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2:00PM Water Cooler 12/5/2024 | naked capitalism

   December 6, 2024  Leave a Comment on 2:00PM Water Cooler 12/5/2024 | naked capitalism


By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Bird Song of the Day

Northern Mockingbird, Edith G. Read Wildlife Sanctuary, Westchester, New York, United States. “Amazing repertoire of other species’ songs woven into this song. This mockingbird was imitating several species including cardinal, robin, killdeer, Carolina Wren, and Tufted Titmouse. It is unclear whether it was also imitating a Song Sparrow, because one was very nearby and its voice can also be heard on the audio.”

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In Case You Might Miss…

  1. UnitedHealthcare assassination: More details emerge.
  2. Boeing dropped a satellite, says new whistleblower.
  3. Nietzsche’s typewriter.

* * *

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

* * *

Trump Assassination Attempts (Plural)

“Secret Service director vows reorganization as members of Congress press him over major lapses” [Associated Press]. “During the hearing, Rowe was repeatedly asked by flabbergasted lawmakers how problems so obvious in hindsight were allowed to happen, including communications difficulties between the Secret Service and local law enforcement that help secure events [in Butler, PA] and the building overlooking the rally being left unprotected.” And: “Trump has not yet named his pick to lead the agency.”

Democrats en déshabillé

“Jeffries stays out of the way as Dems mutiny against senior panel leaders” [Politico]. The deck: “Democrats are increasingly anxious about the incoming Trump administration and are no longer bowing to seniority rules to pick their committee leaders.” About time. More: “Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, 76, announced this week that he would step down from the top Democratic spot on the Natural Resources Committee. Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York, 77, dropped his bid to continue leading Democrats on Judiciary in the face of a tough challenge from 61-year-old Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland. And Rep. David Scott of Georgia, 79, is facing multiple challenges for the top Democratic spot on the Agriculture Committee. It’s akin to a mutiny, especially given Democrats’ typical deference to seniority in who leads panels. But party lawmakers are increasingly anxious about the incoming Trump administration and full GOP control of Congress. Many feel it’s crucial to have leaders who are proven fighters and can effectively push back on Republican priorities like harsh limits on legal immigration. It echoes the argument many used when they called on President Joe Biden to step off the ticket over the summer. At the center of it all is Jeffries, the minority leader, and his leadership team, who also skipped the seniority line in many ways when they rose to the top ranks two years ago. They have publicly stayed out of it, loath to stand in the way of lawmakers who, like them, chafed at the party’s strict adherence to seniority.” And: “”The caucus will guide these kinds of discussions,” said Rep. Pete Aguilar of California, the No. 3 House Democrat. “We’re confident that at this time it’s going to take a Democratic Caucus that’s firing on all cylinders to push back against extremism and to .’” • Ick. Mush.

“Scoop: Pelosi backing “some” House Dem committee ousters” [Axios]. • Maybe, for example–

“Scoop: AOC expected to run for top Oversight Committee role” [Axios]. “Ocasio-Cortez said Tuesday she is ‘interested’ in the role and has had ‘a lot of outreach from colleagues’ about a run. She told reporters on Wednesday morning that she has ‘spoken with many members of our caucus, including several members of leadership’ about the race. Ocasio-Cortez also laid out her vision for the panel, saying she wants to use it as a ‘communicative platform for public education’ and a vehicle for ‘real legislative work and investigatory work.’” • And speaking of AOC:


* * *

“Democrats are checked out after their drubbing — here’s how they can reengage” [The Hill]. “Democrats are tuning away from news networks and social media platforms in numbers that are impossible to ignore. MSNBC and CNN saw their ratings slashed in half as exhausted Democrats tuned out post-election. On Twitter (now X, after its acquisition by Elon Musk), lefty users have deserted the platform in droves in favor of competitor Bluesky.” At some point, the exodus of “lefty [sic] users” from X (611 million users) to Bluesky (20 million) will stop. When it does, we’ll have a good reading on how many Blue MAGA there really are. More: “Print outlets are faring even worse, with furious Democrats still canceling their Washington Post subscriptions nearly a month after owner Jeff Bezos spiked the paper’s endorsement of Kamala Harris. One in 10 Washington Post subscribers have quit the paper since October, blowing a sizable hole in the paper’s already threadbare earnings. That raises an existential question for media outlets and for Democrats: Where will all those disillusioned eyes go?” And: “Democrats were once masters of the populist message. If they want to rebuild after last month’s electoral disaster, they’ll need to reconnect with that part of their political psyche — fast. ” • They can’t and won’t. As Thomas Frank shows in Listen, Liberal!, liberal Democrats hate the working class. Since improved messaging, if it is to last, implies actually delivering on policy, they’ll fight improved messaging tooth and nail (as will their wealthy donors, as we saw in the Kamala campaign’s refusal to campaign on Lina Khan). Alternatively, of course, the Democrat leadership could believe there’s no problem at all; a few thousand votes here and there and 2028 is practically in the bag. And of course, the Democrat leadership has gradually eviscerated the primary process, so all the leadership will really need to do is go into a smoke-filled room, pick a slightly better candidate than Kamala, and give them more runway than a hundred days. How hard could that be?

“Democrats need to take the working class seriously and literally” [Salon]. “And then there was the following phrase (or some version of it) that I heard many times on the bus, the train and in my conversations with Uber and Lyft drivers. “Donald Trump may act crazy or be a jerk, but he is right about that!….” Donald Trump’s raw honesty and lack of a filter or self-censoring are central to his appeal. Many Americans may disagree with the specifics of what Donald Trump says about immigration, women, racial and ethnic minorities, or how he will rule when he is back in power. But as shown by polls and focus groups, many of them do like the fact that Trump, unlike Kamala Harris and the mainstream news media and other elites, is at least talking in a clear and direct way about the things that are causing them anxiety and upset in their daily lives….. To win back their own base voters — and more importantly to expand their support among independents, undecided voters and those who have dropped out of politics and the country’s civic life — Democrats need to do a much better job of listening to everyday people, meeting them where they are and taking their concerns and agency seriously. Whatever one may think about Donald Trump, his propagandists and other agents, at this moment, they and the MAGAverse are doing a much better job of listening to and shaping public opinion and the national narrative and mood than are the Democrats and the legacy news media.” • At first reading, this is another messaging take. But the listening part is not (and I don’t mean a “listening tour.” If there were such a thing as a 21st century precinct captain — online? — they should be doing the listening).

“I Watched the Democratic Collapse in Florida. I Fear It’s Happening Nationally” [The Bulwark]. “The truth is we got here because our brand sucks. We tend to put voters in different buckets—black, Hispanic, young, gay, etc.—and treat these groups like they are more progressive than they really are, and somehow unique from each other. At the same time, we’ve made decisions to stop talking to large chunks of the electorate. Some of these decisions can’t be fixed. For example, I wish we would have been more intentional about molding the Obama operation into something more permanent for the party to utilize. Coming out of 2008, rather than investing in partisan infrastructure, many in my party—in some cases led by the Obama White House—encouraged the development of “long-term progressive infrastructure,” with the idea that not-for-profit organizations could better address political needs, instead of state parties. Not only has this experiment failed at the core organizing level in states like Florida, but it has encouraged the idea that Democrats are beholden to progressive groups and values. We should have continued something akin to the old Howard Dean plan to invest in all fifty states.” Thanks, Obama! And the conclusion: “[B]asically, we must get back to listening to the median voter.” Listening, but also leading. The author has this good metaphor: “Has anyone had to buy refrigerator recently? After having previous had one for twelve years, I’m now on my third in seven—not because the actual refrigerator is breaking but because all the ‘smart’ technology on my fridge is. Last time I went in, I said, I just want a dumb fridge that works. Just the basics—works for appliances and for elections.” • Universal concrete material benefitsMR SUBLIMINAL Socialism is that “dumb fridge that works” (see FDR. And the CARES Act). Lead the voters there. Don’t commission another boatload of polling in quest of the mythical “median voter,” recognizable only in retropect by campaign professionals who, if you were sharing a post-prandial libation, would be the first to admit that nobody knows anything.

“Will Democrats “Get in Touch” with Working-Class America?” [John Halpin, The Liberal Patriot]. By Betteridge’s Law… “[I]n a comprehensive post-election survey of 4800 working-class voters conducted by PPI and YouGov (including oversamples in the battleground states of AZ, GA, MI, WI, and PA), Republicans outperformed Democrats across every indicator of party leadership and values.” Handy chart:

Wowsers.

“The Left-Flank Albatross” [Michael Baharaeen, The Liberal Patriot]. “Of course, liberals deserve representation too, and it’s completely fair to be concerned about issues like abortion, climate change, and minority rights. But winning in politics requires meeting voters where they are and catering to the issues they care most about. Harris and her team may protest that they tried to make the economy a central focus of her campaign, downplay hot-button topics, and employ tough rhetoric about the southern border, but none of it resonated with the voters they needed most. As the party moves forward, it must grapple with this reality and learn from it if they are to repair their image and chart a new path.” • It’s weird for an organization that calls itself “Third Way” (cited approvingly in the piece) to keep pushing a binary (left-right) paradigm (as opposed to, say, right-liberal-left tripolar model). I suppose, for them, the “third way” is rightwards (they would say they’re chasing the median voter, but it’s the chasing, and not leading, that’s the problem).

Realignment and Legitimacy

“The Fight Has Only Just Begun” [The Progressive]. “Once upon a time, a majority of U.S. voters rejected a capable, competent, and intelligent daughter of Black and Indian immigrants in favor of a diminished, ignorant, racist son of a multimillionaire, proving that the United States remained a great country for old, white men.” • This is what passes for “left” analysis at The Progressive.

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!

Transmission: Covid

“Are flu and COVID high now? Here’s how the season has started” [Alexander Tin, CBS]. Tin is a good guy, but Covid is not seasonal. That said: “COVID-19 emergency room visits are ‘low’ or ‘minimal’ in nearly all states, after this year’s late summer wave of the virus. Levels of the virus in wastewater are “minimal” in all regions, compared to “high” levels around this time last year. ‘Does that mean that there was enough immunity built up in that summer wave that we’re going to not see a winter wave? Does it mean the winter wave is going to come, but be a little bit later and maybe a little smaller,’ said [University of North Carolina epidemiology professor Justin Lessler]. Both [Shaun Truelove, associate scientist at Johns Hopkins University’s public health school] and Lessler said one major ‘data gap’ making comparisons to previous seasons challenging has been the lapse in nationwide COVID-19 hospitalization data during the summer surge. A pandemic-era emergency requirement for health care providers to report COVID-19 hospitalizations lapsed earlier this year, and only recently resumed under a new rule issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Other factors muddying the figures include changes to how people test and seek care for COVID-19 infections. Another big unknown is the evolution of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Most circulating variants right now are a medley of closely related variants like XEC and KP.3.1.1. ‘We don’t know, like we do for flu, what the average pace of COVID’s evolution away from our immune system will be, when it settles down,’ Lessler said. Early data released last month by researchers at The Ohio State University found XEC looked to be more infectious compared with the parent variant it shares upstream with KP.3.1.1, but not significantly more than its siblings. ‘I actually have thought it had settled down a bit, after this year. We’ll see what I think after the season’s done. But right now, I’m a little less sure,’ he said.” • Oh good. Seems like the best indicator would be reports of coughing on the Mommy blogs, at this point…

* * *

TABLE 1: Daily Covid Charts

Wastewater
This week[1] CDC November 25 Last week[2] CDC (until next week):

Variants [3] CDC November 23 Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC November 23

Hospitalization
★ New York[5] New York State, data December 4: National [6] CDC November 28:

Positivity
National[7] Walgreens December 2: Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic November 23:

Travelers Data
Positivity[9] CDC November 11: Variants[10] CDC November 4:

Deaths
Weekly Deaths vs. % Positivity [11] CDC November 2: Weekly Deaths vs. ED Visits [12] CDC November 2:

LEGEND

1) ★ for charts new today; all others are not updated.

2) For a full-size/full-resolution image, Command-click (MacOS) or right-click (Windows) on the chart thumbnail and “open image in new tab.”

NOTES

[1] (CDC) Good news!

[2] (CDC) Last week’s wastewater map.

[3] (CDC Variants) KP.* still popular. XEC has entered the chat. That WHO label, “Ommicron,” has done a great job normalizing successive waves of infection.

[4] (ED) Down.

[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Leveled out.

[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). Actually improved; it’s now one of the few charts to show the entire course of the pandemic to the present day.

[7] (Walgreens) Down.

[8] (Cleveland) Down.

[9] (Travelers: Positivity) Leveling out.

[10] (Travelers: Variants). Positivity is new, but variants have not yet been released.

[11] Deaths low, positivity down.

[12] Deaths low, ED down.

Stats Watch

Employment Situation: “United States Initial Jobless Claims” [Trading Economics]. “US initial jobless claims rose to 224,000 for the week ending November 30, from 213,000 in the previous week, above market expectations of 215,000 and marking the highest reading in six weeks. Despite this rise, the results still support the view that the US labor market remains at historically strong levels despite the aggressive tightening cycle by the Federal Reserve in the last quarters, adding leeway for the central bank to slow the pace of monetary loosening should inflation remain stubbornly high.”

Employment Situation: “United States Challenger Job Cuts” [Trading Economics]. “US employers announced 57,727 job cuts in November 2024, slightly higher than 55,597 in October and 45,510 a year earlier. The Automotive sector announced the most job cuts (11,506, the highest monthly total since April).”

* * *

Manufacturing: “Boeing whistleblower sounds alarm over safety at satellite factory: “They’re not gonna listen to me until somebody dies” [CBS]. “Now, Garriott, 53, says, it’s the lives of hundreds of technicians at the Boeing facility where he has worked for nearly three decades that need protecting from company management. ‘They’ve taken the focus off quality, the focus off the people on the floor, and they’ve put it completely on profit and going fast,’ Garriott said in an exclusive interview with CBS News senior transportation correspondent Kris Van Cleave. ‘I’m afraid with Boeing in the hands that it’s in now down here, they’re not gonna listen to me until somebody dies.’ He said efforts by Boeing executives to boost production at the company’s Los Angeles-area military and commercial satellite plant have led to a ‘toxic culture’ that has put workers there in danger. — an incident so catastrophic he compared it to ‘a plane falling out of the sky.’ ‘One person was underneath that satellite and they barely got out,’ said Garriott, who also represents 600 hourly workers as the head of the local carpenters union. ‘It’s the worst thing that can possibly happen on a site.’” • Boeing dropped a satellite????

Manufacturing: “Boeing Plea Deal Over Fatal 737 Max Crashes Rejected by Judge” [Bloomberg]. “Boeing Co.’s plea deal with US prosecutors over two 737 Max jet crashes was rejected by a federal judge, who said plans for choosing an independent monitor minimized the court’s role and required the parties to consider the race of the person appointed. US District Judge Reed O’Connor on Thursday sided with family members of people killed during the crashes, who urged him to reject the agreement on the grounds that it failed to adequately hold Boeing accountable for the 346 fatalities.” • Oopsie.

Manufacturing: “Boeing Defense Fighter Jet Unit Head Retires Amid Leadership Shake-Up” [Simple Flying]. “The head of Boeing Defense’s fighter jet division will step down after two years in the role. Steve Nordlund will be replaced by Dan Gillian, vice president and general manager of Mobility, Surveillance & Bombers, amid a challenging time for the company…. [Boeing Defense Systems] continues to lose money, posting losses of $2.3 billion in the third quarter. Much of this was due to fixed-cost contracts, including the KC-46A Tanker and T-7 Red Hawk programs.” • I bet there aren’t a whole lot of companies that lose money on defense work.

Manufacturing: “Boeing Isn’t the Only Plane Maker With Problems. Airbus Just Laid Off 2,000 Workers” [Barron’s]. “Wednesday, Airbus announced it was laying off 2,043 workers in its Defense and Space business. The layoffs amount to about 5% of that business and should be completed by mid-2026. The reductions ‘aim to reduce the company’s fixed cost base, with almost all of the positions affected being so-called overhead positions,’ said Airbus in an emailed statement.” And: “Profits in Airbus’ defense segment have struggled, too, and the company is expected to post a loss for the unit in 2024. Operating profit margins in 2023 came in at 2%, down from 6% in 2020. Airbus’ defense sales in 2024 should amount to about $13 billion; Boeing’s defense business will approach $25 billion. What hasn’t been a problem for either company is commercial aerospace demand. Both companies have backlogs that stretch out years. Building the planes has been tougher.”

The Bezzle:

Probably wouldn’t even buy a bathroom in one of Jeff’s mansions, but every little bit helps!

Tech: Yo, Elon:

Tech: “Federal Court Says Dismantling A Phone To Install Firmware Isn’t A ‘Search,’ Even If Was Done To Facilitate A Search” [TechDirt]. “[T]he narrative says the iPhone was ‘inoperable’ (to use HSI’s own words). But the DHS sent it out to a ‘partner forensic laboratory’ (I’m going to assume this was the FBI), which was able to finally obtain access to the phone by: …replacing its circuit board and re-flashing the device’s firmware. Now, that looks like the sort of thing not covered or considered by previous case law or the original warrant request. This is something else. This is another government party extensively modifying seized property to make it more receptive to phone-cracking efforts. One would think a court would need to be apprised of this opportunity before it became a reality, if for no other reason than the original warrant only authorized a search, not the literal cracking of a cell phone (or its casing, at least) to replace a circuit board and install new firmware. I think the defendant raises a good point. But I also think, given the lack of precedent, the court is not completely wrong to rule that reviving a device so it can be searched isn’t actually a search under the Fourth Amendment. To put it in other physical terms, no court would believe pulling a car out of the water after dredging a lake would be a search, even if the recovered vehicle was searched pursuant to a search warrant.” • Hmm.

* * *

Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 58 Greed (previous close: 57 Greed) [CNN]. One week ago: 63 (Greed). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Dec 5 at 1:18:31 PM ET.

Gallery

Ka-ching:

Healthcare

More on the UnitedHealth shooting:

The gun:

More on the gun:

The alleged shooter:

The bike:

Hot take (1):

Hot take (2):

About those bullet casings:

Maybe someday we’ll find the real killer:

Class Warfare

“UnitedHealthcare CEO’s killing lays bare rising security risks facing health care leaders” [Stat News]. “The killing of Brian Thompson, the CEO of the insurance division of UnitedHealth Group, provided a window into the vitriol that prominent health care leaders have been facing…. A longtime UnitedHealth executive who left the company about 10 years ago said the company’s executives commonly received threats from people with grievances about UnitedHealth’s coverage policies. The executive, who asked to remain anonymous to discuss a sensitive topic, said unauthorized people would come to the company’s sprawling headquarters in the Minneapolis suburb of Minnetonka and try to enter the buildings where executives’ offices are located. Years ago, employees entered the buildings using their badges, but the company added security checkpoints on the ground floor when the threats became more common.” • So the problem’s been festering a long time… What a surprise! And the headline: Thompson was not a “healthcare leader”; he was an insurance executive, some would say the very opposite. Further, the airport bookstore business section-style “leader” is, as ever, vacuous and noxious. Use the title, “CEO,” or the generic, “executives.” I read plenty of accounts in the online Covid community who are a thousand times the “leader” Thompson putatively was, and probably wouldn’t even use that word to describe themselves. Sheesh.

“Wealthy Americans Are Now Paying for Their Own Personal Fire Hydrants” [Wall Street Journal]. “The latest sought-after home amenity? Personal fire hydrants. The logic is that when there’s a major disaster there may not be enough fire engines to protect every house in an area. If homeowners have their own hydrant ready to go—along with hoses, nozzles and adapters—and are trained to use it all, that could help reduce the number of homes destroyed. Real-estate agents say mentioning a personal fire hydrant in the marketing materials now helps sell homes….. Personal hydrants are part of a wider trend of homeowners taking wildfire prevention into their own hands. They’re putting in elaborate sprinkler systems, eliminating wood on the exteriors, clearing combustible landscaping and fireproofing roofs.”

News of the Wired

“The Surprising New History of Horse Domestication” [Scientific American]. “Scholars have long sought to understand how the unique partnership between humans and horses got its start. Until recently, the conventional wisdom was that horses were gradually domesticated by the Yamnaya people beginning more than 5,000 years ago in the grassy plains of western Asia and that this development allowed these people to populate Eurasia, carrying their early Indo-European language and cultural traditions with them.” But: “New genomic analyses led by Pablo Librado of the Institute of Evolutionary Biology in Barcelona and Orlando indicate that the ancestors of modern domestic horses originated in the Black Sea steppes around 2200 B.C.E., nearly 2,000 years later than previously thought. Although we do not yet know exactly the details of their initial domestication, it is clear based on the timing that these horses belonged to post-Yamnaya culture. Patterns in the ancient genomes suggest that in the early centuries of domestication, the horse cultures of the western steppe were selectively breeding these animals for traits such as strength and docility.” • Fascinationg detail on archeological evidence. Well worth a read.

“How Typing Transformed Nietzsche’s Consciousness” [MIT Press]. “Amid all this hubbub of opinion and research into the man and his ideas, however, hardly anyone has commented on, or sought to explain, another aspect of Nietzsche: his productivity, and how it changed during his career because of his adoption of a new writing technology. Consider this: Nietzsche wrote four books between 1870 and 1881, or almost one every three years, which is pretty good. After 1881, however, he managed to deliver 10 manuscripts to his publisher in the seven years to 1888, whereupon he became too ill to write any longer. That was a book and a half per year, which is really good. By 1881 Nietzsche had become almost blind, an infirmity that would surely have hampered his longhand writing. How did he manage to improve his work rate? What he did was something seemingly out of character, given his views on modernity and science: He bought a typewriter. To be precise, he purchased a top-of-the-line portable Malling-Hansen writing ball, which was sent specially to him from its inventor in Copenhagen.” And: “The sudden mechanical punctuated strike of the typewriter contrasted starkly with the ruminative flow of the pen; the typewriter encouraged a binary decision, to depress the key or not; whereas the pen with its store of liquid ink, held by surface tension in the nib, or in a small reservoir in the fountain pen, was a more latent and nonmachinic technology….. The German philosopher of technology Friedrich Kittler has claimed that the analog typewriter in general was useful for certain forms of thought: the brief, the succinct, the forms that thrive on concision and quickness…. As Kittler saw it, a celebrated Nietzschean style comprising sustained reflection, long sentences, and complex reasoning had changed ‘from arguments to aphorisms, from thoughts to puns, from rhetoric to telegram style.’ Nietzsche was an early adopter of the technology. He took it to the heady realms of Continental philosophy and — if we consider his immense influence — began to change it through a creative mind that was reshaped by the keys that had replaced the pen.” • Also well worth a read. (In my own experience, the computer enabled me to finish the work, like the typewriter (and the pen before that).

* * *

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 AM:

AM writes: “The last of the fall colors in Roger Williams Park, near the tennis courts. Hope we get some rain soon!!”

* * *

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About Lambert Strether

Readers, I have had a correspondent characterize my views as realistic cynical. Let me briefly explain them. I believe in universal programs that provide concrete material benefits, especially to the working class. Medicare for All is the prime example, but tuition-free college and a Post Office Bank also fall under this heading. So do a Jobs Guarantee and a Debt Jubilee. Clearly, neither liberal Democrats nor conservative Republicans can deliver on such programs, because the two are different flavors of neoliberalism (“Because markets”). I don’t much care about the “ism” that delivers the benefits, although whichever one does have to put common humanity first, as opposed to markets. Could be a second FDR saving capitalism, democratic socialism leashing and collaring it, or communism razing it. I don’t much care, as long as the benefits are delivered.

To me, the key issue — and this is why Medicare for All is always first with me — is the tens of thousands of excess “deaths from despair,” as described by the Case-Deaton study, and other recent studies. That enormous body count makes Medicare for All, at the very least, a moral and strategic imperative. And that level of suffering and organic damage makes the concerns of identity politics — even the worthy fight to help the refugees Bush, Obama, and Clinton’s wars created — bright shiny objects by comparison. Hence my frustration with the news flow — currently in my view the swirling intersection of two, separate Shock Doctrine campaigns, one by the Administration, and the other by out-of-power liberals and their allies in the State and in the press — a news flow that constantly forces me to focus on matters that I regard as of secondary importance to the excess deaths. What kind of political economy is it that halts or even reverses the increases in life expectancy that civilized societies have achieved? I am also very hopeful that the continuing destruction of both party establishments will open the space for voices supporting programs similar to those I have listed; let’s call such voices “the left.” Volatility creates opportunity, especially if the Democrat establishment, which puts markets first and opposes all such programs, isn’t allowed to get back into the saddle. Eyes on the prize! I love the tactical level, and secretly love even the horse race, since I’ve been blogging about it daily for fourteen years, but everything I write has this perspective at the back of it.











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