2:00PM Water Cooler 9/30/2022 | bare capitalism


By Lambert Strether of Corrente

Fowl Music of the Day

Black-throated Bobwhite, Celestún, Yucatán, Mexico. That is solely three stars, however I feel folks take factors off for issues I like, like plenty of different birds and atmospherics. However you possibly can hear the Bobwhite. I feel the migration season is arising, so if you happen to, pricey readers, have any solutions on birds leaving (or shifting in) to the neighborhood, please depart them in feedback.

• “How a COVID lockdown modified chicken behaviour” [Nature]. “As a result of folks spent extra time at dwelling and in parks than earlier than March 2020, the evaluation discovered that 20 of the 25 chicken species examined behaved in a different way throughout lockdown. Parks — which have been flooded with guests — noticed an an uptick within the numbers of corvids and gulls, whereas smaller birds, reminiscent of Eurasian blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) and home sparrows (Passer domesticus), have been noticed much less incessantly than in earlier years. And since folks spent extra time at dwelling, the variety of avian species that visited home gardens additionally dropped, by round one-quarter, in contrast with earlier years.Different species, together with rock pigeons (Columba livia), didn’t react to the lockdown in any respect. Warrington discovered this stunning, as a result of pigeons are metropolis dwellers, so she thought they might be affected by the adjustments in folks’s behaviour. ‘However they don’t give a crap about what we do,’ she says.”

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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

“The logic of the insult and the logic of scientific classification signify the 2 excessive poles of what a classification could also be within the social world.” –Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles

Biden Administration

“Treasury strikes ahead with database on company possession” [Associated Press]. “Tens of tens of millions of small U.S. firms will probably be required to supply the federal government with particulars on their house owners and others who profit from them beneath a regulation finalized Thursday that’s supposed to peel again the layers of possession that may conceal unlawfully obtained property. The Treasury Division stated it was shifting to create a database that can comprise private data on the house owners of no less than 32 million U.S. companies as a part of an effort to fight illicit finance. Treasury officers stated the brand new rule represents a sea change on this planet of company transparency. The regulation comes within the midst of U.S. and Western allies’ ongoing makes an attempt to sanction Russian oligarchs and rich buddies of Russian President Vladimir Putin because the begin of his invasion of Ukraine. The rich Russians are accused of hiding stolen cash and property within the U.S. and all over the world.”

2022

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“Two Dem stars wrestle to recapture the magic” [Politico]. “Just some brief years in the past, Beto O’Rourke and Stacey Abrams have been among the many Democratic Get together’s shiniest stars, two youthful candidates who electrified their events even in defeat. Whereas they got here up simply brief of their longshot 2018 bids to win statewide workplace in Texas and Georgia, respectively, their promise was such that every sparked speak of their prospects on the nationwide stage…. Each have constantly trailed their opponents within the polls. O’Rourke hasn’t led in a single survey since he introduced his candidacy final November, and Abrams is barely doing higher.” • These candidates aren’t for electing; they’re for fundraising. (Additionally, stars shine, however they aren’t “shiny.” “Brightest stars,” or “most brightly shining stars.”)

“A Selection Election, however an Unsure One” [Charles Cook, Cook Political Report]. “Right here’s one other issue working in opposition to overly assured prognosticators: ‘Toss-Up’ Home, Senate, and gubernatorial races generally tend to interrupt in a standard route somewhat than evenly. Two years in the past everybody was whipsawed within the final six weeks. Issues appeared to break down on Republicans after then-President Trump’s hideously unhealthy efficiency within the Sept. 29 debate. Down-ballot Republican candidates’ numbers plunged as nicely, triggering hypothesis of an impending “blue wave.” However after a number of weeks of dialog concerning the implications of such an enormous victory for Democrats, a last-minute gust shifted in the other way, turning the blue wave right into a Useless Sea as independents determined to hedge their bets. Within the Home, each single race rated as a toss-up going into Election Day went Republican. However this isn’t solely a Home or a 2020 phenomenon. Over the past 12 elections, a mean of 77 % of the Senate races rated within the toss-up column going into Election Day broke in the identical route. Democrats gained eight out of 9 toss-ups in 2006, Republicans eight out of 9 in 2014. In 1998, Democrats gained six out of seven toss-ups. Democrats gained eight out of 12 in each 2008 and 2012, and 7 out of 9 in 2000. The development is even a bit streaky: Toss-ups broke in favor of Republicans within the final 4 elections (2014-2020), however for Democrats within the earlier 4 (2006-2012).” • Cook dinner factors to the mostest of the first-past-the-post-ness….

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PA: “OnPolitics: Pennsylvania’s Senate race heats up” [USA Today]. “From being trolled by Fetterman on social media over referring to a grocery store veggie tray as ‘crudités,’ Oz has now attracted tens of millions of {dollars} from nationwide political motion committees. He has a barrage of adverts working in opposition to his opponent, has the media becoming a member of him in asking for the Democrat’s well being information and has successfully lower Fetterman’s lead to some factors – inside the margin of error. Early in the summertime, Fetterman held an almost double-digit lead over his Republican opponent and was on observe to assist Senate Democrats safe their majority. However within the final month, Oz has surged in spending and favorability and eroded Fetterman’s result in 3 factors, in line with a brand new Franklin & Marshall Ballot out Thursday. ‘It was like Fetterman was working unopposed over the summer season,’ stated Berwood Yost, director of Franklin & Marshall’s Middle for Opinion Analysis. ‘That has modified. Oz is difficult his crime file, and the messaging is working.’” • If the important thing second seems to be the controversy, that’s not excellent news for Fetterman, who just isn’t a very good debater.

PA: “John Fetterman Affords Voters Medical Transparency By Ripping Coronary heart Out Of Chest” [The Onion]. “‘It’s important that we handle any worries voters have about their candidate’s health for workplace, which is why the lieutenant governor selected to tear out his still-beating coronary heart and maintain it out for all to see,’ stated marketing campaign supervisor Brendan McPhillips….”

WI: No means no:

“Wonderful Democrats”…. That’s fairly an act. What do you name it?

2024

“Extra Democrats need Biden to run in 2024; Harris best choice if he doesn’t: ballot” [The Hill]. “A brand new Morning Seek the advice of-Politico ballot discovered that 59 % Democrat voters assume Biden ought to make one other run for the Oval Workplace, up from 53 % in August.” • Let’s simply hope Biden isn’t relying on changing into a “wartime chief” as an October Shock. Say with a nuclear strike.

Grateful to The Hill’s picture editor for leaving me some house for a value-add.

“Newsom indicators UFW invoice aimed toward serving to California farmworkers set up” [Los Angeles Times]. “After beforehand indicating he may veto the measure, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a brand new regulation Wednesday that can make it simpler for agricultural laborers to hitch unions, a hard-fought win for the United Farm Staff.

The signature got here after union members and their supporters made a 335-mile pilgrimage from Delano, Calif., to Sacramento after which camped out in entrance of the state Capitol for weeks as dignitaries visited — a vivid and theatrical show of political heft. Including to the strain, President Biden took the weird step of inserting himself into state politics, releasing an announcement over Labor Day weekend urging Newsom to enact the regulation, generally known as Meeting Invoice 2183. Vice President Kamala Harris and Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) additionally joined the refrain.”

“Decide overrules particular grasp order for Trump to provide ‘remaining’ objections on FBI search stock” [FOX]. “U.S. District Decide Aileen M. Cannon on Thursday overruled an order by Particular Grasp Raymond Dearie that stated former President Donald Trump wanted to supply any ‘remaining’ objections or disputes relating to the objects seized by the FBI throughout its unprecedented raid on Mar-a-Lago final month. Final week, Dearie requested the Trump workforce that by no later than Sept. 30 to supply a declaration of affidavit that features a checklist of any particular objects within the property stock that they assert weren’t seized from the premises; an inventory of things that have been seized however to which the outline of the contents or the situation of the merchandise was incorrect; and an inventory and outline of any merchandise that Trump’s authorized workforce asserts was seized however just isn’t listed within the property receipt. ‘This submission shall be plaintiff’s remaining alternative to boost any factual dispute as to the completeness and accuracy of the Detailed property stock,’ Dearie wrote within the submitting final week. Cannon, who appointed Dearie as particular grasp, reviewed his order and on Thursday stated there ‘shall be no separate requirement’ for Trump ‘at this stage, previous to the evaluation of the Seized Supplies, to lodge ex ante remaining objections to the accuracy of Defendant’s Stock, its descriptions, or its contents.’”

Democrats en Déshabillé

Affected person readers, evidently individuals are truly studying the back-dated submit! However I’ve not up to date it, and there are various updates. So I should try this. –lambert

I’ve moved my standing remarks on the Democrat Get together (“the Democrat Get together 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 Get together is, in truth, 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 Get together is the political expression of the category energy of PMC, their base (lucidly defined by Thomas Frank in Hear, Liberal!). ; if the Democrat Get together didn’t exist, the PMC must invent it. . (“PMC” modulo “class expatriates,” after all.) Second, all of the working components of the Get together reinforce one another. Depart apart characterizing the relationships between components of the Get together (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.

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.

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“Registered Democrats are sick of the novel left—and a few are switching sides” [New York Post]. • That is the submit, so take with a dose of salts. Attention-grabbing interviews, although.

Sullying the title of Occupy, as they’ve for a few years:

RussiaGate

“Durham Prosecutes FBI Informants, Whereas Defending Their Handlers” [RealClearPolitics]. “Since being named particular counsel in October 2020, John Durham has investigated or indicted a number of unscrupulous anti-Trump informants. However he has spared the FBI brokers who dealt with them, elevating suspicions he’s letting investigators off the hook in his waning investigation of misconduct within the Russiagate probe. In current courtroom filings, Durham has portrayed the G-men as naive recipients of unhealthy data, tricked into opening improper investigations focusing on Donald Trump and acquiring invalid warrants to spy on considered one of his advisers.”

Realignment and Legitimacy

“The Drawback with Polling May Be Unfixable” [Richard Hanania’s Newsletter]. “Taking the info collectively, I feel there’s a good quantity of proof for a development through which the polls began out comparatively unbiased, however have been getting extra biased in the direction of Democrats over time. It’s not very sturdy proof, however the issue with hoping for something higher is that the longer you wait to be able to acquire extra observations, the extra the world adjustments. It due to this fact wouldn’t be applicable to say “let’s wait till 2050 so we have now a good pattern dimension,” as a result of by that point the 2 main events, and in all probability American society itself, will probably be unrecognizable to us in the present day. This can be a downside with political science extra typically – findings might be traditionally contingent and it’s all the time open to interpretation how a lot they may help in forecasting the long run.” • Very attention-grabbing article. If polls are damaged, and no person does exit polls any extra, then we don’t have a cross-check on election resujlts. Not that this could ever be an issue….

Reside-tweeting jury choice in DC for the Proud Boys:

There’s your sans culottes, proper there….

#COVID19

• Should you marvel why I’m nonetheless watching the charts like a cat watching a mousehoke, right here’s why:

• ”New Infectious Threats Are Coming. The U.S. In all probability Received’t Include Them” [New York Times]. “If it wasn’t clear sufficient throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, it has turn into apparent throughout the monkeypox outbreak: America, among the many richest, most superior nations on this planet, stays wholly unprepared to fight new pathogens. The coronavirus was a sly, surprising adversary. Monkeypox was a well-known foe, and exams, vaccines and coverings have been already at hand. However the response to each threats sputtered and stumbled at each step. America spends between 300 to 500 instances extra on its navy protection than on its well being techniques, and but “no warfare has killed one million Individuals,” famous Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, who led the C.D.C. beneath former President Barack Obama.”

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• ”Lengthy COVID danger falls solely barely after vaccination, big examine exhibits” [Nature]. “Vaccination in opposition to SARS-CoV-2 lowers the chance of lengthy COVID after an infection by solely about 15%, in line with a examine of greater than 13 million people1. That’s the most important cohort that has but been used to look at how a lot vaccines shield in opposition to the situation, however it’s unlikely to finish the uncertainty. The authors of the most recent examine additionally in contrast signs reminiscent of mind fog and fatigue in vaccinated and unvaccinated folks for as much as six months after they examined optimistic for SARS-CoV-2. The workforce discovered no distinction in sort or severity of signs between those that had been vaccinated and people who had not. ‘Those self same fingerprints we see in individuals who have breakthrough infections,’ Al-Aly says.” • Properly, I suppose we will see who no person within the Adminisration or CDC or Massive Pharma desires to speak about Lengthy Covid.

• ”New steerage launched on diagnosing, treating lengthy COVID signs” [ABC]. “Citing issues concerning the lingering and generally debilitating long-term impacts of COVID-19 on the physique — and noticed inequities amongst minority sufferers struggling disproportionately from the virus — medical specialists on “lengthy COVID” issued the primary steerage of its variety to diagnose and deal with the mysterious sickness. Specialists on the American Academy of Bodily Drugs and Rehabilitation stated they hope the steerage will assist different medical doctors leverage their expertise with sufferers to assist handle and mitigate their signs. The steerage is indicative of widespread concern amongst medical specialists that even months after resolving the preliminary an infection, COVID remains to be inflicting severe well being issues amongst many Individuals. A minimum of 9 million lengthy COVID sufferers are grappling with a variety of signs, however specialists stated that quantity might be as excessive as 28 million folks.” • In my understanding, solely governmental entities like CDC can problem “steerage.” Not NGOs just like the American Academy of Bodily Drugs and Rehabilitation.

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• After they say “private danger evaluation” they imply simply that:

So I don’t see the difficulty right here….

• And talking of the ethical excessive floor:


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• ”COVID-19 pandemic modified our personalities, claims examine” [Sky News]. “The examine assessed the character of seven,109 folks, between the ages of 18 and 109, and members got a check measuring neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness. The primary exams throughout the begin of the pandemic, December 2019 to March 2020, confirmed folks’s character to be comparatively steady with only a small decline in neuroticism. Within the second half of the pandemic, there have been declines in how extroverted folks have been, how open folks have been to new experiences and the way agreeable and conscientious they have been.”

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• ”Oregon to cowl health-related local weather change bills beneath Medicaid” [Seattle Times]. “Oregon is about to turn into the primary state within the nation to cowl local weather change bills for sure low-income sufferers beneath its Medicaid program because the usually temperate Pacific Northwest area sees longer warmth waves and extra intense wildfires. The brand new initiative, slated to take impact in 2024, will cowl fee for gadgets reminiscent of air conditioners and air filters for Medicaid members with well being situations who reside in an space the place an emergency attributable to excessive climate has been declared by the federal authorities or the governor’s workplace, in line with the Oregon Well being Authority.” • However not Covid?! Nonetheless, since Corsi-Rosenthal containers can be utilized for each Covid and wildfire smoke, maybe different gadgets could as nicely.

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• Extra on “gentle”:

I keep in mind that video and that second. “Delicate” unfold around the world immediately

Case Rely

Case depend for the US:

Circumstances are undercounted, one supply saying by an element of six, Gottlieb considering we solely decide up one in seven or eight.) Therefore, I take the nominal case depend and multiply it by six to approximate the actual degree of instances, and draw the DNC-blue “Biden Line” at that time. The earlier depend was ~60,000. Right now, it’s ~53,100 and 53,100 * 6 = a Biden line at 318,600. (Keep in mind these information factors are weekly averages, so each day fluctuations are smoothed out.) The black “Fauci Line” is a counter to triumphalism, because it compares present ranges to previous crises. Should you have a look at the Fauci line, you will note that regardless of the bleating and yammering about Covid being “over,” we have now solely only in the near past reached the (nominal) case degree of the primary surge in New York, within the spring of 2020 (after which the Occasions printed the photographs of the 100,000 who died, contemplating that a big quantity, because it was on the time).

Lambert right here: The autumn in case depend seems to be spectacular sufficient. What the Fauci Line exhibits, nonetheless, is that we have now ultimately achieved the extent of the preliminary peak, when New York was storing the our bodies in fridge vehicles. So the endzone celebrations are, to my thoughts, untimely. Not that anybody will throw a flag. In fact, the actual story is within the charts for California and the South. See beneath.

Regional case depend for 4 weeks:

The South:

The South (minus Texas and Florida):

The West:

California dug its instances out of that drawer.

Wastewater

Wastewater information (CDC), September 26:

Lambert right here: I’m happy to see that there at the moment are some reside websites in New York Metropolis.

For grins, September 25:

NOTE To get the CDC information pages to load, I’ve to show off my VPN. Thanks for the safety breach, CDC.

An alert reader steered having a look at the MWRA information from the Boston space, and lo and behold:

Nonetheless vertical. This can be a seven-day common, thoughts you, so the rise is not any fluke. Allow us to additionally keep in mind that the Boston space just isn’t solely the house of many, many college students, it’s additionally a PMC heart, and we have now already seen one ginormous superspreader occasion from the convention in Boston. Boston additionally has a significant worldwide airport, one other explanation for unfold.

Positivity

SITE DOWN From the Walgreen’s check positivity tracker, September 21:

-0.5%. Not a lot down, as fluky. One thing appears to have nuked the structure.

Transmission

NOTE: I shall most actually not be utilizing the CDC’s new “Group Degree” 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 option to assess private danger. As well as, Covid is a illness you don’t need to get. Even if you’re not hospitalized, you possibly can undergo from Lengthy Covid, vascular points, and neurological points. For these causes, case counts — identified to be underestimated, attributable to dwelling check kits — deserve to face alone as a quantity to be tracked, irrespective of how a lot the political operatives in CDC management want to obfuscate it. That the “inexperienced map” (which Topol calls a “capitulation” and a “deception”) remains to be up and being taken significantly verges on the legal. Use the group transmission instantly beneath.

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

Lambert right here: I’ve to say, I’m seeing extra yellow, which continues to please.

NOT UPDATED FFS Fast Riser information, by county (CDC), September 23:

I suppose that if case counts are certainly degree, it’s probably there can be few speedy risers. These two purple areas in Northern Maine and upstate New York are each on the best way to Quebec, Canada.

Earlier Fast Riser information:

NOT UPDATED FFS Hospitalization information, by state (CDC), September 23:

Not a sea of inexperienced.

NOTE: Fast Riser and Hospitalization information are up to date Wednesdays and Fridays. Not this week, although! Mr Covid’s on trip? So the girls and boys don’t have to return into the workplace?

Variants

Lambert right here: It’s past irritating how gradual the variant information is. I seemed for extra charts: California doesn’t to a BA.4/BA.5 breakdown. New York does however it, too, is on a molasses-like two-week cycle. Does no person 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? Extra sources from readers welcome [grinds teeth, bangs head on desk].

SITE DOWN Variant information, nationwide (Walgreens), September 10:

Nonetheless no signal of BA.2.75 at Walgreens, regardless of its look in CDC information beneath.

Variant information, nationwide (CDC), September 10 (Nowcast off):

Since BA.2.75 appears neglible in addition to BA.4.6 and our new buddy BF.7, I’m going to desert updating the desk I made for it (although I could recycle it later).

• “COVID Variant Tracker Exhibits BA.4.6, BF.7 on the Rise as BA.5 Circumstances Slowly Lower” [NBC]. “New York is seeing almost 15% of its COVID instances tied to the BA.4.6 subvariant, whereas an space of New England that features Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island is seeing greater than 3.9% of its instances brought on by the BF.7 subvariant.”

• “Massive COVID-19 waves could also be coming, new Omicron strains recommend” [Science]. “Almost 3 years into the pandemic, SARS-CoV-2 faces a formidable problem: discovering new methods across the immunity people have constructed up by vaccines and numerous infections. Worrisome new information present it’s as much as the problem. A number of new and extremely immune-evasive strains of the virus have caught scientists’ consideration in current weeks; a number of could nicely trigger massive, new COVID-19 waves this fall and winter. ‘We are able to say with certainty that one thing is coming. In all probability a number of issues are coming,’ says Cornelius Roemer, who research viral evolution on the College of Basel. Whether or not they may even result in many hospitalizations and deaths is the massive query. ‘It’s not stunning that we’re seeing adjustments that but once more assist the virus to evade immune responses,’ says molecular epidemiologist Emma Hodcroft of the College of Bern, who notes that SARS-CoV-2 faces ‘the identical problem that issues just like the frequent chilly and influenza face yearly— make a comeback.’” • Right here’s the video that goes with this story:

I didn’t hear air flow talked about by the newscaster or the “well being fairness marketing consultant.” Or masks….

LEGEND: Earlier CDC variant launch proven in parentheses, (thus).

Not encouraging. In fact, absolutely the numbers are small, however we’ve seen that film earlier than. I particularly don’t just like the soar in Area 2, as a result of the New York space is “spready,” based mostly on previous historical past. Area 1, then again, dropped.

Deaths

Dying price (Our World in Information):

Complete: 1,084,282 – 1,083,798 = 484 (484 * 365 = 176,660, which is in the present day’s LivingWith™* quantity (fairly a bit larger than the minimizers would love, although they will speak themselves into something. Fluctuates fairly a bit, however even the low numbers are unhealthy). I’ve added an anti-triumphalist black Fauci Line.

It’s good that for deaths I’ve a easy, each day chart that simply retains chugging alongside, in contrast to every little thing else CDC and the White Home are screwing up or letting go darkish, good job.

Stats Watch

There are not any stats of sufficient curiosity in the present day and I’m in a rush.

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Tech: “Google Broke Picture Seek for Inventive Commons and Hardly Anybody Seen/Cares” [CogDogBlog]. “Besides me. As of 1 minute in the past I confirmed what I seen final Wednesday. In accordance with the all seeing Google, on the complete world large internet there are however three Inventive Commons licensed pictures of a canine.” • Yikes!

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Right now’s Worry & Greed Index: 17 Excessive Worry (earlier shut: 14 Excessive Worry) [CNN]. One week in the past: 24 (Excessive Worry). (0 is Excessive Worry; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Sep 30 at 2:15 PM EDT.

Sports activities Desk

“World Cup 2022: These are the COVID necessities to enter Qatar” [Al Jazeera]. “Soccer followers heading to Qatar for the World Cup, attributable to begin on November 20, should present a adverse COVID-19 check to enter the nation, organisers have confirmed. All guests over the age of 18 should additionally obtain Ehteraz, a contact-tracing, government-run cellphone utility that tracks folks’s actions and an infection standing.” • Let the whinging start!

The Gallery

I like the flattened surfaces (if that’s how you’ll describe them). Just like the lamp. Nearly cubist:

Additionally the child nearest the range doesn’t have a blanket.

Well being Care

“Medical Debt Makes the Sick Sicker” [MedPage Today]. “We discovered that a couple of in 10 U.S. adults — and almost one in 5 households — incurred a medical debt they couldn’t pay… Whereas the uninsured had the best price (15.3%) of medical indebtedness, 10.5% of people with personal protection had medical money owed — presumably attributable to excessive copayments, deductibles, and protection denials — with Medicare Benefit enrollees having a very excessive price. And the money owed weren’t trivial: they averaged $21,687 per debtor in 2018.” Medicare Benefit working as designed, I see. Extra: ” As a result of the Census Bureau repeatedly surveyed the identical people over 3 years, we, in contrast to earlier analysts (who used one-time surveys), may assess the results of newly buying medical debt. Amongst people with no medical money owed in 2017, those that newly incurred such debt in subsequent years have been greater than twice as more likely to newly turn into meals insecure or unable to pay their lease, mortgage, or utility invoice, and to be evicted or undergo foreclosures in subsequent years.”

“Biogen pays $900M to settle physician kickback allegations” [Associated Press]. “Biogen has agreed to pay $900 million to resolve allegations that it violated federal regulation by paying kickbacks to medical doctors to steer them to prescribe its a number of sclerosis medication, federal prosecutors stated. The settlement introduced Monday settles a whistleblower lawsuit introduced by former Biogen worker Michael Bawduniak, in line with an announcement from the workplace of U.S. legal professional for Massachusetts, Rachael Rollins. Below the phrases of the settlement, Biogen can pay greater than $843 million to the federal authorities and greater than $56 million to fifteen states for overbilling Medicare and Medicaid insurance coverage applications. Bawduniak will obtain a portion of the federal restoration. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based pharmaceutical firm in an announcement stated it settled so it could concentrate on ‘our sufferers and strategic priorities’ and stated the settlement doesn’t embody an admission of legal responsibility.” • I feel these folks ought to begin admitting legal responsibility.

Guillotine Watch

CEOs behaving badly:

“Dr. Fauci and spouse’s wealth ‘skyrocketed’ by $5 million throughout pandemic: evaluation” [New York Post]. “The couple’s wealth enhance was due partially to main wage will increase, money awards and royalties, in line with the report. ‘Fauci’s hovering web value was based mostly on career-end wage spiking, profitable money prizes awarded by non-profit organizations all over the world and an ever-larger funding portfolio,’ [OpenTheBooks CEO Adam Andrzejewsk] stated. ‘He’s the top-paid federal worker, his first-year golden parachute retirement pension is the most important in federal historical past, and he’s accepting $1 million prizes from international non-profits, he added.” • Ka-ching….

Class Warfare

 ”My Household’s Slave” [The Atlantic] “To our American neighbors, we have been mannequin immigrants, a poster household. They advised us so. My father had a regulation diploma, my mom was on her option to changing into a health care provider, and my siblings and I bought good grades and all the time stated “please” and “thanks.” We by no means talked about Lola. Our secret went to the core of who we have been and, no less than for us youngsters, who we wished to be. After my mom died of leukemia, in 1999, Lola got here to reside with me in a small city north of Seattle. I had a household, a profession, a home within the suburbs—the American dream. After which I had a slave.” • ”The human eye is a superb gadget. With somewhat effort, it could fail to spot even essentially the most evident injustice.” –Richard Morgan, Woken Furies. Properly value a learn.

“How Revolutionary have been the Bourgeois Revolutions?” [Reviews in History]. “The gentry and the Aristocracy who led the lengthy English wrestle for a constitutionalism to hem within the Crown – climaxing with the Civil wars of 1640s and extra durably with the 1688 Wonderful Revolution – could nicely have been capitalist, in as far as their revenue derived from farming organised for change and revenue – however they have been in no extra a ‘bourgeoisie’ than the nineteenth-century Prussian Junkers who likewise organised their estates on a industrial foundation. Honour, standing, and politicking remained their major determinants of existence. As for the bourgeoisie correct, until engaged within the American commerce most retailers supported the royalists within the Civil Wars. The intentions of the Roundheads within the English Civil Struggle didn’t differ so radically from the aristocrat-led rebels of the Fronde. We are able to legitimately see the English Civil Wars as a part of a basic disaster of the Seventeenth-century world. The French Revolution, in distinction, actually was made by a bourgeoisie, however not a very capitalist one. Many have been tax-farmers, attorneys, civil servants, and so forth, and people few engaged in residing by commerce or trade typically had little time for subversion. Karl Kautsky [of blessed memory], the chief theorist of Marxism within the technology after Marx and Engels, made simply this level in a e-book printed for the Revolution’s centenary: these pre-1789 French bourgeoisie most instantly engaged in capitalist enterprise have been the least more likely to be anti-royalist revolutionaries. Bourgeois modernity, due to this fact, was not normally an final result of the center courses taking up the state. It is likely to be seen as rising considerably adventitiously from a battle between two established social forces. The aristocracy tended to favour a consultant parliamentarianism that might inhibit the chief state from interfering with the legal guidelines, privileges and rights of the propertied. The crown, for its half, struggled to subordinate over-mighty magnates, open landed estates to the regulation of the realm, and encourage the prosperity of taxable commerce and commerce.” • In a method, it’s too unhealthy that Capital began from (presumed) first rules, and never on the finish (the place the courses grow to be bourgeioisie, rentiers, petty bourgeiosie (on whom the Bearded One actually punts), and the working class. (And no peasants?) Anyhow, this 800+ web page tome actually does look attention-grabbing…

Information of the Wired

“Hurricane Ian uproots Dali Museum’s Want Tree” [Florida Politics]. “The St. Petersburg Dali Museum’s beloved Want Tree has fallen sufferer to the highly effective winds introduced by Hurricane Ian on Wednesday. The tree, woven with over 20,000 handwritten needs, has stood within the museum’s Avant-garden for almost 11 years. The tree holds needs amongst guests of the museum, written by visitors on wristbands tied to the branches. Though Hurricane Ian was the final word drive behind the tree’s uprooting, the museum had already been planning on changing it, in line with the Tampa Bay Occasions. Hurricane Irma additionally took its toll on the tree in 2017, leaving it reliant on help crutches and anchors.” • From the headline, I assumed the tree has one thing to do with Dali. One hesitates to think about what sort of needs he would have written.

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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 the way to ship me a verify if you’re allergic to PayPal and (b) to learn the way to ship me pictures of vegetation. Greens are positive! Fungi and coral are deemed to be honorary vegetation! If you need 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 by utilizing your initials. See the earlier Water Cooler (with plant) right here. From CF:

CF writes: “These asters simply began blooming, final gasp of summer season, on the butterfly patch in our local people backyard. It’s been one other very complicated yr for the vegetation.”

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Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not coated by the annual NC fundraiser. So if you happen to see a hyperlink you particularly like, or an merchandise you wouldn’t see wherever else, please don’t hesitate to precise your appreciation in tangible type. Keep in mind, a tip jar is for tipping! Common optimistic suggestions each makes me really feel good and lets me know I’m heading in the right direction with protection. Once I get no donations for 5 or ten days I get anxious. Extra tangibly, a continuing trickle of donations helps me with bills, and I think about that trickle when setting fundraising objectives:

Right here is the display that can seem, which I’ve helpfully annotated:

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