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2:00PM Water Cooler 9/9/2024

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Patient readers, I’m a little behind the eight ball on schedule, here, but I will certainly get to Kamala’s visit to the spice store! –lambert UPDATE Finished!

By Lambert Strether of Corrente

In Case You Might Miss…

  1. Siena poll turns out not necessarily to Kamala’s advantage.
  2. Kennedy ad deserves to go viral.
  3. Kamala visits Penzeys spice in Pittsburgh.
  4. Boeing signals more work in Renton with industrial lease, contract proposal.

* * *

Look for the Helpers

During a typhoon (DK):

I was pleasantly surprised to hear the other day how many people helped women/persons with baby carriages up stairs; my faith in humanity was somewhat restored. Has anybody ever seen similar behavior in the US? Of course, we don’t have typhoons, but tornadoes and hurricanes; it might not be possible to give the same sort of help.

* * *

My email address is down by the plant; please send examples of there (“Helpers” in the subject line). In our increasingly desperate and fragile neoliberal society, everyday normal incidents and stories of “the communism of everyday life” are what I am looking for (and not, say, the Red Cross in Hawaii, or even the UNWRA in Gaza). –>

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:

I would say the bloom is off the rose for Harris, except for an upward blip in Georgia. Looks like the enormous liberalgasm afte the Convention was confined to party loyalists. The Kamala campaign must be sore as boils Trump is within striking distance, let alone tied with them. What could account for it? Perhaps that’s why the pivot to RussiaGate. Remember, however, that all the fluctuations — in fact, all the leads, top to bottom — are within the margin of error.

“Toplines: September 2024 Times/Siena Poll of Registered Voters Nationwide” [New York Times]”

If this is a “Change vs. more of the same” election, and the voters want change — how could they not? — then Kamala is in real trouble.

“New Poll Suggests Harris’s Support Has Stalled After a Euphoric August” [New York Times]. Commentary on the Siena poll (above). “[T]he poll nonetheless finds that [Trump] has significant advantages in this election — and they might just be enough to put him over the top. He’s more popular than before. Overall, 46 percent of likely voters say they have a favorable view of the former president. That’s down a tick from our last national poll, when 47 percent had a favorable view, but it still makes him more popular than he was in 2016 or 2020. He has an advantage on the issues. We asked voters a two-part question. First, what’s the most important issue to your vote? Second, do you think Ms. Harris or Mr. Trump is better on that issue? By that measure, Mr. Trump has a five-point lead on the issue that matters most to voters, whatever that may be for them. He occupies the center. A near majority of voters say Mr. Trump is ‘not too far’ to the left or right on the issues, while only around one-third say he’s ‘too far to the right.’ Nearly half of voters, in contrast, say Ms. Harris is too far to the left; only 41 percent say she’s ‘not too far either way.'” • The 100-days election works against Harris, too. If she stumbles, badly, once, she could be a goner. From these numbers, the Trump campaign has laid a very solid foundation. (Maybe voters apply a “Trump Discount” to compensate for the puffery. If he says “Kamala’s a communist,” they discount that by, say, 90%, and still come out with the result that she’s left. Of course, it’s ludicrous to think Kamala’s anything like a communist — do you hear her calling for working class control of the means of production? — but nevertheless, the charge sticks, even given the discount.)

“Harris falling behind among male voters in key states” [The Hill]. “New polls show Vice President Harris faces a major challenge in winning over male voters and is losing men by a bigger margin than she’s winning women in key states such as Pennsylvania, Nevada and North Carolina…. Trump’s campaign has tried to exploit the gender divide by saturating battleground states with advertising focused on the economy, inflation, illegal immigration and crime, designed to appeal to younger male voters. ‘It’s battle of the sexes,’ said Ross K. Baker, a professor of political science at Rutgers University, regarding the trend of male voters turning toward Trump and away from Harris. ‘The feeling is that for every advance women make, men necessarily lose.’ ‘In some instances, the statistics bear out this apprehension among men,’ he added, pointing to the declines in the number of men attending college as well as some of their earning power.'” • Important that this is swing state data. I wonder what’s happening with the marginal women who are swinging toward Trump and not Harris.

* * *

The Debate (September 10)

Readers, we will have a live blog for the Kamala-Trump throw-down tomorrow. Doors will open at 8:30pm ET.

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Kamala (D): “VP Kamala Harris pauses debate prep in Pittsburgh to visit Strip spice shop” [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]. “During a brief break from debate preparations, Vice President Kamala Harris visited Penzeys Spices in the Strip District and met with supporters Saturday afternoon.” Quote from Kamala: “‘People are exhausted about the division and the attempts to kind of divide as Americans, and them stepping up to make this public statement, I think is courageous, but also for people like the folks I was just talking with, it really reinforces that we love our country and have more in common than what separates us,” she said.” • “Exhausted about the division” is like English, but it’s not English; Kamala sounds like Pelosi on one of her salad days. More importantly., the spice shop is Penzeys, whose site, for some reason, now throws a server error, but has fortunately been archived–

“About Republicans” [Penzeys]. Representative sample, and there’s a lot more like this: “The truth of our time is we’ve arrived at the point where there’s no way to respect the nonsense the Republican Party is promoting and have any hope of overcoming the problems we as a nation and we as a planet face. Given the choice between saving America and planet Earth or saving the feelings of Republican voters, we are choosing to side with saving our country and our world. I’m sorry it’s come to this. And no, there is no HATE!!! in any of this.” • Heaven forfend. But is this “division”? Sure is. So did Kamala’s advance team choose Penzys deliberately? That is, was this visit an attempt to take the high road visibly and the low road subliminally? Or was it just clumsy and stupid? One thing we do know:

Just so we’re clear on what “across from” means:

And indeed a search of Pennsyvalia Macaroni’s site for “spice” returns 205 hits, so I’m a little dubious about “just as many” too. Nevertheless, the message the campaign is sending is either absurdly Machiavellian or just plain stupid. Or perhaps there’s a more down-to-earth explanation:

Those little checks add up! Nice photo op, too:

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Trump (R): “The angry, divisive fallout of the Trump shooting in Butler County” [WaPo]. Liberal Democrats are never angry, and above all, never divisive. Now that we’ve settled that: “The long-simmering tensions in Butler that erupted after a [nearly assassinated Trump and killed or injured three others] gunman shot Trump in the ear at a rally have yet to cool nearly two months later…. Today, Butler is a community at a crossroads. The Cleveland-Cliffs Butler Works steel plant still provides 1,100 well-paying jobs. And while people here say many younger residents still move to find better paying jobs elsewhere, Butler is one of just two counties in Western Pennsylvania where the population is growing, according to 2020 to 2023 census data… The county’s rising population has made it a must-visit community for GOP candidates. Pennsylvania is considered a critical state for Trump this election. And while he’s likely to win Butler, analysts say what really matters is how much he wins by…. The Butler County Republican Party had long been marred by internal divisions, but chairman James E. Hulings said today it is more unified than it has been in years. He said the party gained 1,000 new voters over the summer. State voter registration records show Republicans have gained 2,000 new voters since December last year and now number 80,000…. Hulings said many Butler residents who have long stayed out of politics seem enthralled by Trump’s defiance after he was shot. Among those is Bill Secunda, 64, whose sculpture of Trump made out of 4,000 welded nails was recently displayed at the Butler Farm Show. The sculpture is meant to symbolize how Trump, from his perspective, is ‘tough as nails.'” • So the Trump campaign was smart to send him here, and now Trump voters throughout the state will crawl over broken glass to vote for him. I don’t think Kamala picking Shapiro would have made a bit of difference.

Trump (R): “Elton John Says Donald Trump Calling Kim Jong Un ‘Little Rocket Man’ Was ‘Brilliant,’ but Urges People to Vote for a ‘Calmer, Safer’ America” [Variety]. “‘I laughed, I thought that was brilliant,’ John told Variety‘s Ramin Setoodeh in an interview at Toronto Film Festival. ‘I just thought, ‘Good on you, Donald.’ … Donald’s always been a fan of mine, and he’s been to my concerts many, many times. So, I mean, I’ve always been friendly toward him, and I thank him for his support. When he did that, I just thought it was hilarious. It made me laugh.’ And but: ‘While John did not explicitly endorse either Kamala Harris or Trump, he asked rhetorically, ‘I just hope that people make the right decision to see what the future is going to be. Is it going to be fire and brimstone … or are we going to have a much calmer, a much safer place? People can vote for who they like, but as far as I’m concerned, I love love. And I’m a loving person, and I want that to come back to America. I feel it’s been lost in the last 12 years.'” ¨• Hmm. 2024 – 12 = 2012, so the rot set in during Obama’s second term?

* * *

Kennedy (I): This is absolutely terrific:

As readers know, I love stupid humor. And this is really stupid!

Our Famously Free Press

“Trump’s real Project 2025 was written for him in Moscow by Vladimir Putin’s men” [Will Bunch, Philadelphia Inquirer]. • I read the whole thing. Yes, Project 2025 was written by Heritage Foundation goons and not in Moscow by Putin’s agents (let’s not be sexist, mkay?). Bunch is recycling RussiaRussiaRussia, Now With Influencers!™. It’s as if Bunch thinks conservatives can’t come up with bad ideas all on their own. Or oppo. Unlike AIPAC influencers, of course, who have nothing but good ideas and never do oppo (and if you want to see an example of an effective, professional foreign influence operation, one that actually drives US policy and defeats US politicians, see Mearsheimer and Walt’s “The Israel Lobby,” which makes everything liberal Democrat demon figure Putin has done look like the pissant, minor league diddleysh*t that it is). Sheesh.

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

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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, 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!

* * *

Look for the Helpers

Mask blocs are great, and kudos to those who set them up:

Maybe set one up in Nassau County? Just a thought…

Airborne Transmission

“Upper-room ultraviolet light and negative air ionization to prevent tuberculosis transmission” [PLOS Medicine]. From 2009, still germane. From the Abstract: “We evaluated the efficacy of upper-room ultraviolet (UV) lights and negative air ionization for preventing airborne TB transmission using a guinea pig air-sampling model to measure the TB infectiousness of ward air.” But: “Upper-room UV lights and negative air ionization each prevented most airborne TB transmission detectable by guinea pig air sampling. Provided there is adequate mixing of room air, upper-room UV light is an effective, low-cost intervention for use in TB infection control in high-risk clinical settings.” • Underlining that UV alone is not sufficient.

Transmission: Covid

Because of course:

Airborne Transmission: Mpox

“Contact Tracing for Mpox Clade II Cases Associated with Air Travel — United States, July 2021–August 2022” [Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, CDC]. This sounds re-assuring, but here is the key paragraph:

CDC adapted the mpox community exposure risk assessment§ to define an exposure risk zone for aircraft contact investigations. In general, air passengers seated within a 3-foot radius (one seat in any direction) of the potentially infectious person on flights of ≤3 hours’ duration or within a 6-foot radius (two seats in any direction) on flights of >3 hours’ duration were considered to be in the exposure risk zone.

But that’s not how airflow in airplanes works (CDC is still in the grip of droplet dogma, where coughing is seen as the key mode of distance, and hence a radius is established for how long the droplets will be “in the air”). Sadly, I do not have the study that shows this to hand — it’s in that thread somewhere — but bug me about it if you want it.

Vaccines: Covid

“The gut microbiota modifies antibody durability and booster responses after SARS-CoV-2 vaccination” [Journal of Translational Medicine]. From the Abstract: “The findings of this study underscored the potential interaction between the gut microbiome and the longevity/boosting effect of antibodies following vaccination against SARS-CoV-2. The identification of specific microbial associations suggests the prospect of microbiome-based strategies for enhancing vaccine efficacy.” • Interesting!

Elite Maleficence

CDC messing about with maps, again:

A map I never link to, for obvious reasons (nobody travels or lives in a State, with respect to Covid; they travel to or live in a city or town, a place with a wastewater plant).

Just trying to be helpful:

* * *

Lambert here: The figures look mildly encouraging for now, but I would expect an immediate worsening after Labor Day travel kicks in, along with grade schools, high schools, and colleges starting up. Stay safe out there!

TABLE 1: Daily Covid Charts

Wastewater
★ This week[1] CDC August 27 Last Week[2] CDC (until next week):

Variants [3] CDC August 31 Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC August 31

Hospitalization
★ New York[5] New York State, data September 6: National [6] CDC August 17:

Positivity
National[7] Walgreens September 3: Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic August 24:

Travelers Data
Positivity[9] CDC August 19: Variants[10] CDC August 19:

Deaths
Weekly Deaths vs. % Positivity [11]CDC August 31: Weekly Deaths vs. ED Visits [12]CDC August 31:

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. NOTE The date seems to be wrong, but the number of sites has changed so this is new.

[2] (CDC) Last week’s wastewater map.

[3] (CDC Variants) KP.* very popular. XDV.1 flat.

[4] (ED) Down, but worth noting that Emergency Department use is now on a par with the first wave, in 2020.

[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Flat, that is, no longer down.

[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). The visualization suppresses what is, in percentage terms, a significant increase.

[7] (Walgreens) Big drop, but all those white states showing no change: Labor Day weekend reporting issues?

[8] (Cleveland) Dropping.

[9] (Travelers: Positivity) Down. 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) What the heck is LB.1?

[11] Deaths low, but positivity up. If the United States is like Canada, deaths are several undercounted:

[12] Deaths low, ED up.

Stats Watch

There are no official statistics of interest today.

* * *

Supply Chain: “The largest dockworkers’ union in the U.S. is signaling that it’s more focused right now on preparing for a strike than on getting to the bargaining table” [Logistics Report, Wall Street Journal]. “The International Longshoremen’s Association concluded meetings last week aimed at finalizing plans for the union’s first walkout targeting East Coast and Gulf Coast ports in 50 years. …[T]he expiration of the current contract is now just three weeks away and no negotiations on a new agreement are on the calendar. Union President Harold Daggett says the ILA won’t sit down with employers unless they agree to a 77% pay increase over six years, a big jump over the 32% wage gains that the union for West Coast dockworkers won last year.”

Manufacturing: “Boeing Signs Massive Lease Near Seattle as Aircraft Giant Ramps Up Production” [CoStar (PI)]. “Boeing has signed one of the biggest industrial leases of the past two years in the Seattle area, taking more than 1 million square feet at a just-completed building near the Port of Tacoma…. The deal is one of the top industrial leases in the United States ranked by square footage this year and is the largest deal in the greater Seattle area since 2022, CoStar data shows.” • Seems like Boeing won’t be using the space for parking. And this is a tangible signal that there’s more work in unionized Renton.

Manufacturing: “Machinists union agrees on tentative contract deal with Boeing” [Seattle Times (PI)]. “But many workers said the deal falls short of their demands, leaving the possibility of work stoppage on the table. The 11th-hour agreement — reached at about 2:30 a.m. Sunday, with the news publicly released a couple of hours later — will avoid a strike if a majority of the union’s members ratify the deal, as recommended by International Association of Machinists District 751 President Jon Holden, who led the negotiations. The contract offers workers a 25% general wage increase, enhanced retirement benefits, fewer hours of mandatory overtime work and increased parental leave. And, in what could prove a historic element of the contract for this region, Boeing offered a first-of-its-kind commitment that if it launches an all-new plane in the next four years, that jet will be built in the Puget Sound area by the local workforce.” • Why not a seat on the board? Or two seats? And 25% looks a little ambitious beside the ILU’s 77%,

Tech: “MI6 and CIA using generative AI to combat tech-driven threat actors” [The Register]. “‘We are now using AI, including generative AI, to enable and improve intelligence activities – from summarization to ideation to helping identify key information in a sea of data,’ the pair wrote in the Financial Times. ‘We are training AI to help protect and ‘red team’ our own operations to ensure we can still stay secret when we need to. We are using cloud technologies so our brilliant data scientists can make the most of our data, and we are partnering with the most innovative companies in the US, UK and around the world,’ they added.” • Let me know how that works out…

Tech: Business model:

Entertainment: “The Palace Coup at the Magic Kingdom” [New York Times]. Or, as some like to call it, Mauschwitz: “For a company that bills its theme parks as the ‘Happiest Place on Earth,’ Disney’s corporate headquarters have long been anything but — a hotbed of intrigue and power struggles. Chapek’s former chief of staff told people the company’s sixth-floor executive suite was a ‘snake pit.’ Iger ascended almost two decades ago, after a power struggle between Michael Eisner, a long-serving CEO, and Roy E. Disney, Walt Disney’s nephew and a Disney board member. By that time, Eisner had already elevated and then dispatched two handpicked successors, Jeffrey Katzenberg, who became co-founder of DreamWorks, and Michael Ovitz, once the most powerful agent in Hollywood. Iger, who started his career as a weather forecaster on a cable channel in upstate New York, had vowed to never follow in Eisner’s footsteps.” • Nice people!

Entertainment: “Disney-obsessed couple lose lawsuit to get back into exclusive Club 33” [Los Angeles Times]. “As members of Disney’s exclusive Club 33, Scott and Diana Anderson visited the two Anaheim theme parks 60 to 80 times a year. The private club, with its wood-paneled trophy room and other amenities, was the center of their social life. They brought friends, acquaintances and business associates. As a couple, they went on the Haunted Mansion ride nearly 1,000 times. The club’s yearly dues were $31,500, and with travel and hotel expenses, the Arizona couple were spending close to $125,000 annually to get their Disney fix. All of it came to an end in 2017, when Disney revoked their membership in the club after an allegation that Scott Anderson was drunk in public. Diana Anderson, a hard-core Disney aficionado since childhood, called it ‘a stab in the heart.'” Skipping the details, which include a defense that Anderson’s seemingly drunken behavior was caused by “vestibular migraine.” Concluding: “My wife and I are both dead set that this is an absolute wrong, and we will fight this to the death,” Scott, who owns a golf course in Gilbert, Ariz., told The Times. ‘There is no way we’re letting this go.’ He said the lawsuit has cost him about $400,000. ‘My retirement is set back five years,’ he said. ‘I’m paying through the nose. Every day, I’m seeing another bill, and I’m about to keel over.’ He said he will appeal. His wife said she wants to keep fighting. ‘I’ll sell a kidney,’ Diana said. ‘I don’t care.'” • Nice people!

* * *

Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 43 Fear (previous close: 39 Fear) [CNN]. One week ago: 62 (Greed). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Sep 9 at 12:45:32 PM ET.

Rapture Index: Closes down one on Oil Supply/Price. “Oil demand is dpwn” [sic] [Rapture Ready]. Record High, October 10, 2016: 189. Current: 181. (Remember that bringing on the Rapture is good.) • Hard to believe the Rapture Index is going down. Where are there people getting their news?

Gallery

High key:

Guillotine Watch

Sharks gotta swim, bats gotta fly:

Class Warfare

“Is economics in need of trustbusting?” [Editorial Board, Financial Times]. And the deck: “An elite closed shop of economists at US universities sparks concerns over groupthink.” You don’t say. “A study documents a “high and rising” concentration of Nobel Prize winners in a handful of top US universities: more than half their combined career time has been spent at just eight economics departments. Equivalent measures for other disciplines, from natural sciences to the humanities, are going the other way. There are other signs of economics turning into an elite closed shop: the handful of journals acting as gatekeepers to career advancement are largely controlled by economists from the same top departments, who also disproportionately pass through the revolving doors into policymaking jobs. This cartelisation may have similar causes to concentration elsewhere, from “superstar” dynamics enabled by information technology to the tendency of financial advantage to compound. But does it lead to wasted resources and inferior output, as in other markets?” • Well, “inferior” is just a word. Are they doing what they were hired to do? I’d say they are.

News of the Wired

Word of the day has wide application:

* * *

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 TH:

TH writes: “And what self-respecting Botanical Garden (in this case, San Diego’s) doesn’t have a lovely tranquil ‘stop and meditate awhile’ pond? This one stands complete with lovely yellow blossoms sprinkled across its surface, a plethora of lush green plants along its borders, muddy green frogs that so blend with the water-color that all one sees of them is their big yellow eyes, and a small convention of hovering dragon and damselflies.” This looks lovely and peaceful, and I wish I were sitting beside that pond right now.

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About Lambert Strether

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

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128 comments

  1. Martin Oline

    A new episode of What Are the Odds with the host Richard Baris and guest Robert Barnes started at 2PM ET through People’s Pundit on Utube. They say they will compare the polling between 2020 and 2024, the post Labor day presidential race and predictions. If you don’t have TDS and are retired (have the time) this may interest you but it is likely to go past 4PM as they both like to talk. What Are The Odds?

  2. Henry Moon Pie

    Help! My browser has gotten stuck on a Mobius strip!

    As for Kamala’s slumping numbers, I need no further confirmation than the thirty minutes of Morning Joe I endured this morning. Apparently, the thrill is gone as Joe and Mika (in the same room!) and the gang spent the first half hour in a TDS frenzy.

    Sing and play it, B. B.

    1. Carolinian

      Kamala just seems sooooo boring. She needs a good scandal to get our attention. Dead boy or live girl? Oh wait all the flashbacks have me citing last century’s quips.

      Oddly Trump’s commie baiting fashback may be workig according to above polls. Guess I don’t get out much among our business Republicans.

      1. Joe Renter

        Funny you should say that. As a Canadian astrologer I follow said that is what might happen to Kamala soon. They stars will play their part on in the drama. We will see.

        1. Yves Smith

          A test of astrology!

          I was told there is a big solar eclipse in early October, which suggests some (maybe more than one) solar figure (= leader) will be eclipsed. One immediately thinks Trump or Kamala, but there are other wobbly leaders around the world.

  6. Wukchumni

    $31k membership a year for a nice bar/restaurant in Disneyland?

    That’s burning money, man.

    By the way the only for sure flew @ Burning Man is the alkali dust. We had almost nothing in the way of duststorms (the media often calls it sand-now that would be wicked!) the whole week and then on Sunday during the Temple burn, a Scirocco came calling and on our bike ride back to camp, 3 of us had practically no visibility-eventually walking them and as long as you have capable goggles on, you’re good to go.

    1. Carolinian

      A lot of people seem to have had their brains captured by early life trips to Disneyland–probably some kind of Mr Subliminal hypnotism cooked up in the Disney labs. I cleverly avoided by living on wrong side of the country (one of our classmates showed us slides of her visit. It seemed swell).

      1. Wukchumni

        We went once a year living 20 miles away, it was an LA kid rite of passage, and cheap-like $4 for entry & tix. One of the rides I adored as a kid was ‘Autopia’ which was basically a primer for LA freeways and stop and go driving-complete with minor auto collisions. You had to be {this tall} to drive, and I remember standing near on tip-toe when I was almost tall enough.

        I was probably more corrupted by Marlin Perkins than the Wide World of Disney on TV, and more specifically Jim down there with the pack of Hyenas.

    3. Katniss Everdeen

      ‘I’ll sell a kidney,’ Diana said. ‘I don’t care.’”

      A year and a half ago, my husband participated in a clinical “study” of a new technique for aortic aneurysm repair. The “device” was “approved” by fda in April.

      A month ago, the “device” failed–“clotted out” is how it was indelicately put–according to the m.d. who did the surgery. He has been steadily declining in the hospital ever since. The failure has, apparently, cost him both of his kidneys. Oh well, shit happens, or so they say.

      If this colossal twit has a kidney for sale, I’d like to find a way to get her my number as I think we may need to buy one. I wonder if Medicare has any clout with bob iger…..It’s just a fuckin’ bar in Disneyland after all and it sounds like it could be pretty good, much needed PR…

      Hey, Diana, call me.

  7. tommy s.

    Lambert have you read Black Flags and Windmills by Scott crow? Fascinating book….also points out that FBI plant too. Malik Rahim is somewhat central. John tracy is finishing up an auto/interview bio of him now.

  8. Mark Gisleson

    Geek Social Fallacy #1 sounds a lot like how consensus driven groups can be tortured by just one or two hardcore dissidents. Also sounds like myriad municipal govt public meetings where a handful of cranks routinely take up half the time.

    Not a fan of the five fallacies as they seem to assume all geeks are PMCs; “family” was only mentioned twice, neither time in the context of blood relatives. Wild guess: these observations are about a very large Geek subculture: foreign born techs. Immigration is a real spark for many but can be overwhelming for introverted ESL IT workers leading to unnecessary but predictably deferential behavior.

    Reading his blog post I was reminded of some of my more assumptive political horse race comments at NC (the kind that irk our hosts). Suileabhain-Wilson writes books based on role playing games which rely on predictable characters whose actions are determined by rolling dice. His certainty comes across loud and clear but it’s 100% his opinion written generically with a disclaimer at the end that he’s not talking about anyone specifically which means he’s probably writing about a lot of people he knows personally. I doubt this post will reach its intended audience.

    1. ambrit

      Interesting that you should mention Wilson’s penchant for transliterating role-playing games into books. This was a big problem in the Science Fiction and Fantasy genre a few decades back. The attentive reader could catch the subtle stench of the Dark Arts at work pretty quickly. I can remember putting down several such eldritch tomes after a chapter’s torment and never picking them up again. I found that I could write the script before I read it on the cursed page. There is no fun in that.
      Wouldn’t the phrase “geek social” qualify as an oxymoron?
      Just asking for an imaginary friend.

  9. dk

    Helpers and “… we don’t have typhoons, but tornadoes and hurricanes; it might not be possible to give the same sort of help.”

    The opportunities to help only exist where community exists. In my secret cabin far from the madding crowd, no one is there to rescue me in my need; I had arranged it that way.

    Now, when community *does* exist, when people are all around us, and they see us and we see them, *then* the absence of help, the opportunity deferred, is an observation on the nature of such a community that we’ve become part of. It grew into us as we grew into it; to be around each other and feel we don’t need each other, with the corollary that no one needs us; not really, not urgently, not helplessly.

    Wide-area network communication contributes to this. It lets us enrich ourselves — experientially, not just economically, although economies are necessarily communities of some order — without the constraint of physical proximity. But without proximity, who will help, and whom can we help even when we’re willing?

    Sure, the thin fleeced coins though Gofundme do convey some memory of a warmth that came with a look in the eye or a warm word, a squeezed hand or a quick tight hug; but it’s still a memory we have to invoke and enliven for ourselves, even in our desperate moment.

    1. Yves Smith

      I have been waiting to tell this story which will never fit in any Lambert helper category. The NYC stroller discussion was probably as close to on point as I’ll get, but indulge me.

      One day well before the days of cellphones, in the afternoon, I was on West 65th Street, approaching Central Park West on the south side of 65th. If you know Manhattan, 65th runs east, which means towards the Central Park on the west side. 65th is a big street because it is one of the few streets that crosses Central Park.

      Central Park West is a two-way street.

      So as I am walking towards the intersection of 65th and Central Park West, traffic on Central Park West has been stopped by the traffic light. I see a middle aged couple cutting through the stopped cars mid-block, between 65th and 64th, on the east, as in park side, of the street.

      Suddenly a red car jumps backwards. The woman goes down, screaming.

      I run to the pay phone on the corner to call 911. After I do that, I try to cross the street although traffic is now moving, so all I can do is watch. I learn later that a doctor who lived in one of the lower floor apartments in Central Park building facing the scene heard the screams, looked out his window, and immediately ran down with a medical kit.

      The red car is stopped as it should be as the traffic has started moving when the light changed.

      The light changes and the traffic stops. There are so many people now crowed around the woman I am not sure I could do anything to assist, so I stand at the corner trying to sus out if I’d be a help or a hindrance.

      The light changes and the cars start moving.

      The red car that hit the woman suddenly takes off, trying to speed away from the scene of what is now a crime, a hit and run.

      A taxi stopped at the head of the line on 65th, waiting for the light to change, zooms through the stop light and hits the back of the red car, successfully halting its departure.

      Some of the people who’d been helping the couple run to the red car, break the driver’s window, and take his keys.

      The cops arrive. I offer to make a statement. They took my details but I never got a call, presumably because there were so many witnesses.

      I heard the woman only had a broken leg (not sure how bad a break but at least not a shattered pelvis).

      Speculation was the red car driver tried to run because either the car was stolen or he had drugs on him.

  10. Samuel Conner

    I’d prefer to avert my gave from The “Debate” tomorrow night (the prior “The Debate”, was painful to watch), but it’s probably consequential enough that I will regret not giving it attention.

    Will there be a NC live ‘blog thread?

      1. mrsyk

        I’m can’t decide between “Way”, in the context of “way too much”, or “obviously”.
        Gag me with a spoon, heh heh.

        1. Wukchumni

          I’ve never chug-a-lugged a whole 3 liters of box wine before, you’re headed off into dangerous errortory.

    2. Screwball

      The Big Event!!!!! Might be the best comedy special since George Carlin passed.

      I laugh at my PMC friends who refuse to watch. They all say pretty much the same thing – why would we watch – all Trump does is lie. Along with “I can’t stand to look at or hear that POS, so I won’t be watching.”

      Okey-dokey then. I’m guessing they don’t want to watch in case COMMA-lah lays an egg, or says some stupid things. They don’t want to see that. It will be safer to miss it, then use Tweet’s and pundit sound bytes from their favorite echo chamber ghouls (Like Aaron Ruper, Bill Kristol, Matty from WaPo, etc.) how COMMA-lah destroyed the Orange Hitler.

      IMO, this is really on Trump. If he wants to win, and I think he does this time (not so sure about last time), he needs to prove he has the capability to shut up when he needs to, and not turn this into a giant pissing match. Keep to the issues and issues only – don’t get personal. Allow Harris to ad lib all she wants, and when she starts digging a hole, hand her a shovel. IOW, act presidential. Can he do that? I have my doubts, and it may cost him dearly.

      If, and a big if, Trump smokes her, and she starts dropping in the polls in the next week, it’s going to get, as Artie Johnson would say “very interesting.” I put nothing past what team blue will do. Nothing.

        1. ambrit

          It’s a shame she isn’t a Rhodes Scholar like Hillz altered ego, Bill. Then the joke would write itself.

        2. Screwball

          You know this, but I was making fun of the Times making sure we know how to pronounce the name. I do appreciate that since I am grammar and spelling challenged. :-) I really am; I’m a geometry, numbers guy.

          I read the same other places and giggled. It seems so her. The more I see the more I find her as Hills clone in one respect. We need a fingers on the chalkboard meter for that. After that, she honestly scares me. The puppet strings seem too obvious. But what’s new?

          Thanks for all you do here to. This place is on the Mt. Rushmore of not only financial websites, but websites in general.

          Stay safe all.

          1. MFB

            In South Africa the newsreaders — and all our US political news comes straight from Democratic Party headquarters — call her “Camilla”.

            Maybe it’s our latent, or not-so-latent, adoration for the Deutsche Brittische monarch.

    3. Lambert Strether Post author

      > Will there be a NC live ‘blog thread?

      Definitely. It would be extraordinary if it were as consequential as the last one, either way, but this has, again, been a volatile year. Readers will, in any case, have fun.

    5. LilD

      No longer drinking alcohol, but there are some tasty nonalcoholic “spirits “ these days and I’m expecting to get through several

      My favorite is Wilderton botanical and my wife loves Kentucky 74

    6. chris

      I hope so. Since the media has shown a tendency to not give us great transcripts whenever Joe or Kamala speak. I think the inky chance we have of seeing what this is for ourselves is with our own eyes.

      Is it too tinfoily to think that if things really go badly they will have convenient technical difficulties?

  11. griffen

    Egads, a Will Bunch article. Oh darn it, reached my limit free article maximum, so I can only have wild hallucinations and the most fervent of vintage fever dreams of what a loyalist to the Russians Russians!! themed reporting has spewed forth.

    Vomit worthy, it is my presumption. Dear good grief can’t the lamest of writers, eh journalists, spew out something new and possibly not tried before?

    1. Camelotkidd

      It still amazes me that the PTB were able to transform liberals into fervent cold warriors by associating Trump and Putin with the Russia-gate PSYOP
      It’s the gift that keeps on giving

      1. MFB

        Once the North Korean Marxist-Leninist tiddlywinks team conquers the US, all those liberals will be equally fervent worshippers of the Supreme Leader. Once you’ve learned to worship a Supreme Leader, all the trappings of ideological propaganda required to justify it can be swallowed like so much chocolate pudding, even though it isn’t actually chocolate pudding.

        As for watching the debate, I suppose the takeaway will be relief that only one of the people present will be in a position to ruin the world come January.

    2. pjay

      Vomit worthy indeed! Like Lambert I read the whole thing, which was probably a mistake. It was some serious McCarthyist war-mongering bulls**t. The interesting thing is that Will Bunch writes for a prominent paper, and he has been a prominent “journalist” for a long time. He shared a Pulitzer in the 1990s. Yet if you try to find out anything about his background or personal life, you find his personal info on the internet has disappeared! Must have some connections to be able to scrub your bio like that. I know he has specialized in fear-mongering about the right-wing in the past (stuff I didn’t used to question like I do now), and was connected with Media Matters (the David Brock liberal propaganda site). Other than that you can’t find out much more about him now. But he managed to wrap the various pieces of the current anti-Russia propaganda effort all up nicely here.

      This isn’t just ridiculous anti-Trump BS. This is war-mongering anti-Russia incitement for the most idiotic of liberal useful idiots.

  12. Wukchumni

    In her quest to be Caesar in tomorrow’s debate, no doubt she’ll will address the French, Italian and even Russian problems back at the Ranch, for no candidate for highest office in the land is a Thousand Island to thyself, and by the way, expect the pivot to Green Goddess-a neo Eco warrior.

    1. griffen

      I prefer a BLT sandwich with my word salad to go but it’s just personal choice. Hey a crossover promotion opportunity for Panera or a comparable chain…watch the debate and scan a QR code for a two item lunch pairing the following day!?! Bonus points for any chain that might do so, and using the QR code will mean you dear consumer can pay the 2019 price…\sarc

      Any BLT better have a dollop of mayo of course…as a child of the South it better be Duke’s mayonnaise.

  13. dk

    Tech: “MI6 and CIA using generative AI to combat tech-driven threat actors” [The Register]. … • Let me know how that works out…

    From April:
    ‘Lavender’: The AI machine directing Israel’s bombing spree in Gaza
    The Israeli army has marked tens of thousands of Gazans as suspects for assassination, using an AI targeting system with little human oversight and a permissive policy for casualties, +972 and Local Call reveal.

    https://www.972mag.com/lavender-ai-israeli-army-gaza/

    The destruction of Palestine is a ongoing proof-of-concept arena — not the only one, just starker than most.

    1. The Rev Kev

      I think the idea behind that Israeli AI is to ‘Kill ’em all. Let Jehovah sort them out.’ An MI6/CIA AI would work on the principle that everybody is guilty of sedition – so let them prove themselves otherwise.

  14. Ignacio

    1000 points for Robert Kennedy’s (Jr) shake dance. That was great! He almost certainly likes daddy jokes.

    2. kareninca

      From what I have read of his marriages, including the impetus for the suicide of his second wife, I don’t think he is a family man type.

      I don’t expect politicians to be nice human beings, and I guess that is just as well.

  15. Wukchumni

    Everybody in the Big Smokes of Cali is hep to the idea that the Big One is coming, but we’ve been out of shape for 30 years, with the last temblor of note coming in 1994 in the City of Angles.

    It will be interesting to see how people react in terms of helping one another out, when it isn’t something you really think about, and few have made plans as in a supply of freshwater to last a week, simple stuff really, but nobody does it.

    There’s been more earthquakes in the high 3’s to low 5’s in SoCal than I can remember in quite awhile, shift happens.

    1. Joe Renter

      I have been getting the vibe that we are going to shaking here in the Golden state soon. I had a premonition about the Loma Prieta quake of 89 about 4 months beforehand.
      I lived less than a mile from the Pacific Garden Mall in Santa Cruz where it was a complete disaster. Hope most of us come out of it okay in the next one. I currently live 7 miles from the Diablo nuclear power plant. I have my potassium iodide on hand.

  16. lyman alpha blob

    RE: Disney-obsessed couple

    These Disney adult day drinkers (I’m assuming day drinking based on an earlier article about the day drinking Disney club that appeared here a while back) deserve it. First of all, drinking should be done after dark in a dimly lit and seedy bar, so everybody looks better. And secondly, Disney is for overly nice and maybe not the brightest children. Adults who frequent the place give me the willies. Or course, as a kid I always disliked the mouse and much preferred the more sarcastic Looney Tunes. If it were up to me, I’d feed this couple some alum and then drop an anvil on their heads.

    1. Carolinian

      There ya go. We loved Bullwinkle too. But my brother and I did have a childhood fascination with Haley Mills. I watched Parent Trap twice in a row while my mom was at work.

      1. Katniss Everdeen

        My most prized possession as a catholic grade schooler was a scrapbook stuffed with every Hayley Mills pic I could scare up.

        My favorite movie was “The Trouble With Angels.” Hayley Mill’s character, named Mary, kept coming up with “scathingly brilliant” pranks to pull on the nuns at her convent school until she decided to become one of them. It was the best.

    2. albrt

      If you are ever in Phoenix I recommend the Bikini Lounge on Grand Avenue. Assuming you don’t mind Covid.

  17. Lambert Strether Post author

    I have added orts and scraps, including Kamala’s weird visit to Penzeys spices in Pittsburgh, which took a bit of effort to disentangle. Oddly, despite the super photo op, there was very little national coverage. Enjoy!

    1. Late Introvert

      So is this like the time Dukakis said Belgian endive was something farmers could grow instead of corn?

      I personally am all in favor of spices, but more concerned about genocide.

      ,La not earning my vote…

  18. Michael McK

    I read the Philly Inquire project 2025 jab with the word “real” emphasized and it seems like they mean Trump will have his own project 2025, written by the Kremlin.

    1. IM Doc

      I must say that I am quite taken back that one of my big issues – in broad general terms – “healthy living free of Pharma” – is seemingly making an impact during this campaign. In medicine, we do what are called “root cause analyses” all the time to see where the cascade of problems started and how to avert them in the future. Funny, no one ever seems to recognize Doritos and Doughnuts as a root cause – but I assure you they are.

      What is just mind-blowing is that this is all coming from the Trump campaign. I will absolutely vote for him – it is that important to me and the thousands of patients ( and their families) who have died agonizing death over my career. And it is the single most important root cause of so many of our society’s problems – not just the food issues but also the extreme prescription writing. Just walk through an average WalMart any time any place and you will see what I am talking about. We are absolutely doomed unless something is done pronto.

      However, the PMC MSNBC Dems are just not going to allow Trump, RFK, Vivek, and Tulsi loose on the fraud and corruption they have built up – I am thinking we are in for a true barn burner.

      1. chris

        I agree with you sir.

        I think we’re in unmovable object meets irresistible force territory. Trump could very well have a lot of people behind him who want change and won’t take no for an answer this time. Kamala and the status quo refuse to allow that. We don’t have the same kind of situation in the US that they have in other countries, so there will be no bizarre extra-judicial veto by a president like Macron. That means if one side loses “legally” this time we should expect violence.

        I can imagine playing the martial law card long before the “authoritarian” Mr. Trump.

      2. Victor Sciamarelli

        >Doritos, donuts, fraud and corruption, support for Trump and your agreeable post
        My thought experiment for today is based on the fact that everybody has been to a zoo and any large zoo will have a veterinarian and animal nutritionist.
        If I brought with me to the zoo a box of donuts and a bag of Doritos and started to feed the monkeys, I would be warned by security to stop immediately. It wouldn’t matter if I said, what the heck, Chimp’s DNA is about 98% like humans so they deserve a treat, too; no? The zoo nutritionist would flip out.
        If I persisted, no doubt, I would be arrested for violating the zoo rules but, more importantly, feeding the chimps donuts and Doritos would be considered a form of animal abuse.
        My guess is that at least 80% of what Americans eat would be viewed by Americans as revolting if given to zoo mammals.
        On fraud and corruption. I live in Italy and I’ve learned from a friend that under the Italian health care system, which is basically universal health care, if a person is diagnosed with a form of cancer, from that point on, the treatment, CT scans and all the rest, is of no cost to the patient; a very different doctor/patient relationship.
        When I hear stories of Americans paying tens of thousands for standard care it sounds like nothing less than a scandal. As if medical care is designed around a potential income stream that should be maximized.
        RFK is the only candidate to whom I donated. I was surprised he endorsed Trump, yet I understand and support his motive. If he can be part of the Trump administration and reign in the f&c of our health care system, it would be a colossal achievement.

  23. Samuel Conner

    re: the “Penzeys” ort/scrap,

    I have been using Penzeys spice mixes intermittently since the ’90s. They are IMO very expensive but it is possible to get the cost down a bit by purchasing discounted gift cards and waiting to use them on sale items.

    In particular, I really like Penzeys’ “Galena Street” rub and “Fajita Seasoning.” I once tried to “reverse engineer” one or the other of these, in the hope of mixing my own at lower cost, but I never got close.

    1. Samuel Conner

      One thing about Penzeys that I find somewhere on the spectrum from annoying to amusing to “gutsy” is that they definitely wear their politics on their sleeve. And they package some of their products in ways that might strike some as “inspiring” but others as “sanctimonious.” There’s a spice gift box colorfully decorated with the wording “Choose Love.” There’s a spice blend called, I think “Justice”. Email blasts are sometimes coordinated with recent political news. The slant of these political marketing emails is decidely on the “D” side.

      It might just be “marketing” targeted to what the marketers think is a group that is likely to increase its purchases of $$ products if it perceives the seller to be politically sympathetic (“annoying” to me as I don’t like to believe that I may be being manipulated in that way), but I wonder whether it’s actually an expression of conviction (which would, to my mind, make it appear more “gutsy” since it might alienate some customers).

      1. Lambert Strether Post author

        > There’s a spice gift box colorfully decorated with the wording “Choose Love.” There’s a spice blend called, I think “Justice”.

        Do they have one called “In this house?”

        No but seriously, I have no issue with Penzeys, bless their hearts. But Kamala — Ellipsala, Emdashala, Quoteala, QuestionMarkala, Interrobangala — cannot promote, or at least should give consideration to not promoting, an end to “division” at a store with an About page like Penzeys has, which just screams “deplorables!” but using a lot more words.

          1. ambrit

            Which would be also associated with “karmalaized,’ the ‘natural’ outcome of something being ‘cooked.’ Cynics will say that this is also a ‘natural’ outcome of the machinations of the Democrat Party fondation.

        2. Samuel Conner

          Forgive me for hijacking the ort with my remarks about the products.

          Perhaps the “division” that KDH was thinking of was a perception of “division” within one of the duopoly factions rather than across the entire political spectrum. Perhaps the actual target isn’t suburban R voters but the Greens? The bits of genuine Left that remain are probably not offended by the “commercial political activism” of Penzeys Spices (which was, IIRC, most obtrusive during the GWB and DJT years).

        3. ChrisPacific

          It’s a little difficult to understand what Kamala is saying (go figure) but I assume “stepping up to make this public statement” refers to the about page?

          If so, I agree with you. Sure, let’s heal division by telling Republican voters they are stupid and deluded. Let us know how that works out.

          Regarding the choice of Penzeys, she’s a Clinton protege after all – I’d assume she just seeks out adulation, consciously or unconsciously, and chooses the venues where she’s most likely to find it.

    2. MaggieNC

      Galena St. Rub is the best ..and a “secret” that makes husband’s smoked pork ribs a crowd favorite! Our daughter loves their chili spices… and yes…purchasing and then using discounted gift cards really is very helpful…

      1. Lambert Strether Post author

        Sure. The issue is not Penzeys the store but — follow me closely here, this was all filed under the heading “2024” — the use Kamala made of them (and what that says about their campaign which [checks above] has a mere 57 days to go.

        1. MaggieNC

          OK… please remove my comment… Apparently in responding to Samuel Conner about Galena St Rub I was in error given your “follow me closely here” response…….

          1. Samuel Conner

            The fault, if fault there be, was mine. I really like some of the products and mentioned that sort of as a PSA (“[unrelated] news you can use”), but it was kind of a hijacking of the news flow.

          2. lambert strether

            I can’t figure out whether the event, in its hypocrisy or doublethink, was insanely Machiavellian, or absurdly clumsy and stupid. That is the point, not the jars on the shelves.

            Perhaps readers can help!

              1. ambrit

                Yet none of the Fremen in those pictures was wearing a mask. What are these, degenerate Town Fremen?
                I wonder if Hillary thinks of herself as a Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother?

            2. albrt

              It seems to me that if Trump can promote Four Seasons Landscaping, Comma-lah can promote Penzey’s.

              But seriously folks, although it will be interesting to see if Comma-lah gets tagged with any of this deep-coded culture war stuff, I don’t think that’s the big issue. It seems to me the main problem for her campaign is that she got a big initial boost from not being the incumbent, then she squandered it by not putting forth any policy positions so now a few weeks later she is seen as “more of the same” and Trump is again the candidate of “major change.”

            3. Italyinz

              My opinion (as a yinzer) is that it was a combo of a practical decision and also stupid. They probably didn’t really consider or know how this would be perceived for locals. Remember, these people are DC elites, not necessarily going to down home ethnic markets (which is what Penn Mac is).

              It may be considered slightly practical. Penn Mac is an absolute zoo on weekends. Thus I’m guessing part of their calculation was to avoid dealing with that chaos and instead go to a nice sterile chain that they’ve probably been to back in DC. To a Pittsburgh local it is absolutely strange though. I didn’t realize that Penzeys was even there because there are like 5-10 phenomenal ethnic markets in the strip.

              Finally, Penn Mac is an Italian owned small business. As a Pittsburgh Italian American I can tell you that this demographic has become pretty conservative in response to deindustrialization. I have no idea of the family’s political affiliations, but would not be shocked at all if they were not playing ball with Kamdog.

    3. Jason Boxman

      There’s always Curio Spice Company in Somerville which I still order from once a year, although I’ve no idea what their politics are, probably liberal given the area, because I haven’t been home in almost four years thanks to Biden’s insufferable Pandemic, and I liked walking inside and smelling fresh organic spices whenever I felt like taking the 5 minute walk there.

      It’s been a long Pandemic.

    4. Milton

      There’s an Iranian market nearby that I frequent that is laden with spices from the Mideast and the Mediterranean. My favorite part of shopping there is to purchase their saffron. You order it at the register and they will take a small box out of a ground safe revealing small vials of some very expensive spice. The feeling that I’m purchasing something illicit, heightens the transaction experience.

      1. lambert strether

        Do you think that Kamala felt she was having an illicit experience? The campaign? The press?

        Do you think that whatever transactions may have been going on were about the jars on the shelves? Or something else?

    1. The Rev Kev

      Who is also full in with the Democrats. A few weeks ago he was talking next to old Joe and by the sounds of it, Elton seems to think that the Republicans are going to lock up all the gays or something.

      1. hk

        Yeah, but I was responding to the fact that he have a civil and circumspect answer, which is rare among moralizing celebs today. I was fully prepared to say somethingbrather uncivil, but I was surprised pleasantly bybwhat he actually said.

        I don’t mind what people actually believe, but I can’t stand celebs moralizing.

  25. LawnDart

    I’m pretty sure Penzeys is/was across from PennMac– they may have moved or wrong location on the map, but it’s been a few years, and I did a lot of shopping on the strip while I lived in Bloomfield, a neighborhood just up the road.

    Early into my exile to Pgh, the strip was still a s**thole populated by whores, drug-dealers, and a few seedy bars, and these came to life as the sun set and the (mostly) ethnic shops closed… I prefer this crowd to the goddamn tourists.

    1. LawnDart

      Yes, the strip gentrified.

      PennMac is where you bought herbs and spices in bulk; Penzeys is where you bought them in fancy little jars.

      I only went to the strip on weekdays, early in the morn.

  26. petal

    Radio ad just came on. Guy speaking in a low, scary voice about how Trump will use Project 2025 to jail his opponents and become a dictator, etc etc. This will have aired in the Upper CT River Valley(VT/NH).

    2. albrt

      Here in Phoenix I am getting multiple daily oversize postcard format mail ads from Trump PACs. They are not at all truthful, but they are not opposed by anything. I suspect these reach more people than radio ads.

  27. ambrit

    “..marginal women..” sounds like a DEI classification. Yet another sigh-lo from whose grain bitter bread is baked. After the election Kamala and Hillz can open an artisanal bakery in Berkley and call it ‘Baguettes Bane.’

  28. urdsama

    James Earl Jones passed away today.

    He was 93.

    I feel like it’s a bad omen for the rest of the year, as if it wasn’t bad enough.

    1. ambrit

      We still have Darth Cheney to uphold the values of “Lies, Injustice, and the Neo-liberal Way!”
      I remember going to see Jones in the film “Matewan” back in the day.

    3. CA

      My grandfather gave me a theater-film made with Jones playing in a small-small theater in Jean Genet’s “Blacks.” An all black cast, with actors who became legendary in years following; including Jones. The film of the play truly frightened me. Jones was a heroic figure from then for me, as was Genet and the entire cast.

      1. anahuna

        That was the West Fourth Street theater in 1961.

        I saw his performance. Unforgettable. Although I had forgotten until now that Cecily Tyson was in it as well.

  29. Edman

    Please remember that the Pittsburgh Post Gazette is on strike for more than a year. Do not speak to their scab reporters or quote their articles.

  30. John k

    Imo Inflation, illegal immigration and crime are concerning to both sexes. If so, the ads appeal to both which a good ad should do.
    Imo Kamala must do very well tomorrow to have a real shot. Polls have always under predicted trump, the desire to show the dem doing well vs the hated trump will always color predictions.

  31. ambrit

    Somehow, that Sargent painting reminds me strongly of Fredric Remington paintings of the Wild West. Both use the same washed-out light tones and, I’m thinking here, heat shimmer effects.

  32. The Rev Kev

    ‘Miles W. Griffis
    @mileswgriffis
    Oh no, it happened. Someone posted about their whole camp having the “Burning man flu”.’

    A few short years ago we had the medication-whose-name-dare-not-be-spoken. So how did we go from there to the virus-whose-name-dare-not-be-spoken?

  33. rowlf

    Look for the Helpers – During a typhoon (DK)

    I went to Hanoi a year or so ago for a business meeting and was surprised how egalitarian the traffic was. A high end car like a Mercedes would allow a motorbike to get ahead of them. Everyone on the road just worked to make the best of the situation.

    In comparison, I commute to Atlanta and have to deal with many Me-First MFs in German cars pulling dick Gucci moves to get ahead of others. It’s got nothing to do with Vorsprung durch Technik, you know? (Parklife – Blur)

    1. Henry D

      This is not intended to be an excuse for the horrid Atlanta drivers, but it may have to do with conditioning from way back when Atlanta was rapidly outgrowing its freeways such that it still had only three lanes in each direction through town and only a couple of hundred feet onramps. There was lots of incentive to drive like a race car driver or get run over. Offramps backed up for miles and you could save 20 minutes or more by racing past the line then cutting in at the last moment. This rapidly led to cars closing up the gap between them resulting in any slight slowdown getting amplified down the line as there is only enough time to slam on the brakes. Ultimately the whole freeway gets this 65 then 0 mph slinky motion, which is not synchronized between the lanes incentivizing constant lane changes. Really a miserable driving experience resulting in increased adrenaline and anxiety and road rage. I rode a bicycle to avoid this feeling myself and because in many instances it was faster, though by being a clear indicator of what miserable progress the cars were making I often became a target of their frustration.
      Here is an viewer that allows to you to compare aerial views though the earlier ones are black and white and the new ones color so its not perfect. If you use the slide function you can slide between views.
      https://historicaerials.com/viewer

    2. chris

      Yes fellow Chris. You are correct. But pointing that out makes you “creepy”, “weird”, a “conspiracy theorist”, and of course, Pro-Putin. Also anti-Semitic! As always, we are not permitted to acknowledge what our own eyes see. And I feel like the best use of AI from the perspective of our leaders, will be incredibly efficient monitoring of all communications so that we all have personal minders from the government keeping us away from communicating anything against the Narrative.

      It is really family blogging frightening to think about in any detail.

  36. albrt

    Search engines are so horrible. I had to completely cut off google because it was showing me banners that said things like “we have determined your location based on your searches to deliver the best results” after I denied them my location data.

    But Duck-Duck-Whatever gives me endless iterations of a Post Malone song about the thing I searched for, with no results at all about the actual thing.

    I think I am just going to live in a pre-search world for most purposes. If I have a question I will find a smart person and ask the question. Practicing this should make me somewhat less vulnerable to AI.

  37. Lefty Godot

    I ran across the following passage in Matt Kennard’s The Racket which describes the sort of superficially democratic foreign governments that the US props up to do its will abroad:

    What the US likes, and promotes, is “low-intensity democracy”, a political system in which there are formal elections every four years but the social relations of the society, the control of a rich elite, is never questioned and the concerns of the country’s poor people are never heard.

    And they’ve brought that model back home and made it work for them here, as of the last two (at least) decades.

    1. Procopius

      I always thought the State Department preferred outright dictatorships, like Somoza’s Nicaragua or Batista’s Cuba. Even more preference for those countries which savagely repressed the people, like Idi Amin or Pol Pot. Promotes “stability”, don’t you know.

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