2:00PM Water Cooler 12/3/2024 | naked capitalism

By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Patient readers, I’m traveling again, I feel a WiFi dead zone coming up, and I want to take a nap. I should be back in form tomorrow. –lamnert

Bird Song of the Day

Northern Mockingbird, Anza-Borrego Desert SP–Mesquite Oasis San Diego, California, United States. “Part of a longer recording.” Longer than three minutes!

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

Biden Administration

“Why Biden’s Pardon of His Son Is So Controversial” [Bloomberg]. “A Republican-controlled committee in the House of Representatives seized on the business dealings of Hunter Biden, and Republican Kevin McCarthy, then the House speaker, launched an impeachment probe into Joe Biden for what he called a ‘culture of corruption.’ House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer gathered evidence that from 2014 to 2019, Hunter Biden and associates received some $24 million from individuals or companies based in China, Russia, Ukraine, Romania and Kazakhstan. But the impeachment inquiry ultimately failed.” • If somebody had a theory of that failure, I missed it. Unlike the farcical Benghazi hearings, Comer had a clear timeline. And the checks.

Trump Transition

“Congress faces shutdown dilemma that could mess with Trump’s first 100 days” [NBC]. “As Congress returns this week for one last burst of activity before it wraps up the session, it faces a key deadline of Dec. 20 to avert a government shutdown. Democrats and Republicans appear resigned to passing a continuing resolution, or CR, that would temporarily fund the government into early 2025 — most likely March — as they run out of time to strike a full funding deal this year. The two parties haven’t even agreed on an overall spending level for the new fiscal year, let alone how to allocate the money across parts of the government. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., alluded to the inevitability of a short-term bill Monday, saying, “We need to keep divisive and unnecessary provisions out of any government funding extension, or else it will get harder to pass a CR in time.” For Republicans, that is a double-edged sword. The upside for Republicans in punting the deadline is that they would have more leverage to shape government funding in the new year, with President-elect Donald Trump returning to the White House and the GOP taking control of the Senate and maintaining a narrow House majority. The big downside is it would create a critical deadline early in the Trump presidency, potentially taking valuable time away from confirming his nominees through the Senate and from the big party-line bill that Republicans are looking at to extend his tax cuts and advance his immigration and border security agenda.”

“Single House race stands between Republicans and 1-seat majority” [FOX]. “House Republicans could begin the new year grappling with a one-seat majority, a perilously slim margin for the 119th Congress as President-elect Donald Trump guns for an active first 100 days. Last-minute GOP losses and exits in favor of the new administration mean Republicans could begin that period with precious little room for dissent, and one congressional race could decide the difference between a likely one- or two-seat majority…. In California’s 13th Congressional District, Rep. John Duarte, R-Calif., is fighting for his political life against Democrat Adam Gray. As of Monday afternoon, Gray leads Duarte by a few hundred votes – a margin of roughly 0.1%. California state law mandates that counties certify their election results by Dec. 5. If Democrats flip the seat, the House would have 220 Republicans and 215 Democrats heading into the New Year. However, three Republican lawmakers’ departures are expected to whittle that down further. Now-former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., resigned from the 118th and 119th Congresses amid consideration to be Trump’s attorney general.”

Campaign Finance

If fraud can be committed, it will already have been committed:

BREAKING: Wisconsin Judge Brad Schimel has approved a subpoena against ActBlue, saying, “Something is NOT right” after hearing evidence that ActBlue is using the names of unsuspecting people to launder dark money to Democrat campaigns.

“There may be an element of fraud, or maybe… pic.twitter.com/X9xxf6UurA

— George (@BehizyTweets) December 2, 2024

The #Resistance

“‘We’re still in this fight’: the resistance to Trump considers its options after bruising election defeat” [Guardian]. “The sense of malaise around “Resistance 2.0″ may in part be because, whereas Trump’s first victory felt like shocking accident of history, his second was delivered by an electorate that knows exactly what it is getting. Whereas he lost the national popular vote to Hillary Clinton in 2016, he gained more votes nationwide than Harris and claims a mandate. For many liberals, that result was a gut punch that seemed to undermine the work of three election cycles.” And: “Speaking from the Hudson valley of New York, [organizer LA] Kauffman added: ‘What I’m seeing is that people are looking to find a way to meet those needs for community connection in quieter, more intimate ways. There’s a lot of gatherings that are happening in people’s homes and community centres and neighbourhoods. It’s not a mass coming together that gave us a feeling of enormous collective togetherness. It’s happening in smaller, tighter, face-to-face communities.’” • “Enormous collective togethernes.” Let’s to the WInter Palace quickly!

Democrats en déshabillé

“Democrats won’t win elections by labeling all white men as oppressors, either” [USA Today]. “Old white working-class males have become pariahs in many Democratic party circles. Increasingly, much of the rhetoric coming from Democratic candidates, who do not fall into the category with which I identify, openly vilify people such as myself simply because they are lumping us into a group that they have labeled oppressors. Much hard work and sacrifices have gone into fighting prejudice based in group identities, yet my own Democratic Party has condoned or permitted such prejudice when it comes to old working-class white guys. Am I claiming to be oppressed? Absolutely not! I recognize that I have benefitted from privilege afforded me by my gender and ethnicity. I support equity in all areas of life for all individuals. I work to support equity for marginalized groups daily and I recognize the battle isn’t over. But I’m losing support for a party that permits me to be vilified by its many of its members, based upon the combination of my age, race, gender, and working-class roots. Recent electoral results tend to show that I’m not the only one feeling slighted.” • However, I don’t think the mishegoss of “slights” produced by identity politics can ever be netted out. Best to heave the entire enterprise over the side and center the working class as such.

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 (wastewater); 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, KidDoc, 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!

“Influenza A(H5N1) shedding in air corresponds to transmissibility in mammals” [Nature]. “An increase in spillover events of highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1) viruses to mammals suggests selection of viruses that transmit well in mammals.” • Oh.

Elite Maleficence

“After Action Review of the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Lessons Learned and a Path Forward” (PDF) [Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, Committee On Oversight and Accountability]. Comer, the Committee chair, is not a nutter, which is good. I have skimmed it. However, I though I would search on “airborne”; it appears exactly once. Here it is in context:

And “aerosol”:

I’m concerned by the fact that an enormous struggle waged by outsiders against CDC and WHO, to force them to acknowledge a science-based paradign for Covid transmission goes unmentioned in the report. especially since this effort would seem to be exactly the citizen-driven approach that MAGA appears to want in other fields. Even more disappointing is that Democrats, by their own silence, played along. One might almost think that bipartisan agenda-setting was at play.

“Jay Bhattacharya and the Vindication of the ‘Fringe’ Scientists” [WSJ]. “Francis Collins, the NIH chief between 2009-21, derided Dr. Bhattacharya as a “fringe” scientist for urging the government to focus on protecting the vulnerable while letting others go about their lives.” • “Fringe” is truly stupid framing (although not every victim of the Semmelweis Effect is, in fact, a Semmelweis). It would have been better to have framed “Dr.” Bhattacharya as a eugenicist, which has the merit of being true.

TABLE 1: Daily Covid Charts

The Bezzle: “How a California pot company went from $575 million in cash to a ‘debt death spiral’” [SFGATE]. “Jay-Z’s cannabis brand looked timeless as soon as it launched in 2020. The billionaire rapper, legal name Shawn Carter, rolled out his Monogram line of luxury joints and cannabis flower with a photo shoot at the famous Frank Sinatra house in Palm Springs. Models elegantly smoked joints in front of mid-century pool furniture, as if the brand had been around for decades. Glowing profiles in GQ, Vogue and Vanity Fair soon followed…. The parent company behind Monogram, confusingly called The Parent Company, hasn’t fared any better. The conglomerate originally hit California’s market with $575 million in cash and plans to take over the entire industry, but after burning through half a billion dollars, it has merged into another company, which itself appears to be in financial trouble… it appears the brand is the latest hyped-up celebrity pot brand to wither away in California’s punishing legal weed market.”

Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 67 Greed (previous close: 66 Greed) [CNN]. One week ago: 64 (Greed). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Dec 2 at 1:53:27 PM ET.

Rapture Index: Closes unchanged [Rapture Ready]. Record High, October 10, 2016: 189. Current: 183. (Remember that bringing on the Rapture is good.) • Hard to believe the Rapture Index is going down. Do these people know something we don’t?

Book Nook

Good idea:

Though I’d be turn. Would I want my favorite books in the tree, or just any books?

Gallery

Lowry?!?!?

Class Warfare

News of the Wired

Contact information for plants: Readers, feel free to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) find out how to send me a check if you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi, lichen, and coral are deemed to be honorary plants! If you want your handle to appear as a credit, please place it at the start of your mail in parentheses: (thus). Otherwise, I will anonymize by using your initials. See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. From lcm:

lcm writes: “This fall-blooming camellia usually loses most of its flowers and buds to a hard freeze in mid-October here in central Virginia, but no freezes this year!”

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