2:00PM Water Cooler 3/14/2023 | bare capitalism

By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Chicken Track of the Day

Jap Bluebird, Sharpsburg, Washington, Maryland, United States. “Male Jap Bluebird singing at daybreak.”

Politics

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

Capitol Seizure

“Pence says Trump ‘endangered my household’ on Jan. 6” [USA Today]. “‘President Trump was improper,’ Pence stated throughout remarks on the annual white-tie Gridiron Dinner attended by politicians and journalists. ‘I had no proper to overturn the election. And his reckless phrases endangered my household and everybody on the Capitol that day, and I do know historical past will maintain Donald Trump accountable.’”

Abortion

“Virginia choose makes use of slavery-era regulation to argue human embryos may be thought-about property” [FOX]. “A Virginia choose decided that frozen human embryos are legally thought-about property, utilizing a nineteenth century regulation relating to the therapy of slaves because the authorized reasoning for his resolution…. The regulation on the coronary heart of the case governs the right way to divide ‘items and chattels.’ The choose dominated that as a result of embryos couldn’t be purchased or bought, they couldn’t be thought-about as such and subsequently Honeyhline had no recourse beneath that regulation to say custody of them. However after the ex-wife’s lawyer, Adam Kronfeld, requested the choose to rethink, Gardiner carried out a deep dive into the historical past of the regulation. He discovered that earlier than the Civil Conflict, it additionally utilized to slaves. The choose then researched previous rulings that ruled custody disputes involving slaves, and stated he discovered parallels that compelled him to rethink whether or not the regulation ought to apply to embryos.”

Biden Administration

“Playbook: Biden’s crude transfer to the middle” [Politico]. “We didn’t detect a lot of a basic triangulation technique in Biden’s State of the Union speech — the junk charges riff was an exception — however since then he has made a sequence of high-profile strikes which can be disappointing progressives and making a ‘Biden-moves-to-the-center’ narrative…. Deficit discount…. Crime…. Immigration. For 2-plus years, Biden has completed a better-than-expected job preserving progressives and moderates collectively. He appears awfully unlikely to attract a major challenger from the left, particularly given the truth that essentially the most influential progressive, Sen. BERNIE SANDERS (I-Vt.), is already backing Biden. And the DNC’s just lately adopted major schedule gives further insurance coverage by making South Carolina, the place moderates have a bonus, the primary major state…. Alternatively, Biden’s present political state of affairs clearly creates extra incentives to tack to the middle. He now has a Republican Home that’s cooking up a sequence of votes, just like the crime-law repeal, to power Biden into troublesome decisions, and the simmering finances struggle additionally provides him an incentive to emphasise spending restraint. With no major opponent in sight, Biden can be extremely motivated to see all massive coverage selections by way of how they may have an effect on the overall election, the place average suburban voters, lots of whom solely just lately fled the MAGA-fied Republican Celebration, will as soon as once more be the essential swing vote.”

“The bizarre alliance between Matt Gaetz and the Congressional Progressive Caucus (it’s a superb factor)” [Ryan Grim, Bad News]. “[T]he bipartisanship was actual. Ilhan Omar, in actual fact, labored immediately with Gaetz to get him to repair what was a large number of an authentic decision. His first model gave simply 15 days to evacuate Syria, which is as absurd because it sounds, and Omar warned him he’d lose each Democratic vote and most Republicans if we went with that. He agreed to bump it as much as six months. So Omar, regardless of being outrageously kicked off the International Affairs Committee by Republicans, continues to be enjoying a critical function in international coverage.”

2024

“Marianne Williamson” [Council on Foreign Relations]. A round-up of Williamson’s views on international coverage. This caught my eye: “She would create a cabinet-level division of peace to counterbalance the Division of Protection. It will concentrate on stopping battle, changing army help with peace-building applications, and growing humanitarian help.” • CFR’s hyperlink is damaged, nevertheless.

“The Tragic Conundrum Of Ukraine” [Marianne Williamson, Transform]. “For these of us who’ve spent years opposing the affect of the army industrial advanced on U.S. international coverage, the state of affairs poses a peculiar problem. It’s attainable to imagine that the undue affect of the U.S. warfare machine – aided in Washington by “the Blob” of international coverage consultants – could be very actual, and on the similar time imagine the Russian invasion of Ukraine is a felony enterprise that can not be tolerated by the world. The US has perpetrated its personal egregious imperialistic ventures, a truth which shouldn’t be ignored by anybody. It’s not an overstatement to say that tens of millions of individuals all over the world – together with hundreds of U.S. army – have died because of our personal misadventures. However that doesn’t, and shouldn’t, give Vladimir Putin a go on perpetrating an imperialistic warfare of his personal…. Ought to Ukraine be given a clean examine by the USA? No, it shouldn’t. However ought to it’s given additional assist to push again an aggressor who would finish its sovereign proper to exist? I imagine it ought to.”

“Marianne Williamson’s ‘This Week’ interview: Full transcript about her 2024 marketing campaign” (transcript) [ABC]. ” I assist the President’s primary coverage right here. If we had been to if we had been to withdraw army assist from Ukraine proper now, there can be no Ukraine. That isn’t acceptable to me…. [W]hile I don’t assist all the rhetoric of the president relating to — relating to this warfare, for essentially the most half, for essentially the most half, I assist that coverage.” • Both “hypercapitalism” is “a sociopathic financial system” or it isn’t.

“Democratic leaders need the celebration to cease its Kamala Harris pile-on forward of 2024” [CNN]. “Elizabeth Warren has known as twice to apologize. Over a month later, Kamala Harris hasn’t known as again. In a neighborhood Boston radio interview in late January, Warren was smitten by President Joe Biden working for reelection however, requested if Biden ought to maintain Harris as his working mate, she stated, ‘I actually need to defer to what makes Biden snug on his crew.’ … ‘Fairly insulting,’ is how one particular person near Harris described the sentiments of many within the vp’s workplace and in her wider orbit…. [T]he Warren second is infuriating many in Harris’s circle: To them, it’s the most recent in a protracted string of snubs to a vp whom they are saying has by no means gotten the respect or assist she deserves. Warren’s phrases sting much more, they are saying, as a result of they got here from a former rival who in 2020 hoped to be picked as Biden’s working mate as a substitute.” • I believe if Biden slipped a cog Warren would throw her snake within the ring in a heartbeat.

“Ron DeSantis Says Defending Ukraine Is Not a Key U.S. Curiosity” [New York Times]. “The venue Mr. DeSantis selected for his assertion on a serious international coverage query revealed virtually as a lot because the substance of the assertion itself. The assertion was broadcast on “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” on Fox Information. It was in response to a questionnaire that the host, Mr. Carlson, despatched final week to all main potential Republican presidential candidates, and is tantamount to an acknowledgment by Mr. DeSantis {that a} candidacy is within the offing…. ‘Whereas the U.S. has many very important nationwide pursuits — securing our borders, addressing the disaster of readiness with our army, reaching vitality safety and independence, and checking the financial, cultural and army energy of the Chinese language Communist Celebration — turning into additional entangled in a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia shouldn’t be certainly one of them,’ Mr. DeSantis stated in a press release that Mr. Carlson learn aloud on his present.”

“Silicon Valley Financial institution Collapse Turns into Marketing campaign Matter as GOP Warns Towards Bailout” [Wall Street Journal]. “Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is anticipated to enter the 2024 GOP nomination race later this 12 months, advised the financial institution’s collapse was associated to the establishment being distracted by range, fairness and inclusion targets. He usually argues such efforts go too far. ‘This financial institution, they’re so involved with DEI and politics and every kind of stuff, I believe that basically diverted from them specializing in their core mission,’ he stated Sunday on Fox Information.” • The DEI speaking level is purple meat for the bottom, however holy moley, is it dumb.

“Handicapping presidential major ‘insanity’” [The Hill]. Insanity as in “March Insanity,” not common madness. I gained’t undergo the brackets — attention-grabbing trope! — however right here’s the conclusion: “My Ultimate 4 can be Trump, DeSantis, Kemp and Sununu.”

2023

“Vallas’s faculty reform is previous, drained, and failed” [CPF Insider]. Vallas being one of many two remaining candidates within the Chicago mayoral race. “Vallas went all in on privatization in New Orleans, creating the primary all-charter public faculty district within the nation. The outcomes have been dramatic, and horrible…. Associates, given what we’ve seen in our district—scandals, disinvestment, and poor ROI—and what we learn about different districts the place Vallas has introduced his old-school fashion of choice-based reform to bear, we have to ask ourselves if that is actually what we wish, right here, now, for our metropolis and its beleaguered, tapped-dry, charter-school-scandal racked, already racially-stratified faculty district.”

Democrats en Déshabillé

Affected person readers, it appears that evidently individuals are truly studying the back-dated publish! However I’ve not up to date it, and there are numerous updates. So I must do this. –lambert

I’ve moved my standing remarks on the Democrat Celebration (“the Democrat Celebration is a rotting corpse that may’t bury itself”) to a separate, back-dated publish, to which I’ll periodically add materials, summarizing the addition right here in a “stay” Water Cooler. (Hopefully, some Bourdieu.) It seems that defining the Democrat Celebration is, in actual fact, a tough drawback. I do assume the paragraph that follows is on level all the best way again to 2016, if not earlier than:

The Democrat Celebration is the political expression of the category energy of PMC, their base (lucidly defined by Thomas Frank in Hear, Liberal!). ; if the Democrat Celebration didn’t exist, the PMC must invent it. . (“PMC” modulo “class expatriates,” after all.) Second, all of the working elements of the Celebration reinforce one another. Depart apart characterizing the relationships between parts of the Celebration (ka-ching, however not completely) these parts comprise a community — a Flex Internet? An iron octagon? — of funders, distributors, apparatchiks, electeds, NGOs, and miscellaneous mercenaries, with property within the press and the intelligence neighborhood.

Notice, after all, that the category energy of the PMC each expresses and is proscribed by different lessons; oligarchs and American gentry (see ‘industrial mannequin’ of Ferguson, Jorgensen, and Jie) and the working class spring to thoughts. Suck up, kick down.

* * *

“Barney Frank’s Signature Financial institution Compensation” [The Rational Walk]. “The disclosures reveal that Mr. Frank was granted a complete of 15,857 shares value $2.36 million on the date of the grants (together with dividend reinvestments). Via a sequence of gross sales, Mr. Frank acquired money of $1.56 million for 10,324 shares…. To be clear, there is no such thing as a indication that Mr. Frank or the Signature Financial institution board of administrators did something unlawful, and I’m not alleging that they did. I’m expressing the opinion that this complete association was extremely corrupt and totally shameful. It’s unlucky that we stay in a society the place disgrace is nearly completely absent.”

Realignment and Legitimacy

“How one medical faculty grew to become remarkably numerous — with out contemplating race in admissions” [STAT]. “[O]ne faculty in California — the state with the nation’s longest-standing ban on utilizing race in admissions — has defied the chances. The College of California, Davis runs the nation’s most numerous medical faculty after Howard, a traditionally Black college, and Florida Worldwide, a Hispanic-serving analysis college. What Davis, and its remarkably numerous class of 2026 demonstrates, is another future for a post-affirmative motion world, one the place range could be achieved regardless of the various obstacles that stand in the best way. The coed physique has gone from predominantly white and male within the years earlier than California adopted its affirmative motion ban in 1996 to at least one wherein almost half the present class comes from Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous populations — individuals who have been traditionally underrepresented in medication, and typically mistreated by its practitioners… He began by diversifying the admissions committee and employees. ‘The rationale issues keep the identical is as a result of everybody concerned is the standard suspects,’ he stated. As a result of Davis had to make use of a race-neutral method to admissions, Henderson centered on economics. ‘,” he stated. “ — that’s how we skirted the problem.’ Candidates got excessive marks if they’d a ‘socioeconomic drawback rating,’ shifting admissions standards away, he stated, from MCAT scores and GPAs to traits like grit, resilience, and perseverance.” • This isn’t skirting the problem in any respect! Class is the problem, and the article confirmed that race-based insurance policies didn’t work!

“What do race and ethnicity imply? The US authorities is asking” [Associated Press]. • The constant metaphor: Bins to examine.

“Fairfax County Removes Take a look at Query Equating Political Ideologies With Race, Gender” [Associated Press].

The query appeared on a check given to college students of an AP Authorities class at Fairfax County Public Faculties’ On-line Campus.

The multiple-choice query requested college students, “Which of the next is an correct comparability of liberals versus conservatives?”

The potential solutions for “liberals” included “Younger, white males;” “Center aged, city lesbian;” “Faculty-educated black male skilled” and “White, upper-middle class suburban male.”

The potential solutions for “conservatives” included “East Coast, Ivy League educated scientists;” “Southern male migrant laborer;” “Catholic, midwestern middle-aged male” and “West coast, Hispanic trainer.”

Gad.

“Why So Many Elites Really feel Like Losers” [Freddie deBoer, Persuasion]. “Why does there look like such immense dissatisfaction, borne of unfulfilled inventive ambitions, at exactly the historic second the place creating and discovering an viewers have by no means been simpler or extra accessible? The primary, apparent reply is that individuals don’t need merely to create, however to make a dwelling creating, to create as a career. And that is vastly tougher to realize. Making a dwelling on Etsy is notoriously troublesome, with about 90% of Etsy shops incomes lower than $400 a month. Estimates for payouts for a thousand views on YouTube are round $18 {dollars}; lower than 12% of movies even attain that threshold. 90% of Twitch’s customers stream to 6 common viewers or much less, and 1 / 4 of even the highest 10,000 highest-paid accounts make lower than minimal wage. The common OnlyFans account earns simply $150 a month. It’s estimated that 99% of podcasts make no revenue. 98.6% of Spotify artists make a median of simply $36 1 / 4. On Patreon, a platform that creators of every kind use to monetize their work, lower than 2% of customers make even the federal month-to-month minimal wage. I’ve no numbers for Substack, however we will ensure that it’s the same pattern. That’s as a result of the creator financial system follows an influence regulation distribution; the overwhelming majority of individuals in it get tiny quantities of cash and a spotlight, whereas a small sliver of customers are handsomely rewarded with each. Any particular person creator may change into one of many winners. However . The rising variety of people who find themselves hungry to get wealthy within the creator financial system—who imagine themselves to be deserving of success by dint of their training and onerous work—coupled with the notice that the majority of them will fail is an instance of elite overproduction. We now have a creative class which is predominantly made up of people that take pleasure in not one of the monetary rewards afforded to artists. The second massive drawback, moreover cash, is a bit more ephemeral—consideration, exclusivity, acclaim. That is, after all, intimately tied to cash, however it’s a distinct scarce good that creators pursue. The will to be celebrated for one’s inventive output shouldn’t be one thing that I want to clarify to you right here. What’s slightly subtler is the sense of cool that comes with holding down the designation of being an artist or creator. . The issue now could be that, in case you say ‘I make motion pictures,’ the particular person you’re speaking to will normally hear the unstated half, ‘similar to everybody else.’”

#COVID19

“I’m in earnest — I can’t equivocate — I can’t excuse — I can’t retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD.” –William Lloyd Garrison

Sources, United States (Nationwide): Transmission (CDC); Wastewater (CDC, Biobot; contains many counties); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker” (in IA, however nationwide knowledge).

• Readers, thanks for the push. We are actually as much as 38/50 states (76%). May these of you in states not listed assist out by both with dashboard/wastewater hyperlinks, or ruling your state out definitively? Thanks! (I believe I’ve caught up with everyone I missed.)

Sources, United States (Native): AK (dashboard); AL (dashboard); AR (dashboard); AZ (dashboard); CA (dashboard), Marin; CO (dashboard; wastewater); CT (dashboard); DE (dashboard); IL (wastewater); IN (dashboard); LA (dashboard); MA (wastewater); MD (dashboard); ME (dashboard); MI (wastewater; wastewater); MN (dashboard); MT (dashboard); NC (dashboard); NH (wastewater); NJ (dashboard); NM (dashboard); 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).

Sources, Canada (Nationwide): Wastewater (Authorities of Canada).

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

Hat tricks to useful readers: Art_DogCT, B24S, CanCyn, ChiGal, Chuck L, Festoonic, FM, Gumbo, hop2it, JB, JEHR, JF, Joe, John, JM (6), JW, LL, Michael King, KF, LaRuse, mrsyk, MT, otisyves, Petal (5), RK (2), RL, RM, Rod, sq. coats (4), tennesseewaltzer, Utah, Bob White (3). (Readers, in case you go away your hyperlink in feedback, I credit score you by your deal with. When you ship it to me by way of e-mail, I take advantage of your initials (within the absence of a deal with. I’m not placing your deal with subsequent to your contribution as a result of I hope and count on the record will likely be lengthy, and I would like it to be straightforward for readers to scan.)

• Extra like this, please! Whole: 1 6 11 18 20 22 26 27 28 38/50 (76% of US states). We must always record states that shouldn’t have Covid assets, or have stopped updating their websites, so others don’t look fruitlessly. Thanks!

Search for the Helpers

“Introducing: The Covid Underground” [Covid Underground]. The deck: “Welcome to The Covid Underground, a publication for the Covid-free motion and all of those that proceed to keep away from an infection.” Extra: “True well being is the flexibility to vary. About 10-30% of the U.S. inhabitants has modified their lives within the mild of the liberating revelations of 2020, and we maintain altering. We’re dynamically, creatively trustworthy to what was— briefly— plain to all: regular is a harmful phantasm.” • Value a learn.

* * *

Discovering like-minded individuals on (sorry) Fb:

Thought I might add this right here in case anybody is . Locations to seek out individuals who “Nonetheless Covid” in your space & on-line: https://t.co/T4ND4XbrpF & https://t.co/sP5wq4fAw5 You may as well search on FB “Nonetheless Coviding ____” & see if there is a particular group in your space.

— Adriel Rose (@adriel_rose) March 1, 2023

“Covid Meetups” [COVID MEETUPS (JM)]. “A free service to seek out people, households and native companies/providers who take COVID precautions in your space.” • I performed round with it some. It appears to be Fb-driven, sadly, however you need to use the Listing with out logging in. I get rational hits from the U.S., however not from London, UK, FWIW.

Covid Is Airborne

“Intro to CO2 Monitoring” [Joey Fox, It’s Airborne]. “ASHRAE’s place is that ‘all else being equal, increased CO2 concentrations correspond to decrease outside air air flow charges and the potential for an elevated threat of airborne transmission’ whereas acknowledging lots of the limitations acknowledged right here. Subsequently, the most effective use of CO2 monitoring is to make sure that air flow is functioning correctly, as air flow is the primary technique used to make sure sufficient air high quality. Monitoring CO2 ranges could be a useful instrument in an total technique to make sure a wholesome indoor atmosphere.”

Maskstravaganza

Yikes:

I simply wanna stay my immunocompromised life in peace however these individuals spreading concern about individuals like me are gonna make it so it’s not protected for us to exist in additional methods than one https://t.co/h3H8cY6mW5

— e (@_bahhumbug) March 12, 2023

“Some will change into violent.” No one inform Eric Adams1

“‘You Don’t See the Solar’: What We Heard This Week” [MedPage Today (Carla)]. “”The San Francisco well being order is a ray of acceptable habits in a grey wilderness.” — Jeoff B. Gordon, MD, MPH, a retired household physician in Santa Cruz, on San Francisco’s orders that well being employees should proceed to put on face masks.”

“College of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics drops masks requirement” [The Gazette]. “The Gazette requested UIHC whether or not there was a selected an infection fee or COVID metric they used when deciding when to cease requiring masks, however the hospital employees didn’t present that data by Friday afternoon.” • Superb that the primary entrance for masking ought to be well being care services, however then once more not so superb; Hospital An infection Management has all the time “tenaciously resisted” masking, they usually have a disportionate affect over coverage (along with performing very badly as a area, as one would count on).

Hospital-Acquired An infection (HAI) ought to be redefined:

Healthcare Related An infection (HAI)
“Infections that happen in any healthcare setting, or because of medical care, or therapy.”

Mounted it 😊

— Barry Hunt – #DavosSafe (@BarryHunt008) March 13, 2023

I have to examine CDC steering on this. Nevertheless, if the account is right, HAI as outlined immediately excludes airborne an infection a priori. This could have been unhealthy in Florence Nightingale’s day — she insisted on air flow — but it surely’s even worse immediately.

“Why isn’t the CDC warning mother and father that masking their children creates unacceptably excessive ranges of CO2?” [Environmental Research Journal]. From September 2022, however appears to have crawled out of the muck solely just lately. Here’s a thorough debunking:

The difficulty is that this instrument takes as much as 3 seconds to measure CO2.

3 seconds is okay for measuring CO2 in your attic however shouldn’t be going to chop it if you’re respiration out and in each few seconds.

6/ pic.twitter.com/hnblC86Jfw

— Nick Mark MD (@nickmmark) March 12, 2023

And far else. Cochrane imploded, this…. factor; anti-maskers are having a tough time on the science entrance.

Remedy

“Propylene glycol inactivates respiratory viruses and prevents airborne transmission” (preprint) [bioRxiv]. Mouse research. From the Summary: “We discovered that the ever-present, protected, cheap and biodegradable small molecule propylene glycol (PG) has strong virucidal exercise. Propylene glycol quickly inactivates influenza, SARS-CoV-2 and a broad vary of different enveloped viruses, and reduces illness burden in mice when administered intranasally at concentrations generally present in nasal sprays. Most critically, aerosolized PG effectively abolishes influenza and SARS-CoV-2 infectivity inside airborne droplets, potently stopping an infection at ranges considerably beneath these well-tolerated by mammals. We current PG vapor as a first-in-class non-toxic airborne virucide, to forestall transmission of current and emergent viral pathogens, with clear and speedy implications for public well being.” And: “Propylene glycol (PG, propan-1,2-diol) is an artificial liquid compound, whose amphiphilic properties are : foods and drinks, cosmetics and prescribed drugs, together with oral, topical, intravenous and nebulised drug supply.” So the question: What if nasal sprays work bc of an INACTIVE ingredient?”

Elite Malfeasance

As the information slowly fades away:

With the Johns Hopkins tracker shuttered, google’s search outcomes web page re: Covid knowledge now not exhibits case/dying/hospitalization graphs.

— Swaggering Towards Bethlehem (@SwagBethlehem) March 14, 2023

IIRC, Johns Hopkins had helpful charts:

Apparently, Google didn’t lower a cope with Worldometer or WHO for an information feed.

* * *

I blame the propaganda, however I don’t assume anyone imagined how wildly profitable it might be:

Aforementioned faculties district video ‘long run well being impacts of COVID in kids’. Scroll right down to backside of web page:https://t.co/OELl1oJLi0

— Valerie Jay (@ValerieJay16) March 13, 2023

“Awkward silence” about defending their very own kids.

A second instance:

When the EMT obtained there, the affected person had a coronary heart fee within the 120s. He had spent the day in mattress. He was #COVID constructive. We despatched him straight to the emergency room.
He was admitted to ICU and handed away 72 hours later.

— Lara Jirmanus, MD, MPH (@lzj961) March 13, 2023

‘

“She didn’t assume that was it.” Why?

A 3rd instance:

“Oh yeah you higher maintain that on” stated the hair cutter. She then proceeded to chop my hair. Your entire time she talked about how irritating it was that individuals got here in to get their hair lower whereas sick and didn’t take into consideration in the event that they’d get her sick. Possibly she was making an attempt …(2/3)

— lucas 🎺 (@theLUCASTDS) March 12, 2023

Appears like “leveling off to a excessive plateau” throughout the board. (I nonetheless assume “One thing Terrible” is coming, nevertheless. I imply, moreover what we already learn about.) Keep protected on the market!

Case Knowledge

BioBot wastewater knowledge from March 13:

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

Covid Emergency Room Visits

NOT UPDATED From CDC NCIRD Surveillance, from March 4:

NOTE “Charts and knowledge offered by CDC, updates Wednesday by 8am. For the previous 12 months, utilizing a rolling 52-week interval.” So not your complete pandemic, FFS (the implicit message right here being that Covid is “similar to the flu,” which is why the seasonal “rolling 52-week interval” is suitable for each_{MR SUBLIMINAL I hate these individuals a lot}. Anyhow, I added a gray “Fauci line” simply to indicate that Covid wasn’t “over” once they began saying it was, and it’s not over now.

Positivity

From the Walgreen’s check positivity tracker, printed March 14:

-2.0%. Nonetheless excessive, however eventually a definite downturn.

Deaths

Dying fee (Our World in Knowledge):

Whole: 1,148,993 – 1,148,391 = 602 (602 * 365 = 219,730 deaths per 12 months, immediately’s YouGenicist™ quantity for “dwelling with” Covid (fairly a bit increased than the minimizers would love, although they’ll discuss themselves into something. If the YouGenicist™ metric retains chugging alongside like this, I could need to determine that is what the powers-that-be contemplate “mission achieved” for this specific tranche of dying and illness).

★ NEW ★ Extra Deaths

Extra deaths (The Economist), printed Marh 7:

Lambert right here: Primarily based on a machine-learnning mannequin. Once more, we see a excessive plateau. I”m undecided how usually this updates, and if it doesn’t, I’ll take away it. (The CDC has an extra estimate too, however because it ran ceaselessly with an enormous typo within the Legend, I figured no one was actually taking a look at it, so I obtained rid it.

Stats Watch

Inflation: “United States Inflation Charge” [Trading Economics]. “The annual inflation fee within the US slowed to six% in February of 2023, the bottom since September of 2021, in step with market forecasts, and in comparison with 6.4% in January.”

CPI: “United States Client Worth Index (CPI)” [Trading Economics]. “The buyer value index in the USA rose by 6.0 % year-on-year to 300.84 factors in February 2023, broadly in step with market consensus of 300.86 factors. The annual inflation fee slowed for an eighth consecutive month, suggesting inflationary strain on the earth’s largest financial cooled following the US Federal Reserve’s tightening marketing campaign over the previous 12 months.”

Small Enterprise Optimism: “United States Nfib Enterprise Optimism Index” [Trading Economics]. “The NFIB Small Enterprise Optimism Index in the USA elevated to 90.9 in February of 2023, the very best in three months, from 90.3 in January. About 38% of householders reported elevating common promoting costs, down 4 factors from January. Nonetheless, corporations proceed to expertise difficulties discovering employees.”

The Bezzle: “Meta to wind down NFTs on platforms amid crypto bust” [Channel News Asia]. • That’s a rattling disgrace.

The Bezzle:

At the very least I hope it’s a bezzle.

Tech: “PayPal leans on Venmo for development” [Payments Dive]. “PayPal is relying on its peer-to-peer instrument Venmo to drive extra use of the corporate’s digital funds providers, with the 2 operations anticipated to converge in a couple of 12 months.” • Hmm. Possibly this accounts for PayPal’s persistent efforts to get me into their app (together with a darkish sample on the login web page). No thanks.

As we speak’s Worry & Greed Index: 24 Excessive Worry (earlier shut: 19 Excessive Worry) [CNN]. One week in the past: 46 (Impartial). (0 is Excessive Worry; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Mar 14 at 1:45 PM ET.

Rapture Index: Closes down one on Anti-Semitism. “The dearth of exercise has downgraded this class” [Rapture Ready]. Document Excessive, October 10, 2016: 189. Present: 187. (Do not forget that bringing on the Rapture is good.) NOTE on #42 Plagues: “The coronavirus pandemic has maxed out this class.” Extra sincere than most!

Humanity’s Finest Pal

Canine individuals, don’t say I by no means did something for you!

The Gallery

Cheerful:

By some means there appear to be extra curves on this portray than there truly are.

Sport of Thrones territory:

The Screening Room

“The Final Of Us Present Tries To Change What The Sport Informed Us About Joel” [Kotaku]. I can’t disentangle the spoilers, so I’m not going to cite something. However I used to be fairly taken with the HBO model of The Final of Us. Have any readers performed the sport?

“Alien Worlds – Macro Images of Fungi and Slime Molds” [Kottke.org]. • Submitting this right here subsequent to the above, for apparent causes.

Groves of Academe

“Greater training is shockingly right-wing” [Steve Waldman, Interfluidity]. “Maybe the stupidest thought that everybody takes as a right is that increased training in the USA is left-wing…. No matter else faculties and universities do in the USA, they outline and police our most consequential social hierarchy, the dividing line between a affluent if precarious skilled class and a bigger, usually immiserated, working class. The credentials universities present are not any assure of escape from paycheck-to-paycheck dwelling, however statistically they’re a close to prerequisite. The academy itself is extremely hierarchical. Inside a college, distinctions reign between a graduate scholar or postdoc, an adjunct, an assistant professor on tenure monitor, an affiliate versus full professor. These ranks are salient and consequential, handled as reputable and earnestly policed. Nothing is spared hierarchy in academia. Establishments are organized into pecking orders. Harvard College and Towson College aren’t the identical. Everybody understands their relative rank, the social penalties of that are very actual. In case you are an instructional at a degree past neighborhood faculty or adjunct professorship, you’ve gotten devoted your life to swimming upstream, besting opponents who will relegated to decrease ranks or just expectorated from educational life. It’s a key a part of your job to rank and type different individuals, whether or not they be the undergrads that you just grade or the college your division hires. You try to have your work printed in “top-tier” journals. To be an instructional and be left-wing is like being a fish against water. It’s not persuasive. Or it ought to not be. In fact it’s true that the overwhelming majority of professors “determine” as progressive or liberal or left. That’s comprehensible!” • Appears like Waldman’s been studying Bourdieu.

Sure, that’s the purpose:

Class Warfare

The West’s coverage of mass an infection with out mitigation and the workforce:

I believe the elites know this, and have determined they’ll take the hit. Additionally, AI + robots (each bezzles, however that doesn’t imply elites don’t imagine in them).

Information of the Wired

“You don’t have to pursue happiness in case you’ve already caught it” [Mexico News Daily]. “[G]arbage employees in Mexico… are typically fearless. They don’t normally put on gloves or any sort of protecting clothes. No masks. Their clothes tendencies towards the filthy aspect. They normally cling to the aspect of a truck because it barrels alongside…. Clearly, a really powerful job undertaken by some very powerful individuals… On this specific day, as I’m sitting within the micro and the rubbish truck passes us, I discover three individuals sitting within the very again. As in, the very again the place the rubbish is stuffed. The truck is full. Of rubbish. And so they’re sitting proper on the fringe of the pile, in all probability on prime of a few of it…. They had been two males and a boy: an older man in his late 50s, one other man seeking to be in his late 30s and a child round 10. So, yeah, I determine it might’ve been three generations. I wish to assume that it was…. What actually caught my consideration was the child, who was speaking animatedly. He should have been telling humorous tales as a result of the opposite two males had been laughing. Laborious. That is whereas they’re all sitting on the fringe of a pile of trash at the back of a rubbish truck which, I’m sure, smelled terrible…. Speaking and laughing like they hadn’t a care on the earth. Simply having a grand previous time. And it was unimaginable to see them and never query simply what within the hell the remainder of us are doing, particularly us People who’re continuously pursuing happiness. I had the sensation that these three guys, sitting there at the back of that rubbish truck, they weren’t pursuing happiness. By some means, and I actually want I knew how, they’d caught that son-of-a-bitch.” • On the one hand, a heart-warming story. On the opposite, everyone hates a vacationer.

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