2:00PM Water Cooler 12/20/2024 | naked capitalism

By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Fowl Tune of the Day

Northern Mockingbird, Tulare Ave., Contra Costa, California, United States. “In magnolia tree at approx. 8 ft off the bottom, straight above microphone.” Barking canine, however energetic fowl!

In Case You May Miss…

1. New Covid knowledge, with wastewater improve.
2. Mangione hit with Federal costs, loss of life penalty potential.
3. Biden wasn’t been governing the nation, an extra-constitutional entity was.
4. DOGE is one other extra-constitutional entity.

Politics

“So most 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

“How the White Home Functioned With a Diminished Biden in Cost” [Wall Street Journal]. It took me awhile to get past the paywall. As of the 2020 campaign: “Biden, now 82, has long operated with . The protective culture inside the White House was intensified because Biden started his presidency at the height of the Covid pandemic. His staff took great care to prevent him from catching the virus by limiting in-person interactions with him. But the shell constructed for the pandemic was never fully taken down, and his advanced age hardened it. The structure was also designed to prevent Biden, an undisciplined public speaker throughout his half-century political career, from making gaffes or missteps that could damage his image, create political headaches or upset the world order. The system put Biden at an unusual remove from cabinet secretaries, the chairs of congressional committees and other high-ranking officials. It also insulated him from the scrutiny of the American public.” And: “Interactions between Biden and many of his cabinet members were relatively infrequent and often tightly scripted. At least one cabinet member stopped requesting calls with the president, because it was clear that such requests wouldn’t be welcome, a former senior cabinet aide said.” And: “Former administration officials said it often didn’t seem like Biden had his finger on the pulse.” • “Circle” is an interesting word. Right after Biden slipped a cog in debate, I chose that word:

I’ve been trying to think of a word for this extra-constitutional entity, this small group that would play — or perhaps is already playing the same role in the Biden Presidency that the group around Edith Wilson played in Wilsons. The Axios URL shows the original headline was something like biden-debate-replace-advisers, but the editors jacked it up to read “Biden oligarchy.” But that’s wrong; oligarchy is an entire political system. (“Biden oligarchs” might have been OK, but to me, an oligarch is a member of the only small group that really matters: The squillioniares, and although Biden et al. may service the squillioniares, they are not, themselves, squillionaires.) I thought of cabal, milieu, gang, clique, crew, faction, team, troop, club, coterie, posse, and finally settled on the term “circle,” since a circle has a center (Biden), connotes repetitiveness and stability, and has allied terms “social circle” and “inner circle.”

So it’s clear that the United States has been governed by an extra-constitutional entity (Biden’s “circle”) for quite some time, possibly since Biden’s inaugural. Yikes! (“Presidenting is hard work” —George W. Bush.)

“The terrifying scandal is that Biden was NEVER president. The full truth about the cover-up, Bad Doctor Jill and all the enemies within must be exposed” [Daily Mail]. “Having been lied to for years by the Democratic Party machine and most of the mainstream media — who insisted Joe Biden was not diminished by his age but energized by it — well, it turns out we skeptics were right all along.” The Daily Mail is not wrong here. More: “And what we’re learning is terrifying. Infuriating. An unacceptable abuse of power, a usurpation of the presidency itself by a nameless, faceless cohort.” Or here. More: “Subpoena [Karine Jean-Pierre]. For real. Subpoena her – and all of Biden’s top inner circle, the ones who kept him ‘bodied’, as one source said, to a degree unprecedented for any sitting US president: Ron Klain (former White House chief of staff), Mike Donilon (senior advisor) and Jennifer O’Malley Dillon (campaign manager) to name a few.” Not a bad idea. Why not? And: “If there’s any justice, the post-White House book deals and board seats will vaporize as quickly as the Biden legacy.” • ‘Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished. And deliciously–

“How vengeful Jill Biden is urging ‘depressed’ Joe to ‘burn the whole thing down’ in their final days… with Obama, Kamala and Pelosi at the top of her ‘naughty list’ [Daily Mail]. “Between organizing this year’s White House Christmas decorations, staff holiday parties and a string of final goodbyes, the president and First Lady Jill Biden have been quietly sharpening the metaphorical carving knives, with their sights set firmly on the one-time allies they perceive as having wronged them….. ‘Jill views Democrats on Capitol Hill, the [wider] party, the Obamas, staff inside and outside the White House, the media, and all of Washington DC with such misguided resentment that I can’t imagine she [isn’t] encouraging [Joe] to burn the whole thing down, despite his better judgment,’ an insider said.” And: “One Democratic mega-donor, Floridian attorney John Morgan, is now wondering aloud whether Biden deliberately forced Kamala Harris onto the ticket – throwing his endorsement behind her within minutes of pulling out – to spite Pelosi and Barack Obama, who had also worked behind the scenes to push Biden out, and who both held serious reservations about Harris’s capabilities.”

“Joe Biden is going out quietly but with trademark decency” [Margaret Sullivan, Guardian]. “Biden remains himself to a large extent: decent, optimistic, patriotic and empathetic.” • Well, except for the genocide. I used to respect Sullivan until she started writing about politics.

I haven’t followed all the twist and turns of the latest government shutdown saga because its just too stupid:

“Closures, Social Security checks, furloughs: What a government shutdown might mean” [Associated Press]. “Congress has until midnight Friday to come up with a way to fund the government or federal agencies will shut down, meaning hundreds of thousands of federal employees could be sent home — or stay on the job without pay — just ahead of the holidays. Republicans abandoned a bipartisan plan Wednesday to prevent a shutdown after President-elect Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk came out against it. Trump told House Speaker Mike Johnson to essentially renegotiate the deal days before a deadline when federal funding runs out.” Importantly to some: “Recipients of both Social Security and Medicare would continue to receive their benefits, which are part of mandatory spending that’s not subject to annual appropriations measures.”

Elon’s happy dance on Wednesday:

Yesterday’s bill vs today’s bill 😂 pic.twitter.com/L3Omn964mw

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 19, 2024

That is amazingly silly, even for a billionaire. The measure of a invoice shouldn’t be its web page rely, however how efficiently it provisions the citizenry (“common concrete materials advantages”), simply because the measure for software program is observe traces of code, however performance for the person.

“Johnson strikes ahead on spending Plan C: Breaking apart the payments” [Politico]. “Speaker Mike Johnson has moved on to a Plan C to avert a authorities shutdown: Breaking apart each bit to cross them individually. Beneath the Home GOP’s newest plan, Republicans will attempt to cross three separate payments: stopgap funding laws with a one-year farm invoice extension, cash for latest pure disasters and help for farmers, in accordance with two folks with direct data of negotiations. A shutdown deadline is now about 12 hours away — the plan would punt that deadline to March 14. ;We’re going to speak to the convention and I’ll provide the closing determination when that is over,” Johnson stated as he walked into a non-public Home GOP assembly Friday morning.”

A nation that’s sovereign in its personal foreign money can not go bankrupt. However right here we’re:

Both there’s large change or America goes bankrupt, subsequently there have to be large change! https://t.co/JLDBbvt41w

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2024

How true it’s: “Sensible males, who consider themselves to be fairly exempt from any mental affect, are often the slaves of some defunct economist.” —John Maynard Keynes

“DOGE Can’t Do It All. Right here’s What It Can Do” [Politico]. “But given the practical limits of DOGE’s power (it is not actually a government agency, despite its name), it will need to have buy-in — from lawmakers, from the incoming Cabinet as well and, of course, from Trump. ‘They don’t have any authorities,’ Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former head of the Congressional Budget Office who’s president of the American Action Forum, said to me about DOGE. ‘On my most cynical days, I think they’re just a think tank, and I run a think tank. I know how little power I have.’ Just look at a past, DOGE-like effort: the Grace Commission in the 1980s. It was the same basic idea — a private-sector advisory group designed to look at ways to make government work better. Almost none of that body’s suggestions were actually adopted, despite a mandate from then-President Ronald Reagan.” • DOGE certainly isn’t a thinktank, because a think tank has some corporate form, like a 501(c)(3). DOGE is certainly not a govenrment agency. Not is it advisory body, because it doens’t meet the requirements of FACA (as HICPAC must do, for example). DOGE is just two guys stirring up froth on social media. To the extent it has any real power, it is as an extra-constitutional entity. Didn’t we just go through that with Biden?

I keep getting ads like this from Kamala:

President Biden and I are committed to building an economy that works for every American. We have taken historic action to create jobs, invest in small businesses, and forgive student loan and medical debt. pic.twitter.com/crBAUFiXP8

— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) December 18, 2024

It’s like she thinks she’s nonetheless working. Or is that this one of the best the DNC can do on messaging proper now?

Realignment and Legitimacy

“Luigi Mangione Charged With The Stalking And Homicide Of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson And Use Of A Silencer In A Crime Of Violence” (press launch) [United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York]. But not terrorism, interestingly. “FBI Assistant Director James E. Dennehy said: “Luigi Mangione allegedly conducted the carefully premeditated and targeted execution of Brian Thompson to incite national debates. This alleged plot demonstrates a cavalier attitude towards humanity – deeming murder an appropriate recourse to satiate personal grievances. Through continued close partnership with the NYPD, the FBI maintains our steadfast commitment to fervently pursue any individual who promotes a personal agenda through violence.” • As opposed to a corporate agenda?

“Federal murder charge against Mangione could mean death penalty in CEO killing” [NPR]. “The federal charges against him include: one count of using a firearm to commit murder, which carries a maximum sentence of death or life in prison; one count of interstate stalking resulting in death; and one count of stalking through use of interstate facilities resulting in death (each carrying a maximum sentence of life in prison); and one count of discharging a firearm equipped with a silencer to commit a violent crime (which carries a sentence of 30 years to life in prison.”

“How Luigi Mangione’s notebook helped federal prosecutors build their case and what’s next as he faces mounting charges” [CNN]. “The push for federal charges came from the US Attorney’s office, multiple law enforcement sources told CNN. Because the FBI was already involved in the investigation assisting the NYPD with out-of-town leads, FBI agents were asked to draw up the federal complaint based on evidence collected by NYPD detectives working on the state charges and police in Pennsylvania who arrested Mangione. Federal prosecutors say they have jurisdiction in the case because Mangione’s ‘travel in interstate commerce’ – taking a bus from Atlanta to New York prior to the killing – as well as ‘use of interstate facilities’ by allegedly utilizing a cell phone and the internet ‘to plan and carry out the stalking, shooting, and killing’ of Thompson in broad daylight on a Manhattan sidewalk.” • Oh. Any crime involving a cell phone or the Internet is potentially a Federal case? Is that what I’m reading?

“A whirlwind day for Luigi Mangione ends with new charges, revelations from a notebook and transfer to a federal prison” [CNN]. “The 26-year-old murder suspect began his day at a jail in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, his home for the last 10 days, and ended it in a notorious federal prison in New York…. Mangione has been indicted on 11 charges in New York, including first-degree murder as an act of terrorism. He has not yet pleaded to the charges. He also faces charges in Pennsylvania in connection to the 3D-printed firearm and false ID allegedly in his possession when he was arrested. Blair County District Attorney Peter Weeks said he would not push to have those charges heard ahead of Mangione’s much more serious charges in New York. And a federal complaint against him was unsealed midday Thursday adding four new charges and providing new details on a notebook authorities say was in his possession.” • Mangione’s manifesto mentions the notebook (“The spiral notebook, if present, has some straggling notes and To Do lists that illuminate the gist of it”). Now here it is. Why wasn’t it in the Central Park backpack with the monopoly money? And all the other paraphernalia, if it comes to that.

“Read the Luigi Mangione federal criminal complaint” [CBS]. From the Notebook as excerpted in the complaint:

(“Checks every box” sounds like some species of class analysis, although box-checking per se isn’t dialectical, as Bourdieu shows.) I don’t suppose we’ll be seeing the complete notebook anytime soon….

“Meet the Legal Insider Defending Luigi Mangione” [Wall Street Journal]. “Just a few years ago, Karen Friedman Agnifilo managed the Manhattan district attorney’s office and its fleet of more than 500 attorneys…. While Friedman Agnifilo has minimal courtroom experience as a criminal-defense attorney, her personal and professional interest in mental health, empathetic approach to clients and intimate knowledge of her former office will be key, colleagues said. ‘She’ll be able to predict what the prosecutors will do before they do it,’ said lawyer Danya Perry, who has worked with her in private practice… Her husband, the defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo, is expected to play a supporting role in the case. He is also representing Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs [(!!!)] at his federal sex-trafficking trial this spring.

“Luigi Mangione canonized as a ‘saint’ by crazed online fans after death penalty bombshell” [Daily Mail]. “Many online are claiming Mangione is facing worse punishment that hardened criminals and school shooters, speculating that the government wants to make an example out of him and prevent some sort of revolt against corporate America. One X post read: ‘They wanna give Luigi Mangione the death penalty. That’s the only reason they making him face federal charges. ‘They literally wanna kill him for daring to threaten capitalism and corporate greed. They don’t even do this to school shooters.’ Another X user added: ‘Very few school shooters have gotten the death penalty. Yet the U.S. is trying to charge Luigi Mangione so he gets the death penalty for killing one man. You can kill dozens of kids and get a lesser sentence because their lives don’t matter as much as a CEO’s. That’s America.’ Some are pointing out that the government’s handling of Mangione, which included a perp walk straight out of a Hollywood film, is only increasing the public’s fixation on him. One X user said: ‘luigi stepping out with a fresh cut/shave, possible death penalty charges, and an nypd photoshoot is the craziest thing in the world. are they actively trying to make him a martyr? whether you’re for or against him, they’re making it SO easy for everyone to lionize him.’” • The perp walk:

NYPD apparently sat around asking themselves “how can we arrange to transport Mangione in a way that makes him look to his supporters like Christ being taken to the cross” pic.twitter.com/psP9W7PDlx

— Nathan J Robinson (@NathanJRobinson) December 19, 2024

After all Mayor Adams (middle left, ha ha) has to get into the act…

Syndemics

“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

Covid Sources, United States (Nationwide): Transmission (CDC); Wastewater (CDC, Biobot; contains many counties; Wastewater Scan, contains drilldown by zip); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker” (in IA, however nationwide knowledge). “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 happy to contact me on the handle given with the vegetation. Please put “COVID” within the topic line. Thanks!

Sources, 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 experiences); 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).

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

Sources, 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, thump, Tom B., Utah, Bob White (3).

Keep protected on the market!

Transmission: H5N1

Lengthy-lasting fomites:

Wow look how lengthy #H5N1 can keep infectious on 🪶 feathers, soil & feces !!!
It is winter & colder temperatures hold the virus alive longer.

At 4 C
Feathers 5 months
Soil,mud. 4 months
Feces 2 months https://t.co/fsoQhCcCVZ

— Sphagnum Moss (@moss_sphagnum) December 20, 2024

TABLE 1: Each day Covid Charts

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) Seeing more red and more orange, but nothing new at major hubs.

[2] (CDC) Last week’s wastewater map.

[3] (CDC Variants) XEC takes over. That WHO label, “Ommicron,” has done a great job normalizing successive waves of infection.

[4] (ED) A little uptick.

[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Leveled out.

[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). Leveling out.

[7] (Walgreens) Leveling out.

[8] (Cleveland) Continued upward trend since, well, Thanksgiving.

[9] (Travelers: Positivity) Leveling out.

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

[11] Deaths low, positivity leveling out.

[12] Deaths low, ED leveling out.

Stats Watch

Inflation: “United States PCE Price Index Annual Change” [Trading Economics]. “Annual PCE inflation in the US accelerated for a second month to 2.4% in November 2024 from 2.3% in October, but below expectations of 2.5%.”

Manufacturing: “Boeing charts ‘aggressive’ 737 Max production ramp-up in 2025” [The Air Current]. “Boeing’s supply chain wants the plane maker to be boring in 2025. Boeing has other ideas… Now, the company is progressing with a steep production acceleration on its single-aisle 737 Max that will test its younger workforce, fragile supply base and its chief regulator in the year to come. Currently, Boeing aims to have its production lines building 737 Max jets fully transitioned to a rate of 38 per month in May 2025, according to multiple people familiar with Boeing’s planning inside the company and the supply chain. While Boeing said it is approaching its restart and ramp up “methodically”, one senior official at a major Boeing supplier told The Air Current that the plane maker is at risk of repeating past mistakes — accelerating its factory tempo too quickly and pushing the deliveries from its supply chain beyond what the suppliers and their production lines can accommodate. “That is incredibly aggressive, probably unrealistic,” said the supplier official. Underscoring the fragility of the trust between Boeing and its massive network of suppliers, the official said: “All I want is a year where they’ll do what they say they’ll do,” noting that the company’s production guidance for the supply chain has repeatedly failed to materialize since even before the 737 Max was grounded for 20 months starting in March 2019.” • Well, Ortberg is only betting the company. So what’s the issue?

Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 28 Neutral (previous close: 22 Fear) [CNN]. One week ago: 49 (Neutral). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Dec 20 at 1:31:53 PM ET.

Permaculture

“Analyzing our 2024 Garden: peas, beans, carrots and greens” [The Re-Farmer]. Sometimes everything doesn’t go according to plan. On the beans: “With the bush beans, the first sowing didn’t succeed at all – and these were new seeds! I was able to buy more and tried again. This time, we had a nice, short row of bush beans emerge. They did quite well… Until they got eaten by deer. They recovered and started going well again. Then got eaten by deer again. Amazingly, they recovered again!” • Lessons learned, an interesting genre.

The 420

“Cannabis pollen dispersal across the United States” [Nature]. “For the recently legalized US hemp industry (Cannabis sativa), cross-pollination between neighboring fields has become a significant challenge, leading to contaminated seeds, reduced oil yields, and in some cases, mandated crop destruction…. Our findings reveal that pollen deposition rates escalate from summer to autumn due to the reduction in convective activity during daytime and the increase in wind shear at night as the season progresses. We find diurnal variations in pollen dispersion: nighttime conditions favor deposition in proximity to the source, while daytime conditions facilitate broader dispersal albeit with reduced deposition rates. These shifting weather patterns give rise to specific regions of CONUS more vulnerable to hemp cross-pollination.”

Gallery

“The Missing van Gogh Masterpiece” [kottke.org]. “I didn’t know that the whereabouts of one of Vincent van Gogh’s most important works, a 1890 painting called “Portrait of Dr. Gachet”, is unknown and that the painting had not been seen publicly since the 1990s.” And quoting the New York Times; “Four art world insiders said they suspect the painting is held by a private, very rich European family…. The question has grown more relevant as it becomes clearer that most museums can no longer outbid billionaire collectors for the greatest works of art…. ‘People are allowed to own things privately,’ said Michael Findlay, who was involved as a specialist for Christie’s in the 1990 auction sale of the Gachet. ‘Does it belong to everybody? No, it does not.’” • Says the auctioneeer.

I can’t believe it’s not butter:

Zeitgeist Watch

“Polyamory doesn’t Liberate; Monogamy doesn’t Shield” [Carsonogenic]. “The classic poly delusion, is to think that via poly, you can get all of your needs met. Polyamory literature says you can’t expect one person to fulfill all of your emotional needs. This is true. The shadow implication of this statement is that you can expect a handful of people to fulfill all of your emotional needs. This is not true. Other people do not exist to fill our emotional voids. To quote Bo Burnham ‘If you want love, the love has gotta come from you…...” So and but: “The major monogamy delusion is obvious. It is simple: the idea that you possess your partner, or that you even can – the idea that by irrevocably binding yourself to someone, you can avoid any possibility of abandonment or heartbreak.” • Kids these days. San Francisco-based kids…..

“For airports, background music no longer is an afterthought” [Associated Press]. “Background music is no longer an afterthought at many airports, which are hiring local musicians and carefully curating playlists to help lighten travelers’ moods… Tiffany Idiart and her two nieces were delighted to hear musicians during a recent layover at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. ‘I like it. There’s a lot of people here and they can all hear it,’ said Grace Idiart, 9. ‘If their flight got delayed or something like that, they could have had a hard day. And so the music could have made them feel better.’ Airports are also carefully curating their recorded playlists.” • This does sound like a good idea. OTOH, my shadow side brings Temple Grandin to the surface…