By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Affected person readers, extra shortly on election 2024. There was lots to get my head round.
Chicken Track of the Day
Fulvous-crowned Scrub-Tyrant, Palo Blanco, Venezuela. “Pure track. Additionally prominently heard are Synallaxis albescens and ‘Oficialito?’”
In Case You May Miss…
(1) New Swing state abstract.
(2) Hillary Clinton on the ignorance of youth.
(3) Trump will love jail.
(4) Potential nasal spray, and also you’ll by no means guess from whom.
Search for the Helpers
“Phrases with Mates” [Commonweal]. “[The Oxford English Dictionary] is the gold normal of educational English-language lexicography and a key instrument behind many analysis tasks into the historical past of English, together with many different dictionaries…. A New English Dictionary on Historic Ideas, because it was initially referred to as, expounded a brand new mannequin for dictionaries—the historic dictionary—educating readers, many for the primary time, to think about linguistic type and which means as traditionally mutable. Phrases change—that is the OED’s nice lesson, taught one dictionary entry at a time. Such change is documented and illuminated by quotations from historic and modern sources….. A dictionary, stated [Richard Chenevix Trench], ‘is a listing of the language.’ As for the lexicographer: ‘It’s no process of the maker of [a dictionary] to pick the great phrases of a language…. The enterprise which he has undertaken is to gather and organize all of the phrases, whether or not good or unhealthy.’ Or, because the OED’s exuberant founding editor, philologist Frederick Furnivall, stated, ‘Fling our doorways huge! All, all, not one, however all should enter.’ Furnivall was speaking about phrases, in fact, however he might need been speaking about individuals as nicely. For the OED was created with the assistance of many fingers, female and male, English and foreigner, residing inside Britain and all around the world. These readers—extremely useful, unpaid volunteers who learn what they wished, however in some circumstances accepted somewhat exacting assignments—helped make the OED what it’s: a singular treasure trove of English-language historical past.”
My e mail handle is down by the plant; please ship examples of “Helpers” there. In our more and more determined and fragile neoliberal society, on a regular basis regular incidents and tales of “the communism of on a regular basis life” are what I’m on the lookout for (and never, say, the Pink Cross in Hawaii, and even the UNWRA in Gaza).
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
2024
Lower than a half a 12 months to go!
RCP Ballot Averages, Could 10:
Nationwide outcomes now shifting Trump’s method. All the Swing States (extra right here) are actually in Trump’s column, together with Michigan and Wisconsin. Pennsylvania leans extra Trump this week than final. After all, it goes with out saying that these are all state polls, subsequently unhealthy, and a lot of the outcomes are throughout the margin of error. Now, if both candidate begins breaking away in factors, as an alternative of tenths of some extent…. NOTE I modified the notation: Up and down arrows for will increase or decreases over final week, circles for no change. Pink = Trump. Blue can be Biden if he had been main anyplace, however he isn’t.
* * * Trump (R) (Bragg/Merchan): “Stormy Daniels delivers surprising testimony about Trump, however trial hinges on enterprise data” [Associated Press]. “However regardless of all of the speak over what might have occurred in that resort room, regardless of the discomfiting testimony by the grownup movie actor that she consented to intercourse partly due to a “energy imbalance,” the case in opposition to Trump doesn’t rise or fall on whether or not her account is true and even plausible. It’s a trial about cash altering fingers — enterprise transactions — and whether or not these funds had been made to illegally affect the 2016 election.” This isn’t actually right. Bragg’s two layer structure, as I present right here, requires him to transform the enterprise data violations into felonies by exhibiting that they had been carried out in service to a second crime, the article offense. Illegally influencing the 2016 election isn’t essentially a type of offenses. Extra: “On the time of the cost to Daniels, Trump and his marketing campaign had been reeling from the October 2016 publication of the never-before-seen 2005 ‘Entry Hollywood’ footage by which he boasted about grabbing girls with out their permission. Prosecutors have argued that the political firestorm over the ‘Entry Hollywood’ tape hastened Cohen’s cost to maintain Daniels from going public together with her claims that would additional harm Trump within the eyes of feminine voters.” I might very very like to know how that’s unlawful, i.e. the article offense. Extra: “The tape rattled the Republican Nationwide Committee management, and ‘there have been conversations about how it could be doable to switch him because the candidate if it got here to that,’ in accordance with testimony from Madeleine Westerhout, a Trump aide who was working on the RNC when the recording leaked.” • So a bunch of staffers are working round with their hair on hearth, which is okay, that’s their job. However the challenge — members of the New York Bar please right me — isn’t what the staffers thought; it’s what Trump thought. As far as I do know, the one direct assertion now we have that implies Trump’s intent is from Hope Hicks: He wished to guard Melania. That’s not the sought-for object offense. I additionally discover it onerous to imagine that Trump was anxious in any respect; he’s, in any case, within the enterprise of managing and promoting his repute, and sexually, “he’s no angel.” I might speculate Trump thought voters, by no means thoughts the staffers — not to mention dogpiling liberal Democrats performing aghastitude — had his peccadillos priced in. And within the occasion, he was right, and the staffers and the liberal Democrats had been unsuitable. Caveat that I’ve but to pile by the docket.
Trump (R) (Bragg/Merchan): “Choose denies movement for a mistrial in Donald Trump hush cash case after protection attorneys declare Stormy Daniels’ ‘spanking’ testimony and no condom declare had been ‘prejudicial’” [Daily Mail]. “Choose Merchan tore into the protection attorneys whereas delivering his resolution to disclaim the movement for a mistrial. He stated he had gone again by the testimony transcript and made certain nobody had violated his pointers for questioning the witness. He stated he was glad along with his evaluate however he didn’t cease there. Merchan identified that Blanche had denied there had ever been a sexual encounter between Trump and Daniels in his opening assertion, and by bringing it up, Blanche had put the jury in place to have to decide on who they might imagine. The decide principally blamed the protection, saying the extra Daniels may present particular particulars in regards to the encounter, the extra the jury may weigh whether or not to provide her credit score. Merchan agreed a number of the particulars of the testimony by Daniels didn’t want to come back out and particularly referenced her declare Trump didn’t put on a condom, however he slammed Trump’s attorneys for not objecting. Earlier than denying the mistrial movement, Merchan additionally rejected the protection’s movement for the gag order to be modified. Blanche had argued in opposition to the gag order in gentle of Daniels’ testimony stating Trump ‘wants a possibility to reply to the American individuals.’ He famous Daniels was not a witness. However prosecutor Chris Conroy argued that modifying the gag order mid-trial would sign to future witnesses that they may ‘be in danger as nicely.’ Merchan dismissed the gag order request that Trump be allowed to speak about Daniels. ‘My concern isn’t just defending Ms. Daniels,’ the decide stated. ‘My concern is defending the integrity of those proceedings as a complete.’”• I don’t assume Merchan is unsuitable on this.
Trump (R) (Bragg/Merchan): “Trump arrives at hush cash trial as prosecutors put together for remaining witnesses” [Reuters]. “Prosecutors have referred to as 16 witnesses, and stated they may relaxation their case by Could 21. Final month, protection lawyer Susan Necheles stated prosecutors had offered them an inventory of 20 potential witnesses. They could not name all these witnesses, and prosecutor Joshua Steinglass stated in courtroom on Thursday they don’t plan to name McDougal.” • That to me hints that the prosecution doesn’t regard the Stormy Daniels testimony as a hit. Why not pile on with McDougal?
Trump (R) (Smith/Cannon): “Unredactions Reveal Early White Home Involvement in Trump Paperwork Case” [Julie Kelly, RealClearInvestigation]. Missed this one. “High Biden administration officers labored with the Nationwide Archives to develop Particular Counsel Jack Smith’s case in opposition to Donald Trump involving the previous president’s alleged mishandling of categorised materials, in accordance with not too long ago unsealed courtroom paperwork within the case pending in southern Florida…. The brand new disclosures point out the Division of Justice was in contact with the Nationwide Archives and Data Administration (NARA) throughout a lot of 2021, undermining the DOJ’s claims that it turned concerned within the matter solely after the Archives despatched it a felony referral on February 9, 2022, primarily based on the findings of data with ‘categorised markings’ in 15 bins of supplies Trump gave to the Archives a month prior. The courtroom reveals, which had been compiled by Trump’s protection attorneys and saved below seal till final week, additionally present that Deputy White Home Counsel Jonathan Su usually communicated with Archive officers. Though Biden himself isn’t talked about within the reveals, the energetic participation of Su and different high-ranking White Home officers raises questions on whether or not Biden was forthright when he informed ’60 Minutes’ he wasn’t concerned within the investigation.” • In all probability not, truly. What occurs if he blurts one thing out?
* * * * * * “Trump pressed oil executives to provide $1 billion for his marketing campaign, individuals in trade say” [Politico]. “Former President Donald Trump requested oil trade executives final month to donate $1 billion to help his marketing campaign to retake the White Home, three individuals conversant in the dialog informed POLITICO — a request that marketing campaign finance specialists stated appeared troubling however might be authorized. The request, first reported Thursday by The Washington Publish, occurred throughout a gathering of trade executives on the former president’s residence in Palm Seaside, Florida…. One individual not on the dinner — Dan Eberhart, chief govt of the Denver-based oil firm Canary LLC — stated members informed him that Trump requested the attendees to contribute a mixed $1 billion for his marketing campaign. Two trade representatives whose corporations attended the assembly confirmed the quantity to POLITICO. Trump’s request is ‘surprising,’ however it could nearly actually not break the legislation, stated Meredith McGehee, an unbiased knowledgeable on authorities ethics and marketing campaign finance. Except Trump wrote on a serviette through the assembly a precise amount of cash he wished deposited in a selected marketing campaign automobile in trade for a selected coverage purpose, there’s little probability it could violate bribery legal guidelines as presently interpreted by the Supreme Courtroom, McGehee stated…. One other marketing campaign finance knowledgeable expressed doubts that Trump’s habits violated the legislation. ‘Isn’t that what campaigning is?’ Bradley Smith, chair of the Institute for Free Speech and former chair of the Federal Election Fee, stated of Trump’s ask to the oil executives. ‘Actually if one is an workplace holder and one guarantees a selected federal motion like, ‘You’ll get this allow,’ or one thing like that, you’ve got a problem. However to make a type of common pledge, ‘You’ve received to provide me plenty of cash as a result of I’m actually going to assist out your online business,’ it’s superb,’ he stated. Smith added: ‘It’s a minor distinction of diploma from Joe Biden saying, ‘Hey, younger individuals, vote for me, I’m going to forgive your pupil loans.”
* * * Biden (D): “Biden’s common election technique: Much less is extra” [NBC]. “As President Joe Biden ramps up his re-election effort, his marketing campaign can be scaling again how a lot he says on the path, half of a bigger new technique to hone a sharper message he’ll take into the final election, in accordance with Biden aides…. ‘There’s a strategic benefit at this level within the race to boiling down your message to the three or 4 most salient, compelling arguments for why President Biden ought to be re-elected,’ stated TJ Ducklo, the Biden marketing campaign’s senior adviser for communications. ‘That may typically translate to the stump [speech] being whittled right down to its sharpest, most dynamic type. That’s what you’re seeing.’ The method additionally has the looks of a technique geared toward minimizing the potential for Biden to make errors in a razor-close election. A few of Biden’s verbal missteps have occurred when he’s speaking at size, veers off the ready textual content or solutions a reporter’s query when that wasn’t a part of the plan. Shorter, crisper remarks from Biden are a part of his marketing campaign’s broader technique of getting him seem extra in smaller settings that the president’s aides imagine serve him higher than massive, conventional rallies with voters.” • Massive, conventional rallies with voters, the place there are issues like stairs, and much and plenty of cameras.
Biden (D): “Biden claims inflation was 9% when he took workplace – it was 1.4%” [FOX]. With helpful charts. • I might swear this story additionally included Biden’s declare that Trump was accountable for 1,000,000 Covid deaths, when (from reminiscence) 400,000 deaths occurred on Trump’s watch, and 700,000 on Biden’s. Appears extra essential than the inflation charge.
Biden (D): “Appeals courtroom denies Hunter Biden’s effort to dismiss gun costs” [Just the News]. “A federal appeals courtroom Thursday dismissed a request from Hunter Biden to have gun costs in opposition to him dismissed earlier than his upcoming trial, in accordance with a brand new courtroom submitting…. The Trump-appointed decide disagreed with Biden’s arguments that Particular Counsel David Weiss – who can be prosecuting President Biden’s son on separate tax costs in California – violated the plea deal and diversion settlement he negotiated with the the Justice Division that may have granted him broad immunities.”
* * * Haley (R): “Donald Trump nonetheless has an enormous Nikki Haley drawback” [Chicago Sun-Times]. “Regardless of [Haley] dropping out of the race after Tremendous Tuesday, her ghost continues to hang-out Trump in some very important and, for him, ominous methods…. On Tuesday evening, Indiana Republican major voters unsurprisingly awarded Trump all 58 of their delegates. However considerably surprisingly, greater than 20% of them voted in opposition to him. Whereas he handily received 78.3% of the vote, the 128,000 Republican voters who as an alternative pulled the lever for Nikki Haley despatched the presumptive nominee a critical message: ‘We aren’t with you.’ Lest you assume that an anomaly, late final month 83.4% of Republicans in Pennsylvania voted for Trump. However considerably, 16.6%, or roughly 158,000, voted for Haley. There’s extra. In Washington State, Haley received 19.3% — 150,832 votes — of the Republican major vote. In Arizona, she received 17.8%. In Illinois, she received 14.5%. In Ohio, she received 14.4%. This was all after Haley had formally dropped out of the race…. [T]right here’s proof a single challenge helps to drive these numbers: abortion. In response to a latest Wall Avenue Journal ballot of seven battleground states, 39% of suburban girls ‘cite abortion as a make-or-break challenge for his or her vote — making it by far essentially the most motivating challenge for the group.’” • The article doesn’t present that these Haley voters are suburban girls voters, however it’s not a stretch.
* * * Kennedy (I): “RFK Jr. marketing campaign barges into Trump territory” [Washington Times]. “A Suffolk College ballot launched Monday confirmed Mr. Kennedy drawing 8% of assist amongst registered voters. Mr. Trump was left with lower than a one-half share lead over Mr. Biden. Mr. Kennedy’s supporters self-define as 13% liberal, 55% average and 27% conservative, in accordance with the ballot. ‘By that metric alone, one would assume RFK attracts extra conservative voters away from Trump,’ stated David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk College Political Analysis Heart. Mr. Kennedy’s supporters additionally embody 14% Hispanic voters, 13% younger voters and 14% unbiased voters. ‘General, RFK voters are usually extra average and conservative, however within the classes RFK actually does nicely in, he tends to harm Biden, particularly amongst younger voters and Hispanics,’ he stated.”
Kennedy (I): “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. seems to shock his working mate along with his place on abortion” [NBC]. “Unbiased presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stated in an interview launched Wednesday that he would permit girls to have abortions at full time period if that was their alternative, the most recent reply he has given on abortion coverage — and one which provoked a stunned response from his working mate. Throughout an interview with podcaster Sage Steele, the previous ESPN host requested Kennedy what the restrict ought to be for ladies to have an abortion. ‘Ought to there be a restrict or are you saying all the way in which as much as full time period, a girl has a proper to have an abortion?’ she stated. Kennedy answered that he doesn’t assume anybody would wish to try this at eight months of being pregnant, however abortion ought to be out of the fingers of the federal government and within the fingers of ladies…. The feedback appeared to come back as a shock to Nicole Shanahan, Kennedy’s working mate. Every week previous to the discharge of Kennedy’s dialog with Steele, Shanahan was featured in a podcast episode with the host. Steele requested Shanahan if she agreed with Kennedy’s perception {that a} lady ought to have the choice to have an abortion at full time period, to which Shanahan responded with shock. ‘My understanding with Bobby’s place is that, you understand, each abortion is a tragedy, is a lack of life,’ Shanahan stated. ‘My understanding is that he completely believes in limits on abortion, and we’ve talked about this. I don’t assume, I don’t know the place that got here from.’” • Not useful from Shanahan!
Kennedy (I): “State by state, RFK Jr. pushes for nationwide poll entry” [CNN]. “Kennedy is formally on the poll in 5 states: battleground Michigan, Utah, Hawaii, Delaware and California. The marketing campaign says it’s gathered sufficient signatures to place Kennedy on the poll in two extra battlegrounds, North Carolina and Nevada, in addition to Ohio, Idaho, Nebraska and Iowa. The marketing campaign has adopted a variety of strategies meant to seek out the best technique to navigate the customarily disparate and convoluted processes to fulfill totally different poll qualification standards in every state. Volunteers have collected signatures exterior sporting occasions, on school campuses, at festivals and state gala’s and extra throughout the nation. The marketing campaign has even drafted off the publicity of extra distinguished political occasions: Volunteers collected sufficient signatures to seem on the New Hampshire poll by canvassing voters at polling locations on the day of the Granite State’s presidential major in January. The marketing campaign usually goals to gather at the least 60% extra signatures than the required quantity in every state, a marketing campaign official informed CNN, to keep away from invalidated signatures undermining Kennedy’s petition. Kennedy has additionally reached out to minor events with poll eligibility in some states to avoid the signature-gathering course of altogether, making unusual bedfellows of Kennedy and a few fringe political teams.”
Kennedy (I): “Are R.F.Okay. Jr. Signature Gatherers Deceptive New Yorkers for Poll Entry?” [New York Times]. “Greater than a half-dozen New York Metropolis residents, together with two who’re journalists at The New York Instances and had been approached randomly, have described comparable encounters with signature gatherers for Mr. Kennedy in Brooklyn over the previous three weeks. In every case, the resident was approached by a clipboard-wielding petitioner and requested to assist ‘unbiased’ or ‘progressive’ candidates, or, in a single case, to assist get Democrats and President Biden on the poll. In three circumstances, the petitioners stated that they had been being paid for the work, the individuals who had been approached stated; in 4 circumstances, the petitioners stated they’d been informed by a supervisor to not present or point out Mr. Kennedy’s identify. Descriptions and images of the petitioners counsel that they’re at the least 4 totally different individuals. The petitioners themselves couldn’t be recognized or reached for remark. In every of the encounters described to The Instances, the names of Mr. Kennedy and his working mate, Nicole Shanahan, had been hidden by the paper being folded. Solely the slate of electors — the little-known individuals designated to vote for the candidates within the Electoral School — was seen in superb print on the high.” The story features a photograph. Extra: “Ira Pearlstein, a lawyer, stated he was approached twice close to Barclays Heart in Brooklyn with a petition folded to cover Mr. Kennedy’s identify on the high.Credit score…Ira Pearlstein. .” • Oh.
* * * “Trump staff throws out GOP plan and builds a ‘leaner’ 2024 operation” [WaPo]. “Trump’s 2024 marketing campaign has traded Star Wars metaphors for speak of a “leaner” and “extra environment friendly” operation, with much less actual property, fewer workers and larger dependence on exterior teams…. The unique RNC plan for the state of Georgia, reviewed by The Washington Publish, referred to as for hiring 12 regional discipline administrators in April and 40 discipline organizers by the tip of Could, along with ultimately opening 20 places of work and a neighborhood middle within the School Park, a principally Black suburb of Atlanta. Arizona was slotted to obtain six regional discipline administrators, seven places of work and 23 discipline organizers by the tip of Could. Celebration leaders had drafted comparable highway maps for different battleground states earlier than Ronna McDaniel was changed as chairwoman. The RNC’s plan at first of this 12 months was additionally targeted on early voting, the plans present, although the Financial institution Your Vote web site — as soon as the centerpiece of the trouble — has been offline for weeks because the social gathering retools this system. “It’s full pace forward,” stated James Blair, the nationwide political director for each the Trump marketing campaign and the RNC. ‘Keep tuned for extra on this system.’… Trump’s aides say they may construct a extra narrowly focused volunteer discipline program — utilizing their profitable effort within the Iowa caucuses as a template — whereas profiting from a latest Federal Election Fee ruling that may permit them to straight coordinate message and script plans with exterior teams who’ve paid canvassing corresponding to door-knocking. The operation is being run by LaCivita, Blair and Alex Latcham, a former White Home deputy political director for Trump.”
“The key to Republican victory in 2024 is hiding in plain sight” [Newt Gingrich, FOX]. “In reality, it hurts the Republican trigger – and the elections of President Donald Trump and Home and Senate Republicans – to focus narrowly on Nov. 5. The primary election dates are Sept. 16 in Pennsylvania after which Sept. 20 in Minnesota and South Dakota. The following election days are Sept. 23 in Mississippi, and Sept. 24 in Missouri. There are 43 different states and the District of Columbia that comply with with their early voting dates. Solely Alabama and New Hampshire shouldn’t have early voting…. Right here’s an instance of why this issues: In 2022, the Republican Senate marketing campaign in Pennsylvania was targeted on Election Day in November. The marketing campaign didn’t start promoting till lengthy after early voting had began. In consequence, 40% of Pennsylvanians had already forged their ballots earlier than the primary main Republican advert had aired. This sample was not distinctive to that race…. The Democrats have targeted on early voting largely as a result of they need to have the ability to determine everybody who has not but turned out. That method, they will give attention to telephone calls, unsolicited mail, textual content messages, and even visits to remind these voters that they need to vote. They preserve it going till the individuals vote, and their identify comes off the checklist…. This lengthy marketing campaign method has confirmed for the final decade that it’s extra prone to win shut elections than the give attention to the federally designated official Election Day.” • I hate this a lot (and I additionally hate Gingrich being write. If these are the principles….).
Clinton Legacy
Unsure who Clinton helps right here. Actually not Biden:
Hillary Clinton, on Morning Joe, says younger critics of Israel lack data of historical past on Israeli-Palestinian battle:
“If Yasser Arafat had accepted [the BillClinton/EhudBarak peace proposal at Camp David], there would have been a Palestinian state now for about 24 years.” pic.twitter.com/ormxIjGVi5
— Jacob N. Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) Could 9, 2024
Clinton’s (self-serving) views on Camp David are contested, to say the least.
2020 Publish Mortem
“The lengthy, unusual political shadow of 2020” [Nate Silver, Silver Bulletin]. “[I]t may appear unusual that Donald Trump is reprising Ronald Reagan by actually asking voters whether or not they’re higher off than they had been 4 years in the past. 4 years in the past was 2020, one of the depressing years in trendy American historical past…. However whereas Democrats wish to deal with this as a type of ‘gotcha’, I’m not so certain it’s a foul technique. One principle, as Paul Krugman writes, is that Trump hopes voters will bear in mind the ‘earlier than instances’ — that’s, earlier than the pandemic. I’ve an alternate principle, nevertheless: Trump is pleased sufficient to let voters take into consideration 2020 as a result of he thinks they’ll blame Biden and Democrats for the issues they didn’t like about it. That’s utterly unfair to Biden, in fact, who wasn’t president but. However politics isn’t at all times so literal. Even with Trump in cost, 2020 was in all probability essentially the most left-wing second within the US in my lifetime.1 Since then, the share of voters who say Democrats are too liberal has risen by 7 factors. And Trump is relying on a continued backlash in opposition to the left. … Contemplate what had been maybe the three most essential political questions on the time: first, the fiscal response to the pandemic; second, the general public well being response; and third, the protests and accompanying ‘racial reckoning.’ For essentially the most half, it was the left’s preferences that prevailed on these.” • Liberals, Nate. Liberals. Not the left.
Realignment and Legitimacy
“Lysistrata” (podcast) [In Our Time]. “Melvyn Bragg and friends focus on Aristophanes’ comedy by which the ladies of Athens and Sparta, led by Lysistrata, safe peace within the long-running conflict between them by staging a intercourse strike. To the lads within the viewers in 411BC, the concept peace within the Peloponnesian Struggle may very well be received so simply was ridiculous and the thought that their wives may have a lot energy over them was much more so. Nonetheless Aristophanes’ comedy additionally has the ladies seizing the treasure within the Acropolis that was meant to fund extra combating in an emergency, a fund the Athenians had not too long ago had to attract on. They had been in a deadly place and, a lot as they could snicker at Aristophanes’ jokes, they knew there have been actual issues in regards to the precise value of the conflict when it comes to wealth and manpower.”
Pandemics
“I’m in earnest — I cannot equivocate — I cannot excuse — I cannot 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 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 at liberty to contact me on the handle given with the vegetation. 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 reviews); ID (dashboard, Boise; dashboard, wastewater, Central Idaho; wastewater, Coeur d’Alene; dashboard, Spokane County); IL (wastewater); IN (dashboard); KS (dashboard; wastewater, Lawrence); KY (dashboard, Louisville); LA (dashboard); MA (wastewater); MD (dashboard); ME (dashboard); MI (wastewater; wastewater); MN (dashboard); MO (wastewater); MS (dashboard); MT (dashboard); NC (dashboard); ND (dashboard; wastewater); NE (dashboard); NH (wastewater); NJ (dashboard); NM (dashboard); NV (dashboard; wastewater, Southern NV); NY (dashboard); OH (dashboard); OK (dashboard); OR (dashboard); PA (dashboard); RI (dashboard); SC (dashboard); SD (dashboard); TN (dashboard); TX (dashboard); UT (wastewater); VA (dashboard); VT (dashboard); WA (dashboard; dashboard); WI (wastewater); WV (wastewater); WY (wastewater).
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, 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 secure on the market!
Vaccines
Variants
“What You Have to Know About FLiRT, the Newest COVID Variants” [AARP]. “Little question we’ve seen some unusual nicknames for variants all through the COVID-19 pandemic — Arcturus, Pirola and Eris, to call a couple of. In response to an explainer posted by the Infectious Ailments Society of America, FLiRT is an acronym for a number of the variants’ spike protein mutations. The FLiRT variants, that are nonetheless within the omicron household, look like extremely transmissible, which means they unfold simply. Nonetheless up to now, they don’t seem to trigger extra extreme illness, Schaffner says.” • The “unusual nicknames” had been truly astronomical phrases developed by a citizen scientists; however now that the ID goons at Infectious Ailments Society of America have taken over, we get cutesy, harmless-seeming names like FLiRT. “Flirt” with what? Loss of life and incapacity? [Pounds head on desk.]
“New COVID ‘FLiRT’ variants are spreading nationwide” [Philadelphia Inquirer]. “Whereas signs and severity appear to be about the identical as earlier COVID strains, the brand new FLiRT variants look like extra transmissible, stated infectious illness knowledgeable Dr. Robert Murphy. ‘A brand new, extra contagious variant is on the market,’ stated Murphy, govt director of Northwestern College’s Institute for International Well being and a professor of infectious ailments on the Feinberg Faculty of Medication. ‘COVID-19 remains to be with us, and in comparison with flu and RSV, COVID-19 could cause important issues low season.’” What “low season”? Covid isn’t seasonal! Extra: “One FLiRT variant, KP.2, is estimated to account for roughly 1 / 4 of latest COVID circumstances, in accordance with Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention information from late April.” No, it hasn’t. That’s the mannequin [pounds head on desk].
Sequelae: Covid
“I’ve Seen One thing Unusual About All of the Thirtysomething Males I’m Hooking Up With. What Offers?” [Salon]. From the “Methods to Do It” recommendation column: “[M]y query principally revolves round erectile dysfunction within the 30-plus age group. Since my divorce, I’ve met a couple of guys with blended intentions (initially only for hook-ups and now I’m on the lookout for one thing extra long-term once more). I’ve slept with 4 males and three of them have had a problem with getting or staying onerous.” And the reply contains: “(One bizarre, and comparatively new, issue that would doubtlessly be at play is an obvious hyperlink between COVID-19 and erectile dysfunction. There isn’t a conclusive analysis but, however one research discovered a major affiliation between prior COVID-19 an infection and a brand new prognosis of ED.)” • The commercials — and never for vaccines, which have their very own vascular issues, however respirators — write themselves. “Is sporting a masks too onerous for you?” And so forth. 3M, get to it!
“Lengthy COVID Could Have Lengthy-Time period Impression on Surgical procedure” [American College of Surgeons]. “Greater than 77% of individuals within the US had been contaminated with SARS-CoV-2 as of 2022. Of those, roughly 30% of survivors report having persistent signs categorised as lengthy COVID2 and 11% describe persistent signs at 6 months.” I reiterate than an considerable share of the 23% of individuals not contaminated are working onerous to remain that method, albeit invisibly. Extra: “[L]ong COVID, additionally known as postacute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 an infection, will stay a medical concern for the foreseeable future…. Given the dangers related to delirium and postoperative neurocognitive dysfunction, the preoperative cognitive impairment in lengthy COVID sufferers could also be an issue that obscures a clinician’s means to acknowledge delicate signs and correctly take care of sufferers present process elective surgical procedure. Latest research have steered that lengthy COVID could also be brought on by a protracted, subclinical an infection resulting in the institution of a viral reservoir, doubtlessly within the intestine, that may modulate host immune responses and contribute to persistent cognitive signs. Surgical procedure in such sufferers may lead to unintentional unfold of the SARS-CoV-2 viral reservoir to distal tissues such because the lung, the place an infection could cause extreme harm.” • Ulp.
“An FDA-approved assay platform can detect biomarkers of neuronal and glial harm within the blood of COVID-19 sufferers” (preprint) [medRxiv]. “Using assays accredited by the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) to help in detection of mind harm in delicate traumatic mind harm (TBI) sufferers, this research demonstrated that the astroglial protein, glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and the neuronal protein, ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase (UCH-L1) had been positively related to age in COVID-19 sufferers. Controlling for age, UCH-L1 and GFAP had been considerably elevated in COVID-19 sufferers in comparison with non-COVID-19 controls, and UCH-L1, however not GFAP, was elevated in sufferers with neurological alterations. Information from this research are additionally in comparison with historic information on ranges of UCH-L1 and GFAP in mind injured and wholesome regular sufferers. These information assist additional research of an FDA accredited assay format that would facilitate well timed growth, validation, and FDA approval of blood exams to detect neuronal and glial cell accidents following an infection by SARS-CoV-2. Furthermore, appropriately validated blood exams may detect mind harm originating from any systemic pathogen.”
Elite Maleficence
“Airborne pathogens: controlling phrases received’t management transmission” [Trisha Greenhalgh, C Raina MacIntyre, Mark Ungrin, Julia M Wright, The Lancet]. “WHO has proposed new terminology for ‘pathogens that transmit by the air.’… Clear and correct communication about how respiratory pathogens unfold is of the utmost significance globally. Confusion on this subject abounds, particularly in relation to COVID-19, however there’s a easy rationalization. Robust and constant proof for a predominantly airborne mode of transmission emerged early within the pandemic however was denied or downplayed by WHO and nationwide public well being our bodies for years… This new WHO report seems to imagine that as a result of some infectious illness specialists imagine that the SARS-CoV-2 virus is airborne solely ‘situationally’ (ie, below uncommon circumstances), the problem is subsequently scientifically complicated. Another rationalization, which has been extensively mentioned within the peer-reviewed literature, is that dominant voices within the an infection prevention and management neighborhood didn’t grasp the fundamentals of airborne transmission and did not take heed to individuals who did… The WHO report states that ‘it was essential to steadiness scientific insights with availability, entry, affordability and different sensible realities in resource-limited settings.’ We agree, however . The report concludes: ‘[C]onsideration to be used of the phrase ‘transmission by the air’… would require particular socialization and coaching to be understood by each well being care staff and most people.’ To have these new phrases be taken up by numerous establishments and students, because the authors of the report suggest, will probably be complicated and unrealistic, requiring in depth retraining and the rewriting of a whole lot of paperwork. Pragmatically, a brand new set of phrases will add to current confusion, not scale back it. Our time, power, and sources can be higher spent continuing with long-established phrases (eg, airborne and aerosol) which can be nicely understood throughout the pure sciences to advance understanding of airborne transmission amongst clinicians and the general public.” • Simply one other act of sabotage by WHO? (As I present right here, WHO’s terminology has already been rendered out of date by advances in aerosol science.)
Lambert right here: Affected person readers, I’m going to must rethink this superbly formatted desk. Appears to be like like Biobot information nonetheless features, CDC variant information features, ER visits are useless, New York hospitalization appears to be useless since 5/1 [No, it’s alive!], when CDC stopped obligatory hospital information assortment, Walgreens features, Cleveland Clinic features, CDC traveler’s information features, New York Instances demise information has stopped. (Observe that the 2 metrics the hospital-centric CDC cared about, hospitalization and deaths, have each gone down). Ideally I might change hospitalization and demise information, however I’m unsure how. I may additionally develop the wastewater part to incorporate (yech) Verily information, H5N1 if I can get it. Ideas and sources welcome.
TABLE 1: Each day Covid Charts
LEGEND
1) ★ for charts new right now; all others will not be 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] (Biobot) Our curve has now flattened out at a stage far above valleys below Trump. Not an awesome victory. Observe additionally the world “below the curve,” in addition to peaks. That space is bigger below Biden than below Trump, and it appears to be rising steadily if erratically.
[2] (Biobot) No backward revisons….
[3] (CDC Variants) FWIW, provided that the mannequin utterly missed KP.2.
[4] (ER) CDC appears to have killed this off, because the hyperlink is damaged, I believe in favor of this factor. I’ll attempt to verify. UPDATE Sure, go away it to CDC to kill a web page, after which announce it was archived a day later. And heaven forfend CDC ought to clarify the place to go to get equal information, if any. I preferred the ER information, as a result of it appeared actually onerous to sport.
[5] (Hospitalization: NY) The info is now updating once more. I suppose to a tame epidemiologist it seems to be like “endemicity,” however to me it seems to be like one other tranche of lethality.
[6] (Hospitalization: CDC) Nonetheless down. “Maps, charts, and information offered by CDC, updates weekly for the earlier MMWR week (Sunday-Saturday) on Thursdays (Deaths, Emergency Division Visits, Take a look at Positivity) and weekly the next Mondays (Hospitalizations) by 8 pm ET†”.
[7] (Walgreens) Slight uptick.
[8] (Cleveland) Leveling out.
[9] (Vacationers: Posivitity) Flattens.
[10] (Vacationers: Variants) JN.1 dominates totally. Nonetheless no point out of KP.2
[11] Appears to be like just like the Instances isn’t reporting demise information any extra? Perhaps I would like to return to The Economist….
Stats Watch
There are not any statistics of curiosity right now.
Commodities: Dr. Copper:
Stanley Druckemiller thinks copper is a fairly easy story.
I clearly agree with him.
This is the total quote:
“Copper is a fairly easy story. Takes about 12 years, greenfield to supply copper, and you bought EVs, the grid, information facilities, and imagine it or not munitions.… pic.twitter.com/5mE50dpms1
— Brandon Beylo (@marketplunger1) Could 9, 2024
Tech: “Apple apologizes for iPad ‘Crush’ advert that ‘missed the mark’” [The Verge]. • Fairly the opposite; the advert hit the mark exactly.
Tech: “Tesla is being investigated for securities and wire fraud for self-driving claims” [The Verge]. “The Division of Justice is trying into whether or not Tesla dedicated securities and wire fraud round its self-driving automobile claims, Reuters reviews right now, citing three sources conversant in the matter. The investigation, which was first reported in October 2022 however has been happening since at the least late 2021, includes federal prosecutors in Washington and San Francisco who’re inspecting whether or not Tesla executives misled customers, traders, and regulators by making unsupported claims about its autonomous capabilities. Now, it seems that investigators are zeroing in on particular costs in opposition to the corporate: securities and wire fraud.”
Tech: “Is AI mendacity to me? Scientists warn of rising capability for deception” [Guardian]. “The evaluation, by Massachusetts Institute of Know-how (MIT) researchers, identifies wide-ranging cases of AI techniques double-crossing opponents, bluffing and pretending to be human. One system even altered its behaviour throughout mock security exams, elevating the prospect of auditors being lured right into a false sense of safety. ‘Because the misleading capabilities of AI techniques turn into extra superior, the risks they pose to society will turn into more and more critical,’ stated Dr Peter Park, an AI existential security researcher at MIT and creator of the analysis. Park was prompted to analyze after Meta, which owns Fb, developed a program referred to as Cicero that carried out within the high 10% of human gamers on the world conquest technique sport Diplomacy. Meta said that Cicero had been educated to be ‘largely trustworthy and useful’ and to ‘by no means deliberately backstab’ its human allies. ‘It was very rosy language, which was suspicious as a result of backstabbing is among the most essential ideas within the sport,’ stated Park. Park and colleagues sifted by publicly accessible information and recognized a number of cases of Cicero telling premeditated lies, colluding to attract different gamers into plots and, on one event, justifying its absence after being rebooted by telling one other participant: ‘I’m on the telephone with my girlfriend.’ ‘We discovered that ,’ stated Park.” • Meta? Actually?d
Right this moment’s Concern & Greed Index: 47 Impartial (earlier shut: 44 Concern) [CNN]. One week in the past: 40 (Concern). (0 is Excessive Concern; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Could 10 at 1:50:45 PM ET.
Guillotine Watch
“Palm Seaside in uproar as invading ‘new cash’ transplants conflict with previous guard retirees and snowbirds over first luxurious new condos in many years” [Daily Mail]. • So Palm Seaside is on increased floor, then?
Class Warfare
“Richest Individuals Now Pay Much less Tax Than Working Class in Historic First” [Newsweek]. “Within the Nineteen Sixties, the 400 richest Individuals paid greater than half of their earnings in taxes, in accordance with the Instances. By 2018, America’s wealthiest people paid simply 23 % of their earnings in taxes. In the meantime, the underside half of earnings earners paid 24 % of their earnings in taxes. Right this moment, America’s richest individuals management a larger share of the nation’s wealth than through the ‘Gilded Age of Carnegies and Rockefellers,’ the [New York Times] stated, referring to a interval of unprecedented wealth focus within the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. That is partly as a result of important decreases in taxes on the wealthy. Rich people as soon as paid excessive taxes on company income, which had been usually their major supply of earnings, and property taxes on wealth handed right down to their heirs. Nonetheless, these taxes have been considerably diminished lately—the highest company tax charge within the U.S. was diminished from 35 % to 21 % in 2018, and the property tax now generates solely 1 / 4 of the tax revenues it raised within the Seventies, the Instances famous. One other issue is that many trendy billionaires dwell off their wealth somewhat than their incomes, not like most abnormal Individuals.” • Federal taxes don’t fund Federal spending, however that doesn’t imply that Federal taxes can’t be used to throw an enormous internet over the wealthy (IIRC, Yves recommends inheritance tax as being least gameable).
Information of the Wired
“Revolutionary new drone feeds on electrical energy from energy traces and flies endlessly” [BGR]. “Engineers working on the College of Southern Denmark have created a vampire drone able to residing endlessly. The drone is ready to fly for prolonged durations of time with out touchdown, as it could take breaks and leech energy from close by energy traces to recharge its onboard batteries. The maneuver is made doable because of a docking mechanism, a number of sensors, and an AI system loaded on board. This enables the drone to acknowledge energy traces after which connect to them every time it must recharge its batteries. The staff informed Quick Firm that the vampire drone can ‘primarily dwell on the grid and function utterly autonomously for prolonged durations of time,’ all with no need a human to babysit it. Apparently, the idea of leeching energy from energy traces has been explored in a single capability or one other since 2017, when Emad Ebeid, a professor on the College of Southern Denmark, first proposed the concept.” Extra: “The staff ultimately settled on approaching the wire from the underside, because it lowered the danger of collision. Then, the engineers fastened grippers to the drone, permitting it to connect itself to the facility line after which securely connect itself to the wire. From there, the drone can recharge its batteries, after which unclamp itself as soon as the batteries are absolutely charged.”
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