2:00PM Water Cooler 11/8/2024 | naked capitalism

By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Chook Music of the Day

Northern Mockingbird, 350 South Madison Avenue, Pasadena, Los Angeles, California, United States.

In Case You May Miss…

1. Trump vs. “the Deep State.”
2. Boeing, post-strike.
3. Mushroom farms and air flow.
4. Weeds changing into immune to herbicides.

Politics

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

Biden Administration

“We did it, Joe”:

Biden oversaw the one largest elimination of social advantages in American historical past, which resulted within the single largest improve in poverty in American historical past. He referred to as this “Bidenomics.”

Then Kamala mentioned she’d do nothing in a different way whereas campaigning in a $62,000 gold necklace. pic.twitter.com/uhEzzH5SGG

— Holding Dems Accountable (From the Left!) (@PushBidenLeft) November 8, 2024

Trump Transition:

“Power within the govt:”

I ran this in Hyperlinks this morning, however wish to make a couple of further feedback:

#10 “Push a constitutional modification to oppose time period limits on members of Congress.” I believe “oppose” is a typo for “impose.” In any case, time period limits are a horrible thought, as a result of they imply that the Legislative Department can find yourself with no institutional reminiscence. Once we have been preventing the landfill in Maine, we found that the one individuals who may interpret the related laws have been the bent legal professionals from Portland who wrote it, on the behest of the landfill operator.

#5 “Launch a significant crackdown on authorities leakers who collude with the pretend information to intentionally we false narratives and to subvert our authorities and our democracy.” I’m wondering what Snowden or Assange would take into consideration that. Or Ellsberg. I see the qualifiers “intentionally” and “false” however they don’t give me confidence. (In actual fact, if Trump supported whistleblowers, usually, whether or not for presidency or trade, he can be giving RFK a variety of assist in his dealings with Massive Pharma and Massive Ag,

#6 – #9… May as properly give it a shot (although CDC appears to have made its very personal cesspit in Atlanta, so I’m undecided how a lot good #8 would do.

#2 “Clear out all the corrupt actors in our nationwide safety and intelligence equipment.” This could be great to see (although does it applly to torturers?). After I wrote “Undertaking 2025: 920 Pages of Irritable Psychological Gestures, or a Blueprint for Fascism?“, I had a litmus check to see if Undertaking 2025 suggestions for CIA, ODNI, and CISA can be taken significantly: Firings. Maybe they are going to.

Superb, in a great way, to see an elected (albeit not inaugurated) President suggest such issues. I’m wondering who put it collectively? (I actually, actually don’t just like the doomy soundtrack to the video, although.)

2024 Publish Mortem

Deploy the Blame Cannons!

“A Crimson-District Conqueror Needs Fellow Democrats to Look within the Mirror” [New York Times]. “I’ve had one interaction with Harris, at her Naval Observatory Christmas party.

I’m not super comfortable at that kind of thing. I’d had a couple of beers, and I noticed that almost all of the garlands were plastic. My district grows a hell of a lot of Christmas trees. I was strong-armed into taking a picture. I said, “Madam Vice President, we grow those where I live.” She just walked away from me. There was kind of an eye roll, maybe. My thinking was, it does matter to people where I live. It’s the respect, the cultural regard for farmers. I didn’t feel like she understood what I was trying to say.” • Harris was an objectively terrible candidate.

“‘They don’t understand my life’: what the Democrats misread about America” [Financial Times]. “‘The Democratic brand is pretty bad,’ said Matt Bennett, co-founder of Third Way, a centrist Democratic think-tank. ‘The country has shifted pretty far to the right, and we were not aware of how deep the problem ran. The voters that we lost . . . looked at Democrats and said: ‘They don’t understand my life. I don’t want them representing me.’” Centrist dipshits like Third Way built the Democrat brand ffs. Stop with the “Who me?” already. But they’re still at it: “‘The only way to defeat rightwing populism is through the centre,’ Bennett said. Shrum agreed that having ‘a moderately liberal, centre-left Democratic party is the only way forward if progressives actually want to win.’” • [bangs head on desk].

“The Shattering of the Democratic Coalition” [Ruy Teixeira, The Liberal Patriot]. “Yet Democrats cannot decisively beat their opponents as this election has shown once again. The party is uncompetitive among white working-class voters and among voters in exurban, small town, and rural America. This puts them at a massive structural disadvantage given an American electoral system that gives disproportionate weight to these voters, especially in Senate and presidential elections. To add to the problem, Democrats are now hemorrhaging nonwhite working-class voters across the country. The facts must be faced. The Democratic coalition today is not fit for purpose.” Meme: Never was (though to be fair, if the purpose was gutting the genuine left, they did great). More: “Among all working-class voters, Trump dramatically widened his advantage, tripling his margin from 4 points in 2020 to 12 points in this election. That included moving from 25 to 29 points among white working-class voters and radically compressing his deficit among nonwhite working-class voters from 48 points in 2020 to 33 points this election. Compare that margin to what Obama had in 2012: according to Catalist, he carried the nonwhite working class by 67 points in that election. That indicates that Democrats have had their margin among this core constituency more than cut in half over the last 12 years. Ouch. So much for the ‘rising American electorate.’ And it’s time to face the fact that the GOP has become the party of America’s working class. Democrats hate to admit that and mutter that they represent the “interests” of the working class. But the numerical pattern is now too powerful to be denied. Instead of denying the obvious—or, worse, blaming the dumb workers for not knowing their own interests—Democrats would be well-advised to accept this new reality and seek to change it. Unless they’re content to be primarily the party of America’s well-off. Harris lost voters under $50,000 in household income as well as voters from $50,000 to $100,000 in income. But she did carry voters with over $100,000 in household by 8 points, one place where Harris did improve over Biden in 2020. This is not, as they say, your father’s Democratic Party. Not even close.”

* * *

“If only we had our own Joe Rogan!”

Undersold part of the bro exit from the Dem party is the way that his male supporters were aggressively smeared as toxic sexist Bernie bros. https://t.co/mQb5ZDP1Sq

— Krystal Ball (@krystalball) November 7, 2024

“Why Democrats gained’t construct their very own Joe Rogan” [Taylor Lorenz, User Mag]. “Whereas the proper has spent years fostering a symbiotic relationship with various media, the left has failed replicate something prefer it. There are merely no progressive content material creators with Rogan’s cultural affect and on-line following, and a fast have a look at the podcast charts or trending channels on YouTube exhibits the disparity between conservative vs progressive creators’ attain on-line. With no community of culturally related influential content material creators boosting and translating their messaging, the Democratic Occasion is quickly dropping credibility amongst youthful, predominantly male audiences who’ve turn out to be ardent supporters of influencers that promote a distinctly conservative worldview.” They used to have one, again within the day: It was referred to as the blogosphere. Extra: “Leftist channels don’t obtain widespread monetary backing from billionaires or massive institutional donors, primarily as a result of leftist content material creators assist insurance policies which might be utterly at odds with what billionaires need. Left leaning influencers argue for issues like greater taxes on the wealthy, rules on companies, and insurance policies that curb the facility of elites. Rich mega donors aren’t going to start out pouring cash right into a media ecosystem that immediately contradicts their very own monetary pursuits. And so, progressive creators are left to depend on meager crowdfunding efforts to make a dwelling. ”

“How Trump Received the First “Influencer Election”” [Taylor Lorenz, Hollywood Reporter]. “For the previous 20 years, the media panorama has been reworking. By practically each metric, legacy media is in decline: common month-to-month distinctive guests to web sites for the nation’s high 50 newspapers declined 20 p.c to beneath 9 million within the fourth quarter of 2022, in line with Comscore information, and the period of time persons are spending consuming legacy media content material is getting shorter. The content material creator trade, in the meantime, is ascendent. The influencer economic system is ready to surpass half a trillion {dollars} by 2027, in line with a current Goldman Sachs report, and 30 p.c of shoppers belief content material creators greater than they did six months in the past, in line with a 2023 report by Sprout Social, an analytics agency.” And: “However whereas each campaigns labored time beyond regulation to court docket influencers, their methods have been divergent. The Harris marketing campaign prioritized shortform clips, investing in fast movies and viral remixes on TikTok and Instagram. The Trump marketing campaign went deep and lengthy, investing closely in longform YouTube podcasts and constructing partnerships with livestreamers. In the end, the latter proved wildly extra profitable. ” • Lengthy type movies. Now that’s fascinating.

* * *

“Iowa pollster makes bombshell declare about controversial ballot that confirmed Kamala profitable deep purple state after Trump’s triumphant victory” [Daily Mail]. “‘With out worry or favor, we used the identical methodology as the ultimate ballot this 12 months to point out a wholesome Trump lead in each 2020 and 2016. These turned out to seize the temper of the citizens fairly properly, although each took hearth from Iowans who doubted the findings could possibly be true.’ She continued an try to defend her methodology, which got here as an entire shock to voters the weekend previous to the election. ‘The ballot findings we produced for The Des Moines Register and Mediacom didn’t match what the Iowa citizens in the end determined within the voting sales space as we speak,’ she mentioned. ‘I’ll be reviewing information from a number of sources with hopes of studying why that occurred, and I welcome what that course of would possibly educate me.’ Selzer’s ballot for the Register and Mediacom days earlier than the election predicted Harris would win by +3 proportion factors. However Donald Trump went on to trounce the vp by over +13 factors within the Hawkeye State….. Nonetheless, the state has not at all times been reliably purple, and swung for Barack Obama in each the 2008 and 2012 elections by +9 p.c and +6 p.c, respectively. Selzer – who was mercilessly mocked after Iowa went to Trump – had precisely predicted every of those outcomes going again to 2008, giving her a Nostradamus-like repute that drew eyeballs to her incorrect Harris ballot final week.”

* * *

“Trump and Harris Make Good After Brutal Marketing campaign Battle” [RealClearPolitics]. • So was all that “Fascist!” and “Hitler!” stuff full bullshit?

* * *

Marketing campaign Finance

“How Elon Musk helped will Trump again to the White Home” [Washington Examiner]. “Musk’s affect in 2024 exhibits two issues, Ludwig mentioned. One, cash just isn’t every thing, contemplating Harris loved much more of it this cycle due to ultra-wealthy backers on the Left. However two, rich Republicans similar to Musk are able not solely to assist candidates financially, but additionally work in strategic and inventive methods to encourage voters.” Hmm. Extra: “For now, Musk has landed a helpful spot in Trump’s internal circle. The 2 have mentioned making a authorities effectivity board that seeks to scale back federal spending with Musk on the helm. It’s a prospect that, in line with some left-leaning watchdogs, may result in conflicts of curiosity since Musk’s corporations additionally obtain massive federal contracts.” • I’m gonna need to invent a brand new phrase for “left”; it’s irretrievably polluted, since everyone thinks it means liberal, which it doesn’t.

Republican Funhouse

“The Most Feared and Least Identified Political Operative in America” [Politico]. From April. “[Susie] Wiles isn’t just certainly one of Trump’s senior advisers. She’s his most vital adviser. She’s his de facto marketing campaign supervisor. She has been in essence his chief of employees for the final greater than three years. She’s one of many causes Trump is the GOP’s presumptive nominee and Ron DeSantis just isn’t. She’s one of many causes Trump’s present operation has been getting credit score for being extra skilled than its fractious, seat-of-the-pants antecedents. And he or she’s a number one purpose Trump has each probability to get elected once more — even after his lack of 2020, the rebellion of 2021, his get together’s defeats within the midterms of 2022, the legal indictments of 2023 and the trial (or trials) of 2024. The previous president is doubtlessly a future president. And that’s due to him. But it surely’s additionally due to her. Trump, after all, is Trump — he could be irritable, he could be impulsive — and this marketing campaign is going through unprecedented stressors and snags. It’s a protracted six-plus months until Election Day. For now, although, no person round him is so influential, and no person round him has been so influential for thus lengthy. ‘There’s no person, I believe, that has the wealth of data that she does. No one in our orbit. No one,’ high Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio advised me. ‘She touches every thing.’ ‘Definitely,’ mentioned former Florida Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelo, ‘she’s one of the consequential folks in American politics proper now.’ ‘And no person,’ mentioned veteran Florida lobbyist Ronnie E-book, ‘even is aware of who she is.’” • I had thought Republicans hate ladies….

* * *

“I Examine Guys Like Trump. There’s a Purpose They Hold Profitable” [New York Times]. “But now Mr. Trump has decisively gained again the presidency. I’d by no means declare to have all of the solutions about what went flawed, however I do fear that Democrats walked into the entice of defending the very establishments — the “institution” — that the majority Individuals mistrust. As a celebration serious about competent technocracy, we misplaced contact with the anger folks really feel at authorities. As a celebration that prizes information, we seized on indicators of development and job creation as proof that the economic system was booming, regardless that folks felt crushed by rising prices. As a celebration motivated by social justice, we let revulsion at white Christian nationalism bait us into id politics on their phrases — whether or not it was debates about transgender athletes, the busing of migrants to cities, or shaming racist MAGA personalities who can’t be shamed. As a celebration dedicated to American management of a “rules-based worldwide order,” we defended a nationwide safety enterprise that has failed repeatedly within the twenty first century, and made ourselves hypocrites by unconditional navy assist for Israel’s bombardment of civilians in Gaza.” And: ” Many citizens have come to affiliate democracy with globalization, corruption, monetary capitalism, migration, eternally wars and elites (like me) who discuss it as an finish in itself quite than a method to redressing inequality, reining in capitalist methods which might be rigged, responding to world battle and fostering a way of shared nationwide id.” • As I’ve been saying, Democrats say “our democracy” for a purpose. And when you have a look at how candidates are chosen, the Republican Occasion is way extra democratic and the Democrat Occasion.

Why can’t we’ve a Democrat candidate who can categorical these concepts so clearly:

A elementary drawback within the Democratic Occasion is that it now has vanishingly few politicians who can articulate this sort of level as cogently because the Republican VP candidate did right here. pic.twitter.com/V0NBrW581Z

— David Sirota (@davidsirota) November 8, 2024

(Maybe all these long-form YouTubes have ready the conservative voter for a cogent and related collection of arguments, as a substitute of “brat summer time” or no matter.

Syndemics

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

Covid Assets, United States (Nationwide): Transmission (CDC); Wastewater (CDC, Biobot; consists of many counties; Wastewater Scan, consists of drilldown by zip); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker” (in IA, however nationwide information). “An infection Management, Emergency Administration, Security, and Normal Ideas” (particularly on hospitalization by metropolis).

Lambert right here: Readers, thanks for the collective effort. To replace any entry, do be at liberty to contact me on the handle given with the crops. Please put “COVID” within the topic line. Thanks!

Assets, United States (Native): 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 stories); 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).

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

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

Hat tricks to useful 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, sq. coats (11), tennesseewaltzer, Tom B., Utah, Bob White (3).

Keep secure on the market!

Airborne Transmission: Covid

Parallel applied sciences:

Mushroom cultivation requires a variety of lab based mostly work – you are working in (supposedly) sterile situations, eg when doing agar work. Laminar stream hoods are required when doing this, in any other case contaminants will kill your efforts (mould will outcompete the mycelium, mainly)…

— Matt Tutt (@MattTutt1) November 8, 2024

Michael Pollan, in The Botany of Need, urges that crops adapt us to their necessities for seed unfold and development by evolving tastes, nutriition, scents, and brilliant colours. Right here we’ve mushrooms inducing us to breathe clear air, a lot to our profit!

Anecdotal however fascinating:

A 12 months in the past we put in Far UVC within the eating space of a nursing house.

Since then outbreaks have decreased by 85% and total resident and employees properly being has elevated.

This nursing house selected to make use of all potential instruments to make sure their occupants keep secure from viruses.… pic.twitter.com/pn5ZsuK2cG

— BioAbundance (@BioAbundancellc) November 7, 2024

After all, I distrust any agency with the phrase “abundance” in its title, particularly [checks profile] a Californian one….

Transmission: Covid

“A Versatile Framework for Native-Degree Estimation of the Efficient Reproductive Quantity in Geographic Areas with Sparse Knowledge” (preprint) [medRxiv]. From the Summary: “Our analysis focuses on native degree estimation of the efficient reproductive quantity, which describes the transmissibility of an infectious illness and represents the typical variety of people one infectious particular person infects at a given time. The power to precisely estimate the infectious illness reproductive quantity in geographically granular areas is vital for catastrophe planning and useful resource allocation. Nonetheless, not all areas have ample infectious illness final result information for estimation.” • Can’t make head or tail of the remaining, however it could be helpful to any epidemiologists within the readership.

Transmission: H5N1

“Serologic Proof of Current An infection with Extremely Pathogenic Avian Influenza A(H5) Virus Amongst Dairy Employees — Michigan and Colorado, June–August 2024” [Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, CDC]. “Well being officers performed surveys and serologic testing to establish current HPAI A(H5) infections amongst dairy employees in two states. .” • Do the maths:

TABLE 1: Every day Covid Charts

Lambert right here: There are various starred gadgets as we speak, moreover yesterday, as a result of a variety of CDC information is launched on Friday. Additionally, New York hospitalization began up once more, which is sweet.

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.

[4] (ED) Down.

[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Steadily down.

[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). Actually improved.

[7] (Walgreens) Down.

[8] (Cleveland) Down.

[9] (Travelers: Positivity) Down.

[10] (Travelers: Variants). Now XEC.

[11] Deaths low, positivity down.

[12] Deaths low, ED down.

Stats Watch

There are no official statistics of note today.

Manufacturing: “Quebec media outlet is reporting possible data falsification at plant where defective Vineyard Wind turbine blades were manufactured” [Bud’s Offshore Energy]. “See the translated excerpts below from a Radio Gaspesie report. This is a massive scandal if true. ‘Yesterday, the vice-president of global operations at GE Vernova reportedly addressed all employees at the Gaspé plant to provide an update on the situation. The investigation, led by GE Vernova’s lawyers, reportedly revealed that employees were asked by senior company executives to falsify quality control data. Data associated with a well-made blade was then associated with poorly made blades. Our sources indicate that this is a widespread practice in the industry. The senior management of the Gaspé plant also allegedly implemented a points system that encouraged employees to skip verification steps, thus prioritizing production quantity over quality. Our sources say the points system allegedly involved tight management oversight that bordered on intimidation of employees. The oversized 107m blades that were produced in Gaspé for the construction of marine parks are said to be affected. .” • Yikes!

Manufacturing: “Boeing to refund lost pay to employees furloughed during Machinists strike” [Seattle Times]. “In a goodwill gesture to Boeing employees who were furloughed during the Machinists’ strike, new CEO Kelly Ortberg on Thursday afternoon sent out a message saying the company will return the pay they lost… A longtime nonunion employee on the quality staff, who asked not to be named to protect his job, said the furloughs had seemed ‘an odd way of taking care of the people not on strike’ and that they destroyed productivity that month as affected employees like him scrambled to figure out the impact and what to do. ‘Obviously your time is not spent focusing on work, but on OK, how am I going to handle this? How do I pay my bills? How do I apply for unemployment?’ he said. The staffer said Thursday he’s ‘really happy’ at the course reversal. ‘There’s still a lot of mistrust,’ he said. ‘There’s still this sense of, ‘Wow, can I trust the company?” And yet, he continued, “this is a step in the right direction.’”

“The Weeds Are Winning” [MIT Technology Review]. “According to Ian Heap, a weed scientist who runs the International Herbicide-Resistant Weed Database, there have been well over 500 unique cases of [herbicide-resistance] in 273 weed species and counting. Weeds have evolved resistance to 168 different herbicides and 21 of the 31 known “modes of action,” which means the specific biochemical target or pathway a chemical is designed to disrupt. Some modes of action are shared by many herbicides.” Darwin Awards for the industry! More: “Fundamentally, the solution is to ‘not focus solely on herbicides for weed management,’ says Micheal Owen, a weed scientist and emeritus professor at Iowa State University. And that presents a “major, major issue for the farmer” and the current state of American farms, he adds. Farms have ballooned in size over the last couple of decades, as a result of rural flight, labor costs, and the advent of chemicals and genetically modified crops that allowed farmers to quickly apply herbicides over massive areas to control weeds capitalism. This has led to a kind of sinister simplification in terms of crop diversity, weed control practices, and the like. And the weeds have adjusted.” • Edit mine.

“Mitochondria Are Alive” [Asimov Press]. “The cells within our body are the remnants of an ancient alliance…. Margulis argued that one-and-a-half billion years ago, a primitive eukaryotic cell engulfed an oxygen-utilizing bacterium. But rather than digesting this bacterium — or conversely, the bacterium destroying its newfound host — the two cells gradually entered into an endosymbiotic relationship; the host provided nutrients and protection to the bacterium, and the bacterium supplied energy to the host. Margulis argued that this endosymbiosis event was a seminal ‘innovation engine’ for biological systems, ultimately leading to the modern mitochondrion and chloroplast…. Most biologists today, however, also believe that mitochondria have ‘devolved’ into little more than membrane-bound organelles, similar to inanimate components like the endoplasmic reticulum or Golgi apparatus. But a swelling tide of scientific evidence about mitochondrial functions and dynamics suggests otherwise — mitochondria are not just organelles, but their own life forms…, Defining mitochondria as ‘nonliving’ isn’t just a classification mistake, nor a question of word choice. Rather, it is a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature and role of mitochondria. It inherently undermines our understanding of biological systems and deeply influences the tools we build to study them.”