A surprising but welcome smackdown of the Purdue Pharma settlement that would have let the Sacklers secure their considerable loot.
Thursday, November 6, 2025
2:00PM Water Cooler 12/16/2021
~ Today’s Water Cooler ~
Build Back Better Verges on Collapse as Manchin Attempts to Kill Child Tax Credit
How Manchin is putting a lump of coal in Biden’s Christmas stocking.
Omicron: Fog of Information and Definitions
More Omicron updates and musings.
Thomas Ferguson: Is the U$A a Democracy?
Thomas Ferguson, a top expert on money and politics, weighs in on how much democracy is there with so much wealth and power in so few hands.
Colorado Hospitals in ‘Critical Condition’ as State Weathers Another Surge
Vignettes on how care gets compromised as hospitals start to be overwhelmed.
2:00PM Water Cooler 12/15/2021
By Lambert Strether of Corrente. Bird Song of the Day Nice and long, so you can make your coffee now. Another migratory bird (with accompaniment). * * * #COVID19 Lots of charts today: Vaccination by region: A roller coaster. More data problems? (I have also not said, because it’s too obvious, that if by Bubba […]
Being Rich Does Not Make You More Generous. It Makes You Meaner.
Why relying on the kindness of strangers, particularly rich ones, is not such a hot idea.
‘If We Want to Tackle Climate Change, We Want Them to Go Bankrupt … Right?’
Yes, Biden is sabotaging the climate, just like the other guy…but that’s not why Saule Omarova nomination as Controller of the Currency failed
The US Doesn’t Have Enough Faculty To Train the Next Generation of Nurses
Nurses’ ranks were being hollowed out even before Covid due to not instructing enough to fill rising needs. That shortfall getting worse.
Cornell Goes Code Red, Cancels Most Campus Activities During Covid Spike with “Very High Percentage” Omicron in Fully Vaxxed
The Cornell “Alert Level Red” with “very substantial” Omicron cases among the fully vaxxed and boosted confirms Omicron’s contagiousness.
2:00PM Water Cooler 12/14/2021
~ Today’s Water Cooler: Open thread ~
Amazon’s Deathtrap Warehouse in Edwardsville, IL: Will Bessemer, AL Be Next?
Social murder in Edwardsville.
