• October 30, 2024


By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Patient readers, I’m in the midst of an enormous thunderstorm. Let’s hope the power doesm’t go all Third World on me! –lamnbert

Bird Song of the Day

Common Nightingalem, Tavira, Faro, Portugal. Another duet!

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In Case You Might Miss…

  1. Kamala campaign begins closing argments.
  2. The Fascist question.
  3. Pennsylvania round-up.
  4. Memories of Richard Scarry

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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

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Trump Assassination Attempts (Plural)

“Is the Left Preparing for War If Trump Wins?” [Lee Smith, Tom Klingenstien]. Another review of Democrat War Games. This paragraph caught my eye: “When Trump was shot at a rally in Butler, PA, Democratic Party officials and the media not only denied any connection between the shooting and their inflammatory rhetoric but even blamed Trump himself. After all, he and his aspiring assassin were cut from the same cloth: ‘The gunman and Trump, at their opposite ends of a bullet’s trajectory, are nonetheless joined together as common enemies of law and democracy,’ wrote David Frum in, of all places [not], the Atlantic. On this view, Trump has polarized the country so profoundly that he is ultimately responsible for the attempt on his own life.” • Wowses.

Biden Administration

“How Indigenous voters swung the 2020 election” [High Country News]. • So Biden did Kamala a solid, albeit a minimalist one from the Native American perspective.

2024

Countdown!

Friday’s RCP Poll Averages:

Lambert here: Tiny margins, but all red. If I were running the Kamala campaign, I’d want to see some blue. Of course, we on the outside might as well be examining the entrails of birds when we try to predict what will happen to the subset of voters (undecided; irregular) in a subset of states (swing), and the irregulars, especially, who will determine the outcome of the election but might as well be quantum foam, but presumably the campaign professionals have better data, and have the situation as under control as it can be MR SUBLIMINAL Fooled ya. Kidding!.

“Harris Aides Quietly Grow More Bullish on Defeating Trump” [New York Times]. “Few Democrats dispute that the race appears extraordinarily competitive: Never in modern presidential campaigns have so many states been so tight this close to Election Day. Polling averages show that all seven battleground states are within the margin of error, meaning the difference between a half-point up and a half-point down — essentially a rounding error — could win or lose the White House.” And: “For all his bravado in public, Mr. Trump is privately cranky and stressed, according to three people in contact with him, with a schedule marked by chronic lateness. Ms. Harris, aides say, is energized by her crowds.”

Past performance is no guarantee of future results:


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Kamala (D): “Harris reaches for a big moment in her closing argument for ‘turning the page’ on Trump” [Associated Press]. ” Vice President Kamala Harris will make the “closing argument” for her presidential campaign Tuesday from the same site where Donald Trumpfomented the Capitol insurrection, hoping it offers a stark visualization of the alternate futures that voters face if she or Trump takes over the Oval Office.” “Trumpfomented” is a rare copy editing error by AP, unless they intend it to be a new verb. More: “One week out from Election Day, Harris was to use her 7:30 p.m. ET address from the grassy Ellipse near the White House to pledge to Americans that she will work to improve their lives while arguing that her Republican opponent is only in it for himself.” • The Ellipse was where Trump gave his speech, pre-riot; the riot itself took place, as is well known, at the Grant Memorial and the Capitol itself, two miles away. (If the famous gallows comes up as a talking point during Kamala’s speech, nobody knows who put it up, why the Park Service didn’t take it down, or even whether it was functional.)

Kamala (D): “Democrats alarmed Harris’s economic message isn’t breaking through” [The Hill]. “One major Democratic donor told The Hill that Harris hasn’t properly made the case on the economy. ‘Her economic message hasn’t broken through,’ the donor said. ‘And the economy is the issue most people care about. She narrowed the gap a little on the issue, but she’s left a lot of people wondering about her vision.’… And while Harris has narrowed Trump’s lead on the issue, a recent Reuters/Ipsos found voters still think Trump has a better approach than Harris on the economy, by a margin of 46 percent to 38 percent. The survey found that 61 percent of voters in battleground states say the economy is on the ‘wrong track.’ Robert Reich, who served as secretary of Labor under President Clinton, wrote Monday that Harris’s message needs to ‘center on anti-elitist economics.’” • Oh, yeah, in the final week of the campaign [bangs head on desk].

Kamala (D): “Harris, entering final stretch, stresses unity and paints Trump as a divider” [WaPo]. “”We are all here because we are fighting for a democracy and for the right of people to be heard and seen,” Harris said. “We are not about the ‘enemy within.’ We are all in this together, and that is what we are fighting for.’” • How are the “deplorables” not an “enemy within”? Commentary:

Kamala (D): “Kamala Harris hitting every battleground state in final days, hoping to drive turnout” [CBS]. “Vice President Kamala Harris will visit every battleground state in the final week before Election Day, with a focus on female voters who she hopes will propel her to the White House. The campaign has directed several messages to female voters in recent days, reminding them that what happens in the voting booth is a secret. A Democratic ad released Monday delivers the message: “You can vote any way you want and no one will ever know.’” • Who on earth concocted a “lie to your husbands” talking point? Commentary:

You don’t have to be a religious conservative to find this questionable.

Kamala (D): “Democrats launch ads in nail salons, malls in final swing-state sprint” [CNBC]. “One week before Election Day, Democrats are spending big to target swing-state voters in nail salons, lifestyle magazines and shopping malls — all places where they might normally seek to escape the news.” • Nail salons is smart; working class milieu, even the clientele at many venues. Perhaps the ads will have a reproductive freedom subtext (as did “Does she… or doesn’t she?“, “Only her hairdresser knows for sure” back in the day).

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Kamala (D): “Kamala Harris’ VP choice Tim Walz had secret fling with daughter of top Chinese Communist official during teaching stint in China” [Daily Mail]. “Jenna Wang, 59, claims the VP hopeful showered her with gifts and seduced her at his poky staff accommodation at No. 1 High School in Foshan, Guangdong Province. ‘Tim was very passionate and very romantic. I can still remember dancing with him to our favorite song, Careless Whisper,’ . ‘The fact we couldn’t touch or kiss in public just made it all the more exciting and intense when we were finally alone. We were deeply in love and I wanted to marry him and start a family. When it didn’t happen, I felt very unhappy and sad. Tim’s behavior was very selfish.’” And: “Walz never again crossed paths with Wang, who emigrated to Europe several years later where she now works as teacher, translator and cultural mediator. She says the pair last exchanged a handful of friendly messages over Facebook in 2009 and talked about how their lives had panned out.” • And the Mail can’t even print the the Facebook messages? (The Mail does print a photo Wang supplied, of herself in a bathing suit at the beach, very much alone.)

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Kamala (D): “Harris mum on her past pledge for ‘Dreamers’” [Axios]. From September. “Vice President Kamala Harris is backing away from her past promise to use presidential power to unilaterally give a path to citizenship to 2 million “Dreamers” — undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. It’s part of a pattern in which Harris and her team have changed her positions or declined to say whether she still supports some of the progressive policies she ran on during her presidential campaign in 2019.” • I wonder if Latino voters noticed.

Kamala (D): “Rogan says he rejected Harris campaign’s interview conditions” [Politico]. “Podcast host Joe Rogan declined the Harris campaign’s offer to record an interview with Kamala Harris on Tuesday because he “would have had to travel to her and they only wanted to do an hour.’” • I’d bet Kamala knew she couldn’t do three hours, and so imposed unacceptable conditions.

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Trump (R): “Trump rally comedian workshopped racist Puerto Rico line at NYC comedy club the night before” [NBC]. “The comedian, Tony Hinchcliffe, called Puerto Rico a ‘floating island of garbage‘ to warm up the New York City crowd — drawing immediate criticism from across the political spectrum and derailing what was supposed to be a night highlighting Trump in the final stretch of the campaign. It was not the first time Hinchcliffe had used the Puerto Rico line — he practiced it at The Stand comedy club in New York City, where he made a surprise appearance Saturday night, according to an NBC News producer and three other people who happened to be in the audience. The joke did not draw laughs, just a handful of awkward chuckles. Hinchcliffe told the audience that he would be performing at the Madison Square Garden rally the next day and said multiple times during his routine that he would get a better reaction ‘tomorrow at the rally.’” • Jon Stewart comments:

I don’t much like shock comedy, and I don’t like Hinchcliffe, though the liberal aghastitude at jokes about ovens, compared to their enthusiastic support for actual genocide, rings a bit false. I would imagine that Democrats are now whipping Stewart into line, as opposed to self-reflecting.

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Trump (R): “Hmm: Donald Trump and Mike Johnson Have a “Little Secret” Election Plan” [Vanity Fair]. “Some journalists and politicians have interpreted Trump’s off-the-cuff remarks, delivered as he thanked House Speaker Mike Johnson for appearing at the MSG event, as a possible signal that Johnson is prepared to override the electoral college… Under the 12th Amendment, the House of Representatives selects the president if no candidate reaches 270 votes in the electoral college. Each state delegation gets one vote; Republicans currently control the majority of them.” • That’s not an “over-ride.” Again, those are the rules; that’s how a tie is settled. Now, you can argue that this is an illegitimate outcome — cue the Color Revolution — but you cannot argue it’s not a Constitutional one (though wait for some lawfare dude to come up with something).

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Funny thing, these are all swing states:

MI: “Arab American voters make their choice — Harris, Trump or neither — in the election’s final days” [Associated Press]. “‘I love this country, but I’ll tell you, we have never been so disappointed in this country as we are now,’ said Nabih H. Ayad, chairman of the Arab American Civil Rights League. ‘We wanted to give the Democratic Party the opportunity to do something, and they haven’t.’ ‘The one line we can’t cross,’ Ayad said, ‘is genocide.’ Nasrina Bargzie and Brenda Abdelal, who were hired by Harris’ campaign to spearhead Arab and Muslim outreach, listened intently but said little in response.” No doubt. More: “If Harris loses Michigan and the presidential election next week, it’s conversations like this one that could explain why. The Detroit area has the country’s largest concentration of Arab Americans, and Democrats fear that Harris will pay a steep political price for U.S. support for Israel, which rejects allegations that its military operations in Gaza constitute a genocide.” • Also no doubt.

PA: “Bob Casey’s Latest Ad Touts His Support for … Donald Trump?” [Delaware Valley Journal]. “On Friday, three-term incumbent U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-Pa.) released a new TV ad touting his support for Republican Donald Trump’s trade policy and criticizing Democrat Joe Biden’s stance on fracking.” • Interesting.

PA: “Bob Casey Plays the Trump Card” [Wall Street Journal]. “A week from the election, we have bipartisan consensus on two points regarding Pennsylvania. The first is that the presidential contest is way too close to call. The second is that only one contender has coattails. Both candidates for Senate—Republican challenger Dave McCormick and Democratic incumbent Bob Casey—agree on who that is: Donald Trump. That Mr. McCormick would hitch his wagon to Mr. Trump is no surprise. But Mr. Casey is also wrapping his arms around the former president as a means of boosting his credibility. He’s doing this even as Kamala Harris is denouncing Mr. Trump as a ‘fascist’ and Hillary Clinton is likening his Sunday rally at Madison Square Garden to a 1939 gathering sponsored by the pro-Nazi German American Bund.”

PA: “A new Supreme Court case could change the result of the presidential election” [Vox]. Genser v. Butler County Board of Elections. “On October 23, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that many voters who cast a mailed-in ballot improperly, thus rendering their vote “void,” should be allowed to cast a ballot on Election Day that will actually be counted. Though it’s hard to pin down exactly how many voters will be impacted by this decision, it’s likely that thousands of Pennsylvanians will regain their ability to vote in the November election if the state supreme court’s decision remains in effect… On Monday, the Republican Party asked the US Supreme Court to intervene and effectively disenfranchise the thousands of voters who will be allowed to vote if the state court’s Genser decision stands.” • Important and worth reading in full, both for the math (17,000 votes might get tossed out) and the explanation of the Independent State Legislature Doctrine. Bears watching,

PA: “Breaking down the growth of GOP and decline of Democratic voters in Pennsylvania, county by county” [WESA]. “As of Sept. 16, Democrats made up 44% of registered voters in the commonwealth, down from a 2009 high of 51.2%, while Republicans were at 40.2%, up from 36.9% in 2009. Unaffiliated and third-party voters have boosted their numbers even more, from 11.9% in 2009 to 15.7%…. Pennsylvania, like many states around the country, has ended up polarized: highly populated urban counties such as Philadelphia and Allegheny are overwhelmingly Democratic, while Republicans dominate in outlying and rural counties.” • Really great county data, with charts.

PA: “How Democrats’ voter-registration advantage eroded in Pennsylvania, and what it means for 2024” [NBC]. “Already registered voters changing their party has been the most consequential factor narrowing the Democratic registration edge. Over 160,000 people who were registered Democrats in 2021 are now registered Republicans.Conversely, only 58,000 Republicans shifted their registration to Democratic during the same time period. Moreover, another 83,000 people who were registered as Democrats in 2021 have switched to being unaffiliated with a major party. A little more than half of that number of previously registered Republicans — 50,000 — did the same. ”

PA: “Trump’s Puerto Rico fallout is ‘spreading like wildfire’ in Pennsylvania” [Politico]. • Maybe. The sourcing is heavily Democrat, including a precinct captain. What else are they going to say?

VA: “The Mark of Kaine: The Biden Administration Under Fire for Virginia Lawsuit over Non-Citizen Voter Removals” [Jonathan Turley]. “The Biden Administration sued to stop the removal of 6,303 alleged noncitizens from Virginia’s voter rolls before the election, which is expected to be close in the state. It relies on the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), or the ‘Motor Voter Law,’ which bars ‘systemic’ removal of voters from the rolls less than 90 days before an election.” As Jebbie did for George in Florida 2000, though well before 90 days. More: “Gov. Glenn Youngkin ordered compliance with existing laws, citing Virginia code 24.2-439, requiring the removal of noncitizens whose names were added under false pretenses. It also cited Virginia Code 24.2-1019, requiring registrars to immediately notify their county or city prosecutor of such situations. The NVRA has exceptions for removals within what the Justice Department calls the ‘quiet’ period before an election, including the removal of individuals who are ‘ineligible to vote because of a criminal conviction or mental incapacity, or for ‘correction of registration records pursuant to this chapter.” However, the state argues as a threshold matter that these are not systemic removals. The state argues that these are individual actions triggered automatically by citizens identifying themselves as noncitizens but then joining the voting rolls. It is a crime for a noncitizen to vote in the election. The state notes that the voter is notified of the problem and allowed to correct any errors to remain on the rolls. If they do not correct the problem, they are removed from the rolls. However, they can still vote on election day with a ‘provisional’ ballot to challenge any removal.” • Hmm.

WA: “Arson destroys hundreds of ballots inside a Washington state drop box” [Washington State Standard]. In Vancouver. “Vancouver is located in the 3rd Congressional District, where Democratic U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez is running for reelection against Republican Joe Kent. The race is one of a handful nationwide expected to determine partisan control of the U.S. House. In 2022, Gluesenkamp Perez beat Kent by 2,629 votes.” • Of course the answer is more surveillance.

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Realignment and Legitimacy

“Panic Politics: The Press and Pundits Face Devastating Polls on the Threat to Democracy” [Jonathan Turley]. “The Post has been doggedly portraying the election between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris as a choice between tyranny (Trump) and democracy (Harris). Yet when it commissioned a poll on threats to democracy shortly before the election, it did not quite work out. Voters in swing states believe that Trump is more likely to protect democracy than Kamala Harris, who is running on a ‘save democracy’ platform. The [Post-Schrar] poll sampled 5,016 registered voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. When asked whether Trump or Harris ‘would do a better job’ of ‘defending against threats to democracy,’ 43% picked Trump while 40% picked Harris. Notably, this was the same result when President Biden was the nominee. While over half said that threats to democracy were important to them, the voters trusted Trump (44%) more than Biden (33%) in protecting democracy. Even with the slight improvement for Harris, the result was crushing for not just many in the Harris campaign but the press and pundits who have been unrelenting in announcing the end of democracy if Harris is not elected.” • Oopsie.

“New Acquisitions: 1933 and the Definition of Fascism” [A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry]. An analysis of Trump’s rhetoric that takes it seriously, and literally. “The American system is a fair bit more resilient to this sort of takeover than the Weimar Republic or the Kingdom of Italy, but resilient is not immune – such an effort could succeed and even if it failed could do tremendous damage. Fascists, after all, rarely leave power without violence – this one didn’t leave office non-violently last time, you will recall. And please believe me when I say I do not want this to come to violence, by anyone, at any point. As I’ve said before, attempting to ‘win the stasis‘ – the Greek word for political violence – by out-violence-ing the opposition is a losing game that just tears apart the social fabric. But it is not yet 1933. It is still 1932: the train has not left the station yet.” • This is perhaps the most reasoned case for the prosecution I have been. But the author Eco’s famous checklist for fascism, and I’m scanning down it. When I think of Democrats I check off #3 (“The Cult of Action for Action’s Sake” [Ukraine and Israel policy]), #4 (“Disagreement is Treason” [Censorship Industrial Complex, the organs of state security generally]), #5 (“Fear of Difference” [“deplorables”]), #6 (“Appeal to a Frustrated Middle Class” [PMC careerism]), #7 (“The Obsession with a Plot” [RussiaGate]), even #8 (“The Deceptively Strong/Weak Eternal Opponent” [“President of all the People” vs. half the people are deplorables]), #10 (“Contempt for the Weak” [eugenicist Covid policy, genocide]), and #13 “Selective Populism”, and #14 “Newspeak” (identity politics jargon). To be fair, the Democrats aren’t animated by #1 (“The Cult of Tradition”), #2 (“The Rejection of Modernism”), #9 (“Life is Permanent Warfare”), or, fortunately, #11 (“The Cult of Heroism”) or #12 “Machismo”). but I think you will agree with me when I say that the fascist smorgasbord serves up a hearty feed for both parties. I agree with Paxton on method: “What you ought to be studying is the milieu out of which they grew,” which this post does not do. So, granting the post’s premise, 9/14 vs. 14/14? A Sophie’s Choice indeed! (Note that on #10, genocide and eugenicist policiy, we are looking at what has already been done, as opposed to what might be done, in the future, a bog-standard Democrat trope.)

“Pro-Harris Super PAC Raises Concerns About Focusing on Trump and Fascism” [New York Times]. “Mr. Trump’s former White House chief of staff, Lt. Gen. John F. Kelly, said last week that Mr. Trump “falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure,” a remarkable caution from such a top-ranking official, which Ms. Harris and her team immediately echoed and amplified.” Of course, Kelly would no more lie than 51 intelligence officials would. Oh, wait…. More: “”Purely negative attacks on Trump’s character are less effective than contrast messages that include positive details about Kamala Harris’s plans to address the needs of everyday Americans,” the email read.” • Fascism is not a matter of personal character [bangs head on desk].

“Turning Pointe” [Harpers Bazaar]. “With her mane of long brown hair and ramrod-straight posture, [Mary Helen] Bowers oozed ballerina: graceful, girlish, disciplined, slightly prim—always smiling sweetly, even through her grueling workouts. ‘I mean, really, she’s kind of flawless,’ says writer and brand consultant Ray Siegel. ‘I would have a hard time coming up with a single negative thing to say about her.’ Bowers’s Instagram feed is crowded with Sugar Plum Fairy images of toe shoes, tutus, and her own four young children (including a photo of herself in graceful arabesque while at the hospital in labor with one of them). But two things Bowers rarely posts about are her husband of 17 years, Paul Dans, and politics. One would have to have been paying very close attention to notice when Dans was appointed to various posts within the Trump administration. Or when, in 2020, Trump named Bowers to the board of trustees at the Kennedy Center. And in recent years, even those who did notice didn’t make waves about it—not publicly, at least. But this summer, Ballet Beautiful clients, particularly those with left-leaning views, got quite a shock when Dans emerged as something of a celebrity in his own right as the director of conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation’s Presidential Transition Project, better known as Project 2025.” And: “Not everyone has a workout instructor whose husband is one of the architects of one of the most damaging right-wing-ideological social plans on speed dial, but lots of us have a QAnon sister-in-law or an antivax hairstylist. With a historically divisive election upon us, plenty of Americans will have to decide: ” • If the Democrat base truly believes this, it’s hard to see Kamala’s message of “unity” having much effect. Perhaps that alien landing needs to happen after all. That’ll unify us!

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

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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!

Transmission: H5N1

“A human isolate of bovine H5N1 is transmissible and lethal in animal models” [Nature]. From the Abstract: “HPAI H5N1 virus derived from dairy cattle transmits by respiratory droplets in mammals without prior adaptation and causes lethal disease in animal models.”

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Stats Watch

Employment Situation: “United States Job Openings” [Trading Economics]. “The number of job openings fell by 418,000 to 7.443 million in September 2024 from a downwardly revised 7.861 million in August and below market expectations of 7.99 million. It is the lowest level since January 2021, indicating the labor market is cooling.”

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“Boeing Stock Drops as Share Sale Raises $21 Billion” [Barron’s]. “Boeing is getting the cash, but it paid a lot to make it happen. The plane maker said Tuesday its underwritten offering of 112.5 million shares of common stock was priced at $143 a share, a 5.1% discount to its closing price Monday. It’s also a larger offering than the 90 million shares Boeing previously announced on Monday. It’s a steep discount, but it isn’t easy to place the equivalent of almost 20% of the existing shares outstanding. Before the offering, Boeing had roughly 620 million shares outstanding, according to FactSet. The discount comes on top of recent stock weakness…. The cash raised will help reduce Boeing’s significant debt load.”

Manufacturing: “2 major airline CEOs have issued a clear message to Boeing in the past week: Do better” [Business Insider]. Southwest CEO Bob Jordan: “”The heart of an airline is the flight schedule, and the flight schedule depends on getting your aircraft on time.” American Airlines chief Robert Isom: “For Boeing — it’s just, I look forward to the day when they’re not just a distraction.” • Ouch!

Manufacturing: “Boeing overcharged Air Force nearly 8,000% for soap dispensers, watchdog alleges” [Reuters]. “The Department of Defense Office of Inspector General said on Tuesday the Air Force overpaid nearly $1 million for a dozen spare parts, including $149,072 for an undisclosed number of lavatory soap dispensers from the U.S. planemaker and defense contractor…. Boeing said on Tuesday it was reviewing the report, adding that it “appears to be based on an inapt comparison of the prices paid for parts that meet military specifications and designs versus basic commercial items that would not be qualified or approved for use on the C-17.” • A million? Did anybody check under the couch cushions? Maybe it’s there.

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Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 62 Greed (previous close: 63 Greed) [CNN]. One week ago: 74 (Greed). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Oct 25 at 1:00:32 PM ET.

Permaculture

This is the UK. What would be an equivalent candidate for restoration in the United States?

Gallery

One more damn book to read (I wish!):

Book Nook

“Richard Scarry and the art of children’s literature” [The Yale Review]. “In my grandparents’ second-floor guest room, formerly my mother’s childhood room, one bookcase had a row of children’s books slumped to the side, offering a chronological core sample of my grandmother’s attempts to busy not only her own kids, but all the grandkids who’d stayed there before me. There were the original Oz books, a copy of Ferdinand the Bull, Monro Leaf’s inexplicably compelling yet mildly fascistic Manners Can Be Fun, some 1950s and 1960s Little Golden Books purchased at the Hinky Dinky supermarket down the street, and, among many others I’ve now long forgotten, the big blue, green, and red shiny square of Richard Scarry’s Best Word Book Ever. The largish (even just plain large if you were smallish when holding it) book offered a visual index of the everyday puzzle pieces of life in humble, colored-in line drawings. Each page was a fresh, funny composition of some new angle on the world, making the book a sort of quotidian picture-map containing everything imaginable and unimaginable a kid might be curious about: where and how people lived, slept, ate, played, and worked. The thing is, “people” weren’t anywhere to be seen in Best Word Book Ever. Instead, the whole world was populated by animals: rabbits, bears, pigs, cats, foxes, dogs, raccoons, lions, mice, and more. Somehow, though, that made the book’s view of life feel more real and more welcoming.” • The original cover sketch for Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things That Go, which was first published in 1974:

Zeitgeist Watch

“PhD student finds lost city in Mexico jungle by accident” [BBC]. “They uncovered the hidden complex – which they have called Valeriana – using Lidar, a type of laser survey that maps structures buried under vegetation.” • “The green and twisted vines stretch far away.”

Class Warfare

“9-year-old boy among those accusing ‘Diddy’ of sexual abuse, Houston attorney Tony Buzbee confirms” [Houston Chronicle]. • Horrible, but I’m waiting for just one mover-and-shaker to get named, and I don’t mean from the entertainment industry, either.

News of the Wired

“The Secret Electrostatic World of Insects” [Wired]. “Imagine, for a moment, that you’re a honeybee. In many ways, your world is small. Your four delicate wings, each less than a centimeter long, transport your half-gram body through looming landscapes full of giant animals and plants. In other ways, your world is expansive, even grand. Your five eyes see colors and patterns that humans can’t, and your multisensory antennae detect odors from distant flowers. For years, biologists have wondered whether bees have another grand sense that we lack. The static electricity they accumulate by flying—similar to the charge generated when you shuffle across carpet in thick socks—could be potent enough for them to sense and influence surrounding objects through the air. Aquatic animals such as eels, sharks, and dolphins are known to sense electricity in water, which is an excellent conductor of charge. By contrast, air is a poor conductor. But it may relay enough to influence living things and their evolution. In 2013, Daniel Robert, a sensory ecologist at the University of Bristol in England, broke ground in this discipline when his lab discovered that bees can detect and discriminate among electric fields radiating from flowers. Since then, more experiments have documented that spiders, ticks, and other bugs can perform a similar trick.” • What a premise for a science fiction novel!

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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: Wukchumni:

Wukchumni writes: “Fall colors on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.”

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Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not covered by the annual NC fundraiser. Material here is Lambert’s, and does not express the views of the Naked Capitalism site. If you see a link you especially like, or an item you wouldn’t see anywhere else, please do not hesitate to express your appreciation in tangible form. Remember, a tip jar is for tipping! Regular positive feedback both makes me feel good and lets me know I’m on the right track with coverage. When I get no donations for three or four days I get worried. More tangibly, a constant trickle of donations helps me with expenses, and I factor in that trickle when setting fundraising goals:

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If you hate PayPal, you can email me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, and I will give you directions on how to send a check. Thank you!

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