2:00PM Water Cooler 11/15/2024 | naked capitalism

By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Chicken Track of the Day

Northern Mockingbird, Edith G. Learn Wildlife Sanctuary, Westchester, New York, United States. “Superb repertoire of different species’ songs woven into this track.”

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In Case You Would possibly Miss…

1. New Covid charts: No unhealthy information.
2. Adolph Reed makes one other name.
3. Blame Cannons: The Democrat’s “leftward” flip.
4. Boeing places a finance man on the board, layoffs.

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Politics

“So lots of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are in actual fact a rational administration of symbolic capital.” –Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles

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Trump Transition

“Trump’s group skips FBI background checks for some Cupboard picks” [CNN]. “President-elect Donald Trump’s transition group is bypassing conventional FBI background checks for at the very least a few of his Cupboard picks whereas utilizing non-public corporations to conduct vetting of potential candidates for administration jobs, folks near the transition planning say. Trump and his allies imagine the FBI system is sluggish and plagued with points that would stymie the president-elect’s plan to rapidly start the work of implementing his agenda, folks briefed on the plans mentioned. Critics say the intrusive background checks typically flip up embarrassing info used to inflict political injury. The discussions come as Trump has floated a number of controversial decisions for high-level positions within the US authorities – together with Matt Gaetz for legal professional basic and Tulsi Gabbard for director of nationwide intelligence. Finally, the president has the ultimate authority on who he nominates and decides to share intelligence with, whatever the established protocol set within the wake of World Warfare II to ensure these picks don’t have unknown international ties or different points that would elevate nationwide safety considerations. However circumventing background checks can be bucking a long-established norm in Washington. It additionally displays Trump’s deep distrust of the nationwide safety institution, which he derides because the Deep State. Sources say he has privately questioned the necessity for legislation enforcement background checks.” • I don’t perceive this. Absolutely the organs of state safety are fully apolitical?

2024 Submit Mortem

Deploy the Blame Cannons!

“Trump broke the Democrats’ thermostat” [John Burn-Murdoch, Financial Times]. “[T]he information exhibits Democrats taking a pointy flip leftward on social points over the previous decade. This has distanced them from the median voter, simply as Wright’s cartoon depicted. We see this not solely in Democratic voters’ self-reported ideology, however of their views on points together with immigration and whether or not or not minorities want additional assist to reach society. Notably, .” I feel the chart exhibits the change started in 2008, and accelerated in 2015. Extra: ” This means that Trump’s election radicalised the left, not the suitable. Some counter that that is merely what progressive politics is, however the proof suggests in any other case. America’s decades-long progress in the direction of racial and sexual tolerance and equality has been a gradual shift, led by progressives with the centre and proper rapidly following. The pivots of the previous decade, against this, have been abrupt and are leaving the bulk behind. They’re higher characterised not as strikes in the direction of better tolerance and equality however as shifts in rhetoric or proposed options for addressing disparities, the place there may be loads of room for disagreement with out bigotry. Many of those pivots originated with the activists and non-profit staffers that encompass the Democratic occasion. In a useful piece of analysis carried out in 2021, political scientists Alexander Furnas and Timothy LaPira on the think-tank Information for Progress discovered that these “political elites” or tastemakers maintain views usually properly to the left of the typical voter — and even the typical Democratic voter — on cultural points.” • Helpful chart:

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One purpose the 2020 Sanders marketing campaign messaging modified to idpol. (In fact, “leftward,” as is common in mainstream discourse, is a misnomer:; id politics is simply one other taste of liberalism. Leftism means placing the working class first; no severe Democrat believes in that, although in fact lip service is sometimes paid.

Realignment and Legitimacy

“A Triumph for Trump’s Republicans” [Peggy Noonan]. “It’s value being moved that in our large, restive, cynical and craving nation we peacefully, and with full public acceptance of the end result, made a dramatic nationwide judgment this week. Nearly each grownup citizen took half and took it severely. All collectively they produced one thing we would have liked: a transparent end result, one delivered with out costs of large-scale chicanery and even small-scale as far as we all know. There can be a peaceable switch of energy. Lots of people needed to do quite a lot of issues proper to make this occur.” Enable me to notice that I (paraphrasing) all the time certified “the Democrats can’t enable Trump to take workplace” with “in the event that they imagine what they are saying” (about “fascism”, “our democracy”, and many others. As occurs so usually, irrespective of how onerous I attempt, I’m by no means cynical sufficient; that Kamala’s 2024 Democrats can be as cynical about deploying “fascism” as Obama’s 2008 “Democrats”… .Effectively, doggone it. Again to Nooners, who concludes: “I like what Liz Cheney tweeted Wednesday: ‘Our nation’s democratic system functioned final night time and we now have a brand new President-elect. All Individuals are certain, whether or not we like the end result or not, to just accept the outcomes.’ We even have a accountability as members of ‘the best nation on earth’ to ‘assist and defend our Structure, protect the rule of legislation, and be sure that our establishments maintain over these coming 4 years.’ She singled out the courts, the press, ‘and people serving in our federal, state and native governments’ to be ‘the guardrails of democracy.’” • That “guardrails” metaphor exhibits lazy considering and lazy writing (the metaphor presumes we’re on the suitable highway, there’s gasoline within the tank, there’s gasoline on the subsequent gasoline station, versus feral mobs with torches, and many others.). I’m stunned to seek out it in Nooners’ peroration. Yet one more signal of civilizational collapse; Nooners creates clichés for different folks; she doesn’t retail them.

“Going Ahead from the Fringe of the Abyss” [Adolph Reed, Nonsite]. Should-read. “Trump has no new coalition; he can’t as a result of these “teams” aren’t actual as teams, and folks determine with them largely round skinny identities extra like client style “communities” or partisan followers of sports activities groups. (Recall that some folks received cues for what they need to imagine or learn how to line up on present challenge positions from watching Archie Bunker.) That’s why a lot of this politics reduces to “you say potAYto; I say potAHto.” This isn’t to say that the reified classes couldn’t change into constituencies on the identical precept because the Heisenberg impact; a part of the great thing about interest-group politics is that tossing some sources round will produce constituencies—or at the very least individuals who declare to talk for them. And it’s not simply the suitable; that’s additionally how the Democrats have been reinventing each 4 years below differing labels that magical constituency of “affordable” upper-status, suburban, average Republican (white) girls, which hasn’t materialized in thirty years or extra, or their happy-face model of Passing of the Nice Race within the simple-minded rivalry that altering racial demographics would supply yet one more approach to win with out confronting capitalism’s contradictions. Certainly, establishing these taxonomies of id configurations and reifying them into our bodies of shared political pursuits is, mockingly inside a so self-consciously and performatively antiracist ‘left,’ quintessentially racist. In fact, these received’t be the takeaways.” No, they received’t. Crucially: “We’ve got to resist the actual fact—lastly—that every one we will anticipate from Dem success is kicking the can of confrontation with fascism down the highway for 4 years. However for that strategy to make sense somebody, and solely the labor-left can lead it or perhaps even do it, has to spend one other 4 years between elections organizing an actual constituency for a distinct method of speaking and fascinated with and doing politics. To place it bluntly, we received’t have the ability to resist the fascist juggernaut with out working to construct an precise well-liked constituency for a distinct, overtly working-class-based politics. I’m not alone in noting that Trump/ism shouldn’t be an anomaly; it’s now the purpose of the lance of what’s clearly a fascist worldwide…. [W]e could also be going through the equal of a T-intersection at which there are solely two attainable, completely reverse instructions to take.” • If Reed is keen to make the decision… Effectively, I’m gonna have to look at my priors by returning to Paxton; as readers know, Reed has a superb monitor document, having referred to as his shot on Obama in 1996. It could be so just like the Democrats to so pollute the discourse on fascism that no one may take it severely (and definitely I veer in that course, as a result of I course of a lot of their output). My fast response is that folks ought to be considering of that basic strike on Could Day, 2028, and never the subsequent Presidential cycle, not to mention the midterms…..

Syndemics

“I’m in earnest — I can’t equivocate — I can’t excuse — I can’t retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD.” –William Lloyd Garrison

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Covid Assets, United States (Nationwide): Transmission (CDC); Wastewater (CDC, Biobot; consists of many counties; Wastewater Scan, consists of drilldown by zip); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker” (in IA, however nationwide information). “An infection Management, Emergency Administration, Security, and Basic Ideas” (particularly on hospitalization by metropolis).

Lambert right here: Readers, thanks for the collective effort. To replace any entry, do be happy to contact me on the tackle given with the crops. Please put “COVID” within the topic line. Thanks!

Assets, United States (Native): 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 stories); 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).

Assets, Canada (Nationwide): Wastewater (Authorities of Canada).

Assets, Canada (Provincial): ON (wastewater); QC (les eaux usées); BC (wastewater); BC, Vancouver (wastewater).

Hat tricks to useful 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, sq. coats (11), tennesseewaltzer, Tom B., Utah, Bob White (3).

Keep protected on the market!

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TABLE 1: Day by day Covid Charts

Wastewater
★ This week[1] CDC November 11	Final Week[2] CDC (till subsequent 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, information November 14:	★ Nationwide [6] CDC November 14:
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Positivity
Nationwide[7] Walgreens November 11:	Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic November 9:
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Vacationers Information
★ 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 right this moment; all others are usually not up to date.

2) For a full-size/full-resolution picture, Command-click (MacOS) or right-click (Home windows) on the chart thumbnail and “open picture in new tab.”

NOTES

[1] (CDC) Excellent news!

[2] (CDC) Final week’s wastewater map.

[3] (CDC Variants) KP.* nonetheless well-liked. XEC has entered the chat. That WHO label, “Ommicron,” has accomplished an amazing job normalizing successive waves of an infection.

[4] (ED) Down.

[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Steadily down.

[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). Really improved; it’s now one of many few charts to indicate all the course of the pandemic to the current day.

[7] (Walgreens) Down.

[8] (Cleveland) Down.

[9] (Vacationers: Positivity) Down.

[10] (Vacationers: Variants). Now XEC.

[11] Deaths low, positivity down.

[12] Deaths low, ED down.

Stats Watch

Manufacturing: “United States NY Empire State Manufacturing Index” [Trading Economics]. “The NY Empire State Manufacturing Index climbed to 31.2 in November 2024, up from -11.9 in October and stunning analysts who anticipated it at -0.7. It was the very best studying since December 2021.”

Manufacturing: “United States Industrial Manufacturing” [Trading Economics]. “Industrial Manufacturing in america decreased 0.3% year-on-year in October 2024, following a downwardly revised 0.7% fall in September.”

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Manufacturing: “Boeing appoints former Vanguard CEO Tim Buckley as new board member” [Reuters]. “Boeing board has elected former Vanguard Group CEO Tim Buckley as its latest member, efficient Jan. 1, the U.S. planemaker mentioned on Friday. Buckley, 55, can be Boeing’s tenth director since 2019, the corporate mentioned, including that he’ll serve on the board’s Finance and Governance & Public Coverage committees. Previous to changing into Vanguard’s CEO, Buckley held a number of roles throughout his over three-decade profession on the high U.S. asset supervisor, together with chief funding officer and chief info officer.” • A finance man? Actually?

Manufacturing: “A whole bunch of SPEEA staff included in Boeing layoffs, union confirms” [KING5]. “A whole bunch of SPEEA staff are included in Boeing’s sweeping job cuts, the union confirmed to KING 5 on Thursday night time. SPEEA, the Society of Skilled Engineering Workers in Aerospace, represents greater than 17,000 engineers, technical staff, pilots and different aerospace trade professionals. The union confirmed that 438 of their Boeing staff can be laid off, together with 218 members of their skilled unit and 220 technical staff… . The corporate did say each union and non-union staff and managers, and executives are included. In October, Boeing mentioned putting machinists with the IAM District 751 wouldn’t be impacted by the job cuts.”

Manufacturing: “Boeing spending thousands and thousands to avoid wasting main provider” [SAN]. “Boeing is making an enormous monetary transfer to avoid wasting one in all its key suppliers. The jet maker this week confirmed it’ll advance $350 million to Spirit AeroSystems. Spirit makes the fuselage for Boeing planes. Boeing is doling out cash to maintain Spirit afloat. This comes because the provider is experiencing excessive ranges of stock and monetary issues. Spirit is the biggest employer in Wichita, Kansas. The corporate has introduced it may not have the ability to hold working as a result of billions of {dollars} in losses over the past 4 years.”

Manufacturing: “Boeing Inventory Sale Was Speculated to Mark the Backside. Shares Simply Preserve Dropping.” [Barron’s]. “The largest issue within the latest decline in shares simply is likely to be the election. President-elect Trump has promised tariffs on China. A commerce battle with China would hit Boeing extra than simply about some other firm. China is an enormous purchaser of planes and has accounted for roughly 20% of Boeing’s whole deliveries earlier than latest turmoil. How the commerce relationship with China will develop below Trump is anybody’s guess.”

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As we speak’s Worry & Greed Index: 49 Impartial (earlier shut: 60 Greed) [CNN]. One week in the past: 62 (Greed). (0 is Excessive Worry; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Nov 15 at 1:41:16 PM ET.

Information of the Wired

“Virality in cartography: What makes a map go viral?” [GeoAwecome]. “Whereas researching viral cartography, Penn State geographer Anthony Robinson discovered that the above map had spawned a sequence of copycat maps, a lot of which additionally went viral. These included each the intense (what ‘if solely folks of shade voted’) and the foolish (‘If solely goats voted’). Robinson discovered greater than 500 such distinctive maps on the web. And within the context of our battle with faux information, it is a very harmful factor. When a map conveys extra validity than it deserves, it turns into very straightforward to manufacture the reality; everyone knows how convincing auto-generated movies referred to as ‘deep fakes’ appear. As Robinson says, ‘It’s cool that anyone could make a map now. They will take election information and do one thing artistic with it, and it may be very useful. But it surely’s additionally straightforward to make one thing that appears prefer it’s authoritative and use it as a weapon.’” • Some would urge that maps are all the time used as weapons; the unique Pink/Blue distinction was amplified by a map (I don’t assume we had an idea of virality again then). Anyhow, right here is the “above” map:

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Contact info for crops: Readers, be happy to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) learn the way to ship me a test in case you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to learn the way to ship me photographs of crops. Greens are wonderful! Fungi, lichen, and coral are deemed to be honorary crops! If you would like your deal with to look as a credit score, please place it at the beginning of your mail in parentheses: (thus). In any other case, I’ll anonymize by utilizing your initials. See the earlier Water Cooler (with plant) right here. From Wukchumni:

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Wukchumni writes: “Phos-Chek’d oak tree in entrance of the fickle finger of destiny, Mineral King.”

Effectively, tapping the signal didn’t work…

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