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2:00PM Water Cooler 6/12/2023

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By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

My E[pastes]f[pastes]fing “[pastes]f” key is still [[pastes]family blogged] and will be or the orseeable uture… The worst o it is that I can’t ind anything I any reader has a clever solution or my 2021 M1 MacBook Pro, so I don’t have to take it to the shop, I would appreciate it. Shake it upside down? Microwave it? Care[pastes]fully detach the… no no no no no. –lambert

Bird Song of the Day

Sage Thrasher, Twelve Mile Cr., Crook, Oregon, United States. “Song.” Voluble little chap!

* * *

Politics

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

Biden Administration

“Biden world restructures itself around selling Bidenomics” [Politico]. “Inside the White House, a team of senior officials led by deputy chief of staff Natalie Quillian has been charged with leading the acceleration of thousands more investments in the bridge repairs, railroad upgrades and clean energy initiatives that the White House believes will drive job growth and, ultimately, provide an antidote to Biden’s stagnant approval ratings. That’s just one component of the push. Cabinet departments are also under orders to speed implementation of key social and economic policies passed under last year’s huge climate, health care and tax law. And the White House plans to deploy top officials across the U.S. to highlight construction improvements and new manufacturing projects in red and blue states alike, punctuated by a two-week blitz at the end of June that the administration has dubbed its ‘Investing in America’ tour.” • Obama did infrastructure during his miserably inadequate and needlessly prolonged “recovery,” but never publicized it, so this is smart. But will Biden also tout the “acceleration” of lashing the poor with work requirements?

2024

I guess it’s time for the Countdown Clock!

* * *

On the Trump matter, I think this Greenwald video is dispositive:

Double standard. And the Espionage Act is bad. Case closed. 23:15, but well worth listening to in full. Grab a cup of coffee. (I do try to listen while writing, and often I can multitask like that successfully. Greenwald’s voice, which might be described as grating, is also very compelling. In this case it’s worth it.)

Maddow lets the cat out of the bag:

Of course [slaps forehead]! Why didn’t I think of that?

* * *

RFK on Jordan Peterson:

I’m fine with more-than-worrying about toxic chemicals in our water supply. But I think RFK could be going too far with Atrazine and the frogs (a subject of controversy that RFK presents as settled science and quantitatively to an audience really primed for this factoid). More data welcome — studies, please, and no YouTubes or rants.

“Is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. antivaccine? Judge him by his own words!” [Science-Based Medicine]. “Along the way, his claims to be “fiercely pro-vaccine” notwithstanding, RFK Jr. demonstrated himself to be, in reality, fiercely antivaccine, whether he was likening vaccination to the Holocaust, trying to persuade Samoan officials that the MMR vaccine was dangerous (in the middle of a deadly measles outbreak!), claiming that today’s generation of children is the “sickest generation” (due to vaccines, of course!), or toadying up to President-Elect Donald Trump during the transition period to be chair of a “vaccine safety commission.” Indeed, a few years ago his own family even called him out for his antivaccine activism….” • For the avoidance of doubt, I’m not a fan of mRNA and don’t think there should have ever have been a mandate for them. But measles?

“Cornel West for President” ‘[Cornel West]. • His campaign site. Rather spare, I must say. And, naturally, not using Act Blue for fundraising.

“Democratic fears grow over third-party candidates” [The Hill]. “The bipartisan group ‘No Labels’ has been working toward building the foundation to launch a ‘unity ticket’ to run as an option separate from Democrats or Republicans as polls show a rematch between Biden and former President Trump is likely. And Cornel West, a progressive activist, became the first relatively well-known third-party candidate to enter the race. The developments come as polling shows Americans souring on the prospect of a Biden-Trump rematch. A NewsNation/DDHQ poll released this week found 49 percent of respondents said it was somewhat or very likely they would consider voting for a third-party candidate in 2024 if Trump and Biden were the nominees. Meanwhile, an NBC News poll released last month found 70 percent of Americans said they did not want Biden to run for president next year, while 60 percent say they do not want Trump to run for president in 2024. ‘It’s almost universal,’ said former Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), who is involved with No Labels. ‘People are just saying ‘350 million Americans, can’t we have a different match?'” • I hate that word “unity” because it implies that there’s no such thing as a faction, which is historically false. Further, conflict is built into our republican system; it’s called [genuflects] the separation of powers. When you hear somebody preaching unity, count the spoons when they leave.

“Lawsuits against state can be filed in only two counties under measure signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker” [Chicago Tribune]. “Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Tuesday signed into law a measure that requires lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of executive orders or state laws to be filed in either Cook or Sangamon county…. State Rep. Dan Caulkins of Decatur, who has sued the state over the sweeping gun ban signed into law in January, voiced objections during the floor debate on the bill last month. ‘They pass unconstitutional laws to make law-abiding citizens criminals, and then they make those same citizens travel hundreds of miles to a kangaroo court that they control,’ Caulkins said of Democrats. ‘Tyrants are always the same, whether kings or lawless Chicago politicians.'”

“IDPH to provide air purifiers to Head Start classrooms” [Shaw Local News Network]. “Gov. JB Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Public Health have announced that the state will be providing more than 1,000 HEPA purifiers to Illinois Head Start and Early Head Start programs around the state to help reduce the transmission of respiratory viruses, including COVID-19…. The effort builds on a previously announced IDPH program to provide HEPA air purifiers to K-12 schools throughout Illinois and is funded through the CDC’s Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Prevention and Control Reopening Schools funding.” • Good. More like this, please.

* * *

“George Soros Hands Control to His 37-Year-Old Son: ‘I’m More Political'” [Wall Street Journal]. “Alex [Soros] said he was concerned about the prospect of Donald Trump’s return to the White House, suggesting a significant financial role for the Soros organization in the 2024 presidential race. ‘As much as I would love to get money out of politics, as long as the other side is doing it, we will have to do it, too,” he said in an interview at the fund manager’s New York offices.'”

Democrats en Déshabillé

Patient readers, it seems that people are actually reading the back-dated post! But I have not updated it, and there are many updates. So I will have to do that. –lambert

I have moved my standing remarks on the Democrat Party (“the Democrat Party is a rotting corpse that can’t bury itself”) to a separate, back-dated post, to which I will periodically add material, summarizing the addition here in a “live” Water Cooler. (Hopefully, some Bourdieu.) It turns out that defining the Democrat Party is, in fact, a hard problem. I do think the paragraph that follows is on point all the way back to 2016, if not before:

The Democrat Party is the political expression of the class power of PMC, their base (lucidly explained by Thomas Frank in Listen, Liberal!). It follows that the Democrat Party is as “unreformable” as the PMC is unreformable; if the Democrat Party did not exist, the PMC would have to invent it. If the Democrat Party fails to govern, that’s because the PMC lacks the capability to govern. (“PMC” modulo “class expatriates,” of course.) Second, all the working parts of the Party reinforce each other. Leave aside characterizing the relationships between elements of the Party (ka-ching, but not entirely) those elements comprise a network — a Flex Net? An iron octagon? — of funders, vendors, apparatchiks, electeds, NGOs, and miscellaneous mercenaries, with assets in the press and the intelligence community.

Note, of course, that the class power of the PMC both expresses and is limited by other classes; oligarchs and American gentry (see ‘industrial model’ of Ferguson, Jorgensen, and Jie) and the working class spring to mind. Suck up, kick down.

* * *

Phrase-making!

Realignment and Legitimacy

#COVID19

“I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD.” –William Lloyd Garrison

Resources, United States (National): Transmission (CDC); Wastewater (CDC, Biobot; includes many counties); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker” (in IA, but national data).

Lambert here: Readers, thanks for the collective effort.

Resources, United States (Local): AK (dashboard); AL (dashboard); AR (dashboard); AZ (dashboard); CA (dashboard; Marin); CO (dashboard; wastewater); CT (dashboard); DE (dashboard); FL (wastewater); GA (wastewater); HI (dashboard); IA (wastewater reports); ID (dashboard, Boise; dashboard, wastewater, Central Idaho; wastewater, Coeur d’Alene; dashboard, Spokane County); IL (wastewater); IN (dashboard); KS (dashboard; wastewater, Lawrence); KY (dashboard, Louisville); LA (dashboard); MA (wastewater); MD (dashboard); ME (dashboard); MI (wastewater; wastewater); MN (dashboard); MO (wastewater); MS (dashboard); MT (dashboard); NC (dashboard); ND (dashboard; wastewater); NE (dashboard); NH (wastewater); NJ (dashboard); NM (dashboard); NV (dashboard; wastewater, Southern NV); NY (dashboard); OH (dashboard); OK (dashboard); OR (dashboard); PA (dashboard); RI (dashboard); SC (dashboard); SD (dashboard); TN (dashboard); TX (dashboard); UT (wastewater); VA (dashboard); VT (dashboard); WA (dashboard; dashboard); WI (wastewater); WV (wastewater); WY (wastewater).

Resources, Canada (National): Wastewater (Government of Canada).

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

Hat tips to helpful readers: Art_DogCT, B24S, CanCyn, ChiGal, Chuck L, Festoonic, FM, FreeMarketApologist (4), Gumbo, hop2it, JB, JEHR, JF, JL Joe, John, JM (9), JustAnotherVolunteer, JW, KatieBird, LL, Michael King, KF, LaRuse, mrsyk, MT, MT_Wild, otisyves, Petal (5), RK (2), RL, RM, Rod, square coats (11), tennesseewaltzer, Utah, Bob White (3).

Stay safe out there!

* * *

Look for the Helpers

If you know of children going to summer camp:

(From Australia, but a bus is a bus.) And:

Maskstravaganza

The CDC finally “supports” masks. I think this is the lamest ad I’ve ever seen (or listened to):

First, the opener suggests that masks are only for the disabled. Second, the protagonist is only wearing a Baggy Blue. Why not a respirator? Has CDC learned nothing? (Wait, don’t answer that). Leaving aside the cloying choice of a disabled American Indian girl having what to do explained to her by her father, the final message: “Some people wear masks. Some don’t. That’s okay!” No, it’s not. Infecting other people with your own bio-effluent isn’t the most immoral act in the world, but morally neutral? Innocuous? No, it’s very not. If you just can’t do it, for pity’s sake minimize the chances of tranmission to others in every way possible.

Censorship

“Social media, duct tape are helping people make DIY air purifiers to filter out wildfire smoke” [Associated Press]. Even though the Corsi-Rosenthal Box emerged as a response to the Covid pandemic, there is no mention of Covid in the article. The entire history has been erased. With lethal effect, of course, since when what you can see — smoke — goes away, it will seem OK to turn of the box, at which point what you cannot see — the virus — can infect you. A shocking dereliction by AP.

Sequelae

“Mild SARS-CoV-2 infection results in long-lasting microbiota instability” [American Association for Microbiology]. “Viruses targeting mammalian cells can indirectly alter the gut microbiota, potentially compounding their phenotypic effects. Multiple studies have observed a disrupted gut microbiota in severe cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection that require hospitalization. … Taken together, our results demonstrate that even mild cases of SARS-CoV-2 can disrupt gut microbial ecology. Our findings in non-hospitalized individuals are consistent with studies of hospitalized patients, in that reproducible shifts in gut microbial taxonomic abundance in response to SARS-CoV-2 have been difficult to identify. Instead, we report a long-lasting instability in the gut microbiota. Surprisingly, our mouse experiments revealed an impact of the Omicron variant, despite producing the least severe symptoms in genetically susceptible mice, suggesting that despite the continued evolution of SARS-CoV-2, it has retained its ability to perturb the intestinal mucosa.” • Hmm. Mucosa again, as in the nose.

Treatment

“Dicoumarol is an effective post-exposure prophylactic for SARS-CoV-2 Omicron infection in human airway epithelium” [Nature]. From the Abstract: “Repurposing existing drugs to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 infection in airway epithelial cells (AECs) is a quick way to find novel treatments for COVID-19. Computational screening has found dicoumarol (DCM), a natural anticoagulant, to be a potential SARS-CoV-2 inhibitor, but its inhibitory effects and possible working mechanisms remain unknown…. Collectively, we demonstrated that DCM is an effective post-exposure prophylactic for SARS-CoV-2 infection in the human AECs, and these findings could help physicians formulate novel treatment strategies for COVID-19.” • The mechanism, apparently, operates on the cilia of nasal tissues. More on DCM–

“A pharmacological review of dicoumarol: An old natural anticoagulant agent” [Pharmacological Research]. From 2020: “Dicoumarol is an oral anticoagulant agent prescribed in clinical for decades… Due to its structural similarity to that of vitamin K, it significantly inhibits vitamin K epoxide reductase and acts as a vitamin K antagonist. … The side effects of dicoumarol raise safety concerns for clinical application.” • Kids, don’t try this at home!!! (This 1948 article on “Dicumarol Poisoning” includes the phrase “bloody stool.”)

“Something Awful”

Lambert here: I’m getting the feeling that the “Something Awful” might be a sawtooth pattern — variant after variant — that averages out to a permanently high plateau. Lots of exceptionally nasty sequelae, most likely deriving from immune dysregulation (says this layperson). To which we might add brain damage, including personality changes therefrom.

* * *

“SARS-CoV-2 Infectivity and Neurological Targets in the Brain” [Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology] (via). From 2020, still germane. From the Abtract: “The gateway for invasion by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) into human host cells is via the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) transmembrane receptor expressed in multiple immune and nonimmune cell types. SARS-CoV-2, that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19; CoV-19) has the unusual capacity to attack many different types of human host cells simultaneously…. The highest ACE2 expression level was found in the pons and medulla oblongata in the human brainstem, containing the medullary respiratory centers of the brain, and may in part explain the susceptibility of many CoV-19 patients to severe respiratory distress.” • Handy chart:

Heaven knows I don’t play a neurologist, not even on TV, and [hand on heart] I like mechanisms but dislike mechanistic explanations, because the body is extremely complex, but: The second-highest bars is the amygdala. Let’s assume damage there. From PNAS, “Facing the role of the amygdala in emotional information processing”: “The amygdala is commonly thought to form the core of a neural system for processing fearful and threatening stimuli.” Hence, one might speculate, the anecdata on refusal to protect oneself or others, aggressive individualism, bad driving, general rudeness, etc., post-covid? Intriguingly: “[H]umans with amygdala damage tend to be impaired in recognizing emotional facial expressions, especially fearful ones.” Speculating even more wildly, the oft-heard demand for removing one’s mask may be an unconscious reaction to/rationalization of impaired facial recognition capacity, due to covid. (And to round out the woo woo, both these speculations would be a case of SARS-CoV-2 optimizing its own environment for spread. Perhaps we have some neurologists in the readership?

Elite Maleficence

The Surgeon General’s website on Covid is ghastly. But then there’s this:

Also, on the “Three Vital Components of Social Connection,” shouldn’t there be four? Besides Structure, Function, and Quality, shouldn’t there be — putting this in neoliberal terms — Risk? Like the Risk on infecting or being infected? Extroverts are gonna kill us all. Breathing is a social relation, after all:

Second verse, same as the first:

* * *

Case Data

UPDATED WITH NOTE From BioBot wastewater data from June 5:

Lambert: Oh no….

For now, I’m going to use this national wastewater data as the best proxy for case data (ignoring the clinical case data portion of this chart, which in my view “goes bad” after March 2022, for reasons as yet unexplained). At least we can spot trends, and compare current levels to equivalent past levels.

Variants

NOT UPDATED From CDC, June 10:

Lambert here: Looks to like XBB.1.16 and now XBB.1.16 are outcompeting XBB.1.9, but XBB.1.5 has really staying power. I sure hope the volunteers doing Pangolin, on which this chart depends, don’t all move on the green fields and pastures new (or have their access to facilities cut by administrators of ill intent).

CDC: “As of May 11, genomic surveillance data will be reported biweekly, based on the availability of positive test specimens.” “Biweeekly: 1. occurring every two weeks. 2. occurring twice a week; semiweekly.” Looks like CDC has chosen sense #1. In essence, they’re telling us variants are nothing to worry about. Time will tell. Looks like the Walgreens variants page isn’t updating.

Covid Emergency Room Visits

NOT UPDATED From CDC NCIRD Surveillance, from June 3:

NOTE “Charts and data provided by CDC, updates Wednesday by 8am. For the past year, using a rolling 52-week period.” So not the entire pandemic, FFS (the implicit message here being that Covid is “just like the flu,” which is why the seasonal “rolling 52-week period” is appropriate for bothMR SUBLIMINAL I hate these people so much. Notice also that this chart shows, at least for its time period, that Covid is not seasonal, even though CDC is trying to get us to believe that it is, presumably so they can piggyback on the existing institutional apparatus for injections.

Positivity

NOT UDPATED From Walgreens, June 5:

0.4%. Frequency down to once a week.

Deaths

NOT UPDATED Death rate (Our World in Data), from June 7:

Lambert here: Theatre of the absurd. I can believe that deaths are low; I cannot believe they are zero, and I cannot even believe that all doctors signing death certificates have agreed to make it so. Looks to me like some administrative minimizer at WHO put the worst intern in charge of the project. And thanks, Johns Hopkins of the $9.32 billion endowment, for abandoning this data feed and passing responsibility on to the clown car at WHO.

Total: 1,166,663 – 1,166,408 = 255 (255 * 365 = 93,075 deaths per year, today’s YouGenicist™ number for “living with” Covid (quite a bit higher than the minimizers would like, though they can talk themselves into anything. If the YouGenicist™ metric keeps chugging along like this, I may just have to decide this is what the powers-that-be consider “mission accomplished” for this particular tranche of death and disease).

Excess Deaths

NOT UPDATED Excess deaths (The Economist), published June 4:

Lambert here: Actually some encouragement!

Lambert here: Based on a machine-learning model. (The CDC has an excess estimate too, but since it ran forever with a massive typo in the Legend, I figured nobody was really looking at it, so I got rid it. )

Stats Watch

There are no official statistics of note today.

* * *

Tech: “Tesla is about to pull the plug on its main EV charging rival” [The Verge]. “Fast-forward to today’s electric vehicle charging standards war, and it feels like déjà vu. Last month, Ford announced it’s adopting Tesla’s previously proprietary North American Charging Standard (NACS) port for its future vehicles. And General Motors, the largest automaker in North America, just announced yesterday that it’s following suit. Together, Ford, Tesla, and GM represent nearly three-quarters of the EV market in the US — or 72 percent.” •

* * *

Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 78 Extreme Greed (previous close: 77 Extreme Greed) [CNN]. One week ago: 73 (Greed). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Jun 12 at 1:29 PM ET.

Rapture Index: Closes unchanged [Rapture Ready]. Record High, October 10, 2016: 189. Current: 184. (Remember that bringing on the Rapture is good.) NOTE on #42 Plagues: “The coronavirus pandemic has maxed out this category.” More honest than most!

The Gallery

“Syntax in Santa Barbara” [nonsite]. This is very cool; nonsite is one of the few sites to have really rigorous art criticism, which I like. This is a great story:

In the late 1940s, William Carlos Williams’s understanding of modern art suddenly became inseparable from an origin story about it. Regularly featuring the anecdote in his lectures of the period, he would just as regularly mention how fond he was of telling it. “I have told this story often before,” he says in a 1952 speech published as “The American Spirit in Art,” “but it bears repeating”:

Alanson Hartpence, who used to be with the Daniel Gallery, once, during his boss’s absence, had one of the gallery’s best patrons there looking at a picture. The estimable lady admired one of the paintings and seemed about to buy it—or at least she was leaning that way.

But Mr. Hartpence, she said, what is all this down here in this left-hand lower corner? […]

That, said Hartpence, leaning closer to inspect the place, that, Madame, he said, straightening and looking at her, that is paint.

He lost the sale.

But that is the exact place where for us the virus first bit in. That is the exact place where for us modern art began.

Now, I’m not sure I agree with this…

Zeitgeist Watch

“Drowning in Dupes Shoppers will buy anything — except the real thing” [The Cut]. ” Influencers have built enormous followings shilling dupe recommendations in every product category, from makeup to electronics to food, and when a dupe goes viral, both it and the original product often sell out. But as dupes have taken on a life of their own, all sense of what makes a good one seems to have been lost. Today, the dupe itself is more valuable than the original, and the quality alternatives have been eclipsed by a tsunami of trash. This is Peak Dupe, when the basic rules of spending and quality no longer apply.” • Worth reading in full.

Guillotine Watch

“JPMorgan to pay up to $290mn to settle Epstein accusers’ lawsuit” [Financial Times]. “PMorgan Chase has agreed to pay up to $290mn to settle one of two bombshell lawsuits over its 15-year relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, which accused the bank of profiting from human trafficking by ignoring multiple internal warnings about their former client’s sex crimes. The agreement came just hours after a federal judge ruled that the case, originally brought by a single Epstein accuser under the pseudonym Jane Doe, would be widened to include dozens of women who claim to also have been abused by the disgraced financier. The total size of the group who will share the payout exceeds 150 victims, a lawyer for Doe said.” • 150? That’s a lot, as Dima would say. I wonder when Epstein’s “black book” will be published? I don’t think the world is run by literal lizard people, Epstein moved in rarefied circles — “There are not very many of the Shing” — and I can well believe that his milieu, broadly, has tastes that are more diverse, shall we say, than those of dull normals.

Class Warfare

“A massive UPS strike could devastate the economy. It could be just eight weeks away” [CNN]. • So give the workers what they want and deserve. Is that so very hard?

News of the Wired

“SmolNet” [Community Wiki]. “Unfortunately, capitalism has been working ever diligently in the opposite direction towards hooking people into unhealthy computing practices. It can feel hopeless hearing my loved ones actively complain about how Facebook and Twitter make them feel bad yet continue checking their timeline throughout the day. … By reconsidering the utility of time-tested protocols and hobbling together a few new ones, a growing community of people are leaving the proprietary world of flashy social-media websites to slow down and enjoy life accented by computers, not controlled by them. … On the Small Web, communities host themselves which means cross-domain browsing is very much encouraged and an important feature of the network at large. Real people, not corporations, host the Small Web.” • Interesting…

* * *

Contact information for plants: Readers, feel free to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) find out how to send me a check if you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi and coral are deemed to be honorary plants! If you want your handle to appear as a credit, please place it at the start of your mail in parentheses: (thus). Otherwise, I will anonymize by using your initials. See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. From GC:

GC writes: “In Tucson environs today while hiking to suppress this attitude.”

* * *

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About Lambert Strether

Readers, I have had a correspondent characterize my views as realistic cynical. Let me briefly explain them. I believe in universal programs that provide concrete material benefits, especially to the working class. Medicare for All is the prime example, but tuition-free college and a Post Office Bank also fall under this heading. So do a Jobs Guarantee and a Debt Jubilee. Clearly, neither liberal Democrats nor conservative Republicans can deliver on such programs, because the two are different flavors of neoliberalism (“Because markets”). I don’t much care about the “ism” that delivers the benefits, although whichever one does have to put common humanity first, as opposed to markets. Could be a second FDR saving capitalism, democratic socialism leashing and collaring it, or communism razing it. I don’t much care, as long as the benefits are delivered. To me, the key issue — and this is why Medicare for All is always first with me — is the tens of thousands of excess “deaths from despair,” as described by the Case-Deaton study, and other recent studies. That enormous body count makes Medicare for All, at the very least, a moral and strategic imperative. And that level of suffering and organic damage makes the concerns of identity politics — even the worthy fight to help the refugees Bush, Obama, and Clinton’s wars created — bright shiny objects by comparison. Hence my frustration with the news flow — currently in my view the swirling intersection of two, separate Shock Doctrine campaigns, one by the Administration, and the other by out-of-power liberals and their allies in the State and in the press — a news flow that constantly forces me to focus on matters that I regard as of secondary importance to the excess deaths. What kind of political economy is it that halts or even reverses the increases in life expectancy that civilized societies have achieved? I am also very hopeful that the continuing destruction of both party establishments will open the space for voices supporting programs similar to those I have listed; let’s call such voices “the left.” Volatility creates opportunity, especially if the Democrat establishment, which puts markets first and opposes all such programs, isn’t allowed to get back into the saddle. Eyes on the prize! I love the tactical level, and secretly love even the horse race, since I’ve been blogging about it daily for fourteen years, but everything I write has this perspective at the back of it.

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93 comments

  1. Laughingsong

    I’m sorry Lambert, I’ve not worked with Mac since 2009, and even then not much. However on PCs, if one looks up the ASCII code for a character, it can be typed using ALT + ASCII code on a 10-key keypad, by using the Character Map utility. I think Macs have a unicode hex keyboard. I don’t know how to invoke it, but I think it also has an option to For convenience “show input menu in menu bar” to more easily switch the option key back and forth between its MACish modifier role and hex entry.

    Again, I wish I had more direct experience.

    2. Late Introvert

      I 2nd Laughingsong’s suggestion, but on Mac you need a 3rd party macro application like Keyboard Maestro. Set it to type an “f” when you select option-d for instance (right next door).

      I’m old enough to remember using QuicKeys on a Mac FX to output single frames of video treated by Photoshop filters. It would run overnight, and QuicKeys was needed to hit the OK button over and over, LOL.

      1. Late Introvert

        Also, I’ve seen remapped keyboards by accident (I do tech support for seniors).

        System Preferences > Keyboard > Input Sources

        There should just be one entry there: U.S. (unless you choose to also type in other languages).

  2. Louis Fyne

    ““Social media, duct tape are helping people make DIY air purifiers to filter out wildfire smoke””

    the best thing about Corsi boxes is that:

    1. you absolutely know the specs of the filter material;
    2. you know that there will always be some for sale (as opposed to the bespoke ones made for each purifier model);
    3. dirt cheap (for the efficiacy) when compared to purifiers, as long as you can get past the looks.

    2. The Rev Kev

      Just wait till Silicon Valley develops a layer of software for those Corsi boxes that will have to be controlled by an app on your mobile, that will stop working during an update and will fall over altogether if the internet is out.

      1. lambert strether

        Yeah, but how cool is it to have digital advertising flashing on the filters….

  3. Seth A. Miller

    I’m a windows person, so maybe this is unhelpful, but for the time being wouldn’t it be possible to get a separate keyboard and plug it into the USB hole?

    1. hunkerdown

      Lambert will surely be pleased to know that today’s Twitter pseudo-event is #SalesforceAI Day.

      re: keyboard, yes, get any crappy $20 USB QWERTY from your local Worst Buy and plug it in. Yes, it looks funny to have two keyboards on the desk, the display might be a bit further away, and you might prefer a second mouse to reaching so far as the trackpad, but it works and Apple can never* take it away from you.

      * who am I kidding, they can and will take everything that they can get away with, like every other game console manufacturer.

      1. tevhatch

        Get an IBM usb/bluetooth keyboards with the little red stick in the middle and grabbing a mouse becomes a rare event. Acer (use to?) make uSB keyboards with a mousepad in the middle too.

      2. cfraenkel

        This is all a *good* thing. Laptops are horrible ergonomics. Having the screen attached to the keyboard means you’re constantly looking down, meaning neck and shoulder strain. You *should* get a separate mouse / trackball as well to keep from reaching out – the pointing device should be just to the side of the keyboard. Not using the laptop keyboard frees you up to put the laptop on a pile of books (or whatever – a wire storage rack works well) to elevate the top of the screen to be at the same height as your eyes.

        1. tevhatch

          One can go a step further, on laptops that are expected to last for a long time, using a desktop monitor when at home and shutting off the LED display will extend the life of the screen considerably.

  5. Raymond Sim

    “Suprisingly,” say the researchers symptom severity didn’t correlate neatly to observed impact on gut biota.

    I wish I were suprised they’re suprised.

  7. lyman alpha blob

    RE: RFK/more data welcome

    I have purchased but not yet read this book on the topic from PhD researcher and epidemiologist Shanna Swan – Count Down: How Our Modern World Is Threatening Sperm Counts, Altering Male and Female Reproductive Development, and Imperiling the Future of the Human Race

    Some reviews, positive and negative, which I also have not read completely, and some of which point out the study was a meta-analysis of other studies rather than direct new research:

    https://undark.org/2021/04/02/book-review-count-down/

    https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/05/books/review/shanna-swan-count-down.html

    https://www.env-health.org/book-review-count-down-how-our-modern-world-is-threatening-sperm-counts-altering-male-and-female-reproductive-health-and-imperiling-the-future-of-the-human-race-by-dr-s/

    https://www.science20.com/gregory_bond/just_a_dud_swan_book_count_down_alleging_apocalyptic_threat_of_extinction_due_to_chemicals_greatly_disappoints

  8. cnchal

    > “Drowning in Dupes Shoppers will buy anything — except the real thing”

    I found the best dupe” is the standard opening line of millions of dupe videos on TikTok. Delivered in a conspiratorial tone, the phrase suggests that there is some special science behind the dupe-hunting process.
    – – – – – –
    Most dupes that people tout as smart buys on TikTok are just random things they find on Amazon. The company has an affiliate scheme that encourages influencers to plug Amazon products on their socials and direct audiences to their Amazon Storefront to buy those things. When someone buys, the influencer gets a cut.

    Two things stand out. Whip cracking sadists are dupes, and we are going to need lots moar power sucking data centers.

  9. Raymond Sim

    Regarding potentially covid-caused irrationality and anger, while I don’t want to minimize the potential that this could be directly caused by injury to relevant brain regions, I think generalized injury could well have the same appearance. I think people use a lot of their brain power just keeping their cool. When sleep deprived we tend to default to hostility and paranoia.

    My single biggest challenge after my stroke came in coming to terms with the fact that some of my loved ones are jerks. This is something I had been coping with via denial and rationalization, which I have much less capacity for now. Accepting them for who they are was very painful. I imagine a lot of people are struggling with similar challenges right now.

    1. Jeremy Grimm

      Some of my loved ones are jerks too. I have trouble accepting them for who they are because so many of their flaws appear to be dangerously self-destructive, and I care for what happens to my loved ones. I have struggled to prevent my children from learning some very hard lessons from the school of hard knocks. The u.s. Prison Industrial Complex, harsh laws and punishments, and militarized Police have amplified the costs of the least infraction, bad behavior, even merely unwise behaviors.

    1. Yves Smith

      Sorry, this is not a peer reviewed article and intersex is not gender dysphoria. This is very much off point. The next comment that so badly misrepresents the alleged proof will not be approved.

  11. edwin

    Other than the suggestions above, something temporary can be done with global search and replace. Instead of typing f, typing something like jj then doing a global search and replace. That way you only struggle with the f one time.

    1. tricia

      or type something like jj (or blank space, whatever) instead of f and then we all learn- train our brains- to see/substitute “f” for the jj (or whatever you adopt). It shouldn’t be hard to adapt, & good for our old brains!

  12. Kyle

    God, I saw that CNN article about the UPS Strike this morning and about spit my coffee out.

    From someone who is in marketing, I can see through what they are doing – they are framing it as the workers going to cripple the economy.

    Reading the article, they are asking for things like A/C in their work trucks, and UPS came back with “we will give you fans”

    I am waiting for a competent person to be leading the PR/Marketing for these labor unions because, my god, they let big corporations lead everything. They could totally make UPS eat their lunch if they just….punched back with marketing messages….but they won’t because, reasons.

    1. lambert strether

      > we will give you fans

      UPS’s biggest fans are in the union leadership.

      Thanks, I’ll be here all week!

  13. lyman alpha blob

    Request for gardening help!

    I was sitting in my yard around dusk last night and saw the beetles starting to emerge for their annual feast on my yard. Last year they were so bad they chewed up the old leaves on my rhododendron, not just the new tender growth, and if they do it again there won’t be much greenery left on it. I also suspect they are after my blueberry bush, which has had more than the normal leaf damage this year. It’s possible they are also shredding my newly sprouted bean plants, which just poked above ground a few days ago and have been torn up already before they could even get started, although the bean damage could be due to slugs.

    I can see tons of beetle grubs every spring when I turn over the soil, so I think the problem is getting worse every year I fail to contain it. Last year I noticed hundreds of beetles on my rhody, and just a handful on my neighbor’s maybe 30 feet away, so it sure seems like they’re eating up my plants and then reproducing in the ground right underneath them so the next generation doesn’t have to go too far for a meal.

    These are nocturnal beetles of three or four different varieties and while they have the same basic body shape as Japanese beetles, they are definitely not that species. most are sort of a matte red or brownish color. Any tips for eradicating these things with something relatively non-toxic? Me wandering around the yard at night with a flashlight and squashing them like a crazy person really hasn’t done the trick….

    1. Amfortas the hippie

      there are beneficial nematodes that’ll take care of that, over time.
      and there’s always a few chickens..or geese or a couple of ducks.
      you’re description sounds like June Bugs…if so, put a 5 gallon bucket half filled with water under a yard light.
      add a drop or two of dish soap.
      works for grasshoppers, too.
      they’ll fly up towards the light and end up in the water. soap erodes their wax coating and they drown.

      1. Raymond Sim

        June bugs as an actual pest! I always figured the adults must not eat, since there were so many and I never heard complaints.

        1. Amfortas the hippie

          the underground grubs can be particularly destructive to lawns…monocultures are wimpy.
          i catch a few hundred every night to feed to whatever chicks i’m rearing.

      2. lyman alpha blob

        Thanks for the tips. My neighbor does have a half dozen chickens and some quails but she has to keep them all penned or they’d be lunch in a hurry. I see more wildlife cross my yard here in suburbia – hawks, turkeys, fox, opossum, skunks, raccoons, woodchucks – than I do at my folks’ house in the woods. Beetles are going to have to come to the hens.

        I’ll try the soap and water trick. That’s worked for an azalea I have that sawfly caterpillars like to eat as soon as it leaves out. I spray that one with Dr. Bronner’s liquid peppermint and water and it’s really kept the small worms down – coats them and suffocates rather than drowning. Misting doesn’t work on adult beetles though.

        These aren’t June bugs, or at least not the species called that here in NE. Here, June bugs are the big ones around an inch long and I’ve rarely ever seen more than 2-3 at a time, and they’re probably around 5x bigger than the ones eating the fruits of my labor, which are about the same size as Japanese beetles. Whatever they are, I won’t be converting to Jainism today.

    2. Raymond Sim

      My experience is a generation old, and it may be that rotenone isn’t as benign as it was seen back then, but it can be very effective on leaf eaters. I recall some talk about a strain of Bacillus thuringensis that would work on beetles. Rotenone might not be good for critters who’d eat dead beetles but Bt should be okay.

      My grandma used to pay my brother and me to pick Japanese beetles off her roses

      1. lyman alpha blob

        Thanks. My grandfather used to pay us to pick potato bugs off their namesake – we got a couple cents a bug if I remember right, for both the brown and yellow striped beetles and the little red and black larvae.

        1. edwin

          My wife and I remove bugs by hand. My first foray into the asparagus patch this year netted around 100 beetles – into the soapy jar of death. A week later and it’s 7. For things like zucchini and their large flowers we use a dust buster with the nozzle connected to a straw. Of course you have to have the time to do all of this.

          We have started experimenting with nylon netting over our squash & brassicas. If things get real bad we bring out the neem oil. Squash borers are physically removed by slicing open stems (long ways), and removing the worms. Electrical tape is used to bandage the plants afterwords. About half survive.

          We protect against cut worms with tin foil on things like tomatoes. Cut worms are executed with extreme prejudice.

          Colorado potato beetles are hand removed and eggs crushed. Our problems have significantly lessened after our neighbour who heavily sprayed pesticides on his potatoes moved.

          Dichotomous earth is less effective than advertised. Rather than killing things, bugs try to avoid it. Food grade dichotomous earth is cheep at our local co-op. Just don’t inhale.

          We toss snails and white grubs into the lawn from the garden.

    3. Bsn

      There are so many “beetles” and bugs it’s hard to know what you’re trying to eliminate or lessen. A couple things: anti-insect fragrant flowers: marigold, calendula, dill, mint (in pots ’cause it spreads like wildfire). Also plant garlic & onions nearby. Good eats and insects hate them.
      Also, spray leaves of effected plants with lemon scented dish soap cut with water. Doesn’t hurt plants, but only spray a few leaves and see what happens over a couple days to ensure. Being diligent with flashlight at night and killing them does work as it quickly lowers the population. every evening for a while makes a big difference. Try to determine the exact beetle because some of them come from seemingly unrelated moths or flying insects that you can catch with a net before they reproduce. Lastly, call you local extension service and ask what to do. They are always quite helpful and know the various pests specific to your area.
      Chickens are good, but will scrath the heck out of any plants with shallow leaves (rhodies and blueberries for example). Good luck!

      1. lyman alpha blob

        One bug’s enemy is another bug’s breakfast. I tried marigolds for years to keep pests away, only to find my marigold leaves slowly eaten down to the veins over the course of the summer. Turns out earwigs love marigolds, and I’d been breeding them for years. I’ve also had beetles and earwigs devastate my potted mint in the past.

        Soap and water and killing them by hand seem to work best, but only if the numbers aren’t overwhelming.

  14. ambrit

    North American Deep South Maskiergeist Report.
    I traveled across town on the bus and back this morning. The bus driver was wearing a hospital “blue mask.”
    “I have the covid, d— it!” she said. “The company says I have to follow the CDC guidelines and wear this useless piece of s— for five days. Not even a ‘real’ mask. Just this. And then, even if I feel like crap I don’t have to wear anything. Yes, they said I do have to drive the bus while ‘moderately sick.’ You would almost think that someone wants us to infect the riders.”
    Finally, someone almost as cynical as me!
    Several of the riders were obviously suffering from something. Several examples of low energy, pallid faces, heavy coughing. More than a few. Almost half of the riders on two separate trips today. Something ugly is grabbing hold of the population here.
    A distinct lack of cars parked in the usual shopping venue parking lots today. Several usually popular restaurants, such as Raising Cain’s, Applebee’s, Chili’s, etc. were strangely empty during what would have been the lunchtime rush, judging by their parking lots. Not only are people working from home more, but they are therefore dining out at lunchtime much less than before.
    Another sign of business distress is that Harbour Freight ‘extended’ their Parking Lot sale a few extra days this time. Sitting at the bus stop next to the Winn Dixie, the entrance to the local Harbour Freight is close by and plainly visible. The foot traffic going in and out of that place was lackluster at best. Even for a Monday their customer load was pitiful. The grocery store was also thinly populated compared to previous times.
    Phyl said that today’s Heat Index of 101 might have something to do with it. I dunno. We do still have functioning air conditioning. I pity the fools when the air goes out, which it will sooner of later. That’s when the surviving older houses with their passive cooling designs will come back into their own.
    Anyway, I think it is time to break out the stillsuit and check it for fit and function.

    1. Carolinian

      Harbour Freight changed their business model which was based on deflationary times and all China stuff all the time. Actually it could be the business model for much of our retail but some are better at it than others. I hardly ever go to Harbour any more unless they have some weird tool that I need.

    2. Angie Neer

      Ambrit, thanks for the report, and I hope you managed to dodge the infectious aerosols. I’m just a little confused by your quote of the bus driver’s remarks—is she saying that she would have worn a better mask but company policy requires a baggy blue specifically?

      1. ambrit

        Alas, I was too stupid to think to ask that. She did say that the Company supplied the “Baggy Blues.” She specifically said that the Company followed the CDC guidelines. She said it in a most sarcastic manner. She did know what the FLCCC was. She said that the first two days of the infection were equal to the worst flu she had ever had. I noticed that ‘Our Fair State’ was coloured red on the ‘Positivity Chart.’
        I have irrigated my nasopharyngeal sphere twice since returning. I wear the N95 religiously on the bus. “Knocks on wood, (head.)”
        Stay safe.

    1. No RFK Fan

      Came here to post this as well. It’s not in the water, it’s in the soap and plastic pollution….

    2. Objective Ace

      Shanna Swan has also done a number of podcasts if anyone prefers that route. Scary stuff

  16. maria gostrey

    re: rachel maddow letting the cat out of the bag re possible quid pro quo:

    my cat does not do quid pro quo – you give me this & i give you that. my cat does quid pro cat – you give me this.

    to my cats credit, he makes not the slightest pretense that he will give anything in return.

    2. The Rev Kev

      Trump may be many things but he is not a complete idiot. To accept that deal, he would have to trust Biden, the DoJ, and the entire establishment to keep their word. Think about it. Nobody trusts DC about anything these days because of their track record so why would he? If he accepted that deal, then the very next day they would have him on a whole series of new charges like tax evasion, sexual harassment of women, being too close to Putin and maybe being seen to kick a dog once. Anything that would see him being put into prison and it would be charge after charge to see what sticks. For Trump, he is actually safer running for President as it would put of any of those bogus charges for at least four years more.

  17. LawnDart

    (Almost) Daily Derailment(s)

    Crews respond to train derailment on Dace Ave in Sioux City

    The derailment happened around 8 a.m. Monday morning. At least three or four cars have derailed, spilling their contents. The KTIV crew at the scene says it looks like the cars were grain or corn. No tankers seem to be part of the derailment.

    https://www.ktiv.com/2023/06/12/crews-respond-train-derailment-dace-ave-sioux-city/

    Green Line train derailed at Packard’s Corner in Boston; no reports of injuries

    A Green Line train derailed Monday afternoon in Allston, the MBTA said. No one was hurt.

    https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/06/12/metro/green-line-train-derailed-packards-corner-boston-no-reports-injuries/

    Pick your poison:

    Railway Safety Act Should Be Scrapped

    The truth is, despite this tragedy, US railroads are safe and getting safer. Hazmat incidents are down 78% since 2000. Mainline accidents are down 44%, thanks largely to technology upgrades. In this sense, the Railway Safety Act could well be counterproductive. By mandating pointless labor costs, it will impede investment in tools — such as autonomous track inspection — that could be far more effective at preventing accidents.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/06/12/railway-safety-act-is-the-wrong-response-to-east-palestine-derailment/2db5b94e-0921-11ee-8132-a84600f3bb9b_story.html

    Vs.

    As Norfolk Southern Faces NTSB Investigation, Train Derailments Are More Common Than You Might Think

    The Department of Transportation has registered more than 12,400 train derailments over the past decade and of these accidents, roughly 6,600 tank cars were carrying hazardous materials and 348 cars released their contents, according to the Associated Press.

    https://time.com/6260906/train-derailmentments-how-common/

    1. upstater

      The WaPo/Bloomberg editorial is quite something. Good thing it isn’t morning coffee time, I’d have spit it out. The primary complaint is labor…

      “Some 95% of rail traffic in Europe is moved by one-man crews…”, but they fail to mention European freight trains are typically 1km in length (0.62 miles), not 5km (3 miles).

      “It will help unions in their next collective bargaining effort by eliminating a potential negotiating chip, while eroding the benefits that might’ve been achieved through investments in automation.” Obviously the automation in place didn’t prevent East Palestine.

      The Rail Safety Act has already stripped out train length limitations; 200 car, 3 mile long trains remain cool. Technology such as ECP braking on bomb trains or inexpensive electronics to monitor bearings and other car safety elements never were included. It took 30 years to implement Positive Train Control after the NTSB first made the recommendation. The catalystwas the 2008 Chatsworth California headon wreck killed 25 people.

      “The economic deregulation prompted by the Staggers Rail Act of 1980 is thought to have been responsible for 89% of the sharp decline in accidents that followed. Freed from costly mandates, the railroads invested in upgrades and innovation.” It must be noted that deregulation allowed railroads to largely abandon carload freight and move almost exclusively to single-commodity unit trains and containers. There was a huge reduction in switching at local industries, as long cuts of cars go from single orgins and destinations. Thus, there is far less opportunity for errors. There have been a significant cost shifting and environmental consequences because of increased reliance on trucking.

      When WaPo and Bloomberg issue their position look for the Rail Safety Act not to get a floor vote. Of course Amtrak Joe and Mayo Pete are MIA on Rail Safety.

    1. Nikkikat

      I’m so glad Hotez is being unmasked so to speak. Lots of info on this guy in RFKS book.

  19. bobbo

    Lambert, you could try a key rebinding tool as a temporary solution. A quick poke around turned up Karabiner-Elements for macOS which is public domain and up to date. Seems to have a nice drag and drop interface – I use AutoHotKey on Win which lets me script rebinds once I’ve banged my head against a wall enough. I’m jelly. Typically I rebind Caps Lock or keys redundant to the program I’m using.

    https://karabiner-elements.pqrs.org/
    Change a key to another key (instruction manual)

  20. marku52

    Atrazine is a well-known endocrine disruptor.
    “Endocrine glands, distributed throughout the body, produce the hormones that act as signaling molecules after release into the circulatory system. The human body is dependent on hormones for a healthy endocrine system, which controls many biological processes like normal growth, fertility, and reproduction. ”
    “Atrazine is one of the most commonly applied herbicides in the world, often used to control weeds in corn, sorghum, and sugarcane crops.”

    https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/endocrine/index.cfm

  21. tevhatch

    Well, well, The tool Trump used to hang Julian Assange out to rot has been turned on Trump himself. I would laugh except I think often about Julian and his family.

    1. Carolinian

      That thought has occurred to some of the rest of us. Trump’s great virtue of not being them doesn’t mean he didn’t often act like them.

      But Trump at least has a bit of common sense, unlike the current, barely there, occupant.

  23. Carolinian

    Kunstler–this ties in with this morning’s downsizing America discussion.

    https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/were-not-finished/

    I used to love to go camping–motor camping but not in a giant RV and with as little equipment as possible. There’s an appeal to simplifying your life if only for a few days. I do think the doom and gloom crowd undersell American ingenuity, something that may still exist. Coping has always been a skill.

  24. Will

    Not an AI generated political video yet but here we have AI generated photos for campaign website of Toronto mayoral candidate

    https://twitter.com/BenSpurr/status/1668356551864733698

    Have a fair number of dolts in the running and given the (relatively) measly sums involved in Canadian politics in general and municipal elections specifically, I have high hopes for a cash strapped fool putting out an AI generated campaign video. Unlikely that it would even come close to the horrors of this but a guy can dream…

  25. JBird4049

    >>>“Lawsuits against state can be filed in only two counties under measure signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker

    Can anyone explain what brought this on and why doesn’t the ruling party believe that this will not blowup in their faces? Do they have legitimate complaints or is it a power grab?

    1. marym

      The reason given was to prevent venue shopping. What brought it on was Republican venue shopping to oppose Pritzker’s pandemic restrictions and recently enacted gun laws.

      1. Late Introvert

        That is not going to end well. Dem’rats always reach for a gun that will be pointed back at them 10x. Sigh.

  28. jonboinAR

    I hope it ‘s alright with the mods if I link to a forum post over at MOA. It’s from the user “Scorpion”. In it I he describes what I believe could well be the real intentions of those at the top of our social/economic/political food chain. These are not so well described as insane, as I thought, but fairly clear-headed, just malevolent.

    Go to post 315, by “Scorpion”. It captures a lot of what’s been happening with Russia, Ukraine, China, here at home, fairly elegantly, if broadly, I think. How much is really true, I’m far from being well informed enough to know.

    1. Melissa

      It’s a good comment. It’s basically saying, “Whom the gods would destroy, first they make insane” and suggesting that Ukraine is a continuation of Afghanistan as a way for the global elite to destroy the western world.

      “The goal is not to completely subjugate Afghanistan Ukraine. The goal is to use Afghanistan Ukraine to wash money out of the tax bases of the United States, out of the tax bases of European countries, through Afghanistan Ukraine and back into the hands of a transnational security elite. That is the goal, i.e. the goal is to have an endless war, not a successful war.”

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IGU_7alJ80

      Commenter Scorpion also makes the point – obvious by now – that “the script may be changed” due to popular pressure. Meaning there is another script ready. And another one…

      https://tinyurl.com/yxzshv87

      1. Lambert Strether Post author

        > Commenter Scorpion also makes the point – obvious by now – that “the script may be changed” due to popular pressure. Meaning there is another script ready. And another one…

        I would reframe this slightly. Recall that (IMNSHO) the ruling class, including global members of the ruling elite, organize their affairs (i.e., our affairs) into portfolios, options which are not all simultaneously exercised. If you reconceptualize “script” into “project requiring capital, including social capital in the form of human assets, intellectual property, playbooks, etc.”) it’s easy to see how a “script” would be a portfolio item. The dominant scripts in any given field would result from events-driven factional infighting in the ruling class, as new factions and new portfolios became dominant, not as a result of a preset master sequence. (This becomes really obvious when you think about the Pritzker clan.)

        1. jonboinAR

          When I speculate about the sources of the images I see projected onto my cave wall, your portfolio model makes sense. These images don’t seem to progress in a completely synchronized way, but they definitely seem to trend in particular directions. The portfolio model sort of has the flexibility that might account for the flow of it over some time.

    3. Jorge

      The elites are a mob (not a Mafia, but a disorganized rabble) and are as smart collectively as any other mob.

  29. Tom Stone

    I’d like to publicly thank Jack Smith for the best laugh I’ve had all year.

    “One Law for all Americans”, would that be the “Law of the Bungle” ?

  30. kareninca

    A highly-vaccinated guy in my ultra liberal church just got back from a trendy-locale European vacation. In the sharing time last Sunday he told us that the trip was great once he and his wife got over the covid they caught en route.

    I attend via zoom. Even via zoom I could see that he didn’t look all that well.

    (No, no-one masks at church anymore. I couldn’t attend in person if I wanted, even if masked, since the unvaccinated are not allowed to attend in person. I could be annoyed by this, but actually I don’t want to attend in person; I think my co-religionists are nearly all irrational viral vectors).

    1. The Rev Kev

      Seems like a very long time ago that you were talking about holding churches services with people in cars like a drive-in instead of in pews.

    2. Lambert Strether Post author

      > no-one masks at church anymore.

      New meaning for the “Kiss of Peace“, I suppose….

      Adding, I assume by “ultra-liberal” we also mean upper class. It would be interesting to know if working class but not Evangelical churches had the same practice.

      1. kareninca

        Members of a black church practice their singing next door to where I volunteer. I believe that they are working class, and although I assume they evangelize, they would not be counted as “Evangelicals.” They are inside, singing, in a large group, once a week, and they are not wearing masks.

  31. kareninca

    Murthy’s “Social Connection” diagram, like the billion-dollar “12 symptoms of long covid” guidance, was something that could have been thrown together by a lazy mid-wit junior high school student.

    1. Late Introvert

      Idiocracy would have been more prescient if only Mike Judge had included a virus back-story.

  32. JustTheFacts

    @Lambert: Butterfly Keyboards can be fixed using (clean) compressed air: point the air nozzle at the base of the key, and try to blow the dirt out that is preventing the key from being pressed down. If that doesn’t work, someone will have to disassemble it and fix it.

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