2:00PM Water Cooler 11/1/2022 | bare capitalism

By Lambert Strether of Corrente

Chook Tune of the Day

Purple Siskin, location unrecorded. Name, tune. With crowing rooster, and I swear someone chopping wooden.

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

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

Capitol Seizure

“Do Violent Protests Have an effect on Expressions of Social gathering Id? Proof from the Capitol Rebel” [American Political Science Review]. “Utilizing day-level panel information from a big pattern of US social media customers to trace adjustments within the identities expressed of their Twitter biographies, we present that the Capitol rebellion brought about a large-scale lower in outward expressions of identification with the Republican Social gathering and Donald Trump, with no indication of reidentification within the weeks that adopted. This discovering means that there are limits to occasion loyalty: a violent assault on democratic establishments units boundaries on partisanship, even amongst avowed partisans. Moreover, the discovering that political violence can deflect copartisans carries the potential constructive democratic implication that those that encourage or affiliate themselves with such violence pay a political value.” • I’m undecided that numbers (inside cheap limits) matter right here a lot as “vitality” (for need of a greater phrase). See Benjamin Studebaker yesterday on resentment.

“Oath Keepers member: Capitol riot was historic, spontaneous” [The Hill]. “A Florida man who stormed the U.S. Capitol with different members of the far-right Oath Keepers testified Monday that he believed they had been collaborating in a historic “Bastille-type occasion” paying homage to the French Revolution. Graydon Younger, a authorities witness on the seditious conspiracy trial of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and 4 associates, stated he noticed parallels between the mob that attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and the French individuals who ‘stood up and resisted kings and tyrants’ greater than two centuries in the past…. Younger stated he got here to Washington to combat in opposition to ‘the corrupt parts of the federal government’ that had been making ready to certify President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory. ‘I assume I used to be performing like a traitor,’ he added…. Protection legal professional James Lee Shiny, certainly one of Rhodes’ attorneys, pressed Younger to level to any proof of a prison conspiracy or “specific plan” for Oath Keepers to assault the Capitol. ‘It was implicit to me on the time,’ Younger stated. ‘I didn’t explicitly say, ‘Let’s commit against the law,’ however I believed it was implicit.’ ‘It was spontaneous,’ Shiny stated. ‘It was,’ Younger stated.” • Hmm.

Abortion

“Supreme Court docket’s Alito says abortion draft leak made justices ‘targets’” [Reuters]. “In blunt phrases, Alito additionally commented on the person who was charged with tried homicide after being arrested close to the Maryland residence of conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh in June. Alito stated the leak of his draft opinion made the conservative justices who on the time had been thought to again overturning Roe v. Wade ‘targets for assassination as a result of it gave folks a rational motive to assume they may forestall that from occurring by killing certainly one of us.’” • They by no means did discover the leaker, did they? Should make for a collegial environment in chambers.

Biden Administration

“‘We’re not in opposition to income,’ White Home presidential coordinator says after Biden’s tax threats on vitality firms” [CNBC]. • Glad that’s clarified.

2022

* * *

“Poll paper scarcity may trigger issues onElection Day” [ABC]. “A paper provide crunch is testing the preparedness of U.S. election officers and exposing a key vulnerability in America’s democratic course of as midterm voting will get underway. The 2022 election cycle will use an estimated 30 million kilos of paper, in keeping with business consultants. Hovering demand and a scarcity of producers through the pandemic have pinched nationwide stockpiles, leaving little room for error. ‘We’re all simply collectively crossing our fingers and hoping that the provision chain works simply superb,’ stated Ricky Hatch, county clerk and election administrator for Weber County, Utah.” • “Our democracy” can’t even make sure that there are ballots? And talking of ballots–

Creepy certainly–

Alarm: Creepy letters going out to early voters in Tarrant County from native “Cease the Steal” activists. #txgov pic.twitter.com/k4L3XRntHZ

— Bud Kennedy / #ReadLocal (@BudKennedy) November 1, 2022

What subsequent? House visits? Armed residence visits?

* * *

“Management of the Senate is coming right down to this hidden dynamic” [Ron Brownstein, CNN]. “Management of the US Senate might be determined subsequent week in cross-pressured states the place most voters disapprove of President Joe Biden’s efficiency but in addition specific unfavorable views about their state’s Republican Senate nominee…. On this stormy sea, the largest lifeline nonetheless accessible for Democrats is the massive variety of voters in these battleground states who view the Republican Senate candidates as excessive, unqualified, or each. Latest public polls by CNN and different media organizations have discovered that extra voters maintain unfavorable than favorable views of nearly all of the GOP nominees in the important thing states – together with Blake Masters in Arizona, Herschel Walker in Georgia, Adam Laxalt in Nevada, Don Bolduc in New Hampshire, J.D. Vance in Ohio, Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania and Sen. Ron Johnson in Wisconsin. Detrimental assessments of the Democratic candidates in these states have been rising as effectively, as they face a barrage of Republican assault adverts, usually tying them to Biden. Even so, in most (although not all) circumstances, voters maintain a comparatively extra favorable view of the Democratic candidate than the Republican, polls present. The fulcrum within the marketing campaign’s closing days could also be whether or not the final remaining voters are moved extra by these private doubts concerning the GOP contenders or by their coverage objections to Biden’s efficiency at a time when polls present that almost all Individuals disapprove of how he has dealt with crime, the border, and above all of the economic system and inflation. The latest CNN polls in a number of key Senate races present that a big, and doubtlessly decisive, slice of voters each disapprove of Biden’s efficiency and consider the GOP nominee unfavorably: 9% in Wisconsin, 11% in Nevada, 13% in Pennsylvania and 15% in Arizona, in keeping with detailed outcomes supplied by the CNN polling unit. ‘The true query comes right down to that group of independents within the center, and who votes on the finish,’ says Paul Maslin, a long-time Democratic pollster. ‘Is it folks saying, ‘I hate inflation, crime is wrecking this massive metropolis I reside in,’ or folks saying, ‘I’m sorry however Herschel Walker is a clown, Mehmet Oz is a clown. … Blake Masters is a joke,’ they usually return to [the Democrats]? I don’t know. I truthfully don’t know.’” • So no one is aware of something….

* * *

NY: “How Dangerous Is It for New York Democrats?” [Ross Barkan, Political Currents]. “Past Zeldin [v. Hochul], there’s a Democrat-run state legislature that may, barring true disaster for the Democrats, keep of their management. What’s going to doubtless fall, nonetheless, are the supermajorities—the veto-proof margins within the State Senate and Meeting that, in principle, lent the legislature a large amount of leverage. Sufficient Republicans are poised to win to erase the Senate supermajority and take away, extra surprisingly, the massive margin Meeting Democrats have all the time loved.” • A superb, very on-the-ground piece.

NY: “Stefanik eyes management function as Castelli seeks upset as a reasonable” [Syracuse.com (bob)]. “U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik is on the precipice of turning into one of many nation’s strongest federal lawmakers. She first has to beat a problem for her seat by Matt Castelli, a former CIA intelligence officer and self-described reasonable Democrat. Then, Stefanik has to hope election predictions maintain true, which might imply that Republicans achieve management of the Home of Representatives within the Nov. 8 election.” • Lord, one other CIA Democrat. I’m so previous I keep in mind when that was a narrative. Now it’s, er, a norm.

2024

“Youngkin Vows Virginia Received’t Comply with The CDC’s ‘COVID Vaccine Mandate.’ However That Mandate Doesn’t Exist” [DCist]. “Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin introduced on Thursday that he desires to eradicate COVID-19 vaccine mandates. ‘COVID-19 mandates needs to be in our rear view mirror,’ the Republican governor tweeted. ‘The choice to vaccinate a toddler in opposition to COVID-19 is for Virginia dad and mom to make about what’s greatest for them and their household. We won’t adhere to those @CDCgov mandates. In Virginia, dad and mom matter.’ However the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention have by no means mandated any COVID-19 vaccines for adults or youngsters. Whereas the CDC’s advisory committee on vaccines did approve including COVID-19 vaccines to the beneficial schedule of immunizations for each youngsters and adults this week, that record is simply a advice for states.. The CDC recommends vaccines; state well being companies select whether or not to mandate them. On Friday, following the advisory committee’s vote, Speaker of the Virginia Home of Delegates Todd Gilbert issued an announcement clarifying the method for vaccine mandates in colleges, and indicating he wouldn’t transfer so as to add the COVID shot to Virginia’s record of obligatory vaccines. ‘Underneath state legislation, the one approach to create a mandate would both be by rule-making by the Board of Well being, which might not occur till 2024, or by an motion of the Common Meeting, which won’t occur whereas I’m Speaker,’ he wrote. The Virginia Division of Well being didn’t present solutions to questions on which public colleges require vaccines or the method by which an immunization is added to the record of these required for youngsters attending public colleges within the state by the point of publication.” • Nothing flawed with somewhat pink meat, although, proper?

“Democrats condemn Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin for Pelosi dig following husband’s assault” [USA Today]. “At a Virginia marketing campaign rally for GOP congressional candidate Yesli Vega, Youngkin alluded to the Friday residence invasion and subsequent assault, which left Paul Pelosi, 82, with a cranium fracture and critical accidents to his proper arm and palms. ‘There’s no room for violence anyplace, we’re going to ship her again to be with him in California,’ Youngkin stated on the occasion.” Democrat went nuts, as one does, however examine the agility of different Republicans: “Senate Minority Chief Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., stated he was ‘horrified and disgusted’ by experiences of the assault, whereas Home Republican Chief Kevin McCarthy reached out to Pelosi ‘to verify in on Paul and stated he’s praying for a full restoration and is grateful they caught the assailant,’ his workplace stated in an announcement.” • No assault floor there. Making an attempt to string pink meat by a needle at a marketing campaign rally. Awkward! (Trump in all probability would have gotten the gang booing Pelosi, after which damped them down. “Of us—…..”)

“Virginia’s Governor, a Rising Republican Star, Walks a High-quality Line” [New York Times]. “With the earnest pep of a youth pastor, Mr. Youngkin has touted his win as proof of his attraction to a broad voters, together with reasonable swing voters within the vote-rich suburbs of Washington and Richmond. However Mr. Holsworth and others problem that narrative. Suburban voters who historically assist Republicans turned away from the occasion through the Trump years, a number of analysts stated, then returned to their previous voting habits with Mr. Youngkin on the poll. However the suburbs remained Democratic turf — extra so, in lots of areas, than they had been earlier than the Trump years. Mr. Youngkin misplaced Loudoun County by double digits, regardless that it had change into a floor zero for parental outrage over the college district’s antiracism efforts. He made up for it by racking up big margins in Virginia’s small cities and rural areas, in some locations exceeding even Mr. Trump’s exhibiting…. Chesterfield was one of many few counties that Mr. Youngkin flipped after his Democratic predecessor, Ralph Northam, received it in 2017, and interviews with a dozen voters right here didn’t recommend that the county was turning in opposition to him. Few had robust emotions about Mr. Youngkin’s tenure in any respect.” •

“Pence: Submit-2020 election assembly with Trump, legal professionals ‘a brand new low’” [The Hill]. Pence has a guide popping out: “‘Loyalty is a Vice President’s first responsibility; however there’s a larger one—to God and the Structure,’ reads the outline of his guide, entitled ‘So Assist Me God.’ Pence writes within the guide that his relationship with Trump ‘broke down’ when the previous president ‘pressured’ Pence to overturn the 2020 election, in keeping with the outline. ‘The vice chairman refused to go away the Capitol, and as soon as the riot was quelled, he reconvened Congress to finish the work of a peaceable switch of energy,’ the writer provides, referring to the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol.”

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 should try this. –lambert

I’ve moved my standing remarks on the Democrat Social gathering (“the Democrat Social gathering 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 “reside” Water Cooler. (Hopefully, some Bourdieu.) It seems that defining the Democrat Social gathering is, actually, 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 Social gathering is the political expression of the category energy of PMC, their base (lucidly defined by Thomas Frank in Hear, Liberal!). ; if the Democrat Social gathering didn’t exist, the PMC must invent it. . (“PMC” modulo “class expatriates,” in fact.) Second, all of the working components of the Social gathering reinforce one another. Depart apart characterizing the relationships between parts of the Social gathering (ka-ching, however not solely) these parts 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, in fact, 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.

* * *

“Fog of disinformation spreads after Pelosi assault” [Politico]. “Fees filed yesterday in opposition to suspected assailant David DePape unearthed extra stunning particulars concerning the assault on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband — together with ones that disinformation swirling across the disturbing incident.” Oh? Right here is the prison grievance.

“Six new particulars from Monday’s affidavit on the Paul Pelosi assault” [The Hill]. “She famous that there was ‘no safety current’ on the residence and that DePape ‘was in a position to break the window to a glass door to achieve entry into the house.’”

Realignment and Legitimacy

“Reality Cops” [The Intercept]. This ran in Hyperlinks this morning, however I need to name your consideration to 1 phrase in a single paragraph: “Jen Easterly, Biden’s appointed director of CISA, swiftly made it clear that she would proceed to shift sources within the company to fight the unfold of harmful types of data on social media. ‘One may argue we’re within the enterprise of crucial infrastructure, and , so constructing that resilience to misinformation and disinformation, I feel, is extremely vital,” stated Easterly, talking at a convention in November 2021.” • If we take Easterly significantly — and why would we not — your crucial considering expertise, your thoughts, your coronary heart are “cognitive infracture,” like, say, {the electrical} grid. And like {the electrical} grid, cognitive infrastructure might be constructed out based mostly on ROI, specified and constructed in keeping with requirements, maintained, and above all inspected. There’s a phrase for this. I do know it’ll come to me. I feel it begins with an “F”…

“The American folks should know the way the battle in Ukraine will finish” [Joshua C. Huminski, The Hill]. From October 25, nonetheless germane. “Kyiv has been impressively managed and profitable in its management of the messaging of this data battle. The West, not less than publicly, has little or no perception into Kyiv’s goals and intentions, or certainly its losses or battlefield efficiency past that which is conveyed by way of social media and journalistic accounts. Even elevating questions associated to those crucial components is tantamount to heresy inside the current geopolitical and cultural setting — as if asking the questions themselves is akin to supporting Russia. It isn’t. It’s merely prudent interrogation of geopolitical realities which have important coverage implications.” • Huminsk is the director of the Mike Rogers Heart for Intelligence & International Affairs on the Heart for the Research of the Presidency & Congress, and a fellow at George Mason College’s Nationwide Safety Institute. In different phrases, a Republican can pose solely cheap questions {that a} Democrat can’t.

“America’s brittle consensus on Ukraine” [Financial Times]. “‘Diplomacy’ is a taboo phrase in American politics proper now. The velocity at which progressive Democrats this week disowned their name for Joe Biden to speak to Russia is testomony to that. Solely Ukraine can resolve when and the way this battle will finish, the lawmakers insisted. The group was clearly shell-shocked by the savagery of condemnation from their very own facet. But they had been responsible solely of talking out too quickly. Wars finish in certainly one of two methods: with the unconditional give up of 1 occasion or in a negotiated settlement. Because the world’s equal largest nuclear energy, Russia’s full capitulation is sort of unimaginable. Which means the west and Ukraine will finally have to barter an finish to this battle. That second has not arrived. However it’s in all probability nearer than most individuals assume. Two massive components will weigh on when Biden will attempt to carry this battle to an finish. The primary is Republicans’ possible seize of 1 or each chambers of Congress in midterm elections in two weeks. Kevin McCarthy, the doubtless subsequent Speaker of the Home of Representatives, has warned that Republicans won’t present a “clean cheque” for Ukraine’s self-defence. Fifty-seven Home Republicans and 11 senators voted in opposition to the $40bn Ukraine assist package deal earlier this 12 months…. The second is that the US might be getting into a recession. Economists are nearly unanimous that America won’t escape that destiny in 2023. This may pose an acute risk to Biden’s — or to a different Democratic nominee’s — probabilities of defeating Donald Trump, or a Trump-like Republican, in 2024. Congressional Republicans might be working in tandem with the recession to darken Biden’s electoral clouds. Because the 2024 reckoning looms, Ukraine’s destiny will take a again seat to America’s.” • Because it ought to. Who’s writing the checks?

#COVID19

Bear in mind: The elite hate masks and don’t need you to put on them, no matter harms. And it’s onerous to consider a extra elite establishment than the Metropolitan Opera*:

In case that embed goes pear-shaped, right here’s a display screen shot:

UPDATE Alert reader Jeff W experiences that the Met took down their Instagram advert. Happily, some form soul preserved the video on the Twitter, and I actually advise you to observe it. However put down your espresso!

UPDATE And our New York readers may take into account giving the Met a name:

Commentary:

NOTE * This makes me unhappy, as a result of I listened to the Met’s Saturday matinee broadcasts as a toddler. All a part of rising up PMC, I suppose.

“CDC Director Walensky Has Covid Rebound After Paxlovid Remedy” [Bloomberg]. “Walensky contracted a gentle case of Covid earlier this month and examined damaging after taking Pfizer’s therapy. On Sunday, she started creating gentle signs [as they always are] and has once more examined constructive, the CDC stated Monday in an announcement. The infectious illness skilled [lol] is isolating at residence and can proceed to work nearly. Many sufferers, together with President Joe Biden and Anthony Fauci, have confronted a return of Covid signs after taking a full, five-day course of Pfizer’s drug. The phenomenon seems way more widespread than formally reported, and rebounding sufferers should still unfold the illness, medical doctors stated in a September New England Journal of Medication article.” • September? How about April? And there are questions:

One other large takedown of the droplet goons:

Will Upton Sinclair please decide up the closest white courtesy cellphone?

“The function of faculties in driving SARS-CoV-2 transmission: Not simply an open-and-shut case” [Cell Reports Medicine]. “Early within the pandemic, 4 findings led to the notion of restricted potential for in-school unfold of SARS-CoV-2: (1) perceived lowered susceptibility of youngsters to SARS-CoV-2 an infection, (2) obvious decrease infectiousness of youngsters, (3) lack of recognized transmission chains in colleges, and (4) related charges of an infection between colleges and communities. Nonetheless, there are important methodological limitations related to every of those early findings, and the continuing pandemic has instantly supplied proof that contradicts the preliminary findings. We element the constraints of the proof for these perceptions and supply robust proof that colleges will be an vital SARS-CoV-2 transmission supply (Desk 1).” • A takedown of, amongst others, yesterday’s Sociopath of the Day, Emily Oster, whose “work” targeted on colleges. And talking of Emily Oster, one of many first to leap on to the Twitter with reward for Oster’s “Let’s Declare a Pandemic Amnesty” was none aside from Nice Barrington Declaration psycho eugenicist Jay Bhattacharya. However oh effectively–

I don’t see plenty of aerosol scientists asking to be forgiven. Solely folks like Oster and Bhattacharya. Why would that be?

“U.S. staff have gotten means much less productive. Nobody is certain why.” [WaPo]. • ‘Tis a thriller!

All the pieces’s going in keeping with plan:

Clearly, we’re going to have to chop incapacity advantages.

“COVID-19 an infection damages intestine microbiome, research exhibits” [MSN]. n = 100. “A COVID an infection can scale back the variety of bacterial species within the intestine, creating a chance for harmful antibiotic-resistant micro organism to thrive, in keeping with a brand new research within the journal Nature Communications. ‘Our findings recommend that coronavirus an infection instantly interferes with the wholesome stability of microbes within the intestine, additional endangering sufferers within the course of,’ stated research co-senior writer Ken Cadwell, a microbiologist at NYU Grossman Faculty of Medication in New York Metropolis….. The research is the primary to indicate that COVID-19 alone damages the intestine microbiome, researchers stated. Prior to now, medical doctors had suspected that the usage of antibiotics to deal with COVID had been damaging intestine micro organism. Evaluation of practically 100 women and men hospitalized with COVID in 2020 discovered that almost all sufferers had low intestine microbiome range. In truth, full quarter had guts dominated by a single sort of micro organism, the researchers discovered.”

Transmission

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

Lambert right here: I’ve to say, I’m seeing increasingly yellow and extra blue, which continues to please. However is the pandemic “over”? Properly….

Positivity

NOT UPDATED From the Walgreen’s take a look at positivity tracker, October 26:

1.3%. Quicker enhance.

Lambert right here: Please, please, please Walgreens. Hold updating frequently!

Wastewater

Lambert right here: C’mon, CDC. In case you don’t maintain your website up and working, I can’t carry out my private danger evaluation.

SITE DOWN Wastewater information (CDC), October 23:

October 23:

Variants

Lambert right here: It’s past irritating how gradual the variant information is. Does no one 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 all people will get the outcomes from them? [grinds teeth, bangs head on desk]. UPDATE Sure. See NC right here on Pango. Each Friday, a stately, academid tempo completely incompatible with defending your self in opposition to a variant exhibiting doubling habits.

Variant information, nationwide (Walgreens), October 19:

Lambert right here: BQ.1*, out of nowhere. So superior.

Variant information, nationwide (CDC), October 8 (Nowcast off):

Lambert right here: A lot of the screenshots of CDC variants working round crop out whether or not Nowcast (CDC’s mannequin) is on or off; see pink field at high. The BQ1.* determine of 27% that’s working round is CDC’s Nowcast projection, three weeks out. (It’s telling that CDC would somewhat construct a mannequin than fund sooner acquisition of actual information.)

Deaths

Demise charge (Our World in Information):

Complete: 1,095,315 – 1,095,204 = 111 (111 * 365 = 40,515, which is at present’s LivingWith™ quantity (fairly a bit increased than the minimizers would love, although they’ll discuss themselves into something. If the LivingWith™ metric retains chugging alongside like this, I may need to resolve that is what the powers-that-be take into account “mission achieved” for this specific tranche of loss of life and illness.

It’s good that for deaths I’ve a easy, each day chart that simply retains chugging alongside, not like every part else CDC and the White Home are screwing up or letting go darkish, good job.

Stats Watch

Manufacturing: “United States ISM Buying Managers Index (PMI)” [Trading Economics]. “The ISM Manufacturing PMI fell to 50.2 in October of 2022 from 50.9 in September, pointing to the slowest development in manufacturing unit exercise for the reason that contraction in mid-2020. Nonetheless, figures got here barely increased than market forecasts of fifty.” • Powell retains making an attempt to strangle the economic system and it retains not working. Not saying issues are nice, however they’re clearly extra nice than Powell would want them to be.

Logistics: “United States LMI Logistics Managers Index Present” [Trading Economics]. “The Logistics Supervisor’s Index within the US retreated to 57.5 in October of 2022 from 61.4 in September, pointing to the slowest development within the logistics sector since Could of 2020. Transportation metrics proceed to be a drag, whereas inventories stay excessive, warehouses stay full, they usually each stay costly. Whereas there may be some proof that corporations are lastly winding down their inventories, the prices related to holding them stay excessive, and there’s nonetheless a scarcity of obtainable warehousing capability.”

At the moment’s Concern & Greed Index: 58 Greed (earlier shut: 58 Greed) [CNN]. One week in the past: 52 (Impartial). (0 is Excessive Concern; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Nov 1 at 1:51 PM EDT. I need to admit I don’t perceive Mr. Market in any respect. OTOH, it’s now November, and we haven’t had a Crash.

Groves of Academe

“Founders,” a phrase from YCombinator, I imagine:

I’m wondering if anyone was ever completed a research of how YCombinator’s startup tradition netted our for society as an entire. Was all of it rent-seeking and dopamine loops? Or had been helpful social capabilities carried out? To not be cynical…

Guillotine Watch

“The 20 Richest Tech Billionaires Have Misplaced Almost Half a Trillion {Dollars} This Yr” [Wall Street Journal]. That’s a rattling disgrace. However too small to be even a superb begin. “The paper losses for lots of the world’s greatest tech moguls come after the collective wealth of billionaires grew extra through the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic than between 1987 and 2010, the antipoverty group Oxfam Worldwide reported earlier this 12 months. Within the early months of the pandemic, Oxfam reported, a brand new billionaire was created each 30 hours.” • So, I assume the optimum means ahead is one other pandemic? Mars, b*tches!

Class Warfare

“Money-Wealthy Shoppers May Imply Greater Curiosity Charges for Longer” [Wall Street Journal]. “Washington’s response to the pandemic left family and enterprise funds in unusually robust form, with increased financial savings buffers and decrease curiosity bills. It may additionally make the Federal Reserve’s job of taming excessive inflation tougher.” • Simply to be clear, our Central [genuflects] financial institution desires to beat down your wages and take cash out of your pocket. This will get somewhat crude.

“Tons of Of Resident Medical doctors Unionizing At Ny’S Montefiore Medical Heart” [A More Perfect Union]. “MMC residents who labored by the preliminary years of the pandemic say one more reason for unionizing was the dearth of correct sources for care for his or her sufferers. Relatively than offering fundamental PPE, the hospital as an alternative gave resident medical doctors rubbish luggage and Yankees rain ponchos and instructed them to make due.”

Information of the Wired

“The Ventura drawback” [Raspberry Pi]. Ventura is the newest MacOS launch. “In case you plug a Raspberry Pi Pico, or different RP2040-based board, right into a Mac working Ventura, the RPI-RP2 “digital” quantity might be mounted as regular. Sadly, should you then attempt to drag-and-drop a UF2 file onto the amount, the method doesn’t full, throwing a kPOSIXErrorENOATTR (“Attribute not discovered”) error.” • In case you perceive what meaning, you additionally perceive it’s dangerous. C’mon, Apple. Kicking Raspberry Pi is like kicking a pet (to not point out that Raspberry Pi is much more Jackpot-ready than any Apple machine is).

Contact data for crops: Readers, be happy to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) learn the way to ship me a verify in case you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to learn the way to ship me photographs of crops. Greens are superb! Fungi and coral are deemed to be honorary crops! If you need your deal with to seem as a credit score, please place it initially of your mail in parentheses: (thus). In any other case, I’ll anonymize through the use of your initials. See the earlier Water Cooler (with plant) right here. From Gmail:

Gmail writes: “A bountiful tomato plant that I’ll miss because the chilly air arrives. Some pumpkin, zucchini, leek, and candy potato crops within the background as effectively.”

Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not coated by the annual NC fundraiser. So should you see a hyperlink you particularly like, or an merchandise you wouldn’t see anyplace else, please don’t hesitate to specific your appreciation in tangible type. Bear in mind, a tip jar is for tipping! Common constructive 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 screen that may seem, which I’ve helpfully annotated:

In case you hate PayPal, you possibly can e-mail me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, and I gives you instructions on the way to ship a verify. Thanks!