By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Hen Track of the Day
Northern Mockingbird, Cape Island – Crewe Home, Cape Might, New Jersey, United States. “Night time-singing from a single perch within the neighbor’s hedge at night time; I walked proper up and recorded it from only a few meters away.” A lot of selection!
“Hen mind from the age of dinosaurs reveals roots of avian intelligence” (press launch) [University of Cambridge]. “Researchers have recognized a remarkably well-preserved fossil chicken, roughly the scale of a starling, from the Mesozoic Period. The whole cranium has been preserved virtually intact: a rarity for any fossil chicken, however notably for one so historical, making this probably the most vital finds of its type. The extraordinary three-dimensional preservation of the cranium allowed the researchers, led by the College of Cambridge and the Pure Historical past Museum of Los Angeles County, to digitally reconstruct the mind of the chicken… Navaornis had a bigger cerebrum than Archaeopteryx, suggesting it had extra superior cognitive capabilities than the earliest bird-like dinosaurs. Nonetheless, most areas of its mind, just like the cerebellum, have been much less developed, suggesting that it hadn’t but advanced the advanced flight management mechanisms of contemporary birds… ‘Fashionable birds have among the most superior cognitive capabilities within the animal kingdom, comparable solely with mammals,’ stated Professor Daniel Discipline from Cambridge’s Division of Earth Sciences, senior creator of the analysis. ‘However scientists have struggled to grasp how and when the distinctive brains and memorable intelligence of birds advanced—the sphere has been awaiting the invention of a fossil precisely like this one.’” • Neat! (The unique from Nature, which I can not translate into English.)
In Case You May Miss…
- About these camps…
- Blame Cannons: Biden staffers, Axelrove, Fetterman unload.
- Boeing’s administration challenges., layoffs.
Politics
“So most of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are the truth is a rational administration of symbolic capital.” –Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles
Trump Transition
“Home Probe Into Matt Gaetz Depends On Witnesses DOJ Discovered Lacked Credibility” [Mollie Hemingway, The Federalist]. The deck: “A convicted felon stated he was paying the authorized charges of Matt Gaetz’s accuser and controlling her.” Extra: “Among the many many highly effective figures in Washington, D.C. against the Gaetz nomination are some who’re making an attempt to thwart it by releasing a report from the Home Ethics Committee that can try and tie Gaetz to salacious allegations involving little one intercourse trafficking. The report comes years after DOJ dropped its investigation into the identical claims on the grounds that the 2 central witnesses had critical credibility points. But these are the identical two central witnesses the Home Ethics Committee has relied on for its important report of Gaetz—the identical report it’s leaking to compliant reporters as a part of a coordinated effort to thwart his nomination as President-elect Donald Trump’s subsequent lawyer normal…. The politicized staff at DOJ have proven themselves prepared to discover novel authorized theories and bend federal guidelines to the breaking level in pursuit of their most reviled political opponents, most notably former and future President Trump. Gaetz has a popularity as probably the most tenacious cross-examiners of DOJ officers from his perch on the Home Judiciary Committee. But even the DOJ was unwilling to take advantage of Greenberg’s unsubstantiated claims — aside from leaking them to the press to harm Gaetz’s popularity. They introduced their closure of the investigation in 2022.” • Value studying in full for element on the accuser.
* * *
2024 Put up Mortem
Deploy the Blame Cannons!
“EXCLUSIVE’It’s a blood tub’: Contained in the White Home blame recreation as backstabbing staffers and score-settling pundits rock a Democratic Social gathering in disaster” [Daily Mail]. Enjoyable stuff. This caught my eye: “As that very same former Biden staffer put it: ‘[Obama’s staffers were] signed up because the saviors of the marketing campaign solely to run outdated Obama-era playbooks for a candidate that wasn’t Obama.’” And: “Ultimately, regardless of who finally ends up with the blame, the Democratic Social gathering must transfer on to [hopefully not] survive. A brand new era of formidable Democrats are already stated to be plotting their 2028 campaigns – governors similar to California’s Gavin Newsom, Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer and Maryland’s Wes Moore.” • That’s the bench for 2028? Actually? “Stature” just isn’t a phrase that involves thoughts.
“John Fetterman says Democrats must cease ‘freaking out’ over every thing Trump does” (interview) [NBC]. “‘I’ve stated this earlier than, it’s like, clutch these pearls more durable and scold louder — that’s not going to win,’ Fetterman, D-Pa., stated. ‘And that’s been demonstrated on this cycle.’” Fascinating to see “clutch these pearls” make it into mainstream, idiomatic English; “clutch your pearls and head for the fainting sofa” was a trope I encountered as a blogger c. 2003 (on the Democrat aspect. I don’t assume Republicans clutch their pearls, however what do they do as an alternative? Seize their weapons?). Fetterman on the Democrat loss in PA: “[FETTERMAN:] I pointed on the market have been two very extremely distinctive conditions, and one in every of them was the assassination [attempt]. … [T]his by no means occurred when it’s the 12 months of an election and when the person survived. And he responded in a really distinctive approach of ‘battle, battle, battle,’ and it created very highly effective form of imagery. And I felt, ‘Hey, that’s undoubtedly going to make issues much more troublesome.’ After which [Elon] Musk. Surrogates are widespread in our enterprise, however somebody like that’s completely different, and I’ve maintained that he can transfer the needle, and I do consider he did … that’s why we’ve misplaced two of our colleagues within the Home, and we’ve misplaced each row workplace statewide, as properly.” • I don’t like Fetterman a lot on coverage, however he’s price listening to for the marketing campaign he ran. (Fetterman tactfully doesn’t point out the Shapiro v. Walz controversy, however I believe Shapiro would have gone down within the face of ‘battle, battle, battle’ additionally. There was completely no approach the Pennsylvania Republicans have been going to lose that race.
* * * “From New Jersey to Hawaii, Trump made inroads in stunning locations in his path to the White Home” [Associated Press]. “Frequent themes emerged within the AP VoteCast knowledge. Voters have been most definitely to see the economic system and immigration as high points dealing with the nation. Extra voters stated their household’s monetary state of affairs was ‘falling behind,’ in contrast with 2020. Once they voted, Trump supporters have been enthusiastic about excessive costs for fuel, groceries and different items and the state of affairs on the U.S.-Mexico border.”
“The Democrats’ Defeat” [Adam Tooze, London Review of Books (AG)]. Let me pull out some salient paragraphs: “The defining function of US politics within the present period is how small the margins are. This election noticed giant actions in particular teams: Latino males to Trump; school graduates to Harris; better-off voters to the Democrats; working-class People to the Republicans. But it surely stays a matter of some proportion factors, with the overwhelming majority of the citizens entrenched in two camps and a lot of the nation barely contested. What strikes these voters who do change their minds from election to election stays obscure.” And: “However by way of defending current rights and energy positions, by way of retaining the potential for additional change, by way of stopping the worst, what was at stake on 5 November have been the 270 seats within the electoral school. And to have a good likelihood of successful them, it was not vital to construct a historic progressive bloc. It was essential to run a reliable marketing campaign and to discipline candidates able to presenting America’s actuality, each its guarantees and its challenges, in language that was compelling and reassuring on the similar time. Biden and Harris each failed to try this, and Biden’s outrageous refusal to step apart till the final second robbed the occasion of any likelihood of discovering a stronger candidate.” • I at all times get pleasure from Tooze, however for some cause this text jogged my memory of no person a lot as David Brooks (and his Irish setter, “Ethical Hazard”). The trope that popped into my head was “‘You’ll be able to’t buff a turd’ is fractal.” Is any form of problem-solving on this setting actually attainable?
“Democratic turnout plummeted in 2024 — however solely in protected states” [Semafor]. “The overwhelming majority of votes from this election have been counted, with only a few million ballots excellent in western states. Whole turnout is on monitor to fall simply in need of 2020, properly forward of some observers’ expectations on Election Night time, when conspiracy theories about greater than 10 million “lacking Biden voters” flourished amongst Democrats. Harris will win fewer votes than President Joe Biden did 4 years in the past — however the decline was considerably steeper in safely purple or blue states than in swing states. The place there was no nationwide marketing campaign spending on turnout, and the place voters knew that they have been unlikely to alter the result, Harris ran additional behind Biden.”
Marketing campaign Finance
“Political Advertisements Can’t Purchase the Presidency” [Bloomberg]. The deck: “Democrats outspent Republicans by greater than $300 million within the run-up to the 2024 presidential election. But Harris gained not one of the swing states the place the overwhelming majority of spending went.” Extra: “Cash doesn’t win US elections, nevertheless it usually helps. In bids for the Senate, the candidate who spends probably the most is usually the victor. That sample held this 12 months: In 21 of 33 Senate races, the candidate who spent probably the most on promoting—typically the most important expenditure for a marketing campaign—was the winner…. The hyperlink between spending and successful has at all times been weaker in presidential contests…. On condition that turnout had a big affect on election outcomes in 2024, [Adam Bonica, a professor of political science at Stanford University] means that, sooner or later, each events ought to think about rethinking their spending. ‘Perhaps it’s not promoting they should do,’ he says. ‘Perhaps they need to be placing extra of the sources into mobilization and registration and occasion constructing.’” • Cash can’t win an election in the event you set it on hearth and throw it into the air!
“Oprah city corridor price Harris marketing campaign excess of initially claimed: report” [FOX]. “A brand new report revealed Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential marketing campaign paid greater than double what was beforehand reported for the Oprah Winfrey city corridor occasion. FEC filings, first reported by the Washington Examiner, present the Harris marketing campaign made two $500,000 funds to Winfrey’s Harpo Productions on Oct. 15, a month after Winfrey’s city corridor with Harris and weeks earlier than the pair appeared at a Harris Philadelphia rally. Now, two sources have informed The New York Occasions the complete worth of the occasion with Winfrey was nearer to $2.5 million…. The majority of the extravagant spending reportedly went to movie star appearances and performances and influencer partnerships meant to spice up marketing campaign occasions.” And: “Winfrey, a billionaire, insisted she was ‘paid nothing’ when confronted by TMZ. A Harpo Productions spokesperson acknowledged to Selection that the corporate took cash from the marketing campaign however claimed it was for ‘manufacturing prices.’… ‘Oprah Winfrey was at no level in the course of the marketing campaign paid a private payment, nor did she obtain a payment from Harpo,’ the spokesperson stated.” • I don’t understand how Hollywood accounting works, however that assertion appears rigorously engineered to me.
Republican Funhouse
“An Attraction to Democratic Voters” [Patria with Steve Cortes]. “[H]ere are the three most compelling causes to no less than think about becoming a member of our America First trigger — and to vote Republican into the long run. (1) The Democrat Management Disrespects You…. (2) The GOP Is Now the Social gathering of Staff; (3) The Democratic Social gathering Obsesses with Social Radicalism.” • I believe “of employees” is telling. “Of,” versus “of, by, and for,” which might indicate fairly a special occasion.
“League of American Staff President: ‘Arizonans understand that the American Dream has change into out of attain’” [Grand Canyon Times]. “Steve Cortes, president and founding father of the League of American Staff (LAW), as we speak stated that ballot outcomes launched by his group present Arizona voters not really feel the American Dream is reachable. That ballot confirmed 84% of Arizona voters say households within the state can not dwell on a single earnings.” • Extra on the League of American Staff.
Spook Nation
“CISA Director Jen Easterly to depart on Inauguration Day” [NextGov]. “Jen Easterly, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Safety Company’s stalwart champion and a figurehead amongst cybersecurity and intelligence neighborhood practitioners, will go away her submit Jan. 20 subsequent 12 months when President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated again into the White Home, individuals accustomed to her plans stated… The way forward for CISA in an incoming Trump administration stays unsure, as GOP allegations of censorship stemming from CISA’s interactions with social media firms — claims that Easterly has adamantly refuted — performed a outstanding function in a current Supreme Court docket case, which the Biden administration in the end gained.” • Extra on Easterly right here.
Democrats en Déshabillé
“Axelrod: Democrats Can’t Method ‘Working Individuals’ Like Missionaries And Say, ‘We’re Right here To Assist You Grow to be Extra Like Us’” [RealClearPolitics]. “”I do have issues about the way in which the Democratic Social gathering pertains to working-class voters on this nation. The one group that Democrats gained throughout the election on Tuesday was White school graduates, and amongst working-class voters, there was a big decline. The one group they gained amongst– Democrats gained have been individuals who make greater than 100 thousand {dollars} a 12 months. You’ll be able to’t win nationwide elections that approach, and it actually shouldn’t be that approach for a celebration that fashions itself because the occasion of working individuals.” • Not “fashions itself.” “Fancies itself.”
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
Covid Assets, United States (Nationwide): Transmission (CDC); Wastewater (CDC, Biobot; contains many counties; Wastewater Scan, contains drilldown by zip); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker” (in IA, however nationwide knowledge). “An infection Management, Emergency Administration, Security, and Common 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 deal with 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!
TABLE 1: Every 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, knowledge November 15: | Nationwide [6] CDC November 14: |
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| Positivity | |
| ★ Nationwide[7] Walgreens November 11: | ★ Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic November 16: |
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| Vacationers Knowledge | |
| 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 as we speak; all others should 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 fashionable. XEC has entered the chat. That WHO label, “Ommicron,” has executed a terrific 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 point out your complete 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
There are not any official statistics of curiosity as we speak.
Manufacturing: “Boeing’s Current High quality Points: 5 Key Developments” [Simple Flying]. (1) “Govt resignation amid manufacturing restarts”; (2) “FAA mandates a complete high quality enchancment plan”; (3) “High quality defects found in undelivered 787 Dreamliners”; (4) “Whistleblowers expose systemic security violations”; (5) “Ongoing high quality points have an effect on the 737 MAX program.” • That’s rather a lot.
Manufacturing: “Boeing strike submit mortem: Ortberg has work to do” (excerpt) [Leeham News and Analysis]. “Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg’s efficiency in the course of the IAM strike is getting low marks from the women and men who will do the work that turns Boeing around-–the mechanics, techs, and engineers within the factories, based on these LNA has spoken with. Ortberg got here in speaking a couple of “reset” within the firm’s relationship with its unionized workforce. He took a superb symbolic step by saying he’d relocate to Seattle and work from there. However whereas Wall Road hailed the transfer, it didn’t land in addition to it may have. Ortberg spent in the future within the Renton manufacturing facility earlier than the strike. ” Ouch! Extra: “Likewise, it’s unclear how a lot Ortberg was concerned in one of many greatest crises his new firm confronted when he took over: the Machinists Union negotiations.” • Sadly, the fabric about Ortberg is generally behind the paywall; nonetheless, it seems that he “went with Calhoun’s plan” (Calhoun being the earlier CEO who was compelled out).
Tech: “Perhaps Bluesky has ‘gained’” [Gavin Anderegg]. “When writing about Bluesky, I’ve seen of us point out that it’s both federated or decentralized. I’m right here to inform you that it’s presently neither. This one actually irks me as a result of the service is getting the credit score for work it hasn’t executed….. All this to say: the Bluesky group looks like they’re earnestly working towards a decentralized platform, however they’ve loads of work forward of them. Years of effort, in my estimation. Within the meantime, Bluesky is barely extra decentralized than, say, Fb — however not by a lot. Sure, you may host your personal knowledge. Sure, you may scrape all the content material on the community. However you may’t do something with it except you’re connected to the Bluesky service. I consider this can change with time, however it is going to be prohibitively costly and we’re not there but.” • With dialogue of the benefits of Mastodon’s easy ActivityPub protocol, vs. Bluesky’s sophisticated AT Protocol (“atproto”). I haven’t tried Bluesky, as a result of I’m not sympathetic to liberal Democrats making themselves much more embubbled than they already are. I’ve tried Mastodon, however in comparison with Twitter it appears like a provincial backwater. That stated, the PMC migrating to a Silicon Valley-centric, not open-source, and enshittifiable platform (one more platform) is somewhat telling. Perhaps it’s the “Blue” in “Bluesky” that triggers them.
As we speak’s Concern & Greed Index: 51 Impartial (earlier shut: 50 Impartial) [CNN]. One week in the past: 68 (Greed). (0 is Excessive Concern; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Nov 18 at 1:23:03 PM ET.
Rapture Index: Closes up one on Drought. “A really giant space of the nation is beneath normal drought circumstances” [Rapture Ready]. File Excessive, October 10, 2016: 189. Present: 183. (Keep in mind that bringing on the Rapture is sweet.) • Onerous to consider the Rapture Index goes down. Do these individuals know one thing we don’t?
Permaculture
“The Approach of Mushrooms: Russula, the Trickster Mushroom” [The Meaning of Water]. “It was early October on a heat light day after I selected to stroll a special path within the Trent Nature Sanctuary forest. And there, within the cedar-birch-poplar forest, I found lovely fanned-shaped saprotrophic mushrooms organized like road bushes on a boulevard and stitching a fascinating community of crisscrossing traces of creamy ‘flowers’ on the forest ground. I observed that they have been organized in near what regarded like a fairy circle within the thick duff amid useless logs and branches of a number of fallen poplar and birch bushes; little doubt acquiring their nourishment from the decaying wooden.” • However the right way to determine them?
Gallery
So few traces:
Fishing Boat close to an Island #artbots #rembrandt pic.twitter.com/HnL3YxvB4w
— Rembrandt (@artistrembrandt) November 11, 2024
Class Warfare
Information of the Wired
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