mostly on opaque indices of compensation and never market-determined shopper costs, making a mechanical relationship between compensation knowledge and the Fed’s gauge of inflation. A wage goal isn’t a priori mistaken – our flagship Flooring Gross Labor Earnings proposal sits comfortably throughout the thought of wage targets – however presenting a wage goal as if it had been a value goal is analytically unacceptable.” • Into the weeds… However for those who’re a Fed watcher, that is for you.

In the present day’s Concern & Greed Index: 69 Greed (earlier shut: 64 Greed) [CNN]. One week in the past: 54 (Impartial). (0 is Excessive Concern; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Jan 26 at 12:51 PM EST.

Healthcare

“Warning: Industrial Dishwashers Can Harm the Intestine and Result in Persistent Illness” [SciTech Daily]. “A typical cycle in a industrial dishwasher entails circulating sizzling water and detergent for round 60 seconds at excessive strain. Afterward, there’s a second 60-second washing and drying cycle by which water and a rinse agent are utilized. ‘What’s particularly alarming is that in lots of home equipment, there’s no further wash cycle to take away the remaining rinse help,’ says Cezmi Akdis, UZH professor of experimental allergology and immunology and director of the SIAF, who led the examine. ‘Which means that probably poisonous substances stay on the dishes, the place they then dry in place.’ When the dishes are used the following time, this dried chemical residue can simply find yourself within the gastrointestinal tract. This impressed the analysis staff beneath Akdis to analyze what impact the elements of commercial-grade detergents and rinse brokers have on the barrier within the intestine – the layer of cells that strains the intestinal tract and controls what enters the physique. A defect on this barrier is related to circumstances equivalent to meals allergy symptoms, gastritis, diabetes, weight problems, cirrhosis of the liver, rheumatoid arthritis, a number of sclerosis, autism spectrum problems, persistent despair, and Alzheimer’s illness… The staff used numerous biomolecular strategies to investigate the impact that industrial detergents and rinse aids have on these cells. They diluted these substances to replicate the quantities that might be current on dry dishes (1:10,000 to 1:40,000). The end result was that top doses of rinse brokers killed the intestinal epithelial cells and decrease doses made it extra permeable. Researchers additionally noticed the activation of a number of genes and cell signaling proteins that might set off inflammatory responses. A extra detailed evaluation confirmed that one part of the rinse agent – alcohol ethoxylates – was answerable for this response. Based on Akdis, these findings have vital implications for public well being.” • “Epithelial.” There’s that phrase once more.

Zeitgeist Watch

“I used ‘fortunate woman syndrome’ to make greater than £1 million from my jewelry model – and it may well assist YOU get something you need too!” [Daily Mail]. “After utilizing the Fortunate Woman Syndrome approach ‘for years’, Stephanie admits her greatest ‘gripe’ with the strategy is its identify. ‘It has NOTHING to do with luck,’ she insisted. ‘It’s the legislation of assumption – if you count on it to occur, it absolutely will.’” • Dogmatic doxastic voluntarism (DDV). It’s in all places!

Information of the Wired

“Why Company America Nonetheless Runs on Historical Software program That Breaks” (podcast) [Odd Lots]. “Southwest Airways had a disastrous vacation season, thanks partly to a software program bug that left crews misplaced and grounded 1000’s of flights. However Southwest isn’t alone in having software program within the headlines recently. The New York Inventory Alternate not too long ago had a software program error that prompted bizarre pricing on shares and the FAA had its personal laptop challenge that grounded planes earlier this month. So what’s the cope with company software program?”

“New Starbucks coming to space of Fresno that’s by no means had one, plans to open subsequent yr” [Fresno Bee].
Really feel Good Fresno Week at Bare Capitalism continues: “The nation’s hottest espresso store will probably be going up at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Church Avenue. That’s near the place the brand new Fresno Metropolis School West Fresno campus is being constructed at Church and Walnut avenues.” • I used to be dwelling in Palmdale, CA when the primary Starbucks got here in, a part of a ginormous Barnes & Noble dropped by helicopter onto a concrete slab subsequent to a parking zone. I used to be really inspired, not a lot on the quantity of horrid sticky drinks bought by the Starbucks, however by how a lot individuals needed to learn. So I’m happy that Fresno is getting a brand new faculty campus. (And I hope the Fresno Starbucks promptly unionizes.)

Contact data for vegetation: Readers, be happy to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) learn how to ship me a examine if you’re allergic to PayPal and (b) to learn how to ship me photographs of vegetation. Greens are fantastic! Fungi and coral are deemed to be honorary vegetation! If you would like your deal with to seem as a credit score, please place it in the beginning of your mail in parentheses: (thus). In any other case, I’ll anonymize through the use of your initials. See the earlier Water Cooler (with plant) right here. From IM, who writes: “Some BC rainforest in moody, mossy, black and white…”

“…and coloration!”

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