2:00PM Water Cooler 8/28/2024 | naked capitalism

By Lambert Strether of Corrente

Bird Song of the Day

Catbirds are in the Mimidae specie (!), like mockingbird and thrashers. Readers have said they like the mimicry, so hopefully MacCaulay Library has enough recordings to keep us all satisfied, at least for a time.

Black Catbird, Aguadas al Sureste de Cozumel, Cozumel, Quintana Roo, Mexico. I think I’m hearing a frog in the background.

“As a Writer, You Can Never Collect Too Many Endings” [Literary Hub]. “A few years ago, at dusk, I saw an owl swoop into a low branch and start poking its beak into a catbird’s nest. The catbirds inside made a terrible hissing-screeching-gargling sound—like a baby that’s been scalded—and after a moment the owl, for whatever reason, decided it was too much and flew off. After the danger passed, dusk shifted to dark. The night deepened. It struck me that the owl could come back at any moment, and that the catbirds, whose cheery songs I loved and had been listening to all afternoon, lived under perpetual threat. While I didn’t know what story from my life the moment might make a good ending for, I knew it was an ending because in the quiet of its resolution it kept gathering significance. It was factual and also metaphorical. I’ve been those screeching catbirds. I’ve been that owl.” • I didn’t search for this, I swear! It just randomly showed up in my RSS reader.

In Case You Might Miss…

1. The DNC was a superspreading event, and adopted a eugenicist masking policy
2. Boeing door plug debacle reveals shop floor fiasco
3. Vermeer’s tronie.

Politics

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

The Supremes

“Ketanji Brown Jackson Is ‘Prepared’ If 2024 Election Goes To Supreme Court” [HuffPo]. “Supreme Court Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson said in a recorded interview with CBS News that she feels ‘as prepared as anyone can be’ when asked about the possibility that the 2024 presidential election results will be contested and require the high court’s intervention.” • However Democrats are gaming 2024 out, I would think they’d want to avoid the Supreme Court. Implying they would use extra-legal methods.

2024

Less than one hundred days to go!

Friday’s RCP Poll Averages:

Good news for Trump in that last week’s deterioration seems to have been slowed, although we shall have to see if Kamala gets a convention “bounce.” Remember, however, that all the fluctuations — in fact, all the leads — are within the margin of error. If you read most of the press, you’d think Kamala has this race in the bag. It’s not so. Do note, however, Trump’s deterioration in North Carolina: +2.4 last week to +0.9 this week, when OG pollster Sabato moved it to “toss-up” status from “lean Republican.” No wonder Trump held a rally there this week. NOTE With Kennedy, it would seem, about to drop out, I started tracking the national percentage as “Top Battlegrounds,” where Trump’s shrinking lead is +0.1 this week (as opposed to “5-Way RCP Average, where Harris led by +1.1 last week).

Wypipo:

2024 will be won or lost via White America:https://t.co/onGcst4Ep5

Only 55% of non-college graduate whites bothered to vote last time. If just 60% did, Trump would have won.

College educated whites went 54% Democratic Party in 2024. If only 50% did, Trump would have won. pic.twitter.com/uuIMkmGGGg

— ib (@Indian_Bronson) July 24, 2024

Note that Cook Political Report is OG, so worth paying attention to.

* * *

Kamala (D): “Could Kamala Harris really win North Carolina — and lose Georgia?” [Nate Silver, Silver Bulletin]. “The hottest club in the Electoral College is North Carolina. It’s the first state to begin any form of early voting — county officials will begin mailing out absentee ballots next week! The Cook Political Report just moved North Carolina from ‘lean Republican’ to ‘toss-up.’ And in the Silver Bulletin model, it’s the third-most-likely tipping-point state, surpassed only by Pennsylvania and Michigan.” • This devalues Pennsylvania, note well.

Kamala (D): “Why Kamala Harris Is Failing to Gain Traction With the Working Class” [Skyler Adleta (electrician), Newsweek]. “Harris needs to appeal to conservative-leaning working-class citizens who are in Trump’s camp if she hopes to be elected. Yet her railing against Trump, accompanied by the phrase in response to Trump’s platform is indicative of a person who completely misunderstands half of the country. , allowing families to have meaningful choices and secure existences. Harris wants to transform this economic nostalgia into something that is viewed as regressive and socially backward, ultimately diminishing our actual longings by portraying them as false ones.” • Excellent point! Back in the day, when I worked in the factories of Providence, RI, I could have my own apartment and buy a lot of books on my wage of $2.35 an hour, with no overtime. I was not exactly a labor aristocrat!

* * *

Trump (R): “Trump’s Ugly, Shameless New Offer to RFK Jr. Hands Dems a Big Weapon” [The New Republic]. First: “But a consummated Trump-Kennedy bargain—Kennedy endorsing Trump, followed by Trump appointing Kennedy to his transition team or administration—would actually constitute the epitome of corrupt elite self-dealing.” Just stop it. Hillary Clinton made exactly the same sort of deal with Obama in 2008, which I know Greg Sargent is old enough to remember. Next: “[C}onsider that when Kennedy was a third-party candidate and President Biden was still running, many Democrats feared he might appeal to voters who pay little attention to politics—young people, low propensity voters, people disaffected with our institutions—and who also disliked Biden and Trump. The entry of Vice President Kamala Harris into the race has caused a decline in those so-called ‘double haters,’ with many moving to Harris. But there are still untold numbers of them out there. With Kennedy not running, his endorsement of Trump could soften their impressions of the former president. What’s at issue here are not voters who were fully committed to Kennedy’s third-party run—they are probably not gettable for Democrats—but still-undecided voters who might as yet prove susceptible to Kennedy’s appeal. They might find the Kennedy name—and his vague associations with environmentalism, hostility to corporate power, and even the health of children, all of which he talks a good game about—reassuring about Trump. If Bobby Kennedy backs Trump, why, how extreme and crazy can he really be?” • I would turn that argument around. Forget about crazy, because Ashish Jha, Mandy Cohen, and Jeff Zeints are normal-coded loons. What about fascist? Would Robert Kennedy and Tulsi Gabbard really join a fascist movement?

Trump (R): If this is your metric, and it’s not everyone’s:

Explain in terms of “lesser evil” please. pic.twitter.com/p8VCS64bwe

— Earnie Banks (@_EarnieBanks) August 28, 2024

Kennedy (R): “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to Tucker Carlson: We’re Going Through A Political Realignment, Democrats Don’t Trust The People” [RealClearPolitics]. ” It’s really the, you know, the domination of, this, this corrupt merger of state corporate power. And it’s happening in Washington, DC now, where, our democracy has really been subverted by the industries that have taken over the regulatory agencies and they and transform them into sock puppets or corporate profit taking and, and basically wholly owned subsidiaries of the industries they’re supposed to regulate. And the Democrats, for a variety of reasons. And I watch it happen over many, many years, have, have clung to this illusion of these democratic institutions that they’re still democratic and they have a we all have the capacity to judge ourselves on our intentions rather than our actions.” • Not the best transcript, but not the sort of message one generally hears from either party.

* * *

Clinton Legacy

“COVID-stricken Hillary Clinton drops out of Hamptons fundraiser, Bill Clinton steps in with Doug Emhoff: sources” [New York Post]. “Hillary Clinton bowed out of a Hamptons fundraiser for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz on Monday, we hear, after the former secretary of state came down with COVID-19…. The event was held at the home of mega art collectors Lisa and Richard Perry, who are known to house works by Frank Stella, Alexander Calder, Ellsworth Kelly and Donald Judd, among other blue-chip artists. Tickets at the highest tier went for a cool $100,000 each, and an invitation seen by Page Six said, ‘This is likely to be one of the last small events in the NY area before the election, so it is not to be missed.’” • “Today, Covid no longer controls our lives.” —Joe Biden, February 7, 2023.

Realignment and Legitimacy

“New voting rules in battleground states could affect election results” (transcript) [PBS]. In Georgia: “I think that there are a lot of very red counties across the country that have been sort of playing with the idea of refusing to certify local election results. But in the past, that has not been successful, basically anywhere that it’s been tried. And I don’t see why it would be different in Georgia. Local boards are under a lot of pressure to certify from the people who live in the community. You can only certify your own election. And so, if you choose not to certify your local results, that means you’re preventing local candidates from taking office. And any of those people could sue. That’s what’s happened in the past when counties across the country have tried to do this. And I think that there probably will be a few counties in Georgia that push their luck here, but probably reverse course very quickly.” • Lots of interesting details on election officials.” • Wouldn’t the very red and very blue counties cut their own throats by not certifying?

Syndemics

“I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD.” –William Lloyd Garrison

Covid Resources, United States (National): Transmission (CDC); Wastewater (CDC, Biobot; includes many counties; Wastewater Scan, includes drilldown by zip); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker” (in IA, but national data). “Infection Control, Emergency Management, Safety, and General Thoughts” (especially on hospitalization by city).

Lambert here: Readers, thanks for the collective effort. To update any entry, do feel free to contact me at the address given with the plants. Please put “COVID” in the subject line. Thank you!

Resources, United States (Local): 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 reports); 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).

Resources, Canada (National): Wastewater (Government of Canada).

Resources, Canada (Provincial): ON (wastewater); QC (les eaux usées); BC (wastewater); BC, Vancouver (wastewater).

Hat tips to helpful 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, KF, LL, Michael King, KF, LaRuse, mrsyk, MT, MT_Wild, otisyves, Petal (6), RK (2), RL, RM, Rod, square coats (11), tennesseewaltzer, Tom B., Utah, Bob White (3).

Stay safe out there!

Transmission: H5N1

“With Only Gloves To Protect Them, Farmworkers Say They Tend Sick Cows Amid Bird Flu” [KFF Health News]. “In early August, farmworkers gathered under a pavilion at a park here for a picnic to celebrate Farmworker Appreciation Day…. No matter the menu, some dairy workers at the event said they don’t exactly feel appreciated. They said they haven’t received any personal protective equipment beyond gloves to guard against the virus, even as they or colleagues have come down with conjunctivitis and flu-like symptoms that they fear to be bird flu. ‘They should give us something more,’ one dairy worker from Larimer County said in Spanish. He spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear he’d lose his job for speaking out. ‘What if something happens to us? They act as if nothing is wrong.’… According to numbers provided by the state health department in late August, fewer than 13% of the state’s dairies had requested and received such PPE.”

Something to watch:

The bird migration map is starting to heat up.

This👇 was pretty quiet a week ago or so.

If migratory birds are driving the start of #H5N1 outbreaks, and the farmers are not covering it up, we should see things start popping again. pic.twitter.com/9ETsfXYcFI

— Lazarus Long (@LazarusLong13) August 28, 2024

Vaccines: Covid

“A single-dose intranasal live-attenuated codon deoptimized vaccine provides broad protection against SARS-CoV-2 and its variants” [Nature]. Mouse and hamster study. From the Abstract: “Despite the success of spike-protein vaccines in preventing severe disease, long-lasting protection against emerging variants and the prevention of breakthrough infections and transmission remain elusive. We generate , CDO-7N-1, using codon deoptimization. CDO-7N-1 shows highly attenuated replication and minimal or no lung pathology in vivo over multiple passages. It induces robust mucosal and systemic neutralizing antibody and T-cell subset responses, in mice (female K18-hACE2 and male HFH4-hACE2 mice), hamsters, and macaques triggered by a single immunization. Mice and hamsters vaccinated with CDO-7N-1 are protected from challenge with wild-type (WT) SARS-CoV-2 and other variants of concern. Serum from vaccinated animals neutralizes WT SARS-CoV-2, variants of concern (beta and delta), variants of interest (omicron XBB.1.5) and SARS-CoV-1. Antibody responses are sustained and enhanced by repeated immunization or infection with WT SARS-CoV-2. .” • So human trials, and we wait another year? Nasal vaccines were a missed opportunity for Operation Warp Soeed, and then further advances stalled under Biden, no doubt due to Big Phama. But no little mRNA technology; good!

Transmission: Monkeypox

Infection: Covid

Sequelae: Covid

Elite Maleficence

The memo that started it all:

Here’s the memo that’s influencing the White House’s pandemic polices. It advises Biden to:

– Declare the crisis phase of COVID over and push for feeling and acting more normal

– Stop talking about restrictions and the unknown future ahead

Source: https://t.co/KUiR8YtxYE #SOTU pic.twitter.com/FvkzxEa1kO

— Dr. Lucky Tran (@luckytran) March 1, 2022

Apparently, the same policy carried through to masks:

One minor quibble I didn’t mention in the video. Democratic ad makers and news editors. Please delete all b-roll of people in masks. Salts the vibes. Remember: We Are Not Going Back. https://t.co/iXG8OVdS2j

— Tim Miller (@Timodc) July 25, 2024

The tweet that inspired the #SaltTheVibes hash tag….s

Totally not a superspreader event:

“What is it like being in a room where four years ago this would have been a superspreader event?”

There is so much misinformation in this interview. The DNC convention is a superspreader and happening during the peak of one of the largest summer COVID surges of the pandemic. pic.twitter.com/PDE2Z44YzI

— Dr. Lucky Tran (@luckytran) August 23, 2024

Except it is a superspreader event, exactly like the Olympics (or a Taylor Swift Concert):

“COVID-19 also attended last week’s Democratic National Convention, infecting ‘too many’” [Chicago Sun-Times]. The deck: “Health officials say they saw no sign of a COVID-19 uptick after the convention, while attendees grumble on social media about getting sick. One union official said he knows at least 14 people who tested positive since attending the convention.” The health officials “saw no sign” because the attendees flew home, bringing the virus with them. More: “How many people came down with COVID-19 after the convention? ‘Too many. I can’t even put a number on it,’ said Ronnie Reese, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s communications director…. Anthony Driver Jr., executive director of Service Employees International Union Illinois State Council, said he knows at least 14 people who tested positive for COVID-19 since attending the convention. . Many people diagnose themselves with at-home tests. With a virus incubation period of up to two weeks, many out-of-towners may just now be feeling symptoms.” • There no numbers and there won’t be because “Covid no longer controls our lives.” Except when it does:

Wait- didn’t they specifically say at the DNC that #Covid19 was no more? 🤔 https://t.co/05llvfY0Rv

— Jerome Adams (@JeromeAdamsMD) August 25, 2024

And:

The DNC and COVID: https://t.co/AU0IkKc9hk pic.twitter.com/0n4SdQmWIw

— Leah McElrath (@leahmcelrath) August 25, 2024

And:

A friend who was at the DNC posted a positive test and said the surprise guest was, in fact, Covid.

— Read No Shortcuts (@JoshuaPHilll) August 24, 2024

Here are the views of a DNC attendee. The thread is a rich motherlode of PMC entitlement and denial, so I encourage you to click through, if you can. He keeps returning to the fray:

The DNC was in Chicago. The Uber driver, waiter, & worker is well aware of COVID risk. It’s an assumption to act as if they don’t & it’s irrational to place blame specifically on DNC attendees.

COVID doesn’t just spread at the DNC.

— Gabrien Gregory (@GabrienGregory) August 26, 2024

Classic! As if DNC attendee, who voluntarily attended the shindig in Chicago, is in the same class as the Uber Driver, who necessarily must ferry Gregory to and from the venue, to Starbucks, to brunch, because the working class must sell their labor to survive.

The venue was well-ventilated (if believe their literature) but it’s still a 3C’s space (closed, crowded, close-contact) and so a layered approach that included masks would have been the safest approach, had the heatlth of attendees and workers been the priority:

DNC mask policy:

The DNC adopted the Great Barrington Declaration’s eugenicist policy.

DNC masking policy vs. RNC masking policy:

RNC: Cloth, N95/KN95, surgical mask allowed to be used as PPE to avoid transmission of viral infection.

DNC: Mask allowed if necessary due to disability, may be asked to take off for security.

We are truly in the upside down. pic.twitter.com/x6pvSjWl2B

— Joaquín Beltrán Free Palestine (@joaquinlife) August 26, 2024

How is it that Democrats have a more vicious and reprehensible masking policy than Republicans?

Here is a DNC minder actually getting an attendee to remove their mask:

Watch the woman in the back holding the sign, masked. As they take her pic, I’m willing to bet she was told to take her mask off for a better pic. These are the things that make it on mainstream media, vs a pic of a woman protecting her health & sending phenomenal messaging. #DNC pic.twitter.com/iZ1loOXWma

— Karyn Bishof (@K_Bishof) August 26, 2024

Shortly after the convention, and after all this blows up on Twitter, a Kamala operative posted this video to TikTok, from where it propagated to Twitter. It shows a masked Kamala with cute children. Here is the Twitter version:

“I was waiting to talk to you!” pic.twitter.com/ZBpMOd6q0v

— chris evans (@notcapnamerica) August 26, 2024

Being of a suspicious nature, I looked for the provenance of the video. The Kamala operative did not give a date or time. However, alert reader marym exercised her mad detective skillz and found the source: A school in West Haven, CT, story published March 26, . So the vibe and the meme is “Kamala masks because she cares about kids!” But the video is almost as old as some of the kids. What brain genius on Kamala’s staff did this?

TABLE 1: Daily Covid Charts

Lambert here: Since things are bad out on the West Coast, I went looking for California hospitalization data to compare with New York’s, and found this: “Due to changes in reporting requirements for hospitals, CDPH is no longer including hospitalization data on the CDPH dashboard. CDPH remains committed to monitoring the severe outcomes of COVID-19 and influenza, including the impact on hospitals. CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) will remain open to accept data, and CDC and CDPH strongly encourage all facilities to continue reporting.” Thanks, Mandy!

[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). The visualization suppresses what is, in percentage terms, a significant increase.

[7] (Walgreens) Fiddling and diddling.

[8] (Cleveland) Jumping.

[9] (Travelers: Positivity) Up. Those sh*theads at CDC have changed the chart so that it doesn’t even run back to 1/21/23, as it used to, but now starts 1/1/24. There’s also no way to adjust the time range. CDC really doesn’t want you to be able to take a historical view of the pandemic, or compare one surge to another. In an any case, that’s why the shape of the curve has changed.

[10] (Travelers: Variants) The new variant in China, XDV.1, is not showing up here.

[11] Deaths low, but positivity up.

[12] Deaths low, ED up.

Stats Watch

There are no officials statistics of interest today.

Manufacturing: “Inside Boeing’s factory lapses that led to the Alaska Air blowout” [Seattle Times (PI)]. Deck is not, but should be: “Anatomy of a Clusterf*ck.” Do read in full for the horrid details; many of us, I am sure, have been on a similar shop floor. This caught my eye; when they first open the door plug (the one that fell off, later): ‘Filling in for the veteran mechanic on vacation, the Trainee was perhaps the least equipped to do this atypical job. He’d been at Boeing for about 17 months, his only previous jobs being at KFC and Taco Bell. ‘He’s just a young kid,’ the Door Master Lead said.”

Tech: “Tesla Drivers Say New Self-Driving Update Is Repeatedly Running Red Lights” [Futurism]. “‘Thankfully I stopped it before it ran the light,’ wrote one Redditor user in a thread with several other Tesla drivers experiencing the same thing, ‘but hopefully Tesla is aware their software is at a very dangerous level right now.’… This is all happening as Musk pivots Tesla towards robotaxis, which have run into their own issues with crashes, glitches, and unpopularity with pedestrians. Will a software patch improve the red light issue? Perhaps. But there’s something that Musk can do that’s low cost and won’t hurt anybody: stop calling the Tesla auto assist software ‘Full Self-Driving’ until it really is.”

The Bezzle: “Super Micro: Fresh Evidence Of Accounting Manipulation, Sibling Self-Dealing And Sanctions Evasion At This AI High Flyer” [Hindenberg Research]. “Super Micro Computer Inc. is a $35 billion server maker based in Silicon Valley, California that has ridden the wave of AI enthusiasm. Our 3-month investigation, which included interviews with former senior employees and industry experts as well as a review of litigation records, international corporate and customs records, found glaring accounting red flags, evidence of undisclosed related party transactions, sanctions and export control failures, and customer issues.” • The shorts have entered the AI chat. About time.

Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 52 Neutral (previous close: 52 Neutral) [CNN]. One week ago: 51 (Neutral). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Aug 28 at 12:57:20 PM ET.

Permaculture

“How 8,000 Food Forests Grew Africa’s Great Green Wall” (video) [YouTube]. Dubious about tree planting, because we need forests, not trees. What do readers think?

For NC on food forests, see here, here, here, here, and here.

Gallery

“Masterful Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer rendered famous ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ during Golden Age” [FOX]. “The painting depicts a woman, but it’s not a portrait, but rather a “tronie,” according to the Maurithshus museum, which is a painting of an imaginary figure.” • So, word of the day: tronie. Amazingly, this FOX story is straight-up informative, with no angle at all that I can see (at least not a FOX-level angle). Maybe I was ahead of the zeitgeist on this gen-u-wine, human-made art thing, and others have the same thirst.

News of the Wired

“The flow state: the science of the elusive creative mindset that can improve your life” [Guardian]. “Studies suggest that entering the flow state can enhance our performance in activities such as sports or music, and improve our creativity and wellbeing. The late Hungarian psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, who first coined the term flow, went as far as to call it ‘the secret to happiness.’ So what is it? And how can we enter this sometimes elusive brain state? Csíkszentmihályi began his investigations in the 1970s, after interviewing hundreds of participants about the ups and downs of their lives. Contrary to the assumption that we are happiest while resting, he found that the peaks often involved very high levels of mental focus. The specific activity did not seem to matter – it could be swimming, playing the violin or performing brain surgery. .” • Which the neoliberal workplace, for example, seems determined to take away from us.

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