By Lambert Strether of Corrente
Bird Song of the Day
Catbirds are in the Mimidae species (!), like mockingbird and thrashers. Readers have said they like the mimicry, so hopefully MacCaulay Library has enough recordings to keep us all satisfied, at least for a time.
Black Catbird, CADO & STCU Alley, Chital Area, Louisville, Corozal, Belize.
In Case You Might Miss…
- Kamala’s stint at McDonalds: Fact or fiction?
- Kennedy on healthy food, and on the environment.
- Section 230 decision: “The business model of Big Tech is over.”
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
2024
Less than one hundred days to go!
Friday’s RCP Poll Averages:
Good news for Trump in that last week’s deterioration seems to have been slowed, although we shall have to see if Kamala gets a convention “bounce.” Remember, however, that all the fluctuations — in fact, all the leads — are within the margin of error. If you read most of the press, you’d think Kamala has this race in the bag. It’s not so. Do note, however, Trump’s deterioration in North Carolina: +2.4 last week to +0.9 this week, when OG pollster Sabato moved it to “toss-up” status from “lean Republican.” No wonder Trump held a rally there this week. NOTE With Kennedy, it would seem, about to drop out, I started tracking the national percentage as “Top Battlegrounds,” where Trump’s shrinking lead is +0.1 this week (as opposed to “5-Way RCP Average, where Harris led by +1.1 last week).
* * * Kamala (D): “After Chicago: The Challenge Facing Harris” [The Nation]. The deck: “Will she demonstrate clearly why she’s the true champion of working people?” • No.
Laugh at how desperate and dumb this is, but never stop being galled by the bad faith of MAGA loyalists who pretend to care about any kind of scruple. Low-character people this close to awesome power should fill you with contempt. https://t.co/uJzazwOyPa
— Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler) August 29, 2024
I read the Washington Free Beacon story top and bottom (and it gives me no pleasure to say that). Besides being good oppo, I thought it was a solid piece of reporting (and it gives me no pleasure to say that). Readers, can you poke any holes in the story?
* * * Trump (R): “Donald Trump lists the questions CNN must ask Kamala Harris in her first interview as the Democratic candidate” [Daily Mail]. “When she finally sits for her first interview since becoming the Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris must explain why she has flip-flopped on so many policies, why she has done nothing to secure the southern border while in power, and why she needs a human shield alongside her, according to one avid viewer of television news, former President Donald J. Trump…. At the top of his list: What is she hiding from? ‘Why isn’t it live? It’s not a live interview,’ he said. ‘It’s an interview that’s going to be taped and then edited and then put out. So that’s not even an interview.'” • He’s not wrong, is he? The Daily Mail interviewed Trump at Mar-a-Lago:
Holy moley, that’s an awful bad case of Empire-in-Decay decor. How preferable the elegant, youthful simplicity of Obama and Kamala’s tan suits. From this morning once more:
How it started. How it's going.
Ten years later, and it's still a good look! https://t.co/NKXRGNgJPv pic.twitter.com/KeI1gn7HSg
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 28, 2024
* * *
Kennedy (R): A Republican operative:
NEW: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. comes out with an 'insane' new proposal to end obesity in America which is not Ozempic.
Ready for it?
Giving everyone three healthy organic meals a day instead of paying $3 trillion for Ozempic.
RFK argued against a new proposal that would… pic.twitter.com/0wFsecW7Sb
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) August 28, 2024
Nevertheless, is Kennedy so wrong?
And is this so wrong?
Of course, we don’t actually know from what position Kennedy would reviving that consensus in the next Trump administration”
* * * “The (Electoral) Politics of Age Gaps” [Crooked Timber]. “Despite being a Boomer, you may have noticed that [Kamala’s] the young, exciting candidate…. Biden and Trump are really quite old…. It’s our electoral institutions cause the US to have such astronomically old leaders. The two-party system, lax campaign and especially campaign finance laws, and the primary system tilt the process heavily in favor of people with time, money and political interest — which, in our society, tends to be older people. Combine this with the Baby Boom and you get the current situation, playing out in slow motion, a demographic wave not crashing but seeping into and drowning our politics. It’s telling that the only way our institutions avoided replicating their mistakes was by a catastrophic failure. How can a younger politician win a primary in this system? They can’t! Harris became the nominee not by winning the primary but by default.” • By default? Is this dude kidding? Since when is coronation the default in a putatively democratic society?
Realignment and Legitimacy
“Democrats and Republicans greet Covid spike with a collective shrug” [Poltico]. A tranche of a million corpses, and all they can do so shrug. To be fair, Trump can’t take credit for Operation Warp Speed because of the anti-vax dogmatists in his base (including Kennedy), and Biden can’t take credit for any instead of an enormously successfully public relations effort that destroyed the creditibility of public health as an ideal. Biden can also take credit for never giving Trump credit for the vaccines he bet the farm on with his “vax-only” strategy — a Trump legacy Biden promptly squandered. No wonder they’re silent. More: “‘Voters do not like it being brought up at all,’ said Celinda Lake, a Democratic strategist and pollster for Biden’s 2020 campaign, who marveled at the near-total absence of masks at a Democratic convention where roughly 20,000 people crammed into Chicago’s United Center for a week. ‘They want to get over it.'” • Ah, a Celinda Lake. She was the pollster who left “Medicare for All” off a voter survey on health care policy in Maine, until activists forced her to add itMR SUBLIMINAL Not that I’m one to harbor a grudge‘These poeple. And: “”For most people, Covid is less about getting an infection and more about a period of time when our lives were super disrupted — and that is behind us,” said Ashish Jha, the Biden White House’s former Covid response coordinator. “We do still have a public health problem, but it is no longer in any way a substantive societal problem.'” • What a psycho Jha is. In what way is Long Covid not a “substantive societal problem”? Not to mention the increasingly visible loss of executive function on a mass basis.
Syndemics
“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
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, KF, 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!
“Leave Those Kids Alone” [John Snow Project]. “Replace mask with turban, hijab, crucifix or Star of David and see how you feel about the victimized child and the people who’ve been bullying them. Talk to members of the COVID-safe community and you’ll understand that this sort of bullying is commonplace…. The ignorant among us believe infection is a good thing, that it trains the immune system and makes us stronger. We’ve previously written about the error of this belief9. If infection made us stronger, the areas of the world that have the most disease would have the best population health and life expectancy. The opposite is true… Instead of bullying a child strong enough to be the only person wearing a mask in school, those being cruel should show some humility and confront the possibility the child might be better informed about human health or have private reasons for continuing to be cautious. Public health bodies and public institutions should do more to protect personal choice and prevent bullying and stigmatization for masking. After all, we are living in a world of individual responsibility and an individual should not be penalized for choosing to be responsible.” • For example:
circle to do the right thing. Not only to protect himself, but also to be a good citizen.
He is broken. He has been deliberately broken & shamed by ADULTS. It is cowardly for RESPONSIBLE ADULTS to not support children.
— 🔬🔭🧭👨💻🏞️👾🤖🌡️ (@DcrInYYC) August 28, 2024
Sequelae: Covid
“Does Long COVID Lead to Alzheimer’s? A New Study Took an Unexpected Turn” [Being Patient]. “The researchers looked at a group of participants from COVID recovery clinics, comparing 100 without any cognitive complaints, 79 who had abnormal results on a cognitive assessment indicating cognitive impairment, and 57 who complained about cognitive issues even though they scored normally on a cognitive test. Hu and his colleagues took cerebrospinal fluid and blood from both groups of people with cognitive complaints to measure protein biomarkers and look at what genes the immune cells are turning on or off to see whether there was an overlap with Alzheimer’s disease. ‘We did not find significant numbers of people with Alzheimer’s disease markers in the cerebrospinal fluid,’ Hu said. ‘The many molecular pathways being active in Long COVID do not correspond to Alzheimer’s disease.’ But nine months after the initial infection, what the researchers did notice was that the immune cells behaved as if they were still fighting off a viral infection. About 50 percent of the cognitively impaired participants showed slow improvement after two years. The participants whose immune cells mounted an interferon response — a pathway used by the immune system to fight viruses — showed cognitive improvement. ‘One of the key findings is that we see the immune cells in the cerebrospinal fluid, recruiting cells to fight infection,’ Hu said. ‘So that tells me that the infection is in the brain.'”
Prevention
On personal risk assessment:
Celebrity Watch
“Neil Young Explains Crazy Horse Tour Cancelation, Says He’s Planning To Return To The Road With Promise Of The Real” [Stereogum]. Young: “‘I was doing great and we were moving right along,’ Young said. ‘Everybody’s loving the shows. Then I just woke up one morning on the bus and I said, ‘I can’t do this. I gotta stop.’ It was like I felt sick when I thought of going on stage. My body was telling me, ‘You gotta stop.’ So I listened to my body. Then it gets into all the legal matters: ‘You got this, you got that, people bought tickets, they did this, they did that.’ I understand that. What matters to me is the art of playing, and the music. That’s what matters. That’s what people loved. That’s what they come to see. But if that’s not there, me going is not happening. My body told me to not do it.'” • Fine as far as it goes, and more honest than most, but why not worry about infecting the fans?
Elite Maleficence
CDC will not or cannot think through the consequences of the fact that #CovidIsAirborne, one of which is protection needs to be layered, Swiss Cheese-style:
Glad to see. Would add KN95 masks or N95 respirators are highly effective at reducing amount of viruses inhaled if someone else is sick in a home, and isolation of an infected person in a negatively pressurized space is generally easy (fan blowing out window) & reduces spread. https://t.co/3Q7Plfqyjk
— Richard Corsi, PhD, PE (Texas) (@CorsIAQ) August 28, 2024
All the layers must be advocated for, and the general principle explained.
Sadly, all doctors are not like IM Doc:
Why Doctors Don’t Acknowledge the Dangers of C19
This is one of the best explanations I’ve come across. And it’s written by a doctor. pic.twitter.com/M6TWN6SZs7
— #9 Dream (@GayFabFourFan) August 27, 2024
Union leadership betrays workers, film at 11:
Can @UFT explain why COVID-19 is not on this list of 27 “diseases & ailments you may encounter as a public school educator” while 1.2 million people in the U.S. are getting infected daily?
Was this accidental or intentional?
Teachers, students & families deserve to know!🤷♀️/1 pic.twitter.com/qdMZau0uZv
— Vanessa Sica Kasabach (@VSicaKasabach) August 28, 2024
Social Norming
The whinging about so-called lockdowns continues to appall:
In 2020 schools were closed for ~8 weeks in the U.S.
4 years later people are still blaming myriad health and learning issues on those relatively short closures.
Yet nobody can answer why children completely leaving school for 3 months every year has never caused such problems.
— Covid Caution KP.2 + KP.3 + KP.3.1.1. + LB.1 (@CovidCaution) August 28, 2024
| Wastewater | |
| This week[1] CDC August 20: | Last Week[2] CDC (until next week): |
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| Variants [3] CDC August 17 | Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC August 17 |
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| Hospitalization | |
| ★ New York[5] New York State, data August 27: | National [6] CDC August 10: |
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| Positivity | |
| National[7] Walgreens August 20: | Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic August 17: |
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| Travelers Data | |
| Positivity[9] CDC July 29: | Variants[10] CDC July 29: |
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| Deaths | |
| Weekly Deaths vs. % Positivity [11]CDC August 10: | Weekly Deaths vs. ED Visits [12]CDC August 10: |
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LEGEND
1) ★ for charts new today; all others are not updated.
2) For a full-size/full-resolution image, Command-click (MacOS) or right-click (Windows) on the chart thumbnail and “open image in new tab.”
NOTES
[1] (CDC) This week’s wastewater map, with hot spots annotated. Keeps spreading.
[2] (CDC) Last week’s wastewater map.
[3] (CDC Variants) KP.* very popular. XDV.1 flat.
[4] (ER) Worth noting Emergency Department use is now on a par with the first wave, in 2020.
[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Again, an uptick, but the state as a whole is still down. Makes me wonder if there’s something happending at New York airports. Let’s watch carefully. (The New York city area has form; in 2020, as the home of two international airports (JFK and EWR) it was an important entry point for the virus into the country (and from thence up the Hudson River valley, as the rich sought to escape, and then around the country through air travel.)
Lambert here: Since things are bad out on the West Coast, I went looking for California hospitalization data to compare with New York’s, and found this: “Due to changes in reporting requirements for hospitals, CDPH is no longer including hospitalization data on the CDPH dashboard. CDPH remains committed to monitoring the severe outcomes of COVID-19 and influenza, including the impact on hospitals. CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) will remain open to accept data, and CDC and CDPH strongly encourage all facilities to continue reporting.” Thanks, Mandy!
[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). The visualization suppresses what is, in percentage terms, a significant increase.
[7] (Walgreens) Fiddling and diddling.
[8] (Cleveland) Jumping.
[9] (Travelers: Positivity) Up. Those sh*theads at CDC have changed the chart so that it doesn’t even run back to 1/21/23, as it used to, but now starts 1/1/24. There’s also no way to adjust the time range. CDC really doesn’t want you to be able to take a historical view of the pandemic, or compare one surge to another. In an any case, that’s why the shape of the curve has changed.
[10] (Travelers: Variants) The new variant in China, XDV.1, is not showing up here.
[11] Deaths low, but positivity up.
[12] Deaths low, ED up.
Stats Watch
Employment Situation: “United States Initial Jobless Claims” [Trading Economics]. “The number of people claiming unemployment benefits in the US fell by 2,000 from the previous week to 231,000 on the period ending August 24th, in line with market expectations of 232,000. Despite this decrease, the figure remained well above the averages seen earlier this year, reinforcing the ongoing trend of a softening labor market, as highlighted by the July jobs report and the significant downward revision to nonfarm payrolls for the year ending in March.”
GDP: “United States GDP Growth Rate” [Trading Economics]. “Real gross domestic product (GDP) in the US grew at an annual rate of 3.0% in the second quarter of 2024, up from 2.8% in the initial estimate and 1.4% in the first quarter. The upward revision was mainly due to increased consumer spending (2.9% vs 2.3% earlier reported).”
Profits: “United States Corporate Profits” [Trading Economics]. “Corporate profits in the US rose by 1.7% from the previous period to $2,774 trillion in the second quarter of 2024, rebounding from the 2.7% decline in the earlier quarter, according to a preliminary estimate. The rebound was led by the bounce in undistributed profits (5.6% vs -11.6% in Q1) amid the recovery for net cash flow with inventory valuation adjustment (3.3% vs -2.9%).” • Whatever that means.
Retail: “Amazon is using my grocery purchases to sell me prescription drugs” [Vox]. “he weirdest thing happened to me recently. I ordered some groceries on Amazon Fresh. When you check out, Amazon recommends more things you might like to buy, usually related to your purchase. But this time, Amazon offered up ‘Treatments for High Cholesterol’ along with a link for an Amazon One Medical consultation as well as links to prescription medications. That’s weird, because my doctor and my wife are the only people who know about my cholesterol numbers. They’re pretty good, too! But there are certainly data points, including my age, my food preferences, and my past purchases, maybe even news stories I’ve read elsewhere on the web, that might suggest I’d be a good candidate for a statin, the type of cholesterol-lowering medication Amazon recommended to me.” • Ah, statins.
Tech: “Judges Rule Big Tech’s Free Ride on Section 230 Is Over” [Matt Stoller, BIG]. The deck: “Algorithms are no longer a Get out of Jail free card. The Third Circuit ruled that TikTok must stand trial for manipulating children into harming themselves. The business model of big tech is over.” • Big if true.
Tech: “I spent an evening on a fictitious web” [Paul Kinlan]. Read the bio first: “I lead the Chrome Developer Relations team at Google.” Now read the post and imagine what to means for humans who actually create the content harvested by AI thieves.
Tech: “X caught blocking links to NPR, claiming the news site may be ‘unsafe'” [Tech Crunch]. “X, the Elon Musk-owned platform formerly known as Twitter, is marking some links to news organization NPR’s website as ‘unsafe’ when users click through to read the latest story about an altercation between a Trump campaign staffer and an Arlington National Cemetery employee. The warning being displayed is typically applied to malicious links, like those containing malware, and other types of misleading content or spam. However, in this case, the web page being blocked is an NPR news report, raising questions about whether or not Musk’s X is actively trying to stop the news story from spreading.” • News report, or dogpile? Hard to tell these days…
Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 52 Neutral (previous close: 52 Neutral) [CNN]. One week ago: 51 (Neutral). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Aug 28 at 12:57:20 PM ET.
I don’t know:
Apple tree by Klimt pic.twitter.com/sCfpWPkdIw
— Impressions (@impression_ists) August 29, 2024
I suppose might view the tree as having been flattened onto the canvas, rather like a Mercator projection, but I think apple trees should be round (so call me a Philistine).
I am not wired today.
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125 comments
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I think I like “Empire-in-Decay decor” and I know I loath beige and tan jackets. There is always something to look at in those “Empire-in-Decay” photos.
I don’t know, Katiebird. If Lambert Strether hadn’t noted that the room is at the White House in Exile, I wouldn’t have known. I thought that they were either on the set of Ben Hur on some studio back lot. Or else the main lobby of some hotel at DisneyOrlando with some name like The Preening Ostrich.
As to the Obama’s sartorial splendor, the pose, in which he disrupts the lines of the sleeves and shoulders by putting his hand in his pocket and his notebook under one arm, is faux folxy. Obama’s clothing choices were absurdly conservative — safe — reassuring to donors and nervous white people everywhere. Wowsers. The tie he is wearing is a daring taupe on beige — I’m getting sleepy just typing those words.
And that pocket square! Carefully aligned to show a half-inch of white cloth. Sheesh. That’s a sign of someone wound up so tight that he thinks that tan is a bright color.
You’re exactly right Kb. That room makes a statement. Even if you disagree with that statement, you understand that each piece was chosen to deliver a message. You can literally “read the room”.
A tan suit? I’m biased, but to me, someone chooses a tan suit solely because it says nothing. It is intentionally void of any meaning, avoiding any controversy. I dislike tan suits, and I dislike beige rooms. Both tell me that the person doesn’t want me to know who they really are. Give me someone who stands for something, anything, and I’ll choose that person over an “empty suit” any day.
“You can literally “read the room”.”
Which reminded me of their (somewhat) new house in Kalorama. I looked at the pictures again….
https://wtop.com/real-estate/2017/01/photos-inside-obamas-new-house/
…and it is just tan suits all the way down.
Nippersdad, that was a great find. I have questions about the exterior material selections, turret proportion and the overhang. They sure used a lot of gray paint on the interior — off-white would have been so much better. Someday we will have other choices besides stainless steel refrigerators — I hope.
There is a so-called “Scandinavian interior design style” that became very fashionable already a few years ago, and that relies heavily on grey and tan, with some touches of black and brown. It is supposed to be elegant, sober, and calm, I find it boring, void, and somewhat depressing. Look up “Danish interior design”, “Scandinavian interior design” and the like.
Former interior designer here: I agree with your adjectives “boring, void, and somewhat depressing”. The interiors have traditional trim (woodwork) and doors. Check out the fancy molding at the ceiling. So what we ‘mericans might call “transitional” in that it is a mix of traditional elements and modern . DJ above said “Obama’s clothing choices were absurdly conservative — safe — reassuring to donors and nervous white people everywhere.” Just like the interior.
I found that home to be kind of sterile. I wonder if they chose that decor as not so much for themselves but for signalling to others of their class position.
Wait, is there somebody who doesn’t choose their interior decor to signal class position?
Hmmm. Seems to me folks who don’t have much Korean any) choice about their interior decor are also (just as involuntarily) signaling their class position.)
That was supposed to be “much (or any) choice”.
(Sneaky auto-correct!)
“Scroll down for a look inside the Kalorama home courtesy of listing agent Mark McFadden. Keep in mind that these photos are from before the house sold in 2014…”
https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/real-estate/news/g2535/obama-new-house-photos/
“The Obama Family’s Stylish Home Inside the White House”
https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/obama-white-house
To clarify: According to the first link the pictures of all the gray furniture were from the real estate agent – so, either belonging to a previous owner, or staged for selling/renting the place. The second link is about how the Obamas furnished the private quarters in the WH – probably reflecting some of their own preferences, within some boundaries of it being the WH.
(This is not a judgement of the Obama presidency, on-going role in politics, or taste in home furnishings)
The lack of artwork in the dining room was unsettling. That it was a blank showroom makes more sense. The White House photos, while still not something I would want to live with, do not show the same fear of color as the Kalorama decor.
Heh. Interior decorator does 50 Shades of Grey. / ;)
Heh! Heh! Heh!
No surprise that the Obamas have a gas stove
the trump decor is in-your-face outrageous. the obama decor looks like it came off the wayfair website. each is pathetic in its own way.
> It is intentionally void of any meaning,
““I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views” –Obama, that [famiily bloggin] weasel, in The Audacity of Hope, 2006.
Now, 2024 – 2006 = 18 (!) years later, Kamala is running the exact same scam, because the Democrats think that’s long enough for people tp have forgotten.
Tan suits with blue ties own summer wedding receptions.
Kamala’s choice of wear reminds me of a Leisure Suit from the 70’s with those really big lapels. Wonder if Walz has one in his closet that he can pull out for a coordinated photo-op.
I used to call it a khaki suit, and it was perfectly proper for summertime. I would have chosen a more lively tie with matching pocket square, but he sure wore it well! Compare to Trump and his lumpy blue Rodney Dangerfieldesque uniforms.
At least Obama’s tan doesn’t fight with his coloring. Harris’ suit, besides having a cut that isn’t all that attractive on her, is a color fights with her complexion.
People did say that the elites of decaying empires get increasingly focused on style because they don’t have much else to fall back on (paraphrasing, perhaps badly, b/c I can’t remember where I read this originally). I know this came up in context of military uniforms (the idea behind so-called Sukhomilonov (sp?) effect: the army with fancier uniforms usually loses vs. an army with shoddier uniforms.).
Whenever I see politicians in tan and/or beige clothes, I keep thinking about Gore and his “earthtones” phase. The thing is that people with dark skin can carry tan suits better than people with pale skins, but gosh, those jackets really do look terrible on Obama and Harris!
Sukhomlinov Effect, TV Tropes (which is great).
I agree with you about “empire-in-decay decor”. I was watching a documentary about the repair of the tapestries at Hardwick Hall a while back, and the amount of industry and artistry that went into the making of them is just amazing; it takes years for several people just to repair them. That is why the nouveau rich, like C.W. Post and the Vanderbilts, despoiled decayed empires for them, they just don’t make things like that anymore.
And those tan suits remind me of docent uniforms. Probably fitting as all such pols are used for is to provide something to look at while they go into the pre-gurgitated spiels written for them by their donors “people”..
> I think I like “Empire-in-Decay decor”
I have to say I didn’t hate it. I think there are better versions to be had — say, Versailles? — but what’s wrong with elaborate gold fixtures?
I also thought it was closer to the typical American house, which tends to have a lot of stuff. Perhaps, for many, this is aspirational, even if it isn’t exactly IKEA white sofa-style.
Do public buildings count? The Library of Congress lobby has a mind-blowing gaudiness that I’ve never forgotten. And I went to a reception at the State Department many, many years ago. Their lobby wasn’t impressive but the reception room almost made my teeth fall out of my mouth. That was the closest I’ve ever been to “Empire-in-Decay decor” in real life.
It was a reception for Young Democrats and Cyrus Vance was the Secretary of State. It was very formal and stiff. And on the way back to the hotel, the Breaking News was that Cyrus Vance just turned in his resignation. NOT a hint of that at the reception.
He was a diplomat.
Gold [the real thing] – think heap leaching [very nasty chemicals – not nice].
Pip Pip!
Could Obama not find a photo where Kamala didn’t look like she was wearing Stimpy’s Happy Helmet and about to bust into “Happy Happy Joy Joy”? For reference:
https://youtu.be/DOkdccLCmJk?si=P00N9IrY6DrjPeuv
I have a tan gabardine suit, but I’ll admit it’s a little unusual these days. When I was still working I did get occasional compliments on it, and perhaps coincidentally all from women “of colour” (in the’80s I just would have said Black). Full disclosure, I am notoriously pale Irish.
> Kamala Harris and McDonald’s
I worked at a Jason’s Deli during the summer after my freshman year in college. I never put it on any resume, even for my graduate school application. Big woop.
I could also see not putting that job on a resume. Plus there was this from the article –
“I did. Yes, I did work at McDonald’s,” laughed Harris. “When I was at school … I did fries. And then I did the cashier.”
That does seem to be in character considering how she worked her way up politically…
Too funny… :)
> “And then I did the cashier.”
She really needs a minder, doesn’t she? Wowsers.
Adding, I can’t believe I missed that.
Where did she do that cashier? At work? On the clock? After hours in the parking lot? Boost in pay? Better shift? Lessons learned there that helped her with Willie Brown?
C’mon man, inquiring minds and all.
(Not an assignment…)
She and Walz are doing an interview, her first, on cnn tonight. I’m disappointed she isn’t giving her first interview solo. oh well. (Are you going to blog stream the interview?
I’m more interested in your analysis than the NYTimes’. / ;)
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/29/us/politics/harris-walz-interview-watch-cnn.html
Apparently it didn’t go well… From X.Twitter
And CNN has no plans to release a transcript.
Kamala had a totally stacked deck behind her debate with Trump and it still went down in flames? I wonder what Trump will say about it as I am sure that he would not have signed a non-disclosure clause. :)
omg. It was supposed to last an hour. CNN has to be one the of the Dems friendliest media outfits too. / thanks
That interviewer? Dana Bash? I heard that her husband was one of those 50-odd spooks who said that the Hunter Biden laptop story was totally Russian propaganda. It’s just one big incestuous family.
That was my recollection as well — but I just tried to find confirmation of the length and couldn’t. The tweet which said the interview only actually lasted 18 minutes has had “context” added saying it went over 26 minutes; if that’s a “misstatement”, documentation of the fact merits being included in the context, I’d say.
I saw that one but need more verification.
I was wrong about the transcript – I saw you posted a link to it in Links this morning. Can’t tell about the time. I SHOULD have waited for verification, that is true!
I put myself through the last three years of high school working at McDonalds (Catholic school). On my 15th birthday, my mom drove me to McDonald’s and unknowlingly to me, she had forged my birth certificate to say I was 16. As I was getting out of the car, she said,” Happy birthday! You’d better come back with a job”. I filled out the application that was on the back of a tray cover. I was hired on the spot and started the next day.
It was the best job experience any teenager could ever have. On the weekends, I would work until 2 or 3 in the morning. Working at McDonald’s, put me into contact with the “down and out” adults, most often guys who were in their late 20s and mid 30s who had alcohol problems, recently divorced (paying child support) or never graduated from college. Listening to their experiences, I was instilled with the drive to go to college and to try my best not to make the same mistakes they did.
McDonald’s also taught me the ethics of the workforce, such as, “If you can lean; you can clean”. In other words, if you have time to chat with coworkers, then you have time to work. I never would have been the worker I am today, if it hadn’t been for McDonald’s. It was the best survival school my mom could have put me through.
Now, to the “I did fries. And then I did the cashier”. Not one of those workers respected the fries and cashier person. There was a begrudging respect for the drive thru cashier because they had to put up with so much grief (this word is out of respect for Yves). But, no one was really respected until they competently handled the grill during a rush hour. You earned real props after handling a bus or unexpected football team visit. I can totally understand why Kamala didn’t put McDonald’s on her resumè`, but I don’t understand why she’s reluctant to mention her experience there…unless she was just a cashier/fry person. Then, she never really got the experience of what working at McDonald’s really offered.
I had a similar youthful experience as I spent 2 years working the grill at McDonald’s. I agree with your assessment.
> the ethics of the workforce
Thanks for this, this is important (especially since in essence the election is about putting Kamala on the grill).
My work experience generally and in the mills of Providence, RI.
Back in the day, I also spent some time working in factories. The jobs were a bit monotonous but the pay was above average.
Fair enough; that is indeed the Democrat talking point.
However, in reading the entire article, I thought the contrast between Kamala’s (campaign) biographies and Obama’s (two) (campaign) biographies was telling: Obama mentioned Baskin-Robbins in his; Kamala did not mention McDonalds in hers. Odd!
Also, putative journalist Beutler’s tweet was totally over-the-top and hackish: “Low-character people”? Really?
I should also toss this into the mix:
The complicated history of McDonald’s and Black America Marketplace. Seems like there’s a dog whistle involved here, but I might not necessarily hear it.
Wasn’t Baskin-Robbins one of Obama’s only jobs though?
Wait, was that before or after his gestation in a Pritzker-funded lab Petri dish at the University of Chicago?
The ways Dems were reacting seems peculiar: it’s not unnatural that people fon’t put fast food jobs on their resumes (I know no one who fid.), but everyone I know who worked in fast food industry talked about how much they learned while working there one way or another. There are plenty of things, you’d think, she could talk about the experience that could make her more relatable, like a person with regular people experience (whether the stories are factually true or not, who knows). There is something about McDonald’s: it wasn’t for nothing that Chris Arnade talked about the big social role McDonald’s plays in America today in his book, and, to be honest, albeit different, McDonald’s did always play a more favorable role than people might want to admit in so many lives over so many years.
But, refusing to bring it up is precisely what you would expect from PMC, isn’t it?
My father has given me, a female, work advice maybe 4 times. He told me never to list my fast-food, server, and barn work on a resume.
Who knows what’s going on here.
I can see why Ronald won’t speak to it. Most employers don’t say anything but dates of employment if and when the asker is considering a hire.
When I need to confirm prior employment a tech giant, it took more than a month and was only achieved after a former coworker went to HR and found somebody to confirm.
If there were still beat reporters, someone could sniff around and find managers and employees from the likely stores at the time.
If I had to, my guess would be that she tried it, hated it, and quit pretty quickly. Maybe there was a parental push to learn about the real world or something.
SitRep: Socialised Medicine
With content being light in Water Cooler, I thought that I might relate my latest adventures (all good!) with socialised medicine.
My wife and I live in rural Nova Scotia, about 2 hours drive from Halifax, the capitol city. We are in our late 60’s, and Beth inherited coronary artery disease. She has a normal BMI. She managed it with diet and medication for years but she was finally feeling poorly and asked for a referral to her cardiologist. After about 10 years without a family doctor we were finally taken on by a new-to-the-area general practitioner, who made the initial referral. About 3 months later we saw the cardiologist in a regional hospital an hour away, and a week later she had a stress test. She was booked for an angiogram (dye test) and we waited about 3 months for that.
All of the cardiac angiograms are done on the same day for patients all over the Province, and they want everyone in the clinic by 6:30 a.m., so the Health Authority booked us a room at a nice hotel within walking distance of the hospital. We spent all day in the clinic and were sent back to the hotel for another night. Their were no complications so we went home the next day.
Beth was put on a waiting list for a triple bypass, and we had to wait about 6 weeks for an appointment. Again they wanted to see her early so we were booked into the hotel. The bypass went as scheduled the next day, all went well and Beth was discharged 8 days later. She had a follow-up appointment with her surgeon 8 weeks later. All is well, and her health improves steadily.
The cost to us for all of this was gasoline and bridge fare, and a few nights lodging when I stayed down while she was recuperating. We could never have afforded to pay for this care, nor could we have afforded insurance premiums to cover the care.
Judging by anecdotal information, the wait-times for cancer care and cardiac care are short. I have heard that it is long for knee and hip replacements that are not urgent (i.e., from a fall). There are many Nova Scotians without a family doctor and that is very hard on folk with chronic diseases that must be managed (diabetes, for example).
Our taxes in Nova Scotia are not all that onerous for folk like us without big incomes. We do have a 15% VAT, which adds a lot to the price of a car. But food, books, medical and dental supplies are not taxed, or taxed at a reduced rate. Our provincial government, which is responsible for health care (with transfers of federal money) currently runs a small surplus.
I think of our healthcare system as a very large insurance scheme with everyone enrolled. For years and years we consumed almost nothing in the way of medical services and were happy to pay our taxes because we knew that when (not if) we needed it, the health care would be there. And it was.
Thank you for sharing the details of your wife’s (and yours) experience. I am glad her health is improving. It’s amazing how many details there are in getting to the point of surgery. I’m glad you both stuck with it.
Thanks very much for sharing this. It gives perspective to my experience in the US. Wishing good health to you and your wife.
> With content being light in Water Cooler
Thank you very much. I encourage other readers to do the same.
> I think of our healthcare system as a very large insurance scheme with everyone enrolled. For years and years we consumed almost nothing in the way of medical services and were happy to pay our taxes because we knew that when (not if) we needed it, the health care would be there. And it was.
I am pleased to hear that the neoliberals have not managed to destroy Canadian Medicare. I worry about that.
Oh, they keep trying, let me assure you.
Not so happy in Central British Columbia.
No doctors are taking new patients. Drop-in clinic is only open two days a week, and fills its day within 5 minutes of opening (show up early, and maybe you can get in sometime during that day. But they don’t do appointments–if you fail, then you must try the same process over again.)
Incumbent patients do mostly okay, and receive the level of care formerly taken for granted under the Canadian system. But at present, if you’re not already “in,” then it’s not easy to obtain medical attention.
Emergency ward at the hospital (small city of about 20K population, serving about 50K in the region) is sometimes closed altogether, and only accepts life and death cases. We had some young people who were severely burned in a bonfire accident last New Year’s Eve. Emergency ward had no attending doctor. Ambulance crew had to leave for other calls. Duty nurse did her best, until a medevac flight to Vancouver could be arranged a few hours later.
A friend of mine in Vancouver had his GP retire, and nobody took the clients. Luckily his sister’s doctor made room for him. Otherwise it would have been tough luck.
Hard to believe this is Canada sometimes. Twenty years ago, we would never even have imagined a situation like this. There simply would never have been any question about accident victims being received for emergency treatment at the local hospital, even if the surgeons here were often overworked.
This, with a “centrist” gov’t in Ottawa, and a “centre-left” gov’t in this province. n.b. in Canada, medical services are largely funded at the federal level, but are administered separately in each province.
One down and only a few more to go.
https://tass.com/world/1835815
This isn’t going end well either.
And do note: Initial reports indicate that the jet wasn’t shot down, but likely crashed due to pilot error, the official said
The sorry ass pilot did not do his job….
The USofA can not fail, it can only be failed…
It has been interesting watching where in the world this has been reported.
Dunno. Paraphrasing a military historian, among other things war is a bunch of (mostly) young guys operating dangerous machines in very bad conditions. The same demographic that pays a big premium for car insurance. Accidents are common.
As noted by so many others with knowledge and experience specific with the F-16 … it all comes down to the pilot. In that it takes years to become a weapons instructor grade one, just to fly it properly, use all its systems intuitively, and integrate with all the other command and control systems.
Secondly if it was a malfunction the pilot should have had time to eject, especially since this pilot was lauded as the best they had. So with in a short span of time and not many missions the best is gone. All of which suggests it was shot down.
It should be noted that the F-16s sent to Ukraine are not the latest upgraded model. Like with everything else its hand me downs or referbed old stock. Then some expect to win the war lmmao …
Another speculation on this.
https://weapons.substack.com/p/ukraine-loses-its-first-f-16
Interesting comments via the link attributing it to a ground strike – “The Aug 26th Russian ground strike destroyed two (2) F-16’s and both pilots.”.
That said the above comment stands and Russia’s abilities in intel and reaction time to hit with power/accuracy is apparent. Almost 10 yrs of grooming Ukrainians for this with the best NATO has in command systems and gear and its all going splat … hard.
More so all the actions to destabilize Russia have had just the opposite effect, meanwhile the whole West is becoming politically destabilized e.g. zero unified industrial or otherwise social agenda to fix it all. So much for the new American Century agenda.
Kamala tending the fries–
The Social Security Administration knows whether or not she worked there.
> The Social Security Administration knows whether or not she worked there.
I don’t imagine they can be asked, however. However, McDonald’s could.
Maybe they have a work verification number someone could call.
Depends. The franchise in question may have closed, or they may have thrown out records after a certain time.
Of my employers, two closed after I worked there, and two closed while I worked there. The only ones still around are my pollworker job and my job in fast food.
If Kamala worked at McDonald’s, it puts her above Chelsea Clinton (who got her first job on connections, at a much higher level). I would hope she learned about how bad it is for the workers under such a system- but I wouldn’t hold my breath. (I do recommend “The Electronic Sweatshop”, a book by Barbara Garson, which goes into some of the stuff McDonald’s workers go through.)
Doesn’t matter now and her supporters can now say that with her experience there, she can relate to ALL those on that socioeconomic level. And some will buy it hook line and sinker. She’s even more authentic now…
sarcasm off.
Blest be the fries that bind!
You’re exactly right Kb. That room makes a statement. Even if you disagree with that statement, you understand that each piece was chosen to deliver a message. You can literally “read the room”.
A tan suit? I’m biased, but to me, someone chooses a tan suit solely because it says nothing. It is intentionally void of any meaning, avoiding any controversy. I dislike tan suits, and I dislike beige rooms. Both tell me that the person doesn’t want me to know who they really are. Give me someone who stands for something, anything, and I’ll choose that person over an “empty suit” any day.
I love color, but one of my favorite wall colors is a particular peachy beige. It changes intensity, going more peach or beige depending on the light. And it is almost universally flattering. Using it on the predominant backdrop you see people against means they generally look good. (A friend who renovated houses hated the chip, but once he saw it on the wall it became one of his favorites as well.) As a contrast you never want to see me in an ice blue bathroom or sunny yellow kitchen, I looked like different versions of death warmed over. (I loved both rooms in friends’ homes but…)
That doesn’t mean everything should be beige or peach. There is a world of color for furniture, art, rugs, accent items. Monochrome color schemes are pretty lifeless especially beige ones.
I am here to aver that; “De fault, dear Public, is not in our Stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.”
We open with a wide shot of Kamala slinking down a grand staircase. Focus tightens to an upper body shot. Dialogue, Kamala speaking to the camera: “You see, this is my life. It always will be! Just us, and the cameras! And those wonderful People out there in the Dark. Mr. DeMillions, I’m ready for my closeup.”
Fade to black.
Kamala is yet another Hollywood Candidate.
And re Kamala & the debates, from SB “We didn’t need dialogue. We had faces!”
So Kamala is to be interviewed with Walz–did I get that right? And if so will that make Walz co-president?
If Hillary was “ready on day one” or so she claimed on what day will Harris be ready?
The hokeyness I expect between Harris and Walz may be unbearable. Like, bad TV light comedy unbearable. As genocide continues unchallenged.
You say to yourself “I can’t believe people are falling for this stuff” but then that’s probably what the PMC say about those who adore Trump. And they do have a point.
But the last thing we need a Blob Trump clone–all the hokeyness but fully under mission control. My theory is that Trump should counter this by becoming the un-Trump and acting serious for a change. This would sink Harris fast.
Still she may sink herself after a couple of months of intense exposure.
I can’t wait for the “spin doctors” to begin referring to Kamala as a deep-fried confection.
“Krispy Kamala! She’s crispy brown on the outside, flakey white on the inside!”
I’ll stop now lest I go too far.
Five people have been arrested outside court where a teacher pictured carrying a placard featuring Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman as coconuts is appearing.
Police were also seen to be seizing coconuts.
Can you charge dark-coloured people in court with racism in the UK?
Only if they sacrifice babies at a Black Mass.
In support of Palestine.
The Anthropocene: not dead yet! (open access)
Excerpts from introduction:
On 5 March 2024, the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) — the body responsible for defining units of geological time — announced it was rejecting a proposal to formalize the Anthropocene as a geological epoch that represents an interval of overwhelming human impact on the planet.
…
The rejection has prompted much debate, with strong views expressed on both sides. In the past decade or so, however, the term Anthropocene has been adopted widely to describe, analyse and interpret the transformed conditions in which humans now live.
It’s currently used in four main ways by different groups. First, the Earth-system science community, in which the concept arose, and allied scientific disciplines use it to model, assess and warn of the effects of human activities, including the transgression of environmental ‘planetary boundaries’. Second, scholars in the humanities and social sciences use it to seek to understand how human impacts eventually came to overwhelm many powerful forces of nature, and what that means to the analysis of history, philosophy, politics, economics, society and culture. Third, the Anthropocene is inspiring many works in museums and in the arts. And fourth, the public and policymakers, urban planners and others use the concept to understand the human transformation of the climate and biosphere, which is essential to formulating and implementing policies of stewardship, mitigation and adaptation.
With a formal geological definition of the Anthropocene now off the table, at least for the moment, we here explore how the concept can be best understood and used with these wider communities in mind. What should the term fundamentally mean, for both specialized and general use?
If there were any geologists left after the Anthropocene it would be recognized as a boundary, not an era. The Anthropocene will be far too short to be considered a geological era, like when an asteroid hits the earth and leaves a very thin layer between two much longer eras. I don’t think humans will have much impact on the geological record after the Anthropocene Boundary.
And it’s sad, or perhaps ridiculous, that the list is missing a fifth understanding of Anthropocene. The Transhumanists celebrate it. “We humans have taken over! Yay!”
RE: Klimt’s tree
Mondrian, whose painted trees became more and more abstract and was painting around the same time as Klimt, disagrees.
My art history 101 professor back in the day gave a great lecture on Mondrian’s abstract works and why they were important – I wish I had a recording of it because it was much more detailed than the link I included. That same professor also stressed that what is considered “art”, and especially “good art”, is all in the eye of the beholder, but that one would gain more appreciation based on one’s knowledge of art history. He gave a great assignment the first day of class which we really didn’t understand until the end of the semester. He told us to go to the art museum and write a short paper on the work we liked the least, which was pretty difficult considering how little we knew about art. Then the last week of class, he had us do it again, but this time we were to discuss our favorite work and use what we’d learned during the course to give added context. Great class which really did make me look at things a different way.
That being said, the professor hated Hans Memling, didn’t hesitate to mention how execrable he found his paintings, and mentioned him only in passing because he felt obligated to note his existence I suppose. So you are welcome to dislike Klimt’s trees too!
I took art history because I needed the “diversity” credit. On the first day, the “professor” (a grad student) told us he didn’t know much about that African or Asian stuff, so he would stick to the “main topic” of European art.
That class actually managed to increase my disdain for American academia, which was hard to do at that point.
Life can be strange. I had a substitute teacher for several classes in High School who was a specialist in the Mexican Muralists. He would spend his summers in Mexico travelling about hunting out obscure works of public art. He knew his stuff and could communicate it to others with ease. I learned a fair bit from that old ‘beatnik.’ Then I married an artist. Little did I know.
The lesson being; hunt for gold outside of the Halls of Academe. It is there, waiting to be discovered.
Agreed. I actually had a great interest in art at the time – I wanted to be a cartoonist. Unfortunately, I think too slowly to meet the production schedule required of a cartoonist.
Anyway, I found the subject matter personally interesting and useful, even as limited by the instructor. But the place of the class within the local canon, and the mandate that I take it in order to understand diversity, were utterly pathetic.
With respect to checking on Harris’s stint at Micky D’s, In New York or Massachussetts, it would have to be listed on her bar application, as both states require you to list every single job you ever had. I don’t know about California however.
Can a member of the California bar clarify?
When I became a lawyer in California in 1970 I had to list every job and every address I had ever lived at, including as an infant.
Whoa. It is just as well I didn’t make my mother happy and become a lawyer. My father was transferred a lot, I had attended 12 different schools by ninth grade. And we moved sometimes within those postings. I’m not sure I could have come up with every address even when my mother was still alive, loved him but my father would have been as hopeless as I am
As far as I know all states require this, but many (including my own state of Arizona) destroy the records after a certain time period.
When I wanted to apply to another state many years later I spent a great deal of time recreating the original application from notes. I wanted to make sure there were no differences in case a copy of the old application somehow emerged despite the state Supreme Court telling me it was not possible.
Kamala (D): “After Chicago: The Challenge Facing Harris” [The Nation]. The deck: “Will she demonstrate clearly why she’s the true champion of working people?” • No.
The pithiness brings me genuine joy!
As for Klimt; the artist probably painted the tree naked first, (he did this with most of his portraits, even those of children, {fin de siecle Vienna!,}) and then added the outer layer in Super Pointillist fashion. Think of it as a poster for apples.
The Hydrangeas’s photo is beautiful. It is almost a Monet painting. I love it.
Thank you, katiebird!! I do try as best I can with my iPhone camera.
…but I think apple trees should be round…
I would never call you that, but au contraire, mon frere, apple trees are wonderful instruments to catch the sun and turn it yummy, and some love being flat:
50 shades of espalier
“Socioeconomics found to shape children’s connection to nature more than where they live”: https://phys.org/news/2024-08-socioeconomics-children-nature.html
I haven’t read the linked study in full, but it seems that basically they’re saying that money buys opportunities to get out into nature in a recreational manner. And that that then leads to more positive associations with nature, though they seem heavily skewed towards birds in particular. Not exactly shocking, but interesting none-the-less.
re: the exponentially small chance of remaining unaffected by significant CV acute effects or chronic sequelae after prolonged “life as normal” neglect of effective transmission mitigations,
We may arrive at a “Brave New World”-like situation in which people decline rapidly and expire not long after reaching 60. But, unlike “Brave New World”, in most cases they will not have enjoyed good health prior to that point, having been “burned” by the probabilities while still relatively young.
I suppose that this will be good for Pharma, for-profit medicine, and medical-device makers, but I do wonder whether there will be sufficient numbers of un- or lightly-impaired workers to operate those industries along with everything else that it takes to keep our civilization, such as it is, going.
The made-up numbers weaken the argument. Is it higher or lower than dying in an auto accident, for instance. I’ll always mask in planes and hospitals, but it will take convincing for me to mask on walks.
Funny, I thought the “for instance” numbers were a strength of the argument; the actual probabilities for infection due to transient exposures under various circumstances are, AFAICT, not known. So, take a number as low as you think plausible, the result is still likely to be “certainty of infection” in a time-frame short compared with the typical person’s future time horizon.
I mask when out of doors even when it is unlikely that I will encounter someone. While driving, I might be pulled over by traffic police. While digging in the garden, someone may come on to my property to speak with me (this has happened on multiple occasions during the pandemic).
It was a bit onerous at first, but any more I feel kind of “naked” if unmasked in the presence of others (analogous the way that many people feel vaguely unsafe if not buckled in when in a motor vehicle). An added upside is that I have not had so much as a sniffle (aside from runny nose induced by hot meals) since the beginning of the 2020 lockdowns, when previously I invariably each year had one or two good hard colds that made me miserable for a week or two.
(Aside, I use 3M Aura 9210+ or 9205+, which give me a good seal even without fit-testing (they may not work equally well with every face shape, though). During a “hazardous air quality” episode due to wildfire smoke last year, the Auras made the smoke smell undetectable, which I think is a pretty good proxy for a proper fit test).
—————
I continue to think that we could substantially control community spread if we really wanted to (for some definition of “we”; in principle one could work out the fraction of the population that would need to employ effective mitigations to get the reproduction number r0 below 1). I suppose that it’s one of the triumphs of the neoliberal project that, any more, people feel very little duty to make inconvenient individual adjustments for the sake of their pro-social consequences.
I don’t think I will out-live my parents.
When I walk by people who are talking or coughing I simply hold my breath. I’m getting good at holding my breath. If they’re just breathing I don’t usually bother with it.
Honestly, I’m too busy worrying about catching a respiratory illness on the bus. People who drive around in cars all the time have no idea!
I have a beef with how the probabilities are shown to be cumulative. I see the odds of catching a virus outdoors, in a diluting environment, as being small. Whether that’s 1% or whatever is not important to my point. My point is that it’s 1% (or whatever) each time, and they are not cumulative in the same way that flipping a coin and having the odds of heads are not cumulative. It is 50% each time, independent of how many times the coin has been flipped.
This differs from something like spending time in a crowd, e.g. a political convention, where the odds of catching something are affected by exposure time.
Free food (talk of material benefits); throw in a bicycle for each person, you have a jobs program, reduced pollution, reindustrialization (if bikes were made in U.S.), improved health all around.
Here’s a curated list of sites, videos, etc. on a variety of topics, at the bottom of the page they link to the wider category of “awesome” pages on GitHub where you can look to see if there is something you’re interested in that they don’t cover. Seems like a nice, community oriented effort to share knowledge, using a site I wouldn’t have thought of for it; but that also explains why it leans tech heavy.
https://github.com/sindresorhus/awesome
RFK Jr is wrong in two ways regarding the environment.
He is wrong in that other environmental concerns can not be neatly separated from climate change. The oceans warming and becoming more acidic will probably kill the whales too.
He is also wrong in assuming that because the Democrats talk about climate change they care about it. They don’t, both parties are first and foremost loyal to the empire and the US empire was built on oil.
“Oh My, Oh Miocene!” at https://www.realclimate.org/
A new post at realclimate.org discusses the paper in Nature Communications that was the subject of one of yesterday’s, 8/28/2024, links, “Earth’s Temperature Could Increase by 25 Degrees: Startling New Research Reveals That CO2 Has More Impact Than Previously Thought”, https://scitechdaily.com/earths-temperature-could-increase-by-25-degrees-startling-new-research-reveals-that-co2-has-more-impact-than-previously-thought/
The post at realclimate dissects the methods and statistical techniques used in the Nature Communications paper to deflate the claims of a startling new revelation. In its conclusion it makes the suggestion: “Papers like this – which have good new primary data and somewhat overconfident implications – are relatively common. Digging into why seemingly dramatic results are so overconfident often needs a deep dive into the calculations, and this should be something that could be checked in peer review.”
Three “organic” meals is not going to a do thing unless it’s a rationing scheme where you also prevent people from eating stuff outside those meals.
People don’t forgo a cupcake just because they had a filling salad. It’s fulfilling a different desire than hunger.
But would be fun to see Trump questioned on whether he now supports decommodification of our food.
It’s a little of both. Healthy natural food full of fiber and protein really does go along way to reducing hunger cravings. Will it eliminate it – no, but it’s a huge improvement
‘Covid Caution KP.2 + KP.3 + KP.3.1.1. + LB.1
@CovidCaution
In 2020 schools were closed for ~8 weeks in the U.S.
4 years later people are still blaming myriad health and learning issues on those relatively short closures.
Yet nobody can answer why children completely leaving school for 3 months every year has never caused such problems.’
The unanswerable question. I keep on hearing a lot about how much children have been damaged by having time off but little to how they are being damaged by allowing Covid to run free through schools again and again.
That is a very good point.
But I’m not sure what they’re talking about with 8 weeks. Are they making a statement about the roughly 8 weeks following March 13, 2020, that most kids in the US were out of school? Otherwise, my own children didn’t see the inside of a classroom for over a year. And the learning that was offered by my school district was of such horrendously poor quality that if we hadn’t paid for a suite of tutors and other experiences my kids would have been harmed by the experience. Academically and otherwise.
Even so we also had to pay for about two years of therapy bills for them because of the social stress and issues rising from isolation and the lock downs. I’m glad they’re not sick. I’m glad they didn’t catch COVID. I wish I had the option to protect them while also letting them continue to learn and grow as healthy people.
Harris says she will appoint a Republican to her cabinet. Wonder how well that worked for Obama since I think he did that too. I’m sure Trump will also appoint Republicans if elected, so Harris is playing catch-up again. Way to boost that Dem turnout in the swing states, Harris.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/kamala-harris-pledges-republican-cabinet-member-rcna168879
Why not? Central dems are war loving/censoring/working class hating neo libs, no? Logically it should be easy to reach across the aisle. In fact, why should the uni-party need an aisle?
Always remember how GDP is constructed:
Components of GDP: Explanation, Formula And Chart
Insurance costs are skyrocketing, for example, and that is certainly not a net good for working Americans. What we spend resources on is more important than the mere fact that resources are consumed.
Sigh…
my hydrangeas never seem to last more than a season and die a tortured death as mold gradually overcomes the poor thing.
Transcript of Harris Walz CNN interview (CNN)
Taibbi and Kirn are still talking about it on Racket News but are just wrapping it up. More than an hour for an 18 minute ‘interview’?
Re: outdoor transmission of Covid and small iterated risks are certainties: sometimes, sometimes not. Magnitudes matter. If it’s a 1% chance (which is actually really high – think about how many high risk crowded indoor gatherings happen every day and compare it to actual transmission) and you iterate it 1000 times, then yes, it’s a certainty. If it’s one chance in a million, and you iterate 1000 times, then it’s… around a 0.1% chance. Not a big concern.
Outdoor transmission does happen, generally in the same circumstances it does indoors (large crowds, close proximity). Atmospheric conditions are a factor as well. Do you live somewhere that’s prone to inversion layers, where you can still see wisps of exhaust smoke from the classic car rally that happened last week? Then yes, outdoor transmission is definitely a risk. Or is it constantly windy where you live? Then probably not so much.
Unless you lead the kind of life where you can be a hermit and never be in a group of people above a handful, almost all of your Covid risk is probably going to be centered around dangerous situations indoors. That’s where you should be looking to take precautions, or opt out entirely in the worst cases. Yes, there are situations outdoors that can be problematic (generally easily recognizable, and described above) but for the most part, going maskless outdoors will make a negligible difference to your risk profile.
If I wear a respirator my risk of getting infected passing someone on the sidewalk is essentially zero. If I don’t then it rises to some fraction of the local incidence of covid, depending on atmospheric conditions and how far down the road our paths overlap.
There’s a lot of room for that to make a non-negligible difference. And what if I’m the one who’s infectious?
All sorts of things make a non-negligible difference (cutting out processed foods and alcohol, going for walks or to the gym, distracted driving.. or even just driving) to our safety and well-being and yet the vast majority won’t act upon them.
I’m not a covid-minimizer, but at a certain point, you really do need decide what the balance is. I will not be wearing a mask while walking around outside, and yet I agree with everything you say