By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Patient readers, yesterday was the complex maneuvering preparatory to travel. Today is the lurching and jolting of actual travel, hopefully arriving at a full complement of Water Cooler items. –lambert
Bird Song of the Day
Northern Mockingbird, Country Homes Apartments, Jefferson, Texas, United States.
In Case You Might Miss…
“Underrated ways to change the world” [Experimental History].
Here is an exemplary scientific paper:
During the author’s childhood, various renowned authorities (his mother, several aunts, and, later, his mother-in-law [personal communication]) informed him that cracking his knuckles would lead to arthritis of the fingers. To test the accuracy of this hypothesis, the following study was undertaken.
For 50 years, the author cracked the knuckles of his left hand at least twice a day, leaving those on the right as a control. Thus, the knuckles on the left were cracked at least 36,500 times, while those on the right cracked rarely and spontaneously. At the end of the 50 years, the hands were compared for the presence of arthritis.
There was no arthritis in either hand, and no apparent differences between the two hands.
People often think they can’t do research because they don’t have a giant magnet or a laser or a closet full of reagents. But they have something the professional scientists don’t have: freedom. The pros can’t do anything that’s too weird, takes too long, or would raise the suspicion of an Institutional Review Board. That kind of stuff has to happen in a basement or a backyard, which is why the “paper’ above is, in fact, a letter to the editor written by a medical doctor on a lark.
* * * 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
* * *
Trump Transition
““Trump’s cabinet picks are agents of his contempt, rage and vengeance” [Sidney Blumenthal, Guardian]. “Trump’s cabinet appointments are agents of his contempt, rage and vengeance. The motive for naming his quack nominees is located in his resentments from his sordid first term for which he pledged retribution…. He will achieve vindication by tearing down anything he feels was used to restrain his destructive impulses or tried to hold him accountable for his past crimes, whether it is the military, the justice system or science itself.” • This is what passes for analysis in the Clintonian wing. I am so, so tired of Democrats psychologizing and infantilizing every human motive (except for their own, of course, which are irreduciably nuanced, complex, and above all Moral). But suppose they’re right. Suppose the dominant political figure of the last three Presidential cycles is in, in his innermost being, a tantrum-driven, sociopathic, barely-toilet-trained two-year-old. What does it say about the Democrats that they had eight years to figure out how to stop him — preventing “fascism”MR SUBLIMINAL Until it’s time to kiss and make up and saving “our democracy” MR SUBLIMINAL BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!! — and yet failed to do so?
“Trump’s casting call as he builds out his administration: TV experience preferred” [Associated Press]. ” There’s a common trait that President-elect Donald Trump is clearly prizing as he selects those to serve in his new administration: experience on television. Trump loves that ‘central casting’ look, as he likes to call it…. [He’s] working to set up a more forceful administration in this term, and in his eyes, many of those people happen to intersect with celebrity…. The White House-to-cable news pundit pipeline tends to cut across administrations of both parties, to some extent. President Joe Biden had three MSNBC contributors on his transition team and his former press secretary went to the network after she left the White House. Biden, though, looked to career diplomats, longtime government workers and military leaders for key posts like the Defense Department.” • You could argue, I suppose, that the social capital intrinsic to celebrity gives these appointments a certain autonomy; they can always go back on cable or secure an “Orange Man Bad”-type book deal. Of course, this cuts against the “loyalist” narrative. Readers, what do you think?
* * * “The knives are out over Treasury” [Politico]. “SCOTT BESSENT. KEVIN WARSH. HOWARD LUTNICK. MARC ROWAN. All the supposed frontrunners for Treasury secretary have something in common — they’re Wall Street finance guys. That’s got the populist right freaking out. Protectionists in and out of President-elect DONALD TRUMP’s inner circle are terrified that none of the Treasury frontrunners will deliver on Trump’s most consistent — and potentially disruptive — economic campaign promise: across-the-board tariffs not seen in nearly a century, according to a person with direct knowledge of internal conversations, as well as dozens of public statements from populists in the past week. They’re pushing their own candidate: Trump’s former trade chief ROBERT LIGHTHIZER. And though he’s widely viewed as a long shot — if not out of contention for Treasury entirely — protectionists are going public with their campaign to get him named to the most powerful economic role in the Cabinet The campaign — and continuing uncertainty about such an essential Cabinet job — points to simmering discontent in Trump’s world about the ultimate direction of economic policy: whether to deliver on high, universal tariffs, or shy away for fear that the duties will spook the stock market.” • This is from the 18th, and so may have been overtaken by events by the time you read this.
“Trump reconsiders Treasury Secretary nomination, may no longer choose pro-crypto” [Binance]. • Imagine breathing a sigh of relief that we’re getting some private equity weasel, and not some crypto bro.
“Elon Musk’s endorsement of a Treasury secretary candidate has reportedly rubbed Trump’s people the wrong way” [Fortune]. “Despite the apparent unease of some Trump staffers with Musk’s actions, there is no evidence that any rift has formed between Musk and Trump. Musk is still spending much of his time at Mar-a-Lago, and traveled with Trump to New York Saturday to attend a UFC fight. Whoever becomes Treasury secretary, Musk is likely to work somewhat closely with them as part of his duties with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). DOGE will work with the White House Office of Management and Budget to implement the recommendations of Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. Musk has said previously he believes it is possible to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget, though many have been skeptical of this figure.”
* * * “Sweating RFK Jr. Performs Self-Surgery To Extract Big Mac From Stomach” [The Onion]. • The Dems ginned up a little moral panic about this the other day, but happily I can dispose of it with a link to The Onion: As with so much else.
* * * The Case for Matt Gaetz” [Compact Magazine]. “There are two ways to look at the corruption that is rife in 21st-century American life. One view is that reform demands a saint to reproach the wicked…. The second view is that if we must await an immaculate reformer, reform will never come. So we ought to support even obviously flawed individuals when they take on the necessary work of confronting systemic evils.” This speaks well of him: “This year, Gaetz took James Poulos and a film crew from The Blaze on a tour of congressional offices whose occupants—including Republicans—were violators of Congress’s seldom-enforced rules against insider trading.” And: “Gaetz has been complimentary toward Lina Khan, chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission, and the Biden Justice Department’s chief antitrust official, Jonathan Kanter. The New York Post notes that Google, in particular, is likely to be a focus of antitrust attention in a Gaetz Department of Justice, which might move to break up the tech megalith. The same story quotes Gaetz referring to Big Tech companies in 2021 as ‘the internet’s hall monitors’ with a bias against conservatives. Gaetz has described himself as a ‘libertarian populist,’ and that characterization is reflected by his stances on civil liberties and social issues.” •
How the Gaetz Ethics report could still come out if the panel blocks it” [Politico]. “Here’s a breakdown of what could happen if [Ethics Committee] members vote not to release the [Gaetz] report, and other ways the investigative findings could see the light of day…. Someone leaks it to the press: Ethics Committee members and staff don’t take the prospect of a leak lightly, if the panel votes to keep the report under wraps. Part of that is wanting to protect the credibility of the panel, but members also take an oath, pledging: “I will not disclose, to any person or entity outside the Committee on Ethics, any information received in the course of my service with the Committee, except as authorized by the Committee or in accordance with its rules.”… Using the House floor: Some lawmakers are privately theorizing that, should the committee block the release of the report, a lawmaker could go to the House or Senate floor and read it into the congressional record rather than leak it to the media…. Sharing it with senators: Even if the Ethics panel doesn’t want to make the report public, they can vote to share it with the Senate Judiciary Committee ahead of potential confirmation hearings…. Sober warning: Staff-driven leaks have happened before, but typically not in a situation with so much at stake. In addition to losing a job, there are also real concerns of political violence if a staff leaker’s name became public.” • Hmmm.
* * * “What to know about Dr. Mehmet Oz, Trump’s pick to lead Medicare and Medicaid” [Associated Press]. “Oz had a net worth between $100 million and $315 million, according to a federal financial disclosure he filed in 2022, which gives dollar values in ranges but does not provide specific figures.” • Oh.
* * * “Prosecutors request stay in Trump NY case until 2029 as defense plans motion for dismissal ‘once and for all'” [FOX]. “New York prosecutors are requesting a stay until at least 2029 in New York v. Trump, as the president’s defense attorneys prepare to move to dismiss the case entirely. Prosecutors wrote a letter to Judge Juan Merchan on Tuesday, who agreed last week to grant a stay on all deadlines associated with the conviction proceedings against Trump in the final months before he takes office. åMerchan granted the request, which issues a stay on all deadlines, including the Nov. 26 sentencing date, to consider the effect of his election as president. Prosecutors had asked for the pause in proceedings, which they said would allow them to better evaluate the impact of Trump’s new status as president-elect. ‘As a result of the election held on November 5, 2024, Defendant’s inauguration as President will occur on January 20, 2025,’ Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg wrote to Merchan on Tuesday.” And: “Trump’s attorneys have requested that Merchan overturn the guilty verdict, citing the United States Supreme Court’s decision that former presidents have substantial immunity from prosecution for official acts in office. Trump’s legal team argued that certain evidence presented by Bragg and New York prosecutors during the trial should not have been admitted, as they were ‘official acts.'”
2024 Post Mortem
“Why Kamala Harris couldn’t convince an anti-establishment America” [Guardian]. “As the party of educated knowledge workers, policy elites and public sector unions, the Democratic party simply is the party of institutional incumbents. And how do you run against the establishment when you are the establishment. Democrats are thus guaranteed to learn all the wrong lessons from this election. They will focus-group economic policies that appeal to the working class and excise wokeness from their political messaging. They will try to engineer their own Joe Rogan and uplift candidates that shoot from the hip. But this will all be a version of treating the symptom rather than the disease. Until the elites in the Democratic party loosen their grip and allow authentic, anti-establishment party factions to arise organically, they will remain the party of control and stasis in a world hungry for change.”
* * * “NBC’s Kornacki: Republicans Achieve Historic Realignment, 25-Point Shift Among Lower-Income Voters Since 2012” [RealClearPolitics]. KORNACKI: “Remember, three straight elections Trump’s been the Republican candidate. So pre-Trump voters under 30 were going for the Democrats by 23 points. Folks with incomes under $50,000, 22 points for the Democrats. Folks without college degrees, four points for the Democrats. That’s pre-Trump. What comes out of this election? Look at some of these shifts. The youth vote, that Democratic margin cut more than in half. Voters under $50,000, now a Republican constituency. Voters without a college degree, look at that shift. Now a core Republican constituency. And then we can talk about race, ethnicity. This gets into that diversity I mentioned a minute ago. Check this out. Again, pre-Trump versus now. The Black vote still overwhelmingly Democratic, but that’s a 15-point shift. It used to be 87 points for the Democrats, down to 72. How about this? You’ve heard a lot about it this week. This is what the numbers look like. Hispanic voters were 44 points Democratic before Donald Trump. Now, basically a toss-up constituency. And Asian Americans, a 32-point shift there as well. That’s what’s happened to the Republican Party since Donald Trump became its standard bearer eight years ago. This has been the movement.”
Spook Country
“Someone accessed files said to contain damaging info about Trump AG-nominee Gaetz, lawyer says” [Associated Press]. “An unauthorized person gained access to a file containing confidential testimony from women who have made allegations about former Rep. Matt Gaetz, Donald Trump’s pick to become the next attorney general, a lawyer said Tuesday. Attorneys involved in a civil case brought by a Gaetz associate were notified this week that an unauthorized person accessed a file shared between lawyers that included unredacted depositions from a woman who has said Gaetz had sex with her when she was 17, and a second woman who says she saw the encounter, according to attorney Joel Leppard.” • Seems odd. Filing this here for reasons I assume are obvious, despite the lack of evidence.
Democrats en déshabillé
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 (wastewater); 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, KidDoc, 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!
Transmission: H5N1
“Bird flu in Canada may have mutated to become more transmissible to humans” [Guardian]. “The teenager hospitalized with bird flu in British Columbia, Canada, may have a variation of the virus that has a mutation making it more transmissible among people, early data shows – a warning of what the virus can do that is especially worrisome in countries such as the US where some H5N1 cases are not being detected…. Preliminary sequencing of the H5N1 variant sickening the teenager showed a potential mutation on the genomic spot known to make people more susceptible to the virus. That could indicate that H5N1 has the capability to become more like a human virus, rather than an avian virus, but it is also not clear yet whether this change is meaningful and more dangerous to people, experts said. Canadian officials have been conducting blood tests among the teen’s contacts, and they expect results later this week. They are also awaiting the results of other tests done over the weekend.” • Meanwhile in California:
⚠️Worried—This is at least the 3rd COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION incidence of H5N1 without any animal contact. Same with the ICU hospitalized case. This is either human-to-human, or maybe long distance airborne transmission from animal to human somehow without direct contact. Worrisome. https://t.co/a0PDCQQrjj
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) November 19, 2024
Well, it’s not like vulnerable people congregate in hospitals:
NIH has resumed requiring masking in all patient care areas and testing for SARS-CoV-2, Influenza A, Influenza B, and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) on inpatients. Sonoma County also requiring masking. But #HICPAC thinks masks are unnecessary. Make HICPAC make sense! pic.twitter.com/2xbQUBdAdC
— Judy Stone (@DrJudyStone) November 19, 2024
Elite Maleficence
“The World Is Watching the U.S. Deal With Bird Flu, and It’s Scary” [New York Times]. “Failure to control H5N1 among American livestock could have global consequences, and this demands urgent attention. The United States has done little to reassure the world that it has the outbreak contained…. [T]he United States should remember that the country where a pandemic emerges can be accused of not doing enough to control it. We still hear how China did not do enough to stop the Covid-19 pandemic. None of us would want a new pandemic labeled the ‘American virus,’ as this could be very damaging for the United States’ reputation and economy….I understand that it’s not easy to persuade businesses, such as the meat and dairy industries, to allow the testing of all of their animals and staffs, and to make that data public quickly. But I also know that in the end, doing so protects lives, lessens economic damage and creates a safer world. The world cannot afford to gamble with this virus, letting it spread in animals and hoping it never sparks a serious outbreak — or crossing our fingers that its effects won’t be serious in people. Time will tell. I hope we are not watching the start of a new pandemic unfold, with both the American and the international communities burying our heads in the sand rather than confronting potential danger.”
“Australian COVID inquiry promotes “let it rip,” denounces public health measures” [WSWS]. “The report of a government commissioned inquiry into Australia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic was released on Tuesday…. The inquiry spanned a year. The report runs to 892 pages. It is, however, completely worthless from an analytical or scientific standpoint, adding nothing to an understanding of pandemics and public health in general, or the experience of COVID-19 in particular. Instead, the report is a crude promotion of the profit-driven “let it rip” policies that persist to this day. It is noteworthy only as yet another marker of the assault on public health and the rights of the population that this homicidal program has entailed…. In regards to lockdowns and other measures such as mask mandates, they complain: ‘Effectiveness was inferred from overall reported case numbers, but this is a very limited approach to evaluation and did not reveal which [restrictions] were effective and whether the stringency settings were right.’ Those unqualified assertions, denouncing measures that saved lives, are all the more striking, given that the report notes, ‘Australia would have had between 15 and 46 times the number of deaths if it had experienced the same COVID-related death rates as comparable countries like Canada and Sweden.’ That is, but for the measures that the report denounces, hundreds of thousands, or even more than a million people would have perished out of a population of 25 million.” • If those GBD psychos secure a lodgment in the Trump Administration, this is exactly what they will do, or try to do, here. And eugencist enables like Zients, Jha, Walensky, and Cohen will do everything they can to helkp them. Commentary:
Do we have any Australians in the readership who would like to share their views?
Some kinda death cult, or what?
More optimistic than I am. From the UK:
Could be something to this:
Yes, there are people who eat brunch. And there are
peopleentities who serve brunch.
| Wastewater | |
| This week[1] CDC November 11 | Last Week[2] CDC (until next week): |
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| Variants [3] CDC November 9 | Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC November 9 |
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| Hospitalization | |
| ★ New York[5] New York State, data November 18: | National [6] CDC November 14: |
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| Positivity | |
| National[7] Walgreens November 18: | Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic November 16: |
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| Travelers Data | |
| Positivity[9] CDC October 28: | Variants[10] CDC October 28: |
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| Deaths | |
| Weekly Deaths vs. % Positivity [11] CDC November 2: | Weekly Deaths vs. ED Visits [12] CDC November 2: |
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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) Good news!
[2] (CDC) Last week’s wastewater map.
[3] (CDC Variants) KP.* still popular. XEC has entered the chat. That WHO label, “Ommicron,” has done a great job normalizing successive waves of infection.
[4] (ED) Down.
[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Steadily down.
[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). Actually improved; it’s now one of the few charts to show the entire course of the pandemic to the present day.
[7] (Walgreens) Down.
[8] (Cleveland) Down.
[9] (Travelers: Positivity) Down.
[10] (Travelers: Variants). Now XEC.
[11] Deaths low, positivity down.
[12] Deaths low, ED down.
Stats Watch
There are no official statistics of interest today.
Retail: “Walmart is feeling jolly as the holiday shopping season approaches” [Wall Street Journal Logistics Report]. “The nation’s largest retailer says U.S. comparable sales, those from stores and digital channels in operation for at least 12 months, rose a higher-than-expected 5.3% in the latest quarter. The WSJ’s Sarah Nassauer reports that the growth was propelled by shoppers buying groceries, home goods and toys, a sign that spending is off to a solid start heading into the busiest shopping season of the year. Walmart’s profit increased on lower e-commerce delivery costs, fewer discounts and higher revenue from advertising. The retailer said it cut its net delivery cost per order in the U.S. by about 40% in the quarter.”
Manufacturing: “Boeing to lay off roughly 2,200 Washington workers 5 days before Christmas” [FOX]. “The layoffs are part of the debt-heavy U.S. planemaker’s plan to cut 17,000 jobs, or 10% of its global workforce, according to a union official and federally required filings posted on Monday.” • That’ll teach ’em.
Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 49 Neutral (previous close: 50 Neutral) [CNN]. One week ago: 65 (Greed). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Nov 20 at 11:09:45 AM ET.
Thanksgiving Pre-Game Festivities
“Record 80 million Americans expected to travel for Thanksgiving holiday, industry group says” [Reuters]. • We’ll see what the charts look like afterwards.
Healthcare
“Add 11 years to your life? Science says it’s as simple as a daily walk” {StudyFinds]. “In what might be the best return on investment since Bitcoin’s early days, scientists have discovered that every hour of walking could yield up to six hours of additional life. Unlike cryptocurrency, however, this investment is guaranteed by the laws of human biology. An exciting modeling study reveals that if every American over the age of 40 was as physically active as the most active quarter of the population, they could expect to live an extra five years on average…. Study authors analyzed data from the National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey (NHANES), focusing on Americans aged 40 and older who wore activity monitors for at least four days. Unlike previous studies that relied on participants’ memory and honesty about their activity levels, these monitors provided objective measurements of every movement throughout the day. The results showed a striking ‘diminishing returns‘ effect in the relationship between physical activity and longevity. The greatest benefits were seen among the least active individuals: moving from the lowest activity quarter to the second-lowest required just 28.5 minutes of additional walking per day but could add 6.3 years to life expectancy. That means every hour of walking for this group translated to an extra 6.3 hours of life — an impressive return on investment. As people became more active, the additional benefits per hour of activity decreased but remained significant.” • Here is the study, which pleasingly confirms my priors. Perhaps some kind reader can take a look at the methodology.
Gallery
“What a carve up! Playful, intricate Japanese leaf art – in pictures” [Guardian]. “Almost every day for the past five years, the Kanagawa-born artist Lito has drawn an image on to a leaf – usually a jaunty scene from the animal world involving, say, a biker-dude rabbit or a frog in a phone box – and carved it out with a scalpel before posting a photograph to social media. A painstaking process, it nonetheless suits Lito’s “propensity to devote long hours to detailed work” – a diagnosis of ADHD aged 30 was what prompted him to quit his corporate job and start carving leaves for a living. And a living it is: he’s sold 300,000 copies of his leaf-art books to date and exhibits his work throughout Japan. The combination of playful Studio Ghibli-esque imagination and exhaustive attention to detail is central to the appeal.” • For example:
“Trash,” eh?
“Is beauty natural?” [Aeon]. “Though she would never encounter Darwin’s research – Austen died in 1817 – her own work was steeped in the same scientific and philosophical tradition that paved the way for his theory of evolution. She wrote in an era obsessed with explaining the natural world; the word ‘biology’ burst into usage in England around 1800. Austen’s acute, almost clinical, attention to detail resembles the style of early British naturalists. In Jane Austen and Charles Darwin (2008), the literature scholar Peter Graham explores parallels between Austen’s sensibility and Darwin’s, arguing that both ‘were keen observers of the world before them, observers who excelled both in noticing microcosmic particulars and … discerning the cosmic significance of those small details.” • Hmm.
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 expat2uruguay:
expat2uruguay writes: “I have this begonia leaf that I was going to try to propagate using a technique I’ve only read about. The technique calls for pinning down the injured parts of the leaf or perhaps covering them with rocks, so the use of metal jacks is my own innovation here.” Can readers comment on this technique?
Kind readers, the stock of plant pictures is still too scant for comfort… .
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I get seasonal depression in upstate NY every fall without fail that lingers into February, but Long Suffering Bills Fans wouldn’t have it any other way.
Do they really call it “stick season” or is that only Noah Kahan?
it’s always stick season for Dusty the Adventure Dog, but i’m clueless in regards to back east variants, sorry.
I grew up kinda sorta upstate …half way to Albany … years and years ago. It was the 1940s version of what you describe. Then it got prettied up and the kids are priced out of the market. I’d move farther north or west or just go until the “vibes” are right in a place where the city folk keep driving. Stick season?
Poughkeepsie, by any chance? “Half way to Albany” is sounding Hudson River Valley, where I came up.
Nearer to Kingston
I don’t recall ever hearing that when I lived in Vermont, but I knew right away what he meant.
Yes, we call it stick season. It’s on right now.
Makes sense, you can’t call both spring and fall mud season.
Could be worse. What if a younger version of you had instead chosen the Dallas Cowboys??? ( \Sarc ). Yes those SB victories still resonate just perhaps not to those born after ~ 1995.
Jerrah Jones can cry himself to sleep at night, maybe charging his guests for the very privilege of watching Mr. Owner fall asleep…
Was watching me some NFL the other day, and the coaches and staff of all teams had on the same butt ugly mock Arctic off-white officially sanctioned NFL gear-worn according to diktat from the Commissioner, and it had me hungering for a coach such as Tom Landry-the epitome of dressing up on the sideline.
I wouldn’t call myself a Cowboys hater, maybe a despiser, though.
In Buffalo there was always a visceral hatred of the Miami Dolphins when I was growing up.The Cowpokes were a close second. My neighbor down the road would unlock the liquor and pass the whiskey bottle around at any call or score against the Cowpokes.
I couldn’t dislike Landry though, he was an 8AF B17 pilot like my father.
I lived on Norwood Ave during graduate school. After Super Bowl 25 it was renamed Norwide.
Adding that rebel flags and patrons wearing their pajamas out to go, heck anywhere, isn’t just particular or unique to that portion of New York!
What’s missing, an old beater of a car on cinder blocks and the Christmas lights up all year long, blending naturally in the front yard trees or on the porches?
Commentary on those rebel flags in upstate NY:
https://orb.binghamton.edu/research_days_posters_2024/78/
“In the early 1920s, the second incarnation of the Ku Klux Klan attracted millions of adherents and was one of the largest and most visible organizations in America. Scholars have written about the Klan’s activities in New York City, Buffalo, and Binghamton, but little is known about their presence in the Finger Lakes. By examining historic newspapers published in Finger Lakes communities as well as Klan publications like the newspaper Vigilance, this research will show that the region was not immune to the KKK revival. This research will try to determine who supported the Klan and why, uncover the range of Klan activities, and highlight localized Klan opposition. This project will draw on specific Klan events such as parades, meetings, and cross burnings, all being used to prove that the KKK maintained a dominant presence within communities across the Finger Lakes.”
In Ohio the klan seemed to be stronger in towns that were off the main railroad lines. Bowling Green was a klan town, nearby Fostoria was not.
The KKK was quite a thing in the nearest Big Smoke-Visalia, back in the day once upon a time.
There was a Klan City Council in Bakersfield back in the day. Mugwumps they were not.
I would think upstate NY state is the same. The canal and rail ran up the Hudson Valley, through the Mohawk Valley at Albany to Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo. Which is where European Catholic immigrants and Blacks (Great Migration) moved to – though still redlined and segregated.
The KKK was a plot by the clothing industry to get rid of warehouses of white cloth that nobody wanted to buy because white clothing always shows the dirt.
Lindybeige might wish to differ.
Indiana had the largest Klan membership in the 1920s including a large part of the state legislature.
Older people in Elmira NY still talk about the 1925 state-wide clan meeting in 1925
https://www.mytwintiers.com/news-cat/when-the-kkk-was-heavily-present-in-the-southern-tier/
My wife and I spent 4 years upstate (in Newfield). Loved it. And I don’t recall it being overcast very often.
So where, exactly, is “upstate”? Yonkers? Albany? Adirondack Park?
Not from NYS but my wife is from Rochester, always seemed like western NY or finger lakes is not “upstate”. How about Binghamton, Corning, Elmira? Upstate?
Wife went to school out of state. One of her friends there said “Oh, you must go to NYC every weekend”. Had to explain it would be quicker going to Detroit.
Grew up between Rochester and Syracuse. We considered “upstate” to be anything north of a magical line drawn on a map from about Deposit to Albany. Anything south of that is “downstate”. We thought of Albany as being included in “downstate” because of their…attitude. “Upstate” is then further divided into pieces such as Western NY(Buffalo to the eastern end of Wayne County), the North Country, Finger Lakes, Central NY, etc. Binghamton, Corning, Elmira, Olean, etc are in the Southern Tier(draw a line east-west across the bottomish of the Finger Lakes and anything south of that is Southern Tier). I don’t think much of people from downstate. It’s generally an automatic first strike against you(present company excluded, of course).
I agree with Petal. The line she draws is either commutable to NYC or is NYC centric and cultural. Syracuse is 250 miles to NYC and Buffalo 400+. That is further than LA to San Francisco. And culturally they are even further apart. It is very cloudy because of the Great Lakes.
The upstate cities are solidly deindustrialized rust belt, similar to cities west to Iowa. The largest wilderness areas east of the mountain states are in the Adirondacks. Only 150,000 people live up there. There was an equal mix of Harris and Trump signs; outside of the cities, Trump won upstate counties but 2 house seats flipped to D.
Like all of flyover country there are unpleasantries. It wasn’t like this as a kid growing up in Buffalo or as an adult in Central New York.
If only John Lindsay got his wish to make NYC a separate state. Cutting off downstate and Albany with it would be attractive.
upstater, cheers. I wish I could treat you to a beverage of your choice. You said it better than I could.
As a denizen of NYC, I must ask “does any part of NY want Albany?”
We are already cursed with Wall Street and Long Island. The majority of us that live here don’t deserve that cesspool either. :)
You pretty much nailed it, petal and scott.
I started in Buffalo and moved to Elmira in Jr. High. When growing up in Buffalo I used to think of Elmira as a Disneyland. It had everything one needed in a town of around 35,000 back then (rivers, hills, woods, and more). My parent’s would put me on the Phoebe Snow in Buffalo (by myself at 10 years old) and the conductor would put me off in Elmira where my grandparents were waiting.
We had a real “cottage” on Seneca Lake below Wagner’s Winery where I would spend summers. I liked it so much I ended up coming back to the area and bought a house outside of Ovid, NY, about a 5 minute walk from Seneca Lake.
It’s still beautiful country even though the winters can be pretty dreary between the lakes. I often tell friends where I have been working at China Lake, CA. that the sun goes down around Thanksgiving and comes back up around March here in the lakes region.
All the towns across the Southern Tier (as described by petal) aren’t what they were once mfg went away, other than Corning NY (Corning Inc), Ithaca (Cornell and Ithaca College) and the tourist towns around the lakes during the summer. For example, Chemung County, where Elmira sits as the county seat, had a population close to 120,000 when I graduated from High School. Today the population is around 98,000. Broome County (Binghamton) has also shrunk. Job outlooks are poor, young people leave. It is classic rust belt.
And it’s why I’ve spent well over 1/2 my working life outside the area. But it’s still one of the prettiest areas of the country. As a friend of mine said after we asked him about his summer in the south of France, “It looks just like the Southern Tier and the Finger Lakes.”
The sun went down here in Ovid about a week ago, so I’ll be heading back to the (supposedly) sunniest city in the lower 48, Ridgecrest, CA, within a day or two… thankfully for the last time. And then it’s back to the south of France… I mean the Finger Lakes, for good in the Spring.
I lived for my 3 high school years in Cortland, New York. That phrase Southern Tier triggered off a memory. ( I had always thought of Southern Tier as referring to the line of counties sharing the strictly east-west part of the border with Pennsylvania).
When I lived there the world headquarters for Smith Corona Typewriter was there. So was Brockway Trucks. So was a large Wilson tennis racket factory. And maybe some other things that I never got around enough to even know. Now? Gone, all gone. The college is still there, though.
I remembered the acronym STAC for Southern Tier Athletic Conference, which Cortland County was a part of even though it was one county to the north of the literally Pennsylvania-bordering counties. So I decided to search-engine ” Southern Tier Athletic Conference” and here it is.
https://www.stacshowcase.com/
Anything north of Westchester County is considered upstate NY.
For most of Illinois “southern Illinois” starts about 30 mile south of where ever you live.
Will a Lombardi trophy cure the depression, or is it so deeply rooted that it can’t be cured?
I lost all empathy for the Bills and its fans when Doug Flukie football hee-row from Boston College went there. Upstate, please take more BC grads, please, please, and take our two senators Malarky and Warring for good measure.
I lost all empathy for the Bills after the 4th SB loss in a row, but then had a relapse. Flutie was a somewhat shining light in an era of awful QB’s since Jim Kelly, most of the other signal callers i’ve managed to willfully forget.
Still can’t get over putting in Rob Johnson in the playoffs over Flutie when he put up 200 yards against the hapless Colts defense. Manning was godawful in that game too.
A good friend said, “my grandmother could put up 25o yards on the Colts,” in reaction to the news.
Begonias generally propagate easily from leaf cuttings. I haven’t used this particular technique but similar with good success.
That looks like a red rex begonia leaf. The leaf should propagate this way. Maybe the new plants will grow up playing jacks. / ;)
>Maybe the new plants will grow up playing jacks. / ;)
My immediate reaction was memories of playing wicked games of jacks — not just onesies but sweeping the field;)
Good luck with the begonias, uruguay!
Well, Maybe next time! The whole leaf was gradually taken by a black mold. But I will try again, especially since the weather is not as humid as it was it the previous time
I was wondering about the sterility of the medium in what looks like a damp environment (with the lid of your container closed).
I have been using a pressure cooker (“Instant Pot”) to sterilize re-used growing medium. It doesn’t completely prevent mold, but I’m pretty confident that it delays it.
Re: Trump’s casting call… – AP
” There’s a common trait that President-elect Donald Trump is clearly prizing as he selects those to serve in his new administration: experience on television. Trump loves that ‘central casting’ look, as he likes to call it….”
Experience on television? Not successful experience at getting things done?
Is the AP arguing T is looking for celebrities because they’re celebrities…. instead of how they became celebrities? Musk built a hugely successful series of engineering enterprises – Starlink, Tesla, etc. RFK Jr sued a lot of polluting corporations (Monsanto, eg) and won, wrote books challenging prevailing orthodoxies in agricultural chemicals and medicines (thimerosol , aka mercury), and by exposing the dangers of those things helped cause changes. Tulsi pretty much ended KH’s 2020 run for the Dem pres nomination when she challenged KH on her record as California’s Atty. General. etc. These people shook things up. The press came to them. AP seems disingenuous to me. Is AP miffed the usual DC insiders weren’t chosen? / my 2 cents.
Secretary of Agriculture patty cake is gonna have some sore losers! First, 70% of US food passes through an illegals hand before it gets to the table. “Meanwhile, a government caused labor shortage in agriculture, construction and other service industries would cut U.S. economic growth by an estimated 4.2 to 6.8 percent over the next decade while tax collections would drop by $940 billion.” Second, proposed tariffs generated 27B in trade lost payments in 2018, 2019 to farmers and caused lost market share and retaliation. Third, 30B in Food stamp cuts in the R’s farm Bill sure to pass in january.
If the nominee is a died in the wool, mainstream aggie like the list of 13 or so on the list for sec, is the pick, they’d better be ready for big heat from every corner of their usual constituency for these wrecking ball policy moves. If it’s one the maverick picks like RFKjr , with help from Joel Salatin, might be recommending, then the Ag community will be up in arms i.e. Rep Thomas Massie, “The rebel House conservative is one most consider a long shot choice, but his name surfaced on social media last week. Massie was interviewed by Tucker Carlson in June, where he talked about his “off-the-grid home” on his Kentucky farm where he has chickens and grows food on his property. More recently, Massie has been promoting the benefits of raw milk versus pasteurized milk.”, Sarah Frey(whose punkins are at the Whitehouse)”Frey grew up on a struggling farm in southern Illinois as the youngest of 21 children. At the age of 15, Sarah started her own fresh produce delivery business using an old pickup. Several years later, she took over the family farm, which was facing foreclosure, and purchased it outright. This bold move marked the beginning of her entrepreneurial journey in agriculture. Under Sarah’s leadership, Frey Farms has grown into a major agricultural enterprise: It is now the largest producer of pumpkins in the U.S. The company owns approximately 15,000 acres of farmland across seven states. Besides pumpkins, Frey Farms produces watermelons, cantaloupes, sweet corn and hard squash. She is an advocate for better health initiatives, nutrition policies and economic opportunities for underserved rural communities. In 2020, she published a best-selling memoir, The Growing Season: How I Built a New Life—and Saved an American Farm”. or Jimmie Emmons “who is currently on leave of absence from Farm Journal, is also a nationally recognized no-till farmer, regenerative rancher and soil-health expert. He leads Trust In Food’s national programs to accelerate the adoption of conservation agriculture. Emmons and his wife, Ginger, own and operate Emmons Farm in Leedey, Okla. Prior to Trust in Food, he was regional coordinator for USDA’s Farm Production and Conservation, where he supported operational and business functions across the Farm Service Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service and Risk Management Agency.
sources USA Today, AgWeb
Good info, thanks.
Lest anyone think I’m touting T, I am not. I’m very skeptical, but willing to be proved wrong in my skepticism. I only know I couldn’t vote for another 4 years like the last 4 years. I couldn’t vote for a party more interested in lawfare than in constituency service or winning concrete material benefits for the voters.
Or declared an ongoing pandemic “over”. My disappointment in the election was the low number of votes for third party candidates.
This time around here in Hawaii, the Greens beat the Libertarians, but both were under 1%. The Dems of course won the electoral votes.
My new best friend, FWIW (4:05) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bRpa9yAFss
Unfortunately, very few D’s will ever let themselves watch that. Sad.
My guess is that in 4 years she’ll be making the same video about the R’s.
The evidence so far suggests that the people who left the D’s didn’t vote for the R’s or a third party, but mostly didn’t vote. That doesn’t work either.
I think it was professor Richard Wolff who said voters will bounce between Ds and Rs, hoping one or the other party will listen to their pleadings. There is probably a good chance that a D will be elected POTUS in 2028 in response to a Trump debacle. He won because of a Biden debacle. And the beat will continue to go on. As in nothing will fundamentally change for the majority of American people.
From what I’ve read Trump got about the same number of votes in 2016 that Romney did in 2012, and Trump again in 2024 what he got in 2020. What swung the 2016 and 2024 elections to Trump was that people who voted for Obama in 2012 and Biden in 2020 didn’t vote for Clinton and Harris. Hard to know if this was because Clinton and Harris were lackluster, or because Obama and Biden promised change and didn’t deliver. Maybe some of both.
Thanks for this. I’m sharing this widely in hopes it will spawn thoughtful reflection.
#OMFG … LOL
> My new best friend
Excellent example of anaphora.
Trump’s the bully who’s going to beat up the other bullies. It’s OK to cheer when he wins some of these fights. It helps the Democrats focus on where they’re not getting it right.
The thing to watch for is whether he removes his mask after returning from a future visit to Walter Reed Hospital for treatment of an H5N1 infection.
One hopes that some things will have been learned from the first pandemic of the 2020s.
Trump’s Cabinet Blitz Is Straight From Orban’s Playbook
https://archive.ph/AbaH7
I don’t do the “I stopped reading when” thing, but did raise an eyebrow at this:
So, much to ponder but cum grano salis. The interviewee’s thoughts on
civil society spook cutoutsNGOs are also interesting.Why do they think Tulsi is “pro Putin?”
It’s paywalled to the link about her being pro putin.
I know the rest of T’s cabinet reinforces the idea of the ZionDon, and Tulsi sold out to Fox, but she may actually be a real human being unlike many others in DC.
In my mind the position of Director of National Intellgence is overblown, they’re more a liaison to facilitate intra-agency communication from what I understand. If you’re not in the club, like her, she may not actually help much. But that’s okay since our 3 letter intelligence agencies have proven time and time again they are the enemy.
“Kim Lane Scheppele is a professor of sociology at Princeton University and a fellow at the University of Pennsylvania law school.”
Scheppele has been calling for the removal of President Orban of Hungary for years. Scheppele was several times given Paul Krugman’s New York Times column to severely complain about Orban.
Hungary, led by Orban, has been faring well economically, but the problem is a lack of sufficient enthusiasm for NATO militancy which calls for removal for the likes of the George Soros family, Krugman and Scheppele.
About Soros family activities in Hungary, the family has used “educational foundations” in a range of countries to provoke and control political activities for American purposes. There was Hungary and Hong Kong, but Soros family efforts have been ended in each instance.
“As for the thorny issue of health care insurance, in 2020 Oz penned an opinion column in Forbes in which he called for a form of universal health coverage where any American not covered by Medicaid would be enrolled in a private Medicare Advantage plan. An “affordable 20 percent payroll tax” would pay for the scheme, he wrote.”
https://www.kpcnews.com/lifestyles/health/article_c7f7aa57-1e8b-5bf3-a198-9ffdc72a0d8f.html
“As a candidate [for Senate in 2022], Oz has offered a health care policy of his own…[Brittany] Yanick, Oz’s spokeswoman, clarified that Oz calls his health care plan “Medicare Advantage Plus – which is an expansion of privately run health insurance plans that happened under the Trump administration…””
https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/13/politics/dr-oz-health-care-policy-mandates-obamacare/index.html
Hey, Mehmet. This is Snooky. Just want you to know I haven’t forgotten you. You’re still nuts. Bye now. / ;)
a 20% payroll tax is a big bite. Sure, send that off to the trillion-dollar health insurance and pharma industries. He’s an idiot.
The look on RFK Jr.’s face when confronted with a Big Mac meal par avion, was super sighs-he.
About that ridiculous stay.
https://jonathanturley.org/2024/11/20/the-layaway-presidency-how-alvin-bragg-would-create-a-new-constitutional-creature/
As a fellow ARkansan, I had a thought about old Jerry. Maybe he’s looked at Amazon’s profitability as compared to its share price.
But the team sucks, you say?
Jerrah has the last laugh with a Team valued at $5.+ bn and #1 in yearly revenue thereby getting it every which way. So who needs a decent team?
https://www.statista.com/topics/2687/dallas-cowboys/#topicOverview
`> Jerrah has the last laugh with a Team valued at $5.+ bn and #1 in yearly revenue thereby getting it every which way. So who needs a decent team?
You’re telling me Jerry Jones is a Democrat?
Well, one thing is certain. Jerrah is “all in”. lol
LOL
#HashtagPaidToLose
Nailed it.
Re: cracking knuckles
I often have the urge to crack my feet because it feels like if I don’t, I’ll get a cramp. Do knuckle crackers have the same feeling?
“Australian COVID inquiry promotes “let it rip,” denounces public health measures”
That report is not about the Covid pandemic. It is a government report that will be used to justify not doing anything about the next pandemic if it impacts on the economy. Here in Oz we were on top of the pandemic in spite of Scotty from Marketing & Gladys from NSW trying to white ant it. But then came his trip to Cornwall for the G7 were he met Biden and Boris and I am sure he was told to get rid of all restrictions as people in the US and UK would be asking why they did not try the Oz approach. When he came back, things changed. The business community campaigned to get things “back to normal” and just accept a high death toll and then the government opened up the country to let ‘er rip. It was all about getting the 2019 economy back again. So if another pandemic happens anytime soon, the government will use this report to stop masking, lockdowns or anything that will cause the economy to have a sad. We will use the American model i.e. we will all of us be on our own.
Australia did handle the coronavirus well.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1tviC
January 15, 2018
Life Expectancy at Birth for United States, Australia, New Zealand and United Kingdom, 2007-2022
Also, notice Australian infant wellness.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1tviI
January 30, 2018
Infant Mortality Rate for United States, Australia, New Zealand and United Kingdom, 2007-2022
Oh no! ‘Ellen DeGeneres and wife Portia de Rossi have moved to rural England, put their Montecito estate on the market and plan to never return to the United States, telling friends the election of Donald Trump was their primary motivation’
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/ellen-degeneres-moved-great-britain-205501750.html
Oh, that’s right. Nobody cares.
But who is George W. Bush going to yuk it up with at Cowboys games now?
My sympathies to that rural English town or village. Nobody deserves our self absorbed and often not very nice celebrities, not even us.
That’s the door hitting you ladies on the way out. Bump.
DeGeneres grew up in New Orleans. She might feel more “at home” in France, say, Avignon.
No good. She’d be bitchin’ about the Mistral whenever it hit and demand that the locals stop it.
> Ellen DeGeneres and wife Portia de Rossi have moved to rural England
Addition by subtraction. Net Funniness Product ticks upward.
Now this is a funny sign. And the context makes it even funnier.
https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/1gw3xtp/solid_argument/
Alas, the reddit moderators removed it.
Why do they do that? Why do they do that so fast? Its almost as though they are reading these threads and every time they see me offer a link to something funny, they take it right down.
What it was was a young Muslim woman in Hijab holding a sign which read . . . ” Two of Trump’s three wives were foreign, which shows once again that it is foreigners taking the jobs which Americans mostly don’t want.”
But the photo is/was funnier than the written explanation.
Apparently (per Mercouris’ latest podcast), the British launched a dozen storm shadows into Russia. This might actually be the best gift NATO has given Russia. If I were Putin, I would use this as justification to devastatingly strike key “Uktrainian” targets in British Isles (that is, UK assets being used to support Ukraine.) (I keep pointing to RAF Waddington because of its role in British ISR) Hitting US is awkward (nevermind the risk) for Russia, but UK is an easy chicken to behead, to put the NATO monkeys in line.
re: pro-Israeli leverage over academia
One question I would like an answer for:
How did the pro-Israeli lobby that exerts such leverage over academia e.g. through Alumni money amass this wealth?
Wouldn´t it be possible to supplement the money lost – in case the universities would not abide – through rich people who are NOT pro-Israel supremacists?
After all Israel is a small country. It depends on the US. Not the other way around.
And the US has not a large Jewish population.
Wiki: “As of 2020, the American Jewish population is estimated at 7.5 million people, accounting for 2.4% of the total US population.”
So where did this exceptional position originate? And is it real or also projection? (Although following Finkelstein, there is not much space for fiction in this affair.)
Considering that academia was very restrictive towards Jews until the 1960s.
So even if there are a couple of billionaires – the US knows over 750 billionaires. Don´t tell me those are all supremacist pro-Israeli (Jews) who have an interest in destroying academic freedom.
How much in donations is paid to Israel and its supporters would be a better measure of influence.