2:00PM Water Cooler 5/9/2024

By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Bird Song of the Day

Fulvous-faced Scrub-Tyrant, Hacienda Limon, Cajamarca, Peru. “Songs near dawn from a bird moving low and hidden in dense roadside dry scrub.” I know this is not a scrub robin, but who could resist a “Fulvous-faced Scrub-Tyrant”?!

* * *

In Case You Might Miss…

(2) Antisemitism Awareness Act challenged by professors

(1) Trump’s Bragg trial rolls on.

(3) Cheese sauce trick

* * *

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

“Nearly 700 Jewish professors call on Biden not to sign controversial antisemitism legislation” [The Hill]. “A group of nearly 700 Jewish college faculty signed a letter to President Biden on Wednesday encouraging him not to back the controversial Antisemitism Awareness Act. The academics took issue with the act’s use of the International Holocaust Awareness Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which has raised concerns that legitimate criticisms of the state of Israel could be seen as antisemitic under the bill. The bill easily passed the House last week, though 21 Republicans and 70 Democrats voted against it, with many voicing the same concerns as the faculty. ‘Criticism of the state of Israel, the Israeli government, policies of the Israeli government, or Zionist ideology is not — in and of itself — antisemitic,’ the letter to Biden and Senate leaders reads. ‘We accordingly urge our political leaders to reject any effort to codify into federal law a definition of antisemitism that conflates antisemitism with criticism of the state of Israel, it continues. By using the IHRA definition in federal law, the letter claims, the bill could ;delegitimize and silence Jewish Americans — among others — who advocate for Palestinian human rights or otherwise criticize Israeli policies.'” • I guess we’ll see what the Israel Lobby thinks, but good for them.

2024

Less than a year to go!

RCP Poll Averages, May 3:

National results now moving Trump’s way. But some of the Swing States (more here) are now moving Biden’s way, including Michigan and Wisconsin, which is no doubt why Trump visited them on his day off. Pennsylvania, OTOH, just leaned to Trump. Of course, it goes without saying that these are all state polls, therefore bad. Now, if either candidate starts breaking in points, instead of tenths of a point….

* * *

Trump (R) (Bragg/Merchan) “NY vs. Trump: DA Bragg’s web of deceit starts to unravel” [FOX]. “Back on the stand Thursday was the Beverly Hills attorney who negotiated payments for two women who demanded exorbitant cash from Trump in exchange for their silence about purported affairs. But the witness, Keith Davidson, admitted he had no contact whatsoever with the defendant and never met him. He dealt exclusively with Trump’s ex-lawyer, Cohen, who appeared to be acting entirely on his own. Nothing in his testimony involved crimes allegedly committed by Trump…. If Bragg thought that Davidson would be a stellar witness for the prosecution, it may have backfired. He refused to call the Stormy Daniels payment “hush money or a payoff” while insisting that its proper definition is “consideration.” That is a fancy legal term in contract law that simply means an exchange of benefits. Here, it was compensation in return for a non-disclosure agreement. Booking it as a legal expense would, therefore, be manifestly proper.”

Trump (R) (Bragg/Merchan) “Trump hush money trial live updates: Stormy Daniels concludes testimony” [Associated Press]. “Daniels testified that she never spoke with Trump about the $130,000 hush money payment she received from Cohen and had no knowledge of whether Trump was aware of or involved in the transaction. ‘You have no personal knowledge about his involvement in that transaction or what he did or didn’t do?’ Trump lawyer Susan Necheles asked. ‘Not directly, no,’ Daniels responded. Upon further questioning, Daniels noted that she didn’t negotiate directly with Cohen, either, but that her lawyer at the time, Keith Davidson did. Necheles used the questions in the final moments of her cross-examination to underscore that Daniels had no knowledge of any of the allegations underlying Trump’s charges in the case, that he falsified his company’s records to hide the true nature of reimbursement payments to Cohen. Daniels said that she knew the charges involved business records, but when asked if she knew anything about Trump’s business records, she acknowledged: ‘I know nothing about his business records. No. Why would I?'”

Trump (R) (Bragg/Merchan): “Questions about Trump’s hush money criminal trial, answered” [The Hill]. “Question: Why do you and others who publish about it keep calling this a “hush money” trial when it’s really about election interference? Could that many people be trying to make it sound less serious than it is, or do news outlets have small imaginations and vocabularies? Answer: Hi this is Zach, I’ve tended to refer to this case as the “hush money case” in headlines and the beginning of stories because when I’ve heard from readers (as well as when friends ask me about it), that’s the name they know it by. When I say “election interference” case, people usually assume I’m talking about Trump’s indictments in D.C. or Georgia. That being said, as you allude to, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) in recent months has tried to shift the narrative to election interference. Some of that seems to be a realization that Trump’s other criminal cases are unlikely to go to trial before the election, so Bragg’s case is now jumping out in front. But Trump, unlike in those other cases, isn’t actually charged with any election law violations here. So we’ve kept with “hush money” to use as shorthand in headlines and then explain Bragg’s “election interference” narrative throughout our stories.” • As I show here, Judge Merchan took the National Enquirer’s Trump-friendly “catch and release” program off the table as an object offense (that is, as an additional change that converts the business records misdemeanors into felonies, of they were committed in service of that charge). And that’s the only part of the case that a dull normal would construe as election interference, and even then it’s a stretch.

Trump (R) (Bragg/Merchan): “Stormy Daniels’ Turn as a Witness Brings Home What This Trial Is About” [Salon]. And the deck: “Imagine if this story had come out right after the Access Hollywood tape.” Fortunately, we don’t convict defendants on the basis of imagined events. One revealing passage: “‘It’s fucking insane what the jury heard this morning,’ said one journalist upon return after lunch. What they heard was a full account of Trump’s encounter with Daniels that laid out in precise detail every aspect of the meeting.” Which I won’t excerpt. More: “From this point on, Merchan kept a much tighter leash on the direct examination, which had strayed way beyond what the judge said he had intended.” • Oh. So Merchan can’t control his own court? Really?

Trump (R) (Smith/Cannon): “Judge Cannon Just Put Final Nail in the Coffin of Classified Docs Case” [The New Republic]. That’s a damn shame. More: “Cannon says the case must be delayed because of the number of pretrial motions that remain unresolved. There’s just one problem with that justification: The motions remain unresolved because she has failed to resolve them. Cannon has dragged her feet and given concessions to Trump’s legal team at seemingly every opportunity thus far. The latest decision means that Trump is all but certain to avoid trial in the classified documents case until after the November election. If he wins, he could instruct the Department of Justice to drop the case altogether or even try to preemptively pardon himself. Cannon has set two hearings for May 22 on Trump’s motions to dismiss the trial entirely.

Trump (R) (Smith/Cannon): “Trump Judge Indefinitely Postpones Documents Case Trial” [Bloomberg]. “The case has been bogged down for months and the trial date was expected to be moved as the two sides battled over pre-trial motions and Cannon held off issuing rulings that would be necessary before a jury could be impaneled. Cannon has come under intense criticism for failing to make timely decisions and for issuing rulings that favor Trump, increasing speculation that she never intended to move the case to trial this year.”

Trump (R) (Smith/Cannon): “Democrats cry foul over Judge Cannon’s handling of Trump documents case” [The Hill]. “The decision sparked outrage among Senate Democrats, who say Cannon has encumbered the trial by unnecessarily raising complex problems of law.” • Oh, the humanity!

Trump (R): “The DOJ’s Doctored Crime Scene Photo of Mar-a-Lago Raid” [Julie Kelly, Declassified]. “A few weeks after the armed FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago in August 2022, the Department of Justice released a stunning photograph depicting alleged contraband seized from Donald Trump’s Palm Beach estate that day; the image showed colored sheets representing scary classification levels attached to files purportedly discovered in Trump’s private office. Included as a government exhibit to oppose Trump’s lawsuit requesting a special master to vet the 13,000 items taken from his residence, the crime scene pic immediately went viral—just as Attorney General Merrick Garland, who authorized the unprecedented raid, intended.” But as it turns out: “New court filings in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s espionage and obstruction case against Trump and two co-defendants conclusively demonstrate that the government used the cover sheets to deceive the public as well as the court. The photo was a stunt, and one that adds more fuel to this dumpster-fire case. Jay Bratt, who was the lead DOJ prosecutor on the investigation at the time and now is assigned to Smith’s team, described the photo this way in his August 30, 2022 response to Trump’s special master lawsuit: ‘[Thirteen] boxes or containers contained documents with classification markings, and in all, over one hundred unique documents with classification markings…were seized. Certain of the documents had colored cover sheets indicating their classification status. (Emphasis added.) See, e.g., Attachment F (redacted FBI photograph of certain documents and classified cover sheets recovered from a container in the ‘45 office’).’ The DOJ’s clever wordsmithing, however, did not accurately describe the origin of the cover sheets. In what must be considered not only an act of doctoring evidence but willfully misleading the American people into believing the former president is a criminal and threat to national security, agents involved in the raid attached the cover sheets to at least seven files to stage the photo. Classified cover sheets were not ‘recovered’ in the container, contrary to Bratt’s declaration to the court…. [B]efore the official cover sheets were used as placeholder, agents apparently used them as props. FBI agents took it upon themselves to paperclip the sheets to documents—something evident given the uniform nature of how each cover sheet is clipped to each file in the photo—laid them on the floor, and snapped a picture for political posterity.” And it gets worse: “But Jack Smith might have bigger problems. During the raid, agents took a box in its entirety if it contained papers with classified markings; the box usually contained other items, which is how the FBI ended up with so many of Trump’s personal belongings. So, in order to flag the location of the alleged classified record in the box, agents, as Bratt noted, used the cover sheets as placeholders. (The classified records were then placed in a separate secure file.) But now defense attorneys claim, and the special counsel concedes, that some placeholders do not match the relevant document.”

* * *

Trump (R): “Donald Trump to Attend Fundraiser on Day of Barron’s Graduation” [Newsweek]. “Donald Trump is scheduled to give the keynote address at the Minnesota Republican Party’s annual Lincoln Reagan Dinner on May 17, the same day he requested off in court to attend his son Barron Trump’s graduation ceremony. On April 30, Judge Merchan, who is presiding over the former president’s Stormy Daniels hush money case, announced the court wouldn’t sit on May 17, allowing Trump to attend the event. But the former president is also due to speak at the Minnesota GOP event on the same day, according to the KFGO radio station…. The graduation ceremony is due to start in the midmorning, according to fact-checking website PolitiFact. While it is unclear exactly how long it will last Trump, 77, who owns a private jet, may well be able to make it to the dinner and attend both events.” • that’s my Dad!

* * *

Haley (R):

I voted in the Indiana primary today.

Nikkie Haley took 22% of the Republican vote today in Indiana and my wife and I voted for her. Yes I know she is no longer running…

I know many of you think former President Trump will win in November; however, I disagree with you.

— Mike Sylvester, CPA (@MikeSyl36625988) May 8, 2024

For more on IN, see below.

* * *

Kennedy (I): “R.F.K. Jr. Says Doctors Found a Dead Worm in His Brain” [New York Times]. “In 2010, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was experiencing memory loss and mental fogginess so severe that a friend grew concerned he might have a brain tumor….. Several doctors noticed a dark spot on the younger Mr. Kennedy’s brain scans and concluded that he had a tumor, he said in a 2012 deposition [he gave during divorce proceedings from his second wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy] reviewed by The New York Times. [Later, Kennedy] received a call from a doctor at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital who had a different opinion: Mr. Kennedy, he believed, had a dead parasite in his head. The doctor believed that the abnormality seen on his scans ‘was caused by a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died,’ Mr. Kennedy said in the deposition…. Now an independent presidential candidate, the 70-year-old Mr. Kennedy has portrayed his athleticism and relative youth as an advantage over the two oldest people to ever seek the White House… He has gone to lengths to appear hale… A camera crew was at his side while he lifted weights, shirtless, at an outdoor gym in Venice Beach…. Still, over the years, he has faced serious health issues, some previously undisclosed, including the apparent parasite…. About the same time he learned of the parasite, he said, he was also diagnosed with mercury poisoning, most likely from ingesting too much fish containing the dangerous heavy metal, which can cause serious neurological issues…. ‘I have cognitive problems, clearly,’ he said in the 2012 deposition. ‘I have short-term memory loss, and I have longer-term memory loss that affects me.’ In the interview with The Times [this winter’, he said he had recovered from the memory loss and fogginess and had no aftereffects from the parasite, which he said had not required treatment. Asked last week if any of Mr. Kennedy’s health issues could compromise his fitness for the presidency, Stefanie Spear, a spokeswoman for the Kennedy campaign, told The Times, ‘That is a hilarious suggestion, given the competition.'” • Commentary:

I offer to eat 5 more brain worms and still beat President Trump and President Biden in a debate.

— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) May 8, 2024

2024 has been quite a year so far, but I confess I didn’t have literal brain worms on my Bingo card. (Also, it sounds like the worm was smallish, and encysted itself, if that’s a word; confirmed below. In other words, not serious, although conducive to a headline. In fact, it almost seems as if this is a very sophisticated version of the pervasive Democrat trope that all their opponents are stupider than they are.)

Kennedy (I): “You May Have a Brain Worm Like RFK JR. and Not Even Know it” [Daily Beast]. “‘The bottom line is, no, this would not cause lasting effects on someone’s mental abilities,’ Dr. Philip Budge, M.D., PhD, a tropical diseases specialist at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, told The Daily Beast. ‘The worm in question does not ‘eat’ brain, regardless of what he says his prior doctor said. Rather, it forms a cyst that displaces a small amount of brain. When the cyst dies there is some inflammation that can transiently affect brain function but should not cause long-term consequences.’… In an email on Wednesday, Kennedy campaign press secretary Stefanie Spear said Kennedy “traveled extensively in Africa, South America, and Asia in his work as an environmental advocate, and in one of those locations contracted a parasite. The issue was resolved more than 10 years ago, and he is in robust physical and mental health.” • I can see Trump making up a nickname for Kennedy based on this; it would be sort of amazing if he took the high road and showed some compassion.

* * *

Kennedy (I): Asking for my vote:

The situation in Ukraine is on the brink of calamitous escalation. Do the military imperialists in Washington and their lackeys in Europe have any idea the danger they are courting? They are conducting foreign policy as if it were a game of “chicken”:

1. British Foreign…

— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) May 7, 2024

Kennedy (I): Cheeky (1):

BREAKING: Robert Kennedy Jr. has challenged Donald Trump to a debate at the Libertarian national convention, as they both will already be attending.

Kennedy wrote on X in letter format to Trump, “I’m grateful to you for calling attention to the rigged polling methodologies that… pic.twitter.com/y0QH0jLCbF

— Christian Movick (@ChristianM_74) May 7, 2024

Kennedy would be tougher for Trump than Clinton or BIden, that’s for sure.

Kennedy (I) Cheeky (2):

President Trump: One of the issues I hope to cover in our debate is your decision to lock down the country during Covid. With your lockdowns, you and President Biden shuttered our churches and stores and created 500 new billionaires in 500 days at the expense of everyone else.… https://t.co/mQwQ1OIuO8

— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) May 8, 2024

* * *

IN: “Congresswoman Spartz, who does not support aid to Ukraine, wins Republican primary” [Ukrainska Pravda]. “Spartz, the first and only Ukrainian-born congresswoman, previously supported providing aid to Kyiv. But on the eve of the primaries, she changed her position and voted against the transfer of the US$61 million aid to Ukraine. Spartz claimed that her loyalty was primarily to America and wanted the US-Mexico border policy to be included in the aid package. The election in the northern suburbs of Indianapolis was partly a test of whether Spartz’s manoeuvres would pay off. Her competitors widely shared her position, including state representative Chuck Goodrich, who borrowed US$4.6 million for the campaign. Goodrich attacked Spartz for her past support for Ukraine, saying she puts ‘Ukraine first.'” • Hmm.

OH: “Ohio lawmakers are at odds over effort to ensure Biden appears on November ballot” [NBC]. “An effort to ensure that President Joe Biden is on Ohio’s general election ballot stalled Wednesday in the Legislature, raising the likelihood of legal action to resolve the issue. In a party-line vote, the Republican-controlled state Senate advanced a bill that would relax a pre-convention deadline for Democrats to certify Biden as their nominee — while also outlawing foreign contributions to state ballot measure campaigns. The attachment of the latter provision means the state Senate bill conflicts with a state House fix that was introduced this week, which included no such conditions. The House version would allow Biden’s name to appear on the ballot while also allowing more time and flexibility for political parties to certify presidential nominees in future elections. After the state Senate voted on its measure Wednesday, the Republican-led House adjourned without considering either version.”

PA:

📊 Pennsylvania GE: @muhlenberg_poll

President
🟥 Trump 44% [+3]
🟦 Biden 41% [-1]
—
🟦 Biden 35%
🟥 Trump 35%
🟨 RFK Jr 18%
—
Senate
🟦 Casey (inc) 45%
🟥 McCormick 41%
—
Generic Ballot
🟦 DEM 45%
🟥 GOP 44%
—
President Biden
🟢 Approve 35% [+1]
🔴 Disapprove 57% [+4]… pic.twitter.com/apWholYWJc

— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) May 7, 2024

Holy moley! Kennedy at 18% in the swingiest of swing states? What if RFK 18% 35% Trump 35% Biden turns into (say) RFK 25% (+7), Trump 31% (-4) Biden 32% (-3)?

Republican Funhouse

“Johnson defeats attempt to end his speakership” [Politico]. “Speaker Mike Johnson beat Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s attempt to end his speakership. The House voted overwhelmingly to table the so-called motion to vacate, with 11 Republicans voting to move forward on the attempt, including Greene. But support from a large swath of Democrats helped Johnson defeat it. It’s still unclear if Greene or other Johnson critics will force another ouster vote before the end of the year — with the Georgia Republican leaving the door open as she left the Capitol. But Wednesday’s vote marks a victory for Johnson, letting him avoid the same fate as his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, who was ejected from the speakership in October. ‘Hopefully this is the end of the personality politics and the frivolous character assassination that has defined 118th Congress,’ Johnson said after Greene’s effort failed. ‘It’s regrettable.’ Greene’s threat has hovered over the House for more than six weeks, when she first introduced her resolution but didn’t immediately trigger a vote. Instead, she held it over Johnson’s head as he navigated a controversial spy program and tens of billions of dollars in new Ukraine aid through Congress. He was able to muscle both through with Democratic help, despite fierce opposition from his right flank.” • With Democrat help? That’s not “muscle” in my book.

Democrats en Déshabillé

“Top senators believe the US secretly recovered UFOs” [The Hill]. “Has the U.S. government secretly retrieved exotic craft of ‘non-human‘ origin? Newly declassified documents, along with extraordinary legislation, illustrate how two successive Democratic Senate majority leaders appear to have believed so… Startling as it may be, the notion that shadowy elements of the U.S. government or defense contractors secretly possess retrieved UFOs is treated as fact in the documents… [T]he Reid- and Lieberman-backed proposal included an ‘Oral History Initiative’ to interview a pre-identified ‘list of retired, previously highly placed government, armed services, contractor, and intelligence community individuals’ with knowledge of the ‘location of advanced aerospace technology and biological samples.’ Even though the Department of Homeland Security’s top scientist was advocating for the establishment of the UFO program and the ‘very serious science involved with’ it, department leadership ultimately quashed the proposal in late 2011. More recently, Schumer and a bipartisan group of five other senators introduced extraordinary legislation alleging the existence of surreptitious “legacy programs” that retrieve and seek to reverse-engineer UFOs of “non-human” origin. In eyebrow-raising comments on the Senate floor, Schumer said the government ‘has gathered a great deal of information about [UFOs] over many decades but has refused to share it with the American people.'” • Perhaps the aliens aren’t as dumb as the alien in Harry Turtledove’s The Road Not Taken.

Realignment and Legitimacy

“Brown, Democracy, and Foot Voting” [George Mason Legal Studies Research Paper No. LS 24-12]. “Traditional assessments of Brown’s relationship to democracy and popular control of government should be augmented by considering the ways it enhanced citizens’ ability to ‘vote with their feet’ as well as at the ballot box. Brown played a valuable role in reinforcing foot voting, and this has important implications for our understanding of the decision and its legacy. Part I of the article summarizes the relationship between foot voting and ballot box voting, and how the former has important advantages over the latter as a mechanism of political choice. Relative to ballot box voting, foot voting offers individuals and families greater opportunities to make decisive, well-informed choices. It also has special advantages for minority groups, including Blacks. Part II considers traditional attempts to reconcile Brown and democracy, through arguments that the decision was actually ‘representation-reinforcing.’ While each has its merits, they also have significant limitations. Among other flaws, they often do not apply well to the Brown case itself, which famously originated in a challenge to segregation in Topeka, Kansas, a state in which – unlike most of the South – Blacks had long had the right to vote. Part III explains how expanding our understanding of Brown to include foot voting opportunities plugs the major holes in traditional efforts to reconcile the decision and democratic choice. Among other advantages, the foot-voting rationale for Brown applies regardless of whether racial minorities have voting rights, regardless of whether segregation laws are motivated by benign or malevolent motives, and regardless of whether the targeted ethnic or racial groups can form political coalitions with others, or not. In Part IV, I discuss the implications of the foot-voting justification of Brown for judicial review of other policies that inhibit foot voting, particularly in cases where those policies have a history of illicit racial motivations. The most significant of these is exclusionary zoning.” • Hadn’t realized there was a discussion of how to, or whether, to “reconcile the [Brown vs. Board of Education] decision and democratic choice.” Still, the concept of “foot voting” is interesting, especially in the context of The Big Sort.

Pandemics

“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

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Covid Resources, United States (National): Transmission (CDC); Wastewater (CDC, Biobot; includes many counties; Wastewater Scan, includes drilldown by zip); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker” (in IA, but national data). “Infection Control, Emergency Management, Safety, and General Thoughts” (especially on hospitalization by city).

Lambert here: Readers, thanks for the collective effort. To update any entry, do feel free to contact me at the address given with the plants. Please put “COVID” in the subject line. Thank you!

Resources, United States (Local): 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 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 (wastewater); BC, Vancouver (wastewater).

Hat tips to helpful 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, LL, Michael King, KF, LaRuse, mrsyk, MT, MT_Wild, otisyves, Petal (6), RK (2), RL, RM, Rod, square coats (11), tennesseewaltzer, Tom B., Utah, Bob White (3).

Stay safe out there!

* * *

Airborne Transmission

“Punch-up at 30,000ft: Shocking moment two men brawl on flight to San Francisco after ‘one of them took the other’s seat to get away from another passenger’s constant coughing'” [Daily Mail]. “The fight is said to have broke out after one of the men became upset by a passenger next to him who was constantly coughing. He then took it upon himself to change seats and went to find an empty one. He sat down, but several minutes later, the seat’s original occupant returned. An ensuing row quickly erupted into a violent brawl and cabin crew members had to put themselves between the two men to break it up.” • That is the whole focus of the story. Meanwhile, the cougher continued to infect the entire plane, and nobody, especially including the cabin crew, thought to tell him to mask up.

“The Nasty Truth About ‘Poo Plumes’ — And How To Protect Yourself From Them” [HuffPo]. “After using lasers to map toilet plumes, scientists confirmed that they can launch as high as six feet in the air and the spray can land as far as six feet from the bowl.” • And let’s not forget about the aerosols!

Maskstravaganza

Handy mask-sizing chart:

Masks for The Smallest Toddlers to Young Children to Older Children, Teens & Small Adults

This chart is sorted by vertical mask length, but fit based on 3D geometry of multiple attributes. Therefore fit testing is essential.

Green masks have headstraps pic.twitter.com/gMXUM9nKLP

— Parenting Mishmash ۗۗۗۗۗۗۗۗۗۗۗۗۗۗۗۗۗۗۗۗۗۗۗۗۗۗۗۗۗ (@ParentMishmash) May 8, 2024

Elite Maleficence

They knew. All along:

I remember this… because I was invited to WHO headquarters in Geneva in 2021. They opened the windows for me when I came. All while they refused to admit that COVID is airborne to the general public. Someday I’ll share the details. https://t.co/ve9rQEFKHX

— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) May 8, 2024

They just didn’t want you to know. (See NC here for Walensky and Jha.)

Four years:

The @WHO airborne saga :

Ep.1, March 2020: "COVID-19 is not airborne"

Ep.2 May 2020: Let's improve the ventilation system at our headquarters (one never knows)

Ep.3 March 2021: Roadmap to indoor ventilation

Ep.4 March 2024: COVID-19 is airborne, let's clarify the terminology pic.twitter.com/hLuqlBCvDI

— LET'S AIR / NOUS AÉRONS (@nousaerons) May 9, 2024

That’s a lot of deaths.

Meanwhile, WHO has learned absolutely nothing:

MERS-CoV is an airborne virus, but again, for these recent cases, @WHO advises just contact/droplet precautions! 🤷‍♂️

Airborne precautions only for “aerosol generating procedures.”
Know that talking generates more aerosols than most of these AGPs.

Will they never learn? https://t.co/TPbRFYIxcs pic.twitter.com/0xykwMfKPa

— Maarten De Cock (@mdc_martinus) May 8, 2024

* * *

Lambert here: Patient readers, I’m going to have to rethink this beautifully formatted table. Looks like Biobot data still functions, CDC variant data functions, ER visits are dead, New York hospitalization seems to be dead since 5/1, when CDC stopped mandatory hospital data collection, Walgreens functions, Cleveland Clinic functions, CDC traveler’s data functions, New York Times death data has stopped. (Note that the two metrics the hospital-centric CDC cared about, hospitalization and deaths, have both gone down). Ideally I would replace hospitalization and death data, but I’m not sure how. I might also expand the wastewater section to include (yech) Verily data, H5N1 if I can get it. Suggestions and sources welcome.

TABLE 1: Daily Covid Charts

Cases
National[1] Biobot May 6:	Regional[2] Biobot May 6:
Variants[3] CDC April 27	Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC March 23
Hospitalization
New York[5] New York State, data May 1:	National [6] CDC April 27:
Positivity
National[7] Walgreens May 6:	★ Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic May 4:
Travelers Data
Positivity[9] CDC April 15:	Variants[10] CDC April 15:
Deaths[11]
Weekly deaths New York Times March 16:	Percent of deaths due to Covid-19 New York Times March 16:

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] (Biobot) Our curve has now flattened out at a level far above valleys under Trump. Not a great victory. Note also the area “under the curve,” besides looking at peaks. That area is larger under Biden than under Trump, and it seems to be rising steadily if unevenly.

[2] (Biobot) No backward revisons….

[3] (CDC Variants) KP.2 has entered the chat, at least in the model. Commentary:

What CDC projected last week was completely incorrect, not even close to what came to fruition, their forecasting ability is nonexistent, this entire narrative is #broken pic.twitter.com/E1p8yEIa3p

— Justin Lee (@DailyJLee) May 3, 2024

As I commented: “Surprise!” (Now I can’t find it, but I recall tracking a CDC model of infection at the national level because I knew it would fail, and it did, spectacularly, missing IIRC Omicron.)

[4] (ER) CDC seems to have killed this off, since the link is broken, I think in favor of this thing. I will try to confirm. UPDATE Yes, leave it to CDC to kill a page, and then announce it was archived a day later. And heaven forfend CDC should explain where to go to get equivalent data, if any. I liked the ER data, because it seemed really hard to game.

[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Looks to me like the chart is updating, but the data is not, since CDC made hospital data voluntary on May 1. I suppose to a tame epidemiologist it looks like “endemicity,” but to me it looks like another tranche of lethality.

[6] (Hospitalization: CDC) Still down. “Maps, charts, and data provided by CDC, updates weekly for the previous MMWR week (Sunday-Saturday) on Thursdays (Deaths, Emergency Department Visits, Test Positivity) and weekly the following Mondays (Hospitalizations) by 8 pm ET†”.

[7] (Walgreens) Slight uptick.

[8] (Cleveland) Leveling out.

[9] (Travelers: Posivitity) Flattens.

[10] (Travelers: Variants) JN.1 dominates utterly. Still no mention of KP.2

[11] Looks like the Times isn’t reporting death data any more? Maybe I need to go back to The Economist….

Stats Watch

Employment Situation: “United States Initial Jobless Claims” [Trading Economics].

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Shipping: “The federal investigation of the crash of a containership into a bridge outside the Port of Baltimore is taking a dark turn” [Logistics Report, Wall Street Journal] “Criminal investigators are looking at whether the crew or companies behind the vessel violated a centuries-old seaman’s manslaughter statute in the collision that killed six workers. The WSJ’s Costas Paris reports the statute cites neglect or misconduct by a ship’s officer or crew that leads to death and can also be applied to the companies that own or charter a vessel. A focus of the probe has been on electrical issues the ship had at dock with power to refrigerated containers.”

Tech: “Meet AdVon, the AI-Powered Content Monster Infecting the Media Industry” [Futurism]. “We first heard of AdVon last year, after staff at Gannett noticed product reviews getting published on the website of USA Today with bylines that didn’t seem to correspond to real people. The articles were stilted and formulaic, leading the writers’ union to accuse them of being ‘shoddy AI.’ When Gannett blamed the strange articles on AdVon, we started digging. We soon found AdVon had been running a similar operation at the magazine Sports Illustrated, publishing product reviews using bylines of fake writers with fictional biographies and AI-generated profile pictures. The response was explosive: the magazine’s union wrote that it was ‘horrified,’ while its publisher cut ties with AdVon and subsequently fired its CEO before losing the rights to Sports Illustrated entirely.” Here is their business model: “Basically, AdVon engages in what Google calls ‘site reputation abuse:’ it strikes deals with publishers in which it provides huge numbers of extremely low-quality product reviews — often for surprisingly prominent publications — intended to pull in traffic from people Googling things like ‘best ab roller.’ The idea seems to be that these visitors will be fooled into thinking the recommendations were made by the publication’s actual journalists and click one of the articles’ affiliate links, kicking back a little money if they make a purchase. It’s a practice that blurs the line between journalism and advertising to the breaking point, makes the web worse for everybody, and renders basic questions like ‘is this writer a real person?’ fuzzier and fuzzier. And sources say yes, the content is frequently produced using AI. ‘It’s completely AI-generated at this point,’ a different AdVon insider told us, explaining that staff essentially ‘generate an AI-written article and polish it.’ Behind the scenes, AdVon responded to our reporting with a fusillade of denials and legal threats.” • If Amazon’s management weren’t blinded by greed, they would have treated their commments section as the amazing asset it could have been, and they would dominate the product review space. But their comments are now as crooked and corrupt as the rest of their company.

Tech: Apple thought this ad was a good idea:

A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.
The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood. https://t.co/nZjlpNd73O

— Zephyr Teachout (@ZephyrTeachout) May 8, 2024

(Parenthetically, I think Apple’s obsession with thinness is sick.) Many — let’s not use the word “creators,” please — artists care deeply about their mediums: Paint, guitars, pianos, cameras, and so forth. Apple crushing it all is really repellent.

Manufacturing: “Boeing is celebrating the latest employee to come forward with dirt on the company ‘for doing the right thing'” [Business Insider]. “Boeing is lauding an employee who reported a lapse with the 787 Dreamliner’s safety checks. A senior Boeing executive said the employee should be celebrated for doing the ‘right thing.’ Two whistleblowers who raised issues about Boeing’s planes have passed away suddenly this year.” • Honey, I’ve changed!

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Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 43 Fear (previous close: 39 Fear) [CNN]. One week ago: 39 (Fear). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated May 9 at 1:47:22 PM ET.

Guillotine Watch

“The ‘delicious irony’ of the Met Gala’s Garden of Time theme” [BBC]. “The title of JG Ballard’s 1962 short story The Garden of Time has an elegiac romanticism to it…. This year, fashion’s annual extravaganza the Met Gala has taken Ballard’s title as its dress code…. [Ballard’s story] relays the tale of Count Axel and his Countess wife who live in a magnificent hilltop villa, surrounded by their gardens. These gardens, where ‘the air seemed brighter, the sun seemed warmer’ hold a series of ‘time flowers’… The flowers can slow the clock, but they cannot stop it…. Count Axel is not picking his precious flowers for the thrill of it. On the horizon, an army advances, “a vast confused throng of people, men and women, interspersed with a few soldiers in ragged uniforms, pressing forward in a disorganised tide”. While the Countess plays Mozart on her harpsichord, and the Count tends to his library, this crowd draws ever closer, threatening destruction on their arrival. Each flower delays the inevitable, pushing the crowd back slightly. But there are only so many flowers, and no more are growing. The villa’s days are numbered, husband and wife living in an exquisite glass prison.” • “The Hamptons are not a defensible position.” –Mark Blythe

Class Warfare

“Woman found living inside Family Fare sign in Midland” [Midland Daily News]. “When contractors were working at the Family Fare grocery store in Midland, they unexpectedly found a woman, 34, living inside the rooftop sign. Contractors discovered an extension cord on the roof and traced it to the dwelling inside the Family Fare sign. Midland Police Department was called to investigate the situation. ‘They were like ‘OMG, someone is living in that sign,” said Midland Police Department Public Relations Officer Brennon Warren of the April 23 finding at 2026 N. Saginaw Road. “I’ve never seen anything like this before in my career.” The woman, who police nicknamed the ‘Rooftop Ninja,’ lived inside the store sign for about a year, Warren said. Inside her dwelling, she had a mini desk, flooring, a pantry of food and even a houseplant. ‘She made it home,’ Warren said. ”

“Unions, Advocates Urge DOJ Criminal Probe of Kroger, Albertsons” [Bloomberg]. “The US Justice Department should investigate whether Kroger Co. and Albertsons Cos. engaged in illegal collusion, unions and advocates say, citing evidence unearthed in recent lawsuits seeking to block the grocery giants’ proposed merger. The US Federal Trade Commission and a group of states sued the companies in federal court in February to thwart their $24.6 billion tie-up, on the heels of a similar lawsuit filed by Colorado’s attorney general in state court. Both complaints cite communications indicating that the two grocers have relied on non-solicitation agreements and pacts not to poach each other’s workers and customers—evidence that advocates and labor groups argue warrants a criminal investigation by federal antitrust enforcers. ‘Crucially, overt violations like price-fixing via non-solicitation agreements, as well as wage-fixing via no-poach agreements, carry potential criminal penalties,’ anti-monopoly group the American Economic Liberties Project and a coalition of seven United Food and Commercial Workers local unions said in their letter to the DOJ on Wednesday.”

News of the Wired

“The Genius Ingredient for Perfect Gooey Cheese Sauce” [Serious Eats]. “What if I told you that there’s a way to make a cheese sauce as smooth and creamy as a jar of Velveeta from just about any melting cheese with nothing more than a single innocuous ingredient that is possibly already in your medicine cabinet. That’s right: no emulsifying salts that require a special order, no futzing with cornstarch and evaporated milk, and no floury roux. The secret ingredient is Aspirin-Free Alka-Seltzer and today is the day that I reveal its cheese-sauce-making superpower to the world.” • News you can use!

“Before Palmer Penmanship” [JSTOR Daily]. “”For [John] Jenkins, well-fashioned writing and other skilled handwork were dignified intellectual activities,’ Christen writes, ‘and the capable craftsman—whether represented by the ingenious mechanic or dutiful clerk—was an archetype for the early nineteenth century.’ This was in good time for the industrializing economy, as the expansion of white collar roles meant more people needed efficient and readable handwriting. Jenkins was setting the model for both an instructional method (breaking down the skill into smaller units) and a world of increasingly text-based communication.” • My handwriting has always been bad; when I got an iPad with a pen, and wanted to do captions and so forth, I had to change all my letter forms….

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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, lichen, 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 DG:

DG writes: “A cherry (obviously), but one that only blooms for a week, weather allowing. The petals come down not quite simultaneously, but close enough to be quite fun to stand or lay down in the midst of them dropping, lilting in whatever breeze. More than a breeze accelerates the drop, but changes the affect from calm to frenzied.”

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