2:00PM Water Cooler 12/10/2024 | naked capitalism

By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Bird Song of the Day

Northern Mockingbird, Spencer, Indiana, United States. “Still singing incessantly through the night. All these audios recorded from bathroom window at 3:27, 3:33, 3:58, and 4:01 (last one does have passing car–amazing how much noise it makes). As I was leaving could hear another individual singing off to the E.”

In Case You Might Miss…

1. Trump, the world’s greatest troll.
2. Hegseth et al. still alive.
3. “RuissiaGate Remnants”;
4. The Claims Adjuster roundup.

Politics

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

Trump Transition

World’s Greatest Troll (1):

“The Governor of the Great State of Canada” 😂 pic.twitter.com/CeJHB3i9w8

— Financelot (@FinanceLancelot) December 10, 2024

World’s Greatest Troll (2):

Here are my new Trump Perfumes & Colognes! I call them Fight, Fight, Fight, because they represent us WINNING. Great Christmas gifts for the family. Go to https://t.co/8O1nm58fxA. Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

Donald Trump Truth Social 01:11 PM EST 12/08/24… pic.twitter.com/JYamMQeHYr

— Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) December 8, 2024

* * *

“Trump allies adopt new strategy for nominees: Make the doubters pay” [Politico]. “Donald Trump’s transition team entered a critical week of nomination meetings on Capitol Hill with a new head of steam, emboldened by a swarm of grassroots support and a pressure campaign that has revived Pete Hegseth’s hopes for Defense secretary and given them confidence about other controversial nominees, too. In recent days, allies of Trump adopted an approach that is not novel for the president-elect and his followers: Make life extremely uncomfortable for anyone who dares to oppose him. The swarm of MAGA attacks that Sen. Joni Ernst has experienced is a warning of what’s in store for others who express skepticism of his personnel choices.”

“Growing momentum for Cabinet picks who could define Trump’s second term” [CNN]. “he Cabinet confirmation drama around Donald Trump’s most provocative picks [is] mostly about Trump himself, and the kind of presidency he wants, the one he will end up getting, and the hopes of his MAGA movement that he’ll stand firm on his vow to shake the federal administrative state to its core and enact his and their revenge.” As for Ernst: “The Iowa Republican had faced warnings on social media that she’d encounter a primary challenge in 2026 if she didn’t shelve her reservations about Hegseth. The president-elect’s son, Donald Trump Jr., last week, for instance, amplified a post on X that pointed out that Ernst had been among almost all GOP senators who voted to confirm President Joe Biden’s Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, saying that anyone who did so and then criticized Hegseth was maybe ‘in the wrong political party!’”

“‘I Support Pete’: Ernst Changes Tune Following Second Hegseth Meeting” [The Federalist]. “Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, indicated she will confirm Pete Hegseth as the next secretary of defense on Monday. The announcement marks a stark pivot for Ernst, who has been leading a behind-the-scenes effort to tank Hegseth’s nomination. ‘I appreciate Pete Hegseth’s responsiveness and respect for the process,’ Ernst said in a press release. ‘Following our encouraging conversations, Pete committed to completing a full audit of the Pentagon and selecting a senior official who will uphold the roles and value of our servicemen and women — based on quality and standards, not quotas — and who will prioritize and strengthen my work to prevent sexual assault within the ranks. As I support Pete through this process, I look forward to a fair hearing based on truth, not anonymous sources.’”

“Key GOP senators begin to fall in line to support Kash Patel and keep door open for Pete Hegseth” [CNN]. “Top GOP senators on Monday signaled support for Donald Trump’s plan to oust the current FBI director in favor of firebrand loyalist Kash Patel, while keeping the door open for Pete Hegseth, who faces a slate of misconduct allegations, as the president-elect’s pick to run the Pentagon…. It is still early in the vetting process for Trump’s Cabinet nominees and confirmation votes won’t take place until next year. But it is clear that GOP senators are being careful to pick their battles and cautious of how they approach the president-elect’s selections.”

* * *

“Cold Shoulder: Democrats Ignore Tulsi Gabbard’s Request To Meet” [CNN]. Worst of all, Gabbard was a DNC vice-chair, but resigned to endorse Sanders. “There is some evidence that skepticism of a muscular foreign policy has gained traction among younger Democrats and independents in the last four or five years. When Hillary Clinton questioned Gabbard’s logic and loyalty, Gabbard punched back. In a series of tweets, she called the former secretary of State and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee “the queen of warmongers” and “personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party.’” • Where’s the lie?

The #Resistance

“Sanctuary cities resist Trump’s deportation plan. It could cost their residents” [USA Today]. “While a post-election poll by YouGov for CBS News shows that a massive 73% of adults want President-elect Donald Trump to prioritize the repatriation of illegal migrants, the [Denver Mayor Mike Johnston] pledged to not only have Denver police ‘stationed at the county line to keep (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) out’ but also that ‘you would have 50,000 Denverites there.’ Johnston said it would be like a ‘Tiananmen Square moment’ and answered yes when questioned whether he’d be ready to go to jail. That moment soon passed, however, as lawyers apparently explained to the mayor that armed resistance to the federal government is often called – wait for it – insurrection.” • Oopsie.

Democrats en déshabillé

“Russiagate Remnants” [Michael R. Caputo, Racket News]. “All of us agree the original Russiagate conspiracy continues even today. The Russia hoax was created by Hillary Clinton aide Jake Sullivan, who carries on with his lies today as President Joe Biden’s national security advisor. Christopher Steele, the British spy hired by Clinton to create the dodgy dossier, and his Fusion GPS co-conspirator Glenn Simpson are still doing the same work for similar clients. Andrew Weissmann, Peter Strzok, John Brennan, and more still peddle their lies. Elements of the original conspiracy were woven into Ukrainian meddling in the 2016 American election, then bogus Trump impeachments, January 6th prosecutions, anti-Trump lawfare, and Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Mar-a-lago raid. FBI Director Patel can prove the original 2016 conspiracy continues today. Much of the evidence remains in federal and public databases. Preemptive pardons aside, that means Sullivan, Weissmann, Mary McCord, Steele, Simpson, Victoria Nuland, Alexander Vindman, Eric Ciaramella, Smith, and others may still be in the jackpot. We agree with attorney Mike Davis: these perpetrators potentially violated 18 U.S.C. § 241 and 242, federal civil rights statutes that prohibit conspiracies to violate the rights of others.” • Worth reading in full.

Syndemics

“I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD.” –William Lloyd Garrison

Covid Resources, United States (National): Transmission (CDC); Wastewater (CDC, Biobot; includes many counties; Wastewater Scan, includes drilldown by zip); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker” (in IA, but national data). “Infection Control, Emergency Management, Safety, and General Thoughts” (especially on hospitalization by city).

Lambert here: Readers, thanks for the collective effort. To update any entry, do feel free to contact me at the address given with the plants. Please put “COVID” in the subject line. Thank you!

Resources, United States (Local): AK (dashboard); AL (dashboard); AR (dashboard); AZ (dashboard); CA (dashboard; Marin, dashboard; Stanford, wastewater; Oakland, wastewater); CO (dashboard; wastewater); CT (dashboard); DE (dashboard); FL (wastewater); GA (wastewater); HI (dashboard); IA (wastewater reports); ID (dashboard, Boise; dashboard, wastewater, Central Idaho; wastewater, Coeur d’Alene; dashboard, Spokane County); IL (wastewater); IN (dashboard); KS (dashboard; wastewater, Lawrence); KY (dashboard, Louisville); LA (dashboard); MA (wastewater); MD (dashboard); ME (dashboard); MI (wastewater; wastewater); MN (dashboard); MO (wastewater); MS (dashboard); MT (dashboard); NC (dashboard); ND (dashboard; wastewater); NE (dashboard); NH (wastewater); NJ (dashboard); NM (dashboard); NV (dashboard; wastewater, Southern NV); NY (dashboard); OH (dashboard); OK (dashboard); OR (dashboard); PA (dashboard); RI (dashboard); SC (dashboard); SD (dashboard); TN (dashboard); TX (dashboard); UT (wastewater); VA (wastewater); VT (dashboard); WA (dashboard; dashboard); WI (wastewater); WV (wastewater); WY (wastewater).

Resources, Canada (National): Wastewater (Government of Canada).

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

Hat tips to helpful readers: Alexis, anon (2), Art_DogCT, B24S, CanCyn, ChiGal, Chuck L, Festoonic, FM, FreeMarketApologist (4), Gumbo, hop2it, JB, JEHR, JF, JL Joe, John, JM (10), JustAnotherVolunteer, JW, KatieBird, KF, KidDoc, LL, Michael King, KF, LaRuse, mrsyk, MT, MT_Wild, otisyves, Petal (6), RK (2), RL, RM, Rod, square coats (11), tennesseewaltzer, Tom B., Utah, Bob White (3).

Stay safe out there!

Airborne Transmission

“AirFanta 3Pro Review – A High-Performance Yet Affordable Air Purifier” [BreatheSafeAir]. “After having the 3Pro set up inside my office for over two weeks now, I am happy to be able to present my full review of the device. For anyone unaware, this purifier is designed to filter a massive amount of air (we will discuss the CADR and more soon!) at a relatively affordable price. It does this by being essentially a pre-assembled CR (Corsi-Rosenthal) Box – a form of air purifier that was itself created due to the need for affordable and effective air purification devices. While the 3Pro doesn’t embrace the typical DIY aspect of traditional CR Boxes, it has the advantage of having proven performance (no need to worry about whether your DIY box is effective!) and being ready to go out of the box. However, perhaps my favourite aspect of this device over traditional CR Boxes is how easily obtainable it is. While this probably isn’t an issue for anyone in the U.S. or Europe, I find it hard to source good HEPA filters in New Zealand at an affordable price. The 3Pro ensures I don’t run into this issue.” • Worth a read if you’re in the market. Maybe a Christmas gift to a loved one you want to keep alive and brain damage-free?

TABLE 1: Daily Covid Charts

Small Business Optimism: “United States NFIB Business Optimism Index” [Trading Economics]. “The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index in the US jumped to 101.7 in November 2024, the highest reading since June 2021, compared to 93.7 in October and beating forecasts of 94.2. It is also the first time in 34 months that the reading is above the 50-year average of 98, in response to the presidential election. “The election results signal a major shift in economic policy, leading to a surge in optimism among small business owners. Main Street also became more certain about future business conditions following the election, breaking a nearly three-year streak of record high uncertainty. Owners are particularly hopeful for tax and regulation policies that favor strong economic growth as well as relief from inflationary pressures. In addition, small business owners are eager to expand their operations”, NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg.”

Manufacturing: “Exclusive-Boeing restarts 737 MAX production a month after strike ended, sources say” [Reuters]. “Production resumed on Friday, said one of the sources, who all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with media. Boeing declined to comment. The production restart had not been previously reported. The head of the Federal Aviation Administration, Mike Whitaker, told Reuters on Thursday that Boeing had not yet resumed 737 MAX production but planned to do so later this month.”

Manufacturing: “Boeing shares jump as 737 MAX production reportedly resumes” [Sharecast]. “The stock was up nearly 5% at $164.80 by 1034 in New York, trading at levels not seen since late-August.”

Tech: “AI slop is already invading Oregon’s local journalism” [Oregon Public Broadcasting (PI)]. “The Daily Tidings appears to be the first time an Oregon news outlet has stolen the identities of real journalists to trick local readers with AI-generated content. The goal is apparently to deceive Oregonians into giving clicks — and the resulting ad revenue — to whoever is behind the website.” • Horrid detail. Theft and fraud all the way down.

The Bezzle: Controversy–

But “the purpose of a system is what it does” (Stafford Beers). The whole thread is worth reading.

Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 51 Neutral (previous close: 49 Neutral) [CNN]. One week ago: 56 (Greed). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Dec 10 at 10:48:20 AM ET.

Gallery

Looks like a parrot’s feathers:

Healthcare

Smile Nazis vs. The Adjuster:

Inconsistencies abound:

A J6er weighs in:

Why the heck not?

Character reference:

What do our doctors think?

The Pelosi connection:

Zeitgeist Watch

“The Slow, Quiet Demise of American Romance” [The Atlantic]. “As a reporter covering modern dating, I’ve spoken with a lot of men and women who have reluctantly given up the search for love. I believe that people can have rich, fulfilling lives with or without partners; I also know that courtship has never been easy. But research supports the idea that, in recent years, the United States has seen a particularly pronounced crisis of faith in romance. The Pew Research Center, in an analysis of census data, found that as of 2019, 38 percent of adults were unpartnered—that is, not married or living with a partner—compared with 29 percent in 1990. In a survey Pew conducted that same year, half of single adults said they were not seeking dates. When Pew divided that result by gender, it found that 61 percent of single men said they were looking to date or find a relationship while only 38 percent of single women said the same. In other words, straight partnerships seem to be going out not with a 4B-style bang but with a whimper. And however subtle the shift might seem, it has huge implications for men and women: how they treat each other, whether they’re willing to trust each other, and how they’ll build their futures—together or apart.” • Hmm.

Guillotine Watch

“Anger at plan to turn Nazi tunnels into bunker for super-rich” [Yahoo News]. Better there than in the corridors of power at the EU and NATO. Oh, wait…. “A German property developer has sparked outrage with a plan to turn a World War II tunnel system into a luxury bunker for rich survivalists who fear the outbreak of World War III. Relatives of the prison labourers who built it under the Nazis are aghast at the business venture that is offering a crypto-currency called ‘BunkerCoin’ as entry tokens to the promised apocalypse shelter.” • Of course, Crypto.

Class Warfare

“The Tech Baron Seeking to Purge San Francisco of ‘Blues’” [Gil Duran, The New Republic]. April 2024. “‘What I’m really calling for is something like tech Zionism,” [Balaji Srinivasan] said.” • Oh.

News of the Wired

“Colour in the Middle Ages” [Medievalists.net]. “Michel Pastoureau writes that “the true medieval opposite for white was not so much black as red.” This can be seen in the way Europeans adapted chess. When the game was adopted in Europe, the pieces and chessboard were painted in white and red, contrasting with the black and red sets common in India and the Middle East. It was only towards the end of the Middle Ages that the white versus black dichotomy became more favoured. A key factor in this shift was the advent of printing, where black ink was used on white paper, reinforcing the perception of these colours as natural opposites.”

“Don’t throw away your printed books: A meta-analysis on the effects of reading media on reading comprehension” [Educational Research Review] 2018. From the Discussion: “The results of the two meta-analyses in the present study yield a clear picture of screen inferiority, with lower reading comprehension outcomes for digital texts compared to printed texts, which corroborates and extends previous research (Kong et al., 2018; Singer & Alexander, 2017b; Wang et al., 2007). These results were consistent across methodologies and theoretical frameworks.” And: ” our results indicate that the screen inferiority effect has increased in the past 18 years, and that there were no differences in media effects between age groups. These surprising findings suggest that we cannot idly wait for screen inferiority to disappear as children are exposed to digital devices earlier and earlier in their lives, as adults gain more experience with the technology, or as technology improves. The data suggest that screen inferiority is a major challenge across age groups that becomes more severe as the presence of technology increases.” • Certainly conforms to my priors!

Contact information for plants: Readers, feel free to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) find out how to send me a check if you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi, lichen, and coral are deemed to be honorary plants! If you want your handle to appear as a credit, please place it at the start of your mail in parentheses: (thus). Otherwise, I will anonymize by using your initials. See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. From EM:

Light at the end of the tunnel?

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